Mom and I attended the 237th with our son and his family. The young guy is our son, the CO of VMFA-112 the old guy in the skirt is me.
J. M. "Mike" Jeffries Capt. USMC Ret.
Category: Old Corps
Wife Went For Coffee
Pictures taken at Rock Island Arsenal. Pictures taken this past fall on a weekend getaway to Davenport Iowa of Marine Corps. Ontos and assorted tanks and artillery pcs. Later toured the museum and it was awesome. Spent 2 hours looking at the display of weapons (wife went for coffee). Semper Fi, 237 Years of serving are country.
DaNang 2012
Happy Marine Corps Birthday and Veterans Day.
It was a perfect, warm day with a cloudless blue sky in Da Nang,
Vietnam. The Marine Vietnam Vets now living in Da Nang celebrated the 237th birthday of the Corps today on China Beach.
We had a good turnout of Marines, Navy and Army as well as
a number of civilian friends.
After WWII
The anniversary of Tarawa is coming up on 11/20 and I thought I'd send some info and photos of my Father, Hawk Rader Jr., D/1/8 2DIV ('Canal and Tarawa) then A/1/8 (Saipan, Tinian). He went to help St. Peter guard the gates of Heaven on 7/12/11 and I still miss him very much. I was lucky enough to hear in great detail of his experiences in all of his battles, including Tarawa. I attended the 2nd Marines' annual Tarawa Day services with him at Lejeune in 2003 and '04 and saw how much the memories of that battle affected him until the day he passed on.
Dad was in 4 major battles before he was 20 and talked about them, he said, to help get over his experiences rather than keeping WWII inside him.
Kidnapped Fire Watch
I had a DI that would kidnap the fire watch in the middle of the night and tie him up and put duct tape over his mouth and put him in the showers. it was pretty crazy when lights came on and the DI was screaming WHERES THE FIRE WATCH!!!! WHO GOT FIRE WATCH!!! You woke up quite fast trying to figure out if it was you that missed your watch. then we would find 'em in the head tied up. I still chuckle thinking about that,
Our Shared Heritage
In August of this year twenty-one Marines from Platoon 2085, Parris Island 1966, gathered in Washington, DC as guests of The Khe Sanh Vets at their 2012 Reunion. We were honored by the presence of our SDI, First Sergeant Ben Leith (USMC Retired) and his lovely wife Jackie who mustered with us from their home in Arizona.
Looking For…
Platoon 1096 from 1968 is looking for, at that time Sgt Vernon R. Smith, our drill instructor. We were his first platoon. We have a reunion every year and we would like to invite him. He lived in Spokane, Washington until he joined the Marines. Semper Fi Marines, Whiskey 3/11 1969 and part of '70.
China duty with Gen Puller
Sgt Grit,
Would like to let you know, as a career Marine.
18 years old when enlisted, 1939. I am now 91
After graduating in 1939 (Apr), I was transferred
to China assigned to the Old Fourth Reg. At that
time Gen Puller was a Captain. I had many runs
Thanksgiving 1962
For Thanksgiving the cooks were able to obtain some frozen turkeys from the Army. The cooks put the turkeys on steel tables, the cooks then sat on the other tables. We gave them all the heavy scrub brush heads we could find. The cooks spent two nights throwing the scrub brushes at the rats to keep them fom getting the turkeys. Worked. We had a good Thaksgiving… Anyone who was on Okinawa at that time can tell you the size of the rats, like medium sized dogs… No cats on the rock, I guess the rats got them…
Before The Days
I served on active duty before the days of "Cammies"… we were
issued and wore "Utilities".
The utilities were an olive drab green with a herringbone design
running through the very strong material. We never wore anything
else until we finally graduated from basic training. Then, once
a Marine, we wore Marine Greens, Tropicals or Dress Blues…
depending on the "Uniform Of The Day".
Semper Fi,
Bob MacGillivray
Corporal Of Marines
Platoon 63 "C" Company
Third Marine Recruit Training Battalion
Parris Island SC 1956