Not sure where I found the first photo but I picked the second one up in Monroe, LA. Maybe someone would like to see these.
Jim Grimes
USMC 1969-72 SGT
Category: Old Corps
Short Timer’s Stick
Here is a short timer's stick from 1957, Camp Hague, Oki. 12th Marines, H&S battery.
Jacobs Lang – 56/62
Propaganda
Jim Everson's posting reminded me of leaflets that we also encountered from the National Front for Liberation.
I served in RVN from 1967 to '68 with 3rd Amtracs. Our CP was at Marble Mountain.
When on patrol south of Marble Mountain we often encountered propaganda left by the National Front for Liberation. A bamboo stake split at the top and driven in the ground would hold the leaflet. Often, the portion of bamboo driven into the ground would be holding the spoon of a grenade in place. If you pulled the stake out of the ground… BOOM. To my knowledge, nobody got hurt by this particular booby trap because we were familiar with it.
Return to PI
On September 14th, the members of PLT 150, 1962, returned to Parris Island for their 50th reunion. It amazed many of the attendants that were there for a graduation ceremony, that 30 members of a platoon 50 years ago would be able to return to the Island, because this is a very rare and unusual occurence.
Quality and Selection
Dear Sgt Grit,
About fine chow. For three months after I graduated from MCRD San Diego in 1968 I was assigned to Graduate Casual at 3rd Bn HQ while waiting for orders that would send me up to ITR… (a paperwork snafu… a phone call to HQMC would have handled, but they insisted on it being on paper… and what with the war and all, I was a low priority…)
Fine Dining
Grit,
In your Sept 19 issue Don Harkness wrote about "fine dining" through his time in our Corps. A fine item as far as it went, but he didn't address the "fine dining" experiences between hops or at the end of the day when one returns after dark with all his body parts in the same condition they were when he launched at zero dark thirty that morning.
Short Timers Jacket
Sgt Grit,
I've been reading your great newsletter (and ordering items from you) for quite a few years. I'm putting my two cents in on the Yellow Footprints. When I went to MCRDSD in Sept. of 59 (Plt 273) there was definitely no Yellow Foot Prints. I still have my Recruit Book and saw no photos or reference to them.
Utilities With Map Pocket
Dear Sgt. Grit,
RE: J. Womack's question about "the utilities used in the late 60's to early 70's that had the concealed buttons on the pocket flaps and the front of the jacket…"
They were first issued sometime around the end of the Korean War ( the first handful in "herringbone…") I believe that all stocks had been exhausted sometime around the start of the Vietnam War. Our "yearbooks" in August of 1968 at graduation from MCRD San Diego had two sections… a generic section and a later one specific to our platoon. The first section was assembled years before and the "hidden button" shirts were all that you saw… By our time we had the same contract issue as the Army and the other services with the visible (and much thicker) buttons in the same general fabric as the hidden button variety.
The "Gomer Pyle" shirts as he refers to them had a far better appearance and were greatly admired and desired. After graduation I spent 3 months at 3rd Bn, HQ in Graduate Casual waiting for orders before being sent up to ITR… While there I discovered that you could buy entire uniforms at the base laundry (that had been abandoned) for the cost of the cleaning (65 cents as I recall…) I purchased several sets of utilities including one set of the "hidden button" type (see photo of my set) For the rest of my enlistment I was offered serious money by lads who lusted after a set…
The large map pouch inside the left side of the shirt made it unsuitable for seriously hot climates. As to the trousers that went with it, after 44 years, I can't remember about the back buttons… but I do remember that there were no pocket flaps on the back.
James F. Owings
PFC John Herman CdeBaca Echo 2-3 5 1 Okinawa
My Old Corps father [PFC John CdeBaca] has been on duty guarding St Peter's gates for 40 years. On April 1, 1945, he landed on Okinawa in the 1st wave at the age of 17 years old and survived unscratched until after the 1st took Shuri Castle. On June 13th, he took a spent round through his left hip existing right near his jewels. Some say it was a sniper but others say it was &%^$#^ friendly fire. If it had got his jewels, I never would've been born to join the Devil Pups in "62 [yeah, we climbed Mt. Mother%$#^@#] or serve active duty from '72-'74 including TAD with IMAF in '74. Yeah, my step grandfather [Sgt Frank Brazil] was in the 1st on Guadalcanal in '42-'43. Enough family [Jerry Brazil '65-'68 & Dennis Trambley '68-'70] and too many San Diego school friends served the Corps in Vietnam including John BACA –posthumous Medal of Honor in Vietnam.
Oliver North
In 2006, while on R&R in Ecuador, I found this artist who hand carves the pictured artwork. I liked his artwork so much I started having him do stuff I thought was cool. I had him make the Marine logo, and I had my wife pick it up on a later date. I took in Camp Leatherneck to find a deserving Marine to give it to. I just so happened to run across Oliver North while at Leatherneck and I presented it to him for being a lifelong stand up Marine. Here is a photo of me and him.