Category: Other USMC

203rd

Sgt Grit,

I found these goodies while rummaging through some boxes stuffed away in a closet. Don't know if you can use them in any of your newsletters. The first is a Dining In MAG-39 put on on 15Jun79 and the next is a dinner menu from the 203rd Marine Birthday 10Nov78. I haven't seen anything on Dining In's in any othe newsletters, is this a thing of the past? Keep on with the great newsletter and great products. Semper Fi! read more

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. read more

Strange MOS’s

I had lots of MOS's while in the Corps,, can't carry more than three back then. I was a recruiter, we even had our own ribbon for a completed tour.. The two strangest I came accross is CID and the other even more rare. A weatherman, he told me that the Corps had two back in the 70's in Viet Nam. He would get up and stick his finger out the door of the hooch, then call the cannon cockers and tell them it his finger was wet or if it was breezy…and he didn't know the other weatherman. read more

Blue Blades

Dear Sgt Grit,

As a reader of your outstanding newsletter for the last few years I have read a few articles that reference Gillette blue blade razors, sometimes used dry under a bucket while double timing or other such motivating activity. Being a young devil dog (only seeing those yellow footprints in 1983) I did not have the pleasure of using these razors, just the newfangled disposable ones (shave once down, once up).   While on business in Nanjing, China, recently I ran out of juice on my electric razor and had to go to the local convenience store to buy a razor. Imagine my surprise when I saw a brand new Gillette Blue Blade razor for sale for about $1.50. I bought it, but also bought a Mach 3 and shaving cream as I had no intention of disfiguring myself with the blue blade. It is indeed a small world. (Also went to Shanghai and visited Soochow Creek while there).    Best regards, Mike Winnie Corporal of Marines 1983-1988 USMCR B/1/24

Camp Hansen Memories

Sgt. Grit

While stationed with Kilo Btry, 4th Battalion, 12th Marines in Feb.1957 I was sent to Camp Matthews for Qualification ….As the Marine wrote in the 8/29/12 newsletter it was exactly as he described as I recall…We quartered in 5 men tents, our shower house was a wooden frame covered with a tarp, with a 2'' hose thrown over the wooden frame and pumping cold water….Also when we had movies they were on a bed sheet stretched between two poles outside.. It was a hot dusty place to be but when the sun went down and roll call was taken we slipped away from camp for some boon dock liberty and had a good time, or got into trouble in Kin Village..Also for breakfast all we ever had was powdered eggs, so we'd slip off at night and trade cigarettes and c-rations for fresh eggs with the locals…. .As I remember at that time we were told Kin Village was mostly Communist and off limits to us Marines, but we didn't let that stop us….The girls and bars didn't mind we were Marines…lol…When off duty one of the best places for some relaxation was Ishakawa Beach which I've enclosed a picture….There were lots of young girls, warm sand, good food, and plenty of ice cold beer….I thought I had found paradise….BTW….If any of you old salts can remember a beach somewhere around there where there were thousands of Mortar shells on the beach and stuck in the cliffs, where they had washed ashore from the invasion of Okinawa in 1945, Please let me know where that beach was, I can't remember where I was at when I saw that….Through some research I found there where two ammunition ships sank by Japanese torpedos during the battle and that's most likely where so many Mortar Shells came from…. If you can refresh my memory please do. read more

Concrete Evidence

A few months back, there was a brief bit in a newsletter about some odd concrete blocks that in all probability are still somewhere on MCAGCC, better known as the Stumps. These were described as being 3'X3'X3' (and 3,850 lbs, more or less) with forklift truck channels through the middle…..my guess is they may still be in use to block a road, or something like that, and my hope was that maybe some active duty Devil Dog out in the blazing sands would report having seen them……alas, so far, no takers……. read more