Category: Marine Corps Stories

It Didn’t Matter

In my experience, this was one of those fads that didn’t last long… don’t recall hearing it much after 1966, nor before… do recall, however, hearing the term used by a Brigadier General.

One of the standard expectations of those in leadership positions at the platoon and lower levels is that those so privileged is that they will know everything about those Marines in their charge, down to each Marine’s Mother’s maiden name, and her boot size… The CG of the forces involved in operation Hastings was General English, and the operation’s name was most likely chosen because it was to occur on the 900th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings in England… the original having been in 1066 (you can look it up…) read more

Dirty Laundry

Sgt. Grit,

Remember in boot camp the scrub brush and the soapy water and the tables we scrubbed our clothes on. Some guys did this in Camp Geiger too! I went home after Camp Geiger on a bus from North Carolina with my sea bag and dirty laundry.

My mom went apesh-t when I emptied my sea bag on the Persian Living room carpet! She made me take it to the Chinese Laundry around the corner. Major cities had these Chinese hand laundry’s – that did predominately linens – table clothes – and shirts. The old Chinese gentleman spoke little English and gave you a receipt with Chinese characters on it for a stub. He weighed the sea bag – and bowed to me. Two days later I went to pick it up – and my mom paid back then like $20.00 (which was very expensive for those days – when a regular laundry would cost less than $5.00.) The Chinese guy went berserk yelling and screaming and pointing at me – the guy’s wife came out of the back to quiet him down – and calmly explained to me that my skivvies and utilities were so dirty I clogged the pipes when they cleaned the dirty clothes. My utilities were now sparkling – and my skivvies were bright white – rough socks were smooth to my skin. A rare treat for a Marine after boot camp. read more

THE CO. GUNNY AND THE RADIO WORM

Its a short story about Fox Co. , 2 Bn, 9th Mar, 3rd Mar Div, Okinawa in 1974.
In 1974, I was a LCpl on my first tour overseas and ended up the BN Radio Operator for Fox Co. 2/9. My CO was Capt Shawn Leach. Toward the end of my tour, we went on a training mission to the Northern Training Area (NTA). We were supposed to be on alert all night long and the radios were to be manned all night. I had taken a redheaded LCpl from the battalion HQ radio platoon. He had never been assigned to a grunt company and didn’t know sh*t about us or the way we worked. read more

Relating To Discipline

Sgt Grit;

Recently there have been two letters relating to discipline for putting hands in pockets in boot camp. I just wanted to add my experience to the pot. But first let me give a little of my background:

I was drafted into the Marine Corps during the Korean conflict. At the height of the conflict there apparently were not enough volunteers to meet the need so the Corps resorted to the draft. The draft for the Marines started on 1 August 1951 and I was drafted on 6 August in Indianapolis Indiana and shipped by train to San Diego. We arrived at the receiving barracks late on Friday afternoon and slept there over night before being assigned to a platoon (228). On Saturday we were issued all of our clothing, bucket, etc. and instructed to dress in Utilities (the herringbone twill, solid green ones with stenciled logo on the pocket) and boon Dockers (rough out, ankle height). These utilities came from the manufacturer with a stiff paper tag stapled to each and every piece of cloth that went into the garment. We were told not to take off any of these tags until told to do so. We also had to pull our covers (caps) down to our ears, I guess to let everyone else know we were green boots. One day, after chow I had fallen back into formation while we waited for the stragglers and I reached into my pocket to remove one of those pesky staples that was digging into my leg with every step and my drill instructor saw me from some distance away. The punishment was for me to fill my pockets with sand, sew them shut and wear them that way until he told me I could empty them. After three days I quietly emptied my pockets and hoped he would not notice. Eventually he did notice but I explained that I understood it to be for three days and he let it go. read more

Courtesy Incoming Mortar Fire

Camp LeJeune (2nd Mar. Div) – 1949 – cleaning my BAR – lost it on forward slope of a hill March 2, 1951 courtesy incoming mortar fire. Went over the wall at Inchon Sept. 15, 1950 … served under Lewis “Chesty” Puller at Hagaru at the reservoir. This aside: just prior to the Inchon landing my fire team leader Cpl Boyer, who had served under Puller in WW2, gathered us one evening in the cafeteria of the ship – says “Well children, it goes this way, the 7th got Litzenberg, the 5th got Murray … and we got Puller.” Noticing the puzzled looks, he tossed in ” Puller will enter with a death wish, and will take as many of us with him that he can.” At the makeshift airstrip at Hagaru the man would stand in clear view of the nearby hills and scan the area … maybe not a death wish but surely the fearless warrior he is portrayed as.
George Elsasser – 1949-52 – discharged a buck sergeant. read more

10 DI’s

Sgt. Grunt, I sure enjoy this newsletter. I have two stories to tell. First- I joined the Corps in July 1950, when I was 18. I was in Plt. 33 MCRDSD we had about 10 di’s altogether because Korea had started. There was cpl. puckett, cpl. parrish, cpl. morgan, pfc van ert, pfc weiland and about 4 others. Our sdi was t.sgt. jc dozier and he was a good one. About our 8th week he had us drilling on the parade ground and we were sharp. The base band started playing the Marine hymn, so sgt dozier marched us close and yelled ” strut you sons of b$*&^s strut and strut we did. I’ll never forget his cadence ‘ 3 4 to your lell, 3 4 to your lell’.
Second story- I was in radio school in the fall 1950 froc 8 mcrdsd, two guys were comparing who had the toughest boot camp pi or sd. They got into a fistfight, a great fight, clean. pfc Casey was from Queens, NYC, PFC Murray was from Kansas, it went on for about 10 minutes. Murray won, but as far as the toughest boot camp, that’s determined by the drill instructor. Semper Fi to all Marines past and present, and Gods blessing on the USMC.
C.B. Feeny sgt 1126964 mos 2531 50-54 read more

ROK Marines

I was in the Corps from 91-98, and in ’03 I joined the Army Reserve, and in ’05, I went active duty Army and got shipped off to Korea. Well, I’m out of the Army now due to a torn up knee, but I really miss the “good ol’ days.” They didn’t have digital cameras when I was in Okinawa, but I didn’t blow my chance when I got to Korea. I knew the tight relationship and history between the USMC and the ROK Marine Corps, and when our KATUSA’s (Korean Augmentation To U. S. Army) learned that I had served in the Corps, I got a lot of attention. I learned that even though the Korean people are peace-minded and tend to shy away from military actions, they have an intense pride in the ROK Marines. There’s ROKMC souvenir stores everywhere, and every one I visited had ROKMC veterans hanging around swapping stories. Sound familiar? 

Anyway, I went on a DMZ tour and toured the Korean War Museum while I was there, and I have probably over a thousnd pics on my computer from my year there.  Here’s three that I like a lot. The first one is at OP Dora, overlooking the DMZ and into North Korea. The other two are in the Korean War Museum in the ROKMC Memorial Room. read more