Category: Marine Corps Stories

Endless Bends And Thrust

Following up on comments/pic from Sgt. Whipple and Cpl. Griffin, I’ve attached additional current pictures of the 3rd Bn. barracks at P.I. My wife and I visited in early March of this year and were sad to see the ongoing demolition of my home during July-October of 1964 as member of platoon 366. Can’t help but remember our junior drill instructor, Cpl. Odachowski, who frequently shared such critical wisdom as “If the Marine Corps wanted you to have a wife, it would have issued you one”, when he wasn’t overseeing endless bends and thrusts… a special man and I hope he is alive and well today. read more

War Pets

The mongoose and pet puppies stories made me go back and look for this pic that my uncle Sgt. Major A. M. Solis sent home to my grandparents in 1965. He had written a note on the back saying it was his little horse he had gotten to save a lot of walking. He never told me what happened to the pony. He was also there later with VMCJ 3 and on a later tour with VMO 2 before retiring. We served at the same time frame but not in Viet Nam. I was assigned to F4 Phantom squadron VMFAT 101 after radar school at Millington NAS in 1969. Supposed to have been a 6 month OJT assignment before orders to Nam. Well after I was on the job trained as radar tech I stayed on at El Toro MCAS training F4 pilots and rios to go to Nam but us avionics snuffies couldn’t buy a ticket over there, too many people already coming back. read more

CPL E.M. MELLO PLT 312

I would like to give one of my junior DI’s a plug. His name is CPL E.M. Mello, and he was anything but mellow. I was 17 years and 20 days old. He made quite an impression on me. Quite a few impressions. My first recollection of us getting close and personal was on our second or third day of forming. Our platoon was the first in the series so we had to wait awhile (9 days) for the rest of the maggots to show up. We were standing at attention in front of our racks reading our Little RedBook (not Chairman Mao’s). read more

Smart Azs In Trouble

I arrived in the United States in January of 1968 from Scotland and enlisted in the Marine Corps in May of 1968. I arrived at MCRD San Diego on 9 June 1968, and after being up all of the night before embarking and all of the day, too, arrived at the base at about 2100 hours. As we came off of the bus, we were met by Marines in Campaign Hats who all seemed to be yelling at us at the top of their lungs. We finally got the idea and proceeded to get on the yellow footprints. I was on the line closest to the yelling Marines as the line surged back and forth, all of us trying to get our own set of footprints. The lad in front of me stepped on my foot and caused me to stumble into read more

Royal Marines Museum

Hi it has taken us 2 years to get our small Royal Museum to how it is today. We collect money for our Wounded Royal Marines and also for the Widows and the children whose Husbands and Dads never made it back home. The 1st year, 2014, we collected £1,450, last year we collected £2,489. Every cent goes directly to the charity. I have attached a photo of our museum that we call G10, it’s in Landguard Fort. Felixstowe, where in 1667 the 2000 strong Dutch tried to overcome 400 Marines and lost, this was the last time England was invaded. We celebrate Darells day every year in July as he was the Officer in charge. Pere Mare Per Terram & Semper Fi! read more

The 5th Marines Vietnam War Memorial Monument

2,706 U.S. Marines and Sailors were killed in action during the Vietnam War while serving in the Fighting Fifth Marine Regiment. Their sacrifice is not forgotten. With your help, each and every one of them will be honored with a beautiful new Memorial Monument at the 5th Marines’ Memorial Garden, Camp San Mateo, Camp Pendleton, California. read more