Sgt Grit is a place where Marines can come and meet other Marines, share tattoos and stories, keep up with Marine Corps news, or shop for USMC gear.
Paul,
I was in Mike battery on that Dec. in Fuji . We used a duece and a half to hall the guys to Gotimba. Were you at the beach when we unloaded the powder and rounds for the 05 and 55? The crane on deck started to slide sideways right into the powder bags and all the old war vets on the beach hit the sand before the thing stopped sliding. I had no idea at that time, but it was a instinct reaction on their part as I stood there with my hands in my pocket.
It's been awhile since I submitted anything. I just celebrated my 78th birthday and 61st anniversary of my enlistment in the Marine Corps. Last January my grandson Dylan Hattox graduated from MCRD San Diego and is currently stationed at Pensacola learning how to be and air crewman hoping to make Crew Chief one day. Ive enclosed a pic of him and me at his graduation doesn't he look squared away?
Here I am proudly wearing my Sgt. Grit hat and meeting the recently retired Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Jim Amos. We played in the annual Semper Fi Fund Tournament at Boca Royale Country Club in Venice, Florida.
Great hat!
Steven Dobbs
My MOS was 6461 Crash Crewmen with MAG 11 in Danang '65-'66 .The call came around evening one night to respond to Dog Patch. A couple of buildings were on fire. While hitting the first building with water about a dozen hookers came running to the truck and starting climbing aboard and yelling F.U. Fire we take care of you. One girl was grabbing L/cpl Crooker by the leg while he was kicking her to let go. Another was coming thru the door on my side while I was spraying water. Our M14s were right there, well I bent down and kicked her out the truck door when she hit the ground and got up she flipped me the bird and cursed… with that, they all ran. Shook my thinking these b-tches only had one thing on there mind and it wasn't about there houses on fire…
Here is a picture of myself taken during the period of April-May 1964 while doing my first (6 month at the time) TAD tour in Vietnam. I was with a small 30-man detachment of Marines under the leadership of, then Major Al Gray (future CMC). The picture was taken in the ville of Khe Sanh about four years before Tet of '68.
I saw an AK-47 while in Vietnam and it had a 30 round magazine. So I cut the top and bottom off of a couple of M-14 Magazines and welded them together and made a "40" Round magazine for my M-14. It really didn't work very well when test firing it, several of the last rounds would not chamber with only two springs. So I put "three" springs into the magazine, but then I could only load a little over 30 rounds. There just wasn't enough room for three springs and 40 Full Metal Jacket rounds in that magazine. I sure received some strange looks while walking around with my 40 round magazine.
Joe Schmuckatello graduated with his platoon and found himself out in the Corps. Walking on base one day, he came up behind a Major and as he passed he said "By your leaf sir!" The Major, knowing the correct protocol, but misunderstanding Pvt. Joe's pronunciation and assuming he had said "By your leave, sir", responded correctly and said "Granted". The next day, Joe encountered a Warrant Officer. Having remembered his previous encounter, and what he was taught in boot camp, said as he passed, "By your bursting bomb sir! The Gunner, salt that he was, simply responded, "Granted Marine!"
I was assigned to the 1st Marine Air Wing as an Air Traffic Controller (6711 MOS) at Iwakuni Japan in the Spring of 1962 when I was deployed to Southeast Asia. As an E4 Corporal I knew how to prepare and implement controlled airspace charts. My small detachment of men were sent into Soc Trang, South Vietnam to set up controlled air space charts that were subsequently approved and implemented by Saigon for use in controlling the air space around our very primitive air strip outside Soc Trang. We were at an old bombed out air field that was one used by the French, and there were no facilities. 1-2-3 trenches, chow tent, water buffaloes for showers and 26-man tents. The air facility was completely field built and we ferried the South Vietnamese regular army into and back from the front lines nearby. At that time in the war between the South and the Viet-Cong our unit was the very first U.S. Marine presence in that war. This fact is supported by a plaque at the Marine Corp Museum in Quantico, VA.
This is the start of my boat with Sgt Grit vinyl stickers. They work and look awesome. So what do you think?
Get your own decal at:
You Choose Marine Vet Vinyl
Auto Decal with Years of Service
Seeing the drill instructor names on this banner makes me think of what my SDI called our platoon's battle guide, this one possibly for platoon 1054. We were allowed to create one for our platoon after sweeping the inter-battalion competition during boot camp. Attached is my graduation photo. In it, you can see the Marines in the second row holding the guide. It amounted to a tribute to our drill instructors for leading us to victory, their names in the upper left corner with USMC slogans in the opposite corner. Ours never left the barracks and I have no idea what happened to it. It should have been disposed of given the nature of some of the content. I'm top row, fourth from the right.
