Category: Marine Corps Stories

1953 Old Corps

Check out the two DI's. Buck Sgt and a PFC. They are the only two with the 'salty' bowed covers. I wonder what the deal is with the three Marines in utilities in the middle?   The group picture. Look at the socks on the third from the right. Several on the front row appear to have high-top dress shoes. Doesn't appear to be a spit-shined pair in the group.   Outstanding Old Corps pic.   Semper Fi Sgt Grit

First Day On The Job

It was Friday and mid-April of 1961 when this newly minted PFC and recent graduate of Sea School, MCRD San Diego, arrived dockside at North Island in San Diego to report for duty aboard the USS Ticonderoga CVA-14.

I don't recall a lot of specific details about my boarding the ship. Nor do I remember any specific introduction to the way I was to live on the Ticonderoga for the next two and a half years. However, I do remember the scent of the ship's fuel, the salty perfume of the bay waters, and my astonishment at how large the ship was. Remarkably I was quickly integrated into traditional shipboard life for seagoing Marines. read more

March Ourselves With Purpose

I read with interest Dennis Krause's tour of Camp Hauge and attachment to the 9th MEB. We were breathing a lot of the same air, trudging around Hauge's streets of gold, and bouncing around the South China Sea.

Like Dennis, Camp Hauge and the 9th MEB are bolted together in my mind. For me it all began on August 4, 1964, when I was minding my and the Marine Corps business in Iwakuni. I was an E4 in 1st MAW's G2/Intelligence, nominally per my MOS, an Aerial Photo Interpreter. On August 4, I caught G2 Duty NCO and was bunked down in the office as per SOP. At 0330 the Duty Officer woke me. We were on Def Con 3, due to The North Vietnamese attack on the USS Maddox in the Bay of Tonkin a couple of days ago. read more

My Bestfriend, My Hero, My Dad

On September 24th, it will be 1-year since I lost my father. His name was Corporal Jerome  Lysek. He always told me that everyone called him "Polock". He served in Vietnam from 1968-1970 with Hotel Company, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, 1st Marine Division. I miss him everyday, but I am proud that he is a Vet, proud that he was my dad, and proudest that he was a United States Marine. read more

Homes For Our Troops

On June 23, 2013, Marine Corps League Detachment 1198 from Jarrettsville, Maryland provided the Color Guard for a ground breaking ceremony. A home is now under construction for Corporal Jeffery Kessler, his wife Morgan and their two sons. Homes For Our Troops is building his house in Rising Sun, Maryland. Jeffery lost both legs and partial amputation of fingers on his right hand when he was on his third deployment in Helmand Province, Afghanistan where he was wounded by an IED. It is with great pride that MCL Detachment 1198 supports the Troops.  read more

F4 Phantoms Screaming

Been following stories about the tough duty at K-Bay. I was stationed at K-Bay with Station Operations and Maintenance Squadron (SOMS) from Oct '74 through Oct '77, then got out and stayed in Hawaii until 1984. I arrived as a 19 year old newly minted LCpl who got married en-route. In those days you had to be "Command Sponsored" to be authorized quarters and/or a wife, but we were too young and too dumb to know how poor we were while living in a tiny apartment in town and sharing our one bicycle for transportation. Road that bike about 5 miles to/from work daily, more often than not in the rain. Worked GCA Radar just off the middle of the runway with F4 Phantoms screaming by non-stop. That's our yellow trailer in the middle of the asphalt in the picture. Too far for most folks to walk out to bother us so for the most part it was just me and my Gunny. Yes, it was "swinging with the Wing" at times and couldn't have asked for better duty. read more