Category: Marine Corps Stories

Rest in Peace “Mo”

My boyfriend, a Marine who proudly served during Desert storm had always wanted the Marine Corps mascot as his own.  While he was at Parris Island he sent his mother a post card with an English bulldog in dress blues. On the post card it read something like, "One day I will get a dog like this." And to this day, she still has the post card.  Many years past and one day William, my Marine, told me we were going to get a puppy!     He had found www.pottersbulldogs.net, a website that had bulldog puppies.  Spur of the moment, we traveled 3 hours from our home to go take a look.  Well the trip ended up being a ridiculously long one, for we ended up getting stuck on I-75 for hours upon hours due to a fatal car accident.  We were both exhausted by the time we arrived at the breeders home.  We looked at several English bulldog puppies, but it didn't take long for William to make his final choice.  He held in the palm of his hand a chubby brindle and white puppy with a spot over one eye; who we decided we were going to take home.  Well it didn't take long for me to become very frustrated on the long drive home.  See we didn't really think or plan any at all.  I held the puppy in my lap in the car and we weren't traveling for more than 10 minutes before I got peed on the first time.  Not long after that the little fellow pooped.  30 minutes after we had him we turned around and took him back.  We obviously were in more than we bargained for.  We talked things over with the breeder and decided we would travel home and come back after we were prepared to bring a puppy home.  The next day we made the long haul once again, but this time we had a box, plenty of towels, and old t-shirts because we knew we were going to be dealing with lots of poop and pee for a 3 hour drive back.  This was the day William found a true buddy.   We were the new parents of an English bulldog, the Marine Corps mascot, a devil dog! Well he was more like a cute little chubby piggy while he was a puppy, something to awe about other than fear.  Everyone fell in love with our new pet.  We thought of names and didn't think of anything good until William thought of one… a formal name, "Maximus Aurelius," and Max for short, which turned in to "MoMo" and "Mo" his name we leaned on calling him. Everyone that got to be around Mo fell completely in love.  He was the sweetest, cutest, funniest, most wonderful puppy anyone could ever ask for.  He ate like a pig, farted, and snored so unbelievably loud.  He grew so fast into our macho-puppy/dog.   Mo never served in the military.  He never walked on a battlefield, although Mo did serve his master with unconditional loyalty, love, and companionship.  He was Williams pet for sure; he lived to be by William's side.  He could care less about anyone else; he just wanted to be where his master was.  Don't get me wrong, Mo was friendly and loved to meet new people.  What makes me believe that our English bully was a true Marine Corps mascot was his personality.  He was everything I thought a Marine to be.  He was headstrong, fearless, stought, loyal, passionate, and faithful.  He was tough too.  Once he had the pad on his foot cut, he jumped out of the truck and broke his leg too.  He had surgery with screws and rods in his leg, but he never changed. He loved his master, no place would he rather be.    He loved to ride in the back of the truck, tongue stuck out with a mile of slobber flowing behind and barked out at every car that passed.  I think he was trying to protect us from them or something.  He loved to run at full speed… for short distances.  He loved his swimming pool, and would dive and eat carrots we threw in it.  He was our fishing partner, and loved napping on the houseboat too.  He chased laser lights and sometimes would run into the wall doing so.  He farted a lot, was stinky and needed bathed often.  He hated the bathing part, but really loved being rubbed down with the towel afterwards.  He loved to nap.  He reminded me of an old man; falling asleep if still for too long.  Man could that dog snore!  He snored louder than any human I've ever heard.  He loved to eat, and would eat anything if we did.  I remember a time William fed him smoked sausage and marshmallows.  He loved pickles too.  He went fishing with us and wore a life jacket.  He could swim, but got worn out and couldnt paddle fast enough. He did so many things, to many to say, that made him so unique, so very special, and so very loved by everyone.  William and Mo were a picture perfect view of man and man's best friend.   One of the things Mo did that made me think of a Marine was being fearless, first to fight.  If Mo heard thunder, he was going to fight it back.  Thunder would sound and Mo would take off after it growling in whatever direction he thought it was coming from.  I'm not really sure why he would do this.  I think he was standing by, ready to protect what he loved.  Thunder was a threat, and he was going to fight it to the death.  One day he did fight… he fought for his life.  Mo was outside going to potty.  We didn't know a storm was brewing up and thought nothing of it.  Thunder cracked loudly in the sky and that was all it took.  Mo took off running and barking with all that was in him.  He ran and ran chasing it away.  It was so horrible.  He ran down the long driveway into the road from our home.  William found him by the road and devastated he picked him up.  He ask me not to look, because he didn't want me to see him that way.  William was heartbroken.  He knew that Mo wasn't tough enough for this, this time.  That is the day that Mo left us, and that was the day he died.   Maximus Aurelius, Max, Mo was the best dog and best companion anyone could ask for.  He served as a Marine in every way.  He was loyal to his Marine brother.  He stuck to his side through good and bad.  He loved William with all his heart.  He accomplished what any Marine would want to be for his fellow brothers; he showed great camaraderie, loyalty, safeguard, fortitude and hardiness toward his companion.  Mo we will dearly miss you.  Thank you for being the best pet anyone could ask for.  Mo brought so much happiness and joy to our lives.  Mo knew the meaning of Semper Fidelis.

Parade Rest

Maybe three years after having been honorably discharged from the Marines as an E-5 in San Diego, I was attending a 4th of July parade in Pittsburgh's three rivers area. My hair had grown out a bit and I was wearing cut off shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt. I was flanked on either side by my two young children, 3 & 5 years old. As the parade approached, it was lead by a limo carrying a Marine full bird colonel in dress blues right behind the color guard detail. I had been sitting on the curb dishing out cotton candy to my kids and waiting for the parade to begin. As the colors approached, without hesitation or conscious thought, I stood to attention. You, that are Marines, will know the posture without explanation… With hair on my shoulders, tattered shorts and shirt… and thumbs on my seams, I'm sure I appeared to have anything but military bearing. Much to my surprise, and pride, the Colonel standing in the back seat of the open limo, recognizing the posture, pivoted precisely on his heals, faced me and popped a perfect salute.  read more

2013 Division 2 Young Marine of the Year

Dakota Richter, 16 of the Northern KY unit, has been selected as Division 2 Young Marine of the Year (Division 2 encompasses KY, WV, VA, DE, MD and D.C.) Division YMOY earns scholarship money, a trip to Guam and Iwo Jima with the National Executive Director, WWII Veterans and the other 5 Division YMoYs, plus a trip to the Adult Leaders Conference in Reno (May 2013) to compete against the other 5 Division YMoYs for selection of National YM of the Year. Selection is based on their YM career,  academic standing, achievements both in and out of YMs, and a “What Being Young Marine of the Year Would Mean to Me” essay. National YM of the Year earns another scholarship and the privilege of traveling to visit other YM units. read more

Operation Kingfisher

Don,

This is the first story I ever wrote. I was mad at what the
Marine Corps had written about Kingfisher and I wanted the first
hand truth told. I sent it to a Col. Summers, who used to be the
editor of Vietnam Magazine and he accepted it first shot. He told
me I needed about 200 more words so I e-mailed my BN CO. and he
helped me with things that a L/Cpl Machine-gunner was not privy
to. They published it in the Spring of 2001. I tell it like it
was! Semper Fi! read more

Senior Class Trip

Plt. 103, MCRD 1967, Honor Platoon. The amazing thing is, our
platoon was made up of reservists and a group of Marines from
Peru. All the drill instructors were Spanish speaking, so most of
our commands were in Spanish. I went on to spend my senior class
trip in Viet Nam (18 months) with 1st Marine Div., 7th. Com.
Support Co. read more

Camp Fuji McNair, Japan

Your newsletter is GREAT!

I was at Camp Fuji McNair Japan in 1954 to 1955. My outfit was
K-4-12, 3rd Marine Division and I drove a 2-1/2 ton truck. We
conducted maneuvers all over that area. At that time, McNair was
all tents except for the quonset huts which were the head and
showers. All roads leading to Camp McNair was dirt, and we
supplied fuel to Fuji View Hotel in 50 gallon drums. read more

Once A Marine Always A Marine

I'm a twenty-seven year retiree. I spent a year and a half in the Army, three years and eleven months in the Navy, four years in the Marine Corps, and seventeen and a half years in the National Guard. A few years ago I went on a job interview. This was a trucking company seeking a driver. During the interview the woman frowned upon seeing that I had been a Marine. "Oh, I see you were in the Marine's." She said. "Marine's I have met seem to have attitudes ." I chuckled, "Being a Marine is something you earn." I replied. She fowned once more so I explained it to her. "In Army bootcamp your called a soldier. In Navy bootcamp your a Seaman. In the Airforce one is called an Airman. In Marine Corps bootcamp you are called everything in the book except a Marine. For thirteen weeks you question your ancestery. On the morning you graduate is the first time you are called a Marine.  So it's not an attitude. It's something we have earned. So you see I am proud to wear the Eagle, Globe and Anchor of the United States Marines." I left the woman speechless and walked out. Needless to say, I didn't take the job. read more