Category: Marine Corps Stories

Festival Of Trees

Thank you again here is the final product all put together I 

will go and try to get a couple of more shots for you I sent  this on to the media with the following. This would not be  possible without You and your team's great help we have enough  stuff to start next year's tree as well.   At the Festival of Trees this year you will find this tree. Not  the largest not the most fancy but look closely if you can catch  one of the 64 Dog tags on it you will see they are the Names of  all whom have passed from Utah serving their country since that  dreaded day on 9/11.  Even though the tree has a largely Marine  theme to it,  it stands as a tribute to all those whom have  given all and give all every day.  So if you get a chance spread  the word and stop by and take a look maybe even if you can make  a bid on it and help another great cause.  This tree is  donated curtsey of Marine League Utah West Det. #1332    Semper Fi Gunny & Troy

Guest of the Country

I served with 2/4 Marines… part of the first RLT that went  ashore at Chu Lai… 1965… Our American flag ordered down by a  General… He said we were guest of the Country…    I have a picture  of a flag that 2/4 Marines flew this flag was put up  when word the general was flying in to meet with the battalion  commanders at 2/4 preparing for Operation Starlite. If you know  the history, it was the first encounter with the NVA regular  Army… historical and may have the only original picture that  has surfaced… After Starlite even the general would not tell  us to take it down.

thanks William ( Stubby ) Ralston…

4 Deuce Mortar Battery at Conthien

Hi Sgt. Grit,

  Enclosed is a picture of one of the mortar crews stationed at the firebase located at Conthien back in February of 1968. The Battery was Whiskey 2/12 and consisted of 6 guns, one of those being a 4.2 in Howtar (half howitzer, half mortar), located at the center of the battery. That particular gun had the wheels removed and was nailed on top of a wooden platform in which had to be greased with axle grease in order for it to traverse. (2nd picture). After many months of service, this gun was later on removed and sent to a museum somewhere in the States.   Bobby (Hobo) Hancox Vietnam 67/68

4.2’s in Action

Sgt. Grit: Talk about those 4 deuces got me thinking about the good old times in Vietnam in 1969. I’m attaching a couple of photo’s of the big mortars in action from my battery, Whiskey 3/11. Our battery was composed of 4.2 mortars and 155s so we could have a pretty good range of coverage.I was the FDO at the time and we were at LZ Baldy and built our site from scratch, scrounging everything we could from the Army. I was the FO with India Company 3/7 and later the LO. Enjoy your newsletters and always look for a familiar name. Love to relive some of the old Corps memories from Quantico and Lejeune. Remember carrying my Olympus in my flack jacket on patrol and when a moment came up would snap off some great pictures but lost half of them when they were sent to be developed and never returned. I’ve got some decent ones and my wife put them in a photo book for me. Was in 3/7 from March thru July 1969 and Whiskey 3/11 thru January 1970. Semper Fi,   Brian A Sekardi Ist Lt, VN 69-70

Anglico and German Nurse

Recently found this site and have been catching up on stories.  I noticed several that referenced ANGLICO units and a couple that referenced a German nurse. I was with 7th Comm.  Radio Relay and attached to the 3rd BN ROK marines near Hoi An. The bunker next door was a detachment of Anglico marines. I am attaching a picture of my Unit board and also a couple pictures of a party put on by the Anglico boys for Capt. Proudfoot who was returning to flying the phantoms. They invited some German Doctors and a Nurse from the German Hospital. Maybe this was the nurse referred to in several previous stories I read. One of the pictures shows her Standing with the Capt.  Also sending picture of my unit by the bunker. I am on the left, next Pfc. Hurley, Pfc. Grissom (my hippy) and Capt. Lee,  ROK communications officer.  Don’t know exact date but it was early in 69 since I made Cpl. In Dec 68 and Rotated home in May 69. read more

Bob Hope visits DaNang 1969

Sgt Grit

I saw your newsletter about going to the Bob Hope Show near DaNang in 1969. It was at Freedom Hill and I was there also. In fact I was a Squadron Photographer (First Marine Air Wing, MAG 11, VMA225 at the DaNang Airbase) and was sitting on the ground right in front of the stage. I took 600 pictures of the show and went again the next year to see his 1970 show and give him an album of the pictures I had taken the year before. Bob Hope was gracious enough to stand backstage with me and look at every page of the album with me that I had given him. He kept that album and it is now in his exhibit in the Library of Congress in Washington DC. It is a miracle story that is very meaningful to me and is my main memory of being a Marine (1967 – 1971). I was in Avionics on the A-6A Intruder and my specialty was the Auto Pilot on that plane but I was the Squadron Photographer as a hobby and so I would get a ticket to the show when Bob Hope came that year. I was making so much money selling the pictures I took that I extended for another tour to do another Bob Hope Show. The public opinion of the war had degraded so low between 1969 and 1970 that I couldn’t give my pictures away of the 1970 show. read more