Category: Marine Corps Stories

City of Dearborn Veteran of the Year 2011

Every year here in the City of Dearborn, Michigan the selected Veteran of the Year is honored at the City’s official Veterans Day ceremony.  This year’s selection was a Navy Veteran who was in from 1985 to 1992 and served aboard the USS Carl Vinson.  Once Richard was selected I immediately started planning a special recognition for him that only a Marine would do for a sailor.  A few years ago I purchased a Marines t-shirt for his son Jason to wear.  He actually wore it for school pictures months later.  Richard gave me a 5 x 7 of the photo.  Unfortunately I purchase the t-shirt at a local Army-Navy store.   Richard, whose nickname is “Bobber” for obvious reason, also has two daughters.  One a sophomore at Michigan State and the other a junior in high school.  There is a t-shirt in the Sgt Grit catalog that says, “Chicks Dig Marines” so I ordered two of them.  Once the t-shirts arrived I gave them to Richard’s wife so the girls could wear them to the ceremony.  When recognized as the Veteran of the Year at the ceremony everyone in attendance stood and applauded Richard for his accomplishment.  Everyone then sat down while Richard’s daughters, seated in front of him with the t-shirts on, remained standing.  Although it took a while for Richard to determine what the girls were wearing, once he read the t-shirts he immediately look at me and said, “Dude.”  Mayor O’Reilly then brought the girls down front and next to the podium so that everyone in attendance could see what they were wearing.  The ceremony has been aired on the local cable television channel over the last two weeks.  Additionally, in an article of the local paper they referred to Richard as a Marine veteran.  The attached pictures were taken during and after the ceremony.   Sgt. Grit, thank you for having products available to assist in keeping the age old Navy/Marine tradition alive and well.  Richard tells me that he will get back at me but this one will be tough to top.  Fortunately, I don’t believe the Navy has a site like Sgt Grit.    Semper Fi   Ken VanHooser 2484603, Cpl., 2531/8662 USMC, 9/68 – 7/71

Veterans Day

I was honored to be invited to Washington DC to attend a Vietnam Veterans Day celebration at the Wall  by the History Channel and Honor Flight Conyers and prior to that I purchased a black leather jacket with USMC and combat air crew wings on the front. I wore it from my flight origin in Atlanta until my return. I stopped counting at 20 the number of people who ask me where I got it (mostly women who wanted to buy it for their husbands). My answer was Sgt Grit online so if your sales for this product increased I would expect some compensation. LOL! It was an ENORMOUS Hit. read more

Camp Hauge and other tidbits

I was stationed at Camp Hauge Okinawa in 1958-59.  We still had Cinderella Liberty then too.  However, since Disbursing for the 3rd and 12th Marines was detached from H&S Co and Battalion at Camp Courtney we had illegal liberty cards to get us on and off the base.  We were able to stay off base overnight.  You only had to worry about a typhoon which would keep all Marines on base after midnight.  I fortunately never got caught.  I hope the statue of limitations has expired! read more

Kirby S. Baird & Thomas Patrick Corcoran.

My uncle Thomas P. Corcoran was killed in WWII.16 Jun 1945 in Okinawa, Japan. My father Kirby S. Baird lost his battle with Brain Cancer on 10 Dec 2006. Well this last summer in St. Louis we had Marine week and i decided to go down to it. I am glad that i did because I had the honor to meet Major General Murray who is the President of Marine Corp University. The MajGen took the time out to hear about my father and my uncles service records and honor them both. We have become friends and I have to say to all Marines out there Thank you for your service and SEMPER FIDELIS read more

What the hell is going on?

The day I was sworn in, January 1962, it snowed so heavy you couldn't see the road and the base where I was being sworn in was thirty miles away.  I had to be there at 0900 so I left home at 0700. I was driving a 1950 Plymouth which anyone could attest to, is a tank.  On my way on a back road a Volkswagen Beetle was approaching me when it slid head on into me at about 20 mph. The entire front of the Beetle was crushed and my car was barely scratched. The other driver was being followed by a friend so we exchanged information, pushed the car aside and we both drove off. I finally arrived to the swearing in almost 30 minutes late. I explained to the recruiters and officer about the accident but they still appeared to be pissed. Finally the eleven of us put our right hands in the air and took our oath. After the oath the Captain pulled me aside and I thought what a bad start. Then two camera men appeared and started taking pictures of me and the Captain. Now I was really confused. Finally after five or ten pictures the camera men disappeared and so did the Captain. I grabbed a Gunny standing by and asked him what the hell that was all about. He simply responded, "It's your birthday" I laughed and responded "Todays not my birthday" Now he laughed. "I know that but your birthday is 10 November and that is the Marine Corps Birthday which you will discover, is a big deal. That's why the Captain had his picture taken with you. They are going to do a little article in the paper. Needless to say I found out MY birthday was a big deal. read more

Camp Lejeune, 1968-70. Cpl. Larry Woolverton

    After being plucked out of the quaint little village of Khe Sanh on January 23, 1967, I spent the next few months bouncing from one hospital to another – Danang, Cam Rahn Bay, Clark AFB in the Philippines, the Naval Hospital on Guam, Travis AFB, San Francisco, Lackland AFB, San Antonio, then on to Corpus Christi Naval Air Station and their hospital. I was there for about two months. After a couple of weeks, I was allowed to go home on a ten day leave. My parents met me at the airport in Tulsa, and we went home. I was never so happy to see anyone in my life. read more