On 30 July 2011, some of the Marines of 3rd Light Armored Infantry Battalion got together for the 20th anniversary reunion from Operation Desert Storm. With the help of Facebook (as well as one Marine knowing where another was living) we got about 100 from the Wolfpack back together for an amazing weekend. We also streamed a live feed and had another 100 watching from around the world. Our unit is credited with firing the first shot in Operation Desert Storm as well as receiving many individual and unit honors as well. We even had parents, spouses and children of our fallen brothers present which was a great healing moment not just for them, but for us as well (14 total lost in ODS).
Category: Marine Corps Stories
Bataan-Corregidor
Dear Friends,
Amazing news about my father, Casey Bazewick, Sr.!
Today I learned that the Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Foundation of New Mexico has found, in an archive, a film of the liberation of his prisoner-of-war camp in Mukden, Manchuria, taken shortly after Japan's surrender in August 1945. OSS paratroopers had just liberated the camp.
I had no idea this film existed.
"Hoten POW Camp Liberated" is now on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytYOOjwzoAw
At 0:35 in the film, you can see Hoten POW camp where he had been a POW since November 1942. POWs were enslaved, starved, beaten, tortured, shot, and subjected to medical experimentation. He endured three Manchurian winters, with temperatures plunging to forty below zero and colder. From the fall of Corregidor, May 6, 1942, he was a prisoner of the Japanese for over 39 months.
At liberation he was almost 27. It so happens that today is his 93rd birthday. My wife Kristi and I showed him the film at his nursing home. He watched it intently twice. For me, it was most moving to see his reaction. What a gift for all of us!
He doesn't seem to be in the film, nor is there anyone he recognizes, but clearly he remembers the time and place.
In the attached still photos, taken at the same time as the film, he smiles at us across the years, standing shoulder to shoulder with the 4th Marines of the camp. In wonder, we smile back at him, 66 years later.
Personalized Cosmetics
Just wanted to share with you the enclosed picture of my '98 Ford Explorer to which I added a bit of personalized cosmetics, my bumper had began rusting out which a few holes and blemished chrome. I found some digital camo duck tape would have preferred digital woodland marpat which I could not find and applied to bumper.
Boy Years
Boy Years
Somehow,
(Did I blink my eyes?)
(Was I distracted by everyday care?)
Somehow,
I looked around and you
were grown.
The boy years flown –
gone.
Seems overnight
they took flight and
swiftly, so swiftly
passed from sight, and away.
How deep does the “green” go?
In Boot Camp (1972), the very first thing Platoon Commander SSgt. J.R. Godfrey told us about the varying ethnic groups that made up Platoon 2014 was, "You're all green!" This would prove to be the first of many life lessons that would shape 62 hapless individuals into a cohesive unit and make it possible for us to survive Boot but more importantly, conquer life.
Boot Camp May 1960
I left El Paso, Texas in May of 1960 for MCRD San Diego, I got through boot camp in good shape only to leave for ITR trainging at Camp Pendleton, California, after that, 30 days leave and then back to MCRD San Diego to attend field music school, 16 weeks and after graduation left for Oahu, Hawaii and Camp Smith above Pearl Harbor and the D&B team. Great duty, once a Marine always a Marine. Semper Fi!!!
No Letter.
Why do I go to the mailbox every day? He told me it was his last letter but still I walk to my mailbox hopeful. Every day I am rejected by my mailbox. No letter. Why do I do this to myself waiting for word that will never come…? No letter. He didn’t give me a reason why it would be his last, surely he would? No letter. I’m angry at the mailman the mailbox at him. No letter. He comes home in twenty two days, which means twenty two days with no word. No letter. No love filled words that decorated the pages of his letters to me. No letter. Perhaps the mail just hasn’t come or my letter slipped within the pages of coupons. No letter. I find it hard to continue to write to him call it selfish but it seems so unfair. No letter. I can’t stop though I need that connection. No letter. Nothing changes how I feel, nothing. No letter.
Pop’s Medal
My father was a product of his time. His father was a Sergeant in the Brooklyn 14th with "Black Jack" Pershing in Texas and Mexico and WWI service. My grandfather's uncles were with the Brooklyn 14th (it was the NYS militia at that time). They were combat veterans of the English Army in India in the 1850's and came over to the US as one of the many Irish immigrants of that era. They went through all four years of the Civil War. When the war ended they sent for their youngest brother who became the Family Patriarch. The two older boys never married.
The Gunny – US Marine Corps Custom Motorcycle
FOR SALE: $37,500 E-mail the seller
I am selling my Custom USMC Motorcycle! I am not honoring the bike and its rich history by keeping it in my garage. When I bought the bike I promised to show it to Marines and pass it on to another Marine. I don't want to sell it to civilians or thru civilian auctions. It has too many things for me to list but was selected to be shown at the Grand Opening of the National Marine Corps Museum in Quantico and also received a Letter of Commendation from the Commandant. It has appeared in Chromedoutmag.com twice and also was custom built by Marines and a Marine Dependant Son.
Daddy’s Girl
My dad died in 2000. This Saturday would have been his 87th birthday. He was my best friend growing up and I was his little girl.
He served in WWII with the 2nd Division, 2nd bat. 8th Marines. He was a flamethrower in the Pacific. He was at Tarawa, Guam, Saipan, and Tinian. He also helped "mop up" on Okinawa. He served in China 1947 – 1949 and was at the Chosin with Chesty Puller in Korea. His DD214 reads like a combat history of the Marine Corps. His last rank was that of a Gunnery Sgt.