Category: Marine Corps Stories

VETERANS DAY 2003

VETERANS DAY 2003

THIS IS ME HONORING OUR USMC, KIA/MIA BROS FROM NAM THIS PAST VETERANS DAY. THE PICTURE & STORY IS FROM THE TRI-CITIES HERALD, TRI-CITIES, WASHINGTON. THANKS,

SGT. G.R.MOLLOHAN
USMC 1963 – 1967 2021104

Chewy, a Vietnam veteran who spends time in West Virginia and Washington state, props up a flag at the base of The Moving Wall on Sunday. He declined to give his last name. The wall carries the names of more than 58,000 men and women killed or listed as missing in action during Vietnam.
(Herald/Richard Dickin) read more

An Encounter with my Former SDI

An Encounter with my Former SDI

Acting SSgt William H. Lewis was our Senior Drill Instructor in Platoon 264 at MCRD San Diego. I was Platoon Guide (sometimes Right Guide but usually Left Guide) from shortly after we left Receiving Barracks in late August 1959 to graduation just before Thanksgiving 1959. As a result, I spent more time in the duty hut than other recruits. I should add that most of that time was spent in the “thinking position” doing penance for our platoon’s transgressions on any given day. Ten years later, in 1969, when I was a Captain and the S-3 for 1st Recruit Training Battalion (1stRTBn), I got a call from the Regimental Adjutant, Capt Frank Waters (an LDO, later as a LtCol to become Admin Officer to CMCs Wilson and Barrow). He asked me if I had anything to keep some former 8511s (DIs) busy for a while. There were some SNCOs in his office that had been sent down from Balboa Naval Hospital where they were recuperating from wounds or other injuries/maladies, were bored to death, and needed something to do to occupy their time. Since they were 8511s they came to the Recruit Training Regiment (RTR). I asked my Ops Chief if he had any special projects that he needed to have done. He said he had one but he would only need one man. I told Frank we could use one, to have him report to me, and I hung up the phone. read more