Sgt Grit is a place where Marines can come and meet other Marines, share tattoos and stories, keep up with Marine Corps news, or shop for USMC gear.
Although the Marine recruiting stories glamorize everything we do, some jobs in the Corps are about as exciting as watching paint dry.
One of those jobs was flight line avionics repair for helicopters.
I was with the reserve air wing unit, HMM-764, in the late 1960’s and we had metal fatigued UH-34’s that had made their way back from Viet Nam complete with bullet holes and worn out avionics.
I would like to thank you. You have a wonderful person at your place named Christina Rodriguez, she helped me by sending me 2 – 12" replacement magnets that had blown off my truck… when they blew off, I didn't even go over 45 MPH.
Of all the World War I items in my small collection is a W. R. A. Cartridge dated 1917. The primer has the necessary dent from the firing pin striking it but the cartridge is complete with bullet. However the shoulder of the case (when fired) left a double shoulder effect. The bullet comes out easy enough and mounted inside the base of the projectile is two strong wires that are formed to make tweezer like affair. Knowledge of World War I and the "COOTIES" that flooded the trenches. Upon relief from front line duty and movement to the rear area, a man removed his clothes tor a bath and usually in his underwear he worked to removed the cooties from his clothing after being boiled. The eggs and the dead cooties still hung on in the seams of the clothing. If there was no way to boil your clothes you had to remove the "COOTIES" by hand, some men heated wires and ran them carefully along the seams to kill the "COOTIES" which sometimes resulted in seams opening or easily tearing and in Europe winters this wasn't desirable. So with the homemade tweezers he could pick out the cooties. I got this years ago from the man who got it from the original owner. For the readers information when the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) was formed it originally had a "COOTIE" Club which was quickly absorbed, however for a few years after the VFW was formed you could find cootie club items like patches, paper work, and other memoribilia from the "COOTIE CLUB", and I have no doubt there is still some stuff laying about from the "COOTIE CLUB". My "Cootie" Catcher is a long forgotten part of that War and the VFW.
Attached are pictures of a Memorial for Cpl. Chuck Lindberg at the American Legion Post in Richfield Minnesota.
Most of us know that Chuck was part of a combat patrol that climbed Mount Surbachi and raised the first of two U.S. flags on the summit during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. He was the last surviving member of both of the Mount Suribachi flag raising events on Feb. 23rd, 1945. It took forever for people to believe he was on the team that raised the first flag. Now the World knows the rest of the story.
Brother and Sister Marines, here is a photo of our beloved Marine Corps War Memorial that was taken by photographer Navin Sarma. Somehow, the word "BEAUTIFUL" just doesn't say enough!
Out-Friggin-Standing… Now that's more like it!
Sgt Grit and staff were recently visited by Purple Heart recipient Sgt Armando Ybarra. Sgt Ybarra was injured in the 23 October 1983 bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. During his rescue from the wreckage of the barracks a photo was taken that made its way on the cover of TIME magazines October 31, 1983 issue.
Marines:
Today we are proud of the hard work performed by my post as well as by myself in seeing this special project come true.
On November 10th 2015 ( date pending ) we are going to see the following Marine Barracks plaque become permanently affixed to the former MB bldg # 2.
In 1975, I was a Weapons Platoon Sergeant with Fox 2/7 at San Mateo, Camp Pendelton. All of the Battalion NCOs including myself were attending our monthly NCO meeting. Sgt.Maj. Yanachi was an Eskimo Indian, but to hear him tell it he was born at Tun Tavern. The Sgt.Maj. when answering a question would always start out with “Well I remember in the Old Corps when all you young kids were just a twinkle in your daddies eye” and we would all give a little laugh.
This is my current ride. Its a 1954 Ford F-100.
The first picture was taken at a local car show. The second picture is of the engine bay with the stainless steel firewall. The third picture is of the custom made wheel and the cap that Grit had made for me in his custom shop. The caps were made to accept the custom made one sided challenge coins and have the 11th Marines Cannon and name: "The Cannon Cockers." Under that is the engraved names of Goog, Hunts, Grit, and Fuller.
As a wee lad my father would often bring me to his office when he was SgtMaj of the Marine Barracks in Vallejo, California. I mostly remember there was a soft serve ice cream machine somewhere in the building and a footlocker full of toy trains my dad’s predecessor had left behind in the office.
