Two Promises

After I graduated from high school in 1964 I announced to my father that I was tired of taking orders from him, tired of getting up early and tired of making my bed so I had solved all those problems. I had joined the United States Marine Corps. My dad smiled at me and said, "Well, son, it looks like your troubles are over." I left for Marine Corps boot camp 2 days later. read more

M1 Carbines Cont.

Some M-1 Carbine bayonets even made it to the top of Suribachi.

http://www.iwojima.com/raising/raisingb.htm

I have been following the M-1 Carbine discussion with interest and sharing it with a close friend and WWII arms collector, Richard Jacobson, a retired local police lieutenant. After consulting several collector's websites and other historical references, Rich assures me that there were indeed M-1 Carbine bayonets on Iwo. read more

A Special Dinner For Me

I joined the Marine Corps in December of 1958, went to MCRD San Diego. On November 10, 1959, I was aboard the USS Paul Revere for my first Marine Corps Birthday, and my 18th birthday. Here is the menu of what we had that day, the menu was also a postcard which I sent home. I told my parents the Marine Corps found out it was my birthday and made a special dinner for me. read more

Marine Corps Ball 1967

My first and only Marine Corps Ball was in Malta, during a 1967 Mediterranean Sea Cruise aboard the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt CVA 42. Due to the FDR being almost 1000 Ft. long we had to anchor out at every port of call. At one point we were anchored out in Malta, and a big storm came up causing the FDR to depart, stranding the lucky people on liberty. I was one of the two Marines on liberty that day, myself and Sgt. David McAnall. It was like a vacation, we stayed in a hotel for five days while the ship was gone. We were lucky to meet an American girl whose father was an oil worker in North Africa. She had two friends that were Maltese. I still have the cuff links one of them gave me, I don't remember his name. The other one was a beautiful young school teacher named Sally Moreno. She was 23, I was 20 at the time. The Maltese people are Italian by ancestry, so they speak Italian, and English. Malta was a former British Colony. read more