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.
Sgt Grit,
Saw an article several months ago about a certificate given to members of 2/2 called the bearded bum certificate. Enclosed please find the attachment with the certificate in it. It was signed by Lt.Colonel David A. Brewster. I don't know if all Marines got one but we who were at the jet airfield side of Guantanamo, opposite mainside did receive one. The Cubans had the beards so the Colonel thought it a good idea for us to grow a mustache "To confuse the beards across the fence"!
Sgt Grit,
Here are some scans of a couple more Propaganda leaflets (front and back) that I picked up while out on an operations south of Chu Lai in the Summer of 1966 – maybe on Operation Texas or Utah (?).
Operation Utah seems to have been forgotten by most USMC Historians. I have often wondered if it is because of the high number of casualties that resulted – 98 to 104 Marines Killed and 278 wounded – on an operation that started with limited enemy information that resulted in only a couple companies being sent against an entrenched enemy battalion.
To read an excellent description of this battle, entitled "They're not supermen," Meeting the NVA in Operation Utah, March 1966 — Author unknown by me, Google the title.
I wanted to send out a tribute to my old, dear friend, Cpl. Lon T. Hunter. "Lonnie" passed away on September 28, 2012, after a short, but valient (and very Marine-like) battle with lung cancer. It came on fast, and took him quickly. Lon was 61. He and I first met in junior high. We became good buddies, double dating, drinking beer underage, etc. Lon got in trouble when he was just about to turn 18, and was given the choice of going to jail or enlisting in the Marine Corps (some of you will remember those days). He chose the Corps.
Jim Everson's posting reminded me of leaflets that we also encountered from the National Front for Liberation.
I served in RVN from 1967 to '68 with 3rd Amtracs. Our CP was at Marble Mountain.
When on patrol south of Marble Mountain we often encountered propaganda left by the National Front for Liberation. A bamboo stake split at the top and driven in the ground would hold the leaflet. Often, the portion of bamboo driven into the ground would be holding the spoon of a grenade in place. If you pulled the stake out of the ground… BOOM. To my knowledge, nobody got hurt by this particular booby trap because we were familiar with it.
I proudly served in Viet Nam 1965/1966 with 1st ANGLICO FMF. I am looking for any badges, patches, pins etc. that relate to 1st ANGLICO.
Also looking for any members of my old team from that period.
Paul ODell
First Marine Regt was pulling out, all the men there the longest were being sent home, all the "new guys" stayed and were transfered to a different unit. I walked accross the rice paddy to Division QH,, just a mear 400 yards, my new unit. Well that messhall was trying to use up as much chow as they could so they didn't need to give it away or send it back to the States. They served lobster and steak about four times a week…yup we were served Officer food. The only place in the Corps where I ate like that, all the lobster tails you wanted. I gained weight for a month….but all good things came to an end. To bad they were not trying to get rid of the beer. which only came in two brands, Black Label and Falstaff, I never knew why till years after when a high well placed Army buyer finally got busted on "kick backs". Someone with more rank than me wanted to know why also….and speaking of beer, I was in Phu Bai in a rocket attack and when they hit a huge building next to us, the quards for the First Division beer took off for safety, we on the other hand started a relay race from that building to our bunker, had lots of leaking cans from the rockets, …later than next day they knew they lost about 20 cases of beer, they looked at us very hard, (being next door),. Well we put months into building that bunker of sandbags, steel runway matting and timbers. it had a false ceiling, just held 20 cases of beer and the MP's didn't find it. They did take our still, we were making "Raisen Jack" in the time honored tradition or my Marine uncle in WWII.
How about 'herring bones'. I lived in a tent in Boot. I had an M-1 when everyone else was getting an M-14 or M-16, my rifle was made by International Harvester, they made tractors. The claymore mine was mine by 3-M in Minnesota. Flipped the "bird" to Gen Westmoreland while he was visiting Quang Tri… he musted have missed it, he saluted back. Back then you didn't need a "boarding pass" you thumbed a ride to where ever anyone was flying to, they could always use another gun. I was pretty much freelanced in IV Corps, I went where I thought they could use my help, Phu Bai, Hue City, and last but not least Khe Sanh, the early months,Chu Lai and South of there to the Korean Marines, many fire bases from there to the DMZ 34, 55 , Baldy, Ross, Rockpile. The most bad of the bad was Hue City, the first night of Tet at the MACVN compound, think there was about 23 of there. It was a long couple days. Recall the New jersey lobbing a few shells on to the Citadel and the jet jockeys dropping a few heavy weights beside the wall, and a group of crazies taking down the NVA flag. Very few Marines had the freedom to just go almost anywhere they wanted in country.
While zooming around DaNang trying to "hitch" a ride on a chopper, I stopped at the Air Force Dining Facility at the DaNang Air Base. To start with its called a dinning room and they have waiters … with dinning clothes… it was the choice of wine that won me over… I didn't get that with my C-Rats. While pouring rain in a jungle was enough to make me want a transfer… the wing-whippers did complain if the wind was from the East, that would be gravy's registration… sorry about that..1967
In March, 1966, the Marine Corps lost a good man, a family lost one of their favorite sons and a bunch of fighter-writers lost a best friend. On March 4-5, LtCol. Leon Utter, the Battalion Commander of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, was ordered into in the village of Chau Ngai in the Quang Ngai Province of Vietnam. The mission: to engage the NVA. It was called Operation Utah. With Utter's battalion was Cpl. Lester Wesighan, a Marine Corps combat correspondent and Cpl. Ken Henderson, a Marine Corps combat photographer/a fighter/writer/photographer team.
Here is a scan of a leaflet (front and back) that I picked up while out on an operation south of Chu Lai in summer of 1966.
Semper Fi, Jim Evenson 3/11, 1st Mar Div.
