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.
A beautiful day for the annual trek to THE WALL yesterday. I finally took a pic that I thought some of the family might like to see. This is as you stand in front of the statue of the three soldiers and to your left.
Semper Fi,
Tom Flynn
1969-1971
RVN '70-'71
Pease greeters, 900 flights to date with more to come.
John cannon
Thank you for your interest in my emblem. I have always been gung ho for The Corps with clothes, covers, flags and all. I know that I am Marine all the way. My wife and I went on vacation and a friend was going to redo my sunroom floor. Well he got together with my wife about my service and decided to do this to surprise me. Wonderful surprise. It's not painted. He used colored cement and did a beautiful job. I was in Vietnam in '66/'67 and received two Purple Hearts, and on good days I get things done and on bad days I am 100% disabled. I thank God that I am in as good a shape as I am. God, Country, Corps! With PTSD I really put my wife thru h-ll but she loves me and saw me thru it for 46 years. God could not have given me a better wife. It took 40 years to get the VA to accept a claim and then they only went back to my last claim submission. Forget about the last 40 years of pain and Drs. and confusion. But as I said, God gave me my wife who has kept me up and going. Thru it all we have adapted and overcame. Semper Fi.
Here's a short walk through memory lane for those of us that were at MCAF Marble Mountain on 28 October 1965… Ron Jennings and George DeChant were both wounded in the Ready Room (Operations?) Tent by a Sapper. Our Corpsman (actor Tab Hunter's brother) was blown up in the MedEvac bird and a few more squadron mates were killed or wounded. I have a sh-t pot full of colored slides with better shots of the whole scene including dead Charlies stacked in trucks with some missing their faces. They patched Jennings up in Japan (Yokuska) with humorous tale about his "adventures" in the Ville… Last photo was leftover Charlie grenades.
I came across a photo taken on the 191st Marine Corps Birthday, November 10, 1966 at the 1st Marine Regiment HQ compound about 10 miles southwest of DaNang. It has Col. Radics, front left and Lt Gen Nickerson, front right. I am on rear left and Cpl Rodriguez is in rear right. We were both assigned to S-2. I am also enclosing the menu.
Your site is prized by most Marine veterans that I know. When I wear the cover shown above, I do not do it to have people thank me for my service. That is appreciated; however the reason I wear it is that I get "Semper Fi" and "Ooorah's" from folks I'd never met before and it usually strikes up a good conversation of when they served and where. Many times, they want to know where I got my cover and I am happy to share that it is your website. I personalized my ribbons on my cover by adding campaign stars and my "60-" device to the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Ribbon. I got a generic Vietnam Service Ribbon bumper sticker and made a stencil to add my campaign stars with spray paint. I've had a lot of interest in this and usually got some chuckles when I told them how I did it. Feel free to publish the Vietnam Service Medal campaign dates. You might put out some feelers to see if folks might be interested in personalizing their covers or bumper stickers to reflect their time in "the Nam."
My name is Gene Crabtree. Retired GySgt (pictured on left). Recently I was asked by Jimmy Dupuy (pictured on right), if I could assist him with folding these two flags. I told him it would be an honor and I would be proud to assist him. He began to tell me the history of these flags. He found these flags in a box that he received after his mother passed away, they were not folded and he wanted to put them in Shadow Boxes. The flag I am holding is his Great-Grandfather's William Curry Chisolm's flag. He served in WWI. This flag has 48 stars, his Great-Grandfather passed away in 1926. The flag that Jimmy is holding is for his Father, Joseph Steven Dupuy. Mr. Jimmy served in the U.S. Marine Corps from '65-'69. I can't tell you the honor that this gave me and the sense of pride to assist in this Flag Folding.
Here's the final set of photos from Jim's inurnment ceremony at Arlington National Cemetary.
The onlookers/mourners dressed in yellow shirt, vest, and cavalry hat are from Buffalo Soldiers group. Marilyn informed me that Jim was an honorary member of the special group of folks. One of the other Veterans being inurned that day was being honored by the Buffalo Soldiers group. Jim was also a member of MIAP (Missing In America Project).
This was our group… no family members.
We had a Drill Instructor (Sgt Smith) assigned to us as our guide.
One of our group retired as a Lt Col (JJ Foyle). I have attached a letter he wrote praising Sgt Smith on a job well done. I am sharing this letter as it was outstanding and hits home especially if you are a Marine.
MACV Tower Account (with Frank Doezema Jr, Bob Robertson, Bobby Hull).
This is an eyewitness account used with permission from our friend Bob Robertson from the night of January 31st, 1968 the first night of The Battle of Hue…
Michael and I were assigned to Marine Security Detachment MACV Advisory Team #3 in Hue RVN. Though we had seen both Frank and Bobby Hull around the Compound on numerous occasions we had never been formally introduced nor spoken at length with either one until we were brought together to go through what would prove to be a life changing ordeal for everyone involved. We had no way of knowing at the time but we were only going to know Frank for six hours of his life, but I cannot think of any other type of situation one could go through where it would be possible to learn more quickly the make up of a mans character or what's in his heart than what the four of us would go through in the six hours to come. As a result I think there are probably things the four of us know about each other that many lifelong friends wouldn't know.
