Sgt. Grit Community

As most young boys, I looked up to my Father as a provider, protector, friend, and all around Hero. My Father, Allen W. Miller, United States Marine Corps combat veteran during the Pacific Campaign earning a Purple Heart while on Okinawa passed away Friday, April 28, 2017 after a brief illness and two months after his wife passed. He saw action on Guadalcanal, Okinawa and served in China during the occupation. He never really talked much about his part of the war until I saw the scar of the wound he received while on Okinawa. When I asked him about the round looking hole behind his right knee, he told me the following story. He was one of many mortar teams set up on one side of a small hill while the Japanese were on the other side. They had been trading mortar rounds back and forth until one of my Dads team leaders got pissed and decided to storm over the top of the hill and “Kill those lousy Japs”. As my Dad was approaching the half way point over the hill, he said it felt like someone had hit the back of his leg with a baseball bat and the next thing he knew he was back at the bottom of the hill. He looked down and saw his trousers were soaked in blood from the waist down and thought he had be blown in half. One of the Corpsman came by and helped my Dad up and got him to an aid station, then to a hospital somewhere so he could recover and that was the end of the war for him. He returned home to Camp Pendleton where he became a Fireman on the base. He met my Mother prior to leaving for overseas and they got married when he returned home. I came along in 1956 and then my brother in 1960. For all those years he rarely spoke about the war until I found a shotgun in his closet. He told me that he had “Liberated” it from a dead jap soldier on Okinawa. He worked for 40 years for the Ford Motor Co., retired, and when my Mother passed in 1988, he mourned. Then in 1989 he found himself standing at the front door of a female family friend and said “Here I am!” They were together from that point on until her passing 2 months ago. The end came when I had to put my Dad in Hospice care while in the hospital for a massive blood infection. I thank God everyday for having such a loving and caring Father. I’ll miss you Dad. SEMPER FI, Leatherneck! Daniel Miller, L/cpl United States Marine Corps, 1974-1976 read more

Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan and Staff Sgt. David Wyatt were posthumously awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, the highest non-combat award, at Ross’s Landing Riverside Park in Chattanooga, Tennessee, May 7, 2017.

Sullivan and Wyatt were awarded the medal for their actions during the July 16, 2015 shooting that occurred at the Naval Reserve Center Chattanooga and also killed Sgt. Carson Holmquist, Lance Cpl. Skip Wells and Petty Officer 2nd Class Randall Smith. read more

Monday, May 15, 2017, will mark the 42nd anniversary of an oft forgotten event in both Marine Corps and U.S. military history. But, it will not be forgotten by the hundreds of Marines, Sailors and Airmen who participated in the rescue of the U.S. container ship S.S. Mayaguez and the battle fought on Koh Tang, an island off the Cambodian mainland, for the release of the ship and her crew. It is not my intent in this posting to recite the entire story because it is too long, many books and articles have been written about the operation and are available to anyone who wishes to delve deeper into it. I would suggest to start at www.kohtang.com which is the web site for the Koh Tang/Mayaguez Veterans Organization. My intent today is just to make it known and ask that everyone take a moment on Monday to remember those 41 servicemen who sacrificed their lives to rescue 41 the merchant sailors of the S.S. Mayaguez, Here’s the story in a nut-shell: On 12 May 1975 the SS Mayaguez was captured by Cambodian Khmer Rouge pirates and taken to Koh Tang (island), Aircraft from Thailand and the Philippines responded to ascertain the situation. On 13 May 1975 2nd Battalion/9th Marines (WestPac Air Contingent Battalion) we alerted, pulled from the field in NTA & Kin Blue on Okinawa, during monsoon rains, back to Camp Schwab for deployment to Royal Thai NAS U-Tapao, Thailand. At the same time USS Coral Sea, USS Wilson and USS Holt were diverted to the Gulf of Siam (Thailand). At U-Tapao, CH/HH-53 helicopters from the Air Force 40th ARRS and 21st SOS squadrons rendezvoused to provide lift from U-Tapao to Koh Tang, about 180 miles. During this rendezvous, one of the choppers crashed killing 23 Airmen. The morning of May 15, 1975 the Marines of 2/9 assaulted Koh Tang, while a detachment from Delta 1/4 landed aboard the USS Holt and cross-decked to the SS Mayaguez. It was a massacre on the island due to poor intelligence which led us to believe that there were only about 20 irregulars on the island instead of the 200+ battle hardened Khmer Rouge regulars with heavy armament. USS Holt towed SS Mayaguez from the island, while USS Wilson picked up the crew who had been released by the Cambodians. Getting off the island was now the problem, with so many aircraft damaged and destroyed during the insertion. Final extraction from West Beach was not accomplished until after dark that evening. Marines of 2/9 were scattered between all three ships and the final muster brought a shocking realization. A three man MG crew, as well as bodies from the days combat had been left on the island. This was a direct violation of the adage that Marines never leave their brothers behind. However, regardless of how much we begged the Admiral aboard the Coral Sea to let us return to the island, our requests fell on deaf ears due to the geopolitical situation at the time. Most of their remains have now been recovered and are buried in their hometowns or Arlington National Cemetery. There is still much controversy about the remains of the 3 man MG crew which may have been taken to mainland Cambodia. The Koh Tang/Mayaguez Veterans Organization continues to monitor and do what it can to find out what happened to our brothers. “All Gave Some, 41 Gave All” Semper Fi, Edd Prothro, MSgt USMC Ret. read more

I enlisted in Aug. 1956, right out of high school as soon as I was 18. While in school I sported a mustache because I was always in too much of a hurry to get finished. So when I got to Chicago for indoctrination and swearing in and had my picture taken for my ID card it was with my mustache. After arriving at MCRD and around 3 or 4 weeks into boot training our DI’s took offense with some of the ‘screws’ starting to grow mustaches and one morning announce at roll call that when we hit the head to shave if you don’t have a mustache on your ID card you will exit the head clean shaven. Well that went as planned except I didn’t shave mine off, after all it was on my ID card. During muster for our march to the chow hall our senior DI called me out and reamed me for not following orders and who the hell do you think you are and more importantly WHERE do you think you are. I will admit I was intimidated but stood my ground and reminded him that his order was “If you don’t have a mustache on your ID card, SHAVE!”, he demanded I present my card and that is when I felt I had trumped him on that one. He didn’t like it but he was a Man about it. I was appointed to be ‘Right Guide’ afterward and performed my duties proudly and competently after that. read more

From a Marine LCpl who served in Iraq

Just wanted to share with you a story of the old stereotype of combatants not wanting to mess with the USMC. A fellow Marine from my unit here in Hawaii just returned this week from Army airborne jump school in Georgia. He was talking to one of the Army Captain instructors there and the Army officer told my friend that he was in Iraq guarding the border to Syria. My friend was in Iraq on the 13th MEU so they got to talking about the war. The Captain was saying how funny it was that at the beginning of the war that they never took fire. then after the war ended little by little they would take more and more fire upon their camp and soon it was to the point that it was almost routine, well after the war was over, and noted how odd it was. He continued on to say that before they left they got a small unit of Marines in there camp and the shots stopped coming in. so this army unit spray painted all there trucks with USMC and according to this army Captain, they never were fired upon again. My friend who is a cpl told the officer that it wasn’t odd that the shootings into his camp were nothing at first and heavy towards the end due to the fact that the Iraqis knew the Marines were still around during the war, and as Marines started leaving after the war the Iraqis wanted to see what they could get away with, so they fired a few times, and it continued. A quick side note here, no one from that small army camp ever investigated those shots fired. I can tell you from my unit that was in Iraq, there’s no way in h*ll I hear shots fired at me and someone’s not going to go check it out. Oh well, that’s just my 2 cents proving the old stereotype that other countries can distinguish between the USMC and the US Army and they wont mess with the Marines. Keep up the good work Marines. read more