Sgt. Grit Community

Camp LeJeune (2nd Mar. Div) – 1949 – cleaning my BAR – lost it on forward slope of a hill March 2, 1951 courtesy incoming mortar fire. Went over the wall at Inchon Sept. 15, 1950 … served under Lewis “Chesty” Puller at Hagaru at the reservoir. This aside: just prior to the Inchon landing my fire team leader Cpl Boyer, who had served under Puller in WW2, gathered us one evening in the cafeteria of the ship – says “Well children, it goes this way, the 7th got Litzenberg, the 5th got Murray … and we got Puller.” Noticing the puzzled looks, he tossed in ” Puller will enter with a death wish, and will take as many of us with him that he can.” At the makeshift airstrip at Hagaru the man would stand in clear view of the nearby hills and scan the area … maybe not a death wish but surely the fearless warrior he is portrayed as.
George Elsasser – 1949-52 – discharged a buck sergeant. read more

Sgt. Grunt, I sure enjoy this newsletter. I have two stories to tell. First- I joined the Corps in July 1950, when I was 18. I was in Plt. 33 MCRDSD we had about 10 di’s altogether because Korea had started. There was cpl. puckett, cpl. parrish, cpl. morgan, pfc van ert, pfc weiland and about 4 others. Our sdi was t.sgt. jc dozier and he was a good one. About our 8th week he had us drilling on the parade ground and we were sharp. The base band started playing the Marine hymn, so sgt dozier marched us close and yelled ” strut you sons of b$*&^s strut and strut we did. I’ll never forget his cadence ‘ 3 4 to your lell, 3 4 to your lell’.
Second story- I was in radio school in the fall 1950 froc 8 mcrdsd, two guys were comparing who had the toughest boot camp pi or sd. They got into a fistfight, a great fight, clean. pfc Casey was from Queens, NYC, PFC Murray was from Kansas, it went on for about 10 minutes. Murray won, but as far as the toughest boot camp, that’s determined by the drill instructor. Semper Fi to all Marines past and present, and Gods blessing on the USMC.
C.B. Feeny sgt 1126964 mos 2531 50-54 read more

I was in the Corps from 91-98, and in ’03 I joined the Army Reserve, and in ’05, I went active duty Army and got shipped off to Korea. Well, I’m out of the Army now due to a torn up knee, but I really miss the “good ol’ days.” They didn’t have digital cameras when I was in Okinawa, but I didn’t blow my chance when I got to Korea. I knew the tight relationship and history between the USMC and the ROK Marine Corps, and when our KATUSA’s (Korean Augmentation To U. S. Army) learned that I had served in the Corps, I got a lot of attention. I learned that even though the Korean people are peace-minded and tend to shy away from military actions, they have an intense pride in the ROK Marines. There’s ROKMC souvenir stores everywhere, and every one I visited had ROKMC veterans hanging around swapping stories. Sound familiar? 

Anyway, I went on a DMZ tour and toured the Korean War Museum while I was there, and I have probably over a thousnd pics on my computer from my year there.  Here’s three that I like a lot. The first one is at OP Dora, overlooking the DMZ and into North Korea. The other two are in the Korean War Museum in the ROKMC Memorial Room. read more

Thomas Moore’s story reminded me of a story about my first CO (G Co. 2/5, 1970) in VN. He was a 1st. Lt. and for the life of me I wish I could recall his name. Anyways, our company had finished our 30 days in the brush and was supposed to go back to An Hoa for a three day break. However, Intelligence told the Bn. CO that a RAV compound located next to Liberty Bridge was going to get “hit” and we were re-routed in order to reinforce this position. We couldn’t lose the bridge. We only stayed on this site for a couple of days, but due to the filth of the area around this compound, men started coming down with everything you could get in VN. We were sending guys to the USS Sanctuary a few at a time. read more

I was assigned to the Fleet Marine Office on board the Flag Ship USS Little Rock back in July 1973-75. The Fleet Marine Officer at the time was Colonel Frank McLendon. Three of us worked in a small office office a top of the double ladder way on the second level. The Fleet Marine Operations Officer at the time was LtCol. P.L. Cacace. Col Mac used to have a Viking warrior hanging from his overhead lamp over his desk. The warrior had a horned helmet, a round shield and a broad sword and a scowl on it’s face. Beneath the warrior hung a small sign one had to squint to read, it said “If your 782 gear doesn’t look like this, don’t talk to me about the “old Corps.” Col Mac flew as an enlisted pilot in Korea and was one of President Kennedy’s “Marine One” pilots. He could be tough as nails or like your Dad and listen as needed. It was Marines like Col Mac and LtCol Cacace that led me to stay in the Corps as long as I did. They walked the talk every day! read more

Our name dates back to the early 1900’s from a fur trapper testimonial. He wrote that while trapping, his gun jammed leaving him with only his knife to kill a wounded bear that was attacking him. He thanked us for making the quality knife that helped him to kill a bear, but all that was legible was “K a bar”. Honored by the testimonial, the company adopted the phrase KA-BAR as their trademark. read more

In reference to GySgt. Howard and his 1st Recon team: I was at PI in June 1966 and our Sr. DI called us together in a “school circle” and read /told us about the fight that They were in. By the time he finished, we were some Gung Ho recruits. One year later after radio school I found myself checking in to the very same unit our DI told us about. 1st Recon was my home for the next 13 months. read more