At Least 3 Tours

Sgt. Grit,

In Vietnam, I Celebrated my last Marine Corps Birthday in the Corps. Two Friends of mine and I went to the Vietnamese side of China Beach, ate sea food cooked in front of us served with lime juice and rock salt. While there the lady running the place, rickety bamboo and palm fronds, offered us her baby to take back to the states. Top Barker had been there at least 3 tours by this time and stayed another tour I believe, he was a World War II and Korea Vet and had earned the Silver Star, Bronze Star and several Purple hearts. Lieut. Little came just after I came, he left the same unit I was in at Camp Pen. read more

Memory Rush

Dear Sgt. Grit,

Found these in the pocket of one of my old uniforms and thought all the old timers might get a memory rush from them. Back in my Marine Corps days (1960-64) the PX and slop chutes all had free matches by the cash register. Although I'm not sure, I would be willing to bet that in todays' politically correct, anti-smoking Corps, there are no matches, much less free ones. read more

Pretty Cool

Rec'd this from my daughter down in Pittsburgh:

Dad,

Forgot to send you this! I was at the mall earlier in the week, and this was parked in the lot. Red Hummer with a complete Marines paint job across the entire body, both sides, front and back. And the wheel cover was the emblem. Pretty cool! Must have cost a good buck, too. read more

Handsome Marine

Greetings,

As promised I have enclosed some photos from a lifetime ago.

In my boot camp graduation photo you see SSgt J.M. Scarboro (he is the ugly one that I mentioned yesterday during our conversation), second from the right. I am in the first row, forth from the right, right over his left shoulder. read more

Patron Saint of Recruits

Dear Sgt. Grit,

Re: combination locks. At MCRD San Diego (June-Aug 1968) we had two combination locks… one small for our footlocker and one large for our rifle. The rifle was attached to the racks (bunk bed style) through a hole in the rack with a bicycle lock. We were living in Quonset huts at the time. read more