USMC

loved your news letter and would love to suscribe to it , i come from a marine corps family my father was a p o w on sipan during ww ii ,my oldest brother was a hellcat pilot on the yorktown shot down in battle of midway ,i lost another brother on guadacannal ,and i had two sons that served honorably , and iam a chosin resevor survivor , ,the best thing i ever did was join the marine corps , there is a lot of truth to once a marine allways a marine ,and the pride instilled in me at parris island boot camp i will carry to my grave , i work a lot with veterens and its sad our boys comming home cant get there needs fulfiled ,because of budeget cuts we just got 18 vans shut down to get these boys to hospitals etc. my pet peve is why we as a country turn our backs on our veterens ,someone tell me why after severing two or three tours read more

Korea 1950

Winter Sports, North Korea, 1950

In early December, 1950 at Yonpo Airfield, North Korea, I was assigned as a member of a team taking a Portable Radar set to the Chosin reservoir. After loading the equipment into a jeep and trailer, we drove over to the squadron mess tent to pick up some C-rations. It was about 8pm at night. At the mess tent we were told to stand down as the Marines at the Chosin were cut off due to other military units retreating, exposing the Marines flank. read more

Thank you

As a young man I successfully made an attempt to get away from my father by joining the Corps. I managed to get one of my “connected” friends get me a forged birth certificate, because I was only 16 years old, and as soon as I got it I went down to the Marine Corps recruiting office at the main post office in Chicago, Illinois and enlisted. I was subsequently sent out to MCRD San Diego where I completed my boot camp early in 1952 and went to Camp Pendelton with the 1st Marines for advanced infantry training. Immediately after that I shipped out to Korea in late 1952. I served in Korea until the spring of 1953 when I was wounded and sent home. read more

Old Corps and New Corps – 1967 ITR San Onofire, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

On the right is 1st Sgt McDonald with a chest of medals nearing retirement. On the left is a very "boot" Second Lieutenant with a National Defense Medal. We all thought the boot 2nd Lt was very cool because he drove a new Porshe sports car. Unfortunately I have forgotten his name. This would have been around 06/67 to 01/68. If anyone recognizes him please contact me using my name @Gmail. Thanks. read more

11th Marines

When the fire mission came down we advised FDC that completion of the mission would overshoot our tube and our radioman advised them to give the mission to another gun. FDC had a different round count for our gun and insisted (ordered) we complete the fire mission. If memory serves correctly, we overshot the tube by about 13 rounds before the explosion occurred. We (the gun crew) were never allowed to talk with the investigators so I have no idea what the official version of events was. I was blown off the gun into the ammo bunker and a large piece of shrapnel from the tube imbedded itself into the bunker wall about 6 inches from my head. Here is a picture of me holding the shrapnel while squatting next to a piece of the tube (laying on the ground) taken the next morning after digging the shrapnel out of the bunker. I brought that piece of shrapnel home with me and still have it to this day. read more

Khe Sanh 1968

i was glad to see the response to letter about how DI's treated some recruits. I was not saying it never happened it just did not happen in our platoon. My time in the Corps is something that I will never forget. Wanted to included some photos taken at Khe Sanh , Viet Nam. There is a Khe Sanh Veteras Reunion in Rochester Mn nest July. go to www.khesanh.org for more detail. read more

Marine Corps Birthday Cake

Sgt Grit,

I enjoyed viewing the photograph of the Marine Corps Birthday Cake taken in 1969 on Hill 88. The attached photograph was taken at the Marine Corps Combat Base of Khe Sanh, Headquarters Company, First Battalion, 13th Artillery Regiment on the Marine Corps Birthday in 1967, just a few short months before the start of that long and horrific Siege. read more

We meet again – 11th Engineer return team of 89′ Vietnam Revisited

In conjunction with this year's Marine Corps Engineers Association reunion –

We look forward to the reunion this year with the members the return 11th Engineer Marine team of Jan 89'.

In the return photo:

LtoR are: Marine Frankie Noe of Mass, Sgt. Billy Johnson of Conn, Gene Spanos of Ill [ Team Leader ] Mike "Doc" Wallace of Kansas and Nate Genna of Mass. read more

Last surviving photo of me in Nam!

Here's an airwinger Pic for you. This was taken in early 1966 to commerate our 5,000th sortie. VMA 223 flew A4 Skyhawks. What a great war bird it was. I was on the check crew and recruited to hold the sign (I'm the one in the T-shirt) for this photo op. Later that year I was rotated to CONUS for separation from active duty. read more