Marines

[ez14.]

Who has served? How long did you serve? What did you do? And tell me about your experience

 

[ez14.]

Nobody?

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Go Army.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Nobody?

Only Marine in my family was an uncle.
Made the beach landings Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Was a sniper.
I loved him dearly, he had all daughters I was his boy.
Some pictures he took on Okinawa

 

[Redgully]

Of two places i think must have been the worst in the war, Okinawa and Iwo Jima. How on earth did he survive! Anyone that landed there should have got a medal of honor.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Of two places i think must have been the worst in the war, Okinawa and Iwo Jima. How on earth did he survive! Anyone that landed there should have got a medal of honor.

Uncle Travis always said Iwo was HeII and Okinawa is where HeII went.
He told me of banzai charges and the Jap soldiers were using sharpened bamboo for weapons on Okinawa towards the end of the battle.
I lost him 8/18/2000 at least I got to be with him in the end.
Some more Okinawa

 

[callmefence]

Red served in the Marines. Fought at iwo Jima. And was there being prepared to invade the main land when the bombs where dropped. Used to tell me ..boy if it weren't for the Atomic bomb you wouldnt be here.

 

[greybeard]

4 yrs.
1969-1973
Boot camp in San Diego, then infantry training regiment at Camp Pendleton,, then a few months of aviation school in Millington Tenn, then a few months OJT actually learning hands on aviation ground support at H&MS 14 sqdron Mag 14 @ Cherry Pt N. Carolina, (a fixed wing Group, with A-4s, Phantoms and A6s, then off to HMH-463, Mag 16 Marble Mtn Vietnam for a year, which was a helicopter group and CH-53D squadron, then back to Millington Tenn for instructor duty for the rest of my USMC time.
What did I see?
Nothing much.

What did I do?
What my country asked me to.

 

[jehosofat]

I have a daughter currently serving in the Army. If you are wondering about your future career, I highly recomend joining the military. Which branch should be a choice based on what path you'd like your career to take.

 

[JMJ Farms]

I would like to personally thank any and every person who ever served in any capacity in the armed forces. I wish I could say I could relate to your sacrifices. But I can't. If I could go back and do it over, I would have served in some capacity. I used to not think this way, but being older now I think that some service should be mandatory. At a very minimum, any able bodied American male should be required to complete basic training. Just my opinion.

 

[greybeard]

I have a lot of things hanging on my wall, some papers, pictures, some pieces of metal with colorful cloth but of all the things I earned in life, good or bad..these are what mean the most.




EZ, the little open window with the 50 sticking out was pretty much my home almost every day for a year.
I was a door gunner. I had a 'day job', which I did mostly at night, taking care of some support equipment, but flew guns most days. Some nights too or maybe do illumination flare drops.

I went to places like this.
KheSanh, or more precise, the hills over looking the old combat base after it was re-opened in late Jan thru Feb and March 1971 for Lam Son 719.


and saw things like this
LZ Hope Laos.not aptly named.

 

[greybeard]

Inserted and resupplied little out of the way retreats like this, an arty fire base somwhere near Kilo Pad inside the Laotian border.

One of ours in the distance about to make the turn into Kilo pad to pick up troops to go to LZ Sophie


and I learned which of these was most apt to get you killed and which were just 'not so apt' to get you killed. Only took a couple of days of trips in and out to figure out there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between them. They'd all eat your lunch.

For the helos, it was a meat grinder.


And, I got to work, fly, and fight alongside the finest men I've ever met in my life and none of us gave one flyin F what the politics of the day were or ever looked for any excuse not to be there.

 

[ez14.]

I have a lot of things hanging on my wall, some papers, pictures, some pieces of metal with colorful cloth but of all the things I earned in life, good or bad..these are what mean the most.




EZ, the little open window with the 50 sticking out was pretty much my home almost every day for a year.
I was a door gunner. I had a 'day job', which I did mostly at night, taking care of some support equipment, but flew guns most days. Some nights too or maybe do illumination flare drops.

I went to places like this.
KheSanh, or more precise, the hills over looking the old combat base after it was re-opened in late Jan thru Feb and March 1971 for Lam Son 719.


and saw things like this
LZ Hope Laos.not aptly named.

What made you decide to sign up?

 

[jehosofat]

Probably rather join the Marines, than be drafted into the Army. Just guessing though.

 

[greybeard]

Why? Can't say exactly, but knew before I was 17 I was going to. People get called I guess to do different things, I felt that was my calling...told my mother when I was sitting in the floor watching the evening news when I was 16 "I'm going to be a Marine".
Her: "You'll do no such thing!"
Boy.I showed her huh? :lol:
As far as I know, I'm the only Marine in the family going back to way before I was born. All my parent's generation were Army, Navy and USAF.
Recruiter came to our High School and that was the final pin.
So, when I was 17 I forged my father's name on the permission form and went down and signed up. I got caught at it when my brother ratted me out to my dad and he and the recruiter worked out a deal that I would wait until I graduated high school.
As bad as it was, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

There's at least one other Marine here at CT from my era. I don't remember his user name but it has USMC squadron letters in it that was right down the flight line from my squadron.

 

[Dave]

A friend of mine joined the Navy right out of high school (1969). He had a boring job on a repair ship over by Japan. They asked for volunteers and two of his buddies convinced him they should all volunteer to get off that ship. A week later he was at Camp Pendleton (they didn't take his buddies). He ended up spending two years on a river boat in Nam. We sat next to each other in church. One day the pastor asked any veterans to stand up. He never moved. A week later he was riding with me when I got a load of hay. Some how it came up that he didn't stand. He got very quite and them said, "I don't know how anyone can be proud of killing people." Real quick I said that those who stood were probably in the Air Force during peace time. He agreed and the mood lightened up. It did however explain to me some of the things in his life. Never married, workaholic, etc. people take different ways of dealing with things in their life.

 

[Redgully]

Why? Can't say exactly, but knew before I was 17 I was going to. People get called I guess to do different things, I felt that was my calling...told my mother when I was sitting in the floor watching the evening news when I was 16 "I'm going to be a Marine".
Her: "You'll do no such thing!"
Boy.I showed her huh? :lol:
As far as I know, I'm the only Marine in the family going back to way before I was born. All my parent's generation were Army, Navy and USAF.
Recruiter came to our High School and that was the final pin.
So, when I was 17 I forged my father's name on the permission form and went down and signed up. I got caught at it when my brother ratted me out to my dad and he and the recruiter worked out a deal that I would wait until I graduated high school.
As bad as it was, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

There's at least one other Marine here at CT from my era. I don't remember his user name but it has USMC squadron letters in it that was right down the flight line from my squadron.

I told my parents i was joining the army, dad said like hell you are, and that was that! Dad was in the army being trained for vietnam but it all ended before he would have had to go. His number one reason for hating it was they didn't feed you enough? My brother in law did two tours of Afghanistan and wont talk about it so i guess maybe it wasnt for me. I also told my parents i was going to become a bull rider at the rodeos. That was actually one of the few times in my life my dad actually had a heart to heart with me and talked me out of it. Im 42 now and can still walk so maybe that was a good decision too......

 

[greybeard]

His number one reason for hating it was they didn't feed you enough?

That, makes more sense than many of the rationalizations I've heard, tho of all the things I found the military to be short on, food quantity wasn't one of them. At times, quality was less than hoped for but you got all you could eat.

 

[ez14.]

Why? Can't say exactly, but knew before I was 17 I was going to. People get called I guess to do different things, I felt that was my calling...told my mother when I was sitting in the floor watching the evening news when I was 16 "I'm going to be a Marine".
Her: "You'll do no such thing!"
Boy.I showed her huh? :lol:
As far as I know, I'm the only Marine in the family going back to way before I was born. All my parent's generation were Army, Navy and USAF.
Recruiter came to our High School and that was the final pin.
So, when I was 17 I forged my father's name on the permission form and went down and signed up. I got caught at it when my brother ratted me out to my dad and he and the recruiter worked out a deal that I would wait until I graduated high school.
As bad as it was, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

There's at least one other Marine here at CT from my era. I don't remember his user name but it has USMC squadron letters in it that was right down the flight line from my squadron.

thanks greybeard

 

[76 Bar]

Words can't express the depth of my appreciation for your service. I'm of the same era. Just read Van De Mark's Road to Disaster. The loss of lives was heartbreaking. That you survived to tell about it is nothing short of miraculous.