Memorial Day. Marines. All Ya need to Know

[Bush92]

Salute. My brothers forever.

 

[beautress]

May I post a thank you to my Semper Fi Dad, who served in WWII, Korea, and Ft. Richardson,
Alaska. He was a Marine, an MP, and Snow Bird. We lost him around 1992, April 17. Great father and brilliant mathematician who could have gone toe to toe with Einstein any day of the week. Fortunately, though, he was able to put students in his school in the winner's category and kept track of what they did with the gift of slide rule knowledge he gave them before the computer era got off ground after they graduated and had amazing careers in practical sciences and engineering.

Bless him and his brothers who suffered through a Japanese prison Camp in WWII. When he got back from Korea, though, the shrapnel was so bad, the inoperable ones caused him to set off alarms in airports, so he never flew again after we got home from Alaska around 1954. Wish I could talk to him one more time to let him know how proud I am of his putting himself into unconscionable front lines and giving the enemy a run for their money that put his team over the hill and onto the next quadrant. We didn't know all this until we found his commendations which he kept hidden from us our entire lives. 3 purple hearts. No wonder he couldn't rotate his shoulders and look behind him. He suffered nightmares when he got home from Korea. Mama put towels around the bedroom door so nobody could hear his waking up screams, at his request. He eventually got over that shell shock stuff that haunted his dreams. Lot of kids had dads whose hearts were broken during wartime. That was growing up in the late forties, fifties, and sixties. Baby boomers, and almost all the daddies didn't let kids know what they went through. I didn't understand until Dad's post mortem reading of his military news clippings how much he and his brothers gave to this country. Mama said he didn't have friends, but yes, he did. Most of them were dead and buried in military graves somewhere. The others lived in the lower 48 for the most part, not any near us.

Thanks, dear dad. Semper Fi.

 

[Deplorable Yankee]

Salute. My brothers forever.

 

[The Professor]

To everyone who has ever worn a military uniform or wanted to: Semper Fi.

I enlisted in the Marine Corps just two days after my 17th birthday in 1956. I tried to enlist when I was barely 16 with a forged birth certificate but they caught me. Fortunately, they didn't press charges and the only thing I had to do again was the physical. My 17th birthday was on a Sunday, I took the “bend over and spread your cheeks” physical on Monday and was sworn on on Tuesday.

I was a radio-telegraph operator assigned to Second ANGLICO (Air and Naval Gunfire Liaison Company), Camp Lejeune, NC. I previously served in Second Shore Party Battalion (the guys with the red patches) and as part of a 12-man Marine Communications Detachment aboard the U.S.S. Pocono (AGC-16).

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

WWII - Dad flew in the Army Air Corp. One Army uncle in Europe, two Marines in the South Pacific. All came home.