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Fellers, I'm going to be attending a bunch of Marine stuff for the next couple of weeks and hope some of you will also be in attendance. Tomorrow begins 3 days of revelry at the Marines of Long Ago convention in Fredericksburg, VA. I bail of of that after the banquet on Friday night and head for the MCL Dept of PA rifle matches for the weekend. Get home Sunday evening, take a day to get my mess back together, and then I'll be at the Modern Marine Expo at Quantico Tuesday - Thursday of next week. Look me up! Mikey, Thane of Duninsane  |
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Guys, The Thane is back in residence at Duninsane. Man, that was a grind - but I met a mess of great folks at the Marines of Long Ago reunion and made a bunch of new friends. I was told that the oldest Marine there was 101 and the oldest attendee at the banquet was 89, a Guadalcanal vet. Lt. Gen. Ron Christmas, the guiding light of the NMMC, came to the banquet and gave a talk, as did the CO of Quantico. We also got performances from the Silent Drill Platoon and the Quantico band at the museum after we toured the FBI academy and got a guard dog demonstration. As soon as the banquet was over, I jumped in the motorcar and headed to Ft. Indiantown Gap for the Dept of PA rifle matches. It poured rain all the way up there and I didn't get in and get my gear stowed until 0300, then got back up at 0615. It rained on us all day at the range and we were pretty well soaked by the time the day was over and we got back to the barracks for steaks and beers. We had somewhat better weather for us to pull butt duty on Sunday and the scores went up with one guy shooting a 198/200 x 22 V's. I actually ran into a 5th Commer at the Modern Marine Expo! Ed Dauksz, our Asst S-3 after I left in '66, stopped by the MCL tent I was working and we swapped a few tales. I also got a few minutes to chat with R. Lee Ermey but didn't get a photo of us together this time. I thought we were going to get into a roll-on-the-ground fight over my MCL boots, though. He really like those! Need to turn to, get myself unpacked, and start catching up on the dozen phone calls and 276 e-mails which piled up while I was away from the manor. Whew! Mikey, Thane of Duninsane  |
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| | | From: Dick | Sent: 10/4/2008 2:35 AM |
Mikey, Sonds like you survived the road trip OK. I find it always takes a day or so to settle back in to the homestead after a trip. Hey, that LGen. Christmas guy sounds familiar...maybe the Hue, '68 days? May have ran into him at a confab or HQ somewhere. Of course if he's a Nam Vet, he'd have been an O-1 to O-3 back then. SF, Dick |
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Dick, Yep, your memory serves you well. CPT George R. "Ron" Christmas was CO of Hotel 2/5 during the battle for Hue. He retired a LTGEN and has been the driving force for the Museum of the Marine Corps. He is also one of the nicest men I've ever met. Jeff Carrington of Leatherneck Square, LLC (a great gear company run by a great guy who did the shirts and covers for the MLA reunion) and I had gone to The Globe and Laurel, MAJ Rick Spooner's place, for lunch and hooked up with retired COL "Mac" Radcliffe, who had taken over Bravo 1/9 during Operation Buffalo in the fight for the DMZ. Mac said he was going to call Christmas and see if he would come to our dinner and say a few words. On about an hour's notice, Christmas got into blazer and tie and came to our dinner, spoke for about 20 minutes, and then left without even eating. He's the kind of officer whose men would have followed him into Hell itself without hesitation and they pretty much did it at Hue City. Radcliffe is the same type and it was a pleasure to be in the company of such fine Marines. Lordy, it was fun! Mikey, Thane of Duninsane |
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| | | From: Dick | Sent: 10/5/2008 2:11 PM |
Mikey, It must have been before I got to 5th Comm, on Operation Pegasus and I was in the HQ bunker at Phu Bai haggleing over maps with Cpl. Newal that I heard Christmas checking in to see somebody...one of those names that sticks in your head I think. You're up to your Leatherneck in history with all those gatherings around there. SF, Dick |
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Dick, Radcliff's father was an old mustang captain and was a friend of Spooner's. It was a hoot listening to them swap tales of the really Old Corps, such as the one wherein a mustang officer got a snootful and took umbrage at another officer at the "O" club. The drunken one went topside, got his sword, and chased the other halfway across Quantico. Of course, the MP's put a stop to it and the sot got written up and had to face Smedley Butler, "Old Gimlet Eye" himself. Butler had the officer surrender his sword to him and then confined him to quarters until he was ready to pronounce punishment. When he went back in for sentencing, Butler handed him back his sword, and then gave him the command to "Draw swords!' He tried - but couldn't. Butler had taken the sword to the motor pool and had it welded to the scabbard. He told the miscreant that henceforth and for the rest of his career, he would salute by hand, but he could never draw his sword on a fellow officer again. Now, that's Old Corps! Mikey, Thane of Duninsane  |
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| | | From: Dick | Sent: 10/10/2008 7:21 PM |
Mikey, I bet Chesty wish it was like the 1800's and a duel setteled all the officer and gentleman stuff. No CO's needed to judge or lawyers involved. Just hot lead and a steady aim. SF, Dick |
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Dick, I dunno. "Old Gimlet Eye" was a pretty hard man himself, maybe just as hard or even harder than Chesty was. I think it would have been pretty neat to have had each of those officers square off with their Mamalukes and let them stab, cut, and slash until there was only one standing. After we toured the FBI Academy we went to lunch at the OCS Mess at Camp Barrett and a large bunch of the butterbars were out on the grinder in front practicing sword drill. When they broke and came in to eat, I asked one of them when they were going to have the big "Last Man Standing" sword fight. The poor kid evidently thought he was dealing with an earnest question from a sane man and stammered that he didn't think that was part of the curriculum. I told him that "back in the day", that's what they did so that only the best got to pass the course and be Marine officers. I think he actually believed me for a minute. Mikey, Thane of Duninsane |
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