Page 45 - Amarillo Senior Link Magazine Fall 2021 - Online Magazine
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marINe corps
vIetNam
Brussels. Our job in Paris was simple: guard classified
material, American property, and Embassy personnel.
In December ‘75, it was back to the FMF (Fleet Marine
Force). I was ordered to a 13-month tour in Okinawa,
Japan, but I was not allowed to take my family with
me. On this assignment, we went up to Korea, to
the DMZ. Would you believe we took sniper fire up
there? It was 1976! I guess the North Koreans didn’t
get the word that fighting between the North and
South was over. It was bitterly cold. Thankfully, my
wife had sent me a pair of long johns. Temperatures
ranged from 10-15 below to 15-20 above zero. We
were there from January ‘76 until April, but why we
were there is still a mystery. I remember night firing
with illumination rounds, and we could see civilians
in the impact area collecting the brass canisters.
They used them to make trinkets to sell on the open
market.
I rotated back to the states in late ‘76 and took on
recruiting duty here in Amarillo. This is a great place
to recruit; people here are very patriotic and have
a deep feeling for our country and what it stands
for. We enlisted a lot of guys and gals from the
Little did I know that that school included another Panhandle, and I still hear from some of them now
six weeks of “boot camp”! I served three years as a and then.
Marine Drill Instructor at MCRD San Diego. There Later, it was back to the real Marine Corps and
were 65 Marines who started that school, but only 19 another 13 months back to Okinawa, again
made it all the way. It was there that I was promoted unaccompanied. After rotating back to the states,
again. After that assignment, I attended Marine we went to Camp LeJeune, North Carolina. I served
Security Guard School, Arlington, Virginia. Upon at Artillery school until I was ordered to Marine
graduation, I was assigned to the American Embassy Barracks, Washington, DC as a course developer
in Paris, France and remained there until December in the artillery field. Before I was accepted to that
of ‘75. While stationed in France, my wife and I were assignment, I had to take an English test. What? And
blessed with a son. He was born in Mons, Belgium, a math test! I had not thought about verbs, adverbs
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers-Europe, near or algebra since high school, but I did pass and spent
almost five years there. Later, I was assigned to
Marine Security Guard School, Quantico, Virginia. I
retired from that post in February 1989.
I had just obtained my certification to teach High
School Marine Corps Junior Reserve Training
Corps, when I was asked to go to Little Rock for
an interview. So began a great chapter in my life,
teaching at Catholic High School for Boys until
1995. Then Caprock High School offered me a
teaching position. Since I was from the Panhandle,
Amarillo Senior Link 45
