Tomorrow, November 10, 2009 the United States Marine Corps is celebrating her 234rd birthday...born 8 months before the country even at a place called Tun Tavern, ooorah!.
John Kennedy was assassinated I believe on November 22, 1964. I was a junior in high school and 17 years old. On January 20, 1965 I was headed to bootcamp and after that I stayed for 9 years. In many respects, since I was a product of a broken home anyway, the Marine Corps raised me...quickly I might add. In June of 1965 I was on my way to Vietnam for the first time.
I made the best friends of my entire life while in the Marines and then we move on...in some respects I miss that time....and still in others ways, not the least of which was quitting the South Vietnamese civilians and pulling out, I hated that time and this country as well for not standing for anything.
Today, thanks to today's Marines' commander in chief, I have lost my apathy and regained that warrior spirit and I am certainly glad that I do not have to salute that man.
The friends I made in the Marines, as I review old photos, were people who were mainly lifers as I did 9 years myself but I was the one who broke it up, who left the last party when I got out of Marines in January, 1973. I didn't move away immediately, got to grow my hair a bit and really provided a contrast with those friends I mentioned with their Marine haircuts. Those friends were mostly Hispanic and black and under those circumstances, as part of the Marine family, and in that time, no one noticed skin color.
That is the part I miss.
Semper Fi Marines,
May God be with you
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