Sgt Joe V. Bolin, U.S. Marines (1967-1971)

My nickname was Reb. It was given to me some of my classmates while in electronics school in San Diego, CA. They called me that because I was from Georgia and my other class members were from northern or Midwestern states.  While stationed at San Diego, I got the inevitable tattoo on my right forearm.  I is a picture of an Bald Eagle head overlaying a confederate battle flag with “REB” underneath.  Some might think the confederate battle flag represents something bad but to most of us it represents a time in our history.   The eagle overlaying it represents the resolution and reuniting of these great states.

My nickname followed me through my active duty career, especially in Vietnam, where everybody had a nickname, all representative of something about them.  I only recall a couple of them, but all were meaningful in some way & representative of some character or physical trait.  Some, of course, were not used in their presence, officers usually.  One was called Z because he was of Polish descent and his long, hard-to-pronounce name ended in Z.  Our assistance electronics officer was called Walrus, as he was fat & about as useful as a walrus.  Our electronics shop supervisor, a staff Sargent, was Ringmaster because he was the ring leader of our “circus.”  Another was “2-8” who was originally called Crow (his name was Crowley) but was changed to 2–8 because that’s the cutting score he received after he POed the Walrus.  2-8 was the lowest you could get without being charged.

Attached is a picture of a depiction of our group, by nickname, drawn by one of our crew, I think Sgt Eagle.  It was drawn because our unit, MASS-2, was in the first troop withdrawal by President Nixon and we were being broken up as some of us were switched with our counterparts in other units that had more time in country than we did.  I was sent to MASS-3 and never saw any other this crew ever again.  I think of them often fondly, smiling at the memory of their nicknames, although I can no longer remember their names.  

In the photo there is a large wrench hanging overhead with the designation of our shop on it.  This wrench hung over the door of our shop and was six feet long and weighed over a hundred pounds.  We received it by mistake as two digits for the part number for an electronic part was switched and happened to be the part number for the wrench.  It was an open-end wrench used to remove the wheels from train cars and it became our shop sign and took three guys to hang it or take it down.   Of course many of us took pictures with it before it was packed away for shipment.  I managed to keep this picture for the ensuing 56 years and is one of my prized possessions

Read the Military Memories of our Runner-Ups.