Of all your duty stations you were assigned to from your Military Service, which one(s) do you have fondest memories of and why?:

In 1972 at Company C – 1st Recon Battalion, 53 Area (Camp Horno), Camp Pendleton, CA. I was recently promoted to L/Cpl, and it was my turn and first shot at repelling down the wall. No fear of heights, no problems, wrong… I got over the edge and froze solid. I couldn’t move except to shack in my boots. I got pulled in and sent to the bottom, where a butter bar began to chew on me up and down. Then Gunny Giles walked up, got between the young Lt. and me, then, directly in his face, began to lay him out, and the next thing I knew, the Lt. was walking away quietly. Gunny Giles turned to me and, in a way I had never heard before, began to pump me up, filling me with a confidence I didn’t think possible. Within minutes, I was at the top of the tower, butting in line and yelling, “On repel.” A month later, I found myself teaching and fully demonstrating how to repel from a rock cliff to my third company of Marines in two months.