My father was the biggest influence on me to join. Although he never once said anything to me about joining the Marine Corps, he never went to the recruiter with me. The only statement he made to me was…
1. “Boy, if you want your driver’s license at 16, you need to get a job, buy a car, and insurance. Then you can get your license.”
2. ” When you turn 18, you are going to have to get out of MY house or pay rent” That was his philosophy. I bought a 1965 Malibu from our next-door neighbor for $500.00; my mother was the bank, payments were established, and at 18, I was in the Corps.
I was born at Camp LeJeune. My brother at Portsmouth, Va, and my sister at New Port, RI. When my father went to Viet Nam we lived near my Grandparents in Pittsburgh, PA. When he returned, he got I&I duty in Providence, RI, and we lived at Quonset Point, RI. When he had to spend the night as Staff Duty NCO, he would often take me along to hang with him, which was really great during Xmas, you know, Toys For Tots. Back then, you donated any toy, used or new. So the corner of the Shop was filled with toys, and I tested them before they were distributed.
I remember riding with him in a 5-ton, taking Marines to the airstrip. Later in my career, I asked him about those rides. We were hauling Marines to begin deployment to Viet Nam. From there, we moved to Parris Island, and for the next six years, it was boot Camp. It was a different time there as well. We saw a lot of training and got to do a lot. Once or twice I ran obstacles on the Confidence Course or climbed the O course rope to prove to young recruits “a child can do it.” I loved it. So without a word from my father, he showed me his love of the Corps, which I chose as well. Our favorite movies to watch together were John Wayne in the Sand of Iwo Jima, The Great Santini, and The Boys in Company C.
The Christy Collection
Military Stories and Articles
Service Reflections of CAPT LaVerne Arndt, U.S. Marine Corps (1963-1969)
Military draft at age 22 into the Army. Enlisted in the USMC after talking with the Navy and AF recruiters. Fast-talking USMC Gunny Sgt. Culp, who was my girlfriend’s brother-in-law.
I wanted to get toughened up as an individual man, and the Marines were my best choice.
The Marine training at Parris Island and later at Quantico provided me with confidence in my abilities. I was very successful at PI, winning almost every award a recruit could win, including the American Spirit of Honor Medal: Leatherneck award, PFC, and rifle expert out of boot camp. I extended a year at boot camp to get Sea Duty because I wanted to travel. After two years of Sea Duty, I was selected meritoriously for OCS. At Quantico, I also did very well and finished 19th out of a class of 541 Officers. I selected the 0302 Infantry Officer MOS.
Service Reflections of CPL Daniel Rousseau, U.S. Marine Corps (1955-1959)
The movie “Sands of Iwo Jima.” We were twelve-years-old when a friend and I came out of the movie theater and agreed that we would join the Corps together when we were old enough.
In 1955, my senior year in high school, I joined the 99th Special Infantry Company, our local Reserve unit. That is where I was recruited by then SSgt. H. Gene Duncan.
Service Reflections of GYSGT Edward Androlones, U.S. Marine Corps (1954-1974)
PRESERVING A MILITARY LEGACY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS The following Reflections represents GYSGT Edward Androlones's legacy of his military service from 1954 to 1974. If you are a Veteran, consider preserving a record of your own military service, including your memories and photographs, on Togetherweserved.com (TWS), the leading archive of living military history. The following Service Reflections is an easy-to-complete self-interview, located on your TWS Military Service Page, which enables...
Sgt Jack Riley, U.S. Marine Corps (1966-1972)
What do you miss most about your time in the service and what made this especially significant to you?:
Marines are brothers for life. We each grew up in neighborhoods or farming communities where life centered around family, church, and school. We developed friendships we thought would last forever, but everyone scattered all over the country after high school graduation. Some of us could not afford college away from home, so we went to work and attended local university centers. I completed my first two years of college and married my high school sweetheart.
Cpl Lyubov Shtrigel, U.S. Marine Corps (2009-2013)
What do you miss most about your time in the service and what made this especially significant to you?:
No one from my family approved nor even believed in me when I signed up for the Marine Corps in late spring of 2008 right around the time the recession hit. As a matter of fact, when it came time to attend the monthly poolie sessions in order to prepare me for bootcamp, my dad adamantly refused to take me there and wouldn’t budge no matter how much I pleaded with him. At that time I had no means of transportation and had just relocated to NC from CA after losing my 3 year job because the company I worked for had filed for bankruptcy. My dad stated that he was not going to contribute to his daughter’s death and that is what he believed would happen to me if I joined the military. His idea of the military was the one he was forced to enlist in 50 years prior as a Ukrainiaan in the Russian army where there were days the soldiers had nothing to subsist on but raw onion and stale black bread, not to mention so many other horrors he experienced there as well. Trying to explain the difference to my dad between his forced service in Russia half a century ago to my voluntary desire to serve in the United States was like talking to a brick wall, literally impossible. However, rather than giving up, I wanted to prove to him, to all of them, that I was my father’s daughter through and through and was made of harder stuff than what they thought I was made of…that I had what it takes to become a Marine and it was not going to necessarily end with my untimely death. Because when theres a will, there is a way, and I found that way.
Sgt Jack Riley, U.S. Marine Corps (1966-1972)
Of all the military operations you participated in, including combat, humanitarian or peacekeeping operations, which of these made a lasting impact on you and why?:
Why do I jerk back? Why am I startled? Our minds are incredible, aren’t they? How can something so small and lightweight store memories for years and suddenly spark muscles to react without our thinking of doing so? Day after day, I’m fine, so I’m surprised when my brain responds due to events in Vietnam in 1969. For example, I was having dinner with a friend at a restaurant. Suddenly, a fan nearby made a loud noise. I flinched, teeth clinched, my shoulders, neck, and head arching backward. Just as suddenly, the noise was gone. I started to explain, but he kept on talking as if he hadn’t noticed a thing, so I didn’t.
Service Reflections of Capt Bill Darrow, U.S. Marine Corps (1963-1983)
Both my parents were in the Navy during WWII. My Mother was one of the first WAVES, and my Dad was a POW at Bataan and an officer in the Navy. I have three brothers who were all in the Navy during the Korean War. During my grade school years, I attended Peekskill Military Academy in NY and was further schooled at home with Calvert School. I graduated from High School in Belvidere, NJ.
At 17, I briefly attended a Business School in Pennsylvania but soon got bored. Then, I decided to join the Navy and carry on the family tradition. There was a long narrow hallway in the post office where the recruiters were located, with the Navy recruiter on my right and the Marine Corps recruiter on my left. I stood in the hall between the two offices. Turning to my right to go into the Navy recruiting office, I noticed that the Navy Chief was wearing a soiled uniform. Next to him was a coffee pot that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned since the Spanish American War. He was overweight and didn’t seem to be too interested in the young man beginning to enter his office. Just before I walked into that somewhat messy office, I heard someone with a deep, commanding voice speak to someone else he called Corporal. I turned and saw the most chiseled-faced, lean man with a very short neat haircut and wearing a shirt with creases in it that could cut your finger on. I couldn’t help but stare at the very clean office with posters of fighting men, jets, carved Marine Corps logos, and an NCO sword hung neatly on the wall. Another man with fewer stripes on his shirt walked across the office