The United States Marine Corps, with it’s fiercely proud tradition of excellence in combat, its hallowed rituals, and its unbending code of honor, is part of the fabric of American myth.  [Thomas E. Ricks;  Making the Corps, 1997]

Submitted by:

J. T. ‘Doc’ Lantz

WHAT IS A VET?

[Lest we forget, get confused, discouraged or distracted]

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.  Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg - or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity.  Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem.  You can't tell a vet just by looking.

What is a vet?  He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.  He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.

She or he - is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.  He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't come back AT ALL.  He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat  - but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.

He is the parade - riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.  He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.  He is the anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.  He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.  He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.  He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known. 

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say Thank You. That's all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.  Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU". 

Remember November 11^th is Veterans Day.  "It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. 

It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.  It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. 

It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag."

By
Father Denis Edward O'Brien, USMC

Courtesy of:

Richard N. Pinkerton

60mm Mortar Gunner

2^nd Bn 9^th Marines

Requests:

#1

I am a retired officer.  My name is Dr. Jon Schiff.  I served throughout I Corps as a traveling dentist.  My job was to get the Marines out of pain so they wouldn’t have to return to the rear area for treatment.  I had an old Korean War trailer buried and sandbagged at Cam Lo Hill.  I traveled all along route 9 and up to Con Thien via the ‘washout’.  I would usually eat chow with the 8” gun section.  ¾ and 1/9 would usually rotate on and off the hill.  Crazy, but I served with all four branches of the military and retired from the Army Reserve in 2000 as a Colonel.  I’m trying to locate these two former Marines as they were the only two who didn’t run away on 4 Feb 1968, during a heavy 122 mm rocket attack.  They tried to help me keep a seriously wounded Marine alive while I performed a tracheotomy to keep him breathing.  I’ve never forgotten these guys and have never had the chance to thank them personally.  I’m going to the 3^rd Marine Div. Reunion in San Diego in Sept.  I’m sure Paul Scaglione said he was from L.A. area.  Maurice? Orosco? Was a Mexican-American.  He always called me Dr. ‘Sheeeef’.  I don’t know where to find these guys.  I don’t know their MOS but they stayed on the hill and didn’t run patrols.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Hell, I’d like to hear from anyone who lived in that shithole during that awful year.

Dr. Jon Schiff, Col. USAR (Ret)

Mongoschiff@aol.com

#2

Know you are a busy man so I will keep this short

1. Hell of a web site just found it and bookmarked it
 
2. My step dad (RAYMOND L. BAGGETT) was on Bataan when it fell, on the
death march POW  the whole nine yards he passed  about 20 years ago.
He  NEVER received his purple heart any help you could give on that
matter would be appreciated or at least give my mother another avenue
to go, local VA rep not doing his job, senator not wanting to help either.

3. is there any collage scholar ships sponsored by the 1/4 I have a
niece who will be going to college in 2003 fall session.

Thanks for your time


        SEMPER FI
VESS H. REYNOLDSON
    1989-1993 USMC