I came across what is probably an innocent mistake in dating at this site
It doesn't seem to jive with other information out there.
Posted on 03/21/2008 10:19:58 PM PDT by Judith Anne
I've heard several times that B. Rocko Bama's Rev. Wright served as a Marine.
Does anyone have any idea when or where he served? What kind of discharge he got? Did he get any medals? In other words, I am starting to wonder.
I'm also wondering if there are any other articles on FR focusing on this aspect of Rev. Wright. Possibly I could have missed one?
I believe Hussein Obama has mentioned about 8000 times over the last week that he was a Marine.
That’s still no excuse for being an anti-American racist.
ping
It’s a secret. If he told you, he would have to kill you.
1961-1963
He was in the Navy from 1964-1967.
According to his official biography anyway, FWIW.
Been wondering this myself.
More on the same:
In 1959 Wright enrolled at Virginia Union University, in Richmond, where he remained until 1961. That year he left school to join the military. He served in the Second Marine Division of the U.S. Marine Corps from 1961 to 1963, achieving the rank of private first class. In 1963 he graduated as valedictorian from the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, and from 1964 to 1967, he served as a cardio pulmonary technician at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. During 1965 and 1966, he was awarded with three Presidential Commendations from President Lyndon B. Johnson.
2 whole years? Well, that’s a Kerry moment. Watch out for the evil rice grains.
Thanks for checking that out, and posting it.
Now, I wonder what those Presidential Commendations are for, for being a cardiopulmonary tech? I mean, do they give Presidential Commendations for that, or was that just the equivalen of a thank-you note?
Wonder what rank he left the Navy at? Wonder why he didn’t go to Viet Nam?
He got the commendations for participating in surgery on LBJ. It did look like a thank-you note, yes. There’s an image of an original floating around somewhere.
I do not know the answers to your other questions. Most of this I know from looking it up recently out of curiosity.
So was IMUS which means..................nada
I’m certainly not defending Wright...but...I am wondering, have you yourself served in the military?
I didn’t get any more about his service either, I did wiki it, and found that.
If someone served honorably, that’s all good by me.
If they act like a royal sphincter afterwards, fair game.
No, no women in my family have served. When I thought about enlisting, my father said, “The women are mostly lesbians” and strongly discouraged me. But my father, my father-in-law, my son, my maternal and paternal uncles, my brothers, my grandfathers, my cousins, my daughter in law’s twin brothers, and others in my family have all served in all branches. My husband was 4-F for heart disease.
Yes, agreed. I normally automatically give respect to a man who has served as a Marine, unless there’s some specific, real reason not to. Which is why I wondered about Wright, who is a horrifying racist.
Let me add that I have no idea if the women who enlisted in the military in 1965 (the year I thought about signing up) were mostly lesbians or not, and I malign no one. Dad was a SeaBee in WWII and that might just have reflected his experience with military women of his time.
I see.
Well, I’m throwing my own thread off topic, but my brother just sent me this link of the “Cactus Cuties” — very young girls, just beautiful — singing the National Anthem. It is outstanding.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKCVS57j284
I do hope there is more information about Rev Wright’s service in the Marines for those two years...
His middle name is Alvesta
Reminds me of the original line from Cheap Trick’s song “Surrender”:
Before they married Mommy served in the WACs in the Phillipines
Now I have heard the WACS recruited old maids, dykes and whores
But Mommy isn’t one of those,
I’ve known her all these years...
[The record label made them get rid of the “dykes and whores” part, unsurprisingly.]
FWIW
From that bio, his Navy years were the same as mine. I did my ‘boot camp’ in San Diego, followed by “A” school and to the fleet aboard a Tender out of San Diego.
That “valedictorian” issue doesn’t carry a lot of weight with me... sounds like he’s just braggin’ that he had the best test scores in his company of 80 men vs a brigade.
The cross-over from Marines to Navy is a bit strange. Enlistments were generally 4 years and another 2 years inactive reserves. Yet he has 2 years as a Marine and then 4 as a squid. Also, the cardio pulmonary technician issue is interesting. He had to be a Hospitalman (Corpsman) with a specialty which would require specialty schooling. The Navy provided Corpsmen to the Marines. The Marines did not have med personnel of their own. Same with the Chaplains.
I’m just thinking the bio doesn’t tell the whole story.
I just read some of the quotes on your profile page. This one really jumped out:
“There are but two parties now, Traitors and Patriots, and I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter . . . We have a government, laws and a flag, and they must all be sustained.” – Ulysses S. Grant
I wonder what the very Rev Wright would say about that....?
Thank you! See—I knew there was something possibly interesting about his “Marine” service, just the way no one was ever more specific than that...
i believe one of those was by George Burkley, the Physician to the President for his participation in a surgery on the president. LBJ did not sign the one all the blogs are posting? is he calling that a Commendation “from” the president?
National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis?
Something is not adding up here.
Did enlisted marines serve in medical career fields? Thought that was job of Navy corpsmen (medics).
Weren't all USMC enlistments 4 years active. Later, during VN war, some men were drafted into USMC and served 2 years active, but not in early 60s.
Never heard of tern valedictorian used in military. “Distinguished Military Graduate” and “First in Academics or “First in Flying” etc. but never Valedictorian.
Paging Buckhead and the other investigative heads...
In 1959 Wright enrolled at Virginia Union University, in Richmond, where he remained until 1961. That year he left school to join the military.
He served in the Second Marine Division of the U.S. Marine Corps from 1961 to 1963, achieving the rank of private first class.
He must not have been a very sharp troop, since he only made E-3 in two years. Most would have been at least E-4, with the really sharp troops being looked at for E-5 by then.
That struck me too. "Honor Grad" is the term used most commmonly in the Army. I've never heard the term valedictorian used in any branch of the military either.
Bookmarking.
I think there’s something here. Better find it before it vanishes.
That rings a bell. I think I saw “Hospital Corpsman Class 3” on the letter. I’ll link it if I can find it again.
That’s the letter I saw.
Okay, just thinking out loud this morning.
Wright got the “presidential commendations” when he was a medic at Bethesda, for helping with LBJ’s heart surgery.
But B. Rocko Bama doesn’t talk about Wright being a Navy medic, he always mentions that Wright served as a Marine.
So, what did he do as a Marine? Why was it only a two years enlistment, as opposed to the more normal (at the time) four? What is the deal?
And a blessed Easter to everyone.
My wifes brother in law is a proud Marine. After my wifes mother suffered severe brain damage from a stroke, he and his wife quickly went through my wifes mothers life savings and left her several hundred thousands of dollars in debt and facing eviction from the nursing facility until my wife could financially and legally intervene. My point is what does the Marine Corp have to do with it?
Good point. Very sorry to hear about your MIL, and her troubles. B. Rocko just keeps mentioning the Marine bit, that’s all.
My point is: what kind of Marine? Where and when did he serve?
During the fifties and into the sixties, there was compulsory military service ( the draft). To avoid being drafted there were many variations of enlistments. One such form was joining the reserve of the bracnch of your choice ( including the Marines) and serving for two years active duty and then four years active reserves (attending monthly meetings).
Was the surgery to remove LBJ’s shlong from his zipper?
Right, evidently after his two years active duty in the Marines, he went to school, became a cardio-respiratory tech, went into the Navy and served at Bethesda; was serving when LBJ had heart surgery, and got 3 presidential commendations.
I was just wondering, since the B. Rocko campaign mentions “Marine” so much when talking about Wright, what and where his Marine service was.
How can it take 2 years to make PFC? My daughter made PFC by the time she got done with Parris Island boot camp.
I think PFC is E2 which is exactly one step above recruit. Upon graduation from boot camp in the Navy, everyone was moved to E2. Most everybody made E3 in the Navy without problems. In the Marines, I believe an E3 is a Lance Corporal, not an automatic advancement.
So the guy’s a Marine. So was Lee Harvey Oswald. Not much difference that I can see.
Wright just killed Obama's chance to become president.
I went in with a husband-of-three-years...who also enlisted at the same time.
In basic training—from a bay of 40 recruits—I would guess that the lesbian to hetro ratio would have been about 5/40...or 1/8.
Loose women would have been a ratio of about 8/40...or 1/5.
The rest of us had various reasons for enlisting. Not the least of which was to do our part.
Not everyone made it through: One broke a leg, one got pregnant, a couple couldn't make it through the physical demands, and a couple didn't have the psychological stamina to make it.
My husband went through basic at the same time I did (Men and women were separate back then.); but I don't know what his ratios were.
We weren't all sluts, and we weren't all gay...but I do have to admit that I did encounter some prejudice for my military service at the time. I didn't care because I knew me.
Well, as I said above, my father’s strong aversion to my enlistment, because of his viewpoint about military women, is what kept me out in 1965.
In my experience, things have changed a lot, and from my son’s Army experience in the 90s, there were a number of very respectable, very competent women serving.
In my family, the tradition is, women do not enlist, men do. So far, that’s the way it’s been...
And on behalf of me and my family, thank you for your service to our country.
That was also my family tradition. I broke it.
My father’s acceptance was only due to the fact that I was entering with a good husband.
Well, I was 17, no husband in sight for another 5 years. :-D
He was a corpman involved I think in providing food. But don’t remember where I heard that.
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