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I left out a response to your question about the Corps then and now. When I signed up in ‘65, the “Old Corps” were the WWII and Korean War vets and they were our senior NCOs. They were veterans of Iwo and Chosin and they had little patience for us new kids.

I was one of the last Marines issued an M-1 rifle in Infantry training regiment and then a BAR. My fellow Marines were everything from people like me - an Altar Boy that never heard any bad language to criminals who were ordered to serve four years in the Corps instead of going to prison for four years. We were also at the leading edge of integration and the fistfights in the barracks were bloody. Interesting times.

Arrived in Vietnam in January ‘66, assigned to an artillery battery. We had the old cotton utilities and leather boots and the tactics and techniques were really Korean War vintage and we learned very quickly that was a different war and a different enemy. Most of our casualties were from mines and booby traps. Only a precious few of our leaders clued us in on what was going on.

At some point, we new guys took over. We knew who the enemy was and how they operated and we had modified our tactics and the enemy learned to avoid us if they could. I ended up as an artillery scout with an infantry company and that was really where the rubber met the road.

I was wounded badly May ‘67 and spent the next 3 1/2 years recovering. I was commissioned in ‘73 and was part of the last operations in Vietnam with BLT 1/3 offshore.

The Corps is very different now - better weapons, better tactics, better quality of young people. The young Marines now are better educated and if you can take the time to explain how and why something has to be done, they’ll get it done. No more “jail or the Corps” Marines - which is a little sad because they were deadly. The kids today are more precious than we were. Today if a few are killed, it rates national attention. Back then, we had almost 400 dead in one week with the 1st Marine Division and hardly called for a column-inch in the papers.

There are times that I wish that I was still back with them.