Picture 14 of 23 from USMC - 1960-1964 Camp Pendleton & Camp Lejeune

Picture 14 of 23 from USMC - 1960-1964 Camp Pendleton & Camp Lejeune

Three of who made up the majority of the Second Service Bn, message center on a field exercise at Camp Lejeune, on the coast of N.C. in 1963. As a matter of fact, it was on a day just after this when we returned to "main-side" that President Kennedy was reported shot, in Texas.

I'm in the picture, the corporal in the middle. We are eating from WW-II C-Rations. I'm a little embarassed by this, lying on the ground while eating, but as the message center supervisor, I'd been awake for about 36 hours, and was fairly exhausted. To make matters worse, it was normal part of the training to pack up everthing in the middle of the night and move to a new location.

This is one of the very rare picutures I have that I was in, since in all these I was always the photographer

At the time of the photo they were almost as old as I was, 18 years old; I was 22. For those who don't know, the small tents seen in the background are made up of two "shelter halves" snapped together down the ridge line, so a buddy is a good thing to have out in the field.

Before they are made into a complete tent each Marine uses his half section of the shelter to roll his blanket up into a long roll which is then bent into an upside down U or horse-shoe shape and strapped onto the his back with his knapsack in the middle of the bend, unitizing it. On the ground in front of me is my "****pot" or helmet with cammo liner.

History was about to be made; about noon a few days later, on Friday the 22nd of November, we had packed up our gear and loaded ourselves into the back of an open half ton truck; maybe the same as in the next image. While we were waiting for our driver an anonymous marine stopped by to tell us that President Kennedy had "been shot in Texas" and said “we are going there.” The president had been shot, but he was jerking our chains when he said we were going to Texas

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01-24-12, 10:58 AM
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USMC - 1960-1964 Camp Pendleton & Camp Lejeune
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