Fallen Marine - Blogs - Marine Corps - USMC Community
View RSS Feed

lloyd holland

Fallen Marine

Rate this Entry
In 1979 or 80 my squadron (VMA(AW)533) was on a training deployment to MCAS Yuma Arizona, getting ready for a WESTPAC deployment. Like any det you are expected too work hard and safely, and when you secure for the day you enjoy your free time. One day after we leave our work area and head to the E-club for a couple of cold ones, an old school buddy from back in Va., belly ups to the bar beside me, my boy Boo. We shoot the breeze until someone hollers "last call for alcohol". So we make our way back to the barracks to sleep it off until the next morning. I spend a few more weeks in Yuma before we depart the dryness of the west coast, and head back to the east coast to MCAS Cherry Point N.C. I say adios to my homeboy and tell him i'll holler at him back in the noke (Roanoke Va.). Little did i know this would be the last time i would see him alive. About 3 days after we arive back in Cherry Point, i take a few days leave and go back home. One morning i get up to wash my van and head to the Eureka park to finish it up. While waxing it down, a guy walks up to me and asks me if i was in the Marine Corps, i tell him yeah why, he said he noticed the Eagle Globe and Anchor on my bumper, and that he had a cousin that was in the Corps, but he passed away a few days ago, i told him i was sorry to hear that and gave a big OOH-RAH to the fallen Marine, i asked him what was his cousin name, he said "Boo". Man my heart stopped in mid beat, i could not believe what i was hearing, i told him i had just left him out in Arizona just a few days ago. I jumped into my van and went straight too his moms house, when i walked inside i could see the hurt and sorrow in her face he was the only son out of 4 children. She told me that he and some more Marines were driving down a road when the truck they were in wrecked and rolled into a canal, Boo made it out but some of the others were still trapped under water, he jumped back in too get the others out, the truck shifted and rolled over on him, he was the only one that didn't make it out. But he lived up to the Marines code, NEVER LEAVE A FALLEN MARINE BEHIND. SEMPER FIDELIS

Updated 09-22-10 at 12:57 PM by lloyd holland

Categories
Uncategorized

Comments

  1. yankee pappa 13's Avatar
    I remember that happening and was at new river at then. His example makes us all proud to be brothers