thedrifter
10-25-05, 02:11 PM
October 31, 2005
Marine News Briefs
Dog tag back from Vietnam
After 37 years, a Vietnam veteran was reunited with the dog tags that a corpsman removed while treating the wounds he suffered after a bullet entered his arm and exited his chest, according to an Oct. 18 report in the Enid (Okla.) News and Eagle newspaper.
Former Marine Staff Sgt. Gerald Belcher received a phone call in late September from a California firefighter who had bought a handful of American dog tags from a Ho Chi Minh City museum during a trip to Vietnam. He was attempting to return the tags to the veterans who once wore them.
“It kind of came as a shock,” Belcher said. “They must be the original dog tags they issued me when I went into the Marines. It’s just like a part of you. They still had mud on them from Vietnam.”
Belcher said he hadn’t seen the dog tags since April 20, 1968, when he served with 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, near Khe Sanh.
Band entertains on the bay
When Fleet Week came to San Francisco in early October, so did 42 Marines stationed in California’s high desert, according to an Oct. 14 Marine Corps news release.
The band from the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms drove 11 hours each way for a five-day excursion to the city by the bay, to perform for visiting and retired military officials, political and foreign dignitaries, business executives and San Francisco’s social elite, according to the release.
Sgt. Keith Cavey, piano and bass drum player, said he had played for veterans groups in San Francisco before and that playing in the city as a Marine was a defining moment in his service.
“That’s because what really separates us apart from any other armed service is our traditions,” Cavey said. “I’ll never forget the first time that I went up to San Francisco with the band, there was a Marine who had fought in Guadalcanal and lost both of his legs, but he pushed himself up on his wheelchair and still stood at attention while we played the ‘Marine’s Hymn,’ which is when I realized that I wanted to make a career out of the Corps.”
Wrestler is Athlete of Year
A sergeant serving at the Camp Foster travel management office on Okinawa, Japan, recently returned from a visit to Quantico, Va., where Commandant Gen. Mike Hagee and Sgt. Maj. John Estrada, sergeant major of the Marine Corps, named him the Marine Corps Athlete of the Year, according to an Oct. 18 news release.
In addition to winning the 84-kilogram Greco-Roman and freestyle competitions at the Armed Forces Wrestling Championships on April 8, Sgt. Jacob A. Clark created Team Okinawa, a wrestling club open to anyone interested in competing.
Clark toured the world before arriving at Quantico for the awards presentation. He was introduced to former Marines Walter Cronkite and Drew Carey, according to the release.
Hagee to hold services
The commandant of the Marine Corps will hold a service at the Washington National Cathedral on Nov. 6 to celebrate the Corps’ 230th birthday, according to an Oct. 18 news release.
The archbishop of Washington, D.C., will join Commandant Gen. Mike Hagee as an honored guest, the release said.
“The President’s Own” Marine Band’s brass ensemble is scheduled to perform a pre-worship concert at 3:30 p.m.; all are welcome.
Marines attending the service should leave their medals at home. Service alphas and dress blues are acceptable, as are ribbons and badges, the release said.
Marines wishing to dazzle others with their collection of shiny post-deployment medals are directed to buy a ticket to their respective unit’s Marine Corps Ball, where that is tradition.
Movies to show both sides
When Clint Eastwood completes principal photography on his film about Marines at Iwo Jima next month, he will begin a movie that details the battle from the Japanese perspective, according to an Oct. 16 Time magazine article.
Eastwood’s current movie, “Flags of Our Fathers,” is based on a book by James Bradley and Ron Powers about the leathernecks who fought on Iwo Jima and eventually were photographed in the famous flag-raising atop Mount Suribachi.
The movie he plans to produce about the Japanese side of the battle is tentatively titled “Lamps Before the Wind.” Eastwood plans to release it at the same time “Flags of Our Fathers” debuts next fall, according to the report.
Together, the movies are intended to depict the World War II battle as a clash of cultures as much as a clash of arms, the report said.
Thousands attend mud run
Reservists with Marine Aircraft Group 41 held a 10-kilometer “Mud Run” at Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas, on Oct. 15, according to a Marine Corps news release.
More than 1,600 participants slogged through the course, which consisted of tons of mud and more than 30 obstacles.
“We like mud and we like running, and it just seemed great to combine the two,” said Ellie Slack, a member of the Dirty Darlings team. “Instead of walking through the mud, if it was deep enough, we swam.”
The event served as the kickoff for the 2005 Dallas/Fort Worth Toys for Tots campaign, according to the release.
Ellie
Marine News Briefs
Dog tag back from Vietnam
After 37 years, a Vietnam veteran was reunited with the dog tags that a corpsman removed while treating the wounds he suffered after a bullet entered his arm and exited his chest, according to an Oct. 18 report in the Enid (Okla.) News and Eagle newspaper.
Former Marine Staff Sgt. Gerald Belcher received a phone call in late September from a California firefighter who had bought a handful of American dog tags from a Ho Chi Minh City museum during a trip to Vietnam. He was attempting to return the tags to the veterans who once wore them.
“It kind of came as a shock,” Belcher said. “They must be the original dog tags they issued me when I went into the Marines. It’s just like a part of you. They still had mud on them from Vietnam.”
Belcher said he hadn’t seen the dog tags since April 20, 1968, when he served with 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, near Khe Sanh.
Band entertains on the bay
When Fleet Week came to San Francisco in early October, so did 42 Marines stationed in California’s high desert, according to an Oct. 14 Marine Corps news release.
The band from the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms drove 11 hours each way for a five-day excursion to the city by the bay, to perform for visiting and retired military officials, political and foreign dignitaries, business executives and San Francisco’s social elite, according to the release.
Sgt. Keith Cavey, piano and bass drum player, said he had played for veterans groups in San Francisco before and that playing in the city as a Marine was a defining moment in his service.
“That’s because what really separates us apart from any other armed service is our traditions,” Cavey said. “I’ll never forget the first time that I went up to San Francisco with the band, there was a Marine who had fought in Guadalcanal and lost both of his legs, but he pushed himself up on his wheelchair and still stood at attention while we played the ‘Marine’s Hymn,’ which is when I realized that I wanted to make a career out of the Corps.”
Wrestler is Athlete of Year
A sergeant serving at the Camp Foster travel management office on Okinawa, Japan, recently returned from a visit to Quantico, Va., where Commandant Gen. Mike Hagee and Sgt. Maj. John Estrada, sergeant major of the Marine Corps, named him the Marine Corps Athlete of the Year, according to an Oct. 18 news release.
In addition to winning the 84-kilogram Greco-Roman and freestyle competitions at the Armed Forces Wrestling Championships on April 8, Sgt. Jacob A. Clark created Team Okinawa, a wrestling club open to anyone interested in competing.
Clark toured the world before arriving at Quantico for the awards presentation. He was introduced to former Marines Walter Cronkite and Drew Carey, according to the release.
Hagee to hold services
The commandant of the Marine Corps will hold a service at the Washington National Cathedral on Nov. 6 to celebrate the Corps’ 230th birthday, according to an Oct. 18 news release.
The archbishop of Washington, D.C., will join Commandant Gen. Mike Hagee as an honored guest, the release said.
“The President’s Own” Marine Band’s brass ensemble is scheduled to perform a pre-worship concert at 3:30 p.m.; all are welcome.
Marines attending the service should leave their medals at home. Service alphas and dress blues are acceptable, as are ribbons and badges, the release said.
Marines wishing to dazzle others with their collection of shiny post-deployment medals are directed to buy a ticket to their respective unit’s Marine Corps Ball, where that is tradition.
Movies to show both sides
When Clint Eastwood completes principal photography on his film about Marines at Iwo Jima next month, he will begin a movie that details the battle from the Japanese perspective, according to an Oct. 16 Time magazine article.
Eastwood’s current movie, “Flags of Our Fathers,” is based on a book by James Bradley and Ron Powers about the leathernecks who fought on Iwo Jima and eventually were photographed in the famous flag-raising atop Mount Suribachi.
The movie he plans to produce about the Japanese side of the battle is tentatively titled “Lamps Before the Wind.” Eastwood plans to release it at the same time “Flags of Our Fathers” debuts next fall, according to the report.
Together, the movies are intended to depict the World War II battle as a clash of cultures as much as a clash of arms, the report said.
Thousands attend mud run
Reservists with Marine Aircraft Group 41 held a 10-kilometer “Mud Run” at Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas, on Oct. 15, according to a Marine Corps news release.
More than 1,600 participants slogged through the course, which consisted of tons of mud and more than 30 obstacles.
“We like mud and we like running, and it just seemed great to combine the two,” said Ellie Slack, a member of the Dirty Darlings team. “Instead of walking through the mud, if it was deep enough, we swam.”
The event served as the kickoff for the 2005 Dallas/Fort Worth Toys for Tots campaign, according to the release.
Ellie