Marine Corps Association & Foundation

Hiring Vets is the best move a company could do for its success. Vets have a lot of experience gained serving their countries. They had to take difficult decsions which made them capable of withstandiung high pressure. They are a very high quality group which I (If I was a hiring manager) would love tpo recruit to my company.

Andy@The blog

^{Hi! I like to reunite with any Marine that were in Beirut Lebanon between 1983-84! My name's Roueida Nial Lebanese with US citizenship, was married to a former marine Joseph, p. Nial that I met in Beirut and married  in 1988 then later divorced! I was young in my teens when I lived around the US Embassy compound area and had several Lebanese and American friends that lived beyond the wired area around the Embassy! I can't remeber all their names, but love to find any one can remeber me, was there around this time! My nick name was (maria) use come around with my little cousin boy all the time visiting with my friends! I use to live in the long building next door! Moved to USA in 1988 I live today in Indianapolis, IN}

Regard, Roueida Nial

            Thank you, creators, for this wonderful website, all though you could improve it with a Q&A  section where you can ask a question and then find the answer.

what other ship were u on

Frank Jirka, Lt. j.g. , was with Team 12 and boarded a disabled LCI(G) with a Marine officer.  Together they stayed with the vessel and directed fire to Iwo for the battleships.  Eventually it was hit by a Japanese shell, killing several sailors and severing Jirka's two feet.  They amputated his legs below his knees on the deck of the USS Tennessee and he was later awarded a Silver Star for his heroism.  He joined and stayed on the disabled LCI(G) when he could have returned with his and out of harm's way. 

He had volunteered to swim to inspect and destroy several buoys the Japanese had posiitoned off Iwo to gauge their guns.  The mission was scraped and he ended up not going.  It was later determined that the Japanese had hidden soldiers inside the buoys.

After the war he went to medical school and became a urologist.  He was elected president of the American Medical Association in 1983.  He died in 2000 and insisted that he be buried with his prostheses because he said, "I never would have accomplished what I did had I not lost my legs that day at Iwo."

USMC Maj is right that General Barrow's remarks sound "dated." Common sense usually sounds dated now, especially in matters of sex. But anyone who calls a man like General Barrow "pathetic" reveals a great deal about himself. I wish I were as "pathetic" as that giant.

new to this fourm, I was a 1371,and was in Camp Carrol,Con Thien,Cam Lo also on Operation Dewey Canyon,and in the Aushaw Valley,we were attached to the 1/9 and the 2/9 .I'm quite sure our rear area was either Quang Tri, or Dong Ha.Got a question,don't know how this stuff works,if I can ask it or not,but here goes.Why after so many years is what has happened while over there so fresh in the mind.? Seem to go thru much of life doing the work,church,home thing without any problems,now retired from working life,and WOW,I can't get my time in Nam out of my head.Finished my time in country in Cam Lo, doing mine sweeps of route 1,supposed to be a shortimers easy job, is was just a routine sweep of the roads in the am,because the NVA were moveing south and were not going to be wasteing time to put mines in the road, call us lucky,guess they found time to stop and put land mines in the road.the rest of the story did not go good for several days,then they (top Brass) decided that,since they did not have this problem in the past, well we had to dig one out,disarm it and send back to the rear area.That and being the skinny guy you would be sent into tunnels,because the ARVINS were so willing to protect there country,NOT. the old saying wanna buy a rifle,its only been droped once,while they run the other way.Don't know where I'm going with this, but this is the first time I ever put anything like this in print,for who ever sees it,and has been there,I sure you can relate.And Thank You.

Our secondary MOS was 1369

I was stationed with B. Company, H&S Bn Camp Butler, Okinawa June 77 to may 79.  Stan was the acting co H&S Bn for the first 6 months of  1978.  I got pretty rowdy drunk and got hauled in by the Col on a saturday night.  Monday morning I was standing tall in front of him and he put the fear of God into.  Didn't pick up a drink for over 17 Years. anonymous. 15 May 2013.  i hope he is resting in peace.  The best Marine I ever knew

I was a 18 year old kid assigned to Ist 8 inch Howitizer Battery at Fire Base Geolyn. My first night we took several rockets and probings. Scared the hell out of me. We lived under ground in bunkers and the rats could be heard running around betweent the boards in the walls. The rats were as big as cats. We had a detachment of South Vietnam Army soliders, but we would not trust them, because they were know to fire on us during attacks. I grew up that year and my life has not been the same.

So I know how my fellow Marines during that time felt and the hardships they faced. What most folks do not know about artillary is that in hard rain falling you cannot fire. So when it is pouring out side where you are at and the call comes in for a fire mission, it is hard to say we cannot at this time comply. You see, it may be raining or not raining where the emeny is and this is really hard when you know that your fellow Marines are getting thier butts kicked. So you get evrything ready and when there is a low in the rain, we fire as many rounds as posiple to help. Some times it is not enough and the results huant you still today. But I remember once after we were reassigned down South at a Fire Base named Ross, a returning group of Marines came up to us and hugged us and cried with us and thanked us for getting them out of a jam. This made us more determined to do our best to give our brothers everything that was in us. I salute you Marines.

Cpl. Ray Smith

Ist 8 inch How.

1969-1970

The Commandant’s Career Level Education Board (CCLEB) and Commandant’s Professional Intermediate Level Board (CPIB) are relatively new processes and like any new process, it is not perfect.  In an increasingly complex and technical world, the Marine Corps sees the importance of a graduate-level educated officer corps.   I haven’t heard anyone successfully argue against the intent behind CCLEB and CPIB, however there are several valid arguments about the faults in the current process.

How to select the right Marine for the right curriculum:  It appears that the adjustments made from FY12 to the FY13 boards take into account some of the issues with Marines having very little say in what graduate program they are placed into.  The process is still flawed though, just because a Marine has the educational background (4-15 years prior to the board) to be able to complete a technical degree, does not make them the best fit for that program.  The Marines that volunteered for SEP in the past knew what they were getting into, they may not have gotten their top choice, but they at least got one of the choices.  A selection to NPS means that a Marine will be out of their MOS for up to 5.5 years, for those coming off a B-billet, that’s 8.5 years out of the fleet.  I recommend that the board widen their search and make a greater attempt to place Marines into programs that they actually have a desire to learn.  Integrate an application process that can augment the board for all officers that have a desire to get a technical degree from NPS. 

The needs of the Marine Corps will always take precedence over individual situations, but just because we can mandate students to get a Masters degree in subjects that they have no interest in, doesn’t mean that we are effectively educating our officer corps.   Offering an officer with 10+ years of service, to either accept orders or resign isn’t much of a choice.  In some cases it may have effectively dead-ended a career; with the payback tour for SEP an officer may not get back to the fleet until right before retirement, and you have accomplished what CCLEB and CPIB were designed to prevent (minimal payback on an expensive education).  The Marine Corps often asks its Marines to go places and accept assignments that they don’t desire; to my knowledge there aren’t any other situations where the only options are 5+ years outside of your MOS, potentially doing something you have no interest in, or resignation.

CCLEB and CPIB are certainly not a perfect process and they never will be, they can be improved upon though.  In an ideal world the Marine Corps would have created an incentive to attend NPS, so that it had the target audience of officers applying instead of mandating that a certain number of billets be filled with ‘qualified’ officers that were selected on a board.   That could be as easy as a MARADMIN that instructs promotion and command boards to have a minimum percentage of SEP graduates in their selection process.   The board process needs to be improved to look more at the operational experience of the officer and not what degree they graduated with prior to joining the Marine Corps.  There also needs to be some flexibility for those officers that don’t desire a degree in whatever discipline they were chosen for (could be a change in educational path, alternate assignment, or ability to trade with another student) and either return to the application process for SEP or at least allow it as a separate process. 

Ground combat uniforms should be chosen by the COCOM and should be specific the operating environment in that AOR.  There is a place for service specific uniforms, and it's not on the battlefield.

Drew, AF O-3