November 2009

Editor's Desk

Happy Birthday Marines! Welcome to Leatherneck on the web. This is a great month to be a Marine and your Leatherneck team hopes you are enjoying our Web site and its content.

In your November, Marine Corps Birthday issue, with the assistance of the Marine Corps’ Manpower Management Sergeant Major, SgtMaj Steven Morefield, and the head of the Senior Leader Management Branch, LtCol William Redfield, we once again bring you a “Senior Leaders of the Corps” insert. A picture is worth a thousand words, so we think you will appreciate this listing which can be pulled out of the magazine and kept handy for reference purposes.

Also, in November, we include a selection of photos from the bottom of our readers’ footlockers in a “Corps Album”; a very challenging Marine Corps trivia contest compiled by our wily associate editor, retired MGySgt Ron Keene; a compelling salute to the Marines of the Vietnam War’s Team Box Score on a mission led by posthumous Medal of Honor Marine 2dLt Terrence Graves; and, informational articles on the Marine Special Operations Command, the Marine Corps Historical Company, a unique North Carolina higher education program (Elite to Elite) that provides an edge for state residents and the superb contributions of a volunteer organization that provides so much needed support to Marine efforts to win the hearts and minds in Afghanistan and Iraq: Spirit of America.

We also include the Commandant’s annual Birthday Message, and a custom link in the digital edition to the annual Commandant and Sergeant Major’s video, which is posted on our Web site. This is one of the very best videos I can recall. Capping this Birthday issue is a short article that I think really demonstrates what being a Marine is about. Be sure to read, “‘Semper Fidelis’ Witness to Its Meaning,” by Col W. Hays Parks, USMCR (Ret). This recounts the emotional memorial service for Captain Jerry Zimmer. If you missed the July Leatherneck article, “Bringing Jerry and Al Home,” by Elaine Zimmer Davis, go back and read it. Col Parks article will make you proud of your Marine heritage.

Looking ahead to our December magazine, we’ll bring you the first of several updates from Andrew Lubin, embedded with Marines in the south of Afghanistan. In his first convoy experience, a vehicle hit an improvised explosive device so his article, “Keeping the Convoys Rolling: With Route Clearance Company, 1st Combat Engineer Battalion” provides you a first hand look at the Marines’ reaction. He shot some video, so when our digital edition is posted at the end of November, you can go online, read the article and see the video.

Also in the December issue is 90-year-old World War II veteran and frequent contributor Cy O’Brien’s article “The Raid on Koiari.” During the World War II Battle of Bougainville, Major General Roy Geiger, commanding I Marine Amphibious Corps, decided to land the Marine Parachute Battalion, reinforced with a Raider company behind the Japanese lines to accelerate the offense . . . the problem was the Marines landed right in the middle of a major Japanese position. I know you will enjoy Cy’s recounting of the action.

We cap the December issue with an article on the Marine security guards in Athens; an overview of this year’s Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame induction; an in depth look at Marine Corps Systems Command’s “Gruntworks” where gear and tactics are tested; and a short tribute to the Marine Corps Reserve’s Toys for Tots program.

Lastly, the Commandant recently noted that Marines are almost totally out of Iraq. The U.S. Air Force assumed control of the Al Anbar airspace recently and close to 50 percent of Marine gear has been evacuated out of country through Kuwait. Remaining is an advisor team to the developing Iraqi Marine battalion in Basra and a few training teams which also are scheduled to depart. The focus is Afghanistan and short of a major force increase in Afghanistan, with the increased size of the Corps, a deployment ratio of 1:2 appears doable. The long war continues, but in spite of what may be seen in the media, we are winning. But not without cost, so as our holiday season begins with the Marine Corps Birthday, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day, I encourage everyone to find a way to support our deployed, soon to deploy and recently returned military men and women.

As I’ve noted several times in this forum, we can't improve without your feedback. Let us hear from you: leatherneck@mca-marines.org

Thanks for your continuing support.

Semper Fidelis

Col Walt Ford, USMC (Ret)
Editor, Leatherneck Magazine

Marines stationed in Peking and Tient­sin, China, and Iceland wore the “Mongolian p***-cutter” made of lamb’s wool or, reputedly, cat’s fur.(Courtesy of the National Museum of the Marine Corps)

Petty Officer First Class Adrian Trollip, a Seabee builder assigned to NMCB-5, home-based at Port Hueneme, Calif., helps construct the MEB-Afghani­stan combat operations center at Camp Leatherneck.
(Photo by Cpl Aaron Rooks)

Marine veteran Wesley I. Slagle sent us this 1922 photograph of his father, John W. Slagle, taken while he was serving in the Dominican Republic with the Marine Corps Expeditionary Force during the “Banana Wars.” John Slagle also served in USS Utah and USS St. Louis.
(Photo courtesy of Marine Veteran Wesley I. Slagle)