Someone posted the story recently about two Marines who died
repelling an insurgent attack on a Marine base in Afghanistan.
Today at church I was talking with a retired Marine, turns out he's
an aviator and knew and served with the LCOL who died. Small world.
He knew the whole story.
--
Max Dillon
Charleston SC
'95 E300
'87 300TD
Nothing against the other branches, but some of the most memorable
people I have met were/are Marines.
Harry used to own one of the oldest MB dealers in the country. It
have been a Studebaker/MB dealer before he bought it from the PO. I
think he was a grunt.
Cal was the head honkey at the John Deere Waterloo works when I met
him. That was when they employed 13,000 at that plant. He went on
to be a board member of JD. I never knew if he had been enlisted or
an officer.
"jump" was a pilot of the last squadron of F-4s in active duty at
KMCAS. He was part of the final flight of the last F-4 squadron when
they flew off into the sunrise to deliver the F-4s to the boneyard.
He later returned to KMCAS as the air boss a few years later.
Captain Benson was my son's Cub Scout leader. Not many kids get a
real fighter pilot as a Den Leader. Mine did. We watched them fly
off in 1991 toward Iraq.
I met Pappy Boyington maybe a year before he died. He was a
character to the end.
I had a couple of other friends from KMCAS who were enlisted. One
had all the stripes you could get. The other had almost as many
stripes. One of them introduced us to "chili Phillie dip" we still
make that frequently. Made some last night.
Probably some others too.
To be fair to other branches:
I know 4 memorable people who were nuke submariners. 2 enlisted,
father and son. (they can fix anything) and 2 rickover officers.
They are very capable people. One is recognized as the world leader
in his field.
I met a Navy Captain who had a 200D. He was a good guy. Not a
starched neck like a lot of the others.
I work with a "bubblehead boomer" He was in charge of the missiles
on the subs. Then he taught others. He spent the rest of his life
in automation and controls. Interesting guy.
I worked for a guy who had been Army enlisted when Pearl Harbor was
attacked. He and some buddies invented palletized freight. He was a
specialist in burners and controls. He was THE guy that the navy
called anytime from anywhere in the world when they could not get a
ship to light a fire and their personnel could not figure it out.
Harry would talk them through it over the phone.
Wayne had been in the AIr Corps in the Pacific in WWII. I had a
couple college classes he taught. He was a bona-fide genius, and
could do anything. He related hydraulics to electronics. I
understood the hydraulics, so I related the electronics to hydraulics
when I tried to learn that. (A diode is just a check valve) A class
with Wayne was always interesting. He was a superb storyteller. So
each lesson was an interesting story about some experience he had
that related to what we were supposed to learn. It was like
listening to Red Skelton. He would have us laughing uproariously,
but we learned. He had worked for Cincinnati Milacron, and also for
Hammond/Baldwin when they were building the famous B-3 and C-3
organs. He could talk about hydraulics, electronics, milling
machines and other machine tools and machining, and music and organs.
Wayne was a true industrial technologist. One of his best stories
was how they salvaged parts off damaged bombers to make an ice cream
machine on a pacific island.
I knew a woman who was a ferry pilot in WWII (WAC) She flew planes
all over the globe to deliver them to the theaters of war. She was
a corporate pilot the rest of her life.
My Daughter's neighbor is a WWII B-17 pilot. I've never gotten him
to tell stories, but he is a great guy. His wife was an Army nurse.
The guy who used to own her house was an Air Corps Colonel who was in
charge of the Philippines after the war was over. I'd like to have
heard his stories.
Here is to all those people, and to Wilton and Max and all the other
veterans on the list. Thanks for all you did.
_______________________________________
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