Semper Fi

Roll Call of MCFSC former Marines 

        Thanks for your service...

MEMBERS OF MARINE CORPS FAMILY SUPPORT COMMUNITY HAVE ALSO SERVED THIS GREAT NATION AS A MEMBER OF THE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES. 

MCFSC SAYS

THANKS FOR YOUR SERVICE

Kenneth Martin - United States Marine Corps

Bob Wells - United States Marine Corps

Carol Michel - United States Air Force

Tom Conrad - United States Air Force

Jay McLane - United States Air Force

Judy Cruse - United States Army

Jim Cruse - United States Army

Steven Walter - United States Marine Corps

Jo Howard - United States Army

William Eberle - United States Marine Corps

Craig Reynolds - United States Marine Corps

Steve Ebersole - United States Navy

Donna Purdue - United States Marine Corps

William Boggs - United States Air Force

Liz Cave - United States Marine Corps

John Stegmiller - United States Navy Civil Engineer Corps

If you or a loved one has proudly served this nation, please let us know!! Send an e-mail to cmichel@mcfscoh.org. 

A Veteran - whether active duty, retired, national guard or reserve--is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America", for an amount of "up to and including my life".

 That is Honor, and it seems there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand.

Author unknown

Things Aren't so Different than they were in Vietnam....

Excerpts from a letter home from Vietnam.

25 June 1967

Dear Mom and Dad,

 As usual, nothing really big happening around here, luckily.  Our Communications Officer is also the Civil Affairs Oficer now.  Civil Affairs is the US program for helping the Vietnamese help themselves.  We help them build schoolhouses, improve their living conditions, and treat their sick.  So lately I’ve been going into villages with him and our interpreter and corpsman,  All I really do is drive them there and provide security while they treat the sick.  I’m carrying a roaring 20’s Thompson sub-machine gun and my .45.  Don’t anticipate any trouble as the villages are just outside of our battery positions, so it’s just extra caution.

 The hardest part is when 20 or 30 children come up and say in broken English, ”You take me to America?”  I really don’t know what to say to them.  I’d like to take all of them home and give them a chance to live the way we do, which of course is impossible.  I know people have always wondered why the men from Korea brought back children or wives when they came back.  Until you see the look in their eyes and the way they live you can never understand the feeling you have for these people.  True the villages turn V.C. at night sometimes but in the states people turn into robbers and murders at also, and they have much less reason,  I really believe that the villager who become snipers at night are forced to do so or their families will be killed.  These people live in constant fear of being killed or having their villages burned down. 

 
Just when you have convinced them is a friend, something goes wrong. Perhaps a short round or just human error may land an artillery round in a village.  It may be but one village but the word passed to villagers far away.  How do you explain this to the Vietnamese people?  Two weeks ago this happened.  The round landed in a house wounding 2 and killing a 14-year-old girl.  All it cost the US is $100 in Vietnamese money and about 5 mounts of work in many villages to regain their confidence that was lost when one round landed.

It takes awhile for them to adjust to this new environment and they are hostile towards the US. for awhile.  When they realize that all is for the best then we can take steps forward to really help them help themselves.  General Walt (1) said that the war might last 20 years.  In that 20 years there will be tremendous change.  The children that we play with, take care of and become friends with, will grow to be adults and will understand us better than our parents who had already grown to know a way of life far more primitive that it will be in the future.  Some people could look at it as Capitalism or Imperialism but I don’t think the Marine who helps the Vietnamese is trying top change their minds but just trying to help them use their resources to the utmost.   The person who has never seen or done anything to help them raise their standard of living should not condemn.

Cpl Roger Bock

USMC

Dong Ha, Vietnam