What the HECK are you talking about?

This past weekend, I was exhausted, but I still went in to the museum to volunteer, they had 600+ OCS candidates in the morning. My final act, was to relieve a fellow docent at the Iwo flag and I have no idea why I started telling the guests that were there about the final Bonzai attack on Iwo. Only, I didn't call it a Bonzai attack, I called it a Kamakazi attack. Good grief. They were looking at me as if to say, "What are you talking about?"

This is what I was trying to tell them about -- ( from Wikipedia) - - what I told them - - garbage.

On the night of March 25, a 300-man Japanese force launched a final counterattack in the vicinity of Airfield Number 2. Army pilots, Seabees and Marines of the 5th Pioneer Battalion and 28th Marines fought the Japanese force until morning but suffered heavy casualties—more than 100 were killed and another 200 Americans were wounded. The island was officially declared "secured" the following day.

Although still a matter of speculation because of conflicting accounts from surviving Japanese veterans, it has been said that Kuribayashi led this final assault,[1] which unlike the loud banzai charge of previous battles, was characterised as a silent attack. If ever proven true, Kuribayashi would have been the highest ranking Japanese officer to have personally led an attack during World War II. Additionally, this would also be Kuribayashi's final act of departure from the normal practice of the commanding Japanese officers committing seppuku behind the lines while the rest perished in the banzai charge, as happened during the battles of Saipan and Okinawa.
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After my morning at the museum, I came home and took a 3 hour nap Boy did I need it! I still need more sleep. I don't think I will ever catch up.

Lesson - - don't talk military history when you are tired and hungry.

Some New Additions to the Museum

As you know, when I notice new things, I like showing them to you. There is just so much to see in the National Museum of the Marine Corps. You can't and won't be able to see it all.

Being a regular, you get used to things being a certain way. A lighting level, particular items being in a case, or a display. It is amazing how quickly you notice changes. Or maybe I'm just sensitive. Saturday, the Iwo Jima gallery was darker than usual. The other docent said it was usually that dark. No, not THAT dark. I quickly noticed a string of overhead lights that had not turned on.

Well, we've had some empty cases for over two years. Then all of a sudden, artifacts started to appear.

For instance, these Japanese personal items collected by Marines on Iwo Jima. I don't think US Servicemen can smuggle swords and rifles back in their personal gear any more. Since I am a picture person, I find the personal photographs to be the most interesting. The enemy is always demonized, yet the enemy is no different than we are. There are wives that the men knew they would never see, proud fathers the young men wished to honor by their service, and siblings - a brother - who was also serving in the emperor's army. Memories of stolen kisses, family dinners, boyhood pranks played with a co-conspirator. I wonder how often the owners of these photos looked at them and thought to the days before the war?



In the Korean gallery they have added some items that Marines would have been equipped with while landing at Inchon. That big chunk of rock, part of the sea wall.



Artifacts belonging to Marine Corps leadership at the Inchon landing fill another case. The ribbons on the right, "Chesty" Puller's Korean War awards and his pipe. The map in the back ground is an Inchon landing map and in the middle of the case is an action report about the Inchon landing.



Work continues in Semper Fi Memorial Park, it hasn't changed significantly enough for me to post the pictures I have taken. They are building the road to the chapel before they start anything with the chapel. Construction on the chapel is to begin this fall and should be completed in the spring. Construction on the new galleries is also to begin this fall.

Have You Seen This MoveOn.Org Ad?

I don't watch much television (um, none at all unless its on while I'm at the gym, which has been next to never the last two months because of work) so I had not seen this commercial but I read about this ad in the New York Times Op Ed section this morning.

This ad is being aired in my home state of Ohio. 

The one thing that hit me when reading the op ed piece was, this could have been my mom years ago.  This is my sister today.  Several years ago, when my nephew as 2, he was fascinated with the pictures I was putting in my scrapbook from the Museum.  This was all restoration stuff, up close looks at a lot of aircraft.  Nephew sat with me, like all 2 year olds and had me tell him what all the aircraft and weapons were, over and over.  By the end of the week, my nephew could ID a UH1E, CH-53, CH-46, Harrier, F-18, and anti-aircraft gun.  My sister's comment to me, "If he grows up and joins the military, I'm going to kill you."

My family is not pro-military, nor are they anti-military - - they could just care less. 

Yes, I'm a bit of an anomaly.  Ironically, my dad, a history teacher, took us to visit Civil War battle fields when we were kids - - getting me interested in military related history.  They encouraged me when I read every book about the Vietnam War that was in our Smalltown library.  However, when I talked about joining the military, out came all the arguments why I shouldn't and why I wouldn't be a good soldier, sailor or marine.  Instead of encouragement, they fed my mind with insecurities and doubts.  I think they also looked at my joining the military as a failure on their part to provide.  Because the only kids in Smalltown, Ohio that went into the military were the ones who 1) didn't have the money for college or 2) had no other options.

Ironically, I am probably one of the few kids that went to college a liberal and graduated a conservative.

To this day, I regret not joining the military, even if just for a short time. 

My family is luke warm about my time at the Marine Corps Museum.  I've tried showing my dad pictures of something only to have him say, "I'm kind of sick of military stuff."  O.k. it was the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where military stuff was front and center on the news.  The fact that I work for a defense contractor brings offhanded jabs.  I tried inviting my parents down for a family weekend at work, but they declined.  However, they've had no problem driving further south to my sister's to attend things at UVA.  Do I feel slighted.  Yes, I'll be honest.  But it is what it is.

My mom recently commented, "You spend to much time at that Marine Museum, you need a life."

"THAT" Marine Museum. Holy cow, that is like saying "THOSE people." 

I have a life.  I enjoy the time I spend at the museum and the people I meet, the things I learn.  However, this past month, I've struggled with that comment she made.  My friends from church were so surprised that my mom made that comment, "Don't they see how you light-up when you talk about it?  You really come alive."  Her comment has really deflated me.  I'm struggling to choose not to let it suck the enjoyment I have out of it.

My parents continue to say, "Not our kids."

The op/ed's author quotes the comments of a soldier's mom, "Does that mean that she wants other people's sons to keep the wolves at bay so that her son can live a life of complete narcissism?  What is it she thinks happens in the world?... Someone has to stand between society and danger.  If not my son, then who?  If not little Alex then someone else will have to stand and deliver."

All I have to say, is, it is a hard life and I respect the men and women who choose that career path.  MoveOn.Org is so lucky to have such a strong military backing their right to free speech.

"Its So Nice to Be Talked To Like A Human Being"

That was the comment an Officer Candidate made to me Saturday. He and two other candidates asked me how to get into a particular gallery and I showed them the "secret door" short-cut.

I gotta tell you, I would hate to be a female candidate. The female drill instructors were really riding these women. Holy cow! I observed one female candidate get "talked to" and the candidate, fighting back tears, had to stand and say how she had messed up.

The men got it just as bad. I asked one officer if he was going to tell his group about the Huey he said he'd gather them up and let me tell them. To one guy he says, "Are you part of my group." The candidate didn't answer correctly. The officer said, "Its yes or no. Are you part of my group? Yes, or no."

For some reason the song Paradise by the Dashbaord Lights just flashed through my head..."Whats it going to be boy, Yes......Or....NO!?"

I wonder how many candidates are praying for the end of time - - or at least the end of the summer. I also wonder how many will choose to be Marine Corps Officers.

Hit AGAIN!

I can't believe it! Someone hit me with their car AGAIN!

This happens to me EVERY YEAR!!!! I was driving down an aisle in the grocery store parking lot, was stopped behind a car that was turning left and then BAM! A guy in a Nissan Xterra backed into me. That in itself wasn't so bad I mean it was upsetting. What really made me mad, while I was getting this guys information, a lady across the aisle came out and got in her car - - and she couldn't back out of her spot because my car was in her way. She's yelling, "What the hell is goinging on, why are you stopped?" Some man yells, "I don't know why they are stopped their just standing there talking, pretty rude."

OMGoodness! I yelled back at the lady that I had just been backed into and I was getting the information. She threw up all these hand gestures. So o.k. I had to move my car. What a bitch! All I'm going to say is, what comes around, goes around. However, I'm not quite sure why I keep having people back into me or rear end me EVERY YEAR.

What really stinks. I called one of the leaders for Single's Sunday school to tell her that I wasn't coming in this morning. I was going to go to church and go home to go back to bed. I was EXHAUSTED this morning. I was EXHAUSTED yesterday and took a three hour nap. I felt bad calling at the last minute because they don't have anyone who can run the Power Point. This morning I just felt like I had hit the brick wall. So after church I went to the grocery store on the way home and this happened.

Oh, USAA doesn't have weekend hours. You have to go online and file a claim or wait until Monday. The other guy had USAA insurance too. Well, USAA is having this new online security thing where you have to get a pin number, but you have to have a temporary pin number in order to get the new pin number - - Was this sent to me? Is this some number I already have? ARGH! I'm going to have to wait til Monday morning to call them, which is going to be difficult as I'm teaching a training class.

Here is the one thing I'm the most worried about, that I didn't get all the information that I needed to get.

How Do You Explain a CAP to an 8-year old?

That was my dilema today at the museum. Explaining a Combined Action Platoon (CAP) to an 8-year old.

Why was I doing this. Well, he asked.

It started out with me over hearing him say to his dad, "Wow! look at that." While looking up at the UH1E (Huey) outside the Vietnam gallery. I told them the story behind the helicopter (flown by Steven Pless, he and his air crew, highest decorated air crew in Marine Corps aviation history). To that the little boy says, "That was one cool story!" Then he pointed to the CAP team display and asked me if this had anything to do with the Huey story.

So - - the explanation of what a Combined Action Platoon is. My attempt:

This is a Combined Action Platoon. You have a US Marine that had trained local Vietnameese on how to defend their village, kind of like a National Guard (no slight to any USNG folks out there, I know you do more than defend your local towns). Then I said, "During this big attack by the bad guys called the Tet Offensive, the villages that had CAPs teams were not taken over by the bad guys."

His parents were amused at listening to me try to explain this too their son. I think he got half of what I was talking about.

One of the other docents said they would have explained it as a Sheriff in the wild west with his posse and how they protected the towns from robbers.

Any other suggestions out there?

Largest OCS Class Since Vietnam, Visiting Museum

The largest Officer Candidate School (OCS) class since the Vietnam war is visiting the museum, in shifts, over the next couple weeks.



Thanks to an 8 hour floating holiday that I had to use or lose, I was able to help out with Friday night's visit. We had about 400 candidates come through. The first group, got quick overview tours. We, the docents, made our plans on the fly. There were three of us and four platoons of them. We each took a platoon and the fourth was spilt up by squad to the other platoons. The plan, one docent would take his group in the galleries from the beginning of Marine Corps History, the other would start in Leatherneck and I would start at the end (Vietnam) and then come out to Leatherneck.

Best laid plans did not work.

When I finished, the group in Leatherneck was still in Leatherneck. So I took everyone into Korea. Amazingly, I timed it just right and when we were done in Korea, the first group going through Legacy just passed us and the other group was coming up the hall, so I had my group pile on in to WW2 where I quickly walked them through. When we came out, the second group was just walking by. So I took my guys down to WW1 and out to Leatherneck Gallery. Whew! It was a bit of scrambling.

One thing that I found kind of cool, here was little old me, non-Marine, standing in the middle of a circle of an entire, all-male, platoon of 20-somethings, future Marine Corps officers, in utilities, all of them listening to me educate THEM on Marine Corps history. Kind of wild. Oh, and forgive me for that run-on sentence.



Today, an additional 250 came through and next week we'll have two groups of 400-plus each.

Yes, that's around 1600 Marine Corps Officers in the making. Not all of them will be graduating from OCS this summer, some are part of the Platoon Leadership Class (PLC). These are college students who go through 6 weeks of training in the summer between their junior and senior years of college and then finish up with the final six weeks the summer after they graduate from college.



The fun thing about giving these young men tours, they knew some stuff and they asked me questions - - some got longer answers than they wanted - -because I just got so excited about what they were asking me. History excites me. Being able to weave general world history into the Marine Corps story makes it come a live.

On that line, one of the Drill Instructors (and they don't call them drill instructors at OCS, however, I forgot the new title) asked me if I enjoyed working at the museum.

I told him I loved volunteering. He was surprised that we are volunteers, not paid staff. He was even more surprised to learn that I was not a Marine. I asked him what he did in the Marine Corps. Infantry. I asked him if he had been to Iraq, he had, the first battle for Fallujah. I mentioned I had read the book No True Glory. He said, he is in that book. I asked him where and what he did. He told me he is in the middle of the book, that he had won a pretty big award for his action. Of course, I go and ask, "What did you do." To that he replied he didn't like talking about it because he felt like he was bragging.

"I'll just have to look you up in the book." I said, "What is your name?"

"Sagredo."

I told him I actually liked listening to veterans stories because it made things seem more real for me, especially if I was meeting a real person I had read about. There is something personal about meeting the flesh and blood person. I mean words are so two dimensional. When you meet the PERSON, you've got a face, if you shook hands, you've actually touched them.

Now, I know I've mentioned this before. Sometimes I feel guilty after talking to a family member or a veteran - - because at the museum, I am just beaming. I love it here. I love telling the stories about the "things" and about the people I've learned about and met. However, often times, the stories and people they remember, are associated with probably the worst experience of their lives. I've had WW2, Korean and Vietnam veterans break down in tears in my arms because they remember the friends they lost and how they lost them; amputees and severally injured marines solemnly tell me about how they got blown up and the corpsman who saved their lives; family members who tell me of the loss of their child. It can be very emotionally draining at times.

I felt a little bad, because as Sagredo began telling me his story, I felt like I should be remembering it from having read it. I have found that so many of the stories start to melt together and I have a hard time remembering names and situations. I did go home and look up Sagredo's story, pages 148 through 154 of No True Glory. As soon as I started reading it again, I remembered it because what had stood out to me was the death of the Amtrac's crew chief, CPL Kevin Kolm. An RPG had penetrated the vehicle from one of the rear tracs, severely wounding the platoon commander and lodging into the engine, which burst into flame, trapping Kolm. They were deep in enemy territory, had to evacuate the vehicle and take cover in a home. 16 Marines, half of them wounded, had to fend off over 100 insurgents, for several hours. When help finally arrived, the Marines in the house were literally down to their last bullets.

I felt more guilty today after finding additional news articles about that day and how emotional it was for him to receive the Silver Star (third highest award for valor). He didn't want the award because according to one of the articles, it would remind him of that day. It was a day he thought it was going to come down to hand-to-hand combat, they might not survive it, he may never see his wife and children again. I don't want people to be thinking about the worst day of their life.

However, I will fall back to what Norm Hatch told his fellow Iwo Jima veterans, "You are doing your service and disservice if you don't tell your children and grandchildren your story."

I think it is very important for combat tested Marines to share their experiences with new recruits and officer candidates. Some of the officer candidates have seen combat, and they are a wealth of information for the "green" guys who haven't. You can go around being all macho, but when reality hits, you are, in the words of an Iwo Jima veteran, "So scared I didn't go to the bathroom for three days," and you do what you have to do. In some cases, some people perform beyond what anyone could have expected, while others, not so much.

It is the Sargredos in this world that I am grateful for, and others like him who haven't been recognized. They and their families make great sacrifices daily to provide folks like me with the freedoms we take for granted. I can also say, I won't forget his story.