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I got a phone call from a former SEAL who ask me if I wanted to attend an OSS ceremony at MARSOC at Camp Pendelton when I hesitated on my answer (LONG Drive from states away). He asked if I could pick up the last living original MARINE RAIDER and bring him to the ceremony as the trainer of the OSS Maritime Unit (Later called SEALS). I said I would drive him to D.C. if needed. I picked up Jim the next morning at 0615 and started the drive to Camp Pendelton CA. Jim is 94 is very articulate and sharper than I with memory and we talked non-stop until we arrived at the new MARSOC compound and I had to show military IDs to get in. We were escorted past the ID scanners by the MARSOC S-3 into a waiting room. An employee of the museum at MCRD ask for assistance carrying equipment into the room we were in so I followed him out to the parking lot where he handed me a Johnson Light Rifle and an M-3A1 Greasegun to carry in with some other like items. We set up the room with items the OSS and MARINES issued to both Jim and the last living OSS Maritime Unit member who we were honoring.
Imagine you are 17 years old and bored and decide to join the US Marine Corps in Oct 1941. You go through Boot camp on Paris Island and am the top shooter in the Battalion with your 1903 Springfield. You are one of top the scorers on the written entry tests so you are offered any military field of work in the Marines and you choose radios. After radio training, you volunteer for a new unit in the Marines call Raiders and by 7 Aug 1942 at the age of 18 you are on the island of Tulagi in the Solomons for the 1st landing of the Battle of Guadalcanal. Before you are 19 years old you have been wounded three times and have been in over 100 contacts with the enemy.
Jim using his hands to help explain history to a retired Colonel from the SAS, a retired SEAL, former OSS member and I.
I will post some photos as soon as I learn how with Photobucket now blocking and the link to the story as soon as the PIO posts it on the MARSOC page.
Sorry, this is so long but I have barely begun to touch on all that happened and the topics of discussion.
Thanks Merle
Last edited by Paladin on Tue Oct 03, 2017 10:04 pm, edited 5 times in total.
Because I Can, and Have
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USAF-72-76
God Bless America.
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Always consult an expert first.
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." -Theodore Roosevelt-
Isnt it amazing how many people post without reading the thread?
JerryB wrote: ↑Tue Oct 03, 2017 9:49 pm
I reckon that is about as special honor as a man can get. You must feel that you were entrusted with a very special passenger.
I'll second that! Much thanks for sharing the story.
The greatest patriot...
is he who heals the most gullies. Patrick Henry
WOW! What an honor! I would have done the same thing and I am retired Army! Anxiously waiting for more pics and the rest of the story.
On a side note: I remember being issued an M3a1 greasegun when I was with the 82nd. I loved to shoot them things, except when they ran away on you and you just have to let the mag empty to get to stop shootin.
