CHAPTER 1

The Beginning

Song of Solomon 3:8

I joined the Marine Corps on January 30, 1964. I don't remember havingany particular feelings at that time. After high school, I worked full-timein various low-paying factory jobs on eastern Long Island, New York. I doremember being unemployed at the time I signed up. Joining the militaryseemed like a reasonable solution to my out-of-work situation.

As I remember, the conflict in Vietnam wasn't classified as a war in1964 (there was never a congressional declaration of war). I had never heardof South Vietnam, but I understood that it was somewhere in Indochina.It was also my understanding that the U.S. military was only there as amilitary advisor. Supposedly, we were not involved in any offensive militarymaneuvers.

It was just about three days after I signed up in Levittown, New York,that I was transported to the induction center at Whitehall Street in lowerManhattan. Once there, I repeated an oath of allegiance, and I was swornin to the United States Marine Corps. I was given a quick, but thoroughphysical, followed by a series of inoculations.

After being inducted at Whitehall Street, I was transported by busto Beaufort, South Carolina. From there, I went to Parris Island, SouthCarolina, the US Marine Corps recruit depot. I was never under anyimpression that I would be sent to Vietnam. The Marine Corps personnelin charge of us never said anything about Vietnam until about ten weeksinto our boot camp training. And even then, I never believed that I wouldend up in Vietnam, so I never thought about it.

I was never given any reasons or explanations by the Marine Corpsfor the US military presence in Vietnam. It was generally understood byme and my fellow recruits that the US military was in South Vietnam toprevent a communist takeover by the North Vietnamese. The fundamentalunderstanding held by most US military personnel was that we were tryingto stop the spread of communism, which was an idea widely promulgatedby the US media.

My sixteen-week military basic training took place at the US MarineCorps recruit depot located at Parris Island, South Carolina. Upon my4:00 a.m. bus arrival from Beaufort, South Carolina, the eighty otherrecruits and I were verbally attacked and physically intimidated by a smallgroup of screaming drill instructors wearing Smokey the Bear, wide-brimmed,dark brown hats. Actually, their assault began on the bus. Thesefoul-mouthed, hollering drill instructors physically pulled us off of the busin the dark hours of that morning.

"Get up, you maggots, and get off the bus and fall in outside! And doit now!"

It was apparent that none of us were moving fast enough. Once ourgroup was standing perfectly rigid outside the bus in a timid formation offour rows of twenty recruits, the screaming and swearing reached a morepersonal and intense level. These six or seven drill instructors rotatedthemselves through our formation and stayed in our faces, calling us theworst curse names imaginable. Needless to say, I was surprised by thisviolent behavior to which I was suddenly being subjected. I was also scaredto death, and I didn't hesitate to comply with their wishes. The otherrecruits and I were all terrified, standing in formation and at attention witheyes wide open. We were staring straight ahead. Some of the other recruits,who weren't moving or complying quickly enough, ended up on the groundwith the drill instructor screaming at the top of his lungs and into theirthroats. Some of the other slow-moving enlistees were pounced upon bytwo or three drill instructors at once. It was a concentrated aggravation thatwas completely unexpected. That old element of surprise—very effective!

That was my first introduction to the US Marine Corps. From thatmoment on—and during my entire stay at Parris Island—I becameabsolutely compliant. The recruits who resisted these cursing, maniacaldrill instructors were dealt with brutally and without mercy. One youngman with shoulder-length blond hair was forcibly grabbed, one-handed,by the throat, by a drill instructor who quickly kicked the recruit's feetout from under him and pushed him onto the damp asphalt. The large,lean drill instructor then stood up, placed his right foot on the pronerecruit's neck, and yelled in a pronounced Southern drawl, "Didn't ya hearme boy? I told you to move it, move it!" "Yes, sir! Yes, sir! I'm sorry, sir!"the wide-eyed young man choked. The drill instructor, with both hands,lifted the disheartened recruit off the ground and violently shoved him intothe formation while screaming vulgar obscenities into his left ear. It onlyfurther encouraged the rest of us to be totally obedient.

For the very first time in my young life, I had become totally afraidof something. I was forced to do things without thinking about thembeforehand. The experience completely humbled me. I understood muchlater that, from the Marine Corps' point of view, that was the only way theycould effectively train new recruits from diverse lifestyles and backgrounds.Those initial confrontations allowed the Marine Corps to strip away theold personalities in order to create an entirely new...