MARINE FIGHTER/ATTACK SQUADRON FIVE THIRTY ONE

It is difficult at times to sum up your experiences. Over the years, I have become convinced that you cannot do a very adequate job when attempting to describe an experience to someone who has not lived it. Even than, no two people will ever have the same perception of the same event. Thus a fairy tale always starts with "Once upon a time" and a war story always starts with "This ain't no shit".

Many stories have been written about people's experiences in the Marine Corps. Most Marines however, have chosen not to write any thing period! I respect that. Most of us volunteered to serve our Country and our Corps. Most had no where to go and very little to lose.

During the years that I was on active duty from 1962 to1966 the Marine Corps was any thing but a finishing school. In fact, just about every thing that you learned there you needed to forget very quickly once you reentered the life of the "sloppy ass civilian".

I can, as the cartoon Garfield states, now "resemble that remark" and be damn glad of it.

There are a few things however, that will never leave me and I guess that is why they say "Once a Marine, Always a Marine".

Commitment, Leadership, Loyalty, Discipline, Teamwork, Motivation, and Self-Confidence, as defined by the Corps, is not something that one readily forgets.

First, you learned it, than you earned it.

If you cannot walk alone you will never be able to walk with others.

"The man who will go where his colors go, without asking, who will fight a phantom foe in jungle and mountain range, without counting, and who will suffer and die in the midst of incredible hardship, without complaint, is still what he has always been, from Imperial Rome to sceptored Britain to democratic America. He is the stuff of which legions are made. His pride is his colors and his regiment, his training hard and thorough and coldly realistic, to fit him for what he must face, and his obedience is to his orders. As a legionary, he held the gates of civilization for the classical world...he has been called United States Marine." (Lt.Col. T.R. Fehrenbach (USA))