...I graduated from high school. Fourteen hours after the end of the ceremonies I was sworn in to active duty with the USN. An attempt was made to Shanghai me into the USMC. We were all lined up in a big empty room. A Marine sgt. came in and told us to count off by fours. Then he said "Everyone who said 'four' take two paces forward. Congratulations, you are being given the opportunity to become US Marines." I raised my hand. "And what do you want?" "I joined the Navy." "Did you sign a contract?" "Yes, sir." "I am not a sir! Take two pace back. Man on his left take two paces forward." (Muttering out the side of his mouth.) "You son of a bitch!" I sometimes wonder if he made it there and back again...
About a year latter a friend of mine joined the navy. At the induction center they had a mix for the various services. At one point an army sargent addressed his group saying. "You're going for you hearing test now." to which my friend replied "What?" They went through several iterations with the smile on the face of the chief petty officer in the background growing bigger each time. My friend either found out or suspected that the sergeant didn't realized that he'd signed up for the navy vs being drafted the petty officer however knew his recruits and didn't mind seeing a soon to be sailor tweaking an army nco..
I had a deferment until I was 20 and out of technical school. Then I got my draft notice to report to Fort Jackson, by September. This was in the Spring of 1965. Then I went to see the Marine Corps recruiter in Allentown, Pennsylvania. I was “gung ho”, lol. Then my Dad, who was a Captain in the 29th Infantry Division, WWII, had a long talk with me. Then I joined the U.S. Navy. I was so happy that I listened to him.
I initially tried to join the Navy. I went up to MEPS in Knoxville for my physical and testing. We had finished all the various tests and physical exams and were in a large room in three lines standing in our underwear. An old doctor entered the room, put on some rubber gloves, told everyone to drop their skivvies. He started at one end told, grabbed the dudes nards and told him to turn his head and cough, then the next guy, then the next guy, then he comes to one and says again. The guy turns his head, coughs again. The doctor tells him to pull up his skivvies and wait over by the door. The doctor continues on until he reaches the last guy. He walks back to the front of the room, a corpsman or medic is now standing by his side with a box of gloves. We're now going to check your prostates, when I come up behind you, bend over as far as you can and grab your legs. He starts with the first guy and one by one works his way down the line. Then he comes to me. I hear the glove snap, I bend over, grab my calves, a lubed, gloved finger is shoved up my butt and he palpates my prostate. He finishes, tells me to stand up and pull my drawers up. "Son, which service did are you enlisting in?" "The US Navy sir!" I proudly replied. "I'm sorry son, but I have to disqualify you." I was crushed. "But...but why sir?" He looked at me sadly, shaking his head, "it's the EXIT ONLY tattooed across your ass." The navy requires two way traffic.
That joke up there was funny, wasn’t it. When I was in Guantanamo Bay Cuba for 18 months and had port and starboard duty (working 15 days a month as a commissaryman) and just sitting in the back of our own little private “cooks shack,” on the patio, drinking an cold Miller High Life in the everyday tropical heat and watching the Marines running down the road with a cadence call, I once again was so glad that I listened to my father. To each his own.
When I was on Peleliu I have cartoon pinned up on the cork board. A sailor is buffing a passageway and there's a line of Marines behind him. The first Marine is line is saying "What do you mean, this isn't the chow line?"
But I do like that National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia. They did it right. Amazing, to say the least. The Army is building one.
I visited Peleliu while on board Peleliu back in 1985. The terrain was insane. They definitely had to be bigger SOBs than the Japanese to win that fight.
Yes, it is an excellent museum. I still really like the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola as well. It's really well done and I've probably visited it more than any other museum, literally dozens of times. The Naval services do make some nice museums. I joined the Army Historical Foundation several years back when they started fundraising for the National Museum of the US Army, and have made donations to the same. I get regular updates and have high hopes for the museum, but in the back of my mind I worry that they'll screw it up. Never underestimate the Army's ability to have a good idea and execute it poorly.
I read this book Dogged Courage a while back: http://ww2f.com/threads/free-kindle...peleliu-south-pacific-1944.71257/#post-829406 The writing and research are excellent and the descriptions of the 1st Marine Division and later the 81st Infantry Division faced are almost beyond belief.
