"The way you wear your hatThe way you sip your teaThe memory of all thatNo no they can't take that away from me" Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
Fitzgerald and Armstrong, in their famous song, celebrate the value of memories. At this age there are many memories on which to reflect. Among those memories are many from my time in the Marines. For a South Dakota farm boy who'd hardly been away from home the time in the Marines exposed me to a much wider world. While the Marines provided significant challenges it was also a fascinating slice of life and a great learning experience.
Marines are an amphibious force designed to be deployed from sea to land. Getting from ship to shore is a logistic challenge. Obviously in a battle situation a ship cannot dock, lower the gang plank and allow Marines to walk off. Two methods of disembarking were taught. Situated on an aircraft carrier with helicopters on some occasions we were flown to land. At other times we went over the side of the ship and down rope nets to waiting landing craft. This was physically challenging because we carried a hundred pounds of gear. Additionally the ships rolling and the landing craft's bouncing in the waves added to the difficulty. Immediately dropping the rope when a foot touched the landing craft's deck was imperative. Waiting to drop might mean a drop of several feet as the ship rolled and the landing craft dropped down from a wave.
There was the time, off the coast of California, fog rolled in just as we entered the landing craft which had no navigational equipment. For eight hours we circled waiting for the fog to lift to the coxswain could see lights on the shore. When we reached shore we were twenty miles from our designated landing site.
Memories remain!
Takk for alt,
Al
Going down the nets and a fully loaded landing craft, this is a larger one than the one on which we circled 8 hours. It is designed to run to the beach and drop the front ramp as an exit. I once was the first one off and stepped into water over my head becasue we were on a sand bar out from shore...a salt water bath to begin two weeks of field exercises.
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