The Death March.....
 

Bruce....great story! When I enlisted in the Army in 1956, my Company 1SGT and platoon SGT were both Death March survivors and of course former POW's. What a priviledge it was to serve with these two great soliders; both gone now but in my mind, certainly not forgotten. I learned a great deal from them over the years that both helped me when going through OCS School and help me today just going through life. Thanks for bringing this story to us and bringing many good memories back to front of mind.....Carl Beers

Just read your narrative again and think you should have a byline somewhere in a major paper. Good stuff. I may have to take back all the "flak" I have given the Air Force over the years..being a former Marine and all.

A very moving tribute to our troops of yesteryear and today.

Former member of the Green Machine.

Semper Fi!
 

Also as a Marine E-6, I appreciate Colonel Day's mentioning our beloved Corps in his narrative. I lost two uncles to the Japanese in the Pacific TO, both we USN. In a strange way of looking back, they both died in Kamakazi attacks on their ships, and maybe were lucky not to have been captured and tortured by the cruel Japanese Army. Their values and religion are way different than those here in America. Another uncle was a waist gunner on a B-17 and their bomber was shot down on the Polesti raids- all the crew parachuted out safely, were captured on the ground by members of the Volksturm, and spent 11 months in a Luftwaffe Stalag (german word translated-stockade)-- but were not tortured, even the two members of the crew of the Jewish Faith.

Now our WW11 enemies are our allies, and we find ourselves trying to help Japan recover from the earthquake/disaster and possible Chernobl USSR nuclear disaster- life is, indeed, a "strange twist of fate"--

Francis: "Life is indeed a strange twist of fate" The English,The Germans, The Jappanese The Koreans, The Chinese, The Vietnamese and now, most probably, The Afgans & The Libyans have all built booming economies with the help and money of the Good Ol U.S of A
(well maybe not the English, but that was a long time ago)All our former enemies. And we are in serious debt to most if not all. God must be sitting up there on his throne and laughing out loud at our stupidity. All the lessons that welearned in Vietnam seem to have been forgotten by our current government.

Best Regards, George

Indeed, my friend- Our Lord may well read "MAD" magazine
 

[quote=George Lander;39494]Francis: "Life is indeed a strange twist of fate" The English,The Germans, The Jappanese The Koreans, The Chinese, The Vietnamese and now, most probably, The Afgans & The Libyans have all built booming economies with the help and money of the Good Ol U.S of A
(well maybe not the English, but that was a long time ago)All our former enemies. And we are in serious debt to most if not all. God must be sitting up there on his throne and laughing out loud at our stupidity. All the lessons that welearned in Vietnam seem to have been forgotten by our current government.
--And ignored by the administrations of LBJ and Tricky Dick as well from 1964 and the Gulf of Tonkin SNAU to 1975 and the exit of the American Embassy, under guard by my beloved USMC.. The only ones from the Vietnam War era that took those lessons to heart have their names on the Black Wall-LBJ went back to Texas to practice lifting Beagles by their ears, Nixon went on to be the ONLY President to resign his office in disgrace (although Slick Willie the Draft Dodger should have), MacNamara and his band of cost cutters went back to other endeavours (the cheap SOB didn't want to revamp the POS M-16's for combat reliablilty (like the great M-14 and M-1 Graand) at the cost of many American lives-- You don't win a war with politician or Dan Rather/Walter cronkite coverage (and Hollywood airheads posing for pin-ups with NVA SAM batteries).

One of my regrets in having to pass on your invite for the pending Southern event about a month away is I won't have the chance to sit and sip some bourbon and branch with you and others and thrash over all of this--but that is indeed, one of the many blessings we have in America- and our brave fighting men are sent into Harm's Way by men who have never worn the uniform or field-stripped a weapon, and we are free to discuss and criticise, not so under Tojo, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Ho Chi Min, the Czar, the kaiser- and the list goes on. Thanks for your reply and by doing so, also your support of all the men (including Colonel Bruce Day) who recently honored those American and other allies who perished at the hands on the cruel oriental powers of WW11- "lest we never forget their sacrifices"!!

well thanks, guys. I was only one of many. My Blackberry cell phone at 3 years old just plain died, so got a new I phone and still setting it up. Up in Taos, a favorite place, for the trout waters and saw Arlo Guthrie and the Burns Sisters last night. Back to Kansas tomorrow. Still a little sore on the left foot but not bleeding now and I think I could do the Marine basic end march in a couple weeks. Francis, care to join me next year?

Did Arlo sing the "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" or is that just a Thanksgiving tradition these days?

Been a long time since I "humped the Pendelton hills"
 

-- Thanks, Colonel. I may just do that, I try to walk every day- BUT it was back in the 1960's we did the 20 miler with full pack, Garand and the D.I.'s even checked our canteens to see they were full. Ever since Boot Camp, I have never "cut corners" on boots- Russell, Red Wing, Gokey-and you'll find few Gyrenes/ Army Infantry or Airborne Veterans who didn't learn that lesson. And, if the Genie of the lamp grants me 3 wishes, one of them just might be a late season Kansas pheasant hunt with you, Charlie Herzog, Dr. Jim and John Dunkle. We had a preserve Club hunt last Sat- some snow skiffs, wind- blue sky- BUT-- that's "Country Club" hunting.

Arlo Guthrie is still alive and pickin' out his 1970's stuff?? Every year on Thanksgiving Day a local GR radio station has an "Alice's" marathon several times- almost 20 minutes of pickin' the same Travis style three-finger riff-Wow, don't know how (or why) he did it.

All Veterans owe you and all the Marines and Rangers a salute for the honor you paid to the brave men who died at the hands of the Japanese on not only the Battan Death march following the fall of the Phillipines, but during the entire Second World War- Pacific TO. I have always put the 1959 movie "The Bridge On The River Kwai" in my Top Ten all time great movie list- BUT-- a real Japanese Col. (even if educated in London and fluent in English as was Col. Saito) would not have hesitated to have the British officers machine gunned to death for refusing to do manual labor. And there would have been no Captain Clifton, the medical Officer or sick bay hut- if you didn't work, you didn't eat and either starved to death, died of typhus and got a bullet in the head. The SS and the Gestapo in the European TO were no better, to be fair minded- They machine gunned the escapees they rounded up after the Great Escape. The "Geneva Convention" was window dressing, all wars bring out the absence of humanity of men caught in up in armed conflict!

Arlo Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs- Joan Baez's husband
 

=-- As Arlo was a war protester, I doubt if ALICE was a All-Purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment issue pack. I always wondered how those 1960's piss-heads managed to avoid the Draft, and except for Phil Ochs (who hung himself) and Joan Baez's husband David something went to jail for burning draft cards in D.C., both Dylan and apparently Guthrie are still around and doing OK for themselves-- what a time of turmoil in America. Alice's Restaurant is the random rambling of a fairly good guitar picker almost 20 minutes in duration- and it's not even about a real restaurant when you can get a BLT or ham and eggs and grits-- what da hey??

Now Arlo did a good job with the great train song "The City of New Orleans" which I once even thought he had composed. But it was written by the late Steve Goodman in 1958. Bob Dylan probably has written over 1000 songs and is in the Rock and Roll hall of Fame I hear. My favorite from that era is Kris Kristofferson- son of an Army General and Kris served in an Army Ranger unit- Not too shabby.