Cleaning Out The Garage Part Two

Bubba Jenssen.  I have no idea how to spell his name or if that is his first name.  Here we have about 220 lbs of giant, dangerous Marine.  He was exceptionally bright and a great reader.  This was in First Platoon, 1980.  He would go to Lorton Penitentiary and box with the inmates for fun, I guess.
Dig on that tattoo!

Ed Kulas, Infantry School, San Onofre California, 1979.  Ed was large and very smart.  I never saw him after we were sent forth to serve.  I liked him a lot.  He was from New Jersey.  People like Ed and Bubba would have carried you off a battlefield under fire should it come to that.  I would never want a friend to risk his life for me.

Here is Ed in front of some kinda combat engineering vehicle, or maybe an APC with a plow welded to it.  San Onofre had a park of old tanks and such.  This is the only photo I have of mechanical things associated with the Corps.  Notice how exceptionally squared away Ed is, and this at a time when we blocked our own covers.  I always took pride in looking sharp in uniform, as did we all.  Fuck a bunch of Viet Nam defeatism.
This is an LVT-5.

Me, alfresco, in front of a building somewhere.

Me and Corporal Miller, BMF.  You can tell us apart because he is a little taller than me.

Canada was so much fun.  What a lovely country.  We saw the changing of the guard at the Prime Minister's place complete with bagpipes and exaggerated British solder foot stamping action.  We went through the peace tower and all kinds of stuff I should remember but don't.   I am amazed that we were not all locked up after the party that night.  As it was many of us were very much in the doghouse.  One of our guys was caught stealing a sailboat. (borrow, he said, and I believe him).   Our officers demanded exemplary behavior and usually got it, but the Canadian beer pushed us over the edge.
I blame Canada!

Oh, yeah, we had someone special there that night.

The mirror inspection.  L/Cpl Carls is the inspector, right, and he was really good.  Normally this is a sergeant's slot.  I think Carls made sergeant in a year.  He was a tough farmboy from Minnesota or some such icebox and he would call me a city boy.  I was.   My dad took this picture at the Texas State Fair in 1979.  Those rifles weigh 10 and 3/4 lbs with bayonet.

It was quite an honor being associated with this team.  Now days all these young men have many medals.  In my day usually the first medal a person got was the good conduct medal, nothing to brag about and taking years to get.  The inspector before Carls got the Navy Achievement Award and that was the best one could usually do at the time.  That sergeant was Gregory Hise, as I recall.

The Evening Parade, Marine Barracks, 8th and I.

I almost faint at the idea of having to do this again.  I doubt that will ever be a concern.
These sergeants out front are fat.