My Old Job
This is a group of Marines from 1st Platoon, A Company, Marine Barracks 8th and I, c. 1980, First Lt. John Olsen commanding. This was a show put on by the Corps where the luckless enlisted men were dressed in Hollywood extra outfits and sent around to schools and political events, we are wearing uniforms from America's various wars up to that point. The C.S.A. is not represented, all of the Marine officers deserted to the South so they are still touchy on that point. We were accompanied by members of the Drum and Bugle Corps while a narrator read the history of that flag as we would walk out onto the stage, usually a basketball court. We had to black the soles of our cleated shoes, they really did check for that. The Marine fourth from the left wearing the Nutcracker costume with a tall black leather shako is your's truly. I am portraying a Marine from the War of 1812, which we lost until Andrew Jackson got involved after the war was over, we called that uniform the Ringmaster costume. We wore the same thing in Mexico, one of your better land grabs in history. All of us wanted to steal that custom made shako but don't you know the Corps knew what a pack of souveniring delinquents we were and took steps accordingly? The Ringmaster costume was usually worn by the smallest member there as tailoring was not an option and who cared how it fit so long as every child in the top bleacher seats could see it. Of course, as the runt of the litter I got the short straw, that uniform had a very high stock collar designed to keep one's head up at the correct angle. As I am 6 feet in this picture thanks to the built up cleats I am wearing you can see that this was a pretty tall group of men, or Marines anyway.* Once one of our guys was marching out to the center court and he hooked that arrowhead flagstaff on a basketball net, hilarity ensued! We are posing in front of the back of the Commandant's house. The Marines at the barracks were in two important actions, Bladensburg, where they were all dressed as I am in the above, and it was 8th and I Marines under the command of Col. Robert Edward Lee who took Harper's Ferry from that nutcase abolitionist John Brown.
I hated 8th and I and begged for assignment to an infantry division, but at least First Platoon was a hell of a lot better than:
The U.S.M.C. Silent Drill Team. This is the Friday Night Parade, and the drill team is first to this side of the center walkway. Or to the right, one or the other. As you can see this is considerably less than a standard battalion of 800 men. The Corps liked the way 'battalion' sounds so they kept it. This is a publicity still and could have been taken at anytime since WWII, I must have stolen it. I hated the drill team and was only on it for a year. This seems to be a dress rehearsal as the Parade took place at night. We would throw those M-1's with attached bayonets around like we were the Kilgore Rangerettes. My platoon commander was First Lt. Steven R. Kappes of Athens, Ohio, who would go on to be Moscow Head of Station and then Deputy Director Operations Central Intelligence Agency for seven years under Bush and Obama, and be indicted for murder in Italy. Our other officers were also studs!
Boy, did I loathe the entire thing, all of it. I would have rather been at Tarawa, yes I would.
But our costumes were sexier and cost more money! I did train every single day, for hours, for combat, this kind of combat-
https://youtu.be/CbBojWrOV2Y?t=14
And yes, we marched to the tune of The British Grenadiers every Friday night. Picture yanked off the net, but this is what I looked like. And those trousers are unsat.
A worthy opponent. He would have made an excellent frontman for, say, ZZ Top. Oh, and oddly enough I have the names of all those guys in the top picture written on the back, I have always valued papers and photos, judging from my comic book collection.
The only thing I don't keep is pornography, not quite tickey-boo and usually in terrible shape after I get through with it.
I love the internet.
After all, clothes make the, er...man.
*Cleats is exactly the right word. Those are Corfam shoes a sort of patent leather, a Dupont innovation. We had a thin horseshoe of steel nailed to the bottom of our shoes in order to ring out when we were marching and such. The Army show people, the Old Guard, had brass strips attached to the inner heels of their shoes in order to sound resonating when they clicked their feet together, I always thought that pretty cool. Most Prussian. Our cleats would slip on smooth surfaces and we got in trouble if we fell down or slid. Those punishments were to encourage the rest of us.
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