Epilogue
After finishing this narrative, I thought I'd add a few thoughts and impressions I've had over the years. I've tried to make the memoir as factual as I can recall the events. It has been a time of many happy events, I've made many friends, few enemies, and always tried to give every man an even break and help anyone I could who needed it.
I was never a saint and never tried or claimed to be. I was what I was — a Marine. I tried to be the very best Marine I could be. Sara, my wife, said I'd been "brainwashed." Perhaps, but a Marine is something special. From the day he reports to boot camp, he's taught that he can do anything he is asked to do. His training is slanted toward this. He's taught from the first day that being a warrior is a team effort. He knows that if he falls on the field of combat, someone will be out there to help him. He's taught that any man down deserves your best effort to bring him back. I think this is one of the big differences between the Marines and other services. It's the knowledge that the man on your right or left will not turn and run if the going gets rough. When we were relieved by an Army unit in Korea, the first question they asked us was, "Where's the bug-out route?"
The pride of a Marine is of many parts. There is no one thing you can point to and say, "This is what makes a Marine what he is." You have to search the heart and mind of every man who fought against inconceivable odds and hardships on Guadalcanal, Tulagi, Gavutu, Bougainville, Vella Lavella, Eniwetok, Bikini, Peleliu, Guam, Saipan, Tinian, Iwo-Jima, Okinawa, Ieshima. I think a little bit of each one is in all of us. It is truly like the saying of the three musketeers: "All for one and one for all." This concept seems to really come together in a Marine.
I do not think this is merely a case of Marines having been brainwashed. There's no way you could fool half a million men and women. And it isn't only the Marines themselves. To every military organization worldwide, the Marines are the elite. The Germans called us teuffle-hunds — dogs from hell; hence the nickname "Devil Dogs." The Australians say U.S. Marines saved Australia from occupation by the Japanese. Marines were the first units anywhere in the Pacific to stop the Japanese (Midway), let alone take back islands that had been captured (Guadalcanal).
But all bullshit aside, there is something special that held us together. Call it pride, call it brainwashing. But when the chips are down it is Semper Fidelis
. . . Always Faithful. That wasn't just a motto. A Marine is faithful to his God, his country and his friends.
To put it all in perspective, as they say in Japan, Shimpai Nai . . . No Sweat.
SEMPER FIDELIS!
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