Griff Murphey
08-01-2010, 08:13
As a college Army ROTC cadet I shot in nearly every monthly match at Camp Bullis, in San Antonio '67-'71. Among the Marine Reserve shooters there were Col. Bill Dickman, CO of the USMCR sniper school there, Capt. Ed Bremner, CO of the 4th Recon Bn Sniper Platoon, and S/Sgt. John D. Stanfield, the Sniper Platoon sergeant. They were very generous in inviting myself and my Trinity University rifle team friends to come out to Camp Bullis and shoot and go out on their land navigation and sniper exercises. "There I was" on the 1,000 yard line at Bullis and MG Lew Walt, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, walks by to inspect. I'm shooting my DCM NM M-1 mah daddy bought me; I turn to my coach, Corporal Ramirez and suggest I better get my Army baseball-capped a$$ off the line. "Don't worry, Doc!" he says, "Keep shooting... He'll think you are a Marine!" Due to my friendship with John Stanfield I was privileged to meet Carlos Hathcock at the 1968 Regional described in Henderson's book. Later I was out with them at the Ranch where Col. Dickman had them do some shooting and dang it, I shot a Javalina. Capt. Ed Bremner was Capt. Nice Guy and buthchered it for the platoon!
So I have an Army commission. An uncle who is a Navy Captain suggests I interservice transfer... now I am a senior dental student and my orders come. SURPRISE. I am assigned to the 3rd Marine Division. I have left the Army for the Marines... like the Army, only more so...
So I'm on Okinawa... kind of a monastic existance. fixing teeth by day, a few cold beers at night. Boring routine... relieved by shooting some skeet every sunday. "Gunner" R.D. Embese facilitates some shooting on the range at Camp Hansen and I get lucky and win the Division Intramurals. I hear "floats" are fun, so I sign up for one.
I get assigned to 1-4 on Okinawa for my future float. We have out "mess night..." here is my fellow naval officer Church of Christ chaplain Rev. Stan "the man" Mc Creary doing "Carrier Quals" on mess tables wet down with beer.... then I am in the prone position, hands behind my back, drinking beer out of soup bowls as the USMC 2LTs are humming ANCHORS AWEIGH... Rumors indicate we are headed for Vietnam. Our Marines are practicing rapelling out of helicopters daily at Camp Hansen. EASTER SUNDAY we are stood down... I am unshaven, had checked out my match M-14 for the division matches. Suddenly, we are alerted to go to Vietnam. I rush to pack and turn in the match M-14. Dang, I don't get to shoot the Division Matches. OK I am on the USS Duluth with BLT-1-4 and here are Lts. Macklin and Lee marching up and down our passageways playing a cassette tape of SCOTLAND THE BRAVE while we are waiting to find out what do we do on this Vietnam evacuation? A gunny is giving me and the corpsmen of the BAS Vietnamese lessons! Wait a minute, the war was over three years ago, wasn't it? What the hades have I done to myself getting out of the Army! I could be in Wiesbaden!
One minor worry about my sudden departure from Okinawa was my BOQ room full of 1/1200 metal waterline ship models and some craftsman HO La Belle wood passenger cars I had built and was building. They said the battalion would leave a stay behind officer to pack everyone's rooms up. About two months later the Marine lieutenant who had that job got to Subic and said, "Doc, when we saw all your models, we did not want to pack them up. There was no big housing shortage in the BOQ so we just left your room like it was..."
So I am in a jeepney in Olongapo... only the man above knows how many San Migoos have been consumed... and we are singing "OVER THERE...!" at the top of our lungs. Olongapo etiquette... when dragging back into the base early AM one holds one's thumb over one's rank as that may not be the best moment for that boardlike, vibrating USMC salute rendered by the gate guards.
Then Colonel (Later General and USMC Commandant) Al Gray, 4th Regiment commander, has to be one of my most unforgettable people... told our officers' call on USS DURHAM it looked like we were going to be sailing up the Saigon River, "...like that movie THE SAND PEBBLES... sand-bagging the heavy weapons on deck..." Later after that was all over, at a champagne brunch at Cubi Point O Club, he took the time to vent with me about the concrete firing lines on Okinawa at Camp Hansen and what a mistake it was not to have kept the gravel ones!
There was the Ville Patrol at Hansen... going out into Kin Ville during a time of some racial/other strife. I have forgotten the name of my USMC staff sergeant and corporal who went with me but I did what I was ordered to do by our dental captain - what amounted to an unexpected (and due to the SOFA, UNARMED) shore patrol - and never felt scared with such tough companions.
There were so many moments and so many favors done getting on ranges; I just can't say enough how much I enjoyed my brief but unforgettable two year vacation as a guest Marine Navy Dentist! I got lucky, yes I did.
So I have an Army commission. An uncle who is a Navy Captain suggests I interservice transfer... now I am a senior dental student and my orders come. SURPRISE. I am assigned to the 3rd Marine Division. I have left the Army for the Marines... like the Army, only more so...
So I'm on Okinawa... kind of a monastic existance. fixing teeth by day, a few cold beers at night. Boring routine... relieved by shooting some skeet every sunday. "Gunner" R.D. Embese facilitates some shooting on the range at Camp Hansen and I get lucky and win the Division Intramurals. I hear "floats" are fun, so I sign up for one.
I get assigned to 1-4 on Okinawa for my future float. We have out "mess night..." here is my fellow naval officer Church of Christ chaplain Rev. Stan "the man" Mc Creary doing "Carrier Quals" on mess tables wet down with beer.... then I am in the prone position, hands behind my back, drinking beer out of soup bowls as the USMC 2LTs are humming ANCHORS AWEIGH... Rumors indicate we are headed for Vietnam. Our Marines are practicing rapelling out of helicopters daily at Camp Hansen. EASTER SUNDAY we are stood down... I am unshaven, had checked out my match M-14 for the division matches. Suddenly, we are alerted to go to Vietnam. I rush to pack and turn in the match M-14. Dang, I don't get to shoot the Division Matches. OK I am on the USS Duluth with BLT-1-4 and here are Lts. Macklin and Lee marching up and down our passageways playing a cassette tape of SCOTLAND THE BRAVE while we are waiting to find out what do we do on this Vietnam evacuation? A gunny is giving me and the corpsmen of the BAS Vietnamese lessons! Wait a minute, the war was over three years ago, wasn't it? What the hades have I done to myself getting out of the Army! I could be in Wiesbaden!
One minor worry about my sudden departure from Okinawa was my BOQ room full of 1/1200 metal waterline ship models and some craftsman HO La Belle wood passenger cars I had built and was building. They said the battalion would leave a stay behind officer to pack everyone's rooms up. About two months later the Marine lieutenant who had that job got to Subic and said, "Doc, when we saw all your models, we did not want to pack them up. There was no big housing shortage in the BOQ so we just left your room like it was..."
So I am in a jeepney in Olongapo... only the man above knows how many San Migoos have been consumed... and we are singing "OVER THERE...!" at the top of our lungs. Olongapo etiquette... when dragging back into the base early AM one holds one's thumb over one's rank as that may not be the best moment for that boardlike, vibrating USMC salute rendered by the gate guards.
Then Colonel (Later General and USMC Commandant) Al Gray, 4th Regiment commander, has to be one of my most unforgettable people... told our officers' call on USS DURHAM it looked like we were going to be sailing up the Saigon River, "...like that movie THE SAND PEBBLES... sand-bagging the heavy weapons on deck..." Later after that was all over, at a champagne brunch at Cubi Point O Club, he took the time to vent with me about the concrete firing lines on Okinawa at Camp Hansen and what a mistake it was not to have kept the gravel ones!
There was the Ville Patrol at Hansen... going out into Kin Ville during a time of some racial/other strife. I have forgotten the name of my USMC staff sergeant and corporal who went with me but I did what I was ordered to do by our dental captain - what amounted to an unexpected (and due to the SOFA, UNARMED) shore patrol - and never felt scared with such tough companions.
There were so many moments and so many favors done getting on ranges; I just can't say enough how much I enjoyed my brief but unforgettable two year vacation as a guest Marine Navy Dentist! I got lucky, yes I did.