Sea Stories by Mustang Major Dick Culver, USMC (Ret.)
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Sea Stories by Mustang Major Dick Culver, USMC (Ret.) An Introduction to The Jouster "Who the Hell is Dick Culver Anyway? 1 "Introduction to Dick Culver's Jouster Tales" 6 Experiences with the United States Marine Corps "OK All You Old Salts" 9 "Famous Quotes from Marines" 11 "Arrest Those Two Scoundrels..." 15 "The Wings of an Angel" 20 "For Carlos Hathcock" 30 "Stolen Valor" 32 "Hockaday Walker and Suicide Holmes" 39 "An Addendum to Hockaday Walker and Suicide Holmes" 46 "Gray Rebel Foxtrot Six - Cartographer Extraordinaire" 47 "Colonel Bill Lee" 52 Parris Island "1954 - VB Rifle Grenades" 56 "McGowin and the Buckets" 60 ITR/Lejeune "A Slight Whiff of Sulfur" 65 "How I Learned to Chaw Tobaccy" 70 "The Passing of a Legend and a Tradition" 73 "Lead Foot Hartnett and the Onslow County Sheriff" 75 "Snake Charming 101" 80 "Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome" 83 "Turning the Tables" 86 "Lance Corporal Steegle" 90 "Alright Private Figowitz, On Your Knees" 95 Training "A Quick and Rough History of Marine Corps Parachute Units" 100 "High Jinks & Hand Grenades" 105 "Presley O'Bannon Reincarnated" 112 "Something Lost in Translation" 116 Naval Post Graduate School "Culver and the Fang Mechanic" 121 "Devil Cults and Charlie Manson" 126 "Human Relations as Taught by the Army to the Navy" 131 Marksmanship "History of the USMC Sniper School" 133 "Krag Rifle Qualification Course” 147 "Rationale of Building a National Match Service" 151 "The Role of the Civilian Marksmanship Program" 153 "Interpolated 1913 Course of Fire" 163 "Rifles - With Illustrations" 167 "When the Tin Can Changed History" 172 "M1 Poem with Watermark" 182 "1902-03 Krag Rifle Qualifications Course" 183 "1902-06 Military Matches" 187 "1904 National Trophy Matches" 192 "1909 Course of Fire" 201 "1913 Corrected Course of Fire - to 1917" 205 "1921 - End of an Era" 208 "Service Rifle Qualification Courses and Target Graphics" 216 "In Distinguished Company" 224 "The M1 Rifle and Silver Horseshoes" 235 "The Designated Dinger" 241 "Why are the Marine Corps Long Range Stocks Painted Red" 253 "Annie Beagle, The Commandant, and the Interservice Match" 256 Korea "The Making of a Legend" 259 Camp Pendleton "A Matter of Honor" 262 "The Unintended Consequences of ill-Considered Statements" 273 Okinawa "The Marines and the 173rd Airborne Brigade" 278 "A Kiss for a Habu" 280 "Charlie Reynolds and the Ishikwaka Fuzz" 284 "Lieutenant Kaagand the Sleeping Indian" 288 Vietnam "Black Jack Westerman" 291 "Black Jack Westerman & General Krulak" 302 "Private Moore" 308 "The Education of a Company Commander" 312 "The Saga of Cold Steel Gunning" 324 "Four Gates to Hell" 328 "Sight Alignment & Trigger Squeeze" 338 "Horrible Jones McDivit and the CH-46 Helicopter" 343 "Indian Summer in Indian Territory" 350 "Infantry Officer by Trade, Intelligence Officer by Accident" 355 "The Fastest Gun South of Da Nang" 367 "Floyd Gibbons' Legacy to the Marines" 372 "Fate" 378 Camel Tales Experiences with the Royal Saudi Marine Corps by Mustang Major Dick Culver, USMC (Ret) These Camel tales are published in Adobe Acrobat PDF format and require Adobe Acrobat Reader to view. Click on the story title to open the document in a separate browser window. Please allow a moment for Acrobat to load and display the file. "Camel Tails Glossary" 392 "Understanding Islam" 400 "The Gifts of the Magi" 413 "A Parrots Tail" 417 "Carlos Makes a Head Call" 420 "Saudi Mentality and Fighting Spirit" 423 "How it all started..." 428 "The Unintended Consequences of Changing Times and Circumstances" 435 "Why do the Fundamentalist Islamics Hate America?" 442 "The Penguins and the Infidels" 450 "I Became an Asset" 456 "Tweaking the Beard of the Prophet" 466 "Panic and Glory in the Glare of Bursting Bombs" 474 "The Saga of Black Cat" 478 "Bugs Teague-Jeddah Bootlegger" 483 "The Infamous Escape Clause" 487 Miscellaneous by Mustang Major Dick Culver, USMC (Ret) "The Last Train Holdup" 492 "Smedley D. Culver" 500 "Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot" 505 "Traditions, Toasts, Sayings and Superstitions" 509 "Recipe for the infamous French75" 513 "Recipe for Hot Buttered Rum" 515 "Captain Jimmy Bones" 517 "Welcome to PEACEFUL Kosovo" 523 "Night Passage to Pristina Part I" 527 "Night Passage to Pristina Part II" 531 "Contrary to Good Order and Discipline" 540 "Saga of the M1, Part 1" 545 "Saga of the M1, Part 2" 555 "The Pipsqueak Pistol That Never Was " 572 Who the Hell is Dick Culver, and where did he come from anyway? I recently sent the son’s eulogy for Colonel Donald Conroy, USMC, The Great Santini, to Dick Culver, our very own Marine Corps Jouster. Dick has now been kind enough to fill us in on his genesis and early shenanigans. The “ride” started early and, with a Daddy like Culver’s, there was never a dull moment. The Jouster may have run off at 14 but after coming up through the ranks the Mustang found his way to the Virginia Military Institute; the Naval Post Graduate School; a Masters degree in Physics; retired a Major after a career in the USMC; and even taught high school for a while. The are too many other things to go into here – you will just have to read the Jouster Tales to fill in most of the blanks on marksmanship, jump school, Vietnam, Arabia, Kosovo and God knows what. Ha! Semper Fi Bob Rohrer I got a copy of this when Pat Conroy wrote it, and it was in truth one of the most well written pieces of literature I have ever read. I was still in the Marine Corps when the book/movie came out, and while I could never get used to the idea of sitting on a blowtorch (my predilections for being a Marine aviator went down the tubes when we got out of the silk-scarf and moustache wax era), I could relate entirely to his dedication to the Corps. I was still organizing the Marine Corps Scout Sniper School at the time, and was raising a kidlet on my own in the Corps at Quantico. I spent one too many years playing the dedicated vanquisher of the foes of our country to concentrate on raising the family in the early days. I came back from the French Indo-Chinese environs after spending perhaps a bit more time than was necessary (66, 67 and 68) to find that I was suddenly a single parent (I insisted on keeping the youngster) - I suspect that she had simply had enough, even though my wife had been born and raised in the Marine Corps herself, with a father that had served in China with John W. Thomason, and not been commissioned until he was 50-years old during the Korean fracas. I think she had been ODed on the military life and expected me to spend a lot more time at home and not volunteering for every fool thing that came along. Alas, too soon old, too late smart I suppose. My kid eventually went to High School down in Harlingen Texas to the Marine Military Academy, but enlisted in the Corps as soon as he finished... I should have spent more time "mentoring" the lil' varmint (to use the modern word), instead of figuring he had already picked up on the basics of life's unexpected turns... Alas, but it's a bit late to reminisce, but still I do have some regrets... I kept his hair cut Marine Corps Fashion even when the fashion was to let it grow, and he always kept his blue jeans properly secured with a belt, (well, you get the picture). By the time he got out of high school he already figured he had 18-years service (he was born in Bethesda Naval Hospital when I was with the 3rd Division even though I was offered the option of waiting until he was born - which unfortunately, my wife was aware of; I was convinced that the 9th Marines were in desperate need of my services). I even told my roommate on Okie that I named 1 the little rug-rat "Smedley D. Culver" (not true of course, but I never told the actual story nor his real name for many years). Having been raised in the Corps I was sure my Wife would understand my absence during my kid’s entrance into the world, but alas, the feminine mystique is different...), and of course my extended stay in SEA didn't help things a bit... Sigh... As a humorous aside, the Smedley D. Culver story got much wider coverage than I had intended, as it was meant to yank the chain of my roommate. My somewhat gullible roommate (a former comrade from my Force Recon Days and the current Team Commander of the Pathfinder Team/Detachment on the Rock at the time), thought I was just nutty enough to have done exactly that. Being very polite, and more of a gentleman than I, (he was a Sunday School Teacher in his stateside time when home with his family) was actually horrified, but didn’t know how to tell me that perhaps it was perhaps cruel and unusual punishment to saddle a youngster with such a moniker. He looked at me a bit funny after the initial exchange, but didn’t say anything for several days. Finally about three days later, he came in and politely mentioned that if I had time to reconsider, it still wasn’t too late to change his name! I told ‘em naw, any name good enough for a two Medal of Honor winner was good enough for my kid. The story followed me around the Corps for years, and of course made the rounds of Okinawa back in ‘61 unbeknownst to me.