Former POW Lives on Faith the Coast of Lebanon
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Proceed With Caution `Over 30' Pure Gold School routes Career leatherneck Quantico Marine designated for just can't get enough grabs wrestling medal current year `Marine green' in Pan-Am games See Page A-2 See Page A-4 See Page B-3 HAWAII MARINE Voluntary paNnieni for deliver. to MCAS housing/101 per four-week period. VOL. 12 NOV. 37 KANEOHE RAY, HAWAII. SEPT. l I, 1983 l'Vs ENT) -IA U Ii PAGES LtGen Cooper laudsTand of Brothers' concept EDITOR'S NOTE: The following are family . a band of brothers. We leadership philosophy and its roots is th.e first of a two-part interview with will never be defeated in combat reach deeply into your career as a the Commanding General, Fleet because we believe and trust in each Marine. How did you arrive at Marine Force, Pacific Lieutenant other. formalizing it into the code of written General Charles G. Cooper with Now that was how we lived and how principles we see today? Sergeant Chuck Jenks, Press Chief, we fought. I remember so vividly that A. Well, I sort of defied fate in all the FMFPac Public Affairs Office. whether we were tied in on a company heavy fighting there without getting Q. General Cooper, we'd like to begin perimeter or were going out on a killed, but I was finally wounded quite by touching on a part of your reinforced platoon combat patrol, that seriously on Sunday the 17th of -lune philosophy that's earned you a wide we were fearless because we knew we - it was Fathers' Day. I remember it reputation throughout the Corps - would make it, we knew we would win. because 'my wife was expecting our your mark, if you will - and that, of We would fight like hell, but we would first child any day then. We took a hill course, is your "Band of Brothers" make it. So that was the atmosphere in heavy fighting that day near the concept. Will you summarize it for our that gave life to the band of brothers punchbowl about 1,000 meters from readers? concept. A. I'd be happy to do that. This "Band Q. It's obviously a central part of your Con't. on Page A-10 of Brothers" concept is a growth of my early experiences as a young second lieutenant with an average group of Marines during very intense combat in the Korean War. I joined "B" Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines in the spring of 1951 right out of the Basic School. This was during the heavy fighting of the Chinese Spring BAND OF BROTHERS Offensive and our summer counter- I ALL MARINES ARE MIMEO TO Coal TT ANO RFSPECI AS INDIVIDUALS. 8U1 MUST ABIDE BY COMMON offensive. Company B just always STANDARDS ESTABLISHED V PROPER AUTHORITY seemed to be right in the thick of 2 A MARINE SHOULD NEAR LIE. CHEAT. OR STEAL FROM A FELLOW MARINE OR FAH TO COME To HIs AID IN TIME V NEW things. We took a lot of casualties - J ALL MARINES SHOULD CONTRIBUTE 100% Di /HEIR ABILITIES 70 THE UNIT'S MISSION ANY LESS EfFINIT there were times when the company BY AN INDIVIDUAL PASSES THE BUCK TO SOMEONE ELSE was down to only 4 A UNIT. REGARDLESS Of SUE IS A OISCIPUNE0 FAMILY STRUCTURE WITH SIMILAR RELATIONSHIPS BASED two officers. ON MUTUAL RESPECT AMONG MEMBERS Now these Marines came S IT IS ESSENTIAL from all THAI ISSUES ANO PROBLEMS HAWK TEND TO LESSEN A UNITS EFFECTIVENESS BE walks of life - about half of the outfit ADORESUD ANO RESOLVED A BLENDING OF SEPARATE CuLTuRtS. %WRENS EOVATIINAL LEVEES. AND !RITMO SOCIAL BACKGROUNDS were IS MARBLE m AN UNSELFISH ATMOSPHERE OF COMMON GOALS reservists from all walks of life - ASPIRATIONS, AND MUTUAL UNDERSTANOING about BEING INE BEST REHIMES COMMON WORT HARD WORK AND TEAMWORK NOTHING WORTNWHILE COMES half of the outfit were reservists asr from Minneapolis couple of PFCs -a 1 EVERY MARINE DESERVES JOB SATISFACTION. EQUAL CONSIDERATION AND nEcorturtom Of HIS ACCOMPLISH - were lawyers - some of the regulars WATS 9 KNOWING YOUR FELLOW MARINE WELL ENABLES 41:01 TO LEARN 10 LOOK Al THINGS 'THROUGH HIS EYES were barracks Marines . but the AS WELL AS YOUR OWN closeness I felt to those troops that 10 ISSUES OtTRACTING FROM THE EFFICIENCY AND SINS/ Of wELLBEIN6 DR - AN INDIVIDUAL SHOULD Bf SUmAcED we felt to each other, defies ANC W14140 AGAINST THE ,MPACI ON THE UMII AS A WHOLE II IT MUST BE RECOGNIZED THAT A BROTHERHOOD CONCEPT DfPfkOS ON ALL MEMBERS 'BELONGING' description. The outfit went through BEING FULLY ACCEPTED RV OTHERS WARM all kinds of hell - and we had a code - a code that had been given to me Lieutenant General C.G. Cooper personally by the CO 'if the 5th Commanding General Marines when I reported in as part of a Fleet Marine replacement draft. And that code was: Force, Pacific we never quit; we never surrender; we Marine Corps Bases, Pacific never leave our wounded or dead; we News in brief 31st MAU stands ready Approximately 1,500 Kaneohe-based Marines have arrived off Former POW lives on faith the coast of Lebanon. The leathernecks, the nucleus of the 31st Marine Amphibious Unit, will remain offshore unless ordered to assist Marines of the 24th MAU in Beirut. The 31st MAU, based on the USS Tarawa, cut short a port call in Mombasa, Kenya on the orders of President Reagan, who directed Survived seven years of maltreatment that the task force proceed immediately to Lebanon. The Marines have at their disposal tanks, attack helicopters, six AV-8B Harrier Its and are reinforced by approximately 500 leath er- Story and photo assassinated; President Nixon necks from other Marine commands. by Sgt Greg Berry was under attack because of the Watergate. scandal, and John, Approximately 300 people Paul, George and Ringo had gone Ward services held gathered in Anderson Hall their separate ways. Dining Facility here Sept. 7 for the "When I returned to America 'A memorial service was held at the Station Chapel Monday for 3d Marines' Quarterly Prayer and looked around," Coffee said, Sergeant Douglas Ward of Detachment, Company A, 3d Breakfast. "I saw the changes that had Amphibious Assault Battalion. The program featured guest occurred. It didn't take very long Ward's death, an accidental drowning, occurred during a night speaker Navy Captain Gerald L. for me to realize that that same scuba dive off Fort Hase Beach. Ward's dive partner, Private First Coffee, a former prisoner of war key to my survival was going to be Class Mark Fetter, also of 3d Amtracs, was taken to Tripler Army and currently the public affairs my key right here at home, Medical Center, treated and released. officer on the staff of the because I looked around and I saw Commander in chief, U.S. Pacific reflected in my fellow Americans Fleet. a lack of faith in ourselves. Brigadier General O.K. Steele, Helo rescues boaters commanding general of the 1st "I saw the need to keep the faith A Search and Rescue helicopter from Station Operations and Marine Brigade, read the in ourselves as individuals, to Maintenance Squadron pulled two civilians from the waters outside scripture, Psalms 33:4-12. continue to look around and pick Kailua Bay after their 14-foot boat sank Sept. 7. The message that Coffee out those things that need to be The crew of the helicopter spotted the overturned boat after a 15- conveyed was one very familiar to changed, to pick out the wrongs, minute search. A SAR swimmer, Lance Corporal Robert Breland leathernecks - keeping faith. The the problems and to really believe entered the water to render assistance to the stranded boaters. Marines' motto, Semper Fidelis, that we as one person, working The helicopter, piloted by Captain Raymond Betros, returned the means always faithful, and within our system, can change two men to the air station at approximately 7:30 p.m. No injuries Coffee emphasized that fact in his those wrongs to right, to make a were reported. speech. difference -a positive difference. "By definition, faith is the Faith in ourselves to live out the ability to believe in something prison-like aspects of our daily that you can't see or touch or life. Marines revive youth smell," he said. It was faith that "All of us are constrained by the carried him through seven years responsibility and the consequen- While on liberty in Singapore recently, three Marines and two of maltreatment at the hands of ces of decisions we've taken on for sailors of the 31st Marine Amphibious Unit saved a young girl's life the North Vietnamese. ourselves back up the pike after she nearly drowned. Many people think of spiritual somewhere. As much as we Sergeants Ed McDonald, Dewey Dye, and Corporal Jason faith first, but Coffee touched sometimes might wish that we're Bradley of "Alpha" Company, 3d Reconnaissance Battalion along upon four kinds of faith ... faith in someone else, somewhere else, with Boiler Technician Third Class Todd Clayton and himself, his fellow man, his doing something else, it just isn't Quartermaster Seaman Homer Nearpass, of Navy Seal Team Five, country and his God. in the cards. were approached by a distraught woman frantically waving for Coffee spoke of the day his RA- "So we have to gut it out, hack it, help at a community swim center. 5C Vigilante reconnaissance and be better and stronger They followed her to a crowd of people gathered around an aircraft was shot down over North because of it every single day." unconcious little girl.