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SERVICE REFLECTIONS
OF A Marine VETERAN
May 2017

Fullarton, Mike Sgt

Status Service Years
USMC Veteran 1980 - 1990
MOS
2531-Field Radio Operator
Primary Unit
1982-1983, 2531, 2nd Bn, 6th Marine Regiment (2/6)

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By Completing Your Reflections!

Service Reflections is an easy-to-complete self-interview, located on your TWS Profile Page, which enables you to remember key people and events from your military service and the impact they made on your life.

 
 

Please describe who or what influenced your decision to join the Marine Corps?

 
Sgt Dorris E

When I was a senior in high school (1979-80), we had this little "Iranian Hostage Crisis" going on and I really believed that we might end up in a war with Iran.....and I wanted to be the guy that killed the Ayatollah Khomeini.....but with what branch could I best accomplish this grand gesture? Enter 2nd Lt Dorris Edward "Tommy" Patton, USMC, who was my step-mother's cousin and a hero to her family. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in February 1950 and graduated from MCRD, San Diego at the end of May. He went straight to B/1/5 in the newly formed 1st Marine Brigade as a 0300, Basic Rifleman. Tommy soon found himself in Korea, learning the art of the Infantryman OJT. He participated in the Pusan Perimeter defense, the Inchon landing, the Battle for Seoul and later fought his way out of the frozen Chosin where he was wounded in December 1950. I know that he spent time on the drill field in the mid-1950's and that he was a Gunnery Sergeant with I/3/4 in Vietnam when he received a battlefield commission. He was transferred to 2/4 and killed while serving with Echo/2/4 on 22 July 1966 during Operation Hastings. I was always impressed with the way he is venerated and not forgotten by his family. Though I came from a long line of soldiers my family had no Marine Corps tradition and I have to say that when the time came that I wanted to serve my country it was "Tommy" that I looked to for inspiration and decided that I had to be a Marine like him.

 

Whether you were in the service for several years or as a career, please describe the direction or path you took. What was your reason for leaving?

 
Platoon 3097, Kilo Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, 6 Oct 1980 to 9 Jan 1981

I arrived at MCRD San Diego on 06 Oct 1980 and graduated with Plt 3097, Kilo Company, 3rd RTBn, on January 9, 1981. We were supposed to be home for Christmas but an administrative error had us nearly three weeks in receiving, PT-ing, studying practical knowledge and drilling before we were paired up with our actual Drill Instructors and a Sister Series to begin our training. Our delayed training start made us smarter, harder and more fit than our Sister Series and we dominated in all areas of competition throughout Training Days.

From there I reported to MCAGCC 29 Palms, CA for the Basic Electronics Course at MCCES. The day I reported, I told the MSgt that I did NOT want to be a tech, I wanted an operational MOS and he said, "OK, your class probably won't pick up for another month or two, I will see what I can do". About nine weeks later my BEC class, 25-81 started and I was told to join them! Two weeks from graduation, I was called in and told that if I wanted it, a billet as a 2531 Field Radio Operator was available to me with the 6th Marines at Camp Lejeune, NC and I gladly accepted.

Upon my arrival aboard Camp Lejeune on 01 August 1981 I was assigned to the Comm Platoon/H&S Co/3/6, and they immediately sent me to the FROC course at Camp Geiger! I was second in my class which earned my Meritorious Promotion to LCpl. While I was with 3/6 I made a Caribbean Cruise and participated in what was called "Ocean Venture" where we hit some Caribbean Liberty ports and shot up the island of Vieques with live fire before heading home.

Not long after we got back to CONUS I received a transfer to H&S/2/6 in order to participate in their next Med Cruise in early 1983. In August 1982, the 32nd MAU landed in Beirut, Lebanon to evacuate the PLO, left and then came back a few weeks later as members of the Multi-National Peacekeeping Force. We knew from that point on that if Marines were still there by the time we embarked in January that we would spend our "Med Cruise" ashore in Beirut!

We went to our CAX in 29 Palms during November 1982 and our training shifted a little toward the urban environment. On January 27, 1983, we boarded our ships in Morehead City and made a quick two-week sail across the Atlantic through the Straights of Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean Sea. On 14 February 1983, we landed to relieve 3/8 and began our tour with the MNF leaving there on 29 May 1983 when we were relieved by 1/8.

After I got back to CONUS the career planner couldn't seem to get me any billet that I wanted, so on October 5, 1983, I EAS'd and went home to Texas. After a year-long sojourn, during which I got married, I joined H&S Battery/2/14 in Grand Prairie and spent four years there before leaving to join a Motor T Detachment in Lubbock Texas. In Nov 1990 after spending a couple of months in Camp Pendleton with the I&I Staff of 4th LAV Bn I took my discharge and began to concentrate on my family and my business at home. I look back and wish that I had re-enlisted and maybe gone Warrant Officer but at that time Comm was extremely limiting in Reserves and I was being urged to consider an MOS change. Either way, I chose to end my Marine Corps career at that time.

 

If you participated in any military operations, including combat, humanitarian and peacekeeping operations, please describe those which were the most significant to you and, if life-changing, in what way.

 
Relieved by BLT 1/8, 24th MAU, 29 May 1983.

My Page 9 entry reads: "Participated in BLT 2/6, 22nd MAU operations ashore with the Multi-National Peacekeeping Force in Beirut, Lebanon."

Most of our exposure resulted in our being ordered to "Hunker Down" in our bunkers if we were in camp on the perimeter or to "re-direct" our patrols when we encountered hostility outside the wire! Very frustrating to well trained young Marines who had been trained to kill adversaries instead giving them a pass!

At the time our strict adherence to the Rules Of Engagement seemed to preclude our ever becoming eligible for the Combat Action Ribbon but in the mid 90's, DOD expanded the CAR eligibility by adding the "Peacekeeping Criteria", under which many of my Brothers have added themselves to the list. I am working on it and hope to one day display the CAR on my rack.

 

Was there a particular incident during your service when you believed you were in a situation you might not survive? Please describe what happened and what was the outcome.

 
Heading out on patrol as a Grenadier, April1983.

My time in Beirut, Lebanon was arguably the most agonizing, as we saw ourselves go from being perceived as "Peacekeepers" to "invaders" in a matter of weeks. As the military aged males began to return from the Iranian training camps in the Bekaa Valley, the environment became much more hostile and open involvement began being thrust upon us regardless of what we did. As the siege mentality began to engulf us, our Company Gunny suggested that we consider ourselves "already dead" so that we could continue to perform our duties without the anxiety associated with the feelings of impending doom! Speaking for myself, once I embraced fatalism, I was able to face every new day without fear.....I was already dead, what did I have to worry about?

 

Of all your duty stations or assignments, which one do you have fondest memories of and why? Which one was your least favorite?

 
Me, at 6th Marines HQ, Camp Lejeune in 2005.

Camp Lejeune was decidedly my favorite posting. I was assigned to the 6th Marines and enjoyed the Jacksonville-Wilmington area for liberty. We were also hours away from Chesapeake, Virginia, which was a frequent concert venue.

MCAGCC, 29 Palms was my least favorite posting. Being too far away from good liberty opportunities was a recipe for reckless behavior. The mess halls were known as prolific purveyors of food poisoning at that time and I was a three-time victim during my six-month assignment there!

 

From your entire service, including combat, describe the personal memories which have impacted you most?

 
US Embassy, Beirut, Lebanon, 18 April 1983.

18 April 1983, the American Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. I was the battalion radio operator attached to FOX Company. I had been in France on my R&R and we were flying back into Beirut. We were on our final approach when suddenly this huge cloud rose up over the port area and we had a bird's eye view to the explosion. We knew somebody just got hammered we just didn't know who?

Once on the ground, we ran across the tarmac to our Company position along the runway. There were several deuce and a half's and the company was mounting out. The CO, Capt Cunningham saw me and told me to drop my sea bag at my tent, draw some ammo and a radio and get on the lead truck with him ASAP. I never moved so fast in my life, grabbing the radio and loaded magazines from Tinsley (Arty FO's operator) we piled on board the trucks and took off!

Once we left the vicinity of the Beirut International Airport we proceeded North up the coastal highway toward the port area of Beirut itself. We were ordered to face outboard to "Repel Boarders" if need be. I had never been north of the "Purple Heart Trail", our name for the road between CP113 and CP68 where the Weapons patrol had been ambushed. The people here in what was the Italian sector all seemed to be scowling at us and made no effort to remove themselves from our path with any sense of urgency. The tension was pretty thick and we all waited for an RPG or a burst of automatic fire which, fortunately, never came!

From the chatter on my radio, I learned that it was our Embassy that had been hit. I don't remember if we knew this while boarding the trucks but I suppose we knew it had to be? As we rounded the headland and started east toward the port area we could see smoke and dust settling close by the waterfront, having seen the explosion from the air, I knew it was going to be bad! When we got there we encountered a thin line of French paratroopers and some Lebanese militiamen who had been first on the scene. The front of the building had been sheared off. The floors were all collapsed and looked like overlapping plates of Roman Armor. Between about the fifth and sixth floors the upper torso of a man was visible and he was still alive, the lower half of his body sandwiched between the floors and he died about an hour after our arrival.

We immediately set up a security perimeter around the area chasing out all but the Red Crescent and rescue workers and manhandling the burned out hulks of several vehicles out of the way. I saw for the first time how fragile the human body is when I encountered body parts and corpses horribly mangled or burned. I had seen bodies before but not like this and I fought the queasiness for a while before busying myself with the job at hand! The Captain and I were in constant motion around the new perimeter. He wanted to ensure that the area was safe for recovery and rescue operations and that we were in the right places to repel any follow-on assault the bombers might attempt in order to take advantage of the confusion.

Corporal Horan had the post right on the coastal highway to the east and was told to allow no one but ambulances or rescue vehicles to pass. When President Gemayel arrived with his motorcade Cpl Horan stopped them and told them they had to turn around and he told them, "No one can pass except rescue and medical personnel!" One of President Gemayel's aides said, "But this is the President of Lebanon!" and Cpl Horan told him, "I don't care WHO the f*ck he is the President of my orders say no one is coming through!" They turned around and left in a huff!

While out on the line near Cpl Horan I had a confrontation with a very insistent French or Belgian female photojournalist in red leather pants who insisted she had the right to pass. She kept telling me that, "People have a right to see this", I told her that they didn't, at least not now and that she needed to go away. She kept saying something like, "I thought YOU AMERICANS were all for the freedom of the press?". I told her that there were people who had just been killed horribly behind me and that they did not deserve to have parasites like her stealing their remaining dignity with her f*cking camera. After what seemed an eternity of her bleating and badgering she finally stormed off and I had an immense feeling of satisfaction in sending her on her way!

We provided security and assisted in recovery in any way we could. At one point an embassy employee in a crumpled and torn suit came up with a bandaged Marine Security guard and asked the CO if he had any people with security clearances. He explained that there were classified materials that were all over the site and asked that we collect what we could and safeguard it until he could reclaim it. As a radio operator with a Secret Clearance, I was tasked with assisting in the recovery of classified materials. I went around to the various posts and instructed them to hand over to me or the other comm guys anything that they might come across and began to scour the area for materials myself.

Our company continued to provide security throughout the cleanup and recovery operation rotating back to our positions on the airport perimeter every couple of days. We knew the tenor of our mission had been changed. The remaining weeks in Lebanon were more like a siege than "Peacekeeping" as the Shiite Amal militia began to harass us more actively, especially at night. We didn't sleep much in a week or two immediately following the bombing as our commitment to providing Embassy security had left us a bit shorthanded to maintain our section of the perimeter guard, continue patrolling and beefing up our own positions to prepare for the future, which appeared to be slipping toward our outright involvement in the hostilities. Being there at this time has left indelible memories that I can see as clearly as if it happened yesterday.

 

What achievement(s) are you most proud of from your military career? If you received any medals, awards, formal presentations or qualification badges for significant achievement or valor, please describe how these were earned.

 

I earned no personal decorations during my time. All I received in ten years were my Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, Selected Marine Corps Reserve Medal, Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal, National Defense Service Medal, various service awards (NUC, MUCx3, SSDR), a Letter of Appreciation and a Meritorious Mast.

 

Of all the medals, awards, formal presentations and qualification badges you received, or any other memorabilia, please describe those which are the most meaningful to you and why?

 

I would say that it was receiving the Eagle, Globe & Anchor on my graduation day at MCRD San Diego on 09 January 1981. It has been like a personal badge of honor to me ever since. It tells the world that I am a member of the most fearsome and honored band of warriors that the modern world has ever seen!

 

Which individual(s) from your time in the military stand out as having the most positive impact on you and why?

 
Me, Gen Al Gray & CWO5 Ron Parks

I think that it would have to be General Al Gray. He was the CO of 2nd MARDIV during my entire Active Duty tour. It was readily apparent that he was not an office pogue as he seemed to show up frequently when we were in the field or in the 6th Marines area. I have had the pleasure of being punched in the shoulder by General Gray on three occasions, once during a dog & pony show aboard Camp Lejeune in 1982, again in Beirut in 1983 and finally at a Beirut Remembrance in 2003. When I introduced my son Brian to him and Brian told General Gray that I had told him that I had been punched by him twice before and would he mind punching me again? The General smiled and said, "Sure Son, why not, it would be an honor!" and he let me have it again. He is a Marine's Marine and I would follow him anywhere!

 

Can you recount a particular incident from your service which may or may not have been funny at the time, but still makes you laugh?

 

During an IG Inspection at Camp Lejeune, this Col and his SgtMaj are working their way down the squad bay to me. The Col looks approvingly over the junk on my rack until he gets to my canteen cup. The cup was a bit dirty. I forgot to wash it after the last cup of Mocha apparently.

He growls at the SgtMaj, "this canteen cup is disgraceful SgtMaj", whereupon the SgtMaj takes it, looks into it and pronounces, "this is the filthiest canteen cup I have EVER seen!". The SgtMaj looks me in the eye and asks, "you actually drink out of this canteen cup Marine?" Now all of my life I have had this problem with stupid questions, of course, I drink out of this cup as he's looking at the dregs to prove it ain't he? I grin at the SgtMaj and say, "yes SgtMaj it adds to the flavor!"

There is a nanosecond of calm and I'm thinking to myself that I disarmed the situation nicely by injecting some humor into it. The SgtMaj scowls at me and yells at the top of his lungs. "Wrong f*cking answer Marine!". He looks at my Company Gunny and asks, still at the top of his lungs, "Gunny, do you have any brillo pads, I want Bob Hope here to clean his f*cking canteen cup, right f*cking now?"

The Gunny just rolls his eyes and says, "Come with me 'Bob'" and it's off to the head to clean my cup. The whole time being told by the Gunny what a "Dumb-****" I was and how you never pull a Sergeant Major's chain! You would think that I learned my lesson but I was to repeat this same type of attempted humor with my SgtMaj in Beirut with equally dismal results, but that's another story.

 

What profession did you follow after your military service and what are you doing now? If you are currently serving, what is your present occupational specialty?

 

After spending almost three years humping a radio with the infantry, I went home and hired on with a two-way radio shop that was getting in on the ground floor with something new, 800 MHz SMR (Specialized Mobile Radio, the precursor to Nextel's "iDEN" system). They were building sites for Motorola's nationwide Community Repeater System and after several years during which I became involved in tower construction and wireless facility construction, I bought into the company.

We had Sierra Communications for 15 years before we sold it and I became an independent Project Management consultant, traveling all over the country building wireless facilities from Texas to the East Coast. I was recently hired to a full-time Project Manager's position with Tyco Electronics (now TE Connectivity) and I am the WCPM over an eight-state South Central Region. So basically, I have been in the Communications field since the Marine Corps placed me there thirty years ago!

 

What military associations are you a member of, if any? What specific benefits do you derive from your memberships?

 

I am one of the first 100 members (#83 to be precise) of the Beirut Veterans of America. I am currently the Secretary of the organization. I have enjoyed immensely every one of the annual Remembrances that we hold in Camp Lejeune around every October 23rd. It has been very therapeutic to many of us to get together and not only remember those we lost but to give thanks for the gift of survival.

 

In what ways has serving in the military influenced the way you have approached your life and your career?

 

I have maintained a military bearing which acquaintances take note of especially in the business environment they see confidence and competence. I don't get ruffled or excited about adversity, the Corps taught me to keep my head in an emergency and start working on corrective action instead of succumbing to fear. It gave me a greater love of country, so much so that I resent the Socialist "Sillyvillians" out there who seem determined to destroy this great nation. It ingrained in me the sense of urgency when on a mission, the determination to see a job through and to push myself to continue when I want to give up. The Corps made me the honorable man that I am today and it gave me a lifelong career. I would have to say it was the best schooling I could ever have received!

 

Based on your own experiences, what advice would you give to those who have recently joined the Marine Corps?

 

Do what you are told to do when you are told to do it and you will be OK! Also, I would have them know that despite any negatives they may occasionally hear they are still serving the greatest freest nation on the earth and they should never believe that their sacrifices and service to us all is unappreciated!

 

In what ways has TogetherWeServed.com helped you remember your military service and the friends you served with.

 
TWS and the US MARINES

It has been of great use tracking down Marines with whom I had the pleasure to serve. I have found more old buddies here in five years than in the previous 25 years! It has also been enlightening and thoroughly enjoyable meeting and conversing with those who served before and after me. I have met some truly wonderful people on this board and they are all Marines!

 
 
 

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