Cut & Pasted from an email the "Rip" sent me around August 2008 regarding his selection the the Ranger Hall of Fame:
At the top of that list is a legend we all remember who I had the good fortune of serving with twice "a name that brings a smile and every individual's favorite story" if they were ever around him! Stanley (Stosh, Stan, Ski) Wawrziniak! What a hell of a man/Marine! He was our XO in 2nd Force Recon and a few years later XO again in 3/3, Vietnam. His leadership, field skills and ability to walk into a group of Marines and have them howling within minutes was legendary.
For some reason I fell in on Stan's good side as did Machete Eddie McCourt and he would convince the Bn CO that one of the two of us should always be on point. When another unit would get us lost, as happened often in the jungle highlands west & north of Dong Ha, we would be pulled out of line and told to "unf*** that mess up there and get this G** D**** column moving!" He had an endearing term he used for those he liked and after serving with him twice I thought my name was Lt, then later "Capt Peckerhead". If you were called by your given name that was a sign of trouble. Even today I smile when I hear the term.
I have attached a picture above of then "Maj Ski" as our Marines called him and myself at the Rockpile with Mutter Ridge in the background. He was down having a look at my company position which was isolated from the rest of the battalion. We had had a number of very successful patrols uncovering much enemy ordnance along with some good kills. Stan loved it! Just before a helo showed up to take him back to the Bn CP he saw our company clippers, threw them to me, and said "gimmie a haircut peckerhead". So there sits the legendary Stan Wawrziniak on an 81 mortar box getting a field haircut from one of his approved peckerheads.
Over the years I have come to treasure this picture, no faces apparent, dust & tank tracks on a godforsaken fire base between the Rockpile & Razorback, and a couple of grunt Marines doing what came natural; getting haircuts between the incoming (which would start again as soon as Stan's helo arrived).
