As I watched the candlelight memorial at the White House last evening, those Marines in their

[Atticus]

"dress blues" reminded me of my Dad.

In 1941, after wheedling permission from his single mom, he enlisted in the USMC at age 17. Shipped off to boot camp at San Diego, he spent 8 weeks in some of the roughest training you can imagine and emerged as "honor man"---the best in the platoon--- and stood in line anxiously looking forward to being awarded one of those sharp "dress blue" uniforms promised to whoever earned the honor man award in each platoon.

Sure enough, after getting the badge signifying he was "officially" a Marine, an officer presented him a box containing the coveted uniform and moved on down the line to present more badges.

And, seconds later, an NCO wordlessly retrieved the boxed uniform and walked away with it. He never saw it again.

He spent 27 months in the South Pacific; mostly in the Marshall Islands. The last "dress blues" we saw "in person" were on the two Marines who honored him at his 2003 funeral as taps played.

As you may be able to tell, I still love the man.

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Can you explain the 'retrieved the boxed uniform'? What happened?

[Atticus]

3. The NCO took the just-awarded dress uniform back and Dad assumed it was "re-used" and

presented---for few seconds---to other honor men in other platoons. Apparently, the thinking was "You won't need this where we're shipping you."

At any rate, he got what was promised but was not allowed to keep it.

[CurtEastPoint]

4. I get it. Thanks for explaining.

[housecat]

13. My Dad was an Army Medic in Germany during WWII

He slept in a sleeping bag in the Black Forest with a little dog, and they kept each other warm. When he lost the dog he said he lost his best friend. Dad died the day after the Moon landing in 1969. He really wanted to live to see that.

[ret5hd]

2. I second the motion by CurtEastPoint.

[Siwsan]

5. My Dad was a Marine, too, assigned to the Presidential Honor Guard (President Truman)

He enlisted as soon as he graduated from high school, too late for the war, although he is classified as a WWII veteran. He used the GI bill to attend Michigan State University and became a teacher, and eventually a championship winning high school football coach. (He was a stand out player in high school and played for Biggie Munn at Michigan State.)

Dad went on to inspire and mentor several generations of students. And, he remained a Marine to the day he died. He even, eventually, 'forgave' me for joining the Navy, instead of the Marines. Hey, I'm pretty tough, but definitely not Marine tough. When he visited me in Iceland, I introduced him to my Marine friends and I got to see, first hand, how the bond in that branch of the service is so incredibly strong.

At his funeral, former students and players who were now middle aged, openly wept.

He's been gone since 1999, and a day doesn't go by without me thinking of him, and missing him.

[PatrickforB]

6. My dad served in the Pacific Theater of WWII also.

He was in the US Army, and ended up serving the last year of the war on Morotai Island. He was a radarman.

[mountain grammy]

7. My dad was also a Marine, enlisted right after Pearl Harbor.

and remained one until his death in 1958. My mom also joined the Marines after Pearl Harbor, one of a half million Jews who signed up to fight fascism. She was forced to resign in 1945 when she married my dad.

I remember those beautiful dress blues. My son has the sword.

[FM123]

8. Thank you for sharing your story with us, I found it deeply moving.

My dad also joined the service (Army) right out of high school (1946) and was deployed overseas (Far East) - this was the first time he had ever left home...

[jonstl08]

9. Father a Marine

My father was Vietnam era Marine and served over there. Never talked about it and we never asked. Even when his Marine friends would visit it never came up in front of us kids. When my brothers and I all enlisted in the Air Force I think he was a little miffed we did not go into the Marines but he instilled in us to make our own decisions. Till the day he passed away he held to Marine Code of Honor.

[Grins]

10. Friends of mine at Parris Island..

In the 60's it was not unusual for all the services to send out notices and photos to the hometown newspapers of the local boys who graduated from boot camp, for PR purposes. And those papers would print them! Army, Class A greens, Navy, standard swabbie blue uniform, in the case of a Marine grad, a pic of them wearing the blue uniform and white cover.

But with the Marines it was a fake!

The photo was real, but the photographer had a range of jackets and covers on hand. Put on a jacket and hat that fits, take the pic, take the jacket and hat off - "Next!"

[tikka]

12. If I remember correctly, they weren't even full jackets - just front cut-a-ways.

[FailureToCommunicate]

11. You know your dad is wearing those dress blues in heaven.

My father was a chaplain during that war, as well as Korean and Vietnam, as head of protestant chaplains.

He saw far too many vets broken in body and spirit in his time.

We have as a nation lost far far too many to this terrible pandemic.

[rickford66]

14. We had to buy all our uniforms in the Navy Seabees (1969)

Only fatigue greens for work were provided. Two sets in boot camp. After that you bought em.

[calimary]

15. Loving the stories being shared here. My dad was in the Air Force.

Flew photo reconnaissance during WW2. He once remarked with muted pride that, as he put it “I never raised a gun against my fellow man.” That surprised me - pleasantly. We’d never talked about something that deep before. Certainly not about the gun issue.

Later I got to thinking about my father-in-law, an Army doctor assigned to a MASH unit in Australia during the war. There was one time when his son and I were dating that he showed some old home movies he still had - where they documented the amputations they’d had to do.

And I realized one main thing - that made me marvel, with pride. That seriously impressed me, maybe in a way nothing else my dad ever did - ever impressed me. I still ponder that conversation we had as he was driving me somewhere, when I was a teenager:

Both of them went to war, alright, but neither went armed to shoot to kill. Neither one of them ever talked about it much. But neither one of them had raised a gun against their fellow man.

I understand what happens in war. I understand what soldiers are sent to do, and the bloody business it is. But the two senior men in my family volunteered and served with honor in circumstances that allowed them to do so without firing a shot.