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James S. Chase_
Boot camp:
Parris Island
Dates of Service:
12 Sept. 1958 - 11 Dec 1968
M.O.S. :
0141 - Admin | 8511 - Drill Instructor | 8156 - Marine Security
Guard
Duty Stations:
Parris Island | Camp
Lejeune | HQMC
Henderson Hall Arlington, Va. (embassy duty school) | Warsaw Poland | Frankfurt-AM-Main - West Germany | Camp
Pendleton | Vietnam |Parris Island (D.I. school and the drill field).
Memorable events: 2½
years Embassy duty in Europe | 2 years on the drill field as a D.I.
Comments:
Fresh
off the farm [literally). I joined the USMC on 12 Sept 1958 and made
the
traditional train trip to beautiful Yemassee, SC. After 3 months
of total and complete culture shock, I pinned the EGA emblems on my
greens and
made a bus trip to Camp Geiger, NC to
learn how to be a basic rifleman. After a month or so of infantry
tactics, I
was reassigned to Headquarters Company, 8th Marine Regiment for duty as
an
administrative man, participating in 2 cruises to the Caribbean
Sea, both
times enjoying the warmth and hospitality of gorgeous Vieques Island. I
was
rapidly
promoted, and became one of
very few "slick sleeve" (no hash mark) sergeants in the peacetime
Marine Corps. Contrary to recommended
procedure, I volunteered for Embassy Duty, or Special Foreign Duty with
the
Department of State. I spent a year in
Warsaw, Poland and 1½ years in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, carrying an
Official
passport, which is nominally between a diplomatic passport and a
tourist
passport. While in Poland, I shipped over, requesting Camp Pendleton CA
as a
new duty station upon completion of my embassy duty tour. After leaving
Germany, I arrived at Camp Pendleton in August 1964 and was assigned to
Headquarters
and Service Company, 1st Motor Transport Battalion. When I checked in,
1stSgt
Jack Huddleston was typing the unit diary. When
I told him who I was, he pushed back from the desk and said, "I just
forgot how to type." I never saw
him touch one again. In 1965, then-President Lyndon Johnson decided
that my
services were crucial to the best interests of the USMC, and requested
that I
help the war effort of the 1st Marine Division in Viet Nam. To back up
a little
bit, shortly after leaving Parris Island I realized that my Senior
Drill
Instructor, then-Technical Sergeant Herbert J. Werner had made such an
influence on me that I established a goal of becoming a Drill
Instructor. It
took me approximately 8 years to realize that goal, and reported to
Parris
Island from Viet Nam in September 1966 to attend Drill Instructor
School. After
DI School my next two years as a serving Drill Instructor in the 1st
Recruit
Training Battalion were somewhat of a blur, because the recruit
training cycle had
been reduced to 8 weeks, and I was involved with the training of 10
recruit
platoons, 5 as a Junior Drill Instructor and 5 as a Senior Drill
instructor,
before being reassigned as Battalion Administrative Chief, where I
spent my
last two months prior to discharge on 11
Dec 1968. At that time, Drill Instructors worked
somewhere between 90-100 hours a week, all for the privileges of
wearing a
Smokey Bear cover, free dry cleaning and
earning an additional $30 per month of proficiency pay. If I had to do
my
service all over again, I wouldn't change a thing,
because I learned something from every experience and contact.
