Who do you remember most from your outfit?

[Jeff L]

Which guy from your outfit do you remember the most and why?

-Jeff L

[LMDawson]

Well, I do remember which gal from Air Force Basic Training. J. Menendez and she was just one of those class clowns that made everyone laugh especially when we were having an "everyone do pushups" day.

Best Regards
Lisa

[Dan Shapiro]

Sorry to be a downer, but the one's I remember most are the one's who didn't make it back.

[Michael Tompkins]

Guy named Finley. He was my MP patrol partner and best buddy. We did everything together. Haven't talked to him in 30 years until last weekend. Been looking for him for about 20 years and finally found him on Facebook. Made my year! We talked on the phone and laughed our a**es off telling old stories and reminding each other of things we did and shouldn't have done...on and off duty. Mike

[Weasel]

The loss of C2 412 at Yankee Station on Oct 2 1969. 5 crew 21 passangers.

[Liam]

1SGT Bui. He came in on a weekend and got me out of jail. I barfed on the EMT, I barfed in the 1SGT's car and had a two-day hangover. He vouched for me to the CO and got me mere company punishment. Could have ruined a young man's career with an Article 15, but that 1SGT spoke up for me. By the way, I NEVER did THAT again!

[cwartyman]

besides my best friend who is like my brother and im still in contact with the one who made the biggest impact was Sgt Maj Smith from west by god virginia. A true snco who looked out for the welfare of his troops but also brooked no bull. He would eat in the regular chowhall and always had a spot at his table for his men and would never decline a cold beer if he was checking on the barracks and your door was open.

[Art]

I had a Drill Sergeant named Gerry Tisdale at Ft. Polk. A skinny red head, also a member of the Army Pistol Team. I vividly remember being kicked in the pants by him in BCT in 1966 for not assuming a correct position of parade rest. He also made sure I was promoted to Private E-2 out of basic training.

Twenty years later I was on a detail to Laredo where I knew he was in the Border Patrol and looked him up at the Laredo Office. He had made his reputation with M1911 pistols in the army but I was a bit shocked to see him carrying a 2" Chief Special on his Sam Brown belt which I admit looked a bit funny. I told him I knew him and he adopted a defensive posture and said "Fort Puke?? I said yeah. He said he had learned to be careful about admitting that. We had a nice talk and he said he was glad I had "made something" of myself.

When I got to my basic training unit I was told that Tis was a fair guy but a bit twitchy since a trainee had tried to shoot him on the firing range. When I saw him in Laredo I asked about that and he said he was walking down the line checking the trainees positions when he heard a bullet snap past him. He turned around saw the guy who shot at him running, grabbed an M14 and gave chase. Well the old boy who shot at him dove into one of those cement lined foxholes. Tisdale said he must have forgotten there was no trap door in it. Well Tisdale smashed the stock of the M14 over the guys head, fortunately for him he was still wearing his helmet and drug him out to th foxhole by his neck. By that time a bunch of other NCOs arrived and pulled him off the guy. Tisdale said he fully expected to be court martialed but except for testifying in his assailants court martial never heard a word about the incident.

Tisdale rose to the rank of Assistant Chief Patrol Agent. I understand he died a few years ago. Truly a colorful character and quite a good guy. I understand that his wife, Brenda, runs the Border Patrol Museum in El Paso.

[joem]

Two come to mind. One was the marine gunny Sgt. (can't remenber his name) about 8ft tall and tough as nails and rodger ramjet (his nick name). It seems rodger decided to steal a tank and hide it behind the mechanics shop under a tarp. when he drove it around on sunday he got caught by the XO. Old rodger got busted and the last I heard had extra duty for many many months.

[Griff Murphey]

I can honestly say the one person I'd most like to sit down with and catch up with would be my E-3 Dentalman, Bart Sudderth, my chairside dental assistant. Bart was a good, hard worker, and we respected each other a lot in the 6-8 months we worked together. Black guy, from Hickory N. Carolina. When I organized a rifle team, he joined up and shot with us on Okinawa. When he and I went out with BLT-1/4 he was with me all the time on that Vietnam evacuation. When the USS DURHAM picked up 3500 refugees he piled right into bandaging them up along with checking my one "surgical" case, an ankle I stitched up. I would really like to see what he did in life.

I would very much like to see my many Navy Dental officer and EM friends and my many USMC officer friends. Maybe most of all would like to see Gunner R. D. Embese who greased the skids for me to do some shooting on Okinawa. Often wonder what happened to our battalion reporter Sgt. Steve Igo.