I joined the Reserves after active duty serving a total of 32 years in the Marine Corps, regular and reserve. I had some great adventures in the Reserves, including two trips to Electronic Warfare Schools in Germany. I commanded a Marine Squadron and was promoted all the way to Colonel. One-half of my Squadron was mobilized for Desert Storm in Iraq, but most of us did not serve in country. We were on tap if the war went badly, but it went very quickly. I volunteered for active duty for Desert Storm and Iraq, although was not selected. I retired from active Reserve Duty in 1999, but part of the deal is that Retired Marines can be recalled, and I am of course ready to serve if needed. If they call someone as old as me back, we are really in trouble.

I joined Marine Wing Communications Squadron 48 in 1972. The unit was located in an old tank factory just south of the Chicago White Sox Park. The Squadron was very large and composed almost entirely of guys who joined to avoid the draft. These guys were my age, but had college degrees and good jobs. Mayor Richard M. Daley was a member of the unit.

They did a good job, but were pretty cocky. You had to lead them much differently then active duty Marines. Very few Vietnam Vets joined in the early 70's - most people were burned out and tired of the entire thing.

The threat of the draft kept most people performing. One time we were all standing locked up in formation and the FBI brought a Squadron member across the front of our formation in handcuffs. He was sent on active duty and the word was that he was killed a months after he got to Vietnam. I Don't know if that was true but it did motivate the troops to show up for drill.

As a member of the Ready Reserve you serve a minimum of 12 weekends a year plus 2 weeks of active duty. We would usually go to a Marine base on the east or west coast for our two weeks.

Gradually the draft motivated guys got out of the Reserves, to be replaced by less well educated guys. We had a lot of trouble with drugs and motivation in the 1970's.

We went to a number of active duty periods in 29 Palms, California, in the Mohave Desert, usually in August. An infantry Battalion would fight from one end of the valley to another, shooting live ammunition and bombs. Our unit provided air support and command and control.

On one notable exercise we set up in 29 Palms, with radio relay stations on Black Mountain behind Palm Springs, relaying information to Marine Corps Air Station El Toro and Camp Pendleton. It was very hot in 29 Stumps and Marines loved to go to Black Mountain where it was cool and in the Pine Forests at a high elevation. Every time we sent someone up their vehicles would break and they could not get back. I would have to send a Sergeant to drag our troops back to our 120 degree Stumps.

There was a YWCA camp near our location on Black Mountain and our young Marines happily developed relationships with the young female counselors. The counselors let our guys shower there. No problem there - everyone was happy. Another reason our guys did not want to come back down the mountain.

I received a radio call from our Marines saying there was "a forest fire about a mile below their location, but they did not think it would get any closer". I told them to "evacuate now." They asked me, "what about the YWCA Camp?"

"What about the Camp", I said. "I'm sure they have plans on how to evacuate." "No sir", my Marines replied. "They expect us to get them out."

Wonderful. We didn't know how dangerous the situation was and had no idea how to evacuate them. We could not get enough vehicles up there in time, so we sent up two of our CH-46

Helicopters to investigate. Before the choppers got there my guys called me and said "the fire is now 1/2 mile away but we don't think it is getting any closer." One mile to 1/2 mile in a very short time made me nervous.

It was now getting dark and we were choking from the smoke from the fire in the Stumps 80 miles away from the fire. "I told them to get their radio jeeps down to the YWCA parking lot and mark the Landing Zone with the lights from their jeeps in case we had to evacuate with the helicopters.

Then my guys called again and said "the fire is now 1/4 of a mile away but we don't think it will get any closer." Wonderful. But they had set up the LZ on the YWCA Camp parking lot, with their headlights of the radio jeeps providing visibility.

Not a good deal. Bringing the CH-46's into a tight LZ surrounded by trees on the side of a mountain and in the smoke, fire and strong wind up currents is a formula for disaster. If we tried to evacuate the kids and crashed and killed many people we were terrible - and if we did not try and they burned to death that would be terrible.

Our CH-46's orbited the location for some time. Fortunately the fire did burn out and we dodged that bullet.

One time in a 29 Palms live fire exercise we screwed up and put the napalm BEHIND the VIP reviewing area. Our PR guy tried to palm it off as normal, but several reporters knew how stupid it was.

It was easy to get confused out in the desert about exact location. I took two young Marines in a radio jeep to set them up a re transmission point just behind the infantry assault. We got to the hill and set up the equipment. Then we saw that about ten 250 lb bombs were stuck into the hill. I got the guys sheltered behind the hill and called range control to ask about the chances that the bombs would go off. "If they have not gone off yet, they probably won't" said the Range guy. They did not go off.

I took the same two Marines up a mountain in a CH-46 helicopter to set up another retransmit site. Way up high and very hot. We set up a little shelter for them. Nasty hot place with a great view.

"Whoom" went a very large round right over our heads. Very close. They were not supposed to be shooting our way. Never did know what the shell was but I am sure it was big. I had hopes that those two young guys would stay in, but after they got home and told their stories to their wives their families strongly encouraged them to leave the service.

I saw one A-6 Jet Aircraft simulating straffing over the troops. He was flying very low and made me pretty nervous. "Pull Up!" I said tro myself. Then he crashed.

I called the medevac in with an old tired PRC-41 UHF radio that I powered with slash wire off the jeep. I kept washing it trying to cool it down, hoping it would last till the medevac was done. It did last. Both Majors flying the plane died and they badly burned two other Marines on the ground. The troops said the Pilots realized they were going to crash and were able to pull the plane away from most of the troops, or a lot of them would have died.

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29 Palms aka The Stumps

Sea Stories

Most of us spent a lot of time at Marine Corps Base 29 Palms aka the Stumps.You can write your story here between the lines, or work your comments into the text below.

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I was there on the ground during the A6 crash in the summer of 1971. I was actually a member of the 20th Rifle Company out of Rockford, Illinois. We were the aggressors for the exercise. I did not have knowledge of who the larger organization was. It is true the A6 was doing simulated strafing runs over our aggressor hill position. As I recall it was the middle of a typically very hot day at the Stumps when during one of the A6 runs it came too low and hit the sand exploding and spreading debris everywhere. I can still hear the horns of the 6X as rescuers swarmed the hill honking and shouting and looking for injured Marines. As I rose up out of my shallow foxhole I saw charred sand and debris going further up the hill. I don’t remember any details about injuries other than the pilots were killed. Scuttlebutt at the time said that they found the head of one of the pilots still in his helmet.

At the lowly infantry company level of an independent rifle company, I didn't even know who 2/24 was at that time. The 20th Rifle Company was disbanded in the fall of 1971 during a pretty significant reorganization of the Marine Corps Reserve. The most notable commanding officer of the 20th Rifle Company was our Major General Mitch Waters. 2/24 inherited quite an assortment of Marines during the reorganization. Marines in Rockford were given the choice of going “class III” or joining another element of 2/24.

I elected to transfer to the newly formed Golf Company in Madison Wisconsin. The Golf Company was recently redesignated a rifle company from a 105 howitzer battery. I remember having to clean the 105s so they could be shipped out. Unfortunately, and a sign of the times in the early 70s, Golf Company inherited a nickname of “Goofy Company”. Through no fault of its own, this artillery battery was full of Madison, Wisconsin college students who had little interest in being Marines. There was quite an assortment of salty Korean War vets and newer Viet Nam Vets. I’ll never forget the influx of recent VietNam vets who joined Madison hoping to extend their careers, became quickly disillusioned and left. It took a few years and some purging to square things away. I can’t remember when but at some point we were awarded the “Clifton B Cates Award”. I still have the certificate somewhere in my pile of records.

Master Gunnery Sergeant Harper

USMC Retired

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There has been a lot of talk and some reporting about how the US Marines were beaten badly by British Marines recently in a force on force exercise at 29 Palms. The first story was propagated as many things are, with someone telling a wild story that gets everyone paying attention, which results in a lot of fame and money for the guy who made the story up. Whether it is true or not. It was amplified by the Rooskies.

Russian Disinformation https://www.rt.com/usa/539215-british-american-marines-exercise-defeat

The truth, I think.

https://taskandpurpose.com/voices/us-marines-didnt-surrender-british-training-exercise/

Some of my sea stories from 29 Palms aka the Stumps

This memory is from a long time ago. I think I have it right. Some of you were probably with the Chicago Infantry Battalion 2/24 then and may know a different story.

On my first Reserve exercise at the Stumps, I think, in 1972 or 73. I was in the Air Wing and flew out from Santa Anna for a few days. It was, I think, 2/24, the Chicago Infantry Battalion in the exercize. Seems to me we did not have any idea what we were supposed to do. I set up an AN/PRC-41 to talk to the aircraft in the exercize. The batteries on that old radio were shot, so I jury rigged power from a radio jeep with slash wire. I was surprised when it worked. I was bathing the radio with water to keep it from overheating in the 29 Stumps heat.

We were at the airfield on mainside a long way from the ground troops, but I could see an A-6, I think, doing simulated bombing or strafing runs over the Battalion. I remember thinking take it easy, friend. Don’t crash. His attack approach looked very steep and going very low. He would pop up high and then go into a steep dive.

They did not come out of one dive and crashed with an enormous cloud of smoke. I called the medevac and the old radio kept working and I kept it as cool as I could with water. As I remember it, the two pilots were killed and some of the Chicago Marines were injured.

The story I heard, and you guys who were there can correct me, was that some of the Marines on the ground saw the pilots, who knew they had lost it. The pilots were able to maneuver the plane so that when it crashed it did not hit a lot of Marines. Anyone remember? I searched for this online and could not find anything.

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CAX We were at numerous Combined Arms Exercises

I was commo for the air wing side of the Combined Arms Exercises. We set up all the radios to control the air. The pilots set up their IP (Initial Point) for the attack aircraft to assemble.

They were working hard at staying low so that they could not be observed by the enemy radar. The idea was to stay low until you popped up, rolled over, and attacked the objective, and then leave low to the ground. They kept their IP low and behind some mountains and did not talk to me.

Dumb idea. Most of the ground to air radios were UHF - Line of sight. The aircraft could not talk to anyone unless they were high enough to have direct line of sight back to the TACC or FAC radio Antennas.

The exercise was to start with a napalm strike on the first hill objective. The VIPs were on another hill where they could observe the strike. The napalm strike was always spectacular.

The pilots stayed low at the IP point with no comm. They were not supposed to strike without positive ground control to prevent tragic accidents.

The pilots decided to take the initiative. They figured they knew where the Hill was, and did their attack - low to the ground, pop up over the mountains, roll in and bomb the target. They did so without ground comm control, which was of course a safety no no.

The attack went swimmingly, except they bombed the wrong hillbehind the VIP Hill.

Our Marine PR Captain tried to fix the mistake by telling the VIP's how impressive the attack was. It was impressive, but some of the experienced reporters knew it was a screw up and we bombed the wrong hill behind the VIP hill instead of the actual objective in front of the hill. Oh, well, no one was fried.

On the exercise debrief it was pointed out that 50 cal rounds were impacting within a meter of our Marines Fortunately no one was hit.

Spiders!!

I was standing in the mess hall line at the Marine Base in 29 Palms with the PR Captain who had handled the bungled napalm attack. I noticed a black widow spider on the collar of the Captain.

"Captain, don't move." I said and tried to brush the spider off of his shirt with the brim of my cover (cap). The spider deftly dodged under the brim and ran down inside his camouflage shirt.

"Hold on," I said and slowly unbuttoned his shirt, which probably looked odd to the rest of the Marines in the chow line. When I unbuttoned the last button he did a war dance, slapping every inch of his body to get rid of or kill the spider.

Then the captain said to me "Next time, don't help."

The ingrate. See if I ever help him again, after all I did.

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We had lots of black widow spiders at the Marine Bases in 29 Palms, CA and Yuma, AZ in 1967-68. I had many of them under my desk. I would periodically beat them down with a broom and burn them out a couple of times with a torch, but they always came back. But they were nice and never bit me. I suppose I should be sorry for being mean to them.

One time I was laying on my back on the floor of a room, with my head slightly under a desk. And there was the red hourglass of the spider's abdomen inches above my large and long nose. Startled me a bit.

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Another Marine Spider story. One of our Marines really liked tarantulas. He captured a large hairy one in 29 Palms, California and brought it back to his apartment in Berwyn, Illinois.

Tarantula got out of the box and moved to another apartment. When they discovered spidey in their cupboard the residents convened a hasty kangaroo court and quickly evicted our spider loving Marine and his tarantula.

I also have a childhood memory of Marlin Perkins from Zoo Parade holding a large tarantula in his hand and saying, " as long as I don't make any sudden moves he won't bite."

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I led a small two radio relay jeep det at a CAX following the infantry battalion with a plan to roll in right after the infantry took the hill and moved on. The two radio jeeps would provide comm from the DASC to the TACC.

All kinds of live ordinance was used. It is a bit disorienting in the desert. I was pretty sure the infantry had already attacked the hill. Pretty sure really isn’t not a good idea when people are shooting real bullets.

We rolled up to the Hill and the three of us erected the big flyswatter antenna. We had just completed our work when one of the Marines noticed some 250 lb bombs sticking out of the Hill. Oh, SHIT! They had not been there before the attack when we reconned the hill. So at least now we knew for sure the attack had passed by the hill.

I got our two radio men and myself behind a hill so if the bombs went off we would have just got our bell rung, not blown to pieces. I radioed back to range control and asked what the chances of the bombs going off were? The range control guy said they would probably not go off if they had not gone off on impact.

So we kept the radio link working. The only big danger was when we took the antennas down later. Bombs did not go off. Whew!

I took the same two Marines up to the top of a mountain the next day in a CH-46 helo. We brought them enough water and camo netting for shade - it was very hot and windy. They would be up there for two days, with a radio relay circuit, connecting the DASC to the TACC.

We had everything set up and bang! A very big round flew past of us. I have no idea what was fired - maybe a 105? We were on the side of and far above the battlefield and no one was supposed to be firing up there.

But it was just one round and we did not know what to do about it, other than complain to range control. So I left my Marines up there and flew back to the base camp. It occured to me that no one from our unit knew where they were except me. If the helo crashed they would be isolated.

Fortunately nothing happened and I went back up to pull them out. They were very fine young Marines and I was trying hard to get them to stay in. But when they went home they told their wives what happened, and the wives said get out.

We usually did our two week duty at 29 Palms in the Mojave Desert in southern California in August and it was hotter than Hell. There was a base order that said don't push your troops until they are fully acclimatized which took six weeks. But our Reserves were there for two weeks and we were trying to prove to ourselves and the regular Marine Corps that we were good. And so we went all out from day one. You would see troops being medevaced on helos with massive sweat stains on their utilities.

We were the last unit to leave Camp Wilson on a CH-53 with two radio jeeps, one with a trailer. And we had a water buffalo underneath. We probably should not have been flying. It was so windy that the helo was swinging back and forth. The pilot stayed down in the valleys as much as possible. Several troops got air sick. Half way through the flight I realized that the jeeps were not chained down to prevent a backward movement. If the helo went nose up nothing would stop the jeep from rolling to the rear. Fortunately the helo stayed nose down the whole time. Probably the pilot knew the situation, but who knows?

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In 1967 I was at the enlisted Air Control school at 29 Palms. Number 1 in the class included writing backwards on a plexiglass board so the air controllers out front could see the aircraft movements. A very useful skill. The challenge was to hear range and distance plots in one ear, and coordinate plots in the other year, and plot them at the same time with both hands. Lots of fun.

I was playing for the 5th LAAMBn basketball team in Yuma later that year. I was going back and forth writing backwards and forwards. The Career Planning Lt who was handling my OCS application came up to me in a game and handed me a magic market to put a number on his T shirt. I got the one ok, but then was not sure how to mak e. So I wrote it and I wrote a backwards 5. The Lt did not send my package forward. I had to wait another six months for a new Lt who did not know I could not write a 5 to send in my package.

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When I first joined the Det I heard all these stories about Lincoln Town Cars and the good life on exercises. My first was at the Stumps where we worked all night on a Steel Thrust - no glamor there. And I had no idea what the Det was doing.

But the next night we were in Palm Springs at the motel pool. We were all in the hot tub except Bailey. He did not have his trunks. We harassed him till he stripped down to his skivvies and jumped in. At least that is the way I remember it.

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We did a number of CAX exercises where part of Comm Squadron would support the first two weeks and then another part of the Squadron would support the second two weeks. I was in the second two weeks. The first Det would leave as we got there. A tremendous wind storm hit and destroyed all the tents, and messed up their Charlie uniforms. So they flew home on commercial air in their grungy cammies.

Woz, Eric Bennet, and Bob Dart usually went together on one part of the exercise, and I went on the other. I know they had more fun and usually stayed in town while I stayed in the tents.

Do any of you have some good stump stories? Add them here.

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We rode lots of helicopters and airplanes, which was always fun. One time we left 29 Palms on the last CH-53 Helo out - with major dust and wind storms. We had a radio jeep on the chopper and a water buffalo hanging below, and about a dozen troops in the Helo. The winds were so strong that the hello tried to keep down in the valleys. It was so rough that a number of guys got sick. Then I noticed that in their rush they had only tied the jeep down in one direction - if the helo had put his nose up the jeep would have ran off the chopper, and probably caused us to crash.

I worked with two good young Marines, Webster and Knox. Knox began to miss drills. I tried to get him to reform, but he started a business making men's suits, and he was given an undesirable discharge. We had to kick lots of people out of the service.

Webster was murdered in Cabrini Green. Someone shot him for his white rabbit skin coat. Our Sergeant Major was a Chicago Homicide Detective and he worked very hard to catch they guy. They found the killer with the murder weapon, wearing the coat with the bullet hole and Webster's blood on the coat.

Webster's platoon helped with the wake and the funeral. Webster was laid out in his Marine Green uniform.

At the funeral his platoon and I and the CO were in uniform. Cpl Pittman played taps. It was very poignant. The troops folded the flag, and gave it to our CO to give to the family.The wife or mother normally takes the flag. Webster was not married but had a number of children. The CO did not know who should get the flag. Finally one of the women took the flag.

Another one of our young Marines was a security guard who was killed. The story was that he and another security guard had been playing quick draw. The other security guards .45 went off.

I fell into a great deal in 1979. The Marine Corps Reserves sent me to Oberammergau, Germany to study Electronic Warfare. I traveled with my Commanding Officer. We were the only Reserves - everyone else was full-time military from a variety of NATO countries - Germany, England, Holland, Belgium, Italy, etc.

The class was great - learned a lot about Electronic Warfare, NATO, and our allies.

All the other officers treated the two weeks as a normal duty - they stayed around the base. My boss and I rented a car, and drove around like crazy. We decided to sneak behind the iron curtain. We hid everything that showed that we were military, attending a Secret EW Course. We tried first to get into Czechoslavakia - a grim entry, with a telephone pole serving as their border gate - swinging into their country - designed to keep their people in, not us out. Grim place - would not let us in.

Next we tried Hungary. They made us cool our jets for 3 hours - took our car for 2 hours, then let us in. We wondered if they bugged the car.

We drove around Hungary - another grim poor place. There were Russian and Hungarian troops - they did not like each other. We went to a grim hotel with a little old lady safeguarding each floor. The bar was filled with angry soldiers looking for a fight. The place was a true Police state, with soldiers everywhere.

We took a photo of an old steam engine. An armed soldier yelled at us to get out.

We left Hungary to go into Yugoslavia - the border between Communist Hungary and Communist Yugoslavia was heavily guarded - felt like a free place relative to Hungary. I did kind of dumb prank there - in an area filled with Communist troops - went into the washroom and put a Marine Corps Decal on the mirror to let them know we had been there.

Incidentally, the border between Yugoslavia and the west was not guarded well - the Communists knew they had nothing to fear from the west. They had great security between the Communist "allies" borders.

When we got back to the base we really wanted to tell our fellow officers where we had been - but did not dare. We asked them if any of them had ever been behind the Iron Curtain - no they said, would not dare, out would come the rubber hoses and torture.

My CO was a seasoned traveler and set up our tickets so we got to visit Madrid, Paris, and London on the trip. My CO and I did not talk about this for a number of years, but I presume I am beyond the reach of the long arm of the US government - I hope. Don't tell anyone.

I went to another electronic warfare school in Germany and this time my wife went along. We drove around four or five countries and had a great time.

There was another Marine in the Class, an active duty Weapons Officer who flew the A-6. Nice guy but quiet. I ran into him a few years later in another school. A few years later Master Sergeant Clayborne told me that the Officer was a prisoner in Levenworth. The story went that he was jealous about his wife. He killed two men with a knife, and the ones killed were not the right guy but his brother.

Master Gunnery Sergeant Claiborne was a great guy - a massive guy. He was a former drill instructor. His son was a strapping young kid. Some years later the son was a star linebacker for the Detroit Lions and MGSgt Claiborne was living with him in Detroit. He was murdered there.

http://articles.latimes.com/2000/jun/18/sports/sp-42338/2

I became the Commanding Officer of MWCS-48 from 1989 to 1991. One half of the Squadron was mobilized for Desert Storm. The rest of us were going as backfill if the casualty rate was high. Fortunately it was not.

I personally wanted to go. It is a little like being a Fireman, training for years, and then missing the fire. I informally asked my Squadron members how many hoped they would be mobilized? About 1/2 wanted to be mobilized. Then I asked if we were mobilized, how many wanted to go to Iraq. It was about 1/2 again, but different people. Some Marines wanted to go to Iraq, while some did not want to get mobilized but if they did get mobilized they wanted to go to the war.

I did not push hard to get our Squadron into the war. If the war ended up going badly I did not want my actions to cause casualties for my guys. Of course what I wanted did not count for much in any event.

Captain John Joyce and I did call Headquarters Marine Corps and volunteered for Iraq. I knew that it was unlikely that they would take me as I had recently been promoted to Colonel. So I volunteered to go back in any rank and any MOS. They did not take me up on that offer. I was concerned that they might take me back as a Private and put me on mess duty again. My wife was a bit unhappy about this.

In addition to spending 13 years in MWCS-48, I also served in the Headquarters Detachment 4 of 4th Marine Division in Chicago, at Headquarters Marine Corps in Washington, DC, at Fleet Marine Force Atlantic at Camp Lejeune, NC and Norfolk, VA, and finally at the Amphibious Warfare Technology Directorate in Quantico, VA. In my last four years at Quantico I worked on high tech weapons development. I retired in 1999 - Colonels are permitted a maximum of 30 years of Commissioned service.

My buds from MWCS-48 at a recent reunion