Our father enlisted into the Marine Corps on 6-14-68 one week after graduating from Dearborn Fordson High School. He was sworn in at Fort Wayne Detroit, bussed to Detroit Metropolitan Airport and took his first airline flight to MCRD San Diego.

After 8 weeks of boot camp, and then infantry and weapons training, he received WESPAC (Western Pacific)ground forces orders. He was flown from El Torro airbase in California to Danang Vietnam via Hawaii and Okinawa arriving on 11-2-68. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment 3rd Marine Division at Vandergrift combat base in Quang Tri province in the Northern I Corps of South Vietnam. He participated in Operations Dewey Canyon and Apache Snow. In January of 1970 he was sent stateside to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina until his discharge in March of 1971.

He’s proud of medals earned but more important is his comradery with his fellow Marines which continues to this day. Our family would like to thank Dory Schmidt for sponsoring his banner.