Paul,
My Dad is a Marine. He was the epitome of Semper Fidelis. At seventeen, He enlisted in the Marine Corps out of Green Bay Wisconsin; hitch hiked from his little village of Amherst Junction. At seventeen he accepted the Marine Corps Motto as a way of life, Always Faithful, Semper Fidelis.
He was a Marine before he met my Mom. He was a Marine when he had all 6 of us (my youngest Sister was born two months before he retired, my Mom said Dee was his retirement present). He was Always Faithful to my Mom, through thick and thin. he loved everyone of us kids until his final breath. He was devoted to his church and community: Always Faithful was his essence.
He was a Marine in peacetime, and war, wounded three times and didn't admit it, loved the United States Marine Corps and his Country. He retired from active duty but never from Semper Fidelis.
He willingly paid a price for his faithfulness and never regretted a single day, not one. My brothers and Sisters were blessed to be there for both my Mom's final breath and my Father's. My Mom's last words were "I love you all" and my Father's were "I thought I was tougher than this".
My father was the first member of HML-167. He was the Squadron Sergeant Major, the first, and he flew over 26 missions in that role. He was shot down three times and lived. The third one he was pretty messed up so they had to do a casualty call at our house, a month before my Mom was to meet him in Hawaii for R&R. That was not a happy event, one of the worst day's of my Mom's life. It was a crazy time, Tet offensive, Khe Sanh, Martin Luther King murdered in April of 68, Dad shot down on May 4th, and Bobby Kennedy murdered on June 6th, when Mom and Dad were in Hawaii. But we survived it; because faithfulness endures.
He suffered from PTSD when we didn't know what it was. He only got relief when he became a Veteran's Representative with the VA and helped others like him. He found his calling there and he loved them and was faithful to every veteran he helped. He healed, we watched him go through this and understood him. He did not quit.
In December my brothers and sisters will represent my Mom and Dad at the HML/HMLA-167 reunion in Jacksonville NC. They present an award in my Father's memory to the Squadron's outstanding NCO. It will be an honor to be with them. This time when they ask me what my Father was like I will tell them, just like them; he was Semper Fidelis.
