L/CPL Robert J. Slattery, Det #206, "SCUTTLEBUTT NEWS", May 2024 - Page #2
Subject: Lee Marvin

In Arlington Cemetery there is the Tomb Of The Unknown Solder, nearby is the tomb of heavyweight champion Joe Louis. Beside Joe lie the remains of a well known actor who made top movies but wanted to be known for what he he considered his greatest role in life, a Marine. The actor is Lee Marvin. A tough guy in real life, not just the movies. He said that an important lesson he learned as a Marine was, “Life is every man for himself. You can’t ever let your guard down, and the most useless word in the world is help. The military life was in his blood, his father Lamont had fought with distinction in WW1 and had taught Lee and his brother Robert how to use firearms. When war broke out Lee didn hesitate and wanted to join the best. I believed I was going to be killed. I just wanted to die in the very best outfit. There are ordinary corpses, and Marine corpses. I figured on the first-class kind and joined up.” Lamont and Robert also joined up. Lee showed himself to be proficient with his rifle and became a sniper. He saw action at The Marshall Islands and later The Marianas. It was here that he received a serious wound. A round from a machine gun ripped through his lower back, narrowly missing the spinal cord, and severing his sciatic nerve, it tore a nine-by-three-inch hole in Lee’s buttocks. For him the war was over.

He spent the next 13 months in military hospital. He was awarded a Purple Heart and a Presidential Unit Citation, a letter of commendation with a ribbon and campaign medals. The three family members were lucky to have survived, all returned home but all suffered from depression. Lamont suffered a complete breakdown. Lee tried to rejoin but found himself disqualified due to his wounds. He became a plumber but missed the camaraderie of the Marines. One day while working on a blocked toilet of a theatre his attention was drawn to the camaraderie of the players and he realised then that this would be a substitute for the corps. He decided to become an actor.

Semper Fi,
Tom Miller


Federal Veteran Access Point Opening

New Federal Veteran Access Point Opening in Morris County. Published on April 23, 2024

One of Two Outreach Service Operations Announced by VA Under Secretary ?

UPDATE: Morris Countys new federal Veteran Center Community Access Point (CAP) is scheduled to open on May 2 at the Morris County Veteran Services Office (VSO) located at 540 West Morris Avenue in Morris Township.

Services will be provided within two rooms that will be staffed with two VA counselors who will be available every Thursday. Veterans in need of an appointment should call the Bloomfield Veterans Center at 973-748-0980.

A new federal Veteran Center Community Access Point is being established in Morris County; the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) announced today during a visit by the VA Under Secretary for Health Shereef Elnahal to the Morris County Veteran Services Office in Morris Township.


This Month in USMC History
MAY
  • 2 May 1946: Marines from Treasure Island Marine Barracks, under the command of Warrant Officer Charles L. Buckner, aided in suppressing the three-day prison riot at Alcatraz Penitentiary in San Francisco Bay. WO Buckner, a veteran of the Bougainville and Guam campaigns, ably led his force of Marines without suffering a single casualty.
  • 5 May 1983: In Beirut, Lebanon, a UH-1N helicopter carrying the commander of the American peace-keeping force, Colonel James Mead, was hit by machine gun fire. The six Marines aboard escaped injury. Colonel Mead and his crew had taken off in the helicopter to investigate artillery and rocket duels between rival Syrian-backed Druze Moslem militiamen and Christian Phalangists that endangered French members of the multinational force.
  • 8 May 1995: In the wake of the most devastating storm to hit the New Orleans area in more than 200 years, a group of Marines and sailors from Marine Forces Reserve demonstrated the quick response synonymous with the Navy/Marine Corps team. Within 24 hours of being called, Marines assisted in the evacuation of 2,500 civilians, and Navy corpsmen treated scores of flood victims.
  • 10 May 1945: The 22d Marines, 6th Marine Division, executed a pre-dawn attack south across the Asa River Estuary and seized a bridgehead from which to continue the attack toward Naha, the capital of Okinawa.
  • 15 May 1862: Corporal John Mackie, the first Marine to earn the Medal of Honor, was commended for service in the USS GALENA during action against Confederate shore batteries at Drewry's Bluff which blocked the James River approaches to Richmond.
  • 16 May 1945: The 22d and 29th Marines continued the attack against Half Moon Hill, a day characterized by the 6th Marine Division as the "bitterest" of the Okinawa campaign. By the 18th, the famed "Shuri line" had been broached.
  • 22 May 1912: First Lieutenant Alfred A. Cunningham, the first Marine officer to be assigned to "duty in connection with aviation" by Major General Commandant William P. Biddle, reported for aviation training at the Naval Aviation Camp at Annapolis, Maryland, and Marine aviation had its official beginning.
  • 23 May 1988: The V-22 Osprey, the world's first production tilt-rotor aircraft, made its debut during rollout ceremonies at Bell Helicopter Textron's Arlington, Texas, facility. More than 1,000 representatives from the military, industry, and media, gathered to hear various speakers, including Gen Alfred Gray, Commandant of the Marine Corps, praise the versatile rotor craft designed to meet the needs of 21st Century battlefields.
  • 26 May 1969: Operation Pipestone Canyon began when the 1st Battalion, 26th Marines and 3d Battalion, 5th Marines began sweeps in the Dodge City/Go Noi areas southwest of Da Nang. It terminated at the end of June with 610 enemy killed in action at a cost of 34 Marines killed.
  • 29 May 1991: Elements of a joint task force that included the 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade departed the Bay of Bengal off the coast of Bangladesh after nearly two weeks of disaster relief operations following a devastating cyclone. The joint task force delivered tons of relief supplies using helicopters, C-130s, and landing craft in Operation Sea Angel.

SEMPER FI