Somewhat Coherent Ramblings
From My Time in
USMC Public Affairs
(1975 - 1982)

I joined the USMC on January 9, 1975 by entering the Delayed Entry Program and reported to MCRD San Diego for bootcamp on February 12, 1975.

After graduating from MCRD in May of 1975 and a short leave at home I reported to Ft. Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, Indiana, and went through the journalism (MOS 4312) track. Marines Jeff Parins, Mark Mahoney, and Bill Wright were in the class ahead of us and all three graduated and departed DINFOS for Okinawa. In my class were fellow Marines: Tom Guido, Larry Lambert, and Bruce Bentley. Marine Staff Sergeant Jerry Smith was one of our instructors at DINFOS.

One of the little things I remember about DINFOS was the female Army XO of the company to which we were assigned. She drove a VW Beetle and we four Marines used to stagger out and salute her everytime we caught her leaving the parking lot and trying to shift gears. She missed a lot of gears, but never a return salute. There was a black Army staff sergeant in charge of supply and we were occasionally assigned to help him with some miscellaneous duty or another.

Upon graduation, Major Fred Tucker (the Marine Corps liaison officer at DINFOS at the time) gave all four of us orders to Okinawa.

After leaving Indianapolis and another short leave at home, I reported to the Camp Pendleton reception center for further transportation to Okinawa. There I was joined by my former DInFOS classmates and we spent a few days picking up trash and cigarette butts while awaiting transportation orders. We were finally bussed to Norton AFB and flew from there to Anchorage, Alaska, and on to Okinawa.

Arriving at Kadena AFB on Okinawa in September 1975 we were bussed to the Camp Zukeran reception center for orientation. After a day of briefings and several purchases from the "Roach Coach" we once again boarded busses and were sent to the PAO office at Camp McTureous. Life at Camp McT was great. Bentley, Guido, Lambert and I were housed in a quonset hut and life was good. We had the barracks to ourselves and worked out of the McT PAO office (it was actually a small shack with a great darkroom). McT was being closed so most of the PAO folks were already setting up the new office at Camp Butler and living at Camp Zukeran. The four of us at McT were under the supervision of Sgt. Oscar Sester. Most of our time there was spent doing office jobs, typing, some photography and learning some basic darkroom skills.

We were only at Camp McT for a very short time before finally moving into the barracks at Camp Zukeran and beginning work at the MCB Butler PAO shop. Once we got there, Larry Lambert worked with O.C. McBride, the Okinawa Marine sports editor; Tom Guido worked with Jim Klick, the Okinawa Marine editor; Bruce Bentley became a general assignment reporter; and I was assigned to work in the photo lab with Sgt. Sester.

Mark Mahoney, Jeff Parins, and Bill Wright had already settled into roles within the office by the time we got to MCB Butler. Mark worked some with Jim Scapillato and they went on one off-island assignment to, I think, Australia, where Mark had wanted to get into the emerald market (or something like that) if memory serves me correctly.

Jeff Parins had been assigned to the Northern Bureau at the Camp Hansen PAO shop with SSgt. Doug Gray and Sgt. Dave Pierce at Camp Schwab.

Bill Wright was taking care of Fleet Hometown News and covering some stories as well. One memorable one was his coverage of Recon and their sub. After that assignment, Bill was constantly saying: "You gotta be hard, and you gotta love it."

I worked with Major Mawk Arnold, the assistant PAO, and translator Herb Nakayoshi(?) on occasion. At the time, their offices were located in the basement next to the snack bar and barber shop at the MCB Butler HQ building. The civilian admin person assigned to PAO at the time was Ms. Tanaka. LtCol. A.P. Brill was our PAO. MSgt. Benavente was the PAO Chief. Also assigned to the PAO shop were Sgt. Doug Lord and another sergeant (whose name escapes me at the moment). We had a lot of fun shooting pool after hours in the barracks rec room with Sgt. Lord. Bentley was sent to MCAS Futenma to work for Capt. Jim Eakle (the San Diego Padres "Tuba Man") and Sgt. Jim Brown a few days every now and then.

Bruce Bentley was tagged with the nickname "Wrong Way Bentley" after he flew to Iwakuni and got on the wrong flight there. Instead of flying on to Mt. Fuji where he was going on assignment, he ended back up at MCAS Futenma. A few months later, he made a message run to Camp Courtney, parked the Motor Pool van we were assigned out in front of the HQ building, and before he got back to Camp Butler we heard from an irate Marine Gunnery Sergeant. Bentley had hopped into the wrong van (it was hard to tell the two apart -- the van he mistakenly took had a yellow bubble gum light on top and a big sign on front and back identifying it as a Road Master vehicle) and proceeded back to the PAO shop. Wrong Way had struck again.

There were two places we liked to hang out. One was an "album bar" called Noah's Ark in Futenma Town. It had "ark-like" compartments lit by blacklight and candlelight and played albums by request. We played Spades and/or just sat back, sipped on beer, smoked cigs, and got into the music -- usually Pink Floyd or Jethro Tull. The other place we hung out at was a small bar on Gate 2 Street right outside the Kadena AFB. It was a place to enjoy a cold beer and visit with bar girls who weren't high pressure about the drink-buying. In fact, they usually just let us be and sat with us and visited on the slower nights.

About mid-way through our tour there most of the old-timers were shipping out back to the states and leaving the PAO shops to us new "old-timers." When Jim Klick was due to ship out he made it a point to let us know that we could call him at anytime if we needed anything. Well, that night we were out on the town and at 3:30 a.m. we called him and asked if he remembered promising we could call him at anytime. He mumbled that, yeah, he remembered. He asked what we needed. We told him we just wanted to know what time it was. After a short cursing he gave us the time, laughed, hung up, and departed at 6 a.m. for Kadena AFB and his trip back to the states and his new duty station at El Toro.

Richard Hollingsworth worked with Herb and Major Arnold and was really into the Japanese language. None of us ever really got to know him because he spent all his off duty time immersing himself in the Japanese culture and language.

Sgt. McBride left the sports editor position around Christmas of 1975 (I think) and was reassigned to the PAO Northern Bureau for duty as camp correspondent at Camp Schwab. When he left there June of 1976 I was transferred there to take his place. His office was in the 9th Marines headquarters building. He had painted an outstanding Marine Corps mural on his office wall. The base sergeant major liked it so well that he soon moved me out of that office and into the base education building. He took over Mac's painted office for his own and was proud of the "wall."

Sometime during our tour there we had several folks assigned to the shop who were not PAO folks. One of them was Dave Ramsey who was initially our driver, but quickly became part of the PAO gang and took on more and more duties. Another was Don Silva, a quiet but likeable guy. Yet another was a PFC named Hurley who came to us from Recon where he had, according to him, been just a little too gung ho even for recon. He was one wild and crazy person and made life interesting for a short while.

Michelle Facciolli and Lorri Newcombe joined the PAO shop sometime around January of 1976. They fit right in with the PAO crowd also.

Parins, Wright and Mahoney left Oki in July or August of 1976. Lambert, Guido, Bentley, and I left in September of 1976. Lambert went to Camp Pendleton. I went to the JPAO at Camp Lejeune. Guido was stationed somewhere in California but I cannot remember where. I have no idea where Bentley ended up.

During our tour on Oki we had LtCol. A.P. Brill as the PAO and Maj. Mawk Arnold as the APAO. LtCol. Brill was replaced by LtCol. Jon Ables and Maj. Arnold was replaced by Maj. John Woggon. Master Sergeant Benavente was our senior NCO at first when we moved the PAO shop to Camp Butler. We also had a warrant officer CW4 LePage (?) (I think). Soon after that move, MGySgt. Don Coleman joined the shop as did MSgt. Ed Evans and MSgt. George Hijar. CWO C.E. Cannon came on board shortly after these folks.

Others I remember working with in the PAO shop on Okinawa during 1975-1976 were Sgt. Mark Gentile, PFC Joe Kaither, SSgt. Jim Scapillato, Steve Igo, Cal Openshaw, John Black, SSgt. Novak (the AFRTN guy), Ms. Tanaka, Sgt. Earl Bolender, Sgt. Gordon Genser, Sgt. Doug Lord, Cpl. Bob Demuth, 1stLt. Jon Seamon, and Sgt. John Young.

When I left Oki in September of 1976 I was reassigned to the JPAO at Camp Lejeune. Once I got there I worked for a really professional and extremely personable female Staff Sergeant by the name of Brenda Lanclos. Major Fred Tucker was the PAO and the PAO chief was a GySgt. Williams (I think). We had a civilian office worker whose last name escapes me, but her first name was Jackie. I replaced my Okinawa spades playing for Scrabble and tried my best to unseat SSgt. Arvil J.EI had arrived at Camp Lejeune on the Marine Corps' birthday in 1976 and in December of 1976, Nancy Laluntas was supposed to ship out to Okinawa in February. She was hesitant about going and I volunteered to return to Oki where I had enjoyed working immensely. Camp Lejeune was just too cold for my taste. So, in February of 1977 I left Lejeune and was back on Oki on February 28, 1977.. "Jim" Hall as the Lejeune "Scrabble King." Needless to say that that was an exercise in futility. I think SSgt. Hall had memorized the dictionary. He was just that unbeatable. Others who joined in on the scrabble games were Maggie Chavez and Ernie Richardson.

Some of the folks I remember working with during my short time at the Lejeune JPAO are Capt. Tom Tomkowiak, Mick Young, Rocky Hall, Nancy Laluntas, Ed Medina, Johnnie Gilley, Rickey Wright, Larry Lindsey, Tony Delgado, Gary Cooper, GySgt. Sanders, Michael Grove, Tom Griggs, Msgt. Paynter, Sgt. Connelly, W. Goodloe, and GySgt. Willett (?).

After leaving Camp Lejeune I spent a short leave at home in Arkansas and reported back to the PAO shop at Camp Butler. My second tour was another enjoyable tour of duty and I met a whole new crew of PAO folks. Among them were GySgt. C.D. Gilbert, GySgt. Bill Grindstaff, SSgt. Stan Pederson, Sgt. Dan Haberer, LCpl. Amy Wendell, Sgt. Scott Schultz, Sgt. Tom Scully, and a few more I can't recall at the moment. Those still there from my first tour included: Sgt. Dave Ramsey, MGySgt. Don Coleman, MSgt. George Hijar, LCpl. Michelle Facciolli, LCpl. Lorri Newcombe, and MSgt. Ed Evans. Also, Cal Openshaw was still on the island, but worked at the MCB museum for the remainder of his tour there so we saw little of him.

During this tour I worked as a general assignment reporter, a sports reporter, then in the photo lab for a while, and finally as the PAO admin NCO.

Leaving Okinawa for the last time in February of 1978, I was assigned to Recruiting Station Dallas, Texas, as a Public Affairs NCO (PANCO). This tour of duty was pretty much a career ender for me. Before my arrival there the RS had not had a PANCO in quite a while and the RS XO had been doing those duties. He seemed very reluctant to let go of these and turn them over to me, a newly promoted but experienced and trained public affairs sergeant. We clashed from the beginning.

He told me my office was in the back storage area and that I was mostly responsible for keeping the inventory of "give-aways" stocked; keeping the literature stocked and organizing it (the place looked like a dump when I got there); mass producing mail-out letters for various recruiters throughout the station's area. These mail-outs required me to type stencils for the Multilith offset printer and then cranking out about 500 - 1000 per month. Then I had to fold each individual letter. Next I had to stamp the RS or RSS return address on each envelope using a rubber stamp, and finally insert the folded letters into the envelopes, seal them, attach address labels (which I had previously typed onto "peel and stick" labels) to each envelope, sort them and deliver them to the post office in my POV.

All RS personnel were required to wear modified blues to work each day. I had to do the same even though I was doing messy work in a storage room with inadequate heat, air, and ventilation. I had been at the RS for about three months and had ruined most of my uniform shirts and dress blue trousers. My dress shoes had become so scuffed I had to begin wearing my "spit shines" from basic training. They too became extremely scuffed.

Finally, the XO relented and allowed me to begin wearing my camouflage utilities two days a week but I had to leave and enter by the back door to the RS offices and was not allowed to come into the main offices from the back on those days. I replaced my blue trousers and shirts by buying one set a month on the first and never had more than one set that wasn't ink stained or worn/torn due to my printing duties.

During my second year there the RS Supply NCO finally ordered some blue coveralls for me to wear when doing my unpacking and stocking of supplies and printing, stuffing, mailing duties. I had to take off my uniform and wear the coveralls and then change back into my uniform to leave my "office" even for restroom breaks. I felt like the unwanted stepchild and my attitude and morale declined accordingly.

Near the end of my second tour I had finally had enough and tried to talk to the RS Sergeant Major. He said there was nothing he could do for me because I worked for the RS XO and any problems I had would have to be addressed to the XO. I tried to explain to the SgtMaj. that the XO seemed to BE the problem. That was the exact wrong thing to say evidently.

I was called on the carpet by the XO the following day and told in no uncertain terms that he would not tolerate me talking about him behind his back. He said if I was unhappy with my duties then I should have come directly to him and discussed it with him. I then tried to explain that I had visited with other PANCOs and they were doing a lot of the things that I wasn't allowed to do. The XO told me that I wasn't experienced enough to handle a lot of the duties I should be doing and he was taking up the slack for me an doing them. I was (and still think I am) a fairly intelligent person and saw that this was not going anywhere so I did the "Aye Aye, sir, three bags full and all that jazz..." agreed with the XO and went back to my "dungeon."

At about the end of my second year there the 8th MCD PAO called me and asked how things were going. I had learned my lesson about saying anything about my displeasure at the way things were really going. So, I simply told him that things were okay. He wanted to know why I wasn't reporting to the 8th MCB about number of media visits, PSAs, billboard ads, news releases, etc. Also he said that as a PANCO I should be submitting articles to the district's mini-mag "The Roundup". It was at that point that I finally explained to him that I was not doing any of those things because they were not my jobs and that the XO handled those functions. The PAO wanted to know just what I was doing. I explained to him about the mailouts, literature ordering/stocking/distributing, give-away accountability, and other duties I had. He told me that the RS was not supposed to be doing mass mailouts and that I should be doing PANCO duties, not "go-fer" duties. Well, the conversation eventually turned in to what I later realized must have sounded to the PAO like a gripe session with me doing all the griping.

It was two days later that I discovered that I had made another HUGE blunder. The 8th MCD PAO had called the RS Commander and told him that he had a disgruntled PANCO there with a lot of problems that needed to be solved. Again, I not only had a face to face with the XO, but with the CO and again with the XO. I was reminded in a not too quiet command voice by each that I had a chain of command and the PAO was not in it. Then the XO said he would give me a chance to try my hand at some of the advertising and PSA work and see how I would do. I had no problems with what the PAO did because he, as far as I know, never realized the ramifications of his call to the RS CO or how I was actually being treated at the RS.

Well, I finally got to actually do PANCO duty at RS Dallas which allowed me to provide coverage of the Marine Corps Youth Physical Fitness Competition; take a tour of MCRD San Diego; and "ride the billboards" with Marilyn Scott of J. Walter Thompson Advertising.

About this time, I married my Laveda Jeffcoat and became the proud father of Melissa Diane. The following year we had Shauna Kay.

The XO transferred out followed by the departure of the Sergeant Major and then the commander. LtCol. Ty Trainor was the new commander, Capt. David Smith moved up from Ops Officer to XO, and SgtMaj. King became the new RS sergeant major. It was during my third and final year as PANCO of the RS that I was counseled about my performance and the contents of my current fitness report. Capt. David Smith did the counseling and that was followed up with a personal meeting with LtCol. Trainer. They both told me that they had seen vast improvement in my performance based on the two previous reports the former XO/CO had written on me. They also went over those two reports with me and I was dismayed but not surprised to learn how I had been rated.

Things from that point on became much more bearable and I was allowed to initiate several projects and see them through; move out of the storage room into an actual office; and have a vehicle available for my use at any time. For my efforts in helping setting up several successful former and retired Marine meetings and tours for same, LtCol. Trainer ensured me that he would be putting me in for an Navy Commendation Medal. The fact that I never got the medal was of little consequence and the only let-down I had after the complete change of command personnel. Under this group I began being a complete Marine again and moving forward with my career plans. I reenlisted and chose MCLB Albany, GA, for my next duty station.

Some of the great Marines I served with and good friends I made at the RS were: GySgt. Pat Currier, Sgt. Leo Bueno, Sgt. Frank Valdez, Capt. David Smith, Capt. Donnie Durbin, GySgt. Jackson, SSgt. Crump, SSgt. French, SSgt. Tom Stephens, SSgt. Rich Solesbee, SSgt. Dennis Carter, GySgt. Danny Dickey, SSgt. Wells, SSgt. McMahon, GySgt. Bell, Sgt. Steve Cruddas, GySgt. Joe Nichols, MSgt. Ingles, SSgt. Michael Flanagan, GySgt. Joe Ramirez, SSgt. Lewis, GySgt. Steve Strange, and Doc Ingram. There were many more but my memory has failed to save their names (may need to reboot).

When we got to MCLB Albany, we immediately got a really nice three-bedroom base home at the old naval base. It was a super nice and clean neighborhood. We spent the first week there sleeping on the living room floor on blankets awaiting our furniture to catch up with us. Our daughters were beginning to think we would be living in a house devoid of furniture forever.

It was great getting back into a "real" PAO shop and dealing with PAO folks again. The PAO at Albany when I checked in was 1stLt. Sean Boyd. The PA Chief was GySgt. Marvin Price. Also assigned to the shop were Sgt. Angie Peraza, Cpl. Cedric Walker, and LCpl. Debbie Quiles-Scott. The civilian working in the shop was Karen Lundy.

I had only been there a short time when 1stLt. Boyd informed me he was going to be gone for a week to bury his father. Marv Price pulled me aside an pointed out an urn in the PAO's office. He told me that Sean's was a retired general and had died nearly a year ago. He said those were his ashes and they had taken this long to arrange an Arlington burial for him. I was sure the good old gunny was pulling my leg. But sure enough, the lieutenant packed away the urn and departed the next day for the burial.

1stLt. Boyd departed Albany and was initially replaced by the Human Relations Officer, Major David Wells (as an additional duty). A few months later we finally got a new PAO -- 1stLt. Susan Walton. At around the same time Cedric Walker left and we acquired a new sergeant (a bonafide reclassified gung ho infantry killer) by the name of Hartford "Harty" Slate. We also got another new addition a female PFC whose name I cannot recall.

Slate came every morning and in a loud and reverberating command voice wished Lt. Walton "Good morning, ma'am. It's another fine day in the Corps." Lt. Walton would jump and nearly spill her coffee each and every morning. She constantly called Slate into her office to counsel on this and asked me to try to get him to say good morning like "regular people." But that was about hopeless. Killer Slate would have none of that conformity stuff.

Not long before I departed the Marine Corps and MCLB Albany, GA, Marv Price left and was replaced by an old acquaintance from my PANCO days, Dave Treadway. I was only there a short time after Dave checked in. Harty Slate hosted a going away party for me at his quarters and I must say that was one heck of a blast.

Some of the other acquaintances I remember from MCLB was the counter intel NCO, SSgt. Jackson; civilian Linda Evans; Sgt. Jean Watterson; and SSgt. Williams who had also been at RS Dallas with me.