US Marine Corps Base - Yearbook (Quantico, VA)

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end up The plafoons in The deepesT puddles on BarneTT Avenue field. BUT we were Trying our damndesf. The firsf before-breakfasf run-iT was really a gallop flaf ouT-nearly laid us low. We had no wind and no legs, wiTh a few sTellar excepTions, parTicularly in The Second Plafoon. The young LieuTenanTs in Companies E and F, fresh from Their I0 weeks of Toughening up, Took To calling us The Coughing Colonels, The Blind Tigers, and The Cenfury Club. Well, our course was iusf begin- ning: maybe we'd show Them. We goT used To The AV-S being The Tail end of every formaTion, and To moving double Time whenever we came To a hill or a swamp. Even The convoys wenT aT The double, so ThaT no one was surprised-or hurT-when 20 of us Tipped over in our Truck aT a righT-angle Turn down grade. Nor when Two Trucks managed, in some miraculous fashion, To escape from The convoy and end up losT aT lndependenT Hill, alfhough everyone in The parTy had wiTh him a deTailed map of The counfry. On all field Trips we expecTed iT To rain lwhich is probably why They call Them Terrain exer- cisesl, and iT never disappoinfed us. Mud To our knees became our naTural habiTaT. BuT we kepT on Trying. Classroom work wasn'T much beTTer. New and sfrange courses came whizzing aT us from all sides: we couldn'T Tell a magnefic azimufh from an 8I-mm. morTar hole in The ground: we didn'T know The score: Maior Fisher in Naval Law was our consolafion-unperfurbed, enTerTain- ing, leisurely. Pressure all The Time. And Then before we knew iT we were geTTing final examinafions, and could only Take refuge in The Thoughf ThaT The firsf hundred RPs are The hardesf. As The weeks clicked by, The pieces began To fiT To- gefher. Mose of us realized The care and skill and efficiency wiTh which The complicafed ROC courses were organized. The insTrucTors were giving all They had To Their jobs. Underneafh, we were deadly serious and were noT making excuses. The Marine Schools and The Marine Corps were deadly serious and were noT wasTing Time. They were running a magnificenf machine. ThaT helped our morale. Even ROC can'T be sixfeen hours a day of grim work. We found a few minuTes here and There and goT To know each oTher beTTer. We were proud of The' number of beribboned ex-Marines from The lasT war-BlounT, ISSII Chapman, Dickey, Lefebvre, MacFarlane, SmiTh, Tilley- ThaT were wiTh us, and of men like McLean, MounT, and Schaefer who had been in oTher branches of The service before and had now finished up in The righT place. We knew who would be lasT To formafions, and made beTs on iT. We knew ThaT no one could ask more guesfions Than Blackford, Murphy, and Tilley, and ThaT noThing could inferfere wiTh The nighfly bowling bouTs of Dickey and Gabler. We wenT To The Officers Club, discovered BOO, Took week-ends in Washingfon ThaT were even more sfrenuous Than life in Company H. Our favoriTe Topics of Talk were The wild life and The frigidify of The food in Officers Mess, The various impossibilifies of leave, and The amazing spirif of The Corps. Gradually The AV-S end of The ROC came To The fronT and we lisTened and Talked To Majors Clark and KureTich and Ranch. We had our inTerviews aT The end of The fourTh week and found Them pleasanf. We knew we were noT only in a good service buf in a good branch of ThaT service. When our C.apTain Murphy broke all pre- cedenfs and was elecfed Presidenf of The enTire l2Th ROC, we felT ThaT maybe The Aviafion SecTion was gef- fing beffer. We shall noT forgef The fracfured ribs ThaT Murphy dedicafed To The cause of Touch fooTball. Nor Capfain Shuler'5 baby ThaT goT Tangled up wiTh our RP in Aerial Phofography. Nor Maior Fisher's anecdoTes. Nor Lieu- Tenanf Finch's TranslaTions of Semper Fidelis. Nor our collecfions of Brownies. Nor The way we seemed To Thrive on lack of sleep. Nor The sour noTes of The Tem- peramenfal bugler across BarneTT Avenue aT 0530. Nor The firsT Time we goT behind a machine gun and laid iT on The Targef. Five weeks were up, The back of The course was broken. The days ahead looked brighf and sTrenuous-firing various pieces on The range, focussing more and more aTTenTion on aviafion subiecfs, and finally shoving off on The already legendary landing-parfies and graduafion. We hoped ThaT all of us would sTill be aboard, and Then Mac could pull up his ladder. When we came To Ouan- Tico we were ready To go. AT The end of our Time here, Thanks To The excellenf Training of The ROC and The AV-S, we believe ThaT we are on our way, and we are sTill Trying. uni

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man. Had iT noT been Tor John PeTosis, iT mighT have called Tor Two assisTanT B.A.R. men. We requesTed The ineviTable quesTion-asker OT SaTur- day aTTernoon To seek his answer in The book over The week-end, as The Trip in was double The square OT The one OuT. AT leasT iT seemed ThaT way. Amid The husTle and busTle OT The Ten weeks, however, There were impressive momenTs. Who can TorgeT The sunseT parades, especially ThaT aTTernoon when we marched in welcome To The new Commanding General OT The PosT. We were proud Marines ThaT day. On November IO, we celebraTed The l67Th birThday OT The Corps. lT was noT a day OT celebraTiOn or rejoicing, buT iT was none The less Tilled wiTh an aura OT greaTness. The sTory OT The esTablishmenT OT The UniTed STaTes Marines was well known To all OT us, yeT we lisTened quieTly and wiTh sTrong hearTs as ThaT sTory was read To us again. To us iT was noT merely a TesTimony To The pasT buT a vision OT Things To come. We were proud To claim The TiTle OT UniTed STaTes Marines. Like everyThing else, Taps was soon To end The days OT The l2Th Reserve OTTicers Class Torever. As The weeks shorTened inTo days, Tield exercises, nighT raids, dawn aTTacks and landing parTies broughT home To us The desperaTe mission Tor which we were being prepared. The meaning OT The word oTTicer began To Take shape. WhaT did iT mean To us in early December, l942, lT meanT sTrengTh when oThers were weak, TaiTh when oThers were TaiThless, deTerminaTion when all around us had given up hope. This was The inTerpreTaTion we carried wiTh us To puT To The TuTure TesT OT baTTle againsT The back-drop OT Wake, BaTaan, Midway and The Solomons. The command is, Forward, you Marines! AV-S-THE FOURTH CLASS When we arrived here we were as green as a Marine aviaTion uniTorm. NOT Too many OT us knew ThaT AV-S sTood Tor AviaTion Volun+eer SpecialisT, ThaT we were only The TourTh AV-S class, ThaT we Tormed a small parT OT The larger l2Th Reserve OTTicers Class and would sTudy and graduaTe wiTh iTs groups OT newly-Tledged Second LieuTenanTs, ThaT our prime purpose was To do The ground work which would allow acTual and prospecTive Marine U41 aviaTors To concenTraTe on Their iobs in The air, and ThaT our evenTual assignmenTs mighT include any oTTicer's posT in Marine AviaTion-excepT Tlying. Our uniT was assembling, like a movie OT an explosion run Through The machine backwards, Trom all parTs OT The counTry and Trom all walks oT liTe. There were plenTy OT accenTs Trom The FighTing SouTh, and Texas and Cali- Tornia were much in evidence. We had come Trom engineering and archiTecTure and law oTTices, Trom pro- Tessional TooTball and invesTmenT banking, Trom coTTee imporTing and WalT Disney's sTudios. Some OT us had been digniTied and imporTanT: some OT us had been liTTle Tellows. IT looked as if iT would be hopeless To make us inTo one inTegraTed ouTTiT. AT Brown Field The work OT shaking down began. We learned how To sTand in line Tor equipmenT, how To sign our names correcTly, how To buy acres OT duTTle unTil our TooTlockers were cracking, how To sTain leaTher darker and darker unTil iT looked plenTy Marine, how To sleep Through The claTTer and whisTle OT The Trains ThaT seemed To run righT Through our barracks all nighT long. One OT us used To wake up TrighTened, noT because The roar OT The Trains had begun again, buT because iT had Tem- porarily sTopped our disTinguished baTTery OT snorers. Some OT us goT a TasTe OT The air aT Turner Field, wenT up wiTh The piloTs on Their regular TlighTs, or looked down on The searchlighTs OT QuanTico Trom up Top under a lonesome moon. LieuTenanT WisharT acTed as our guard- ian angel in Those TirsT bewildering days, as The money poured ouT OT our pockeTs and The shoTs poured inTo our arms. Then we were up aT Barracks C, second and Third decks, and The real course was beginning. We lisTened To Colonel Ames and Colonel Wensinger and were im- pressed. LieuTenanT DeTchon TaughT us again how To saluTe, and repeaTed and repeaTed close order drill and The manual oT arms wiTh sublime paTience. We were clumsy, awkward, skiTTish, dumb. Each OT us advanced by his own parTicular series OT Talse sTeps. We sTill looked hopeless. lT we were bad aT obeying simple com- mands, we were worse aT giving Them. We did noT like To bark aT our squadroom maTes, and The only maneuver we could be sure OT execuTing was The one ThaT would

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B i llllu I-I UUWUK L f,,,,,-gf ,rue 1 i -...L-AA.-. Charles James Ahern Mac Asbill, Jr. Second Lieutenant Second Lieutenant Robert William Powers Kenneth Harrison Sayre Second Lieutenant Second Lieutenant RESERVE OFFICERS' CLASS Maurice Leroy Cater James Edgar Fox John Alexander Graves Herman Lay Second Lieutenant George W. Sciple, Jr. Second Lieutenant Richard Warren Akeley Price Richard Ashton Robert Emerson Albee Albert Burton Atkinson Lee Marcellus Alford, Jr. George W. Averitte, Jr. .,...Q,,3..,?Y,N,i,. KW., Robert Henry John Ball Ja mes Robert Barbour a., W 1 , ,,. ., fr me .f Qgws ri. t aireaiei 1- 4-fw , .seine nel, . 1, f 1--1.. .-Q, --a-.ra .. :Qu , ,awe we -- -. .. af-eeaiegeaegeae 1 Riirnmnxe ' :, -:- -: .--,,: . -Q zfiiiiftg u . X W3 W re Q 5 er E H 9' Q M ea? fe 9 it Pg-E flag af 3 11 Q .yi 2- 22 N a H my 3 w i 'l S., rf 3 pgs' r me ra 1 Haag an 5, bf Q JP ff a we S2 1 at Egg Kreftaiii-Z A' 6 E S , 1 .. H.. me 'sa 3' A J' my W Zechariah Allen Barker 1a.qg21efi 92? We fe e ea, ze ,aa . 3ig3r5se.a are rg-fwQ1eH2r sgneieaeaien ?2g.a1-rife-em .naaiw fr. 1aa11.g1a.iQiQ We-we1s1 , 7 rage.. Riel are sw . S in Yi w ESE? 4 ra. Sifif' za... we, .,,. -+f .1 --11 . ,, at ., .Mm .,. 2vr15k2.H as ..e,- . - if as . uw fa .1111 . f,,ira'?iena??s2i S25 a?gwf,eiege?rrs1 1a ffegggw ,-...m v .1 .2e.mei5if1i211f'5f2 iw 1gie.fza,a1f5?1i , 1 irerfzgyfgirs -' 'S --V ! .L ess? ,M N .. . .air mea A A of -' ge v1fQ,,.gi 11 + .fe A Q iii V 59 Eff.. r MW r J, ., 8 Q B' Fw. J 'L emi at Y r-gn 2, 2. 2 ...fr r 6.2 . .Z were ggi W rv Q 4 sf ,ag ,J .Q lv ff we .era - ' Q fx .. gi..X Second Lieutenant l Paul William Splittorff Second Lieutenant nm 1.1 arms: f I-'X fr 53.151-w.u:gm,f11r-11 1 :.s1ffe:fe.215 ArQ55tiiiffg:f:v.i?imgaffffl.11f-mf-,ff3.211fx.11Q?5:iSaf.-fgw.:.iff.Ja,. J 1,1::f.s15y.,f Hiigffiswtlsss+erLQflqi iss,s'11r-1':.f wil? 14'5w?irS.g1r:gf1. , f lr: Vfafifgrs af' wifi YTz?fitl3is1- W'4ff2'eYg'5iffy?-2.li?iff?kS??-2251535 '- wg K fgyksaigg , .?ffB52frg.5:1sf 'R-he t ., ef. L- ff . ffiiiifiiif V1 '- 12' . . uric in ' We-was -fn ' ' .1 . . ' . I-Vznxfii iiflfiifff' P , K , +4 'S 1 .rilfisiiila SQWLISY..-1: I if , V ' ., i. 151 1 ieiilfiifsesii 1 ., ' . 1- A - ' 1fsefff-f'e:f11es'f,.: r' 1 ,. - -r-1-f L - ,, .15 -, 1 . ... ': '1- 2' ' fb ,si - f Y if ' W 1 Jack N. Arbolino Carl Olson Bachman 2 . , i else P ., r Y i 4535: 1rsi.il f ?aifi ':fe:r1friW:t52f7 fm,-..we-W , Y aw an 5451: ff' r .tif A Y ri tr at r 1. K r , i iw X P P RQ, r 2 r ,, ir e ff r 5' r lx 4 rt r rf-1 r + r., 1, K rszfx X It effr r .rr EYififiriififili'i2E?iQf?.-?'i'2152 Tift: Jffikf k37fi'f1ii2.3'ff.r i5?5Ti?5z.if7fffifE,lW 5' L' 'K 9 lfififizls.j?513f3l:'.ifflififii 25525 fiiis 34 3 '51 ifgf iff! it 1 f 'S 313.51 'rs,'i-.nf-Ere. f A, -- f2.'211af2fQ:.'sf1sz iz:'za.fii75 wr t '7'f 9i:1if'x.f.fi 1-1.5, wr . 1511: 1.112 :Lg:,,,11w -11, -11-,s11.fw12,f11 ,.,,.,.w1.ss 11 , ,1.,1.-wg K.-tzfifffw 1, 1.911 f . 'fir.r?1f'Yf'f1':'1 11,y1.11,jqVi5 '5 -Q1 iQ',.q12gq,,11 1wv,.1:1-i' ' - 1 fre 1: Y 151 51: . tifpx. i 51g-351111-, , 1 .Q-fv jrfvr 1.51.1 1,11 'Str .viii ...kai 5:11. ,K .., It 1. i . . 1 . , iff 1 f sg 1 - ' 1. f,f111Q1: 1,.:f:1r., .,,, .K M 51 ,I 9571-ff',1.13Li?1E,.iii-, fl ' : :, f 1 .251-s K Z ' .far- . - K . pr Y :ie f Bell Charles Francis Beck Hal L561 V.. Frank Sloan Baker, Jr. Roy Carter Bennett, Jr.