Members are asking about airlines and airports serving our conference site in Hampton, VA. Both Newport News and the Norfolk Airports are within 12 miles of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, our conference site. Hotel van service is not available. Taxi service is $35 from Norfolk, and $25 from Newport News. Read more…
How come after all these years of bitching and moaning about how “I was left out” of the book , Last To Know, First To Go, we are receiving so few contributions for the revision?
Each of you guys and gals were story tellers and picture takers who plied your trade in the Corps. Why aren’t we hearing from you? Bylines and photo credits are always appreciated by each of us and this is could be your chance for posterity!
Okay, how should you proceed? First, depending on your age, get out your slate, Etcha-sketch, crayon, IBM Selectric or – for you more advanced types – that evil-eyed box that greets you each morning – no I don’t mean your TV – your computer.
Think about sections of your career or your tour in the Corps. Certainly, you had high and low lights. [Even the mundane may be interesting 100 years from now!]
For example: I took my years as a PANCO and picked out certain things and people; then I did a piece on my mentors – again names. Then I did a section dealing with my newspaper experiences at post and station papers, and yes I named names. I wrapped things up with a section on characters I worked with – again more names. Finally, I did the bad times, and we all had them. If you were a photographer we need your photos and captions – again names.
We have a publisher, an editor or three, as well as an overwhelming desire to see this project succeed. We cannot do it without you!
-Jack T. Paxton, Executive Director, email here: usmccca-alpha@cfl.rr.com
Need help getting started? Click here or use this as a guideline:
What should you write?
Use this as a guidleine to help you get started.
Remember if you have access to a computer,
digital files will be easier to compile.
The deadline for submission is June 15, 2009Name:
Time in the Marine Corps,
and career highlights:
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The Department of Defense (DoD) began the process of removing Social Security numbers from issued identification (ID) cards in an effort to prevent identity theft. The exception to this applies to Geneva Convention cardholders whose last four numbers of their Social Security number will remain on their cards. All ID Read more…
Don O’Neal, USMCCCA Foundation President, announced today that the 2009 Dedicated Member Campaign has already topped $3,000 thanks to the members listed below. “This is especially gratifying as we have taken some big hit losses from several of our corporate partners already this year. We hope you’ll keep those gifts coming!” If you would like to make a dedication go here.
“In memory of Chuck DeMar”
– MSgt. Doug Weatherman
– Don Gee
– Hank Ehlbeck
– LtCol. James Vance, USMC (Ret.)
– George D. Bieber, MGySgt. (Ret.)
– Fred Lash
– Cindy Lajeunesse
“In memory of Ceresse”
– Keith Oliver
– Cochise Cash
“In memory of Maj. Megan McClung”
-Jenny M. Holbert
“In memory of Marines KIA of 2-F-23 and 24the replacement draft at Iwo Jima.”
– Dale J. Cook
– Cy O’Brien
– Agostino VonHassell
“Saluting Sr. Airman M.G. Barrr Jr. USAF Iraq ’09”
– Malcolm G. Barr Sr.
“In memroy of Gladys McPartland ‘CCs Semper Fi Lady'”
– Sue Sousa
– William S. Clark
– Dennis Neal
– Thomas Rutherford
– Herbert Schwarzbach
“In loving memory of Gen. Robert H. Barrow” (more…)
Bummer. You missed early, early, early registration, but you can still save a few bucks, just register for the conference now.
Registration fees went up to $120, April 1.
And if that doesn’t make you want to register now, after June 1, it will cost $130. Conference hospitality suite (Command Post), will include: karaoke, Wii tournaments, DJ with dancing; a free continental breakfast on Wednesday. All this, plus interesting seminars and a special “Computers/Internet for the technologically challenged” for those of us not too swift on computers, hosted by webmaster Kate Stark.
Mark your calendar and sign up early for the September 14-18 event. You can register here or by sending your check or credit card to CCHQ at 220 Fox Court, Wildwood, FL 34785.
UPDATE: April 4, 2009: Ridgewood Lakes where I had planned to have our 2 May Chapter meeting, is having a tournament with lunch that day, so we cannot meet there. Accordingly, I have shifted the meeting to Sanctuary Ridge (old Diamond Players Club) [2601 Diamond Club Drive, Clermont, FL 34711; Read more…
Shipmates:
I need your feedback about future group cruises with other Marines.
A few of you have told me you are ready to go again, almost anytime, anywhere. But others have expressed reservations unless we can come up with new itineraries. With most cruise ships leaving from Florida, it is hard to find a trip that visits ports of call other than the same Caribbean Islands most of us have seen before.
Another question is the best time of year to cruise. I will do my best to find an affordable trip that offers a new itinerary and perhaps from a different port. To help my search, I would appreciate your responses to the following topics.
If you are not interested in future cruises, then no need to go on. Thanks for reading this far. If you look forward to traveling on these cruises with Marines in the future, or if you think it may be a possibility, please continue.
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Print category judges for the Merit Awards Program, Mike Rhea, Ron Keene and Dick Truitt examine submissions at the Newseum, Washington D.C. on March 5, 2009. Photo by Sgt. Michael S. Cifuentes.
By Don Knight, Awards Chair
Fast forward to Sept. 17, 2009. The Marines stepping onto the ballroom stage at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Hampton , Va. are wearing their blues. They are greeted by a Marine officer and are photographed holding a first place plaque as a winner in the annual Merit Awards competition. There is loud applause, cheering.
Judges Rex Stucky, Jim Wallace and John Metelsky discuss the merits of the photgraphy submissions. Photo by Sgt. Michael S. Cifuentes
At the podium MC Pat Coulter, with his professional discourse, is saying something about the winning entry and the Marine holding the plaque. He has already mentioned that “tonight we are honoring the best of the best.”
This is the USMCCCA’s annual awards conference and banquet, the final act in a nine-month drill that began in early 2009.
A thousand entries in more than 40 categories arrived in January/February at the Corps’ Division of Public Affairs, Pentagon, from all points on the globe, were then screened for compliance with the rules and turned over to 13 volunteers, all but one being civilians, to review, discuss, often argue, then to make judgment.
By Jack Paxton, executive director and Fl Chapter member
Proving that distance poses no problem, the Florida Chapter continued its annual tradition of moving at least one quarterly meeting annually around the elongated state.
Jack Paxton, Alva and Charlie Ross, Red Carpenter, Hank and Trudy Ehlbeck and Ann Carpenter were among the Florida Chapter members attending the quarterly business meeting in Daytona, Fla. March 28, 2009. Photo by Kate Stark
On March 27, 10 members from diverse locations – two from as far away as Birmingham, AL – gathered in Daytona Beach on Florida’s east coast for a Friday social gathering and 1st Quarter meeting on Saturday. Two others joined the group for the Saturday luncheon.
Cyril "Obie" O’Brien at 90.
By Don Knight
He’s 90 years old now and remains the feisty, congenial one-time Marine combat correspondent who everyone calls “Obie.”
Cyril O’Brien hangs his hat in Leisure World, a sprawling retirement community in Montgomery County , Md. But it’s just a place to recuperate between his frequent trips abroad, mostly to World War II Pacific battlegrounds.
Obie has just returned from his fourth visit to Iwo Jima . He first went ashore there in 1945 as a combat correspondent with the 3rd Marine Division. The Japanese occupants of the island were not pleased with his presence then, but what a difference 64 years can make.
This time he was escorted, along with some 140 others, including war veterans from the U.S. and Japan , in vans driven by friendly Japanese guides. They stood on Hill 362, one of the landmarks of this historic battleground, then assembled atop Mt. Suribachi , accessed now by a winding road, stood on the site of the famous flag-raising, walked the invasion beaches and gathered samples of coral sand. Off limits for tourists is the maze of underground tunnels and bunkers used by the Japanese in their 36-day defense of the island. They are considered too dangerous for exploration.
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