![]() ![]() Following accelerated basic training, attended Air Force technical academy in Denver for intensive training, then three training regimens at McGuire AFB, plus part time OJT. Resident of South Bound Brook, formerly of Piscataway and Roselle, served in the US Air Force on active duty from 1964 to 1968 and reserve duty from 1968 to 1970, attaining the rank of Sergeant (E4). Sergeant E-4 | US Air Force & Reserves | 1964-1970.Legal experts made sure the Marines had completed their wills and left behind no pressing legal complications. Officials helped them get their financial affairs in order, including arranging direct deposit of paychecks and assuring that dependents could draw from checking accounts. The reservists were issued traditional metal dog tags to hang around their necks, and got green active duty identification cards. If being part of most significant mobilization in decades is a distinction, most of the reservists didn’t show it as they coursed through the Quonset huts.Īfter being checked in, they received dental and medical screenings, and were immunized for influenza, typhoid and tetanus. It was unclear Friday whether any additional reservists will arrive at Camp Pendleton. Navy sources have said a fleet of 13 ships loaded with Marines will leave after Thanksgiving.Ĭamp Pendleton, said Neil, is the “focal point” of processing the bulk of the reservists, although some will be activated at other bases. So far, it is believed that about 90,000 Marines, nearly half of the entire corps, are either stationed in the Middle East or are going there.īlum said the 5th Brigade will ship out soon, although the Marine Corps has declined to give a date. They are among the 1,144 Marine reservists summoned to active duty, the largest reserve call-up since the Korean War 40 years ago, according to Blum. Reporters were barred from talking to the Marines while they were inside being processed.īlum, the executive officer of the mobilization processing center, said the 850 reservists all were males from reserve combat units who will join the amphibious assault brigade. The reservists were allowed to be briefly interviewed as they shuffled among the rows of uninviting, World War II Quonset huts with peeling paint and no charm of antiquity. I’d prefer not to have somebody shooting at me, and I hope they can settle it peacefully.”Īt least, he offered good-naturedly, the Middle East desert bakes in dry heat, unlike the humidity he simmers through in Virginia. “I really don’t worry about (deployment). Eugene Franklin, 30, a factory supervisor from Virginia. “My wife, she’s not entirely happy, but she’s known this could happen,” said Staff Sgt. Other Marines, especially those who have left families behind, revealed some tensions, but hastened to add that, as Marines, they have lived with the knowledge that they could be deployed someday. “When I get back, I’m going to buy an old Winnebago and travel America,” Haymon said during a brief stop between processing stations. He’s not wringing his hands over the crisis, preferring to believe it will be resolved without killing, so he dreams about the glad times he’ll have when it’s all over. John Haymon, 25, a computer specialist from Norfolk, Va., said, “I left politics behind,” and hopes his emergency military service “is going to be a plus for my career.” Not knowing whether the Middle East confrontation will burst into war, many reservists are concentrating on their orders and trying not to fret about combat that might never come. “I’m a little apprehensive about leaving my job back home, but everybody is,” said Sutton, who, with a week’s notice, is preparing to serve on an amphibious assault vehicle. Ric Sutton, a policeman in Chesapeake, Vt. “It was a bit of a shock when they called me at 2 in the morning and told me I’ve been activated,” said 21-year-old Cpl. There is trepidation about leaving their jobs for an uncertain period, cautious confidence that the United States will prevail against Iraq, and the patented esprit of the corps.
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