Older than our country, more faithful to it than anyone, the Corps has played a big part in my life, starting with my Dad, who served in WWII in the Pacific. First as a driver of a landing craft until he got wounded, then retrained as a tank driver, he fought at Kwajelein, Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima with the 4th Marine Division. If ever you get a chance, read "Flags of Our Fathers" by James Bradley to learn of the horror of what happened at Iwo Jima and the other islands. "The Pacific" by Hugh Ambrose, Stephen Ambrose's son follows Marines of the 1st Marine Division and also depicts graphically what those Marines fought through to victory every time.
My Uncle, Ted Frazzini, was with the 2nd Marine Division and fought on Okinawa. Known to us kids as Uncle Bunny, you would never have pictured him as a Marine but this Pennsylvania kid was as tough as they came.
Uncle Mead Shumaker was a Marine embassy guard in Barbados when he met Aunt Lee and married her in full dress blues.
Cousin Bob Kerry was a Marine aboard a ship ready to invade Cuba during the 1962 Missile Crisis.
All of them influenced my career greatly, as every one of them encouraged me to stay in the military for a career because they wished they had and would have been in retirement by the time I was starting mine. Best advice I ever took!
Brother Ted Shumaker was a Marine, trained in electronics, which served him well when the Corps was downsizing from the Vietnam War and gave him an early discharge.
Bill Baker, who married my sister Kathy after his return from Vietnam with both legs missing and other wounds from a mine, inspired all of us by walking down the aisle in his dress blues on his new artificial legs. They were high school sweethearts. Their love and devotion to each other after he was wounded carried them through to the end of his life that came all too soon in a road accident. He was a Marine to the end.
Bill's nephew Jim Baker, my sister Nancy's son, was sent to Bangladesh with the Marines when he was on active duty, bringing water pipeline projects to fruition and helping to launch his current construction career in civilian life.
Son-in-law Jerry Sisneroz spent 12 years or so in the Corps, in Operation Desert Storm and later in Somalia as a communications specialist, another career that continues with him in civilian life.
Happy Birthday and Semper Fi, toMarines everywhere!
Watch the Commandant and Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps' 2011 Birthday Greeting here.
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