Sgt Ding Dong

 Photo of the day:

 

The Bow of an LST opens and you exit (drive out) onto a beach.

So for today:

As a young Marine, I was promoted to Corporal.  Until this  day a Marine is considered a ground pounder and rifleman, no matter his job. MEANING: if you are a cook, radio operator, clerk, computer operator (etc.) you can still be called on grab that rifle (which had better be clean and ready) shoulder that pack and hit the dirt.

Well, I was chosen to train as a radio relay operator. I finally earned a radio truck and a generator trailer. I had a two man crew. Our job was to set up antennas in remote territory between the front lines and the command post. My buddy Corporal Dallas Fletcher was picked for the same MOS (Job description) He had his own truck also.

 

Fortunately in 1956 I was never in a combat situation. BUT one day Master Sgt Bell (the man Dallas called Ding Dong, behind his back of course) called me in. “Darnell we have received orders to Turkey for NATO operations. You are my educated man, you have a GED. ;-0 You will load the ship, we will depart Morehead City on the ship, LST1167 the Westchester County.. You will load all our trucks, trailers and jeeps. Let me tell you something, My jeep better be the first thing off that ship! Remember a rule, 'Last thing on is the first thing off,' Got that?”

I looked at him and said, “No, I don’ understand, I ain’t never been on a ship, much less loaded one!”

“You will learn! Now get out of here and start planning, I have work to do!”

I was one scared 17 year old boy,  but like everything else in life we all take it as it comes. I met with senior Marines who had made cruises and learned a lot. And yep, Sgt Bell’s jeep was the first thing off when we landed in Turkey. . LOL

ALL of us have faced things that floored us. It might have been a job assignment, a doctor’s report, a pregnancy, a disappointed marriage, the loss of a loved one, or a million other life shattering things. ………We have learned…….. or will learn, JUST FACE IT! (Prayer also helps!) ………..

It is very possible you have faced more than I ever have. Both our sons have SUFFERED DIVORCES it hurt them of course. I have no idea if they know how much their parents suffered, just seeing them suffer.

If your children made it thru their early life without getting into drugs, you will never know how blessed you are.  I thought in my 80’s that my only sorrows would be deaths of loved ones. Boy oh boy, was I ever simple minded.  My friends, I say this with all the love I can muster, NO ONE knows the pain you can feel until the time someone you admired and loved dearly, allows Drugs to ruin their life and that of others…….IT HAPPENS!

Knowing our Lord, and having friends who mention you in prayer helps a lot!

Nite Shipslog

Repeat PS: God has been very good to me. I am a sorry Christian, but HE gave me THE GIRL HE knew I would need to keep me straight. Dumb boys, need a God who cares.  LOL