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3rd Battalion Barracks At PI

old 3rd bn barracks mcrd pi

I would like to send a photo and brief description of the old 3rd Bat. barracks at Parris Island that are being torn down. I was there two weeks ago, they are partially demolished, the bricks are being preserved and sold by the base museum to raise funds. The barracks were used from 1960/61 until three years ago. A new Bat. area is located a short distance away. I took some pictures of the shells of these buildings while standing on the old parade deck, many memories came to me there in the silence. Thought many old 3rd Bat. Marines would like to see what has happened to the barracks. I was there in 1961, they were brand new, and jokingly referred to as Disneyland by the 1st and 2nd Bats.

B.R. Whipple, Sgt

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Garfield Moore - July 14, 2020

Platoon 3052 H Company July to Oct 1978

Tom Wheeler - July 14, 2020

TJ Lacey…Fifty plus years since 1961 PI Boot Camp…I still have my Grad 339 Biook. A little ragged after all these years..I can do this request for you… i will check this post every so often………I can text you the grad pix and arrange to copy the last 17 pages…….I need your contact imfo. Semper Fi

Pvt. Thearle J. Lacey #1970*** - July 14, 2020

Tom Wheeler. I served with you in Plt #339 Jul 7, 1961 Sep 27, 1061. I kept remembering Fox when I thought of who were our ADI’s. I have been looking for our grad book everywhere since my vindictive ex burned my service stuff, including all my certificates, etc.. When requesting records I was asked to provide a picture of me in uniform but I don’t have one for them to add to my records at their request. Plus, as a three generation Marine family, I don’t have anything to add to my son;’s records of my Dad, him and me together in the family history. Do you still have our grad book and are you able to copy the last 17 pages (at my expense) for me. At the very least, I sure would like and need the dress blues photo they took of us individually. I am also on FB. Semper Fi. Pvt Thearle J. Lacey, Jr. 1970***

Pvt. Thearle J. Lacey #1970*** - July 14, 2020

I arrived at PI Jul 7, 1961 and S/Sgt P. A. Rushing was my SDI, Didn’t know he was a singer but he always reminded us on the drill field, he never lost a drill competition. He earned my deepest respect when the time after our competition we sat before him on the barracks floor waiting for results. He began by telling us that everyone one knew and complemented that we were the best out there that day. But then he came back with, “We lost”. It got real quiet as he searched our faces and then looked down at his feet and said that it was his fault. Seems that the night before he was in the slop chute and had gotten a little tipsy. There was a gunny who was one of the judges near him and the way Rushing put it, didn’t like our SDI and they got into an argument. He apparently popped the gunny a good one. He was told that he’d pay for it which is why everyone was watching 339 on the drill field and commented as they did afterwards. He stated how proud he was of us and again apologized. I still hold that man in very high regard and was one of the reasons, when he told me about the OCS test scores and how to make it in the Corps as a “good Marine.” Yes, he is one great person in my life and took his place within me next to my Dad, who was a great Marine model.

Thearle J. Lacey - July 14, 2020

Hey, Michael, if Fox who kept referring to himself as “El Lobo” was your SDI then, he was our ADI at Plt# 339 Jul 7, 1961 with SDI S/Sgt Rushing. He had it in for me and seemed to hate that I wore a St. Christopher’s medal with my tags. He pissed me off when he grabbed me by that medal when I was coming from the shower, asking me if I thought it would help me become a Marine. I told him, “No, but I expect it to help,” and glared back at him. I got decked because I didn’t preface my answer with “SIR.” His next problem with me was in class tearing down the .45 pistol and just as he warned us to hang on to the plug, my sweaty fingers allowed it to slip free from a few seats back, whizzed by his head and hit the blackboard, green really, behind him. Sgt Patterson walked by me as Fox’s face turned red, and Patterson slipped e plug into my hand. Thinking back, I hated that cocky little Fox and would tell him today El Lobo is for “Wolf.” Wolf has become my nickname when discovering my Native American heritage. I had completed tests that were given earlier in my PI stay and had qualified for OCS, so maybe he was wanting to give me a boot to Quantico. Thearle J. Lacey 1970***

Thearle J. Lacey - July 14, 2020

Msgt Del Lozano: This is the first notice of when my SDI, S/Sgt Rushing trained a platoon at PI before or after when I graduated from PI in Plt. #339 of the 336 series, Jul 7, 1961 – Sep. 27, 1961. I had been looking for him since I started looking for someone who had and could copy my dress blues photo from our grad book. SDI Rushing helped break in a couple of ADI when training us–one was Sgt. Fox. We had remaining ADI’s Sgt Long and Sgt Patterson. Sgt Grit sent me notice of one boot with me and in contacting him, he sent me a copy of our platoon pic but refused to assist me anymore for any copies of our platoon and dress blues photos, implying that it was simply too hard to do so. Ergo, my request was shortened for the dress blues photo as I am the middle person in a three generation Marine family and didn’t have my photos to give my son, John 1995 from Plt. #1050 MCRSD to place in an album with my Dad’s photos, Guadalcanal et al, WW II. As you know, the fire played hell with records from 1961 – ’62 with destroying most of those records. My DD214 was sent via a copy from records that the VA had and that’s all I could find. I lost everything else to a vindictive spouse years before my quest. I had suffered a severely broken back in four places during my last week at Camp Geiger. I was Honorably discharged under Medical conditions and when I tried to reup at the end of two years inactive reserve, I couldn’t pass the physical because I couldn’t carry weight of the equivalent to back pack/gear on my shoulders. (What I just had fixed in an operation was a crushed vertebra in my neck along with cracks in two more below it. It seems the M1 barrell caught me there as I fell but that damage wasn’t found until three years ago.) I had entered the Corps and sworn in at 16, shipped out just after my 17th birthday. My father had died and I needed guidance to find my own way in life. No one showed up for Grad Day, me being the only boot who didn’t come to share that great day for me. Sgt Rushing, who reminded me of Clark Cable found me in the barracks after the ceremony and took the time to sit with me and talk for about twenty minutes. It was the first time anyone talked to me in a fatherly way in three years. I wanted to find him and thank him while I looked for my book. Do you know where I could find an address for him? I am also looking for Sgt Patterson’s location as he ‘saved’ me a few times. I have searched everywhere for my book or pictures in uniform as in trying to get more records, I was asked to enclose a uniform picture so that they could keep it with whatever they found. This made finding my Grad Book even more important. I can’t believe that I can’t find anyone else to help me who graduated with me. Semper Fi. Pvt. Thearle J. Lacey, Jr.– 1970***. USMC TJLacey@comcast.net

Mike Garcia - July 14, 2020

Hi my name is Mike Garcia. I see that we were in the same platoon. I would like to hear from you

Sgt. Janicek, USMC - July 14, 2020

https://www.facebook.com/mcrdpi3rdbn/

Sgt. Janicek, USMC - July 14, 2020

All you 3rd Bn guys, be sure to join up on the 3rd Bn Facebook page. Would like see you share your history and photos there.

Gary Ross - July 14, 2020

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Gary Ross
gbross85023@yahoo.com
70.190.236.124
In reply to Dick Brown.

This reply is for Dick Brown: SSgt Dickerson was your D.I. was he? He and I were together @Khe Sanh for the “77 day siege” (Fox, 2nd Bn, 26th Marines). His nickname as I recall was “whissle-dick” (so named by our 1st Sgt Dennis Thompson). Not sure if you ever learned or heard Dickerson’s first name or not – ready for this? “General” Dickerson. Can you image the guff & grief he must have endured from his D.I.’s?? Run into him and his wife @P.I. sometime in early 1970’s. believe he was on drill field w/2nd Bn. at that time. Did he call a good cadence, always figured he had the voice & rhythm for it. In Nam he could crack you up with something off the wall that would take your mind off of the situation we were in. Sure would like to touch base w/him. Gary Ross, MCRD SD, Plt 1093 (Honor Plt).
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