Proud son

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John Durant Cpl E-2-12 (55-56), & H&S-10 (56-57) - June 20, 2020

Ooopps just remembered!! Did a short stint with Four Deuces 6th Marines in the fall of 56 as an 0844, Fire Direction Control, during the Suez Crisis when Eisenhower told the Limeys, Frogs and Jews to give the Canal back to the Egyptians (Gamal Abdil Nasser). who by declaring its nationalization had just stolen it from the Brits. There was a detachment of the 4.2’s on the Med-Cruise at the time and they wanted to bring the state side remnants up to the TO&E as they were loading the rest of the Regiment on ships at Morehead City, NC prior to sending them to join those troops already in close proximity to the Suez Canal. “Combat Loading” did not seem to take much precedence in the overall scheme of things. Thankfully we posed a “Credible Threat” and the situation resolved itself in a peaceful manner. Ain’t I the ” Lucky Bastard”. The overall wisdom of the US actions will be debated for centuries to come.

John Durant, Cpl E-2-12 ’55-56 and H&S 10th 56-57 - June 20, 2020

Jerry, Your citation of your father’s unit is lacking an important piece of information, the Regiment. The First Marine Division is composed of four Regiments, three infantry, 1st,5th and 7th, Regiments all of which are broken into Battalions, and Companies with similar identifications, so that there are three units known as Fox Company, Second Battalion, one for each Regiment. the fourth Regiment is the 11th, composed of the artillery units also referred to as Battalions which in turn are composed of individual Batteries using .the same numerical and alphabetical scheme as that of the infantry Regiments. My brother Charles E. (Jr), deceased 1989, was a member of the machine gun unit of Fox Co., 2nd Bn, 5th Reg. or more simply F-2-5. He was with them in Pusan, Inchon.and Chosin through Hungnam after which he was hospitalized for wounds and frostbite in Japan prior to rotation back to the states and duty at Swamp Lagoon until separation. Both Senior and Junior were awarded Silver Stars for bravery, dad in WWI while with 55th Co, 5th Mar Reg, 2ndID, US Army. I was fortunate to serve between Hostilities though I considered rejoining at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis but I “Chilled” until that resolved itself. You may ask your dad if he remembers “Charley” Durant, the odds are 2 out of three that they were in different units or your father arrived after my brother was GONE!!. Semper Fi