The Few, The Proud

Recently, a Marine Corps recruiter drove Jodi Carson, Gordon McWilliams, Kevin Walton and me from Greensboro to Raleigh where we joined 31 others whom the Marine Corps refer to as “Influencers.”  

Teacher, Guidance Counselor, Deputy Sherrif and Media guy turn
themselves over to Marine Corps for one week.

In recruiter speak, we would leave “stupid early” the next morning for an Educator Workshop aboard  Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot, Parris Island, SC.

Carson and McWilliams are employees of Asheboro High School – she is a guidance counselor, he is a teacher.  Walton is a Randolph County Deputy Sheriff.  I was a media guy.  

Conversations during the drive to Raleigh indicated the four travelers had watched sufficient Educator Workshop U-Tube videos to know what we were getting into.  

In fact, even Jodi Carson’s principal knew what we were getting into, “He tried sounding like a drill instructor for the past couple days to break me in,” she explained.

Jodi Carson, Guidance Counselor @ Asheboro High School gets her
Parris Island recruit ID card photo made.

Carson and I were drawn together quickly.  Perhaps it was because she played soccer and basketball at Eastern Guilford High School.  Or maybe it was because she taught English and coached JV softball and soccer at Southern Guilford High School prior to her work in Asheboro.  (She is a University of North Carolina Greensboro graduate with a master’s degree from Appalachian State University.)  

Perhaps it was because I told her I was a Marine and had been through recruit training at Parris Island exactly 60 years ago.

Whatever the bond, it was sealed by her discreet, “I’ll never tell” thumbs-up to me when the Recruiter/Driver casually announced, “Former Marines are not typically invited to these events.”  

Fair disclosure: I returned home on Wednesday evening of the Workshop.

According to our invite from Commanding General Terry V. Williams, “Your visit to Parris Island will allow you to get a small glimpse into what it takes to become a U.S. Marine.  We will introduce you to Marine Corps history, occupational and educational opportunities, weapons safety and marksmanship, physical and basic warrior training – you will walk away with a better understanding of the process we call transformation and your Marine Corps.”

General Terry Williams, Parris Island Commanding Officer tells
Influencers,"this is your Marine Corps -- pull back the curtain and
see how we make Mariens."

If “walk away,” was General Williams’ attempt at irony, it worked well.  

Thanks to highly motivational drill instructors assigned to watch over us, most of the week was at “double time.”  

Parris Island Senior Drill Instructor and two Junior Drill
Instructors stand ready to take over their new charges.

Whereas the general’s comments were clear and forthright, his drill instructors were demonstrably clear and forthright.  As in, “GET OFF MY BUS – FAST – NOW – MOVE IT – WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME?”

The drill instructors seemed collectively hard of hearing.  We kept yelling, “Aye Aye, Sir,” and they kept responding, “I can’t hear you!”

SGT MAJ Jim Lanham welcomes Harry Thetford to Parris Island.
Sixty years makes a powerful difference in the welcome!

The week was a blur of firing the M-16, squad bay tour, water survival brief, martial arts demo, gas chamber, pugil sticks and rappelling.  

While some meals were at the officers’ club, more were with recruits.  According to Carson, “It was great to converse and have meals with recruits in their first weeks of boot camp, and with others just days away from graduation.  It was as if the transformation of recruits to Marines was happening right before our eyes.” 

The work-shoppers peeped in on the 54-hour training exercise known as the crucible, which ends with a nine-mile hike, and the four-mile motivational run the day before graduation.  

Other stops included the Parris Island Museum, Marine Corps Exchange and Marine Corps Air Station-Beaufort Flight Line.

The Workshop culminated with graduation exercises on Friday morning.  Several platoons of recruits had completed 13 weeks of blood, sweat and tears.  

They had finally received their eagle, globe and anchor – their personal Marine Corps emblem -- no longer recruits, they were now Marines.

Three months prior, each family had received a scripted telephone call from their recruit -- there would be no further contact between them other than postal, until graduation.  

“Graduation had the most impact on all of us,” recalls Carson.  “Even though not one of us personally knew a Marine who was graduating, it was hard to find a dry eye in our group!”

As for her week at Parris Island, Carson readily admits, “Words cannot describe the feelings one has after experiencing something of this nature.  While the Marine Corps isn’t for everyone, I understand now why those who have the mettle to become Marines are known as the few, the proud!”   

Ol'Harry

 

     

  

Unfortunate Hitch-Hiker

Ninety-one year old Bob Bailey was raised by his Waycross, Georgia, maternal grandparents.  “They saw to it that I was well cared for,” says Bailey.  “They even put up with my love for all things aviation, building model airplanes, taking flying lessons, etc.” 

Ironically, Bailey soloed for the first time on December 7, 1941.

He enlisted in the Army in December, 1942 and was later accepted as an aviation cadet.  During flight training at Brookley Field, Alabama he met Betty Rose Waybright, from nearby Irvington.  They were married on May 15, 1943.   

Bailey became a B-29 pilot and was sent to Tinian Island in the Pacific theater.

“These were the last stages of the war.  From Tinian we were bombing the Japanese homeland relentlessly, hoping they would surrender.  My most graphic memory of World War II was a night bombing raid over Tokyo – the whole earth looked like it was on fire.  Someone suggested the lid had been taken off hell,” recalls Bailey.

Bailey had returned state-side when the atomic bombs were dropped, signaling the end of the war.  

He left active duty with the USAAF but joined the U. S. Army Reserve.  

He was recalled to active duty during the Korean War, this time as an Army aviator.  As an airborne artillery observer, Bailey flew combat missions with the 25^th Division Artillery. 

In 1961, with almost 20 years of service and two wars under his belt, Bailey, now a major, became the Assistant Military Attaché at the American Embassy in Laos.  “I was excited about this assignment.  I could retain my flight status, use the military expertise I had gained, see new parts of the world – and bad guys wouldn’t be shooting at me.” 

He became even more excited about the job as he piloted the American ambassador and embassy personnel over Laos and surrounds, including exotic destinations such as Bangkok and Saigon.

An engine change required Bailey’s Beechcraft L-23 to remain in Saigon for several days.  Returning from Laos to Saigon to pick up his L-23 with new engine, he hitched a ride with an Air Force C-47.  He wasn’t deterred when informed the unarmed C-47 would be flying a secret reconnaissance mission over Communist-held territory.

Per Bailey, “There were six crew members plus one other hitch-hiker and me.  The pilot ordered everyone to don parachutes.  I will always believe the Good Lord told me to choose a back-pack parachute versus the chest-type.  There was only one back-pack parachute (which you leave on at all times) on the aircraft.  Most aviators prefer the chest-type parachute (which you can easily remove in flight).”

Soon the “not getting shot at” part of Bailey’s new assignment literally went up in smoke.  “Our secret recon mission was fired upon by secret enemy anti-aircraft guns.  We were hit, the plane caught on fire.  The pilot ordered everyone to jump.  I was the only one with a parachute already on so I immediately jumped through the side door which had been removed for photographing.”

Bailey was struck by part of the C-47 fuselage as he exited but recovered in time to watch the doomed aircraft’s death spiral downward.  He hoped to see seven parachutes.  There were none.

Given his shoulder and leg injuries, Bailey pondered his safety.  The area into which he was jumping was locked in a three-way civil war – two of the aggressors were less than friendly towards covert American intervention.

The good news of the jump -- he landed safely, rescuers came to his aid, and a modicum of medical attention was given his wounds by his captors.

The bad news – at that moment, Bailey realized he was a prisoner of war.

As the first American prisoner of war in Southeast Asia, Bailey spent the next 17 months in solitary confinement in a small, dismal, unlit cell.  He went from a robust 185 pounds to an emaciated 135 pounds. 

It could have been worse – of the more than 600 Americans captured or unaccounted for in Laos, only 15 escaped or were released.

Fortunate to be one of the 15, Bailey was finally freed and returned home to his wife and three children.  President John F. Kennedy presented him with a bronze star.  He doesn’t remember who presented him his purple heart, but recalls, “There were generals all over the place.”  Colonel Bob Bailey retired in 1970 with 28 years of service.

Of Bailey’s book, SOLITARY SURVIVOR, fellow Georgian, Newt Gingrich writes, “This is a story about uncommon valor, unparalleled courage and untiring personal strength.”

Bob and Betty Bailey reside in Carolina Estates.  They moved to Greensboro to be near their youngest daughter, Elaine, a retired Episcopal priest.  They have two other children, seven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. 

There is more to the remarkable story of Betty and Bob Bailey than most people know.  After 23 years of marriage, three children, two wars, the POW notoriety, and a continuing barrage of duty assignments requiring family separations, the Baileys divorced by mutual agreement.

Bob Bailey met and married Mary Jean Jordan, a former high school sweetheart from Waycross, Georgia.  Jordan’s fighter pilot husband had been killed during World War II.  After many years of marriage, Jean passed away in 2000.

Betty and Bob had remained in friendly contact since their divorce.  In 2007, they were remarried -- on May 15, the same date of their first marriage in 1943.

Ol'Harry