My Tough Marine: Loving the harder to love

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Photo Credit: Joe Schneider 2015

On my trip back to San Antonio, I detoured through Yuma, Arizona to see a couple more of my Raiders... unfortunately, one of them had just been recently hospitalized following a heart attack, but I was still able to spend a lovely afternoon visiting with my Vietnam 3rd Recon friend. Of all the Marine's I've met, my friend is one of the toughest of the tough. A 32-year career Marine, when his time ended in the Corps, he was devastated. The Corps was his life. So what did he do? He went to South Africa and exchanged his services as protection for a small village for bed and board. A true gentleman adventurer.

But my visit with this tough Marine left me with many thoughts. So after my visit, I wrote the piece below for the Operation Meatball Facebook:

Spending so much time with veterans from all walks of life I've learned that oftentimes the harder the external shell is, the more tender and soft is his heart. Sounds cliche, but it's true.

Today I spent the afternoon with a 32 year career Marine. His life was the Marine Corps. It was all he dreamed of as a boy, all he ever wanted to be. And when they retired him, it absolutely broke his heart.

Externally, he's one of the toughest and roughest men I've ever met. I know he probably terrifies a lot of people who may think of him as a mean old man. But when you start chipping away at the 32 years of Hardcore Marine, you find a man who loves little children and sticks to his friends the way only a Marine can.

Unfortunately, however, because of the stereotype society gives people like him, he's destined to live out his final years in relative obsoleteness; unknown and unappreciated for the life he dedicated to his country. People can't get past what they see on the outside and they don't realize that the crustiness, the hard shell, even the rough words, are just a cover for the suffering that person has experienced in their life.

It breaks my heart to see this, but it's a reminder of why we do what we do at Operation Meatball. We want to make sure people (and not just veterans, but this goes for all elderly as well) like my friend are not forgotten. That they DO NOT become obsolete. And that they know they are still treasured members of society.

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Visit with a Marine Raider

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While in California, I was able to pay a visit to one of my Marine Raiders, Joe Harrison. Some of you may remember Mr. Harrison from an article I wrote last fall after my trip to the Marine Raider Reunion.

Here is an excerpt from the article, "Gung Ho! The Marine Raiders Reunion."

One of the most remarkable "miracle" stories I've ever heard was from Raider, Joseph Harrison. During one encounter with the Japanese, Harrison was called on to help carry a stretcher to the field hospital. The man had been hit in the head, but all they could find was an exit wound in the back of his skull. They carried him back and a little while later Harrison learned that the Marine had indeed survived, but the cause of his wound was most curious: - the bullet which had struck him had entered his right eye, circled a less-important part of the brain, and exited through the back of his head. The total long-term consequence was that his vision went from 20/20 to 20/40. Otherwise he was A-Okay.

Another similar instance Harrison witnessed happened to his unit's chaplain. During another fight with the Japanese, he saw the chaplain fall to his knees, presumably hit. He rushed up and called for a medic, but when he examined the chaplain he saw that the bullet had only hit the helmet, made a hole, ricocheted around the inside of the helmet, and exited, leaving the chaplain unharmed - though significantly deaf. The chaplain never fully recovered his hearing, but his life had been spared!

I asked Mr. Harrison about his return home and the first meal he had. This is a fun one to ask because you hear all sorts of things. I wasn't disappointed. He told me he hadn't had a proper salad or any greens since he had left for the Pacific, 30 months before, so he bought himself several bunches of Celery stocks (made me think of the song, "Celery Stocks at Midnight"), and promptly consumed them. They've been a favorite dish of his ever since. 

It was wonderful catching up with my Raider and listening to new stories I hadn't heard before. But one of the things I was struck with most during my visit was the personal integrity and work ethic he had carried with him his entire life. Whether it was on the battlefields of Guadalcanal or raising his 4 boys later in life, he never had to be told what to do. He just knew what he had to do, and he did it. What an example for all of us!!

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