Not to impute your father's story telling recollections, but I Very Rarely used that kind of 'adjective', because I always believed it showed a lack of command of the English language. If, you will recall, correctly, I did not 'Need To Curse' to embellish the essence of the point I was attempting to articulate. And YES! I did spend some time with your parents at Elliot's Beach, and I did tell your father how impressed I was with your knowledge and your skills. I do not recall mentioning anything, though, about your occasional lack of 'good sense' and companion choice. [wink]
As with Mr. Dalpezzo, you Sir, are responsible for your success in your own life. IF you were ever influenced by myself or any of the other Marines, you met during your life, it was because YOU Chose to accept those moments as part of your journey. We were Always There FOR YOU. You were the ONE who wasn't always there FOR YOU, because of the 'influence' you let others have in your decision-making. I am GLAD, you had sufficient influences in your life's journey to retire as a Unites States MARINE CORPS Gunnery Sergeant! And now you have a new career in EDS, and 'STILL serving' OUR Beloved CORPS. You make ME, PROUD, Sir!Be Safe,Be Happy,AndAlways remember to have some FUN Every Day!
Semper Fidelis MARINE
Gunny Nielsen
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As I recall, there were moments (few and far between...) when your adjectives were quite appropriately virulent, although I do not doubt that your recollection of this particular story is more true to its exact nature. My Father has been known to embellish, or, as he would put it, employ an artistic license of his own design. The overall substance is generally the same, albeit with what some might call a dramatic flair.
The museum is a work of art - a Shrine.
On the subject of companions, it took me a few (ahem...) to get to the right one. My wife is a former Marine working at MMOA, Graduate Education. We gloriously compliment each other and I am truly happy.
Although I do not disagree with anything you have said, I respectfully REFUSE to minimize your impact on my success Sir. Yes, I ultimately chose to drink from the right well, but it is more than that. This well had the habit of grabbing you by the scruff of the neck and immersing you in the waters, knowing better what you needed than you yourself did, reminding you of how thirsty you really were.
This bit of correspondence has put some much needed extra "starch" in my stride. It was never the "thumps" that I learned from. It was always the words, and that still holds true.
Thanks Gunny. I am still thirsty, and the well is still deep.
Bob R.
ok, guys - my 2¢ to this string (we oughta open a forum in leatherneck.com instead of continuing this email - I'll take point on that if you guys want to a forum type of catching up).
Carl - I agree that a persons success must come from within - they have to have the desire and the drive to succeed. If they don't have this, they won't succeed. All of us have witnessed it - a lot of people coming and going, all have the potential to succeed, but how many didn't have the drive? For me, I simply fell in love with the Marine Corps and what I did to help make the Marine Corps better. Some people excell in sniping, some in supply, some in the mess hall, some as recruiters, and me in mainframes. Everyone had a duty to do, those who excelled in their duty had the drive to succeed.
I also agree with Bob's comments. A person can have the drive, but without the proper environment the drive doesn't mean anything. I've lived through that. Carl - when I first came to production control, I wanted it badly. I learned all I could with operating the 360 - I did my 3 months as tape librarian (and invented a few new ways to do things that drove Gunny Ellis crazy, but the tape error count plumeted with these new things). When I went into PC on Monday, the first thing Sgt Groby did was chuck a manual at me and said "Create an IEB print punch, put your and and address on each page, print 3 pages and have it print the page numbers.". I looked back at him and said "an IEB what?" That's the way it was all week - I wanted to learn, he kept chucking me the manuals. Did he take the time to teach me and quench my thirst? Nope. I remember this week like it was yesterday - I was so damn pumped up about finally making it into that room, and I felt like it was all for nothing. I remember on Friday, Carl - you were in at 14:30 like you always were, you were reviewing the log book, I asked Groby another question and he tossed a manual to me. I remember saying to him "Look, I want to learn this stuff. I can't read those manuals and make sense out of them. If you're not going to teach me, then I might as well go back on the floor and hang tapes". His reply? "So go ahead and hang tapes". Damn, my heart fell right thru to the deck. All that work I did to do my best on the floor for what? I was specifically told "you need to know the floor like the back of your hand to be selected for production control". Well, I knew the floor. I knew the microfiche machine like no one else knew it. I busted my ass to learn this stuff. I made it to production control. And my bubble was burst by one idiot. I remember you stood up and left the room. I didn't think anything of it - I hardly knew you at the time. Within 15 minutes you came back into the room and told me "Monday - shift starts at 15:00. Be here no later than 14:45. Uniform is Charlies.". Groby didn't like it, but you told him tough. The following Monday, I had my first production support training - how to read a deallocation listing. Taught by you. My condition code processing training was by you too. As was my initial JCL training. You, Carl - you created the environment where one could live the drive that burnt within. You did it at the shift level, and Top Hammack did it at his level. His level was different - he knew wild oats needed to be sowed, and if you were a good Marine, and got into trouble, he kept the punishment local (under his control). Both of you stuck up for your Marines, and that kind of leadership isn't taught, it's learned through exposure.
The leadership was true one time when we have some jerkoff for a company commander who issued a company order that stated "every" Marine would be at morning formation - unless you were on leave, you were UA if you weren't there. You made us read it and sign the paper stating we understood it. We weren't happy when you left the room with the paper - hell, we worked 2nd shift, and most of us went out in town after work. Getting up for formation was a real bummer. You came back into the room, called us together, and issued an order "You will NOT appear at formation. I will be there and I will get the word you need to know about and will pass it on. If I see any of you at formation, you will be written up by me for disobiendence of a lawful order. Do you understand?" After we all verbally acknowledged our "aye aye" to your order, you said "if the Captain wants to hold formation in the middle of the night, he can come out here at midnight and hold it". Yes, Carl, you stuck up for us.
Remember this Bob? Here's one that happened to you and me both. You were pretty fresh on the floor, and the system asked for a non-label scratch tape. Remember the rack with the tapes with the blue bands? The non label tapes? Well, you mounted one (had a write ring in it - so it must have been a scratch). There was a half-moon label on it, but you weren't taught about those yet. Remember what was on this tape? The air station's payroll data - it was a live tape. I remember having to report to WO Simpler after shift who was highly pissed. He wanted to know who mounted the tape. Somehow, he found out it was you - I don't recall how. I remember he told someone to get your ass back to work. I asked him why, and he told me you were in serious trouble - seems as if this was the 3rd air station tape that was written over. I asked him if you were going to be written up for this and he said yes. I nixed it - told him that I was in charge of the shift, everything that happened on the shift was my responsibility, that I had already shown you what heppened when I found out you mounted a live tape (again, not your fault), that you didn't know better than, so it wasn't a mistake on your part, but if it happened again now that you knew, it would be a mistake and would be treated like one. That wasn't good enough for him. So, I told him point blank "Sir, if you are going to charge someone with this, charge me, not LCpl Rodgers. I already corrected LCpl Rodgers, and I am responsible for what happened on the shift". He looked at me with disbelief and said "you telling me you're volunteering to take his article 15?" I said "yes sir". Before he or I could say anything else, Hammack started laughing (he was behind me in Ellis's chair - I didn't know it). He said "That's my boy! Taught him well, didn't I Gunner?" Well, nothing happened from that one. But, if we hadn't had the oppportuinity to watch leadership in action, leadership like yours and Hammacks, and learned from this, who knows?
So, the environment has to allow the learning and leadership. That wasn't the case for me in Okinawa.....
In Oki, I ended up working for people who couldn't spell "computer" much less operate them. I was a sergeant, 4038, working for a SSGT who was one of those wonders who came into the field when the intellegence restrictions were lifted. Production shift - she wouldn't even let us fix a B37 space abend - called the on-call production analysis person. She couldn't even explain what the issue was - and while she did this, I fixed the problem and restarted the job. Then I would pick up an extension, identify myself, tell whomever was on the line the issue was fixed, hear "Thanks, Dave!", and they would go back to their drinking. Then, SSGT Nelson would take me into the conference room and proceed to rip me a new butt. I tried to explain to her that I knew what I was doing, and was willing to teach, but to no avail. This is how bad she was - 16 initiators on the Amdahl - 6 production, 2 systems programmers, and 8 programmers. 16:00, the building emptied out - everyone but 2nd shift was gone. So, I'd set all 16 initiators to production (with programming having their lass as a priority class in case any of them happened to be working late (fat chance)). She didn't like this - told me I wasn't authorized, etc. Just as she's saying this, MSgt Spires from Systems walks by - I holler to him and he stops. I tell him "Top - is it ok with you if I change the initiator grid from 6 produciton to 16 production classes after 16:00 so we don't have jobs waiting for initiators?" - his reply: "ok with me, just make sure they are put back by 07:00 and if I need an init I'm stealing one". Think it was good enuf for her? Guess. So, every night I'm getting reamed for changing the inits. It gets better. We have a Lance Corporal running the four 1403 printers. One printer for 8646, one for 8647, one 8648, and one 8649 (ring any bells?). He asks me if he can change the 8648 (3 part) printer to 8646 (one part) because he has shitloads of 8646 to print, and 3 pages of 8648, and the printer sits idle. What would a good NCO say? "They are your printers, run them any way you want to run them, just so you get the work done", right? She vetoed that one too. So, I gave him a verbal order, in front of a witness, and told him specifically to remove the 8648 and put 8646 in the printer and fire it up. She blew her lid. For the first time in over 4 1/2 years, I didn't want to go to work. MSgt Vargas was another idiot - he had me so mad for a spell that I couldn't even drink water without eating Tums. It's because of these people entering our field that caused me to decide to turn in the greens. The major I interviewed with told me opening the data processing field to unqualified people was the biggest mistake they ever made - they were losing lots of talent because of that decision.
So, Carl - getting back to the subject at hand, the environment she created was one that would have killed any kind of personal drive a young pup would have had. We didn't have that under you, Hammack, Chico (Sgt Witte), Rodrique (ScanData) and a few others. So, you guys set the playing field, we were able to take advantage of this opening and we scored big time. My personal accomplishments (highlights) were meritorious Sergeant and selection for Staff Sergeant after 7 years active duty - not bad when at the time it was taking 9-11 years on average to get selected.
I'm not ashamed to admit, but you guys are tops (no pun intended) in my book, and as Bill Hammack and I were saying to each other today, we're FAMILY.
BTW, for all of you who don't know, Wild Bill's email address is bghammack@bellsouth.net. He's still going strong, BS'ing over at Albany Technical College!
Marines, I tip my cover to you!
Dave
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