Echo Company 2/7
Vietnam Veterans Chapter
1ST Marine Division Association
|
|
Two-Seven Tooter
Message Board
|
 |
FMDA Annual Reunion San Antonio
Join us at the El Tropicano Hotel on the famous San Antonio River Walk. The Alamo Chapter will be working with Armed Forces Reunions Incorporated (AFR) as our Reunion Organizer and Planner. AFR is providing pre-planning, pre-registration, on-site management and reunion tours. More information to follow in upcoming Tooters. It's never ever to early to start planning for the 2010 Reunion in San Antonio Texas.
THE 63RD ANNUAL1ST MARINE DIVISION ASSOCIATION REUNION AUGUST 23-29, 2010
|
Echo Company 2/7
Memorial Monument |
 |
|
88 Fallen Hero's of E 2/7
 
The Memorial Fund now stands at $39,000!! Now for the big news: the Marine Corps has approved our E Company 2/7 monument for inclusion in Semper Fi Memorial Park. Last week Col Higgins, on behalf of the Monument Committee, signed a contract with Nelson and Son Custom Monuments for delivery of our monument in four to six months. Bottom line: E Company 2/7 Monument Dedication with next of kin's as honored guest will be held at Quantico Va. sometime in May of 2011. The Monument Committee will continue to track our Monuments status and keep you informed.
Semper Fi,
The Monument Committee
|
| Famous Quotes |
 |
"The mail service has been excellent out here, and in my opinion this is all that the Air Force has accomplished during the war."
~ Chesty Puller in a letter to his wife while in Korea
"I still need Marines who can shoot and salute. But I need Marines who can fix jet engines and man sophisticated radar sets, as well."
~ General Robert E. Cushman, Jr., USMC
Commandant of the Marine Corps
"The rewards of visiting troops in the field in Vietnam were worth more than a million dollars, and the experiences overwhelming enough to last a life time".
~ Bobbie Keith "the bubbling, bundle of barometric brilliance" brought sunshine to homesick Marines during the Vietnam War
|
ATTENTION
Marines & Navy Corpsmen
|
 |
All Marines and Navy Corpsmen who served with Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines during the Vietnam War 1965-70 are invited to become a Member of the 1st Marine Division Association and a Member of the Echo Company 2/7 Vietnam Veterans Chapter of the 1st Marine Division Association.
If you are interested in becoming a Member of the Echo Company 2/7 Vietnam Veterans Chapter of the 1st Marine Division Association, email Jimmy L. Clendennen, Chapter Secretary at: Echo27VietnamChapter@hotmail.com
your name and address for Association and Chapter Membership Applications or apply online here. If you are already an Association Member just ask for a Chapter Membership Application.
Here is your copy of the latest Old Breed News, compliments of the 1st Marine Division Association. Click Here  |
|
2nd Marine Division Combat Camera
|
|
 True Heroes, 1st Battalion 6th Marines: Marjeh Afghanistan
Not your normal "Mot Video". This video will make you think twice about the men and women in the Marine Corps. Recorded in secret..... the result is this awesome video with the last words heard before boarding helos and heading to combat in the heart of Marjeh. Have you ever wondered how Marines get pumped up? This video will show you how true leaders inspire their Marines to do the unthinkable.
|
|
In case you ever wondered about the U.S. Marines
Without question this 6 minute video explains the Marine Corps. Note that most of these famous quotes are from folks that were not Marines, but many were great sailors or soldiers of our nation!
|
 |
Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton produces an excellent "On Line" Newsletter called "The Scout". This Newsletter is the only official news site for Marine Corps Base Cam Pendleton.
Click on the link below to read the Camp Pendleton Scout.t. THE SCOUT
|
| Featured Video |
 |
This video was made at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Va. It can be summed-up in one word: Exceptional.
If you haven't visited the National Museum of the Marine Corp web site click here.
|
| U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam |
 |
Here you will be accessing what is probably the most complete set of records on the US Marine Corps in Vietnam. As of right now, they are still building and repairing the pages you will be seeing, but we believe they are about 95% complete. What you will find here are the records that were digitized by the Gray Research Center at the Marine Corps University at Quantico Virginia, and hosted by Texas Tech Universities Virtual Vietnam Archive.
|
|
Enter your email address below to sign up for our mailing list.
|
We look forward to keeping you informed. Semper Fidelis!
|
|
|
| "Ready for Anything
Counting on Nothing"
|
01 May 2010 |
|
$10,000 Reward - Dead or Alive
She was considered so popular and influential that the Viet Cong placed a $10,000 bounty on her head.
Chris Noel - Vietnam War Hero
To Vietnam veterans, she needs no introduction. Chris Noel was the one who came over to entertain the troops and ended up a "casualty" herself, sharing the daily risks of the servicemen on the field, and suffering the same ungrateful treatment back home. As one of the Armed Forces Network's first female DJ's since WWII, she gained immediate popularity with the GI's through her program A Date With Chris, and is credited with introducing the mini-skirt to the Far East. From 1966 to 1971 Chris Noel broadcast, each night of the week, an Armed Forces Radio show called "A Date with Chris" that was broadcast around the world. She was also under contract with MGM at the time and appeared in many movies and on TV. Her radio shows were recorded in the US and transferred to records (you guys remember those round vinyl thingies you spin on a turntable) that were distributed to Armed Forces Radio stations throughout the world. Over those five years she made many "handshake" tours in Vietnam, by herself as well as with Bob Hope, visiting troops from I Corps to IV Corps.  Unlike most of her contemporaries, who were restricted to the main bases, Noel spread her unique brand of bubbly cheer from sprawling base camps to small, pinnacled firebases to remote outposts manned by as few as two GIs, many times coming under enemy fire. She sang, danced, read poetry, consoled, kissed and hugged her way into the hearts of tens of thousands of servicemen from 1966 to 1970.
She was just one of a myriad of beautiful, statuesque, bikini-clad blondes who pranced and romped about the sand and surf of the California shores in all those nostalgic beach party movies of the "swinging '60s". In the great perky tradition of fellow blondes Sandra Dee, Linda Evans, Yvette Mimieux, and the late Sharon Tate, stunning Chris Noel did what she did best: distract male viewers from some of the silliness around her.
A tour of a VA hospital in 1965 altered her destiny forever. Based on her minor pin-up celebrity, Chris impulsively auditioned for the Armed Forces Network (AFN) and started hosting her own radio show for the GIs in Vietnam, frequently flying to that war-torn country and visiting remote areas considered too risky for Bob Hope's USO shows. She became the GIs' favorite sexy radio and show personality while putting her own life on the line. As it turned out, Vietnam veterans would become her prime mission and life's work long after the war.
As Chris relates in her oral history, one of the objectives of putting her program on the air was to counter "Hanoi Hannah". Hanoi Hannah was well known for propaganda that could get very personal - such as saying "LCpl Jones, you think your wife is patiently waiting for you at home. Little do you know that she is with your best friend John".  Chris is the recipient of the Distinguished Vietnam Veteran Award from the Veterans Network in 1984. Considered the U.S. answer to "Hanoi Hanna," Chris was heard on the Armed Forces Radio twice a week on a show called, "A Date with Chris." In 1969 she married a Green Beret captain who proposed to her in a helicopter while flying over Vietnam. A paratrooper wounded three times during his 18 months in Vietnam, he committed suicide 11 months after their wedding. In 1985, she appeared in the movie Cease Fire with Don Johnson, which detailed the trauma faced by Vietnam veterans.
Chris now runs Vetsville Cease Fire House, a shelter for homeless Vietnam vets in Florida. She understands us. Chris suffered from flashbacks, migraines and stress disorders following her Vietnam mission. Twice her helicopter was shot down and crashed in Vietnam escaping with the flight crews and their lives while on missions singing and entertaining troops. She was considered so popular and influential, in fact, that the Viet Cong placed a $10,000 bounty on her head. She was wanted by them dead or alive.  Chris Noel Sings Live in Vietnam
Presidential Medal of Freedom Petition Chris Noel, having served her country with honor and distinction, is now a candidate for the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In Vietnam, she did many tours to entertain the troops, once with Bob Hope. Many Vietnam veterans think of her a fellow "combat" veteran and hero.
In Vietnam, Chris' show was considered America's answer to the North Vietnamese radio broadcasts of "Hanoi Hannah". When Hollywood turned stridently against the war and the men who fought it, Chris Noel stuck with the GIs - and she's still with them today. In February 1993, she founded Vetsville Cease Fire House Inc., in Palm Beach, Fla., to help homeless Vietnam veterans. Her organization provides food, clothing, shelter, transportation, counseling and employment opportunities.
OK all you Vietnam Veterans, you remember Chris Noel. Her famous Vietnam pinup photo should bring back memories.
< CLICK TO ENLARGE
|
| Bobbie "The Weather Girl" |
Weather-wise and other-wise, Bobbie's nightly broadcast of temperatures from the DMZ to the Delta brought welcome, often comic, relief to many of us as we laughed when she was doused with a bucket of water upon announcing rain.
Introduced on radio and TV as "the bubbling, bundle of barometric brilliance," Bobbie brought sunshine to homesick GI's. Marines would stay glued in their hooches waiting to enjoy her weather show. She shocked it to us all with kicks and gimmicks and danced to songs like Proud Mary. Often, she  extended greetings to guys who had written in or to the units she had visited out in the bush. Bobbie closed each show with a wink and wished "everyone a pleasant evening weather-wise and good wishes for other-wise." A volunteer, she was not paid for the weather broadcasts or the countless trips (hand shake tours) she made out to the boonies. She once said "The rewards of visiting troops in the field in Vietnam were worth more than a million dollars, and the experiences overwhelming enough to last a life time". Unofficially, and other-wise, Bobbie traveled to the field as a morale booster. She escaped gun fire, slept in bunkers, flew in helicopters, rode ACVs (Air Cushioned Vehicles), mules, roam plows, and was catapulted on and off ships such as the USS Enterprise -- all to show she cared and to spread cheer to remote places. As a measure of her sincerity, she spent most weekends in the field and often gave up R&R time to visit the troops in the jungles of Vietnam. She even worked as a Red Cross volunteer at a hospital in Saigon - delivering snacks and kool-aid and helped write letters home for wounded GI's.
 From the DMZ to the Delta, Bobbie made countless trips. Her trips out in the boonies often found her in comical yet dangerous predicaments. Flying over dense jungle terrain, the helicopters she flew in were shot at. When visiting the Marines in Quang Tri she had to take cover overnight in an underground bunker when the Viet Cong penetrated the perimeter.
Upon Bobbie's return to the United States in 1988, she became a yellow hat volunteer at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall; and although now in Florida, she still volunteers during Memorial and Veterans Day events.
Why? Perhaps the remarks she made as a speaker Memorial Day, 1994, say it best:
"There is no greater tribute of love to so many than the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall with the names of each
individual we lost inscribed upon its black granite panels.
The Wall gives honor and dignity to each man and woman
and to us a chance to reflect and remember."
Bobbie Keith did the weather on American Forces Vietnam Network television an radio during the Vietnam War. Nightly, she got a bucket of water - in hopes of rain or other things. Thanks Bobbie!
Bobbie Keith, known to Vietnam veterans as "Bobbie the Weather Girl," volunteered to do tongue-in-cheek weather forecasts on AFVN Television in Saigon while working for the USAID in Saigon in 1967. Bobbie was a big hit on radio and TV, and for three years, she also went out to countless fire support bases, landing zones, and to ships in the Gulf of Tonkin and in Vietnamese waters to give our troops a morale boost. From our hearts, thank you, Bobbie.
|
| Dawnbuster Radio |
American Forces Vietnam Network was created as a morale-boosting  military radio station for servicemen and women in Vietnam.
AFVN broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week for over 10 years; it began broadcasting on August 15, 1962 and ended in March of 1973. After this, it changed its name and was run by civilians in Saigon. AFVN was a forum for news, comedy and entertainment for soldiers, sailors, and Marines during the Vietnam War.
DeeJay SP4 Cramer Haas gives the cry that made the Dawnbuster radio show famous on American Forces Vietnam Network radio. Many deejays gave this call, including Airman Adrian Cronauer.
Hear the "original" Cramer Haas the record man's Dawnbuster call:
|
| Civilian Warriors |
They were there with an unabashed love of America and tireless supporters of the troops.
During the Vietnam War, several female entertainers traveled extensively  to entertain the American troops. One, in particular, was Martha Raye. In October 1966, she went to Soc Trang, Vietnam, to entertain the troops. Shortly after her arrival, units were called out on a mission to extract supposed POWs from an area nearby. Martha Raye decided to hold her troupe of entertainers there until the mission was completed so that all of the servicemen could watch her show. She traveled to and from Vietnam for nine years, sometimes performing services as a nurse as well as on stage.
A talented performer whose career spans the better part of a century, Martha Raye has delighted audiences and uplifted spirits around the globe. She brought her tremendous patriotism with her in her many tours during the Vietnam War. She earned the nickname "Colonel Maggie." Martha Raye was but another woman who has tirelessly used her gifts to benefit the lives of her fellow Americans. Colonel Maggie is no longer with us, but thousands of men who served in the Vietnam War remember her. She entertained the troops there for nine years. She went to Vietnam over and over, sometimes staying as long as six months. Not only did she perform on stage but when things got rough she filled in as a nurse, often going hours without a break.
In 1993 Martha Raye was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her lifetime service to America. For fifty years Colonel Maggie served the military she loved. Those of us who knew of her considered her as much, if not moreso, a part of the Armed Forces. What a lady she was. She was more than a movie star, she was an angel.
Martha Raye, Chris Noel, Bobbie Keith, and so many others like them will never be forgotten. They spent their own time doing what they could to be there for America's brave troops whether it was entertaining, comforting and treating the wounded, or being a motherly friend. And these brave ladies were there for us . . . no matter where they were including in harm's way. They are still with us today, deep in our hearts. Most Marines in Vietnam never had the chance to see these American Heroes, but we read about them in newspapers or heard about them on the radio. Just knowing they were there, with us, supporting us, gave us great strength knowing somebody from back home really cared.
Semper Fi,
Echo Company 2/7 Vietnam Veterans Chapter
|
|
|
