I consider this Marine to be a good friend, and one helluva Marine, although I have not communicated with him for years. He and I attended Amphibious Warfare School as captains in 1973, the last of the six-month courses due to the Vietnam War. In fact, Ollie won the coveted “Spring Butt Award” by a unanimous vote of the entire class. LOL. We were also stationed together in Okinawa in the late 70s. I know he may not be a hero to some, but he is to me. I sincerely believe he took a bullet for his bosses over that Iran-Contra BS. In fact, the Marine who took the bullet with him was also in that class; the only one of the 181 Marine captains in the class who was not a Vietnam veteran. He was on a Rhodes Scholar program. Maybe someone on here will remember his name.
I’m glad to hear that Ollie’s doing well at 81. I did not realize he was that many years behind me.
I will give him credit; he does know how to pick them. LOL
If you have not heard the latest about him, copy and paste the link below.
https://nypost.com/2025/09/09/us-news/iran-contra-figures-oliver-north-and-fawn-hall-secretly-marry-40-years-after-scandal-report/
No, I did not know him personally. I realize that to a friend, my comments may appear crude and unjustified. I base my comments on my knowledge of the facts (which is never 100% accurate due to debate on both sides) and my personal beliefs of how a Marine is supposed to behave.
If you don’t know the man personally, then your assesements are of no value to me since our failed justice system carries no weight with me, and hasn’t for many years. Ollie took a bullet for both of his bosses. And that tidbit came from the horse’s mouth. Ollie behaved more like a Marine than a helluva lot of those I served with did.We can debate this forever, but you’ll never change my opinion of him nor what he did. End of discussion!
I should have added that I am happy for him that he has a companion that has shared memories. Fawn was beautiful and I am sure she still is. I wish him much happiness.
I was honored to meet Ollie years ago after the Iran Contra business. He had delivered one of the best speeches I have ever heard. He was kind enough to give me a pair of oak clusters and I have cherished them all these years. Right now I have the photo of him talking with me after the speaking event hanging on my wall. It’s a wonderful memory although his mother who was there did not appreciate the time he was spending on me and she came over and punched him in the arm! It was funny and he got her point! I wish he could have run for office. The country would have been better off.
Fortunately, we don’t allow convicted felons and oath breakers to run for office.
He wasn’t convicted, the charges were dropped and he kept his retirement as a LtCol. I assume you didn’t know him well, at least not as well as I did. I consider Ollie a Marine hero.
He was convicted. His reinstatement for retirement was made through a bill in congress sponsored by a Maryland senator named Barbara Mikulski. Why a Maryland senator got involved I have never been able to find out. When North applied for a concealed weapons permit is Virginia through a court he was told by the judge that convicted felons were not permitted to carry weapons. His argument was that he was essentially pardoned since he got a three year suspension of sentence.. The judge informed him that a pardon did not negate the conviction, only the punishment!
In 1989 U.S. District Judge Gerhard Gesell chose to give North no time in prison for his role in the worst crisis of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, instead handing down a three-year suspended term along with two years of probation, 1,200 hours of community service, the $150,000 in fines and a $150 ‘special assessment.’
The judge commented in the findings that: “You are not the fall guy for this tragic breach of the public trust. You are here because of your own conduct when the truth was coming out.
I appreciate that you have kept faith with a friend, unfortunately, my faith is not with a convicted felon and an oath breaker. The oath of office of Marine Officers is too scared to me.
We had a saying in the Corps long in the past: “Ten thousand gomos are negated by one ‘Aww shit’.” North’s responsibility was to prevent the “Aww shit”. It didn’t come out that way.
I totally disagree with your assesment, sorry. Did you know him personally? I did/do.