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6 March, A Day to Remember

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It’s Saturday so I shall take a time out from the looney tunes and Village People today for something personal. For those who have not yet read my book—shame on you—please allow me to elaborate. Sixty-two years ago, on 6 March 1958, my HS friend, Teddy Wood, and I having just quit school a few days earlier, boarded a train at the Baltimore train station bound for a place that will live in infamy with me—Parris Island, South Carolina. When we disembarked the train around midnight at a place called Yamasee, South Carolina, my life immediately changed forever!

Recruit (Turd) Sheldon J Bathurst March -June 1958 Parris Island, SC

Teddy did his four years and left the Corps and has since transferred upstairs to guard the streets. While I, on the hand, became consumed by it all and by the end of my four years I had developed into what we young upstart enlisted Marines referred to as a “lifer.”

The rest is history and well documented in the book: We’ll All Die as Marines – One Marine’s Journey from Private to Colonel. It’s not actually an autobiography, but more of a chronological series of stories about life’s ever challenging experiences inside the Marine Corps, and of the amazing life-long brothers and sisters with whom I had the pleasure of serving, as well as the host of professional mentors I was lucky enough to have had throughout my nearly thirty-six years.

A pictorial trip through a blessed career.

Cpl Sheldon Bathurst, Assistant Duty Warden 1959 – 61– MB Yokosuka, Japan
(Left) Sgt Sheldon Bathurst Parris Island, SC, Senior DI Plt 213 1964
Sgt Sheldon Bathurst, Plt Cmdr 2nd Plt, E 2/1 Republic of Vietnam 1966-67
2nd Lt Jim Bathurst receives his first salute from GySgt Lee M. Bradley on 7 August 1967 at Marine Barracks, 8th & I, Washington, D.C, And the Gy received a silver dollar from the new “Brown Bar.”
                         1st Lt Jim Bathurst Officer of the Deck, XO Mar Det, USS Chicago CG-11
Capt Jim Bathurst, CO E 2/7. Aboard Amphib off Hawaii waiting to conduct operation with 3rd Marines 1970-72
Maj. Jim Bathurst, CO Marine Barracks, NAS Lemoore, CA 1978-81. Entire command at the finish line of a half-marathon July 1981
LtCol Jim Bathurst, CO BLT 2/6 22nd MEU 1987. Hump back to the beach Pein de Spile, Spain

It amazes me how many of those brothers and sisters I am still in contact with today—in fact, many are followers of this blog. Several of you on here were my “turds” (LOL) long ago in the early 1960’s. How neat is that. For those of you reading this who did not have the opportunity to have served in the Corps, this all may seem strange to you. You see, we are a “family!” We served together through good times and bad, war and peace, we laughed and cried together, we got knee walking, commode hugging, snot slinging drunk together in foreign ports of call and helped each other back to the ship or base. We never ever left anyone behind. To all my eternal brothers and sisters who were always ready to lay down our lives for one another—God bless and Semper Fi; Jim aka “Sgt B.”

Colonel Jim Bathurst command photo for his last command, School of Infantry (East) Camp Geiger, NC 1992-93

PS. If you looked at the photo captions closely you should have noticed a name change. Why? Sorry, you’ll have to read the book. LOL

Originally posted 2020-03-07 13:30:24.