Subject: Are YOU still "Semper Fi" ?
I found MY answer here:
CWO Robert C. Jenks
April 28, 1995 <<=========
HEADQUARTERS, U.S. MARINE CORPS, Washington, D.C.
-- Time still seems suspended across the Heartland as a stunned
nation stands paralyzed by the face of domestic terror. For rescuers
in Oklahoma City who continue to claw at crumbled concrete, the
time lacks importance. The search for hope has slipped quietly
beyond reach as efforts there shift now to the recovery of bombing
victim remains. And dead children.
Buried beneath the surface of shock, rest hundreds of humbling
stories of simple men, one unknown to the other, who bond in a
common, virtuous struggle spawned by an evil act. April 19 was
a very bad day for America.
For Marines, the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building strikes
a painful nerve. The Corps mourns two lost Marines while nursing
four others injured by the blast. When television first broadcast the
images of the catastrophic explosion, one could hear the Corps gasp.
"It looks just like the embassy in Beirut!" was the common comment,
referring to the April 18, 1983, terrorist car bomb detonation in Lebanon.
This was only a prologue for the disaster that would claim 245 Marine,
soldier and sailor lives in the barracks that October.
It's difficult for Michael S. Curtain, a New York City police officer, to
remember exactly what happened. He and several hundred others
activated under the Federal Emergency Management Agency Task
Force 1, which organized police, firemen, and emergency medical
service specialists for the tragedy, were near physical and emotional
exhaustion. The psychological trauma of the explosion, still to be felt
by most of the rescuers, had to be set aside in order for them to tackle
the ordeal of rescuing those who may have still been alive beneath
the rubble.
For the first 40 hours there was no rest. Sometime the morning of April 21,
Curtain, almost spent of energy and only using adrenaline to keep
moving and save lives, came upon a familiar sight.
Deliriously scrambling across and through the wreckage of the Federal
building, Curtain saw a body covered by the rubble. He recognized the
material of the trousers. The trousers were deep blue with a broad red strip
--the Corps calls it a blood stripe. It was a Marine.
Police Officer Curtain knew immediately. He, too, is a Marine. A Marine
Reserve First Sergeant. "It was like I was driven," said Curtain, who has been
a reservist for five years after serving on active duty for 14 years. "Somehow,
I knew what I had to do." he said.
After the first sergeant found the dress blue trousers, he cut away part of the
fabric and saw that the man was white. He knew then that it had to be
Capt. Randolph L. Guzman, the recruiting station executive officer. The
other Marine who was still unaccounted for was Sgt. Benjamin L. Davis,
and Davis was known to have been of Asian heritage and had darker skin.
"When I found the captain, I started asking around to see who among the
rescuers was a Marine," Curtain said. "I found three former Marines who were
part of the rescue effort." Curtain found Manny Hernandez and Juan Garcia,
both New York City policemen. But Curtain needed another man to complete
the team.
Ray Bonner, a paramedic, stepped forward. 1stSgt. Curtain now had a fireteam.
Because of the inherent danger involved with the unstable structure, most
recovery efforts were focused in other areas of the building at that time. However,
Curtain approached the FEMA chain of command and told them he and a
team of former Marines were taking a special interest in the recovery of Guzman's
remains. Permission was granted to the Marines to accomplish this special mission,
but they only had a four-hour window of time to work.
"It was something I had to do," Hernandez, a Vietnam veteran who has been a
police officer for 22 years. "I had a squad under me in 'Nam and whenever we
lost a Marine, he was never left. We have this tradition. We take care of our own."
The excavation took five hours and according to situation reports, involved a
great deal of risk. The team was operating on the sub-ground level, with a lot
of concrete and steel debris. There were apparently two major structural columns,
one vertical and one horizontal, which were the primary obstacles to their recovery.
However, removal was not possible because the beams were the only support for
the heavy debris above and around the Marines.
"We had to use an electric jackhammer to chip the concrete away from the
captain," Curtain said. During this effort, the columns dangerously shifted twice
before they were able to get Guzman free.Kneeling beside the captain, former
Cpl. Hernandez covered Guzman's face with his hand. "I closed his eyes," said
Hernandez. "For the glory of God and the glory of the Corps. It was just a little thing.
We had to keep the tradition alive. The captain deserved the honor and respect --
like all Marines."
After placing Guzman's remains in a body bag, the word spread throughout
downtown Oklahoma City the Marines were bringing out one of their own.
With the help of Dennis O'Connor, also a New York police officer; Peter Conlin,
whose father served as a Marine in World War II; and Steve Smalls, a structural
engineer from New York City, the Marines prepared to take Guzman home.
An unidentified Air Force colonel, upon hearing of the Marines'mission, found
an American flag and sent it into the building. "Before we lifted Guzman up
and away from the rubble and carried him out, we draped the flag over him,"
said Curtain. "When we came out of the building I couldn't believe what I saw."
"Everything had stopped," he said. "You could have heard a pin drop."
"Cranes had stopped. It was completely quiet. Rescuers stopped and looked;
people had lined the street outside the building. Everyone was watching in
silence as we brought our Marine out."
"We were in a highly visible location ... engines were turned off ... people
removed their covers ... bowed their heads ... covered their hearts. You could
tell the veterans," Curtain said. "They were the ones saluting with tears in their
eyes."
For Curtain, Garcia, Hernandez and Bonner, the scene filled them with pride,
but was almost too much for them to emotionally handle. "When we came
out with the flag-draped captain, I saw why I was a Marine once. It is because
I know I wouldn't expect anything else from any other Marine if it were me in
that body bag," Hernandez said. "It revalidated the esprit and brotherhood that
I remember taught to me in boot camp years ago. It lifted me up." "It was
overwhelming. We are a Band of Brothers," he said.
Once Guzman's remains were carried from the building, two long lines of
rescue workers and bystanders formed, without any order or direction, that
made a corridor leading to the recovery vehicles that were taking remains
to tthe makeshift morgue.
"It was one of the most emotional experiences of my life," said Curtain. "People
had taken their hard hats off and were offering respect anyway they knew how."
"It was symbolic of all the emotion that everyone was feeling, whether they
were a Marine or not, we were all involved. The compassion for all the lost just
seemed to surface all at once."
Like the 1983 bombing in Beirut, when LCpl. Jeffery Nashton, after blindly
feeling the four stars of Gen. Paul X. Kelly, scribbled "Semper Fi" on a piece
of paper as he lay on life support in the hospital in Germany, the enduring
ethos of the Corps is alive in Oklahoma City.
"It was just a simple thing. But it had to be done." Hernandez said. "Once we
saw the blood stripe on Capt. Guzman's trousers, we knew it was a Marine --
we had no choice."
"It was simply Semper Fidelis."
Please JOIN our REUNION at:
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/USMarineCorpsReunionClub
Semper Fi, SEMPER!
"Force"
http://profiles.yahoo.com/ForceReconMarine
