Because some of them would be SO! MUCH! BETTER! with pictures.

Especially when I tell random stories about when I was a newly married military wife because 1) I looked so young! (I was. I was 19), and 2) MY HAIR (hairstyles rarely age well. But whatever. I was in Hawaii and I was still cute)

ANYWAYS. I was one of two military wives of 1/3 (One. Three. Not one third). As such, I got to hang out with ALL the boys when they didn’t go to the town bars because 18 was old enough to drink on base ONLY [You’re old enough to be shipped off to war, you’re old enough to drink. Those were the days]. So it would be me, other wife (never girlfriends) and anywhere from 5-10 Marines. One of the last times we were all together was for a going away party. Pretty much all the guys were changing duty stations or getting out. So we had a cookout at a park in Kaneohe.

THIS IS WHEN PICTURES WOULD COME IN HANDY. Imagine 10 or so just barely 21 year old Marines drinking and playing in the park:

  • I have a picture of one of my favorites passed out on a picnic table getting the mother of all sunburns.
  • I have a picture of my 3 year old peeing at a tree because I asked one of the boys to take him to the bathroom since he said he was going that way. (So, really I have a picture of TWO boys pissing on a tree)
  • I have a picture of all of them together (plus their kids) before they all went their separate ways in the Corps. Black. White. Brown. Semper Fi. Do or Die. Etc.

 

This was 1993.

 

TODAY in 1948 President Truman signed Executive Order 9981, abolishing racial discrimination in the US Armed Forces.  It expanded on Executive Order 8802 by establishing equality of treatment and opportunity in the military for people of all races, religions, or national origins. The order also established a committee to investigate and make recommendations to the civilian leadership of the military to implement the policy. The order eliminated Montford Point as a segregated Marine boot camp. It became a satellite facility of Camp Lejeune.

Most of the actual enforcement of the order was accomplished by President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration (1953–1961), including the desegregation of military schools, hospitals, and bases. The last of the all-black units in the United States military was abolished in September 1954. [NINETEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOUR!]

Fifteen years after Truman’s order, on July 26, 1963, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara issued Directive 5120.36 obligating military commanders not to employ their financial resources against facilities used by soldiers or their families that discriminated based upon sex or race.

 

 

Which is why on THAT DAY in 1993, a bunch of just barely old enough kids could all get together, get drunk and say goodbye the way that Marines do.

That’s today’s random BHFOTD that is not in February, but seemed especially appropriate today.

As you were.