I REMEMBER WHEN…

By Paul Sullivan, Ret. Capt. USMC

As a 2nd Lt. stationed with Hotel Company, 2nd Bn. 4th Marines, 1st Marine Brigade, Kaneohe MCAS, Oahu HA, we became a part of the 3rd Marine Division out of Okinawa as Operation Blue Star, a multi-national exercise that carried a number of goals to be carried out successfully, ( naturally).

We docked in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, and trucked ourselves and gear down to O Luan Pi at the southern tip of Formosa. The first thing we received was a scathing talk from one of our NCO cooks about camp followers. He who gets caught with one or more of them would be severely punished, etc, etc, etc. Guess what? Who got caught the very first night? You’re right---our NCO cook! After this first incident, we never did see him for the duration of the exercise. Anybody have any ideas about what could have happened to him?

Assigned to my platoon was a Chinese Army Sgt and attached to him was a Chinese Police Officer. Why? I still do not know. He was a constant bother to my interpreter, Sgt. Wong; however, while occupying a small village that was considered essential for carrying out special orders, I spoke to a young Chinese fellow who was a student at college in Taipei. He spoke broken English.

Paul Sullivan, Ret. Captain, USMC resides in Massachusetts with his wife Beverly.

He asked me what we were doing in his village. I pointed out to the ocean and told him our enemy (members of 3rd Division), would be coming through this area in a few days. Well, without a second’s pause, he began yelling. When he did this, many villagers came running out of their homes, carrying some belongings, and started hustling out into the hills. I immediately got on the phone and asked for Sgt Wong to get there quickly. Fortunately, he did and all turned out to be A-OK. I can only imagine what could have happened if Sgt. Wong had been late. Who would get these people back into their homes without international embarrassment? My Sgt. Wong saved the day.

I am sure a number of viewers may recall a similar situation and might wish to share their stories.