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and there was nothing more I could do except report for duty in Richmond as Assigned by Jan. 22, 1967.
Reluctantly, Kay and I —with little Kimmie in tow, drove to Richmond to locate housing and to become familiar with our new duty station. By late Dec. 1966 we had made arrangements to move our belongings to our new quarters in the West End suburbs of Richmond, Va. I checked in with the outgoing OIC and met Station Sgt. Major See who resembled ‘Mr. Clean’ in the commercials. The main office was located in downtown Richmond. Capt. Brown, the outgoing OIC had received orders to Viet Nam and had as many questions for me as I did for him. My commute from the West End to the office was approx. 25 min. in traffic — something I had not had to face before—commuting to work with thousands of civilians every day.
My immediate Command HQ was located in Philadelphia, PA. My assignment was ‘independent duty’ for that reason. I had a central staff of Marine and civilian clerks and logistical personnel of approximately ten/twelve. I also took command of twelve Marine recruiting stations scattered across the State of Va.—each Station ranged in size from one recruiter to eight—from Bristol, Va. to Norfolk for 12 stations in all and approximately 35 Marine recruiters. In Jan. 1967 the War was heating up and the quotas we were assigned were raising each month from 80 to 150 recruits over a period of a few months. This same picture was forming in every State in the Union so that it was clear the Marine Corps was in need of thousands of new Marines every month. My job was to insure that our Station met it’s quota—conversely each of the sub stations had to meet their assigned
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