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was finished young Puller turned and said something to his Father that I’ll not repeat but to say it was not a happy moment is an understatement.
Less than a year later young Puller would come home from serving honorably in Viet Nam as a platoon Commander —-he came home on a stretcher severely wounded, losing both legs—He survived the catastrophic injuries—became a lawyer and a writer but the injuries became too much to bear and he eventually took his own life at age 48.@ 62
Another one of the necessary but unpleasant duties I had as the OIC was ‘casualty notification’. Our job was to receive information re. Marine casualties and notify the family—in person —of that Marine’s casualty. There is absolutely no way to do it pleasantly. The Wounded in Action cases were challenging — depending on the injury—we stayed with the family as long as necessary to insure their questions were answered and that they had contact information, etc. There were always two of us to make the call on the family—We always wore our Class ‘A’ uniforms. The KIA’s were a different story—I always tried to find a local minister—who could help locate the family minister—if there was one—or the Rabbi or Priest . We would then physically visit the family and would face a range of actions that one might expect—the protocol was one that was required by regulation—certain words had to be used—certain information given and we were restricted from making other comments. This was the hardest thing I ever had to do as a Marine officer.
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