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everyone—including the clerks—had to be ready to do whatever was required.
I was asked to speak at many events and with many groups who were interested in the War in Viet Nam. There were many questions that I did my best to answer but—there were times that I doubted my own answers. The news media often called my office ‘for comment’ on some Marine event or another—I was essentially the Marine Corps’s ‘ Public Relations Officer’ throughout Virginia. At the same time I was expected to run a recruiting operation that was getting tougher and tougher by the day—the protests were growing —the media was becoming more anti military and it was getting harder and harder to meet our quota and keep the standards we were accustomed to.
The Marines—at the time—had standards for recruiting young men and women —those standards were mental, physical, psychological and legal. Examinations and background checks were given to insure these recruits could meet the tests that would face them in becoming a Marine. In the Spring of 1968 we received new orders regarding the ‘relaxation’ of these standards in order to broaden the pool of eligible recruits. The ‘mental’ or ‘academic’ standard had five categories with one being the highest—the brightest and five being the lowest and least able to meet the stringent requirements of the Corps. We had been using Category III as the lowest score we would accept and we tried to limit those and focus on cat. I’s and II’s. HQMC and HQ Philadelphia notified us to begin accepting category IV’s as well as waiving certain law enforcement charges we had used to screen candidates. Marine Boot Camp—the heart and soul of the Corps was cut from 12 weeks to 8 in order to send more troops to Viet Nam—faster! We also learned
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