“From the Halls of Montezuma, to the Shores of Tripoli”…”Once a Marine, Always a Marine”…”Semper Fi”…”The Few, the Proud, the Marines.”
We’ve all heard these familiar theme songs and slogans many times – the culture of the U.S. Marine Corps, often called the (greatest, finest, best, choose one) fighting force in the world.
Our club was formed the summer of 2007 with two specific objectives. One, “providing marines residing in Sun City an environment to retain their association with the Corps, because “once a marine, always a marine.” Secondly, an organization to keep alive the tradition of the annual Marine Corps birthday celebration on Nov. 10.
Since our formation we have held five [birthday] celebrations, participated in four Huntley Memorial Day parades, numerous color guard ceremonies for the community and the Toys For Tots campaign for the past four Christmas periods.
Our 38 members are a very diverse group of Marine Corps veterans. Eleven in combat zones during World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.
Other members served around the world at locations in the Pacific, Europe, Africa, Turkey, and Palestine. Also, many, many stateside locations as military police, pilots, corpsmen, tradesmen, aviation specialists, embassy duty, communications, administrative, and heavy weapons.
Our group has two female members and our ages range from 60 years to 88 years. The military ranks are from corporals to captains.
Our active duty years of service are a total of 134 years.
Each one of us are proud to have served our country and had the opportunity to serve as a member of the United States Marines.
Alan Terrill
Sun City
Korean War veteran
They have fought the nation’s battles all over the world for 237 years, and they are the nation’s oldest and arguably most recognizable military organization. They have fought in every war of our country’s history; the word Marine is synonymous with Guadalcanal, Saipan, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Grenada, Suez Canal, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq, and Afghanistan, to name just a few.
There’s one more description of the marines that should be added – they never met a birthday they didn’t like. Especially their own. Formed in 1775 at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia as the nation mobilized forces to fight for independence, the corps is 237 years old on Nov. 10. This date almost matches the annual observance of Veterans Day, Nov. 11.
Marines worldwide celebrate their birthday every Nov. 10, and Sun City’s Marines will join in that event at their fifth annual birthday ball that evening in Drendel Hall.
“We are celebrating the corps’ 237th birthday while at the same time celebrating our group’s fifth birthday; we were formed in Sun City in 2007,” John Martinez, N.15, and coordinator of this year’s dinner-dance, said.
“Once a Marine, always a marine, means there are no ex-marines,” Martinez said. “We all may have been discharged from active duty, but we remain marines all our lives. The corps has maintained a culture of traditional observances and socializing all through our history. We are constantly finding ways to bring ourselves together.”
Some may not know that starting in 1942, women have been part of the corps. When the nation swiftly mobilized after the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941, women were included. By the middle of 1942, there were 18,000 female marines serving in administrative, medical, and logistical positions all over the nation.
One was Mary Andruzzi, N.28, who served from 1960 to 1962, at the time the Vietnam buildup began.
“We were recruited just like the guys were,” she said. “I wanted to do something interesting after I graduated from high school, so I joined up. We went to boot camp at Parris Island, North
Carolina, and learned to drill and do calisthenics. I worked as an administrative assistant to a major, and while doing that I met my husband, Joe. We got married soon after, and he stayed in eight years and I served three.”
Ann DiValerio, N.5, learned about the corps at the start of World War II because she was engaged to a Marine lieutenant. He went overseas in early 1942, and she decided she wanted to be a Marine too.
“I was a librarian for a time before I joined, so they made me a librarian.” she recalled. “I had a tough time for a while because I learned a bit later that my fiancé was killed at Tarawa Island. I later was transferred to a big supply base at Bremerton, Washington, where we re-supplied Marines returning from combat zones. I worked for a quartermaster. A short time later, I met my husband, who was a pilot in the Army Air Corps.”
According to Laforte, the Sun City group joins with a local Marine recruiting officer to meet with Huntley High School seniors who are planning to or considering joining the corps when they graduate.
“We provide a lunch and give them certificates of appreciation for up to a dozen seniors each year,” he said.
The local group also assists at Chicago-area Toys for Tots collections, marches in the Memorial Day parade in Huntley, provides a color guard at Sun City and area patriotic functions, and presents the colors at District 158 schools and for civic groups throughout the area.
They participated in the Sept. 11 observances in 2011 and this year at the fountain amphitheater.
“We have several members who served in World War II, and the rest served at the time of the Korean War and Vietnam,” Laforte said.
Henry Fransen, N.3, one of the group’s oldest members, joined in 1942 and served in the battle of Guadalcanal. Masur, N.1, participated in the battle of Okinawa at the end of WWII. Charles Locker, N.33, served for a time in China. Alan Terrill, N.5, survived the conflict at Chosin Reservoir in Korea in 1950, where Marines suffered from bitter cold as well as battle trauma. Jim Kuharich earned a Purple Heart, earned by servicemen wounded in combat. Laforte, who calls himself “one of the younger guys,” served in the mid-1950s in Florida. Later, he was a platoon commander in Japan and was part of a unit that was sent to the Suez Canal area of Egypt in 1956.
“We got there ready for action, but we didn’t fire a shot, because we were pulled out soon after we got there,” he said.
Current commandant is Richard Christie, N.10, who served in the 1950s at various stateside posts.
