Marines Corps Times
By Derrick Perkins, Staff Writer
January 3, 2015
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| Kenneth White, a Marine veteran from Las Vegas, got his dying wish in December. Marines aboard Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif., let him hug a tank. (Photo: Lance Cpl. Medina Ayala-Lo/Marine Corps) |
An ailing Kenneth White had a final, dying wish: He wanted to hug a tank.
The nearly 80-year-old former tanker, suffering from stage five kidney disease among myriad other health issues, spent 17 years in the Corps with the 4th Tank Battalion. During that time, he served on three different types of tanks — Shermans, Pershings and M48 Pattons — and never lost his love of armor.
So when tankers with the 1st Tank Battalion aboard Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California, heard of his last request, they were more than happy to oblige. Getting a request to hug a tank is unusual, but White's sentiments are not, said Sgt. William Milline, a tank crewman who was among the Marines to greet the elderly man and his wife, Carol White.
"From even the schoolhouse to your last day with the tank, it feels as though that's a part of you now," he said, describing what tankers call "The Beast." "It becomes your house, it becomes your weapon; something to ride on, something you're going to have that bond with for the rest of your life."
Despite needing a walker and being weighed down by an oxygen tank, White picked up steam as he approached the first M1A1 Abrams, said Gunnery Sgt. Paul Acevedo, who led the tour. It wasn't long before he was swapping stories with his present-day peers.
"One tanker to the next, the stories really don't change — just the times, the era," Acevedo said.
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