Stars and Stripes
By Jennifer Hlad
Published: April 24, 2015
John Burtoft, of The Villages, Fla., was a corpsman with 1st Reconnaissance Battalion and went to Vietnam twice: once on the USS Pyro for 18 months in 1964-65, and again with recon in 1968-69.
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif.
Ken Benckwitz was spit on at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Retired Lt. Gen. Bernard Trainor, right, talks to a Marine with 1st Marine Reconnaissance Battalion on Thursday, April 23, 2015, at a reunion for Vietnam-era recon veterans at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
JENNIFER HLAD/STARS AND STRIPES
People threw feces at Dan Mulvihill at LAX.
After his return, John Baker was told by the first girl he dated not to mention to her friends or family that he had been a Marine in Vietnam.
But this week, when about 175 fellow reconnaissance Marines from the Vietnam era gathered in San Diego County, they were welcomed and embraced.
Cpl. Brandon Tan was one of several current recon Marines who participated in a raid demonstration Thursday for the veterans. Afterward, wearing camouflage face paint and foliage on his uniform, he shook the hand of veteran after veteran.
“Thank you. You’re the reason we’re here,” he said.
The reunion was designed as a way for all Marines who served in recon units in 1965-71 to commemorate 50 years since the U.S. entered the Vietnam War.
Active-duty Marines showed off their equipment and demonstrated a helicopter jump and a raid.
Afterward, they honored the memory of their fallen recon brothers at a memorial service.
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