Page 48 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2025 - Online Magazine
P. 48
by Larry Williams
or Michael (Mike) Crowley CA. I was assigned as a forward
of Roaring Springs, joining observer to Delta Company of the
Fthe U.S. Marines was like newly reactivated 1 Battalion,
st
joining the family business. “My 26 BLT (Battalion Landing
th
dad was in the Marines, and so Team 1/26). We were ordered to
were my uncles.” Michael was Vietnam. While on leave before
born in Little Rock in 1946, the going over, I married my high
second of Edward and Mary school sweetheart, Judy Ann
Crowley’s six children. “My dad Lynch. I left for Vietnam only five
was a truck driver and electrician days after we were married.
who went into ministry. We
moved around a lot, but I always “We boarded the USS Iwo Jima,
enjoyed hunting and fishing and a Helo Carrier, and set sail for
helping out on our dairy farm. Vietnam. After stopping in
Hawaii for a ‘Cinderella Leave,’
“I graduated from Sylvan Hills a shipboard leave expiring at
High School in Sherwood, AR in midnight, we sailed first to Iwo
1964, and immediately enlisted Jima.” From August 4 to 29,1966,
in the Marines in the 6 Rifle BLT 1/26 entered Operation
th
Company Reserves. I was sent to Deckhouse III, a search and clear
basic training at Parris Island, SC, sweep in the delta 60 miles from
then to infantry training and eight Saigon. From September 15 to 24,
weeks of ITR (Infantry Training BLT 1/26 was ashore in the coast
Regiment). In the spring of 1965, end of the DMZ in Operation
I was sent to Camp Garcia in Deckhouse IV in another search and
Vieques, Puerto Rico to train in destroy mission. During the first
amphibious assault landing, then four days of the operation, 1/26
back to Camp Lejeune, NC for fought off enemy counterattacks,
map reading training. killing about 200 of the enemy,
with 26 Marines KIA (Killed in
“My next assignment was security Action).
defense at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba. Security was still tight at BLT 1/26 participated in support
that time after the Cuban Missile of Operation Macon in the Phu
Crisis in the fall of 1962. I was Loc province from September
sent back to Camp Lejeune and 29 to October 26 and Operation
assigned to Alpha Battery, 10 Shasta from November 15 to 19. In
th
Field Operations, then to Camp 1967, the battalion was involved
Horno inside Camp Pendleton, in Operations Stone, Independence,
48 Lubbock Senior Link
