God help me ... these are my heros.

I was an unassuming brown bar, in tank school, when I fell under the spell and influence of Stub Chase.   I would later be exposed to P. J. while in Okinawa.

As the years went on our career paths crossed often and I have the damaged liver to prove it.   P. J. got me drunk and back to my Company in Vietnam before I caused some serious damage to our Battalion C. O.. When I was I & I in the 6th District, Stub was able get all of us drunk in Miami.

Especially important was their influence when I first ventured into the R & D business in Quantico ... a lot of "guidance" was recieved from both ... generally over a Scotch or three.   Later Stub & Joy took my wife Judy under their wings while I frolicked in Okinawa after Command & Staff College.

I wrapped up my checkered career in Hawaii in the close proximity of P.J. and added several pages to my liver's health record.

I absolutly idolize these two curmudgeons and am proud of it.

Semper Fi,
Gerry Brodeur

For Jerry Brodeur Tanker with no equal...(Thank heavens)

I am sure that PJ Saxton feels the same way I do....you must have us confused with two other curmudgeons.......We remain as pure as the wind driven snow. However there were times in the past 50 years that curmudgeon Saxton was was out of my sight..therefore I cannot deny that there were times that he made a complete ass out of himself,,,with absolutely no help from me....and it may have rubbed off onto you.

As for your own regressions, I don't think I ever took anyone through tank school that was as thick as you were...You got hit in the head too many times playing hockey in high school. The only thing that made you such a great leader was that no one could beat your ass....or were willing to try. As a second lieutenant., you were the first Marine Tank Student that I thought was a Neanderthal throw back. The only reason you stood first in the class was that you scared the poop out all the other students....to challenge you...

My most horrendous PTSD memories of taking those classes through basic track vehicle school..... had to do with your unruly.. wet behind the ears gang... that thought you might make it in the Marine Corps... I remember being up on the mesa in my jeep at Camp Pendleton... doing night driving operations with 5 tanks. It was blackout using only night vision devices...and it just so happened that who ever was acting platoon leader at the time, lost one tank...There was quite a conversation between the leader and the leadee

"Where in hell are you?"

"I'm right behind you"

"There are three tanks behind me and you are not one of them."

"Guess you're right. There is no one to my front."

"I am ordering you to link up right now!"

"How can I do that? I don't know where the hell you are."

And then came the second lieutenant platoon leader (a college graduate) with his finest leadership moment in the Marine Corps up to that point...most likely Lt. Brodeur..

Platoon leader...."Can you see the moon?"

The moon was almost full...shining brightly over the Pacific....

Lost student..."Yes I can see the moon?"

"Where is it?

"It's off to my right."

PLatoon Leader: "Ok....come join me. I am five fingers to the left of the moon."

At the point, it appeared that any more instruction that night would be futile....so I ordered all to turn on their lights....and head back to Camp DelMar..

Then of course Jerry, there was night in Quantico when you had every available MP after you. Since you were just TAD,I think from Pendleton, your name became famous that night around the base. I think the Oficer of the Day referred to it in his log book as "an Officer running amuck" I remember calling the Chief of Staff of MCDEC.... the next morning to see when they planned to guillotine you. He and I were not on good terms because when he was in the Development Center, as Chief of Staff, he would call Jerry Polakoff at 0800, Dave Mckee at 0801 and me at 0802....just to make sure we were at our desk... He did have some reasons to be angry at us because as Division Heads we all wrote our own TAD orders without telling him where we were going.. If we played by the rules... he wanted a detailed explanation of why we going, who were we going to contact and then he wanted a detailed report when we returned..It was in our best interest not to tell him anything.   The straw that broke the camel's back was when Mckee went to the Netherlands for two weeks and didn't tell anybody.. In our own defense, we formed the "Colonel's Protective Association" and did not invite him in..... (Gerry Goodwine and Herb Tiede should remember that stella organization.....mutinous meetings once a month in Q Town.)

Anyway, I don't remember all the details, but I think he gave you til 1000 to get off the base...with a previsow. ...of never to return... which was one his better decisions.

In retrospect and speaking as an Amtrac Battalion Commander. when we were all there in Country... there was no other tank officer in Vietnam who I wanted with me protecting my vehicles ...more than you. As far as wild hairs go, you and Ted Kantana were cut out of the same mold. Ted had a Amtrac platoon at the same time (1968) when we were making those beach runs form Marble Mountain, down pass the Leper Colony to the Korean Marines.........As long as we had a tank escort, we never took a B-40 or anything else along the way from behind the high water mark..Russ Finsness will back me up on this...

However, when we got to Okinawa in 1973, Katana went pleasantly apeshit. Every Saturday night he would tear up Col. Olmstead's newly planted flower garden and throw the the remnants into the street. This caused me no end of grief with Olmstead as every one knew it was being done by an Amtracer....but who?. However, I will let you in on an Olmstead secret of my own... As you remember Gerry, I had an interest in scuba diving...no where near the expert you became teaching professionally in Hawaii...but I got by.. I would bring back some pretty large size "Trumpets" and after getting the critters out, at night, I would stuff them down the drainpipe outside Olmsteads bedroom. Carl Mundy, later the Commandant could smell this terrible smell, since he was next door. I remember sitting at breakfast with the other Battalion Commanders and the Camp Commander who was also the Regimental Commander.... Olmsted....... and Carl would remark..."Are any of you bothered by the terrible smell somewhere behind the BOQ? It's making me sick....even with my windows closed, I can hardly get to sleep"

Olmstead said he was baffled from where it was coming from and said, "It smells like its on the roof."

(There is a perfectly resonable answer as to why we picked on Olmstead...just let it be known for now that he did not like Amtrac personnel and he particularly disliked the way Ted Katana coached all the team sports to win every athletic event organized by Olmsteads staff....and the Amtrac messhall was the only mess hall in the black at Camp Scwab....General Haynes used to bring visitors to the Division to our mess hall as representative of a"well run" mess hall without any racial stress...Which in 1974 was a big problem on the island. My eyes met Olmsteads several times during those visits...I was smiling...he was not..).

I assigned Kantana to a float to the Philippines with one of the 9th Marines Battalion as a liason officer for Amphibious matters. When he arrived back, I was waiting for him. He had been arrested twice in Alongapo....once for indecent exposure..He had twice misappropriated a 3/4 truck...one in the Philippines and one on his last night on the ship in Buckner Bay...there were several other MP reports of various misdemeanors...It was enough to make me cry...

But I'll have to admit, my feelings about Ted were no different than mine about you or those other second lieutenants who were at their best in combat...but were not particularly good in garrison...Charlie Smith was another. Huckelberry turned out to be a great aviator There was never a moment when I felt that all of you in the 1800 field were the best in the Marine Corps. I am being no different than any Marine infantry commander or any other leader in an MOS...it's called e'sprite de corps.

The fact that you and many other of your capable friends may have crossed the line now and then... never reflected on your values as inspirational leaders to your men.....or the numbers who survived by being with you. ..or are carrying on today... the traditions you exemplified.

The fact that you think PJ and I had something to do with your development...sustains us both with the pleasant memories that are inherent in being a Marine....although slightly senior ..

Love to Judy...God knows how she ever put up with you this long!!!

Semper Fi Stub