Marine Corps League "ABBEY GATE13" Detachment 1199 Pahrump, Nevada  

2017 Annual Award Winners Announced!

On April 29, the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation will present the Lieutenant General John A. Lejeune Recognition for Exemplary Leadership to former President George H. W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush at the Annual Awards ceremony held at the National Museum of the Marines Corps. General Walter E. Boomer, USMC (Ret), 24th Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps and former Chairman of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation Board of Directors will receive the 2017 Heritage Award. Additionally, 16 artists, writers, scholars, organizations and photographers will be recognized for outstanding portrayals of Marine Corps history, traditions and culture in their respective fields.

President and Mrs. Bush's grandson, Cpl. Walker Bush USMCR, will receive the Lejeune recognition on their behalf. The Foundation selected the Bushes for the respect and support they have shown toward men and women in uniform, particularly during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. As President and First Lady, the Bushes were both widely admired by service members for their leadership, care and compassion.

The following are the 2017 award winners:

• The Colonel Joseph Alexander Award (biography or autobiography)
  Mr. James Carl Nelson, Eden Prairie, Minnesota, for "I Will Hold: The Story of Clifton B. Cates"
• The Bill Broyles Award (Drama)
  Ms. Elisabeth Frankel, New York, New York, for her play "Shelter"
• The Sergeant Major Dan Daly Award (photography - album)
  Ms. Mindy Schauer, Irvine, California, for the photography collection, "Our Neighbors, Our Marines"
• The Robert A. Gannon Award (poetry)
  Mr. John Musgrave, Baldwin City, Kansas, for the collection of poetry "Notes to the Man Who Shot Me: Vietnam War Poems"
• The General Roy S. Geiger Award (published aviation article)
  The OV-10 Association for "The OV-10 Bronco: Designed for Counterinsurgency and the Vietnam War"
• The Sergeant William Genaust Award (documentary)
  Mr. Ronald Zaczek, Havre de Grace, Maryland, for "The Breaker Patrol"
• The General Wallace M. Greene, Jr. Award (non-fiction writing)
  Mr. J. Kael Weston, Salt Lake City, Utah, for "The Mirror Test"
• The Colonel Julia E. Hamblet Award (furthering the recognition of the history of Women Marines)
  Col. Marianne S. Waldrop, USMC (Ret), Carlsbad, California, for "Understanding Women Leaders in a Male Dominated Profession: A Study of USMC Women Generals"
• The Major Norman Hatch Award (feature documentary)
  Lucky 8 Productions, New York, New York, for "The Unknown Flag Raiser of Iwo Jima"
• The Colonel Robert D. Heinl, Jr. Award (feature writing)
  Ms. Hope Hodge Seck, Arlington, Virginia, for "13 Years After Iraq, the Marines of 'Generation Kill' Regret Nothing"
• The Sergeant Major Bradley Kasal Award (photography - single)
  Sgt. Isaac Ibarra, Naples, Florida, for "Field Life"
• The Colonel John Magruder Award (exhibit and historical display)
  MC Reserve Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia, for "Centennial Exhibit"
• The Brigadier General Edwin Simmons-Henry I. Shaw Award (superior historical scholarship)
  Dr. Charles Neimeyer, Quantico, Virginia, for "War in the Chesapeake: The British Campaigns to Control the Bay, 1813-1814"
• The General Oliver P. Smith Award (local news reporting)
  Cpl. Shaltiel Dominguez, San Francisco, California for, "Lance Corporal Segovia-Lopez Memorial Tribute"
• The Colonel John W. Thomason, Jr. Award (artwork)
  Mr. Victor Juhasz, Averill Park, New York, for his illustrations "Combat Art of Victor Juhasz"
• The James Webb Award (fiction writing)
  Mr. Maximilian Uriarte, Los Angeles, California, for "The White Donkey – Terminal Lance"

For the full listing of the award winners and their submissions please go to our website at:  marineheritage.org.

This Month in Marine Corps History

100th Anniversary of World War I

April 6 was the 100th Anniversary of President Woodrow Wilson's signing of the declaration of war that officially entered the United States into World War I. "The Great War" was devastating in terms of the toll it took on human lives around the world. By the war's end, an estimated nine million people had been killed. Approximately 116,000 of those lost were American service members. The war resulted in new policies, new countries and new borders that laid the groundwork for a second world war a generation later. Some historians point to decisions made at the outcome of World War I as decisions that are still stoking conflicts in Europe and the Middle East today.

Yet, the United States' entry into the war helped end a period of tremendous violence for the world. The revolution in America's military and industry, necessitated by the demands of the war, transformed the United States into a world power. America's Armed Forces soared from less than 200,000 members to more than 4.5 million. At the start of the war, the Marine Corps was composed of 462 commissioned officers, 49 warrant officers, and 13,214 enlisted Marines. In less than two years, after the U.S. entered the war, the Corps grew from 13,725 Marines to more than 75,000. Approximately 30,000 Marines served overseas, the majority deployed to France. For the first time, women served as Marines.

Significant to the mission of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, the Commandant of the Marine Corps during World War I, Major General George Barnett directed Marine Corps Headquarters to establish a Historical Division to ensure the Marines’ service in World War I would always be preserved. An official account of the Marines in World War I is available online here.

Other Dates in Marine Corps History:

3 April 1945: On Okinawa, Marines of the III Amphibious Corps continued to make good progress all along their front, clearing Zampa Misaki and seizing the Katchin Peninsula, thus effectively cutting the island in two. By this date (D+2), III AC elements had reached objectives thought originally to require 11 days to take.

5 April 1947: Five Marine guards were killed and eight wounded when attacked by Communist Chinese raiders near the Hsin Ho ammunition depot in Northern China. This last major clash between Marines of the 1st Marine Division and Communist forces occurred shortly after withdrawal and redeployment plans from China were issued for the 1st Division and 1st Marine Aircraft Wing on 1 April.

10 April 1959: Lieutenant Colonel John H. Glenn, Jr. was named as one of the original seven Project Mercury astronauts selected for space training. The seven astronauts, all volunteers, were selected by NASA from an initial group of 110 leading military test pilots. Three years later, on 20 February 1962, Col Glenn would become the first American to orbit the Earth.

12-13 April 1918: Marines of the 4th Brigade suffered their first gas attack on the night and early morning hours of 12-13 April when the Germans bombarded the 74th Company, 6th Marines near Verdun with mustard gas. Nine Marine officers and 305 enlisted Marines were gassed and evacuated, and 30 Marines died from the effects of the gas shells which hit in the middle of the reserve area cantonments in which they were sleeping.

15 April 1962: Marine Corps operational involvement in the Vietnam War began on Palm Sunday when HMM-362 with its Sikorsky UH-34s arrived at Soc Trang in the Delta south of Saigon. The task unit was called "Shufly" and its first operational employment involved lifting Vietnamese troops into battle.

18 April 1983: One Marine Security Guard was killed and seven were wounded when a large car bomb exploded just outside the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Lance Corporal Robert McMaugh was standing guard at Post 1, just inside the front entrance when the bomb exploded outside the door. The explosion killed 61 people including 17 Americans. LCpl McMaugh was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on 26 April.

21 April 1951: Marine carrier-based airplanes made their first aerial contact with enemy planes over the Korean front lines. Captain Philip C. Delong shot down two YAK fighters and 1st Lieutenant Harold D. Daigh destroyed one more and damaged another in the heavily defended Pyongyang-Chinnanpo area. Both pilots were with VMF-312 flying from the USS Bataan.

27 April 1805: First Lieutenant Presley N. O'Bannon, who with seven other Marines was part of a force of Greeks and Arabs led by American Consul William Eaton, raised the United States flag for the first time over a conquered fortress of the Old World at Derne, a stronghold of the Tripolitan pirates. Two Marines were killed and one wounded in the assault on the walled city.

28 April 1993: The last A-6E Intruder departed from Marine Corps service. Marine All Weather Attack Squadron 332 transferred the last Marine A-6E to St. Augustine, Florida, and prepared for the squadron's transition to the F/A-18D and eventual movement from Cherry Point to Beaufort, South Carolina.

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