RICK NEAL MCCARTER, SR, 1st SGT, USMCR RETIRED, 22 YEARS STATESIDE
On 6 June 1963, Dad drove my high school buddy Wayne Vannoy and me down to the old Navy-Marine Corps training center on 35th Ave in Phoenix, AZ to get sworn in. I was 17. During boot camp at MCRD San Diego, I was fortunate to attend the Rifle Range at Camp Matthews, La Jolla, before it closed in 1964, It was the WWI & WWII range. Next was Infantry Training Regiment at Camp Pendleton. Once assigned to the reserve unit back in Phoenix, our typical missions included demolishing a large, old City of Tempe fire house and constructing a road at the Naval Munitions station in McCallister, OK. In 1964, I joined the Motor Transport Maintenance Company, Sacramento. We trained in all aspects of military vehicle maintenance and repair. I returned to the 9th Engineers in Phoenix in 1966, then back to Sacramento in 69, where I was promoted to Company 1st Sgt. in 1979. In 1980, I joined the Sacramento Mobilization Training Unit with other staff NCOs and officers. Later in 1980, I joined the Interrogation-Translation Team in Alameda, CA as the Sr. NCO, and remained there until my retirement in 1985.
Marines who were family to me from my childhood to today, and many of whom greatly influenced me were W.R. McCarter, Jr,, “Mac,” (Dad, WWII and Korean War), Rick Neal McCarter, Jr. (son), Conrad W. McCarter (uncle, WWII), Neal Kemp (WWII), Dewey Williams (WWII, Korean War), Don Gillespie (WWII), Jack Martorano (Korean War), Bob Thompson (Korean War), Jack Slatter (stepson), Alec Chavez (grandson) and Richard Steele (Vietnam War). Our Mom, Jerry Joy McCarter and I put Dad on the train for Korea in 1950.