Dedication Ceremony of the Sgt. Clyde Thomason Amphibious Skills
Training Facility - Cornado Island, California
By: Charles H. Meacham, President
United States Marine Raider Association
December 17, 2004
Good Afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Being with you today brings back many memories of long ago. To see what
you are doing here with your very special unit makes me, as an American
and former Marine Raider, very proud. I’m overwhelmed with the scope
of your expertise, your enthusiasm for the job you do, and your "Gung
Ho" spirit.Gung Ho certainly applies to the man, the Marine, the
Raider, we are here to honor today—Sgt. Clyde Thomason, A Company,
2nd Raider Battalion. Clyde Thomason was the epitome of a Marine.
He lives in immortality
with our Corps. He was the first enlisted Marine of WWII to be awarded
the Congressional Medal of Honor. And I see that you here at the Amphibious
Training Center exemplify the Raider term "Gung Ho", a philosophy
so often misunderstood today. Gung Ho, as you know, means working together.
In simpler terms, Marines define Gung Ho as looking out for the Marine
on your left and the Marine on your right. We Marines understood then,
and Marines still do, that there’s nothing more important in almost
all of life’s situations. I knew when in combat, that the Marine
Raider on my left and the Raider on my right were willing to give their
lives for me, and they knew that I would do the same for them. This belief
was impressed in our souls, and it remains there today. Many of you have
served in Iraq—that ethic was no different in Baghdad than it was
in the South Pacific 60 years ago. This did not originate with us, but
was spoken 2,000 years before our time when Jesus said, "Greater
love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
Clyde Thomason, as did all Raiders of that era, went through the most
rigorous training the Corps could devise. How well I remember our days
and nights of exhaustive training and how it all paid off once we found
ourselves on the battlefield. In our day we did not have such a fine facility,
filled with the state-of-the-art equipment, this facility offers. We old
Raiders are delighted to know that our Marines of today will go into battle
even better prepared than we were. Give me a 90-pound weakling with an
equalizer in his hands, a cold steel mind, a trained body, and guts, and
you have a killing machine, versus a 6’ 6", 800 pound gorilla
with an untrained mind and untrained body and no guts. What is the difference
here? Proper training, proper training, and proper training. Rubber boat
landings in clandestine warfare have proved their value. The exhaustive
training days of making rubber boat landings on San Onofre Beach paid
off. Now, fast forward to Bougainville, November 1943. I know the feeling
of departing a LCM and paddling quietly, in the dead of night, towards
shore. Even the dipping of the paddles into the water, the surf on the
beach seemed deafening. The jungle with the enemy was in front of us;
the ocean was at our backs. A 24-hour reconnaissance patrol was underway.
This makes men out of boys.
Upon returning to our landing location and when our flashlight signal
was returned, it seemed much farther paddling out to the waiting LCM than
when we went in. I’ve been there—done that.
There is also a theme that Marines never leave their comrades behind.
That theme was proved to perfection due to the persistence of the United
States Marine Raider Association, when we continued to press our Government
to renew the search for the Makin Raid KIAs of 17 August 1942. As you
are all aware, we found our dead Raiders, including the remains of Sgt.
Clyde Thomason. They were discovered, recovered and repatriated after
58 years. Now, that’s Semper Fidelis!
The namesake of this outstanding training facility now rests in honor
in Arlington National Cemetery along with other heroes of the Makin Raid.
His dress blues uniform is displayed on a mannequin in this building.
Honor the uniform, as you would the man himself.
You Marines who make up this great new unit of America’s best make
all of us surviving Raiders extremely proud. I might add that we Raiders
of yore, in our short two-year history, found that when you are the best--the
guys that lead the rest—you are contributing not only to your unit
but also to the entire Corps. Others try to emulate leaders, thus raising
the bar of excellence. I see many leaders here this afternoon, and it
is my honor to know two personally. Lt.Col. Brown of the Amphibious Training
Center and Col. Coates with his "Born Again Raiders", Detachment
One Special Operations. Be careful, gentlemen, as you raise the Corps’bar
of excellence, you become vulnerable to flack from the want-to-be’s.
Stout heart, gentlemen, you are doing a great service to our Corps.
When in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, did you ever ask, "Why
have I been spared to fight again another day when my buddies have fallen?"
Although I have never found a complete answer to that question, I believethat
we survivors have a duty.
1. A duty to support and honor you young men and women in uniform today
by passing on to you the Raider vision and legacy. You are the best of
us.
2. A duty to do what we can to support this great nation of ours, and
3. A duty to remember our honored dead.
Carrying out the first two duties is the surest road to fulfilling the
third.
On behalf of the United States Marine Raider Association, we thank you
for your recognition. It is humbling. We will all meet again some day,
as the gates of Heaven are guarded by United States Marines.
God Bless the Corps, God Bless America.
Gung Ho & Semper Fidelis.
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