China Marine Career

[Larry569]

A few days ago I posted a couple of pictures of my Dad’s USMC Good Conduct medal. He was in the Marines from Oct 1935 until Feb 1957. He retired as a CWO2.

I’ve received a few comments asking for more information on my Dad’s career. Luckily, my Dad saved a lot of documents, pictures and memorabilia of his career. I created a web site several years ago to share many of his pictures.

https://sites.google.com/site/marinecorpscareer/home

Below is a listing of the highlights of his career and several pictures of him.

Marine Duty Stations for John A. Luko

1935 - Parris Island

1936-1938 - San Diego 10^th Marines (Artillery)

1939-1941 - Shanghai, China 4^th Marines

1941 - Quantico, Virginia Guard Unit

1941-1943 - British Guiana, South America

Before WWII, FDR helped Britain with the Lend-Lease Program where Britain received WWI destroyers in exchange for British bases from Iceland, through the Caribbean, to South America. British Guiana (now Guyana), had a US Naval Air Base where planes were patrolling the Caribbean looking for German U-boats.

1945 - Okinawa, Japan Battle of Okinawa, 11^th Marines, 1^st Mar Division (Artillery)

1946-1952 - Between Wars Operation Bumble Bee. Navy and Marine Personnel were assigned to work with scientists at Johns Hopkins University for the development of the first surface to air missiles.

Operation Bumblebee from June 1, 1946, to July 28, 1948. Topsail Island, North Carolina, became the permanent Bumblebee testing and launch facility in March 1947. Testing was transferred to Naval Air Weapons Station, China Lake. (Wikipedia)

1954-1955 – Korea 1^st Tank Battalion, 1^st Marine Division.

1954-1957 - Camp Pendleton and 29 Palms 1^st MAAM Battalion, 1^st Marine Division

 

 

[Larry569]

John A. Luko in China and British Guiana, South America

[Larry569]

John A. Luko on machine gun, in British Guiana and picture of promotion to Warrant Officer.

[Larry569]

John A. Luko, Warrant Officer, Returning from Korea, and day of retirement.

[gunbunnyB/3/75FA]

WOW,! sounds like your dad had a hell of a career, thanks for sharing.

[Charlie Flick]

HI Larry:

 

Thanks for sharing the pics of your dad's very impressive Marine career. I particularly liked that shot of him shooting the M1917A1 .30 MG in British Guiana. Great stuff.

 

Regards,

Charlie

[USMCR79]

Nice Tribute!!

Bill

[ChuckyD]

WOW!! Great website and information!! Your dad was truly a career Marine that seemed to enjoy a great career in the "Old Corps". I enjoyed the photos and the google website.

[Larry569]

Thanks for your comments. Gathering all of my Dad’s career information was quite a journey. I knew most of it at a high level before he passed in 1995. I found more detailed information when my mom passed in 2004 and I discovered a large file of my Dad’s with documents and pictures of his career. It was at that time that I had the idea of putting together a web site of his career for my brother, sister and all the grandchildren.

 

I also did research on some of the people listed in the documentation. Two interesting examples include information on his Drill Instructor, PltSgt John James Nagazyna, and the Director of the Applied Physics Lab at John Hopkins University, Dr, R. E. Gibson.

 

Shown in the Bootcamp Graduation picture below, Nagazyna, earned high praises for producing outstanding platoons. It turns out that he also received the Navy Cross in World War I and another one in World War II. Between the wars he was court martialed a couple of time for being drunk and was reduced in rank to Private. He was also court martialed once by Smedley Butler.

 

Also below is a Letter of Appreciation from Dr. R. E Gibson. This is interesting because he didn’t think that “service personnel as being much value in the field of scientific development but members of the Marine Corps Guided Missile Training Unit contributed as much, if not more, than the average civilian laboratory technician.” Gisbon now has a library at Johns Hopkins named after him.