The Basic School Alpha Company 1-80 Reunion

12/24/2024

Merry Christmas to all!

12/23/2024

Terry Hand had a quick stopover in Knoxville last week and Wilcox went out to the airport, picked him up and they had a lovely dinner together. The waitress snapped this shot before I had a moment to fix myself up. Anyway, it was good to catch up. He hasn’t changed a bit.

11/17/2024

Gallagher, Parks and Figueroa got together recently south of Sarasota. A good time was had by all! Lookin good boys!

11/10/2024

Happy Birthday Jarheads. Here’s hoping you remember to lock your footlocker, for all our sakes.

08/16/2024

Pat Wilson’s great nephew Weston hit for the cycle in Philly last night. First time ever for a Philly rookie. Only accomplished less that 350 times in MLB history and only 29 times by a rookie.Pat’s not at all proud, so if you call him I wouldn’t mention it. Probably won’t come up in conversation.

07/30/2024

Classmates,

I am attaching a link to Mark Haskett”s obituary below -

https://www.dellingerfuneralhome.com/obituary/Mark-Haskett

Mark’s Memorial Service will be held this Saturday, August 3, 2024, at 11 a.m. at the MCLB Quantico United States Marine Memorial Chapel, 3019 Embry Loop, Quantico, VA 22134. If any of you plan to attend, please let me or Ken Wilcox know. Lida, Mark’s widow, has asked for a head count of the TBS classmates who will be attending.

Semper Fi,

Terry Hand

Share memories & support the family

07/27/2024

07/27/2024

Scrappy Tyson passed the info to us, and we confirmed it, but it appears that our Brother and fellow Marine, Mark Hackett, passed away yesterday after a brief illness. Mark was a large part of the early planning of our first reunion, and he started the project that became our reunion cruise book. Mark will be greatly missed.

We will post details of any memorial service once we have the information and encourage those on the Northern VA/ DC area to attend.

If you would like to send a card , please send to -

Mrs. Lida Haskett and Family
6355 Colonial Village Loop
Manassas VA 20112

07/04/2024

Happy Independence Day to you all!
Please Celebrate Responsibly and always remember to yell “Fire in the hole!!”

05/15/2024

I’m sure you remember Eugene Sledge from the miniseries “The Pacific” Here he is recounting some of his experiences from his WWII days. There is a reason these men were called “ The Greatest Generation”. I really cannot imagine the conditions in which they fought. These scenes don’t make it into the movies because, as the Col. points out in “A Few Good Men”, “ You can’t handle the truth!” My father did not share these stories with me and I bet yours didn’t either. My life is infinitely easier because of them. Before you listen, get a box of tissues.

"It has been said that the combat veteran has to live through the experience and then, if he survives, he has to live with it the rest of his life. How you h...

05/12/2024

When Terry sent the email notifying us all of Mark Bennett’s circumstances, he followed up with a message to me, letting me know that several emails had kicked back which isn’t good news. We began to try to relocate the lost ones and found this.
You remember Captain Koch was one of our Platoon Commanders. He was a Naval Academy graduate and after the Corps he was a Detective for the Daytona Police Dept. He retired several years ago and went home to Allentown, PA to care for ailing parents. Terry originally located his brother who said that Glenn was reclusive and that we should go through him to get messages to Glenn.
We’ll take a few minutes on the next Zoom call to toast Bennett and Koch. If you have a good story about either of them be sure to share it. One of the best stories I know is one that Terry Hamd tells about a gag Joe Boccia pulled on Mark Bennett. Be sure to hop on the call. You don’t want to miss it!
Fair winds to them both.

05/10/2024

Roger Royston, Tom Ames,Pete Stinger, Craig Tyson and Glenn White were able to attend the services for Mark Bennett today in Quantico. Many thanks to these gentlemen for representing all of us at the Cemetery. I’m sure the family greatly appreciated the effort.
Semper Fi

04/28/2024

I wanted to let those classmates know who monitor this page, that I have sent out an email to all of you concerning one of our Classmates who is in need of our support. That is all that I care to say on this page, due to the unprotected access that this page has.

I just wanted to let all of you know that an email should be in your inbox now. If you have not received it, please reach out to me either on this page or my email, and I will make sure that you get the info.

Semper Fi,

Terry

03/26/2024

I’m sure most of you know by now that General Al Gray passed away a few days ago. Services will be in Alexandria per the attached . During our zoom calls and discussions I have heard lots Gen Gray stories from many of you. I worked for him at the Dev Ctr and got see him daily. He was a larger than life character who had a hand in shaping our Corps. We are not likely to see his kind again. Fair winds and following seas General.

Celebrate the life of Alfred Gray, leave a kind word or memory and get funeral service information care of Demaine Funeral Home.

03/02/2024

Ken and Vicky Russell are hosting Reuel Brady and his wife in eastern Oklahoma this weekend! Have a great time guys!
If you have a get together with a classmate, be sure to send a picture so we can all comment on how great you look. Mostly though, just call em up and do lunch. You’ll enjoy it.