martial journey -- marines, okinawa

From time to time I receive an email from a martial artist interested in martial art history asking for information about my background and experiences in Isshinryu Karate. (Live long enough and you become a historical artifact, a museum piece that fits somewhere within the jigsaw puzzle of humanity.) So I thought I would provide that information here as a reference for all, and especially for the yet unborn.

On June 26, 1957 (the day before my 19th birthday) I joined the Marines. I spent the first three months at Parris Island, South Carolina, then a month of advanced infantry training at Camp Geiger, North Carolina. The next twenty months were with the Second Marine Air Wing at Cherry Point, North Carolina. Two months of that time were with the 10th Brigade at Vieques, Puerto Rico.

My MOS was 2533, Radio Telegraph Operator, providing ground-to-air communication with jet fighters and ground-to-ground with the "ground-pounders." Having a sense of humor, I adopted UU2 as my Morse Code call sign (part of the William Tell overture: di-di-dah, di-di-dah, di-di-dah dah dah).

On June 30, 1959, I joined a staging regiment at Camp Pendleton, California, boarded the U.S.N.S. Daniel I. Sultan, and headed across the Pacific to Okinawa where I joined the Third Division as an RTO with Naval Gunfire. Part of our job was as "spotters" -- going ashore, visibly spotting the targets, and calling in ship fire, adjusting the coordinates until the targets received direct hits. From time to time, we went to Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.

I was discharged from the Marines on September 9, 1960 at Treasure Island, California.

Early in my stay on Okinawa, I became fast friends with Clarence Ewing who came up to me one day and asked me to hit him in the head with my fist. When I swung at him, he blocked my blow with a simple move that hurt my mighty arm (all of me was mighty at that time). I asked where he learned that. He said at a dojo in Agena. I began going regularly with him to the poured concrete yard of Sensei Tatsuo Shimabuku's dojo and immersed myself in Sensei's Isshinryu ("the way of one heart") Karate ("empty hand").