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When he enlisted in the Marines in 1969, Randall Arnold had to fight his way past a friend to get to the recruiting office. Thirty-six years later, Master Sgt. Arnold had no regrets as he retired from the Corps as its last enlisted Vietnam War veteran.Read it all at the above link. He's now 55 years old, the mandatory retirement age. But he wants to continue serving.At a retirement ceremony Friday at Quantico Marine Corps Base, Arnold said his reasons for signing up were "purely selfish. It was just about travel and adventure. I was 18 years old, and I wanted to see the world."
His friends preferred he find a safer outlet for his wanderlust. Ray Sedgwick, who graduated with Arnold at Coolidge High School in Washington, grabbed his friend and physically restrained him when they walked past a Marine recruiting station on Pennsylvania Avenue.
"I told him, 'You gotta be crazy,'" recalled Sedgwick, who attended Friday's ceremony. Sedgwick relented when Arnold made it clear he'd made up his mind.
In an interview after the ceremony, Arnold said many factors influenced his decision. He had been successful in the Junior ROTC in high school and had enjoyed the marching, the uniforms and other trappings of military life. But he did not enlist immediately after graduation "because for a while I was being guided by public opinion," which was turning against the war.
Semper Fi.
Update: Coverage of the retirement ceremony (with photo) here.
"I thought he was going to break down there, but he did pretty good," said the best friend, Roy Sedgwick of Clinton, who back in 1969 had acted out of concern for Arnold's safety. "He still loves the Marine Corps."
