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We caught up with John Shotwell over the holidays. The former Marine Corps Director of Public Affairs and senior leatherneck PAO in Operation Desert Storm stays busy writing, painting and editing an award-winning newsletter and website for the Bluegrass Chapter of the Marine Officers Association of America. He and his bride of 50 years, Jerri, have taken to traveling, including jaunts in the last couple of years to Ireland, Scotland, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Malta, Croa

Marine WWII KIA, TSgt. Richard Murphy , came home to Maryland and was buried with full military honors next to his mother in Silver Spring, Maryland Dec. 1, following a funeral mass at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Rockville. One of Murphy's nieces, Jeanne Robinson, chatted with CC National President Keith Oliver at a post re-internment reception. Murphy had original been hastily buried in a trench immediately following the Battle of Saipan and was re-buried in a Manilla

Col. Riccoh Player , Deputy Director of Marine Corps Communication, hosted USMCCCA reps Fred Lash (Foundation Vice-President) and Keith Oliver (Association President) in the Megan McClung Conference Room on Dec. 3 to discuss our tri-gathering in Atlanta set for August 19-23. Watch this space and other HQ USMCCCA comms for venue, schedule and other details as robust planning continues. The Pentagon session included key OccField staff as well as the marketing and communicat

Pfc. Brett W. Beard, Jr. is scheduled to complete Marine Combat Training at Camp Pendleton on Dec. 15. Next stop is Pensacola, Florida and Air Traffic Control School. His proud Dad, retired Master Sgt. Brett Beard , is a USMCCCA Life Member who carved out an enviable career in our Corps' storytelling disciplines as well as a line recruiter. The Desert Storm and Somalia vet has been raising his family in Long Beach, California where he has been achieving success in real estat

Life member LtCol Keith McConnell retired from the US Marine Corps Reserve in 1996. As a longtime member of Public Affairs Unit MTU-CA16, (one of only two reserve PA units) he helped develop the Interview Techniques Course/Clinic that trained Marines of many ranks from Brigadier General selectees to the Recruiters School in the art of being interviewed by the press. This included the tricks and traps employed by the media and counter measures to ensure that the Marine Corps