Just For The One Star
Chapter Five
"The Fallen Stars"
Authored By: Bradley Chapline
Oct 2020
Chapter Five
The Fallen Stars
General McMillian, in 1982, two weeks after I successfully delivered prisoner Charles Chitat Ng to Ft. Leavenworth's penitentiary was graciously allowed by Headquarters Marine Corps to resign his commission and retire.
So, for me personally, I wasn't about to let General McMillian, his cronies, or the Marine Corps in general use me as their scapegoat for all their ignoble schemes and clumsy blunders. The truth is, General McMillian and his staff at Brigade Headquarters were already out of control long before I arrived on the island of Oahu.
So, in the end of all the "hole-and-corner" administrative operations, competition scandals, armory robberies, and escaping prisoners, all of General McMillian's support staff were rightfully stripped of their first rate titles and transferred to other largely undesirable duty stations. Their credibility and powers would no longer be a given.
While General McMillian, in the beginning, may have been trying to save his own career as a Marine, he still resorted to recruiting staff where their courses of actions were surely not in the best interests of integrity. For, when the powers that be at Headquarters Marine Corps had finally come to label General McMillian as a poor leader, they did so with absolutely good reason.
It's all a shame. My wife had lost a true friend in the General. It truly bothered me.
I remember early one Christmas morning when my wife awakened me and asked me to drive her up to the General's house in officer country. It was a beautiful home with a majestic view over a golf course. The view from the General's home provided stunning mountain and ocean scenery. So, after some resistance, I finally agreed to take my wife up to see the General.
I knew knocking on the General's door at 6AM Christmas morning was not going to put him in a good mood. I was right. But, his irritation lasted for just a moment. My wife had beautifully hand decorated with miniature Christmas ornaments a tiny little live evergreen tree. When she handed it to the General, as a Christmas gift, I saw several tears beginning to fall from his eyes. Very much a sentimental moment for all of us.
It was very difficult for my wife to know that the General had been forced out of the Marine Corps, especially since I was allowed to stay in the Marine Corps, if I desired. In fact, it may have even rubbed "salt in the wound" that I was not only given a top notch (RE1A) reenlistment code, but I had also been selected by Headquarters Marine Corps to be promoted to the rank of Staff Sergeant (E-6).
But, I had my absolute fill of military life. Additionally I didn't think at the time it was a good place for an enlisted man to raise a family. It was time to leave the Marines, and start a new life as a civilian.
The Fallen Stars
General McMillian, in 1982, two weeks after I successfully delivered prisoner Charles Chitat Ng to Ft. Leavenworth's penitentiary was graciously allowed by Headquarters Marine Corps to resign his commission and retire.
So, for me personally, I wasn't about to let General McMillian, his cronies, or the Marine Corps in general use me as their scapegoat for all their ignoble schemes and clumsy blunders. The truth is, General McMillian and his staff at Brigade Headquarters were already out of control long before I arrived on the island of Oahu.
So, in the end of all the "hole-and-corner" administrative operations, competition scandals, armory robberies, and escaping prisoners, all of General McMillian's support staff were rightfully stripped of their first rate titles and transferred to other largely undesirable duty stations. Their credibility and powers would no longer be a given.
While General McMillian, in the beginning, may have been trying to save his own career as a Marine, he still resorted to recruiting staff where their courses of actions were surely not in the best interests of integrity. For, when the powers that be at Headquarters Marine Corps had finally come to label General McMillian as a poor leader, they did so with absolutely good reason.
It's all a shame. My wife had lost a true friend in the General. It truly bothered me.
I remember early one Christmas morning when my wife awakened me and asked me to drive her up to the General's house in officer country. It was a beautiful home with a majestic view over a golf course. The view from the General's home provided stunning mountain and ocean scenery. So, after some resistance, I finally agreed to take my wife up to see the General.
I knew knocking on the General's door at 6AM Christmas morning was not going to put him in a good mood. I was right. But, his irritation lasted for just a moment. My wife had beautifully hand decorated with miniature Christmas ornaments a tiny little live evergreen tree. When she handed it to the General, as a Christmas gift, I saw several tears beginning to fall from his eyes. Very much a sentimental moment for all of us.
It was very difficult for my wife to know that the General had been forced out of the Marine Corps, especially since I was allowed to stay in the Marine Corps, if I desired. In fact, it may have even rubbed "salt in the wound" that I was not only given a top notch (RE1A) reenlistment code, but I had also been selected by Headquarters Marine Corps to be promoted to the rank of Staff Sergeant (E-6).
But, I had my absolute fill of military life. Additionally I didn't think at the time it was a good place for an enlisted man to raise a family. It was time to leave the Marines, and start a new life as a civilian.