"Stable Able"/1/7 - U.S. Marine Corps Newsletter -

This 6 and ½ hour tour of duty includes some of the cities' most interesting neighborhoods, distinguished for their unique architecture and intriguing stories. The Lavender Lady, Adolphus Busch, Madame Chouteau and Thomas Hart Benton are just a few of the personalities to whom you'll be introduced.

Of course, the centerpiece for the day is the tram ride to the top of the 630-foot Gateway Arch (no climbing allowed), the tallest man-made monument in the country, which offers a 30-mile view. For the less daring there is a movie on how the Arch was built.

Lunch is on your own at Union Station that was opened in 1894, which reached it, peak during WW II with 100 trains and 300,000 people going in and out a day. Redeveloped as a festive urban market place, it is now home to shops and restaurants that offer more than C-Rations!

And just when you think you've seen it all, you'll make a stop at the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica to see the largest collection of mosaics in the world. Filled with 83,000 square feet of splendor, it's hard to look anywhere but up.

Then it's off to Forest Park, one of the largest public parks in the US filled with some of the city's major attractions, it also was the site of the 1904 World's Fair. With the help of a good imagination and the guide's help you'll go back to that time when the band played and hoochee-koochee dancers swayed on the Pike and the ice cream cone, iced tea and the hot dog were introduced.

Gabe and Virginia have made arrangements with DISCOVER ST. LOUIS TOURS for our tour. The cost is $32.00 per person and we have to guarantee a minimum of 30 people by 23 September.

We all want to thank Gabe and Virginia for all their efforts setting up our Seventh Annual Reunion. It appears that we are in for another great reunion.

It isn't too early to begin thinking about travel plans and make your reservations and forwarding you Tour Fees to "Shifty".

Semper Fi!

Gabe and Virginia Conde

A DAY IN SEPTEMBER

It was a nice balmy day in that first week of September of 1951, but one I will never forget. One of the officers of Able Company 7Th Marines was briefing the men of the 1st Platoon. "Men its unlikely that you will see "Charlie" today as it looks like he has pulled back from hill 673 so your job will be to go up there and blow up his positions so he won't have them to return to in case he decides to come back. It should be a very routine mission so hurry home." Sounded like a lot of fun to me!

Guy Taylor, a member of the 1st Fire Team and my good friend who always joked: "Its Hell to be in the 1st of anything!" For example if a tough assignment came up in the 7th Regimental Headquarters the Regimental Commander would say, "lets give that to the 1st Battalion!" Then the Battalion

Commander usually said, "Lets let Able Company have that one!" In the Company CP they would say, "The 1st Platoon can handle this!" Then, you guessed it! "Hey 1st Squad get that 1st Fire Team up here!" Well, we think that's how our fire team was chosen for the point of the patrol…on that day in September.

We passed through Baker Company lines into "no man's land. As we crossed the edge of the valley there was a shallow stream off to our left and in the middle of the stream there was the remains of a dead gook. I recall that unmistakable, sickening, sweet smell of death. You think of "Charlie" as being short normally but his guy was close to seven feet tall. His decaying flesh was black and the eye sockets empty. I bet he had been a hell of a basketball player at Inje High! We climbed up the ridge, which led us to the abandoned bunkers on 673. I estimate 673 was located about a mile across the valley from Able Company's position. A week earlier we had occupied an outpost in front of the lines, which had a good view of 673 across the valley. There was little activity but you could see a gook moving around now and then.

That outpost turned out to be very tragic for a couple of our Marines. One of them a boot camp buddy and fellow Texan, John Fryer, was seriously wounded. John's account of his experience inspired me to write this article. Though I had thought about writing something but just never got around to it until this past week…Thanks John!