My husband, Jerry Richard Steele joined the USMC in 1957.

I joined the Navy after high school in January 1960 and attended boot camp in Bainbridge, MD. Then I was stationed at NAS Jacksonville, Florida, where I spent two years before Jerry was stationed there at the Marine Corps barracks. He already had orders for Camp Pendleton, CA but got them postponed for five months until I could get out to go with him. I had to wait for my replacement. He completed Track Vehicle Repair School at Camp Pendleton.

Jerry went to Boot Camp at Paris Island and was stationed at Camp LeJune, NC. His first tour in Vietnam was during 1966 and 1967 in Danang. My brother Alvin was stationed 15 miles from Jerry and they would visit each other. Jerry is pictured in this photo on the left and Alvin is on the right. Later Jerry did another tour in 1969 to 1970. His MOS was changed to Logistics at that time.

Jerry received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. My son told me about a conversation they had where Jerry was telling him about a situation where one of his troops went ballistic and was holding a gun to his head. He quietly talked him down and other troops were there to take him down as well.

Jerry was MGYSGT on twenty years but went on to serve thirty years and retired in January 1988. Several years later, skin cancer developed and eventually it turned into prostate cancer from exposure to Agent Orange. He died in 2004. It wasn’t easy having three children with him away so much during his military career. Our three grandchildren in California miss him so much. Jerry never got to see our other two grandchildren who were born in Sweden after his death. Our son teaches in Stockholm Sweden and had children later in life after his father’s passing.

I have a brief video recording of Jerry that captures him saying, “I had a reputation that I took care of them no matter what it called for, and they took care of me. That was good.”
Our family is working on editing material and adding Jerry’s voice from all of the interviews he has done with family since high school.
~ Monica Steele, U.S. Navy Veteran

Veteran stories collected by www.JennyLasala.com