Mike Company               

Third Battalion, Fifth Marines

RVN, 1966 -1971

SEMPER FIDELIS

An anecdote by James Kirschke

Some years ago I was living with my family in northern Italy. While there, at a cafe, I had just finished making out a p.c. to a CA friend, retired Sergeant Vince Rios, who had served with the 5th Marines in VN, where he had lost three limbs. I had signed the postcard SEMPER FIDELIS near the end, and then underlined the words. An Italian engineer friend had noticed this, and kindly asked me if I had underlined Semper Fidelis because it was a foreign term. When I nodded, "Si," he responded, in the finest Italian demeanor, "Surely by their actions the US MARINES have made Semper Fidelis an AMERICAN term," a comment which brought tears to my eyes.