Re: looking for Richard A. Randall, Cpl USMC -- War Stories!

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Date Posted: Mon, February 26 2007, 19:14:38
Author: Jeff Northridge
Author Host/IP: adsl-75-45-108-120.dsl.scrm01.sbcglobal.net / 75.45.108.120
Subject: Re: looking for Richard A. Randall, Cpl USMC
In reply to: Ben POquiz 's message, "looking for Richard A. Randall, Cpl USMC" on Sun, February 25 2007, 20:58:04

Howdy CPL Aquilino M. "Ben" Poquiz;

I notice that you have signed in to battalion HQ for the 3rd/3rd Marines at http://www.mikecompany33.com/TMNETPGS/Index1.html . Unfortunately, CPL Richard A. Randall has not signed in yet. I checked the Coffelt KIA Database and CPL Randall was not KIA after he was reassigned. Since the last name of "Randall" is fairly common, a nation-wide white-pages search would be hopeless unless you want to make a zillion long-distance phone calls. Your best bet would be to find a copy of a set of orders for awards & decorations or promotions from somebody in your battalion which includes CPL Randall's name. I don't know how the Marine Corps does that, but the Army will include the individual's Serial Number and SSN. The SSN is what you want. From that, you can check the Social Security Death Index to see if your buddy is deceased for free, and if not and for a few bucks, find out what his last known address is. Good luck! My battalion [the 2nd/47th (Mech)] has managed to find or account for about 2,000 out of 5,000 guys who served with us during the Vietnam Era and we're still looking for the rest of our "lost" brothers.

As a non-sequitur, I find it amusing that your nickname is "Ben". My squad leader's name was SGT Gonozalo Ruelas, but hardly anybody could pronounce his name correctly except for those of us who could speak Spanish, so he said, "call me 'Poncho'", and the name stuck. To this day, he is affectionately known to his buddies as "Poncho", but don't call him that unless you're a Vietnam vet. Poncho was the biggest Mexican that I ever saw (he is now a U.S. citizen). He saved both SP4 Ron Baltierra and I from drowning in rivers on two separate occasions (we were little guys--5' 7" or less and Poncho was 6' 2"). After he pulled us out, he said, "you look like a drowned rat" and I felt like one too. My helmet had floated downstream, turned over, and sank. Poncho told me to declare it to be a "combat loss". It worked! Supply issued me a new helmet without me having to pay for it.

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Re: looking for Richard A. Randall, Cpl USMC -- ben poquiz, Mon, February 26 2007, 19:55:11 (adsl-75-45-107-77.dsl.scrm01.sbcglobal.net/75.45.107.77)