Tom Enright Interview, History 150 Spring 2016, Conducted by Madeleine Duncan, March 8, 2017.
The interview took place in person at my house. I used a Zoom Digital Audio Recorder to record the interview. There may be some background noise as we were set up in the kitchen and my parents (and dog) came and went for a bit.
I chose to interview my grandfather (“Poppop”), Tom Enright, about his time serving with the US Marines.
For this transcript I will be using [MD:] to indicate myself and [Mr. Enright:] to indicate my grandfather.
MD: Alright, if you wouldn’t mind sharing your name and age?
Mr. Enright: My name is Tom Enright, I am seventy-seven years old.
MD: And you served in the Marines, right?
Mr. Enright: Absolutely!
MD: Alright. How long did you serve with them for?
Mr. Enright: Um, that’s a…longer answer but I’ll give it all to you.
MD: No it’s fine! We have time.
Mr. Enright: Okay well, um, I started Drexel [University] in 1957 and at that time there was a draft in place. That’s a lottery where your number, social security number, is called out and you would serve in the armed forces. Because I was an engineering student I had a student deferment- took my number out of the pool. After two and a half years at Drexel I ran out of money. So I dropped out of school and went to work. And after one more term had passed Drexel notified me that my student deferment had been revoked, and I was back in the general pool. Well y’know I felt an obligation to serve but I didn’t want to be drafted into the army for two years, because that would be two years away from getting back to school. [coughs] Pardon me. So I went to the Marine Corp tour recruiter and we talked and he said, “I have the perfect program for you. It’s a six-year obligation and it is six months of active duty where you receive all the training that every other marine gets. And then five and a half years of reserve duty, that’s one weekend a month and two weeks every summer.” That’s perfect! ‘Meant that I could get back to school much sooner. So I signed up, took the oath, and joined the Marines.
MD: Alright, um, what made you…decide to join the Marines specifically?
Mr. Enright: Oh, uh, as a young boy I studied the war, of course, the second World War, and I admired the Marines for their- for their spirit, their discipline, their courage, and their pride and decided when it was my turn to serve that I wanted to join the Marines.
MD: What- what exactly did you do while you were there, did you have one set job or..?
Mr. Enright: I okay, I had several actually ah, the first six months of course was basic training. Thirteen weeks at Parris Island, South Carolina in the summer. You don’t want to do that. I joined at Willow Grove Naval Air Station, North of Philadelphia. And so after basic I went to Jacksonville, Florida for training as a helicopter mechanic. Willow Grove had rescue helicopters. And while I was there a notice was posted that the next term of radar school was open to volunteers, and I thought “that sounds more interesting than motor oil and stuff”
MD: [laughs]
Mr. Enright: So I signed up and was sent to San Diego, California- other side of the country, and went to radar uh, school. I was like an air-traffic controller is today because none of the marine aircraft had radar on board. They flew blind and we told them where they were, where they had to go, how high or low they had to be, so that they could do their mission.
MD: Seems like a really important job then.
Mr. Enright: It was! It was fun, uh, but the Marine Corp kind of gets hand-me-down stuff. When I returned to Willow Grove I went to my radar site and the plaque on it said 1945. This is 1960. Our equipment was already fifteen years old! But I met a lot of nice people, and of course we were in, uh, a same group so we spent every, uh, one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer together. It was good.
MD: Um, so you never actually fought in combat.
Mr. Enright: No, no I didn’t. My service started at the beginning of January, 1960 and ended at the end of the year 1966. Now, prior to ’66 there had been Americans in Vietnam, but the real buildup didn’t uh occur until 1967. That’s when an awful lot of Marines went over there, and my obligation was done. I was back in Drexel at that time.
MD: Did you know anybody who was actually in combat?
Mr. Enright: Um..I knew, um, I knew some high school guys who were lost over there. But, uhh, no I can’t say that I did. I had the same training that they did and if, if this became a global conflict I’d have been over there with ‘em.
MD: Could you, um, describe your most memorable experience while you were serving with them? Good or bad, just is there-?
Mr. Enright: Mmhm.
MD: Any moment that sticks out?
Mr. Enright: Well, there’s a lot of comradery and pride, uh, in the Marine Corp. One of the things I liked is that they protected each other. Uh, everyone had a buddy and you would be willing to shed blood for that buddy and him do the same for you. So you got to have a closeness and a pride in what you’re doing. And one of the ways to show that is like my shirt. [he was wearing a t-shirt with the Marine Corp emblem] That’s the Marine Corp emblem and it says a lot if you look at it. The Marine Corp colors are crimson and gold. The Marine Corp hymn says “We’ll fight our country’s battles in the air, on land, and sea”. Eagle represents the air, the globe is the land, the anchor is the sea. And there is a banner in the eagle’s mouth, it says Semper Fidelis. That means Always Faithful; to the country and to your fellow Marines. So it was that pride I think, that I enjoyed most. If I go shopping in the Giant store you can see men that have ball caps on that say “Army” or “Navy” and there’s, I don’t know, eight or ten of them. They just walk past each other. But if a guy comes in and he has an emblem on, shirt, hat, pin, whatever, we walk right up to each other and say, “Semper fi, Marine.”
MD: You don’t even have to know the guy; you just have that connection.
Mr. Enright: Nope. We know he’s a Marine, okay, and we show that pride by saying Semper fi. Like this. [he gave me a sticker with the emblem that said semper fi] That’s for you.
MD: Aw, thank you. [long pause] That’s like a really cool connection to have.
Mr. Enright: Oh it was, it was. I spent three years in the air wing as um, a radar operator and by then I had graduated Drexel and had a job in Pittsburgh. So I had to leave the Willow Grove air station and go to a Marine unit in Pittsburgh. And that was a heavy weapons platoon. We had bazookas and a cannon, it was called a 106 millimeter recoilless rifle, it’s about four and a quarter inches like this, and it’s meant to defeat uh tank armor. And I became the crew chief of that and the guys, me and the guys in the crew became very close.
MD: Um, so how did any expectations you may have had about joining up measure up to what the reality of it was.
Mr. Enright: Okay, okay well, it was known that Parris Island, that’s the training base in South Carolina, was a little harsh. And when you got there you found out that it was a lot harsher than you imagined. Their philosophy is to break you down, get rid of all your attitude ok? And then slowly build you up into being a Marine. In addition to the physical training and everything you had to study the history of the United States Marine Corp all the way from its beginning, and that is November the tenth 1775.
MD: Wow.
Mr. Enright: A year before this country was a country there was a Marine Corp. and that instilled some of the pride that Marines still have today. So it, it was harsh. It-it was sometimes cruel. Uh, and if we were on a forced march; it’s not a march, you were running holding a rifle out. If one of the guys fell immediately there would be another Marine to pick him up.
MD: So at least part of training was kind of like a whole ‘nother school all over again.
Mr. Enright: Yes, there was classroom work and other stuff. I had never fired a weapon before, but was taught how to shoot by the people at the range. I was uh, I qualified as a sharpshooter. My rifle was a World War II weapon, the M-1. And then about three years into my service the Marine Corp changed to the M-14 and I qualified as a sharpshooter with that as well. The hard part was uh…having to leave to go for two weeks in summer camp because I got married in 1964, your mother was born in 1965, and so I had to leave Sandy and this little baby to go off to camp LeJeune and train for two weeks.
MD: Was…it sounds like it was a lot of hard work, but would you consider that like, a good memory or a bad memory?
Mr. Enright: Oh no absolutely, absolutely a good memory. Like every other Marine I’m proud of what we did. The Army and the Navy and the Air Force relied upon the draft to get their people. The Marine Corp was almost entirely volunteers. And when the draft, it was eventually taken away, all of the forces are now volunteer. But the Marines were always all volunteer almost their entire history.
MD: [pause] Just checking time, we’re doing good.
Mr. Enright: Mmhm.
MD: So, I’m sure like all branches of the military have changed a lot since when you were serving to now. Like you’ve probably seen some of those changes, like how do you think the Marine Corp has changed since then?
Mr. Enright: Well uh, when I was in all of the equipment that I used [coughs] uniform, boots, weapons, everything, uh was World War II. Nowadays they don’t use anything that I used when I was in. They don’t use the same uniform, they don’t have the same weapons, they don’t have the same armor, aircraft, nothing remains from what I had. And the Marine Corp was a small and elite force. We had our own aircraft, okay, and we served on board ship and on land. And since then when trouble erupts somewhere in the globe and the United States wants to resist that, the first call is, “send in the Marines.” They’re the first to fight. And that exists even today. They were the first to fight. And one of our sayings is “Once a Marine, always a Marine.” And so I followed all the changes in uniforms and tactics and everything that has happened since then.
MD: Are they still getting the hand-me-downs?
[both laughing]
Mr. Enright: Well in the beginning they were, until there were some changes by Congress. It seemed stupid to have an elite fighting force and not equip them with the best things available.
MD: Yeah.
Mr. Enright: So now the tactics and the weapons and the camouflage uniforms, they’re right up to snuff. The Marines did not like the Army’s camouflage uniform when it first came out. And so they designed, on a computer, a pixelated cover, okay.
MD: Oh is that where that style comes from?
Mr. Enright: Yes, yes. Instead of swatches that looked like they were painted on your uniform you had all these small dots, and every fifth one was the Marine Corp emblem. Two years later the Army adopted the uniform but they took the Marine Corp emblem out of it. [laughs]
MD: I think the pixel pattern probably works better.
Mr. Enright: Oh it does! It, yeah, it provides real camouflage. The old camouflage uniforms stood out. You don’t want that! Yeah, so it was much better.
MD: Have you seen- do you think there are more women serving now than back then?
Mr. Enright: Oh my goodness, yes. Uh, I told you when I was in college and there was a draft all males at age eighteen had to sign up for the draft. There was no draft to women. And the Marine Corp had, uh, women Marines. For a very long time they served in…they served in medical units and in correspondence, radio, telephone operators and all that, but not in combat. A lot has changed since then, and we have Marines [women] carrying a rifle in combat just like another Marine. We have Marine Corp pilots that are women.
MD: Now that it’s all volunteer there’s probably a lot more opportunity for a lot of different people.
Mr. Enright: Oh yes, all- uh, there are a lot of specialties in a military organization. And that’s called MOS; Military Occupational Specialty. And that was all closed off to women in the beginning. Now a woman can join a unit and operate in any specialty that’s available to a man in the Marine Corp.
MD: So I’ve probably asked something to this effect before but, overall you are glad that you-
Mr. Enright: Oh yes.
MD: -Served with them, yeah?
Mr. Enright: It was a growing-up experience. When I was in boot camp the drill instructors found out that I had some college training. And so they would mock me because of that. “Alright, I need somebody with calculus and advanced geometry. Enright, count the laundry bags.” That kind of stuff. But on the other hand I had two people who could not read, and their parents would write them letters and they would come to me and I’d read ‘em to them.
MD: Alright, well that’s all the questions I have written down.
Mr. Enright: Okay.
MD: Looks like we have pretty good time.
Mr. Enright: Well you can see that I still have that pride. I have caps, and shirts, and emblems on my jacket. You just don’t find that in the other services, they don’t have that connection that I thought was really important.
MD: Especially after what I’ve learned today it feels like something you should be proud of.
Mr. Enright: Ah, well thank you.
MD: Thank you so much for coming over here. Thanks for your time.
Mr. Enright: Oh you’re welcome honey. And if ever you need another piece of information all you have to do is let me know, alright?
MD: Thanks so much!
The only thing I’m not satisfied with is my performance during this. I kept starting every question with “um” or “alright” and didn’t sound very sure of myself. I honestly think it was easier when I wasn’t reading my “script”. If I were to do this over I would also make sure all background distractions were taken care of beforehand.