Thomas Spencer:  

After graduation, I spent the summer of '83 working, and then left on the 8th of September for Marine Corps basic training at Parris Island, SC. The week prior, Scott Smith, Luann Stees, and I went to St.Petersburg to see STYX at the Bayfront. Kind of a going away present, if you will. From September to December of '83, my life changed forever. I became a Marine, which is something that once you are, you'll always be. I came home on leave, bought my first brand new vehicle (an '84 Mazda truck), started terrorizing the streets of Bradenton in style, and shortly thereafter, left for NAS Millington, just outside of Memphis, TN. I had only just arrived and checked in when I was informed that my father, Francis Spencer, had succumbed to cancer the night before, and I had to turn around and leave for Minneapolis, MN, somewhere I had never been, to meet a side of my family that I didn't know existed. Shortly after returning from the funeral, I lost my seat for the class I was suppposed to be in, so I was transferred to 29 Palms, CA, for Field Radio Operations school, which became my stock in trade for the next nearly ten years. From 29 Palms to Camp Pendleton, and then on to Okinawa, Japan. I managed to hook up with a couple of classmates who were also on Okinawa, but mostly kept with my platoon mates, and we made the Philipines, Korea, mainland Japan, Mt Fuji, Tokyo, and ever...Expand for more