Jack Ruffer:  

Born to a father who was a career military officer, I attended schools in Ohio, what was then the Territory of Hawaii (Oahu), Texas, Louisiana, Southern California, England for three years, then Southern California again when, in 1954, my father, an Air Force pilot, was reassigned to March AFB near Riverside, CA. I completed the last semester of seventh grade and the eight grade at Colton Junior High School and my freshman year at Colton High School. When his squadron was reassigned to Norton AFB, we moved to San Bernardino where I entered Pacific High School as a sophomore in September 1956 (PHS was a three year high school back then). Academically, I was a so-so student in the subjects I didn't like and usually an A student in those I did; was on football and wrestling teams; wrote feature articles for the school paper (The Hi-Tide); and was a member of the National Forensic League where I competed on the Speech and Debate Teams. Mid-way through my senior year my father was transferred yet again, this time to a small corner of O'Hare Field (outside Chicago) that was military. I can vividly recall the day we left California for Illinois. We'd been on the road for only an hour and were just north of Palm Springs headed east on Hwy 60 when we heard the 8:00AM news broadcast on our car radio. An airplane had crashed earlier that morning near Clear Lake, Iowa. It was the 3rd of February 1959 and it was the day the music died. Buddy Holly. Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) were on that airplane and all perished in the crash. I enrolled at Arlington High School in Arlington Heights, IL (we lived in nearby Mt. Prospect), in mid-February 1959 to complete my senior year. Shortly after graduation I returned to Southern California where I joined the Marine Corps. I went on to spend the next twenty-two years in the 'Corps serving from Southern California and Northern California, to Virginia, North Carolina, and Ohio; from Cuba, Panama, Puerto Rico, and Curacao to Okinawa, the Philippines, Korea, Hong Kong and Japan proper, In Vietnam I served as an infantry platoon commander and infantry company commander with 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, and would serve with the same Regiment (about 4000 Marines) again ten years later as its Executive Officer (second-in-command). I also served as the Director of Drill Instructor School, MCRD San Diego, training those who would in turn train those who were the future of the Corps, and as the Inspector of the 1st ...Expand for more