The
Korean War 'officially' ended July, 1953, but when we arrived there in
June, 1954 there were still minor outbreaks of fighting. Marines were
known to go in and 'clean up' an area and that was our job. I could
spend a few chapters talking about my 2 years in the Corps but I just
want to touch on a few of the discoveries and adventures along with some brief thoughts that I will expand on another time. I
remember going on R & R to Kyoto, Japan, and being enthralled by
that beautiful country and though it wasn't that long after the atomic
bomb had been dropped on parts of Japan the people were extremely
welcoming to those of us in uniform.

I
touched upon this once briefly and I will be brief now, too. I was out
on night patrol with some guys from my unit when we were ambushed and I
was faced with a 'kill or be killed' situation and I killed. To this day
I remember the look of shock and that kid's face, yes, he was a kid,
probably my age. I have never picked up or touched a pistol, rifle or
gun since I left the Marines and I will never again. Yes, if I am faced
with a 'kill or be killed' situation I know nothing can make me take
another human being's life. When I read bloggers talk about owning guns and 'bearing arms' or 'guns don't kill people,
people kill people' I know most of them have never killed another human
being which is not the same as killing a defenseless animal.

I
got a little off track here so let me continue with my return to Camp
Pendelton after a year in Korea and for 5 months I didn't have a
complaint in the world. I would get passes for long weekends and spend
them either in La Jolla or Laguna Beach or Hollywood. I met Bob, a
brilliant man, who had worked on atom bomb research and was now a
professor at  UCLA and had a home at Malibu Beach where we would spend
weekends. One evening, alone at the Circle bar on Hollywood Boulevard, I
met Tom and we had an affair in spite of the fact that he had a lover
who was a director. The lover knew who I was, and about me, but didn't
say a word because, as he said years later when I asked him, he knew Tom
would always come back to him and he was right.

Time
went by, I was promoted and my uniforms started to get a little tight. I
met Fred, a civilian, who gave parties that I went to and, being the
gentleman I was,  would send him thank you notes and, occasionally, when
I couldn't get to his place in Laguna Beach, a gift with a card saying, "Love, Martin." I was aware that Fred
was into drugs but I didn't touch them nor were he and I an item. It
seems one night his place was raided, some of my notes were found and
turned into the Corps. I was awakened in the middle of the night by some
military police who busted my locker open, took my diaries and a book
that I was writing at the time and was arrested.

A
little background about that time in the USA. Senator Joseph McCarthy,
an ex-Marine, an ex-Democrat, turned Republican in 1944 and started to
see everyone as a communist in 1950.  He accused the Democratic party of
20 years of treason and said the ACLU was a front for the communist
party. (Remember this in the 1950s not 2012!) He claimed there were
communists in the State department, in the President's administration
and pointed his finger at people inside and outside of the government
(sound familiar?) without any proof. Along with attacking innocent
people with the communist tag he, also, started accusing people of being
homosexual without even knowing his own lawyer, Roy Cohn,
was a closet case. He was censured by the Senate 67-22--guess which
party the 22 represented--and even after that he started going after
people in the service for being gay, at one time quoted as saying, "We
are not at war, we don't need them anymore!"

I
was offered a deal from the Marine Corps that said that they would
discharge me with a medical discharge if I would give them the names of
all the gay Marines I knew, or saw in gay situations, or they would give
me an undesireable discharge which meant I would lose all and any
benefits that I would have coming to me. They piled on the threats of
what would happen with the latter kind of discharge, how I would never
get a government job and would be suspected my whole life as it would be
on my record and follow me around, etc. I would not give any names, of
which I am very proud of to this day, and within 24 hours I was kicked
off the base and out of the Marine Corps.

I
called Tom who came down to pick me up and take him to his place. Dave
was out of town directing a film with Charlton Heston and said it would
be okay. They lived on Laurel Canyon Drive, next door to Marlon Brando,
who I never did get to meet though I was invited to parties at his
place.  The day before Dave got home I rented a one room apartment a
couple of blocks up from Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue not far
from the famous Scwabb's drugstore. I spent the first 2 months of my third decade seeing Billie
Holiday at the Keyboard Club in Beverly Hills, going to the  Grauman's Chinese theatre, hearing Judy Garland sing at the Hollywood Bowl,
cruising at the Roosevelt Hotel, while getting fatter and poorer. It was
time to do something about/with my life.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

******************************************************************

"Plunge boldly

into the thick of life

and seize it where you will,

it is always interesting."

Goethe

(Maria's cards)