Doug Barney

Larry Woods, Doug Barney, Will Holahan

 How I Became a Marine

Early in 1965 I was teaching school, but my personal life was a train wreck. A planned marriage didn’t work out, I was drinking way too much and I had no plans for the future. 

Having nothing better to do I decided to go to grad school at Butler where I did my undergraduate work. One evening while attending class I ventured to the student union to get something to eat. When I went down the steps to the cafeteria a Marine Captain was standing behind a table passing out recruiting literature. I nodded as I passed him and took two steps inside the cafeteria door when I did an about face, walked up to him an said “I’d like to join the Marine Corps.” Until the words left my lips I had never, for a single day, considered serving in any branch of the military much less the USMC.

My parents were not happy. My brother was an Army officer and they were concerned about having two sons serving at the same time with Viet Nam going hot and heavy. But, they almost didn’t need to be concerned because the Marine Corps thought long and hard before allowing me to enter.

My father and his entire family, with the exception of one sister, were born in Russia. Before being “Americanized” the family name was Barnaj. Because the USSR was a major concern at the time, it took months to get a clearance. But that wasn’t all. I had received several speeding tickets and decided to go to Florida on vacation instead of making my court date. The judge wasn’t amused when I returned and hit me with a significant fine that I couldn’t pay. That cost me two days in the Marion County jail and several sessions with a government shrink who questioned my maturity. In the end, the Corps must have been hard up for officers because I was accepted with a Base Pay Entry Date in December 1965.

Later on I became the OIC of HQ Det4.