Page 88 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2018- Online Magazine

Lee Pennington “Once a Marine, Always
embers of the United
States Marine Corps
Mconsider themselves
special warriors. Marines don’t
become “ex-Marines” when their
tour of duty ends. The motto “Once
a Marine, Always a Marine” is a
lifelong badge of honor.
Lee D. Pennington graduated
from Oklahoma City’s Crooked
Oak High School in 1948 and
earned an athletic scholarship to
Connors Junior College in Warner,
Oklahoma, near Muskogee, where
he played football and baseball.
He enjoyed the small coterie of
students there and graduated in
1950. He moved on to
Oklahoma University,
where he assumed he
would complete his
collegiate training.
Lee was an only child
whose parents were
strong but loving
disciplinarians. His
father served in the
South Pacific in the
Seabees, and Lee had
many older relatives
88 Lubbock Senior Link
a Marine”
by Hugh Wilson
A Marine is a Marine . . . there's no such thing as a former
Marine. You're a Marine, just in a different uniform, and
you're in a different phase of your life. But you'll always be
a Marine because you went to Parris Island, San Diego or the
hills of Quantico. There's no such thing as a former Marine.
—General James F. Amos, 35th CMC
who also served in World War one of those attacks. It involved
II, including 18 on his mother’s three new-to-combat Marines who
side. In September 1950, his sought refuge from the unrelenting
patriotic mother greeted him fear by diving into the company
with a mention of the Korean slit trenches (latrines); these
hostilities, coupled with a men needed extensive cleaning
pointed question, “When are afterwards.
you leaving?” He promptly
enlisted in the Marines, eager Lee was able to continue playing
football and baseball even while
to have his own tales to share as he serving. He was so talented, in
took his place among the military fact, that he received an early
members of his family. transfer back to Camp Lejeune.
Lee did boot camp at San Diego, He played baseball on a select
then infantry training at Camp Marine team until he mustered out
Pendleton, both in California. of the Marines as a buck sergeant
Because he enlisted with two years in October 1953. While at Camp
of college training already, he Lejeune, he also taught mine
was offered officers’ training. He warfare and demolition. His three
declined because he thought it
years of active duty in the Corps
would take too long to complete changed his life by developing
his adaptability and leadership
and would delay his arrival into
combat. After arriving in Korea, he capacities. He learned how to set
an objective, to plan carefully, and
was assigned to mine warfare and
demolition duties. to work hard to complete a task.
Lee’s biggest surprise about During his civilian work career, he
military life was “how thrived in sales - from shoes and
easy” it was. After insurance, to stock market trading
years of hard work and financial planning. He became
and grueling athletic the second Certified Financial
training, he was Planner (CFP) in Texas and has
prepared for the mental mentored scores of others in the
and physical demands. profession.
In Korea, his mettle
Lee married his wife Beth on June
was tested many times 5, 1960, in Stillwater, Oklahoma,
but especially during
in a ceremony officiated by her
sustained mortar fire. grandfather. Lee’s loving but stern
However, he did recall
parents had not been churchgoers,
a funny story about