Page 122 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2020- Online Magazine

Jerry Lucero “Hollywood” Marine
he Marines who survived
boot camp at Parris Island,
TSouth Carolina, often called
their brethren who went to boot
camp near San Diego, California
“Hollywood Marines” due to the
camp’s proximity to Tinseltown
and a perceived easier training
regimen. For the “Hollywood
Marines”, like Lubbock’s Jerry
Lucero, it had another not-so-
glamorous name: the “Yellow
Hell.” The sprawling complex
consists of 388 acres, and all the
buildings are painted yellow.
Jerry did not remember boot camp
in California to be “easy”. As the
Marines say, “You don’t join the
Marines, you become one.” The
training is intense and not for
everyone. It’s a very select and
proud group. Except the Coast
Guard, the Marine Corps is the
smallest branch of service in
the United States, with average
recruits per year of 38,000 versus
the Army’s 85,000. The Marine
Motto, established in 1883, is
Semper Fi, Latin for “always
faithful”. It’s an expression that
unites both current and former
Marines. Once a Marine, always a
Marine.
122 Senior Link
Receives Purple Heart
by Larry A. Williams
A Lubbock native, Jerry was bodies from a plane crash up in
born to Lionel and Josephine the mountains. I had a heat stroke
Lucero on September 30, 1948, half-way up the mountain and was
the oldest of four children. He sent back.”
played cornerback on the Lubbock
High football team and “made it “I remember when I first got shot
through the 11th grade” before at; it sounded like bumblebees.
enlisting in the USMC in January They (my buddies) told me to
1967. He chose the Marines ‘get down – that’s gunfire!’”
because he “had an uncle who Surprisingly, Lucero did not
had served in that branch, and remember being shot. In fact,
Dad insisted.” After basic training, he couldn’t recall anything that
he completed eight weeks of happened that day. His unit holds
advanced training at Camp a reunion every two years, and
Pendleton. His nickname was last year, it was held in Lubbock.
“T.J. for Tijuana”; he laughs at the “Commander Larry Wilson from
remembrance. After a 30-day leave California was speaking, and he
back home in Lubbock, it was back told about the day I was shot. He
to California and on to Vietnam. said, ‘The platoon started taking
fire. One of our guys got hit and
Leaving out of Marine Corps Air went down. Another Marine
Station El Toro, Lucero arrived went out to pull him back to
in Da Nang, Vietnam, on July 1. safety. He got hit and went down.
He was assigned to Company I Another Marine went out to pull
(India), 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines. the second guy back when he got
His unit was sent to guard the hit. That man was Jerry Lucero.’”
“Liberty Bridge”, built in 1966 and Concerning the wound, Jerry said,
located in the Dai Loc District, “I was hit in the neck by a bullet
Quang Nam Province. It was that exploded behind my left ear.
built to move men and material I must have lain there four or five
across the Song Thu Bon to An hours before they could come and
Hoa Combat Base. The bridge medevac me out of there. I was
was constantly under attack and taken back to Da Nang. I was
destroyed several times. Initially there two days and couldn’t move
assigned as a rifleman, Jerry my neck or my legs.”
became a “tunnel rat”. A tunnel
rat located tunnels dug by the Lucero was moved to Guam. “I
Vietcong, then blew them up using stayed there for one month. Then
C4 explosives. He added, “I used I was sent to Ft. Bliss in El Paso to
to cook my food over burning C4. recover for a couple of months.
Without a blasting cap, it would I finally received new orders to
just burn.” report back to a reserve station in
Lubbock and stayed there for six
Jerry said, “Every night, we would months, babysitting new reserves.
go out on patrol, which was I got orders for Camp Pendleton
always a scary time. I lost several with the 5th MEB (Marine
buddies. Our gung-ho captain Expeditionary Brigade) in San
would say, ‘Let’s saddle up’. We Mateo as a mail clerk.
used to go on convoys up to Phu
Bai, Quang Tri province. One I was located just across from
of our missions was to recover President Nixon’s Western White
House in San Clemente.