Why the Marines

I am A United States Marine and served in Vietnam in 1965 and 1966. 

I made several beach landings in the first year and one or two in 1966. My first one was south of Qui Nahn, all others were north up to the DMZ. After we made a beach landing and secured the area for a short period of time, some sort of base was constructed, like a hospital and medivec unit or helicopter base to move troops inland. There were very few safe bases anywhere in South Vietnam. 

Why the Marines? When President Kennedy was assassinated, I was in college in Albuquerque, and very soon heard the war drums of the LBJ administration. Lyndon Baines Johnson and Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense, were all pumped up to war with North Vietnam. I felt the need for the best training possible to survive a guerilla war in the jungle and rice paddies half a world away, so I enlisted March 2 1964 in the Marine Corps. With hard work, I made the cut. 

As all Marines know, not everybody can be a Marine. Many do not qualify for various reasons. Why join at all? I did not want to be drafted into the Army, and get a second rate training, at best, at that time.