This is a rare photograph indeed. Beth took it at their home in Havelock, North Carolina. Dennis was stationed at Cherry Point Marine Base, the one that I did not visit when the rest of the platoon flew down in Marine helicopters while the rest of us who were leaving the Marines waited back in the barracks for them to return.
It's the only one I know of with both Den and me in our respective uniforms together. It is also the only one that I have yet found where I am wearing my starched Air Force summer tans. I believe the Air Force soon phased them out not much later than after 1974, so I am typically in the dark blue pants and light blue shirt in every other picture.
In the photograph, Den is pointing to my missile badge on the left pocket. Above my name tag, and above the right pocket, is the matching silver metal Missile Combat Crew badge, only for those on an active missile crew. Once you leave missiles, you still wear the missile badge but not the Combat Crew badge.
In this rented house, Den and Beth were waiting for their household goods and personal possessions to arrive after they moved in. Those goods showed up at the warehouse for delivery the next day. That night, however, the warehouse burned; and they lost virtually everything they owned. Fortunately, I had a second copy of that Marine OCS picture with all of us at Quantico and gave it to Dennis. Otherwise, they lost all of their personal photos, as well.
Deterrence
We have the kind of constant coverage,
within there is no need to change.
Like a beast that halts to stop a new threat
where motion is the more curious camouflage
than unyielding,
when against unblending situations.
Shielded beneath a billion waving stalks of wheat,
a mere thousand rigid, silver shafts
firm to evade just those few
who slow for a moment their forgetting
to recall
and then remember.
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