One Veteran honors other VETERANS: AN ANECDOTE FROM YVETTE CLIFFORD, MARINE

The Saturday before Top Sied died I was doing one thing I love to do which is mow, and as I was mowing I was thinking about what I had heard on the radio that day about veterans, to say thank you to them. Then I thought of all the Vietnam Vets that never got thanked, but in fact got spit on by most. I called my good friend my pastor and asked if in tomorrow’s [July 5, 2009] church service we could thank the veterans. Long story short, Randy was gone and Bret was preaching, so very quickly during the invitation time I asked him if we could recognize the Veterans by actually bring them forward and thanking them individually. He agreed. Here is the interesting part. Earlier in the service Bret had the Veterans stand, and I noticed who was standing, but at the invitation time, there were twice as many who came up front, and just looking at the ages, I can bet many of the gentlemen standing were from Vietnam.
In a few minutes I will be in a church service and veterans will be recognized because of the 4th of July. I will, like other times, be the only woman standing (my daughter gets a kick out of that) and two Marines will be the flag bearers during the service. One I know was a cook; the other I just met when I thanked him for his service at the Memorial Day Service because he had on a USMC shirt.

Yvette Clifford served honorably from 1980 - 1988 in the United States Marine Corps, achieving the rank of Sergeant. She was a supply clerk and MIMMS NCO who was trained by MGySgt F.P. Siedentopf. She traveled from the midwest to attend his memorial service in Beaufort, SC. Pirate and Yvette didn’t meet at the Master Gunz’s going away. Yvette contacted Pirate via email to share her memories of a fine Marine they both loved, admired and learned from. Once a Marine; Always a Marine!