Shawn Ell Maine

The Big Picture, page 1
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David Matthews, to the world.

David Matthews was a member of the all-American boy-short set around the country during a handful of teenage years. While in high school, he tried to enlist in the Marine Corps, but was drafted when the draft age was reached. While in college, he would have joined the Marine Corps if he had not dropped out and enlisted immediately after the college classes were over, which he still did during his first two years of college. David’s two best friends were the same age when he was drafted and his best friends were the same age when they were drafted. Then, after graduating from college, he dropped out because he was recruited for the Army by a recruiter from another college. After serving over 20 years of active duty, he finally ended up enlisting in the Air Force and starting working there almost immediately as a S2’ing. While he was stationed in Korea as a S1, he was picked to be S3 for the first American armored land combat units in Vietnam. S3s were the young Marines who had jumped ship with Marine units to go in the front line with combat units. They would leave their posts and take over enemy positions and fight for their unit for weeks at a time. Eventually, S3s would become regular combat Marines going from S-1 up to S-2 before becoming S-3s when they finished their tours of duty. David moved up to S4, but had issues working out his schedule a bit and had to take a short course and briefer in order to qualify and take on the job of S3. On his 25th birthday, he enlisted again in the Air Force and was selected into the S4. Unlike with David, he had left the Navy and joined the Air Force with no set destination because of his circumstances in the Marine Corps. After finishing out his S4 enlistment to take on the job of S3, David was called up yet again to Vietnam. This time he wasn’t being recruited to the Marine Corps, but to the Air Force and went in without a referral from the Marine Corps recruiter or having had any kind of letter from them saying they knew someone who might be a suitable candidate.