Saturday, May 20, 2023 | Country Acres South • Page 1 PRSRT STD ECR U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #278 Madelia, MN 522 Sinclair Lewis Ave Sauk Centre MN 56378
SOUTH Saturday, May 20, 2023
Volume 1, Edition 24
Dan Griffin holds out the Marine flag May 11 on his farm near Rochester. Griffin dairy farmed for 35 years after his time in the Marines.
A dairy farmer MARINE
Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment
PHOTOS BY AMY KYLLO
(Above) Dan Griffin’s Marine of the month letters of recognition rest May 11 at his home near Rochester. Griffin was named Marine of the month twice and was rewarded two rest and relaxation trips to Korea for those honors. (Below) Dan Griffin’s last dairy heifer sniffs him May 11 on the Griffin farm near Rochester. Griffin’s grandchildren will show her this summer at the county fair.
Griffin remembers service in 1970s Japan BY AMY KYLLO | STAFF WRITER
ROCHESTER – The year is 1971. That year 94,092 men were drafted into the military according to the Selective Service System. That same year, a young dairy farm boy from Rochester, who had never been farther from home than South Dakota, enlisted with the United States Marine Corp. This dairy farmer was Dan Griffin, and he was ready to see the world. Newly graduated from high school, he knew he wanted to dairy farm, but first, he told his dad he wanted to travel. “He understood that part of it,” Griffin said. “He went through eight years of school here at the schoolhouse and that was his entire (education) and then he started farming as a 14-year-old with his dad.” Now, years later, Griffin said he wonders how his parents felt about his decision. Shortly before he enlisted one of his cousins stepped on a land mine and almost died, not a positive endorsement for enlisting in the military. By October 1971, Griffin was whisked away to basic training in San Diego, California alongside his friend Dennis O’Neill, who had enlisted with him as part of the buddy program. The buddy program guaranteed enlistees they would be sent with their friend to basic training. At basic training, the Marines determined Griffin was to become a “Remington Raider,” slang for an office clerk. After additional training at Camp Pendleton, also in California, Griffin was sent to a base in Iwakuni, Japan. Griffin said approximately 305 people were stationed at Iwakuni. He lived in Block 8, an old prison, where he shared a room with seven other men. During the day, he worked as a files and mail clerk, drove the colonel and did other administrative work. The Iwakuni base was an area originally purchased
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Publications bli ti The newspaper of today is the history of tomorrow.
by the Japanese government in 1938 and became an air base for training and defense in 1940. The base changed hands after World War II. During the Korean War it served as a processing center for troops entering Korea and jets stationed there supported front line troops daily. It became a solely US base in the early 1950s, and in 1956, the base was enlarged. Though Griffin was in the Marines during the Vietnam war, he did not face combat. His only contact with Vietnam was doing courier mail runs in a C130 airplane to Vietnam and processing military members who were leaving Vietnam. “You check them back in and shift them back home or whatever,” Griffin said. “I saw a lot of messed up guys there.” Griffin was awarded several honors at Iwakuni. There, he qualified as an expert rifle, the highest shooting and marksmanship level he could reach. He also was recognized as Marine of the month twice during his stint, an honor he modestly attributes to the fact he was working directly with Colonel Donald J. “DJ” McCarthy, a man who would eventually command the entire Iwakuni base from 1983 to 1986. As a reward for being named marine of the month, he received two rest and relaxation trips to Korea. Griffin was promoted to corporal in August of 1973, less than two years after going through basic training. In the town of Iwakuni, Griffin found his personal choice for the best BLT sandwiches in the world. On one of the narrow streets filled with the stench of the raw sewage which ran down the roadway, he found an unassuming little restaurant.
This month in the
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COUNTRY:
Watch for the next edition of Country Acres on June 3, 2023
(Left) Dan Griffin enlisted in the Marines in 1971 and was stationed in Japan.
Dan Griffin’s promotion letter rests May 11 at his home near Rochester. Griffin was promoted to corporal less than two years after going through basic training.
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A floral love language Chatfield
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Signs of spring
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Farmer Grace Jeurissen column
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An organic heartbeet Zumbro Falls