10/28/42: About my schooling, it is coming along well at this time. My first test I got 85, which was good. In the last one I got 92 which is better. So far that gives me an 88.5 average. Yes, we go to school all day from 8:00 to 11:30. Then we start again at 13:00 and work until 16:00. We do a lot of typing and lecturing in the course. The job of the Quartermaster is to see that everybody has what they need and we have to learn the Marine manual, which is about 4 inches thick. We saw some pictures of the Marines in action in The Solomons and did they act mean. It really was very impressive.
10/29/42: It is so cold that in the morning the commanding officer issued an order that there would be no more blankets worn to roll call. Don’t get me wrong, but this Marine Corps is so messed up I often wonder how it lasted this long. By that I mean that they never do the same thing the same way more than two times, and no one seems to know what is supposed to happen next or anything. All the boys get a big kick out of getting the officers all mixed up and telling them the wrong dope.
I wish that you could come down here for a few days and then you can understand why I send somebody in to [town to] get the things I want. I think that there are 72 million Marines in that small town of Wilson every night and what a mess it is. Everything costs three times as much as it does in other towns. I have not been out in the past three weeks and I am just as glad. The closest town that is of any size is Richmond, Va. which is too far away for a night’s trip so all the boys stay home and gamble.
This QM is all right but the classes are very boring, as you can imagine. All this stuff about what the disbursing officer does in the case of a duplicate form going to Washington and what does he do when the field year is up, etc. After you get out it is a lot different they say and it is a good life.
Out of the seven shirts I have been issued I only have four left. The theft that goes on around here with clothes is terrific. When somebody takes yours you just find somebody that wears the same size as you and help yourself.
11/9/42: I received your phone call this morning. Sorry that I did not send you a wire telling you the situation but as you see, it was impossible for me to make it. A lot of the boys go AWOL but sooner or later they get caught, fined and kicked out of school, and I did not want that. Sometimes I wonder what I joined up for. A boy that sleeps above me left yesterday. Today they issue him books so he won’t be here to receive them. They will check up on him and find that he has gone over the hill and then he will be in a fix.
I heard a program last night where a Major spoke about the situation on Guadalcanal. He stated when they landed there the Japs were sitting under the trees and then the commentator asked if they ran away. The Major quietly said, “No, they are still under the palm trees.” He also said that the Japs are a little underestimated for they are good fighters and very tricky. They sneak behind our lines at night and then try to cause confusion by giving commands in English such as “Don’t shoot, captain. I am bringing my platoon in.” When the platoon does come in, it is a load of Japs. He also said that the American youth is not brought up to be a fighter but once he gains confidence in his weapons and is put in a situation, he can last better than the others.
11/15/42: Dear Mother,
Well, believe it or not, I got three letters today and two were from you and dated the 9th and the 12th. There is a good example of the mail system down here.
Mother, I have a funny feeling that Pop is lonesome from the way he writes and I have noticed it in all of his letters. That’s why I will really make it to Washington on the weekend of the 29th. I will be able to get a 62-hour pass and that will be just right for the trip. Well I must quit and get to work or I will be shining brass for 583,986,000 days and don’t think I am just kidding you.
12/7/42: Just a year ago today I remember clearly all that took place. In the afternoon I went to the show and when I came back somebody told me that the Japs had bombed Pearl Harbor. Of course I told him that he was slinging the bull but we went upstairs and listened to the radio and verified his statement. It seems impossible but it was a smart piece of strategy because we lost 25 ships there.
After spending the weekend with his parents, Lee wrote the following:
12/11/42: Well by some piece of luck or fate I just made it to roll call this morning. To be exact it was just 1 and ½ minutes past 6 when I crashed into the barracks as my name was being called off. If I can only stay awake in class today I will be all set. Pop, it was really swell to see you and Mother and you do know that I had a wonderful time while I was there. I feel that you went a little deep in your pocket for me but I will remember it. I will see that you get your Xmas present soon so that Santa Claus won’t leave you empty handed.
I got 90 in my test Friday, which is about the average mark for me. We were just informed that we may have a two-week extension on our course but nothing is definite yet. Send those pictures along as soon as possible as my public is crying for them.
12/14/42: Good news! I have a 62-hour pass this weekend and I will be up in New York for an early afternoon. It will be good to see you all and I really mean it.
God, I really hope that Robert gets transferred to the East for a permanent post as I really worry about him. In my estimation there are very few brothers like us though we don’t like the same things we get along swell together and I have a very deep love for him. Don’t ever tell him this, it is a very personal feeling.
12/17/42: I am really sorry that I cannot make it this weekend but I did not wake up in time for roll call this morning. Subsequently, I went on report as absent and got restricted for the rest of my time here at New River. That will be about a week and a half.
On Christmas we are going to have a football game, the School Battalion against the Post troops. There are plenty of pro and college football players here so it ought to be a good dirty game. There will also be a track meet without the hurdles and javelin, which breaks my heart. There is a boy here who does the three-legged race with me and we really can move. We won it in the last meet. So the day will be pretty well filled in. Of course there will be little private parties and things like that. After that, there will be a dance with 56,000 Marines and 34 girls, so that ought to be something.
12/23/42: Well, we got the word today on the corporals. It did not sound very good. Of course I do not have the highest average in class but I do have 88. I guess that will only make me a P.F.C. at the most or just stay the way I am. It really makes no difference as I will get my stripes in the field. When I first got in this outfit I figured that stripes were everything but now I know different.
Completing his time with the Quartermaster, Marvin was transferred to San Diego’s Camp Elliott for his Military Occupational Specialties [MOS] training.
1/5/43: Well at last we got here, after one full week of travel. The trip was really swell and it did not seem like 7 days. The country west of New Orleans started to get really flat until we got to New Mexico and then it got strange and quite hilly. Coming through Arizona was the best as we went through mountains.
I don’t know yet what my duties are but it looks as though I will be here a long time. The boys call it Company B, as in B here when they go and B here when they come back. So you can see that I will be here for a hell of a long time.
2/8/43: I don’t know how to tell you this but I will try, as it is only right that you know. It seems as if I have been working here for a month and I don’t know what I did but I must have done something, as I had to see the first Sgt. Saturday morning. He handed me a sheet of paper and said, “I don’t know whether you will like this or not, but it is yours, now you have to use it.” It seems that it was a notification that I had been made a Corporal, which pleases me very much. Yes, Mother that is two stripes on my shirtsleeve. So in the next letter you will address it to Cpl. Lee Marvin.
2/23/43 Dear Robert;
Tell me one thing and that is how do you do with the women? As for me, I never go out with them much. When I was in New River I got my first ass, as y
ou might put it. Let me tell you, that was a set up. She was a damn whore but it was damn good. She used to send me money to go up there and see her. Once she sent me 30 bucks and it only cost me about ten. She knew it but did not give a shit. It may not sound good to you but it was a hell of a lot of fun.
Well, how would you like to be back in college again or in civvies? One guy I was talking to said the biggest fight he is going to have in the Marine Corps is getting out and man, I believe that with all my heart.
3/8/43: Hello there, lad [addressed to his brother, Robert]
Damn Robert, don’t ever get into any bad action and watch yourself because as you probably know I consider myself your big brother. I want to get back so you, Pop and me can have some more good times. I feel so damned sorry for Pop as he probably considers himself a flop in life. In reality, he is one of the best men. He is one of the few men that has two sons that look up to him with such esteem as you and myself. Believe me, every time I start to do something that will hurt him, I just think and then turn around and Don’t. Yeah, he is the ace all right.
Do you ever think of the times we can have after this thing is over? Remember that time we went up to some park and coming home we had to take a piss so damn bad that we damn near drowned some couple over on the other side of the park? All of that was really good but you don’t realize it until you get in some asshole outfit like the service. Now I know what Pop meant by saying that military life does you good. Yes sir, it makes you realize what a good time is. Hell, I can honestly say that I have not had a really good time since I have been in.
3/11/43: Pop, what did you do for enjoyment in the First World War? There is certainly nothing to do in this one and it costs a small fortune to get no place now. Oh well, it is a great life in the service as no one seems to know what you are supposed to do so actually you do nothing and get very tired of doing even that.
I will have to rush to get the 2200 show, as it is a good looking gal tonight and the boys really let out groans and sighs when she kisses one of the boys. O yes, it is only a movie but they have great imaginations.
3/20/43: I was transferred to the Base Depot here at Elliot and am now a correspondence clerk. I have to write all the letters that go out but they write them up in long hand so I don’t have to trust my spelling. Boy, there can be no mistakes and it has to be perfect. I usually do each one for about 45 times before I get it right.
I just came back from the hills and you should have seen the things I saw. It was about 5:30 in the evening and the sun was just getting ready to go down. The sky was a limpid red with hills and valleys in different light. It was really magnificent. I did a lot of thinking while I was up there. That seems to be the only thing that I can do today and feel good. When I get annoyed at things in general and start to think about leaving, I just go out there and get good and disgusted at myself and then dream I have forgotten my troubles.
There is one thing that has me worried and this is that I have never found anything that I really want to do for a while. I guess you would call me fickle or something like it but it gets me worried once in a while.
Anxious to see action, Lee Marvin signed up for the 4th Marine Division attached to the Marines 24th Regiment. Known as the “Fighting Fourth,” it was a new division and the first to be formed stateside to go directly into battle. Lee’s training became even more intense in its short duration.
3/30/43: My stay at the Base Depot was very short (three days) and then I with another bunch of boys were transferred to this post. Last Friday they formed a new regiment called the 24th Marines and that is now where I am. It should take us at least 9 or 10 months to form. This outfit should see some real action when and where we land. Since Friday we have just sat around waiting for some more men as we have only 38. I and three corporals and a Mess Sgt. formed it, so no one can tell me they are “old salts” of the 20th.
Here at Camp Pendleton, it is really beautiful as there are mountains all around. Talk about a big camp, this is it. It covers 400 square miles and it used to be a big ranch. I went up to Hollywood this weekend and had a nice time. I saw Benny Goodman at the Palladium and had dinner there. All in all I had a nice clean time.
With both his sons in the military and having served in WWI, Monte sought their advice as to whether or not he should reenlist. Lee’s letter helped him decide.
4/7/43: Dear Pop;
About your enlisting in the Army Engineers, well it is rather hard for me to tell your father what to do but I will give you all the dope I can on the different views. The first thing, you are not an old man. Please get this idea out of your head. If you did enlist you would undergo a hell of a social change, which you would get used to in time. The life and “chow” would really make you feel good and build up your body so that those little aches and pains you used to get would not bother you. So this is my decision, you would like it and also you would probably be a very good man in the outfit. If you did I would be the proudest son in this world. It is very seldom that you find a father doing so much for his sons and Robert and I both know that. Sure, Pop, go ahead and do it. That is what makes us Marvins.
5/3/43: Dear Mother and Father;
Things here have been going pretty rough. The Raiders attacked a company that was on maneuvers and they actually threw dynamite in their tents. They nearly lost some of the boys but that is the Marines for you. We have had a lot of problems this past week and they have really kept us going. I am still in charge of my platoon and I hope that I make the grade here. There is a lot of little things that get you balled up but slowly and surely I am getting them ironed out.
5/25/43: Things are starting to get straightened out in the company and now I really have to be on the ball. We have had a lot of classes in the tricks of fighting, the little things that save your life and make for perfection as a fighter. They are really very interesting and will continue to be.
I met a nice girl in L.A. last weekend and so I suppose that I will be going up there for a while now. Have to keep up my morale, you know.
6/23/43: Dear Mother and Father;
You would never guess what they put me into. Why I don’t know but it is demolition, the art of blowing bridges, roads, etc. That is the safe part, as you are very seldom under heavy fire. But with that we are also snipers and have to dispose of booby traps and land mines. They now have booby traps that are so tricky that the best of them failed to dispose of them but we are figuring out ways to do it.
About this gal in L.A., well the old wolf in me led up to it. She is a damn nice girl. Good looking? Well I guess you know. I introduced one of my buddies to her and he stepped back, paused and his jaw dropped about 10 inches. We go out to the beach and movies and dance, etc. Just something to take up my spare time, yes, yes!
7/21/43: Dear Mother;
Well I seen Pop over the weekend and all in all I had the best time since I have been in the service. I got up to Camp Hood about 10 a.m. and I had to weigh in at the “M.P.” station for 2 hours. I then decided to go up there to his barracks. I broke in on him just as he was getting dismissed from inspection. When we met I did not know whether to shake hands or hug him. Boy, he looked swell in his uniform and I think that he really likes the life. We went up to some town north of there and were lucky enough to find a room. We talked things over and had a swell time just talking to each other.
You asked for a description of Pop, well here goes. Mother, he looks young and as handsome as ever. His face is tanned and he is full of pep and is far more the father that I knew before. I now realize that I am afraid for him in the way that I can not express in words. You are and should be proud of our father, as he is unequaled. He expressed his great concerns for you and I think that things shall work out. Well I have to go so so long for a little while.
8/21/43: Dear Pop,
Remember when I told you the last time I saw you about the possibility of a transfer and demotion? Well lo and behold, it came. I am now doing the honorable job of chief messman
in the chow house. It is not the job that I like but as Private I do not request my job, etc. I hope to make back the rate quick but there is no line duty in this company.
I asked the Captain for a furlough the other day and he said as soon as I got out of the mess hall. So, there is a good possibility of 15 days to go see Mother. Personally, I do not care to go on furlough, as there is no place to go for seeing friends as I have none in New York. I know that Mother is lonely. She is my mother so I will go see her. I know it will do both of us good.
9/27/43: Dear Mother;
I am still in the mess hall and hope to get out the first but I can’t be sure of anything around here. We are packing up all our equipment so I don’t think it will be too long now until we shove off.
I’ll bet that the weather is starting to get cool back there and in another month the whole Hudson Valley will be turning to the colors of fall. I do miss the east. The thing I most regret is the fact that I will no longer be able to be a boy in school with the simple non-thinking carefree mind. Well, I had better stop this talk before I get too deep.
By the end of 1943 the Marines had gone from defensive to offensive against the Japanese. The Japanese commanding officer of Coral Island had said, “It could not be taken by a million men in a hundred years.” In spite of sustaining heavy losses at Coral, Midway and Tarawa, the Marines’ aggressive island-hopping campaign took much less time than that. Fully trained and operational, The Fighting Fourth prepared to ship overseas and invade the Marshall Islands and their atolls in February of 1943.
Shortly before he shipped out for the Pacific, Lee Marvin received an unexpected surprise. Monte hitchhiked to Pendleton while on leave and took his son barhopping. “He gave me his .45 and said, ‘Here kid. Don’t lose it in a crap game.’ I carried it with me everywhere with one in the chamber and seven in the back of the clip,” the actor recalled. It was a story he often retold with pride, leaving out one important detail. According to Lee’s first wife, “[It was] also then that Monte proceeded to seduce Lee’s girlfriend at the time. Interesting isn’t it?”
Lee Marvin: Point Blank Page 5
