Keith and the Sherman

Keith was a US Marine. Keith told great stories. Here is a story he told about a young Keith Sherman in the US Marines as part of a Sherman Tank Crew.

A year and a half. And uh yeah, that was when I fought the Battle of San Clemente Island. 
Yeah. We took our tanks out there and shot at oil barrels. 

Did you hit them? 


Oh, yeah. Chesty P uller was standing right by my tank and I shot and hit a barrel and it went sky high. 

"Nice shooting, kid!"

So was your position the shooter or the gunner?

I was the gunner at that time. 

But when you broke the tank, you were the driver ...

I was something less. But uh yeah, Chesty Puller and I'll never forget. 
We were in formation, and he came right up in front of me. 

"Hey, son, what'd you do before you came in?"

"students, sir."


That's all I could utter. Well, I was, I was a junior college with them. So, uh he he was a little bulldog guy and uh well, highly regarded. 


What friend did you enlist with? Didn't you? 

I had him down. 
Was he a high school friend or what? 

yeah. And his number serial number was one digit off. 
I was 1056484, and he was 1056485. 

remember that after all these years. 

Yeah. You don't forget him. 
No. But you know, the Marine Corps was they they took a lot of us kids and didn't do much training. We were just I was destined to go to Korea the next day, the very next day. 
I didn't even have a set of dog tags. And uh poorly trained, poorly trained. It was um there were a few of us reservists. 


So, Keith, how how did you end up in the Marines? I mean, that's like the Navy, but it's like the advanced foot soldier of the Navy.

 Well, uh were you did you enlist or were you drafted? 
joined Clyde and I, my buddy, decided we could use that extra two dollars every meeting night and we enlisted in that and we thought we'd avoid the draft because they were reinstituting the draft. And so well, we'll pull a fast one. let's enlist and by golly, they started shooting over there and we were on the train to Camp Pedleton.

joined the reserves? 

Yeah, uh. 
But the marine reserves, yes. 

Or did you just think you were joining the n Navy? Did you know you're joining the Marines? 


Yeah, yeah. doesn't like the water. But why did you join the navy? Marines in part of the navy. 
Well, but they're not really Well, yeah, but? the army, the air force 

for many years, and he was a marine guard, a shipboard guard. Bruce Johnson. 
Did you remember him? Cousin Broo, yeah. And uh he uh went some interesting places on the ship. 


Well, didn't Uncle Fred make it to he was in Korea, right? 

Yeah. 

In supply? 
supply 10? 

No, he was in a a helicopter support group of some kind. 

Oh, mechanic? 


No? uh procureum procurement, I guess. not. But you take Fred uh went in the army, I think he was drafted, and he was well trained. 
The army did a good job. Fred uh knows squad tactics and uh so he is probably in the infantry, right? Yeah, yeah. 
Well, all the marines are trained supposedly as inf infantry man. Even the cooks are supposed to know, uh and love the M1 rifle and what have you, but uh we got very poor training. Well, we just ended World War II and so many of those men even the guys in the reserves were men that had fought in Iwo Jima and Okinawa and Terawa and, um boy, they they weren't their their heart wasn't in it, and uh so uh I I think that well we were just I could have been at the chosen reservoir, but for the grace of God 

Boy Yeah. 
You probably wouldn't be here. 

Probably not. 

So how come that uh you didn't leave the next day? 
What was that story?

Because they discovered that I didn't have enough time left. Your enlistment is almost up, Sherman. 
So they pulled me off. 

And you were like you the night before. Or were you saying like, no, no, no, I wanna go. 
Come on. 

I don't think so. No, no. 
But mom and Fred and uh Patsy came down to LA and I got to see him the night before. uh that was a goodbye, you know. And uh my golly, next day, they pulled me off the draft. 

you were saved. 

Oh, there was a lucky star up there. 


So, in your military career, did you meet anyone famous or anything like that, or any great stories besides the tank incident? 

 Well, we had to talk about entertainers that um that girl that was married to um Mil Ferrar, um the singer Rosemary Clony came down and sang several times for us. and she was such a pretty young gal and and a good singer, so we saw her, but that's the only entertainer I ever recall. She came to Camp Pendleton. 


Yeah, well, Hollywood is up the street. almost, not quite, but 

90 miles.

 Is that? boy, so I So war is hell. 


Who know who said that, don't you? What then? Oh no, 

Sherman. 


Sherman. 

Who? Sherman. 
William Tecumseh Sherman. Winstin Churchill. Yeah, but Tecumseh Sherman said it first. 


Tecumseh Sherman said it because he said, you have to make war hell so that people are glad to give it up.

Yeah. I even have a cousin named William Tecumseh. so so do you know anything about the family line or anything like that? 
or 

Not too much. I think he was my grandfather's uh cousin. that's as close as I can get. But your your tree goes up to his brother or something like that? 


Uh, no. To his cousin? So would be his dad's brother? 
Mom always claimed that we were related to General Sheridan as well, somehow, but uh wonder I don't know the connection. 

was Sheridan also a civil War? They're very famous.. Sheridan, Sherman, Grant, they were the three grades, but William T was from Ohio, and uh our family was from uh Minnesota and uh so, but they have railroads and uh that was close. cause Mary Rog