Justin Governale
\nI saw a man with a Marine Raider pin, Purple Heart, and other pins on his hat at Starbucks this morning. I walked up and said \u201cSemper Fi, we respect your generation.\u201d He told me \u201cSemper Fi, 1st Raider Battalion, Alpha company, Okinawa.\u201d If anyone knows anything about history, they know these men are made from the salt of the Earth.
\nHe began telling me stories of when he got hit. He said he would load specific magazines with tracers because it would light the Japanese buildings on fire. He lit 3 buildings on fire, in a guun fight, and told me \u201cthose sons of bies didn\u2019t like that. They retaliated with a rocket. It kied my squad leader and the A[ssistant]-gunner loading the belt. All I got was a chunk out of my hip. The Corpsman ran over and started working on me. Then they shelled our position so hard, it ki*ed almost everyone. I don\u2019t remember what happened over the next week of my life. I woke up in a hospital, and a doctor was sucking fluid out of my chest with a syringe. I guess I got hit in the chest with a machine guun. I lost a lung.\u201d He started laughing and said \u201cHow does a man live to be 90 with just one lung? Hahaha.\u201d
\nHe then talked about recovery at a hospital in Guam. Two-hundred Japanese paratroopers were dropped and were kiing friendlies around the area. He was given 2 choices. Stay and take his chances, or run and hide. He said he took out all the needles attached to his body out, put tape over his wounds, and hid for 24 days. After he was rescued, on a flight back to the US, another Marine handed him a Lucky Strike cigarette. He went to light it, and the doctor saw him. The doctor told him \u201cwhat the hell is wrong with you? You only have one lung.\u201d They then injected him with so much morhine, he passed out and woke in an American hospital.
\nHe eventually recovered and tried to re-enlist, but he was medically retired. I helped him stand up and walked him to his vehicle, which is a golf cart on sterids. As he got in his vehicle, I shook his hand one last time and told him he was the saltiest Marine I have ever met in my life. He said \u201call my friends are saltier than I am. I\u2019ve lived an amazing life, and I don\u2019t have any regrets. I wouldn\u2019t change a thing, it was the time of my life.\u201d He then told me, I hope I see you around again young man, so we can bul*hit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Justin Governale I saw a man with a Marine Raider pin, Purple Heart, and other pins on his hat at Starbucks this morning. I walked up and said \u201cSemper Fi, we respect your generation.\u201d He told me \u201cSemper Fi, 1st Raider Battalion, Alpha company, Okinawa.\u201d If anyone knows anything about history, they know these men…<\/p>\n