Word: mckeon
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Thus did the court-martial of Staff Sergeant Matthew C. McKeon, U.S.M.C., charged with drinking on duty, "oppression" of troops and culpable negligence in the death of six recruits drowned while on a night disciplinary march under his command (TIME, April 23 et seq.), come to an end one afternoon last week at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island...
Here or Hereafter? On the question of discipline, Staff Sergeant Edward Huff, a weathery, leathery Marine who was senior drill instructor over McKeon, agreed with Grabowski.* Huff said he had been dissatisfied with the platoon and has threatened its members: "If you don't snap out of your hockey, I'll take you down to the swamps." Huff said he had every intention of doing just that, but "I had a training schedule and I didn't have time." McKeon, said Huff, was an outstanding D.I. "He done his work, he done it well, and he never...
During one of the court-martial intermissions, McKeon, in the hallway, walked up to a plain, sad-faced little woman. She was Mrs. Maggie Meeks of Savannah, mother of one of the drowned boots...
...Hello, Ma'am," said McKeon stiffly. "Your son was one of the finest boys in my platoon, and I am terribly sorry this all happened." Replied Mrs. Meek: "The Lord says don't hate nobody. If you're guilty, you will be punished." Replied McKeon: "If I'm guilty, I would rather be punished here than in the hereafter." Tears came to his eyes. Then he braced himself, disciplined his emotion, set his face sternly. He returned to the auditorium and to the scene of his trial...
...were barely laid. Yet a curious change of attitude had already rolled over most of the 50-odd correspondents who crowded into Parris Island to report the trial. Thanks partly to the shrewd showmanship of Emile Zola Berman, but thanks mostly to the cool, silent, uncomplaining demeanor of Matthew McKeon, those who had come to see the sergeant strung up for what he had done began, instead, to sense that this man was another argument. It was an argument that went to the roots of the Marine Corps, that involved not only one Marine but the other 200,000 beside...