John H Beverley
I remember R C Wilbur aka Gunny Wilbur. I had the honor of working with him as part of the Fort Douglas Security Police. We both were part of the graveyard shift. I remember he had a lot of stories about his service with the USMC in various assignments over his career. He taught me to take ;pride in my appearance. Uniform pressed, boots shined. The grave shift was a team that always stuck together. Three officers per shift. Two patrol and one in dispatch. We rotated duties. I do remember one particularly long and boring night working as the dispatcher.and Gunny came in after a round of building security checks. He decided to take a break for a few minutes on the couch in the office. After a short time he was I'm pretty sure performing security checks on the insides of his eyelids, even a bit of a snore every now and then. It was sometime after 05:00 and some buildings were locked and the first one to arrive each morning had to come to the security office and be escorted to that building to be let in. On this morning it was an Army Captain. His car pulled into our drive and he got out to approach the door. I swear, Gunny heard the Captain's hand on the door knob. He was wide awake, on his feet and at attention and saluted the Captain as he entered. I was amazed. After he escorted the Captain to his building and returned to our office. I asked, "How the heck did you do that? You were out cold and snoring!"
He gave a sly grin and relied, "20 years in the Marine Corps and too many nights pulling sentry duty. You never really sleep!"
Thank You Gunny for your years of service and sharing a small part of your life. It was an honor to know you.
John H Beverley.
I'm sure my late brother David would have the same sentiments. He was also one of the graveyard team. We both had fond stories of Chuck and our Fort Douglas days.