Victor was a character, he always had that wise guy kind of
smirk on his face. I first met Victor when a group of us
were transferred to STA Platoon 1/8. Victor was one of the
only leftovers from a platoon that saw all of the
Scout/Snipers reach the end of their enlistments.
That's when I and others joined the unit. So, Victor had
been there and done that before us , so he had a lot of
pointers to help us along the way. I remember he and I
teaming up as the "Allied Forces" in some mean games of RISK
onboard the IWO JIMA heading to Lebanon in May of 1983.It
helped to break up the boredom of being on ship.
Like I said Victor , was a real character! I can still see
him with a cigarette hanging out the side of his mouth as he
told us new guys about some crazy mess that he had gotten
himself into or out of. He would always quote lines from
that Clint Eastwood movie, "Every Which Way But Loose".
He was a good man and a good Marine. He along with SGT Bob
Conley were sleeping in the BLT building the morning it was
bombed.
The picture that you see of him (above) was taken on the
rooftop of that very building some months before it was
reduced to a heap of crumbled concrete and rebar. Sgt
Robert Connolly was KIA on this same building.
