MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO --
Charles Lynn Lowder marched onto Shepherds Memorial Drill Field on July 2, as the parade reviewing officer and positioned himself exactly six paces in front of the commander of troops. As the graduating recruits, drill instructors, and officers of Company I rendered a salute during the pass in review, Lowder thought back to 1967 when he marched across the very same grinder as his platoon’s honor man.
Former collegiate football player, pioneer in Special Patrol Insertion/Extraction or SPIE rigging, and Vietnam hero, Lowder owes his complex and voluminous life to the Corps.
When Lowder was a young child raised in the small town of Sullivan, Ill., his dream of becoming a United States Marine was born.
Lowder was in second grade when he saw his first Marine Corps recruiting poster, and he was attracted to the trademark dress blue uniform. In fourth grade he watched a movie called Battle Cry, based off the novel by author Leon Uris, that showed MCRD San Diego in the 1950s, which forever lingered in his mind as he advanced through school.
Upon graduating from high school, Lowder attended Northern Illinois University where he played as a starting strong-safety on the football team. Although he attempted to stay focused on school, the conflict between the United States and Vietnam began to heat up, and he refused to let the opportunity to participate pass him by so he dropped out of college and went to speak to a Marine Corps recruiter.
“They were drafting young men at the time, but I decided that if I was going to war I wanted to be with the best, so I enlisted in the Marine Corps as an infantryman,” said Lowder. “I wasn’t going to wait around and get drafted.”
It wasn’t long before he was standing on the legendary yellow footprints in the middle of the night both drowsy and unnerved.
Lowder will never forget the day he was greeted by his senior drill instructor, Gunnery Sgt. Bell.
“My father was not present while I was child, so although I didn’t know it back then, I needed a strong male role model,” said Lowder. “Men are visual learners. I needed someone to show me what to do, not just tell me.
“(Bell) was the classic drill instructor and I watched everything that he did even when I probably wasn’t supposed to be,” said Lowder. “He stretched me both mentally and physically. More that I ever thought was possible.”
Bell ended up taking on the role as a father figure, something that Lowder didn’t expect to find while in boot camp.
“He proved to me that I always had more in my tank than I thought,” said Lowder. “He kept me on ‘true north,’ and didn’t let me blow left or right.”
At the time, Lowder was 21-years-old, which was older than the majority of recruits who were fresh out of high school.
“Although some of the recruits in my platoon were drafted, I couldn’t have told you which ones,” said Lowder. “They acted no different. We were all in the same soup.”
Lowder’s platoon was on the range when he was approached by his senior drill instructor and asked if he had any aspirations of being an officer.
“I immediately said no because I wanted to go to Vietnam as soon as possible,” said Lowder.
Because his drill instructor saw his strong leadership skills, Lowder was given the billet of guide on his first day at recruit training and kept it until graduation.
“Like I’ve said to several people, my birth certificate says December 19, 1945 - Decatur, Ill. That isn’t the case,” he said. “I was actually ‘born’ on September 4, 1967 at MCRD San Diego.”
Lowder’s next step in training was to attend the School of Infantry, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., to train as an infantryman.
Although he could escape the depot, Lowder could not run from the prominent fact that he had what it took to be a Marine Corps officer.
While at SOI, Lowder’s first sergeant had been reviewing the Marines’ service record books and saw that Lowder was an exceptionally qualified Marine for the Enlisted Commissioning Program.
Despite Lowder’s initial hesitation, he attended the ECP screening and was accepted into the program, but unfortunately he had to wait for the next class.
While he waited, Lowder was sent to another training company where he trained alongside three noncommissioned officers in the infantry.
“They found out I was going to become an officer and took me under their wing,” he said. “They taught me a lot about (what to expect in) Vietnam.”
Lowder said he has witnessed first-hand, the power of mentorship.
He said his drill instructor changed the course of his life by teaching him inner strength. His first sergeant saw his potential and put in ECP; and those three NCOs passed on the extensive knowledge of Vietnam.
In 1968, Lowder earned his commission.
“I heard reconnaissance Marines were (tough). Naturally, I wanted to be one of them,” said Lowder. “So I pursued the secondary (military occupational speciality) of recon.”
With his newfound career goals, Lowder immediately told his sergeant major he wanted to become a recon Marine. In a few days, orders for recon were sitting on his desk.
“No one got an incentive check for helping me out in my career,” said Lowder. “I always had good leadership and people that believed in and saw more in me than I did myself.”
It wasn’t long before Lowder’s dreams became a reality and he was stuffed on an airplane with a load of other second lieutenants en route to the hostile jungles of Vietnam.
“The attrition rate of infantry units was high,” said Lowder. “If a lieutenant was doing his job, he would either be shot and injured, or killed.”
In 1968, Charles Lynn Lowder sat alongside more than 100 other second lieutenants, and peered out the windows of the Boeing 707 aircraft that flew over the dense jungles of Vietnam. The sea of green trees that blanketed the land was punctuated by circular clearings where airstrikes had already taken place. Lowder described this sight as surreal.
Lowder’s journey began on the depot in 1967 as a motivated private. Within a couple years, which were riddled with good luck and exceptional leaders, he became a commissioned officer with the secondary military occupational specialty of reconnaissance.
The plane landed at Da Nang Air Base, Republic of Vietnam, and the Marines quickly deplaned into the nearly unbearable humidity.
Soon after landing, the 1st Marine Division personnel officer welcomed the new lieutenants.
“He asked for three volunteers for recon, and only three lieutenants raised their hands. I was one of them,” said Lowder. “He asked us our backgrounds and I told him I was (former enlisted) with an infantry primary MOS and a recon secondary MOS. He immediately assigned me to First Force Reconnaissance Company.”
Lowder then hopped into a CH-46 helicopter with the other volunteers en route to An Hoa Combat Base, located 30 miles south west of Da Nang.
“I was anxious to get to my platoon. I had already waited long enough and just wanted to find out what had been going on,” said Lowder.
Just after arriving, they received word that a team was in trouble. A helicopter had been shot down and a couple of Marines had been killed. So Lowder grabbed his rifle and jumped into another helicopter to retrieve the dead Marines.
“While out there I saw a sergeant who had been shot in the leg,” said Lowder. “It woke me up and made me realize that we weren’t using blanks anymore, this was combat.”
Later that month, Lowder was sent on a patrol with the same sergeant who had been shot.
As they walked along the banks of a river, a Viet Cong soldier snuck up behind them, but luckily the Marines reflexes were quicker. After killing the soldier, they rushed to higher grounds which would give them an advantage in a fire fight. Rounds zoomed above their heads and cracked on tree branches that shadowed over them as his team set up a 360 degree security and eliminated the rest of their enemies.
“This was my first fire fight, and after the incident I couldn’t help but wonder whether I would live through Vietnam,” said Lowder. “I seriously doubted it.”
Lowder tried to keep in high spirits, and came to the conclusion that even if he didn’t survive he wanted to make his mark in Vietnam.
While in combat, Marines gain ingenuity that enables them to get a mission accomplished quicker and more effectively, explained Lowder
In 1968, Lowder’s unit made history when Col. Roger Simmons, commanding officer, First Force Recon, invented Special Purpose Insertion and Extraction (SPIE) rigging.
During SPIE rigging, Marines wear harnesses hooked to carabiners which are attached to a 120-foot rope. While a helicopter dangles them between 250 to 1,000 feet above ground, the helicopter lowers the Marines into the jungle and they unhook themselves from the rope. This method is used for quick insertion of troops into areas where a helicopter cannot land.
Lowder said that his unit started using SPIE rigging before their commanding officer got it approved by the Marine Corps, but that the remarkable invention ended up saving many Marines’ lives.
“Before this was invented, a ladder was dropped through the helicopter’s hell hole and the Marines would have to scale up that during extractions,” said Lowder. “SPIE rigging gave us more mobility with our rifles.
Lowder and his Marines were in the first training video that presented SPIE rigging to Headquarters Marine Corps for approval. This troop insertion method has proven to be a great success and is still used today.
Lowder managed to stay untouched through 24 patrols, ambushes, and prisoner missions.
Although he was a warrior, his mother had taught him to respect the sanctity of life and he never let the nature of combat fog his values, he said.
Lowder said he remembers hiding in the brush and watching the Vietnamese soldiers march right beside him. While analyzing their faces, he thought about how much
they probably had in common.
“We were all men fighting for our country,” said Lowder. “They too were someone’s son, husband or father; humans.”
Although Lowder was capable of seeing the humanity in the enemy soldiers, he never lost the ‘kill or be killed’ mindset, he said. Standing 6 foot 5 inches, Lowder knew he was a big target.
During one fire fight, the enemy began rolling hand grenades into where Lowder and his team had set up their firing position. A hand grenade blew up next to Lowder, knocking him off his feet. Shrapnel penetrated his soft cover and grazed his skull.
For this, Lowder received the Purple Heart medal.
August 10, 1969, was the first time Lowder actually looked into his target’s eyes. While apprehending a prisoner south of DaNang along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, Lowder moved in front of the route to observe the flow of traffic. Suddenly, six North Vietnamese soldiers, wielding AK–47 rifles, approached the Marines’ position. Lowder jumped in front of the enemy and demanded their surrender, but they responded with fire. Lowder killed the lead soldier while other Marines silenced the rest as they attempted to run up the trail. At the same time, five more soldiers approached their position. Lowder stood in full view and delivered accurate fire, therefore, protecting one of his Marines who was engaged in hand-to-hand combat with another soldier. He then ran back to assist his fellow Marine.
“I just responded and did my job,” said Lowder.
Lowder was awarded the Silver Star for his conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action that contributed significantly to his unit’s mission accomplishment.
Lowder said he is proud of being a Marine and doing his duty honorably, but now that his uniform simply hangs in his closet, he has to live with the fact that he has taken lives. Every day he lives with these memories playing vividly like a motion picture in his head.
Despite everything, Lowder said he has the highest respect for the North Vietnamese soldiers whom he described as both professional and courageous.
“At times, I wonder what great things some of the men I have killed could have done with their lives. I wonder what they could have accomplished and where they would be right now,” said Lowder.
Although Lowder no longer dons his olive drab attire, he still stays in touch with the men whom he fought alongside.
“Combat fuses the souls,” said Lowder. “We help each other stay grounded. Combat can be an intimate experience. We have a lot of love and understanding for each other.”
Despite his previous beliefs, Lowder’s remaining months in Vietnam turned into weeks and before he knew it, those weeks turned into days. Lowder and his men cheered as the helicopter lifted out of Vietnam for the last time.
Lowder said that although everyone was ecstatic about going home, it wasn’t long before their joyful chatter ceased. He said he remembers looking at of their tired and weary faces, all lost in their thoughts.
It has been more that 35 years since Lowder returned to the United States, and at that time, America had a negative view of the war and the men who fought in it.
While riding in a taxi cab through California with a few of his Marines, Lowder pulled up behind a old pick-up truck that had a man riding in the bed.
“The man looked back at us and noticed that we had our uniforms on. The look on his face immediately transformed to anger,” said Lowder. “He jumped up in the truck bed and began yelling profanities and making disrespectful hand gestures.
“When the warriors came back from WWII, they were respected and greeted with open arms, but the American society had negative feelings about Vietnam,” said Lowder.
He said that being welcomed and accepted back into society plays a big part in a servicemember’s recovery.
“The worst thing you can do to a warrior is deny what he has done and where he has been,” said Lowder. “Many Americans did that to the Vietnam veterans.”
Despite Lowder’s bad experience in California, he currently resides here and makes frequent trips to the depot to present motivational speeches to Drill Instructor School students.
He speaks to them about leadership and how to handle subordinate Marines by using his experiences from the battlefield. He also stresses the fact that the legendary drill instructor is the first example of a Marine the young recruits will see, so they need to set the example.
“The Marine Corps hardwires Marines for success. The older I am the more I say that it is true,” said Lowder. “So apply yourselves Marines. The United States needs you.”