LiquidCourage
05-10-2003, 10:12 AM
Once a Marine, Always a Marine ~ A 71-Year-Old Kicks Some Arse!
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The Boston Herald
Street antics of Korean War hero win him admirers by Joe Fitzgerald Gerri White didn't know the names of the men who kept calling her home,asking for her husband, hours after this paper hit the streets a week ago. All she knew was that they were his brothers. Ralph White, if you missed the story, is the Korean War veteran who flashed thumbs-down to a group of chanting protesters as they marched along Beacon Street. One, a young man in his 20s, decided to confront him, detouring onto the sidewalk.
"So you think it's OK our troops are over there murdering innocent people for oil?" he asked, getting into his face.
White, who served in the 1st Marine Division and came home with a Purple Heart, replied, "No, they're over there defending your right to get in my face without me punching you in the (bleeping) mouth."
The brash young man crushed against him, daring him, "Try it."
As White later recalled: "Here I am, 71 years old, rolling around Beacon Street and it felt great! I nailed him. Then the State Police moved in, breaking it up all too soon. When they asked if I wanted to press charges I said, 'Hell, no, I'd just like another piece of him.'"
The story ended with Ralph trying to explain to Gerri how he'd scuffed his suit. He left their Walpole home the following morning, just before the calls began. "They were Marines, wanting to tell him, 'Semper Fi,'" Gerri reports. "One, who sounded like he was Ralph's age, all gung-ho, called from a Lexington coffee shop where a group of them had just read the story. I said, 'You guys sound as if you're ready to leave for Kuwait.'"
He said, "You bet we are! Tell Ralph we'll swing by to pick him up."
"I told him, 'My God, don't joke about it. He'd go with you.'"
Meanwhile, the phone kept ringing here, too, with readers asking where they could send a check to replace Ralph's suit.
"I'm sitting here with three friends and my father-in-law, reading about this guy, and we think he's fantastic," Larry Scafidi, proprietor of Embassy Trophy in Waltham, said. "So we each kicked in $100 as a way of saying thanks for doing what many of us would like to have done, too."
Another $100 offer came from Peg Jenkins, 60, a Braintree reader who suggested, "He should get another Purple Heart! When I thought of him trying to explain to his wife how he ripped his suit, it absolutely made my day. I think he's a hero."
So does Tommy Leonard, the legendary barkeep of the old Eliot Lounge who now mans the taps at the Quarterdeck in Falmouth. An old leatherneck himself, Leonard once served with White. "I'm just so damn proud of him," Tommy said. "I've got the story hanging on my refrigerator door. It makes me laugh and cry at the same time. I can't hear, I've got cataracts and my knees are shot, so I don't think they'll be taking this cowboy anytime soon. But I'd go now if they'd have me, and so would Ralph. What he did was beautiful. I just couldn't wait to call and tell him, 'Semper Fi.'"
White, though amused by the responses, is remaining adamantly mum, uncomfortable with the suggestion he's anybody's hero. "Oh, you won't get anything more out of him," Gerri said, laughing. "Once a Marine, always a Marine. My daughter called when she read the story, remembering how, whenever we heard the Marine Corps hymn, we all had to stand. We both agreed he's tamed down a lot. But tell your callers something from me, OK? If they want to buy him a suit, they'll have to go with him to pick it out because he's still terrible to shop with, I'll tell you that"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Boston Herald
Street antics of Korean War hero win him admirers by Joe Fitzgerald Gerri White didn't know the names of the men who kept calling her home,asking for her husband, hours after this paper hit the streets a week ago. All she knew was that they were his brothers. Ralph White, if you missed the story, is the Korean War veteran who flashed thumbs-down to a group of chanting protesters as they marched along Beacon Street. One, a young man in his 20s, decided to confront him, detouring onto the sidewalk.
"So you think it's OK our troops are over there murdering innocent people for oil?" he asked, getting into his face.
White, who served in the 1st Marine Division and came home with a Purple Heart, replied, "No, they're over there defending your right to get in my face without me punching you in the (bleeping) mouth."
The brash young man crushed against him, daring him, "Try it."
As White later recalled: "Here I am, 71 years old, rolling around Beacon Street and it felt great! I nailed him. Then the State Police moved in, breaking it up all too soon. When they asked if I wanted to press charges I said, 'Hell, no, I'd just like another piece of him.'"
The story ended with Ralph trying to explain to Gerri how he'd scuffed his suit. He left their Walpole home the following morning, just before the calls began. "They were Marines, wanting to tell him, 'Semper Fi,'" Gerri reports. "One, who sounded like he was Ralph's age, all gung-ho, called from a Lexington coffee shop where a group of them had just read the story. I said, 'You guys sound as if you're ready to leave for Kuwait.'"
He said, "You bet we are! Tell Ralph we'll swing by to pick him up."
"I told him, 'My God, don't joke about it. He'd go with you.'"
Meanwhile, the phone kept ringing here, too, with readers asking where they could send a check to replace Ralph's suit.
"I'm sitting here with three friends and my father-in-law, reading about this guy, and we think he's fantastic," Larry Scafidi, proprietor of Embassy Trophy in Waltham, said. "So we each kicked in $100 as a way of saying thanks for doing what many of us would like to have done, too."
Another $100 offer came from Peg Jenkins, 60, a Braintree reader who suggested, "He should get another Purple Heart! When I thought of him trying to explain to his wife how he ripped his suit, it absolutely made my day. I think he's a hero."
So does Tommy Leonard, the legendary barkeep of the old Eliot Lounge who now mans the taps at the Quarterdeck in Falmouth. An old leatherneck himself, Leonard once served with White. "I'm just so damn proud of him," Tommy said. "I've got the story hanging on my refrigerator door. It makes me laugh and cry at the same time. I can't hear, I've got cataracts and my knees are shot, so I don't think they'll be taking this cowboy anytime soon. But I'd go now if they'd have me, and so would Ralph. What he did was beautiful. I just couldn't wait to call and tell him, 'Semper Fi.'"
White, though amused by the responses, is remaining adamantly mum, uncomfortable with the suggestion he's anybody's hero. "Oh, you won't get anything more out of him," Gerri said, laughing. "Once a Marine, always a Marine. My daughter called when she read the story, remembering how, whenever we heard the Marine Corps hymn, we all had to stand. We both agreed he's tamed down a lot. But tell your callers something from me, OK? If they want to buy him a suit, they'll have to go with him to pick it out because he's still terrible to shop with, I'll tell you that"