As a Result of Watching M*A*S*H Last Night...

What I know about my grandpa's life before I was born can be summed up in only a few sentences.  He was born in 1932 in California.  His mother was an inactive member of the church and his father was a much older (he was 59 when my grandpa was born) Mexican who refused to teach his children Spanish because he realized that to get anywhere in this country, his kids should know English.  My grandpa joined the Marines at 18 and served for 23 years, reaching the rank of 1st sergeant.  He served in both the Korean and Vietnam Wars, earning a Purple Heart in the latter.  After his retirement, he worked in odd jobs (mowing lawns at a golf course, working at scout camp in the summer, among others) and drove my grandmother crazy by pretending not to know how to do things.  My grandpa has a brother and a number of half-siblings whom I've never met, though I've met a few of my mother's cousins.

And that's about it.  I mean, there are a few anecdotes about his days in the service that I've heard, but most of them I've heard from my mother.  He doesn't talk about his years in the military much, if at all.  When I was in the seventh grade, we had an assignment to interview and write a paper about a veteran.  Naturally, I chose my grandfather and emailed him the questions to which I needed answers.  He emailed back (then a marvel, though I suppose my grandmother might have typed up the answers while he talked), and all the answers were short and to the point.  He shared as little as possible, and as a result, my paper was rather short and informative with little personality behind it.

But I got to thinking about him and his military service last night.  I have many questions.  Why did he join?  What were his responsibilities?  What did he do when stationed in  places like Japan where he wasn't directly in any wars?  If he made a career out of service, why didn't he make it past the rank of 1st sergeant?  I mean, surely that long in the Marines and they'll make you an officer, right?  I researched him a little bit this morning, but I don't have any answers to my questions.  All I could find on ancestry.com were the muster rolls, which list names, serial numbers, and rank.  It seems I may only get answers from talking to him in person (a phone call just doesn't seem quite enough).  Unfortunately, I don't know when I'll see him next, as our next trip to California doesn't include a side trip to Forest Hill.