FAMOUS MARINES: O

Hugh O'Brian
Born: April 19, 1925

Actor & The Marine Corps Youngest Drill Instructor in history

At the age of 17 he enlisted into the Marine Corps and became the youngest Drill Instructor in the Corps history. During his 4 year service he won a coveted Fleet appointment to The Navel Academy. Although he passed the enterence exams he declined appointment as he intened to enroll in Yale to study law. He served 4 years in the Marine Corps and was discharged with an honorable discharge.

One of his most well known roles was in the TV series Life and Legand of Wyatt Earp where he played the lead role.

Submitted by a USMC Hangout viewer:

He was born Hugh Krampe, later changed to O'Brian
His father Retired as a Marine Captain
Hugh enlisted in the Corp's in February 1943 (He was 17 yrs old)
His brother Don became a Marine during the Korean War
Hugh was chosen as an Honor Graduate, and drafted as a Drill Instructor
Hugh was Discharged in 1947

Randy Orton
WRESTLER

After graduating High School in 1998 he enlisted into the Marine Corps, but was dishonorably discharged a year later due to 2 unauthorized absences and for disobeying a superior officer's direct order. He spent 38 days in the brig before returning to civilian life.

Born: October 18, 1939, in New Orleans, Louisiana, two months after his father's death. His mother moved the family to Benbrook, Texas, a suburb of Forth Worth in June 1948, after her divorce from her third husband, Edwin A. Ekdahl. Oswald left and returned to Texas several times during the rest of his life.

Death: Oswald was shot to death in the basement of Dallas Police headquarters while being transferred to the Dallas County Jail on November 24, 1963, by Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner with significant political, police and organized crime connections. As a result, Oswald was denied his Constitutional right to a trial, which would have allowed him to defend himself against the murder charges and expose the conspirators. Oswald's body was ordered exhumed in 1981 after author Michael Eddowes brought suit in Texas to determine who was actually buried in Oswald's grave. The pathologists assigned to the case officially identified the body as Oswald's. However, the funeral director who originally buried the body insisted it could not be the same since the one he buried clearly showed a craniotomy, which had been done during autopsy, and the exhumed skull showed no craniotomy. Also, the pathologists used dental records to identify the corps, but ignored the fact that Oswald had lost a front tooth in a fight in high school (there is a photo of him in class with a gap-tooth smile, and many classmates remember the fight and the missing tooth). The exhumed skull had a full set of natural front teeth.

Family: Father: Robert Edward Lee Oswald, Sr.; Mother: Marguerite Claverie Oswald; Brothers: John Edward Pic (half brother - born 1931), Robert Edward Lee Oswald, Jr.; Wife: Marina (Nikolayevna Prusakova) Oswald; Children: June Lee Oswald (born February 15, 1961), Audrey Marina Rachel Oswald (born October 20, 1963).

Education: Left high school at age 17 to join the U.S. Marine Corps. Oswald enlisted in the Marines on October 24, 1956, six days after his 17th birthday. In boot camp, Lee was soon ridiculed for his bad marksmanship. His fellow Marines also nicknamed him "Oswaldkovitch" because of his open, apparent support of communism. That did not prevent the Marine Corps, however, from giving this unusual 17-year-old soldier radar training, security clearance and an assignment at Atsugi Air Base in Japan, the CIA's main station of operation in the Far East. The base was home to top secret U2 aerial surveillance spy missions over Russia. Although he was court-martialed twice in 1957, once for unauthorized possession of a pistol and once for pouring a drink on a sergeant, his "punishment" was minor and allowed him to be separated from his normal duties for a total of 48 days. On February 25, 1959, Oswald was given a Russian language test by the Marines. Seven months later, he was on his way to "defect" to the Soviet Union after several strange circumstances resulted in his rapidly obtaining a passport, discharge, unscheduled flights and visa. After AP and UPI wire service news stories appeared about her son's "defection," Lee's mother became convinced that he was working undercover as a U.S. agent.