U.S. Marine Corps veteran Joe Bozzo earned two Purple Hearts after serving in the Vietnam War. Bozzo is also a dedicated member of the Marine Corps League in Pickens.
Jeff Holt | The Easley Progress
PICKENS — For the past three years, Joe Bozzo has been a proud member of the Marine Corps League in Pickens. He just shows up to the monthly meetings, doesn’t say too much and just does his job.
It’s kind of like the old advice military veterans would give to you right before going to boot camp … keep your head down and keep your mouth shut.
But the 75-year-old Bozzo is a decorated U.S. Marine Corps veteran with two Purple Hearts. He joined the Marine Corps at 18 years old and served during the Vietnam era (1968-71). His MOS (or job in the military) was an 0311, which is commonly referred to as a grunt.
Bozzo took some time recently after a Marine Corps League meeting to talk about his time on active duty.
“You had really close friends getting killed,” said Bozzo.”There were four of us who were really close – only me and one other kid came back. They were both killed over there, and one of them was my best friend.”
Looking back, Bozzo said that his unit in the Marine Corps was fighting the North Vietnamese Army. And to this day, it is the “little things” that Bozzo remembers from his days in combat. Things like a tiger that blew up in a minefield and hollered into the night.
“You were humping a lot of gear,” said Bozzo. “I’d carry six grenades, 18 magazines fully loaded with my M-16 and I carried 200 rounds in belts to load those magazines. I carried a belt of 60 amo (for a machine gun) and I carried one mortar. Everbody did.”
Added Bozzo, “When it got really bad, I tried to remember that they were more scared to fight Marines. You kept that in the back of your mind. It helped. I remember when the war came down to fixed bayonets and that’s when you knew it was going to get nasty.”
As far as food goes, it wasn’t like there was any hot chow available for the troops at a field site.
Bozzo just made the most of it.
“There was one time that we were at an out post on the highway,” said Bozzo. “It was abandoned. We were there one evening and took over the bunkers. So, we just hunkered down there. They had a cook house there and no one ever did any cooking there. We never had (Marine Corps) cooks cooking for us – it was probably the Army or some other outfit. We just had C rations, but me and my buddy Clark found a carton of those wafer cookies … you could get the straweberry ones and the vanilla ones and the chocolate ones, and a big can of pineapple. We hauled that down to the trench line. We sat there and ate both of them half the night and just talked. He was from Oregon. We talked about all of the things that we were going to do later, which later never came.”
Through the years, Bozzo has tried to not dwell on his combat days in the Marine Corps on a daily basis. He’s been to see The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall USA in Washington, D.C. and he tries to keep it all in perspective.
“I enjoyed it,” he said. “I was with my wife and I didn’t want to get all shook up. It was one of those things. I thought the world of them (his good friends in the Corps), but it was one of those things. They’re gone. They’re gone. No use crying about it. That’s the way it is.”
Marine Corps League notes: B0zzo said that he enjoys the comradre of the Marine Corps League, but he would like to say one thing to everyone.
“I wish there were more Marines in it,” he said. “I see cars with Marine Corps emblems all the time and I don’t know why they haven’t joined.”
A special tribute: Soon, Joe and his wife (Helen) will be celebrating their 50th anniversary. Congrats!