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Major Rick Spooner USMC (Ret.) “was
living in Northern California when World War II broke out; he subsequently enlisted in the Marines at age 17 as a rifleman.
Major Spooner participated in several operations during the war, including the Battle of Saipan, where he was briefly taken
prisoner by the Imperial Japanese Army. He also fought in the Battle of Okinawa. After the war, he was promoted to Gunnery
Sergeant and eventually commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. During the Korean War, Spooner served in with the 1st Marine
Aircraft Wing and also taught infantry tactics at Camp Pendleton. During his subsequent career, he commanded five companies
and the Marine detachment aboard a heavy cruiser.
By the time the Vietnam War broke out,
Richard Spooner had achieved the rank of Major. During the war, he served in the Provost Marshal Division and as an adviser
to the South Vietnamese police. Spooner received a medical discharge and retired from the Marine Corps in 1972.”
Major Rick Spooner is the author of The Spirit of Semper Fidelis: Reflections From the Bottom of an Old
Canteen Cup.
According to the book description of
The Spirit of Semper Fidelis: Reflections From the Bottom of an Old Canteen Cup, “These are
the war stories of a remarkable band of Marines who fought their way across the Pacific during WW II. Some were old line professionals
but most were wartime warriors still in their teens. The names of the principals have been changed and some of the details
of the stories, having been partially obscured by time, are fictionalized. Today's Marines stand tall, and this volume
will show how the seed of warfare, nurtured in a band of raggedy assed Marines, fighting across the white sands of hell in
the Pacific, grew into a great oak.”
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