Mark was an extremely skilled soldier with extensive experience in jungle warfare. He has since endured two cancers, necrosis, Leukemia, over 50 radiation treatments, and continues immunotherapy.
"I was stationed at Ft. Sherman when it was the Canal Zone. Went through the course in 1972 and 1975. I was assigned/stationed for duty there from 1978 - 1981, then again the whole year of 1990 until I retired from the military from Ft. Sherman in 1991.
The Jungle Warfare Branch (JWB) provided the instructors to teach the course, name, explain and demonstrate the tactics and techniques used in Jungle Warfare and to evaluate each mission conducted by the unit while attending the Jungle Operations Training Center (JOTC) located at Ft. Sherman. It was a good assignment and it was a feather in your cap to be chosen to represent the United States Army in this capacity. You may have been assigned there, but before you went to work there, you had to pass what we called a “Murder Board”. You had to excel at the PT test, the swim test, and the day and night compass course. You also had to excel at the “Green Hell” obstacle course. After all that, you had to give a class to the Cadre of JOTC. Most of the time it was conducted with the Commander, the Command Sergeant Major, the Adjutant. And most of the Team Chiefs. They were looking you over, asking you questions and checking your information. Most of all they wanted to know if you could get up in front of 1,200 soldiers and give a class and not look like Bozo The Clown. To say that the members of the Jungle Warfare Branch were proficient in their duties is an understatement. They were honed. There were about 50 Instructors whose job it was to see that the units got the best training we could give them, and how to survive in that hostile environment.
Here is a list of some of the people that were stationed with me.
The people I listed above are all dead now. Mostly from cancers of one kind or another. Maybe a heart attack in 3 due to extreme hypertension.
"The following people were pronounced as sick with cancer but so far (SO FAR) have survived:
This is not some coincidence that this many people died or got some kind of sickness out of such a small group of 50-60 instructors. These are just the ones I know about. I’d be willing to bet they would find more if someone found the intestinal fortitude to look into it.
"Nothing too good for the troops," you hear this from pontificates all the time. That his exactly what they get too, Nothing Too Good."
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