St. Louis Veterans Day Parade 2025

      

     In the last few years, I have had a flood of memories of my times of enlistment. I wrote an article once about my being recruited by an Officer at the St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Veterans Day Parade. Unfortunately, I lost that article due to clerical error. That being said I realized that I probably lost the memories of enlistment due to a blast at a temporary base; that blast threw me into a HUMVEE. I now remember the hole in the ground and the missing tent. However, that is not story I want to tell now. The story I want to present is my memories of having been recruited several times between 18 to 37. I think some will say I was drafted three or four times. I actually enlisted two or three times serving in the Army, Airforce, Navy, and Marines. I was even a recruiter for a few months in Manchester, Missouri, USA. 

     I first went to the Recruitment Office in Ballwin, Missouri, USA. when I was 17 years old about a month before my 18th birthday. High School was over, and I didn't see college in my future. I would later find myself and ROTC recruit at the University of Denver-Denver, Colorado, USA... I served in the Army Reserves, and then in the Marines. Sargent George Kelly recruited me at the age of 20. I trained with James Hetfield of Metallica. Strange to think when I was in and out of the service. I was drafted to get a ride home as a Navy draftee. I had a friend in England Troy Cecil on a Weekend Pass, and he brought me to the ship. His Commander drafted me so I would be a stowaway. "You were Shanghaied!!" I served a few months. Mark Harmon the Actor was my Commander in the Marines, he drove me to the place I stayed while on leave. 

      So I thought it was a joke when I was asked to serve again at 36 or 37. I had just served as a Marine and had been discharged (Side note - I trained with the highest-ranking women Navy Officer Lisa Franchetti Chief of Naval Operations we readied airplanes and helicopters together. I was a Marine on the ship after being drafted on a weekend cruise on a Naval ship.) when I was asked to serve by the Marine Commander at the St. Louis Veterans Parade in 2005 or 2006. I told him I would if I could train as a Green Beret. I was corrected that a Raider might be what I was looking for in the CORPS... I was in the Airborne Rangers and wanted Special Forces training again. Six weeks more of training to graduate. I had trained with James Hetfield with the amphibious light infantry in the 1980's.

   

By Darren Dwayne Frazier

Photos by Highland Productions LLC