COM M U N I T Y
BY: BILL MOAKLEY
Something Different
PRESENTED BY
CENTURIONCG.NET
School Teacher Turned Marine Officer Never Looked Back
C
huck Hatch is not a man that feels as if his country owes him anything, which it does. Instead, Hatch feels as if he’s a fortunate man because of his country.
Hatch reported to Quantico, Virginia, went through Officer’s Candidate School, earned his commission and was sent to Del Mar, Calif. His next stop was Da Nang, Vietnam.
“We live in a great country, and I’ve been very lucky,” Hatch said on a rainy morning at the Norman Veterans Center, where he still walks over three miles a day and lifts weights daily.
His first deployment was for 13 months, and he began in a tank with the 1st Marine Division. Hatch finished his deployment in an Amtrac LTV unit, which involved amphibious landing craft.
A graduate of Healdton High School and Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Hatch was teaching school in Coalgate before scratching an itch to do something else.
Hatch returned home, but he didn’t stay long, telling the Marine Corps that he wanted to go back to Vietnam and fly as an aerial observer. So, he was off to flight school to earn his wings. Next stop, the 3rd Marine Division where he flew for about 11 months before he got an opportunity to command a tank company for the remainder of his time in Vietnam.
“I decided I wanted to go do something different, so I headed off to the Marine Corps,” Hatch said. 12 | February 2020
