From the Farm to the Pacific Theater

Hard work on the farm led to an easier time at boot camp

BY: Bill Moakley

For Benson “Bennie” H. Dutcher, demerits in school worked out to his advantage and here’s why.

Dutcher, a 1943 graduate of Guthrie High School, grew up on farm. That meant farm chores, including milking the cows, before school and after.

“I was a farmer and had chores and had to milk in the mornings,” he recalled. “I wouldn’t have missed it. It was great.”

As much as he enjoyed the farm life, it was a pain in his hand. As an ROTC cadet in high school, Dutcher was required to wear a uniform to school three days a week. He admits he often showed up a bit dirty and with a little less than a shine on his shoes. That’s where those demerits came in.

“I got demerits every time I turned around,” Dutcher laughed. “I was a farm kid, so I didn’t look too good when I got to school.”

The punishment for each demerit Dutcher earned was handwriting three pages of the ROTC manual. He admits he wrote quite a lot.

“I was writing every weekend,” he said. “Three manual pages was about six tablet pages. I went through a lot of pages. I knew that manual by heart.”

Knowing the ROTC manual cover-to-cover served Dutcher well. A year after graduating from high school, he was on his way to Paris Island for Marine Corps basic training. When he got there, he was handed a very familiar tome.

“They used the same manual we used in high school,” Dutcher explained. “I’d learned all that for three years. I just needed to get in shape physically. Everything else in boot camp was just a review of the military manual.”

At nearly 6’-3”, Dutcher was among the soldiers leading his company each day. With six squadrons of fellow cadets behind him, officers had to ask Dutcher to slow his step during marching drills.

“They had to ask us to slow down,” he confirmed. “We’d stretch out too far when we were marching. They kept hollering at us to slow down. Those guys clear at the back were kind of having to trot to keep up with us. We had to slow the cadence down.”

Dutcher would finish his time at Paris Island, head home for a short break and then report to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He would then head out for 18 months of guard duty in the Pacific, with stops in Pearl Harbor, Guam and Iwo Jima, among others. As part of the Corps 3rd Division, he was responsible for securing those historic sites after battles had raged.

“The war was over, but we made sure everything was secure and that civilians got home to where they were from,” Dutcher explained.

In addition to ensuring foreign military personnel and civilians were repatriated, Dutcher’s division was in charge of exploding any remaining armaments left on the islands. They also provided around the clock guard duty.

In 1946, Dutcher returned to Oklahoma, worked for a creamery for six years, farmed for two and then began a 30-year career with the U.S. Postal Service. Like his time in the military, Dutcher has fond memories of his letter carrying days.

“It was good deal. I liked it,” Dutcher said. “I liked everything about being a Marine, too. I enjoyed it all.” -19SM