CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- The year was 1966. America was engaged in a bloody war with Vietnam.
The Beatles were still a group and Woodstock was nothing more than a quiet farm in New York.
That-s when Col. John Bates did something that was almost unheard of -- and widely frowned upon in an emerging peacenik culture: He voluntarily dropped out of college to join the Marine Corps.
After fighting in three wars, traveling to roughly 125 countries and receiving three Purple Hearts for wounds incurred in Vietnam, Bates retired May 26 and went out like a true warrior: He parachuted into his retirement ceremony at the 11 Area Parade Field.
"This Marine's service to the Corps has spanned across five decades," Lt. Gen. Wallace C. Gregson, commanding general of Marine Forces Pacific, said during Bates- retirement ceremony. "If you read his biography, you will see a man of tremendous courage and valor."
Bates- career in the Marine Corps began March 24, 1966, at age 19. After completing recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, Bates was ready for action.
"I-d say 95 percent of us from boot camp knew we were going out to Vietnam. I thought that I already knew what to expect, but the truth was, I did not," recalled Bates, who served as Camp Pendleton-s assistant chief of staff for operations and training during his swan song Marine Corps tour.
When Bates arrived in Vietnam, he was assigned to Company G, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, and found himself on the demilitarized zone in the war-torn country.
Immediately, the rounds started flying.
"When we went out on patrols, we would often draw sniper fire, and then we would return fire and overwhelm them. This went on for weeks in the Pho Loc 6 area," Bates said. "There was one occasion when we were getting hit with sniper fire and we called in for an airstrike, and we thought it was successful. What we did not know was the North Vietnamese army had dug out some tunnels and the airstrike did not affect them."
While Bates and his Marines scoured the area, enemy fighters emerged from the tunnels and opened fire.
"I was wearing a flak jacket when I was hit, and the round went through the jacket and into my lung. I was in the hospital for 23 days in intensive care," Bates said.
A month later, he was back in action after leaving the hospital against doctor-s orders, he said. He rounded up a pair of trousers and a utility jacket, and made his way to a nearby airfield, where he finagled a ride back to An Hoa.
"It wasn-t like I escaped," Bates chuckled. "I was still spitting up blood, so I couldn-t go on humps, but my platoon commander was still glad to have me back out there. He honestly did not think I would make it."
With only one lung working, Bates kept fighting. During a fierce battle July 6, 1967, he found an enemy fighter coming up on his post. He had to think quickly.
"I couldn-t shoot them because the muzzle of my weapon would give away my position," Bates explained. "I decided I would have to use a grenade, but when I threw it, I still took some of the shrapnel in my thigh. It wasn-t life-threatening -- and as loud as grenades go off, I still can-t remember even hearing it go off."
Despite two injuries in Vietnam, Bates was still not about to call it quits. A short time later, he was taking fire from another enemy sniper. What he thought was a safe place to jump into proved just the opposite.
"When the sniper started firing, I thought I found a small depression to take cover in, but it turned out to be a punji stake trap," Bates said. "Basically, it is a hole with a bunch of wooden stakes at the bottom of it. When I fell into it, a stake went right through my foot. I think this was the worst injury of the three because I couldn-t walk, and when I tried to, the foot would split open again."
When Bates finally left Vietnam and returned to the states, his company first sergeant dropped a bombshell. He told Bates to pack his bags.
"I thought I was going to be able to go back to Vietnam, but that was not the case. He told me I was being discharged and going home," Bates said.
But Bates wanted badly to stay in the Marine Corps.
So he fought -- just as fiercely as he had on the battlefield.
After completing his bachelor-s degree in speech pathology at the State College of Arkansas, he applied to become a Marine Corps officer.
"I kept putting in applications to go to OCS, but they kept coming back stamped 'denied.- So I would just change the cover sheet and update the amount of education I had, since I was still in college now completing my master-s degree in secondary school counseling and rehabilitation. I applied so many times that I think they just got tired of seeing my name, so they finally accepted me in the summer of 1975."
Since then, Bates participated in Operation Desert Storm and served in Kuwait, supporting the initial invasion of Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He commanded Marines all over the world and, in one of his final acts in the Corps, he promoted his son, Capt. Josh Bates, a student and a Marine Corps reservist at the Expeditionary Warfare School aboard MCB Quantico, Va., to his current rank.
"My father was the epitome of what a man should be, said Josh Bates. "He was a good father and a good husband."
John Bates plans to move to Hawaii with his wife Stephanie, who he married June 10, 1972, and has accepted the position of the Chief Operating Officer of the Pearl Harbor Visitor-s Center.
"I want all the Marines out there to know that they should always do the right thing regardless of the circumstances and to never do anything for personal gain," said Bates.
"You do it for your Marines and I assure you, they will always make you look better than you can by yourself."
E-mail Sgt. Seigle at monroe.seigle.usmc.mil.