FAMOUS MARINES: T

Lee Trevino
1939-

On his seventeenth birthday Trevino enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. The previous few years had been a time of confusion and change for him. The Marines provided the perfect, stable environment for a directionless young man. Trevino still looks back fondly at the comradeship and fun of those years spent in the company of his peers. Of course he was by no means a model soldier - he had his fair share of disciplinary problems. However, by the fourth year of his service he had matured sufficiently to make the rank of Lance-corporal and, through an administrative error, found himself in the Special Services Unit issuing athletic equipment and driving the football team bus. More importantly, he spent the last eighteen months of his service playing golf with the officers in the afternoons.

Gene Tunney
Born: May 25, 1897
Died: 1978

Boxing Heavyweight Champion

When WWI came he enlisted in the Marines which earned him the nickname "The Fighting Marine". By the war's end Tunney had become the Light Heavyweight Champion of the American Expeditionary Forces.

He later went on to become the Heavyweight Champion and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.