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1983 Thru The Eyes Of The Corps.
By Marc "Devil Dog Of The Web" Iseli / Updated Dec. 2025
1983: the year the Corps finally let me go, but not before squeezing out a few last FUBAR's. The month kicked off with a Carrier Qual that had us crisscrossing the country like lost luggage. On 20 January, the powers that be decided we needed some saltwater therapy and shipped Sgt. Tim Francis, Cpl. Ron Russik, Cpl. Jim Lillie, and yours truly from MCAS El Toro to Fort Lauderdale. Next stop: USS Eisenhower (CV-69), our floating hotel for the next 12 days as we bounced up the Atlantic. This was my last CQ, and the Navy made sure it was one for the books. We had a F-18A FSD Prototype 3 showing off with touch-and-gos, traps, and cat shots, probably just to make us recce types jealous. Bonus: We caught the Super Bowl in our berthing, which is about as luxurious as it sounds. We finally limped into Norfolk, probably leaving a trail of oil slicks and bad decisions behind us.

April 24 and 30: Comfort Level V. Sounds cozy, right? Wrong. This was the 3rd MAW’s idea of a good time, an operational readiness inspection named after Major General Comfort, who, I assume, never had to sleep on a leaking air mattress in the hangar. The brass cooked up these “Comfort Level” drills to keep us sharp, or at least awake, and we got to play support for three detachments, including a six-pack of VMFAT-101’s finest. I got roped into an engine swap on an F-4N from VMFA-321, which is about as fun as it sounds. The Death Rattlers (VMFA-323) showed up, still figuring out which end of the F/A-18 was supposed to point forward. Everyone was on “continuous hot pad alert,” which is Marine-speak for “don’t even think about napping.” Day and night, we kept the birds flying. VMFP-3 was the only outfit still wrangling the RF-4B Phantom II for recce, so naturally, our intel made us the life of the party, feeding targets and battlefield gossip to the strike and fighter jocks who thought they ran the show.

1983 VMFP-3 Timeline
USS Eisenhower, PDF
25 Jan. 1983 East Coast Carrier Qualifications.
Meritorious Mast, PDF
24-30 April 1983, For support of Comfort Level V.

Notable Events
President Ronald Reagan
23 Sept., 1983 , Some people live an entire lifetime and wonder if they have ever made a difference in the world, but the Marines don't have that problem. (Written Sept. 23, 1983 in a personal note to LCpl Joseph Hickey, the son of a close friend of the President.)
Beirut Barracks Bombing
23 October, 1983, The death toll was 241 American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 sailors, and three soldiers, making this incident the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States Marine Corps since WW II's Battle of Iwo Jima

Alright, you glorious Rat Phixers and Phlyers, if we ever survived a TAD, a Det, or a BOHICA, who haven't, and you didn’t think I was the biggest gaff off in the squadron. Got a sea story, or some grainy photos your ex didn’t set on fire, and they’re only slightly illegal? Send ‘em by email, snail mail, or safety wire it to a carrier pigeon. I collect ‘em all, just nothing that would incriminate me.
80svmfp3@gmail.com

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