BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Not quite ready to head to college, Don Butler had just graduated from high school in Mays Lick when he and his older brother met a group of U.S. Marine Corps recruiters at a bar in a Greyhound bus station in Cincinnati.
After an evening chatting with the recruiters, Don and his brother, Natie Butler, went back to Natie’s home, where they talked about Don enlisting.
Butler turned 18 on June 30, 1964, and he headed straight to the federal building in Cincinnati where he talked to recruiters again and decided to enlist.
“For some reason I signed up on the spot. I enlisted on my birthday,” Butler said. “Ten days later, I took the oath of office.”
On Oct. 6, 1964, he began boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. He completed boot camp and then went to Camp Pendleton, California, for basic infantry training. Less than one year after signing up to become a Marine, he deployed to the Vietnam theater in March 1965.
Butler was stationed aboard the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier the USS Bon Homme Richard for about 12 months. He was assigned primarily security duties, guarding advanced weapons systems on board the ship and incarcerated Navy personnel in the ship’s brig. He was given other assignments by his commanding officers.
Ship life typically meant 30 to 40 days at sea, with long hours and an occasional stop in Japan or the Philippines. It was isolated as the ship cruised the South China Sea.
