The Authors Eugene Alvarez was born in Jacksonville, Florida, June 25, 1932. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on August 12, 1950, and received his recruit training in Platoon 99, First Recruit Training Battalion, Parris Island, South Carolina. Following boot camp, Private First Class Alvarez (1137622 USMC) was assigned to the Second Amphibian Tractor Battalion (1833 Tracked Vehicle MOS), Second Marine Division, Court House Bay, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where he remained until December 1951. As a member of the 17th Replacement Draft, Korea, in February 1952, Corporal Alvarez reported to the 1st Amphibian Tractor Battalion, First Marine Division. During most of his year in Korea the unit was "dismounted" and employed as defensive machine gun companies along the Imjin River near the 38th Parallel. Alvarez later received the Combat Action Ribbon (CAR). Sergeant Alvarez returned to Camp Lejeune for a brief tour of duty in 1953, until he received requested orders for duty at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina There, he was assigned to the Ninth Class of the Drill Instructor School. (then - 4911 DI MOS). During 1953-1954, he served as a Junior and Senior Drill Instructor in the First Recruit Training Battalion until honorably discharged from the Marines in August 1954. Two years of college ensued, while Alvarez was a member of the United States Marine Corps Reserve in Jacksonville, Florida. Sergeant Alvarez returned to Parris Island in June 1956 as a regular Marine. After completing his second Drill Instructor School in Class 43-A, he served for nearly two years as a Junior and Senior Drill Instructor in the First Battalion.(8511 DI MOS). He ended his enlistment as the Staff Noncommissioned Officer in charge of the First Battalion physical training field for a little over one year. He was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps with the rank of Staff Sergeant in April 1959, and served for a second and short time in the Jacksonville, Florida, Marine Corps Reserve. Dr. Alvarez received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Jacksonville (Florida) University in 1961, the Master of Arts degree in history from the University of Mississippi in 1962, and the Doctor of Philosophy degree in history from the University of Georgia in 1966. Teaching and administrative duties followed at Gainesville (Georgia) College and Valdosta (Georgia) State College-University. From 1970 to 1973, Dr. Alvarez taught for the University of Maryland as a lecturer in Asia (including Vietnam), Europe, and the United States. In 1973 he returned to Georgia to serve on the faculty of Macon State College as a full and tenured Professor of History. He retired from the University System of Georgia, Professor Emeritus, at Macon State College in January 1995. Professor Alvarez has published numerous articles in leading history and other journals, including Leatherneck magazine and the Marine Corps Gazette. He is the book author of Travel On Southern Antebellum Railroads, 1828-1860, published by the University of Alabama Press in 1974. In 1981, Alvarez received a grant from the Marine Corps History Center to research the history of Parris Island. The result was this unpublished manuscript for the Marine Corps History Center. Realizing the need and interest for a Parris Island history, Where It All Begins: A History Of The United States Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina, was published by Gayle Publishers in 1984. An updated edition was published by the author in 1992. Interest remained for the need of a Parris Island history, and in 1996, 1998, the author commercially self-published, Parris Island: "The Cradle Of The Corps." Alvarez with Daniel Moyer published, Just the Facts, Ma’am: The Authorized Biography Of Jack Webb, Seven Locks Press, in 2001. Alvarez published Parris Island (a picture history) with Arcadia Publishers in 2002. In 2007, Dr. Alvarez published “Once A Recruit, Always A Marine.” Leo J. Daugherty III, Ph.D., is a Master Sergeant in the Marine Corps Reserve. Born on October 10, 1956, in the U.S. Naval Hospital, Beaufort, South Carolina while his father, Private First Class Leo Daugherty Jr., was at the time a Marine serving with Schools Company at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina. Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, and after a very brief period as a basic Marine recruit at Parris Island in the summer of 1975, he attended John Carroll University, where he received a Bachelors of Arts in History (1979) and later a Masters Degree in History (August 1985). He re-enlisted in the Marine Corps and completed Recruit Training at MCRD, Parris Island with 1060 Series, Company A, 1st Recruit Training Battalion on August 21, 1985. After completing Assault Amphibian School, Camp Pendleton, CA, with the 1833 MOS, he reported to 2d Assault Amphibian Battalion, Camp Lejeune, NC. Shortly thereafter, he lateral moved to the 0200 field, and was assigned to G-2 Operations, 2d Marine Division, where, upon graduation from The Navy – Marine Intelligence Training Center, Damneck, Va., participated in Operation Ocean Venture, at Veiques, Puerto Rico in February 1987. he was assigned to the 3d Battalion, 6th Marines (September 1987 to April 1988) and later to Headquarters Company, 6th Marine Regiment at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Leaving active duty in March 1989, Daugherty, then a sergeant, joined the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, headquartered in Brookpark, Ohio, where he served as the S-2 Chief until July 1991. Activated for Desert Shield/Desert Storm in January 1991, he reported to Camp Lejeune, NC, where his battalion participated in Battle Griffin ’91, a NATO Cold Weather exercise. After leaving the Select Marine Corps Reserve, Sergeant Daugherty remained in the Individual Ready Reserve, where he participated in numerous Marine Expeditionary Unit/Special Operations Capable exercises from 1991-1995 at Camp Lejeune, NC; later, he served briefly with the 2d Battalion, 25th Marines as an Intelligence Analyst for a Combined Arms Exercise at Twenty-nine Palms, California in July 1997. Gunnery Sergeant Daugherty completed his Ph.D. program in Marine Corps History at The Ohio State University in 2001. His dissertation was titled, “To Fight Our Country’s Battles: An Institutional History of the United States Marine Corps during the Interwar Era, 1919-1935,” 2 Volumes (Columbus, Ohio, Ph.D. Dissertation, The Ohio State University, 2001). He was promoted to his present rank of Master Sergeant in 2006. Also in January 2006, he was the recipient of the Colonel Robert Debs. Heinl, Jr., USMC, Award for his article, “Bluejackets and Bolsheviks.” As a civilian, Master Sergeant Daugherty works for the U.S. Army Cadet Command and Fort Knox, KY, as the Senior Command Historian. Daugherty has written 12 books which includes a history of the U.S. Marine Corps and the State Department (2009), and Fighting Techniques of a U.S. Marine in World War II (2001); and Fighting Techniques of a Japanese Infantryman, 1941-1945 (2002), The Battle of the Hedgerows (2002); as well as authoring numerous scholarly articles and book reviews. He is presently completing a two-volume history of the U.S. Marines and Counterinsurgency, 1899-2014; and is working on a History of Echo Company, 4th Tank Battalion entitled “Kentuckians All” The Journey of a Marine Reserve Unit in Peace and War.” His main field of study is the Marine Corps during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. He will retire from the Marine Corps in December 2015. Master Sergeant Daugherty is an adjunct visiting assistant professor of history at Alice Lloyd College, where he teaches Middle East, Latin American, and African History, along with his wife Dr. Rhonda Smith-Daugherty. The Daugherty’s live in Rineyville, KY.
