I was downtown at a movie house of the night of Dec. 21st, 1963 watching the movie "One Eyed Jacks" when someone came in shouting something about shots being fired near the Paphos Gate.  The full movie house was empty in minutes, except for me..

The manager asked me to leave.  When I got outside there was no one to be seen. As it was about a mile to the Marine House, I began walking. Just then a jeep rolled up with a 50 caliber mount and asked who I was.  I told them and
they suggested I go home.  At this point I still didn't know what was going on.  About half way to the Marine House I began to hear gun shots in the  distance. 

When I got to the Marine House, I was telling the Marines at the bar about the gun shots and the empty streets.  Several of us went to the roof and the gun fire became  more frequent. 

Early the next morning the firing became heavy and lasted on and off for nearly a week.  The day after Christmas, there were rumors of dead  bodies in the street near the Ledra Palace Hotel.   Myself and three other Marines jumped into a car and went down there..  The rumors were correct, I was taking photos when someone starting shooting at us.  We jumped back into the car  and got the heck out of there. My camera disappeared and no one would own up to taking it.  

 A prisoner exchange was setup between the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots and guess what? There were a lot of people unaccounted for, ( if you know what I mean..) 

Some of us were taking a class on speaking of Greek and the man that was teaching it kind of hinted about harm that could come to the American Embassy, etc. 

On the night of February 4th, 1964, my roommate Mike Waylonis and Hank Theriaque were on duty at the Embassy, which was about 6 blocks from the Marine House.  Someone shouted, at the house, a bomb went off at the embassy and get up there as soon as possible.  Hank was kind of shook up, but was ok.  Mike and I and few other marines fanned out around the embassy and made sure it was secure.  Mike and I then went from room to room on all the floors making sure no one unauthorized was in the embassy.  (The bomb went off on the ground floor on the south door, next to the conference room) Luckily no one was hurt.  

All of a sudden news reporters and TV cameras were all over the place. After things calmed down, Ambassador, Mr. Wilkins ask me if  was armed and said come with me.  We got into the car and headed for the Presidential Palace to talk to Archbishop Marakarios. 

Mr. Wilkins was mad,  but was rational.  He told me what he wanted me to do and to talk to no one, as the guards would probably be inquisitive.  We were at the Palace for about an hour and, as I was told, I did not talk to anyone.  For some reason the guards just stared at me..

After that we stood 16 hour watches at the Embassy and also at the Radio stations, at Yerolakas and Mia Milia.  This lasted about 3 weeks, before we went back to our regular watch schedules.    

There was incidents from time to time, but in July, the Civil War started heating up.  In early April of 1964, I was transferred to the Kyrenia Detachment on the North coast of the Island. 

On the Morning of August the 3rd, I had just gone on duty, at the Radio Station,  which was 8 miles west of the Village of Kyrenia, when I heard a roar coming from the east, as the sun was coming up. All of a sudden a F105 came flying over the station at about 75 or 80 feet high.  I could see the Turkish insignia on the plane.  The pilot actually waved at me. I ran across the road and woke up the director of the Radio Station. 

At first the director thought I was full of it, but soon the ground started shaking from the planes going over and with  the bombing in the distance.  This went on for most of the day. 

There was Jets from Great Britian in the air trying to run off the Turkish jets.  The American 6th fleet was a few miles off shore, talking to the director on the radio.  

Anti Aircraft fire coming from down the beach by Greek Cypriot fire teams. Greek Cypriot ground  troops scouring around the hill sides. 

We heard that the sixth fleet was in between the Turkish and Greek naval fleets somewhere out in the Med...

We heard later that several hundred people died that day from the bombings and the fighting, between the Turkish and Greek Cypriots. Problems and incidents between the waring factions died down after that, but things were still tense. 

The U N Troops were all over the place after that.  Once a Week I had to drive over the Kyrenia Pass to Nicosia and meet with the Gunny.  This was about a 52 mile round trip.  Had to go through 6 check points on each round trip.  The UN, the Greek and Turkish each had their check points.  Plus there was a contingent of Turkish Regular Troops about half way that would stop you from time to time, wanting American Cigarettes. 

I returned to the US in March of 1965.  At that time, the Civil War was in a stale mate. 

 Ron Sherman and I were on the front page of the Local Greek paper..  We looked so cute in our Dress Blues..us American Imperialist  war mongers.