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Writer's pictureGary J. Groman

An Ole Seagull's Primary Fork on the Trail of Life

As with everyone, the Ole Seagull’s hike along the Trail of Life began at birth and will end in death. Like most, the Ole Seagull had no choice in how he was born and started on the Trail, and, like most, very little choice in how he will die at the end of the Trail. However, between the start and end of the Trail, there are “forks,” the choice of which can impact the journey.

 

Some are minor forks and lead back to the main Trail, but there will be one Primary Fork at a time, with its own forks along the way, that will take you to the Trail’s end. For the Ole Seagull, that day was September 25, 1958, when, as a 17-year-old boy who had dropped out of high school in his senior year, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and boarded the train for beautiful Parris Island, South Carolina. As he sits here this day, 66 years later, I can genuinely say that he had no idea or plan that the Fork would lead to where it is. Like most, he made his choice, at the moment, to take the Fork and continued walking down the Trail persistently, step by step, Fork by Fork, not knowing the impact the decision would have on the rest of his life.

 

“But Seagull, can’t there be more than one Primary Fork in the Trail?” “Well, not the way an old seagull sees it because when the Fork is chosen, we do not know it’s the Primary Fork. All we know is that we have deviated from the current Trail to another. Depending on the Fork chosen, some will never realize they’re on the Primary Fork, but most, as they near the end of the Trail, can look back and say, “That’s the Primary Fork in the Trail that led me to this day.”

 

There was no choice as the USMC Fork led the Ole Seagull from Parris Island, Camp Lejune, Headquarter USMC in Arlington, Virginia, and to the three-person Marine Corps Laison position at the U. S. Naval Hospital in Bethesda, MD, where he met the love of his life, the remarkable Lois Lorraine McCue. It was before he met her and almost four years into the USMC Fork before he really got to choose a Fork in the Trail when he exercised his reenlistment option to go to the 3d Recon Battalion of the 3d Marine Division.

 

“But Seagull, isn’t it every Marine’s wish to get embassy duty, and weren’t you in a prime position to get that duty?” “Yes, I was, but not every Marine, and particularly this one, wanted embassy duty. The 3rd Marine Division was chosen because the Ole Seagull had never been in the Fighting Marine Corps up to that point and, at 21, chose that Fork.

 

It led to the marriage of the love of his life at Camp Schwab, Okinawa, in 1964, his family, careers that he loved every day, and 37 years of living in his idea of “Heaven,” Branson, Missouri.: “Weren’t their other forks in the Trail on the way to this point?” “Absolutely, but as an Ole Seagull looks back, they all led back to the Primary Fork he chose on that September Day in 1958.”

 

“But how do you know that was the Primary Fork?” “Because as he looks back today, near the end of the Trail, where he is today, all the Forks taken on the journey since then have led back to that Fork.” “Well, what does it mean if you look back and the Fork you have chosen does not lead back to the Primary Fork?” “You have a new Primary Fork, just make sure it’s one you want to be on.”

 

An Ole Seagull’s prayer is that as you have traveled down the Trail of Life, where you are today, you are on a Primary Fork that gives you not just happiness, but also joy, purpose and most importantly, love.

 

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