Posted on 08/25/2003 8:34:07 AM PDT by bedolido
FALFURRIAS, Texas (AP) -- Casimiro Naranjo III has some new memorabilia for his U.S. Marine scrapbook that chronicles the nine months he spent in Japan in 1957. It's all from the wallet he lost almost 50 years ago.
Members of a Japanese construction crew renovating the theater at Camp Foster, once Camp Hague, found the leather wallet in May among some mud and rubble. The wallet apparently was in a ventilation duct at the Okinawa base where Naranjo was stationed as a 19-year-old.
"It's so hard to believe that the wallet was there for so many years," Naranjo said in a story in Monday's Corpus Christi Caller-Times. He said he thought he left his wallet in the barracks and doesn't know how it ended up in the air duct.
"The Marine Corps is supposed to be a family, but there are exceptions," Naranjo said. "I was mad then and the thought did cross my mind that someone took it. I was really wrong. I could have dropped it."
The wallet contained Naranjo's military ID, a ration card, a pass to the enlisted men's mess hall, a selective service card, photos of his sister Mary and brother Robert and a pawn ticket.
Camp Foster base officials traced the ration card and military ID to Naranjo, 66, and notified him at his home in Falfurrias. It was mailed to him earlier this month.
The pieces of paper each bring a memory for Naranjo. The pawn ticket brings to mind the loss of his high school ring.
When he first arrived in Okinawa, he needed a few more dollars to pay for a night out on the island with his fellow Marines.
"They told us we could have four hours of liberty in town," Naranjo said. "I didn't have any money, and I didn't know anything about Okinawa."
He pawned his Falfurrias High School ring for 1,780 yen, which was the equivalent to about $5 in 1957, he said.
"We got a taste of the Far East that night," Naranjo said, remembering the strong taste of Nippon beer with his teriyaki steak. "I had a lot of yen in my pocket."
But he didn't get the ring back. By the time he returned to the pawn shop, the ring was gone. He assumed it was melted down.
The wallet also contained a token-sized sacred heart patch depicting Christ that his mother gave Naranjo before he boarded the bus to boot camp. His mother, Gertrudis M. Naranjo died in July, just before the wallet was returned.
Naranjo said the patch is a sentimental reminder of his mother and her faith.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Why thangsh... I wanna thang alla little pipple who helped me asheeve my goal... Hi mom!... issh sho great to be (burp) here t'day... I'm sho happy I could cry... .y'know, you're a real fren', man... a real fren'.... I love ya man... (hic)
(hic)
...in an air duct.
As the miniter sets to marry laz and tpaine...
I'm such a slacker.
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