John Pilgrim was named Veteran of the Month for October by the Hangar 25 Air Museum. (HERALD photo/Steve Reagan)

Pilgrim, a Snyder native now living in Big Spring, was named Veteran of the Month for October by the Hangar 25 Air Museum during ceremonies last week.

Pilgrim was 17 years old when he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in July 1965.

“I had a pretty bad argument with my dad, and we both decided I was old enough to leave home,” Pilgrim told the museum crowd.

After taking a bus ride to Sweetwater, Pilgrim attempted to enlist in the U.S. Navy, but found the office closed.

“So, a guy there said, ‘What about the Marines?,’” Pilgrim recalled. “I said, ‘Let’s do it’ — and things went downhill from there.”

Because of his age, Pilgrim spent more than a year state-side before finally shipping out to Vietnam in December 1966. Soon after he landed, he was assigned as part of a machine-gun crew.

“An officer asked a bunch of us if anyone could handle a machine gun, and like an idiot, I raised my hand,” Pilgrim said. Toting the 75-pound weapon on top of an already heavy backpack load, he jokingly said, was what made him so short.

“I used to be 6-foot-6,” the 5-8 man said.

Assigned to the 4th Marine Division, Pilgrim spent most of his time in country hopping from one firefight to another.

“People asked me if I was scared,” he said. “I wasn’t scared — I was terrified. I saw things I never saw before.”

Even time back at base camp was anything but relaxing, what with almost constant shelling from North Vietnamese artillery and the occasional attack.

Throughout the almost-constant combat, Pilgrim came to to a grudging respect for his determined foe.

“They really had bad dispositions,” he said. “They didn’t want us there, and we didn’t particularly want to be there, either.”

During one brief interlude, Pilgrim joined about 20 of his comrades in “liberating” a shipment of steaks bound for Air Force personnel.

“We ran off with as many cases of steaks as 20 men could carry,” he said. Cooking the meat over the flame from a flare left the food tasting “like phosphorus, but it was the best steak I ever tasted,” he said.

Pilgrim returned home from his first tour of duty in November 1968, got married, then enlisted for another tour of duty, finally returning home for good in May 1969.

The two years in Vietnam changed him, although he put a joking spin on the experience.

“I’ve been to three goat-ropings and two county fairs, and I never saw anything like that,” he said.

Pilgrim quickly turned serious when discussing his homecoming.

“I lost a terrible lot of friends over there,” he said. “But as bad as the war was, it was almost worse coming home ... I got spit on by a hippie in San Francisco.”

Since leaving the military, Pilgrim has worked in the safety field for a variety of companies. Since moving to Big Spring in February, he has held a similar position with Fiberod.

Asked if he would want to ever re-live his military experiences, Pilgrim had a very direct answer.

“If it would keep some young man or woman from going through what I had to, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

Contact Staff Writer Steve Reagan at 263-7331, ext. 234 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it