News
Leatherneck and the CCs: A little history
Marine Combat Correspondents gather at the bedside of Dickey Chapelle, recovering from a parachuting accident in a New York hospital, in 1964. (L-R) Maj. Bob “Mo” Morrisey, Lou Lowery, Dick Phelan, Steve Stibbens, and Ron Lyons seated with Dickie. Lowery, Lyons and Stibbens were were all members of the Leatherneck Magazine staff. The following year, Chapelle went to Vietnam to be with her beloved Marines in combat.
By Bob Bowen
Author, “My Life and Lens, the story of a Marine Corps Combat Correspondent”
The Marine Corps Combat Corespondents Association had its origins in World War Two. Following that war, the group was held together in an informal way through the volunteer efforts of Gladys McFarland of the Marine’s New York Information Office and the civilian staff at Leatherneck Magazine.
Col. Don Dickson, Editor-Publisher of Leatherneck, along with director of photography Lou Lowery, the Marine who made the first photo of the flag raising on Iwo Jima, and Ron Lyons, assistant editor, were the principle supporters of the CC’s at the Magazine.
Dickey Chapelle was killed in November 1965 while covering Operation Black Ferret. Sgt. Frank Beardsley, Leatherneck Magazine Correspondent, was there and captured her final departure from the battlefield.
When the Marines landed in Vietnam in 1965, there was a renewed focus on the Corps’ informational services field and that spread to a rejuvenation of the CC’s. At HQMC, Maj. Bob Morrisey, CMC Wally Greene’s personal information officer, joined with McFarland and the Leatherneck stalwarts to encourage all Marine Corps writers, past and present, to join the loosely organized USMCCCA.
SSgt Steve Stibbens of Leatherneck Magazine was one of the first to heed the call. He joined the CC’s in 1964. Stibbens covered the Vietnam War first as a correspondent for the Pacific Stars and Stripes in 1962 and later for the magazine. And, after his discharge, the Associated Press.