Limestone to Limestone
Nov. 5—Leading the 2022 Limestone County Veteran's Day Parade Saturday is retired United States Marine Corps veteran Eugene Hebbe. His life has taken him from Limestone County, Texas, to Limestone County, Alabama, with many stops in between.
Hebbe talked to The News Courier about his life, time serving in the USMC, and the training he received.
"I was born in Limestone County, Texas, and grew up on the farm. I was born in 1937, and that was during the Depression and things didn't start improving until some time in the 1950s. That's one of the reasons I enlisted — to get away from the farm," Hebbe said.
Hebbe served in the USMC from March 1956 to March 1959. He entered boot camp in San Diego and was in Platoon 2060. This is the same platoon as Lee Harvey Oswald.
He was stationed in Camp Pendleton in California for Advanced Combat Training before being transferred to Coronado Island near San Diego. He trained in amphibious landings, and during his time in the USMC, he visited Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines.
"On Coronado Island, which is across the bay from San Diego, it was called an amphibious base. We had a gymnasium, and one half of the floor was like the beach or land. The other half was like the ocean and we set up demonstrations for people to make amphibious landing. We had little boats, and people behind the prop to reel them in," Hebbe said.
During his time serving, Hebbe was able to travel the world. He said, "Lots of people say I joined the service to see the world. I've been to Japan twice, the Yokosuka Naval Base. From Japan, we went to South Korea and that's where we set up another gymnasium with the beach and the ocean. We went to the Philippines twice and did the same thing — demonstrations and beach landings," he explained.
Hebbe laughed, "I think we flew everywhere we went and hit every island in the South Pacific to refuel and stay overnight."
One of Hebbe's favorite memories of his time in the Marine Corps was in Yokosuka, Japan.
Hebbe said, "I met this Navy Admiral, and he was in charge of the Japanese Navy during World War II. Where we stayed, for an old boy from Texas it was ... it was a barracks with marble floors and walls. The walls were 10 to 12 foot high. We stayed there, the officers and enlisted, we all stayed in the dormitory. That old Admiral, that's where he stayed. He was on up in age and at the time, he introduced himself and shook hands. Later on, I read in the Dallas paper where he went to school at one of the Ivy league schools and, before the war, he was an Ambassador to the United States."
Regardless of where he was sent, he said each place was different but had one thing in common.
"The people were friendly. I thought maybe they had a grudge against us just ten years after the war, but they weren't," Hebbe said.
Hebbe also learned the purpose behind his travels with the military. "The whole thing about going to South Korea and the Philippines was getting ready for the Vietnam War," he said.
When Hebbe left the Marine Corps in 1958, he "bounced around." He said, "I finally found a job in construction and I stayed with it. The reason I got in this area was the smokestacks down at the nuclear plant. I worked on that and went practically all over the United States building smokestacks at power plants and other little places like that."
Hebbe worked building smokestacks for 12 years and enjoyed it as he was able to travel, which is something he learned he loved during his service.
A few years ago, Hebbe was still living in Texas when he decided it was time to move closer to his family in Limestone County, Alabama. Although he enjoys the Athens-Limestone community and the friends he has made, for Eugene Hebbe Texas will always be home.
