This is a story of duty, honor and country; a story of young love gone wrong, betrayal, crushing emotional pain, and a man's struggle to survive. Hospitalized, near fatal illness. Everything lost, but always picking himself up and "Continuing to March." Born to an off-the-grid poor farm family in the middle of the great depression. Finding true love, a love that has survived over half a century, surviving through many painful goodbyes, long separations, and raising five children. Sgt. Lay goes off to war, twice to Vietnam. But his greatest good fortune....meeting Delores, a classy, very pretty and powerful lady. Semper Fi!
The author, Robert (Bob) Lay, was born in 1935 in Fulton, Kansas. He graduated from Prescott High School in 1953, and enlisted in the Marine Corps in that same year. Following boot camp, he was assigned to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and graduated from Engineers School in 1954. At the end his enlistment period he returned to Fulton, Kansas. In 1958 he reenlisted in the Marine Corps, and was transferred to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. In 1960 Mr. Lay met and married his wife Delores Mae Gregorovich. In 1961 he served as a Drill Instructor at Parris Island, South Carolina. Following Drill Instructor Duty he attended Utilities Chief School in 1963. In 1964 he received orders to Okinawa, Japan, and was subsequently deployed to Da Nang, South Vietnam, as a member of one of the United States first military operations in that county, code-named operation SHUFLY. In March 1965 he returned to the States to assume his assignment as an Inspector/Instructor in Omaha, Nebraska, with a reserve Engineer unit. In January 1968 he returned to serve in Da Nang, Vietnam. His next duty station was to Marine Corps Air Station, Tustin, California. In May 1971 he was assigned as a recruiter, serving in both Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tennessee. His last tour of duty was in Okinawa, Japan in 1975, where he was assigned as First Sergeant of a Marine Rifle Company. He retired as a First Sergeant from the Marine Corps in 1975. Following his retirement he moved his family from Fort Scott, Kansas, to Pittsburg, Kansas, and enrolled in Pittsburg State University as a 40-year-old freshman. In 1978 he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Education, and continued his studies, earning his Master of Arts degree, with an emphasis in Communication. In 1979 he accepted a position in Topeka, Kansas, with the Kansas Commission of Civil Rights and settled the family in Hoyt, Kansas, north of Topeka, which was only a few hours from his parent's home in Fulton, Kansas, and his nearby sisters. He achieved promotions quickly and served as Investigator I, Investigator II, Field Supervisor, Assistant Director, and retired from the Commission in 1997 as Executive Director. After retirement he taught classes in Public Speaking and English Composition at Highland Community College. In August 1999, the Governor of Kansas, Bill Graves, appointed Mr. Lay as a Commissioner to the Kansas Commission of Civil Rights, representing Business & Industry. He and Delores settled in Hillsboro, Oregon in 2000, living near their sons Mark, Quentin, and Dwight. Their daughter, Valerie, and son Bobbie, live in California. Delores and Bob have been together 59 years.
