Tough Teddy Tenesco

Biggest personnel inspection I ever stood, or ever heard of while I was in the Marines was in about 1977. Right after Force Troops was redesignated Force Service Support Group they held an Inspector General's Inspection. What a sight.

The troops (myself included) stood the inspection in Summer Service "A" with web gear and rifles. Something is slightly warped there. But if the IG wanted to see it, then we would be there. Trying to properly wear an H-harness and cartridge belt over a blouse made for a mess. Add the canteens, magazine pouches and 1st aid kit and you really had something straight out of "Plan 9 From Outer Space".

But we did it. Almost all of us.

There was a rather small Corporal in the Battalion Supply Platoon who only had a couple weeks until his EAS. Normally, short-timers are excused from large scale inspections; but not this time. So Corporal Tenesco (AKA Tough Teddy) was highly outraged by having to buy a bunch of new uniform parts to stand the inspection. He was so mad that he didn't ever take the time to clean up his deuce gear or rifle.

Sure enough his Company was selected to be inspected by the IG himself. The rest of us immediately started sweating. This was the first big inspection for a lot of the young troops and they were nervous. Some of us older troops were nervous as well. Not so much about ourselves, but about our junior troops.

So the IG marched over to start his inspection, preceded by about 3-4 ne'er-do-wells, he started down the first rank. The second man to be inspected was Tough Teddy Tenesco. Not necessarily in this order, but he had a few discrepancies. Unshined shoes, worn out shoes, trow too short, blouse too tight, chevrons not properly located on the sleeves, dirty cover, sloppy tie, filthy deuce gear, dirty/rusty rifle. About the time the recorder was half way through the list of discrepancies, Tough Teddy broke ranks and ran about 5 yards out in front of the platoon. He threw his rifle down on the blacktop, hard enough to make it bounce 5 feet high. Threw down his cover, stripped off his deuce gear and blouse. Looked back at the IG and at his Bn, Co, and Platoon Commanders and screamed to the sky "fuck 'em all". He then ran away.

We never saw or heard of Tough Teddy Tenesco ever again. He was eventually declared a deserter and became a federal fugitive. But in the hearts of those of us who knew him, we all knew he was the only Marine who told the truth that day.