The Event
On April 8, 1956, at 8 p.m., Staff Sergeant Matthew McKeon, a combat veteran of World War II and the Korean War, led Platoon 71, his assigned platoon of 74 recruits, on an extra exercise to Ribbon Creek as a disciplinary measure. McKeon led the platoon toward a swampy tidal creek on Parris Island, near the eponymous Marine Corps recruit depot. Upon arriving 45 minutes later, McKeon jumped into the creek and ordered the platoon to follow. From that point forward, the platoon marched along the creek bed and into deep water. Some of the men could not swim, however, and six drowned during the incident.
Read more about this topic: Ribbon Creek Incident
Famous quotes containing the word event:
“There is not any present moment that is unconnected with some future one. The life of every man is a continued chain of incidents, each link of which hangs upon the former. The transition from cause to effect, from event to event, is often carried on by secret steps, which our foresight cannot divine, and our sagacity is unable to trace. Evil may at some future period bring forth good; and good may bring forth evil, both equally unexpected.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
“Surely one of the peculiar habits of circumstances is the way they follow, in their eternal recurrence, a single course. If an event happens once in a life, it may be depended upon to repeat later its general design.”
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945)