I met Glenn Buzzard, Domenick Tutalo, and Pete Santoro at a drill instructor’s reunion in 2004, when I went down to Parris Island, South Carolina, to do research for a book about the place. That was where I met Iron Mike Mervosh, a veteran of Iwo Jima who had also served two tours as a drill instructor at Parris Island. Neither Glenn nor Domenick nor Pete had served on the drill field, so why were they there? They all had been in the Fourth Marine Division, had served at Iwo Jima, and had known Mervosh back then, so the drill instructors’ reunion offered them a chance to get together as well. Mike lived in California, Glenn in Ohio, Domenick in New Jersey, and Pete in Massachusetts. They doted on Mike, who was profiled in The Few and the Proud, a book about drill instructors that grew out of my visits to Parris Island and the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, the two places where marine recruits are trained.
Mervosh saw combat in three wars, holding every enlisted rank from private to sergeant major over a thirty-five-year career. He was the Fourth Division middleweight champion until wounds suffered on Saipan and Iwo Jima ended his boxing career. He holds Navy commendation medals for action on Iwo Jima, in Korea, and in Vietnam, a Bronze Star for action in Korea, and three Purple Hearts. He served more than nineteen years as a sergeant major in battalion, regiment, brigade, station, base, and division. His last assignment before retiring on September 1, 1977, was Fleet Marine Force Pacific Sergeant Major—the largest field command in the Marine Corps—over eighty thousand marines.
I found Buzzard, Tutalo, and Santoro to be sensitive, self-effacing, thoughtful men whose stories deserved to be told. They’re not really a posse, of course. They’re just three old pals, each of whom knew Mike on Iwo Jima and who got acquainted and became friends as a result of attending reunions in the years long after the war.