Foreword

Lieutenant Colonel Dennis P. Mroczkowski graduated from Saint Francis College in Brooklyn, New York, in 1968. Shortly after graduation he enlisted in the Marine Corps' officer candidate program. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in February 1969. After completion of The Basic School, he attended the Field Artillery Officers' Basic Course at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. His first assignment was as a forward observer with Battery F, 2d Battalion, 12th Marines, as a member of Battalion Landing Team 3/9. He was transferred to the 1st Marine Division in the Republic of Vietnam in May 1970, and was assigned as a forward observer with Battery D, 2d Battalion, 11th Marines. He served with two rifle companies of the 5th Marines, and as a forward observer and adviser to the 37th Vietnamese Ranger Battalion. He finished his tour as the officer in charge of an integrated observation device team at an observation post in the Que Son mountains.

Upon his release from active duty in October 1971, he entered the federal Civil Service, working first with the Internal Revenue Service. He then obtained a position as a student intern with the Division of Military History of the Smithsonian Institution. At the same time he began to study for his master of arts degree in American civilization, which he received from George Washington University in 1976. Since January 1986, he has been the director of the U.S. Army's Casemate Museum at Fort Monroe, Virginia.

Lieutenant Colonel Mroczkowski joined the Marine Corps Reserve in 1973 as the fire direction officer of Battery H, 3d Battalion, 14th Marines. Since that time he has held a variety of billets on the battery level, and as a staff officer. He has served in the intelligence and operations sections of the FMFLant Reserve Augmentation Unit. On six NATO exercises he has served as a liaison officer to the British Army. His most recent assignment with the Select Marine Corps Reserve was as the plans officer in the G-3 section of the 2d Marine Expeditionary Brigade.

With the start of Operation Desert Shield, he served for two weeks as a watch team commander in the Crisis Action Center of II MEF. He voluntarily returned to this duty in November 1990, and received involuntary active duty orders on 6 January 1991. Shortly thereafter he was assigned to the Marine Corps Historical Center and was further assigned to the 2d Marine Division as its historian. He arrived at the division on 27 January, and served with it throughout Operation Desert Storm and after its return to Camp Lejeune in April 1991.

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