Ernest Gaut Obituary

Lonnie Anderson '72 posted a photo:

Ernie, who was living in Southern California at that time, gave me a tour of many Southern California sights around the Naval Hospital on Camp Pendleton (Disneyland in photo). We had a great time. It was the middle weekend of my 1998 Annual Training as an Electrician's Mate First Class in the US Navy Reserve. This was the first time we had gotten together for any length of time since shortly after I got discharged from the Marines and we had gone fishing on the Missouri River near Chamberlain in 1976.

Lonnie Anderson '72 said:

Ernie and I went into MCRD on the buddy system in August of 72. I was puny and not very athletic, but Ernie was always encouraging me and helped me an awful lot in that respect. The funniest thing that happened (funny now, but not then) was a bit over halfway through boot camp we had one of the major inspections from the Commanding General (CG). Like normal, the DI chewed us out for not being squared away, and said we better damn well shave every hair off our faces and not be caught by the general with any stubble. In fact, he went on to say, "You maggots are going to shave your buddy and make sure you get every whisker, or you will both get punished. You have to know MCRD to understand the background for this - we had regular heads with mirrors, sinks, and toilets but they wouldn't let us use them - we had worked all day cleaning the day before and they had one toilet for us to use the night and morning before inspection. To wash up we had to use these long concrete sinks outside the barracks where we normally washed up after PT. Well, there were no mirrors on these outdoor sinks. We got our shaving gear and headed out to the sinks - I asked Ernie if he had his Gillette Triple Blade Shaver ready, and he said (if you knew Ernie you know what my abbreviations are),"No F_____g Way are you going to shave me, I have shaved myself for years!." I agreed, so I started shaving myself by feel. Now, prior to a couple months before this, I had never had to shave. Anyway, I slipped and cut a big gash in my lower lip. I started bleeding like a stuck hog. Luckily, we had not dressed in our clean Khaki uniform, so I just got blood on my white t-shirt and utility trousers. I bit my lip sucking on the blood as I ran up to the DI Office. As it turns out it was our Platoon Commander Staff Sgt McDaniels who opened the door, and not the DI who had chewed us out. He took one look at me standing at attention bleeding, and said, "Why you dumb B____h” and slammed the door hard in my face. Not knowing what else to do, I just stood there at attention. Pretty soon he opened up the door and had a styptic pencil that he stopped the blood with and told me I better not get it started bleeding again. Well, I never heard about it again, Ernie razzed me a bit about it, and we passed the inspection with a very good rating. Ernie continued encouraging me on. Apparently he did not get any flack or at least he didn't tell me he had.
Imagine my shock standing in formation a few weeks later at the rifle range when I heard a thud, rattle, and clang. I snuck a peak and there was Ernie flat on his back passed out. He had gotten pneumonia. They let him try to qualify the next day, but he had landed on the rifle sights to begin with and then was probably shaking from the chills – he did not do well. They sent him to the hospital, and while I was able to see him a few times from afar; he was put into a platoon about three or four weeks behind us. About 12 years later I was mining coal in Wyoming, and I joined the US Navy Reserve. On one of the middle weekends of my yearly two-week training in California, I called Ernie, who was working there, and he gave me a good tour of Alameda. I believe I got one letter from him later forwarded from my folks; and then my Brother-in-Law Jim called me with the news Ernie had passed away.
As Ernie, myself, and our platoon used to have to shout before we could go into the chow hall, “Sir, the Marine Corps is…One hundred and ninety-nine years of walking, talking Hell, Death and Destruction. The most Belligerent, Aggressive fighting force the World Has Ever Seen! OOOH.Rah, OOOH.Rah, OOH.Rah!”.
Ernie was a good friend and a good Marine.