In this Veteran Story, The Lost Art Project Historical Archivist Christopher Campbell sits down with fellow Marine and Marine Corps League member Keith Wiesman to preserve the story of his service in the United States Marine Corps.

A Tulsa, Oklahoma native and 1975 graduate of Nathan Hale High School, Keith recalls how a summer job at a local foundry—and a buddy unexpectedly announcing that he had joined the Marine Corps—helped set him on a completely different path.

Keith entered the Marine Corps in 1975 and trained at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island. In a remarkable coincidence, his platoon graduated on November 10, 1975—the 200th birthday of the United States Marine Corps.

After communications training at Twenty-Nine Palms, Keith served as a communications center Marine, MOS 2542, with assignments that took him to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, Korea during Exercise Team Spirit, and eventually Camp Pendleton, California, where he served with 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines.

Keith shares memories of serving in the Pacific during the Cold War, visiting Hiroshima, participating in cold-weather training in Japan, and being placed on alert during the tensions surrounding Operation Paul Bunyan in Korea. He also remembers the friendships, motorcycles, liberty, field exercises, amphibious training, and everyday experiences that became some of the most enduring memories of his time as a Marine.

After leaving active duty in 1978, Keith attended Oklahoma State University using the GI Bill before beginning a career in financial services and eventually returning to the Tulsa area.

Throughout the conversation, Keith reflects on much more than duty stations and dates. He talks about the lessons the Marine Corps taught him about communication, leadership, perseverance, dealing with different personalities, and discovering that people are often capable of enduring far more than they think.

More than fifty years after stepping onto the yellow footprints, the influence of those experiences—and the Marines who shared them with him—remains.

Veteran: Keith Wiesman Branch: United States Marine Corps Years of Active Service: 1975–1978 MOS: 2542 — Communication Center Man Duty Stations/Assignments Discussed: MCRD Parris Island; Twenty-Nine Palms; MCAS Iwakuni, Japan; Korea/Exercise Team Spirit; Camp Pendleton; 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines Historical Archivist / Interviewer: Christopher Campbell

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