I phoned Col. Chace at his home in Florida a couple of years ago. We talked for
about 30 minutes during which time I enjoyed his sense of humor that left me in stitches and his quick memory about certain events in Vietnam. When I referred to him as Col. Chace he quickly said, "Call me Stub." I thought about his request. I even tried it out on myself, silently saying, "Remember Stub when..." but I immediately realized that there was no way that I would have been able to address this man as anything but Col. Chace! He was my Commanding Officer in Vietnam and even though this conversation was happening 30 plus years after I'd been discharged from the USMC, I found that this man and officer continued to warrant that irrevocable status as SIR!
I doubt that Col. Chace was even aware of the respect that he still commanded but
we continued our conversation and I found myself asking him if he remembered commanding
a brief operation. We had moved a leper colony to a safer location. It was
basically a relatively routine procedure. We took a handful of sniper rounds when we picked up
the lepers but other than that it went smoothly. We successfully moved their colony
to a new home but what remained in my memory over the years was that Col. Chace,
CO of "B" Co. and then XCO of 3rd Amtrac Bn. went out on these operations with his men.
A lot of us enlisted men in "B" Company thought this was one KICK ASS Marine.
I've been on the Colonel's email list now for a couple of years. He has shown his
ongoing care for the people he writes. Col. Chace has also revealed a personal side
of himself in these emails that many would never consider showing. His sense of
humor is heart warming and I'm one Marine that feels very special not only to receive email
from Col. Chace but to have followed him into battle while a radio operator with 3rd Amtrac
Bn.
Did I ask Col. Chace's permission to put this here on his website? HELL NO I didn't
but then I am the webmaster of his website and since I write the HTML the link stays. I wanted my feelings and I'm sure many other Marine's feelings who served under Col.
Chace placed on the Internet. I'm fairly certain that if I asked him if he would mind
if I put up a page like this, it would probably have embarassed him and I would have had to
abide by his wishes when he asked me to remove it.
It's heart breaking to see "OUR" list of Amtracer's Online lose beloved Marines. I
really needed to put this page up while Col. Chace is healthy, alive and with us.
Any other Marines have something to say about Col. Chace email me and I'll place your comments on his website.
SEMPER FI
Roy Stanford
EMAIL
