By Phil Roberts, posted July 2, 2025
At the end of June, 1971, the 1st Marine Division became the last infantry division to leave Vietnam. During this time, the USMC began downsizing to peacetime strength. As Public Affairs offices, while waiting for the inevitable downsizing, no longer had combat-related stories to write about, a number of them turned to writing interesting feature stories.One example was a widely published AP story about Pvt. Jesse Fenton who was the smallest Marine in history to “max” all of the physical training tests in boot camp. Pictured, the writing team of Pfc. Phil Roberts and Cpl. Merle Baranczyk confer with the photographer on the story, Sgt. Lonnie Roberts (no relation). The story ran worldwide, including the front page of the Los Angeles Times. Baranczyk, following his Marine service, bought a small daily in Colorado, the Mountain Mail in Salida, and built it into a Colorado chain. (He served as president of the Colorado Press Assoc. for a few years). Lonnie Roberts returned to his native town of Moberly, Mo., and ran photo studios. Pvt. Fenton was asked to participate in some Cal Tech experiments involving human locomotion in flight. What happened to the other Roberts? Well, that’s a story for another day…. (Photo likely taken by Cpl. Fred Cason, who, on leaving the Corps, became a CPA in Okla., and West Va., until his untimely death)
