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The War That Lasted 38 Minutes and Other Fascinating Warfare History

Khalid Elhassan November 18, 2021 35 min

Destroyed Ottoman equipment and carriages after the 1918 Battle of Megiddo. Imperial War Museums

27. The Kid Who Desperately Wanted to be a US Marine

Dan Bullock was born in 1953 in Goldsboro, North Carolina, where he lived until his mother died when Dan was twelve-years-old. So he and his younger sister moved to Brooklyn, to live with their father and stepmother. When Dan was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, his top three picks were a cop, a pilot, or a Marine. He eventually decided to give the Marines a try. However, he did not want to wait until he grew up.

In September 1968, fourteen-year-old Dan headed to a United States Marine Corps recruitment center with a doctored birth certificate. The birth year on the document was altered from 1953 to 1949, which made him eighteen – old enough to enlist. Although just fourteen, Dan was big and strong for his age – 5 foot 9, and 160 pounds. He made it through boot camp in Parris Island and became a bonafide Marine. Unfortunately, his tale soon took a turn from the cute to the tragic.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.