Michael Schoenfeld, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by John C. Worsencroft, August 31 and October 6, 2009: Saving the Legacy tape nos. IA-3 and IA-9

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Michael Schoenfeld 1 u u t 2009 even quite ninety days later, I guess they got the word because we sh wed up for th mobilization. They'd called a bunch of guys in the Inactive Ready Reserve who were school-trained and brought them in. So we went over and we ended up backfilling 3rd Marine Division and were stationed in Okinawa, Japan, and we spend about nine months there primarily doing training. Our big mission was to, they were afraid there would be a threat of North Korea coming across because the US was engaged in Kuwait and Iraq. So our job was to kind of be there to be that backstop or safety valve in case that happened. So we primarily were training, getting ready for that. Spent a lot of time on these alert statuses where you couldn't leave base and whatnot. We kind of got tired at one point and our platoon commander arranged for us to go up to the northern training area. So we did get to spend about a month in the jungles of northern Okinawa, just kind of on our own. I also had an opportunity to go up to Mount Fuji, Japan, climb Mount Fuji. I remember getting home from that and talking to my sniper partner that I was with prior to all this happening and they talked about the difficulties they had integrating in with the new unit and just some things that went on. My big bragging point was, well, you know, I got mobilized and ended going to Disneyland in Japan. But all in all it was a good experience, got a lot of good training, particularly in the field that I was hoping to be in for quite a while. Unfortunately when we got done with that, the Marine Corps was transitioning from a regimental level sniper platoon down to battalion level sniper platoons. So when we returned home, this transaction took place. I guess it was a perfect time to do it. But they had taken all our rifles. In fact, the platoon formed up on our first formation after 7