GUNNY VISIT - Retired Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. R. Lee Ermey of TV's "Mail Call" meets with Army Spc. Steve Perez at Camp Roberts before Perez's deployment to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Over the Memorial Day weekend, Ermey traveled to Kuwait to renew ties with Antelope Valley soldiers deployed to the Middle East. DENNIS ANDERSON/Valley Press files

Ermey visits troops at Camp Victory

'Mail Call' star hopes to film for his show

By DENNIS ANDERSON
Valley Press editor

The TV and film star and former real-life Marine Corps drill instructor made his way toward Camp Victory near the Iraqi border with Kuwait for a Memorial Day visit.

"These National Guard troops are my neighbors and a lot of them used to be Marines, and once a Marine, always a Marine," Ermey said during an earlier visit with troops from the 1498th Transportation Co.

Ermey, who lives in Palmdale, traveled to visit with the transporter troops from the "Big Awesome Truck Company" in April when they were training at Camp Roberts near the central California Coast.

"The Gunny is my kind of soldier," said 1st Sgt. James Earl Norris, the top kick sergeant of the National Guard company that drew troops together from across California.

Norris and the company commander, Capt. Matthew R. Hook, bonded with Ermey in soldierly fashion during the earlier visit, and Ermey signed hundreds of autographs, many of them on soldiers' helmet covers.

Now, the soldiers have sand-colored equipment to sign.

About a third of the soldiers in the unit make their homes in the Antelope Valley and the high desert regions of California. Another large segment comes from San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

"These are good soldiers, and they are fighting terrorism, and going to Iraq to end tyranny and make the world a little more safe and a little more decent, and there's nothing wrong with that," Ermey said during his earlier visit.

Before the group departed for Kuwait, Ermey asked them if they were "ready to fight? Ready to win!"

"Hooah!" the group answered in unison during a special formation at Camp Roberts.

For his visit to Kuwait, Ermey wanted to film a special segment of his TV show involving troops engaged in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

He asked specifically to come to Camp Victory because that was the camp base for the troops from California and the National Guard.

Ermey arrived in Kuwait on Sunday, according to Lt. Col. Steve Forster, who holds the position of "mayor," the top administrator's position at Camp Victory.

He said his troops were thrilled at the prospect of meeting Ermey, who became famous as the hard-charging, hard-nosed, obscenity-flinging drill instructor in the classic Vietnam War film "Full Metal Jacket" directed by Stanley Kubrick.

Forster said troops at Victory were getting a Memorial Day weekend holiday bonus.

"Over at Camp Doha, they get a day off," Forster said of the rear-area base on the coast. "Doha gets a day off, but we get the Gunny!"

Sgt. Jeremy Wulf shouted, "The Gunny rocks!" and danced a victory jig when he heard of Ermey's pending visit to Camp Victory.

Spc. Lacey McCormick vowed to be "the first one in line at the mess hall" when Ermey arrived, and Staff Sgt. Bob Rothamer repeated Ermey's D.I. speech from "Full Metal Jacket" word for word until everyone in the camp headquarters tent was rolling on the floor in laughter.