My Brother- My Hero
Gean (Geno) was my brother and my best friend growing up. He was a rebel all his life and didn't let anyone take advantage of me or my sister, I was sad when he joined the Marines right out of high school. And so it was Gean Douglas Banks embarked on board August 11th 1967 at MACS EL TORO, CAlifornia as a Private in the United States Marine Corps. His military records show that he signed up on 2/2/1967 and served his country from 8/11/1967 until 2/1/1971 earning the National Defense Service Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, Purple Heart Medal, Vietnamese Service Medal, Vietnamese Campaign Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, Good Conduct Medal and the Vietnamese Cross or Gal. Geno was a radio telephone operator, known as Signal Corps in todays times. He traveled the world fighting in many combats based on his military records. Geno's test scores were high especially in Electronics Information. This was due to training with our father while growing up. Our father was a Master ELectrician for over 30 years ( self taught with an 8th grade education) and later became the first black City Electricial Inspector in the City of Houston.
Back to Geno, he scored 110 and 103 in Electronics and passed with high scores in all other phases of his job as a Marine. On February 10th 1968 he was wounded by shrapnel while in Quang Nam Province, RVN. He never gave up and as soon as he was able he started on other missions. On April 18th 1969, CPL Banks was recommended for promotion to SGT, however he didn't maintain this position due to his choice to leave active duty. He would have had to hold the position for 2 years to keep the rank. Based on his separation date of 2/1/1971 CPL Banks was shy of 2 months to remain a SGT. What a shame after serving his country and being wounded they couldn't or wouldn't give him those 2 months. Cpl. Banks did serve in the Reserves until January 1973.
Gean (Geno) was my brother and my best friend growing up. He was a rebel all his life and didn't let anyone take advantage of me or my sister, I was sad when he joined the Marines right out of high school. And so it was Gean Douglas Banks embarked on board August 11th 1967 at MACS EL TORO, CAlifornia as a Private in the United States Marine Corps. His military records show that he signed up on 2/2/1967 and served his country from 8/11/1967 until 2/1/1971 earning the National Defense Service Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, Purple Heart Medal, Vietnamese Service Medal, Vietnamese Campaign Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, Good Conduct Medal and the Vietnamese Cross or Gal. Geno was a radio telephone operator, known as Signal Corps in todays times. He traveled the world fighting in many combats based on his military records. Geno's test scores were high especially in Electronics Information. This was due to training with our father while growing up. Our father was a Master ELectrician for over 30 years ( self taught with an 8th grade education) and later became the first black City Electricial Inspector in the City of Houston.
Back to Geno, he scored 110 and 103 in Electronics and passed with high scores in all other phases of his job as a Marine. On February 10th 1968 he was wounded by shrapnel while in Quang Nam Province, RVN. He never gave up and as soon as he was able he started on other missions. On April 18th 1969, CPL Banks was recommended for promotion to SGT, however he didn't maintain this position due to his choice to leave active duty. He would have had to hold the position for 2 years to keep the rank. Based on his separation date of 2/1/1971 CPL Banks was shy of 2 months to remain a SGT. What a shame after serving his country and being wounded they couldn't or wouldn't give him those 2 months. Cpl. Banks did serve in the Reserves until January 1973.
My Brother- My Hero
Gean (Geno) was my brother and my best friend growing up. He was a rebel all his life and didn't let anyone take advantage of me or my sister, I was sad when he joined the Marines right out of high school. And so it was Gean Douglas Banks embarked on board August 11th 1967 at MACS EL TORO, CAlifornia as a Private in the United States Marine Corps. His military records show that he signed up on 2/2/1967 and served his country from 8/11/1967 until 2/1/1971 earning the National Defense Service Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, Purple Heart Medal, Vietnamese Service Medal, Vietnamese Campaign Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, Good Conduct Medal and the Vietnamese Cross or Gal. Geno was a radio telephone operator, known as Signal Corps in todays times. He traveled the world fighting in many combats based on his military records. Geno's test scores were high especially in Electronics Information. This was due to training with our father while growing up. Our father was a Master ELectrician for over 30 years ( self taught with an 8th grade education) and later became the first black City Electricial Inspector in the City of Houston.
Back to Geno, he scored 110 and 103 in Electronics and passed with high scores in all other phases of his job as a Marine. On February 10th 1968 he was wounded by shrapnel while in Quang Nam Province, RVN. He never gave up and as soon as he was able he started on other missions. On April 18th 1969, CPL Banks was recommended for promotion to SGT, however he didn't maintain this position due to his choice to leave active duty. He would have had to hold the position for 2 years to keep the rank. Based on his separation date of 2/1/1971 CPL Banks was shy of 2 months to remain a SGT. What a shame after serving his country and being wounded they couldn't or wouldn't give him those 2 months. Cpl. Banks did serve in the Reserves until January 1973.
Gean (Geno) was my brother and my best friend growing up. He was a rebel all his life and didn't let anyone take advantage of me or my sister, I was sad when he joined the Marines right out of high school. And so it was Gean Douglas Banks embarked on board August 11th 1967 at MACS EL TORO, CAlifornia as a Private in the United States Marine Corps. His military records show that he signed up on 2/2/1967 and served his country from 8/11/1967 until 2/1/1971 earning the National Defense Service Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, Purple Heart Medal, Vietnamese Service Medal, Vietnamese Campaign Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, Good Conduct Medal and the Vietnamese Cross or Gal. Geno was a radio telephone operator, known as Signal Corps in todays times. He traveled the world fighting in many combats based on his military records. Geno's test scores were high especially in Electronics Information. This was due to training with our father while growing up. Our father was a Master ELectrician for over 30 years ( self taught with an 8th grade education) and later became the first black City Electricial Inspector in the City of Houston.
Back to Geno, he scored 110 and 103 in Electronics and passed with high scores in all other phases of his job as a Marine. On February 10th 1968 he was wounded by shrapnel while in Quang Nam Province, RVN. He never gave up and as soon as he was able he started on other missions. On April 18th 1969, CPL Banks was recommended for promotion to SGT, however he didn't maintain this position due to his choice to leave active duty. He would have had to hold the position for 2 years to keep the rank. Based on his separation date of 2/1/1971 CPL Banks was shy of 2 months to remain a SGT. What a shame after serving his country and being wounded they couldn't or wouldn't give him those 2 months. Cpl. Banks did serve in the Reserves until January 1973.
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