The Marine veterans who would follow their gunnery sergeant anywhere followed him Saturday to the San Diego Harbor two years after he died of prostate cancer.
Wearing caps that said, “John L. Canley,” some carrying canes and wiping away tears, the men watched as a massive warship named for the longtime Oxnard resident they knew as Gunny was commissioned into the Navy fleet.
James Bishop, an 18-year-old corporal when he served with Gunny, now 75 and living in Delaware, remembered how he and other Vietnam War veterans were snubbed or ignored after the war. He thought too of the 50 years it took for Canley to get the recognition his Marines knew he deserved.
“Vindication,” he said, standing with the other members of Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines at Naval Station North Island, just feet from the USS John L. Canley. “It’s just a way of recognizing what we did.”
In January 1968, outside of Hue City, they were outnumbered by enemy troops by the thousands. Rockets exploded around them. Lying face first in the mud, some of them didn’t want to move.