Don H. Gee

Marine hunted down snipers during Missile Crisis.

By Natalya Bucuy, Correspondent


“Whatever I am today I owe it to the Marine Corps.”

For military journalist and public affairs chief Don H. Gee, life as a Marine did not end after his departure from the Corps in 1977. He is, in fact, a Marine for life.

Gee was born in Bristol, but grew up in Warrington and graduated from Central Bucks Joint High School – now CB West. His father, a World War II Marine, did not push his son to join the military, but what he brought from his experiences in the Marine Corps attracted young Gee.

“When my father came home from World War II he didn’t talk much about it. The only thing he would say is that the times were rough,” Gee recalls. ”But I noticed that people he associated with, the Marines, they had a bond. I guess that’s pretty much what did it.

“I always wanted to join the Marines,” Gee says. “Even as a kid – you play cowboys and Indians – I played Marines and Indians.”

Gee’s 20-year Marine career began on November 20, 1957.

“I was 18 and I decided - now was the time to join the Marines,” Gee said. “I have absolutely no regrets.”

Gee chose public information specialty. He attended a Navy Journalist School in Great Lakes, Ill. As staff sergeant he managed and edited a number of Marine newspapers and publications.

Gee traveled the world with the Marine Corps. His training and service within the United States’ borders took him to California, Florida, Illinois, Georgia, and Virginia. After completing his training Gee went on a six-month Mediterranean cruise, then a two-month Caribbean cruise.

Gee’s favorite tour took him to Iwakuni, Japan – the location of Marine Corps air station, where Gee taught conversational English to auto plant workers.

“I had the opportunity to explore a culture that I only heard about,” he says. “When you get involved with people like that you learn a lot more about the culture and a lot of myths are dispelled. You have to experience it. To me it was more than educational. It was educational and fun.”

Gee goes on to explain that his father was a World War II veteran to whom Japanese were “the bad guys.” Gee’s experience in Japan gave him an opportunity to learn for himself what Japanese culture was about. He made friends and exchanged cultural values.

Even though Gee never went to Vietnam – “I think they were saving me for the big one,” he says, he smelled the gunfire of the Cuban Missile Crisis in Dominican Republic as his squad knocked on doors in Santo Domingo looking for hiding snipers.

Gee retired as a gunnery sergeant in 1977. He continued his communication career as a public affairs officer for various organizations, including a number of veterans’ associations. He graduated with a degree in business administration from Delaware Valley College in 1987.

Even though Gee celebrates his 71st birthday this October, he is far from quiet retirement.
Working 18 hours a day from his home office in Chalfont, Gee manages DHG and Associates together with his wife, Iris. Their organization provides a variety of membership services to veterans’ organizations.

For the past few years Gee also served as grand marshal of the Doylestown Memorial Day Parade.

Gee has two children – son Don Jr. and daughter Tammy. Don Jr. continued the family path and served in the Marine Corps.

Gee is proud of his family tradition with the Marines. Years after leaving the Marine Corps, Gee values his military years and Marine Corps connections more than anything.

“Being a Marine is an obligation you can never fulfill,” he says. “Society holds Marines to a higher standard. The opinions of my Marine friends are more important to me than anyone else’s. There is no hidden agenda with the Marines – what you see is what you get.”