About The Author
I am Bernie Marvin, author of the stories in this book.
I write and shoot photographs for a living and have done so in my civilian life since 1968. I have done a wide assortment of other activities, but for the past 13 years I have produced photo features and columns for The Bridge Weekly newspaper located in Woodsville, New Hampshire.
In my former life, I worked with various newspapers until 1978, when my wife, Polly, and I moved to New Hampshire. At that time, I had been involved in publishing my own weekly newspapers—including one in Kingston, Massachusetts—and producing work on several national magazines for Stanley Cobb, owner of Pilgrim Publishers, also of Kingston.
I began my photojournalism adventure while I was a 6th grade student at the Wyman School in Winchester, Massachusetts, where I shot photos and wrote little ditties about fellow students or events at the grade school. I posted those stories and photos on a school bulletin board for everyone to read. Teachers and students enjoyed seeing the activities covered by a Wyman School youngster with his Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera he had with him every day. That led to better cameras, and by the time I was in high school I was shooting with my own 4X5 Speed Graphic, just like the big guys on the Boston Globe, the Boston Post and the Boston American newspapers.
After graduating from Winchester High School in 1955, I was looking at the Selective Service draft lurking in the background, so I dodged the draft and joined the Marine Corps. After the rigors of Parris Island and subsequent combat training, I was eventually shipped to Quantico Marine Base, where I was assigned to Photographic Services there.
I worked hard and created some good photography, and was eventually transferred to Leatherneck Magazine in Arlington, Virginia, as a combat photographer and basic Marine Rifleman. While there, I was sent to a variety of bases around the country to cover events for publication in the magazine.
When the invasion of Lebanon was about to happen, I was called back off leave and flown to the Middle East, where I was part of the Second Marine Division’s Lebanon landings in July 1958. I operated throughout that country, into Syria and returned to the magazine later that winter.
My photo stories from those days in the Middle East were widely published by the Marine Corps, and on July 4, 1959, I was discharged from active duty and transferred to the Marine Reserves in Boston, Massachusetts. I continued with my photographic efforts, eventually publishing a string of newspapers I founded, including six tabloid newspapers for the New England Junior Hockey League and weekly newspapers in Kingston, Halifax and other towns on the South Shore of Massachusetts.
In 2004, Peter Kimball of North Haverhill, New Hampshire, asked me to join him in the effort of founding and publishing a strong, local newspaper with him, The Bridge Weekly. We worked together and a short time later the first weekly samples of the color tabloid rolled off the presses on February 6, 2006, and it was put in circulation a short time later.
As a solid staff-written newspaper that is community-based and woven together with a large commitment of care and understanding, The Bridge Weekly continues today as it has for 14 years. My weekly column, Bernie’s Beat, is the basis for most of the stories in the book you are now reading. I have written more than 700 Bernie’s Beat columns and I plan to include many of those is a series of books to follow this one.
After those books have been published, I have some interesting stories to tell about my days in the Marine Corps, padding around the world and seeing far too many things going on that were interesting, dangerous, ridiculous, unbelievable and adventurous. Many of those experiences and the good people involved I still think about to this day. I want to share some of these experiences with readers.
Thank you for reading my books. Comments can be made to berniemarvin@gmail.com.
I would love to hear from you.
Bernie Marvin
Bernard Marvin Publishing
Post Office Box 65
Piermont, NH 03779