MSG DET Uganda: The Uzi, the Coup, the Condoms

MSG DET Uganda: The Uzi, the Coup, the Condoms

In 1986, Staff Sergeant George Holguin arrived in Kampala, Uganda as a brand new detachment commander with one mission — establish the first permanent MSG detachment at the American embassy. Uganda had just come through a coup. On day one, the RSO handed him a .357 and an Uzi and told him to carry both around the clock. George talks about building a detachment from scratch in a post-coup country, navigating armed checkpoints, keeping young Marines focused, and an ambassador who had a very specific welcome for every single person who walked through his door — including a handful of condoms.

Under Arrest: The Night the Yugoslav Secret Police Took an MSG

Jim Vetternik was an MSG at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade when Yugoslav secret police arrested him outside a casino and threw him in an interrogation room. What happened over the next five hours is something most Marines never experience — and something the Marine Corps would rather not talk about. That wasn't even the strangest night of his MSG career. That came later in Madrid, standing post outside the Secretary of State's hotel room, when a three-hour massage turned into a diplomatic situation nobody had a protocol for.

Midnight in Minsk: Standing Post When the World Might End

In this episode of the Post One Podcast, retired Marine Bill Gwaltney takes us back to the late 1990s and life as an MSG in Cold War Belarus. Bill shares what it was like standing post in Minsk during the Y2K scare with embassy vehicles gassed up and a plan to run for the Lithuanian border, navigating constant counterintelligence threats, and accidentally CS gassing the Russian embassy next door.

Tehran 1979: Inside the First U.S. Embassy Takeover in Iran

Former MSG Glenn Parsons takes us inside the first takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979. Glenn arrived in Iran to 100,000 people chanting "Death to America" at the airport. Weeks later, armed attackers stormed the compound. Glenn dodged sniper fire sprinting to his post, destroyed classified material as rounds came through the walls, and was lined up against a brick wall with machine guns aimed at the group. He shares how the Marines prepared to rush the guns, how the ambassador negotiated with the clerics at bayonet point, and how Glenn's own words to a captor nearly cost a fellow Marine his life.

The Fall of Saigon: From Dress Blues to Bayonets

Retired Master Gunnery Sergeant Doug Drummond takes us back to 1975 Saigon, where he served as a young Lance Corporal. Doug shares what it was like to go from standing post in Dress Blue Charlies to wearing flak jackets and fixing bayonets as North Vietnamese forces closed in on the city. He recounts burning classified documents around the clock, screening evacuees as helicopters landed in the embassy parking lot, discovering a pool full of discarded pistols, losing two fellow Marines to a rocket attack, and ultimately being lifted off the embassy rooftop on one of the last helicopters out during Operation Frequent Wind.