The Onion

"The Onion" (LtC Vincent P. Hart, USMC) was an AOC in the late 60s/early 70s.

[edit] Accounts

The Onion was infamous for turning people in for honor violations...cadets at Farish ate an abandoned watermelon...HV since it wasn't theirs...a cadet, wearing civvies, was driving through the North Gate, in a car borrowed from an officer. The AP salutes the cadet (because of the officer's decal on the bumper) the cadet returns the salute. The Onion was behind the cadet, follows the cadet to the area, gets his name, and turns him in for an HV, for impersonating an officer. - (Aug 17, 2000)
The "Onion Head" Gyreen referred to . . . was my 28th Sq AOC. What a turkey. Used to carry a swagger stick around slapping his thigh as he walked. I remember him lecturing the squadron about the importance of short haircuts and why he shaved his head. He said he kept his head shaved because he got used to it when he was in Viet Nam. Had shaved his head over there for hygiene purposes. He also said he kept it shaved so that the next time he got "THE CALL" from "THE MAN" (whoever that is) to go back over there, he wouldn't have to waste time stopping by the barber's for a head shave. Can you believe it? Of course, there's NFW he would ever get THE CALL from THE MAN again to go back to Nam and fly, since on his first tour he was shot down twice, both times on consecutive Valentine's Days. No way THE MAN would send him back to trash a couple more of those A-4s or whatever piece of shit the Marine aviators were flying back then.

The recent post whining about the use of sabres in SAMI inspections, much like Proust's cookie, sparked my memory of a SAMI inspection by the Green Onion. The Green Onion came by his nickname by virtue of the fact that he was a bald Marine colonel. He was such an asshole that cadets were known to deviate around the cadet chapel to avoid passing him on the Terrazzo. One SAMI, my roommate and I had outdone ourselves in buffing our floor to an ungodly slickness. After the rap at the door entrance and a shouted "Room, tenhut", my next memory was that of the Green Onion sliding across our floor and slamming into the heating/air conditioning unit. After composing himself, he looked at me and said, "Nice floor, Heater." He then noticed my roommate Rick's bookend, which was a bottle of Jack Daniels. He asked Rick what it was and Rick responded, "Iced tea". The Onion checked and sure enough it was tea. The Onion next became excited by what appeared to be a can of Budweiser in one of Rick's desk drawers. He asked Rick what it was and when Rick replied that it was a radio. The Onion turned it upside down and discovered that it was indeed a beer can radio. Finally, the Onion discovered an illegal popcorn popper that I had hidden beneath my boot rack. I was certain I was up shit creek. Instead the Onion turned to me and smiling said "nice stereo, Heater." - nemoman, 1973

Yes.... I remember him well from good old CS-28 back in '68. He was a Major then, later an LTC. . . . He would (on occasion) appear in full marine corps dress uni, complete with white hat, swagger stick and white gloves during SAMIs. BTW - He was much harder on the upperclassmen than the smacks.
One bright Saturday morning, when he inspected our room (smack year), he couldn't find one thing wrong (believe it or not). Not even a smudge on his glove when he dragged a finger through the window slider. He was really perplexed and stood silently for quite awhile. We both figured he was trying to figure out how to say "great room" in Marine Corps-ese. Well, he finally turns to my roommate and asks, "Cadet ______, if I run my glove over the pipes under the sink, will it come out dirty?" My roomie (stunned as usual--he was from Nebraska) stood there like a tool, and after what seemed like an eternity, eventually stammered, "SIR, yes SIR, it would, SIR!"
The Onion at first frowned, then all of a sudden smiled at him and said, "Good answer." He turned and left the room with our squadron CC behind him trying his damndest not to laugh. Later in the morning our Squadron CC came back, put us at ease and gave us 1 hour of TV time. We didn't use the TV time. - Una Voce, 1972

Vincent P. Hart, Jr., was a 1954 Naval Academy graduate who retired as a Marine Colonel. I was in the USAFA faculty 1967-71 but worked closely with cadets because I was a faculty advisor to several squadrons, flew cadets in the T-33, was OIC of the Rally Committee, worked on several BCTs, helped out with Dodo censoring, etc. Vince was a strange bird, a latent human being and the only person I have ever know that had put shoe trees in his sneakers! I suggested to him that he should get one of those vanity license plates with the message "Hut, 2,3,4." He even tried to chew me out because one of the zippers in my flight suit was not zipped. From then on, every time I saw him I would unzip all my zippers. A few of us fighter pilots at USAFA (Norm Campbell, Chuck Cunningham, Howie Bodenhamer, Jim Wilhelm) would unzip all our zippers when Vince Hart would approach. It drove him crazy and I think he "reported us" to Robin Olds....who laughed like hell. On the other hand, he meant well. - Hector Negroni, 1961