Navy and the Cubs; Small town kid comes of age

By Jon Bisnett

When the editor tasks you to come up some local color in the way of human interest stories, one seldom finds a topic that tells not only a local guy’s story, but includes veterans with an obscure tie-in to the reigning World Champion Chicago Cubs. The late Jimmy the Greek would have called that kind of timing a “Trifecta!”

The year is 1966 and a Hartford High School senior is listening to a pitch from the Navy Recruiter about a special unit being formed of young men from Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. Then just 17 years old, Terry Tibbs signed up, enlisting before graduation, and by that July was in basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station just north of Chicago. Great Lakes still stands today as the only true “Boot Camp” of the U.S. Navy.

Seaman Terry Tibbs – 1968

As Terry recalls there was not a whole lot special about this special unit his recruiter had described until it was revealed that the Chicago Cubs would be sponsoring the unit. Chicago Cubs Company 402, 1st Regiment, 20th Battalion was born.

Boot Camp

 “Boot camp was still boot camp whether you have a major baseball team in your unit name or not!” recalls Tibbs. Company 402 saw no special privilege during basics. But no other recruits can claim they were sworn in along third base line at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs connection was a public relations move to make an attempt at connecting something as American as apple pie to a unit headed out to a largely unpopular war in the Vietnam jungle some 8,400 miles away. The year 1968 saw American B-52s bombing North Vietnam for the first time since the conflict began. Just a few months later veterans from World War I and II joined Korean War Vets in New York City for a major protest condemning the war.

“Hey Hey – Holy Mackerel”

 The Company proudly carried the colors of our nation and the Navy alongside the official flag of the Chicago Cubs. When the unit completed basic training in September of ’68 the Navy loaded them on a bus for another trip to Wrigley Field for a very special and public graduation ceremony.

“They lined us all up on the third base line to swear us in,” recalls Tibbs, “And I remember shaking hands with Ernie Banks at our graduation.” WGN’s Jack Brickhouse was at the microphone and Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daly joined Illinois Junior Miss Kathryn Benysh and a host of Cubs players in saluting the Company that carried the Cubs’ moniker.

Die hard Cubs fans remember the power lineup of the mid 60’s with names like Don Kessinger, Glenn Beckert, Kenny Holtzman, Randy Huntley, Billy Williams and Ferguson Jerkins; while Ryne Sandburg was just a pup, signing with the team in the spring of ‘66. Three years later these Cubs did their level best to break the curse only to be shocked in late season by the ’69 Miracle Mets.

Not all fun & games

 While the Cubs make for some interesting press and unique bit of sports history, the real work of wartime was at hand.

Young Tibbs found himself serving stateside as a medic at Great Lakes. “The wounded would come in on buses from Glenview Naval Air Station…” said Tibbs, “…and you have to remember we didn’t have all the modern medical equipment like nowadays, especially in the way of prosthetics.”  Terry described a couple of those “things you just can’t ever unsee,” that still haunt his memory, which we will just leave to the reader’s imagination.

NAVY AND THE CUBS… Cubs fans will recognize the iconic WGN Sportscaster Jack Brickhouse serving as master of ceremonies during the Septem-ber 1966 graduation of USN Chicago Cubs Company 402. The unit comprised of recruits from Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin carried the Cubs flag as a public relations effort in the midst of the otherwise unpopular Vietnam War. Note the vines on the outfield wall, the classic scoreboard and the WGN logo atop the roof over-looking the “Friendly Confines” of Wrigley Field. The young lady was then reigning Illinois Junior Miss Kathryn Benysh, while the player to her right is nine time All Star Third Base-man Ron Santo and the lanky fellow way over on the far left is none other than the legendary Mr. Cub himself, Ernie Banks. Amid all the ceremony was an eighteen year old kid from the small town of Hartford, Seaman Terry Tibbs, who remembers it well.

One might stop a moment and ask… why did this kid ever enlist for such an unpopular war in the first place?

Facts are that the Selective Service System of the U.S. drafted 382,010 men into service during 1966, the highest total during the Vietnam War. In the young Tibbs’ eyes, it was just a matter of time.

Terry was scheduled to join with the Marines at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina to then ship out, but a chronic issue with asthma kept him stateside. “We drove home every weekend, but never in uniform. We only dressed on base due to the nature of the times.” said Tibbs.

Terry’s service was just two years, ending April 10, 1968. ’68 also saw the Tet Offensive in January and the My Lai Massacre in March. A turbulent year when just days before his discharge Tibbs recalls the whole base going on lock down the day Martin Luther King was slain in Memphis.

Later that year the Democratic National Convention would experience anti-war protests that erupted into violence while the whole world watched on their black & white TVs. It would still be another seven years before the last American troops evacuated on April 30 as Saigon fell to the Communist regime.

Now 50 years later Tibbs wonders where the 100 men of Chicago Cubs Company 402 all ended. They have never had a reunion; he hopes perhaps this article may somehow find its way to some of the guys with which he served.

Those were some turbulent times indeed, but in no way does the nature of the conflict diminish the honor of all those who served.