Matthew McKeon
| Matthew McKeon | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | October 26, 1924 |
| Died | November 11, 2003 (aged 79) West Boylston, Massachusetts |
| Allegiance | United States of America |
| Service/branch | United States Marine Corps |
| Years of service | 1948–1959 (USMC) |
| Rank | Corporal Demoted from Staff Sergeant |
| Unit | 3rd Recruit Training Battalion |
| Battles/wars | |
Matthew McKeon (October 26 1924 – November 11, 2003) was a Corporal who had once been a Staff Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps who gained notoriety during the Ribbon Creek incident which occurred at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, on April 8, 1956. He was also a combat veteran of World War II and the Korean War.
McKeon was born into a very large, close family of the Roman Catholic faith. He served in the United States Navy during World War II aboard the USS Essex. He toiled in a factory before joining the Marine Corps in 1948. He mentioned how harsh the training at Parris Island was at the time. For example, he and his fellow recruits were once forced to crawl through pig manure as part of a drill. McKeon served in the Korean War for fourteen months as the leader of a machine gun squad.
After the war, McKeon was selected for drill instructor training. He completed the rigorous school graduating 14th out of 55 (90 students had begun the course). His superiors thought him bright, hard-working and alert. The psychiatrists who examined him found no evidence of mental abnormality, but did mention he had a tendency towards acting before thinking.
McKeon was assigned to Platoon 71, "A" Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion. On Sunday night, April 8, 1956, between 2000 and 2045, he marched 74 men of Platoon 71 from their barracks to Ribbon Creek, one of the tidal streams on Parris Island, and led the men into the water. Some of them got into depths over their heads, panic ensued, and six recruits drowned in the resulting confusion.
The ill-fated march set off immediate repercussions which shook Marine Corps training from top to bottom. Moreover, an uninterrupted flood of publicity by the press, radio, and television divided the country into two camps, those who condemned McKeon for what had happened and those who sympathized with him.
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