Ribbon Creek incident

The Ribbon Creek incident occurred on the night of April 8, 1956, when Staff Sergeant Matthew McKeon, a junior drill instructor at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, marched his assigned platoon into Ribbon Creek, a swampy tidal creek. The incident resulted in the deaths of six US Marine Corps recruits. McKeon was found guilty of possession and use of alcoholic beverage.

On April 8, 1956, at approximately 8 P.M., Staff Sergeant Matthew McKeon, a combat veteran of World War II and the Korean War, led Platoon 71, his assigned platoon of 74 recruits, on an extra exercise to Ribbon Creek. It was proven during the trial that Staff Sergeant McKeon was not intoxicated or under the influence of alcohol at the time of the exercise. McKeon led the platoon toward a swampy tidal creek on Parris Island, near the Marine Corps recruit depot and conducted an exercise in the Creek. McKeon entered the water first. The recruits were joking and fooling around in the water. The recruits broke formation as they entered the creek into the swamps adjacent to the Weapons Training Battalion on April 8, 1956. The platoon marched along the creek bed and some into deeper water. Some of the men could not swim, however, and six drowned during the incident: Private Thomas Curtis Hardeman, 1587021; Private First Class Donald Francis O’Shea, 1550900; Private Charles Francis Reilly, 1566628; Private Jerry Lamonte Thomas, 1585496; Private Leroy Thompson, 1590031; and Private Norman Alfred Wood, 1590034.

Between 9:00 P.M. and 9:20 P.M. Captain Patrick called Colonel W.B. McKean, USMC the Commanding Officer of Weapons Training Battalion, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island South Carolina. Captain Patrick reported: "We're in trouble. There are a bunch of recruits coming back to building 761 and it seems that the DI has been marching them through the swamps. I'm going down now to investigate it." Colonel McKean, without knowing more, responded: "Lock up the DI. Send to sickbay those that need it. Get the rest of them policed up and call me back as soon as you know the number of that platoon and the battalion." On Monday April 9, 1956 a Court of Inquiry was convened to inquire into the circumstances surrounding the marching of platoon 71 into Ribbon Creek. The proceedings began on April 10, 1956. Sergeant McKeon was initially represented by a Marine Corps attorney but on April 14, 1956, his brother in law, Thomas P. Costello stepped into the case to defend Sergeant McKeon. Mr. Costello was assisted by another New York lawyer, Jim McGarry and Lt. Jeremiah Collins, the appointed Marine Corps counsel. There was no specific prohibition against entering the creek, as noted Colonel McKean in his memoir, Brigadier General William B. McKean, Ribbon Creek When asked by counsel for the defense, Mr. Costello, whether there were any orders that prohibited using the marshes and swamp areas for training exercises, Colonel McKean answered: "....To the best of my knowledge the only order that relates to swamps has to do with marching down around the area of Elliot's Beach..." During the Court of Inquiry proceedings Mr. Costello asserted that night marches were common exercises. In his memoir, Ribbon Creek at p. 228, Colonel McKean wrote that General "Burger's efforts to deny the practice of night marches into swamps becomes ludicrous when we analyze the argument of his ghost writer, Major Faw." id. Colonel McKean confirmed this practice by inquiring of approximately eighteen Marines assisting in the search of Ribbon Creek on April 10, 1956 whether any had marched at night into the swamps. The answer was a "clear majority."

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