Just a little about me, your lieutenant/cannon owner/website creator/friend. I was a Marine Corps brat and entered the Marine Corps in 1981 at Quantico, VA. I served as an artillery officer for 13 years "in every clime and place where we could take a gun," both on active duty and in the reserves. I served in these artillery regiments: the 12th Marines on Okinawa, Japan, the 10th Marines at Camp Lejeune, NC, and briefly in the 14th Marines in the Reserves. I had the privilege of commanding three batteries and serving with some of the finest Marines who ever wore the uniform. I was in the Gulf War in 1991 with the Second Marine Division.












I come from a long line of artillerymen. My Great-great grandfather Charles Detro was assigned to Battery I, 2nd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery when he died of acute bronchitis in 1864 at Chapel Springs Hospital near Ft. Saratoga in Washington, D.C.















My maternal grandfather, Corporal Leon Cohen, was a section chief on a M1917 155mm howitzer in Battery A, 306th Field Artillery Regiment, 77th Division, AEF, in World War One. He was gassed during the Meuse-Argonne Campaign in 1918 but survived. 











My paternal grandfather and namesake, Colonel Frank Hollingshead, served in the Army's Coastal Artillery Corps in World Wars One and Two and the period in-between. 












My father, Colonel John Hollingshead, served with the 11th Marines (artillery regiment) in the First Marine Division during the  Korean and Vietnam Wars. He commanded the 4th Battalion, 11th Marines, in Vietnam.












Lastly, in honor of all of those who came before us, I leave you with this quote from "Fix Bayonets!" by Captain John W. Thomason, Jr., USMC, in recognition of