MARK WAITE / PVT Marine Corps League National Judge Advocate Jim Tuohy, center, wearing the red suit coat, briefs fellow members during the state convention at the Saddle West Hotel and Casino Saturday. Advertisement

U.S. Marine Corps Korean War veteran Ed Hanson was initiated at a ceremony Friday night with the Marine Corps League and put on his steel helmet for the first time in 57 years.

Hanson said he saved the helmet, which had a hole in the middle, from the war.

"I was in a truck convoy that got ambushed. I stepped out of the truck right into a stream of machine-gun bullets," he said.

War stories were part of the fare at the 34th state convention of the Marine Corps League held in Pahrump last weekend.

Sixty-two members that form Pahrump Detachment 1199 hosted the convention among veterans wearing the red caps, who may greet each other with "Semper Fi."

The purpose of the organization is to join together in comraderie and fellowship for the purpose of preserving the traditions and promoting the interests of the U.S. Marine Corps.

National Judge Advocate Jim Tuohy briefed members on programs like Marines Helping Marines, a program to help injured marines and assist their families.

Then there's the annual Toys for Tots program, also administered by the League. The League also generates donations by distributing roses in front of Wal-Mart.

Unfortunately, Tuohy said he kicked out five pedophiles from the League in the last two years.

One of them was a retired Marine working with a junior ROTC program.

He proposed bylaw changes for the national convention to ask members on their applications if they were ever convicted of a felony.

Tuohy said the League has a national veterans service officer in Washington, D.C., to represent Marines in appeals for Veterans Administration benefits before the Veterans Appeals Board; that's in addition to local veterans service officers and traveling veterans services boards.

Tuohy said the National Academy of Sciences recently determined a high number of Vietnam War veterans contracted type 2 diabetes as a result of exposure to dioxin.

"We do all this. We go to school every year to stay up with the VA law because we write the claims for the veterans to help them," Tuohy said.

Tuohy said the Marine Corps League is the only veterans organization with a growing membership, currently with 72,000 members.

"We're a very tight-knit group," Tuohy said afterwards. But he added, "We don't support just Marines -- we support all our veterans."

Iraq Marine Corps veteran Cpl. Reuben D'Silva, from Las Vegas, was the keynote speaker at the Saturday night dinner.

D'Silva was injured in the Iraq War from an improvised explosive device. In his speech, he contrasted the reception received back home by Iraqi War veterans with those returning home after the Vietnam War.

Some of the local Marine Corps League members in attendance besides Hanson included Reggie Knight, Al Jones, Ken Shockley, Paul Gaxiola and Detachment 1199 Commandant Vic Rodriguez.