Post One: True stories from Marine Embassy Guards

Melvin "Mac" McField was in a shoe store in Beirut when the walls shook. The radio said the American Embassy annex had just been bombed. He raced back to the compound. That night, the RSO came to the Marine House with a warning — they were next. Mac and his buddy climbed to the rooftop armed and ready. What happened up there, he still can't fully remember. What followed were decades of untreated PTSD, drinking, fighting, and NJPs — things he never told anyone because he didn't want to be seen as broken. Somehow, through all of it, he made it to Master Gunnery Sergeant. This episode is about the bombing and the long road after.You can hear about this incident from another perspective on Episode 11, Burying Ghosts: A Marine's Account of the 1984 U.S. Embassy Bombing in Beirut

Jim Vetternik was an MSG at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade when Yugoslav secret police arrested him outside a casino and threw him in an interrogation room. What happened over the next five hours is something most Marines never experience — and something the Marine Corps would rather not talk about.That wasn't even the strangest night of his MSG career. That came later in Madrid, standing post outside the Secretary of State's hotel room, when a three-hour massage turned into a diplomatic situation nobody had a protocol for.

Former MSG Glenn Parsons takes us inside the first takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979. Glenn arrived in Iran to 100,000 people chanting "Death to America" at the airport. Weeks later, armed attackers stormed the compound. Glenn dodged sniper fire sprinting to his post, destroyed classified material as rounds came through the walls, and was lined up against a brick wall with machine guns aimed at the group. He shares how the Marines prepared to rush the guns, how the ambassador negotiated with the clerics at bayonet point, and how Glenn's own words to a captor nearly cost a fellow Marine his life.

In 1979, the Marine Corps opened the MSG program to women for the first time. Only a handful were selected. Vicki Gaglia-McGuire was one of them — and when given the choice of posts, she picked Karachi, Pakistan.What followed was a front-row seat to one of the most volatile moments in modern diplomatic history. Three weeks after American hostages were taken in Iran, 10,000 rioters descended on the U.S. Consulate in Karachi. Vicki was on Post One.In this episode, Vicki takes us back to what it was like to be a female Marine in a program that wasn't built for her, standing post in a country that had never seen a woman carry a weapon, and holding the line the day everything went sideways. She also talks about what happened after — when the Marine Corps quietly pulled the women from their posts and told the world they were never there.This is a story about being first, being erased, and refusing to stay quiet about either.

On August 7, 1998, the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, was ripped apart by a terrorist bombing that changed lives forever. In this episode of the Post One Podcast, Marine Security Guard Cody McCabe walks us minute-by-minute through that day—what felt off the night before, the moment the blast woke him, and the chaos that followed as Marines scaled gates, entered a burning compound, and worked to secure the embassy with limited gear and no clear picture of the threat.Cody’s account goes beyond headlines and history books. He describes the sounds, the confusion, the split-second decisions, and the emotional weight of being responsible for lives amid destruction. This is a raw, ground-level perspective of one of the earliest attacks in what would become the global war on terror—and a powerful reminder of what Marine Security Guards are trained to do when everything goes wrong.

In December 1989, the United States launched Operation Just Cause — a full-scale invasion of Panama. Nobody told Staff Sergeant Mike Pellow, the detachment commander at the U.S. Embassy, it was coming. His FAST team, the one that was supposed to reinforce him if things went bad, didn't show. What followed was hours of RPG attacks on an embassy held by seven Marines armed with shotguns and revolvers.The embassy didn't fall. And for decades, most people never heard about it. The MSGs were barely recognized for their work. Years later, Mike is still fighting to make it right.

Retired Master Sergeant Josh Schenkler breaks down the demanding role of the Marine Security Guard Detachment Commander — a billet unlike any other in the Corps. He discusses the selection and training process, leadership expectations, and the balance between administrative and operational duties. Schenkler also reflects on peer evaluations, family life at post, and the vital partnership between commanders and their A-Slash. The episode closes with his unforgettable experience reporting post to the Commandant of the Marine Corps.

This conversation dives into the complex story of Clayton Lonetree, a Marine Security Guard whose romance with a KGB asset spiraled into one of the Cold War’s most debated espionage cases. Author Rodney Barker—whose book Dancing with the Devil: Sex, Espionage and the U.S. Marines: The Clayton Lonetree Story remains the definitive account—unpacks the human side of the scandal: loneliness, identity, and the seduction of feeling like “the exception.” We trace the relationship with Violetta and “Uncle Sasha,” the slow-burn tradecraft, Lonetree’s Vienna confession, and the bruising interagency investigation that followed. Along the way, Barker separates myth from fact (including the detachment-wide rumors) and situates the case alongside bigger intelligence failures of the era—offering practical lessons for today’s Marines about recruitment, social engineering, and safeguarding embassies without paranoia.

In this second half of our two-part conversation, retired Colonel Steven Hasty reflects on his time as Commanding Officer of the Marine Security Guard Battalion — a role he took on just weeks before 9/11. Overnight, the program’s priorities shifted as the world changed, and Hasty had to steer the battalion through uncertainty, manpower shortages, and new demands on security worldwide.He addresses the persistent rumors that MSG might one day be turned over to another service, and why, in his view, that’s never going to happen. He shares his feelings about the loss of the Marine Bars that once anchored the social life of isolated posts, and weighs in on the debate over putting PFCs directly onto the program.

On June 19, 1985, gunmen disguised as Salvadoran soldiers opened fire in a crowded restaurant district of San Salvador targeting U.S. Marines. In minutes, twelve people were dead, including four Marine Security Guards—the deadliest attack in MSG history.In this episode, we hear from Anton Koszuth, a Marine Security Guard who survived that night. Anton recounts the chaos of the ambush, the split-second decisions he made to move civilians to safety, and the stark reality of relying only on a hand-held radio to call Post One. He reflects on the bonds between Marines, the weight of losing friends in an instant, and how the experience has shaped his life ever since.

Former Marine Security Guard and former Diplomatic Security Service Special Agent Matthew Kearse joins the show to explain why he believes MSG duty is the best in the military. He shares a wild story of a detachment commander being subdued by two RSOs, breaks down the often-complicated relationship between RSOs and the Marines and explains what happens when that trust collapses. Matt also reflects on why many Marines struggle on MSG duty and how he successfully transitioned from the Marine Corps to the State Department.