Back to Twins game to raise Old Glory

Posted 9/29/10 (Wed)

By Michael Johnson, Editor

It was June 28, 1967 when Clayton Carr first stood tall and saluted the flag at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minn. He stood along the first base line while he was being sworn into the Marine Corps at a Minnesota Twins Baseball game in a pre-game ceremony. He was about to become a member of the Minnesota Twins Baseball Platoon. He remembers standing there looking into the dugout and seeing Killebrew, Allison, Oliva and Kaat.  "I could look in there and see all my heroes," Carr said. He was a wide-eyed, 18-year-old that had one year at Dickinson State University under his belt. Before the game was over all 150 members of the platoon were on their way to Marine Corps Boot camp in San Diego. "That was the beginning of a very long 12 weeks of basic training," Carr said.  After his Marine Corps training he was sent to Vietnam, where he fought in the historic battle of "Hue City" in 1968. Carr was in Platoon 3012 and was wounded twice in Vietnam.