2 March 2023
EMPORIA (KSNT) – Clark Allemang joined the Marine Corps when he was just 22 years old. Serving overseas in Vietnam, he spent most of his time in jungle operations.
Allemang began his military journey following a draft notice for the Army. He wanted to challenge himself and grow up quite a bit, so he enlisted for the Marine Corp.
“They say you never get out of the Marine Corps,” Allemang said. “There are no former marines, we’re still marines. If asked to protect this country, you’d have a bunch of marines signing up. I guarantee it.”
While Allemang was overseas during Vietnam, he found himself in the operations section where he spent 90% of his time in the field.
“We got there just in time to enjoy the monsoon season,” Allemang said. “If you’ve ever had the pleasure of sitting in a foxhole and having scorpions, and stuff like that float by you, it’s not one of those opportune times. We lived through pretty rough conditions weather-wise.”
They had to haul gear, weapons, and more everywhere they traveled.
“The facilities that we had were basically on our back,” he said. “We lived out of a pancho half, or basically half of a pup tent.”
Allemang found himself in an interesting position while overseas.
“I handled all the classified material heading west for the Marine Corps from Camp Pendleton,” Allemang said. “It came through my office there. That was an interesting thing, I did a lot of reorganization of files and such, and got regular promotions based on it.”
While he didn’t choose the military life originally, Clark looks back on his service with pride.
“Nobody wants a war,” he said. “There are some people to feel an obligation to support this country, and I’m one of them.”
Following his time in the military, Allemang graduated from Emporia State University. He would go on to serve as Emporia’s Mayor in the 80’s.