01/15/23 Elliott’s Leatherneck essay printed in the February edition of publication

Last summer, a story by Ray Elliott was named an Honorable Mention recipient of the 2022 Leatherneck Essay Contest. Elliott received a plaque and monetary reward with the essay to run in the publication in the near future. The story has now been included in the February 2023 edition of Leatherneck.

Leatherneck is a national subscription publication of the Marine Corps Association (the professional organization of the U.S. Marine Corps) with a monthly readership of nearly 70,000. The essay appears on page 50 in the magazine (page 52 of the PDF version which you can view by clicking here).

The story recalls Elliott’s relationship with an Iwo Jima veteran (Oral “Ben” Correll) whom he once knew as an old friend, neighbor, small-town barber and mentor. Correll served with the Fifth Marine Division when he was wounded in the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. He returned to his rural hometown of Oblong, Ill., and was working as a barber when Ray got to know him well in subsequent years.