Former Commandant of the Marine Corps (29th) General Alfred M. Gray Jr., passed away this morning in his Alexandria, Virginia home at the age of 95.

He is likely the most popular modern-day CMC and I had the pleasure of meeting him three different times in my life. The first time, I was on a mid-watch at Homestead, Florida and he came into the SCIF that I was working in and slammed his hand hard on my shoulder from behind me. I was about ready to turn around and deck someone, and there stood the Commandant of the Marine Corps. He was in the same MOS field (SIGINT) as I was and he was just spending some time with his Marines.

The second time was at NTTC Corry Station, in Pensacola, Florida. Again, he was there to spend time with Marines and Corry Station is where the SIGINT Marines are trained. He spent the day with us, first doing a Q&A, then touring the barracks and talking to us. 

The third time I met him, was when he was a civilian and I was in California for training, and he was on the board of directors for one of the companies that I was working with and he was just hanging out, so to speak.

He was the first CMC for me, as I joined in 1988 and he took office mid 1987. He was known to prefer to wear his cammies over any of the dress uniforms and almost all of his official photos were him in cammies. As a civilian, he even had a cammie suit tailored for him.