Hired on as a security assistant at Marine Corps Installations National Capital Region, nothing could prepare Marcia Flanagan for the sheer sense of overwhelming emotion that captured her heart as she approached Lejeune Hall on Memorial Day weekend of last year, where her new office was.

As she peered up at the building she came to realize it was where her father Capt. Richard “Pat” Carlise once worked. Her father was stationed at Quantico from 1967 to 1970 as the aide for Lt. Gen. Lewis J. Fields.

According to Flanagan, she had lived quite the charmed life 50 years ago aboard Quantico where her father was stationed so many years ago, even though at this time Quantico was deploying Marines to fight in the Vietnam War. For her, this time is remembered as one of pure joy, during a time of youthful innocence.

“When I looked up at the office window where my father once worked something instantly came over me,” Flanagan said. “Part of it was because my father had long since passed away, however the other part was because I never thought I’d be afforded an opportunity to work where my father once did.”

Reminiscing about all her happy childhood memories, she recalled the simplicity of her days on base—waking up alongside her mother and two sisters in the mornings as her father was picked up by Lt.  Gen. Fields’ driver, before she left for school.

She would occasionally get to visit her father at work, although mostly during special ceremonies and the annual Christmas party at Lejeune Hall.

However, her favorite time spent with her father at Quantico would be their drives to Prince William Forest Park and Lunga Reservoir.  Flanagan and her sisters would run freely as her father would sit beside her mother reading the newspaper.

“Quantico was my own little fairytale world,” Flanagan said. “I remember riding bikes with friends to the pool at the top of the hill and swimming.”

According to Flanagan, as long as you could jump off the high dive and swim one length of the pool you could go by yourself and that is what the kids would do most summers. 

Although, what stuck out to her more than anything about the pool was their french fries. “You’d just go up to the snack bar and order food and didn’t even have to pay for it, because our parents would get a bill,” Flanagan said. “I can remember the way the french fries smelled and tasted as I ate them.”

However, one of her most cherished memories was sitting in the movie theater balcony at Little Hall.

“I can remember seeing all the movies that came to that theater,” she said. “The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins absolutely changed my life, just hearing Julie Andrews sing was absolutely breath taking and something I will never forget.”

She also recalled the days where Quantico’s favorite pastimes were traveling to the old baseball field outside Quantico Town, now a parking lot, and watching the All-Marine baseball team compete—or trickling down from Barrows Elementary to watch Marines play football at Butler Stadium.

Too young to remember teams or scores, it was all about the purity of the sport and watching the Marines play. Her father actually played for the All-Marine football team in Hawaii and she still has his letterman’s jacket today.

Nevertheless, as she continued to reminisce about simpler times at Quantico, she said it was a time before technology was a focal point on base.

Flanagan can recall the unique intricacies of the base that many miss today, as many of the buildings that exist today had not yet been built or converted.

“I have learned since working here that there are many differences between the old Corps and new Corps,” Flanagan said. “Yes, I feel that it has gotten bigger and better, but when I was growing up they didn’t have Marine Corps University, the War-Fighting Laboratory or MarCorpsSysCom (Marine Corps Systems Command), now occupying the building that was once the hospital. There were no computers in the late 1960s and early 70s and a lot of the core agencies weren’t here because, for example, there was no such thing as cyber or information security and to my knowledge I do not recall there really being security clearance back then.”

Nevertheless, Flanagan believed the base held a whimsical majesty. As her parents would drive through the back gate down Russell Road and Barnett Avenue she described the tree filled roadsides and quiet stretches of road as a serene sight.

She said, little was more majestic than the church near the end of Russell Road —Marine Corps Memorial Chapel aboard Quantico .

Flanagan had experienced much during her father’s tenure at Quantico and even after her father had deployed to Vietnam a second time and her family had moved off base, she fondly recalls everything from her first prom to marrying her husband at the altar of that chapel.

“When we moved off base in 1970 and my dad went to Vietnam the second time, I experienced a bit of culture shock because Quantico had been my whole world for so long, but I made it through,” Flanagan said. “If someone were to tell me 25 to 50 years ago that I’d be working on Quantico, a few feet from where my father sat, I don’t know how I would respond, but, I am extremely grateful for this opportunity and I know my father would be proud.”