Toys For Tots - USMC Mystery Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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There is buried in Tuscaloosa a US Marine Corps leagin. Col. Donald Clarke. Col. Clark was a leading pioneer in Marine and Helicopter Aviation and for brief time in WW2 flew with the famed Marine Black Sheep Squadron flying F4F Corsairs. He is also one of the founders of the US Marine Corps Toys for Tots Program for children. The following was taken from the Tuscaloosa News, August 4, 2011. “Donald Clarke, a retired colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps instrumental in the spread of the Toys for Tots program, died August 2, 2011. He was 89 and had lived in Tuscaloosa for more than 35 years.
Born in Revere, Mass., Clarke enrolled in the U.S. Navy’s flight training program in 1942 where his first commanding officer was Lt. Gerald Ford, who was president when Clarke retired in 1975.
After graduating from the U.S. Naval Flight Academy in 1943, Clarke was selected for Marine Aviation as a fighter pilot. He served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and garnered 28 air medals along with the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Vietnam Distinguished Service Medal, the U.S. Marine Medal for Rescue and U.S. Marine Corps Medal for Bravery.
In his career, Clarke flew more than 10,500 hours and piloted 64 different aircraft.
“One man told me only two men made an impression on his life,” said Clarke’s son, Donald Clarke Jr. “One was dad, and another was a Medal of Honor winner.”
And even with his illustrious combat career, Clarke said in an interview with The Tuscaloosa News last year that he wanted his legacy to be his work to develop Toys for Tots into a nationwide program.
After the program was founded in 1947, the Marine Corps tasked Clarke with determining the feasibility of Toys for Tots as a re-enlistment and public relations tool in 1948, said Don Clarke.
It was Clarke’s report that led his commanding officer to tell him there will be a Toys for Tots “as long as there is a Marine Corps.”
He met his wife, Nadine, in 1943 while attending advanced flight training at NAS Jacksonville, and the two were married in Columbia, S.C., in 1944.”
The cache is a small camoed Lock-n-Lock. Use the information on the grave face to answer the questions below to obtain the final cache coordinates.
N 33d 10.ABC W 087d 30.DEF
A = the 3rd digit in his birth year
B = add together the 3rd and 4th digits of his birth year
C = subtract the 3rd digit from the 2nd digit of his birth year
D = the second digit of his birth year
E = the number of letters in the last name of the writer of the poem
F = subtract 4 from the number of letters in his wife's name
DO NOT SEARCH FOR THIS CACHE AT NIGHT
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Pnzbrq gbl oruvaq n zhygv-gehaxrq ohfu
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