Courtesy of Lloyd Rankin
While you can paint your walls and renovate your space, one thing you can’t change about your home is its neighbors. So, when four Marines happened to become neighbors in Grove City, they were bound to be friends.
Following his service with the Marines that began in 1991 and included time in Somalia for Operation Restore Hope in 1993, Garey Scott became an electrician but struggled to find the right home for himself in Grove City. He says he couldn’t imagine himself in any of the houses realtors showed him.
“I found the house (in Grove City) on my own and told my wife we should go check it out,” Scott says. “We pull in and there’s Marine Corps flags sticking up everywhere and I’m like, ‘We’re buying this. I don’t care what the house looks like.’”
After the four passionate Marines came together to discuss their flags, they were shocked to realize that, despite the small percentage of Americans who serve in the military and the even smaller percentage serving in the Marines, they all found each other on the same block.
Around 7 percent of Americans have served in the military at some point, according to Pew Research Center. Current and former Marines are often estimated at less than one percent of the population.
The first of the four to make the neighborhood home was Lloyd Rankin, who served from 1967-1971. He spent 15 months in Twentynine Palms, California, in the Mojave Desert in addition to a few years stationed throughout New England.
Rankin has called Grove City his entire life and grew up in the house he currently resides in, which he helped his father build in 1961. He says he’s witnessed Grove City develop, including seeing his fellow Marines’ houses being built.
Then in moved Daryl Cox, who joined the Marines in 1981. Cox was deployed to the Western Pacific, where he was part of the first U.S. battle group to ever go through the Suez Canal.
During his service, Cox attended a show organized by the United Service Organization, a
nonprofit that provides entertainment for military members, featuring Bob Hope alongside Brooke Shields in one her first performances with the organization.
Cox worked as a crane operator for 35 years after retiring from the Marines, eventually moving into his parents’ former house in Grove City in 2009.
Next came Jeffrey Wallot, who served the Marines from 2004-2008 with deployments to Okinawa and Iwo Jima, Japan, and Iraq. He returned to the U.S. in 2007 and finished his service in Quantico, Virginia, before moving to Grove City in 2009.
Iwo Jima provided a connection for Cox and Wallot. Cox was part of the first U.S. military group allowed to set foot on Iwo Jima since the end of American occupation of Japan following WWII. His group was able to tour the island but was not allowed to touch or photograph anything. When Wallot went to Iwo Jima 15 years later, he was able to bring back a bottle of sand, which he later gave to Cox.
“It’s ironic that none of our years overlapped,” Cox says. “We make up a pretty large time period (of the Marines) with none of them overlapping.”
It’s uncommon for the men to run into fellow Devil Dogs elsewhere. Scott says he works with more than 400 people and not a single one has served in the Marines, yet his three neighbors on a dead-end road have.
Now, the group frequently gets together for drinks and bonfires in the summer and fall. They meet every year to celebrate the Marine Corps birthday on Nov. 10.
The four can count on each other when they go out of town and need someone to watch over their house, mow the lawn or plow the driveway. The list goes on and on.
“If a vehicle pulls into the driveway that we haven’t seen before, we call each other,” Cox says. “We’re the best neighbors in the world because we’re all brothers.”
In the same way the men supported their fellow Marines during their service, the neighbors can rely on each other as well.
“I’m always thankful,” Rankin says.
Megan Roth is a senior editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
