Biographical Note
Mark Ryan Black was born on April 10, 1945 in Sweetser, Indiana, to Paul L. Black and Carol Baldwin Black. In 1963, he graduated from Oak Hill High School in Grant County, Indiana, where he was an All-State quarterback on the football team. After high school, Black trained as a barber and worked in his father’s barbershop in Sweetser.
Black enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on April 29, 1966, and completed recruit training in San Diego. He completed Basic Infantry Training at Camp Pendleton in August 1966 and was assigned to Company D, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines. In November and December 1966 Black’s unit conducted training in Okinawa and the Philippines. In January 1967 he participated in Operation Deckhouse V in the Mekong Delta. With 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, Black was later based at Phu Bai and Dong Ha, and took part in Operation Chinook II, Operation Prairie II, Operation Prairie III, and Operation Big Horn II.
In May 1967, Black volunteered to serve in the Combined Action Program (CAP), wherein he served with the Papa 3 unit based near the village of Cam Hieu in Quang Tri Province. During a nighttime attack on his unit’s compound on August 14, 1967, Black was killed in action by enemy fire.