By Aileen Streng

Published: May 3, 2008

Because of the old Marine whose feisty spirit imbues the Globe and Laurel, the local landmark will live on.

"I'd rather go [to a new location], lose my shirt and go bankrupt - fighting like hell - than be defeated, giving up and retiring," said 82-year-old Marine Maj. Richard Spooner. "To hell with retire-ment."

Spooner remains every bit the Marine he was during World War II, Korea and Vietnam, from the attention to detail in his appearance to his "never surrender" spirit.

So, when he learned that the Globe and Laurel would be forced out of its Triangle home of 32 years because of a road widening project, Spooner took that as a declaration of war.

"I'm a Marine and Marines are lousy losers," Spooner said. "I was not going to give up.

"We couldn't just let the place evaporate and go away after 39 1/2 years of trying to make friends, trying to maintain traditions, perpetuating [the Marine Corps'] history and teaching it to a lot of young people who come in here."

Spooner also said he didn't want to close down because of the promise he made to his family after a fire at his first restaurant in the town of Quantico forced them out and to Triangle.

"I told them that whatever happens, this is our land. No one can ever take it from us," Spooner said. "If we have another fire, damn it, I will rebuild. It was the American dream to own your own land and my government took it away from me so they could beautify the damn highway.

"I had no alternative. I couldn't retire," he said. "There was a challenge there when they took our land and I said they would never do it. I couldn't turn my back on the place."

Yet the battle to fulfill that promise proved to be a mighty one.

Being close to his core patrons, Marines and law enforcement officers attending the FBI National Academy, meant a new location needed to be near the Quantico Marine Corps base. Spooner tried for about two years to find another location in the area with no luck.

Walking away and retiring—defeat—looked like the only remaining option, until about two months ago when Stafford County economic development officials started courting Spooner.

They eventually showed him an available building—the old Keep restaurant and later Filly's restaurant- in northern Stafford, only about two miles from Triangle and just outside the Quantico back gate.

The Globe and Laurel had found a new home.

"I've realized something that really has gotten to me—I found out that I'm the luckiest guy in the world, because how many 82-year-old men that you know of anywhere who have gotten a second shot at life?" Spooner said.

"I've got a new opportunity. I can leave here; I can start a new place; and I can pursue the same dream that we had before," he said. "We can build it back up for the cops, the agents and the Marines so they can have their place."

Staff writer Aileen Streng can be reached at 703-878-8010 or .