Odd Question for Marines only

[PooleeWebber]

Good evening Marines. I just had a quick question - one that you might find a bit weird.

My buddy recently graduated from Parris Island. He's 19 years old. His MOS is basically a travel services specialist. But he said something really odd to me a few nights ago that I didn't really understand.

I asked him how much he loves being a Marine. His response - "I love it, and I hate it. Any Marine feels the same way. Every Marine loves being a Marine but also hates it at the same time."

I was wondering if any Marines could possibly interpret what he meant by that.

Thanks.

[TracGunny]

I was wondering if any Marines could possibly interpret what he meant by that. no... only your buddy can answer that. It is a cliche answer that seems to be avoiding the question by not answering the question. Again, only your buddy can explain why he choses this statement...

[MillRatUSMC]

Way back in time, many grunts loved being out in the bush.
But hated "Things on the Springs" or "Junk on the Bunk".
Or an inspection of all your gear and the barracks.
It was a love/hate situation, they loved been Marines but hated all those inspections.
You worked your rear end and sometimes the inspecting General would just look in and leave the inspecting to lower grade Officers.
Don't know much of the current active Marines to answer what your friend was saying with his remarks to you...

Semper Fidelis/Semper Fi
Ricardo

PS Older than dirt!

[hrscowboy]

I bet hes already tired of those damn inspections gunny Lord knows i hated them. Every time we turned around it was inspection time if i remember right 1 time a week in the squad bays and so forth geeeeeeeeeeezzz that nightmare is coming back to me.

[hrscowboy]

hell i just remembered inspections every morning for musters. and always had a big inspection of wall lockers at least once a month.

[PooleeWebber]

One thing I was thinking of was that his current mental state might not be 100%. <br />
<br />
His father died a little over a year ago. Two months after his father died, his older brother (an 0311) was...

[Echo_Four_Bravo]

I don't know. I know that all of us that didn't stay in the Marine Corps must have had some reason for leaving, yet clearly we love the Corps, or we wouldn't spend our time here. Personally, I loved doing my job, I loved the feeling you get when you put on the uniform every morning. But, I hated seeing a friend of mine kicked out of the Corps for being over weight, even though he had a first class PFT. O hated being in an MOS that was slow to promote and watching Marines that didn't really deserve it get promoted past all of us in my platoon, especially when the Marines getting promoted held and MOS that we had to have as a second MOS to get to our primary MOS. I hated seeing Marines get in trouble when their wives said they had "abused" them, especially when you could see evidence that it had been the other way around. Most of all, I hated knowing that some of the senior Marines were more interested in their career than they were the welfare of their Marines. All in all, I love the Corps, but decided that I didn't love it enough to stay.

[enviro]

Echo Four Bravo - you remember it well!

We love the Corps and hate some of the thing we have to do. But we do it.

A better question to ask a Marine is "Do you plan on re-enlisting?"

My answer would always be "Depends on what day it is"

Some days you love it, some days, you wish your Gunny would get run over by a train. (No offense to any Gunnys out there - insert your own boss)

In being a civilian for the past year, some days I long to go back to the Marine Corps and some days I feel like this is so much better.

[danjate]

i'v been out for about three yrs and from the sound of it it hasn't changed one bit. its kind of like high school you wanted t get out so bad, but when your out you realize what you missed out on.

[CAR]

I have to agree with you Echo four bravo and Enviro. While I was in there were days that I got so fed up I wanted to get out, but on the other days, it was a great feeling being a Marine. My true understanding and love for the Corps didn't hit me until I was out. And yes I truly miss it... I remember an old Corps saying- A *****ing Marine is a Happy Marine. Truly some truth to it. As a grunt if my Marines weren't *****ing about something... something was wrong.

But like E4B said- I moved on to something else I loved. I miss it and Am proud as hell to have been part of it. It is like no other service ... I still celabrate the MC B-day, and keep in touch with my old jarhead buddies. I would do it again If I had a chance.

Good Luck Poolee Webber

[PooleeWebber]

Originally posted by CAR
Good Luck Poolee Webber

Thank you sir! Gung ho!

[Echo_Four_Bravo]

I just reread my post and feel that I should add to it a little. It seems a little worse than I intended it to seem. When you are a Marine there are times that you are miserable. Times you really wish you would have stayed at home and done the things your high school friends did after graduation. Of course, some of those times become your best memories of the Corps. They are the times that you talk about for the rest of your enlistment. Those that weren't there and listen to the stories never understand them. They can't understand why you think a little less of them for not having gone through it with you, yet you know that those that went through the experiences with you are the closest ones to you. And, these experiences aren't always what you would expect them to be. For example, one we loved to tell was about Operation Urban Warrior- one of General Krulak's ideas. It was an easy enough deal for us. Being comm bubbas, we weren't engaged in the actual operation, just set up to provide radio and telephone links to the grunts in action. We were set up at the MOUT site at Camp Lejeune and were living life pretty well. Not often that you can shower daily and get hot chow while "in the field" yet we were able to easily live the life of a field Marine while being close enough to have the garrison experiences as well. Now, at night grunts like to shoot ilum flares so they can see. Makes sense. Comm operators that are set up for two or three weeks in the same spot like to pitch GP tents to live in. Once again, makes sense. Now, when the grunts shoot a flare up and the wind is blowing towards you, you get the benefit of having your area well lit. When one comes down a little quicker than normal, you get to watch it land on your tent and set it on fire. Once the original rush to get the fire put out was over, it didn't seem to be much of a big deal at all. Of course later then night, as we were looking up at the stars from where out tent once was, we noticed it getting a little cloudy. As the rain fell on us you would have thought we were the most miserable people alive from the sound of things. We were complaining, moaning, and groaning about being wet, cold, and tired. We continued complaining well into the next day, where we were of course still wet and cold and tired. The complaining didn't stop when we got a new tent. All of our gear was soaked, so we were still wet, cold, and tired. Once the stuff began to dry we were stinky and tired. The complaints weren't going to stop until we were back home in our barracks rooms. Now, none of this seems like that big of a deal. Yet over the next few months we continued to talk about it from time to time (yup, still complaining like real Marines always do). We got new boots in, and they didn't have anything to add except to ask why we didn't just go sleep in the gym, in one of the hummers, or something else along those lines. They never really got that it was just a shared experience that they weren't a part of. It is times like that that make me miss the Marine Corps most. Remember, a Marine B!+(h!n@ about something is normal. As soon as the complaints stop you need to worry.