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thedrifter
02-10-03, 06:37 AM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Jacksonville Daily News
Feb. 9, 2003

To the editor:

I’ve been watching the news about the coming war, Saddam Hussein, etc., and have also seen the interviews done with U.S. Army soldiers either in Kuwait or on the way there.

In all these interviews, no matter what question was put to the soldiers, it invariably came either to showing a picture of their family, kids, sons, daughters or family dog or saying how much they missed them, etc.

There was even an interview with a Army staff sergeant in which he was asked about going to war. Sure, he said, he didn’t want to go to war and would rather be somewhere else. That left me with a lingering question concerning the all-volunteer military: “Why, in God’s name did he join?”

At long last, today there were interviews of U.S. Marines in the Gulf desert. A reporter asked a Marine about cleaning his weapon — his answer was blunt, like every Marine gives —“Yeah, gotta clean these things all the time. A real pain in the ***.” My spirits began to rise.

Then a reporter asked a Marine sergeant for his opinion about going to war. The sergeant said: “If war comes, then we’ll take Hussein out.”

My point is this. During all the interviews with the U.S. Army, they were and are portrayed as the boy-next-door type (I can’t tell if they interviewed Rangers or Green Beret). But when reporters interviewed U.S. Marines, it gave one the feeling that we (the United States Marine Corps) are America’s professional fighting force, ready at any moment to do our duty without question.

It reminds me of a recruiting poster from 1918 — “Tell that to the Marines!”

And, one more thing, whenever I took over a new company as company gunny or as platoon sergeant, I always said the same thing so the troops would know where I stood: “The Marine Corps exists for one reason and one reason only! That’s to go to war — period.”

Good luck, Devil Dogs and Godspeed! Thank you for being there when we need you.

Stephen Easley
Midway Park


Sempers,

Roger

SHOOTER1
02-10-03, 09:30 PM
Your right Roger, the one mission was Kill or be Killed, maybe they could deleate all other services, or better, have the other services, do the behind the lines stuff, and let Marines do thier thing, what a concept.