Whats the deal with N. Korea?

[Old Marine]

By the way, if we do get into it with Korea, be prepared to go to Bridgeport, Ca. (Pickle Meadows) for some cold weather training.

[0300poolee]

Old Marine,
I'm sorry for the mistake about the geography of N. Korea, what is it like?

lance corporal "Grunt03"
"I'll just wait and see what happens, and that he shouldn't worry about it, and don't let worrying about something like that deter him from joining the Marines."

If you were talking about me right there i just want to say I ship in less than a month and a half and theres nothin thats gonna deter me from going to the Island!

[USMCgrunt0331]

Good to go 0300poolee, i was thinking maybe you heard all that hype about n korea and was thinking twice about shipping, that's awesome that your still determined. When I joined I knew I was joining in a time of war, and it's the same with you. It shows your commitment when you hear all this stuff about Iran and Korea with Iraq still going on, and you still want to join.

There were a couple of guys who p^ssed out when I was in the DEP and refused to ship. Now one works at a deli, and still lives with his parents, the other one's a pothead. It's ok to be afraid of going to war, but you gotta have that Corps value of Courage to help u say screw it, I'm gonna do what I've gotta do anyways regardless of what's going on and whether or not your nervous about it. Cause if your an 0300, you'll definitely end up in the sandbox, all the guys I went thru SOI with are there now with 1/6, except the ones who went Security Forces. But we'll be out of FAST next yr and that's where we'll be going, some of us with 1st MARDIV, some with 2nd. Stay Motivated Poolee, and don't dwell on what could happen in the future, stay focused on what's happening in the present.

[0300poolee]

thanks for the encouragement lance corporal and assuming boot goes well we may someday be fightin together! when i tell people that i joined to fight for my country i get one of two reactions, either you're stupid or thank you. I still have people tellin me to get out of infantry but they're yellow. I have some friends in 2nd fast i wonder if you know them. Sgt James Hassle and Sgt Emmerick he finished last november.

[iowasurfer2]

I appologize grunt 0331, you obviously have given it more thought than I gave you credit for. However, I do have to disagree with you on the point of involving nukes in the situation. If you ever get the chance to go to Hiroshima or Nagasaki, do it. I guarantee it would make you think twice about ever using a nuke again. The devastation goes beyond the blast. There are still children being born today with grotesque birth defects. And 99% of the time, it is the government we have issues with, not the citizens of the country. And that is who would be punished by a nuke. If you gave the N. Koreans a choice, most of them would leave in a minute. But they don't have that freedom, which is our issue with their government.

[USMCgrunt0331]

0300poolee-I got 2 responses 2- but mine was either your crazy, and the other was you'll never be able to make it. Well, may be a little crazy, but I sure as h*ll made it. No, I only know 3 guys from 2nd FAST, and they are all LCpl's.

Iowasurfer-thanks, and on the issue of nukes. I definetely would hate for nukes to ever have to be used again, I'd be just as happy if the nuclear bomb had never been invented and nobody had them. But if it came down to killing half a million of them, or half a million of our guys getting killed on the ground over there fighting, and it was the last resort, well, they started the crap not us, they were warned, they saw what happened in Iraq and Japan in the 40's as an example and know we don't screw around, so better them than us if it did come down to that. It's a lose-lose situation really, and hopefully it'll never even come close to that. Hopefully Kim Jong will just get sick and die, and somebody better will come along.l

[0300poolee]

well LCpl 03 i think you have to be a little crazy to be a Marine! i'm not sure if he dies that everything will be better cause when one tyrant dies they are replaced by someone worse. lemme ask you something, after SOI how long of pre deployment training do 03 Marines have before shipping to Iraq assuming that they just got out of Boot?

[USMCgrunt0331]

Depends on when the unit is deploying, it could be almost none, or it could be months worth. Some guys I went to SOI w/ went to Iraq 3 mos. after grad. from SOI.

[Underleft]

a month and a half and half that time was pre deployment leave

[thekid]

Howdy, while not a poolee I am on the track to go ahead and become a Marine officer with college first.

Anyway, I cannot figure out why our government allows things like Korea to happen. As stated earlier, McCarthur had the N.Koreans and China on the run, but was pulled out. Also, after the front stabalized folloing the chinese red tide entrance into the war, the US and UN troops were well on their way to kicking the chinesse and N. Koreans all the way back into china, yet our gov't would not allow them to take groud past the 38th parralell area, or attack targets in China supporting their war effort. I know they didn't want to drag us into WWIII or anything, but it seems they screwed over out soldiers in the end. Mabey if we had stoped Korea in a total war the rest of asia would have fallen in line, and places such as Vietnam, based off the domino effect that was proved right after we withdrew from and lost vietnam, ;would not have happened. Being a Marine Officer is something Ive wanted to do my entire life, and now I have the opprotunities to make this dream come true. It scares me to know that I will be serving, and my friends are serving in a govt that will stop a military victory because they don't want to be the ones making the tough decisions, or a public that allows this to happen. Making tough decisions is part of Leadership, but our Political Leadership in this country seems to tend to forget that and follow something that is a major part of being a politician, getting reelected. I may have answered some of my own questions, but how as Marines servign my country do you take this paradox, and how can we as Americans help to change this?

Also, doing alot of reading on Modern Korean Conflict, if the Koreans were to use nukes, it seems we would likley emplow tactical nukes on their part. I know Ive mainly heard this from armchair generals, is this true. Also, looking at what N. Korea does have, I have heard a lot of if the N. Koreans dig under or push past the DMZ they only have enough resources to possibly take Soel, and then use it as a bargining chip, not "reunify" korea under one dictatorship regieme. It seems to me we could screw up N. Korea before this ever happens by exposing their gulags to the world, or starting a well funded insurgency in their country. Any basis behind this?

Thanks for what yall do, and good luck to all the poolees
Jon