Imagine if your real last name was Marine and you were a recruit... like this Marine

[Accord]

A Marine by any other name is still a Marine

By JEREMY REDMON
: 01/25/06

QUANTICO, Va. — The Marine Reservist from Valdosta has grown used to the funny looks and sarcastic questions.

No, there is no mistake on Gunnery Sgt. Mike Marine's uniform. His last name really is Marine.

"I get double-takes all the time," said Marine, 43, a native of Setauket, N.Y., who works as a private security guard at Moody Air Force Base in South Georgia.

He said his family name, Marinkowski, was shortened to Marine when his grandparents immigrated to the United States from Europe many years ago.

"I guess when they came through Ellis Island, they decided the name was too difficult to pronounce and they cut the 'kowski' off. That's the rumor," he said.

Marine is among about 50 Marine reservists from a new Marietta-based unit that is headed to Iraq next month. The unit's mission is to collect the remains of U.S. service members, catalogue them and prepare them for transport back to the States. Marine will lead several Marines from his unit at Camp Fallujah, west of Baghdad.

When Marine gets there, he will likely report immediately to the personnel office. He does that each time he gets to a new base so he can introduce himself and let the Marines there know he is for real.

He doesn't want a repeat of the problem he had in the early 1980s when it took about a year for his promotion from lance corporal to corporal to finally go through. Marine said the military kept throwing away his promotion papers, believing they were samples.

During boot camp, he said, Marine drill instructors teased him mercilessly and refused to call him by his last name. Instead, they referred to him as "Laundry 32," the number assigned to his laundry bag.

In his 25 years in the Corps, Marine has come across others with unusual names. He recalls the time he was attending a conference at this base a few years ago and he met a Capt. America in an elevator.

"I told him, 'Sir, you don' have to say a word to me. I feel your pain,'" Marine said.
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news...arineside.html

LMAO!

There used to be a poolee at my RS who shipped off a few weeks ago and his last name was Sargent... I wonder what his Drill Instructors did to him, haha.

[Osotogary]

I believe that there is a mention of Sgt. Marine as well as his picture in Lt.Ilario G. Pantano's book, No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy.
Error
Please see devildoghopeful's post. His is correct. Mine...a brain fart.

[devildoghopeful]

LOL poor guy. I've heard of GySgt Marine here before, those of you who have read 'One Bullet Away' by Nathaniel Fick will remember that GySgt Marine was Fick's Plt Sgt(?). If you haven't read it, please do so. It's about an Officer whojoins before 9/11, ends up going into Afghansitan, becoming a Recon Marine and then going to Iraq as Recon. A very good book.

[Barret]

Actually, in the book, his first assignment as platoon commander had him making friends with a Ssgt Keith Marine, I think.

[devildoghopeful]

Really? Touché Barret....2 Marines named Marine...cool!

[outlaw3179]

I knew a guy in the fleet with the last name Marine. He said he would get thrashed every single day, never missed a day. They said he didnt rate the name and would have to earn his own last name. lol....

[Master Sephiroth]

This reminds me of a movie I saw (Forgot the name). A guy's first and last name was Major and he got hell for it. and they made him a Major from a Private I believe

[Kildars]

LOL

God I feel sorry for him, he surely has balls for Joining the Marines, he most likely got thrashed more than anyone in his platoon. to him.

I bet he's one hell of a Marine.

[Accord]

LOL

God I feel sorry for him, he surely has balls for Joining the Marines, he most likely got thrashed more than anyone in his platoon. to him.

I bet he's one hell of a Marine.

I wonder if he considered the Army, Airforce, or Navy before choosing the Marine Corps, haha.

[ckkinders]

LMAO!

There used to be a poolee at my RS who shipped off a few weeks ago and his last name was Sargent... I wonder what his Drill Instructors did to him, haha.

The CO at the Marine Battery at Fort Sill-his last name is Sergeant. Captain Sergeant.

[Lepke]

My father told me that he knew a guy who's last name was Major. He wasn't a Marine, he was in the Army, but he got out of the Army as a Sergeant. So his name was Sergeant Major lol.

[Master Sephiroth]

Oh yea, the movie was Catch-22 (the one with Maj. Major)

[Rdy2gopoolie]

Ive also met a Sgt. Sargeant