Gift from the Corps

[jerryd6818]

Other than the normal stuff most Marines come away with on completion of their enlistment (Pride, Sense of duty, etc), the Corps gave me four things.

A love of being at sea on a ship, picked up on Operation Steel Pike.

A love for the Caribbean, picked up during a firex on Vieques Island, PR.

An intense dislike of rain, picked up during the monsoon season in Viet Nam.

An education that has helped me make a living my entire working life.

What did the Corps gave you.

The Few. The Proud.
Jerry D.

[Steve Smit]

The Corps made me realize that if I could fall asleep in a hole I just dug that eventually filled with water, I could put up with anything civillian life would give me.

[DocGreek]

Serving with the Corps, made me discover, much later in life, that every day is a GIFT, and ANYTHING I can do, to help my BROTHERS, is the main reason I'm still alive. ALWAYS FAITHFUL....Doc Greek

[mgkusmc]

So far the Corps has given me the gift of never wasting food cause you never know when your next meal is gonna be. To sleep when given the opportunity, but to also give up my opportunity to sleep so that others may. Basically to be selfless. I thank god for everyday I have in the Corps...oorah!

[RLeon]

Severe dislike for cold weather.
Growing up I loved winter, the snow, frigid air, all that good stuff....until I had to spend time in said frigid air;

Pulling guard duty in freezing rain wearing a stiff condensation laden gumby suit

Working on trucks with frozen fingers

Getting woken up at 0300 hrs when it's freezing outside of my cozy sleeping bag because somebody's hummv's glowplugs where shot

Frozen fingers

Frozen feet

Standing in formation forever with frozen fingers and feet

Grabbing my canteen to drink much needed water before a hump only to get nothing out of it because the water in the canteen froze overnight

Standing in a pt formation forever in a t-shirt and those little green pt shorts in the cold wind

Riding in the back of a 5-ton when it's freezing having that cold wind blast right through whatever I was wearing and freezing the skin off my bones

Trying to qualify on the rifle range when all I want to do is stuff the smudge pot in my shirt, or at least chip the snot off my nose that formed into icicles.

...you get the idea.

Other than that...The U.S. Marine Corps, it's fantastic.


p.s.Thinking about the frozen Chozen Marines and the 65th Infantry Bn from Puerto Rico that were also on that frozen Korean land make my gripes seem whiney, but they make me even more appreciative of what they went through.