Are Marines "Pure Animals?"

[Shrink]

For: All Hands, & The Ship's Cook:

The following SitRep is from from Michael Yon, a former Army Captain and good guy embedded with our troops in Afghanistan. It was forwarded to me by "Seamus." Capt Yon obviously admires Marines, and the way they do "business."


The U.S. Marines are flooding in, and you might think that every
Marine helicopter in our arsenal is here. I'll not give numbers and
types other than to say the line of aircraft is long and formidable.

The U.S. Marines are a spectacle for the U.S. Army and also the
British Army. The Marines will come in and live like pure animals, and
build a base around themselves, whereas the British and American Armies
will tend to build at least part of the base before coming in. One
Marine commander told me that during the early part of this war, his men
didn't even shower for three months. We talked for a couple of hours
and he was proud that his Marines didn't need a shower for three months,
and that his Marines killed a lot of Taliban and managed to lose only
one good man. That's the Marines. They'll show up in force with no
warning, and their reputation with U.S. Army and Brits who have fought
alongside them is stellar. A NPR photographer who just spent more than
three weeks with the Marines could not praise them enough, saying he'd
been with them in Iraq, too, and that when Marines take casualties,
their reaction is to continue to attack. They try to stay in contact
until they finish the enemy, no matter how long it takes. Truly they
are animals when it comes to the fight. Other than that, great guys.
Tonight at dinner, a young Marine Lance Corporal sat in front of me at
the crowded dining facility. "Good evening, Sir," he said. I asked,
"Are you living like animals out there?" "Livin' the dream, Sir!" They
are fantastic.


Seems as though Marine infantrymen, and their mode of "living," has taken on from what Marines experienced in Viet Nam. The verbal exchange immediately above where the question is asked "Are you living like animals out there," and the LCpl's reply "Livin' the dream, Sir!" says it all. It would appear that Marines of this and recent vintage are replicas of those Marines who preceded them.

I stood on a slight knoll the afternoon of 20 March, 1966, and watched two of my companies close on the enemy. "Fire and Maneuver" personified. I'd watched my Marines fathers and older brothers perform that same ritual during WW II, North China and Viet Nam. That afternoon my Able and Baker Companies stood on the shoulders of their fore bearers, and took the fight to the enemy just as they'd been taught to do.

Lord, God, I wish I could be this this "New Breed" of Marines now fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq!!! Obviously they haven't missed a step, and I'd be very comfortable with them. Semper Fidelis, Sully

[ridingcrops]

Hey, they are MARINES after all!

[LarryStarr]

There are only two kinds of people that understand Marines: Marines and the enemy. Everyone else has a second-hand opinion. Gen. William Thornson, U.S. Army

[jcox0311]

That couldnt be more true