A Few Good Men!!
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  1. #1
    Phantom Blooper
    Guest Free Member

    A Few Good Men!!

    Ask a Marine what's so special about the Marines and the answer would be "esprit de corps", an unhelpful French phrase that means exactly what it looks like - the spirit of the Corps...but what is that spirit? and where does it come from?

    The Marine Corps is the only branch of the U.S. Armed Forces that recruits people specifically to Fight. The Army emphasizes personal development (an Army of One), the Navy promises fun (let the journey begin), the Air Force offers security (its a great way of life). Missing from all the advertisements is the hard fact that a soldier's life is to suffer and perhaps to die for his people and take lives at the risk of his/her own.

    Even the thematic music of the services reflects this evasion. The Army's Caisson Song describes a pleasant country outing. Over hill and dale, lacking only a picnic basket. Anchors Aweigh...the Navy's celebration of the joys of sailing could have been penned by Jimmy Buffet. The Air Force song is a lyric poem of blue skies and engine thrust. All is joyful, and invigorating, and safe. There are no land mines in the dales nor snipers behind the hills, no submarines or cruise missiles threaten the ocean jaunt, no bandits are lurking in the wild blue yonder.

    The Marines' Hymn, by contrast, is all combat. "We fight our Country's battles," "First to fight for right and freedom," "We have fought in every clime and place where we could take a gun," "In many a strife we have fought for life and never lost our nerve."

    The choice is made clear. You may join the Army to go to adventure training, or join the Navy to go to Bangkok, or join the Air Force to go to computer school.

    You join the Marine Corps to go to War! But the mere act of signing the enlistment contract confers no status in the Corps. The Army recruit is told from his first minute in uniform that "you're in the Army now, soldier". The Navy and Air Force enlistees are sailors or airmen as soon as they get off the bus at the training center. The new arrival at Marine Corps boot camp is called a recruit, or worse, (a lot worse), but never a MARINE. Not yet, maybe never. He or she must earn the right to claim the title of UNITED STATES MARINE, and failure returns you to civilian life without hesitation or ceremony. Recruit Platoon 2210 at San Diego, California trained from October through December of 1968. In Viet Nam the Marines were taking two hundred casualties a week and the major rainy season and Operation Meade River had not even begun yet Drill Instructors had no qualms about winnowing out almost a quarter of their 112 recruits, graduating 81. Note that this was post-enlistment attrition. Every one of those 31 who were dropped had been passed by the recruiters as fit for service. But they failed the test of Boot Camp! Not necessarily for physical reasons. At least two were outstanding high school athletes for whom the calisthenics and running were child's play. The cause of their failure was not in the biceps nor the legs, but in the spirit. They had lacked the will to endure the mental and emotional strain so they would not be Marines. Heavy commitments and high casualties not withstanding, the Corps reserves the right to pick and choose.

    History classes in boot camp? Stop a soldier on the street and ask him to name a battle of World War One. Pick a sailor at random and ask for a description of the epic fight of the Bon Homme Richard. Ask an airman who Major Thomas McGuire was and what is named after him. I am not carping and there is no sheer in this criticism. All of the services have glorious traditions but no one teaches the young soldier, sailor or airman what his uniform means and why he should be proud of it.

    But...ask a Marine about World War One and you will hear of the wheat field at Belleau Wood and the courage of the Fourth Marine Brigade comprised of the Fifth and Sixth Marines. Faced with an enemy of superior numbers entrenched in tangled forest undergrowth the Marines received an order to attack that even the charitable cannot call ill-advised. It was insane. Artillery support was absent and air support hadn't been invented yet. Even so the Brigade charged German machine guns with only bayonets, grenades, and an indomitable fighting spirit. A bandy-legged little barrel of a Gunnery Sergeant, Daniel J. Daly, rallied his company with a shout, "Come on you sons a *****es, do you want to live forever?" He took out three machine guns himself. French liaison-officers hardened though they were by four years of trench bound slaughter were shocked as the Marines charged across the open wheat field under a blazing sun directly into the teeth of enemy fire. Their action was so anachronistic on the twentieth-century field of battle that they might as well have been swinging cutlasses. But the enemy was only human. The Boche could not stand up to the onslaught. So the Marines took Belleau Wood. The Germans, those that survived, thereafter referred to the Marines as "Tuefel Hunden" (Devil Dogs) and the French in tribute renamed the woods "Bois de la Brigade de Marine" (Woods of the Brigade of Marines).

    Every Marine knows this story and dozens more. We are taught them in boot camp as a regular part of the curriculum. Every Marine will always be taught them! You can learn to don a gas mask anytime, even on the plane in route to the war zone, but before you can wear the Eagle, Globe and Anchor and claim the title United States Marine you must first know about the Marines who made that emblem and title meaningful. So long as you can march and shoot and revere the legacy of the Corps you can take your place in line.

    And that line is as unified in spirit as in purpose. A soldier wears branch of service insignia on his collar, metal shoulder pins and cloth sleeve patches to identify his unit. Sailors wear a rating badge that identifies what they do for the Navy. Marines wear only the Eagle, Globe and Anchor together with personal ribbons and their CHERISHED marksmanship badges. They know why the uniforms are the colors they are and what each color means.


    There is nothing on a Marine's uniform to indicate what he or she does nor what unit the Marine belongs to. You cannot tell by looking at a Marine whether you are seeing a truck driver, a computer programmer or a machine gunner or a cook or a baker.


    The Marine is amorphous, even anonymous, by conscious design. The Marine is a Marine. Every Marine is a rifleman first and foremost, a Marine first, last and Always! You may serve a four-year enlistment or even a twenty plus year career without seeing action but if the word is given you'll charge across that Wheatfield! Whether a Marine has been schooled in automated supply or automotive mechanics or aviation electronics or whatever is immaterial.

    Those things are secondary -- the Corps does them because it must. The modern battle requires the technical appliances and since the enemy has them so do we. But no Marine boasts mastery of them. Our pride is in our marksmanship, our discipline, and our membership in a fraternity of courage and sacrifice. "For the honor of the fallen, for the glory of the dead", Edgar Guest wrote of Belleau Wood. "The living line of courage kept the faith and moved ahead."

    They are all gone now, those Marines who made a French farmer's little Wheatfield into one of the most enduring of Marine Corps legends. Many of them did not survive the day and eight long decades have claimed the rest.


    But their actions are immortal. The Corps remembers them and honors what they did and so they live forever. Dan Daly's shouted challenge takes on its true meaning - if you lie in the trenches you may survive for now, but someday you may die and no one will care. If you charge the guns you may die in the next two minutes, but you will be one of the immortals.

    All Marines die in either the red flash of battle or the white cold of the nursing home. In the vigor of youth or the infirmity of age all will eventually die but the Marine Corps lives on. Every Marine who ever lived is living still, in the Marines who claim the title today.

    It is that sense of belonging to something that will outlive our own mortality, which gives people a light to live by and a flame to mark their passing.

    Passed on to a Marine from another Marine and to his friends!

    SEMPER FIDELIS






  2. #2
    Where the hell is that Recruiter???

    Give me the paper and pen and lead me to the dotted line.

    OOOORAHHHHH. GUNG HO. kill, kill, kill


  3. #3
    We've all heard the arguments as to who are the better warriers, the Marines or the Army. Below is a statement from a US Army veteran on this issue. Made me proud to be thought of so highly by an Army veteran.

    Alright, people. There seems to be alot of back and forth, so I will do my best to get this discussion evened out, so to speak.

    I myself was in the US Army. 82nd Airborne, and Infantry. I left the service after three deployments (twice to Afghanistan and once in Iraq) at the rank of Sergeant.
    We were replaced by the Marines in Al Fallujah in late March of 2004, and less than a week later, they became locked in a bloody battle that cost many lives. Does that mean that the US Army was better than the Marines? No. It means that the enemy recognized different uniforms and put two and two together, that they were new personnel and unfamiliar with the streets. They used it to their advantage.

    But, that aside, there are different portions you have to examine when looking at who is "better." Basic Training/Boot Camp: Army Basic Training is split into five different bases: Fort Benning, GA for infantry, Fort Knox, KY for armor, Fort Sill, OK for Artillery, Fort Leonardwood for Military Police and Fort Jackson, SC for other. Please, keep in mind there are other jobs trained for at these bases but the ones I named were the ones that came to mind. Army training is "supposed" to make all soldiers combat-ready but it doesn't. From what I have seen, read, researched, and heard, Marine Corps Boot Camp does that for all marines, regardless of their jobs.


    In my time in the Army, I have seen some jacked up POGs (person other than grunt)that were active duty, reserves, or national guard. I was appalled that they were wearing the same uniform I was wearing and that they represented the Army. If they came into enemy contact I would bet my last dollar that they would throw down their weapon and run away. That is how alot of soldiers are in non-combat units are (again, from what I've seen). The Marines aren't like that. If I was in a firefight to the death and knew it was my last chance to kill as many bad guys as I could, I would rather have a USMC mechanic next to me rather than an Army Mechanic, because I have seen firsthand that their motto of "everyone is a rifleman first" is more true than most people give them credit for.

    Is this to say there aren't studs in the Combat Support and Combat Service Support segments of the Army? No, I am sure there are. But, the Marines are trained differently as a whole and all support each other completely. The Army doesn't. In the Army if you aren't infantry, you are crap. Then if you aren't airborne infantry, you aren't crap. Then if you aren't in my brigade, battalion, company, platoon, ect. You get the idea. It was pounded into our heads at Bragg that your individual unit is better than others. While I see this is true to a point when it comes to combat efficiency and the infantry...it drives a wedge between the Army soldiers in so many areas. If the Army soldiers banded together like Marines did and were like, "regardless of what your job is, we are all soldiers and will fight like we are infantry," then we would be able to shed the bad image given to us by people just looking to do the minimum because they can't get a job or they can't get away from crime in their neighborhood or their parents are kicking them out of their house and they don't want to go to college.

    Lastly, I was airborne infantry with the US Army and was proud of my unit, its history, and being a soldier in the US Army. But, not many are in the Army, most just don't give a $#!% and that is where the Army, as a whole, falls short of the Marines.


  4. #4
    How True Chuck!!
    Like I Said Before It Was An Honor And Privilege To Serve With Our Nations Finest .

    Semper Fi My Brother

    Stephen Doc Hansen Hm3 Fmf


  5. #5
    Ooooorah !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Semper Fi !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


  6. #6
    Best article I have read to date "Ask a Marine" on the difference between Marines and all other services. Hey it is what it is and we don't take a step back for anyon on that.
    Great job Marine...."Semper Fi" SGT DDS


  7. #7
    A very good man...who worked WITH the Marines.

    Sir Jacob Vouza

    In the World War II Campaign Jacob Vouza a Solomon Islander who distinguished himself by his exceptional valour and intergrity.

    He had served in the Solomons Islands' Armed Constabulary for 25 years and had retired when, in 1942 at the age of 50 years, he volunteered to work with Captain Martin Clemens, the District Officer on Guadalcanal, as a member of the coastwatching team.

    When the Japanese invaded Guadalcanal he was the first of the Coastwatchers to offer his help to the 1st Marine Division, United States Marine Corps, as a freedom fighter.

    For his heroism the Marines awarded Jacob Vouza the Silver Star, and the British, the George Medal. He organized scouts and carriers for the Marines 2nd Raider Battalion Commanded by Lt. Col. Evans Fordyce Carlson. He was later awarded the U.S. Legion of Merit. Her Majesty the Queen knighted him into the Order of the British Empire. He was the first Solomon Islander, after the Governor General, to receive a knighthood. He died in 1984.


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