WHO IS A MARINE? This is very old, but well worth reading every couple of years. Written by GEN. WILLIAM THORNSON, US ARMY (l956) U.S. Marines are the most peculiar breed of human beings I have ever witnessed. They treat service as if it was some kind of cult, plastering their emblem on almost everything they own, making themselves look like insane fanatics with haircuts to ungentle-manly lengths, worshipping their Commandant almost as if he was a god, and making weird animal noises like a gang of savages. They'll fight like rabid dogs at the drop of a hat just for the sake of a little action, and are the cockiest sons of bitches I have ever known. Most have the foulest mouths and drink well beyond man's normal limits, but their high spirits and sense of brotherhood set them apart and, generally speaking, the United States Marines I've come in contact with are the most professional soldiers and the finest men and women I have ever had the pleasure to meet... "There are only two kinds of people that understand Marines: Marines and the enemy. Everyone else has a second-hand opinion." All militaries harden their recruits, instill the basics, and bend young men to their will. But the Marine Corps provides its members with a secret weapon. It gives them the unique culture of pride that makes the Marines the world's premier warrior force. "The Navy has its ships, the Air Force has its planes, the Army its detailed doctrine, but ' culture '---the values and assumptions that shape its members---is all the Marines |
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have."
They call this culture "esprit de corps." Alone among the U.S. military services, the Marines have bestowed their name on their enlisted ranks. The Army has Army officers and soldiers, the Navy has naval officers and sailors, the Air Force has Air Force officers and airmen----but the Marines have only Marines. Please pray on this day, and every day, for our Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world in defense of our liberty, and for the families awaiting their safe return. Semper Fi! Shifty MORE ABOUT MARINES! After undergoing their baptism by fire, combat personnel must adapt to their circumstances. They must somehow come to terms with the terrible realization that they and their enemy are engaged in a prolonged struggle to kill one another-and then go on about their business. Whether they follow orders or give them, they must find a way to do their jobs, to earn their salary as we all do, whether we are stockbrokers, schoolteachers or mechanics. COMBAT Combat demands of its participants the "manly virtues," as they are traditionally called -courage, physical strength, stoic endurance of pain and discomfort. Yet combat's circumstances-the close living conditions, the shared enterprise, and, above all, the reliance upon one another in the constant struggle to resist death-may forge among men bonds that in less extreme circumstances they would think unmanly to share and ever more so to admit. |
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SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT! Living and working under extreme conditions, combatants must render the extraordinary routine, the mon-strous tolerable, the unthinkable, second nature "Courage." Wrote Mark Twain, "is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear." FROM MY DESK I received this email From: Cpl. "Patrick" Wilcox Semper Fi Cpl. Patrick Wilcox" IT IS A FACT! There are three facts about a war (combat) and they are:
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