10 November 2017

Happy Birthday U. S. Marine Corps!

Today is 10 November. This is the birthday of the United States Marine Corps. They began, according to Marine Corps history on this date in 1775. Oh, the corps began at a place called Tunns Tavern.  Yes, even from the very beginning of this military organization, one needed to be "well fortified" before one enlisted into the Marines. Yep, get them drunk enough to they have zero clue as to just what they are doing. Hey, when they get to boot camp, they'll find out damn quick just what the bloody hell they got themselves into.
After our group left the induction center in Lost Angeles, we were on a bus to San Diego to begin boot camp. When the bus stopped, an older Marine GSGT got on the bus and said (my memory of his exact words may not be 100%, this was June 1968 after all) "Gentlemen, welcome to USMC base San Diego. In a few moments you will be departing the bus. Follow the orders you will be given. We hope your stay here will be to our mutual advantage." Or something close to that. he sort of looked like Dad, not quite as old as Dad, but he had "that" sort of personal appearance.
 He got off the bus and in about 5 seconds another Marine SSGT got on and the only words I can ever say about what he yelled at us in mixed company is "yellow foot prints". Oh, and "Move it! Move it! Mover it!".
Well, holy SHIT! What the bloody hell have I gotten myself into? 
Of course the first 48 hours of boot camp were intended to totally demoralize all of us. They did so, in spades and then some. Now I was a bit fortunate. I figured out really fast to never question anything any of the drill instructors said, ever. If we were in full dress uniforms and they told us to drop into the mud in front of us, I'd have done so in an instant. You questioning such and order would have meant doing squat thrusts for about an hour straight. I can tell you from having done so, the entire platoon had to do this more than once a week for the first 6 weeks, it is NOT fun at all. It doesn't aid in your physical training (my opinion) it is JUST punishment. Punishment for what, you ask? Well, just because the DI felt we needed it.  Collective punishment WAS an option for the drill instructors back then. Not sure about now and don't much care. 
I still remember graduation day. The base commander said to all of us who were graduating boot camp that day, something like "Congratulations Marines". We sort of just stood there for some very long seconds before we realized he was talking about US. Yeah, we'd been called nearly everything you can imagine, except Marines for the previous 16 weeks.
Any way, following tradition, Happy Birthday US Marine Corps.
And YES, goddamn it, I AM still proud to have served with honor as a US Marine. No, I have no pride in having been in that damn fool Vietnam war, but I AM proud to have been a member of the Marines. I enlisted to see if I could make my own way without the possibility of falling back and going back home. I wanted to make it on my own, and by doG, I did it. I became a Marine. And if you think I wasn't damn proud of that, you have no clue about how I still feel for accomplishing that.
During my enlistment, I learned from older Marines that the Marines, and the other military services are more anti war than the hippies of any other anti war group. How so? Because they KNOW who will do the fighting, killing, and dying. THEY will be the ones at the sharp end of the damn stick. They train for war, but wish for peace. At least that is how things were in my day, 1968-72. If that has changed since, well, that would be very sad and even shameful in my view. 

FYI, check the interwebs for a short pamphlet, it IS on the web and you can read it free, just do a search for "War is a Racket" by Smedley Butler. He was a US Marine officer for 33 years and his pamphlet is well worth your time to read. He tells it like it still is. Yes, he wrote it back in the early 1930's, but it is still worth a read.
Semper Fi!

2 comments:

  1. You deserve to be proud of your accomplishment. The fact is many are called but few are worthy is a true statement. Hugs

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  2. While I still have some pride in that I did make a decent Marine. I have no pride at all for the damn fool war I was part of. Not sure I was worthy of much, but I tried to be a decent person. Still do, even though I know 100% that I am not, and cannot ever be a good person. I still can do good work. The photos from the recent baby shower are proof. Oh, none of you will see them unless you are friends with the folks who were there on farcebook or some other social media. When I do people photos, I feel as if they are not mine. Yes, I shot the photos, I edited them in the old iMac, but they are NOT mine. They belong to the folks who asked me to do them. If you go to my photos, link on this page, you will not find anything like my recent photo job. There ARE people in many of the drag race photos, but they either drive, work on the cars, or are just spectators who happened to be in the photos.
    I have my own standards in this matter and will keep sticking to them.
    Again, thanks for your comment. I guess I am proud to have served honorably as a Marine.

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Well, it sure has been a long time