As I've said before, everyone knows there's a constant din of the different services poking fun at each other, but I don't have a dog in these fights. Never was in any branch. The systems I've worked on tended to be for the Navy with some split between the Air Force and the Navy. All I can say is that I've worked on some of their toys.
I know that all sorts of kids from all sorts of backgrounds go into the Marines, but I've never met an ex-Marine who wasn't an honorable man. Considering that perhaps the most famous marine, Chesty Puller, is quoted as having said, “Take me to the Brig. I want to see the 'real Marines' ”, maybe I've only been meeting fakes.
We had all services in the school I went to (meteorology). And I must say that the meme that Marines are dumb was not true. I saw in the day to day work that they did as well as the other services there in a very difficult school. I will say from seeing some of the antics they were involved in during that 9 month school that they were as crazy as outhouse rats, but never dumb. God Bless you my fellow servicemen, may the judge be lenient and may the Country Bless your service!
ReplyDeleteMSG Grumpy
Aesop:
ReplyDeletePoint of order:
Lee Harvey Oswald was an ex-Marine. Charles Whitman was an ex-Marine. The douchecanoe who shot up the bar in Thousand Oaks was an ex-Marine. Those are the only type of people who are ex-Marines.
The rest of us, in some millions, are former Marines, or retired Marines. (Most of us, if asked, will tell you with a cheerful growl and no little amount of seriousness that "Once A Marine, Always A Marine", and that we're currently part of the backbone of the Corps on inactive reserve, just standing by in case they need to swell up to several million members rapidly, and call upon us once again.) If there were a radio message announcing that there was a national emergency, and would all former Marines please report to their nearest recruiter's office ASAP, you could probably only get 2-4 million of us to show up in the first 24 hours.
Point taken, and I'll do my best to incorporate that into my mindset.
DeleteI wonder how many of the 2-4 million who show up would need to be re-trained on their rifles and how many would pass a test, or how many would need extensive rehab to get fit enough. My suspicion is that the number of former marines who would pass a rifle qualifying test and the number that would pass a fitness test are both well above national averages in virtually any other group.
Being in the military makes some men and some come apart. 'The military is like a fire, it will melt you and you can only chose what mold you will fill"...said by a unnamed chaplin
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