1,2,3,4, I Love The Marine Corps

*** Header Image is an MCRD San Diego, USMC Photo ***

The title of this post is referencing the physical training cadence used in the Marine Corps. But I selected it because, well, I do indeed love my Marine Corps. I’m what you would call a salty Marine, having served some time ago (I have been out 25 years now). But I love my Marine Corps just as much today as I did when I was on active duty. In fact probably more, now that I’m on the outside looking in. There were some things that I hated, but overall I loved my time in the Corps. I don’t talk bad about the Corps as I really don’t must be negative today about it.

The military is one of those things that you get out it what you put into it. So if you are going to be a slacker, then you will not get much out of the Corps, you can expect to not get promoted and to be a target for all the NCOs and SNCOs as they know you are a slacker and Corps doesn’t like slackers. Like in school if you put effort into your studies, it usually reflected in good grades. With the exception of my high school algebra teacher “Charlie”. He hated me for some reason and I was one of the 10-12 students who would have to take their chairs out of his class and into the hall within the first 10 minutes of his class. And in my case, I wasn’t screwing around, I would ask legitimate questions of him that would piss him off. See Charlie didn’t like questions and if you asked questions then you would get called a “Stupid Mash Potato Head” and get kicked out of his class. I didn’t understand what the hell he was saying (he was foreign as well) and when I asked him to explain, well, bingo. All of my other teachers loved and besides Charlie’s class (which I ended up dropping) I was an ‘A’ student.

Alright, back to the Corps. If you work hard, put forth effort, and don’t get caught, err, I mean don’t screw around, then you will do well in the military in general. The problem for many of the Marines that didn’t like the Corps was that they couldn’t handle being without adult supervision, oh wait, they were all adults, so they didn’t need supervision and that was the problem. That meant drinking often and too much, and then acting fucking stupid and doing stupid things because you are now drunk strong and when you are drunk strong you can do anything.

These dumbasses would go back to the barracks and drink every fucking night. The SGTMAJ would restrict alcohol in the barracks to certain ranks, but these dumbasses would find ways around (usually go out in town) and drink too much every damn night. The rare times that they were put in a position of responsibility like ‘fire watch’ or ‘duty’, they would allow their friends to break the rules like sneaking females into their rooms or sneaking alcohol into their rooms, and then they would not be smart about it and their buddies would get caught and they would get blamed for it. I was the barracks NCO on one of my deployments to Japan and I don’t know how many barracks inspections (these were scheduled and announced) and the SGTMAJ would open up a refrigerator and find beer or on the wall a photo of them in their room drinking or in their room with a female or a hooker. I mean come on, get fucking smart here for a second, you knew the SGTMAJ was walking through and you are too stupid to move the photos or better yet, put them in your locked wall locker, dumbass. And this folks is how you don’t succeed in the military.

It’s not that those that succeed didn’t screw around, it means that they were just smart about it. Don’t bring the alcohol into the barracks and drink off base or in the club. Don’t drink to excess and don’t drink every damn night. If you are going to party with a female and that isn’t authorized, then don’t do it in the barracks. Hell, I knew a Marine that would meet his date in the office and they would hang out there. The bosses would never come around after dark, so that is where he would play. I don’t know how many married Marines would cheat, but then again, at home, once the Marines left, the wives had their boyfriends move in. It was sickening seeing it at Cherry Point. My wife and I watched it happen like a freaking parade. We were shopping at the local Winn Dixie and saw my buddy’s wife and she introduced her boyfriend, who she was all over in the store in public as her chauffeur. And in that case, I don’t think the wheels were up on the plane yet.

It was also sickening to see the spouses selling off their Marine’s items at yard sales. Sometimes you would see dressers full of his clothing for sale, his golf clubs, his car, everything.