It was reported in the news today that the Company Commander has beed relieved of his command. Still no news on the fate of the soldiers.
*********************** "He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion." - Anonymous
motorcyclenut and Lethrnek, it was people like you who convinced me the Marines was the only choice. We just got a new Gunny at the unit fresh from 1st MarDiv, and some of the navy kids are having a hard time adjusting to his 0300 attitude. I just have to laugh when they come to me and tell me the Marines are too hard on their people, more specifically, them. It's amazing how some people are just unable to cope with stress. I have the utmost respect for NCOs, and esp. SNCOs. Thanks for what you have done. It's people like you and the guys I ran into at MWTC that just made me want to hurry up and finish up with school so that I can get to the fleet, even if I will be a damn brown bar lol.
And thank you to the rest of the vets on the board! Veteran's Day is coming up quick, and just out of curiosity, how many of you have Veteran's Day celebrations in your town? Lethrnek, they must have a pretty big one in Norfolk, don't they?
Posts: 491 | Location: Ithaca, NY | Registered: April 19, 2004
Thanks Quad! One other thing we don't do in the Marine Corps is treat young officers like they are idiots; it's unprofessional!
Experienced Marines pass on their wisdom to those who ask and/or require it. No one I know came into the military with the knowledge of a General. Teach and mentor, is one of the other duties of <Professional> NCO's and SNCO's. One other thing, the young officer you treat well today, is the same officer that will remember that when, in 10 or 12 years, they sit on the promotion board (as a votiong member) that you are being considered for!
Good Luck, and Semper Fi!
Posts: 378 | Location: Norfolk, VA | Registered: August 19, 2003
Thanks Lethrnek! That's one of the things that keeps getting impressed upon me, is that when you hit the fleet you need to use your NCOs to help you get your bearing and learn your job as a platoon commander, since they are all perfectly capable of doing it. To this day I really cannot say that i have ever run across a Marine NCO who wasn't at least competent, and the vast majority were stellar.
Posts: 491 | Location: Ithaca, NY | Registered: April 19, 2004
"The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marines." Eleanor Roosevelt 1945
Posts: 711 | Location: Williamsburg, Va | Registered: June 16, 2003
"O God of Earth and Altar, Bow down and hear our cry, Our earthly rulers falter, Our people drift and die, The walls of gold entomb us, The swords of scorn divide, Take not thy thunder from us, But take away our pride." (G. K. Chesterton; English Hymnal)
Posts: 60 | Location: Finland | Registered: November 24, 2003
Tuhat - never served, huh? That's the kind of statement that ignorant TV-watchers use to justify behavior that in the military is criminal.
You have to obey orders: the entire system is built on it. A lot of times, the lower level people, the "grunts", the "squids", don't know what is going on (big picture). They rely on their officers and NCO's to tell them what to do. So in a sense, especially in combat, everyone is obeying orders "blindly".
Very few people in the chain of command have the whole picture. It is because people follow orders that a modern military strategy is possible. Each piece of the whole doing his small task, most of them without the knowledge of how what he is doing at that time affects the other pieces.
But it works, because of the tradition and duty built over the centuries. "You follow orders, son, or people die."
dragoman
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The goal of the “liberals”—as it emerges from the record of the past decades—was to smuggle this country into welfare statism by means of single, concrete, specific measures, enlarging the power of the government a step at a time, never permitting these steps to be summed up into principles, never permitting their direction to be identified or the basic issue to be named. Thus, statism was to come, not by vote or by violence, but by slow rot—by a long process of evasion and epistemological corruption, leading to a fait accompli. (The goal of the “conservative” was only to retard that process.) -----Ayn Rand
If that is true, then you must know the comment you made about "only fools" cannot apply to a modern combat situation.
Situations like the prisoner "abuse" in Iraq might be questionable orders that should have been forwarded up the chain of command.
dragoman
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The goal of the “liberals”—as it emerges from the record of the past decades—was to smuggle this country into welfare statism by means of single, concrete, specific measures, enlarging the power of the government a step at a time, never permitting these steps to be summed up into principles, never permitting their direction to be identified or the basic issue to be named. Thus, statism was to come, not by vote or by violence, but by slow rot—by a long process of evasion and epistemological corruption, leading to a fait accompli. (The goal of the “conservative” was only to retard that process.) -----Ayn Rand
Tuhat, when you say you did your time, you imply that it was through conscription; not of your own volition, and certainly not pro patria. As you haven't said what "army" you served in and that you don't know what ranks the US Army equated to your rank, I'll just say that that is indicative of your ignorance.
On that note, I'll address the "blindly" issue. You are following orders blindly if your leaders have not made clear to you what the objective is. In the US Amred Forces, our leaders ensure that everyone understands the objective and their particular role in successfully obtaining that objective. Having trained with other nations armed forces - particularly conscripts - I have found that it's not that way in their army or leadership. The U.S. has an "ALL-Volunteer" force. A Professional Army. Manned by people who see this not as a job, but a vocation - a calling. Many, like myself, make it a career and retire from it. There are many reasons that they join, and patriotism is usually one of them. Probably not so with you or those you served with, huh?
Finally, you say you were a Lieutenant; in the Marine Corps 3 sergeants and 40 men are commanded by a Staff Sergeant!
Posts: 378 | Location: Norfolk, VA | Registered: August 19, 2003
