Humble is for those who can’t, we CAN. When the world comes down on our nations military for doing their job, protecting American interest around the world and following our leaders orders, I just close my eyes and see that quote in my minds eye. Being a part of the Marine Corps is not only a job but part of a legacy that brands an invisible “Marine” tattoo across your soul.
Whenever you read about a person who served in the Marine Corps, you always hear them say, “Ex-Marine”, that is a misnomer, see once a Marine, Always a Marine!! So feel free to correct the next person who in conversion says “Oh he was an Ex Marine.” Tell them that he is a Former Marine. This can be misconstrued as a form of brain washing by some who don’t understand what being a part of such an outstanding company means.
I will give you an example of what it means to be a Marine. On September 11th 2001, a twenty year veteran of the Marine Corps, retired Staff Sergeant David Karnes, watched in horror like the rest of us as we were brutally attacked by a bunch of Crazy, Maniacal, Islam radicals. But what makes this man and another former Marine Sergeant Thomas special is that while thousands were running away from lower Manhattan, these two donned their Marine Corps Uniforms and raced to the scene of mayhem. They were allowed to pass all the check points, a respect for the uniform by the police and made their way to ground zero. What is remarkable is the fact that they found some of the last survivors from the collapse of the twin towers. These two unsung hero’s had the guts face tragedy with a level mind and sort out the details that ultimately saved the lives of two Port Authority Police Officers.
Were they called upon to do this selfless act? No!! Did the U.N. get together and figure out that the Marines needed to be called in? NO!! These two individuals took it upon themselves to use their leadership skills, training and bravado, saving two lives when others had missed them. How do you put a price on that? What kind of man does this?
These are the results of the Marine Corps, a professional organization whose byproduct is allowing these guys to work under pressure and make rational life or death decisions. They are my hero’s right now because they both showed the world that the Marines make things happen whether on Active Duty or out in the world as a Civilian. To Sgt David Karnes and the rest of the Marines out there, I say “Thank you” and Happy Birthday and Veterans day!!
Semper Fi,
Taco
- Comment
- Reblog
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
The SandGram 
November 13, 2006 at 4:50 am
Happy Birthday, Marine. Sorry I am late. I hope you had a wonderful day. Veterans Day also. Last year on the Marine Corps Birthday I had three Marine contacts in Iraq and you were one of them. I had a glass of wine to each of you so by the time I got around to having one for my brother, a former Marine, I was pretty plastered. Had fun though.
Thank you for your service to our great country and thank you for all that you and your band of brothers give to keep us free.
Edith
An Air Force wife and mother
November 13, 2006 at 5:25 pm
When I graduated High School I decided that I wanted to work instead of going to College. I got my first job in Manhattan. My boss was a big guy, he played football in college and he was a Marine but he had and still has a heart of gold. I remember after my first month working there in conversation I said to him your an X- Marine? He took me in his office and on his desk was a plaque “Once A Marine Always A Marine” that stuck with me all these years later.
November 13, 2006 at 5:39 pm
Congratulations on the opening of the brand-spanking-new Marine Corps Heritage Center in beautiful Quantico, VA! I can’t wait to visit the museum and grounds ’cause I’ve seen and heard that the exhibits express the esprit de corps that make Marines so special.
During the tsunami in Asia a couple of years ago, there was a similar story about a Marine Sgt who took charge of a hotel and ferried all of the hotel guest to safety by paddling a dingy thru rivers of sewage. He kept going back-and-fourth picking up the stranded and taking them to high ground until everyone was safe. He didn’t even consider waiting for someone else to come along and help, he simply stepped into the breach and did it himself.
Then there was this Marine Major who had retired from service and had a great job and a beautiful wife and kids and a future as bright as the sun. On Sept 11th, he felt that same pull that draws all Marines to the sound of guns, and … you all know the rest of that story!
Thanks Taco and Mrs. Taco!!!! I hope you guys had a wonderful Veteran’s Day!
November 13, 2006 at 6:02 pm
What’s even more amazing to me about the Marine in your story is that he didn’t even know anyone considered him a hero, or special at all, until he saw a preview for the Twin Towers movie he was the subject of. I believe Nick Cage played him…. because they didn’t even know the Marine in question was black.
Now THAT’S selfless service to your country.
As for you, Taco… thank you so much for being there when others couldn’t, or wouldn’t. It takes a special breed to join the military.
November 13, 2006 at 9:06 pm
I learned early on that a Marine never stops being a Marine. I can see in some how it stays with them forever.
One of the greatest things about the Marines, is that we know we can always depend on you, no matter when, no matter what. You will always be there for us. You guys rock!!
November 13, 2006 at 9:53 pm
THANK YOU SEAURCHIN THAT IS A COMPLINMENT FOR ALL MARINES,WE NOW SALUTE YOU.
BIG BRO JIM I SAID THAT.
November 13, 2006 at 10:12 pm
SORRY SEAURCHIN FOR MY DOUBLE REPLY, I WAS LOOKING AT A PIC OF TACO AND HIS #9/1/2 WIFE,AND GOT CARRIED AWAY, OH BY THE WAY 9 1/2 I THE HIGHEST RATING I CAN GIVE.NO SUCH THING AS A 10.THERE MIGHT BE A CAVITY IN A MOLAR ,OR A CORN ON THE FOOT. NO ONE IS PERFECT. GOT TO ADMIT I AM PARTIAL TO BLONDES.
BIG BRO JIM I SAID THAT
November 13, 2006 at 11:27 pm
OH BY THE WAY MAJOR TACO AND MAJOR PAIN,MAY I TAKE THIS MOMENT TO STAND UP FOR ALL YOUR READERS AND SALUTE YOU AND ALL OF OUR SERVICE MEMBERS,LETA,AND KAREN I YOU MAY SALUTE WITH ME AT 23 HUNDRED HOURS EVERY NIGHT.AND THAT IS NO JOKE.
SUPPORT YOUR TROOPS THEY SUPPORT YOU.
BIG BRO JIM I SAID THAT.
November 14, 2006 at 1:47 am
http://www.aim.org/guest_column/5016_0_6_0_C/
The Magic of “A Few Good Men”
By W. Thomas Smith Jr. | November 13, 2006
In his latest book, America’s Victories – Why the U.S. wins wars and will win the war on terror, national defense and economics historian Dr. Larry Schweikart describes the performance of U.S. troops during the 2003 invasion of Iraq: “The Marines, given their superiority in combat training and despite their youth (Marines are the youngest, on average, of the enlisted troops) generally fared far better than the regular Army in combat situations,” he writes.
It’s not a statement that would necessarily endear Dr. Schweikart to Army officers. But right or wrong, U.S. Marines do indeed have a reputation for combat prowess that often surpasses the reputations of other military organizations – even the really good ones. And this rep has fueled the interservice rivalry that has existed since the birth of the Corps on November 10, 1775 – exactly 231 years ago, today.
Born in an old Philadelphia alehouse, with the barkeep as its first officer, the fledgling Continental Marine Corps was composed of a motley band of adventurers and street toughs; nothing like the 178,000-plus elite U.S. Marine Corps we know today. But somewhere along the way the proverbial formula was discovered. According to tradition – and in Lt. Gen. Victor H. “Brute” Krulak’s book, First to Fight – Marines started telling themselves they were the best. They started believing it, and they’ve been busy proving it ever since.
THE MAGIC
Best-selling author Tom Clancy refers to the result of this formula as magic. “Marines are mystical,” he once wrote. “They have magic … [a magic that] may well frighten potential opponents more than the actual violence Marines can generate in combat.”
Indeed, this magic has been working to America’s benefit as a force multiplier in both peace and war for decades.
During the Korean War, for instance, Chinese premier Mao Tse Tung was so-concerned about the combat prowess of the 1st Marine Division that he put out a death contract on the entire division, which he stated, “has the highest combat effectiveness” of any division in the U.S. armed forces. “It seems not enough for our four divisions to surround and annihilate [the 1st Marine Division’s] two regiments,” Mao said in orders to the commander of the 9th Chinese Army Group. “You should have one or two more divisions as a reserve force.”
During the same war, a captured North Korean officer confessed, “Panic sweeps my men when they are facing the American Marines.”
The Marines didn’t earn their reputation overnight. Many military historians would argue as to where, when, and in what specific combat-action the Corps’ rep was actually solidified.
Some might point to Lt. Presley O’Bannon’s successful 1805 expedition across several-hundred miles of North African desert to attack the Tripolitan city of Derna, where the U.S. flag was raised for the first time in the “old world.”
Others might point to the famous 1847 storming of Mexico’s Chapultepec Castle, the so-Christened “Halls of Montezuma.”
Still others might point to the First World War battle of Belleau Wood, in which bayonet-wielding Marines – led by a grizzled old Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly who rallied his men with, “Come on you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?!” – successfully assaulted a line of German machine-gun nests in 1918.
And most would agree in spirit with Navy Secretary James Forrestal, who, from an offshore ship witnessed the famous flag-raising over Iwo Jima in 1945, said, “The raising of that flag on [Mount] Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years.”
Such events throughout Corps history have contributed to an ethos matched only by the most elite military organizations in the world.
“A LITTLE DANGEROUS”
Yet “a Marine Corps for the next 500 years” has not always been the wish of every member of the Marines’ sister services, some of whom have harbored a distaste for Marines perhaps stemming from envy, a desire for the same reputation, or competition for Defense budget dollars (the latter of which the Corps has always come in last). In fact, there have been efforts albeit unsuccessful to have the Corps either disbanded or absorbed into either the Army or Navy. Even after the Marines’ stunning performance in World War II, Army Gen. Frank Armstrong proposed in the late 1940’s absorbing Marines into the Army, and referred to the Corps as “a small bitched-up army talking Navy lingo.”
Decades later, in 1997, Assistant Secretary of the Army Sara Lister proclaimed before a Harvard University audience, “I think the Army is much more connected to society than the Marines are. Marines are extremists. Wherever you have extremists, you’ve got some risks of total disconnection with society. And that’s a little dangerous.”
But there has been much more expressed respect, than criticism, from the Corps’ counterparts:
“The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle.”
— U.S. Army Gen. John J. “Black Jack” Pershing
“The safest place in Korea was right behind a platoon of Marines. Lord, how they could fight!”
— U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Frank Lowe
“Marines have it [pride] and benefit from it. They are tough, cocky, sure of themselves and their buddies. They can fight, and they know it.”
— U.S. Army Gen. Mark Clark
“Marines I see as two breeds, Rottweilers or Dobermans, because Marines come in two varieties, big and mean, or skinny and mean. They’re aggressive on the attack and tenacious on defense. They’ve got really short hair and they always go for the throat.”
— Rear Admiral Jay Stark, U.S. Navy
“[U.S.] Marines have the swagger, confidence, and hardness that must have been in Stonewall Jackson’s Army of the Shenandoah.”
— A British military officer in a report to his command after visiting U.S. Marines in Korea
FACTORS THAT MAKE THE DIFFERENCE
Some praise, because of interservice rivalry, has been either conservatively guarded or incidental.
U.S. Army Gen. William C. Westmoreland, who commanded all American military forces in Vietnam and later served as Army chief of staff, stated flatly he “admired the élan of Marines.”
During the 1983 invasion of Grenada, Army Gen. John W. Vessey Jr., then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, picked up a telephone and demanded to know why “two companies of Marines [are] running all over the island and thousands of Army troops [are] doing nothing. What the hell is going on?”
James Adams, former CEO of United Press International, described in his book, Secret Armies, “Marines with 20 percent of the [American] force ended up occupying 80 percent of the island [Grenada]”
The reputation and performance of Marines stems from several factors beyond simply the aforementioned formula of first boasting, then believing, and forever proving:
First, the Marine Corps is the smallest of the four traditional American armed forces. It is organized as a separate arm of service, but officially exists as a quick-reaction combined-arms amphibious force under the Department of the Navy. And as I wrote in National Review Online back in 2004, “the Corps’ philosophical approach to training and combat differs from other branches. Marine boot camp—more of a rite-of-passage than a training program—is the longest and toughest recruit indoctrination program of any of the military services. Men and women train separately. All Marines from private to Commandant are considered to be first-and-foremost riflemen. And special-operations units in the Marines are not accorded the same respect as they are in other branches. The Marines view special operations as simply another realm of warfighting. Marines are Marines, and no individual Marine or Marine unit is considered more elite than the other.”
“ANGELS OF DEATH”
Ask any former Marine (Marines are never ex-Marines): Being a Marine is something more akin to a tribal religious experience then simply a hitch in the service. As a consequence, brand-new boot Marines are convinced of their superiority – justified or not – over other soldiers. Other soldiers often view this self-perception as unjustifiable arrogance. But none of this is to suggest that the individual Marine is a better man (or today, woman) than any American soldier, sailor, or airman currently serving around the globe. All American servicemen are “good.” They all bring unique skill-sets to the table, and they are all working together better than ever.
But since we are talking about the Marine Corps – on the 231st anniversary of its founding – the question remains: just how effective is the combat prowess of America’s Marines?
Terrifyingly effective if you were to believe Saddam Hussein’s soldiers, who in 1991 dubbed U.S. Marines, “Angels of Death,” and whose senior commanders deployed 100,000 Iraqi troops behind the Iraqi-Kuwaiti beaches in anticipation of a landing that would never take place by 17,000 “Angels of Death.”
In 1992, the year following the Gulf War, a study conducted by the Heritage Foundation determined that “for every [U.S.] Army soldier in a combat position, one soldier is behind the lines in such supporting roles as administration and supply; for Marines the ratio is two combatants to one administrator or supplier. As a result, the Marine Corps delivers the most firepower in the quickest time when responding to a crisis. … The Marine Corps’ greatest advantage over other services is the speed and muscle with which it can respond to a crisis.”
Still, from a combat-power / force-multiplying perspective, it is the old formula – which creates the magic – that truly sets Marines apart from other soldiers. Perhaps impossible to define, this magic may be expressed in the words of a frantic terrorist whose radio transmission was intercepted by U.S. forces during the assault on Fallujah in 2004: “We are fighting, but the Marines keep coming. We are shooting, but the Marines won’t stop.”
November 14, 2006 at 4:23 am
Thanks again to all our Vets and their families. I am proud to solute with BIG BRO JIM and Leta every night at 23 hours. Tonight I will do it Central time. Are we all on central time? I’ll happily change to Eastern if it coincides with you. The main thing is appreciation of all our troops and the initiative, caring, and leadership of so many Marines regardless of rank as Major Taco described and has demonstrated in his own life.
November 14, 2006 at 4:31 pm
THANK YOU KAREN I,I ALSO FACE MY MY WELL LIT FLAG POLE.OH SOLUTE IS WITH AN A. I KNOW A TYPO ,I’M NOT PERFECT EITHER.
STAND BEHIND OUR TROOPS ,OR FEEL FREE TO STAND IN FRONT OF THEM( PLEASE PASS THAT ONE ALONG).
BIG BRO JIM I DAID THAT.
November 14, 2006 at 5:40 pm
AS YOU CAN SEE I WENT TO JON CARRY U, BIG BRO JIM I DAID THAT AGIN.
November 14, 2006 at 8:18 pm
I got a forwarded message from my AnyMarine youngun from his Gunny that said “Whish you wear hear”. I think he was just pretending to be a Kerry U graduate!
November 15, 2006 at 1:55 am
HEY FOLKS, JUST REMEMBER THAT WE HAVE THE SMARTEST BEST TRAINED MILITARY IN THE WORLD.WE CANNOT STOP BACKING THEM UP.SEND THEM A CARE PAC OR EVEN A LETTER. I TRY TO GET OUT TEN OR MORE LETTERS A DAY TO THE TROOPS.THEN TACO APPROVED OF MY IDEA OF A GENERIC LETTER, NOW I CAN GET OUT ENOUGH LETTERS TO BREAK MY BANK.I KNOW EVERY ONE READING THIS SUPPORTS OUR TROOPS BUT THE PREACHER IN ME HAS TO ASK YOU TO ASK PEOPLE TO SUPPORT OUR TROOPS AND WRITE A LETTER TO ONE OF OUR BRAVE SERVICE MEMBERS.
BIG BRO JIM I SAID THAT.
November 15, 2006 at 8:54 pm
Big Bro Jim,
I signed up with the letter writing team for the Soldier’s Angels and have been writing to several soldiers weekly! Each week I receive a new name and I have 15 for Christmas cards. You can request as many names a week that you can deal with. I have a generic letter that I send out the first time and then change the next letter to adapt to the particular individual. I’ve been doing this for the past six weeks and love it!
November 16, 2006 at 5:57 pm
Major Taco I am a little late saying Happy Marine Birthday to you and other Marines that read your site here so here it is…Happy 231 st! Got to go now… I am writing letters to Soldiers and Marines today and must stay on track !! As always, thanks for doing what you do.
November 16, 2006 at 10:26 pm
You suck, lolol.
http://www.luelinks.net
November 16, 2006 at 10:34 pm
Well… I’ve been told worse, thanks for that super-positive input.
S/F
Taco
November 17, 2006 at 2:12 am
TACOS MOM ,
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT. IT MEANS A LOT TO ME KNOWING I DONT HAVE TO PULL DOUBLE DUTY, WE JUST NEED AT LEAST LETTERS GOING TO OUR TROOPS TO LET THEM WE SUPPORT THEM,WHATS 39 CENTS AND A LETTER TO WHO YOU MAY NEVER MEET,,,ITS CALLED A MORALE BOOSTER, AND KNOWING WE CARE.
SEMPER FI TACOS MOM. OH TELL TACO THE SAME.
BIG BRO JIM I SAID THAT.
November 18, 2006 at 12:33 am
TACOS MOM,
GOOD FOR YOU FOR GIVING ME A RELEIFE OF DUTY.ITS BEEN TOUGH WRITING AFTER HAVING MY EYES FIXED, BUT THEY ARE O.K. NOW SO NOW ITS BACK TO DUTY.
FIRST THING IN THE A.M ITS LOAD THE PICK UP WITH ALL THESE PACS FOR OUR TROOPS AND OFF TO THE POST OFFICE, AND THAT MAN SHUDDERS WHEN I COME IN WITH ALL THOSE BOXES. GEE THE POOR POSTAL WORKER WORKS 8 HOURS A DAY,TOUGH DOO DOO PAL OUR TROOPS ARE PUTTING IN 14-20 HOURS A DAY,SO LIVE WITH IT. OUR TROOPS CAN HANDLE IT AND YOU CANT WAIT TO GO HOME AND WATCH C.N.N (MORON)
BIG BRO JIM I ,SAID THAT (AND THATS NO B/S)
November 21, 2006 at 10:33 pm
Note to other commenters: Please stop typing in all caps. It burns my eyes. Also: THE CAPS LOCK KEY IS TOGGLEABLE FOR CHRIST’S SAKE!!!
That is all,
http://WWW.LUELINKS.NET