11/11/11 - Veterans Day...

[Austin W Hogan]

I have a little different outlook on this; no one owes me anything for being in the Army, but I owe the Army my thanks for prerparing me for the rest of my life. People who did not serve missed a lot.

Best, Austin

[Big Friend Ten (BFT)]

Austin,

I agree! Former Georgia Senator and Governor Zell Miller wrote the book, CORE VALUES, subtitled "Everything You Need to Know about Life I Learned in the Marines".

The lessons for life that my parents could not get me to learn the Corps beat into me! I became a little harder in spirit due to uncompromising integrity. Of the Marine Corps 14 leadership traits; Bearing, Courage, Dependability, Decisiveness, Enthusiasm, Endurance, Integrity, Initiative, Judgment, Justice, Knowledge, Loyalty, Tact, and Unselfishness, the trait of INTEGRITY is most valued. In the Corps if a Marine comprised their integrity they had screwed them self forever. Anything else might get a little slack but not a breach of integrity.

Today I judge others as a judge myself.

To all the veterans and those still serving, thank you!

PS: The Corps also taught me “Attention to Detail” which commanded me to drop the above into MS Word to correct the dozen misspelled words before presenting to distinguished readers such as those in the PGCA.

Mark
USMC, Retired

[Bruce Day]

Thanks for serving. I was in through Vietnam and post Gulf I into Northern Iraq and Somalia. We saw the Army and USMC go through some tough times post Vietnam, the Marines were the first to cut back quantity for quality and attention to their core values. Thanks to the core of all services for holding steady. None of us know the future but we do know that there are those who would destroy us and our military stands between us and them.

[Big Friend Ten (BFT)]

Bruce,

I enlisted in 1977 when the Vietnam-era "Joined the Corps instead of going to jail" personnal were still being thinned out.

I do not think the Corps cut back on it's values after Vietnam but it did suffer in losing funding! Lacking a war and the ability of the Gunny to beat the heck out of a troublemaker legal discipline was ineffective. Times would however soon change!

Later in my career I served under Major General Leslie Palm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_M._Palm General Palm told of interesting times in Vietnam and of the post-war period. The Officer Corps of the time decided enough was enough and the trash had to go. Over the decade of the 1980 the Corps tightened up and we all stood more proudly. Those pieces of shxx were flushed down the tiolet by General Palm and the officers of his era.

The Marines of today are much like fables of the knights of old. Firm, good mannered men and women who will cut out your tough if you speak ill of the Corps and fellow Marines. Kind of gives you a comforting feeling, doesn't it?

[J.B. Books]

This sums it up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyXYot6wHuE