MARINES: would you encourage your son to become one?

[Jos]

And who are you gonna call on to make it right, A Few Good Men (and women)
Happy Birthday Marines

 

[JenT]

I would not encourage anyone to join the American miitary of today, any branch, it doesn't matter. This regime has turned it all to crap.

This administration is not synonomous with our troops. Although I support my son obeying his commanding officers to the letter, my constant prayer is that God lead our troops. I've met a lot of moms lately...I am not alone.

God chooses our leaders. Christ healed the servant of a centurion: "For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” And those who were sent, returning to the house, found the servant well who had been sick..

I have trust in my Lord and Savior...Obama nor any man has anything on God and He will be there on any battlefield that my son is sent to. I just pray for my son, his platoon, and his commanding officers, that their way be illuminated and clear.

 

[old navy]

A huge THANK YOU to all the Marines and military that answered on this thread. Even though I don't always believe EVERYTHING I read, this was a huge comfort to me as I watched my son pursue and accomplish becoming a Marine.

One of my biggest concerns was he would wake up desperate to get out of something he couldn't get out of. It turns out that he loves everything about the Marines, though he's just getting started. He's already saying he hopes to make a career out of it. So thank you so much to everyone who comforted me as I waited to find out what was really happening.

And thanks again for serving our country.

Jen, tell your son Happy Birthday today.

I'm at Walter Reed right now doing the same to Marines recovering from their war wounds.

It puts a touch of reality to life.

 

[JenT]

A huge THANK YOU to all the Marines and military that answered on this thread. Even though I don't always believe EVERYTHING I read, this was a huge comfort to me as I watched my son pursue and accomplish becoming a Marine.

One of my biggest concerns was he would wake up desperate to get out of something he couldn't get out of. It turns out that he loves everything about the Marines, though he's just getting started. He's already saying he hopes to make a career out of it. So thank you so much to everyone who comforted me as I waited to find out what was really happening.

And thanks again for serving our country.

Jen, tell your son Happy Birthday today.

I'm at Walter Reed right now doing the same to Marines recovering from their war wounds.

It puts a touch of reality to life.

God bless you, old navy. Thanks for all you do and have done. Happy Birthday

 

[whitehall]

Semper Fi. It's the smartest thing I ever did and I will be proud of my service all my life but that's just me. I'd discourage a woman from joining. Don't ask me why, it's just a personal bias. I would give a kid all the information I had including the good, the bad and the ugly and pat him on the back but when you come right down to it it is a personal decision and I wouldn't hold it against any kid who decided not to join.

 

[Douger]

To want your child to become a MeatHead is truly psychotic.

 

[High_Gravity]

To want your child to become a MeatHead is truly psychotic.

Go get fucked in the mouth Douger.

 

[old navy]

To want your child to become a MeatHead is truly psychotic.

Go get fucked in the mouth Douger.

Thank God for the First Amendment.

 

[JenT]

Thank you to everyone who helped me with this question. Merry Christmas!

 

[Reuben]

the marine corps changes kids more than any other service. Semper fidelis is not just a saying. it is a lifestyle and an indoctrination. that said, if my son goes into the military I hope he goes into the marines. I chose a different branch, and regretted it every moment.

 

[The Professor]

To the Marines on this board: Would you encourage your sons to become Marines?

My son has asked for my blessing, and I've already given it but I am completely losing it between trusting God and then thinking what could happen if he were captured. Threats to come after him if he has been captured have not been successful in dissuading him from signing (having your mom show up to rescue you...would a man be embarrassed by anything more? heh)

So I am sincerely asking, WHAT IS "breaking him down" really? Is that like twisting the heads off of puppies to destroy all softness in him?

And would you encourage your son to follow your footsteps and join? Does that even happen? Are there generational Marines?

Thank you very much and please don't rep me for this thread, thanks.

I can't think of any thing finer than being a Marine.

The Professor: Serial number 1647626 (old Corps), radio- telegraph operator and member of Second ANGLICO (Air and Naval Gunfire Liaison Company).

PS: Do not tell me not to give you a rep. I have already given you one (positive of course).

 

[The Professor]

If the Navy won't take him...I guess the Marines will do.








Outrage in 3....2....1.....

Since my wife is former navy, I (a Marine) had better keep his mouth zipped.

 

[Katzndogz]

I wouldn't encourage anyone to join the military. This country isn't worth it.

 

[Big Black Dog]

Joining the US Marines is a very special thing for a person to do. Service to country in one of the finest branches of the military is very honorable. I was a Navy Corpsman for over 20 years and during my time in the military I met, and worked along side of some very honorable Marines. If your son is so inclined to join the Marines, you should be proud of him and offer him up all the support and encouragement you can muster up. Semper Fi.

 

[Katzndogz]

Just remind your son that obama would be his commander in chief.

 

[MikeK]

To the Marines on this board: Would you encourage your sons to become Marines?

[...]

My father enlisted in the Army five days after Pearl Harbor was bombed. His infantry unit was among those that relieved the Marines on Guadalcanal. The things he told us, combined with all I'd read and heard about the heroism and incredible sacrifice of the Marines in the Pacific Campaign, aroused an intense determination in me to become one of them and I set my adolescent mind on doing that.

A few days before my seventeenth birthday, while the "police action" (fighting and dying) in Korea was still ongoing, I told my father what I wanted to do. He seemed reluctant and told me to ask my mother, which I did. She angrily refused and insisted my father not even consider signing to send me to war for no good reason. My mother was usually quiet but not about this issue. I recall her raising hell about it and driving my poor father into hiding.

I didn't argue with her (which would have done no good) but quietly planned to join the Corps when I turned eighteen. But by then the fighting in Korea had ended and I'd become involved in a romantic passion that far exceeded my warrior machismo. So I put my intended enlistment on hold.

My love affair ended at age nineteen, I was totally bored with college, there were no decent jobs available for draft (1-A) eligibles, so I enlisted in the (peacetime) Marines in 1956. The first two years, which were spent in Japan and Okinawa, went by quickly. But the last two years at Camp LeJeune dragged agonizingly on and I couldn't wait to escape the regimentaion. In fact the morning they handed me my DD-214 was one of the happiest days of my life.

My two year inactive reserve obligation ended in 1962, so when the fighting in Vietnam escalated in 1963 they couldn't touch me. By then that was important to me because I was back in college and had become acutely aware of how wrong and unnecessary our involvement in Vietnam was and I wanted no part of it. In fact I was so strongly opposed to our actions in Vietnam I had joined the South Brooklyn chapter of the Vietnam Protest Movement.

In 1966 my cousin, Thomas, who was like a younger brother to us, was drafted and sent to Vietnam. Five weeks after arriving there he was killed. The heartbreak that terrible and wholly unnecessary waste inflicted on my family solidified my awareness that the U.S. Government was needlessly condemning thousands of its young citizens to death or to crippling disability.

The honorable and heroic reputation earned by the Marines throughout the Pacific Campaign of WW-II was still fresh in the minds of my generation. It accounted for my eagerness to wear the lion's claw and affirm my status as a warrior -- and becoming a Marine is one of the quickest and best ways to accommodate that natural post-adolescent impulse. But there is a problem in that the adolescent and post-adolescent mind is typically incapable of objectively appraising the need to risk one's life and limb and of understanding the difference between doing it on behalf of one's Country or on behalf of what might be a corrupt and/or incompetent government. The simple fact of the matter is there was absolutely no justifiable need for the United States to send 58,000 of its young men to their deaths and thousands more to be maimed in Vietnam. And anyone who doubts that is urged to read, The Fog Of War, by Robert McNamara, and, Born On The Fourth Of July, by Ron Kovic.

Moving forward in time, not only was our invasion and occupation of Iraq wholly unnecessary it was in fact an egregious war crime for which George W. Bush has been indicted in-absentia by the World Court and is subject to arrest. There also is no need for our troops to be fighting and dying in Afghanistan -- which is emulating the futile effort of the Soviet Union. The idea that we are fighting terrorism in the Middle East is patently absurd. The truth is what we have done in the Middle East is intensify hatred of the U.S. and vastly increase the likelihood of terrorist retaliation against us.

So, Jen T, to answer your question, if your son joins the Marines, and if he is sent to the Middle East and is killed or maimed, can you say it was a sacrifice on behalf of his Country? Or on behalf of a self-serving, corporatist sonofabitch like George W. Bush? Or on behalf of an incompetent and corrupt government? Or on behalf of the Military Industrial Complex which President Eisenhower warned us about? Or on behalf of the oil industry?

I urge you to give this matter an appropriate amount of thought.

 

[Warrior102]

Thank you very much and please don't rep me for this thread, thanks.

I was going to rep you because I think your profile picture is hot... but hey...
You're the boss.

 

[Connery]

I have served and am involved with current and former military personnel. I would support his decision, hopefully not show my bias, and bring him to a base, a VA hospital and a service member's club so he could speak to others and see the realities of being in the military.


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[chikenwing]

No and I talked him out of it,the Navy was a much better fit.

 

[MikeK]

I have served and am involved with current and former military personnel. I would support his decision, hopefully not show my bias, and bring him to a base, a VA hospital and a service member's club so he could speak to others and see the realities of being in the military.

[...]

Good advice.

But I must add that it's important to know the realities of not just being in the military but being in today's military with all our military is involved in -- especially in the Middle East.