From The Past: January 6, 2008
A Marine As Seen By:
Himself:
A handsome, buff, highly trained professional killer and female idol who carries a finely honed K-Bar, wears a crisp 8-point cammie cover and is always on time due to the absolute reliability of his Seiko digital watch.
His Wife:
A stinking, gross, foul mouthed lovable bum who arrives back at home every few months with a seabag full of dirty utilities, a huge Seiko watch, an oversized knife, a filthy hat and hornier then hell.
Headquarters Marine Corps:
A drunken, brawling, HMMWV-stealing, woman-corrupting “cumshaw artist” who wears a Seiko watch, an unauthorized K-Bar and a squared-away cover.
His Commanding Officer:
A fine specimen of a drunken, brawling, HMMWV-stealing, woman-corrupting bullshitter with an incredibly accurate Seiko watch, a finely honed razor sharp K-Bar and a salty cammie cover.
What Others Have Said:
Congress:
Marines are overpaid, overrated tax burdens who are indispensable since they volunteer to go anywhere at any time and kill whoever they’re told to kill, as long as they can drink, brawl, steal HMMWVs, corrupt women and sing dirty songs while wearing cammies, oversized knives, Seiko watches and really screwed-up 8-point covers that don’t look like the Army’s.
Ronald Reagan, former President of the United States:
“Some people live an entire lifetime and wonder if they’ve ever made a difference in the world. Marines don’t have that problem.”
General Douglas MacArthur, US Army:
“. . . these Marines have the swagger, confidence and hardness that must have been in Stonewall Jackson’s Army of the Shenandoah. They remind me of the Coldstream Guards at Dunkirk.”
Admiral Chester Nimitz, US Navy, on the Marine Corps’ battle for Iwo Jima:
“Uncommon valor was a common virtue”
General Douglas MacArthur, US Army:
“I have just returned from visiting the Marines at the front. There is not a finer fighting organization in the world!”
LtCol T R Fehrenbach, USA, in “This Kind of War“
“The man who will go where his colors go without asking, who will fight a phantom foe in a jungle or a mountain range, and who will suffer and die in the midst of incredible hardship, without complaint, is still what he has always been, from Imperial Rome to sceptered Britain to democratic America. He is the stuff of which legends are made. His pride is his colors and his regiment, his training hard and thorough and coldly realistic, to fit him for what he must face, and his obedience is to his orders. As a legionnaire, he held the gates of civilization for the classical world …
today he is called United States Marine.”
An Anonymous Canadian Citizen:
“Marines are about the most peculiar breed of human beings I have ever witnessed. They treat their service as if it was some kind of cult, plastering their emblem on almost everything they own, making themselves up to look like insane fanatics with haircuts so short as to be ungentlemanly, worshipping their Commandant as if he was a god, and making weird animal noises like a band of savages. They’ll fight like rabid dogs at the drop of a hat just for the sake of a little action and are the cockiest SOB’s I’ve ever known. Most have the foulest mouths and drink well beyond man’s normal limits, but their high spirits and sense of brotherhood set them apart and, generally speaking, of the United States Marines with whom I’ve come in contact, are the most professional warriors and the finest men I’ve had the pleasure to meet.”
General John J “Black Jack” Pershing, US Army:
“The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle!”
General Mark Clark, US Army:
“The more Marines I have around the better I like it!”
General Johnson, US Army:
“I can never again see a United States Marine without experiencing a feeling of reverence.”
Richard Harding Davis, war correspondent (1885}
“The Marines have landed, and the situation is well in hand.”
A Marine Drill Instructor at Parris Island:
“Did you come here just to spoil my beloved Corps, maggot?”
A boot camp weapons coach:
“To a Marine, happiness is a belt-fed weapon.”
LtCol Oliver North, USMC (ret)
“The only people I like beside my wife and kids are Marines.”
MajGen J N Mattis, CG, 1st MarDiv – Iraq, March 2003:
“You are part of the world’s most feared and trusted fighting force. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon. Share your courage with each other as we enter the uncertain terrain north of our Line of Departure. Keep faith in your comrades on your left and right and Marine Air overhead. Fight with a happy heart and a strong spirit. For the mission’s sake, our country’s sake and the sake of the men who carried the Division’s colors in past battles — who fought for life and never lost their nerve — carry out your mission and keep your honor clean. Demonstrate to the world there is ‘No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy’ than a United States Marine.”
Eleanor Roosevelt – 1945:
“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 I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marine Corps.”
Semper Fi