[pct-l] Just Kids...."Taking Chance"....(an old Marine's reflections)

[Reinhold Metzger]

To my Marine buddies,....those who served and those who know the "PAIN".
Like always, on Memorial Day, I was watching the movie "Taking Chance" 
and it took
me back to a time very long ago.
If  "Memorial Day"  means anything to you, you owe it to yourself to 
watch the movie
"Taking Chance".
It will rip your heart out, make you feel all mushy inside and make you 
appreciate and
respect the honor bestowed upon our fallen heroes on Memorial Day.
It is by far the movie that best reflects what Memorial Day stands for.
I don't know what it is about Memorial Day that makes me feel this way 
and makes me
say the things I am about to say.......
/
We were  "just kids",  in the summer of 1965, when we landed in Vietnam.
//"Just kids", most of us 18-19-20 years old, just barely out of 
High//School, not yet
old enough to drink but old enough to die for our //country. /
/We never could quite understand that....if you are old enough to die 
//for your country
you should be old enough to drink. /
/ With one year of advanced infantry training including jungle, desert, 
//cold weather,
  hand to hand combat and raider training we were gung ho //Marines, 
tough enough
to chew nails.....I mean we were Captain //Tolleson's Echo 2/7, the 
cream of the crop
of the Marine Corps' //Raider Battalion and ready to kick ass. //
We were "just kids" eager to be Marines, eager to serve during a time 
//of war, eager
to be heroes. //
That naive fantasy thinking can change mighty quick when the landing 
//crafts hit the
beach and bullets start flying.
//There is no glory in war, only misery......it is your worst nightmare. //
Our first casualty was by friendly fire....the tragic part was that 
//the bullet that caused
our first casualty was fired by the casualties //best friend.
//In combat, reflex decisions have to be made in a split second and 
//sometimes those
decisions turn out not to be the right ones.
//In my mind there is no greater honor than serving your country during 
//a time of war
and no greater sacrifice than a soldier paying the //ultimate price 
while serving his
country during a time of war.
//Take Pat Tillman for instance....Pat was a professional football 
//player who had fortune
and fame yet walked away from a 3.6 million //dollar contract to serve 
his country and
paid the ultimate //price....ironically, also by friendly fire.
//But it does not matter, friendly fire, enemy fire, the results are 
//always the same and
Memorial Day is to honor all of our fallen heroes,//for they served 
their country and
paid the ultimate price. //
If it were not for men like that, Obama might be our Prime Minister or 
//our national
language might be German and Memorial Day is to remind us //of that and 
pay our
respect to these fallen heroes who sacrificed //their lives so that we 
can enjoy what
we have today.
//We did not consider ourself to be "just kids", but now that I am older 
//and wiser I
realize, we WERE "just kids".
//Nothing has really changed and many of our troops serving in Iraq and 
//Afghanistan
are still "just kids"....not yet old enough to drink, //but old enough 
to die for their country. /
/Think about that for a moment, on Memorial Day, and what that day 
//stands for. /

/Reinold Metzger
//Sgt. USMC 1964-68
//Gunner, Echo Co., 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines





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