I was annoyed by it. And I say that meaning no disrespect to any present or former service men. I just think it was better suited to another forum......perhaps one related to the armed forces.<br><br>Wheeew<br><br><b><i>Tom Bache <tbache@san.rr.com></i></b> wrote:<blockquote class="replbq" style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"><title>Re: [pct-l] USMC Birthday & Veterans Day</title> <font face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Jim and Ginny Owen,<br> <br> Your post was totally off-topic for PCT-L — and off-topic posts usually annoy me.<br> But this is so much on the topic we should all think about on Veteran’s Day that I must thank you for posting it.<br> <br> Tom Bache<br> USMC<br> 1964-1968<br> <br> <font color="#0000ff"><br> </font></span></font><blockquote><font face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><font color="#0000ff">In any case, the article
that follows is a very short history lesson. I <br> think it's appropriate to remember just what it is that keeps this country <br> free so that those who choose to do so can hike the long trails.<br> <br> Walk softly,<br> Jim<br> <br> >March 11, 2004<br> ><br> Return of the Marines: All-American warriors in Iraq<br> by W. Thomas Smith Jr.<br> <br> Beginning this month, leathernecks from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force <br> will return to Iraq, replacing elements of the Army's 82nd Airborne <br> Division. The return of the Marines is surely bad news for those desperate <br> to undermine the liberation of Iraq.<br> <br> Not to take anything away from the U.S. Army its soldiers have performed <br> magnificently, and will no doubt continue to do so but America's enemies <br> have a particular fear of U.S. Marines.<br> <br> During the first Gulf War in 1991, over 100,000 Iraqi soldiers were deployed<br> <br> along the Iraqi-Kuwaiti coastline in anticipation of a
landing by some <br> 17,000 U.S. Marines. Terrified by what they had been taught about the combat<br> <br> prowess of Marines, the Iraqi soldiers had nicknamed them "Angels of Death."<br> <br> The moniker first published by Pulitzer-winner Rick Atkinson in his <br> best-selling Crusade carried over into the second Gulf war, last year, as <br> the 1st Marine Division swept across the Iraqi plains. Attacking American <br> forces were unsettling enough, but reports of the seaborne "Angels of Death"<br> <br> being among the lead elements were paralyzing to many Iraqi combatants.<br> <br> Despite less armor than other American ground forces, the Marines were among<br> <br> the first to fight their way into Baghdad. And when intelligence indicated <br> that foreign troops were coming to the aid of Iraqi diehards, Marine Brig. <br> Gen. John Kelly stated, "we want all Jihad fighters to come here. That way <br> we can kill them all before they get bus tickets to New York
City."<br> <br> Typical Marine bravado, some say. But it works.<br> <br> Best-selling author Tom Clancy once wrote, "Marines are mystical. They have <br> magic." It is this same magic, Clancy added, that "may well frighten <br> potential opponents more than the actual violence Marines can generate in <br> combat."<br> <br> Fear of Marines is not a new phenomenon, nor is it unique to Iraqi soldiers.<br> <br> Established in 1775, the U.S. Marine Corps came of age in World War I during<br> <br> the 1918 Chateau Thierry campaign near the French village of Bouresches. <br> There, Marines assaulted a line of German machine-gun nests on an old <br> hunting preserve known as Belleau Wood. The fighting was terrible. Those <br> Marines who weren't cut down by the enemy guns captured the nests in a <br> grisly close-quarters slugfest. The shocked Germans nicknamed their foes, <br> teufelhunden (devil dogs).<br> <br> "Marines are considered a sort of elite Corps designed to go into
action <br> outside the United States," read a German intelligence report following the <br> battle. "They consider their membership in the Marine Corps to be something <br> of an honor. They proudly resent any attempts to place their regiments on a <br> par with other infantry regiments."<br> <br> Twenty-four years later as the 1st Marine Division was steaming toward <br> Guadalcanal, a Japanese radio propagandist taunted that which the Japanese <br> soldiers feared most. "Where are the famous United States Marines hiding?" <br> the announcer asked. "The Marines are supposed to be the finest soldiers in <br> the world, but no one has seen them yet?"<br> <br> Over the next three years, Marines would further their reputation at places <br> with names like Tarawa, Saipan, and Iwo Jima.<br> <br> That reputation carried over into the Korean War.<br> <br> "Panic sweeps my men when they are facing the American Marines," confessed a<br> <br> captured North Korean major. It was a
fear echoed by his Chinese allies. In <br> late 1950, Chinese premier Mao Tse Tung put out a contract on the 1st Marine<br> <br> Division. The Marine division, according to Mao in written orders to the <br> commander of the Chinese 9th Army Group, "has the highest combat <br> effectiveness in the American armed forces. It seems not enough for our four<br> <br> divisions to surround and annihilate its two regiments. You should have one <br> or two more divisions as a reserve force."<br> <br> Though costly for both sides, the subsequent Chinese trap failed to destroy <br> the 1st Marine Division.<br> <br> U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Frank Lowe later admitted, "The safest place in Korea <br> was right behind a platoon of Marines. Lord, how they could fight!"<br> <br> Over a decade later, Marines were the first major ground combat force in <br> Vietnam. Army Gen. William C. Westmoreland, who commanded all American <br> military forces in that country, conservatively stated he "admired
the ilan <br> of Marines." But despite the admiration, some Army leaders found their <br> equally proficient units wanting for similar respect.<br> <br> In 1982, during the invasion of Grenada, Army General John Vessey, then <br> chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, telephoned one of his officers and <br> demanded to know why there were "two companies of Marines running all over <br> the island and thousands of Army troops doing nothing. What the hell is <br> going on?"<br> <br> The reputation of Marines stems from a variety of factors: The Marine Corps <br> is the smallest, most unique branch of the U.S. armed forces. Though it is <br> organized as a separate armed service, it is officially a Naval <br> infantry/combined-arms force overseen by the secretary of the Navy. The <br> Corps' philosophical approach to training and combat differs from other <br> branches. Marine boot camp more of a rite-of-passage than a training <br> program is the longest and toughest
recruit indoctrination program of any <br> of the military services. Men and women train separately. All Marines from <br> private to Commandant are considered to be first-and-foremost riflemen. And <br> special-operations units in the Marines are not accorded the same respect as<br> <br> they are in other branches. The Marines view special operations as simply <br> another realm of warfighting. Marines are Marines, and no individual Marine <br> or Marine unit is considered more elite than the other.<br> <br> Consequently, newly minted Marines believe themselves to be superior to <br> other soldiers, spawning understandable resentment from other branches.<br> <br> But do Marines actually fight better than other soldiers? Rivals argue it's <br> not so much their ability to fight though that's never been a question <br> but that Marines are simply masters in the art of public relations. <br> President Harry Truman once stated that Marines "have a propaganda machine <br>
that is almost equal to Stalin's." Fact is, while other armed services have <br> lured recruits with promises of money for college, "a great way of life," or<br> <br> "being all you can be;" the Marines have asked only "for a few good men [and<br> <br> today, women]" with the mettle to join their ranks.<br> <br> Not surprisingly, there have been numerous unsuccessful efforts primarily <br> on the part of some Army and Navy officers to have the Corps either <br> disbanded or absorbed into the Army or Navy. Most of those efforts took <br> place in the first half of the 20th Century. But even after the Marines' <br> stellar performance in World War II, Army General Frank Armstrong proposed <br> bringing them into the Army fold and condescendingly referring to the Corps <br> as "a small bitched-up army talking Navy lingo."<br> <br> As late as 1997, Assistant Secretary of the Army Sara Lister took aim at the<br> <br> Marines. "I think the Army is much more connected to
society than the <br> Marines are." Lister said before an audience at Harvard University. "Marines<br> <br> are extremists. Wherever you have extremists, you've got some risks of total<br> <br> disconnection with society. And that's a little dangerous."<br> <br> Of course, the Commandant of the Marine Corps demanded an apology. Lister <br> was fired. And Marines secretly said among themselves, "Yes we are <br> extremists. We are dangerous. That's why we win wars and are feared <br> throughout the world."<br> <br> Despite its detractors, the Marines have become a wholly American <br> institution like baseball players, cowboys, and astronauts in the eyes <br> of most Americans. Marines indeed may be extreme, but America loves them, <br> extremism and all. And fortunately for America, her enemies in the war <br> against terror will continue to shudder upon hearing, "the Marines have <br> landed."<br> <br> A former U.S. Marine infantry leader and paratrooper, W. Thomas
Smith Jr. <br> is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in a variety of national <br> and international publications. His third book, Alpha Bravo Delta Guide to <br> American Airborne Forces, has just been published.<br> </font></span></font></blockquote><font face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><font color="#0000ff">></font></span></font> _______________________________________________<br>Pct-l mailing list<br>Pct-l@backcountry.net<br>To unsubscribe or change list options (digest, etc):<br>http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l<br></blockquote><br><p> __________________________________________________<br>Do You Yahoo!?<br>Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around <br>http://mail.yahoo.com