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<TITLE>Re: [pct-l] USMC Birthday & Veterans Day</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>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:12.0px'><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>
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