A War For Us Fought By Them

A War for us fought by them

By William Broyles, Jr.

WILSON, Wyo. - The longest love affair of my life began with a shotgun marriage. It was the height of the Vietnam War and my student deferment had run out. Desperate not to endanger myself or to interrupt my personal plans, I wanted to avoid military service altogether. I didn't have the resourcefulness of Bill Clinton, so I couldn't figure out how to dodge the draft. I tried to escape into the National Guard, where I would be guaranteed not to be sent to war, but I lacked the connections of George W. Bush, so I couldn't slip ahead of the long waiting list.

My attitude was the same as Dick Cheney's: I was special, I had "other priorities." Let other people do it.

When my draft notice came in 1968, I was relieved in a way. Although I had deep doubts about the war, I had become troubled about how I had angled to avoid military service. My classmates from high school were in the war; my classmates from college were not - exactly the dynamic that exists today. But instead of reporting for service in the Army, on a whim I joined the Marine Corps, the
last place on earth I thought I belonged.

My sacrifice turned out to be minimal. I survived a year as an infantry lieutenant in Vietnam. I was not wounded; nor did I struggle for years with post-traumatic stress disorder. A long bout of survivor guilt was the price I paid. Others suffered far more, particularly those who had to serve after the war had lost all sense of purpose for the men fighting it. I like to think that in spite of my being so unwilling at first, I did some small service to my country and to that enduring love of mine, the United States Marine Corps.

To my profound surprise, the Marines did a far greater service to me. In three years I learned more about standards, commitment and yes, life, than I did in six years of university. I also learned that I had had no idea of my own limits: when I was exhausted after humping up and down jungle mountains in 100-degree heat with a 75-pound pack, terrified out of my mind, wanting only to quit, convinced I wouldn't take another step, I found that in fact I could keep going for miles. And my life was put in the hands of young men I would otherwise never have met, by and large high-school dropouts, who turned out to be among the finest people I have ever known.

I am now the father of a young man who has far more character than I ever had. I joined the Marines because I had to; he signed up after college because he felt he ought to. He volunteered for an elite unit and has served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. When I see images of Americans in the war zones, I think of my son and his friends, many of whom I have come to know and deeply respect. When I opened this newspaper yesterday and read the front-page headline, "9 G.I.'s Killed," I didn't think in abstractions. I thought very personally.

The problem is, I don't see the images of or read about any of the young men and women who, as Dick Cheney and I did, have "other priorities."

There are no immediate family members of any of the prime civilian planners of this war serving in it - beginning with President Bush and extending deep into the Defense Department. Only one of the 535 members of Congress, Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota, has a child in the war - and only half a dozen others have sons and daughters in the military. The memorial service yesterday for
Pat Tillman, the football star killed in Afghanistan, further points out this contrast. He remains the only professional athlete of any sport who left his privileged life during this war and turned in his play uniform for a real one. With few exceptions, the only men and women in military service are the profoundly patriotic or the economically needy. It was not always so. In other wars, the men and women in charge made sure their family members led the way. Since 9/11, the war on terrorism has often been compared to the generational challenge of Pearl Harbor; but Franklin D. Roosevelt's sons all enlisted soon after that attack. Both of Lyndon B. Johnson's sons-in-law served in Vietnam.

This is less a matter of politics than privilege. The Democratic elites have not responded more nobly than have the Republican; it's just that the Democrats' hypocrisy is less acute. Our president's own family illustrates the loss of the sense of responsibility that once went with privilege. In three generations the Bushes have gone from war hero in World War II, to war evader in Vietnam, to none of the extended family showing up in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pat Tillman didn't want to be singled out for having done what other patriotic Americans his age should have done. The problem is, they aren't doing it. In spite of the president's insistence that our very civilization is at stake, the privileged aren't flocking to the flag.

The war is being fought by Other People's Children. The war is impersonal for the very people to whom it should be most personal.

If the children of the nation's elites were facing enemy fire without body armor, riding through gantlets of bombs in unarmored Humvees, fighting desperately in an increasingly hostile environment because of arrogant and incompetent civilian leadership, then those problems might well find faster solutions.

The men and women on active duty today - and their companions in the National Guard and the reserves - have seen their willingness, and that of their families, to make sacrifices for their country stretched thin and finally abused. Thousands of soldiers promised a one-year tour of duty have seen that promise turned into a lie. When Eric Shinseki, then the Army chief of staff, told the president that winning the war and peace in Iraq would take hundreds of thousands more troops, Mr. Bush ended his career.

As a result of this and other ill-advised decisions, the war is in danger of being lost, and my beloved military is being run into the ground. This abuse of the voluntary military cannot continue. How to ensure adequate troop levels, with a diversity of backgrounds? How to require the privileged to shoulder their fair share? In other words, how to get today's equivalents of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney - and me - into the military, where their talents could strengthen and revive our fighting forces? The only solution is to
bring back the draft. Not since the 19th century has America fought a war that lasted longer than a week with an all-volunteer army; we can't do it now. It is simply not built for a protracted major conflict. The arguments against the draft - that a voluntary army is of higher quality, that the elites will still find a way to evade service - are bogus. In World War II we used a draft army to fight the Germans and Japanese - two of the most powerful military machines in history - and we won. The problems in the military toward the end of Vietnam were not caused by the draft; they were the result of young Americans being sent to fight and die in a war that had become a disaster.

One of the few good legacies of Vietnam is that after years of abuses we finally learned how to run the draft fairly. A strictly impartial lottery, with no deferments, can ensure that the draft intake matches military needs. Chance, not connections or clever manipulation, would determine who serves. If this war is truly worth fighting, then the burdens of doing so should fall on all Americans. If you support this war, but assume that Pat Tillman and Other People's Children should fight it, then you are worse than a hypocrite. If it's not worth your family fighting it, then it's not worth it, period. The draft is the truest test of public support for the administration's handling of the war, which is perhaps why the administration is so dead set against bringing it back.

~~~~~~~~~~
This is...
Gunny G's...
GLOBE and ANCHOR
Marines Sites & Forums
By R.W. "Dick" Gaines
GnySgt USMC (Ret.)
1952-'72
Semper Fidelis
~~~~~~~~~~
Note:
GyG's G&A Sites & Forums is an informational site and not for profit. Copyrighted material provided soley for education, study, research, and discussion, etc. Full credit to source shown when available.
~~~~~

Gunny G's...RIBBON CREEK AND BEYOND....

Ref:
Ribbon Creek Incident,Plt #71,Parris Island,S/Sgt McKeon,Drownings,USMC Recruit Training,Jack Webb,The D.I.,Full Metal Jacket,Old Corps,New Corps,etc.
~~~~~~~~~~~
By
R.W. "Dick" Gaines
GnySgt USMC (Ret.)
1952(Plt #437)--'72
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Sea Stories:
The traditional means by which wisdom is passed down from one generation of Marines to the next"
-Author Unknown
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For Information regarding Ribbon Creek, Plt #71,
S/Sgt McKeon, PISC, etc. CLICK HERE!!!!!
More Info Also On GyG's History & Traditions Site HERE!!!!!
Note: The Thread Re Plt #71, S/Sgt McKeon, Etc. is a very long thread--you may not reach all the posts via the top link (above)--you may have to go to the next link (above) and backtrack through the pages to find all the posts/responses/ remaining parts of that thread, if interested.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In order to more fully understand, and discuss, either The D.I. or Full Metal Jacket (FMJ), I think, that information regarding that well known event in 1956 that preceded the making of the movie, The D.I. is in order. Thus, I have provided information regarding The Ribbon Creek Incident (above) to include my message board posts from Marines of Platoon #71, and others with information relating to that event.

Marines have always argued among themselves as to how much tougher and better, etc. things were in "The Old Corps"! Nobody has recorded when this first began--best bet is 1775. When will it end? I would say, not as long as there is yet one Marine still standing!

And such it was and has been since one night in 1956 when something now referred to as The Ribbon Creek Incident occurred. Because of that, new arguments as to whether "boot camp" is as tough as it once was, or tougher, have gone on and on without ceasing. Many have always thought that this event of 1956 was a turning point in the way recruit training was to thereafter go for the Marine Corps, and much discussion has ensued as to what was right and wrong as a result of this. This webpage will not end such arguments, nor should it. But perhaps it can serve to bring out a few interesting points unknown to a now younger breed of Marines.

Most of us generally first learn of our Corps before we are Marines. That is when we first see a Marine movie--maybe John Wayne as Sgt John M. Stryker, in Sands of Iwo Jima; or, Retreat Hell, a movie of the first Marines to go to Korea in 1950, or maybe Battle Cry--or any one of dozens more movies about Marines. Whatever movie it was, most likely we never forgot it, nor did it leave us untouched as an individual.

Cinema serves an important social function and is a part of our American culture. The "movies," to some extent at least, contribute to our thinking and beliefs in nearly every aspect of our everyday life. True, movies are not history, nor is it facts (but it might be these things to some extent), it is entertainment, produced with profit in mind, not history or social value. Still it effectively models, shapes, and reinforces our beliefs, perception, and values. But, to what extent this occurs is debatable.

There have been several films produced the theme of which deals wholly or in part with Marine Corps recruit training and the Marine Drill Instructor (D.I.). One of the first was the 1927 "Tell It To The Marines," with Lon Chaney. And there have been many to follow through the years which at least touched upon this topic. Most likely the top two of these films, as far as authenticity goes, would be "The D.I., starring Jack Webb," and "Full Metal Jacket" (FMJ), with R. Lee Ermey." These actors--Webb and Ermey--portrayed drill instructors in each of the above two films. Marines today constantly debate which of the two movies provides the better insight into the "real" boot camp and the "real" D.I.!

Ermey is a former Marine; Webb was not a Marine, although he was a veteran of the Army Air Corps during WW II. Of the two, however, my opinion is that Webb provided the most honest and realistic portrayal of what a Marine D.I. is and should be. He appeared and acted with the bearing of a Marine. He was indeed the man for the role of T/Sgt (Gunny) Jim Moore. The setting and supporting actors, and Marines, of The D.I. were as true-to-life as could be expected.

My opinion is also based on the obvious fact that if all the vulgar language were omitted from FMJ, we would essentially have something of a silent film. The D.I., on the other hand, contains no vulgar language, yet it emerges as the best of the genre. FMJ, although entertaining, is still left with some good points, but sorely lacking when compared to The D.I.

Foul language by D.I.'s was obviously a part of Marine Corps boot camp during both eras of the two films. But it was far from the central, essential, and most critical ingredient in making Marines, then and now, and not as one might think by the direction of FMJ.

The D.I., in many ways, exemplified what the Corps was shooting for in revamping the recruit training of the mid-fifties, shortly after the tragedy of The Ribbon Creek Incident of 1956.

What then makes the difference between the two films? Webb's film was produced in 1957, the post Korean war era; and Ermey's FMJ in 1987, long after the Vietnam war ended, but focussed on the Vietnam era. Thus there was a difference of generations between the two films. There could be many other factors involved. But I think another factor is involved here that makes the difference more so than any other. That factor being the overall "image" of Jack Webb the actor.

Webb had the image of being the all-around American good guy--a Marine in "Halls of Montezuma," a cop in "Dragnet," etc. Ermey, practically had no previous image; therefore he had to be taken at face value as the D.I. that he played on the screen. He came across as foul-mouthed in the extreme, and that alone made the movie far excessive and overdone.
Yet, it was a somewhat accurate account of a D.I's lexicon of verbage, for that time. But that was also the film's major failing point. The film seemed to rely soley on that for shock effect, and provided little else. I am not personally opposed to some use of foul languge by either D.I.s or other Marines, but neither should we be obsessed with its use.

Ermey himself had, in fact, previously served as a Marine and drill instructor, but he was, for the most part an unknown actor at that time. Maybe the above factors had much to do with the way the film was perceived both then and now, maybe not.

Again, in my opinion, I believe the D.I. was the most realistic and honest film yet made regarding the experience of Marine Corps recruit training. I expect I am in the minority here, judging by responses to this that I have received across the Internet, but that is my opinion--take it or leave it.

Jack Webb has been dead these many years, and Ermey has gone on to acclaim as an actor and personality. Ermey, having reached the rank of staff sergeant while on active duty, has now been officially appointed/promoted to the "honorary" rank of gunnery sergeant by the Marine Corps, a title which he uses as a television personality, etc.

This serves to remind me that Benjamin Franklin was the recipient of one or more "honorary" doctorates. Honorary doctorates are not "earned" degrees, nor conferred on the basis of work done or academic achievements met, etc.. I have read, that Franklin thereafter went by... "Doctor Franklin." Some say he even insisted that members of Congress address him as such. Whether or not anyone ever took him seriously and complied, I don't know. Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors), and others, BTW, have also been promoted to honorary Marine Corps ranks, but of course, Nabors was best known anyway as a comic.

I have seen Ermey's performances in several movies, and I agree that he is a pretty fair actor, maybe even better than fair, in some cases. As to his judgement in choice of certain parts/roles he accepts to play...well that's another story, I think. I read an RLE Interview (below) where he was questioned on that point, and I believe he just alluded to the amount of pay he received for that dubious part in question.
Ref
Interview...
http://www.ugo.com/channels/filmtv/features/rleeermey/

I do think, and I must honestly say, that the character he has developed on his television presentations is something less than desireable for the image of a United States Marine. In fact it may indeed be a throwback to the old pre-WW II films depicting the military sergeant as a less than super-intelligent character.

The following remarks, I find in the book, The United States Marine Corps In Books And The Performing Arts, by Richard L. Hemenez, Col USMCR (Ret.), McFarland & Company, 2001

The following, in part, regarding Ermey and FMJ...
(Page 455)...
"...Ermey, a former Marine, is also credited as a technical advisor...a heated side feud with Kubrick over Lee Ermey...labeled him 'a fucking pogue lifer'...There was some negative reaction to Ermey's DI speech...It wasn't until later that Lee Ermey went Hollywood and became R.Lee Ermey...you might think he wrote his own lines, except that much of the dialogue comes directly from Mr. Hasford's book..."
~~~~~
and, the following, in part, regarding Jack Webb and The D.I.(Page 443)...
"...In a Leatherneck magazine interview, Webb noted that a large part of his admiration for the Corps stemmed from an uncle who enlisted during WW II at age 38. His name--Frank Smith, PFC Smith was later honored as the name of Joe Friday's partner..."

---

I discovered the following interesting remarks and information from a few old salt Marines on the Newsletter & Archives at Sgt Grit's ....and requested Sgt Grit's permission to use them here.
There are few younger Marines today who have a very good understanding as to what occurred regarding Marine Corps Recruit training back in 1956, and thereafter. There are still Marines now out there on the Internet==old-timers--who were there and can pass some straight scoop along to you. The following is some of just that, together with some other information on this site on this topic that I have collected along the way.
~~~~~~~
The following by permission...
Sgt Grit's...
For A Full Line Of USMC Gear, Catalog, Newsletter,
Forums, Chatrooms, Etc.
Click Here!!!!!
"If We Don't Have It, Chesty Wouldn't Want It!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Your last news letter had a posting by Frank N. Johnson that referred to his
Drill Instructor that played in The D.I. movie with Jack Webb. We had
an acting First Sergeant in HMM-262 back in the early 60's that also
was in that movie. He was a Gunny when we had him as our 1stSgt, but he
was also an ex DI. Gunny Louis Lazarko. He's the guy Jack Webb got into
a bar fight with named Joey. Gunny attended a reunion we had a few
years ago in New River and I made sure I brought my copy of The D.I.
with me to get autographed. We presented him with a D.I. Campaign hat
that we purchased from you.

There were two other distinguished Vietnam
Era "Brothers" in attendance at that reunion that started as 1stLt's in
our squadron. LtGen Fred "Crazy Fred" The Assassin" McCorkle who was
out guest speaker, and LtGen Mike "The Rifle" DeLong who was running
the war in the Gulf at the time. We've had many reunions and they never
grow old, I was thrilled to see our Vietnam squadron CO Col. Ural
"Bill" Shadrick at one in DC in 01.

Your constant reminders to our
"Brothers and Sisters" in the Corps to reach out and reunite with an
old buddy is something that needs to be repeated all the time. The
rewards are worth every penny you spend to mail a letter, make a phone
call, or take a plane ride, don't miss your chance! Life is too short
to miss such a rewarding opportunity. To our younger "Brothers &
Sisters" in harms way Gods Speed to your save return home.
Semper Fi,
Tim McMahon HMM-262 65-67 RVN 66-67
~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~
NOBODY MENTIONED THE MOVIE

Grit,
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the movie The D.I. with
Jack Webb as being one of the best. The movie is one of the best I've
seen, made in the 50's with a real Platoon of Marines (Platoon 104
Parris Island). There's a Marine that gets into a barroom fight with
Jack Webb, Louis Lazarko that was our acting First Sergeant then a
Gunny in 1965. He was with HMM-262 in New River. In May of 2002 we had
an HMM-262 All Eras Reunion in New River, I knew the Gunny would be
there so I brought my copy of the movie with me; the Gunny autographed
it for me. He's still tough as nails! We also had the honor of having
LtGen Fred (Crazy Fred) McCorkle as our guest speaker and LtGen Mike
(The Rifle) DeLong, both former Vietnam pilots with HMM-262. It was a
great reunion, and like you always say contact your buddies and keep in
touch you'll cherish the memories.
Semper Fi,
Tim McMahon HMM-262 RVN 66-67
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MORE ON THE MOVIE "THE D.I."

To sort of complete the comments on the famous movie of 1957 (The
D.I.) with Jack Webb, here's some more info. The book "Courtmartial at
Parris Island, the story of Ribbon Creek" written by John Stevens talks
about Platoon 351 which was training from 1 October through 31
December, 1956. That was about four months after the drowning incident
but nothing much had changed. The reason that Plt 351 (my platoon) was
mentioned is that some Hollywood movie producer had approached the
Marine Corps wanting to do a movie about the "brutality" of Marine
D.I's and the Corps wanted no parts of that plan. Shortly thereafter,
Jack Webb approached the Marine Corps with the idea of doing a movie
about a day in the life of a D.I. including the theme from a Kraft
Television Theater show about the death of a sand flea. That approach
was approved and a film production team came to MCRD PI to film
background and absorb the experience. Jack Webb noticed and admired the
drill cadence of one of my Junior D.I's (Cpl E-3 John R. Brown) and
pulled him out to Hollywood to act in the film and be one of the
technical advisors. Brown played a Sergeant O'Neill in the film. You
may recall that he was the one who braced the fire watch and had to
listen to him spit out his General Orders and then pulled liberty with
Webb at the Cotton Club. To this day, no one can find out where John R.
Brown went or what happened to him. Rumor is he met and married a
starlet while in Hollywood. He was a 'character' to say the least! The
other 351 drill instructors were Sgt's (E-4) Eugene Alvarez, J.R.
Strickland and H.W. Jones.

I'm pleased to say that I still meet
and communicate with my senior D.I. after 49 years. Gene Alvarez is an
accomplished author, PHd and a retired professor living in Centerville,
Georgia. At 75 years of age, he's remarkable in all aspects and still
travels back to Parris Island to join with other D.I's including the WW
II gents. Platoon 351 Marines can contact me at jrhd@aolcom if they'd
like.

Semper Fidelis
Joe Featherston
Major, USMC, Ret.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
VETERANS OF THE PACIFIC

From a book titled Court-Martial at Parris Island, by by John C. Stevens,
III, that recounts the full story of the recruits lost in Ribbon Creek
in April, 1956 comes the following excerpt from pg 156: "Richard
Hudson, a 1948 Parris Island recruit and later a Drill Instructor in
the mid-1950's, remembers, During the time I was in boot camp there
were incidents of "thumping" ....A lot of DIs were veterans of the
Pacific and seemed to be an unforgiving group. I received a hard kick
in the butt when I moved my foot a couple of inches after the platoon
was called to a halt.

One senior DI had a routine that he felt
was good for instilling discipline. He would place a very young looking
DI in his platoon with new dungarees (utilities), hat pulled down to
his ears, and blend him in with the others; this would be in the first
couple of days before they knew each other. Once on the drill field the
"shill" would start screwing up. The DI would then go into his act of
beating and screaming at the individual causing him so much grief.
After a period of time the PLANT would start yelling that he could take
no more, "No, I can't take it. I Can't take it," drop his rifle and
start running across the drill field. In the meantime, the DI had
picked up his rifle and was yelling, "Get back here you
son-of-a-bitch." The PLANT, yelling, "No Sir," continues to run,
whereupon the DI chambered a round (blank, of course) in the rifle and
fired.

The 'planted' recruit would scream and fall. The DI would
then turn toward a couple of other DIs awaiting their cue and (say,)
"Carry that worthless bastard off of my drill field." O.K. Sarge, we'll
take care of it."

The plant was carried off the field, and the
awestruck recruits' terror and fear of their drill instructor were
instantly elevated to a new plateau.The routine continued with other
platoons in their formative stages until an officer happened to spot
the charade and, suppressing his mirth, suggested that it not be
repeated.

Personal note: I was in Platoon 351 (September, 1956)
in 1st Battalion which served as the role model for the movie starring
Jack Webb called The D.I. In fact, the cadence of one of my junior DIs
named Cpl (E-3) John R. Brown caused him to be selected by Jack Webb to
play a role in the movie as Sgt O'Neill and to be a technical advisor
in the movie. Despite the fallout from the court-martial, there was no
appreciable transformation by our DIs to a more kind and gentle mode
with us.

Semper Fidelis,
Joe Featherston
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BACKGROUND TO "THE DI" MOVIE

In response to both Kent Mitchell, (Corporal, 55-60) Newsletter of August
7th and GySgt Ted "Shotgun" Baker Newsletter of August 21st, maybe I
can add some clarification to their accounts of the making of The DI
with Jack Webb and a number of active duty Marines in late 1956. I was
a recruit in Platoon 351, 1st RTB at Parris Island from 1October56
through December 31, 1956. Among others, my DI's were (then) Sgt E-4
Eugene Alvarez as SDI and Sgt's Strickland and Jones as JDI's, until
Cpl E-3 John R. Brown joined Plt 351 at the rifle range, probably in
early November. I recall it pretty well because a slightly (sic)
inebriated Cpl Brown summoned the fire watch (me) in the middle of the
night and "gut-checked" me before turning on his heels and walking off.
To say that he was unusual would be a grievous understatement. To know
him was to never, ever, forget him. As Gy Baker said, we probably
picked up both Sgt Jones and Cpl Brown from platoon 253 when they
"outposted" at the end of October. You're right Gunny, Brown supposedly
went "Hollywood" appeared in the DI as Sgt O'Neal, met and married a
French starlet while there.and sometime later went off the radar. No
one with the DI Association can turn up any further news.

By the way, Platoon 351 also had a recruit, named Vincent Sheehan, called
"Shotgun" because his rapid-fire string looked about like that. He was
made to grab a GI can lid in his left hand as a shield, fix bayonets
and charge the targets to prove that was the only way he was going to
kill anything. Another Brown legacy! Agreeing with Kent Mitchell, Brown
was, indeed, a mean little s..t! I can see him taking immediate action
during the movie filming. By the way folks, our SDI (Sgt Alvarez) a
retired PhD from the collegiate system of Georgia will be at MCRD PI
and MCAS Beaufort 3 & 4 October for a book signing with John
Stevens (Court Martial at Parris Island, The Ribbon Creek Incident).
The event is the reunion of WWII DI's. Wouldn't miss this one for the
world! How would you like to see you SDI after nearly 47 years.? Joe
Featherston (1647380), rifle number 441380 (doesn't everybody remember
their rifle number?)

Major, USMC, Ret.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

---

IN CONCLUSION:
And so, what can be answered to the age-old questions as to Old Corps, New Corps? Which was/is tougher?, etc. These questions still go on and on, never really answered to the satisfaction of all.

In my opinion, the Corps is as tough as it ever was. Individual Marines, however, have changed, most notably in their attitudes.

I have seen articles these last few years where some of today's generals have publicly stated that today's Marines are superior to the Old Corps, etc. That today's recruits are bigger, stronger, better educated, better trained and equipped, etc. And I have seen young Marines themselves pick up on this theme and run with it. And, the old salts-- though few really old salts seem to be regulars on the WWW--have generally conceded the above points, some of which may be true. Often cited in response, is the "Old Breed, New Breed, Only The Marine Breed," quote (paraphrased here) of General "Chesty" Puller. It was back in 1950 that the general made that remark.

My only contact with today's Marines is via the Internet, i.e., Marines who post/respond on Marines' message boards, therefore my opinion is limited to such direct observation.

Unlike older Marines from the '50s and prior, today's "boots" are unwilling to take a backseat in any way to those who came before them. They feel the need to voice their opinions on everything, and to judge the past by their own standards, and demand that they be respected by the older Marines. They claim they also "respect" the old-timers, but actually I can see that many consider talk of the Old Corps as an affront to their own status. (On the other hand, like everything else, it could be that only the bigmouths are heard from.)

I never witnessed anything like this directed toward the older generations of Marines back in the '50s and '60s from regular Marines! We, of the older Corps, indeed come from a far different process of socialization prior to our having become Marines.

That is the major change I see, from my observations of young Marines--an unwillingness to defer to those who came before them, unwilling to be a silent majority as others were in the old days, etc.

So it's not really a case of which is better, the new or the old--such would now be like comparing apples and oranges, I think. Marines can and still do what is expected of one who has claimed the title. Yes, I said "claimed." (Even that has now been effectively changed to "earned," along with the demise of much Naval terminology once a part of every Marine's lexicon.)

Such Old Corps/New Corps questions were at one time valid--much direct comparison, despite obvious differences, could be made between the pre--WW II Marines and those of WW II and Korea, for instance. But America itself has changed dramatically since those days till now. And obviously, the available resources of Americans we draw our new Marines from has changed a great deal. In fact, it has changed so much that I do not believe that a direct comparison can be made any longer between the old and the new individual Marines. Yes, boot camp tears a recruit down while building a new Marine, but there is a very basic difference between the recruit of 1950 and now.

Yet, the Corps is still here as always, a Marine Corps no better or lesser than the Old Corps, but different, in many ways, than it was in 1950.

Without doubt, General Puller's remarks were indeed quite true back then. The difference between today's new Marines and the Old Corps is not principally that the Corps has changed all that much, but that today's youth doesn't come from the same "America" that we came from so many years ago now. Thus, the basic change in attitudes. So these ageless questions regarding Old Corps, New Corps? Which was tougher?, etc., not only cannot be answered--these cannot even be questions any longer.! But don't expect these questions to go away any time soon. Marines have never allowed facts to get in the way of their traditions--and arguing about The Old Corps is traditional for Marines.

Semper Fidelis
Dick Gaines

~~~~~~~~~~
This is...
Gunny G's...
GLOBE and ANCHOR
Marines Sites & Forums
By R.W. "Dick" Gaines
Gny Sgt USMC (Ret.)
1952-'72
Semper Fidelis
~~~~~~~~~~
Note:
GyG's G&A Sites & Forums is an informational site and not for profit. Copyrighted material provided soley for education, study, research, and discussion, etc. Full credit to source shown when available.
~~~~~

About "The Wind And The Lion"

By R.W. Gaines, GnySgt USMC (Ret.)
November 21, 2004

I recently again viewed the film The Wind And The Lion, 1975, (Sean Connery, Candice Bergen), and I noticed that although the story was set in the year 1904, the Marine Corps battle color shown was the one w/the scarlet background, not the battle color w/the blue background as would be correct for that time. As you all know, the background color for the USMC battle color was changed from blue to scarlet in 1925, although it did not become completely effective till 1939. Also noticed the same error in another film, Shores Of Tripoli (John Payne, Randolph Scott). in this case, the blue battle color vice the scarlet was shown on the occasion of the beginning of WW II and Pearl Harbor. Decided to check into the events of the The Wind and The Lion plot to see whether or not the story line of this film had any basis in fact, and perhaps discover what else they had gotten wrong...
Here's what I found.
Dick Gaines
~~~~~
"May 30, 1904 — The bandit chieftain, Raisouli, kidnapped a naturalized American citizen, Ion Perdicaris, in Morocco. President Roosevelt informed the Moroccan government that we wanted "Perdicaris alive or Raisouli dead" and landed Captain J.T. Myers's Marine detachment from the cruiser USS Brooklyn (ACR 3) at Tangier. Shortly thereafter, Raisouli released Pedicaris."
Ref
HERE!!!!!
Note:
The above incident involving Pedicaris and Raisouli is not specifically mentioned in "Who's Who In The Marine Corps" (below), however it does indicate Capt Myers's Marine Detachment on the USS Brooklyn during that period.
-Dick Gaines

1904: 'Pedicaris Alive Or Raisuli Dead'
HERE!!!!!

"Long before there were suicide bombers, Osama bin Laden or chants of "Death to the Great Satan," a Trenton man named Ion Perdicaris became the 20th century's first American victim of Middle Eastern terrorism.

It all happened in 1904, when the 64-year-old Perdicaris and his stepson found themselves taken hostage from their villa in Tangier, Morocco by a scruffy band of rifle-toting Berber tribesmen on horseback.

The bandits' chieftain was flamboyant, black-bearded Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli, and he wanted to extort a heavy ransom from the Sultan of Morocco -- not to mention embarrass the sovereign by showing his powerlessness to protect foreign citizens.

This was more than a simple kidnapping in a distant land. For President Theodore Roosevelt, it was an opportunity to start waving his "big stick," sending battleships steaming toward the African coast to ensure Perdicaris' safe release.

It also gave Roosevelt the chance to issue one of his most blood-curdling proclamations, a statement that helped ensure his re-election while sending Americans wild with joy:

"Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead!"

Still, for all the bluster contained in that ringing phrase, Roosevelt concealed a secret that Perdicaris wasn't even an American citizen.

The strange saga of Ion Hanford Perdicaris began in 1840, when he was born an American citizen in Greece, son of Gregory Perdicaris.

The elder Perdicaris was an Athenian who had emigrated to the United States, married a wealthy young woman from South Carolina and headed back to his native land to serve as American consul. When Ion was 6, the Perdicarises moved back to America and settled in the industrial boom town of Trenton.

There, Gregory Perdicaris built a mansion at East State Street and North Clinton Avenue, published a short-lived newspaper, and turned his wife's wealth into a fortune by creating the Trenton Gas Light company

Young Ion Perdicaris grew up with few cares in his luxurious life. He attended prestigious Trenton Academy, took on a dilettantish love of art and literature and wrote a verse play, "Tent Life," around one of his paintings. It bombed.

In 1862, in the middle of the Civil War, Ion Perdicaris secretly went back to Greece to forswear his American citizenship and be naturalized a Greek citizen. He made this rash move to prevent the Confederacy from confiscating his mother's huge estate there. But few even in his family knew about it.

On a later trip abroad, Ion Perdicaris fell in love with the warm, breezy climes of Tangier and built his own house there, calling it Place of Nightingales and filling it with a menagerie of dogs, monkeys and cranes.

Late in life, he married an English actress and became a fixture in the large diplomatic community in Morocco, who also included another Trentonian -- the American consul, Samuel R. Gummere.

Morocco was then the only independent country try in North Africa. But the sultan, Mulia Abdul-Aziz, was a weak puppet who played with his collection of grand pianos while rival bands of warlords tore his country apart and the European powers jockeyed for influence.

In this chaotic environment, western diplomats banded together and lived apart from the natives -- a situation that was later described by Gummere's niece, Mathilde Bedford.

"[Perdicaris'] villa, like most of the diplomats' homes, was outside the city walls," she wrote in 1964. "Morocco, at that time, had no roads, not even a carriage or wheel of any kind, so we went everywhere, even at night to dinners and dances, on horses and donkeys, and if it rained, I was carried in a sedan chair on the shoulders of four Jews. No Moor would carry 'a dog of a Christian,' so the Jews kindly helped us out."

This carefree existence was shattered the evening of May 18, 1904.

Perdicaris and his stepson, Cromwell Varley, were dining on their terrace when they heard shrieks and barked commands coming from their servants' quarters. As they ran to the scene of the commotion a gang of Berbers brazenly grabbed them, clubbed them with gun stocks and bound their arms.

A housekeeper shouted "Help!" into the telephone before the kidnappers clubbed her too, cut the wire and ordered the captive duo out of the house. Guns to their backs, curved daggers at their throats, they were ordered onto horses and driven off in a wild storm of dust.

After a daylong ride Perdicaris and Varley reached a tent deep in the desert. There, they rested on sheepskins, ate a dinner of couscous and came face to face with Raisuli.

Raisuli was a notorious brigand known as "Last of the Barbary Pirates." But for his admirers, he was a Robin Hood in white robes doing battle with a corrupt sultan.

The raid on Perdicaris' home it turned out, was only his latest and boldest power play against
that sultan. Raisuli issued the hated ruler a list of exorbitant demands for the hostages' release: $70,000 in gold, safe-conduct for all his tribesmen and, most outrageous of all, recognition as the sultan's bashaw, or governor, over two districts around Tangier.

How did Perdicaris, this heir to privilege, react upon meeting the desert warrior Raisuli? Incredibly, the two hit it off.

"I go so far as to say that I do not regret having been his prisoner for some time," Perdicaris would later write. "He is not a bandit, not a murderer, but a patriot forced into acts of brigandage to save his native soil and his people from the yoke of tyranny."

Roosevelt did not see it that way. He was, after all, the swinger of the big stick, the trust-buster, the man who, months earlier, engineered a Latin American revolution to dig the Panama Canal. And he wasn't going to let an obscure tribe of Berbers get away with kidnapping an American.

"Preposterous," said Roosevelt's Secretary of State, John Hay, responding to the ransom demands.

Seven battleships from the Atlantic fleet were dispatched to the Moroccan coast. But even with the public and press crying for blood, Roosevelt knew he couldn't send marines on a rescue mission on unfamiliar soil. And on June 1, he was faced with further trouble -- a confidential message from the U.S. embassy in Greece sending word that Perdicaris was not, as widely believed, an American citizen.

So the United States quietly enlisted Britain and France to put pressure on the tottering sultan and accept Raisuli's demands.

This the sultan agreed to do, on June 21. But to cover his tracks, Hay -- no doubt with some prodding from the hot-blooded commander in chief -- issued a stirring telegram to Gummere in Tangier.

"This government wants Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead," went the telegram.

Read for the first time at the Republican national convention, the challenge turned a dull proceeding into a frenzy of all-American excitement.

A few days later, Perdicaris was free and safe, Raisuli was $70,000 richer and Roosevelt was renominated for another term, propelling him to easily win a second term in the November elections.

Forgotten in the excitement was the fact the U.S. government had, essentially, given in to all the kidnapper's demands. And the public was never told Perdicaris' secret that he wasn't even a citizen.

"It is a bad business," Hay wrote. “We must keep it excessively confidential."

And confidential it stayed. Not until 1933, long after all the players in the Perdicaris drama had died, would a historian uncover the truth in official documents.

Into his 70s, Perdicaris came back to Trenton from time to time and visited his substantial real estate holdings. Perdicaris Place, off West State Street, is named after him and his father. He died a wealthy figure in London in 1925.

Years later, the Perdicaris story would be rediscovered by Hollywood in a 1975 movie, "The Wind and the Lion." Sean Connery played Raisuli, but the scriptwriters apparently thought the balding, bearded Perdicaris wasn't a romantic enough character as a man.

So the screenwriters turned "Ion" Perdicaris into "Eden" Perdicaris and cast Candice Bergen in the part.
Back to The Capital Century home page
1904: 'Perdicaris alive
or Raisuli dead!'
By JON BLACKWELL / The Trentonian"


MORE ON CAPT J.T. MYERS IN CHINA

HERE!!!!!

AND, FROM HQMC HISTORY & MUSEUMS

HERE!!!!!

"UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
HISTORY AND MUSEUMS DIVISION
Who's Who in Marine Corps History

LIEUTENANT GENERAL
JOHN T. MYERS, USMC
(DECEASED)


Lieutenant General John Twiggs Myers, who earned a permanent place in Marine Corps history as commander of the American Legation Guard at Peking, China, during the Boxer Rebellion, died on 17 April 1952, at his home in Coconut Grove, Florida. A veteran of 40 years as a Marine officer, he retired from the Corps in 1935, after a career that included the Spanish-American War; the Philippine Insurrection; World War I service as Fleet Marine Officer of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet; expeditionary service in the Haitian, Santo Domingan, Cuban and Mexican campaigns; and a total of nearly ten years of sea duty.

General Myers was a great grandson of General John Twiggs, a Revolutionary War hero, and his father, Abraham C. Myers, was a West Point graduate who fought in the Seminole and Mexican Wars and later served as Quartermaster General of the Confederate Army. At the end of the Civil War, Abraham C. Myers took his family to Weisbaden, Germany, where John was born 29 January 1871. The family returned to this country in 1876, and young John attended public schools in Washington, D.C., and Wilkinson's Preparatory School at Annapolis, Maryland, before entering the U.S. Naval Academy in September 1887. Graduating in 1892, he continued to hold the rank of naval cadet until he was appointed an assistant engineer in August, 1894. He was transferred from the Navy to the Marine Corps on 6 March 1895, and accepted appointment as a second lieutenant the following day.

In May 1896, after completing the course at the School of Application in Washington, D.C., and studying ordnance at the Naval Gun Factory in Washington, the general was ordered to the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island, where he completed his studies that September. He then served briefly at the Marine Barracks, Boston, Massachusetts, before joining the barracks detachment at Mare Island, California, in November of the same year. He left Mare Island 7 May 1898, to join the Marine detachment aboard the USS Charleston, which sailed a few days later to convoy six troop ships to the Philippines. Enroute, the Charleston stopped at Guam, and on 21 June General Myers (as a second lieutenant) accompanied the captain of the Charleston ashore as head of a landing party of 16 sailors and 30 Marines, which disarmed and made prisoners of the Spanish garrison on the island.

After that, the convoy moved to the Philippines, where the general (by then a captain) was transferred to the USS Baltimore in July, 1899. While attached to that ship during the Philippine Insurrection, he commanded a landing expedition which went ashore under fire to capture and destroy an Insurrect gun at Port Olongapo on 23 September and made another landing under fire at Bacoor on 2 October. He also commanded a 100-man landing force which took over the naval station at Subic Bay on 10 December 1899, the day after it was captured by the Army. On 18 April 1900, the general was transferred from the Baltimore to the USS Oregon, and on 24 May of the same year he was detached to the USS Newark. Meanwhile, a wave of violence, led by an athletic society known as the Boxers, was erupting in China, where a number of foreigners were killed or subjected to gross indignities. The Imperial Government, sympathizing with the movement, did little to stop it, and the foreigners in Peking were soon forced to the take refuge in the legations there. On 28 May E.H. Conger, the American Minister at Peking, telegraphed the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Asiatic Squadron at Taku to send an armed force for the protection of the legation. The following day Myers set out for that city as commander of a force of 48 Marines and three sailors from the Oregon and Brooklyn. Along with detachments of British, Russian, French, Italian and Japanese Marines, they reached Peking at 11 o'clock on the night of 31 May just before the city was encircled.

On 24 June serious fighting broke out on the walls of the legations as hordes of Boxers, armed with swords, spears, clubs, stones, noise-makers and several three-inch field pieces, attempted to overwhelm the handful of foreign troops. A German detachment repulsed the first attack and the Marines hurled back a second, causing heavy losses amongst the boxers. After that the Chinese changed their tactics and began building a tower on the ancient wall above the American Legation, only about 25 feet from the Marines' position. Since this would have allowed the Boxers to fire at will on the troops and civilians below, Minister Conger reported this danger to the British Minister, Sir Claude M. MacDonald, who had been picked by common consent as commander of the international defense. He agreed to the American's suggestion that an attack should be made on the tower and the Chinese barricade behind it.

Myers was picked to head the attacking force, composed of himself and 14 other American Marines, 16 Russian and 25 British Marines. His plan was to have the Russians hit the barricade from the North, while the American and British Marines were to assault the tower, then fight their way to the barricade, along a sort of trench which ran from it to the tower. At a signal from Myers, the attack began about three o'clock on the morning of 3 July.

The Anglo-American force, with Myers in the lead, found the tower empty when they reached it, then proceeded along the trench, where they ran into bitter, hand-to-hand fighting. Myers was badly wounded by a spear during the action in the trench, but the attack continued until the barricade was in friendly hands. In addition to Myers, the allied losses included two U.S. Marines and one Russian killed and two Russian and three British Marines severely wounded. Estimates of enemy losses ran as high as 50 dead. The British Minister called this action" one of the most successful operations of the siege, as it rendered our position on the wall, which had been precarious, comparatively strong." Largely because of it, the disheartened Boxers agreed to an uneasy truce on 16 July.

Myers was brevetted major and advanced four numbers in rank for his bravery, and in President McKinley's message to Congress in February 1901, he mentioned the captain by name. British appreciation was demonstrated a few years afterward, when a monument to the Royal Marines was erected outside the Admiralty in London, facing Buckingham Palace. One of the bas-reliefs on that memorial shows Myers leading the British Marines in the attack on the Boxers.

A relief column finally reached Peking on 14 August and the following month General Myers, convalescing from typhoid fever and the spear wound in his leg, was ordered to the U.S. Naval Hospital at Yokohama, Japan. From there he was a transferred to the Naval Hospital at Mare Island, where he was under treatment until March 1901. After that, except for a short time on Samoa as judge advocate of a general court martial, he remained at Mare Island until December 1902, when he took command of the Marine Barracks at Bremerton, Washington.

The general left Bremerton in May 1903, arriving on the East Coast the following month to take command of the Marine Detachment aboard the USS Brooklyn. He held that command until April 1905, then served at the Naval War College in Newport, until he took command of the School for Non-Commissioned Officers at the Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C., in October of the same year. In May 1906, he took command of the barracks detachment there, serving in that assignment until he left Washington that July. The following month he returned to the Philippines, commanding the 1st Marine Regiment there until January 1907, when he was assigned to the USS West Virginia as commander of its detachment and Fleet Marine Officer of the Asiatic Fleet.

In May 1909, General Myers was transferred from the West Virginia to the USS Tennessee for duty as Fleet Marine Officer, Pacific Fleet, but the following month, because of a serious intestinal infection, he was ordered once more to the Naval Hospital at Mare Island. He was hospitalized or on sick leave until January, 1911, when he entered the Army Field Officers Course at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Completing that course in March 1911, the general was stationed briefly at the Marine Barracks, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and on recruiting duty in Boston before he entered the Army War College in Washington that August. Graduating in July 1912, he took command of the Marine Barracks at the Washington Navy Yard the following month. His service there was interrupted by expeditionary duty as a battalion commander with the 2nd Provisional Marine Regiment off Santo Domingo in 1912 and with the 2nd Regiment, 2nd Provisional Marine Brigade at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the following year. He left Washington in April 1913, to serve for the next year as commander of the Marine Barracks, Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii.

In April, 1914, General Myers returned from that assignment to take command of the 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, at Mare Island, sailing with that unit for the west coast of Mexico later the same month. The regiment remained aboard the battleship South Dakota in Mexican waters during a period of strained relations between the United States and that country, but did not land. It returned to this country in July and General Myers, still commanding its 1st Battalion, was stationed with it at San Diego, California, until February 1915, when that unit was assigned duty at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, California. The battalion was ordered to sea duty with the Pacific Fleet in November 1915, and in February of the following year, after service on the USS San Diego and USS Buffalo, it returned to San Diego.

The general (by then a lieutenant colonel) was detached from the 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, in June 1916, when he was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet as Fleet Marine Officer and counter-intelligence officer on the staff of its commander. Serving in those capacities for most of World War I, he was stationed aboard the USS Wyoming until October 1916, and on the USS Pennsylvania from then until August 1918, when he took command of the Marine Barracks at Parris Island, South Carolina. He remained there until the war ended that November.

In January 1919, after a short time at Quantico, Virginia, General Myers assumed command of the Marine Barracks at Pearl Harbor, where he was stationed until August 1921.

He was then named Adjutant and Inspector of the Department of the Pacific, with headquarters at San Francisco, California, serving in that assignment until May 1924. After that, he commanded the Marine Corps Base at San Diego from June of that year to November 1925 when he sailed for Haiti to take command of the 1st Marine Brigade.

The general returned from that tour of expeditionary duty in January 1928, and the following month, reported to Marine Corps Headquarters in Washington. There, after serving on various boards, he was named Assistant to the Major General Commandant in April 1930, serving in that capacity until February 1933. A month later he returned to San Francisco, where he was Commanding General, Department of the Pacific and Western Recruiting Area, until he was placed on the retired list, 1 February 1935, at the statutory retirement age of 64. A major general when he retired, he was promoted to lieutenant general on the retired list in 1942, when the law was passed authorizing such promotions for officers who had been specially commended in combat.

General Myers' medals and decorations included the Marine Corps Brevet Meal, Purple Heart, Spanish Campaign Medal, Philippine Campaign Medal, China Campaign Medal; Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal, Mexican Service Medal and the World War I Victory Medal with Armed Guard clasp.

The general was survived by his wife, the former Alice G. Cutts, of Mare Island, whom he married in 1898. They had no children. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery."
Ref
Who's Who in Marine Corps History

ACTORS and THE AMERICAN FIGHTING MAN! by Dick Gaines

Ever notice how American Fighting Men--Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines--are, sometimes, played in the movies, and TV, by actors who do not at all represent those values?

Who are these actors? And what are the movies? Is there a listing of these? Well much of the American public just isn't aware that many of the "heroes" they see on the screen are not only just actors, in many cases, they are from among those who never served, are against our constitutional republic form of government, and are against our armed forces being used in any way, shape or form. Some even become cheerleaders for the enemy. It is no more fitting for a war protestor actor to play the part of a United States Marine, than for a Marine to act the part of a war protestor, deserter, etc. In my opinion, most people would refuse to support Hollyweird and its actors of this kind if it knew the truth. And also the big guys at the top who make these movies would feel the heat once the big bucks slow down.

There are many, many actors who are not only veterans, but good solid Americans, and in some cases, they, too, play roles on the screen depicting themselves as American Fighting Men. If the public, had the platform to decide who and what movies we want to watch, things would be a lot different.

Is there a website/Blog where this problem is outlined/discussed? Probably not, at least specifically not what I'm talking about here. But, seems to me like the time is right to publically point this out to the American people--good mission/project for a talented, dedicated Blogger--and bring about a change to lib actors playing the parts of honorable Americans, while they grab the $$$ and run to spew out even more of their commie/socialist crap!

So, if you agree, write your newspaper editor, post on online messageboards, etc. If you are a blogger, write -it-up and pass it on; e-mail it around to your friends, whatever. Let them know you don't like it. Or, if you don't give a damn, just
continue to march--to somebody else's drumbeat!

Semper Fidelis
R.W. "Dick" Gaines

~~~~~~~~~~
This is...
Gunny G's...>
GLOBE and ANCHOR
Marines Sites & Forums
By R.W. "Dick" Gaines
Gny Sgt USMC (Ret.)
1952-'72
Semper Fidelis
~~~~~~~~~~
Note:
GyG's G&A Sites & Forums is an informational site and not for profit. Copyrighted material provided soley for education, study, research, and discussion, etc. Full credit to source shown when available.
~~~~~

THE US ARMY "IKE JACKET" and THE USMC "BATTLE JACKET"

THE IKE JACKET

In the movie, PATTON, starring, former Marine, George C. Scott, Patton remarks to the effect that Eisenhower has stolen his jacket--speaking of the Ike Jacket. I can find no specific information relating to the above on the Internet. In fact, the following webpage on the origin and history of the "Ike Jacket," although making some mention of Patton does not credit him with any part in its design, origin, etc.

THE "IKE JACKET
CLICK-HERE!

The following information, however, may indicate support for the remark of Patton from the movie. Possibly, Patton's remark related to the following information.

"General George 'Blood and Guts' Patton knew the importance of good-looking uniforms. In 1940, he designed a uniform for tankers that consisted of green pants, a double-breasted green jacket with gold buttons and a gold helmet. The Army rejected it, but the original model is on permanent display at Fort Knox.
CLICK-HERE!

"The W.W. II Ike jacket was named after Dwight D. Eisenhower, copied off the British Battle Dress jacket, and was designed for tankers."
CLICK-HERE!

Although Patton himself was a distant cousin of Marine General Lewis B. Puller, I find no mention anywhere that the two ever met.The Ike Jacket is not to be confused with a somewhat similar jacket used by the Marine Corps during WW II, and for sometime thereafter--it was known in the Corps as the "Battle Jacket, and, in its early years of WW II, it was also called the Vandegrift Jacket."
CLICK-HERE!

The Patton Society Page--Extensive Information on Patton...
CLICK-HERE!

~~~~~~~~~~
This is...
Gunny G's...
GLOBE and ANCHOR
Marines Sites & Forums
By R.W. "Dick" Gaines
Gny Sgt USMC (Ret.)
1952-'72
Semper Fidelis
~~~~~~~~~~
Note:
GyG's G&A Sites & Forums is an informational site and not for profit. Copyrighted material provided soley for education, study, research, and discussion, etc. Full credit to source shown when available.
~~~~~

LtCol Harold G. Schrier USMC (Ret.) deceased

1 October, 2004

Who is 1/Lt Harold G. Schrier, USMC? Those who recognize his name will likely remember only that he was the officer who led the patrol up Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima to raise our flag there in 1945. Yet his achievements and career ranks right up there with many better known Marine heroes of the Corps, both Old Corps and new. Having researched some elusive facts regarding this Marine, I have decided to record them here for the benefit of Marines, and others, with an interest in such matters.

It was 1/Lt Harold G. Schrier, USMC, Executive Officer of Easy Company, 2d Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division, who was chosen to lead the 40-man combat patrol up Mount Suribachi on the morning of 23 February 1945. And it was this patrol from Easy Comapny that first raised our flag over soverign territory of Japan that day, at approximately 1020 (the given time varies according to which account is used)that morning.

No American died during the final assault on Mount Suribachi. Later...Why, Schrier wondered, had they declined to defend the mountaintop? Attacking from the tunnels, after the flag went up, the Japanese were easy targets. But earlier, the American patrol had been vulnerable, virtually helpless, woefully outnumbered. "We'd have been real dead ducks," Schrier admitted. "They could've killed us all."20

Leatherneck magazine photographer, S/Sgt Lou Lowery, accompanied Schrier's patrol, and he took a series of photos of the patrol's ascent up Suribachi and the flag raising.

Later that day, Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal came upon the flag that Schrier's patrol had raised..."he finally saw the flag, too, high above him, a tiny thing, waving bravely from the top of a very tall pole. At the base knelt an officer with a triangle of red, white, and blue under one arm...the plan, he soon learned, was to take down the old flag, pole and all. Simultaneously, the big flag would go up in its stead, tied to a pipe a detail was now dragging toward the spot. It was Lieutenant Schrier's idea to do it that way, in a sort of ad hoc ceremony that would keep the Stars and Stripes flying despite the change in banners. Having once planted the American flag atop Suribachi, the young officer was determined never to see it come down again...The shutter clicked, Joe Rosenthal had his picture.14"

"...on February 24 when Schrier was notified, "Request you designate one member group of flag raisers report aboard Eldorado (AGC 11) early morning 25 February.Purpose news broadcast.

Schrier sent his second in command of the original patrol--PltSgt Ernest Ivy "Boots" Thomas. At 0430 the next morning, Thomas found himself aboard the ship in the presence of Admiral Turner and General "Howlin' Mad" Smith. He was then interviewed by Don Pryor of CBS, who, microphone in hand, introduced him as "a modest but tough 20-year old fighting man from Tallahassee," leader of the Marine platoon that captured Suribachi, "the first American in history who has ever raised Old Glory over a part of the Japanese Empire."

A stunned pause. "No, Mr. Pryor," Thomas interjected, "I don't want to give that impression. The honor belongs to every man in my platoon. Three of us actually raised the flag--Lieutenant Harold G. Schrier, our company executive officer, Sergeant H.O. Hansen of Boston, and myself. But the rest of the men had just as big a part in it as we did."

Thomas continued to point out that although he felt "mighty proud," he did not consider himself a hero, or that he had done anything that the others hadn't also done."
(PltSgt Thomas, speaking to the media and Navy/Marine Corps top brass just a couple days after the flag raising on Iwo Jima!)
(The above information taken from the Marling/Wetenhall book)
Ref
Iwo Jima, Monuments, Memories, and the American Hero, Marling and Wetenhall, Harvard University Press, 1991


Further informtion is scarce regarding 1/Lt Harold G. Schrier USMC. He never wrote a book, nor did anyone ever write a book about him. There are, however, numerous books indicating some information about his Marine Corps career, but for the most part these are in reference to his part regarding the Iwo Jima flag raising, such as the quotes shown above. So I requested information about him from HQMC and they provided me some information that was published (that is, typed on four 8x11 sheets, photocopied), dated 24 October, 1952. This writing is not signed nor does it indicate the name of the writer. It also bears the handwritten annotations "LtCol Retired" and "died 6-3-71".

In regard to the following HQMC information on LtCol Schrier, the following clarifying remarks of my own are provided.

1. It states that Schrier was a former Marine Raider. That would be the 2d Marine Raider Battalion--"Carlson's Raiders"--commanded by LtCol Evans F. Carlson USMCR. (The XO of 2d Raiders was Maj James "Jimmy" Roosevelt, the president's (FDR) son.

2. It also states that Schrier served at Midway. That would have been with Dog Company, 2d Raider Bn. (Companies C&D, 2d Raider Bn were detached for Midway service prior to Carlson's Guadalcanal campaign.

3. It states that Schrier completed "boot" training in January, 1937. This squares with the Marling/Wetenhall book which indicates he entered the Marine Corps in 1936.
~~~~~~~
MAJOR HAROLD G. SCHRIER, USMC

Marine Major Harold George Schrier, winner of the Navy Cross and Silver Star Medal for heroism at Iwo Jima, has fought in five World War II campaigns and in Korea in his 16 years as a Marine Corps officer and enlisted man. The former Marine Raider is presently serving as Office in Charge of the Marine Corps Recruiting Station, Birmingham, Alabama.

Major Schrier (then a lieutenant) earned the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism as leader of a 40-man patrol which fought its way to the top of Mt. Suribachi on February 23, 1945. Despite enemy small arms and artillery fire the patrol successfully made the grueling climb to the top, where Major Schrier directed his men in raising the first American flag to fly over any land in the inner defenses of the Japanese Empire.

He was awarded the Silver Star Medal for gallantry in action on the night of March 24, 1945, during a fanatical Japanese attack. The citation states in part:
“Lieutenant Schrier unhesitatingly exposed himself to the onrushing enemy and by his personal example and shouted encouragement rallied his small force and led it to a counter-attack which destroyed forth-six of the enemy and caused the survivors to withdraw in disorder.”

The major earned the Legion of Merit during the New Georgia campaign, for meritorious conduct while serving with a reconnaissance party on enemy-held Vandunu before the invasion of that island. He and the party made their way to the island by canoe and spent two days scouting enemy positions and troop concentrations. When the rest of the group left the island he remained on it for nine days to signal to the approaching invasion ships and guide troops to the beach.

In addition to Iwo Jima and New Georgia he participated in the Midway, Guadalcanal and Bougainville campaigns of World War II. In the Korean fighting he earned the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service in August and September, 1950, as Adjutant of the First Provisional Marine Brigade, and the Purple Heart Medal for wounds received in action during the breakout from the Chosin reservoir.

The major was born at Corder, MO, on October 17, 1916 and attended high school at Lexington, MO. He enlisted in thte Marine Corps on November 12, 1936.

Completing “boot” training at San Diego, California, in January 1937, he was ordered to China, where he served with the American Embassy guard at Peiping and with units at Tientsin and Shanghai. He returned to the States in August, 1940 to become a drill instructor at San Diego.

With the formation of Marine Raider Battalions in the early months of 1942, Major Schrier volunteered for that service. He was assigned to the Second Raider Battalion and embarked with the unit for the Pacific theater in April, 1942. After the Midway and Guadalcanal campaigns he was commissioned in the field on February 28, 1943, remaining with the Second Raider Battalion through the New Georgia and Bougainville operations.

Returning to the States in February, 1944, the major served as an infantry instructor at Camp Pendelton, California, until that July, when he joined the newly-formed Fifth Marine Division as executive officer of Company “E,”
Second Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment. He returned to the Pacific theater with “E” Company in September, 1944, and in February, 1945, during the Iwo Jima campaign, was named commander of Company “D.”

In July, 1945, Major Schrier returned to the States. He served briefly at San Diego until October, 1945, and from then until December, 1946, was stationed at the Marine Barracks, Naval Ammunition Depot, Seal Beach, California. He embarked again for overseas duty in January, 1947, with his assignment as executive officer of the Marine Barracks, Samar, Philippine Islands, In August, 1947, he was assigned to the Marine Barracks, U.S. Fleet activities Yokosuka, Japan, where he served as post operations and training officer and commander of the Second Guard Company.

Returning again to the States in March, 1949, the Major was stationed with the First Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, California. While there he had additional duties as a technical advisor during the making of the movie, “Sands of Iwo Jima.”

With the outbreak of the Korean fighting Major Schrier embarked for Korea with the First Marine Brigade in July, 1950. He was brigade adjutant during the Pusan perimeter fighting and from September to December, 1950, commanded a company of the Fifth Marine Regiment in the Inchon-Seoul and Chosin reservoir campaigns. He returned to the States in January, 1951, when he was assigned to this present duties. He was promoted to his present rank in May, 1951.

In addition to the Navy Cross, Silver Star Medal, Legion of Merit, and Bronze Star and Purple Heart Medals, the major’s medals and decorations include the Presidential Unit Citation with three bronze stars; the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal; the China Service Medal; the American Defense Service Medal with Base Clasp; the Asiatic-Pacific Theater Campaign Medal with one silver star in lieu of five bronze stars; the American Theater Campaign Medal; the World War II Victory Medal; the Korean Service Medal with three bronze stars; and the United Nations Service Medal.

Major Schrier and his wife, Edna, reside at 5319 Terrace J., Birmingham, Alabama.
A brother, Arnold E. Schrier, lives at 521 East Devon Street, Independence, MO.
--USMC--
24 October, 1952

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
R.W. Gaines, GySgt USMC (Ret.)
Gunny G's GLOBE and ANCHOR
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~~~~~~~~~~
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Gny Sgt USMC (Ret.)
1952-'72
Semper Fidelis
~~~~~~~~~~
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GyG's G&A Sites & Forums is an informational site and not for profit. Copyrighted material provided soley for education, study, research, and discussion, etc. Full credit to source shown when available.
~~~~~

AN OPEN LETTER TO CLINT EASTWOOD....by Dick Gaines

An Open Letter To Clint Eastwood

I see by recent news articles that you are to be involved in a new film regarding the raising of our flag on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945. I have wondered if this is going to be yet another of the usual party line accounts, or if this one will finally be an in-depth full story and truth of that event in our history.

Since it is you involved this time, I expect the latter could be the case, and I think it's worth a shot to attempt to bring the following information to your attention in hopes that the story of Marine Ray Jacobs, and others, might finally be brought to the attention of the American public in a way that is worthy of both the event and the men themselves.

Jacobs is one of the known remaining survivors, along with Chuck Lindberg, of Lt. Schrier's 40-man combat patrol up Suribachi that day to raise our colors over the Japanese homeland. I am referring here to the earlier first (so-called) flag raising--not the later raising of a replacement flag that was photographed by Joe Rosenthal (and was also shot by Sgt Bill Genaust on motion-picture film as well)--and which quickly, and incorrectly, became famous as the Iwo Jima flag raising well-known to all. The actual flag raising was photographed earlier that same day by Marine S/Sgt Lou Lowery, and is not nearly so well-known. Even today, nearly sixty years after the battle for Iwo Jima, a number of facts are still in question, and the emphasis of the flag raising itself remains on the replacement flag and not the original flag raised.

Jacobs' own recent Eyewitness Account and photos describing the flag raising, as well as other information, may be viewed here...
Eyewitness Account...

Ray Jacobs may be reached at the following E-Mail address...

ray1jacobs@msn.com

Hoping this finds its way to your eyes. Thank you for your kind attention.

ADDENDUM:
(From Ray Jacobs ray1jacobs@msn.com)

Fri, 13 Aug 2004 15:49:22 -0700

To bring you up to date..About two months ago I contacted James Ebert,a Forensic Photo Analyst.I asked him to examine the Lou Lowery pictures taken during the first flag raising on Iwo Jima and to compare them with pictures of me taken in and around the same time period.

Ebert is the same analyst who proved to Colonel Dave Severance that Gerald Zeihme was pictured in Joe Rosenthal's so called "Gung Ho" picture of the group of Marines and Corpsmen waving around the flag on Mt.Suribachi.

His has unassailable credentials in this field.

Attached you will find his report to me in the form of a letter.You may use the letter as you wish.

Thanks for your patience.

Semper Fi,Ray

Attachment
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EBERT & ASSOCIATES
INC.

3700 RIO GRANDE BLVD. N.W., SUITE 3
ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO 87107-3042
(505) 344-2345
Facsimile (505) 344-2444
e-mail: jebert@ebert.com
Website: www.ebert.com

August 9, 2004

Raymond Jacobs
1432 Mt. Diablo Circle
South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150


Dear Ray:

Thank you for trusting me with your photographs, which I have spent some time analyzing. As you know, I am a forensic photogrammetrist and have considerable experience in making and evaluating identifications of individuals depicted in photographs, video, and other sorts of images. In making comparisons of individuals in such images, I use digital image processing to optimize the visibility of facial and other details, to examine them closely, and sometimes also use digital imaging and mapping techniques to make comparative measurements.

When you first sent me copies of the photographs taken by Sgt. Lou Lowery on February 23, 1945 at the first flag raising atop Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima, and other photographs of you taken at various times, I explained to you in some detail my professional “philosophy” regarding the identification of individuals in photographs. Identifications and comparisons of individuals depicted in images are sometimes difficult or impossible for a number of reasons. Many different people look very much the same, and conversely, a single “known” individual can look quite different in photographs taken even a short time apart. Differences in the resolution and the conditions under which photographs were taken often make comparisons difficult too, and in my experience high quality, original negatives or photo prints, especially for older photos, are almost never available.

When I make comparisons of individuals in photographs and other images, I always look first for “unique” identifying patterns, such things as patterns of freckles or moles, distinctive scars, broken or crooked teeth, or other things that would be exceedingly unlikely to occur in two separate individuals. I did not find any such unique patterns in the photographs you sent me. As you suggested to me, the young Ray Jacobs didn’t have any such facial “defects,” but even if he had they might very well have been undetectable because of the quality and resolution of the photographs, particularly the Lowery photographs you obtained from Leatherneck Magazine, which upon close inspection I have concluded are some sort of photomechanical or at least multi-generational photo copies.

Given images like that, what I would do to illustrate that the radioman on Mt. Suribachi in the Lowery pictures is you would be just what you already did in your “Eyewitness Account” book: to scale and juxtapose comparable photos known to be you next to the Lowery pictures and note the similarities. And the similarities between the “known” Ray Jacobs in the photos you sent me, and the radioman in Lowery’s Mt. Suribachi photos, are striking.

Just as important, however, is the lack of dissimilarities, which brings me to the culmination of my professional philosophy regarding identifications of individuals from photographs. First, I do not think any suggestion of a “positive identification” can or should be made based on any single type of physical evidence, be it photographic comparisons, fingerprints, bite marks, or whatever, particularly in any legal case. In cases such as the identification of Ray Jacobs as the radioman on Mt. Suribachi, however, a second line of reasoning is, I think, more germane: whether, given the physical evidence that is available – i.e. the photographs – there is any reason to believe that the radioman is not Ray Jacobs.

And based on the photographic evidence I have seen, there isn’t. One way to state my conclusion is that if I were given the photos you sent, and the Lowery photos, and asked to try to illustrate that the radioman was not Ray Jacobs, I could not do so. Another way to state this conclusion is that, based on my experience in the identification of individuals in photographs, and on my examination of the photos you sent that we know are you, when I look at the radioman in the Lowery photographs I am looking at Ray Jacobs.

I also need to comment here in regard to the Lowery photo of the radioman from behind, looking out to sea, and the markings on his canteen cover. Given the data I have, a chemical photo print sent to me by Colonel Dave E. Severance, USMC (Ret), and a digital version of the same image sent by Colonel W. G. Ford, USMC (Ret), the editor of Leatherneck Magazine, I can easily conclude that the radioman is the same individual as that depicted in the other Lowery photos, but I cannot decipher the name on the canteen cover. When one can’t unambiguously read printing or writing in a photo, image processing techniques will not “magically” recover details that aren’t inherent in the image. In such a case everyone, including me, is reduced to simply guessing. And when I do this, I see what looks to me like seven characters, spelling out something like “Cachall,” or “Gachall,” or perhaps “Gabrial.”

In a number of past forensic cases in which objects or details were just too “fuzzy” in a photograph to allow unambiguous identification, I have used an essentially reverse technique of making an image of an exemplar object and intentionally blurring and otherwise distorting the image of the exemplar to make it comparable to the fuzzy image. If the printing on the radioman’s canteen cover were stencilled and the same kind of stencil could be located, such a reverse imaging technique might be used to further contentions of what the printing said. Based on the photographic data I have examined, however, it wouldn’t change my opinion that the radioman shown in the Lowery photos taken on Mt. Suribachi is Ray Jacobs.


Sincerely,

James I. Ebert, PhD
Certified Photogrammetrist (ASPRS)
Fellow, American Academy of Forensic Sciences
~~~~~~~
ADDENDUM:
Clint's Double Take
Eastwood directs two films on the battle of Iwo Jima: one from the
U.S. side, the other from the Japanese
By RICHARD SCHICKEL Time Magazine

Sometime this month in Chicago, Clint Eastwood will complete principal
photography on his latest movie, Flags of Our Fathers. It's the 26th
feature film he has directed since he made Play Misty for Me in 1971.
And just as he has done before (The Bridges of Madison County, Mystic
River), he is basing it on a best-selling book. But this movie is
different from all the others that he or anyone else has directed, for
Flags is only half the story he wants to tell.

The book, by James Bradley and Ron Powers, recounts the ultimately
tragic tale of six young U.S. Marines who happened to raise a huge
American flag atop Mount Suribachi in the midst of the great battle
for Iwo Jima during World War II, of how an Associated Press
photographer squeezed off what he thought was a routine shot of them
doing so that became an iconic image, of what happened to some of
those kids (only three survived the next few days of battle) when they
were hustled home to be heedlessly exploited by the U.S. government to
raise civilian morale and, incidentally, sell billions of dollars'
worth of war bonds. That story, rich in darkly ambiguous nuance, would
have been more than enough to preoccupy Eastwood's attention for a
couple of years.

But when Eastwood tried to buy the rights, he discovered that Steven
Spielberg already had them, and so he moved on instead to Million
Dollar Baby. Then, backstage at the 2004 Academy Awards (at which his
Mystic River was a multiple nominee), Eastwood encountered Spielberg,
and before the evening was out, they agreed to a Flags co-production,
with Eastwood directing. Shortly thereafter, the project began to
elicit an uncommon, almost obsessive, interest from its director. He
has not often attempted fact-based movies, and he had never undertaken
one that contained such huge combat scenes. He began to read more
widely and deeply on the subject. And he began talking to both
American and Japanese veterans of Iwo Jima, which remains the
bloodiest engagement in Marine Corps history and the one for which the
most Congressional Medals of Honor were awarded (27). As for the
Japanese, only about 200 out of 22,000 defending soldiers survived. At
some point in his research, Eastwood realized that he had to find a
way to tell both sides of the story--"not in the Tora! Tora! Tora!
way, where you cut back and forth between the two sides," he says,
"but as separate films."

So, beginning next February, Eastwood will start shooting the
companion movie, tentatively called Lamps Before the Wind, scheduled
for simultaneous release with Flags next fall. Typically, Eastwood
(who is an old friend of this writer's) is not able to articulate
fully his rationale for this ambitious enterprise: "I don't
know--sometimes you get a feeling about something. You have a
premonition that you can get something decent out of it," he says.
"You just have to trust your gut." He asked Paul Haggis, who wrote
Flags, if he would like to write the Japanese version as well. The
writer of Million Dollar Baby and director of Crash, Haggis was
overbooked but thought an aspiring young Japanese-American
screenwriter, Iris Yama****a, who had helped him research Flags, might
be able to do it. She met with Eastwood, and once again his gut spoke;
he gave her the job and liked her first draft so much that he bought
it. It was she who insisted on giving him a few rewrites she thought
her script still needed.

Taken together, the two screenplays show that the battle of Iwo
Jima--and by implication, the whole war in the Pacific--was not just a
clash of arms but a clash of cultures. The Japanese officer class,
imbued with the quasi-religious fervor of their Bushido code, believed
that surrender was dishonor, that they were all obliged to die in
defense of their small island. That, of course, was not true of the
attacking Americans. As Eastwood puts it, "They knew they were going
into harm's way, but you can't tell an American he's absolutely fated
to die. He will work hard to get the job done, but he'll also work
hard to stay alive." And to protect his comrades-in-arms. As Haggis'
script puts it, the Americans "may have fought for their country, but
they died for their friends, for the man in front, for the man beside
'em."

Yama****a's script is much more relentlessly cruel. In essence, the
Japanese officers compelled the bravery (and suicide) of their troops
at gunpoint. Only the Japanese commander, Lieut. General Tadamichi
Kuribayashi (a mysterious historical figure who fascinates Eastwood),
and a fictional conscript, Saigo, whose fate Yama****a intertwines
with his commanding officer's, demonstrate anything like humanity as a
Westerner might understand it. The lieutenant general, educated in
part in the U.S., is respectful of its national spirit (and industrial
might) and believes that a live soldier, capable of carrying on the
fight, is infinitely more valuable than a dead one enjoying an
honorable afterlife. Thanks to his preservationist tactics, a battle
that was supposed to last five days consumed almost 40, though honor
demanded his suicide in the end. Saigo, who, as Eastwood says, "wants
what most human beings want" (a peaceful life with friends and
family), meets an unexpected fate.

The Japanese film derives much of its strength from its claustrophobic
confinement to a horrendous time and place. Haggis' work gains its
power from its confident range. The screenplay starts with the
Americans on the beaches and the protagonists raising the flag. It
follows them on their vulgar war-bond tour (they were obliged to
re-enact the flag raising on a papier-mâché Suribachi at Soldier
Field in Chicago) and then traces their postwar descent into
dream-tossed anonymity. You could argue that the Japanese were the
lucky ones: their government and religion foreordained their fate, and
they had no choice but to endure it. Chance played more capriciously
with the Americans, who liked to think they were in charge of their
destinies. Yet Flag's protagonists end up knowing that they were
blessed by nothing more than a photo op--and knowing that the true,
unacknowledged heroes were the men left behind to fight and die on Iwo
Jima's black sands. The film follows three survivors: Ira Hayes
(played by Adam Beach), Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford) and John Bradley
(Ryan Phillippe), the co-author's father. To put it mildly, their
lives do not continue on a heroic trajectory. At one point Bradley,
forever assailed by nightmares that he never discusses, wishes that
"there hadn't been a flag on the end of that pole."

The inscrutability of fate has always been a major Eastwoodian
subtext. But now, as he approaches his 76th birthday, he has begun to
take it personally. "There are so many people who are as good or
better than me who aren't working," he says of his career, "while I
still am. I can't explain that, but luck has to play a part." Here's
hoping his luck holds.


7,000 Marines died at Iwo Jima in February and March 1945, the
bloodiest event in U.S. Marine Corps history. By making a film from
their killers' perspective, Dirty Harry dishonors them, WWII veterans,
America, and himself. As aging actor past his prime, I guess he never
heard the phrase "death before dishonor."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Response:

I should think Eastwood's "gut" feeling should tell him that it would
be all well and good to also tell the story from the Japanese point of
view, but I am confounded that such sensitivity would not include
first telling the truth, the real story, about Old Glory on Suribachi!

I know that all Marines are well informed, having taken it upon
themselves to delve into and beyond the usual party line history
topics, and are well aware that Rosenthal's photo and the
corresponding information on the so-called Iwo Flag Raising, is only,
in actuality, the raising of a "replacement flag" some time later on
the same day that the actual flag raising occurred. Yet, the actual
flag raising event is given short shrift, briefly mentioned only,
reduced to a mere footnote, or maybe not mentioned at all in writings
regarding this historic event.
DickG
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Semper Fidelis
Dick Gaines

Ref
Source: GyG's OSMT Forum

Note:
Viewers, please post/forward all hands.




~~~~~~~~~~
This is...
Gunny G's...
GLOBE and ANCHOR
Marines Sites & Forums
By R.W. "Dick" Gaines
Gny Sgt USMC (Ret.)
1952-'72
Semper Fidelis
~~~~~~~~~~
Note:
GyG's
G&A Sites & Forums is an informational site and not for profit.
Copyrighted material provided soley for education, study, research, and
discussion, etc. Full credit to source shown when available.
~~~~~

GENERAL PATTON ON KERRY....

Source: E-Mail
(GyG'sMailbag: Via Marine Richard Roberts)

Obituary for a Patriot: Maj. Gen George S. Patton Dies at 80
by Scott Stanley, Jr.

George Smith Patton III was a senior at West Point when his famous
father was killed in a bizarre December 1945 road accident in Germany.
When Westbrook Pegler and other journalists approached Bea Patton for
confirmation from her husband's papers that Gen. Dwight Eisenhower had
carried on a notorious affair with his British driver Kaye Summersby, she
refused, explaining that she did not believe loose talk and, besides, her
son was a career officer. He was indeed, and a very good one. The younger
Patton first saw action in Korea and later served three tours in Vietnam,
where he was awarded a Purple Heart and two Distinguished Service Crosses.
As a colonel he commanded the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam and
rose to the rank of major general when he was about to be named commander
of U.S. armored forces in Germany. It was 1980, Jimmy Carter was
president, and when the Soviets objected to so able a son of their old
enemy being given such a command, Carter flinched and Patton retired in
disgust.

At the family home in Hamilton, Mass., with his wife Joanne, Patton
turned his hand in retirement to the unlikely profession of "tomato
farmer" at Green Meadow Farm, the family estate, and delighted to sell his
produce at a roadside stand. Patton's friend, Lt. Gen. Charley Brown, told
the story of a ragtag National Guard tank convoy that had stopped to buy
cold cider at the Patton stand and returned to headquarters that evening
to report an encounter with a crazy old farmer who chewed them out for the
shabby state of their equipment, their dress, and their demeanor.

"And get this," a National Guard private confided to the colonel in
charge of the armory, "the crazy old son of a bitch thought he was Gen.
George S. Patton."

He was indeed, every inch of him, and when the turncoat John F. Kerry
ran for the U.S. Senate, Patton called a press conference, declared Kerry
to be "soft on communism," and said that by providing propaganda for the
enemy during the Vietnam War, Kerry "gave aid and comfort to the enemy and
probably caused some of my guys to get killed."

How George would have loved it that today the New York Times gave
exactly twice as much space to the obituary of lifelong communist
propagandist Agnes Cunningham as it did to his. No doubt that would have
amused him as much as his retirement business cards, printed in green ink,
that read: "George S. Patton, Farmer."

Funeral services will be held Wednesday, July 7, at 10 a.m. in St.
John's Episcopal Church, Beverly Farms, Mass.; his burial service will
take place at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, Aug. 27, at 11 a.m.

----------------------------------------


~~~~~~~~~~
This is...
Gunny G's...
GLOBE and ANCHOR
Marines Sites & Forums
By R.W. "Dick" Gaines
Gny Sgt USMC (Ret.)
1952-'72
Semper Fidelis
~~~~~~~~~~
Note:
GyG's G&A Sites & Forums is an informational site and not for profit. Copyrighted material provided soley for education, study, research, and discussion, etc. Full credit to source shown when available.
~~~~~

TO THE TERRORIST PIGS IN IRAQ

(From GyG'sMailbag)

Letter to the Terrorists
in Iraq
From: aabufalo@aol.com
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2004 08:37:43 EDT
Subject: [ReconMarines] From: aabufalo@aol.com
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2004 08:37:43 EDT
Subject: [ReconMarines] Letter to the Terrorists
in Iraq

This letter is for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
''Islamic Response,'' and
the rest of the so-called "insurgents" in Iraq.
I obviously do not
have an e-mail address for these vermin, so I am
forwarding this
letter to my entire address book in the hope you
good people will
forward it to as many people as possible, and
that eventually through
the miracle of the internet it somehow ends up in
the hands of the
intended recipients. Thank you all for your
assistance.



To the terrorists currently operating in Iraq:

I see that you have captured a U. S. Marine,
and that you plan to
cut off his head if your demands are not met.
Big mistake. Before
you carry out your threat I suggest you read up
on Marine Corps
history. The Japanese tried the same thing on
Makin Island and in a
few other places during World War Two, and came
to regret it. Go
ahead and read about what then happened to the
mighty Imperial Army
on Tarawa, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. They paid full
price for what they
did, and you will too.

You look at America and you see a soft
target, and to a large
extent you are right. Our country is filled with
a lot of spoiled
people who drive BMWs, sip decaf lattes and watch
ridiculous reality
TV shows. They are for the most part decent,
hard working citizens,
but they are soft. When you cut off Nick Berg's
head those people
gasped, and you got the media coverage you
sought, and then those
people went back to their lives. This time it is
different. We also
have a warrior culture in this country, and they
are called Marines.
It is a brotherhood forged in the fire of many
wars, and the bond
between us is stronger than blood. While it is
true that this
country has produced nitwits like Michael Moore,
Howard Dean and Jane
Fonda who can be easily manipulated by your
gruesome tactics, we have
also produced men like Jason Dunham, Brian
Chontosh and Joseph
Perez. If you don't recognize those names you
should. They are all
Marines who distinguished themselves fighting to
liberate Iraq, and
there will be many more just like them coming for
you.

Before the current politically correct
climate enveloped our
culture one of the recruiting slogans of our band
of brothers
was "The Marine Corps Builds Men." You will soon
find out just how
true that is. You, on the other hand, are
nothing but a bunch of
women. If you were men you would show your faces,
and take us on in a
fair fight. Instead, you are cowards who hide
behind masks and
decapitate helpless victims. If you truly
represented the interest
of the Iraqi people you would not be ambushing
those who come to your
country to repair your power plants, or sabotage
the oil pipelines
which fuel the Iraqi economy. Your agenda is
hate, plain and simple.

When you raise that sword over your head I
want you to remember
one thing. Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun is not
alone as he kneels
before you. Every Marine who has ever worn the
uniform is there with
him, and when you strike him you are striking all
of us. If you
think the Marines were tough on you when they
were cleaning out
Fallujah a few weeks ago you haven't seen
anything yet. If you want
to know what it feels like to have the Wrath of
God called down upon
you then go ahead and do it. We are not Turkish
truck drivers, or
Pakistani laborers, or independent contractors
hoping to find work in
your country. We are the United States Marines,
and we will be
coming for you.

Andy Bufalo
MSgt USMC (Ret)
USMCstories
-----------------------------------------------------------------


~~~~~~~~~~
This is...
Gunny G's...
GLOBE and ANCHOR
Marines Sites & Forums
By R.W. "Dick" Gaines
Gny Sgt USMC (Ret.)
1952-'72
Semper Fidelis
~~~~~~~~~~
Note:
GyG's G&A Sites & Forums is an informational site and not for profit. Copyrighted material provided soley for education, study, research, and discussion, etc. Full credit to source shown when available.
~~~~~