Thank you for your service in the U.S Marine Corps. I was fortunate enough to be raised in a time and in a household where I was taught about the sacrifice and service of our armed forces. Years later, I was honored to take a Troop of 36 Boy Scouts to the Marine Barracks at "8th and I" to watch the Friday evening parade. None of those young men will ever forget it. Three of them enlisted in the Marines.
Earlier this year, I read with some interest of efforts to recover the remains of the 'First Navy Seals,' who were really U.S. Marines who had fallen in combat on the shores of Tripoli.
We live in a era in which not everyone understands nor appreciates the sacrifices that were made at U.S. armed forces at Utah and Omaha Beaches, must less Marines at Tripoli, Belleau Wood, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu, Chosin Reservoir, Khe Sanh, and Somalia.
I know no specifics of Justin Timberlakes' upbringing. His parents were divorced when he was young I don't know if his father taught him about the role of America's armed forces in our freedom and the freedom's enjoyed by millions of others throughout the world. I do know that Timberlake, on his own or with assistance from his mother, was directed into the musical entertainment industry at a young age, which historical is not a place filled with role models of military patriotism. He was a member of the Mickey Mouse Club and likely attended school on set; I doubt that an entertainment teacher was politically disposed to teach him much about military history, nor that he spent time witnessing school pageants or plays on patriotism.
By the time he was fourteen, Timberlake was touring the world as a member of a hugely successful musical group as part of the music industry. In those formative years, I doubt he had many mentors who were conservative or who taught him about the role of the military.
Since then - or rather, since he was on the Mickey Mouse Club, he's been singing and acting and surrounded by the entertainment industry and those who speak against U.S. military involvement and the U.S. military.
Timberlake probably had an embarrassingly liberal view on both topics, but he had the class to accept an invitation to the Marine Corps Ball when asked through a video by Cpl. Kelsey De Santis.
You may choose to believe what you choose to believe and to write what you write. That is one of our Freedoms and Lord knows Marines have fought and died to preserve that right for me.
I like to think that a naive and brainwashed young man had an epiphany in the presence of Marines and That Which Is Right.
And I welcome epiphanies on the Road to Damascus or at the Marine Corps Ball.
And if I find myself in a bar with Justin Timberlake and a proud member of the Corps, I'll spend $6 and buy them both a beer.
That’s “freedoms”, not “freedom’s,” and “historically” not “historical”. And probably other typos. I need to start proofing myself before I post.
Well, maturely, and graciously said.
Thank you for being positive!
“The GQ favorite [Timberlake] has always been a vocal supporter of the armed forces...”
See my post 9 of what I think he meant.