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Posted on 11/10/2004 12:01:01 AM PST by Mama_Bear
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11-09-04 What they're wearing to the Inaugural Ball |
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 1) Click on the graphic to open the Calendar. |
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It’s Not If You Salute; It’s How You Salute
One of the first lessons about military salutes is this: they are, as the
dictionary says, formal and ceremonial recognitions of military superiors pre scribed by regulations, e.g., raising the hand to the cover. As many anned forces man bers stress, salutes are not aimed necessari ly at the people receiving them. Rather, they are rendered to the rank. No doubt, every Marine (and his or her counterparts in other services) has saluted an officer for whom he or she had no respect on an individual basis.
But, salutes are part of the game. Marines, again like their counterparts, have gone (and probably still do) to extremes at times to avoid saluting certain officers. For exam ple, they would cross the street, duck behind vehicles (hopefully stationary ones), enter buildings through the front door to exit via the back...the list of “salute avoidance diversionary tactics” (SADT) was limited (and probably still is) only by the cleverness of individual Marines. Can any of this SADT activity be detected easily by observers? Or is the way salutes are ren dered part of Marine Corps tradition?
As everyone knows, the President of the United States is automatically the Commander-in-Chief of the country’s armed forces. As such, he is accorded the respect of the office. Part of that respect is the salute rendered by Marine sentries as the President enters and leaves the White House, embarks and disembarks Marine Corps helicopters for flights hither, thither and yon, etc. There was something that bothered (and amused) me about the salutes Marines delivered to President Bush’s pred ecessor every time he boarded a helicopter or passed a sentry in the White House. The answer came to me in an e-mail I received recently from an SM1)A member It read:
Every once in a while, a nugget comes through. Got this from a Marine Corps friend of mine.
Military courtesy change
I picked up on something very funny this morning. CNN showed George W. leaving HM 1. The Marine at the front step saluted, GW returned it, and as he walked away, the Marine executed a right face to stand facing GW’s back something that was missing in eight years of the Clinton presidency.
The traditional Marlne Corps mark of respect was rendered to the new president. That one goes back to the days in the rigging, when the Marine orderly to the ship’s captain always faced him, no matter his direction of movement, to be ready to receive an order. Who says that enlisted men can’t hold back when they don’t respect someone9 And for eight years, they did.
Is there anything to that piece of history regarding the “traditional Marine Corps mark of respect”?
Reprinted from Follow ME the official pub. Of the second Marine Div. Association.
Sep. 09, 2004 'Old veteran' returning to site of 'forgotten battle'
By Gale M. Bradford Special to the Star-Telegram
WEATHERFORD - It's been 60 years since a veteran from Weatherford stepped on an island to fight in what he calls World War II's "bloody and forgotten battle." Yet he believes that he will recognize his exact landing spot when he revisits the battleground this month.
Those who fought there, said Melvin Simons, 79, will always remember Peleliu, one of the most heroic struggles in U.S. military history. But little has been written in history books about the battle, which chewed up one of the Marine's proudest units.
"This will be my first and probably only trip back. I'm just like any other old veteran. Some don't want to go back. Some do," Simons said sadly before leaving for the South Pacific on Thursday. "But I'd like to. I just don't know how I'll feel."
The trip is also important because Simons will be accompanied by his son, Terry Simons, and because it includes a side trip to the national cemetery in Honolulu, where his older brother, Boyce Joe Simons, is buried.
"None of my family has ever been able to visit his grave. ... Not my parents when they were alive or my other brother or sisters," he said. "He was with the 7th Army Division and was killed on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands not long before I went to Peleliu.
"The 7th Army Division was at Peleliu with my division. If he'd have lived, we would have met there," Simons said. "During a lull in fighting, I got permission to visit with my brother's buddies, and they told me he'd got hit with a big shell and never knew what hit him. I felt better knowing."
Simons was only 18 when the 1st Marine Division landed at Peleliu in the Pacific on Sept. 15, 1944. The island, near the Philippines, had an airstrip within striking distance of Japan, making it important militarily.
Simons questioned the island's military value as he lamented the heavy loss of life. More than 6,336 were killed, wounded or missing in his Marine division, and more than 10,000 Japanese died.
"We lost over 1,000 men the first day. Eighty percent were 17 to 22 years of age. Bodies lined the beach awaiting burial.
"Peleliu was just a coral island. It was eight-mile square that just rose up out of the ocean. It has a long ridge down the middle of it, about 200 feet high. It was impossible to dig foxholes for cover in the coral, so we looked for holes where mortar shells had hit," he said.
No foxholes this trip. Accommodations will be much better. There's a motel on Peleliu. And on the 60th anniversary there will be a commemoration and an opportunity to meet with Japanese veterans.
The Japanese used the dominant terrain feature on the island, the Umurbrogol or "Bloody Nose Ridge," to anchor their defenses. They fought from intricately constructed tunnel complexes and fighting positions hewn from the coral, Simons said.
Simons said he wants to see one of the caves on his return.
"I want to go inside the cave where the Japanese commanding general and his assistant committed hara-kiri, just before the end of the battle that we were told would last 48 to 72 hours. It lasted 70 days."
One Good Thing....
Robert Hamilton, who passed away recently, left one interesting story behind regard ing his participation at Tarawa. It appeared on the back of his memorial service folder. As he recalled:
One thing happened which I would like to relate and which I still feel good about I stepped around an outcropping of boulders and almost fell over a Japanese soldier lying on the ground. I saw he was severely wounded in one ankle. The situation looked secure so I turned and called some of the guys over. When I turned back, his hand was coming out from under his jacket holding a hand grenade. Then, I realized he was handing me the grenade. He was in terrible pain. We got him on a stretcher and to an aid station. Why did I feel good about this? Two reasons—one, I did not take a life unnecessarily—two, I hope the guy made it back to his people after the war with a different view of the U.S. Marines.
Perhaps the story stood him in good stead when he reported to St Peter for guard duty in the streets of Heaven.
SALUTE and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Oh, that is a REALLY nice MC graphic. I think I need to save it too, if you don't mind. :-)
Mornin', (((((((wolfie)))))))).
God bless our Marines and all of our wonderful military!
Amen!
Happy Birthday, men and women, you make us proud!
Indeed they do!
Ditto! Thank you for your service, Joe.
Please tell her Happy Birthday for us and that we thank her for her service. :-)
It sure does! I am still grinning from ear to ear over our victory on the 2nd.
Grinning and saluting our Marines today. Feels good to know that our Marines will never have to serve under Kerry!! Now THAT is a fine birthday present!
Happy Birthday U.S. Marine Corps.
Thanks to all of our troops for *ALL* that they do!
Each day this week our local newspaper has presented a story of local veterans.
Today's article features, quite appropriately, a Marine.
Marine stands proud as ever Vietnam veteran blocks out the scary moments, prefers to recall honor
Cleveland Leonesio keeps a couple of reminders of his Marine service in the closet.
One is his 30-year-old dress blue uniform, which he can still wear when he attends annual Marine Corps balls.
The other is a jagged piece of metal, about half the size of a fist, that reminds him how well his guardian angel watched over him during three tours of duty in Vietnam.
"There was no behind the lines in Vietnam," said Leonesio, 70. "(The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong) could drop a round on you anywhere."
Wonderful tribute for a great man. May God bless him abundantly (((((Diver Dave)))))))
Happy Birthday, Marines!..Thank you for serving our country!
We gave you the best present we could..President Bush as CIC!
Thanks for the drawing, Billie. :)
A Contrast in Character
By Brady Stump
In the small town of Pawleys Island, South Carolina, a nationally recognized public speaker and Vietnam Veteran delivered a message of courage and hope to an enthusiastic crowd. Up the coast, at a rally in Virginia, a Democratic presidential candidate was also delivering a message of similar themes to an equally enthusiastic crowd.
To my knowledge, Clebe McClary and John F. Kerry have never met. Their two stories have very similar beginnings. McClary is a decorated war hero and Vietnam Veteran. After surviving a ferocious midnight attack by a Vietnamese suicide squad that left him with one less arm and eye, McClary was awarded three Purple Hearts and a Bronze and Silver Star.
Kerry also fought bravely in Vietnam. Kerry earned his stars as the commander of a patrol boat, where he was wounded in battle three times. When his service was completed, Kerry also earned three Purple Hearts and a Bronze and Silver Star, just as McClary did.
However after returning from Vietnam, the two war hero’s lives would begin to track in much opposite paths.
After recovering from 39 surgeries, McClary would return from Vietnam and begin an illustrious public speaking career that would impact thousands of lives. Many speaking engagements, from Fortune 500 companies to professional sports teams, would follow. Still, McClary would always feel most at home when speaking on messages of bravery and courage with his fellow men and women of the Armed Forces. These speaking engagements would take McClary to United States military bases all around the world.
Kerry returned from Vietnam a changed man as well. The same men that had served so bravely on his patrol boat and those that had fought fearlessly in the rice fields of Vietnam were now taking the brunt of Kerry’s attacks. Kerry had now joined a new army. Kerry now stood beside actress Jane Fonda, in an all out assault on his fellow Vietnam Vets. In the following months, Kerry would play a vital role on the attacks of the psyche of the American Vietnam Veteran.
Kerry would first play an integral part in the “Winter Soldier Investigation” hearings, where he would assert that United States soldiers often committed acts of torture, murder, and rape, while serving in their respective tours of duty. After the “hearings,” Kerry would go onto speak before Congress saying that it was our soldiers who were committing the atrocities in Vietnam, not the enemy. Kerry would always deliver speeches thick with anti-war rhetoric, yet very thin on hard facts backing up his accusations.
Additionally, Kerry would go onto pen a book, The New Soldier, to further raise his stock with the anti-war crowd and lower even further the self-esteem of his fellow Vietnam Veterans. This book featured an insulting cover that mocked the patriotic and legendary image of the Marines raising the American flag in the battle for Iwo Jima, by showing the flag upside down.
Kerry’s final act of solidarity to the “Hanoi Fonda” movement came when he supposedly threw his military medals over the fences guarding the capitol building, during a protest in DC. We would later find out that these medals were not his own, but a fellow Vietnam Vet duped by the cool anti-war Kerry. Kerry was smart enough to know that these medals may come in handy someday during a congressional, senate or even a presidential election run.
I mention these facts because I was in the crowd the other night when McClary spoke. There is something he said that night that I cannot forget. He spoke of his fondness for fellow Vietnam Vets and lifting up their spirits over the years through his speaking. He talked about the 56,000 plus names on the Vietnam Memorial. McClary then spoke of the thousands of additional honorable Vietnam Vets who probably took their own lives after the war. He spoke of their negative portrayal on TV, in the movies and by activist groups after the war. The unfair and horrific assault on their character drove many Vets to lose all self-worth and pay the ultimate price via their own hands.
Now the man that played a major role in the ferocious attack on the character of the American Vietnam Veteran is returning for a new tour of duty. Now Kerry expects these Veterans to forget his attacks on their character and service to country, and participate as political pawns by lending their support to his upstart campaign.
One man chose to build up and give hope to our Veterans, while another broke them down with character assassinations and false accusations. The contrast in character is apparent to me and surely to our honorable Vietnam Veterans too.
Lejeune unit’s gear readied for shipping
As military convoys from Camp Lejeune rolled to the state port in Wilmington on Wednesday, Marines and sailors prepared to leave for the Persian Gulf.
The first wave of troops with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit boarded a Navy ship off Camp Lejeune’s Onslow Beach. About 250 Marines, most with the unit’s aviation squadron, were flown or ferried in landing craft to the Norfolk, Va.-based USS Kearsarge. The ship will leave within a couple days, said Capt. David Nevers, a public affairs officer with the MEU.
The unit’s roughly 200 tactical vehicles will be loaded onto the 950-foot pre-positioning ship USNS Charlton, which will arrive at the state port later this week. Pre-positioning ships are strategically located in the world’s oceans on standby for the military and carry supplies and equipment.
During the next few weeks, most of the unit’s 2,200 Marines and sailors will head to Iraq, about a month ahead of schedule. The 24th MEU and Camp Pendelton’s 11th MEU – along with about 5,000 other Marines, including reservists – will relieve the Army’s 1st Armored Division and 2nd Light Cavalry Regiment in Iraq.
This deployment is unique because the troops will be flown to the Persian Gulf region rather than sail on ships, the way MEUs typically deploy.
The main body, about 850 troops, will leave around the end of June or early July.
The unit’s Battalion Landing Team will train at March Air Force Base in California in security and stability operations.
"That is the imperative right now in that country," Capt. Nevers said.
Where the unit will be in Iraq hasn’t been determined, he said.
The unit will likely be in Iraq about seven months.
"We’re ready to go," Capt. Nevers said. "The Marines are focused. They’re making final preparations now and taking some well-earned time with their families."
Our Marines in Iraqi are, at this very moment, displaying the very same brand of courage that they have throughout their history on every battlefield, and most are boys, fresh out of high school. God bless and strengthen them, and may they ALL know how deeply grateful we are.
When my husband and I were in DC last summer he took this photo of the statue. It is always a moving experience to see it in person. The flag is at half-staff in honor of President Reagan.
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