Free Republic

It's with a heavy heart that I find myself writing this about someone I've admired for many years.  Ever since "Full Metal Jacket", R. Lee Ermey emboded the image of a hard-ass Marine for most of us.  He was a person whose personal life was as interesting as the characters he portrayed.  Serving in the Marines from 1961-1972 as a staff seargent, he was later given the honorary rank of gunnery seargent because of his ongoing support of military personnel everywhere, and because of his gritty portrayal of Gunny Hartmann. He had a decorated career before being medically retired...

Troops challenging the legitimacy of President Barack Obama as commander-in-chief -- including at least one who is fighting deployment -- should take heed: Gunnery Sgt. Hartman wants to know your "major malfunction." R. Lee Ermey, the Marine-turned-actor whose role as drill instructor Gunny Hartman in the late Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" has all but placed the Vietnam veteran in the pantheon of Marine heroes alongside "Chesty" Puller, Smedley Butler and Dan Daly, isn't buying anyone's political objector status. "I haven't heard about those guys," Ermey told Military.com during an Aug. 21 interview. "If I do run across them though,...