----- Original Message -----

From: <loubatas@verizon.net>

Sent:   2/15/2008 8:37:52 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
Subject: Once a Marine Always a   Marine
   
A Marine as seen by:

Himself:
A handsome, buff,   highly trained professional killer and female idol who carries a finely   honed K-Bar, wears a crisp 8-point cammie cover and is always on time due   to the absolute reliability of his Seiko digital watch.

His   Wife:
A   stinking, gross, foul mouthed lovable bum who arrives back at home every few months with a seabag full of dirty utilities, a huge Seiko watch,   an oversized knife, a filthy hat and hornier then hell.

   
His Commanding   Officer:
A fine specimen of a   drunken, brawling, HMMWV-stealing, woman-corrupting bullshitter with an incredibly accurate Seiko   watch, a finely honed, razor sharp K-Bar and a salty cammie cover. 

Headquarters   Marine Corps:
A drunken, brawling, HMMWV-stealing,   woman-corrupting "cumshaw artist" who wears a Seiko watch, an unauthorized   K-Bar and a squared-away cover. 

  
Congress:
Marines are   overpaid, overrated tax burdens who are indispensable   since they volunteer to go anywhere at any time and kill   whoever they're told to kill, as   long as they can drink, brawl, steal HMMWVs, corrupt women and sing dirty songs   while wearing cammies, oversized knives, Seiko watches and really   screwed-up 8-point covers that don't look like the Army's.

What   Marines have said about themselves:  
 
Ted   Williams 
"It's a funny thing,   but, as years go by, I think you appreciate more and more what a great thing   it was to be a United States Marine... People will tell me what a shame it was   I had to go back into the service a second time, but I'm kinda glad I did.   Besides, I am a U.S. Marine and I'll be one till I die."   

Jonathan Winters, comic and Marine   
I've always been proud of being a Marine.  I won't hesitate to defend the Corps.     
 

A Marine Drill   Instructor at Parris Island:
"Did you come   here just to spoil my beloved Corps, maggot?"

A   boot camp weapons coach:
"To a Marine, happiness is a belt-fed weapon."  

Anonymous US Marine   in Viet Nam:
"Happiness is a Free Fire Zone" 
 
General Louis H.   Wilson, USMC (CMC)
Toast given at 203rd Marine Corps Birthday Ball Camp LeJeune, N.C. 1978  
The wonderful love of a beautiful maid,
The love of a staunch true man,
The love of a baby, unafraid,
Have existed since time began.

But the greatest of loves, Thequintessence of loves.
even greater than that of a mother,
Is the tender, passionate, infinite love,
of one drunken Marine for another. 
"Semper   Fidelis" 

 
Gen. A. M. Gray,   USMC, (CMC): 
Every Marine is, first and foremost, a rifleman. All other conditions are secondary.    
 
Gen. Charles C.   Krulak, USMC (CMC); 5 May 1997: 
For over 221 years our Corps has done two things for this great Nation.    
We make Marines, and we win battles.  
 
Gen. James L. Jones,   USMC (CMC); 10 November 2000: 
We are United States Marines, and for two and a quarter centuries  
we have defined the standards of courage, esprit, and military prowess.    
 
1stLt. Clifton B. Cates, USMC in Belleau Wood, 19 July 1918: 
I have only two men out of my company and 20 out of some other company.  
We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept
by machine gun fire   and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my
left and only a few on my right.  I will hold.  

LtCol.   Oliver North, USMC (Ret):
"The only people I like beside my wife and kids are Marines."

MajGen. J N Mattis, CG, 1st   Mar Div - Iraq, March 2003:
"You are part of the world's most   feared and trusted fighting force.
Engage your brain before you engage your weapon. Share your courage with
each other as we enter the uncertain terrain north of our Line of Departure.
Keep faith in your comrades on your left and right and Marine Air overhead.
Fight with a happy heart and a strong spirit. For the mission's sake, our country's sake and the sake of the men who carried the Division's colors in
past battles -- who fought for life and never lost their nerve -- carry out
your mission and keep your honor clean. Demonstrate to the world there is
'No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy' than a United States Marine." 
 
Lt Col. D.B. Drysdale, Commanding 41 Commando, Royal Marines,    
Chosen Reservoir, on the 1st Marine Division: 
This was the first time that the Marines of the two nations had fought side    
by side since the defense of the Peking Legations in 1900.  
Let it be said that the admiration of all ranks of 41 Commando for their brothers   
in arms was and is unbounded.  
They fought like tigers and their morale and esprit de corps is second to
none.    
 
An Anonymous US   Marine:
"I recently attended a Kansas City Chiefs football   game at Arrowhead
Stadium. It was their annual Veteran's Day tribute so members of all the
services were asked to participate in the festivities. A color guard for the
National Anthem was provided by the Buffalo   Soldiers Association. They
looked very sharp in their 1800s-era US Army Cavalry uniforms.   Following
that, the Navy parachute team put on an impressive display that brought
cheers from the 78,000 football fans in attendance.  Shortly thereafter, we
were treated to the truly awesome sight of an Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth
bomber flyover as well as a few other aircraft. All of these sights -- but
especially the B-2 -- were truly appreciated by the crowd who let it be
known by their cheers. I expected that was all we would see of the US
Military that day. I thought we would see a high school or college marching
band during half-time. Few watch those shows anyway because they have to go
to the head or grab another beer during the intermission. Shortly before
half-time, however, I looked down on the sidelines near the end zone and saw
the Marine Corps' Silent Drill Team forming up. As the half-time show
started, the players left the field and the announcer came on the public
address system to advise us of the Drill Team's performance. Many of us
Marines have seen these performances in the past and they're always
awe-inspiring. I didn't expect that the large civilian crowd of football
fans would be as appreciative of the Drill Team as they had been of the
high-tech B-2 or the daring of the Navy parachute team. However, I was on
the edge of my seat. As the Drill Team marched onto the field, the crowd
grew noticeably quieter. Soon, the team was fully into their demonstration.
The stadium was absolutely silent. From high in the stands' upper reaches
where my seats were, I was able to hear the "snap" and "pop" of hands
striking rifles.   Both big screen "Jumbotron" scoreboards displayed close ups
of the Marines as they went through their routine.   As they completed their
demonstration and lined up for the inspection, the crowd began cheering as
the Marines twirled their rifles in impossible fashion. Then came the inspection. Again, the crowd fell silent and watched intently as rifles were thrown, caught, twirled, inspected and thrown some more. Each well-practiced feat   brought a "wow" or "did you see that?" from those sitting around me.  
I sat there in silent pride as I watched my brother Marines exit the field. A
young girl behind me asked her mother a question about how the Marines learn
to do the things they just did. The mother replied, "They practice long and
hard and they're Marines; they're the best." 
 
What others have said about Marines:

Ronald Reagan, former President of the United States:
"Some people live an entire lifetime and wonder if they've ever made a
difference in the world. Marines don't have that problem."
 
Father Kevin Keaney:
1st Marine Division Chaplain, Korean War 
You cannot exaggerate about the Marines. They are convinced to the point of    
arrogance, that they are the most ferocious fighters on earth- and the amusing    
thing about it is that they are.  
 
Harry S. Truman: 
The Marine Corps is the Navy's police force and as long as I am President that  
is what it will remain. They have a propaganda machine that is almost equal
to Stalin's.   (His written apology was presented to Gen Clifton B. Cates, CMC) 

Gen. William Thornson, U.S. Army: 
There are only two kinds of people that understand Marines: Marines and the
enemy.   Everyone else has a second-hand opinion. 
 
MGen. Frank E. Lowe, USA; Korea, 26 January 1952 
The safest place in Korea was right behind a platoon of Marines.  
Lord, how they could fight!

General   Douglas MacArthur, US Army:
". . . these Marines have the   swagger, confidence and hardness that must have been in Stonewall Jackson's Army of the Shenandoah. They remind me of the Coldstream Guards at   Dunkirk."

Admiral Chester Nimitz, US Navy, on the Marine Corps' battle for Iwo Jima:
"Uncommon valor was a common virtue"

General Douglas MacArthur, US Army:
"I have just returned from visiting the Marines at the front. There is not a finer fighting organization in the world!"

LtCol T R  Fehrenbach, USA, in "This Kind of War":
"The man who will go where his colors go without asking, who will fight a
phantom foe in a jungle or a mountain range, and who will suffer and die in
the   midst of incredible hardship, without complaint, is still what he has
always been, from Imperial Rome to sceptered Britain to democratic America.
He is the stuff of which legends are made. His pride is his colors and his
regiment, his training hard and thorough and coldly realistic, to fit him for what he must face, and his obedience is to his orders. As a legionnaire, he held the gates of civilization for the classical world today he is called United States Marine."

An Anonymous Canadian Citizen:
"Marines are about the most peculiar   breed of human beings I have ever
witnessed. They treat their service as if it was some kind of cult, plastering their emblem on almost everything they own, making themselves up to look like insane fanatics with haircuts so short as to be ungentlemanly, worshipping their Commandant as if he was a god, and making weird animal noises like a band of savages. They'll fight like rabid dogs at the drop of a hat just for the sake of a little action and are the cockiest SOBs I've ever known. Most have the foulest mouths and   drink well beyond man's normal limits, but their high spirits and sense of brotherhood set them apart and, generally speaking, of the United States Marines with whom I've come in contact, are the most professional warriors and the finest men I've had the pleasure to meet."

General John J "Black Jack" Pershing, US   Army:
"The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle! "
 
General Mark Clark, US Army:
"The more   Marines I have around the better I like it!"

General Johnson, US Army:
"I can never again see a United States Marine without experiencing a
feeling of reverence.   "

Richard Harding Davis, war correspondent   (1885):
"The Marines have landed, and the situation is well in hand."

Eleanor Roosevelt - 1945: 
"The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the
filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group I
have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marine Corps."
(Her son, James Roosevelt, was XO of 2ndRaider Bn on Maikin Island and    
later commanded 4thRaider Bn.  He retired from the USMCR as a BGen) 


Semper Fi