The inspiration for my enlistment in the Marine Corps was reading "Marine! The Life of Chesty Puller," by Burke Davis, at twelve years old. I've been rereading it, and came across this passage, on page 263 of the Bantam War Books paperback edition:

 "From the time of the landing at Inchon the order had been that no dead Marines were to be buried; the bodies were lashed in ponchos and saved for the appropriate time and place. When they returned to Inchon the First [Marine] Division held a funeral for its dead at the outskirts of the city; loading of the ships [for the Wonsan landing] was underway at the docks.
 Puller took two of his battalions to the cemetery for the ceremony and was standing in front of them as the bugles pealed and a flag was raised. He heard men growling in the ranks behind him. He did not turn.
 "You guys keep quiet."
The sound subsided, but when it was over they beseiged him, pointing: "Look there, Colonel. Look at that damned rag they're flying up there --that United Nations thing. Hell, there's hardly a man lying out here but what's a Marine! How the hell they get that way, that United Nations crap?"
 Puller went to General [O.P.] Smith [1st MarDiv CG]:
 "I can control my men, but tonight after they get out in town and get some liquor, I can't swear you won't have trouble. I'm serious about this. They feel keenly about that damned United Nations flag over our cemetery."
 Smith took the problem to General Almond [US Army X Corps CG]. Before sunset the UN flag had been replaced by the American flag, and the Marines were content."

[img]http://www.gnt.net/~jrube/images/chesty.jpg[/img]

[b][size=5][red]Goodnight Chesty, wherever you are![/b][/size=5][/red]

Semper Fidelis
Jarhead out.

'Nuff said...

Semper Fi

Semper Fi

semper fi

Semper Fi.  

 Next weekend my cousins will be up from Easton for our annual shooting competition. We break out everything, M-14, AR-15's, 45's, 9mm's, .357's, 44mag's, etc.  Afterwards we plan return to my house and raise the Colors along with the USMC flag , and present the  "shooting awards".  Next will come the big moment,... BURN THE UN FLAG that I bought for just this occasion.  I can't wait to BURN IT!!!  After that will be a cookout and beer.  I'll definately take pictures of the burning and see if I'm able to post them.    

As I've said before regarding law enforcement as well as the military, there are always the 10% of any organization that are just oxygen thieves, screwing up all the hard work of the hard-charging 90%. Chesty was actively disliked by a faction of the officer corps that didn't rate to carry his jockstrap and knew it. That's why, IMHO, he got passed over for promotion to General and retired a LtGen, never having been Commandant. He was the quintessential break-glass-in-case-of-war battle commander, hated by the career staff officers who avoided anything that smelled or sounded like the field.

As far as the MajGen involved in the Osprey mess, if he knew about or took part in the faking of maintenance records, he should be staked out in the Yuma sun and used for a Lawn Dart target by everyone who's ever flown in one. If he didn't know, but he actually was in a position where he should have, he oughta be busted to Lance Corporal and kicked out on his ass, not to mention being banned for life from the military-industrial-congressional cartel that he was sucking up to if he's guilty.

Just my opinion, and I really don't know any more than any of us who follows the news on TV, the internet and the newspapers. I don't have any intel sources in the Osprey world.

Semper Fidelis
Jarhead out.

Pretty damned good opinion if you ask me.

Here is one of the problems with command, you are responsible for everything the people under do, whether you know about it or not.  The Gen is currently being charged with he should have know the records were falsified.  It is sort of like a few years ago when a battery commander had one of his Marines killed in a live fire assault.  Although all investigations found it was an accident that he had absolutely nothing to do with it.  He was still court-martialed because the CG said that if there wasn't a court martial it would look like things were being covered up.  Although the Maj was acquitted, his reputation has been destroyed and he had to declare bankruptcy because of the cost of his defense.  

That's why they pay us the "big bucks". [:)]

I'm in 100% agreement with you.

History shows that the natural order of  mankind is to be ruled, dominated and subjected.

Freedom is like a spinning wheel. If left to it's own, it runs down. Freedom like the wheel must be constantly attended to or it slows down and stops.

Most take Freedom for granted as if it will always be here. History proves otherwise. America is a short experiment in the world history of kingdoms and dictators.

It's obvious to me that the wheel is slowing down. If I can only pray for one thing, it would be that america's youth understand that freedom must be constantly maintained or it will die.

M4-AK out.