Fictional letter home from a marine

[Kendahl]

I participate in the internet forum Quora.com. I came across the following which is supposed to be a letter home from a marine.


Dear Ma and Pa,

I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before all of the places are filled. ...

I was restless at first because you get to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m. But I am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot, and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing.

Men got to shave but it is not so bad, there's warm water. Breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular food. But tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by the two city boys that live on coffee. Their food, plus yours, holds you until noon when you get fed again. It's no wonder these city boys can't walk much.

We go on 'route marches,' which the platoon sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it's not my place to tell him different. A 'route march' is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks.

The sergeant is like a school teacher. He nags a lot. The Captain is like the school board. Majors and colonels just ride around and frown. They don't bother you none.

This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don't know why. The bulls-eye is near as big as a chipmunk head and don't move, and it ain't shooting at you like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don't even load your own cartridges. They come in boxes.

Then we have what they call hand-to-hand combat training. You get to wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though, they break easy. It ain't like fighting with that ole bull at home. I'm about the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan from over in Silver Lake. I only beat him once. He joined up the same time as me, but I'm only 5'6' and 130 pounds and he's 6'8' and near 300 pounds dry.

Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in.

Your loving daughter,

Alice

[GreyGeek]

ROF, LLLLLLLLLLLLL     

[StuartJ]

 

[SemperFiGuy]

Where's the Fiction part...........??
Must be a part missin'.


Just Askin........

And it's pretty impressive, some of those ol' boys can actually write.

sfg

[rnbones]

Many of my Marines resemble this LOL Doc Novak (rnbones)

[StuartJ]

I borrowed it to post elsewhere. And was chewed out for not spelling spelling Marine with a capital M in my message title. Apparenlty that's wrong. The poster said its okay for the army but not the Marines.

[SemperFiGuy]

Well, Here We Go:

Technically, the usage of soldier, sailor, airman, coast guardsman, and marine without capitalization is correct.

But in all other cases, it's actually:
MARINE............!!!
Just Sayin'...
and Modestly So.

BTW:  Swabbies Must Genuflect Upon Encountering This Expression.

sfg

[rnbones]

God created all men equal. The best he made Marines!! The very best he made

CORPSMEN

OOH RAA

Doc out

[SemperFiGuy]

Where do we start.......??

First, by stipulating that Fleet Marine Force US Navy Hospital Corpsmen (HMCs) are not Swabbies.   Certainly not your ordinary, everyday regular navy-issue Swabbies.  Regular HMCs are sent to Field Medical Service School (FMSS) for an operation under sedation where the Swabbie part is surgically removed from them.   The resultant body parts left over then are assembled into one of the bravest forms of humanity that can be found anywhere on this planet:  FMF Hospital Corpsman (HMC).

These FMF HMCs are then issued their Unit 1 Medical Kit and are ready for combat.  Whatever their actual names may be, they are now "Doc" to all marines.
In infantry combat when marines are shot or wounded, the call goes out, "Corpsman....!!" and Doc grabs his bag, runs to the wounded marine, and puts Humpty Dumpty Back Together Again.   While Bad Guys are shooting at him, trying to kill him, all that.

The Camp Del Mar annex to Camp Pendleton was the Field Medical Service School (West) while I was stationed there.   Corpsmen running around all over the place.   And there were more personal awards for heroism and bravery (Silver Stars, Bronze Stars, Navy/Marine Corps Commendation Medals and multiple Purple Hearts) per man than you'll ever see anywhere else, even in a regular marine infantry regiment.  Even an occasional Navy Cross. 

Don't ever mess with them.   Ever.   Now, most of them are easy-going, likeable, affable types, by themselves.   But the marines who honor them will let no one mess with Doc.  He wears Marine Green just like they do.

And that's what I've observed about FMF HMCs.

sfg

[rnbones]

The four rules of war:
1. good men will die.
2. Doc can't save them all.
3. Doc will die trying to break rule 2.
4 Doc's Marines will fight the very forces of hell to give Doc the chance to break rules 1,2,and 3!
The relationship between an FMF Corpsman and the Marines is a complex one. They are much like siblings and yet it is much stronger.
I have had many titles in my life. The one I'm most proud of is Dad. The next one is Doc.
The conversation between Semper Fi guy and I is typical Marine/FMF Corpsman.