On being a Marine (or married to one)

Villainous Company:

JW sent me two articles from Victor Davis Hanson about his nephew, a young Marine. Together, they're entitled, "No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy" and they do an outstanding job of capturing the duality that is the United States Marine Corps: what I've talked about so many times before (most recently in the context of the Gen. Mattis uproar). A balance of chivalry and ferocity, of extreme tenderness when dealing with a child or a woman and absolute resolution when dealing with America's enemies.

The media don't get it. People who don't know Marines up close and personal, don't get it.

When I was just a brand-new 2nd Lieutenant's wife reared in a Navy family I didn't quite know what to think of the Marine Corps. To my Navy eyes, they sometimes seemed a bit brash, a bit unpolished, a bit... un-cosmopolitan.

I don't think that now. Looking at Marines from the outside, it's easy to see just the superficial picture: the recruiting poster, the "baby-killer" of the anti-war crowd, the warrior, the gung-ho guy who thinks with his muscles. But there's so much more to these men and women - a million reasons they joined the Corps. Some are so intelligent they could be running their own corporations. Some were at the top of their classes at elite colleges, or tested in the top one or two percent of the nation. Some are working men, or recent immigrants to our shores who barely speak English. But one and all, they chose to serve their country because there is one quality Marines share: a deep and abiding love for America and a fierce desire to protect our freedoms and our way of life.

Maybe reading these two pieces will help get the picture across. I hope so.

No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy, Part I

No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy, Part II

Read the Hanson pieces too.

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