Excerpt taken from a book I bought today called "From Baghdad with Love" the story of a Marines decision to bond with a puppy from Iraq.
General order 1-A, is taken pretty seriously by the Military. No pets allowed.
Am I insane? I am a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marine Corps. I am an officer in a brotherhood that always goes in first, and that pretty much sums it up right there. We're brave to the point of insanity, so being a Marine takes a certain kind of mindset to begin with. Which means you don't always follow orders. The common belief is that you go in a boy come out a man, like they have this magical ability to change who you are, but the truth of the matter is, we were insane going in and insane coming out, only now we sing this anthem and know cool martial arts.
Insane isn't the right word exactly. None of us really believes Marines guard the streets of heaven, but how sane is it to want to go in first?
It's not because we didn't belong or didn't like team sports, and it's not because we couldn't afford college or were manipulated by recruiters or dumped by some chick and then had to prove a point. Those guys joined the Army. We didn't have rotten childhoods, we didn't hate math, we didn't bully skinny kids on the playground and didn't start fires in the garage.
And it's not like we joined up without thinking about it, or like once we got in they didn't give us time to think about it. Believe me, sleep deprivation, food rationing, and situps make you think a whole hellava lot about it. We weren't cohearsed. We weren't brainwashed. Our souls weren't plundered.
We just can't help it.
We aren't cut out for anything else. We were Marines goin in and Marines coming out. We don't want to take orders.
Listening to these guys snore around me, I really like what I am - A Marine. I like being strong. I like being brave. I like going in first. I want to go in first, and I'll be damned if I am going to let anyone shoot my puppy.
Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman |
