I am creating a sort of slide show presentation for a class, and I am designing mine as a sort of Marine recruitment presentation. I am in the DEP right now and have my own reasons for joining, but would like to hear others.
There are plenty of 1 word reasons, and those are great, but you you add a couple sentences onto them giving more info?
Also, please do not post here if you have an issue with me using your words. It is just a small classroom assignment, but credit will be given if anything is used (unless you ask me not to mention your Yahoo name.)
Thanks everyone.
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After graduating from high school I didn’t really do much of anything for three months. Couldn’t get a decent job, wasn’t ready for any more schooling, and didn’t have any direction. Finally one day I just wandered in to the Marine Corps recruiters office and talked to a recruiter. Enlisted the next day. I didn’t want to be a sailor, just another soldier, or a business suited airman, I was to become one of ‘The Few, The Proud, The Marines’. (no offense intended to the other services, I have great respect for all who serve.)
Boot camp was the greatest challenge of my life at the time. It finally instilled the discipline, confidence, and pride that I’d been lacking. I know with out a doubt that the Marines put me on the right path. The Marines taught me leadership, integrity, trust, and responsibility. They gave me the ability to continue my education, experience the world and other cultures, to meet new people, and to better understand life. It gave me a broader view and life experiences that can be had in very environments. As my career progressed being a Marine allowed me to be a teacher an mentor, to pass on lessons learned to younger Marines.
My original intent was to do my time and get out. Well after 23 years I finally got out and retired.
Being a Marine is something I’d would never trade for anything.
I joined, not drafted but a volunteer, during Vietnam. One reason was that I saw the military as a way to improve myself and get training and an education I was not financially in a position to do at that time. I also did need some help in self discipline and was not sure what and where I wanted to go in life so the military was a place for me to do that. I had actually planned on joining the Army as my uncle was a career Army officer and we were close. He served from 1942 to 1968 and went from Private to Colonel (though was promoted to Brigadier General on retirement). He actually talked me into going into the Marines because he said with a conflict on in Vietnam that the Marines had better training and would increase my chances. I did go in open contract and was in the infantry for my tour in Vietnam but after moved into the Air Wing in the Supply and Logistics field. I spent 20 years as a Marine and got out of it everything I had initially wanted and more.
When I looked into my future I saw violence, drugs, gangs, mayhem, death and I did not want that anymore…I came to the crossroads and looked both ways, I decided to wear the Eagle Globe and Anchor and join the biggest and baddest gang of them all, the US Marine Corps..From the ghettos of Los Angeles to a US Veteran for the remainder of my life. I think I made the correct choice..Semper Fi
My uncle always encouraged me to join the USMC, as he was a Marine himself. The main reason I joined was for the discipline. I had no structure in my life, and was going off the rails a little bit, with no idea what lay ahead. I’m not going to say I joined just for the fighting, or for combating the war on terrorism, I’m just here to serve my country, and if those come with it, then so be it. Now I’ve joined, I have some sense of focus and clarity, and I know I made the right decision. Also, the friends I have made in my troop are lifelong ones. We do everything together, and we always have each others back. Where can you find friends like that in what we like to call “the real world”?
Good luck on your presentation.
Elena, Lieutenant Colonel, USMC.
because i am one of the few. and one of the proud.
I was a very, very young snot nosed city kid. I felt like I wanted to something to break away from an eastern city life. I didn’t know what to do with myself. One day I saw the Marines in their dress blues, and it was a drive that I never felt before. I went into the recruiting office in our city and talked to the Marine. I was very impressed with his precision, manor, posture, and those damn dress blues were so impressive. I made up my mind right then & there. Nobody believed me, until I left for Parris Island. Before I knew it, actually it seemed like an eternity, I was bestowed with a title which very few are priviliged to earn–United States Marine. Semper Fi
If you want, you can email me and I will forward my real name and address for authenticity as well as cell & private email address
Payback—–I joined right after 9/11 and I didnt care if I would be fighting people in Iraq or Afganistan. If you hated the US and wanted to kill its people then I wanted to be one of the Americans that could actually shoot back.
As far as I was concerned if you were willing to aim a weapon at me or my fellow Marines then you were exactly the type of person that would gladly fly a plane into a building filled with innocent people simply because those people were Americans. Based on that I wanted to fight people like that.
There comes a point when you have to put your political views aside, reattach your balls, and defend your nation, I reached that point when I saw 9/11 happen on TV.
Evidently, not a lot of people in my generation are like me they are either too selfish, too cowardly, or simply do not care.
In my mind just because there are a lot of people who lack honor, courage, and devotion to our country doesnt mean that I have to.
Lots of people will disagree with my mentality on this subject, they can thank people like me for their ability to disagree.