The commandant issues The 239th Birthday Message. I got my USMC commission in June 1957 after graduating from IIT in Chicago in the NROTC program that paid for my education. I'll say more about this below the break.
Another commandant, Smedley Butler, wrote a book: War Is A Racket
WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.
Then there was
David M. Shoup who strongly opposed the Vietnam War.
I believe that if we had and would keep our dirty, bloody, dollar-soaked fingers out of the business of these nations so full of depressed, exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own—and if unfortunately their revolution must be of the violent type because the "haves" refuse to share with the "have-nots" by any peaceful method, at least what they get will be their own, and not the American style, which they don't want and above all don't want crammed down their throats by Americans.
What is it about the Marine Corps that breeds this kind of military leadership? I was deeply involved in the movement opposing the Vietnam war and yet I still have pride in my service. Read on below and I'll explain.
First of all I should explain how I came to be a USMC officer. I finished high school in the Chicago suburbs. The School, J. Sterling Morton H.S. was in Cicero but it served a region that included Berwyn and my suburb, Stickney. We moved to Stickney while I was in my second year of high school. It was the first house we owned. We had lived in the South side iin a homemade duplex with my mothers parents.
The demographics in our region were interesting. My political education was enhanced by them. Part of the region was the suburb of Riverside where the most well to do lived and they had their own high school. Our suburb was totally working class. My dad chose it because of the low tax rates. We were working class so it was appropriate in aq way except that I was destined for college and almost none of my peers in Stickney were.
That seemed to make little difference in school but that was because I was an intovert and did not mind the lack f contact with the kids from the other suburbs in my pre college courses.
Then came the period during Junior and Senior year where they were all bragging about their college scholarships. I was doing better than most of them so I figured I should get one too. Of course I didn't because none of the guidance counsellors told me to apply. I was from the working class suburb. Finally, I mustered up courage and asked them why. They gave some sort of excuse. I was crushed. One of them had an answer for me. There was this NROTC thing and it would pay my way through school with some other benefits as well. I took the test and was awarded the regular NROTC scholarship and got to pick the school my dad had me fixed on, the Illinois Institute of Technology where I could get a good engineering education.
So all I had to do was be willing to become cannon fodder and I could have the education I wanted. Not bad huh?
This was 1953 and the Korean war was just behind us. My obligation was two years of active duty and two in the reserves. During my second year of college they changed the rules and upped it to three years and three. I could opt out, but that meant quitting school.
So then we had our Freshman midshipman cruise. Eight weeks at sea porting in Dublin, Portsmouth with a trip to London and then Guantanamo on the way back. A restriction the program had was that you could not marry until you were commissioned. I was engaged to my high school sweetheart and we would wait. However the eight weeks at sea drove home what our marriage might be like with separations often. So at the end of the second year we had an option. We could choose the Marines. I decided that no matter what it was like I would be able to go home to my wife most nights and that was going to make it worthwhile. Not exactly the most 'gung-ho" reason for becoming a Marine.
Had I stayed in the Navy I would have been given command right after graduation. In the Marines, we all went with the Annapolis graduates to Marine Corps Officer's Basic training for n one months in the Marine Corps Schools in Quantico, Virginia. For nine months we were in platoons as second Lieutenants with Captains as platoon leaders and Majors as company commanders.
This but one way the Marine Corps differs from the other services. After those nine months you knew what your troops were going to be going through when you got your first command.
This is but one of many profound differences we experienced in becoming marines. Probably everything else relates to the central doctrine of the Marine Corps in battle. If you are holding a position you fight to the death. You never retreat. This meant that you had to rely on those around you to stay alive in combat. This meant that the decisions we made as officers were crucial and that we had to be leaders. This is the basis for the spirit the Corps is so famous for.
This is why our commandants hate politics so much. They were on line to give the ultimate sacrifice but they sure did not want lives squandered.
So tomorrow I will celebrate with my brothers and sisters. I am totally against war and scarred for life by having been taught to kill for the oligarchy. I was taught to kill with my bare hands. This kind of training changes you irreversibly.
I was taught a lot more about myself that I would not have learned otherwise. I realized the reasons for having integrity and being fair. I learned that I could endure physical and mental stress I never believed was possible. But most of all I learned that an organization could exist that lived as a collection of dedicated human beings each dependent on the others and each willing to die for the others.
I became a political radical after I left the Corps. I have approached political activism with the same zeal and dedication that I received in my military training and have added a lot to it.
Today I am nearing the end of my existence. I am fighting as well as I can for my fellow humans and for the other creatures here on our Mother Earth. I want to leave a livable planet to those who follow.
My book with Jim Coffman is very pessimistic about the future. One big reason is that the standards I was taught are not being met in the political sphere. Lots of talk and little real sacrifice. Politics can not be a pass time. It is one's life or it is nothing. The lives of those around you depend on that kind of dedication. In turn your well being and that of your loved ones depends on others giving the same commitment.
Believe it or not we had some of this in the sixties movement. I don't see it now. There are those paying huge personal prices but they are more or less on their own. The times have changed and not for the better.
So tomorrow I will have a lot of personal reasons to celebrate another Corps birthday. I will also have a lot to think about.