Marine Recruits on Why They Join

[unhappycamper]

Marine Recruits on Why They Join
Tom Philpott | November 15, 2007

PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. -- “Some people, toward the end of their lives, may ask themselves if they made a difference. I’m not going to have to say no,” says Pvt. Rocky Consiglieri of Harrison, N.Y.

The 19-old-year recruit, who calls the president “the Honorable Mr. Bush,” is explaining why he joined the Marine Corps when multiple tours in Iraq are routine and polls show most Americans believe the war is a mistake.

“This isn’t for everybody,” Consiglieri concedes, speaking so fast and low he’s almost talking to himself. “Some people want to watch and see what happens. Some other people want to get in and make a change.”

To learn what motivates young people who become Marines today, we interviewed several recruits Oct. 22 as they completed 12 difficult weeks of basic training. Two days earlier, they had survived the “Crucible,” a 54-hour physical and emotional ordeal that is a final rite of passage to be a Marine.

I wanted to talk with three graduating recruits chosen at random. Drill instructors instead “volunteered” perhaps their most articulate charges, accounting for the age range of 22 to 27. Adding Rocky Consiglieri at the last minute lowered the average age of my sampling but probably kicked up the toughness quotient. Rocky declined to sit on a bench outside his squad bay while we talked, preferring to stand at parade rest, his feet set shoulder-width apart, hands clasped behind back, eyes forward.

Gnats bite here, even at mid-day, which left me slapping arms and legs between questions. Rocky ignored the bugs, even those alighting on his lower lip, a glimpse of why he was named his platoon “guide” or top leader.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,156292,00.html

[ncteechur]

1. I respect his and thier courage. I hope he does make a difference.

However, you can make a difference in any number of ways. And remember, I think everyone will concede that George Bush has made a huge difference. Just not a positive one.

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. Harrison is a few miles from here.

>>>Harrison is a suburb of New York City. Rocky said the 9-11 attacks killed neighbors who either worked in the Twin Towers or rushed to the rescue. Two couples who rented apartments from his father lost spouses and moved out.

Rocky was in grade school then. By his high school years, the 9-11 attacks had made him want to be a Marine and fight the terrorists. As far as he knows, no one else from his graduating class entered the military.>>>



Unless he's some kind of prodigy, it's unlikely Rocky graduated from public or parochial high school with anything but the most rudimentary kbnowledge of American history and the workings of constitutional government.

It is virtually *certain* that he knows *nothing* of the history of the region in which he is fighting.

This goes to the question posed: "Why They Join". They ( in the vast majority of cases) don't know any better.

[Th1onein]

3. We should give these sons and daughters of America

a better way to feel good about themselves than having to join an organization that trains them to kill.

[NYVet]

4. They are not just "trained to kill".

I, for one, entered the service with a lack of self respect and unwillingness to stand up for myself. What I gained from the service was a sense of self respect and self confidence that everyone noticed when I came home on leave for the first time. I left the active duty with a degree in criminal justice and a couple of offers to join local police departments, which I turned down to start my own business.

My brother joined and he learned a high tech skill in the communications that, before he left the service, gained him job offers in the range of 125-150k a year starting.

[Th1onein]

5. And while you were gaining all this self respect and skills......

They were also training you to kill. I don't think that's a good trade-off. Sorry.

[rakeeb]

6. To be fair, the 91% of the Active Duty forces who are not

combat arms aren't getting "trained to kill."

[NYVet]

7. Wow, you are really stuck on that talking point...

My brother and I already knew how to kill before we went and joined our respective branch of (start :sarcasm:) "war criminals and psychos in training".(end :sarcasm:)

When we were younger and he was still on this earth, our grandfather would take us out hunting as soon as he could in the season. We quickly learned a reverence for and the real value of life while in the woods with my grandfather.

Allow me to explain this fully before you take to jumping up and down screaming and frothing at the mouth. Before we went out into the woods, our grandfather drilled into our heads that we should only shoot at something when we were 100% sure of what it was, and when we were sure that our shot would kill it instantly. I actually shot a deer and only wounded it, and my grandfather had us tracking it all day, and we could hear the suffering in its cries until we managed to catch up to the deer and ended the suffering that I had started. My little brother and I then got a lecture that lasted for a while (it felt like forever) about the need to be precise in our actions and how we shouldn't leave a wounded creature to suffer. My little brother and I learned a lesson that I really can't put into words that day.

Also, anyone who has had to shoot or kill a fellow human being is forever changed. I have had to either wound or kill someone twice in my life and I still occasionally wake up in a cold sweat because of the flashbacks to the times when I was forced to defend myself and those I was protecting with deadly force.

Do I ever want to have to kill someone? Hell no, however I know that in this world, there are barbarians and scumbags who would do it to me and those that I love to take what we have earned, and due to the lessons given to me by my grandfather, I am prepared to do what needs to be done.

[Th1onein]

8. It's a "talking point" when you don't want to talk about it, right?

Look, you are comparing hunting animals to killing other human beings. Doesn't quite float. The fact is, in basic training, our young men and women are trained to kill other human beings. I don't think that is ever a good thing. Period.

This has NOTHING to do with hunting animals for food, for God's sake. Don't even try to compare the two.

[TahitiNut]

9. Yeah? So? What does that make the taxpayers and voters who HIRE killers?

If we're to EVER call ourselves a "democracy" without choking on the word, then we must take responsibility for the 'SERVICE' we demand from our military. They're ONLY doing what we, the "bosses," require of them.

Sorry, but I get fucking disgusted with the effete, "holier than them" pretentiousness. Unless and until people who oppose American militarism put their (our) own asses on the line and insist on a change, then we MUST accept the larger responsibility that comes from being "We the People." The sneeringly condescending self-righteousness is despicable. It's like an adoescent sitting down to dinner and insulting his mother's cooking - without either ever doing any cooking or working to put food on the table himself. Self-indulgent bullshit.

As long as a voter/taxpayer "has better things to do" (Cheney's infamous remark about why de never served) than stand in harm's way to CHANGE how our nation is (SELF-)governed, risking LIFE AND LIIMB (yes, that's the level of commitment required) to actually achieve the "better nation" implied, then it's nothing but self-inflating lip service.