Memorial Day....A Tribute

Winston Churchill's famous words, "Never has so much been owed by so many to so few," regarding the heroic actions of the Bristish Royal Air Force in crippling the Germans in WWII are as fitting today as they have ever been.
In the last three years America has shattered walls of tyranny and oppression in Afghanistan and Iraq. Almost 1,600 American lives have been lost in the conflict. 15 years ago America was again at work protecting Kuwait and the rest of the Middle East from Sadaam Hussein, a man who personifies the face of evil much like Hitler in World War II. Just a year before the Persian Gulf, American victory in the Cold War was signified by the falling of the Berlin Wall. In the era of the 60's The United States Armed Forces left the comfort of home for the rice paddies and swamp land of Vietnam jungles. In the 50's US Forces fought for the first time in house to house urban combat in liberating South Korea, from the oppressive Northern regime. On Dec 7, 1944 the Japanese painfully awoke the sleeping giant and America again answered the call with resolution and fortitude and turned the tide in WWII. After World War broke out for the first time in 1914 in looked as if the Germans were unstoppable. The French were getting crushed. Once American support arrived the French hoped to let the Americans take the beatining long enough to regroup and then try to defeat the Germans. The French would never get that chance. Marines at Soissions, Mont Blanc, and Bellau Wood showed the world that US Service Members are a different breed. It was in this war that the Marines earned the nickname TeufulHunden. The name literally means "devildog," and was given by the Germans because the intensity and bravery that the Marines demonstrated was of a caliber the world had never seen.
Today in Washington a 1o3 year old man, one of the last living veterans from WWI will ride in a parade to represent his fellow comrades from wars both past, present, and future. On this Memorial Day we celebrate those who answered their nations highest calling, to defend freedom and liberty. America has always been and will continue to be successful in may different types of warfare not as a result of technology or money. America's success is result of the tenacity and undaunting steadfastness of her sons and daughters in the face of impossible odds and the continual blessing of Almighty God, her Creator. The courage and bravery of America's Armed Service men throughout her history is awe-inspiring. No words can describe it, enough thank you's could never be said. Though we wish we could, we cannot bring back our fallen comrades. However, as we celebrate this Memorial Day may we remember and recognize that our brothers, sisters, mom's, and dad's who have paid the ultimate sacrifice did not die in vain. They died fighting for a noble cause. Many of them protecting freedom for millions of people they would never know, faces they would never see. They loved their country more than they loved themselves, and they loved liberty more than life. To them we owe an infinite debt. May they rest in peace.
As we move forward supported by the work they have done on our behalf, may we be faithful to honor their sacrifice, and never forget it. May we also carry out the charge that they give to us...Semper Fidelis. May we always be faithful to God and country. Freedom has a price. It must be fought for, protected, and passed from generation to generation. As we march forward into the future let us be courageous and brave as those who have gone before us in the past. Let us defend freedom and liberty fiercely and without apology. Then we will confidently say to our sons and daughters and our fellow citizens, "Sleep eay tonight, I won't let you get hurt, not on my watch."
May God bless you, and May God Bless America.


Semper Fidelis,
Joe

I'M BACK...FOR REAL YA'LL

To the ever dwindling numbers of people that have consistently checked my blog for the past several months and found nothing, but stale archaic writings...Marine Mayhem is back on the blogging big board. I'm not really sure why I haven't posted since final exam week in December...perhaps it's because when I came to Camp LeJeune for a little active duty stint with the Marines I let the insatiable urge to hand jam on small black squares and consequently create waves in the cesspool that often makes up the blogging world, slip from me. But I'm back.
What's spurred my return....Well namely it's because I'm out on a rifle range detail doing my annual qaul with my good ole M16A-2 service rifle. This approximately 9 pound 5.56mm, gas operated, air cooled, magazine fed monster can be seen performing daily in cities across the globe. It is of course the standard issue weapon to the world's most dangerous weapons...US Marines. So what's the range have to do with blogging? Im glad you asked. The answer is nothing. However, when your on a range detail ya have more time in the day because being on the range doesn't take all day...it usually takes til about 1300 (also known as 1 O clock to the average civilian) so I'm off early and I have a little more time on my hands.
I've been using a lot of that time to work on a course in Microeconomics. The benefits of this kinda academic pursuit are three-fold. First, it keeps my brain somewhat operational so when I finally do make it back to college I won't flunk out. Second, its economics, which is the study of choices and why people make them....so it's giving me deep and profound insight into the world around me. (Or so it claims to be) And finally, it gives me something to engage my brain other than Tetris and reading books. Both of those are noble pursuits but we all need diversity right? Wouldn't want to leave any inanimate objects out...they have feelings to.
That second benefit I listed above is no where more evident than in my choice to kick back up this editorial fiasco that is my blog. I have more time, therefore I want to use it and not be a vegetable. Blogging is a sort of engaging activity and if nothing else it's a good time killer. Hence because I have more time I blog.
So here I am at Camp LeJeune and what am I up to?.... Well for those of you that I have already explained this process too feel free to skip along. For those of you that have no clue what I do here it is. (Mind you I am trained as an Ammo "Dawg", so all of this I learned on the fly and through self study of the system)
I'm currently working with Marine Air-Ground Task Force Distribution Center Company (MDC Co....yeah you knew something about the military was going to have acronyms. However I will do my best to avoid turning this paragraph into a cloisterous clump of aggravating, agitating acronyms.)
Our company as a whole has three sections. Operations, Shipping and Receiving, and Packaging, Preservation, and Packing. (P3) Our mission is to provide a distribution focal point that maintains In-transit visibility and sustains throughput velocity in order to ensure operational tempo. We do this mission to serve II MEF. (Marine Epeditionary Force...basically thats just about every unit stationed on Camp LeJeune...about 40 thousand Marines) Our mission entails ensuring the delivery of gear and equipment to II MEF units stationed at Camp LeJeune and to II MEF units across the globe. Along with delivering that gear we are tasked with maintaining in transit visibility, which means that we can tell you (the supply officer, supply chief, commanding officer, or whoever of a unit that is receiving gear through us) when your gear left our warehouses, when it will arrive and pretty much anything else about it you could want to know. This task is achieved through a network of Radio Frequency Infrastructure that is setup on military installations (including Iraq) all over the world. This infrastructure combined with Radio Frequency ID tags, and several servers based on secure internet allow us to achieve our mission. Specifically I work in the operations section and am the duty expert. I track down gear, find gear that is lost, find out where gear goes that has incorrect or no paperwork or shipping documents, write data to RF-ID tags, monitor Camp LeJeune's RF-ID infrastructure to ensure it is operating correctly, and a number of other things. Those are the sorts of activities that the operations section does....yes I do all of those, but I have help!
Along with that we do some typical "Marine" stuff. Been on about 3 humps, (ya know marching along with packs on!) spend time in the gym, been on a crew served weapons range (240 machine gun, SAW machine gun, Mark 19 grenade launcher) and put some rounds on target, and been through some training on patrolling, convoys, and good stuff like that.
In my spare time as I mentioned earlier I'm working on a college course, still reading a lot trying to stay abreast with life outside the gates, hanging out with the Marines of MDC, or just chillin in the barracks.
As far as deployment goes I'm not sure. I don't know what is gonna go down. Whether I go to Iraq or not it looks like I'm going to be back in Greenville sometime around December or early January. That may include a little time in the sand...As I've said before, I'm a Marine and deploy and fight for freedom is something we do. So it would be an awesome opportunity and if God gives me the chance I'm going. Yeah it means sacrifice and it means hard and lonely times for family, friends, and myself, but God is good, His grace is sufficient, and I know we all will be okay. Wether it is at Camp LeJeune or in deserts and jungles across the globe know that there are people all over the world ready and willing to give their life for your freedom. Freeedom is a gift, but it is not free. It must be fought for, defended and passed on from generation to generation. People say our generation is worthless, just a bunch of pot smoking, acoholic, head banging, skateboarding, time wasting kids. To them I say we kids are the ones barnstorming at record speed across the Iraqi desert to liberate a country in 30 days. We kids are the ones searching cold Afghani mountains to hunt down the world's meanest terrorist. We kids are the ones that posses the charge to defend and protect our freedom for this generation and for those of the generations before us that no longer can. We kids.....We will. It's all good....it's going to stay that way as long as "we kids" are on watch.

Thanks for reading...Semper Fi

Joe