Well a pacificist friend of mine just emailed me an article about how a kid died from Marine Boot Camp because he had drowned during a pool exercise . Well... he's always desuaded me from joining the Corps, saying you're just there to be trained as a "mindless killing machine." http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/fe...mari-f25.shtml.
My apologies if this topic is overtalked or rather "beating the dead horse" once more, but I couldn't find any thread talking about this so-- alright, getting to my point here...
Is Marine Boot Camp and serving overseas really the personality-obliterating, backbreaking, PTSD-reckoning experience that countless conservative articles preach about like the one I just posted?
Or [most likely] could they be wrong/biased in many ways considering the author of the article Claire Hurley a.k.a. sit-at-home-all-day-Soccer-Mama bashes on the U.S. military [or Marine Corps. in general] for being 'deceitful,' immoral, and doing whatever means to turn supposedly innocent 18-year old kiddos into some psyched out killer like 'Gomer Pyle' from Full Metal Jacket, even though that person has never served in any military branch.
Personally, I don't believe the article fervently, I think personality can be retained even through tramautic experiences, most of the former/active duty Marines I know are self-composed, level-headed, funny at many times -- everything opposite of what the article describes.
Anyways, just wondering what your 2 cents are on the whole bloody topic.. especially for any former or currently serving Marines in this forum.

Don't you just love pu$$y intellectuals who think up high-minded concepts to justify their cowardice, in short they're in denial.

Anyway, as any modern millitary man will tell you the modern battlefield is all about the brain. It was best put that the infantry squad is 13 men, the size of a professional football team, and just like that football team who has to go into the Superbowl, soldiers have to fight with brains and teamwork moreso than just brute force. The only difference is that for an infantryman their superbowl is every single day in combat. So the infantry squad needs 9 months to a year of training to be combat effective. So what do you think they're doing for that year together? Just doing pushups and being brainwashed? No, they have to learn the comroderie that our go-to-work-and-go-to-your-TV isolationist society no longer teaches, they have to learn all kinds of things to live on the battlefield.

All this large pontificating is to display that the U.S. Millitary (sorry to offend, I'm being patriotic guys) has the smartest and most well trained soldiers in the world, a far cry from the liberal delusion of the dumb brute who has been brainwashed to kill kill kill. Just remember that as trite as it may sound, these disgusting stereotypes are made possible by the very men they ignorantly seek to disparage.

This is the age of the Citizen Soldier. Not the age of the Warrior.

Ok I'd like to say a couple of things on this. First- yeah I'm not American so take this as such. Second- I find this thread hugely interesting.
Third: I have known many Marines in my life, and a certain number of Veterans. I just thought I should give my opinion in here. Seldom have I met people that were so informed, so down-to-earth. One of their qualities is that they always have a grasp on reality, which is precisely what people think they don't. And they know that loyalty, courage and dignity are. Like Wispering Death put it, they are taught things that the rest of the world has learned to forget, and that's unfortunate.
In short, I never found they were that "broken down and built up again", or if they were, well the outcome was definitely not a "killing machine".
My 2 cents.

I have always found them to be very profesional.
I spent 2 months with their aviation units and other than a lot of heated debates they were a good bunch of blokes.
Like most yanks the "piss taking " went over their heads a bit but ehy suffered the aussie humour with a lot of good sportmanship.
Did find some to be aggressive but that was a small minority.
Boot camp is tough, supposed to be. Many countries have accidents during training. No one wants it to happen but infortunatley sometimes it does.

My father was a Marine who saw the bloodiest fighting in several battles in the Pacific during WWII. Most likely the Corps' most violent epoch. He was nearly killed more than once and was severely wounded such that it was a miracle he survived. He went thru all that and yet he was the most caring, thoughtful and loving man I ever knew. My father did well in life, but he could've done much better. He didn't do so because he was constantly giving his money away to those in need. You tell me that he was a "mindless killing machine".

Yeah, Charge, that's a good answer. Uhm but didn't you say your parents were liberal?

Hmmmm...
I can tell by the article, if accurate, that this guy was completely in the wrong place. And what's up with the grant? If you don't complete your service, or you aren't actually IN the service (passed boot camp) you shouldn't be eligible for a grant.
Join the Marines to earn money for college? Just how retarded is that? I think if the Marines made one mistake, it was to try to hang on to this reject.

Yeah, Charge, that's a good answer. Uhm but didn't you say your parents were liberal?

No, never said that. I said they were independents as am I. They voted for whoever they felt was best for the job. In the Presidential elections my father voted for Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and finally the first President Bush. He was dead by the 1996 election. I wouldn't call that a liberal's voting record.

Originally Posted by Charge 7

In the Presidential elections my father voted for Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and finally the first President Bush. He was dead by the 1996 election. I wouldn't call that a liberal's voting record.

No I don't think I'd call that a liberal record either. So who do you think he would have voted for in 96, 01 and 04?