An open letter you can help me to debunk.

03USMC said:
Heres the answer to your recruiter question. Do all Recruiters go to Malls. All I don't know, most yes. It's called walk and talk or canvasing. They go to High School and college functions also. Recruiters are salesmen no matter what branch. It's akin to selling anything sure you have people come in who know what they want and others have to be sold.

My recruiter never lied to me. I got what I asked for.


I see. Yeah that's what I needed too. Btw I found this link to military pay: http://usmilitary.about.com/od/militarypaycharts/l/bl05offbasepay.htm It's quite documented. I'll use that too.
 
Re: High School Degrees. High school Degrees aren't as useful for high paying jobs as they were when I was a young man. But they are far from useless. Most places balk at hiring someone without one. You can't join the Military without one or a GED.

I got my civilian job with a high school diploma although I have taken several college courses before and after the Corps.

As far as reading left or right wing books I would challenge him to find a Marine Grunt without some type of paperback book in his pack. Everything from histories to romance novels, manuals, study guides, Political Commentaries anything you want can be found in the packs of Grunts in any given Rifle Company.

Some of the most intelligent politcal and social debates I have ever taken part in have occured on ships or waiting for helos, between Grunts. He's attempting to dumb them down.

The whole smile by day attack at night thing is a Guerilla War Cliche. Used to attempt to make the solider think that the entire populace is after him, and induce paranoia. It's been around since Guerillas have and has reached it's zenith in Vietnam Novels.
 
03USMC said:
Re: High School Degrees. High school Degrees aren't as useful for high paying jobs as they were when I was a young man. But they are far from useless. Most places balk at hiring someone without one. You can't join the Military without one or a GED.

I got my civilian job with a high school diploma although I have taken several college courses before and after the Corps.

Thanks. This is one of the most useful things I needed. As you can see, I'm leaving this thread open and waiting before I get the work done so that you can take your time to post your comment. You are the one who's being the most helpful, although others are, too.

03USMC said:
As far as reading left or right wing books I would challenge him to find a Marine Grunt without some type of paperback book in his pack. Everything from histories to romance novels, manuals, study guides, Political Commentaries anything you want can be found in the packs of Grunts in any given Rifle Company.

Some of the most intelligent politcal and social debates I have ever taken part in have occured on ships or waiting for helos, between Grunts. He's attempting to dumb them down.

Which is precisely what my experience led me to believe. I've met several Navies or Marines and they were far from ignorant or dumb guys. In fact, and like you said, some of the most motivated and educated people I have ever met. This is a cliche too.

03USMC said:
The whole smile by day attack at night thing is a Guerilla War Cliche. Used to attempt to make the solider think that the entire populace is after him, and induce paranoia. It's been around since Guerillas have and has reached it's zenith in Vietnam Novels.

Yup, now that's interesting. The way this guy's pretending to know what comes through a Joe's mind is irritating. Like the passage of the shooting in the middle of a crowd temptation thing.
 
Sorry I can't provide much information... as I've not served in the US military. But I have had exposure to Communist propaganda before.

Often these leaflets will contain such incorrect information because they know that readers take it for face value without doing their own research. It really depends on the style though.
 
the_13th_redneck said:
Sorry I can't provide much information... as I've not served in the US military. But I have had exposure to Communist propaganda before.

Often these leaflets will contain such incorrect information because they know that readers take it for face value without doing their own research. It really depends on the style though.

Well man of course most help comes from people who actually serve in the US military; but your help, 13th RN, is appreciated. I told my chick about your latest comment, last night, and I think you represent a source of precious information. Your points of view (as I found in other occasions, such as some arguments with Chinese members) are interesting because of your background experience with Communist propaganda.
 
Couple of other quick points related to the first part of his diatribe yet not completely addressed yet:

Where he makes the inference that young people have little choice between "4 years at Harvard" or "4 years in the Army" implies that anybody without a good deal of money winds up in the military. Far from the truth. Those who join the US military are actually a small percentage of young people and an even smaller percentage of the population. My state has the highest per capita percentage of people who've joined the military and it's still only 6%. The national average is about 2%. There are many, many more choices than Harvard or the military.

Where he makes the inference that support for the troops is false back at home is complete BS. There is the case that comes quickly to mind of the wife who's husband died in Iraq and was in danger of losing their home because payments couldn't be made timely enough. When towns people heard of her plight, not only were the payments made on time but her house was paid off with the all the contributions she received. There was the case of the teenager who's father died in Iraq before he could complete the restoration of a classic era Camero sports car. When word got out of this, mechanics from several states came and freely gave their time and money to not only restore the car, but make it far better than it ever had been originally. I can site case after case of towns and people rallying to the support of those there and those that have paid the ultimate sacrifice. I'll just name two.

1) In 2003, the majority of students at Princton University put down an attempt by outside professional protestors to sway the campus opinion of support for the war and the troops. You can read an article about it here:

http://www.princeton.edu/~pcat/press/03-29-2003.htm

If that can happen in such a major university, where peaceniks would have you believe anti-war support is the greatest, that should give some idea of the falseness of that "journalist's" claims.

2) Even the most vocal member of the US Congress to oppose the Administration runs this website:

http://boxer.senate.gov/troops.cfm

And finally, if Muslims are so much against us as that "journalist" would have you believe. Have him explain THIS article about Muslims in the US military:

http://www.asianweek.com/2001_11_09/news_chaplains.html
 
Gen. Lemay did say that to McNamara. In context. The context being the use of incendiary bombs against the Japanese Home Islands during 1945 as a tactic to shorten the Pacific War. LeMay also went on to say in truth that the use likely saved the lives of at least One Million Allied Service men who did not have to invade the Japanese Home Islands. Due to the bombing campaigns engineered by LeMay and the the deployment of the two Atomic Bombs.
The conversation took place when McNamara was being briefed on his duties as SOD for JFK.
 
Cool, cool, cool. Thanks Charge_7, that is useful. I got all the links printed. I needed this.

03USMC, thanks for your info on quotes. Contextualization helps understand lots of things. All of this help is coming vital.
 
I have found tons of material and documents about pretty much every aspect of the letter- from drugs in Nam, to Paris, Illinois, to the guy of the 1,500 $ phone calls bill. And thanks to you all, guys. I'll wait until the weekend though. until then, you can still contribute-
 
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