The opinions expressed are my own. I don’t speak for everyone, but this is true for a great many.
I joined the Marine Corps in September of 1999. I had this idea in my head that I was going to be on the far side of the world up to my neck in the bodies of my fallen enemies only to return home to be up to my neck in women. Neither proved to be true. The first wave of boots put in my charge were 9/11 Marines. I have a strong feeling that many would have joined regardless, but some I’m sure were prompted by watching the towers fall. I always pitied them as I watched them picking up cigarette butts around the company office.
I preferred the pre 9/11 military. Maybe it’s a desire to differentiate myself, but I don’t think so. It has nothing to do with those Marines I met and the fantastic troops I worked with, but rather with the rest of my country. For the most part, pre-Iraq, and definitely pre-9/11 the fact that I was a Marine mattered only to Marines. It mattered to other servicemembers. It really didn’t matter much to anyone else. I liked it that way, except for fact that I always hoped the uniform would help me with the ladies.
But nowadays being a serviceman means everyone is a hero. It means that the Lance Corporal who spent Iraq behind a ladle in the chow hall somehow is an expert in foreign policy whose opinion cannot be called into question. It means that veterans who are generally just assholes get a pass because “he must have PTSD”.
I don’t want you calling me a hero. It’s awkward, and it makes me feel small and unworthy. I’ve met heroes. More importantly, to many civilians, I just don’t like you. I don’t care what your opinion is. I don’t respect you. I fight, and would die for you, but most of you are unthinking enemies of freedom. You’re soft. You’re self-indulgent. Many of us joined the Corps to get away from you. To join a superior culture. While we fight for you, we mock you. Do you know that? We call you “the zoo”. We talk about the nasty bodies “back on the block”. When we watch “A Few Good Men”, Jack Nicholson is the hero, not Tom Cruise. We are two Americas. We want you to leave us alone far more than we want your adulation. I don’t like you, and you are screwing up my Corps.
Before 9/11 you didn’t care about me. This neglect was wonderful for my culture. This allowed me to train harder. When you weren’t looking, my Corps became stronger. It became tighter. We were more able to police our own.
But now you’re paying attention. You’re making sure your little boys and girls are being treated as good as you think your little heroes should be treated. You seem to think we’re all heroes. This has created an entitlement culture amongst the military. We used to pride ourselves on the sacrifice. It brought us together. Now our military is filling up with people crying about how little we get for what we do. They’re RIGHT. But we’re forgetting the idea that we’re service men, not serve-us men. We are not supposed to be getting adequately compensated for our work. That’s the service part.
So this guy, Bill McClellan, posted an article calling for the end of government paid veterans funerals. He was RIGHT. It costs a lot of money. In the grand scheme of things it is a pittance, but we few, we happy few should be volunteering to shoulder that burden FIRST. That’s what it means to serve. You bet we deserve that rifle squad and bugler. But deserve’s got nothing to do with it. Our country’s greatest enemy right now is its out of control spending. Let us lead by example, show our sacrifice, that America may follow, and in turn save herself.
When we allow the rest of American society to care for us, we get soft, we lose the tightness of our bond, and we stop caring for each other. You will find the tightness of the bond of pre-9/11 Marines is stronger than post-9/11 Marines UNLESS those men served in combat together. They suffered more hardship together. They didn’t have an undeserving society showering them in praise. Therefore, they had, and needed, each other.
Mr. McClellan has gotten a lot of flak, but he is right. And kudos to him for having the guts to stick to his position. I suppose that’s just the difference between a Marine writer and a civilian one. End government paid military funerals. Let us veterans come together and honor our own, rather than put that burden, however small, upon the American taxpayer. Besides, I’d rather a handful of squadmates at my funeral than a city of the people of Walmart lining the streets waving their flags they bought from Chinese slave laborers.
