Hey Marines, What Has Happened to Semper Fidelis?

 

My wife saw this article and decided to share it with me because she knows just how the actions of many claiming the title of U.S. Marine has been making some erroneously bad choices and doing untold damage to the universally wide image to the title MARINE.

The title was “Three men — including ex-Marines — sentenced for involvement in plot to destroy power grid” written by MAKIYA SEMINERA for the Associated Press on July 26, 2024, it reported that “three men have been sentenced in federal court for their involvement in a plan to strike a power grid in the northwestern United States. Three men with connections to white supremacist groups were sentenced Thursday in federal court after plotting to destroy a power grid in the northwestern United States, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Paul James Kryscuk, 38; Liam Collins, 25; and Justin Wade Hermanson, 25, were all sentenced for their yearslong involvement in a scheme to strike the power grid as part of a larger, violent extremist plot, according to a Justice Department news release. Two of the men, Collins and Hermanson, were members of the same U.S. Marine unit at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, during the planning, a federal indictment shows”.

The article went on to say that “In 2016, Collins was a frequent poster to a neo-Nazi internet forum and sought recruitment for a paramilitary group he referred to as “a modern-day SS,” prosecutors said. He explained on the forum that he joined the Marines “for the cause” and would funnel most of his earnings toward funding the proposed group, the indictment shows”.  Now pay close attention to the reason Collins explaining why he joined the Marines, ““for the cause.”   Now don’t get it twisted, the cause was not to earn the title but to find a way to get the training and use it for no other reason than to make is “modern day SS” group more capable.

So here’s what makes me see red. I was sixteen years old when I saw my first Marine commercial on the television and saw my brother off as he joined the U.S. Army. Being a Black child with very few options living in a small southern town in Tennessee, I wanted to know what I could do to have influence in my life and the lives of others. After much contemplation, I decided to follow my brother’s lead, but I made the choice of joining the Marines in September of 1980. It was not the dress blues that drew me in, it was the slogan at that time. It said “The Few, The Proud, The Marines” which said to me that many may try to earn that title, but few ever do, and I wanted to see if I could be part of the few who did. Needless to say, I did succeed and spent many great years embracing what I truly meant to be a Marine until my honorable discharge in April 1991.

This was not the reason that Collins joined, and I suspect it was not the reason Hermanson did either, so what has happened to this United States Marine Corps that I matured and became a real man in? First, leaders have turned from history of the best fighting force ever assembled since Tun Tavern establishment and laxed all standard that was vital to the mystic and status of what being a Marine was all about. Recruiters are chasing enlistment numbers for personal promotions instead of carefully shifting through those who express a willingness to sign for those who are serious about placing the needs of their country above themselves and those signing up have forgotten the one major requirement necessary to not only earn the title Marine but elevate it.

Your see, when your join the United States Marines and earn that title, your are no longer a member of your “homeboys,” Republican, or Democrat. You no longer belong to your PTA, Boys Club, or Neo-Nazi group. You have given all that and so much more up to become part of a group that only one-percent of Americans can belong to. A group that stands head and shoulders above any other group known to man. No other cause is greater than that and no other American is qualified to carry that banner except you. When you earn that title your are now part of a group that is dedicated to the protection of the nation’s first period, point blank and nothing more.