>posted about this yesterday. one of my 'other sons' wants out because
>he's sick of the rape culture in the marines. there's a lot of talk about
>the guys raping women back home, bragging it up amongst each other. lots of
>other crap, but it all makes him sick and he wants out. he said it all
>came to a head, of course, because the rumor's been that they're all gearing
>up for bombing Iran. I dismissed it at the time as hype, that was two
>weeks aog, but there was a small part of me that said, "figures."
>
>these guys are swilling grape juice and sterno cocktails like frat buys
>drink beer at a Daytona Beach chug fest.
>
>***********************************************
>
>I'd take the rumours about the bombing of Iran seriously. When I was "in" in
>'63-'64, the scuttlebutt was that we were going to be sent into a war in
>Vietnam soon. At the time, I suspected bravado, but now I think that somehow
>these messages get gossiped down to the grunts--a kind of trickle down theory
>of command before the big push. Okay, so I know that there were already some
>American troops there, mostly Army Special Forces back in the early 60s. But
>it wasn't long before the Hawk missles went to Danang and the 3rd Marine
>Divisiion, based on Okinawa followed them en masse. That was '65.
>
>As for the sterno cocktails, perfectly believable in an alcohol restricted
>area
>like Iraq. I remember guys on Okinawa blowing gas tanks on trucks because
>they
>were restricted to base i.e. no liberty chits.
Oh. I was saying that the administration has been drinking sterno. :)
This was supposedly official word. I was instructed not to tell, top sekrit and all that. I didn't *want* to believe it so I was hoping it was just a mistake on C's part, just rumors, just a game of telephone my 'other son' got caught up in since it's so easy to do. But we're talking the kind of thing where they making plans, deployments, troops are shipping out, make sure things are squared away with the famdamily. Which is kind of scary. Of course, I have every reason to believe that they'd need to make it realistic by dropping this information first among military members. It's not like the service hasn't regularly lied to its members and their families.
I shunted aside news I didn't want to hear for the immediate problem of helping 'other son' through the suicide crisis. 'C' is doing anything he can think of to get out. The rape stuff is really bugging him but, of course, so is the likelihood of battle, wounds, death. He'd be on the ground, so they're talking Marines as ground troops for whatever that's worth.
They nabbed this kid for ROTC when he was still in high school. I'd pick the kids up from the bus stop which was located in the heart of the 'ghetto': a broken down, very ancient project comprised of what they call "section 8s": people who have their rent paid by 'welfare,' etc. The complex we lived in, just up the street a block, had a state- and federal-mandated HUD requirement to take similar low-income families to comprise 1/3 renters. On Wednesdays, the kids would get off the bus and the bulk of them, boys and girls, would be in ROTC uniforms.
Needless to say, the fancy public school where Sonshine had been recruited to play ball did not have many kids in ROTC. He's not here to ask, but I'd say they had none. The median income was $90k compared to the $27k in my old neighborhood. The service did try to recruit from the kids enrolled in the engineering and architecture programs.
Szechuan Death, who briefly made an appearance at this list, is former Marine. He's lurking. Ask him what he thinks of the Marines. :)
I lived with a Marine for five years, but he didn't get caught up in it as badly because he was discharged when his lung collapsed.
As for Navy v. Marines: obviously that comment (in part) reflected the historic antipathy between the two branches. All the branches mock each other. The Marines have a reputation for being sadistic fucks. When R (Navy) was stationed in Okinawa, there were incidents of rape against local women committed by Marines.
From what C's saying, this 'rape culture' and demeaning of women is coming from the top-down and whatever comes from recruits is simply allowed to exist and flourish. A lot of it's a constant barrage of information warfare aimed at these kids, to get them to distrust any ties they might have back home. Hence, the constant talk of how their girlfriends, back home, are fucking around on them. The intention is to break them of their individuality, make them suspicious of any other form of solidarity that might compete with the Marines, softening them up to be committed to the unit.
I.e., in boot camp, you don't refer to yourself as "I". You speak about yourself in the 3rd person and you are repeatedly punished until you break yourself of any habit of referring to yourself as *I*. If you're vomiting from heat exhaustion on Parris Island and a drill sergeant ask you what your major malfunction is, you aren't even allowed the dignity of screwing up and saying "I'm sick" and getting help. YOu have to say it in the third person and you can keep puking 'til you get it right.
But then, people wearing costumes at Disney often vomit IN their costumes from heat stroke too. They do that because they're terrified of getting fired if they remove the costume and pierce the fantasy that is Disney. (See a book called _Inside the Mouse_)
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