cbach8tw
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Happy Veterans Day.
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What Knives did you Carry in the USMC?
- Thread starter Culprit99
- Start date
Danny Linguini
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In honor of this Veterans Day, I gotta spill a little bit, so please bear with me. My mother’s cousin, my second cousin, was a Marine. His father, my great uncle, was career Army. I’ll never forget when my cousin first went off to boot camp. He and the rest of the family knew he was going to be deployed to Vietnam Nam; and of course we were all worried, but he never flinched, never showed any sign of fear or apprehension - he just held his head high and went about doing his duty.
He was the typical figure when you think about a Marine - a bit over 6’ and solid as a rock. He carried himself almost as if he was constantly standing at attention, in a way that he always stood out from the rest of the civilians. But he never talked about his time ‘over there’, and we all respected his privacy enough not to pry, so we could only guess and imagine what kinds of ugliness he faced. We do know he contracted malaria while he was there and was pretty sick for awhile after he got back. But it was whatever he was exposed to at Camp Lejeune that eventually took him from us just a few years ago.
The saddest thing in my mind was that I never got to personally thank him for his service and everything he endured since. He returned at the time when the country was against the war and pretty much turned on anybody and everybody who had anything to do with the military, totally ignoring the fact that these guys on the ground in many cases had no choice in the matter and were just doing their job ultimately defending the rest of us. Even at my young age I was able to see through all that media-driven BS and remained steadfastly proud of my cousin and grateful to him and everyone like him who risked everything for his country. I just wish I had taken the time to tell him.
And so, I take every opportunity now to relay that respect and gratitude to all of you who are still around from that era, or any time after, or are currently serving, or have family that are serving. You are the real heroes of this world. May God be with you and protect you all.
He was the typical figure when you think about a Marine - a bit over 6’ and solid as a rock. He carried himself almost as if he was constantly standing at attention, in a way that he always stood out from the rest of the civilians. But he never talked about his time ‘over there’, and we all respected his privacy enough not to pry, so we could only guess and imagine what kinds of ugliness he faced. We do know he contracted malaria while he was there and was pretty sick for awhile after he got back. But it was whatever he was exposed to at Camp Lejeune that eventually took him from us just a few years ago.
The saddest thing in my mind was that I never got to personally thank him for his service and everything he endured since. He returned at the time when the country was against the war and pretty much turned on anybody and everybody who had anything to do with the military, totally ignoring the fact that these guys on the ground in many cases had no choice in the matter and were just doing their job ultimately defending the rest of us. Even at my young age I was able to see through all that media-driven BS and remained steadfastly proud of my cousin and grateful to him and everyone like him who risked everything for his country. I just wish I had taken the time to tell him.
And so, I take every opportunity now to relay that respect and gratitude to all of you who are still around from that era, or any time after, or are currently serving, or have family that are serving. You are the real heroes of this world. May God be with you and protect you all.
