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Creative Bitching

By Slab

I apologize for my absence of late. My reintroduction to the real world has taken up most of my time. For now, in lieu of a profound or introspective post, I offer this little anecdote.

I met a friend for dinner in Jacksonville tonight. Since I live on the other side of Camp Lejeune from the great metropolis of J-action-ville, I cut through the base in the unlikely event that I actually have a reason to visit the jewel of Onslow County.

On the way home, I discovered that the MPs were doing a more detailed inspection of military ID cards and base registration stickers, which resulted in a backlog of vehicles at the main gate. As I spent 10 minutes in line working my way towards the gate, I cursed the Marine Corps, the Camp Lejeune Provost Marshall's Office, and Jeep for making the clutch on the Wrangler so stiff.

I planned to give the gate guard an earful of my righteous indignity until I actually got close to the gate, and common sense reminded me that the Marine on the gate was not at fault and certainly didn't deserve any abuse from me.

So I pulled up, and after he said, "Good evening," I responded with a hearty, "How are you doing tonight?" I did my best to sound cheerful, realizing by this point that the Marines on the gate had probably been dealing with pissed off Marines and dependents for at least an hour by this point. The Marine, without missing a beat, came back with the upbeat reply, "Well, sir, it would be counter-productive to complain, so I'm doing great."

I laughed the whole way home.

Some people wonder, after hearing me complain bitterly about the Marine Corps, why I chose to continue doing this job. Others even wonder why I am willing to endure the hardships and dangers of multiple combat deployments. If, after reading that, you still ask these questions, you may want to consider just giving up. You will probably never understand what it means when I say that the Corps drives me nuts, but I love the Marines.

October 24, 2006 06:52 PM    General Interest

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Comments

Great effin post! Semper Fi and Good night!

pat   ·  October 24, 2006 08:18 PM

Thanks Marine, I'now diong great.

patrick streeter parker jr.   ·  October 24, 2006 08:22 PM

heh. coughvmicough

John   ·  October 24, 2006 08:32 PM

A soldier that doesn't complain?

Show me one, and I'll eat my hat...
;)

Lawrence   ·  October 25, 2006 02:36 PM

I believe I understand what it is your trying to say with, “Corps drives me nuts, but I love the Marines”. I think what your say is that the bureaucratic nature of the Corp drives you nuts, i.e. the way they do things. But you love the Marines meaning the actual people that make up the Corps. I felt the same way about the Army. The Army didn’t always make sense in how they went about doing things. But I loved being a solider and being surrounded by my fellow soldiers.


Essayons,

David

David   ·  October 25, 2006 03:01 PM
Anonymous   ·  December 20, 2006 12:32 PM

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