Tag Archives: Marines

Current Events

In The Navy

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If you have kids, grandkids, or friends who have some and they want their children to perhaps follow in some distant relative’s’ footsteps and join the U.S. Navy, they need to watch this. It’s a hoot!  You don’t have to watch it all since it’s about 7 minutes long as it won’t take you long to get the idea as to where the Navy’s priorities are today. Aren’t they or shouldn’t they  be defense oriented; I mean they come under the Department of “Defense” right? I don’t think so. And you can be sure the other services are going in the same direction, and yes even our once beloved Corps since our leader supported pride month Folks this is really hard to watch if you are cut from the same cloth as me. I could not stop laughing at these two idiots. I can only imagine what our potential enemies are thinking when they see where our military’s priorities are right now.

Lord, please help us.

Originally posted 2022-06-23 13:23:26.

Current Events

Berger’s Corps

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I never thought I would ever write such a letter to my Commandant of the Marine Corps. As I was writing my book, my editor reminded me several times to what President Reagan said: “Republicans (read Marines) should never speak ill of a fellow republican (read Marine). However, I could not help myself because during my nearly 36 years wearing the Marine uniform I learned that while we like to believe that all Marines are honorable, just, and forthright in their decision making processes, I found they were not! Therefore, I had to call a spade a spade; the principles I learned from my mentors would not allow me to lie. Some were nothing more than career-minded cocker spaniel Marines who looked out for no one but themselves. In fact, the Corps seems to attract those of that ilk and we also tend to breed them.

I remember when selected for colonel, a friend for whom I had worked and respected a great deal warned me that I was about to enter into the political side of the Marine Corps. He was right. The cocker spaniels who are discovered early normally do not rise above field grade, but every now and then one kisses enough ass, has the right tickets punched, collects a godfather or two along the way gets a star. Once anointed with that star, it then becomes critical that he sense the political wind and set his sails accordingly. And that Mr. Berger is a description of you.

I served under ten commandants. Most were okay, some I idolized, and one I detested for what he did to us enlisted Marines by taking away our collar emblems. Of the eight who served after my retirement, there are only two for whom I have any respect. I have often wondered why that is, why have we not had a Chapman, Wilson, or Barrow? I suspect that having achieved that “political rank” I became more aware of  the real reason for some of their decisions and actions. Then you appeared on the scene.

When first nominated and I read your Bio, I was impressed thinking we now had one who may steer the right course regardless of the political wind. Was I ever mistaken. You have done nothing but set those sails to follow the liberal agenda regardless of where it takes our Corps. All of your actions since appointment seem destined to change the Corps from an organization respected throughout the world for its nearly 250 years of honorable service to our country to “Berger’s Corps,” whatever the hell that happens to be. We retirees are still trying to figure that out. Your new force structure, organization, and employment concepts have every former commandant and most of the retired generals scratching their heads. But enough has been said about those asinine decisions; therefore, I shall let the generals have their say.

My concern is, as it always was when I wore the uniform, with the Marines themselves and what you are doing to them—the Pvts, PFCs, LCpls, and NCOs. In other words the doers in the Corps, the ones who bleed and die in the politicians’ wars. Have you any idea what goes through the minds of the privates? There is a chapter in my book entitled “The Private’s World,’ you should read it, you might learn something. Did you are any of your minions at HQ think of the average Pvt when you came out with that sick pride month statement or were you simply setting those sails to ride the political wind. I think the latter. What about the average young boy who enlisted in the Corps, the one who was raised by our once normal moral standards. What does he think of you pride month celebration? Or don’t you care?

I have friends, retired peers, albeit younger then me who have children and grandchildren in the Corps. Have you any idea what they are saying? Or do you just not give a damn, this is “Berger’s Corps”?

Of late you MR general came out and tried to attack the retirees’ pride reminding us of the meaning of Semper Fidelis and telling us “our Corps” needed our help in the recruiting arena. HA! Sorry, but it isn’t “our Corps” anymore; it’s Berger’s Corps. And I don’t want anything to do with that Corps as it is unrecognizable to me and many of my peers. I have already talked two young boys out of joining Berger’s Corps. My friends and peers say their hearing from their children and grandchildren that they are now counting the days not for reenlistment as was planned, but discharge. I don’t know how big the recruiting service is today, but you best look at increasing it drastically. But then Rand says that 70% of the 18-25 year old’s are unqualified mentally or physically from joining the military. Maybe the LGBQTs will answer the call and fill Bergers Corps .Won’t that help unit cohesion?

Speaking of  Semper Fidelis. Who is actually being unfaithful? Is it us retirees or you and your minions? What about all those traditions that brought the Corps to where it was before you started destroying it all? Yes, there probably were LGBQTs in the Corps throughout its history. I’ll buy that, so what? Does that mean we need to flaunt their existence. Do you know what else is celebrated this month? How about PTSD Awareness Month, or doesn’t that matter to you since they aren’t serving today? You have done nothing but added more gender confusion to the Corps’s many concerns.

You, Mr. Berger, will go down in the annals of Marine Corps history as the worse commandant ever, even worse that that fool that took my collar emblems away when I was a LCpl.

Your post has nothing to do with Marine readiness and everything to do with undermining unit cohesion — the esprit de corps that is the USMC’s foundational fabric. If mass eye-rolls among the Marine rank and file had a sound, the thunder from outside the Beltway — those not kissing Biden’s ass — would be deafening.

Fact is that this crap impacts readiness because the insult to morale impacts reenlistment decisions. Marines are ashamed to be associated with this degradation. One Marine Sgt spoke for many others: “This shit is one more reason why I am not reenlisting — nobody wants this shit and the result is that our best Marines, enlisted and young officers, are leaving. Lots of them are leaving.”

With all that said, I will leave you to your sick, demented, history destroying ways and pray that someone will come along and shut you up. I’d sign this with the normal closing of Semper Fidelis, but you have no idea what that means and you certainly do not deserve it

 

Jim Bathurst

Col, USMC (Ret)

Originally posted 2022-06-04 14:21:17.

Current Events, Recent Posts

A Day to Remember

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Memorial Day. The holiday of holidays is upon us. With all the family get togethers, barbequed dogs, burgers, and cold beer let us not forget what the day is all about. Greg once again gives us a peak into the new America, where everything wrong is now right and vice versus.  Of all the things wrong that can be fixed, why not this one? I have a close attachment to Arlington having buried so many brothers in those hallowed grounds during my time at The Barracks. Thank you Greg and may God bless Jazz and his family in hopes they will get closure sooner than later.

Arlington’s Unsightly Reckoning

By: Greg Maresca

Robert Jasinski “Jazz” and Greg Maresca

What was blatantly missing in action during this much anticipated primary polling season was my time-honored conversation with my old Marine Polish paisan, the Jazzman – Robert Jasinski. During his six-decade run on this third post from the sun, he was an avid historian and a political sage who never hesitated to engage with anyone on any topic.

Having been deployed the world over while in the Corps and an avid reader, Jazz was well spoken and quite knowledgeable. For over a generation, before each primary and general election, we would examine and critique the political ticket facing us in Pennsylvania from top to bottom.

In the midst of this primary season, I reached out to his older brother Stan who promptly informed me what candidate his late brother would have supported in the state’s senatorial race, which on the GOP side is still being contested in an extended recount. My intent was to find out when Jazz’s cremains would finally be laid to rest sometime this spring in the nation’s most hallowed burial grounds, Arlington National Cemetery.

Prior to Jazz’s unexpected step into eternity on January 24th, we had planned to visit Washington D.C. later this year. We had been contemplating it for some time. The nation’s capital was like a second home to the Delaware County native having done a tour of duty at Marine Corps Headquarters. A favorite haunt of his was Arlington. I had been on the cusp of Arlington having visited the Iwo Jima Memorial. For whatever reason, that most iconic of World War II monuments was as far as I ever ventured.

It was initially understood that any interment at Arlington, provided you were not recently killed in action, would take between three to four months. This is despite the fact that not every veteran is eligible to be interred there.

After hearing back from the funeral director, Stan told me that the backlog for burial at this national shrine stands more than a year out. In fact, the funeral director said interment of Jazz’s ashes would most likely occur in June 2023, some 17-months after his passing.

Is there a staffing problem?

There is absolutely nothing about the unprecedented backlog on the Arlington website as it is business as usual. A call to their general service number yielded nothing but more of the same. What I did learn was how Arlington conducts approximately 6,400 burials a year. The cemetery averages 30 funerals per day with their backlog consisting of a 4,500 long waiting list extending to a 15-month delay.

This is an astronomical amount and totally uncalled for.

These unelected bureaucrats in the federal government are still in blame mode putting the delays at the feet of the mighty COVID excuse. How long are we going to use COVID as a crutch for every miscue and mistake? We package $40 billion in military aid to Ukraine and bequeathed more than twice as much military hardware to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Yet, with this Memorial Day weekend upon America, we can’t bury some of our veterans in a timely fashion affording closure for so many families.

There are those  who believe there are some good members of Congress but can’t figure out what they are good for. Perhaps our polarized Congress can fix this. After all, what is there to disagree about?

Perhaps since Congress has been delegating its authority to the executive branch, it begs the question: where is the Biden administration in all of this? Since Biden got us out of Afghanistan in record time, why can’t he sign another one of his numerous presidential executive orders to expedite laying to rest Americans in a timely fashion?

Too often the unrelenting volley of class warfare, microaggressions, and the pronoun police coupled with department store sales and barbeques drowns out the true meaning of Memorial Day. Some veterans gave all in the line of duty and we honor and remember them today, while others pay daily over a lifetime.

Arlington has the remains of more than 330,000 souls buried under plain, white granite stones all in formation where every day is Memorial Day, and where waiting lists should be entrusted to the dustbin of history.

If you’ve never visited these hallowed grounds, you should. In fact you must. We owe so much to the men and women at rest here. It is absolutely beautiful, especially in the spring when the Cherry blossoms are in bloom. One of the things that impresses everyone is that no matter at what angle you look at the white markers, they are lined up perfectly. It’s a place where you can walk around and “feel” them whispering to you. Please go if you have not.

Originally posted 2022-05-28 11:35:51.

Current Events

Finally!

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FINALLY!  Generals from all services are beginning to speak out against what CMC is doing to the Marine Corps. Many have met with him, but state, he took notes, asked no questions, and changed nothing. This first article is from a Marine I know very well. I was his Company GySgt for a short while, until I was commissioned and  stayed in the same company; he was a Capt at the time. I served with him again when he was a Colonel and  G-1 of the 2d Marine Division. Then again when I had 2/6 and was going to become 2/8, he was my regimental CO. Then yet again when he was a fresh caught  BG at LFTCLant. So, I know him fairly well.

I and several others pegged him as a future general when he was nothing but a captain at 8th & I. The smartest, most capable Marine officer I ever met throughout my career. When he made four star he was assigned as  Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic and Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Command. Consider the significance of that assignment. The first time ever that a non-naval officer was assigned to that billet. He controlled all the  forces, including the navy ships throughout the Atlantic!

General Jack knows his stuff, so I am heartened by the fact he has finally come to life. Someone had  best listen to him, specifically another four star named Berger!

Wasteful Spending, a Shrinking Force and the Marine Corps’s Big Bet

The Marines may be “the only branch adapting fast for the future” (“U.S. Defense After Ukraine,” Review & Outlook, March 8), but what future and how wisely? The military’s poor record of predicting the next war urges maintaining flexibility. This has long been a strength of the Marine Corps, which maintained itself for decades as a combined-arms force in readiness, rapidly deployable, balanced and able to organize for any mission. This has proved its worth to the nation at all levels of crisis and conflict.

Yet today the Marine Corps is betting all on a conflict with China in the Western Pacific, to the neglect of other contingencies, creating littoral regiments to be scattered in small units across island chains to engage Chinese ships with missiles as part of a campaign for sea control. To pay the bill for this new vision of war, the Marine Corps has already got rid of all its tanks. It is reducing cannon artillery from 21 to five active batteries, eliminating three infantry battalions and reducing those remaining by a third in manpower, and reducing air power and other combat support commensurately. The war in Ukraine shows the folly of this. Or should someone tell the Russians and Ukrainians these systems are all obsolete?

These initiatives risk turning the Marine Corps into a niche force optimized for one conflict that is unlikely to occur, while hobbling its ability to meet security challenges that are certain. This is not what the nation needs or expects from its Marine Corps.

Gen. J.J. (Jack) Sheehan, USMC (Ret.)

Alexandria, Va.

Mr. Sheehan was NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (1994-97). How dare the WSJ refer to this Marine as “Mr.”

Another general speaks out in the same WSJ article.

The editorial board has been right on its defense analysis for months. Now it is correct about our defense-budget outlook, especially the relationship between the creeping inefficiencies that have plagued the Pentagon and our need to modernize.

If Vladimir Putin is successful, he will not stop at Ukraine. Nor will Xi Jinping stop at Taiwan. America must be ready to combat these threats and adjust to the end of the post-Cold War order. That will require more defense spending—a reality that our NATO allies are coming to grasp as well. But if we don’t get more bang for the buck, these spending increases won’t yield the capabilities we need to defend our freedoms, which are at risk.

Though we spend more today in constant dollars than we did at the peak of the Reagan buildup, we have a smaller force by all measures. The largest drivers of this ever-shrinking fighting force are a broken acquisition system that costs more, takes longer and produces less; the excessive amount of money tied up in the Pentagon’s massive, layered overhead and support functions; and the fully burdened and life-cycle costs of the all-volunteer force, with its outdated personnel management, compensation and retirement programs.

Without reforms, we will not improve our capabilities in either the quality or quantity necessary. The Pentagon and Congress need to establish performance goals that ensure we are better, faster and cheaper than our adversaries. The focus needs to be on outputs, not only inputs.

Congress should also fund the government through a regular process instead of the insanity of never-ending continuing resolutions, which already cost the Defense Department close to $40 billion in purchasing power in this fiscal year. The Pentagon and defense-industrial base need steady, predictable funding. Budget chaos is no way to deter our adversaries.

Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro, USMC (Ret.)

McLean, Va.

Mr. Punaro is author of “The Ever-Shrinking Fighting Force.”

Your editorial observes that President Jimmy Carter “did a 180-degree turn . . . and began a defense buildup.” This is a bit generous. Alarmed by the enormous Soviet military program and the overthrow of the shah, NATO countries agreed to each undertake a 3% increase in real defense spending. Yet when Mr. Carter offered his budget for fiscal year 1980, his defense numbers were closer to half that, which his spokesmen rationalized with the fatuous claim that the part relevant to NATO had met the target.

In the face of this foot-dragging, two “defense Democrats,” Sens. Ernest Hollings and Sam Nunn, took matters into their own hands, introducing an amendment to raise the overall number by 3%, as pledged, and by 5% the next year. The Carter administration lobbied strenuously against this, yet it passed 55-42. This began the buildup that was carried much further by the Reagan administration, contributing to victory in the Cold War.

Joshua Muravchik

Wheaton, Md.

Mr. Muravchik was executive director of the Coalition for a Democratic Majority (1977-79).

STRENGTH    RESPECTS    STRENGTH. Always has, always will, Amen

Originally posted 2022-03-12 10:09:43.

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A Day to Remember

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The day of which I speak  is of no significance to anyone but me. However, as I grow older each year, I feel this undying urge to recognize it. So if you aren’t interested in my day to remember, just skip it.

As Franklin D. Roosevelt speaking of December 7th 1941 coined the phrase, “A date which will live in infamy,” my date lives in my memory as though it was just yesterday, not sixty-four years ago! I am certain many of you have a similar date as well. My high school friend—Teddy Wood—and I had left school before the report cards came out during our senior year and enlisted in the Corps.

What follows is an excerpt from Chapter #2 of The Book:

On March 6, 1958, after completing all the paperwork and physicals at Fort Holabird, Maryland, I said goodbye to Mom and Dad. Woody and I then boarded a train at the Baltimore station, along with several others, bound for Parris Island, South Carolina, where the Marine Corps’s East Coast recruit training facility was located. The recruiter entrusted to me a large, sealed manila envelope. I was to deliver it to someone in command when we arrived at our destination. He informed the group that I was in charge—my first responsibility as a future Marine.

The train ride remains a vague memory to me except that we were assigned to a specific car where we were told to remain for the entire trip. I recall that some of the boys brought along a considerable amount of beer smuggled in their baggage. They shared with some of the others, but I was much too nervous to do any drinking. I remember one of the boys boasting as to how he was going to breeze through this training—he wasn’t going to take any guff from the drill sergeants.

With each stop along the way, our car became more crowded with more boys on their way to this infamous place with an exotic-sounding name—Parris Island.

Most of us were asleep when the conductor shouted out that this was our stop—Yemassee, South Carolina. I stepped off the train into total darkness with a cigarette in my mouth. Suddenly it flew off somewhere into space with what I thought were a few of my teeth. This cantankerous fellow, wearing a hat I’d last seen on a bear with a shovel in his paw on U.S. Forest Service posters, was screaming for us to do something. I had no idea then how symbolic that hat was nor that I myself would someday wear it.

Everyone was running in circles, bumping into each other, falling down. The greeting Marine was screaming, “Move! Move! Move!” which we were certainly doing but had no idea where to. I heard someone crying out for his mother. Another boy was screaming for help—surprisingly, he was the one who bragged about not taking any guff from the drill sergeants.

Absolute chaos ensued. Finally, after several minutes of the Marine shouting at us, he pointed to a building. We all ran towards it, jamming the doorway, attempting to get through it and out of the way of this insane person’s wrath.

Inside the building were steel beds stacked two high with a bare mattress lying on them and bright lights in the ceiling with shades hanging over them. The Marine thundered, “Get in a rack!” What the hell is a rack? we wondered. I didn’t recognize anything that might be a rack, so sheer chaos returned as we all tried to figure out what exactly this fellow was directing us to get into.

Finally, someone jumped into one of the steel beds whereupon we all followed suit; some beds even had two boys squeezed together. The Marine yelled, “Freeze!” Immediately the room fell into total silence except for the springs of the steel beds squeaking slightly as we all lay very still. He turned out the lights, and slowly paced up and down the center of the room while telling us we were shit, slimy civilian shit. We were in for one hell of a time when morning came, he warned, so we had better get some sleep since it would be the last time sleep would come for the next four months.

Welcome to boot camp!

As I lay there, I could hear the muffled sounds of several boys sobbing, probably wondering like the rest of us, What the hell have I gotten myself into?

 I don’t know how long I slept or if I even slept at all, but suddenly the lights came on and a loud banging sound awoke everyone as a Marine was screaming at us to stand in front of our racks. The large metal trash can he’d thrown was still rolling around the floor as we scrambled from our supremely uncomfortable beds—now to be known as “racks.” We were then herded outside onto a greyhound-type bus. I had no idea of the time except it was pitch black and cold.

As I was boarding the bus, I remembered the manila envelope still lying on my rack. I was to have surrendered it to the appropriate person upon arrival—my first responsibility as a Marine and I’d blown it. I really did not want to approach this crazed Marine, but I had to retrieve that envelope. I reluctantly began, “S…S…Sir…I need to go back into the building to—” I never finished the sentence. He was screaming and spitting saliva all over my face. I had no idea what he was saying, but I sure wasn’t going to ask him to repeat it. He shoved me towards the building. I ran in, grabbed the envelope, and bolted back outside.

By the time I returned to the bus, I was the last one to board thereby forcing me to sit next to the ill-tempered, Smokey Bear-hatted Marine. I developed goose bumps as I took my seat, so close to this fearsome devil that I was expecting him to chew my head off just for kicks.

I distinctly remember the bus passing through a gate and seeing the Marine sentry smiling as we drove past. Other than swamps on both sides of the road, I could see nothing out the window—no lights—nothing that gave a hint of civilization.

We finally came to some buildings whereupon we were herded off the bus into a classroom filled with school chairs, the types that have a small desk attached to them. There were several other Marines waiting there for us.

After much shouting for us to find a seat and sit our slimy civilian asses in it, we were required to fill out a post card addressed to our parents. We were told to write them that we arrived safe and would write again later. Then they hurried us into another part of the building where we went through a line holding a metal tray out in front of us while someone piled food onto it. We ate in total silence. When we finished—mind you, this was not as leisurely a breakfast as we were accustomed to at home—we were herded back into the classroom.

The sun was just rising on our first morning as recruits—literally as well as symbolically.

The story continues . . . . . . .

Little did I realize it then, but that day changed my entire life forever, and thirty-five years, six months, and twenty-two days later I took off the uniform and became Jim Bathurst, USMC (Ret).

Oh what a trip it was, What’s say we do it all over again guys?

Semper Fi Brothers; Jim

 

 

 

 

 

 

                       March 1958                                         October 1993

Originally posted 2022-03-06 09:29:24.