Alright, this goes out to all the Marines significant others. It doesn't matter if you're a fiancé(like me) or a wife. Every Marine knows many truths to be true but this one particular truth will stay with them for as long as they live!-
'Once a Marine, ALWAYS a Marine!'
I am a very proud of my fiancé a Combat Veteran of the Marine Corp! He is in the IRR(Individual Ready Reserve). He can still 'play' Marine. I call it this because in the IRR he can chose to go and do drills and a deployment, if he wanted to! He reminds me of this quite often. He could still pick up rank if he worked at it. As much as a would like to see his sexy little ass in cammies he says 'I've served my Corps if it needs me it will call me back.'. Which I hope it wont come calling that means a 7 months of hardship. I've been through no more then three months without him before.
The reason I explained all of that is I DO NOT like it when people don't treat him as such. I've personally heard it from a few and each time I utter the same phrase and leave it at that...
'Once a Marine, ALWAYS a Marine!'
I heard a 'ex' Army cat say Cpl was an 'ex' Marine and not a Cpl. I don't know Army lingo but in the Marine culture(which it is a culture in and of its self) we call these so called 'ex' Marines former or prior Marines!(Just so you know NEVER EVER call a prior Marine an 'ex' Marine! He will unleash a hell you have never seen! This is something I have seen Cpl do. ) I even before I met an active duty Marine I had a GySgt as a boss I called him GySgt when I first clocked in each day. He really appreciated such a simple greeting. He said it was nice someone would address as the rank he worked hard to earn.
Like most wives and fiancé I deal with the after math of a deployment. One newly married Marine wife was going on about the tremors her husband had experienced a few nights before. Seeing as I sleep next to a combat vet. I tried to relate to her and give rather funny stories of Cpl's tremors. My story fell upon deaf ears. The reasoning behind this was in her mind Cpl was out of the Marines and he no longer had tremors. I find this funny if only these things worked like that. It would help me out a a great deal. I hate seeing him in pain...not as physical pain but the emotional pain the deployment caused him. If her rational was the truth he would no longer have these at times scary and painful tremors.
I only wish that some people will understand that as a Marine if you earn your rank you keep it when you are discharged.
Just as long as you realize many people in this society don't give an F about the military in general.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - anecdotal, much? I'd say that it's quite the opposite, but okay.
ReplyDeleteAs for 'ex' and not, I understand that Marines do say that once a marine... always... which is true culturally, but unless he retired that rank, I'm not sure if he still has the rank of CPL in the legal sense (UCMJ).
Either way, it doesn't matter. His marine life (more than the rank of CPL) is now an irremovable part of his life, and he will be forever altered by it. It's a permanent thing. So in that sense, yes, you're right that once a marine, always a marine.