Comments for I've said it before.

I've said it before.

2005-02-10T22:21:24Z

I'll say it again.

I've also said this before - because I, too, have waited out the time a family warrior was at war - They also serve, who stand and wait.

From my perspective, having done both - the waiting is harder than the serving in the fight. In the fight, you get to shoot back. In the watch and wait, you get to, watch. And, wait. And the Press is not your friend. Not because of malice, but because of the nature of the beast.

As Cassandra says - if your wallet is feeling a little heavy this pay period, you could do worse than send some funding Deb's way. And you can always afford to drop by and say, "Thank you!"

Then there's this - the Garret Troopers, with little better to do than f*ck with the Grunt. I feel for the Questing Cat. I was really (and I knew vainly) hoping we'd slain that beast in this war. But the longer we stay in Iraq in the way we are currently arrayed - the more of this petty careerist bullsh1t will happen. How long before "Lifer" comes fully back into the lexicon in all it's pejorative glory?

Get a life, a$$hats.

Comment from Arditi on 2005-02-10

2005-02-11T02:06:07Z

Good stuff. Thanks for the recognition. Arditi(USMC 1982-1986)

Comment from cw4billt on 2005-02-10

2005-02-11T01:35:54Z

Nicely done, Cass--[*salute, hat tip w/full-bow-from-the-waist*]. The biggest shame about all this is that the families are being jerked around as much as the troops. I just spent four hours with some friends who just got back from a sandbox--90% are pulling the pin because 1. their families got zero support from the same rankers who are beating the "Support Our Troops" drum (most of whom have only come close to danger when they over-imbibed at Happy Hour and didn't have the seatbelt on the barstool fastened) and 2. the meaningless time-killers that were plugged into the pre-deployment training schedule just so someone could point to a piece of paper to prove the troops were gainfully occupied. Actual conversation I overheard last November: "Where are your troops?" "Cleaning equipment, packing gear, washing the vehicles, double-checking personnel records--." "Round them all up, they're supposed to be doing Convoy Ops." "We've already done the entire three days of Convoy Ops." "We changed the POI this morning. Now they have to do five days. We had a hole in the training schedule." Just to forestall anybody saying, "Bill, Convoy Ops are Important," I'll just mention that the outfit in question was an Aviation Unit. They don't "do" truck convoys because they have no trucks--they fly helicopters... I'm not gonna start. I don't want to steal SangerM's job as rantmeister-in-residence...

Comment from Cassandra on 2005-02-10

2005-02-11T00:01:00Z

Deb is just plain awesome. No one supports our Marines and their families better than she does. Just the other day I was up there and saw 2/14, a Marine Reserve BN that got mobilized and was commanded by a good friend while the Unit had another BN, with their Santa hats on over in the Sandbox. Small world... The Reserves have taken heavy casualties over there. We tried to get the families ready, but it's hard when they live other lives 28 days of the month. It doesn't seem real to them until they get the call. No one wants to get involved. And I understand that. And then often Reserve BNs augment other units, so their chain of support and information is cut off - the normal mechanisms that help ensure Marine families stay informed don't always work the way they should. Coordinating between multiple commands is tough. Things fall through the cracks. I've seen that, firsthand. One day at work, I spent 2 hours on the phone with a Mom in Alabama - she had nothing whatever to do with our command, but her daughter had been visiting someone in CA and had heard of our KVN. She passed my name along. Technically I shouldn't have called her, but this was a Mom in pain because her son was headed over for the 2nd time and she was mad as helk. What do you do? Ignore that? I called her on my own dime (no big deal) and we talked for a long time. And then I talked to the FSO of her son's unit in 29Palms, some poor overworked Major who I'm sure had better things to do than talk to me (as he was about an hour from boarding a jet for Kuwait), **but he stopped what he was doing to talk to a woman who wasn't in his unit who was interfering in something that was none of her business.** I kept it brief and to the point. And I got some good gauge to pass back to that mother. Marines supporting Marines. I am in awe of this, sometimes. The Marine Corps is doing an OUTSTANDING job of supporting its families. But no system is perfect. In an imperfect world, what Deb and her ladies do becomes a vital lifeline that fills in the gaps. My hat is off to her. I wish I were half the woman she and her ladies are.