The United States Marines; What's going wrong

 When the Marine Corps was first started, the first recruiting station was in a bar called Tun Tavern. The first man that walked in that day was greeted by the first Marine recruiter;

Marine Recruiter: "How ya doing? So we got this new thing called the Marines. If you join we will give you a rifle, shitty pay, one free beer and all the ports you can handle."

First Enlisted Marine: "Where do I sign up?" After the Marine signed the contract he grabbed his rifle, free beer and headed to a table near by.

A second man walked in and was greeted the same way;

Marine Recruiter: "How ya doing? So we got this new thing called the Marines. If you join we will give you a rifle, shitty pay, two free beers and all the ports you can handle."

Second Enlisted Marine:  "Where do I sign up?" After the Marine signed the contract he grabbed his rifle and his two free beers and headed to a table near by where he sat down with the first Marine.

First Enlisted Marine: "How ya doing mac? What did they give ya for signing up?"

Second Enlisted Marine: "A rifle, shitty pay and two free beers!"

The first enlisted Marine scoffed with a smug look on his face "Back in the old corps we only got ONE free beer. F'N BOOT!"



When I told my father I had planned to get out of the Marines, he said "Dave, I understand your frustrations and your complaints, it's all the more reason to stay in and try to make a change." My reply was "Dad, the good guys get out and the shit heads get promoted. I'm only one man."

With that said, I know plenty great Marines who have gotten promoted that deserved it and I am glad they stayed it. When my first marriage went to hell it took a toll on me and honestly, I wasn't the best Marine I could have been. I had been promoted too fast in my career and my ego sometimes got the best of me. I was good at what I did and that made me arrogant. I loved my men so that made me sometimes weak. I remember the best advice I ever got; "It's easier to go in as an asshole and lighten up then to go in as a nice guy and then be an asshole when you need to be it."

I wanted my Marines to respect me because I gave a shit, not because I was some motard straight off the drill field, only knowing how to lead through fear and stressing others out.

My issues with the Marine Corps; Leadership!We do a great job but we can do much better.

Somewhere along the history of the Corps, some asshole/s (probably a drill instructor) took it upon himself to start implementing what he thought our corps values were. They beat it into young minds and those Marines started regurgitating later to their junior Marines. It was a great day when combat boots changed to suede from black leather. Why? Because who in the hell thought that a combat boot needs to be spit shined to a level where it is unwearable in combat thus requiring you to have "field boots" and "garrison boots."

It started with your dress shoes. Some of us "old" Marines were issued actual leather dress shoes instead of coraframs. We spit shined them but some asshat got the idea that everything black and leather needed to be high gloss, and he made us think it also!

Likewise the same retarded thought went for cammies. Who was the first Marine to tell other Marines that they could no longer use their pockets, even in the field when it was cold? I understand that some would say "It builds discipline!!!" and that jack hole would probably be a former drill instructor. I am raising the BS flag. Why? Because WWII Marines did it! Korea era Marine did it. Are you going to question their discipline, esprit de corps or hardness? Chesty Puller routinely put his hands in his pockets.

Some of you remember your "salty" "field" cammies and your "good" cammies.

Somewhere the meaning of  "military bearing" got warped and twisted. We stopped calling each other by our first names like they did in WWII. Things got less personal and leaders stopped being mentors! It turned into a dog and pony show where some leaders were always looking over their shoulder to see who was watching so they could yell a little louder, making it seem like they were accomplishing something.

What my father (a retired grunt) taught me about leadership was that a Marine leader should aspire to make leaders. That, the LCpl is the blood of the Corps, eager and willing to rise to the occasion BUT if you treat him like a child, he will act like a child, so never dumb down training or your expectations.

We have all heard "You can delegate authority, but not responsibility."  But early on my frustration at my leaders made me develop a new way of thinking; "Sometimes you MUST delegate responsibility in order to develop leaders who are not afraid to make decisions." and when a person ceases to do that, when you micro manage, Marines do not become dynamic thinkers. We have all seen LCpl's treated like children. Are you kidding me? These young men, the blood of the Corps treated like they are liabilities. When you treat someone like a child, they will act like a child.

"Mutherfucking Lance Criminals" we all used to joke.

Officers; try and learn from your enlisted leaders. They just may make you better.

I will NEVER forget Lt "big bird" Turner. The guy had the audacity to argue with me over putting friendlies in the live fire house. He actually said " Uh , Sgt Casler? Why are you putting friendly targets in there?!" To which my reply was "Sir, the Marines have to be dynamic thinkers. They MUST know decision making." His reply fucking floored me. Snickering, he said "Sgt Casler, if we are in combat, everything past the line of departure is enemy, frag and kill."

I lost it "Are you fucking kidding me? Did you ever read the Three Block War??"

It was his reply that dumbfounded me and made me question God for a second "Sgt Casler, that was a Krulak thing!" You should have seen my face turn red and a vein bulge from my forehead. Every nerve in my body was firing and I was screaming in my own head. Had evolution let this cro-magnon fuck slip through the cracks on purpose just to end up in my life and provide some type of karmatic revenge for all the times I did stupid shit as a LCpl?????

Thankfully Gunny (now Sgt Maj) "NO LOVE"  Bushway was walking by and to prove a point and I said "Gunny, you want the friendly's in there?"

Gunny Bushway "Don't fucking piss me off Casler!?"

Sgt Maj Bushway was a former FAST guru and had also been in two helo crashes. One was the infamous crash off the deck where the helo got caught in the rigging. It can be seen on you tube. He saved a few Marines and if you ever saw his ribbons, I think he ran out of room for stars on his Navy Achievement Medal.

I digress, back to motivation. 

Inspire a Marine to be more and he will rise to the occasion. Dismiss that same Marine and he will fall into mediocrity or worse...trouble.

When I was going through my divorce, not one SNCO's sat me down and said "Hey Casler, what's going on man?" Not that it would of helped but; Marines in leadership positions are sometimes not vested in their Marines. Too this day, I enjoy helping my fellow Marines when they call and have issues. It's simple, if people can learn what I did wrong and chose a better path....awesome.

I had a young Marine go UA on me once. We got him back and he was NJP'd. Only right now does it occur to me that I should have known he was having issues. You can see or fix everything, but as a leader you should have a pulse on what your Marines are going through. We have lost that personal relationship with our Marines. War changes things and maybe for the time being things have gotten more personal. I hope so.

The leader I tried to be like my father drummed into me "Firm, fair and consistent." I tried to be a father and mentor to my Marines. Someone that they could trust, someone always on their side if they were right and had the balls to call them out on when they were wrong, for the sake of helping them get right.

A leader must be a person who is willing to make leaders out of those he/she leads.

It's humbling seeing some of the Marines who were under me, now are Gunny's and Lt's. I hope they took the good and applied it. I hope they took the bad and said "I won't do that!"

What else would you want from your kids right? All I can ever ask is "Do your best, learn from my mistakes and be better than I was."

Semper Fidelis