I have recently read posts from many young Marines and soldiers; here is my response to them all:
The USMC Generational Separation
WARNING THIS MAY UPSET YOU; IF YOU ARE A WEAK LEADER*
I have heard people say Kids These Days………all my life; I now call BS. If you want empirical evidence to the contrary, look at the last 19 years of combat with most of the actual fighting being done by 18-25 year old warriors; these kids are amazing….Oh yeah, and many us were disrespectful little pieces of crap too in our past; I was.
Here is a new quote for you: “Weakness starts at the top.” (David K. Devaney)
When I arrived at my first Fleet Marine Force unit, India Company 3rd Battalion 3rd Marines (1984), most of our Battalion’s Staff NCOs and senior Officers were Vietnam War Veterans. Many of them fond every opportunity to tell all of us that we were the weakest generation in Marine Corps History. That society was making only weak males nowadays and the Marine Corps was doomed.
Then came the Gulf War and the latest generation of Marines to bag on the next generation about how weak they were.
Now we have the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who are already bagging on the next generation; it is all over social media.
The weak assed Millennials; right. Yeah, well those Millennials are the next generation of Marines, warriors, and they will succeed just like every other generation of Marines.
The fact is, as time goes on the Marines Corps becomes smarter, stronger, and faster than every generation before them. This is all because the Marine Corps is always adapting and changing or even evolving – this is all good.
“To change with change is to remain unchanged.”
If you Do Not Adapt and Evolve; everything around you will change – except for you – therefore you Devolve.
I will bet you that WWI vets told their boots they were the worst. Then WWII vets and then the Korean War Vets, and so on.
When I was a Drill Instructor I told every one of my platoons, they were the weakest platoon ever.
One night when I was a Sgt, the Platoon Sgt for STA 3/3, my Battalion Gunner (Infantry Weapons Officer) invited me into the lower club, for permanent personnel and invited guests only (Camp Fuji Japan). As we were sitting there two SgtMajs started arguing and one said to the other, “Shut the F___ up you F______ boot.” The Gunner looked at me and said, “Everybody is boot to somebody.”
Weakness starts at the top; not the bottom. The bottom has no control over anything. So, the next time you start ragging on your subordinates, take a long look in the mirror; you are the source of their weakness. Your fault; not theirs. Now, suck it up buttercup and drive on. Here is a little history lesson about the old saying; kids these days:
The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority, they show disrespect to their elders…. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and are tyrants over their teachers.
Supposedly stated by Socrates or Plato before 399BC
The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they alone knew everything and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for girls, they are forward, immodest and unwomanly in speech, behavior and dress.
Aristotle 322BC
The moral of the story: Weakness starts at the top; not the bottom.
SF DKD
Photo: This photo is of a very young Marine Cpl Leading a Raid on a building in Baghdad Iraq 2003. Old Corps, New Corps, all that Matters is Marine Corps (Chesty Puller).
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