The Nations Tavern: What an Amazing opertunity

From the Great Chesty

"Our country wont go on forever, if we stay soft as we are now. There won't be any AMERICA because some foreign soldiery will invade us and take our women and breed a hardier race!"

"Paper work will ruin any military force"

"You don't hurt'em if you don't hit 'em"

Chesty on the other forces:

When an Army captain asked him for the direction of the line of retreat, Chesty turned to his tank commander, gave him the Army position and orderd: "If they start to pull back from that line, even one foot, I want you to open fire on them" Turning back to the captain he replied "does that answer your question? We are here to fight." At Koto-ri Korea

"The mail service has been excellent out here, and in my opinion this is all that the Air Force has accomplished during the war"

In a letter to his wife while in Korea

When the Marines were cut off behind enemy lines and the Army had written the 1st Marine Division off as being lost because they were surrounded by 22 enemy divisions. The Marines made it out inflicting the highest casualty ratio on and enemy in history and destroying 7 entire enemy divisions in the process.

An enemy division is 16500+men while a Marine Division is 12500 men.

When a Journalist asked him about being surrounded by 22 enemy divisions. Chesty replied.

"They are a damn site better than the U.S. Army, at least we know they will be there in the morning"

"They are in front of us , behind us, and we are flanked on both sides by an enemy that outnumbers us 29:1. They can't get away now!"

"there are not enough chinamen in the world to stop a fully armed Marine regiment from going where ever they want to go"

Friday, June 20, 2008

What an Amazing opertunity

Read this today and wanted to give it notice here as well. Got me to thinking of the people and the opertunitys i to have had in the past. There are more and more heros dieing everyday and we are not getting there storys. and opertunitys like this are not going to happen anymore. I was part of a detail that laid to rest a horse marine it was the greatest source of pride and sadness when his son told us the things his father had done and his love for the corps i wanted so bad to have been able to just have asked the man to tell me his history and shake his hand and say thanks his own family had no idea what those things they were telling us ment or how important there father was and what he had gone threw they had never bothered to ask further when he would mention it, how sad!

Sgt Grit,
In February of 2004 myself and 15 of my fellow Marines were selected, from 2/6 Wpns Co. 81's Plt. currently on deployment in Okinawa, to go on a six week training opp in the Philippines, we were joined by Fox Co. and all there to help the "new" helicopter pilots with live fire operations. All went well and we were sent back to Okinawa.

Being the only fully equipped Marine Co. with my Weapons Co. attachment close by we were asked to stop in at Iwo Jima and escort the Veterans around the island for the anniversary. That was the most powerful experience in my young life and will no doubt never be forgotten. I can't explain the feeling of being on the troop transport slowly climbing wave after wave inching towards the island. It would be unimaginable to do that under fire, the ramp slowly dropped and one truck drove off.... dropped strait to the axels in "the sands of Iwo Jima." Walking around the beach waiting to get the truck out I would sink up to my ankles in the sand... mind you I have no gear on, just cammies and a weapon. And to hear the stories of all the men who returned to the island that tried to take their lives... a very sobering experience, the details they remembered the colors and expressions on the faces of their opponents. every detail as if it were yesterday.

I was very lucky to get to meet so many heroes in one spot, there are fewer and fewer survivors able to make trips like that and I will never forget it. Today I have a small amount of the "Sand" in a bottle on my shelf, just to remind myself of the sacrifices made before me. Thank you one and all.

Michael A Weiss
Cpl USMC 2000-2004