Morning Coffee! ;)

[leroy8541]

Morning Folks, I had to find a new place to have morning coffee. Bones left the door open and I had to follow. Coffee is good, fire is warm. When ya gonna get things goin again?

[nang]

Bones tends to sneak in here in the middle of the night and leave his words of wisdom. But , Welcome, have a seat. Someone will be around soon.

[thedrifter]

Hey leroy.....

Yea I can say Bones make the best coffee.......and his words of wisdom are always appreciated......
I have been relaxing .....Waiting just like all....

We hope to have things moving soon......

Sempers,

Roger

[wrbones]

'Mornin' folks! How the hell are ya! Coffee's on! Grab a cup and set fer a spell! Gotta get yer head together before ya get yer day started! Well, at least I do. LOL. Paper'll be here directly. I get the funny pages first! LOL.

I got three things I been workin' over since yesterday. Kinda hard to pick just one. I know it's Sunday and we got some time, but we don't want to be here all day with all of that. I'll give ya a hint, though.

1) How did yer civilian friends treat ya after ya went home after becomin' a Marine. I ain't talkin' about the idjits. I'm talkin' about yer high school and neighborhood friends.

2) Ya never know who yer sittin' beside.

3) Livin' in fear or livin' in freedom.

Now where do I get this stuff yer wonderin'. Well, I get most of it from visitin' with you folks in IM, chats, or on the phone or on the forums. Someone says somethin' and I get to thinkin' and if I don't write myself a note I ferget all about it and keep visitin'. I know this don't happen to any of you folks, but it seems to happen to me quite a bit. Sometimes I get to concentratin' so hard on what is right in front of me that I ferget that I meant to remember somethin'. I think I need to break down and get some of those old green cloth covered log books we used to use. If I could remember how to keep a logbook anymore. I took a test on a website devoted to NCO's and trainin today that made me doubt myself. I'd really be in trouble if I had been a grunt. Only got half of them right.Here's the site. Look under warfighting test: http://members.aol.com/posteritypress/last100a.htm .

I imagine some of you folks would do pretty good with it. Some of that stuff doesn't fade too much with time, but I never really recieved any training in the specifics on it. Kinda like some of you fellers wouldn't begin to know how to safety-wire properly or know anything about contamination control or such like. Back to that fool or wise man stuff. I thought I'd do a bit better on that test than I did. LOL.

We'll visit on one of those other things tomorrow if ya don't mind. Fer today, spend some time with yer family and let 'em know how much ya love 'em.

Warm up yer coffee, folks! It's a new day! A new opportunity to get things sorted out. We got another chance to get things right! Make sure ya take advantage of it!

[leroy8541]

AARGH 66% on the Nco test maybe I haven't had enough coffee or am i getting outdated. corporal scores I guess.

[lurchenstein]

I haven't thought about that much until you brought it up.
Most people in the community treated me very well after I returned from bootcamp. Some of the anti-Vietnam sentiment was still around, but waning (don't recall much of that in the community to begin with).
Several of my high school friends also became Marines later on. (Usually ran into them when they took part in field exercises at 29 Palms.)
Also, remember visiting my high school on Career Day (with recruiter) and was priviledged to speak to the armed forces career session about Marine Corps recruit training. I was only 5 days out of recruit training and my senior classmates had not graduated (I was a mid-term grad). Nobody gave me any sh*t & many offered congratulations.

[wrbones]

'Morning' folks! How the hell are ya this mornin'! Coffee's on! Grab a cup and get yer head to workin'! It's Monday! LOL. Paper'll be here in a bit, so we got time to wake up before we have to deal with all that!

Well, I figure we'll visit over that last item I said we'd talk about the next couple days. Livin' in fear or livin' in freedom. Don't fret, Lurchenstein, we'll get to the other! LOL. I need to think about that one a bit more myself. Actually, Ineed to think about all of this stuff bit more. The more we visit over different stuff, the more I realize I don't know a damn thing at all! LOL. I never seem to get anything said quite the way I wanta and I never seem to know as much about any of it as I'd like to! Only so many hours in a day I guess and only so many days in a man's life, so ya just do the best ya can...that's a topic fer another day, I figure.

Anyway, learnin' about stuff like livin' in fear or livin' in freedom, ya just about have to know the one to know the other in a way. Like all analogies, it don't work if ya push it too far, but I ain't tryin' to be ridiculous here. Just thinkin' out loud ya know. Fear is not a happy place to be, even when yer the baddest mother on the block. Ya gotta keep up on things or ya ain't gonna be the baddest mother on the block no more and ya don't know who's gonna take yer place or how he's gonna do it! or where that'll leave ya when he does take yer place. When we done something that ain't right and we know it...it shows. We start lookin' and bein' uncomfortable around folks who're doin' things about half right. The Book says somethin' about runnin' when no one's chasin' ya. That about covers it, there. Sometimes what's in our heart ain't what it should be and we don't want folks findin' us out. Other times....well...livin' in fear seems to be counterproductive, but occasionally fear has it's uses as well. It can keep us alive when complacency and ambivalence will sure as shit get us killed. Helps keep yer eyes open when ya need to be aware of what's goin' on around ya. Bein' aware is a part of freedom.

Livin' in freedom....doin yer best. Treatin' the other guy the way you always want to be treated. Holdin' yerself accountable. Holdin' the other guy accountable...at least in yer own house if nowhere else. Responsibility. Takin' care of the things that might make you a decent human bein'. Not lettin' anyone take advantage of ya if you can help it. Keepin' an eye on the old, the young, the helpless. They got their own responsibilities, but it becomes a man to take care of others when they need a bit of help here and there. Walkin with yer head high, Not in arrogance or in pride, but because yer free. Knowin' as much about anything that might affect yer life as ya can....'cause ya need to know things in order to make good, solid decisions. Any decision without facts is gamblin...and the house always wins when yer gamblin'. Allowin' the other guy to make his own mistakes as long as his mistakes ain't gonna get you and yours hurt.

Now, I've just touched on a few things. Once again, I ain't said none of it right. Those are topics that a lot of folks have spent a lot of time tryin' to isolate and define.....Personally, about the only thing I really fear is the loss of freedom. Me and that guy with the hood and scythe have stared each other down several different times and places over the years. He don't scare me much anymore. One thing I do fear is the loss of freedom. As much as I agree with the reasons fer 'the coming war with Iraq', I have my doubts about government in general. One thing that we must all keep a watchful eye. Government.

So to summarize, fer me, I live only in fear of one thing. The loss of freedom. The only way that will come is through the misuse of government by those who would seek to limit the behaviors of others...whom they fear.....unnecessarily. A man of freedom.

Warm up yer coffee folks. It's a good day! A new opportunity! A new chance! Go out and take advantage of it!

[Barndog]

Ya Jarheads. Nice to 'see ya'. LOL

I don't live in fear. Back when things were really screwed up in my life, I feared the unknown. That mostly was because it was my unwillingness to accept the unknown. I needed to 'know' what it was. Once I accepted that there are some things you just cannot know - things got a little better. Note, I DID NOT SAY EASIER. A little better. Bones and I have had some lenghty discussions on the phone recently. This next part would be my precursor to the second part - losing your (or, one's) freedom.

I - last week, was tentatively selected for reenlistment into our Beloved Marine Corps. Now, my 'non-military' friends think I'm nuts. No way you can do it, yer 'too old (45).......'what about your disease?' (Rheumatoid Arthritus) Now, I have to think..

I tossed my SRB (my own version) documents on the left, official 'boot camp' photo on the right onto the Recruiters desk. I leaned over and looked him straight into the eye, then clearly and in a loud, firm voice said, 'Ssgt.... make it happen'. The rest of the Marines in the office know me. I make it my point and mission to know the Marines in my town. That's my Marine Corps. He looked over the 214's (all 3 of them - 2 from the National Guards) and the sum total of almost 15 years of Honorable Service, and - made the call.

Yep. I got work to do boys. My point being: 9/11 changed a great many of us. The 'wave' of patriotism thru this Nation..... well - if you really look at enlistment numbers - they are still flat since! What's that tell you? Tells me theres a bunch of chicken sh**s out there. Everyone wants it done for them. Nobody at the wall of the greatest level of sacrifice is willing to step up to the plate. "Bomb the hell outta them, but I won't do it" - is the answer I hear more than not. That really pi**es me off.
Here's the deal. Bone's and I supported the Iranian rescue mission in 1979. I lost Bro's in the Beruit Barracks bombing in 1983. And on and on and on. THOSE WERE WAKE UP CALLS!!! And, what happened?
Nothing.
Dead Marines. Dead Soldiers. Dead Airmen. Dead Sailors. Meanwhile, it's politics as usual.

WE took the oath to defend the Constitution of this Nation. That Oath swore to support and defend that Constitution against all enemies.
You must ask yourself: The Oath you took.... do YOU believe the Constitution is larger than the people elected to interpret it for the People of this Nation, given the current political situation? At the rate Corporate Money buys political influence, are we getting our money's worth? Are our Brothers and Sisters being served in the manner in which they took the Oath to Serve?

Bottom line for me is: If my Marine Corps is willing to look aside some of my physical limitations, then by God and Chesty Puller (with whom my Father served with in Korea)
They get 110% back AGAIN! Only this time, I pray it's as a Recieving Drill Instructor at MCRD. I will weed out the ones in advance of the wasting of time of my Drill Instructors. Their job is to make Marines. So will be mine.

Semper Fidelis, To the Corps

Tony 'Barndog' Barnhart
USMC 1978-1983
MI ARNG 1984-1992

[nang]

Good Luck Barndog! God Bless you for stepping up to the plate.

[wrbones]

'Mornin' folks! How ya been the last couple days! Haven't seen most of ya. Even missed some of ya! LOL. Coffee's on! Better get a cup and get yer eyes open before ya head out! Paper'll be here in a bit!

I am totally P.O.d right now. Spent an hour workin' on an email fer one of them peace activists an'...poof...it's lost in a buncha one and zeros out in 'puterville somewhere! One of these days i'll learn to do that involved stuff on microsoft word before I send it. That lady's got some fire I think and she's smart, too. Might be a challenge worthy of me, maybe! I'll post her email after a bit maybe. You'll see what I mean.

Anyway, I was promisin' folks on another site....what? Didn't anyone tell ya? We go over to The Patriot Files when this place goes down. I been makin' coffee over there fer a few weeks now. Those folks don't say much, but they do stop by and visit over my coffee. So I was promisin' to visit over somethin' I've had on my mind. I was wonderin' how yer ol' high school buddies treated ya when they heard ya signed up fer the Corps or how they treated ya when ya came home on leave. Now me, I remember them bein' quite a bit around me and my brother after we became Marines. They treated us differently than they did before. More respect and even a bit of fear in some cases. They weren't as liable to come of with any silly shit, if ya know what I mean. 'Course a buncha them were eatin' their words. Before hand we kept hearin' how we weren't gonna make it. It was too tough and all that. After...well, I think they considered us to be 'grown up.' There's that period between high school and somewhere about the time most of them start gettin married, goin to school and such that most folks are pretty footloose and haven't had to take on the responsibilities of adulthood. They figured us fer bein' further along that path than many of them were at the time. It wasn't said that way, but came out in the way that we were treated, not only by our friends at the time, but by most of the older folks as well. Becomin' a Marine will do that to ya. Grow ya up some when yer a youngin'. Even just goin' through recruit training.

For us, it was a diffferent path than others took, and we got there quicker, maybe. Maturity. Responsibility. A sureness in our thoughts and movements that others may have lacked til later in their lives....and that indefinable something that makes us Marines.

Well, that turned out better than I thought it would. Warm up yer coffee folks! Get yer head wrapped around yer day! We got a new opportunity to get it right! A new chance to do it all better this time! Relax and enjoy it.