A Soldier's Perspective

Semper Fi

One day back in the spring of 2006 as I sat patiently in a car rental office to square away some business I had with them, in walked these two old timers. As I sized them up I could only assume that they wore bars in their hay day of whatever branch they had served in. Most of the time I am pretty well reserved when I am out. But today the fellas attitudes and vibe was just to jovial to keep to myself. We exchanged the usual pleasantries and I asked a question to see if I had guessed right about their stock. Old timer number one is a full bird retired, he looked like a grandfather who had failed to reach old age, still super fit, hand shake of steel, and a commanding voice that was soft enough to put his grandchild to sleep. I must admit, I liked the guy, funny thing is I had only met one other officer in my life that I liked. This old chap was a marine’s marine even though he was a Army bird. But I liked him nonetheless. When I got around to saying I was in the Marines, he reached out with these gigantic hands and I reached back. While shaking hands he told me about the marines who saved his life one day back in Vietnam while he was pinched in. He said he is only alive today thanks to their heroism. As I concluded my business the full bird snapped to attention and mustered up his finest salute and said “Semper Fi”! On that I was extremely proud to have served in the United States Marine Corp. This encounter changed my view of how I felt about my time in service. Up until that point very few had ever said thank you for your service to our country. So to that full bird I would like to salute him and say thank you.

Video by LeatherneckRon

Video by pianoman3

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Uncategorized | admin | January 25, 2010 1:51 pm

1 Comment

By CJ, January 30, 2010 @ 12:18 am

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