"Marine Cpl. Steven Kiernan of Petaluma, critically wounded Sunday in Iraq, may be reunited with his parents today at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Kiernan, 20, who lost his left foot and right leg below the knee in a bomb blast on Sunday in Fallujah, was scheduled to be flown today from a U.S military hospital in Germany to Walter Reed, the facility that treats wartime amputees, according to the Marine's mother, Kim Petersen of Petaluma."

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080506/NEWS/805060338/1033/NEWS

First, get it right, PD.
He is a MARINE, not a soldier. You might change the subject line. You insult both when you can't get it right. At least you got it right in the body of the text.


Second, he knew that was a posssibility when he joined up. Everyone who puts on the uniform should know that they may have to go into harms way.

What are your thoughts on this topic?

I think the PeeDee's thoughts are probably pretty much transparent Mink, given their (and their corporate parent's) editorial policy on the subject.

While the death or maiming of any soldier is tragic, it is (truly enough) part of their job. This young man, and God bless him for it, volunteered to serve his country and defend his fellow citizens "from all enemies, foreign and domestic", and he took that obligation "freely, without mental reservation or purpose of evasion".

For as long as I draw breath and live in Petaluma I will be proud to shake his hand and personally thank him for the sacrifice he made so that people like you and I didn't have to.

I think the PD should let members initiate topics and keep out of it unless they want to participate, leave it alone. We've never had a problem discussing any issue and this one hurts regardless of the politics.

As for the young Marine, I hope he is doing well and will be served as he served our country. Like you Big Dog, I thank him for his sacrifice.

you took the words right out of my mouth, minky! i also wondered why the PD now thinks we need to be "stimulated" into discussions. us grown folks were perfectly capable of hashing out the news of the day if we thought it was worthy.

and subdjoe is right. mistaking a marine for a soldier is like mistaking a karaoke singer for a rock star. i also appreciate that fellow warrior's service and would be glad to shake his hand any day.

TNG wrote: "mistaking a marine for a soldier is like mistaking a karaoke singer for a rock star."

So, you calling Marines karaoke singers?

(waiting patinently for tng to dig himself out)

i will say this much....

why did the navy create the marine corps?

because, just like macy's they decided they needed a men's department too!

quote:

Originally posted by The New Guy (TNG):
i will say this much....

why did the navy create the marine corps?

because, just like macy's they decided they needed a men's department too!

Oooooooohhh.....nasty, nasty. But I like it!
I see that PD changed the name of this tread, too. Nothing like a smack up-side the head to get them thinking.

Couple of points....

** The USMC was created by the Continental Congress in 1775.

** The original mission was to give the Navy a fighting force at sea as well as power projection on foreign shores.

** While still administratively a subset of the Department of the Navy the Corps acts as a fully seperate branch of the military. The Commandant of the Marine Corps is a full member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

But the old saw still holds true... the Marines do the work and the Navy gets the gravy.

Gotta admit, I like seeing the Marine Corps being treated with so much respect, especially given the recent events in Berkeley.

Not just Marines, Ccraschke. Everyone who wears the uniform, be it Marine, Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, or the Merchant Marine (who have gotten the short end for far too long). Add in real cops - the ones on the street not the chiefs, sheriffs, or other political types - and fire fighters, and you have it covered.

In fact, most of us here have a lot of respect for all in service to the US, except for the capons who supposedly represent us at the various levels of government, and the occasional ******* in uniform.

I agree with you SubJoe, they all deserve respect.

However, as a Marine, I would be remiss if I didn't throw in a little inter-service rivalry.

Anyone know what ARMY stands for?

Aren't Ready to be Marines Yet...

Yep, IraqVet. And that interservice rivaly helps build the pride and professionalism that makes our armed forces the best in the world.


hmm....I just noticed what the autocensor did to my last post. Seems that it recognizes one of the conventional work arounds for a$$h01e and bleeps it out.

Hey, PD, can you disable that ($%^&#( thing? I have news for you - most of the adults here can deal with the occaisonal explitive without having an attack of the vapors. At least tweak the bloody thing so that it we can use the proper name for the county whos capital is Tokyo.

I think that any type of people in the Service helping anywhere should get respect that they deserve, but there are people in America that hate that soldiers for that even though they shouldnt because of how they are protecting there freedom of speech that they always use all the time to try and blame us for things that they say is wrong "But to me to anyone that was or still is in the service I would most happily shake your hand before I go to serve my country as well.

Walt Whitman "The real wars are not put into books"