Marines Want Dark Tone Out of Dress Blues(death notification now in green)

[DeepModem Mom]

Los Angeles Times:
Marines Want Dark Tone Out of Dress Blues
Green now will be worn for notifying relatives of the dead. Some say the move is disrespectful.

By Tony Perry, Times Staff Writer


With the toll of Marines killed in Iraq mounting, the Marine Corps is no longer requiring the Marines notifying families of such deaths to wear the Corps' distinctive dress blue uniform.

The change, authorized by Commandant Gen. Michael Hagee, was made because the public was beginning to associate the blue uniform, usually worn during ceremonial or joyous occasions, with death and tragedy, officials said.

Officers and senior enlisted Marines making notification visits are now ordered to wear the Corps' green uniform, known as alphas.

The switch has caused a rift among active-duty and retired Marines. Some, including recruiters and casualty assistance officers, applaud the switch. But others say it smacks of disrespect for the dead Marines and their families.

"Casualty notification is a solemn event and deserves full honors," said Col. John Toolan, who disagrees with the switch....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-blues20mar20,0,3083980.story?coll=la-home-nation

[w4rma]

1. More disrespectful PR trickery (nt)

[wtmusic]

2. Oh please, they're just trying to cheer them up a little

and even the green one is a little dull. Why not one that'll put a BIG smile on their faces?



</sick sarcasm, inspired by the insane logic of Michael Hagee>

[donco6]

11. That takes dark humor to a new level.

Disgusting but oddly logical.

[daleo]

3. This way the neighbors won't know what happened.

Just another small way to hide the truth. Maybe they will eventually make the visits at midnight, the way the coffins are flown home.

[FlemingsGhost]

5. Yup ... There are no casualities in the Crusades. (n/t)

Flem.

[TahitiNut]

4. Maybe if they weren't being killed in 'service' to criminals!

This reeks of greater concern for the continued 'fashion value' of the dress blues than of anything else. What the hell - wear alphas for "dirty work."

[Lizzie Borden]

6. I can't believe this!

Do they really think a green uniform is going to make any easier to the people who open that door? I know when women open that door (can't speak for men)they know exactly what's going on and are blown away by it. They aren't thinking, "Gee now, was that a blue uniform or green. This is preposterous.

[leftofthedial]

7. I rmember when all uniforms represented service to our country

willingness to put one's life on the line to defend our nation, democracy and our way of life. I was proud to be raised in a military family. The uniform and the flag stirred feelings of pride and patriotism.

Now the Murkan uniform increasingly represents mercenary storm troopers in the service of corporatist greed-mongering fascists.

Sad.

[NYC]

8. Frequency.

An indication that too many deaths are being announced. Otherwise, people would still associate the uniform with the ceremonial and joyous occasions.

...the public was beginning to associate the blue uniform, usually worn during ceremonial or joyous occasions, with death and tragedy, officials said...

[bettyellen]

9. well cheney took the lead, wearing a parka to the holocaust ceremony......

it just smacks of more disrepect to me.

[saigon68]

15. CHENEY CHANGED HIS BOXER SHORTS THAT WEEK FOR THE CEREMONY

The old ones were skidmark stained from having Wolfowitz's Brown Nose kissing and Nuzzling his ass.

[saltpoint]

10. Lovely. And just in time for spring.

Color-coded compassion doesn't quite cover it while multiple thousands of Iraqis have been lost in a flagrantly illegal assault by our government.

[murdoch]

12. My brother is a Marine reserve...

...and I hate to think about this. He did a tour of Iraq last year and thankfully came back in one piece. My mother was especially worried every day he was gone. Now I'm wondering if he'll have to do another tour. I hate to think about these people coming to our door - God. I know this whole war is about oil and it's not like we even live in a democracy where we defend America instead of just going and attacking countries because they have a lot of oil and so forth. I feel like the abolitionists during slave times or the European revolutionaries taking some wacks at the monarchy to get a parliament, it's high time the working people of the US (and elsewhere) get organized and stop this nonsense. We don't even learn our history - American and European workers were against World War I, another completely senseless war which created nothing but slaughter, and the conditions which gave rise to Nazi Germany.

[TacticalPeek]

13. Pissant performance from President AWOL.

They could just let a cab driver deliver a telegram.


:grr:

[BrotherBuzz]

14. Only if Hallibuton gets the contract....

The notification of a dead soldier's next of kin dates to the Spanish-American War in 1898. In the years that followed, families generally were notified via telegram. During the early years of the Vietnam War, the military even entrusted taxi drivers to deliver the telegrams.

Oh, on another note, is Rumsfeld still signing those letters to the next of kin like he promised to?

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. I don't think I'm mistaken in thinking that the Marines ALWAYS

sent a uniformed representative with the message, and ALWAYS in dress blues.

We were never the biggest of the armed forces, so we made up for that in pride and tradition. Any Marine unit was equal to the best of any other branch, and the best of the Marines could only be matched by the absolute elites of the other branches.

Dress blues once meant something. I am appalled.

[BrotherBuzz]

24. Death notifications came by telegram in World War II

and by military officials by the Vietnam War.



The Boys of Iwo Jima
(From the book, Straight From the Heart)
By Michael T. Powers

<snip>

The first guy putting the pole in the ground is Harlon Block. Harlon was an all-state football player. He enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the senior members of his football team. They were off to play another type of game. A game called "War." But it didn't turn out to be a game. Harlon, at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands. I don't say that to gross you out, I say that because there are generals who stand in front of this statue and talk about the glory of war. You guys need to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were 17, 18, and 19 years old."

<snip>

The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was Sergeant Mike Strank. Mike is my hero. He was the hero of all these guys. They called him the "old man" because he was so old. He was already 24. When Mike would motivate his boys in training camp, he didn't say, "Let's go kill some Japanese" or "Let's die for our country." He knew he was talking to little boys. Instead he would say, "You do what I say, and I'll get you home to your mothers." The last guy on this side of the statue is Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from Arizona. Ira Hayes walked off Iwo Jima. He went into the White House with my dad. President Truman told him, "You're a hero." He told reporters, "How can I feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit the island with me and only 27 of us walked off alive?" So you take your class at school. 250 of you spending a year together having fun, doing everything together. Then all 250 of you hit the beach, but only 27 of your classmates walk off alive. That was Ira Hayes. He had images of horror in his mind. Ira Hayes died dead drunk, face down at the age of 32. Ten years after this picture was taken.


The next guy going around the statue is Franklin Sousley from Hilltop, Kentucky. A fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. His best friend, who is now 70, told me, "Yeah you know, we took two cows up on the porch of the Hilltop General Store. Then we strung wire across the stairs so the cows couldn't get down. Then we fed them Epson salts. Those cows crapped all night." Yes he was a fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of 19. When the telegram came to tell his mother that he was dead, it went to the Hilltop General Store. A barefoot boy ran that telegram up to his mother's farm. The neighbors could hear her scream all night and into the morning. The neighbors lived a quarter of a mile away.

The next guy, as we continue to go around the statue is my dad, John Bradley from Antigo, Wisconsin, where I was raised. My dad lived until 1994, but he would never give interviews. When Walter Kronkite's producers, or the New York Times would call, we were trained as little kids to say, "No, I'm sorry sir, my dad's not here. He is in Canada fishing. No, there is no phone there sir. No, we don't know when he is coming back." My dad never fished or even went to Canada. Usually he was sitting there right at the table eating his Campbell's soup. But we had to tell the press that he was out fishing. He didn't want to talk to the press. You see, my dad didn't see himself as a hero.

<more>

http://www.summersnet-ent.com/mytribute/iwojima.htm

[regnaD kciN]

19. Or, even better...

...what about a singing telegram?

:puke:

[JVS]

17. I think I found a picture of the new way in case anyone is curious

[Merlin]

18. I had this duty for a couple of months for the Army during Vietnam.

It was horrible. Just horrible. I would go with another officer usually to the mothers place of employment. We would park the dark green car out front and go in dressed in Army our dress greens. I remember walking into a large office with perhaps a hundred desks all open inside with a large picture window in the front. As soon as we began approaching the building a woman shrieked. Turned out she was the mother. I think I've repressed my memory of most of the other notifications, but that one I remember like yesterday.

My heart goes out to these parents and their families, as well as the GIs who must notify them.

[napi21]

21. I agree. It must be the worst duty in the military!

I disagree with changing from the Dress uniform though. Thank God I never had to receive a visit from those guys, but I look at the dress uniform as a strong sign of respect. It should NOT be changed.

[MADem]

20. UTTER BULL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am APPALLED. This is egregious, disgraceful, DISRESPECTFUL and absurd.

To a civilian, a guy in uniform is a guy in uniform (or a gal in uniform, for that matter). They probably wouldn't know the diff if the casualty officer showed up in summer kit. All they are doing is TRIVIALIZING this serious, life-wrenching, brutal event.

The idiot who made this decision should be forced to personally do every fucking notification for every damn dead Marine from now until they all come home--in a pink tutu, for all I care. What an ASS!

SHAME on the USMC. Shame on the clown who proposed it, shame on the assholes who approved it. This tells me that the very character of that branch of service is under serious assault, and may well not recover from it.

Shame, shame, SHAME!

[lostnfound]

22. In Iran, families were castigated for showing grief..is that next?

"Reading Lolita in Tehran"..great book..memoirs. One part of it mentioned how there was so much pressure by the government put on families to support the war (with Iraq) that they would be subjected to criticism for public grief for their dead soldiers..they were expected to 'rejoice' that the soldiers were honored to give their life in a noble cause.

There is an element of that sick mindset present in the rightwing in America today. Families of the dead soldiers get criticized if they admit to being anti-war.

[truthisfreedom]

23. reads like it's already backfiring. they're merely calling more attention

to Marine deaths. what a total blunder. sheesh... PR my ass. whoever thought this up has got to be red-faced now.

[Moosepoop]

25. As the casualty notifications continue to mount

and the public begins to associate the green alpha uniforms with "death and tragedy", will they then change the protocol to sending the notifying personnel out in jeans and T-shirts?