Is this US military S.O.P.?

[underpants]

This might just be one Marine who really wants to stay and to serve with his "brothers" (more power to him) but this seems a bit odd to me.

Who knows?



A US marine, wearing an artificial leg, walks at his base near al-Qaim in western Iraq. At least 21 people were killed when a car blew up outside a Shiite mosque south of Baghdad, one of string of bombings ahead Eid al-Fitr, a holiday marking the end of Islam's holy month of Ramadan.(AFP/Patrick Baz)

[Silverhair]

1. Unless things have changed since I was in...

...and I admit that was a long time ago (Army, later Navy), then this guy is just one very dedicated Marine.

[underpants]

2. That's an understatement

Very dedicated.

[shoelace414]

3. there was "Men of Honor"

the movie starring Cuba Gooding Jr and Robert DeNiro

The story of Carl Brashear, the first African American, then also the first amputee, US Navy Diver and the man who trained him.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0203019/

[babylonsister]

4. I think that there are certain people

who've dreamt of being a Marine their whole life, and have no aspirations for anything else. Perhaps for them politics has nothing to do with it. :shrug:

[underpants]

8. No no I didn't mean that

I wasn't being smart with this thread I was actually trying to call attention to this kind of commitment.

PRetty amazing. Most everyone else would be OUT OF THERE!

[Kazak]

5. Special Order Part?

That's what S.O.P. means to me, anyway... :shrug:

[babylonsister]

6. Standard Operating Procedure, I think. nt

[whatever4]

7. I did hear on the news the other day

that they were beginning to let soldiers remain active duty after the more serious injuries, and I believe they mentioned amputation. If the soldier wanted to and if they were able. With the better technology, more of them are able to perform now than ever before, and, they need the manpower.

Wow. That's still something to see though. An amputee who obviously is through with rehab (probably in the states?) and then came back to Iraq, if that is where the picture was taken.

I can't help but think if that's where he wants to be, more power to him, but with someone that strong-willed and able to overcome, I wish he had a better place to be. I wish he weren't in a position to face the danger all over again, wish he had a better mission to accomplish than this Iraq war.

[FloridaPat]

9. I think they're requiring it. I read where they are shipping these folks

back over there as soon as they can stand. Yes, they are that desperate for bodies.

[InsanityInc]

10. They're brainwashed!

The military scares them into thinking that theywon't have any life unless given all to the military. Those guys with their limbs amputated get asked "what will you do when you get home?" ... and told "they will treat you like a freak" "Stay here and do what you're trained to do". I know ... they told my brother that ..... now he's dead!

[underpants]

12. Welcome to DU

InsanityInc :hi:

[InsanityInc]

16. Thank You! It's good to be here ...

just trying to get used to the format and catch up with posts!

[headin_south]

18. This format...

CAN be confusing!:D

glad to see you here and i'm sorry for your loss...

[pecwae]

13. I suppose you could use that term

Many of the SOF types I served with just could not conceive of doing anything else with their lives. They lived and breathed SO, rarely had marriages or relationships that worked or were solid because they were never home. If they weren't on duty they were hanging out at the parachute club or Bennigans (old hang out in Fayetteville in the 80's). When they retired or ETS's lots went to work for security contractors (a couple of officers I knew were employed by Perot for special duty). These are Army SO types I'm talking about here, not Marines, and the Army didn't have to scare them; they were drawn to the lifestyle and found it difficult to let go.

[whatever4]

17. That is so true

For me, it wasn't just a job change. It was a housing change, which was to another area, a job change, change schools, change hospitals and doctors, change how the bills are paid and what you're responsible for, it's many changes that go along with the military lifestyle change. Especially when you live on the base with your family, it's a culture shock to be away from that sameness.

[whatever4]

15. I'm very sorry nm

[leveymg]

11. He reminds me of the bartender character in Gibson's "Neuromancer"

Neuromancer
by William Gibson

ONE

THE SKY ABOVE the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

"It's not like I'm using," Case heard someone say, as he shouldered his way through the crowd around the door of the Chat. "It's like my body's developed this massive drug deficiency." It was a Sprawl voice and a Sprawl joke. The Chatsubo was a bar for professional expatriates; you could drink there for a week and never hear two words in Japanese.

Ratz was tending bar, his prosthetic arm jerking monotonously as he filled a tray of glasses with draft Kirin. He saw Case and smiled, his teeth a webwork of East European steel and brown decay. Case found a place at the bar, between the unlikely tan on one of Lonny Zone's whores and the crisp naval uniform of a tall African whose cheekbones were ridged with precise rows of tribal scars. "Wage was in here early, with two joeboys," Ratz said, shoving a draft across the bar with his good hand. "Maybe some business with you, Case?"

Case shrugged. The girl to his right giggled and nudged him.

The bartender's smile widened. His ugliness was the stuff of legend. In an age of affordable beauty, there was something heraldic about his lack of it. The antique arm whined as he reached for another mug. It was a Russian military prosthesis, a seven-function force-feedback manipulator, cased in grubby pink plastic. "You are too much the artiste, Herr Case." Ratz grunted; the sound served him as laughter. He scratched his overhang of white-shirted belly with the pink claw. "You are the artiste of the slightly funny deal."

[headin_south]

14. I read...

the marine corps has made a committment that any marine who wants to stay in the marine corps will be allowed to do so, somewhere.

unlike the other services, the marine corps hasn't had a problem meeting recruiting goals so i doubt it's because they need the bodies.

these guys are fighting the good fight, just wish it had happened under a better boss like clinton or dean or a bag of hammers...