Ask a Marine what’s so special about the Marines and the answer would be “esprit de corps”, an unhelpful French phrase that means exactly what it looks like – the spirit of the Corps, but what is that spirit, and where does it come from?

The Marine Corps is the only branch of the U.S. Armed Forces that recruits people specifically to Fight. The Army emphasizes personal development (an Army of One), the Navy promises fun (let the journey begin), the Air Force offers security (it’s a great way of life). Missing from all the advertisements is the hard fact that a soldier’s lot is to suffer and perhaps to die for his people, and take lives at the risk of his/her own.

Even the thematic music of the services reflects this evasion. The Army’s Caisson Song describes a pleasant country outing. Over hill and dale, lacking only a picnic basket. Anchors Aweigh, the Navy’s celebration of the joys of sailing, could have been penned by Jimmy Buffet. The Air Force song is a lyric poem of blue skies and engine thrust. All is joyful and invigorating, and safe. There are no land mines in the dales nor snipers behind the hills, no submarines or cruise missiles threaten the ocean jaunt, no bandits are lurking in the wild blue yonder. The Marines Hymn, by contrast, is all combat. We fight our Country’s battles, First to fight for right and freedom, We have fought in every clime and place where we could take a gun, in many a strife we have fought for life and never lost our nerve.

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Crossposted from WarChronicle.com

DEFEND OUR MARINES

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“I had a feeling there was an agenda.”
– LtCol Jeffrey Chessani, USMC (Ret.)

By Nathaniel R. Helms | July 21, 2010

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Crossposted from wbztv.com

By JULIE WATSON, Associated Press Writer
SAN DIEGO (AP) ―

A Camp Pendleton Marine whose murder conviction was recently overturned was released Monday after serving four years in prison for a major Iraqi war crimes case, his lawyer said.

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Crossposted from MarineCorpsTimes.com

SAN DIEGO — The government is appealing the overturning of a Camp Pendleton Marine’s murder conviction in a major Iraqi war crimes case.

The Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps announced Monday that it will send the case of Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III to the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Armed Forces.

That court can either affirm or reverse the April ruling of the U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals. The criminal appeals court overturned Hutchins’ conviction, saying he was not given a fair trial because a judge allowed his lead defense attorney to leave shortly before his 2007 trial.

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Crossposted from MarineCorpsTimes.com

SAN DIEGO — The government is appealing the overturning of a Camp Pendleton Marine’s murder conviction in a major Iraqi war crimes case.

The Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps announced Monday that it will send the case of Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III to the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Armed Forces.

That court can either affirm or reverse the April ruling of the U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals. The criminal appeals court overturned Hutchins’ conviction, saying he was not given a fair trial because a judge allowed his lead defense attorney to leave shortly before his 2007 trial.

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