[pct-l] Just Kids...."Taking Chance"....(an old Marine's reflections)

[Reinhold Metzger]

To my Marine buddies, those who served and those who know the PAIN.
I was watching the movie  "Taking Chance"  and it took me back to a time 
very long ago.
If    "Memorial Day"   means anything to you, you owe it to yourself  to 
watch the movie  "Taking Chance".
It will rip your heart out, make you feel all mushy inside and make you 
appreciate and respect the honor bestowed upon our fallen heroes on 
Memorial Day.
It is by far the movie that best reflects what Memorial Day stands for.
I don't know what it is about Memorial Day that makes me feel this way 
and makes me say the things I am about to say.......

> We were "just kids", in the summer of 1965, when we landed in Vietnam.
> "Just kids", most of us 18-19-20 years old, just barely out of High 
> School, not yet old enough to drink but old enough to die for our 
> country.
> We never could quite understand that....if you are old enough to die 
> for your country you should be old enough to drink.
> With one year of advanced infantry training including jungle, desert, 
> cold weather, hand to hand combat and raider training we were gung ho 
> Marines, tough enough to chew nails.....I mean we were Captain 
> Tolleson's  Echo 2/7, the cream of the crop of  the Marine Corps' 
> Raider Battalion and ready to kick ass.
> We were "just kids" eager to be Marines, eager to serve during a time 
> of war, eager to be heroes.
> That naive fantasy thinking can change mighty quick when the landing 
> crafts hit the beach and bullets start flying.
> There is no glory in war, only misery....it is your worst nightmare.
> Our first casualty was by friendly fire....the tragic part was that 
> the bullet that caused our first casualty was fired by the casualties 
> best friend.
> In combat, reflex decisions have to be made in a split second and 
> sometimes those decisions turn out not to be the right ones.
> In my mind there is no greater honor than serving your country during 
> a time of war and no greater sacrifice than a soldier paying the 
> ultimate price while serving his country during a time of war.
> Take Pat Tillman for instance....Pat was a professional football 
> player who had fortune and fame yet walked away from a 3.6 million 
> dollar contract to serve his country and paid the ultimate 
> price....ironically, also by friendly fire.
> But it does not matter, friendly fire, enemy fire, the results are 
> always the same and Memorial Day is to honor all of our fallen heroes, 
> for they served their country and paid the ultimate price.
> If it were not for men like that, Obama might be our Prime Minister or 
> our national language might be German and Memorial Day is to remind us 
> of that and pay our respect to these fallen heroes who sacrificed 
> their lives so that we can enjoy what we have today.
>
> We did not consider ourself to be "just kids", but now that I am older 
> and wiser I realize, we  WERE   "just kids".
> Nothing has really changed and many of our troops serving in Iraq and 
> Afghanistan are still "just kids"......not yet old enough to  drink, 
> but old enough to die for their country.  
>                                                                                
> Think about that for a moment, on Memorial Day, and what that  day 
> stands for.    
>                                                                                                                                                                   
> Reinold Metzger
> Sgt. USMC 1964-68
> Gunner, Echo Co., 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines
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