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Letters

Can’t we all just get along?

As I read Marine Corps Times and constantly see the bickering between grunts and persons other than grunts, it tears me up inside. Some of you might be saying I feel this way ’cause I’m a POG, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

I’m an 0311 infantryman and did six years in the fleet with multiple combat deployments — Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, the whole nine yards. Right now, I’m a drill instructor at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, and I work with grunts and POGs, including some who have never deployed.

I know, 0311s give a lot of grief to the 0352s and 0313s, calling them “03 motor T,” but we all must understand our role in the bigger scheme. If ammo techs don’t give us ammo, the fight is going to be a lot tougher. Intel tells us who to kill. The list can go on and on.

No, not all Marines are proficient enough in their rifle skills to serve in a rifle squad, as regular war-fighting grunts are, but look at it this way: They keep us in the fight and fully equipped.

Let’s leave the bickering among the Chair Force, the Army, the squids and those guys on the dinghies.

-- Sgt. Tom C. Ferguson, Oceanside, Calif.

Time for a new manpower plan

Military leaders acknowledge that our forces are seriously over-stressed by multiple extended deployments.

They see “little prospect of relief for the next 18 to 24 months” — as if some relief is coming after that. But that’s a mere hope. And that is taking too much risk.

Last month, the departing Army personnel chief told the Senate Armed Services Committee that current plans will get to only 15 months of “dwell time” between combat tours, and acknowledged, “That’s not sustainable.”

We’re still basing manpower strategy on some rose-colored wish that the problem will go away, even while acknowledging that 10 more years of persistent conflict and deployments are likely.

Leaders previously said there was no point in trying to increase force size because they couldn’t even meet existing recruiting goals. They no longer have that excuse. All services are meeting their goals and even cutting back on enlistment bonuses. The enlistment pool is there.

If we say our top defense priority is easing stress on those who are being asked to bear 100 percent of the nation’s wartime sacrifice, are we willing to put our money where our mouths are?

The only way to ease the stress on today’s forces is to grow those forces beyond the current plan. The current recession provides the perfect opportunity to do that.

Expressing empathy for the troops’ and families’ sacrifices without taking the only step that will ease those sacrifices is just useless conversation.

-- Vice Adm. Norb Ryan Jr. (ret.),

President, Military Officers Association of America, Alexandria, Va.

Commander proved he’s a cut above

In reference to the story about Gunnery Sgt. Enrique Valdez having his name placed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., (“Service recognition,” Frontlines, June 1), I was not surprised to read that retired Lt. Gen. Robert Johnston assisted the family in making this happen. When I was a young corporal assigned to I Marine Expeditionary Force, Lt. Gen. Johnston was our commander, and neither before nor since have I seen enlisted Marines so inspired by a general officer.

Lt. Gen. Johnston would go on 25-mile humps with line company units and then turn around and go for a 15-miler with I MEF Headquarters Marines — in the same week.

That happened on a regular basis to our knowledge, not to mention the words of wisdom he would speak to enlisted Marines as he walked the halls of I MEF Headquarters during the day.

When Lt. Gen. Johnston took us to Somalia as the joint task force commander, all of the Marines had a strong measure of pride knowing who our CG was.

During my career in the Corps, the only other generals I served under who inspired Marines in a similar way were Lt. Gen. Ron Christmas and Lt. Gen. Walter Boomer.

I hope today’s battlefields breed the same type of leaders for our Marines in the future.

I’ll never forget Lt. Gen. Johnston walking through the ranks during a break at mile 15 during one of those 25-mile humps and asking me, “How are you doing Marine?” I replied, “I’m hurting, sir.” He looked me right in the eye and said, “I’m hurting too, son” and patted me on the Kevlar with a smile. That’s the kind of leader he was to us at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and thank goodness we have Marine leaders like that who will take the time to help the family of a Vietnam veteran who needed him.

-- Staff Sgt. Terence A. D’Alesandro, Beaufort, S.C.