This Was Written By My Girlfriend

My Marine


The U.S. government needed him, we civilians needed him.
He took the challenge and gave his freedom.

He must have known it would change him.
But he couldn't have known how much it would change him.

He walked up and received his high school diploma with a nice haircut.
I believe he calls it a "high and tight".

Full attention paid to doing as he is expected.
Full attention is given to the Drill Sargent in his face.

Taught that there is a mission that must be completed.
Anything that is not part of the mission is unnecessary static.

Everything must be in its place and all must be perfect.
Unison and uniformity link him to the rest, even though they have no names.

Taught to kill,
trained to die.

Now he must re-learn how to function in society.
To him, we civilians are messy, and sometimes a waste of a being.

We don't follow the same code of conduct that he does.
We act as though the same rules do not apply to us.

He is disgusted and shuts it all out.
He can't turn off the coldness that the Marines taught him.

He feels like the rest of society will never understand him.
He has his Marine brothers and sisters who understand.

The rest of us must see that we are given our lazy lives of happiness,
Only because a machine-like person was trained to kill and die for us.

He is unique and strong.
He is mine.

I love him.

Semper Fidelis

To all the men and women who give up what we take for granted.
To the members of the Marine Corps,
Thank you!

And thank you Doug, for sharing your story with me so I know how fortunate I really am!



Amanda Grace

June 2, 2010