What Did I Fight For?

I am a Marine.  I retired after twenty years of honorable service to my country; a country I loved so much that I honestly believed that dying for its noble causes was something I understood was a possibility.  I was willing to make that sacrifice so that future generations could enjoy the freedoms that make America great.

I was a Vietnam era Marine.  Although I never was sent to this country, I faced anger from my fellow citizens every time I was in my uniform.  I was asked to leave a restaurant while in uniform because “my kind are just not welcomed here.”  I have stood in bars while in uniform and had family members whose loved one died in Vietnam yell at me because “we should have never been there.”  I was called a baby killer, a monster, and words I can’t repeat just because I wore my Marine Corps uniform with pride.  In every case, I was respectful because I understood that these people were exercising their freedom to speak their minds.  Yes, I would sometimes engage in honest debate and sometimes I even made them rethink their position.  But I served so that they could speak freely.

I was a Marine who served under President Nixon, President Ford, President Carter, President Reagan, President Bush, and President Clinton.  Although I did not agree with the politics of some of these men, they were the duly elected President of the United States and as a Marine, they were my Commander-in-Chief.  So, I showed respect for each and every one of them because of the office they filled.  I served these leaders because I believed that our Constitution was greater than any one man who filled the office of President.

I was a Marine who served in hot spots.  When President Reagan ordered the bombing of Libya, I was part of the task force assigned to that mission.  When President Reagan ordered mine sweeping helicopters deployed to the Persian Gulf in 1987, I was part of that task force.  I served in the Pacific theater, the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean, the far east, the middle east, the east coast, the west coast, and the deep south of the United States – wherever I was sent, I served because my loyalty was to the people of our great country.

Now, as a Marine who has been retired for over twenty, I look at what is going on in this country and I shake my head in bewilderment.

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Our brave men and women have been fighting in armed conflicts since 2003 and yet a bunch millionaire professional football player kneeling during the national anthem gets the love and admiration of the press.  Do they have the right to kneel?  Absolutely – that is why I served (Side note, our military members cannot disobey orders and take a knee in protest but they defend the rights of those who do.).  But if their real reason is to protest the actions of police toward minorities, wouldn’t they be more effective by going into the communities of concern and working with the residents and the local police departments to establish trust and to help bring solutions?  How about working with the many schools that are failing to truly prepare our children to succeed in the business world?  How about standing up to face the problems instead of kneeling to get attention on oneself?

Our brave men and women serve in outposts all across this globe to ensure that any threat to the United States can be met with swift and decisive action.  That action will be ordered by our President.  And back home, we have people who state loudly that “He is not my President.”  Our schools have failed our people because they have not taught our children the great foresight exhibited by our founding fathers when they created the Electoral College system.  The media takes great delight in condemning every action of this President so that they can create a “we verse them” mentality so that everyone feels they must be on one side or another.  So, the message is that if you are against this President, you are part of the cool crowd but if you are for him, you are a racist, hate-monger.  But our military continues to keep every American safe because they took an oath “…to obey the orders of the President and the Officers appointed over me…”  See, they put the welfare of all Americans first.  Wouldn’t we all be better off if we thought like our military?

Our brave men and women serve together as Americans.  Race, religion, ethnicity, gender mean nothing when the enemies of America are trying to kill you.  The only thing you care about is that the person on your right and your left is going to fight to the death for you just as you are going to fight to the death for him or her.  We need to stop identifying ourselves as African-Americans, Italian-Americans, Polish-Americans, etc.  We need to just be Americans.  My grandparents legally immigrated to this country from Poland.  My father was the first of their children born in this country.  He grew up being told by his father that he was lucky because he was an American.  My father served his country in World War 2 as part of the 101^st Airborne Division.  And when I joined the Marine Corps, he was proud that I had chosen to serve the country he fought to preserve.  My father was an American.  I am an American.  Can’t we all just be Americans and proud of that fact? [/message][su_spacer]

What did I fight for?  I fought for it all.  The good things that make us all proud of our country.  The mistakes that make America hang its head in shame.  The far left who want a socialist society while complaining of interference in our elections by the Russians, a socialist society.  The far right who use hate to elevate themselves and justify treating others as less than human.  The rich, the poor, the middle class.  The weak, the strong, the smart, and the downright insane.  I fought for your right to protest and I fought for my right to embrace this country’s greatness in spite of its faults.  I was a Marine for twenty years – I am still a Marine today – and I will die a proud Marine.  I fought for the greatest country that has ever existed because it is a country that added a Bill of Rights to our Constitution so that the basic freedoms of its people would be protected.

So, now, I ask you.  As we prepare to close out this year and begin a new year.  Can we make a commitment to ourselves to use 2018 to listen more and talk less – to be more understanding and less judgmental – to see our past, mistakes and all, as the means by which we have become a nation envied by the rest of the world – and most importantly, to work together to find solutions to our problems; uniting as Americans to ensure the freedoms we have enjoyed for over 200 years will be available to our future generations.  Isn’t that worth fighting for?

People tell you that you are a good leader. But that’s not enough for you. You want to be an exemplary leader – the kind of leader whose team will follow him or her into any situation. But how can you gain the skills that will take your leadership to this ultimate goal? Step one is to grab your copy of Len’s new Book – Leadership Matters | Advice From A Career USMC Officer. Using his life experiences as examples, Len takes the eleven principles of leadership and the fourteen traits every leader should possess—which he learned during twenty years in the Marine Corps—and teaches the reader how he was molded and shaped by some of the best leaders the Corps had to offer.