The essay I wrote for the New York Times, which ran a couple days ago:
Christmas is a time to be with family. But for those of the 160,000 soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines in Iraq who celebrate the holiday, Dec. 25 will be just another day.
In Iraq, there are signs everywhere not only of holiday ingenuity, but also of people back home helping bring Christmas to us. At night, there’s a bunker here on the base that has what appears to be a small, colorfully lighted Christmas tree perched on its uppermost point, but daylight reveals a triangle-shaped pile of green sandbags. The walls over at the computer office are plastered with orange and blue penguins and snowmen – drawings only kindergartners could produce, with their shaky “thank yous” penciled into the margins.
A few weeks ago, I set up a fiber-optic Christmas tree and inflatable Snoopy Snow Globe here in the office. People like our retired Marine tanker-turned-contractor gave me a hard time about the decorations.
Lately, however, the teasing has stopped, and it makes me laugh when the big tough marines and contractors hug the snow globe and pester me to turn off the overhead lights and switch on the Christmas ones at the first hint of darkness.
But more often than I should, I wish I didn’t have time to hang candy canes or drape tinsel from the ceiling of our office. I wish I could be out scanning the road for homemade bombs with the military police or shepherding convoys from base to base with my fellow supply Marines.
I wish I could have been involved in the history-making election that just took place, instead of watching it on the news like the rest of the world. I know my job here is important but I can’t help but wish I could be doing more.
So on Christmas day, I will eat Christmas dinner in the safety of our fancy chow hall, while other Marines eat packaged “meals ready to eat” during a break between foot patrols in some insurgent-infested city. I will open presents from home, while other Marines check piles of garbage for booby traps. I will watch “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” on DVD, while other Marines guard checkpoints. And I will wish I was out there with them.
I am a female Marine currently in the Individual Ready Reserve. I like to sleep, travel, read, eat, explore, and take photographs. I read lots of news and I like reading about life in other countries. I am easily amused and my dream job is to be snoozing in a warm patch of sunlight, hopefully with a piece of tasty cheese nearby for when I wake up hungry.
Merry Christmas, Marine.
Merry Christmas to you and all the other Marines ~
dear Akinoluna…marine….may god bless you on this holy of days…and that all the men and women of the armed forces..be bless by a higher power….and i know you do belive me… but your higher power has other and great plans for you…so cool your heals marine……So i hope you and the troops…marines.. heheheheh sorry…have a blessed day……sgt j. lewis HOOOOOOOOAH!
well said, Maeery Christmas!
Awwwwwwwwww! This almost made me cry. I hear you, though, and you’re not alone in thinking that. Take care, and Merry Christmas! And if you get to go out there soon… I want to hear as much as you can tell us!
Best to you and the characters vectored into your area! Merry Christmas. May everyone – especially the heroes stuck with MRE’s – be safe and well “covered” this holiday weekend. Hey – you are doing something everyone needs – you can’t be everywhere!. God Bless you all and Thanks again for being THERE!
(I’m probably in trouble for saying this but it’s how I feel and if you can’t be honest with yourself, who can you be honest with?)
It’s a great essay and very touching. I can’t help but feel the misguided energy though. My father, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran, told me a long time ago that the only people who want to go to war are the ones who haven’t been there. I’ve since learned to add crazy grunts to that list!
I don’t mean anything negative towards you with this. I do think that you should be happy you’re not forced into that situation. As Marines we’re ready to go if we have to but we’re thankful when we don’t.
Everyone has a part to play. Your part is also important even if you don’t always see it’s importance played out.
Mike~
(In case anyone was wondering, I have not deployed yet. If my orders come down to deploy, I will take them without hesitation or complaint and I am extremely proud of my brothers and sisters deployed right now.)
I know what you mean. I’m too old to enlist, and my joints couldn’t take the hard work any more, but I wish I could be doing what YOU are doing! Finding myself wanting to help out with the effort, ya know? I can push papers like nobody’s business!
My thoughts and prayers for safety for all the troops.
Merry Christmas to you and yours, stay safe out there, I’ll be back in March.
That is a great story…I do have to somewhat agree with Mike because my husband is a Marine grunt and was deployed to Iraq for 9 months last year. He convoyed, got into a firefight and saw more than he wanted to see, even as a Marine. He will be leaving again in June. Althoug he doesn’t ever want to go back to Iraq, (he has said this) he has a sense of duty as a Marine and he is proud to do what he signed up for. So, don’t be down on yourself for doing the paperwork. Just be glad that you are off the dangerous streets of Iraq. Your family would be so worried about you, more than they probably already are. I know I sure was!
I agree with the other comments but I also understand everything you said. When I was in in “67 I felt the same way. I didn’t want to be “protected.” Naturally I didn’t want anything bad to happen to me either. But, neither do the guys. One day I fear we may regret that we have tried to make our women feel so pampered. I’m not unappreciative of the intent but whatever happened to the pioneer woman who stood beside her husband and brothers? hose women knew how and when to be ladies.
The thing is though, I’m not wishing I was a grunt or asking to work with grunts. What I’d like to do (and did once when we first got here) is simply go out with the military police when they do supply route patrols and convoy security. Not all the time, just once a week or so.
I don’t have kids, I’m not married, and I’ve done enough things already with my life that if I die, I don’t think I will have wasted my life. One of my favorite quotes is “Why tiptoe through life only to arrive safely at death?” I just want to be able to witness and take part of the war outside the wire, instead of watching it on the news like every one at home. I understand that no one wants me to get hurt but Marines risk their lives every day. My life isn’t worth more than theirs is.
It’s not a “female” issue because the military police are male AND female and they all work together on the same missions. Unless the “female” issue is just my Powers That Be treating me like their little daughter..and they have referred to themselves as my Marine parents! They don’t act like this toward the male sergeant, who is YOUNGER than me…if anybody, he would be the one needing parents. But then again, he doesn’t pester them every other day asking if he can go on a convoy. ;-)
But I will regret, for a long, long time, that the opportunity to get just a little taste of the rest of the war and to see just a little bit of Iraq was so close, and there for the asking, and that I was not allowed to take part.
First off, you are a trained Supply person. You are not a Female MP who is trained in all matters that relate to the job of being an MP. So you can’t compare yourself to a female in the MP unit.
I think you do them great injustice by trying to ride along on their patrols. You being inexperienced, put their lives at greater risk. You of course do not see it that way. And you probably try and justify that being a Marine means you’re automatically qualified. I think all the Marines and Soldiers that are either dead or mamed for life wish it could have been different. Most died without a chance or a prayer of surviving. Let’s just say you were in a truck that was hit by an IED and all of you are wounded seriously. Now the medics will have to attend to another person and put everyone at more risk of loosing their lives. There are a thousand such senerios.
My thought is that you serve no purpose on a patrol. It isn’t like you are holding a line and repelling the enemy, your simply along for the ride.
Why are you not interested in doing guard duty, guarding Iraqies on post, picking up trash, costructing building, driving bulsdozers, or helping the chaplain. All are parts of the war effort, and all deserve credit for the cause. Why is it that you only give credit to those who leave the wire.
I do not mean to belittle you or take away from what you are. You are doing your part in this war. Let the others do their part. You do not need to try and steal their glory.
Ahh…gotta love it when people who don’t know what they are talking about talk….
I never said or thought that I am “automatically qualified” just because I am a Marine. I don’t give credit only to those who “leave the wire”. I am not trying to steal anyone’s “glory”. Those are called “lies” which means you are pulling words out of your ass in an attempt to make a point.
The MPs are not all MPs by MOS. They are composed of MPs AND some supply Marines. (GASP! Oh no! Untrained people are outside the wire!)
I do not believe I am doing them a “great injustice” by riding along, unless you also agree that they are doing THEMSELVES a great injustice. They have a special program set up specifically to allow Marines who are not MPs to ride along to see what they do. What makes you think I serve no purpose? You can never have too many eyes watching for suspicious vehicles or scanning the road for IEDs. I am also a qualified Humvee driver which means that when the driver starts getting sleepy, I could take a turn driving if they needed me to.
The military police aren’t stupid. If they thought having someone like me along would put them in greater danger, I’m sure they would tell me to stay home. And I’d be the first one to turn around and leave. But they didn’t. They told me I was more than welcome to join them again.
I’ll bet you aren’t a qualified Humvee driver!
When did you go to Driving School?
Snort. You’ll bet? Ha ha ha… I took a driving course the month before I came to Iraq. What do you want me to do? Mail you a copy of the Humvee driver’s license I carry in my wallet at all times?
Why am I getting a feeling this is somebody I know just messing with me?? LOL
THIS POST IN NOT MEANT TO CUT DOWN MPs OR THE IMPORTANCE OF THEIR DUTIES! A friend of mine is a female Marine MP (k-9) so I know the training is hard and their job is important. Anyway…
Ok, there is more than one anonymous poster here so I will identify myself…my message was about my husband being in Iraq last year, etc.
After reading your response Maria, I just wanted to add that I agree that there can NEVER be enough eyes looking for suspicous people while on a convoy. Also, you are right about not all MPs being actual school trained MPs. My husband’s MOS is 0351 and he is school trained. When he went to Iraq last year and he wasn’t convoying and all that stuff, his unit worked with an Army MP unit (which was actually in charge over his unit)to provide security at a prison. And many of the Army artillery units are also picking up MP duties just because their MOS is not as much in demand there right now. Many of the things MPs do can be taught to any Marine or soldier. I am not trying to cut MPs down in any way and I know they go thru a difficult school and all but the guard duty and the convoying can be done by any Marine as long as he/she knows how to use their rifle and isn’t scared to use it! So, Maria if you feel like you should go, you should. Just be careful out there!
Just a tad off topic, but it came up tangentially in the previous post… anyone have a good pointer to blog/whatever so I can hear about the K9 side of the story? I had a few months of email back-and-forth with a Marine K9 Cpl awhile back, and it was really interesting.
There is a reason that the Army MP’s are required to go to school, and there is a reason that they have longer contract times. It is not a simple job, nor can any Marine stand the duty. True, they may be augmented but I guarntee these augmentees get training.
Army artillary is actually a very busy MOS in Iraq. Marine artillary is not.
Did anyone else notice the similarity in the writing between the last anonymous poster and Maria?
Marine MPs don’t have longer contracts than most other Marines. No MOS is a “simple” job but you know what? Most of us learn far more about our jobs AFTER our training than during training. I’ve seen so many people doing something other than what they were trained to do: supply being MPs, Motor T being supply, grunts being barracks managers, supply being computer programmers, etc.
I firmly believe that if the MPs felt it was a danger to have Marines with them that did not go to MP school that they would not allow it.
P.S. And I always post under my name.
I’m almost scared to get in this one now!
Looks like both sides feel very strongly about this and I think you both have valid points. Having someone in a convoy that doesn’t do them very often will lower the effectiveness of the convoy; however, when a unit first deploys everyone in that convoy is probably doing them for the first time unless they have deployed already. We have made it this far so that must say something about the adaptability of the Marines or the leadership on those convoys.
Training will always better prepare soldiers to do their job. If I was to go on a convoy I would certainly seek some advice from people who do them more regularly. I put more value on that sort of training than on the class room training.
Lastly, correct me if I’m wrong but you can only fit 5 people in a Hummer (four in seats and one standing and operating the weapon on the turrent) so if Maria was to go it wouldn’t be one extra person to look after, it would be one extra person who got to sit that convoy out. That’s something I’m sure they would have no problem with.
Mike~
P.S. Don’t think this means I would be ok hearing you went on another convoy or patrol Maria!
Holy freaking cow. You’re all making a big deal over this when it doesn’t need to be.
For the record, I was in dozens of convoys all over central Iraq last year – Baghdad – Fallujah – Abu Ghraib – Kalsu – Mahmudiyah etc. etc. etc. (though I’ve never been to TQ.) I was with an infantry battalion, but I don’t have a combat arms MOS.
I was not a liability for the other Marines on the convoy. Nor was I any great asset, just another rifle and another set of eyes.
This is going to sound blunt, but if you get struck by an IED in the wrong way – you’re going to die. It doesn’t matter if you’re some Force Recon Ninja Assasin Ranger Rambo or a female supply clerk – if it hits you wrong, you die. So in that sense, your training matters about as much as what color socks you’re wearing.
Every vehicle in a convoy will have a vehicle commander, in a HMMWV, that is usually a grunt Sgt. In the event that the crap hits the proverbial fan while you’re in his vehicle, just shut your mouth and do what you’re told until the situation is dealt with and everything will be fine.
Look folks, just like everyone else I don’t want Akinoluna to go out and get blowed up, but trust me, participaing in a logistics convoy, or even a combat patrol, while stressful, is something she can handle.
Force Recon Ninja Assasin Ranger Rambo….ha ha, that made me laugh. But what you said iss true.
As Sgt Minnesota pointed out, you can only fit five people in a Humvee so theoretically, one person would get the night off if I was to come along. But the thing is, the MPs I went on patrol with travel with the bare minimum. They had a driver, assistant driver/radio/tracker guy, and the gunner. I was the fourth person. That’s it. The other four Humvees in our squad carried only three people. So, somehow, it doesn’t surprise me that they were so eager to have ride-a-longs…
I posted that anonymous message, not Maria. I identified myself at the beginning of my post because I have posted before but I am not registered so it always comes up as anonymous. And I disagree that Marines can’t stand the duty of an Army MP. That is absurd. Marines are trained to overcome any situation and I am sure that any Marine can handle the duties of an Army MP. I don’t know how long an Army MP goes to school but the female Marine that I know went to MP school at Ft. Leonard Wood for 9 weeks before going to K-9 school at San Antonio. I know she could handle a Marine or Army MP’s job.
Apples and Oranges…
That other WM is an MP, Maria is a SUPPLY Marine. Two very different jobs. An MP is an MP I don’t care what service. I wasn’t taling about your friend not being capable. And I am sorry, but MP’s are very specialised for what they do. I would most compare them to Infantry. It is more about knowing the teams playbook… if you compare it to sports. Daily they call plays and work as a team while Maria picks up the laundry, mail, plays on the computer, oh and occasionally works… Actually she has a new job.
The Marine MP’s could easily fill their humvee’s to copacity but… there is an old saying something about eggs and baskets. Instead they incorporate more vehicles with less people inside them.
I just think she is doing this for self gratification and not thinking about other people. If she wanted to help others there are lots of other places to help that she would more easily fit. She just doesn’t want to do that, she wants to say she went outside the wire. Why to kill someone? Survive and IED attack? See dead people? What?????
What makes you think the Marine MPs could easily fill up their Humvees to capacity? They can’t. Last time I asked, each squad has 15 people. Each patrol has five Humvees. You do the math.
Not all the MPs are MPs either, like I said before. Some of them are supply Marines. Most people who come out here haven’t been on a convoy until they get here. EVERYBODY starts from scratch on their first patrol. And like I said, it’s up to the MPs to decide if ride-a-longs are a danger, NOT YOU.
I think I explained well enough why I want to go outside the wire. Even if I didn’t, I don’t owe you an explanation. And I’ve had enough of your insulting attempts to read my mind and say what YOU think I’m thinking, because you have been WRONG EVERY TIME.
And stop using my name. There’s a reason I use Akinoluna. Plus, I think you are someone who knows me in real life and I’m getting sick of you hiding behind “Anonymous”.
And a few more things…apparently the Army is a little different than the Marine Corps. In the Marine Corps, all Marines are trained to be “basic riflemen”. We ALL learn the basics of being an infantryman. We ALL learn the basics of going on patrols and dealing with prisoners. Regardless of the MOS we go to school for, ALL Marines are trained and expected to be able to function “outside the wire”. And you know what? I believe virtually all Marines are fully capable of putting down their pencils, dusting off their rifles, and heading off the base into a war zone. It’s a part of who we are and it’s part of the reason we choose to become Marines.
Wanting to do what you are trained to do is not self-gratification.
It would be like someone training to be a teacher and then at their first school, they get sent to work with the janitor while their classmates are all busy teaching!
I am not an oddball in my desire to venture outside the base. Almost all the other supply and admin Marines I’ve talked to about wanting to go out on patrols want to do the same thing. We all want to take part in what’s going on. We all want to see more of the country we are supposedly saving. Guess that’s why we are Marines and not Army like you.
At one point, I even asked the MP squad leader if he could use another person to work with him. And you know what? He said YES, he could, especially since I have a Humvee license. The fact that a genuine Marine Corps military policeman said I could be useful to him on patrols and convoys will always mean so much more to me than your arrogant, know-it-all comments.
I do know you. I know what “training” you have had. I know you are dumb enough to go on another trip outside the wire. I do know that alot of the gear you have out there is new to you. I do know that you had no idea how to use some of it…
I do know you had no idea how to drive a humvee.
And you are wrong that MOST people want to go on MP patrols. I would say MOST people want to go home.
I also know you will not listen to reason. Most likely you will delete this. Sad really….
There’s a few things the MPs use that I don’t know how to use yet, but nothing I can’t learn quickly. It was new to them at one point too, you know. You can’t just not do things because something new is involved. That’s the kind of backward thinking that keeps people from growing and learning.
Yes, most people want to go home, but since they are stuck here, they also want to get a chance to experience something other than what’s on the base. Maybe the ones you talk to are happy on base. Many of the ones I know aren’t.
I listen to reason, which is why I don’t listen to people like you. You act like you know everything, like you think you know what’s best for other people. And you don’t. Speak for yourself, not me. And I especially don’t listen to people so cowardly that they continue to post anonymously, even after I called you on it.
I also don’t listen to people who lie about me and put words in my mouth and pretend they know what I’m thinking. Saying I don’t know how to drive a Humvee is just funny. Ha ha ha…
But it’s okay. Your opinion means nothing to me for all the reasons I listed above. You are just the entertainment until I finish writing my next post.
Yanno my dear ole daddy used to tell me … “son”, he called me son yanno, “Son”, he said, never argue with a fool passerby’s can’t tell who is who.
BTW Anonymous attacker of women and knower of everything….. here is how to identify yourself even here …..
Jim B
Semper Fi Akinoluna
Akinoluna,
Sorry I used your name…I just happened to see it when I posted in your guestbook. I didn’t know you felt that way about it. Just so everyone knows, I am not the anoynymous poster Jim. Obviously I am a female and he is named Jim so I guess that clears that up. Anyway, good luck to you Akinoluna and be safe :)
Mrs. G, proud Marine wife :)
Crap. I forgot my name’s on the guestbook! I thought it was the nasty poster using my name too…sorry…
Haha…it’s ok. I think he used your name too so I guess it was my fault for using it first! Sorry!
Mrs. G, Proud Marine Wife
Anyone should be able to label themselves when they comment.
This is how the comment box looks on my computer, but I’m not sure if it is different for some reason on other peoples.
If you look below the box you should see “Choose an identity” with the option of ‘Blogger’ ‘Other’ and ‘Anonymous’
If you click ‘Other’ you should be able to type in whatever you want in the ‘Name’ box underneath.
You should be able to name yourself whatever…me…I have used Justin, Justinfucious, Little Brother…and several others.
Hope this helps give some ‘Identity’ to everyone here.
I feel for soldiers who are away from home for the holidays, we owe them our freedom. I was one before and I always assisted or Thank them when I am in the airport.