Leadership from the Semper Fi Barber Shop
BY Herschel Smith
18 years ago
Seeing our son off to Mohave Viper yesterday for 30 days of training (here is another good description), and waiting for him to get a “medium-reg” haircut in the Semper Fi barber shop in Jacksonville, N.C., this caught my eye hanging on the wall. I thought I would share it with you.
A dead soldier who has given his life because of the failure of his leader is a dreadful sight before God. Like all dead soldiers, he was tired before he died and undoubtedly dirty. And possibly, frightened to his soul — and there on top of all of that, never again to see his homeland.
Don’t be the leader who failed to instruct him properly, or who failed to lead him well. Burn the midnight oil, that you may not in later years look at your own hands and find his blood still red upon them.
On October 27, 2006 at 5:21 pm, Chris said:
What is your son’s MOS? My friend (CPL now) went through Mojave Viper in August.
On October 27, 2006 at 5:47 pm, Breakerjump said:
Specifically, Daniel’s MOS is 0311, or Rifleman. He is a M249 SAW gunner, and achieved expert marksman at Parris Island for his success with the M16A2 at over 500 yards, with iron sights only – no optics.
The USMC line companies demand my respect. PUG’s have got to earn it.
Perhaps the Captain knows Daniel’s displacement.
On October 28, 2006 at 1:41 am, Herschel Smith said:
The two comments above point to an interesting question. Every Marine goes through Boot Camp. The graduates of Boot Camp at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at San Diego go to Camp Pendleton (West Coast), and those from Parris Island go to Camp Lejeune (East Coast). At some point in the future I will post on the strategic location of these two camps (West Coast, East Coast), but not now. The graduates split into two groups. Infantry go into School of Infantry, and non-infantry go into Marine Combat Training (MCT). School of Infantry is more comprehensive and difficult than MCT, and necessarily so. They are training infantry, while MCT is training ordnance, transport, logistics, etc.
It is expensive to staff and operate Mohave Viper, and also expensive to ship the Marines there by air. Further, they get hazardous duty pay while training there. So they would not, I don’t think, send Marines to train there without reason.
So the question is this: do they send anyone other than infantry (MOS 0311) to Mohave Viper?
Answer: I haven’t a clue.
On October 30, 2006 at 11:35 am, Chris said:
They do, because that is not my friend’s MOS (he’s a radio operator). He is deployed now though, which may account for the training.
On December 7, 2006 at 5:10 pm, Ski said:
If a unit is going to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan Everyone goes through the same training. It doesnt matter what their MOS is. There are no front lines in this war and anyone can be in the fight at a moments notice no matter what their job is.
semper field day