• Digestive_Biscuit@feddit.uk
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    2 days ago

    Honest question, why do people who are not active call themselves a marine? Let’s say you’re retired, too old to be in service, would you refer to yourself as being a marine or was once a marine?

    • grahamja@reddthat.com
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      1 day ago

      It is an earned title, once a Marine, always a Marine. If you made it through boot camp then you’re part of the gun club forever. It isn’t necessarily that hard to get through boot camp, tens of thousands of high school / college age people do it a year. But earning your Eagle, Globe and Anchor is an emotional experience typically followed by a 4 year roller coaster of training, deploying overseas, and losing friends. If a stranger with no context says you don’t rate a title you earned for life it is upsetting to say the least. Cynical people call most of the things Marines do is propaganda.