Hearts and Minds
A proud local father of a local Marine sends along this commendation his son received for not only helping to get medical care for an injured Iraqi boy, but for taking a small step towards winning hearts and minds in an area where that hadn’t been going too well.
That’s terrific. I have a lot of friends coming back from the the war zones having accomplished wonderful humanitarian missions, but they don’t get much publicity. Shame.
That particular medal is hard to get in peacetime (usually reserved for ass-suckers), harder in wartime, and harder in the combat zone. To earn this in the combat zone shows this particular Marine is outstanding in more than a few ways. Our troops do have big hearts, and always have. At the request of 2nd BN, 2nd Marine Regiment (same regiment I served in during the 80′s) Marine Corps League detachments are sending soccer balls and air pumps and needles to Afghanistan. The Grunts say you can win a bunch of young hearts and minds with new soccer balls. My detachment sent 2/2 over 1000.00 worth of Thurlo combat socks in addition to the soccer balls. Actions speak louder than words when you say “I support our Troops”