The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

A Soldier and Two Marines: Sworn to ‘Support and Defend the Constitution’

Posted on | January 9, 2013 | 31 Comments

My son is now in training, but we got a lecture about “operational security” during our visit to the MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) and after discussion with my wife, I decided against posting video or photos of the swearing-in ceremony, where our soldier took an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

The 18X program isn’t something I’d been familiar with before, and I had no idea what an honor it was for my son to be enlisted under that program. Yeah, I knew he’d scored at the top on the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery). My son’s recruiter said he’d only had one other applicant score that high — and that kid ended up going to Harvard instead of enlisting. Sure, my son told me that he had some kind of special deal, but . . .

My older brother ended up on a mortar crew in the 101st Airborne after being enlisted with promises that he’d be trained as a mechanic, so I took all this “special program” recruiter talk with a grain of salt. But then I heard the story about my son’s roommate, on the night before they shipped out, who took a look at my son’s processing papers and said, “Wow. You really are 18 X-ray.” Apparently, it’s kind of a big deal.

While we were in the Ceremony Room where the swearing-in took place, I read a plaque on the wall. The plaque explained that the room was dedicated to the memory of Marine Corporal Jennifer M. Parcell, who had sworn in there two days after her 18th birthday in 2004.

In October 2006, Corporal Parcell was deployed to Iraq and assigned to the 1st Combat Logistics Group. She volunteered to search female Iraqi citizens at a checkpoint in Al Anbar Province, and was killed in an attack by a female suicide bomber on Feb. 7, 2007.

Corporal Parcell was 20 years old when she died — the same age as my son on the day he enlisted in the Army. Think about that.

So then I look at the top of Memeorandum and here’s this story by Daniel Halper of the Weekly Standard:

Vice President Joe Biden revealed that President Barack Obama might use an executive order to deal with guns.
“The president is going to act,” said Biden, giving some comments to the press before a meeting with victims of gun violence.

“Executive order.” Yeah. Never let a crisis go to waste, eh? But there are lots of people who have taken that oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States,” and one of them is Marine Corps veteran Joshua Boston, who had a few words for Sen. Dianne Feinstein regarding her plan to disarm American citizens:

I am not your subject. I am the man who keeps you free. I am not your servant. I am the person whom you serve. I am not your peasant. I am the flesh and blood of America. I am the man who fought for my country. . . .
I will not be disarmed to suit the fear that has been established by the media and your misinformation campaign against the American public.

It’s kind of a tricky business, this question of who is serving whom, and some people seem rather confused about this. Many of the most confused people are, alas, a disgrace to my own profession. One of them, a CNN news anchor, got schooled by the former Marine corporal:

“Unconstitutional laws aren’t laws.”

Indeed. What part of “shall not be infringed” is so hard to understand? And since when is it the job of a CNN anchor to take sides in a policy dispute, as a partisan defender of Sen. Feinstein and a volunteer advocate of this legislation? Who does she think she is, Piers Morgan?

And yeah, Joshua Boston owned Piers Morgan, too:

The American people aren’t as gun-happy and trigger-happy as they’re being  painted out to be by the media. They are smarter than that. They know when to  hold their fire. They know when to fire. . . . We can’t give up our rights because we’re afraid. . . .
No matter what laws we pass, Lord knows we have laws, and during the last  assault weapons ban, it didn’t stop Columbine from happening. It didn’t stop the  West Hollywood shoot-out from happening. These things happen. There are criminals in our world that we have to contend with. And disarming people and  taking the AR-15s out of their homes isn’t going to help.

What is it with these media idiots — including a damned foreigner like Piers Morgan — who think they are entitled to lecture a Marine veteran about his rights as an American? Don’t they understand that the First Amendment, which every journalist rightly reveres, is worthless without the protections of the Second Amendment? And don’t they understand that people have died to defend our rights as Americans?

Excuse me for gettng kind of torqued up about this. But an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States” is a pretty serious thing and, having seen my wife cry as she hugged our boy on his way to training, I wish more people would take their oaths seriously.





 

 

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Comments

  • http://twitter.com/Eccentrie MaryEllen Rendine

    Thank you for raising a Patriot and may God Bless him as he serves & you, his parents as you wait for his return.

  • BruceC

    Godspeed to your son, Stacy, and also to your family.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jerry.root1 Jerry Root

    Congratulations to your son, and thank him for his service. He reflects well on his parents. I wish him a long and safe career.

  • http://evilbloggerlady.blogspot.com/ Evi L. Bloggerlady

    Thank you and your son for your son’s service. Thank you for raising him well. And the 18 x-ray is a big deal. I hope he graduates (it is a very difficult course and there is no shame in not getting through it, but great honor if you do make it).

  • http://boogieforward.us/ K-Bob

    Well done, Stacy and Son. My guess is you won’t want to arm wrestle him after he completes that course.

    Since you segued into the state control over citizens debate, let me paste in something I wrote at Scoop’s, because it’s appropriate:

    ======================

    The NRA has published a list of organizations and individuals who support “gun control.”

    Let’s ignore the use of the left’s language here (namely “gun control”)… I took a look at the list, and it isn’t just PBS sponsor organizations or lobbying groups. It’s a really big list, including businesses you buy things from.

    What we can all do is begin writing letters. Lots and lots of letters. And make sure those businesses know we will not support them. Let’s get busy!

    (By the way, for some reason, the NRA has made the list hard as heck to find from their websites, and no one who has been flogging this story has provided a link. I dug deep with some search-fu, and found the source code version for you Scoopers, so please spread that link, so it has some credibility behind it. If you can go to a conservative site out there, or to places like the Blaze, foxnews, mediaite, etc, let them know that the NRA link above is the one they should be using.)

  • http://www.facebook.com/eric.ashley.58 Eric Ashley

    I’m impressed with both your son and Mr. J. Bolton.

  • robertstacymccain

    Well, there’s no shame in being 11B — lots of infantrymen in the family tree — and I suppose it’s up to God whether the boy makes SF or not. The great thing about being a Calvinist is that there isn’t really so much to worry about, if you genuinely trust in the will of a sovereign God. Trusting is very difficult, of course.

  • OldmanRick

    We have seen the enemy and it is the current administration and congress. Our oath stated that we to defend against enemies both foreign and domestic. Right now our worst enemies are in the oval office and congress.

  • CPAguy

    Congrats, RSM!

  • SDN

    I wish more people would take their oaths seriously.

    At the rate Obama is going, we’ll find out how many do in the next four years.

  • JeffS

    You are correct.. Unfortunately.

  • JeffS

    Good luck to your son. Tell him to shoot first.

    Don’t they understand that the First Amendment, which every journalist rightly reveres, is worthless without the protections of the Second Amendment? And don’t they understand that people have died to defend our rights as Americans?

    I suspect that they don’t care. Insert your reason why right here.

  • Quartermaster

    May God keep his protecting hand on your son.
    By the by, tell him to stay away from the pop machines when he’s out in the field during the qual course. The locals will turn you in and laugh at you when they do it.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MJGP4QXZ5PRW2MFA5E25CV2WNU rosalie

    “May God hold your son in the palm of his hands.”

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    That’s a very useful list – thanks.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    You and Mrs. Other must be so proud.

    Godspeed to the lad. And God bless the McCain Family.

  • http://www.facebook.com/agnes.b.bullock Agnes B. Bullock

    God Bless you and your family-

  • http://twitter.com/richard_mcenroe richard mcenroe

    Actually, it was the North Hollywood shootout, took place only a few blocks from my then home.

    And if you want an example of how honestly Democrats and other progs deal with the gun issue, there used to be a gunshop called B&B Guns in North Hollywood. The day of the shootout, cops were running in there DURING the gunfight with the Russian immigrant thugs looking for heavier firepower and the shop cooperated by lending them rifles and ammunition.

    LA shut the store down for not imposing the mandatory 10-day waiting period on the cops.

  • http://profiles.google.com/rob5136 Rob Crawford

    “which every journalist rightly reveres”

    What makes you believe that? Where’s the evidence?

    You’re saying the people who shriek in horror over “amateurs in their pajamas” expressing their opinions online have any regard for the 1st Amendment?

  • towerclimber

    There are many of us, like your son. we abide. When freedom’s last light is flickering, we will come. From the mountains and hollers, from the plains and from the coasts.
    We will come not to talk but to put things right. This we’ll defend.

  • Freddie Sykes

    Notice how Newsette ask Mr Bolton “How do you stop this from happening again?” She demonstrates the mindset that crime would be impossible if only we passed the right set of laws. The fact is that both the school shooter and firemen shooter were not eligible to purchase guns; each broke existing gun laws before their murder sprees.

    Crimes will occur as long as people have criminal hearts.

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  • http://www.thepiratescove.us/ William_Teach

    ” Don’t they understand that the First Amendment, which every journalist
    rightly reveres, is worthless without the protections of the Second
    Amendment?”

    No, no, see, in Liberal World, it is The Central Planning Committee, er, Government, that protects our Rights as they see fit. They will be happy to provide police after the crime, along with grief management counselors.

    Liberals think Rights come from Government.

  • M. Thompson

    Good on your son. He’s still a re-cru-it, and thus the lowest form of military life. But he’ll get better.

  • El Jefe

    And there is no expiration date for that oath

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  • http://evilbloggerlady.blogspot.com/ Evi L. Bloggerlady

    You could be Catholic, and then you would just feel guilty about everything.

  • Steve Skubinna

    Right, offer up your suffering to Jesus.

    Which, when I was in Second Grade, always seemed more than a little bit off… I mean, the guy is nailed to a cross wearing a crown of thorns, having previously been scourged, and I should complain to him about my stubbed toe?

    Which I suppose is the point – perspective. Second Graders aren’t especially good at it.

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