Hard Corps

[unhappycamper]

Hard Corps
By Chris Lawson - Staff writer

The moral of this story is pretty simple: As impossible as it may sometimes seem, people can change. Even small-minded, petty and violent criminals like Marco Martinez.

Ponder the highlights from his 2004 Navy Cross citation:

“After his squad leader was wounded, he took control and led the assault through a tree line where the ambush originated. As his squad advanced to secure successive enemy positions, it received sustained small arms fire from a nearby building. Enduring intense enemy fire and without regard for his own personal safety, Corporal Martinez launched a captured enemy rocket propelled grenade into the building temporarily silencing the enemy and allowing a wounded Marine to be evacuated and receive medical treatment. After receiving additional fire, he single-handedly assaulted the building and killed four enemy soldiers with a grenade and his rifle.”

Not bad for a soulless former gangbanger, a self described “sh--head” who, before joining the Corps, was on a bullet train to loser land.

His is an epic tale of the redemptive power of military service, the glories and horrors of war and the constant quest for forgiveness and acceptance.

It’s also a love story, of sorts. Love for his “brothers from other mothers” and for the Big Green Marine Machine itself.


Rest of gangbanger article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/entertainment/books/military_hardcorps_071102w/