re: Marine officer shows how to win friends and influence people

My experience as a Marine officer with other officers who were former enlisted was they were either really good or really turrible. Not much middle ground. But the good ones were great.

Many of the Corp finest officers were prior enlisted including one of our greatest commandants ever, Gen Al Gray. The man who brought the warrior mentality back and threw the "C" uniform back in wall lockers and made Cammies the uniform of the day again.

Ain't that the truth. When I was at Marine Barracks, HMX1 the presidential security detail, I was around him a lot. Always punched everyone in the chest, even women lol.all Marines were equal in his eyes.

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1.) Listen to your NCO's - they know what's what in regard to what is going on within your unit.

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this is good advice.

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2.) Don't expect any kind of respect until you are at least a Captain. Butter bars are shite stains.

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this is complete horseshite.

In the same spirit, an oldie but a goodie from the Naval Institute about the erosion of officer status since WWII. USNI reprints this piece every few years for a new generation of officers:

Special Trust and Confidence

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At naked fundamentals, egalitarianism and the concept of an officer corps are irreconcilable. Egalitarianism attacks all distinctions, particularly distinctions of rank. Egalitarianism attempts to deny the underlying superior individual qualities of which rank is, or should be, the earned reward. Egalitarianism is the enemy of the special responsibilities and, even more so, of the special privileges of leadership.

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Al Gray was the fricking man. we'll never see Commandants like that ever again.

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An argument could be made that the modern USMC is Gray’s creation. Everything from doctrine to Marine Corps University had its genesis in his administration. The singular drive to adopt the Osprey and integrate VSTOL into every aspect of Infantry operations came from him as well.

I was an enlisted First Sergeant in a Combat Arms company. I served with officers from West Point, from ROTC and from OCS. I didn't give a shite where they came from.

I didn't ever have any issues with any company or field grade officers in over 20 years.

Now I had a deep dislike from when I knew (back then) BG Honore the DCG of the 1st Cavalry Division in Ft Hood circa 1998 or 99. That Louisiana baw was a 100% prick.

Most of the better officers I served with were mustangs.

The old school, officers are nobility attitude is more British than American.

Frick that dude.

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I’d argue that we shouldn’t allow you to be an officer unless you’ve served as an enlisted member. Even Academy graduates should be required to serve 2 years first before being eligible to be an officer

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So you want to deplete the ROTC pipeline and thus, deplete the pool of qualified candidates to be officers?

You can't be this dumb.

Marines doesn't need Mustangs, that's what WO's are for.