Openbah / Journal of a Marine Officer Candidate

Author: Openbah

  • Iraq and Afghanistan veterans honored at Harvard


    Photo by Tom Fitzsimmons

    I attended a forum at Harvard last night, at which five veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan discussed leadership on the front lines. The veterans, 3 Army officers and two Marine Reserve officers, discussed how to be a successful leader in hostile situations.

    Major Ewers explained that during the most dire of circumstances, how you handle yourself and how you react is when those under you most look to you as a leader. That is why you must always act ethical and honorable.

    When asked about how he and his men deal with the crumbling support back home Major Ewers said he highlights and focuses on the importance and all of the good being done. He explained how he doesn’t waste his energy worrying about something that is outside of his influence.

    When all of the veterans were asked why the continue to volunteer for service and make tours to Iraq they said that if they don’t go, someone else will, and they would rather put themselves in harms way.

    “You get to the place where you would do anything for the guy on your left or the gal on your right, because frankly, you know they would do anything for you.” – Captain Maura Sullivan

    The panel:
    Lt. Col. Oscar Hall, U.S. Army Armor Battalion Commander, Iraq; KSG National Security Fellow ‘07
    Major Daniel Wagner, U.S. Marine Corps Civil Affairs Officer in Iraq; Planner, Afghanistan ‘02; KSG MPA ‘02
    Major Joseph Ewers, U.S. Army Infantry Company Commander, Iraq; HBS MBA Candidate ‘07
    Captain Maura Sullivan, U.S. Marine Corps Operations Officer, Iraq; KSG & Stanford MPA & MBA Candidate ‘08
    Lt. Col. Fredrick Wellman, United States Army UH-60 Aviator, Public Affairs Officer, Iraq; KSG Mid-Career MPA ’07

    Also in attendance was Lieutenant General Douglas E. Lute, Director of Operations, Joint Chiefs of Staff.

    More photos and information from the forum can be found here:
    http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/02.22/05-vets.html

  • President Hillary Clinton

    My grandmother forwarded this to me:

    One sunny day in 2008, an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he’d been sitting on a park bench.

    He spoke to the Marine standing guard and said, “I would like to go in and meet with President Hillary Clinton.”

    The Marine replied, “Sir, Mrs. Clinton is not President and doesn’t reside here.”

    The old man said, “Okay,” and walked away.

    The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, “I would like to go in and meet with President Hillary Clinton”.

    The Marine again told the man, “Sir, as I said yesterday, Mrs. Clinton is not President and doesn’t reside here.”

    The man thanked him and again walked away . .

    The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same Marine, saying “I would like to go in and meet with President Hillary Clinton.”

    The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, “Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mrs. Clinton. I’ve told you already several times that Mrs. Clinton is not the President and doesn’t reside here. Don’t you understand?”

    The old man answered, “Oh, I understand you fine, I just love hearing your answer!”

    The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, “See you tomorrow.”

  • 11 month update

    Not much has changed since my last update. The leg feels great one week and terrible the next. The only time I know it’s going to hurt is when we’re going to get rain. I’ve scaled back my workout routine at the gym slightly, I don’t want to injure myself before my orthopedic appointment on the 27th. Hopefully things will look good enough at that time to proceed with scheduling the surgery to remove the screws. I am really looking forward to getting them out. Now that it’s so close I think about how nice it’s going to be without them all the time. I hope they let me keep them…

  • Army Sgt in Iraq orders mats, receives insult

    Sergeant Hess, a member of the U.S. Army currently serving in Iraq, is tired of sleeping on the “cold ground, which contains sand mites, sand flies and other disease carriers.” So Sergeant Hess tried ordering some mats to sleep on from Discount-Mats.com. He emailed the company asking if they ship to APO addresses. The reply he got was disturbing:

    SGT Hess,

    We do not ship to APO addresses, and even if we did, we would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq.

    Bargain Suppliers
    Discount-Mats.com

    From the “Why Choose Us” page of Discount-Mats.com’s website (which has been taken down):

    Outstanding Service – As a customer, you’re part of our family. You can expect friendly, courteous, responsive service before and after the sale.

    I think not!

    According to Fox News, the Web-based company is registered to Faisal Khetani, an American Muslim of Pakistani descent.

    My guess is this company will change names and never reopen their phone lines or check their email, but if they do and you’d like to leave them a message…

    contact@discount-mats.com

    414-736-8394
    (9 a.m. – 5 p.m. central time)

    Mailing address:
    Bargain Suppliers
    3259 S.106th Street
    West Allis, WI 53227

  • Public Storage sells Army Specialist’s belongings while deployed in Iraq

    After serving a year in Iraq, Army Reserve Spc. Patrick Rogalin came home and found that everything he had put in a storage locker – essentially everything he owned – had been sold.

    Several payments for the locker had bounced because someone emptied his checking account while he was gone.

    “It’s really insulting, after all I went through over there serving my country, to come back and have to deal with this,” Rogalin said.

    Rogalin, 20, said he put his belongings into a Public Storage unit near St. Louis before shipping out and set up automatic payments with the company. But while he was in Iraq, he said, someone accessed his checking account and cleaned it out.

    After learning of the problem from his bank, Rogalin opened a different account and resumed making payments to Public Storage.

    “When I got back I called Public Storage to find out the status of my account and they told me the contents of my storage container had been auctioned off in June because the bill hadn’t been paid,” he said.

    Continue reading article: GI Returns From Iraq to Find Belongings Sold