The Marine’s storied history is being sullied. Despite having served just as capably as male counterparts in both Iraq and Afghanistan, women in the Marines seem to be unable to earn the respect of a sizable chunk of their fellow Marines no matter what they do.
Marines United, a private Facebook page 30,000 followers strong, has become a perfect example of this and a black spot on the Marine Corps.
On the surface, the page did nothing more than share military related memes, however, underneath this facade hid a seedy and disgusting reality.
The followers of the page had been posting revenge porn, posting hundreds of pictures of fellow Marines in various levels of undress, the majority of which were creepshots.
It didn’t stop with the pictures. Threats of rape and links to Google Drive and Dropbox folders containing the bulk of the controversial images were posted frequently.
Marines United had been removed for violating Facebook’s nudity clause, but that hasn’t stopped the virtual pigsty from popping back up in other private groups.
This behavior goes beyond ridiculous and violates the faithfulness and familiarity that the Marines have come to expect from one another.
The administrators and followers who did nothing but contribute to this invasive delinquency should be ashamed of themselves and should be terrified of the idea of being locked up for a maximum of seven years on felony charges of “indecent viewing, visual recording or broadcasting,” as the Naval Criminal Investigation Services suggests could be the case.
These men have dishonored fellow Marines.
They’ve dishonored the Marine Corps itself, its history, and every Marine, living or dead.
Consider this in the military branch’s history.
Sept. 2, 1945 is known as Victory Over Japan Day.
On this day, representatives of the Japanese military Junta stood aboard the U.S.S. Missouri and signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, officiating Emperor Hirohito’s surrender earlier on Aug. 15 ending the Second World War.
For the United States, this victory was achieved through the bravery, honor and sacrifice of the United States Marine Corps and the troops’ ability to survive the worst horrors: from Naval bombardment and disease on Guadalcanal, to the vicious fighting to remove the Japanese from caves turned into defensive strongholds on Saipan, to the miserable unrelenting artillery shelling and constant, bloody hill fighting on Okinawa.
Perhaps, this controversy will be the last straw, the one that breaks the floodgates and the Marines, both male and female will finally out the Marines who’ve been a part of this incredible disgrace to the branch.
Hopefully, women in the military who enlisted with the same goal of protecting their country, their countrymen, and the liberal values their country stands for, can feel completely accepted into the branches they have dedicated themselves to joining and that their sacrifices of blood, sweat and tears won’t be merely swept aside simply because of what doesn’t dangle between their legs.
The entire point of the Marines is to find the enemy and fight him on his turf in as honorable a way modern warfare can afford: in the enemy’s face, looking them dead in the eye.
Gender doesn’t matter in that situation.