From: rip@sequent.com (Paul T Taylor)
Subject: Re: Romance...
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Inc.
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 93 05:35:52 GMT

In article <4fExD9a00Uh_43VpIu@andrew.cmu.edu> Richard Iswara <ri0a+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>The Ghost (user phantasm@iastate.edu) writes:
>>ICSJM@ASUACAD.BITNET writes:
>>>  Romance isn't dead, It's just been tempoarily put on hold, till we re-
>>>  dicover what it really is!!!  Most think romance is ' Hi- wanna come
>>>  over to my house and look at my etchings? Is that what romance has
>>>  degraded too?
>>
>>Some say that the age of chivalry is past, that the spirit of
>>romance is dead. The age of chivalry is never past, so long as
>>there is a wrong left unredressed on earth.
>>
>>              -Charles Kingsley
>
>All these talk about chivalry makes me think about one of the phrases in the
>military. An Officer and a Gentleman (or a Lady I suppose for the women's
>officers). Such a contradiction of terms. There are Gentleman's virtues
>that wouldn't help them being a good officer when dealing with the Enemy. Such
>as politeness, courtesy, fairness, honesty, kindness and mercy. No officer in
>their right mind would give these things to their Enemy (at least not those
>who wants to lead their men out of battle alive). But they have to be
>all those
>things to their subordinate. Does this mean that only complex people will
>succeed in the armed forces??


Well, Richard, having been an Officer and a 'Gentleman' myself, *and*
on the enlisted side, I think I just might be qualified to give you
and answer.  You are right in saying that you would necesarrily want
to give your enemy the benifits of your 'Gentleman' side.  But what
you don't know, is what it is like to be the 'Officer' side.  The
Officer side is thinking about how he is going to make sure his men
get back out of the bush, how *he* is going to get out of the bush.  A
good Officer is more a father figure, or a coach than anything else.

And above all, and I thing drieux might agree with me on this, a good
officer knows when to listen to what his Non-coms have to say.  As a
shave-tail Lieutenant, I relied *alot* on the knowledge and experience
of my Gunny, and my Corporal.  They had mucho more practical knowledge
than I had.  I was there mainly to ride shot-gun on the higher up
Officers and other units.

In the field an officer is just as likely to get waxed as the next
guy.  In fact I would put medics and radio operators just above
Officers on the target list.

I liked the Marine Corps and ain't ashamed to say it.  I mean where
else could some one have the chance to urinate in the Sea of Japan!
:-)  Besides, we have such a cool song....

I guess I kind of got off on a tangent here, but to sum it all up,
yes,  sometime 'Officer' and 'Gentleman' are contradictory, but then
so is 'Man' and 'Gentleman'....

From the Halls of Montezuma
To the Shores of Tripoli,
We fight our Country's battles,
In the Air, on Land, and Sea.
First to fight for Right, and Freedom,
And to keep out Honour clean.
We are proud to claim the title
Of United States Marines!

Ooooorraaahhhhh!!!

rip(Semper Fi)
-- 
Why bother building any more nuclear warheads until we use the ones we
have?