So I ran the Marine Corps Marathon today...

[sir pball]

And I have an interesting data point.

I was dropping off my bag, which was "Handled By UPS" (UPS trucks), but the people actually taking the bags were Marines.

I went to drop my bag off, at a table with two Marines, and the chud next to me, muscle-bro with "patriotic" tattoos and wearing a 3% shirt, handed his bag off and then said "Thank you soldier, I'm sorry the crazy liberals don't want you to be paid for this!"

The Marine instantly iced up and said "Thank you SIR…this is a volunteer assignment, we are not paid to be here, SIR."


I'm not sure if the Marine was more pissed off at the implication it was a paid post…or being called Soldier.

FWIW there were probably a thousand Marines at various points along the course and they all gave enthusiastic hand-slaps, and the Lieutenant who gave me my medal offered a perfect salute…before I saluted back and then gave him a good handshake.

[spanone]

1. How anyone in service could support bone spurs is beyond me.

[usonian]

2. I get the gist of this, but am getting my Marines mixed up.

Outside of boot camp, only an officer gets a SIR.

No biggie. Did you happen to see this sorry specimen anywhere?

[Harker]

4. Pvt. Pile.

[haele]

7. Military will call civilians "Sir" and "Ma'am " when on duty

Or working in a professional capacity as part of their "good order and discipline" rule.
What they call them while not in uniform, or on leave, is another thing altogether.

[usonian]

10. Part of my mixup. Forgot that.

Been out of uniform 50 years this November. Good excuse to party. At my age, damn near anything is s good excuse to party.

Just need friends. I live too damn far from anyone. Forget "Green Acres". People are better company than bunny rabbits.

Marking my calendar.

[haele]

12. Good luck and good hunting for events.

I know lots of people with the "I hate living in the city, going to go out and live out in the country where it's cheaper and there aren't so many assholes..."
And find there's assholes everywhere, and the reason few people want to live in the country is because unless they really are a "live on your own" type of person with an artist type business or hobbies that are great for a long term solitary life (like pottery or small sustainment farming), there's quickly nothing to do.

[usonian]

14. Many thanks.

I'm retired and single again but that happened in my 60's and well, I'm still by myself.

I think people often move here to get away from people.

I keep plenty busy with piano and photography. I crawled out of bed this morning to a decent sunrise. Some are spectacular. I share with friends. They say "beautiful" and still won't drive the 50 miles or so to visit.

It's not like the SF bay area, where I spent some 30 years, and had the time of my life raising a wonderful daughter. I worked in the company of Nobel Prize winners. It's still a world of people. Just not right here.

Suburbs always worked for me. I don't like fighting for parking spots. For an extended period, I worked in parking-hostile Berkeley and SF by taking BART transit.

Making plans.

[sir pball]

25. Yeah, every Marine I spoke to called me Sir

And they called the ladies Ma'am.

Incredibly respectful, and enthusiastic for all of us participants.

[erronis]

3. Sounds like Kegsbreath was there. Or one of his drinking buddies.

[sir pball]

20. No, it was very non-militaristic actually.

The Commandant of the Corps, 4-star General Eric Smith, did open the race…but his comments were about how we were all there not to beat anyone else but to overcome ourselves and the challenge of a marathon, to persevere and endure beyond what we thought we could do. Definitely very Marine-tinged, but none of that bullshit "WARRIOR ETHOS".

TBH it was one of the more inspirational races I've run and I'm going to do it again.

[erronis]

29. Thanks. Good words about the personal challenges in a marathon.

I have a daughter who has run several around the world and is now doing the longer endurance ones. Not bad for having four children and a job.

[IronLionZion]

5. They like language and terms

an Army veteran bristled when I said the term "Army base". He said "Army has forts, not bases".

All other branches including Space Force have bases.

[DoBW]

6. Yeah but ...

you ran a friggin' marathon

[Aviation Pro]

8. Outstanding Marine!

And well done to you sir for completing the race. I did my two in 1999 and 2000.

[sir pball]

24. Thank you! This was my third...

Well, third race, first MCM.

It made me realize something, thought…as Mae West said, “I'll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure.”

And I'm now sure I like marathons.

[Iggo]

9. The fact that I've never been in the service, but I still winced immediately when I read "soldier"...

…I’d say that’s what started it.

(I’m also aware that “volunteer” has a different meaning in the service…lol.)

[MarineCombatEngineer]

50. Calling a Marine a soldier is an insult to Marines, active, reserve, discharged or retired,

there is no such animal as an ex Marine, Once a Marine, Always a Marine.

[Iggo]

51. Ah heard.

Marines are Marines.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

52. Yes, I was just pointing out how your post was spot on.

[TBF]

11. Congrats - that bridge at the end is killer

but worth it in the end. The marines are always so polite. I ran it in 1998 (very slowly!). My favorite runs in DC were the Cherry Blossom and Army 10 milers - much more reasonable distance!

[sir pball]

21. The bridge is awful

Not even because of the grade change, but because there's no spectator support…you're twenty miles in and you get a mile and half of stark, bleak, silent highway.

Honest opinion, the Army 10mi kind of grosses me out since it's sponsored by General Dynamics and has an explicit military feel…the MCM didn't have any jingoism about it, just the basic will to push through and do the impossible.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. maga assume that military automatically equals red hatter. . . . nt

[paleotn]

15. They know who the pretenders are.

In that case it was obvious. Soldier? Ouch! They're Marines, you dipshit. There's a few places where a comment like that will get you severely "reprimanded." "Corrected" so to speak. I'll wait outside and flag down the ambulance.

[TygrBright]

16. LOL, my Dad was a Marine - learned early NEVER call a jarhead "Soldier"! n/t

[Sogo]

17. You got a medal. Does that mean you won it, or placed?

nt

[sir pball]

22. Every finisher gets a medal.

Yeah, it is essentially a "participation trophy", but "participating" in a marathon…

[Crowman2009]

18. 3% sounds the percentage of questions he had right on his ASVAB.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

19. ....

Last edited Mon Oct 27, 2025, 09:05 PM - Edit history (1)

I went to drop my bag off, at a table with two Marines, and the chud next to me, muscle-bro with "patriotic" tattoos and wearing a 3% shirt, handed his bag off and then said "Thank you soldier, I'm sorry the crazy liberals don't want you to be paid for this!"

This idiot actually called a Marine a soldier?
That's an insult to Marines, we aren't soldiers, we were never soldiers, we're MARINES.

If I were that Marine, this asshole would've been escorted out very quickly.

[sir pball]

23. Unfortunately that's not technically against the rules

Shame though, I agree…

[MarineCombatEngineer]

32. You're right,

but I would've at least given that idiot a proper dressing down and set him straight.

[sir pball]

53. Sadly I expect

All the Marines working the event were told to play nice.

Granted that was the only really egregious incident I saw, but I suspect nothing short of literally hitting a Marine would get you in trouble…

[MarineCombatEngineer]

54. Congrats on your running of the MCM.

[sir pball]

55. Thank you, Marine.

I have to say I agreed with the Commandant of the Corps when he said "You are not here to win, you are not here to beat the person next to you…you are here to overcome yourself, to conquer the challenge of a marathon. That is all that matters."

It was incredibly inspirational, while also entirely non-militaristc. Fun race, signed up for next year already.

[Irish_Dem]

26. Well USAF aren't soldiers, USN aren't soldiers, USMC aren't soldiers.

Where the hell are the soldiers?

[BannonsLiver]

27. The U.S. Army.

[Irish_Dem]

28. So only the army are called soldiers.

As an USAF kid, I knew that our guys were not soldiers.
They were airman. They didn't carry guns like soldiers.
Only USAF MPs carried guns and we didn't think they were real.

USN were sailors, not soldiers. They didn't carry guns either.

Marines and Army looked the same in terms of uniform and they all carried guns.
Guns looked legit. So they were soldiers so we thought.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

31. The US Army are usually refered to as soldiers,

but to call a Marine a soldier is considered a slap to Marines.

[Irish_Dem]

33. The Marines wanted to differentiate from the Army?

Marines always seemed like a tougher, more dedicated, maybe more professional than the army?
I know that doesn't sound right because the Army is professional and dedicated too.
They seemed more tightly wired, the Marines.

Edit to add, maybe more of the Army guys were drafted and not happy or gung ho.
And it showed?

I am just going by my childhood memories.
We lived on remote military spots in Southeast Asia during the Viet Nam war.
And the Air Force bases were crammed next to Navy, Marine, Army bases.
We were allowed to ride military buses to all the bases, so we saw the guys
and observed. We didn't talk to them. They didn't talk to us. But we had our eyes
wide open watching them all the time.

We liked to take the bus quite a distance from the Air Force base to watch the paratroopers
drop out of airplanes. The sky would be covered in guys jumping from the planes.
I guess that would be Army? Maybe Marines?

[MarineCombatEngineer]

34. Each branch of the military has their own jump qualified units,

like the Air Force has Pararescue, also known as PJ's, that are jump qualified, the Navy, of course, have the SEALs, and there are some, I believe, Navy Seabee units that are jump qualified, and of course, Marine Recon and Army Paratroopers.

[Irish_Dem]

35. Oh thanks, wow I did not know this.

I thought only the Army and Marines jumped.
They planes they were jumping from were not USAF planes,
they were looked like the color of Army/Marines.
The entire sky was full of parachutes.

Wow I never saw AF jumpers. That would be something to see.

Edit to add: It was always bittersweet to watch the troops training.
Or loading on LSTs to go to VN.
Because we enjoyed watching the training, we knew what the goal was
and where they were going.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

36. The AF Pararescue are considered some of the best trained combat medics in the world,

they are highly trained and are on the level of, I think, an RN.

[Irish_Dem]

37. I will have to go look them up.

I don't remember them from the Viet Nam era.
At least none of the men on base where piloting those airplanes
that I was aware of. And no one referred to them.
Maybe they were classified in war time or didn't yet exist.
Or perhaps they were flying out of other AF bases, other than the
ones we had been on.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

38. Here ya go:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force_Pararescue

Pararescuemen (also known as Pararescue Jumpers or PJs) are United States Air Force special operators who conduct personnel recovery and combat search and rescue operations as well as other missions for the U.S. military and its allies. Highly trained special operators, PJs are generally assigned to Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) and Air Combat Command (ACC).[5]

Personnel recovery includes rescuing and providing medical treatment to injured or stranded personnel in hostile or remote environments, such as behind enemy lines or in the wilderness. Combat search and rescue operations recover personnel from enemy-controlled territory.[6]

They are attached to other special operations units from all branches to conduct other operations as appropriate. PJs have also supported NASA missions, and have recovered astronauts after water landings.[7][8]

Long an enlisted preserve, the Pararescue service expanded to include Combat Rescue Officers early in the 21st century. Of the roughly 200 Air Force Cross recipients, 12 are Pararescuemen.[9]

They were formed in 1946.

[Irish_Dem]

40. Thanks I was just reading about it.

I also read that they were just ramping up during the Viet Nam war.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

43. Yep, because so many pilots were being shot down behind N. Vietnam lines, AF and Navy.

This is where these PJ's honed their skills, in the jungles of Vietnam.
I never met any while in country, or if I did, I didn't know what their specialty was, I only learned about them during Desert Storm and that was by a Marine being Medevac'd out due to an injury.

[Irish_Dem]

45. Yes I remember when they were getting shot down in greater numbers.

No one talked about it much but we knew some planes were not coming back.
And our friends and their family would suddenly get sent back stateside.

Did I tell you how I knew it was getting bad?
One day my father was getting ready to fly out to Da Nang.
(That is where he always said he was going but I knew the kind of airplane
he flew and what he was doing, behind enemy lines.)

Anyway one day he comes out with a pistol on a belt around his waist.
I said what in the world is that thing you have there Dad.
It looks dangerous.
He said if his plane gets shot down the crew is going to shoot their way out of the plane.

I thought for the love of God, things must be serious when USAF crews are being given
guns.

The pistol as small, and I knew my father could not hit the broad side of a barn
if his life depended upon it. So I figured the gun was for another use if captured,
if you catch my drift.

Yes I know personally air crews were flying into enemy territory on the regular.
And yes they would need stealth, highly trained rescuers.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

46. Thank you for this, I knew your dad flew dangerous missions in VN, but this is the first time you

told me this story.

[Irish_Dem]

48. Oh I must say it was not just my Dad. It was all the men, all the guys were doing dangerous work.

They were all flying dangerous missions.
Even men just in Da Nang could get killed.
And the USAF made the guys switch squadrons and duties.
So they would be doing even more dangerous jobs.

My dad was just one of the many guys doing difficult dangerous jobs.
He was just part of the group.

The thing is they never complained, or bragged, or anything.
They just treated it like any other job. Said nothing about any of it.
The men were gone a lot.
And tired when they got back.
We knew the Dads would sleep a lot the first couple of days back.
The kids took it all for granted.
It was just a job. We were proud Air Force kids.
But it was routine for us.

[Irish_Dem]

39. I looked it up. Very interesting.

Yes highly trained USAF rescue.

They use mostly helicopters and we did not have helicopters
at any of the bases where we are stationed. At least none that I knew about.
Some of the work these guys do are behind enemy lines, secret squirrel kind of thing
it sounds like to me.

Perhaps it was hush hush.
During wartime, everything was on the QT.
None of the guys said much about where they were going or what they were doing.
Or we got a silly story about it. The young pilot next door who flew recon always said
he was dropping weather balloons if we asked, on a nearby island. Even I knew
that made no sense.

Or maybe the USAF rescue was just getting ramped up.
Air Force kids would definitely loved hearing about this AF specialty,
but we never heard about them back then.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

41. Yep, these men and women are the Air Force's special forces, like the Army's Delta Force,

Navy SEALs, Marine Recon, etc.
Not many people would think that the AF has special operators, because they operate in the background, but they are highly effective.

[Irish_Dem]

42. Wow thanks, I never knew about them.

I remember planes going down.
And rescue crews going after them.
But we never heard the details of who was doing it or how.

People didn't talk about it back then in front of the children.

And as I said, during wartime, no one said much of anything
about operations.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

44. Believe it or not, even the Coast Guard have their own special forces.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deployable_Specialized_Forces

Deployable Specialized Forces

The Deployable Specialized Forces (DSF) —formerly Deployable Operations Group— are part of the United States Coast Guard that provide highly equipped, trained and organized deployable specialized forces, to the Coast Guard, United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), United States Department of Defense (DoD) and inter-agency operational and tactical commanders.[2] The command was formerly headquartered in Arlington, Virginia where it was established on 20 July 2007, and was commanded by a captain. It was decommissioned by the Commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Robert J. Papp Jr. on 1 October 2013, with units previously assigned to the DOG being split between Coast Guard Pacific and Atlantic Area commands. The units were subsequently reorganized under Deployable Specialized Forces (DSF).

[Irish_Dem]

47. Wow wouldn't it be neat to see all of these groups in action?

Did you see the movie THE GUARDIAN. ??
It is about the US COAST GUARD rescue team.
It is about their training and it is a good movie.

About as good as a submarine movie!

[MarineCombatEngineer]

49. Great movie,

Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher were great.

[Raftergirl]

30. Congrats on running the MCM! My husband also ran yesterday. I think it's his 4th or 5th time running MCM.

He took a nice picture with a Marine after he finished.

He just walked in the door a few minutes ago. Took the train this year instead of driving.

The only glitch was the long line waiting to get into the metro after the race.

He is the new director of the Hudson Mohawk Marathon and made a lot of contacts with vendors during the packet pickup on Saturday.