Working with the Marines

We recently had occasion to work with the Marines. There had been a small increase in hostile acts (such a sterile phrase for attempts to kill people) in their area and we were directed to help them if we could.

We get briefings before all our missions but on this occasion we had an especially detailed brief given by people just above the little unit we were supporting. This is unusual for us and most helpful. Most of the time we get very general briefs "Okay boys, this city of 2 million has been really hot lately. Stay alert." Thank you very much.

This time we were able to ask questions about the small things, like what do they think caused the upsurge in hostile acts? They didn't know exactly but mentioned the local police hadn't been paid in a while. Ahaaaa.

So we flew down there and helped to the extent we could. During the flight we communicated directly with the little unit, another relative rarity for us. Nothing much happened but when we were talking with the unit, they used phrases like "our Marines are looking" or "the Marines really liked that."

I really liked the phrasing used. It was a Marine communicating with us but he still used that construction: "our Marines", "the Marines." Maybe it was appealing because it put the emphasis on the others to the exclusion of self. Anyway, I liked it.

Then we flew home to our big base.