A career in ‘high class muscle’ for capitalism

Last Sunday, St Martin’s Eve, was also the 238th birthday of the US Marine Corps, a naval infantry whose ranks have included many Irish.

Lt Presley O’Bannon was the first leatherneck to raise the Stars and Stripes over foreign soil and a replica of the Mameluke sword given him by a Libyan sheik will be used by the commandant to cut the cake at the festivities in Washington, DC.

Like most jarheads, I retain a love/hate relationship with the corps and the country whose imperialism it protects and projects around the globe. As a sergeant in the killing fields of Indo-China, I endured the nightmare of seeing one out of every two young Marines killed or wounded.