[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 60 (Tuesday, May 16, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4003-S4005]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             MARINE COLONEL WAYNE SHAW'S RETIREMENT ADDRESS

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, the debt we owe to the men and women who 
have served in the U.S. Armed Forces is one that we will never be able 
to repay adequately. They sacrifice so much of themselves to defend our 
nation and its ideals, and ask for so little in return.
  Today, I would like to focus the Senate's attention on one such 
veteran, who entered the United States Marine Corps more than a 
quarter-century ago. Colonel Wayne Shaw, who was a Marine for over 28 
years, retired recently and delivered a farewell address to his fellow 
officers at Quantico, Virginia.
  Colonel Shaw's address at Quantico was not your typical ``feel-good'' 
retirement speech. In it, he makes a number of observations about how 
the Marine Corps has changed in recent years--and how, in his view, 
many of those changes have weakened the Corps that, for the sake of our 
country and the world, needs to remain strong. Not a man to mince 
words, Colonel Shaw lists in his speech a number of concerns he has 
about the future of the Marine Corps.
  Colonel Shaw does not question the future of the Corps because of any 
disillusionment he may have about the institution. Rather, he questions 
the future of the Corps because of his love for and devotion to it. 
Colonel Shaw is certainly entitled--if anyone is--to critique the 
Marine Corps because of his unique commitment to this country for 
nearly three decades. I believe we owe it to Colonel Shaw and other 
veterans like him to pay heed to his words of warning and carefully 
consider his suggestions to sustain the integrity of the U.S. Marine 
Corps. I hope each and every member of this chamber will do so.
  I ask unanimous consent that Colonel Shaw's retirement address be 
printed into the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                        A Farewell to the Corps

       (Remarks by Colonel Wayne Shaw, USMC, Quantico, Virginia)

       In recent years I've heard many Marines on the occasion of 
     retirements, farewells, promotions and changes of command 
     refer to the ``fun'' they've had in the Marine Corps. ``I 
     loved every day of it and had a lot of fun'' has been voiced 
     far too often. Their definition of ``fun'' must be radically 
     different from mine. Since first signing my name on the 
     dotted line 28\1/2\ years ago I have had very little fun.
       Devoting my entire physical and mental energies training to 
     kill the young men of some other country was not fun. 
     Worrying about how many of my own men might die or return 
     home maimed was not fun. Knowing that we did not have the 
     money or time to train as best we should have, was not fun 
     either. It was no fun to be separated from my wife for months 
     on end, nor was it fun to freeze at night in snow and rain 
     and mud.
       It was not much fun to miss my father's funeral because my 
     Battalion Commander was convinced our peacetime training 
     deployment just couldn't succeed without me. Missing 
     countless school and athletic events my sons very much wanted 
     me to see was not much fun either. Not being at my son's high 
     school graduation wasn't fun. Somehow it didn't seem like fun 
     when the movers showed up with day laborers from the street 
     corner and the destroyed personal effects were predictable 
     from folks who couldn't hold a job. The lost and damaged 
     items, often irreplaceable family heirlooms weren't much fun 
     to try to ``replace'' for pennies on the dollar. There wasn't 
     much fun for a Colonel with a family of four to live in a 
     1200 sq. ft. apartment with one bathroom that no welfare 
     family would have moved into. It was not much fun to watch 
     the downsizing of the services after Desert Storm as we 
     handed out pink slips to men who risked their lives just 
     weeks before.
       It has not been much fun to watch mid-grade officers and 
     senior Staff NCO's, after living frugal lives and investing 
     money where they could, realize that they cannot afford to 
     send their sons and daughters to college. Nor do I consider 
     it much fun to reflect on the fact that our medical system is 
     simply broken. It is not much fun to watch my Marines board 
     helicopters that are just too old and train with gear that 
     just isn't what it should be anymore. It is not much fun to 
     receive the advanced copies of promotion results and call 
     those who have been passed over for promotion. It just wasn't 
     much fun to watch the infrastructure at our bases and 
     stations sink deeper into the abyss because funding wasn't 
     provided for the latest ``crisis.'' It just wasn't much fun 
     to discharge good Marines for being a few pounds overweight 
     and have to reenlist Marines who were HIV positive and not 
     world-wide deployable. It sure wasn't much fun to look

[[Page S4004]]

     at the dead Marines in the wake of the Beirut bombing and 
     Mogadishu fiascoes and ask yourself what in the hell we were 
     doing there. I could go on and on. There hasn't been much fun 
     in a career that spans a quarter century of frustration, 
     sacrifice and work.
       So, why did you serve you might ask? Let me answer that: I 
     joined the service out of a profound sense of patriotism. As 
     the son of a career Air Force Senior NCO I grew up on 
     military bases often within minutes flying time from Soviet 
     airfields in East Germany. I remember the Cuban Missile 
     crisis, the construction of the Berlin Wall, the nuclear 
     attack drills in school and was not many miles away when 
     Soviet tanks crushed the aspirations of citizens in 
     Czechoslovakia. To me there was never any doubt that our 
     great Republic and the last best hope of free people needed 
     to prevail in this ultimate contest. I knew I had to serve. 
     When our nation was in turmoil over our involvement in 
     Vietnam I knew that we were right in the macro strategic 
     sense and in the moral sense, even if in the execution we may 
     have been flawed. I still believe to this day that did the 
     right thing. Many of our elite's in the nation today continue 
     to justify their opposition in spite of all evidence that 
     shows they were wrong and their motives either naive or 
     worse. This nation needed to survive and I was going to join 
     others like me to ensure it did. We joined long before anyone 
     had ever referred to service in the infantry units of the 
     Marine Corps as an ``opportunity.''
       We knew the pay was lousy, the work hard and the rewards 
     would be few. We had a cause, we knew we were right and we 
     were willing when others were not. Even without a threat to 
     our Nation, many still join and serve for patriotic reasons.
       I joined the Marines out of a sense of adventure. I 
     expected to go to foreign countries and do challenging 
     things. I expected that, should I stick around, my 
     responsibilities would grow as would my rewards. It was 
     exciting to be given missions and great Marines to be 
     responsible for. Finally, I joined for the camaraderie. I 
     expected to lead good men and be led by good men. Marines, 
     who would speak frankly and freely, follow orders once the 
     decision was made and who would place the success of the 
     mission above all else. Marines who would be willing to 
     sacrifice for this great nation. These were men I could trust 
     with anything and they could trust me. It was the camaraderie 
     that sustained me when the adventure had faded and the 
     patriotism was tested. I was a Marine for all of these years 
     because it was necessary, because it was rewarding, because 
     our nation needed individuals like us and because I liked and 
     admired the Marines I served with . . . but it sure wasn't 
     fun.
       I am leaving active service soon and am filled with some 
     real concerns for the future of our Marine Corps and even 
     more so for the other services. I have two sons who are on 
     the path to becoming Marine Officers themselves. I am 
     concerned about their future and that of their fellow 
     Marines, sailors, airmen and soldiers. We in the Corps have 
     the least of the problems but will not be able to survive in 
     a sick DOD. We have gone from a draft motivated force to an 
     all-volunteer force to the current professional force without 
     the senior leadership being fully aware of the implications. 
     Some of our ills can be traced to the fact that our senior 
     leadership doesn't understand the modern Marine or service 
     member. I can tell you that the 18 year old who walks through 
     our door is a far different individual with different 
     motivations than those just ten years ago.
       Let me generalize for a moment. The young men from the 
     middle class in the suburbs come in to ``Rambo'' for a while. 
     He has a home to return to if need be and Mom has left his 
     room unchanged. In the back of his mind he has some thoughts 
     of a career if he likes it or it is rewarding. The minorities 
     and females are looking for some skills training but also 
     have considered a career if ``things work out.'' They have 
     come to serve their country but only in a very indirect 
     way. They have not joined for the veterans Benefits 
     because those have been truncated to the point where they 
     are useless. No matter what they do, there is no way it 
     will pay for college and the old VA home loan is not 
     competitive either. There are no real veteran's benefits 
     anymore. . . . It is that simple, and our senior 
     leadership has their head in the sand if they think 
     otherwise. As they progress through their initial 
     enlistments, that are four years or more now, many 
     conclude that they will not be competitive enough to make 
     it a 20 year career or don't want to endure the sacrifices 
     required. At that point they decide that it is time to get 
     on with the rest of their lives and the result is the high 
     first term attrition we currently have to deal with. The 
     thought of a less than honorable discharge holds no fear 
     whatsoever for most. It is a paper tiger. Twenty years ago 
     an individual could serve two years and walk away with a 
     very attractive amount of Veterans benefits that could not 
     be matched by any other sector or business in the country. 
     We have even seen those who serve long enough lose 
     benefits as we stamped from weaker program to weaker 
     program. This must be reversed. We need a viable and 
     competitive GI Bill that is grandfathered when you enter 
     the service, is predicated on an honorable discharge and 
     has increasing benefits for longer service so we can fill 
     the mid grade ranks with quality people. We must do this 
     to stop the hemorrhage of first term attrition and to 
     reestablish good faith and fairness. It will allow us to 
     reenlist a few more and enlist a few less.
       The modern service member is well read and informed. He 
     knows more about strategy, diplomacy and current events than 
     Captains knew when I first joined. He reads national 
     newspapers and professional journals and is tuned into CNN. 
     Gone are the days of the PFC who sat in Butzbach in the Fulda 
     Gap or Camp Schwab on Okinawa and scanned the Stars and 
     Stripes sports page and listened to AFN. Yet our senior 
     leadership continue to treat him like a moron from the 
     hinterland who wouldn't understand what goes on. He is in the 
     service because he wants to be and not because he can't get a 
     job in the steel mill. Three hots and a cot are not what he 
     is here for. The Grunts and other combat arms guys aren't 
     here for the ``training and skills'' either. He is remarkably 
     well disciplined in that he does what he is told to do even 
     though he knows it is stupid. He is very stoic, but not 
     blind. Yet I see senior leaders all of the time who pile 
     more on. One should remind them that their first platoon 
     in 1968 would have told them to stick it where the sun 
     doesn't shine. These new Warriors only think it. . . . He 
     is well aware of the moral cowardice of his seniors and 
     their habit of taking the easy way out that results in 
     more pain and work for their subordinates. This must be 
     reversed. The senior leadership must have the moral 
     courage to stop the misuse and abuse of the current force. 
     The force is too small, stretched too thin and too poorly 
     funded. These deficiencies are made up on the backs of the 
     Marines, sailors, airmen and soldiers. The troops are the 
     best we've ever had and that is no reason to drive them 
     into the dirt. Our equipment and infrastructure is shot. 
     There is no other way to put it. We must reinvest 
     immediately and not just on the big-ticket items like the 
     F-22. That is the equivalent of buying a new sofa when the 
     roof leaks and the termites are wrecking the structure.
       Finally let me spend a minute talking about camaraderie and 
     leadership. I stayed a Marine because I had great leaders 
     early on. They were men of great character without preaching, 
     men of courage without ragging, men of humor without rancor. 
     They were men who believed in me and I in them. They 
     encouraged me without being condescending. We were part of a 
     team and they cared little for promotions, political 
     correctness or who your father was. They were well educated 
     renaissance men who were equally at home in the White House 
     or visiting a sick Marine's child in a trailer park. They 
     could talk to a barmaid or a baroness with equal ease and 
     make each feel like a lady. They didn't much tolerate excuses 
     or liars or those with too much ambition for promotion. 
     Someone once told me that Priests do the Lord's work and 
     don't plan to be the Pope. They were in touch with their 
     Marines and supportive of their seniors. They voiced their 
     opinions freely and without retribution from above. They 
     probably drank too much and had an eye for beautiful women as 
     long as they weren't someone's wife or a subordinate. You 
     could trust them with your life, your wife or your wallet. 
     Some of these great leaders were not my superiors--some were 
     my Marines. We need more like them at the senior levels of 
     Government and military leadership today. It is indeed sad 
     when senior defense officials and Generals say things on TV 
     they themselves don't believe and every service member knows 
     they are lying. It is sad how out of touch with our society 
     some of our Generals are.
       Ask some general you know these ten questions:
       1. How much does a PFC. make per month?
       2. How big is the gas tank on a Hummvee?
       3. Who is your Congressman and who are your two Senators?
       4. Name one band that your men listen to.
       5. Name one book on the NY Times best seller list.
       6. Who won the last superbowl?
       7. What is the best selling car in America?
       8. What is the WWF?
       9. When did you last trust your subordinates enough to take 
     ten days leave?
       10. What is the leave balance of your most immediate 
     subordinate?
       We all know they won't get two right and therein lies the 
     problem. We are in the midst of monumental leadership failure 
     at the senior levels. Just recently Gen. Shelton (CJCS) 
     testified that he didn't know we had a readiness problem or 
     pay problems. . . . Can you imagine that level of isolation? 
     We must fix our own leadership problems soon.
       Quality of life is paid lip service and everyone below the 
     rank of Col. knows it. We need tough, realistic and 
     challenging training. But we don't need low pay, no medical 
     benefits and ghetto housing. There is only so much our 
     morality should allow us to ask of families. Isn't it bad 
     enough that we ask the service members to sacrifice their 
     lives without asking their families to sacrifice their 
     education and well being too? We put our troops on guilt 
     trips when we tell them about how many died for this country 
     and no hot water in housing is surely a small sacrifice to 
     make. ``Men have died and you have the guts to complain about 
     lack of medical care for your kids?'' The nation has been in 
     an economic boom for dam near twenty years now, yet we expect 
     folks in the military to live like lower middle class folks 
     lived in the mid fifties. In 1974 a 2nd Lt. could buy a 
     Corvette for less than his annual salary. Today, you can't 
     buy a Corvette on a Major's annual salary. I can give you 100 
     other examples . . . An NROTC midshipman on scholarship got 
     $100 a month in 1975. He or

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     she still gets $100 in 1999. No raise in 25 years? The QOL 
     life piece must be fixed. The Force sees this as a truth 
     teller and the truth is not good.
       I stayed a Marine despite the erosion of benefits, the 
     sacrifices of my wife and children, the betrayal of our 
     junior troops and the declining quality of life because of 
     great leaders, and the threat to our way of life by a truly 
     evil empire that no longer exists. I want men to stay in the 
     future.
       We must reverse these trends. There will be a new ``evil 
     empire'' eventually. Sacrifices will need to be made and 
     perhaps many things cannot change but first and foremost we 
     must fix our leadership problems. The rest will take care of 
     itself. If we can only fix the leadership problem. . . . 
     Then, I still can't promise you ``fun'' but I can promise you 
     the reward and satisfaction of being able to look in the 
     mirror for the rest of your life and being able to say: ``I 
     gave more to American than I ever took from America. . . . 
     and I am proud of it.''
       Semper Fi and God Bless you.

                          ____________________