[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
[[Page S4005]]
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.
____________________