Memorial Day
Corporal Abreu and I were drinking buddies. It was the early eighties in Southern California and we were stationed at the now defunct Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in Orange County. As I did my basic training in San Diego I was colloquially known as a 'Hollywood Marine'.
I think at one time I knew Abreu's first name, but in the service this tends to become an extraneous bit of information. Corporal, Sergeant, Private- was the official first name, and simply eliminating it was the accepted informal way of expressing familiarity.
One day Abreu found his right arm in a cast, which was fine with him as it greatly reduced his workload, but it also cramped his style after hours as the Dominican immigrant had just got himself a fancy new Honda Prelude with a manual transmission.
In the Army it may be standard operating procedure (SOP) to 'not' volunteer for missions, but we Marines have a dumb habit of volunteering for anything, so I accepted the temporary additional duty (TAD) of shifting technician. We field-tested this arrangement at strategic bars in the Orange County area, mostly on a various Kamikaze nights, where reduced prices for strong drink pushed the envelope of multiple hand-eye-machine coordination.
I mention this not because I'm proud of my days of dangerous driving, but because it's Memorial Day, and a WSJ article (sorry, subscription) reminded me that our armed forces are lousy with immigrants (more than 5%), and that 20% of our Medal Of Honor recipients have been immigrants. This doesn't surprise me as Corporal Abreu, had he needed to step up in a battle situation I believe would have done so with aplomb and a wry sense of humor, and for all I know now he might have had to do so after I fled the military life.
I remember a Mexican Sergeant, an immigrant as well, that was one of the most squared away individuals in our squadron. I wouldn't have flinched following him into battle even though at the time he was younger than I. As a matter of fact one of my most hard-nosed drill instructors was Mexican, and just the person I would wish on my enemies. This experience helped shape my opinions on immigration as well as race, rough language notwithstanding.
So Happy Memorial Day to all the immigrants in our nation's armed forces, and their families, who should be at least as proud as I am to have them.
