Tuesday, January 17, 2006

I hope their rifles still shoot...

LATimes

A Naval Academy tradition that lasted 155 years has come to an end.

The gates and crypts of Revolutionary War Capt. John Paul Jones at Annapolis have been guarded by Marine sentries since before the Civil War.

The military has now withdrawn Marines from that post and redeployed them to Iraq. The four dozen Marines will be replaced by Navy enlisted personnel.

When tradition in a tradition-bound service is thrown out the window, the jig is nearly up. If one platoon makes enough difference to justify that, my Marine Corps is in big trouble.

I guess I shoulda seen this coming: The cooks, bakers, and messmen have already been replaced with Halliburton, and the bandsmen and field musics are playing tunes on M-l6s and SAWs instead of instruments.

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