Marine Corps News, news from Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Marine Corps Times interview with Sgt. Maj. Estrada

The following is a transcript, edited for length and clarity, of Sgt. Maj. John Estrada’s interview with Marine Corps Times. He spoke to the newspaper on April 23, two days before leaving his post as sergeant major of the Marine Corps

New tattoo policy

We’ve been batting that around for two and a half years. I think that it [popularity and size of tattoos] was getting way out of the box. A lot of us felt it was getting out of control. The vast majority said this one needed to be addressed. It detracted away from the professional appearance of Marines.

I see this protecting our reputation for high standards and professionalism. That’s number one. We’re also helping them. They may not realize, but when they decide to leave the Marine Corps, when they decide possibly to go into corporate America, no one is going to hire them with these extreme tattoos.

I do not think that’s going to hurt us as far as recruiting goes. We don’t try to recruit everyone. We try to recruit those certain individuals. They’ll always be out there. I don’t think retention is going to be an issue either.

Policy changes under the new commandant

Tattoo is not new. PT gear is not new. I think you’re going to see some of the things we tried to push through back then.

Sgt. Maj. [Carlton] Kent [now the Corps’ senior enlisted Marine] will bring some of these things forward to [Commandant Gen. James] Conway. The sergeants major right now are just, just so excited over some of the things that we had pushed up. It’s gotten addressed, and they’re really excited.

I try to get buy in from the sergeants major and enlisted Marines. I never strong arm. I listen to the debate. I listen to what they have to do. I don’t strong arm them. If you have that support, and not just the sergeants major. Once I get that consensus, we take it to the commandant. Sir, this is what your enlisted Marines think. It gives it a lot of weight. That’s how we do that.

New staff NCO evening dress uniform

[A new evening dress uniform that was popular among young staff noncommissioned officers who participated in surveys and wear testing has not yet been adopted by the Corps, despite Estrada’s endorsement.]

Many of the junior Marines today would rather wear the new evening dress, compared to the bell-hop-looking, bow-tie thing, and that’s how they referred to it. It’s a joke.

We did about three surveys. I don’t know how many times you could survey the damned thing. Two of the surveys said, ‘do it.’ That last one came back ‘don’t do it’ by a very small margin. Minute. That had input for the whole Marine Corps. It’s not something we dreamed up, we sent it out to the whole force.

A lot of the junior Marines love it and a lot of senior Marines love it. And a lot of them are just waiting, saying, ‘when are you going to make this happen?’ The staff sergeants love it, the gunnys love it. The sergeants love it.

You had a few very vocal, old, immature Marines that ... [trailed off]. Again, it’s an optional uniform. They didn’t have to buy the thing anyway. And they didn’t want it. You had comments, comments from a few, maybe those few had a lot of pull I guess, that we don’t want to look like the officers. That’s B.S. We look like the officers in every other uniform anyway. A lot of the other services have evening dress that looks like ours, so why not stand out and look like the officers?

Senior staff NCO academy

[Estrada was unable to implement his idea for a resident professional military education course for the Corps’ E-8s and E-9s before leaving his post as sergeant major of the Marine Corps.]

It’s for the institution. It’s really important and I wish we could have made some headway on it. I haven’t given up on it. Every service has one. We do a really good job with PME. We take care of our corporals through our gunnys. We don’t have anything for E-8s and E-9s and that really rubs me the wrong way when I hear criticism of some of the performance of our E-8s and E-9s. Well damnit, we don’t do anything to educate.

Our sergeant major is working with [Training and Education Command] to figure out how long it should be. But we need to have that. I would have liked to see the sergeants major ask for that in the symposium. It didn’t happen because of push back. The senior enlisted community didn’t push back. There was push back in other places, obviously, and it didn’t happen. Now it’s on TECom to do this.

The Single Marine Program and Marine Corps Community Services

[Marine Corps Community Services currently runs the Single Marine Program on the Corps’ various bases and station.]

The time has come for this one, but we haven’t done anything about it. The Single Marine Program needs to be a stand-alone program. I feel very strongly and so do a lot of senior enlisted folks. If we want those Marines to really enjoy the same quality of life we provide our married Marines and Marines with dependents, why isn’t there a stand-alone program?

You’ve got to have some active-duty Marines involved in that. You have to. Not folks more concerned about protecting their jobs, protecting their retirement plan. We need folks that are committed and want to take care of our Marines. I’ll say MCCS can do a lot more than they’ve done in the last few years. As I travel, you see the disparity in some of the programs.

The Marines’ [situation] in the Carolinas is terrible. They don’t have too much of anything. I think MCCS needs to take a serious look at how they support the Marines and their family down there. You need to talk to those Marines who’ve got nothing. They got to drive hundreds of miles involving the risk of accidents, getting in a bad car wreck.

I think they need to do better. I’m a straight up brutally honest guy. I have not been too happy with what they do sometimes. I think at times we got lip service. I hear it all the time. They’re not big fans of MCCS, junior to senior. They really need to take a look at what they do to support our Marines and families. I think it’s a retention and morale issue if we do not address it.

Pre-deployment training

[The Corps sends deploying units through Mojave Viper training in Twentynine Palms, Calif., and Desert Talon training in Yuma, Ariz., training that was implemented based on lessons learned in Iraq.]

We have had a lot of successes. We revamped our whole training. Huge success. Mojave Viper, that’s a huge success, how it was done so quickly and how we’ve continued to change. That’s a huge success story.

Body armor

We could have been more successful finding lighter armor for Marines. You know the [small arms protective inserts] plate is heavy as heck and the side SAPI is heavy. But that’s something industry is going to have to solve for us, so we’ve engaged them. If there are some things I’m disappointed about, it’s that. That’s a cumbersome weight for Marines to be carrying around.

Wounded warriors

[Despite wide media coverage that raised concerns over the way the Army has treated those wounded during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Marine Corps has stood up wounded warrior battalions on each coast with a Wounded Warrior Regiment in Quantico, Va.]

That’s a huge success. We were way ahead of the other services. We were always the service that the others had to try to emulate because we always seemed to be a step ahead. And General Conway is even going to make that so much better.

Recruiting

I consider recruiting a success. When we fell on tough times a couple years ago, we didn’t panic. And they didn’t come to the boss and say, ‘Hey we need to lower standards, there’s a train wreck coming.’ Well the train wreck hit us, and we didn’t panic. And now we’ve got everything back on the fairly good ground without tampering with standards. That’s a credit on Maj. Gen. [Walter] Gaskin who’s deployed right now and Sgt. Maj. [James] Futrell.

So I think that was very successful. We didn’t have a bunch of money to throw at it to fix it. We just went at it with basic, hard-core recruiting.

Estrada’s legacy

That’s for someone else to figure out. One of the things I was advised on by one of my predecessors was, you and your commandant will be judged on, one of the things that’s most important, “Did you sustain your recruiting with very high standards?”

If you didn’t leave recruiting in a bad way, if the force is sustained in a high quality, then you’ve been successful. For me again, someone else will figure out what the legacy will be. My focus was taking care of Marines during a very, very tough time in history.

I don’t know how many miles I traveled, but I’ve gone to every place we have Marines and I spoke to Marines. I spoke to the last Marines that had a question, Marines and their families all throughout the Corps, to figure out what their concerns were on and off the battle field.

Testifying on the Hill

[As the sergeant major of the Marine Corps, Estrada made four separate trips to Capitol Hill to testify before Congress and also briefed senators and congressmen in their offices at their request on numerous occasions.]

I think we made a lot of money on the Hill, getting the Congress to support us with what we felt our requirements were for quality of life. We’re getting the money for the housing now. I’d let them know why Marines are different, what makes them tick. I think that sold pretty well on the Hill. I think I cut through all the B.S. and told them “this is what we need.” It is a unique part of this position. That’s a very important part and that’s not something to take lightly.

Barracks life

[A barracks campaign plan policy released in November was intended to loosen restrictions on Marines in the barracks, but has been slow to catch on.]

The pushback is still from the dinosaur mentality, not senior officials. I think commanders for the most part, listen to their senior enlisted. It is with our senior staff NCOs. And I keep telling them, there’s a lack of knowledge about what the barracks campaign plan says. I ask, “Let me get a show of hands for those who have read the barracks campaign plan we just put out.” I think it’s like 40 percent. That pisses me off. They need to read it because what these staff NCOs don’t understand is that they could make such a huge impact on the vast majority of the Marine Corps.

It surprised me a little bit. We have run into some units that are not doing field days. That was never my intent with the sergeants major when we pushed this thing, to have no field days. But the commandant has given them the option of doing so. If these Marines are mature enough, they don’t need to field day.

It’s working for us, yes. Some, maybe they have to field day once or twice a week until you get it right. The thing here is you don’t do mass punishment.

I think it’s holding. We heard about it in Iraq a couple weeks ago. They said, “Sergeant major, what are we going to see when we get back home concerning the barracks and quality of life?” Here they are on the battlefield and they’re asking about it. A lot of senior staff NCOs support that. Tell them I’m their number one fan for that. I don’t see us going back. Again, it’s a morale issue.

Hardest part

[Nearly 750 Marines have been killed in combat since Estrada became the sergeant major of the Marine Corps in 2003.]

The hardest thing for me has been seeing Marines and their families when going to visit Marines in the hospital. That’s the hardest thing. They’re young, their lives have been changed forever. The whole time, I only ran into one angry Marine family.

There is a poster that we have with me here that we took. Every time someone looks at that poster, I always point out the one Marine in the center. He got killed. I signed a poster and gave him a coin. He was with [3rd Battalion, 25th Marines]. He got killed. Those things like that has been the hardest.

I will say I pain inside. I don’t show it because I know that’s why Marines joined. Not necessarily to die, they joined to go kick somebody’s butt. But I pain for them and their family every friggin’ time I read the casualty report. I pain every time because, s---, they could be my kids.

Sean Carroll. Lance corporal. I’ll remember him to the day I die. He was in a coma for a long friggin’ time. I would go to the hospital and there was no progress and it was always the same and I’d speak to his mom and dad at the foot of his bed. About the fifth week, I was at the hospital and said, “I’m not going to go downstairs because he’s still the same. I’m going to go ahead and leave.” And I walked to my car and I said, “I’m not going to do this.” I walked back in and went downstairs. I’m talking to his dad as usual at the foot of his bed and that day, he woke back out of his coma.

Cpl. Jason Dunham

[Medal of Honor Recipient Cpl. Jason Dunham died of the wounds he received when he sacrificed himself on an enemy grenade in Iraq’s Anbar province. Before he died, he was transported back to a state-side hospital where then-Commandant Gen. Mike Hagee met him at his bedside.]

I didn’t make it when Dunham came back. I was on schedule to go with [Hagee]. But I did not.

I made it when another Marine passed. I didn’t go back to work that day. I’ll tell you that. It was a Reserve Marine. We went and gave him his Purple Heart, almost like the Dunham thing. His sister was there, his mom, his dad, and his friends, people from his unit. And we knew then that after we gave it to him, they were going to take life support off. And I didn’t even come back to work that day. That’s the one day I took, I wasn’t coming back to work. I was emotionally upset about that.

The war

The war, uh, this is what we do. That’s what we’re all about. Special individuals come along and do that.

I hope that this thing does not go the way it’s going on right now for much longer. I hope somehow it comes to closure here. I don’t know how long that is. I don’t know how long the American people will give us, the military, to fight this thing because we work for the American people. The Marines understand that.

The birthday message

[In a break from tradition, Estrada wasn’t included in the commandant’s video birthday message distributed throughout the Corps last November.]

It was going to be obviously my last one. What I would have liked to have told them was how much I appreciate the sacrifice they continue to make. To the families of those that have fallen, that they will never be forgotten. The Marine Corps is committed to taking care of them. I would liked to have said farewell to them that way.

We did get a bunch of inquiries about why that didn’t happen. A lot of Marines were upset because that was going to be the last one. Don’t know why it didn’t happen. It happened in previous years. That would be something you’d have to ask General Hagee about. [Hagee has not responded to a request for comment.]

The early years

[Estrada entered the Marine Corps as a private on Sept. 5, 1973.]

I came in as a private, right here in Washington, D.C. I don’t know if my bio really reflects it, but I came to this country 14 years of age from Trinidad and Tobago, right to this city. I went to school here. I used to go by the recruiting office on Pennsylvania Avenue. I didn’t have the courage to walk into the recruiter’s office. And you know how Marine recruiters are, they don’t come out chasing after you. This went on for a few months, just a young kid looking at the posters. Finally, after about eight months, he decided “All right I’m going to walk out here and talk to him.”

I was sold then, only three and a half years after I emigrated here. And went off to boot camp and that was all she wrote. But I did want to go home the very first night down there cause I friggin’ felt I made a horrible mistake. I wanted to go home. But they didn’t let you go home.

There were some trying times as a young Marine. We had some characters back then that nowhere would cut it today, the druggies, friggin’ some of them murderers, criminals. We had some of those characters and so it was pretty tough. A lot of young Marines don’t know this today, they’d be clueless on this, but we had some serious racial tension, some serious racial tensions, in the ’70s and early ’80s. That was some tough times. You put that and the drugs together and you had a lot of pressure on all Marines to take sides, to be with this group or this group. I was just shocked because, first of all in boot camp we’re all green. And then to get out there in the Marine Corps and deal with all that. That was a very trying time for me.

I walk to middle of the road too, so I never got caught up in that crap. I’m going to have my friends. I don’t give a s--- what color they are. And I felt the wrath from some people because of that. Just a young kid, I was scared of getting beat up because I didn’t take sides.

I remember one incident. I’m in a squadron in Iwakuni, Japan. I would say it was a racial fight. And it was down the lines. You had the blacks and the Puerto Ricans on one side and I remember you had the whites and Hispanics on the other side. They brought in a react team. I remember my [executive officer] telling me at the time, “Estrada, I’m really disappointed in you for you getting caught up in that.” I just happened to be living in the barracks. I wasn’t caught up in that. And that hurt me. He should have known I wasn’t caught up in that s---. I think he knew that later on.

On speaking out

I became a sergeant major because I am a very independent thinking kind of person and if I feel strongly that something is right, I will stick to my guns on it. That has almost cost me my career a few times down the road. I will tell you that. I have mouthed off a few times to folks that were senior to me because I felt it was right. And I’ve got to thank them down the road that after they pulled back and took a look at it, those that could have ended my career understood he was standing up for what he knew was right and let’s just teach him to be more tactful.

There were a couple close calls. I was never scared to speak up. When I became the sergeant major of the Marine Corps, I didn’t tone anything down at all. This is a very tough job. You can’t make everyone happy. Obviously, I have offended a few, but the vast majority really respected what I did and they knew where I was coming from. I was consistent. If you were screwing up, I’m going to tell you you’re screwing up. But I didn’t hold grudges.

Today’s Marines

We are a much, much better force than we were back then. Much better. The Marines understand when I say, they’re so much better when we were when I came into the Corps. But that’s not intended as disrespect to those who went before.

Today’s Marines have been educated, which makes them more intelligent. They’re better trained than we were. They get the best equipment. Technology is better. As I fondly put it, today’s Marines are the s---. That’s what I tell them. They look at me and they start laughing. They like that. They are. I say you guys are the s---.

Working with officers

[Enlisted Marines rely on the sergeant major of the Marine Corps to represent them to the Corps’ highest echelon. But even the Corps’ most junior officer outranks its senior enlisted Marine, an occasional source of conflict.]

I think we have such a professional force, they understand the position very well. And I will tell you over the last four years, I have only probably had three that tried to so-called “flex” on the sergeant major of the Marine Corps. That didn’t go well at all. I didn’t put up with that crap. So because of the professionalism I think we have in the ranks, there have been few. There have been a couple lieutenant colonels, colonels, that all of a sudden decided “I’m not going to share information with him that he needs.” Information that I need; I represent the Marine Corps. It’s a problem. We’ve had that issue. We need to put aside that crap. This is the sergeant major of the Marine Corps. He’s representing the enlisted Marines. He speaks on a lot of issues for the commandant.

But yes, I dealt with a couple of those. But like I said, that was probably like zero zero point zero zero one percent, but I’ve had those encounters. I’ve never had a captain try to pull that. It’s lieutenant colonels, colonels. General officers? Maybe two. Two. I’m thinking of one, “Oh, you can’t come visit my Marines.” Or you can only speak to enlisted Marines. Oh, yeah, which was so unsat because young officers also benefit from listening to the sergeant major of the Marine Corps.

But yeah, I had an encounter like that. We agreed to disagree, but some of them, couple of them, took it a little too personal. They understand that sergeant major of the Marine Corps, he works for the commandant. If he ain’t happy, he’s going to go tell the commandant he ain’t happy. Then someone’s got to go explain to the commandant why the sergeant major is not happy. Why aren’t you supporting the sergeant major because the sergeant major is carrying out the commandant’s intent.

Troubling trends

I am troubled by some of the recent incidents we’ve had, conduct on and off the battlefield. I’m talking about the Hadithah, the Hamdaniyah, MarSOC. I’m also talking about the young Marines down in Camp Lejeune killing other Marines. We had last year a female Marine who was killed and another male was killed by Marines in the same unit.

We’ve got a great reputation as Marines and when those things happen it chips away at what I consider our credibility. Slowly and slowly, it chips away and then people start asking that question, “Well s---, why do I need a Marine Corps? They act like a bunch of unprofessionals.”

What has disappointed me more is that in every one of those incidents there was a Marine or sailor there that could have prevented what happened. Every one of them. The rape in the Philippines was one of them. There was a Marine and a sailor there that could have prevented it and they didn’t have the moral courage.

What aren’t we doing as a Marine Corps that’s allowing fools to make those decisions? Training. We’re a stressed force. Commanders need to find the time. You got to find time so those individuals make the right decision on the battlefield. A lot of good things have happened out there and it takes the Hadithah, the Hamdaniyah, to wipe all that out. It takes just one. It takes one Marine to do something like that to cause the nation to change its international policies. We need to find time to discuss it. It can’t be done alone in boot camp.

Women on the battlefield

Women today in the Marine Corps, they are all over the frickin’ battlefield. They are. That is motivating. That’s one of the things I wanted to do. [Sergeants major] will tell you, I wanted to start seeing female Marines in positions where we didn’t have them before. We were the culprits that were not allowing them to reach their full potential. We were. We assigned them to all the administrative billets here and the schoolhouse here and all these billets. And what happened: we started to lose them.

General Hagee asked me that question, “Why are they all getting out, sergeant major?” And we looked at it. This is why they’re getting out: Because they know they will never reach their full potential of getting to a force-level billet, or a [major subordinate command] billet. Why didn’t they get there? ‘Cause they weren’t as competitive as their male counterparts who went out and did their [Marine expeditionary unit] float.

I’m extremely proud when I travel now. I see females with the MEUs, in combat at a [forward operating base] somewhere. I see them all over the battlefield. We didn’t use to do that before. We changed that, so what you’re going to have down there is female sergeants major coming down he road, they’re going to be competitive.

[Estrada said he made phone calls to force-level sergeants major to get more females into the fight.] Did I threaten them? I influenced them. I told them this is what I wanted to start seeing and they knew, being that I travel so much, that I was going to find out really quick whether they were complying with what I asked them to do, bottom line. And I traveled and I saw them and I think we get an “A” for that. And I have a lot of pride in that because the young Marines can come and see, “wow, there’s a chance I could get up here.”

I remember two little females, Hispanic girls, came back in a convoy that got attacked and laid down fire on insurgents. They were so pumped up and I was looking at them. They’re about 80, 85 pounds, but they shot up some insurgents. They get that Combat Action Ribbon and I’m proud of that.

End-strength increase

[Under an end-strength increase that will swell the Corps to 202,000 active-duty Marines, recruiting and retention officials are on the hook to deliver more bodies and some manpower policies have become more liberal as a result.]

We need to communicate across ranks to sergeant major of the Marine Corps and commandant of the Marine Corps with challenges we’re going to be facing as we grow the force, the pressure on us to lower standards for quality to meet those numbers. And I’ll tell you this. A lot of them say “do not lower standards.” We would rather miss mission than lower standards and I think that’s a powerful message from the staff NCOs. They say we’d rather do that. They’re also optimistic overall. We will make our mission because high standards are what’s driving people to us.

The end strength increase means, more promotions. A lot of Marines have asked me about that. It also means more retention. I think you will also see an opportunity to see more of them be retained who would have gotten out. We’re not going to lower standards for retention, but you know, a good Marine that did not get selected and came up on high-year tenure, this Marine has good everything, performance, good conduct I see opportunity for those Marines, for some of them, to stick around. I see promotional opportunity. I don’t want to say all of them. It would be case by case.

I see 202K giving our Corps the opportunity to train, to go back and do some of the training that we used to traditionally do prior to becoming the counterinsurgent force that we are. With a bigger force, we see more time at home and Marines getting to sharpen their swords in all those areas we are lacking now.

Young officers and NCOs have grown up in the counterinsurgency fight for five years. That’s all they know. That’s all we’ve taught them. My concern is that with those young officers and NCOs, if we have to take on major combat operations here against a traditional force that’s not a counterinsurgency force, countries that have a good, standing professional army. That 202K is going to give us the time to go back and do that training. We haven’t trained for that type of fight in a long time.

Conway

[Conway became the commandant of the Marine Corps in last November, five months before Estrada relinquished his post as sergeant major of the Marine Corps.]

It’s exciting. I think in the next few years it is going to be even more exciting to see General Conway’s vision of where he’s taking our Corps. I would love to be part of it. But all good things come to an end.

I’m excited about the commandant and the huge impact he’s made early. This is what some of the young Marines have told me.

I have folks of all ranks saying there is no problem figuring General Conway’s legacy early. He’s a huge hit with them. There is no problem telling that early.

What he would have done differently

I have no regrets. Obviously I don’t make policy. I can only do what my boss allows me to do. I feel good. I can look myself in the mirror. I had to make some tough calls. I’ve made some tough calls up in this office. It’s a very difficult job, but you have to do what’s best for the institution.

There is talk about the 40-year pay scale. I do not support it. We have allowed some master gunnys and sergeants major, on a case by case, according to the needs of the Marine Corps. If we allow these old people to stick around, it will stifle our junior Marines coming up. This has always been a sore spot with master guns and sergeants major. I’ve made some tough calls on that. Some of them were friends. I’ve shown no favorites.

There are a couple more things I wanted to get accomplished, but you can only do so much. I wanted to rewrite the prerequisites to become a first sergeant. First sergeants’ course is a little too weak. Our duties and responsibilities have not been re-written since 1950. We needed it to reflect today’s Marine Corps and what’s expected. I’m disappointed that we didn’t get that done. It will be passed on. We’ve already gotten that written up. We’ll be passing it on. Hopefully that gets done.

Worst moment in office

[In September 2004, gunners serving with infantry units began a public debate on the combat effectiveness of first sergeants and sergeants major without infantry backgrounds assigned to front-line units.]

The debate between gunners and first sergeants. Remember we had that debate? If you want ask me my worst moment in my office, that was the worst moment in my office, when that was going on. I felt it was criminal that that debate was allowed to continue while we had Marines in battle. I thought it was criminal. We had young Marines, old Marines in battle, trying to fight a war and we had that crap going on back here, which was so distracting. I felt it caused some of the young Marines to wonder, “well holy s---, my leadership is all screwed up,” and it wasn’t true. It was terrible that it went on.

I spoke. Those gunners got an earful from me. It was wrong. We were at war at that time when the crap was going on. It originated down here at Quantico, they had a symposium. And from what I understand, it wasn’t even the gunners’ issue. Someone else initiated it and they took it up. I think we’re still trying to repair that damage. It did damage between the gunners and the sergeant major community and it did damage between the master gunnery sergeants, first sergeants, master sergeants. It did a lot of damage. We’re still trying to repair that. It was terrible.

If anything positive came out of that, it showed there was a need to educate E-8s and E-9s. It showed the need for education and the need to rewriting the prerequisites to get to that rank. Still today, we’re still trying to get that thing started. If you want to criticize them and you’re not going to give them the resources to get better, then shut up.

Changing Marine Corps orders

Here’s one. We got it fixed. General Conway talks about it. They got a pregnancy order out there. If you’re a female Marine in the Reserve, if you got pregnant, they put you out. Can you believe that?

We heard that and I said, “you’ve got to be kidding me.” I had to go look that one up because we couldn’t have had anything that stupid on the books. So I looked it up. I called the sergeant major down at [Reserve Affairs] and I said, “You got to take care of that. That ain’t right.” Then about two months later, it comes to me from another Marine. So then I went back and I raised hell. I said, “You’re going to fix it or I’m going to take it to the commandant and have him pen change it.”

He got the message.

Life after the Corps

[Though Estrada handed his post over to Kent April 25, the official date of his retirement has not been announced.]

Once I hang up the hat. I want to decompress for a while. I’m looking forward to taking some time off, spending some time with the little ones. They’ve grown up significantly. I’m looking forward to doing that a little bit.

I like tinkering around with old cars. I’ve got a ’77 Corvette, been a project for a while. It’s coming along good. It’s running. I’m working on my golf handicap.

You may not see me any more, not in the public eye. I will probably do a little bit of public service, but as support. Don’t like being in the public eye too much.

I have a few folks already talking about jobs. I have it narrowed down to two places, California and Florida. And I haven’t ruled out North Carolina either.

Heroes

There are a couple guys I want to talk about that. Sgt. Maj. [Sylvester] Daniels is the sergeant major for [2nd Battalion, 1st Marines]. His wife has cancer. I went to the ball. His wife looked really, really weak. It was a re-occurrence. She says, “sergeant major, I know he can get out of this deployment but I want him to go with his Marines.” He could have used that easily to avoid deploying. Plus he just got extended. Those Marines are my heroes.

Sgt. Maj. Bryan Battaglia, and I’m going to talk about him in my speech. He deployed from [Marine Barracks Washington, D.C.] at the two-year mark and I said, “I need you to go down to North Carolina, take 8th Marines and deploy, all in 45 days.”

He deployed for a year. He did it. He friggin’ did it. Then he turned around and deployed again. He’s out there right now. So in a 36-month time frame, he was deployed 24 months.

Those are the guys I have respect for, the master sergeant the commandant and I ran into on our trip to Iraq two weeks ago on his sixth deployment. Those are my heroes.

Civilians in uniform

[A recent Corps-wide message requires contractors working in Iraq who wear the Marine Corps’ utility uniform to sew a patch over the eagle, globe and anchor on the left breast pocket.]

I love this uniform. I love it. But damnit, the eagle, globe and anchor is something Marines friggin’ earn. Marines earn that. You have had many Marines who have died, sweated and bled for this EGA and it pisses me off when I go places and see it abused. And I’ve heard the story, well, they need to wear your uniform so they don’t stand out. The enemy doesn’t give a s--- what uniform you’re wearing and if you’re American, they’re going to shoot you. You think it’s going to save your ass that you have this uniform on?

The Marines out there, they do not like this. And we’ve tried to address this before, many years ago, you remember that, when Kent was over there too, these friggin’ civilian contractors and they’re wearing the uniform. It pisses Marines off and I’m going to speak up on that. It pisses me off. This is something sacred. You earn this. They can make a plain pocket. It’s offensive to Marines.

Could someone make the same argument for Navy corpsmen who wear Marine uniforms? I love corpsmen. But when I came aboard and I asked what I would change, that was one of them. We love them to death, they’re the best comrade in arms and I have the most respect for them, but this is a sacred Marine thing. You couldn’t get a Marine to put anyone else’s uniform on.

When it comes to civilians, it’s even worse. It’s horrible. They’re running around there just getting my blood pressure up.

Bureaucrats

[Getting the commandant’s approval for a policy change is one thing, but implementing that policy is another. There are often bureaucrats involved in the execution.]

What will I not miss? I will not miss all those individuals, God bless their hearts, who are always pushing back on progress, the bureaucrats. They’ve always got to check this block. I will not miss that at all. They’re trying to find all these reasons to tell you no and how to get things done. We’ve got them. They serve for their own reasons. We need to get rid of them because they’re not looking out for the Marines. It’s just amazing.

One of the things I want to throw out there for General Conway; when he came aboard, the sergeant major of the Marine Corps was the only senior enlisted adviser not getting special duty assignment pay. All my counterparts were getting their $450 and $375 and on.

I’m not going to whine and cry and say I want that money, too. But I have to buy gifts. All that s--- comes out of my pocket. And when I told you about people pushing back, he had to tell them get it done, even though I told them the commandant said he wants to get this done. So now sergeant major of the Marine Corps gets SDA pay, rightfully so, so Sergeant Major Kent won’t have to worry about battling that.

Now we’ve got on the table, thanks to General Conway, sergeants major who work for general officers can get SDA pay. Other services, they get it. Command master chiefs serving with Marines get the pay, they get extra money and they only got 300 or 400 sailors. Did you know the sergeant major for that whole big wing or division gets nothing? What’s wrong with that picture? You got folks pushing back, that’s what’s wrong with that.

SDA pay for sergeants major who work with generals. We are looking at that now. Starts out at $175 and $450 is sergeant major of the Marine Corps. It depends on the level.

That was an agenda item before. Then the sergeants major said we’re not going to put it up again because it looks self serving. It’s not self serving, it’s fair. It’s very frustrating to address some of those issues.

Respecting your elders

[Navy Cross recipient Sgt. Maj. Joseph Daily served as the fifth sergeant major of the Marine Corps from 1969 to 1973, before retiring in southern California, where he lives.]

It’s very important to pay homage for those who went before us. I say this because I had to write a letter to a widow.

We had a veteran of Iwo Jima here. He was sick. John Basilone was his platoon sergeant. I asked Marines in the area to stop by and see the guy and pep his spirits up. They were too busy to do it. Guess what? The guy died, and didn’t get to see no Marines. I found out about that. I was so upset, that I called up and ripped some asses. I called the lady to apologize. I was going to tell her we’d have Marines to see him pretty soon. She says calmly, “he died.” I felt like s---.

She sent back the nicest letter, so we didn’t lose her. She still loves the Marine Corps. But, to think that they were too busy, pissed me off. John Basilone was his frickin’ platoon sergeant.

Lastly here, I went and saw the fifth sergeant major of the Marine Corps personally on one of my visits. He’s called me every year since I became sergeant major of the Marine Corps. Not once a year, but many times per year. He’s 90 years old. He would call just to call. He’d say, “Sergeant major, I’m getting my Marine Corps Times, my Leatherneck, just wanted you to know you’re doing a good job.”

I’d never met that guy before in my life. He would call and call and call. And it really hit me after that guy passed away. I told gunny I had to go see him because I would feel like s--- if he were to pass.

I went to take Sgt. Maj. Dailey and his wife to dinner. We pulled up to the house. He was sitting in the window, his red Marine Corps retired hat on, blazer, ready to go out. That was such an awesome, awesome meeting. That really touched me. He is by far the most decorated of all the sergeants major of the Marine Corps; three wars — World War II, Korea and Vietnam. We took him out to dinner. I had to do that. I would have hated it if he’d passed away.

Proud to serve

The Marines, I’m proud of their commitment. How they’ve handled it, how their families have handled it. We’re wearing them out, but they’re still always motivated and fired up whenever I see them, to include the Reserve. They’ve got the toughest jobs out of all Marines and I’m really proud of how they have represented us.

Overall, the Marine Corps is better than it has ever been and it’s only going to get better in the next few years. I was privileged and honored to serve them.

................

— As told to John Hoellwarth