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EN 105/First Year Writing Seminar I
April 15, 2012
Brainwashed War Fighters

Marines are brainwashed, this is not an uncommon phrase to hear coming from someone’s mouth. In fact, aside from being called crazy that’s probably the most common thing to hear about us Marines. Once during an interview a Marine was asked about the ins and outs of recruit training. How’s it work? What happens in the process? After responding to these questions one man said, “But Marines are brainwashed.” Being the proud and disciplined Marine that he is, he responded quickly with something along the lines of, “Yes I am brainwashed, the Marine Corps has taken me and molded me into the man I am today. They took my brain out of my head and they washed it, they washed it of all those nasty civilian values.” He went on to talk about how in the process the Marines washed his mind and body clean of being a liar, cheater, and a thief. He called those three things the “Civilian values”. All of these things were then replaced with the “Core Values” of the Marine Corps Honor, Courage, and Commitment. These are the three basic things instilled into a Recruit for him or her to become a basically trained Marine. He ended his comment to the man with, “So yes you’re right, I’m brainwashed.” Not much was said after that.

Let me ask you this, can you brainwash a willing person? Every applicant has to make a conscious effort and decide to sign their name on that contract. At no point and time was there someone holding a gun to them saying you will join the Marines. If we are all brainwashed, what’s so bad about it? We are the ones who fight for the freedoms of the American people. We leave our families for months at a time never knowing if today is the day that I never get to see them again. When you look at it that way, it’s not so bad. Why should anyone care as long as they have their freedoms?