God Bless his choice
God Bless his choice
Brave Rifles wrote:
Yeah but ask Wes Santee how he feels about modern running technology and the freedom runner's have now and he will say he is envious.
There are a lot of fantastic runners who join the military, and honestly the best enlisted and officers were great runners. Endurance is a key to surviving, and he will excel at that for sure. Not sure who the folks were posting that either think any idiot can join Marines, or think that his life is ruined from joining it, but I do not know many people who honorably served who believe that. Ask Wes Santee about his Marine career. He is just as proud if not prouder of his Marine career as he is of his mile times. Ask some of the guys who are running on prosthetics at the Army 10 or Marine Corps Marathon. You do not see much quit out of them, nor do you see much regret for giving so much to a country they love.
It was fun to represent my university in running Cross-Country. It was an honor to serve my country as a Cavalryman.
Semper Fi, Kenny Cormier
All of the officers I met in the military were good men and women. They were all well trained and can stand up for themselves. The difference with the other officers and the Marine officers is that the Marine officers have to be the type of person who picks fights, who looks for a fight, and who has to fight. They have to be able to lead men who are of the same breed. How many people do you know like that, they cannot be made, they have to be born that way, they are that rare.
Anna Robick wrote:
Yeah, the Marines are all a bunch of country-serving heroes.
Google "marines" "rape" "Okinawa." Then Google "Marines" "rape" "Okinawa" "1995." Then Google . . .
Do you think that there are no runners that have ever done something wrong?
Do you think there are no people from what ever organizations you belong to that have done wrong?
Why would you generalize a group of people that way and publicly attempt to belittle them?
The Marine Corps does a lot for you, your family, and your country, and this is how you repay them? By posting messages about them behind a name on a message board?
You disgust me.
Michael Matthews
United States Marine
DogtownTrack wrote:
speaking of washed up runners from Arkansas...what ever happened to that sam vasquez fellow?
He actually ran mid to low 150's in the 800 sometime last year, not bad.
Why, who are you?
Another home schooled christian boy off to war to fight the pagan armies...I feel so safe now!
asfdassdf wrote:
"I'm ready for the challenge"...I am sure those are the very words that he stated before heading to arkansas
Give him 6 months, and he will be on his hands and knees wishing he was running laps for an education.
There are guys in kenya that are running away from this very situation.
Makes gabe jennings look brilliant
I AGREE!!!
I'd say it's more a case of Coach Mac just making an error in judgment on some kids.
It's just poor character. You can't be an f-ing drunk and win consistently perform. I guess some can get away with it; most can't.
All it takes is one sub 14 guy partying and getting away with before everyone thinks they can. Then you have an epidemic.
2846 wrote:
Anna Robick wrote:Yeah, the Marines are all a bunch of country-serving heroes.
Google "marines" "rape" "Okinawa." Then Google "Marines" "rape" "Okinawa" "1995." Then Google . . .
Do you think that there are no runners that have ever done something wrong?
Do you think there are no people from what ever organizations you belong to that have done wrong?
Why would you generalize a group of people that way and publicly attempt to belittle them?
The Marine Corps does a lot for you, your family, and your country, and this is how you repay them? By posting messages about them behind a name on a message board?
You disgust me.
Michael Matthews
United States Marine
Its so true Mike!
John Peltier
United States Army Special Forces
John, I'm sure there are many, many decent guys in the Marines. Unfortunately, the entire United States military has been co-opted by a bunch of economic elitists. It's become the enforcement arm for a bunch of greedy capitalists.
You guys do a great job of fighting economic wars and helping open markets for all those suits on Wall Street. I don't support that endeavor at all.
Happily and enthusiastically support the defense of our home and people.
Too bad Kenny stands a good chance of dying so someone else can get rich. His choice, though....
2846 wrote:
Anna Robick wrote:Yeah, the Marines are all a bunch of country-serving heroes.
Google "marines" "rape" "Okinawa." Then Google "Marines" "rape" "Okinawa" "1995." Then Google . . .
Do you think that there are no runners that have ever done something wrong?
Do you think there are no people from what ever organizations you belong to that have done wrong?
Why would you generalize a group of people that way and publicly attempt to belittle them?
The Marine Corps does a lot for you, your family, and your country, and this is how you repay them? By posting messages about them behind a name on a message board?
You disgust me.
Michael Matthews
United States Marine
Michael Dee Matthews?
It seems to me that this is something he has always wanted to do. I'm sure if he didn't have this talent, he would have joined right out of high school. I also think him being a little older will help him. When I went through my basic training I was 21 compared to 18-19 years old, and most of them had tough times with being immature and being away from home.
There is nothing wrong with him doing this, he's probably at a standstill in college, like I was and didn't know what to do next. I got good grades in college, but I just didn't know what I wanted to do. I joined the service, and it was the best decision I ever made. I think he will excel in the Marines. To be a Marine or anybody in the Armed Forces, you have to be mentally tough and disciplined. I think that him being a distance runner and running all those miles will help him, because you have to have a lot of discipline to compete in this sport. And I'm sure I will cross his path somewhere down the road in some armed forces races.
Good for Kenny. I hope he finds what he is looking for. If he doesn't, he will still come out of the Marines with experiences that people who never join the service never get and never will understand. He will learn a lot of new skills, some of which probably won't help him with any career he chooses if he decides to get out of the Corps. in four years, but they are still nice to have. I can't speak for any other MOS, but if he ends up being an enlisted infantryman, he will develop leadership skills that are superior to anybody else his age who has never been in the military.
Of course, there will probably be times when he thinks to himself what many other service members think at some point, "What the hell was I thinking?" He will undoubtedly have to do dumb things sometimes, but usually everything works out alright in the end. If he chose to be an officer, he would have to do a lot less dumb things, but he would get paid a lot more and have the chance to make other people do dumb things, not that that is anything to be proud of.
He is 22, so he may be more mature than a lot of the people he goes through MCT with, but there will be people there that are older than him, too. He is far from too old and he will probably do alright.
Your uninformed (but I'm a famous ex Hog and I talk to people in the program so I must know everything that's going on!) opinion makes as much sense as McDonnell's ripping of Andy McClary for his poor performance in the Tyson DMR. Coach's declaration that "this guy runs a 3: 56 mile last year and runs 4: 06 or 4: 08 tonight" must be based on the 1500m run OUTDOOR last June.
McClary's problem was not that he didn't want it bad enough, his problem was that he wanted it so bad that he ran (foolishly) :55 and then 1:55 trying to catch Manzano who had a 40m + lead at the exchange. Now is that McClary's fault for poor pacing? Or does some of that blame go to the coach who was so desperate that Texas not embarass his team in their home track that he was screaming for his runner to go faster?
There was no way the Hogs were going to stay with Texas on THAT day, but a controlled last leg would very likely have gotten the Automatic time and 2nd place instead of 3rd.
There are several factors responsible for Arkansas' mediocre performances recently, which certainly include poor decisions and lack of discipline by the athletes, but your simplistic analysis of their toughness is so off base it's laughable.
And no, I don't even know Andy McClary.
That's a big jump. Cormier is going from a wuss sport to the full contact life or death existence of U.S. Marine boot camp. I wonder how Cormier will last ? The Marine Drill Instructors will ride him to the point of suicide, drowning, or just simply punch the boogers out of his brains. Cormier won't be able to run away, he 'll have to fight to get out of boot camnp.
The military is to guys, what beauty school is to girls. Its the last place they go when they washout of normal school. And of course most of the girls that go there are all excited and say it has always been there dream to go to beauty school, but thats only because they know they cant hack it anywhere else. This is the same for guys and the military. Its the only place they can go and be a part of something instead of working at the local Wal-Mart for $9 an hour. I am really disappointed with kenny for doing this because he just threw his life away. When I heard he was going to arkansas I knew right then he was making a mistake because the training there does not suit him. He works good off of running a lot and at ark they simply dont anymore and they just pound it every single day and this is the reason for the great success lately(being sarcastic for this who dont see it). It would have been better for him to go to a school such as colorado or another high mileage school. I think he would have even faired better by just going to Arizona state. This kid had the potential to be the new up-and-comer and could have represented this country in the olympics.
My impressions of the reasons behind Arkansas's success are similar to the ones that made Jumbo Elliott successful in his years at Villanova. Sure, there is an emphasis on some fairly intense training - helped along by having a good bunch of talented cadre of athletes - but there is, to my understanding, a pretty intense emphasis on life style factors - living by a disciplined routine (I noticed how many of Arkansas' great runners really are lean - a product of careful attention to diet and sleep as well as intense training) and
watching out for excesses. Sure, every successful program has its talented few who can party quite a bit more than most - but those actually hurt a program because others think they can get away with it too - most cannot. Most of the guys at Arkansas have been successful because they really dedicated themselves to the lifestyle - as implemented by Coach Mac's intense approach.
Not so sure Cormier is dispositive of anything. People leave Division 1 track all of the time - the transition from high school to Div. is always assumed to be "natural", but nothing is further from the truth.
Every person grows up at a different age. Some are grown by the time they are 7 or 8 and already know what they want to do with their lives. Most grow up later and can tell you the age they were when they had that epiphany and finally figured out their path in life. Kenny just has to find his. A plan was set for him when he was a young running phenom and it turns out now his 20's that that wasn't the right path. Now Kenny has made an adjustment and has joined the what is universally regarded as the organization that is "THE" definition of macho, brawn, guts and glory, the United States Marines Corps. The USMC is not a game, a sport, nor a recreational activity. No pads or helmets can block the physical body blows, stabs, bullets, IEDs, mortars, naplam. He can't run from a fight, he must stand and fight. Now everything he does is a matter of life and death, for himself, and should he complete recruit training, for his fellow Marines. Kenny is laying it all on the line. The challenge of the Marine Corps is at least two orders of magnitude beyond any goal he has ever set for himself. Good luck, Kenny.
Wow!!! Congrats to him!!!