Critics say recruiting is Marines motive in billboards touting war bravery

[Thom Little]

When Cpl. Michael Montemayor dashed into enemy fire to pull a fellow Marine from a stinking canal in the southern Iraq city of Nasiriya in March 2003, he wasn't exactly thinking of becoming the Marine Corps poster boy.

"I was just doing my job," the 30-year-old San Jose native, who was later promoted to sergeant and has since left the Corps, said Friday. "My mission was to get my Marines home."

Nevertheless, posters bearing Montemayor's image -- billboards, actually -- will be going up in about 20 locations around the Bay Area, beginning this week. They will bear his name and a snippet of the citation he received with his Bronze Star medal, with combat distinguishing device.

The billboards are part of the 12th Marine Corps District's "Hometown Heroes" campaign, which started in November in Montana. The unveiling in that state brought a warm reception from the lieutenant governor and dignitaries.



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/02/BAG58GG9EL1.DTL

[Herstal]

1. Of course!

That would be the logical explanation, wouldn't it? Papers report this stuff like it was news.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

2. Balanced article, I especially liked this quote:

Diana Morrison, a California National Guard staff sergeant who returned from Iraq to co-found Iraq Veterans Against the War, said she agreed that the stories of individual troops should be honored.

"But for the Marines to use that as a recruiting tool just seems really underhanded," she said. "I feel like they're exploiting this guy ... 'I'm a war hero, look at how great I am, you can be great if you go fight in Bush's war.' "

This nicely sums up why it doesn't dishonor the soldier if one criticizes recruiting and propaganda practices.

MKJ

[zbdent]

3. In 96, on my lunch hour

I dove into a lake fully clothed to save a 4-year old from drowning . . . I didn't stop to ask the mother if she was a Repuke . . . and I went back to work at the end of my lunch hour.

No TV coverage . . .

[Burning Water]

4. You've got to ask,

"Why not?" Regardless of the rights and wrongs of their current engagements, the Marines have a job to do, and are legally entitled to do it. Recruiting, I mean. The Marines will still be around long after Bush and Iraq are just footnotes in American history.

[xultar]

5. No SHIT!

[LizW]

6. I don't really have a problem with this

I DO have a big problem with the tv commercials for the Army Reserve where the kid is telling his dad, "It's the Reserve, I'll get money for college and train one weekend a month."

The definite impression they're trying to give is that it's no big deal to go into the Reserves, you just get college money and training and there's hardly any committment. The father never says, like any normal parent would, "They'll send you to Iraq to get your arms and legs blown off!!!!"

I hate those commercials.

I took my mom Christmas shopping in the mall and we had to go into the video game store. When we came out, there were two Marines in dress uniform hanging around. I pointed them out and said, "You know what they're doing, right? They're recruiting." Her jaw dropped, and she said, "Outside a game store where teenage boys go?"

It was an eye opener for her.