I’d like to preface and disclaimer this situation and post by saying that in my life, I have never met a military service man who has been at the least respectful to me. My recruiter in high school was perhaps one of the nicest and most interesting men I’ve met. My ROTC instructors were tough, but never disrespectful. None of the people I have met in any branch of the military have ever aimed to demean me as a human being before, so to say this is a first is an understatement. This isn’t in any way meant to denounce the Marines or the Corps so much as an insight to what may be a bad seed.

I was at a restaurant late at night with my family. We sat down and mentioned we were immediately ready to order food. After our orders were taken, the man in the booth next to us began to shout inflammatory remarks, most of which involved the word ‘f-ck’ or ‘f-cking’. The server excused himself and got a manager to which this man continued to say that he was being overlooked when he needed to order because there were women (us) in the other booth (with more expletives, of course). He continued by saying that the “orientals” shouldn’t have been given priority and that the “gook bitches” should be moved to a far corner of the restaurant.

At this point, I could smell the alcohol on his breath from the next booth over as he was berating the manager and screaming “bin dang” (which doesn’t mean anything to me or make any sort of sense) at me and my family. He screamed that he was a disabled Marine more than once in his diatribe, causing a huge scene over the order in which food orders were being placed.

This is what I don’t understand, and please if anyone could offer constructive opinions to clarify for me: how does being a disabled Marine change this sequence of events? Does it excuse him from calling me and my family “gooks”, “orientals”, and “bitches”? Is it okay for him to have been cussing out everyone over the fact that we were ready to order? Is this how older Marines are allowed conduct themselves? Does the philosophy “Once a Marine, Always a Marine” become moot if you are disabled? When is it okay for a person to be like this?

i haven’t thought this seriously about killing myself since high school