Foothills Young Marines 

Young Marines Foothills Unit CO’s News Letter November 2011

We are starting into the holiday season.  For Marines this starts with the Marine Corps Birthday on November 10th. I truly hope that all have a great Thanks Giving this year! God Bless you and yours!

My topics are the Chain of Command, Self-discipline, all Adult Leaders, SNCO’s, and NCO’s involved need to assist the Young Marines to work with their chain of command.  They will make mistakes and then we can gently guide them back on track.  If the lessons of working together under stress are taught and learned, we all benefit. Young Marines and Staff must all work to improve at every activity we do, and pass that knowledge on to those coming along behind us.  This will require self-discipline at all levels.  But, you cannot teach something that you do not have.  Self-discipline is a trait that can be taught only to those that wish to acquire it.  It can come only from within the individual, a gift that you give yourself.  This discipline is voluntary; it is based on knowledge, reason, sense of duty, and idealism.  The American qualities of initiative and resourcefulness function best when obedience is inspired by an understanding of the objective and loyalty to a cause or a unit.  If you do not love and respect yourself, you cannot love or respect others.  It is impossible to truly love or respect someone else if you do not have those feelings for yourself first.  True self-discipline is based on this love and respect for self.  It is a developed trait that will assist you throughout your life and give back more than it takes.  It takes self-discipline to stop and think first when confronted with a problem under stress.  That pause may give you time to think of the best plan for the situation.  It may be only a split second or a month, the length of time is not the point.  It is what is needed to find the solution to a problem.  The time needed depends on training, drill and education. Habit plays a part in self-discipline and is one of the chief objectives of training.  We have work to do, all of us. Self-discipline takes work and is a project that never is completed.

Semper Fidelis!

CO Fitzgerald

The Young Marines are proud to announce that our very own travel site is up and running. We have partnered with Travelocity to provide you with all of your travel needs at competitive prices. The good news is that we, the Young Marines, receive some of the commission every time you book on our Young Marines Travel site. I just booked a flight for my mom and it was $30 cheaper than her own agent was going to charge AND the Young Marines receive a portion of the commission. To get to our site you may visit the Young Marines home page at www.youngmarines.com or you can go directly to the travel site at www.youngmarinestravel.com. We truly appreciate your support!

Mike Kessler National Executive

Director, Young Marines National HQs