Article

2003-02-12 Europe

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Posted by dakotah 2003-02-12 04:46 pm|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Wait, didn't I read this a few weeks ago somewhere???

Posted by Anonymous 2003-02-12 17:14:37|| 2003-02-12 17:14:37|| Front Page Top

#2 I can't vouch for this msg, but it was bouncing around Army Personnel Command today.

Posted by dakotah 2003-02-12 17:16:02|| 2003-02-12 17:16:02|| Front Page Top

#3 It's been going around for months -- in some versions the female officer is a Marine. Frankly, I think it's phoney.

Posted by Patrick Phillips 2003-02-12 18:21:36|| 2003-02-12 18:21:36|| Front Page Top

#4 Cheeze, I hate to do it, but...

From the Urban Legends website:
We first began seeing this e-mail in mid-October 2002 when it circulated with no more authorial attribution than "from a Marine Lieutenant Colonel in Bosnia." Not until mid-November 2002, a full month later, did we begin to receive copies signed by "Mary Beth Johnson" (or, in some cases, "Mary Beth xxxx" or "Mary Beth J."), a "LtCol, USMC." Our experience with researching Internet lore tells us articles start out with their authors clearly identified and through the forwarding process gradually lose proper attribution, but the process does not work in reverse. Previously unattributed articles do not suddenly sprout named authors, so either "Mary Beth Johnson" was simply a name someone added to the end of the piece to make it more humorous, or she's merely a recipient whose signature became attached to the item when she forwarded it on to others.

True or not, this piece was undoubtedly written by a man. A woman is unlikely to descibe the composition of another army (even France's) as "a bunch of faggots for soldiers"; that terminology (and the fear it expresses) are male. Also "thus demonstrating that even the smallest American had more fight in him than the average Frenchman" would be an odd statement for a female soldier to make after having just stood up to a belligerent foreigner; certainly it would have been "more fight in her." All in all, this missive sounds like something penned by someone stateside whose strongest connection with the Marines exists only in his imagination.

(Perhaps the choice of surname is telling. "Johnson" is one of the many slang terms for penis, and the article is an example of rampant "Check out the size of mine, will ya?" posturing. And it's coupled with "Mary Beth," an undeniably feminine name that conjures up images of sweet country girls in print dresses; the very opposite of the tough, professional soldier.)

We figure "Mary Beth" is a Michael or Sam or Douglas, and we're far from convinced the real author is even in the armed services, let alone serving in Bosnia and smartmouthing French officers. A real soldier -- especially one serving in the Balkans -- would know Camp Bondsteel is in Kosovo, not Bosnia.

Posted by Fred 2003-02-12 18:24:57|| 2003-02-12 18:24:57|| Front Page Top

#5 sorry, my bad.

Posted by dakotah 2003-02-12 19:10:08|| 2003-02-12 19:10:08|| Front Page Top

07:40 liberalhawk
06:14 Ptah
05:22 Mike
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23:07 RW
22:51 Fred
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18:49 Patrick Phillips
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