Marine Recruiter And the MSM Part Two
Friday, June 17, 2005
On June 9th, I posted a skeptical review of Susan Paynter's article about a Washington state young man by the name of Axel and his mother, Marcia, and their alleged horrendous ordeal at the hands of the Marine Corps Recruiters. Paynter is a columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and frequently paints the military as either evil and relentless (original Paynter article) or as victims (Soldier in Baghdad responds to Paynter).
The Marine Corps Sergeant has been identified (by coming forward) and will perform an interview with National Public Radio (not exactly a friend of the military) tomorrow. Barb at Righty in a Lefty State provides the link to the NPR interview information which will air between 12-2pm Pacific.
Marine Staff Sergeant Ron Marquez was accused of many things - kidnapping Axel, intimidating Axel, using the memory of Axel's dad to influence Axel...Hopefully, he'll get a fair shake on NPR tomorrow.
For now, I want to point out one part of the Paynter article:
...The next step of Axel's misadventure came when he heard about a cool "chin-ups" contest in Bellingham, where the prize was a free Xbox. The now 18-year-old Skagit Valley Community College student dragged his tail feathers home uncharacteristically late that night. And, in the morning, Marcia learned the Marines had hosted the event and "then had him out all night, drilling him to join."...
They "had him out all night, drilling him to join". Sounds pretty rough, doesn't it?
Below is a picture of Axel (left), a Marine Recruiter, and Mrs. Marquez (right) from the night where SSgt. Marquez was "drilling him to join". Click on the thumbnail for the full picture.
Now, does that look like they were really drilling him? Does Axel look like he was having a lousy time?
Susan Paynter is a muck-raking, shrill, mean, and talentless hack who's knack for smoke, mirrors, and untruth is matched only by Howard Dean and Dick Durbin and Al Sharpton.
Thank you to SSgt (and Mrs.) Marquez for your service! I think it's obvious to the thousands of people that will read this that you have a tough job and that you do it well.
[I owe a big THANK YOU to Dan S. and Barb for pursuing this and ensuring that we can get to the truth behind this.]