you are a bunch of assholes

Dear MRFF,

What the hell are you doing or not doing. do you have any clue to
demanding and in investigation for a photo is over 2 yeas old The SS
means scout sniper your ignorance is beside me and you are a bunch of
morons. This has been tradition for many years If you got your head
out of your ass and ask some body, you may not wasteing the worlds
times

A PROUD FORMER US MARINE SCOUT SNIPER THAT HAS AND WILL ALWAYS WILL
CARRY AN SS PATCH AND T-SHIRT THAT I EARNED AND RESPECT I AM NOT A
FUCKING NAZI JUST A SCOUT SNIPER

Dear (name withheld),

Thank you for your kind note.

Let me begin by stating clearly that your ridiculous e-mail indicates
that either you are willfully ignorant or actually defending the use
of Nazi symbols, which means you are either intellectually or morally
vacuous, or both. Honestly, after reading your e-mail I am left to
wonder how you were even intellectually qualified to volunteer for the
Corps; I would have thought a basic level of literacy would be a
minimum requirement.

I am going to review this issue with you now, so see if you can rub a
couple of your inoperative brain cells together so you can hopefully
summon the minimal intellectual energy needed to comprehend what I am
about to tell you.

The flag in question uses the exact same lightening bolt SS symbol
that the Nazis used for the SS. Even the Marine Corps has made clear
that this sort of conduct, posing with such a flag and decorating
one’s rifle with such a symbol, is abhorrent conduct that will not be
tolerated. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation got involved and
brought this to the attention of the U.S. Marine Corps and the
Department of Defense after we were contacted by numerous Marines who
were outraged by the image and the conduct, Marines who clearly have
healthy, well-developed intellects and consciences, unlike you.

I know that within your little brain you imagine the lightening bolt
SS symbol only means “Scout Sniper;” you made that clear. I would ask
you to imagine what that symbol means to a Holocaust survivor, or to
an honorable veteran who fought the Nazis in World War II; but I doubt
you are capable.

Why don’t you do yourself a favor, Mr. Hammer; in the future instead
of making yourself look like a raging, ignorant bigot who sends hate
mail to organizations who work night and day to defend the religious
rights of service members and veterans, why don’t you go back to
school, maybe take some high school classes at your local community
college, read a book, exercise your brain and see if you can’t, over
time, pull yourself out of the swamp of ignorance and rage within
which you’re currently mired. If you aren’t interested in improving
yourself, perhaps you can at least muster the strength to adhere to
the age old adage: it is better to remain silent and have others think
you’re ignorant than to open your mouth and remove any doubt.

With Warmest Regards,

Akiva David Miller
Veterans Coordinator
Military Religious Freedom Foundation

Dear (name withheld),

First, thanks for your service.

Your letter (above) was passed on to me for comment. Although Mr. Akiva has already answered, I thought I’d try to give you an answer from a Marine’s perspective.

Please allow me to give you some personal background for your information.

Like most MRFF members, I am a veteran, (USMC) with service that included close personal ground combat in several of the major operations in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968, including Operation Scotland (Khe Sanh), before, during, and after the Tet 1968 assault and the Siege), and later in the Hue-Phu Bai area after Tet.

I also served in various line infantry units (2/2 and 3/9), and in 1st and 3rd Recon, in capacities through acting platoon commander. My MOSs included 0311, 0321, and 0369. I also served as an NCO at MARDET CINCLNTFLT, with responsibilities for the security of the command which included (in addition to CINCLNT) FMFLNT, SACLNT, SUBLNT, NATO, and the Nuclear Warfare School.

I later lost a limb which ended my active career, but subsequently went on to teach in the USMC Jr. ROTC program for several years, before using my GI Bill to attain a BA, and later a Master’s degree in Education, after which I taught K-12 and Adult education at a number of levels in public and private schools, including at-risk inner city, and in the Neglected and Abused home, and Juvenile Hall, and later, incarcerated adults in medium and high-security jails.

My family also has a history of military service dating back to the Revolutionary War and Civil War. (One of my lines line included Confederates, so I had ancestors on both sides in that conflict.)

My great-uncles served in WW I (USMC). One was seriously WIA, later dying of his wounds.

My father was a Marine in the Pacific in WWII, serving in the major island campaigns in the Marianna, Marshall, and Solomon Islands (incl. Tulagi, Guam, Guadalcanal, etc.). He was seriously WIA and evacuated to the US just prior to Iwo Jima.

One uncle was stationed in Shanghai with the 4th Marines, then transferred to the Philippines where he fought on Corregidor, becoming a Japanese POW after the surrender. He was later shipped to Japan on one of the “Hell Ships” where he worked as a slave laborer for the duration. (He weighed only 98 pounds on release.)

After recuperation, he was on occupation duty in Japan, when his unit was mobilized by MacArthur for Korea. He later fought at the Chosin Reservoir and on the famous fighting retreat under “Chesty” Puller, along with another of my uncles who was also a Marine. Both survived. Chet eventually retired as a MGYSGT. (The Marine Corps League named a post in Florida for him after his death.)

As I said most of us are veterans here – active, reserve, and retired, and from all branches of the US Armed Forces. Our members hold ranks from private through flag officer, with MOSs in all fields, including combat arms, and represent service eras from WW II, Korea, Viet Nam, and on through Gulf I, and the present GWOT.

Awards and decorations are numerous, and include the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star w/ V, the Silver Star, the Army, Navy, and AF Crosses, and one Medal of Honor.

Having grown up in the post WW II era, I personally knew many of the men who had fought, including in Europe. One of our family friends had been a combat photographer, and had been one of the men assigned by Eisenhower to make a record of the death camps so that nobody would ever forget or be able to deny what had happened. (Sadly, that noble goal seems to have failed.) Interestingly, he was (like Ike) of German descent himself (his name was Krauthammer), but after what he saw, he told me he could take never again take pride in his German heritage.

I have also known several survivors of the death camps. Not all were Jews. One was a Pole who was interned as a slave-laborer to be worked to death. His crime? Being an “untermensch” – a “sub-human.” That was to be the eventual fate of all who weren’t “Aryan.”

The SS were among the most vicious and brutal of the Nazi forces, and one branch was specially detailed to guard the death camps. Even their combat arm, Waffen SS, sometimes excused by apologists, were guilty of murderous and criminal treatment of both prisoners and civilians on the Eastern front.

Additionally, although I am not of Jewish descent or heritage, my wife is. Over half of the European branch of her family were wiped out in the Holocaust by these criminals and murderers. Among them was a young boy, her cousin, Hanus Hachenburg, a brilliant young boy who wrote plays, stories, and poetry of great beauty while he was incarcerated in Terezin (aka Theresienstadt) while awaiting transport to the death camps. (This was the city billed by Nazi propagandists as “Hitler’s gift to the Jews.”)

However, what he might have accomplished in later life will never be known, as his young life was snuffed out at 15 at Auschwitz by the murdering monsters whose logo you so “proudly” wear. (If you would like to see some of his work, Google his name.)

In addition to the Jews, Hitler’s Nazis, with its allies and collaborators, systematically murdered millions of others including Romani Gypsies, Soviet and Polish civilians and PoWs, people with disabilities, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Communists, Socialists, artists and writers whose work was disapproved of, and any political opponents (including Christians), along with anyone else they wanted to dispose of. Estimates of the total murdered run from 12 to 17 million.

There is absolutely no excuse or reason on the face of the earth for the use of the logo of these vicious, murdering thugs to be perpetuated, let alone honored or promoted, except by someone who is either as morally bankrupt as they were, or who is totally and completely ignorant of what they did. The Marines have stated clearly (even before this came to light) that they do not approve of or condone the use of this odious logo in any way at any level.

I don’t know how long the logo has been in use, nor do I care — though I certainly don’t remember seeing it on any scout-snipers at Khe Sanh or elsewhere in my era — but regardless of any longevity, it is and remains an odious memento of a monstrous regime — and frankly, Mr. Hammer, it doesn’t matter how you think of it personally – it is what is symbolizes to the world. I would be ashamed to be identified with it in any way, and so should any decent and right-thinking person. The only people who would be “proud” of this filthy logo are neo-Nazis, the KKK, white “supremacists” (who are living proof of the fallacy of their theory), skin-heads, and other racists.
And once more for good measure — the USMC has stated clearly (before this current example came up) that it is contrary to Marine policy to wear or display ANY Nazi insignia or elements thereof, in any way.

If you wish to be proud of your service as a scout-sniper, that is understandable — but if you display or wear this logo, the you are advertising to all who see it your intolerance and insensitivity to what it stands for — especially to those who suffered under it or fought it so hard – such as my family and many others.

If I were you, sir, I would burn anything that carries that disgraceful logo today. On the other hand, you have the Constitutional right to continue to wear and display it, — but you will be regarded as a a Nazi by all who see you. The decision is yours.

Semper Fidelis,

F. J. Taylor
USMC (Ret.)