Happy July 4th everyone.  I hope everyone is having a great day and enjoying some nice weather.  Kirkland had its annual July 4th parade downtown this morning and we are all pretty exhausted at this point.

To mark the holiday and to share a great story, we are having the first ever guest blogger on Reply to All.  My good friend Michael Barry wrote the post below after a recent trip.  If you have a comment, leave it here or drop him an email on rmichaelbarry at gmail dot com.  Enjoy!

US Troops – The Best Anywhere

I recently had the opportunity to visit Joshua Tree, California – one of a handful of places in the world where the Joshua Tree grows.

 

If you’ve never been to the high desert, I would highly recommend the visit. In particular, the Joshua Tree National Park has some of the most beautiful scenery in the west.  Stay at the Roughley Manor and enjoy the wonderful hospitality of Jan and Gary Peters. They have developed a real oasis in the desert.

While in Joshua Tree, I had the honor to visit Twenty Nine Palms Marine Base, in Twenty Nine Palms California.  Much is written about leadership, but regardless of your political views, you should be proud of the physical, technical, mental and emotional training that our men and women receive at Twenty Nine Palms – it is quite simply beyond compare and results in leaders that we would all be fortunate to work with and whom we should all be proud to serve our Country (we should also be proud that there were at least 3 other western countries training alongside our men and women).

Our U.S. Marines are trained to plan (and contingency plan) and execute on that plan (or modify as necessary), in a variety of scenarios.  From IED search and destroy, injury triage, clearing a room, to interacting with locals and press representatives, and other “lanes” of training, the base was realistic in every way that a civilian could find imaginable.  Lt. Col. “Dutch” Dietz was kind enough to spend a few hours with us and permit us to experience some of the in-depth training that our Marines receive.

The base itself is 600 square miles and, among other things, houses at least one full-size, mock town that is used for reality optimized training. 

Each of the men and women of the US Marine Corps that we met were respectful, well trained, confident in their training and proud to serve our Country. The degree of training, technology, responsiveness and pride of our men and women in uniform is rarely covered in the popular press, and it’s a shame.  Our troops provide our Country with the best service we could possibly expect and they deserve the best from us – all of us.   

The next time you are walking through an airport, or are seated next to one of our men or women in uniform, let them know you appreciate their service to our Country. A simple “thanks” will be meaningful to them. Remember that at places like Twenty Nine Palms, our men and women in uniform are prepared for days that make even our most demanding board / client interactions pale in comparison.