“That shitbird,” he said a few days later, “is no longer in our Corps, Lieutenant.” Boom. The man was gone. Packed up and shipped out. Every lieutenant needs a First Sergeant Mata, a man with twenty-five years of experience and a hundred friends at other duty stations. Where did the malcontent go? Who cared; he was out. He was representative of the challenges junior officers faced in those days, and such summary dismissals of bad actors were necessary for dealing with the turbulent times. The Marine Corps would not lower its standards. Called “expeditious discharge,” it was a critical policy
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You tell the story about an incident early in your career when a malcontent marine was a real detriment to the morale of your team and a Sargeant got rid of him. That must have made a big impression on you. What were the lessons you took from that?
