Community Corner

Local Marines React to Osama bin Laden's Death

Patch interviews Camp Pendleton Marines in Oceanside on their thoughts after hearing that bin Laden was killed Sunday night.

Camp Pendleton Marines out in Oceanside Sunday night reacted strongly to President Barack Obama's that Osama bin Laden had been killed by American forces in a Pakistani compound in Abbottabad. 

Here are some of the Marines' comments.

“I think it’s an achievement in the long war, or the global war on terrorism, or whatever we’re going to call it today,” said Maj. Ted Chord. “But the death of one man is not that impressive. … We’re fighting a war against an ideology that aims to defeat and kill us here in the West. … I think this is just another notch in the belt of the American peoples’ mind that we are moving forward against this war on terrorism, we are moving down the path towards resolution in the long war, but we’re nowhere near there yet because one guy is just one guy and we have a lot more work to do to try and rid the world of evil.”

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“My opinion is that I hope [Osama] is dead,” said Cpl. Elijah Hoffman. “Why? Bring our boys home, end this ... in the Middle East and save the rest of our community.” 

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“He should have been dead years ago,” said Lance Cpl. Ryan Bromley. “We’ve been looking for him since 2001.”

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“It’s going to make things a lot more complicated just for the fact that Obama is a big figure in the Islamic religion, they all look up to him,” said Lance Cpl. Jerry Dixon.

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“I think it’s a good thing. I mean, we’ve been looking for this guy for how long?” said Lance Cpl. Andrew Conine.

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 “It’s about time,” said Cpl. James Clark. When he first heard the news, “I thought it was a joke.”

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“I’m just glad we finally got him,” said Cpl. Doug Scherr. “He crushed us at 9/11, he did some damage to the country. It was like the president said, we needed to get justice and we finally did.”

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“I was just in the movies, I got a text,” said Pfc. Tyler Norris. “I don’t really care that much because no matter what happens, in the end I’m going to do what I’m told.”

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“It came on so everybody was just like ‘Hey, watch this,’” said Lance Cpl. Kavan O’Toole. “Osama’s dead so it’s a good thing to hear because I’ve got a lot of brothers and sisters in the military. My whole family is pretty much in the military, so it’s good news for us.”


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