Marine Receives A Special Gift On His Last Day Of Active Duty

    "Today's my unofficial last day as a Marine. This is what my unit gave me to say goodbye."

    This is the gift one soldier received from his unit on his last day as an active Marine:

    Reddit user KeatingOrRoark posted this image online three days ago. He wrote:

    I was so touched. And they gave it to me after I just gave a speech of how awesome they treated me post-9/20. Their words were: "Funny you should mention that. We got you a gift."
    I'm going to miss them.

    The date, 9/20, refers to the repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in the United States.

    The comments have been supportive from fellow members of the military and civilians alike:

    According to a Reddit AMA hosted a year ago, the Marine above is Sgt. Bryan Eberly.

    One of the questions directed towards him concerned the repeal of DADT:

    Q:Have most people in the military accepted the repeal of DADT and started to treat out servicemen/women as they would anyone else?

    A: I can only speak for my observances with the news and my unit. My unit has been completely supportive of my family. I was even heavily encouraged to bring my husband to last year's birthday ball. I was thinking about doing it, was hesitant because the repeal had just happened, but my Marines all urged me to do it. It's been a great experience. I feel very loved and supported.
    Based on my observations of the Marine Corps, I can only say that the Corps is very much just a "print screen" of America. You have many Marines who are happy about repeal, many who are indifferent and there are of course many who still think it's terrible and will destroy our Corps. To my knowledge, I haven't heard of any violent reactions to the repeal.
    I can tell you that we in the recruiting command make it a point to address the issue with enlisted applicants and officer candidates before they even go to basic training, and strongly urge that our personal feelings never get in the way of our mission: winning battles and taking care of each other.
    I try to see my husband at least once a quarter. We won't be together before my EAS (End of active service), but after that, I will be living with him permanently.

    Read his full AMA here.