Marines Warned Against Trading One Battlefield for Another

Wed in haste, repent at leisure. Or: If the Marine Corps wanted you to have a spouse, it would issue you one.

The sudden deployment of troops from Camp Pendleton to Saudia Arabia has proved a boon to wedding chapels near base. Marines are rushing to the altar one step ahead of being sent to the desert.

But now the Marine Corps is trying to put the brakes on the increasing number of hurry-up marriages.

Chaplains are counseling Marines not to do something impetuous. Navy Relief is offering sessions on the budgeting problems faced by newlyweds.

Marines thinking of hasty wedlock are invited to “marriage dissolution” classes at the Religious Development Center to see firsthand the financial and emotional wounds of marriages gone sour. The center introduces the Marines to combat terms like community property, lawyers’ fees, in-laws and custody fights.

The base newspaper, The Scout, is full of cautionary articles: “Instant Marriage Not a Good Idea.”

This kind of Dutch Uncle meddling does not bother Betty Coplin, whose I Do Weddings chapel in Vista is getting a lot of business from Saudi-bound Marines.

Coplin hasn’t yet seen any Marines trapped by gold diggers interested only in their allotment checks and Base Exchange privileges, or Marines arriving at the chapel hung over and with a fresh tattoo. She doesn’t want to.

If counseling will avoid such farces, more’s the better, Coplin said.

In its counteroffensive on marriage, the Marine brass is quick to point out casualty figures: Upward of three-quarters of instant marriages end in divorce within three years.

“The urge to marry in the face of a sudden and dangerous deployment is very strong,” wrote one Marine chaplain.

“To those who feel its power and are contemplating marriage now rather than waiting, I say Don’t Do It!”

Translation: If you think war is hell, try a bad marriage.

It Pays to Have Friends

Money and Politics, Con’t.

* Tuesday, San Diego Councilman Bob Filner made the motion (approved 6 to 2) to renew the paramedic contract with Hartson Medical Services, rather than send the contract to bid.

Today, Filner is having a major political fund-raiser at the Del Mar Hilton.

On the host committee: Hartson’s chief executive officer, Glen Roberts.

* The council just voted, 8-1, to reappoint Gretchen Colachis to the city Agricultural Board, which oversees leases in the San Pasqual Valley.

The strenuous nay-sayer was Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer.

That’s odd because four years ago Wolfsheimer had nominated Colachis, who has an agriculture degree from Texas A&M; and sells real estate in La Jolla.

But now Wolfsheimer says Colachis should not be reappointed because she is only a real estate agent , not a broker, and that the board needs a broker.

Cynics note that Colachis last fall contributed to Wolfsheimer’s challenger, Bob Trettin. Her father-in-law, Jim Colachis, owner of the Rancho Bernardo Inn, was Trettin’s campaign chairman.

Brief Consideration

Seen and heard.

* The San Diego State University chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists is still looking for ways to raise money.

An idea to sell boxer shorts with SPJ on the front and “Don’t Invade My Privacy” on the rear has been nixed by the SPJ board.

* The poetry reading Sunday afternoon at the Soho coffee house on University Avenue in San Diego was dedicated (tongue-in-cheek) to Jesse Helms.

The first poet provided 30 minutes of lesbian love verse.

* Air Force Gen. Merrill A. McPeak, nominated as the next Air Force chief of staff, is a 1957 graduate of San Diego State.

* The Marine Corps calls its Saudia Arabia field rations MRE: Meals Ready to Eat.

Wives at Camp Pendleton say the troops have another interpretation for MRE: Meals Rejected by Everybody.