Marine_kill_halladay
Since it’s Marine Week in St. Louis – a chance for the military to show its might and stage a giant PR event near one of the most impoverished cities in America, East St. Louis – several hundred military folk were at last night's Phillies – Cardinals game… including Colonel Shane Tomko and Sergeant Nicole Tannahill.

Our military does many fine things, and words can't fully express our gratitude. Every round of applause and standing ovation is more than deserved. However, spending over 25 years in the service can skew one's worldview, which is exactly what seems to have happened to Col. Tomko, who joked about killing Roy Halladay with a tank:

Col. Tomko: I'll tell you what, with that M1A1 Abrams we got across the street, if Halladay keeps on pitching well, we can fix that with one round pretty quickly.

Announcer: – awkward laughs – I'm sure you could. I don't know if we should say that, but you just did.

Col. Tomko: I can say whatever I want because I'm a war fighter, and this is the Cardinals Nation the last time I checked.

 

Annnnd therein lies the problem. We probably wouldn't have posted this if he had just made the poor-taste joke, but the fact that he had a chance to clarify it and followed up with only more ignorance cemented the deal.

War is obviously what Tomko does 24/7, but he has to know better than to joke about something like that, especially on TV.

The comments on this one should be fun.

Video is after the jump- about 35 seconds in for the remark. Yeah, the Marines might want to think about getting a new spokesman.

UPDATE: FOX Sports Midwest issued a statement: 

"The comment was an attempt at humor, but was inappropriate to the setting.  We apologize to any fans who may have been offended.”

H/T to (@mcmullensr)