Here’s the only criticism I can levy about News & Observer reporter Jay Price’s story in yesterday’s paper about how a handful of Marines formed an impromptu rescue team after a bus crash near Raleigh: He left out the f-words that were surely flying around the chaotic scene.

Other than that, Price painted a picture that syncs exactly with the reality of a moment involving a few good men (with an Army private or two thrown in for military diversity) and a bunch of panicked, injured passengers. In a situation like that, everyone’s gonna get rescued — but only after they’ve been yelled at a bit.

You can read the story here. If you know any Marines, you’ll probably be giggling when you get to this passage, which describes how two Marines named Hand and Neukam escaped from the wrecked bus, shook off the daze and climbed back inside to help:

They scrambled back up the bus and braced themselves over the windows to help hoist the other passengers out. …

Inside, some of the passengers were hysterical, and Hand yelled at them to shut up, telling them they had lived and everything would be OK.

Snicker. Yeah, I’ll bet that was a gentle entreaty for calm.

What I love most about this story, though, is that it highlights the often-overlooked benefit to the tax money we pay to support the globe’s greatest military. When you train young men and women to keep their wits about them in stressful moments, confront danger rather than run from it, work in teams, persevere in challenging situations and take command where no order exists, those are skills they will use in all situations for the rest of their lives. The Marines are particularly good at that training, as I have seen first-hand. (My son is starting his third year in the Corps.) Responsibility and accountability are pushed down the ranks. Every Marine, even the newest and lowest, is a decision-maker as well as a rifleman. He is expected to figure out what to do, then do it.

You can bet that each Marine on that bus knew that when he got back to Camp Lejeune, his gunnery sergeant eventually would want to know what he did after the crash — and that he’d better have something to say other than, “Well, gunny, I sat and waited for the paramedics to show up.”

Two final thoughts. First, when I told Price that I wanted to write about his story on the bus crash (and after he’d confirmed my suspicion that the reflexive Marine use of the f-word had been much on display that day), he sent this reply: “Sure, just make it clear they were good kids. Not a braggart among ‘em, had to pull [the story] out of them.” That speaks well of those young men.

Second, the Marine who climbed back in the bus, shouted for order and kept the badly injured driver from sliding into shock? He’s just 18 years old.

There’s your tax dollars at work.

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