237 years ago today the Naval Committee of the Continental Congress was directed to raise two battalions of Marines, and so we got the naval infantry. So Happy Birthday, Marine Corps. From the Halls of Montezuma to shores of Tripoli. From the peak of Suribachi to the alleyways of Fallujah.
The New York Post reports that the Marines have landed in Staten Island and Queens to assist in cleanup efforts there. And the residents seem appreciative;
“I was just speechless when I saw them,” said Priscilla Smalls, 53, who lives in the Ocean Bay Houses in the Rockaways’ Arverne section.
“I’ve never seen Marines anywhere before, let alone over here in the projects. It’s a great, cool thing. We need the big guns after what happened here. I’ve seen the National Guard, but the Marines are a whole different thing.”
They don’t seem to be worried if the Marines are armed or not, like the old lady who calls himself mayor of New York City.
Thanks to Preston for the link.
One of the few remaining Navajo Code Talkers from World War II has passed.
George Smith died Tuesday, 30 October 2012, aged 90. He will be buried with full military honors on Saturday, 3 November 2012 at Rehobeth Cemetery near Gallup, NM.
During World War II, Smith served with the 2nd Marine Division at Saipan, Okinawa, and other locations.
The story of the Navajo Code Talkers is fairly well known. If you don’t know it, you should visit this site and spend a few minutes.
Rest in peace, my elder brother in arms.
This is from Chip who sent us this video from Welcome Home Blog of some Marines who seem to be happy that they’re leaving Afghanistan for some reason. It’s Marines, so there’s a LANGUAGE WARNING, if you needed to be told;
Yeah, if you can make it through this story without welling up, you’re a stronger person than I;
The boy was 11-year-old Ben Baltz of Valparaiso, Florida. At six years old, Ben was diagnosed with bone cancer in his right leg and had his fibula and tibia removed. He walks with a mechanical knee and prosthetic walking leg, which he switches out for a running leg to play sports (including soccer, baseball and children’s triathlons). On Sunday, Ben completed the 150-yard swim and 4-mile bike ride and half the one-mile run when a screw came loose and his running leg broke in half.
His mom was standing at the finish line, wondering what happened. ‘It was only a mile, I knew he was tired, I was like, ‘Where is he, where is he, where is he,’ his mother, Kim Baltz, told CNN iReport. ‘All of a sudden the announcer just said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to turn around and look at what’s happening on the course’ … Everybody was crying. It was just very touching that the Marines were there. They picked him up and everybody was cheering and just giving them support and Ben support.’
The Marine who carried Ben is Matthew Morgan, Private First Class at Marine Detachment Corry Station, a training command in Pensacola…”he picked that young boy up quick, threw him on his back and ran the rest of the course … We’re pumped.”
Thanks to TSO for the link. I think.
Firefry12 sends us a link to the Marine Corps Times which recounts the first few days of two women who are taking the Marine Corps’ infantry officer course as an experiment.
“The women are expected to do everything that the men do,” says Marine Col. Todd Desgrosseilliers, who commands the organization responsible for basic Marine officer and infantry training. “We haven’t changed anything.”
Women have been steadily moving into many ranks previously barred to them, living at forward bases, flying combat aircraft and serving on submarine crews. Women remained barred from the infantry and other combat-arms specialties, but for the first time are being allowed to enter the Marines infantry officer training.
Allowing the women to volunteer for the course is part of an “experiment” to determine how they perform in the rigorous regimen of physical and psychological stress that Marine infantry officer candidates are put through.
The Marine Corps’ Infantry Officer Course is a course in which about 25 percent of men don’t make the cut or voluntarily drop out.
Well, if they can keep that promise that the course won’t change, I can go along with it, but I know that the screeching harpies at DoD will not be able to tolerate the failure rates which will be inevitably high.
“In the end, when all is said and done, what they should be focusing on is combat effectiveness,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R.-Calif., a member of the Armed Services Committee. “Does it make us better at literally killing the enemy? That’s what their job is going to be.”
Infantrymen engage in close-in fighting, sometimes “with knives, rocks and shovels,” [David Barno, a retired three-star Army general] says. “I don’t rule that out, but I think we should take a hard look at that.”
Obviously, Hunter and Barno are steeped in their chauvinistic bullshit, because what’s really important, according to the playing-field-levelers all that’s important is that women and the men around them have a greater opportunity to give their lives for their country while pursuing their gender-neutral career goals.
Marine Capt. Brian Perkins kept a close watch over a group of exhausted Marine lieutenants struggling through a series of pull-ups.
“She’s just another student to me,” Perkins said, referring to one of the women as she sweated through exercises.
As long as it stays that way, I have no problem with it. But it won’t stay that way.
Several of you sent us this link to the Washington Beacon‘s article about the Marines in Egypt who are reporting on various forums that they had no ammo the other day when the embassy was attacked. I wasn’t going to mention it to you guys because it just looked like a published rumor which fit our perception of this administration.
But the folks at the Washington Beacon contacted us and asked if you guys knew where these rumors were coming from. I’m not so naive to think that this is the only place you hang out, so if any of you Marines know which message boards and which Marines are saying this, we’d sure like to know. Screen shots would be great, or if you could get someone to email us so we can verify or lay the rumor to rest. And y’all know how I protect my sources.
The Beacon is getting their information from Nightwatch who isn’t sourcing their comments either;
(more…)