Happy 240th Birthday United States Marine Corps

[Freddy Rumsen]

#SemperFi

[Algernon]

[dodint]

Yut yut Devil Dog Oo-rah Semper Fi.

Here is a picture of me in Afghanistan with a lot of heroin. There was a mishap in the LZ that led to me having a drug waiver for six months, there is a reason I look so 'at peace' in that picture. One of my favorite days:



Another good one, I loved C-130s and doing the detainee runs was a trip. One of the best ones was when we had a plane full of civilians and one of our guys really, really had to take a crap. The toilet on a C-130 is just a toilet seat that folds out of the wall and a small box or bag underneath to catch everything. With no social grace at all he just climbed up there and did his business.
Another time we flew back from a drop off at Bagram and they added some cargo and had to fold up the netting seats in the picture. The cargo they added were these giant heavy machinery earth movers. Rather than sleeping on the ground we just crawled into the dump buckets and slept in there for the the flight home.



I have few standout memories of Afghanistan and the Corps in general, but those were times worth remembering.

Also, it's my brothers birthday. It got my Dad out of going to the ball that year.

Semper Fi.

[columbia]

That's a lot of dope.

[dodint]

Yeah, the brown boxes to the right of the frame? Same thing.

[NAN]

I was listening to KDKA radio this morning and they had two marines on. They were ask about the war on terrorism and how it is not a conventional war and how they feel about how the US and their allies are handling it.

Both of them said that we will never beat the terrorist and groups like ISIS because our government is too PC and are more worried about bad press at home instead of winning a war. Said that they have to positivitely ID, get clearance, etc, etc before they can even take a shot at the enemy, all the while they are getting fired at, and by the time they can go for the kill, the enemy is gone.

They said Marines are over there to kill. Said there would be collateral damage, but in order to win the war, you have to go and attack and not hesitate and be PC.

Do you current and former Marines agree. Just seeing what the mindset is.

[dodint]

Absolutely. And I experienced it through the aviation command center, so we dealt with ROE and PID at the command level. Meaning we were the reason that the guys on the ground (or the drones) couldn't fire, which is a different kind of frustration.

I was part of the chain (Airspace Deconfliction) that approved SOF Operations. I basically had to check to make sure their airspace was clear before they launched for the evening. The approval process was something like 16 steps to get the CONOPS signed off on, often pushing up to the last minute. They would try to run the same op night after night because some paperwork wasn't signed or they lost PID while waiting for something. Very hard to get any work done.

Iraq was easier for some reason.

Hope this thread doesn't devolve into politics, from the Marine/Vet perspective, there wasn't anything we could do about it as an individual. We could debate Just War theory all day but the fact is I was just a cog in a clumsy machine. I'm proud of my time served and things that I did, but I got out for a reason. Many reasons.

[Freddy Rumsen]

Nice pics.

I do not have a lot of "action" shots of me as I was usually the one taking them (4641). But here is one with General Krulak and another on Okinawa going through Jungle Warfare training.

[dodint]

Nice, Krulak was a boss. Came up with The Crucible. I wonder if they still do it. My Commandants were Hagee, Conway, and Amos. Was kind of cool being in during the first aviator to be a Commandant. I never did meet him.

I did meet Admiral Mike Mullen and SECNAV Ray Mabus.

4641's were a pain in the ass. I worked in that command center, and we couldn't leave the room to do our promotions and awards, so every month we'd have to cover all the maps, boards, and turn off all the monitors so you guys could come in and take pictures.

I was a 7242, Air Support Operator.

[Algernon]

All that red tape and we still bomb hospitals on accident


What's the point?


Here's a story my brother told me:

-They're in forward operating base or position in Anbar province
- It's the night several hours after a bunch of bombs were dropped on targets a couple miles from them
- they have marines on post watching the road into their position and have this whole protocol of things to do before they can shoot to kill at a possible suicide bomb car
- I'm forgetting a lot of the details but long story short a van or truck is driving toward their position and the marines light it up before finishing their protocol (which was to wait til it came within a certain distance before they fired on it)

Good thing they lit it up at a larger distance because it turns out, that vehicle was carrying a 500 pound bomb that didn't explode(when it was dropped earlier) and it was rigged with artillery shells to make it a giant moving IED

Apparently despite the trigger man setting it off at a distance

It apparently blew out Windows and completely destroyed a section of wall to the base and several people had to get medical attention


Had they allowed it closer before shooting like they were suppose to, over a hundred marines would have died

[Freddy Rumsen]

haha....grip and gins are what kept us in business.

My favorite part of the job was working with MarCorSysCom documenting new weapons systems at defense contractors.

Also the work we did with NCIS and the MP's provided lots of entertainment. "Please stay still Ma'am so I can get a clear picture of those bruises on your face"....

[NAN]

Absolutely. And I experienced it through the aviation command center, so we dealt with ROE and PID at the command level. Meaning we were the reason that the guys on the ground (or the drones) couldn't fire, which is a different kind of frustration.

I was part of the chain (Airspace Deconfliction) that approved SOF Operations. I basically had to check to make sure their airspace was clear before they launched for the evening. The approval process was something like 16 steps to get the CONOPS signed off on, often pushing up to the last minute. They would try to run the same op night after night because some paperwork wasn't signed or they lost PID while waiting for something. Very hard to get any work done.

Iraq was easier for some reason.

Hope this thread doesn't devolve into politics, from the Marine/Vet perspective, there wasn't anything we could do about it as an individual. We could debate Just War theory all day but the fact is I was just a cog in a clumsy machine. I'm proud of my time served and things that I did, but I got out for a reason. Many reasons.

Thanks.

I definitely wasn't trying to turn this into a political thing. Was just interested in the KDKA interview and what the Marines had to say. And I've heard the same thing from people I know in the military. It's all about being PC and not actually winning a war and they were very frustrated.

Anyway, the other part of the interview was pretty cool. They were talking about the birth of the Marines, how it was born in a tavern, the tavern owner was made the chief recruiter, and anyone that signed up got a free quart of booze.

I'm guessing that is what the first picture is on the OP.

[dodint]

Source of the post Also the work we did with NCIS and the MP's provided lots of entertainment.

When I was still on Terminal Leave I took a federal job on base as a dispatcher. It was fun working weekends because we got to watch all the brilliant guys try to get back to the dorms at 2:30am. Lots of sobriety tests, not many passed.

Algernon, all I can say is that it's a very muddled and confusing process. I don't think we should be there at all, which as I alluded to, is why I'm not.

[dodint]

Source of the post I definitely wasn't trying to turn this into a political thing. Was just interested in the KDKA interview and what the Marines had to say. And I've heard the same thing from people I know in the military. It's all about being PC and not actually winning a war and they were very frustrated.

No worries, I'm happy to answer any questions. I just wanted to ward off the possibility of it elevating to the level of strategic decision makers that we had no influence over. And you're right, "Hearts and Minds" was/is the focus and it's not going well.

Source of the post I'm guessing that is what the first picture is on the OP.

Tun Tavern, yeah. And it's now under a stretch of I-95. Oh well.

[Miami Vice]

My maternal grandfather was a Marine in the Pacific Theater. We don't have a lot of records about it. The few things I know are that he spent a long stretch sick with malaria and he was upset enough about his experiences that he didn't speak about it much.

When I took an 8th grade field trip to Washington DC I took a picture of the Marine Corps Memorial. He looked at it and said "we lost another 20,000 men there after they took that picture." Thats the only thing I ever heard him say about his service.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

I played a marine in a video game once

[dodint]

Were you a pogue?

[tifosi77]

Apologies for missing this thread earlier.

Happy birthday, Marines. Semper fi, and all that. I shall display my VMFA-323 and VMA-214 patches at my desk in your honor. It is literally the least I can do.

[Kaiser]

I'll add to the photo album when I get home

[Kaiser]

welcome to:

its a pretty nice place

wait, i meant the other part of town

ok it sucks. and things explode, but it can make for kodak moments

but at least there are some good people

oh wait, everyone here in choco cammies is dead or fighting for ISIS now. oh well.

[dodint]

Nice cans.

I spent all my Iraq time at Al Asad. Aviation is rough.

[Freddy Rumsen]

Good stuff. I finished my four years not long after 9/11 so I missed all the fun in the desert.

[dodint]

@columbia

This is the 'ground glass' moment you can being so **** coy about, third post in the thread.

Also found this, forgot I had it. It was earlier in the day after we did the detainee drop off to the Afghani National Police:

[columbia]

Coy?
Just seemed like an odd story.

[dodint]

It might've been my most interesting day of the deployment if that counts as odd.

It's just weird to me you act like cutting black tar heroin with ground glass is unusual. Just don't know what your deal is.