Girls 'n Grenades

Throws Like a Girl Stu Tarlowe <stu@tarlowe.com>   What possibly could go wrong with women in Marine/Army infantry combat? GRENADE TRAINING 101 A hand grenade goes off in 3.5 seconds.          Ever hear the saying "throws like a girl"? In the (new) Marine Corps (with women in combat),   this is what it looks like ... filmed on location, for your terror, at USMC Camp Pendleton, CA.

THE Manhattan Battleship Project

The USS RECRUIT

"The equipment is that of the up-to-the-minute dreadnought with accommodations on board for day and night life of officers and men." -POPULAR SCIENCE, AUG. 1917 Did the Indians used this battle ship to defeat Custer at Little Big? Horn! As a recruiting tool the ship was very successful, helping to recruit 25,000 men into the U.S. Navy. The First World War ended in 1918, and by 1920 the Recruit was no longer needed in Union Square. It was properly decommissioned and dismantled, with the intention of relocating it to Coney Island's Luna Park. This did not happen and the fate of the Recruit is unknown.* *If you check the roll-over, it appears that—like with Iran today—the government gave it to the Sioux Nation who used it to win at the Little Bog Horn?!? I am astounded and gob-smacked that—in this time where cable televison's 758 channels devote 24/7 to history and the miltary!—that I have lived approx. 97 years without having had so much as an inkle about this Union Square battleship.  Full props to Ron Metzgercan Hat Dance for finding it for us.  He wrote: It's news to me, too. The reason is most of my NYC stays are at a hotel a block from Union Square. Many of the buildings in these 95+-year-old photos are still there. And, in one of the 'battleship' photos, a statue of Lafayette is in the foreground. It's still there, too. PS The appearance of this 'battleship' is much like the original appearance of USS Arizona, built at Brooklyn Navy Yard and launched in 1915 And horry clap; look!  The Navy was the pioneer Gays in the Military service!  Who knew?  Many more pics here.

And when she says, "Spread 'em soldier," Oh My.

Cuff Me, Please Oh My. CLICK for the lower 40

Old Navy-New Navy

Wooden Ships and Iron Men - My Navy vs. Today's Navy  O.K.  Now this is a long read, but if you're former Navy, or any military type from the 60s and 70s, you'll find a lot of resonance in it.  The guy's "voice" and style are so similar to mine that I wondered for a while if I'd written it and forgot about it. The home site has more stories for anyone interested. Ron "I Metzger in St. Louis" Before you get all up in my face 'bout what I'm 'bout to ramble on about, lemme first say that I know the human memory tends to heavily discriminate the stuff it stores, cataloguing things the way it wants to and reserving special places for certain select events, sounds, sights, smells, and scenes. And not only does it selectively edit things in and out, but it tends to embellish events with its individualized set of filters, ethics, morals, priorities, and tastes, magnifying some episodes and minimizing others. O.K. That said, I recently came across something that triggered memories of my early experiences in the Navy. 'Smatterafact, lotsa things do that as I get older. My holistic retrospect on my 24 years in the USN is quite positive, and I often willingly go back to relive what were my most exciting and satisfying times . . . all the way from a raw unranked boot in San Diego to the guy responsible for maintenance and repair of elex comm & crypto equipment for CincPac, SubPac, CinCPacFlt, Com7thFlt, and several other high-powered commands in Hawaii. Hair all shaved off. Personal effects confiscated. Clothes that didn't fit. Strangers yelling stuff at me I didn't fully understand. Food that tasted like stewed dirt. Beds that spoke of the hundreds who'd slept in 'em before. Marching in formation with guys wearing exactly the same clothes I had to wear, carrying an out-of-date rifle with which I had to master and demonstrate skills useful in no situation my fertile imagination could conceive. My entire personality dragged out, ridiculed, abused, and tossed on a scrap heap only to be replaced by one that knee-jerked instantly to commands and single-mindedly carried out lawful orders, even though no one had ever explained to me what exactly an unlawful order might have been. No longer was I a college boy pursuing liberal arts and intellectual growth but a cog in a 72-man machine dedicating every single waking moment to causing no demerits to the company during inspections, drills, skill training, or parades. Home was a narrow cot in an open-bay barracks featuring gang showers and rows of sinks, urinals, and commodes with no provisions for individuality, much less privacy. Lights out happened when the Company Commander decided we'd absorbed enough humiliation for that day, that our lockers were properly stowed, that our shoes were properly shined, our barrack was properly cleaned, and that we clearly understood that we were still useless raw meat that some unfortunate Chief Petty Officer would one day be burdened with molding into halfway decent sailors. Reveille was 0500, even before the seagulls which swooped down to pick up the lungers off the grinder were up yet. Formation was 20 minutes later, after shaving and dressing and fixing bunks and being reminded that the coming night would indeed be damned short if we screwed up ANYthing that day. Breakfast was hard-boiled eggs and beans and soggy toast one day, chipped-something-or-other on soggy toast the next, greasy fried mystery stuff with soggy toast the next, hamburger with tomato sauce on soggy toast the next, and all served with something vaguely white called "reconstituted milk" and a dark, vile, burnt-smelling but otherwise tasteless fluid some would-be comedian labeled "Coffee." One good thing, though . . . [Full Article] ”

Seen one iron ship. you seen 'em all

Oh My

That's what I saw

Army Bum Sniffer Dog

THIS JUST IN Working Dogs Smarter than Junior Officers “ According to the Times, the top three smartest groups in the Army are brain surgeons, CBRN officers, and JAG Corps attorneys. The bottom three? First lieutenants, followed closely by second lieutenants, and then military working dogs. Pentagon sources have confirmed that in light of the article’s findings, Army brass has approved a policy to award Military Working Dogs the rank of Captain upon completion of basic dog training [FULL-Army Times: Military Working Dogs Smarter than Junior Officers] ”           Tim W

Joint Operations

Understand?

“ One reason the Military Services have trouble operating jointly is that they don't speak the same language. For example, if you told Navy personnel to "secure a building," they would turn off the lights and lock the doors. The Army would occupy the building so no one could enter. Marines would assault the building, capture it, and defend it with suppressive fire and close combat. The Air Force, on the other hand, would take out a three-year lease with an option to buy. ”

shortarms inspection

In-spek-shunnn shortarms Badanov

Whose magazine?

Dirty

“ Soon after being transferred to a new duty station, my Marine husband called home one evening to tell me he would be late. "Dirty magazines were discovered in the platoon quarters," he said, "and the whole squad is being disciplined." I launched into a tirade, arguing that Marines should not be penalized for something so trivial. My husband interrupted. "Honey, when I said ‘dirty magazines,’ I meant the clips from their rifles hadn’t been cleaned." ” Reader's Digest

Afhanistan Sunset - for some

Sweet

Fall Out

FALL OUT!

“ As a group of soldiers stood in formation at an Army Base, the Drill Sergeant said, "All right! All you idiots fall out." As the rest of the squad wandered away, one soldier remained at attention. The Drill Instructor walked over until he was eye-to-eye with him, and then raised a single eyebrow. The soldier smiled and said, "Sure was a lot of 'em, huh, sir?" ”

Dear John Letter

Dear John Letter

“ The soldier serving overseas, far from home was annoyed and upset when his girl wrote breaking off their engagement and asking for her photograph back. He went out and collected from his friends all the unwanted photographs of women that he could find, bundled them all together and sent them back with a note saying........... "Regret cannot remember which one is you -- please keep your photo and return the others." ”

Memo

Actual memo from the Alaska Air Command

“ "Due to an administrative error, the original of the attached letter was forwarded to you. A new original has been accomplished and forwarded to AAC/JA (Alaskan Air Command, Judge Advocate office). Please place this carbon copy in your files and destroy the original." ”

The Ryder truck

Mil-Hyüm

“ Air Force Approach: Eagle 13, turn right to 330. Eagle 13: Roger 330. App: Eagle 13, I've been working since last night, Will you do me a favor? Eagle 13: Affirmative. Go ahead. App: Down below on your right, you'll see a base house with yellow roof near the lake. That is my house. I had a fight with my Wife, and I'm worried she might take it out on my Harley. Do you see a Harley Davidson near the house? Eagle 13: Negative sir. Instead I can see a Ryder's truck. ”