Many officers lose any sense of conservatism they ever had when they sell their souls to politics in order to move to the highest commission levels. Some NCO's do the same thing.
That being said, good socks, baby wipes and really nice toilet paper make great Christmas gifts to deployed troops. I always considered kit items too personal to give as gifts.
Add to that progression the effect of punditry. That's were I've seen Scales and I've not been impressed. Pretty much Drang's post #7.Originally Posted by SSGMike
“Remember, being healthy is basically just dying as slowly as possible,” Ricky Gervais
I didn't even click on it but okie John hit it dead bang. I would just add jolly ranchers, a small stove for coffee and bourbon. It's the little things. I fondly remember a cold winter morning at piñon canyon drinking a hot canteen cup of coffee after bumping all night. Then there was a clear night in Iraq when I could actually see stars; not brown dirty sky laying back on top of a bunker passing A bottle of Jim beam I had saved for months among buddies and looking at "is she filthy" online and laughing our ass off.
I made the mistake of clicking on it........ Why does everybody think the next war is going to resemble the last war, seriously, the last thing I need is " cell phone connectivity' and kittening micro drones at the squad and individual user level, talk about slowwwwing down the speed of an attack, honestly most of that shit sounds like the same networked bullshit that higher has been dreaming of for years just so that they can micromanage us from the comfort of the COC even more efficiently. Thanks but No.... What I really want for Christmas as a 0369 Infantry Unit Leader-
-Weapons and optics that are not broke or worn out.
-Fellow SNCO's and Officers that actually cared about being good at their "Job" more than their "Career".
- "Leaders" that recognized that perhaps a junior LCPL might just be a expert in something because he studied up on it, "give's a shit" and want's to help, which would have, just for example, resulted in a valid suppressor test out at ITX this year instead of a bunch of launched downrange suppressors, at least four baffle strikes and more due simply to improper mounting because the O's and CO Gunny thought they knew better than some mere E-3.
-More ammo and range availability.
- The ability to kick out Marines who are worthless and just here for the fucking GI bill or their pension.
- A recognition that just because you can track something in Excel doesn't always make it true.
-The incessant insistence of promoting people to their level of incompetency, by enforcing a Up or Out mentality in regards to retention. If some ones an excellent Squad leader and want's to remain a Squad Leader, it does no harm to the organization to allow him to remain as such, not everyone aspires to be a First Sgt or Sgt Maj.
-Oh and yeah and 2 ply TP would make a great stocking stuffer.
Yeah I'm really bored on Duty right now.....
Rant off
Here is my vote for "Christmas Present" - review every tasking and good idea faced by our Infantry (Army or USMC) and judge it by the "What does this have to do with killing" metric - if answer is affirmative, find a way to resource the task/idea - if the answer is negative - don't do it. Believe it or not, I remember when my Infantry unit actually used that metric to prioritize our training, etc.
Socks..........
I Corps IG: First Sergeant, what do you think of Consideration of Others Traing?"
Me: "Shouldn't we be spending more time on Killing Bad Guys Training?"
CO almost had a heart attack. IG just nodded and said "That's what all the NCOs are saying."
Recovering Gun Store Commando. My Blog: The Clue Meter
“It doesn’t matter what the problem is, the solution is always for us to give the government more money and power, while we eat less meat.”
Glenn Reynolds
I dont think the guy is totally off his rocker about everything. Misguided cause he hasnt been there in a while, but maybe not totally off his rocker.
He is correct that the F35 should be scrapped and the $$ better spent on more needed equipment.
He is correct that I can go to Cabelas and buy better ammo that M855 or M855A1.
He is right on the comms. We need something better, but an iPhone aint it.
He is totally screwy on the gadget crap. No $$ on digital aiming. How about effing train the shit out of folks to use their gear instead of sitting in a circle jerk talking about hazing.
Dont need VR glasses for training. Id settle for every combat arms MOS guy spending 75% of their waking day doing nothing more than learning how to more efficiently kill someone. The other 25% can be spent on the crapper spanking it to some VR porn, cause that is exactly where those fancy 3D VR things will end up.
Reply With Quote