I watched Tripoli (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripoli_(film)) several times when I was a kid.
I watched Tripoli (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripoli_(film)) several times when I was a kid.
Cloud Yeller of the Boomer Age
Fictional jingoism cueing off the last page or so of discussion, but a badass movie scene that nonetheless probably resonates with everyone reading this thread:
For those unfamiliar with maritime service, there's still technically a TO&E for naval rifle companies in the modern US Navy that is pictured here.
What would've been really cool is if they set the war a decade earlier, and had the Marines and Sailors armed with a mixture of Lee-Remington 45-70s and Lee Navy 6mms. Or Winchester-Hotchkiss M1879s, I think the Navy Dept had those, too.
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
Well there's no such thing as 'Was a Marine' until you shoot them a bunch and bayonet them a few times just to be sure, but even then you gotta be careful with that past tense. Because they might come back to life, jump up out of the ground, and yell at you for claiming they were ever NOT a Marine because they EARNED their EGA, dangnabbit!
Some of them find their way into other employment after wearing the USMC uniform, but yet they're always in their blues and getting drunk at least one weekend in NOV, so fair bet that once a Marine, always a Marine.
Meanwhile Soldiers like me will serve 30+ years and be happy to never again talk about the military or wear a uniform.
If I knew then what I know now, I might have let the Army keep its bonus and done something else.
Yep
I'm surprised nobody has yet pointed out how in the video, the company of enlisted had to stand outside in the sun on a dock waiting for the captain to show up on his own time, in his own personal boat.
I feel like that was a piece of comedy inserted as an Easter egg for military viewers.
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
Notice, I asked are you a MArine because I are one.
ETA: I just really thought about your post. After I got out of the Marines I joined the Army Reserve because the Marine Corps Reserve doesn't exactly units peppering Kansas.
I knew I was in a different branch one of my first drills when I told a Specialist to turn to and help me with a general police of the area. I was informed post haste that I wasn't in his chain of command and found out that at least in his unit 'me Sergeant, you Specialist' didn't hold sway.
But I stayed for 24 years, largely because for the first eleven I was in an airborne unit and after they disbanded I had too much time in to quit. Glad I stuck it out, that Tricare is nice, almost as nice as the check I started getting when I was 60.
Last edited by DDTSGM; 01-02-2024 at 11:15 PM.
Adding nothing to the conversation since 2015....