Thursday, December 29, 2011

Joke of the day...

I thought it was funny...got it from Sgt Grits newsletter.


Sgt Major and No S-x

A crusty old Marine Sergeant Major found himself at a gala event hosted by a local liberal arts college.

There was no shortage of extremely young idealistic ladies in attendance, one of whom approached the Sergeant Major for conversation.

"Excuse me, Sergeant Major, but you seem to be a very serious man. Is something bothering you?"

"Negative, ma'am. Just serious by nature."

The young lady looked at his awards and decorations and said, "It looks like you have seen a lot of action."

"Yes, ma'am, a lot of action."

The young lady, tiring of trying to start up a conversation, said, "You know, you should lighten up. Relax and enjoy yourself."

The Sergeant Major just stared at her in his serious manner.

Finally the young lady said, "You know, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but when is the last time you had s-x?"

"1955, ma'am."

"Well, there you are. No wonder you're so serious. You really need to chill out! I mean, no s-x since 1955! She took his hand and led him to a private room where she proceeded to "relax" him several times.

Afterwards, panting for breath, she leaned against his bare chest and said, "Wow, you sure didn't forget much since 1955."

The Sergeant Major said, after glancing at his watch, "I hope not; it's only 2130 now."

Top events afftecting the Marine Corps in 2011.

I'll give you my top events affecting the Marine Corps in 2011.  Feel free to add or subtract if you disagree but this is how I see it....


*HQMC wallows about seeking purpose and relevance.

The little issue with the move to have sleeves down despite a survey of Marines that indicated that the rank and file wanted to continue the practice is nothing but an indication that HQMC and the Commandant in particular are seeking to not only put its stamp on the Marine Corps but to also be viewed as relevant to his Marines.  I cannot remember a Commandant that had as little support as this one.  The only other embarrassment that wore 4 stars was the pathetic General Peter Pace.  His time as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was disgraceful.

*IAR selected to replace SAWs in some roles.

The service that is suppose to epitomize frugality embarked on this quest to replace an automatic weapon with an assault rifle.  The jury is still out on whether this was a good idea or not but it goes against Marine Corps ethos.  Additionally when you have MEU's and Infantry Battalions still trying to figure out how they'll deploy the weapon then you have a still baked idea.  Another black eye for the Corps.

*EFV gets canceled.

The EFV got whacked and while the writing was on the wall, it was still a terrible blow.  HQMC, the manufacturer and the program office all get the blame for this fiasco.  There was no sense of urgency, no drive to get the problems fixed, no attention to details...only a very late attempt to rally Congressional support for a fucked up weapon system.

*F-35 troubles continue.

Nuff said.

*Marines head back to the sea.

Another black eye for HQMC.  They started the talk of being a second land army and every critic of the Marine Corps picked it up and ran with it.  What was the remedy?  To launch a concerted effort to inform the public and individual Marines that we were getting our sea legs back.  Major exercises off the coast of Camp Pendleton and Camp Lejeune emphasize that fact.  Problem is....the Marines never left the sea.  MEU deployments continued unabated so consider this one a case of loose lips.

*MEB's are back in style.

The 3rd MEB was recently reactivated.  What does that mean?  I'm really not quite sure.  But it appears that we have a doctrinal log jam coming up.  All the rage was distributed operations, now we're switching gears and going toward Marine Expeditionary Brigade operations.  One is based on extremely small unit ops, the other towards putting upwards of 15000 Marines into action.  Mini-ARGs are not talked about, Distributed ops aren't talked about but somehow we're doing MEB exercises.  Wow.

*Tanks deploy to the fight.

I wrote more than a few pieces on how Tanks needed to get into the fight or out of the Corps.  I guess someone in Tanks had the same idea and wanted to get to the fight because they deployed to Afghanistan and are having great success.  Heavy armor lives in the Corps.

*Boat spaces get slashed.

The Marines are about to take a big hit in manpower.  We're starting at a little over 200,000 Marines are expected to get down to 186,000.  Problem is with money sapping programs for aviation like the F-35B and the probably even more expensive F-35C, not to mention the MV-22, manpower will probably sink down to 150,000 in order to save money.  Alot of good Marines are going to get whacked, a lot of shit birds will continue and the selection boards will have jacked it all up once again.  Bad news for some good warriors in a terrible economy.

*The Navy bitch slaps the Marines.

The Marine Corps Aviation Neck Down Campaign indicated a desire to go to an all STOVL force.  The Navy slapped the shit out of the Marines and forced the F-35C down our throats.  The picture of the Commandant signing the agreement was priceless.  I guess everyone gets to experience the Big Green Wiener...or in his case I guess it was the Big Blue Clitoris.

*The Marine bitch slaps the Navy.


The Navy has bigger priorities than amphibious shipping but somehow, someway the Marines were able to get the foundation of sea basing funded and in construction.  They forced the F-35C on us, we forced a new class of ships on them.  Pay back.


There are probably a ton of other issues that I missed but these just bounced off my forehead. 

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

NAVAIR K-Max photo release.

A new era in unmanned aviation began earlier this month when Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 1 operated a K-MAX unmanned helicopter during its historic 90-minute flight, Dec. 17. K-MAX is the Marine's first unmanned helicopter designed for resupplying troops in remote locations. During its maiden flight, K-MAX successfully delivered about 3,500 pounds of food and supplies to troops at a forward operating base in Afghanistan without risk to a pilot.

Check out this funky co-witness system...


I just noticed this setup on this Marine's rifle.  This unit is using the carrying handle as a funky kinda co-witness system.

I like.  Its unusual but I like it.

31st MEU Boat Company...

KIN BLUE TRAINING AREA, OKINAWA, Japan-Marine scout swimmers with 1st Platoon, Company A, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, provide security for a beach assault here, Dec. 20. The Marines were practicing their landing techniques in preparation for the MEU’s upcoming deployment. The 31st MEU is the only continuously forward-deployed MEU and remains the Nation's force in readiness in the Asia-Pacific region. , Lance Cpl. David J. Adams, 12/20/2011 9:22 AM

KIN BLUE TRAINING AREA, OKINAWA, Japan-Marines with 1st Platoon, Company A, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, get on line to provide security after landing here, Dec. 20. The Marines were practicing their landing techniques in preparation for the MEU’s upcoming deployment. The 31st MEU is the only continuously forward-deployed MEU and remains the Nation's force in readiness in the Asia-Pacific region. , Lance Cpl. David J. Adams, 12/20/2011 9:51 AM

KIN BLUE TRAINING AREA, OKINAWA, Japan-Lance Cpl. Lance C. Coolidge, a scout swimmer with 1st Platoon, Company A, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, provides security for an assault here, Dec. 20. The Marines were practicing their landing techniques in preparation for the MEU’s upcoming deployment. The 31st MEU is the only continuously forward-deployed MEU and remains the Nation's force in readiness in the Asia-Pacific region. , Lance Cpl. David J. Adams, 12/20/2011 10:39 AM

KIN BLUE TRAINING AREA, OKINAWA, Japan-Marines with 1st Platoon, Company A, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, get in combat rubber raiding crafts to conduct an assault here, Dec. 20. The Marines were practicing their landing techniques in preparation for the MEU’s upcoming deployment. The 31st MEU is the only continuously forward-deployed MEU and remains the Nation's force in readiness in the Asia-Pacific region., Lance Cpl. David J. Adams, 12/20/2011 8:26 AM

KIN BLUE TRAINING AREA, OKINAWA, Japan-Marines with 1st Platoon, Company A, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, get in combat rubber raiding craft to conduct an assault here, Dec. 20. The Marines were practicing their landing techniques in preparation for the MEU’s upcoming deployment. The 31st MEU is the only continuously forward-deployed MEU and remains the Nation's force in readiness in the Asia-Pacific region., Lance Cpl. David J. Adams, 12/20/2011 8:28 AM

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

And you thought you had a bad day.

Watch the whole thing but the fire works are near the end...



Sorry but I'm feeling a bit ghoulish...don't know why...




BlackFive nails the anti-gun crowd!


A must read from BlackFive (with a major hat tip to National Review)...
Did you know there is a nationwide rampage going on where crazed fanatics with concealed carry permits are slaughtering innocent citizens? Neither did I, but thankfully the NY Times is on the story. With their usual, thoroughly accurate, fact-checked, journalistic professionalism propaganda, they have concocted a faux outrage that simply doesn't add up. National Review Online points out the fallacy.
The only thing I can add to Jimbo's wonderful analysis is this.  A couple of days ago a young man was chased down by a gang of animals (the two legged kind) and stabbed to death in a British mall on 'boxer day'...The UK has some of the most restrictive gun laws on the planet yet murders continue to happen everyday.  Restrictive gun laws placed on law abiding citizens only makes those very same citizens potential victims.

I understand that some are anti-gun.  That's your right but don't impose your false sense of security on me and mine!

How about we get some off the shelf solutions to the JLTV issue.

Marine Corps procurement is becoming slow, cumbersome and costly.  Its time to change gears and get it jump started.  The JLTV program is one that we can get off the table by making a decision at HQMC as to what type of vehicle we need and then picking one thats already on the market to fulfill those requirements.  Stuff a 5 year development timeline for a battlefield utility vehicle...lets get this done.  Potential candidates????

Force Protection Cheetah..


Force Protection Foxhound..(I'm sure doors for drivers and passengers can be added, but supposedly vehicles lose strength when doing so...I don't understand our insistence on that feature)


Iveco LMV Panther...


And those are just a few of the vehicles off the top of my head that fulfill this requirement.  We've been squeezing this for too long...time to make it worth it.

A book that should be on the Commandant's reading list...

If you consider yourself a warrior then reading books on the subject is simply part of the job. 

Want a book that covers the warrior mindset?  Want a book to explain the preparation necessary to fight and win?  Then the book "The Five Rings" is definitely for you.

It was written by Miyamoto Musashi, probably the greatest swordsman of feudal Japan.  If you have the time I highly recommend it.  If you don't then place it on your list of books to read for the new year.  You can find an online version here.  Enjoy!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Marine cargo UAV in Afghanistan...

12/23/2011 By Cpl. Justin M. Boling
A detachment of Marines from Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 1 in Afghanistan completed their first unmanned aerial system cargo delivery in a combat zone, Dec. 17. The unmanned helicopter moved about 3,500 pounds of food and supplies from Camp Dwyer to troops at Combat Outpost Payne. The helicopter, an unmanned variant of the K-MAX, completed the delivery in about an hour and a half.

BF-7 first flight in school house markings!

The latest production F-35B (Navy Bureau Number 168058, called BF-7) was flown from NAS Fort Worth JRB on 21 December 2011.  Lockheed Martin test pilot Bill Gigliotti was the pilot for aircraft's first flight.