HOW JOHN WAYNE SAVED THE MARINES

Today is John Wayne's 99th birthday.  He was born on May 26, 1907 in Winterset, Iowa, weighing 13 pounds.  His birthplace is a museum, and a few years ago I took my son Brandon to visit it.  There was a guest book, opened to a page with the entry, in the entrant's handwriting,  Name:  Ronald Reagan.  Address:  1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington DC. read more

Top Ten World Air Forces

Top Ten World Air Forces

 

Great photos presentation made by an Israeli group and I suspect some of the rankings will surprise you. It did me. I was especially surprised that China did not even make the top ten, but then with that many people maybe they don’t need to. Note what we spend to train each USAF pilot.

SENSITIVITY TRAINING

SENSITIVITY TRAINING

A young Naval Officer was in a terrible car accident, but due to the heroics of the hospital staff the only permanent injury was the loss of one ear.
 
Since he wasn't physically impaired he remained in the military and eventually became an Admiral. However, during his career he was always sensitive about his appearance.

 
One day the Admiral was interviewing two Navy Master Chiefs and a Marine Sergeant Major for his personal staff.   

 
The first Master Chief was a Surface Navy type and it was a great interview. At the end of the interview the Admiral asked him, “Do you notice anything different about me?”

 
The Master Chief answered, “Why yes sir. I couldn't help but notice you are missing your starboard ear, so I don't know whether this impacts your hearing on that side.”

 
The Admiral got very angry at this lack of tact and threw him out of his office.

 
The next candidate, an Aviation Master Chief, when asked this same question, answered, “Well yes sir, you seem to be short one ear.”

 
The Admiral threw him out also.

 
The third interview was with the Marine Sergeant Major. He was articulate, extremely sharp, and seemed to know more than the two Master Chiefs put together. The Admiral wanted this guy, but went ahead with the same question.

 
“Do you notice anything different about me?”
 
To his surprise the Sergeant Major said, “Yes, sir. You wear contact lenses.”

 
The Admiral was impressed and thought to himself, what an incredibly tactful Marine. “And how do you know that?” the Admiral asked. read more

Mount Mora Marine gets his due

Mount Mora Cemetery wouldn’t seem to be where one would expect to find the U.S. Marine Corps. But it is a place where young recruits found one of their own.

 

“The original plan for the men was to do a car wash on Saturday to raise funds for next month’s poolee event,” said Staff Sgt. Gerardo Banda, one of the recruiters attached to the St. Joseph office. read more

MRE dinner date – the following is a story from a young Marine.

 

MRE dinner date – the following is a story from a young Marine.

 

I had a date the other night at my place. On the phone the day
before, the girl asked me to “Cook her something she's never had
before” for dinner.  After many minutes of scratching my head over what to make, I finally settled on something she has DEFINITELY never eaten before.

 

I got out my trusty case of MRE's (Meal, Ready-to-Eat) Field rations that when eaten in their entirety contain 3000+ calories in each meal.

Here's what I made: I took three of the Ham Slices out of their
plastic packets, took out three of the Pork Chops, three packets of
Chicken-a-la-king and eight packets of dehydrated butter noodles and some dehydrated/rehydrated rice.

I cooked the Ham Slices and Pork Chops in one pan, sauteed in shaved garlic and olive oil.  In another pot, I blended the Chicken
a-la-king, noodles, and rice together to make a sort of mush that
looked suspiciously like succotash.

I added some spices, and blended everything together in a glass pan
that I then cooked in the oven for about 35 minutes at 450 degrees.
When I took it out, it looked like, well, ham slices, pork chops,
and a bed of yellow poop.  I covered the tops of the meat in the MRE cheese (kinda like Velveeta) and added some green sprinkly things from one of my spice cans (hey, if it has green sprinkly things on it, it looks fancy right?)

For dessert, I took four MRE Pound Cakes, mashed 'em up, added five packets of cocoa powder, powdered coffee cream, and some water.  I heated it up and stirred it until it looked like a sort of chunky gelatinous xxxxxxx, and I sprinkled powdered sugar on top of it.  Voilaanger Pudding!

For dinner drinks, I took the rest of my bottle of Military
Special Vodka (yes, they DO make a type of liquor named “Military Special”…it sells for $4.35 per fifth at the Class Six) and mixed in four packets of “Electrolytes – 1 each – Cherry flavored” (I swear, the packet says that).  It looked like an eerie Kool-Aid with
sparkles in it (that was the electrolytes I guess… but could've been
leftover sand from Egypt ).

I lit two candles, put a vase of wildflowers in the middle, and set
the table with my best set of Ralph Lauren Academy-series China
(that stuff is EXPENSIVE… My set of 8 place settings cost me over
$600 on sale at the Lejeune PX), and put the alcoholic drink in a
crystal wine decanter.

She came over, and I had some appetizers already made, of MRE
spaghetti-with-meatballs, set in small cups.  She saw the dinner,
saw the food, and said “This looks INCREDIBLE!!!”
We dug in, and she loved the food.

Throughout the meal, she kept asking me how long it took me to make it, and kept remarking that I obviously knew a thing or two about cooking fine meals. She kind of balked at the make-shift “wine” I had set out, but after she tried it I guess she liked it because she drank four glasses during dinner.

At the end of the main course, when I served the dessert, she
squealed with delight at the “Chocolate mousse” I had made.  Huh?
Chocolate what?  Okay… Yeah… Its Chocolate Moose.  Took me
HOURS to make… Yup!

Later on, as we were watching a movie, she excused herself to use my rest room.  While she was in there, I heard her say softly to
herself “uh oh” and a resounding but petite fart punctuated her
utterance of dismay.

Let the games begin.  She sprayed about half a can of air freshener
(Air Freshener, 1 each, Orange scent.  Yup.  The military even makes
smell-good) and returned to the couch, this time with an obvious
pained look.  After 10 more minutes she excused herself again, and retreated to the bathroom for the second time, I could hear her say, “What the hell is WRONG with me???” as she again send flatulent shock waves into the porcelain bowl.  This time, they sounded kinda wet, and I heard the toilet paper roll being employed, and again, LOTS more air freshener.

Back to the couch.  She smiles meekly as she decides to sit on the
chair instead of next to me.  She sits on my chair, knees pulled up
to her chest, kind of rocking back and forth slightly.  Suddenly, without a word, she ROCKETED up and FLEW to the bathroom,
slammed the door, and didn't come out for 30 minutes.  I turned the movie up because I didn't want her to hear me laughing so hard that tears were streaming down my cheeks.

She came out with a slightly gray pallor to her face, and said “I am
SOOOOOO sorry.  I have NO idea what is wrong with me.  I am so
embarrassed; I can't believe I keep running to your bathroom!!”
I gave her an Imodium AD, and she finally settled down and relaxed.  Later on, she asked me again what I had made for dinner, because she had enjoyed it so much.  I calmly took her into the kitchen and showed her all the used MRE bags and packets in the trash can.  After explaining to her that she had eaten roughly 9,000 calories of “Marine Corps Field Rations” she turned stark white, looked at me incredulously, and said “I ate 9,000 calories of dehydrated food that was made 3 years ago?”

After I admitted it, she grabbed her coat and keys, and took off
without a word.  She called me yesterday.  Seems she couldn't shit
for 5 days, and when she finally did, the smell was so bad, her roommate could smell it from down the hall.  She also told me she had been working out nonstop to combat the high caloric intake, and that she never wanted me to cook dinner for her again, unless she was PERSONALLY present and supervising.

It was a fun date.  She laughed about it eventually and said that that was the first time she'd ever crapped in a guy's house on a date.  She'd been so upset by it she was in tears in the bathroom while I had been in tears on the couch.