Who says the Marine Corps has no humor?

Sgt. Grit – With the recent publication of “Last Men Out: The True Story of America’s Heroic Final Hours in Vietnam” (Copyright © 2011 by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin) I was browsing through some old files and ran across the orders we received following the evacuation of the embassy in Saigon (Operation Frequent Wind).  Marines know that you must have orders for every transfer and movement so attached is the text from the ones received by members of the Marine Security Guard Detachment formerly assigned at the U. S. Embassy in Saigon – who says the Marine Corps has no humor? Here we were bouncing around the South China Sea fresh off of a CH-46 from the roof of the embassy and receive a set of orders (see attached). I especially like Items 2 and 4.: “3. You are authorized per diem and travel chargeable to appropriation 19501113- allot 4320” and “4. No delay enroute is authorized in the execution of these orders.” read more

Side by side with the Seabees on Iwo Jima

In regards to other people wearing the "Eagle Globe & Anchor. In my opinion, other than Corpsmen, the unit I feel that "may" have been able to rate the "Eagle Globe & Anchor" are the Seabee battalions assigned "directly" to Marine Corps Engineer regiments (17th,18th,19th & 20th) during WW2. After Navy boot, these men were issued Marine uniforms, trained with Marines, and subject to Marine Corps rules and regulations, being directly absorbed into the Engineer Regiments. They were integral parts of the Marine assault shore-party landing and fighting operations in the Pacific. As one WW2 Marine told me. read more

Talk about being proud

Gung Ho Sarge;   This is a photo of a bunch of future Marine officers just completing their second training tour of Platoon Leaders Class at Quantico, in August of 1954.  Take a look at our faces and you can see the pride instilled in us by Senior Drill Instructor Wakefield and his henchmen.  The emotions we shared were those of brotherhood, trust and ready for the challenge.  I wonder if any of my fellow candidates will see this photo and get in touch with me.  If so I am Bob Morris,  second on left, front row and am at poppi66@live.com.  Maybe we can recollect the identities of these former skinheads.  Thanks for all you do for the Corps and God Bless our brothers in harms way.   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.