Gift for a Marine

[RTicUL8]

What's your budget?


How about this? :

click on picture


$80-$90
They have several commemorative USMC versions too.

 

[Phil]

So, some pussy and a case of beer?

 

[shelbyluvv]

Dont worry about getting him anything for duty. The Corps will issue him a Gunnery Sergeant and that's all he'll need.

J

Best answer yet. Send him my way. I like butter bars they go good with breakfast!

 

[ECKSJAY]

Nah, get him a bayonet...so it can at least pull double duty for home defense.

What's your budget?


How about this? :

click on picture


$80-$90
They have several commemorative USMC versions too.

 

[Darky]

Any soldier on guard duty in a foreign land will want to have a loaded weapon and authorization to use it. Wouldn't you? The only reason they would not have this is if they were ordered not to.

Depending on ROE, many times Marines or soldiers will be issued weapons and live ammo but not allowed to combine the two. When I was in Kandahar, all the soldiers on base were forced to carry their weapons at modified condition 4, no rounds in chamber, empty magazine. However they had loaded mags in their pockets, ready for use. We carried at condition 3, no round in chamber, loaded magazine inserted. Technically, none of us had "loaded" weapons. A loaded weapon would have a round in chamber.

What Kittrell was pointing out to you was that yours was a bad example of the Marines not having ammo. They had live ammo with them. However, the weapons were not loaded. They had to have a loaded mag inserted, pull the charging handle to the rear, flick the safety off and then fire before they could react (mind you, that sequence was for an M16...).

When I stood guard duty while deployed, we had a 249, 240, and our M16s in that bunker. We had live ammo inserted and ready, all we had to do was rack em to get a round in chamber. Standing guard duty at Camp Pendleton (we were on a separate compound across the 5 from the rest of the base, right down the beach from ACU-5 and their hovercrafts), we had M16s, then moved to 9mms, but always with live ammo. Again, not "loaded", but one pull on the charging handle or slide away from being loaded.


And back on topic...a good Gerber multitool would be a great gift. I loved mine while in and still use it regularly. A good knife is from Glock. I don't know the model, but it's about Kabar sized, all black, and with a weird "serrated" backside. Very nice knife and comes with a good hard sheath.

 

[JoshDes]

5 whole years? Impressive

at least your original...

 

[Darky]

at least your original...

I was in 5 yrs, got out though, wish I had stayed sometimes.

 

[AL BUNDY]

"Depending on ROE"
"The only reason they would not have this is if they were ordered not to."

This is the same thing I am saying. You carried your rifle & ammo the way you did because that's the way you were told to. So did the Marines in Beirut.

It's a perfect example.

 

[kastein]

Another vote for a Gerber or Leatherman multitool here. I was a Swiss Army Knife fan till I got one of these, there is nothing like having a fullsize pair of needlenose pliers on hand. Can't count the number of times I've used it for emergency repairs on my XJ, either.

 

[Kittrell]

"Depending on ROE"
"The only reason they would not have this is if they were ordered not to."

This is the same thing I am saying. You carried your rifle & ammo the way you did because that's the way you were told to. So did the Marines in Beirut.

It's a perfect example.

No, because you quoted a response to 8mud, calling BS on not having any ammunition at all.

 

[Darky]

Originally Posted by 8Mud
I remember a buddy writing me from Iraq and asking me to mail him some ammo, because they kept putting him out on guard duty with no bullets.
Yea I'm going to have to call BS on this one. Plenty of ammo to go around."

That could never happen, right?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Beirut_barracks_bombing

220 Marines killed.
"It suggested that there might have been many fewer deaths if the barracks guards had carried loaded weapons"

Sorry for hijacking the thread.

Yeah, "loaded" being the operative term there. They had ammunition and weapons. "By the time the two sentries had locked, loaded, and shouldered their weapons". They just didn't carry red or even amber. Hell, they were probably in the guard shack. But they did have the means to respond. So yeah, it didn't happen there, poor example.

Perhaps we're remembering the original comment differently. 8mud put forth that his buddy wrote asking for ammo because he was being put on guard duty without ammo, BS was called, you said it's possible because the Marines in Beirut did not have loaded weapons.

Kittrell's response was that your use of the Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut as an example was not an accurate one because they had ammo. Difference being that the original scenario that you tried to support calls for guards with absolutely no ammo with them, your example uses guards that had ammo but were not allowed to have it in their weapons. Much like the soldiers I was in Kandahar with. Aboard the base the soldiers had ammo on their person, but did not have it in the weapon. They would've had to load the magazine into the weapon, then load a round into the chamber, much like the Marines in you example, completely unlike the soldiers who would have had to throw rocks in 8mud's example.

 

[Kittrell]

Perhaps we're remembering the original comment differently. 8mud put forth that his buddy wrote asking for ammo because he was being put on guard duty without ammo, BS was called, you said it's possible because the Marines in Beirut did not have loaded weapons.

Kittrell's response was that your use of the Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut as an example was not an accurate one because they had ammo. Difference being that the original scenario that you tried to support calls for guards with absolutely no ammo with them, your example uses guards that had ammo but were not allowed to have it in their weapons. Much like the soldiers I was in Kandahar with. Aboard the base the soldiers had ammo on their person, but did not have it in the weapon. They would've had to load the magazine into the weapon, then load a round into the chamber, much like the Marines in you example, completely unlike the soldiers who would have had to throw rocks in 8mud's example.

You are way too bright to have been a Marine, Al Bundy however...............

 

[AL BUNDY]

I read the "putting him out on guard duty with no bullets" comment as they had ammo but were not giving it to the soldiers on guard duty for whatever reason. That's what I responded to and was my point of view.
I did not interpret that to mean that they did not have any ammo at all because that does not make any sense.
I guess only 8Mud can advise what he meant.

 

[shelbyluvv]

at least your original...

Easy there war hero. You never know when you are about to talk shit to someone who has a few more stripes than you.

 

[JoshDes]

Kandahar is still the same way, when i was there we carried 2 mags condition 4. When we got back from southern helmand i felt so safe on that base i was upset that i had to carry my m9. The only thing you have to worry about there is rockets and contractors drifting their heiluxes

 

[fscrig75]

It's called combined arms, we had everything from choppers, through tanks, to scout vehicles, infantry carriers, even track mounted 4.2 mortars. I qualified 11E (later19K and 19Z), 11D (later 19D),63A, 63B, 63C and H, 45K (91K) 21B and C. I even went to 88K school, was 21K and M qualified. There are others. Some of us can walk and chew gum at the same time. I've mixed some of the old MOS designators with some of the newer ones.
I took a school a year, sometimes more if I could. School was my road to advancement, I took everything I could and tried my darnedest to be top in my class. I managed to keep the brown off my nose and still got promoted. I was even in an 880A slot for awhile, though I never really did do the job, I was running a 3 shop.
Funny, I've still got that firing pin, wanna buy one?

Yea I'd love to but that non-existant pin.
I guess after you rattle off enough lies you start to believe them.
I'd love to hear more about you being a 21B, when was that?

When do they put 880A in charge of S3 shops? Did you just Google a weird WO designator and throw it out there? Come on man you've got to do better than that. I can sorta believe you with the 11D/E but not much of anything else.

Yes everyone has heard of combined arms, but what you described is not combined arms. I'm not going to tell you what it is though, make you work Google some more.

Honestly I shouldn't care, but when people pretend to be something they are not it just pisses me off. You probably have served for a short amount of time but your job was probably closer to cook than anything else. From your stories of scouting along the fence near the Gap to bouncing around Bosnia in a Jeep its all just a load of crap. You leave half truths in every post you write try to sell yourself off as an SF guy when you probably cooked them some scrambled eggs once, here is a hint that doesn't make you one.

 

[bigalpha]

The only way to settle this is to post pics of the pin.

 

[fscrig75]

I read the "putting him out on guard duty with no bullets" comment as they had ammo but were not giving it to the soldiers on guard duty for whatever reason. That's what I responded to and was my point of view.
I did not interpret that to mean that they did not have any ammo at all because that does not make any sense.
I guess only 8Mud can advise what he meant.

Don't worry man you got wrapped up in the lies that he puts forth, I think most of us have at one time or another.

I know the German companies are setting up shop in Iraq now and they have always been big on not firing bullets. I guess mass genocide left a bad taste in their mouth. I would bet he isn't talking about an American service member but rather a Herman who has no weapon.

 

[Darky]

You are way too bright to have been a Marine, Al Bundy however...............

Thanks, I think... I went Air Wing cuz I wanted to fix helos, then get my commission and fly them. Didn't work out. I mistakenly went after a bonus to move to avionics, with an option to TAOM. I got TAOM. Still air wing, still electronics, but where'd the aircraft go?

I read the "putting him out on guard duty with no bullets" comment as they had ammo but were not giving it to the soldiers on guard duty for whatever reason. That's what I responded to and was my point of view.
I did not interpret that to mean that they did not have any ammo at all because that does not make any sense.
I guess only 8Mud can advise what he meant.

Even then, the Beirut example would not have worked. Those Marines likely had ammo on them, but had to load it into the weapon before they could fire. Bad things happen when the powers that be get overly relaxed. Young warriors end up dying because some politician thought they knew better.

 

[JoshDes]

Easy there war hero. You never know when you are about to talk shit to someone who has a few more stripes than you.

you never know when i wont care, oh its right now...