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They’re not a branch, but a cult.

In early 1942,  shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Paul Douglas, like so many others, enlisted in the Marines.

Unlike most who joined, Douglas wasn’t exactly a spring chicken. Douglas was an established economist, author, and former Chicago City Council member. And he was 50 years old. And at age 50, he went through the famed Marine Boot Camp at Parris Island, as a Private. Upon completion of Boot Camp, he was put to work writing training manuals.

He constantly agitated to be deployed overseas, and was constantly told to sit down, shut up, and write manuals.

Eventually, he was told that under no circumstances would be be shipped overseas as an enlisted man.

And so, as a powerful, connected progressive Democratic politician, he used his influence to secure a commission as an officer.

Eventually, Douglas would fight at bloody Peleliu. While he was a Captain, he served, essentially, as a rifleman. During the fighting there, he was lightly wounded while carrying ammunition.

At Okinawa, as a Major, he was serving as a rifleman in the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines. He was badly wounded by machine gun fire while carrying wounded, and would have permanent damage to his left arm.

Douglas would be discharged as a Lieutenant Colonel with full disability in 1946.

Douglas would eventually become a United States Senator for the state of Illinois, serving in the Senate from 1949 to 1967.

A progressive, he was also a fiscally conservative, with a reputation for rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse.

Take a moment, and read all that again.

A progressive Chicago machine Democrat politician used his not inconsiderable political influence to get into the Corps, and then again used it to get into the fight as a rifleman. And he did so at an age when absolutely no one would have expected him to serve in any capacity.  I’m fifty, and I pull a muscle just watching YouTube videos of young Marines at Parris Island!

So, yeah, the Marines do have a certain cachet that inspires awesome loyalty from those who have earned the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor.

Happy Birthday, and Semper Fi.

My all time favorite picture of Hizzhonor.

Eh, it’s been a while since I shared this. And it’s always worth a repost.

It’s the only decent battle I’ve had in a while, 77k damage, and 5 kills. But honestly, as I watched the replay, the battle itself was rather boring, so you just get the highlights.

The Kuma getting nuked was fun!

Well, color me surprised.

We’ve known for some time now the Army is pressing to up-gun its fleet of Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicles to a 30mm cannon. We were, however, under the impression the gun would be the M230LF, a lightweight, relatively low velocity cannon, very similar to that used on the AH-64 Apache.

Looks like we were wrong. The first prototype has been delivered,  and it sports the honking big Mk46 30mm gun developed originally for the abortive Marine Corps Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle.

The Mk 46 will give the Stryker the ability to defeat all armor short of main battle tanks, and its High Explosive- Incendiary round will give it very good capability against soft targets, and even dug in troops.

First Sergeant Berates Kids Wearing Out-of-regs Army Costumes

Over the course of the evening, numerous children in military costumes were seen being turned away from the Brooks household, in tears and without candy.

“He told me to button my pockets and blouse my boots, whatever that means,” said Toby McWatt, a confused fourth grader who went trick-or-treating as “an Army Guy.” “Then he said he wouldn’t give me candy unless I told him what unit my dad’s in.”

“He’s a poophead,” McWatt concluded.

It is worth the whole read.  As usual.  

TFW you’re having a great game, things are going according to plan, you’ve visualized how you’re going to deal with the next three threats, and have the health and the consumables to manage the fight.

And your own teammate pumps three torps into you.

Quite possibly the best stick-and-rudder pilot ever, a fine fighter and test pilot, and one hell of a showman.