“We’re Surrounded…That Simplifies Our Problem” – USMC’s Chesty Puller

 @HugeFan  @SEAN SPOONTS  @DavidWootten  @SEAN Dude we need to get a thread going about what kind of Fucked up shit you've seen another service member be subjected to.  Being a squid all my really fucked up stories are about the Mean Green, of course I've seen my share of stupid squids.  Hell, down right freaks of nature that should never be permitted to breed, that's fellow sailors I'm talking about!!

 @SEAN SPOONTS  @DavidWootten  @SEAN

 "If you want to make casualties the mark of badassitude." Well, if the most casualties make a fighting force badass Sean, then every losing team in history is badass. I don't think Patton would agree. LOL Love the Blue and Gold pride but geez buddy. Gotta love the Big Brother/Little Brother relationship that the Navy and Marines have, just don't get in the way when the "brothers" are under way!

 @SEAN SPOONTS  Thanks for the history lesson Sean :) FYI: I, and many Marines actually have a great love of history and tradition.  Marines, though we be "knuckle draggers" have long traditions similar to the Navy.  Marines DRESS uniforms have changed slightly with the times, yet keeping the traditional parts intact like the Leatherneck our high collar to protect against swords. Our Blood Stripe earned in the battle of Chepultepec. The officers Quatrefoil, a rope shape on top of the dress cover to keep sharp shooters in the crows nests from shooting them... etc.. etc..

Our daily combat uniforms are strictly utilitarian. (Aside from the 8 sided cover that is equally as queer as your pants, which the Navy adopted by the way).

PS: I'm an educated Marine... an 0861, we use math and shit.  I was the guy in the shit who told your Navy ships where to point your guns and your "Tom Cruises" where to drop their bombs.  I worked with a lot of Sailors on the Kennedy and with your Seals doing fire control and I liked them... well most of them.

So stuff it Sean, you know them pants are wack! 

 @SEAN SPOONTS  @DavidWootten  hehehe.. Sean, why so touchy about your uniform?  If I remember it did impress a lot of guys.. how did it go again?.. 'Y-M-C-A!'... err no..wait.. 'In the navy'..

Of course I was AF and literally one of the last classes through boot camp to be issued the bus driver hat so I guess I don't have too much room to talk ;-)

@DavidWootten Because, like the typical 0311 knuckle dragger you have no respect for history and tradition. Navy dungarees go back to the early 1800s. They were made of sail canvas and dyed blue to hide dirt and coal stains(they were made of denim 100 years later by Strauss). They were bell bottomed in order to hold more air if you had to abandon ship or were washed overboard and had to use your pants as a flotation device. They were tight fitting so they wouldn't snag on machinery. They had shallow flat pockets so that objects would not fall out easily if you were climbing the 'yards or were laying down working in a tight spaces. And finally, they weren't deisgned to impress prissy Marines who think having a cool uniform is the same thing as being a cool guy.

 @DavidWootten I'm just fukin glad the zipper was on the front, all I can say about that.

 @SEAN SPOONTS  I didn't bring up stats of dead as a "badassitude", you did.  Death is failure. Now, why do fail to comment on those dope ass pants you guys wore? ;)

@DavidWootten @SEAN SPOONTS Your welcome. but, If you want to make casualties the mark of badassitude then the Japanese are badder than the Marines. They lost upwards of 3.1 million people in that war. That was about 4.4% of their total population as a country. I appreciate you checking on the Guadalcanal stats. If you check further you will find that the Navy lost more people at Okinawa too which the Marines consider their greatest battle of WWII. Look behind Ol' Chesty there. There's a Sailor helping him keep his man pants up. Thank you for your service as well.

 @DavidWootten  @SEAN SPOONTS Loads of us old squids are real traditionalists, hence the Hot retort from Sean.  I still have my Chest scar from getting my Air Crew wings.  I proudly display my Shell back certificate on my "Love Me" wall right next to my BA in Photo Journalism. 

I doubt any AC in the last 15 yrs has those scars.  We all bristle at the changes, Hell the Navy is talking about Breathalysers at morning muster!!!!  That would never fly in the USN I served in.

 @jrexilius During a Photo meet we once delivered pic's in hand 15minutes after wheels on deck from an F-14 TARPS sqrn.  The F/A-18 uses a SHARPS kit that has a real time uplink capability, no more film.  Gives you FLIR, panoramic digital pics for mapping as well as SAR(Synthetic Aperture Radar) for looking through the Haboobs.

Those old TCS shots were horribly grainy, remember any of the old Qaddafi/ Libyan Shoot down images?  That's partly why we were so free with them, keeps folks from knowing your real capabilities.     

 @Old PH2  Pretty sure it was the TCS, it was just one of the sensors we'd pull in for real-time work.  We'd end up sourcing and tasking whatever was in theater, both strategic and tactical assets so I didn't get to know all of them as well as I should have.  The stills digitized from film (from most platforms) were great but that stuff was was always supporting material due to serious time delays in processing.  This was way back in the day so I'd assume the quality for the TARPS EO/IR sensors has improved quite a bit.

 @jrexilius You mean the AN-AAD5 or the TCS/Lantirn System?  TCS was originally nothing more than a gun camera, grainy and funky imagery.  I did not experience the digitization of the KS-87, so maybe that's what your talking about?  Our old film camera's gave resolution and imagery that paralleled KH-11 sat images available at the time.  With the benefit of oblique imagery for landmark observation and target plotting. 

 @Old PH2 nah, I only got the crap from the later EO sensor which was awful. 

 @jrexilius Did you ever see any from missions with a KS-153 or KA-93 imagery?  Reading a license plate at a slant range of nearly 20 miles is pretty good for a slapped together interim recce pod.  That Zeiss lens in the KS-153 was such a monster!  I still remember hand tying the PC boards into the control unit so they didn't pop out on cat shots or landing.   

 @Old PH2    hehehe.. aaahh TARPS.. man the photo quality on that stuff was such crap.   "the shadow knows".. yeah the shadow was all you could pick out half the time ;-)

 @DavidWootten God love you brother, MARDET on a carrier had to suck.  Watch posts and PT, no fun.

 @Old PH2 I was on the Kennedy 85-86 in the Marine Detachment. 

 @DavidWootten I was aboard the USS Kennedy from Sep 2 1990 until Jan 19 1991 when I recieved TAD orders to Riyadh.  Fun in the Desert vol 1.  Most of my time on Kennedy was spent in the lab or in the CIC photo lab running TARPS film by the mile from VF 32.

 @HugeFan  @Tango9 Isn't it Kazakhstan?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw16aew4Pt0

 @Tango9

 Negative, Tango9... you're thinking of Romania... ;-)

 @Ben K You can get those in the Ukraine.  Probably combined into one package.

 @Tango9 Beards and strippers?

 @Old PH2 And this is why no nation on earth dares to wage war on American soil.

 @Tango9 I was drunk the day I picked up mama from prison....

David Allan Coe is the Frank Zappa of Country Music!

 @Old PH2 Horses, shootin' and fightin'?  what else is there?

 @AdSeg245 Don't apologize, perfectly understandable.  I still gett all worked up when I get to mention Mitchel Page on Gaudalcanal.  What a Marine!