Posted on 02/20/2019 9:29:17 AM PST by Chainmail
When I was a Marine 1st Lieutenant in 1975, I was gifted 125 hand grenades by a departing army unit for our battalion's training. Pleased with myself (since everything was hard to get for my Marines those days), I told our battalion commander of our acquisition.
He was horrified, since he detested grenades and harbored a fear that the troops would "frag" him with them (!) (he had many issues..) so he commanded me to destroy all 125 grenades myself at the grenade range and to have another lieutenant count the blasts to make sure that they were all destroyed.
Sheesh.
I threw every one of them myself - right-handed, left-handed, both hands at once and even considered throwing one with my feet but decided against it. At the end of the waste of these grenades, both of my flak jacket pockets were filled with grenade pins.
The next day, we deployed aboard the USS Frederick (LST-1184) and as I boarded, I noticed that I still had all those grenade pins, so in a spirit of naval camaraderie, I handed one of those pins to the first sailor I met and said "here you go, sailor, a genuine grenade pin: they make great key rings". Despite dealing with a Marine officer, the sailor seemed surprised and reasonably grateful, so I kept at it until pretty well every sailor on the Frederick (including the Captain) had his own grenade pin.
As an officer embarked aboard, one of my duties was to visit the mess decks during chow to ensure that my Marines were being fed and no interservice shenanigans were breaking out.
As I stood here, I heard one sailor say to another sailor "look! I got this grenade pin from a Marine who killed a VC with it!"
Semper Fi,
My company command group included company commander, three RTO’s, field artillery observer, his RTO, and the 1SG if he was in the field. That was a tough signature to hide. Two of my fellow company commanders were hit by snipers. One killed with a bullet in his head and the other wounded.
Just FYI:
The S1 is the Personnel Officer, the S2 Intel.
S3 is Plans/operations and S4 is Supply.
Okay, wow, thanks. I was totally unaware of all that, including the Boot Strap program. That alone makes up for the seeming ruthlessness of the policy in my eyes; everyone is given a chance to take advantage of a very generous offer and hold onto his career.
Hahahahaha...love it!
Long live the interservice rivalry, it has provided us with much fodder!
I wanted to say “You Lucky Man!”
You are correct.
At the time the battalion was short staffed and our S1 was covering the S2 position until we got a new officer assigned. This assignment was one of convenience as our S1 already had his TS clearance. So I should have said “acting Intelligence officer”.
My bad.
He still couldn’t navigate his way out of a closed barn.
It seemed to me that the curve was, learn. fight well, and then protect your ass until you rotate out.
Reminded me of a story I once heard about some guy serving in the Pacific in WWII who tried to fire a captured "knee mortar" by doing what seemed to make sense, by resting the base plate on his thigh!
Apparently, even though it kind of looks like that should work, that wasn't how it was used by the Japanese, and doing so would break your leg pretty efficiently (Don't know if that is true, but I have heard that story more than once!)
It was a bad idea, but it was based on the experiences of WWII and Korea. Platoon Leaders and Company Commanders did not survive longer than six months. The Vietnam experience was different. I served six months as a Recon Platoon Leader and six months as a Company Commander, went home in one piece. Many others did the same. The rates of KIA was lower, the rates of WIA were actually the same and at times higher. Better medical treatment accounted for that.
My dad told me the same story. He also said that you could get an officer killed by saluting him. Jap snipers were everywhere. It was very difficult to tell which Marines were officers but it took the Army longer to figure that out. The stripes on a LT’s helmet was like “aim here”.
Here’s a random POST service tale to keep you all amused.
It’s 1970, or so. I’ve been home since the summer of ‘68, and I’m sitting at a table in a bar on 2nd Ave., NYC, and listening to a bunch of guys, all in their mid 20’s, gabbing at the bar itself which was only 8, or 10 feet from where I’m sitting.
Guy #1, “Were you in the service?”
#2 “No I wasn’t,” he answered almost apologetically.
#1 “I was.”
#3 To #1, “Were You in Nam?”
#1 “No, I wasn’t.”
#3 “Well I was!”
#4 “Were you in combat?”
#3 “No, not really.”
#4 “Well I was.”
#5 “D’Ja get wounded?”
I could see where this was going so I pipped up, “Hey, ya all! I was I the service during the war, and I was in ‘Nam, in a combat outfit, airborne infantry, and not only was I wounded, but I was killed. TWICE! So I don’t want to hear anymore crap from any of ya.”
They stared at me like I had four heads and had just landed on the planet, then just turned around, faced the bar, and just stopped talking altogether. I sat there grinning from ear to ear. I still don’t know if they ever got the point or not. I’m grinnin’ now, just thinkin’ about it. People are just weird as Hell...That’s about all we can be sure of...and funny. If ya don’t laugh at ‘em, ya gotta cry.
LT DAN TAYLOR: "What's wrong with your lips?"
PRIVATE BUBBA: "I was born with big gums, sir."
LT DAN TAYLOR: "Yeah, well, you better tuck that in. Gonna get that caught on a trip wire. Where you boys from in the world?
I’d have gone fishing.
My signal unit was located adjacent to where the 82nd Airborne had once been located. (At least, that is what I was told.) Apparently when they pulled out they decided to discard thousands of rounds of ammo. Our guys found it in a nearby creek. For weeks our guys were busy making zip guns and having other fun with the treasure.
It's not only the case that one must account for property that is on the books, but also one would have to answer embarrassing questions if excess property was discovered.
We had a safe with classified electronic assemblies in it. Prior to an inspection it was discovered that the inventory sheet didn't include one of the assemblies. It was easier for one of the sergeants to carry it around in his pocket all day than have it discovered during an inspection and have to explain it.
Who sold you that cock and bull story?
Tell that to President Trump.....
Love it!
There’s a bit more to the story: I was the battalion S4a at the time and was sent to the training area ahead of our battalion’s deployment to set up the handoff from an unnamed army battalion. Their S-4, a captain, asked me if he could use my EOD team to destroy some Grade III ammo left over after their deployment. I said sure, and called my team to meet with him.
A day goes by and I hear and feel a massive detonation - and see a huge mushroom cloud going up a few clicks away. I turn to the captain and ask him how much Grade III he had.
He told me that he was destroying all of his remaining ammo, rather that pack it all back up transport it all the way back home (which required movement by ship). He asked me if we needed any and I told him that we didn’t have enough blanks and grenades and 40mm so he had his ammo tech meet with my ammo tech and they transferred it to our bunkers.
I signed for what we got - and for the next two days, huge explosions got rid of the rest. I remember expressing my astonishment over so much valuable ammunition being wasted but he was a captain and I wasn’t.
Roll forward one year and an army colonel with other army officers show up at my battalion CP and I’m sent to our conference room and read my rights under Article 31 and told that I was identified as the man responsible for destroying a quarter of million dollars of army ammunition. I listened to what they had to say, then went to my desk and produced the receipt- signed by that captain - for 125 M26 frag grenades, 3,000 7.62mm linked blanks, and 460 rounds of 40mm HE. Then I told them what happened to all the rest of that ammo.
The colonel closed his brief case, shook my hand, and left. That army captain was court martialled for destroying the ammo.
And no, we never accounted for grenade pins in the Marines.
Thanks for the rest of the story. I thought that something didn’t smell right. Sounds like this guy have some big accountability issues.
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