Posted on 04/24/2006 8:51:41 AM PDT by freepatriot32
Personally I think that may be why we got along with the grunts so well. More than once I swung at a dogface just because the grunt beside me in the bar was needing somebody to watch his back.
"It's like putting a firehouse in your mouth," said Army Lt. Col. Doug Snyder, who is in charge of the training unit. "It's remarkable what we are putting these sailors through."
I sure hope the good Army Colonel didn't say what they quoted him as saying. I hope he was trying to say they put a fireHOSE in their mouths.
"Personally I think that may be why we got along with the grunts so well. More than once I swung at a dogface just because the grunt beside me in the bar was needing somebody to watch his back."
Well that and you had stuff we needed like bulldozers, plywood, electrical wire, etc. to make our lives a little more comfortable when we were at base camp. When we first arrived at Chu Lai it was a luxury to have 3 small pieces of 2x4 to put under the legs of our cots to keep them from sinking into the sand. without those pieces of wood you would find yourself sleeping on the sand by about midnight and you would be surprised how hard that sand could be.
C-Rats boxes did the same trick.
2 week course? Good luck. I had 8 weeks in Alpha Company at Ft. Jackson..the meanest DI not behind bars as well. Thank God.
Yep, that's "Hol-mang" Thanks!
I been pung. Thanks.
I don't. I don't want Army down in the hole of a 1200 PSI propulsion plant. What is worse is the ongoing consolidation of ratings in the Navy which were already too diverse. My rating included Turbines, reduction gears, air craft elevators, cryogenics, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration. etc. It took months just to train someone to be a competent watch in these places. My rating Machinist Mate is now combined with Boiler Technicians as well.
As one who has been in the Navy and afterward went into an artillery unit in the Army National Guard there are major issues and the Pentagon and Sec of Defense needs to stop the combining jobs downsizing nonsense.
The ones training for this seem to be corpsmen or Medics in Army terms.
I enlisted in 1976 and never saw a weapon but a ,22 for an hour in basic. We had Marines {now gone} and Gunner Mates who specifically trained in that. A weapon below decks is useless.
The Sand Pebbles was a great flick that detailed quite accurately as to how well trained most swabbies were for sevice in boarding parties. Once upon a time they were actually "naval infantry" in the mold of the Japanese Naval Infantry who fought the US Marines so fiercely at Tarawa. Oh how the times have changed due to the likes of Elmo Zumwalt and Clinton era feminization.
I was there and witnessed the distruction. The main reason I didn't stay in.
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