Posted on 02/10/2012 4:37:35 AM PST by KantianBurke
SAN DIEGO The Marine Corps on Thursday once again did damage control after a photograph surfaced of a sniper team in Afghanistan posing in front of a flag with a logo resembling that of the notorious Nazi SS -- a special unit that murdered millions of Jews, gypsies and others. The Corps said in a statement that using the symbol was not acceptable, but the Marines in the photograph taken in September 2010 will not be disciplined because investigators determined it was a naive mistake. The Marines believed the SS symbol was meant to represent sniper scouts and never intended to be associated with a racist organization, said Maj. Gabrielle Chapin, a spokeswoman at Camp Pendleton, where the Marines were based.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, headquartered in Los Angeles, said he does not buy the explanation that posing with the flag was an innocent mistake and insisted the American public has a right to know what happened.
"If you look at any book on the Nazi period, this is the dreaded symbol of the SS, and to have a Marine Corps unit adopt it and put it beside the American flag when 200,000 Americans died to free the world of that dreaded symbol is just beyond the pale," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
You sound like your thinking of the swastika - more commonly known and associated with the Nazis. This is a different symbol.
Kipling apparently used the swastika because it was an Indian sun symbol believed to confer good luck and spiritual well-being.
No. No there is not.
I was initially horrified when I heard this story, but after seeing the photo you posted, I can certainly understand that these young men did not know this was a Nazi flag. Those just look like stylized letters to most people. For young people who have received a public-school education and haven’t seen a lot of Nazi graphic art, it wouldn’t have registered as anything but a cool way of using the letters for “sniper scouts.”
Take a look at the image in post 52 - suggests that this symbol is more widely known, and not something these guys came up with themselves.
Yeah, we always write our "S" like a lightening strike.
This was plain dumb but I cut guys in the field miles of slack.
Anybody here though who tries to pretend it's anything other than the notorious SS runic symbols is full of crap.
Mississippi does not like your idea
I wrote that it seems entirely feasible to me that the young men were unaware of the evil with which THOSE LETTERS are associated when depicted using that style/font.
I never, not once, not EVER, even IMPLIED that any of those young Marines are Nazis.
I dont think its being suggested this is an actual Nazi flag - just the symbol.
This is a Nazi ss flag, the one in the picture is not! Note the color scheme.......
“I never, not once, not EVER, even IMPLIED that any of those young Marines are Nazis.”
“entirely feasible” is a diminutive, wimpy phrase not applicable to these men in any way when it is 100% certain that they are nothing but true red-blooded Americans who kill the enemy.
If “SS matters” completely out of context then your choice of words matter too.
Anyone who is not certain that these men are honorable men serving their country should take their “SS” implications and choke on them.
I, too, am skeptical, but, considering the state of our public education, perhaps they really never actually learned about the Nazi reign.
OMW! Someone has posted the photo at 11. I think it is a stretch to call in a Nazi flag.
Bada bing bada boom
Well Dan Lemothe, since you wrote this article for the ARMY times...It doesn’t surprise me...
Yer keen, historical military intellect, is second to none.../sarc
My nephews goal is to qualify to be a Marine Corp Scout Sniper...His uncle (me) taught him well!!! Then the Marine Corp will make him a force multiplier that will save lives!!!
Just my opinion...
I’m really not sure my son or his buddies would recognize this as being associated with Nazis. I’m trying to figure out how to send this image to his cell phone so he can tell me if he recognizes it. Because I’m not even sure they’d recognize the real Nazi symbol.
I cannot recall seeing that symbol before today. I guess I’m just too young. (old enough to have children in college) I don’t remember seeing the symbol in college though it’s possible I did without comprehending it. Our oldest children have each studied the Holocaust at various times in their public schooling. Did they study Nazi symbols? I don’t know. I’ll ask them. I’ll start with the one who was studying WWII before Christmas. It seems to me that Nazi symbols were by and large wiped out during my growing up years because no one I knew wanted to be associated with anything that resembled Nazism. It’s semi-understandable that a young sniper squad would have not seen the symbol before. Since there was an investigation with a conclusion that the symbol was used in ignorance, we should let it go and be happy someone noticed and took care of the ignorance.
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