Archive for July, 2009

My uncle S/Sgt Jack Rice USMC (deceased) was aboard the USS Gilbert Islands, an escort class carrier designated CVE107. He was a young marine serving as an aviation machinist mate with the rank of corporal. The ship left San Diego on April 12th, 1945, picked up some crew in Hawaii and headed out to the south Pacific. It earned three battle stars during it's combat tour. The Marine Corps lost a lot of good men on that tour.

I recently unearthed his membership card to the Sacred Order of the Golden Dragon, which was given for crossing the international dateline.  I am trying to find out if he went through a similiar entrance to the "Royal Court" as did one Donald Truscott (USN). When a ship crossed the international date line any crew who had not previously crossed it were initiated into the Order of the Dragon in a fashion similar to what might have happened in Marine Corps Boot Camp.

After their initiation this is the sick concoction they were forced to drink to complete the process:

Horseradish

A touch of ground-up glue (for body)

Salt
Cayenne pepper
Louisiana Pepper sauce
Cloves
Garlic
Mustard
A touch of benzene
Tunic pepper
Worcestershire sauce

Here is Donald Fergus's memory of the initiation when the U.S.S. Fergus crossed the International Date Line on May 13, 1945.

"We were made to get down on our hands and knees and crawl through a canvas chute full of garbage that had been saved up for a few days. What an awful stink. When we came out of the other end of the chute, fire hoses were aimed at us, blasting us with cold salt water out of the ocean.

We were soaking wet when they poked us with electric rods. What an awful shock that was and how it hurt. The men that were doing all this to us were men who had crossed the line before. Again we were made to get down on our hands and knees. This time we crawled through a line of men’s legs. As we crawled through their legs, the men would hit our bottoms with paddles. By the time we got through that line, our bottoms were red and extremely sore. A fat guy with a big belly was the focus of our next ordeal. The fat guy’s belly was fixed up to look like a bare bottom and we thought it was. We were all required to kiss his belly (bottom). Yuk! (more…)

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Live Pigs Being Used By Marines To Practice Wound Repairs

Whooee, I can just hear the animal rights activists now. It seems the Marine Corps has decided to use live pigs in a training exercise to teach Navy doctors, corpsmen and some infantry Marines how to treat battle wounds. They first anesthetize them, then shoot them or blow them up so that the docs can treat real trauma instead of those crash test dummies that don't bleed. You talk about short ribs?

An American Pig Is Worth More Than A Terroist

According to my sources the pigs never regain consciousness and are euthanized after the exercise. I hope at least they are then donated (what's left of them) to local BBQ joints. I'm all for realism when it comes time to train doctors and corpsmen in the rigors of combat trauma but this makes me a bit queasy. Instead of maiming, then killing perfectly good pigs, why don't we have some of those terrorists and taliban prisoners kept at GITMO draw straws for a chance to help our Marine medical personnel train in the arts of hemorrhage control, intravenous access, pressure bandages, tourniquets and the like. 

Politically incorrect you say? You want realism? Heck, that's as good as it gets, the only thing terrorists have in common with the rest of us is that they bleed the same color. Sounds like the best use of a terrorist that I have ever heard of yet. You could combine infantry tactics with medical training in the same exercise and save taxpayer dollars on anesthetics. But alas, you think the animal activists can raise a stink, try messing with the civil libertarians!

Did you ever refer to yourself as an ex-Marine within the hearing (say about 2 klicks) of an active duty career or retired Marine? Man, they will set you straight in a hurry! Once a Marine, always a Marine! They don't much like the former-Marine thing any better but nobody yet has come up with a better way to describe a person who was former-ly on active duty. A former marine wouldn't say, "I am a Marine" to a dumb civilian because A. you just became one yourself, fool and B. they just would'nt get it.

It's no big deal when our Canadian neighbors to the north mistakenly refer to us as Ex- Marines as we have seen in the case of Tim Guderian (a former marine that won the 200 mil powerball in Canada). We know they don't mean anything by it but I wonder if they or anyone else realizes just what a travesty it is to use that stupid little prefix. Heck, even a Mom can slip with the Ex thing (but then again if the Marine Corps would have wanted you to have a mother – they would have issued you one). I always wanted to say that!

Those who have never been a part of the Few, the Proud are just not capable of understanding what it is that a marine goes through to earn the title. We may have served and got out, retired, no longer serving or too banged up to be of any use to anyone but we are still members of the finest organization of fighting men and women ever to come down the pike. And we deserve better.

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If you don't think former is very exciting or even comes within a red hair of being able to describe the honor and distinction of having once-served as a United States Marine I invite you to join my cause. Whoever said, familiarity breeds contempt, must have been thinking about an issue just like this one because that's the way I feel about dull, boring, crappy old former.

We have just become numb to it is all. Here is another one that is even worse yet; "I was a Marine." NOW you are in real danger of entering "Ex" territory again and that sticks in my craw like the greasy aftertaste of ham and mother……s. We need something that describes us former-Marines that is as cool as; OOH RAH!