Its a Marine thing...

[Ole Cowboy]

Marine Dining Etiquette

The Commandant of the Marine Corps was General Al Gray, a crusty old 'Field
Marine.' He loved his Marines and often slipped into the mess hall wearing
a faded old field jacket without any rank or insignia on it. He would go
through the chow line just like a private (In this way, he was assured of
being given the same rations that the lowest enlisted man received. And,
woe be it to the mess officer if the food was found to be 'unfit in quality
or quantity').

Upon becoming Commandant, General Gray was expected to do a great deal of
'formal entertaining'...fancy dinner parties in full dress blue uniform.
Now, the General would rather have been in the field eating cold 'C-rats'
around a fighting hole with a bunch of young 'hard charging' Marines. But
the General knew his duty and as a Marine he was determined to do it to the
best of his ability.

During these formal parties, a detachment of highly polished Marines from
'Eighth and Eye' (Marine Barracks located at 8th and I Streets in
Washington, D.C., home of the Silent Drill Team) were detailed to assume
the position of 'parade rest' at various intervals around the ballroom
where the festivities were being held.

At some point during one of these affairs, a very refined, blue-haired lady
picked up a tray of pastries and went around the room offering confections
to the guests. When she noticed these Marines in dress blues, standing like
sculptures all around the room, she was moved with admiration. She knew
that several of these men were fresh from our victory in Kuwait. She made a
beeline for the closest Lance Corporal, drew near him and asked, 'Would you
like pastry young man?'

The young Marine snapped to 'attention' and replied, "I don' eat that shit,
Ma'am." Just as quickly, he resumed the position of' parade rest.' His gaze
remained fixed on some distant point throughout the exchange.

The fancy lady was completely taken aback! She blinked, her eyes widened,
her mouth dropped open. So startled was she that she immediately began to
doubt what she had heard. In a quivering voice she asked, "W-W-What did you
say?"

The Marine snapped back to the position of 'attention' (like the arm of a
mousetrap smacking its wooden base). Then he said, '"I don' eat that shit,
Ma'am." And just as smartly as before, back to the position of 'parade
rest' he went.

This time, there was no doubt. The fancy lady immediately became incensed
and felt insulted. After all, here she was an important lady, taking the
time to offer something nice to this enlisted man (well below her station
in life), and he had the nerve to say THAT to HER! She exclaimed, "Well! I
never...!" The lady remembered that she had met that military man in charge
of all these 'soldiers' earlier. She spotted General Gray from across the
room. He had a cigar clenched between his teeth and a camouflaged canteen
cup full of bourbon in his left hand. He was talking to a group of 1st and
2nd Lieutenants. So blue haired lady went straight over to the Commandant
and interrupted.

"General, I offered some pastry to that young man over there, and do you
know what he told me?"

General Gray cocked his eyebrow, took the cigar out of his mouth and said,
"Well, no Ma'am, I don't." The lady took in a deep breath, confident that
she was adequately expressing with her body language her considerable rage
and indignation. As she wagged her head in cadence with her words, and she
paused between each word for effect, 'She said," I - don't - eat - that -
shit - Ma'am!''

The lieutenants were in a state of near apoplexy. A couple of them choked
back chuckles, and turned their heads to avoid having their smirks
detected. The next thought that most of them had was, 'God, I hope it
wasn't one of MY Marines!' and the color left their faces.

General Gray wrinkled his brow, cut his eyes in the direction of the
lieutenants, put his free hand to his chin and muttered a subdued, "Hmmm
Which one did you say it was Ma'am?," the General asked.

"That tall sturdy one right over there near the window, General," the woman
said with smug satisfaction. One of the lieutenants began to look sick and
put a hand on the wall for support. General Gray, seemed deep in thought,
hand still to his chin, wrinkled brow. Suddenly, he looked up and his
expression changed to one indicating he had made a decision.

He looked the fancy lady right in the eyes and said, "Well, f@#k him! Then don't
give him any."

 

[jrbfishn]

That's the kind of soldiers and marines i grew up with. Damn i miss that


Sent by a idjit coffeeholic

 

[Ole Cowboy]

That's the kind of soldiers and marines i grew up with. Damn i miss that


Sent by a idjit coffeeholic

Sadly our military especially the war fighters USMC/Army days are numbered I am afraid. There is NO PLACE for GBLT or women in a foxhole!


I remeber in the old days some Sgt screaming: 'soldier if the Army had wanted you to have a woman they would have issued you one'.

I know the Army has folded tent on promotions and are going to focus on improving the GBLT and minorities in the combat ranks.

 

[jrbfishn]

I ain't getting into that argument, nobody will like my view.
But I do miss being around the army of old. No disrespect for anyone in the new military, but it was a different military back then. Even those drafted had a different mentality.


Sent by a idjit coffeeholic

 

[craftkr]

I definitely miss the good Ole days such as this story represents.

 

[Coop45]

Yeah, war has gotten too PC. Where is the fun?

 

[Vaquero]

I give the military their due. No doubt.
But honestly, the adult male US citizen has gone soft.
The nicest men I grew up around would horrify most of our society today.

We need more barbarians and rednecks!

 

[oohrah]

Yes, General Gray had his place in the Corps, but he was more Patton than Bradley, and I had the pleasure of dining with him once. The cigar chomping is accurate. I have my own opinions of his contribution which I will not express here.

And as for me, I don't care who is in the foxhole with me as long as they have passed the test, earned the right to be there, and know how to fight.

 

[Ole Cowboy]

Yes, General Gray had his place in the Corps, but he was more Patton than Bradley, and I had the pleasure of dining with him once. The cigar chomping is accurate. I have my own opinions of his contribution which I will not express here.

And as for me, I don't care who is in the foxhole with me as long as they have passed the test, earned the right to be there, and know how to fight.

Passing the test only shows knowledge.

Over many years I hired and fired engineers. I can tell you I fired some very educated and smart guys. Over the years I learned who would be a good pick and who would not.

Folks who I learned not to hire:

Ivy League school

Anyone that had both a undergrad and post grad degrees in the same subject matter (IT)

Anyone who had worked for Microsoft for over 5 years

We culled this folks at the resume level. As I wast the CTO I was the last person to interview. While I had the last say so on hire or not, I never once gave a no to anyone my people sent to me. The way I worked was to let them do all the interviewing and qualifications assessment. I also told them if they ever sent someone in to me that I would not hire, I would fire their sponsor (ever interviewee had a sponsor). It must have worked, very low turn over and we produced world class software.

Point being it takes more than a passing a test to pass the test on the killing fields.

The Israelis had fulling integrated (m/f) units even in the Infantry. It DID NOT WORK and its never worked ever! I spent some time with the Israeli military last year and was very impressed by the male soldiers and the female soldiers and they work together very well in non combat units. I talked with both men and women on their thoughts and can assure you the women who also have combat units, did not want to be with the men.

At dinner one night they brought over and introduced one of their TOP GUN Snipers. We were in the middle of dinner when they announced the Sniper was there and would coming in (we were a small group of 20). There was a collective gasp when this gal walked in...to say she was drop dead gorgeous would be and understatement. We were not allow to take pics of her because of her being one of the top snipers (I found out later from the soldiers she IS the top sniper). I spent some time with her and was duly impressed to say the least.

Israel has got it figured out and I hear that from enlisted soldiers all the way to the Generals in convential units and SOCOM where I spent most of my time.