Overheard on Albie Speer's Marine Officer Selection Course

[regexcellent]

I'm pretty sure marine infantry use staff sergeants for PSGs. But the reason he's unlikely to lead men in combat, in my opinion, is because he's unlikely to get combat arms.

[Alexander's Horse]

right, we call it "coarsemanship"

lol doesn't sound like our boy

[MichaeltheGreat]

The last few wars and warlets we fought show that most REMF troups can end up in combat if they ever get their asses outside the wire. I figured he'd end up somewhere other than a line platoon, so he'd have a gunny rather than an E6 as his baby sitter.

[Dinner]

You realize, of course, that if by some miracle Al actually makes it through this time, he'll be totally insufferable. At least until he gets discharged for something akin to insubordination.

I predict he never makes Captain (O-3) on account of being a dumb ass.

[Dinner]

Posted from Helmand - met a girl in a Burka - what do I do now???

At least they can bond over a mutual hatred of Jewish people and general backwardness. Hell, even someone as dirt poor as Albie should be able to come up with the dowry of five goats.

[Dinner]

Irrelevant. This is Al we're talking about. Gunnery Sergeant Hartman could inform him that only steers and queers come from Texas, and he'd immediately say "WTF? Who says 'steers and queers,' anyway? You should say 'queers and steers,' to keep it in alphabetic order, LOL." Or something like that. I don't know if he'd say that exactly, but I don't believe it's possible to say something that that man can't find something to object to, no matter how trivial.

One, well earned, Thanks for Elok.

[Dinner]

The thought of him leading men into battle makes me a little nervous.

Not nearly as nervous as it makes the enlisted men in question, I am sure. He'd be worse than Captain Sobel from HBO's Band of Brothers and I wouldn't be surprised to see a similar mutiny by the NCO Corp.

[Alexander's Horse]

And assuming he graduates, I'd put the odds of him leading anyone into combat as near zero. And precisely zero as a freshly shat out nugget. That's why God made Gunnies for the lesser service and SFCs for the Army.

That's only the beginning. In Afghanistan most of the perimeter work was done by contractors, except at the FOBs like that portrayed in Restreppo. It was a very diverse group. There were even three flavours of Gurkhas, in order of competence - British trained, Indian trained and ex-Nepal army. Then there were the Blackwater and other PSD guys, usually very skilled, then the gunnies and other base troops behind them hunkering down whenever a shot went downrange.

So Albie needs a good NCO, and they usually pair those guys with the noob subbies and let them pretend they are in charge, or he should have a lot of time to Post here before he has to make a decision and maybe we can talk him through it

[regexcellent]

Infantry units as I've been told (by my ROTC cadre who've been to Afghanistan) often/typically get spread around to FOBs and COPs that are fairly isolated and they're responsible for both their own perimeter defense and missions outside the wire.

The training NCO here has been on five combat deployments and has a CAB for some kind of crazy firefight which I haven't heard all the details of. He's a tanker and I've heard from people who are familiar with the story that he did some serious **** on that mission for which he was decorated. My XO is also a tanker and he has a CAB for something similar but apparently less impressive. I haven't heard the story on that either.

[Alexander's Horse]

the fighting is still very willing, even if the media has lost interest - U-Tube has a lot of fresh material every day

One freaky thing is the bad guys film too so occasionally it is possible to see a contact or IED strike from both sides...the world we live in...although the Taliban are slower putting their stuff out because they like to put their Voodoo Pashtun martyr soundtrack over their material, lots of Allah Akbar and peace be upon him nonsense

[MichaeltheGreat]

Yeah, and the fact they're ****ting themselves over whether we're tracking those couriers or not.

[regexcellent]

when you watch videos from the ongoing Syria conflict it's hard to hear anything over repeated "Allahu Ackbar." It's really irritating. I'm not even kidding, if you watch those videos usually the cameraman is just saying that over and over and over.

OKAY, I GET IT, GOD IS GREAT, MOVING ON! SHOW ME SOME ****ING CLUSTER BOMBS AND SHUT UP

(yeah I know they're not saying it for my benefit, I just find it irritating after a while and turn the sound off)

[Alexander's Horse]

Yeah, and the fact they're ****ting themselves over whether we're tracking those couriers or not.

A constant source of amusement to the good guys

[MichaeltheGreat]

when you watch videos from the ongoing Syria conflict it's hard to hear anything over repeated "Allahu Ackbar." It's really irritating. I'm not even kidding, if you watch those videos usually the cameraman is just saying that over and over and over.

OKAY, I GET IT, GOD IS GREAT, MOVING ON! SHOW ME SOME ****ING CLUSTER BOMBS AND SHUT UP

(yeah I know they're not saying it for my benefit, I just find it irritating after a while and turn the sound off)

The other thing - if Allah is so mother****ing Akhbar, why are you people still unable to obtain decisive victory after close to two years? Maybe time to un**** your heads and start rethinking tactics.

[Alexander's Horse]

here is an example of a Talib vid on the recent attack on Camp Bastion in Helmand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOD2TbDlgVg&feature=player_detailpage