Machine gun rounds start fire

[Teresa]

The last thing on your mind when bullets are flying is a fire that may have started and as tarhead said, napalm makes a big fire.
My Grandad, a WWI veteran, said that the Army done all the fighting and when that was over the Marines came in to get their pictures taken.

That explains why every time a camera is brought out.. Ole jarhead "tries" to suck in his belly and swells his chest out and smiles real big..  even when the camera isn't pointing at him.. Guess its all those years of practice...  

[mtcookson]

If you are in a firefight while in Iraq or Afghanistan and you are using a machine gun and it starts a fire, what do you do?

I'm not sure there's enough plant life over there to even start a very big fire.

[W. Gray]

This is a horse of a different color.

In 1966, I was a holdover at Fort Ord, California, a major infantry training center during the Vietnam War. After training, I was waiting for my next assignment and was given an array of odd jobs such as helping to build a Vietnamese village on a back range and to provide manpower for a Viet Cong assault force against units training for immediate shipment to Vietnam. This was all done miles from the main part of the post.

Fort Ord fronted on the Pacific Ocean and extended back a number of miles with acres and acres of artillery and exercise ranges. Some of the live firing ranges were right on the ocean and firing was toward the water. There was an area designated as a "no sail" zone extending out from those ranges to keep boats from being hit.

One area of the post was really remote and held a WWII training center capable of holding several thousand soldiers. Hundreds of buildings were still sitting there, abandoned when that war ended.

On one occasion, I found a large smoke pot just sitting out on the range under a bush. This was not the ordinary hand held smoke grenade, but a large metal can somewhat bigger than a number 10 can. To add a little variety, we decided to use smoke on our next assault exercise.

At the proper moment, the smoke was set off and it immediately started a range fire that spread rather quickly. Both friend and foe had to stop shooting blanks at each other and tend to fight the fire with ponchos, blankets, or whatever else could be located--without much success. There were very few trees on the back ranges and most terrain was sage brush type matter.

The only way to contact the fire department was by radio to our parent unit and then that unit called the Fort Ord fire department.

The fire department arrived to help the amateur fire fighters and put the fire out.

Of course, when the fire department filled out its report, no one knew just exactly how that fire got started.

[Janet Harrington]

I wouldn't have admitted to helping that fire start either. LOL

Since I didn't get to serve in any military, I really didn't pay much attention to the wars. I pretty much forgotten about the napalm stuff. Thanks for telling me.

[jarhead]

You are probably right about that MT, but Heaven forbid we burn up a poppy field. Need that cash crop.

Teresa, For your information my chest is always puffed out---it's just that the ol chest aint where it used to be--kinda slid south !!

Yes Sarge, I heard your grand dad (my great uncle) say that about a kazillion times and a kazillion times I threatened to whup his ass for saying it. Uncle Bob was a character. Celebrated his 16th birthday in a trench in France. Just before I left for Nam I went to Uncle Bob and asked him what it was like to be in combat. He said he could talk for hours about it but the minute I came under fire I wasn't going to be thinking of a damn thing he could tell me---he was right. I'm sure you heard him tell about before he left for over seas, the instructor told them if a potato masher (German grenade) landed in the trench, the closest soldier was supposed to jump on it to save the soldiers around him. Uncle Bob said, " I told myself,  self you might put your foot on it but by damn you aint jumping on that SOB "
Larry, I hate that movie, "Apocalypse Now'---aint no Marines in it .

[srkruzich]

That explains why every time a camera is brought out.. Ole jarhead "tries" to suck in his belly and swells his chest out and smiles real big..  even when the camera isn't pointing at him.. Guess its all those years of practice...   

Teresa all them Marines look that way.  I noticed it when my sons graduated from boot. Seems the DI's kicked them in the ass so hard so many times it pushed their chests out!

[larryJ]

Jarhead.......LOL...........I guess that is why it was such a good movie.....

Larryj

[jarhead]

Damn Larry, this is really going to hurt me to say this but 'Platoon" is my favorite Nam movie and It's Army. Don't like the parts where they go around shooting each other and civilians but they talk the talk like we did, the jungle looks right, and the characters just had a "grunt look" to them---for movie stars.
I do like the boot camp part of Full Metal Jacket, but not the Nam part. I might be a tad prejudice about R. Lee Ermey playing the D.I. in the movie because when he was a real DI he was a junior DI under Gunny Hensley, who was my senior DI in boot camp, so Ermey learned from the best. 4-5 years back when I first found Hensley (retired Sgt Maj ) we were talking about the "attitude adjustments" the DI's did to the recruits. He told me he never laid a hand on a recruit that he felt didn't have what it took to be a Marine. I told him I guess he seen great potential in my sorry ass.
Steve,
Your sons DI's kicked them ? That is against the law you know. After training all day I would go in the drill instructors hootch and kick back and drink cold beer and smoke Cohiba cigars with them------------------------------OK, that's a big fat lie.

[W. Gray]

Jarhead,

The movie Full Metal Jacket was made by the same guy that made 2001, A Space Odyssey.

R. Lee Ermey was not the first choice for the drill sergeant as he was hired to be a technical consultant. But his military presence and his drill demonstrations and recommendations through his on site consulting caused the original guy to be fired. I believe I have seen Ermey in at least a dozen movies including one western.

That Vietnam urban assault where the female Cong was killed was actually filmed in London at an abandoned port facility and at an abandoned gasworks facility.

[larryJ]

Ah, yes, boot camp.............well, it was called basic training in the Army.  Remember back in the day, if a young feller got into deep doo-doo, a judge might send the perpetrator to the Army rather than jail.  Don't know if they still do that.  Anyway, after I had finished basic, I always thought that every young person (well, at the time, males) should just automatically go through basic training.  Especially with a group of Airborne or some special unit like the Rangers, etc.  Eight weeks of the psychological "re-braining" would work wonders.  I remember feeling that I had been totally stripped of whatever my mind thought was worthwhile and came out a different person altogether.  I think the Israelis have the right idea.  Everyone serves.........period.  Going through that psychological change would really turn around a lot of young people who might otherwise wind up becoming criminals.  Add a heavy emphasis on patriotism and God-fearing trust would make a world of difference in this society.  It was once suggested that all the L.A. gangs should be rounded up and sent to Iraq or Afghanistan and let them blast away.  But then the idea was phoo-phooed, because the bangers can't hit the broad side of a barn.  Of course, with a little training on a firing range that could be corrected. 

As far as movies..............both Full Metal Jacket and Platoon were a little too violent for my taste.  Even when The Deer Hunter came out I was a little disturbed, also.  But then, I'm a "lighter side of the moment" kind of guy and prefer humorous flicks.  As to Apocolypse Now, it was a good movie til it got weird at the end.  But, I always remember the Robert Duvall quote and it makes me laugh.  It makes me think of a D.I. that I had in Basic, a young sergeant, not more than 25 years of age.  So gung ho.......
When I went through Basic at Ft. Campbell (101st Airborne) he was signing up for his third tour of Vietnam.  I thought he was an idiot, of course, and so did everybody else around there.  But, he was AIRBORNE!!!!!!!!!!!  GO SCREAMING EAGLES!!!!!

Gotta shut up and get my afternoon coffee.

Larryj