An old Navy Chief and an old Marine Gunny were sitting at the VFW arguing about who’d had the tougher career.

“I did 30 years in the Corps,” the old Marine declared proudly, “and fought in three of my country’s wars.”

“Fresh out of boot camp I hit the beach at Okinawa, clawed my way up the blood-soaked sand, and  eventually took out an entire enemy machine gun nest with a pistol and a single grenade.”

“As a Sergeant, I fought in Korea alongside Chesty Puller.   We pushed through the enemy inch by bloody inch in the freezing cold, always under a barrage of artillery and small arms fire. ”

“Finally, as a Gunny Sergeant, I did three combat tours in Vietnam. We humped through the mud and razor grass for 14 hours a day, plagued by rain and mosquitoes, ducking under sniper fire by day and mortars all night. In a firefight, we’d fire until our arms ached and our guns were empty, then we charge the enemy with bayonets and e-tools!”

“Lucky bastard,” said the Chief, “nuthin’ but shore duty!”

H/T to Mister Burnett

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Combat Leadership in Sangin »

Posted by UltimaRatioReg in History, Marine Corps, Navy, Travel, Uncategorized

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• Paul Albers

  The story has a flaw. No Gunny would ever refer to his rifle as a gun.
  “This is my rifle, this is my gun. This is for fighting and this is for fun.”
  Fun story though.

• UltimaRatioReg

  Ahh, but a machine gun is a gun. So, perhaps the Gunny was right after all!

• Paul Albers

  Ah yes. My mind drifts back as I recall him saying, “Grab that weapon and follow me.”
  I also got my ass kicked for calling a Rocket Launcher a Bazooka.

• Byron

  “Ahh, but a machine gun is a gun. So, perhaps the Gunny was right after all!”

  Unless it’s a Browning Automatic RIFLE

• Paul Albers

  The BAR. What a great weapon.
  That and with the M1 one could truly reach out and touch someone.