That sound you hear are Gunnery Sergeants whirling in their graves:
Go here to The New York Post to read the rest. Hey, it isn’t as if the military is any longer for fighting and winning wars. Under Obama the military is for social experimentation and to win cheap votes through pandering to interest groups. So if our military is going to be reduced to a politically correct circus they may as well wear clown hats to match. Gunnery Sergeant Ermey do you have a comment?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCBBv9LVGmc[/youtube]
Update: Marine brass since this story exploded have been denying that the Obama administration is behind this. Go here to a story in Stars and Stripes. That my friends, as we used to say when I was in the Army in my misspent youth, is complete and utter BS. The unisex push in uniforms has been going on all this year. Go here to read about it.
The uniform experiment comes as the service continues to introduce changes aimed at improving gender equality, most falling in line with the Defense Department’s mandate to open more jobs to women. For instance, starting next year, female Marines will be required to perform pullups on their annual Physical Fitness Tests, as men do, and the service is developing “gender-neutral” physical standards that will become part of Marines’ job requirements. Additionally, officials are making a concerted effort to put more women in key leadership roles.
And “as we’re re-evaluating the role of women in the Marine Corps as a whole,” Norton said, “we’re also re-evaluating the uniforms that are being used.”
All the services are being forced to do this. The Navy introduced a unisex cover. It was celebrated as showing the commitment of Obama’s Secretary of the Navy to a gender blind fleet. Go here to read the article which appeared in the Navy Times. (Why the formatting of the article is off beats me.) Anyone who believes that the Obama administration is not behind this nonsense is too innocent for words.
No, wait!
Maybe there’s an operational benefit.
Next time some Arab-American makes a You Tube video (viewed by 16 teens in their mothers’ basements), US embassy Marine guards will not be killed by small arms fire from Arab-Spring, Obama-buddies who will be laughing too hard at their hats.
I despise this godless and iniquitous Administration. But everyone here knows that anyways. Sorry I don’t have anything more intelligent to contribute.
Nice speech by Gunnery Sargent Ermey.
Obama may be building his own Sturmabteilung, but by the time he’s done, the real fighting men & women who’ve been driven out will be considerably tougher and harder to beat. There will be no “other hand to pull out from behind its back” this time.
sadness.
“A change to the Marine Corps’ uniform hats could take the hard-nosed Leathernecks from the Halls of Montezuma to the shops of Christopher Street…” where they will open doors for people. Sure.
Yesterday, NPR led off their 7am news, talking about the thirtieth anniversary of the bombing of the Marine Corps Barrack [sic] in Beirut.
Another little piece of linguistic evidence that American culture is detaching itself from the reality of its own military.
It’s hard to see why a change is necessarily, in that the hats on the left (apparently the old design) already look pretty similar.
It seems like the new design heads (if you’ll forgive the term) in the direction of a kepi. Will this be the next iteration?
The new cap is a knock off of the one worn by Molly Marines:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FUniforms_of_the_United_States_Marine_Corps&h=0&w=0&sz=1&tbnid=Vt31upr4IZsZBM&tbnh=198&tbnw=254&zoom=1&docid=ZB5TNWlknY7CwM&ei=QJ9pUrj3KKaj2QXro4FI&ved=0CAMQsCU
I have absolutely nothing but respect for any woman who has joined the Marine Corps. That shows patriotism and an adventurous and bold spirit. However, male Marines do not want to dress like them!
I do not think they look bad, but what would be the point of the change for the men in the Marines?
The one-time first lady of Canada
http://image2.findagrave.com/photos/2012/325/101103702_135355239339.jpg
had this to say:
“The big problem is to find suitable hats. I don’t care for them all that much, but you have to wear them in politics.”
I think the new hats look absolutely FABULOUS! I bet next their going to require that any Marine Corps tattoos be applied to the small of the back just above the tailbone…
They just look vaguely French.
Do these Legionnaires look like pantywaists?
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01126/foreign-legion_1126189c.jpg
The Royal Marines favour the pith helmet for ceremonial dress
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:07_Royal_Marines_Montevideo_Jan1972.jpg
“Do these Legionnaires look like pantywaists?”
Actually Art, although the Legionnaires do have a well-deserved reputation for fighting, it usually involves being beaten: Camerone and Dien Bien Phu being only two of the defeats celebrated in Legionnaire lore.
Off topic: Civil War buffs may be intetrested in a new music CD(?) set reviewed in today’s WSJ: “Divided and United”: byline “Hit song of the Civil War.”
Point of information: the USMC did not need to draft any men during WWII. They did during the Nam.
Fr. For. Leg was one of the few good ideas out of Fr. after the revolution.
They were foreigners, or locals on the run, who (usually under false ID’s) joined b/c they didn’t care to live. It saved politicians from drafting locals (to keep the colonies) and get wasted at places like Camerone, DBP, Algeria.
If you can see through the Hollywood BS, look at movies “Beau Geste” and “March or Die.”
And, like the Marine Corps, the FFL have enjoyed excellent PR, and an active alumni association.
“Hey diddle-diddle, straight up the middle!”
Wait until they remove the blood stripe from NCO trousers . . .
“Point of information: the USMC did not need to draft any men during WWII. They did during the Nam.”
No, that is untrue. Voluntary enlistment into the military during World War II was ended on December 5, 1942. The Marines did attempt to get draftees who expressed a preference for service in the Marines, although that did not always happen. During Vietnam about one-quarter of the troops were draftees in the military, the remainder volunteers.
Interesting how much one learns here. I thought the Army was the only branch that drafted. Induction into any other was voluntary – even if it was to avoid the Army.
My Dad served in the Air Force during Korea, attached the the AEC at Kirtland/Sandia. He said the barracks bulletin board was full of Army assignments for those, like him, who had lost deferments and were “on their way.”
The women marines are losing their traditional, distinctive cover because the manufacturer is going out of business…come on, the USMC Uniform Board and supply officers couldn’t find a new US manufacturer? When Gen. Shinseki mandated that all soldiers wear the Rangers’ black beret, it was an insult to everyone who had graduated from the rigorous Ranger school and overall a very unpopular decision. On top of that they were made in China.
Military women have distinctive headgear and uniforms as do the men. Why not respect the traditions of both genders. Men and women have different physiques and “office” and ceremonial uniforms should reflect that. BDUs are unisex as they should be.
When I was in the navy the uniform board did away with the fitted overblouse light blues and aline skirt. Instead of changing the color to white or khaki with optional slacks, the women’s summer uniforms were the same as men’s although we were allowed to keep the WAVE bucket hat. Add the male overseas cap (the female version discontinued) and many women looked and still look like, dare I say, dykes . Maybe that’s the point.
As for PFT (physical fitness tests) through the years there have been many studies and the conclusion is that women have less upper body strength than their male counterparts, but more abdominal strength, more body fat and less muscle mass so that their BMI (body mass index) will be different.
I find this mess to be the groundwork for expanding the definition of gender from only biology based male and female to the addition of bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgendered.
My uncle sent me these links, indicating that the male cover is probably safe:
http://www.stripes.com/news/us/marines-shoot-down-internet-story-on-obama-s-alleged-push-for-girly-hats-1.248963
http://www.stripes.com/news/us/marine-corps-pulls-uniform-survey-after-loud-and-clear-opposition-1.249171
Though I will say that Daly certainly manages to look like he could eat nails while wearing the hat the purported new design was based on.