I graduated honor platoon this previous Friday morning. I have returned.

keys spooky musak... dum dum dum...

You know you should really work on your entrance. It's not impressive enough. Or creepy enough. Or scary enough. Adept powers don't work over the matrix... so your pornomancy is kinda meh.

Mr Anderson, welcome back. We missed you.

Welcome back, and congrats!

Welcome back Neraph

Huzzagh!! Congratulations, Marine!

/salute

Good to see ya!

Welcome back!

Welcome back, Marine!

OK, somebody has to be that Ass . . and who better than me?
"You were gone?"




Welcome home, stay put.

Yeah, it was three months of camping, hiking, swimming, target practice, and structured exercise routines. Oh, and there was this little hill called the "Grim Reaper." It was like a summer camp that made you hate life.

EDIT: I should mention that I leave the 29th for MCT and from there to my MOS school, although I'll have time and internetz at my MOS school. I got 57-11, CBRN (the paperwork still calls it NBC [Nuclear Biological Chemical Defense Specialist]), although I think many of you already knew that. The school is supposed to be something like 3 months long.

Sounds like most of my childhood.

Arrrrgh! He is going to MCT! He sold out to Mitsuhama!

I seem remember another poster who was in the military and his area had something to do with nukes. It is kind of hazy but I think he died. Damn, I'm tired but I just can't recall his name.

*looks at title* Looks like they didn't manage to break your ego then?
Nice to have you back, I've missed your talent for digging out citations

Semper Fi Marine !!!

Have you read my signature? If anything the Marines have made me more cocky, confident, and sure. And yes, right now I'm being modest. US Marines can give dragons a run for first-place ego maniacs .

EDIT: Some more info for people who care: My platoon won 5 trophies out of 8 (plus Honor Platoon trophy). We didn't get Range because we had an unq - someone shot a Possible on someone else's target on accident, and so we didn't win range even though we had the highest average. We tied for 1st in Final Drill and "lost" because of the DI score - by one point, and our DI had two points taken off for alignment and interval for one part of the marching movements even though no drill master was there to check it... We legitimately lost Final PFT though. Other DI's from other Companies were actually referring to our platoon as the Legendary Honor Platoon. In the three years that our Senior has been there he's not seen any platoon get such high scores or as many trophies.

I shot a 330/350 for Range, getting me my cross-rifles Expert badge, and since we're technically at war I have my "Firewatch" ribbon/medal (National Defense Service Ribbon). Because I have 12 college credits and not 15 I went in Private, but I don't expect to stay on the bottom for long. I'm almost certainly getting a meritorious PFC soon and I expect to get a meritorious Lance Corporal before I'm out of my MOS school.

Yes, Marines are.... Confident.

So, let me get this straight. From your description, you did not actually hit Mount Mother (during your Camp Pendleton Field training). Is that correct? Marines these days. Don't know what they're coming too.

330/350 for the Range... Not bad at all.

They broke it in the first week or two then put it back together in Marine fashion.

As an Air Force vet I highly encourage this, as it keeps letting me send the officers out to get shot at while I worked on computers back here stateside.

Maybe it's because my whole family who served did so as Enlisted, but it always struck me as the Air Force having a great idea of sending the Officers to go out and get shot while the Enlisted stayed behind and were fairly safe as almost-REMFs.

Welcome back!

Rear echelon for life mutha fragger! Nothing like sitting in an NBC filtered tech wagon with the PS3 and the kettle on.

Oh and welcome back, grats and Carpe Vinum!

Mount Mother is (or has been moved to?) in SOI. I'll be hitting it in MCT in a couple weeks.

It's curious the number of soldiers who frequent these boards.

On a related note, every Marine I've ever met has been legitimately insane.

~Umi

Considering the number of soldiers that RPG, not really. My FLGS is a military hangout, which is how it was able to start selling quality army surplus.

half of my group of buddies is either active or former military . .

Curious, not inconceivable. As in, it piques one's curiosity. Or at least mine.

I guess if I hung out with soldiers, I'd already know what rough percentages of them play tabletop RPGs, and it would no longer be curious. *shrug*

~Umi

Okay... SO, the small hill you talk about, was that trraining ground 2 or 3? Annoying, but not Mount Mother by any stretch.

That was not..... well, okay... maybe... Some of them anyways.

The Grim Reaper? That was the end of the Crucible, phase 3 right before Marine Week.

But we had the draft until two years ago

Paper and pencil RPGs are pretty environment-proof and portable entertainment, so maybe it shouldn't be a surprise that lots of military folks play, after all.

They also encourage thought, planning, teamwork, and innovation.

I remember hearing about one group that used different ammo types as minis for a AD&D game, and one day, a LMGer showed up without his Wizard 7.62mm NATO Tracer "Mini", "I had to fire him." was his response.

Gotcha...

... and the application of limited resources to solving tactical problems with minimal casualties.

as opposed to the other way... application of tactical resource to maximum casualties in limited timescale to solve ANY problem

Well, I meant "minimal casualties" on your side. Casualties on the other side, are a different matter entirely.

When it absolutely, positively has to be destroyed overnight...

Yeah, I kinda feel like I should be moderately alarmed at how hard it is to tell Shadowrunners and Marines apart.

~Umi

One is an insane, maniacal, fairly tight-knit group who shoot people in the face.

The other is Shadowrunners, who shoot people in the face for money and aren't so tight-knit.

Marines are definitely tight knit... as for those other wannabe's, well, Marines need something to practice on.

I'm told being in the Air Force is a lot like being in the military.

Oh, and welcome back and congratulation Neraph.

Not lying, I LOL'd.

Welcome back mate!

Indeed...

Hey, I wouldn't deny it. I also enjoyed my better quarters, air conditioning, and good food for my entire enlistment

I mean at least as far as most of us.

These days they do a little bit better in preparing the average airman for deployment at least.

Combat Controllers and Pararescue are just as badass as other special forces. We even had one in Transformers!

Regarding sending out Officers instead of Enlisted, let me put it this way - would you trust an Enlisted Marine with a multi-million dollar jet fighter?

The Marines exist to be economical. "An airstrike? Do you have any idea how expensive those are? Just round up a half dozen grunts, give them pointy sticks, and point them in the general direction of the bad guys. Enthusiasm will do the rest!"

The Air Force is the opposite. When a problem crops up, they throw money at it, then go play volley ball.

~Umi

Ehhh... Many ENLISTED MARINES are trusted with multi-million dollar peices of equipment, all the time. It isn't the Pilots who maintain that stuff, you know.
As for the rest, well, all it takes is a few motivated Grunts to change the world.

Plus it doesn't have to fly, to be worth multiple millions of dollars. And while an officer will usually be in charge of, say, a Tank ... in combat situations, the senior man aboard may not even be an NCO. But he's still going to fight that vehicle, if it's in any condition to BE fought (like if the officer was dumb enough to stick his head out of a hatch where a sniper could see him do it ...).

It's just a joke, guys. Relax.

~Umi

No worries... Just brings to mind what the Marines tend to call Air Force personnel.
At least when I was in, they were called Postal Workers (and in fact, I heard that again just recently from an Air Force comrade of mine). Mainly because of their uniforms.

Wing wipers is what I always heard.

Right before I changed the gunny's password so he could no longer teach his linguist class, but still.

I will give him this, he had a great joke: "Sure, the Marines are Department of the Navy.....the men's department."

Congratulations and enjoy the gas chamber at NBC school. Something about being locked in a room while they pump nerve gas into it as a "final exam" just gives me the creeps.