First-hand account of the Marines who took that... - freighter yesterday.

Post by **GORDON** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 8:18 pm

http://blog.usni.org/2010/09/10/the-magellan-star/

Good read. Takes me back.

These are just regular Marines, too. Not recon. They were, of course, tasked to be ready for this particular type of mission.

Post by **thibodeaux** » Sun Sep 12, 2010 1:25 pm

...to the Shore of Tripoli...

Post by **TheCatt** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 12:11 pm

Marines rescue to hostages in Somalia.

In the original article I read, all I could think was "did they kill the kidnappers?"

Fortunately, in this one, they give you the spoiler upfront

U.S. special forces swooped into Somalia in a pair of helicopters in a daring overnight raid to rescue two kidnapped aid workers -- an American and a Dane -- and killed the nine gunmen holding them, American officials said Wednesday.

Rock on.

Post by **Leisher** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 1:57 pm

The peeps in Somalia were SEALs, and apparently, special forces from other branches.

Post by **TheCatt** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 2:09 pm

Lol. Seals/Marines/Navy/Whatever - Same thing to me

Post by **Leisher** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 2:42 pm

Here's how it breaks down:

Air Force - Bombs the fuck out of the enemy and dominates the air. (Two special forces - Pararescue and Combat Controllers)

Navy - Shells enemy from the seas, and dominates the water. Also, transports Marines. (Special forces - SEALs)

Marines - Kills ground troops not shelled and bombed and stupid enough to still want to fight back. Pees on their corpses.

Army - Parades onto liberated/conquered soil and guards it.
(Special forces - Green Berets)

Post by **TheCatt** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 2:51 pm

So the marines are the only one without special forces? (Awaits Gordon's "Marines are all special forces" then awaits Leisher's comment on "special")

Post by **GORDON** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:05 pm

TheCatt wrote:So the marines are the only one without special forces? (Awaits Gordon's "Marines are all special forces" then awaits Leisher's comment on "special")

Marines have Force Recon, which are basically Marines with really expensive equipment.

Post by **Leisher** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:11 pm

No, I was actually trolling Cakedaddy with the Army thing.

We've actually had this discussion many times before, and we've teased him about the Army's role.

The truth is that in today's world, the Army really doesn't have a ton to do in terms of "war". Yes, they serve overseas in hot zones like everyone else, but their purpose is, thankfully, not needed at the moment.

And that purpose is being an "army". It's right there in the name.

They're geared more towards massive scale conflicts, which is why you don't hear about them a ton in these quick strikes.

Post by **TheCatt** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:20 pm

So Leisher, were you a marine or in what branch?

gordon = marine
cake = army

Post by **Leisher** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:21 pm

Air Force.

I golfed, drank, and womanized a lot.

Post by **thibodeaux** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:32 pm

Tangent alert....I was intrigued by Jerry Pournelle's thoughts on the missions of each of the branches (scroll down a bit til the typeface and text color change)
http://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/empire.html

One real problem here is "unification". That hasn't worked and doesn't work. Erecting the Air Force into a separate Service, and then making the Marines very nearly another independent Service was a foolish thing to do. It hasn't worked and it won't work. The roles, missions, and doctrines of an Army and a Navy are quite different. The Army was properly labeled the Department of War: it was for War, and for a republic War is War, sleeves rolled up, higher taxes, maximum effort, crush the infamous bastards who forced this peace-loving people to go to war. If they want War we'll give them WARRE, war to the knife, war to victory.

The Navy doesn't and shouldn't see it that way. The Navy's job is all those activities short of declared war. Protection of the sea lanes, extracting Americans from overseas riots, putting down uprisings against friendly governments (precisely what we ought to have done in Liberia during the Carter administration but we didn't). Traditionally the President has owned the Navy and Marines, and the Congress owns the Army.

So where does that leave the Air Force? Well, divided, with parts going to the Navy and War Departments of course. The real mission of an Air Force should be as a part of the field army or the fleet. Yes, it can project force beyond the littoral, timely interventions in places the Navy never could reach, but that's still Navy-like activity.

What is revealed in this analysis is that there is one obvious lump that doesn't fit: the Strategic Offensive Force, and that includes the nuclear missile submarines: the Armageddon Corps. These really aren't part of the traditional mechanisms of war. They aren't part of the Navy with its routine operations, showing the flag, rescuing ships, bombardment of coasts, landing parties, evacuating US and allied citizens from trouble spots, rapid operations like Lebanon in Eisenhower's time, and all the rest. That's what Navies are for in a Republic. Navies and Marines do the fighting when there's no declared War and if we need more force than that the Congress damned well ought to declare a War and tell us what victory means.

That's all assuming a Republic, of course.

Post by **Cakedaddy** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 4:08 pm

I was actually Army National Guard. We train the same, but I went home and to college instead of Germany. I had enough sense not to go full time Army. If I was going to go full time anything, it would have been Air Force. I just wanted my tuition paid.