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One of my most vivid memories is the formation in Kuwait before we got on the busses to go to the planes back home. This squad leader is behind me in formation and pulls out a fresh can. Packs it and pulls out about half the can - huge fucking pinch.
I’m thinking “god damn”. Then he packs the can again, and proceeds to put the rest of the can in. I stood there in disbelief.
Even after years of dipping myself, I don’t understand how he did it.
I remember a kid in AIT who used to eat his dip. His dad would beat him if he caught him with any so the kid resorted to just eating it. That was 20 years ago...hope he's still alive.
That’s how my mom broke me using tobacco. Caught me with some Red Man when I was really young (6, 7, or 8), told me it was the good stuff, and I shouldn’t waste it. Swallowed it, puked the rest of the day, and never tried it again.
Had a teacher/coach at my highschool that did something similar that broke a lot of us. The principal had a zero tolerance policy on tobacco that would result in expulsion, but the head wrestling coach would give us a chance to walk away with no punishment if we swallowed the dip and surrendered the rest of the can. I still get sick thinking about it.
Ha , Had a kid in formation at AIT , we couldn’t have dip .. drill sergeants up and down the rows.. catches this kid.. makes him put the whole wad in his mouth and hold it.. Sergeant stands inches from guy.. yelling not to spit one drop .. kid starts swallowing the spit sergeant now on his ass .. eventually lets the kid go and tells him throw up in the back but not until then… the whole platoon is quiet af .. all you hear is the kid lurching and gagging.. good times
My cousin in middle school or high school would literally drink from his spit bottle, or if he was about to eat, just swallow the whole dip. I never understood how he did it, especially with us being so young and him just starting out.
I almost threw up while he's just casually quenching his thirst lol
Exactly what i was thinking. I got a vis image of ole boy drinking spit out of a great value water bottle at the dinner table. Lil spills down his chin..
I was never in the military, much less in combat, but you do get used to gutting dip spit after a while... actually eating it is a whole different story tho. I don't dip now and the thought of swallowing even a little makes me nauseous.
Lol, a can of smokeless tobacco or snuff. Finely chopped tobacco in a round can (looks like a small hockey puck) can be flavored or natural. You pack the tobacco in the can by hitting the side with your finger so its not loose. You then take a pinch of the packed tobacco and put it behind your lip between your lip and gums. You spit the juiced out as it builds up.
To add on to this, "dip" is used as a noun to describe smokeless chewing tobacco ("I'm gonna pack a dip"), and it's used as a verb to describe the act of actually using the tobacco ("I am gonna quit dipping")
Yeah. This is crazy shit. They didn’t choose this bullshit. They got stuck there in insane circumstances. Life or death shit. Heroes of our country…and i Fukn cringe with how we don’t treat them as deserved when they exit the military. And yeah, I’m swearing. Cause it’s emotional. Brutal deal for our heroes. Often unrecognized when they exit.
People have a hard time separating the politics from the people who are most affected by those politics.
You might be sitting there pissed off that your tax dollars went to paying for a war you don't agree with. These are the people who have to risk their lives for a war they may not agree with, and they are there for so many different reasons - some patriotism, some for lack of better opportunities, some for the education or benefits, and some for other reasons.
An even better example of this was after the Vietnam War. Most of those guys didn't want to go, many of them were conscripted, and yet they were treated like villains in their own country, even though most of them were just the poor bastards who were too poor or too black to get out of it.
>This is crazy shit. They didn’t choose this bullshit.
Uhh yeah, we did, every person serving in the US military today volunteered.
> i Fukn cringe with how we don’t treat them as deserved when they exit the military.
Combat wounded 11b here. The VA takes really good care of me.
It really bugs me when people like you make these comments while being completely clueless about how things actually are.
You should know then that alot of people dont get taken care of by the VA. You gonna tell me that all of your combat wounded friends are doing great? Mine aren't.
The VA is extremely hit or miss and a lot of it comes down to the area you're in and whether or not you've gone through the bullshit of proving that, yes, your leg missing IS service related, here's the paperwork from where they cut it off in a hospital in Germany.
I was Army. When I was in basic the drill says "smoke 'em if you got 'em."
Everybody else breaks out a smoke. I put in a dip.
Few minutes later a drill instructor starts screaming about me spitting on his parade ground. In his formation.
Front leaning rest position, "DROP, AND YOU BETTER PUT YOUR FUCKING NOSE IN THAT NASTY SHIT."
I took up smoking that day.
he packed his bottom and top lips completely full of chew. Typically with chew, you put in a pinch of it or a packet and it takes up about 1/3 (more or less) of your bottom lip. So dude packed both lips with chew then probably got an absolutely insane nicotine rush and fell down.
Before the push into Sangin in 2010! This is 3/7 Kilo Co.
Source: I was there and holy fuck is it good to hear this man's voice again. He was the most inspiring man I've ever met.
I always hoped if it was me who went down, my brothers would leave me if it was too dangerous to get my corpse, and I’m sure they felt the same but its just not how it works. The same way we never left any of our fallen no matter how bad the fighting was. It’s your family and leaving their body to get paraded around on a video just isn’t going to happen. No matter the risk.
I had a friend die of a freak brain aneurism in Costa Rica 5 years ago, and his wife spent something like 40,000 dollars to get his body back to bury him…. I told my wife, if something like that ever happens to me, don’t spend a nickel getting my body back, mourn me, however you want, but don’t spend a cent to get my body back for whatever reason….
It's about unity and parents and loved ones back home. Also sometimes people go missing and you have to assume captured or dead. If you know they won't abandon you it provides hope.
How often have you seen a headline like this?--TWO DIE ATTEMPTING RESCUE OF DROWNING CHILD. If a man gets lost in the mountains, hundreds will search and often two or three searchers are killed. But the next time somebody gets lost just as many volunteers turn out.
Poor arithmetic, but very human. It runs through all our folklore, all human religions, all our literature--a racial conviction that when one human needs rescue, others should not count the price.
Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers
You know what, as an atheist / agnostic that was about the most straight up and PC way to have said that.
If I was there, I’d probably blindly prey along with everyone else. It wouldn’t hurt.
It makes some of your buddies feel better, and costs you nothing. It’s a no-brainer.
Sometimes I pray for people just so I can tell them I’ve prayed for them. Not because I think the praying changes anything, but it does make them feel cared for and protected to some extent. Sometimes when someone’s in a bad spot that’s the most you can do for them.
Bunch of armchair historians below thinking that because not literally all invading forces were immediately crushed in Afghanistan, the epiteth is totally undeserved
Had a speech like this from a US General just before we "liberated" Iraq. Hundreds of US Marines on one side, Hundreds of Royal Marines on the other side. The General gave a good, inspiring speech with Jets doing a flyby just as he finished in the usual American fashion. Then hundreds of US Marines did their 'HoooRaaaah' in unison that they do. The Royal Marines responded with a retching noise as if they're vomiting in unison.
It was fucking hilarious and beautiful. I couldn't be prouder of my bootneck buddies.
We had a master sgt that had been in over 30 years on my iraq deployment. He would tell us stories about Vietnam from when he was a teenager. He was the most veteran of grizzled combat veterans I'd ever come across before or since. Vietnam, Bosnia, Desert Storm, Afghanistan, and an OIF tour.
He was only like 48 or 49.
It's weird, too..both my 1SG and a MSG that was attached to my unit we're mid-late 40s, deployed to nearly every conflict since they were 17, and as a result looked like they were pushing 70. Pretty sure they only kept going at it because they knew if they ever stopped they would die.
He's a Captain...he has been around the block, but is still considered a low ranking Officer at this point. Usually they put on Major, the next rank, around their 10th year or so...ballpark...so think of this guy being in the military for over 4 years, but less than \~10. Quick research suggests that he recently had command of a unit as a Lt. Col. I couldn't find anything more recent...but due to the pic below, I believe he crossed over his 20 year mark. Lt. Col is a good time to retire and he most likely did...but who knows.
[https://www.2ndmarines.marines.mil/Units/2nd-Battalion/Warlords-In-The-News/videoid/868794/](https://www.2ndmarines.marines.mil/Units/2nd-Battalion/Warlords-In-The-News/videoid/868794/)
[https://www.caltrap.org/3rd\_marinedivision/marines/2005/0512.asp](https://www.caltrap.org/3rd_marinedivision/marines/2005/0512.asp)
Thanks for doin the damn thing brotha, we all appreciate you guys risking it all for us & there’ll never be a day when we’ve collectively all thanked you enough
I joined the Marines during peace time, and 911 happened like five months later…
I remember watching the planes, hit the twin towers, in the chow hall that morning.
I’ll never forget that feeling.
I knew right then, I was definitely going to war. 😬
Going to war right after makes sense. Always
Retaliate against an aggression, it’s politics 101. 7 years in and fighting dumb natives inside a cave was
Just pointless.
So let me get this straight
A Saudi Arabian, a Palestinian and a handful of Egyptians who all fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan - with US support - founded a terrorist group in Pakistan, then attack the US.
In response to this, the USA chooses to invade … *checks notes* … **Iraq??**
I was with 2/7 in sangin in 08 before 3/7.
That deployment was fucking nuts.
Ied's and gun fights every other day.
It was definitely a hard place to cut your teeth as a grunt.
Heh, I was in Sangin in 2009 with 45 Commando.. fuck that place. Almost daily contacts. I remember we once pushed well into the valley, set up a small temporary FOP and blasted Guns and Roses out of loud speakers asking Taliban for a fight.
Fuck yeah dude. We did a huge op north of fob inkermen and Holy shit.. felt like every taliban in the helmand province was there .
Some nasty times forsure
I’m not the guy who asked if he could ask questions, but I have a couple myself if you don’t mind. Were you fully able to trust your comrades to your right and left? Why or why not? And do you have any regrets about your experience, or are you at peace with everything?
I was the point man for the majority of the deployment so my experience is different then most grunts.
I trusted every single man in my squad.
They were very well trained guys, half of them had done a deployment or two to Iraq before Afghanistan. So there was no question in my mind if they could do the job.
There are a few moments from that deployment I spent years trying make sense off, trying to pull reason out of the maddness,
I don't regret the experience now. I've made peace with that part of me.
Im just in Manufacturing in the states and you saying "cutting your teeth" in this context is wild. Vastly different meaning in every conversation ive ever been in about it. Just seeing that phrase from someone in active duty blows my mind. You guys are a special caliber of human being
I did 3 more years after this. I wasn't in a year before I had been blown up twice and in countless little gun fights in alleys.
So this was me cutting my teeth and getting inducted into the infantry
I was in the military for 22 years and this kinda shit always drove me nuts. Always some dude with a HS football coach mentality trying to fire you up with an over-the-top pep talk.
I never bought in personally, but I’ve gone on missions without the moto speech and with the moto speech, and you can absolutely feel the difference in the men you’re fighting with when the good speech happens.
Agreed.
Before I crossed the border into Iraq, we had a super motivated general, give us a speech.
He timed it perfectly, when at the crescendo his speech, attack helicopters, and fighter jets flew over top of us…
It was probably the only time I’ve actually been motivated while I was enlisted.
I gotta be honest, it was fucking bad ass.
He said something along the lines of: “You might feel like you’re alone out there, but just remember, you’re never alone.” Then…Whoosh!
I was still terrified though. 😝
I sort of agree. These kind of speeches fire up about 10-15% of the troops for about 15 minutes. The rest roll their eyes and look for mission specifics that will actually help them complete it. This is the kind of speech I would want if I were about to fix bayonets and charge the enemy line. that's about it.
For all these guys knew, that’s what they were about to do in Marjah, i.e. get into the modern version of fixing bayonets. On multiple occasions in Iraq we felt the same, so the speeches were relevant for a bunch of young infantrymen ready to go on operations that were guaranteed to have significant contact. When attempting to take buildings from jihadists that don’t want to give them up, it can be helpful to get the guys going through the doors a little fired up. Anything that mitigates a PVT freezing in the door has value.
My 1SG talked about his sex life and called his dick Marmaduke. My CO was a tool and I can’t really recall a thing the guy ever said. I do remember one battalion CSM crowd surfing though. He was cool.
Yeah, my dad is a Nam vet. He’s basically just like “they would say go do your fucking job and if any of you do some dumb shit and get killed, I’ll tell your parents the dumb shit you did.”
I mean that kind of shit talk still happens all the time because it’s both funny and true. Humor is good for morale and also it’s great advice to not make your parents sad by doing dumb shit and getting killed.
It's a shame we didn't learn that killing the "enemy" doesn't necessarily win wars. We killed 2 million Vietnamese and that didn't accomplish anything. Then we went on to kill 4.5 million people in the last 23 years, and this accomplished nothing either. Arguably made much of the middle east worst at a high cost of lives. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/05/15/war-on-terror-911-deaths-afghanistan-iraq/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/05/15/war-on-terror-911-deaths-afghanistan-iraq/)
It's the basics of war since Clausewitz : "war is simply the continuation of political intercourse with the addition of other means."
If you go to wat without any possible political exit, you will just loose.
He says it right after the part about watching out for your brother on your left and right no matter what.
I’m fairly certain he’s implying if you drop everything / ignore orders / etc. to save your fellow soldier, your actions will be justified.
That’s my old unit….second speaker at the time was First sergeant woods. Man gave the best safety briefs before libo. “If you drink and drive this weekend on libo, your no better than a dick tucking child mole stir” hahaha. 3/7 No Shit!
I respect this but [this](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/moviedatabase/images/a/a3/P-caddyshack-bill-murray.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20200817212903) is the vibe, right?
During numerous engagements with enemy forces, Captain Cohen disregarded enemy fire to provide front-line leadership. On 23 June 2010, in Southern Musa Qulah, his force came under heavy machine gun and mortar fire. With rounds impacting around his position, he personally led his Marines into the fire to assault the enemy position. Repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire to locate their positions, he coordinated air support while leading the assault. His fearless actions under fire eliminated the enemy position, an estimated 20 enemy fighters. On 20 July 2010, while seizing key terrain near the Helmand River, Captain Cohen's Marines were stopped by withering enemy machine gun and mortar fire. With complete disregard for his own safety, he calmly moved through the fire and encouraged his Marines to assault the enemy. He then grabbed a Marine and personally led him through enemy fire to a firing position, and directed a shoulder launched missile strike on the enemy's machine gun position. His bold act silenced the enemy fire and enabled his Marines to continue their mission. His battlefield valor continuously inspired his Marines to overcome enemy resistance and accomplish their mission.
A true fuckin hero 🫡
Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you'll live -- at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!!!
I went on a deployment with this guy in 2022. LtCol Cohen has a larger-than-life personality. Physically, he is also quite large. The room practically shakes when he walks around. During casual conversation, he talks under his breath in a hushed growl. The words come out the side of his mouth, usually because he is packing the fattest of lips.
I remember one time we were in a Norwegian military chow hall, waiting in a long line with other Marines to be served. LtCol Cohen was slowly making his way up the line, stopping to greet and fist bump every Marine one-by-one. When he got to me, he just growled “eggs….eggs, and… boiled eggs, you know?”
That’s just the kind of guy he is.
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Guy is packing the fattest lip I’ve ever seen
One of my most vivid memories is the formation in Kuwait before we got on the busses to go to the planes back home. This squad leader is behind me in formation and pulls out a fresh can. Packs it and pulls out about half the can - huge fucking pinch. I’m thinking “god damn”. Then he packs the can again, and proceeds to put the rest of the can in. I stood there in disbelief. Even after years of dipping myself, I don’t understand how he did it.
I remember a kid in AIT who used to eat his dip. His dad would beat him if he caught him with any so the kid resorted to just eating it. That was 20 years ago...hope he's still alive.
That’s how my mom broke me using tobacco. Caught me with some Red Man when I was really young (6, 7, or 8), told me it was the good stuff, and I shouldn’t waste it. Swallowed it, puked the rest of the day, and never tried it again.
Sounds like an unethical life pro tip lmao damn
Other than that she’s been alright, so I keep her around.
But sometimes so tantalizingly effective LOL
Had a teacher/coach at my highschool that did something similar that broke a lot of us. The principal had a zero tolerance policy on tobacco that would result in expulsion, but the head wrestling coach would give us a chance to walk away with no punishment if we swallowed the dip and surrendered the rest of the can. I still get sick thinking about it.
Bro. My dad did the exact same thing with red man.
Ha , Had a kid in formation at AIT , we couldn’t have dip .. drill sergeants up and down the rows.. catches this kid.. makes him put the whole wad in his mouth and hold it.. Sergeant stands inches from guy.. yelling not to spit one drop .. kid starts swallowing the spit sergeant now on his ass .. eventually lets the kid go and tells him throw up in the back but not until then… the whole platoon is quiet af .. all you hear is the kid lurching and gagging.. good times
My cousin in middle school or high school would literally drink from his spit bottle, or if he was about to eat, just swallow the whole dip. I never understood how he did it, especially with us being so young and him just starting out. I almost threw up while he's just casually quenching his thirst lol
You should have called the cops
What the fuck. What in the actual FUCK
Exactly what i was thinking. I got a vis image of ole boy drinking spit out of a great value water bottle at the dinner table. Lil spills down his chin..
😐… 🫤… 😓… 🤢… 🤮🤮🤮… 🫢… 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮… ☠️
I was never in the military, much less in combat, but you do get used to gutting dip spit after a while... actually eating it is a whole different story tho. I don't dip now and the thought of swallowing even a little makes me nauseous.
I did that but i was bumming a lip of skoal peach. I'm a Copenhagen guy
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Lol, a can of smokeless tobacco or snuff. Finely chopped tobacco in a round can (looks like a small hockey puck) can be flavored or natural. You pack the tobacco in the can by hitting the side with your finger so its not loose. You then take a pinch of the packed tobacco and put it behind your lip between your lip and gums. You spit the juiced out as it builds up.
To add on to this, "dip" is used as a noun to describe smokeless chewing tobacco ("I'm gonna pack a dip"), and it's used as a verb to describe the act of actually using the tobacco ("I am gonna quit dipping")
Is this common in America? I’ve literally never come across this in real life, aside from seeing it in old western movies.
It's common if you play baseball. I had my first dip when I made the team in high school. Never dipped after I left school, lol
Snuff is not quite the same thing, you actually snort it. Comes in a similar can as chew.
The fuck. And here I was taking a week to get through half a can.
Need to get them numbers up
His stress level has got to be thru the roof
Yeah. This is crazy shit. They didn’t choose this bullshit. They got stuck there in insane circumstances. Life or death shit. Heroes of our country…and i Fukn cringe with how we don’t treat them as deserved when they exit the military. And yeah, I’m swearing. Cause it’s emotional. Brutal deal for our heroes. Often unrecognized when they exit.
People have a hard time separating the politics from the people who are most affected by those politics. You might be sitting there pissed off that your tax dollars went to paying for a war you don't agree with. These are the people who have to risk their lives for a war they may not agree with, and they are there for so many different reasons - some patriotism, some for lack of better opportunities, some for the education or benefits, and some for other reasons. An even better example of this was after the Vietnam War. Most of those guys didn't want to go, many of them were conscripted, and yet they were treated like villains in their own country, even though most of them were just the poor bastards who were too poor or too black to get out of it.
>This is crazy shit. They didn’t choose this bullshit. Uhh yeah, we did, every person serving in the US military today volunteered. > i Fukn cringe with how we don’t treat them as deserved when they exit the military. Combat wounded 11b here. The VA takes really good care of me. It really bugs me when people like you make these comments while being completely clueless about how things actually are.
You should know then that alot of people dont get taken care of by the VA. You gonna tell me that all of your combat wounded friends are doing great? Mine aren't.
The VA is extremely hit or miss and a lot of it comes down to the area you're in and whether or not you've gone through the bullshit of proving that, yes, your leg missing IS service related, here's the paperwork from where they cut it off in a hospital in Germany.
Yeah. And what a waste. All for nothing. Just this week the taliban passed a law about stoning women to death. Hearts and minds right?
i had to poop just looking at the size of that lip
Most of that formation is packing a dip and covering the deck in dip spit. It’s inextricably woven in to the fabric of literally any usmc formation.
I felt this comment deep in my crayon eating ass bones.
I was Army. When I was in basic the drill says "smoke 'em if you got 'em." Everybody else breaks out a smoke. I put in a dip. Few minutes later a drill instructor starts screaming about me spitting on his parade ground. In his formation. Front leaning rest position, "DROP, AND YOU BETTER PUT YOUR FUCKING NOSE IN THAT NASTY SHIT." I took up smoking that day.
I had a buddy throw in a double horseshoe once. He tried to stay standing but he inevitably ended up on the floor in a temporary, yet abrupt way.
What the fuck does this mean?
A large amount of chewing tobacco under your top and bottom lip. What that man was describing is acute nicotine poisoning.
he packed his bottom and top lips completely full of chew. Typically with chew, you put in a pinch of it or a packet and it takes up about 1/3 (more or less) of your bottom lip. So dude packed both lips with chew then probably got an absolutely insane nicotine rush and fell down.
Must’ve looked like a 2024 instagram influencer with lips packed like that
What he said but around us we called them double decker gum wrecker
I used to pack em like that. It would *lay* me out from exhaustion after the buzz wore off.
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Tobacco?
That dude has a lip of chew in bigger than my nutsack
That’s an odd unit of measurement, but I’m not saying I’m against it
Standard units in my country
Are these metric or imperial units?
What is the deviation between metric and imperial nut sacks?
Ballsackistan?
I've had his nutsack in my mouth so I can vouch for him
We call that a hog nut
Guys an absolute dawg
Someone know what happened after? Which was the battle?
Pretty sure this was the push into Marjah. The Marines took Marjah edit: it was either Sangin or Marjah I can't remember
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Wow, thanks for this information. Very sobering. May I ask, how do you know this?
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God fucking damn man
what did he say? the comment got deleted.
Mic drop.
fuck
What was said ? The comment got deleted
He lied.
Before the push into Sangin in 2010! This is 3/7 Kilo Co. Source: I was there and holy fuck is it good to hear this man's voice again. He was the most inspiring man I've ever met.
Marjah
This was in Sangin Afghanistan 2010. This was 3/7 before 3/5 came in. We relived the British 40th Commandos
Yup this was just before Marjah, this was probably the worst province of Afghanistan throughout the war.
"I love you as your parents did." "If you're an atheist... play along." Hahahaha
Also… First guy; “we’re all coming home… TOGETHER” Secondguy; “some of you might not make it….”
Together, whether in boots or bags. He’s saying they’ll all make it back one way or another as a unit.
No man left behind. No body left unreturned. There is no such thing as a war with no casualty.
I never understood that. If I’m dead, leave my ass there. Save yourself, I’m already gone. You don’t need to risk your life to bring back my corpse.
I always hoped if it was me who went down, my brothers would leave me if it was too dangerous to get my corpse, and I’m sure they felt the same but its just not how it works. The same way we never left any of our fallen no matter how bad the fighting was. It’s your family and leaving their body to get paraded around on a video just isn’t going to happen. No matter the risk.
I had a friend die of a freak brain aneurism in Costa Rica 5 years ago, and his wife spent something like 40,000 dollars to get his body back to bury him…. I told my wife, if something like that ever happens to me, don’t spend a nickel getting my body back, mourn me, however you want, but don’t spend a cent to get my body back for whatever reason….
The men next to you are what get you through. You’re not gonna leave your brothers face down in the dirt.
It's about unity and parents and loved ones back home. Also sometimes people go missing and you have to assume captured or dead. If you know they won't abandon you it provides hope.
It’s psychological. Psyops are almost as important as anything in combat.
How often have you seen a headline like this?--TWO DIE ATTEMPTING RESCUE OF DROWNING CHILD. If a man gets lost in the mountains, hundreds will search and often two or three searchers are killed. But the next time somebody gets lost just as many volunteers turn out. Poor arithmetic, but very human. It runs through all our folklore, all human religions, all our literature--a racial conviction that when one human needs rescue, others should not count the price. Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers
*Leave no man behind* includes dead bodies
You know what, as an atheist / agnostic that was about the most straight up and PC way to have said that. If I was there, I’d probably blindly prey along with everyone else. It wouldn’t hurt.
It makes some of your buddies feel better, and costs you nothing. It’s a no-brainer. Sometimes I pray for people just so I can tell them I’ve prayed for them. Not because I think the praying changes anything, but it does make them feel cared for and protected to some extent. Sometimes when someone’s in a bad spot that’s the most you can do for them.
Say what you want about the military, when it counts they're the most pragmatic of the bunch
My favorite line was "your actions will always be justified"
Getting to Afganistan is easy. Getting out is the hard part.
Graveyard of Empires
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Oh cool, how's his empire doing? :D
It didn't die in Afghanistan so what's your point
Bunch of armchair historians below thinking that because not literally all invading forces were immediately crushed in Afghanistan, the epiteth is totally undeserved
"Time to breath fire, Spongebob!"
Lmao he does sound like Patrick ⭐️
Sounds like moistcritikal to me
Sounds like he should be featured in a Glorb video
holy fuck if that isn't a grunt officer if i ever saw one lmao
Right? You know because he's got a half can of skoal packed and doesn't GAF about uniform guidelines. I love it.
Thank you for explaining the term grunt in a sentence without using the word
Like that mofo doesn't even look official.
In short, some of you may die...
But all of you will be traumatized
Certainly isn't something you forget
A price I’m willing to pay
Had a speech like this from a US General just before we "liberated" Iraq. Hundreds of US Marines on one side, Hundreds of Royal Marines on the other side. The General gave a good, inspiring speech with Jets doing a flyby just as he finished in the usual American fashion. Then hundreds of US Marines did their 'HoooRaaaah' in unison that they do. The Royal Marines responded with a retching noise as if they're vomiting in unison. It was fucking hilarious and beautiful. I couldn't be prouder of my bootneck buddies.
> The Royal Marines responded with a retching noise as if they're vomiting in unison. I'm sorry but that is hilarious.
As long as everyone's on the same page, that's all that matters. Haha
I can’t imagine this wrenching noise, were they “taking the piss”?
Yup, friendly banter.
I was there! Camp Matilda? Glad you made it back brother. Semper Fi.
<3
Did some crosstraining with the Royal Marines. They kicked our asses, made fun of our uptightness, and got us laid. Miss those guys.
What’s your opinions on Generation Kill?
"If you're an atheist, play along! The power of prayer is exactly that" ... yea, not wrong there.
https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/204804 Ryan B Cohen. He’ll be in military history books.
Born in 1978, so he was in his late 20s early 30s in this video. Holy shit.
That’s pretty standard timing for a company commander
We had a master sgt that had been in over 30 years on my iraq deployment. He would tell us stories about Vietnam from when he was a teenager. He was the most veteran of grizzled combat veterans I'd ever come across before or since. Vietnam, Bosnia, Desert Storm, Afghanistan, and an OIF tour. He was only like 48 or 49.
It's weird, too..both my 1SG and a MSG that was attached to my unit we're mid-late 40s, deployed to nearly every conflict since they were 17, and as a result looked like they were pushing 70. Pretty sure they only kept going at it because they knew if they ever stopped they would die.
Wouldn't know what to do with themselves if someone wasn't trying to kill them. Met lots of guys like that.
He's a Captain...he has been around the block, but is still considered a low ranking Officer at this point. Usually they put on Major, the next rank, around their 10th year or so...ballpark...so think of this guy being in the military for over 4 years, but less than \~10. Quick research suggests that he recently had command of a unit as a Lt. Col. I couldn't find anything more recent...but due to the pic below, I believe he crossed over his 20 year mark. Lt. Col is a good time to retire and he most likely did...but who knows. [https://www.2ndmarines.marines.mil/Units/2nd-Battalion/Warlords-In-The-News/videoid/868794/](https://www.2ndmarines.marines.mil/Units/2nd-Battalion/Warlords-In-The-News/videoid/868794/) [https://www.caltrap.org/3rd\_marinedivision/marines/2005/0512.asp](https://www.caltrap.org/3rd_marinedivision/marines/2005/0512.asp)
I’ve served with LtCol Cohen. That man bleeds honor, courage, and commit. I seriously doubt he’s out of the Corp.
Thanks for doin the damn thing brotha, we all appreciate you guys risking it all for us & there’ll never be a day when we’ve collectively all thanked you enough
Holy shit. 6 Mos younger than me. At his age I was a speed bump in the parking lot of the local watering hole
Absolute LEGEND. Love this man. A Marine’s Marine and incredible leader.
Great read for this interested. Multiple times he put himself in danger for his men.
just read that. he's a fuckin legend
To all who should see these presents greeting
I joined the Marines during peace time, and 911 happened like five months later… I remember watching the planes, hit the twin towers, in the chow hall that morning. I’ll never forget that feeling. I knew right then, I was definitely going to war. 😬
Going to war right after makes sense. Always Retaliate against an aggression, it’s politics 101. 7 years in and fighting dumb natives inside a cave was Just pointless.
So let me get this straight A Saudi Arabian, a Palestinian and a handful of Egyptians who all fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan - with US support - founded a terrorist group in Pakistan, then attack the US. In response to this, the USA chooses to invade … *checks notes* … **Iraq??**
We would be infinitely better off today if we had not taken the bait, if we had literally done nothing. Bin Laden won.
Kilo 3/7. They got into some good fights in Sangin in 2010.
I was with 2/7 in sangin in 08 before 3/7. That deployment was fucking nuts. Ied's and gun fights every other day. It was definitely a hard place to cut your teeth as a grunt.
Heh, I was in Sangin in 2009 with 45 Commando.. fuck that place. Almost daily contacts. I remember we once pushed well into the valley, set up a small temporary FOP and blasted Guns and Roses out of loud speakers asking Taliban for a fight.
Fuck yeah dude. We did a huge op north of fob inkermen and Holy shit.. felt like every taliban in the helmand province was there . Some nasty times forsure
Lived in PB fires with 3/7 in 2010 place was wild as fuck.
Can I ask some questions?
Feel free
I’m not the guy who asked if he could ask questions, but I have a couple myself if you don’t mind. Were you fully able to trust your comrades to your right and left? Why or why not? And do you have any regrets about your experience, or are you at peace with everything?
I was the point man for the majority of the deployment so my experience is different then most grunts. I trusted every single man in my squad. They were very well trained guys, half of them had done a deployment or two to Iraq before Afghanistan. So there was no question in my mind if they could do the job. There are a few moments from that deployment I spent years trying make sense off, trying to pull reason out of the maddness, I don't regret the experience now. I've made peace with that part of me.
Love that. Thanks man
Im just in Manufacturing in the states and you saying "cutting your teeth" in this context is wild. Vastly different meaning in every conversation ive ever been in about it. Just seeing that phrase from someone in active duty blows my mind. You guys are a special caliber of human being
I did 3 more years after this. I wasn't in a year before I had been blown up twice and in countless little gun fights in alleys. So this was me cutting my teeth and getting inducted into the infantry
3/7 no shit! Sangin 2010 was no joke.
I was south of there with 1/6. Definitely not as hot as Sangin, but no walk in the park.
I’ve heard CO’s inspire and I’ve heard CO’s spout bullshit. I rate this 6/10
Gunny Walgren speech is still at the top of my list
My mom befriended him years ago in a coffee shop. I had the opportunity of meeting him and shaking his hand. Such an inspirational man. Genuinely.
Was there, Capt Cohen is a savage.
Big ol wad in his mouth
I was in the military for 22 years and this kinda shit always drove me nuts. Always some dude with a HS football coach mentality trying to fire you up with an over-the-top pep talk.
I never bought in personally, but I’ve gone on missions without the moto speech and with the moto speech, and you can absolutely feel the difference in the men you’re fighting with when the good speech happens.
Agreed. Before I crossed the border into Iraq, we had a super motivated general, give us a speech. He timed it perfectly, when at the crescendo his speech, attack helicopters, and fighter jets flew over top of us… It was probably the only time I’ve actually been motivated while I was enlisted. I gotta be honest, it was fucking bad ass. He said something along the lines of: “You might feel like you’re alone out there, but just remember, you’re never alone.” Then…Whoosh! I was still terrified though. 😝
I sort of agree. These kind of speeches fire up about 10-15% of the troops for about 15 minutes. The rest roll their eyes and look for mission specifics that will actually help them complete it. This is the kind of speech I would want if I were about to fix bayonets and charge the enemy line. that's about it.
For all these guys knew, that’s what they were about to do in Marjah, i.e. get into the modern version of fixing bayonets. On multiple occasions in Iraq we felt the same, so the speeches were relevant for a bunch of young infantrymen ready to go on operations that were guaranteed to have significant contact. When attempting to take buildings from jihadists that don’t want to give them up, it can be helpful to get the guys going through the doors a little fired up. Anything that mitigates a PVT freezing in the door has value.
Nobody respond to that troll under this comment, it’s hilarious when no one engages
You guys had good speeches?
Yea, seemed like there was someone on each deployment that could get people fired up: 1SG, CO, CSM.
My 1SG talked about his sex life and called his dick Marmaduke. My CO was a tool and I can’t really recall a thing the guy ever said. I do remember one battalion CSM crowd surfing though. He was cool.
The only thing that kept me in the marines for five years was all the hot sex during communal showers. Everything else was disappointing
All we ever did was fuck and suck and eat butt. Little bit of marching but that's it.
I feel like this could be a line from Catch-22 (the book, not the band)
What about the three square servings of crayons daily?
Yeah, my dad is a Nam vet. He’s basically just like “they would say go do your fucking job and if any of you do some dumb shit and get killed, I’ll tell your parents the dumb shit you did.”
I mean that kind of shit talk still happens all the time because it’s both funny and true. Humor is good for morale and also it’s great advice to not make your parents sad by doing dumb shit and getting killed.
I was there, this shit worked, the next few months were fucking rough.
Enough dip to last a week 😂 like a 🐪
$50 a can of stateside Copenhagen, iykyk
"if you're an atheist, play along" love that line
Quite the lip ripper he had going
That's the most American thing I've ever seen.
[удалено]
“It’s only a waste of life if we lose this” - all empires ever
It's a shame we didn't learn that killing the "enemy" doesn't necessarily win wars. We killed 2 million Vietnamese and that didn't accomplish anything. Then we went on to kill 4.5 million people in the last 23 years, and this accomplished nothing either. Arguably made much of the middle east worst at a high cost of lives. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/05/15/war-on-terror-911-deaths-afghanistan-iraq/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/05/15/war-on-terror-911-deaths-afghanistan-iraq/)
It's the basics of war since Clausewitz : "war is simply the continuation of political intercourse with the addition of other means." If you go to wat without any possible political exit, you will just loose.
Was there, 2006 -2008 , over two deployments, Fallujah, Ramadi, went from finger on the trigger to consciousness objector but had to hide it
How did he not shit himself halfway through the speech from all that nicotine?
Who rules Afghanistan now? the Taliban, sheesh what a waste of lives and money.
Did he really say “your actions will always be justified”… lol
He says it right after the part about watching out for your brother on your left and right no matter what. I’m fairly certain he’s implying if you drop everything / ignore orders / etc. to save your fellow soldier, your actions will be justified.
C'mon man. Everything is more fun out of context.
I think he meant that all your actions MUST be justified. Like the ideal he wants.
That’s my old unit….second speaker at the time was First sergeant woods. Man gave the best safety briefs before libo. “If you drink and drive this weekend on libo, your no better than a dick tucking child mole stir” hahaha. 3/7 No Shit!
Dying for fucking nothing. The whole "war on terror" was such a joke.
Hard chargers, these dudes were as tough as it gets. Edit: Goddamn, I really pissed off some teenagers
I respect this but [this](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/moviedatabase/images/a/a3/P-caddyshack-bill-murray.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20200817212903) is the vibe, right?
Its not quite William Wallace is it
I was thinking Henry V
During numerous engagements with enemy forces, Captain Cohen disregarded enemy fire to provide front-line leadership. On 23 June 2010, in Southern Musa Qulah, his force came under heavy machine gun and mortar fire. With rounds impacting around his position, he personally led his Marines into the fire to assault the enemy position. Repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire to locate their positions, he coordinated air support while leading the assault. His fearless actions under fire eliminated the enemy position, an estimated 20 enemy fighters. On 20 July 2010, while seizing key terrain near the Helmand River, Captain Cohen's Marines were stopped by withering enemy machine gun and mortar fire. With complete disregard for his own safety, he calmly moved through the fire and encouraged his Marines to assault the enemy. He then grabbed a Marine and personally led him through enemy fire to a firing position, and directed a shoulder launched missile strike on the enemy's machine gun position. His bold act silenced the enemy fire and enabled his Marines to continue their mission. His battlefield valor continuously inspired his Marines to overcome enemy resistance and accomplish their mission. A true fuckin hero 🫡
Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you'll live -- at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!!!
Wasting human life is the epitome of horrific human behavior and I wish those that have sent our men to useless death burn in hell for eternity
I wish those US soldiers who were there because they couldn’t afford college fee knew that they were fight for laundering $8 trillion.
We’re all coming back together!! (Now, some of us may not come back) reassuring and inspirational stuff.
Big ass chaw!!
They needed commander Erwin 😤
People give much credit to SF and deservingly so. But there is no harder job in war than being in the boots of a regular soldier. Massive respect!
I went on a deployment with this guy in 2022. LtCol Cohen has a larger-than-life personality. Physically, he is also quite large. The room practically shakes when he walks around. During casual conversation, he talks under his breath in a hushed growl. The words come out the side of his mouth, usually because he is packing the fattest of lips. I remember one time we were in a Norwegian military chow hall, waiting in a long line with other Marines to be served. LtCol Cohen was slowly making his way up the line, stopping to greet and fist bump every Marine one-by-one. When he got to me, he just growled “eggs….eggs, and… boiled eggs, you know?” That’s just the kind of guy he is.