On "Foxholes"

[gunnyg]

On The Term..."Foxhole"
by Dick G (Login Dick Gaines)
Forum Owner

Not long ago, the question came up regarding the term 'Foxholes,' and its origin.After much ado, no origin was found for the word/term, although there were many differing opinions, as always. (the origin of "fighting hole' also was mentioned)

The following is from the book, "The Marines-A History," by Edwin Howard Simmons, 1974, Naval Institute Press, 3dEdition, page 100....

"The brigade consolidated on the seventh, digging a line of shallow rifle pits. Someone called them 'foxholes' and the name stuck...The 7th US infantry, half-trained, came up on the night of 16 June, and filed into the random line of foxholes..."

(Note:
The above in regard to Belleau Wood, 1918. I have searched for the origin of 'foxhole,' having consulted numerous books, military history e-mail discussion groups, etc.--all to no avail--the above is the only mention on this topic that I have seen.)

-Dick Gaines
GyG's marines Sites & Forums

[montana]

I was informed while in bootcamp that foxholes where for hiding....something that Marines did not do....
there for we would dig fighting holes
was also told that the Army dug the fox holes...
who is gonna disagre with his DI???
not meeeee

[wrbones]

No doubt, Montana.

I wanna see that one kid hit boot, be called in to the duty hutch, jump on the SDI's desk and tell him how it's gonna be!

The way he tells it he got away with it at the recruiter's office!

Gunny, the only other reference Ive seen for the term fox-holes is also related to Belleau Woods. Similiar trenches and holes were being used by both sides during the second year of the Civil War. Everytime one army stopped hiking for a ten minute break on the road, they would start digging! The troops had learned what the generals hadn't. Rifled barrels on things that make noise and throw lead down range are deadly!

[DELTA2ALPHA]

When in ITR called----(fox hole)

When in Vietnam called --- (fighting hole)

When at Khe Sanh called--- Bunker (1st-Siege)

When at Khe Sanh called-- Rat Hole (2nd-Siege)
When at Khe Sanh- after(**** the army){VICTORY---MARINES WIN}

[DELTA2ALPHA]

Forgot to mention!!!


26th Marines Kick Ass!!

[DELTA2ALPHA]

AGAIN 26th Marines Kicked Some Ass

[firstsgtmike]

Marines ALWAYS kick ass.

And if you think they didn't do it the first time around, they make up for it on the rerun. (Marines learn, the dead enemy didn't.)

And in ITR it WAS called a "fighting hole".

I never knew what a foxhole was, until I saw an army war movie.

[gunnyg]

Let's face it, DIs, as noted, are like all Marines in general--passers of bum scoop, bull****ters, braggarts, etc. And this is obviously the medium as to how such erroneous information is perpetuated.

I'm talking old corps history here--not recent scuttlebutt, ill-perceived w/o ever having sought to separate the truth from the above.

As indicated by BGen Simmons in his remarks on the phony red NCO/officer stripes (bloodstripes), DIs have been the basis of passing on such bumscoop.

Semper Fidelis,
Dick G