The Battle Of Belleau Wood

[crispy_critter]

An interesting fact:

-At the out set of the battle for Belleau Wood, the US Marines were downing enemy soldiers for 700+ yards with precision rifle fire. WOW! Of course, the show was about Marine sniping. What impressed all was that these were "ordinary" grunts.

[G392339]

Remember they were using the old Springfield 03s, I was taught with an 03 in boot back in 41, the one thing if you came off the firing line with a black eye you were firing correctly, the 03s were the most accurate weapon at any distance, we used them up on the Canal however after that we were issued the M-1s which was
an excellent piece, however nothing to compare with the old 01.
However each generation of Marine are taught they have to follow a tradition, in my time it was those heros of WWI, which was a hard tradition to follow. However you youngsters that followed us, also lived up to the tradition of the Corps. Semper Fi Gene

[mrbsox]

Every Marine knows the Quote:

"come on you S.O.B's, you want to live for ever"

The question is..... Did he mean,

come on, you've got to die sometime....

or

follow me and we'll make history together, and live forever

And so, the Marines continued to make history, and WE WILL LIVE FOREVER

G392339: Thanks for making history

Terry

[G392339]

When I was a boy back in the 20s I loved to go to the American
Legion Hall with my dad (Army) and listen to the Marines there
telling their stories about the famous battles in France in WWI,
when I was 17 I enlisted in the USMCR, however in those days,
money was tight and the Marine Corps was low man on the totem
pole when it was being distributed, we had only 12,000 reservists
and a regualar force of about 25,000. We had the hand-me-downs from the Army and no money for manuevers other than with the Natl.Guard, however that all changed when Europe went to war and our President, FDR couldnt wait to get us into the the
conflict, many of us still believe that FDR was fully aware of the
attack on Pearl and only sent the warning(by regular telegraph)
alerting them of the danger of attack. Sorry to take so much time
but when you get this old salt talking he doesnt know when to stop. Thanks for your Time Semper Fi Gene