Posted on 04/15/2014 2:29:59 PM PDT by BBell
As awful as war is, it has a way of bonding people. Once you've dragged a bleeding dude to safety or slowly walked away from an explosion together, well, nobody can take that away from you. We'd imagine that goes double for these guys, who found themselves having to pretty much fight the g$*&@#^%d battle themselves.
(Excerpt) Read more at cracked.com ...
American Heroes. You can’t take an American serviceman anywhere without him wanting to mess your whole day up.
No wonder the Germans called the Marines “devil dogs” after reading these stories.
Fun nonetheless.
I wonder what the psychology is behind the forced and mandatory use of obscenities, by Cracked?
That story about “Devil Dogs” seems to have been made up.
Later in life,SGT Maynard Smith would go around to schools and give a talk about his exploits during the war.From all accounts the language was all cleaned up(no kidding)The kids loved it.I bet that most kids remember his talk to their class.BTW, the sec of war was Henry L. Stimpson in the photo and I think he looked creepy too.
I was able to meet SGT Maynard “Snuffy” Smith when going through Basic Boom Operator Flight School at Castle AFB in 1979. He was one of the few Medal of Honor winners who insisted on being saluted and not one of the Boomer or Tail Gunner students had a problem with that especially when we received the briefing on his exploits on his first and only combat mission. I am a little guy at 5’4” and was actually able to look down on the frail aging hero when I was allowed my turn to shake his hand and received my basic aircrew wings from him. No wonder he was assigned as a ball turret gunner. When he gave his talk with us he mentioned that he was always in trouble and spent a lot of time peeling potatoes until his big day. I still have the picture the school house took of me shaking his hand and the set of wings rests in my Air Force retirement shadow box as one of my prized possessions.
They sure seem to require filthy language,but
every so often have pretty good articles.
Good one here about some really brave guys.Lucky too.
Had one yesterday about how deadly space travel
can be.Things like kidney stones because of bone loss.
I find it too difficult to work through their deliberate childishness, I only got through the first one on this, skimmed a little more, and then gave up.
As a Marine I was going to tell you that you are full of it but I decided to research it and it looks as though the "Devil Dog" story may be made up. In boot camp and on it was given to us as fact but this would not be the first thing that was given to us as fact that turned out to be not so factual.
You should hear about the Marine’s famous Windtalkers, the Indian radio operators of WWII.
That is another interesting tale that the public could stand to learn a little more about.
Here is some info on the invisible Windtalkers of two World Wars, and in all theaters.
“” The name code talkers is strongly associated with bilingual Navajo speakers specially recruited during World War II by the Marines to serve in their standard communications units in the Pacific Theater. Code talking, however, was pioneered by Choctaw Indians serving in the U.S. Army during World War I. These soldiers are referred to as Choctaw code talkers.
Other Native American code talkers were deployed by the United States Army during World War II, including Cherokee, Choctaw, Lakota Meskwaki, and Comanche soldiers. Soldiers of Basque ancestry were used for code talking by the U.S. Marines during World War II in areas where other Basque speakers were not expected to be operating.””
World War I
In France during World War I, the 142nd Infantry Regiment, 36th Division, had a company of Indians who spoke 26 languages and dialects. Two Indian officers were selected to supervise a communications system staffed by 18 Choctaw. The team transmitted messages relating to troop movements and their own tactical plans in their native tongue. Soldiers from other tribes, including the Cheyenne, Comanche, Cherokee, Osage and Yankton Sioux also were enlisted to communicate as code talkers. Previous to their arrival in France, the Germans had broken every American code used, resulting in the deaths of many Soldiers. However, the Germans never broke the Indians’ “code,” and these Soldiers became affectionately known as “code talkers.”
World War II
During World War II, the Army used Indians in its signal communications operations in both the European and Pacific theaters of operations. Student code talkers were instructed in basic military communications techniques. The code talkers then developed their own words for military terms that never existed in their own native tongue. For instance, the world for “colonel” was translated to “silver eagle,” “fighter plane” became “hummingbird,” “minesweeper” became “beaver,” “half-track” became “race track,” and “pyrotechnic” became “fancy fire.”
The Army and Marine Corps used a group of 24 Navajo code talkers in the Pacific Theater, who fought in the many bloody island campaigns. In North Africa, eight Soldiers from the Meskwaki tribe in Iowa served as code talkers in the 168th Infantry Regiment, 34th Division. In Europe, the 4th Signal Company, 4th Infantry Division, was assigned 17 Comanche code talkers. From the D-Day landings at Normandy in June 1944, to the liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Bulge, they kept the lines of communications secure.
Soldiers from other tribes, including the Kiowa, Winnebago, Chippewa, Creek, Seminole, Hopi, Lakota, Dakota, Menominee, Oneida, Pawnee, Sac, Fox and Choctaw served during the war. Some were killed and wounded and at least one was taken prisoner. As a testament to their professionalism, the enemy was never able to break the code talkers’ communications.
Now that is awesome.Good for you.
I don’t believe a word of that story about “devil dogs” originating from a WWI recruiting poster with a bull dog chasing a dachshund. The Germans were big on lore even during Hitler’s time. You just have to look at the propaganda videos and the Black Sun mythology to know that. A “Hell hound” may have been myth but it sure doesn’t promote fear with a dachshund or bulldog used as an example. I did a tin painting of snoopy on a dog house many years ago for my squadron, I’m sure that’s a legend too. I read another article too from this source about the blood stripe on Marine trousers not originating from the battle of Chapultepec. I don’t believe that one either. Anyone betting before Obama exits stage left the blood stripe on their trousers will be replaced with a rainbow stripe.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.