Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Marine Corps says snipers posted with Nazi SS symbol in Afghanistan
Fox News ^ | February 10th, 2012 | Fox News

Posted on 02/10/2012 4:37:35 AM PST by KantianBurke

SAN DIEGO – The Marine Corps on Thursday once again did damage control after a photograph surfaced of a sniper team in Afghanistan posing in front of a flag with a logo resembling that of the notorious Nazi SS -- a special unit that murdered millions of Jews, gypsies and others. The Corps said in a statement that using the symbol was not acceptable, but the Marines in the photograph taken in September 2010 will not be disciplined because investigators determined it was a naive mistake. The Marines believed the SS symbol was meant to represent sniper scouts and never intended to be associated with a racist organization, said Maj. Gabrielle Chapin, a spokeswoman at Camp Pendleton, where the Marines were based.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, headquartered in Los Angeles, said he does not buy the explanation that posing with the flag was an innocent mistake and insisted the American public has a right to know what happened.

"If you look at any book on the Nazi period, this is the dreaded symbol of the SS, and to have a Marine Corps unit adopt it and put it beside the American flag when 200,000 Americans died to free the world of that dreaded symbol is just beyond the pale," he said.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; marines; ss
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 241-245 next last
To: greatvikingone

“People need to get their panties out of a wad about symbols”

Considering such a symbol was responsible for the murders of millions of innocent people and the combat deaths of thousands of American GI’s, its use was and is unacceptable.


21 posted on 02/10/2012 5:12:45 AM PST by KantianBurke (Where was the Tea Party when Dubya was spending like a drunken sailor?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: KantianBurke

Given the lack of knowledge about history by today’s youth, I think these guys were indeed clueless.......


22 posted on 02/10/2012 5:13:35 AM PST by Hot Tabasco (The only solution to this primary is a shoot out! Last person standing picks the candidate)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Vigilantcitizen
For comparison:

Most of them, maybe all, simply didn’t know, I guess.

23 posted on 02/10/2012 5:13:45 AM PST by cartan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: cartan

I was going to say, it does indeed look like the Siegrune to me.


24 posted on 02/10/2012 5:16:44 AM PST by Ronin (VOTE NEWT! He's Not Romney! Huh? He did?? Scratch that! GO SANTORUM!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Hot Tabasco
I think these guys were indeed clueless

After just seeing that flag, I guess I'm clueless too because I've never seen it before...........

25 posted on 02/10/2012 5:18:15 AM PST by Hot Tabasco (The only solution to this primary is a shoot out! Last person standing picks the candidate)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: KantianBurke
Anyone with a modest grade school education or even a passing interest in military history ought to know exactly what that symbol means.


26 posted on 02/10/2012 5:18:38 AM PST by andy58-in-nh (America does not need to be organized: it needs to be liberated.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Vigilantcitizen; KantianBurke
Looks just like the S’s in the KISS logo. http://rockenestadopuro.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/kiss-logo.jpg

KISS logo: Frehley created the now-iconic logo, making the "SS" look like lightning bolts, when he went to write the new band name over Wicked Lester on a poster outside the club where they were going to play.[20] The runic letters happened to look similar to the insignia of the Nazi SS, a symbol that is now illegal to display in Germany. Therefore, to avoid controversy, since 1979 most of the band's album covers and merchandise in Germany have used a modified version of the logo instead, with the SS represented by two backwards Zs.

Image of the Schutzstaffel (SS):


27 posted on 02/10/2012 5:18:58 AM PST by spetznaz (Nuclear-tipped Ballistic Missiles: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Vigilantcitizen

If only it did!

That KISS font is easy to find - and that would have made a good explanation. But the KISS “S” is much thinner in the horizontal element.


28 posted on 02/10/2012 5:20:59 AM PST by 2ndamendmentpa
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: urbanpovertylawcenter

The Swastika is NOT an evil symbol. It's been used for centuries on the Indian subcontinent as a sign of good fortune and wealth. Hilter canted the swastika 45 degrees which is a big difference from the usage across southern Asia.

Wikipedia: Swastika

29 posted on 02/10/2012 5:21:11 AM PST by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: KantianBurke

Sorry..these guys messed up. SS Runes have no place in the US military.
But if they had a Hammer and Sickle they would have been made part of Obamas Army.


30 posted on 02/10/2012 5:21:18 AM PST by Yorlik803 (better to die on your feet than live on your knees.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: KantianBurke

Stupid fail.

Double Sig runes will always be looked at as “SS”. Or for at least another generation or so. They knew what it was, and that it would be viewed as “bad a$$”.

Send them to bed without ice cream and put a Sioux warrior on the flag instead.


31 posted on 02/10/2012 5:26:59 AM PST by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: rarestia

Theres a whole bunch or Rudyard Kipling books that have the swastika on the cover - published before the Nazis ruined the poor swastikas reputation.


32 posted on 02/10/2012 5:28:13 AM PST by 2ndamendmentpa
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: KantianBurke

Is there ANYTHING AT ALL over which some dweeb SOMEWHERE won’t take offense these days?

People these days have their noses so far up everyone ELSE’S butts nowadays that it’s amazing anyone at all can see what the heck they’re doing with their OWN lives.


33 posted on 02/10/2012 5:31:27 AM PST by Jack Hammer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KantianBurke

I am willing to believe that this was an ignorant mistake...Looks like the Corps has handled it correctly...Why use a lame Nazi looking symbol when the Marine Corps has the Eagle,Globe,and Anchor?

Just for fun, Google “45th infantry patch”


34 posted on 02/10/2012 5:31:27 AM PST by VoyagerXII
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KantianBurke
The Marines believed the SS symbol was meant to represent sniper scouts

History (among other things)is not being taught in our schools....

35 posted on 02/10/2012 5:31:37 AM PST by Feckless (I was trained by the US << This Tagline Censored by FR >> ain't that irOnic?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Comment #36 Removed by Moderator

To: KantianBurke
I just do not get the current crop of GI’s and the ignorance of shooting themselves in the foot with a damn camera.
37 posted on 02/10/2012 5:34:50 AM PST by org.whodat (Sorry bill, I should never have made all those jokes about you and Lewinsky, have fun.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cartan
I am 57 and consider myself well educated. I know what a swastika looks like, but had to look up the symbol for the SS (Schutzstaffel -had to look the name up as well).
from wiki:


Men that age might associate those 2 letters with Kiss (as mentioned above) than anything else. Not a smart move by any stretch of the imagination. I would tend to take them at their word (SS = Sniper Scouts). I do not think it was meant to glorify the ideals of Nazi Germany. IOW, a crime of stupidity. I strongly agree the symbol has no place in our military.

38 posted on 02/10/2012 5:37:24 AM PST by Protect the Bill of Rights
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: McGruff

Wrong, http://www.historicalflags.biz/nazi_flags.htm


39 posted on 02/10/2012 5:38:26 AM PST by org.whodat (Sorry bill, I should never have made all those jokes about you and Lewinsky, have fun.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: org.whodat

...time to broaden the scope of “loose lips sink ships”!


40 posted on 02/10/2012 5:38:34 AM PST by 2ndamendmentpa
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 241-245 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson