(no subject)

[razorjak]

Army is officialing allowing tattoos now.

Yeah, the recruiters must be having a SERIOUSLY hard time with getting meat for the grinder. Before this, tattoos on the back of your neck or hands would bar one from enlisting. Now, not only can one enlist with such, soldiers can get them done as long as they are not ... " extremist, indecent, sexist or racist ".

Comments

[treebyleaf.livejournal.com]

So, nothing you learned from your drill sergeant, then?

[razorjak.livejournal.com]

Heh, both my drills were sexist, most definately. But the only racist thing either of my drills ever pulled was my samoan drill sergeant's reaction and attitude to the smaller of the two platoon fuckups.

The boy had the misfortune of being chinese/japanese descent and born in Hawaii. This wouldn't have been an issue if he'd not shown himself to be a total screwup from day one.

By the end of the first week, the sergeant told him that he would be dropped everytime he claimed to be hawaiian and not chinses/japanese. Because, "There is no hawaiian as ate-up as you, Lao! Now push!"

[montieth.livejournal.com]

Grinder? What grinder? Hill 112 was a tougher grinder. D-Day was a larger grinder. The Hurtgenwald was a big grinder. The Ost Front was a Massive Grinder for tree stumps.

Iraq/Afghanistan ain't a grinder. Perhaps a little tiny 8 ounce hammer.

[razorjak.livejournal.com]

I'm not talking about combat, man. You're a military history geek. You should know that recruits have been called "Meat for the grinder" for ages. Even during "peacetime service".

Last I checked, recruiters in EVERY region have been having a hard time filling their quotas. Moreso than ever.

[montieth.livejournal.com]

Wow, someone else I know was talking about a Samoan DI. Wonder if it was the same DI. I'm sure there's more than one out there though. Still, a big dark bad attitude that takes armor to push out of the way is all I can picture with a Samoan DI.

[jruske.livejournal.com]

Why does this make me think they just started heavily recruiting the prison population?

[razorjak.livejournal.com]

SFC Lavay Lavay Jr. Man was so big that he couldn't roll his BDU sleeves. he had the standard samoan joke about him being the runt of the litter. We all laughed. Until his family showed up for our graduation as it was his last cycle as Drill.

The fucker wasn't kidding! His sisters were all bigger than me!

[montieth.livejournal.com]

Just making sure, sometimes you sound off some things that I just don't get.

Last I checked, recruiters in EVERY region have been having a hard time filling their quotas. Moreso than ever.

Yep, there's quite a number of guys that are unhappy with the rotations, even if they're happy to serve. Going to the Sandbox or to the 'Stan as they call them both are seriously disrupting to one's lives. Hell, my neighbor down the street joined back up knowing he wants to deploy and he still bitches about the crap he has to drop on the floor be fore he deploys.

Btw, See the stuff from SapperSgt about his experience patrolling around in the Buffalo? It's cool stuff, not too much, but apparently the Haji's are afraid of the thing because it more or less means any IEDs they plant and that crew finds are in-effective. The ability to safely and quickly probe any possible IED short of a metric ton of explosives is pretty neat stuff.

[montieth.livejournal.com]

There's a reason those guys join up for Blackwater and other groups. They're bloody huge. Why we don't specifically recruit battalions of those guys is beyond me. Can you imagine a whole company of the guys doing house clearing drills? Even the OohRah Airborne types would be wracking their brains trying to figure out how to keep them at longer than arms length in the CQB houses.

[razorjak.livejournal.com]

Just making sure, sometimes you sound off some things that I just don't get.

Heh, that's one of the reasons I'm hated by the extreme of both sides of the scale. Try as they like. They can't pidgeonhole me.

[kgola.livejournal.com]

maybe they'll get rid of Don't Ask, Don't Tell then too - that would encourage many more people to join up and stay.

[razorjak.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't that be something?

[mspaintchuk.livejournal.com]

During my stay we had a DS who got inked on his inner forearm while drunk. Not exactly sure what came of it but I remember him saying that he was in a bit of shit over it. Not too much though because he was a crazy SOB that you would have expected it from. Looked just like Sgt. Slaughter too.

[razorjak.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you'd get in a bit of shit if you got one that was visible in Class B's while in. I know I did when I got the wheel done. But if I'd have gotten one done on the back of my neck or the back of my hand? Yeah, most likely would've been booted.

[razorjak.livejournal.com]

Heheheh, in my first unit we had a samoan who was almost impossible to faze. First time I saw him lose his temper was during a field problem.

Fucker came into the tent and threw his kevlar. It cracked the tentpole.

I remember a comic from the 90s that Image put out which had a cybernetic samoan as a team member. My first thought was, "Wow, that's redundant."

[flameswithin.livejournal.com]

So, if I were in the army and wanted out, all I'd have to do is get a tattoo across my neck?

Hehe, or maybe the really dorky "QWERT YUIOP" across my knuckles I thought might be hillarious.

[razorjak.livejournal.com]

You'd be "offered" the laser surgery to have it removed on the military's dime.

Failing that, you'd be booted for something akin to "defacing military property".