Capt. John Paul Jones crypt no longer guarded by US Marines

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Capt. John Paul Jones crypt no longer guarded by US Marines

Posted: 1/24/2006 5:43:54 PM EDT

January 30, 2006

Marine sentries stand down

A Naval Academy tradition that lasted 155 years has come to an end: The Marine Corps sentries who guarded the gates and the crypt of Revolutionary War Capt. John Paul Jones have been withdrawn and sent to war.

The four dozen Marines were released from their security duties in a ceremony Jan. 13 and are being replaced by enlisted sailors.

“Pray for them, for many of them are going into harm’s way,” a chaplain said in an invocation for the departing members of the Naval Academy Company, Marine Barracks.

The Marines have provided security at the gates and for dignitaries’ visits and special events on the academy campus since before the Civil War. They also performed largely ceremonial duties, including standing guard outside the crypt of Jones, one of the founders of the Navy.

“They’ve done much more, in their ability to look tough but remain pleasant,” said Vice Adm. Rodney Rempt, the academy’s superintendent.

The sentries will bolster U.S. forces stretched thin by deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Obviously, we can use those Marines in more significant roles,” said Gary Solis, a West Point professor and former official historian for the Marine Corps who frequently lectures at the Naval Academy. “But it’s too bad a tradition like that has to end.”

Posted: 1/24/2006 5:49:11 PM EDT

[#1]

No biggie, IMO, as Sailors are taking it over. Probably shoulda been Sailors all along, IMO.

Posted: 1/24/2006 5:49:29 PM EDT

[#2]

I believe the good Captain would approve.

Posted: 1/24/2006 5:53:42 PM EDT

[#3]

free up some good Marines to help with the larger task at hand!

Posted: 1/24/2006 5:57:51 PM EDT

[#4]

Quoted:
January 30, 2006

Marine sentries stand down

A Naval Academy tradition that lasted 155 years has come to an end: The Marine Corps sentries who guarded the gates and the crypt of Revolutionary War Capt. John Paul Jones have been withdrawn and sent to war.

The four dozen Marines were released from their security duties in a ceremony Jan. 13 and are being replaced by enlisted sailors.

“Pray for them, for many of them are going into harm’s way,” a chaplain said in an invocation for the departing members of the Naval Academy Company, Marine Barracks.

The Marines have provided security at the gates and for dignitaries’ visits and special events on the academy campus since before the Civil War. They also performed largely ceremonial duties, including standing guard outside the crypt of Jones, one of the founders of the Navy.

“They’ve done much more, in their ability to look tough but remain pleasant,” said Vice Adm. Rodney Rempt, the academy’s superintendent.

The sentries will bolster U.S. forces stretched thin by deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Obviously, we can use those Marines in more significant roles,” said Gary Solis, a West Point professor and former official historian for the Marine Corps who frequently lectures at the Naval Academy. “But it’s too bad a tradition like that has to end.”

4 Dozen Marines...!!! Geez, we can invade and conquer all of western Europe with 4 dozen Marines!

Posted: 1/24/2006 5:58:46 PM EDT

[#5]

I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way.
John Paul Jones

Posted: 1/24/2006 5:58:52 PM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:
No biggie, IMO, as Sailors are taking it over. Probably shoulda been Sailors all along, IMO.

It was sailors all along, just sailors with more infantry training.

Posted: 1/24/2006 6:05:00 PM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:
Quoted:
No biggie, IMO, as Sailors are taking it over. Probably shoulda been Sailors all along, IMO.

It was sailors all along, just sailors with more infantry training.

I don't sail shit.

Posted: 1/24/2006 8:56:59 PM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:

I don't sail shit.

Well, I would certainly hope you don't sail shit.

Usually you sail a boat.

Posted: 1/24/2006 9:19:01 PM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
It was sailors all along, just sailors with more infantry training.

The United States Army approves of this statement.

Posted: 1/24/2006 9:36:43 PM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:
Quoted:

I don't sail shit.

Well, I would certainly hope you don't sail shit.

Usually you sail a boat.

Not that either. Leave that to those Navy rump rangers.

Posted: 1/24/2006 10:35:17 PM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
Quoted:
No biggie, IMO, as Sailors are taking it over. Probably shoulda been Sailors all along, IMO.

It was sailors all along, just sailors with more infantry training.

UM,NO.

Posted: 1/24/2006 10:38:30 PM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:
Quoted:
It was sailors all along, just sailors with more infantry training.

The United States Army approves of this statement.

LOL

Posted: 1/24/2006 10:52:44 PM EDT

[#13]

Good. As a Marine, I feel that we have wasted too much manpower for too long with this kind of shit.

They should scrap the bands next, followed by the sports oriented PFT and the WMs.

I'd love to see all of the Marine Corps streamlined into a completely integrated fighting unit. Hire civilian clerks, disbursers, and cooks and put the rest of the Marines into action where they belong.

Posted: 1/24/2006 10:56:19 PM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
Good. As a Marine, I feel that we have wasted too much manpower for too long with this kind of shit.

They should scrap the bands next, followed by the sports oriented PFT and the WMs.

I'd love to see all of the Marine Corps streamlined into a completely integrated fighting unit. Hire civilian clerks, disbursers, and cooks and put the rest of the Marines into action where they belong.

+1 from a former Marine.

Posted: 1/24/2006 11:28:56 PM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:

I don't sail shit.

Well, I would certainly hope you don't sail shit.

Usually you sail a boat.

Not that either. Leave that to those Navy rump rangers.

Uh oh, here we go with a little of that chest-beating, jar-headed gorilla "Muh-REEN HOO-RAH" stuff they've been stickin' us fine Navy folk with for the last couple hundred years.

Don't these guys get a little TOO much attention?

Cockiest bunch of M-Effin bricks I ever saw.

Old joke: "How does a Marine Aviator know his gear are up? When it takes a full afterburner to taxi."

Posted: 1/25/2006 2:53:27 AM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way.
John Paul Jones

Sounds a lot like Mal, doesn't it?

Merlin

Posted: 1/25/2006 3:29:42 AM EDT

[#17]

I'm actually surprised at some of the responses so far. I wouldn't think people would be so eager to drop a 155 year old military tradition in order to temporarily fill 50 slots somewhere else.

155 years. That's one hell of a long military tradition.

Posted: 1/25/2006 3:36:23 AM EDT

[#18]

Good. Waste of money

Posted: 1/25/2006 3:37:45 AM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:
Quoted:
It was sailors all along, just sailors with more infantry training.

The United States Army approves of this statement.

The Army also has more boats than the Navy.

Posted: 1/25/2006 3:40:15 AM EDT

[#20]

Quoted:
I'm actually surprised at some of the responses so far. I wouldn't think people would be so eager to drop a 155 year old military tradition in order to temporarily fill 50 slots somewhere else.

155 years. That's one hell of a long military tradition.

i was just gonna say that.

besides, who's gonna save john ryan now??? can you imagine "patriot games" with squids instead of devil dogs?

"hey, what's that banging noise outside?"
"i dunno, pass me another donut."
"hey, there's someone lying in the street!"
"secure that hatch, d00d, it's freezing out there! call the police, let them handle it."

the end.

Posted: 1/25/2006 3:45:23 AM EDT

[#21]

No one but me finds it disturbing that the USMC is stretched so thin that 48 bodies are actually thouht to make a difference?

What's next? Removing them from the American Embassies worldwide and outsourcing that, too?

155 years of tradition gone, just like that. Pathetic. Seems to me the recruiters aren't doing their jobs.

Oh, and to all the usual chest-thumping idiots, I as a former sailor consider any Marine to be a shipmate and brother-in-arms. While some inter-service bantering is all in good fun, some of you really need to untighten your assholes and realize we're all on the same team.

Posted: 1/25/2006 3:46:21 AM EDT

[#22]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
No biggie, IMO, as Sailors are taking it over. Probably shoulda been Sailors all along, IMO.

It was sailors all along, just sailors with more infantry training.

I don't sail shit.

Well, do you eat shit?

Posted: 1/25/2006 3:47:06 AM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:
Quoted:
I don't sail shit.

Well, I would certainly hope you don't sail shit.

Usually you sail a boat.

Posted: 1/25/2006 3:48:51 AM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:
+1 from a former Marine.

So, you are no longer a Marine?

Posted: 1/25/2006 3:50:21 AM EDT

[#25]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
It was sailors all along, just sailors with more infantry training.

The United States Army approves of this statement.

The Army also has more boats than the Navy.

And more soldiers.

Posted: 1/25/2006 3:50:59 AM EDT

[#26]

Quoted:
Quoted:
+1 from a former Marine.

So, you are no longer a Marine?

Once a Marine, always a Marine!

Posted: 1/25/2006 3:52:40 AM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:
Oh, and to all the usual chest-thumping idiots, I as a former sailor consider any Marine to be a shipmate and brother-in-arms. While some inter-service bantering is all in good fun, some of you really need to untighten your assholes and realize we're all on the same team.

And we wonder where all the jokes come from....

Posted: 1/25/2006 3:52:40 AM EDT

[#28]

Quoted:

Once a Marine, always a Marine!

Unless you're a certain scumbag named Murtha.....

Posted: 1/25/2006 3:53:43 AM EDT

[#29]

Quoted:

And we wonder where all the jokes come from....

Shit-stirrer!

I KNEW some wisegy was going to say that!

Posted: 1/25/2006 3:57:10 AM EDT

[#30]

Quoted:
Quoted:

And we wonder where all the jokes come from....

Shit-stirrer!

I KNEW some wisegy was going to say that!

LOL. I appreciate everyone's service equally, Zaphod - but that was funny.

Posted: 1/25/2006 3:58:20 AM EDT

[#31]

Quoted:
Shit-stirrer!

I KNEW some wisegy was going to say that!

What's a "wisegy?"

Posted: 1/25/2006 4:04:21 AM EDT

[#32]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Shit-stirrer!

I KNEW some wisegy was going to say that!

What's a "wisegy?"

Usually they live in CT!

Posted: 1/25/2006 4:22:26 AM EDT

[#33]

I hate to see an old military tradition die.

but, from a 3rd person perspective, to have a marine guard a sailor's tomb seems a bit insulting to the navy.
You guys can't even guard a dead guy? Really, how do you fuck that up?

Posted: 1/25/2006 4:31:14 AM EDT

[#34]

Quoted:
but, from a 3rd person perspective, to have a marine guard a sailor's tomb seems a bit insulting to the navy. You guys can't even guard a dead guy?

Haven't you heard? Marines are just sailors with more infantry training.

Posted: 1/25/2006 5:22:34 AM EDT

[#35]

Quoted:
No one but me finds it disturbing that the USMC is stretched so thin that 48 bodies are actually thouht to make a difference?

What's next? Removing them from the American Embassies worldwide and outsourcing that, too?

155 years of tradition gone, just like that. Pathetic. Seems to me the recruiters aren't doing their jobs.

Oh, and to all the usual chest-thumping idiots, I as a former sailor consider any Marine to be a shipmate and brother-in-arms. While some inter-service bantering is all in good fun, some of you really need to untighten your assholes and realize we're all on the same team.

More of an issue of fairness. Those Marines are MPs, a HDLD (high-demand, low-density) asset. MPs are tight everywhere. That's why the USN has ponied up for Gitmo and a few other places. The stretching is worrisome. Krepenivich's recent article on the subject is pretty good.

Posted: 1/25/2006 6:06:32 AM EDT

[#36]

Quoted:
Quoted:
but, from a 3rd person perspective, to have a marine guard a sailor's tomb seems a bit insulting to the navy. You guys can't even guard a dead guy?

Haven't you heard? Marines are just sailors with more infantry training.

...and less intelligence.

Posted: 1/25/2006 6:27:14 AM EDT

[#37]

The Marines have provided security at the gates and for dignitaries’ visits and special events on the academy campus since before the Civil War.

[dumb blonde]Holy Crap! Those guys must be old![/dumb blonde]

Posted: 1/25/2006 6:34:37 AM EDT

[#38]

Quoted:
No one but me finds it disturbing that the USMC is stretched so thin that 48 bodies are actually thouht to make a difference?

No, I agree 100%. Giving up a 155yr tradition to get 50 more guys?!? Insane! But it could be a slanted article too. Maybe the Navy really was pushing to get it, after all, its the founder of the Navy. But 48 men to guard 1 tomb is also kind of coo-coo.

Posted: 1/25/2006 6:35:54 AM EDT

[#39]

Quoted:
Quoted:
It was sailors all along, just sailors with more infantry training.

The United States Army approves of this statement.

Posted: 1/25/2006 6:48:12 AM EDT

[#40]

I don't doubt that it is a nice tradition. I simply feel that the Marine Corps spends too much money and wastes too much manpower on this kind of thing.

I find it almost offensive that I went through the war in Iraq without plates in my vest, because the Marine Corps didn't have enough, yet they could afford a Silent Drill Team, four major bands(1st, 2nd, and 3rd MarDiv along with the real one at 8th and I), and smaller bands at every base.

These are Marines that will almost never be sent into combat, yet the Marine Corps still feeds them, pays them, keeps them decked out in Blues, pays for their instruments and backup instruments, and transports them all over the country to perform.

Meanwhile, my unit went to Kuwait with more than 2,000 Marines in Feb, 03. We didn't have plates, updated gear, or trucks that ran reliably. We had to rent civilian trucks and buses from all over the Middle East to get our job done.

I think it is great that the Marine Corps can have such things during peacetime. However, I feel that the priority should always be to the Marines who are accomplishing the mission, and never on the ones that are window dressing. Tradition or not.

Posted: 1/25/2006 7:12:38 AM EDT

[#41]

Quoted:
Quoted:
No one but me finds it disturbing that the USMC is stretched so thin that 48 bodies are actually thouht to make a difference?

No, I agree 100%. Giving up a 155yr tradition to get 50 more guys?!? Insane! But it could be a slanted article too. Maybe the Navy really was pushing to get it, after all, its the founder of the Navy. But 48 men to guard 1 tomb is also kind of coo-coo.

These Marines are most likely Barracks Duty(ie...Special Security Forces) They would be responsable for the base/post security. Gate guards, areas of high security, escorts, ceremonies, and even Guarding John Paul Jones Crypt. They were not there to just guard the crypt.

As one of the last Sea Duty Marines ('85-'87) I really hate seeing traditions such as these die. I had the same feeling when the Corps took the Marine Detachments off the ships. These Marines are mostly Grunts and I know they are happy for the decission that was made...Lord knows I prayed every day to get off the Connie. I hated sea duty more than anything, but looking back I see that I was a part of something bigger...Tradition. And for that I am proud to have served aboard America's Flagship. Not many have that Honor. (I do miss slamming squids to the deck and kicking food trays across the mess deck though...we did have our perks

)And to the Marines of Naval Academy Company, Marine Barracks I salute you. You were part of Military history

Posted: 1/25/2006 7:48:16 AM EDT

[#42]

From my own perspective, the Marine Corps has been stretched pretty thin for the last five years.

Under normal circumstances you would deploy for six months, then spend the next eighteen back home. Nowadays, you deploy for a minimum of seven months (sometimes a full year), then spend twelve months back home. That "back home" time is filled with just as much training and hard work as you would have done if you were home for eighteen.

BTW, anyone catch the History Channel last night? That hanger and flightline shown during the CH-53E segment was my "home" until just recently. Spent a lot of time working on the shitters..

Posted: 1/25/2006 8:03:15 AM EDT

[#43]

Quoted:
I don't doubt that it is a nice tradition. I simply feel that the Marine Corps spends too much money and wastes too much manpower on this kind of thing.

I find it almost offensive that I went through the war in Iraq without plates in my vest, because the Marine Corps didn't have enough, yet they could afford a Silent Drill Team, four major bands(1st, 2nd, and 3rd MarDiv along with the real one at 8th and I), and smaller bands at every base.

These are Marines that will almost never be sent into combat, yet the Marine Corps still feeds them, pays them, keeps them decked out in Blues, pays for their instruments and backup instruments, and transports them all over the country to perform.

Meanwhile, my unit went to Kuwait with more than 2,000 Marines in Feb, 03. We didn't have plates, updated gear, or trucks that ran reliably. We had to rent civilian trucks and buses from all over the Middle East to get our job done.

I think it is great that the Marine Corps can have such things during peacetime. However, I feel that the priority should always be to the Marines who are accomplishing the mission, and never on the ones that are window dressing. Tradition or not.

Agreed, sir.

"Every Marine a rifleman." Hmm

Nothing in there about a tuba player...

Posted: 1/25/2006 8:04:04 AM EDT

[#44]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Good. As a Marine, I feel that we have wasted too much manpower for too long with this kind of shit.

They should scrap the bands next, followed by the sports oriented PFT and the WMs.

I'd love to see all of the Marine Corps streamlined into a completely integrated fighting unit. Hire civilian clerks, disbursers, and cooks and put the rest of the Marines into action where they belong.

+1 from a former Marine.

Hell ya!

Make them sum bitches stand on some yellow foot prints for a while!!

Semper Fi.

Posted: 1/25/2006 8:16:23 AM EDT

[#45]

Hope nobody is guarding the graves of tom foley or tip o'neill when I visit to 'pay my respects'.

Frequent urination can sometimes be a blessing.

pissonem....the democrat salute!

Posted: 1/26/2006 3:37:03 AM EDT

[#46]

Why not use these ceremonial positions as duty stations for the partially disabled who want to remain in the service? We've all seen the photos of the amputees who went back to Iraq, and of course there was Hathcock's example, staying in the service despite MS and severe scarring.

Posted: 1/26/2006 7:21:23 AM EDT

[#47]

Quoted:
Quoted:
No biggie, IMO, as Sailors are taking it over. Probably shoulda been Sailors all along, IMO.

It was sailors all along, just sailors with more infantry training.

NAVAL INFANTRY!! OOOOORAAAAAHH!!

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Capt. John Paul Jones crypt no longer guarded by US Marines

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