Somew of you newer guys might not understand this. The old timers will.

So I'm wearing a marine corps league t-shirt, going through a check-out line. (I shoot with the league sometimes.)

This 12 YO kid asks me if I was a Marine.

"Yeah, I fought at Belleau Wood. We wuz picking off the Hun at 800 yards!"

The kid gives me a dirty look. His father smirks.

"Mister,My dad was in Vietman, My Grandpa fought in WW2, my GREAT Grandpa fought in WW1. You ain't that old!"

After having a history teacher asking me to give the class a talk about fighting in WW2, and a kid spreading rumors about me going over the top with Black Jack pershing in'18, it was refreshing to find a kid that could count!

With his dad's OK, I bought the little rugrat a Coke.I offered his dad a beer, but he had to go home with the kid.


FINALLY!!!!!!!

Thank God SOMEONE can count!!!!!!!!!!!!!


edited to add that I was born in '51. Do the math.

What's Belleau Wood?

Belleau Wood was one of the most ferocious battles In Marine Corps history.  The wood was renamed "Wood of the Marine Brigade" by the French once the battle was over.  Just type it into a search engine, and I guarantee you will find all you ever wanted to know about it.

During the first World War United States Marines served around the globe. Marines continued their prewar duties in Haiti, Santo Domingo, Cuba, and Nicaragua. In addition the Marines served in Texas guarding oil fields from possible sabotage (first in counter-terrorism?), and the 4th Brigade was sent to France. It is the 4th Brigade's wartime service in France that is most remembered. The 4th Brigade was the largest unit of Marines ever assembled up to that point in the Corps' history. It was composed of the 5th and 6th Regiments and the 6th Machinegun Battalion, Totaling 9,444 officers and men. The Brigade fought at Bois de Belleau, Soissons, Saint Mihiel, Blanc Mont Ridge, and the Argonne. After eight months of virtually continuous combat by 11 November 1918 the Marines in France had suffered 11,366 casualties. This was more than the combined total of causalities sustained by the Corps during its prior 143 years of existence.

Belleau Wood is the most significant of the Corps WW I battles. It saved Paris from the massive German offensive in June 1918, and it was the greatest battle up to that time the the history of the US Marine Corps. The causalities of the 4th Marine Brigade in assaulting the well-organized German center of resistance in Belleau Wood were comparable only to those casualties later sustained the the hardest-fought beach assaults of WW II. [b]After Belleau Wood, German intelligence evaluated the Marine Brigade as "storm troops"-the highest rating on the enemy scale of fighting men.[/b]

Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, visited the 4th Marine Brigade in France, shortly after Belleau Wood. In recognition of the Brigade's victory, he directed that enlisted Marines would henceforth wear the Marine Crops emblem on their collars.



[img]http://www.scuttlebuttsmallchow.com/B1opt.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.mcu.usmc.mil/MCRCweb/Images/archives/wwi/woods.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.mcu.usmc.mil/MCRCweb/Images/archives/wwi/bellauwoods.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.mcu.usmc.mil/MCRCweb/Images/archives/wwi/belleaumapabmc.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.scuttlebuttsmallchow.com/1_bwbay.jpg[/img]

What is this with Eric and what exactly were you picking off of him that was so bad you had to stay 800 yards away?

You were born in '51?  Jee-zuz, you must be fossilized by now.  Did they have running water and electricity back then?  Wasn't McKinley president then?  [:D]

That was a good posting DPeacher.
I was looking at the Corp t-shirts at the gunshop at Quantico while I was buying a receiver. I didn't feel like I was qualified to wear one, so I got one for my brother-in law. He was in the Corp on the late 60's.

*slaps head*

It was also here that the Marines earned their nickname "Devil Dogs" from the Germans.

My first unit, 2/6, wore the French Foreige` (sp?) that France awarded as a unit citation. The doggies later told the females they were VD braids. No sense of humor, those boys.

The Army boys were amazed that the Marines were picking off Huns @ 800 yards with the same '03s that they had. Apparently not all doggies were Alvin Yorks?

I can't remember it but there's a funny story about what the Germans said when they started dropping from being shot 800 yards away.

They moved up through the French line by having the French retreat around them (imagine that).  the French told them the Huns were coming and to run, and one of the jarheads pooped off with one of the classic lines to the effect we just got here, we aint leaving.

The Germans thinking they were advancing on a French line stayed in their marching column and the Marines started picking off the officers and NCOs starting about 900 yards out  and alledgedly the first German company was just about eliminated because there was no one in authority left and they continued marching up and getting slaughtered.  (How much of this is true depends on how much Marine stories you tend to believe.  My step-grandfather-in-law by marriage was a China Marine beginning in 1935.  I have heard a few Marine stories.)

Wow! The kid aged 3 years from posting the topic heading to writing the story!





Obviously, he didn't teach you any of his skills. [:)]

You were born in '51? Jee-zuz, you must be fossilized by now. Did they have running water and electricity back then? Wasn't McKinley president then?  


I'm a withered old man. Shit. Even todays Gunnies look like kids to me. Gimme a break!

Whipper-snapper"![;d]

Actually, I'm just giving him a hard time.  I was born in '49. [:D]

Except Alvin York used a 1917 Enfield to take out the Hun.  
[flame suit on]  The 1917 Enfield IMHO is a better rifle than the 1903 Springfield. Especially the sights, a good battle sight plus the ladder sight.  Mine was made in 1918 [:D].

From another geezer born back in '51.

[img]http://lookinside-images.amazon.com/Qffs+v35lerT5k4BKPgOig6+6h8s882/VqkvDMzRCIA+GHgjlKYirLNpFJGKlwXFFockUf6scx0=[/img]

No flame caught. I don't really have a preference between the Springfield & Enfield, both were 30-06 so I doubt there's any real difference between performance.

Not to mention Sgt. York was also a TN boy!