Tag: Millitary

Jokes

Joke Of The Day

A private was short of rifles and in despair asks his captain what to do.

The captain says “take this broom and when you see your enemy, point it at him and say ‘bang bang bangity bang'”

So the private goes out and surely he sees an enemy and shouts ‘bang bang bangity bang’ and the enemy falls to the ground dead.

The next day the private is yet again stressed that they don’t have any knives for close combat so he asks the captain again what to do. He said: “Take this string and wave it at the enemy and say ‘stab stab stabity stab,” reluctant again he goes out crawling along the floor, sees an enemy and shouts: stab stab stabity stab and then surely he falls to the ground with a stab wound.

The next day he’s out and sees an enemy coming towards him. He shouts ‘bang bang bangity bang’ nothing. He then shouts ‘stab stab stabity stab’ still nothing. The enemy then plows over the private and says ‘tank tank tankity tank’

Amusing

The Assault Breacher Vehicle

In comes “The Joker.”

That’s the nickname given by the crew to one of the 72-ton, 40-foot (12-meter)-long Assault Breacher Vehicles. Fitted with a plow and nearly 7,000 pounds (3,175 kilograms) of explosives, the Breachers, as they are commonly known, are the Marines Corps’ answer to the deadliest threat facing NATO troops in Afghanistan: thousands of land mines and roadside bombs, or improvised explosive devices, that litter the Afghan landscape.

The Breachers, metal monsters that look like a tank with a cannon, carry a 15-foot (4.5-meter) -wide plow supported by metallic skis that glide on the dirt, digging a safety lane through the numerous minefields laid by the Taliban.

If there are too many mines, the Breachers can fire rockets carrying high-grade C-4 explosive up to 150 yards (meters) forward, detonating the hidden bombs at a safe distance so that troops and vehicles can pass through safely.

The detonations — over 1,700 pounds (770 kilograms) of Mine Clearing Line Charges — send a sheet fire into the air and shock waves rippling through the desert in all directions.

Reporters watched the “Breacher” in action Wednesday as Marines edged closer to Marjah, a southern Taliban stronghold that NATO commanders plan to attack in the coming days in the largest joint NATO-Afghan operation of the Afghan war. Troops are expected to face a massive threat from mines and roadside bombs as they push into Marjah, 380 miles (610 kilometers) southwest of Kabul.

“This may be the largest IED threat and largest minefield that NATO has ever faced,” says Brig Gen. Larry Nicholson, the commander of all Marines in southern Afghanistan.

Several Breachers — including “The Joker” and its twin “Iceman” — will be used in the Marjah assault. Commanders hope they will make a huge difference as troops pierce through layer after layer of minefields circling the town.

“I consider it to be a truly lifesaving weapon,” said Gunnery Sgt. Steven Sanchez, 38, leader of a platoon from the 2nd Marines Combat Engineers Battalion.

A cross between a bulldozer and Abrams tank with a 1,500-horsepower turbine engine, Breachers are so valuable that they only travel outside bases along with a tank retrieval vehicle to drag them to safety if they are damaged.

Sanchez’s platoon drove Breachers in their first combat operation in December, when Marines reclaimed a section of the heavily mined Now Zad valley farther north in Helmand province. “We made history, and the Breacher did well,” says Sanchez, of Palm Desert, Calif.

“I’m happy to see that this monster is on our side,” said Rahim Ullah, a machine gunner in the Afghan army unit that will fight alongside the Marines.

A few kinks are yet to be worked but before the Breachers are entirely up to speed. Two charges fired by “The Joker” and “Iceman” on Wednesday didn’t go off automatically, forcing one of their crew to dismount and trigger the explosives themselves.

Developed by the Marines since the 1990s and costing US$3.5 million apiece, the Breacher still has room for improvement, Sanchez admits.

“It’s not in the testing phase anymore, but it sure as hell still is in the deployment phase,” he said, adding that all the Marines serving on his Breacher platoon are volunteers and intent on improving the new weapon.

“I’m convinced it’s going to prove itself in Marjah,” Sanchez said.

Many on his platoon believe the Breacher has already proven its worth. The Joker’s vehicle commander, Cpl.Michael Turner, 21, of Provo, Utah, says his Breacher works even better than he’d thought during training.

“She’s surprisingly easy to operate,” Turner said. His vehicle can travel at 50 miles (80 kilometers) per hour. When plowing for bombs, it can still move at 5 to 8 mph (8 to 13 kph), depending on the terrain — all the while digging up the dirt 14 inches (36 centimeters) deep.

“That’s plenty enough to get the IEDs,” said Turner, because any explosive buried deeper is unlikely to be triggered by a vehicle driving by.

The Joker’s driver, Sgt. Jeremy Kinsey, 23, from Sunny Side, Washington, even triggered a live IED during his Breacher’s first combat outing in December. The 60-pound (27-kilogram) bomb exploded on his plow, powerful enough to rip out a tire or an axle from a normal armored vehicle.

The Breacher barely registered. “It shook slightly,” Kinsey said. “I laughed and I drove on.”

Source…

Amusing

Staff Sgt Barry Sadler – The Ballad Of The Green Berets

“The Ballad of the Green Berets” is a patriotic song in the ballad style about the United States … The song was written by then Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler, beginning when he was training to be a Special Forces medic.

The timing of Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler’s number-one smash “The Ballad of the Green Berets” couldn’t have been more impeccable.

Released in early 1966, when anti-war sentiment was beginning to swell, “The Ballad of the Green Berets” tapped into an enormous wellspring of patriotic fervor among Americans who were tired of the dissent and ambiguity surrounding Vietnam, and desperately wanted confirmation of America’s heroism and moral virtue; that they were on the right side.

Sadler was the perfect man to supply it: he was himself a member of the Green Berets, the Army’s elite Special Forces unit, and a wounded Vietnam veteran who wanted to pay tribute to his comrades in arms.

Although “The Ballad of the Green Berets” was the biggest hit single of 1966, Sadler never duplicated its blockbuster success, and soon retired from music to become a successful author.



Amusing

Obama Reads Word “Corpsman” as “Corpse Man” Twice

Here is video showing the dangers of being so heavily dependent on a teleprompter.

Barack Hussein Obama was speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast and was telling about a Navy Corpsman who assisted the suffering people of Haiti. But as his head bobbed back and forth between his two teleprompters, he read the word “Corpsman” and pronounced it “Corpse Man” twice.

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