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Marines on duty
in Northern Iraq in 1991 |
Site
of the Day
The gist of one man's
epitaph on his gravestone in Libya is that he may have been a sinner (particularly
when it came to pontoon and nights on the town), but at least "God I've been
a Marine".
This is from one of
the quotes collected in this web site, Once A Marine, Always A Marine, by man who
served 24 years, from 1974 to 1998, in the service and rose to become a sergeant
major.
He is now an engineering
manager for a computer company, but it seems pretty clear from the amount of info
in his site he's still very much a military man.
He has an in-depth
history of the service, which appears to date back to 1664. Before barracks were
built marines were often billeted ashore in alehouses and according to one contemporary
Portsmouth report: "It would have been difficult to devise a better system to
encourage drunkenness, indiscipline and desertion".
There is also explanation
of the elaborate cap badge and the similar one adopted by the American Marine Corps,
founded along similar lines to the Royal Marines.
The site also has moving
first-hand accounts of Royal Marines involved in Operation Haven in 1991 when troops
were sent in to Northern Iraq to guard fleeing Kurds from attacks by Saddam Hussein
.
Things are brought right
up to date with a guide to jargon. A bootneck is a Royal Marine Commando, while a
member of the Fleet Air Arm is dubbed "airy fairy". And to be very drunk
is, well, "crappers"!
To call up Once A Marine,
Always A Marine, click
here.
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