USMC Birthday

It gets people seeing red, green, sandy and they just go plain NUTS!!

NUTS I SAY!!

It seems that Congress wants to mandate our operational uniforms.  (WHO KNEW? )
But first.. I want to show you the 4 services Cammie uniforms, and then I will post the article from Navytimes.

For once I have to say.. Congress has a point.

That and the Air Force Uniform Belt, reminds me of Santa Clause’s belt!

Without further ado..

The US ARMY, a smart looking uniform, makes sense!

Army Operational Uniform

Same with the USMC, a great well thought out uniform.

Marine Corps Cammies

And now the uniforms where you just wonder who thought them up..

The Navy. Because everyone knows it is so easy to see a blue uniform that exactly matches waves in the Sea!!

Nice "BLUE" Cammies

And last but Not least.. And really.. I think it looks like they should be tour guides in Australia.. The US AIR FORCE!

ACKKK!!!!

So here is the article from NavyTimes.. Enjoy and comment below!

Lawmakers have dropped the idea of making everyone in combat wear the exact same uniform and camouflage pattern.

But out of concern for safety, function and performance, they want more cooperation between the services over ground combat and utility clothing.

The key concern is that U.S. personnel wearing different uniforms in a combat zone raise the risk of friendly fire.

The services raised enough of a fuss about having different needs that lawmakers dropped from the 2010 defense authorization bill a proposed requirement to standardize combat uniforms in the future.

In a report accompanying the defense bill, congressional negotiators agreed that the services may have uniforms that “uniquely reflect the identity of the individual services.” But the report says lawmakers still want uniforms that minimize the risk of mistaken identity and share technological advances and improvements across all services.

Lawmakers also directed the services to establish joint criteria for ground combat uniforms, and expect special operations forces to be covered by the joint standards.

To prod more cooperation in uniforms, lawmakers ordered a quick, 180-day assessment by the Government Accountability Office that will look at what uniforms are now in use, their advantages, similarities and differences.

Comment below, this oughta be fun!!

Why?  Well at the time, it used to drive me nuts how by the book they were, there was no Gray area for them.

“THE MARADMIN, or MARINE CORPS ORDER SAYS THIS!” and we did this.

The Motto of the Marines, are “WE TRAIN AS WE FIGHT AND WE FIGHT AS WE TRAIN”.  In other words, If a orders comes down, we exercise said order to the exact, and I mean “EXACT” detail as written.

This was new to me having already been in the Navy for 17 years at the time.  In my time this is what we would see, read below..

You could set 8-10 Navy Officers in a room with the Same Navy instruction, and they would all walk out with 9-10 (Ones a Butt Snorkler trying to get ahead, you know them.. the YES MAN!) different ways to do the Instruction.

What they fail to realize, a instruction is just that.. “A INSTRUCTION ON HOW TO DO SOMETHING”….

No DUH!

I jab the officers, but it happens in the CPO ranks as well.. There are the Deckplate CPO’s.. and then there are the “I WANNA HAVE A PARKING SPACE LIKE A OFFICER” CPO’s..

Put 10 CPO’s in a room, the Deckplate ones will come together and work out a plan to follow the instruction.  The Parking Space CPO’s will go to separate corners, not let anyone see their work as it might affect their FITREP/EVALS, and god forbid helping a shipmate out.

See?? Is there any wonder the MCPON feels like the Navy Commands are failing with the “PERFORM TO SERVE” Program for folks who want to reenlist.

Reenlistement Ceremony

Under the program, your supposed to submit a package to BUPERS letting them know you want to reenlist, 12 months prior to your EAOS.  Commands are not getting this done in a timely manner, in that 66% of packages are not getting a full look from BUPERS.  Your supposed to have your package looked at 6 times before your put out if there is no space for you.  66% were only getting looked at 4 times.

As the Economy tanks, and more and more people are staying in, it is crucial that “YOU” the person thinking about staying in, Find the instruction governing this. Camp out in your CCC’s office till you get your package submitted on time.  Make sure you have “EVERYTHING” required in your package.  Don’t rely on anyone else, as it is “YOUR” career.

If you have any questions, Email me @ admin1@corpsman.com and we will try to assist you in any way we can.  Please don’t come with gripes, come with a solution so we can assist.  Have the Instruction at your side, Meet my little friend called “GOOGLE”, and look it up so we can both be reading from the same guidance and follow the instructions set in the Navy INSTRUCTION.

Good Luck!

All service NCO Ranks

2009 is the year of the NCO for the United States Army.  I find that admirable.

Unfortunately they have a “WONK” writing about it as far as I can tell.  I have been trying to write this article because I do believe having 2009 being the year of the NCO is a great thing.

This is the problem with folks who have great ideas in the military but don’t understand how to broadcast that message without putting everyone to sleep.  Need a sleep aid?  Read official correspondence.  I promise you, you will be asleep within minutes.

It’s almost like they are trying to show how “SMART” they are or puff their chests out to show how much smarts they have.. Great, go get your MBA or get a political Science Degree, and go argue with the eggheads.

Most NCO’s the new E-4’s and above are the ones your trying to target with this valuable message.  I would say if you were to ask any of them what was passed in the “POWER POINT” presentation after being shown this publication would not be able to convey what your trying to convey to them.

Doing a proclamation like this is more then putting up stodgy words and phrases on a PowerPoint.  Get away from Powerpoints, I know you ARMY officers love it.. I think you need to go through a Powerpoint Anonymous program, or a 12 step program.

Who are your audience?  What is the Avg. age of those your trying to communicate with?

Don’t get me wrong, the NCO’s and below want to be communicated with, but you just turn them off when you use your “LEADERSHIP SPEAK” from your Covey Seminars etc.

You should explain things like your trying to explain to your neighbor or your significant other.  Leave the wonk speak with the upper echelon where you fit in.

I like to tell this story as it served me well as a SNCO, (Chief Petty Officer).

After I made Chief up here in Great Lakes, I took over the Medical Department at the Reserve Center, What used to be a fractured office (Air Vs. Surface) I pulled together into one cohesive team.  How did I do this? I listened and spoke with my Subordinates (Hate that word, my team) so I understood where they were at and they understood where I was at.

Mind you the meetings I went to used lots of big words and acronyms etc.. of the current flavor the of the week of leadership style that someone had “JUST DISCOVERED”, but I never spoke to my team this way.

By doing this we created I believe the best department in the command, enough to where if one of my folks made a mistake, I.e accidentally shooting themselves in the thumb with a atropine gun (Don’t ask) they came right to me because they trusted me.  That story is for a different day though..

The way I knew I was getting through though was one winter day.  It was snowing like crazy outside, and all the E-6 and below did snow removal duty around the center.   Chief Petty Officers, or some of them at least, thought they were above that, regardless of manning etc, thought they were better then the “TEAM”.

I was not that way and I had good leadership that instilled this in me from my days at VFA-204.  (ADC(AW) Burns) We were short on manpower so I went out and started shoveling with my juniors.  About 5 minutes in.. one of my Petty Officers mussed under their breath.. “Hey Chief, look at the window”.

I turned and every CPO from the building were at their respective windows staring at me and then you could see the conversation going, wild waving of arms, etc..

5 minutes later.. All the CPO’s even the Command Chief was out there shoveling with me.  I heard about it later from them, “How could you? ” etc..

How could I? Because I listened, I understood the job they did.

While I was senior in Rank, we communicated in a way my team understood, and I never had a doubt that we had each others back.

Isn’t that how you can show the year of the NCO?  If your going to have a year and recognize them, help them understand what you want.  Show them you have been there, don’t talk down to them, talk to them.

I salute all the NCO’s, the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Air Force, as you truly are the backbone of all services.  We could not get our jobs done without your dedication and hard work.

I hope I communicated well to you.

Bravo Zulu, you deserve it.

D/C

Army News Service|by Heike Hasenauer

WASHINGTON – Beginning Nov. 1, the Army and its sister services will focus attention to one of the Defense Department’s highest priorities – caring for wounded ill, and injured warriors.

As directed by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, November has been designated as “Warrior Care Month.” Each branch of the U.S. Armed Forces has events planned during the month to highlight warrior care.

Since reports nearly two years ago revealed Soldiers recovering from war wounds were living in a substandard facility at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the Army has transformed the way it structures and provides military health care to wounded and ill Soldiers, said Brig. Gen. Gary H. Cheek, Assistant Surgeon General for Warrior Care and Transition.

“We have made great strides in garnering more support and more resources for our wounded, ill and injured Soldiers,” Cheek said. “Our key challenge is ensuring Soldiers and families are aware of the various programs and benefits we have to help them with the unique and personal issues each of them face.”

The general said the month is more than a way for the Army and other services to show how far they have come in taking care of their own — the activities and events during Warrior Care Month also make the programs the Army offers more visible to Soldiers who might need them.

“Warrior Care Month is a way to highlight these programs across the Army so our wounded warriors and their families know what’s being done on their behalf, and how to take advantage of them,” he said.

Cheek said Warrior Care Month is meant to provide a clear message to servicemembers and the public that caring for those who have sacrificed for America is one of the military’s highest priorities.

The Army has unique activities planned throughout Warrior Care Month, which begins with the Department of Defense kick-off event Nov. 5.

The Army’s 36 Warrior Transition Units, in cooperation with Military Treatment Facilities and installations across the Army will be conducting a variety of events and activities to help educate the force on wounded warrior resources, and to thank local communities and elected officials for their support.

Feeling woozy after your latest round of immunization shots? Then you’re probably a male airman.

Ten years of records showed that 2,612 service members passed out cold — and fell down — after a nurse slowly inserted a thin half-inch of steel into their biceps or buttocks.

Data from the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center shows that the rate of airmen who fell out was twice that of soldiers and sailors — Marines fall in between — and that twice as many men as women were among the fainthearted. The overall numbers also are rising; today’s service members are 2½ times more likely to faint from getting a shot than they were in 1998.

Possibly worse than the risk of ridicule is the risk of injury, the report states, “particularly when collapse leads to forceful contact between the face or skull … and a sharp or solid object nearby.” Researchers found 150 examples of fractures, brain injuries, open wounds, contusions, sprains and strains.

Fainting occurs when blood vessels dilate and blood pressure decreases among people who stand for too long, don’t like the sight of blood or fear pain, experts say.

If this is what is going to happen, it is time to get our folks out of that god forsaken crap hole ASAP.  I don’t want any of our folks there if they cannot fire back or carry a weapon. From the AP, Read Below:

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s government is grateful to U.S.-allied Sunni fighters but won’t allow them to keep their weapons indefinitely, the prime minister said Saturday, hinting at a more intense crackdown on the Sunni groups.

In recent weeks, the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has gone after Sunni fighters despite their alliances with the Americans. Some leaders have been arrested, while scores of others have been disarmed and banned from manning checkpoints except alongside security forces.

Al-Maliki’s government has mixed feelings about Sunni tribes that rose up against al-Qaida in Iraq, starting in 2007, and joined the Americans in the fight against the terror network.

The groups, known as Awakening Councils, Sons of Iraq and Popular Committees, have helped rout al-Qaida in some parts of Iraq. But Shiite leaders fear the Sunnis’ switch of allegiance is just a tactic, and that they could one day turn their weapons against the Shiite majority.

The U.S., which put many of the Sunni fighters on its payroll, has urged al-Maliki to incorporate them into his security forces, but the government has been slow to do so.

In a speech to Shiite tribal leaders in Baghdad on Saturday, al-Maliki mixed praise for the Sunni fighters with a warning. He said armed groups, alongside security forces, were tolerated for a limited period because their weapons were “aimed at the chests of the terrorists.”

“So they (the Sunni fighters) deserve our gratitude and the inclusion (into the security forces) because we adhere to a policy that there are no arms but the arms of the government,” he said.

In other developments Saturday, a suicide bomber struck a car bazaar in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, killing at least five people and wounding at least seven others, according to the U.S. military and Iraqi police.

Among those killed was a senior member of a U.S.-allied Sunni group from nearby Diyala province, said Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir, a senior police official in Kirkuk. The bomber also was from Diyala, which has been an insurgent stronghold and is the site of ongoing U.S.-Iraqi military operations, Qadir said.

In the capital, gunmen killed an adviser to Iraqi Culture Minister Mahir al-Hadithi in a roadside ambush. A bodyguard was wounded in the attack along a main thoroughfare in eastern Baghdad, police and hospital officials said.

Two cars were involved in the killing of the adviser, Kamil Shiya, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media. One vehicle blocked Shiya’s car and gunmen opened fire from the second vehicle.

Shiya’s death was confirmed by officials at nearby Kindi Hospital.

Something has to be done now. Leave a comment below what do you think?

What do you think?? Leave a comment Below:

When sailors deploy with Marine units, they live in the same conditions, eat the same food and face the same dangers.

But when Marine units are extended in Iraq or Afghanistan, the sailors don’t always get the same bonus pay. That needs to change, the Corps’ top enlisted members say.

The Corps’ sergeants major community has recommended to Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway that the service investigate options for giving those sailors the same assignment incentive pay, or AIP.

“You’re talking about being fair,” said Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps Carlton Kent, the Corps’ senior enlisted adviser. “We always have to be fair in the Marine Corps.”

The recommendation came out of the Sergeants Major Symposium, an annual meeting of top enlisted Marines in which policy recommendations are debated. Six command master chiefs were allowed to participate in the symposium for the first time, following an invitation from Kent.

Command Master Chief Raphael Sanchez, the top enlisted sailor with I Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Corps Central Command, praised Kent for allowing command master chiefs to join the symposium, held from July 27 to Aug. 1.

Additionally, Sanchez said the issue of AIP is worth discussing.

“Even though it’s a [Defense Department] policy, the Navy implements it one way and the Marine Corps implements it another,” he said. “When you have sailors and Marines serving together … discrepancies kind of show up.”

Sanchez said the change would apply primarily to corpsmen, but also to religious program specialists and other sailors serving with Marines. About 8,000 sailors serve with the Corps, Sanchez said.

Sailors whose combat zone deployments are involuntarily extended beyond 12 months receive the same as Marines, $800 per month in AIP and an additional $200 in hardship duty pay, said Capt. Jerry Logan, acting director of the Navy’s Military Personnel Plans and Policy Division.

But the Navy has not sought to expand AIP to match the Corps’ policy of paying $250 per month to Marines extended beyond 210 days but less than 365 days, Logan said in a statement. “The Navy’s retention, recruiting and mission requirements differ from the Marine Corps, thus we use the Assignment Incentive Pay program differently,” he said.

The Navy offers AIP for various hard-to-fill billets via an auction-style Web site; sailors submit bids for pay they would accept in exchange for orders.

Sanchez said he is impressed with the Corps’ openness to discussing sailor issues. “I’ve been serving with the Marine Corps since 1993, and this is probably the most progressive that I have seen the Marine Corps be,” he said.

Leave a comment below!

WASHINGTON – Some 300,000 U.S. troops are suffering from major depression or post traumatic stress from serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 320,000 received brain injuries, a new study estimates.

Only about half have sought treatment, said the study released Thursday by the RAND Corporation.

“There is a major health crisis facing those men and women who have served our nation in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Terri Tanielian, the project’s co-leader and a researcher at the nonprofit RAND.

“Unless they receive appropriate and effective care for these mental health conditions, there will be long-term consequences for them and for the nation,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The 500-page study is the first large-scale, private assessment of its kind – including a survey of 1,965 service members across the country, from all branches of the armed forces and including those still in the military as well veterans who have left the services.

Its results appear consistent with a number of mental health reports from within the government, though the Defense Department has not released the number of people it has diagnosed or who are being treated for mental problems. The Department of Veterans Affairs said this month that its records show about 120,000 who served in the two wars and are no longer in the military have been diagnosed with mental health problems. Of the 120,000, approximately 60,000 are suffering from PTSD, the VA said.

Veterans Affairs is responsible for care of service members after they have left the service, while the Defense Department covers active duty and reservist needs. The lack of information from the Pentagon was one motivation for the RAND study, Tanielian said.

The most prominent and detailed military study on mental health that is released is the Army’s survey of soldiers at the warfront. Officials said last month that it’s most recent one, done last fall, found 18.2 percent of soldiers suffered a mental health problem such as depression, anxiety or acute stress in 2007 compared with 20.5 percent the previous year.

The Rand study, completed in January, put the percentage of PTSD and depression at 18.5 percent, calculating that approximately 300,000 current and former service members were suffering from those problems at the time of its survey, which was completed in January.

The figure is based on Pentagon data showing over 1.6 million military personnel have deployed to the conflicts since the war in Afghanistan began in late 2001.

RAND researchers also found:

-About 19 percent – or some 320,000 services members – reported that they experienced a possible traumatic brain injury while deployed. In wars where blasts from roadside bombs are prevalent, the injuries can range from mild concussions to severe head wounds.

-About 7 percent reported both a probable brain injury and current PTSD or major depression.

-Only 43 percent reported ever being evaluated by a physician for their head injuries.

-Only 53 percent of service members with PTSD or depression sought help over the past year.

-They gave various reasons for not getting help, including that they worried about the side effects of medication; believe family and friends could help them with the problem, or that they feared seeking care might damage their careers.

-Rates of PTSD and major depression were highest among women and reservists.

The report is titled “Invisible Wounds of War: Psychological and Cognitive Injuries, Their Consequences, and Services to Assist Recovery.” It was sponsored by a grant from the California Community Foundation and done by 25 researchers from RAND Health and the RAND National Security Research Division, which also has done does work under contracts with the Pentagon and other defense agencies as well as allied foreign governments and foundations.

The Navy has always (In the past) had a culture of being portrayed as “FAT & LAZY”, unless you were a DOC who has served with the FMF. Those days are over especially since the IA (Individual Augmantee) program has kicked in. We now have quad zero’s with boots on the ground in IRAQ as well as Afghanistan and Africa.

Our culture itself has made us fat and lazy with the ease in which we can do things. When I was young as my son is @ 6 years old, I would have been outside all day long playing Cops and Robbers, or Cowboys and Indians (Now Native Americans of which I am one). I would come in after the day hot, dirty and sweaty and complain that I needed a bath.

Not anymore since the advent of Cable, Fast Food, and Video Games, Kids are now couch potatoes. Why? Look who is sitting next to them. Who are they emulating?

Well I myself even though I am retired am going to read this instruction, and am going to incorporate PT (Good for you, Good for me) in my daily life as are my kids. I even have convinced my kids principal to start a Daily PT Program each day with 30 mins of exercise next year. Yours truly will be leading it. Who knew?

Anyways, You can download OPNAVINST 6110.1H and the change to it OPNAVINST 6110.1H/CH1. I would advise highly reading it regardless if you are going to PT more as you are a DOC, and we always get questions about this program from shipmates in other rates, and I would bet you will see it again on your advancement tests.