Known as “grunts,” Marine Corps infantrymen have been fighting and winning our nation’s battles for more than 241 years. Here’s a quick look at their lives.
Military recruiters are trained to convince young adults to sign up for service, but many prospects need a more than just a smooth talker to get them to enlist.
We’ve all seen the Air Force recruiting posters of high-spirited airmen, standing tall that make us think about how cool it’d be to become a combat controller. And while those posters are nice, having an epic recruiting video in your arsenal is what might put the final touches on someone’s decision to join.
So, check out six of the best Air Force recruiting commercials, ranked based on how freaking motivating they are.
6. “I Knew One Day”
As kids, we all have dreams of personal success and we all strive to be great. This Air Force recruiting ad showcases how serving will push airmen to and beyond those dreams.
Many of us in college aren’t sure what we want to do after graduation. This epic ad helps guide those newly graduated students into a career in the Air Force.
The U.S. Army and Marine Corps mount the systems on the back trucks they can drive into position to obliterate an enemy force.
Marines with 2nd Battalion, 14th Marine Regiment fired their HIMARS a few weeks ago using the new Guided MLRS Unitary Rocket that features a precision strike capability.
While conducting a simulated raid they fired their rockets at a number of targets at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. (And they were even kind enough to place cameras downrange to catch the destruction of the targets.)
Ask any troop who has deployed about their most uncomfortable moment and they’ll probably mention the combat landing on their first day in-country. You can prepare grunts for the rigors of combat, yes, but you can’t prepare them to be sloshed around in an aircraft that’s packed like a can of sardines as it descends downward in a near-vertical corkscrew that stops on a dime.
Also called an assault landing or Sarajevo landing, cargo pilots have to do a combat landing if enemy presence is expected in the area. To avoid giving them an easy target, pilots must do three things: A corkscrew over the area to come down from cruising altitude, descend in a sharp drop before landing, and come to a complete stop using as little runway as possible.
Before coming to the airfield, cargo planes like the C-130 have an average cruising altitude of 18,000 feet. The plane will then arrive roughly seven to ten minutes before the scheduled landing. This is where the fun landing begins.
It’s a pretty view… if you’re on the left side… (U.S. Air Force photo/Osakabe Yasuo)
When the plane is in line with the landing strip, it will drop. While commercial airliners come in at around 3 degrees to provide a nice, gentle landing for the passengers, the Air Force is perfectly fine with coming in at 60 degrees. At the last possible moment, pilots pull up so the landing gears are what hit the runway.
If that wasn’t fun enough, the plane will then need to stop on a dime. To do this, as soon as the wheels touch, they open the slats (or spoilers) and put the plane into full reverse.
Inertia is not your friend.
If you’re riding in the back, no one will judge you if you expel what remains of your lunch. However, you will get laughed at. Troops will always laugh at each other.
Feature image: U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Kevin Tanenbaum
Director Paul Katis sits down for an exclusive interview with We Are The Mighty to discuss the story behind the making of ‘Kilo Two Bravo’, hitting select theaters November 13th and available on iTunes on November 10th!
Navy veteran and Food Network Allstar, August Dannehl cooks a four course meal for his fellow vets based on stories from their service. A braised pork belly inspired by the MRE’s feared dehydrated pork product, Chicken Tagine inspired by a training mission in Morocco – these elements provide the backdrop for a holiday celebration between veterans.
When vet comic James P. Connolly (host of WATM’s “Vet on the Streets” series) was in the Marine Corps, he experienced a rawer version of the MRE. Without pomp and frills, many of the early MREs contained something called Dehydrated Pork Product. The only solution to this madness was the tiny Tabasco sauce bottle slipped into the box.
Braised Pork Belly with Cipollini Jam and Tabasco Caramel
Inspired by James’ memory of the early MRE with ”Dehydrated Pork Product”
Ingredients
Pork Belly
2 lb pork belly
2 cups cola
2 cups beer
1/2 cup soy sauce(low salt)
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup ginger (thinly sliced)
4 garlic cloves
1 large onion (diced)
2 large carrots (diced)
2 strips bacon
Cipollini Jam
1 lb cipollini onions (sliced)
1 cup cola
1 cup red wine vinegar
Tabasco Caramel
1 tb butter
1/4 tabasco sauce
2 tb agave syrup
2 tsp xanthan gum
Also need
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
scallions (chopped) for garnish
Prepare
Prepare the pork belly by scoring the skin crossways and placing in a large plastic bag with ginger, 2 cloves garlic, soy sauce and brown sugar. Seal bag and let sit in refrigerator overnight.
Heat olive oil in medium sauce pan and add cipollini to sweat. Once translucent, about 3-5 minutes, add cola and vinegar, reduce heat to lowest possible and reduce until the consistency of thick jam.
Meanwhile, heat tabasco, agave syrup and butter over medium heat for 2 minutes. Once heated, add xanthan gum and stir until tabasco separates into thick caramel-like syrup.
Preheat oven to 300°. Render bacon in large, oven-safe pan over medium heat, add onion, the rest of the garlic, carrots and sauté for 5 minutes. Raise temperature of pan to high and add a tb or so of olive oil to pan. Add pork belly mixture, starting skin side down and let cook for 3 mins of each side.
Add cola and beer and let cook for 10 minutes. Once liquid is reduced by 1/4 place entire pan in oven and let braise for 2 hours covered then 1 hour uncovered until the meat is very tender.
To serve heat skin of belly with kitchen torch(or broiler) for 2 mins to crisp skin and serve with tabasco caramel and cipollini jam.
Could Boeing be out of the fighter business in the near future? That question has been kicking around in recent years as air forces are looking to advanced planes like the Lockheed F-35 Lightning or for cheaper options like the Saab Gripen.
A big reason is that Boeing’s entry for a new Joint Strike Fighter, the X-32, lost that competition. A 2014 report from DefenceAviation.com noted that Boeing was producing an average of four jets a month.
The X-32 takes off for Naval Air Station Patuxent River, MD, from Little Rock AFB in 2001. The X-32 was one of two experimental aircraft involved in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. (DOD photo)
The company has made some sales for versions of the F-15E Strike Eagle, but aside from Australia, there have not been many export orders for the F/A-18E/F Super Horner and EA-18G Growler (granted, the Marines could use the Super Hornet to replace aging F/A-18C/D Hornets in a more expeditious manner). The company has marketed the Super Hornet to India in the wake of the problems India has had in adapting the Tejas for carrier operations, and did a video promoting an advanced F-15C.
Boeing is not completely out of the light jet business. It has teamed up with Saab for an entry into the T-X competition that also includes the Lockheed T-50 and the T-100 from Leonardo and Raytheon. It also recently got an order for 36 F-15QAs from Qatar, according to FlightGlobal.com. Qatar also bought 36 Eurofighter Typhoons and 36 Dassault Rafales.
Boeing is also preparing for an upgrade to the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet line. The Block III Super Hornet will feature conformal fuel tanks for longer range and improved avionics, including a new radar and better electronic countermeasures systems. President Trump’s budget proposals did include buying 80 more Super Hornets.
Such purchases could only be delaying the inevitable. The Navy and Air Force are reportedly planning a sixth-generation fighter in the FA-XX project, but that may still be years into the future.
For centuries, friends and foes of Russia marveled at the fierce fighting skills of their Cossack Warriors. The Cossacks fought to defend the Russian Czar against any manner of enemies – from Ottoman Turks to Napoleon’s Grande Armée, through a World War, and even against the Bolshevik Red Army.
The last one had admittedly mixed results.
They expanded the borders of the Russian Empire, conquering Siberia and the Caucasus regions for the Czar, all the way to the Bering Sea – capturing one-sixth of the Earth’s land area. Their martial prowess was unmatched in the region for a long time and they refused to be tied to any master. Even the name “Cossack” in the Turkic languages of the time and area meant “free,” “adventurer,” or “wanderer.”
Cossack loyalty to the Russian Czar was earned over centuries of fighting to maintain that independence. Many Czars were faced with Cossack uprisings and were forced to deal with them in their own ways, from putting down the rebellion or forcibly moving the population to another area of the Russian Empire.
From a young age, Cossacks raised their children to be elite warriors and ethnically Cossack in every way possible. Training could begin in infancy and only ever stop in an actual pitched battle.
Keep your head down!
Eventually, the Russian nobility came to accept the Cossacks, endowing them with certain rights and privileges in the Empire for their continued service in defending Russia’s borders. And they earned those rights, too. After his Grand Armée was forced out of Russia, the Cossacks harassed them all the way back to France. It was the Cossacks who captured Paris and unseated the French Emperor.
When the Empire fell during World War I and the Czar abdicated, the Cossacks were divided between the Red and White factions of the Russian Civil War. They fought primarily for the White (anti-Communist) Russians, which earned them persecution when the Bolsheviks won the war and founded the Soviet Union.
The persecution got so bad, many Cossacks fought for Nazi Germany during WWII.
USAF Pararescueman Cameron Hystad sat down with We Are The Mighty to talk about his role in saving the British paratroopers in the minefield at Kajaki. The story of Kajaki has been adapted for the big screen as ‘Kilo Two Bravo’, hitting select theaters Nov 13th and available on iTunes Nov 10th.
The Lahti anti-tank rifle looks a little unusual, showing a pair of skis on the front. But then again, it does come from Finland.
According to Modernfirearms.net, the Lahti L-39, also known as the Norsupyssy — or “elephant gun” — fired a 20x138mm round and had a 10-shot clip. While not effective against the most modern tanks, like the Russian T-34, the rifle proved to be useful against bunkers and other material targets. One variant was a full-auto version used as an anti-aircraft gun.
Lahti L-39 anti-tank rifle. (Photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Don’t laugh. According to the 25th Infantry Division Association’s website, American personnel used the Browning Automatic Rifle — or BAR — against the Japanese planes during the attack on Pearl Harbor.
This semi-auto rifle was kept in Finnish military stocks until the 1980s, when many were scrapped. This makes the M107 Barrett used by the United States military look like a mousegun.
A number of these rifles, though, were declared surplus and sold in the United States in the early 1960s. The Gun Control Act of 1968, though, placed these rifles under some very heavy controls — even though none were ever used in crimes.
A Lahti L-39 anti-tank rifle used during World War II. (Photo from Wikimedia Commons)
In this video, the punch this rifle packed is very apparent. The people who set up the test put up 16 quarter-inch steel plates. You can see what that shell does to the plates in this GIF.
It’s interesting to see how some countries come up with solutions that would fit perfectly in a military-themed episode of MacGyver. Egypt, for example, came up with a solution for the Mistral-class amphibious assault ship when it needed some extra air defense – they tacked some M1097 Avenger air-defense vehicles onto the flight deck of the otherwise unarmed vessel.
Of course, the good guys are not the only ones capable of innovation. The Houthi rebels in Yemen, who made the news in 2016 by taking pot shots at American ships on multiple occasions and earning a few Tomahawks in return, jury-rigged an AA-11 Archer air-to-air missile to fire at a Saudi fighter earlier this year. That Saudi F-15S, thankfully, was able to decoy the missile away using flares.
Now, the Houthis have made some more impromptu innovations, this time using the R-27 air-to-air missile, known to NATO as the AA-10 “Alamo.” A propaganda video recently released by the Houthis show an apparent hit on a Royal Saudi Air Force F-15S, causing “severe damage.”
A Royal Saudi Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle departs for a training mission over the Nevada Test and Training Range during Red Flag 12-2 Jan. 27, 2011, at Nellis Air Force Base. (DOD photo)
The AA-10 is a medium-to-long range air-to-air missile that was introduced in the 1980s and first used on MiG-29 Fulcrum and Su-27 Flanker fighters. Depending on the version, it has a range of up to roughly 80 miles. Some versions of the missile use semi-active radar-homing guidance, while others are heat seekers.
They say any landing you can walk away from is a good landing. Well, some landings can stretch the meaning of good. Take the photo below of a F9F crash. You have probably seen the video version in the 1990 film “Hunt for Red October” as a damaged F-14 or as the crash landing of a battle-damaged SBD that killed Matt Garth (played by Charlton Heston) in the 1976 film “Midway.”
Believe it or not, the pilot of that crash survived, and one big reason was the specially trained firefighters who handle such crashes. You can’t just throw any firefighter into this situation. Planes tend to be a special case, especially with the jet fuel on board.
The job falls to Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting Specialists. In the Marine Corps, this is known as MOS 7051. To become one, candidates must be at least 64 inches tall, they have to have vision no worse than 20/50 (correctable to 20/20), and can’t have any impairment in their color vision. Then they have to meet certain medical standards and pass the Fire Protection Apprentice (Marines) Course, while hitting certain marks on the ASVAB.
Marine Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting Specialists during training. (U.S. Marine Corps video by Sgt. Kate Busto)
After all that, their days are often spent training, going over the lessons learned from a given training mission, inspecting their gear, and doing all the things necessary to be ready when that moments comes. A 2015 release from the Marine Corps described how some of these Marines trained with Thai counterparts.
One of their exercises involved torching an airframe that had been slated for the scrapyard. That plane, a former Thai Airways C-47, ended up giving the Marines and their Thai Navy counterparts some real-life training.
Cpl. Justin Groom stokes the fire inside of a scrap airplane during a fire response scenario at Utapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield, Kingdom of Thailand. (Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Joshua Murray)
You can see a video of some of these well-trained – and gutsy – Marines below. These aircraft rescue firefighters are stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan. These Marines stand ready to act if a plane crashes – or just catches fire – an event they hope never happens for real. (U.S. Marine Corps video by Sgt. Kate Busto)
