If you follow sports on the Internet, you’ve likely heard of Matt Ufford. The Marine veteran has turned his quick wit into a writing career on sites like Kissing Suzy Kolber, With Leather and SB Nation, churning out both analysis and off-color humor from his lair in Brooklyn, N.Y. Ufford has touched on his military service on occasion in the past. Still, his new piece on GQ.com will probably resonate with the many readers here who were involved in the initial invasion of Iraq 10 years ago this week. Ufford was a platoon commander with 1st Tank Battalion, out of…
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Update: Redskins senior vice president of communications Tony Wyllie said the team sends out letters similar to this one whenever they can as a gesture of support for American men and women in uniform. An area NFL team has proved that being a fan can go both ways. Capt. Jason A. Haag of Fredericksburg, Va., who marked his last day on active duty yesterday, opened his mailbox today to find a hearty salute from the Washington Redskins. On official team letterhead, the note thanks him for his service and wishes him well. “Commitment is a quality that transcends from your…
A viral video sensation has taken hold over the last few weeks in which people break it down to the “Harlem Shake,” a rowdy song by Baauer, an American producer and DJ. Not surprisingly, Marines jumped in on this quickly. A quick search this morning shows there are numerous Marine Corps-themed “Harlem Shake” videos, some of which can definitely get a person with a reasonable sense of humor laughing. I present the following without judgment, and with the disclaimer that there may be some suggestive dance moves in here. Still, they’ll definitely live on in Bored Marine Video lore: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6o0F9BnouI[/youtube]…
Rapper 50 Cent has taken criticism before for wearing Marine Corps uniforms even though he never served — but he probably didn’t expected to hear from Cpl. Matthew B. Schafer. Someone using that name posted on 50 Cent’s Facebook page on Monday, ripping the rapper for wearing dress blues in the screen grab posted above. Said Schafer: My Name Is Cpl Schafer Matthew B United States Marine Corps And The Reason I Am Writing This Is To Ask You What The F— You Think Your Doing Disgracing My Uniform We All Damn Well Know You NEVER Served In My Corps…
Virtually anyone who watched the presidential inauguration Monday agreed: singer Beyonce’s performance of the national anthem was chilling. As good as it was, however, it’s now controversial. Multiple reports today suggest that she wasn’t actually singing the national anthem, but lip syncing as the U.S. Marine Band’s music played. Interestingly, it appears the Marine band itself has confirmed the lip syncing. From Washingtonian’s blog: “We don’t know why Beyoncé decided to use prerecorded music,” a spokesperson for the Marine Corps Band told us this morning. “All music [for inaugural ceremonies] is prerecorded as a matter of course, and that’s something…
Marines are always pretty quick to jump on the latest pop song craze, and “Gangnam Style” is no exception. Marine wife, Erin Giove, posted this video of the III MEF Rock Band taking the stage in their dress blues and Santa hats during a holiday show in Okinawa, Japan, to her Facebook page yesterday. In the video, the Marines bust out their moves to South Korean musician PSY’s pop hit to a cheering crowd. Giove’s video has already been shared about 6,000 times on Facebook and has about 1,800 Likes. The Weather Channel’s “Coast Guard Florida” TV show shared it…
OK, we admit it. We just can’t seem to get enough zombie stuff. Strategic Operations, Inc., familiar to many Marines and sailors as the San Diego studio-turned-tactical trainers who use Hollywood magic to create Hyper-Realistic combat training, is crafting scenes for a training conference in San Diego next month. Organized by The HALO Corp., a private security firm, the HALO Counter-Terrorism Summit will offer several realistic scenarios to more than 1,000 attendees as the company takes over the 44-acre Paradise Point Resort in the playground of Mission Bay and turns it into movie sets for the Oct. 29-Nov. 2 event.…
A gunny’s reaction to a college football player has earned him an interesting fan appreciation: He was made into a funny GIF that’s making its rounds on the Internet. Gunnery Sgt. Stephen Roberts is the Assistant Marine Officer Instructor for the NROTC program at Ole Miss, SB Nation reported. He oversees the color guard at each Rebels home game, so he was on the field in the second quarter of the Sept. 16 Ole Miss game against Texas. That’s when ESPN cameras caught an interesting moment. Longhorns receiver Marquise Goodwin made a 69-yard touchdown run to put Texas up 17-7 — and came…
Virtually everyone has heard of Flat Stanley, the children’s book favorite who has been photographed all over the world. He’s the star of the Flat Stanley Project, which was launched to teach children how to write letters to each other while they learn about geography. Marines and soldiers who served in Marjah, Afghanistan, have their own version of sorts of Flat Stanley, I’ve learned. Key difference: instead of the lovable children’s favorite, they went with Stan Marsh, the foul-mouthed South Park character. Consider the following: Or this: Or this: These photographs come to me by way of the troops who served…
I was embedded with Marines in Afghanistan this spring when a member of the Afghan National Army walked up at a small outpost and pointed to the thumb drive plugged into my laptop computer. “Can I have it?” he seemed to be asking. Considering the drive had many of the photographs I had taken while on patrol that day in Kajaki district with 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, I was hesitant to turn it over. A corporal explained that the Afghan didn’t want the actual drive, but was hopeful there was American music on it that he could try. The Marines…
