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The Marine Corps Times reports that a music video filmed at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan has stoked the fires of ye olde rivalry/antagonism/hatred between Marine Corps “grunts” (combat troops) and “persons other than grunts” (POGs). The Times’ Facebook page is simmering with sentiments like this: “I’m glad [they] have time to do this [expletive] while my 03s are dancing around bullets and IEDs.” As Corpsmen continue to lobby the Powers That Be for a crossed rifles insignia to indicate combat experience, the happy clappy video’s style (complete with rifle training) has pissed off more than a few grunts, past and present. Former Sgt. Charles Mabry II: “You do need to get away from that day-to-day routine. But you’re showing these Marines dancing and laughing to the entire world while Pfc. Schmucketelli is getting his legs blown off. I just don’t think it’s a very good look for the Marine Corps right now.” Perhaps not.

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45 COMMENTS

  1. Hmmmm. Tempest and teapot come to mind to describe this. Marines are gonna blow off steam. It’s not a big deal.

  3. Horrible lip syncing, awful choreogrpahy, and funny as hell. This is a perfectly good example what happens when you have extra time in the military. Which you will. Guaranteed.

    I learned to walk on my hands when I was in Infantry training, so there’s another useless skill, but YouTube didnt exist at that point.

    • Looks like the vehicle compound needs sweeping.

      At least, that was always the Sgt Maj’s first thought when we made our surplus of time too obvious. Good troops learn how to always maintain an appearance of being busy, while goofing off only out of sight of the higher ups.

  5. REMF’s will always have time to do crap like this. It’s really nothing new and a quick search on youtube will locate several videos of army, air force, navy and other Marine videos of equal stupidity. As a former active duty 0311, I can tell you a little bit of the hate is actually jealousy. Even as a young , dumb Lance Coolie, the fact that we had 10 miles left in our 20 mile hump at 1600 when the POG’s were wrapping up their day, was not lost on us. So let them make their BS videos and embarrass themselves. They never had our respect nor will they ever get it.

    It’s not just limited to military kids, just look at the US Gubmint stooges over at GSA who can’t stop screwing up even if they try, with their Las Vegas Convention and their “Christmas Video” fiasco.

  6. Eh. I’ve seen combat warriors goof off and post vids like this before. IMO, NBD.

    …and when is pfc Schmucketelli going to learn… or make rank?!?!?

    • “…and when is pfc Schmucketelli going to learn… or make rank?!?!?”
      ——
      Yeah, him and Amn Zippy have got to get their sh!t together one of these days.

  7. I’m a prior service Marine, and I love this video. Almost as much as the two Britney Spears videos on youtube. People getting upset over this are being silly. I’m glad people can see that Marines do have a sense of humor.

  8. People get upset about this? Yea…Maybe those Marines should just sit around and be depressed about being far from their families.

    As long as they are doing their job/executing their mission what harm does this cause?

  10. All Marines, hardly didn’t anybody notice the multicam only worn by Army troops in country. Also the two t-shirts that said ARMY on them. This video while cute and funny is not new at all, look up the Sun Kings from awhile back doing Hey-Ya, and Pump it, and the women of the USS Ronald Reagan doing Shania Twains That don’t Impress me much. Most if not all of these must have to pass through upper ranks to be done at all, and as such must be figured as good for morale.

  12. this is news? the 9th legion was no doubt calling the 10th legion candy asses 2000 years ago. inter service rivalry is to be expected and is no doubt healthy.

    • The 10th legion put down the Jewish Revolt and conquored Masada. The 9th got decimated by Boudica, a Celtic woman. If ancient Rome were to hand out awards for candy assedness, The 9th would be a top vote getter.

  13. These guys and gals are hardcore, tough individuals. What’s great is they also have the confidence in themselves to cut loose a little and have a good time. I’ve very proud of our troops for all that they do. Good for them showing the world they can laugh at themselves. I still rather not be at the business end of any rifle they might be pointing. If they want to do a little dancing in the middle of whatever hellhole they are currently at, I say go have a party. God Bless America.

  14. Jerry: “…Sun Kings from awhile back doing Hey-Ya, and Pump it…”

    While I’m well past over the “Call Me Maybe” thing, as soon as I saw people in uniform, I thought of the two examples you listed. A little over six years old, and they still make me laugh out loud, and usually dance around in my chair a little bit.

    For those that haven’t seen them:
    Hey Ya: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEkYqL9n7vo
    Pump It: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqaWdkdFb3Y

    I think Pump It is a little better, but not by much. Either way, they’re having so much damn fun, I challenge you to not be dancing along by the end of one or both of them.

    • That pump it video was almost the tipping point of me going military straight out of high school, but a scholarship intervened for now 🙂

    • In “Pump It” If you notice correctly the gentleman singing in his bathrobe was, from what I was told, either the C.A.G., or the Captain. And at the start the first pilot says no no the captain will never go for that, in reference to the opening cords of “Crazy Train”, so at least some of these are done with command staffs approval!!!

  17. There are a crap-ton of videos that grunts made in the field with music…just not as well produced as this one. Cudos to whomever made it, nice work.

    Looks like an argument about nothing. If grunts want crossed swords, sure why not, they did it before. But it has nothing to do with this. Down time is down time and light hearted fun is important to ALL who are in the service overseas and away from their family.

    • “There are a crap-ton of videos that grunts made in the field with music…just not as well produced as this one.”

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbdN74CI5c4

      From the days before people put their videos on YouTube…

      ‘Amarillo’ Video Crashes MoD PCs
      Tuesday, 17 May, 2005, 19:38 GMT 20:38 UK

      A spoof video of the song (Is This The Way To) Amarillo, performed by British soldiers in Iraq, has crashed Ministry of Defence computers.

      Troops in the Royal Dragoon Guards shot a home video at their Al Faw base of their version of the video sung by Tony Christie and mimed by Peter Kay.

      They e-mailed it to Army friends in London, but so many tried to download it that the MoD server could not cope.

      The MoD said the spoof was “brilliant” and the crash did not cause problems.

      A spokesman said: “The soldiers maintaining their morale on operations is always important.

      “The fact that it proved so popular in the office and caused the system to crash is unfortunate, but this did not affect operations and the system is up and running again.”

      According to the Sun newspaper, each download took up 52MB, causing the system to collapse.

  20. How can anyone slight troops for something like this is frankly ridiculous. They clearly don’t know squat about the military (hurry up and wait – alot) and certainly doesn’t realize the stress it is to be away from family & country for long periods of time, let alone facing the likelihood that you may lose your life and never see family or country again. Anything they can do to keep their sanity under these extreme circumstance is fine by me.

    Well done and thank to those in uniform for all you do.

  21. I take it the base commander was “at a conference” that day? I could only imagine the hell that would rain down if my last Wing King walked out to the flightline to see this being made.

    That said, great job folks. If they pulled off making this video in spare time , I can only imagine how deadly good they are at the job when the missions come down.

    • yes, some officers were managers and some were leaders. the leaders were a much better group overall. a leader with a sense of humor was really good.

  22. POG does not mean “people other than grunts,” it means “piece of garbage!” The military is made up of two types: Infantry, and Infantry support. It takes 8 to 12 POGS (or Pouges?) to support one infantryman.

    • james, i’m sure you had some interesting debates with the guys in tanks and artillery over those definitions. never forget the first time i called a navy man a squid. hilarity ensued. now i’m old enough to know we all had an important job to do and we did it to the best of our ability. all men and women who served honorably and well get respect from me.

  24. Reading Dex’s comment just now, a question occurred to me:

    When did REMF’s become POG’s? Are they the same thing? Are they different? Is POG just (God forbid) a more PC term?

    I was not in the military, so answers from people with actual experience (not chairborne commandos) would be appreciated.

  25. matt in florida. it’s beem close to 40 years since my service. back then remf was translated to “rear area mother f–ker” i had never heard of “pog” until i found ttag. it’s probably just a difference in generations anf their slang. when i belonged to the american legion and the vfw i had more regular contacts with vets of different ages but since i gave up drinking the only memberships i have now is nra and saf.

  26. Much ado about nothing. My battalion in Iraq had its share of videos and we had substantial amount of combat.

    Some people are just quite immature and worry about this stuff. The “crossed rifles” issue is pure silliness and will never amount to anything and it’s a horrible shame that anyone above the age of 17 pays it any heed.

  27. I have an easy rule to determine whether or not someone working an easier job in the same branch of service deserves scorn for playing around:

    Does their screwing around cause a problem for me?

    If no: Whatever.

    If yes: Okay, now we have a problem.

    Guess what? Making a silly video like this doesn’t do anything to help or hinder grunts outside the wire. It’s nothing but sour grapes over having a shitty time in a tough job, pure and simple.

    TL;DR: Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen will bitch about anything and everything. It’s almost never newsworthy.

  28. Good for them. Hell yeah. If you’ve never been in the military being oversea sucks really bad especially when you have sand and more sand to play with for months if not years while someone tries to kill you.
    If you have an issue with this, raise your right hand and walk in their boots for a spell, say four years or so….

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