U.S. Marines Pose under Nazi SS Banner
The Marine Corps is back in the hot seat just weeks after receiving extreme public scrutiny for young solidiers urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters.
Outrage swept across Washington when a picture surfaced of United States Marines in Afghanistan posing beneath the dual lightning banner of the Nazi SS.
The photograph, supposedly taken in 2010, shows members of the 1st Reconnaissaince Battalion stationed at a base in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
The image in question shows 10 soldiers, heavily armed, kneeling before the American Flag as well as a second banner displaying the inflammatory symbol -- that Americans fought against.
The Nazi SS were Adolf Hitler's secret police during World War II. They were the soldiers explicitly charged with exterminating millions of European Jews.
The Pentagon did not comment on whether or not the Marines displayed in the picture had been reprimanded, saying only that officials were aware of the photograph's existence and that the unit in Helmand Province had been instructed to discontinue use of the SS symbol.
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SINCE WHEN WHERE U A MARINE? Cloak N. Dagr? One has to get thru basic training to become a marine Mr. Dagr.
"All I feel, when I kill, is recoil" Good grief Mr Loverink, you have never killed anyone in your life. Still feeding your ego I see.
Cloak and Dagr, THANK YOU for responding to the fool who thought this was a secret sniper group. How ignorant. Once again, the USMC has made me personally feel ill about being a US Marine. These guys, who happened by assholes give all of us Marines a bad name. As for the fool who "Badkarma" calling our CiC out, you've never served, been shot, been shot at or had to kill. Your comments as one who has been in those extreme situations, are rude, disingenuous and ignorant. You say, BadKarma is not "worth the sweat they lose training". Neither do you. You have no idea how we train so you need to shut your mouth! You are disgraceful individual who disrespects the High Office. You don't speak for us and never can and you never will. Personally, I didn't vote for this president and won't vote for him again. But respect is respect. Let's be clear: It was Bush who push us in harm's way; 2 unilateral wars and no WMD to be found. Only to hear, that Rumsfeld went public with the fact that all of it was a made up lie. Where is disdain and hatred for a republican administration who (1) got us attacked on 9/11 and then lied to the American people about why we should invade; and (2) who sent us into combat for no reason at all?
It is ashamed that I have classified as a "Wounded Warriors" for crap like you who claims you US Marines are in 'grave danger' when WE ARE PULLING OUT! How does that work? BadKarma's post is horrific and I don't have respect for him, considering I've been in the Corps for 20 years. But your post attacking the President, with no disdain for the jackass who actually PUT us in 'grave danger' (which you seem to forget) is completely idiotic.
What those troops did is moronic and unpatriotic. I assure you all, they have been dealt with. Unfortunately, the Pentagon official who was quoted in this article, did not mention a court-martial....which is what should've happened. The picture makes me and my wife, who is also a US Marine, VOMIT. By looking at the picture, one can see these are all poor white trash boys, who have nothing to look forward to in life. They probably come from backwater town, full of racism and hatred. What these clowns don't seem to get is that they are political pawns for the GOP (read: their vote) and that they represent the entire Corps when they do stupid asinine stuff like this. This, along with urinating on dead corpses, is unacceptable. Personally, if you want to blame someone, you should blame the CO and\or XO for (apparently) not instilling the honor code of the uniform into these unpatriotic a-holes. These are all young BOYS; make no mistake: These are NOT grown men!!!
@USMCVet (so there's no misunderstanding):
Your posting, while passionate, is so poorly written that I can't figure out if you're calling me a liar, supporting me, attacking someone else, or just ranting. 20 years, my assumption would be you could put together several paragraphs that were clearly stated.
No one suggested that they (the Marines in question) were a "secret sniper group". There's nothing secret about STA Teams; everyone that's been in the Marine Corps Infantry knows about them and some of us actually have teammates that received assignments to them. So, if you're doubting that those Marines are Scout Snipers, you need to take a careful look at their equipment, especially the two clearly identifiable sniper rifles and the remaining weapons, NONE of which are standard issue service rifles.
There is an article about this, actually written by a journalist, not some fool who knows nothing of military affairs (just use the headline of this article on Google), which gives the source of the photo. Many of us made knee-jerk "why did they post that?" assumptions. Apparently we were all wrong; the photo was released by Knight's Armament on their corporate blog and is, so it states in the article, from 2010. According to that article, it was submitted to Knight's Armament through an open request for photos of the company's products in end-user hands. This means some nimrod was perusing the site, saw it, and threw it even further afield.
Now. I never called the President out on anything. HOWEVER "Vet", it happens to be my RIGHT to do so, it is therefore your OBLIGATION, whether you like it or not, since you took an oath, to DEFEND that right if I or anyone else choose to EXERCISE it. So whether you were slamming me or someone else for smack-talking the President, shut your damn "mouth" and honor your obligation and responsibility to your fellow Americans; either defend your/my/our/his/their right to state their opinions or walk away. By the way, the last four lines of that first paragraph appear to be giving disrespect to a President. How can you justify slamming someone for something you spend almost four complete lines doing?
It really is nearly impossible to figure out who you're ranting at/about. I THINK it's me, or part of it is aimed at me. Unfortunately, it's so poorly worded in the section I assume is aimed at me that it's difficult to rebut your statement. I will address that one line about the post being horrific. Which one? I made two prior to this. What's horrific? Please, educate us.
Since we're on the topic of clarity, there's something that's perfectly clear. You threw Marines under the bus in that last paragraph AND you went overly-dramatic. The picture did NOT make you or your wife vomit. One cannot tell if they're "poor white-trash boys" or Rhodes Scholars, and certainly not someone who demonstrates such a lack of control over their native tongue as you. Continuing, if THEY are political pawns of the GOP (how we got on political parties is beyond me, but you took us here), and you and your wife are Marines...then by your admission the pair of you are also/were also pawns of the GOP.
How, pray tell, can you assure us "they have been dealt with"? At the most, the nine visible Marines in the photo (look to the edges) would be guilty of Article 134 (assuming they're all enlisted men), the General Article. Nothing about the photo indicates "hate speech", a lack of "patriotism", and nothing there is really grounds for a court-martial.
Umm...just one more thing that you either screwed up or just "sort of missed"; no Pentagon official is quoted in the article (such as it is). NO one is quoted in the article, no one at all. No quotes, not even so much as an "ahem" quoted in there.
Learn to read, then learn to apply critical thought, please. You're not defending anyone if you can't put together some manner of critical thought in a straightforward, logical, and understandable manner.
Did anyone in the media think about the fact this is a Scout Sniper unit?
Think just might explain SS being used.
As for it looking like the Nazi Symbol
Here's the SS flag. http://www.totls.com/NAZI%20SS%20FLAG.jpg
But that SS looks a lot like these ones too.
http://musicwallpapers.net/k/wallpapers/Kiss/big/Kiss_21.jpg
Having S shaped like lightning bolts doesn't make you a NAZI.
In fact I'd argue lightning is a damn good symbol of a sniper. They both strike before you have a chance to react.
Then again maybe they should have used images of Pacific Tribesmen. I mean they call themselves Kopfjagers which means Head Hunters.
Force Recon is NOT a Scout Sniper "group" though it may contain Scout Sniper qualified individuals.
Force Recon is USMC Special Forces, like Green Berets are Army Special Forces and the SEALS are Navy Special Forces.
Having served in the Marine Corps I can tell you that political correctness is not generally something a Marine concerns himself with. Marines are not likely to lose a moments sleep over what civilians think of any given topic.
That said, these guys need to be a little more circumspect in what they let the public see, this is a negative image that does not help the Marine Corps. Though the Waffen SS was a most capable fighting force, the SS Einsatzgruppen was in charge of the concentration camps so I'm sure they were not showing admiration for the Einsatzgruppen but rather the Waffen SS. Even so, show some good sense guys and don't let pics like this get out in public where the liberal whiners and the non-hackers can see them. It does nothing good for the Corps.
"Having served in the marine Corps"....... Mr Dagr, get a grip on reality.....After all these years you are still feeding that ego of yours.......YOU WERE NEVER A MARINE.......One has to pass basic training and then graduate.......WHICH YOU NEVER DID........
See i was going by other sources including an article in the Marine Corps Times that stated this was a Scout Sniper unit.
Okay, THAT is a group of Marines identified in the article as being members of 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, NOT 1st Force Reconnaissance. First point, Recon units do not carry snipers, though they may carry some VERY good shots. The STA Teams (Surveillance, Targeting, and Acquisition, also known as Scout Snipers) handle that job. Recon and STA have two separate missions; while certain aspects are similar, they do not mix skills. A recon team's job is never to engage the enemy; STA Teams eliminate the enemy.
My second point is this: Long has it been that Marine Corps Scout Sniper teams have used the SS rune symbol as their own. In 1992 at Camp Pendleton, during a range fire that incinerated five thousand acres, I distinctly remember seeing an immense SS rune exposed on the range berm separating Range 116 and Range 117/GP 34. It went from the top of the hill to about twenty feet from the flat and it had been dug into the face of the berm by E-Tools.
Point the third. The Marine Corps has NEVER adopted the SS Rune flag as any sort of official color. Nevertheless, you will find many former Scout Snipers with those letters tattooed somewhere on their bodies. Not all, not even a majority, but there are plenty out there.
They're not racists or Nazis. Those Marines don't care if the target is Jew, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Catholic, Italian, American, German, Iranian, Japanese, or the Man From Mars...if they get a valid and legal order to shoot, it doesn't matter, the target gets sanctioned. Race and religion have nothing to do with it.
Sorry, I read "1st Reconnaissance Battalion" but SAW "1st Recon", that is my bust and you're right.
I didn't say Recon carried Scout Sniper MOS's, I said that they may have individuals that had qualified the Scout Sniper course. Or not, the key word being "may". A Recon unit is by definition going to have some very good marksmen but marksmanship is not the sum total of a Scout Sniper or a Recon Ranger. It is merely one arrow in a very lethal quiver.
My day is long before yours so I can't address the emblem dug into the berm. I'll take your word for it and be glad to do so because it does not in any way surprise me. Back in my day there was a LOT of racial tension at Pendleton and some white guys would hang Nazi flags in their barracks. Superiors would see them and say "get that sh!t down off my bulkhead, NOW!" So they'd take them down and put them back up a few minutes later when no one was looking. Things eventually calmed down and that stuff stopped. Nothing has changed in the Marine Corps as far as this kind of thing goes, what has changed is there were no digital cameras and viral internet phenomenon back then so the general public never heard about it. Marines have been pissing on enemy dead for a long time too, that's nothing new either. Marines are people too, with all the foibles of any other people. They're just more deadly than grandma is, but then grandma isn't called upon to go 10,000 miles from home to kill and die either.
You are absolutely correct on the point of certain highly professional Marines being devoid of any motivation but hitting their designated or cleared target. All I feel, when I kill, is recoil.
Semper Fi.
Wow !!!
You are absolutely correct on the point of certain highly professional Marines being devoid of any motivation but hitting their designated or cleared target. All I feel, when I kill, is recoil.
Tell me, is the above sentence you posted suppose to make people believe 1) That you were a marine? 2) That you have killed people? because we both know you have only killed rabbits... 3) That you would know that Marines are devoid of any motivation??? Interesting...
Shame on you Mr. Loverink.....what's next? Will you tell them you were an FBI agent?