The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, ran a story today about some “Marines” in Afghanistan sporting tight pink shirts with pop-star Justin Bieber on them. When I first saw the headline I thought why would any U.S. Marine — a hardened warrior — sport a tight Justin Bieber shirt?
Then I looked more closely and something seems off. These guys have a lot of hair. And the guy on the left needs to police his ‘stache. The Daily Mail reports that the photos were uploaded to Reddit by someone identifying themselves only as vchama.
Thus begins my conspiracy theory. I think this is all a ruse — part of an inter-service rivalry in Afghanistan. Are these guys Royal Marines? Are they Canadian soldiers who couldn’t resist supporting their fellow countryman? Yes Bieber is Canadian. I thought this must be a practical joke and whoever these guys are stole some MarPat to sully the good name of the U.S. Marine Corps.
Well, as the dedicated investigative journalist I am, always asking the hard questions and digging into the core of what is important to the Corps, I tracked down the user’s account. There I found a caption that didn’t say much, but does say THESE ARE CANADIANS! NOT U.S. MARINES! Also after a detailed forensic analysis of the photos it was revealed that the utilities worn by these solders are not actual MarPat.
As further evidence that these are not U.S. Marines these photos were also on the account.
What do you think the story behind these photos is?
3 Comments
Well, the amount of hair might be suspect, but my kid sported what we lovingly refer to a serious ‘white boy fro’ for much of his first tour to the Big Ugly (Marjeh 2010). Their belts don’t look like MCMAP belts either, but Marines with time on their hands are notorious for practical jokes, so it wouldn’t be a stretch, lest we forget the Brittany Spears lip-sync. With that being said, maybe these lads from up North merely love them some Bieber.
I don’t see why there even needs to be discussed. Besides the obvious discrepancy in grooming standards and belts, the uniform they are wearing is clearly CADPAT, not MARPAT. Though similar, it is easily distinguishable: http://strikehold.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/cadpat2252222320jx0.jpg
Not Marines. Case closed!
Canadian camo is what MARPAT was based off of so they are not ripping off MARPAT.