Rumors

Tattoos and Terminal Lance: the 5 most surprising things we learned from the commandant’s live Q&A

By Hope Hodge Seck on March 17, 2014 Commandant, Pop culture, Rumors, Special operations, The blogosphere, The CMC

The commandant and sergeant major of the Marine Corps took to Facebook last Friday afternoon, answering nearly 30 candid questions from the Marine Corps community in the space of an hour as part of his ongoing “Reawakening” effort to engage directly with enlisted Marines. According to site administrators on the official Marines Facebook page, some 900 questions and comments rolled in during the hour Gen. Jim Amos and Sgt. Maj. Mike Barrett were online. While Amos addressed a number of popular themes, such as women in combat arms roles, recruiting, and sexual assault prevention, he also revealed some surprising facts…

Behind the Cover: Busted for ‘Sammich’ Jokes

By Hope Hodge Seck on May 21, 2013 Behind the Cover, Pop culture, Rumors, The blogosphere

A female Marine finds photos from her personal Facebook account re-posted on a Marine humor page and subjected to derogatory and sexual comments. This happens not once, but again and again, and it doesn’t stay online: she gets honked and yelled at in the street when she’s walking near her base, and her friends tell her she’s developed a reputation as a “barracks mattress,” because Marines think that if she gets posted to these sites, she must be a slut. On Facebook pages like “Just The Tip, Of The Spear,” and others, most users say there’s no problem with what…

The Corps gets the Jeopardy! treatment

By Hope Hodge Seck on March 29, 2013 Battle Rattle, Competitions, Marines, Pop culture, Rumors

What is Oorah? The classic trivia game show Jeopardy had a motivated night on Thursday with a second-round category titled “The United States Marines.” Contestants Rebecca Rider, Brian Daner, and Tom Carroll could have used some time in history and heritage training; of the five questions in the category, they got two wrong. Maybe they need more practice: a search of the fan-curated episode archive shows that while a category on Marine biology pops up about once a year, the last time the Corps got a dedicated category was 2009, when the National Museum of the Marine Corps was featured. See…

Behind the Cover: The new Lance Corporal Underground

By Dan Lamothe on August 24, 2010 Behind the Cover, Rumors

There are rumor mills in nearly every working environment in America, and the Marine Corps is no different. This week, Marine Corps Times reviews where many rumors in the service “grow legs”: The Lance Corporal Underground. One part rumor mill and one part peer support group, the Underground has an age-old reputation for clueing in some of the service’s most junior members on important information early — when it gets the gouge right. Marine Corps Times decided to review how the Underground has evolved in recent years, and what those evolutions mean. It’s safe to say rumors aren’t just passed…

To beret, or not to beret

By Gidget Fuentes on July 23, 2010 Events, Gear, Korea, Rumors

Every so often, it seems, the Marines-wear-beret rumor rears its head. Usually it’s when leathernecks get the chance to question or schmooze with senior brass. Back before the Army in 2001 standardized the beret for all soldiers, every so often some bold and usually gung-ho junior Marine would ask or suggest the wear of berets. No commandant or uniform board approved such an idea, however. Battle Rattle recalls a day back in the mid-‘90s, when a young Marine joined others greeting then-commandant Gen. Chuck Krulak on a ship’s mess decks asked the four-star general why Recon Marines couldn’t wear the…

OMG! OMG! Thousands of Marines going to Costa Rica! Oh… wait… nevermind

By Dan Lamothe on July 13, 2010 Rumors

In a blockbuster exclusive, the Global Post reported on one of its blogs yesterday that 7,000 U.S. Marines were on the way to Costa Rica ready for land-based operations. The piece implies that Marines could take an active role in fighting drug trafficking. It’s a sensational story — if only it were true. Marine officials say that, no, they do not have 7,000 Marines on the way to Costa Rica. That’s hardly a surprise, considering the Corps had less than 10,000 Marines in Afghanistan as recently as last year, but it’s worth setting the record straight. What the Corps does…

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