Anchors Aweigh!


Carborendum
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1 minute ago, Vort said:

I believe the technical term for a highly trained, dangerous Marine is "grunt".

Grunt refers to Army and Marines.  

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1 minute ago, LDSGator said:

Thank you, I’ll check it out. Again, I’m sorry to offend anyone. Like I mentioned I know almost nothing about the military. 

No offense at all.  I lived the majority of my life around the military so it's something I knew from childhood.

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4 minutes ago, Vort said:

I believe the technical term for a highly trained, dangerous Marine is "grunt".

A colloquialism for infantrymen in the Army and Marine Corps, grunts are the military's door kickers and trigger pullers, in short, they're the pointy end of the spear. By contrast, the term POG — person other than grunt — refers to non-infantry personnel.

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15 minutes ago, pam said:
19 minutes ago, Vort said:

I believe the technical term for a highly trained, dangerous Marine is "grunt".

A colloquialism for infantrymen in the Army and Marine Corps, grunts are the military's door kickers and trigger pullers, in short, they're the pointy end of the spear. By contrast, the term POG — person other than grunt — refers to non-infantry personnel.

That was sort of the point of my attempted joke...

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10 minutes ago, Vort said:

That was sort of the point of my attempted joke...

Gotcha.  I was just clarifying that it also refers to the Army too.  

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7 hours ago, Carborendum said:

Some of you will think I'm an idiot for not knowing this sooner.  But...

I was just reading a book about a famous sailor / captain with my daughter and came across an interesting discovery.  The phrase is not "Anchors away!"  (which I never really understood).  It is "Anchors aweigh!"  Very different meaning.

Thought I'd share.

Brilliant product idea!  Anchors A-Whey - A new dairy product that provides protein for newscasters to stay alert while on camera!

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10 minutes ago, dprh said:

Brilliant product idea!  Anchors A-Whey - A new dairy product that provides protein for newscasters to stay alert while on camera!

Cankers Aweigh! -Radical new gravity-dental-floss-and-lead-weight-based treatment for oral lesions

 

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6 hours ago, pam said:

https://www.uso.org/stories/2910-what-separates-the-marines-from-the-other-branches   This explains more about Marines.  It's where I got my quote from.  

Historically, in the age of sail, warships of the Royal Navy (and, following that tradition, the US Navy) would include a detachment of soldiers—“Marines“—to handle any hand-in-hand fighting that might develop if the ship team into close quarters with an enemy. They would form the core of any boarding party or shore raiding party and would defend the ship from boarders with musket fire from their positions on the “fighting tops”; whereas the “Navy” personnel focused on operating the ship and manning the big guns.

You see this distinction in the film Master and Commander, and on the BBC’s Hornblower series.

Also, FWIW, I believe the formal command was “weigh anchor!”; when done, the boatswain would report back “anchor’s aweigh!”.  Considering that this phrase would not logically be given at a dockside where it could be overheard by people ashore (ships don’t drop their anchors at a pier or quay; they are moored with dock lines and the order would be “cast off!”), I’ve always kind of wondered how the phrase “anchors aweigh” got to be in such common landside use.

Edited by Just_A_Guy
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  • pam featured this topic

Flashback to me at age 9 or 10:

We were putting on an assembly program celebrating our military.  As we learned all the songs, the teacher taught us these lyrics for the Air Force:

Quote

We live in fame or go down in flame. Hey! Nothing'll stop the US Air Corps!

For whatever reason, this elementary school teacher demanded we sing "Corps" as "Corpse" instead of pronouncing it core.  I tried several times to point this out to her, she shut me down several times.  I was frustrated with my inability to communicate my point well enough to convince her.  I vowed to become better, to do better.

This flashback hit me as I'm arguing VAERS data in the vaccine thread.  I don't know if I've made a single inch of progress or not.  

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50 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

Flashback to me at age 9 or 10:

We were putting on an assembly program celebrating our military.  As we learned all the songs, the teacher taught us these lyrics for the Air Force:

For whatever reason, this elementary school teacher demanded we sing "Corps" as "Corpse" instead of pronouncing it core.  I tried several times to point this out to her, she shut me down several times.  I was frustrated with my inability to communicate my point well enough to convince her.  I vowed to become better, to do better.

This flashback hit me as I'm arguing VAERS data in the vaccine thread.  I don't know if I've made a single inch of progress or not.  

 

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On 7/12/2021 at 2:31 PM, pam said:

Grunt refers to Army and Marines.  

Grunt is a term used for someone who's military occupational specialty is infantry.   Both Army and USMC have infantry, as @pam pointed out.    Crossed Rifles is the Army insignia for infantry and the infamous blue cord is awarded upon completion of training at Ft Benning.

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  • pam unfeatured this topic

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