A FEW MORE LITTLE KNOW FACTS ABOUT THE UNITED STATES MILITARY 21. The Marine Corps mascot is an English bulldog named Chesty, after Marine Lt. Gen. Louis B. “Chesty” Puller, the only Marine to earn five Navy Crosses. 22. Marine Corps Col. John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth. 23. In the Navy there are no windows, walls or bathrooms: The Navy has rich diction, but don’t get it mixed up. Ships don’t have walls; they have bulkheads. They don’t have windows; they have portholes. Your left side is your port side and the right side is starboard. The mess deck is where you eat and the deck is where you walk. Above your head is an overhead, not a ceiling or roof. If you need a toilet, you will find that in the head, and the rack is where you sleep. 24. Ever since Vietnam, Marine amtrac crews will not eat apricots, as they’re considered bad luck. 25. While many animals have served as mascots aboard Coast Guard vessels, Sinbad, a dog, is one of the service’s most famous. He served on board the cutter Campbell during World War II, keeping troops company during their voyages. 26. The Army was the last service branch to adopt an official song. On Veterans Day 1956, “The Army Goes Rolling Along” was declared as the branch’s official tune 27. Marines also think it’s unlucky to eat the CHARMS that used to come in packs of meals ready to eat. 28. The oldest Coast Guard boat station is in Sandy Hook, New Jersey. 29. The Marines’ first land battle on foreign soil was in Libya, where 600 Marines stormed the city of Derna to rescue the crew of the USS Philadelphia from pirates. 30. In 1967, the Coast Guard icebreaker Eastwind became the first cutter to ever sail around Antarctica. Eastwind was also the first ship to circumnavigate Antarctica since 1843. 31. In 1947, then-Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in his Bell X-1 rocket-powered aircraft, beginning a new era of aeronautics in America. 32. The Coast Guard refers to a vessel as a “cutter” if it’s over 65-feet long. 33. Though tattoos are discouraged in today’s Navy, sailors for hundreds of years tattooed themselves as souvenirs to show where they’d been and what they’d gone through. Here is a short (and far from comprehensive) list we collected from sources around the Web of imagery you may encounter among saltier sailors, along with what each item means. Swallows: Home (each denotes 5,000 miles at sea) Compass/Nautical Star: Never losing one’s way (each denotes 10,000 miles at sea) Trident: Special warfare Rose: A significant other left at home Twin screws or props on one’s backside: Propels one forward through life Rope: Deckhand Octopus: Navy diver Dolphin: Wards off sharks Sharks: Rescue swimmer Polar bear: Sailed the Arctic Circle Dragon: Sailed the Pacific Fouled anchor: Sailed the Atlantic Turtle: Crossed the equator Gold dragon: Crossed the International Dateline Gold turtle: Crossed the International Dateline and the Equator where they intersect Emerald fouled anchor: Crossed the Prime Meridian Emerald turtle: Crossed the Prime Meridian and the Equator where they intersect Full-rigged ship: Sailed around Cape Horn Helm: Quartermaster Pin-up girls: Company at sea/port call Hula girls: Sailed to or ported in Hawaii Dagger through a swallow: Signifies a lost comrade Pig and chicken: Superstition to keep from drowning The words “HOLD FAST”: Signifies a deckhand’s tight grip on the lines
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 10:41:32 +0000
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