The few, the proud, the Marines…<\/p>\n
Today, the US Marine Corps turns 251 years old. One of their early actions has provided much of the rich history of the Corps and it\u2019s a story I love talking about.<\/p>\n
Up until 1801, the Berber Muslims were extorting the US\u2026forcing us to pay a tax or have our ships attacked when they were near North Africa.<\/p>\n
Thomas Jefferson got his hands on a Koran and saw that it was written that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise.<\/p>\n
They eventually told President Jefferson that they were increasing the annual extortion fee, and took a ship full of Americans captive.<\/p>\n
Jefferson respond by sending 8 Marines<\/strong> and 500 mercenaries in to take care of business in 1801 in Derna Tripoli against a heavily defended garrison manned by 945 cavalry and 1,250 infantry!\u00a0<\/strong> (The mercenaries were Muslims and Greeks that the Marines hired along the way and they weren’t all friendly…in fact, the Marines had to use the cannons against the mercs to protect the food.)<\/p>\n This battle is immortalized in the US Marine Corps hymn \u201c\u2026shores of Tripoli\u2026\u201d, the Marine officer sword, and even the name \u201cLeatherneck\u201d.<\/p>\n Our Marines and mercenaries sent to the Barbary Coast (Tripoli) wore coats with heavy leather around the neck so that their heads wouldn\u2019t get lopped off by the Barbary pirates\u2019 swords.\u00a0The name \u201cLeatherneck\u201d stuck, we beat down the pirates, took their sword design, and the\u00a0rest is history.\u00a0That\u2019s a VERY condensed version of the story and I encourage you to read more about it when you get a chance.<\/p>\n We’re doing 30% off of my TBI and concussion training for veterans only >HERE<\/a>< through midnight tomorrow.\u00a0 (If you want all the details on the training, go >HERE<\/a><)<\/p>\n We’re ALSO doing 30% off of Upgraded Shooter…which gives you access to several of my top pistol, carbine, situational awareness, and empty hands trainings.\u00a0 You can sign up immediately >HERE<\/a>< or read all of the details >HERE<\/a><<\/p>\n And I want to tell you about my best friend, Chris Graham, who was Marine Force Recon and was taken way too soon.\u00a0 Who was Chris?<\/p>\n Chris was an absolutely amazing man.\u00a0He was my best friend and his passing has been a huge loss for myself and many, many others, including possibly you.<\/p>\n There is no other man I connected with on so many levels…Christian, husband of a strong wife, father to a son, committed to raising Conor as a Godly man in an unGodly world, thinker, reader, writer, pilot, son of a pilot, his passion for understanding learning, NLP, hypnosis, neurology, our incredible Constitution, unconventional warfare, survival & preparedness, and, of course, shooting.<\/p>\n Chris<\/span>\u00a0was a Marine helicopter pilot and then Force Recon Marine and shared a ton of stories with me…<\/p>\n Like a time when he was a Casevac (Casualty evacuation) pilot.<\/p>\n 1\/5 Marines were fighting in to and out of\u00a0Saddam<\/span>‘s presidential palace in Baghdad on the Tigris and it was considered too hot for helicopters.\u00a0\u00a0(It’s likely that you’ve seen highlight videos of this complete with tracer fire without knowing that it was Chris behind the stick.)<\/p>\n The airspace was closed because too many helicopters had been shot down.<\/p>\n But guys were seriously wounded and there were calls for Casevac.<\/p>\n Chris<\/span>\u00a0figured he’d either die in the process of getting guys out or someone above him would take credit after the fact…but he knew he couldn’t stand by and do nothing.<\/p>\n So he flew in under heavy fire, landed on the pool deck, and flew injured Marines out under heavy fire.<\/p>\n Multiple times.<\/p>\n 5 times.<\/p>\n With Oliver North and his producer aboard recording it all for FNC.<\/p>\n That’s some real hero stuff right there…but\u00a0Chris<\/span>\u00a0didn’t do it to be a hero. He did it because it would be too hard to live with himself if he didn’t.<\/p>\n Chris was a mustang Marine. I don’t remember his entire history off hand, but he enlisted and became a helicopter pilot, went back to school to get his degree, became a Force Recon Marine, founded the Marine Anti-Terrorism Battalion, and rose through the ranks and retired a few months before he passed as a Lt. Colonel.<\/p>\n Many of his tales were “better than fiction.”<\/p>\n One time, Chris had been sent to an area that had destabilized to do downrange sustainment training for our guys.\u00a0He flew commercial and things got so bad by the time it was time to leave that they didn’t know who security at the airport was loyal to or if Chris would be allowed through.\u00a0Being taken captive\/prisoner was a possibility.<\/p>\n The walls of the airport were glass and there was a road that ran along the building, so they decided to take Chris to the airport in a truck with a mounted machine gun as a show of force.<\/p>\n They dropped him off, and then paced him in the truck as he walked through the airport.\u00a0When he got to security, they stopped and had the machine gun pointed up & over the building…but in the direction of security.<\/p>\n My memory of the story was that security began giving Chris a hard time and Chris looked and nodded at the machinegunner and said, “They might have something to say about that.”\u00a0Security looked, their eyes about popped out, and Chris wasn’t bothered again.<\/p>\n I’m going to miss Chris a ton.<\/p>\n I always called Chris up on November 10th to wish him “Happy Birthday” and see if he’d eaten his crayons.<\/p>\n Here’s to all of you crayon eaters.<\/p>\n Chris’ pre-deployment pistol training for overseas high-risk security details are included with Upgraded Shooter.\u00a0 We’re doing 30% off of Upgraded Shooter for Marine Corps Birthday and Veterans’ Day…which gives you access to Chris’ training and several of my top pistol, carbine, situational awareness, and empty hands trainings.\u00a0 You can sign up immediately >HERE<\/a>< or read all of the details >HERE<\/a><<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The few, the proud, the Marines… Today, the US Marine Corps turns 251 years old. One of their early actions has provided much of the rich history of the Corps and it\u2019s a story I love talking about. Up until 1801, the Berber Muslims were extorting the US\u2026forcing us to pay a tax or have … Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t