Sgt Daniel

MORE VIDEOS, COMING SOON !
 
 
(I'm afraid my first videos will show a bunch of stupid mistakes as I try to remember how to do everything again.)

John Paul Jones
 
A history lesson few have heard about.
 
If I were to ask if you knew who said, “I have not yet begun to fight!”, most if not all of you would respond with the correct answer, John Paul Jones.  But do you know the whole story?
 
On September 23, 1779, Captain John Paul Jones with the ship, the Bon Homme Richard, engaged and defeated the British ship, the HMS Serapis, off the coast of England, during the Revolutionary War.  You probably don’t know the whole story, and as you might suspect, it involves Marines.  In this case, the Continental Marines.
 
The US Navy, as with the other navies of the world at the time were not the military men we have today.  Most sailors and officers, expected to supplement their salaries by taking booty or receiving prize money for their conquests.  There was no money in fighting another fighting ship; the money was in attacking merchant ships. The sailors and other officers on Jones ships were not only reluctant to fight, they were sometimes down right mutinous.
 
Scotsman, John Paul Jones was not interested in taking booty.  He wanted to fight the British and fight for his new country. Jones did not make any secret what his intentions were when he recruited potential crewmembers.  He openly advertised his intentions saying, “I propose to go in the way of danger.”  The aggressive Jones planned how he would fight his naval battles so he made sure he had a full compliment of Continental Marines.
 
The American Navy had few ships during the first war with Britain.  Jones seemed to be the only Captain eager to fight the enemy, and he was popular with his Marines, who he considered an essential ingredient in his personal strategy for winning naval battles.   First he would direct his cannons to take out the rigging of enemy ships so he could maneuver close where his Marines would clear the decks of the crews with musket fire until the enemy ship was not able to maneuver or get away.  Enemy captains would be forced to surrender.
 
In the evening of September 23, 1779 in the North Sea miles off the Flamborough Head, England coast, Jones spotted a convoy of merchant ships being escorted by two British Navy vessels.  The larger ship, the Serapis was a 44 gun warship commanded by Captain Richard Pearson.  It was faster and more maneuverable than Jones ship, and it was equipped with new protective copper sheathing on the hull.  At the sight of Jones and another ship with him, the merchant ships fled.  The Serapis did not.
 
Jones made way to engage the Serapis.  It must have seemed like suicide to his sailors as their smaller ship was an old worn out French merchant ship named Duc de Duras.  Benjamin Franklin scrounged up the ship in France using his French contacts as he was the Ambassador to France at the time.  He knew Jones was a fighting man and he wanted to help him get back out to sea from France where Jones was stranded.   Jones refitted and armed the old ship and renamed it using the French name for Benjamin Franklin’s book, “Poor Richard”; the Bon Homme Richard.  Jones cast off from France in the summer of 1779, looking for trouble.
 
Jones in the Richard took a beating moving close to the Serapis.  He directed his guns to aim for the rigging of the Serapis.  His Marines, stationed in the rigging of his ship with their muskets, opened fire when they were close enough.  The Marines raked the deck of the Serapis eventually killing all their gunners.  The Marines made the deck a haven for dead heroes who tested the Marines.  Eleven helmsmen attempted to control the wheel; all failed.  The Marines threw grappling hooks over to the Serapis and pulled her close.  Repeatedly, British sailors attempted to cut the lines.  Fourteen British sailors tried to cut the lines; fourteen died.  It was reported Jones took a musket from one Marine and took a shot as well.
 
The top deck of the Serapis was swept clean by Marine fire, so that no sailor or officer could get on deck.  The Serapis’ lower deck guns were still hammering away at the Richard.  Captain Pearson knew the Richard could not take much more and asked Jones if he wanted to surrender.  Jones did not have any offensive power left, except his Marines.  Jones replied, “No sir, I haven’t as yet thought of it.  I’m determined to make you strike.”
 
A short time later Captain Pearson released a number of British prisoners up to the deck, hoping they would fight for him, but Jones ordered them to stay off his ship and man their pumps or drown.  They pumped.  Captain Pearson again demanded Jones surrender.  Jones may have said something like, “Sir, I have not yet begun to fight.”  Jones reportedly cussed up a storm during the entire three hour battle, and may have chosen other words, but we’ll never know.
 
Jones had by all reasonable measures lost the battle, except for two things:  he didn’t quit, and, he had Marines.  A sailor threw a grenade onto the Serapis which ended up killing a large number of sailor on the second deck.  Captain Pearson was afraid his main mast was about to give way, so he struck his colors and surrendered.
 
Jones Continental Marines never faltered or failed him.  They were the backbone of the fighting ship.  Sixty seven Marines were killed or wounded in this battle, which was Jones last.
 
Jones wasn’t awarded any recognition by his own country until in 1905 when his remains were removed from an unmarked grave in Paris and escorted by an honor guard of American cruisers to the United States.  He was placed in marble shine at Annapolis with these words nearby: “HE GAVE OUR NAVY ITS EARLIEST TRADITIONS OF HEROISM AND VICTORY.
 

 
Note:  I looked high and low for a good painting of this battle to include with this story.  I discovered nearly every painting I found labeled for this famous sea battle, did not portray this battle at all.  I even found one with depicting the "British" ship, flying a Confederate Flag.  The painting I've provided with this story is the closest to being historically accurate I could find.

Men,
 
 
You old veterans know me and know I've been away a long time.   You also know I wasn't there the last half of the year because I moved and haven't been in a house or apartment.  My computer is in storage and my beautiful wife and I have been traveling around the country as we wait for our new house to be built.
 
If there was any way I could've been with you all, I would've.  Logistically, it just wasn't gonna work.
 
 
So, when I say I miss you guys and can't wait to get back, I hope you understand how sincere I am.  You guys in the 4th MRB are some of my buddies and friends.
 
I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and also pray you have a wonderful new year.   I'll be back in a month and you all better be there !!!!!!!!!
 
 

This thread is one of the few things i actually read in life. Good shares. Keep them coming!

HENRY HANNEKEN, USMC
CONTINUED
 
Hanneken's story didn't end with the death of the bandit and revolutionary Charlemagne.  Here is the rest of his story.
 
 
Approximately a decade after killing Charlemagne, now 1st Lt Hanneken was leading an eight-man patrol in Nicaragua, where they were battling another revolutionary, Augusto Sandino.  He paused his patrol and put four men on guard duty while he let the other four take a bath in the river.  Within a short time, one of his men rushed up and whispered that a man was coming down the path toward them.  Hanneken quickly got his men out of the river and set up an ambush.  They easily captured the rider of a mule who turned out to be General Manuel Giron.  Giron was Sandino's top assassin who killed several important Nicaraguan government officials and was also suspected of torturing and mutilating a Marine he had captured.
 
Giron was interrogated for one month until Giron had given up all his knowledge about Sandino's organization and valuable biographical data on his men.  Giron was tried, sentenced to death and executed shortly thereafter. 
 
Hanneken was awarded his second Navy Cross for this incident, and also for a series of daring raids and heart-stopping firefights over a six month period, during which he distinguished himself by his gallantry. 
 
During World War II, as a Lt Colonel, he commanded the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines on Guadalcanal.  Lt Col Lewis "Chesty" Puller commanded the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines at the same time.  He was awarded a Silver Star for Gallantry for his actions on Guadalcanal.  Both he and Chesty Puller were promoted to the rank of Colonel at the same time; Hanneken was given command of the 7th Marines and Puller was given command of the 1st Marines.  Hanneken and Puller commanded their units together in the Peleliu and Bougainville campaigns.
 
Hanneken retired from the Corps in 1948, as a Brigadier General, ending his magnificent 34 year career.  
 
In Author Paul Kirchner's book, "More of the Deadliest Men Who Ever Lived", Kirchner compared Hanneken to George Patton, Manfred von Richtofen, and Richard the Lionhearted. 

Sergeant Herman Hanneken, USMC

 
Awarded the Medal Of Honor for action in Haiti, 1919.
 
Since 1895 Haiti was primarily associated with two characteristics; Voodoo, and revolutions.  In the twenty years between 1895 and 1915, there had been no fewer than thirteen governments in Haiti.  Haiti hadn’t been a stable country since it attained independence from France in 1804, and things had only gotten worse. The people didn’t know what peace and posterity was.  Most were hungry, illiterate and victims of unrelenting corruption.
 
In 1914, most of Europe was at war.  That didn’t stop German from trying to take advantage of the chaos in Haiti by obtaining control of its commerce.  The US completed the Panama Canal in 1914 and the US Navy Atlantic Fleet operated a coaling station in the Haitian port of Mole St Nicholas.  For these reasons, the US was no longer content to let the dysfunctional situation in Haiti continue.
 
President Woodrow Wilson ordered the US Marines into Haiti to restore peace, secure the coaling station and rebuild the nation, thereby securing America’s Caribbean flank against German incursions.
 
The Marines immediately took control of the inept and unreliable Haitian military.  Marine NCO’s assumed commissioned ranks in the Haitian constabulary and commanded Haitian enlisted men.  They began the difficult task of rooting out rebels, bandits and anyone who threatened the peace.    
 
In 1917, Charlemagne Peralte, a rebel leader, declared himself the country’s ruler and established a provisional government in a heavily jungled region of northern Haiti.  He built a confederation of 15,000 rebels and sympathizers.  The Marines considered Charlemagne the country’s biggest threat and chased him for two years without success.  They were never able to infiltrate his ranks or get close enough to kill him, let alone find him.
 
In 1919, twenty six year old Marine Sergeant Henry Hanneken, held the rank of captain in the Haitian Constabulary, and commanded a native force near Black Mountains.  Charlemagne’s base of operations was suspected to be in this area so Hanneken considered eliminating Charlemagne his top priority.
 
Using the native Haitian troops the Marines trained, Hanneken created a fake guerrilla force commanded by one of his loyal Haitian NCO’s.  Hanneken hoped they would be able to convince the naturally suspicious and cautious Charlemagne that this new rebel force were legitimate guerilla’s.  If Charlemagne bought the deception Hanneken’s hoped his fake rebel force might be able to learn where Charlemagne and his army were hidden.  Hanneken armed them with carbines from his own armory, fed them and clothed them, with his own money, because there were no funds available for such an enterprise.
 
Charlemagne had spies and informants everywhere, so to make the ruse work, Hannaken had his fake guerilla force ambush a patrol he led near a village where Charlemagne sympathizers lived.  Hanneken even faked a bullet wound to enhance the deception.  It worked.  Charlemagne allowed this new small guerrilla force into his base camp.  To test his new recruits, Charlemagne ordered them to attack a government armory and steal weapons.
 
Hanneken’s “rebels” came down the mountain and told Hanneken what happened.  That night Hanneken devised a plan for his fake rebel force, to include himself and Marine Corporal Button.  Cpl Button was a great hand with a BAR, which he carried that night.  Button and Hanneken, the only white men in the group, spread soot from kerosene lamps over all their exposed skin, and together this force headed into the mountains to Charlemagne’s camp.  After two hours marching up the mountains in the black moonless night, they reached the first of many guard outposts.  Hanneken and Button were concerned their sweat would wash off or streak the soot on their faces and give them away, but they made it through.  After more than an hour and passing several guarded checkpoints, they finally made it to Charlemagne’s camp.
 
They walked in to a small clearing in the base camp where there was a campfire.  Charlemagne was standing to one side, guarded by two large armed bodyguards in front and to each side of him.  Charlemagne said, “Who is it?”  Without a moment’s hesitation, Hanneken quickly walked right between the bodyguards, so close he brushed up against one of them, drawing his .45 caliber pistol as he moved and shot Charlemagne through the heart.
 
A woman tending to the campfire dumped a pot of coffee on it, extinguishing the fire and turning the campsite into pitch black chaos.  Cpl Button went to work with his BAR.  Their Marine trained troops, the fake guerrilla force, pitched in.  Hanneken ignored the turmoil around him, and groped in the darkness until he found guerrilla chief’s body, and then shot him twice more for good measure.
 
Most of the rebels fled into the jungle.  Others stayed and paid with their lives.  Two were captured.  After the shooting was over, Hanneken brought over the two prisoners, lit a match to illuminate their dead leaders corpse.  He set them free, knowing they would spread the word, Charlemagne was really dead.
 
They took Charlemagne’s corpse with them to a large town down the mountain.  He tore a door off the hinges of a nearby shack, and tied Charlemagne’s corpse to it.  The next day he propped the corpse laden door up in a market place for all to see.  Later they buried Charlemagne in a secret place to prevent his body from being used in voodoo ceremonies.  Hundreds of rebel troops came down the mountain and surrendered.
 
Sgt Hanneken and Corporal Button were each awarded the Medal of Honor for their amazing feat and Hanneken was given a battlefield commission to Second Lieutenant.
 
 
That isn’t the end of the story of Marine Hanneken; not by a long shot.  More later. 

Marine Corps History by Spencer
 
Book Reviews
“LIONS OF MEDINA”
“SWIFT SWORD: THE MARINES OF MIKE 3/5”
 
As everyone knows, this summer has been crazy for us.  With the exception of a few suitcases and what we can fit in our car, all our property is in storage, including my collection of Marine books.  That hasn’t stopped me from reading digital books.  In the past month, I read a couple Marine related books from the Vietnam war.  Both books told the stories of specific significant battles involving two different Marine units.
 
I was surprised to discover both stories had numerous similarities.  Both battles involved one Marine company; both occurred within a couple months of each other in 1967; both companies were ambushed; both companies were surrounded; both companies were involved in larger operations at the time; both companies were heavily outnumbered and outgunned by regular NVA army forces; the battles lasted a day and night; and, both companies took heavy casualties.  Both companies destroyed their attackers!
 
In one case, radio Hanoi was announcing the annihilation of the Marine company during the battle, so confident were they of victory.  The courage, skill, and determination of those Marines was amazing and incredible, and yet so typical of US Marines!
 
I’m going to post two separate summaries of these books and battles, using quotes from the books.  The challenge will be to keep the summaries short while doing justice to the books, and the warriors who deserve our respect and admiration.
 

Yup 500w is all I need

Good news Daniel.  So I guess the 500w is large enough to do the trick on your system?

yay! that is great news bud!

I'm back no other parts were damaged and the new PSU is running smooth so far

I'm back no other parts were damaged and the new PSU is running smooth so far

So sorry to hear buddy. What kind did you get this time?

Exactly what happened to me a year ago.
 
It took me a little while to diagnose it as the cause of my problem but it sounds like you were on top of it all along.  Good job Daniel.

I always find the comments and stories by friend or foe about Marines and/or the Marine Corps very interesting and informative. The following quotes are from the book, "Condition Red: Destroyer Action In the South Pacific" by Frederick Bell. Bell was a senior officer and CO on a destroyer in the Pacific in World War 2.
 
Chapter "Warriors for the Working Day, page 72
 
". . . because we destroyer sailors have seen a lot of them during the past year and we think they're the most magnificent close combat fighters the world has ever known. They go about their work with a matter-of-fact confidence; they possess an esprit de corps that is superb. Of all the warriors I have seen - United Nations and Axis, the United States Marines are the ones that I would want most to have on my side."
 
page 73
"The Japs fight only defensively in the daytime. At night they attempt their bayonet charges and their infiltration tactics. Heretofore this has proved demoralizing to the troops opposing them, but the Marines don't scare. They stay put in their foxholes and fire at anything that moves. It must be very discouraging to the Japanese. They never met first class fighting men before."
 
Chapter, "Christmas, 40 South
 
page 141
"It took only a few hours to embark the Marines who were being evacuated. They had been on that damnable island since August 7th and they were ready to leave. In the four months on Guadalcanal they had seen enough close combat, hand-to-hand fighting, air raids, naval bombardment and just plain hell to last any fighting man the rest of his natural life. There were not many of them; a bare handful, as armies go, but they had left their mark on Japan as no one ever had done before. To speak of these men as heroic, magnificent, would be inadequate as well as meaningless, for descriptive words and phrases have been over-worked in the writings of this war."

A special Happy Father's Day to all of you fathers and grandfathers in our great unit!
May this day be filled with other things than cheesy tacky ties, greatest dad coffee mugs, and other meaningless crap - you know like thick juicy steaks, bacon, blow jobs, and naps.
 
 
Salud!

Last Name, First Name: Daniel, Andrew
ArmA III Player ID: 76561198174222467
Age: 18
 
Have you served in a realism unit?: No
If so detail which unit, time in service, rank, billet:
 
Desired Duty: 0372 Critical Skills Operator (CSO)
Why are you applying to join 4th MRB?:
1. I'm currently joining the U.S Marine Corps and would like knowledge and advice from unit leaders and members.
2. I like have and interest in mil-sim and would like my first experience to be with the best Marine Corps Unit.
 
How did you find out about the 4th MRB?: Google
 
Confirm you understand the 4th MRB is an immersion-orientated, role-playing realism unit:  yes