Col. RAA's Classroom, the Marine side of things

Hello class. How is everyone today? I will be your teacher for this class. My name is Col. RAA (tho in real life it is LCPL Ruth Anderson, so I do kinda know what i'm talking about, kinda) Most of my classes will come from MCI, or the Marine Corps Institute. It is a series of book or CD based classes that Marines are incouraged, but not required to take. I have taken a few, and will be happy to share my little knowlege with you. This will be a rather open class- meaning, if you want to know about something, then just post it here, and I will do what I can to create a class with that subject. So please, sign up here and the first class will comence in about a week!

Thank you, and I hope you enjoy and learn!

Col. RAA

Look forward to learning about it

o my goodness. You guys are so far advanced technically than i am. Geez, i don't know that i will ever learn or catch up. Guess i need this class for sure.

unfortunately, being older (hehe) my short term memory is not as good as it should be (meds probably contriblute). So it takes a while for things to sink in.

looking forward to learning new things.
sims

aaahhhhh the good ol' MCI.......(RL I am an AF Brat.....but I have known a number of MC'ers and have seen a couple of the courses). I prolly should take a few refresher courses....even if I AM in an FW squad.

Short-term memory is not a problem when you are here. They conveniently save all our post so that we can go back to them whenever we need to. Think of it as taking notes for a class that will never get lost

Short-term memory is not a problem when you are here. They conveniently save all our post so that we can go back to them whenever we need to. Think of it as taking notes for a class that will never get lost

Lol!!
If only we could implement this in Uni...Hehe!

Cool, lookin' forward to class!
@-)

hey how are you I would love to learn a bit about it and take the class.

I'm 17 I'm in Civil Air Patrol cadet program and am an C/A1C (Cader Airman 1st Class) for those who don't know.

count me in on this class
when is the first one?

Just keeping checking back into the classroom every once in a while, and the Colonel will let us know.

CAP.....excellent. I'll talk to the Colonels about getting you onto a FW squad once you get through "boot"

Welcome Aboard GummerMaster

Welcome aboard FirstPrimeOneill

RAA said almost a month ago, that the first class would be in a week, so...is a post not showing up here or has RAA been gone for a long time

been gone for a while. Like I think I said in a different thread, we all get here when we can, which isn't always often. Just keep checking every once in a while to see if there is anything new.

Sorry guys, i have been a way for qiuet a while. i have been having some personal problems and have been trying to sort those out. Shortly after I began to start this class I went into the nuthouse...and I am being totally serious too. But I am honestly studying up for my first class. It will be on a topic that is really relevent in the world we are living in today. I am doing an MCI on Terrorism Awareness and I will be posting what I learn as I go. It will help me on the tests if i do it this way. First one coming soon I SWEAR!!!

no real rush. take your time and make sure you get it right.

Good afternoon class. As you all know I am Col. RAA, you can just call me Mac...

Today's lesson will be on a subject you all should know a little about. They are called MURPHY'S LAWS. These may sound funny, but only because they are all too true. I have experiance some of these laws first hand.

Now...a little history. Murphy's Law was named for one Capt. Edward A. Murphy, and engineer working at Edwards Air Force base on a project to see how much g-forces the human body can handle. It started out when an assistant of Capt. Murphy's wired sensors wrong on the test equipment and a zero reading resulted. Capt Murphy blamed the failure soley on his young assistant stating: "If that guy has any way of making a mistake, he will." Other members of the team coined the phrase "If anything can go wrong it will" in a mockery of Murphy's arrogance in the whole situation.

The first recorded public use of Murphy's Law was in a press confrence given for this same project by a medical doctor John Paul Stapp. When asked how it was that nobody had been severely injured during the project, Stapp replied that it was because they always took Murphy's Law under consideration; he then summarized the law and said that in general, it meant that it was important to consider all the possibilities before doing a test and act to counteract them.

Murphy's Law is made of of eight laws:

1. If anything can go wrong, it will.

2. If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.

3. If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

4. If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.

5. Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.

6. If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

7. Nature always sides with the hidden flaw

8. Whatever has happened wrong, is bound to happen again .... maybe even worse.


Over time, these laws have been added to in the Murphy's Laws Of Combat. Again, it is anything that can go wrong will go wrong...and more!

1 Friendly fire - isn't.
2 Recoilless rifles - aren't.
3 Suppressive fires - won't.
4 You are not Superman; Marines and fighter pilots take note.
5 A sucking chest wound is Nature's way of telling you to slow down.
6 If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid.
7 Try to look unimportant; the enemy may be low on ammo and not want to waste a bullet on you.
8 If at first you don't succeed, call in an air strike.
9 If you are forward of your position, your artillery will fall short.
10 Never share a foxhole with anyone braver than yourself.
11 Never go to bed with anyone crazier than yourself.
12 Never forget that your weapon was made by the lowest bidder.
13 If your attack is going really well, it's an ambush.
14 The enemy diversion you're ignoring is their main attack.
15 The enemy invariably attacks on two occasions:
a. when they're ready.
b. when you're not.
16 No OPLAN ever survives initial contact.
17 There is no such thing as a perfect plan.
18 Five second fuses always burn three seconds.
19 There is no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole.
20 A retreating enemy is probably just falling back and regrouping.
21 The important things are always simple; the simple are always hard.
22 The easy way is always mined.
23 Teamwork is essential; it gives the enemy other people to shoot at.
24 Never draw fire; it irritates everyone around you.
25 If you are short of everything but the enemy, you are in the combat zone.
26 When you have secured the area, make sure the enemy knows it too.
27 Incoming fire has the right of way.
28 No combat ready unit has ever passed inspection.
29 No inspection ready unit has ever passed combat.
30 If the enemy is within range, so are you.
31 The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming friendly fire.
32 Things which must be shipped together as a set, aren't.
33 Things that must work together, can't be carried to the field that way.
34 Radios will fail as soon as you need fire support.
35 Radar tends to fail at night and in bad weather, and especially during both.)
36 Anything you do can get you killed, including nothing.
37 Make it too tough for the enemy to get in, and you won't be able to get out.
38 Tracers work both ways.
39 If you take more than your fair share of objectives, you will get more than your fair share of objectives to take.
40 When both sides are convinced they're about to lose, they're both right.
41 Military Intelligence is a contradiction.
42 Mines are equal opportunity weapons.
43 Sniper's motto: reach out and touch someone.
44 The one item you need is always in short supply.
45 Interchangeable parts aren't
46 When in doubt, empty your magazine.
47 Never stand when you can sit, never sit when you can lie down, never stay awake when you can sleep.
48 The most dangerous thing in the world is a Second Lieutenant with a map and a compass.
49 The worse the weather, the more you are required to be out in it.
50 Whenever you have plenty of ammo, you never miss. Whenever you are low on ammo, you can't hit the broad side of a barn.
51 The more a weapon costs, the farther you will have to send it away to be repaired.
52 For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism. (in boot camp)
53 When reviewing the radio frequencies that you just wrote down, the most important ones are always illegible.
54 A Purple Heart just proves that were you smart enough to think of a plan, stupid enough to try it, and lucky enough to survive.
55 The bursting radius of a hand grenade is always one foot greater than your jumping range.
56 Every command which can be misunderstood, will be.
57 Don't ever be the first, don't ever be the last and don't ever volunteer to do anything.
58 Success occurs when no one is looking, failure occurs when the General is watching.
59 No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.
60 Don't be conspicuous. In the combat zone, it draws fire. Out of the combat zone, it draws sergeants.

These last are more like Rules for Combat than laws, but you get the point. Thise are the laws for my ground pounders. But I'm sure I have some pilots in here as well. so...

Murphy's Laws for Aircraft:
1. The enemy is always has the advantage.
2. Heat-seeking missiles don't know the difference between friend and foe.
3. 'Armor' is a fantasy invented by your C.O. to make you feel better.
4. Afterburners aren't.
5. Air Brakes don't.
6. Your cannon will jam in combat, and then when you get back to base there will be nothing wrong with it.
7. You may have the better plane, but the enemy is the better pilot. (or vise versa)
8. When getting spare parts for your aircraft, you can get them CHEAP - FAST - IN GOOD CONDITION, pick two.
9. Your radar will not pick up the enemy behind you or the one in the sun.
10. If you have got into the sun and are about to ambush the enemy, it will either be a trap or you'll run out of fuel.

And some select laws of Gravitation:

1. A falling object will always land where it can do the most damage.
2. A shatterproof object will always fall on the only surface hard enough to crack or break it.
3. A valuable dropped item will always fall into an inaccessible place (a diamond ring down the drain, for example) - or into the garbage disposal while it is running.



Well class that's all I have. Any questions?




sources:
The Murphy's Law Site http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-laws.html
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy's_law

ROFL! I love those lists!

I do what I can contact...I do what I can!

wb raa,
and thank you for these. I am sending them to a couple retired coasties. lol.

btw, you aren't from massachusetts are you? You look so familiar in those pics that its frightening. (frightening that i can't place you).


hope you are doing well,
sims

nope I'm a cali girl...but I did live in Maine for a while...???

when did you live in maine? I swear you look very familiar. Like i may even have been out at a party that you were at or something.

hmmmm,,,,

Maybe it was her evil twin. Did she have a beard?

I was super little when I lived there. 3 yrs old to 6 yrs old. It's probably just one of those crazy cosmic twin thingy's...plus there's the fact that I don't really look like that. The wig totally makes me look different. It's an acting persona I made up and took the name from my stories cause it sounds cool.

Yes, but you're still not addressing the "evil twin" issue!

silly man...

who? me?

yes yes yes...I will admit it. It is my evil cosmic twin. Can't help it...

and for todays lesson in Col. RAA's classroom, when checking in off leave, make sure the boot-*ss flyboy knows HOW to check you in and actually DOES check you in so that your SSGT doesn't call you in on YOUR Saturday to check in...

(I'm done ranting for now...)

ah yes.....the joys of having to deal with your SSGT

Yea, that would suck. I suppose not answering the phone isn't really an option in the military.

I tried not answering once and I ended up with 2 sgts, 4 cpls and a whole slew of non-nco's either calling or coming over to make sure I was okay...

this is why you need a caller ID of somekind to be developed that tells you the rank of the person calling. anything under an E-3 can be ignored....anything between E-4 and E-6 all depends on why they are calling, and anything E-7 and above, that needs to be answered within 2 rings......unless you are a civilian contractor, then you only need to worry when the Generals start calling since they have a big say with the people who hold the pursestrings......

I do have caller ID and I did only answer for the e-4 and above. All the little people came up to my room to make sure I was still alive

That's what I figured.

well that is what a note on the door is fine...."I'm fine, go away"....and if they don't, well I guess I can't think of anything off of the top of my head, But i'm sure I will think of something...booby-trap the door somehow...nothing serious, just a deterrent of some kind......hhmmmm I'll have to work on that

yeah, I tried that too, but I have a history of doing stupid things so they all worry about me. It's actually kind of touching!

You're not the modern-day Gomer Pyle, are ya?

worse...much worse...

and yes, my youngness still knows who Gomer Pyle is...i'm just cool like that!

Well Goooooolllleeeeey!

wait a minute....you mean not everyone knows who Gomer Pyle?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! holy crap, how can they NOT know that?....

You'd be surprised, surprised, surprised what their not teaching kids these days. I even had a kid working for that asked "What's a MacGyver?".

blasphemy!!!

I know! I almost fired him on the spot!

OH DEAR GOD!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! how...but....why................huh? okay....that is just really really really really really really really really really bad.......blasphemy...no, i'm sorry, but it's not blasphemy.....it's so far beyond blasphemy, it can't even see blasphemy from where it's at.....

Alright, are we ready for today's lesson?

OKay, when you are in the desert it is a given that there will be rodents, spiders, scorpians and snakes. That is a given right. Well, what you also must realize is that said animals are just like us, all they want is a place to cool off. And what better place than a backpack in the shade?

Prime example: I get off work today and go to my can (room). I reach into my backpack to pull out my boonie cover to walk over to the exchange. And out of the cover pops a damn mouse. Yes, kids, a mouse. It jumps out of my boonie and goes scampering across my bed and down between the bed and the wall. It took me a second to realize what was going on, and when I did, I was totally freaked out. I grabbed my backpack and ran outside to make sure there were no more critters living in my luggage. There was none. next I borrowed a broom from my nieghbor and started the search for the little bastard. It was nowhere to be found. I also had my roomate search, one of my nieghbors search and the gunny who's the guy in charge of all the living accomidations look. Nothing. So on monday, the lady who runs all the cans over here is going to set some traps, just in case.

Lesson learned today: if you're going to take your backpack to work, make sure it is closed, and you have no left over food in it!

hahaha....well all I can say is hopefully lesson learned.....and don't forget to shake out your boots in the mornings to get rid of any scorpions that have crawled in them for the heat at night.....so how big is the can? my dad brought some pictures from the last time he was over there and well...damn.....i'm just wondering if yours ended up being aby bigger than the one that got

psst, lore, i TOLD you not to use a live one.

geesh

shoosh you.....i picked up the wrong one by mistake....that's all...no big deal...

shoosh you.....i picked up the wrong one by mistake....that's all...no big deal...

Hello class. I know we have been in recess for a long while, but school is back in session. I apologize for my absence. (and my horrible spelling)

Are you ready for today's lesson? Even if you're not, I'm going to give it anyways. I can do that...I'm the instructor.

Anyways- todays topic: DON'T ASSUME BECAUSE IT'S A DESERT YOU WILL BE HOT ALL THE TIME.

When you think of a soldier or marine in Iraq, you think of them being so hot they will probably keel over, right? Wrong! Two days ago it snowed. Yes, I said snow. Lately the tempurature at night has been around freezing. Thats 32 degrees F or 0 degrees C, for those who don't know. Our restrooms are actually Port-A-Johns, which are hosed out every morning. Every day when I go to do my business i almost bust my a$$ on the film of ice covering the floor, walls, toilet seat, and sometimes even toilet paper. It's quiet a shock to be in the middle of an unforgiving desert and be so cold my finger feel swollen and useless. Lucky for me I was recently moved into my squadron's Tool Room due to injury, so I sit in a nice warm office all night playing Zelda on Wii.

Here is my proof of the desert's freezing ablity and sometimes beauty.

I heard about that. The families of a couple of local soldiers send the station pictures of the snow in Iraq. We used them during evening weather that night. That's just weird. So much for Global Warming!

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((Col. RAA))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

it is so good to hear from you. The pics are awesome.
Gosh, i definately was one that thought of iraq as hot HOT HOT.
But snow????
That is just WRONG

I am glad you are ok.
I hope you don't get your hiney stuck on that ice-seat in the loo.


Stay warm, well and safe.

oh, did you say injury??? What happened?
hope you are ok.

hugs,
sims

Thank you for serving our country. No matter what i feel about the war, i strongly and steadfastly support you and all our troops. Bless.

deserts always get really cold at night...nothing to hold the heat "in" so to speak. little by way of clouds so you don't get any reflection of heat back down to the surface from them...my dad has brought back a few pics from Iraq with snow on the ground (dad is retired USAF SMSGT, currently Gov't Contractor).

Glad to hear that you are alive and more or less well. but I have to ask (just like Simby did) what'd you do to get yourself hurt...and are you going to be getting a "dumbas$ stripe" for it?

I'm up for two or three "dumbass stripes" on this one. I was walking out of the head (bathroom, for you civilians) and I tripped over a wall. Yes, I said wall. We have these wodden barriers around our head and I was half asleep walking out and truned the corner too fast, got my foot caught on the wall and went flying. I put my arms out to save myself, but locked out my right arm. So when I landed, I sprained me wrist. Three days later I was in the room where we pick up our laundry and I broke a shelf. All the clean laundry bags are placed on wooden shelves. I went to pull my bag out and the thing randomly collapes on me. I tried to save it, but did so with the bad wrist. Re-sprained it and possibly tore a ligament. Now I can't pick up anything without extreme pain, so they had to move me to another shop with less strenuous duties. Go me!

omg raa, that is just tooo wierd.
Glad its ONLY a sprained sprain. I know just how painful that is as i did a number on my wrist a few years back (tearing everything and just missed breaking it).

Hope you feel pain free soon.

btw, is there an email or other addy (snail mail even) that we could send you some cards, letters, cookies?????

would love to get you things to make your stay a bit nicer. And could do the same for your buddies there.

please let us know.

hugs,
sims

oh....sounds only slightly painful Simby!

My emaail address is ruth.allynn@yahoo.com

My snail mail addy out here is
LCpl Ruthie Anderson
VMFA(AW)225
UIC 41027
FPO AP 96426-1027



(hint hint) I love cookies... (hint hint)




luckily we only have a couple months left. I so can't wait to be home and have a beer. Not to say that I'm an alcoholic, I just want to be able to drink what I want, when I want. Plus, I turned 21 over here. Do you have any idea how much it sucks to have near-beer on your 21st birthday?

*picturing RAA tripping over wall...

*picturing the shelf falling on her...

*trying not to laugh...





Glad your doing well, relatively speaking. If all you get over there is a sprained wrist, I consider you very fortunate.

Yep...add another dumbass stripe to my growing collection. I sprained my wrist again. Just when they thought it was better and put me back on full duty, I fall coming down off a jet! (hangs head in shame) I am such a clutz...

As long as they're not calling you Gomer Pyle.

RAA.....what is going on with you. are you bucking for the record for most dumbass stripes??? just don't piss off the corpman....he can put you in for "extra" stripes depending on what needs to be done to "fix" the injuries...

ugh, RAAA, are you SURE you are not related to me????

i keep telling my mom she should really have paid for them dancing lessons.


Now i got to make a care package for you. Rumor has it that Girl Scout Cookies are soon here. heheh.

cooooookies...... coooooooooookies

mmmmm cookies...if lemon cookies have lemon in them, and sugar cookies have sugar cookies....do girl scout cookies have girl scouts in them?!?

you nut

hey RAA,
i am going to get some things together for your care package. I am going to find out what can and can't be sent.
Please be patient as it will take a few days to put all together.

in the meantime, any requests???
any absolute no-no's???


love ya,
and thanks for all you do,
hugs,
sims

Mmmm... Soylent Green...

SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!! SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!!!

which if you thing about it.....we are the healthiest meat that we could possibly eat...guaranteed to have the correct protiens, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and fats that we need.....not that I condone it...but think about it...over your morning coffee maybe

aaahhhhh the first phase of my plan is complete. I have them actually thinking now.....

Simby...still thinking about it I see....any conclusions yet? or still thinking about even coming to any conclusions?

think, think, think...

Ow, my head.

I hear ya on that Contact......we all have to remember not to think TOO much...when you start to smell smoke coming out of your ears....it's too late

whaaaa?
oh sorry,
feel asleep