in c'ville wednesday...get visited by the marines

[zephyp]

On the one hand we all love our men and women in the armed forces. On the other we get paranoid when they "invade". I doubt the Marines will be storming private residences or businesses searching for guns. I also doubt they'll be packing real ammunition.

The bottom line is Marines or Army or whoever they are in uniform will do what they are told. If it comes down to confiscating guns house to house some will do just that and some will refuse. These people are trained to follow orders and many will do just that...

[gunderwood]

On the one hand we all love our men and women in the armed forces. On the other we get paranoid when they "invade". I doubt the Marines will be storming private residences or businesses searching for guns. I also doubt they'll be packing real ammunition.

The bottom line is Marines or Army or whoever they are in uniform will do what they are told. If it comes down to confiscating guns house to house some will do just that and some will refuse. These people are trained to follow orders and many will do just that...

Katrina anyone?

[gunderwood]

It sounds like they are trying to prepare everyone in the area for what they are doing so it disrupts people as little as possible. People would likely freak when they saw this kind of activity in the area thinking it was in response to a threat and perhaps make poor decisions or bother the hell out of the local police with calls. Let's wait until this is over before everyone get all pissed off and claims this is against the constitution. We don't even know what exactly they have planned. I am all for these troops getting the best training they can. It would be best if it could be done on base away from so many cry baby civilians who don't quite appreciate what these guys are heading into, but if it means a little bother for me as I head to Sams Club or Wal Mart then I can deal with it. I don't agree with what was done in the story Gunderwood posted where they were harassing civilians in any way and that is BS. The chain of command and the local government should have been hammered for something like that. I don't foresee that happening here and if it does I am sure they would not like the local response very much. All I am saying is lets be patient enough to see what happens before we start declaring anything unconstitutional, inconvenient or martial law. We owe the troops as much help as we can give them and no that doesn't mean we allow them to declare martial law, just maybe put up with some noise, door knocks and news stories.

Exactly. I don't know what they are planning to do. Some exercises in the past have gone way to far IMO and some of the local sheriffs have questioned them, not that it did much good.

AFAIK, there hasn't been a "martial law" training exercise since that one in Indiana. Problem is that was a few years ago and most of the news stories don't keep their articles up that long. All you find now (without a research resource) are references to them from secondary sources commenting on the new story, which are shaky at best.

[novasig226r]

Robin Sage, great fun.

Not always. Anyone remember this?

AP Monday, February 25, 2002

RALEIGH, N.C. — A rural roadway became the scene of a deadly confrontation when a deputy sheriff mistakenly opened fire on two plain-clothed Army soldiers out on a training exercise, officials said.

<snip>

'

R/Kurt

Yes. I was on Robin Sage back in '94 and remember it being out in the middle of nowhere in the Uwharrie National Forest. We "reconned" over several paved roads "laying in cover" waiting for traffic to pass. Thinking back to it, it would have been real easy for someone to mistake us for guys out of Deliverance. Only the SF candidates were in military uniforms. Those of us playing the "Pineville" freedom fighters were in a hodge-podge of military and civilian attire, unshaven (and really grungy). I know there were several civilians acting the part of "locals" as well, but they didn't have much contact with the troops except during specific "missions".

Despite the tragedy years later, I still think back on the weeks in "Pineland" with the "green berets" as one of the better experiences of my time in the Army. Not much "tacticool" stuff happens when your MOS is 31L.