Dr_Dirty Posted February 10, 2003 Share Posted February 10, 2003 Regarding the build up of American forces in Kuwait. "We've got enough for whatever needs to be done. Now we're just continuing to reinforce it," said Sgt. Maj. Larry Stevens, spokesman for the 6th Transportation Battalion. "If the commander in chief gives the order, we don't have to wait for anything." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glacierdog Posted February 10, 2003 Share Posted February 10, 2003 Good to go. Let's kick some ass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeclimb9 Posted February 10, 2003 Share Posted February 10, 2003 I can't imagine all the buildup is just gonna be a dryfire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeclimb9 Posted February 10, 2003 Share Posted February 10, 2003 Heard General James L. Jones rattle off these stats today: Â "A Tight Ship is a Happy Ship" Â The following tale is from the history of the oldest commissioned war ship in the world, the USS Constitution. It comes by way of the National Park Service, as printed in "Oceanographic Ships, Fore and Aft", a periodical from the Oceanographer of the US Navy. Â On 23 August 1779, the USS Constitution set sail from Boston, loaded with 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of water, 74,000 cannon shot, 11,500 pounds of black powder and 79,400 gallons of rum. Her mission: to destroy and harass English shipping. Â On 6 October, she made Jamaica, took on 826 pounds of flour and 68,300 gallons of rum. Three weeks later, Constitution reached the Azores, where she provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 6,300 gallons of Portuguese wine. Â On 18 November, she set sail for England where her crew captured and scuttled 12 English merchant vessels and took aboard their rum. Â By this time, Constitution had run out of shot. Nevertheless, she made her way unarmed up the Firth of Clyde for a night raid. Here, her landing party captured a whiskey distillery, transferred 40,000 gallons aboard and headed for home. Â On 20 February 1780, the Constitution arrived in Boston with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, no rum and no whiskey. She did, however, still carry her crew of 475 officers and men and 48,600 gallons of water. Â The math is quite enlightening: Â Length of cruise: 181 days Booze consumption: 2.26 gallons per man per day (this does NOT include the unknown quantify of rum captured from the 12 English merchant vessels in November) US Naval historians guestimate the re-enlistment rate from this cruise to be 100%. Â It also marks the last time the Navy was awarded the EPA Award of Gold Certificate for water conservation. Â The joke question is since they had Marines on this ship what did the sailors drink? Â Â Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catbirdseat Posted February 10, 2003 Share Posted February 10, 2003 If the story is true, it is quite obvious that not all that rum was consumed by the crew. It was valuable as a trade commodity in a time when coinage was scarce. They used it to trade for oither things they needed. Â Still the sailors must have been continually soused. I wonder how many fell to deck from the yards above? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeclimb9 Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 If the story is true, . . . I heard it from the mouth of General James L. Jones, Commandant, United States Marine Corps. BTW, the battle of the Constitution vs the Java is one of the great ones in naval history. Check out http://www.ussconstitution.navy.mil/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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