The latest photo outrage
DirtyMick sends us this article about a group of Marine Scout Snipers who used the symbol that was also used by the Nazi Germany secret police, Schutzstaffe;
The logo appeared on a flag in a photograph of the platoon taken in September 2010 in Sangin district, a hotly contested area in Helmand province. The Marines were with Charlie Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., and are shown sitting in combat gear with the U.S. flag and a blue flag with the stylized “SS” logo hanging behind them.
“We don’t have all the information, but we know enough to know the Marine Corps needs to open a full investigation,” said Mikey Weinstein, the [Military Religious Freedom Foundation] president. “If these guys just get a non-judicial punishment, it’s absolutely absurd.”
On the MRFF’s website they state;
The fact that United States service personnel were caught proudly posing with the emblem of the Nazi SS, which symbolizes the vile ideology of Hitlerian fascism, sends a menacing signal to religious minorities within the United States Armed Forces.
So I guess we’re back to the pre-war days when everything that some people in the military do demands a full investigation. Do you know who else used that symbol?
I think we need to investigate the music industry and 80s hair bands. We should also investigate those people who want to rock and roll all night and party ev-er-y-day.
Category: Marine Corps
Marilyn Manson used to make use of the SS symbol too.
But I still can’t stomach the sight of our troops posing with Nazi symbols. Yes, I think something should happen to these Marines.
How many times do we have to say that the SS runes with the Marines mean Scout Sniper? It’s all over the beginning comments. Marine Snipers put those runes on everything, rifles, shirts, theory own bodies…. Read the DEATH FROM AFAR series of books about the history of Marine Corps Scout Snipers and you’ll see that it has been in use since Vietnam…. Of you have issues with OT, go notch to Gene Simmons of KISS, his mom is a Haulocost survivor and he used the runes to take the stigma away from them…. Media: STFU, Marimes are going to be Marines! Don’t like it? Move to Canada
[…] snipers February 10th, 2012 The Associated Press reports on the quick decision that the Marines in the post below below won’t be punished. The USMC claims that there was no “malicious intent” in […]
@50: Something should happen to these Marines? Like what? It’s a Nazi symbol if you want it to be. However, it isn’t if you don’t want it to be. Let’s all stop with the hurt taint bullshit and just leave it alone. The letters are a symbol; do you think something should happen to the band KISS, since they have been using the letters since the early fucking 70’s? Like I said, if Gene Simmons doesn’t have a problem using the lightning bolt S; why should anyone else? Get over yourselves.
Fucking android phone, but you get my point and OT is right. Stop going after Grunts, get a life or follow this very special plan for PC people that the SF Weapons Committee Cadre came up with. It’s called EATADIC…..
I’m like 99 percent sure that they picked the SS logo because of the combat prowess of the Waffen-SS rather than the ideological views that the SS acted to support. Of course no one outside the military will get this and this will cause all sorts of uproar for silly reasons.
Hey AW1 Tim, first of all I dont think Im a monitor for anything. I just dont make stupid excuses for using a symbol that was worn by filth while Murdering US Prisoners of War.
My Father Fought the scum wearing that. As to being a Zampolit thanks i guess. Can I say you are an internet asshole? I served 27 years, I’ve been wounded in Iraq but Im not allowed an Opinion because some ignorant morons use Sigrunes that anyone on the fucking planet knows is a Nazi insignia? Cool you support them. I support the American G.I.’s who arent morons, who dont dishonor themselves or their units. YMMV
Was what the Germans did to the Jews horrible? Hell yes! Should it ever be forgotten? Hell no! But how long do we keep using it as a barometer to measure someone’s racial philosophy?
In the mid ’50s the US Government initiated operation “Wet Back”, an attempt to remove illegal aliens, but many American citizens of Mexican descent, including my uncle, were deported because they couldn’t prove their citizenship quickly enough or thoroughly enough for INS/police involved in the raids. Many were beaten and some killed during this operation. Should I keep looking behind every tree for Anglo racists? Isn’t ironic that now racists are the ‘minority’?
Was this the smartest move ever? Naw but then who ever said Marines were smart?!
Semper Fi!
Will people ever learn that a camera in a combat zone is not necessarily your friend? Some things are simply best not photographed.
S.g.
Get over yourself. My grandfather also fought them in WWII, but you don’t see me getting upset. My wife’s family changed their name to avoid the haulocast, but you don’t see them getting butt hurt.
ONCE AGAIN, SS STANDS FOR SCOUT SNIPER. Has as long as I have been in the Corps, and God willing…I hope it continues. Scout Snipers, Recon, MARSOC have all earned their right to be a little cocky…
SG, I have a second cousin who fought in the Screaming Eagles in WW2, jumped into Normandy, fought at Bastogne and liberated a Camp. I grew up hearing the stories of fighting the Nazis, my FATHER ran the Snipers out of the Olympic stadium in Mogadishu in 1992-3, and helped write a couple of the books in the Death From Afar series with the Chandlers. I grew up knowing that Scout Snipers used those Runes, and that the SS did in the past, but that the Marine use of those runes was not the same. Now, if a fucking six year old can grasp the concept, then your Dick-licking self should be able to as well, but I guess that’s too much to hope for. Fuck you, and if you were in the military longer than a day you would know its not really wise to pissy off Marine Scout Snipers. Your argument is thereby rendered invalid, fuck off and thanks for playing…
I know more of the story and I am not trying to judge the guys. I am not a fan of the SS, but I get the scout sniper symbology.
Does this mean the ancient Etruscans were eeeevil Nazis too? That’s all that symbol is, two “S” runes.
Over-reacting to Nazis has a long history in Europe. Scale models manufacturers are prohibited by law from selling kits with (accurate) WW2 markings for German aircraft, it being illegal to reproduce the Hakenkreuz in modern Germany.
I suppose we should condemn all those historically-ignorant scale modelers for using an evil Nazi symbol, no?
Oh, and Buddhists, too, those fascist buggers.
[…] Marines didn’t know then send them back to school February 11th, 2012 Jonn has already covered the Marine Corps Scout Sniper’s use of a stylized flag using with the emblem “SS” […]
I just saw this yesterday or the day before. It just appears like runes similiar to the SS not that they were endorsing the “Schutzstaffel” SS. Runes or “lighting bolt”-esque lettering is not unique to the SS. The Waffen(armed)-SS used a black background not a blue for example. frankly I knew what scout snipers were but never knew they had their own symbol/emblem.
It’s not like they had a picture of Sepp Dietrich behind them.
#11 Doc there were SS Divisions which were the armed extension of the Nazi party. They are the elite formations you are referring to. They at least origionally had high standards of induction. Individuals were vetted politically, racially, and had high physical requirements. Then later certain specific foreigners were also allowed in.
Then there were “Divisions of the SS”, who were the foreign legion like component. They were affliated and had SS advisors but they were raised locally and tended to have the character of whatever enthnic body or Army they had come from.
To restate that does not mean there were not foreigners in the formal SS(like Austrains or Scandinavians). Nor that all foreign formations were affliated/sponsored by the SS. The Italians, Romanians, and Finns all fought as allies of Germany in the field but were national separate armies.
“The reason the Waffen SS is thought so poorly of is that their parent organization was…” Thats partly true Doc. They were great soldiers but alot of their reputation came not just because of their battlefield exploits but from the undenialable war crimes they committed. Thats not just the concentration camp guards, or even the eizengruppen, but the actions of the Waffen-SS themselves.
Obviously a Photoshop effort. There is no shadow from the sniper to the immediate right of the SS flag. From the sun angle you should have a substantial shadow from the man and his rifle that crosses the SS flag. I am not sure what anyone would have to gain from posting a fake photograph but this is CLEARLY a Photoshopped picture to add in the SS Flag.