US Marines Trained to *GASP* Kill!
Sergeant Rudy Reyes, 48, of Kansas City, Missouri, was part of a small group of elite Recon Marines sent ahead of the 2003 invasion in order to ‘clear the path’ to Baghdad, making it easier for the regular US Army to reach the city. Pictured, US Marines in Iraq in March 2003
Thank you Captain Obvious. In it’s typical shrill, hyperbolic fashion, the Daily Mail stuns us with the revelation that US Marines are trained killers, that the training begins in Marine Boot Camp (even the Hollywood one), and the recruits are desensitized at an early stage to some of the more gruesome realities of combat. This aspect of Marine training, with varying levels of sophistication, has been going on as long as there has been a US Marine Corps, and likely was stolen whole cloth from the British Royal Marines. All of which makes perfectly good sense to me.
Apparently STEPHANIE LINNING of the Daily Mail finds all this very newsworthy, and has found a self-described Recon Marine to relate his experiences in both training and combat.
Caution! Graphic, err, verbiage and mental images ahead.
US Marine who was part of an elite group sent to Iraq to ‘clear a path’ to Baghdad ahead of the 2003 invasion says he was ‘systematically trained to kill’ and shown videos of heads being shot off to desensitize him to violence
- Sergeant Rudy Reyes, 48, of Kansas City, Missouri, served in the Iraq War
- He was part of a small group of ‘Recon Marines’ sent ahead of the 2003 invasion
- Sergeant Reyes describes how he was ‘systematically trained to kill’ people
- Told how he spent three weeks fighting with no sleep during the mission
A US Marine who once fought for three weeks ‘without sleep’ has spoken of how he was ‘systematically programmed to kill’ and desensitized to violence in a BBC documentary series about the Iraq War.
Sergeant Rudy Reyes, 48, of Kansas City, Missouri, was part of a small group of elite ‘Recon Marines’ sent ahead of the 2003 invasion in order to ‘clear the path’ to Baghdad, making it easier for the regular US Army to reach the city.
Speaking in tonight’s episode of BBC2 documentary Once Upon A Time In Iraq, Reyes explains how he was shown real-life footage of targets having their heads blown off by sniper rifles as part of his training.
He also reveals how recruits are ordered to say the word ‘kill’ instead of ‘yes’ during boot camp training as part of their ‘program to kill’.
‘In our boot camp, do you know how we say the word “yes”? It’s the word “kill”. It’s the only way you can say “yes”,’ he explains.
‘Then we go into ballistics. Then we’re watching real world: head shots, footage of sniper kills. And then they’re slowing it down in slow motion, head expanding three times the size, then vacuum collapse, then brains and skull.
‘When I saw that I looked at myself inside and I said: “I don’t know if I have what it takes to do this.” Because there was still some human in me.’
Reyes, who left the military in 2005 and is now a TV personality and martial arts instructor, describes the Marine Recon as the ‘Jedis’ of the US Marine Corps.
Recalling the Iraq deployment, he says: ‘We went three weeks straight with no sleep, straight fighting. No armor, no doors, no roofs. Just very capable violent professionals. Sixty men spearheading the blitzkrieg to get to Baghdad. That’s immense.
He continues: ‘Our mission was to destroy any capacity they had for artillery or mortars. And also, of course, the NBC: nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.’
Describing the scenes he witnessed, he says: ‘Incoming and outgoing artillery, small arms, machine guns, birds and rotary wing and the sound of all the engines, and the radios going non-stop, word going back and forth.
‘Imagine seeing the freaking Cobras criss-crossing above you and the bass of the boom, boom, boom, boom… It was god-like.’
Asked if he thinks his time in Iraq was ‘worth it’, Reyes adds: ‘Yes, it’s worth it. I think it has to be worth it. What’s the alternative?’
Once Upon a Time in Iraq offers a closer look at the War and life under Isis.
Since his time in the Marines, Reyes has spoken out about the devastating mental impact ‘heavy combat’ had on him, explaining in a piece for Medium in 2019 that he struggled with depression after returning home.
‘After all that heavy combat, some of the worst suffering I went through was when I got home and had nobody around anymore,’ he said.
Sergeant Rudy Reyes
Read the rest, including a shameless plug for Episode 1 of Once Upon A Time In Iraq, here: Daily Mail
Hat tip to Mason for the link.
Category: Guest Link, Iraq, Marines
Appears that had no problem staring in and taking a paycheck for HBO’s ‘Generation Kill’ in 2008.
I thought the name/face seemed familiar. He was the vainglorious one.
Yup
I know everyone is gay for Rudy, but I never cared much for him, always came across as overhyped, I tried watching the show he did about survival and turned it off before the first commercial break. And calling yourself a ” Jedi”? I bet he’s the kind of Marine that will tell you with a straight face that every Marine that comes out of boot is the equivalent of a Army Ranger.
Yea he completely lost me at “Jedi”…
“…trained to kill…” Methinks they may be also schooled in the art of breaking things in general and spreading terror and discontent. And that’s just in bars, you ought to see what they can do on a battlefield.
Books and movie deals, what every boot has for their goal.
“trained to kill”…. cheeseburgers, cans of beer, large fries, pizza – you name it, he’ll kill it.
Those cigarette butts are going to police themselves.
Those cigarette butts are NOT going to police themselves.
As usual, Hack Stone Publishing regrets the error.
I was always up for the rape and pillage stuff.
Killing and hacking your way is too messy.
You’re going out of order. It’s pillage first, then rape—although pillage comes after kill. Please review the Viking Order of Business.
And don’t forget Step 4: “Set shit on fire and sail the fuck off.”
Aw, he saw Full Metal Jacket…
Making a Stolen Valor call right now.
I see a Service/Campaign Star on the NDSM, but his Hollywood WIKI bio says he only served from 1998 to 2005.
That’s a violation of the California Stolen Valor Act and I hope he’s prosecuted to the full extent of the law and pays the $10.00 fine./s
Who embellishes the NDSM? I vaguely remember one in the TAH
hall of shame. Might have been around the Mike Sleeper pounding.
“Who embellishes the NDSM?”
The 1st SEAC “Fighting” Joe Gainey comes to mind./s
As a legit two-time recipient of the highly coveted, but rarely awarded, National Defense Service Medal, I am not amused.
Ditto!
As a member of the NDSMx2 club, I would like to speak to a manager.
Not?…
Sorry, couldn’t resist…
Tritto!!
This is disturbing: A US Marine who once fought for three weeks ‘without sleep’…
It is disturbing because it is totally BOGUS, MAN!!!!
But that ditzy reporter, while practically wetting her britches over this guy, just sucks up everything he says without checking with anyone else.
I sincerely hope that, when they came together, the Disturbance in The Farce did not release a major earthquake or tidal wave or some equally destructive thingy.
3 weeks without sleeping, my Fat Aunt Harriet! What an inspiration he must be to toymakers! You wind up the Killer Gyrine toy and it takes 3 weeks to wind down, while your mother threatens to throw it out because it cusses worse than a Bosun’s Mate in a hurricane.
I have to add this one: “…explaining in a piece for Medium in 2019 that he struggled with depression after returning home.”
I know how hard that is, struggling with depression, especially when I realize that I have spent five to eight minutes of my life – which I will NEVER get back – reading that drivel.
I sure do hope Stephanie Manning enjoyed her “time with the trained killer” but suffered deeply from depression after he got up, put his pants on and said “Bye, see ya!”
Oh, was that insensitive on my part? (Snorrrtttt!)
Amphetamines?
(Yeah, naw. Not for three weeks. 42 hours is my record, without anything except caffeine.)
Aw, BS… he was living on Rip Its and passing out his his HMMWV when he didn’t have to do sh*t.
Yeah, there’s a big difference between getting a full eight hours of rest and down time and taking cat naps as you go.
They also like to f-ck and drink.
Sometimes at the same time.
When we deployed with the Marine BLT, we had Marine force Recon onboard and what a bunch of nice guys. Yes guys in those days and they used to give martial arts training to any of the ships company that were interested in doing it. The were armed with green parkerized M-3 “grease” guns and I remember they had a portable steam jenny that they used to clean the guns. I guess the Grease guns went the way of the model T Ford.
Jeff, as late as when I retired at the end of 1991, M3 Grease Guns were still on hand in the arms rooms of my Infantry/Armor Battalions there in 1st Brigade, 4th ID at Fort Carson.
The M88/M578 Track Recovery Crews carried them as their personal weapons.
Of course, you gotta realize that the 4th ID was the hind tit sucker to every other active Division in the Army (at that time), but a little research shows the M3’s were eventually turned over to National Guard units starting in the early 90’s.
Thanks for the info Claw, didn’t know that, so they outlasted the Garand and M-1 Carbine.
I’ll challenge you on the hind tit place. I was at 5th ID Ft Polk 87-88, we had grease guns, steel pot helmets and jeeps. And we were the last to get Tacfire.
Shot one around 1993/94 at Camp Zama, Japan … well … wherever the firing range was (not Camp Fuji). Our MPs needed an RSO and I volunteered — my payoff was being asked if I wanted to shoot the M3.
HELL YEAH!!!
First time shooting it and I almost cut the E-type silhouette target in half. Man, what luck!! They thought I’d done it before and I was not about to disabuse them of their erroneous assumption.
As I recall, the M3 was very smooth and I do not recall it having much of a recoil. But maybe I was just in dreamland and didn’t notice it while I emptied the 30 round magazine.
HELL YEAH!
Funny how many times I had to deliver mail to folks doing interesting training or live fire, because “their mail orderly didn’t show up”.
(Grin)
Never held one but I will admit to going
all Walter Mitty while lubricating machinery.
8/40 Armor with the 63rd ARCOM still had them in 93 when I left, out of all the weapons a Tanker has to qualify on, those were the most fun.
They still had M60A3’s as well, as the only Reserve (Not NG) Armor unit left in the Army.
Sadly they were transitioned to M1 tanks right after I left then quickly turned into a Transportation unit soon afterwards thanks to Gramm-Rudman.
Talk about a waste of money.
Im at a loss here how in the HELL did we get this
Stupid welcome to war
Pffftt…
Everyone knows only Army Rangers can go three weeks without sleep.
A Marine goes three weeks without sleeping. He must be talking about Recruiting Duty.
I have a news flash for that reporter: “Water’s wet and bears shit in the woods.”
If a Marine is not trained to kill, what fookin’ good is he?
‘D, to serve as a bad example?
How about, “those fuzzy pink robes aren’t gonna model themselves”?
Who else is gonna drink cheap beer, rotgut whiskey, and smoke the cheap seegars?
Sing songs about cheatin’ ‘hos?
I guess “snappin’ necks and cashin’ checks” was only a part-time gig for this moto hard charger.
I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all.’
U.S.M.C. Gen. James Matttis’
So cool, I just had to get the Morale patch…
Rudy Reyes is a legit recon Marine and no embellisher.
A strange person? Yes. But conman or hustler no. He’s just…..a little strange.
I knew Rudy way way back in the day when I was running DFACS IN KAF in 2002, he was the real deal,down to earth guy and 100 % a Marine, but yes he was a bit strange, hence his nickname Fruity Rudy.Most of the Tip of The Spear during the push into IraqAstan had no sleep for a month, no big deal.Good guy.
I posted this article on one of the Force Recon Facebook pages. https://www.facebook.com/groups/60302691286/?multi_permalinks=10158396781211287¬if_id=1595694801939377¬if_t=feedback_reaction_generic
A few of the guys on that site know Rudy Reyes personally, and all said great things about him. I don’t know the man myself, but it doesn’t seem as though he’s a bullshitter.
A number of us also took issue with the “three weeks with no sleep” statement, but that may have been misconstrued or exaggerated by the journalist herself.
The admins of this FB page vet their members with some great care, so these are folks who’ve walked the walk before they talked the talk.
The only thing about posers and embellishers that truly bothers me is I tend to be suspicious of other vets. Especially when I run across the occasional read deal bad ass I’ve never heard of.
Can’t say as I blame any of you for being suspicious.
Daily Mail
Junk mail, mostly.
Cheap concrete. Not enough Portland and too much sand.
If the Army had been there you would never know it because
there would be nothing left standing.
Yeah! That was done by one Marine with a Beretta, lots of ammo and time.
Chicago?
(sigh) In simple terms, the job of any nation’s military is to bring death and destruction to their nation’s enemies when ordered to do so. That Ms. Linning would find that any military is trained to do so “shocking” and write an “expose” article about it merely proves she’s so clueless that she periodically needs to be reminded to breathe in and out.