“Don’t call me a POG”
In the Marine Corps Times, they published an article about meany infantrymen calling support troops POGs (Personnel Other than Grunts).
While at the barracks aboard Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, one weekend, a group of [Gunnery Sgt. Hector Vicente’s] junior Marines from the entry-level school for personnel administration stopped by on their way to the beach.
“Gunny, we were out last night at Buffalo Wild Wings and some Marines walked by and called us ‘boots’ and ‘POGs,'” one private first class said. “Why would a fellow Marine do that?”
It wasn’t the name-calling itself that bothered Vicente, who, as a career support Marine, knew that the terms were often thrown around within the Corps as part of its coarse culture. It was the fact that one group of Marines was trying to belittle and humiliate another group of Marines in public.
“It truly saddens me when a group of PFCs ask me why they would be called ‘boot’ and ‘POG’ while they are dining at a restaurant,” Vicente said. “That act to me is truly disheartening.”
Well, you know, they were going to administrative school. And, you know if it had been Army guys at the table, the clerks would have busted on them for not being Marines. It’s been going on since folks started putting on uniforms. Witness a cut from Audie Murphy’s “To Hell and Back” when some infantrymen met some Air Corps folks;
I remember reading a weeks-old Stars & Stripes newspaper while we were deep inside Iraq after Desert Storm “ended” about some Army guy who was driving a truck around Iraq and he said something about grunts “living like animals” sleeping on the ground going without showers for weeks, with only a shallow trench for a latrine. Yeah, he talked about us like we were a lower form of life than him.
We walked our socks to death and we couldn’t get socks from S-4, but one of my troops was engaged to a female soldier in the support battalion who got us huge boxes full of socks that weren’t getting to the grunts.
When we got back from Iraq, I stayed behind in Saudi Arabia with my drivers and vehicles to ship them back to Germany. Next to the air conditioned buildings we stayed in was a pool where they had ice cold Coca-Cola, loud rock music, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s gym equipment – all stuff we hadn’t had for months. It was run by Marine POGs who wouldn’t let us in – particularly one little weasel WO2, who didn’t want a bunch of grunts drinking his Ice Cold Cokes and getting their grubby bodies in his nice clean pool. And probably snagging their POG women out from under them.
The POGs I knew deserved the treatment they got. The fact that the Marines are trying to crack down on inter- and intra-service rivalry is just more of this crap about treating people like special little snowflakes, that shit they hear in schools to insulate youngsters from the realities of the world.
The best quote in the article comes from Max Uriarte, the creator of Terminal Lance;
“If you’re a POG, I would just own it. ‘Yeah, I’m a POG and it’s awesome,” Uriarte said. “I have more respect for people who just own what it is they’re doing than who try to be something that they’re not. Let the grunts have their misery because that’s what they want anyway.”
Because we love our misery.
Category: Military issues
Fuck you.
Gawd damn Kunckledraggers.
Steadfast&Loyal
Former CPT, Ordnance Corps
with love….of course.
Ah-the joys of being a medic: we’ve always got a place to sleep, grunts generally don’t give us much lip, there are lots of women in medical units and oftentimes our officers outrank everyone else’s (we had two O-6s at our aid station in Iraq-they outranked everyone else on the FOB).
Chairforce….WHOOOO AHHHHH
*Snaps a spiffy salute to the officers as they taxi down the runway off to fight…while I go back to the warehouse and make coffee and buy doughnuts.
Oh and Because you love your misery…
NSF Work/Kids/Weak Stomachs/Lunch etc
Oh yeah, Chair Force and proud. Flight line? The hell is that? I work in Communications. And love every minute of it.
Water dog for life!
Aw, the poor little POGs acting like, well, POGs.
Or as we used to say back in the day, “STFU, get qualified, and get some time on the pond, and then maybe you can express your opinion, ya fucking nub.”
POGs, or as we called them Sand Crabs.
Sand crabs? Where I come from, the sand crabs were civilians (civil service) taking jobs that should have been done by military.
“Don’t call me a poser”. I’ve survived eight conflicts
http://thetruthaboutsocnetlies.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/john-giduck-not-just-beslan-school-but-also-survivor-of-8-wars/
sincerely
John “Faker 6” Gidduck
True, own it! As an Infantryman who lived in a hole in the ground, shoveled shit (literally), and went almost a week on a few stripped MREs and over a month without a proper shower, own it!
Still an 11B, but my return to the line was cut short by a recurrent injury. Back on staff, trying to get back to TOG, and OWNING every minute I don’t have to deal with micromanagement and humping in full battle rattle. Then again, I learned to respect support troops way back when, as I embraced how much it sucks to wait for resupply. In my vocabulary POG is usually only applied to those who are inept, lazy, or who abuse the system and/or the troops they were trained to support. Oh, and Cav Scouts… 🙂
Exactly, most grunts will grant a little respect to the support troops who act like soldiers and show they care about getting the job done. POGs are the chickenshits who just show up to collect a check, there’s a difference.
“It truly saddens me when a group of PFCs ask me why they would be called ‘boot’ and ‘POG’ while they are dining at a restaurant,” Vicente said. “That act to me is truly disheartening.”
Spoken like a true fucking POG….you know why they were called POGs Gunny boo fucking hoo, stop yer crying and drive the fuck on.
Veritas Omnia Vincit…Here-Here! What I want to know is, why did a Gunnery Sergeant not immediately smoke all their asses for being whining bitches instead of…Marines? Not the senior NCO’s I remember from the Army. That kind of whine would have opened the door to a world of shit storms, right then and to come.
Roger that!
It’s a kinder, gentler Marine Corps.
Fuck that, the Gunny I know doesn’t tolerate that shit from his troop.
Question: since “POG” is apparently no longer acceptable, does that mean we should go back to using the Vietnam-era term “REMF” instead?
I second that. Just to change things up.
In before……in 3….2…..1….
“Hey El Tee/Gunny/Sarge, what’s a “rhemmff” ?!?!?
😀 😀
Also in before…..
Q: Is there anything further back than a POG/REMF?!?!?
A: Yeah, The Air Force.
/oblig.
I’ve been assigned to a couple of Division HQs working in the TAC (Tactical Command Post) during field exercises, which is pretty “primitive living” for Div HQ (working out of M-577 armored tracks and sleeping in GP small tents.)
Anyway, we always had an ALO (Air Liaison Officer) with the TAC who was an Air Force officer, typically a senior captain or a major and almost always a fighter pilot, who was assigned to the DTAC when we went to the field.
I often wondered “If you’re a fighter pilot in the Air Force, how badly do you have to screw up to get assigned to an Army division?” 😀
(Of course, in reality I think those were coveted “joint” assignments. I also have to say that every USAF officer I worked with in that capacity was top notch, without exception.)
Why ChipNASA – it stands for “Really Excellent Males and Females”. Don’t they teach you zoomies anything?
(smile)
Rear Echelon Members of the Force
Well, rfisher – you’re about 50% accurate there. (smile)
When I was the new guy at the shop at Peterson AFB, we had a HUGE base wide mobilization exercise that went on for a week. Even the civilians were included and we had to go to shelters an the military guys had to MOPP 4 up and all that crap.
When I wasn’t doing that, I was the only one back at the Air Terminal Warehouse running the shop.
Everyone else was part of the exercise.
I had to carry a radio because…and I shit you not, I was “Java Control Manager”…
/”it better be hot and there better be a LOT…keep it coming.
+1 !!!
Ah yes, the REMF! If they were good, and we felt they actually cared about supporting us the term never came up. Unfortunately, they were in the minority.
I recall a incident in the bush. My jungle fatigues, had been ripped wide open in the crotch area by thorny bamboo. Got the replacement fatigues the next day. Log bird takes off. That’s when I found that the replacement fatigues had no zipper!
That guy was a REMF!
Well, 3/17 Air Cav – at least he didn’t hand you a piece of paper with a requisition number and a due date and tell you that was the best he could do. (smile)
Hondo, I left out the part about it being a one for one trade. My old, ripped fatigues, had to go back with the log bird! That’s called a chickenshit REMF!
3/17 Air Cav: I understand DX, amigo. I was making a joke – and a point.
It’s possible the guy didn’t realize that pair of fatigue trou were defective. Or he might have been screwing you simply because, well, you’d likely never meet up with him face-to-face again. I dunno; I wasn’t there.
But at least he came up with something. He could have come thru with absolutely nothing more than a rec no and a due date – and sent that to you vice a pair of trou while he sat on his ass at base camp. I’ve seen that kind of stuff before, too.
Hondo…….actually the whole thing was kind of funny. Since it was a one for one trade, I’m standing there with my cheese in the wind. (Not Chevy) waiting for my new fatigues. Since we all went commando, I caught all kinds of grief from the rest of my platoon during the exchange.
(chuckling) Yeah, I can see that – figuratively speaking, of course. (smile)
Sounds like this bit of dialog from a movie of the misspent part of my youth might have been in order:
http://www.joblo.com/audiofiles1/mp3/022605.mp3
For you younger troops, DX stands for “Direct eXchange.” I think that term went out of favor around 1980 along with “canibalize” (that became “controlled exchange” if I recall).
“DX” could also be used when talking about getting rid of a shit-bird: “Yah, I finally DXed Joe Snuffy, sent him to our sister battalion — hahahahaha.”
DA Form 2402.
DX’ing shitbirds? I always called that “passing the trash”.
We still used DX and cannibalize when I was in in the late 90s. I believe the official language for cannibalize became “controlled substitution”.
The official language for “cannibalization” was “controlled substitution” as far back as the late 1970s/early 1980s.
Everybody called it “cannibalization” then, too. (smile)
I’m a POG/REMG, and I don’t a flying fart in space who knows it. 😛 😛 😉
EX……Yes, you might have been a POG/REMF. But in your defense, you were a hottie POG/REMF! There is a huge difference!
(Smile)
Love you,too, AirCav.
So where does “fobbit” fit in POG/REMF hierarchy?
fobbits are placed just below REMFs and just above cadets. If theyre infantry fobbits we call them cav scouts…
That must explain why the infantry on both my deployments were FOB security while we lower forms of life in the Recon platoon were out actually doing combat missions…
I kid. I like cav scouts. I just find it funny that some scouts get offended by being called infantry and vice versa even though both MOSes are interchangeable. I’ve seen shitbags in both groups. They definitely belong further down the food chain than fobbits…
As its put in this article, I don’t see why the term POG is offensive. I also don’t know when the P started standing for personel.
Im also totally on board with REMF being used more freely
I concur with that. As I see it there are rear-echelon people and then there are REMFs. The Mechanic who works his or her arse off and sometimes accompanies Infantry and Cav on lengthy missions is the former while the mouthy puke in supply who talks shit and bawls that he’ll run straight to IG if they tell him he has to go on any mission is a REMF.
My chief complaint here is against the Marine Times, or as it is known in the lifer community, the Marine Enquirer. This rag of a paper really has no utility outside of crap stories and getting people to comment that really shouldn’t; like the Gunnery Sergeant at the school house.
I was a tanker in the Corps, until I became a First Sergeant. from day one, I was taught and then taught others, that the Corps is an infantry organization. There are two types of Marines, Infantry, and those that support them. Every single Marine in the Corps not in an infantry MOS in an infantry unit, supports the infantry. Including the tanks I operated and loved.
I saw how the Marines not infantry in Fallujah lived, and I saw how the earth pigs lived. I saw what they went through in the city while the other Marines still in the base were living okay, and going to one of the two chow halls (the second opened up right before the battle).
The front line is a gray area, and I know a lot of Marines in the tank community with awards for heroism and shedding blood for their country. God bless them. This does not detract from the facts stated above. If you have not lived their life, and you get your panties in a knot because you get called a pogue, you have to wonder how the hell you earned the title in the first place.
“… called a *pogue*…”
Thank you, Top. The POG bullshit chaps my arse much the same way as those who insist on calling a magazine a clip or a rifle a gun.
Fuckin’ numpties.
It’s pogue. Not POG. That POG idiocy was invented by numpties who can’t be bothered to learn the history of their org and the meanings behind the lingo.
That irritates me too. Guess it’s a generational thing. Pogue; rhymes with brogue. POG: rhymes with jog, fog, log, etc. I never heard the POG thing until around 2006. I feel like the old man yelling at the kids to get off his damn lawn
First the numpties let our words and their meanings get FUBAR’d and next thing you know, we’ve got women in the infantry.
I dare someone to try and pretend there’s no direct connection!
😛
Ahhhhh …. fond memories of “Pogey bait” — any unauthorized food/candy during Ranger School.
Weren’t British sailors called “Pogues” by the PBI (poor bloody infantry) during WWII?
I read this story the other day. First off, I doubt the event described actually happened. This POG nonsense has been going on forever. At times during my career I was a POG and loved my desk. I loved being in the rear with the gear. I was living with three strippers, drinking like a fish, no formations, showed up ‘around 8’, no field, and didn’t have to wash sand out of my ass.
I had a ball during those times, I could give a shit less what some poor knuckle dragger has to say about any of it. A boot is a boot period. The POG thing only bothers me when I see it being used to run down some veteran as collateral damage.
‘Motor T Type’, ‘Supply POG’, ‘REMF’, and so on do not always apply the same in the Corps as they might in other branches. A ‘REMF’ can easily find themselves deployed as a grunt.
I have no doubt, if that was my pool I wouldn’t have let your ass in it either. That’s just the way it goes. Marines have to go to training schools on Army bases all the time, we catch our share of shit just the same.
If the event described actually took place, maybe they were treated that way because they were acting like a bunch of pussies. Semper Fi.
Back in the day, before the land was covered in pussies, my non-infantry bretheren could dish out the shit as well as take it. THAT is the Marine Corps I grew up in. This debate has been going on since Christ was a Corporal. But without the butthurt.
I do not recognize this new Marine Corps where a sensitive Gunnery Sergeant cries over the mistreatment of his POG troops. Grow a pair Sally. Jesus H. Christ!!!
I embrace being a desk jockey, labdoodle, REMF, pogue, or whatever other non-combat slurs you dingaling bullet sniffers want to throw at me, Master Guns.
I know you can take it Ex-PH2! Cause you dish it out so well : )
Like I said, that was how it was with the non-infantry Marines I grew up with. I deployed with them, went to schools with them etc. And we gave each other HUGE rations of shit. And it was BRUTAL, but we were all Marines so it didn’t matter.
Because they knew deep down that we grunts were GODS!!
I had to learn to take it before I ever dished it out, Master Guns. <3 <3 <3
MGySgtRet:
You ever see anything sad sackier than a pogue that wanted, with all his heart, to be a grunt?
The dreaded Remington Raider! Once a few beers go into that sort, the tears… oh my, the tears… they so coulda been a grunt if life wasn’t soo horribly unfair!!
I’m sure you grew up in a Corps much older than I did, but even a decade ago there wasn’t all this touchy-feely bullshit, Master Guns. I don’t fuggin get it.
Correct me if I’m wrong here, Master Guns. I’m not a Marine. But I thought “sensitive” and “gunnery sergeant” aren’t supposed to be printed in the same book, much less uttered in the same sentence.
No no no. If you’re feeling bad or something’s bothering you, just walk up to that Master Guns and say, “I’m a bit sensitive to that topic, would you please not mention it?”
The Master Guns will hook you up, trust me…
I’m sorry, you’ve obviously got them confused with the Air Force…
Mr Wolf, don’t mess it up…
It hurt me deeply to write “sensitive” and Gunnery Sergeant in the same post. But what other conclusion was I to draw?
Dear sweet 5 lb baby Jesus would I have lost my shit if some of my troops had come to me with a complaint like that!!
Leaders seem to be afraid to tell their troops to suck it up any more. I guess they are afraid of getting told on. And with some of the senior officer/SNCO ass covering shitbags that are running around now, that is probably a legitimate concern.
Well, like I said, I doubt that event in the article actually happened. If I could have spent my whole career behind a desk I probably would have. Didn’t work out that way. There are several Marine groups on Facebook I have seen people get the red ass and leave. Joke’m if they cant take a phuk. If they think they are being phuked with now wait until the pick up SNCO. Their first deployment on ship in the First Class mess or the Old Goats Locker will wake their ass up. I know a few crusty old Chiefs that just live to phuk with Marines. Semper Fi.
AMEN!!
The First Law of USMC Survival:
Don’t sweat the petty, pet the sweaty.
I bet that can’t even be said anymore without fear of a courts martial.
Still proud to be a POG.
I shall repeat a post I made elsewhere with regards to this article:
As a POG, I would like to say one thing about this.
Shut up POG. You’re embarrassing yourself.
Yep, I was a REMF-the Army functional equivlanet of a POG. Never made any bones about it. I had the same opportunity to be an artillery or infantry officer when I was commissioned as my ROTC classmates. I went AG because my college degree was in broadcasting.
I may have been a REMF, but I always saw my job as working for the ‘grunts.’ That’s why REMF’s exist-so the grunts don’t have to worry about bullshit paperwork and they can get on with doing what they do: Digging the bad guys out of their holes and making them surrender or die.
Like or lump it the reason any branch of the military exists is to kill people and break their shit. If you’re not doing that then you’re supporting it. If you’re supporting it, then you work for the grunts. And you should do whatever the fuck they ask you to do right away so that they don’t have to jack with it. Don’t like being called a POG or a REMF? Switch your MOS.
Otherwise, stop blowing snot bubbles.
^^^Retired POG.
And PFCs are boots.
Friggin pansies.
A good friend of mine works Parking Enforcement for a major city PD. He readily admits that “enforcement officer” is an excessively glorified dick-beating title for a position that’s unarmed and not a sworn LEO. And when asked about it, he puts a big smile on his face and says, “Hell yeah, I’m a meter maid!”
If he can embrace that degrading label with a shit-eatin’ grin on his face, then these Marines can man up and quit crying. Hell, I work with two firefighters who are both former Marine air wingers. Both of them wear the title of POG with pride and take no offense at it.
They probably don’t let anyone pick on the new guys anymore either. Probably called hazing now and leads to low self esteem…
First you’re a Dumb Fn’ New Guy, then promoted to New Guy, and ultimately made it to the esteemed ranks of Old Timer, until becoming a Short Timer. “I’m so short I can sit on the curb and my legs don’t reach the ground, get me a coke DFNG!”
Or in the 2ID, a Turtle, fresh from the Turtle Farm
Pfft. I remember when I was so short I could do a 10-minute free fall off the edge of a dime.
That’s not short,that’s NEXT!!
NHSparky, I remember being so short I had to put an aspirin in the sole of my boot to take care of a headache!
First, I am an REMF, perhaps the personification of the REMF.
POGs ought to embrace it and accept it. Our mission is to defeat our enemies. In most cases, that is by supporting the Combat Arms Soldier.
That said, if the Grunt knows what’s good for him, he won’t set himself up as better than everyone else or rub it in too hard. Its biting the hand that (literally) feeds you. Its petty and short sighted. Treat the REMFs like comrades in the profession of arms, and they will break their backs (and sometimes the rules) to support you. Treat them as beneath contempt and the requisition will get lost, the office close at 1700, and all forms will have to filed in triplicate.
I learned early on…..
1. Don’t piss of the 1st Sergeant
2. Don’t piss off the folks at the Chow Hall
3. Don’t piss off the folks at Finance
4. Don’t piss off the folks at Supply
5. Don’t *EVEN* think about bitching at the folks in Medical because… OOPS…there goes your shot record. Now get back in line start *all* over.
This is only going to hurt a little…..Typhoid, Yellow Fever, Tetanus, Flu Shot, Hep A, Hep B, etc.
The Supply Mafia takes care of our friends, regardless of the branch. And I mean Mafia. If most commanders knew the kinds of drug deals we had to make to keep our books 100%, especially in infantry units, they would demand we commit seppuku on the spot rather than disgrace the unit with that amount of paperwork.
Heh.
In the ’80s, most infantry battalions were so short on supplies due to the lack of budget necessary to actually keep a 3 division, 3 wing, 3FSSG sized force fully up to TO, there was a real life Milo Minderbender Network that maintained a traveling “Inspection Convoy”.
This convoy would pull up to a unit about to be inspected with all the necessary items required to pass the inspection. Then, once that inspection was over, it’d all get packed up again and move out to the next unit on the inspection list.
One of the guys in the infantry unit I was assigned to use to call me a useless POG who couldn’t cut it in the ‘real army.’ So, with the permission of my Supply Sergeant (former 11B) and Top (former 92A who moved to 11B), we agreed to switch load-outs for the next road march and brush march. I’d take his SAW gunner load-out and he’s take my standard Infantry Support load-out.
The march was a Drill-long action. We marched ten miles to the training grounds, moved through the training grounds in a tactical manner, bivouacked for the night, and then repeated in the opposite. There would also be tactical exercises and such.
I loved the lack of weight, even carrying the M-249. He, on the other hand, ended up having only half a rest period at the 5-mile marker because he was so far behind. At the tactical, I didn’t screw up at all. Because I was assigned to an Infantry unit, I often trained with them in their tactical exercises since I’d be right beside them when the shite hit the fan.
During the tactical exercises, Top ended up having us switch out rucks and weapons. It wasn’t because I was doing anything bad on the SAW, but because he wasn’t able to move fast enough for ammo resuppy. Apparently, carrying an extra fifty pounds of MREs, water, and bullets was a little too much for the poor Infantryman while also being a support rifleman.
After that weekend, the only time I was called a POG was when someone was being a wiseass. Otherwise, they understood the crap I had to go through while doing my job. Then again, since he was able to do my job adequately, I picked him to help me with cyclic maintenance on the weapons while the rest of the unit cleaned the armory. After a weekend in the mud and muck, he was thankful for the reprieve.
I did some research, and found that POG originally meant Posted On Garrison.
Wikipedia has an interesting article on the matter.
At any rate, my hat is off to all who served and tell the truth about their service with no embellishment. That goes regardless of your rank, branch, or MOS/rating. Thank you for your service, all of you Veterans.
Reminds me of the Coners, I mean Forward Area Guys, I mean non-nuclear trained sailors whining about how we referred to them.
So…you took the phrase ‘Forward Area Guys’ and made it into an acronym. Niiiiice.
Well, now that DADT is gone, that might actually be accurate for a few troops to-day. ;o)
Yup…or “Holiday Routine” inport.
Holiday forward, routine aft. Actually saw OI-55 being done between Xmas and New Years.
Pick your Rate. Pick your fate.
Meh. This is just the normal kind of ball busting that goes on in all military units.
Being a REMF is always a relative thing. When I was in 2nd ID HQ the infantry, armor and artillery troops thought of me as a REMF but I still got to look down my nose at the 8th Army REMFs who were down in Seoul and didn’t have to carry a pass to get off post.
Even when I was in SF I always worked at Battalion HQs (in the MI Det) so I got to look down on the “REMFs” at Group HQ. 😀
Same sorta thing happens (or at least used to happen) in a grunt battalion.
There’s the “real grunts”. Those are the 03walklots..erm… 11s. Aka Riflemen. Then there’s the 03supportdudes, machine gunners, company level mortarmen and assaultmen.
Then there’s the battalion support. Those being the 81mm mortars and the anti armor dudes (Dragons at the time, no clue what they’re using now).
To the line companies, us 03xx’s in weapons company were often thought of as far too fond of our shiny boots and fresh pressed cammies. Us Dragons thought our brothers in the 81mm platoon were really sad about the fact that they were considered grunts when they really should be thought of as man portable artillery.
“Losers study tactics, winners study logistics”
True today as ever
Oh, 11H/B1P, 91B then 76Y, the natural progression of age I think
Maewestwoodie…………Unless your drafted!
(Smile)
The Generals all say: I don’t know what them logistics are,I just know I need lots of them.
CLAW131 – Admirals, actually. That was essentially a documented remark made by ADM (later FADM) Ernest King to a staff officer in 1942.
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/navy/log_quotes_navsup.pdf
Army Generals learned what that “logistics” GA Marshall was talking about was long before World War II. Marshall kind of made sure of that. (smile)
Yeah, the whole inter-branch thing has been around since the beginning of time and the whole combat arms/support piece just as long. The original article in question was just a waste of ink and paper (or electrons), but hey you gotta write about something. I’m not combat arms, but being an Engineer, we get “right popular”. And, if I can get you across a river, clear a road, breach an obstacle, or make sure you have a place to sleep in, well that’s how we roll.
Yes, I would like to see what happens if someone called a SeaBee a pogue.
I helped an ex-Seabee build a new barn in exchange for lower a boarding bill. He carried around 2x6s and 6x6s like they were nothing. It was impressive.
I was Signal, technically a pogue. I always had to laugh when the unit that claimed to be “first boots on the ground in (insert name of shithole here)” kinda forgot there was a KY-68 with worldwide DSN access waiting for them when they arrived. Call me pogue, a fobbit, I don’t care. You can talk about me, but you can’t talk without me!
In both Germany and Korea, I’m pretty sure the divisional signal battalion spent more time in the field than the infantry. They always had to deploy before everyone else and stay after all the other units had returned to their respective bases.
Naw,the person from the S-4 shop who was designated as Shit-6 had to spend more time out in the field than anybody else. He had to do the ride-along with the porta-potty people to insure every unit was covered. That included all moves,dates,times,etc. If the aggressors had ever captured the Shit-6,they would have had the entire FTX locked up.
And if you think that some units would use their porta-potties as a rally point during night moves,you would be right. Seen it happen many times.
POG, pogue, or REMF. Didn’t matter to me. I was rear with the gear, commo, supporting infantry. On occassion, up front with the grunts.
Our quote was, “You can talk about us, but you can’t talk without us.”
And for the DATs and CDATs, “Without us, what you got there is a rolling 60 ton paperweight.”
Or a 60 ton sled in the winter.
Woodman, did you show up at 7th Comm Bn about March 2000?
My first Skipper on the Ustsfish was a big proponent of “One Boat, One Crew”. He would come down on the Nuke/Forward puke shit like the hammer of God and it was a happier Boat without it. That said, there was still good natured ribbing between crew members, and you had to be careful about showing anyone what bothered you for fear of a pile on.
REMF is a relative term. If you’re Point on a patrol, everyone behind you is a REMF.
SJ, what you said was that rarity called “Horridly funny.” I laughed — and then cringed. :/
SJ………truer words were never spoken!
I was a POG. I was in the Air Wing (CH-46E). I didn’t have to walk when we went on detatchments or training. I got to fly.
It was awesome.
I would have called those students “boot” as well. Because they are.
Do you want to see Marines get treated like shit? Check out the abuse heaped on students going through Marine Corps Communications & Electronics School (MCCES). 1. Way back in the day, when Marines were paid by hard pay checks (1981 – 1983), MCCES would hold the pay checks of C&E students (note students, not permanent personnel) for five days so that the check cashing lines at the PX and bank would not be as long. 2. At the Base Theater, C&E students were relegated to the bad seating area of the theater. There was an entire section of theater in the upper balcony with several hundred seats reserved for the Base Comander in the unlikely event that he ever wanted to see a four year old film that nobody ever heard. 3. MCCES admin would not issue new ID cards to C&E students when they were promoted. This was way before the days of “Non-Rate” ID cards. Policy not applicable to permanent personnel. 4. C&E students had a series of open squad bays on several levels that cascaded from the side of the mountain down towards the main road on base. The upper most level of buildings had a chow hall that was converted into a beer hall. The lowest level of barracks was where the tankers lived. Beer Hall closes, tankers obey the laws of gravity and proceed down each successive leve of C&E barracks, tear through the barracks and start beating the shit out guys sleeping in their racks. 4. During the Sumer if 1991, after the successful routing of vaunted Republican Guard, some low ranking members of CSSD-12 decided to go out in the common courtyard between CSSD-12 and the C&E students. They took that opportunity to start yelling shit of how C&E is bunch of pussies while they were over there kicking Iraqi ass. (Full disclosure, Hack Stone was part of CSSD-12 and participated in Desert Shield). So, a C&E Sgt student just off of the drill field came out to try to calm the situation. They mouthed off to the Sgt, and it was… Read more »
The sky is blue because God loves the Infantry!
In the end, all POG’s want a CIB but very few, if any, want to bother with that whole “Infantry thing” first.
I actually met one clown years ago who told me he was a “Garrison” Soldier, whatever the fuck that was and another one that told me proudly “My job is to pay Soldiers, nothing more”.
I told them to lick my balls and if they did not like that, lick my Tab.
Bitches.
0311 and 11B!
We took rockets into our FOB in Iraq and all of the junior POGs started running around happy as pigs in shit thinking they were all getting Combat Action Ribbons. Of course they did not. The rockets all landed in an unoccupied section of the camp, but it was fun to listen to those kids rationalize why they should all get CAR’s.
We were sitting in a warehouse with our support battalion in al Jubail waiting for our equipment to arrive from Germany by boat on January 15th, 1991 when the support folks all spent the day sewing their combat patches on the right shoulder of their BDUs.
I reckon POG is better than POS. I was NBC (more cool letters) most of my career, so I guess technically a POG but was Green-Tabbed over half that time. Go figure.
BTW does the Army still use Green Tabs?
I haven’t seen green tabs on uniforms for about a decade, at least. I’ve even seen higher ranking people get hostile about people wearing them still at that point.
Don’t think they were ever authorized with the ACU, Eric. And they were never authorized to be worn on the ASU – so when greens (they were still authorized there) went away at the end of FY14, they probably became history.
http://www.army.mil/asu/faq.html
Let us not overlook those rear area warriors on the FOB’s that inhabit the TOC…AKA, the “TOCroach”.
And it seems that they also fall into the category of “Geardo”. Those MoFos have all the high-speed, Tacti-cool shit and more knives than you can shake a stick at. Yep, you really need that octagonal, rotating rail system on an M4 that stays in your RLB all the time.
I’ve seen the REMF vs 11B both ways. Good natured ribbing, and also down right hostile.
While operating out of Phuoc Vinh we would go out for seven days then come back in for three. While in we had no official barracks or hooch. So when we went out we would take our duffel bags, put a padlock on it and store them all in a conex, with all our worldly possessions inside.
It kind of gives a guy a real case of the ass, to come back inside the wire and find your duffel bag cut open with a razor blade, and find cameras ect. Stolen.
That to me is the true definition of a REMF!
That sucks. In the 1/101 (ABN)(SEP) when combat elements came back inside the base camp, they were inside the wire and showered with beer, hot showers, (and, maybe, videos of Asian chicks in states of dress). REMFS provided security and they had nothing to do but unwind.
SJ……when I say come in for three days. This is how it worked. Grab beers placed on flight line. Check in all weapons before we got drunk. Get a fresh issue of clothes. Shit, shower and shave.
First night in get really really drunk
Second night pull bunker line guard.
Third day, get ready to go back out. Load ruck, ammo,food,water. Fly back out. We were Airmobile.
Actually, we only got about a day and a half of no bullshit.
I’m not complaining, it’s just the way it was!
Sounds familiar except that you folks would never have done guard duty in the 1/101 in f’ing PhuBai in early ’68. No excuse for getting your stuff stolen. Hope the assholes that did it went to Long Binh Jail.
Those weren’t REMFs, 3/17 Air Cav. Those were the animals known as “Blue Falcons” – AKA BFs. As well as low-life bastards and a few other terms I’ll pass on putting in print.
Yeah, SJ is correct. The jackwads doing that crap deserved to be caught and do time.
I am grateful for what support people do, but when they say “we do everything the Infantry does” it pisses me off.
It would depend on whether or not that REMF is a combat-support type and stationed with the Infantry unit. I was with them for every training, every range, every lane, and every convoy. I may not have worn the blue cord, but I also didn’t see any on them carrying any extra water, MREs, or ammo on their gear through all that training.
In Aviation we were always of the opinion that if they wanted to be assholes about calling us POGs, then they can fucking walk in Afghanistan.
AtDrum…….I saw it both ways, I was a 11B who got out of the bush and flew as a gunner. When flying a ash and trash mission, making a stop here and there. There was always people looking for a ride. Usually, the pilots let me pick who got the ride. If there was a 11B guy on the helo pad, he got picked over everyone else.
Dirty, tired, stressed, he deserved it!
As a former coms guy, I agree: talk about us but yah ain’t gonna talk with out us.
That being said respect goes two ways. Don’t treat us like crap and its amazing the lengths we may go through to get you that call home. (I’ve seen it and assisted the back end of this multiple times. Bounce/piggy/patch back a signal off any and everything possible, just to allow a guy to call his wife’s hospital room during the birth of their first kid.)
On the other other hand talk smack and give attitude, sorry guy times up theres a line here. Opps the atmophereics just went bad and I can’t get a signal through.
All that said first rule is to treat everyone with curtesy and respect untill they give you reason not to. Don’t want to be called a POG/REMF then don’t act like one!
I’ll beg deference to geeze a moment as the BDE SigO for the 3/82nd (ABN)(SEP) in RVN. My switchboard guys put up with a load of BS from fellow officers. So, I had an NCO teach me how to operate the board and frequently would enter the shelter and tap one of the ops on the shoulder and tell him to take a break. I would op the board incognito. I acted just like PFC Snuffy and took their shit. At shift change, I went to the accused (plural) and unhooked their TA312’s and gave them to the BDE XO and explained why. Respect for my operators changed real quick. BUT, I ALSO walked through the BDE HQ and cranked many a TA312 to see how my guys answered the customers. They knew I did this and it paid off. END GEEZE. Out
If you don’t like being called a “POG,” then do something about it. The non-POG units are hiring and always have…otherwise STFU.
I hope those Boots are still pushing.
I bet classes are going to happen now because POGs always fucking it up for grunts, ALWAYS.
hat fucking snowflakes in obama’s Marine Corps these days. Thanks Hussein.
It’s interesting when an Infantry Corporal who gets fapped over to PMO to stand gate gets called a POG by a boot from his parent command. Grunt rage/hilarity ensues.
I was a winger–which I guess is a POG X 2.
I wanted to be a tanker, but my recruiter wouldn’t let me. My ASVAB score was too high. 🙁