We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things. Chesty Puller 12/5/1950 Battle of Chosin Reservoir
The highest rate of fire for a machine gun in service is the M134 Minigun. The weapon was designed in the late 1960s for helicopters and armored vehicles. It fires 7.62 mm calibre rounds at a blistering rate of 6,000 rounds per minute, or 100 rounds per second — about ten times that of an ordinary machine gun, according to the Guinness World Records.
The Metal Storm gun, on the other hand, makes the M134 look like a toy. The prototype gun system was rated at 16,000 rounds per second or 1,000,000 rounds per minute. The gun system was developed by an Australian weapons company by the same name. In 2007, Metal Storm Inc. started delivering its gun systems to the US Navy for surface ships. This video shows how the Metal Storm gun achieves its head spinning firing rate.
From fighting pirates in the First Barbary War of 1801 to seizing the Kandahar International Airport in 2001 and beyond, Marine Corps infantrymen have been fighting and winning our nation’s battles for more than 200 years.
Known as “grunts,” infantrymen receive specialized training in weapons, tactics, and communications that make them effective in combat. And while many things have changed for grunts over time, they continue to carry on the legacy that was forged from the “small wars” to the “Frozen Chosin” to the jungles of Vietnam.
After more than a decade of war following the 9/11 attacks, many grunts have deployed to combat …
Photo Credit: US Marine Corps
… In Iraq, where they earned their place in history at Nasiriyah, Najaf, and Fallujah (shown here), and many others.
Photo Credit: US Marine Corps
While others deployed to Afghanistan, into the deadly Korengal Valley …
Photo Credit: Darren Allen
… Or more recently to Marjah, in Helmand Province.
Photo Credit: US Marine Corps
But before infantrymen join their units, they need to complete initial training. For enlisted Marines, that means going to the School of Infantry, either at Camp Pendleton, California or Camp Geiger, North Carolina.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
For officers, their training at Infantry Officer Course in Quantico, Va. involves both tactics and weapons, along with a more intense focus on how to lead an infantry platoon.
Photo Credit: US Marine Corps
While most enlisted grunts become 0311 riflemen, others receive more specialized training, like 0331 machine-gunners, which learn the M240 machine gun (shown here), the MK19 grenade launcher, and the M2 .50 cal.
Photo Credit: US Marine Corps
0341 Mortarmen learn how to operate the 60 mm (shown below) and 81 mm mortar systems, which help riflemen with indirect fire support when they need a little bit more firepower.
Photo Credit: US Marine Corps
0351 Assaultmen learn basic demolitions, breaching, and become experts in destroying bad guys with the SMAW rocket system. The Shoulder-launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon (SMAW) is shown below.
Photo Credit: US Marine Corps
Packing even more punch that’s usually vehicle-mounted, 0352 Anti-tank missilemen learn their primary M41 SABER (below) heavy anti-tank weapon and the Javelin, a medium anti-tank weapon.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia
Some more experienced infantrymen go into specialized fields, such as Reconnaissance or snipers (below).
Photo Credit: Zac Mercoli
Always present is a focus on mission accomplishment, and to “keep their honor clean” — to preserve the legacy of the Corps …
Photo Credit: Library of Congress
… That grunts are proud of. Always remembering heroics from the Chosin Reservoir Marines in Korea …
Photo Credit: US Marine Corps
… To those who fought in Vietnam jungles, or the storied battles of Hue and Khe Sanh.
Photo Credit: US Marine Corps
Since Vietnam, grunts have been repeatedly been called upon for minor and major engagements, such as Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and Operation United Shield in Somalia in 1995 (below).
I just learned that a CBS News investigation into a charity for wounded veterans, the Wounded Warrior Project, looks into how the charity spends its donation money. The charity for wounded veterans, the Wounded Warrior Project, is facing accusations of using donor money toward excessive spending on conferences and parties instead of on recovery programs, according to a CBS News report.
What caught our attention is how the Wounded Warrior Project spends donations compared to other long-respected charities.
For example, Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust spends 96 percent of its budget on vets. Fisher House devotes 91 percent. But according to public records reported by "Charity Navigator," the Wounded Warrior Project spends 60 percent on vets.
Where is the money is going?
In its commercials, Wounded Warrior Project appeals to the American public's generosity, and it works. In 2014 alone the group received more than $300 million in donations.
Army Staff Sergeant Erick Millette
CBS NEWS
"Their mission is to honor and empower wounded warriors, but what the public doesn't see is how they spend their money," said Army Staff Sergeant Erick Millette.
Millette came home from Iraq in 2006 with a bronze star and a purple heart -- along with a traumatic brain injury and PTSD.
Initially, he admired the charity's work, and participated in its programs. He took a job as a public speaker with Wounded Warrior Project in 2013. But after two years, he quit.
"You're using our injuries, our darkest days, our hardships, to make money. So you can have these big parties," he told CBS News.
Millette said he witnessed lavish spending on staff.
"Let's get a Mexican mariachi band in there, let's get maracas made with [the] WWP logo, put them on every staff member's desk. Let's get it catered and have a big old party," he described.
"Going to a nice fancy restaurant is not team building. Staying at a lavish hotel at the beach here in Jacksonville, and requiring staff that lives in the area to stay at the hotel is not team building," Millette continued.
CBS News spoke to more than 40 former employees who described a charity where spending was out of control.
Two of those former employees were so fearful of retaliation they asked that their faces not to be shown on camera.
"It was extremely extravagant. Dinners and alcohol, and just total accessm" one employee explained. He continued, saying that for a charitable organization that's serving veterans, the spending on resorts and alcohol is "what the military calls fraud waste and abuse."
Wounded Warrior Project CEO Steven Nardizzi
According to the charity's tax forms, spending on conferences and meetings went from $1.7 million in 2010, to $26 million in 2014. That's about the same amount the group spends on combat stress recovery -- its top program.
Former employees say spending has skyrocketed since Steven Nardizzi took over as CEO in 2009. Many point to the 2014 annual meeting at a luxury resort in Colorado Springs as typical of his style.
"He rappelled down the side of a building at one of the all hands events. He's come in on a Segway, he's come in on a horse."
About 500 staff members attended the four-day conference in Colorado. The price tag? About $3 million.
"Donors don't want you to have a $2,500 bar tab. Donors don't want you to fly every staff member once a year to some five-star resort and whoop it up and call it team building," said Millette.
A Colorado Springs resort where a 2014 WWP conference was held
Wounded Warrior Project declined CBS News' repeated interview requests for Nardizzi, but offered their Director of Alumni and a recipient of their services, Captain Ryan Kules.
Kules denied there was excessive spending on conferences.
"It's the best use of donor dollars to ensure we are providing programs and services to our warriors and families at the highest quality."
When asked why conferences were held at five-star resorts instead of cheaper options, Kules provided the same answer.
Capt. Ryan Kules, WWP Director of Alumni
CBS NEWS
"Like I said, it's to make sure we are aligned and can build as a team. Be able to be able to provide the best quality services."
"WWP and those donor dollars trained me to speak and be a voice, and that's exactly what I'm doing," said Millette.
"I'm sorry, but I'll be damned if you're gonna take hard-working Americans' money and drink it and waste it."
Kules also told CBS News the charity did not spend $3 million on the Colorado conference, but he was not there and was unable to say what it did cost. He also denied that the charity spends money on alcohol or engages in any other kind of excessive spending.
