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Podcasts We Like: Chairborne Commandos

Chairborne Commandos Podcast Is Great - SlightlyQualified.com

My post-active Marine Corps career has brought me to the oil and gas industry down south, and on the road quite a bit.  Over the last six weeks in my F-150, I’ve driven back and forth from Houston to Oklahoma City, OK, Arcadia, LA (yeah, I had to Google Map that one too), and Longview, TX.  Throw in all sorts of random well site locations out in the middle of nowhere, USA, and my chariot is already calling for another oil change.  When I loaded my iPhone a couple months ago, I figured I had enough music to keep me going for a year on the road; it turns out I was wrong.  It only lasted about 4 hours on shuffle.  Well the radio is out; the only stations you can pick up in Somewhere, OK, are a single country station, and 1,000 different flavors of static.  So I turned to my iPhone’s podcast app, and looked at the discovery/popular tab, and that’s when I met the Chairborne Commandos.

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How to Become a Marine Corps Scout Sniper

Marine Scout Sniper in Iraq - SlightlyQualified.com

In my four years as a Marine Corps officer, I had many young Marines tell me they had originally enlisted with the Marine Corps because they wanted to become a scout sniper.  I have also fielded a handful of phone calls from friends of family whose sons are interested in enlisting, with many of those as well wanting to earn the title, scout sniper.  I bring this up because I feel that I am slightly qualified; no, I am not a scout sniper.  I was a scout sniper platoon commander however, and have been through Scout Sniper Platoon Commander’s course.  I also have had the grueling opportunity to attend Scout Sniper Basic Course, which is the venue where enlisted Marines, and sometimes Navy SEALs, Soldiers, and even Navy Corpsmen get the chance to become Marine scout snipers.  I will tell you that school is as physically demanding as Infantry Officers Course, which has been in the news recently, although it doesn’t hold a candle mentally.  Regardless, I didn’t make the cut; I fell three shots short on the known distance range to be exact, and it’s a credit to those who do qualify to truly earn the title.  I passed every other phase, to include stalking, but that’s not good enough, and I don’t want to cut corners.  Not everyone can be a Marine scout sniper, but lots of young men and women are interested in the true path to earning their own hog’s tooth; quietly hit the link below for my best advice to everyone/anyone interested in this elite path.

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How to Get a Girlfriend, If You’re a Gamer

I’m a man of my word. In response to my last post on WikiHow’s How to Get Your Girlfriend to Play Video Games, I promised I’d throw together a comprehensive guide on a much more important issue: How to Get a Girlfriend, If You’re a Gamer. You see, before you can try to fanoogle your girlfriend into playing video games, you actually need to have a girlfriend in the first place. That girl you kidnapped and have tied up in your garage; she doesn’t count, sorry. Like in your favorite scientific journal (I prefer Maxim Popular Science), authors usually list their edumacational background to validate their arguments. For this guide, I intend to follow the same outline, so let’s take a lil’ gander at my slightly qualified credentials, shall we?  Continue reading “How to Get a Girlfriend, If You’re a Gamer”

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Want a One-Way Ticket to Mars?

If you thought an eight hour flight in coach was bad, try a 7 month trip in “space coach” to Mars where you get to land on a poisonous desert; that is, if you land at all.  Oh, and did I mention this would be a one-way trip?  Yeah, better bring that deck of cards and whatever else will keep you from going insane for the rest of your lifetime.  If you haven’t heard yet, a new “are they for real?”, Dutch company that goes by the name “Mars One” has begun accepting applications for just that, a one-way trip to Mars in the name of exploration.  Should you be the lucky winner, your flight will depart just short of ten years from now in 2022, but with the way this sequestration is shaping up, you may want to leave for the spaceport now, because you know how TSA can be.  Joke of the year?  Yup.  Hit the link below for more details; Dutch fluency not required.

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Tragedy at the Boston Marathon Today

Our hearts, thoughts, and prayers go out to the victims, families, and everyone affected by the alleged bombings that occurred approximately two hours ago in the vicinity of the Boston Marathon finish line, killing two innocent spectators and wounding upwards of now 100+.  Although details are still emerging from the tragic scene, I will say this: based on the video, and the fact that there were multiple, simultaneous explosions in different locations, with a third now being reported at JFK Library, this appears to be a malicious, coordinated attack, and not a mere accident or underground gas pipe explosion.  Although I have never seen a gas line explosion in person, I have witnessed enough IEDs and what those can accomplish; the video feeds currently playing across the major news networks sadly appear more like the latter than the former.  From everyone here at SQ, our hearts and prayers are with the victims, their families, and everyone affected today.  Hit the link below for links to the current news on the scene in Boston:

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The Last Ringbearer: An Alternate History of Awesomeness

So you know when you watch the Lord of the Rings, any of them, and you see Gandalf, and you think, now there’s a good guy. Well, this story doesn’t go that way. At all. In fact, Gandalf is a manipulative, conniving bastard who would rather spin progress back a thousand years than foster scientific progress. In fact, he’s against Mordor because the Mordorians (that’s a real word!) are on the brink of an industrial revolution, and that bodes poorly for a civilization hell-bent on living like Shyamalan’s  village people.

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Legendary Speech: GySgt Walgren Before Marjah Assault

Take yourself back almost three years to February of 2010.  What were you doing then?  Were you in school, or at your last job?  For the Marines of 1/3, 1/6, 3/6, and 3/10, they were about to begin what was dubbed as the most dangerous combat operation since Fallujah with the commencement of Operation Moshtarak.  Their mission: clear the Taliban-infested city of Marjah, in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.  While I have never set foot in Marjah, I did deploy just next door in Nawa district, having gone on many a patrol just outside of Marjah in the “friendly” area of Trek Nawa.  Before you watch this legendary speech by Gunnery Sergeant Walgren of 1/6 (1st Battalion, 6th Marines), try and imagine yourself as one of these young Marines that’s about to climb into a CH-53 helicopter and begin the assault.  Can you imagine the mental preparation you have to do to really prepare yourself for a mission like that, especially with all of the intel/news reports on how heavy the enemy activity was?  That’s where good leadership comes into play, and the video speech you’re about to witness is spine-tingling good.  You don’t have to be a good public speaker to be a good leader, but it is a good quality to have, and Gunny Walgren possesses it in spades.

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Netflix Gets April Fools High Five

I swear, publishers on the Internet (not us) plan out their next April Fool’s fake content and parodies a year in advance, because they’re getting more and more elaborate.  I am pretty sick of it all, and I’m at the point of annoyance when I check out my usual daily visits because now I’m wondering if it’s a joke or not.  Just about every site is doing it, but kudos to Netflix for actually making me smile instead of frown.  Have you logged into your Netflix account today?  I just got home from my 9-5, and found a pretty cool Easter egg after a buddy at work told me about it.  Hit the link below for the details, or just fire up your Netflix account if you want to jump straight to the spoilers.

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Inside Combat Rescue with Leeroy Jenkins

Inside Combat Rescue on SlightlyQualified.com

Raise your hand if you think the United States Air Force has a special forces branch?  If your hand is in the air, you are correct: the USAF does man a wing (no pun intended) in Special Operations Command, and their most notable asset is the Parajumpers, or “PJ’s”.  As a former Marine and Afghan vet, I will be the first to stand up and vouch for the PJ’s (these guys aren’t your average Airman); they’re absolutely legit.  Until now, the Air Force hasn’t allowed a peek into the PJ’s training or life on deployment, which is where National Geographic TV comes into play with their latest smash hit, “Inside Combat Rescue”.  So what in the world does Leeroy Jenkins have to do with any of this?  If you haven’t seen an episode, then you’ll have no idea; heck, if you’ve only seen one episode you may not have caught it either.  Hit the link below for the answer, and also my slightly qualified thoughts on the importance of humor in the (combat) workplace.

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Google Street View Car Rolls into Fukushima

My guess is driving into a radiation heavy, post nuclear zone would void the warranty on Google’s Street View car, but I don’t think they’re too worried about that.  Google has made some serious news today by sending one of its Street View drone cars into a legitimate ghost town, Fukushima, Japan.  For those of you who don’t know what I’m referring to, just “Google (should I have used Bing in a Google article?) Fukushima March 2011”, and you’ll have plenty to read up on.  The pictures are pretty insane, and it shows just how life literally just stopped; no one was allowed back in to clean up streets, close doors, etc.  Hit the link below for all the photos, courtesy of Google Japan Blog.

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