I know Randall Parkes pretty well. He's a good dude. His mistake though, was wearing part of the Marine Corps uniform. Just go to the PX in PEAK bottoms instead of partial MARPATs next time and avoid all that mess.
I learned back in OIF1 that garrison needs to stay back in garrison and what happens in areas that is under CENTCOM is a forgivable "sin". I also learned firsthand that people who stayed in TRADOC their entire lives and needing blocks for ratings checked and heading downrange to get them, got people killed. Giving ass chewings for not wearing seatbelts* that got my friend burnt really bad because he could not egress fast enough because an E-9 was so far from the line that all he knew was regs and not the reality of the situation there, made me learn that there's a time and place for everything to disregard for practical reasons or to maintain for professionalism, but hiding in TRADOC and far away from FORSCOM to remember what it was like to be an actual soldier ain't one of them. I don't know how the USMC works or how many commands it has for different purposes but something tells me that this Gunny from your service was one of those types.
*This was before the quick release ones, we still had basic cold war era equipment in our unarmored vehicles.
Something about me:
I still have the scars from the mortar strike on my face and neck from a tasking to pick up cases of water and dropping them off at the local national workers holding area in Balad, 04. The 923's door and my IBA stopped the fragments. The blast sending the mirror into my face and glass shards all over imbedded into my skin, was an entirely different story ...that was fun. Especially the bitch slap it gave to me which is what my doc is calling a TBI after several MRI's to confirm.
Three fun facts immediately after that happened:
1. I was the driver and had to keep swatting my TC from trying to apply pressure around my neck. What a dumb girl but she had heart*.
*She was the only female that was very pregnant before we got orders and was mad because she was pregnant and couldn't go with. She persisted after giving birth and begged and pleaded to deploy to us. She got her wish. Dumber than a box of rocks girl but she wasn't a coward like the others who did get pregnant so they couldn't do what they enlisted to do, so I will give her that.
2. Even with obvious blast marks and body damage upon getting back to our camp near USAF village, one of our NCO's barked at me to make sure we parked just like in Germany and told me to knock off that dumb look at my face. That wasn't from being dumb, that was shock at how obtuse this guy was being*. I was also full on spiteful mad because of that. Out of principle after driving back to our area, I made it a point to combat park in a straight line and place textbook perfect motorpool drip pan and chock block to show how stupid this was to tell a soldier with obvious wounds. I even buckled up the seatbelt to be pretty for them because I was once told that it's basic soldiering. Nothing could be done for the body damage and my blood though, LMAO. Not sorry.
*This guy was a definite soup sandwich and somehow got awarded a CAB despite not seeing any combat action with us. CAB wasn't even a thing back then either. This same ricki retard dear leader after our convoy from BIAP to Balad, told his troop who asked for his mag at the clearing barrel like we all were supposed to do on the instructions next to it, FFS, that he got this. Racks his chambered round out, with mag still in the A2, puts it on fire in the barrel, drops mag, and then fires and got surprised that it happened.
3. I walked up to the TOC and inside lit a smoke cause I was out of Fvcks at this point and told Top what an asshat his operations NCO was, and I'll take this one to court martial if he got wind of me calling him a sack of crap for what he made me do despite being messed up from a mortar round, and if he wanted to article 15 me then I will fight it all the way, grabbed a bottle of water to get some blood out of my eyes, gave myself a black eye doing so walking into the tentpole because my glasses was off trying to clean them and whammo, and then said screw it I am going to the CASH that just arrived because no one knows what to do with me. Everyone inside the TOC was still in a state of shock and could not comprehend what had just happened. I heard that all my leadership went chasing after me in the dark to make sure I was okay, but couldn't find me until after I was inside that CASH of reservists. I had 6 girls on me that I could not tell at the time if they were actual solid 8's or deployment 10's.
Anyway...
In 2006 to OEF, we were so short on bodies that both E-5's and E-6's were added to the duty roster for Bagram details. I was sent to be a gate guard at the OGA camp. Not Camp Vance which was much further down on Disney. I knew what was going on and who you guys were. I had to stop a few nosey officers who got butthurt because as I told them, no badges, no entry. I then asked if they wanted me to call the SOG so they could hash it out with him. They left butthurt. Some of the guys that walked out of camp looked like crap but that wasn't my job there and was none of my concern because so long as they had badges, they were good to me. I ain't never been treated so kindly ever by any place that we was assigned or attached to. I could not tell whom was from what service not even my own but man we were taken care of by random folk asking if we needed water, bathroom breaks, food, coffee from Green Beans, etc.
But I had a gut feeling that the guys in the back of the jingle truck in multicams one day that I asked to show me their badges when we were all ACU at the time, was definitely US Army and most likely Delta.
But I get what you are saying but honestly cannot fault a kid from a unit with a high operational tempo, but there's some real numpties who should never have been promoted are out there that should be avoided. I heard you all went to OCP over your service's MARPAT. Now they'll never know who you belong to, haha.