Originally Posted by
sigtauenus
Hey, I'm a Marine, but still think that video was hilarious. Its reprentative of aviation as a whole. As much as I enjoy flying, the real fun is hanging with dudes who find a way to have a good time regardless if you're sitting in the sandbox, Korea, Guam, wherever. Video's like that, or the Sunking's video's, seem to draw comments like those guys have nothing better to do because they made a funny 4 minute video. No, its just representative of what they choose to do in their free time, which is enjoy life.
No doubt, back in 1864 when I was on cruise in the Corps, back before Al Gore invented the Internet, our entire squadron did something similar.
From the CO all the way down to the most jr. enlisted dude, word went out that the squadron would learn to juggle. The exercise took our minds off the daily grind of doing 1 mile squares off the coast of Beirut. We'd been on the boat for 5 months without stepping on land and the routine was old (not to mention water rations, stinky trash in the gangways, and all the other glamor of not being able to pump and dump).
The most excellent moment came when we had our weekly formation on the flight deck. All the grunts would come up to watch the show of the air wing Marines trying to pull off a formation. (Marines have some rivalry between "ground" and "air" Marines although aviators do both). Anyway, towards the end of the formation, the squadron Sgt Major barked the order to "present balls" (no it wasn't "that"), the entire squadron produced juggling balls and held them at the ready, on the command "squadron juggle", the formation launched into the scripted routine that lasted about 45 seconds - and not one Marine dropped a ball. It was flawless.
The Grunts were pleasantly justified in their criticism, and our squadron enhanced the teamwork and cooperation during a period of intense boredom and horrid conditions.
Whether you like the video (or juggling), I completely understand what makes guys on det. make 'em.
PS. the video is mirrored on the APC web site, and if anyone knows the bubbas who made it, I'd love to give them more attribution than what you tube allows.
http://airlinepilotcentral.com/web_v...070901250.html