The episode opens with the Marines cleaning their equipment after a heavy fight. As Lt Kick is making rounds, he is addressed by SSgt Colbert about needing proper lubrication for the Mark-19. This once again talks about how poor supply is for the Marines.

SSgt Colbert states that he is working on the Mark-19 as the Lt approaches. “Yeah. This shit is totally ineffective in these conditions. We need LSA.” “Lieutenant. Sir, the main weapon on your point vehicle is unreliable. Given the prevailing climatic conditions, using this lubricant is like trying to buttfuck a virgin underaged Phuket whore with chalk when KY is clearly called for, sir.”

Lieutenant Fick replies “You’ll have to deal with it, Sergeant. We have four more towns to assault through today.”,”You want logistics, join the army. Marines make do.”

This is a very common thing in the Corps, with individual Marines purchasing their own supplies, that the Marine Corps should have supplied. There is a scene, where the Captain (Hitman) wants to call in a fire mission, within 200m of their current position. A fire mission is where air support drops bombs or fires rockets, missiles, or something that goes boom on a target. A fire mission, that close would be what is known as “Danger Close”, which is short for, the fire mission is going to be very close (within 600m) to a friendly unit, in this case, 200m is extremely close, even for a Danger Close order. In this scene, the Captain has no clue what Danger Close means, and that is a huge problem in the Corps. Too many Marines are in positions of authority that have no freaking clue what they are doing, period. And then he has no clue what grids he is dealing with. Yes, 200 meters sounds like you would be far enough away, and it is, as long as the air support is right on target and whatever they are blowing up, doesn’t have anything that would cause a secondary explosion.

I worked for a very incompetent Captain once, he certainly would have been just like ‘Hitman’. We always joked in our unit that he would say follow me boys, and we would shoot him in the back and go the correct way.

When you have young Marines who have to work for an officer who has no clue, they tend to lose faith in their leadership. When that happens, your junior Marines start to not believe in the mission and some might even go “off the reservation” or do their own thing. You don’t want a Marine with a loaded rifle deciding that he is going to just start shooting officers. The good thing is the senior NCOs and SNCOs know what Danger Close is, how to read a map, and know grid squares. And are the glue that holds the Corps together.

There is a running joke in the Corps that a 2nd Lt with a map and compass, will get lost and an LCpl with a map and compass will find the Lt and bring them home.

I know there are a bunch of scenes that make the Marines look like they are barbaric and in ways they are. You want your Marines to be like that, we are talking weeks without bathing, weeks without sleeping in a bed, weeks eating MREs, and weeks taking a shit in the sand. Weeks living in some of the worst conditions that the average person just doesn’t understand.