Category: Allies
1. St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated annually on March 17, the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over 1,000 years.
On St. Patrick’s Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent, Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon.
Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat were waived and people would dance, drink and feast–on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage.
Lance corporal is the most common rank in the Marine Corps. It’s the upper-most junior-enlisted Marine; the last step before becoming an NCO. It’s at this rank that you truly learn the responsibilities that come with being an NCO — and it’s when you start to shoulder those responsibilities. But Marines can be lance corporals straight out of boot camp. But how can someone with no experience possibly be ready to lead others Marines? This is why we created an unofficial rank — “senior lance corporal.”
Lifers everywhere will tell you that there’s no such thing. They’ll say something along the lines of, “being a senior was a high school thing and it ought to remain there.” But the truth is that there are very valid reasons for the distinctive title.
No matter your reason for stating otherwise, one thing’s for sure: senior lance corporals exist. This is why.
This Lance Corporal still has a lot to learn.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Catie Massey)
The “junior” lance corporal
The “junior” lance corporal is the guy who picked up rank during boot camp because they were an Eagle Scout or some sh*t. Regardless, they didn’t earn real Marine Corps experience while waiting for that rank. Hell, the only experience they have in the Marine Corps is with marching — which is important, sure, but there’s a lot more to being a Marine than marching.
There are exceptions, of course. You could have spent time in the service prior to deciding that whatever branch you were in was a group of weaklings compared to the Marines. In that case, you do have experience, but this is pretty rare. The majority of “junior” lance corporals haven’t led Marines yet — not really, anyway — nor have they been to any leadership courses.
They spent a lot of time doing things by the book, which isn’t typically how things go in a real unit.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo)
They spent their time learning the basics which, if we’re being honest, are great building blocks, but your unit’s standard operating procedure may render a lot of what you learned basically useless.
Anyone who’s reached NCO before their first term and has led Marines knows that you can’t trust a junior lance corporal to clean their room the right way on their first attempt. How could that lance corporal possibly be the same as the one who went through leadership and/or advanced schools and has a deployment under their belt? Hint: It’s not.
Enter the “senior” lance corporal.
These guys have been around a minute.
(U.S. Marine Corps)
The “senior” lance corporal
When a junior Marine gets to their unit, even if they’re a lance corporal, this is the guy they refer to as “lance corporal.” The junior will quickly come to understand that, while they may hold the same rank, they are not the same. The difference, in fact, is rather large.
A senior lance corporal has been on a deployment. Regardless of whether that deployment was into combat or not, that lance corporal has real leadership experience. They went to a foreign country and they were responsible for leading Marines to success. Then, before you got to the unit, they went to leadership schools. These Marines have a lot more experience than a greenhorn fresh out of boot camp.
So ask yourself, are you treating your Marines a certain way based on experience — or rank?
(U.S. Marine Corps photo Cpl. Aaron Patterson)
Realistically, there are plenty of senior lance corporals that don’t give a f*ck anymore. But for every one of those, there are ten who strive to be good Marines and great leaders. To diminish their hard work and reduce them to the same level as some fresh boot does nothing but destroy their spirit.
The fact is, a “senior” lance corporal could be a squad leader — a job that is meant to be held by a sergeant, but is more commonly held by a corporal. You could not take a “junior” lance corporal and say the same. The difference is clear.
So true!
Jerry Miculek is a fine rifleman, a wizard with a shotgun and adept with any type of handgun. His skill with a revolver is legendary. Simply stated, he’s the best revolver shooter in the world, arguably the best who has ever lived. And he’s generous about sharing his knowledge.
The Grip
“Let’s have a look at your grip.” I uncased my old S&W 19 and holding it around the frame with my left hand began seating it in the web of my right hand.“Ah, a bullseye shooter,” smiled Jerry. “That’s a fine grip for a single action auto, or for a cocked revolver where the trigger hardly moves. It’s not so good for really fast double action shooting with a trigger movement of half an inch. With your bullseye grip the trigger finger has to be fully extended to reach the trigger, and you’re putting some pressure on the side of the trigger. During a fast double action string you’ll likely be pushing your shots to the left.” Ah so.
“Shift the hand more to the right side of the gun (for a right-handed shooter, duh). Extend the trigger finger through the guard so the finger touches the trigger between the first joint and the knuckle. You won’t shoot like that, but it gets the hand in the correct position.” This may be one of those “secrets” we hear about.
“Move the trigger finger back so the pad of the finger, halfway between the tip and the first joint, is on the trigger. For best leverage it should be low on the trigger, certainly no higher than midway. The base of the finger is well away from the frame, and there’s about a 90-degree angle at the knuckle. Now you can press and release the trigger straight back and forth, along the axis of the gun, without putting on side pressure.”
Jerry also has another way of teaching the proper revolver grip.
“Stand with your heels against a wall and pick out a target squarely in front. Hold the revolver around the frame with the left (weak) hand and align the sights on target. Now just bring the right hand up and grip the gun without disturbing the sight alignment and you should have the correct grip.”
Lady Shooters
“The biggest obstacle for ladies is bad advice from husbands or boyfriends,” laughed Jerry. “About the worst advice women get is to put small grips on their handguns. Actually most women need grips about the same size as men. Small grips just cause problems. I became aware of this when I tried one of Kay’s 1911 match pistols (Kay Clark Miculek, four-time USPSA women’s national champion, two-time IPSC world champion). I have a fairly large hand but my fingers aren’t extra long. I like a short trigger on a 1911 so I can get the trigger finger squarely across the trigger face.”
“Kay uses a long trigger on her 1911s. This didn’t make sense to me. Then one time I was holding a pop can and happened to notice how far my trigger finger reached. I asked Kay to hold the pop can so the web of her hand was where mine had been. I was surprised to find her trigger finger reached further around the can than mine. It seems my hands are not only bigger than Kay’s, they’re thicker. When I wrap my hand around a handgun grip the trigger reach (from web of hand to tip of trigger finger) is actually less.”
My wife Simone was with us, so we tried the pop-can trick. Darned if Jerry wasn’t right. Her trigger reach (pop can reach?) was within a quarter-inch of mine. Miculek then showed her how to hold the S&W. Jerry tried to move the revolver muzzle around and seemed surprised when it hardly moved. “I’ve tried this with some big tough special forces guys and I can move the gun muzzle around like it was a wet noodle. How did you develop such strong wrists,” asked Jerry?
“Twenty-five years of farming and gardening,” she grinned. Still, I doubt the military is going to start looking to retired farmers and gardeners for recruits.