Oo-rah!

I just couldn't resist this. Some excerpts from the Guidebook for Marines referenced in the post below about Blackwater:

During your early training you learned the Creed of the United States Marine, My Rifle. In that creed is included a solemn promise to hit, for it is only the hits that count. Every Marine has made the same pledge. Every Marine has been trained as a rifleman, for it is the rifleman who must close with and destroy the enemy.

Each item of equipment in the modern assault force - from the multimillion dollar aircraft carrier to the least expensive radio battery; every highly skilled Marine - from a jet pilot to the operator of a small portable radio - exists to get the Marine rifleman in position to close with and destroy the enemy. Once there, the job done will depend on how well you know your rifle, the care you give it, and the manner in which you use it.

I don't care if a Marine's job is wipin' bugs off a plane's windshield. He may be a little lacking in the finer points of infantry tactics, but he has a clean rifle and is probably qualified Expert with it.

The rifle and bayonet, in the hands of a Marine, become a deadly combination of spear, club, sword, and shield. At night this combination weapon can kill silently and with surprise. In hand-to-hand fighting, when the rifle cannot be reloaded and the use of grenades would be impractical, it is the decisive weapon. At these times, the aggressive bayonet fighter will win.

The assault is the critical moment of any battle. A vigorous bayonet assault, executed by Marines eager to drive home cold steel, can strike terror into the ranks of the enemy. Skill and confidence in the ability to use the bayonet give a Marine the fortitude to make a bayonet assault.

I don't think they've changed the bayonet part of that book since it worked so well at Belleau Wood. Don't fix it if it ain't broke. I know for a fact that a bayonet charge, complete with lotsa crazy yelling, will scare the crap out of a saloon fulla Squids...

Some things never change. The rifles and bayonets these days are a little too short and light for my prehistoric taste, but the young Jarheads of today will manage.