Bayonet question answered...

On an earlier post I asked why Sgt Shue had, what I thought was a US Army bayonet and P-Mags with his weapon.

Luckily, USMC Combat Cameraman LCpl Mark Stroud was kind enough to send me an e-mail that filled in the blanks.

A couple of points that LCpl Stroud and other Marines were kind enough to hit me with include...

1.  The Marines were ordered by their command to run the course in the uniform shown.
2.  The Marines were not ordered to bring their own bayonets and borrowed the ones shown in the photo from the Australian Army.
3.  The P-Mag issue still eludes my understanding.  I've gotten two different stories on them and I'm just going to write the subject matter experts (the boys of the Weapons Training Battalion at Quantico...hopefully they'll write me back!) and see if P-Mags are unit purchase, optional gear or now Marine Corps issue.

One last point though.  I fuck with the Wing.  I tease the Wing.  But the Marines in the Wing are Marines.  I haven't forgotten that.