Obama Used Fake Marines at Inauguration?

I'm no military expert, so help me out here, ATS...

On orders from the Obama administration, the bolts from the M1 rifles carried by Marines in the Inaugural parade were removed. Even more shockingly, it appears that the Marines who normally provide security and perform ceremonial functions for the President were replaced with ringers.

Why were the bolts removed?

Why do some of the Marines appear to be unshaven?

Why are they not marching in a straight line?

Why are some Marines facing left while others are facing forward?

Skip to 13:00 to see -



Is this normal?

Is this a protest against our President by genuine Marines?

Some of the "Marines" that paraded in front of the reviewing stand on Inauguration Day were unshaven, their uniforms out of line and ill-fitting, and their marching skills - in the opinion of this writer and dozens of other real Marines - could easily have been bested by any 3rd phase Marine Corp recruit platoon.

bobpowell.blogspot.com...

reply to post by Signals


If it's true then... it simply defines a paranoid regime in a paranoid country on a day when paranoia owns.

Well here is some pics from the day.....picture 19 of 25 shows some marines that day, and it looks like the bolts could be in. Please correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't see the hole in these pics.

Inauguration parade highlight pics

CX.

I am anxious to hear from some real marines here.
They will be able to tell us.

Wow that is really interesting. I can't wait to hear the opinions from the members on ATS that are marines.

Now reasons why?
As redoubt said paranoia could be a reason. But why would a president be that paranoid? He hasn't done anything that drastic, I believe, to justify bringing in ringers. Unless they got word of a possible threat towards the president?

Now if they were real marines, would they do this type of protest?
It seems so anti-marine.

reply to post by CX


Hmmmm, well something's up, the video I posted clearly shows bolts out.

Removed at some point during the parade?

What do you make of the shoddy marching skills?

Anyone remember a past president of Egypt named Anwar Sadat?
He probably wished some soldiers in a certain parade had non-firing weapons.

Maybe Obama remembers that parade too.

reply to post by Signals


They look intact.

Here's a high res image of Marines at the inauguration:




And here's another image of another Marine with an M1.



bolt intact.

reply to post by Chadwickus


Yes, I've seen that image...

What about the video?!?

Here's a screenshot....the bolts are removed -




And the other inconsistencies?

here is the source of the video clip.

reply to post by Signals


in parade march the leading soldier faces forward to direct the men.
bolts being removed?.. well for the obvious I suppose. Its a parade, the president is there. I'm sure at times when the president visits troops in afghan i sure the men in the photo op probably don't have any weapons that can fire.
as for the unshaven? I have a friend who shaves at 6am and has a 5'oclock shadow by lunch time. Do you think their commanding officer would let them out onto the parade ground, infront of the president in shabby condition?

only thing that stood out is marines arent standing in a straight line, they dont look very uniform. that is odd but.

As far as the marching skills are concerned, and i'm sure i'll be told that marines don't go out of step .....but i have seen the best go out of step and go a bit wonky in the midst of a large parade.

On a drill square when all you can hear is the cracking of heels into the floor, it's easy to keep in step. When you have thousands of people making a racket, it's not so easy.

As for them being wonky, maybe they were having a little look around and went a bit askew? It happens....even to marines.

CX.

Look, if this were true someone who's got a friend in the Marines would have said something to someone by now. It wouldn't be speculation by someone just analyizing videos. An actual Marine might not be allowed to speak up, but I'm sure a family member or friend could pass the info along very soon after the event happened.

Something like that would be to big for some armchair writer to speculate about.

Also, maybe the "real" Marines were off doing their job..."protecting America's freedoms"?

reply to post by Signals


Judging by the marching the "Marines" would have never gotten off Parris island. I know that when we marched like that at Ft Benning we got to stay longer and re do our marching training for days and days and... It seemed like it would never end.. Drilling Drilling Drilling... Ugh..

Those don't seem like Marines to me, maybe new recruits, but ehh.. I don't know.

Originally posted by MystikMushroom

"protecting America's freedoms"?

lets not not turn the thread into a argument now

I had noticed that, but I attributed it to a silent protest by the troops.

The order came down that they was going to be serving at the inauguration. They said, no we don’t want to. The commander says I sorry but that is an order. You will.

So they follow orders and show up, but no one ordered them to be clean cut, or to march in with any semblance of order.

So they intentionally let their beard grow out, let their uniforms get out of order, and broke formation to show their disrespect.

Originally posted by MystikMushroom
Look, if this were true someone who's got a friend in the Marines would have said something to someone by now. It wouldn't be speculation by someone just analyizing videos. An actual Marine might not be allowed to speak up, but I'm sure a family member or friend could pass the info along very soon after the event happened.

Something like that would be to big for some armchair writer to speculate about.

Also, maybe the "real" Marines were off doing their job..."protecting America's freedoms"?

"Armchair writer" , I confess

Anxious to see some real Marines respond to this thread, something ain't right...

Maybe Obama was testing the water with the gun grabs.....baby steps and all that....."Let's start with the bolts, see if they notice then we'll get the rest later.

CX.

Looking around the net, some are of the opinion that this is nothing out of the ordinary around the president, especially at a big do like this.

Maybe it's the Secret Service's doing, eliminating all possibly threats. I know it sounds bad but it's happened before in other countries when troops have been less than impressed by their leader.

CX.

reply to post by Signals


I was there, here is the deal.

The Marines at the inauguration were in fact real Marines. I was one of them.

The situation with the bolts was due to the Capitol Police, who were in charge of all the security during the event. The powers that be in the Capitol police wanted all the weapons used in the parade to be demilitarized. Meaning lead poured down the barrels rendering them unable to ever function as a weapon.

As far as I am aware, the other Services complied and used de-milled rifles. The Marines on the other hand called BS and threatened to go to the press with the story that the Capitol Police did not trust the Marine Corps.

A compromise was reached, and the Marines just pulled the bolts from the rifles.

I had in fact intended on making a thread about this very thing, but I got busy and forgot about it.


Edit:

After watching the portion of the video mentioned.

Keep in mind, Most of us had been there since 9pm the night before, with no chow and it was fricken freezing.
The whole thing was planned very poorly. You would think after 47 presidents there would be a better plan for running an inauguration. Sadly there is not.

Everyone was miserable, pissed off, and did not want to be there.