Marching Marines
Thursday, 20th July 2006 by Alex Turnbull
Could these tiny white dots actually by the heads of 5 marines marching through the Californian desert in single file formation?
Quite possible I suppose as we're near the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms (yes I realise that's actually a golf course, but that's where Wikipedia linked to - the Combat Center is around there somewhere) 😀
Thanks to Anon.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
link appears to be broken.
Thanks Patrick – now fixed.
okay….so how did you find these in the first place? there appear to be a few other ones scattered to the SE….I don’t think they are helmet reflections though. Not sure hwy I say that…they just don’t “feel right”…
I’m sure there are hundreds of people sending you guys links to much more interesting things than this… cmon, give us what we come here for!
Sorry, but I have to agree with Ben here. Even if these tiny dots are marines, so what. It’s a marine training center, I’m sure there’s lots of marines walking/training around here. Really, where’s the good stuff?
Sorry guys, we realise its been a little slow round here lately, we’ve been working on… stuff 😉
Have posted Itaipú to keep you happy – it’s darnably cool!
Do helmets cause reflections?
Sure, maybe back in the day when they were metal, but they were painted at that.
But now they’re composites, and cloth covered composites at that. I don’t think you want the enemy noticing you in the middle of the desert because all of a sudden they got this blinding flash in their peripheral vision…
Eh, regardless its something to look at and think about rather than doing work!
I can almost assure you that those aren’t Marines walking. You see tracks, because tanks and AAVs move through that area, but almost certainly not Marines on foot. Those are down range areas for large guns. The tanks and AAVs go through there only at specific times with cold ranges.
Aside from that, the helmets would have to be enormous (and not cloth covered as previously stated). Looking at the main portion of the MAGCCTC, you can barely make out any people at the available resolution. Spotting a Marine’s reflective bald head would be easier there than in the center of the desert picture.
They could be Marines wearing 5ft wide white sombreros. Or they could be rocks.
Consider how large rucksacks are. They are enormous. They can easily appear to be large sumbreros. The dots caught my eye mainly because they were brighter than the area around them. This is easily the case often seen in desert camoflauge. They are however a little too far apart. When travelling in the day time you should be 5 meters behind the soldier in front of you so that a machine gun cannot spray 10 soldiers down at once. They look like they are 10 meters away from eachother, but that can easily be their preference.
I found writing that sais “ESETC”. If you want to see it, bare with me. You’re going to need the program Google Maps to zoom in real close. To the south-west of the marching marines is the HQ. West of the HQ is some kind of town. On the east side of the town is a large set of pipes with two silos to the north. One is bigger than the other. Move to the larger silo and zoom in faily close. Scroll eastward and you will see the letters written sideways in sand.
Stiv Rot-I work on MCAGCC 29 Palms. As a matter of fact I work as an instructor for ESETC. In case you are curious what it stands for: Electronic Switching Equipment Technician Course. It is a subdivision of the Marine Corps Electronics Maintenance School in 29 Palms.
The “ESETC” is still there from DEC 2005. 3 classmates and myself wrote it up in the sand before we graduated on 15 DEC 2005. I am suprised it’s still there because other classes us to change it to their own class title. Oorah Cpl Castillo, Cpl West, and PFC Dolan where ever you guys are…
If I remember correctly, it was Dec 2004, not 2005. But close enough. Yea, every class would go up there and change it to their respective school house title. When Seidel, West, Dolan Ercolano, and Sgt Green and myself went up there to change it to read “ESETC”, I thought it would have been changed before we even left 29 Palms.
This brings back so many memories. Oorah and Semper Fi to all my fellow classmates and school house instructors.
22’s FOR LIFE BABY!!!
please in feuture try to make google earth people to view closer
First up marines don’t wear white (unless winter) so thats a big problem make this “real”