Starbucks coffee

Off-Topic Off Topic
#1

[i]Recently, British Royal Marines in Iraq wrote to Starbucks because they wanted to let them know how much they liked their coffees, and to request that they send some of it to the troops there.

Starbucks replied, telling the Royal Marines thank you for their support of their business, but that Starbucks does not support the war, nor anyone in it, and that they would not send the troops their brand of coffee.

So as not to offend Starbucks, maybe we should support them by NOT buying any of their products!

I feel we should get this out in the open. I know this war might not be very popular with some folks, but that doesn’t mean we don’t support the boys on the ground, fighting street-to-street and, house-to-house.

If you feel the same as I do then pass this along.

Thanks very much for your support. I know you’ll all be there again when I deploy once more.
Sgt. Howard Wright,
1 Platoon, Recon Company, Royal Marines[/i]

#2

There’s another reason for me not to go to Starbucks.

#3

Never did like their coffee anyway, now I have a good reason.

#4

Only one slight problem with this,

RM do not have RECON companies let alone 1 platoon.

If it was correct the address would be written
Sgt H Wight (we tend not to use first names although a middle initial would have confirmed it)
1 Pl (platoon is only rarely written I full and then only on official documents same as Sgt)
Recce Coy (recce never ever, ever recon, wouldn’t be seen dead writing it)
RM (again you only need RM, it needs no further explanation as there is only one)

Full stops were discontinued on abbreviation 30-40 years as it was seen that with each use you move the typewriter ribbon over and it was a cost saving not to use superfluous full stops.

Any one involved with UK or Commonwealth forces would refer to it as Recce Pl (seem to think in the back of my mind that the RM use troops not platoons)* and only cavalry regt have Recce coy or more correctly recce Sqns within recce regts. The only higher formation recce the RM have is the mountain and artic warfare cardre which would be pl size and definitely not coy. It is a training unit that can draw on marines who have completed the course to form the brigade recce troop.

http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/royalmarines/careers/career-specialisations/

Mountain Leader
As a Mountain Leader, you will be trained in rock climbing, vertical assault, survival skills, sniping and escape and evasion techniques so that you can provide longrange reconnaissance for the Royal Marines.

* thought so, a quick check and you have

Young Officers hold the rank of 2Lt until they have completed training; this includes their first year as a Troop Commander, in an operational unit.

So to sum up, bollocks, another subversive dig at a multi national and you fell for it hook line and sinker.

32 I would have thought you would have spotted the recon gaff.

#5

Yeah. A lot of this silly, completely made-up crap pervades the internet. Incidently, I really like Starbucks coffee but usually find that Tim Horton’s (sort of Canada’s Duncan Donuts that is popular in the US Northeast as well) suffices and is far easier to get…

#6

I’m actually drinking Starbucks as of the moment.

I guess they just made a mistake there. That doesn’t actually mean that if they send coffee to the marines, they are supporting the war already right ? that would have been a hasty generalization.

#7

I think we’re saying the whole thing is a completely made-up internet rumor…

#8

I have to agree.

I received an e-mail today stating that it was a a scam, that said Sergeant was in the US Marines and that he has withdrawn his comments. :oops:

#9

I still dont like Starbucks coffee, :slight_smile:

#10

How does a company exist within the Royal Marines without being part of a normal hierarchy of battalion, brigade, etc?

Do the Marines have stand alone special purpose companies such as recce companies, perhaps like Australia had during WWII which were titled Independent Companies and which were commando units http://www.lonesentry.com/manuals/commandos/australia.html ?

#11

I think this covers it:
http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/royalmarines/units-and-deployments/

#12

Thanks.

I was thinking that the Marines should follow Army structures, but I’d forgotten that the Marines are Navy rather than Army.

Commandos here are Army, and I think they were in Britain during WWII (or maybe not?).

Are all British commandos now Marines, or are there Army commandos as well?

Not so long ago our only commando unit was an army reserve unit (the descendant of which my idiot son wants to join if he ever gets through our Army’s brilliantly constructed obstacles to enlisting anyone) but the term has expanded since: http://www.ausspecialforces.com/commandos.htm

#13

Although due to common acceptance every one thinks commandos are RM there have always been army commandos along side the RMs.

Originally they were all army and the RM were a formed units that converted to commando (a bit like the changes to the airborne forces) unlike the army who were volunteers and so looked down on the RM.

Following the war the RM continued the raiding role as it gave them a reason to live when all others were being disbanded. The support elements were provided by the army, guns (29 Regt), air defence, engineers (24 Regt) and logsp.

They have finally realised that they need more army support and 1 Rifles has come under command 3 Cdo Bde. There was much talk that they would not pass the training but as infantry soldiers have always wondered down to Lympstone to do the Cdo course over the years it turned out to be no big deal. As can be seen form the passed if a unit need to convert to another role it will.

As for the Recce company, I was writing it in how it should be written if it was a proper unit not made up.

#14

A bit like our 126 Signals Squadron, which became an integral part of our commando / special forces structure. http://www.cdoassoc.com/126SigSqn/

#15

“Starbucks” joints are considered such hip places in Germany I don’t even dare to put a foot into one…

#16

Aaargh, I hate the Starbucks crowd for several reasons:

  1. Overpriced, under-average coffee. :evil: (0 : 1 Tim Horton’s)

  2. Poor baked goods (Tim Horton’s beats them easily) :evil: (0 : 2 Tim Horton’s)

  3. It’s a ‘Hipster’ magnet. (I hate Hipsters) :evil: (-1 : 3 Tim Horton’s)

  4. You can’t visit a single branch without at least one person sitting there with a laptop, writing something. Don’t you have a fucking office or living room or whatever where you can do that!? Does it give you a secret sexual rush to be writing in public?! (-1 : 4 Tim Horton’s)

There’s a reason why I avoid going there whenever possible…

#17

Here are a couple of links:

Commando memorial and some description of Army Commando
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.jamesgdorrian.com/commando.memorial.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.jamesgdorrian.com/Army%20Commandos.html&h=528&w=279&sz=19&tbnid=7eSqLDcbPoNPUM:&tbnh=132&tbnw=70&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcommando%2Bmemorial&usg=__licS10aw-8xwf4sPfdDaYBGDe08=&ei=qv1zSp66L9fMjAeVm6C9Bw&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=2&ct=image

Royal Artillery
http://www.army.mod.uk/artillery/units/29_cmdo_regt_ra/default%20.aspx

Royal Engineers
http://www.eliteukforces.info/royal-marines/59-commando-royal-engineers/

All Arms Commando Course
http://www.eliteukforces.info/royal-marines/commando-training/

Commando Knife (note the Special Services badge in the photo, which was worn with the green beret) this link is worth scrolling down.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.gotavapen.se/gota/artiklar/fs/commandomemory.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.gotavapen.se/gota/artiklar/fs/fs_knife1.htm&usg=__1IE_R2M19N0rJhpIFTlSiSHx1QI=&h=549&w=450&sz=74&hl=en&start=355&um=1&tbnid=-7kzI3RbsM8NDM:&tbnh=133&tbnw=109&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBritish%2BArmy%2Bcommando%2B%2Bworld%2Bwar%2Btwo%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:*:IE-Address%26rlz%3D1I7GGIE_en-GB%26sa%3DN%26start%3D336%26um%3D1

Fighting Jack Churchill as been mentioned elsewhere I think?
[i]Fighting Jack Churchill survived a wartime odyssey beyond compare.
By Robert Barr Smith

It is not recorded what the German commander said when he learned that one of his men had been spitted by a broad-head arrow. [/i]
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.wwiihistorymagazine.com/images/05/july/0507-col-profiles.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.wwiihistorymagazine.com/2005/july/col-profiles.html&usg=__-x8kKSkoIakjkUQV8c7qw-bUoPQ=&h=325&w=250&sz=55&hl=en&start=8&um=1&tbnid=lOqWqaSviBQv-M:&tbnh=118&tbnw=91&prev=/images%3Fq%3DJack%2BChurchill%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:*:IE-Address%26rlz%3D1I7GGIE_en-GB%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

#18

Starbucks is NOTHING compared to Tim Hortons! Long Live Timmy!!

#19

Roger that!! Here’s a personal account by one of the volunteer “Servers” at the Tim Horton’s in Kandahar…

http://www.canadianliving.com/life/community/tim_hortons_in_kandahar_afghanistan_an_insiders_view.php

A couple of excerpts:

My alarm goes off just before 5 a.m. I pull on my bathrobe, pad down the hallway and open the plywood door to a gravel road and a line of large rounded tents surrounded by concrete highway dividers. I walk over sand and gravel to the shower trailer. This early in the morning I have the place to myself, which doesn’t happen often…I hurry back to my tent where I’m living for six months and change into my uniform. I put on sand-coloured pants and a shirt, my name tag and a desert camouflage hat. As I arrive at work, there’s already a lineup, so I hustle in the side door.

Of course, we’re the only Tim Hortons where the majority of customers come in fully armed. But by now I’m used to the sight of a soldier with a rifle in one hand and a coffee in the other. We’re also prone to rocket attacks on the base, and when the alarm sounds, we have to get all the customers out of the store and sit in the back until the all clear sounds. There’s a heavy thud, a feeling of impact and then the eerie wail of an old air-raid siren