Author: Vic Ruble

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and your continued support. This week, we welcome Jonathan “JT” Taylor to the show. JT is a retired sergeant, a former scout sniper, and the President of the Scout Sniper Association. And at the time of the recording, JT was submitting a package to History Division to be confirmed as having the longest confirmed kill in Marine Corps history. Even more amazing than that is his work with the Scout Sniper Association. JT embodies the ethos of no Marine left behind and he and his brethren at the Scout Sniper Association are dedicated to making sure that this is true for the Marine scout sniper community. As a veteran support organization, they focus on not only maintaining the brotherhood that veteran Marines felt while in uniform, but also looking out for one another, even though they may be thousands of miles away. JT talks to us about hog calls, reunions, family support, and even raising funds to ensure their members can make their house payments. I mean, one of the first buttons you see on the home page of their website is: Request Help. JT has a great story, and we’re thrilled he came on to tell it.

scoutsniper.org

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Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and your continued support. This week, we continue our Road to 250 segment, celebrating the Marine Corps’ 250^th birthday in 2025. Over the next year, we’ll feature stories and history from throughout the 250 years of the Marine Corps. These episodes will be nested within the MCA’s overall Road to 250 Campaign, where you will find featured articles in both the Gazette and Leatherneck highlighting events and battles within specific periods in Marine Corps history. The MCA also has a commemorative Road to 250 coin collection. These commemorative challenge coins can only be found through the MCA. Go to marineshop.net to order individual coins or email [email protected] to order the entire set or learn more.

For June, we walk the Road to 250 with Gazette and Leatherneck Editor-In-Chief, Col Chris Woodbridge. Col Woodbridge talks to us about the significance of the Interwar Period, the impact of the global crises of the time, and how this period shaped the future trajectory of the Marine Corps.

Enjoy!

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Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for tuning in an your continued support. This week, we have another episode in our segment, Catching Up with Old Friends. In this episode, we welcome Will Schick back to the show. Will is one of the OGs. For those of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s, that has a very specific meaning, but for the context of a podcast, we’ll go with original guest. He was our fourth guest, so please go back and listen to Episode #4 to hear more about Will’s background and service. For those who missed it, Will is a former Marine intel officer and is currently the Director of Programs and Partnerships at the Asian American Journalists Association. It goes without saying we did a good bit of catching up, and it was great to hear all of the cool stuff Will is doing in journalism and mentoring the up-and-coming generation to help them navigate this fraught media landscape, and to hear his perspective on how we get information and consume media.

Enjoy!

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Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and your continued support. This week, we welcome the ballistician and co-creator of the 6.5 Creedmore, Dennis DeMille, to the show. Dennis is a veteran Marine mortarman who served as a drill instructor, was on the Marine Corps Shooting Team, and retired as a chief warrant officer before becoming the vice president of product development at Creedmore Sports (thus the name of the round) and is now the general manager of Tactical Walls. For those who don’t know, the 6.5 Creedmore is the current long-range precision rifle round for US Special Operations Command and the British Royal Marines. Basically, it’s the round bad asses use to do bad ass things. Dennis talks about his life before the Corps, his path from the shooting team to being the officer in charge of all the ranges at Camp Pendleton, and how the 6.5 Creedmore came to be. He has a really cool story about how it came to be named the 6.5 Creedmore and not the 6.5…DeMille.

Enjoy!

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Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. This is episode 193. This week, we welcome August Cole to the show. August is the co-author of the books Ghost Fleet and Burn-In, managing partner of Useful Fiction, and a nonresident senior fellow in the Forward Defense practice of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. We were lucky enough to catch August at Modern Day Marine, and he was kind enough to give us some time instead of calling security. Vic sits down with August (while suppressing his urge to just nerd out for the entire interview) to talk to him about the genesis behind his Useful Fiction project, the challenge of operating in a world where the lines between the hypothetical and reality are blurred, and how narrative can be a balm for the competition for attention in this current tech-proliferation ecosystem. August thrives in cautionary-tale spaces, but we caution you not to miss this one. 

Enjoy!

useful-fiction.com

augustcole.com

linkedin.com/in/august-cole

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Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and your continued support. This week, we continue our Road to 250 segment, celebrating the Marine Corps’ 250^th birthday in 2025. Over the next year, we’ll feature stories and history from throughout the 250 years of the Marine Corps. These episodes will be nested within the MCA’s overall Road to 250 Campaign, where you will find featured articles in both the Gazette and Leatherneck highlighting events and battles within specific periods in Marine Corps history. The MCA also has a commemorative Road to 250 coin collection. These commemorative challenge coins can only be found through the MCA. Go to marineshop.net to order individual coins or email [email protected] to order the entire set or learn more.

For May, we walk the Road to 250 with a Semper Cinema crossover. And we welcome our VP of Membership, Marketing, and Support, Michael Armistead, to try his hand at a movie review. William, Michael, and I have a great time breaking down the themes of the documentary, Devil Dogs, Hero Marines of WWI, which follows historian and honorary Marine, Gilles Lagin and his passion for preserving the legacy of the Marines who fought at Belleau Wood.

Enjoy!

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Hey Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for tuning in and your continued support. This week we bring you another installment of our World of War(gaming) series with the Halo Infinite Team Captain of the All-Marine E-Sports Team, Gunnery Sergeant Matthew Springer. Gunny Springer talks to us about Marine E-Sports and how the Marine Corps has embraced the professional development application of gaming and wargaming. Certain circles throw around the term, reps and sets, so much it has become cliche, while giving the fuzzy eyebrow when the topic of video games comes up. Even supporters of wargaming tend to get prickly when talking video games. Gunny Springer is breaking the stigma that video games are just something Marines do while on libo, pregaming for a night out. He goes into the genesis behind the Marine Corps’ E-Sports teams, how he helped recruit and develop its members, and the Marine Corps’ support for their participation in competitions by making an All-Marine E-Sports team. The Commandant and Sergeant Major even attended the Call of Duty Endowment Bowl V in Washington D.C. to check them out. This was a fun conversation exploring how Marine continue to find ways to use their passion to hone their craft.

Enjoy!

Nominations for All-Marine E-Sports Team

Leatherneck Magazine article

Instagram

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Hey Scuttlebutt listeners. Just wanted to give you all a heads up that our MDM 2025 content will not be released as audio-only podcasts via the Scuttlebutt channels but will be going out on the Marine Corps Association’s YouTube channel. We’re going to record video interviews from the showroom floor and release them same say. Not quite a live-stream, but as close as we can get it. So go check out the MCA’s YouTube channel starting April 29th and check it out.

Let us know what you think of the new format!

MCA YouTube

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Hey Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and your continued support. This week we bring you another installment of Strait Talk with Dr. Mike Hunzeker. A lot has happened in the world since the last time we did a Strait Talk, from China’s reaction to last years election in Taiwan, to our election, and changes in foreign policy, there’s a lot to unpack. Starting with…what is going on?! Thankfully, Mike is at the forefront of these issues to help us get to the bottom of what impact the current environment might have, and is having, on Taiwan, China, and our allies in the region.

And check out the Taiwan Security Monitor. The Taiwan Security Monitor is a student-driven research initiative dedicated to enhancing public understanding and informed discourse on Taiwan-related security issues.

Enjoy!

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