MCA Scuttlebutt

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us. Our last movie review was so much fun, we decided to create a new segment called, “Semper Cinema.” This week, we review the Academy Award winning short documentary, With the Marines at Tarawa . If you haven’t seen it, you need to check it out. Released in 1944, this gritty film came out during the height of the island-hopping...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us. This week we welcome the former Virginia Secretary of Education and veteran Marine, Atif Qarni to the show. Atif was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to be with us and we are so glad that he did. Atif is currently campaigning to be the next Virginia 10th District congressional representative so it really means a lot that he was...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us. In this installment of World of Wargaming, William discusses the history of Marine Corps wargaming with returning guest Ian Brown accompanied by Sebastian Bae: a former Marine, research analyst for the Center for Naval Analyses, and adjunct assistant professor at the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University. In recounting the histor...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us. This week we welcome LtCol David Kelly back to the show to talk about his new book, First Fights in Fallujah: Marines During Operation Vigilant Resolve, in Iraq, April 2004 . Like David’s first book, Hell in the Streets of Husaybah , First Fights in Fallujah, his book chronicles the firsthand accounts of the Marines who fought in Operatio...

Happy 2024 everyone! We’re back! We hope that you had a fun and safe New Year’s Eve and that your 2024 is off to a great start. Speaking of great starts, we are going to kick off 2024 right! By bringing in two Amtrackers to talk about Amtracker stuff. Wait, where are you going? Seriously, stick around because we talk about a really fascinating topic: how a monument gets made. I think w...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for listening and your continued support. I wanted to take this opportunity to let you all know that Scuttlebutt will be taking a break over the holidays but will be back in Jan. We are excited for all of the new content and offerings coming up in 2024 with some exciting new segments and guests. Maybe even some return visits from...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us. This week Nancy and Vic welcome Adam Lazarus to the show. Adam is the author of the book, The Wingmen the story of the unlikely, unusual, unbreakable friendship between John Glenn and Ted Williams. Adam has also authored multiple books that focus on sports history such as Hail to the Redskins , Best of Rivals , Super Bowl Monday , and Chasing G...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us. This week we have another edition of World of Wargaming. William and Vic were able to spend some time with the founder and CEO of Victura studios, Peter Tamte. Peter talks to us about his newest project, Six Days in Fallujah, a first-person tactical military shooter that recreates true stories of Marines, soldiers, and Iraqi civilians during Op...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us. This week we welcome Andrew Biggio back to the show to discuss his most recent book: The Rifle 2 . When Andrew returned home from tours in Iraq and Afghanistan he had huge questions about the price of war. He decided to ask those who he knew would understand – veterans of War War II. William and Nancy talk to Andrew about his book and how it de...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us. This week Vic sits down with Col Eric “Ferris” Buer, former Cobra pilot and author of the book, Ghosts of Baghdad: Marine Corps Gunships on the Opening Days of the Iraq War . As the title suggests, his book looks at the war in Iraq from 2003-2004 from the perspective of a Cobra pilot supporting troops on the ground. His perspectives were really...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us. This week we have another episode of our series Strait Talk with Dr. Mike Hunzeker. We recorded this episode on 10 November, so what kind of Marines would we be if we didn’t celebrate the Marine Corps birthday properly. And what better way to celebrate than to get into the weeds on the current state of one of our primary operating environments,...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Happy 248th Birthday Marines and welcome to episode 110 everyone. Thank you for joining us. To help celebrate our birthday we are trying a new segment we’re calling Tun Tavern Talks. For all of us who have spent time around service members, especially Marines, we know that sea stories abound. I’ve heard it said that the only difference between a fairy tale and a sea sto...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us. This week we have another edition of World of Wargaming. William has a chat with Tom Knowles and Keith Martin-Smith from HexWar to discuss their series of games available on Mac, PC, iPhone, and iPad. Given the previous Commandant’s desire to increase wargaming usage throughout the Corps, HexWar’s mobile wargaming allows Marines to...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us. This week we are very excited to be welcoming Michael Armistead not only to the show, but to the Marine Corps Association staff. Michael is our new Director of Communications and comes to us from HQMC Communications Directorate where he served as the Branch head of Occupational Field support. He retired as a LtCol in September of this year.  Mi...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners and welcome to a special episode of Scuttlebutt. William and I sit down with the Editor-in-Chief & Publisher of The Marine Corps Gazette & Leatherneck and Vice President of Professional Development, Col Chris Woodbridge to talk about current events in the Ukraine-Russia War and the current state of the things in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. Like with our other...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. This week we are super excited to welcome Captain Riley Tejcek to the show. Riley is the Support Officer for the Expeditionary Warfare School at the Marine Corps University here at MCB Quantico. On top of that, Riley is in contingency for the US National Bobsledding Team. She is currently on the National Team, out at team trials right now to make the final cut for the W...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. This week we are happy to welcome Col Patty “Bacon” Klop to the show. Patty is the Assistant Chief of Staff, Reserve G-1 for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. October 10th was the World Mental Health Day as recognized by the World Health Organization. The overall objective of World Mental Health Day is to raise awareness of mental health issues around the...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. On this installment of World of Wargaming, William enjoys a conversation with Rich Hamilton, the Chief Operations Officer of Wargame Design Studio. The two discuss the evolution of John Tiller’s gaming software to the now-titled Wargame Design Studio, which focuses primarily on in-depth historical wargaming.  As a special gift to our dedicated listeners, Wargame Design...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Today we welcome SgtMaj Lynn Kimble, USMC (Ret) to the show to talk about USAA’s Face the Fight Campaign. Mental health and suicide are issues that our country faces everyday and the impact is felt by veterans well above that of the rest of the American public. Face the Fight is a coalition of philanthropic foundations, veteran-oriented nonprofit organizations and...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. This week we’re giving movie reviews a try and we begin with the documentary, The United States Marine Corps: 1775 – 1916: A History of Heroes. As fun as this was, there is more to this project than just having an excuse to watch movies while on the clock. The Marine Corps Association website offers battle study packages that provide a litany of resources to...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. On this episode of MCA Scuttlebutt, we continue our World of Wargaming series with Jeremy Sepinsky, the lead wargame designer for the Center for Naval Analyses. Enjoy! <p>The post Scuttlebutt Ep 101: World of Wargaming with Jeremy Sepinsky from the Center For Naval Analyses first appeared on Marine Corps Association .</p>

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. After interviewing dozens of people the past two years, we turn the mic toward our very own Vic Ruble for our 100 th episode of MCA Scuttlebutt. For this episode, guest interviewer Kyle Watts chats with Vic over his career in the Marine Corps and how he became the illustrious host of this podcast. We would like to thank each of our listeners for embarking on this journe...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. If you want to write about veterans you need to earn their trust, listen to their experiences, and get it right. On this episode, William and Nancy have a conversation with award-winning writer, Leatherneck’s own Kyle Watts. Kyle is the recipient of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s 2019 Colonel Robert Debs Heinl, Jr. Award for the best article pertinent to M...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. On this episode of Scuttlebutt, World of Wargaming returns as William interviews Mr. Joseph Miranda, a former Army officer and prolific board wargame designer, and Dr. Christopher Cummins, the publisher of Strategy & Tactics Press and CEO of Decision Games. Check out their series of Strategy and Tactics articles available in the Marine Corps Gazette as well as their...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. This week we welcome veteran Marine machine gunner, Marine Corps Heritage award winner, recent law school graduate, and current Bar exam hostage Kacy Tellessen back to the show. This week starts a little different than our previous episodes because the pre-show recording with Kacy was so fun we decided we needed to keep it. So we’ve cut an actual intro – whi...