Josh Greb

[The Husky @Mr_Husky1]

Stanley Kubrick demanded 70 takes from actors. He let this medically discharged Marine improvise.
In 1985, R. Lee Ermey stood on a film set in England with nothing but memories and a voice that could cut through steel. He was not supposed to be there. Not as an actor, anyway.
Stanley Kubrick had hired him as a technical advisor for Full Metal Jacket. The role of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman was already cast with a trained professional. Ermey's job was to teach actors how drill instructors actually behaved.
But Ermey had spent years watching Hollywood get it wrong. He approached Kubrick with a request that bordered on audacity.
"Let me show you what a real drill instructor sounds like."
Kubrick was skeptical. This was a director who shot scenes 40, 50, sometimes 70 times until they were perfect. He controlled every word. Every gesture. Every breath.
But he agreed to watch.
Ermey positioned actors in formation. The cameras rolled. And he began screaming.
For two hours, he unleashed a torrent of creative, devastating verbal assault. Stagehands pelted him with tennis balls and oranges to simulate chaos. He never flinched. Never broke rhythm. Never repeated himself.
Because he wasn't acting.
He was remembering.
Ronald Lee Ermey had enlisted in the Marines at seventeen after a Kansas judge gave him a choice: jail or the military. He chose the Corps. From 1965 to 1967, he served as a drill instructor at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, breaking down civilians and rebuilding them as Marines.
In 1968, he deployed to Vietnam for fourteen months.
Then injuries ended his career. Medical discharge. Twenty-seven years old. No college degree. No plan.
He drifted to the Philippines, enrolled in university using his GI Bill, and stumbled into film work as a technical advisor. Small roles followed. A helicopter pilot in Apocalypse Now. A drill instructor in The Boys in Company C.
But nothing that changed his life.
Until Kubrick watched those tapes.
The director saw something no acting class could manufacture: authenticity so complete it became art. Ermey had produced 150 pages of original insults. His intensity never wavered. His knowledge was absolute.
Kubrick made a decision almost unheard of in his career.
He fired the original actor. He gave Ermey the role. And he allowed him to improvise more than half of his own dialogue.
Stanley Kubrick, the perfectionist who demanded endless takes from every performer, needed only two or three takes from a former drill instructor with no formal training.
Because you cannot fake what is real.
When Full Metal Jacket premiered in 1987, Ermey's performance became instantly iconic. Real drill instructors said it was the most accurate portrayal ever filmed. Veterans said it triggered memories they had buried for decades.
Ermey earned a Golden Globe nomination. He went on to appear in over sixty films. He voiced Sarge in Toy Story. He hosted military programs on the History Channel.
But he never forgot his brothers and sisters in uniform.
In 2002, the Marine Corps awarded him an honorary promotion to Gunnery Sergeant, making him the only retiree in Corps history to receive that recognition. He spent years visiting troops overseas, supporting veterans, and keeping the military spirit alive.
R. Lee Ermey passed away on April 15, 2018. The Marine Corps called him a great American and an even greater Marine.
Think about that journey.
A troubled teenager from Kansas. A drill instructor. A combat veteran. A medical discharge. Odd jobs in foreign countries. And then, at forty-three, convincing one of cinema's most demanding directors to trust him with creative freedom.
He did not succeed because he pretended to be something he wasn't.
He succeeded because he refused to be anything else.
That is not a Hollywood story.
That is a Marine who improvised, adapted, and overcame, all the way to immortality.

[TheJerseyGirl @ChristineX2024]

Something like this should not stand out. But it does.

Be like Tom.

[Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 @JasonJournoDC]

💥NEW: Stephen A. Smith: “I would give anything to be able to say something definitively in Karmelo Anthony’s defense. If there was a shred of innocence to the incident itself, I would say so. I don’t want to see another black young man going to jail.”

“But I don’t give a d*mn about what your race or ethnicity is. Just because you’re white and young doesn’t mean you deserve to be m*rdered. And just because you’re black and young … doesn’t give you a license to m*rder someone.”

“That’s what happened.”

[Barstool Sports @barstoolsports]

“It is funny when Europeans say, ‘We can spot Americans from a mile away’. Yeah no shit dude, we can do the same with you. You’re wearing umbros and a gucci shirt that’s like a size small… and you have a purse” -Big Cat

[OKIE PATRIOT 76 @okiepatriot_76]

NEW: Country music star and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Jamey Johnson performed “In Color” during the National Memorial Day Concert.

I didn’t realize he served. RESPECT. 🇺🇸

This song gets me everytime. Both of grandpa’s funeral videos featured this song.

[Kirk Herbstreit @KirkHerbstreit]

I have 4 four boys — 25-25-23-19.

Today I’m thinking about the young men and women their age who gave everything for this country.

Puts it all in perspective.

Grateful. 🇺🇸

[JohnRocker @itsJohnRocker]

TODAY
IS
NOT
A
DAY
TO
REMEMBER
GEORGE
FLOYD

[Untold War Stories @UntoldWarFacts]

There is a cemetery on the island of Guam where 24 Marine war dogs are buried.

They were Doberman Pinschers and German Shepherds who fought alongside the Marines in the Pacific.

This is the story of the Marine Devil Dogs..🧵1/5

[Mat Best @MatBest11x]

Mat Best - Folded Flag (Official Music Video)

This song was written for the men and women who stepped into the fire for this country and never made it home, and for the families, friends, and brothers left carrying their memory forward.

Memorial Day isn’t just a long weekend. Behind every folded flag is a name, a story, and a sacrifice that built the freedom we live in every day.

This song proudly supports the Major Brent Taylor Foundation and the Gold Star families it supports.

[Adam Morgan @RepAdamMorgan]

🚨BREAKING: South Carolina Senate kills Redistricting Resolution 29-17!

5 Republicans joined all Democrats to kill it 👇
Sean Bennett (Dorchester)
Chip Campsen (Charleston)
Tom Davis (Beaufort)
Greg Hembree (Horry)
Shane Massey (Edgefield)

‼️Vote them ALL out‼️

[InfantryDort @infantrydort]

To the Loved and the Lost at Abbey Gate

I cannot pretend to know the pain that rests heavy on your hearts from beyond, nor can any man measure the cost you bore when you gave what was most sacred to a cause that, in the end, refused to be sacred itself.

You were sent not into battle, but into chaos. Not toward a victory, but toward a gate. Too narrow for all the trust placed in it. And yet, you stood there. Brave, willing, and unarmed in the ways that matter most. A rifle may guard the perimeter, but it is courage that guards the soul.

The nation weeps for you still. But it does not yet understand.

That, too, will change.

Because there are those among us who have not forgotten. Who have not made peace with your deaths. Who do not accept the shameful silence that followed the blast, nor the soft lies that tried to cover its sound. Righteous accountability is coming. Not from vengeance, but from duty. The kind you knew well.

And when the truth stands up, even if on trembling legs, may it carry your names as a banner raised above the noise of politics and cowardice.

For the war may have ended in retreat, but your memory does not.

It advances still.

[Donald Trump Jr. @DonaldJTrumpJr]

LOL, what a plot twist that SPLC was funding the KKK… as Democrats always have. Another “conspiracy theory” coming true in real time.

[Heritage Foundation @Heritage]

For the next 48 hours, @CallSignCourage is free.

Watch it. Share it. Pass it on. https://t.co/11ZyP3nwIK

[Dr. Eli David @DrEliDavid]

“If you think tough men are dangerous, wait until you see what weak men are capable of.”
—Jordan Peterson

[Samuel Pascal Redfern @SamUSOH]

Donald Rumsfeld IRS Tax Day Letter.

Always a good one.

[Patrick Bet-David @patrickbetdavid]

Death penalty is not enough.

Mutilation?
Castration?
Then public execution.

You have to make a public example of this evil behavior or else it’ll continue.

[SheepDog Society LLC @SDSLLC_USA]

NATO is really going to regret their actions.