Front Towards Enemy

Ditto to Hubris Sonic about Claymores:
The taped message seems like the usual bragging/horsing around/ooh-rah before a fight… (“hell, sergeant, just set me front-to-the-enemy, an’ I’ll mow ‘em down like a killing machine!” )
…which makes the photo itself all the more powerful.
(bravado turned to obvious exhaustion… and i think i can read in his eyes he’s seen some bad things….)
hard to know from a photo, but maybe even a bit of combat-fatigue there, some 1000 yard stare…
(hang in there, marine.)

I would withhold judgment about what he meant by it. He could’ve just though it was funny (the guys in Basic Training, including me, thought that the Claymore labeling was hilarious).
When I was in the Gulf War, my little helmet band read “Don’t Shoot! I’m American!!!”. I wrote it on the back side, of course. The front side had my name on it, as required by regulations. I’d flip it over as the situation dictated.
Just judging it from my own experience, my first guess was that he was trying to be funny. Moreover, I think there’s a tendency in some infantryman to imagine their dead bodies saying something. What your corpse says could be ironic, or it could be something actually meaningful to you. I should also mention that while in the Army I got a tattoo that said “You Can’t Kill Circus People”. I guess I’m one of the ironic imaginers.

1. YouTube video — M18A1 Claymore Antipersonnel Mine (SFW — no bloody bits. T’wouldn’t be prudent: might upset someone’s visual sensibilities.)
2. U.S. Army Field Manual (1966) — “When detonated, the M18A1 mine will deliver spherical steel fragments over a 60° fan-shaped pattern that is 2 meters high and 50 meters wide at a range of 50 meters. These fragments are moderately effective up to a range of 100 meters and can travel up to 250 meters forward of the mine. The optimum effective range (the range at which the most desirable balance is achieved between lethality and area coverage) is 50 meters.”
3. Issac Newton — “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.“.
4. Blowback — Improvised Explosive Devices: “There is little meaningful difference between a Claymore Mine, that is designed and mass-produced to be used as a command-detonated mine and an IED which is designed and hand-made to be used as a command-detonated mine.”
Use some simple math and science, and things add up pretty quickly. What direction does the Administration have American troops headed in, again?

this guy is in my plt in 1/6 fuckin damon