Mac #7--Once a Marine, Always a Marine

Right, I've been dying to know Mac's Marine history since from hints and his innate abilities he obviously wasn't just your typical Marine. (Our Mac is NEVER typical anyway!!! ) Now, based on the flashback scenes from Blacklist, I knew he was a Major and had wings on his shirt, but I wanted to know exactly the heroics our Mac had been up to. AND OH MY WORD WAS HE A BAD*SS MARINE!!!!!!! I now have sooooooo many ideas for backstory fanfic!!!! :drool::drool: Ok, here's a rundown with accompanying pics and explantions of Mac's awesomeness:



First the easy part. The gold multi-pointed leaves are the rank insignia of a Major.



Now for specifics. The top pin is the chest insignia for a suba diver. The one below it with the parachute and wings is the Naval Parachutist pin. The ribbons took a little research, but from top to bottom and left to right here they are:

Silver Star
Bronze Star | Purple Heart | Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal
Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal | Combat Action | Navy Meritorious Commendation Medal
Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal | National Defense Service Medal | Southwest Asia Medal
Sea Service Deployment Medal | Kuwait Liberation Medal (Saudi Arabia) | Kuwait Liberation Medal (Emerate of Kuwait)

So he's a parachutist with actions worthy of a silver star, bronze star, commendation, achievement, and meritorious commendation!!! HOLY CRAP!!!!! That's the awesome-ist thing EVER!! :evil::evil::evil:

 

i've been watching quite a lot of s4 as well - i was watching commuted sentences tonight, and there's that lovely funny scene where kendall is telling mac about adam's weird diet and mac pulls a really funny confused face - i love it

clicky:

wtf???

 

Jeez Jade, you certainly did some research. :lol:

Ok, before I'm off for the weekend, I'll give you the caps from Manhattanhenge. I need to keep the Taylor girls - and Elsie - happy, so I'm gonna give you 3 pics and the link for 6 drooling Mac Taylor caps. Erm... just don't drool too much over my PB-account. I like to keep it neet. :devil::devil::devil:



Pay attention ladies!!! :lol:



And keep that PB clean or else Jools will shoot ya!!! :devil::devil::devil:


Cheers!!! :drool::drool::drool:

Follow Mac in Manhattenhenge

 

Hi all!! Just needed to shore myself up with some awesome Mac pics before tackling the whole family get-together scene for Thanksgiving!







Haha! Love the look in that last one! :lol: :adore:

 

^ i love those last two as well, it's one of my favourite episodes i have those on my phone too, along with quite a few others!:lol:

 

^^
Ah-glad to know I'm not the only one with a few pics on my phone. Great pics here, as always...although my USB stick's starting to get a little full. There's no such thing as too much of a good thing, which Mac certainly is:devil:

 

haha i agree, you can never have too much although actually i probably have too many mac/gary pics on my phone - 155. which isn't that many for a computer, but for a phone?!:wtf::wtf:

i have quite a few of my favourites on my wall in here too, my office/study is a bit like my inner teenager's room, so there are loads of posters and bits and bobs on the walls, lately there has been a proliferation of mac/gary pics up there - it makes staring into space while trying to write essays a LOT easier :lol::lol:

 

A wonderful friday morning my fellow Taylor-girls!!

Dear Jools, thank you so much for the pics!! I haven´t seen the ep yet and I am afraid I won´t see the last scene in the next time - the more I am thankful for screenshoots!!! Have a nice trip!!!!

Dear Jade, hope you had a nice Thanksgiving-party. We don´t celebrate Thanksgiving in the country where I live - but I am with you, a little doping before a family party is always useful
I love the way he looks at this pic, dreaming that it´s me who stands in front of him...:drool:

Dear Tequesta,
yeah, I had to start my second "nasty" :devil:usb-stick too and thought to enlarge my photobucket-account...it´s like a addiction - you can´t have enough!!!

Dear Lisa,
my wonderful new "smart" phone has to prove his smartness on the weekend!!! Will see how many pics I can upload before it bursts:lol:

BTW found a little ad to our last discussion:


A little bit to dark but you we can use our fantasy:devil::evil::devil::evil:
Have a nice friday...

 

Lady's, thanks for so very nice pics. The weekend is saved.:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

haha, yeah i photoshopped her out of it sadly i'm not good enough to photoshop myself in :lol:

haha, it's a worthwhile experiment!

hmm i had a dress like that once.... *imagines*

 

Wow, Jade, you did a lot of research! Thanks for finding out what the medals all are....very impressive that he has the Bronze and Silver Star. I guess he got the Purple Heart when he was injured in Beirut.
It would be so cool if Mac was a Major. In Charge of this Post (s2 finale) Mac said he was a young 2nd Lt in 1983, which is the lowest rank of commissioned officer in the Marine Corps. So it would definitely be possible he made Major, if he worked hard (which all those medals would suggest) by the time he left, which according to the papers was 1992 (which would explain also why he had the various medals associated with Kuwait and the Middle East - from the first Gulf War). I noticed in COTP that his discharge papers said he was a Sgt at time of discharge, which made no sense, as Sgt is a non comissioned rank, and below 2nd Lt. I think it must just have been a glitch on the writers' part- we all know they do make their glitches! The way you explain the pics makes much more sense, he easily could have been a 2nd Lt in 1983, then made it to Major by 1992.
According to The Thing About Heroes, Mac was, at that time, 44 (so he'd be about 45 now) so he'd have been born in 1963. Personally, though, I place his DOB in 1960, as to be an officer in the Marines you have to have college education. Either way, I think he's meant to have joined the Marines around 1980, which means he was in the Marines for 12 years -he did very well in those 12 years!
I hope we get to learn more about Mac's Marine past, maybe how he won some of those medals. He mentioned an old Marine friend in DOA for a Day, it would be great to have one of them turn up in a case. I'd love it to be Gibbs, but anyone else would do.

Gorgeous pics, thanks Jade and Jools. I like the one of him holding the wine from the newest ep. Mac and wine, perfect combination!:drool:

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who's celebrating it. We're not here in England, but I hope everyone who is has a great one.

Re Mac pics in offices and homes and such, well, I don't have an office, but in my bedroom I have a 'Mac Wall' It has a big pic on canvas of that s4 promo pic where they're all sat on the iron thingy above the city, a set of six £20 pound notes which have pics of Mac/Gary on and say 'Bank of Sinise' , a little promo type pic which has Mac and Stella on top, and the whole cast with their sigs underneath, and a pic of Mac. Also, I have lots of random pics stuck on my wardrobe, and about 4 of them are Mac pics. Then my desktop wallpaper is one Sam made of all the CSI NY guys with some lovely pics of Mac included.

 

^ my desktop changes quite a lot, at the moment i have austin from true west (wow, i bet you all just died of shock!). my msn application can have customisable backgrounds so my contact list background is a cap of "log off, log off, NOW!" which seems kind of appropriate. i might have a pic somewhere of my walls, complete with gary/mac pics, if i can find it i'll post it. not entirely relevant but hey ho.

 

Amen to that!!!! As I said, I've been dying to know more about that part of his life as it obviously had a HUGE impact on who he is today. And he presumably met Claire when he was in the Marines, and that chapter and back story would make the coolest, heartwarming episode ever!!!! :luvlove::luvlove::luvlove: It would be brilliant to see our Mac truly happy, even if it was just a flashback.....:adore: And just the thought of seeing him all heroic action Marine.............:drool::drool::drool::drool: *mind definitely goes elsewhere!*:devil::devil:

 

Whoooooo:drool::drool::drool::drool::drool: what pics Jools, Jade Nolan and Blue "I hope I didn't missed anyone!:alienblush:"

Ihave my exam week going on so I've been quite busy and I just popped quikly here now before I have to go read Freud etc...

Well I have Mac/Gary pics on my computer, laptop, MP3, mobile. And I have handmade wallpaper above my desk (both in my apartment and home). I'd love to print more pics and put them on the walls in my room but I doubt that my folks would like it! :lol: Besides getting pics is quite hard in my country.:shifty: Sometimes I cut some pics off the papers but internet is the best source. Anyway since I can't use all the printing paper or colour I have to stick to laptop which is overly booked by Mac/Gary pics! :devil::devil::devil:

So I don't have any new pics to post but I searched my UBS-stick again some old pics. I hope you'll like'em.







'Till later fellow Taylor-Girls! Take care of our man!

 

I agree he must have met Claire while he was in the Marines, or maybe before. According to the flashbacks in Blacklist, he was married to her at the time he went to see his dad. I can definitely understand why Claire would have fallen for him, he looks so hot in that uniform. I'd love to see some flashbacks of Mac and Claire, and definitely of him being all heroic action Marine:drool: Though we do get to see his 'Marine' side when he kicks bad guy butt, or in eps like Corporate Warriors or Charge of this Post.
Me and Lisa were talking a while ago about Mac's very formal manner with his father, and wondering if maybe his father outranked him, so maybe his father was a Colonel or something in the army? Or it could be that making it to Major meant Mac got used to calling people 'sir' a lot. In Zoo York, though, he tells Lindsay not to call him 'sir', which makes me think that as a Marine officer, whatever rank he had, he maybe would have preferred a more informal relationship with his men. With his team, he always calls them by their first name, or last name in the case of Hawkes and Flack, rather than 'Detective' whatever. I like that, that he seems to want a more 'equal' relationship with his team, though I also like that he doesn't hesitate to pull the boss card with them when they step out of line.
His Marine past, and his relationship with Claire are definitely huge parts of who he is, and I'd love to learn more about both.

Sam, lovely pics of Mac, doesn't matter if they're old or new!