The V-22 Osprey, a heavy aircraft capable of taking off and landing vertically, is a mainstay in 21st century US troop transportation.

But its tiltrotor technology, which allows the Osprey to take off like a helicopter and then fly like a fixed-wing plane, took decades to develop. One of its key ancestors belonged to the legendary family of Air Force "X" planes, the record-setting experimental aircraft that still represent the cutting edge of American aviation.

The Hiller X-18 was first built in 1959 and employed a single moving "tiltwing" crossing through the aircraft's body. As the wing shifted, so did the orientation of the plane's engines and blades. The X-18's 16-foot blades gave it the nickname the Propelloplane.

It wasn't the first aircraft to use this kind of wing, or the first attempt at creating an airplane-helicopter hybrid. Several earlier experimental planes of the '50s and '60s used the same type of tiltwing, starting with the more rickety-looking Vertol VZ-2, built in 1957.

The plane's shifting wings can be seen in action here:

The idea of a tiltrotor aircraft was to marry the maneuverability of a helicopter — which needs far less space to take off and land than any fixed-wing aircraft — with the speed, range, and size of a plane.

This presents a number of technological challenges for engineers who want to reap the full benefit of a prospective heli-plane. After all, a transport plane is heavier and requires both a larger fuel load and a higher cruising altitude than even the most advanced helicopter. And the aircraft has to be able to tilt its rotors or wings in mid-air while still managing to stay aloft.

Even so, in the 1950s, engineers realized that it might actually be possible to build a working airplane-helicopter hybrid. And they became aware that helicopters were soon going to hit their technological ceiling. "As helicopters progressed past their World War II infancy, researchers started to run into the expected speed limitations inherent to all rotorcraft that generate 100% of their lift and thrust from a rotor in edgewise flight," an article at Jalopnik on the history of tiltwing aircraft noted. The solution was the build helicopters that looked and behaved more like traditional airplanes — flying machines like the X-18.

Only one X-18 was ever built, and it was eventually grounded after spinning out and nearly crashing during its 20th test flight in 1961. A historical document from the US Air Force cites the prototype's "susceptibility to wind gusts when the wing was rotating. Also, the turboprop engines were not cross-linked, so the failure of one engine meant a crash."

But it was a pioneering aircraft despite its short operational lifespan. The X-18 could fly at over 35,000 feet, and weighed over 20,000 pounds. The VZ-2, in comparison, couldn't break 20,000 feet, and weighed only about 3,500 pounds. It pushed the limits of what a heli-plane could do.

The X-18 would be used in safer ground tests for several years before being scrapped in 1964. That killed the X-18, but engineers would keep experimenting with some of the concepts the plane employed.

The true proof of concept would be a long time in coming — the V-22 Osprey was in development for decades, and was nearly killed by then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney in 1989. Four separate accidents killed 30 US military personnel before the plane was even officially put into service in 2007.

But today, the Osprey is one of the US military's workhorse planes. One of them have even been dispatched to West Africa to aid in the American response to the Ebola epidemic.

It's another sign of how once-distant-seeming technology has now become routine — and it's another contribution that the storied X-plane series has made to aviation.

SEE ALSO: These are the X-planes, the astounding cutting edge of American aviation

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The spectacle is mesmerizing: A squadron of 13 small rubber boats moving in perfect synchronicity, turning right or left in unison, maneuvering in a perfect circular formation around a small US Navy vessel.

The throttle handles and steering controls move by themselves, like a ghost pilot was at the controls.

Normally a speedboat with a .50 caliber machine gun would not be the most intimidating of vessels, especially compared to the billion-dollar ships of the line that constitute what most people consider warships.

But combine sheer numbers with cutting-edge artificial intelligence, and suddenly small rubber boats can seem far more menacing.

The Office of Naval Research’s swarm program, which uses modular kits of sensors, communications, and sophisticated algorithms to convert existing small boats into autonomous drones, seeks to make networks of small craft a key part of fleet security.

The general parameters of the drones' mission are set by human operators. But the drone network makes many decisions for itself and its capable of automatically intercepting targets approaching the area it is set to guard.

The technology will not fire on a target without operator approval, so a human presence is always required in the mix. But one person is capable of directing the entire network, greatly reducing the number of personnel needed for security.

Drone technology has come to the fore over the last 20 years, but in some regards the technology is only now growing out of its infancy.

“We’re doing things we never thought possible previously. You look at the stuff on Mars. It’s remarkable,” ONR’s Acting Director of Research Dr. Lawrence Schuette tells Task & Purpose.

“What you saw at that demonstration was the culmination of a lot of research, pulling together to show senior leadership in the Navy what the art of the possible really is today. Do I think in 10 to 20 years every fleet will have autonomous systems that have that swarming ability? Absolutely.”

The concept of using swarms of small boats as security rose partly out of fear of a similar threat.

On Oct. 12, 2000, Al Qaeda terrorists rammed the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Cole in Aden, Yemen, with a small boat filled with explosives, killing 17 sailors and wounding 39 others.

But beyond terrorist attacks, the threat of small boat tactics by potential enemies such as Iran and China have long concerned the Navy.

Iran used a large number of Swedish-built Boghammar patrol boats during the Tanker War episode of the Iran-Iraq War, and US forces sank many of the small craft during escort operations of oil tankers.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy has invested in large numbers of small attack craft for coastal operations in the South China Sea, which could pose a significant threat to larger surface groups the US Navy usually operates in.

The use of fishing boats as proxy units in territorial disputes is another concern considering the potential numbers involved.

Naval doctrine dating back to World War II has been primarily concerned with fleet actions against the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and the rapidly modernizing navy of China. But unconventional operations by both state and non-state actors are threats that traditional anti-ship missiles and torpedoes are ill-equipped to deal with.

The successful demonstration of the swarm project demonstrates a cost-effective way of dealing with those threats. In a stark comparison to the usual billion-dollar weapons programs the Pentagon is known for, swarm conversion kits for existing small boats run as little as $2,000 apiece.

This is not the only system of autonomous drones the Navy has been working on. The MK18 Kingfish is a torpedo-shaped underwater drone that scans for mines, and the Navy has been testing its first unmanned, autonomous combat jet off of aircraft carriers, a demonstration platform that is viewed by some as the future of naval aviation.

“For all the right reasons, the same reason there is an EOD robot instead of a man in the loop, you’re going to want to put an unmanned system out there. If we can get the quantity up, we can put them out there more affordably, we take the warfighter out of the threat zone. It’s just a great way to operate,” Schuette says.

Besides the reductions in risk, there are also the reductions in manpower needs, keeping with the Navy’s trend of using automation to replace living crewmen. An Arleigh Burke-class destroyer has a standard complement of 323. The new Zumwalt class has a crew of less than half that at 158.

If autonomous robot swarms conjure up uncomfortable images of Skynet-like dystopian scenarios, Schuette concedes that drone swarms prosecuting targets independently is prevented only by the organization that deploys them.

“I think it’s just a question of what decade. On the science side of this, what we’re getting to is rules of warfare and culture, if you will, a reluctance to have a Terminator. That is not in our culture, but there is nothing on the science side that would prevent you from doing it.”

Schuette sees this technology being applied to every facet of the military, and points out that networks of underwater research drones are already used for oceanographic studies, often staying out for hundreds of days at a time.

He credits the advances to the ONR system of decentralizing research across military, academia, and industry scientists. But despite the speed of the advances, the wheels of military procurement grind slowly. It could be years before the swarm system becomes standard issue in the Navy.

“We are well before something would actually be fielded to the Navy. Ten years from now, the Navy would introduce something like that in production quantity. We feed into that pipeline. That whole frustrating military acquisition system, we are at the beginning of that chain,” Schuette says.

But within 30 years, Schuette is convinced that autonomous drone swarms are going to be the standard, replacing more and more traditional systems like manned tanks, aircraft, and submarines. The military of the future is going to be primarily a robotic one, with living personnel increasingly operating behind a shield of drones.

According to Schuette, “It is the future of our Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Army.”

Stephen Carlson is Task & Purpose’s Washington-based correspondent. He served two tours in Afghanistan as an infantryman with the 10th Mountain Division. He lives in Washington, DC. Follow him on Twitter @swcarlson1.

SEE ALSO: Mind-controlled drones are already a reality

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Program officials warned Thursday that the operational readiness dates for the Air Force and Marine Corps F-35 fighter planes may be behind schedule due to testing delays, maintenance staffing problems and incomplete mission data packages.

The Air Force’s inability to convince Congress that it needs to retire the A-10 Warthog is further complicating the process.

Maintainers that the Air Force had planned to move to the F-35 program may no longer be available, said Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, the F-35 program manager.

The Marine Corps has planned to introduce the F-35B into the fleet on July 1, 2015. The Air Force has planned to similarly announce the F-35A’s initial operating capability on Aug. 1, 2016.

Bogdan said the Air Force F-35A’s IOC date may need to be moved back as the service tries to acquire the necessary maintainers.

“You have to have about 1,100 maintainers by 2016 to man and maintain those airplanes.  What I’ve learned is a combination of those 1,100 people includes new trainees and experienced maintainers from other platforms to include the A-10. If we don’t get rid of the A-10, then you don’t get experienced maintainers,” Bogdan explained.

It will take much longer to acquire, train and prepare less-experienced maintainers, he said.

Also, Bogdan said implementing various fixes needed for the aircraft’s engine have delayed the program’s scheduled testing by as much as 45 to 50 days.

A problem with the F-35’s engine, resulting in an engine fire, grounded the aircraft for several weeks this summer. The F-35 program has analyzed the problem and is now immersed in a series of fixes to the engine which are causing delays in the program.

“The engine problem put us behind 45 days. That extra time puts pressure on air worthiness and the ability to certify the full envelope by July 1. They [Marine Corps] needs 10 planes in warfighting and configurations and modifications are not easy. We have to make sure the airframe can fly in the full warfighting envelope,” Bogdan explained. “We have to work hard to get to July 1.”

Bogdan said the Marine Corps might have to push back the F-35B’s IOC date by several weeks, if not more.

Another potential hurdle to meeting IOC for the Marine Corps and Air Force on time is the need to complete what’s called the mission data files for the F-35, Bogdan explained.

Described as the brains of the airplane, the mission data files are extensive on-board data systems compiling information on geography, air space and potential threats in known areas of the world where the F-35 might be expected to perform combat operations, Bogdan explained.

Consisting of hardware and software, the mission data files are a database of known threats and friendly aircraft in specific parts the world. The files are being worked on at a reprogramming laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, Bodgan said.

“The mission data files contain all sorts of information that the airplane needs to make sense of the battlespace that it is flying in. Finishing this is a threat to IOC because we only have one factory up and running and they are trying to service all the airplanes,” Bogdan added.

The mission data packages are loaded with a wide range of information to include commercial airliner information and specifics on Russian and Chinese fighter jets. For example, the mission data system would enable a pilot to quickly identify a Russian MiG-29 if it were detected by the F-35’s sensors.

The data files are being engineered to accommodate new threat and intelligence information as it emerges. For instance, the system will be updated with details on the Chinese J-20 fighter or the Russian T-50 PAK FA fighter.

“The Marine Corps requires mission data files for two different areas of the world to be ready for IOC. There is no problem with the first one, but there is schedule pressure on getting that mission data file done for the second area,” Bogdan said.

Overall, the Air Force is developing 12 different mission data files for 12 different geographic areas, Air Force officials said. The first four are slated to be ready by the time the service reaches its planned initial operating capability with the F-35A in August of 2016. However, engine delays and schedule setbacks will make this difficult.

The F-35’s software packages are being developed in increments. The Marine Corps plans to declare IOC with a software increment or Block 2B.  It builds upon the enhanced simulated weapons, data link capabilities and early fused sensor integration of the earlier Block 2A software drop.

The next increments Block 3I and Block 3F will increase the combat capability even further and increase the aircraft’s ability to suppress enemy air defenses.

The Air Force plans IOC with software block 3I in 2016. Full operational capability will come with Block 3F, service officials said. Block 3F will increase the weapons delivery capacity of the JSF as well, giving it the ability to drop a Small Diameter Bomb, 500-pound JDAM and AIM 9X short-range air to air missile, Air Force officials said.

SEE ALSO: Here's another sign of how astronomically expensive the F-35 is

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Casualties in Afghanistan are climbing for everyone except coalition and US soldiers, according to a report by the Inspector General in charge of investigating US-led reconstruction efforts in the country.

US troops have taken on an advisory and training role in the past two years, in preparation for their exit from the country by the end of 2014.

That translates to lower American casualties: 49 American soldiers have been killed in the country this year, which would be the lowest annual rate in over a decade if it holds.

But last month, the UN Secretary-General reported on violent incidents in Afghanistan overall, which are at their second-highest clip ever. The latest quarterly report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) represents these statistics as an average of 71.8 "security incidents" per day, a rate only surpassed in 2011.

Civilian deaths and injuries have increased to levels on par with those of that same year, the UN found in a separate report, while Afghan ministries have just stopped releasing police and military casualty data after a particularly bloody 2013.

Here's the SIGAR report's breakdown of security incidents in 2014:

Armed clashes made up nearly half of these incidents, while improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were responsible for 30% of them.

This continues a trend the UN noted during the first six months of this year: mortars, RPGs, and small-arms fire near population centers are responsible for a growing share of civilian deaths.

"The nature of the conflict in Afghanistan is changing in 2014," a UN official said in a statement accompanying the research, "with an escalation of ground engagements in civilian-populated areas." 

Alongside reports of a Taliban force growing in ambition and military initiative, these numbers paint a worrying picture of the legacy that the 13-year-long US-led effort in Afghanistan may leave behind.

SEE ALSO: The US is leaving behind a dysfunctional and incompetent army in Afghanistan

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Becoming a military pilot is a formidable physical and psychological challenge. Those hoping to fly fighter jets must prove their ability to withstand a high level of G-forces, or the equivalent of the force of gravity multiplied.

That's why fighter pilots-in-training have to spend some time in a centrifuge to prove they can handle the pressure.

"Essentially, you are placed in a chamber that is on the end of a long arm that spins around the room — the faster it spins, the more G-forces you feel on your body," Jack Stewart, an active pilot with over 2,000 hours of experience in jet aircraft, wrote in an email to Business Insider. "Yes, it feels like weight is pushing down on every part of you."

If you've ever been on a roller coaster, you know what a quick spike in G-force feels like. But the sensation of intense pressure is greater and longer in duration for someone strapped into the cockpit of a fighter jet, a vehicle which can "pull" up to nine times the force of gravity.

YouTube is full of videos of what pilots call "g-monsters," or individuals adept at handling the incredible pressure created by the centrifuge, which is meant to simulate a fighter jet's G-force. The label is similar to being called a "stud" or "beast" in athletics, wrote Stewart.

To viewers, there's little to betray the fact that the trainee is undergoing inhuman amounts of gravitational pressure. A "g-monster's" only giveaway is a gradually more contorted facial expression, as in the video below:

After his first run in the machine, this student answers questions about various types of vision loss he may have felt after experiencing 6.8 Gs, which is enough force to push blood away from the brain. In the last minute of the video, he completes 30 seconds under a staggering 8 Gs of force.

Fighting the effects of a centrifuge is a full-body effort: everything from a pilot's flexing of their leg muscles to their breathing methods are leveraged to build resistance and maintain vision and consciousness.

That collection of techniques is known as the anti-G straining maneuver (AGSM).

A training guide from the Federal Aviation Administration describes AGSM as "a physical technique where the aviator pushes air out of the lungs against a closed glottis"— that's the audible hic sound the trainee in the video is instructed to make — "while simultaneously contracting the muscles in the calves, thighs, and shoulders." This prevents flood from flowing away from the brain, which minimizes the risk to a pilot.

Stewart told Business Insider that the pressure during centrifugal training can be worse than actually flying a jet.

"The worst part about it is that when the G’s relax, the arm of the centrifuge slows and causes the fluid in your inner ears to slide forward, giving you the sensation that you are falling forward," he said.

Fortunately, pilots typically only go through centrifugal training a single time before moving on to the real thing. Once they make it through, it's usually clear that the student has what it takes to fly some of the highest-performance aircraft on the planet.

SEE ALSO: Here's how to get a job at the CIA

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A scene from the latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise, "Advanced Warfare," has been the target of plenty of mockery from the gaming community. The scene in question involves the player attending the Arlington funeral of his fellow Marine and close friend who was killed in a previous operation.

SEE ALSO: This Incredibly Lucky Marine Survived Getting Shot In The Helmet

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As an intelligence officer in the Marine Corps during the US troop surge and the "Anbar Awakening," Marine captain Wesley Gray had a first-hand view of some of the most important events of the American campaign in Iraq. He trained the country's nascent armed forces, learned Arabic, and witnessed the Sunni tribes' turn against Al Qaeda during the most crucial moment of the US mission.

But Gray, who comes from a small town in northern California, took an untraditional path to the military. He said he always planned on becoming a soldier: "My whole life I always knew I wanted to do my service," he says. "It was just the mater of the timing of it."

He ended up joining the armed forces at an unlikely point in life, two years into a competitive and intense finance PhD program at the University of Chicago. "I was kind of thinking, it's not like my opportunity costs are going to get any lower," he recalls. "If I'm ever going to actually do this I just have to go for it."

He convinced his program advisor to grant him a four-year sabbatical, which is three years longer than what students are typically allowed. This was in 2004, when the campaign in Iraq was intensifying.

Gray soon graduated towards the top of his Marine training class. He chose to become a "ground intelligence officer," basically an infantry soldier with intelligence duties and expertise — a "grunt with a map" in Marine parlance, according to Gray. He was entrusted with training and organizing Iraqi army personnel and was in the country at a time when the US began paying Sunni tribal leaders to join the fight against Al Qaeda: the "Anbar Awakening" that led to Al Qaeda in Iraq's defeat in the late 2000s.

Gray left the Marines in 2008 and returned to his PhD program, somewhat to his professors' and classmates' surprise — "they didn't' think I would show up again" after his military career, Gray recalls. His experience in Iraq would end up having an unmistakable resonance in his post-military life and when attempting to launch Alpha Architect, a financial services startup that he says now manages $200 million in assets. Working with Iraqi soldiers and officials and applying his military and intelligence training in an active war zone gave Gray invaluable insights into human nature that he later brought to his business.

"It was all about understanding the psychology of people and really trying to get through that," he says of his work in Iraq. "It meant realizing that everyone has cultural baggage and behavioral influences. You think everyone would be rational. But that's simply not the case."

That realization applied to more than his Iraqi counterparts — it was crucial to being able to function in a war zone. "People are highly emotion-driven," he explains. "That's something you learn a lot about in the military and you learn to control that. When you're getting shot at you don't duck. You get up and shoot back when your emotion says to turn the other way."

The military's honor and service-driven ethos also helped him hone his own unique sense of what he wanted his business to stand for. "We're trying to be more user-friendly and honorable than the traditional kind of dog-eat-dog Wall Street company," he says, explaining that his company is geared around investor education and publicly available research. "That's something that comes form being in the military. It's a humbling thing that translates over."

Gray explains that in the Marines, the officers eat last — the leaders aren't in it for themselves, just by virtue of what the organization values. So Gray wanted to create a company distinguished through its transparency, a place that would buck the traditional "middle man"-like function of a typical financial firm. Right now, he has 10 full-time employees, including a recently hired ex-Marine captain.

Since leaving the Marines, Gray has finished his PhD at Chicago, written a book about his experiences in Iraq, and taught at Drexel University before deciding to go into business.

He says that veterans can successfully transition to civilian life so long as they're able to leverage their connections in the civilian world, especially among fellow ex-military personnel who are in a position to help them.

"Just reach out to someone who's also a vet  — who's already been successful and made that transition and learn from them," says Gray.

SEE ALSO: How an American pilot survived a 6-on-1 dogfight during the Vietnam War

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Even as an undergraduate, Jonathan Yi knew he wanted a sense of adventure in life that a normal office job could never provide.

"I want/wanted a career where I could make a difference in my community," Yi told Business Insider through email. "I knew I wanted to do law enforcement at some point, and was strongly considering other areas, such as joining the LAPD or NYPD, for example. Ultimately, I decided that I wanted to become a prosecutor because I felt like that was where I could best be utilized."

This drive for an exemplary life, along with a thirst for adventure, coalesced into a mission to join the military as Yi watched the events of September 11 unfold on television in front of him. 

"September 11 obviously had an impact on me, and I remember watching it unfold while I was home in San Diego," Yi said. "I was in undergraduate school when it occurred ... and I felt unfulfilled or unsatisfied. The idea of being in an office environment, at a desk all day, scared me. I didn’t want to look back in 20 or 30 years and regret not joining the military."

Yi is the first member in his family to have served in the military, though his parents, who emigrated from Korea, have positive memories of the US military dating back to the Korean War.

"[T]he night before my first deployment, my mom would tell me how when she was a little girl, she would wave to the American troops as they drove by," Yi said. "Flash forward a few weeks later, I was doing the same thing – waving to Iraqi children as our convoy thundered by."

The Next Generation

In an effort to balance both his parents' wishes for him to finish school and his own dreams, Yi waited until he graduated from University of California, San Diego with a BA in Psychology to enlist with the Marine Corps in 2006. Eager for adventure and a desire to serve his country almost immediately, Yi took the first posting available: communications.

"I remembered why I entered the military as communications, despite my lack of interest — the communications fields has a high demand in the military, so that was the fastest occupation I could pick," Yi said. "I basically had one month between meeting my recruiter and getting on the bus to [Marine Corps Recruit Depot] San Diego."

This drive to serve led to Yi's serving two tours in Iraq, the first in 2007 and the second in 2008 to 2009. During that time, he served in the Route Clearance Platoon. Route clearance was a critical role for US forces in Iraq, as personnel were responsible for finding and rendering inert Improvised Explosive Devices before they could harm coalition forces or Iraqi civilians.

"During deployment," Yi said, "I was the field radio operator for a route clearance platoon, so my duties included setting up both short-range and long-range communications between our convoy unit and with friendly bases throughout our AO (area of operations).

During Yi's second deployment, he took on the additional responsibility of being a squad leader of the platoon's support squad. 

"Together," said Yi, "we were responsible for making sure that any missions that we were sent on were operationally feasible." 

Two and a half years into Yi's enlistment, his dedication and hard work led to his promotion to the rank of sergeant. In this role, he became responsible for the professional and personal development of the Marines serving below him.

"The idea of 'git 'r done' is something that's popularized in USMC culture," Yi said. "Instead of coming up with excuses, or reasons why you cannot do something, don't bother your supervisor with reasons 'why not,' just tell him when the mission is accomplished."

Lessons For Law School

When Yi left active duty in January 2010, he didn't see any immediate use of his military skills — "There aren’t that many MRAPs to drive, or military radios to set up, or IEDs to detect and disarm," he said — but he got a lot out of the attitude he learned in the Marines.

That attitude helped out when he attended St. John's Law School in Jamaica, Queens. 

"It was difficult for me to listen to fellow students during law school complaining about how much reading they have to do, or how they have no time, or really any sort of whining in general, when the military mentality is to just grit your teeth and bear down," Yi said. 

Today, Yi has a coveted position as an assistant district attorney at the Appeals Bureau at the Queen's County District Attorney's Office. He says his time in the military is still paying off.

"[T]he Marine Corps has these “leadership traits” that they ingrain into you, and I think and try to apply those on a daily basis. One of the most influential ones is 'Know yourself and seek self-improvement.' ... [T]he military taught me that instead of just focusing on my strengths, I should also be trying to shore up my weaknesses."

SEE ALSO: This guy put his finance PhD on hold to become a marine

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The Marine Corps turns 239 years-old today.

On November 10, 1775, the Continental Congress adopted a resolution to create a Marine force composed of two battalions.

Since then, the Marines have been “from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli” and many other places as well.

You probably know that the Marine Corps’ motto is Semper Fidelis, or Semper Fi for short. It means “always faithful” in Latin, and it signifies a Marine’s loyalty both to the Corps and to the United States.

What you may not know is that Semper Fi wasn’t the Corps’ motto until 1883. During its first century of existence, the Corps had a few unofficial mottos. These included “to the shores of Tripoli,” which commemorates the Marines’ service in the First Barbary War, Fortitudine (meaning “with courage”), and Per Mare, Per Terram (“by sea and by land”), which the Marines borrowed from the British Royal Marines.

No Marine has ever become president, but several have made it in politics.

Secretaries of State James A. Baker and George P. Shultz and Secretary of the Treasury Donald Regan all served in the Marine Corps. Senator John Glenn, who first gained fame as an astronaut) was also a Marine.

Several baseball hall-of-famers are veterans of the Corps, including Rod Carew, Roberto Clemente, Eddie Collins, Bill Veeck, and Ted Williams. Marines who made it in Hollywood include Harvey Keitel, Lee Marvin, Steve McQueen, and George C. Scott. Comedians Drew Carey and Rob Riggle were Marines, as was the late, great Jonathan Winters. Several famous musicians served in the Corps, including country legend George Jones, hip-hop artist Shaggy, and “The March King,” John Philip Sousa.

The Marine Corps is the smallest of the four US armed services in the Department of Defense, with roughly 190,000 active-duty personnel, deployed in the Pacific, South America, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. To put that in perspective, the US Army is about two and a half times larger with roughly 490,000 troops.

But compared to most of the world’s militaries the Marine Corps is a giant. Countries that have armies smaller than the US Marine Corps include France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Japan.

Want to learn more about the Marine Corps? I asked Col. Stephen Liszewski, one of five active-duty US military officers spending the year as part of CFR’s Studies Program, to recommend a few books worth reading. Here are five books he recommends, with his brief summaries:

• Krulak, Victor H. First to Fight: An Inside View of the U. S. Marine Corps (1984). Lt. Gen. Krulak writes that “This book, therefore, is an effort to set down what I perceive to be the qualities that have caused the Marine Corps to survive and flourish.”
• Pressfield, Stephen. The Warrior Ethos (2011). Pressfield served as a Marine after graduating from Duke University in 1965. This book captures the essence of the ethos we strive to teach to our Marines.
• Russ, Martin. Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950 (1999). Russ tells the story of the First Marine Division and the Chosin Reservoir campaign in 1950 during the Korean War. The 12,000 Marines and sailors of the First Marine Division found themselves surrounded by 60,000 Chinese in the frozen mountains of Korea. The First Marine Division fought its way out of this death trap, taking out their dead, wounded, and equipment while facing relentless Chinese attacks. An incredible story of courage and warfighting skill.
• Sledge, E.B. With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa (1981). The Pacific theater of World War II was the crucible that made the Marine Corps the famed fighting force that is known around the world. The author, E. B. Sledge, was a private first class with Company K, Third Battalion, Fifth Marines, First Marine Division, who fought in and survived the battles of Peleliu and Okinawa. This book tells the story of Sledge and his fellow Marines in a deeply personal way that highlights the human dimension of the war in the Pacific.
• Webb, James. Fields of Fire (1978). A novel about young men from different worlds plunged into jungle warfare as U.S. Marines in the An Hoa Basin of Vietnam in 1969. This book is a classic story of men under fire and combat leadership.

Col. Liszewski also recommends the HBO mini-series The Pacific (2010), which tells the stories of three marines, John Basilone, E.B. Sledge, and Robert Leckie, on the Pacific front during World War II. The show is based true stories, drawing on Sledge’s With the Old Breed, as well as Leckie’s Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific (1957).

If you want to know what all Marines are required to read, the Marine Corps has posted its reading list online. Marines.com also has a great timeline of the history of the Marines.

SEE ALSO: The Marine mentality got this man the job of his dreams

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Anton Sattler says he could not have made his award-winning CHOSIN documentary or its spin-off graphic novels without what he learned in the Marine Corps.

The Marines taught him how to thrive under stress with limited resources — and how to make order out of chaos.

"Filmmaking is very much that," Sattler told Business Insider. "You need to be able to make quick decisions, especially while making a documentary. You need to be able to make changes and manage the chaos to get the job done." 

In the Marines he learned of a story so powerful that he felt compelled to tell it to a wider audience: the 1950 Chosin Reservoir Campaign, in which 15,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines were surrounded by 120,000 Chinese soldiers in Korea. They fought their way 78 miles to the sea, and rescued 98,000 refugees in the process. 

"If you aren't into the Marine Corps or aren't a military history buff it's not really well known," Sattler said. For the Marine Corps, though, the Chosin campaign is the stuff of legend. This sense of tradition has always played a large part in Sattler's life.

Sattler graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2002 with a B.A. in film studies and English. Driven by a sense of duty, he immediately enlisted with the Marines. 

"I have a pretty long history of military service in my family. They've served in every military conflict since pretty much the turn of the last century, so after 9/11 it felt like my time to enlist," he said.

Sattler served two tours in Iraq, first as an infantry platoon commander in Al Qa'im and then as a company executive officer in Ramadi. Once he returned to America, Sattler served as an operations officer on recruiting duty in Baltimore. After six years of active duty, Anton transferred to the reserves with a dream of breaking into the film industry.

"I left the Marines in 2008, moved to New York, had a film degree, and I knew I wanted to make movies," he said.

Through a mutual friend, Sattler met fellow Marine Corps veteran Brian Iglesias, who had also served in Ramadi and was interested in making films. They joined together to form Veterans Expeditionary Media. 

"I walked out of the military with enough money to survive for a year, in one of the most expensive cities in the world, and I cashed it all in to make a movie," Sattler said.

To put together their documentary, CHOSIN, Sattler and Iglesias traveled across the country and interviewed 186 veterans in 27 cities across 14 states. Along this journey the overwhelming kindness of the veterans' families reinforced the idea that familial-type bonds percolate through the military, even after active service is over.

"You're not alone," Sattler said. "You have an extended family of people in the military, or families of people who served in the military, who are happy to help you."

CHOSIN went on to win best documentary at the 2010 GI Film Festival. It has spawned two graphic novels, Chosin: Hold the Line and Chosin: To the Sea. An animated short film, CHOSIN: Baptized by Fire, is due to be released in May 2014.

After CHOSIN premiered in 2010, Sattler decided to return to school for a degree in marketing. He is set to graduate from Baruch College in New York in May 2014.

"Marketing for me seems like a weird arc, but for me it's where creativity and business meet," Sattler said. "Making the film helped me learn how to wear both hats."

Below is a trailer for CHOSIN: 

CHOSIN will be making its cable premier this Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, on the American Heroes Channel at 9pm/8pm Central Time. 

SEE ALSO: 5 Keys To Success That An Entrepreneur Learned In The Marines

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Every small-town tough guy thinks he'd never take treatment like this.

Then when they get down to Parris Island, that small-town tough guy quickly realizes: You will take treatment like this and like it.

Welcome to a behind-the-scenes look at Marine Corps recruit training. Drill Instructors are the thing of legend — I remember, when they finally let us sleep for the first time, about 50 truly harrowing hours from the time we arrived, and those lights shut out, each of us in our racks, I heard a decent handful of grown men crying for their mothers.

I'm not even joking.

Like I said, the thing of legend. These guys spend 13 weeks crushing every undisciplined aspect of a recruit's body into dust.

Their faces are priceless, and at times it takes everything you've got not to laugh.

Showing emotion is strictly forbidden though — Marines call this 'bearing,' and they are regularly graded on it.

The job of a US Marine means much more than knowing how to patrol and shoot a rifle.

The Corps, which celebrates its 239th anniversary on Nov. 10, wants troops who can think clearly under fire and make calm and intelligent decisions.

So it comes as no surprise that the Corps' top officer — a four-star general known as the Commandant — publishes a list of books that Marines of all ranks have to learn from.

The books cover a range of topics, from the warfighting techniques discussed in "Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 1: Warfighting" to leadership in "Battlefield Leadership." Even the anti-war novel "All Quiet on the Western Front" makes the list.

The Corps has led a recent push for Marines to pick up a book from the always-expanding list, of which you can see in full here. We picked out 12 of our favorites.

This post was originally written by David M. Brooks.

"The Red Badge Of Courage" by Stephen Crane

"The Red Badge Of Courage" is considered a classic of American literature.

This book is recommended for new recruits. It follows a bravado-filled enlisted man who flees in cowardice during the Civil War.

War is easy to romanticize until you're in the middle of it, as Crane's work makes clear. And while the battle scenes in the book still receive high praise for their brutal realism, the author never experienced war firsthand.

Buy it here >

"Making The Corps" by Tom Ricks

In "Making The Corps," journalist Tom Ricks follows a platoon of recruits through the rigorous training of Marine Corps boot camp. Many Marine recruits are fresh out of high school, and this book chronicles the process that transforms young men and women from civilians into Marines.

This book is recommended for midshipmen and officer candidates whose initial training is different from the enlisted Marines they hope to one day lead. If you've ever wondered what life is like in a Marine Corps boot camp, this book gives one of the best accounts.

Buy it here >

"Blink: The Power Of Thinking Without Thinking" by Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink" is one of two books by the author on the Commandant's reading list ("Outliers" is the other). Military leaders are often required to make quick decisions with limited information and "Blink" addresses the ability of the mind to make snap decisions as well as the influences that corrupt the decision-making process.

"Blink" also has a fascinating chapter on the Millennium Challenge 2002 exercise where the military brought Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper out of retirement to lead enemy forces in a wargame against the United States. As the book notes, Van Riper thought outside the box in countering his US military foe and obliterated their forces in the exercise.

Van Riper later charged leaders with "rigging" the game and taking away his decision-making power.

Buy it here >

Temperatures during the Korean War’s decisive battle at the Chosin Reservoir in late 1950 were as low as negative 35 degrees Fahrenheit. The terrain was more rugged than most American troops had ever seen.

Allied forces were outnumbered and encircled. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things,” the then commander of the 1st Marine Regiment Col. Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller famously said.

The Marines took heavy losses during that battle, primarily due to the elements and otherwise treacherous conditions.

The lessons learned at the Chosin Reservoir led to the inception of what is today known as the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center, in 1951. It's located in an isolated 46,000-acre tract deep inside Toiyabe National Forest in northern California.

Nestled in a valley between rugged mountain ranges in California’s Sierra Nevada, MWTC all but mirrors conditions Marines faced on that frozen battlefield decades ago. Today it is the premier training ground for Marines heading into mountainous, high altitude, and or cold weather environments, like the site of the Corps' weapons stocks in Norway— or, until recently, the alpine regions of Afghanistan.

Business Insider visited the Marine Corps premiere facility for preparing its soldiers for the rigors of alpine warfare. Located high in California's Sierra Nevada, not far from Yosemite National Park, it is one of the Corps' most unique installations — set amid spectacular natural beauty.  

Marines at MWTC — founded in 1951, near the height of the Korean War — learn skills like mountain survival, assault climbing, and scout skiing to name just a few.

The MWTC is just to the north of Yosemite National Park, high in the Sierra Nevada ...

Here's an overhead view of the Center ...

"Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima"— the black and white photo depicting five Marines and a Navy corpsman planting a US flag after a bloody battle for the island — may be the Second World War's most iconic photo.

Fifty years after its capture, the Associated Press wrote that it may be the world's most widely reproduced.

A Twitter account dedicated to sharing historical photos recently shared the photograph along with the names and status of its subjects.

The men who raised the flag on Iwo Jima in Joe Rosenthal's iconic photo from 1945. pic.twitter.com/Dk0DPI6VIf

— ClassicPics (@History_Pics) November 14, 2014

Though the image is one of triumph, it was taken just days into a battle that would last more than a month.

Half of the six soldiers depicted died — among 6,821 Americans — on the very same island they claimed as part of the US' island-hopping strategy of claiming the Pacific theater; Franklin Sousley, Michael Strank, and Harlon Block all left their lives in Iwo Jima.

The longest-lived was John Bradley, the only non-Marine, who died in 1994. The AP photographer behind the image, Joe Rosenthal, died in 2006. He'd been too nearsighted for military service, but had an eye for a photograph that would earn him a Pulitzer Prize the year it was taken.

It's worth noting that the tweeted photo contains an error. For a time it was thought that the soldier on the far right was Henry Hanson (he, too, would die on Iwo Jima). The sixth man was in fact Harlon Block.

SEE ALSO: We spoke to 2 veterans who served in World War II as teenagers — and here's what they remember most

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Phil Klay's "Redeployment," a debut collection of searching, satiric and often agonized stories by an Iraq war veteran, has won the National Book Award for fiction.

Klay was chosen Wednesday night over such high-profile finalists as Marilynne Robinson's "Lila" and Emily St. John Mandel's "Station Eleven."

His book was the first debut release to win in fiction since Julia Glass' "The Three Junes" in 2002, the first story collection to win since Andrea Barrett's "Ship Fever" in 1996 and the first fiction win for an Iraq veteran.

Clearly surprised and moved, the 31-year-old Klay — among the youngest fiction winners ever — spoke of his work as an essential way to understand and communicate his 13 months in Iraq and the adjustment back home.

"War's too strange to be processed alone," he said, thanking readers who "decided to join the conversation."

The nonfiction prize went to Evan Osnos for his book on modern China, "Age of Ambition." Former U.S. poet laureate Louise Glueck's "Faithful and Virtuous Night" won for poetry, and Jacqueline Woodson's "Brown Girl Dreaming" won for young people's literature.

All five fiction nominees had grim stories to tell.

The books were set everywhere from Beirut to Berlin to Iowa and looked to upheavals past, present and future. Anthony Doerr's "All the Light We Cannot See" alternates chapters about a blind French girl and a Nazi recruit during World War II. Mandel's "Station Eleven" imagines a future decimated by disease. "Lila" follows the life of an itinerant young woman who becomes an elderly Iowa preacher's wife. In Rabih Alameddine's "An Unnecessary Woman," an elderly Beirut resident reflects on the devastation of her native country and on the books that made life at least bearable.

"War, war, war," was how fiction judge Geraldine Brooks summed up the finalists. But they also were stories of humor, hope and "the amazing power of art to elevate our spirits," she said.

The winners of nonfiction and young people's literature both cited ties to the past in their acceptance speeches. Osnos is the son of longtime publisher Peter Osnos and he said his decision to write a book made him understand what "George W. Bush must feel like."

Woodson's book reflects on growing up during the civil rights era, and she urged the audience to "talk to our old people before they become ancestors" and the chance to learn their stories is lost.

Glueck praised her fellow nominees, saying her work would not be possible without their work, which had "astonished" and "moved" her.

The evening started with honorary prizes being presented to literary advocate Kyle Zimmer and to science fiction-fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin, both of whom championed the role of books in a free society. Le Guin attacked a recurring villain in publishing, Amazon.com, as a cold-hearted "profiteer" and praised fantasy writers for their ability to go beyond documenting the present and imagine the future.

"Any human power can be changed by human beings," she said, noting that capitalism may prove no more invincible than "the divine right of kings."

The awards, in their 65th year and presented by the nonprofit National Book Foundation, were announced at a Manhattan ceremony hosted by author Daniel Handler of Lemony Snicket fame.

Winners in competitive categories each received $10,000.

A total of 1,425 books were submitted for the awards, with finalists chosen by five-member panels in each category that included writers, booksellers and other members of the literary community.

SEE ALSO: 10 works of fiction every US service member should read

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The U.S. military is the largest, most powerful force in the world. After two wars over the last ten years, it's clear that the U.S. has had plenty of time and practice to keep our forces battle-tested.

Combat troops are scheduled to leave Afghanistan in 2014, effectively marking the end of the war. President Obama has pledged that all US troops will be out of the country by 2016. However, Marines, Army, and Navy continue to train and stay battle ready. 

The following night photos, drawn from the U.S. Marines, Army, Air Force, and Navy show just how cutting-edge our military has become.

Inspired by similar images posted by Foreign Policy, we have prepared our own gallery including a few more exclusively from military photographers.

A Marine Special Operations Team member fires a M240B machine gun during night fire sustainment training in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

U.S. Marines with Lima Battery, 3rd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, fire M777A2 Lightweight Howitzers during exercise Steel Knight in California.

Marines participate in an external load lifting exercise with a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter.

When testing new military technology, there are always risks for the operators.

Test pilots suffered appalling death rates in the early days of jet planes, and the MV-22 Osprey withstood a series of fatal mishaps during its development, including 19 dead Marines in a single accident in 2000.

But the string of misfortunes that befell the Confederacy during its attempts to build a practical submarine show just how far safety standards can go out the window during wartime.

On a bone-chilling cold night in 1864 just outside Charleston Harbor during the Civil War, one of the largest ships in the Union Navy was conducting the interminable patrolling involved in maintaining a blockade.

The USS Housatonic, a 1,260-ton, 11-gun sloop, had been tasked with blocking Charleston’s harbor and occasionally bombarding shore targets for over a year.

What was usually the most monotonous of duties quickly took a historic turn when the watch officer spotted a strange low-floating object approaching the Housatonic from the shore. After initial confusion in the dark over what the object was, the look-out sounded the alarm and the sloop sprang into belated action.

The world’s first successful attack against a warship by a combat submarine, the CSS H.L. Hunley, was underway.

A South Desperate To Break The Blockade

From the outbreak of the Civil War, all Southern ports were blockaded under Gen. Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan, which sought to both choke off Southern trade and eventually split the South in two through control of the Mississippi River.

The squeeze of the blockade on the Southern economy was acute, and led to the development of Confederate weapons designed to break through the Union fleet. The famous clash between the Confederate ironclad Merrimack with the Union Monitor at the Battle of Hampton Roads was part of the Confederate effort to break the Union stranglehold over Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay.

The clash was the first time fully armored warships faced each other in battle, and though the results were indecisive, they marked a major change in naval strategy across the Western world.

But other innovations in naval technology were in the offing such as the submarine, an idea that dated back at least as far as Leonardo Da Vinci.

If At First You Don’t Succeed ...

The idea of using submersible craft to take out surface ships was not a new one.

During the American Revolution, Yale undergraduate David Bushnell used a tiny barrel-like, one-man contraption with a small rudder and a handle-powered screw in several attempts to attack British ships with time bombs. But every attempt failed: Either the current foiled the assault, or the primitive bombs failed to detonate.

It wasn’t until the Civil War that relatively effective, human-powered designs came about. The USS Alligator, designed by the Frenchman Brutus de Villeroi, was purchased by the Union.

Originally tasked to destroy the Merrimack, which became unnecessary with the ironclad’s destruction, it eventually sank in bad weather while being towed for an attack on Charleston.

The first submarine to ever successfully carry out an attack was left to the Confederate Hunley.

Horace L. Hunley, the namesake of the submarine, had a varied career as a lawyer, planter, Louisiana state legislator and New Orleans businessman up to the start of the war.

In 1861, he joined forces with engineers James R. McClintock and Baxter Watson to build the Confederacy’s first three submarines: the Pioneer, American Diver, and the Hunley.

The first two designs were lost before being deployed, with the Pioneer being scuttled to avoid Union capture and the American Diver sinking in bad weather. The Hunley was the team’s third and final attempt.

Fabricated from a steam boiler, the Hunley was 40 feet long and powered by seven men turning a hand crank, with an officer as pilot. The boat was incredibly cramped, with a hull height of little more than four feet and hatches so narrow they made escape difficult. Ballast pumps were all hand operated, and the dive controls were primitive at best.

After a promising test using a towed torpedo to spectacularly destroy a target barge, the Hunley was swiftly shipped to Charleston, which was under tight blockade and regular bombardment. The submarine was seized by the Confederate garrison from its private owners and crewed by the military, though Hunley and his partners stayed on as advisors.

The haste to deploy the submarine led to several tragedies.

During a trial run, the Hunley sank when the skipper accidentally hit the dive controls with the hatches still open, and five men lost their lives. Not to be deterred, the boat was raised and testing began again.

When the usual skipper, Lt. George Dixon, was absent on leave after completing several successful dives, Hunley himself took the sub for a practice run. The submarine submerged and did not resurface, possibly due to yet another open hatch.

Confederate Gen. P.G.T Beauregard wrote in the aftermath: “When the boat was discovered, raised and opened, the spectacle was indescribable and ghastly; the unfortunate men were contorted into all kinds of horrible attitudes.”

Hunley had been killed by his own creation.

Beauregard, horrified by the accident, was at first reluctant to continue the submarine program, but Dixon convinced him otherwise. “After this tragedy I refused to permit the boat to be used again; but Lieutenant Dixon, a brave and determined man, having returned to Charleston, applied to me for authority to use it against the Federal steam sloop-of-war Housatonic.”

Death From Below 

The armament was replaced with a spar torpedo mounting a 125-pound warhead. It was designed to attach itself to the side of a ship, then be detonated by a rope pulled as the submarine backed away. On Feb. 17, 1864, the Hunley launched its first and only attack against the Housatonic two and a half miles off shore of Charleston Harbor.

After the Hunley was spotted a 100 yards away by the watch officer, a frantic alarm was raised. The ship’s crew discovered they couldn’t target an object so low in the water and close to their ship with their cannon, and they slipped the anchor chain and backed the engine in an attempt to dodge the attack.

The Hunley managed to plant the torpedo against the Housatonic and began to back away for the detonation. Desperately, the deck crew started raking the retreating submarine with rifle and pistol fire, but it was too little and too late. A massive explosion rocked the Housatonic, and within five minutes the ship was completely submerged. Five of her crew died in the attack; 150 others were rescued.

What happened to the Hunley is uncertain. While many believed at the time she was sunk by her own torpedo’s explosion, it is theorized that the submarine survived the initial attack and sank for unknown reasons. An agreed upon blue light from the submarine as a signal of returning to base was seen from the shore, but the Hunley never returned.

Finding The Hunley

Many attempts to find the Hunley after its sinking were made. Renowned showman P.T. Barnum even offered a reward of $100,000 dollars to anyone who could find it.

Its location was not decisively confirmed until 1995, after writer Clive Cussler, author of many nautical-themed thrillers, spent 15 years searching for it with his organization the National Underwater Marine Agency. The submarine had been covered in silt, and it took a magnetometer to finally locate it.

After an elaborate recovery operation, the vessel was finally raised in 2000.

It was donated to the state of South Carolina, and currently resides at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center at the former Charleston Navy Yard, where it is still under study.

The Hunley was a pioneering vessel, marking the first time a submarine successfully attacked and sank an enemy ship.

The price paid in lives in its development was severe, with Horace Hunley himself falling victim to balky and primitive technology.

But the courage shown by men willing to submerge themselves again and again in little more than a floating iron coffin cannot be denied, and the determination to break the Union blockade led to one of the most innovative and intriguing episodes to emerge from the Civil War.

SEE ALSO: North Korea is in the process of developing a fleet of nuclear-capable submarines

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Philippine government prosecutors charged a detained U.S. Marine with murder Monday in the killing of a Filipino transgender that reignited an irritant between the military allies over custody of American military personnel suspected of committing crimes.

Prosecutor Emily de los Santos said there was "probable cause" that Marine Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton killed Jennifer Laude, whose former name was Jeffrey, in a motel room, where the victim's body was found in October in Olongapo city, northwest of Manila. She had apparently been drowned in a toilet bowl.

"It's murder," de los Santos told reporters after filing the non-bailable charge against the 19-year-old Pemberton before a regional court. "It was aggravated by treachery, abuse of superior strength and cruelty."

The case reignited a debate over custody of American military personnel accused of crimes. But the looming irritant between the treaty allies over Pemberton's custody was eased after Washington agreed to move him from a U.S. warship to the Philippine military's main camp in metropolitan Manila, where he remained under American custody with an outer ring of Filipino guards.

Pemberton, who has not been seen in public, would have to appear during court arraignment, de los Santos said, urging loved ones of the victim, who doubted whether the Marine was still in the country, to attend to see him for the first time.

Harry Roque, the lawyer of Laude's family, welcomed the prosecutors' ruling and angrily demanded that Pemberton be thrown into an ordinary jail.

The murder case comes as the Philippines and the United States strengthen ties with the recent signing of a defense accord that allows greater U.S. access to Philippine military camps. The accord would help Washington's bid to reassert its presence in Asia, and for Manila to deter what it calls China's aggressive moves to reinforce its claims in disputed South China Sea territories.

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Recently, the Military Times published an article about the declining morale of the armed forces. It hit a big nerve, and rightfully so.

A military with poor morale is a military that fights poorly. This should be a huge wake-up call to the senior uniformed and civilian military leadership.

NOW WATCH: The Taiwan Navy Just Unveiled A Stealth Missile Warship Dubbed The 'Carrier-Killer'

SEE ALSO: The 35 most powerful militaries in the world

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It was an unseasonably and even historically warm Christmas week for much of the US. But we're only a month into winter, and more intense weather could be just around the corner.

In extreme enough cold — like the conditions that gripped some parts of the US during last year's "polar vortex"— exposed skin can freeze in only 10 minutes. People also risk hypothermia just by going outside.

Besides desert climates, winter is the worst to endure. The US military has whole courses designed to teach its people how to survive.

Here are a few tips and some items the Marine Corps considers essential to combating the cold. They come from the Winter Survival Course Handbook, which draws reference from the UK's SAS Survival Handbook.

Here's what the Marines say to take with you if you venture deep into the cold this winter.

Key Items:

1. Water/Food: At least a few gallons of water is advisable in harsh conditions.

2. Fire-starting material: Flint, matches, or a lighter.

3. 550 Cord: This gets its name from the weight it can bear. Good for making shelters, trapping animals, and treating wounds.

4. Blankets/Poncho

5. A metal container: For boiling water. It's not safe to eat mass amounts of snow off the ground. Must be a non-petrol carrying container. Kill two birds with one stone and carry a can of beans.

6. Tape: Electrical or gorilla duct tape has near-infinite uses.

7. A knife and/or multipurpose tool: Some of these actually contain a flint.

8. First Aid kit

9. Compass

10. A mirror: For signaling. In a pinch, a makeup mirror will suffice.

11. Pocket sewing kit

These items can be packed differently for travel in a car or on foot. Obviously, one for a car can be a bit more robust.

Considering you probably won't be "caught behind enemy lines," we can dispense with the war-time survival tips and get right to more generic survival.

Essential Tips:

1. Planning: First you have to assemble your kit. If it's mobile, make sure it's kept in a water proof container or bag.

As for the first 24 hours of being lost or stuck:

2. Shelter: If you're in a car, don't leave it. If you're on foot, build a shelter, or find one: Finding shelter is the paramount consideration when stranded in extreme weather.

Hollowed-out logs can be cleaned out and enhanced. Caves work as well. Reduced living space means warmer living space. Beware of occupying animals, and consider ventilation.

Here's an example of a snow cave, dug from beneath a tree caught in a snowdrift:

3. Start a fire: And plan to maintain that fire. Dig a hole and use dry pencil-thick branches and evergreen limbs as kindling. Evergreens burn fast and hot.

Fuel should be thicker limbs that have broken off a tree — found near the ground, but not submerged in snow.

Now for the second 24 hours:

4. Find water: Nearby lakes and rivers are great but snow and ice will do. Ice is better because it has a higher water content by volume.

You can build a water generator out of three sturdy sticks, some binding, and a plastic bag, sock, or shirt:

5. Conserve food: Given that you told people where you were going, they'll be out looking for you within a day or so. Catching food in the wild is not difficult though.

550 cord (or better yet, fishing line, if any is handy) can be used for snares. Paper clips, hairpins and sewing kits all yield hasty fishing hooks.

Here's a brief how-to on building a quick snare.

And here's what to do if you aren't found after a couple of days:

6. Improve survival conditions: This doesn't just mean upgrading your shelter with new additions. It also means preparing to be seen by anyone looking for you.

Prep a platform of dry interlocking green limbs to be set ablaze at a moment's notice, and bright pieces of clothing or material could be placed in visible places.

This post is originally by Geoffrey Ingersoll.

SEE ALSO: Here's How Long You Can Stay Outside In Extreme Temperatures Before Getting Frostbite

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