I really like how the marines live upto "Marine first, tradesman second"

[D-n-A]

Although Sapper school training focuses solely on combat engineering techniques, Marines don't have to be combat engineers to sign up.

"Basically most Marines in the combat arms (military occupational speciality) field can sign up for Sapper course," Dill said.

Signing up for Sapper school is an informal procedure, he added.

"Usually individual Marines call or e-mail us to see how many seats are available in the course for the Marines in their unit," Dill said.

"We had infantry and artillery Marines come in for Sapper course; we even had combat cooks attend the course," he added.

http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/marinetrng/a/marinesapper.htm

As proven in Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and Bosnia, cooks often find themselves serving up more than food in combat. Ultimately there are going to be shortages of personnel in a combat zone, according to Egesdahl, and in addition to guarding compounds while the infantry is assigned someplace else, the cooks are called upon to conduct patrols into hostile territory

These cooks all qualify with the different weapons systems and know how to deploy them in combat," Egesdahl said. "I think people sometimes forget these Marines come from grunt units. If they're needed they can serve in combat roles."

http://www.seabeecook.com/today/news/archive.01/cook0026.htm

Medal's Marines test their mettle everyday as they provide security for a portion of the perimeter of the airfield. "The whole time we've been out here, we've been sleeping in our holes," said Lance Cpl. Mel Helmi, a BLT 3/6 cook. "We sleep for four or five hours then we wake up and start filling sand bags and making other improvements to our fighting positions."

In addition to providing hot soups and beverages to coalition forces and manning their perimeter in southern Afghanistan, these Marines have also engaged the enemy in a firefight.

http://192.156.19.109/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/0/C7D87CA8061F6BB485256B480038A5F8?opendocument