• 27
    watchers
  • 391
    plays
  • 262
    collected

Mail Call

Season 3 2003

  • 2003-07-07T02:00:00Z on History
  • 30m
  • 7h (14 episodes)
  • United States
  • English
  • Documentary
Mail Call was a television program that appeared on the History Channel and hosted by R. Lee Ermey, a retired United States Marine Corps Staff Sergeant,. The show debuted on August 4, 2002 as part of the 'Fighting Fridays' lineup. Most episodes were 30 minutes, but from 2007 through the show's end in 2009 some episodes were 60 minutes. During each episode, Ermey read and answered questions submitted by viewers regarding weapons and equipment used by all branches of the U.S. military now or in the past, as well as by other armed forces in history. Ermey often took his viewers on location to military training areas to film demonstrations. When not on location, Ermey broadcast from a set resembling a military outpost, including a tent, a Jeep, and various other pieces of military gear which changed throughout the series. At times, he would also have a bulldog - usually symbolic of Marines, especially drill instructors - on his show as well. Comic relief was provided as Ermey inflicted DI-style verbal abuse on his viewers or tests the effects of various weapons on watermelons and paint cans, as well as occasional appearances of "Mini-Lee", an action figure styled in Ermey's likeness, often seen berating a luckless G.I. Joe figurine. His demeanor as host was similar to the character "Gunnery Sergeant Hartman" portrayed by Ermey in the Stanley Kubrick film Full Metal Jacket, though this attitude was shown only towards his viewers and not the military special guests. Older viewers might compare him to Sergeant Vincent Carter, a character in the Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. television program.

14 episodes

Season Premiere

2003-07-07T02:00:00Z

3x01 Live from the Gulf

Season Premiere

3x01 Live from the Gulf

  • 2003-07-07T02:00:00Z30m

This episode was live in Kuwait. Gunnery Sgt. Ermey talked to the troops and answered questions.

Helicopters; hazing ritual; building runways in the Pacific; the G-2; battle tank

Rifles; jet-assisted take-off; freefall parachute team; barrage balloons; military jargon.

Rocket-propelled artillery; artillery gun that fires the largest caliber shell; tents; tomahawks; slings.

Military rifles in Vietnam; booby traps; the Ravens; the Wild Weasels; river-patrol boats; the Green Berets.

Rifle; blowgun; floating concrete caissons bridge the English Channel; weapons of the French resistance; improvements in front-line medical care; origins of the word "berserk."

Snipers; hand signals; Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh Trail; motorcycles; tanks; the C-119 Flying Boxcar.

Armored scout cars; water-cooled machine guns; sleeping bag; sleeping on the battlefield; German U-boats; Navy ship invisible to radar.

Anti-personnel mine; 16th-century Scottish sword; early nuclear-powered submarine; how naval vessels resupply at sea; the Patriot missile; cadence songs.

World War II M2A2 half-track; Snow Train; strange weapons used by the Allies in World War II; Navy hydrofoils; Air Force combat controllers; Marine Corps gunnery sergeants.

Training of military pilots; flak; the Doolittle Raid; Sleeping Beauty submarine; radios; foxhole radio.

F-15 Eagle; single-man vertical flight machine; howitzer firing both conventional and nuclear warheads; Army-controlled missile programs; submachine guns; measuring bullets.

Avenger Air Defense System; Stinger and Red Eye missiles; military firefighters; the Triple Nickels; Kiowa scout helicopter; "Kilroy Was Here."

Attack helicopter; AIM Sidewinders; transport plane; military police; flintlock pistols.

Loading...