From time to time, someone who used to be a Marine will loudly announce that they used to be a Marine, and then proceed to lecture you on why that credential is somehow impressive.
In this case, it was a thread under this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CO6M2HsoIA 
He then proceeded to tell us how being a Mareen Muhrean Mar...grunt, made him an expert on this.
I pointed out that having been a Marine, of itself, gave no credibility.
He replied with:
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Michael being a Marine has everything to do with anything warfare. We are the tip of the spear of the greatest war machine that has ever existed....So go back to your keyboard there warrior.....and don't say sorry, it makes you look like a little bitch. Side note, we have the technology to make our guys superpowers bulletproof cyborgs yet we still fight with weapons that existed in Vietnam 50 years. You think there would be funding for ground troops to guard against every high tech gadget when they are first released. Think of the introduction of machine guns in world war 1 trench warfare. They killed battalions of men carving them into the wall of round....asshole. | ||||
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Well, wasn't that special.
It's fake. But even if it was real, let's explain how this goes down:
THEM: "Facial recognition."
US: "All troops will now wear masks or paint their faces in geometric camo."
US: "Develop a counter drone and ECM."
US: "Hack that sucker and bring them down."
US: "Now send them back to source. Aim every one of those motherfuckers at the president of that country. I want him e-fucked to death by an orgy of a million drones."
In the meantime, if only there were some gadget our troops could wear on their heads that would slow or stop a 3 gram charge. Something made of kevlar or carbon fiber and fitted to the shape of the head...possibly with something over the eyes, so the standoff distance was too great for such a charge.
And if only there were something we could deploy that would trap those little rascals. Something made of some kind of loosely woven cloth, that we might call a "mesh."
Now onto the rest of Former Marine Boy's post: 
The machine gun is a lot older than 100 years or WWI.  And the fact that a single French general was a retard does not change the fact that both sides had the weapon, and matched others, and therefore were at a standstill for years.
As far as "The same weapons as 50 years ago," I haven't seen any F4s, M60 MBTs, or even any M60 machine guns lately.  Though it's true:  We still use aircraft, tanks and machine guns, just like we did in WWI.
The important thing here is that being a "Former Marine" is irrelevant to anything that wasn't in that Marine's MOS or duty experience.  He may know certain other things AS AN INDIVIDUAL, but being a "former Marine" has nothing to do with it.  It's a ludicrous authority to appeal to. Certainly, there are former Marines who are geniuses. Others are borderline retards. Some have served with great distinction. Others were cowards or deranged assassins.
Since Gene doesn't state he was either an RPV operator, an intel or threat analysis expert, or a War College graduate with relevant research experience, his actual experience (and since he doesn't say "Rifleman," I'm going to guess clerk or supply) means dick.
And as a currently best selling SF author, I can assure you of that.