QUANTICO, Va. — Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps Troy Black told a platoon of Marines sleeping in a foxhole that as bad as things are, "at least you're not in the Navy."

Black made his remarks while delivering a cargo of hot 'A'-rations to the platoon during their field training exercise near Camp Upshur. "I know it's rough sleeping out here, getting rained on, having to shit in a hole," Black said, before adding, "but at least you’re not on the USS George Washington.”

He explained that the Marines could instead be sailors assigned to an aircraft carrier stuck in a shipyard for five years, unable to sleep because of constant loud machinery, without regular access to running water, dealing with the trauma of regular suicides in the unit, and all the while being told by senior leadership how lucky they were that they weren't forward-deployed.