clipped Marines??

[beeja]

Hello,

Pls help, the content is:

She couldn't help but enjoy being squired through embassy security. Everything first rate: clipped Marines, bulletproof glass, intercoms. And outside, a line of visa seekers winding off around the block.

What are "the clipped Marines" here?

Thank you!

[David L.]

Referring to their cropped haircuts.

[BobK]

I think the fairly recent film 'Jarhead' was about Marines - or at least servicemen of some kind with that sort of haircut.

b

PS Rambling again: This word is quite like the French tête now I come to think of it - another idiomatic use of a domestic utensil name (the Latin testa) to refer to the head of a foreign soldier. So many words, so little time....

[Ouisch]

Supposedly Marines got the nickname "jarhead" because their extremely close-cropped haircuts exposed the backs of their necks, so the folds that everyone has there were exposed. The lines in their necks made them look somewhat like the top of a Mason jar without the lid, and a nickname was born.