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U.S. Africa Command will get a new Marine Corps rapid response force as part of a plan to beef up its crisis response capabilities. More Leathernecks will be at the ready after the military was unable to get timely aid to Benghazi, Libya last year, during a terror attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and members of his security detail. Gen. Carter Ham, Africom’s commander, told Congress this week about the planned new force, Stars and Stripes reported Friday.

The family of a former U.S. Marine detained in Iran on espionage charges is begging for his freedom a year after his death sentence was overturned, saying Tuesday they only recently learned he went on a month-long hunger strike and was found unconscious. Sarah Hekmati told The Associated Press that her family sent a letter to Iran's top leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, calling for the release of her 29-year-old brother, Amir. Iran's Supreme Court ordered a retrial for him last March, but that hasn't happened, and he's now been detained for 555 days. Iran accuses Amir Hekmati of...

Received from a fellow submariner. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9Eo6INrPW4

“Didn't know the Marines had to take the bolts out of their rifles for the Inaugural,” an email forwarded to Gun Rights Examiner from a United States Marine Corps source observed. “Wonder if someone can explain why [they] would be marching in the inaugural parade with no bolts in their rifles!” The email linked to a YouTube video of the 57th Presidential Inaugural Parade, embedded in this column, featuring Bravo Company Marines from the Marine Barracks Washington. Sure enough, the observation in the email is confirmed by watching the video, with screen shots provided in the photo and slide show...

MALDEN (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) — A U.S. Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan was killed in a shooting on Main Street in Malden on Tuesday afternoon. The Middlesex District Attorney's office identified the victim as 39-year-old Shawn Clark, of Saugus.

Jeff and Paige McDonald and their youngest daughter Brooke stood on the stage of the giant Barrett-Jackson auction in January, watching as bidding began on a custom 1969 Ford Bronco. Funds raised by the auction would help the Armed Forces Foundation, a group that provides services to veterans, particularly those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Paige McDonald recalls the moment as “bittersweet.” She says she was pleased that so many were showing such strong support for America’s veterans. But she says she couldn’t stop thinking of the reason her family had come to Scottsdale, Ariz., for the auction: her...

Police now say that the former marine accused of killing the country’s best sniper and another man at a shooting range now says that he threatened to kill himself and his family back in September and he was hospitalized. A police report from the September 2 incident states they were alerted to the threat when they received a call about 25-year-old Eddie Ray Routh, who is now in jail on two murder counts for allegedly killing Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield. ‘Eddie stated he was hurting and that his family does not understand what he has been through,’ the police...

A Marine Corps survey shows 17 percent of male Marine respondents say they would likely leave the Corps if women move into combat positions. The survey says that number jumps to 22 percent if women are assigned involuntarily to those jobs. Results of the survey of 53,000 Marines were released to The Associated Press on Friday.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, announced last week that the Pentagon was lifting the policy that had barred women from specific combat roles. But Marines who have served in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan – myself included – worry that the decision did not take the opinions of infantrymen into account. Being an infantryman isn’t just about uncomfortable living situations. It’s kill or be killed, blood, entrails and fear. We are a brotherhood; a collection of ragtag men who hunt and kill the enemy and travel to...

Jan. 21, 2013: Two teenagers are accused of spray-painting walls and furniture inside a 93-year-old World War II veteran's home, and police say that paint helped them identify their suspects. Phillip Mena reports.

Suspect had reported to nearby MCRD just three days earlierSource: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Man-Darts-Across-San-Diego-Airport-Runway-187287931.html#ixzz2IHTSRRCm A U.S. Marine recruit faces felony and misdemeanor chargers for jumping over two barbed-wire fences and running on the tarmac of San Diego’s airport. San Diego harbor police got word from the Lindbergh Tower that a man had run on the tarmac by Gate 6 in Terminal 1 at 6:20 a.m. Thursday. He attempted to hide in a service vehicle that belongs to the janitorial department. "He had quite a few cuts on him and at the time that we found him he had actually taken his pants off...

When U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said she would introduce legislation to place a ban on assault weapons, former U.S. Marine Cpl. Joshua Boston did not sit idly by. Instead he penned an open letter to the Senator that has gone viral gaining mass attention. In response to Boston’s letter, Feinstein released this statement:...

MEXICO CITY -- Only days after U.S. Marine veteran Jon Hammar was thrown into a Mexican prison for carrying an antique shotgun into the country, gangsters in the jail warned him of his likely fate – beheading.

A former U.S. Marine is expected to be released from a prison in Matamoros on Friday. Jon Hammar has been held at CEDES prison since August, when he crossed bridge with a hunting rifle. He was taken into custody and charged with carrying an illegal weapon. According to his family, Hammar was told that he could bring the gun into Mexico if it was registered for and a fee was paid. His defense lawyer said it was determined that there was no intent to commit a crime in this case. Over the past five months, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson has...

DEVELOPING: Jon Hammar, the U.S. Marine who has been in a Mexican prison since August on a dubious weapon charge is being released today, his father confirmed to FoxNews.com. Jon Hammar Sr. said during a flight layover in Houston that he was on his way to get his son, after he and his wife Olivia received a call Thursday night from their attorney, Eddie Varon-Levy telling them their son was going to be released.

Any hope that Jon Hammar, the Marine imprisoned in Mexico on a disputed gun charge, might be freed in time for Christmas has apparently been dashed by a terse letter a top Mexican diplomat sent to Hammar’s congresswoman.

Just watched O'Reilly interview the parents of Jon Hammar, the Marine, detained in Mexico for a bogus gun charge. O'Reilly says he's going to give Obama and the State Department 3 days to get this done. Otherwise he says there will be "hell to pay"

On Dec. 13, 2011, Marine Lance Cpl. Christian Brown was leading his squad on a foot patrol in Afghanistan’s Helmand province when he stepped on an explosive device that blew off both his legs, one above the knee, the other below his hip. He also lost part of his right index finger. Last Sunday, almost exactly a year since those grievous injuries forced him to learn to walk on two successive pairs of prosthetic legs, Brown was “humiliated” to the point of tears on a Delta flight from Atlanta to Washington after being clumsily wheeled to the back row of...

A Marine who was killed after his unconscious body fell on a live grenade during the Iraq War will not receive a posthumous Medal of Honor, it was revealed today. Sgt Rafael Peralta was 25 years old when he fell on the grenade in Fallouja, Iraq in 2004. Though he perished, his body shielded other American soldiers and saved the lives of other Marines. The Pentagon told Rep. Duncan Hunter it supports the decision of former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who honored Sgt. Rafael Peralta with the Navy Cross instead of the military´s highest honor.

MEXICO CITY — As a U.S. Marine, Jon Hammar endured nightmarish tension patrolling the war-ravaged streets of Iraq’s Fallujah. When he came home, the brutality of war still pinging around his brain, mental peace proved elusive. Surfing provided the only respite. “The only time Hammar is not losing his mind is when he’s on the water,” said a fellow Marine veteran, Ian McDonough. snip--- But Mexican prosecutors who looked at the disassembled relic in the 1972 Winnebago motor home dismissed the U.S. registration papers Hammar had filled out. They charged him with a serious crime: possession of a weapon restricted...