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MARINE CORPS AIR STATION YUMA, Ariz., March 12, 2010 – The Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon performs around the world, demonstrating discipline, precision and dedication to tradition. As drill master for the Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon, Cpl. Robert Dominguez is tasked with memorizing, teaching and passing down the platoon’s unique drill manual, creating a new drill sequence for the platoon to perform each year, and selecting new members and the 24 Marines who will drill during performances. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Austin Hazard  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. But who chooses these men? Who teaches...

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are running out of fighters. Heavy wear and tear over nearly a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan has depleted the two services’ combined fighter force. Purchases of new planes have been delayed by controversial planning decisions. As a result, U.S. maritime forces operate at elevated risk. Robotic systems could help mitigate this risk, but the Navy has resisted adopting pilot-less aircraft.The U.S. Navy also has shortage of fighters, primarily F/A-18C/Ds. Together, both services are currently short by around 50 aircraft, but this so-called “fighter gap” could deepen to an estimated 125 aircraft...

There was a shooting just outside the Pentagon today, at a security checkpoint. Two cops were injured; breaking reports say the suspect, J. Patrick Bedell, has died. The suspect, believed to be a U.S. citizen, walked up to a security checkpoint at the Pentagon in an apparent attempt to get inside the massively fortified Defense Department headquarters, at about 6:40 p.m. local time. “He just reached in his pocket, pulled out a gun and started shooting” at point-blank range, Keevill said. “He walked up very cool. He had no real emotion on his face.” The Pentagon officers returned fire with...

WASHINGTON -- He had to give them something. During his first year in office, Barack Obama made the rounds of his constituents and tried to appease them all. For the pacifists, there were promises to get out of Iraq. Self-loathing Americans were given a global kowtowing presidential apology tour. The Marxist-librarian constituency was assuaged when he accepted communist literature from Hugo Chavez. To satisfy Rodney King "can we all get along?" adherents, Mr. Obama promised to close the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. Proponents of global environmental policy, universal health care, nationalized industry and massive government all got something....

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — "You hear your buddies go down ...You close your eyes... You think about everything ... You hear you're the only other corpsman. What would you do?" Chief Petty Officer Jeremy K. Torrisi, a hospital corpsman with U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Special Operations Command, faced that question, June 26, 2008 in the mountains of Afghanistan during the fiercest firefight of his life. Torrisi saved the lives of four of his comrades and received the Silver Star Medal at the Court House Bay Gymnasium, Jan 21. So far, one Navy Cross, two Silver Star Medals,...

Hundreds of U.S. Marines landed on the remote island of Iwo Jima on Tuesday to prepare for the 65th anniversary of one of World War II's bloodiest and most iconic battles. The Marines flew in trucks, water and food from Washington to support Wednesday's commemorations of the 1945 battle that was a turning point in the Pacific theater. It claimed 6,821 American and 21,570 Japanese lives in 36 days of intense fighting. A drill team also arrived on the island. The commemoration was to be attended by about 1,000 people, including Marine Corps commandant Gen. James Conway, members of Japan's...

The U.S. military has been here before: fighting an enemy who wears no uniform, one who hits and runs then disappears, blending in with local villagers. It has pursued before, with overwhelming technological superiority, guerrilla fighters who improvise weapons and use the terrain to hide. The rugged mountains along the Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier, where the Taliban and al Qaeda hide, are as effective at concealment as the dense swamps and forests of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. In Vietnam, the U.S. military learned that when striking an elusive enemy, high-performance jet fighters were much more successful when they were directed by lighter,...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — "There I was ... we were moving into a location that we were suppose to check out, to see if any enemy strongholds were there. As soon as we came into the location we started taking fire on our vehicles, RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), rifle rounds, small-arms fire. They were beating on us," said Gunnery Sgt. Michael Perella as he recalled the epic battle in October 2007, which led to him receiving the Bronze Star with combat distinguishing device Nov. 25, 2009. Perella was deployed to the Helmand province, Afghanistan, as an assault team...

Bill to rename the Dept. of Navy will hit House floor in April By Drew Wheatley - 02/26/10 06:15 PM ET For the first time ever, a bill that would change the name of the Department of the Navy will be voted on as a standalone measure on the House floor. The legislation, which would rename the Department of the Navy to the Department of the Navy and Marine Corps, will be debated on the House floor in April, according to bill sponsor Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.). The measure, which has 368 co-sponsors, is expected to easily pass the lower...

The head of the US Marines said on Thursday he opposed ending the ban on gays serving openly in the military, the first top officer to break openly with President Barack Obama over the issue. General James Conway told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he disagreed with Obama's plan to repeal the ban. "My best military advice to this committee, to the (defense) secretary, and to the president would be to keep the law such as it is."

Fort Knox, KY For those of you interested in paying your respects to Lance Corporal Matt Hanson, the procession will begin at the Chaffee Gate on Friday 26, Feb at approximately 9:30 a.m. and continue on 31W until it reaches the Elizabethtown Bypass. The procession will then take the Lincoln Parkway into Hodgenville.

The Marine Corps commandant said Wednesday that the ability of U.S. troops to fight and win wars must trump other concerns as the United States considers whether to let gays serve openly in the military. In testimony before a House committee, Gen. James Conway said he supports a Pentagon assessment to determine how to lift the ban. He also suggested that civil rights ultimately would have to take a back seat if it meant tampering with the military's ability to protect the country. "That's what they have been built to do under the current construct, and I would argue that...

February 2010 “Mississippi No More” Drill Instructor School, MCRD San Diego By R. R. Keene “I wanna be a drill instructor, I want to cut off all of my hair, I wanna be a drill instructor, I’m gonna earn that Smokey Bear.”—Cadence at Drill Instructor School Tradition, discipline and the spirit of innumerable young men manifests itself in cadence that echoes across the massive grinder, off the distinctive amber arcade with its sculpted Marine Corps emblem, ramparts, courtyards and Spanish-style barracks picketed by tall palm trees. The cadence emanates from the rank and file within platoons—the collective voices of young...

The top U.S. Marine in the Pacific said on Friday that his forces needed to be based on the southern island of Okinawa for strategic reasons, as Tokyo struggles to resolve a dispute with Washington over relocating a base. The relocation of the Futenma Marine base on Okinawa is at the center of a feud between Washington and Tokyo that is eroding support for Japan's governing Democratic Party and setting its coalition partners at odds ahead of an election expected in July. "Okinawa is in the perfect place in the region," said Lieutenant General Keith Stalder, when asked about suggestions...

SCRANTON – When 19-year old Dominic Rodriguez’s mother told him Thursday afternoon that U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Larry Michael Johnson was killed earlier that day in Afghanistan he went numb. He couldn’t believe that he would never see his lifelong childhood friend again. “It is such a sad thing when I heard about it. I was bawling my eyes out when I heard about it,” Rodriguez said Saturday afternoon, noting he regrets not going to see Johnson when he came home for a visit before being deployed overseas. “I didn’t go see him because I didn’t want this to happen....

TRIANGLE, Va., Feb. 19, 2010 – Dozens of veterans of the Battle of Iwo Jima and their families gathered at the National Museum of the Marine Corps here today to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the iconic World War II battle. The battle for Iwo Jima – the first U.S. attack on Japanese soil – is memorialized worldwide by the famous Joe Rosenthal photo of five Marines and a Navy corpsman raising the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi. Three of the six later were killed in battle. “Iwo Jima was not the bloodiest or the longest battle” of World War...

Tom Stone: John Murtha forgot Semper Fi By: Tom Stone OpEd ContributorFebruary 19, 2010 In this Sept. 13, 2006, file photo, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., meets with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. Murtha, an influential critic of the Iraq War whose congressional career was shadowed by questions about his ethics, died Feb. 8. He was 77. (AP) I have waited until the burial of Rep. John Murtha, D-PA, to allow an appropriate amount of time for the grieving of his family and the accolades of his accomplishments to subside before writing to put forth what is, in my opinion,...

Due to a copyright block here at FreeRepublic, I can't post an excerpt from the Navy Times. Here is the link: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/02/marine_SOST_ammo_021510w/

WILMINGTON, N.C. – A North Carolina congressman said Thursday that he wants an investigation into reports that levels of a cancer-causing chemical in tap water at a Marine Corps base were downplayed and then omitted from official documents. Democratic Rep. Brad Miller called for the probe by his House science subcommittee Thursday — a day after The Associated Press reported on new documents that indicate massive fuel leaks at Camp Lejeune and high concentrations of benzene found in a water well there in 1984. "I am just disbelieving of their failure to act. It may have been worse than a...

A U.S. Marine from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, takes aim as he tries to protect an Afghan man and his child after Taliban fighters opened fire in the town of Marjah, in Nad Ali district, Helmand province, February 13, 2010.

The United States Marines now fighting the battle of Marja, Afghanistan are facing a most difficult mission. They are tasked with clearing the town of Taliban fighters – and they are restricted by rules of engagement not seen heretofore in the history of U.S. warfare. Commanding General Stanley McChrystal has made limiting civilian casualties a higher priority than loss of American lives. And it is impossible to tell who is the enemy in a Muslim State that still resembles the Stone Age. The Los Angeles Times coverage by Tony Perry and Laura King is here:

MARJAH, Afghanistan (AP) — Some American and Afghan troops say they're fighting the latest offensive in Afghanistan with a handicap — strict rules that routinely force them to hold their fire. Although details of the new guidelines are classified to keep insurgents from reading them, U.S. troops say the Taliban are keenly aware of the restrictions. "I understand the reason behind it, but it's so hard to fight a war like this," said Lance Cpl. Travis Anderson, 20, of Altoona, Iowa. "They're using our rules of engagement against us," he said, adding that his platoon had repeatedly seen men drop...

Troops: Strict War Rules Slow Afghan Offensive Sign in to Recommend THE ASSOCIATED PRESS February 15, 2010 MARJAH, Afghanistan (AP) -- Some American and Afghan troops say they're fighting the latest offensive in Afghanistan with a handicap -- strict rules that routinely force them to hold their fire. Although details of the new guidelines are classified to keep insurgents from reading them, U.S. troops say the Taliban are keenly aware of the restrictions. ''I understand the reason behind it, but it's so hard to fight a war like this,'' said Lance Cpl. Travis Anderson, 20, of Altoona, Iowa. ''They're using...

.S. Marines and Afghan forces airlifted over the Taliban -laid minefields into the center of Marjah town Saturday, apparently surprising the insurgents and taking strategic positions from them, according to military officials. Although billed as a major confrontation between the international coalition and Afghan forces and the Taliban , the first day of the offensive in the southern Helmand province saw only sporadic fighting. Two coalition soldiers were killed, along with about 20 insurgents. It was the biggest assault since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. The helicopter airlift into the heart of the city of 80,000 started...

On Obama's use of the word "corps"... this has been making the rounds, but I thought for those who haven't seen it, it is worth posting.

This morning at the National Day of Prayer breakfast, our illustrious "Teleprompter in Chief" revealed, once again, his complete unfamiliarity with our military community. Anyone with a reasonable education through the 6th grade knows the correct pronunciation of the basic word "corps" is "core," and therefore the word "corpsman" is pronounced "coreman." The Marine Corps is pronounced Marine Core. Yet our president, who touts his education at both Columbia and Harvard, in describing a US Navy corpsman during his speech this morning, pronounced the word "corpse-man" three separate times. It was posted on You Tube, until it was yanked. Certainly...

With tasks such as drinking the blood of a cobra and eating scorpions, you could be forgiven for thinking the latest I’m A Celebrity! series was under way. But instead of a host of D-list wannabes, these are Marines taking part in an annual war game exercise known as Cobra Gold. However, their stomach-churning antics are likely to enrage animal rights campaigners Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1249554/Im-Marine-Military-men-extreme-jungle-survival-training.html#ixzz0f9VPddLB

More than 800 U.S., Thai and South Korean marines stormed a beach Thursday with Seoul joining the annual war games for the first time. The three-week Cobra Gold exercise sends a message that the United States will have a continued presence in the Asia-Pacific region, and the military is one aspect of that presence, said Lt. Gen. Benjamin Nixon, Commander of the U.S. Army, Pacific. The core exercise, being held for the 29th time, will focus on peacekeeping operations and humanitarian and disaster responses. Nixon said South Korea's participation was exciting. "South Korea is a leader in the Asia-Pacific region,...

The actor who played the drill sergeant in “Full Metal Jacket” is coming to Washington, D.C., next week to lobby Congress to pass a long-stalled bill. R. Lee Ermey is the national spokesman for a growing grassroots effort behind legislation sponsored by Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) that would rename the Department of the Navy as the Department of the Navy and Marine Corps. Ermey, who was in the Marine Corps for 11 years, has been in over 100 movies, including “Apocalypse Now,” “Dead Man Walking” and “Leaving Las Vegas,” according to imdb.com. Over the past...

Aviators from the U.S. Marine Corps completed the integrated test phase of the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) program Jan. 5, firing five rounds against stationary and moving targets. All five shots hit their intended targets within 2 meters of the laser designator’s spot. In the final series of shots in integrated testing, five laser-guided rockets were fired from a variety of distances from a Marine AH-1W Cobra helicopter. Four of the shots were against moving targets traveling at a range of speeds, while the fifth shot was against a stationary target board. The program now moves into an...

Marine assault vehicles key to Afghan strategy As U.S. and Afghan troops prepare for an offensive in Helmand province, the Assault Breacher Vehicle - a cross between a tank and a bulldozer - is intended to conquer the terrain and roadside bombs. By Tony Perry January 31, 2010 Reporting from Camp Pendleton Weighing 70 tons, traveling up to 45 mph and possessed of a smash-mouth name, the Assault Breacher Vehicle is the Marine Corps' latest answer to a perennial problem of offensive warfare: how to push through the barriers and booby traps of an enemy's outer defenses. Over the decades,...

EULOGY & Graveside Ceremony:Doctor E. J. T. passed away on Friday January 22nd at approx 10:25 am. He passed at the Gainesville VA Hospital, under an order of DNR lawfully signed and executed by him in full awareness that he was suffering from congestive heart failure and pneumonia combined. (Note: I threw this little tribute together in the hour or so before the formal service at the Funeral Home where a VA Chaplain who’d never met dad officiated. There were a lot of folks there & The chaplain did a very good job, however). I gave the Eulogy. Eulogy: I’ve...

Republican Vaughn Ward declared his candidacy for the 1st Congressional District of Idaho Tuesday in the Rotunda of the Capitol in Boise Tuesday.

The base loudspeaker no longer wakes them up with calls for blood donors; armored trucks sit idle in neat rows. The U.S. Marines who stood at some of the bloodiest turning points of the Iraq war are packing up and leaving.

During Operation Cobra’s Anger in early December 2009 — in which 1,000 U.S. Marines and a handful of Afghan soldiers — stormed the Now Zad valley in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, the Corps hit a major milestone. It was the first time the controversial tiltrotar V-22 Osprey was used in a combat situation. The operation was conducted in keeping with coalition chief Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s counterinsurgency guidance, in which major population centers must be cleared of Taliban influence, with coalition soldiers moving in to small outposts in neighborhoods, much like the “Surge” in Iraq in 2007-2008. The assault kicked off...

The US is sending up to 3,500 soldiers and 2,200 marines to Haiti to help rescue efforts in the wake of the devastating earthquake. President Barack Obama pledged one of the biggest relief efforts in recent US history and said Haiti would "not be forgotten" in its hour of need. The search for survivors continues but rescuers lack heavy lifting equipment and many are using their bare hands. The Red Cross estimates 45,000-50,000 people are dead and up to 3m affected. BBC correspondents say the situation is increasingly desperate, with aid only trickling in. Mr Obama confirmed that some US...

Here is a brief video report saying that Navy ships loaded with "thousands of U.S. Marines" and supplies is headed to Haiti to help the people in their desperate situation following a 7.0 Earthquake that struck there on Tuesday. The Marines will reportedly assist in rescue efforts and with security. . . . (VIDEO)

I was interviewing Michael Yon on my Blog Talk Radio show, "The Jihadi Killer Hour," and we were discussing the fact that in many ways, Ramadi was the truest analogy of Afghanistan. The Iraq war hinged entirely on whether or not Ramadi could be won, as Al Qaeda needed it to control the rest of their recently established de-facto state, the Al Anbar province of Iraq. The shorthand is that we were told Ramadi, and therefor Al Anbar, and therefore Iraq, was lost, and it was time to get the hell out of what was almost literally the new Dodge,...

In this special archival footage, Gen. Peter Pace delivers remarkably moving extemporaneous speech upon receiving the Center's Keeper of the Flame Award in 2004. General Pace was a general in the United States Marine Corps who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KvDhiEGhM4

Like he has on prior trips to Oahu, President Barack Obama got in a morning game of basketball with "friends and staff", this time at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. But, Sunday's round of hoops wouldn't be the President's only outing of the day. Around 11:00 the entire first-family were escorted back onto Base. Despite having his own secured stretch of sand outside of his Kailua beach vacation rental, President Obama and the first family chose instead to spend the afternoon at a more private beach on Base to avoid the crowds.

NOW ZAD, Afghanistan I Signs of rebirth are growing in this former Taliban stronghold in Helmand province just days after U.S. Marines stormed it in a ground-and-airborne assault that caught its Taliban occupiers by surprise. In the once deserted bazaar area in the western portion of town, hundreds of men from nearby villages defy Taliban threats and clear debris from fighting in exchange for pay from U.S. troops. In the district center next to the main U.S. military base, more than 100 children attend ad hoc classes in reading and writing. The classes, initially started by Afghan-American interpreters working with...

Date: Wed, November 11, 2009 3:20 pm. From the Sand Pit. It's freezing here. I'm sitting on hard, cold dirt between rocks and shrubs at the base of the Hindu Kush Mountains , along the Dar 'yoi Pomir River , watching a hole that leads to a tunnel that leads to a cave. Stake out, my friend, and no pizza delivery for thousands of miles. (snip)

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama arrives with a sack of toys as she visits the Marine Corps Base Quantico Toys for Tots Campaign warehouse in Stafford, Virginia, December 16, 2009. In support of the program, Mrs. Obama delivered new and unwrapped toys and gifts contributed by the Executive Office staff.

A Marine stationed at Cherry Point air station restrained a man who had allegedly assaulted a Walmart greeter on Monday until New Bern police could arrive at the scene. Nathan Josial was in the store located at 3105 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. with his wife and four children to buy pajamas for his daughter to wear at her school’s pajama day, said his wife, New Bern resident Melissa Wysong. Wysong said they were greeted by the door greeter, John McLean, 83, who had given stickers fto the children and wished them a merry Christmas. Wysong said they heard...

FOB HASSANABAD, Afghanistan — The young Marines at this outpost could be on a camping trip to Hell. The living conditions in Helmand Province, one of the worst regions for trouble in Afghanistan, are such that most of friends and family in the United States wouldn't consider putting up with them for one day, much less the months these men will be assigned here. It's not even officially winter, yet temperatures routinely fall below freezing at night, and there's no heat in the tents. At night when standing guard in one of the security towers, the Marines put on layer...

U.S. Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the military's focus now is the rapid deployment of 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan and the initial elements of the surge will begin arriving next week. Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, Admiral Mullen says orders have been issued to combat infantry, engineers and civil affairs experts to deploy to Afghanistan, with 1,500 Marines expected to arrive in southern Helmand Province next week. Mullen indicated there is a sense of urgency at the Pentagon to implement U.S. President Barack Obama's decision to send tens of thousands of...

The highest-ranked Marine accused of bungling the military's response to the slayings of two dozen Iraqi civilians after a lethal 2005 roadside bombing displayed substandard performance, but he should not be demoted, a three-member Board of Inquiry ruled Friday. The military board said it will recommend to the secretary of the Navy that Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, with 22 years of service and three tours of duty in Iraq, be allowed to retain his rank and not be demoted to major. "It's been a long four years, but it hasn't been a miserable four years," Chessani told the North County...

Fifteen-month-old Briana N. Porter, daughter of Maj. Dustin M. Porter stares in awe at five-year-old Nubs during his visit to Camp Pendleton’s Country Store, Dec. 5. The wild Iraqi dog is famous for making a 70-mile journey through the Iraqi desert to reunite with Maj. Brian P. Dennis, aircraft maintenance officer, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314, 3rd Marine Air Wing, after the two bonded during Dennis’s 2007 deployment. The recently published story, “Nubs: The True Story of a Marine, a Mutt and a Miracle,” has already made the New York Times’ children’s best seller list and is expected hit...

From the Podium: J. D. Pendry, Retired Sergeant Major, USMC Jimmy Carter, you are the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home, and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You're the "runner-in-chief." Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses to the USS Cole and the First Trade Center Bombing and Our...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HASSANABAD, Afghanistan -- In the middle of a foot patrol Saturday through what may be the most dangerous part of the most dangerous province in Afghanistan for U.S. troops, Staff Sgt. John Nickerson peered through the scope of his assault rifle at a group of Afghan men who were rolling a wheelbarrow toward him. Suddenly, he had to switch gears to the gentler form of counterinsurgency. "Hold," Nickerson said into his hand-held radio, lowering his gun. "We've got some men with a kid in a wheelbarrow trying to get our attention. Where's Doc at?" In the barrow...