Free Republic

The service is returning to its roots as an island-hopping tornado to face off against Russia and China. The U.S. Marine Corps is in the process of reinventing itself to deal with future threats . . . and future budgets. The service is concentrating on island and littoral missions, and going lighter and more mobile as a result. The plan, Force Design 2030, aims to make the Corps an indispensable tool in America’s toolbox. The U.S. Marine Corps is undergoing its biggest reorganization in decades, slimming down and chopping weapon systems, such as tanks and howitzers, in an effort to...

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) launched an effort to prevent forced vaccinations in the military after a massive outreach by troops. In a tweet on Monday, Massie said Democrats have attacked his recent proposal to ban forced vaccinations of U.S. troops. The congressman added he introduced HR 3860 to outlaw vaccine mandates in the military, which has been already back by 24 lawmakers. This came after reports claimed Joe Biden’s Pentagon might require vaccination for U.S. troops by September. “They want everybody to get vaccinated, even those who don’t need vaccinated,” he asserted. “If you followed the science, the Moderna trial...

Marines fire rounds downrange during Combat Pistol Program qualification training and firing at the Puuloa Range Training Facility in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, April 30. The new pistol program will replace annual pistol training and is more combat-oriented than the pistol qualification previously implemented. (U.S. Marine Corps Photo by Lance Cpl. Nathan Knapke/Released)The Marine Corps has fielded its first new service pistol in 35 years, Pentagon officials announced Tuesday, with M18s now being issued across the service. Marine Corps leaders said the M18 Modular Handgun System will replace all other sidearms, including the M9, M9A1, M45A1 and M007. The transition, which...

The ask from Phillip was simple: I will watch from the parking lot with my wife and our four children if we must, but please let my sister-in-law, her family, and my parents bury my brother. At noon on Thursday, the Velasquez family followed Joseph’s casket out of French funeral home in Albuquerque, New Mexico on its way to meet the escort. Draped in the American flag and on the side of the volunteer biker’s chopper hearse, he’s a hard man to miss even aside from the police honor guard — and before the long line of motorcyclists waiting on...

This Independence Day, read the unexpected history of the songs that have led our nation's soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen into battle. Armies have used music to rally troops in battle since biblical days. During the American War for Independence, boys too young and men too old to fight often played the fife and drum for the Continental Army, using music to signal commands as well as to boost soldiers’ morale.A particular tune might direct troops to cease fire, or to reload their rifles. While music rarely has such a practical use on the battlefield today, each branch of the...

Source: Fox/Screenshot The Fox network aired a tribute to the United States of America and its flag before Super Bowl LIV kicked off on Sunday. The ad featured Medal of Honor recipient Cpl. Kyle Carpenter, families of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and had Johnny Cash's "Ragged Old Flag" as its soundtrack. The ad also features owners of various NFL team owners telling how Cash wrote the song and praised America's military men and women. Carpenter received the nation's highest medal for military service while he was with Company F, 2d Battalion, 9th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 1,...

Another lean, green knee-slapper from Lady Leatherneck. illary Clinton tried to become a Marine? Right. That was the week after Harry Reid tried to become a Rockette. Had the Marines accepted her, perhaps her training would have been helpful when her plane came under sniper fire while landing in Bosnia in 1996. Let me see now. As I understand it, what we’re called on to believe is that a highly employable young Yale Law School graduate, who had led teach-ins against the Vietnam War in college, had worked on the campaigns of Gene McCarthy and George McGovern, and who was...

Seventy years ago today the United States Marine Corp sent waves of teenaged men onto the black foreboding beaches on a Japanese held island called Iwo Jima. Capturing Iwo Jima was essential to the American war against Japan as it offered a place for battered bombers to safely land and save the lives of hundreds of airmen returning from sorties over Japan in barely flyable planes. The average age of these men was just under nineteen. They knew what was at stake and charged up Iwo’s beaches sometimes straight into enemy machine gun fire that would have stopped lesser soldiers....

In the summer of 1965 Marine Corps Boot camp training included the boast “If it weren’t for the Marine Corps you’d be speaking Japanese.” It was true then and it is still true today. Sixty nine years ago waves and waves of eighteen and nineteen year old Marines, waded ashore on Iwo Jima to defeat the Japanese and help win the war in the Pacific on American terms. They fought to keep us from being the slaves of the Japanese and being forced to end up “speaking Japanese.” By mid- February 1945 Franklin Roosevelt knew Americans were running out of...

The Pentagon's decision to reduce the performance specifications for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will have a significant operational impact, a number of highly experienced fighter pilots consulted by Flightglobal concur. But the careful development of tactics and disciplined employment of the jet may be able to mitigate some of those shortcomings. The US Department of Defense's decision to relax the sustained turn performance of all three variants of the F-35 was revealed earlier this month in the Pentagon's Director of Operational Test and Evaluation 2012 report. Turn performance for the US Air Force's F-35A was reduced from...

The U.S. Army and Marine Corps awarded Oshkosh, AM General and Lockheed Martin 27-month contracts to compete in the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle competition — the last round before a winner is selected to build the Humvee replacement fleet. Service officials surprised many by choosing AM General and Oshkosh over BAE Systems’ and General Dynamics’ bids considering BAE Systems and General Dynamics had taken part in the technology development phase of the program. AM General announced it’s independent bid from General Dynamics just days before bids were due to compete for the EMD...

SO I ran into a situation where a friend of mine is finishing his term of military service in his home country, and he has his eyes set on moving to the USA and joining the US Army or US Marine Corps. He has applied to the standard visa lottery system, but with no success. He is applying again for next year. In the mean time, I thought I'd ask if there are any informed Army or Marine recruiters on FR who know if military veterans from Partners for Peace countries can get some sort of special visa to directly...

Michelle Obama dropped off hundreds of Christmas gifts to the U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots campaign and in return received a surprise invitation from a soldier to be his date to the Marine Corps Ball. Lance Cpl. Aaron Leeks, 20, said he asked the first lady to accompany him because he's a fan and admires her work to support the military. When Obama was sorting toys at the charity event and came close to Leeks of Frederick, he took the opportunity and leaned over a toy bin to get her attention and pop the question.

– [Update 8:38 p.m. Cairo, 1:38 p.m. ET] A team of heavily armed Marine Corps security personnel have been sent to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to provide additional security for the facility, defense officials tell CNN. The small team of Marines, about a dozen according to one of the officials, are part of a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST). The Marines are inside the embassy perimeter. Egyptian military and security forces continue to provide security outside the embassy, the officials said.

Germany, Israel and Taiwan top the list of countries interested in Sikorsky’s new CH-53K, now scheduled for first flight in 2013. The heavy lifter, which is headed for service with the U.S. Marine Corps, has suffered from delays, including a slip in initial operational capability of three years, to 2018. The delays seem not to faze the Marines and the CH-53K program office at Naval Air Systems Command (Navair). The extra time “buys [foreign countries] time to make an informed decision,” says Capt. Rick Muldoon, program manager. Germany operates about 80 CH-53D model aircraft, designated the CH-53G, 40 of which...

The Pentagon is opposing a popular provision that would change the name of the Department of the Navy to the Department of the Navy and the Marine Corps. The provision, which Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) has pushed for years, has a record 415 co-sponsors in the House and recently passed by unanimous consent as a standalone bill. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), a former Marine, has introduced a similar provision in the Senate that has attracted 78 co-sponsors — more than enough to pass as a standalone bill or as part of the pending defense bills as an amendment. In a...

Washington (CNN) -- The retired general who took charge of relief efforts in New Orleans, Louisiana, after Hurricane Katrina said Thursday that the U.S. military should have arrived in earthquake-devastated Haiti 24 hours earlier. "The good Samaritans who moved early on the first day are to be applauded. They made a difference," said Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, a CNN contributor. "What we've got to do now is get the heavy equipment in. I thought the U.S. military could have been there a day earlier. They're on the ground now, and they have a brigade en route, and that's going to...

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)

NEW YORK – Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressed disappointment Friday at news outlets that used a picture taken and distributed by The Associated Press depicting a U.S. Marine mortally wounded in combat in Afghanistan. The AP distributed the picture despite personal pleas from Gates and the dead Marine's family in a case that illustrated the difficult decisions in reporting on a conflict where Americans have seen relatively few images of fallen U.S. troops over eight years. The picture, by AP photographer Julie Jacobson, showed Lance Cpl. Joshua "Bernie" Bernard, 21, lying on the ground with severe leg injuries after being...