Free Republic

Before July 24, then-Cpl. Peyton Nott had never met a four-star general, or any generals, for that matter. But that day, Nott received an unexpected Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal from the top general in the Marine Corps and — after the corporal gave an off-the-cuff speech at the award ceremony — a meritorious promotion to boot. Beginning in February, he had to step into a billet typically reserved for gunnery sergeants, leading a team of eight mechanics and operators, according to a statement from his battalion to Marine Corps Times. The gap between a lance corporal and a...

The Marines just landed an F-35B Joint Strike Fighter on an old 50-foot-wide highway in Southern California, refueled and rearmed, and took back off again. At this same improvised forward arming and refueling point, a Marine MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor passed over a torpedo to a waiting Navy MH-60R Seahawk helicopter. This was a glimpse of what is to come for future Marine operations in the Pacific, and The War Zone was there to watch all of it unfold. This week VMX-1 gathered nine squadrons and other units from the Marines, Air Force, and Navy to conduct the latest iteration of...

[Editor’s note: Make sure to read Robert Spencer’s masterpiece contributions in Jamie Glazov’s new book: Barack Obama’s True Legacy: How He Transformed America.]Recently in San Diego, a member of the San Diego County Human Relations Commission made antisemitic remarks during an official commission meeting, and then, after a firestorm, he resigned. That would be that, just another day in the annals of the steadily rising Jew-hatred in America in 2023, but this story is even more disquieting than that: the antisemitic Human Relations Commissioner, Khaliq Raufi, is a Muslim migrant from Afghanistan, and his remarks were entirely consistent with Islamic...

...Buddy who drove and used State ID drove us back, we go into the Officer of the Day's office to report my lost/stolen ID. OOD is a crusty old bastard, but fair. Actually a mustang, he takes his orders from the President and god... and we are not sure of the president he might tell him to f**k off if it is a stupid idea. ..."Seaman Raccoon here says the doorman at Joe's took his ID and wants $20. Pull a driver and one of those Jarheads at the gate and go down their and sort it out."

Three people found dead in a vehicle at a North Carolina gas station Sunday were Marine lance corporals based at Camp Lejeune, the Marine Corps said Tuesday.

Trevor Reed, the former US Marine who was wrongfully detained in Russia for nearly three years before being released in a prisoner swap, was injured while fighting in Ukraine, a source familiar with the matter told CNN Tuesday. Reed, who was freed in a prisoner swap in April 2022, was transported to a hospital in Kyiv and was evacuated to Germany for medical care, the source said. The circumstances around Reed’s injury in combat were not immediately clear. “We are aware that Trevor Reed was injured while participating in fighting in Ukraine,” State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said...

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...

The U.S. Marine Corps has removed the last of its .45 caliber M45A1 Close Quarters Battle Pistols from service. The M45A1s, which are heavily upgraded variants of the venerable Colt M1911, have now been replaced by 9x19mm M18 pistols. The Marines had been the last major American military user of M1911-series pistols, though other versions remain in increasingly limited service in the U.S. special operations community. Marine Corps Systems Command (MARCORSYSCOM) confirmed to The War Zone that the replacement of the M45A1s with new M18s began last year and was completed by October 2022. M45A1s had previously been issued primarily...

A grand jury has indicted former U.S. Marine Daniel Penny in connection with the chokehold death of Jordan Neely aboard a subway train, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

The training accident killed eight Marines and one sailor. The former Navy commanding officer of the amphibious transport dock USS Somerset, who was officially censured for a training accident in which eight Marines and one sailor died, will not command an aircraft carrier after all. Navy Capt. John William Kurtz was the Somerset’s captain when an amphibious assault vehicle, or AAV, sank while returning to the ship during a July 30, 2020 training exercise. It was the deadliest training accident involving an AAV in Marine Corps history..... But not long after news broke that Kurtz had been selected to command...

The first large-scale battle fought by American soldiers in World War I begins in Belleau Wood, northwest of the Paris-to-Metz road. In late May 1918, the third German offensive of the year penetrated the Western Front to within 45 miles of Paris. U.S. forces under General John J. Pershing helped halt the German advance, and on June 6, Pershing ordered a counteroffensive to drive the Germans out of Belleau Wood. U.S. Marines under General James Harbord and Allied forces led the attack against the four German divisions positioned in the woods and by the end of the first day suffered...

Shocking video has captured a mob of up to 40 teens viciously beating a trio of off-duty Marines who say they’d merely asked them to stop lighting fireworks on a California beach. The now-viral footage shows the Marines — enjoying time off for Memorial Day weekend — being followed by the baying mob while walking toward San Clemente Pier Bowl late Friday. “We told them we were Marines so they would leave — but they didn’t. They just kept going at it,” one of the attacked servicemen, Hunter Antonino, told KCAL News. As they start walking up some steps, some...

Three self-identified U.S. Marines were beaten up and stomped on by a crowd of teenagers after the group was confronted for being unruly on a California beach, police said. Videos from the Friday incident at the San Clemente Pier Bowl area appeared on social media and showed a large group of teenagers assaulting the Marines. Hunter Antonino, one of the victims attacked, told KCAL-TV that the group of teenagers were acting belligerent and firing off firecrackers at the beach. He said that he asked them to stop and that's when he was hit in the head with debris and the...

Wild video out of San Clemente shows a group of teenagers apparently assaulting a pair of military members over the weekend. The two victims, who self-identified as Marines, say they were walking along the pier when they were confronted by the group of teens, of which there appeared to be more than 15, at around 9:50 p.m. Saturday.

A Marine sniper serving during the Afghanistan evacuation recently gave testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the Afghanistan evacuation. His pain was palpable. A revelation worth examining was his identification of the possible suicide bomber prior to the incident. After the sniper, Sgt Vargas-Andrews, confirmed the target with multiple agencies, he asked his Battalion Commander, LtCol Whited, for permission to shoot. The answer from Whited, one in which Vargas-Andrews said he’ll never forget, was, “I don’t know.” Not found in the media or Congressional testimony is that Whited, a former peer of mine, corroborated this version of events...

We Are a Nation of Spies, They Think "USMC recruit discharged, harassed, and barred from service after refusing to become an FBI informant for $250,000" Parris Island, SC – A White US Marine recruit was lured into a false interrogation by federal agents. When they failed to groom him into a confidential informant to be used against pro-White activist groups—even offering him a quarter of a million dollars to do so—he was terminated from his job and sent back home right before his boot camp graduation. Federal agents, including three members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and two...

Unlike Force Design 2030, Vision 2035 is a roadmap for a better way forward for the U.S. Marine Corps.In the rush to restructure the Marine Corps from a global force focused on uncertainties to a regional force focused on the certainty of a single threat (China’s Navy), the Marine Corps jettisoned many capabilities needed to fight and win today and in the future. The magnitude of these divestments is reflected in the accompanying graphic.The multiple years’ gap between the divestiture of currently needed force structure, equipment, and logistics and the arrival of new capabilities with proven effectiveness and in sufficient...

[Video] Your top local headlines for Wednesday, January 25, 2023. HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) -- A hero has emerged from a shooting in Waikiki that happened earlier this month. https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2023/01/07/police-respond-apparent-shooting-waikiki/ Marine Corps Sgt. Amed Issa said he was in a bar when shots were heard from outside on Lewers Street on Jan. 6. Issa said he thought someone was trying to enter the bar with a gun, so he followed his instincts and ran towards the sound of shots. That’s where he saw gunmen firing at a downed victim. After the two suspects fled, Issa began to treat the victim who was...

A Marine who said he was waiting for "Civil war 2" and two other active-duty members of the military have been charged with participating in the riot at the U.S. Capitol, authorities said in newly filed court papers. Micah Coomer, Joshua Abate and Dodge Dale Hellonen were arrested this week on misdemeanor charges after their fellow Marines helped investigators identify them in footage among the pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021, according to court papers. Dozens of people charged in the riot have military backgrounds, but these three are among only a handful on active duty. A Marine Corps officer...

Two suspects are in custody after an smash-and-grab robbery at the Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance, after Marine recruiters at nearby military recruitment center at the mall jumped into action. The robbery happened Tuesday, at a jewelry store in the mall. According to Torrance police, four people wearing hoodies and covering their faces used hammers to smash the glass of the display cases and grab as much jewelry as they could. Two of the suspects were able to escape, but the other two were taken to the ground by Marine recruiters and bystanders who heard the robbery unfold, and...