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HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Dec. 15, 2009 – When Marines hear they must live at a small patrol base for a long time, many think of primitive facilities, dirty conditions and bland, packaged meals coming from brown bags. Navy Seaman Timothy Wienke and Marine Corps Cpls. Carlos Martinez and Carlos J. Orellana chop vegetables, season meat and cook sides at the Patrol Base Jaker custom field kitchen in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, Dec. 5, 2009. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Brian Tuthill  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. But for Marines with the police mentoring team assigned to the 1st Battalion,...

NAVAL AIR FACILITY ATSUGI, Japan — It all started four years ago with a Tickle Me Elmo doll. Petty Officer 1st Class Nathan Grant figured he’d do his part to support the Toys for Tots drive at Whidbey Island, Wash., and he tossed the doll into his shopping cart. Then he eyed a few more toys, thinking he could help more children. "If you give one toy to one kid in an orphanage, that can change that child’s world," said Grant, now working for Commander Fleet Air, Western Pacific. "But if you can give hundreds of toys, that can have...

Hard to trust our warriors to CinC By GREG SCHARF December 11, 2009 Like most Americans, I listened intently to the president's speech last week regarding our strategy in Afghanistan. I was hoping for a Reagan moment, but all I could think was, "Crud, Carter's back!" Only worse. The step up makes sense, but when he started talking about the exit strategy like many, I shook my head. But to listen to his hand-wringing about Gitmo and waterboarding made me realize we're in big trouble. It hits home as my son-in-law, Marine Sgt. David Hall, is deploying to Afghanistan come...

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...

The Marine officer who commanded the Camp Pendleton troops responsible for killing two dozen Iraqi civilians after a roadside bombing in 2005 denied Thursday trying to cover up the killings or failing to report what he knew to the chain of command in Iraq. "I was told it was a bona fide combat action and no investigation was required," Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani said of the response he got from his superiors after he reported the incident. Chessani also said his later removal as commander of Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment "was the most professionally devastating day of...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11, 2009 – A battalion of Marines in southern Afghanistan now has the upper hand in a city they believed to be a Taliban stronghold, a senior Marine Corps officer in Helmand province said today. Marines with 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, conduct combat operations in Now Zad, Afghanistan, during Operation Cobra's Anger, Dec.4, 2009. Cobra's Anger disrupted enemy supply lines and communication in Now Zad, once a safe haven for Taliban forces in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Walter Marino   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. For many months, Now Zad,...

Roy Lee Gant, a Lucky Dog vendor in the French Quarter, may look like an easy mark for an armed robber. He wears a candy-cane-striped button-up shirt. He wheels around sausage and condiments to sell in a 1,200-pound cart shaped like a ballpark wiener, opting to make ends meet in the manner of Ignatius J. Reilly in "A Confederacy of Dunces." None of that oozes toughness. But Gant is a former Marine, trained in hand-to-hand combat. And a 42-year-old man accused of attempting to rob Gant at knifepoint the night of Dec. 5 found that out too late, New Orleans...

HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Dec. 8, 2009 – A previous fear of the Taliban would have kept the people of Amir Agha hidden in their compounds as Marines patrolled through their fields and town, but their willingness to talk has increased with a growing sense of security. Marine Corps Sgt. Stephen G. Patten talks to a villager during a patrol through the fields and town of Amir Agha in Garmsir, Afghanistan, Dec. 2, 2009. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Dwight Henderson  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "We want to help you. We need to talk to you. It...

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...

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - Military officials say a decorated Marine from Minnesota has been killed in a parachute training exercise at Camp Pendleton. A Marine Corps statement says Corporal Ryan L. Pape died Thursday night from injuries sustained during a low-level static line jump.

Here is a video report on the progress of Operation "Cobra's Anger," launched by nearly 1,000 U.S. Marines today against the Taliban in the Southern part of the country. This report says a Marine source says the Taliban have been "caught off guard," and are "confused and disorganized." The Marines dropped into the area overnight, an area that has been a Taliban stronghold. . . . (VIDEO)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4, 2009 – More than 1,000 International Security Assistance Force troops are partnering with Afghan forces to begin a large-scale operation in northern Helmand province. About 900 U.S. Marines and sailors and British forces began partnering today with 150 Afghan soldiers and police to start Operation Khareh Cobra, or Cobra’s Anger, to clear insurgent forces in the Now Zad valley. Marines from 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 7 and 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion are partnered with Afghan army and police. The forces began helicopter and ground operations in the Now Zad valley early this morning. Now...

email LtCol Chessani’s Board of Inquiry Begins ─ Battle-Hardened Marine Veterans View Proceedings With Dismay December 04, 2009 ANN ARBOR, MI – On Wednesday, December 2nd, in a military courtroom at Camp Pendleton, California, the government began its case against an American warrior. They know this is their last chance to disgrace and destroy the 22 - year career of Marine LtCol Jeffrey Chessani, and it’s evident they are pulling out all the stops. Many of the spectators in the small courtroom were battle-hardened Marine veterans of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Some were veterans of the Korean Chosin...

http://gunnyg.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/use-of-marine-corps-trademarks/ Also posted above url Marine Corps Trademark And Licensing Program http://www.marines.mil/unit/divpa/tmlo/Pages/faq.aspx Other info: SEE ALSO: http://forum.zazzle.com/misc/product_removal_usmc?m=222621 and... http://rovinghistorian.blogspot.com/2009/12/marine-corps-restricts-use-of-emblems.html -- **********

Be Seated. Men, this stuff we hear about America wanting to stay out of the war, not wanting to fight, is a lot of bullshit. Americans love to fight - traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble player; the fastest runner; the big league ball players; the toughest boxers. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win - all the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why...

Four members of a Camp Pendleton squad convicted of taking part in the kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi civilian in 2006 have been ordered by the Secretary of the Navy to be removed from the military. Secretary Ray Mabus also directed the Marine Corps to demonstrate why a lieutenant who oversaw the unit and acknowledged abusing detainees should be allowed to stay in the service. The sweeping order requires the administrative separation within 10 days of "Pendleton 8" defendants Marine Corps Lance Cpls. Tyler Jackson, Jerry Shumate and John Jodka III. Mabus, who has the authority to remove enlisted...

Arthur Colby arrives at Quantico Marine Base by way of Groton boarding school and Dickinson College -- exclusive, private institutions that aren't exactly pipelines to the military. Officer Candidates School, he knows, will be unlike anything he's faced in his young life. At 20, Colby has a résumé crammed with hallmarks of the young and ambitious -- president of Dickinson's freshman class, internships with the Bush and McCain campaigns, a stint with a high-powered Washington consulting firm. He'd be well on his way to a bright future without the Marines. Instead, he's expecting six hellish weeks. Predawn hikes, obstacle courses,...

An inquiry board will convene Wednesday morning at Camp Pendleton to decide if a Marine Corps officer should be demoted for his actions after the shooting deaths of 24 Iraqi men, women and children four years ago. At issue is whether Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, who commanded the Camp Pendleton unit that carried out the slayings, engaged in misconduct in handling the incident. The inquiry board is the final step in Chessani's case; prosecutors earlier this year dropped two counts of criminal dereliction of duty. If the board finds there was no misconduct, the case will be closed. If it...

President Obama is expected to announce Tuesday an additional 30,000-35,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, which reportedly may start with 9,000 Marines being deployed to southern Afghanistan followed by 1,000 Army trainers in February. The Washington Post reported Sunday that final preparations for the 9,000 Marines will commence as part of a deployment aimed at Helmand province, where the Taliban stronghold has been partly gutted by an additional 10,000 Marines sent earlier this year. "The first troops out of the door are going to be Marines," Gen. James T. Conway, the Corps' top officer, told Marines in Afghanistan on Saturday, according...

There is no yelling. No invective. No spittle-laced derision. Instead, there is a soft, warm welcome for the dozens of young men and women reporting to Officer Candidates School at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia. Arriving in polos and khakis, they check in at their leisure, anytime between 8 a.m. and 11:59 p.m., filing off buses or dropped off by well-wishing parents at what could just as well be the first day of college. This is no Parris Island, the legendary boot camp in South Carolina where the drill instructors' ferocity explodes almost the instant recruits arrive. But for the...

The US military will deploy up to 9,000 Marines to Afghanistan's Helmand province -- doubling US presence there -- in the days after President Barack Obama's war strategy announcement this week, the Washington Post said Saturday. Citing senior US officials, the daily said the extra Marines won't move to the restive southern province until after Obama's address to the nation Tuesday from the prestigious West Point military academy in New York state. The aim is to regain a footing in the region that has been a base for a fierce Taliban insurgency in recent months. Some 1,000 army trainers will...

War On Terror: As Khalid Sheikh Mohammed receives the benefits of U.S. justice, three Navy SEALs face court-martial for allegedly punching a captured terrorist who hanged Americans from a bridge in Fallujah. Apparently our efforts to impress the world about the marvels of our criminal justice system require us to give foreign terrorists such as Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the man who invented the manned cruise missiles that flew into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and plowed into a Pennsylvania field on its way to the Capitol Building, the full rights and protections of the American citizens he conspired...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HASSANABAD, Afghanistan -- Just getting the ingredients for Golf Company's one-day-early Thanksgiving dinner was a military operation. First, the Marines consulted their translators. Then the translators persuaded the Afghan border police to go to a market in what may be the most dangerous part of Helmand province. Buying the $68 worth of chicken and hot peppers and potatoes and rice and flat bread turned out to be the easy part, however. It was the cooking Wednesday night that nearly caused a squad of casualties. "Hey, you can't put out a grease fire like that!" someone yelled as...

War In Iraq: The press is salivating over the prospect of an Iraqi My Lai in the town of Haditha, with ABC trotting out Rep. John Murtha to brand U.S. troops war criminals just in time for Memorial Day. Appearing Sunday on ABC's "This Week," and with the matter still under investigation, Murtha, D-Pa., decided it would be sentence first and trial later when he proclaimed Marines responding to an attack in the town of Haditha on Nov. 19 guilty of murder of at least 15 Iraqi civilians. The incident began as a Marine convoy of Kilo Company, Third Battalion,...

A forklift pushes the remains of several Hesco barriers onto the back of a 7-ton truck aboard Al Asad Air Base, Nov. 20. The base-wide cleanup effort is dubbed “Operation Blue Spoon,” and the goal is for Marines with Multi National Force - West to leave the base in good order as they wind down their role in Operation Iraqi Freedom. U.S. Marine Corps photograph by Cpl. Meg Murray. AL ASAD AIR BASE — As the clouds and drizzle of the rainy winter season roll into Iraq, many Marines with Multi National Force - West are rolling out. The gradual...

On a crisp fall day in a cemetery in Queens, a Marine Corps honor guard blew taps over the country's oldest female Marine. Sgt. Miriam Cohen did not die jumping on a hand grenade, or storming the beaches of Normandy or battling the Japanese on Iwo Jima. Most appropriately, she died on Veteran's Day, one day after the 234th birthday of the United States Marines Corps. Cohen lived nearly half as long: She would have been 102 on Dec. 13. When World War II threatened civilization, this beautiful, gutsy Brooklyn gal answered the call of a bugle, just like the...

The 2008 national election clearly shows our next generation of leaders must possess something that many recent and current elected officials lack: intellectual courage. President Nixon believed all leaders, regardless of their time, needed “brains, guts and heart.” Others have defined those character traits as “the right stuff.” “Given what is likely needed to right our ship of state, I don't think that it will come as a great surprise to many that our current men and women in the military are likely going to be the ‘right’ individuals for the job when they come home,” said Lara Brown, a...

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - Marines treated at Camp Lejeune for post-traumatic stress had to undergo therapy for months in temporary trailers where they could hear bomb blasts, machine-gun fire and war cries through the thin walls, according to servicemen and their former psychiatrist. The eight trailers were used for nearly two years, until a permanent clinic was completed in September in another location on the base, said a Camp Lejeune medical spokesman, Navy Lt. j.g. Mark Jean-Pierre. The noise from training exercises "shook me up real bad. I couldn't take it. I almost ran out of there a couple of...

The Warrior Song Project http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTs6a0ORdQU would like to thank all of the following individuals for their selfless contributions to this effort: James De Vito, US Marine Corps, for vocals Sachiko De Vito, for being brilliant Rock Williams, for vocals Sean Hurwitz, for the guitars Bernie Pershey, for the marching snares Kashan Curry, US Marine Corps, for images & advice Justin Sullivan, for “The Wobble Beat” Robb Hendrick, for advice & creative design LYRICS: I’ve got the reach and the teeth of a killin’ machine, with a need to bleed you when the light goes green best believe, I’m in...

Former Marine Nick Popaditch, aka the Cigar Marine, is running for the Republican nomination to challange the incumbent Democrat in the California 51st Congressional race for 2010. He needs your support. The district is heavily Democratic and he faces an uphill struggle but this Marine is one tough opponent. This man is a true war hero, not some "Swift Boat" wannabe. His slogan, "A Marines word is his bond", says it all. He gained national popularity when he was photographed atop his tank turret smoking a cigar at the fall of Baghdad. Later in the war he was seriously wounded...

<p>Contact your Senators and let them know what you think!</p> <p>U.S. veterans or subsidies for United Nations (U.N.) bureaucracy.</p>

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. I also glance at the area around my a-- every ten to fifteen seconds to avoid another scorpion sting. I've actually given up battling the chiggers and sand fleas, but those scorpions give a jolt like a cattle prod; hurts like a ba---rd. The...

Veterans Day becomes somewhat of a quandary if one seeks to highlight only one particular group amongst the magnitude of those deserving of focus. For indeed, while some may appear to shine more brightly, their luster and magnificent illumination is merely a reflection of a cast of more than a million military members who served, and continue serving our nation.... of which our FA "founding father", Curt is one. (hat doff to you, guy....) As the wife of a Navy enlistee during the Vietnam War, I can say that my military life still remains a strong and humbling memory in...

A Colorado sheriff who made headlines for his deliberate non-compliance with the politically correct attitude of his county toward Christmas, today honored the U.S. Marine Corps on its 234th birthday, along with veterans and members of other military branches. And he implored them to be vigilant now as ever, since their service is not over. The comments come from Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden, who occasionally releases a personal column called the BullsEye. He was in the news in recent Christmas seasons when he scoffed at county rules about using neutral themes such as penguins for Christmas decorations and staged...

As a nineteen-year-old college drop out, forty years ago on this past August 18th, I was being pushed and shoved off a bus at MCRD, San Diego, California, as we 'boots' were trying desperately to move as fast was we could for what we were all sure was a bunch of rabid DI's. They were after all, foaming at the mouth.

On Saturday, visitors to the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg were treated to a re-enactment of some of the weapons, tactics and strategies used to win War World II. “Give me an army of West Point graduates and I'll win a battle. Give me a handful of Texas Aggies, and I'll win the war.” General George S. Patton quotes (American General in World War I and II, 1885-1945)

Happy Birthday to the USMC! Semper Fi and God Bless to all of you!!

Click on the link to watch the video. It is on the right side, down the middle of the page.

Happy Birthday U.S. Marines! Thank You!

HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Nov. 9, 2009 – Marines have an uncanny ability to call any place “home,” even if it’s a mixture of sand and gravel, or in this instance, a Taliban compound. U.S. Marines walk down an alley during a patrol in the Nawa district of Afghanistan’s Helmand province, Sept. 21, 2009. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. John M. McCall  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Marines with Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, have been operating out of what Marines refer to as “the mansion” here, since Aug. 1. Local Afghans have told Marines the...

On a wall near a makeshift classroom at Camp Pendleton hang 27 portraits. They are pictures of U.S. Marine Corps bomb technicians who have been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. The portraits are a reminder to members of a newly commissioned bomb squad of the perils they face as they prepare to deploy to the war-torn region. "There's no question, it's one of the most dangerous jobs out there," said Capt. James Shelstad, commander of the base's newly created 1st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company. Shelstad and several members of his company sat down last week with the North County Times...

U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. David Raymond Baker was buried Tuesday at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., on Tuesday morning.

Watch the Full Program Online Warning: Graphic Language and violent imagery Viewer Discretion Advised. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/obamaswar/view/

Oct. 25, 2009 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: In 1942, it came down to one Marine It's hard to envision -- or, for the dwindling few, to remember -- what the world looked like on Oct. 26, 1942, when a few thousand U.S. Marines stood essentially stranded on the God-forsaken jungle island of Guadalcanal, placed like a speed bump at the end of the long blue-water slot between New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago, the most likely route for the Japanese Navy to take if they hoped to reach Australia.On Guadalcanal, the Marines struggled to complete an airfield....

Arielle Levin Becker of the Washington Post wrote about John Philip Sousa’s professional stature as regards his past association with the Marine Corps Band: If there’s any question about the place Sousa has in the band’s memory, a visit to the director’s office settles any doubts.  Sousa is immortalized in four photographs and paintings, including one of him in a Navy uniform, and perhaps in a fifth — there is speculation that, in the front row of a Civil War-era photograph of the band, a young Sousa is hiding between two trombone players. The baton that [departing U.S. Marine band...

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James T. Conway has emerged in internal Pentagon deliberations as the most outspoken opponent of permitting gay men and women to serve openly in the U.S. military, according to a former senior Pentagon official. Most of the senior brass hold deep reservations about President Obama's pledge to end the ban on gays in the military, especially in the middle of two wars that have put extra stress on the military, down to the platoon level, where soldiers and Marines would be expected to bond with openly gay colleagues. But Gen. Conway has gone further than others...

Under the harsh sunlight, a lone grey donkey sauntered across one end of a silent street; halfway down the far end, a US marine lay in the dirt, exposed and alone — brushing the dust from a pressure plate linked to a massive bomb. A few days ago this town, deep in Taliban territory, was thronged with up to 800 residents and traders. This is Helmand’s biggest drugs market, but today all but a handful of Kuchi, the Afghan nomads, have vanished. Somehow the Taliban knew the marines were coming. Rather than fight openly, they left behind a booby-trapped ghost...

Investigators are trying to determine why a U.S. Coast Guard C-130 airplane and a U.S. Marine Corps attack helicopter collided on Thursday night, likely killing nine crew members. Aircraft and ships are scouring the ocean off San Diego for any signs of survivors of the nighttime collision, but Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the crash likely killed both the plane's seven crew members and the two-person crew of the AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter.Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the crash occurred minutes after control of the C-130 was handed off from FAA controllers to military air controllers.

Launching An American Knight in Washington Written by John Horvat    Thursday, October 29, 2009 On October 27, the TFP Washington Bureau was filled with friends and supporters to hear a presentation on the book, An American Knight The Life of Colonel John W. Ripley, USMC just authored by TFP member Norman Fulkerson. The author presented the book to a full and lively auditorium of some 50 people and later personally signed copies. As a special guest, Duke Paul of Oldenburg from the German TFP, gave the opening remarks commenting on the meaning of chivalry today. Also attending was...

BreakingNews San Diego media: 9 missing after collision of Coast Guard C-130 and Marine Cobra helicopter off the SD coast. BNO News working to confirm.