Free Republic

New Berlin, Wisconsin - For 2,500 trained canines and handlers serving America’s military and law enforcement, the idea of “man’s best friend” is no overstatement. Dogs are known to be loyal, stalwart companions that love and defend their owners at any cost. Some of these dogs have even paid the ultimate sacrifice. Sportsman Channel invites viewers into the lives of these military and law enforcement service dogs and handlers with its new original series Saving Private K-9, premiering Thursday, May 15 at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT. Hosted by (NRA Board Member) actor and former Marine R. Lee Ermey (Full Metal Jacket),...

CAMP PENDLETON — A surf contest pitting top area surfers from several branches of the armed forces against surfers from the British Army is set for May 24 at Camp Pendleton. This is the fourth year Red Bull is holding the Rivals Surf Competition on base, but the first year that the contest has international participants. The U.S. team’s 12 active-duty military surfers were picked based on performance at last month’stryouts at the base’s Del Mar Beach. Teams compete at the Del Mar Jetty in a modified version of the National Surf League’s game format. The one-day contest is similar...

An unusual government search of Marine Corps defense attorneys’ offices at California’s Camp Pendleton could cast a cloud over dozens of criminal cases. The search May 2, which lasted about two and a half hours, included investigators opening more than 100 case files compiled by defense attorneys, Marine Corps officers say. The search went beyond what was necessary and exceeded applicable legal standards, officers think.

What started as a hard-charging Marine comment to Congress has turned into a public relations emergency for Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps Micheal Barrett. Speaking to the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel on Wednesday, Barrett was making the case that personnel costs needed to be reined in to maintain readiness — as all the services have in recent testimony — but went a step further by saying that lower pay would actually improve discipline within the Corps. “I truly believe it will raise discipline,” Barrett said. “You’ll have better spending habits. You won’t be so wasteful.” (snip) Barrett...

(Reuters) - Iranian-American Amir Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine whose previous death sentence in Iran on espionage charges was overturned, has been secretly retried, convicted of collaborating with the U.S. government and sentenced to 10 years in prison, the New York Times reported on Friday, quoting his lawyer. The newspaper quoted lawyer Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei as saying Hekmati, held since 2011, was not told by Iranian officials about the retrial, conviction or prison sentence. The Times quoted Tabatabaei as saying Hekmati was retried by a revolutionary court in December and convicted of "practical collaboration with the American government." :snip: The...

Sgt. Major Michael Barrett greets Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. (American Military News) Idiot Sgt. Major Michael Barrett, the highest enlisted member of the US Marine Corps, told Congress Marines don’t need higher pay. Barrett said he believes lower pay will “raise discipline.” Nice job looking out for your brothers, Sergeant Major. American Military News reported: The highest enlisted member of the United States Marine Corps said that lowering salary of Marines will “raise discipline” and make Marines less wasteful. The comments come as a debate in Washington talks about cutting active duty member pay in order to make sharp...

Can you believe this guy? Who is he representing, the president of the troops he is supposed to stand up for? Last time I checked our Marines are plenty disciplined and far from entitled. http://americanmilitarynews.com/2014/04/top-enlisted-leader-marine-corps-says-lower-pay-marines-will-raise-discipline/

Authorities say the shooter at the Marine Corps base camp is no longer active A Marine fatally shot a fellow service member at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina Tuesday, the base said in a statement. The shooting occurred at around 5:30 p.m. The gunman, a Marine standing guard at the base’s main gate, discharged an M4 rifle, killing another guard. Camp Lejeune’s provost marshal said the shooting is not thought to be an act of terrorism and that the shooter is no longer active.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Marine Corps commandant has reacted swiftly to a female Marine officer’s complaint that women are unfairly precluded from trying a second time to pass the prestigious Marine Corps Infantry Officers Course, when men can have a second try. In response to a question from a female Army officer at an Atlantic Council forum April 1, Gen. James F. Amos said he has ordered a change in the rules and lavished praise not only on Marine Corps 2nd Lt. Sage Santangelo, who protested the restriction, but on all his female Marines. And, Amos said, he offered Santangelo...

Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter is speaking out against a reported proposal being considered by the Navy to ban the sale of tobacco products on all its bases and ships, calling it a “political decision.” The Military Times reported Monday that Navy officials are considering removing tobacco from all retail outlets, including exchange-operated sales venues and Morale, Welfare and Recreation program outlets. Navy commissaries do not sell tobacco products. Hunter, a Marine veteran who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, said in a letter to Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus he strongly opposes the ban, saying it...

U.S. Marine who just returned from Afghanistan identified as victimFremont police arrested a 23-year-old man after they say he acted in a "belligerent" manner inside a Taco Bell on Tuesday morning, fled from officers, then slammed into a utility pole, killing a motorcyclist during his attempted escape. Bystanders identified that motorcyclist as a Marine who just returned home from Afghanistan. His name has not been made public. The intersection of Decoto Road and Fremont Boulevard was shut down for hours as investigators combed the scene for evidence. Debris was scattered all over the road. The intersection remained closed until just...

The Marine Corps will open new combat jobs to women, allow women to volunteer for combat specialty training previously closed to them and create a co-ed experimental task force to evaluate how female Marines perform as part of a ground combat unit, Marine officials said. The task force will be made up of about 460 Marines, and about one quarter will be women, said Capt. Maureen Krebs, a Marine spokeswoman. The task force will look like a small battalion landing team with attachments such as artillery, tanks and amphibious assault vehicles — similar to the ground combat portion of a...

A U.S. Marine, who suffered serious injuries after it is believed he jumped on a grenade to protect a fellow Marine as they stood guard on a rooftop in Afghanistan's Helmand province, will receive the nation's highest combat valor honor, The Marine Times reported, citing unnamed sources. William Kyle Carpenter, 24, who medically retired as a corporal, is expected the receive the Medal of Honor later this year, the report said. Carpenter lost his right eye, most of his teeth and shattered his mouth and arm in the November 2010 grenade attack, the report said...

WASHINGTON — Confirming suspicions of Americans and Fox News contributors everywhere, Communist-in-Chief Barack Obama announced today that his plans to downsize the Defense Department in size and spending are singularly rooted in a heartfelt desire to allow the terrorists to win. “I’m doing this because I hate America,” Obama told reporters. “Plain and simple.” Indeed, last week, the president unveiled proposals that would shrink the Army to pre-World War II levels, slash a number of costly programs, and roll back some benefits to service members and their families. Speaking today from the White House briefing room, the president assured Americans...

Supporters still press for Medal of Honor Ten years after he died in a 2004 firefight in Iraq, Sgt. Rafael Peralta’s death continues to ignite controversy, with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel last week refusing to reopen his nomination for the Medal of Honor and the Marine’s family accusing a newspaper of race-baiting in its reporting on the standoff. Peralta’s mother Rosa said in a letter this week that a reporter for The Washington Post seemed intent on trying to get her to say her son was denied the Medal of Honor because he was Hispanic. And some Marines who were...

Marine Corps officials who tried to ban the Marine Corps Times from base newsstands or move it to less visible areas in stores did so because of the paper’s reporting on the commandant, emails obtained by that paper suggest.

This Wednesday, February 19, marked the 69th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima. One of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific War and all of World War II, the month-long slug-fest between American and Japanese forces in many ways set the stage for the firebombing of Japan and the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the final stages of the fighting, an iconic picture was taken of U.S. Marines and a Navy corpsman raising an American flag atop Mount Surabachi, an image that perfectly captured American resolve and military strength. The men that raised the flag...

The London Daily Mail reported this week that “CNN caused a firestorm when it included a war monument in Brest, a city in the former Soviet republic of Belarus, in an article on the 'world's ugliest monuments' published last month.” This isn’t Ted Turner’s CNN, where a reporter would be disciplined for saying the word “foreign” in a sentence. The online article from a travel-piece contributor was intended as humor. A Russian news commentator responded by suggesting the Marine Corps War Memorial – the Iwo Jima sculpture just north of Arlington National Cemetery – is “easy to mock” for its...

There are a number of annual training requirements we have to meet in the Marine Corps. It being the 21st Century, some of those have to do with cyber awareness and protecting information of various kinds. Since common sense is not a common virtue we are all subjected to online training in protecting personally identifiable information and classified material. Not completing the training will result in the Marine Corps turning off our access to e-mail and internet at work. This sounds more like a reward than a consequence but remember what I said about sense being common. The cyber counter...

True story of the recovery of 19 US Marines Killed in Action on Makin Island in WWII and their return home to Arlington National Cemetery 58 years later.