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Veteran Neglect: A Navy and Marine Corps veteran asks a House panel why an administration that says it leaves no one behind has let a soldier with post-traumatic stress disorder sit in a Mexican jail for six months. From the famous "latte salute" to the Marine holding the presidential umbrella, President Obama's respect for our men in uniform has been open to question. Unless, of course, they desert their post in Afghanistan to try to join the Taliban, like Bowe Bergdahl. Then you have the parents to the White House and trade the Taliban general staff to obtain their release....

The exact timing or locations of the deployment is unclear, but will happen some time next year. The United States Marine Corps will send 2,100 troops to Kuwait as part of a new special unit designed to respond to crises in the region, a mission that officials claim was planned before the U.S. began conducting air strikes in the region. The new Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force (SPMAGTF) Central Command will be deployed in Kuwait to conduct what it calls “theater sustainment missions,” according to Brigadier General John Love, according to news reports on Monday. It will also be equipped...

Microsoft has made the Kinect motion detection sensor available for use in commercial and non-gaming scenarios for some time, but for some reason it hasn't really caught on. We've heard next to no stories about people using it, although it could always be that they are keeping quiet for a competitive advantage. But a military contractor has come up with something that has the U.S. Marine Corps interested. The Augmented Reality Sand Table is currently being developed by the Army Research Laboratory and was on display at the Modern Day Marine Expo that recently took place on Marine Corps Base...

By now, everyone has seen the pictures of President Obama’s “latte salute,” where he walked off Air Force One and couldn’t even be bothered to switch his cup to his other hand while lazily saluting the Marines at the bottom of the airplane stairs. The Obama apologists are dismissing the criticism, calling it “ridiculousness.” Perhaps the president meant it as an insult; perhaps not. But we know the president is vain – after all, he has already written two books about himself – and he’s also very stage-aware. He knew what he was doing. President Obama was striking a pose....

Should he have switched hands? Dropped the cup? Not drank the coffee? Declared war on coffee growers? Any way, the right woulda whacked him.Since his inauguration, Republicans have criticized President Obama for everything. For launching military strikes. For not launching military strikes. For taking vacations. For being too uptight. For fist-bumping. For being too detached. You name it. Progressives and those who simply like fair-minded political debate have alleged that the actual facts of President Obama’s actions are irrelevant, that Republicans who were determined to oppose everything the president did from Day One would criticize his every move no matter...

FOR nearly three decades, I’ve felt conflicted about presidential salutes. After all, my United States Marine Corps instructors drilled into me the idea that “you never salute without a cover” which, in civilian, meant without a hat. My fellow Marines and I were also informed, in no uncertain terms, that we weren’t to salute out of uniform. (I don’t think that presidential blue suits, white shirts and red ties quite qualify.) So whenever I saw a president stepping off a helicopter and bringing hand to brow, my drill instructor’s unambiguous words came back to me with much of their original...

It was the salute seen around the world. President Obama was caught on video saluting Marines with a coffee cup in his hand. Just call him Cappuccino-in-Chief. The White House posted video to its Instagram account and soon unleashed a torrent of outrage. The Washington Times dubbed the moment “Semper Latte.” I’m surprised he didn’t order the Marines to fetch him cream and sugar. Before lunchtime – liberals had unearthed a photograph purportedly showing former President Bush saluting with a dog in his arms.

As President Obama continues to openly state U.S. ground troops on Iraq to combat terror army ISIS are not an option, a number of top military commanders have openly criticized or questioned his strategy, both in the press and in congressional testimony. Now we can add former head of the Marine Corps, General James Conway, to a long and growing list. Speaking at the Maverick PAC Conference in Washington D.C. last week, Conway didn't hold back or mince words about how he views current strategy against ISIS. The Daily Caller has the story: “I don’t think the president’s plan has a snowball’s...

SIERRA VISTA — The annual Marine Corps League Toys for Tots Drive has begun. The event kicked off Saturday with the awarding of raffle prizes drawn on Sept. 13 during the Sierra Vista Oktoberfest. The prizes were officially presented at the Toys for Tots headquarters in Sierra Vista, while at the same time a recent participant in the Honor Flight program — Ralph Graves — made an appearance. It was an early Christmas for sister and brother Liberty West, 9, and Lincoln West, 5, winning a special 360 degree racer stunt bike and for 9-year-old Annamae Buhr, the recipient of...

These are the days of Elijah.

While reading the February issue of the Marine Corps Gazette, I skimmed past the “Be Bold” advertisement calling for readers to submit articles that challenge a Marine Corps policy or way of doing business. Immediately a current “hot topic” came to mind, but as usual I quickly discarded it because I have purposely avoided publicly disagreeing with the passionate opinions of many of my female peers and friends. After weeks of contemplation and debate, I am “being bold” and coming clean: I am a female Marine officer and I do not believe women should serve in the infantry.

Decades before the television show, a Marine Corps battalion decorated for extensive combat in World War II and Vietnam earned the nickname the "Walking Dead." Now the 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, which also saw action in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been deactivated during a ceremony Friday at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. The step comes as top U.S. military and political leaders are moving to trim the size of America's military after more than a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Watch out, enemy drones. The U.S. military is developing laser weapons to smite you. The Office of Naval Research announced last week that it is building a laser weapon that will be able to shoot down aerial drones, spelling big trouble for any enemy who tries to target the U.S. Marines. GBAD – Ground-Based Air Defense Directed Energy On-the-Move – is a laser weapon designed to be installed on the Marines’ Humvees, Joint Light Tactical Vehicles and other light tactical ground vehicles. Intended to provide an affordable alternative to traditional firepower, GBADs could prevent enemy drones from tracking and targeting...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Decades before the television show, a Marine Corps battalion decorated for extensive combat in World War II and Vietnam earned the nickname the "Walking Dead." Now the 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, which also saw action in Iraq and Afghanistan, is being deactivated during a ceremony Friday at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. The step comes as top U.S. military and political leaders are moving to trim the size of America's military after more than a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Marine Corps historians say the battalion appears to have gotten...

Fresh off a trip to India and Australia, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel addressed a group of Marines in San Diego, California Tuesday, and may have delivered a line that will show up in Republican campaign ads this election cycle. After updating the troops on some issues in the Pacific region and the Middle East, Hagel took questions from some of the Marines and gave a stark assessment of the global security situation: "The world is exploding all over." The remark came in response to a question about the Obama administration's realignment of the military towards the Asia-Pacific theater:

Bus full of veterans sing "Marines' Hymn." video only

In the mid ‘90s the Marine Corps decided Doom II might make for an excellent training supplement. It did so for two reasons—a forward-thinking commandant and a budgetary shortfall. The Marines have always had to make due with little financial support compared to the other military branches. The USMC budget often lands somewhere around four percent of the Defense Department total. In 2010, that budget was about $40 billion. Back in the ’90s, it hovered around $10 billion. The Corps also needs to train all its troops with limited cash. Regardless of their specialization, every Marine is a trained rifleman.

In a suburb of our nation’s capitol, I learned that most kids’ fathers were not Marine Corps fighter pilots, but mine was. My dad told me that when I was born, he was deployed overseas to hunt down communist aviators and to rain down terror on America’s enemies by lighting Ho Chi Minh’s soldiers on fire. My dad had this patented-daring side that often made light of dark subjects and traumatized morally superior Americans like Jane Fonda. But my dad’s equally austere side taught me to respect the danger, sacrifices, and valor of warriors who have served our country honorably....

<p>Former Gov. Jesse Ventura won his defamation case against the author of “American Sniper.”</p> <p>The jury awarded a total of $1.845 million: $500,000 in defamation damages and $1.345 million for “unjust enrichment.”</p> <p>Jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict, as instructed. Instead, with the consent of both sides, they voted 8 to 2 in Ventura’s favor.</p>

Mexican Prison Ordeal Saps Marine's Life Savings While Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi was living on a base and eating MREs in Afghanistan and earning a battlefield promotion, his paychecks from Uncle Sam were piling up in the bank. He dreamed of returning to Weston, Fla., when his second tour of duty ended and buying a new truck, maybe getting a place of his own. At 26, and with a modest nest egg waiting, he had a future back home. Now Tahmooressi languishes in a Mexican prison, plagued by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. And the $65,000 he saved in the service of...