Free Republic

Homeland Security: The Pentagon has decided against arming recruiters in the wake of the Chattanooga terror attack that killed five soldiers. Instead of guns, officers will get "desk partitions." We can't make this stuff up. According to the Marine Corps Times, Marine brass have ruled out arming recruiters following July's deadly shooting rampage in Tennessee by Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez. The ISIS-inspired jihadist opened fire on several military recruiting officers stationed in a strip mall before attacking a military base a few minutes away.

The Marine Corps Facebook page has an #AskPOTUS post thing going to solicit questions for Obama to be held tomorrow. It’s up now. It’s pretty plain how it’s going to go. It went up 30 minutes ago. The first question was “Obama , why are you destroying America? #ASKPOTUS”. It’s pretty much going like that. Post count is starting to heat up. It won’t be pretty, but it will be fun. :-)

Women in a new Marine Corps unit created to assess how female service members perform in combat were injured twice as often as men, less accurate with infantry weapons and not as good at removing wounded troops from the battlefield, according to the results of a long-awaited study produced by the service. The research was carried out by the service in a nine-month long experiment at both Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Twentynine Palms, Calif. About 400 Marines, including 100 women, volunteered to join the Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force, the unit the Marine Corps created to compare how men...

All-male ground combat squads proved faster, stronger and more lethal in most cases than units that included women, concludes a Marine Corps study that evaluated the impact of integrating women into all jobs. The women also suffered higher injury rates during physically demanding training, according to a summary of the study released Thursday. The Marine Corps faces a deadline the Pentagon has set for requiring military branches to open all specialties to women, including infantry and special operations forces, beginning next year.

One U.S. Marine was killed and 11 were injured when a helicopter made a hard landing during a training exercise at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, the Marines said on Thursday. The accident, which occurred around 9 p.m. on Wednesday with a CH-53E helicopter, is under investigation, the Marines said in a statement. A hard landing occurs when an aircraft touches down with greater force and speed than normal, typically after a particularly fast or steep descent, according to the statement. Of the injured, two were hospitalized in stable condition. Nine were scheduled to be released after medical evaluation, the...

The first ever black Marine Corps pilot, who fought endemic racism to rise to the rank of three-star general, has died aged 83. From the moment he signed up to the Navy as a seaman apprentice in 1950 Frank E. Petersen Jr. was under no illusions as to the challenge he faced. The native of Topeka, Kansas, aced his entrance exam but was called a few days later and asked to re-take it because it was thought he had cheated.

Three Americans received France’s highest honor from its President this morning after risking their lives to stop a terror attack on a train before it could get in motion. The three quick-thinking Americans, joined by a British businessman who helped in rendering the terrorist immobile, received high praise from Francois Hollande. “We are giving you the highest distinction of the country to show you how much we appreciate what you did,” declared François Hollande:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO Three Americans who helped thwart an attack by an AK-47-toting gunman on a high-speed train received France’s highest honor on...

A gunman opened fire on board a high speed train in northern France. Eyewitnesses said three U.S. Marines on the train disarmed the gunman. The man was armed with a deadly a Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle. Three people were wounded and the gunman is currently in police custody.

Unarmed US Marine 'in critical condition' after Kalashnikov-wielding suspected terrorist on board high-speed train between Amsterdam and Paris. An unarmed US Marine who ambushed a Kalashnikov-wielding gunman on a train between Amsterdam and Paris is in critical condition, according to French media reports. The serviceman, who has not been named, was one of two Americans who tackled the 26-year-old Moroccan national to the ground after hearing him load up a gun in the toilet. In the scuffle, one of the Marines was shot and another stabbed. France Info reports one is in a critical condition. Addressing reporters at the station...

A man has been arrested after firing a Kalashnikov rifle on board an Amsterdam-Paris train, according to French media. Le Parisien reports that a Briton and an American are "seriously" wounded. A third person, the French actor Jean-Hugues Anglade, was also wounded and is said to have raised the alarm. La Voix du Nord, a newspaper in the Calais region, said a man was arrested on suspicion of firing the weapon on a Thalys train near the northern town of Arras. Police say that have not ruled out terrorism as a possible motive and Bernard Cazeneuve, the French interior minister,...

Larry Yepez credits Marine training. A California Vietnam veteran now has bear attack scars to go along with his battle wounds. Crediting his Marine Corps training, Larry Yepez, 66, says he fought off a 250-pound bear outside his Mariposa County home last week. I could feel his strength. I felt like a little rag doll underneath him ... the bear was about 10 feet away and despite his yelling "get away," the animal continued toward him, jumped on him and knocked him down. ... I could hear the crunching ... when he bit down (on my wrist). He ripped towards...

Defense officials appear ready to ask Congress to repeal a law that commissaries must sell products at cost plus 5 percent, a formula that for decades has ensured commissary shoppers everywhere pay the same prices. Officials have drafted a replacement formula that would allow prices to vary from store to store to meet a new twin goal: reducing taxpayer support for commissaries while maintaining still attractive savings for patrons. Variable pricing would seek to keep savings consistent across the commissary system by pegging local commissary prices for a market basket of goods at some target percentage level below prices of...

Boulder, CO – -(Ammoland.com)- “You shall not kill.” As a Catholic altar boy and student at St. Jude’s School near Boston, Jack Coughlin learned the Fifth Commandment early in life. As a Marine Corps sniper and devout pro-life Catholic, Coughlin killed for a living. From rooftops, hillsides and shelled-out buildings, he focused the crosshairs on distant individuals, squeezed the trigger and ended their lives. By the time he retired, Coughlin had accumulated 60 confirmed kills in Somalia, Iraq and other foreign battlefields he will not identify. Coughlin, author of the autobiography Shooter ( tiny.cc/40gh1x ) , has little trouble...

The Marine Corps congressional fellow arrested Tuesday on Capitol grounds was carrying two loaded guns, 114 rounds of live ammunition, a military ballistic vest and two knives in his car, court documents state. Gunnery Sgt. Peter James Boby pleaded not guilty Wednesday to three misdemeanor charges in D.C. Superior Court. His wrists and ankles were shackled during the brief arraignment. Boby, who wore a plaid shirt and jeans, was released from custody on his personal recognizance. He told CQ Roll Call he had no comment on the case. Court documents state that Boby approached a Capitol Police barricade on C...

Donnie Dunagan became the youngest-ever US Marine Corps drill instructor in 1952 and consequently completed three tours in the Vietnam where he received, in his words, “holes that god did not give me.” What most people do not know is, among his three purple hearts and Bronze Star history, Dunagan is the famous voice of Bambi; the nasally little fawn on shaky legs that we all know, hold dear and often make reference to when referring to innocence on a grand scale. Dunagan held this secret closely during his tenure as a tough and seasoned drill sergeant, but has always...

Marine leaders have made the momentous recommendation to ditch the iconic M16 in favor of the M4 carbine as the new universal weapon for infantrymen. The recommendation to swap the venerated rifle that has served as the grunt’s primary implement of war since Vietnam now sits on the commandant’s desk, pending his final review and a decision. But, the swap appears imminent and if approved will relegate the M16 to a support role. It follows a similar shift already underway in the Army. With the endorsement of several major commands already supporting the switch — including Marine Corps Combat Development...

Defense Secretary Ash Carter has given his top commanders the green light to allow more troops to carry weapons at U.S. bases, with a focus on recruiting stations, Reserve centers and other softer military targets. Carter’s actions came two weeks after a Kuwaiti-born gunman killed four Marines and a sailor before police slayed him at the Navy reserve center in Chattanooga, Tenn. “The tragic shooting on July 16 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, illustrates the continuing threat to DOD personnel in the U.S. homeland posed by homegrown violent extremists,” Carter wrote in a memo released Thursday by the Pentagon. In the memo,...

Republicans fear a repeat of 1992, with a squishy Bush at the head of the ticket watching helplessly as some populist businessman/novelty act hands the election to a Clinton. But Democrats should fear the far more likely repeat of 1968. Ah, the 1968 convention … just thinking of it brings a smile to the face of every normal American. Let’s start with hordes of Chicago cops kicking the psychedelia out of dirty hippies. Footage of all-American flatfoots clocking VC-flag waving pinkos with nightsticks is more erotic than a hundred “Fifty Shades” books. Just thinking about it makes me want to...

I watched this cable channel program yesterday. Somehow I do not recall my history teachers, teaching about the Muslim hatred for Chistians. But then again I went to public schools. "The hundred and nine men, women and children abducted by Murat Reis were at sea for nearly forty days. GERALD O’BRIAN "They left Baltimore 4pm on June 20th 1631 and they arrived in Algiers on July 28th 1631, and as far as we know, everybody survived the crossing." Some would wish they were no longer alive. For them the harbour entrance of Sale was the gate to a world of...

Just a few days ago, the Obama Pentagon refused to acknowledge the rights of its military members to arm themselves at recruitment offices. Instead, they told them the same thing troops were told in Europe back in November: Don’t wear your uniforms and “close the blinds” for their own protection. However, one Marine had an epic response to the ridiculous recommendations and, no doubt, it will go viral. John McCall is a motor transportation operator in the United States Marine Corps. He has been serving since October of 2009, as well as being the Director of Marketing for Visalus Sciences...