Free Republic

The footage appears to show the groups outside the Voodoo Room on the historic Sixth Street of Austin's entertainment district. The altercation seems to start when one woman grabs a phone out of the hands of another and a Marine tries to intervene. Then, a man in a white long-sleeve shirt attempts to throw a punch at a different Marine and misses, as a group of his fellow military men rush to his defense. While some Marines try to separate the men as they curse at each other, tensions seem to escalate and an all-out brawl begins. The civilians and...

More recently, the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war have demonstrated the effectiveness of UASs. In those conflicts, unmanned systems have been used at a scale and sophistication far beyond those of any previous conventional war. UASs and loitering munitions (LMs) proved crucial to Azerbaijan’s victory. Ukraine’s Turkish-built Bayraktar drones grabbed headlines early in the 2022 invasion when they destroyed Russian vehicles with precision munitions.2 Russian Lancet-3 LMs have likewise been documented destroying high-value Ukrainian targets such as surface-to-air missile systems and howitzers.3In addition to purpose-built systems, Ukrainian volunteer groups have used commercially purchased and custom-built unmanned aerial...

More whistleblowers have stepped forward to tell Congress that high-ranking FBI officials are targeting agents, specifically former military members, for their political beliefs and trying to force them out of the bureau. A Marine and other military veterans at the FBI have been accused of disloyalty to the U.S. because they fit the profile of a supporter of former President Donald Trump, according to two disclosures sent to lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee. The Washington Times obtained copies of the disclosures. The whistleblowers said Jeffrey Veltri, deputy assistant director of the bureau’s security division, and Dena Perkins, assistant section...

UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS BIRTHDAY On November 10th, The United States Marine Corps Birthday commemorates the establishment of the Continental Marines. #MarineCorpsBirthday The United States Marine Corps, a branch of the United States Armed Forces, is responsible for providing power protection from the sea. They use the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. The Continental Congress first established the Continental Marines on November 10, 1775, leading up to the American Revolution. Two battalions of Marines fought for independence both on land and at sea. The birth of the U.S. Marine Corps began as a...

https://www.instagram.com/p/CzG7WAFLicE/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=bb4cdd23-b02f-4dd2-9bcc-4bec4756604f Alright, before we get into why this shit is surprising to me, I wanna lay the groundwork for the responsibilities of the US Central Command. From the government website: Mission: USCENTCOM directs and enables military operations and activities with allies and partners to increase regional security and stability in support of enduring U.S. interests. Command Priorities: 1. Deter Iran 2. Counter Violent Extremist Organizations 3. Compete Strategically - Regional Constructs - Integrated Air and Missile Defense/ Counter Unmanned Aerial systems All those things sound relevant given the disasters that are dominating the news and the globe. The area that...

The defendant in a Jan. 6. 2021 Capitol Hill protests-related case denied a claim by federal prosecutors that a boyfriend was jailed for plotting to shoot up a synagogue. Riley Williams’ filing Thursday came in response to one last week by federal prosecutors objecting to her request to loosen restrictions pending her trial. She is wearing an ankle monitor and is under house arrest at her mother’s home in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Prosecutors in that filing noted that Williams had lied last August about meeting a boyfriend; Williams was required to report all her meetings, and she had told people, including...

A suicide bomber drives a truck packed with explosives into the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. military personnel. That same morning, 58 French soldiers were killed in their barracks two miles away in a separate suicide terrorist attack. The U.S. Marines were part of a multinational force sent to Lebanon in August 1982 to oversee the Palestinian withdrawal from Lebanon. From its inception, the mission was plagued with problems–and a mounting body count. In 1975, a bloody civil war erupted in Lebanon, with Palestinian and leftist Muslim guerrillas battling militias of the Christian Phalange Party, the Maronite...

A Marine Corps expeditionary unit, which abruptly ended pre-scheduled training in Kuwait last week, is en route "to the waters off of Israel," a defense official familiar with planning told Military.com on Monday. Its movement comes as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered additional military capabilities to the region. The 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, or MEU, is capable of conducting amphibious operations and crisis response, among other missions, the official said.

A camouflage shortage in the Marine Corps will lead to service members wearing less regulated uniforms in the near future. In an Instagram video, Commandant Gen. Eric Smith addressed service members’ concerns over an inability to find and purchase woodland-patterned "cammies" in an ongoing manufacturing shortage. He announced that as the problem continues, local members will be allowed to wear alternate uniforms contrary to Marine standards. "That problem is going to stay with us until the fall of 2024 when the manufacturer can fill the backlog that has been created after COVID. Until that time, local commanders, battalions and squadrons...

Calling the case of a still-missing F-35 jet a "mishap" may be one of the greater understatements made by a U.S. government entity in recent memory, but the Marine Corps announced Monday afternoon that it was taking rather drastic action as the search continues for their runaway aircraft.

HUGER, SC — A team of Marines was seen trudging through the woods, stopping every 30 feet to wave a key fob around in a 90° arc, say campers at Francis Marion National Forest. The Marines, who traveled in a tactical column, were allegedly on a mission to locate, close with, and recover the F-35 fighter jet that went missing Sunday evening. "No contact," [redacted] whispered after stopping to listen for the 249th time. Sources confirm the missing F-35 never beeped in response to signals from the key fob, even if the unit leader did that thing where he tried...

Those F-35 stealth fighters must be even closer to invisible than I thought because the Marines lost one on Sunday and nobody can find it. A Marine piloting the special vertical takeoff and landing version, the F-35B, suffered some kind of “mishap” and was forced to eject over South Carolina. He ejected safely. He’s fine. We can go on and laugh. The plane, however, was nowhere to be found. Weighing in at over 32,000 pounds even when it isn’t filled with jet fuel, you’d think the missing jet would be easy to find, but no. There was genuine concern that...

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...

Gold Star dad and father of a US Marine killed during the terrorist attack at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan exploded at Joe Biden on Tuesday, saying he is a “disgrace to this nation” and has “more American blood” on his hands “than any president in US history.” Mark Schmitz, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, who was killed in a bomb blast on Aug. 26, 2021, during a military evacuation at the Kabul airport, participated in a roundtable discussion before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Not a single person has been held accountable,” Schmitz said. “Our so-called...

Three US marines have been killed in a horror helicopter crash during military exercises in northern Australia, with five others in a serious condition. The Boeing MV-22B Osprey, with 23 people on board, went down on Melville Island in the Tiwi Islands at 9.43am local time on Sunday. Five marines were flown from the scene to Royal Darwin Hospital, arriving just before 3pm local time, with the other 18 treated at the site of the crash. 'Recovery efforts are ongoing,' the Marine Rotational Force Darwin said. 'The cause of the incident is under investigation. 'Further details will be provided as...

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...

...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."

There’s no deadline to apply for PACT Act benefits. But if you file your PACT Act claim—or quickly submit your intent to file—by August 9, 2023, you may receive benefits backdated to August 10, 2022. So don’t wait, apply today. The PACT Act and your VA benefits The PACT Act is a new law that expands VA health care and benefits for Veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances. The PACT Act adds to the list of health conditions that we assume (or “presume”) are caused by exposure to these substances. This law helps us provide...

Marine 1st Lt. Harvey “Barney” Barnum jumped to the ground when he came under fire during an ambush in Vietnam that killed his radio operator and commander. Collecting himself, Barnum realized he was now the highest-ranking officer of a rifle company he’d just joined. He called in artillery and, amid gunfire, dragged the commander to safety, where he died in Barnum’s arms. Then he proceeded to mount a counterattack, oversee evacuation of the wounded and lead the unit’s eventual break out to rejoin the battalion. To launch a counterattack, he brandished a .45-caliber handgun and told the others to follow...

Authorities say there is no indication of foul play but the circumstances surrounding their death are under investigation.