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Scott Rothstein is meeting with federal prosecutors tonight, according to numerous sources, and criminal charges appear imminent in the apparent Ponzi scheme that exceeds $400 million.

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan, Sept. 2, 2009 – When Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Traci Inniss enlisted in 1995, she followed in the footsteps of her military family members, even choosing to become a corpsman at the influence of her brother and sister, who had joined the Marine Corps. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Traci Inniss, a team leader of casualty evacuation corpsmen, waits for a CH-53D Sea Stallion to refuel at Forward Operating Base Dwyer, Afghanistan, July 19, 2009. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Samuel A. Nasso  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. But Inniss, a team leader...

BAGHDAD, May 29, 2009 – He spent his deployment helping to rebuild Iraq, but a Navy Reserve officer who served as chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division’s office in Iraq’s Anbar province fell victim to a roadside bomb this week. Navy Cmdr. Duane G. Wolfe, a reservist who served as chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division's office in Iraq's Anbar province, was among three killed in a roadside bomb attack last week.   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Navy Cmdr. Duane G. Wolfe and two other servicemembers were...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18, 2008 – When Navy Lt. John Pucillo enlisted after high school to be an explosive ordnance disposal technician, he knew the risks involved. Navy Lt. John Pucillo displays a tatoo on the remainder of his left leg, which was amputated following a bomb blast in Iraq in May 2006. Courtesy photo.  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Pucillo knew his choice in Navy jobs would eventually land him in Iraq and that he would be exposed to more danger there than with other specialties he could have chosen. No matter, the young Pucillo yearned for the...

COMBAT OUTPOST MEADE, Iraq, Sept. 3, 2008 – Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Samuel Solis couldn’t have pictured himself working on Army vehicles in the Iraqi desert when he signed up to become a sailor. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Samuel Solis monitors one of the systems designed to counter improvised explosive devices in an Army tactical vehicle at Combat Outpost Mead, Iraq, Aug. 24, 2008. He is part of the Joint Counter-Radio-Controlled IED Electronic Warfare Composite Squadron 1, attached to the 101st Airborne Division’s Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team. U.S....

MANAMA (Reuters) - A female sailor was found dead at a U.S. naval base in the Gulf island kingdom of Bahrain on Sunday, the Navy said. The cause of death was under investigation, and the name of the sailor was being withheld until the family had been notified, the Navy said in a statement. It gave no further details. In October, two female sailors were killed and a third sailor was critically wounded with what appeared to a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a shooting incident at the base. Bahrain is the home of the U.S. fifth fleet. About 3,000 staff...

Days before pleading guilty to money laundering earlier this month, former legislator Ron Sailor Jr. secretly took out a $250,000 mortgage on the southwest Atlanta church where he was pastor. The congregation had no idea what he had done, church leaders say. Now, they say they have no idea where the money is. The deacons of Greater New Light Missionary Baptist Church were scrambling Thursday to piece together what happened and just who was the minister they thought they knew. "It's amazing to all of us," said Jimmie Evans, chairman of the board of deacons. "We can't believe it." Sailor...

State Rep. Ron Sailor on Tuesday pleaded guilty to laundering what he believed to be $375,000 in drug money for an undercover officer posing as a drug dealer. Sailor, 33, a Democrat who represents parts of DeKalb and Rockdale counties, agreed to resign his position in the legislature. Shortly after his arrest three months ago, Sailor admitted his wrongdoing and began providing information for a public corruption investigation. "It is an active and ongoing investigation," U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said after the guilty plea. Sailor provided "useful information in opening windows into public corruption we were unaware of before his...

A sailor on the Norfolk-based carrier Theodore Roosevelt died Saturday from a severe head injury sustained when the ship hit heavy seas off the coast of Florida, the Navy said Sunday. The sailor's name was not released pending family notification. -snip-

How Does Tom Allen Keep His Promise to US Vets If....? Would Tom Allen Recognize a U.S. Vet if He Saw One? Tom Allen’s campaign for U.S. Senator website is promoting a feature called, “Keeping Our Promise To American’s Veterans,” with a series of photos. But how does Tom Allen keep his promise to American Veterans if he doesn’t know what one looks like? The picture below from Allen's website is a stock photo of a Royal Navy sailor. A U.S. Navy sailor would not be wearing a beard. The weapon in the picture is a British weapon. This isn’t...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2008 – When Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Ralph Chavez volunteered for a deployment to Afghanistan, he didn’t really know what he was getting himself into. It ended up being one of the best experiences of his military career. Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Ralph Chavez. Defense Department Photo.  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Chavez, a yeoman, or administrative specialist, decided to volunteer for an individual augmentation deployment in 2006 while stationed in California. He said it was important for him to volunteer because he knew soldiers and Marines who were on their second or...

MANAMA, Bahrain -- A sailor from USS Hopper went overboard during U.S. Navy operations in the Arabian Sea, the U.S. military said Friday. The sailor went missing Thursday around 7:30 a.m. local time while the ship was conducting maritime security operations, said the statement from the Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain. "A 'man overboard' was immediately called and air and surface forces from the Hopper, USS Port Royal and USS Ingraham began conducting search and rescue operations," it said. The sailor, whose name was not released, has not been found but the search continues, the Navy said. Lt. John...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A former Navy sailor from Phoenix charged with supporting terrorism by disclosing secret information about the location of Navy ships and the best ways to attack them says evidence against him was illegally obtained and should be thrown out.

BAGHDAD, Nov. 27, 2007 – Two hundred eighty soldiers and one sailor re-enlisted earlier this month in the Al Faw palace, one of Saddam Hussein’s former homes. The palace was seized by 3rd Infantry Division out of Fort Stewart, Ga., in 2003. On the division’s 90th birthday Nov. 21, soldiers under its command renewed their commitment to the Army and the war on terror. When Sgt. Patricia Daniels, of Headquarters and Headquarters Support Company, Support Troops Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, re-enlisted during Operation Iraqi Freedom III, she didn’t know the significance of the date at first. “Last time I was...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19, 2007 – Navy Reserve Petty Officer 1st Class Sivenson Guerrier exchanged his “sea legs” and became a “landlubber” during a yearlong duty tour in Afghanistan when he volunteered to participate in a pilot program that provided ground-operations training to sailors. Navy Reserve Petty Officer 1st Class Sivenson Guerrier is telling the story of his service through the Defense Department’s “Why We Serve” public-outreach program. Photo by Gerry J. Gilmore  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Guerrier underwent three months of Army training at Fort Bragg, N.C., before deploying to Afghanistan in April 2006 to join a...

HONOLULU, Sept. 16, 2007 – Members of Scott Harpley’s Ringgold High School graduation class in northern Georgia probably wouldn’t recognize the driven young sailor squeezed into seat 51F on an airplane yesterday headed here to his first duty assignment. U.S. Navy Fireman Apprentice Scott Harpley, age 22, heads to his first duty assignment in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where he will serve aboard the Navy submarine USS Pasadena, Sept. 15, 2007. Defense Dept. photo by Donna Miles   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. At age 22, U.S. Navy Fireman Apprentice Harpley is much more – and in some cases,...

WASHINGTON, May 31, 2007 – A lifelong love for the sea led Lt. j.g. Katie Hagen to the Navy, and now her service is taking her around the country to share her pride in serving the nation. Hagen is participating in the Defense Department’s “Why We Serve” public outreach program as one of eight servicemembers who travel across the nation to speak to community groups, ranging from veterans organizations to grade schools, about their personal stories of military service. Her success in the Navy seemed preordained. After sailing for nearly half her life, Hagen became a member of the...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2007 – Petty Officer 1st Class Virginia Marie Mayo, a Navy corpsman, has proved she can do what the guys do and go where the Marines go. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Virginia Marie Mayo. Photo by Gerry J. Gilmore  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The 29-year-old sailor has served aboard ships during her nine-year career and performed dangerous land-based missions during a yearlong tour of duty in Iraq in 2006. In Iraq, Mayo organized medical triage and movement of casualties and also participated in more than 15 combat-related missions, including convoys and dismounted patrols....

Iranian Arabic language network Al Alam on Friday aired a new video showing one of 15 British detainees apologizing to Iranians for "entering your waters without permission." A few hours later, Iran released a letter said to be written by Faye Turney, stating she had been "sacrificed" to the policies of the British and U.S. governments. The British government criticized the treatment of the sailors, Tony Blair saying Iran faced "increasing isolation" for refusing to release the service personnel. There was no immediate reaction by the British government to the Turney letter. Friday's video of Nathan Thomas Summers --appearing to...

Considering that it is permissible in Iran to stone women to death, and considering that the mad mullahs jail women's rights activists who protest, no one should be surprised that the Iranian government singled out captive British sailor Faye (Topsy) Turney for special abuse. The old, demented goats no doubt got a self-satisfied chuckle out of casting Seaman Spec. Turney as the spokeswoman for the 15 Brits taken hostage in an outrageous act of piracy and provocation. Iran is not a country that grants women the freedom to serve on a ship, or, for that matter, to do many other...

3/22/2007 - ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska (AFNEWS) -- Airmen in Alaska came through for a wounded British Sailor March 21 when he was injured during a deadly explosion aboard the Royal Navy submarine HMS Tireless operating in Arctic waters north of Prudhoe Bay. The submarine experienced an explosion of a self contained oxygen generation candle that killed two Sailors and injured the third late March 20 while conducting a joint U.S. United Kingdom exercise. A civilian helicopter contracted by exercise organizers transported the injured Sailor from the scene to the town of Deadhorse, where an Alaska Air National Guard...

<p>An American sailor was rescued early Friday after three days adrift on a disabled yacht off the southern tip of South America, the Chilean navy said.</p>

USS Iwo Jima - Sailors aboard the multipurpose, amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) paused to remember AP photographer Joe Rosenthal, who died Aug. 20 at the age of 94. Rosenthal’s photograph of the flag-raising atop Mt. Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945 became the most famous image of World War II – an instantly recognizable symbol of the sacrifices made by American service members during the Pacific campaign. Rosenthal’s image, later immortalized by sculptor Felix DeWeldon as the U.S Marine Corps Memorial in Washington D.C., also serves as the official logo of LHD 7....

AL ASAD, Iraq (Aug. 30, 2006) -- In the midst of a combat zone it may be hard for one to find beauty, but with the help of one Naval petty officer, service members deployed to Al Asad, Iraq, will get a little taste of heaven when visiting the base chapel. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Donald J. Hodory, builder, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 25, 9th Naval Construction Regiment, saw a need and took the necessary steps to make the newly constructed chapel more like a religious sanctuary in the States. "The idea for stained-glass windows came more as a...

RICHMOND, Va. - A Sailor accused of taking a Navy laptop containing classified information and peddling its contents to foreign governments is being held for possible court-martial, the military Wednesday. The Navy said that Petty Officer 3rd Class Ariel J. Weinmann gave the classified information, containing national defense data, to an undisclosed foreign government before he destroyed the computer. Weinmann, 21, of Salem, Ore., was confined at Norfolk Naval Air Station on six charges, the Navy said in a statement. The charges include three counts of espionage, including a suspected March 2005 visit to Bahrain, where Weinmann tried to pass...

PAKTIKA PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN (NNS) -- Life has been full of surprises for Petty Officer Matthew P. Julian of Greece, Rochester, NY. As a culinary specialist assigned to the submarine USS San Francisco, Julian didn’t expect the tour to include a rotation in the mountains of Afghanistan as an Individual Augmentee, pulled from his normal job to directly support Operation Enduring Freedom. But despite being an IA deployed more than eight thousand feet above sea level and half a world away from his boat’s homeport of Bremerton Wash., Julian found that out of sight doesn’t mean out of mind. Julian was...

A US Navy sailor, Ariel J. Weinmann, is suspected of spying for Israel and has been held in prison for four months, according to an article published Monday in the Saudi daily Al-Watan. It reported that Weinmann is being held at a military base in Virginia on suspicion of espionage and desertion. According to the navy, Weinmann was apprehended on March 26 "after it was learned that he had been listed as a deserter by his command." Though initial information released by the navy makes no mention of it, Al-Watan reported that he was returning from an undisclosed "foreign country."...

US sailor,who tried to sell secrets to Russians was arrested in March as he re-entered country.He is now detained as a deserter in Norfolk. Espionage charges may be filed soon. This is not the first attempt by Russia to obtain secrets,and probably won't be last. What's up with the Russians ?

Chief Boatswain’s Mate Brian Cissell gives an Iraqi boy some candy. BAGHDAD -- “We’re making a difference, one project at a time,” says a Navy man who is finishing a six-month tour deployed to one of Iraq’s most dangerous areas. “I’m proud of what we were able to accomplish as we worked side-by-side with some truly remarkable and courageous Iraqi people.” Chief Boatswain’s Mate Brian Cissell was responsible for overseeing 55 projects in an area in south Baghdad province, referred to by many as the “Triangle of Death.” He was involved in four separate improvised explosive device detonations. He...

I once witnessed a bar fight in downtown Olongapo (Philippines) that still haunts my dreams. The fight was between a big oafish Marine and a rather soft-spoken, medium sized Latino sailor from my ship. All evening the Marine had been trying to pick a fight with one of us and had finally set his sights on this diminutive shipmate of mine... figuring him for a safe target. When my friend refused to be goaded into a fight the Marine sucker punched him from behind on the side of the head so hard that blood instantly started to pour from this...

MANAMA, Bahrain (NNS) -- The U.S. Naval Forces Central Command’s (NAVCENT) command center answered a distress call from the owner of the Indian-flagged merchant vessel Kayana, after the ship sank off the coast of Somalia, June 22. Lt. j.g. Brad Fancher, NAVCENT’s watch commander at the time, received the call. He then set in motion the chain of events that led to the safe rescue of Kayana’s 18 crew members. “I called the Rescue Coordination Center [RCC] in Falmouth, England, because they coordinate most rescue operations around the world,” said Fancher, a native of Lumberton, Texas. After the vessel sank,...

Granted: we may be created equal, and equality is certainly the essential lifeblood of this country. But in reality, all men (and women) are not equal in the purest sense of the word. Some are truly nobler in the sense that they have given and endured and sacrificed more than others. Some have borne an unequal, much weightier, share of national responsibility and that fact should be recognized.

So, it’s not so much that one generation is better than another. The giants who stormed Iwo Jima were no better men than those serving in Iraq today. Nor are the Iraq-based Marines better than those who raised the flag on Mount Suribachi in 1945. I see it as more along the lines of a direct lineal dynamic wherein we can look at the men who stood atop Suribachi and have a better understanding of how their descendents were able to storm and capture the city of Fallujah nearly 60-years-later.

All sailors are not created equal. And in the purest sense of the word, the best-trained “sailors” in the world may well-be the U.S. Navy’s Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (SWCC). They are certainly some of the most skilled seaborne warriors in the U.S. Special Operations Command. Yet few outside of military circles have heard of them, and those who have, see them only as post-9/11 bluejackets driving fast boats in dangerous waters. They are much more.

A US sailor has pleaded guilty to smuggling seven kilograms of the drug 'ice' into Australia on a US Navy ship last year. Daniel Maio, 36, changed his plea on the fourth day of his Supreme Court trial in Townsville, in north Queensland. During the course of the trial, the court heard Maio hid the drugs in the radar compartment of the USS Boxer, on which he was a chief petty officer. The drugs were brought ashore on a recreational visit to Townsville last June. Maio, fellow sailor Andrew Labanon and Mehdi Mohammadi, who is a Canadian citizen living on...

CORONADO, Calif. (NNS) -- Sailors and Marines from Coronado were thanked for their service by their civilian neighbors with a night of dinner and dancing March 18. Coronado’s 21st Annual Salute to the Military Ball, held at the historic Hotel Del Coronado and organized by the city's chamber of commerce, was Coronado's way of showing its appreciation to their military community. “This is the most patriotic thing any city can do for its country and its military,” said Mike Urquhart, Coronado’s Salute to the Military Ball co-chairman and a retired Navy commander. The Harry T. Jenkins Memorial Award was presented...

Decatur is best known for his 1816 toast to the nation at a dinner party in his honor. Raising his glass, he said, “Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country right or wrong.” ... Then there are those like Hollywood film star George Clooney and Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy who today have their own takes on Decatur’s words.

Hawaii residents paid more state taxes in 2004 than residents of any other state in the country... Hawaii residents paid an average of $3,050 per person in 2004, while Texans paid the least — an average of $1,368. Every state but one collected more taxes per person in 2004 than it did a decade earlier... State taxpayer burdens increased by an average of 41 percent from 1994 to 2004. Only Alaska saw the amount it collects per person decline. Even when the numbers are adjusted for inflation, the individual tax burdens increased in 43 states. Rising education and Medicaid costs...

Taxes were up in the past 10 years for Maryland and Virginia residents, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, disappointing both lawmakers and anti-tax advocates. The tax burden in Virginia increased by 55 percent in that period, with a per capita amount of $1,903 in 2004. In Maryland, the tax burden increased by 46 percent, with an individual tax burden of $2,214 in 2004. The District's tax statistics are computed with cities' and local governments' financial data, which won't be available until April, the Census Bureau said.

"... thank God we have about 27–million strong supporters by our side as we track down and finish off these ruthless Al Qaeda types and their local henchmen. We aren’t tired, or broken, or losing heart."

KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 19, 2006 — Petty Officer 2nd Class Luis Joseph Lopez, stationed aboard USS Bonhomme Richard, last year volunteered for orders to Kabul, Afghanistan, to help reform the Afghan National Police just months after returning from a six-month deployment in support of the global war on terrorism. Lopez is the plans operator at the Office of Security Cooperation, Afghanistan’s Police Reform Directorate at Camp Eggers in Kabul. He is one of a few sailors deployed to the OSC to assist the Afghan Ministry of the Interior and its coalition partners in developing a self-sustaining national police force. The...

TOKYO - A U.S. sailor was arrested Saturday on a murder charge for the killing of a Japanese woman, a Japanese police official said. The 21-year-old sailor was arrested after he was transferred to police from the U.S. Navy base in Yokosuka, about 30 miles southwest of Tokyo, a police official said on condition of anonymity, citing police branch policy. The U.S. military previously had agreed to hand over the sailor, who police said admitted during questioning that he killed 56-year-old Yoshie Sato. Sato was found beaten and unconscious in Yokosuka on Tuesday, and later died of internal bleeding. The...

TWA Hijacker Released From German Prison The Associated Press Tuesday, December 20, 2005; 8:51 AM BERLIN -- A Lebanese man serving a life sentence for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jetliner and killing of a U.S. Navy diver has been paroled after 19 years, a law enforcement official said Tuesday. Mohammed Ali Hamadi was released from prison and has left Germany, said Doris Moeller-Scheu, spokeswoman for the Frankfurt prosecutor's office. She said she did not know his destination. Hamadi's case came up for a court-mandated review, and he was released after an expert assessment and a hearing, she said....

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Remains of a U.S. Navy sailor who was listed as missing in action after Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor have been identified and will be returned to his family, the Department of Defense said. Seaman 2nd Class Warren P. Hickok of Kalamazoo, Michigan, was assigned to the USS Sicard when Japanese aircraft attacked the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, the Defense Department's POW/Missing Personnel Office said Friday. Hickok was among crew members who were sent to assist the crew of the USS Cummings, a destroyer docked nearby.

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Dec. 9, 2005) -- A Company D graduate served his country once before as a sailor, and he returns to serve again as a Marine despite criticism from his friends and family. Pfc. Leonidez Cruz, Platoon 1131, 30, grew up in El Paso, Texas and joined the Navy in 1994 - a week after he graduated from high school. Trying to get away from home, Cruz wanted to move his life in a different direction. "I just wanted to get away from home and see the world, so I went into the aviation-electrical...

Military Salute, a 34-minute Windows-XP video honoring America’s Armed Forces, past and present, is available online. Visit the Military Salute home page at http://condocat.home.att.net for contents and other information. Individuals, non-profit groups, and organizations with DSL or cable access can view or download the video at no charge from http://www.soldiergifts.com/Military-Salute.html or http://www.rollingsportsman.com/Military-Salute.html. Five disabled Vietnam-era Veterans distribute Military Salute, providing it to active-duty Military units, Veterans groups, family support groups, public safety organizations, church groups, school districts, and students working on patriotic projects. The group, known as The Minnesota Platoon, also participates in fundraising projects that benefit America’s Veterans and...

Insurgencies are not put down in a fortnight. But considering the successes in the recent counter-insurgency sweep in Iraq's Al Anbar Province, one fact becomes obvious to anyone with so much as a sliver of an understanding of ground combat operations: Eliminating the insurgency in Iraq is best left to those who best know how to do it.

OPERATION HERO ALERT: Funeral Services for Seargent Evan Seam ParkerCounter-Protest of WBCWednesday, 11/2/2005*South Haven Public School - South Haven, KS OPERATION HERO is spreading word of a planned picket by Westboro Baptist Church during the memorial service of Seargent Evan Seam Parker. Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church will be picketing during the funeral service for Sgt. Evan Seam Parker on Wednesday, November 2 in South Haven, KS. This anti-Troops/anti-war "liberal" hate group will be protesting from 1pm - 2pm outside the High School where services are being held. The funeral service is scheduled to begin at 2pm, so...

CHELSEA - People who knew Army Staff Sgt. John Doles and many who didn't took up U.S. flags Tuesday in his hometown to honor his sacrifice and defy an outside group that sought to turn the slain soldier's funeral into a stage for its message of hate. As Doles' funeral procession rolled past the brick buildings of the small town where he grew up, men, women and children stood with tears in their eyes and hands on their hearts. "Respect," said 73-year-old Betty Benson, explaining why she waved a flag for the 29-year-old she never knew. "I think he deserves...

NEW FRANKLIN - Joey Ashley played drums and clarinet in the Manchester High School marching band. On Friday, Oct. 28, during the halftime band show at the Manchester football game against Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, the 1999 Manchester graduate who died in a submarine accident will be honored by the band. A patriotic halftime show will be dedicated to Ashley, band director Nathan Sensabaugh said. After Ashley's death, his parents, Dan and Vicki Ashley, donated his clarinet and his quad drums to the high school. On Friday night, Kelly Robertson, 18, a senior, will play Ashley's clarinet and Nate Duncan,...