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Eager to fight, he had to wait because he had a valuable railroad job that was important to the war effort. A boss finally let him go when he became a union steward. He saw action in the biggest way possible in February 1945, when the war in Europe was waning but the war in Japan was any anything but certain.

Phoenix (CNN)Jon Ritzheimer is a former Marine, and he has no middle ground when it comes to Islam. A T-shirt he wears pretty much says it all: "F--- Islam." Ritzheimer is the organizer of Friday's "Freedom of Speech Rally" outside the Islamic Community Center in Phoenix.

"The truck’s windshield explodes into shards of glass as their rounds take it apart and tear into the body of the son of a b@@@@ trying to get past them to kill their brothers.....American and Iraqi – bedded down in the barracks, totally unaware that their lives at that moment depended entirely on two Marines standing their ground. Yale and Haerter never hesitated. By all reports and by the recording, they never stepped back....."

This video is a moving tribute to honor an outstanding young Marine Officer by his father, Dr. Bill Kristoff. At the age of 61, Dr. Bill Kristoff of Truckee, CA joined the U.S. Navy Medical Corps in order to honor the memory of his oldest son by serving as a surgeon in Afghanistan to treat wounded Marines. While doing some further research on this amazing family, I found this: The outdoor activities were a joy shared by Nathan, his father, and his younger brother, Austin, 24, who joined the Marines shortly before Nathan died.The family kept word of Nathan's death...

What kind of man or woman risks their lives for strangers? Eric Seaman of Murrieta, Calif., was 30. He had two children, and was a U.S. Marine sergeant. His wife, Samantha Seaman, told CNN, "Last week I got an email telling me that he felt purpose and that he delivered 10,000 pounds of rice ... and I know that right before he passed away, I know that he helped somebody."

Instead of retiring, former test pilot and real estate mogul Art Nalls imported, restored, certified and flew the world’s only private Harrier jump jet. Now he’s a man with a mission, adding to his fleet, he wants to preserve the Harrier’s legacy for decades to come. His amazing story is told in this awesome mini documentary from AARP studios: Art’s Harrier is an ex-Royal Navy Sea Harrier FA2. The Sea Harrier gained fame during the Falklands War, and continued to serve throughout the 1980s and 1990s, when it received the Blue Vixen radar and the ability to fire the AIM-120...

A court case working its way through the military justice system raises a basic question: Should a member of the military be allowed to post a religious passage in her place of work? The case involves Monifa J. Sterling, a Marine veteran who was convicted in a court-martial at Camp Lejeune, N.C., of failing to go to an appointed place of duty, disrespecting a superior commissioned officer and four specifications of disobeying a lawful order. She was sentenced last year to a reduction in rank from lance corporal to private and given a bad-conduct discharge, a status that will stay...

The wreckage of a US military helicopter that went missing in Nepal has been found, the Nepalese army says. The helicopter went missing earlier this week while delivering aid near the Chinese border, with six US marines and two Nepali soldiers on board. Maj Gen Binoj Basnet told AFP agency that it was not known if there were any survivors. The editor of the Nepal Times, Kunda Dixit, said the wreckage was found 56km (35 miles) from Kathmandu.

A Camp Pendleton-based Marine UH-1Y Huey helping with relief work after Nepal’s recent earthquake was missing, officials from the U.S. Pacific Command said Tuesday. Late Tuesday, the press agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur quoted an official as saying the aircraft had been spotted north of the capital of Kathmandu. “We have been told it was spotted in Tamakoshi region,” north of Kathmandu, said Interior Ministry spokesman Laxmi Dhakal. “But until (our) choppers make landing and get to it, we still can’t say anything about its condition or of its passengers.”

Military officials are searching for a marine light attack helicopter that went missing Tuesday near Charikot, Nepal, Pentagon officials said, at around 10 p.m. Japan Standard Time. The aircraft was assisting with disaster relief as earthquake have struck the south Asian nation, which killed thousands late last month. Another earthquake there on Tuesday killed at least 68 more.

A U.S. Marine helicopter supporting earthquake relief in Nepal was declared missing Tuesday with eight people on board, a military spokesman said. The UH-1Y Huey with two Nepalese soldiers and six U.S. Marines on board disappeared over Charikot, Nepal, at about 10 p.m. local time (12:15 p.m. ET), said U.S. Pacific Command spokesman Army Maj. Dave Eastburn. Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said the U.S. military is hopeful that the missing helicopter landed and is out of communication. A military official told NBC News there is "no indication that there was a crash" but "it is dark," so they could...

U.S. military aircraft and personnel were due to begin helping ferry relief supplies to stricken areas outside the capital, a U.S. Marines spokeswoman said, after arriving in Nepal on Sunday, a day later than expected.

Tim Chambers of Vista is famous for 5-hour frozen tribute to vets on Memorial Day weekend VISTA, Calif. — Every year on Memorial Day weekend, more than 800,000 motorcyclists rumble through the streets of Washington, D.C., in a display of respect for war dead and military veterans known as Rolling Thunder. And standing at the corner of Constitution Avenue and 23rd Street to acknowledge each and every rider is “The Saluting Marine.” Veteran Marine Staff Sergeant Tim Chambers of Vista started his silent vigil on a whim in 2002. Today, he considers the annual effort both his civic duty...

Two years ago, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the nation’s top military officer, laid down an edict on the Obama administration’s plan to open direct land combat jobs to women: If women cannot meet a standard, senior commanders better have a good reason why it should not be lowered. Today, the “Dempsey rule” appears to have its first test case. The Marine Corps just finished research to see if female officers could successfully complete its rigorous Infantry Officer Course.

Two years ago, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the nation’s top military officer, laid down an edict on the Obama administration’s plan to open direct land combat jobs to women: If women cannot meet a standard, senior commanders better have a good reason why it should not be lowered. Today, the “Dempsey rule” appears to have its first test case. The Marine Corps just finished research to see if female officers could successfully complete its rigorous Infantry Officer Course.

"The strangest aspect of being paralyzed is that nobody ever, ever asks you what it’s like. This may be from concern over not hurting your feelings. Or not wanting to bring up the issue. Or superstition that your paralysis might be contagious if discussed. It’s still odd that nobody inquires. It’s the elephant—the screaming banshee—in the room, and it’s mighty big..." "...Q: Where do you find an invalid? A: Where you left him. You find yourself, unavoidably, living in the past. Happiness isn’t is, but was. You try not to contemplate the future too much. Nor the future of the...

Well, it’s finally over with… The United States Marine Corps for the past three years, at the direction of those in the Department of Defense, following the direction of the Commander-in-Chief, Barrack Hussein Obama, have completed their experiment attempting to integrate women into combat arms positions and units. The final result?… Epic FAIL! The effort came to an end on April 02, 2015, when the last of two female volunteers participating in the current Infantry Officers Course at Quantico, Virginia, were dropped during the grueling Combat Endurance Test. The unimaginably difficult course is the gauntlet that every Marine Corps Officer...

An 18 month trial period allowing female Marines to attend the Marine Corps’ Infantry Officer Course will end without a single female graduate, reported the Marine Corps Times. The opportunity for female volunteers is part of a larger effort to determine the feasibility of allowing female officers to take part in ground combat operations. If anyone had successfully completed the course, they would not have earned the occupational designator or entered the infantry, since the program was only an experiment. The IOC began accepting female officers in September 2012, but by July 2014, only 20 female officers had volunteered, and...

Justice: A Marine veteran has been held captive in Iran since August 2011, when he was taken prisoner while visiting family and charged with spying. Does President Obama hear his plea for unconditional freedom? With the exception of deserters like Bowe Bergdahl, those who put on a uniform and serve their country seem like afterthoughts to this administration, if they're thought of at all. Just ask Andrew Tahmooressi, the Marine sergeant allowed to languish 214 days in a Mexican jail for the crime of missing a highway exit. Or now, Amir Hekmati of Flagstaff, Ariz., a Marine vet who sits...

For more than a decade, the protest movement over the relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to Camp Schwab was largely characterized by smiling elderly Okinawans holding sit-ins. The most provocative action of these Western-friendly protesters was perhaps temporarily blocking a gate or tying colored ribbons on the chain-link fences surrounding the seaside Marine Corps base. But 2014 brought a new development: Local politicians who spoke against the construction of a controversial runway at Oura Bay on the northern part of the island were swept into power. And when those politicians were unable to fulfill campaign promises to put...