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KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — Leaving Camp Leatherneck for the last time as a journalist who traveled there half a dozen times over the years, I felt a mix of pride and relief, sadness and uncertainty, emotions all tempered with disbelief that our long war in Afghanistan is at an end. Photojournalist Nelvin C. Cepeda and I are en route home to San Diego, flying with Camp Pendleton Marines who were among the last international forces to pull out of Helmand province. :snip:For the many troops who served at Camp Leatherneck or cycled through to smaller bases, as well as...

Nineteen soldiers and over 50 heavily-loaded planes are on their way back to Denmark a week earlier than planned. The last Danish soldiers have left Camp Bastion in southern Afghanistan, the Army Operational Command (Hærens Operative Kommando - HOK) said on Friday. The withdrawal is taking place a week earlier than originally scheduled. The last 19 Danish soldiers will be flown back to Denmark on Friday after having left Camp Bastion on July 27th. HOK said a total of 54 heavy-loaded planes carrying 2,348 tonnes of material is being transported back to Denmark by way of Dubai. “That’s the equivalent...

The families of two slain Marines from Camp Bastion finally got some answers this week. But their battle for full accountability in the 9/14/12 Taliban attack is far from over. Two top U.S. military leaders will get early retirement and full pensions for their fatal negligence. But one American mom wants to know: What about the British? And what about the rest of our troops on vulnerable coalition-run bases around the world? On Monday, U.S. commandant of the Marine Corps James Amos announced the "firing" of two generals for failing to plan and protect our troops adequately against the Taliban...

WASHINGTON – Citing a failure to adequately protect their troops from Taliban attackers who penetrated Camp Bastion in Afghanistan last year, Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. James Amos on Monday took the highly unusual step of firing a pair of two-star generals. The forced retirement of Maj. Gen. Charles M. Gurganus and Maj. Gen. Gregg A. Sturdevant comes more than a year after the attack that killed two Marines, Sgt. Bradley Atwell and Lt. Col. Christopher Raible. The attackers also wounded eight and destroyed six Harrier jets during the assault on Sept. 14-15, 2012. Gurganus was commander of Regional...

The commandant of the Marine Corps on Monday took the extraordinary step of firing two generals for not adequately protecting a giant base in southern Afghanistan that Taliban fighters stormed last year, resulting in the deaths of two Marines and the destruction of a half a dozen U.S. fighter jets. It is the first time since the Vietnam War that a general, let alone two, has been sacked for negligence after a successful enemy attack. But the assault also was unprecedented: Fifteen insurgents entered a NATO airfield and destroyed almost an entire squadron of Marine AV-8B Harrier jets, the largest...

Former U.S. Rep. Allen West weighed in over the weekend on the one-year anniversary of a Taliban attack on a Marine base in Afghanistan. As he has in his various statements on the Benghazi attack, West accused the Obama administration of ignoring the real danger of Islamic terrorism and doing nothing.

Next week, "never forget" will resound across America as citizens mark a dozen years since the 9/11 terrorist attack and one year since the bloody disaster in Benghazi. But who will remember the American heroes who came under siege at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan on 9/14/12? Two heroic U.S. Marines -- Lt. Col. Christopher Raible and Sgt. Bradley Atwell -- perished in the monstrous battle last year, and nearly a dozen others were injured. What happened at Camp Bastion and whether the Obama administration has learned from the deadly incident are timely questions as Washington prepares for war again in...

All it takes is one crack for a stone wall to start crumbling. Nine months after the deadly 9/14 raid on Camp Bastion in Afghanistan, the families of two fallen Marines may finally get some answers. Real accountability, of course, is another story. A formal internal investigation into lax security at the base -- a British-run NATO compound that adjoins our Marines' Camp Leatherneck -- is now under way. A few members of Congress are putting pressure on the administration for the truth. And a couple of mainstream reporters are digging deeper. More, please. And faster. Camp Bastion belongs in...

Camp Bastion, Afghanistan: We Need Answers By Michelle Malkin November 14, 2012 12:00 A.M. While Secretary of State Hillary Clinton boozes it up in Australia and the Pentagon grapples with more floozy eruptions, outraged military families are still waiting for answers about the forgotten 9/14 attack on Camp Bastion. Muckrakers and distraction engineers are having a front-page field day with the so-called sex scandal. But for surviving relatives and colleagues of heroic Marine Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Raible and Sargent Bradley Atwell, it’s the national-security scandal at Afghanistan’s Camp Bastion that deserves headline coverage. There’s been a virtual blackout of the...

While Secretary of State Hillary Clinton boozes it up in Australia and the Pentagon grapples with more floozy eruptions, outraged military families are still waiting for answers about the forgotten 9/14 attack on Camp Bastion. Muckrakers and distraction engineers are having a front-page field day with the so-called "sex scandal." But for surviving relatives and colleagues of heroic Marine Lt. Col. Christopher Raible and Sgt. Bradley Atwell, it's the national security scandal at Afghanistan's Camp Bastion that deserves headline coverage. There's been a virtual blackout of the alarming story in the national press. As I reported last month, the meticulously...

Three days after the bloody 9/11 siege on our consulate in Benghazi, the Taliban waged an intricately coordinated, brutal attack on Camp Bastion in Afghanistan. The murderous jihadists released video exactly one month ago this week showing off their training exercises in preparation for the assault. Where are the questions? Where's the accountability? Where's the Obama administration? Where's the press? Where's the outrage? Two heroic U.S. Marines were killed in the battle. Their names -- Lt. Col. Christopher Raible and Sgt. Bradley Atwell -- have not been uttered publicly by the commander in chief. Their arrival back in the...

Three days after the bloody siege on our consulate in Benghazi, the Taliban waged an intricately coordinated, brutal attack on Camp Bastion in Afghanistan. The Taliban animals released video earlier this week showing their jihadi training prep. Two hero U.S. Marines were killed in the battle. Their names — Lt. Col. Christopher Raible and Sgt. Bradley Atwell — have not been uttered publicly by the commander-in-chief. Their arrival back in the U.S. was not broadcast on network TV. But their brothers-in-arms did not and will not forget. And neither must we. They are not anonymous “bumps in the road:” SNIP

Camp Bastion attack could be U.S. Marine Corps Harrier fleet’s ground zero September 22, 2012 As already explained, the recent Taliban attack on Camp Bastion, that cost the U.S. the worst air loss to enemy fire in one day since the Vietnam War, almost wiped out the entire U.S. Marine Harrier force in Afghanistan: besides killing two Marines, including the Commanding Officer of Marine Attack Squadron (VMA) 211, six AV-8B+ aircraft were destroyed and two more severly injured. Since the VMA-211 “Avengers” had deployed to Afghanistan with 10 airframes, only two Harriers survived the insurgent attack in one of the...

WASHINGTON — Ever since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2012, the Obama White House has sought to lay blame for deadly and destructive anti-American attacks in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Lebanon, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and more than two dozen other countries on someone else. The O-Team — and the perpetrators — have had a lot of help from the "useful idiots" in the mainstream media. The disinformation campaign being waged by the Obama administration over the cause of this violence would be comedic but for the fact that six Americans have been killed and dozens have been injured. From the perspective...

PARIS --- The rationale for the F-35B fighter took a serious beating last week, when a dozen Taliban attacking Camp Bastion destroyed six US Marine Corps AV-8B Harriers on the tarmac, and seriously damaged two more. By exposing a glaring hole in its operational doctrine, this attack shows conclusively that, just like the Emperor in Andersen’s fairy tale, the F-35B Short Take-Off, Vertical Landing (STOVL) variant of the Joint Strike Fighter has no clothes, The F-35B – the most complex, overweight and expensive variant of the Joint Strike Fighter – is being developed to provide the US Marine Corps with...

Marine Attack Squadron loses eight Harrier jets in worst U.S. air loss in one day since the Vietnam War On Friday Sept. 14, at around 10.15 p.m. local time, a force of Taliban gunmen attacked Camp Bastion, in Helmand Province, the main strategic base in southwestern Afghanistan.About 15 insurgents (19 according to some reports), wearing U.S. Army uniforms, organized into three teams, breached the perimeter fence and launched an assault on the airfield, that includes the U.S. Camp Leatherneck and the UK’s Camp Bastion, where British royal Prince Harry, an AH-64 Apache pilot (initially believed to be the main target...

From an International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Release KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 15, 2012 – International Security Assistance Force officials are providing additional details about the Sept. 14 attack on Camp Bastion in Afghanistan’s Helmand province in which two coalition service members were killed when insurgents attacked the base’s airfield. Because it is still early in the investigation of this attack, information is subject to change as new details become available, officials said. The attack commenced just after 10 p.m., officials said, when approximately 15 insurgents executed a well-coordinated attack against the airfield on Camp Bastion. The insurgents, organized...

Taliban armed with suicide vests, guns and rockets stormed a heavily fortified airfield in Afghanistan where Prince Harry is deployed, killing two U.S. Marines and attacking aircraft in a major security breach. The militia, which is leading a 10-year insurgency against 117,000 NATO troops, said it carried out the assault to avenge a U.S.-made film deemed insulting to Islam that has sparked deadly riots across the Middle East and North Africa. The attack on Camp Bastion in southern Helmand province, one of the toughest battlegrounds of the war, started at 10:15 pm (1745 GMT) on Friday, said U.S. Army Major...

KABUL -- Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was feared to have been the target of a suicide attack at Camp Bastion on Wednesday as he arrived in Afghanistan. A vehicle got on to the runway and burst into flames as Panetta's plane landed at the sprawling British base. Panetta was flying into Afghanistan just days after a US soldier went on the rampage in the country, killing 16 Afghan civilians. But as his plane was landing a vehicle appeared on the runway and subsequently caught fire. Sources at the scene claim it was a suicide attack -- but those allegations have...