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Pendleton captain killed by Afghan police SAN DIEGO - A captain based at Pendleton was one of three Marines killed Friday in Helmand province by an Afghan police officer with whom he had just shared a meal, it was reported Saturday. Matt Manoukian, 29, of Los Altos Hills, was killed after being invited by an Afghan police commander to a meeting in Sangin district, long a Taliban stronghold, to discuss security issues, The U-T San Diego reported. Before the meeting, Manoukian and the other two Marines killed shared a meal with their killer. The attack was the third of its...

A Marine Corps helicopter crashed Wednesday afternoon at the sprawling coastal base of Camp Pendleton, injuring the six personnel aboard. The helicopter belonging to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at Camp Pendleton went down at about noon in the northern section of the San Diego County base, said 1st Lt. Maureen Dooley, a spokeswoman at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. The section is a remote mountainous area where the Marine Corps conducts air trainings.

"Greater love hath no man than this; that a man lay down his life for his friends," John 15:13 This quotation is inscribed on a plaque that rests on a tri-faced structure within the air station's Combined Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit building. Besides the plaque, the wall is covered in portraits of Marines, 35 in all. The first portrait is of Gunnery Sgt. Michael Clark, the last of Gunnery Sgt. Justin Schmalstieg. All the photos show Marines in either full combat gear or a candid portrait in civilian attire. There is not an official photo in the whole bunch, as...

3 Middle Eastern Men Tried To Enter Base Without Proper Authorization, Base Alert Says. SAN DIEGO -- One of the nation's largest military bases is reportedly under tighter security after three Middle Eastern men tried to enter without proper authorization. shortly after midnight Sunday, a rented silver Toyota Corolla driven by Naeem attempted to enter Camp Pendleton through the main gate. As it was being searched, Petrossian and Avanosian drove up in a black Mercedes, but were told to wait. Instead, they continued past the gate and onto the base. Following a short pursuit, the Mercedes was stopped and searched....

Was it just a wrong turn, or something more sinister? Marine base Camp Pendleton — one of the largest military bases in the country — is reportedly on high alert after three Middle Eastern men tried to enter the base last weekend on multiple occasions in multiple vehicles. And while the men initially claimed they didn’t know each other and simply took a wrong turn, new information from a local gas station about “hateful comments” and “terrorist threats” casts doubt on their story: http://clipsyndicate.com/video/playlist/8178/2340295?wpid=9528 KGTV explains some of the shocking details: According to a Be On the Lookout (BOLO) alert...

Japanese troops from the Western Area Infantry Regiment are assaulting the green hills of Camp Pendleton in operation Iron Fist. For a month, about 200 Japanese troops are training with Marines -- leading to a “final exam” where together they will launch a mock amphibious assault against a common enemy. .... Japan’s latest defense policy calls for a new concept, called “dynamic proactive defense,” said Akihisa Nagashima, lower house member of the Democratic Party of Japan and former parliamentary vice minister of defense. Japanese troops, he said, will need to be “mobile, flexible and ready to respond quickly” -- the...

Marine assault vehicles key to Afghan strategy As U.S. and Afghan troops prepare for an offensive in Helmand province, the Assault Breacher Vehicle - a cross between a tank and a bulldozer - is intended to conquer the terrain and roadside bombs. By Tony Perry January 31, 2010 Reporting from Camp Pendleton Weighing 70 tons, traveling up to 45 mph and possessed of a smash-mouth name, the Assault Breacher Vehicle is the Marine Corps' latest answer to a perennial problem of offensive warfare: how to push through the barriers and booby traps of an enemy's outer defenses. Over the decades,...

In a little noticed development last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered 2,500 to 3,000 more troops to Afghanistan as soon as possible to meet imminent threats from roadside bombs. Gates was responding to a request from the overall U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, for more bomb disposal and route clearance teams, medical rescue units and intelligence specialists. All are needed to combat the rising use of roadside bombs, the No. 1 troop killer in Afghanistan. Which troops are getting those assignments remained unclear Monday. But as military officials and the Obama administration debate the next steps...

WASHINGTON - President Obama's decrees Thursday on the detention and interrogation of accused terrorists increase the likelihood that some detainees now held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba will be moved to South Carolina in a year or less. On his second full day in office, Obama directed that the controversial Guantanamo detention facility be closed "no later than one year from the date of the (executive) order." Senior Pentagon sources in November identified the Naval Consolidated Brig in North Charleston as a possible home for detainees transferred from Guantanamo Bay, along with Fort Leavenworth in Kansas...

CAMP PENDLETON ---- A fast-moving fire on Camp Pendleton was forcing evacuations of homes, schools and businesses in the San Luis Rey "back gate" area in northeastern Oceanside. Residents in the area of Papagallo Drive and Vandegrift Boulevard were being evacuated at about 3:30 p.m., a North County emergency dispatcher said. Evacuees were being directed to El Camino High School on Mission Avenue in Oceanside, according to early reports. There were no early reports of injuries or structure losses, though several emergency officials said homes on the base and immediately outside the gates were under substantial threat. The nearly 100-acre...

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- A forensic anthropologist is seeking clues to the identity of human remains discovered at a Marine base in California. A spokesman said Friday that the anthropologist determined the remains found at Camp Pendleton were those of a white male dead for a few months. Maj. Kristen Lasica (LAH'-seek-uh) says a groundskeeper discovered the body Thursday. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is also investigating. Lasica says there are no active investigations of missing people at the Southern California base.

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — Being an actor is nothing like being a Marine. For an actor, even a 30-minute helicopter ride from Burbank to Camp Pendleton, just north of San Diego, can seem daunting.Before boarding a chopper for a special screening of Tropic Thunder at the base, star Robert Downey Jr. confessed: "I'm hoping the fact that I might puke right now is actually going to have the reverse effect, and that I'll suddenly be steady and calm by being in a helicopter."Downey, along with co-stars Ben Stiller and Jack Black, landed safely. "It was pretty tame, actually," Stiller said...

A shadow legal body was set up by the Defense Department to manipulate the prosecutions of U.S. Marines accused of massacring Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005. That’s the bombshell disclosure from the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm that is representing one of the accused Marines, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani. And it could prove to be the most damning piece of evidence showing the political motivations behind the ongoing prosecutions of the Haditha Marines. “The hysteria and media firestorm over Abu Ghraib and the Pat Tillman investigations led to fear of a similar media reaction...

Nubs, a wiry German-shepherd-border collie mix named for nubby ears that were sliced off as a puppy, will stay in Chicago with the family of one of his Marine colleagues until a final hop to San Diego, where a Marine fighter pilot stationed at Camp Pendleton has been given permission to care for the dog until Maj. Brian Dennis arrives home from his second combat tour. More Photos "Touchdown" was the first celebratory word in an e-mail Marsha Cargo received from her son Maj. Brian Dennis, after a dog who survived a 70-mile Hail Mary trek through war-torn Iraqi...

Maj. Gen. Dennis J. Hejlik, commanding general, U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Special Operations Command, welcomes home the Marines and Sailors of 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion, at Assault Craft Unit 5 here, Nov. 17. MARSOC’s silent warriors conducted special operations in the Philippines and Afghanistan in the first ever deployment of a company from 1st MSOB. California Congressman Darrell Issa congratulates the Marines and Sailors of 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion, U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Special Operations Command, on a job well done and welcomes them home at Assault Craft Unit 5 here, Nov. 17. MARSOC’s silent warriors conducted...

One in a series of articles about three teenagers and their wartime enlistment in the Marines. CAMP PENDLETON - A Marine recruit stumbled from the ranks and collapsed on a dirt trail. A corpsman, her medical bag bouncing in the dust, hustled over to the fallen man. The recruit was bathed in sweat, his face clammy and sickly green. As the troop column marched on, the drill instructor cried out, "Here comes the silver bullet!" The recruit was about to receive the ultimate indignity -- a shiny rectal thermometer to check his body temperature. It happened on the trail for...

CNN) -- While the military is lending assistance to battle wildfires in Southern California, it's also keeping an eye on the horizon in case it has to evacuate bases there. According to the Pentagon: About 800 Camp Pendleton Marines, some of them recently back from Iraq, have been volunteered to fight the massive fires. About 1,500 California National Guardsmen already are fighting fires. Aircraft from the Navy, Marine Corps and Air National Guard and Air Force Reserves are dropping water and flame retardants on the flames and providing logistical support. Six C-130 Modular Airborne FireFighting Systems from Air National Guard...

By Rick Rogers UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER August 15, 2007 CAMP PENDLETON – Tens of thousands of American and Iraqi troops serve together daily, but last December a dispute while on duty led to a Marine reservist stabbing an Iraqi soldier to death as the two stood watch in Anbar province. Now Lance Cpl. Delano V. Holmes, 21, is accused of killing Mutather Jasem Muhammed Hassin inside a tiny observation post in Fallujah, according to charges filed by the Marine Corps. Holmes, an Indianapolis resident who was on his first deployment, was arraigned July 31 and is scheduled for court-martial at...

Well, perhaps the headline is slightly misleading. Actually, only six Marines will be invading Corona. And perhaps invasion isn't quite the right term. After the nightmare of the back stabbing John Murtha, we needed some good news about Camp Pendleton. We have some. At my Kiwanis club annual charity golf tournament on Monday, August 13, will be welcoming six Marines from Camp Pendleton. We got sponsors for them and will be honored to have them join us. When I called Camp Pendleton to make the invite, they shuffled me to a few people as always happens in a large organization....

Marines To Conduct Gregory Canyon Exercise; Environmentalists Criticize Plan To Conduct Training At Old Dairy By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer Thursday, June 21, 2007 NORTH COUNTY (San Diego)-- An old dairy at the planned Gregory Canyon landfill will become an anti-terror training ground next month for 40 to 60 Marines from Camp Pendleton, a military official said Wednesday. Local environmentalists said they are worried the exercise could damage the fragile environment near the San Luis Rey River or ignite a wildfire in a tinder-dry area at one of the driest times of the year. Marine officials said care will...