Free Republic

Flag protestor meeting a retired Sergeant Major

What started as a hard-charging Marine comment to Congress has turned into a public relations emergency for Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps Micheal Barrett. Speaking to the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel on Wednesday, Barrett was making the case that personnel costs needed to be reined in to maintain readiness — as all the services have in recent testimony — but went a step further by saying that lower pay would actually improve discipline within the Corps. “I truly believe it will raise discipline,” Barrett said. “You’ll have better spending habits. You won’t be so wasteful.” (snip) Barrett...

In 1995, I was serving at Ft. Riley, KS as a Battalion S2. About a month before I PCS's our battalion received a new Command Sergeant Major, Floyd Carrier. I got to know him pretty well over the course of that month, then moved on to my next duty assignment, and ultimately left the Army in 2001. That year I took a job in Louisiana, and found out I was working with CSM Carrier's younger brother. CSM Carrier retired and moved back to this area, and I got to see him at my friend and co-worker's place over the holidays...

From the Podium: J. D. Pendry, Retired Sergeant Major, USMC Jimmy Carter, you are the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home, and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You're the "runner-in-chief." Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses to the USS Cole and the First Trade Center Bombing and Our...

DES MOINES- A former Iowan, who put his life on the line leading a rescue mission under enemy fire, was honored at the statehouse Monday. Marine Sargeant-Major Brad Kasal still walks with a cane but at one point doctors considered taking off his leg. He suffered seven gunshot wounds, and was hit by flying shrapnel from a gernade while trying to rescue fellow marines in Iraq. Kasal said, "We love being marines. We love America. We love each other, and we'll put ourselves at risk for each other." Sargeant Kasal lost 60-percent of his blood while wounded. He has since...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 19, 2005 — On his second deployment to the Middle East, U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Ralph White plans to carry on with a goal set by his predecessor. White, who was deployed here for the first Gulf War in 1991 as a tank crewman, took over the command sergeant major position with the Multi-National Security Transition Command - Iraq about a month ago. He's replacing U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Ronnie Edwards, who has returned to Marine Corps Headquarters at Quantico, Va. “We need to continue to convince the Iraqis that good NCO leaders are integral...

COLUMBUS -- Police say a retired Garrison Sergeant Major from Fort Benning was killed in a hit-and-run accident while he was training for the Army Ten-Miler race in Washington, D.C. Authorities were searching for the driver who struck Robert R. McCord at about 7 a.m. Saturday while he was jogging on the Whitesville Road bridge, less than two miles from his home. McCord, 48, was hit from behind and he flipped onto the vehicle, said Columbus Patrol Officer Rosalyn Hall. "We know that the vehicle is missing a headlight," said Hall. "Even if they washed it, there's blood or something...

<p>Command Sgt. Maj. Kenneth O. Preston became the 13th sergeant major of the Army at an Jan. 15 swearing in ceremony at the Pentagon. “I am so proud of our soldiers,” said Preston, who recently served in Iraq as command sergeant major of V Corps and Combined Joint Task Force 7. “Having walked with them on the battlefields in Iraq over the past year, there is no doubt that they are the only Army in the world that could perform such a Herculean feat.”</p>