Tuesday marked the first anniversary of the National Day of Honor, which the president proclaimed in 2012 to mark the anniversary of the Iraq invasion and, particularly, the 4,500 troops killed in action. Among the events being held nationwide this week to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the start of the war was a visit to Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego, Calif., by hip-hop rapper and music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs. Combs, who counts among his business ventures a partnership with Ciroc Vodka, appeared at Miramar in the event co-sponsored by Maxim magazine. “I have always been in…
Author Gidget Fuentes
[Updated: High winds and strong seas churned by that winter storm the National Weather Service dubbed Saturn has pushed the deployment start by several days, the Navy announced. The three ships of the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group will depart the Norfolk, Va., area on Monday, March 11, according to U.S. Fleet Forces Command. That will give a few extra days at home for the sailors and Marines before they take their final equipment aboard and begin the scheduled deployment with, hopefully, smoother seas and calmer stomachs.] The federal budget crisis has put a halt to some ship deployments, but the 2,200…
Marines, of course, are trained to take the hill. Then there’s a group of leathernecks who actually have taken that mission to a different level, as in Capitol Hill. The lists of senators and representatives include Marines who served on active duty or in the reserves, and some saw combat. They bring a familiarity with the military, and the Marine Corps in particular, to a Congress whose members with military service represent less than 20 percent of both houses. In fact, the number of veterans serving in the House or Senate has hit its lowest since World War II. But veterans continue…
Members of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Pendleton, Calif., joined Japanese Ground Self-Defense Forces for this year’s “Iron Fist” exercise, held in Southern California. The three-week interoperability training exercise has the combined forces training on this side of the Pacific along the coast, in the desert, out at sea and back ashore as the Marines and soldiers hone their warfighting skills with patrolling, assaults, mechanized attacks and live-fire and maneuver drills. This is the eighth year for the bilateral training, which “promises to be bigger and better than in previous years,” Maj. Gen. Melvin G. Spiese, the I Marine Expeditionary Force deputy…
The first of 2,300 Marines and sailors will be streaming home starting Sunday as the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit closes out an overseas shipboard deployment that’s stretched eight-and-a-half months. On Sunday, crews aboard dock landing ship Gunston Hall and transport dock New York, which is wrapping up its maiden deployment, will offload Marines and their vehicles and equipment at the port in Morehead City, not far from the 24th MEU’s home in Jacksonville at Camp Lejeune, N.C., officials announced today. The Marines will load buses and head over to the base later in the afternoon to reunite with their family and friends. On…
Battle Phrog, move over to make room for the fighting Osprey. In the latest milestone in the Marine Corps’ slow, bittersweet farewell to the CH-46E Sea Knight — aka the Battle Phrog — the last of the twin tandem-rotor transport helicopters with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 265 flew their final departure flight from the flight line at Futenma Marine Corps Air Station in Okinawa, Japan. It wasn’t a long trek: The helicopters were headed to Camp Kinser, the Corps’ logistics camp on the island, for “official disposition,” according to a III Marine Expeditionary Force article. Those longer legs will be sought-out by III Marine…
When it comes to marking the Marine Corps’ 237th birthday, customs and tradition make the decision of what to do much easier. Commandant’s birthday video message? Check. Reading of Maj. Gen. John A. Lejeune’s 1921 message? Check. Ceremonial cake? Check. Then there are the birthday balls and pageants where Marines and their significant others get all spiffed up to celebrate their history and remember those lost in battle. This past week, and for some units over the course of several weeks, Marines in different climes and places stopped for a little while to mark their history and celebrate their shared…
When you feel the weight of the world on your shoulders, and that mountain just ahead seems almost insurmountable, it often helps to turn to a buddy. Especially one that can carry, say, heavy cases of ammunition, anti-tank missiles and gun tubes. It’s why pack animals – like the mules at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, Calif. – are the wheels of choice for the heavy lifting for much of the world, including armies over the centuries. A group of Hawaii-based Marines with 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, this month took to the Sierra Nevada mountains with…
Natural disasters like typhoons and heavy storms that lead to mudslides are no stranger to the Asia-Pacific region, including the Philippines, which sees almost annual devastation from Mother Nature from heavy rains and winds. When that happens, the Marine Corps and the Navy sometimes get the call to respond and help in what’s been a long-running relationship well predating the so-called “pivot” to the Pacific. Starting Oct. 8, Marines and sailors with the Okinawa, Japan-based 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, currently aboard amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard, will join with Philippine military forces for a two-week bilateral exercise in the Philippines…
OK, we admit it. We just can’t seem to get enough zombie stuff. Strategic Operations, Inc., familiar to many Marines and sailors as the San Diego studio-turned-tactical trainers who use Hollywood magic to create Hyper-Realistic combat training, is crafting scenes for a training conference in San Diego next month. Organized by The HALO Corp., a private security firm, the HALO Counter-Terrorism Summit will offer several realistic scenarios to more than 1,000 attendees as the company takes over the 44-acre Paradise Point Resort in the playground of Mission Bay and turns it into movie sets for the Oct. 29-Nov. 2 event.…
