In the latest edition of Marine Corps Times, on newsstands Monday, read about Sgt. George Lockhart, a Quantico, Va.-based Marine and MMA fighter who is making a name for himself as an adviser to Ultimate Fighting Championship prizefighters. He’s been helping some of them drop weight and get in shape, including headline fighter Jon Jones who won in a first round technical knockout during the most recent UFC event Aug. 1 in San Diego. We sat down for a one-on-one interview with Lockhart and he filled us in on his hopes for the future, including making the jump to UFC…
Browsing: Battle Rattle
Critical skill operators are the Corps’ most elite Marines. As members of Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, they are tasked with the most sensitive, often riskiest missions that take them in small units far behind enemy lines. Trouble is, MARSOC has had a historically difficult time recruiting guys to fill these very demanding jobs. Today, the command is still about 200 CSOs shy of where it needs to be. This week’s cover story, on newsstands now, explores why this struggle persists, while laying out in detail MARSOC’s new plan to mine the Reserve for qualified applicants. On the surface,…
Whether you are a grunt with multiple combat tours under your belt or a personnel clerk who is not used to humping it with a pack, Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command has come up with a w0rkout that is sure to whip you into shape and Marine Corps Times spells it out for you in detail in this week’s cover story. “First Look: The MARSOC Workout,” includes a four-page special pull-out section that walks you through each day in the 10-week program. MARSOC recruiters hand the program out to Marines who are interested in attending Assessment and Selection, the…
Battle Rattle presents its second installment of “Behind the Cover.” This week, Marine Corps Times conducts an in-depth analysis of fiscal 2011 Selective Re-enlistment Bonuses. No doubt, Marines throughout the fleet have heard that the bonus well is running dry. That’s not necessarily the case. Although the total funding allotted to re-enlistment bonuses in fiscal 2011 is 54 percent less than the amount offered this year, Marines can still earn up to $90,000 depending on their primary military occupational specialty and whether they choose to embark on a completely new, in demand career path. The article highlights the MOSs that…
Tired of standing in a crowded Washington bar, my friends and I spied some open seats at a table already in use by a couple eating dinner. We joined them, and moments later the Corps’ future commandant bought me a whiskey. The long version goes like this: Back in February, I was just digging into my new role as Marine Corps Times’ news editor, so I did not immediately recognize Gen. Jim Amos, who was out of uniform and with his wife, Bonnie. My friends and I asked the couple if we could share their table space, and they were…
President Obama fired Gen. Stanley McChrystal Wednesday after he and his team made offensive comments to Rolling Stone magazine about the president, vice president and other key members of the national security team. Despite wide-spread speculation that Marine Gen. James N. Mattis would be the new four star in charge of the Afghanistan war effort, Obama instead named Gen. David Petraeus, commander of Central Command. Petraeus also oversaw the surge and new counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq. Did Obama make the right decision in firing McChrystal? And is Petraeus the right choice to take his place? Let us know what you…
Lots of speculation out there about the fate of Gen. Stanley McChrystal after his uncharacteristic display of indiscipline during interviews with Rolling Stone magazine. At least one Washington military analyst says the job should go to Army Gen. David Petraeus, but will more likely go to Marine Gen. James N. Mattis, who just got passed over for the job of commandant and is about to step down as head of Joint Forces Command. In a blog entry at foreignpolicy.com, author and former Washington Post military writer Tom Ricks says it “may be time for a whole new team in Afghanistan”…
President Obama has tapped Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, the former Mississippi governor, to formulate “a long-term Gulf Coast restoration plan.” Details about the plan are not clear, but it’s likely to span several decades. BP also has recently agreed to put $20 billion aside for claims, but the New York Times reported that legal costs could soar to more than $60 billion if criminal charges are filed. Just to put that into perspective, that’s more than double the Corps’ total budget request for fiscal 2011.
You can earn your share of 200,000 Microsoft points when you download Marine Corps gamer themes, like the one above, and pictures packs from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. So far, 883 have said they “like” the announcement on the Corps’ official Facebook page and 169 have commented on the post. Although most of those comments consist of Ooh-rahs, a handful of Marines have asked the Corps to show some love for PS3. It’s not clear if there are any plans in the works for that.
A World War I veteran whose remains were lost for nearly a century is to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery next Wednesday, a Marine official said. First Sgt. George H. Humphrey died Sept. 15, 1918 during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel — one of the first U.S. solo offenses during the war. Humphrey is believed to have served with 6th Marines, 2nd Infantry Division. Fellow Marines buried his body in an unmarked grave west of the French town of Rembercourt-sur-Mad, but post-war efforts to locate the gravesite were not successful, said Gunnery Sgt. William J. Dixon, the Corps’ funeral director.…
