In the wake of a wave of controversy spurred by comments Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Micheal Barrett made at a Senate Armed Services subcommittee hearing, a congressman who served in the Marine Corps is coming to his defense. At a hearings of SASC’s subcommittee on personnel last week, Barrett said Marines were more interested in equipment modernization and readiness than they were in benefits and entitlements, and said a lower pay raise and cuts to certain benefits in the coming year would improve their spending discipline. “I truly believe it will raise discipline,” he told the lawmakers. “You’ll have better…
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A Marine Corps air show that draws crowds of 750,000 every year has been cancelled the day before it was scheduled to begin. Officials with Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif., announced Thursday morning that the Miramar Air Show, set to start Friday, could not be held during the federal government shutdown, according to regulation. “Guidance from the Deputy Secretary of Defense mandates that non-excepted activities, including outreach events, are not authorized under the current shutdown guidelines,” air station officials said in a statement. “We want to thank everyone involved in the air show for their hard work, dedication and…
Commandant Gen. Jim Amos said Thursday in a video released by the Marine Corps that the Marine Corps has enough money to continue training through the rest of the year, but is still working to prevent furloughs to its civilian employees. The video was released one day after the Defense Department’s budget for fiscal 2014 was released amid a federal financial crisis. As laid out here, the new Marine Corps budget calls for $323 million less in military construction spending next fiscal year, affecting some planned modernization and maintenance not directly associated with operational readiness. Amos said in the video…
The Wall Street Journal is starting the day with a provocative opinion editorial ($) by Benjamin Luxenberg, a Marine first lieutenant who says some troops should be willing to take a cut to pay and benefits in order to solve the nation’s fiscal crisis–and he’ll be the first to volunteer. Luxenberg argues that troop pay has become “sacrosanct” in the national dialogue, and crucial defense programs are facing deeper cuts because of that. “National security shouldn’t be sacrificed on the altar of military pay,” he writes. The statement comes with caveats: before wholescale cuts, Luxenberg says pay should be aligned across…
[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…
For years, Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command has received attention mostly for its actions in Afghanistan. It’s far from the only theater the elite force has teams in, however. From Africa to the Pacific, Marine special operators have deployed across the globe to work, mostly in the shadows. This week’s Marine Corps Times cover story takes a look at those missions, focusing closely on one high-speed rescue in the Philippines. I caught wind of the rescue recently during a dinner in Washington, D.C., and MARSOC provided enough details afterward to make it clear how dangerous special operations can be,…
Congress is taking a vacation next week — on the eve of what’s been called the biggest potential fiscal disaster to hit the nation in decades, when massive, across-the-board budget cuts begin wreaking havoc on the Pentagon and all other federal agencies. Talk about whistling past the graveyard. The sequestration ax adds big drama to this particular hiatus. But it’s hardly unusual for House and Senate lawmakers; the congressional work schedule has withered on the vine for years. At this writing, there have been 32 regular “workdays” so far this year — Monday through Friday, federal holidays excluded. The House…
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s recent assertion that the Marine Corps could be forced to shutter one of its recruit depots has added a new cultural dynamic to the gloomy forecast about sequestration, the series of federal budget cuts looming if the U.S. government doesn’t find another way to reduce its deficit. Graham, a South Carolina Republican, told constituents in his home state recently that the Corps may have to consolidate the recruit depots in San Diego and Parris Island, S.C., if sequestration goes through. His comments resulted in media coverage like this, and have raised some eyebrows in Washington. Kevin…
By now it’s no news that the military is facing serious cuts. The Marine Corps alone will drop 20,000 over the next five years. But just how leaders will make those cuts has been a mystery — until now. To get the lowdown on how the Marine Corps will drawdown by 2016, and what the plan means for you, check out this week’s edition of Marine Corps Times. For our cover story, we traveled to Camp Lejeune, N.C., to sit in on a briefing by the drawdown’s architects who are now on an eight-week tour of the fleet. In it,…
Throughout the Corps, anxiety is high as Marines and their families wait to learn how the commandant intends to execute massive force cuts ordered in January by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. And their uneasiness certainly is justified. The reality is that over the next five years, the service will purge some 20,000 from the active-duty force — about as many as it added during the latter part of the last decade to sustain operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. This week’s cover story, which was co-reported by Marines Corps Times’ senior staff writers Gina Cavallaro and Dan Lamothe, examines how the…
