Iraq

Pendleton Marines to host Battle of Fallujah reunion

By Joshua Stewart on October 8, 2014 Battle Rattle, Iraq, Marines, Veterans

Update: This event is open to all Marines, not just ones who fought in the Battle of Fallujah. A decade after the Battle of Fallujah, California-based Marines are holding a reunion and ceremony to honor those who were a part of one of the most significant fights in Iraq and some of the heaviest urban warfare in the Corps’ history. Members of 1st Marine Division is will host the Nov. 7 event for veterans ranging from privates to general officers at Camp Pendleton, California. Now-retired Lt. Gen. Richard Natonski, the commander of 1st MARDIV during the battle, is attending. By…

There’s one simple reason troops shouldn’t confuse their sacrifices with Iraq’s implosion

By gpingersoll on June 12, 2014 Battle Rattle, Iraq, Veterans

The near-unanimous lament coming from troops, widows, and Gold Star mothers would be hard not to hear if the sound of Iraq imploding wasn’t so deafening. One wife, whose husband went twice to Iraq, summed it up to Military Times nicely when Mosul was taken: “What a waste.” When Fallujah fell to ISIS militants last year, Business Insider defense writer Paul Szoldra, wrote “Tell me again, why did my friends die in Iraq?” His write-up got immediate attention, with members of the media even asking Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno if he had read it. (Skip to the 15-minute mark…

Arlington at 150 — Celebrating America’s Heroes

By John Bretschneider on May 23, 2014 Afghanistan, Iraq, Medal of Honor, World War II

Since the first military burial on May 13, 1864, Arlington National Cemetery has become the final resting place for more than 400,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and their families. Those who on Sept. 11, 2001, died only a few hundred yards away at the Pentagon are buried here, as are the Challenger astronauts. Fifteen thousand soldiers from the Civil War — Union and Confederate — rest in Section 27 and Section 13, known as the Field of the Dead. Four thousand freed slaves, many identified only as “Citizen,” and two presidents also are buried at Arlington. Section 60 is the…

On the cover: Interpreters fear for their lives, Marines fear they’ll leave a man behind

By Hope Hodge Seck on April 21, 2014 Afghanistan, Iraq, Washington

On the cover this week, I dig into a complex problem: The Afghan and Iraqi interpreters who risked their lives alongside U.S. Marines and now fear for their lives as they wait for approval for special immigrant visas, a State Department process that can take years. Many of the interpreters I spoke with asked that we blur their faces and disguise their names, because their work with U.S. troops makes them a target for insurgents. Over the course of this story, I received emails from over 50 interpreters pleading for help in speeding up this process, and describing threats to…

Viral video shows Magnificent Bastards lined up for miles, saluting Gold Star families during Ramadi 10th memorial ceremony

By James Sanborn on April 8, 2014 Battle Rattle, Iraq

A recent video posted to Facebook captures a touching gesture of respect and honor. In it, members of 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, line miles of road to salute the families of fallen Marines on their way to an April 6 memorial aboard Camp Pendleton, Calif., that marked the 10th anniversary of the battle of Ramadi. In the video shot from inside a passing vehicle, hundreds of Magnificent Bastards — as the unit is known — snap to attention and salute. [HTML1] The ceremony at the Camp San Mateo Memorial garden commemorated members of the unit lost during the 2004 battle…

Former Force Recon Travis Haley recounts harrowing fight in Najaf, combat valor of Marine ‘Defense Messaging Administrator’

By James Sanborn on April 4, 2014 Battle Rattle, Iraq

Celebrity firearms trainer Travis Haley, who served in Iraq with 2nd Force Reconnaissance Battalion and returned to the country as a Blackwater contractor protecting ambassador Paul Bremer, recently released a riveting first-hand account of a battle in Najaf that occurred ten years ago today. Haley gained notoriety for a viral YouTube video of him engaging members of the Mahdi Army from a rooftop just days after four Blackwater contractors were killed and hung from a bridge in Fallujah. The infamous killings of the four contractors eventually precipitated Operation Phantom Fury — the Marine Corps’ most pitched battle of the Iraq…

National Museum of the Marine Corps exhibit to commemorate one of the Iraq War’s hardest hit units

By James Sanborn on February 18, 2014 Battle Rattle, Iraq, Marines, Off-duty

One of the Iraq War’s hardest hit units, which lost 22 Marines and a corpsman on a single deployment, is being commemorated by a temporary exhibit at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Va. The exhibit, which commemorates the dead of Columbus, Ohio-based Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines — known as “Lucky Lima” when it deployed to Iraq in 2005 — will be open to the public from Feb. 20 through March 3. It consists of oil paintings of each of the 23 casualties created by Columbus-based artist Anita Miller. Together they comprise a touring…

Marine Corps names building for MOH recipient Cpl. Jason Dunham

By Gina Harkins on February 11, 2014 Awards, Battle Rattle, Iraq, Marines, Medal of Honor

A fallen corporal who is one of two members of the Corps to receive the Medal of Honor for heroism in Iraq and Afghanistan, will have a building named in his honor aboard the base where Marines conduct their predeployment training. A ceremony for the dedication of the Cpl. Jason L. Dunham Hall will be held on Feb. 18, at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif., according to a news release. “The Combat Center dedicates this facility to one of its own Marines, who paid the ultimate sacrifice, saving the lives of his fellow Marines, while deployed…

Marine Corps investigating questionable decade-old photos from Fallujah

By Gina Harkins on January 15, 2014 Iraq

The Marine Corps is looking into several photographs posted on an entertainment gossip website on Wednesday that appear to show Marines burning Iraqi corpses. TMZ posted eight of 41 photos they were told were taken in Fallujah in 2004. They show what appear to be Marines pouring fluid onto corpses and burning them. One photo shows a Marine appearing to go through a corpse’s pockets and another posing next to a skull on the ground. The remaining 33 photos were too gruesome to post, TMZ reported. Marine Corps Times obtained copies of the published photos from TMZ. Our staff reviewed…

Petition seeks Medal of Honor for fallen Marines

By Gina Harkins on January 2, 2014 Awards, Battle Rattle, Deployments, Iraq, Marines, Medal of Honor

A petition posted on the White House website asks the president to award the nation’s highest award for valor to two fallen Marines who in 2008 stopped a truck laden with explosives from barreling through the checkpoint they were guarding in Iraq,saving dozens of lives. But those who want to sign on must act quickly. The deadline is Sunday. Cpl. Jonathan Yale, a rifleman with 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, and Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, another rifleman with 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, were awarded the Navy Cross posthumously in February 2009. But the petition asks President Obama to upgrade the awards…

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