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…
Browsing: Washington
English bulldog Sgt. Chesty XIII stepped down as the mascot of Marine Barracks Washington today, allowing Lance Cpl. Chesty XIV to get his paws on the job. Commandant Gen. Jim Amos and Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps oversaw the ceremony, in which the younger pooch also was promoted to lance corporal. Marine Corps Times videographer Colin Kelly was on the scene. Here’s his video: [HTML1] Congratulations, young Chesty. You earned yourself a T-bone.
It was a different time in 1974, when Master Gunnery Sgt. D. Michael Ressler joined the Marine Corps. President Richard Nixon was about to resign, Commandant Gen. Robert Cushman had recently overseen the Corps’ withdrawal from Vietnam, and Hank Aaron had just become baseball’s all-time home run king. Thirty-nine years later, Ressler will leave the Corps this month with more time on active-duty than any other enlisted Marine. A member of the “President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band, he will be honored in a retirement ceremony at Marine Barracks Washington on Friday, and officially retire Aug. 31. He served under 11…
Marine commanders are planning to draw down to about 4,400 service members in southwestern Afghanistan by early 2014, as the U.S. continues to shrink its footprint across the country. That’s one of the takeaways of this new Marine Corps Times story, which was published in our print edition this week. It outlines the way the Corps continues to reshape its force in Helmand province, where tens of thousands of Marines have deployed and tangled with the Taliban since 2008. Marine officials released the proposed troop number for Helmand province to me for the story, while acknowledging it is subject to…
Marine Corps Times published my story last night correcting the record about Col. George Bristol, a Marine colonel who led a special operations task force in northern Africa the night of the attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. Despite Pentagon claims that he is retired and can’t be ordered to testify about them, he remains on active duty through the end of the month, Marine officials said Wednesday. As the Weekly Standard points out today, Rep. Frank Wolf, R.-Va., took to the House floor this morning angry about the issue. Check the video: [HTML1] Wolf said trusted…
Marine Corps Times’ cover story this week dives deeply into an issue that has rubbed a number of Marines raw, following the recent publication of news stories about a pending inspector general complaint filed against Commandant Gen. Jim Amos and several members of his staff. The complaint, among other issues, questioned whether the commandant showed preferential treatment to then-Maj. James B. Conway, the son of retired Commandant Gen. James T. Conway, as the Marine Corps investigated Marines caught on video urinating on the remains of dead Taliban fighters. The complaint, filed by Maj. James Weirick, a staff judge advocate with…
Gen. John Allen formally stepped into retirement Monday, moving on after more than 30 years in the Marine Corps with a ceremony at the Naval Academy. Allen already had been described as “retired” numerous times, but he was still on active duty through this week, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out yesterday. Likewise, Gen. James Mattis has turned over his post as the head of U.S. Central Command to Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, but Mattis won’t formally retire until June. Marine Corps Times profiled him last month. Allen’s actual retirement ceremony seems to have been conducted outside the limelight.…
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…
The announcement yesterday that Marine Gen. John Allen will retire instead of becoming the supreme allied commander of NATO immediately raises a question: Who will head to Brussels instead? Foreign Policy reported on its E-Ring blog that names being floated for the NATO job include Marine Gen. Gen. Jim Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps. The Daily Beast had a similar report last week, before Allen’s decision to retire was announced. Could Amos really move on, though? A shift like that would be a shock in the Corps, which Amos has led since October 2010 through a time filled with…
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,…
