Shots fired. The Marine Corps’ seven Marine Expeditionary Units are designed to deploy at a moment’s notice for combat or emergency response, but it seems two of the MEUs have been waging a war a little closer to home. The 15th MEU, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., has had an official account on Twitter for over a year, tweeting a regular stream of Marine Corps news and photos. But when its neighboring 13th MEU joined Twitter in July, things started heating up. On Aug. 23, the 13th MEU account issued a friendly shout-out to all the MEUs on Twitter. [HTML1]…
Author Hope Hodge Seck
Looks like America’s cuddliest Marine is getting a promotion. The official Marine Barracks Washington Facebook page is announcing that Chesty XIV, an English bulldog who is the official mascot of the Marine Corps will pin on a second chevron Friday. That event will coincide with the weekly evening parade at 8th and I, a public demonstration of Marine Corps pomp and circumstance that typically includes a chance for Chesty to greet his adoring fans. Chesty should remember to keep his nose clean, though. His equally jowly predecessor, Sgt. Chesty XIII, once received a demotion for snapping at then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s…
It’s on now. If you’re on Facebook and don’t live underneath a rock, you’ve probably heard of the Ice Bucket Challenge fad sweeping the nation. It reportedly started in Boston with former Boston College baseball star Peter Frates, who was diagnosed with the degenerative disease ALS in 2012. The concept is simple: if you’re challenged, you have 24 hours to film yourself dumping ice water on your head for ALS awareness, or donate $100 to ALS research. Or, preferably, both. Then you get to challenge another handful of people. Well, this morning Maximilian Uriarte, creator of the wildly popular web…
As Marine veteran Andrew Tahmooressi appeared in a Mexican courthouse in Tijuana today for an evidentiary hearing, a host of lawmakers and a movie star are voicing their support for him. Tahmooressi says he missed his exit at the San Ysidro border crossing March 31, entering Mexico with three firearms and dozens of rounds of ammunition in his truck before being arrested by Mexican authorities. His court proceedings were delayed by a series of legal hiccups: he has fired his attorney twice before hiring lawyer Fernando Benitez to represent him. While the results of the hearing, which began at 11:30a.m.…
Last year, 12-year-old Ethan Arbelo earned his Eagle, Globe, and Anchor when he was made an Honorary Marine, joining a group of fewer than 100 who have received that title. Last week, Ethan’s family said he had earned his angel’s wings. Diagnosed with Anaplastic Astrocytoma Grade III, an aggressive brain cancer, in Feb. 2012, Ethan embarked on a mission to make the most of the time he had. His mom, Maria Maldonado Arbelo, herself a Marine veteran, created “Ethan’s Bucket List,” a tally of her son’s dream adventures. With donor support raised in online fundraisers and through various charitable organizations, Ethan…
Retired Marine Cpl. Kyle Carpenter, who received the Medal of Honor at the White House last week, entered the home stretch of a week on the road with an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman in New York last night. [HTML1] Carpenter, who showed up sharp in his dress blues with his medal at his collar, revealed to Letterman that he had driven home from class to receive the call from President Barack Obama congratulating him on his award. Then, he had gone back to class. “I’m sorry I’m late, professor, I just got a call from the…
Just last month, the Marine Corps executed a carefully planned pullout from Sangin district in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, a region best known as one of the most deadly battlegrounds of the war. I was on the ground with some of the units for the final withdrawal. Less than two months on, the news out of Sangin isn’t good: AP reports that some 27 people, including five civilians, have been killed since Sunday, when the Taliban launched an attack on police checkpoints in the district, swarming the region with between 800 and 1,0o0 enemy fighters. The fighting has also spread the…
Edit: It has been brought to our attention that recent Army MOH recipient Kyle White began the tradition of live online Q-and-As earlier this year. Kyle Carpenter participated in the first of these events for the Marine Corps, though. We’ve updated this post to reflect that. Marine Corps hero Kyle Carpenter made a bit of history today, conducting what is the first-ever live online Q-and-A with a Marine selected to receive the military’s top honor. He’ll receive the Medal of Honor Thursday in a ceremony at the White House, nearly four years after covering a live grenade to save a…
Right now, future Medal of Honor recipient Kyle Carpenter is holding an AMA-style session over at the Marines Facebook page, inviting users to send in their questions over the next hour so he can answer them in real time. Carpenter will receive the military’s highest honor Thursday for shielding a friend from a live grenade in 2012. Why is this incredibly cool? First, Carpenter will be one of only two living Marine Corps Medal of Honor recipients from the post 9/11 era. This is a big piece of Marine Corps history. Second, hearing from a living hero of this caliber…
Marine veteran Kyle Carpenter will become the newest recipient of the Medal of Honor in a ceremony at the White House June 19 for covering a grenade to save a friend during his 2012 deployment to Marjah, Afghanistan. In anticipation of that event, the Marine Corps has released a beautiful new video showing Carpenter and his mom, Robin Carpenter, poring over old letters from boot camp and Carpenter’s deployment to Afghanistan prior to his act of heroism and the life-changing injuries that resulted. At seven minutes, the video’s a little long, but completely worth the watch. Be sure to stay…
