Hope Hodge Seck

A video game controller flies this $14 million drone

By Hope Hodge Seck on May 8, 2014 Battle Rattle

Look at the two pictures below. One is a controller for your average Playstation 2 machine. One flies the $14 million K-Max drone, which the Marine Corps uses to transport up to 6,000 pounds of gear and equipment at a time. Can you tell which is which? Give up? The top one flies the K-Max. The bottom one is just a Logitech controller from Walmart. Here’s the drone itself, a rugged 6,000-pound machine based at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan that is one of only two like it in the world. While here on an embed, I paid the program a visit.…

Commandant wishes female Marine vet a happy 100th birthday

By Hope Hodge Seck on April 25, 2014 History and heritage, Marines, women, World War II

Mary Cochrane enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1944 to “free a man to fight” in World War II by serving as a truck driver. On April 18 she celebrated her 100th birthday–made sweeter with a cake brought to her home by a detachment of reserve Marines, and a letter of congratulation from Marine commandant Gen. Jim Amos. The Marines, an inspector-instructor detachment from Peru, Indiana, spent time discussing Marine Corps memories with Cochrane and reviewing photos from her time as a young Marine. “I had never seen a Marine, by the way,” Cochrane said of arriving in San…

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…

Read the Bronze Star citation of this year’s Leftwich Trophy recipient

By Hope Hodge Seck on April 16, 2014 Afghanistan, Awards, Battle Rattle

Before Capt. Christopher Ashinhurst was selected for the Leftwich Trophy, honoring the Marines’ top ground forces captain, he was awarded a Bronze Star with combat valor device for heroism leading his company during a grueling five-day battle against insurgents, and later rallying to the aid of coalition troops at Combat Outpost Shir Ghazay following a suicide car bombing that left seven Georgian soldiers dead. The commander of Delta Company, 1st Tanks Battalion, Ashinhurst proved calm under fire, assessing casualties and directing Marines even after being hit on the head with a wooden divider after a blast destroyed his company office.…

Congressman defends Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. after controversial comments

By Hope Hodge Seck on April 14, 2014 budget, Capitol Hill, Leadership, The Sgt. Major of the Marine Corps

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…

Commandant gives preview of the global Marine Corps in 2020

By Hope Hodge Seck on April 10, 2014 Africa, Battle Rattle, Commandant, Crisis-response force, Deployment map, Deployments, Pacific issues

Water scarcity, regional conflict zones, and the “youth bulge:” these are all problems that may become the Marine Corps’ business in the near future. That was the message from Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos this week when he gave an audience at the Navy League’s Sea Air Space expo a glimpse into what’s ahead for the Corps. By 2020, he said, expect two new crisis Marine Corps crisis response forces positioned near potential conflict zones and a rotational force established in Guam like the one already conducting training deployments in Australia. Amos also indicated that the future of the Corps…

Five reasons to consider the argument this female Marine officer makes about infantry training

By Hope Hodge Seck on April 2, 2014 Training, women

The Marine Corps has been sending female volunteers to its Infantry Officer Training at Quantico, Va. since late 2012. But while female Marines hump gear, navigate land, and climb ropes alongside their male counterparts, one officer says Marine women still aren’t getting a fair shot. Second lieutenant Sage Santangelo writes in a Washington Post op-ed that part of the reason that all 14 women who have attempted the course have washed out is that male lieutenants can opt to retake the course if they fail to succeed the first time, while females must move on to training in their non-infantry military…

PHOTOS: New images show impact of deadly Hawthorne mortar blast

By Hope Hodge Seck on April 1, 2014 Battle Rattle, Training

A newly-released collection of photographs from the Marine Corps depicts the horrific aftermath of a March 18, 2013 explosion that claimed the lives of seven Camp Lejeune Marines who were conducting live-fire training in Hawthorne, Nev. A previously released command investigation, obtained by Marine Corps Times, revealed that the source of the tragic accident was a mortar tube that was unintentionally double-loaded during night training. Three Marine officers were dismissed in the wake of the tragedy. New photographs, released to Marine Corps Times this week through a Freedom of Information Act request, reveal the force of the blast and its…

Marine vet writes to Hagel: “Sgt. Peralta saved my life”

By Hope Hodge Seck on April 1, 2014 Awards, Capitol Hill

The years-long push to award fallen Sgt. Rafael Peralta the Medal of Honor seemed ended for good in February, when Chuck Hagel became the third Defense Secretary to decline to seek the higher award for the Marine, who allegedly saved the lives of fellow Marines in his final moments by pulling a live grenade under him during a fight with insurgents in Fallujah in 2004. Peralta received the Navy Cross, the military’s second-highest honor, in 2008. Since then, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., has spearheaded a series of efforts to see him receive a higher award, unearthing new evidence and witnesses…

Watch this landing craft prototype climb walls and launch into the water

By Hope Hodge Seck on March 19, 2014 Battle Rattle, Boat operations, Equipment, RIMPAC

We told you the Marines are conducting experiments with a futuristic landing craft prototype called the Ultra Heavy Lift Amphibious Connector. Now, watch it in action. [HTML1] In this demonstration video supplied by the company Navatek, half-size and quarter-size versions of the UHAC (which is big enough to carry 3 tanks at full size) conduct impressive maneuvers. The prototypes climb sea walls, launch directly into the water over berms, and maneuver through choppy seas at speeds of up to 10 knots. Officials with the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab were in Hawaii earlier this month to conduct experiments with the UHAC…

Author Hope Hodge Seck