Awards

Living legends: 1st Marine Division Marines get Navy Cross

By Gina Cavallaro on May 22, 2012 Afghanistan, Awards, Kajaki, Marines

In more than 10 years of war, the Navy Cross has been awarded to 31 Marines and seven sailors. Ten Navy Crosses were awarded posthumously. On Friday, two California-based Marines — Cpl. Christopher Farias and Sgt. Cliff Wooldridge — were present and accounted for as they received the Navy Cross, the nation’s second highest award for valor. Their stories will live on and join those of scores of legendary Marines. At Camp Pendleton, Farias received his award at a morning ceremony for his ferocious will to fight and direct the counterattack of an ambush in Kajaki, Afghanistan, on Oct. 5,…

Marine Sgt Rafael Peralta and the Medal of Honor

By Gina Cavallaro on May 18, 2012 Awards, Capitol Hill, Marines, Medal of Honor

California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter continues to feverishly pursue the Medal of Honor for fallen Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta, who scooped a grenade under his body to save other Marines in Fallujah, Iraq on Nov. 15, 2004, according to Marines who saw him do it. He was awarded the Navy Cross – even though the Marine Corps recommended him for the Medal of Honor – after the Defense Department convened its own panel which concluded the evidence for the nation’s highest award for combat valor was not sufficient. Peralta’s family rejected the Navy Cross. Hunter has doggedly pursued the higher…

A tie between Charlie Manson and Stolen Valor fakers? Yes

By Dan Lamothe on February 22, 2012 Awards, Pop culture

With the Stolen Valor Act under scrutiny by the Supreme Court today, it seemed like a good time to bring a story out of the mothballs. In 2009, I covered a story for Marine Corps Times that falls squarely in the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction category. The short of it: A man who claimed to be a retired four-star Marine Corps general had previously been married to convicted murderer Susan Atkins, ex-wife of the notorious serial killer Charlie Manson. I know this because I went to great lengths to prove it. Donald Laisure claimed in the Marine Corps Association’s membership registry that year…

Behind the Cover: ‘Kyle covered that grenade’ — Marines weigh in on grenade blast survivor’s heroism

By Dan Lamothe on January 23, 2012 Afghanistan, Awards, Infantry, Marjah, Medal of Honor

It’s rare indeed that Marine Corps Times will publish back-to-back cover stories on the same subject. Lance Cpl. William Kyle Carpenter’s story is exceptional, though. As I reported last week, the Marine Corps is investigating what happened in the moments before he and Lance Cpl. Nick Eufrazio were hit with grenade explosion in a guard post near Marjah, Afghanistan, on Nov. 21, 2010. Carpenter took the brunt of the blast, and the service is researching whether he deliberately attempted to protect Eufrazio. The story prompted a strong response from our readers — and for several of Carpenter’s fellow Marines present…

Video: Marine Lance Cpl. Kyle Carpenter, injured by a grenade, discusses his recovery

By Dan Lamothe on January 17, 2012 Afghanistan, Awards, Marjah, Wounded warriors

As mentioned on this blog yesterday, this week’s Marine Corps Times cover story focuses on Lance Cpl. Kyle Carpenter, the Marine infantryman who has achieved a miraculous recovery after sustaining a grenade blast near Marjah, Afghanistan, in November 2010. Marine Corps Times has taken some heat for reporting that there are questions over whether Carpenter covered the grenade to protect his buddy, Lance Cpl. Nick Eufrazio. Actions along those lines have yielded prestigious valor awards in the past, obviously. Those questions exist, though, at least in the minds of some in the Corps. Additional Marine sources have reaffirmed that since…

Behind the Cover: Did Lance Cpl. Kyle Carpenter cover a grenade to shield his buddy?

By Andrew deGrandpre on January 16, 2012 Afghanistan, Awards, Behind the Cover, Marjah

UPDATE: An updated version of this story has now been posted online here. You may recognize this face. That’s Lance Cpl. Kyle Carpenter, who was severely wounded in Afghanistan in 2010 when insurgents chucked a hand grenade onto the roof where he and another Marine, Lance Cpl. Nick Eufrazio, were posting security. In the months since the attack, as Carpenter has undergone numerous surgeries to address his injuries, he has become an ambassador, of sorts, for the Marine Corps and its wounded warriors, inspiring family, friends and fellow Marines with his undying optimism in the face of a difficult recovery.…

Marine veteran raps birthday tribute to Cpl. Jason Dunham

By Gidget Fuentes on November 11, 2011 Awards, Iraq, Medal of Honor, Pop culture

In his four years stationed at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego, former Cpl. Joe Potter had never met Cpl. Jason Dunham. Potter joined the Marine Corps the year that Dunham died. But Dunham’s legacy as a combat warrior and Medal of Honor recipient who gave his life to save his fellow Marines from an insurgent’s grenade in Iraq in April 2004 had been well ingrained in Potter’s memory during the four years he spent working as an expeditionary airfield specialist with Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron. Since hanging up his uniform, Potter has worked in his father’s painting business,…

Dakota Meyer jokes with David Letterman

By Dan Lamothe on September 23, 2011 Awards, Ganjgal, Pop culture

Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. Dakota Meyer appeared on “Late Show with David Letterman” Thursday night, and thing got loose pretty quickly. You’ve got to love “greasing the Bobcat” jokes, in particular: [HTML1] For what it’s worth, it appears Meyer is still laughing about the appearance. He posted the following message on Twitter this morning: The full episode is available here.

Thoughts on the ’60 Minutes’ piece with Dakota Meyer

By Dan Lamothe on September 19, 2011 Afghanistan, Awards, Ganjgal, Washington

Last night, the messy background behind Sgt. Dakota Meyer’s Medal of Honor was reintroduced to the nation. In a 15-minute piece on “60 Minutes,” CBS reporter David Martin outlined what went wrong in the six-hour battle in Ganjgal, Afghanistan, that led to Meyer taking his life in his hands on Sept. 8, 2009, in an attempt to save as many Afghan and American forces as he could from the teeth of a well planned ambush. The clip is up here: [HTML1] Some of the details reported last night will be common knowledge to those who have tracked Ganjgal, but there…

More on Dakota Meyer’s beer summit with Obama

By Dan Lamothe on September 15, 2011 Awards, Ganjgal, Washington

UPDATED: A White House spokesman tells Marine Corps Times that the beer shared by Obama and Meyer was home-brewed there. It’s called White House Honey Blonde Ale. That’s pretty sweet. By now, you’ve seen the photo above. It’s President Obama having a beer yesterday with Dakota Meyer, who will become today the first living Marine in 38 years to receive the Medal of Honor. The idea was reportedly Dakota’s. When the president’s staff called Meyer over the weekend in advance of today’s ceremony, the Marine asked if he could have a beer with Obama, White House press secretary Jay Carney…

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