Commandant

Former commandant backs congressman in contentious primary fight — and here’s why you should care

By on May 6, 2014 Capitol Hill, Commandant

One of the Marine Corps’ biggest advocates in Congress is facing a tough re-election fight, and a former commandant has lent his name to the campaign with hopes it will swing some votes in a district teeming with active-duty Marines and veterans. Voters in eastern North Carolina head to the polls Tuesday to determine whether Republican Rep. Walter Jones survives what’s been a heated primary contest with challenger Taylor Griffin, who worked for the Treasury Department during George W. Bush’s tenure in the White House. The race has generated significant buzz beyond North Carolina thanks to Griffin’s powerful connections, including to former…

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…

Tattoos and Terminal Lance: the 5 most surprising things we learned from the commandant’s live Q&A

By Hope Hodge Seck on March 17, 2014 Commandant, Pop culture, Rumors, Special operations, The blogosphere, The CMC

The commandant and sergeant major of the Marine Corps took to Facebook last Friday afternoon, answering nearly 30 candid questions from the Marine Corps community in the space of an hour as part of his ongoing “Reawakening” effort to engage directly with enlisted Marines. According to site administrators on the official Marines Facebook page, some 900 questions and comments rolled in during the hour Gen. Jim Amos and Sgt. Maj. Mike Barrett were online. While Amos addressed a number of popular themes, such as women in combat arms roles, recruiting, and sexual assault prevention, he also revealed some surprising facts…

Amos: I’d like the .45 instead of the 9 millimeter

By Gina Harkins on March 13, 2014 Battle Rattle, Commandant, Marksmanship

A congressman told Gen. James Amos that Marines in his district would like to see their M9 service pistol replaced with a .45-caliber — and Amos replied that he would, too. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., said he recently spent time with Marines during a wounded warrior function, during Wednesday’s House Armed Services Committee hearing on the proposed Navy-Marine Corps fiscal 2015 budget. Before the congressman launched into questions on the budget, he said there were a few those Marines asked him to speak up for. The first was the deadly A-10 Thunderbolt, which the Air Force flies to provide close-air support.…

New report: Marine Corps commandant could be a ‘lame duck’

By Jeff Schogol on February 28, 2014 Battle Rattle, Commandant, Weapons

Questions about whether Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Jim Amos illegally pressured subordinates to punish Marines shown urinating on Taliban corpses in a video may limit Amos’ ability to lead the Marine Corps for the remainder of his tenure, Foreign Policy is reporting. Marine Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, a respected general officer, has alleged that Amos made clear he wanted the Marines in the video thrown out of the Marine Corps — a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which prevents a commander from interfering in legal proceedings, Foreign Policy reported in the Feb. 27 story. Amos recently recently…

Amos: Marines not likely to go straight from boot camp to battlefield

By Hope Hodge Seck on February 14, 2014 Battle Rattle, Boot camp, Commandant, Deployments, Drawdown

Marine Corps commandant Gen. Jim Amos sat down for an interview with Leatherneck Magazine recently, which is freshly out in the magazine’s February edition. The interviewer, Arthur P. Brill Jr., asked Amos if one of the dire consequences he predicted would result from shrinking the Corps to 174,000–having to ship troops straight from “the drill field to the battlefield”–was really likely to happen. The answer: not terribly, but conditions will still be more constrained with a smaller force. Leatherneck: You testified recently that Marines could go straight from boot camp to combat without giving them precombat training. Would you really do that?…

Handwriting experts: you shouldn’t cross the commandant

By Hope Hodge Seck on July 29, 2013 Battle Rattle, Commandant, General officers, Pop culture

Dynamic. Self-assertive. Self-protective. These are words some experts used to describe Marine Corps commandant Gen. Jim Amos–or at least, how they believe his signature describes him. Writing for MilitaryTimes’ Off Duty section, handwriting experts Sheila Lowe, Kimon Ianetta and Reed Hayes took a look at the John Hancocks of all the military service leaders, including the Commander-in-Chief. President Barack Obama’s mostly-illegible signature “signals a strong need for privacy,” Lowe said, while Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is “unable or unwilling to tell it like it is” judging from his autograph, she said. As for…

Amos: Marines sticking to their MARPAT “like a hobo on a ham sandwich”

By Hope Hodge Seck on July 22, 2013 Capitol Hill, Commandant, Deployments, Marines, Military appearance, Uniforms

Gen. James Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, reassured Marines in Hawaii last week that he was committed to keeping the distinctive MARPAT camouflage pattern for Marines, even as lawmakers consider adopting one single camo pattern for all the services. Amos has so far been quiet regarding the proposed changes, even as Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has come out in support of a common camouflage–or at least a reduction from the ten-plus patterns now being utilized across the services. But on July 15 he had some folksy fighting words regarding a change for troops aboard Marine Corps Base Hawaii. “We…

Cancer survivor becomes honorary Marine

By Stephen Houserman on June 24, 2013 Commandant, History and heritage, Honorary Marines, Marines

Daran Wankum of Merriam Kansas has always wanted to be a U.S. Marine and follow the footsteps of his grandfather, reported KBMC 9 of Kansas City. Unfortunately, at age 18 and before he could get the chance to ship to boot camp, Wankum was diagnosed with a massive tumor located in the center of his brain. “I didn’t think at all. I just stopped the car and started crying, that’s what I did for 5 minutes,” Wankum told KMBC. His future seemed shattered because he knew this was a disqualifying factor for entering the Marine Corps. However, the Marine recruiters…

Behind the Cover: How a commandant’s son escaped controversy to become a battalion commander

By Dan Lamothe on May 28, 2013 Afghanistan, Commandant, The CMC, Washington

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…

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