Corps officials will be soliciting Marines to volunteer for the latest step in testing the integration of women in combat arms positions across 14 duty stations between May 28 and June 9. Here’s are five things Marines should know: 1. The Corps is looking for about 500 volunteers — women and men — to serve as the ground combat element of an integrated task force that will be stood up at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, in June. 2. Marines interested in volunteering can do so three ways: on the Corps’ Manpower and Reserve Affairs website; by calling (703) 432-2513; or…
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[HTML1] We’ve uncovered a 2011 interview with Medal of Honor recipient Capt. John J. McGinty, III who recently passed away at age 73 in Beaufort, S.C. In the video by the publishers of ‘Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty’ McGinty recounts the harrowing 1966 battle for which he earned the medal. On July 15 of that year, his company was in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam, when they were assaulted by wave after wave of a North Vietnamese Army battalion. He and his men narrowly survived the hours-long fight after calling in danger-close air support and…
There are 65 corpsmen assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, in Sangin, Afghanistan, the majority of whom are on their first deployments, and it’s the nature of the beast that many will have seen their first casualties on the battlefield on this rotation. The corpsmen in this picture, Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Alberto Cisneros and Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Richard Erfurth, are two of the more experienced corpsmen at the 1/5 Battalion Aid Station. They are treating Afghan soldiers wounded Sept. 8 in a bombing near FOB Jackson, the 1/5 headquarters in Sangin. I met them when I was…
On April 22, 2004 in Karabilah, Iraq, Cpl. Jason Dunham snuffed out a grenade with his helmet and body and, in dying, saved the lives of other Marines. He’s gone now and, like other Marines before him, will never hear the praise for his heroics, wear his Medal of Honor at ceremonies or stand in formation again. But after Saturday, Nov. 13, when the 9,200-ton, 509-foot warship USS Jason Dunham is commissioned in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the world will see a guided missile destroyer sail by, proudly bearing his name and cutting through the high seas with a crew of…
COMBAT OUTPOST REILLY, Afghanistan – Last night, I went on my last foot patrol of this embed assignment. It was eventful, to say the least. Military Times photographer Tom Brown and I pushed north from this outpost east of Marjah with Marines from Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines. Two groups – 3rd Platoon’s 2nd and 3rd Squads – left on routine security patrols within a half hour of each other. Tom and I joined 3/3, the second group – 13 Marines, a Navy corpsman and four Afghan National Army soldiers – as they stepped off at about 4:30. It…
CAMP HANSON, Afghanistan — Today, Tom Brown and I said goodbye to the Yellow Schoolhouse, a former school in Marjah where two squads of Marines from India Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, now patrol from and live. I’m now at Camp Hanson, home to 3/6’s headquarters, and awaiting for potential transportation to another 3/6 company of Marines. In the meantime, however, I wanted to take a minute to reflect on my time at the schoolhouse, which more closely resembles the Marine Corps I hoped and expected to see downrange than anything else to date. To say it’s hard living at…
MARJAH, Afghanistan — Some of you may have read that Marine Corps Times was caught in the middle of a firefight here yesterday afternoon. Well, here’s footage to match, courtesy of Tom Brown, who whipped out his video camera after diving next to me into a Marjah canal: [HTML1] Again: Everyone came out of this safe and sound, and five men were later detained. Sometimes, good luck can be found in Afghanistan.
MARJAH, Afghanistan — The bullets snapped overhead angrily, and all I could feel were the insects crawling up and down my legs and the sludgy water seeping into my boots. That’s how I’ll remember an ambush on a Marine patrol today, in which I saw my first warzone firefight. It began at about 12:30 p.m., as 10 members of 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, and six Afghan National Army soldiers pushed east on a dirt trail splitting two agricultural canals in central Marjah. The sky was clear and the air temperature had crept into the 90s, as the hot Afghan sun…
MARJAH, Afghanistan — It’s day three for Tom Brown and I today at the Yellow Schoolhouse, a school built by the U.S. in Afghanistan in the 1950s. We went on a patrol with Marines on Sunday, and while it was uneventful, it was clear just how active the Taliban has been recently in this area. The patrol took us through several areas where Marines have been ambushed recently, including one Thursday in which eight to 10 insurgents opened fire on a group of Marines from India Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines. An Afghan National Army soldier was killed in the…
PATROL BASE YAZZIE, Afghanistan — As I mentioned earlier this week, it isn’t hard to find marijuana while traveling with Marine fire teams based here to patrol Marjah. Tom Brown captured just how easily this morning with this eye-opening photograph. For some of Tom’s work that doesn’t appear on Battle Rattle, check out the Military Times Line of Sight blog. All the fans of 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, will probably get a kick out of this photo.
