Marine Corps

Hey, Marines, the commandant of the Guatemalan marine corps rolls his sleeves better than you

By gpingersoll on June 27, 2014 Battle Rattle

I wasn’t the best at rolling sleeves in my time, wasn’t the worst either, probably right around the middle of the pack. Leading that pack from Guatemala, though, is their marine corps commandant. Seriously, those rolls are so sharp, they probably outmatch half the Marines in the Corps. Col. Medardo Monterroso Suarez is so pumped about U.S. Marines training his troops that he not only wants to completely adopt their doctrine, but apparently their uniform presentation as well. Recently, we sent Marine Corps Times reporter Gina Harkins and staff photographer Mike Morones down into the heart of Central America to…

We weren’t surprised about how Marines kept fit in Sangin. Well … except for this one guy

By gpingersoll on May 2, 2014 Afghanistan, Battle Rattle, Marines

By Hope Hodge Seck FOB Sabit Qadam—It’s springtime in Afghanistan, and that means the mercury is already pushing into the triple digits here in Sangin. That didn’t seem to make a difference for Sgt. Sylvester Brooks, who tore through the FOB at top speed on a 45-minute run, wearing a high-altitude mask to make an already sweltering workout more challenging. During a quiet deployment focused on drawdown efforts, the outdoor gym seldom sits idle as Marines bide their time by knocking out endurance workouts and strength training. Marine officials said the gym will remain in place as drawdown efforts continue,…

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…

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…

Marine gunny to pin on as Navy ensign

By Gina Harkins on January 23, 2014 Battle Rattle

Sailors are about to get a taste of what like to have a Marine gunny as their leader. Since the day Gunnery Sgt. Sgt Bothvill Valcin met a commissioned officer at boot camp in 2000, he thought about going mustang. After 13 years in the Corps, a college degree, deployments to the Middle East and Asia, and working with special operations units, something was still missing from the gunny’s life: his commission. The Marine Corps gave him a lot of opportunities, he said, according to a Marine Corps news release. Just not the chance to become an officer, despite several applications. But…

Vietnam War-era Huey completes final Marine Corps deployment

By James Sanborn on November 10, 2013 26th MEU, Aviation, Battle Rattle, Deployments

The last UH-1N Huey ever to deploy with Marines recently conducted its final flight Nov. 5, ending a storied era of Marine aviation. The two-bladed version of the Huey recently deployed with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 266 (Reinforced) out of Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., in support of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. The 26th MEU recently returned from a float in the 5th and 6th Fleet areas of operation. The two bladed UH-1N variant has now been replaced by the heavier-hitting four-bladed UH-1Y. The specific UH-1N that was the last to deploy was also among the oldest…

Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen resort to liposuction

By James Sanborn on October 31, 2013 Battle Rattle, Fitness, Marines, Medical, Military appearance

The New York Times, Washington Times and the New York Daily News and others are just now reporting a story that is old news for Military Times readers — service members are resorting to extreme weight-loss methods to meet strict body composition standards. Marine Corps Times reporter James K. Sanborn first broke the story three years ago in July 2010, when it was revealed that a large number of service members were resorting to risky and sometimes deadly weight loss methods including dehydration, purging, diet supplements and yes — even liposuction. Doctors told Marine Corps Times then that often perfectly…

Navy ditches ALL CAPS messages — will the Corps do it too?

By Gina Harkins on June 14, 2013 Battle Rattle

If reading Marine administrative messages in all capital letters makes you feel like your old drill instructor is screaming a new policy at you, the Navy might be providing some hope for change. Navy Times reported that the Navy’s personnel chief issued a policy directive likely unique from all other naval messages before it — the bulletin featured lowercase letters. The Navy is shifting to a new message-routing system that is cheaper and easier to operate and has the side benefit of sending messages that are easier to read. The issue has been getting a lot of attention in recent…

The Corps gets the Jeopardy! treatment

By Hope Hodge Seck on March 29, 2013 Battle Rattle, Competitions, Marines, Pop culture, Rumors

What is Oorah? The classic trivia game show Jeopardy had a motivated night on Thursday with a second-round category titled “The United States Marines.” Contestants Rebecca Rider, Brian Daner, and Tom Carroll could have used some time in history and heritage training; of the five questions in the category, they got two wrong. Maybe they need more practice: a search of the fan-curated episode archive shows that while a category on Marine biology pops up about once a year, the last time the Corps got a dedicated category was 2009, when the National Museum of the Marine Corps was featured. See…

Behind the Cover: Amos reclaims reputation of Marine Corps

By Gina Cavallaro on June 4, 2012 Behind the Cover, Leadership, Marines

Bad behavior, bad publicity and bad timing on it all has got the commandant on the road to get Marines to clean up their acts. It’s called the “heritage brief” and it doesn’t sound like any speech you’ve ever heard from Gen. Amos; a deep dive into recent horrible news headlines and a frank discussion of the abhorrent behavior that led to them. The brief is also a sort of remember-who-you-are session, something Amos called a “family discussion” rather than an “ass-chewing.” So far, only staff NCOs and officers have seen this brief, but there will soon be a video…

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