Our 2011 Marine of the year is making headlines again–this time, for an ambitious project to honor all the fallen troops hailing from his home state. We caught up with Maj. David Cote, a Pentagon budget analyst, earlier this year about his work in support of homeless veterans, centering on the development of an analytical tool to determine risk factors that caught the attention of San Diego mayor Bob Filner and a number of members of Congress. The tool, the the Service Member Attrition Risk Tool (SMART) is now being used by Veteran’s Village in San Diego to serve its homeless and…
Browsing: Memorial
Cpl. Tick was a two-year-old, friendly black lab. She was a decorated Marine. And she was a hero. Last year Cpl. Tick and her handler, Lance Cpl. Bryan Utrilla were attached to Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines at Combat Outpost Shir Ghazay near the town of Musa Qala in Helmand province Afghanistan, assigned to patrol the region for Improvised Explosive Devices. Utrilla told me by email that Cpl. Tick was a natural when it came to getting the job done. “Cpl. Tick was an awesome friend/Marine, and when she wanted to work, she worked,” he wrote. “She knew the…