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The Last Superman School
"Generation Kill" star Stark Sands explains the elite world of the Recon Marine. "Generation Kill" airs Sunday nights at 9 on HBO.
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Marines Who Know
"Generation Kill's" Rey Valentin learned how to play a Recon Marine from guys who were the real deal.
"Generation Kill" airs Sundays at 9PM on HBO. "Generation Kill's" Rey Valentin learned how to play a Recon Marine from guys who were the real deal. ... more -
US Not leaving Iraq:No Deal
U.S negotiators have abandoned efforts to conclude a comprehensive agreement governing the long-term status of U.S troops in Iraq before the end of the Bush presidency, according to senior U.S. officials, effectively leaving talks over an extended U.S. military presence there to the next administration.
The failure of months of negotiations over the more detailed accord -- blamed on both the Iraqi refusal to accept U.S. terms and the complexity of the task.
The Us administration wants to secure permanent military bases in the region and have control over the government.
Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), the presumptive Democratic nominee, has said he would immediately begin withdrawing combat troops at a rate of one or two brigades a month, a pledge he has softened recently by saying he would consult with U.S. commanders on the ground. But he has said that after 16 months in office, the U.S. presence in Iraq would be far smaller than the 144,000 troops there now, with only a "residual" number remaining.
The status-of-forces negotiations have been sharply criticized by Democrats, and some Republicans, as an attempt to tie Bush's successor to the president's policy in Iraq. Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, supports the administration position. He has said he hopes to bring U.S. combat troops home by 2013 but has insisted that any timeline or lessening of U.S. control over its own operations would undercut recent military gains and aid U.S. enemies. U.S negotiators have abandoned efforts to conclude a comprehensive agreement governing the long-term status of U.S troops in Iraq befo... more -
Female soldier missing, home burned
Authorities are searching for a female soldier, missing after a fire at her apartment near Fort Bragg in North Carolina, reports CNN.
Investigators found evidence of arson at the Fayetteville apartment of 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc, 24.
A neighbor, Roland Petty, told WRAL-TV that he saw a man running from the area on Wednesday night and smelled smoke, although he didn't associate it with the building at the time.
In a court filing for a protective order, Wimunc said that in May her husband had knocked her down, held a loaded gun to her head and then threatened to commit suicid.
The court documents indicate that John Wimunc is a Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune.
A Camp Lejeune spokesman told WRAL that police had spoken to John Wimunc on Thursday about his wife's disappearance.
"I haven't seen any violence. I know [Wimunc's husband] was not living here anymore, but that's all I know," a neighbor said.
Both stations reported that Holley Wimunc's car was still in the parking lot at the apartment.
Her disappearance is considered a missing person case.
Authorities are searching for a female soldier, missing after a fire at her apartment near Fort Bragg in North Carolina, reports CNN. ... more -
Generation Kill Faces Its Toughest Audience
The Marines at Camp Pendleton. Join the conversation by leaving your comments.
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U.S. military in Iraq holds “the largest re-enlistment ceremony ever held”
Soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen — 1,215 in all — raised their hands and re-pledged allegiance to America.
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Soldiers on LSD
What happens to the army if you give them LSD?
This is documentary evidence of an experiment testing just that, carried out on British marines in 1964... What happens to the army if you give them LSD? ... more -
Marine Throwing a Puppy
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. Marine videotaped throwing a puppy over a cliff while on patrol in Iraq has been kicked out of the Corps, and a second Marine involved has been disciplined, according to a statement released by the Marines.
Lance Cpl. David Motari, based in Hawaii with the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, is being "processed for separation" and received non-judicial punishment, officials said in the statement Wednesday night. The Marine Corps would not specify what that punishment was because of privacy regulations.
The statement said Motari received the punishment for his role in the "episode which generated international attention."
The incident appeared on the Internet web site YouTube in March, sparking outrage from animal rights groups around the world.
In the video, Motari is seen throwing the dog off a cliff as it yelps.
A second Marine, San Diego-based Sgt. Crismarvin Banez Encarnacion, received non-judicial punishment as well.
Janice Hagar, a spokeswoman for the Marines in San Diego, said Encarnacion shot the video.
Marine officials at the Pentagon would not disclose the severity of the disciplinary action against Encarnacion, also because of privacy regulations.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. Marine videotaped throwing a puppy over a cliff while on patrol in Iraq has been kicked out of the Corps, a... more -
Marine cleared over Haditha Massacre
A US military jury has acquitted a marine of charges that he helped cover up the killing of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005.
Lt Andrew Grayson had been charged with obstruction of justice and making false statements - charges he denied. He had been accused of instructing a sergeant to delete digital photographs of the incident.
Four marines and four officers were initially charged in the case, but the case against five of them was dropped. The marines were charged with murder and the officers with failing to investigate the deaths. The trial is being held at Camp Pendleton, a military base in California. Lt Grayson was the first to be tried.
The killings occurred after a roadside bomb in Haditha on 19 November 2005 left one marine dead and injured two others. The US military at first reported that the Iraqis had been killed by that explosion, or in a subsequent gunfight with insurgents.
But Iraqi witnesses said the US troops shot dead five unarmed men when they approached the scene of the bombing in a car. The troops were then accused going to nearby houses and killing 19 other civilians.
There was no full US investigation into what happened until January 2006, when video footage emerged of the aftermath, filmed by a local human rights activist.
A US military jury has acquitted a marine of charges that he helped cover up the killing of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2... more -
Daily life in Afghanistan
A U.S. Marine, from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, has a close call after Taliban fighters opened fire near Garmser in Helmand Province of Afghanistan May 18, 2008. The Marine was not injured.
Reuters, Goran Tomasevic
...And other wonderful pictures. A U.S. Marine, from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, has a close call after Taliban fighters opened fire near Garmser in Helmand Pr... more -
Marines Bringing Combat Training to Indy
By Vic Ryckaert// The Indianapolis Star
U.S. Marine helicopters will land at the old Eastgate Consumer Mall, Brookside Park and other Indianapolis locations when the city becomes a mock battlefield next week.
About 2,300 Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., will conduct urban warfare training from Wednesday through June 19 in and around Indianapolis.
Most of the troops will be deployed at the Indiana State Fairgrounds and the Raytheon facility on Holt Road, said Debbi Fletcher of the Indianapolis/Marion County Emergency Management Agency.
“We don’t want anyone thinking that there’s an invasion happening or that we declared martial law or something like that,” Fletcher said.
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Full story at link. By Vic Ryckaert// The Indianapolis Star ... more -
Memorial Day 2008: Soldiers
Soldiers at Camp Pendleton Kyle Fenton, Corey Crawford, Eileen Donovan, and Christopher Hagan share what Memorial Day means to them.
Soldiers at Camp Pendleton Kyle Fenton, Corey Crawford, Eileen Donovan, and Christopher Hagan share what Memorial Day means to them. ... more -
Memorial Day 2008: Taps
At the VA memorial cemetery in Westwood, CA Private First Class Vidal Cantu performs taps at a funeral of a fallen soldier.
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Memorial Day 2008: Kaj
Kaj Larsen opens our memorial day special with a personal story from his Navy Seals experience. He visits the memorial in San Jose of 11 Navy Seals that died in combat in 2002, and shares his personal memories of those men. Kaj Larsen opens our memorial day special with a personal story from his Navy Seals experience. He visits the memorial in San Jose of ... more
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Memorial Day 2008: Marine
Douglas McGill of Marine Corps base Camp Pendleton shares what his fellow marines have done for our country.
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Pentagon Financial Systems Still A mess
Since 2004, the Pentagon has spent roughly $16 billion annually to maintain and modernize the military's business systems, but most are as unreliable as ever—even as the surge in defense spending is creating more room for error. The basic defense budget for 2007 was $439.3 billion, up 48 percent from 2001, excluding the vast additional sums appropriated for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to federal regulators and current and former Pentagon officials, the accounting process is so obsolete and error prone that it's virtually impossible to tell where much of this money ends up. While the department's brass has made a few patchwork improvements, billions are still unaccounted for. The problem is so deeply rooted that, 18 years after Congress required major federal agencies to be audited, the Pentagon still can't be.
For the first three quarters of 2007, $1.1 trillion in Army accounting entries hadn't been properly reviewed and substantiated, according to the Department of Defense's inspector general. In 2006, $258.2 billion of recorded withdrawals and payments from the Army's main account were unsupported. It's as if the Army had submitted multibillion-dollar expense reports without any receipts.
Preoccupied with protecting their turf, the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines continue to maintain separate, increasingly outdated systems that can't talk to each other, trace disbursements, or detect overbilling by contractors. At the Indianapolis facility, as at the Defense Department's four other main U.S. centers for financial operations, accounting programs under the same roof can't share information without extensive jury-rigging, as though contracts, payments, and accounting had nothing to do with one another. Since 2004, the Pentagon has spent roughly $16 billion annually to maintain and modernize the military's business systems, but most ar... more -
Suspect in Marine killing caught in Mexico
Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean, the main suspect in the killing of 20-year-old (pregnant) Marine Maria Lauterbach was captured in Mexico. Lauterbach's charred body, and that of her fetus were found in a pit in Laurean's backyard in North Carolina. He fled to Mexico and survived eating fruits and avocados and hiding in fields. Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean, the main suspect in the killing of 20-year-old (pregnant) Marine Maria Lauterbach was captured in Mexico. ... more
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Bush to announce halt on Iraq troop withdrawals
President Bush is today expected to take the advice of his top commander in Iraq and suspend troop withdrawals from the country beyond July.
By endorsing the recommendations of General David Petraeus to Congress earlier this week, Bush will effectively guarantee that about 140,000 US servicemen and women will still be in Iraq when the next president takes office.
In a progress report on the war five years after the fall of Baghdad, Bush will announce shorter combat tours, with army units heading to Iraq after August 1 serving 12-month tours rather than their current 15-month deployment — a move that war critics say the president had to make to ease strain on the armed forces. President Bush is today expected to take the advice of his top commander in Iraq and suspend troop withdrawals from the country beyond... more -
Marine who lost leg returns to combat in Iraq
f you’ve ever wondered what the Marines have in mind when they advertise for “a few good men,” look no further than Gunnery Sgt. William “Spanky” Gibson.
Two years ago, he lost a leg to a sniper’s bullet in Iraq. Today, he’s back in the combat zone — by his own choice.
If you notice an unusual spring in his step as he goes about his duties at Camp Fallujah in Iraq, mark it down to the wonders of the modern technology that went into the carbon-fiber prosthetic leg Gibson wears. He may have surrendered a leg in serving his country, but he’s far from handicapped.
To Gibson, there wasn’t any question about going back. “It's my life,” he said. “It's what I love. For me at least, being a Marine means being prepared to go into conflict.”
On the base, he’s an inspiration to other Marines, who see what he’s done and find it easier to shoulder their own loads.
“You may be down sometimes, but you look at him and say, ‘This is what it's all about,’ ” said Master Sgt. Solomon Reed. “It's inspirational to the Marines."
Gibson sees it as just doing his job. He’s seen progress in Iraq in the past two years and compares where that country is to where the United States was when it set out on the road to independence.
“This is where we were 232 years ago as a new nation,” he once said. “Now they're starting a new nation, and that's one of my big reasons for coming back here.” f you’ve ever wondered what the Marines have in mind when they advertise for “a few good men,” look no further than Gunnery Sgt. Willi... more -
Okinawa, Japan 12: U.S. Military and Central Okinawa
James Knott visits the central part of Okinawa's main island. This area has the highest concentration of U.S. Military bases in Japan and is a great place to see the influence of American culture on Japanese Society. There are also some great resorts and some deliciously cheap sushi to enjoy. James Knott visits the central part of Okinawa's main island. This area has the highest concentration of U.S. Military bases in Japan ... more
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