This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Marine Corps

  • 6th FA-18 fighter crashes

    6th FA-18 fighter crashes

    USMC_FA-18_Hornet

    Mick sends us a link to Fox News which reports that for the 6th time this year an FA-18 jet has crashed 120 miles off the coast of Japan;

    A U.S. Marine Corps pilot ejected before his F/A-18 crashed near Iwakuni, Japan on Wednesday and search and rescue efforts were under way, the military announced.

    The pilot ejected approximately 120 miles southeast of Iwakuni at about 6:40 p.m. local time.

    […]

    The Wednesday crash was also the fourth F/A-18 mishap since October, including an incident in November when two jets collided near San Diego.

  • Judge overturns Brezler decision

    Judge overturns Brezler decision

    jason brexler

    Marine Major Jason Brezler warned folks in Afghanistan about an Afghan police chief using his personal email account to transmit classified information to folks that he thought were in danger. A board of inquiry recommended that the Major be discharged for that. He took the decision to a judge and according to the Marine Corps Times, that judge sided with the major.

    On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Joseph Bianco in New York ruled that the government had not granted Brezler full access to records related to his claim. Brezler was referred to the board of inquiry, which adjudicates claims of officer misconduct, after a story published in Marine Corps Times reported that Brezler asked for help from Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.

    […]

    Brezler will remain in the Marine Corps and Bianco ordered the Navy to hold a new board of inquiry hearing, at which Brezler could “fully and fairly present relevant evidence” to support his claims of retaliation.

    “This is a stunning rebuke of the fundamentally unjust proceedings to which this decorated Marine was subjected for over three years,” Brezler’s attorney Michael Bowe said in a statement on Tuesday.

    Brezler had sent classified information warning his mates about Sarwar Jan, an Afghan police chief who Brezler had removed from another base years earlier because Jan trafficked in young boys. A few weeks after Brezler’s warning, one of those boys killed three Marines at FOB Delhi. After he sent the information, Brezler reported the violation to his commander who relieved him from his duties and gave him a poor fitness report.

  • Colonel Daniel H. Wilson; field grade tickle monster

    Colonel Daniel H. Wilson; field grade tickle monster

    colonel+daniel+wilson+

    Devtun and SJ send us a link to the story of Colonel Daniel H. Wilson of the II Marine Expeditionary Force who has been charged with three counts of sexual assault and sexual abuse of a child; four counts of assault and battery on a child under age 16; one count of failure to obey an order or regulation; and nine counts of conduct unbecoming an officer.

    Military.com also reports a source with knowledge of the investigation said the alleged victim was 6 years old.

    Wilson, who has been in the Marine Corps since June 1981, was removed from his post and reassigned to administrative duties after the investigation began.

    Holy smokes.

  • Kevin Haggerty, the AWOL Marine State Senator

    Kevin Haggerty, the AWOL Marine State Senator

    Kevin Haggerty

    A few weeks ago we wrote about Kevin Haggerty, the fellow running for State Senator in Pennsylvania. As part of his plea to the people of his district, he leaned heavily on his service as a Marine. It seemed to work for him, because he won on election night.

    The local media claimed that he had spent most of his time in the Marines as a deserter. As we didn’t have a FOIA at the time, we had to depend on the media’s work. Well, we got a FOIA on him now – it doesn’t change anything we wrote but. It does prove that most of his time in the Marines, Haggerty was a deserter;

    Haggerty FOIA1

    Haggerty FOIA Assignments clarified

    He was AWOL from May 11th to June 10th 1997 he was dropped from the roles and declared a deserter on June 11th until he was returned to the Marine Corps on July 20th and sent to confinement as a result. In September he was discharged from active duty and a year later discharged from the Reserves. So he was on active duty for nine months and spent more than four of those months as a deserter or a prisoner. I don’t know how he got an honorable discharge, but he claims that he did.

    Maybe the voters can deal with him in two years since they didn’t get the opportunity to deal justice this time.

  • Marines to try silenced infantry battalion

    According to the Washington Times, the Marine Corps is experimenting with putting silencers on all of the weapons in one infantry battalion;

    “What we’ve found so far is it revolutionizes the way we fight,” Gen. Love recently said at the Marine Corps Association Ground Dinner, Military.com reported Tuesday. “It used to be a squad would be dispersed out over maybe 100 yards, so the squad leader couldn’t really communicate with the members at the far end because of all the noise of the weapons. Now they can actually just communicate, and be able to command and control and effectively direct those fires.”

    Training exercises using the new approach have already been conducted by Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines. Officials ultimately plan to include weapons systems like the M249 light machine gun and M240G medium machine gun in the experiment.

    My tinnitus approves of the plan.

    From Military.com;

    Suppressors work by slowing the escape of propellant gases when a gun is fired, which drastically reduces the sound signature.

    That means more marksmanship training.

  • Anti-Trump protesters meet Marines in Ybor City

    According to the Marine Corps Times, a group of anti-Trump protesters bumped into some Marines who were celebrating the Marine Corps birthday with pub-crawl the other night in Ybor City, Florida.

    “There were people with their signs yelling about fascism,” [witness Johnny] Gomes told Marine Corps Times on Friday. “There were some yelling profanity. There were some yelling ‘Black Lives Matter;’ ‘Trump is not our president.’ So there was a big mix.”

    The Marines at the pub “didn’t really care for that” and started yelling back at the protesters, Gomes said.

    “Nothing happened other than a lot of screaming and hollering and the Marines getting excited and hollering out ‘America,’” Gomes said.

    Fox News reports that the police interceded;

    Police formed a human barrier in the street as “both sides screamed obscenities and gave each other the middle finger,” WFTS-TV reports.

    The groups went their separate ways without a physical confrontation.

  • US Marine Corps 241st Birthday

    US Marine Corps 241st Birthday

    241 years ago today the Naval Committee of the Continental Congress was directed to raise two battalions of Marines, and so we got the naval infantry. The first amphibious assault by the new Marine Corps occurred in the Bahamas on March 3, 1776 when the force seized Fort Montague and Fort Nassau, a British ammunition depot and naval port in New Providence.

    So Happy Birthday, Marine Corps. From the Halls of Montezuma to shores of Tripoli. From the peak of Suribachi to the alleyways of Fallujah.

  • Sgt Reckless – Redux

    I’ve previously written about Sgt Reckless – the USMC horse that served honorably and heroically in Korea.  In 2013, the USMC erected a statue in her honor IVO the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico.

    When the Korean War ended, Sgt Reckless returned to the US with the USMC.  She (yes, Sgt. Reckless was a filly) lived to a ripe old age, dying in 1968 at Camp Pendleton, CA.

    Until recently, she had no monument there.  This week that will change.  On Friday, a statue in her honor will be dedicated at Camp Pendleton, CA.  It’s similar to the one at Quantico.

    Well done, Marines.