Category: Marine Corps

Military.com reports that the US Marines Special Operations Command has created a badge for their “Raiders”;

The insignia, the first Marine Corps-only uniform device to be authorized, features an eagle, wings outspread, clutching an upward-pointing stiletto dagger featuring the Southern Cross constellation that appears on other MARSOC and Raider insignia. Above the eagle’s head flies a banner carrying the MARSOC motto: “Spiritus Invictus,” or unconquerable spirit.

The insignia badge will be 2 inches by 2.75 inches and will be awarded to critical skills operators and special operations officers upon completion of MARSOC’s grueling nine-month individual training course. By the time MARSOC Raiders reach the end of ITC, they have completed at least 268 days of training, according to Marine Corps officials.

The announcement comes just a month after Maj. Gen. Carl E. Mundy III took command of MARSOC, succeeding previous commander Maj. Gen. Joseph Osterman. In a statement, Mundy said the creation of the badge granted Raiders a visual certification of the training they had completed for their role in MARSOC.

Thanks to Andy11M for the link.

CNN reports that the only female class member of the latest Marine Corps Infantry officer course has dropped along with 33 of her fellow male classmates. It was her second attempt and she won’t get another shot at an infantry assignment;

In January, then-head of Southern Command, Marine Gen. John Kelly, cast doubt on whether many women would be able to enter the infantry if current standards were upheld.

“If we don’t change standards, it will be very, very difficult to have any numbers — any real numbers come into the infantry,” Kelly told reporters at the Pentagon.

So there’s the question for the social justice warriors – which is more important? Numbers or Standards? Standards save lives and numbers save professional reputations.

Fox News says that the Marines are intensifying their recruiting efforts in high school girls’ athletic programs;

For years, only about 7 percent to 8 percent of the Corps, which numbers 184,200, has been women. It’s the smallest percentage of women among all the military services. But on the heels of the Pentagon decision to allow women who qualify to serve in combat jobs, thousands of new infantry, armor and other front-line posts are now open.

[Marine Commandant General Robert Neller] said he wants to see women in some of those posts. That order now rests with Maj. Gen. Paul Kennedy, head of the Marine Corps’ recruiting command.

Kennedy is aggressively recruiting women for the service. He’s sending targeted mailings, changing advertising to better represent female Marines, and traveling the country to meet with coaches and female athletes who may be well-suited for the rigors of Marine service.

Or, they could spend their money on tried and true recruiting efforts for warriors and stop throwing money away on social engineering.

Thanks to AverageNCO for the link.

The other day, Eugene Volokh wrote in the pages of the Washington Post about the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s investigation into a complaint that a black Federal worker filed about a cap that a colleague wore to his federal job which had the Gadsden flag displayed on it. The complainant charges that he’s offended by the flag because Christopher Gadsden, the creator of the flag, owned slaves back in 1775 when he designed it.

Actually, it was Benjamin Franklin, who owned no slaves, who began graphic representations of the American colonies with a timber rattler in 1754. According to Wikipedia, the complainant in the above mentioned case would also be offended by the US Marine Corps, since Gadsden had a hand in creating them, too;

[T]he Second Continental Congress authorized the mustering of five companies of Marines to accompany the Navy on their first mission. The first Marines enlisted in the city of Philadelphia, and they carried drums painted yellow, depicting a coiled rattlesnake with thirteen rattles, and the motto “Don’t Tread on Me.” This is the first recorded mention of the future Gadsden flag’s symbolism.

At the Congress, Continental Colonel Christopher Gadsden represented his home state of South Carolina. He was one of seven members of the Marine Committee who were outfitting the first naval mission.

Before the departure of that first mission in December 1775, the newly appointed commander-in-chief of the Navy, Commodore Esek Hopkins, received the yellow rattlesnake flag from Gadsden to serve as the distinctive personal standard of his flagship. It was displayed at the mainmast.

From Fox News, the EEOC in investigating any hidden meanings that whole of 200+ years of history that historians may have missed;

The EEOC conducted a “thorough review” and found there was no evidence that the flag was created in a non-racial context.

“Moreover, it is clear that the flag and its slogan have been used to express various non-racial sentiments, such as when it is used in the modern Tea Party political movement, gun rights activism, patriotic displays, and by the military,” the EEOC report states.

You can almost feel the “but” coming, can’t you, good readers?

“However, whatever the historic origins and meanings of the symbol, it also has since been sometimes interpreted to convey racially-tinged messages in some contexts,” they declared.

Citing the “ambiguity in the current meaning” of the Gadsden Flag, the EEOC has decided to investigate to “determine the specific context.”

Wyatt Gillette, the 8-year-old son of a Marine, had always dreamed of being a Marine. Today we get the sad news that the day after his dream came true, he has passed on.

Wyatt was honored with a formal ceremony Saturday at Camp Pendleton near San Diego, where his father serves as a drill sergeant. Video and photos of the ceremony show Wyatt dressed in fatigues and seated in his wheelchair as while being presented with a framed certificate and an official Marine Corps pin.

Marine Corps Commandant General Robert Neller agreed to make Wyatt an honorary Marine last week in response to an online petition. The honor is bestowed on just a few people every year.

From ABC7;

Wyatt Gillette suffered from Aicardi-Goutierres Syndrome Type 1-(Trex 1 mutation), a rare condition that caused him multiple medical problems, including seizures and complete kidney failure.

Our buddy, Kristina Wong at The Hill writes about how Capitol Police made a show of delaying a Marine Corps color guard from their duties while the police verified whether the rifles the color guards were bringing into the Capitol were actually inert training aids or not;

A handful of Capitol Police were at the scene on Monday, which took place at the south entrance of the Cannon Building. Three Marines had entered and were waiting inside the building, while one Marine stayed at the entrance just inside the building with the rifles in their carrying case.

The Marines had arrived to the building in full dress uniforms to “present the colors,” a military ceremony to display the American flag, among other national symbols.

[…]

At one point, one of the Marines was on his cellphone outside of the building and could be overheard trying to explain the situation to someone.

First of all, if the rifles were functional, they were bolt-action M1903A3s – World War One technology, who would create a mass-shooting situation with those? Secondly, they were Marines with ID cards, why would they be threat? Thirdly, how long does it take to work the action, look down the barrel and determine that the rifles were indeed inoperable? Fourth, how many times have the Capitol Police been through this drill? I guess the Capitol Police, like the TSA, feel a need to justify their jobs by harrassing the least-likely threats.

According to the Washington Post, the Marine Corps is planning on relaxing weight standards for female Marines, you know, so that everyone knows that standards aren’t changing in preparation for allowing women into combat specialties;

Female Marines will be allowed to weigh five to seven pounds more than before for each inch of their height, according to new guidelines published by the service. A 5-foot-6 woman, for example, was previously allowed to weigh up to 155 pounds, but can now be 161. A 5-foot-9 woman was allowed to be up to 169 pounds, but can now be 176.

The changes were among those outlined by the service’s top officer, Gen. Robert B. Neller, in a message released Friday. Neller also called for an overhaul of the service’s combat fitness and physical fitness tests, annual requirements that determine who is allowed to stay in the Marine Corps.

After living on MREs and messhall chow with no Physical Training for six months during Desert Storm, I weighed 165 pounds as a 5’8″ male infantryman and I wasn’t happy with myself. I can’t imagine being over 170 pounds and still being able to do my job. There was a lot of jiggling of stored energy (fat). I don’t understand how the Marines figure that more weight is a good thing especially since they’re not mentioning any changes to the Body Fat Index.

Maj. Gen. James W. Lukeman, the commanding general of Marine Corps Training and Education Command, said in a statement that the new testing plan raises the bar for physical fitness for all Marines.

“Marines today are stronger, faster and fitter than ever and these changes reflect that,” he said.

Yeah, fatter isn’t stronger.

The Marine Corps Times reports that the Corps has decided which job titles they want to make gender-neutral and which will remain unchanged;

In all, the Marine Corps plans to rename 19 of its military occupational specialties, or MOSs, as the result of a months-long review mandated by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. A service-wide message announcing the changes is expected to be published within the next few days.

The terms “rifleman” and “mortarman,” are among those that remain untouched, according to a list — obtained by Marine Corps Times on Monday — of 33 MOSs that were reviewed. And that was by careful design, said a Marine official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

[…]

In most cases, the word “man” will be replaced by Marine.

Of course, this is more important than finishing the wars that we can’t seem to end in the middle east – but this seems like something we can actually complete.

I wonder what the Army is going to do about my Combat Infantryman Badge.