Category: Marine Corps

According to the Washington Free Beacon, two more female Marine officers failed to make it through the first day of training in the service’s Infantry Officer Course.

With the two most recent drops, there have been 29 attempts by female officers to pass the course since women have been allowed to volunteer, with none making it to graduation. (At least one woman has attempted the course more than once.) Only three female officers have made it beyond the initial day of training, a grueling evaluation known as the Combat Endurance Test, or CET. Male officers also regularly fail to pass the CET, and the overall course has a substantial attrition rate for males.

The Marine Corps spokesperson, Captain Maureen Krebs, told the Free Beacon that the two officers, “did not meet the standards required of them on day one in order to continue on with the course.” Fifteen male officers also did not meet the standards. Of the 118 officers who began the course, 101 proceeded to the second day.

Time is running short for the Marine Corps which has been directed to integrate women into all specialties, including the infantry and to make recommendations to the Pentagon about that integration. There have been some females graduate from the enlisted infantry course. They face the possibility of serving in the infantry with no female officers.

Of course, the social engineers, folks who won’t be serving in these specialties, folks who won’t be fighting in the next war are calling for changes to the training regimen, one that will allow more women to graduate from the course, but not necessarily make them competent officers;

Women Marines don’t want standards to be lowered or changed. They just want a fighting chance to become Marine infantry officers.

Women Marines don’t want the standards changed – but the social engineers want the standards changed. No one has explained to me how this helps us kill more of our country’s enemies, though.

Andy11M and John Robert Mallernee sent us links to the story of Momma Lucca;

“In our first week in our first big mission … Lucca went up and indicated there was an explosive there and that was the first time she saved my life,” Willingham said. “It was a really validating moment from all the hard work and training we put in together, to the moment she actually found an IED on an operation, so it was a great, great day.”

While active in the Marine Corps, Lucca was identified as a piece of equipment would be, with the ID designation K458. But to the troops she protected, she was known as “Mama Lucca.”

“She is a Marine,” Willingham said. “She’s treated just like a Marine. When she got injured, she was medevac’d just like a Marine. They get top notch veterinary treatment — their medical care, their health care, their dental care — it’s top notch. We treat these dogs outstanding, their part of our team, and Lucca probably knows more about me than anybody else, except my wife.”

Marine Captain Derek Herrera, paralyzed from a sniper’s bullet in Afghanistan, walked to the ceremony in which he received his Bronze Star Medal at Camp Pendleton, according to the Associated Press;

Herrera had vowed to walk at the event that also marked his retirement after 8½ years in the military, saying he wanted to leave the Marine Corps the same way he joined. He has gone from fighting on the battlefield to becoming a strong advocate for veterans.

“I’m not out of the fight and I’ll continue on,” he told his battalion on Friday, adding that it was “truly an honor and a pleasure to stand before you today.”
View gallery
In this photo provided by the U.S. Marines, U.S. Marine …
In this photo provided by the U.S. Marines, U.S. Marine Capt. Derek Herrera, center, 1st Marine Spec …

Herrera was the first person in the United States to purchase the ReWalk system recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to the company, ReWalk Robotics Ltd.

According to DVIDs;

Herrera was injured in June 2012 while serving as a special operations team commander in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was hit by enemy sniper fire causing injuries that paralyzed him from the chest down.

The ambush occurred while Herrera and his team, along with 10 members of the Afghan National Army, were conducting a patrol on the western edge of the Helmand River Valley.

“Shortly after sunrise, we found ourselves in a firefight with the enemy and surrounded. In the opening moments of that firefight, the sergeant next to me and I were shot,” said Herrera.

After being shot, Herrera attempted to pick himself up and treat himself when he realized he was paralyzed and unable to move from the chest down.

Thanks to Andy11M and Marine_7002 for the links.

John sends us a link to an article about Dominic Esquibel, a Marine who earned the Navy Cross in Iraq in 2004 and was roughed up by a National Park Service forest ranger in a dispute over a Sequoia National Park handicap parking space. According to Esquibel, the park employee handcuffed him and mistreated the handicapped Marine in front of his family, says the Fresno Bee;

Dominic Esquibel, 42, of San Diego, is suing for assault and battery, false arrest and false imprisonment, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, said his attorney, Nicholas “Butch” Wagner of Fresno.

His civil-rights complaint, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Fresno, does not specify how much in damages he is seeking. But a claim sent to the U.S. government prior to the lawsuit said Esquibel wants $750,000.

You know that the first thing I did was check the DoD list of Navy Cross recipients. Esquibel isn’t there, but he is at the Military Times Hall of Valor. So I wrote to our buddy, Doug Sterner and asked for a clarification. Doug says that Esquibel declined the award, probably the first recipient in history (besides Rafael Peralta’s mother), according to Sterner, because Esquibel didn’t feel right accepting the award when so many had died in the engagement, so DoD didn’t include him on their website list. But Doug says that he has the citation;

For extraordinary heroism while serving as Scout Sniper, Company B, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 7, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Central, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom on 25 November 2004. After an enemy ambush on 3d Platoon nearby, Lance Corporal Esquibel quickly moved to an overwatch position and spotted five wounded Marines in a building courtyard. He courageously low-crawled close to the enemy stronghold to gain intelligence and then ran through the rooftops under intense enemy fire to relay the intelligence to the 3d Platoon Commander. With total disregard for his own safety, he re-occupied his position and threw a grenade, destroying several enemy insurgents and silencing one of the enemy’s machine guns. After eliminating part of the threat, he low-crawled to another area and dropped a grenade through a hole in the roof, eliminating several more enemy personnel and silencing another enemy machine gun. As a tank breached the courtyard wall, 3d Platoon began suppressing the target building. He seized this opportunity and quickly moved to the courtyard while under enemy machine gun fire, dragging out a wounded Marine. He re-entered the courtyard to retrieve a second wounded Marine. Still under enemy fire, he moved through the open area a third time, extinguished a fire that had mortally wounded the third casualty, and swiftly carried out his body. Due to his heroic efforts, two Marines survived the devastating enemy ambush. By his outstanding display of decisive leadership, unlimited courage in the face of heavy enemy fire, and utmost devotion to duty, Lance Corporal Esquibel reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.

According to the Bee, this is what led to the lawsuit;

Esquibel parked in a handicap space so he could use the restroom. He placed his handicap placard on his rear-view mirror and began walking from his vehicle when the park employee at the entrance booth yelled at him: “You can’t park there.” When Esquibel said he was disabled, the park employee replied: “I can see that you’re not,” the lawsuit says.

The park employee called a park ranger, who arrived a short time later and began questioning Esquibel. The complaint says the ranger, identified in court papers only as T. Parker, demanded that Esquibel show him a handicapped driver’s license. Esquibel told the ranger he did not have or need one to drive his vehicle. He offered to show the ranger the paperwork for the handicap placard, but the ranger was unwilling to listen, the lawsuit says.

The ranger arrested Esquibel for failing to follow a lawful order, the lawsuit says. Esquibel says his war-related injuries, which included a surgically repaired right arm, were made worse by the ranger’s forceful arrest and from being handcuffed.

Why do we even have doctors when we can just take vets to the park rangers so they can evaluate whether people are disabled or not?

According to the Bee, Esquibel was wounded again in Afghanistan and that he continues to serve in the Marines as a criminal investigator.

From another local news source;