Category: Marine Corps

Mick and Reb sent us a link to the news that Private First Class Raymond W. Begay was sentenced to seven years in the brig for the death of his friend Private First Class Ethan Andrew Barclay-Weberpal;

The two Marines, part of Lima Company, were sitting in formation in the School of Infantry bleachers when the incident occurred. In his plea, Begay testified that he was sitting behind Barclay-Weberpal and was joking around while playing with a knife because he was bored.

“I reached around him and the knife sliced through his blouse and penetrated his skin,” Begay said. “(Pfc. Ethan Barclay-Weberpal) died as a result of my terrible actions.”

Begay told the court he and Barclay-Weberpal were “good friends” and met while in Reconnaissance Training Company. Later, both were dropped from the training company and placed at Lima Company awaiting new assignments.

“I applied the knife to his chest and applied pressure which resulted in the knife penetrating him,” Begay said.

Begay said he had purchased the knife just days before and did not realize how sharp it was.

“In the moment, I was simply intending to poke him,” he said. “I was simply trying to annoy him as a friend. I wasn’t trying to cause harm.”

If it happened the way that Begay describes, it was a tragedy.

Retired Marine Sgt. Maj. John Canley was told by the President that his Navy Cross is being upgraded to the Medal of Honor as soon as the White House can decide when the ceremony will occur.

It happened 31 January to 6 February 1968 in the ancient Vietnamese City of Hue, when he was Gunnery Sergeant Canley. His Navy Cross citation;

The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Gunnery Sergeant John L. Canley (MCSN: 1455946), United States Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism while serving as Company Gunnery Sergeant of Company A, First Battalion, First Marines, FIRST Marine Division (Reinforced), Fleet Marine Force, during operations against the enemy in the Republic of Vietnam from 31 January to 6 February 1968.

On 31 January, when his company came under a heavy volume of enemy fire near the city of Hue, Gunnery Sergeant Canley rushed across the fire-swept terrain and carried several wounded Marines to safety. Later, with the company commander seriously wounded, Gunnery Sergeant Canley assumed command and immediately reorganized his scattered Marines, moving from one group to another to advise and encourage his men.

Although sustaining shrapnel wounds during this period, he nonetheless established a base of fire which subsequently allowed the company to break through the enemy strongpoint. Retaining command of the company for the following three days, Gunnery Sergeant Canley on 4 February led his men into an enemy-occupied building in Hue. Despite fierce enemy resistance, he succeeded in gaining a position immediately above the enemy strongpoint and dropped a large satchel charge into the position, personally accounting for numerous enemy killed, and forcing the others to vacate the building. On 6 February, when his unit sustained numerous casualties while attempting to capture a government building, Gunnery Sergeant Canley lent words of encouragement to his men and exhorted them to greater efforts as they drove the enemy from its fortified emplacement. Although wounded once again during this action, on two occasions he leaped a wall in full view of the enemy, picked up casualties, and carried them to covered positions.

By his dynamic leadership, courage, and selfless dedication, Gunnery Sergeant Canley contributed greatly to the accomplishment of his company’s mission and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service.

From Stars & Stripes;

John Ligato, one of the Marines who fought alongside Canley in Vietnam, called him “totally fearless.”

“You followed him because he was a true leader — something you need in life-and-death situations.”

Canley’s road to the Medal of Honor was a long one, requiring the intervention of several dedicated Marines and Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif.

Ligato and his fellow 1st Battalion Marines spent nearly 15 years pushing for Canley to be recognized with the honor, only to see the effort met with more than 10 rejections.

“There were times I gave up,” Ligato told military.com. “But the irony is he’s one of the most deserved Medal of Honor recipients ever in the history of our country.”

Military.com reports that Congressman Duncan Hunter has written a letter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis requesting that the Department of Defense reconsider the posthumous award of the Navy Cross for Marine 1st Lt. Travis Manion.

Manion was awarded a Silver Star for his actions in Fallujah, Iraq during a firefight on April 29, 2007 which cost him his life while he tried to extract his Marines from a building.

Even though folks on the ground recommended Manion for the Navy Cross, pencil pushers in the Pentagon downgraded the award to a Silver Star;

Now new evidence from a Marine who was on the ground with Manion in Fallujah that day “removes any doubt,” Hunter said, that those in the field had it right.

“The Silver Star is a big deal,” he told Military.com. “But I think if new information and evidence comes to light, which we think did, and it could get upgraded to a Navy Cross, then this would call attention again to his heroic actions — how he fought, how he died and his family’s sacrifice.”

Manion and his men were ambushed while searching a suspected insurgent house in Iraq. His corpsman was shot in the abdomen, and Manion and another lieutenant went into the fray to drag him to safety.

As the firefight got more intense, Manion fired a grenade and then began laying down heavy suppressive fire from his M4, according to former Staff Sgt. Paul Petty’s account, which was also sent to Mattis.

Running low on ammunition, Manion requested more and began distributing magazines to his other Marines. As he handed one over, he was mortally wounded, but not before he’d fired off up to 300 rounds at the enemy’s location, Petty wrote.

“His well-aimed precision fire, decisive leadership and selfless action aided in the preservation of life and helped counter the ambush,” Petty’s account states.

Manion was assigned to 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force at the time of his death.

According to Stars & Stripes, Marine Brigadier General Rick A. Uribe took advantage of his staff while he was was the senior ranking Marine, deputy commanding general for operations in Baghdad and director of the Combined Joint Operations Center in as part of the anti-ISIS coalition from 2016-2017.

Marine Brig. Gen. Rick A. Uribe — who had served previously as the inspector general of the Marine Corps — often had his aide pick up his laundry, deliver his meals, write his unofficial correspondence and stand by gym equipment he wanted to use to make sure no one else could use it, the Pentagon IG said in a report.

Uribe also let his aide pay for his haircuts, borrowed cash and used Wi-Fi access she paid for without reimbursing her, the report found.

If it’s true, that was pretty shitty of him. Real leaders don’t take advantage of their subordinates like that.

But days after he returned to the U.S. from Iraq in June 2017, a Defense Department hotline complaint alleged that during the course of the one-year deployment, his aide’s “entire existence as aide-de-camp centered on personal servitude.”

His defense was that he had never been a general or had an aide before;

The aide, who is unnamed in the report, told investigators she had told him, “I’m doing a lot more stuff like your personal type of items. Like, that’s not my job as an aide.”

To which she said Uribe replied only, “Understood.”

Some of those personal services included stripping the sheets from the general’s bed and turning them in to be cleaned, as well as spending hours arranging to have his prescription toothpaste shipped to Iraq. The aide also alleged that he hoarded about $150 in chocolates and coffee sent to him by a lieutenant colonel.

Oh, well, there’s coffee and chocolate involved – totally legit.

According to Stars & Stripes, Okinawan politicians want to charge III Marine Expeditionary Force commander Lt. Gen. Lawrence Nicholson, Camp Smedley D. Butler’s headquarters and support battalion commander Col. William DePue and a group of unidentified Marines because a bullet was fired that went outside of the range fan at a small arms range and struck an unoccupied shed.

“This incident happened in Japan, and on Japanese soil; we should be able to apply Japanese law and bring justice,” said Ichiro Miyagi, a member of the Social Democratic Party and one of the complaint’s nine signatories.

Police have a few days to determine whether there is enough evidence to pursue the case. They declined to comment Thursday.

Marine officials could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.

The alleged shooting incident occurred sometime between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. June 21 in Sukuta, Nago, according to Japanese police. A mango farmer told authorities he had come home from shopping to discover two broken windows in his shed and a 2-inch-long bullet on the floor.

[…]

The law regarding attempted murder in Japan states that intent usually must be present to qualify for conviction, however, the bar can also be met if there was a “plan or high risk of causing death to the other party.”

Good luck with that Mr Miyagi.

Stars & Stripes reports that a Marine Guard at the 8th and I Marine Corps Barracks in Washington, DC had a negligent discharge with his weapon and injured himself.

The Marine was transported to George Washington University Hospital immediately after the shooting about 8 a.m., said Capt. Colleen McFadden, a service spokeswoman. She said nearby Marines, Navy Yard emergency responders and local law enforcement and emergency medical officials immediately responded following the incident.

The Marine Barracks, also known as 8th and I because of their location at the intersection of 8th and I streets in southwest Washington, includes the home of the commandant of the Marine Corps., Gen. Robert Neller. The commandant was not impacted by the incident, an official said on condition of anonymity.

Stars & Stripes reports the story of how Gunnery Sgt. Scott Dahn rescued honeymooning Chinese citizen Ching-Yi Sze from drowning on Okinawa;

Ching-Yi Sze — who was honeymooning on the southern Japanese island prefecture during the May 20 incident — ripped off her mask. When a dive leader put it back on, she pulled out her regulator, which he also replaced, said Dahn, who initially assumed the two were training.

But when the woman again removed her mask and regulator, Dahn — a 3rd Maintenance Battalion training chief based at Camp Kinser — immediately responded.

“She was flailing in the water, which is usually the sign of a panicked diver,” he said.

When Dahn reached Sze, who was 30 feet away, he put the regulator back in her mouth. She spat it out, so he grabbed it and pushed against her teeth until she opened up, he said. Dahn then held the regulator to her face and signaled to the dive leader that they needed to head up.

By the time they reached the surface, Sze was unresponsive and barely breathing. Her lips were blue, her eyes had rolled back into her head, and she was foaming at the mouth because of the saltwater she had ingested.

Dahn inflated her buoyancy control vest and began towing her to shore.

When they reached land, he carried her up several flights of stairs and helped her breath through an oxygen tank while his wife, April, called for paramedics.

Dahn laid Sze on her left side while she coughed up seawater.