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

Category: Marine Corps

  • LCpl. William Kyle Carpenter to receive the Medal of Honor

    William Kyle Carpenter

    Stars & Stripes reports that Marine Lance Cpl. William Kyle Carpenter will be awarded the Medal of Honor for taking the brunt of a grenade blast which saved his buddy, Lance Cpl. Nicholas Eufrazio;

    Carpenter was nominated for the nation’s highest award for valor following reports that he covered a grenade to save the life of his friend, Lance Cpl. Nicholas Eufrazio, during an insurgent attack in the Marjah district of Helmand province as the two Marines were standing guard on a rooftop on Nov. 21, 2010. Carpenter and Eufrazio survived the blast, but suffered severe wounds. Carpenter lost an eye and most of his teeth and shattered his jaw; his arm was also broken in several places.

    Damage from shrapnel to the frontal lobe of Eufrazio’s brain left him unable to speak for two years.

    […]

    After a long recovery and more than 30 surgeries, Carpenter ran the Marine Corps Marathon last year and posted a time of 4:28:42, according to the ‘Operation Kyle’ Facebook page, which was created by Carpenter’s supporters.

  • Peralta discussion continues

    Last weekend we wrote about the Washington Post article in which two witnesses to Sergeant Rafael Peralta’s death and the heroic act which preceded it, claimed that the act never happened. The Washington Times today reports that Sergeant Peralta’s mother claims that the Washington Post reporter, Ernesto Londoño, tried to get her to play the race card in their interview;

    Peralta’s mother Rosa said in a letter this week that a reporter for The Washington Post seemed intent on trying to get her to say her son was denied the Medal of Honor because he was Hispanic.

    Other witnesses are standing by their original account of the events in that small room;

    “If you’re trying to smear the legacy of a Marine who’s a hero, who saved my life, then you’re barking up the wrong … tree,” said Nicholas Jones, one of the Marines in the room when insurgents tossed the grenade toward the troops. Peralta received the Navy Cross for his actions, but his supporters — including California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, who himself served as a Marine office in Fallujah during the Iraq war — say he deserves the Medal of Honor.

    In the Washington Post article, their witnesses claim that those in the room conspired to concoct the heroic story about Peralta’s final act;

    Among those are the video shot by the combat photographer showing the aftermath of the fight and Peralta’s body, with wounds consistent with the original story and contrary to what the dissenting Marines now claim. The video also covers the time period when the story would have been concocted, but there’s no evidence of any such discussion, Mr. Hunter said.

    Mr. Hunter also pointed to pictures of Peralta’s body armor which ended up with a fragment of the grenade fuse embedded in it, which he said was consistent with the initial story.

    My problem is that Peralta was awarded the Navy Cross for things that are currently in dispute. He has a ship named after him because of that final act. So why are they having this discussion – based on the official statements made by “experts” who weren’t there.

  • Marines to roll up sleeves

    Well, now Marines have a reason to reenlist – the commandant and sergeant major of the Corps announced that Marines not in combat will be able to roll up their sleeves soon according to the Stars & Stripes;

    “I can’t tell you how many times we have been asked the persistent question, ‘Commandant, are we ever going to return to SLEEVES UP?” the Facebook announcement states. “I’ve thought a lot about this over the past 2.5 years; I realize that it’s important to you. Sleeves up clearly and visually sets us apart.”

    Amos and Barrett sent the message via email to all Marine sergeants and corporals, noting that they had heard the comments about rolled sleeves as they’ve traveled around the world talking about recent efforts to “reawaken the soul of [the] Corps” with a renewed focus on discipline, adherence to standards, engaged and concerned leadership and faithful obedience to order.

    So there you go, you’re out of excuses. Go see your career counselor, or whatever they call him in the Marines, and take another burst of four years.

  • Marine General caught in photo

    Gen. John Paxton shovels

    A Marine snapped the above shocking photo the other day of the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, General John Paxton shoveling his own sidewalk on 8th Street in DC, according to Task and Purpose. Of course, he was an infantry officer early in his career, and he’s Airborne qualified. I’m sure there were privates down the street shoveling someone else’s sidewalk.

    Thanks to Mary for the photo and link.

  • Sergeant Rafael Peralta’s MOH denied once again

    Ex-PH2 sends us a link from NBC News which reports that Marine Corps Sergeant Rafael Peralta has been denied the Medal of Honor once again, this time by Chuck Hagel;

    Hagel is the third successive defense secretary to turn down the award for Sgt. Rafael Peralta, who fellow Marines said smothered an exploding grenade under his body as he lay dying of a head wound during a battle in Iraq in 2004. He was 25.

    Five members of Peralta’s squad nominated Peralta for the medal, and their cause was strongly backed by former Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a Marine veteran who represented Peralta’s hometown in Congress.

    But medical examiners ruled that Peralta — who immigrated illegally to the U.S. and joined the Marines when he got his legal residency card — was already dead and couldn’t have pulled the grenade underneath his body.

    Now, I wasn’t there, but then either were the “medical examiners” who say he didn’t pull the grenade under his body. But we get this link from our buddy, Nicki, from the Washington Post, wherein two people who say they were there testify that Peralta didn’t do the deed;

    “It has always bugged me,” said Davi Allen, a Marine who was wounded in the grenade blast and who said he watched it detonate near, but not underneath, Peralta. After years of sticking to the prevailing narrative, Allen, 30, said he recently decided to tell the truth. “I knew it’s not the truth. But who wants to be the one to tell a family: ‘Your son was not a hero’?”

    Reggie Brown, another Marine who was with Peralta that day, said that as members of the squad scrambled away from the blast, one of them said that claiming that Peralta had jumped on the grenade would be a good way to honor his legacy.

    “I can remember people saying it would be the right thing to do, to say that he did more than he did,” Brown, 31, said in an interview, speaking publicly about the case for the first time. “I disagree with everything my fellow Marines proclaim to have seen.”

    Like I said, I wasn’t there, so I don’t know what happened, but it’s strange that five people testify to what two others deny happened. I’d guess it’s all a matter of perspective. I just think it’s f’d up that medical examiners have more of a say in this than eye witnesses- and that Hagel would put more weight to the “experts”‘ who weren’t there rather than the troops on the ground, especially given his background.

  • Marine Corps Times censored at base exchanges

    Andy sends us a link to the Marine Corps Times which is complaining that the Commandant of the Corps has directed base exchange facilities to end their displays of the Marine Corps Times near the checkout registers, because the Times has been relentless in their coverage of the story of the Commandant’s undue influence on the urinating Marines case.

    The commandant’s office punted all questions, including whether Amos was involved in the decision to move Marine Corps Times from prominent display in the exchanges,to Manpower & Reserve Affairs, which has oversight of the exchange. A spokeswoman for Manpower & Reserve Affairs said the paper was moved as part of a plan to “professionalize” the front of the exchanges.

    Fiscal guidance for 2014, issued Oct. 22, specifically prohibits commands from using operations and maintenance funds for purchasing subscriptions to Marine Corps Times, which is part of the Military Times network and owned by Gannett, one of the world’s largest media corporations.

    The order to move the paper from checkout areas came six weeks later. Distributors were given a variety of reasons. One was told it was due to business performance, though the paper is one of, if not the top-selling publications in Marine Corps exchanges.

    Yeah, it’s petty and small of the commandant to do that, but guess what? Bloggers have been dealing with censorship for years. TAH has been blocked from some networks (mostly Army) since about 2009 as “extremists” because of our criticism of Pentagon leadership (if you could call it that). It hasn’t hindered our growth or stifled our message. And we never even mention it, let alone write a big whining piece about how we’re mistreated. Get over it, Times. If your entire business model relies on sales at the register in 2014, you need to rewrite your business model.

    It’s crappy that the brass would do that, but you’d think a newspaper called the Marine Corps Times could adapt and overcome to this new challenge without whining about it. But then, I’ve been having a running gun fight with Tobias Naegle, the editor in chief of the Military Times, when he tried to get me fired from a non-paying job over some petty shit, so I’m not at all surprised that his subordinates are whining about this instead of planning around the new barrier to their sales.

  • Congress to Pentagon; Stop the uniform madness

    Mark sends us a link to Military Times which reports that the new defense authorization bill for 2014 contains a paragraph which addresses the utility uniform differences between the services, that they should all stop wasting billions of dollars to design and then scrap their forays into martial fashion;

    The compromise defense authorization bill for 2014 includes a provision that directs the Defense Department to “to adopt and field a common combat and camouflage utility uniform, or family of uniforms, for specific combat environments, to be used by all members of the armed forces.”

    And if that becomes law, as appears likely, it would change the future image of the joint force.

    For years, lawmakers have been annoyed by the military services’ increasingly elaborate wardrobe of camouflage variants designed for the same forward-deployed environments. Over the past decade, the four services have developed at least seven new combat utility uniforms, each with its own unique design.

    Yeah, I don’t get it, either. Back in my day, sonny, the Ranger Battalions wore camouflaged jungle fatigues and the 82d had them for a field-only uniform. For that reason, seeing a clerk in camouflage is strange and out of sorts. Maternity BDUs had the same effect on me. So having the Navy and the Air Force in their completely worthless camouflage seems even more odd. And of course, there are the Marines and their MARPATs;

    This year, the Joint Staff’s top enlisted adviser, Marine Sgt. Maj. Bryan Battaglia, said the mix of uniforms makes the U.S. military look like a “Baskin-Robbins” and signaled his support for a common uniform.

    But Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos recently said preserving the Corps’ MARPAT pattern is a top priority and declared that his service will stick to it “like a hobo to a ham sandwich.”

    Yeah, that’s helpful. I’m glad that Amos finally found something he can get adamant about, but it’s unfortunate that the something is fashion.

  • Report on the exploded mortar that led to Marine deaths

    TMB sends us a link to the Stars & Stripes which explains the accident that took seven Marine’s lives last year and cost some the battalion’s officers their jobs in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines;

    The investigation determined that insufficient training and preparation in the 60 mm mortar weapons system used in the exercise was partly to blame. The report also cites improper mortar gunnery commands and firing procedures, a “perceived sense of urgency” and haste, and a lack of supervision of the mortar section in the months before and during the deadly training exercise, the newspaper said.

    Because of the terrain, the Marines at Hawthorne the night of the blast were grouped tightly around two mortar tubes. The explosion occurred when a Marine inserted a second round into a mortar tube, detonating the round already in it and shooting out the half-loaded round, the website reported, citing the investigation’s findings.

    It’s a dangerous job whether someone is shooting at you or not.