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

Category: Marine Corps

  • Father’s Day Surprise

    From Yahoo Sports comes the story of a returning Marine being the “surprisee” instead of the “surpriser”

    We’ve seen a lot of soldiers surprising their loved ones at ballparks the last few years. And whether it’s a girlfriend, a wife or a family being shocked, each one is special in its own way.  One of the features that unites them all, however, is that it has always been the returning veteran catching the other people off guard. That’s why what happened at Dodger Stadium on Sunday was particularly noteworthy. Instead of U.S. Marine Corporal Christopher Farias surprising his father Lawrence after a ceremonial first pitch, it was the other way around.

    Farias was the Dodgers Veteran of the Day and was invited to throw out the first pitch….what he didn’t know was that the Dodgers had his father as the catcher on home plate.

     

    According to Lawrence, it was the first time in eight years that Christopher’s military responsibilities didn’t get in the way of them being together on Father’s Day. That’s definitely way too long but a sunny afternoon at Chavez Ravine is a heck of a way to get back on track.

    Check out the link for the video, my web-fu is not strong and I’m not going to try and embed the video lest I mess up Jonn’s blog and stir his wrath!

     

    UPDATE:   As commentor Jeff put it “that’s one decorated Marine”  He was awarded the Navy Cross last month… Go check out the story!  I’m not sure how he got out of the dugout with the massive stones he has…

  • Silly Marine?

    OWB alerted me to this a while ago, but I didn’t keep track.

    My name is Jamie Summerlin and I’m a 39-year-old former Marine from West Virginia.

    On March 26, 2012, I will start a 100-day cross country run as a fundraiser to support my fellow military members through the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) and other Veteran’s organizations. It’s going to take 30-40 miles a day to complete the run, starting in Coos County, Oregon, where my wife is from, and finishing on July 4, 2012 in Annapolis MD, a total of just over 3300 miles.

    Everyone I have talked to has said I am slightly insane, but they support me 100%. My wife is behind me completely as well, which makes this all the more possible.

    OWB and her crowd helped him move through her patch in Charleston and now I have to get organized to, at least, cheer him on.

    Looks like overnight stops are planned for Gassaway, Jane Lew,  and Morgantown. if I can find him I WILL have pictures.

    Minor update: I’m aiming for Jane Lew this Saturday.

  • USMC expanding urination investigation

    Yeah, I guess it’s because NCIS is bored and there aren’t worse things happening in Afghanistan (AP/Stars & Stripes link);

    In disclosing that a follow-up probe is under way, Marine spokesman Col. Sean D. Gibson said he could not provide details of the possible misbehavior or say what prompted the decision to widen the probe. He said the follow-up began May 15 and is to be completed by mid-June. It is headed by a Marine colonel.

    “There are indications of other possible misconduct involving the unit depicted in the video that requires another investigation,” Gibson said.

    I know Gibbs and DiNozzo are just drooling at the thought of more so-called war crimes to solve. And we all know that AP is already speculating what it could possibly be, so they can start some rumors;

    Another official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still under way, said the new inquiry is focused on possible additional misconduct by some of the four Marines shown in the video as well as others in the same unit.

    The behavior in question apparently happened around the same time as the depiction of the Marines urinating.

    I heard the LA Times is already putting feelers out for more of Uncle Jimbo’s gardening pictures, too.

  • Why The Military Times Is A Joke

    At the Military Blogging Conference a few weeks ago, Jonn made the case (rightly so) for going after the media and calling them out when they do wrong. Well what happens when the media is supposed to be “our media.” The publications and press that cover the military exclusively?

    We’ll call them out too.

    This is the latest cover of the Marine Corps Times, which falls under the umbrella of the Military Times. Take a good look. It’s not Weekly World News, Star Magazine, or the National Enquirer. It’s a publication that is sold at every Marine Corps installation and read by Marines worldwide.

    The most important story, or lead, is about a “swinger couple”. That’s the attention grabber. That’s the one that’s supposed to make you pick this up and take it to the register and put down three dollars and fifty cents.

    Now look to the right: 2 Navy Crosses, which they then term, “Legendary Badassery”. Yeah, that was certainly the case. Then right below that, the Faces of the Fallen. Apparently the fact that two Marines earned our nation’s second-highest award isn’t exciting enough.

    During the engagement, Wooldridge snatched a machine gun from the hands of an enemy fighter and, following a tense struggle on the ground, killed his opponent by striking him in the head with the weapon’s butt stock. The remaining Taliban then retreated, ending a potentially deadly ambush against Wooldridge’s platoon, according to an account of the battle provided to Marine Corps Times in late 2010.

    This must be a pretty boring story, according to Military Times. The rest of the media will not cover these amazing acts of heroism — at least not enough. They are brushed aside as one-minute segments at the end of the broadcast, pushed to page D12 of the newspaper and forgotten. Politics, the economy, and what Lady Gaga is wearing is much more important.

    And Military Times has fallen in line.

  • Navy Crosses for 2 Marines in Afghanistan actions

    Two Marines are about to be awarded Navy Crosses tomorrow for their valor in Afghanistan. One is Sgt. Clifford Wooldridge who was a vehicle commander when they were ambushed by about 15 Taliban. Sgt. Wooldridge dismounted his Marines and assaulted the ambush killing, wounding and running off all of the Taliban. DVIDS continues the story;

    As his fire team was withdrawing, Wooldridge heard voices from behind an adjacent wall of a nearby compound. When he went to investigate the voices, Wooldridge found himself face to face with two Taliban fighters, whom he then killed with his weapon. Out of ammunition, Wooldridge crouched to reload his weapon when he saw the barrel of a Taliban machine gun appear from around the corner of the wall. Wooldridge grabbed the barrel and pulled the surprised fighter around the corner with it. The two began fighting hand-to-hand.

    Realizing his predicament against the 220-pound former football player, the Taliban fighter attempted to pull the pin on a grenade in order to kill them both. Wooldridge used the fighter’s own machine gun to kill him with several blows to the head.

    The other Marine is Sgt. Christopher Farias who had promised his Marines that he’d get them all home alive and he claims that was his motivation that led to this award according to the Houston Chronicle;

    “I had to keep my promise, which was to bring my guys home,” Sgt. Farias told the news station. “I promised my best friend’s wife that I would get him home. I could hear him screaming and I knew I had to do something.”

    In 2010, Farias was knocked out during an attack, and when he regained consciousness he started fighting back against the Taliban. He saved his fellow [M]arines by leading them out of danger, KTRK reported.

  • Austin Anderson saving the world one person at a time

    RBB sends us a link to a local news story about how 27-year-old Austin Anderson, a former Marine pulled 22-year-old Hannah Luce from their small aircraft which had crashed soon after take-off from a Tulsa airport on their way to a Christian youth camp in Iowa;

    Austin Anderson, a 27-year-old former marine who completed two tours in Iraq, had just graduated from Oral Roberts University with Luce on May 5. Anderson reportedly pulled Luce out of the burning plane, and the two were able to walk to a nearby road for help.

    Anderson later died in the hospital, suffering burns over 90 percent of his body.

    “It would totally be like Austin’s character,” friend Lauren Rocket told ABC News. “He was such a tough guy, but once you got to know him he was so much a teddy bear.”

    “He served two tours in Iraq, and he was willing to give his life for his country,” he said. “He was willing to give his life for a friend. He was always willing to go that extra mile.”

    What can I add?

  • Marine stands guard for “honorary Marine”

    From RBB and our buddy Weasel Zippers, the story of 12-year-old Cody Green who won his third bout with cancer, but was losing to an infection brought on by the chemotherapy and the Marines who adopted him for awhile;

    Cody had leukemia since he was 22 months old, but beat the disease three times. Although he was cancer-free, the chemotherapy lowered his immune system and Saturday afternoon, he died from a fungus that attacked his brain. Members of the Marines decided to step in and do something.

    “They decided Cody, with the strength and honor and courage he showed through the whole thing, he should be a Marine,” said Cody’s father David Snowberger.

    Cody was given Marine navigator wings and was made an honorary member of the United States Marine Corps. For one Marine, that wasn’t enough, so he did even more.

    “The night before Cody passed, he stood guard at Cody’s door at the hospital all night long for eight hours straight,” said Snowberger.

    Boy made honorary Marine before death: wlfi.com

  • Update on a feel good story

    CavRick sends us an update on the case of three Camp Lejeune, NC Marines who interrupted two upstanding citizens who were burglarizing the home of the Marines and the Marines ventilated the burglars, Maurice Skinner and Diego Everette. Apparently the prosecutor is not pressing charges against the Marines who are still not being identified;

    The shooting deaths were justified, said the Onslow County district attorney.

    There were items found on the bodies of the two men killed and according to police, they were the same items reported stolen from an earlier car break-in nearby.

    CavRick says that it went down like this;

    Couple weeks ago two Marines and a friend returned to their Jacksonville home to find 2 scum bags burglarizing it. One of the scum bags had the Marines’s shotgun. The scum bag butt stroked him and then tried to fire a shot. The Marine always kept the chamber empty. He took the shotgun away and put two rounds into that POS. He looked around and saw this other POS fighting with his friend. He then took the gun and shot the other POS. [The criminals] both went to meet their maker at that moment.

    Of course, the family of one of the fine young burglars isn’t buying the prosecutor’s decision;

    A family member of Diego Martes Everette, who wished to remain anonymous, said he wasn’t a “stick-up kind of guy.”

    “The heart is really what matters. Diego was a good guy. We all know that if you knew him personally, you knew he was a good guy and he loved any and everybody,” she said.

    Apparently, he also loved any and everybody’s stuff, too.