Country Singer sends this from of his Facebook friends. He asked me if it was former Sergeant Michale Stein, and I have no idea…all of you Marines look alike to me. Whether it is or not, someone didn’t learn Stein’s lesson. And he certainly didn’t listen to his platoon sergeant about wearing his uniform properly, either;
While I don’t disagree with his sign, I do disagree with the way he’s presenting it. And the fact that he didn’t shave today.
The Associated Press in the Stars & Stripes reports that the Navy will dismiss two Marines who cut a deal with prosecutors to testify against their squad mates in the Haditha case;
The Marine Corps dropped criminal charges against both men – Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz and Sgt. Humberto Mendoza – in exchange for their testimony at the trial of former Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, the squad leader. Wuterich was the lone Marine convicted in the shooting of unarmed Iraqis in the town of Haditha after a roadside bomb exploded, killing one Marine and wounding two others.
The Navy ought to take a look at the prosecutors, too, and see if there were any connections to a certain deceased bag of shit congressman. Or any political pressure from anyone who sought to make this their standard for the war against terror and the troops fighting that war. And while they’re at it, try to figure why Ray Mabus would name a ship after a certain bag of shit congressman who tried to tear asunder his own service.
I’m pretty sure there are a lot hands to chop off in this incident and blaming a couple of buck sergeants won’t solve the problem.
You’ve all seen how I condemned Marine Sergeant Gary Stein for continuing to run his mouth on his keyboard on his Facebook page and making stupid threats about what he would and wouldn’t do. It was immature and childish for to continue after his commanders told him to stop. Whether you think you have rights or not, you’re just begging for bad things to happen to you. And I’m not going to defend him in any way, shape or form, but the Marines should step back for a minute and think about what they’re doing. According to US News, they’re thinking about serving him a Big Chicken Dinner (a euphemism for a Bad Conduct Discharge);
A Marine who criticized President Barack Obama on his Facebook page has committed misconduct and should be dismissed, a military board recommended late Thursday.
The Marine Corps administrative board made the decision after a daylong hearing at Camp Pendleton for Sgt. Gary Stein.
The board also recommended that Stein be given an other-than-honorable discharge. That would mean Stein would lose his benefits and would not be allowed on any military base.
Now, it’s a board recommendation, so it’s not a foregone conclusion. Stein’s commander gets to make the final decision. Me? I’d like to see a little consistency from the USMC.
Recall, if you will the case of Adam Kokesh who got a General Discharge, because he cussed in writing at an officer who was investigating whether or not he wore his Marine uniform at protest. They let Kokesh continue his college career at the expense of the American taxpayer. And the same goes for their investigation of Liam Madden who represented himself as a veteran while he was “making disloyal statements during a speech in February in New York, when he says he wasn’t wearing his uniform” according to the Washington Post. Neither Kokesh nor Madden lost their benefits.
Now, the Marine Corps wants to take Stein’s benefits away after nine years of service. Now, I was all for them yanking Kokesh’s and Madden’s benefits, but since they didn’t, it hardly seems fair to pull Stein’s plug. I’d hate to think that the Marine Corps judges these things based on who is being criticized.
ROS sent us a Facebook link to this letter that a little girl sent to deployed sailors. Since many of you are sociopaths who don’t do Facebook, I thought I’d drop it off for you here.
Oh, put down your beverage before you read.
We first wrote about Marine Sergeant Gary Stein nearly two years ago when it was first reported that the Marine Sergeant thought that his political views took precedence over his career opportunities. Then we mentioned him the other day when the Marine Corps decided to make an example of him. In the interim, the Marine Corps warned Stein that his activities on line in regards to his open opposition to the President were in violation of Marine Corps and DoD policy, yet, because he’s a certified shithouse lawyer, Stein decided that he wasn’t in violation with policy and continued his behavior. Finally, he announced to his audience that he’d disregard orders that his superiors issued, if he thought those orders were illegal. Having already demonstrated his skills as a shithouse lawyer, we have an idea how that would have turned out, don’t we?
Anyway, the Military Times reports that suddenly, Stein is worried about his career;
Earlier this month, on another Facebook page for Marine weather forecasters, Stein said he would not follow certain order given by the commander in chief. This started off a renewed scrutiny of Stein, and the possibility he will be removed from service.
Despite all this, Stein has said he plans to continue updating the page, even as he faces an other than honorable discharge.
“I can be reduced in rank to a lance corporal, lose VA benefits and be forced to turn in my uniform,” Stein told Marine Corps Times after receiving word of his possible discharge. “I’m worried. I’ve got a family. I love the Marine Corps.”
He can’t love the Marine Corps as much as he loves shooting off his mouth, because he hasn’t stopped updating his opinions. Funny, but the military isn’t like civilian law enforcement. When the Marines tell you that continued bad behavior will result in punishment, they’re not kidding.
But don’t worry, SGT Stein, I’m sure that Stuart Rhodes will let you live in his basement until you get your life straightened out. You’ll learn how far that Oathkeepers Brotherhood bullshit goes, won’t you?
The Marine Corps announced today that it will be forced to cut four infantry battalions and a staggering twelve flying squadrons, along with three associated Headquarters units. This is in order to slim down by 20,000 service members as necessitated by the first half trillion dollar cut in defense spending. In 2007 the Marines began to reform the storied battalions of the 9th Marine Regiment. The Marines reconstituted the Regiment’s three battalions and put them into the command structure of other Regiments, avoiding the need to stand up a new HQ unit. My guess is that they’ll again decommission these battalions.
At the same time this news was hitting the wires came the announcement that the Army will be dipping into traditional Marine Corps territory by joining in on Pacific theater oriented “forced entry” training as the Marines resume focus on that, long neglected and traditional, modus operandi. From the Army Times:
The two services are planning a series of exercises likely to take place in North Carolina, where tens of thousands of soldiers and Marines are based at Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune, which are located just 90 miles apart. With the future security environment uncertain, and an end in sight to combat operations in Afghanistan, the services are discussing ways to leverage complimentary capabilities, said Lt. Gen. Richard Mills, the Corps’ deputy commandant for combat development and integration who serves also as commander of Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va.
“As we look at new strategies, as we look at potential areas of operations in the Pacific, I think it’s very natural that the Marines and the Army discuss it … should we have to go somewhere where people don’t want us to go,” Mills said.
The article goes on to talk about how the Marines and Army have conducted many joint operations and training exercises in the past (duh) but the reality is that this is an alignment in the strategic relationship between the two services, not seen since the Second World War.
With baseline, not war, funding cuts already causing the cancellation of the Marine Corps’ only viable amphibious vehicle, the EFV, and a toxic combination of contractor bloat, politics and defense cuts imperiling the F-35B the Marines may be soon left in a situation where their MEUs have no ship to shore combat vehicle and no organic fixed wing support, nor enough bodies to go around even if they did.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that this is only the first round of cuts for this coming decade. Should the efforts of hard charging, military friendly, Congressmen like Buck McKeon fail and looming sequestration come to pass you can expect twice these cuts. Because of the anti-military Progressive Democrats and anti-spending libertarian Republicans even if sequestration is averted you can expect more cuts on the margins, and soon.
If that does happen we might find that Obama has fulfilled his promise not to create a “hollowed out force”. True to his word we’ll have a “no show force”.
I just saw the new Marine Corps recruiting commercial called “Towards the Sound of Chaos” and it was pretty cool. Of course, it’s so new, it’s not on YouTube yet. But I found it at the Marine Corps website but I can’t get the damn thing to embed, so you’ll have to go to the link until I figure this thing out;
The New York Times describes the scene;
The campaign’s inaugural television commercial opens with scenes of a smoke-draped horizon and the sounds of gunfire and people screaming in the distance. The terrain is vaguely desertlike, but there are no geographic landmarks — not even a hill — to pin down the location. It could be Africa, Central Asia or Kansas.
Marines then sprint into the picture and toward the smoke, F/A-18 fighter jets screaming overhead. Before the minute-long ad is over, virtually every form of Marine war-fighting hardware — the much-critiqued V-22 Osprey, Cobra attack helicopters, amphibious assault vehicles and a hovercraft — make guest appearances.
“Most people hear the sounds of chaos and run in the opposite direction,” the baritone-voiced narrator says. “But there are a few who listen intently for these sounds, not in the hopes of hearing them, but to help rid the world of them.”
The spot ends with a provocative tagline: “Which way would you run?”
The ad was just released Saturday, so I’m pretty sure that the hand-wringers haven’t had a chance to circle their pink-bunting covered wagons yet. I’m fairly certain they’ll be wetting their panties soon enough. But, I think the Marines did a good job…after all, they’re trying to attract people who would run towards the sound of the guns, not a bunch of bed-wetting sissies whose sensibilities will be offended that there are better men than them in the world.