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

Category: Marine Corps

  • Navy spending $26.75/gl for biofuels

    Everyone’s favorite Navy Secretary, Ray Mabus, was on the Hill this week getting yelled at by some House Republicans for putting Obama’s political considerations before his Department’s war fighting considerations. But what else is new? Most of the Politico article’s premise, the Navy’s “green energy” program, is old news for TAH readers but a few specific things caught my eye.

    The U.S. must move away from its dependence on foreign oil, and the Navy’s clean-energy projects, including investments in algae-based biofuels, “have made us better warfighters,” Mabus said, explaining that for every $1 increase in oil prices per barrel, the Navy pays and additional $31 million in fuel costs.

    “That means that our sailors and Marines steam less, train less, fly less,” Mabus said. “For these reasons, we have to be relentless in our pursuit of energy goals that will continue to make us a more effective fighting force and our military and our nation more energy independent.”

    And yet the article goes onto explain that not only is the Navy spending about 600% more on bio fuel that’s not economically viable but it’s doing so for non-military related reasons.

    The efforts for a greener Navy don’t come cheap. In December, the service purchased 450,000 gallons of biofuels at $26.75 per gallon, POLITICO Pro reported. The biofuels were then mixed with petroleum-based fuels, typically costing just a few dollars a gallon.
    One of the reasons behind the Navy’s investment in the more-expensive biofuels is to promote domestic alternative-energy production. Navy leaders contend that a vibrant clean-energy industry in the United States could protect the fleet from spikes in fuel prices.

    Last I checked that’s what the Strategic Oil Reserve is for. At least when it isn’t being tapped into to lower needlessly inflated gas prices during an election year.

    It’s truly Orwellian to have the Secretary come out and say that the Navy needs to use these biofuels to save money during budget cuts and improve their ability to fight wars then immediately concede that not only is the program increasing costs, but it’s being pursued in the context of the White House’s heavily politicized (and corrupt) strategic energy policy. I mean the guy was raising a fuss over a fuel type fluctuating by a dollar a gallon and then turning around and spending $20 more a gallon to replace it. They tried to hedge a bit by saying that the Navy needs to “be ready” for when these fuels aren’t heinously inefficient and expensive. But we’ve been hearing for 15 years how biofuels and other alternate energy sources are “just a few years” away from being economically viable. Fast forward to 2012 and the Navy is shelling out $26 bucks for something it could be paying about $4 for.

    In case you’re not sufficiently offended by the intellectual dishonesty, here’s a moral outrage to ice the cake: Mabus finished off his political dance by invoking the memory of past, and the specter of future, Marine casualties.

    Leaders of the Marine Corps also have focused more on energy in recent years — a result of the high cost of moving huge volumes of fuel to U.S. and allied troops in Afghanistan. Currently, the corps consumes more than 200,000 gallons a day there.
    “For every 50 convoys we bring in in fuel, a Marine is killed or wounded,” Mabus told lawmakers last month. “That is too high a price to pay.”
    In all, about 3,000 U.S. troops or contractors have been killed or wounded protecting convoys, POLITICO has reported. Roughly 80 percent of convoys carry fuel.
    The Marine Corps has set two major energy goals: to cut its battlefield requirements for energy by half by 2025 and to have half its bases produce as much energy as they consume by 2020.

    Now I’m all for creating renewable sources of power for bases overseas to cut usage if the systems make sense. But if you’re going to start using my dead friends to push your boss’s energy policy on behalf of good vibes for his political base you better make damn sure you’re not doing so while spending an extra $12 million a year on fuels with lower BTUs than traditional petrol and so actually INCREASING the number of convoys required to meet our military’s energy needs.

  • The woman who busted Alvarez


    The Washington Times writes about the woman who outed now-famous poser Xavier Alvarez, the subject of the Stolen Valor Act case on the docket of the US Supreme Court (US v. Alvarez). Melissa Campbell is a former active duty Marine herself and in the conduct of her duties as an event planner at the Southern California Edison’s Big Creek power plant, she encountered Alvarez who obviously was using his fraud to impress the young lady;

    Finally, upon overhearing Mr. Alvarez boast of his many killings while in the military, including some involving children, Ms. Campbell said, she couldn’t help but interrupt.

    “He’s speaking for my Marine Corps,” she recalled thinking.

    At first, she said, she asked him from which base he retired. She said Mr. Alvarez said that he had retired from Camp Pendleton as “Delta,” or Special Operations Delta Force. To Ms. Campbell, the answer didn’t make sense.

    She asked again in a different way, noting that as sergeant major in the Marine Corps, his retirement would have been a big deal.

    That’s when Mr. Alvarez wouldn’t answer any more of her questions, she said.

    “He looked at me and he said, ‘Ms. Campbell, I know what you’re doing, and I don’t like it,’ ” she said.

    With a handful of people in the room, she responded before walking out of the room.

    “Mr. Alvarez,” she recalled saying, “I know what you’re doing, and I don’t like it.”

    Then she reported the incident to the FBI who then uncovered the statements he made at a political event about having served in the Marines for 25 years and being awarded the Medal of Honor by Ronald Reagan for which he was convicted under provisions of the Stolen Valor Act.

    But, unfortunately, Ms. Campbell lost her job over the incident for confronting Alvarez. Her employer asked why she even cared because she wasn’t a Marine any longer. Obviously, someone who had never served. Lawyers have offered to help her file a suit against the employer, but she has refused.

    So if the Supreme Court upholds the appellate court’s decision to overturn Alvarez’ conviction, Ms. Campbell will end up being the only person punished in the whole incident.

    Thanks to William Teach for the link.

  • Zero trust in the professional force

    This next stroke out of genius of the Department of the Navy’s leadership is along the same line of thought as that targeted by my recent rant over Lt. Daniel “Lock ’em Down” Durdin’s desire to rescind the boot-leave (and, realistically, massively popular PR program) for the 99.987% of bootcamp graduates who make it through that ten day minefield unscathed.

    According to Fox News, the Navy and the Marine Corps are planning to install breathalyzers on their ships and in their units for Sailors and Marines as they report to duty. No sarcasm, no hyperbole. That’s a 100% true statement, irony free. From Fox:

    The U.S. Navy will start giving Breathalyzer tests to Marines and sailors reporting for duty aboard ships and submarines and at squadrons, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced Monday in a worldwide call to forces.

    Another winning initial from Obama’s new Navy Secretary. One would think that only a severe and immediate crisis would prompt such a dramatic and service wide effort. Instead it’s this:

    The testing is part of a new 21st Century Sailor and Marine initiative…

    I trust everyone’s alarms bells are sounding at this point, yes?

    a multi-prong program aimed at reinforcing healthy lifestyles both on and off-duty. The program emphasizes healthy lifestyles through nutrition, responsible alcohol consumption, zero tolerance for drug use and fitness programs as well as suicide prevention, family and personal preparedness and financial planning.

    Ah, yes. Of course.

    Not only will sailors reporting for duty watch have to submit to alcohol testing, random Breathalyzers will be done elsewhere “to reduce the occurrence of alcohol-related incidents that can end careers and sometimes end lives,” the Navy confirmed to Fox News.
    “This is not done to punish, but to help. We want to help sailors and Marines make good choices before something happens that can’t be undone,” Mabus said during remarks given aboard the USS Bataan in Norfolk, Va., which were televised and web-streamed live to the fleet.
    Mabus said the goal is to maximize readiness, fitness and safety.

    —

    According to Federal News Radio, a senior Navy official said the Breathalyzer tests would be non-punitive nor legally admissible, and is intended to let commanders of individual vessels get a heads-up about potential alcohol-related problems.

    Now anyone that knows anything about the US military knows there are no such things as non-punitive actions when it comes to this sort of thing, especially when it’s constructed in the paradigm of “integrity checks” or “substance abuse”. Then again probably the only worse thing than a sailor or Marine hit by this “wellness” program getting ran up the flag pole for not quite sleeping all of last night off is a sailor or Marine failing a breathalyzer when reporting for duty and getting a good long talking to about living a balanced lifestyle from someone with a ponytail.

    When I read about things like this my mind goes to dark places. Is this another attempt at infantilizing Americans? Is it an ideologically motivated initiative to “cleanse” those of the old school who don’t embrace the Left’s New Military? After all, I’m not exactly old salty over here and when I came in the Marines our SNCOs were still complaining about not being able to have a couple beers at lunch at the E-Club anymore. Or maybe, most frightening of all, the people at the top of the DotN really do think so little of their sailors and Marines.

    Because, ultimately, this isn’t about “sometimes young sailors and Marines can make bad choices”, as we all know is true. This is about replacing NCOs with a piece of technology and treating the entire force as pending miscreants. It says, “I don’t trust my enlisted leadership.”

    Regarldess of how you cut it I can’t say that we’re sending the message that we have a capable and trustworthy force of professionals guarding our nation when the Navy finds it prudent to make sure the 155 Officers and Petty Officers it has entrusted a $2 billion dollar vessel with enough nuclear weaponry aboard to incinerate a quarter of the world’s population be given a breathalyzer first. Or that the Marine Corps needs treat the Marines who just spent 9 months living in blood, sweat and shit while making truly life and death decisions everyday need to be treated like DUI offenders trying to start their car in the morning.

    Hopefully it’s more cock-up than conspiracy and this can just be chalked up to stupidity.

  • A paper only an LT could write

    1st Lt Daniel Durbin, or Butter Bar Duh-Duh-Durbey who had the decency to wait six more months to get promoted, explains in this editorial why newly minted Marines are simply too stupid to be released into the wild. But don’t let me tell you. Let him do the leg work:

    The School of Infantry East (SOI-E) administratively separated more than 150 new Marines in fiscal year 2011 for a myriad of disciplinary and medical reasons. Many of these medical and legal issues occurred over recruit leave. There is a travesty happening right now in the Marine Corps, but nothing is being done about it. Every year, the Marine Corps loses several hundreds of Marines to drugs, legal issues, and injuries during a single 10-day period—recruit leave.

    Yes sir, according to Duh-Duh-Durbey the Marine Corps administratively separates “about” 150 boots each year between Bootcamp and graduating Infantry School or Marine Combat Training East (both administered by the School of Infantry). In other words, using rather flush numbers from the Iraq surge years and accounting for the SOI-West as well, the Marines separate less than .013% of their annual recruits in this period. That’s right, .013%. A crisis if you will. Duh-Duh-Durbey describes the terrible plight of the plebian enlisted man as such:

    …every year the Marine Corps sends thousands of young men and women home from recruit training back into the situations they were coming from. Many of these Marines have joined the Marine Corps to escape these dark situations and make a new life for themselves as Marines. But after a mere 12 weeks, we send them back into the home life they were trying to get away from.

    Considering the demographic horror myself and most of my fellow enlisted Marines barely manged to escape in order to reach the life raft that is a Marine Corps recruiting office it’s a miracle more of us didn’t succumb to our imploding situation in the Delayed Entry Program. It’s a flat out anomaly any of us escaped our alcoholic foster parents long enough to get out of the trailer park to meet up with the other hood rat Poolies our recruiters manged to save from the wreckage of lower class America.

    Not to say that the LT doesn’t empathize:

    Do not think that I am trying to denigrate the incredible change a Marine experiences from the yellow footprints to graduation from recruit training; this is one of the most formative experiences in any person’s life.

    Thanks, sir.

    Of course that empathy allows Duh-Duh-Durbey to so succinetly diagnose the base enlisted man’s real problem:

    However, the recruit training experience is only 3 months long. When these young, impressionable Marines return home on leave, the old bad habits are there waiting for them. Additionally, Marines who go on recruit leave are often swayed by the boyfriend or girlfriend back home who missed them so much, and they just can’t bear the thought of losing that once-in-a-lifetime relationship. These Marines return from recruit leave and simply refuse to train. Marines in this category are often processed for administrative separation.

    Damn Josie, every time.

    No fears though, Lt. Duh-Duh-Durbey has the answer:

    The solution is incredibly simple. Put an end to recruit leave! This change would have the added benefit of enforcing the training mindset that is desperately needed. When the Marines return home, they are certainly proud of the accomplishment of becoming Marines, but they lose that vital training mindset. They get comfortable.

    I propose that new Marines who graduate from Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego or Parris Island hop on a bus and continue training at SOI. After SOI graduation, they then drop to their MOS schools or for infantry Marines to the Operating Forces. This will maintain continuity for a single drop of Marines to their MOS schools or Operating Forces units.

    I won’t go on to quote the whole pile of crap this idiot foisted on the Marine Corps Gazette, you can follow the link yourself if you’re into such self-flagellation. I will though say that the next time the good Lt finds himself being instructed how to run a convoy, keep two aircraft apart, fill out a clearance request, construct a fixed firing position, replace a rotor screw or do any of the million things he’s grossly unqualified to do, it would behoove him to stop and thank his lucky stars.

    After all, that simple minded idiot with the Sgt’s chevrons who manged to survive the period in their lives inbetween mom & pop’s and the blessed period of mentorship from some retard with a degree from Party School State University and The Basic School Corps, hasn’t yet tripped over his own dick and screwed up the whole Marine Corps. Thanks for keeping your eye on the ball, sir!

    People like Durbin, the grasping morons desperate to make a name for themselves, are the reason while enlisted personnel hate officers. Most Marines don’t trust officers because of the the ignorant fools like Durbin, and they assign that mentality to the rest of the shiny collared folk. As long as good officers tolerate peers like Durbin their job will only be harder. So I’ll pass on to the Marine Corps Officer Corps what I’ve heard many a Company Grade Officer pass onto me: police your own, gents.

  • Vroom, vroom

    Don’t look now Chuck Norris but “duh Mareens” are training on dirt bikes for an up coming Afghan deployment. I’m sure all you Batt Boys are just tickeld to find out this is news but it also peaked my interest. I have to ask two questions.

    One: who gives a shit? Is the fact that MARSOC bubbas are getting training on a dirt bike really news worthy?

    and

    Two: Why would you advertise the training curriculum of special operations units about to head down range? To include, I might add, their general topographical location. Has the war really gotten that boring Gannett?

    Our vets are getting their solemnly promised medical coverage jacked up to save the welfare state some money, our brothers and sisters are getting killed by their trainees and the entire war effort has been regulated to the category of “political liability” by the C-in-C but dirt bikes. Dirt bikes, dude. Front page material that we all really care about. It’s no wonder I get the eye roll when I mention the “Military Times” these days. How about doing your job fellas?

  • Court upholds conviction of gay porn star Marine

    We first discussed Matthew W. Simmons last Fall when a military appeals court said that his conviction for wearing remnants of his uniform in a gay porn movie was improper. Well according to McClatchy, another appeals court has overturned that appeals court decision and upholds his conviction;

    He took leave to appear in several commercial pornographic videos that involved sodomy with numerous other men, by his own account being paid $10,000.00 for his performances. Some of the videos included shots of him wearing his Marine dress blue coat with the Marine Corps device, decorations, and rank insignia affixed; others showed him wearing a Marine physical training jacket; and at one point he mentioned that he was a Marine.

    All three members of the panel agreed;

    The very essence of this pornography, styled, branded, titled, and marketed with a military theme, took on a distinct Marine Corps flavor and, on the facts before us, a prohibited service endorsement by the appellant at the institutional expense of the Marine Corps.

    It’s nice to see the military finally standing behind their wear and appearance standards for a change.

  • A Bit of GOOD News

    Marine credits karma for $2.9 million jackpot

    Marine Cpl. Alexander Degenhardt is crediting karma for landing a $2.9 million progressive slot jackpot in Las Vegas.

    Degenhardt was accepted as a bone marrow donor to an anonymous patient only a couple of days before hitting the jackpot Sunday at the Bellagio, the Las Vegas Sun reported (http://bit.ly/ABQ02J).

    “They asked me if I was sure I wanted to go through with it because it’s kind of painful, but what’s a little pain if it will save someone’s life?” Degenhardt said. “I look at this jackpot as kind of good karma for that.”

    Degenhardt, 26, said he plans to continue his career with the Marines and go through with the bone marrow donation, which is expected to occur in the next six months after extensive testing.

    There is little to need to add anything.

  • 67 years ago today

    It was 67 years ago today that the iconic photo was forever etched into our collective cultural mind and came to represent everything we accomplished in the Second World War, and our struggle to free the world from militaristic dictatorships. It was on Iwo Jima, on February 23, 1945, four days after the battle for the small island began and more than month before the battle would end. US forces suffered more than 26,000 casualties, more than 6,000 killed, while Japanese defenders lost over 20,000 killed and only a thousand were captured alive. Two last Japanese soldiers surrendered after hiding out on the island in January 1951.

    Joe Rosenthal photographed six Marines: Ira Hayes, Mike Strank, Rene Gagnon, Harlon Block, Franklin Sousley, and U.S. Navy corpsman John Bradley raising the U.S. flag. Within days, three of the Marines raising the flag were killed: Strank, Block and Sousley.

    Thanks to Sparky for reminding us.