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

Category: Marine Corps

  • Marines close to new .45 pistol

    The Marine Corps Times reports that the Marines are about ready to name the winner of their $2.2 million contract for a new .45-caliber M45 Close Quarters Battle Pistol, for issue to Special Operations units;

    The new pistol is modeled after earlier versions of the 1911 pistol used since the 1980s by force recon units. Those weapons were called the MEU (SOC) pistol, short for Marine expeditionary unit (special operations capable). The precision weapons section at Quantico’s Weapons Training Battalion has hand-assembled 1911s chambered for .45-caliber Automatic Colt Pistol ammo for years.

    It’s not clear who the competitors are but the Times article says these guys are in contention;

    Several companies submitted samples to the Corps in 2010 as part of the competition, but it is unclear who remains in contention. They included Colt Defense of Hartford, Conn., and Springfield Armory of Geneseo, Ill.

    I’m so glad to see the military move away from the Euro-wienie calibers and thug guns. I was so disappointed when, during my service, the Army scrapped the time tested .45 for the Beretta 9mm.

  • Marines dispute police accounts of shooting

    In the story about Orange County Deputy Sheriff Department shooting of Marine Sgt. Manuel Loggins Jr, which we first discussed last week, members of Loggins’ unit are speaking up to dispute essential elements of the deputies in a Marine Corps Times/Associated Press article sent to us by Marine-7002;

    Loggins’ commanding officer, Col. Nicholas Marano, countered back with a bruising statement issued to the media: “While I am confident they will do the right thing in the end, I am less than satisfied with the official response from the City of San Clemente and Orange County. Many of the statements made concerning Manny Loggins’ character over the past few days are incorrect and deeply hurtful to an already grieving family.”

    The words were especially searing given the military’s close relationship with law enforcement agencies — many of whom are made up of former service members — and the fact that the investigation was in its initial stages. The Orange County district attorney’s office is leading the probe and declined to comment.

    Loggins’ supervisor, Maj. Christopher Cox, said Marano’s bold statement won applause in the Corps.

    “We’re glad he stepped up and made a statement over the way this has been handled,” he said. “Everybody reads the report presented by the Orange County officials. Obviously it contradicts what we know to be the case about him. He was involved with his family. His relationship with his daughters was fantastic. They were a close family. To paint it any other way is not right.”

    The police, who’ve made it sound like Loggins was yet another nutty veteran having a PTSD episode, are out in the cold on this one. Even though Loggins has been in the Marine Corps since 1999, he has never deployed to the war on terror. The Marine Corps and the police agree that Loggins had three Bibles in his car, but nothing that would endanger the sheriff’s deputy or his children.

    Our buddy, Beat and Release, has assembled most of the facts on his own blog in an easy to understand post.

    Given the breathless recounting of Itzcoatl Ocampo’s story of a nutty veteran who killed at least four homeless men in LA County because of his service in the war against terror, you’d think the police have an easy exit from this tragic embarrassment, what with the media’s rush to explain everything with stereotypes. But the Orange County Sheriff’s Department needs to come clean with the truth quickly in this case for the newly widowed, expectant wife and the two traumatized children who witnessed the murder of their father.

  • Marines won’t punish snipers

    The Associated Press reports on the quick decision that the Marines in the post below below won’t be punished. The USMC claims that there was no “malicious intent” in the picture – they had already investigated the incident last year. But of course, that’s not good enough for some people;

    Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of Los Angeles’ Simon Wiesenthal Center, said he does not believe it was an innocent mistake and insisted the American public has a right to know what happened.

    His organization – one of the largest international Jewish human rights groups with more than 400,000 members – is demanding Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta launch another investigation and discipline those involved.

    Yeah, that’s the ticket. We really need the politicians launching an investigation in an election year. That’ll be fair for the Marines.

    Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, headquartered in Albuquerque, N.M., said the scandals hurt U.S. military missions.

    Explain how it hurt “military missions”, there Mikey. Of course, not far from the picture on MRFF’s website is a donation button – so we know what this is really about, don’t we? Adam Weinstein at Mother Jones quotes Mikey Weinstein (no relation) as saying;

    Their behavior, Weinstein told me, “eviscerates good order, morale, and discipline,” in addition to angering non-Americans and alienating survivors of the Nazis’ atrocities.

    And;

    If this is not a court-martial offense, there are no court-martial offenses.

    Yuh, uh. WHy don’t we just put the whole military in jail while there’s no war, because we know that they’ll do something that offend the rest of us at one time or another.

  • The latest photo outrage

    DirtyMick sends us this article about a group of Marine Scout Snipers who used the symbol that was also used by the Nazi Germany secret police, Schutzstaffe;

    The logo appeared on a flag in a photograph of the platoon taken in September 2010 in Sangin district, a hotly contested area in Helmand province. The Marines were with Charlie Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., and are shown sitting in combat gear with the U.S. flag and a blue flag with the stylized “SS” logo hanging behind them.

    “We don’t have all the information, but we know enough to know the Marine Corps needs to open a full investigation,” said Mikey Weinstein, the [Military Religious Freedom Foundation] president. “If these guys just get a non-judicial punishment, it’s absolutely absurd.”

    On the MRFF’s website they state;

    The fact that United States service personnel were caught proudly posing with the emblem of the Nazi SS, which symbolizes the vile ideology of Hitlerian fascism, sends a menacing signal to religious minorities within the United States Armed Forces.

    So I guess we’re back to the pre-war days when everything that some people in the military do demands a full investigation. Do you know who else used that symbol?

    I think we need to investigate the music industry and 80s hair bands. We should also investigate those people who want to rock and roll all night and party ev-er-y-day.

  • Tired Of Walking

    Well, my brother got his preferred MOS out at Pendleton’s School of Infantry this week, 0352, TOW Gunner. Congratulations, Seth. The consensus among former Marine Corps types has been, “Aw, lucky him” while the general reaction from former Army types has been, “Are you kidding me, the Marine Corps still uses that piece of shit?” Seeing as how Marines racing around in Humvees shooting half century old missiles at tanks hasn’t been on the menu for some time my simple POG mind is left to wonder what it is TOW guys do in 2012. Opinion seems evenly split between heavy QRF, IED magnets and “nothing”.

    Any 0352s out there?

  • Shrinking the Corps for its own sake?

    Marine Corps Maj Peter J. Munson, a C-130 driver, Naval Postgraduate School alum and self-proclaimed Middle East expert, put forward a “right sizing” argument in the Marine Corps Gazette today calling for the Corps to shrink down even farther in order to stay relevant. The core of his understanding of the proper role of the Marine Corps is this:

    …the Corps must define the niche that it intends to fill in a competitive market. That niche is primarily defined by its amphibious nature, but it is also defined by highly mobile, lightweight infantry forces, task-organized (MAGTF) and scalable to conduct independent operations (to a defined upper limit), utilizing combined arms and robust command and control capabilities to “punch above its weight”, and capable of expeditionary operations in both littoral and inland areas (through use of strategic maneuver). The Marine Corps is prepared to operate independently to the extent that it is forward deployed and prepared to conduct crisis response (i.e. a MEU and nothing larger). This statement requires some work, but this should be what the Marine Corps does, period. Strip away everything that does not contribute to this niche and either trash it or hand it off to other services.

    With the budget driven cancelling of the EFV the Corps has been left without an amphibious platform viable in a 21st century combat enviroment. Now correct me if I’m wrong but, once you cut out the service specific lingo and the amphibious capability, isn’t he essentially describing SOCOM? What mission falls into that field that can’t be accomplished by a Ranger Batt with specifically tasked aviation assets?

    There’s over 2,500 SEALs running around who are going to be largely unemployed once the war in Afghanistan is over. You think the Navy is going to cough up their amphib raid and VBSS missions? I don’t. Marines are off ship as an operational component of the crew and they’re not coming back. The Navy has barely been able to get the Marines to maintain the Security Forces Regiment which guards, and acts as a QRF for, all the critical installations and assets, i.e. nukes.

    (more…)

  • Marines investigating video

    The Marine Corps is investigating a video that was posted on YouTube which purports to show Marines urinating on Taliban corpses. The video is above – until it gets removed. But the Star & Stripes reports;

    The video, posted Tuesday on YouTube , shows four men in U.S. military uniforms standing above the corpses, joking and making references to relieving themselves on the dead men. Capt. Kendra Hardesty, a spokeswoman for the Corps, said officials have not verified any details of the incident but added, “The actions portrayed are not consistent with our core values and are not indicative of the character of the Marines in our Corps. This matter will be fully investigated and those responsible will be held accountable for their actions.”

    It looks a little grainy to me and it’s hard to tell what’s going on in the video. I think someone is being pranked.

    I understand the sentiment, but I don’t condone it…especially filming it and putting it on YouTube. That was a real bonehead play.

  • As the situation on the ground dictates…

    One of my favorite games played by the Pentagon is to replace uniformed personnel with contractors and pretend the mission of the “eliminated” billet has gone away. As the Obama administration continues to pretend that the situation on the ground permits the natural withdrawal of military personnel comes the news that Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan will be taking on private military contractors to provide physical security for the base. According to the Marine Corps Times:

    U.S. commanders want civilian contractors to provide military security at the Marine Corps’ largest base in Afghanistan as a planned withdrawal of U.S. forces from the war-torn country expands.

    —

    “As we prepare for fewer Marine boots on the ground, the requirement to maintain a certain level of security aboard Camp Leatherneck must be maintained,” Player said. “That’s where contractor support will provide Camp Leatherneck security where Marines have in the past.”

    U.S. Army Contracting Command announced a competition for the job in November. At least 166 civilian guards will be needed at all times, meaning the company that wins the contract will almost certainly need more to account for vacations and other leave time. Companies who seek the job must hire guards who are citizens of the U.S. or some of its closest allies: the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

    Now, of course, the stationing of PMCs on base, even foreign nationals is nothing new to those of use who served in Iraq. I’ve worked with Marine Corps provisional security companies a few times from 3/2, 8th Tanks and, during work up, 2nd LAAD. As long as the mission is performed by a reputable company and the base QRF is still Marine Corps there’s nothing about the job that requires it be done by uniformed service members.

    Still, this begs the question, why replace Marines with contractors? The demand hasn’t gone away, Afghanistan will be as dangerous on the PMCs first day as the Corps’ last. The mission is already mainly performed by Reservists and the shortage of fresh troops isn’t nearly as critical as in the heart of the surge in Iraq. I doubt the DoD is saving any significant money, PMCs are not cheap and it doesn’t reduce the end force reduction goals with the looming cuts. They certainly aren’t going to do a better job.

    The answer is simple: reducing the number of American troops in Afghanistan creates the phony impression the war is “winding down” and the Obama administration is reducing our commitment there. Of course neither of these things are true but, as already displayed by the sabotaging of the negotiations in Iraq to keep the desperately needed US troops there another year, this administration doesn’t actually care about winning our nation’s military campaigns, only their party’s political ones.