Category: Marine Corps

Stars & Stripes reports that Michael Chesny, one of the organizers of the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia was discharged from the Marine Corps earlier this month. He published on the internet under the screen name “Tyrone”.

Under a different command, Chesny appeared to be headed for a promotion to staff sergeant as his misdemeanor trespassing charge was being cleared up in Graham, but he was still a sergeant April 5, when he was separated from the Corps, Fahy said, for “his connection to white nationalist groups.”

Chesny was an explosive ordnance technician stationed at Cherry Point Air Station. He enlisted in November 2007 and became a sergeant in May 2013.

Chesny helped raise a banner of the white supremacists on a building during the rally, prompting a trespassing charge, according to Al Jazeera;

The banner featured a logo for Generation Identitaire, a far-right, nativist and anti-immigrant movement in Europe. The acronym alongside it, “YWNRL”, stands for “You Will Not Replace Us”, a popular chant used by Unite the Right marchers in Charlottesville to signal fears over so-called “white genocide”.

The Marine Corps also booted Chesny’s accomplice Joseph W. Manning.

Manning was a staff sergeant stationed at the Marine Corps Combat Engineer School at Camp Lejeune and an instructor in the program until he was “administratively separated” from the Corps over his arrest around late December, said Nat Fahy, representing Marine Corps Installations East.

Thanks to chooee for the link.

The Marine Corps Times reports that Marine Brigadier General Kurt W. Stein has been placed on administrative leave for remarks he made during a town hall discussion on April 6. An anonymous snowflake made a complaint to Naval Criminal Investigative Service;

USA Today reported that Stein was suspended for publicly ridiculing as ‘fake news’ “allegations of sexual harassment at his command” and also joking “about a chaplain recently fired for having sex in public.“

From USAToday;

The Marine Corps on Tuesday suspended a general who publicly ridiculed as “fake news” allegations of sexual harassment at his command and also joked about a chaplain recently fired for having sex in public, USA TODAY has learned.

Brig. Gen. Kurt Stein, director of Marine and Family Programs, made the remarks April 6 before an audience estimated at hundreds of civilian employees and Marines at their base in Quantico, Va., according to three people who attended the all-hands meeting last week. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they said they feared retaliation.

The Marine Corps Times, again;

The allegations that Stein disparaged, first reported by USA TODAY in February, involved two civilian employees who said a Marine officer had made several sexual overtures to them. The allegations initially were deemed unfounded, but the Marine Corps Commandant, Gen. Robert Neller, ordered a new investigation of the claims in March.

The Marine Corps Times reports that an unnamed Marine Raider was awarded a Silver Star Medal for his valor in an operation against terrorists who took over the Raddison Blu hotel in Bamako, Mali in 2015;

The elite operator with 3rd Marine Raider Battalion out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, was serving as a senior leader with the American commando force when his unit got word of a terrorist attack at the hotel, according to a command release.

The Raider kitted up and devised a plan with his fellow teammates en route to the hotel, where terrorists associated with Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, had just stormed a hotel frequented by Westerners, holding nearly 170 hostages.

“There was very little time to respond,” the Raider said in a command release. “We fell back on what we had prepared for. There were points in which the situation became more intense, ambiguous and scary. At times, the situation we faced was confusing and difficult. However, our purpose was clear. That clarity and unity of purpose allowed us to navigate the ambiguity and manage our emotions to accomplish the mission at hand.”

Their actions resulted in the rescue of about 170 hostages and only one Marine was injured in the operation.

“It was one of those defining points in life where you realize you are exactly where you belong,” the Raider said in the command release.

Despite the intensity of the battle, the Raider said he “knew beyond all doubt” what needed to be done and that failure was never on his mind.

“Every American we found and pulled out of the hotel only increased my desire to keep going,” he said in the release. “Every time the smoke cleared a little more, I felt both exposed and enabled.”

Thanks to AW1Ed for the link.

Stars & Stripes reports that the four Marines killed in the crash of a CH-53E Super Stallion from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 465, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California have been identified;

Capt. Samuel A. Schultz, 28, of Huntington Valley, Pa., a pilot assigned to HMH-465. He joined the Corps in May 2012. His previous duty stations included Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla.; Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas; and MCAS New River, N.C. He previously deployed with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

First Lt. Samuel D. Phillips, 27, of Pinehurst, N.C., a pilot assigned to HMH-465, in the Marines since August 2013. His previous duty stations included Naval Air Stations Pensacola and Corpus Christi and MCAS New River.

Gunnery Sgt. Derik R. Holley, 33, of Dayton, Ohio, a CH-53 helicopter crew chief assigned to HMH-465, in the Marines since November 2003. Previous duty stations included Marine Corps Base Quantico and MCAS Miramar. He had deployed to Iraq twice in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, to Japan as part of the Unit Deployment Program and with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Lance Cpl. Taylor J. Conrad, 24, of Baton Rouge, La., a CH-53 helicopter crew chief assigned to HMH-465. He joined the Marine Corps in May 2016.

“The hardest part of being a Marine is the tragic loss of life of a fellow brother-in-arms,” Col. Craig Leflore, commanding officer of Marine Aircraft Group 16, said in a Marine Corps statement.

Navy Captain Loften Thornton, a chaplain assigned to Headquarters and Service Battalion at Marine Corps Forces Pacific, was fired when a video of him engaged in a sexual tryst in a New Orleans club triggered an investigation into the chaplain’s conduct. From Fox News;

USA Today, citing two defense officials, reported that authorities were examining video that showed Thornton having sex with the woman at the Crown & Anchor English Pub in the Algiers Point neighborhood of New Orleans. The bar is located across the Mississippi River from the city’s French Quarter, and near the Marine Forces Reserve in Algiers, where Thornton was stationed.

The owner of the bar told USA Today that he was cooperating with authorities, but would not comment further.

The paper reported that Thornton had been a Navy chaplain since 1992.

From MSN;

The Marines fired Navy Capt. Loften Thornton on March 20 for “loss of trust and confidence,” said Marine Lt. Col. Ted Wong, a spokesman for Marine Reserve. Thornton had been chaplain for Marine Forces Reserve based in New Orleans.

Mick sends us a link to Fox News that reports a Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing in San Diego crashed near the Mexican border with California and that 4 Marines are feared dead as a result;

The Marine Corps was withholding the identities of those killed for 24 hours until next of kin notifications are complete.

“The status of all four is presumed dead pending positive identification,” read a statement from the aviation unit.

The head of Marine Corps aviation told Congress in November his CH-53 fleet was ‘inadequate,’ noting he only had 143 out of 200 required helicopters on the flight line and of those only 37 percent could fly.

Stars & Stripes reports that 21-year-old Marine Private Patrick Armando Vega was found unresponsive in his bunk at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego Saturday night by his drill instructor who promptly tried to revive him with CPR;

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Pvt. Vega during this difficult time,” Brig. Gen. William Jurney, commanding general of the recruit depot, said in a press release.

Vega enlisted in the Marine Corps on March 12, Steven Posy, a spokesman for the recruit depot…He was originally from Ventura, Calif.

From the Orange County Register;

Vega was pronounced dead at 11:43 a.m. Sunday after going into cardiac arrest at Naval Medical Center San Diego, where he was being treated.

Vega, who was in a physical conditioning platoon, was found unresponsive by a drill instructor around midnight Saturday, Posy said. The drill instructor conducted CPR until first responders arrived. Vega was taken to Naval Medical Center San Diego in critical condition.

According to Military.com, 22-year-old Marine Sergeant Bryan Weber discovered that a fellow Marine veteran, 53-year-old Dave Ford needed a kidney after four years of frequent dialysis treatments.

Weber learned about Ford’s condition when his supervising staff noncommissioned officer, Gunnery Sgt. Jeremy Winkfield, told him that a fellow Marine whom he knew from Blount Island Command in Jacksonville was on dialysis, and needed a kidney.

“I said, ‘Gunny, I’m the same blood type as Ford,’ and so I reached out to the Mayo Clinic and after the tests, they confirmed I was a donor match,” said Weber, who works as a comptroller and currently serves as fiscal chief at Blount Island Command. “We’re all Marines, we look out for each other, it was just the right thing to do.”

Weber, 22 is no stranger to doing the right thing. He is often called upon for funeral honors in the greater Jacksonville area. He refers to this duty as an honor and privilege that gives comfort to the families of fallen Marines.