marines

Battleland Battleland

For God and Country

Wait, the chaplains are in the news… again? Military chaplains never make the headlines. Weird!

According to a letter written on Monday by retired chaplains and religious agencies to the services chiefs of chaplains, gays getting married in base chapels “creates an environment that is increasingly hostile to many chaplains – …

Battleland Battleland

Libya: Boots On The…Ship?

President Obama and his commanders have made it clear there will be “no American boots on the ground” in Libya. So how come 2,200 heavily-armed and ready-to-fight Marines are heading to just off “the shores of Tripoli,” as leathernecks like to sing? They’re the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), and will be climbing aboard the …

Battleland Battleland

The Rest of The Story

For almost a decade, I’ve been getting statements from the Pentagon like this one:

If you can’t make out the small print, it’s an announcement of the combat death of Marine Cpl. Chad Wade, in Afghanistan, two months ago today. These terse messages are heartbreaking in their directness and numbing in their number. It’s important to …

Battleland Battleland

A Marine OSCAR For Best Supporting Role

A couple of Navy doctors deployed to Helmand Province in Afghanistan with the Marines there spoke via long-distance to Pentagon reporters Thursday about the steps they are taking to tend to their troops’ mental-health needs. They emphasized their expanding and embedded nature of tending to Marine minds to make sure they remain healthy. …

Battleland Battleland

A Marine's `Black Friday'

In honor of Black Friday — when all good Americans demonstrate their profound sense of materialism and economic entitlement — it’s worth noting that the U.S. Marines have been doing their bit to boost the economy, too.

Prior to 9/11, it cost about $1,200 to outfit a Marine for war, and this is what he looked like.

These days, it …

Battleland Battleland

Cash On The Jarhead

When police work doesn’t work, offer money. That’s what the FBI is doing after weeks of investigation have failed to find the person responsible for firing on the Marine museum, a Marine recruiting station (a Coast Guard recruiting station, too) and the Pentagon itself. The feds are offering “up to” $20,000 for information leading to the …

Battleland Battleland

Women In Uniform

As the Senate prepares to debate lifting “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” it’s instructive to read a hat-trick of stories this morning about another group of service personnel not always treated fairly. There’s a story reporting that women will begin serving aboard submarines by January 2012. There’s another on how family-friendly the Navy’s …

Battleland Battleland

Oorah! The commandant's prose, and Con-way…

General James Conway, the Marine commandant, told reporters at the Pentagon Tuesday that his 202,000 Marines are “pretty macho” compared to the 1.2 million Americans in the other services. He might just as well have been speaking about himself and his willingness to say what he thinks. After all, the Marines are the smallest — and like …

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