BattlelandPresident Obama
Picking up on Mark’s thread this morning, Galrahn, the eminent blogger at Information Dissemination, likewise sees a fight that’s getting nasty, arguing yesterday that the Army was “lucky” (in that, Will-no-one-rid-me-of-that-meddlesome-flag-officer! way) to see two of its great rivals for the position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs …
BattlelandNational Security
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 – …
BattlelandNational Security
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 …
BattlelandNational Security
The Marines declared themselves, in a Pentagon survey conducted last year before the congressional vote to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” to be the service most opposed to letting openly gay men and women serve in uniform. It’s amazing what a little leadership can do. Friday morning, the Marines’ top officer declared his 200,000-strong …
BattlelandNational Security
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 …
BattlelandNational Security
[youtube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPn3V3KuhaM]
It was just over a month ago that Gen. James Amos, the Marine commandant, was fretting that repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” could be a “distraction” that could get his Marines killed on the battlefield. “I don’t want to lose any Marines to the distraction,” he said of openly gay …
BattlelandNational Security
The U.S. Marines have a pair of warships — the USS Kearsarge and the USS Ponce — just hanging around the southern end of the Red Sea waiting to see if they’re needed to rescue U.S. diplomats and citizens from Cairo. They’re half of the Marines’ 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, a mini-armada that recently dispatched 1,400 of its 2,000 …
BattlelandNational Security
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. …
BattlelandNational Security
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv9Eq1vopbc]
For decades the Marine Corps were proud of their stinginess. When the Navy ordered souped-up versions of its F-18 fighter, the corps kept flying the older model. When the Army grounded its UH-1 Huey and AH-1 Cobra helicopters for flashier UH-60 Black Hawks and AH-64 Apaches, the corps …
BattlelandNational Security
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 …
BattlelandNational Security
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 …
BattlelandNational Security
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 …
BattlelandNational Security
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 …
