Gina Cavallaro

A moment of silence amid the flames

By Gina Cavallaro on September 8, 2010 Camp Lejeune, Events

While the debate rages and public condemnation pours in from around the world at the planned burning of a Koran by evangelical pastor Terry Jones on Sept. 11, leaders at Camp Lejeune, N.C., are teaming up with civic officials to remember that day in 2001 in a different way. At Memorial Gardens in Jacksonville around a beam from the World Trade Center presented by New York’s first responders to Camp Lejeune in 2003, there will be a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., a minute after the first plane struck the skyscraper. That silence will be broken by the sound…

Remembering Capt. Josh Meadows, a MARSOC warrior

By Gina Cavallaro on September 5, 2010 Battle Rattle

Capt. Joshua Meadows was killed in Afghanistan a year ago during combat operations in Farah Province, Afghanistan, four months after becoming a member of 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion. When he died on Sept. 5, 2009, he and his wife, Angela, were expecting their first child. Next week, Meadows will be remembered and honored by his fellow operators on a 500-mile bicycle ride from Duluth, Ga., to MARSOC headquarters at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The ride, which begins Tuesday, has been carried out for the past three years by members of the Duluth Police Department and other local police and fire…

A lifetime of leading Marines

By Gina Cavallaro on August 19, 2010 General officers, Leadership, The CMC

The American Red Cross will recognize Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. James Conway on Oct. 16 with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Forty years ago he was commissioned as an officer in the United States Marine Corps, which was probably before most Marines in the Corps today were even born, and he’s been leading Marines ever since. The award will be presented at the Fire and Ice Ball in Washington, D.C., the American Red Cross National Capital Region’s 2010 annual gala, which this year will pay tribute to the armed forces and their families. There’s a chance that by Oct.…

Gates orders "thorough force structure review" of the Corps

By Gina Cavallaro on August 12, 2010 Battle Rattle, budget, World War II

This time he really means business. Gates sounded the death knell for U.S. Joint Forces command at the beginning of the week and by the end of the week he had his sites trained on the Marine Corps. In a speech at the Marines’ Memorial Club and Hotel in San Francisco on Thursday, he ordered a thorough force structure review of the Marine Corps. It’s no news that the Corps is prepared to draw down its personnel after operations in Afghanistan wind down. But this goes deeper. He said he wants to determine what an expeditionary force in readiness should…

Mattis takes another step toward Tampa

By Gina Cavallaro on August 4, 2010 Afghanistan, General officers, Iraq

Gen James N. Mattis was confirmed today by voice vote in the Senate Armed Services Committee to become commanding general of U.S. Central Command. The next step is confirmation by the full Senate, which could happen tonight but is more likely to happen tomorrow because the Senate is busy, busy, busy trying to get out of town for the August recess. Mattis is expected to sail through his confirmation, process no matter what. So my bet is that he’s got his bags and his books packed, his cover in place and a foot out the door with coordinates for sunny…

Rain? What rain? Marines marched on, and so did we

By Gina Cavallaro on July 15, 2010 Events, Iwo Jima Memorial

Patriotism was soaked to the undies on Tuesday as hundreds of VIPs in cushioned chairs and hundreds more seated on blankets or standing at attention braved the rain to line the lush green field at the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arilngton, Va. It was the Marine Corps Sunset Parade, a glorious public pageant of music, colors and military precision that takes place every Tuesday during the summer. It wasn’t raining the whole time. It started slowly then stayed steady for about 20 minutes as umbrellas popped up all around. After 10 minutes everyone was totally drenched. A man in his…

Javeline Thrust 2010 now just a memory for 24th Marines

By Gina Cavallaro on June 25, 2010 Afghanistan, Infantry, Reserve, Training

Marines with 1st Battalion, 24th Marines will head back to their Selfridge, Mich., headquarters Saturday after working their seats off for two weeks in Javeline Thrust 2010. More than 4,500 Marines from air, ground and logistics units participated in the exercise, the largest Marine Forces Reserve exercise of the year. It took place between the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, Calif., and the Hawathorn Weapons Army Depot in Hawthorn, Nev. The terrain, with elevations ranging from 4,000 to 10,000 feet over a 180-square-mile area, simulated conditions in Afghanistan, minus actual Taliban fighters.

Mattis to lead Afghan fight?

By Gina Cavallaro on June 22, 2010 Battle Rattle

Lots of speculation out there about the fate of Gen. Stanley McChrystal after his uncharacteristic display of indiscipline during interviews with Rolling Stone magazine. At least one Washington military analyst says the job should go to Army Gen. David Petraeus, but will more likely go to Marine Gen. James N. Mattis, who just got passed over for the job of commandant and is about to step down as head of Joint Forces Command. In a blog entry at foreignpolicy.com, author and former Washington Post military writer Tom Ricks says it “may be time for a whole new team in Afghanistan”…

Marine Corps scientist: bomb the Gulf of Mexico

By Gina Cavallaro on June 11, 2010 Battle Rattle

Outspoken Marine Corps scientist and retired Maj. Franz Gayl, the one who dogged the Corps about letting Marines have the MRAP in combat after a lumbering procurement process killed it, has another idea. In a Power Point presentation he circulated through the Wall Streeet Journal’s Washington Wire, Gayl proposes dropping a GBU-43/B massive ordnance air blast bomb on the wellhead of the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. According to the report, Gayl says the massive shock wave from the explosion will cauterize the tube and the effects of the blast would be contained by underwater pressure. Experts say…

Marines run, sing, re-enlist during Fleet Week

By Gina Cavallaro on June 1, 2010 Events

Fleet Week is pretty much over, but there’s still a chance to see Marines singing for their supper at a Hard Rock Café karaoke party. The fun begins at 7 p.m. at the Times Square restaurant in midtown Manhattan. Today was the last day of the weeklong event, and it started at 8 a.m. with about 400 Marines, sailors, Coast Guardsmen and New York’s police and firefighters making a run through downtown Manhattan to honor 9/11 victims and America’s fallen heroes. More than 3,000 members of the military were in the New York City area participating in re-enlistment ceremonies, community…

Author Gina Cavallaro