Our 2011 Marine of the year is making headlines again–this time, for an ambitious project to honor all the fallen troops hailing from his home state. We caught up with Maj. David Cote, a Pentagon budget analyst, earlier this year about his work in support of homeless veterans, centering on the development of an analytical tool to determine risk factors that caught the attention of San Diego mayor Bob Filner and a number of members of Congress. The tool, the the Service Member Attrition Risk Tool (SMART) is now being used by Veteran’s Village in San Diego to serve its homeless and…
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Every Marine knows that drill instructors can yell, but you might not realize how much training they go through in order to be able to do it right. Military Times’ Senior Video Journalist Colin Kelly got up close and personal with some students at DI school aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C. There, they learn how to project their voices correctly to avoid serious damage to their vocal chords. The staff noncommissioned officers run drills just like they will in boot camp to train their voices not to break. The instructors at the schoolhouse stand a set pace…
An Iraqi who fled the country over security concerns after working with Marines as a translator for five years took the Oath of Citizenship this weekend and officially became an American. Maher Ibrahim worked as an interpreter from 2004 to 2009 in Iraq’s al-Anbar province. He spent some of that time working with soldiers, but the majority of those years were spent working with Marines. He also worked with the transition teams, which trained, mentored and advised Iraqi national forces and police officers, he said. But Iraq was a dangerous place for translators, Ibrahim said. So he headed to the…
A wounded warrior who was awarded the nation’s third highest honor for valor last week is the same injured Marine Delta Airlines issued a public apology to in December after staff members embarrassed him on a flight. Cpl. Christian Brown, a former squad leader with 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, was awarded the Silver Star aboard Camp Lejeune, N.C., on Friday. He is credited with heroic actions during the unit’s 2011 deployment to Afghanistan. On Dec. 7, Brown responded when a designated marksman was critically wounded in the head, calling in a medevac and leading his squad to where it was safe for…
In a joint press conference with Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera at the Pentagon Monday afternoon, Defense Secretary confirmed that the Marines would land a second squadron of MV-22 Ospreys in the country this summer. The move, Hagel said, would increase U.S. capabilities in the region at a time in which the U.S. was intentionally pivoting its military focus to the Asia-Pacific region. Onodera added more details about the move. “Secretary Hagel and I confirmed that government’s plans to land U.S. 12 MV-22s of the second squadron of MV-22 through MCAS Iwakuni this summer and then move them to MCAS…
The Marine Corps War Memorial is in the running for $1 million in preservation grants, but your votes are needed in order for it to win the competition for the funds. American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation launched the initiative that will grant one of 24 selected historic spots in Washington, D.C., special funding. It’s a competition they’re leaving up to the public, which means fans of the various sites need to go online and vote for their favorite. The Marine Corps War Memorial will need to beat out 23 other sites including Mount Vernon, the Washington National…
One month after a mortar explosion killed seven Marines and wounded eight more troops during a live-fire exercise at Hawthorne Army Depot, Nev., the unit gathered for a small private ceremony to remember their fallen. Killed in the mortar blast were Pfc. Joshua M. Martino, 19, of Clearfield, Pa.; Lance Cpl. David P. Fenn II, 20, of Polk City, Fla.; Lance Cpl. Roger W. Muchnick Jr., 23, of Fairfield, Conn.; Lance Cpl. Joshua C. Taylor, 21, of Marietta, Ohio; Lance Cpl. Mason J. Vanderwork, 21, of Hickory, N.C.; Lance Cpl. William T. Wild IV, 21, of Anne Arundel, Md.; and Corporal…
The Boston Marathon bombing last week rocked the whole country, killing three people and turning dozens of others into amputees. Over and over again, the lower-leg injuries sustained were compared to those that U.S. forces seen after stepping on improvised explosive devices overseas. It stands to reason, then, that few people could offer more credible words of encouragement to the new amputees in Boston than a wounded warrior who lost limbs serving in the military. This video is making the rounds online today, including on the blog Blackfive: [HTML1] The YouTube page for the video points viewers to the Celeste…
Commandant Gen. Jim Amos made headlines last week when he challenged me in a letter to the editor published in Marine Corps Times to attend the service’s difficult Infantry Officer Course as a participant. The invitation was issued after he took umbrage with a recent story I wrote that had a headline saying two female volunteers for the course “flunked” IOC last month as part of ongoing research into which roles service members can fill in combat. I met with the commandant Monday morning at the Pentagon to discuss the issue. By mutual agreement, we decided that it would be…
They’re in your space, in your face, in your nightmares — but screaming aside, what’s really going on in the heads of Marine Corps drill instructors? Drill instructor duty is no joke. Whatever recruits do, DIs do. And the Marines on the three-year-long special duty assignment set the example for what it takes to become part of their Corps. That means yelling the loudest, moving the fastest and having the most squared away uniforms. Marine Corps Times was afforded access to drill instructors aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., recently to find out some of the secrets behind the…
