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…
Author Gina Harkins
The second group of Marines to rotate through Australia arrived in Darwin Sunday night for the start of their six-month tour. U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich greeted about 200 Marines with Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, after their Boeing 737 landed, according to a Marine Corps news release. The members of 3/3 are based out of Marine Corps Base Hawaii. Bleich said he met with Darwin government officials last week, and they were enthusiastic about the Marines coming back to town. When members of Fox Company, 2/3, were in Darwin last year, it was estimated that they boosted the local economy…
Brian Stann took being a “warrior athlete” to new heights, but some of the training he did to get there as a Marine left him with permanent damage to his body — and he doesn’t want to see the same happening to you. Stann attended the grand opening of the Corps’ new High Intensity Tactical Training facility at Join Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., on April 15. He demonstrated how Marines can use the premiere functional fitness program designed just for them to work out smarter and faster than they trained in the past. “As Marines, we sometimes think a good…
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…
It’s no April Fools’ joke, Marines — some leaders want you to think about sheathing your knife hands. Most Marines are introduced to the crisp, flat-palmed gesture in boot camp. It’s one of the tools drill instructors use to emphasize to civilian recruits how they want things done. But beyond a training environment, some say Marines should exchange knife hands — and the yelling that typically accompanies them — for better leadership tools. The shift from 12 years of combat to a garrison environment is going to pose challenges for leaders. They’ll need to continue to motivate the young corporals and sergeants,…
A new recruit is about to step onto the yellow footprints — only he needs four of them, and they need to be paw-shaped. Rct. Chesty XIV, the new Marine Corps mascot, met his drill instructor, Sgt. Chesty XIII, for the first time this month. And judging by the look on the sergeant’s face, it seems he’s prepared to use some serious knife-paws on the pup. Rct. Chesty will fill a long line of English Bulldogs who represent the Marine Corps. He’ll likely meet important players like the commander in chief and the defense secretary, which is why he’ll need…
You’ve heard some of the motivating remarks by Gen. James Mattis, but did you know about the memes floating around the Internet that showcase some of his best quotes? Marines love Mattis, this we know. One launched a presidential campaign for the outgoing head of U.S. Central Command. And another got fired over having one of the “Warrior Monk’s” famous quotes tattooed on his arm. Mattis simply motivates today’s generation of Marines, and that has spread to the digital sphere. So in honor of this week’s profile on Mattis, as he prepares to pass the CENTCOM torch to Army Gen. Lloyd Austin,…
The Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps issued a video message with some straight talk for Marines on the issue of sexual assault prevention. [HTML1] Sgt. Maj. Mike Barrett told Marines in the passionate message posted Tuesday to “step in and do something.” When the Corps has a problem within its own ranks, they have to own it and fix it, he said. “There’s never a wrong time to do the right thing,” Barrett said. “Remember who you are. … Remember who we are.” The message introduces the Defense Department’s theme for the 2013 Sexual Assault Awareness Month, which is…
Marines love Gen. James Mattis so much that there’s even a special Christmas tale about the “warrior monk” that makes the rounds on the Internet each holiday season. As the story goes, Mattis stepped in for a young Marine who had guard duty at Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va., on Christmas Eve back in 1998. Mattis — then a one-star — is rumored to have told the Marine on duty to go home and spend the holiday with his family. Mattis took over and spent the night pulling guard duty. Now, we know Marines love Mattis. We’ve seen…
Another student has been told by school officials to take off his Marine Corps T-shirt or face suspension after a teacher found the crossed rifles shown on the front to be inappropriate. Daniel McIntyre of Genoa, Ill., said he could tell something was bothering his 14-year-old son, Michael, when he got off the school bus on Monday. “He said, ‘Dad, I’m really upset about what happened at school today,’ ” McIntyre said. ” ‘My teacher threatened to suspend me because she thought my T-shirt was inappropriate and I needed to cover it up or turn it inside-out.’ ” That shocked his dad…
