It goes without saying at this point that the Marine Corps is facing a changing environment, both tactically and politically. It’s obvious in many ways, from the way the Corps recently launched its first assault on pirates in years to the hard realities Marine officials are considering right now as part of a force structure review. With that in mind, Marine Corps Times presents this week “Guide to a Changing Corps,” a special report that assesses that state of the Marine Corps and what it faces next. It features exclusive interviews with the following, as Marine leadership seeks to set…
Browsing: Behind the Cover
In the Marine Corps, certain phrases carry major street credit. “Every Marine a rifleman” is one of them. It will likely catch some Marines by surprise, then, that this week’s Marine Corps Times cover story focuses on a variety of problems researchers say they saw in the Marine Corps Marksmanship Program, the outfit charged with making sure that popular phrase holds true. In a controversial report filed late last year, they outline a variety of areas that Marines said need upgrading. The most obvious one antiquated rifle ranges, but they also call for the Corps to conduct rifle qualifications for each…
When Marines are talking, here’s one insult that carries a lot of weight: “Fat body.” With that in mind, Marine Corps Times offers you up the story of Gunnery Sgt. Ken Young, who cut his body fat percentage from 19.5 percent to 6.8 percent, dropping 30 pounds in the process. And here’s the most impressive part: He did it in 12 weeks, working out 3.5 hours per week. Gunny Young, 35, offers up his plan in complete detail to fellow staff writer James K. Sanborn. He also offers up the following quote about what led him to take action: When I…
This week’s Marine Corps Times cover story reintroduces Marines with someone who many of them know well: Sgt. Maj. Carlton Kent, the service’s top enlisted adviser. In a 40-minute interview last week in his Pentagon office, Kent sounded off on a variety of topics, including drawdown fears in the Corps and what recommendations senior enlisted Marines pushed up to Commandant Gen. James Conway this year after the 2010 Sergeants Major Symposium, held this summer in National Harbor, Md. Historically, suggestions made out of the symposium have a way of finding their way into Marine Corps policy, so it would hardly…
This week’s cover story is the latest in a Marine Corps Times series about an emerging drug commonly known as spice. The drug, marketed as a marijuana substitute, has steadily grown in popularity among Marines despite the Corps’ attempts to curb its use. The inspiration for the story was the personal account of a father who said he almost lost his son, who is a Marine at Camp Pendleton, to spice. After one of our previous stories, the father wrote in saying that his son had been sick for months with symptoms that baffled family and doctors alike. The cause…
There are rumor mills in nearly every working environment in America, and the Marine Corps is no different. This week, Marine Corps Times reviews where many rumors in the service “grow legs”: The Lance Corporal Underground. One part rumor mill and one part peer support group, the Underground has an age-old reputation for clueing in some of the service’s most junior members on important information early — when it gets the gouge right. Marine Corps Times decided to review how the Underground has evolved in recent years, and what those evolutions mean. It’s safe to say rumors aren’t just passed…
It’s been more than a decade since the Marine Corps cracked down on hazing and tightened its regulations to bar abusive rites of passage and other acts including “incentive” physical training. But that hasn’t stopped some leaders, including noncommissioned officers, from using incentive PT to motivate a lazy Marine or discipline a screw-up. They think such cases of “NCO justice” are still effective at fixing the problem and getting the message across. Others, though, say such abuse of authority is a cop-out for poor leadership and flat-out bullying. It’s a debate that continues in this week’s Marine Corps Times’ print…
Since it was first introduced in 2008, the Combat Fitness Test has taken its place as a part of Marine Corps life. And while it’s still dreaded by some Marines, an analysis of data released by the Corps shows that high scores are relatively common. That leads to another dilemma, captured in Marine Corps Times’ print edition this week: Should the Corps make the CFT harder? Marine officials aren’t ruling the idea out. A full breakdown on how Marines have done on the test so far and what is possible in the future is available on newsstands now. Subscribe here.
This week’s Marine Corps Times cover story focuses on a part of life that keeps some Marines up at night: Facing “the tape.” Diving into a new study conducted by Marine officers, the story focuses on the extreme measures that some Marines go to meet the service’s tough body composition and military appearance standards — up to and including liposuction. Yes, we have someone on the record sharing his experience with the procedure, and others who say they’ve considered it. The story also hits on some on how dangerous some of the methods used by Marines to stay trim are, such as…
It’s every Marine’s worst nightmare. Your buddies are pinned down in a kill zone, taking fire from three sides. No help is on the way, and every time you try to assist them, you get turned back by the massive amount of firepower unleashed by the enemy. Cpl. Dakota Meyer found himself in this very situation Sept. 8, 2009. Caught in a battle in Ganjgal, a remote village in eastern Afghanistan, he took matter into his own hands, braving a hail of enemy fire on foot to reach his buddies. Sadly, they were dead when he found them. The battle,…
