Training

Behind the cover: Parris Island purgatory

By Gina Harkins on June 11, 2012 Battle Rattle, Behind the Cover, Boot camp, Recruit, Training

Justin Henderson left for boot camp in January 2011. More than 500 days later, he’s still there. Henderson is stuck at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C. after catching pneumonia 13 days into training. He’s now awaiting a Physical Evaluation Board, which requires paperwork to pass through the Defense Department and Veterans Affairs to get his disability rating. He stays in a squad bay with Leonard Carter. Carter had to leave boot camp in June 2011 to have a tumor removed from his leg. He is also awaiting a PEB. Both have since been told by their doctors they’re…

Behind the Cover: The gunnies were swingers — and it cost them their careers

By Tony Lombardo on May 21, 2012 Behind the Cover, Training

Gunnery Sgts. Shawn and Janet Angell are swingers, and it cost both of them their Marine Corps careers. In this week’s cover story, they speak candidly about their lives, inside and outside the Corps. But they are just two of 10 enlisted Marines who found themselves caught up in a massive investigation at Officer Candidates School, the Quantico, Va.-based proving ground for all who earn the title Marine officer. The 2011 investigation led to accusations of sex with subordinates, adultery and group sex. In all, 10 Marines were court-martialed. Only one was acquitted. Read the full story in this week’s…

Largest explosion ever at Army post … courtesy of Marines

By Gina Cavallaro on February 15, 2012 Afghanistan, Battle Rattle, Marines, Marjah, Training, Weapons

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4ARJk4Fpn0&context=C35c9366ADOEgsToPDskLfZQj3yAYndDMYmy9SXISh[/youtube] Soldiers at Fort Benning, Ga., an Army post about 90 miles south of Atlanta, were treated to a gargantuan BOOM recently by the Leathernecks who train there. An Army TV news correspondent starts her report by saying the U.S. Marine armor school detachment there, “made history… by detonating some of the largest explosions Fort Benning has ever seen.” A group of combat engineers was having some fun… er, conducting a training exercise with their mine clearing line charge, known as the MCLC and pronounced mik-lik, from their assault breacher vehicle and set off the kind of awesome explosion that…

A Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) approaches the well deck of the amphibious assault ship Wasp on Saturday as part of rehearsals for an amphibious landing during Bold Alligator 2012. (Mike Morones / Staff)

Operation Bold Alligator 2012 underway

By Dan Lamothe on February 5, 2012 Battle Rattle, Blue-Green operations, Embedded journalism, Life at Sea, Life at sea, MEU operations, Training

ABOARD THE AMPHIBIOUS ASSAULT SHIP WASP — Greetings from the Atlantic Ocean, where we’re covering the largest amphibious exercise on the East Coast since the beginning of the Iraq war. Bold Alligator 2012 involves at least 14,000 personnel from the U.S., France, Great Britain and other countries, and at least 25 ships. The majority of them are American, but Canada and France have both chipped in with their own hardware, as well. Conceptually, the forces at sea are currently in the early stages of planning an attack on enemy forces from the fictional country of Garnet, a common enemy in…

Behind the Cover: The Basic School just got a lot harder

By Gina Cavallaro on October 3, 2011 Behind the Cover, Leadership, Training

The new program of instruction at The Basic School will show the Marine Corps’ newest officers what it means to walk to work every day. As they go through the six-month course, the lieutenants will no longer be driven to and from the ranges for their individual field exercises. Instead, they will set out on foot from Camp Barrett aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., and — wearing all the gear they think they need — will stay in the woods for their field exercises before walking home again. Some ranges are five miles away… some are a hearty 15…

Get some…air (with a dash of sea salt)

By Gidget Fuentes on August 16, 2011 Anti-piracy, Life at sea, MEU operations, Training

There’s nothing like that spray of salty air, open seas and several hundred horsepower to make one think: And they pay me to do this?? Just a thought looking at some images released this month as the California-based 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the Navy’s Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group boarded a pair of ships and got underway for their first at-sea integration exercises ahead of a scheduled overseas deployment later this year. The boat crews supporting the training mission against mock pirates on a vessel near San Clemente Island operated off the transport dock ship New Orleans, which will deploy…

Soothing sounds of Marine artillery

By Andrew deGrandpre on February 21, 2011 Camp Lejeune, Japan, Training, Weapons

If you love the sound of friendly artillery, be sure to crank the volume on your speakers before watching this little gem. Marine Corps Times’ senior video journalist Colin Kelly caught up with members of Romeo Battery, 5th Battalion, 10th Marines, at Camp Lejeune, N.C., in early February — just a few weeks before the start of their six-month deployment to Okinawa. They were good enough to give him a demo of this wondrous Howitzer, which we — in turn — are happy to share with you. Enjoy. And please be sure to keep these Marines and their families in…

A lesson in levitation?

By Tony Lombardo on February 10, 2011 Training

At first glance, it looks like Staff Sgt. Sylvester McKinnery has mastered body and mind and somehow managed to levitate off the ground. But no. The Corps has not (at least not publicly) revealed any such telepathic PME. McKinney, the data chief with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, is actually mid-fall from a diving platform at Camp Pendleton, Calif. McKinney and his fellow Marines were taking part in the new Marine Corps Water Survival Training Program, and photographer Lance Cpl. John M. Raufmann captured this moment in time. Swim qual changes took effect in November and are outlined in Marine…

Caption contest: Can you hear me now?

By James Sanborn on January 28, 2011 MEU operations, Training

Every once in a while you see something that makes you stop and ask, “Why?” One of those things is a noncomissioned officer blasting a few fellow Marines with a bullhorn while they stand just a few feet away. Can you explain what’s going on here? The original caption says the Marines were attached to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit during predeployment training at Fort Picket, Va. Let’s see who can write the best caption. Give it your best shot in the comments section, but please try to keep it fit for print. Obscene comments will be pulled down.

Behind the Cover: Tough new swim quals

By Dan Lamothe on December 1, 2010 Behind the Cover, Training

More than a year ago, Marine Corps Times broke news that the Corps was considering overhauling its swim qualification program, taking aim at a surprisingly large number of Marines who met only the minimum standard for combat water survival. Now, the Corps has rolled out those new standards, dramatically altering the way the program is structured. It goes straight to the heart of being a Marine, a “green, amphibious monster who arose from the sea,” as the saying goes. They differ significantly from what was proposed more than a year ago and previously outlined in our pages. Marine Corps Times…

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