Questions about whether Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Jim Amos illegally pressured subordinates to punish Marines shown urinating on Taliban corpses in a video may limit Amos’ ability to lead the Marine Corps for the remainder of his tenure, Foreign Policy is reporting. Marine Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, a respected general officer, has alleged that Amos made clear he wanted the Marines in the video thrown out of the Marine Corps — a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which prevents a commander from interfering in legal proceedings, Foreign Policy reported in the Feb. 27 story. Amos recently recently…
Browsing: Weapons
A commercial by a gun parts company from Georgia was deemed too controversial for the Super Bowl for its pro-gun message. The one-minute spot about a Marine veteran discussing the importance of protecting his family, created by the company Daniel Defense, was rejected by a number of local media markets that objected to its content, ABC News reported. “It’s been a long road getting here, and a lot has changed since I got back,” a male voice intones in the commercial, over images of a man parking a minivan in his driveway, scanning his neighborhood warily, and entering his home,…
The Marine Corps’ annual exposition of gear, weapons and vehicles kicks off today at Quantico, Va. It is expected to draw thousands of Marines and civilians from across the country, with a special emphasis on what industry is producing for the Corps. Marine Corps Times prepared for the expo by producing its annual State of the Marine Corps issue. Out on newsstands this week, it leverages insight from 15 general officers to paint a picture of where life stands in the Corps. If you’re on base and looking, you’ll find it available at the expo. Highlights of the event include…
Qualifying to use the pistol is about to get a lot more complicated for Marines. The service has adopted the new Combat Pistol Program, which replaces the longtime Entry-Level Pistol Program in marksmanship. Tens of thousands of Marines will be required to qualify with it each year. In this week’s Marine Corps Times cover story, we outline what the program includes and how it compares to the legacy pistol qual, table by table. Officials with Weapons Training Battalion, out of Quantico, Va., explain how the rollout of the new program will occur, and when. This week’s story also expands on…
Happy New Year, everyone. Now that it’s 2013 and many of us have completed family vacations, I wanted to share a recent TV segment I did for Marine Corps Times on This Week in Defense News with Vago Muradian. The show, airing locally in Washington and internationally on the Armed Forces Network, focused on scout sniper operations in Afghanistan and some of the other things I observed during my last embedded assignment in Helmand province. In particular, Vago wanted to talk about the weapon upgrades that scout snipers told me they wanted. Check it out here: Stories out of my…
Late last month while embedded with Marines in Helmand province, Afghanistan, I was offered a rare opportunity: a chance to witness firsthand how scout snipers operate. As mentioned here on Battle Rattle a day later, the mission took us outside the wire in Trek Nawa, Afghanistan, a volatile area in between Marjah and Nawa districts. Elements of 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., have operated there since this this summer, training a company-sized unit with the Afghan National Army while tangling regularly with the Taliban. The mission deserved an old-fashioned, narrative telling. Marine Corps Times gave me…
The Marine Corps may have drawn down its forces in Afghanistan to less than 7,000 personnel this year, but they continue to run daring operations with the elite troops they have left. One of the latest examples is Operation Helmand Viper, a muscular effort to strike Taliban fighters in Zamindawar, a violent region between Musa Qala and Kajaki districts that we’ve covered several times on Battle Rattle this year. As this new Marine Corps news release points out, tanks with Bravo Company, 2nd Tank Battalion, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., rolled in support of special operators Oct. 19 to 27,…
TREK NAWA, Afghanistan – In the chilly dark night, a telltale sound made it clear the scout sniper team was inside the mud compound. CLINK. CLINK. CLINK. The Marines swung axes, hammers and other tools at the mud walls, preparing for a morning attack on Taliban fighters in the surrounding countryside. U.S. snipers use the tools to knock “murder holes” into a compound’s walls, creating “hides” from which they observe and engage targets. It has been widely reported that insurgents use the holes against coalition forces, but they’re not the only ones. It’s a smart tactic: The snipers can observe…
TREK NAWA, Afghanistan – In the chilly dark night, a telltale sound made it clear the scout sniper team was inside the mud compound. CLINK. CLINK. CLINK. The Marines swung axes, hammers and other tools at the mud walls, preparing for a morning attack on Taliban fighters in the surrounding countryside. U.S. snipers use the tools to knock “murder holes” into a compound’s walls, creating “hides” from which they observe and engage targets. It has been widely reported that insurgents use the holes against coalition forces, but they’re not the only ones. It’s a smart tactic: The snipers can observe…
Virtually everyone has heard of Flat Stanley, the children’s book favorite who has been photographed all over the world. He’s the star of the Flat Stanley Project, which was launched to teach children how to write letters to each other while they learn about geography. Marines and soldiers who served in Marjah, Afghanistan, have their own version of sorts of Flat Stanley, I’ve learned. Key difference: instead of the lovable children’s favorite, they went with Stan Marsh, the foul-mouthed South Park character. Consider the following: Or this: Or this: These photographs come to me by way of the troops who served…
