Category: U.S. Marines

I guess he should have told them to turn that f-ing crap off instead and he would have been okay:

It came in response to complaints from Marines who said Neary used the N-word in front of them after taking offense to the use of the word in a rap song that was being played during physical training outside MARFOREUR headquarters. 

Neary acknowledged his use of the N-word in that instance, according to his statements contained in the IG report.

“I was using this as a teaching moment, is what I was doing,” Neary told the IG. “Because again, there is no place for discriminatory behavior at all, in our Marine Corps, across the board.”

However, the IG said Neary’s language, which it said also involved the phrase “you people” when addressing Marines “under the guise of providing correction,” made the situation worse.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but Neary claims he never said “you people”.

No word from the Marine Corps if this cluster infection is from the Omicron variant, but Japanese civilians with ties to the base did test positive for Omicron:

A third employee at Camp Hansen, a Marine Corps base on Okinawa, has tested positive for the omicron variant of the coronavirus as new cases on the installation approached 200 since Friday.

The worker, a resident of Uruma city in her 40s, was a close contact of the first positive case, though the genetic code of the virus infecting her differed from the first patient, Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki said at a press conference in Naha on Monday night.

The number of new COVID-19 cases at Camp Hansen has risen to “about 200,” up 20 from the previous day, Japan’s Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday morning. Kihara said the Japanese government understands the concerns of Okinawans.

“U.S. Forces Japan is taking stricter measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” he said. “Considering the possibility of omicron variant cases, they are testing actively, tracing the close contacts, and isolating those who might be infected.”

A cluster of new cases emerged among newly arrived Marines in a rotational unit, according to Marine Corps Installations Pacific on Friday. Neither the Marines nor the Japanese government has commented publicly on whether the cluster included omicron cases. The installations command on Friday said the infected Marines had no contact with the population outside the base.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This is a pretty cool story about Marines on Okinawa showing initiative to produce face shields for medical personnel using 3D printers:

Armed with a cache of warehoused 3D printers and spools of orange thermoplastic, Marines have waged war against the coronavirus by turning out thousands of frames for face masks and face shields for use on Okinawa.

The III Marine Expeditionary Force’s 3rd Maintenance Battalion has 17 3D printers in a Camp Kinser warehouse “factory” running 24 hours per day to provide medical personnel with vital supplies and alleviate pressure on the supply chain as the virus gains a foothold on Okinawa. (…………..)

The Marines at Kinser were about to kick off a series of technology courses that involved 3D printing with Building Momentum, a Virginia-based, veteran-owned small business that specializes in technology training programs. Their “Innovation Boot Camp” was canceled due to the coronavirus, but Marines like Reynolds saw the potential in the 24 Creality Ender 3 Pro 3D printers stacked unopened against the warehouse wall.

“We were lucky enough to have the printers on hand,” he said.

With the blessing of Building Momentum, the battalion put its LulzBot TAZ 6 3D printers to the side and opened the Ender 3 printers, as well as spool after spool of orange polylactic acid filament, Reynolds said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more and watch a video of the Marines at the link.

Not a good look for the U.S. Marine Corps in Japan:

Japan-based Marine Corps aviators’ antics — including reading, hair grooming and letting go of aircraft controls while posing for in-flight photos — are detailed in an accident report that sparked outrage among Japanese officials who recently learned of its contents.

The report says a pilot’s inexperience conducting nighttime, in-air refueling and toxic leadership contributed to the midair collision of an F/A-18 Hornet and KC-130 air tanker late last year that killed six crewmembers from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni.

Investigators determined that Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 242 suffered from “inadequate oversight of training and operations” and an “unprofessional command climate.” Four Marine officers — the unit’s commander, its executive officer, its operations officer and its aviation safety officer — were fired as a result.

The report, which said officers engaged in wrongful use of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, includes in-flight selfies taken by the squadron’s aviators while performing antics like grooming facial hair with a switchblade comb and reading “The Great Santini” by Pat Conroy. It also quotes from an online chat group where Marine officers used inappropriate language to describe some of their colleagues.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

What a mess that was only made worse by how the investigation was conducted:

The officers were accused of sharing the grid points via text messages ­before the test and later relying on them to find hidden boxes stashed across the wooded night land ­navigation course in Quantico, Virginia, ­according to interviews with Marine Corps officials and a copy of the command investigation obtained by Marine Corps Times.

The Marine Corps considers that cheating because the students were able to complete the course without demonstrating the key skills the course aims to evaluate: conducting proper land navigation.

My favorite part of the below story is how one of the officers was accused of not completing their Anti-Terrorism Level-1 training.  Wearing a PT belt might be more effective at stopping the below stupidity than the AT Level-1 training:

Three married U.S. Marine officers have found themselves under investigation for a night in February that went off the rails in Bogotá, involving allegations they went drinking with some local women, were slipped illicit drugs, robbed of U.S. property and landed in a local hospital emergency room.

The men may have fallen prey to what is known as “burundanga poisoning,” according to a report on the investigation conducted by the Marine Corps Forces, South, a Southern Command subsidiary, and obtained by the Miami Herald.

The report recommended that Marine Col. Roger T. McDuffie, a Harrier pilot who serves as the chief of operations at the unit known as MARFORSOUTH; Maj. Andrew L. Mueller, described as a theater security cooperation planner; and Maj. Mauricio Saenz, exercise planner, face “appropriate administrative or judicial proceedings.”  [Miami Herald]

You can read the rest at the link, but these three ended up bringing the prostitutes back to their rooms at the hotel, while walking by other Marines at 4:30 in the morning mustering to get on a shuttle bus to the airport.  After getting to their rooms they were then robbed of their government phones and laptops among other personal possessions by the prostitutes.  To make this story even more incredible is that one of the officers actually used his government travel card to take out a cash advance to pay two of the prostitutes.

What were these guys thinking, that this was a Secret Service job interview?

Some of America’s newest military hardware was exercised last month during the Foal Eagle/Key Resolve exercise between the ROK and the US:

The Pentagon revealed this week that U.S. Marine Corps F-35 fighters are operating in South Korea for the first time, as they participate in joint training exercises with the Republic of Korea’s military. The eight planes are from a squadron of F-35Bs deployed to Iwakuni, Japan in January, where they will be permanently stationed and on call to respond quickly if a crisis occurs on the Korean Peninsula.

And therein lies a bigger story than the ongoing training exercise in which allied forces are practicing how to operate together in wartime. F-35B, the Marine variant of the tri-service fighter, isn’t just the world’s first supersonic tactical aircraft capable of taking off and landing vertically, it is also invisible to radar. That’s what being stealthy means — the enemy can’t see you, but you can see them.

When you combine the vertical agility and invisibility of the Marine Corps’ latest fighter with the fused data from diverse sensors and the ability to share information securely among all fighters on a mission, what you have is a plane that can operate pretty much anywhere. Including over North Korea. So although U.S. Pacific Command is at pains to describe the training exercise as a routine annual event intended to provoke no one, the F-35’s presence is sending a powerful message to the mercurial leader of North Korea.  [Forbes]

You can read more at the link.

I wonder if the activists are willing to accept 6 out of 7 females failing the fitness test or will they they try and force the Marines to change the test to let more women qualify to be in frontline combat jobs?:

New physical standards established so women can compete for combat posts in the Marine Corps have weeded out many of the female hopefuls. But they’re also disqualifying some men, according to data obtained by The Associated Press.

In the last five months, six out of seven female recruits — and 40 out of about 1,500 male recruits — failed to pass the new regimen of pullups, ammunition-can lifts, a 3-mile run and combat maneuvers required to move on in training for combat jobs, according to the data.

The tests, taken about 45 days into basic training, force recruits who fail into other, less physically demanding Marine jobs. And that, the Marine commandant says, is making the Corps stronger.

The high failure rate for women, however, raises questions about how well integration can work, including in Marine infantry units where troops routinely slog for miles carrying packs weighed down with artillery shells and ammunition, and at any moment must be able to scale walls, dig in and fight in close combat.

The new standards are a product of the Pentagon’s decision to allow women to compete for front-line jobs, including infantry, artillery and other combat posts. But Marine leaders say they are having a broader impact by screening out less physically powerful Marines — both men and women.  [Marine Corps Times]

You can read more at the link, but remember this is just the fitness test; there is a lot more training that occurs that will further reduce the number of females who want frontline combat jobs.  I have always said that women who want to work frontline combat jobs should have the opportunity to do so, however be prepared for very small numbers which is exactly what is happening.

In my opinion Adam Driver’s character is probably one of the biggest disappointments of an otherwise mostly good Star Wars movie.  Really did anyone expect a young Marilyn Manson when Kylo Ren took his helmet off?  To be fair though he is a much better actor than Hayden Christensen was in the prequels.  Of interest though is that before joining the Dark Side, Adam Driver was once a US Marine:

For a while, Adam Driver felt like he was doomed to a life of missed opportunities.

Of course, for an Emmy-nominated actor named one of GQ’s “Men of the Year,” that’s not true anymore — but ask him about his role in the new “Star Wars” film and it quickly becomes apparent that he does not want to screw this one up.

A misfit growing up in small town Mishawaka, Indiana, Driver was drawn to performing from an early age, landing regular roles in high school plays and singing in the choir at the church where his stepfather was pastor.

But mediocre grades kept him from getting accepted into acting school after graduating in 2001. With big talk to match his big dreams, he set off for Los Angeles to try to break into acting the old-fashioned way. Instead, his car broke down halfway there and, out of money, he was forced to retreat back home.

“It’s hard to come back after telling everyone ‘I’m outta here,’ ” he says.

A new hope

After stints selling vacuums door-to-door and other odd jobs, Driver was among the first to go see a Marine Corps recruiter after the Sept. 11 attacks, signing up for the infantry.  [Military Times]

You can read the rest at the link.