Posts Tagged ‘Marines’

Burial at Sea, a MUST Read…

Posted: 29 Jul 2009 in Military, Truth, US Marines
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This is a must read. I don’t envy anyone this duty…

Burial at Sea by LtCol George Goodson, USMC (Ret)

In my 76th year, the events of my life appear to me, from time to time, as a series of vignettes. Some were significant; most were trivial.

War is the seminal event in the life of everyone that has endured it. Though I fought in Korea and the Dominican Republic and was wounded there, Vietnam was my war.

Now 37 years have passed and, thankfully, I rarely think of those days in Cambodia , Laos , and the panhandle of North Vietnam where small teams of Americans and Montangards fought much larger elements of the North Vietnamese Army. Instead I see vignettes: some exotic, some mundane:
*The smell of Nuc Mam.
*The heat, dust, and humidity.
*The blue exhaust of cycles clogging the streets.
*Elephants moving silently through the tall grass.
*Hard eyes behind the servile smiles of the villagers.
*Standing on a mountain in Laos and hearing a tiger roar.
*A young girl squeezing my hand as my medic delivered her baby.
*The flowing Ao Dais of the young women biking down Tran Hung Dao.
*My two years as Casualty Notification Officer in North Carolina , Virginia , and Maryland .

It was late 1967. I had just returned after 18 months in Vietnam.  Casualties were increasing. I moved my family from Indianapolis to Norfolk , rented a house, enrolled my children in their fifth or sixth new school, and bought a second car.

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Navy Cross Awarded…

Posted: 6 May 2009 in Military, Truth
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Outstanding. That’s all that really needs to be said. This young Marine certainly deserves the award. Read it all:

Battle-injured Afghanistan Veteran Receives Navy Cross

Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, CA – (04/02/09)

“Sorry, guys, I can’t keep going.”

Those were the words of Lance Cpl. Brady A. Gustafson to the Marines in his vehicle as he was pulled away from his smoking machine gun minutes after his platoon was ambushed July 21, 2008, by withering enemy fire in Shewan, Afghanistan.

Nobody blamed Gustafson, 21, an infantryman with 2nd Platoon, Company G, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, for not being able to continue the fight, since the opening volley on the Marine mounted patrol included a rocket-propelled grenade that pierced the shell of the mine-resistant armor-protected vehicle in which Gustafson was manning the turret gun.

That RPG severed Gustafson’s right leg, and yet he had the presence of mind to locate the enemy positions and place well-aimed machine gun fire on them, providing cover fire for the Marines in his platoon.

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Hero from the Past

Posted: 10 Jan 2009 in Hero, Military
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This one is from the not distant past.

Brent Morel

Faced with continual enemy fire from more than 50 insurgents, Capt. Brent L. Morel – by all accounts a “Marine’s Marine” – led an assault across an open field with a handful of Marines following closely behind.

Where most would be looking for cover, Morel’s assault was aimed at saving others – not himself – according to battlefield accounts.

Consequently, Morel, a platoon commander with 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, posthumously received the Navy Cross – the Department of the Navy’s second-highest award for combat valor – May 21, 2005, during a ceremony that drew hundreds at the Marine Forces Reserve Training Center.

It was the second Navy Cross awarded in less than two months to a 1st Recon Bn. Marine for combat actions April 7, 2004, during the first offensive in Fallujah as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The two awards are among nine Navy Crosses awarded to U.S. servicemembers for heroism during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Morel’s award was presented to his wife, Amy. “Although I would rather have him receive the award in person, I am glad to see that his brave actions did not go unnoticed,” Amy said, clutching the medal in her hand.

Sgt. Willie L. Copeland III and several other Marines who fought alongside Morel that day were on hand for the presentation.

“That was the type of Marine Morel was – he led from the front,” said Copeland, a team leader with 2nd Platoon, Company B, 1st Recon Bn, which Morel commanded. “He was a personal mentor of mine, so I was constantly trying to obtain knowledge from him any way I could.”

Morel’s self-sacrifice came as no surprise, Copeland said.
“No medal or award can make up for the loss of a good Marine, but as a recon Marine, (Morel) knew that his life was on the line every day – and he was always proud of it,” Copeland added.

Although Morel, 27, of Martin, Tenn., had been in the recon community for only a short amount of time, he made his mark among an elite crowd, Copeland said.

The award honored a “man amongst giants,” said Mike Morel, Brent’s father.

Also during the ceremony — held at Morel’s very first unit after completing boot camp— a life-like bronze bust of Morel in his helmet and protective vest was unveiled.

“The statue looked so real, right down to the scar he got while he was in boot camp,” said Molly Morel, Brent’s mother.

The statue will be placed in the library at Morel’s alma mater, the University of Tennessee at Martin.

“The library is where me and my husband met, so it is only fitting that his statue be kept there to inspire those who pass it by,” Amy said.

Excerpts from article by Lance Cpl. Miguel A. Carrasco Jr.,
MCB Camp Pendleton, May 21, 2005

Fallen Marines to be awarded Navy Cross

Posted: 30 Dec 2008 in Military
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This is from the L.A. Times, no less.

Fallen Marines to be awarded Navy Cross

Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, 19, had just arrived in Iraq.

Cpl. Jonathan Yale and Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter saved Iraqi police and fellow Marines from a truck-driving suicide bomber, Marine brass say. The April attack could have slain dozens.

Reporting from San Diego — They had known each other only a few minutes, but they will be linked forever in what Marine brass say is one of the most extraordinary acts of courage and sacrifice in the Iraq war.

Cpl. Jonathan Yale, 21, grew up poor in rural Virginia. He had joined the Marine Corps to put structure in his life and to help support his mother and sister. He was within a few days of heading home.

Go read it all: More

Rest in peace Marines. Your duty has been done, above and beyond.

Marines Gone PC

Posted: 15 Nov 2008 in Military, Political Correctness
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What the hell?

I thought the USMC would be the last to go PC. Looks like their one of the first. The commander and the magistrate should be ashamed of themselves. In fact, they should cease calling themselves Marines. Pussies would be more appropriate.

Lawsuit filed in defense of Marine vet’s anti-Islam decals

Ann Arbor, Nov 13, 2008 / 06:56 am (CNA).- A Marine veteran whose anti-terrorist and anti-Islam vehicle decals hindered him in visiting the grave of his fallen son at Arlington National Cemetery has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the military order which rebuked his display of the decals.

Jesse Nieto, a 25-year Marine veteran, served two combat tours in Vietnam. His youngest son, Marc, was one of the seventeen sailors killed in the terrorist bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in October of 2000.

Since 1994 Nieto has been a civilian employee at the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. In 2001 he began displaying various decals on his vehicle expressing sentiments such as “Remember the Cole, 12 Oct 2000,” “Islam=Terrorism” and “We Died, They Rejoiced.”

On July 31, 2008, two military police officers ticketed Nieto for displaying “offensive material.”

After Nieto refused to remove all allegedly offending decals from his vehicle, the Base Magistrate issued a written order ordering Nieto to remove his vehicle from the base until all decals were removed. The order banned his vehicle from all other federal installations, and reportedly prevented him from driving onto the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.

We Died - They Rejoiced

We Died - They Rejoiced

The Ann Arbor-based Thomas More Law Center filed a federal civil rights lawsuit this week on Nieto’s behalf against the Camp Lejeune Commanding Officer and the Base Magistrate in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. The lawsuit claims that the military’s ban on Nieto’s vehicle decals violates his constitutional rights to freedom of speech and the equal protection of the law.

“The banning of these decals is political correctness run amuck in the military,” charged Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center. “Our troops are being killed by Islamic terrorists, 9/11 was caused by Islamic terrorists, these terrorists want to destroy America, the Islamic countries persecute Christians, and now the military is victimizing a father whose son was killed by Islamic terrorists while serving our nation.”

Thompson speculated that the Marine command would have to eliminate the Marine’s Hymn because “the phrase ‘to the shores of Tripoli’ celebrates the Marine victory over Islamic forces in the Barbary Coast War and the Battle of Derne.”

The lawsuit alleges that military officials engaged in viewpoint discrimination prohibited by the First Amendment and violated the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection guarantee by allowing some messages to be displayed but prohibiting others.

Further, the suit charges that the military’s ban on “offensive” speech is impermissible because there are no objective standards guiding government officials’ decisions, thus granting them “unbridled discretion” to determine the acceptability or the unacceptability of speech, a statement from the Thomas More Law Center reports.

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