Operation New Dawn? Where have we heard that name before?
August 31st, 2010 | Afghanistan Infantry Iraq Marjah | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Lance Cpl. Joshua J. Melendez, of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, provides security during a June 20 patrol in Helmand province, Afghanistan, as part of Operation New Dawn. (Photo by Sgt. Mark Fayloga/Marine Corps)
On Wednesday, the name of the U.S. military’s mission in Iraq will change, with the venerable “Operation Iraqi Freedom” moniker turned in for a new one, “Operation New Dawn.”
The transition was announced in February, and takes effect as U.S. officials seek to highlight the improvements in Iraq. President Barack Obama is expected to address the nation tonight at 8 p.m., and will no doubt reference the new name as he seeks to reassure Americans that the U.S. has turned a page in the war in Iraq.
As Operation New Dawn comes to the forefront, however, there’s a catch: Another Operation New Dawn began unfolding June 15 in southern Afghanistan. It involves Marines, who have sought out the Taliban in regions between violent Marjah district and Nawa, a district of about 89,000 people to Marjah’s east.
In news releases, the Marine Corps has said that 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, out of Marine Corps Base Hawaii, had an active role in the operation. A Marine official previously told Marine Corps Times that New Dawn also would involve forces from 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., who would attack “areas that insurgents use in transit to and from Marjah.”
I’m seeking additional details on how Operation New Dawn in Afghanistan has progressed, but in the meantime, it’s worth pointing out that the Marines chose New Dawn as a name for a significant operation despite already knowing that the mission in Iraq would take on the same name tomorrow.
If the operation in Afghanistan is still ongoing, perhaps they’ll consider giving it a new, tougher name like “Cobra’s Anger.” That is, after all, a military classic.
MarPat never looked so good
August 31st, 2010 | Battle Rattle | Posted by James Sanborn
Finalists from Maxim Magazine’s “Hometown Hotties 2010” competition pose for a victory shot after a game of touch football with Marines from the 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion. Five of the ten finalists paired up with the 3rd AAV to defeat 1st Marine Division’s Headquarters Company during a recent stop at Camp Pedleton, Calif. Marine Corps photo.
Marines are known for looking sharp, but they don’t hold a candle to Maxim Magazine’s 10 finalists in the Hometown Hotties 2010 competition.
The top 10 recently made a stop Aug. 27 at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., for a pickup game of touch football with a few Marines. They also signed posters, posed for photos, and took a ride in an Amphibious Assault Vehicle.
One of the women, Victoria Virgen, tweeted, “Loved spending the day with all the Marines at Camp Pendleton had alot of fun Guys! XOXO V.”
Another, Lisa Morales, wrote, “Pendleton camp was soo much fun! Played football with the marines, signed autographs & rode inside a tank. ; )”
For full coverage and photos of the event visit Maxim’s website.
The Hometown Hotties pose with 1st Marine Division's Headquarters Company after being defeated in a game of touch football against the 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion. Marine Corps photo.
On sharing a tent with Michael Enright, alleged cabbie stabber
August 30th, 2010 | Afghanistan Camp Leatherneck Embedded journalism | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Film student Michael Enright, right, confers with his lawyer last week while being arraigned in New York. (Associated Press)
Not long after I first started at Military Times, I had a conversation with a colleague, Andrew Tilghman, about a particular memory he had of an embedded assignment in Iraq. Covering Army operations in violent Mahmudiyah in 2006, he had several striking conversations with Army Pfc. Steven Green, who offered a simple statement:
“I came over here to kill people.”
Tilghman, not yet employed by Military Times at the time, later wrote about the encounter for the Washington Post. The memory became especially vivid after Green was convicted of raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, then killing her and her family.
Four years later, I feel like I’m having a bit of a Green moment. Playing catch-up with the news last night after a vacation, I learned that Michael Enright, a 21-year-old film student, allegedly attacked a New York City taxi cab driver who acknowledged being Muslim last week, creating a growing uproar.
A key detail for me: In the spring, Enright slept two beds away from me for a couple of nights in a tent set aside for media at Camp Leatherneck, the Corps’ major hub of operations in southern Afghanistan.
Enright reportedly embedded in April and May with 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, out of Marine Corps Base Hawaii. No part of Helmand province is truly safe, but 1/3 was based in Nawa, a district of about 89,000 people that is considered perhaps the Marines’ greatest success story in the war this year. They were replaced June 6 in Afghanistan by 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, also out of Hawaii.
Enright’s time in Afghanistan is now under investigation because of his alleged actions last week. Police told the Wall Street Journal and other sources that say he had an empty Scotch bottle and journals he compiled while in Afghanistan at the time of the attack, and repeatedly slashed Ahmed H. Sharif, 43, with a knife on Tuesday night. He allegedly screamed “Assalamu Alaikum,” an Afghan greeting, and “consider this a checkpoint” before attacking, media reports said.
Obviously, I can’t speak to Enright’s recent behavior. What I can say is that after meeting him in Afghanistan, I was struck dumb by the accusations.
Enright introduced himself after we had both spent about a day at Leatherneck waiting for rides to the respective units we were covering. He seemed impressed that Military Times photographer Tom Brown and I were going to Marjah, a former Taliban stronghold that remains the most violent district in Helmand province.
What struck me initially was how cheerful he was, even though he had been holed up in the media tent for a few days waiting for a helicopter ride out to his embedded assignment. He mentioned that he was working on an independent film project, which threw me for a loop, considering his apparent youth and all the inherent risks involved in covering combat.
I assumed that like many other freelance journalists I met downrange, he was taking a risk in hopes that it would launch his career to a new level. I didn’t know at the time that he was there to collect footage for a documentary on one of his high school friends, a 1/3 infantryman.
Three months later, I certainly wonder what he saw downrange, and if this horrifying incident had anything to do with it. I wonder whether he showed any signs of stress between then and now to friends or family, and whether this whole ordeal could have been avoided.
Finally, a small piece of me wonders how I’d have held up afterward if my hairiest war experiences — surviving small-arms ambushes in Marjah and nearby Nad Ali, and witnessing an improvised explosive device attack in Marjah — ended with casualties.
To put it succinctly: What a mess.
Spray and pray: Westboro group targeted with mace
August 30th, 2010 | Westboro Baptist Church | Posted by James Sanborn
A 62-year-old man who attempted to pepper spray members of a church group known for their inflammatory views on the military and homosexuality accidentally hit counter-protesters instead.
Members of the Westboro Baptist Church stood on a street corner in Omaha, Neb., on Saturday about a block from the funeral of Staff Sgt. Michael Bock. Bock, a Marine, died Aug. 13 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province Afghanistan.
The man, in a maroon truck, drove by the group and used an industrial sprayer to unleash a cloud of pepper spray, but he accidentally hit counter protesters who oppose the Westboro congregation and a police officer. The man was arrested and has been charged with multiple counts of assault.
Church members say the deaths of U.S. troops is God’s punishment for the United States’ tolerance of homosexualtiy. They have been the target of widespread criticism for their provocative signs and slogans, and have been sued by the father of at least one fallen Marine who said the group disturbed his son’s funeral and violated his right to mourn in privacy.
Behind the cover: The Corps’ new drug war
August 30th, 2010 | Behind the Cover | Posted by James Sanborn
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 became clear when the father found a small bag of spice in his son’s luggage.
It turned out his son had been smoking spice for almost eight months after learning about it from another junior Marine. During that time he was diagnosed with gastritis, severe anxiety attacks and lost about 25 pounds.
Part of the reason for the drugs popularity, according to some experts is that it doesn’t register on current drug tests. But, emergency room doctors warn that spice can kill. The number of ER visits due to the drug has been on the rise over the last year or two. Some patients are so agitated they require multiple sedations and in worst-case scenarios some suffer seizures.
Read more about the drug, its dangers and the Marine Corps efforts to steer Marines away from spice in this weeks issue of Marine Corps Times, on newsstands now.
Bored Marine Video: The ‘Cha Cha Slide’ gone wrong
August 27th, 2010 | Bored Marine Video | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Ladies and gentlemen, we’re back this Friday with our second installment of Bored Marine Video. While we could bring you some of the classics, we’re instead trying to highlight newer videos you may not ever have seen before.
Connoisseurs of Marine videos on YouTube may remember this video, which went viral a few years ago. It features Marines doing the “Cha Cha Slide,” a favorite at weddings, parties and other get-togethers.
There’s a new Marine “Cha Cha Slide,” though. And, well, it’s a bit terrifying:
The video was posted Aug. 5, and has less than 1,000 views. Call me crazy, but I think these guys are out of regs.
Colonel takes shots at PowerPoint, ISAF in new rant
August 26th, 2010 | Afghanistan General officers Leadership | Posted by Dan Lamothe
In April, a New York Times piece on the U.S. military’s PowerPoint culture generated a fair amount of buzz, especially considering it included a simple, cutting indictment from Gen. James Mattis, then-commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command: “PowerPoint makes us stupid.”
The military still relies heavily on PowerPoint presentations, however. And while that may never change, one Army colonel assigned to an International Security Assistance Force headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, has had enough. His brutal critique of military culture is burning up the Web today after being published by the UPI news service. An excerpt:
For headquarters staff, war consists largely of the endless tinkering with PowerPoint slides to conform with the idiosyncrasies of cognitively challenged generals in order to spoon-feed them information. Even one tiny flaw in a slide can halt a general’s thought processes as abruptly as a computer system’s blue screen of death.The ability to brief well is, therefore, a critical skill. It is important to note that skill in briefing resides in how you say it. It doesn’t matter so much what you say or even if you are speaking Klingon.Random motion, ad hoc processes and an in-depth knowledge of Army minutia and acronyms are also key characteristics of a successful staff officer. Harried movement together with furrowed brows and appropriate expressions of concern a la Clint Eastwood will please the generals. Progress in the war is optional.
First things first: How long will the author, Col. Lawrence Sellin, have a job in Afghanistan. Does he even care? There’s nothing better than taking a verbal blow torch to your command publicly to punch an early ticket home, I suppose.
Fellow Military Times blogger Phil Ewing suggests on Scoop Deck that Sellin is “Burning down the PowerPoint palace,” which seems fair. Spencer Ackerman wonders on Danger Room if the momentum might be shifting, now that Mattis, the new head of U.S. Central Command, and a few other known PowerPoint haters have moved into positions of authority over the Afghanistan war.
Behind the Cover: The new Lance Corporal Underground
August 24th, 2010 | Behind the Cover Rumors | Posted by Dan Lamothe
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 at the smoke pit any more.
Meet Marines in St. Louis
August 24th, 2010 | Marine Week | Posted by Tony Lombardo
St. Louis looks to be the frontrunner to serve as host of next year’s Marine Week.
“We’re looking at St Louis, but it’s not official,” said Lt. Col. Peter Conlan, who is heading Marine Week planning through the Marine Corps Division of Public Affairs.
Historically, Marine Week has occurred in May. Chicago hosted the first year, in 2009, and Boston hosted this year. Dates have not been set for Marine Week 2011, Conlan said.
“The City of St. Louis would be a proud, hospitable location for Marine Week 2011,” Mayor Francis G. Slay told Marine Corps Times via e-mail.
St. Louis business and community leaders were visiting with Marines in the Washington, D.C., area Aug. 20. They were participants in the Marine Corps Business Executive Forum, a daylong seminar that draws business leaders from across the country and provides them with a closer look at the Corps’ mission.
Do you think St. Louis is a good choice? Will you be making the trip?
Grooming standards: Get lost or good to go?
August 22nd, 2010 | Battle Rattle | Posted by Andrew deGrandpre
Close-crop haircuts — like those in the photo at right — have been the norm in the Corps for a long, long time. But should they be still?
Marine Corps Times wants to know what you think about this and other grooming standards. Are they too tough — or not tough enough? Should the regulations be relaxed some while Marines are in the war zone?
Are there any appearance guidelines the next commandant should address once he takes command later this year?