A little dessert goes a long way
April 27th, 2012 | Blue-Green operations Food Life at sea | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Lance Cpls. Jonathon Ziolek, right, and Matt T. Behrens with 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit enjoy their ice cream aboard amphibious assault ship Makin Island, at sea April 26. (USMC photo)
You have to wonder how quickly these Marines devoured that ice cream.
Amphibious assault ship Makin Island held an ice cream social for Marines and sailors aboard the San Diego-based ship, which has been deployed in the Arabian Sea region with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit and a three-ship amphibious ready group. As these junior Marines are learning, sweets like ice cream, cakes and cookies are often readily available aboard many if not all ships at sea, yet they still are familiar, comforting. Besides, you can’t really ruin ice cream, or most any dessert for that matter.
Ice cream is more the rarity for those training in the field or deployed away from the large camps in the combat zone of Afghanistan (though you might be lucky enough to find some while on patrol). But as more Marines get to experience the different pace of life at sea, and in new places like Australia, the Philippines or South Korea, dessert will be just one of those constants when the meals might vary from rations to local but unfamiliar favorites. So whether it’s ice cream, cake or cookies, few will pass up the chance to indulge in those simple comforts that often remind us of home. And it certainly beats the sweets that come with MREs.
Freshly-made cookies await takers aboard assault ship Peleliu during a visit by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta March 30. //Gidget Fuentes photo
Granted, food of any kind is a great unifier, as Marines and others got to experience during exercise Balikatan just recently, and there’s plenty of chocolate and candy, along with goodies from home, sent overseas to Marines. Still, some chilled ice cream, with or without toppings like cherries and whipped cream, and freshly-made cookies won’t last long no matter where it’s available. During Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s visit in late March to the Peleliu, an amphibious assault ship training with the 15th MEU off the coast of Camp Pendleton, Calif., the culinary specialists in the ship’s galley served up to the crew plates of fresh chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies. The top civilian at the Pentagon? He enjoyed two of the oatmeal raisins. Can you name your favorite?
A flap grows Down Under over new USMC rotations
April 23rd, 2012 | Allies and training Australia III MEF Marines Pacific issues | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Marines with Fox Co., 2/3 get a "Top End" welcome earlier this month in Darwin, Australia.//USMC photo by Lance Cpl. Ian McMahon
The recent arrival of a company of Hawaii-based Marines in Darwin, Australia, stirred up some unfavorable sentiments on the continent and around the region. Now comes former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, who apparently is quite unhappy about seeing any more Marines Down Under.
Fraser, who led the nation-continent for eight years until 1983, complained that “over 20 years now we have given the impression of doing that which America wants. We seem to believe that our security can be best assured if we do what we can to win brownie points with the U.S. This is a mistaken assumption.”
He reportedly outlined his frustrations in a letter to his government blasting the new Aussie-U.S. arrangement for unit rotations, the Sydney Morning Herald reported April 24. Those rotations and recent news that the United States wants to operate military drones from Cocos Island, a group of atolls west of Australia, will fuel more unsettlement about U.S. intentions, particularly as it concerns threats from China, and further risk Australia’s own security, he argued in a letter submitted to the government’s “White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century.” Such level of U.S. involvement “sends the wrong message, not only to China, but to countries like Indonesia.”
The rotations, which will send 2,500 leathernecks in six-month rotations to Darwin by 2016, are part of the broader U.S.“pivot” refocusing on all things in the Asia-Pacific region. Top U.S.military officials have said no new permanent bases are planned in the Pacific region, where they already are looking at a reposturing of military forces. But Fraser doesn’t buy it. “For America to say that 2,500 troops do not constitute a base is nonsense, indeed a fabrication,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, the men of Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, landed in the Northern Territory or the “Top End” as it’s known locally earlier this month to start training with their Australian counterparts at military ranges in the area as military commanders with III Marine Expeditionary Force met with local leaders. Top-level visits to the region include Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, and members of Australia’s parliament met with Marines and sailors aboard dock landing ship Pearl Harbor, currently deployed with 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit and Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group.
Takedown! 15th MEU steps out for diverse missions
April 20th, 2012 | Anti-piracy Blue-Green operations Maritime Raid Force MEU operations | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Members of 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit's maritime raid force aboard the destroyer Dewey during training April 9 at San Diego Naval Base, Calif. (Lance Cpl. Timothy Childers/USMC)
It’s a big ocean out there. The Marine Corps’ push to return to its maritime roots and get more leathernecks out to sea on Navy ships means a brighter spotlight on some of those missions that haven’t routinely been done by units more attuned to the sandbox of combat. While the public might be more aware of operations to track and capture gun-toting hijackers and pirates or terrorists at sea, such visit-board-search-seize training (above photo) aren’t the only high-speed training Marines are getting to do.
Just this month, after some training in San Diego, Calif., members of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit headed north to Ventura County to practice taking down gas and oil platforms off the coast of Carpinteria. The strategic and economic value of such energy-producing gas and oil platforms found around the world – from the Persian Gulf to the coast of Africa, South China Sea and off Australia’s northern shores – make them lucrative targets and places to hide for militants, terrorist groups and enemy forces. So protecting them becomes critical, and MEUs are among military units that are training for these missions.
Such GOPLAT missions, as they are called, are among the variety of specialty operations that MEUs do, and by nature these raids assume an element of close-quarters combat. Much like VBSS missions, the maritime raid force can reach their targets by sea or by air, and much like the ships they assault, they encounter challenging confines in the shifting environment aboard the moored platforms at sea. These missions can become quite complex, and they rarely get much public attention or spotlight as stealth and covertness are usually key to success. Marines joined in GOPLAT missions back in the late 1980s during Operation Earnest Will, the mission that had warships escorting commercial vessels through the Persian Gulf to protect them against Iranian attacks. Some of these operations are noted in the book, No Higher Honor, written by Armed Forces Journal editor Bradley Peniston, and here by Marine Corps historian David Crist. Those operations, with names like Nimble Archer and Praying Mantis, the latter which involved Recon Marines and CH-46 and AH-1 helicopters, drew little attention, much like some GOPLAT operations after the invasion of Iraq.
Elements of the MRF are drawn from Battalion Landing Team 3/5, which includes the combat-tested “Darkhorse” men of 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines. The 15th MEU, commanded by Col. Scott D. Campbell, includes the “Purple Foxes” of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 364 (Reinforced) and Combat Logistics Battalion 15. The MEU is slated to deploy later this year aboard amphibious assault ship Peleliu (pictured above), transport dock Green Bay and dock landing ship Rushmore.
But will they be running (off) on Dunkin’?
April 6th, 2012 | Camp Pendleton Food Pop culture | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
When officials mark the opening of the new and enlarged Marine Corps Exchange at Camp Pendleton, Calif., in early May, they might want to brace for an unusual crowd: Dunkin’ Donuts lovers.
We’re talking coffee and donuts, and muffins and bagels, too.
Dunkin’ Donuts, a Massachusetts-based company, has more than 7,000 restaurants across the country, in 36 states plus the District of Columbia, and there’s even seven overseas. But there’s not a single one in California, a huge state where Starbucks and McDonalds are a dime a dozen. But come May, the state’s first Dunkin’ Donuts eatery will open inside the new MCX.
It’s been more than a decade since the company shuttered its few California shops, putting the nearest Boston Kreme, Powered Cocoa and Spiced Apple donuts in the far reaches across the border – no, not Mexico, although it might as well be – in Nevada and Arizona. Why they did that is just mind-boggling, even in a state that screams healthy and fit but gorges on In-N-Out burgers and burritos.
That gap in time has been agony for throngs of fans, East Coasters mostly, relegated to reminiscing about Dunkin’s Hazelnut coffee and Salt bagels and waiting for the day to travel back East, where a trip to the nearest Dunkin’ Donuts is a required pilgrimage.
But with the new Camp Pendleton store, the 64,000 people who work or live at the base will be the lucky ones able to get their coffee and donut fix daily. At least that’s what the corporate data keepers expect. “We are honored and excited about the opportunity to serve the 64,000 people who live, work and train at the military base and look forward to keeping the Marines running on Dunkin’ with our coffee and snacks,” the Dunkin’ Brands public relations manager, McCall Gosselin, said in a response to questions, picking up the company’s motto of “America runs on Dunkin’.”
Running they will be. At a base with quite a few transplanted East Coasters – including the base commander – and Southerners more familiar with the brand’s sweets, the official grand opening set to run from May 3 to May 6 just might become more of a swarm. A big one. It won’t just be base workers and residents who can access the store, not far from the main gate and Interstate 5, but thousands of military retirees in the region, which itself has a sizeable population.
“This will be off the charts,” predicted Brig. Gen. Vincent Coglianese, the Marine Corps Installations-West commander. The New Jersey native knows: He described his wife as a big Dunkin’ fan. And a recent interview veered off into warm memories of hot coffee and tasty pastries, and anticipation of the “VIP” opening on May 2.
Coglianese expects to see as big a reception to Camp Pendleton’s Dunkin’ Donuts as the Marine Corps has seen at the Camp Lejeune, N.C., store, which reportedly had more business than the Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants outside the base in Jacksonville. The company rep wouldn’t confirm but said there are 25 other Dunkin’ Donuts at U.S. military bases, and service members apparently don’t shy away from its goodies. “The military population is a great audience for us and we are actively looking to develop new Dunkin’ Donuts locations on other military bases,” Gosselin said.
The company’s original announcement that the Camp Pendleton location will be the only site in California had left die-hard Dunkin’ Donuts fans out West thinking: Are they hazelnuts?
But how soon new sites would open isn’t clear. “It will be some time before we consider expanding into California,” said Gosselin. “We recognize there is high demand for Dunkin’ Donuts on the West Coast, as evidenced by the fact that California is the #1 state for sales of our bagged grocery coffee. However, Dunkin’ Donuts is moving westward with focus on disciplined development in contiguous markets that are adjacent to our existing base in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic areas. We will enter the market once our infrastructure is established to meet the demands of our guests.”
Fans anticipate the reaction at Camp Pendleton will be hot. But if the it turns out to be more lukewarm, well, that means there’s just more coffee and donuts for the rest of us.
One-armed warrior will battle in 2012 Warrior Games
April 6th, 2012 | Battle Rattle Competitions Marines Wounded warriors | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Former Cpl. Mark O' Brien won gold in archery at the 2012 Marine Corps Trials at Camp Pendleton. He'll compete at the upcoming Warrior Games. (USMC photo by Tony Lazzaro)
As a kid, like many Marines, Mark O’Brien loved to trek through the woods near his home in upstate New York. He often hunted with his father and brother and his preferred choice of weapon: A hunting bow.
Then came Nov. 8, 2004, when then-Cpl. O’Brien was deployed in Ramadi with his rifle squad with Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines. An insurgent’s rocket-propelled grenade exploded the Humvee he was riding in, sending shrapnel through his body that severed his right arm and right leg and nearly killed him. His story was featured in the 2005 TV documentary, “Coming Home.”
Through his long recovery, through medical wards and physical therapy as he transitioned back to civilian life, O’Brien found that being a double amputee didn’t mean he was limited in what he could do. “I wanted to just get back into doing things that I loved,” says the 29-year-old married father of two boys who works and travels around the country as a motivational speaker.
And that included archery. So through trial and error, and with the help of his father, brother and prosthetist, O’Brien crafted a trigger mechanism with a strap around his bicep so he could shoot the bow using his prosthetic arm – and his teeth. “I wanted often to do it, for a long time. The first time out, it was so exhilarating,” he says of the first foray into the woods to hunt. “It was very surreal just to sit there. I ended up getting a deer that year. It was just so exciting.”
The prototypes that O’Brien has developed let him push, instead of pull, the bow in order to release the arrow. It’s a unique setup, for sure, but it works. While he often practices at the Double J Archery range near his home in Marilla, N.Y., a town so small it has only one red blinking light, he draws curious stares when practicing or competing at other ranges.
“Everybody kind of looks at you weird when I walk up with one arm, and then I start shooting,” he says. A keen focus on the mission – the target – is all he needs to shut out everything else. “I am usually the only guy there with one arm and one leg. I focus on what I want to do, and I just keep working on it. I don’t want to give up on it.”
All that practice has paid off. This spring, O’Brien will represent the Marine Corps at the 2012 Warrior Games, which will be held in Colorado Springs, Colo. He was selected to the team after winning gold during the All-Marine trials held at Camp Pendleton. “It’s good to get out and represent the Marine Corps and be a part of something,” he says.
“I just hope to kick the Army’s ass,” he adds, without hesitation. “I’m going to pretty much try to destroy the competition.”
One last meal before you go
April 2nd, 2012 | Food Life at sea MEU operations | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Marines aboard ship find a variety of meal choices, from baked chicken, fish and beef to burgers and salad bars. Some days bring themed meals, like the Tex-Mex lunch aboard USS Peleliu off California last week. (Photo by Gidget Fuentes)
Last week, some 4,000 Marines and sailors on the East Coast furiously worked to get themselves and their units and ships ready for a scheduled deployment overseas. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and its 2,300 Marines and sailors headed out March 30 from Camp Lejeune, N.C., aboard amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima, dock landing ship Gunston Hall and dock transport ship New York. It will be an eight-month deployment to the Mediterranean and the Middle East for the U.S. European and Central Command regions.
You can bet during that last weekend home, just about every Marine and sailor made the most of every single free minute. The 24th MEU asked its Facebook fans for their must-have favorite food they’d want to eat before deploying on ship. More than three-dozen responded with choices ranging from pizza, meatloaf and steak to even sushi. Other favorites:
- Louisiana gumbo.
- Ribeye steak, baked potato and fresh corn on the cob.
- Lasagna.
- Pumpkin pie.
- Chicken and dumplings from Cracker Barrel.
The chain restaurant must be a popular stop – Sam Tate wrote that he would enjoy its meatloaf and accompanying side dishes. Diane Brankley Zimmerman relayed that she made her son’s favorites before he left home: Corned beef and cabbage and beef stroganoff. Hmmm, yummy. Andy Warren brought back memories of a timeless comfort food: Grilled ham and cheese with a bowl of tomato soup. Craig Babich was open to most any meal with one caveat: “Anything but chicken.” But Christopher Olinger and James J. Hayes must have been kidding with this suggestion: An M.R.E. We hope.
24th MEU preps to deploy overseas
March 23rd, 2012 | Blue-Green operations Camp Lejeune Marines MEU operations | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
The 24th MEU took to the sea in December for visit-board-search-seize training. (USMC photo by Lance Cpl. Michael Petersheim)
This weekend, more than 4,000 Marines and sailors on the East Coast are grabbing some last-minute liberty before they leave home for a scheduled deployment overseas. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and its 2,300 Marines will depart Camp Lejeune, N.C. on Monday and head to Norfolk, Va. There, they will board amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima, dock landing ship Gunston Hall and dock transport ship New York, which will be making its maiden operational deployment. Col. Frank Donovan, a veteran infantry and reconnaissance officer, commands the 24th MEU, which includes Battalion Landing Team 1/2 (1st Battalion, 2nd Marines), Combat Logistics Battalion 24 and Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 261, a reinforced aviation combat element.
The 24th MEU is one of seven expeditionary units, which with very rare exception deploy overseas aboard Navy ships as part of an amphibious ready group. Their departure is another in the regular deployment of these expeditionary, sea-going “911” forces trained to respond to crises and contingencies overseas. The MEU/ARG mission as the “theater reserve” for the regional geographic commander makes them the go-to force when you need combat boots, firepower or just a helping hand or two. MEUs have kept busy and operational when they’re out at sea, like taking down pirates that hijack ships (as the 15th MEU did) or supporting spec-ops forces to rescue hostages (13th MEU), helping victims of earthquakes or natural disasters (24th MEU in Haiti) or striking at targets to protect civilians (26th MEU’s jets in Libya).
With so many Marines shaking off their desert cammies after a decade of two ground wars, the Marine Corps is refocusing its forces toward the sea, with MEUs at the front at the expeditionary force-in-readiness. Or, as Brig. Gen. David Coffman put it, in 2009: “If there’s a sword to be drawn at sea, shouldn’t a Marine be wielding it?”
Are you (really) ready for some football?
November 25th, 2011 | Marines Off-duty Safety Sports | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Sailors with Naval Medical Center San Diego and Marines with 1st Marine Logistics Group fight for the ball during an Oct. 24 football game in San Diego. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Chad A. Bascom/Navy)
‘Tis the season for turkey, tailgating and that classic game on the gridiron, football. But all that rough play with your best buddies can sometimes turn into a trip to the Doc or, worse, the emergency room.
Over Thanksgiving 2010, the Naval Safety Center got 54 reports of injuries, including Marines and sailors who “attempted to work off their turkey tryptophan with a pick-up game.” Some of them suffered poked eyes and sprained ankles from playing on the football field. No word about any resulting lost work days.
The fall season typically sees double the number of football injuries than any other time of the year, according to the safety center. And we’re not just talking tackle football. Marines get hurt playing flag football, too, even though it’s not supposed to be a contact sport. Interestingly but not surprising, injuries from hunting and bull riding (yes, that’s what it says) run second and third. So if some football fun is on your schedule, center officials offer these tips before you head out onto the field:
- Know your limits. You’re not in the NFL and you probably aren’t a professional-caliber quarterback.
- Use the proper equipment and personal protective equipment.
- Check the field for holes or other hazards before starting the game.
More tips: Wear gloves made especially for football or tape fingers to reduce the chances of finger injuries. Avoid alcohol and don’t overdo it. With the prime months of the football season setting in, it might be advice worth heeding.
At sea, a place of their own
November 11th, 2011 | Blue-Green operations Food Life at Sea Marine Raiders MEU operations | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Marines heading out to sea in any of the Navy’s fleet of amphibious ships get quickly and acutely familiar with a few spaces inside those large gray warfighting hulls: their berthing space, the ship’s gym and the enlisted mess decks.
Carlson Cafe aboard amphibious assault ship Makin Island, was busy at lunchtime during at-sea training last month. The cozy section of the much-larger enlisted mess decks is named after a legendary Marine Raider. (Gidget Fuentes/staff)
There’s usually nothing spectacular about those spaces, which are often crowded and offer little in the way of physical privacy or familiar comforts of home. But aboard Makin Island, the Navy’s newest big-deck amphibious assault ship and homeported in San Diego, what would have been some storage area off the main mess decks has been remade into a cozier space with a more intimate “cafe” feel.
Unlike the fluorescent-lit, Navy-blue color schemes more typical of ships’ mess decks, this area called “Carlson Cafe” features walls wrapped in paneling, blue vinyl-covered bar stools and booths and tables topped with the Mandarin phrase of “Gung Ho” on red vinyl.
The cafe, which is opened during the ship’s meal hours for E-6s and below, is named for the late and innovative Lt. Col. Evans F. Carlson, one of the more colorful leaders among the Marine Corps’ small but elite World War II force known as Marine Raiders. Carlson had served in China and adopted the phrase “gung ho,” which means “working together” in Mandarin, for his men of 2nd Raider Battalion known as Carlson’s Raiders. They and another group of men – “Edson’s Raiders” of 1st Raider Battalion led by Col. Merritt Edson – were formed in February 1942 and quickly deployed to fight in the island campaigns in the Pacific. Their legacy was short-lived – the Marine Corps disestablished its four Raider battalions two years after their formation – but the more than 8,000 men who earned the title were pivotal to the Marine Corps’ development of its unique amphibious warfare capabilities and its reconnaissance, force recon and special operations communities.
The Carlson Cafe includes a growing collection of Raider memorabilia. News clips and movie posters, including of the 1943 flick “Gung Ho” that told the story of Carlson’s Raiders, hang on the wall. Wooden cases display Carlson’s combat medals and a period uniform. “They’ve got room to grow,” noted Navy Senior Chief (SW/AW) Donnie Ryan, the ship’s public affairs chief. “Gung Ho” is designed into the table coverings. Sconces on the walls can provide some “mood” lighting, an improvement on a ship where glaring overhead fluorescent lights are the norm.
That may be welcomed once Makin Island leaves San Diego Nov. 14 on its maiden deployment, leaving a force of three amphibious ships, including dock landing ship Pearl Harbor and amphibious transport dock New Orleans with Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit for the Persian Gulf and Western Pacific regions.
Marine veteran raps birthday tribute to Cpl. Jason Dunham
November 11th, 2011 | Awards Iraq Medal of Honor Pop culture | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
In his four years stationed at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego, former Cpl. Joe Potter had never met Cpl. Jason Dunham.
Potter joined the Marine Corps the year that Dunham died. But Dunham’s legacy as a combat warrior and Medal of Honor recipient who gave his life to save his fellow Marines from an insurgent’s grenade in Iraq in April 2004 had been well ingrained in Potter’s memory during the four years he spent working as an expeditionary airfield specialist with Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron.
Since hanging up his uniform, Potter has worked in his father’s painting business, often listening to music to pass the time. “Music is a hobby,” he said. While he was in the Corps, “I rapped a lot.” What he hoped could be a music career took a back seat to marriage and a child and the responsibilities of family. Then, six months ago, he picked it back up, prompted by a catchy song he heard on his iPod. “I was outside, painting with my dad,” he recalled. “I wanted to do something.”
That’s when Jason Dunham came to mind. “We had all heard about him,” he recalled. “He’s just like a legendary hero.” So he jotted all sorts of ideas that came to him, “and before I knew it, I had verses down.” He set out to learn more about Dunham, devouring the book, The Gift of Valor, and pouring through whatever he could find online. “He’s a modern-day hero. He gave his life. It takes so much courage,” he said.
Potter, 26, knew that Dunham shared the same birthday as the Marine Corps itself: Nov. 10. So a week ago, with the final verses completed, and photos and images collected and edited into a video, he recorded the song and posted it on YouTube the following day. He sent out scores of emails to people he knows and others he’s never met, including a group of Blue Star Mothers, promoting the video and pointing out the site on YouTube.
“Last night, Corporal Dunham’s mother called me,” Potter said, speaking Nov. 10 from his home in Boca Raton, Fla. Her call surprised and moved him. “I was trying to explain the idea, as best as I could,” he said. “I said, I hope that writing this song doesn’t bring back any pain.’”
Debra Dunham reminded him that Jason would have turned 30, he said, and she reiterated to Potter a simple message. “Never take anything for granted,” he said. “She said, ‘you just don’t know how long you’re going to have it.”