Behind the Cover: The Drawdown Plan
April 9th, 2012 | Afghanistan Battle Rattle Behind the Cover budget Camp Lejeune Drawdown Manpower Marines | Posted by James Sanborn
By now it’s no news that the military is facing serious cuts. The Marine Corps alone will drop 20,000 over the next five years. But just how leaders will make those cuts has been a mystery — until now.
To get the lowdown on how the Marine Corps will drawdown by 2016, and what the plan means for you, check out this week’s edition of Marine Corps Times.
For our cover story, we traveled to Camp Lejeune, N.C., to sit in on a briefing by the drawdown’s architects who are now on an eight-week tour of the fleet. In it, we learned what cash incentives are up for grabs, how it will effect re-up and promotion opportunities, and what MOSs and ranks are most at risk.
Also in this week’s issue is a pair of great faker stories by staff writer Gina Cavallaro. The first is about a Pennsylvania man who claims to be a Marine first sergeant. Even his brother has called him out, but he was still able to dupe a Canadian soldier who started a foundation for Afghanistan veterans grappling with PTSD. The second revisits the case of Skyler Whalen. He once claimed to be a gunny, but has now moved on to impersonating a police officer.
Pick up Marine Corps Times on newsstands now or click here to subscribe.
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?”
At Sywanyk’s, you get Marine Corps lore with every pour
March 13th, 2012 | Battle Rattle Camp Lejeune History and heritage Marines | Posted by Gina Cavallaro
A swing through Jacksonville, N.C., just wouldn’t be complete without a visit to Sywanyk’s. It’s a bar in a building that is so filled with Marine Corps memorabilia that it almost defies description. In fact, retired Sgt. Maj. Ihor Sywanyk, owner of the one-of-a-kind bar/museum can only describe it this way:
“You just come on right in, I won’t charge you and I might even buy you a drink… you will be impressed and amazed and if you don’t like it, don’t come back… but they always come back,” he told me on my third visit.
Sywanyk (pronounced swah-nick), an immigrant from the Ukraine, joined the Marine Corps in 1964 and served on active duty for more than 32 years and in dozens of different jobs from machinist to drill instructor to grunt and beyond. In 1995, a year before retiring from Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., Sywanyk established his nightclub and began installing his collection of tens of thousands of Marine Corps items and memorabilia he has collected over the decades, mostly at gun shows.
Visitors will see a staggering number of weapons, patches, stickers, movie posters, recruiting posters, flags, medals, musical instruments, plaques, figurines, uniforms, documents and other collectibles in the two-story club, which has hosted countless weddings, Marine Corps birthday balls, hail-and-farewells and reunions.
Among his prized possessions are a uniform worn by Lt. Col. John William Thomason, Jr., author of Fix Bayonets, among several other World War I era books; and, a letter handwritten by Archibald Henderson, who was the longest serving commandant from 1820 to 1859.
Next time you’re in Jacksonville — or even on your way through the area — don’t miss Sywanyk’s Scarlet and Gold Traditions. It’s at 222 Henderson Avenue in Jacksonville. And don’t be surprised if you see me there on my fourth or fifth visit. It takes at least that many to see everything and toss a couple of Guinness back.
Are Marines of 24th MEU in for a longer deployment?
December 2nd, 2011 | Camp Lejeune MEU operations | Posted by Gina Cavallaro
Marines with 24th MEU drop their gear aboard amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima on Nov. 28. (Photo by Lance Cpl. Michael J. Petersheim)
When the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit comes home to Camp Lejeune, N.C., in February, it will have been gone more than 10 months, a longer-than-usual deployment for a MEU, but not so rare anymore.
Deployments have gotten longer. And now, as the 24th MEU conducts its own pre-deployment work-up and prepares to replace the 22nd MEU at sea, it’s still kind of a toss up as to whether its own deployment will exceed the traditional seven-month pump.
As of now, the deployment is scheduled to be seven months, according to MEU spokesman Capt. Robert Shuford.
Some 2,100 Marines with the 24th MEU linked up over the past several days off the coast of North Carolina with Amphibious Squadron 8 for the second of their three-part work up before they deploy early next year.
The Marines and sailors loaded their tanks, artillery pieces, helicopters and vehicles aboard amphibious assault ships USS Iwo Jima, USS New York and USS Gunston Hall using Navy hovercraft at Morehead City Port.
Their current exercise — composite training unit exercise — will take them between North Carolina and Florida for several scenario-based missions, before it concludes on Dec. 21. In January, the 24th MEU will do realistic urban training exercises at Fort Pickett, Va.
Beirut 1983: Marine barracks bombed
October 21st, 2011 | Camp Lejeune History and heritage | Posted by Gina Cavallaro
A figure from the Beirut Memorial in Jacksonville, N.C. (Photo from Marines magazine 1991 by Lance Cpl. M.E. Easter)
This Sunday, Marines will gather at the Beirut Memorial in Jacksonville, N.C., near Camp Lejeune to mark the day 28 years ago when 220 of their brothers were killed in a terrorist attack in Beirut, Lebanon.
Also killed in the Oct. 23, 1983, attack were 18 sailors and three soldiers.
It was a bright Sunday morning at 6:22 when a man drove a five-ton truck laden with more than 12,000 pounds of TNT straight into the base of the building and blasted the barracks into a pile of concrete under a sky-high plume of acrid black smoke.
The Marines were in Beirut on a peace keeping mission, to help the Lebanese government establish security and stabilize their capital city.
The monument in Jacksonville was dedicated on Oct. 22, 1988. There are memorials in several other states dedicated to the fallen.
Visit the Beirut Memorial web site here. The Marines gathering this Sunday in Jacksonville said they’d love to see you there, too.
Michelle Obama at Camp Lejeune… but did she say Luh-jern?
April 13th, 2011 | Camp Lejeune | Posted by Gina Cavallaro
First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, stopped in at Camp Lejeune, N.C. today for about three hours as part of the launch of their “Joining Forces” campaign to support America’s uniformed troops and their families.
Michelle Obama at the podium at Camp Lejeune, N.C., April 13. Seated behind her are Maj. Gen. Carl Jensen and Jill Biden. (Photo by Lance Cpl. Damany S. Coleman)
Before a crowd of more than 3,000, the two women took the stage at Goettge Memorial Field House to rousing applause, and spoke of their support and admiration for Marines and their famlies. It was the first visit for Obama, but not for Biden, who demonstrated her kinship with the Marine Corps by letting out a hearty “oorah!” at the microphone.
Afterward, the Obama and Biden team joined lifestyle maven Martha Stewart at the Ball Center for a mass baby shower for 40 pregnant women, Marines and Marine wives, whose husbands are deployed. The event was given by Operation Shower, a non-profit support organization, and the women received scrap booking lessons from Stewart and donated gifts.
Joining Forces was launched by Obama and Biden on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., and Lejeune was their first of several stops to raise awareness. A web site offers more information.
“We’re extremely honored that the first lady would consider the home of the Carolina MAGTF to launch her joint initiative in support of military families,” said Camp Lejeune spokesman Nat Fahy, who is a veteran of the complicated process of preparing for a visit from a high-level person.
“We were fortunate to have a blueprint for this type of visit,” he said, recalling the January 2009 visit by newly inaugurated President Barack Obama who announced his war strategy for Iraq at Camp Lejeune.
Marine wives pose with Obama, Biden and Stewart at Operation Shower at Camp Lejeune on April 13. (Photo by Cpl. Jonathan G. Wright)
“It was a matter of dusting off the playbook and accommodating the first lady’s agenda,” he said.
But did the first lady of the United States acquiesce to the wishes of a movement within, and without, the Marine Corps to return to the Lejeune family’s pronunciation of its name: Luh-jern?
“Yes, she did, and so did Dr. Biden,” Fahy confirmed. “Martha Stewart said it that way, too.”
Maj. Gen. John Toolan loves him some CFT
April 1st, 2011 | Afghanistan Camp Lejeune Combat Fitness Test Fitness General officers Leadership | Posted by Dan Lamothe
As outlined earlier this week, Marines in Afghanistan have a new commander, Maj. Gen. John Toolan. He has taken command from Maj. Gen. Richard Mills, who led troops in Regional Command-Southwest for nearly a year.
Marine Corps Times news editor Tony Lombardo pointed out this photo to me earlier this week. It shows Toolan during a Combat Fitness Test carrying Sgt. Michael Taggart, the noncommissioned officer in charge of II Marine Expeditionary Force’s special security office. It was taken Dec. 10 at Camp Lejeune, N.C., before II MEF (Forward) Marines deployed to Afghanistan’s Helmand province.
Toolan has been in the Corps for nearly 34 years. Y’know, just for anyone complaining about the CFT.
Soothing sounds of Marine artillery
February 21st, 2011 | Camp Lejeune Japan Training Weapons | Posted by Andrew deGrandpre
Members of Romeo Battery, 5th Battalion, 10th Marines, conduct live-fire training in February at Camp Lejeune, N.C. (Photo by Lance Cpl. Jeff Drew/Marine Corps)
If you love the sound of friendly artillery, be sure to crank the volume on your speakers before watching this little gem.
Marine Corps Times’ senior video journalist Colin Kelly caught up with members of Romeo Battery, 5th Battalion, 10th Marines, at Camp Lejeune, N.C., in early February — just a few weeks before the start of their six-month deployment to Okinawa.
They were good enough to give him a demo of this wondrous Howitzer, which we — in turn — are happy to share with you. Enjoy. And please be sure to keep these Marines and their families in your thoughts as they embark on a long journey away from home.
24TH MEU commander fired following Walmart theft charge
February 5th, 2011 | Camp Lejeune | Posted by Gina Cavallaro
Col. Robert G. Petit, commander of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit at Camp Lejeune, N.C., was relieved of command Saturday following his arrest a week ago in connection with a theft at Walmart in Jacksonville.
The decision by II Marine Expeditionary Force commander Lt. Gen. John M. Paxton to fire Petit “followed a Marine Corps inquiry into the facts relating to Petit’s Jan. 29, 2011 arrest by the Jacksonville Police Department for misdemeanor larceny,” according to a Saturday evening press release from Paxton’s office.
Petit was relieved “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command,” the release said.
Petit, 50, who took command of the 24th MEU in September, was detained by Jacksonville police shortly after 5 p.m. Jan. 29, and charged with one count of misdemeanor larceny for allegedly stealing printer ink and STP fuel cleaner worth about $65, according to police and court documents.
He is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 22.
As a lieutenant colonel, Petit led Camp Lejeune’s 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, during combat deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.
Petit is a native of New Orleans, according to a Marine Corps news release, which also notes that the MEU is scheduled to deploy in early 2012.