Katy Perry joins the Marine Corps?
March 21st, 2012 | Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego Marines Pop culture Recruit Recruiting women | Posted by James Sanborn
Check out Katy Perry’s new “Part of Me” music video filmed at Camp Pendleton, Calif. She joins the Marine Corps in what amounts to one big, long, awesome recruiting ad. Its not quite a Marine in dress blues slaying wizards on a chess board, but its a close second.
Get More: Katy Perry, Part Of Me, Music, More Music Videos
If you missed that vintage reference, check out this recruiting commercial from before some of you were born.
Video: The new Marine Corps TV ad, ‘Toward the Sounds of Chaos’
March 9th, 2012 | Marines Recruiting | Posted by Dan Lamothe
News broke widely yesterday that the Marine Corps was about to unveil a new advertising campaign with the slogan, “Toward the Sounds of Chaos.” It was initially billed as a look at the softer side of the service, but if the first video is any indication, it’s far more than that.
Check this out. I’m not seeing anyone petting puppies:
I’ve reached out to Marine Corps Recruiting Command for details about who is in the video, and where the footage was recorded. Stay tuned…
UPDATE: The commercial was filmed in the fall at Camp Pendleton, Calif., said Maj. John Caldwell, at recruiting command spokesman. It features Marines from 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Logistics Group and 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.
‘Your quarterback is your platoon commander’
January 5th, 2012 | Leadership Recruiting The Sgt. Major of the Marine Corps | Posted by Tony Lombardo
The Marine Corps hosted the inaugural Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl on Jan. 3 in Phoenix.
The competition pitted the East against the West in a game featuring 100 of the best high school football athletes from across the country.
On Jan. 4, official B-roll surfaced from the East’s locker room, revealing the pep talk given to players by Maj. Gen. Ronald Bailey, commander of 1st Marine Division, and Sgt. Maj. Mike Barrett, the Corps’ top enlisted Marine.
While the West would go on to beat the East, 17-14, Barrett had some strong words to pump the players up.
At about the 3 ½-minute mark, Barrett tells the team:
Your quarterback is your platoon commander. Do everything as a team. Everything you have …all your means…all your talents…all your fiber…leave it out on the battlefield today. Everything you have, leave it on the field today. You should walk back into this room at the end of the game with nothing left. If you can come in here and jack around and do nonsense, you did not give it all!”
In the West locker room, Brig. Gen. Joseph Osterman, commander of Marine Recruiting Command, and Sgt. Maj. Michael Logan, also of Recruiting Command, led the pep talk. Footage of their speech was not immediately available.
Maj. Gen. Ronald Bailey: The next Marine commander in Afghanistan?
July 6th, 2011 | Afghanistan General officers Leadership Recruiting | Posted by Dan Lamothe
With two leadership moves, it’s become apparent who could lead Marine forces in Afghanistan next summer.
The Marine Corps has shifted Maj. Gen. Ronald Bailey from Recruiting Command, out of Quantico, Va., to 1st Marine Division, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif. In his place at Quantico, Brig. Gen. Joseph Osterman took over this week.
If the Corps keeps a similar footprint in Afghanistan next year, that means Bailey could lead Marine forces in Afghanistan, assuming I Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) replaces II MEF (Fwd.), commanded by Maj. Gen. John Toolan, on a typical schedule next spring.
Toolan took over for Maj. Gen. Richard Mills as the top commander in Regional Command-Southwest in March. In the rear, both generals led their respective divisions, and took over the forward-deployed MEF when it set up shop in Afghanistan.
Osterman, meanwhile, is still relatively fresh from the battlefield himself. He headed 1st Marine Division (Fwd.) for a year beginning in spring 2010, serving under Mills. He graciously sat with me in Afghanistan last May for an interview that led to this story.
For Bailey, it has been a year in transition. As his official biography shows, he was promoted to his current rank in May 2010 while serving as commander of the Corps’ west coast recruiting region and Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. He assumed command of Recruiting Command in Quantico in January, after former commander Maj. Gen. Robert Milstead became the three-star head of Manpower and Reserve Affairs.
Marine homes damaged in tornado
May 24th, 2011 | Recruiting | Posted by Tony Lombardo
The U.S. suffered its deadliest single tornado in 60 years on Sunday. More than 115 people were expected dead in the disaster, which destroyed much of Joplin, Mo.
Photos released today show Marine recruiters were among those whose homes were destroyed. Cpl. Bradley Rogers, a spokesman with 9th Marine Corps District, recently visited Joplin, spending time with members of Recruiting Sub Station Joplin, Recruiting Station Kansas City. Rogers snapped the following photos:
Staff Sgt. Neville Shiwdin (center) and his fellow Marines look over his family's home in Joplin, Mo.
Staff Sgt. Neville Shiwdin struggled to keep the door closed on his home's closet where he, his wife and kids took shelter.
Maj. Thomas McGee finds a ladder among debris so that he and others can begin patching one of his Marine's roofs May 23 after it was damaged by the tornado. McGee is the commanding officer of Recruiting Station Kansas City.
Marine recruiters experimenting with iPads
November 29th, 2010 | Gear Recruiting | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Readers may have seen online a story today in which the commander of Marine Corps Recruiting Command outlined in an exclusive interview where he sees recruiting going in the next few years.
Maj. Gen. Robert Milstead says things are currently going relatively well, but saw a few potential obstacles in coming years, including a declining advertising budget.
There’s another element in the story that will catch the interest of the techies in the room, however. Officials at Marine Corps Recruiting Command told me that recruiters are currently experimenting with Apple’s iPad to record the information of potential recruits.
It works like this: the Marines set up a booth at a public event — a county fair, maybe. The set up a contest such as a pull-up challenge, but require students interested in participating to sign a hold-harmless waiver form in case they hurt themselves competing.
In the past, these forms were typically filled out by hand. Someone had to enter the contact information on them by hand into an electronic database for later. It was time-consuming, and when the hand-written information on the forms wasn’t legible, a waste of time.
Marine officials say that by using the iPad, they can immediately capture information electronically and reduce errors. The Corps isn’t hung up on staying with the iPad, but for now, it has impressive potential, they said.
Behind the Cover: MARSOC’s new sales pitch
October 12th, 2010 | Behind the Cover Camp Lejeune Fitness MARSOC Recruiting Training | Posted by Andrew deGrandpre
In this week’s print edition, on newsstands now, staff writer Gina Cavallaro takes readers inside the Corps’ new special operations warm-up course at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Called the Assessment and Selection Preparation and Orientation Course, or ASPOC for short, it represents Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command’s latest effort to curtail a 46 percent attrition rate among Marines looking to become elite critical skills operators. The commandant has challenged MARSOC leadership to cut that rate to 20 percent — a tall order indeed, and one the command is taking very seriously.
This three-week course, conducted at Lejeune’s Stone Bay training facility, eases candidates into the spec ops mindset and incrementally works them up for the rigorous physical demands that accompany MARSOC’s initial screening, and subsequent assessment and selection process. Additionally, participants get ample face time with active-duty operators, who provide detailed glimpses into the spec ops lifestyle.
“You used to come to assessment, you had a few days to check-in, get your things sorted out and then we’d roll you into our screening validation,” Col. James Parrington, commander of the Marine Special Operations School, tells Marine Corps Times. “For an individual who isn’t at his peak level of performance, it would be a shock to the system.”
Parrington and others within the command hope, too, that the course will help erase longstanding apprehension among quality Marines who may feel that making the cut is simply too tough. It is tough, they say, but it’s not impossible. With more focused preparation, MARSOC has identified a means to give CSO candidates the leg up they may need to become the best of the best.
Cavallaro teamed with staff photographer Sheila Vemmer for this assignment, putting boots on the ground at Stone Bay and hanging out — in the rain — with Marines slogging their way through the first ASPOC, which wrapped in early October, and the instructors on hand to coach them. It’s a detailed, gritty look at the new first step to joining MARSOC.
Marines launch new Web site for parents
July 21st, 2010 | Recruiting | Posted by Dan Lamothe
The Marine Corps has always had the reputation for being creative when it comes to recruiting. Now, the service is launching a new Web site that focuses on “influencers” — the parents, mentors and other adults who guide America’s youth — and its prospective Marines.
The site, LifeAsAMarine.com, just went live within the last few days, Marine officials say. It allows parents, friends, and supporters to share their own Marine Corps story, with the obvious intention of allaying fears in parents whose children are considering joining.
The Corps posted a 60-second promotional video on YouTube this week:
The site also serves as a clearinghouse of information for parents, and features a variety of recruiting materials. Perhaps the best feature on the site, though, are the individual stories like this one. Some of them feature parents, some of them feature Marines, and some of them feature both together.
Get some … Xbox LIVE points
June 16th, 2010 | Battle Rattle Recruiting | Posted by militaryonline
You can earn your share of 200,000 Microsoft points when you download Marine Corps gamer themes, like the one above, and pictures packs from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace.
So far, 883 have said they “like” the announcement on the Corps’ official Facebook page and 169 have commented on the post. Although most of those comments consist of Ooh-rahs, a handful of Marines have asked the Corps to show some love for PS3. It’s not clear if there are any plans in the works for that.