Author: SgtGrit

The service hardest hit over the past decade by program terminations and cutbacks has been the Marine Corps. First there was the decision to truncate the Navy’s DDG 1000 program — the future fire support platform for amphibious operations — at three ships. Then there was the decision to terminate the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. Most recently, questions have been raised within the Navy itself about the value of continuing to invest in the Marine variant of the Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35B. Even the V-22 Osprey, performing so well in Afghanistan, has been targeted for cuts in many of the deficit reduction plans bouncing around Washington. read more

Homosexual celebration violates tenet of service before self

Tuesday marked the official end of the Defense Department’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. As would be expected, there was a spate of opinion articles by newly liberated active-duty service personnel celebrating their newfound freedom to be who they really are. Make no mistake, this issue is not about acceptance; it is about the desperate compulsion that some in the homosexual community have to celebrate their lifestyle. That is the problem: It is all about them, not the country, not their service and not their comrades. read more

Killing the enemy brings victory.

Victory has usually been defined throughout the ages as forcing the enemy to accept certain political objectives. “Forcing” usually meant killing, capturing, or wounding men at arms. In today’s polite and politically correct society we seem to have forgotten that nasty but eternal truth in the confusing struggle to defeat radical Islamic terrorism. read more

FORWARD OPERATING BASE JACKSON, Afghanistan — It is a conversation, the military surgeon said, that every Marine has with his corpsman, the buddy who is first to treat him if he is wounded by an insurgent’s bomb.

The Marine says, “‘If I lose my manhood, then I don’t want to live through it,’“ according to Navy Lt. Richard Whitehead, surgeon for 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, which is fighting in one of the most treacherous combat areas of Afghanistan. read more

IWO JIMA, Japan (AP) – Dozens of U.S. veterans, now in their 80s and 90s, returned to the remote volcanic island of Iwo Jima on Wednesday to mark the 65th anniversary of one of World War II's fiercest battles. More here

On Sept. 11, 2001, Ralph Vitiello rushed to ground zero to help find his fellow firefighters in the rubble of the Twin Towers.

He had been working a rotation at Engine 226 in downtown Brooklyn, just across the East River where massive plumes of smoke had enveloped lower Manhattan. “The guys working that day all got killed,” he said. read more

WASHINGTON (AP) — The counterinsurgency tactic that is sending U.S. soldiers out on foot patrols among the Afghan people, rather than riding in armored vehicles, has contributed to a dramatic increase in arm and leg amputations, genital injuries and the loss of multiple limbs following blast injuries. read more

 — Master Sgt. Anthony Henry, a top Marine recruiting trainer for the southwestern United States, pulled up to Tulsa’s biggest gay community center on Tuesday morning and left his Chevy where he could make a fast getaway. “I have an exit strategy,” he said. “I know where my choke points are, I’ve strategically parked my car right on the curbside, I have an out.” read more