Marine Corps furious with Harry Reid
Did Senator exploit tragic Marine accident in Nevada?
FOX News
Reid was pointing out that sequestration will hurt further training and that was just about it.
Marine Corps furious with Harry Reid
Did Senator exploit tragic Marine accident in Nevada?
FOX News
Corporal Verbeek was killed in the war in Afghanistan on June 21st, 2011.
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David Vinnedge, father of Lance Cpl. Phillip Vinnedge, an antitank missile gunner who served with Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, exits his 1951 Chevrolet 3100 pickup during a showcasing at Camp Pendleton on Sept. 13. Photo by Lance Cpl. Joseph Scanlan, U.S. Marine Corps
Julie said she hopes the truck will also bring attention to service members who are fighting to keep the nation safe.
"I want people to remember our military," said Julie. "I want people [who] see anyone in uniform to go up and tell them, 'Thank you.' Give them a hug and tell them you appreciate what they are willing to do."
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6 Americans killed in one day in Afghanistan
By Deb Riechmann
The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Aug 11, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan working on an installation shared by Afghan and foreign forces shot to death three U.S. service members, raising to six the number of Americans killed by their Afghan partners in a single day, officials said Saturday.
The newly announced killings took place Friday, the same day that an Afghan policeman gunned down three U.S. Marines in a separate attack in southern Afghanistan.
Such assaults are on the rise and have heightened mistrust between foreign forces and the Afghan soldiers, police and others they are training and mentoring.
Four of the attacks occurred in the past week, raising questions about the safety of international trainers more than 10 years into the war. The U.S.-led coalition insists the attacks do not represent the overall security situation in Afghanistan and that they have not impeded ongoing work to hand over security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.
Most of the attacks have been carried out by Afghan police and soldiers or militants wearing their uniforms. There have been 26 such attacks so far this year, resulting in 34 deaths, according to the U.S.-led coalition.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for both attacks on Friday in Helmand province — an area of the south where insurgents have wielded their greatest influence.
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Afghan police officer kills 3 U.S. Marines
By Kay Johnson
Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan – An Afghan police officer shot and killed three U.S. Marines after sharing a meal with them before dawn Friday and then fled into the desolate darkness of southern Afghanistan, the third attack on coalition forces by their Afghan counterparts in a week.
Thirty-one coalition service members have now died this year at the hands of Afghan forces or insurgents disguised in Afghan uniforms, according to NATO— a dramatic rise from previous years.
The assaults have cast a shadow of fear and mistrust over U.S. efforts to train Afghan soldiers and police more than 10 years after the U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban's hardline Islamist regime for sheltering al-Qaeda's leadership. The attacks also raise further doubts about the quality of the Afghan forces taking over in many areas before most international troops leave the country in 2014.
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also
Afghanistan Sacks Its Security Chiefs: How Will That Affect U.S. Forces?
The parliamentary denoucement of the ministers of defense and the interior may be a sign of Afghan democracy at work but it makes the security situation much more volatile for U.S. forces preparing to withdraw
Records: Navy Doc Let Family Handle Marine's Brain
PORTSMOUTH, Va.
July 14, 2012
(AP)
A Navy medical examiner took a Marine's brain out of a specimen jar and let his children handle the organ, records show.
Dr. Mark E. Shelly has been fined $2,500 by the Virginia Board of Medicine and fired from his part-time job with the state medical examiner's office. A spokeswoman said the Navy was also taking disciplinary action but has not yet decided what to do.
Shelley was taking the brain from a naval hospital in Camp Lejeune, N.C., to Portsmouth Naval Medical Center in Virginia when he stopped at his home in Virginia Beach. He let his children handle the brain and his wife took pictures.
In an April 3 letter to the Board of Medicine, Shelly acknowledged he used "extremely poor judgment," The Virginian-Pilot (http://bit.ly/OBInOr) reported Friday. He said he realized the impact his actions had on the family of the deceased and wrote that it was not his intention to be disrespectful to the Marine sergeant or his family.
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U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Steven Stevens II, left, with his wife Monique. Family photo
William C. Stacey dies at 23; Marine sergeant from Seattle
'If my life buys the safety of a child who will one day change the world, then I know that it was all worth it,' Marine Sgt. Will Stacey wrote in a final letter to his family.
By Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times July 1, 2012
At Marine Sgt. William Stacey’s burial at Arlington National Cemetery, Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Albright, center, speaks with Stacey’s loved ones. From left, parents Robert and Robin Stacey, sister Anna Stacey and girlfriend Kimmy Kirkwood. (Jacquelyn Martin, Associated Press / March 13, 2012)
Multi-star generals attended his Arlington National Cemetery funeral. His name adorns a fighter jet. His words echo in the halls of Congress.
Since Marine Sgt. William C. Stacey, age 23, was killed Jan. 31 on a remote hillside in Afghanistan's Helmand province, a letter he wrote to his family has gained much attention from politicians and the news media.
"It's quoted by liberals, conservatives and generals and people across the political spectrum. They use it in different ways. But I think Will would be proud of them all," said Robert Stacey, Will's father and interim dean at the University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences.
The letter was intended only for Stacey's family. It was opened shortly after two Marines appeared outside the Staceys' Seattle home as Will's sister, Anna, was heading to school. Will's mother, Robin, was already teaching her UW history class. Robert Stacey said that before a word was spoken, the family knew why the Marines were there.
"My death did not change the world; it may be tough for you to justify its meaning at all," wrote Will Stacey, who left behind college baseball at Shasta College in Redding to join the Marines in 2006. Military personnel often leave behind a final letter for their families in case they are killed.
"But there is a greater meaning," Stacey continued. "Perhaps there is still injustice in the world. But there will be a child who will live because men left the security they enjoyed in their home country to come to his. And this child will learn in the new schools that have been built.... He will grow into a fine man who will pursue every opportunity his heart could desire."
"He will have the gift of freedom, which I have enjoyed for so long. If my life buys the safety of a child who will one day change the world, then I know that it was all worth it."
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Photo by AMY BINKLEY Memorial Day 2012 A woman visits her fallen service member at the Coastal Carolina State Veterans Cemetary in Jacksonville, N.C., Monday.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Fallen Marine Sgt. William Stacey's last letter, "it was all worth it" This is what makes them so different from the rest of us. This last letter to Sgt. Stacey's family tells them that for all the talk for and against what he was doing, he believed he was making a difference in this world. He didn't serve to do anything other than do some good for someone. We can talk about everything else but in the end, this is what it all comes down to. They are willing to die for each other, surrender whatever comforts they have at home to travel around the world but once they do, most of the country moves on, forgetting about them.