2+ week, 5+ day ago (769+ words) Netflix on Tuesday released its four-episode documentary series on the U.S. Marine Corps. Coinciding with the service's 250th birthday, "Marines" follows the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit " one of just seven Marine expeditionary units and the only permanently forward-deployed Marine expeditionary unit " "as they conduct high-stakes combat exercises in the Pacific," according to the streaming service's synopsis. "When I first joined on, I found I was nervous," director Chelsea Yarnell told Military Times in a recent interview. "I was thinking, "I don't know too much about the Marines. Am I the right person to tell this story?' "I found, almost immediately upon filming, that [being an outsider] was almost like my superpower because the Marine Corps is very dense. It's a very insular world. My collaborators and I very much wanted the series to be for the layman, not necessarily just people who have…...

1+ week, 3+ day ago (353+ words) Selected Marine Corps Reserve personnel in ranks E-4 to E-6 are now eligible for one-time pay bumps for remaining in specific job specialties, according to a Marine Corps memo released Wednesday. As part of the Selected Marine Corps Reserve Retention and Affiliation Bonus Program, corporals, sergeants and staff sergeants with select MOSs are eligible for up to $20,000 lump-sum bonuses upon extending service in the SMCR for 36 months, according to the MARADMIN. Marines in those ranks are also eligible to serve terms of 12 and 24 months, with corresponding bonus payments of $5,000 and $10,000, respectively. Eligible Marines who apply for the 24- or 36-month extension may also do so alongside a lateral move request, the message notes. A $5,000 kicker, issued on top of the bonus payments, is also available for select Marines assigned to certain units and locations. "This program supports the commandant's retention priorities by encouraging…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago (520+ words) In the wake of a 2018 Government Accountability Office report that found military ammunition, including missiles and rockets, was not being properly safeguarded, every military service and the Pentagon took action to increase inspections and security protocols. Every service, that is, except the Marine Corps. Nearly seven years to the day after the report's publication, the Corps issued a Marine Corps administrative message mandating physical security survey protocols with stern accountability requirements and designated corrective actions for deficiencies. What's not clear, though, is why it took so long for the service to fall in on the GAO's guidance. On GAO's webpage for the report, the recommendation for the Marine Corps is still listed as "open" even as those for the Air Force, Army, Department of the Navy and Department of Defense are closed. "As of August 2022, when we reached out through…...

3+ day, 22+ hour ago (342+ words) The commanding officer of the Okinawa, Japan-based Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 36 was fired Wednesday, according to a Marine Corps notice. Lt. Col. Calischaran G. James was relieved of his duties by Maj. Gen. Marcus B. Annibale, the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing commanding general, "due to a loss of trust and confidence in his ability to command," the Marine Corps announced. Military services often use "loss of trust and confidence" as a blanket term when dismissing senior leadership. A request for additional information regarding the nature of the dismissal was not yet returned as of press time. "Commanders are held to the highest standards of conduct and must consistently live above reproach," 1st Marine Aircraft Wing spokesman Maj. Joseph Butterfield said in the announcement. "This decision reflects the Marine Corps" dedication to upholding the trust and confidence that are essential for effective leadership." Originally from…...

2+ week, 1+ day ago (351+ words) The U.S. Marine Corps has deployed a unit equipped with MQ-9A Reaper drones to the South China Sea to provide support to Philippine forces there amid a series of clashes with Chinese vessels. The unit is deployed on a temporary basis and the drones are unarmed, a Marine Corps spokesperson told Defense News in a statement. "At the request of the Philippine government, Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron (VMU) 1 is temporarily deployed to the Philippines to support Philippine regional maritime security through shared maritime domain awareness," the spokesperson said. "The temporary stationing of unarmed MQ-9As to the Philippines demonstrates mutual commitment to improving the collective maritime security and supports our common goal for a free and open Indo-Pacific," the statement said. The MQ-9 Reaper is an extremely powerful and reliable unmanned aerial vehicle known for its stealth, endurance and robust design....

1+ week, 6+ day ago (773+ words) Oscar Verner Peterson was born Aug. 27, 1899 in Prentiss, Wisconsin, and swiftly grew into his chosen career, enlisting in the U.S. Navy on Dec. 8, 1920. By the end of 1941, he was Chief Water Tender (chief petty officer) aboard Neosho, which had just been commissioned in 1939. "She simply was the kind of unglamorous workhorse without which a modern navy could not operate," writes historian Robert C. Stern. "Excepting a few token defensive guns, no one would ever mistake her for a warship. But against all odds, not only did the Neosho have a combat career, she had an extraordinary one." Capable of carrying 146,000 barrels of fuel, the ship was delivering aviation gas at Ford Island on Dec. 6, 1941. The next morning saw it tied up in Battleship Row. And while the Japanese were targeting the battleship Maryland (BB-46), their bombs fell nearer to Neosho as it…...

2+ week, 1+ day ago (450+ words) When one of us first argued in Foreign Policy in 2022 that Israel and the Gulf states should form a U.S.-backed multinational rapid-response force, the idea seemed ahead of its time. The Abraham Accords were still fresh, and the notion of Arab and Israeli troops training and operating side by side seemed politically remote. Now, three years later, the logic has not only endured " it has been tested repeatedly in crisis after crisis. A standing response force offers something the Middle East still lacks: a highly trained force integrated across like-minded countries and maintained at peak readiness to respond to the region's rhythmic crises. Such an approach would not replace the Gulf Cooperation Council's Peninsula Shield Force " which has rarely deployed in four decades " but could augment it as either the "tip of the spear" or as an adjacent force legitimized…...

3+ week, 5+ day ago (310+ words) A Marine general fired the commander, executive officer and senior enlisted leader for an Osprey squadron in Hawaii last week, "due to a loss of trust" in their ability to uphold safety and readiness standards, according to a statement provided Monday to Marine Corps Times. Maj. Gen. Marcus Annibale relieved commander Lt. Col. Shaina Hennessey, Sgt. Maj. Jamie Lampley and the executive officer, who was not named in the statement. The three led Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 268, based out of Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, until being fired Oct. 28. "We hold ourselves to the highest standards of performance, addressing challenges head-on to uphold operational excellence," read the statement provided by Maj. Joseph Butterfield, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing spokesman. "We are committed to implementing best practices and policies that ensure a strong coupling of well-prepared pilots and crews with safe,…...

3+ week, 5+ day ago (744+ words) From leadership training for military youth caregivers to training veterans to be baseball umpires, this year's five Fisher Service Award winners have found innovative ways to fill gaps to meet the needs of those in the military and veteran communities. The top winner, with a grant of $100,000, is the Caregiving Youth Student Leadership Program, which is part of the Military Child Education Coalition of Harker Heights, Texas. "These are students who balance homework with hospital visits, who help care for a parent who is healing from injury or illness," said Mary Bier, president and CEO of the Military Child Education Coalition. Bier accepted the award during a ceremony Oct. 29 in Arlington, Virginia. During the event, Bier said students in the program often sacrifice their own needs to care for someone that they love. The award will help the organization expand…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago (947+ words) Editor's note: This list was updated on Nov. 6, 2025, at 1:07 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Since early September, the U.S. military has conducted strikes against alleged drug-carrying vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean in support of what the Pentagon has called continued counternarcotics efforts. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. The administration, arguing the U.S. is in a "non-international armed conflict" with drug cartels, has described the strikes as necessary to prevent illicit drugs from entering the United States. As of Nov. 6, the Trump administration has disclosed 16 strikes, killing at least 66 people. Nov. 4: The U.S. military launched a lethal strike against an alleged drug-carrying vessel that the Trump administration said was operated by a designated terrorist organization in the eastern Pacific, killing two, according to an X post from Defense…...