thedrifter
05-09-06, 01:12 PM
May 15, 2006
Marine News Breaks
Former gunny pleads guilty
A former gunnery sergeant pleaded guilty May 4 to charges related to supplying classified information to officials trying to unseat Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Leandro Aragoncillo, 47, had worked at the FBI’s Fort Monmouth Information Technology Center in New Jersey since July 2004 after leaving the Corps. He was arrested Sept. 10, 2005, at his home in Woodbury, N.J., by FBI special agents.
Aragoncillo was charged with one count each of conspiracy, acting as an unregistered agent subject to the direction of a foreign official and unauthorized use of a government computer to obtain and transmit classified information to persons not entitled to receive that information. He pleaded guilty to all counts.
In a federal court hearing May 4, the former analyst outlined five years of efforts to pass secret and top-secret information.
Express train kills Iwakuni leatherneck
A leatherneck from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, was killed April 30 when he was struck by a train in Shunan City during the early morning hours, Stars and Stripes reported May 4.
According to Maj. Stuart Upton, the service member was with Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 12.
A Shunan police spokesman identified the Marine as Benjamin Allen Rush, 22. The spokesman said Rush was walking by himself at 1:38 a.m. near a railroad crossing in Shingu-cho after drinking with his friends in Shunan City. He died immediately when an express train hit him, the report said.
Man sentenced in lance corporal’s death
A Brighton, Mo., man was sentenced May 2 for the Dec. 17 car crash that killed 22-year-old Lance Cpl. Jesse Ryan Harden, the Springfield (Mo.) News-Ledger reported May 3.
According to the report, Odell McKinnis Jr., 38, was sentenced to seven years in prison for involuntary manslaughter, four years for leaving the scene of an accident and four years for resisting arrest. The sentences are to run concurrently.
McKinnis ran two downtown Springfield stop signs before he plowed his Ford Thunderbird into a Chevy pickup truck driven by Harden. Prosecutors said McKinnis was driving more than 70 mph at the time.
Harden was with Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 24th Marines, and had served a combat tour in Iraq, the report said.
TSA detains, searches Marine escorts
Federal Transportation Safety Administration agents detained three enlisted Marines escorting the body of a fallen comrade at a security checkpoint at Philadelphia International Airport on May 3.
The Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion Marines were escorting the body of Sgt. Lea R. Mills from Dover Air Force Base, Del., to Gulfport, Miss. Mills was killed in Iraq on April 28 by a roadside bomb.
On their way to reach their flight to Houston, the trio was stopped by TSA agents before they could ensure Mills’ body was properly placed on the airplane. The agents had the Marines remove their dress blue blouses, belts and shoes while they scanned them with hand-held metal-detecting wands, then detained them for about 30 minutes in a nearby room, the Marines said. In the process, they were separated from the flag they intended to place on Mills’ casket for the journey.
Sgt. John Stock said he’s never encountered that kind of search when going through airport security in uniform.
“I [could] understand if I was in civilian clothes. But with what we were wearing and what we were doing,” he said, noting that “we had the flag with us.”
Ellie
Marine News Breaks
Former gunny pleads guilty
A former gunnery sergeant pleaded guilty May 4 to charges related to supplying classified information to officials trying to unseat Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Leandro Aragoncillo, 47, had worked at the FBI’s Fort Monmouth Information Technology Center in New Jersey since July 2004 after leaving the Corps. He was arrested Sept. 10, 2005, at his home in Woodbury, N.J., by FBI special agents.
Aragoncillo was charged with one count each of conspiracy, acting as an unregistered agent subject to the direction of a foreign official and unauthorized use of a government computer to obtain and transmit classified information to persons not entitled to receive that information. He pleaded guilty to all counts.
In a federal court hearing May 4, the former analyst outlined five years of efforts to pass secret and top-secret information.
Express train kills Iwakuni leatherneck
A leatherneck from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, was killed April 30 when he was struck by a train in Shunan City during the early morning hours, Stars and Stripes reported May 4.
According to Maj. Stuart Upton, the service member was with Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 12.
A Shunan police spokesman identified the Marine as Benjamin Allen Rush, 22. The spokesman said Rush was walking by himself at 1:38 a.m. near a railroad crossing in Shingu-cho after drinking with his friends in Shunan City. He died immediately when an express train hit him, the report said.
Man sentenced in lance corporal’s death
A Brighton, Mo., man was sentenced May 2 for the Dec. 17 car crash that killed 22-year-old Lance Cpl. Jesse Ryan Harden, the Springfield (Mo.) News-Ledger reported May 3.
According to the report, Odell McKinnis Jr., 38, was sentenced to seven years in prison for involuntary manslaughter, four years for leaving the scene of an accident and four years for resisting arrest. The sentences are to run concurrently.
McKinnis ran two downtown Springfield stop signs before he plowed his Ford Thunderbird into a Chevy pickup truck driven by Harden. Prosecutors said McKinnis was driving more than 70 mph at the time.
Harden was with Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 24th Marines, and had served a combat tour in Iraq, the report said.
TSA detains, searches Marine escorts
Federal Transportation Safety Administration agents detained three enlisted Marines escorting the body of a fallen comrade at a security checkpoint at Philadelphia International Airport on May 3.
The Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion Marines were escorting the body of Sgt. Lea R. Mills from Dover Air Force Base, Del., to Gulfport, Miss. Mills was killed in Iraq on April 28 by a roadside bomb.
On their way to reach their flight to Houston, the trio was stopped by TSA agents before they could ensure Mills’ body was properly placed on the airplane. The agents had the Marines remove their dress blue blouses, belts and shoes while they scanned them with hand-held metal-detecting wands, then detained them for about 30 minutes in a nearby room, the Marines said. In the process, they were separated from the flag they intended to place on Mills’ casket for the journey.
Sgt. John Stock said he’s never encountered that kind of search when going through airport security in uniform.
“I [could] understand if I was in civilian clothes. But with what we were wearing and what we were doing,” he said, noting that “we had the flag with us.”
Ellie