Marine News Breaks

[thedrifter]

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

[thedrifter]

May 15, 2006

News Briefs

Studying Gulf War illness

When doctors began researching the memory loss, dizziness and loss of motor functions of some soldiers who had returned from the 1991 Persian Gulf War, they relied on private funding because of widespread skepticism about the illness.

But the government and medical community took notice after a 1997 study showed that the veterans had brain damage, not a psychological condition or stress. Attitudes slowly changed, and a study a few years later showed that one in seven Gulf War veterans was sick.

Now, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas will receive $75 million over the next five years and serve as the Department of Veterans Affairs’ designated Gulf War Illness Research Center. Officials from the hospital and VA, which is funding the program, signed a formal partnership agreement April 21.

The center’s main goal is to develop a test to diagnose the illness. The hospital conducts studies using an MRI to reveal detailed images of brain functions. Scans are taken while patients are asked to do tasks, such as identifying pictures they recognize.

Generals endorse Webb

Two retired generals who have called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have endorsed a senatorial hopeful who proposes a tax cut for veterans, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported May 4.

James Webb, a decorated Marine veteran, former Navy secretary and father of an active-duty Marine, is vying for the Democratic Senate nomination to challenge incumbent Sen. George Allen, R-Va.

According to the report, retired Gen. Anthony Zinni and retired Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, both Marines, endorsed Webb on May 3. Zinni appeared at Webb’s side during a news conference in which Webb wore a suit and desert combat boots.

Webb’s son, a lance corporal, is a rifleman with 1st Battalion, 6th Marines.

According to the report, Webb said he would propose a 5 percent income-tax reduction for all Americans who have completed a term of military service honorably.

Webb also called for efforts to “find the formula to end our involvement in Iraq,” the report said. “I think we could be out of Iraq in two years without a lot of destabilization.”

Webb served as an infantry officer in Vietnam, where he earned a Navy Cross, a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts.

Top athletes announced

The Corps has named its top athletes for 2005.

Sgts. Jeremy Brown and Kristin Taft will be honored as the Corps’ male and female Athletes of the Year at Quantico, Va., on July 28, a Marine Corps press release said.

According to the release, Brown, who works at the consolidated administration center at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif., was the first leatherneck to cross the finish line in the 2005 Marine Corps Marathon.

Taft, a supply sergeant with Headquarters and Service Battalion at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, was the starting pitcher for the All-Marine Women’s softball team during her fourth year with the team.

Marine’s story inspires movie

Producers will kick off production this summer of an HBO movie based on a Marine’s real-life experience.

According to a May 3 Reuters report, Lt. Col. Michael Strobl adapted the script of “Taking Chance” from a piece he wrote after a casualty escort experience in 2004.

Strobl escorted the body of Lance Cpl. Chance Phelps from Dover Air Force Base, Del., to his hometown of Dubois, Wyo., for burial in April 2004. Phelps was killed by hostile fire while deployed to Iraq with 3rd Battalion, 11th Marines.

HBO plans to air the movie in 2007.

Strobl’s account of the trip is online at http://www.defendamerica.mil/article.../a071204a.html.

Air Force One prank

An Internet video showing someone spraying graffiti on President Bush’s jet looked so authentic the Air Force wasn’t immediately certain whether the plane had been targeted.

But it was all a hoax. No one sprayed the slogan “Still Free” on the cowling of Air Force One.

The pranksters responsible for the two-minute film revealed April 21 how they pulled it off: a rented 747 in California painted to look like Air Force One.

The video — at www.stillfree.com — shows hooded graffiti artists climbing barbed-wire fences and sneaking past guards with dogs to approach the jet. After the video began circulating online April 18, Air Force officials checked to see whether the plane had been vandalized. They learned it had not.

Fisher House fundraiser

The 2006 Fisher House Golf Classic completed its mission May 1, raising $475,000 to benefit the Fisher House Foundation. The foundation provides free or low-cost temporary lodging for families visiting recuperating service members in military treatment facilities and Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals.

In addition, another foundation pledged to contribute $400,000 to the cause.

The event in Lansdowne, Va., was sponsored by SAP, HealthNet Federal Services, Humana Military Healthcare Services, TriWest Healthcare Alliance and numerous other corporations. Money raised will go toward building a Fisher House at the VA hospital in Richmond, Va., said Ken Fisher, chairman of the Fisher House Foundation.

The foundation opened the 34th Fisher House at the VA Medical Center in Palo Alto, Calif., and expects to open another four by the end of the year.

Corrections

• The photos that accompanied a May 8 Lifelines story on service members taking part in the game show Wheel of Fortune should have said they were taken by Wheel of Fortune photographer Carol Kaelson.

• In the May 8 special section, “America salutes the military,” the name of Miss America 2006 Jennifer Berry was misspelled.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

May 15, 2006
Around the Corps

Compiled from military and other public sources.

Japan

Marines deploy for Cobra Gold 2006

Leathernecks departed Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, on May 3 for annual training in Thailand, a Marine Corps news release said.

According to the release, the Marines will participate in Cobra Gold 2006 at Korat’s Royal Thai Air Force Base. Personnel from Singapore, Japan and Indonesia are scheduled to participate in the training along with Thai and U.S. forces.


In addition to air-to-air and air-to-ground training, the troops will have to deal with the country’s hot climate, the release said.

“The exercise gives our Marines an opportunity to train in a hot-weather environment and to prepare them for future operations, such as Iraq,” said Gunnery Sgt. Arthur Hilliard, assistant ordnance division chief for Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 212.

Iwakuni hosts Friendship Day

Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, hosted its annual Friendship Day on May 5 while a local civic group protested in front of the main gate.

The station attracted about 250,000 people for its air show and other activities, base officials said.

The show took place four days after Japan and the U.S. released a joint statement detailing a set of agreements to realign the U.S. military presence in Japan by 2014.

The accords laid out the finishing touches on the relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma and the transfer of 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam.

Japanese fighter jets and U.S. Navy jets performed as the civic group protested the noise.

Kiyoshi Okawa, leader of the group handing out anti-base leaflets to visitors, said, “I want U.S. military people to understand that some citizens have been afflicted by noise every day, even though many people here are being very friendly to them.”

Iraq

Iraqis volunteer in recruiting drive

More than 300 men volunteered for the Iraqi Police during a three-day recruiting drive in Fallujah, Iraq, a May 5 Marine Corps news release said.

The men who volunteered did so despite a suicide bombing during the drive.

According to the release, the drive ended May 4 with 348 volunteers accepted as recruits.

On May 3, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive at a screening checkpoint amidst a crowd of potential recruits. At least seven civilians were killed; one Iraqi policeman and 11 civilians were wounded, the report said.

The bomb delayed the recruiting process for about an hour before volunteers returned, the release said.

Applicants had to pass a physical-fitness test, meet age requirements and be able to read. They will spend eight weeks training at the Jordanian Police Academy, the release said.

North Carolina

22nd MEU returns to Lejeune from Iraq

After nearly six months overseas, the leathernecks of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit returned to Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Hand-painted “welcome home” signs greeted the 2,200 Marines on May 2 and 3 as they returned from the ships of Expeditionary Strike Group 8.

The Marines served a two-month tour in Hit, Iraq, in January, sweeping the upper Euphrates River Valley for weapons caches and insurgent enclaves. The Marines lived alongside Iraqi army forces, helping train them for the counterinsurgency mission they will assume as U.S. forces are drawn down.

Texas

Reservists return from Iraq duty

Two dozen reservists returned to the Lone Star State from Iraq on April 26, the Amarillo Globe News reported April 27.

According to the report, Bravo Company, Anti-Terrorism Battalion, 4th Marine Division, returned to Amarillo after spending eight months deployed to Iraq’s Anbar province.

Most members of the unit are from the Texas Panhandle, though a few came from as far away as Dallas and New Mexico.

Ellie