The Don (Quixote) Preserving His Corps
Get in line. Gay rights. Women’s rights (combat exclusion). MARSOC rights. Marine Corps rights. What about a four star’s rights? His sanity? Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James T. Conway has not had much fun in the Corps’ top slot. (Few do.) Conway’s been saddled with two wars, getting his boys and girls to the more [...]

Lost in Translation: IED Solutions Mired in Disorganization
While we wrote last week of the proliferation of the improvised explosive device in Afghanistan Joint IED Defeat Office director, Army Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz painted a bleak picture before Congress. Metz, who is scheduled to retire this week, spoke before the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. When we spoke with Metz [...]

Reunion: New York Meets New York in New York
The USS New York (LPD 21) is scheduled to arrive in its Big Apple namesake Nov 2. While ships visit cities all the time, it is rare they are bonded in the way these two New Yorkers are: the Navy’s latest San Antonio class amphibious transport dock ship, includes 7.5 tons of steel extracted from the [...]

IED Network winning in battle against IEDs?
As remains of 18 slain servicemembers arrived in the early hours at Dover Air Force Base, Del., Oct. 29, Army Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz may have still been awake preparing for testimony before the House Armed Service Committee. The topic for the director of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization – IEDs. Brutal timing. The [...]

The Boys of Company Two
During my first year at the Naval Academy, I was fortunate enough to be in a senior-level English class. It was Shakespeare. Many have borrowed from him, and the military has lifted its share of passages. One well-known speech by King Henry V in the play that bears his name may be over used, and its [...]