Night raid with the Jundi, i.e. the Iraqi army, and Marines, reported by freelance embed Bill Ardolino:
"On the plus side, they’re motivated and brave. Lt. Col. Fisher believes that aggression is a good problem to have, citing the old Marine saying, ‘it’s better to have to reel them in than have to push them out the door.’"
With photos.
The biggies in the MSM only write about the tilt-rotor when it crashes, sort of like the way they usually cover the war–casualties only. But the maligned Osprey is operational now with the Marines–who have two tilt-rotor squadrons, VMM-162 and VMM-263–while Air Force special operations, which recently received the first of thirty, is still testing and developing operational tactics, according to one of the littlesies, the Pensacola News Journal
UPDATE I am reminded that University of Texas engineering professor Hans Mark, who had a hand in the early development of this thing, used to tout it as a reliever of highway congestion. It would pick up airline passengers at a stop near their homes and whisk them to the airport. It’s a lot faster in airplane configuration than a helicopter. Mark also had something to do with the new Airborne Laser, which has yet to see operational service. I also posted about it here. I don’t recall any civilian apllication.
Women marines at the gates of Fallujah. Yeah, that Fallujah.
"Working in two shifts with four Marines, they search hundreds of Iraqi women daily. Searching purses and a physical check of the individuals, the Marines are searching for weapons, anything suspicious and also ensuring Iraqis turn their cell phones off before crossing the border. ‘The signal from the phone could trigger a planted bomb,’ said Lance Cpl. Genevieve R. Kocourek, a combat engineer with Company A., 7th Engineer Support Battalion, CLB-8, 2nd MLG."
Good stuff from a Marine’s blog, Live in Iraq.
Maj. Gen. Mike Lehnert, commander of Marine Corps Bases (West):
"When we sent my son to Stanford four years ago, we filled out a form asking for demographic information. One of the questions for the parents said, what is your profession? After it was a list of about thirty professions including doctor, lawyer, congressman, educator, architect. Military was not listed so I filled in “other.”
"My son was the only graduate who had a parent serving in the armed forces. As I was introduced to his friends’ parents, it was interesting to watch their reaction. Few had ever spoken to a member of the military. One asked me how my son was able to gain admittance with the disadvantage of having to attend “those DoD schools.” Many voiced support for our military and told me that they’d have served but clearly military service was not for their kind of people…"
Revealing speech transcript at American Thinker. Via In From The Cold.
Which reminds me that you could not find a better picture of yesterday’s and today’s troops than in the pages of "Flags of Our Fathers," James Bradley’s narrative of his father’s Marine rifle company on Iwo Jima in 1945.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 