CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (AP) — Just four days before he was killed in a helicopter crash, Staff Sgt. Andrew Seif was awarded one of the military's highest honors for heroism, a commendation he earned for his efforts to save a mortally wounded friend in heavy gunfire in Afghanistan.

Seif, 26, was given the Silver Star in a room full of his fellow Marines, walking arm in arm with his wife after the ceremony.

The boy who grew up playing soldier in his Michigan backyard was hailed by one of his superiors, Maj. Gen. Joseph L. Osterman, as a selfless person who put himself in the line of fire so that Sgt. Justin Hansen wouldn't be left behind.

He and Hansen came under heavy fire as they closed in on a bomb expert in Afghanistan. His comrade was wounded; Seif moved him to safety, treated his wounds and fired back. At the ceremony, he deflected praise.

"There are definitely some individuals out there who deserve (the medal) just as well," Seif said. "But it's an honor to accept it on the behalf of the unit and on behalf of the rest of the men."

The young Marine's story emerged Friday when the Marines killed in the crash were publicly identified, some three days after the crash. The deceased had been students and husbands, officers and sons.

Four were National Guard soldiers from Louisiana also were killed, though they have not been identified.

The Air Force said in a news release that a salvage barge was expected to arrive at the crash site by early Friday afternoon. The work to haul the shattered helicopter core from about 25 feet of water could take up to eight hours.

During a Friday news conference at Camp LeJeune, Osterman — who is commander of Marine Corps special operations forces — said the Marines were flying offshore to practice rappelling down ropes into the water and then making for land. He didn't know whether the Marines were planning to reach shore by swimming or in small rubber boats, but the same drill had been practiced hours earlier during daylight, Osterman said.

"They literally had done it hours before in daylight as part of the rehearsal for being able to do the nighttime operations, which inherently are more difficult," Osterman said.

The teams of Marines and Army-piloted choppers made a judgment call on whether conditions were sufficient for the training mission to go ahead. Then when they were heading out to start the mission, they tried to abort after deciding it was too risky, Osterman said.

Training is part of being ready for high risk operations. The seven Marines were members of the same team who constantly trained and faced danger together, he said.

Marine Special Operations Command, or MARSOC, has seen its members honored for valor and suffering with 19 Silver Star medals, 7 Navy Crosses, 189 Purple Hearts and 207 Bronze Stars, Osterman said.

"They really epitomized the silent warrior and the quiet professional that is really a hallmark of all the Marines here at MARSOC," Osterman said of the 2,500 MARSOC troops. He declined to cite specific instances of heroism or the missions accomplished by other Marines who were on the doomed chopper.

Like other clandestine services, a private ceremony remembering the special operations Marines will be held in the coming weeks to help surviving family members close the page on their deaths.

Jenna Kemp's husband, Kerry Kemp, was among the Marines killed. He was a "proud Marine, a loving husband and most wonderful father," with a child about to turn 1, said her sister, Lora Waraksa of Port Washington, Wisconsin.

Another victim was Marcus Bawol, 27, from Warren, Michigan, north of Detroit. His sister, Brandy Peek, said military officials told them his remains had been identified. Bawol "loved everything about the military," Peek said.

The other Marine victims were: Capt. Stanford H. Shaw, III, 31, from Basking Ridge, New Jersey; Master Sgt. Thomas A. Saunders, 33, from Williamsburg, Virginia; Staff Sgt. Trevor P. Blaylock, 29, from Lake Orion, Michigan and Staff Sgt. Liam A. Flynn, 33, from Queens, New York.

The National Guard soldiers, from Hammond, Louisiana, each did two tours in Iraq and joined in humanitarian missions after Gulf Coast hurricanes and the BP oil spill.

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Recently, a paper from the Strategic Studies Institute of the Army War College entered the military zeitgeist. Its title was provocative: “Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession.” Those who simply read the headlines and skimmed the condensed summaries in the civilian media likely just came away with the impression that the study was just another hit piece on military problems, bemoaning the poor character of service members.

To the contrary, the authors, Leonard Wong and Stephen J. Gerras, discussed dishonesty in the military with dozens of officers and describe situations that every military leader has seen in some form. From the motor pool reporting vehicles as ready because they aren’t technically broken until someone tries to drive them, to the individual soldier fudging the driving distance on his leave request, any veteran reading it will nod knowingly at many of the anecdotes in the report. 

Let’s face it. Almost every leader in the military is a habitual liar.

Don’t feel too bad. You wouldn’t have gotten as far as you have if you weren’t. It only hurts so much to think about it because the military is so hypocritical on the subject.

Everyone expects a used car salesman to lie, but the services go on and on about honor and integrity even as they encourage their members to compromise that integrity on a daily basis. Unless you are the Jesus of training time, getting 297 days of annual training (the required time to execute all US Army mandatory unit training, but typical throughout the services) completed in 256 available training days, you’re a liar.

You may think you’re just “working the system” or “being efficient,” but the real word for those things is “lying.”

The War College report correctly identifies the proliferation of administrative and training requirements and a zero-defect mentality as significant drivers of pervasive dishonesty. Because there are too many requirements, addressing everything from sexual assault to voting to fire prevention, pencil whipping has become a way of life. Because of careerism, fudging such things as supply inventories and readiness is a way of life. No one wants to be the one leader with 85% in yellow on the Excel spreadsheet projected on a screen to the general when everyone else’s block is in green, regardless of the reason.

The recommendations in the report — primarily to “exercise restraint” on the invention of new requirements and to “lead truthfully” — also ring true. Unfortunately, the second won’t happen until the first is completed.

That’s because there’s no incentive for leaders to lead truthfully as long as they have mountains of administrivia to climb. No unit leader is going to be the first of his peers to admit that he actually has a defect or two instead of the target number, zero. That’s especially true in the cutthroat retention and promotion environment of the military drawdown. As long as leaders compete with each other to maintain perfection in metrics that have little to do with warfighting, the culture of dishonesty will always exist.

All the ethics training, rules, and motivational speeches won’t do a thing until the military decreases unit administrative and training requirements. In other words, fewer bullshit requirements from higher up means less bullshit answers going back up in return.

Anyone in the military without stars on his shoulders knows that losing 50% of programs and items on a typical readiness inspection would actually increase combat readiness, not decrease it.

But how would we evaluate our subordinate leaders unless they have dozens of collateral duties to look after, you ask? One of the simplest keys is to get away from 100% of anything being the standard and have pass/fail metrics on administrative tasks. It’s the last few percent of anything that causes the majority of work in any administrative responsibility. Ninety or 95% is still an A in any school.

Here’s the important part. The military also needs to stop having leaders and their units compete on green-yellow-red “stoplight charts” of reportable items. It needs to concentrate on evaluating leaders on the missions of their units. You can pencil whip annual classroom training. You can pencil whip the annual Combined Federal Campaign charity drive. You can’t pencil whip a 20-mile unit road march, trucks in a convoy, or aircraft landing in a landing zone.

Too often, meetings of senior leaders devolve into discussions of whose unit is failing to have its motorcycle riders attend mandatory safety training and not whose unit is training for its mission. This attitude carries down to the ground floor.

For instance, I know plenty of pilots who thought they’d be spending most of their their non-flying time studying how to fly better. Instead, they’re shocked to find themselves spending hours on things like revising unit orders that no one will ever read to put in binders that no one will ever open until the unit is inspected.

Leadership from the top down needs to push that mission results are what is most valued, not administrative results. That requires leaders to actually go and look at what their subordinates are doing. “Inspect what you expect,” as the saying goes. If you only inspect weekly PowerPoint slides at staff meetings, you’ll only get really nice PowerPoint slides. If you inspect subordinates executing their actual missions, you’ll get subordinates executing their missions.

Which does the military really want? Beautiful lies up and down the chain, holding up a Potemkin village of false combat readiness, or the sometimes ugly truth, showing what actually needs to be fixed? It seems the military wants the first, but needs the second.

Carl Forsling is a senior columnist for Task & Purpose. He is also a Marine MV-22B instructor pilot and former CH-46E pilot who has deployed in support of multiple combat and contingency operations. Follow Carl Forsling on Twitter @CarlForsling.

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When Yoshitaka Shindo was a boy, he did not hear much from his family about his grandfather Tadamichi Kuribayashi, commander of the Japanese troops who fought in the bloody battle of Iwo Jima.

The battle, in which nearly 7,000 US Marines and almost 22,000 Japanese defenders died, was etched in America's memory by an Associated Press photo of six soldiers raising the US flag on the small volcanic island's Mount Suribachi.

For many in Japan, however, it was long a tragic defeat best forgotten.

"Human beings don't want to talk about what is most painful," Shindo, a conservative ruling party lawmaker and former member of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet, told Reuters in an interview.

"As a child, I was told that my grandfather worked diligently for the sake of the country and that he was a very gentle person. But as for details such as what happened when, neither my grandmother or mother really spoke about that."

Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and Health Minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki will attend a memorial service with US representatives on Saturday to mark the 70th anniversary of the epic 36-day battle.

More ordinary Japanese are now aware of the battle, in which just 1,083 Japanese defenders escaped death, in part because of Clint Eastwood's 2006 film "Letters from Iwo Jima," inspired by letters from Kuribayashi to his family on the eve of the battle.

But the years of silence have left a gap that makes it harder to pass on wartime experiences to younger Japanese.

"My grandfather didn't really like to speak about the war. At night, he would moan in his sleep. He would scream sometimes and I assumed it was because of the war," said Atsushi Hirano, 22, who has traveled to 11 battlefields including Iwo Jima, as a member of a group that collects the bones of fallen soldiers.

"But I always thought I couldn't ask about it and then he died six years ago. I wish I had asked him more," said Hirano, a college student studying to become a teacher.

'An honorable death'

The tiny tear-shaped island of Iwo Jima, 700 miles (1,000 kilometers) south of Tokyo, was the first scrap of Japan's native soil to be invaded in World War II. America wanted it as a base for fighters escorting B-29 bombers headed for the Japanese mainland.

Kuribayashi, who studied at Harvard and served as a military attache in the United States, had little hope of victory at a time when many Japanese leaders knew the war had been lost.

"The battle looms and except when I am tired and sleep, all I think of is the fierce fight, an honorable death, and what will happen to you and the children after that," the father of three wrote.

But aiming to inflict as much damage as possible on the US forces, Kurbayashi honeycombed the island with tunnels from which defenders could be dislodged only at great cost.

Shindo said his grandfather was believed to have been struck down by a bullet after he removed his officer's insignia and joined his troops in an attack on US forces.

Kuribayashi's bones have never been recovered — nor have the remains of more than half of the Japanese soldiers who died.

"They hid themselves on that fortress of an island and fought on alone to prolong the battle," Shindo said. "They think they are still fighting, so I want to bring them home as soon as possible."

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

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The biggest story this year so far in the F-35 joint strike fighter world is not the soaring cost of the aircraft — a problem that appears to have been contained, according to the program manager — but the determination of the Marine Corps to put the aircraft into service even though its mission software is unfinished and cracks surfaced in one of its main bulkheads.

None of these issues is serious enough to deter the Marine Corps from declaring the F-35B — the short-takeoff vertical landing version of the joint strike fighter — ready for combat use. Marines insist that they would much rather take an incomplete F-35B than continue to fly their antiquated fighters.

The F-35B would eventually replace all AV-8B Harriers, F/A-18 Hornets and the EA-6B Prowlers. One of the shortfalls in the new airplane is that its mission software, called Block 2B, is still not able to perform “sensor fusion” functions that allow pilots to identify targets and share the data across a network of multiple F-35s. Fusion is one of the attributes that distinguish “fifth generation” fighters like the F-35 from older models developed during the Cold War.

The Marine Corps intends to start flying the F-35B in combat duties some time in July, a milestone called “initial operational capability,” or IOC. This move has been criticized by Pentagon weapon testers who frown on military programs that rush to meet self-imposed deadlines.

The Defense Department’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation J. Michael Gilmore cautioned in his 2014 annual report that the F-35B mission software will be delivered with "troubling capability shortfalls."

The full-blown F-35 mission software would not come until 2017, but the Marine Corps is looking at this in perspective: A less-than-optimum F-35B is still far more desirable than what they have now.

“The Block 2B software configuration that the Marine Corps will IOC with brings an immediate increase in combat capability compared to legacy aircraft,” said Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Paul Greenberg. “Most of the deficiencies we track are deficiencies when compared to the F-35's full combat capability in 2017.”

What matters, he said, is whether the aircraft can meet the basic needs of Marines at war, he said. In its current state, the F-35B can launch missiles, engage other aircraft in dogfights and drop bombs.

“At IOC the F-35 will be able to target in real time, talk to forward air controllers over the radio and data-link, put weapons on target and do all of that in contested environments and in bad weather,” Greenberg said. The electronic attack features of the current F-35B, he added, represent a “transformation in electronic warfare spectrum management, and this is not possible with legacy aircraft.”

The officer who oversees the F-35 program on behalf of the Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force said he is not bothered by the Marines’ decision to declare IOC much earlier than the other services. The Air Force is aiming for 2016 IOC and the Navy is eyeing 2019.

“It's their call, and I support them on this,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, the program executive officer.

Bogdan said the Block 2B software development was finished in February — four months after its original October 2014 deadline — but there are still glitches to be fixed over the course of this year. The next version, Block 3i for the Air Force, is scheduled for completion in 2016, and the one the Navy is waiting for, Block 3F, would be ready in 2018. F-35 prime contractor Lockheed Martin stands to lose $300 million in incentive fees if those deadlines aren’t met.

The software that will be delivered to the Marines in June is “good enough for IOC” and the Marines understand its limitations, Bogdan said March 24 during a meeting with reporters.

Software in general “always has been the number-one technical issue on this program. And always will be,” Bogdan said. The highly computerized aircraft runs on eight million lines of code. Much of that software manages the basic functions of the aircraft, such as flight controls, valves, fuel systems and radars.

That software is working as intended, or the airplane would be unsafe to fly. The issues are with the so-called “fusion engine” that was designed to create a unified picture of the potential threats in the airspace so multiple F-35s can fight as a single information network.

The fusion engine combines the input from the F-35 sensors — radar, electro-optical targeting system and distributed aperture system — to create a single track on the location of enemy targets in the air and on the ground. The data then is shared across the network. The software today cannot display accurate data to more than two aircraft at a time.

 “Fusion is by far the most complicated and, in my mind, worrisome element of this program,” Bogdan said.

When four F-35s flew during a test exercise in recent months, the fusion engine created a confusing and inaccurate picture. Instead of identifying an air-defense missile battery on the ground, the software would “see” double or misread the location.

“What we found is that when you have more than one F-35 looking at the same threat, they don't all see it the same,” Bogdan said. “When there's a slight difference, the fusion model can't decide if it's one or more threats.”

The fusion algorithms have to be tweaked, and that could take months. “This is not something you can test in a lab,” Bogdan said.

Marines are not losing sleep over this, at least not for now. They have come up with “workarounds” so they can use the F-35B in close-air support and air-to-air combat missions.

“There are ways in which, with the software we have, pilots can work around those problems,” Bogdan said. One option is to only use certain sensors and turn off others. Targeting data would have to be acquired individually by each pilot instead of sharing it across the network. Pilot workload would increase. Bogdan insisted that the glitches will be fixed, but he would back the Marines if they chose to delay IOC between now and July. “The aircraft will be able to do everything the Marine Corps needs it to do for IOC, it just require pilots to do workarounds.”

With just three months to go before IOC, there are other unresolved issues that Marines hope will be handled on time.

One is simply having enough production-quality airplanes to equip the first Marine Corps operational squadron MFA-121 based in Yuma, Arizona. To date, only two of the required 10 aircraft have been equipped for combat. The Marine Corps currently owns a total of 32 F-35Bs but most are test aircraft so they would not be suitable for combat.

Training also is a concern. Pilots need time to train in simulators that must have the same software as IOC airplanes. The simulators are expected to receive upgraded software over the next six weeks, Bogdan said. “

We think we'll be ok.” Another requirement for IOC planes is to have files uploaded to its computers containing important data about global threats. The “mission data files” are in the works at Air Force Air Combat Command, in Langley, Virginia. “They'll get there in July, but it's really tight,” said Bogdan.

Marines also will need to rush their aircraft technicians through training on the F-35 maintenance system, known as ALIS, or autonomic logistics information system. The system is not yet mature and it has to be shrunk in size to make it more transportable.

 “We squeezed racks into a two-man deployable ALIS,” Bogdan said. “The software had to be modified.”

Maintainers have to start training 90 days in advance of IOC, and ALIS will miss that deadline by about a month. To make up the time, Marine maintainers at Yuma will spend several weeks at Lockheed Martin’s facility in Orlando, Florida, where there is a prototype ALIS system for them to train.

“We know how to do ALIS. It's just going to take us a lot longer than we thought,” Bogdan said.

On aircraft reliability — a measure of how long airplanes fly before they need repairs — the Marine Corps B model is the worst of the three. “The A and C models today are very close to where they're supposed to be,” Bogdan said. “We still got some work to do on the B model.”

A potentially troubling flaw in the F-35B is in the structure, although Bogdan believes it is manageable.

“I'm worried about bulkhead cracks on the B model,” he said.

Based on test results, cracks develop after 4,000 to 5,000 hours of flight. The airplanes the Marines would fly this year only have a few hundred hours on them, so they would not be at risk, Bodgan said. The fact that cracks were found is not necessarily bad news, he added.

 “If you didn't have cracks, you didn't set up your test right. You want to know where the airplanes will break first.”

The Marine version has problems stemming from a major redesign of the airframe started in 2005 after it was determined the airplane was 3,000 pounds overweight. Five titanium bulkheads — including the major load-bearing structure in the center of the fuselage — were replaced with lighter aluminum components.

“Some of that, unfortunately, is coming back to bite us now,” Bogdan said. “What we thought was a good engineering judgment back then, now we have issues.” There will be modifications to the airplane to address this problem, and the entire fleet eventually will have to be retrofitted.

Another hiccup in the F-35B have been the tires. An aircraft that takes off from short runways and lands vertically requires tires with enough bounce but also must be sufficiently rugged to maintain their form in 170 mph takeoffs.

“We have been working hard to find the right balance between float and durability for vertical takeoff,” Bogdan said. “Our fourth tire is now in test. It appears to be working better than any of the others.” Tire manufacturer Dunlop has had difficulties producing the correct specs, he added, “But we’re moving in the right direction.”

Amid these technical setbacks, the Marines can at least breathe a sigh of relief that the cost of the F-35B is finally coming down. Between production lots 6 and 8 over the past two years, Bogdan said, the price of the B model has slipped from $145 million to $134 million. In its unofficial “wish list” sent to Congress, the Marine Corps requested $1 billion for six additional F-35Bs. The budget request for fiscal year 2016 includes funding for nine aircraft.

Marine officials recently have somewhat softened their stance on a July IOC, suggesting that it is not a hard deadline.

“We won't declare IOC unless we meet all of our targets,” Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, deputy commandant of the Marine Corps for aviation told the Senate Armed Services Committee March 25.

The F-35B with the current software provides “tremendous capability that we don't have today,” Davis insisted. “I have no fusion in the airplanes I operate today.” The pilots who fly it today “love the F-35B and they wouldn't go back to their original platforms.”

On the software, Davis said he would withhold judgment for now. If the squadron is not ready to declare IOC, he said, the Marine Corps will respect that. “The decision to declare IOC will be event-based and conditions-based, based on us achieving what we have to do to deliver a combat capability to our Marines,” he said. “If conditions are met, I will make a recommendation to [Commandant] General Dunford that we declare our IOC.”

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The Navy and Marine Corps are preparing their amphibious assault ships for the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter’s first ever deployment slated for 2018.

The Marine Corps short-take-off-and-landing variant of the Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35B, will be the first ever fifth-generation aircraft to deploy. The Navy is working to prepare the flight decks, sensors and weapons systems on board several amphibious are ready in 2018, service leaders told reporters April 7.

“We are making sure that the amphibs are ready to take the F-35 because they are going to be the first ones out. We will have the first F-35s deployed out in the world — of any service in any country. They will be on big deck amphibs. That’s exciting but it’s a real challenge to move forward with that,” said Maj. Gen. Robert Walsh, Navy Director of Expeditionary Warfare.

The Navy is set to provide the modifications to the USS America, the amphib commissioned this past October. It is the lead ship in a series of 11 planned America-class big-deck amphibs.

“The ship’s going through hull, mechanical and electrical mods for the F-35, including environmental mods. Some of it is deck related and some of it is lighting related. It lands on the deck differently than the Harrier,” Walsh said.

The USS America will undergo a series of intense modifications to ensure the flight deck can withstand the heat of the F-35B vertical take-offs-and-landings. Navy engineers are installing a new heat-resistant material designed to prevent heat from the aircraft’s engines from burning a hole in the flight deck, Navy officials said.

The flight deck modifications entail adding intercostal structural members underneath flight deck landing spots numbers seven and nine, a Navy official said. With the added structure, these two landing spots will provide the capability to perform closely timed cyclic flight operations with the F-35B without overstressing the flight deck, he added.

Also, some of the modifications may involve re-adjusting some of the ship’s antennas in order to allow for a clear flight path for the JSF.

These efforts involve reinforcing the flight deck with additional structural materials and moving items further down below the deck.

“Much of the effort in the America, the very time-consuming piece, is going inside the ship and dropping lighting and ventilation and piping wiring and everything down far enough so you can install new material and weld it in place and then restore all that stuff,” said Rear Adm. David Gale, Program Executive Officer, Ships.

The modifications planned for the USS America will emulate those already completed on board the USS Wasp, an amphibious assault ship which has been testing with F-35Bs for months. The Wasp is slated for F-35B operational testing next month.

“A lot of this is structural flight deck work. We’ve learned a lot on the WASP from a back-fit perspective. A lot of the effort involves having to draw services inside of the ship out of the overheads, take out insulation and go strengthen the flight deck,” Gale said.

The second America-class big-deck amphib, the USS Tripoli, is now being built with the F-35B modifications built in from the start.

“On the Tripoli, the deck is thicker right from the start. The structural supports for the deck are being built into the ship,” Gale added.

The USS Tripoli will be delivered to the Navy in 2019.

Unlike previous amphibious assault ships, the first two America-class big deck amphibs are being built without a well deck in order to optimize the platform for aviation assets such as the MV-22 Osprey and F-35B.

The third America-class amphib, called LHA 8, will feature the return of the well deck.

Walsh said the Navy is outlining how operations will change with the F-35B versus the Harrier jets the fifth generation fighter is replacing.

Harrier jets, which also have the ability to conduct vertical take-off-and-landings, are multi-role jets primarily designed for light attack missions. The Joint Strike Fighter brings a wide range of new sensors, weaponry and aviation technology to the Corps.

“What are the C5I (command, control, communications, computers, collaboration) requirements for the F-35B because they are not going to be how we operated the Harrier. What is the requirement for the F-35 to be able to disseminate data across the battlefield? What pipes need to be there?” Walsh asked.

Rear Adm. Peter Fanta, Director of Surface Warfare, said the F-35B brings a much different capability to the amphibious force, compared with Harriers.

“Having lived with Harriers on big decks — Harriers are relatively short-legged, short, operational rapid turn-around assets. Now we’re putting out an aircraft that can go for hours and travel long distances,” Fanta said.

Fanta also said that sensors, radars and weaponry on board amphibs are also being upgraded to better integrate with the F-35. For example, elements of a combat system called Surface Ship Self-Defense System are being engineered to work with Joint Strike Fighter technologies.

Fanta said the Navy is also upgrading the seeker on various ship defensive systems such as the Rolling Air Frame missile and NATO Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile to an active seeker.

“They are both going to higher threats and higher maneuver capability,” Fanta added.

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A Marine Corps helicopter had to make a precautionary landing on a popular California beach after potential engine problems on April 15. 

The Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion was forced to land on Solana Beach, approximately 20 miles north of San Diego. The Marine pilots made the precautionary landing after "receiving a low oil pressure indicator,"according to the official media release of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.  

The helicopter safely landed on the beach without injury to the pilots and crew or to any bystanders on the beach. The Marines also dispatched a Hazardous Material Team to investigate and clean the surrounding area for any potential chemical or oil spills. 

The Super Stallion is the largest and heaviest helicopter in the US military. The helicopter is used for heavy lifting and transport; it is well suited for amphibious operations as it can go from ship to shore.

The Super Stallion was conducting routine training at the time of the precautionary landing. 

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Based at MCAS Cherry Point, in North Carolina, Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Training Squadron 1, or VMAQT-1, is responsible for training of student pilots and electronics-countermeasures officers destined to fly the EA-6B Prowler.

The unit, previously VMAQ-1, or Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 1, was assigned the training role in 2013, when the Navy transition from the Prowler to the EA-18G Growler forced the Marine Corps to assume the responsibilities of "insourcing" training its EA-6B aircrews (previously trained by the USN at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington) to feed its squadrons until 2019.

Prowler training focuses on the Marine Corps aviation tasks: assault support, antiaircraft warfare, offensive air support, electronic warfare, control of aircraft and missiles, and aerial reconnaissance.

On April 14, 2015, VMAQT-1 student pilots and electronics-countermeasures officers took part in a training mission aimed at improving their skills to perform dynamic maneuvers while focusing on communication and radar jamming.

The stunning images in this post were taken from the cargo door of a C-130.

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Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis wants Post 9/11 veterans to know their wartime service strengthens their character through what he has coined “post-traumatic growth.”

Writing in The Wall Street Journal, the former Centcom commander adapted a speech he gave recently in San Francisco that is a must-read for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. In it, he writes of how veterans should reject a “victimhood” mentality and ask for nothing more than a level playing field after they return home.

Mattis writes:

For whatever trauma came with service in tough circumstances, we should take what we learned—take our post-traumatic growth—and, like past generations coming home, bring our sharpened strengths to bear, bring our attitude of gratitude to bear. And, most important, we should deny cynicism a role in our view of the world.

We know that in tough times cynicism is just another way to give up, and in the military we consider cynicism or giving up simply as forms of cowardice. No matter how bad any situation, cynicism has no positive impact. Watching the news, you might notice that cynicism and victimhood often seem to go hand-in-hand, but not for veterans. People who have faced no harsh trials seem to fall into that mode, unaware of what it indicates when taking refuge from responsibility for their actions. This is an area where your example can help our society rediscover its courage and its optimism.

Well-known and especially beloved by Marines, the 64-year-old general retired from the service in 2013 after 41 years in uniform. Since then, he has been teaching at Dartmouth and Stanford University, offered testimony to Congress, and started work on a book on leadership and strategy.

“I am reminded of Gen. William Sherman’s words when bidding farewell to his army in 1865: ‘As in war you have been good soldiers, so in peace you will make good citizens,'” Mattis wrote.

You can read his full article at WSJ 

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Army and Marine first sergeants have to talk a lot, considering their duties as company-level senior enlisted leaders. While they primarily act as advisors to company commanders and deal with administrative issues, they sometimes say things that drive troops crazy.

1. “It would behoove you … “

Often used by first sergeants to tell troops that it would be a good idea to do something — “it would behoove you to wear your eye-pro on the range” — it’s often overused and mispronounced as “bee-who-of-you.”

2. “Hey there, gents”

Short for gentlemen, first sergeants sometimes refer to their troops as gents. Of course, this is totally fine and not a big deal, except when you are called a gent all of the time.

3. “Utilize”

According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, “utilize” means to use. So stop making a word choice so complicated and just freaking say use.

4. “All this and a paycheck too!”

In the Army and Marine Corps, you get to work out, shoot stuff, and blow things up, and you get paid for it. It’s often pretty fun — who doesn’t love explosives?! — but the “all this and a paycheck too!” comment from the first sergeant doesn’t usually come at these moments. It comes at halfway point of a 20-mile hike when you are sucking wind and hoping for death.

Also, you make way more than everyone else here. And is that a pillow in your rucksack?

5. “If you’re gonna drive, don’t drink. If you’re gonna drink, don’t drive.”

Just one of the many things first sergeant mentions in his lengthy talk before allowing the company to leave for the weekend, “if you’re gonna drive, don’t drink” is solid advice that should be followed. But it’s also part of a boring brief that he repeats word-for-word EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK.

Other phrases troops may hear during the libo brief include, “If you’re gonna tap it, wrap it,” and “take care of each other out there.” In first sergeant’s defense, he’s required to give this brief to cover his own butt, in addition to it being a hopeless attempt at avoiding the inevitable 3am phone call to come on Saturday.

6. “The first sergeant”

When you pick up staff non-commissioned officer in the Army or Marine Corps, they must take you in a room and tell you that you can start talking in the third-person, because it happens a lot. Hearing about what “the first sergeant” would do, as opposed to what “I” would do is eye-roll worthy.

“The first sergeant would make sure to let his battle buddy know.”

7. “Good to go? / Hooah?”

First sergeants like to use common catchphrases to make sure their troops understand. While a “good to go?” makes sense to gauge whether troops are listening, when it comes after every sentence in the liberty brief, it can get old very quick. For Army first sergeants and others, it’s pretty common to use the motivational “hooah” in a questioning manner. Hooah?

8. “We got a lot of moving parts here.”

Let’s not get wrapped around the axle here, gents. We’ve got battalion formation in the A.M., the general is coming in, so we need to be there at 0400, good to go? We got a lot of moving parts here, so let’s try to all stay on the same page, good to go?

9. “Give me three bodies!”

If you ever need a great example of language that makes you feel like you are just a number in the military, look no further than someone asking “for bodies.” What first sergeant means here is that he needs three motivated U.S. Marines to carry out a working party.

“Just get my goddamn bodies, turd.”

“Roger, first sergeant.”

10. “You trackin’?”

Often used just like “good to go?” or “Hooah?” the phrase “you trackin’?” is first sergeant’s other way of making sure we all understand. We’re all looking in your direction, listening to the words you are saying, tracking along just fine.

11. “Got any saved rounds?”

Last but certainly not least is the phrase “got any saved rounds?” which is a way of asking if anyone has anything to add. This one usually comes at the end of long meetings and should be followed by complete silence, so we can get out of this godforsaken room.

Inevitably, Carl over there is going to say something.

So, got any saved rounds? Any phrases we missed? Let us know in the comments.

SEE ALSO: 41 phrases only people in the military will understand

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Long before Chris Kyle penned "American Sniper," Carlos Hathcock was already a legend.

He taught himself to shoot as a boy, as did Alvin York and Audie Murphy before him. He had dreamed of being a US Marine his whole life, and he enlisted in 1959 at just 17 years old.

Hathcock was an excellent sharpshooter by then, winning the Wimbledon Cup shooting championship in 1965, the year before he would deploy to Vietnam and change the face of American warfare forever.

He deployed in 1966 as a military policeman but immediately volunteered for combat and was soon transferred to the 1st Marine Division Sniper Platoon, stationed at Hill 55, South of Da Nang.

This is where Hathcock would earn the nickname "White Feather"— because he always wore a white feather on his bush hat, daring the North Vietnamese to spot him — and where he would achieve his status as the Vietnam War's deadliest sniper in missions that sound as if they were pulled from the pages of Marvel comics.

White Feather Versus The General

Early morning and early evening were Hathcock's favorite times to strike.  This was important when he volunteered for a mission he knew nothing about.

"First light and last light are the best times," he said. "In the morning, they're going out after a good night's rest, smoking, laughing. When they come back in the evenings, they're tired, lollygagging, not paying attention to detail."

He observed this firsthand, at arms reach, when trying to dispatch a North Vietnamese Army (NVA) general officer. For four days and three nights, Hathcock low-crawled inch by inch, a move he called "worming," without food or sleep, more than 1,500 yards to get close to the general. This was the only time he ever removed the feather from his cap.

"Over a time period like that you could forget the strategy, forget the rules and end up dead," he said. "I didn't want anyone dead, so I took the mission myself, figuring I was better than the rest of them, because I was training them."

Hathcock moved to a treeline near the NVA encampment.

"There were two twin .51s next to me," he said. "I started worming on my side to keep my slug trail thin. I could have tripped the patrols that came by." The general stepped out onto a porch and yawned. The general's aide stepped in front of him, and by the time he moved away, the general was down, the bullet went through his heart. Hathcock was 700 yards away.

"I had to get away," Hathcock said. "When I made the shot, everyone ran to the treeline because that's where the cover was." The soldiers searched for the sniper for three days as he made his way back.

They never even saw him.

"Carlos became part of the environment," said Edward Land, Hathcock's commanding officer. "He totally integrated himself into the environment. He had the patience, drive, and courage to do the job. He felt very strongly that he was saving Marine lives."

With 93 confirmed kills — his longest at 2,500 yards — and an estimated 300 more, for Hathcock, it really wasn't about the killing.

"I really didn't like the killing," he once told a reporter. "You'd have to be crazy to enjoy running around the woods, killing people. But if I didn't get the enemy, they were going to kill the kids over there." Saving American lives is something Hathcock took to heart.

'The Best Shot I Ever Made'

"She was a bad woman," Carlos Hathcock once said of the woman known as "Apache.""Normally kill squads would just kill a Marine and take his shoes or whatever, but the Apache was very sadistic. She would do anything to cause pain."

This was the trademark of the female Viet Cong platoon leader. She captured Americans in the area around Hathcock's unit and tortured them without mercy.

"I was in her backyard; she was in mine. I didn't like that," Hathcock said. "It was personal, very personal. She'd been torturing Marines before I got there."

In November 1966, she captured a Marine private and tortured him within earshot of his own unit.

"She tortured him all afternoon, half the next day," Hathcock recalls. "I was by the wire … He walked out, died right by the wire. Apache skinned the private, cut off his eyelids, removed his fingernails, and then castrated him before letting him go. Hathcock attempted to save him, but he was too late.

Hathcock had enough. He set out to kill Apache before she could kill any more Marines. One day, he and his spotter got a chance.

They observed an NVA sniper platoon on the move. At 700 yards in, one of them stepped off the trail, and Hathcock took what he calls the best shot he ever made.

"We were in the midst of switching rifles. We saw them," he remembered. "I saw a group coming, five of them. I saw her squat to pee; that's how I knew it was her. They tried to get her to stop, but she didn't stop. I stopped her. I put one extra in her for good measure."

A 5-Day Engagement

One day during a forward observation mission, Hathcock and his spotter encountered a newly minted company of NVA troops. They had new uniforms but no support and no communications.

"They had the bad luck of coming up against us," he said. "They came right up the middle of the rice paddy. I dumped the officer in front; my observer dumped the one in the back." The last officer started running the opposite direction.

"Running across a rice paddy is not conducive to good health," Hathcock remarked. "You don't run across rice paddies very fast."

According to Hathcock, once a sniper fires three shots, he leaves. With no leaders left, after three shots, the opposing platoon wasn't moving.

"So there was no reason for us to go either," the sniper said. "No one in charge, a bunch of Ho Chi Minh's finest young go-getters, nothing but a bunch of hamburgers out there." Hathcock called artillery at all times through the coming night, with flares going on the whole time. When morning came, the NVA were still there.

"We didn't withdraw; we just moved," Hathcock recalled. "They attacked where we were the day before. That didn't get far either."

White Feather And The M2

Though the practice had been in use since the Korean War, Carlos Hathcock made the use of the M2 .50-caliber machine gun as a long-range sniper weapon a normal practice. He designed a rifle mount, built by Navy Seabees, which allowed him to easily convert the weapon.

"I was sent to see if that would work," He recalled. "We were elevated on a mountain with bad guys all over. I was there three days, observing. On the third day, I zeroed at 1,000 yards, longest 2,500. Here comes the hamburger, came right across the spot where it was zeroed, he bent over to brush his teeth and I let it fly. If he hadn't stood up, it would have gone over his head. But it didn't."

The distance of that shot was 2,460 yards — almost a mile and a half — and it stood as a record until broken in 2002 by Canadian sniper Arron Perry in Afghanistan.

White Feather Versus The Cobra

"If I hadn't gotten him just then," Hathcock remembers, "he would have gotten me."

Many American snipers had a bounty on their heads. These were usually worth one or two thousand dollars. The reward for the sniper with the white feather in his bush cap, however, was worth $30,000.

Like a sequel to the film "Enemy at The Gates," Hathcock became such a thorn in the side of the NVA that they eventually sent their own best sniper to kill him. He was known as the Cobra and would become Hathcock’s most famous encounter in the course of the war.

"He was doing bad things," Hathcock said. "He was sent to get me, which I didn't really appreciate. He killed a gunny outside my hooch. I watched him die. I vowed I would get him some way or another."

That was the plan. The Cobra would kill many Marines around Hill 55 in an attempt to draw Hathcock out of his base.

"I got my partner; we went out we trailed him. He was very cagey, very smart. He was close to being as good as I was … But no way, ain't no way ain't nobody that good." In an interview filmed in the 1990s, Hathcock discussed how close he and his partner came to being a victim of the Cobra.

"I fell over a rotted tree. I made a mistake and he made a shot. He hit my partner's canteen. We thought he'd been hit because we felt the warmness running over his leg. But he'd just shot his canteen dead."

Eventually the team of Hathcock and his partner, John Burke, and the Cobra had switched places.

"We worked around to where he was," Hathcock said. "I took his old spot, he took my old spot, which was bad news for him because he was facing the sun and glinted off the lens of his scope, I saw the glint and shot the glint." White Feather had shot the Cobra just moments before the Cobra would have taken his own shot.

"I was just quicker on the trigger, otherwise he would have killed me," Hathcock said. "I shot right straight through his scope, didn't touch the sides."

With a wry smile, he added: "And it didn't do his eyesight no good either."

In 1969, a vehicle Hathcock was riding in struck a landmine and knocked the Marine unconscious. He came to and pulled seven of his fellow Marines from the burning wreckage. He left Vietnam with burns on over 40% of his body. He received the Silver Star for this action in 1996.

After the mine ended his sniping career, he established the Marine Sniper School at Quantico, teaching Marines how to "get into the bubble," a state of complete concentration. He was in intense pain as he taught at Quantico, and he also suffered from Multiple Sclerosis, the disease that would ultimately kill him — something the NVA could never accomplish.

SEE ALSO: 'American Sniper' Inspiration Chris Kyle Explains How Snipers Change A Battle

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WASHINGTON (AP) — It's not against the law or military regulations to choose not to sit with someone in the dining hall or to unfriend them on Facebook, but in the traumatic aftermath of a sexual assault, a victim could interpret those moves as retaliation.

In these days when a tweet or Instagram photo can be wielded as weapons, the Pentagon is struggling to define retaliation and rein in bullying or other behavior that victims perceive as vengeful.

At the same time, military leaders are expanding efforts to better train their lower- and midlevel commanders to detect and deal with retaliation, while also insuring that other, more innocent actions are not misinterpreted by assault victims.

On Friday, the Pentagon released a deeper analysis of the sexual assault survey data made public last December. That report acknowledges the difficulties in gathering data about retaliation, including problems with how some of the survey questions may have been misinterpreted and that incidents of retaliation may have been over counted.

It's a thorny problem for the military, in the aftermath of a RAND study that concluded that about 60 percent of sexual assault victims believe they have faced retaliation from commanders or peers. Members of Congress are demanding swift steps to protect whistle-blowers, including sexual assault victims who have been wronged as a result of their reports or complaints.

Pentagon leaders said the survey questions need to reflect what legally constitutes retaliation, which includes taking action to discourage someone from going forward with an assault complaint. But they also acknowledged that often victims believe they are being retaliated against if peers no longer invite them to parties or if they are disciplined for illegal drug or alcohol use in connection with the assault.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter unveiled four new initiatives to focus training more directly on the differences in assaults on men and women and increased efforts to prevent retaliation.

The survey showed that unwanted sexual contact against men usually involves multiple assailants on more than one occasion, happens during work hours at their duty station and is more often described by the victim as hazing or an effort to humiliate them. Incidents described by women are usually after work hours, off the base and often involve alcohol use by either the victim or the perpetrator.

Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Snow, director of the Pentagon's sexual assault prevention program, said the military services are working to get better information about the assaults and retaliation so they can improve training.

Sexual assault is such a heinous crime, Snow said, that a victim may easily interpret any action by a superior -- even a transfer to give the victim time to heal -- as a reprisal.

Last December, the RAND survey estimated that 62 percent of sexual assault victims believed they faced some type of professional retaliation, social ostracism, adverse administrative action or punishment.

But defense and military officials involved in sexual assault response and reporting now say the questions may have inadvertently included innocent actions by commanders seeking to protect the victim or other social practices that were not designed to persuade a victim not to press forward with criminal proceedings. RAND has since dropped its estimate, saying that about 57 percent of assault victims believe they faced retaliation.

According to survey data, many of the women said the retaliation came in the form of social backlash from co-workers or other service members.

Snow and Galbreath said the military must understand what exactly that is, and whether they can determine if the social reaction is designed to deter a victim from pursuing legal action -- which would more clearly be retaliation.

Officials also agreed that if victims believed he or she were being targeted or unfairly punished, then those concerns must be addressed. They said commanders need to find ways to detect those problems and stop them, either by taking action against perpetrators or making it known throughout the unit that social ostracism is not acceptable, and by communicating better with victims.

One challenge is to do that without violating the privacy of a victim. Often a lower-level commander may not be aware of a sexual assault case, and could inadvertently discipline someone for failing to show up for duty, when they may have been seeking health care or other assistance.

In other cases, a commander may try to transfer assault victims to get them the help they need, give them time to heal or get them away from a bad situation. But victims may see that as professional retaliation if it stalls their military career or puts them in a less desirable job or location. But officials said commanders need more training so they can better handle those situations.

Last December, the Pentagon reported that there were a bit more than 6,100 victims of reported sexual assaults in 2014, an increase of about 11 percent. And an anonymous survey of service members showed that about 19,000 troops said they were victims of some type of unwanted sexual contact, down from about 26,000 in a 2012 survey.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is choosing a widely respected, combat-hardened commander who led the Afghanistan war coalition during a key transitional period during 2013-14 as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

U.S. officials say he is nominating Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr. to the post to succeed Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, who will have served four years as chairman.

Obama plans to make the announcement at the White House Tuesday, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly ahead of the announcement. Dunford is expected to be easily confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Dunford's service as the commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps will be cut short after he began that job last October. But the rapid promotion is one of several that have marked Dunford's fast-tracked military career, which saw him leap from a one-star general to four stars in about three years.

Officials also said Obama is tapping Gen. Paul J. Selva, a top Air Force officer and pilot, to serve as vice chairman. Selva, who has clocked more than 3,100 hours piloting transport and refueling aircraft, is currently the head of U.S. Transportation Command at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois.

Dunford began his career as an infantry officer and has commanded at all levels. He served nearly two years in Iraq, including as head of the Marines' 5th Regimental Combat Team during the 2003 invasion, where he earned the nickname "Fighting Joe."

He is well-connected internationally, often meeting with NATO and other coalition leaders, particularly during his Afghanistan command. His selection signals that even as the U.S. puts more focus on Asia and looks ahead to high-tech cyber and space threats, the administration still believes a strong ground force commander is needed to work through the ongoing conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and across the Middle East and Africa.

If confirmed, Dunford would be only the second Marine to serve as chairman. Gen. Peter Pace, the first Marine chosen as chairman, served one two-year term from 2005 to 2007, but was not renominated by then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates because the Pentagon chief feared a long, difficult Senate hearing focusing on the sharp divisions over the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wouldn't confirm the selection Monday, but he gave the choice a thumbs-up — a critical factor for an administration that doesn't want to go through a drawn-out Senate confirmation process.

Dunford's most visible role came in 2013 when he was chosen to take over the job as top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan. During his 18 months there, Dunford oversaw the ongoing drawdown of U.S. troops, the transition to Afghan military lead in combat operations, and the tumultuous Afghan elections that dragged on and stalled efforts to reach an agreement on the U.S. military's future presence in the country.

He left Afghanistan last August, preparing to take on his new role as commandant.

Dunford, 59, is a Boston native and holds master's degrees in government from Georgetown University and international relations from Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

___

Associated Press writer Deb Riechmann contributed to this report.

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President Barack Obama will nominate the second Marine General to serve as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Associated Press reports.

Dunford, commandant of the Marine Corps, would replace Army General Martin Dempsey, who is expected to step down in September as the top military officer after a tumultuous four-year period that saw most U.S. forces withdraw from Afghanistan but thousands return to Iraq.

Nicknamed "Fighting Joe" he has experience in both wars, and before becoming the top Marine general in late 2014, led U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan as they handed over greater responsibility to Afghan troops battling a still-resilient Taliban.

This infographic shows former chairmen and their length in office (via Dadaviz):

In addition, Obama will nominate Air Force General Paul Selva, currently the commander of the U.S. Transportation Command, as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

"A formal announcement is expected at the White House tomorrow," a U.S. defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Dunford, a Boston native, is a 38-year veteran of the Marines. He was commissioned as an officer in 1977 and served as a platoon and company commander for several years before moving to administrative roles.

He holds two master's degrees and is a graduate of the elite Army Ranger School.

As the United States moved toward war with Iraq in 2003, Dunford - then a colonel - found himself in the First Marine Expeditionary Force serving as commander of Regimental Combat Team 5, the unit that would lead the U.S. invasion, seize the Rumaila oil fields and then head toward Baghdad.

Dunford's perhaps most high-profile role was commanding international forces in Afghanistan, juggling efforts to empower Afghans and withdraw American troops despite a strained U.S. relationship with then-Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

His ability to grapple with that difficult transition made him a top contender for the post, as did his time at the helm of the Marine Corps, officials say.

Dunford's nomination is also likely a reflection that, even as Obama prepares to leave office next year with far fewer troops at war, he will still need a chairman with battlefield experience.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Phil Stewart; Additional reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Peter Cooney and Leslie Adler)

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The Marine Corps has served a role in every conflict in the history of the United States.

That is because the Marines operate on sea, air, and land — unlike the other services — and can respond to a crisis in under 24 hours with the full force of a modern military.

Earlier this week President Barack Obama nominated Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr. to serve as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the second Marine to ever hold the highest leadership position in the armed services.

Today there are more than 200,000 active-duty and reserve Marines. We have pulled some of the coolest photos from the Marine Corps archives.

Created in 1798, the Marine Corps Band was called "The President’s Own" by President Jefferson during his inaugural ball. Since then, the band has played at every presidential inauguration. Here's the band in 1893.

In the early 1900s, Marine forces were active in China and the Philippines. This photo from 1907 shows Marines posing in front of the Great Sphinx in Egypt.

World War I was characterized by trench warfare and the use of poison gas. Mortars were useful in muddy trenches because a mortar round could be aimed to fall directly into trenches — unlike artillery shells. These Marines are posing with a German trench mortar captured in France in 1918.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. military helicopter carrying six Marines and two Nepalese Army soldiers went missing during a mission in Nepal delivering aid to earthquake victims, U.S. defense officials said Tuesday, but so far there have been no indications that the aircraft crashed.

U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren said an Indian helicopter in the air nearby at the time heard radio chatter from the Marine aircraft about a possible fuel problem. He said the Huey, carrying tarps and rice, had dropped off supplies in one location and was en route to a second site when contact was lost. He said officials are hopeful that the aircraft is simply missing because there has been no smoke or other signs of a crash.

Navy Capt. Chris Sims says the Huey was conducting disaster relief operations near Charikot, Nepal, on Tuesday, around 9 a.m. EDT.

Warren said a Nepalese air brigade unit had seen the Huey, so Marines in V-22 Osprey aircraft searched near that last known location for about 90 minute but found nothing. Because it's now dark, members of the Nepalese Army are conducting the search on foot. Warren said they are moving toward the second aid location to see if the helicopter landed near there.

Because of the rugged mountainous terrain, the helicopter could have landed in a low area but the Marines may not be able to get a beacon or radio signal out, Warren said. He added that U.S. airborne para-rescue forces have rehearsed rescue missions, and are ready to go if needed.

The aircraft is part of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 469, and the incident is under investigation.

There are about 300 U.S. troops in Nepal assisting with the rescue mission, using a variety of aircraft including three Hueys, four Ospreys and several cargo planes.

SEE ALSO: Another major earthquake just hit Nepal

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Camp Pendleton is the best place in the world for Marines to be stationed.

Sorry Hawaii Marines, but I'm calling it for Pendleton. That giant, wonderful base found between San Diego and Orange County on the Pacific coast is simply the best.

I've viseted or been stationed at Marine bases in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii; Okinawa; Twentynine Palms; Camp Lejeune; and others. But no place is better than Camp Pendleton, in my opinion. Here are six reasons:

1. Camp Pendleton is home to the oldest and largest active-duty Marine division.

Marines at Camp Pendleton who fall under the "Blue Diamond" can be especially proud of their heritage. With roughly 25,000 Marines and sailors in its ranks, 1st Marine Division is "the oldest, largest, and most decorated division in the United States Marine Corps," according to its official website.

It has also had some notable commanders, such as the legendary Gen. James "Mad Dog" Mattis, who led the division during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Then there are others who made 1st Mar Div their home at some point before they rose to the top as Commandant of the Marine Corps: Gens. Vandegrift, Shoup, Gray, and Dunford (who will soon take over as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs).

You also can’t beat the nickname: "No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy."

2. Pendleton is located right between two amazing cities.

Camp Pendleton is situated right between Los Angeles and San Diego. Running about 20 miles of I-5 from San Clemente to Oceanside, the sprawling installation offers countless opportunities for fun off-base. Many junior Marines visit Oceanside while in training at the School of Infantry, but others know to head further away to San Diego for awesome bars, culture, and parks, or they head further north and brave Los Angeles traffic.

And for those stationed on the north end of the base, Orange County offers amazing beaches, clubs, and bars, and perhaps most important …

3. Burritos, burritos, and burritos. Oh, and tacos, too.

Pedro's Tacos in San Clemente claims the title of "world's best tacos since 1986," and I believe it. While its awesome fish tacos are about 10 minutes outside of Pendleton's northernmost gate, there are plenty of great Mexican-food options to choose from in southern California.

Marines also rave about Colima's Mexican Restaurant in Oceanside, which offers monster carne asada burritos, tacos, quesadillas, and everything else you'd expect. It is also known for the "California burrito," which has french fries in it. Trust me, it’s good.

4. The weather is perfect.

Marines stationed in the desert of Twentynine Palms, California, are sweating their butts off year-round, while Camp Lejeune's weather can be hot, pleasant, or freezing, depending on the time of year. Then there's Okinawa, which is so humid I'm overheating just thinking about it.

Some may argue in favor of Hawaii for this point, but let's not forget the mysterious rain that comes out of nowhere when there are no clouds in sky.

Southern California offers the best weather overall. The average annual temperature is about 62 degrees, but that's only because of the winter months bringing temps down slightly below 70. Most of the year, the region enjoys sunshine, little rain, and temperatures in the upper 70s and 80s.

Which leads me to the next point:

5. You can literally go surfing and snowboarding in the same day.

If you are into surfing, Marines in Hawaii have the obvious edge over everyone else. But you can't beat Southern California in this boast: You can go surfing on Saturday morning and be snowboarding on a decent mountain in the same afternoon.

This amazing feat can be worked out by hitting up one of the best surf breaks in the world at Trestles (located at San Onofre beach on base) before driving up to Mount High or Big Bear — a little over two hours away — to hit the slopes.

6. When you leave the base, you are actually leaving the base.

At my first base in K-Bay, Hawaii, most Marines left base for the local area of Kailua or took the drive out to Waikiki for the weekends. But because it was a tiny island, you could never really escape the base: High-and-tight haircuts and Marines were everywhere (among other military service members).

Hawaii may be an island, but most Marine Corps bases are similar. The towns outside it are filled with Marines (and higher-ups). It's kind of a bummer if you are filling up your gas tank in Jacksonville, North Carolina (outside of Camp Lejeune) and told your civilian clothing choices are incorrect and you need to go fix yourself.

Camp Pendleton doesn't really have this problem, especially if Marines are heading out to the larger cities of LA and San Diego (Oceanside is another story).

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The U.S. Marine Corps is bringing together foreign commanders from amphibious forces deployed mostly in the Asia-Pacific for a conference aimed at taking initial steps to integrate their operations, with China excluded from the event, according to officials and planning documents.

The effort centers on a first-of-its-kind conference between the Marine Corps and military officials from 23 countries that opens in Hawaii on Monday.

More than half the nations attending are from Asia, including some embroiled in territorial disputes with China such as Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam.

On the agenda will be amphibious assault tactics, including ship-to-shore assaults, and a demonstration of shore landing tactics, said a USMC spokesman in Hawaii.

A planning document prepared by a consultant to the U.S. military and reviewed by Reuters notes that China should "not be invited" because it's a "competitor" to the United States and some of the countries attending.

Washington has grown increasingly critical of China's assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea, especially its land reclamation around seven reefs in the Spratly chain. Satellite images show at least one airstrip under construction.

A U.S. official said on Tuesday that the Pentagon was considering sending U.S. military aircraft and ships to assert freedom of navigation around the reefs.

Asked about China's exclusion, the Marine spokesman said U.S. law prohibited military-to-military exchanges with China at such events.

U.S. defense officials added that it was not unusual to exclude Chinese military personnel from participating in some training hosted by U.S. forces.

China took part in U.S.-led Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) naval exercises last year with more than 20 countries, but one defense official noted its participation was limited to things like humanitarian relief and search and rescue operations.

China's Defence Ministry had no immediate comment.

BEACH LANDINGS

Amphibious forces specialize in launching maritime operations including beach landings from boats and helicopters and are often used to deliver and coordinate aid following natural disasters. The vast island-dotted and disaster-prone geography of Asia lends itself to such operations.

A key goal of the Hawaii meeting would be to lay the groundwork for multilateral amphibious exercises, including drills between participant nations, even without U.S. involvement, the planning document said.

On Tuesday, the visiting military officials will observe a U.S. Marine exercise involving helicopter carriers, landing ships and other vessels that will create an offshore sea base that could be used in combat or to coordinate disaster relief.

Brigadier Richard Spencer, deputy commander of the British Royal Marines, who will attend the conference, said it would be a success if it paved the way for participating nations to run joint disaster relief efforts using marine forces.

"My inclination would be to start with a relatively realistic level of ambition ... I would rather set a low bar and achieve it," Spencer told Reuters on the sidelines of a defense conference in the Japanese city of Yokohama.

The U.S. Marines were the "logical integrator" for amphibious capabilities in Asia, which would interest allies like Japan, South Korea and Australia, said Michael Green, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

"(It would) also be helpful to other partners dealing with vulnerabilities from natural disasters to encroachment and coercion by large maritime claimants," he said.

China claims most of the South China Sea. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also claim parts of the waterway.

China last month defended its Spratlys reclamation, saying the new islands would provide civilian services such as search and rescue facilities.

Beijing is also at loggerheads with Japan over uninhabited isles in the East China Sea.   

HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS?

U.S. military planners are concerned that bilateral exercises between American forces and friendly nations around Asia have done little more than show off the U.S. Marines.

    In such drills the Marines are like the Harlem Globetrotters, the basketball entertainers who outmatch their hapless opponents, said the consultant to the U.S. military, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

With some 80,000 personnel or almost half its strength in Asia, the U.S. Marines are the biggest amphibious force in the region. Most are based on Japan's Okinawa island on the edge of the East China Sea.

With around 12,000 marines, China is a formidable potential foe, say military experts.

Countries in dispute with China over territory in the South China Sea don't have large amphibious forces.

Two late entrants to amphibious warfare training are close U.S. allies: Australia and Japan. 

Australia last year launched the Canberra, the first of two planned amphibious ships, each able to land 1,000 troops. Japan, which under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pursuing a more muscular defense policy, is training its first marines since World War Two.

Melding an integrated amphibious force in Asia able to divide tasks between nations and operate seamlessly would take time, said Ben Schreer, senior defense strategy analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

"The challenges are military complexity, capability standards, limited funding, competing priorities and, in some cases, overlapping claims in the South China Sea," he said.

(Additional reporting by David Alexander and Phil Stewart in WASHINGTON; Editing by Dean Yates)

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Nepal's army says that the bodies of all eight people on board the US Marine helicopter that disappeared this week during a relief mission in the earthquake-hit Himalayan nation have been recovered.

Saturday's press statement says Nepali and US military personnel are at the crash site in the mountains northeast of capital Kathmandu.

The wreckage was first spotted by Nepalese troops and army helicopters Friday. The discovery followed days of intense search involving US and Nepalese aircraft and US satellites. The aircraft went missing while delivering aid on Tuesday.

The helicopter was carrying six Marines and two Nepalese army soldiers.

A separate team sent by the US Marines said they identified the wreckage as the missing helicopter, the UH-1 "Huey," but so far have not identified the bodies.

SEE ALSO: Wreckage of the missing US military helicopter has been found in Nepal

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Smoke and fire rushed from a crash site in Hawaii after a U.S. Marine Osprey went down in a "hard landing," killing one Marine and injuring 21 other people, some critically.

Twenty-two people were aboard the MV-22 Osprey, including 21 Marines and one Navy corpsman assigned to the unit, spokesman Capt. Brian Block said in an email.

The tilt-rotor aircraft, which can take off and land like a helicopter but flies like an airplane, had a "hard-landing mishap" at about 11:40 a.m. Sunday at Bellows Air Force Station on Oahu, the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit said in a statement.

The injuries ranged from critical to minor, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific spokesman Capt. Alex Lim said.

The cause of the crash was under investigation, Lim said.

The 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit is based at Camp Pendleton in California and is in Hawaii for about a week for training. The Osprey was being used for training at Bellows at the time of the hard landing.

Kimberly Hynd said she was hiking the popular Lanikai Pillbox Trail and could see three Osprey aircraft performing maneuvers from her vantage point in the hills above Bellows. She noticed them kicking up dirt but then saw smoke and fire. Hynd, who estimated she was 2 to 3 miles away, didn't hear the sound of a large crash.

"It looked like they were doing some sort of maneuver or formation — and so I was taking pictures of it because usually you can't see them that close up," Hynd said.

Donald Gahit said he saw smoke rising in the air from Bellows when he looked outside his house after hearing sirens pass by.

"At first I thought it was clouds, but it was moving fast and it was pretty dark," the Waimanalo resident said.

Ospreys may be equipped with radar, lasers and a missile defense system. Each can carry 24 Marines into combat.

Built by Boeing Co. and Bell, a unit of Textron Inc., the Osprey program was nearly scrapped after a history of mechanical failures and two test crashes that killed 23 Marines in 2000.

The aircraft have since been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Some Osprey are also helping with earthquake relief efforts in Nepal.

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Every small-town tough guy thinks he'd never take treatment like this.

Then when they get down to Parris Island, that small-town tough guy quickly realizes: You will take treatment like this and like it.

Welcome to a behind-the-scenes look at Marine Corps recruit training. Drill Instructors are the thing of legend — I remember, when they finally let us sleep for the first time, about 50 truly harrowing hours from the time we arrived, and those lights shut out, each of us in our racks, I heard a decent handful of grown men crying for their mothers.

I'm not even joking.

Like I said, the thing of legend. These guys spend 13 weeks crushing every undisciplined aspect of a recruit's body into dust.

Their faces are priceless, and at times it takes everything you've got not to laugh.

Showing emotion is strictly forbidden though — Marines call this 'bearing,' and they are regularly graded on it.