Marine Corps

Wallace M. Greene Jr., a retired four-star general who was commandant of the Marine Corps during the buildup of U.S. forces for the war in Southeast Asia, died Saturday in Alexandria, Va. He was 95, and the cause of death was multiple myeloma. During a 37-year career, Greene gained a reputation as a brilliant staff officer, long-range planner and troubleshooter. He served as commandant from 1964 through 1967.

As the chaperon of Michigan's Muskegon Lassies in the 1940s, Helen Hannah Campbell made sure the professional baseball players wore lipstick and properly modest uniform skirts in the "girls league" founded to keep ballparks filled while men were away at war. The daughter of a major league catcher who played on the New York Yankees with Babe Ruth, Campbell was familiar with the demands and rules of the game. But she credited her experience in the Marine Corps Reserve with preparing her to oversee the conduct, care - and personal lives - of her young charges.

Days after an aerial embolism from a high-altitude glider flight ruined his boyhood dream of becoming a fighter pilot, Lance Cpl. Howard A. Foote Jr. of Los Alamitos flew into Marine Corps history and the end of his military career. Under cover of darkness five years ago, the 20-year-old aviation mechanic stole an A-4M Skyhawk from El Toro Marine Corps Air Station and put the aging fighter-bomber through a series of high-speed maneuvers over the black waters of the Pacific.

A large U.S. military map of Husaybah, a remote city on the Iraqi border with Syria, was spread across a table in the garage of a home outside the Marine Corps base here. The young men looking at the map know a great deal about Husaybah: They fought some of the bloodiest battles of the U.S.' long war in Iraq there. Remembrance of those days, unscripted and passionate, was at the heart of a reunion this past weekend of 75-plus Marines who served in Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment.

The Marine Corps released the identities Wednesday night of the seven Marines who died this week when a mortar shell exploded during a live-fire training exercise at Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada.  Those killed were Pfc. Joshua M. Martino, 19, of Clearfield, Pa.; Lance Cpl. David P. Fenn II, 20, of Polk City, Fla.; Lance Cpl. Roger W. Muchnick Jr., 23, of Fairfield, Conn.; Lance Cpl. Joshua C. Taylor, 21, of Marietta, Ohio; Lance Cpl. Mason J....

James E. Swett, a former U.S. Marine Corps pilot who was awarded the Medal of Honor after shooting down seven Japanese bombers in 15 minutes over the Solomon Islands during World War II, died Sunday of congestive heart failure at Mercy Medical Center in Redding, Calif. He was 88.

A temporary restraining order, issued to prevent the Marine Corps from drumming Staff Sgt. Michael Jordan out of the corps because he tested positive in a surprise drug test, was extended for 10 days Thursday by a federal judge. The Marine Corps should use the time to reconsider its action denying Jordan the special court-martial he requested to clear his name instead of being mustered out with a less-than-honorable discharge.

In resetting "Othello" in the present-day Marine Corps, director Scott Rabinowitz aims for heightened relevance in his staging for the Pasadena Shakespeare Company. In some intriguing ways, he succeeds in illuminating the text--Othello is foremost a soldier, rewarded and betrayed within a culture shaped by the unique mind-set of the military. Meticulous detail makes a good case for the Marine connection, from the emphasis on discipline to the unchained carousing of soldiers on leave.

Christmas Day was painful for Leslie Frokjer. That morning, she stepped away from her family briefly and tearfully reread her husband's last, loving letter, sent from Afghanistan just days before he died. It didn't get easier when she emerged from her bedroom to be with her parents, grandparents and 2-month-old son. Looking into the baby's eyes, she was reminded again of her husband and that her boy will never know his father or spend a Christmas at his side. Marine Sgt. Chad Frokjer was killed June 30 when he stepped on an improvised explosive device in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, on the Pakistani border.

Just after graduating from San Ramon Valley High School, Joshua D. Corral joined the Marine Corps, leaving behind his close-knit Bay Area hometown of Danville. A little more than a year later, he was brought back home to a hero's welcome, with more than 3,000 of his neighbors somberly saluting as a motorcade bearing his casket proceeded down flag-draped streets. His death Nov. 18 was announced at his old school's Friday night football game. In text messages, emails and hushed hallway conversations, word had already spread: The fun-loving student everyone knew as "Chachi" had been killed in combat in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, on the Pakistani border.

HAWTHORNE, Nev. - As investigators continued Wednesday to examine a training accident that killed seven Marines and wounded eight other servicemen, this remote military town struggled with its grief and strived to help the victims. "We've lost seven members of our military family who were helping defend our country," said Glenn Carns, general manager of El Capitan Lodge & Casino. "It's the same as if they had died in battle. " A 60-millimeter mortar round exploded in a mortar tube during live-fire training maneuvers Monday night at the Hawthorne Army Depot, about 90 miles southeast of Reno.

The Marine Corps released the identities Wednesday night of the seven Marines who died this week when a mortar shell exploded during a live-fire training exercise at Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada.  Those killed were Pfc. Joshua M. Martino, 19, of Clearfield, Pa.; Lance Cpl. David P. Fenn II, 20, of Polk City, Fla.; Lance Cpl. Roger W. Muchnick Jr., 23, of Fairfield, Conn.; Lance Cpl. Joshua C. Taylor, 21, of Marietta, Ohio; Lance Cpl. Mason J....

HAWTHORNE, Nev. -- As investigators continued Wednesday to probe the cause of an explosion that killed seven Marines during a training exercise here, residents in this remote military town mourned the loss of service personnel who are part of their “military family.” “It's unusually quiet around here,” said Glenn Carns, general manager of El Capitan Lodge & Casino. “We've lost seven members of our military family who were helping defend our country. It's the same as if they had died in battle.” Late Monday night, 60-millimeter mortar round exploded at the Hawthorne Army Depot outside Reno, killing seven Marines and injuring seven Marines and one sailor.

Seven Marines were killed during a training exercise at a U.S. Army depot in western Nevada, Marine Corps officials said Tuesday. The explosion shortly before 10 p.m. Monday at Hawthorne Army Depot also injured several others from the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, N.C., according to a statement released to The Times by Marine Captain Binford R. Strickland. At least eight injured were in  Renown Medical Center in Reno, Nev., where they were listed in conditions from serious to fair, a spokeswoman told The Times.

HAWTHORNE, Nev. - As the U.S. has fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Marine Corps has considered the sprawling and remote Hawthorne Army Depot an invaluable site for realistic training - its wide-open spaces supporting live-fire exercises, its climate, elevation and terrain similar to much of Afghanistan. But with realism comes danger. On Monday night a 60-millimeter mortar round exploded at the facility outside Reno, killing at least seven Marines and injuring eight - seven Marines and a Navy corpsman.

A disagreement over a well-known slice of the Southern California coast is threatening to drive a wedge between Marines and surfers, groups that had recently set aside differences and become political allies. At issue is the 2.25-mile stretch of surf and sand known as Trestles, between the San Onofre nuclear plant and the San Diego County-Orange County line. The name comes from two train trestles that parallel the ocean. To wave riders, Trestles represents seven of the primo surf breaks in the world.

An F/A-18 Hornet jet crashed Thursday at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station but the pilot ejected safely, Marine officials said. The plane went down three miles east of the runway in an unpopulated area.

SAN DIEGO - A recruit who made a perilous dash across the runway at San Diego's Lindbergh Field in an apparent attempt to flee Marine boot camp is no longer in the Marine Corps, authorities said Thursday. Benjamin Yi, 22, of Colorado Springs, Colo., has been separated from recruit training and the Marine Corps, officials said. Last week, Yi was detained by airport police after being spotted dashing across the runway from the adjacent boot camp. Yi's pants were torn off when he climbed two fences, including one topped with razor wire.

The Marine Corps legal office has instructed military spouses clubs to admit same-sex spouses if they want to continue operating on Marine bases. The order comes as the military grapples with how to accommodate the rights of same-sex couples after the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prohibited gay and lesbians from serving openly. The Marine Corps is the first military branch to explicitly order military spouses groups to admit same-sex spouses. In a memo emailed to Marine Corps legal offices around the country, the Staff Judge Advocate to the Commandant said spouses clubs on Marine installations must adhere to a nondiscrimination policy regarding sexual orientation.