Marine Corps

Two Marines face charges of assault and dereliction of duty in connection with the hazing of a private, a Marine Corps spokesman said. Another 10 Marines face less severe administrative discipline for not stopping the alleged hazing in which a 20-year-old private reported that he was terrorized by his squad leader, Staff Sgt. Bob Hall said Sunday. The names of the Marines involved were not released.

In a second-grade homework assignment, Stephen J. Dunning wrote about his future in a passage that would be as brief as it was portentous. He wanted to go to college and he wanted to become a United States Marine. His father, Robert, who flew helicopters in the Marine Corps, hadn't stopped to consider its meaning. But after his son's death at age 31 on Oct. 27 in Afghanistan's Helmand province, the elder Dunning said those words, accompanied by a crayon self-portrait on the faded page, took on new, touching significance.

The F/A-18 crash that killed four family members in a San Diego neighborhood on Dec. 8 was caused by poor maintenance on the plane and a series of critical errors by the pilot and officers trying to guide him to an emergency landing, a Marine investigation report released Tuesday concluded. Among the worst of the mistakes was the pilot's decision, made with his squadron bosses, to bypass a runway on Coronado and attempt to land at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, 11 miles farther away.

WASHINGTON - In a pointed response to images of Marines urinating on corpses and soldiers posing with body parts, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta appealed to American troops to refrain from misconduct that has complicated the war effort in Afghanistan. Panetta, speaking Friday to an Army brigade at Ft. Benning, Ga., was blunt in his assessment of the breakdown of discipline within the ranks, saying these incidents "show a lack of judgment, a lack of professionalism and a lack of leadership.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Robert H. Barrow, a former commandant of the Marine Corps who was decorated for heroism and recognized for reforms, died Oct. 30 at his home in St. Francisville, La. He was 86 and had heart and circulatory problems. Barrow, a retired four-star general, served in World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars and received the Silver Star, the Distinguished Service Cross and the Navy Cross -- among the highest awards for valor.

A Marine at Twentynine Palms is facing punishment after making an "inappropriate" reference to the Trayvon Martin case in a Twitter message, the Marine Corps said Saturday. The Marine, a staff sergeant with 10 years in the corps, put a message on Twitter: "Rifle range all day today. Shooting black all day like George Zimmerman. " Silhouettes on rifle range targets are painted black. Once his command found out about the post, he deleted the post, erased his Twitter account and took down his MySpace account.

After a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Marine Corps is tweaking its recruiting pitch to emphasize not just combat prowess but also the Marines' involvement in humanitarian missions. A new 60-second television commercial, “Toward the Sounds of Chaos,” is set to make its debut on ESPN during Saturday's Big 12 championship basketball game. A shortened version will be shown in theaters. Similarly themed materials will be deployed to social media sites and recruiters' offices.

A bipartisan group of California legislators has asked the secretary of the Navy to reconsider a request from the Marine Corps that the Medal of Honor be awarded posthumously to a Marine from San Diego killed in Iraq. The group says newly discovered video and a report from a noted pathologist merit a review of the decision by then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates not to recommend that the Medal of Honor be awarded to Sgt. Rafael Peralta . Peralta, 25, an immigrant from Mexico, was killed in November 2004 while Marines were clearing insurgents from barricaded homes in Fallouja.

Some described the big-shouldered Marine's soft way of talking, others the discipline he expected from his troops. All spoke of the religious faith he wore as openly as his uniform. "He wasn't the kind of guy that went to church on Sunday and on Monday was out raising hell," said Nils Bjorn, a civilian who worked with Sgt. Manuel L. Loggins Jr. at Camp Pendleton. "He was a religious guy who put his family first. " Of Loggins' death earlier this month, he added: "It does seem kind of senseless.

Defense Department identification of U.S. military personnel who died in Afghanistan or at a U.S. military hospital of their injuries: Daniel B. Bartle, 27, of Ferndale, Wash.; captain, Marine Corps. Bartle was among six Marines killed Thursday when their CH-53D helicopter crashed in an apparent accident in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, on the Pakistani border. He was assigned to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 363, Marine Aircraft Group 24, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

Reporting from Camp Pendleton -- Last night might have been the most stressful of Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich's life since he became a defendant in arguably the largest war-crime case from the Iraq war: the killing of 24 unarmed civilians by Marines in the Euphrates River town of Haditha in 2005. The 31-year-old native of Meriden, Conn., had to decide whether to take a deal offered by Marine prosecutors or continue fighting for a full acquittal and an honorable discharge. If he takes a deal, Wuterich could immediately leave the Marine Corps and continue life as a divorced father of three daughters.

Marine officials, faced with the results of an Oceanside-based government "sting" operation that detailed widespread supply thefts from Camp Pendleton, pledged Monday to clamp down on internal pilfering of military equipment. Maj. Gen. Robert E. Haebel, commanding officer of Camp Pendleton, told a Senate Armed Services Committee task force that the joint FBI-Navy inquiry disclosed a "hemorrhage of this gear getting off the base into the hands of surplus dealers."

Reporting from Camp Pendleton -- Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich and the jurors in his court-martial are all wearing crisp Marine uniforms. All have had combat experience. And all have known Marines killed in combat. But the defendant and those who may decide his fate come from different eras in the Marine Corps mission in Iraq, divided by that November morning in 2005 when 24 unarmed civilians in the town of Haditha were killed by Marines in Wuterich's squad. All eight jurors served after that event, which scandalized much of the American public and shook the Marine Corps.

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.