– New York Times – In Marja, Afghanistan, female Marines have daily skirted Pentagon rules restricting women in combat.

– San Diego Union Tribune – In the deserts of southern Afghanistan, Marines from Camp Pendleton’s 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion are sending a message to insurgents: We are watching.

– San Diego Union Tribune – Forty female Marines volunteered to go to the highly segregated southern Pashtun region to try to connect with the half of the population inaccessible to male Marines.

– Defense Technology International – The US Marine Corps could make greater use of the Air Force’s F-35A variant of the Joint Strike Fighter, as delays and a major review cast more doubt on the feasibility of meeting a late-2012 IOC date with the F-35B short take-off, vertical landing variant.

– Wired – Is the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle about to be terminated by Congress?

– Armed Forces Journal – The Marine Corps has embarked upon a comprehensive overhaul of its aviation force that is scheduled to culminate in 15 years with the replacement of every airframe currently in service.

– San Diego Union Tribune – The 3/1 Battalion has about 1,000 Marines spread over nearly 50 positions and 1,000 square kilometers. The proliferation of bases was prompted by a counterinsurgency strategy based on persistent contact between troops and the local population. And it was made possible by technological advancements allowing the posts to stay in communication with each other in ways they couldn’t when the war began nine years ago.

Los Angeles Times – Marines in Afghanistan prepared for a long haul

A year since the U.S. troop buildup began with battalions descending on the Helmand River Valley, optimism about a quick defeat of the Taliban has given way to more sober assessments.

Defense Technology International – USMC Digs In To Save EFV

Secretary of Defense Gates may have met his match when taking on the U.S. Marine Corps and its expeditionary fighting vehicle (EFV), which Gates has started to speculate – quite publicly – might not be worth the risk and cost.

AOLNews – The Few. The Proud. The New Marines?

Declaring “the maritime soul of the Marine Corps” is at stake, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered a review of the seaborne service that since 9/11 has functioned more like a “second land army.”

Defense Technology International – Amphibious Ops Under Fire

Navy Undersecretary Bob Work gave an intense and PowerPoint-free summary of the “after-Afghanistan” future of the Marine Corps recently at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Defense Technology International – Embeleaguroubled Fighting Vehicle Faces More Problems

The US Marines’ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle shares a distinction with another of the Corps’ flagship programs, the V-22 Osprey, in having been completely restructured and reengineered during its development.

San Diego Union Tribune – Marines get modern landing craft

Camp Pendleton will take formal possession Monday of two Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles from General Dynamics, which has been putting the experimental amphibious craft through contractor tests. Pendleton will begin wide-scale testing of the prototypes in August.

Los Angeles Times – U.S. rethinks a Marine Corps specialty: storming beaches

During an amphibious assault exercise at Camp Pendleton, Marines appear rusty. They haven’t made such a landing since the Korean War – and some leaders wonder whether they will ever do it again.

Associated Press – Marines return to roots with Calif. beach-storming

With the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq taking troops to landlocked regions, many of the Marines had never been on a ship – let alone stormed a beach – until the “Dawn Blitz” exercise, the largest of its kind on the West Coast since the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The two-week training drill ended with 5,000 Marines and sailors staging the mock invasion.

New York Times – In Camouflage or Veil, a Fragile Bond

A look at how female US Marines are trying to build bonds with Afghan women.

New York Times – When Afghans Seek Medical Aid, Tough Choice for U.S.

C.J. Chivers on how the Marines provide medical care to the Afghani civilians.

Washington Post – Japanese prime minister accepts Marine Corps air base in Okinawa

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio announced Sunday that his country would abide by a 14-year-old agreement with the United States to move a Marine Corps air base in Okinawa in a significant breakthrough on an issue that has bedeviled the two allies and worried many other Asian countries since he took office eight months ago.

New York Times – Afghan Marksmen – Forget the Fables and The Weakness of Taliban Marksmanship and Afghan Marksmanship: Pointing, Not Aiming

CJ Chivers describes in great detail why Afghanis on both sides are such bad shots.

Washington Post – On Guam, planned Marine base raises anger, infrastructure concerns

This remote Pacific island is home to U.S. citizens who are fervent supporters of the military, as measured by their record of fighting and dying in America’s recent wars. But they are angry about a major military buildup here, which the government of Guam and many residents say is being grossly underfunded. They fear that the construction of a new Marine Corps base will overwhelm the island’s already inadequate water and sewage systems, as well as its port, power grid, hospital, highways and social services.

New York Times – After Push in Marja, Marines Try to Win Trust

CJ Chivers writes that after the declaration this weekend that the battle for the Taliban enclave of Marja had been won, for the Marines standing behind sandbags and walking patrols, the more complicated work has begun. With it will be a test of the strategy selected by President Obama and the generals now running the Afghan war.

New York Times – Afghans Voice Their Fears Amid Marja Campaign

C.J. Chivers in Afghanistan.

Wall Street Journal – Civilians in Crosshairs Slow Troops

As Capt. Anthony Zinni monitored a live video feed from a Predator drone circling overhead, he spotted four men planting a booby trap in the middle of the road here.

For Capt. Zinni, one of the officers responsible for approving airstrikes in the nine-day-old battle for Marjah, it seemed like an easy call: The men were digging a hole alongside a road where a Marine supply convoy was scheduled to pass within hours. But just as he was about to give the order to strike, Capt. Zinni spotted even-smaller white figures on the video running along the path south of the canal.

Children. Maybe 50 feet from the men planting the booby trap. “It’s not a good shot,” Capt. Zinni said, ordering the Predator drone to delay the strike. “It’s not a good shot.”

The 45 minutes that followed help illustrate why it is taking coalition forces so long to secure this hotly contested part of Afghanistan.