Washington Post – After more than 20 years in development at a cost of billions of dollars, the long-troubled V-22 Osprey will head to Iraq in September for its first combat missions.
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StrategyPage – In an unusual move, the commander of U.S. special operations troops in the region, ordered a unit of 120 U.S. Marines out of Afghanistan on March 23rd. This was because of the way the marines handled a March 4th incident where they were ambushed by a suicide car bomber and gunfire.
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Washington Post – At least eight Afghan civilians were killed Sunday in eastern Afghanistan when U.S. Marines traveling in a convoy were hit by a car bomb and responded by firing in a way that some witnesses called reckless.
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Los Angeles Times – In contrast to the security crackdown in Baghdad, most Marines in Iraq’s western desert are engaged in nation-building, the kind of venture President Bush had publicly disdained, most notably during the 2000 presidential campaign.
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Marine Corps Gazette – Can more be done to prepare them?
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Virginian Pilot – What began more than 25 years ago as a wild idea is supposed to go to war with the Marine Corps this summer. But problems – including one that caused the entire fleet to be grounded Friday – continue the controversy.
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Washington Post – After 10 years and $1.7 billion, this is what the Marines Corps got for its investment in a new amphibious vehicle: A craft that breaks down about an average of once every 4 1/2 hours, leaks and sometimes veers off course???And for that, the contractor, General Dynamics of Falls Church, received $80 million in bonuses.

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Washington Post – How Marines Feel About Their Gear.

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Los Angeles Times – The story of one unusual former US Marine. Hussein Mohammed Aidid, the son of Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid who was one of the key players in “Blackhawk Down,” was General Zinni’s Marine interpreter in Somalia at that time???now he wants to be President of Somalia.
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Popular Science – As any battlefield commander will tell you, getting troops to the fight can be as difficult as winning it. And for modern-day soldiers, the sites of conflict are so far-flung, and the political considerations of even flying over another country so complicated, that rapid entry has become nearly impossible. If a group of Marine Corps visionaries have their way, however, 30 years from now, Marines could touch down anywhere on the globe in less than two hours, without needing to negotiate passage through foreign airspace. The breathtaking efficiency of such a delivery system could change forever the way the U.S. does battle.
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Christian Science Monitor – The Joint Strike Fighter, which is scheduled to make its maiden flight this week, is a new stealth fighter-bomber designed for three US services and eight foreign allies. But the version that the Marines (and Britain and Italy) are buying is causing friction.
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Christian Science Monitor – With the Marines in Fallujah.
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Detroit Free Press – In the ongoing fight against insurgents in Iraq’s Anbar province, the Hobbits — six Marines with computers and self-designed databases who compile information about the enemy, its strength and its position — have a clear mission.
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Christian Science Monitor – Just 300 marines now patrol Fallujah as the Iraqi military takes over.
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CNN – The new Marine Corps commandant said Wednesday that the longer than anticipated pace of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan is putting an unacceptable strain on his troops. Gen. James Conway said the service is unable to meet its goal of giving Marines twice as much time at home as in a war zone. He said unless the demand on the corps eases, he may have to propose increasing the size of the force.
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Marine Corps Gazette – While the combat phase of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM (OIF) reasserted American supremacy in a classic combined arms campaign on open terrain, success against the protracted insurgency in urban areas is more elusive.
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Marine Corps Gazette – War has a way of teaching us hard lessons, some of which we learned in previous conflicts but, for various reasons, forgot and are having to relearn now in Iraq.
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New York Times – A look at the corpsman’s job in Iraq.
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Leatherneck – Caught between Jordan and Iraq, in no manís land, a group of refugees rely on the Marines to take care of them.
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Washington Post – A mother finds answers in effort to understand sergeant killed in Iraq.
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Marine Corps Gazette – Repair and maintenance simulation replaces the wrench as a teaching tool.
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Marine Corps Gazette – Harnessing simulation for mission systems integration.
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Marine Corps Gazette – New technology and facilities for urban warfare training.
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Marine Corps Gazette – In today’s environment of instantaneous communications, can a relatively minor atrocity bring down an entire military chain of command or even a government? (PDF format)
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Leatherneck – New gear being researched and fielded provides leathernecks the edge in battle.
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