Veterans will have to wait an unknown amount of time before they can get a photo ID card from the Department of Veterans Affairs under a law passed in 2015.

The law, known as the Veterans Identification Card Act 2015, orders the VA to issue a hard-copy photo ID card to any honorably discharged veteran who applies for one. Getting the card can come with a fee, the law states, and the card must contain the veteran’s name, photo and a non-Social Security identification number.

The VA estimated in March 2016 that the cards would be available this year. However, repeated requests by Military.com to VA officials for an update on the timeline for availability went unanswered..”

Forrás : http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/04/24/va-silent-timeline-veteran-id-cards.html?ESRC=marine_170425.nl

A small 300-Marine task force bound for Helmand Province, Afghanistan, quietly deployed from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, last week, officials with II Marine Expeditionary Force confirmed.

Known as Task Force Southwest, the element is led by Brig. Gen. Roger Turner and largely composed of troops from Lejeune’s 6th Marine Regiment, who will train and advise local Afghan National Army and police forces as they struggle to hold the line against resurgent Taliban forces. The deployment was first reported by Marine Corps Times.

Helmand, Afghanistan’s southernmost province, was the site of some of the most intense and costly battles of the long war. The headquarters of Marine Corps operations in Afghanistan, Camp Leatherneck, was located in Helmand, and Marines waged hard and lengthy offensives in populous regions including Sangin and Marjah in the latter years of the war, driving the Taliban out of district centers there..”

Forrás : http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/04/19/300-marines-deploy-to-southern-afghanistan-taliban-see-gains.html?ESRC=marine_170425.nl

In addition to legal aid and support services, the Marine Corps may offer internet reputation management tools to victims of a Facebook group that shared nude and compromising photos of female service members and veterans without their consent, a defense official told Military.com Friday.

In the days since independent site The War Horse broke the news that Marines United, a private group with 30,000 members, had engaged in this illicit and non-consensual sharing of photos and other personal information, both Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller and Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Ronald Green have issued statements sternly condemning the behavior. While a Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation continues into the active-duty troops who participated in the photo-sharing ring, behind the scenes Marine Corps leaders have been scrambling to articulate a way forward for the service…”

Forrás : http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/03/10/marines-offer-reputation-software-victims-photo-scandal.html?ESRC=marine_170313.nl

Marines attached to the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit quietly moved into Syria weeks ago to establish an artillery base, defense officials confirmed to Military.com on Wednesday.

The move comes as American-backed forces intensify their assault on Raqqa, the Islamic State’s capital city.

The Washington Post first reported Wednesday that Marines attached to the MEU — which is deployed around the Middle East, conducting training in countries including Oman and Djibouti — had departed their ships and moved into Syria.

A defense official would not speak to the size of the detachment deployed to Syria, but said it included elements of multiple artillery batteries, as well as support personnel, including infantry Marines. It’s the first time American artillery support capability has been on the ground in Syria since the fight against the Islamic State began in 2014…”

Forrás : http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/03/08/us-marines-move-syria-howitzers.html?ESRC=marine_170313.nl

The driver of a 7-ton truck that overturned at Camp Pendleton, California, in 2015 is expected to face court-martial later this year on a charge of negligent homicide.

Cpl. Bin Guo, 27, of 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, is accused of failing to slow down when the truck took a turn, resulting in a crash that killed one Marine, 21-year-old Cpl. Bryan Lauw, and injured 18 more, some critically. But his military attorney says there’s no evidence he did anything wrong.

At an Article 32 investigative hearing Jan. 12, the preliminary hearing officer found there was no probable cause to charge Guo, a military official with knowledge of the case told Military.com. But the convening authority for the case, 1st Marine Division Commander Maj. Gen. Daniel O’Donohue, decided to overrule the officer’s recommendation and send Guo to general court-martial on the charge…”

Forrás : http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/03/09/marine-to-face-trial-in-deadly-2015-truck-rollover.html?ESRC=marine_170313.nl