MarineCorps.com Features

 
The streets of Monrovia, Liberia were lined with hundreds of smiling faces and thumbs-up signs. Happy shouts of “Marines!” were directed towards a humanitarian assistance convoy of two seven-ton trucks and several humvees laden with thousands of dollars worth of hospital and school supplies making their way slowly through the city of Monrovia, Liberia.

 
Raymond Jacobs, believed to be the last surviving member of the group of Marines photographed during the original U.S. flag-raising on Iwo Jima during World War II, has died at age 82.

 
You can never step in the same river twice. Iraq's Euphrates River once sluiced through a verdant paradise inhabited by Adam and Eve. Now it flows through an arid desert inhabited by fisherman, and in some cases, insurgents.

 
It’s an everyday occurrence in Haditha, Iraq. Marines with Company L, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 2, patrol the streets not only to find weapon caches, but to interact with the local community and find out what the concerns of the people are.

 
Split-second decisions in combat can make the difference between life and death. In an effort to sharpen their decision-making abilities and improve reaction time, a detachment of Marines and sailors from Marine Air Control Group 38 attended tactical, shoot and don’t shoot training at the Engagement Skills Trainer 2000 at Camp Buehrin, Kuwait, on January 12.

 
A visit outside the gates of Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, Africa, was all it took for one man to change the lives of three Djiboutian families. "The first time I went off camp, I had an opportunity to go with some Marines on a civil affairs mission," explained Lt. Cmdr. Steven J. Mauro, the Public Works Officer for Camp Lemonier. "The Marines had an engineering problem that they needed help with, so I went out to have a look."

If anyone ever said Santa Claus couldn’t make it to Iraq, they lied. Albeit he had the help of the U.S. Marines at his call. The Postal Marines of 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward) make sure mail and packages--even some labeled as from the jolly one himself--get to their intended destinations.

The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit received its first M777 Lightweight Howitzers recently on Camp Hansen as part of a Marine Corps-wide artillery upgrade. The new Howitzer is about 5,000 pounds lighter than the M-198, making it a more mobile weapon system. Marines can transport it using an MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

Since its activation on Dec. 9, 1982, the 22nd MEU has been awarded two Joint Meritorious Unit Awards, four Navy Commendations, five Meritorious Unit Commendations, the Marine Corps Expeditionary Streamer with two stars, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Streamer with two stars, the Armed Forces Service Streamer with three stars, the Southwest Asia Service Streamer with two stars, the Afghanistan Campaign Streamer, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Streamer, the Global War on Terrorism Service Streamer, and the Iraq Campaign Streamer.

 
On Nov. 15, Tropical Cyclone Sidr ripped across the coast of Bangladesh, killed over 3,000 people, left several hundred thousand people homeless, and ravaged the local crops and infrastructure. In response to the government of Bangladesh’s request for assistance, elements of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit are now providing disaster relief to the region.