Wendi Winters, USMCCCA affiliate member and frequent Defense Information School guest speaker, was among the five news people killed yesterday at the Annapolis Capital. Shown here with former DINFOS Commandant, Col. Jeremy Martin, Wendi was known as a “force of nature” in the region. In addition to her passions and activities described Read more…
The University of South Carolina Moving Image Research Collections (MIRC) is now home to the United States Marine Corps Film Repository. A partnership with the Marine Corps’ History Division at Quantico, the Repository will ensure the physical preservation and digitization of an estimated 18,000 films made almost entirely by the Read more…
Members of the Defense Media Activity, Sgt Annika Moody, MGySgt Chad McMeen and Sgt Alex Smith pose with their National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter Emmys after winning the category 17C “Military – Program Feature / Segment.”
This has been an incredible year of first-time accomplishments for Marines in the communication field.
First, Sgt Matthew Callahan shocked the community by securing both the DoD Videographer and Photographer of the year titles and on Saturday June 23rd another Marine team had a historic first.
Master Gunnery Sergeant Chad McMeen, Sergeant Annika Moody and Mr. Grant Stolz from the Defense Media Activity’s Marine production team walked the red carpet to receive an Emmy Award for a video feature focused on the Body Bearers of Marine Barracks Washington D.C.
This is the first time Marines have won, or been nominated for, this prestigious award. As a testament of the quality work coming out of DMA, four other Emmys were earned this year with two regions yet to hold ceremonies. Each service represented their branch with individual wins in a variety of categories in regional chapters across the country.
Sgt. Matthew Callahan is the first servicemember ever to be named both Military Photographer and Videographer of the Year. An article about him was featured in Stars and Stripes, recently. Callahan is a many time distinguished Performance winner and is expected to pick up his award at the Annual Awards Read more…
Tom Graves describes the 1945 battle of Iwo Jima and Rosenthal’s flag raising photo to the audience at the San Leandro, Calif. Public Library.
By Tom Graves
For Tom Pach, a veteran of the Korean War, Joe Rosenthal’s Iwo Jima flag raising photograph has a special significance, not just as a Marine, but as a man who lost his older brother in the battle for the island.
Pach was one of the estimated 200 people gathered on Memorial Day Weekend to learn about Joe Rosenthal and his iconic photo taken in the midst of the bloody battle.
Many men and women in the audience stood to be acknowledged for their military service. They left behind nearly 100 signatures on the petition to name a Navy warship for Rosenthal, adding to over 3,000 signatures the USMCCCA Joe Rosenthal Chapter CCs already delivered to Navy Secretary Richard Spencer. A former Marine captain, Secretary Spencer has acknowledged the great importance of Joe and the photo he took atop Mt. Suribachi.
Chapter President Dale Cook, left, and Tom Graves answer questions.
The standing-room-only crowd packed the lecture room at the San Leandro, Calif. Public Library to hear Chapter Historian Tom Graves describe the 1945 battle and Rosenthal’s flag raising photo. Chapter President Dale Cook, a 4th Division veteran of Iwo Jima, added his own memories of combat on the volcanic island where three Marine divisions met determined resistance from 22,000 defenders in well prepared, underground positions. At times, Cook’s memories became graphic.
“I asked the guy in the foxhole next to me for a cigarette. I turned around and there was a Marine and a helmet, but no head in it. I see that every day of my life.”
Sponsored by the Library and Vets Connect at the Library, the May 26 event received great play in local papers, accounting for the high turnout. Some travelled from Sacramento, a 90-mile drive. The front row was reserved for veterans, including a Pearl Harbor survivor from the USS Pennsylvania, a 2nd Philippine Regiment military intelligence soldier, and Tom Pach, the Korean War Marine whose older brother, Frank, served in the 5th Marine Division and was wounded on Iwo Jima February 19, 1945, the first day of the battle. He died the next day.
Shawn Rhodes, former combat correspondent and vice president of the USMCCCA, recently delivered a keynote at the training symposium hosted by I MEF at Camp Pendleton, CA. More than 50 communications/strategy Marines from various west coast commands were present to hear Shawn share his lessons learned, both as a CC Read more…
Second Lieutenant 2nd Lt. Brian A. Tuthill recently commissioned as a Marine Corps officer May 12 at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. He graduated summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA to earn a bachelor of science in Public Management & Policy, and was selected as his university’s Read more…
Former Marine CC Amy Forsythe is now a U.S. Navy Reserve Public Affairs Officer and is currently mobilized to active duty serving her third tour in Afghanistan. Forsythe, a lifetime USMCCCA member, never goes anywhere without a camera. Here she is crossing the famous “Friendship Bridge” at the Afghanistan-Uzbekistan border Read more…
GySgt. Stony Merriman, left, GySgt. Ed Evans just out of Charlie Med with a boot full of blood and GySgt. John Wold. No better friends.
Bernard “Mick” E. Trainor
By Ed Evans
If you haven’t heard, it is with a heavy heart I share the news that LtGen. [Bernard] “Mick” Trainor passed away June 2, 2018. Mick was a legendary Marine who served as a Platoon Commander in Korea and a Recon Battalion Commander in Vietnam. He was one of the best military minds in the Marine Corps. A friend and mentor to many.
Quick story. LtGen. Trainer was CO of Recon in 1970 when Leatherneck Magazine sent me to Vietnam for coverage. I was with Trainor’s Marines when after being on a several day patrol we heard movement around us while moving to the extract point. Safeties were off. It was thru tall, wet elephant grass and the radioman slipped, fell, and his rifle went off striking me in the left leg at boot top level, and the patrol leader in the right leg just below the knee.
Later at Charlie Med I told then-Col. Trainor it was a heckuva souvenir for going out with Recon. He grinned and said yeah, well, he caught hell for shooting the Leatherneck photographer, too.
The current Deputy CG of 1stMarDiv stopped by to tell me the Navy docs recommended I be boarded out since the foot healed in a “down” position since the bullet took a chunk of meat out of the back of my leg. With only 10 years in, I didn’t want that. Two friends got my gear and cameras from recon, and since no one there had my SRB or health record, I slipped out, stuffing that angry foot into a bloody boot. The two Marines and I then got ourselves on a helo headed for Khe Sanh (then in Army hands) in a bird labeled “The Wild Bunch”.
But that isn’t the best part of the story.
By Don Knight My platoon-sized, MAG 32 ground defense and guard unit stationed at MAS El Taro got the word: get our tails down to Pendleton for five weeks of combat training. Bring our rifles, helmets and extra clothing. To begin: long hikes at night, including a seven mile climb Read more…