Tag Archives: Marine Corps

Gunman kills 12 including deputy in crowded California bar

Police guard the site of a mass shooting at a bar in Thousand Oaks, California, U.S. November 8, 2018. REUTERS/Ringo Chiu

(Reuters) – A gunman opened fire on a crowd of mostly college students and young adults dancing at a crowded country and western bar in a suburb of Los Angeles late on Wednesday night, killing 12 people including a sheriff’s deputy, police said.

Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean named the suspect as Ian Long, aged 28. He told a news conference Long had likely shot himself and that he was a veteran who had served in the U.S. Marine Corps.

He said he appeared to have shot at random inside the club, using only a Glock .45-caliber handgun. There was no known motive, he said.

An unknown number of people were wounded in the shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill, a popular venue with college students and young adults in the suburb of Thousand Oaks. Wednesday was dubbed “College Country Night”.

It was the third mass shooting in the United States in under two weeks, six days after the death of two women at a yoga class in Tallahassee, Florida and 12 days after a gunman killed 11 worshippers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, shouting “All Jews must die”.

“It’s a horrific scene in there,” Dean said earlier. “There is blood everywhere and the suspect is part of that.”

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., Rich McKay in Atlanta and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Alison Williams)

U.S. probes cause of Marine Corps plane crash that killed 16

FILE PHOTO: Two U.S. Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters receive fuel from a KC-130 Hercules over the Gulf of Aden January 1, 2003. U.S. Marine Corps/Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald/Handout/File Photo via REUTERS

By Idrees Ali

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. officials on Tuesday were investigating the cause of a military transport plane crash that killed 16 service members including elite special operations forces a day earlier, leaving a miles-long trail of wreckage in rural northern Mississippi.

The KC-130 Hercules aircraft disappeared from air traffic control radar over Mississippi after taking off from Cherry Point, North Carolina. It plunged into a soybean field at about 4 p.m. CDT (5 p.m. EST) on Monday in Mississippi’s LeFlore County, about 100 miles (160 km) north of Jackson, the state capital.

Fifteen Marines and one Navy sailor were killed, the U.S. Marine Corps said. The names of the deceased were being withheld until family members were notified. Further details were not released. Gen. Robert Neller, Commandant of the Marine Corps, pledged “a thorough investigation into the cause of this tragedy.”

The aircraft was originally based out of New York’s Stewart Air National Guard Base, Marine Corps officials said.

It was transporting equipment and people to a Navy facility in El Centro, California. Equipment on board included small arms ammunition and personal weapons.

Seven of the 16 who perished, including the sailor, were based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and were members of the elite Special Operations Command of the Marine Corps.

The Poughkeepsie Journal in New York said Marine reservists from the nearby Stewart Air National Guard Base were also on the plane.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter that the crash was heartbreaking. “Melania and I send our deepest condolences to all!” he wrote.

Stars and Stripes, which covers U.S. military affairs, reported that witnesses said bodies were found a mile from the wreckage.

Images posted online by local media showed the plane’s crumpled remains engulfed in flames in a field surrounded by tall vegetation, with a large plume of smoke in the sky.

The crash left a five-mile (8-km) trail of debris, the local Clarion-Ledger newspaper reported.

The KC-130 Hercules, manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corp <LMT.N>, conducts air-to-air refueling, carries cargo and performs tactical passenger missions. It is operated by three crew members and can carry 92 ground troops or 64 paratroopers, according to a Navy website.

Greenwood Fire Department Chief Marcus Banks told the Greenwood Commonwealth newspaper that firefighters were driven back by several “high-intensity explosions” that may have been caused by ammunition igniting.

It was the worst Marine Corps aviation crash since January 2005, when a CH-53E crashed in Iraq, killing 30 Marines and one sailor.

(Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York, Idrees Ali in Washington D.C., Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee and Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Editing by Bernard Orr, Letitia Stein and David Gregorio)

U.S. military leaders say women should have to register for draft

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. armed forces leaders said on Tuesday that women should be required to register for the military draft, along with men, as the military moves toward integrating them fully into combat positions.

Congress should begin to look at legislation requiring women to register for the Selective Service, they told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on women in combat.

“I think that all eligible and qualified men and women should register for the draft,” said General Robert Neller, the commandant of the Marine Corps.

The U.S. military is currently an all-volunteer force, but young men are still required to register in case the draft is reactivated.

The military leaders at the hearing said it would take years for women to be fully integrated into combat units, although they generally voiced strong support for the plan to skeptical committee members.

“Full integration will likely take several years,” Patrick Murphy, acting secretary of the Army, said.

Mark Milley, the Army chief of staff, estimated that full integration of women would take “no less than one to three years of deliberate effort.”

President Barack Obama’s defense secretary, Ash Carter, announced in December that the military would let women serve in all combat roles, a historic announcement greeted with intense skepticism by many Republican members of Congress.

Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, the committee’s chairman, objected to the announcement at the time. He said it would have “a consequential impact” on U.S. forces and their war-fighting capabilities.

At Tuesday’s hearing, McCain again expressed doubts, saying he worried there had not been enough planning before the announcement. “I am concerned that the department has gone about things backwards,” McCain said.

Some Republican critics of the plan have said they fear it would lead to the imposition of quotas mandating a specific number of women in some units, such as Marines in positions that might require hand-to-hand combat.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus rejected that suggestion as “unacceptable,” adding, “It would endanger not only the safety of Marines, but also the safety of our nation.”

Many Democrats have expressed strong support.

Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the panel, said physical abilities alone do not determine whether a military unit is effective.

“Fighting and winning wars, as I’m sure our panelists know well, involves much more than that,” Reed said.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Dan Grebler and Jonathan Oatis)