It has been said by many that the United States has not launched an amphibious assault since Inchon in 1950.  The 51 Marines and Navy Corpsmen killed and 203 wounded in Operation Starlite in Vietnam in 1965 (and four times that number of VC) might disagree. Still, the operation was quite a bit smaller than …

CNN reports that 100 US Special Ops forces, the last present in Yemen, are being withdrawn because of a deteriorating security situation.  This announcement should raise a list of questions, concerns and demonstrate some important truths. Why are we withdrawing completely from the administration’s only vaunted counter insurgency success?  One’s first response might be, “Well, …

The Marines were defending their number one modernization priority in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s Subcomittee on Seapower this week.  A “new” wheeled amphibious vehicle called the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) is slated to replace the majority of the Corps 40 year old AAV-7 Amphibious Assault Vehicle.  GruntsandCo’s covered the ACV in its …

Iran, Er I mean “Iraq”, surprised US officials with an offensive aimed at Tikrit that started a couple of days ago.  The composition of the offense, the manner it is being conducted, the lack of US involvement and the target all signal deeper truths about the current struggle going on in Iraq and Iran’s growing …