5 states’ IDs no longer valid for Fort Bragg access

NOTE from me: Interesting, but definitely not surprised to see my great (NOT) state among the list. I mean we are probably the worse when it comes to ID’s for any reason.

FORT BRAGG, N.C.Fort Bragg can no longer accept driver’s licenses and state identification cards from Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico and Washington to get a visitor’s pass to enter the installation. The Department of Homeland Security identified these five states as non-compliant with the standards of the REAL ID Act.

“Effective immediately, residents of these five states can no longer use their driver’s license to get a visitor’s pass,” said Tom McCollum, Fort Bragg Garrison spokesman. “Driver’s licenses and identification cards issued by these states cannot be used to access not just Fort Bragg, but all federal facilities, to include other military installations.”
Federally issued means of identification can be used to obtain an installation visitor’s pass. These include a U.S. passport, permanent resident card / alien registration receipt card and an employment authorization document with photo. Driver’s licenses from the remaining 45 states can still be used as valid forms of identification.
“The process for gaining access to Fort Bragg hasn’t changed for the vast majority of people,” said McCollum. “If you have a DOD issued ID card, you can use it at the gates as you always have.”
The REAL ID Act, passed by Congress in 2005, established tougher requirements for proof of legal U.S. residency that would allow driver’s license to be recognized for federal purposes. Twenty-three other states are currently pursuing compliance for their programs under an extended deadline – with South Carolina among the list.
For current information concerning state-by-state compliance with the Real ID Act, visit https://www.dhs.gov/.
For more information on access procedures, please visit http://www.bragg.army.mil/directorates/DES/pmo/Pages/AccessInformation.aspx or call the Visitor Control Center at (910) 907-5165.

 

Originally posted 2016-01-14 15:30:45.

“We’ll All Die As Marines” Boards the USS Midway in San Diego, CA

By Share this article on Pinterest  

midwayColonel Jim Bathurst’s recently published book now prominently graces the shelves of the gift shop of #17 on the list of the top 20 museums in the United States (USS MIDWAY MUSEUM), as rated by YELP, and published in USA Today.

In it, Colonel Bathurst chronicles his nearly thirty-six year calling in the United States Marine Corps where he rose from Private to Colonel. His unique service over that extended period included as an 0311 infantry sergeant in the Vietnam War serving as a platoon commander (a lieutenant’s billet). He was awarded a Silver Star medal, Bronze Star medal with Combat “V,” a Purple Heart, and a combat commission to second lieutenant. Vietnam provided him a vast range of leadership challenges. “Combat is the ultimate challenge for any Marine leader,” Colonel Bathurst states emphatically. As with most Marines, Vietnam changed his life forever.

Upon arriving home, still an enlisted man, he was slotted to be the platoon sergeant for the famed Silent Drill Team at 8th and I St, Washington, D. C., but his quick promotion to second lieutenant, recommended by his commanding officer for exceptional leadership in Vietnam, changed that and he became the commander.

During that tour, while serving temporarily at Camp David as security officer-in-charge, he was errantly chewed out face-to-face by President Lyndon B. Johnson, an encounter he details in the book in all its bombast-Johnson threatening to send him to “VET NAM”. The Commander-in-Chief of all military personnel of the United States could not even distinguish a Marine Vietnam veteran, despite the various high awards for heroism he wore as colored ribbons above his left breast pocket, who had served his country in time of war honorably and heroically. Jim has never forgotten nor forgiven. Including it in the book at the encouragement of his editor has provided some settling of scores. Reading those few pages is worth the price of the book just to comprehend firsthand the ineptness of some who acquire the power of the White House.

Colonel Bathurst held various command billets from platoon commander on up including Commanding Officer of 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines, the battalion made famous by the book and movie Battle Cry written by Leon Uris and referred to as “Huxley’s Harlots.” Just prior he had commanded for three years the Marine Corps’s largest recruiting station-RS Chicago. He retired as Commanding Officer, School of Infantry (East) at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina in 1993.

General Peter Pace, the first Marine officer to hold the position as Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, said of the book: “Reading Jim’s book is like coming home… ” The book has received commendatory reviews in such prestigious military organizations and magazines as Leatherneck, Marine Corps Association, Military Writers Society of America, Naval Historical Foundation, U.S. Veteran’s Magazine, as well as numerous favorable online reviews by readers, such as those who purchased the book on Amazon.

Normally, a single-item seller is not the chosen vendor for books. However, with the cooperation, interest, and willingness to give the book a try, Event Network, Inc., the leading operator of gift shops for aquariums, botanical gardens, museums, science centers, and other highly regarded cultural attractions, agreed to a vendor agreement for the one book.

Colonel Bathurst, appreciative of their assistance in getting the chance to offer his book to the visitors of these military museums says, “Event Network is a company that cares; on their website they emphasize they are a “for purpose and in service” company, and they proved to be just that.”

As for writing the book itself, Colonel Bathurst says, “I wrote this in the hopes of guiding young Marines, both enlisted and officers, so that they can consider my advice about the demanding requirements of leadership a Marine encounters daily… ”

Colonel Bathurst is retired in Florida with his wife Nancy and two Siberian cats and a rescued Dachshund named Edgar. He is often invited to speak on such occasions as Memorial Day, Veterans Day, etc. He will be doing book signings at various locations, perhaps even the USS Midway Museum.

In summary, Jim Bathurst expresses it best when he writes “… the Corps was not a job, a career, or even a profession; it was-and still is-a way of life.”

He may be contacted at http://www.wellalldieasmarines.net

Expert Author

Major Dennis Copson is a retired United States Marine and is a resident of Oceanside, California. He is a freelance writer and editor.

 

 

Postscript: Sadly, this post no longer is valid, they have ceased ordering the book. And I have broken the ties with the publisher; therefore, should you choose to buy the book come straight to me at sgt-b@comcast.net or click on the contact link on the left.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Major_Dennis_Copson/120497

Originally posted 2016-01-11 16:03:15.

The Marines’ Last Stand

By Ray Starmann

017 (2)     Leave it to the Marines to make the US military’s last stand. It’s the last stand for the Marines, the last stand for reality, the last stand for the military to function as a cohesive war fighting organization and not a Santa Monica yoga class.

In America 180, everything is upside down. What kind of madcap lunatic asylum do we live in when the military has to ask for exemptions to keep women out of combat?  This is what happens when policy is being dictated by radicals whose idea of combat is elbowing for a place in line at the Bloomingdale’s’ lunch counter.
This is what happens when the military’s leaders are gutless moral cowards. Thank God for the Marines. They want an exemption to prevent women from serving in the combat arms branches of the Marine Corps.

The Navy surrendered its masculinity in 1991 after the Tailhook affair and has evolved into the Love Boat with guns and fast planes. The Air Force disappeared over the horizon sometime in the late 90’s. The Army is advertising their 37-year-old Mommy Ranger and sucking down enough Kool Aid to clean out half the grocery stores and lemonade stands in America.  The Pentagon has become a modern-day Jonestown.

But, the Marines won’t go for it. They won’t go for the ridiculous notion that women can cut it in the combat arms and special operations. Unlike the other services, the Marines seem to remember that war is hell and unforgiving and more violent than any civilian can even imagine. The Marines know that in war there is no substitute for victory. The Marines know, but no one else does. They are alone on an island, like one of the many they captured with so much blood and sacrifice and heartbreak in World War II.

A recent U.S. Marine Corps report has concluded that women cannot physically perform well in combat operations. About 400 male and 100 female Marines participated in the Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force study, which was conducted from October 2014 to July 2015 at Camp Lejeune, NC, and Twentynine Palms, CA.  In September, the Marines released an executive summary that said women in the study sustained significantly higher injury rates than men, were less accurate with infantry weapons and had more difficulty moving “wounded” troops off the battlefield.  Sadly, the Marines had to waste 36 million in taxpayer dollars to tell us something we already knew. But, the liberals and feminist nuts refuse to accept the truth. Liberals don’t like facts. They greatly dislike reality. They view the world they want it to be, rather than the way it really is.

“From a research perspective, there’s almost nothing you could reliably draw from this research,” Megan Mackenzie, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney in Australia stated. Mackenzie is a radical feminist who has published several books about women in combat. She is an outspoken critic of the “Band of Brothers” myth and believes women can perform well in the combat arms. Of course she’s actually never been in combat herself, but why bring up such trivial details.  Apparently, the US military is taking recommendations from Australian feminist professors.

If the study didn’t persuade anyone, how about the fact that women went 0 for 26 at the Marine Infantry Officer Course this year. That
fact, like the study and all others is shoved under a very large rug and masked by the Pentagon smoke machine.  Facts mean nothing to these people. Testosterone means nothing, upper body strength means nothing, larger aerobic capacity means nothing, less injury prone means nothing. Logic and the truth mean nothing to these modern-day Trotskyists.

Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus is the virtual Kool Aid King of the Pentagon E-Ring. Mabus is currently against any exemptions for
the Marines. In a recent Washington Post op-ed piece, Mabus criticized his own organization by claiming the Marines were using “1992 language even as the way we fight and the landscape of our battles has significantly evolved from a quarter-century ago.”

What the hell is Mabus talking about? He makes it sound like war has evolved into some kind of milk toast Olympic sporting event like curling. According to this circus clown, there’s no need for soldiers or Marines to close with and destroy an armed enemy. Has Mabus heard about Fallujah or Tal Afar or a thousand and one other battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan? Has he seen what is currently going on in the Middle East? This man’s state of delusion is off the charts.  Mabus states that “Every decision I make is purposefully in support of maximizing its combat effectiveness.” Really Mr. Secretary; if you cared about combat effectiveness and not about your Pentagon perks this wouldn’t even be a topic for discussion.

He continues with this obfuscation. “Second, this question is about standards, not gender.”  Hmm, well, it seems that your own service has given you two studies in the last year that clearly show that women cannot hack it in the combat arms. What else do you need Mabus? Should God part the Potomac to prove his point?  Mabus further states. “As the nature of warfare becomes more dynamic and unpredictable, we need to be the strongest force possible, and diversity is one of our greatest strengths. When we talk about diversity, we mean the full spectrum of demographics, but even more important, we mean diversity of thinking. The Marine Corps Times has highlighted an anecdote about the creative,
expeditious way a four-woman team in the Marine Corps’ study confronted an 8-foot obstacle. An American Forces Network report featured female Marines who demonstrated that gender does not define their service. These are the thinkers we need in every part of our force; they will maximize our combat effectiveness.”

In the Pentagon of 2015 we don’t need firepower and riflemen; we can win wars with diversity. And, how about those four women who figured out how to climb over an eight foot wall? What a combat multiplier that must be. They’re some real thinkers.  Newsflash Mabus: four Girl Scouts can figure out how to scale an eight foot wall.  Remember this one, America.  Diversity = Combat Effectiveness.

The Marines are making a last stand for all of us. They are dealing with reality unlike Mabus, Ash Carter, Obama, Mackenzie, and the buffoons running Ranger School. It’s time for the Pentagon to stop lying to itself and the nation it serves.

Semper Fi Marines

NOTE from me: This is the craziest thing I have ever seen our once great nation do in my seventy-five years of living, thirty-six of it as a Marine Infantryman. No one, absolutely no one, has a dog in this fight unless they “Have Been there, Done that!” Otherwise, go suck on the Kool Aid hose and SHUT UP!

Originally posted 2016-01-06 14:08:53.

From D. B. Wright

Posted this Review on Amazon and Good Reads on your great book Col Jim. Semper Fi DB Wright

GunnyThis Author is a very close personal friend, I first met Gunnery Sergeant Jim Bathurst when he reported into the Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C. as the new Company Gunny of Ceremonial Guard Company.

Within two weeks, a combat commission recommendation caught 2dLtup with him, and he was directly appointed a second lieutenant and commander of the Color Guard of the Corps, Body Bearers and the Silent Drill Team.

As a member of the US Marine Drum & Bugle Corps we marched behind Jim in parades and ceremonies around our nation and in Canada. Every Marine who ever served with, or under, Jim throughout his great career in our Corps had an intense pride in doing so to the very best of their ability.

This book, a true labor of love, relates the journey though life and service until retirement from the Marine Corps as a Colonel of Marines! It starts as a high school drop out enlists as a private and follows his career until retirement. Jim served in the thick of combat in Vietnam as a Platoon Leader (2ndLt’s & 1stLt’s position) while only a Sergeant. During that time his actions resulted in being awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star with “V” (for valor) and Purple Heart.

Any reader will learn many of the secrets of successful leadership. That personal drive, integrity, respect, and honor can come from anyone and along with that the reader will learn a ton of small ways to become a successful leader. The Author’s story of that journey from Private to Colonel as a “Mustang” (Marine’s term for any officer who had previously served as an enlisted Marine and one of great honor and distinction) is inspiring to all, but most especially to the young Marines of today! His description of his time as a Drill Instructor on Parris Island is a peek inside of one of the hardest and elite assignment any Marine can obtain. The title “DI” is one of the hardest to obtain, and once obtained is a brand worn for the rest of a Marine’s life. It is recognized via their professional bearing, command voice (strained horse for live) and their ability to teach.

Am I biased? Absolutely! Any Marine who ever served around, or under, Jim Bathurst, was branded for life by his personal leadership and uncompromising drive to succeed. This is a must have book for the library of any who read about the military and especially those who claim the title of United States Marine! As a retired law enforcement officer this is the kind of book I would use to inspire troubled kids, give them a road map to follow and become a successful and contributing citizen! Semper Fidelis!

 

NOTE: Holy Cow DB, you sure know how to make an old man tear up! Thank you for such kind words, you are too gracious my friend. God bless you and thank you so much. You have no idea how much I loved (and still love) all you guys in the D&B. I have the old albums of the music you guys played back then e.g., “What Now My Love,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” and of course my favorite “Born Free!” I sometimes play them at full volume when I am in my shop and the neighbors just stare at me as though I’m crazy — I am — about you guys! Once again, thank you DB, and Semper Fi my brother, Jim

Originally posted 2016-01-03 16:38:02.