Paul Szoldra is the editor-in-chief of Task & Purpose. A former Marine infantryman, his past bylines include Business Insider and We Are The Mighty. He is also the founder of Duffel Blog.
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3 injured at Pearl Harbor naval base after active shooter incident
The U.S. Navy base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was placed on lockdown Wednesday after security forces were called to respond to an active shooter situation, Navy officials said.
An internal investigation spurred by a nude photo scandal shows just how deep sexism runs in the Marine Corps
"I will still have to work harder to get the perception away from peers and seniors that women can't do the job."
Some years ago, a 20-year-old female Marine, a military police officer, was working at a guard shack screening service members and civilians before they entered the base. As a lance corporal, she was new to the job and the duty station, her first in the Marine Corps.
At some point during her shift, a male sergeant on duty drove up. Get in the car, he said, the platoon sergeant needs to see you. She opened the door and got in, believing she was headed to see the enlisted supervisor of her platoon.
Instead, the sergeant drove her to a dark, wooded area on base. It was deserted, no other Marines were around. "Hey, I want a blowjob," the sergeant told her.
"What am I supposed, what do you do as a lance corporal?" she would later recall. "I'm 20 years old ... I'm new at this. You're the only leadership I've ever known, and this is what happens."
She looked at him, then got out of the car and walked away. The sergeant drove up next to her and tried to play it off as a prank. "I'm just fucking with you," he said. "It's not a big deal."
It was one story among hundreds of others shared by Marines for a study initiated in July 2017 by the Marine Corps Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning (CAOCL). Finalized in March 2018, the center's report was quietly published to its website in September 2019 with little fanfare.
The culture of the Marine Corps is ripe for analysis. A 2015 Rand Corporation study found that women felt far more isolated among men in the Corps, while the Pentagon's Office of People Analytics noted in 2018 that female Marines rated hostility toward them as "significantly higher" than their male counterparts.
But the center's report, Marines' Perspectives on Various Aspects of Marine Corps Organizational Culture, offers a proverbial wakeup call to leaders, particularly when paired alongside previous studies, since it was commissioned by the Marine Corps itself in the wake of a nude photo sharing scandal that rocked the service in 2017.
The scandal, researchers found, was merely a symptom of a much larger problem.
US Marine wanted for murder captured days after being placed on FBI's Most Wanted list
A U.S. Marine deserter suspected of allegedly killing his mother's boyfriend has been captured in Virginia, CNN reports.
Michael Alexander Brown, 22, was arrested on Wednesday in Franklin County, Va., Capt. Phillip Young of the Franklin County Sheriff's Office told CNN. Young did not immediately respond to a phone call from Task & Purpose.
For the first time ever, a female Marine has graduated the grueling Basic Reconnaissance course
A Marine lance corporal has become the first female Marine in history to graduate the Basic Reconnaissance Course, earning the military occupational specialty of 0321 Reconnaissance Marine.
Lance Cpl. Alexa Barth completed the 12-week course on Nov. 7, said Maj. Kendra Motz, a Marine spokeswoman. Barth previously graduated from the Corps' Infantry Training Battalion-East, earning the MOS of 0311 Rifleman.
GQ corrects story to say Lt. Col. Vindman was hit by IED, not an IUD
GQ Magazine has issued a correction to an Oct. 29 story about Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, assuring its readers that the soldier earned a Purple Heart for wounds he received from an IED, not an IUD, which is something quite different.
"This story has been updated," a note at the end of the article reads. "Alexander Vindman received a Purple Heart after being wounded by an IED, or improvised explosive device, not an IUD, or intrauterine device. We regret the error."
Commander of Marine Corps' Wounded Warrior Regiment fired amid investigation
The commander of the Marine Corps' Wounded Warrior Regiment has been relieved over a loss of "trust and confidence in his ability to lead" amid an investigation into his conduct, a Corps official told Task & Purpose on Thursday.
Col. Lawrence F. Miller was removed from his post on Thursday morning and replaced with his executive officer, Lt. Col. Larry Coleman, who will serve as interim commander of the Quantico, Virginia based unit.
