News of the Force: Sunday, December 10, 2017 - Page 2

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News of the Force: Sunday, December 10, 2017 - Page 2

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U.S. Navy and Marine Corps

    

    Marion Jervey Jones, 91, of North Charleston, S.C., a retired Navy Reserve master chief petty officer, retired supervisory ships progressman and former leadingman sailmaker with the Charleston Naval Shipyard and widower of Esme Strebb Jones, died on Thursday.

    At Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif., commanders from Marine Light Attack Helicopter Training Squadron 303, the "Stingers" of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 267 and the "Heavy Haulers" of Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 462 attended a planning session with Navy officials to coordinate their response to California's wildfires.

    The Port Angeles (Wash.) High School Navy Junior Officers' Reserve Training Corps participated in its first cadet competition this year. The Dec. 2nd competition was held at Burlington-Edison High School.

    Matthew R. Nation was recently promoted to colonel in the United States Marine Corps. Nation is a 1991 graduate of Natick High School and alumnus of Suffolk University. In 2016, he earned a master's degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College.

    Jackson Design & Remodeling, in San Diego, Calif., has partnered with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve's "Toys for Tots" holiday toy drive for a 13th year.

    Every dollar donated to the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve's Toys for Tots program translates into about $4 worth of toys because of the buying power the U.S. Marine Corps has with Walmart and Toys R Us. Last year 3,389 children in the St. George, Utah, area received 14,400 toys, thanks to the Toys for Tots program.

    U.S. Marines with the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, were awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal by Col. Steven J. White. The Marines were awarded for earning the Super Squad Competition medal during a division-wide competition, Aug. 4th-9th.

    And for many needy Erie County, Pa., children, a Christmas that includes toys under their tree is made possible only through the efforts of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve's annual Toys for Tots campaign. Marines, the Pennsylvania State Police and a host of Erie County businesses, organizations and individuals have participated.

 

U.S. Air Force

    

    The Russian Ministry of Defense (MOD) has reported today that on Nov. 23rd there was a major incident where U.S. and Russian air forces engaged each other over Syria.

    The U.S. Air Force and other government agencies have been working on weapons using these high-power microwaves for over twenty years. The weapon was tested back in October of 2012 in at the Utah Test and Training Range which covers 2,500 square miles.

    The Civil Air Patrol, the official Auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with 57,000 members nationwide. The CAP performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center.

    A draft proposal out now from the U.S. Air Force proposes expanding the military's management and use of Nevada's Desert National Wildlife Refuge. The plan would give the Air Force primary jurisdiction over more than two-thirds of the refuge, doing away with the current co-management agreement.

    Yesterday morning, about 20 volunteers from the 911th Airlift Wing of the Air Force Reserve Command, based in Moon, Pa., helped move old furniture out of the Shepherd's Heart Veterans Home, assembling sturdy new bed frames, night stands and cupboards.

    Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.'s A-10 ground-attack planes will fly on. D-M is home to one A-10 combat squadron, an active duty training squadron and an Air Force Reserve training unit.

    A former Florida police officer who is a member of the Air Force Reserve claims the Crestview Police Department discriminated against him because of his military service and sabotaged his attempt to find another job. The lawsuit was filed in federal court last week.

    With the help of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) helicopter and an Arizona Air National Guard plane, Border Patrol agents arrested Jesus Felix Ramirez, a 21-year-old Mexican citizen who told agents he had been on the hilltop since late October.

    Santa Claus and more than a dozen airplanes landed at Nevada's Reno-Tahoe International Airport yesterday morning with gifts to benefit clients of the Children's Cabinet. The Reno-Tahoe Aviation Group created "Operation Santa Claus."

    And in Pennsylvania, two founding members of the Hazleton Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol were honored for their contributions during the early years of the organization with a ceremony yesterday at Hazleton Regional Airport, in Hazle Township. Full story: http://standardspeaker.com/news/founders-of-local-civil-air-patrol-squadron-honored-1.2277330 .

 

The parting shots

    North Korean state media reports that the rather rotund North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un "climbed" the country's tallest mountain - in dress shoes.

    This week's White House report card finds President Trump boosted by a great jobs report and a promise kept on moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

    This week, moviegoers will return to that magical galaxy far, far away when Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits theaters on Friday, Dec. 15th. For Star Wars fanatics, the two-year wait between The Last Jedi and 2015's The Force Awakens has been excruciating.

    Harvey Weinstein took a couple of vile pages out of the Clinton playbook, hiring private investigators to dig up dirt to discredit accusers and floating suggestions that the victims might be "a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty."

    Actor Charlie Sheen has sued The National Enquirer over its Corey Haim rape allegations. The National Enquirer published an article on Nov. 8th that claimed Sheen, who was 19-years-old at the time, raped Haim, who was 13-years-old, in 1986 while on the set of the film Lucas.

    Disgraced former celebrity publicist Max Clifford has reportedly died in a British hospital at the age of 74 after collapsing in prison.

    With 196 homicides so far this year, St. Louis, Mo., is on track to pass the 200 murder mark in a single year for the first time in more than two decades, city leaders say. The St. Louis police investigated 188 murders last year, and the same number in 2015. The last time homicides in the city exceeded 188 was in 1995, when the total reached 204. But the city’s population was nearly 20 percent higher then than it is now.

    Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield has won the 2017 Heisman Trophy. Mayfield's rise from college walk-on to record-breaking passer now includes the most coveted award in college football.  

    And Couzin Gym says: "I read that, by law, you have to turn on your headlights when it’s raining in Sweden. How am I supposed to know if it’s raining in Sweden?"

 

 

   

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