Where has the time gone?

OK, almost 2 years since the last posting here, that is totally UNSAT! I need to keep all you Jarheads better informed about things going on over at the MSG Duty History Project.

First, I have added GySgt K. J. Carleo to the Admin staff of the website. This will really add some new life to the project as I have been managing it since I started it about 8 years ago. Gunny has already jumped in feet first, as all Marines do, and has some great ideas to expand the website.

Second, I would really like to see some more stories being submitted. You guys are not as shy as you are trying to be. Take some time and jot down some interesting items that happened when you were on post. This really gives visitors to the website a better idea of what we do on and off duty on embassy duty.

This Week in Marine Corps History (10/13 -10/19)

13 October 1944: Organized Japanese resistance formally ended on Peleliu although some Japanese fought on for years believing that the war was not over.

14 October 1926: After the brutal robbery and killing of a U. S. Mail truck driver in Elizabeth, NJ, President Calvin Coolidge turned to the Marine Corps for assistance. By Presidential Order, 2,500 Marines began guarding the mail.

15 October 1942: Marine Air Group 11 embarked for the South Pacific.

16 October 1962: The first of the CH-46A helicopters began testing. The first Marine squadrons took these aircraft into service in early 1965.

17 October 1820: LtCol Archibald Henderson was appointed Commandant of the Marine Corps. He served in this position for 38 years.

18 October 2002: It was announced that the I Marine Expeditionary Force, which could serve as a ground vanguard in any strike against Iraq, would soon move most of their headquarters to Kuwait.

19 October 1968: Operation Maui Peak, a combined regimental-sized operation which began on 6 October, ended 11 miles northwest of An Hoa, Vietnam. More than 300 enemy were killed in the 13-day operation.

This Week in Marine Corps History (10/6 - 10/12)

6 October 1916: Dog tags were first authorized by Marine Corps Order Number 32.

7 October 1950: With North Korean forces in full retreat, the Inchon-Seoul campaign of the Korean War was formally declared closed.

8 October 1899: A force of 376 Marines captured the insurgent town of Novaleta, Philippines.

9 October 1911: Joe Rosenthal, the photographer who snapped the iconic image of 5 Marines and a Corpsman raising the flag on Mount Suribachi, was born in Washington, D.C.

10 October 1942: Elements of the 2nd Bn 2nd Marine Regiment conducted a two-day raid on the villages of Koilotamaria and Garabaus, Guadalcanal.

11 October 1971: Marine legend Lt. General Chesty Puller, succumbed to pneumonia and kidney infection and died at age 73.

12 October 1979: Iwo Jima flag raiser Corporal Rene Gagnon died in Manchester, New Hampshire at the age of 54.

This Week in Marine Corps History (09/29 - 05/06)

29 September 1950: PFC Stanley R. Christianson gave his life in a one-man stand against a ferocious attack which threatened to destroy his platoon in Korea. For his heroism, Christianson was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

30 September 1942: Admiral Nimitz made an emergency landing at Henderson Field, Guadalcanal. Nimitz made the most of the opportunity, visiting the front lines, talking to a number of Marines and reaffirmed to General Vandegrift that his overriding mission was to hold the airfield.

1 October 1931: Major General Smedley Butler, twice awarded the Medal of Honor, retired upon his own application after completion of 33 years service in the Marine Corps.

2 October 1923: Birthday of CWO 4 Hershel Williams a career Marine who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his outstanding heroism in the Battle of Iwo Jima.

3 October 1903: Maj. General George Elliot became the 10th Commandant of the Marine Corps.

4 October 1918 : SGT Matej Kocak, who earned the Army and Navy Medals of Honor for "heroism above and beyond the call of duty" in action against the enemy on 18 July 1918, was killed in action by enemy gunfire in the Battle of Blanc Mont Ridge, France.

5 October 1974: First Lieutenant Robert G. Robinson, who earned the Medal of Honor as a pilot in World War I, passed away at the age of 79.

Osama bin Laden had died?

I am not even sure how much legitimacy I would put in anything France says if it is at all related to "The war on terrorism". This article is so speculative I'm not sure it even rates to be posted yet, you decide.

PARIS (Reuters) - France and the United States said on Saturday they could not confirm a report that Osama bin Laden had died and France launched a probe into how a secret document containing the claim was leaked.

The French regional daily L'Est Republicain, published in Nancy, quoted a document from France's DGSE foreign intelligence service as saying the Saudi secret services were convinced the al Qaeda leader had died of typhoid in Pakistan in late August.

President Jacques Chirac told reporters bin Laden's death "has not been confirmed in any way whatsoever, and so I have no comment to make."

"I was a bit surprised to see that a confidential note from the DGSE had been published," he said after a summit with leaders of Germany and Russia.

The Saudi Interior Ministry was not available for comment and officials in the United States, which has made capturing bin Laden a priority in its war on terrorism, were also unable to confirm the account.

"We don't have any confirmation of that report," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

"We've heard these things before and have no reason to think this is any different," added a U.S. intelligence official, who asked not to be named.

"There's just nothing we can point to say this report has any more credence than other reports we've seen in the past."

LEAK PROBE

In Paris, Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie ordered an investigation into the leaking of the classified DGSE document.

The French newspaper printed what it said was a copy of the report, dated September 21, and said it had been passed to Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin the same day.

"According to a usually reliable source, the Saudi services are now convinced that Osama bin Laden is dead," it read.

"The information gathered by the Saudis indicates that the head of al Qaeda fell victim, while he was in Pakistan on August 23, 2006, to a very serious case of typhoid that led to a partial paralysis of his internal organs."

The report, which was stamped "defense confidential" and with the initials of the French secret service, said Saudi Arabia had first heard the information on September 4 and was waiting for more details before making an official announcement.

"If anyone was in the picture, I doubt it would be Saudi intelligence," said a Western diplomat in Riyadh.

"Even if Saudi Arabia had information, they'd pass it on to the United States, not France. It doesn't ring true."

A senior Pakistani government official said Islamabad had not received any information from any foreign government that would corroborate the story.

The Saudi-born bin Laden was based in Afghanistan until the Taliban government there was overthrown by U.S.-backed forces after al Qaeda's September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Since then, U.S. and Pakistani officials have regularly said they believe he is hiding somewhere on the rugged border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Bin Laden is rumored to have been suffering from kidney ailments and receiving dialysis treatment.

His last videotaped message was released in late 2004, but several low-quality audio tapes have been released this year.

Senior U.S. intelligence figures have cautioned against assuming that bin Laden's death or capture would automatically have a substantial impact in the war on terrorism.

They note that the death in June of al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has failed to lead to any let-up in the violence there.