Marine Corps

The former commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan has been named a special envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the Obama administration said Friday.

Gen. John Allen will work with the State and Defense departments to ensure Israel's security is assured as Secretary of State John Kerry seeks to restart stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. His nomination was first reported by Israel's Haaretz newspaper.

“General Allen has agreed to serve as a Special Advisor for the Secretary of Defense focusing on security in the context of Middle East Peace,” National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan told The Hill. “General Allen's work will support Secretary Kerry's comprehensive efforts to find a way forward on Middle East peace.”

One of the Marine Corps' premiere combat aircraft is now officially the newest member of the White House's helicopter fleet. 

Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) said on Wednesday that he would enlist the help of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to ensure that the Defense Department makes a finding that two Marine pilots were not at fault in a 2000 Osprey crash that took their lives.

"I will go to the Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, who I know and I have a friendship with," Jones said on the House floor. "And I will ask him to assign someone on his immediate staff to work with me on this issue."

The Marine Corps's plan to shift back to its traditional, sea-going roots after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will not be thrown off-track by an ongoing review of the Pentagon's postwar national security strategy, a top service official said Tuesday. 

Two Marines were fatally shot Thursday at the Quantico Marine Corps base by a third Marine, who then killed himself.

The agency said its screening of a wheelchair-bound Marine was "done by the book."

The Marine Corps will hold a pre-trial hearing next week for the Marine accused of shooting video of Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

Sgt. Robert Richards is accused of videotaping Marines urinating on dead Taliban fighters, which drew widespread condemnation last year when it appeared on the Internet.

Richards was charged in January with dereliction of duty and violation of a lawful general order for his role in the incident, as well as for failing to properly supervise fellow marines and the indiscriminate firing of weapons.

A survey conducted by the Marine Corps found 17 percent of male Marines would likely leave the service if women were moved into combat roles.

If women were assigned involuntarily to combat roles, 22 percent of male Marines said they might leave, the study found.

The results of the survey of 53,000 Marines, which were released to The Associated Press on  Friday, highlight some of the complications the services are anticipating as they integrate women into male-only combat units.

But Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos said nearly all combat positions in the Marines would be opened to women.

As the military services prepare to implement an end of the ban on women in combat positions, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) wants to make sure the Pentagon keeps its word that physical standards will remain gender-neutral.

Hunter, a retired Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he’s planning legislation to prevent gender from being a factor in physical standards for combat positions as more than 200,000 new positions are potentially opened up to women.

Pentagon leaders said last week that standards for combat jobs would in fact be gender neutral. Defense Secretary Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey also said that standards would not be changed to allow more women to serve in combat roles, although Dempsey also said that the standards themselves were going to be evaluated.