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emma-ofnormandy · 10 months ago

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Gathered up my courage and jumped in on @blind-dates-fest 2024 with a fandom I have not written for before (that’s in a time period I’m slightly terrified to write for)- so yay for getting outside the comfort zone!

I’ve also dropped a tiny morsel of my other OC that I had already created but have yet to introduce to the fandom while I was at it because, well, I can.

Thank you so much @mercurygray for hosting this wonderful event.

Without further ado, please let me introduce Cpl. Winifred “Winnie” Harris for the SAS: Rogue Heroes fandom.

If there was one thing Winnie loved about Cairo, it was that the sun was always shining. Granted, it was hot and sticky, making sweat drip down her back, but it was bright and consistent and that was something to a girl who grew up with a weather pattern that changed by the hour. The sky was always blue too, and it was frequently the backdrop to an array of strange and beautiful birds that fascinated her. She would miss it when she returned home.

If there is even a home to go back to, she thought miserably.

She knew what the papers reported, heard the gossip through headquarters, connected enough calls, that she inevitably thought of her father and little brother still at home. Though they insisted the bombings were far from them and everything was running as smoothly as ever, with the exception of the poor performing ram her father bought off the neighbor last spring, it was hard to chase the worry completely from her mind.

The nature of war, she imagined. Everyone was worried about someone or something. All she had to do was look in the faces of those working around her to know that.

The green was bustling with activity; all the benches and a good portion of the grass had been claimed by people like her, taking a moment to enjoy the weather, some relaxing with lunches or a mid day nap, while others rushed across to finish their daily errands. Officers and enlisted personnel came and went from headquarters in a steady pace, most of them clean and fresh faced, their worries of the day involving various forms of paper shuffling, or perhaps the occasional bout of plotting, but she didn’t miss the few that wore the desert and the marks of war on their uniform. The look in their eyes told her all she needed to know.

Tobruk had been hit again and the hospital had been inundated with the casualties all day. She’d spent much of her shift connecting lines in and out of the upstairs offices, the switchboard alight with demands from across the ocean and pleas for help from those still holding their ground, and it was only now, three hours past noon, that there had been a lull long enough that Winnie had been able to step away and eat the measly lunch that was provided. Not that anything looked appealing at the moment. It never looked particularly appealing, if she was to be honest, and it was a good thing that the Army did not rely on the promise of good food to up their recruitment numbers in the African campaign.

Beside her, a dirt covered mongrel leaned against her, its large brown eyes looking up at her in wonder. “I don’t think this is even fit for you to eat, but I can’t say no to a face like that.”

The dog offered no complaint and finished the offering in two quick bites before giving her hand a nudge, demanding his customary post lunch pats.

Since she first landed in Cairo, Winnie had taken it upon herself to offer food to a friendly stray if they approached her and this one was just the latest of her wards. The unnamed pooch had joined her for lunch a few weeks back and since then he waited around for her each day to share a meal and receive some pats before they both went their separate ways. It was a bright spot in her day, and she liked to think it was one for him as well.

Had the circumstances been different, Winnie would have brought him home the first day they’d met, hating the idea of him living on the streets, at the mercy of men who had hardened with war and on more than one occasion, had proven they had little empathy for the strays of Cairo, but the apartment she lived in was small and she didn’t dare push the hospitality of her roommate.

Felicity wouldn’t have batted an eye, had Winnie brought the dog home, welcoming the four legged friend in with open arms, but Winnie felt like she had already imposed enough on her friend. Not only had Felicity offered up the spare bedroom of her apartment so Winnie didn’t have to stay in army housing, and left a standing invitation to her family’s Sunday dinners, but she was also tolerating a handful of misfit creatures that had already made their way home on various occasions.

Currently, the apartment was a landing spot for a parrot that had belonged to a sailor, who had offered no promise of a return date, a litter of kittens that Winnie swore she was just feeding until they were big enough to go back to their home in the alley behind the apartment building, a mud colored terrier that had been rescued from a group of drunken enlisted men and was supposed to be going to Felicity’s parent’s house any day now, and a one eyed cat named Miss Fiz that had belonged to an elderly lady in the building who had passed away and had, on her own accord, claimed Winnie’s bed as her new home.

They were, for better or worse, at full capacity.

“More wounded are expected,” she told the dog, “and General Auchinleck doesn’t seem to have an answer for the troops still holding position. None of the supplies are making it.”

The dog groaned in appreciation when she moved to scratch behind his ears.

“And you know those crates of champagne I told you about a couple weeks ago? Apparently, they were for some well to do for the upper brass. It would seem anyone with a pin on their shoulder in the greater Cairo area were enjoying themselves while men were getting shelled on the coast. What do you think about that?”

“I imagine he doesn’t approve of it much.”

Startled, Winnie jerked her head up. A tall, lean soldier, his hair neatly parted on one side, stood in front of her. His army issued kaki was just like all the rest, worn but serviceable, and though his sunglasses hid his eyes, his face was clean and he didn’t smell like death, so she surmised he must be posted somewhere near the city rather than a man who came in from Tobruk.

“I would hope so.” Unfazed at being caught talking to a dog, a common occurrence at this point, she smiled up at the stranger. “But he doesn’t say much one way or the other, so for now, we’ll just have to put him on the side of the enlisted men.”

The corner of the tall man’s mouth tipped up with amusement before he crouched down to the dog’s level and reached out to ruffle his ears. “Does your companion have a name?”

“Not yet.”

His brows drew down in confusion, but when he spoke it was to the dog and not her. “Well no wonder you don’t tell her much. What kind of owner doesn’t name their dog.”

It was Winnie’s turn to frown. “He’s not my dog. He’s a stray,” she said, indignantly. “Besides, I haven’t found a name that suits him yet.”

The man studied the dog’s face for a moment, squishing the skin up around the eyes like one the wrinkle faced pugs Winnie’s aunt used to own before releasing it and scratching his ears once more. “He seems like a Withers to me.”

“Withers? What kind of name is Withers?”

“A good one.”

She scoffed.

“And I suppose you would have preferred what… Scout? Or maybe Champ?”

“Actually, I had been thinking of calling him Milo.” She hadn’t been, he certainly didn’t look like a Milo to her, but she had to think of something. Anything would be better than Withers.

He huffed, his distaste of the name obvious.

“And what,” she searched for any sort of identification on his person, her eyes finally settling on the star on his shoulder, “is wrong with the name Milo, Lieutenant?”

“What’s wrong with the name Withers?” he countered.

“It’s a spot on a horse’s back, not a name for a dog.”

“Well, his shoulders sure stick out enough to look like a horse’s withers.”

He wasn’t wrong. Her lunch rations and the few bits she saved for him from her breakfast was not enough to keep him well fed. But something was better than nothing and he wasn’t running around skin and bones so she figured he was finding food elsewhere.

“Sadly, additional canine rations are not provided in the enlisted personnel’s lunch.”

“No, I imagine they aren’t. But I have a feeling he has eaten his fair share all the same.”

There wasn’t a hint of reprimand in his voice and Winnie found herself charmed by the stranger. “Perhaps, Lieutenant…”

“Fraser.” He rose from his spot beside the dog and extended a hand towards her. “Bill Fraser”

“Corporal Winifred Harris,” she said, ignoring his hand, instead saluting him as she rose. His face seemed to flush under the Egyptian sun and she couldn’t hide her amusement. “First time being saluted by a woman?”

The men at headquarters seemed to live and die by the gesture, if the way they puffed out their chest every time was any indicator, but Lieutenant Fraser was obviously uncomfortable with it. Either the men in the field were not as strict when it came to rank or it was just the fact that she was a woman that flustered him. Her bet was on the latter.

“No, that's not-” He stopped short. “Yes. And the formality isn’t required or wanted.”

She chuckled. “Fair enough.” At least he was honest, and she would never pass up a moment to forgo the formalities.

“So Corporal Harris, what is it that you do in Cairo?”

Between them, having been ignored long enough by the newcomer, the dog gave an annoyed huff and returned to his spot beside Winnie, once again leaning against her for a scratch, to which she obliged.

“I man the switchboards out of headquarters.”

The lieutenant seemed to accept that position as reasonable, or that’s what she gathered from the idle nod he gave.

“Is it all that you thought it would be? Being a switchboard operator.”

Winnie couldn’t hold back her chuckle. While manning the board for a war headquarters offered much more activity than it did in her small village, she wouldn’t consider it particularly adrenaline pumping on the day to day front. But, it was something she knew how to do and the army had been scrambling to fill the positions.

Besides, it got her off the farm and gave her the opportunity to see someplace new, and she was grateful for that.

“They weren’t hiring for shepherdess positions when I went to the enlistment office, so I had to offer up my next best skill. Not as picturesque, but at least it’s warm here.”

There was a hint of amusement in his voice. “Not a need for sheep herders in Egypt, then?”

“Apparently not,” she lamented. “Too bad for them, I’ve got a lifetime of experience in sheep and only a few years at the switchboard, but I suppose that’s where they needed me the most.”

“A lifetime huh?”

Though hidden by glasses, she could feel his gaze roam over her, as if trying to pinpoint just how long a lifetime was. He could just keep trying to pinpoint it, too.

She smiled down at the dog as she spoke again. “And you? Who are you with?”

Bill idly rubbed at his chin, his previous train of thought seemingly forgotten as he gave heavy consideration to a question she thought was fairly straightforward.

“The SAS.”

Winnie in no way considered herself an expert in all the units based out of Cairo, but the nature of her job meant she was fairly well versed with who was who and their locations and she was confident SAS was not in the area.

“SAS? Never heard of that unit before.”

“Imagine not.”

She arched a brow. He offered no more information and Winnie couldn’t help the curious bug that began to crawl through her. “Are you new to Cairo? I can’t say any unit remotely matching that name has come across my line before.”

The lieutenant scratched his head as he tilted it up to watch as a pair of plovers flew overhead, avoiding her gaze completely.

Pluvianus aegyptius she thought, distractedly. They were one of her favorites.

“You could say that,” he finally muttered.

His evasiveness only made her interest grow. An advantage to being stationed at headquarters was that it was where all the gossip started, official and unofficial, and it would only take a few shifts before she was able to figure out what she wanted to know about this mysterious regiment.

“So, Lieutenant Fraser, you aren’t stationed at headquarters, and you don’t look, or smell, as if you came in with the wounded from Tobruk earlier, so forgive me for asking, but what brings you and your secret unit to this part of Cairo? Usually, men such as yourself prefer far more… amusing exploits on the other side of town.”

He didn’t seem insulted by her frankness or curiosity, which was a relief since she had never been very good with the delicacy of conversation. No matter how hard she tried, more often than not, she tripped over the line of propriety and straight into tactlessness.

“Had to drop paperwork off. The green is a nice detour back.”

“They sending you out?” There was the line and, again, she stomped right over it.

He chuckled. “Are you always this curious about all the soldiers you meet?”

Her face flushed, slightly embarrassed. “Most of the soldiers I meet are paper pushers. I know what their day consists of so I have no reason to ask them many questions.”

“Surely you meet more than just the ones that walk the halls there.” He gestured towards the main gate where trucks were waiting at the barricade of headquarters.

She didn’t, at least not regularly. Though she went out on occasion with some of the girls after shift and Felicity had drug her to several dinners at the Cairo Museum, she wasn’t what one would consider experienced in large cities, especially alone, and more often than not, she found herself curling up at home with Miss Fiz, sketching those strange yet fascinating birds, rather than going out.

“Now who’s the curious one.”

That earned her a crooked smile and he raised his hands in surrender.

She needed to head back inside, her shift at the board wasn’t over quite yet and it was past time that the dog should be headed off to wherever the next stop in his day was.

“I wish you and your unit luck, Lieutenant, wherever you are going next.” Wiping at invisible lint on her skirt, Winnie gave her new acquaintance a friendly smile. “It was nice to meet you, but I must be getting back to my wires.” She turned and began her way back across the green, the dog keeping pace by her side.

“Next time I am in the city, I may stop by,” she heard him yell. “To see how Withers is holding up!”

What do we have here?

Winnie stooped and glanced at him over her shoulder. He was relaxed, hands crammed into the pockets of his shorts, and his mouth was kicked up in a lazy smile. She wasn’t sure what to make of the offer but decided it was strictly canine related. It had to be strictly canine related; she was going to let herself believe that there was still a soldier or two left in Cairo that had a soft spot for more than just women and rum.

With a casual wave over her shoulder, she kept walking and waited till she was a good distance away, letting her voice carry over the green like one of the strange birds that fascinated her. “I can’t guarantee that Milo will be around at that time, but it never hurts to stop by and check!”

#sas rogue heroes #sas: rogue heroes #blind date fest 2024 #mine: writing #mine: oc #winnie harris

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pannaginip · 4 months ago

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Four youth human rights defenders filed civil and criminal complaints against former 59th Infantry Battalion commander Lt. Col. Ernesto Teneza Jr., 16 military officers, and five other witnesses before the Office of the Ombudsman on July 19.

At least 22 individuals face charges of perjury, grave coercion, grave misconduct, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service, oppression, and unfair discrimination based on political affiliation.

Their complaint stemmed from charges filed by Sgt. Jean Claude Bajaro and Cpl. Ivan Neil Ogatis against Pecayo, Rementilla, and Rubia, which were dismissed by prosecutors in Santa Rosa City and Antipolo City.

“We are here at the Ombudsman to tell the military that they cannot escape their lies and abuses. We will always be ready to give them their day in court,” said Charm Maranan, spokesperson for Defend Southern Tagalog.

Maranan also criticized the use of the anti terror and terrorism financing laws to target humanitarian work and activism.

2024 Jul. 21

#junk anti terror law #philippines #state violence #red tagging #afp-pnp

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 3 months ago

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That fact rose its ugly head yet again today when Judge Juan Merchan delayed sentencing Donald Trump in the New York hush money fraud case in which a jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records, several of which were related to his attempt to conceal the payment he made to Stormy Daniels before the presidential election in 2016.

Reading Judge Merchan’s order is like being in a room with a middle-aged man on his first day in a yoga class, pain leaching from every corpuscle of his body as he contorts himself into making a decision he clearly believes not in the interest of either justice or the wellbeing of the country. The order begins this way:

“By letter dated August 14, 2024, Defendant requests an adjournment of his sentencing, currently scheduled for September 18, 2024, until after the 2024 presidential election. He argues the adjournment is necessary to provide adequate time to ‘assess and pursue’ appellate options in the event this Court denies his pending Criminal Procedure Law ("CPL') S 330.30 motion and to avoid the potential ‘politically prejudicial’ impact that a public sentencing could have on him and his prospects in the upcoming election. He attempts to bolster his application by repeating a litany of perceived and unsubstantiated grievances from previous filings that do not merit this Court’s attention and will not be addressed in this Decision.”

The judge’s quotes from Trump’s letter are proper given the nature of the order, but let me tell you, along with his dismissal of Trump’s “unsubstantiated grievances,” they are included to reflect the contempt Merchan has for Trump, his lawyers, and his request to delay sentencing.

Take a step back for a moment. This is the judge that Trump trashed every single day of the trial that concluded by finding him guilty on all counts. He is the judge who found Trump in contempt of court ten times for various violations of gag orders imposed to prevent the defendant from harassing his clerk and employees and relatives of the prosecutors and other persons associated with the New York court system, including the judge’s own daughter. The 10th time Merchan found Trump in contempt, after fining him $1,000, he threatened him with jail time. Merchan had already fined Trump $9.000 for his previous violations. Trump had attacked the judge’s daughter as “a rabid Trump hater,” among other slurs, and Merchan sanctioned him for that, as well as forbidding him from discussing any relatives of anyone associated with the case. Trump had also attacked the make-up of the jury. He made thinly veiled threats against witnesses in the case that Merchan warned Trump against but did not find contemptuous.

Defendants in criminal trials don’t do this stuff unless the defendant’s name is Donald Trump.

In his order, Merchan cited the unprecedented nature of criminally sentencing a candidate for president: “This matter is one that stands alone, in a unique place in this Nation's history,” Merchan wrote. He also included a statement of impartiality and purpose that you would not ordinarily find in such a judicial order: “This adjournment request has now been decided in the same way this Court has decided every other issue that has arisen since the origination of this case, applying the facts and the law after carefully considering the issues and respective arguments of the parties to ensure that the integrity of the proceeding is protected, justice is served, and the independence of this judiciary kept firmly intact.” The statement is, without citing instances of Trump’s continual disruption of his trial with lies, slander, and bluster, a defense of the integrity of the judicial process, which Merchan was caused to do almost daily during the trial.

All of this is unprecedented. The nature of the crime is unprecedented: a presidential candidate paying off a porn star to conceal a sexual affair from the voters; the defendant being a candidate for president during his trial; the contemptuous behavior of the defendant during the trial; the contempt of the defendant for the jury and the verdict; and of course, before the defendant was sentenced, the intervention of the Supreme Court that found Trump immune from prosecution for official acts taken while president, at least several of which – the signing of checks to Michael Cohen by Trump in the Oval Office – the defense will contend somehow fit the definition of “official acts.”

Trump wants the sentencing hearing postponed so that voters will not know whether he has been sentenced to jail for his crimes in New York. That is unprecedented, too, just as was Trump not wanting voters in 2016 to know that he had paid hush-money to a porn star.

Whether voters would take into consideration the judge’s sentence is almost irrelevant. At this point, voters are faced daily with face-slaps of Trump’s misbehavior and madness, his jumble of unintelligible remarks and lies about childcare before the Economic Club of New York the other day being one of the most recent. The Economic Club of New York includes among its membership people Trump wanted so badly to respect him when he was a real estate developer and citizen of Manhattan. They are the uppermost crust of the upper crust of New York society and business – members of the clubs Trump wanted to belong to such as the Union League and Metropolitan Club and other mahogany-and-brass-fittings temples of the Manhattan elite.

And yet there he was, mumbling and lying and stumbling through a discussion any parent in America could speak about coherently:

“But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about — that, because look, childcare is child care, couldn’t — you know, there’s something — you have to have it in this country. You have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers, compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to. But they’ll get used to it very quickly. And it’s not going to stop them from doing business with us. But they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send products into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including childcare, that it’s going to take care. We’re going to have — I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country.”

The phrase, word-salad, is inadequate to describe what he said to that roomful of business executives and economic experts. What could he have been thinking?

Well, he wasn’t thinking. He was just flapping his jaws incomprehensibly, because that is what works for him out there among his MAGA faithful. They don’t have childcare they can afford, and they don’t care that Trump has no plans to get it for them, because that is not what they want from him. What they want is hate, of which he supplies copious quantities, which is not unprecedented in this country, and that in itself is a problem and has been since our founding as a nation.

Just as Judge Merchan had to take into consideration who the jury found guilty in his courtroom and upon whom he has to deliver sentence, I am afraid that the rest of us are saddled with a similar burden. We have a monster in our midst. We are trying to bar the monster from the White House as we did in 2020, but even if we succeed, he will not be gone, not in person, nor in the excretory politics he has encouraged among the citizenry.

We are not a monstrous country, not yet anyway, but we have always had the tendency to become one. We avoided such a fate only by Civil War once in our history. We will find out in November if defeating Trump at the ballot box will enable us to go forward as a nation without resorting to violence.

We can only vote, and hope.

Lucian Truscott Newsletter

#Lucian Truscott #Lucian Truscott Newsletter #TFG #Rule of Law #political #election 2024

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gadgetsboy · 11 months ago

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TCL's NXTPAPER Technology Makes its Way to More Tablets

As far as mobile displays are concerned, TCL's NXTPAPER technology is one of the more unique innovations out there, and the company claims that its latest NXTPAPER 3.0 display hardware improves on the foundations that its predecessors introduced to the market. Recently, TCL announced that NXTPAPER 3.0 will be available to its upcoming line of 50-series smartphones, as well as a couple of new tablet devices. Commenting on the upcoming product releases, TCL Communication CEO Aaron Zhang quotes: "As we step into 2024, we make a significant leap in our journey, humanizing technology and expanding it across our most comprehensive range of smart devices to date... Our innovation is about reshaping the integration of technology into everyday life, making it more organic and accessible. With the introduction of the pioneering TCL NXTPAPER 3.0 technology, the considerable advancements in our TCL 50 Series, and our strides in democratizing 5G vision, we are actively narrowing the divide between technology and its accessibility. At TCL, we stand firm in our mission to inspire greatness by creating technology that empowers and connects everyone, everywhere." What's NXTPAPER? For those unfamiliar with the term, TCL's NXTPAPER display tech specializes in giving users comfortable reading and browsing experiences, without sacrificing or compromising on display quality - this means that images remain sharp, colours are still vibrant, and elements such as contrast are handled nicely. NXTPAPER 3.0 works in tandem with Circularly Polarized Light (CPL) screens, which TCL says work to create a visual experience somewhat akin to reading books in natural light, in addition to DC Dimming technology that the company says reduces eyestrain thanks to a flicker-free visual experience. For software, NXTPAPER 3.0 includes an eye-care assistant that can gently send notifications to users to encourage breaks in screen time or change poor lighting conditions, in accordance with expert recommendations for digital device usage. With all that being said, TCL also introduced a couple of new tablets that come with NXTPAPER 3.0. TCL NXTPAPER 14 Pro Up first is the TCL NXTPAPER 14 Pro, which the company says has been developed for performance without ditching eye comfort. The 14 Pro features the upgraded 3-in-1 VersaView user interface, which focuses on giving users the comfort of reading on paper and the classic aesthetic of a black and white UI, mimicking e-Readers and other similar hardware. As for its tech specifications, the 14 Pro tablet comes with a large 14-inch display with a 2.8K resolution, which is wrapped in a slim and easy-to-carry chassis. Powering the tablet is MediaTek's rather-capable Dimensity 8020 chipset, alongside 12GB of RAM which should be more than enough for moderate to most intensive tasks (at least as far as tablets are concerned). Other details include 256GB of internal storage, and a large 12,000 mAh battery that supports 33W fast-charging speeds. TCL TAB 10 NXTPAPER 5G Also equipped with NXTPAPER display hardware, the Tab 10 5G comes with access to - you guessed it - 5G connection speeds, in a slightly smaller package compared to its larger sibling. The Tab 10 comes with a 10.4-inch screen with a 2K resolution, and launches pre-loaded with the latest Android 14 software onboard. TCL touts the Tab 10 as a more entertainment-focused device, with 5G connectivity making it ideal for streaming purposes. Be sure to stay tuned for more upcoming information regarding release timelines, as well as regional pricing. Read the full article

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sgtgrunt0331-3 · 6 months ago

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Lance Cpl. Garrett Law with 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, fires to suppress simulated enemy fire during Integrated Training Exercise as part of Service Level Training Exercise 2-24 at Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, California, March 1, 2024.

(Photo by Lance Cpl. Justin J. Marty)

#usmc #us marines #infantry #grunt #training #miltary #twentynine palms #warrior wednesday

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military1st · 24 days ago

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Mastering the Jungle.

U.S. Marine during jungle warfare training at Central Training Area, Okinawa, Japan.

The U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Osmar Gutierrez (2024).

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usafphantom2 · 4 months ago

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Marines hit operational status with second carrier-capable F35-C unit

Todd SouthJul 31, 2024 at 04:56 PM

A West Coast Marine F-35C Lightning II squadron has achieved initial operational capability.

The Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 311, Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, hit that key milestone Wednesday, 1st Lt. Madison Walls, wing spokeswoman told Marine Corps Times. The status means a unit can employ, maintain and train on the jet.

The Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, unit conducted its first independent live ordnance operations July 25.

“Initial operational capability is a milestone and achievement in readiness,” said Lt. Col. Michael Fisher, commanding officer of VMFA-311 in a statement. “It’s all on the backs of the Marines out there. What they do in their day-to-day actions is what made this possible.”

The squadron, also known as the Tomcats, flew more than 900 sorties, which equals nearly 1,700 flight hours and another 800 simulator hours and 2,400 maintenance actions to reach initial operational capability, according to a service release.

“The Tomcats have a storied history that includes legends such as Ted Williams and John Glenn, and participation in every major conflict since World War II,” Maj. Gen. James Wellons, commanding general of 3rd MAW, said in the release. “Today’s Marines add another chapter to that legacy with the introduction of the F-35C and fifth-generation capabilities to VMFA-311.”

Marine Corps Cpl. Larry Casas, a fixed-wing aircraft mechanic with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 311, directs Capt. Joshua G. Falgoust, an F-35C Lightning II pilot. (Lance Cpl. Jennifer Sanchez/Marine Corps)

In 2020, the squadron deactivated its AV-8 Harrier jets and then reactivated in April 2023 with 84 Marines and one F-35, reflecting the Marine Corps’ move to fifth-generation fighter aircraft. The transition has resulted in a gradual reduction in Harriers and F/A-18 Hornets.

The Corps’ two F-35C squadrons, VMFA-311 and VMFA-314, are both stationed at Miramar.

The VMFA-314, or Black Knights, reached initial operational capability in 2020, Marine Corps Times previously reported.

The F-35C is specifically engineered for carrier-based operations, featuring heavier landing gear and enlarged, foldable wings designed to facilitate catapult launches and arrestments on aircraft carriers. The foldable wingtips also facilitate easier storage on the carrier deck.

The “C” variant holds more fuel than other versions of the single-seat jet, with nearly 20,000 pounds of internal fuel capacity for long-range flights.

“The next step for VMFA-311 is full operational capability, attained when VMFA-311 receives its complete inventory of ten F-35C aircraft, projected for fiscal year 2025,” according to the release.

The Marine Corps has used the F-35B for years. The “B” variant, built to use short runways and flat-decked amphibious assault ships, is capable of short take-offs and vertical landings.

Currently, the Corps has eight operational F-35B squadrons and two training squadrons, totaling over 100 F-35B aircraft globally.

Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.

@DefenseNews.com

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