Maj. Gen. Marcus Annibale relieved commander Lt. Col. Shaina Hennessey, Sgt. Maj. Jamie Lampley and the executive officer, who was not named in the statement.

The three led Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 268, based out of Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, until being fired Oct. 28.

“We hold ourselves to the highest standards of performance, addressing challenges head-on to uphold operational excellence,” read the statement provided by Maj. Joseph Butterfield, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing spokesman. “We are committed to implementing best practices and policies that ensure a strong coupling of well-prepared pilots and crews with safe, mission-ready aircraft.”

No further details were provided for the action.

Lt. Col. John Campbell now commands the squadron with Sgt. Maj. Joshua Henderson serving as the unit’s senior enlisted leader.

Hennessey took command of the squadron in December, according to an archived official biography. She was commissioned as a Marine officer in 2007 and became a naval aviator in 2011.

Her decorations include the Air Medal Strike/Flight numeral 1, Meritorious Service Medal with a gold star in lieu of second award, and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with a gold star in lieu of second award.

Lampley had served as the command’s senior enlisted leader since February 2024, according to an archived official biography. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2000.

His personal decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with one gold star in lieu of second award, and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with three gold stars in lieu of a fourth award.

The next iteration of Meals Ready-to-Eat is MRE 46, set to release in 2026.

Among the options — all of which are required to have shelf lives of six months in 100 degrees Fahrenheit and three years at 80 degrees Fahrenheit — troops will no longer see beef taco filling, a pork sausage patty and jalapeno pepper jack beef patty.

Instead, those items will be replaced with buffalo chicken, Cuban-style beef picadillo with vegetables and a Thai-style red curry with chicken and rice.

“Buffalo chicken is something that [soldiers] have requested. It’s a popular item … so we’re hoping that this item will be longstanding,” Julie Edwards, a Combat Feeding Division senior technologist and registered dietitian, said in a U.S. Army release.

The Soldier Center’s Combat Feeding Division in Natick Massachusetts, part of the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, is responsible for developing the MRE menu. Researchers there work with troops in the field to get feedback about the meals, and behavioral psychologists hold focus groups to dig into the data.

The feedback is analyzed and presented to the Joint Services Operational Rations Forum, which decides which new items to include.

The beef taco filling, pork sausage patty and jalapeno pepper jack beef patty were not rated highly among surveyed service members. The process to bring in new meals takes about four years, Edwards said.

“Any new item that we get that can help bring variety and increase acceptability is important,” Edwards said in the release. “We know that eating an MRE isn’t everyone’s No. 1 thing, but we want to make it safe to eat — that’s our No. 1 priority — and then to make it taste good as well.”

A s’mores recovery bar and freeze-dried chocolate peanut butter bites, both high in protein, are also among the new items that will be included in MRE 46.

Edwards said it’s been challenging to find protein-rich products, other than nuts, that can withstand the shelf-life requirements for MREs. Many options, such as beef jerky, experience a chemical reaction that gives them an unappetizing look, she said.

“I know in the commercial sector, you see lots of beef jerky that’s shelf stable. However, it has a very short commercial shelf life,” Edwards said.

Also included in the MRE 46 lineup are more caffeinated products offered as an alternative to coffee, which isn’t as popular among troops as it used to be. To replace coffee, researchers developed other caffeinated beverages, as well as energy chews, gels, caffeinated gum and caffeinated jellybeans.

“What we’ve noticed is caffeine is one of the least consumed items in the MRE,” Edwards said in the release. “Previous generations were big coffee drinkers, but the newer generation of soldiers are not.”

Troops also requested a larger, more durable towelette.

The next menu, MRE 47, is already in development and expected to come out in 2027.

One request from troops was to include more plant-based items. For 2027, the Combat Feeding Division is developing plant-based animal crackers, a new recovery bar, a protein bar and a fruit-flavored cereal, Edwards said. The four vegetarian meals currently in the MRE rotation will be replaced with other plant-based entrees, she said.

The two-week surge began Sept. 15 with Operation Clean Sweep III, hosted by I Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Corps Installations West, according to a service release.

The third iteration of the barracks cleanup and repair project expands beyond Camp Pendleton to more bases in California and one in Arizona, including Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and Marine corps Air Station Yuma.

The Corps kicked off the first Operation Clean Sweep at Camp Pendleton in October 2024 and ran a second iteration from late March through early April of this year.

So far, the initiative has completed more than 8,500 self-help projects and more than 4,500 work orders, according to the Marine Corps.

Deferred maintenance and funding shortfalls have worn down Marine housing over decades, which led to wall-to-wall inspections of the service’s more than 60,000 barracks rooms in early 2024.

The work falls under a larger effort dubbed Barracks 2030, which includes consolidating Marines into better buildings and demolishing the worst locations, hiring professional barracks managers and increasing funding for barracks restorations.

The Barracks 360 Reset, which includes Operation Clean Sweep, is a local initiative between I MEF and Marine Corps Installations-West to address immediate concerns.

I Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Corps Installations-West invested nearly $9.6 million in housing maintenance and repairs as of 2024. Operation Clean Sweep II was funded by Headquarters Marine Corps at a cost of $6.27 million. Headquarters contributed another $4 million to quality-of-life improvements not directly linked to the second operation.

Half of the initial funding was spent on a “surge” to address backlogged maintenance requests.

A separate but related effort saw the launch of QSRMax system in July 2024. The system allows Marines to submit maintenance requests via a QR code, which are then routed to barracks and building managers.

A 2023 Government Accountability Office report found that some Marine barracks had “mold, dysfunctional plumbing and poor heating and cooling.”

Around 87,000 Marines live in barracks, according to a February 2024 Marine Corps Gazette article. An estimated 17% of the service’s 658 barracks buildings at the time were listed in “poor or failing condition.”

As of March 2024, approximately 17,000 Marines, or 20%, lived in barracks that fell short of military standards related to privacy and room configuration, according to the GAO report.

The helicopter, assigned to 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, was conducting routine operations at Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, California, on Friday, Aug. 22 when the fire broke out, resulting in a ground mishap, according to a statement provided to Marine Corps Times on Monday.

The fire, captured briefly on video and shared on social media, shows the grounded helicopter engulfed in smoke and flames.

“At approximately 1:10 p.m. PDT Aug. 22, 2025, a CH-53E Super Stallion assigned to 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing experienced a ground mishap due to a fire onboard the aircraft during routine operations at Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California,” a spokesperson told Marine Corps Times.

The spokesperson for the air wing further noted that “All personnel safely evacuated the aircraft without injury,” with emergency responders able to extinguish the fire.

The aircraft was based at Marine Corps Station Miramar and assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 16, according to the statement.

Officials declined to release any further details, citing the ongoing investigation, noting that mishaps of this nature can take several months to complete.

Tice’s mother, Debra Tice, publicly shared some details Thursday from declassified documents she and her husband, Marc Tice, were allowed to view earlier this year.

Debra Tice shared images of some of the documents, many heavily redacted, at the National Press Club during an event that marked the 13th anniversary of Austin Tice’s capture.

The documents are part of a larger trove of information shared with the Tice family by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard earlier this year, Debra Tice said. She and her husband spent 17 hours over two days reviewing eight, four-inch binders of materials with intelligence — much of it uncorroborated — about their son.

Over the years, the Tice family was told U.S. officials did not have new information regarding Austin’s capture or detention. But the documents they reviewed showed previously unknown details, including about medical treatment he received while being held in Syria.

“Our government had information almost every single day of Austin Tice’s detention,” Debra Tice said.

Austin Tice worked as a freelance journalist covering Syria’s civil war when he was taken hostage near Damascus around Aug. 13, 2012. He was 31 at the time and had previously served as a Marine captain with deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan.

In December 2024, when the Syrian government fell to rebel forces, there was hope that Austin Tice would be found among the many prisoners. President Joe Biden said at the time that Tice was alive, even though officials had no direct evidence of his status.

In June, reports emerged that the U.S. government was investigating claims by a former Syrian official that Tice was killed in Syria in 2013 at the behest of then-President Bashar al-Assad.

Debra Tice said the documents shown to them refute this claim, which was made by Bassam al-Hassan, a strategic advisor and member of Assad’s inner circle.

Hassan claimed that Assad ordered Tice’s killing after he briefly escaped his prison cell in 2013. But experts, including Nizar Zakka, head of Hostage Aid Worldwide, said Hassan’s story is hard to believe. Zakka spoke via Zoom at the Thursday event.

“Assad will never, ever give the order to kill an American citizen,” Zakka said. “This is out of the question.”

U.S. government officials told The Washington Post that Hassan’s claims are unsubstantiated.

Also appearing at the Press Club event was Kieran Ramsey, a former director of the Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, who worked on Tice’s case before he retired. Ramsey blamed bureaucracy for standing in the way of getting Austin back.

“Bureaucracy has been the ultimate agent of evil when it comes to getting Austin home,” Ramsey said.

While proof of life has a high threshold, Ramsey said, so does proof of death.

“As we sit here right now, there isn’t any,” Ramsey said.

The Tice family hasn’t wavered in believing that Austin is alive, and his parents reiterated that belief Thursday.

“My son is not dead, and we are working to get him home,” Debra Tice said.

Lt. Col. Rob Dolan said in a statement to Stars and Stripes that Cpl. Santiago Llanes was found unresponsive in his barracks room Sunday and pronounced dead at the scene.

Llanes was assigned to Marine Corps Security Force Company in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He served as an assistant administrative chief and joined the Marine Corps in 2022.

“I can confirm that NCIS is conducting an investigation to determine the facts surrounding the death of Marine Cpl. Santiago Llanes, as we do in response to any non-combat, medically unattended deaths of Department of the Navy service members,” NCIS spokeswoman Meredith March said in a statement to Stripes.

Llanes’s remains were transferred on Wednesday to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, in a ceremony to honor the fallen known as a dignified transfer.

The move is laid out in Marine Corps Administrative Message 365/25 for Marines who have yet to reenlist or if their primary military occupational specialty is closed.

Marines in their first or subsequent terms can apply for the following 12 specialties:

• Avionics/maintenance technician, unmanned aircraft system
• Unmanned aircraft mechanic, MQ-9
• Tactical air operations/air defense systems technician
• Tactical data systems technician
• Ground control station technician
• Explosives ordnance disposal technician
• ACV repairer/technician
• Amphibious combat vehicle crewmember
• Influence specialist
• Critical skills operator
• Reconnaissance Marine
• Counterintelligence/human intelligence specialist

Marines in their first term of enlistment can also apply for five other specialties:

• Low altitude defense gunner
• Criminal investigator agent
• Career counselor
• Marine Corps community services Marine
• Operational contract support specialist

Only Marines in their subsequent term of enlistment can apply for the following specialties:

• Information security technician
• Cyberspace warfare operator
• Career recruiter

In fiscal year 2024, the Marines had 1,014 lateral moves, which was a 20% increase from the previous year, according to the service’s 2024 Talent Management update.

An earlier August MARADMIN also established a voluntary early release option for Marines with an End of Active Service date on or before Sept. 30, 2025.

Sgt. Gordon Reed, a motor vehicle operator with 4th Marine Logistics Group, collapsed at the Navy Reserve Center Orlando during a PFT on June 24. He was transported to a local hospital where he died, according to the safety report and Marine officials.

The death is under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service as well as a safety investigation by Marine Forces Reserve. A command investigation will begin once NCIS has completed its investigation, 1st Lt. Quiarra Barros told Military.com.

“Our hearts and condolences are with his family during this difficult time,” Barros told Marine Corps Times in an email statement on Thursday. “We are unable to comment further given there is an ongoing investigation into the matter.”

Reed’s cause of death has not yet been determined and Barros declined to comment on what factors may have played a role.

“I can confirm that NCIS is conducting a thorough investigation into the death of Sgt. Gordon Reed, as we do for any non-combat, medically unattended deaths of Department of the Navy service members,” said Darwin Lam, a spokesperson for the law enforcement agency. “Out of respect for the investigative process, NCIS will not comment further while the investigation remains ongoing.”

The offer is part of a new program for active duty enlisted Marines who already had an “end of active service,” or EAS, date in fiscal year 2025, according to a Marine Corps Administrative Message posted online Thursday.

Marines approved to leave early will separate sooner than the end date of their current contract but will still be considered to have completed their full active duty service. The program does not apply to Marines in the Marine Corps Reserve.

The early release could impact separation benefits in certain circumstances, so those Marines would not be released from active duty until their service length requirements are met for separation pay. Marines in the early release program will not have to repay bonuses for enlistment or selective retention or retirement system continuation pay.

“It is understood that this program may result in temporary risks to some units due to falling below staffing levels. Units will not receive early staffing replacement,” the Marine Corps’ official notice states, adding that the program is being used as a “force shaping tool.”

The Marine Corps previously offered early release options in 2020 for Marines in armor and tank billets and in 2014 for commissioned officers.

The following Marines are not eligible for this year’s release program: those with contracts ending after Sept. 30, scheduled to transfer to the Reserves, set to leave under other early release programs, on special duty assignment and pending legal actions.

Matthew Kolakwoski had just left a checkout lane when he heard a worker scream that a man had a knife. He then heard a “mass of blood-curling screams from the back of the store,” mlive.com reported.

Kolakowski saw the man stab another shopper and then stab an elderly woman. He told his daughter and her friend to stay where they were while he and his brother-in-law went toward the man.

The man, identified as Bradford James Gille, 42, looked like he was going for the elderly woman again, Kolakowski said. He rammed Gille with his shopping cart. Gille tried to get up, but another man hit him with his shopping cart from the other side.

Kolakowski began to raise the cart to smash it on top of Gille when another Marine veteran, Derrick Perry, arrived and drew his personal pistol, holding Gille at gunpoint in the parking lot.

On video Perry can be heard along with others repeatedly telling Gille to put down the knife.

“I ultimately wanted him to put the knife down and back away until law enforcement got there,” Perry told ABC’s Good Morning America. “I did not see myself as any type of judge, jury or executioner — I just wanted everyone to be safe.”

“I just wanted to do right by my community and help where there was a problem,” Perry said in a statement shared by the Sheriff’s Office. “I am just like any other member of the community. I wasn’t looking to be heroic. I just wanted to help my neighbors. I can’t take all the credit as there were other courageous individuals who were also standing up to the attacker too. I appreciate the outpouring of thanks and love from the public.”

Kolakowski, 39, and his brother-in-law Chris O’Brien, 43, spoke at a press conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Tuesday.

“Both individuals were instrumental in the detaining of the individual until law enforcement could arrive,” Grand Traverse County Sheriff Michael Shea told Task & Purpose.

Police said that 11 people suffered injuries in the Saturday attack at the Traverse City Walmart. The victims ranged in age from 29 to 84 years old. All are expected to survive.

Gille was charged with 11 counts of attempted murder and a single terrorism charge. He’s being held on a $100,000 bond.

Kolakowski enlisted in the Marines in September 2004 and became a landing support specialist, according to his official service record, Task and Purpose reported. He deployed to Iraq from August 2006 to March 2007, and he left the Marine Corps as a corporal in September 2008. His last duty assignment was with Combat Logistics Regiment 17, 1st Marine Logistics Group, Camp Pendleton in California.

Kolakowski’s military awards include the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and National Defense Service Medal.

Perry served from October 1994 to June 1995 as a basic operational communicator, leaving the Corps as a private first class, Task and Purpose reported. His last duty assignment was listed as the School of Infantry at Camp Pendleton, California.