Headlines - Just News headlines all the time: May 21, 2009

Thursday, May 21, 2009

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Marine pleads guilty to starting Juliett 2 wildfire

Posted: 20 May 2009 05:51 AM PDT

OCEANSIDE, Calif. – A junior Marine pleaded guilty in court Tuesday to starting a fire he couldn't stamp out before it got out of hand and eventually merged with another nearby wildfire at Camp Pendleton.

The Marine Corps had charged Lance Cpl. Nason G. Lamb with three counts of reckless endangerment and one count each of damage to military property and making a false official statement in connection with the "Juliett 2" fire, according to I Marine Expeditionary Force.

During a special court-martial at the base, Lamb, of Palmetto, La., testified before the military judge that he used his cigarette to light some grass while he and other Marines with his infantry battalion were participating in a land navigation exercise that day.

"I tried to stamp it out but it wouldn't go out. It just got out of hand," he testified, according to a report on the Web site of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The fire was one of two that flared up Oct. 13 in Camp Pendleton's Juliett training area, in the southern part of the base. The Juliett 1 and Juliett 2 fires burned 4,026 acres of base land and forced the evacuation of several thousand people living in nearby Oceanside and Fallbrook before they were contained four days later.

Under a plea deal, Lamb would spend up to a year in the brig and receive a bad-conduct discharge, the newspaper reported, although the judge hearing the case, Col. Joseph Lisiecki, could issue lesser punishment.

Source: Marine Corps Times - Link

Aircraft down: Offshore of San Diego - U.S. Navy helicopter

Posted: 20 May 2009 07:50 AM PDT

U.S. Navy helicopter down, offshore of San Diego.
Five persons onboard.

Update: 0600hrs - 3 confirmed dead, 2 still missing.

Coast Guard boats and aircraft scanned Pacific Ocean waters Wednesday for a Navy helicopter with five people aboard that crashed into the ocean about 13 miles south of San Diego, authorities said.

Operating off the coast of California, the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz got word that the HH60 Seahawk helicopter went down during a training exercise at about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, Lt. Candice Tresch, a Navy spokeswoman in Washington, said.

An 87-foot patrol boat and a pair of helicopters joined by San Diego Harbor police and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents were searching an area near the Coronado Islands off the northwest coast of Mexico for survivors, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Henry Dunphy.

Dunphy said the Navy reported the crash shortly before midnight and sought help in the search for five survivors.

There was no immediate word early Wednesday whether any wreckage or survivors had been discovered.

Photo credit: U.S. Navy photograph by Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Timothy S. Smith.
Photo description: 14 April 1999 — An HH-60 Seahawk helicopter, attached to Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Seven (HS-7, the "Dusty Dogs") and embarked on USS Enterprise (CVN 65), hovers in the foreground as two E-2C Hawkeyes attached to Airborne Early Warning Squadron One Two Six (VAW 126, the "Seahawks") fly over the carrier. Enterprise is currently deployed to the Arabian Gulf
Image source: http://www.aircav.com/dodphoto/dod99/sh60-004.html