Since her 19-year-old son was shot over the weekend, Sandra Lopez has been asking, "Why?" She called her son a man with a passion to give. He worked with the homeless and with rescue dogs, and had committed to a life of service with the Marines.

“We’re not really a big military family, although his paternal grandfather was a bomber in WWII and my father was a surgeon in the Navy,” Mary Vanderhoof said. “But this was Sterling’s path. He wanted to fly.”

A Marine Corps pilot was rescued Thursday afternoon after an AV-8B Harrier jet crashed into the sea off the coast of Okinawa.

A Los Angeles man and former Marine whose dying girlfriend wrote his initials in blood after her throat was slashed has been sentenced to 26 years to life in prison.

Commack, N.Y.'s Bren-Tronics Inc. has won a contract worth as much as $38 million to supply military-grade battery chargers and adapters to the U.S. Marine Corps.

Betty Huffman kissed a carnation and placed it at the head of her brother’s casket. “I’ve spent my whole life missing him,” she said. “He was my buddy. And now he’s back home.”

A 19-year-old U.S. Marine had just visited his girlfriend that night and was preparing to drive to the home of a family friend, when he was struck by gunfire. He was found Friday slumped over and unconscious in a Dodge Charger.

A juvenile gunman ended the life of a 27-year-old father and former Marine as he left a Florida home with his family just after midnight Sunday, police said.

A 19-year-old Marine from Camp Pendleton has been hospitalized in grave condition after he was shot this weekend in South Los Angeles, authorities said.

Nineteen years isn't long to make a mark on the world, but Lance Cpl. Ryan Miller did.

Officials said runners had been scheduled to pass by the area around the time the blast occurred. The area was mostly empty because the start of the race was delayed when an unattended backpack was found.

William C. Holmberg, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, received the Navy Cross for his actions on a Korean battlefield and later spent decades as an advocate on Capitol Hill for renewable energy and environmental causes.

The fatal crash of a Blue Angels F/A-18 Hornet that killed Marine Corps Capt. Jeff Kuss was caused by pilot error, weather and fatigue, according to the official findings of a Navy investigation into the June 2 accident.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday he is confident that President Barack Obama is aware of investigations into the death of a Muslim Marine from Taylor and related accusations that drill instructors physically abused Raheel Siddiqui and another Marine in 2015.

Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island’s Recruit Training Order — the document that governs training — was appeared to have not been followed in the case of recruit Raheel Siddiqui.

Gallery

In Senate committee testimony, the chiefs of the Army, Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy complained about anemic budgets and painted bleak pictures of cash-strapped services with aging equipment, under-trained troops and a lack of preparations for war with a major world power such as Russia or China.

America’s strategy for confronting China in the South China Sea is threatening to unravel as the new leader of a key frontline state backs away from military cooperation — including joint naval patrols — with the U.S.

The family of Raheel Siddiqui, who died during Marines Corps training, is pushing back against claims by military officials that he committed suicide.

Several days before committing suicide, Raheel Siddiqui told personnel at Parris Island he planned to jump to his death — but officials believed Siddiqui was “fabricating a suicidal threat” and “using the magic words so he could go home.”

Attorneys for Marine Maj. Mark Thompson on Tuesday questioned the authenticity of a recorded interview that the government intends to use against the former U.S. Naval Academy instructor at his court-martial early next year.

The drill instructor who allegedly hazed recruit Raheel Siddiqui moments before his death was the same instructor who had previously ordered a Muslim recruit into a commercial clothes dryer.

Grammy Award-winning country group The Band Perry will perform on Okinawa later this month after Camp Foster beat out other Pacific bases in this year’s Wing-A-Palooza contest.

A Marine veteran in North Carolina was denied a benefits appeal after he missed the filing deadline. Why didn't he file in time? His mother, sister, and grandchild all died in a four-month period.

Kevin Guerrero, the man accused of raping a SUNY New Paltz student on Sunday, is a member of the Marine Corps unit at the Stewart Air National Guard Base.

A fundraising road race in memory of a Marine from Springfield killed in attacks on military facilities in Tennessee is scheduled for this weekend.

The Marine Corps is considering possible punishments and potential courts-martial for up to 20 officers and enlisted leaders following investigations into the suicide of a 20-year-old recruit at its Parris Island training facility in South Carolina.

By year's end, the Gary Sinise (R.I.S.E.) Foundation, which provides specially adapted "smart" homes to wounded veterans, will have 51 such houses underway or completed. Marine Cpl. Garrett Jones will be getting one of them.

Cody Smith, a Marine staff sergeant, was shot by his estranged wife during an Aug. 27 struggle in which the wife's boyfriend was also shot and killed.

Navajo Nation officials announced Tuesday that Joe Hosteen Kellwood died Monday at age 95.

Hugh O'Brian was one of the forefathers of the modern Western, maintained a headline-generating love life and was (maybe) one of the youngest Marine drill instructors in American history. For all that, he is most beloved for creating a global network of leadership programs, known as HOBY, that has produced 470,000 service-oriented stewards.

A Virginia town is honoring Korean War vets on Labor Day as a celebration of their willingness to answer the call of duty and transition from industry to national service.

Thirty participants from three countries must work together to attain food, water and shelter in one of the least hospitable environments on Earth.

GALLERY

Fleet Week is underway at the Port of Los Angeles, marking the first time the sea services have brought the popular celebration to the City of Angels.

A 21-year-old Marine has been charged with urinating on a burial mound protecting the skeletal remains of 200 Hawaiians outside Waikiki Zoo.

A year ago, Navy and Marine Corps leaders gave a dire warning to Congress: Budget cuts have hurt nondeployed units and could cost lives during a major conflict. The losses happened, but not in combat. Pilots died training at home. Since May, four F/A-18 Hornet or F/A-18E/F Super Hornet crashes involving nondeployed units killed two pilots and destroyed five planes.

Last fall, the Navy Department had a controversial disciplinary case before it: Maj. Jason C. Brezler had been asked by Marine colleagues to submit all the information he had about an influential Afghan police chief suspected of abusing children. Brezler sent a classified document in response over an unclassified Yahoo email server, and he self-reported the mistake soon after. But the Marine Corps recommended that he be discharged for mishandling classified material.

Former Sen. John Edwards has pledged to support hundreds of U.S. sailors, Marines and airmen who say they were sickened by radioactive fallout from the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

The loose description of where a Revolutionary War battle occurred has recently been firmed up. Archaeologists believe they have pinned down the location of the fight, known as the Battle of Port Royal Island or the Battle of Grays Hill.

A plaque and two new benches will be dedicated Sept. 12 in a ceremony hosted by the docents of Santa Margarita y las Flores at the Camp Pendleton Veterans Memorial Garden across from the Pacific View Events Center.

A Marine, his wife and an acquaintance have been accused of beating a man with a metal pipe.

GALLERY, VIDEO

The Marine Corps Reserve turned 100 years old Monday, and hundreds of active-duty, former and future Marines celebrated with a mass gathering in New York City’s Times Square.

In Operational Stress Control and Readiness, or OSCAR, training, Marines learn that there are different levels of stress called the stress continuum. Green means good to go. Yellow means general everyday stress. Orange means a person is stressed all the time to the point of behavior changes and red means a person is completely broken and in need of help from a counselor or chaplain.

Congressional Gold Medals were awarded to the families of three Montford Point Marines Thursday during a ceremony at the Bachelor Officers Quarters aboard Camp Johnson to honor the service and sacrifice of the country’s first black Marines.

A new initiative to use video borescopes to inspect for AV-8B Harrier F-402 Pegasus engine blades for damage is saving millions of dollars, officials say.

Dallas police found a body Wednesday in the Trinity River in West Dallas and said it likely is that of a missing Sothern Methodist University police officer and Marine veteran swept away by Turtle Creek floodwaters in July.

The men, who have since been discharged from the Marine Corps, pleaded no contest to a count of first-degree robbery in July. Other charges, including torture, were dismissed under the plea agreement. They faced a life term if convicted of the torture charge.

The Marine Corps said in a statement Wednesday that it misidentified two men long thought to have helped raise the first of two American flags atop Mount Suribachi during the bloody battle for the Japanese island of Iwo Jima in 1945.

Diagnosed with HIV at 19, the now 24-year-old active duty Marine is battling, through education, the stigma of “uncleanliness” attached to an HIV diagnosis.

A retired Marine Corps general wants America's next president to take a lesson from the "greatest generation" and stay engaged in the world.

The memorial would feature a bronze statue of a dog named Bruno, and his handler, Marine Sgt. Adam Cann, who was killed in action Jan. 5, 2006, by a suicide bomb attack in Iraq. The statue would represent all handlers and dogs.

Jerry O'Keefe, 93, accomplished much in his life, but it was his bravery as an Ace fighter pilot in World War II that earned him the highest honor bestowed by Congress, the Congressional Gold Medal.

Members of the elite Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC) will soon wear their own breast insignia pin, a decoration that is expected to have deep cultural significance in the force and draw comparisons to the Trident worn by Navy SEALs.

On the evening of April 16, Marine Cpl. Ian Burnham and Lance Cpl. Luis Rosas were off duty and returning to base when they witnessed a serious car crash.

After nearly a month of airstrikes against the Islamic State fighters dug in around the Libyan city of Sirte, U.S. helicopter gunships have been dispatched to help root out the extremist group from some of the denser parts of the city.

Connecticut's congressional delegation is urging the U.S. Navy to suspend any possible plans to shift maintenance of the Marine One to Florida.

The United States will increase the tempo of operations in support of ground forces in Iraq and Syria as they prepare to tackle the Islamic State's twin capital cities, according to the new commander of the U.S. military operations against the militant group.

The U.S. and South Korea kicked off a new round of war games Monday despite protests from the North, which threatened a pre-emptive nuclear strike.

Gerry Regan, a Marine who was there when Richard E. Bogan jumped on a grenade in Thua Thien Province, is working to have Bogan's Navy Cross award replaced — with the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor.

Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island sits on about 8,000 acres of land. A fifth of that, according to one study, could be under water by 2050.

The government deemed a major refurbishment of the base necessary for safe flying and to maintain the U.S. forces' capability in the Pacific region.

William McNeill, 23, pleaded guilty in a Portland, Maine court in March to a charge of travelling interstate to engage in sexual conduct with a minor.

The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, hull number 115, is named for a Marine sergeant who was killed while serving in Iraq in November 2004.

The wide and varied types of aircraft that have called Cherry Point home are numerous, but a jet that could take off and land like a helicopter, the Harrier, has been a mainstay for four decades.

A veterans group says the annual aviation show glorifies war and the machinery used to kill, maim and destroy, and it is calling for the show to end. Marine Corps officials say it showcases what it takes to lead the nation and the world.

Hiring Our Heroes partnered with KISS and the Veteran Tickets Foundation to salute military heroes across the county and the band is hiring veterans or currently serving members of the National Guard or Reserves to be roadies for a day at shows.

Normand Dupras served in the Korean War. At 86, and now suffering from dementia, it was his dying wish a few years back to be buried in the uniform.

A former Marine faces a rare federal stalking charge for what the FBI alleges was a campaign of harassment and threats against the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville, Tenn. and its parishes, carried out from a boat in California.

Exercise Citadel Rumble is an integrated disaster response and recovery exercise to practice emergency response plans, policies and procedures during a simulated disaster.

A Justice Department Inspector General summary report released Wednesday said faulty helmets were made by Federal Prison Industries for the Army and the Marine Corps.

The courts have ruled in favor of a North Carolina Industrial Commission decision that denied a worker’s compensation claim that water contamination at Camp Lejeune caused the prostate cancer that led to the death of a former Red Cross worker aboard base.

Repairs to the current fleet of Marine One helicopters, which transport the president of the United States, no longer will be done in Connecticut after negotiations between Sikorsky Aircraft and the U.S. Navy fell through.

A former Camp Lejeune Marine is scheduled to have his first appearance in court after allegedly shooting a fellow Marine in 2013.

A female Marine Corps officer was dropped from infantry training last month after failing the course for a second time since all military jobs were opened to women, a Marine spokesman said Monday.

A new exhibit at the Norton Air Force Museum focuses on combat photographers and the equipment they used to show the “people at home” what was happening in the military.

Maj. Richard Sterling Norton, 36, died on July 28 when the F/A-18C Hornet he was piloting crashed during a training exercise near Twentynine Palms.

Cherry Point, N.C.-based Harriers are involved in strikes at so-called Islamic State positions in Libya, according to military officials.

David Higgins, an Olympic shooter, became the first-ever Air Force Academy cadet-athlete to qualify for the games. He cross-commissioned into the Marine Corps after graduation.

VIDEO

A Navy EA-18G Growler electronic warfare plane tested its noise levels Thursday at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni before a carrier air wing moves there next year.

Seventy-five years ago, in August 1941, Cherry Point was mostly a morass of swamp with engineers wandering about, wondering how they were ever going to make airplanes land there without them sinking out of sight.

VIDEO

Basilone was the only enlisted Marine to have received both the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross, the nation’s top two medals for combat valor.

Keith Rebar, a former Marine who was denied entry into Veterans Treatment Court and Mental Health Court, was sentenced today, with Judge Joseph Toia saying that part of the probation terms included Rebar getting mental health treatment at the Veterans Affairs hospital

After a search warrant was issued in March, authorities discovered 37 videos and 189 images of John Anthony Perez sexually assaulting children, whom he abused starting when they were toddlers, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reports.

Austin Tice went missing in Syria in August 2012 — and his disappearance has become a U.S. government priority in the waning days of Obama’s final year in office.

The highest U.S. military court has upheld the bad conduct discharge of a Marine whose case had climbed to the top of the legal system over the question of whether her religious freedom had been violated.

The John P. Murtha, a pre-commissioned amphibious transport dock, is scheduled to begin its journey to Pennsylvania on Thursday.

A former Marine and police officer, was in Stafford Circuit Court seeking to be released from jail pending a trial on charges that include rape, attempted sodomy and aggravated sexual battery, stemming from a February incident at his home.

A former Marine who drunkenly fired a gun into a mosque after the Paris terrorist attacks has pleaded guilty to marijuana possession charges, according to a court clerk.

Sirte, once a city of 80,000 people, has about 1,000 residents remaining. Islamic State militants there totaled up to 1,000 fighters at one time. But their numbers have dwindled as well.

The U.S. Marine Corps will adjust its force structure in the near future as it identifies gaps in capability and technology that it could face in a battle with a modern enemy, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller said Tuesday.

Women on Okinawa, including U.S. military moms, brought their babies beachside for a mass public breast-feeding event aimed at raising awareness for the practice.

For more than 70 years, Dale Geddes's remains were buried on the island of Betio, where he was killed. As time passed, it looked as though they might never be found and returned to his family.

A former Camp Lejeune Marine accused of shooting a fellow Marine in 2013 will soon be back in Onslow County.

The Marines have ordered a stand-down of all nondeployed F/A-18 jets following a string of crashes that calls into question whether their pilots are at greater risk because of less training and available aircraft.

Marine veteran Terrence Mulligan receives Veterans Affairs medical support for a lung disease the agency attributes to contaminated water he drank at Camp Lejeune, N.C. But the VA has told Mulligan that he shouldn't expect the agency to compensate him anytime soon for his inability to work.

Meyer sent out a Tweet Tuesday night criticizing the Republican presidential nominee for his remarks regarding the family of fallen soldier Humayun Khan.

As Rear Adm. John Nowell Jr. relinquished command of the 7th Fleet’s amphibious force to Rear Adm. Marc Dalton on Wednesday, he took a moment to show the incoming Task Force 76 commander what truly makes America’s “fight tonight” Pacific naval force great.

Family and friends of the suspect in the fatal shooting of his 36-year-old neighbor Saturday morning said the tragedy likely could have been prevented had he received help with mental health problems that had worsened significantly in recent months.

America’s top military officer met with U.S. troops at Incirlik Air Base Monday ahead of talks with top Turkish officials in an effort to ease the strained relations between the two strategic partners.

GALLERY

The Rim of the Pacific exercise staged amphibious assaults in Hawaii and Southern California on Saturday, the finale of the biennial naval exercise that included more than two dozen nations.

Billy Moore's been gone now far longer than he was ever alive, yet his friends and family say they still feel his absence. They miss his gregarious personality, his easy conversation — and his smile.