Former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard made the trip from Hawaii to Quantico Marine Corps Base to campaign for Republican Yesli Vega.

Gabbard joined Vega on the stump at her campaign headquarters, at the Quantico Gateway office complex just outside the base Saturday, October 22, 2022. Gabbard outlined why she left the Democratic Party earlier this month and urged voters to round up their friends and head to the polls to cast their ballot for Vega.

Everything from our freedom of speech to our freedom of religion. [The Biden Administration] is hostile towards people of faith and spirituality, openly hostile to anyone who dares to lift their voice or think for themselves. Worse than that, they are in power and have the muscle of law behind them,” Gabbard told a room of more than 200 conservatives. “We have seen time and time again how they are mobilizing and weaponizing and politicizing. The Department of Justice, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Education, and the Customs and Border Patrol. You go down the list of these institutions that literally exist to serve the public good, to protect our freedoms, to ensure the safety and security of our families, to secure our borders.”

Gabbard said he’s campaigning for multiple candidates this election cycle and was scheduled to make two campaign stops with Vega today. The second was planned after noon in Stafford County, near Fredericksburg.

Gabbard announced her departure from the Democrat Party earlier this month. She was a 2020 presidential candidate who challenged Joseph Biden for his party’s nomination. After dropping out of the race, Gabbard left congress, where she represented Hawaii residents from 2002 to 2003 and again from 2013 to 2020.

Gabbard served in Iraq in a field medical of the Army National Guard from 2004 to 2005 and was stationed in Kuwait from 2008 to 2009 as an Army Military Police platoon leader. She criticized Biden for a speech he delivered in September in Philadelphia in which the President said those who voted for his 2020 opponent, President Donald Trump, are “semi-fascist” extremists.

“…this made me so angry. On 9-1-1, on the anniversary of that horrific terrorist attack on this country, we heard people all over the mainstream media, the radical woke ideologues representing the administration, saying that people who voted for Donald Trump pose a greater threat to us than Al Qaeda terrorists,” said Gabbard.

Vega’s campaign rally comes a day after a canceled debate that was supposed to occur at Gar-Field Senior High School in Woodbridge. Her incumbent opponent, Democrat Abigail Spanberger, dropped out of the debate after taking issue with co-moderator Larry O’Connor, a conservative talk show host from WMAL radio in Washington, D.C.

The first attempt to organize a debate between the two candidates, at Mary Washington University in Fredericksburg in September, failed after Vega refused to stand on stage with Spanberger, calling it a college campus full of Spanaberger supporters. With only 17 days until Election Day and early voting underway, it’s unlikely the two will face off on the debate stage this election cycle.

“We are ready for change and feel it all over this district,” said Vega. “We had a debate scheduled for yesterday, but it’s no surprise my opponent is hiding and running.” Vega is an elected Prince William County Supervisor and a deputy sheriff in the county.

Spanberger, a two-term incumbent seeking to keep the 7th District seat, worked in the CIA’s Clandestine Service, gathering intelligence on nuclear terrorism until 2014, when she left the agency to an appointment to a state board by then Gov. Terry McAuliffe. She won reelection in 2029 by about 8,000 votes of more than 454,000 ballots.

The Virginia State Supreme Court redrew the state’s political districts last year. It shifted the 7th District north, away from Spanberger’s home outside Richmond, to include eastern Prince William County, Spotsylvania, King George, Culpeper, Greene, Madison counties, and Fredericksburg.

Former Republican Congressman Denver Riggleman, who represented Virginia’s 5th District from 2019 to 2021, recently appeared in a TV commercial endorsing Spanberger.

•  The deadline to apply for a ballot to be mailed to you is October 28, 2022. Your local voter registration office must receive your request by 5 p.m.
• The last day of in-person early voting at your local voter registration office is Saturday, November 5, 2022, at 5 p.m.

By Sgt. Ryan Sammet

A proud son of Nicaraguan immigrants,U.S. Marine Lieutenant Col. Jose Montalvan Montalvan was asked to speak at Gar-Field High School on Oct. 4, 2022 in honor of the school Hispanic heritage month celebration.

This was the first celebration of its kind at the school and tickets for the event were sold out.

The celebration was a time for students, parents, and teachers to share their culture with the rest of the school through food, a fashion show, dance, skits, and cultural presentations.

The school invited Montalvan to be a guest speaker because of his active social media highlighting his Hispanic heritage and his success story of being the son of immigrants and his journey to become a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps.

He also attributes a lot of his success in the Marines to his parents and his upbringing. “The Marine Corps core values align nearly perfectly with the values of Hispanic culture and the values (that his parents instilled in him) ,” said Montalvan.

At the Gar-Field Hispanic heritage celebration. Montalvan was accompanied by Sgt. Shareef Jones, a Marine Corps recruiter from Woodbridge, Va., and his wife, Cpl. Carmen Jaimes, a legal service specialist at The Basic School in Quantico.

“I was excited to be invited when I heard that a high school was doing a Hispanic heritage month celebration,” said Jaimes, “I have always been proud of my Mexican culture and it is important to my husband and I that our kids know about their culture and where they came from.”
“Seeing the students really research their culture and to teach other students about it was amazing,” said Jaimes.

“My parents had such a bad view of the military because they think of the military as from their homes,” said Jaimes. “Having someone that can share their experiences with the students and parents from the perspective of an immigrant was very beneficial.”

The Marines enjoyed speaking at the event and look forward to attending more events like these in the future with the hope that the success of the Gar-Field High School Hispanic heritage celebration spreads through the community and starts a larger trend for other schools to follow.

An Israeli arms company chose Quantico Corporate Center in Stafford County as the home for its U.S. operations.

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Quantico Marine Corps Base is a buzz with activity as the small city of 26,000 people continues to build for the future.

During a community briefing on Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2022, Base Commander Col. Michael Brooks and his staff provided details on a new wargaming training center, water treatment plant, visitor control, and child development centers, to name a few.

The Marine Corps Wargaming Activity Center is a 100,400-square-foot facility with classrooms and conference center space that will train Marines for battlefield combat. The simulations produced at the center will offer Marines a glimpse of future working environments.

Construction is expected to wrap up in July 2023 after about two and a half years of work.

A new water treatment plant will replace a 104-year-old facility dating back to the first days of the Marine Corps Base. The project will increase the base’s water capacity to five million gallons daily. The base is also responsible for providing water to Quantico town, the only civilian village located within the confines of a military base in the U.S.

Work on a new visitor control center will begin in Spring 2023. The 3,400-square-foot facility will be used to check in visitors and inspect trucks.

In January 2020, Quantico, along with military installations across the U.S., tightened base access policies after a U.S. airstrike killed Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian military commander. Instead of showing a state or military ID, irregular visitors must complete a multi-pronged sign-in process and be accompanied by a government sponsor while on base.

Once open to the public during the years leading up to the airstrike, the officers club is now restricted to military personnel.

A new child development center will replace the base’s existing school and will sit near base housing and the base’s main gate. Construction will be complete in 2026.

Col. Brooks stressed the need for childcare during the brief, stating the service is critical to Marines and their families.

The base will also open a new fire station west of Interstate 95 later this fall. The new station will allow fire crews to improve response times, getting them to seven minutes or less.

Quantico fire crews also help in surrounding counties like Prince William and Stafford. So far, emergency services crews from the base have responded to more than 1,700 calls for “mutual aid” assistance to surrounding jurisdictions. Last year, the base received nearly 2,200 calls for mutual aid.

While the base commander is working to improve the installation, he’s also focused on helping Marines leave the Corps and transition to civilian life. On average, nearly 150 people a month begin their transition from serving at Quantico to looking for a job outside the military.

A survey conducted between January and August 2022 showed a majority of those leaving plan to remain in the Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. areas. Brooks encouraged the local government officials to continue working with the base to find job opportunities for transitioning Marines.

Quantico works with local chambers of commerce, police departments, libraries, and others to help Marines find work.

For Marines still on the job, housing continues to pose challenges for servicemembers and their families. There are enough houses on base for just 20% of the 6,500 Marines who serve aboard Quantico. The percentage is based on a U.S. Government study.

The majority of Quantico families living off base face a shortage of single-family homes, which many desire, base officials said. Families are forced to look at posh, expensive apartments surrounding the base, some of which are out of reach for military families.

Officials added that the homes.mil website has helped some families headed toward Quantico find housing before moving to the area.

There are 27 tenant commands at Quantico, from Officers Candidate School, which trains new officers, to weapons training, cyber operations, the Marine Corps Air Facility, and the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency), supporting nearly 46,000 jobs.

Overall, Quantico injects $5.88 billion into the region’s economy. The base considers the counties of Fairfax, Fauquier, Prince William, Stafford, Spotsylvania, and the cities of Fredericksburg, Manassas, and Manassas Park in its economic region of influence.

The Marine Corps Heritage Foundation broke ground for the expansion of Semper Fidelis Memorial Park.

The Marines will add 22 new memorials to the 23-acre park, located at the National Museum of the Marine Corps at Quantico. Today, 40 memorials and more than a mile of trails overlook the museum.

Once completed, the expansion will include space for two grand memorials that are upwards of 1200 square feet with a focus on honoring modern-day Marines.

Two other elements are the benches spaced out for quiet reflection and the Memorial Pavilion, which provides a view of the museum and creates an additional site for peaceful contemplation, similar to the Semper Fidelis Memorial Chapel, also on the museum campus.

Other features of the park expansion include:
A Marine medium girder bridge, a lightweight, man-portable bridge that a handful of Marines can assemble

• Space for over 10,000 new commemorative bricks
• Half a mile of new trail
• A new footbridge

“This comes as the museum makes great strides in completing its final phase, which spotlights Marine Corps history from 1976 to the present day,” said Major General Lukeman, president and CEO of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, during a dedication ceremony on September 23, 2022.

The Marine Corps Heritage Foundation chose Consigli Construction Co., Inc to build the improvements. Saman Ali, who worked with the Marine Corps 34th Marine Expeditionary Unit as an interpreter in Iraq, is honored to be the project manager overseeing the construction.

“Consigli is thrilled to partner with the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation on the Semper Fidelis Memorial Park expansion and to deliver a project dedicated to the service of our armed forces. I, too have a deep personal connection with the passing of my grandfather in 2021. Richard R. Brault served courageously with 10th Marine Regiment (Artillery), 2nd Marine Division, in the battles of Saipan, Tinian, and Okinawa. He was a proud Marine and veteran. I am proud to honor him with this memorial park expansion.” Said Phil Brault, Consigli, Director of Operations, DC.

About the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation
Dedicated to the preservation and promulgation of Marine Corps history, the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation was established in 1979 as a non-profit organization.

The Foundation supports the historical programs of the Marine Corps in ways not possible through government funds. The Foundation provides grants and scholarships for research and the renovation, restoration, and commissioning of historical Marine Corps artifacts and landmarks.

Republican congressional candidates are focused on Prince William and Stafford counties.

Yesli Vega (R), a Board of County Supervisors member seeking to flip Virginia’s 7th Congressional seat, will hold a get-out-the-vote rally tomorrow, Saturday, September 24, at her campaign headquarters outside Quantico.

The event at 9:30 a.m. at 18354 Quantico Gateway Drive in Triangle aims to rally support for Vega in eastern Prince William, which is the most populated area in the 7th District that spans 10 counties, Culpeper, and Fredericksburg, as early voting for the November 8 General Election is underway.

Vega is running against two-term Democrat Abigail Spanberger, who last week attended a celebration at the White House to celebrate the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which is a significant advance on congressional Democrats’ progressive plan, which aims to curb global warming, and authorizes 87,000 more IRS agents to audit citizens and businesses.

While Spanberger was at the White House celebrating the Inflation Reduction Act, news broke of continued rising costs, particularly food and housing costs rising to their most expensive levels since the Carter administration in 1979. Spanberger did not return our request for comment, asking about her support for the Inflation Reduction Act and when the bill would begin benefitting U.S. citizens.

Vega’s campaign event comes on the heels of a veterans’ roundtable held at the Globe and Laurel restaurant in Stafford County on Wednesday, September 21. The discussion ranged from the lack of services offered by the Veterans Services Administration, adjusting to civilian life, PTSD, and a discussion about a lack of accountability over the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, where many served.

Last weekend, Hung Cao barnstormed Virignia’s 10th Congressional District, with stops in Haymarket, Manassas, and the Prince William County Government Center in Woodbridge. Cao is challenging two-term incumbent Democrat Jennifer Wexton. The 10th District spans five counties and includes Manassas, Manassas Park, and Leesburg.

Wexton also voted twice for the inflation reduction act. Wexton cast her vote on her behalf and for Rep. Cindy Axne (D-Iowa), who was on vacation in Europe.

The Cook Political Report shows Virginia’s 7th District leans Democrat and estimates the 10th District will remain firmly in Democratic control following the November 8 General Election.

Early voting for the November 8 General Election begins today, September 23.

Need to know election info: 

• First day of in-person early voting at your local registrar’s office: Friday, September 23, 2022
• The deadline to register to vote or update an existing registration is October 17, 2022.
•  The deadline to apply for a ballot to be mailed to you is October 28, 2022. Your local voter registration office must receive your request by 5 p.m.
• Voter registration offices open for early voting: Saturday, October 29, 2022.
• The last day of in-person early voting at your local voter registration office: is Saturday, November 5, 2022, at 5 p.m.

(InsideNova) — The town of Quantico claims its former police chief was fired for not following an improvement plan rather than for enforcing state-mandated COVID-19 safety measures.

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Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) came to the crossroads of the Marine Corps to sign new legislation giving veterans a break on their annual income tax.

The governor signed two identical pieces of legislation, HB 1128 and SB 528, which will exempt up to $40,000 of veteran retirement pay from taxes and prioritize Virginia’s Military and Veteran Community.

“When I had the great privilege elf being hired by all of you, we expressed a great series of commitments, and you’re at the top of the list of that commitment: to go work on a bi-partisan basis to make Virginia the most military and veteran-friendly state in America,” said Youngkin.

A crowd of more than 100 people, many of the veterans, gathered at Patricio Enterprises Inc. at Quantico Corporate Center in Stafford County to watch the bill signing. Youngkin’s visit was the second time in less than two weeks, following an event at Colonial Forge High School on September 1, where he signed executive order loosening the hiring requirements for new teachers.

State Senator Bryce Reeves (R-Spotsylvania) and Delegate John McGuire (R-Goochland) carried the bills across the finish line. McGuire said many veterans have moved from Virginia to North Carolina, which does not tax veterans’ benefits, and that he hopes Virginia, eventually, will end the practice altogether.

A Cardinal News report notes Nothern Virginia is leading the state’s population loss, noting Fairfax and Prince William counties as the two largest counties no longer attracting new residents.

State Senator Jeremy McPike (D-Prince William) supported the legislation, which he hopes will reverse the trend of veterans leaving the state.

“Hey, come on back. If you’re out of state, this is already a great place. One of the keys is having a community of veterans. VFW Post 1503, right up the road in Dale City, is the largest in the world, and I think it’s important that veterans know there’s a strong base of veterans here,” McPike told Potomac Local News.

Reeves called the legislation a stepping stone in caring for the state’s veterans. He said the state needs to do more to help former service members transition into civilian life.

“We still have a lot of broken sailors, soldiers, airmen, marines, coast guard, and they need us,” said Reeves.

The region will soon be home to two new federal veterans’ healthcare facilities. In Spotsylvania, The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is building a four-story, 450,000-square- foot clinic on a 48-acres at U.S. Route 1 at Hood Drive, opening next year.

At Vint Hill in Fauquier County, the Virginia Department of Veterans Affairs will open a 128-bed senior care facility next year that will feature all private rooms organized into households and neighborhoods that surround a central community center.

Quantico Corporate Center is a business park near the Marine Corps Base that is home to the Marine Corps Officers Candidate School, which commissions Marine officers.

Police found a car believed to be involved in a shooting on the Capital Beltway we first told you about earlier this week, burned out near Quantico.

Shortly before 4 a.m. today, Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022, the Prince William police Department said fire and rescue crews found a car ablaze in a wooded area of Prince William Forest Park, off Joplin Road near Quantico Marine Corps Base.

After the fire was extinguished, police confirmed the vehicle, a 2010 Honda Civic, was the car the Virginia State Police had been looking for since August 25, 2022. State police arson investigators responded to the scene and are processing the vehicle for evidence, said a department spokeswoman.

The shooting incident began at 4:50 a.m. on Thursday, August 25.  Virginia State Police were notified by an individual calling in to say that his vehicle was shot at by the driver of the blue Honda Civic as both vehicles were traveling north on I-495 near Exit 52B for Route 236/Little River Turnpike East in Fairfax County.

The Honda Civic took the exit and then stopped off on the shoulder of the exit ramp. The other vehicle pulled in behind the Honda, at which time the adult male driver of the Honda stepped out of his vehicle and fired several rounds at the other vehicle.

The Honda’s driver then jumped back into his car and sped away. Neither the other vehicle nor driver was struck during the shootings.

Anyone who may have been in the area who recalls seeing suspicious activities and/or vehicles near/in Prince William Forest Park and/or Joplin Road between 3 and 4 a.m. today, Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022, is encouraged to contact Virginia State Police by dialing #77 or 703-803-0026 or emailing [email protected].