July Leatherneck cover highlights cannon cockers

President’s Notes Cpl. Zachery Laning’s compelling shot of  11^th MEU artillery operations in northern Syria garnered him a great cover just in time for the 4^th of July. The Chincoteague, Virginia native is a videographer by training (see some of his work in that realm @ https://www.dvidshub.net/video/505252/pacific-fury) but  his NCOIC, Gunnery Sgt. Robert Brown of Spring Lake, North Carolina said Laning used the  unit’s recent  far-ranging deployment to “cross-train into still.” Brown said that Laning continues to do “game changing stuff on the video side of the house,” noting that he was a lance corporal during the float and regularly “thinks way outside the box.” “This guy is beyond the box,” brags his gunny.  “Laning is the future of what this hubrid MOS is becoming for our Marine Corps.” Appropriate that Leatherneck editor Mary Reinwald paid grand tribute to our beloved USMCCCA icon, the late Norm Hatch, in the same issue in Nancy S. Lichtman’s “Saved Round” feature on page 92. Word is that a handful of present and former  11th MEU storytellers will join us in San Diego next month.  Gunnery Sgt. Scott McAdam of Des Moines is Acting PAO of the current time, awaiting the arrival of Capt. Jim Stenger.

— Keith Oliver, USMCCCA President