United States of America
With Mine Division 34, Salute began the pre-invasion sweep for the landings in Brunei Bay, Borneo, on 7 June 1945. The next day, she struck a mine, buckled amidships, and both bow and stern began to sink. Two landing craft attempted to salvage the minesweeper, but they were unable to control her flooding, and the ship sank.
Delta Airlines has changed its luggage policy regarding U.S. Servicemen and women. The policy change comes after soldiers returning from Afghanistan claim the airline charged them hundreds of dollars in extra baggage fees.... They were told they had to pay an extra $200 for a fourth bag as excess luggage....
Seventy-seven Air Force cadets are being sent to a local hospital after a lightning strike at the Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center near Hattiesburg, Miss. While there did not appear to be serious injuries, two of the cadets were taken by amdulance to the hospital....
Three New Jersey women are behind bars for a crime, that is becoming more and more common according to police. Authorities say they stole brass markers from the graves of veterans at local cemeteries, and sold the stolen markers to a scrap yard. Authorities tell Eyewitness News the suspects needed drug money.
Five U.S. soldiers were killed Monday in an attack in central Iraq , the U.S. military said in a statement. ... An Iraqi security source said that the five U.S. soldiers had been working as advisers on a base for Iraqi national police in eastern Baghdad when their quarters were targeted by rocket fire shortly before 7 a.m. local time. ...
HOUSTON -- A West Point cadet from Houston has filed a lawsuit against Patti LaBelle, her bodyguards and Bush Intercontinental Airport, claiming that he was viciously beaten by the singer's bodyguards for standing too close to her luggage. ... When an ambulance came and took King away, the lawsuit claims the singer didn't exit her limo. But when police arrived, LaBelle allegedly got out and posed for photographs with the officers. "That was really a sad scene for me to see a Houston police officer posing for a photograph with Ms. LaBelle literally standing over the blood of cadet King,"... The extent of the damage to King's military career has yet to be determined.
Retired Marine Staff Sergeant Tim Chambers has stood at this post since 2002. "It's an extremely long time to hold a salute that long," says Air Force Master Sergeant Russ Ware of Columbia, MD. "Takes a lot determination and a lot of discipline. This guy does it every year." With a stiff spine and straight shoulders, this lone marine stands at attention as the Rolling Thunder rumbles by...for more than three hours. "They zoom by me and I'm getting an eyeball at them," says Chambers. "I'm trying to give every one of them that 'Welcome home' they didn't get." Chamber says it started as a spontaneous 'Thank you' nine years ago but has now become his moral obligation.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D.-Fla.), chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, denounced Republicans last week for believing illegal immigration "should in fact be a crime." [Seriously!]
For more than two decades, a local Boy Scout troop has dedicated countless hours decorating the graves of military veterans at two community cemeteries in honor of Memorial Day. Bartlesville Boy Scout Troop 6 placed hundreds of American flags at the White Rose Cemetery and Memorial Park Cemetery earlier this week as a tribute to the men and women who have sacrificed for the country's freedom. "The Scouts look forward to this project every year," said Charles Lewis, Troop 6 scoutmaster. "In a way, it feels like we know the veterans themselves when we read the grave markings."
Nine NATO service members were killed Thursday in Afghanistan, including seven U.S. troops among eight who died when a powerful bomb exploded in a field where they were patrolling on foot, officials said. Two Afghan policemen also died and two others were wounded in the explosion in the mountainous Shorabak district of Kandahar province, 12 miles from the Pakistan border, said Gen. Abdul Raziq, chief of the Afghan border police in the province. "Two months ago, we cleared this area of terrorists, but still they are active there," Raziq said.
In a highly unusual step, Navy Cmdr. Dave Koss announced Friday that "with deep personal regret … I will be voluntarily leaving the greatest flight demonstration team." "I performed a maneuver that had an unacceptably low minimum altitude," Cmdr. Koss said in a statement. "This maneuver, combined with other instances of not meeting the airborne standard that makes the Blue Angels the exceptional organization that it is, led to my decision to step down."
Maricopa County employees have been busted for drugs and human trafficking. The workers, a deputy and two female detention officers, were among 12 people arrested in a Phoenix-based international drug smuggling ring, authorities. Arpaio, the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in the country, said law enforcement is tough enough without having to worry his own team. "We have enough violence without having moles in my own organization that put my deputies in danger," Arpaio said. One of the detention officers, Marcella Hernández, told authorities that she is eight-months pregnant with the child of Francisco Arce-Torres, the alleged drug ring's leader who court documents say is also a member of the Mexican Sinaloa cartel.
Agents also found radio chargers and car batteries used to power communications gear. They told NBC producer-photographer Al Henkel and me that Mexican surveillance teams will work in these mountains for 30 to 60 days at a time. "They locate themselves up on these ridgelines, up in caves, hidey holes, 'spider holes' we call them," said DEA agent Todd Scott. He and the agents wondered if this particular "spider hole" was home to the two men just seen running away.
Among our imminent and future voters — students in our schools — how many know about the separation of powers? In the National Assessment of Educational Progress — NAEP ("The nation's report card"): "Only one in 10 demonstrated acceptable knowledge of the checks and balances among the legislative, executive and judicial branches, according to test results released on Wednesday." (New York Times, May 4) And what of their parents? Of 1,000 citizens who were asked in a Newsweek poll: "'What is the supreme law of the land?' 70 percent of the 1,000 citizens polled by Newsweek couldn't answer correctly." (ABC News, May 13) Answer: The Constitution! Among the high-school seniors surveyed by the NAEP, three-quarters could not name "a power granted to Congress by the Constitution." What most startled me was "the nation's report card" revealing that "a smaller proportion of fourth- and eighth-graders demonstrated proficiency in civics (who we are as Americans) than in any other subject the federal government has tested since 2005, except history, American students' worst subject."
Police on Tuesday detained 513 undocumented migrants from Latin America and Asia who were crammed into two trucks bound for the United States
U.S. Navy SEALs, like the teams that killed Osama bin Laden, are grateful for nation's show of support but are growing angry with the continued focus on their operation, tactics, and tools, claiming it could jeopardize future raids and their safety.
The residents of the Chiricahua-Peloncillo drug and human smuggling corridor that runs from the Mexican border north through eastern Arizona and western New Mexico are circulating a petition to send to the White House in response to President Obama's recent immigration speech. "It is with great wonderment and sadness that we listened to your May 10 speech on immigration issues. All of the joking about moats and alligators cut residents of Portal, AZ, to the core as we sheltered with friends or at a Red Cross evacuation site, to survive a terrible fire that still threatens our lives and property, as well as our ecotourism-based economy," the letter reads. ... Cochise County, Ariz., Sheriff Larry Dever, who penned an op-ed in The New York Times Friday describing the plight of border residents, told FoxNews.com that the petition is a plea for the administration to take a closer look at the hardships they are suffering. "These people are not overreacting. What they suggest in letter is very deep part of their belief system based on their experience and their experience has been horrific -- they see human smuggling and drug trafficking, they sit on their porch and watch people walk through, they've had their homes burglarized," Dever said. "It's a beautiful landscape and for those that moved out there for a sense of tranquility and peace, that's been destroyed...."
His biggest mistakes don't even get reported as such. I can offer up several on the national security front, but here are just two mistakes that you've seen hints of lately in the news. The first actually was made in his earliest days in the White House. (But we're paying the price for it now, and will for years to come.) At around the same time he was taking the oath of office, the soldiers of the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team were completing preparations for their upcoming Iraq tour....
A long-simmering movement by liberal stalwarts in southern Arizona to break away from the rest of the largely conservative state is at a boiling point as secession backers press to bring their longshot ambition to the forefront of Arizona politics. [GREAT IDEA! GIVE THEM THE MEXICAN BORDER COUNTIES!]
The U.S. military has tried in the past to build a stealth helicopter, but has kept secret if it has indeed succeeded. The wreckage in Abbottabad appeared to have exotic coatings and distinct surfaces and edges reminiscent of stealth aircraft such as the B-2 bomber and the F-22 fighter, aviation experts say. Equally important, they pointed to an unusual dishpan-shaped cover over the tail rotor, perhaps designed to make the aircraft quieter. ... remnants of the aircraft suggested extensive use of nonmetallic composite parts, which reflect less radar energy. Likewise, he said the tail's remains suggested that it was designed to shroud or mask metal parts, which are much more visible to radar. ...
The helicopter has been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent days after photos of its tail-end were circulated online following the 40-minute night raid. Some experts have speculated that the vehicle may be a highly modified helicopter that is part of one of the military's secret "black stealth projects..." could be a modified Blackhawk helicopter that is designed to fly quietly and evade radar detection, David Cenciotti, a military aviation journalist and information securities expert.... [So, doing the raid this way instead of bombing not only risked American lives but may have cost us technologically.]
A drone missile strike killed a US Marine and a Navy medic last week by mistake, in what appeared to be the first instance US troops had been killed in a "friendly fire" incident involving an unmanned aircraft.
The Navy identified Thursday the two crew members who died when their F/A-18F Super Hornet crashed during a training flight in central California.... The Navy identified Thursday the two crew members who died when their F/A-18F Super Hornet crashed during a training flight in central California.....
We have to police the police. Who could have imagined that police unions would join protesters and engage in acts of political intimidation? Who could have imagined that a county Sheriff would declare that his officers would not act as "palace guards" when protecting the State Capitol? Public sector unions are more than economic issues, they are central players in whether voters or unions control government.
The mainstream media are reporting that there's a good chance military pay will be suspended after 8 April. In practical terms, this means there will be a 15 April paycheck containing pay through the 8th (half the normal semi-monthly amount), and nothing after that until the shutdown is over. Obviously, there are questions about why the Obama administration is emitting signals like this. They are politically stupid; no significant constituency thinks the US budget battle has to be fought across the monthly bills of our fighting men and women. The possibility that the military will be required to continue on duty without pay also highlights one of the important differences between the military and the rest of the federal government. The government can't require its civilian work force to operate without pay. Its only options, with the civilian work force, are furloughing employees and shutting down services. The civilian work force is protected by union agreements and labor laws in this regard. The troops are not.
Beginning at about 10 p.m. eastern on the night of March 30, casualty notices from the Pentagon began filling my inbox. In all, at least six U.S. soldiers, all serving with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), based out of Kentucky's Fort Campbell, were killed on March 29 in Afghanistan's Konar province. The families of the fallen have been in my thoughts and prayers ever since the e-mails started pouring in. When I mentioned this last night on The Unknown Soldiers Facebook page, the online community, while universally supportive of our troops and their families, also demanded answers from the national press. "Not one thing was mentioned by the media," one fan wrote, as another asked: "Why have we not heard of this?"
Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever has told Fox News that over the last two years, U.S. Border Patrol officials have told him they were ordered on multiple occasions to reduce and even stop apprehending illegal aliens crossing the U.S./Mexican border.
Pam Perry had a good reason for joining hundreds of people lining the streets Wednesday as an Oklahoma National Guard unit departed for out-of-state training prior to deployment to Afghanistan. "The reason we can stand here is the freedom they are going over there to protect," she said. Another reason: Her son, Patrick Perry, although in a different unit, will also soon deploy to Afghanistan. The Oklahoma National Guard's 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team will send 3,400 troops to that war-torn country early this summer.
In an effort to get closer to the local population, American female soldiers stationed in Afghanistan are being encouraged to wear a Muslim headscarf when interacting with civilians. But some question whether the practice constitutes cultural sensitivity or a form of appeasement that is degrading to U.S. soldiers. [#2.]
Seldom do I waste time with rebutting articles, and especially not from publications like Rolling Stone. Today, numerous people sent links to the latest Rolling Stone tripe. The story is titled "THE KILL TEAM, THE FULL STORY." It should be titled: "BULL$#!+, from Rolling Stone."
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