US Military
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has reportedly demoted the former head of U.S. Africa Command, who was accused of spending thousands of dollars on lavish travel and other unauthorized expenses. …stripped Gen. William 'Kip' Ward of a star, which means that he must now retire as a three-star lieutenant general. Ward must also repay the government $82,000.
h/t: War News Updates
added 2012 Nov 14 — 
re the question why military generals being pilloried. Hitler did the same thing as did Stalin when they were consolidating power. They got rid of the ranking military officers that would not toe the company line. This was to negate or at least lessen the chance of a coup being started. Tyrants follow the same checklist, I think this is what is going on. Take them down and scare the ones that are left into cooperating.
An Air Force Academy tradition of throwing cadet first sergeants into the season's first snowfall ended in a brawl that left 27 cadets in need of medical treatment for everything from concussions, bitemarks, and cuts, according to an internal academy email obtained by the Air Force Times.
h/t: Drudge Report
added 2012 Nov 1 — US soldier Devin Hagar amazingly survived a direct hit by a grenade, which he says felt like being "thumped" with a baseball bat. … "I couldn't stop smiling, I was laughing the whole time, thinking 'That was awesome'. I'm just glad I wasn't blown into a hundred pieces."
h/t: War News Updates
added 2012 Oct 22 — The official Twitter account of the United States Army sent out a message to its more than 186,000 followers recognizing the 47th anniversary of the "first public burning of a draft card." … Also today in military history, it was 148 years ago today that the 400 Union soldiers and 50 Confederate soldiers were killed at the Battle of Glasgow in Missouri. The battle was a Confederate victory.
But what really got me the most was near the end when the father begins to describe the situation that led to his son’s death, and much of it had to do with the current rules of engagement that he called “criminal”. And he begs for some high ranking officer to have the courage to risk everything and tell the truth about these rules of engagement and what’s really happening with our warriors. [Video]
h/t: HtP at Ace of Spades
added 2012 Oct 14 — One military cut I really want to see is everyone above Major/Lt Commandershould be reviewed. The board should only be line officers that have served in combat for multiple tours in the mid-east more than any other postings.
Posted by: rd does not trust the MSM at October 12, 2012 10:06 PM
Army Staff Sgt. Travis Mills had been a lot of places since losing his four limbs in Afghanistan. The one place he hadn't been was where people knew him best.
He finally returned to his Michigan hometown this week -- six months after the explosion that cost him his arms and legs -- to serve as the grand marshal of his old high school's homecoming parade.
h/t: War News Updates
added 2012 Oct 10 — The aging US Coast Guard (USCG) cutter fleet spends a lot of time undergoing repairs -- and the large high endurance cutters are more likely to break down than stay afloat.
The condition of the cutter fleet was a major factor in the Coast Guard's failure to meet performance standards for three out of five of its homeland security missions in fiscal year 2011
h/t: War News Updates
added 2012 Sep 30 — Lt. Col. Christopher K. Raible was heading home to video chat with his wife after dinner when the first blasts rang out. The pops in the distance on Sept. 14 at Camp Bastion in southern Afghanistan were harbingers of the most audacious Taliban attack on a major NATO base in the decade-long war. … “The difference between me and some people is that when they hear gunfire, they run. When I hear gunfire, I run to it,” the squadron commander had often told his Marines half in jest, recalled Maj. Greer Chambless, who was with Raible on the night of the attack.
That evening Raible did just that.
As a senior in college in 2001, I was coming out of a morning class when I passed a television and saw two planes crash into the Twin Towers. That was the day I decided to join the military. I look back on that sunny September day, after two deployments and eight years in the military, and realize how naïve I was. Things then were black and white. After deployment, you realize there is no such thing as black and white. Just various shades of gray you try to sort through and understand. … Raised by a mother who holds two master’s degrees, I found it hard to imagine a place where educating girls was considered a crime. So it took me a while to get used to Afghanistan.
h/t: War News Updates
added 2012 Jul 15 — On Christmas Eve in 1965, a World War II-vintage "Gooney Bird" rattled and rolled to takeoff from the Da Nang airfield in Vietnam on a secret mission to a war in Laos that the U.S. officially denied was being fought.
Nearly 47 years later, the Air Force crew of six aboard came home to the military's "Last Bivouac" in Arlington National Cemetery. Today they were lowered into the ground as a group in a single casket that was, in a sense, a time capsule from generations-ago conflicts whose politics and diplomacy were possibly even more muddled and maddening than those the nation has faced since 9/11.
h/t: War News Updates
added 2012 Jul 9 — Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former top commander of international forces in Afghanistan, said this week that the United States should bring back the draft if it ever goes to war again. [Um, no. Well, only if it's (a) universal with (b) no deferments and (c) we start with relatives of Congresscritters.]
h/t: War News Updates
added 2012 Jul 8 —
She called the Army's Family Advocacy program, an organization that supports families in crisis. After the counselor put her hand on Ashley's arm, told her she was in a safe place and to trust her, Ashley opened up. "I hadn't slept in over 24 hours," she told me on the phone. "It's the only reason she got me."
What she meant was that as soon as she outlined the difficulties she and Rob had been going through, the session stopped, the advocacy worker got up and Rob was promptly picked up by the Military Police.
Rob was now facing 72 hours confinement, domestic assault charges, and a dishonorable discharge that would cause the family to lose all the benefits they were entitled to. It didn't take Ashley long to realize Army officials were preparing to make her and Rob the "civilian sector's problem."
None of this is unusual, but facing few options Ashley did something that's started a viral Facebook movement, garnered thousands of followers, and has so far saved her family. Without a voice and ignored, she wrote a pledge on her back, took a picture of it holding Rob's M4 assault rifle over her head and uploaded it.
The response from other wives watching their husbands suffer post traumatic stress was immediate, and the sudden interest in her case from Rob's command soon followed.
The Facebook Group Battling BARE was born and now receives pictures from military wives around the country silently screaming the same pledge on their naked backs.
h/t: War News Updates
added 2012 Jun 30 —
The Europeans simply can’t afford to spend more on defense without cutting back social welfare programs, which the political class cannot do because it sparks riots in the streets. This is where we are currently heading—and if ObamaCare survives political as well as legal challenges, with its estimated cost of more than a trillion dollars, we will arrive at this destination all the more quickly.
h/t: War News Updates
added 2012 Jun 30 —
Gen. Norton A. Schwartz presents the Silver Star awarded posthumously to Air Force Capt. Francis Gary Powers to the captain's grandchildren [photo]
More than 50 years after his plane was downed in the Soviet Union, Francis Gary Powers was posthumously awarded the military’s third-highest decoration on Friday.
h/t: War News Updates
added 2012 Jun 19 —
[Video - trying out a prosthetic arm, feeding his baby, learning to walk.]
h/t: War News Updates
added 2012 Jun 17 —
The Pentagon announced the replacement of the commander of United States Special Operations in South Korea after a media report quoted him as saying that American and South Korean troops have been parachuting into North Korea on spy mission
"People are comparing breastfeeding in uniform to urinating and defecating in uniform. They're comparing it to the woman who posed in 'Playboy' in uniform [in 2007]"
h/t: Drudge
added 2012 May 31 —
As the country heads into the Memorial Day weekend, there are still almost 1.5 million U.S soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines deployed in war zones or combat missions worldwide, and the 3,000th coalition service member, a U.S. sailor, has died in Afghanistan.
h/t: War News Updates
added 2012 May 30 —
Army officials have not released the cause of death for Capt. Bruce Kevin Clark, 43, of Spencerport, N.Y. A statement from the family said they are waiting for results of a military investigation. "Bruce's wife tragically witnessed her husband's death during one of their regular Skype video chats," the statement said. "At the time of the incident, the family was hoping for a rescue and miracle, but later learned that it was not to be," according to the family's statement. "Although the circumstances were unimaginable, Bruce's wife and extended family will be forever thankful that he and his wife were together in his last moments." [It's a different world, now.]
Another grim milestone: Over twice as many US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan under Barack Obama than under George W. Bush.
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