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Hi everybody, I’m Bill Whittle and this is the Firewall. Let’s just assume for a moment that you’re a radical, left-wing zealot, who was raised by actual communists, and who, naturally enough views the United States military as the tool of capitalist exploitation and colonial racism. Now, further assume that through a perfect storm of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, fate, money, power and media bias somehow conspired to make you Commander in Chief of those same armed forces. What would you do? You couldn’t very well scuttle 11 carrier strike groups. You can’t just destroy entire...

WASHINGTON — U.S. Army Special Operations Command is pushing back against alarmist claims that an upcoming U.S. military exercise is a preparation for imposing martial law or subduing right-leaning groups and individuals. Conspiracy theories about the exercise, known as JADE HELM 15, appeared online this week. Some commentators railing against the event referred to an online slide show allegedly created by USASOC, which outlined a special operations exercise slated to take place across multiple states, outside the confines of U.S. military bases. In the slide show, a map of the southwest region of the United States labels Texas and other...

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who abandoned his post in Afghanistan and was held captive for five years by the Taliban, was charged Wednesday by the U.S. military with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy and could get life in prison if convicted. The misbehavior charge could land Bergdahl in prison for life, though some legal experts said a lengthy sentence was unlikely. He also could be dishonorably discharged and forfeit all his pay if convicted on either charge. Next, an Article 32 hearing — similar to a civilian grand jury proceeding — will be held at Fort Sam Houston in...

He will be charged with desertion among other charges.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier who was recovered in Afghanistan last spring after five years in captivity, faces charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, according to his lawyer.

The Army’s Fort Hood Disgrace No one who supervised the shooter has been held to account, but the victims are denied pay and benefits. By Kathy Platoni March 19, 2015 7:08 p.m. ET 257 COMMENTS It was more than five years ago that the gunshots rang out, but those of us who survived can still hear their echoes. On Nov. 5, 2009, an Army psychiatrist named Nidal Hasan—an American radicalized by extremist Islamic beliefs—opened fire on his fellow soldiers in Fort Hood, Texas, killing 14 people, including an unborn child, and wounding 32. I was there. A beloved friend, Capt....

Colorado's National Guard boss, Maj. Gen. H. Michael Edwards, describes the relationship between state Guard leaders and Army brass as broken, saying the two entities are giving each other the silent treatment over budget battles. "The relationship is not good and it is sad," said Edwards, an Air Force officer who reports to Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper rather than the Pentagon. Tensions are high over Army proposals to strip the Guard of attack helicopters and shave the Army Guard's ranks by 8,000 troops to save cash. Army leaders were a no-show at a gathering of top National Guard commanders in...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-03-12/can-231-445-people-who-want-tom-cotton-tried-for-treason-be-wrong-yes-

<p>Search-and-rescue crews are looking for seven Marines and four soldiers after an Army helicopter crashed late Tuesday during a routine night training exercise in the Florida Panhandle.</p> <p>Eglin Air Force Base spokesman Andy Bourland told the Associated Press that the helicopter was reported missing at around 8:30 p.m. local time and crews found debris from the crash at around 2 a.m. Wednesday.</p>

A change in policy issued by the Army Friday evening will make it harder to dismiss transgender soldiers, according to advocate groups. Various media outlets reported on the new directive. “The Army issued a directive Friday that protects transgender soldiers from being dismissed by mid-level officers by requiring the decision for discharge to be made by the service’s top civilian for personnel matters,” reported USA Today. “The Army’s new policy is the latest indication that the military’s ban on transgender troops may be eased or even lifted.” USA Today was the first news outlet to report the possibility of a...

Leonard Nimoy—the famed actor synonymous with Star Trek’s iconic Mr. Spock—died on Feb. 27. He leaves behind two children, a storied career and one of the most recognizable characters in pop culture. He’s also a reminder of a different era in America—the years after World War II when the military was more connected to the public, and when it wasn’t so strange for an actor to be a soldier at the same time. In the early ’50s, Nimoy was just another hungry actor with parents who worried he’d never have a real job. So he did what a lot of...

The US Army Still Trains For Trench Warfare Even in an era of combat aircraft, tanks, and an endless array of technological advances, the US Army still trains troops in the tactics of trench warfare. And sometimes they go to Poland to do it. It may sound archaic, but the truth is that while trench warfare – and the horrors that go along with it – are more closely identified with World War I, the practice has continued throughout the last century. During WWII, Russia was well known for its use of trench warfare as a defensive measure. The outcome...

The U.S. Army has no interest in taking over the Air Force’s fleet of A-10 attack planes, even if it would save the venerable Cold War-era aircraft from the bone yard. The service’s top civilian, Army Secretary John McHugh, rejected the idea of accepting hand-me-down A-10 Warthogs from the Air Force. “No chance,” he said during a breakfast meeting with reporters on Wednesday in Washington, D.C. “That’s not even been a topic of casual conversation.” “With our own aircraft fleet we’re taking some pretty dramatic steps to reconfigure and become more affordable, and the A-10 mission is not something we...

Recently, a friend sent me an article he was furious about. The title was: Hormone treatment approved for Chelsea Manning. The innocent question that popped into my head was: “Who the hell is Chelsea Manning?” Chelsea, it turns out, is none other than Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence analyst who turned over classified information to WikiLeaks in 2010. Well – at least I think that Chelsea is just Bradley in a stupid-looking wig; others apparently hold some different views. The article’s title pretty well summarized the rest of the pathetic story. A more apt title would have been: US Army...

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The boy who played the young Forrest Gump in the multi-Oscar award winning movie is all grown up. But he didn’t stay in the acting game after his most famous role. He joined the Army.

FORT HUACHUCA — A time-honored Army tradition officially marked the return of the 40th Expeditionary Signal Battalion to its home post in Arizona Friday morning. Signifying its return, the battalion stood on Brown Parade Field as the unit’s flag, held by Spc. Jessica Mortimer, was uncased and unfurled by the battalion’s commander, Lt. Col. David Thomas, and Command Sgt. Maj. John Reinburg.

A new study by Army War College professors found that not only is lying common in the military, the armed forces themselves may be inadvertently encouraging it. The study, released Tuesday, was conducted by retired Army officers and current War College professors Leonard Wong and Stephen J. Gerras. They found that untruthfulness is “surprisingly common in the U.S. military even though members of the profession are loath to admit it.” The paper’s release follows a series of high-profile incidents involving bad behavior across the services, including a still-widening corruption case involving senior Navy officers and at least two incidents in...

The German army has faced a shortage of equipment for years, but the situation has recently become so precarious that some soldiers took matters into their own hands. On Tuesday, German broadcaster ARD revealed that German soldiers tried to hide the lack of arms by replacing heavy machine guns with broomsticks during a NATO exercise last year. After painting the wooden sticks black, the German soldiers swiftly attached them to the top of armored vehicles, according to a confidential army report which was leaked to ARD.

<p>FORT STEWART, Georgia — The U.S. Army is sending more than 3,000 Fort Stewart soldiers to Europe to help assure American allies in the region and deter Russian aggression in Ukraine.</p> <p>Officials at the southeast Georgia Army post said Tuesday that soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division will deploy next month.</p>