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One of the best parts about writing articles is watching the comments drift in, some well-intentioned and full of good cheer, others laced with arsenic from irate readers. A few comments this week and comments by a sergeant in the Rangers and an active duty buddy of mine, who’s probably the last guy in the Army with a 3rd Armored Division combat patch have prompted me to write this piece. First the naysayers: What do you know? You served in the Army a long time ago. You were in that Desert Storm War. What makes you qualified to judge the...

Army Captain Bradley Grimm, currently based in Iraq, cracked the plot by gleaning crucial details from seized documents. A US Army captain in Iraq helped crack a plot to bomb a Danish school after gleaning crucial details from documents recovered from extremists, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

Adolf Hitler once said, “Give me five years and you won’t recognize Germany anymore.” Well, we’ve given Barack Hussein Obama seven years and you can’t recognize the US Army anymore. The Obama Administration is literally carpet bombing the military on a daily basis with directives, memos, policies and doctrine that if they weren’t actually happening would be considered to be something out of a Kafkaesque, Gloria Steinem nightmare. Today, I examined a Memorandum for Record, dated September 20, 2015 and signed by the former Secretary of the Army, John McHugh. You remember Secretary McHugh, he’s the guy who dodged and...

The old adage used to go, “First the mission and then the men.” In today’s Army, with its gallant senior leaders at the helm; the old adage has been amended to: first the pension, retirement benefits, defense contractor job after out-processing, TV analyst gig part time, permanent PX parking space for the wife and somewhere after a couple hundred more priorities there is the mission and then the men, the women and of course, the gender neutrals. The US Army seems to be doing a Thelma and Louise every day now. Pentagon feather merchants who resemble Fortune 500 executives feed...

Seventy-two years after eight airmen in the B-24 Liberator Hot as Hell crashed in violent weather over India during World War II, part of the crew began their final journey home after a full-honors ceremony Wednesday, April 13, 2016, at Air Force Station Palam in New Delhi, India. TARA COPP/STARS AND STRIPES AIR FORCE STATION PALAM, NEW DELHI, India — Seventy-two years after eight airmen in the B-24 Liberator Hot as Hell crashed in violent weather over India, part of the crew has begun the final journey home. In a full-honors ceremony Wednesday at New Delhi’s airport, Secretary of Defense...

In testimony before a congressional committee investigating the murders of military personnel at military facilities, Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley told Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) that he was opposed to letting troops carry personal weapons to defend themselves. "Let me assure Congress that our higher ranking officers are well protected by the existing procedures," the General said. "Base commanders have a contingent of armed guards between themselves and any potential assailant. I am confident that no intruders could get to them without themselves being shot." "What about lower ranking soldiers?" Lee asked. "They don't have guards assigned to...

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(CNSNews.com) - "I've been around guns all my life. I know how to use them, and arming our people on our military bases and allowing them to carry concealed, privately owned weapons -- I do not recommend that as a force protection," Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley told Congress on Thursday. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) asked Milley what the Army is doing to provide force protection at military bases and facilities in the United States, following last summer's attack on a Marine recruiting center and a Navy Reserve facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that killed four Marines and one...

The San Francisco native's flag-draped casket was carried off a plane at San Francisco International Airport late Wednesday.Cpl. Robert Perry Graham was declared missing in action 65 years ago. The San Francisco native's flag-draped casket was carried off a plane at San Francisco International Airport late Wednesday. "It's something that my aunts, uncles and mother had always dreamed about," nephew James George said. "Having this closure." Closure the family thought would never happen. Graham, a 21-year-old member of the United States Army, was sent to fight in the Korean War and never returned. His family said the official report...

In the war against the self-proclaimed Islamic State, the U.S. military is notably short on soldiers, but apparently not on generals. There are at least 12 U.S. generals in Iraq, a stunningly high number for a war that, if you believe the White House talking points, doesn’t involve American troops in combat. And that number is, if anything, a conservative estimate, not taking into account the flag officers running the U.S. air war, the admirals helping wage the war from the sea, or their superiors back at the Pentagon.

As one version of the story goes, a crippling performance evaluation was pushing then-Brig. Gen. Colin L. Powell’s military career toward a dead end when two higher-ranking commanders learned of it. The two generals were horrified to hear Powell tell them over dinner in 1982 that he planned to leave the Army. One of them was a legendary Texas war hero, Gen. Richard E. Cavazos, who decided to intervene. It came as no surprise to those who knew Cavazos that he went out of his way to keep Powell in the Army. The first and only Hispanic four-star general, he...

The U.S. Army's chief of staff is searching for alternatives to the multi-year Modular Handgun System effort, to include piggy-backing on Army Special Operations Command's current pistol contract. Gen. Mark Milley has used recent public appearances to criticize federal acquisition guidelines that all services must follow when choosing and purchasing weapons and equipment.

The Army’s top general says military forces on the ground face a high level of risk if the United States gets into a large-scale conflict against a power such as Russia or China. Testifying Wednesday on Capitol Hill, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley ... a “great power war” against one or two of four countries – China, Russia, Iran and North Korea – .. the Army’s readiness is not at a level that is appropriate for what the American people expect to defend them.

A division of the Department of Veterans Affairs tasked with fixing up the VA's broken veteran suicide hotline has dropped roughly 1.4 million phone calls from veterans since fiscal year 2015, a VA whistleblower told the Washington Examiner. That high number of abandoned calls is raising questions about whether the VA is doing all it can to fix up the suicide hotline, which has been criticized as the latest part of the VA that is failing veterans. Scott Davis, a whistleblower and program specialist at the VA's Health Eligibility Center in Atlanta, noted that the VA's Health Resource Center is...

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After spate of cheating scandals in Bihar, army reportedly takes radical step to ‘save time on frisking so many people’Candidates at an Indian army recruitment day in Bihar were made to take a written exam in their underwear to prevent them from cheating, according to reports, after a spate of exam cheating scandals in the eastern state. Images in the Indian Express showed dozens of men sitting cross-legged in a field wearing only underpants, with many resting their test papers on their thighs, while a uniformed supervisor stood guard. The paper quoted an army source as saying they took the...

WASHINGTON — A Green Beret selected last year for involuntary separation from the Army because he hit an admitted child rapist in Afghanistan will remain with the service at least two more months. However, some lawmakers in Congress have said the Army’s decision this week to postpone a verdict on Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland’s future with the service is not enough. “It is unfathomable that the Pentagon has yet to reinstate Sgt. Martland,” Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., said in a statement released Tuesday, when the Army’s decision on the soldier’s future had been due. “The Defense Department has had...

The US Army is planning to deploy the first laser weapons in 2023, it has been revealed. Mary J. Miller, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Research and Technology, told the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities 'I believe we're very close,' when asked how close the Army is to developing offensive and defensive directed-energy weapons. She said the programmes would be extensively tested as the Army wants to understand the lasers' full capabilities 'before we offer it to a Soldier.' 'It's being done in a 'step-wise demonstration of capability,' she said. 'We have to...

WEST POINT – A West Point instructor was found dead in Atlantic City Sunday afternoon. Atlantic City police are investigating, but there is no indication of foul play at this time, West Point’s public affairs office said in a news release Monday afternoon. Maj. Benjamin Recla, 34, was an instructor in the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, and was an officer representative for the West Point Flying Team. He was a member of the West Point class of 2004 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the aviation branch of the Army. “I wish to extend to his...

SFC Martland was set to be expelled from the United States Army today because he was willing to defend a child from horrific sexual abuse and torture. The Army’s announced extension today is most certainly welcome news. ... the Army says it is extending the deadline in SFC Martland’s case until May 1st saying the “extension was granted to allow consideration of his application to correct his records by the Army Board for Correction of Military Records.” .. SFC Martland, a Green Beret Bronze Star recipient, faces expulsion from the Army because he intervened to protect a child from an...