Free Republic

This week, in a surprising reversal, the U.S. Army decided to retain SFC Charles Martland in the Armed Services of the United States. The decorated Green Beret survived a long-term effort by the Army to kick him out after he physically confronted a local Afghan commander pedophile. The incident occurred in northern Afghanistan in 2011. Since that time, the Army has tried to administratively remove SFC Martland from the Armed services. In a telephone interview, Martland told Fox News: "I am real thankful for being able to continue to serve." He loves his job and the Army and Martland expressed...

AVX Aircraft of Benbrook, Texas has responded to the US Army’s request for information on the smallest of five planned Future Vertical Lift (FVL) capability sets with two 7.5t (16,700lb) winged coaxial compound helicopter configurations that the company’s chief executive describes as vertical takeoff fighter aircraft for light reconnaissance, attack, assault and medical evacuation missions. The baseline swept-wing, 13.4m (44ft) diametre rotor concept would be powered by two 3,000shp Improved Turbine Technology Programme (ITEP) engines and is designed to meet a demanding set of core requirements proposed by the US Army in its “Capability Set 1” RFI document. The requirements...

In the hit 1970’s comedy, MASH, Corporal Max Klinger was a street savvy enlisted man from Toledo, Ohio, who had one goal; to return home in one piece with a Section 8 Psycho Discharge, courtesy of Army psychiatrists. Klinger’s modus operandi was to pose as a woman, outfitted in the latest 1950’s fashions he had purchased from the Spiegel Catalog. Klinger was not really transgender or transsexual, he was just a guy who wanted OUT, out of the Army. The hilarity ensued as he came up with scheme after scheme to escape the lean green machine with a Section 8,...

The Army on Thursday announced its decision to retain Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland, who was ordered discharged last year after he roughed up a local Afghan police commander for repeatedly raping a little boy and then beating his mother. Outrage against the Army’s actions rightfully ensued after the incident, since the Green Beret had served honorably for more than 11 years and most would argue that taking a stand against a child rapist was the right thing to do, morally speaking.

In a stunning reversal, the U.S. Army decided late Thursday to retain a decorated Green Beret it had planned to kick out after he physically confronted a local Afghan commander accused of raping a boy over the course of many days. *snip* "In SFC Martland’s case, the Army Board for Correction of Military Records determination modified a portion of one of SFC Martland’s evaluation reports and removed him from the QMP list, which will allow him to remain in the Army," said Lt. Col. Jerry Pionk.

Captain Kristen Griest will become America's first ever female Army infantry officer as she graduates from training today. She has completed the Maneuver Captains Career Course at Fort Benning, Georgia, passing a two-month leadership course necessary for holding a command position. Captain Griest has already completed Ranger and Airborne School and could take charge of her infantry unit of about 150 soldiers in Spring next year.

A few paces west of the public beach in Yorktown, Virginia, is a little cave looking out toward the water. We all know Yorktown from history class. This is where, in October 1781, the British army commanded by Lord Cornwallis surrendered to the Americans under General George Washington and the French under the Comte de Rochambeau. It’s not much of a cave, really, but tourists by the thousands stop to peep into it, as they have for more than two centuries. It is known to this day as “Cornwallis’s Cave,” and for most of our history visitors have been told...

The U.S. Army has released its 2016 Weapons Systems Handbook, which is available at www.army.mil/e2/c/downloads/431298.pdf. For more on military equipment, including weapons, visit Military.com's Equipment Guide.

Sources inside Congressman Steve Russell’s (R., OK) office informed US Defense Watch this week that the Congressman had received no new information from the US Army concerning his request for the records of the three female Ranger School graduates, Captain Griest, First Lieutenant Haver and Major Jaster, the so-called Mommy Ranger. Seven months later and the US Army and the Pentagon are still refusing to turn over the Ranger School records of the three female graduates. For those who haven’t followed the story, here’s a summary of the events leading up to the present time. Captain Kristen Griest and First...

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...

Video Link

(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...