Free Republic

Geraldo Rivera tweeted video of a truck-mounted machine gun in Mogadishu Wednesday as part of his continuing effort to prove AR-15s are machine guns and should be banned. Rivera’s video also shows a machine gun that is being carried by soldier. Neither of the guns are AR-15s, but he tweeted about them to show his support for an “assault weapons” ban. Breitbart News noted that Geraldo told hosts on FOX News’ The Five that “AR” stands for “automatic rifle.”

Before citizen-soldiers of the 48th Infantry Brigade deployed to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Georgia National Guard troops spent months training away from their families and day jobs as they prepared for war. Now a shrinking Army wants them able to get ready for combat sooner. The brigade’s 4,200 soldiers are the first of 13 National Guard and Army Reserve units nationwide chosen to test a new role that pairs them with commanders on active-duty who will oversee their training. The Pentagon hopes the change will make the Guard and Reserve troops better prepared to fight overseas at a...

RAEFORD, N.C. (WNCN) – The Hoke County Sheriff’s Office has arrested a major in the U.S. Army Reserves after an incident at a Raeford mosque where a man left open packages of bacon at the entrance, threatened to kill members of the mosque and attempted to run them down with his SUV. According to Capt. Eric Connor with the U.S. Army Reserves Command at Fort Bragg, Langford first enlisted in the Army in 2003 and served two tours of Iraq, one in 2004 and another in 2008. Langford has been awarded the Bronze Star, Army Commendation Medal, Army Good Conduct...

State Sen. Ernie Chambers sent a letter to President Bush complaining about a Nebraska police officer and Army Reserve officer who allegedly left a noose hanging in the work area of a black woman, an Army Reserve sergeant under his command. The behavior is conduct unbecoming an officer, Chambers said in the letter, providing details of the alleged mid-October incident and the victim’s response. An Army Reserve spokeswoman verified the military is investigating an equal opportunity complaint on the incident. Bellevue Police Chief John Stacey will also investigate the incident after receiving a letter from Chambers Friday, but said Detective...

'Our teacher ... our fighting hero' February 17, 2007 By CATHERINE ANN VELASCO STAFF WRITER PLAINFIELD -- Wearing a red, white and blue lei a student gave him, Spanish teacher Bill Johnson gave tearful adioses and hugs to his students Friday before leaving for military training today to prepare him to serve in Iraq. Johnson, 26, who is a sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserves, was called to active duty barely three weeks ago. His biggest concern wasn't his future, but the 95 students in his Spanish I and III classes. "From Day 1, he has been worried about how...

In "Reinforce Baghdad" [op-ed, Sept. 12], William Kristol and Rich Lowry argue that the United States needs to deploy "substantially" more troops to Iraq to stabilize the country. Aside from the strategic dubiousness of their proposal -- Kristol and Lowry's piece might alternatively have been titled "Reinforcing Failure" -- there is a practical obstacle to it that they overlook: Sending more troops to Iraq would, at the moment, threaten to break our nation's all-volunteer Army and undermine our national security. This is not a risk our country can afford to take. In their search for additional troops and equipment for...

“Dad, What Did You Do in the War?”http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ODdhMDAyZDRhNDU2MDEwYjk1Y2Y1Y2I5YTE3ZjdjNmE http://tinyurl.com/m5dyu September 11, 2006, 5:39 a.m. Why I joined. By David French I woke up early one morning in the fall of my 36th year and traveled to Fort Dix, New Jersey, to take an Army physical. I felt faintly ridiculous, standing there in my briefs next to a bunch of high-school guys who looked like they just left a casting call for Friday Night Lights. They called me “sir” and talked about combat and death while I duck-walked past a stern-eyed doctor, took a drug test with absolutely no privacy, and...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- The Army is reorganizing the National Guard but not cutting any troops, the civilian chief of the Army said Wednesday. "There is not going to be any reduction in the National Guard. Overall, the Army (and)... the active Guard and Reserve overall -- the military capability will continue to grow," said Army Secretary Francis Harvey. Media reports in December about plans to cut between 25,000 and 30,000 Guard troops to save money for the Army engendered strong protests from Capitol Hill and state governors. About a quarter of Army troops serving in Iraq are from...

WASHINGTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - A U.S. Army officer was arrested on Thursday for stealing between $80,000 and $100,000 in funds from the U.S. governing administration in Iraq and using the money to install a deck and hot hub in her New Jersey home. The U.S. Justice Department said Army Reserve Lt. Col. Debra Harrison, 47, who served with the Coalition Provisional Authority, was arrested on charges involving bribery, money laundering and fraud. Harrison is the second army officer and the fourth person charged in the past few weeks in connection with the scheme. The Justice Department said Harrison was...

BALAD, Iraq, July 29, 2005 – Bernd and Virginia Zoller are two full-time Army Reserve officers with a lot in common, pulling military duty in an uncommon place. First off, the Zollers share the same rank -- lieutenant colonel -- and both are public affairs officers. "We were promoted together here on Dec. 24 in this room," Lt. Col. Virginia Zoller said during a July 27 interview with American Forces Press Service here. And the pair has the same last name, because they're a couple. The Zollers will celebrate their first year of marriage Aug. 29. Virginia, 42, acknowledged she...

The Army's top recruiter, already struggling to meet his quotas this year, said yesterday that 2006 would be even harder, and perhaps the toughest year for recruiting since the all-volunteer force began in 1973. Maj. Gen. Michael D. Rochelle, in a telephone interview, said the Army would most likely start its fiscal year this October with the smallest pool of recruits ready for boot camp in at least a decade. He said that by then, only 9.9 percent of the roughly 80,000 new active-duty soldiers the Army needs next year to replenish the ranks in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere were...

Erik Slavin / S&S The Marine Corps for the second straight month in February missed its goal for signing up new recruits, the Marines said on March 2, 2005, in another sign of the Iraq war's effect on military recruiting. In February, Marines signed up 2,772 of a target of 2,964 (93.5 percent). Some of them will join a total force of 177,000. Marines from 2nd RECON Bravo Co stand guard in Al Anbar province, west of Iraq, Jan. 27. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army has fallen behind its recruiting goals, officials said on Thursday, amid the violence...

WASHINGTON - The Army Reserve, a force of some 200,000 part-time soldiers who provide key support in Iraq and Afghanistan with medics, engineers and truck drivers, "is rapidly degenerating into a 'broken' force," its top general has told senior Army leaders.

An Army reservist who checked himself into a civilian psychiatric hospital after being turned away from a military clinic should be court-martialed for being absent without leave, according to an Army report. First Lt. Jullian P. Goodrum, of Knoxville, Tenn., is a veteran of both U.S. wars in Iraq and is being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Goodrum was also suffering from the disorder last fall, the time of his alleged infraction. "Lt. Goodrum has been diagnosed with PTSD, though this should not be reason to not pursue court martial action," states the report...

Services set for Sunday for Sebastopol guardsman killed in blast An Army survivor of a roadside bombing in Iraq underwent surgery Tuesday in Washington, D.C., while funeral arrangements were announced for a fellow soldier who died in the same incident last week. Sgt. Daniel Nevins, 31, of Windsor was in the first of what likely will be a series of medical operations at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, said his wife, Nicole Nevins. Nicole Nevins was scheduled to fly to Washington, D.C., today and planned to go straight to the hospital. "I am hanging in there, but I will be...

Army Sends Weaponless Reserve Unit To Iraq About 800 members of the 98th Army Reserve Division from Rochester, New York will begin a year-long mission in Iraq next month. The unit, which normally trains reserve and active-duty soldiers in the U.S., will find itself training Iraq’s new army. The 98th is a non-combat unit that doesn*t even have its own weapons or vehicles. "This is a hard war and we, frankly, inside the Army Reserve have been not properly prepared for it,” said Lt. Gen. James Helmly, chief of the U.S. Army Reserve.  Find this article at: http://www.kwtx.com/news/headlines/1029996.html

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Master Sgt. Thomas R. Thigpen was 52 when he fell dead of a heart attack during a touch-football game in Kuwait on March 16 — a casualty that does not quite fit the standard template of wartime tragedy: the fresh-faced 18-year-old cut down with the promise of a full life ahead. He was not the oldest to die since the invasion of Iraq. That would be Staff Sgt. William D. Chaney, 59, who operated the machine gun in the door of his unit's Black Hawk helicopters — the same job he performed in Vietnam — and died...

About one in six soldiers returning from the war in Iraq shows signs of post-traumatic stress disorder or other emotional difficulties, researchers are reporting today. Lower levels of psychiatric problems were found among troops who served in Afghanistan. The study, published today in The New England Journal of Medicine, is the first to examine the mental health of troops returning from Iraq. The researchers surveyed more than 6,000 soldiers in the months before and after service in Iraq or Afghanistan. Almost 17 percent of those who fought in Iraq reported symptoms of major depression, severe anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder,...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A group of Army Reserve soldiers rarely tapped for duty could soon be heading to Iraq, Pentagon officials said Wednesday. The troops, part of the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), could be called to fill holes in units deploying to Iraq as part of the upcoming rotation of troops later this year.

My company is fuel transportation. We are the Army Reserve 724th Transportation Company. But in Iraq we have civilian contractors Kellogg Brown and Root. They do all the fuel hauling. So we basically become force protection for convoys. Friday, April 9th, about 7 a.m., my platoon started getting ready for a fuel convoy from LSA Anaconda in Balad to Baghdad International Airport (BIOP). We were running security for 21 civilian fuel trucks. We had 26 in the whole serial. I was in the 21st truck with a civilian, riding shotgun (passenger). I had never ridden with a civilian on a...