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After multiple top generals described to WND what they regard as a full-scale “purge” of the U.S. military by the Obama administration, the commander of U.S. Army Garrison Japan was summarily relieved of duty and his civilian deputy reassigned, pending a “misconduct” investigation. Nine generals and flag officers have been relieved of duty under Obama just this year – widely viewed as an extraordinary number – and several sources put the total number of senior officers purged during the five years of the Obama administration as close to 200. In response, prominent retired generals – ranging from Army Maj. Gen....

The Navy Jack is the flag flown by United States Naval Vessels. It's motto of "Don't Tread on Me" is emblazoned on a Red and White Striped background with a rattlesnake stretched across it. The flag has a long and revered history in America's Navy spanning back to the time of our country's fight for Independence. However, Navy SEAL commanders are now banning the historical symbol. The question is, who is behind the ban?

A new U.S. Navy directive mandates that SEALs replace the traditional “Don’t Tread On Me” Navy Jack on the sleeves of their uniforms with the American flag. The original Navy Jack was made up of 13 horizontal stripes — seven red and six white. A rattlesnake was later added diagonally across the flag, along with the words, “Don’t Tread On Me,” on the lowest white stripe. More recently, the jack was replaced with white stars on a field of blue, with the number of stars representing states in the union, like the American flag. After the 9/11 attacks, all U.S....

Updated at 5 p.m.: The Georgia National Guard this afternoon indicated it intends to ignore a directive from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and will continue to send same-sex spouses of National Guard personnel elsewhere for benefits guaranteed by the Pentagon. “The State of Georgia does not recognize same sex marriages and is not authorizing the Georgia National Guard to process the applications for same-sex married benefits at state facilities. Any personnel seeking to apply for same-sex married benefits will be referred to federal facilities.” The statement was in response to this piece by the Associated Press: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel...

So far this year President Obama has removed nine “flag officers” from their posts. Three of these firings are linked to last year’s attack on the US Consular facility in Benghazi. US Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel defended the moves as “the prerogative of the nation’s Commander-in-Chief. The President must have men he can trust to carry out his orders.” U.S. Army General Carter Ham, who commanded U.S. African Command when the consulate was attacked, lost President Obama’s trust when he contradicted his assertion that no forces were available to rescue Ambassador Stevens. Ham contends that reinforcements could have been...

<p>Facing a deadly resurgence of al-Qaida in Iraq, President Barack Obama signaled Friday that he will begin increasing U.S. military support for Baghdad after five years of reducing it.</p> <p>The new U.S. plan represents a remarkable shift for Obama, whose administration trumpeted the 2011 withdrawal of the last U.S. troops from Iraq as a major achievement and has since shifted its attention to other regional challenges, such as Syria, Egypt and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.</p>

<p>A change to the Marine Corps’ uniform hats could take the hard-nosed Leathernecks from the Halls of Montezuma to the shops of Christopher Street.</p> <p>“We don’t even have enough funding to buy bullets, and the DoD is pushing to spend $8 million on covers that look like women’s hats!”</p>

The U.S. Air Force Academy may drop a religious reference from an oath cadets take to swear allegiance to the school's honor code. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has protested the "so help me God" phrase that was added to the end of an oath that has cadets swearing they won't lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those who do. According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, the religious freedom foundation says tying the honor code to a religious test violates the U.S. Constitution. The full oath reads: I, (name), having been appointed an Air Force cadet in the United States Air...

Here’s a penny for your thoughts: One red cent could’ve landed you the Navy’s first supercarrier, the decommissioned Forrestal. The U.S. Navy sold the 1,067-foot behemoth to a Texas company, All Star Metals, to be dismantled, scrapped and recycled, Navy officials announced. It's an inauspicious fate for a ship with a colorful — and tragic — history. It's perhaps best known for a 1967 incident in which stray voltage triggered an accidental explosion that struck a plane on the flight deck whose cockpit was occupied by a young John McCain. A chain reaction of blasts and fires ultimately killed 134...

You can't put a price tag on surviving a deadly attack overseas, but one Fort Hood soldier knows the cost of the helmet that saved his life all too well. "I had a couple shrapnels in my side plates and in my helmet," Army Sergeant Michael Williams said about the gear that protected him on June 13, 2011. Now, more than two years after the day he was wounded by an improvised explosive device in Iraq, he got a "bill" for his shrapnel-pierced helmet. "I automatically assumed that, you know, that's the gear that I got blown up in, that...

Are these senior officers being ‘shown the door’ deliberately? These occurrences are very unsettling. We’ll just have to wait for the scuttlebutt I guess. Let’s just pray no dishonor is coming to them from the Communist-in-Chief. This strange chain of firings from the Military is so bizarre and so unheard of that even Dianne Sawyer of ABC news reached out to cover it when the 9th, yes 9th, Military Commanding Officer was relieved of duty in less than a year. This doesn’t include the long list last year, this is just the nine individuals this year alone.

Article may not be posted per FR posting rules (Gannett). Link to the article here. Synopsis: The linkage was yet another example of an over-eager National Guard EEO briefing.

“The instructor said AFA could be considered a hate group because they don’t like gays,” the soldier told me. “The slide was talking about how AFA refers to gays as sinners and heathens and derogatory terms.” The soldier, who is an evangelical Christian, said the chaplain defended the Christian ministry. “He kept asking the instructor, ‘Are you sure about that, son? Are you sure about that?’” he said, recalling the back and forth. Later in the briefing, the soldiers were reportedly told that they could face punishment for participating in organizations that are considered hate groups. That considered, the soldier...

In the wake of the government shutdown, despite provisions in the Pay Our Military Act, Catholics at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia are being denied religious services. The Catholic priest who serves this community has been prohibited from even volunteering to celebrate Holy Mass without pay, and was told that if he violated that order, he could be subject to arrest. Protestant services continue to take place. Only Catholic services have been shutdown.

My heart is just sick over this. The Pentagon just admitted that those heart-rending “arrival ceremonies” at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, wherein an honor guard carries off a cargo plane the flag-draped coffins supposedly containing the remains of soldiers killed in battle ARE ALL STAGED. The coffins are empty. Even the cargo planes are fake — they don’t fly. ~Eowyn (Just phony theater: An honor detail comprised of joint military members prepares to escort the remains of fallen servicemembers who died during World War II and the Vietnam War during an arrival ceremony April 26, 2013, hosted by...

The Air Force removed Maj. Gen. Michael Carey, a 35-year veteran, from his command of 20th Air Force, responsible for all 450 of the service's intercontinental ballistic missiles. Carey, who took his post in Wyoming in June 2012, will be reassigned pending the outcome of an investigation into personal misbehavior, the service said. The Air Force would not specify what Carey is alleged to have done wrong, but two officials with knowledge of the investigation indicated that it was linked to alcohol use.

<p>A "very disturbed" President Obama has ordered his top aides to restore death benefits today for families of military service members killed in action.</p> <p>"The president was very disturbed to learn of this problem," said White House press secretary Jay Carney. "The president expects this to be fixed today. He was not pleased."</p>

Father Ray Leonard, a Catholic priest who serves a Georgia military base, was not allowed to celebrate mass at the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay this weekend. “Shutdown: No Catholic service till further notice,” a sign posted on the chapel said. Leonard — who is contracted with the Department of Defense to minister the military on the base — is not allowed to work on the base during the federal government shutdown. In fact, the general counsel for the Archdiocese for the Military Services USA has warned that — under current law — some military priests under contract could even

There's nothing wrong with the C-27J, it's just that the Pentagon doesn't want it given budget constraints. The Pentagon is sending $50 million cargo planes straight from the assembly line to mothballs because it has no use for them, yet it still hasn’t stopped ordering the aircraft, according to a report. A dozen nearly new Italian-built C-27J Spartans have been shipped to an Air Force facility in Arizona dubbed “the boneyard,” and five more currently under construction are likely headed for the same fate, according to an investigation by the Dayton Daily News. The Air Force has spent $567 million...

Gays and lesbians in the military are running into widespread obstacles as they seek to take advantage of a new Obama administration policy designed to make it easier for same-sex couples in the armed services to get married. The policy, announced with great fanfare at the Pentagon in mid-August, was meant to give same-sex couples up to 10 days’ special leave to get married in the 13 states that allow it — and thus equal access to low-cost health care, base shopping and other benefits available to married couples in the military. But implementation of the policy has caused widespread...