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Erdogan locks US airmen, nuclear arms in Incirlik DEBKAfile Special Report July 20, 2016, 11:29 AM (IDT) Tags: Erdogan, Barack Obama, Incirlik air base, Turkey, US Air Force, Turkish army, US, Some 1,500 US airmen and their families have been locked in the southern Turkish air base of Incirlik together with a stock if tactical nuclear bombs since President Reccep Erdogan crushed an attempted coup on Saturday, July 16. In the four days up until Wednesday, July 20, therefore, no air strikes against ISIS in Syria and Iraq have been staged that Turkish base.

The US military is doing "prudent planning" in case it needs to move its anti-ISIS operations out of Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey following the country's failed coup, several US defense officials told CNN Tuesday. The Turkish government cut off the power to the base after the coup attempt took place Friday, leaving it without a commercial power supply for four days and counting. The Pentagon has been able to fully operate the base through generator power but said it would be difficult to continue indefinitely. The Turks still have not given a clear explanation about why they cut...

The U.S. Defense Department drew up orders for the evacuation of military dependents from the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey as the attempted military coup got underway Friday night but abandoned them as the insurrection quickly collapsed, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said Monday. While not confirming the presence of nuclear weapons at Incirlik, Cook also said steps had been taken to boost security for "special weapons" at the base shared with the Turkish Air Force to "keep everything safe, and we're going to continue to do that. As a matter of policy, we don't discuss strategic assets." Arms control...

At a time when threats against America are growing, the U.S. military is facing a combat readiness crisis that jeopardizes its ability to protect the country. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, discussed this problem recently at The Heritage Foundation. Thornberry explained that this readiness shortfall has occurred as a result of “budget cuts coupled with deployments, at a pace and a number that have not really declined very much.” Thornberry outlined five alarming facts caused by the readiness crisis:

Marine Corps implements force integration plan, graduates first female artillery officers Second Lt. Virginia Brodie points out an enemy position to 2nd Lt. Katherine Boy at the Field Artillery Basic Officers Leadership Course at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, May 12, 2016. Brodie and Boy are the first two female Marine artillery officers to complete the course. Photo By: Lance Cpl. Julien Rodarte The Marine Corps’ first female artillery officers graduated from the Field Artillery Basic Officers Leaders Course at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, recently. In the joint Army and Marine course, the Corps’ newest artillery officers met operationally relevant, gender-neutral military...

In an effort to maintain the new status quo of cutting standards everywhere in the name of equality and "progress", the Marine Corps announced major changes over the Fourth of July holiday weekend regarding how much it will allow service members to weigh, and the biggest shift comes for women: going forward "larger" ladies will be allowed to defend the country while also standards used within the physical fitness test will also be relaxed. In a document released by USMC Fitness division, the new height and weight standard took effect on July 1, 2016 and is relaxing regulations to increase...

The Pentagon announced Thursday that transgender people will be allowed to serve openly in the U.S. military, ending one of the last bans on service in the armed forces. Saying it’s the right thing to do, Defense Secretary Ash Carter laid out a yearlong implementation plan declaring that “Americans who want to serve and can meet our standards should be afforded the opportunity to compete to do so.” .... Under the new policy, by Oct. 1, transgender troops should be able to receive medical care and begin formally changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon’s personnel system. And a year...

What makes the new Chinese capability different is the combination of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capability with long-range precision weapons. “The combination ubiquitous ISR, long-range precision strike weapons take that to the next level,” [Adm. John Richardson, the U.S. Navy’s chief of naval operations], said. “It demands a response.”But the threat is not just contained in the South China Sea, Richardson said. The anti-ship ballistic missile threat is increasingly found around the world and will continue to proliferate. Indeed, the hermit kingdom of North Korea has apparently acquired anti-ship ballistic missile technology. As such, the Navy will have to get...

The U.S. Navy has fallen into a troubling pattern of designing and acquiring new classes of ships that would arguably best be left as single ship or at most in limited numbers. It’s also building several types of new aircraft that fail to meet specifications. The Navy is developing a new class of supercarriers that cannot function properly, and has designed them to launch F-35 fighters that are not ready to fly their missions. This is all happening during an era of out-of-control budgets, which bodes poorly for American sea power and leadership ahead. That the Navy is concentrating larger...

Since the end of World War II, only 10 U.S tank crew members have been killed in warfare. This is an amazing testament to fighting vehicle technology and the money spent to develop and sustain that tactical edge over our enemies. In that same period, the United States has lost some 60,000 soldiers in small arms engagements, an approximate one for one exchange. Few foes on the planet could hope to dominate America in a tank, air or naval battle. Yet every bad actor with an AK-47 takes on U.S. and NATO ground forces in a small arms fight. We...

Operation You Go Girl is destined to fail; failure defined not as a NO GO, or an F, but as the nation’s young women flown home in flag draped Glad Bags when the nation loses the next war(s). When this happens, the Hollywood producers, the feminists and the cultural Marxists who were responsible for forcing the nation’s women to experience the horrors of ground combat will scratch their heads and wonder why reality is so much different from their imaginary ideas of women in combat. Think about this: US defense policy is now being run on a fantasy propagated by...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Air Force's top civilian official said Friday she supports requiring young women to register for a potential military draft as Congress heads toward a divisive debate over whether to erase gender restrictions from Selective Service. Air Force Secretary Deborah James said there's no reason women shouldn't have to sign up just as men between the ages of 18 and 25 do. Women have never before been required to register in the United States and including them in a draft pool has outraged social conservatives....

(The link is not relevant. This is a "vanity" post of content not available on the web.) One of the DoD military commands promotes this garbage to its employees and contractors on the base internal website: The base commander personally promotes the LGBT celebration. Last year the commander invited a transgendered DoD speaker to a local LGBT celebration day event. This is the fourth year of this garbage.

Obama decided to commemorate Memorial Day (after denouncing the US military from Vietnam to Japan) by calling for "good healthcare" for veterans. President Obama called for veterans to receive better healthcare and good-paying jobs during a Memorial Day speech at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. “We have to be there not only when we need them, but when they need us,” Obama told the crowd of survivors who have lost loved ones in battle.

Most Americans have never spent a day in uniform in America of 2016 and that is a problem. The White House social engineers have been able to manipulate the Congress and the American people and have led them to believe that women can serve successfully in the combat arms and special operations because most Americans don’t understand anything about the military. Combine the ignorance of a nation, with the political correctness of Congress and the moral cowardice of the Joint Chiefs and it’s open season to destroy the military if your Valerie Jarrett, Ray Mabus, Ash Carter or Barack Hussein...

Last week an openly gay man, Eric Fanning, became secretary of the Army. Read that sentence again and contemplate what it reveals about how much and how quickly American society has changed. Only five years ago, openly gay people were barred from serving in its armed forces. During Mr. Fanning’s lengthy confirmation process, his sexual orientation was simply not an issue. That is a tribute to those who fought so hard to repeal the ban, and a measure of the nation’s at times uncertain, but as yet unfailing, march toward equality.

A recent competition hosted in part by the U.S. Army and designed to test core tank crew skills saw European crews take the top honors, while crews from the U.S. Army failed to place. The results raise the question of whether the Army—after more than a decade of focusing on guerrilla warfare—has devoted adequate training to address "big war" skills. Held from May 10 to 12 and jointly hosted by the U.S. Army and the German Bundeswehr at the Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany, the the Strong Europe Tank Challenge included challengers from six NATO countries: Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland,...

<p>Navy Secretary Ray Mabus says in a letter that he has the power to name warships as he chooses, in response to a former Marine and congressman who charges he has politicized the process.</p> <p>Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican and House Armed Services Committee member, wrote Mr. Mabus to question the naming of an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer after former Sen. Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.</p>

The U.S. Army announced Tuesday that accused deserter Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's court-martial is delayed until Feb. 6, 2017. This seven-month delay comes as the respective legal counsels filed their motions Tuesday morning at Fort Bragg, N.C. His court-martial had been scheduled for Aug. 8. Army Judge Col. Jeffery Nance presided over the 35-minute hearing, discussing dates and specific legal motions with attorneys. Charges against Bergdahl include desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. Stars and Stripes reported the delay gives attorneys time to pore through classified documents that may contain evidence.

Buckling under conservative pressure, the Republican-led House Rules Committee pulled a legislative sleight of hand and stripped a provision from the annual defense policy bill that would have required women between the ages of 18 and 25 to sign up for a military draft. The committee's chairman, Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, said in a statement Tuesday the action was taken to prevent what he called a "reckless policy" from moving forward without closer study of its impact. "I have the utmost respect and deepest appreciation for the young women who bravely volunteer to serve our country, but I am adamantly...