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After a century of green uniforms, the last one is being retired from the U.S. Army. The new "Class A" uniform, as of August 21st, 2008, will be the current blue "Dress Uniform.". By 2010, troops graduating from basic training will be issued the "dress blues" as their "Class A" uniform. The "Class B" uniform will be the dress blue trousers and a white shirt with decorations (ribbons, combat badge and so on). For both enlisted and officers, rank will be worn on epaulets. The new uniform "system" is similar to the one the U.S. Marine Corps has been wearing...

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing from World War II, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors. He is 2nd Lt. Howard C. Enoch Jr., US Army Air Forces, of Marion, KY. He will be buried on September 22 in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. Representatives from the Army met with Enoch's next-of-kin to explain the recovery and identification process and to coordinate internment with military honors on behalf of the Secretary of the Army. On March 19,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran's attempt to launch a dummy satellite into orbit was a "dramatic failure" that fell far short of the country's assertions of success, a U.S. official said on Tuesday

TEHRAN, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- A test in Iran of a rocket able to carry a satellite into orbit was likely a failure, Pentagon officials said Monday. A senior U.S. defense official told CNN while Iranian officials claimed the launch of their country's first satellite carrier was a success this weekend, Pentagon officials opposed such a claim. "The Iranians did not successfully launch the rocket," the unidentified official said of Saturday's launch.

Study says military justice lacks full transparency By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes European edition, Sunday, August 17, 2008 The full report ... For the full report on public access to military court proceedings, go to http://www.rcfp.org/militarydockets ARLINGTON, Va. — The military justice system is "not nearly as transparent as it should be" according to journalism professor Barbara Fought. Fought is the director of the Tully Free Speech Center at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Journalism, which conducted a recent study along with the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the press on media access to military court...

NEW YORK The Pentagon would be required to grant journalists access to ceremonies honoring fallen military personnel, under a bill recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation is significant because it would, for the first time since Vietnam, let photojournalists capture the powerful images of flag-draped caskets arriving on American soil during wartime. This week the bill won the endorsement of the National Press Photographers Association. The Fallen Hero Commemoration Act, or H.R. 6662, was introduced July 30 by Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-N.C.), a member of the House Committee on Armed Services. The bill states: "The...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2008 – Listeners who log on to listen to Stardust Radio’s “Talking with Heroes” program on Aug. 17 will learn how they can honor veterans past and present and commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The show’s host, Bob Calvert, will welcome Roxie Merritt, spokeswoman for the Defense Department’s America Supports You program and director of New Media and Community Relations for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. Merritt’s community relations staff is responsible for organizing this year’s fourth annual National America Supports You Freedom Walk here while hundreds of others...

US defence chief Robert Gates has said he sees no prospect of using US military force in Georgia, following its week-long conflict with Russia. But he warned that US-Russia relations could be adversely affected for years as a result of Moscow's actions. (snip) Despite concerns that Moscow may not be keen quickly to leave Georgian territory, Mr Gates said the Russians did seem to be pulling back. "They appear to be withdrawing their forces back towards Abkhazia and to the zone of conflict... towards South Ossetia," he said.

The Air Force on Monday suspended all efforts related to development of a program to become the dominant service in cyberspace, according to knowledgeable sources. Top Air Force officials put a halt to all activities related to the establishment of the Cyber Command, a provisional unit that is currently part of the 8th Air Force at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, sources told Nextgov. An internal Air Force e-mail obtained by Nextgov said, “Transfers of manpower and resources, including activation and reassignment of units, shall be halted.” Establishment of the Cyber Command will be delayed until new senior Air...

President Bush spoke to Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili this morning and discussed the situation in that country with his national security team at the White House. Afterwards, the President reinforced the United States’ solidarity with the Georgian people in a statement he delivered from the White House Rose Garden. (Transcript) The United States of America stands with the democratically elected government of Georgia. We insist that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected … We expect Russia to meet its commitment to cease all military activities in Georgia. And we expect all Russian forces that entered Georgia in...

As a House Armed Services subcommittee surely will discuss this afternoon, Pentagon officials evidently trust military inductees with felony rap sheets more than they do law-abiding gay GIs. Having relaxed academic, age, and weight restrictions to achieve recruitment goals, the Defense Department has granted “moral waivers” to criminal convicts. Simultaneously, it uses the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy to jettison gays in uniform, usually for merely disclosing their sexuality. This policy deserves a dishonorable discharge. Between 2006 and 2007, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently revealed, convicted felons accepted by the Marine Corps rose 68 percent, from 208...

President George W. Bush announced the dispatch of a U.S. military aircraft carrying medical supplies to the Georgian capital of Tblisi on Wednesday morning, warning Russia that he expected it to be allowed to deliver its aid by air and sea. The statement, with its echoes of the 1961 Berlin airlift, upped tensions between the two former Cold War adversaries. The day after Russia agreed to a French-brokered cease-fire, Russian troops followed by irregular fighters pushed deep into Georgia, aiming to seize the strategic city of Gori and cutting the main highway that crosses the country to the capital Tbilisi....

August 08, 2008, 7:00 a.m. Testing GatesTanker re-bid. By Merrill Cook A recent report by the independent Government Accountability Office (GAO) devastatingly critiques one of the Pentagon’s critical procurement processes. The July 2008 report demonstrates that the government botched contracts for an urgently needed new generation of aerial refueling tankers not just once, but twice. With years of delay and billions in budget overruns in many of the Department of Defense’s top programs, many observers are asking just how deep the Pentagon’s procurement problems run. They want to know what the Pentagon’s new chief, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, will...

US military trainers based in Georgia are not involved in the hostilities between Russian and Georgian forces in breakaway South Ossetia, US military officials said Friday. "They are not involved in any way in this conflict between the Russian military and the Georgian military," said Lieutenant Colonel John Dorrian, a spokesman for the US European Command. "We have upwards of 100 military trainers who are in Georgia now. We've been able to account for all of them," he told AFP. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said there were no plans to redeploy the estimated 130 US troops and civilian contractors, who...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A congresswoman said Thursday that her "jaw dropped" when military doctors told her that four in 10 women at a veterans hospital reported being sexually assaulted while in the military. Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach said she was raped by a fellow Marine. A Marine has been charged in her death. A government report indicates that the numbers could be even higher. Rep. Jane Harman, D-California, spoke before a House panel investigating the way the military handles reports of sexual assault. She said she recently visited a Veterans Affairs hospital in the Los Angeles area, where women told...

The Pentagon plans to take extra capabilities - including added fuel offload capacity - into account as it scores revised proposals from Boeing and Northrop Grumman/EADS that could lead to $35 billion in work replacing aging KC-135 tankers. The Defense Department will consider "value over threshold" when reviewing the revised offers, said Shay Assad, director of defense procurement and acquisitions policy, during an Aug. 6 briefing at the Pentagon. This could put Boeing's 767-200LRF-based proposal at a disadvantage as its cargo, passenger and fuel offload abilities are hampered by its size compared to the larger Airbus A330-200 design proposed by...

Deadline to submit bid is just two months away WASHINGTON – The Pentagon on Wednesday requested new bids on a $35 billion contract for aerial refueling tankers, but Boeing supporters on Capitol Hill complained that the revised criteria seem to favor the rival European airplane. [...] “It’s obviously stacked against Boeing,” said Loren Thompson, an analyst with the Lexington Institute, a Virginia-based think tank that focuses on national security and defense issues. “It appears to favor a larger aircraft in a way the original did not. But the timeline doesn’t give Boeing an opportunity to prepare a bid for a...

Where to Cut Defense by: Malcolm A. Kline, August 06, 2008 There may actually be a part of the Pentagon’s budget that advocates of a strong defense want to cut. Naturally, it has precious little to do with taking up arms to defend America and a lot to do with feathering the already plush nests of universities. “The DoD has launched a university-based social science initiative to support basic research in topic areas of importance to current and future U.S. national security,” a Defense Department release of July 16 reads. “The initiative, called Minerva, will support multi- and interdisciplinary and...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5, 2008 – A California troop-support group is paying tribute to servicemembers who died while serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom with a mobile memorial. The Fueled by the Fallen Memorial Race Car Team -- a trio of cars bearing the names of Marines who died in Iraq -- makes appearances around the country to raise awareness of the sacrifices made in defense of the United States. Fueled by the Fallen also strives to provide support for the families of fallen heroes and to support and raise awareness for those who are afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder, Ken...

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that a U.S. serviceman, missing from the Vietnam War, has been identified. He is Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Manuel R. Denton, U.S. Navy, of Kerrville, Texas. He will be buried as part of a group on Thursday in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. On Oct. 8, 1963, Denton was one of six men who crewed a UH-34D Choctaw helicopter that was on a search-and-rescue mission. While over Quang Nam Province, Vietnam, the helicopter came under intense enemy ground fire and crashed. There were no survivors. Over the next several...

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that a U.S. serviceman, missing from the Vietnam War, has been identified. He is Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Manuel R. Denton, U.S. Navy, of Kerrville, Texas. He will be buried as part of a group on Thursday in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. On Oct. 8, 1963, Denton was one of six men who crewed a UH-34D Choctaw helicopter that was on a search-and-rescue mission. While over Quang Nam Province, Vietnam, the helicopter came under intense enemy ground fire and crashed. There were no survivors. Over the next several...

Gary McKinnon, the British hacker who broke into military computers looking for evidence of UFOs in the "biggest military hack of all time," did so using his home computer and a 56k modem. I think we just lost our rights to complain about not having Japan-fast broadband. Using his own computer at home in London, McKinnon hacked into 97 computers belonging to and used by the U.S. government between February 2001 and March 2002.McKinnon is accused of causing the entire U.S. Army's Military District of Washington network of more than 2,000 computers to be shut down for 24 hours.Using...

The U.S. Department of Defense approved up to $10.7 billion in arms sales for Iraq over the past week, including a $2.16 billion sale of M1A1 Abrams tanks built by General Dynamics Corp. The proposed tank sale would also include some equipment built by Honeywell International Inc and General Motors Corp, the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which oversees foreign arms sales, said in a notice to Congress dated July 31 but posted on its website on Friday. Lawmakers have 30 days to block the sales from the day they are notified, but such action is rare since big weapons...

After meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, came before the microphones... SNIP But the Pentagon said that wasn't true, that Obama was more than welcome to come, it was just that he couldn't bring the media or campaign staff. So here's what Obama said about it all: "The staff was working this so I don’t know each and every detail but here is what I understand happened," Obama said. "We had scheduled to go, we had no problem at all in leaving, we always leave press and staff off -- that is why we...

Only two facts matter in this little episode. First, Obama is a sitting U.S. Senator and can visit the troops any time he wants. Second, the only restriction on visiting the troops was that he could not bring reporters. Most importantly, it makes no difference what you call the trip. "Senator Obama had hoped to and had every intention of visiting our troops to express his appreciation and gratitude for their service to our country," retired Air Force Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration, an Obama adviser, said in a statement. "We learned from the Pentagon [Wednesday] night that the visit...

OBAMA LVI: THE OBAMESSIAH, MEDIA BIAS, AND THE PENTAGON Posted by Gene on Saturday, July 26, 2008 2:05:54 AM Today is 3-For-One-Day as we combine 3 Obama articles, each of which in its own way exposes the Obama cult. For an excellent bit of irreverent satire on the Obamessiah from the U.K., this piece is not to be missed: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article4392846.ece. (Ecce homo?) Nor is this scathing expose’ on media bias which appeared in Investor’s Business Daily, http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=301702713742569. (Guess which political party benefits most when lib “journalists” open their own wallets instead of just favoring candidates who want to pick yours.)...

WASHINGTON, July 25, 2008 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today called it a “sacred responsibility” to care for the generation of American military children affected by the deployment, and in some cases the death, of a servicemember parent. “The empty seat at the dinner table night after night is a constant reminder of a child’s worry for his or her parent’s safety,” Gates said, according to his prepared remarks. “And there is also the grief and the heartbreak when a loved one is injured or killed -- a grim reality of war.” Roughly 43 percent of U.S. active-duty,...

Robert Gibbs, a senior communications adviser to the Obama campaign, briefed reporters on the planne today. I just received this transcript as I am in London, having leap-frogged ahead due to requirements for live shots here. This is the full transcript about the Obama camp’s perspective on the back-and-forth with the Pentagon about the canceled visit to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. {Read Transcript at the Link)

Chief Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell confirmed to Politico that Department of Defense officials cautioned Barack Obama's campaign that his planned visit to wounded American troops in Germany could not be political in nature and that he would be barred from bringing along campaign staff and reporters. He also said that Cindy McCain recently requested to visit sailors aboard the U.S.N.S. Comfort and was denied. "Sen. Obama is welcome to visit Landstuhl or any military hospital in his official capacity as a United States senator," Morrell said in a brief interview. "But there is a DoD policy which governs campaigning and...

This morning on Fox & Friends, the Doocy, Carlson, Kilmeade troika pulled a quote from an exchange between Sen. Barack Obama and correspondent Major Garrett in which Obama questioned whether Pres. Bush had something to do with the fact that FNC seemed to be on most Armed Forces Click "continued" to see the clip...

"And then we sat down with [Barack Obama] to talk about what has become an open disagreement between military commanders here and Obama, over his plan to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq on a 16-month timetable." -- Terry Moran Barack Obama ABC Interview July 21, 2008 ABC's Terry Moran: "And then we sat down with [Barack Obama] to talk about what has become an open disagreement between military commanders here and Obama, over his plan to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq on a 16-month timetable. Did General Petraeus talk about military concerns about your timetable?" Barack...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Rep. Roy Blunt, the House Republican whip, on July 8 introduced a resolution demanding that the Defense Department better enable U.S. military personnel overseas to vote in the November elections. That act was followed by silence. Democrats normally leap on an opportunity to find fault with the Bush Pentagon. But not a single Democrat joined Blunt as a co-sponsor, and an all-Republican proposal cannot pass in the Democratic-controlled House. Analysis by the federal Election Assistance Commission, rejecting inflated Defense Department voting claims, estimated overseas and absentee military voting for the 2006 midterm elections at a disgracefully low...

WASHINGTON, July 23, 2008 – The surge in Iraq has been a success by any measure, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said during a news conference today. Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell holds a press briefing on July 23, 2008, to update reporters on the latest news and events within the Department of Defense. Defense Dept. photo by R. D. Ward  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The surge has allowed Iraq to make improvements from security, political and economic standpoints, Morrell said. The last of the five surge brigade combat teams recently left Iraq. The policy, announced by...

The "surge" in Iraq sure appears to have worked.  There are some who say President Bush should have listened to voices such as Senator John McCain and then Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki in the first place, rather than taking the foolish advice of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other "neo-con" hardliners. But before we give all the credit to the "more boots on the ground" stompers and all the blame to Rumsfeld and the neo-cons, let's take a second look at the surge. To set the stage, let's look at the results to date.  (In the...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. troop "surge" in Iraq that President George W. Bush ordered last year has ended after the last of five additional combat brigades left the country, a U.S. military spokesman said on Tuesday. The remaining troops from that brigade departed over the weekend, leaving just under 147,000 American soldiers in Iraq, the spokesman said. "The final elements of the surge brigade have now left, getting out a few days ahead of schedule," he said. The U.S. military had 20 combat brigades in Iraq at its peak in 2007, with troop levels around 160,000-170,000.

What do you get when you combine U.S. militarism, fantasies of domination and an administration that views the internet as a hot-bed of “evil-doers” and “subversives”? Cyber Command, of course! Only this scheme has the potential of inflicting massive suffering on civilian populations across the planet. Currently situated at the secretive Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, Air Force Cyber Command, the newest Pentagon command since the 1990s, is dedicated to the notion that the “next war” will be fought in the electromagnetic spectrum, one that envisions computers as “network-centric” weapons. With a unified organizational structure and a $2 billion...

I kept thinking back to all those antimilitary movies I’d seen and to left-wing journals like the New York Times, which consistently highlight military abuses and failures while obscuring and downplaying military heroism and advances. The servicemen I was training with were clearly smart, expert, and committed to excellence in the defense of their country. They also seemed a lot more mentally stable than most of the screenwriters, journalists, and academics I know, though that’s not saying much. Yet Hollywood and our left-wing media, as well as our antimilitary professoriate, can be quite convincing when, say, they portray an isolated...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Two top Pentagon officials said Wednesday that they expect to be able to recommend troops cuts in Iraq this fall and will try to increase troops in Afghanistan. Adm. Mike Mullen, right, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates speak at the Pentagon on Wednesday. The remarks came after U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday in the deadliest firefight in Afghanistan in recent years. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said he had ruled out extending the deployment of U.S. forces in Afghanistan or making tours longer than 15 months, leaving few options other than shifting troops who were destined for...

"A Defense Department DNA identification lab has helped bring to a close a near-century-old mystery, laying to rest a search for the remains of two children executed alongside the rest of the family of Russia’s last czar." "Now, the lab has again helped the Russian government by identifying the remains of those two children, found last year in a shallow grave about 70 feet from the larger gravesite."

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Department of Defense confirmed Friday that the remains of two U.S. soldiers captured in an ambush south of Baghdad more than a year ago were found this week. A tip from an informant led the military Wednesday to the bodies of Sgt. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Michigan, according to Jimenez' father, quoting officers who informed him of the discoveries. Sgt. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Michigan "The Armed Forces Medical Examiner positively identified human remains...

WASHINGTON, July 10, 2008 – The Senate has confirmed Army Gen. David H. Petraeus as commander of U.S. Central Command and Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno to receive his fourth star and succeed Petraeus as commander of Multinational Force Iraq. The full Senate confirmed Petraeus by a vote of 95-2 and Odierno by a 96-1 margin. Odierno is the Army’s 3rd Corps commander and served as commander of Multinational Corps Iraq for 14 months. The changes put Petraeus -- who implemented the U.S. surge into Iraq -- in charge of U.S. military forces in a dangerous part of the...

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday that the Pentagon will hold a new, fast-tracked competition to replace the Air Force's aging fleet of aerial refueling tankers, a move that overturns the previous award of the contract to Northrop Grumman. The decision follows criticism of the selection process by the Government Accountability Office and underscores the sharp divisions over the contract. The deal to replace the Air Force's entire fleet could be worth up to $100 billion over the next two decades. Gates said he expects the Pentagon to choose a new winner by the end of the year. On...

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced Wednesday that Northrop Grumman and Boeing will have to submit revised proposals for the Air Force’s highly contested aerial refueling tanker program. The Pentagon chief's decision comes after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) upheld Boeing's protest of the Air Force's decision to award the contract to Northrop Grumman and EADS North America, the parent company of Boeing rival Airbus. “I have concluded that the contract cannot be awarded,” Gates said at a Pentagon news conference. Northrop Grumman won the heated competition on Feb. 29, but is currently under a stop-work order. The decision means...

The Department of Defense announced today the death of four Marines who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Sgt. Michael Toussiant-Hyle Washington, 20, of Tacoma, Wash. Lance Cpl. Layton Bradly Crass, 22, of Richmond, In. Pfc. Dawid Pietrek, 24, of Bensenville, Ill. Pfc. Michael Robert Patton, 19, of Fenton, Mo. All four Marines died June 14 while supporting combat operations in Farah Province, Afghanistan. They were assigned to 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif. Requesting prayer for the family, friends, and loved ones of Sgt. Michael Toussiant-Hyle Washington, 20, of Tacoma, Wash. Requesting...

U.S. military planners are working on how to deal with another round of major cutbacks, in terms of budgets and manpower. This is because one of the major candidates for Commander-in-Chief (president of the United States), Barak Obama, has a video in circulation, of a short speech he gave earlier this year, about how he planned on handling the Department of Defense. His major points were; "I'm the only major candidate who opposed this war from the beginning; and as president, I will end it. "Second, I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending. I will cut...

WASHINGTON, July 2, 2008 – Defense Department officials are very concerned about the situation in Afghanistan, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here today. “Violence is up significantly from a year ago,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said during a Pentagon news conference. For the second month in a row, more coalition servicemembers died in Afghanistan than died in Iraq. Given the country’s harsh winters and unforgiving terrain, summer historically is the fighting season in Afghanistan, but the Taliban have become more organized and efficient, Mullen said. But part of the increase in violence is because there are...

AMERICANS WHO HAVE GIVEN THEIR LIVES IN SERVICE TO OUR COUNTRY The Department of Defense announced the death of these Americans who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.Requesting prayer for the family, friends, and loved ones of Pfc. Howard A. Jones, Jr., 35, of ChicagoPfc. Howard A. Jones, Jr., 35, of Chicago, died May 18 in Chicago from injuries sustained when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver while on leave from the Iraq theater of operations. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan. Requesting prayer for the...

Today it was announced that in keeping with honoring the wounded and ill of our Armed Forces, the Silver Star Families of America will begin issuing certificates of appreciation to military medical personnel.

The US Navy-Marine Corps Court of Appeals has ruled that the CBS television news magazine 60 Minutes must turn over outtakes from its interview with Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich in which he revealed what happened at the so-called “Haditha Massacre” in Iraq more than three years ago. The three-judge appellate panel Friday directed Marine Corps military judge Lt. Col. Jeffrey G. Meeks to “conduct additional fact-finding” including an “in camera review” of the outtakes to determine whether Wuterich revealed any information the government needs to bolster its prosecution against the Marine infantryman. The ruling of the military judge...

WASHINGTON: The American military is set to promote a woman to the rank of four-star general for the first time. Lieutenant General Ann Dunwoody, a logistics specialist with 33 years of military service, has been nominated to receive a fourth star and take charge of the US Army's Materiel Command. “I am very honoured, but also very humbled, today with this announcement,” General Dunwoody said. “I grew up in a family that didn't know what glass ceilings were. This nomination only reaffirms what I have known to be true about the military throughout my career ... that the doors continue...