Free Republic

Rep. Ike Skelton (D., Mo.), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is known for his genial disposition. But that doesn’t mean he can’t fire off an angry missive now and then. On Oct. 7, Skelton sent a sharply worded letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, chastising the secretary for failing to provide documents to justify the Pentagon’s decision to shut the Virginia-based Joint Forces Command. Gates wants to shut the command as part of a cost-savings drive, but lawmakers – worried about constituent jobs – have rallied to prevent the closure. Skelton said committee members were “deeply...

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ decision to close the Joint Forces Command has the backing of its former and incoming commanders and is likely to be approved by President Barack Obama before Sept. 1, according to a memo widely circulated to Hampton Roads elected officials Friday. If true, that means local officials’ efforts to halt the planned closure face very long odds. .... “Even more disturbing,” the memo says, is that Gates is considering a move to “mothball” the Navy’s Norfolk-based Second Fleet.

HAMPTON, Va., April 4, 2006 – The U.S. military and private sector defense industry must work together to win the Long War against terrorism, the general who serves as commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command and as NATO's supreme allied commander for transformation said here today. "The things we're doing with you in cooperative research and development agreements is indicative of the importance we place on this relationship, so that we can build the kinds of equipment our troops need to fight and win the war we're fighting," Air Force Gen. Lance L. Smith told a defense industry audience at...

SUFFOLK, Va., March 24, 2006 – Can history be wrong? Not exactly, but history can be distorted if data is provided by only one side's perspective. U.S. Joint Forces Command has released an unclassified historical report of military operations conducted in Iraq. The twist is that this historical report reflects the Iraqi civilian and military leadership's perspective of events. "Opinions are not facts; one data point is not a trend, and a group of data points from a single perspective isn't going to convince anyone," said Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Cucolo, commander of JFCOM's Joint Center for Operational Analysis. So...

NORFOLK, Va., March 23, 2006 – The concept of a standing joint force headquarters core element is proving its value in Iraq and elsewhere around the world, senior officers at U.S. Joint Forces Command said. The standing joint force headquarters seemed revolutionary to many when Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld approved it five years ago. Since then, officials said, the concept has contributed to the military's speed in responding to disasters along the U.S. Gulf Coast and in Pakistan, and the nearly transparent transfer of authority from one Army corps to another in Multinational Force Iraq. The headquarters core elements...

Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) is preparing a report for Pentagon leaders on lessons learned from Operation Iraqi Freedom in joint warfighting at the operational level, with results expected this summer, according to a top admiral. "We have about 30 people in Qatar...collecting information and lessons learned on things the services at the joint level need to fix," Adm. Edmund Giambastiani, JFCOM commander, yesterday told reporters attending a Defense Writers' Group breakfast in Washington, D.C. "I will brief [Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Air Force Gen. Richard Myers and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld] in mid-June...we will provide [Rumsfeld and Myers] some...