Free Republic

Sources inside Congressman Steve Russell’s (R., OK) office informed US Defense Watch this week that the Congressman had received no new information from the US Army concerning his request for the records of the three female Ranger School graduates, Captain Griest, First Lieutenant Haver and Major Jaster, the so-called Mommy Ranger. Seven months later and the US Army and the Pentagon are still refusing to turn over the Ranger School records of the three female graduates. For those who haven’t followed the story, here’s a summary of the events leading up to the present time. Captain Kristen Griest and First...

The host of HBO’s ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’ criticized the size of our military and unloaded on his favorite punching bag, Donald Trump. Bill Maher, the unapologetically outspoken political satirist, began his program Real Time Friday night by assessing the recent New York presidential primaries. The HBO host was, naturally, a bit crestfallen that his preferred candidate, Bernie Sanders, lost out to by 16 points to Hillary Clinton—and that his nemesis, Donald Trump, won his home state handily. “The conventional wisdom is that it’s just Hillary and Trump. Those are our two choices,” said Maher during his monologue. “They...

With the ending of the Cold War the United States and Russia reduced their nuclear weapons arsenals. Both sides reduced development of newer weapons and cleaned up areas where the warheads were built and developed. However, ambitious countries have stepped up their nuclear weapons and delivery systems. They include North Korea, Iran and especially China. During a time when Obama is further downsizing the American arsenal, China is participating in a new arms race. This week China’s Defense Ministry confirmed that it test-fired its newest long-range missile into the South China sea. This test was unique because the missile carried...

Overlooked by most in Obama's relentless efforts to "remake" America has been his ongoing and dangerous transformation of our military. ...What I want to speak to is his administration's systematic destruction of the 200+ year-old culture of the U.S. military. This "multicultural makeover," happening right before our eyes, threatens to undermine the very fabric of our armed forces. The forced acceptance of open homosexuality and the burgeoning hostility toward Christianity; the gratuitous degradation of our troops (e.g., forcing ROTC cadets to march in red high heels to experience what it's like to be a woman; making male soldiers wear simulated...

One of the best parts about writing articles is watching the comments drift in, some well-intentioned and full of good cheer, others laced with arsenic from irate readers. A few comments this week and comments by a sergeant in the Rangers and an active duty buddy of mine, who’s probably the last guy in the Army with a 3rd Armored Division combat patch have prompted me to write this piece. First the naysayers: What do you know? You served in the Army a long time ago. You were in that Desert Storm War. What makes you qualified to judge the...

Adolf Hitler once said, “Give me five years and you won’t recognize Germany anymore.” Well, we’ve given Barack Hussein Obama seven years and you can’t recognize the US Army anymore. The Obama Administration is literally carpet bombing the military on a daily basis with directives, memos, policies and doctrine that if they weren’t actually happening would be considered to be something out of a Kafkaesque, Gloria Steinem nightmare. Today, I examined a Memorandum for Record, dated September 20, 2015 and signed by the former Secretary of the Army, John McHugh. You remember Secretary McHugh, he’s the guy who dodged and...

Although 3D printing is a relatively new technology within the military-industrial complex, it has impacted Israel’s aerospace developments in a great number of ways. Last year, the Israeli military had 3D printed their own drone components, and even started a consortium with the government to focus on 3D printing with titanium. Now, the Israeli Air Force’s Aerial Maintenance Unit (AMU) is utilizing 3D printing technology to help repair their aged and worn down fleet of F-15 fighter jets, which were acquired by the IAF in 1980, and have been used in various missions ever since. The F-15 aircraft has provided...

This was originally written for Deadspin's Blood Week, but shit happens and we're running it now. A 20-pound jug of homemade explosives will take off one or both legs somewhere between the knee and hip, perhaps breaking the pelvis and shattering vertebrae as the shockwave travels up through the skeleton. After our first Marine was wounded this way—let's call him Patient Zero—he was stabilized by his squad's hospital corpsman and flown to the trauma center, a British base that abuts Camp Leatherneck, the hub for Marine operations in southwest Afghanistan. At the time I was running a forward combat aid...

The United States of America is in mortal jeopardy and most Americans, tucked away in their beds tonight don’t even understand why or who is responsible for their peril. Those responsible are not from North Korea, China, Iran, Russia or ISIS. They are Department of Defense bureaucrats, members of Congress and senior leaders in the US military. The US military is committing suicide. We are in the first stages of beginning a process that is going to decimate the speed, lethality and combat power of the Marines and the US Army combat arms and special operations. The US military is...

The crash of a huge C-130J cargo plane that killed 14 people in Afghanistan in October is being blamed on the misuse of a night-vision goggles case, according to a U.S. Air Force investigation report. The flight crashed 28 seconds after takeoff from Jalalabad Airport near the Afghan-Pakistani border on October 2 as it was heading to Bagram Airfield. Initially, the Taliban said Islamist fighters had downed the four-engine plane, but U.S. military officials immediately shed doubt on those claims. The dead included the pilot, co-pilot, two loadmasters, two security team members and five contractors as passengers. Three Afghan guards...

A study released by Security Scorecard found that all levels of government had a worse record of cyber security than major business firms. In measures of vulnerability to malware and security breaches, federal, state, and local governments ranked at the bottom. Education, telecommunications and pharmaceutical industries were almost as bad. Information services, construction, food and technology were the best. Of the 600 government entities tracked, NASA performed the worst. Other low-performing government organizations included the U.S. Department of State. This latter revelation was jumped on by the Hillary Clinton for President campaign as "a total vindication of Secretary Clinton's decision...

As Libya wrangles over who is going to control its oil, the Islamic State is closing in, using sporadic attacks designed to rattle nerves and force oil-field evacuations or worker strikes out of fear. In recent months, ISIS has deployed a large number of fighters at several oil fields, and has been planning attacks on foreign workers as well as oil wells. In February 2015, one of the ISIS-inspired attacks on the Mabruk field killed nearly 12 people including four foreign nationals. In early January, ISIS launched an attack on the Es-Sidra and Ras Lanuf oil export terminals in the...

[Reuters pic]As I myself posted here in 2009, Barack Obama from the start projected a dangerous weakness in foreign policy, as I saw a future Putin proclaiming 'Yes We Can' invade Ukraine... and what are you going to do about it? Sorry to say that's all come to be, as the hapless, largely abandoned Ukrainians -and their lukewarm sponsors in the West- have been repeatedly outmaneuvered by Vladimir Putin, both militarily and diplomatically. Sanctions have indeed hurt the Russian economy, yet nobody is better than the Kremlin at squeezing the plebes' living standards in the name of national-imperialist pride,...

The Marines are facing their greatest fight; the battle to implement the lunatic gender neutral policies ordered by the Secretary of Defense and his willing executioner, Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus. There is no doubt that Ray Mabus is going down in history as the worst Secretary of Navy in the long annals of the Marine Corps. Mabus is a disaster for the Marine Corps; a ready-made, machine fabricated, glow in the dark nightmare. Ray Mabus is a politically correct cluster; one each, olive drab. Ray Mabus is a leftist Visigoth, a man who’s breaking the premier fighting force...

After I published the previous post suggesting the Benghazi massacre demonstrated Hillary Clinton’s incompetence I received an email asking about the possibility that Clinton or someone intended for Ambassador Chris Stevens or another American to be murdered. I’m still inclined to believe the best explanation is incompetence, but I recognize the incident could have involved premeditated murder.

This week the USS Donald Cook was harassed by a pair of Russian Sukhoi Su-24 Fencers while on patrol in international waters of the Black Sea. The aircraft flew past the USS Cook a total of 20 times. They approached the ship in simulated attack positions, approaching within 1,000 meters at an altitude of only 30 meters. The planes were joined by a Russian military helicopter that took pictures of the Donald Cook after the flybys. At the time the Cook was near Kaliningrad, a Russian territory between Lithuania and Poland. The Ship had left Poland and was sailing out...

The US Navy has taken three torpedoes to its bow and is going down. These are trying times for the US Navy. It seems that every two weeks or so there is some crisis engulfing the once proud, competent and steadfast organization that used to be a bedrock of the nation’s defense. The performance and conduct of the US Navy lately has seemed like something emanating from a Third World, Banana Republic coastal defense force; heavy on medals and light on brains, skills and tenacious fighting spirit. Two days ago the USS Donald Cook was taunted and embarrassed by Russian...

The thing that most bothers me about Hillary Clinton’s comments about Benghazi is that she doesn’t seem to understand why people are concerned about her mishandling of the Benghazi situation. She doesn’t seem to understand that her mishandling of the situation allowed al Qaeda to win a major victory at Benghazi by killing the top U.S. official in Libya..... Clinton foolishly decided to make it as easy as possible for al Qaeda to kill Ambassador Chris Stevens. Her handling of the situation would have made more sense if she had wanted him to die.

A Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hiring manager said in a sworn deposition “thank God” they don’t give veterans hiring preference for well-paying jobs. The statement came when a VA dentistry chief was asked if being a veteran helps someone get a dentist job in the agency. His response was “not really. And thank God,” The Daily Caller News Foundation recently discovered in a court filing. Being a scout master in the Boy Scouts would do more to help someone get a top job at the VA than serving in the armed forced, Dr. Gonzalo Solis Sanchez of the VA...

Ray Mabus again accused of politicizing process Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus is under fire for bending service rules in order to name the next Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer after a retired Democratic politician. Mabus, who has previously been accused of politicizing the ship-naming process, announced Monday that the destroyer will be named after Carl Levin, a former Democratic U.S. senator from Michigan who is still alive and did not serve in the U.S. military. Mabus disregarded Navy ship-naming rules stipulating that destroyers should be named for deceased members of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, including...