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DARPA's Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) program conducted the first successful live-fire tests demonstrating in-flight guidance of .50-caliber bullets in the spring of 2014. This video shows EXACTO rounds maneuvering in flight to hit targets that are offset from where the sniper rifle is initially aimed. EXACTO's specially designed ammunition and real-time optical guidance system help track and direct projectiles to their targets by compensating for weather, wind, target movement and other factors that could impede successful aim. The EXACTO program is developing new approaches and advanced capabilities to improve the range and accuracy of sniper systems beyond the current...

The rifle that today's infantry uses is little changed since the 1960s—and it is badly flawed. Military lives depend on these cheap composites of metal and plastic. So why can't the richest country in the world give its soldiers better ones? One afternoon just a month and a half after the Battle of Gettysburg, Christopher Spencer, the creator of a seven-shot repeating rifle, walked Abraham Lincoln out to a grassy field near where the Washington Monument now stands in order to demonstrate the amazing potential of his new gun. Lincoln had heard about the mystical powers of repeating rifles at...

During World War II it became the custom for families of servicemen to display stars in their windows, honoring the mothers, especially, as Blue Star Mothers — or Gold Star Mothers if their sons were killed in battle. If the custom had continued in the next decade, a Haviland family would have had a small constellation in their window. Thankfully, the stars would have all been blue. If Gertrude Konkel worried for the safety of her five sons in uniform, she did so quietly. Wayne Konkel, Pratt, the youngest of the five, said his mother didn’t listen to the news...

The Willys MB – better known as the original jeep – was a game-changer during World War II. Small, agile, versatile and durable, jeeps were easy to deploy, easy to operate and easy to maintain, making them perhaps the Allies’ most important battlefield equipment. More than 70 years later, US aircraft maker and defence supplier Boeing has revisited the original jeep’s winning formula in a stocky little bruiser of a car called the Phantom Badger.

A Muslim group is suing the Navy on behalf of a man who says he was discriminated against because of his beard. The former Navy enlisted man alleges that he requested to keep his beard for religious reasons and was later made fun of because of it. He also claims he was rejected for a promotion due to his beard. …

Liberal novelist Stephen King regrets asserting that if you don't learn how to read, you'll end up in "the Army, Iraq." The comment, widely seen as a shot at the military, was first publicized six years ago on NewsBusters. In an interview with the Huffington Post, King was asked if he stood by the remarks. The author lamented, "No. That was just a case of misspeaking and also having one of those brain cramps that you realize that you're no longer living in the world that you grew up in...If I could take one remark back, that would be the...

The strange, forgotten World War II mission that involved Americans and Nazis cooperating to save a rare breed of prize horses from extinction. It was late April 1945 when the Americans first heard about the white horses. It happened near the Czech-German border, about 90 miles east of Nuremberg. Capt. Ferdinand P. Sperl, an officer with IPW (Interrogation Prisoners of War) 10, was examining a cache of items he’d just confiscated from a Nazi colonel known only as “Walter H.” They were typical intelligence documents: memos, maps, charts. But something in the colonel’s personal attaché case caught Sperl's eye: photos...

A Christmas dedication to our men and women in uniform. A Soldier's Silent Night was originally titled 'Merry Christmas My Friend' and written by Lance Corporal James M. Schmidt in 1987.

Each year, the Commandant issued a special Christmas message to be read to Marines all over the globe. Below is the Commandant's message from 1944. The Commandant's Christmas 1944 Message Among the many important things which men sacrifice in the armed forces is Christmas at home. It is one of the most difficult to give up. The American family Christmas is one of the great joys of life. At the same time, it is one of the real, tangible things for which we fight. Its preservation is one of the essential reasons for our being at war. Every Marine who...

[Christmas, a family, and soldiers in the Ardennes forests in December 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge.]

Hitler’s Last Christmas The holiday season in Germany is traditionally celebrated on three days — Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and December 26th. Christmas 1944 was the sixth Christmas that Hitler had spent in the toils of the titanic struggle that he had unleashed on Europe, already widely known as the Second World War. Christmas 1944 saw the German leader in the midst of his last great gamble — the Ardennes Offensive in the West. Near Zeigenberg, Germany, Adolph Hitler commanded the great offensive from his Adlerhorst Headquarters (The “Eagle’s Nest”). Deep within its catacombs the self-proclaimed leader of the Third...

Chris Kyle’s story is one I believe absolutely should be told, and although I have my concerns regarding how accurately the movie will relay the events of his service as a SEAL, I wouldn’t miss it. Unfortunately it’s looking as though the naysayers are working overtime on this one, though, because the movie has yet to come out and the mud slinging has already begun.

Christmas Peace (Finnish: joulurauha, Swedish: julfrid) is a tradition based on old Scandinavian legislation created by Birger Jarl in the 13th century, extending the tradition of the Truce of God. Offenders who committed crimes on religious holidays like Christmas were given harsher punishments. Today it is a tradition to recommend that people behave in a respectful and peaceful manner at Christmas.[1] The Declaration of Christmas Peace has remained in Finland where it is an essential part of the Christmas tradition.[2]

Seasons greetings from CAAT 1, WPNS CO, 2nd Battalion 2nd Marines. (filmed on site at Alpha 1) (As it pans across the platoon halfway through, please excuse them looking like they're watching a crucifixion; by this point they've heard the song several hundred times :) Merry Christmas! [See the lyrics on the YouTube webpage]

Many conflicting and some untrue stories have been printed about General George S. Patton and the Third Army Prayer. Some have had the tinge of blasphemy and disrespect for the Deity. Even in "War As I Knew It" by General Patton, the footnote on the Prayer by Colonel Paul D. Harkins, Patton's Deputy Chief of Staff, while containing the elements of a funny story about the General and his Chaplain, is not the true account of the prayer Incident or its sequence. As the Chief Chaplain of the Third Army throughout the five campaigns on the Staff of General Patton,...

Command Performance - Christmas 1945 3/11 Cast: Jerry Colonna, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Herbert Marshall, Harry James, Pied Pipers, Jimmy Durante, Ginny Simms, Cass Daley, Kay Kyser, Frances Langford, Judy Garland, Johnny Mercer, Frank Sinatra, Ed Gardner, Eddie Jackson, Joe LIlley, & President Harry Truman

Detailed -- and interesting -- information about an impressive firearm.

Couldn’t pass this up because one of our staff member have encountered such people while in the Far East Theater Staging Area, (maybe you Veterans have come across this as well) so this is quite hilarious. Read the 6 things that will make you look like a SOF member here.

Posted this way back in 2008. While Jesus is the reason for the season, I think it's important we reflect & remember this event as well, especially given the times we live in today. Merry Christmas, dear FRiends! Imagine this: It's Christmas day in Pennsylvania. Cold weather, rain, sleet and snow are the order of the day. The Revolutionary War is almost over, and the British are about to win, leaving America under British control. Indeed, most of the colonists at the time believed that the war was over and the cause was lost. So much so that even local...

This is for anyone who has someone that won't be home for Christmas