Free Republic

Barrett served for 22 years in the U.S. Army and was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait. His platform is centered on "military readiness." Michigan GOP Congressional candidate Tom Barrett said he left the Army to run for Congress with goals to restore readiness in the military and stand up to President Joe Biden. "I retired from the army two years ago in large part because of the failure of leadership of Joe Biden and decided to run for Congress to stand up to Biden, and really bring about a course correction in our military," Barrett said on the "Just the...

The Biden administration’s reaction to being criticized for playing identity politics with the military has been to play identity politics with the military. Are you concerned about our military readiness now that its purpose has been redefined to focus on the national security threats emerging from climate change, white privilege, and abortion bans? Please allow the man claiming to be a woman to explain why you’re undermining military readiness. As assistant secretary of defense for readiness, Shawn Skelly oversees military preparedness for warfighting, including training programs, equipment safety and munitions supplies. And Skelly has a message for Republicans accusing the...

Only 52 percent of active-duty enlisted women, compared to 92 percent of the men, were able to pass the Army Combat Fitness Test.It was gratifying to watch Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton questioning Christine Wormuth, the first female Secretary of the Army, at a recent Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.Sen. Cotton, a Ranger-qualified infantry veteran, respectfully chastised Wormuth for the “fiasco” that the new Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) has become. For the past three years, the Army has tried but failed to implement “gender-neutral” standards in the new Combat Fitness Test — mainly because of high failure rates among...

The Biden administration’s refusal to distinguish between our principal military adversary and climate change is yet more evidence that the military is following ideology instead of winning our wars.In a press briefing on November 10, Pentagon spokesman retired Adm. John Kirby gave further evidence of the Biden administration’s incoherent national strategy. He refused to distinguish between China and “climate change” as threats to U.S. national security.In response to a question of “which is a bigger threat, the climate or China?” Kirby said, “You’ve heard the secretary talk about the climate as a — a real and existential national security threat...

Why do ‘Shark treatment’ (or shock treatment as it was once known) on those attending Army Basic Training? Why scream at new recruits getting off a bus? Why have them crawl through sawdust pits or do pushups in the snow in the middle of the night? The U.S. Army recently decided to end the practice “towards a kinder, gentler start.” But that's a wrong-headed approach. For starters, trainees are not soldiers; there are four tests each individual must pass in order to earn that title. Each trainee must qualify (achieve a minimum score) with a rifle. The M-16 rifle was...

Male personnel in the Royal New Zealand Navy will soon be allowed to wear makeup, false eyelashes and nail polish according to new gender-neutral guidelines. The updates, that will come into effect next month, are intended to demonstrate that the RNZN make no distinction between male and female members in terms of appearance. Chief of Navy Rear Admiral David Proctor told Newshub: “The NZDF can confirm that as of November 1, 2019, guidelines around grooming and appearance for Royal New Zealand Navy personnel will be updated. “These updates are to reflect that the RNZN make no distinction between male and...

While this subject has largely fallen into the “settled” category for the most part, it’s still being brought up for discussion among the public. We’re once again talking about women in combat. Back during the Obama administration, Ash Carter was directed to open all combat roles to women. At the time, we were assured that female recruits would have to meet the same physical standards as their male counterparts. Slowly but sure, however, that principle was eroded.As Heather Mac Donald writes in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), the standards did indeed change. But even with those relaxed standards,...

As a medic I was overawed when I arrived at Ft. Sam Houston. There were SO MANY WOMEN. It was like some sort of strange paradise. At first. I realized very quickly that every OTHER company at 232nd Medical Battalion was as high as 70% female.. Very quickly as our combat deployment approached, I became increasingly convinced that my company was in for serious trouble.. Nothing was done to quell my misgivings when two females in the unit essentially got to sit out the deployment by becoming pregnant right before the deployment. During the deployment those doubts and misgivings became...

“There is no medically valid reason — including a diagnosis of gender dysphoria — to exclude transgender individuals from military service," American Medical Association CEO Dr. James Madara wrote in a letter addressed to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. The letter, sent Tuesday on behalf of "physician and medical student members" of the AMA, the nation's largest association of physicians, comes less than two weeks after the Trump administration released an order banning most transgender troops from serving in the military except under "limited circumstances." "The accession or retention of individuals with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria — those...

Staff Sgt. Artur Shvartsberg—Marine Corps Air Station Yuma Co The Department of Defense plans on putting its surplus fleet of AH-1W Super Cobras up for sale on the international arms market. The news comes as the USMC continues to outfit its light attack helicopter squadrons with new-build AH-1Z "Viper" derivatives of the Bell design, which traces its roots directly to the iconic UH-1 Iroquois/Huey. A recent business opportunity posting over at Fedbizops.gov describes the need for flight and maintenance training, sustainment, and refitting "Whisky Cobras" with new commercially available off-the-shelf avionics upgrades in preparation for foreign transfers of the type...

....Justice Department has made clear its proposed ban on transgender military recruits is on hold, meaning their enlistment can start Monday. ...Justice Department isn’t dropping its court fight to institute the ban on transgender enlistment but said Friday it would wait for a Pentagon study... ...Pentagon said then that it would allow transgender enlistment to start...

A federal appeals court on Thursday declined to delay a requirement that the U.S. military begin enlisting qualified transgender men and women for the first time starting Jan. 1. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit refused to grant the Trump administration’s request to temporarily block an earlier order that the military accept transgender recruits, potentially propelling the issue to the Supreme Court in the coming days. The ruling was another legal blow for the president, who surprised military leaders when he announced in July in a series of tweets that the U.S. government “will not accept or...

A Pentagon official tells The Associated Press that transgender people can enlist in the military beginning Jan. 1, despite President Donald Trump's opposition. The new policy reflects growing legal pressure on the issue and the difficult hurdles the federal government would have to cross to enforce Trump's demand to ban transgender individuals from the military. Two federal courts already have ruled against the ban. Potential transgender recruits will have to overcome a lengthy and strict set of physical, medical and mental conditions that make it possible, though difficult, for them to join the armed services. Maj. David Eastburn says the...

The U.S. Army has not and will not approve enlistment waivers for individuals with a history of self-mutilation or other documented serious mental health conditions, the Army’s top general said Wednesday. Gen. Mark Milley, the Army’s chief of staff, said recruitment standards have not been adjusted to meet hefty accession goals as the service looks to grow its force for the second consecutive year, calling a USA Today report that indicated the service would accept some individuals with past mental health issues “mischaracterized.” The report cited internal Army documents and listed conditions including self-mutilation, bipolar disorder, depression or drug or...

BREAKING: US court bars Trump from changing military policy on service by transgender people.

Even the kids in America's fittest state are too fat to fight their nation's wars, a pro-military nonprofit argues in a new study. The military has long bemoaned America's tubby youth, and the Council for a Strong America says Colorado is part of the problem, with more than 27 percent of the state's children categorized as overweight. "Low levels of physical activity and the obesity epidemic are contributing to an unprecedented readiness problem for our armed forces," the nonprofit said. Those extra candy bars compound a complex problem for military recruiting. Between other health issues, criminal records and other troubles...

Winston Churchill summarized the theme of his seminal history of World War II as “[h]ow the English-speaking peoples through their unwisdom, carelessness, and good nature allowed the wicked to rearm.”His first volume, The Gathering Storm, recounted many instances of failure among the leading figures of the 1930s to appreciate the growing danger of Hitler’s rise to power. Churchill’s history highlighted how the good intentions and virtuous character of Britain, France, and the United States hindered them from taking actions that could very well have prevented a war that claimed the lives of some 60 million people. He marveled at [how]...

WASHINGTON — Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain said Tuesday he is refusing to advance U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominees to the Pentagon until he is satisfied the administration is communicating its plans for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Outside a tense committee hearing on Afghanistan with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, McCain told Defense News that because the administration has not been open with Congress, “we’ve been holding nominations … from the Pentagon to fill in those Pentagon jobs.” The disclosure came little more than a month after Trump...

Pelosi: ‘Pure prejudice’ driving Trump’s transgender military ban By John Bowden - 08/26/17 04:53 PM EDT House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tore into President Trump on Saturday for directing the Pentagon to ban transgender individuals from entering the military. Pelosi wrote on Twitter that Trump's "cruel decision to kick transgender troops out of the military is driven by nothing more than pure prejudice." Other Democrats such as Sen. Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), an Army veteran, and Republicans including Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who chairs the Armed Services Committee, have criticized the directive from Trump released Friday. McCain argued that "it...

Trump gives the Pentagon six months to kick THOUSANDS of transgender service people out of the military if they are deemed 'non-deployable'. A month after he announced a ban on transgender people serving in the military via Twitter, Donald Trump has issued a memo on how the decision is to be implemented. The two-and-a-half-page note says Defense Secretary Jim Mattis must consider a service member's 'deployability' when deciding whether to eject them from the military. That means that if they are unable to serve in a war zone, take part in training or serve on a ship for months, they...