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A top U.S. military commander in Europe says the U.S military is to train Ukrainian soldiers who are battling Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. U.S. Army Europe Commander Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges said Wednesday that in March a battalion of U.S. soldiers would train three battalions of Ukrainians from the Ministry of Interior. The training is to take place at the Yavariv training center in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.

Patrick Henry once said, "The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave." And for me, those special qualities have always been epitomized in our courageous men and women in uniform. I have written countless times on the need to support and serve our nation's heroes who have selflessly volunteered to serve us. Few and far between are legitimate and proactive avenues through which the average citizen can return the favor and help our service members around the country. Luckily, one of those opportunities is rolling through Texas this April, and...

The U.S. Army has decided to award the Purple Heart to victims of the Fort Hood massacre, sources tell Fox News. Three sources confirmed that the Army will announce the decision by next week.

It’s no surprise that the Obama administration desperately wants to keep Bowe Bergdahl from being convicted of desertion. It can’t even bring itself to call the Taliban terrorists who held him “terrorists.” Maybe that’s because the Administration traded him for five not-terrorist masterminds, at least one of whom is already trying to get back in the not-terrorism game. Maybe it’s because liberals naturally support any service member who betrays his buddies. Secretary of State Bergdahl anyone? We can’t expect the Obama administration and its liberal media brownnosers to care if our military remains institutionally strong. But we should expect more...

The 82nd Airborne, and more specifically its 3rd Brigade Combat Team, are no strangers to Iraq. Since 2003, parts of the brigade have deployed in support of U.S. efforts there on at least three occasions. Now, more than three years after the U.S. military presence in Iraq was thought over, about a quarter of the Panther Brigade will return with a new mission to help train Iraqi forces to fight the Islamic State. About 1,000 paratroopers from the brigade will deploy this week as part of the Operation Inherent Resolve mission.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has established a research and essay competition in honor of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz hosted by the National Defense University. The king, who died Jan. 23 at age 90, oversaw the modernization of his country’s military during the time he spent as commander of the Saudi Arabian National Guard, a position he held from 1963 until he became king in 2005. Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey said the essay competition is a fitting tribute to the life and leadership of the Saudi Arabian monarch. The king was a lifetime supporter...

First Lieutenant Clint Lorance never imagined that following the rule of engagement to save not only his life, but the lives of his fellow soldiers against Islamic enemies would result in him spending nearly two decades in prison. But it did. Lorance, 30, had been trained to make split-second decisions and his training culminated in a real-life scenario in July 2012 when he and his squad were on a foot patrol in southern Afghanistan. He had just been made Platoon Leader after his predecessor had been severely wounded. At that time, Lorance led his troops into a Taliban-infested territory, where...

Some German police say they will not recognize military-issued driver’s licenses if the bearer doesn’t also possess a valid stateside license, a situation that raises concerns about whether many U.S. troops and civilians could face penalties for driving illegally. U.S. Army Europe said Wednesday that the issue was “in dispute” and cautioned that there was misinformation circulating through the U.S. military community in Germany. However, German police officials said that the regulations were clear, that anyone driving without a valid stateside license would be violating the law, and that the USAREUR license alone was not valid. Across the U.S. military...

A former Fort Bragg Army officer will remain in prison on murder charges for the slayings of two Afghan nationals in the Afghanistan war, Maj. Gen. Richard D. Clarke of the 82nd Airborne Division has decided. Clarke, the division's commander, was considering a clemency request from former 1st Lt. Clint Lorance. Lorance was court-martialed at Fort Bragg, N.C., in summer 2013 for ordering his soldiers to shoot at three Afghans while on patrol in summer 2012. Two of the men were killed, and the third ran away. Clarke cut a year off Lorance's 20-year sentence but otherwise upheld his convictions...

Traditional values groups are rallying around an Army chaplain who was rebuked by his commander for distributing information on Christianity during mandatory suicide prevention training. Twenty nonprofit organizations dedicated to religious freedom have signed a letter to Army Secretary John McHugh, urging him to overturn action against Capt. Joseph Lawhorn, an evangelical and onetime infantryman. His commander, Col. David Fivecoat, who heads the brigade at Fort Benning, Georgia, that molds new Rangers, issued a “letter of concern” on Thanksgiving. He took action after one soldier complained to the website MilitaryAtheists.org, which posted an article. The atheist group later said it...

It’s fitting that 27 plus years of active and reserve service in the United States Army ended with a piece of paper, but those of us who had the chance to serve understand that the military runs on paper. A paper enlisted me on May 20, 1987, and another paper, Order No. 297-1088, transferred me to the retired reserve on January 2, 2015. Not 2 JAN 15, mind you. January 2, 2015. I’m retired, so now I get to write dates like a normal person. Though, when people on the other end of the phone want me to spell out...

Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin (U.S. Army-Ret.) says the Army violated its own regulations by punishing Chaplain Joseph Lawhorn for “using Christian scripture and solutions” in a mandatory suicide prevention training session. Boykin, chair of the Restore Military Religious Freedom Coalition (RMRFC), also said that the treatment of Lawhorn violated the chaplain’s constitutional rights. “First of all, his case is important because it is an infringement on his First Amendment rights,” Boykin told CNSNews.com. “Secondly, he is a chaplain. By definition, chaplains deal with spiritual issues, and all he was doing was explaining how his faith helped him. The third thing,...

The Army has disciplined a military chaplain for making references to the Bible during a suicide-prevention seminar last month.A serviceman brought the Judeo-Christian religious content to the attention of an atheist group, which complained about it. Now, the chaplain is fighting back, maintaining he did nothing wrong. The dispute has renewed a debate over the appropriate role of faith in the military.The chaplain, Capt. Joe Lawhorn, conducted the training session on suicide prevention Nov. 20 at the University of North Georgia. During the session, he shared his personal struggles with depression while an Army Ranger.What upset the atheist group is that...

The victims of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that left 13 dead and more than 30 wounded moved closer Friday to receiving the Purple Hearts many say they are due. Congress passed a defense policy bill Friday evening that includes a provision making victims of the attacks at the Texas Army post eligible for the Purple Heart. The award given to military personnel wounded in battle also offers increased retirement benefits.

After about 30 years of using the Beretta as the primary sidearm pistol for the U.S. military, the Pentagon is seeking a new gun contract. For gun manufacturers, this kind of a contract is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. While the Beretta lasted three decades, the U.S. military's first semiautomatic standard-issue sidearm, the M1911 from Colt, lasted nearly 90 years. It was issued during the U.S. war in the Philippines through the World Wars to Vietnam and beyond.

In light of the recent death of Irving Peress, I dust off this one I did back in 2007… I must admit that I was unaware just how deep the calumny against Senator Joseph McCarthy was until a friend of mine, supposedly an arch-conservative, invoked the infamous Joseph Welch line “You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?” to decry the unfair treatment of a current political figure. My friend did not realize that Welch’s statement was no more than bluster, and has been forever (and successfully) quoted...

The U.S. ArmyRanger school has 31 female candidates for its planned Ranger Course Assessment next spring. The Maneuver Center of Excellence in Fort Benning, Georgia, said on its Facebook page Monday that Fort Benning’s Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade has chosen 11 officers and 20 noncommissioned officers as observers and advisers for the course. Candidates went through a week of training to give them an idea of the rigors that Ranger School inflicts upon soldiers. “I was very satisfied with both the quality and quantity of the volunteers we received,” said Maj. Gen. Scott Miller, commanding general of the Maneuver...

(CNN) -- A Sikh student at Hofstra University filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the United States Army, claiming the service refused to grant him a religious accommodation that would allow him to enlist in his school's ROTC program without shaving his beard, cutting his hair and removing his turban, according to court documents. When Iknoor Singh requested a religious exemption from the military's grooming policies to enlist as an ROTC cadet in April 2013, his request was first denied on the grounds that his noncompliance would have "an adverse impact on the Army's readiness, unit cohesion, standards, health, safety, or...

Where’s Matty? On July 20, 2013, Spc. Brent Grommet returned from Afghanistan with his military working dog, a Czech German shepherd named Matty. The two had gone through basic training together, deployed together and were injured together when a roadside IED detonated. Grommet slept on top of Matty’s crate as they flew back to the United States. Upon landing at an Air Force base in New Jersey, the two were separated — standard operating procedure. Grommet wasn’t worried, though: According to Army regulations, if he wanted Matty, he had the sole right to adopt his military working dog. This right...

The Obama administration has said the U.S. Army “discriminated” against a transgender male employee by not allowing him to use the female restroom, calling him “he,” and asking him to stop having uncomfortable and “unwanted” discussions with his co-workers about his upcoming surgical castration. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) found that the Department of the Army committed gender identity discrimination against “Tamara” Lusardi, a civilian quality assurance specialist who announced he wanted to become a woman. Lusardi, who has been a civilian employee since November 2004, announced his transition in April 2010 and began presenting himself as...