Free Republic

For the first time ever, two women have successfully completed the Army's elite Ranger school, one of the toughest combat training courses in the world, the Army said Monday. The female soldiers weren't identified beyond being described as West Point-trained officers. They were among 96 soldiers who will graduate Friday at Fort Benning, Georgia, with the coveted Ranger tab, the Army said. (snip) Unlike the 94 men who will graduate Friday, the two women won't be allowed to apply to join the join the 75th Ranger Regiment, the elite Special Operations force. It remains closed to women.

A West Point cadet was found guilty Tuesday of possessing a trove of violent child pornography in his dorm room at the storied military academy. Patrick Hester, 25, was taken into custody following the verdict in U.S. District Court in White Plains because the videos “depicted children being tortured,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said. “In collecting and sharing these appalling videos, he contributed to the victimization of the most vulnerable members of our society, our children.” More than 1,200 images and videos were seized from Hester’s dorm room in December 2013. Hester told fellow pervs in emails he preferred...

The heavily scrutinized assessment of women attending Army Ranger School could be nearing its end soon, and it comes with a dichotomy: senior service officials are laudatory of their efforts, while some of the women who washed out question whether they got a fair shake.

Sunday, Flag Day, June 14,2015, inside Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, the 36th Annual National Pause for the Pledge of Allegiance will take place at 7 PM EST, as well as a Navy Tattoo, from 6:00 PM to 8 PM.

A married Army general on Tuesday introduced his spouse at a Pentagon event that featured lots of top brass, including Defense Secretary Ashton Carter as the keynote speaker. What made this seemingly routine introduction noteworthy is that Brig. Gen. Randy S. Taylor introduced his husband, Lucas. “My husband Lucas is sitting up front here,” Gen. Taylor said of the man in the same row as Mr. Carter, Army Secretary John McHugh and other senior officials. He said Lucas has subjugated his own career to support the general’s frequent moves over an 18-year relationship.

The Unknowns is a documentary film by U.S. Army Veterans Neal Schrodetzki and Ethan Morse.

"... The department provided no reason for McHugh’s departure but said he might stay on as the Army’s top civilian until November to give the Obama administration a smooth transition as it searches for his successor. His departure comes as Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno also plans to retire, closing a page on the era of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and ushering in new leadership as the service faces growing unrest around the world and defense budget caps in Washington. “There will be much time in the coming months to appropriately celebrate his many accomplishments, but for...

On tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, Army Staff Sgt. Jose Garcia missed his oldest daughter’s high school graduation. Stationed in Germany, an ocean away from his family in west Miami-Dade County, he watched his son accept his diploma through a live stream on the Internet. This time, Garcia wanted it to be different. With his youngest set to graduate from Miami Killian Senior High on Monday, it was his last chance to watch one of his children graduate from high school. He was determined to give his daughter, Samantha, “something to remember.” “She’s the baby of the house,”...

<p>"Eight of the 20 women who originally entered the school’s first co-ed class were allowed to recycle through the program after they fell out in their first go-round.”"</p>

When President Obama draped the nation’s highest award for combat valor around the neck of an Afghan war hero at the White House in October 2013, a highly decorated Green Beret officer who sat nearby faced an ugly reality: The Army was investigating him on charges of murder and conspiracy. Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn was invited to the ceremony by William D. Swenson, who received the Medal of Honor for his actions in Afghanistan four years earlier. Like Swenson, Golsteyn had braved enemy fire repeatedly, seen fellow soldiers die and voiced deep frustration with the ways he saw U.S. troops...

The helicopter was among the relief teams that have been working to help Nepalese after a 7.8-magnitude quake. Relief teams from have been working for weeks to provide water, food, shelter and medical assistance for Nepalese [Reuters] The Nepalese army has said a rescue helicopter has spotted the wreckage of a missing US Marine chopper in the mountains northeast of Kathmandu. Army chief of army operations Major-General Binoj Basnet said on Friday no signs of life could be seen from the air, but could not give any information about the six Marines and two Nepalese army soldiers who were on...

A Mesquite, Texas, man who pledged allegiance to ISIS and lied to the FBI about it was arrested on Thursday, according to a criminal complaint. Bilal Abood, 37, a licensed security guard, is charged with making a false statement to the FBI. He faces up to eight years in prison. Abood was born in Iraq and migrated to the United States in 2009. He was a naturalized U.S. citizen, prosecutors said. Abood tried to travel to Iraq from D/FW International Airport on March 29, 2013, but was not allowed to board the flight. He was interviewed by FBI agents, claimed...

None of the remaining eight female candidates going through the Army Ranger School made it out of the first phase of training at Fort Benning, Ga., defense officials told Fox News -- though they scored high enough to try again as early as next week. The candidates were the first women to train for the elite force as part of a program that began in February. While they did not do well enough to move on to the next phase of training, an Army Ranger statement said the eight women -- along with 101 men in the same situation --...

ABC 7:30 Report on USA Mutiny on Australian soil. [Video]

152nd Field Artillery participates in the First Army Maneuvers near Pine Camp NY in August 1935, as part of the 68th FA Brigade and the 43rd Division. For a companion reading piece, see the Field Artillery Journal article from the Nov-Dec 1935 edition: http://sill-www.army.mil/FAMAG/1935/N...

In 1955 the United States military conducted a large training exercise that covered a substantial portion of Louisiana. Named Operation Sagebrush, the focus of the exercise was to evaluate the effectiveness of military operations in a nuclear environment. The exercise lasted for 15 days with 85,000 troops

Freely downloadable at the Internet Archive, where I first uploaded it. 1942 U.S. Army Film Bulletin #15 "Your Army In The Making." National Archives description: "On army maneuvers in North and South Carolina, 1941. Consists mostly of brief scenes of representative activities by various branches, corps,

Titles read: "WAR GAME - LARGEST PEACETIME US ARMY MANEUVER [sic]".

A film report on a practical field test of men and equipment under simulated combat conditions. The peacetime maneuvers, held in Texas in 1940 and involving 70,000 men from around the country and trucks and other vehicles from Detroit, demonstrated new standards of motorized mobility for the United

1941: U.S. ARMY STAGES REALISTIC MASS WAR MANEUVERS IN SOUTH CAROLINA