Free Republic

In the last half of last year, U.S. armed forces under President Donald Trump’s direction launched 2,000 air strikes against Taliban targets in Afghanistan. That constitutes more raids than in all of 2015 and 2016 combined, the last two years under President Barack Obama’s command. “The huge spike in airstrikes is the product of new rules of engagement, adopted as part of a strategy that President Trump announced in August,” reports the Washington Post. “U.S. forces can now strike Taliban targets at will, whereas under the Obama administration they were restricted to defending Afghan forces under imminent attack.” Like the...

Full title: Bob Hope was determined to entertain American troops and give back to the country he loved, says daughter From vaudeville to Hollywood, Bob Hope conquered it all as a beloved showman — but his greatest achievement was entertaining the troops. At the time of his death in 2003 at age 100, the New York Times reported the film, TV and stage star performed nearly all of his 400 radio programs at military bases and embarked on annual tours where he delighted American servicemen with his sidesplitting monologues. Hope even took time to befriend weary soldiers and, as his...

As your family sits down to enjoy a meal together this Christmas, spare a thought or prayer for families who have an empty seat at their table where a brave son, daughter, husband, or wife would sit if they were not serving overseas in the military. Because America enjoys relative peace this Christmas, it’s easy to forget that we are still a country at war. Our troops abroad and their families at home don’t have the same sense of calm that Bethlehem had on a starry night two millennia ago. More than 215,000 American military personnel are stationed overseas. About...

The story that followed has circulated in the military aviation world and fighter community for several years, including this write-up by former Navy F-14A Tomcat pilot Paco Chierici at Fighter Sweep. With orders to intercept the object, Fravor in his jet — callsign FASTEAGLE 01 — headed toward with aid from an E-2 Hawkeye early warning and control plane. The Hawkeye’s sensors, however, couldn’t detect the object and vector him toward it, so Princeton directed FASTEAGLE 01 and Fravor’s wingman, FASETEAGLE 02 to the location, and even asked Fravor whether he was carrying weapons — he wasn’t. He just had...

A Marine Corps commandant on Thursday warned U.S. troops stationed in Norway to be prepared for a coming war. “I hope I’m wrong, but there’s a war coming,” Gen. Robert Neller told them. “You’re in a fight here, an informational fight, a political fight, by your presence.” Neller pointed to the near future possibility of Russia and the Pacific theater being the next major areas of conflict. Sgt. Maj. Ronald Green sounded a similar tone. "Just remember why you're here," Green said. "They're watching. Just like you watch them, they watch you. We've got 300 Marines up here; we could...

President Trump ordered the U.S. military and the Interior Department to take immediate action to "break" the nation's dependence on Russian and Chinese supplies of critical minerals as a matter of national security. "This dependency of the United States on foreign sources creates a strategic vulnerability for both its economy and military to adverse foreign government action, natural disaster, and other events that can disrupt supply of these key minerals," read an executive order signed by the president on Wednesday.

When is the United States going to do the killing necessary to beat its terrorist enemies or eliminate them entirely? Those given the awful task of combat must be able to act with the necessary savagery and purposefulness to destroy those acting as, or in direct support of, Islamic terrorists worldwide. In 2008, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Admiral Michael Mullen said, “We can’t kill our way to victory.” Ever since, many have parroted his words. But what if Admiral Mullen was wrong? The United States has been at war with radical Islamists four times longer than...

NORTH Korea better be watching its back today as thousands of US troops and 230 warplanes descend on Kim Jong-un’s doorstep. Vigilant Ace – a massive joint war games – kicks off today as the US and South Korea rehearse for battle with Pyongyang. Hundreds of aircraft and thousands of soldiers and airmen are taking part in the drill, which is one of the biggest ever of its kind. US and South Korean forces will be rehearsing for a full-scale war with North Korea. Nuclear fears have reignited as Kim fired his latest missile last week – his biggest and...

According to the Pentagon, the Russian fighter swooped in to follow the U.S. aircraft while in international airspace—an acceptable precaution after identifying a foreign jet, even though the P-8A had its transponders on. However the Russian jet crossed in front of the U.S. plane from right to left, the Pentagon told CNN, engaging its afterburners, thereby prompting the U.S. Poseidon to spanner into "a 15-degree roll and violent turbulence." The Russian military subsequently confirmed that the intercept over international waters did take place but did not address the accusation that the maneuver was unsafe or reveal other details about the...

Effective immediately, U.S. service members on Okinawa are restricted to base and to their residences. Until further notice, alcohol consumption is prohibited. This includes in residences and public locations such as bars and clubs, and hotels. Additionally, U.S. service members on mainland Japan are prohibited from purchasing or consuming alcohol, on or off base. The new restrictions follow an accident Sunday morning in Naha in which a Okinawan man was killed when his vehicle was struck by a truck being driven by a U.S. service member. Alcohol may have been a factor. Commanders across Japan will immediately lead mandatory training...

A Pentagon report composed earlier in 2017 and obtained by reporters at The Washington Times in October makes a chilling recommendation: The federal government should enhance its power to conscript American citizens in wartime, all in the name of social justice. The Times’ Rowan Scarborough wrote that the “Report on the Purpose and Utility of Registration System for Military Selective Service” recommends expanding the Selective Service System (SSS), an independent federal government agency tasked with maintaining personal records for individuals subject to possible military conscription, to include women. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed Proclamation 4771, requiring all American males...

If confirmed by the Senate, Griffin could become a key voice in advancing U.S. technology in areas where the United States has long dominated — such as aviation and space — and is now being challenged. WASHINGTON — President Trump tapped former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin for a top Pentagon job, giving him a key role in shaping investments in defense and aerospace technologies at a time when other nations are gaining ground on the United States. Griffin’s nomination to be principal deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics had been anticipated for weeks, and the White House...

The Islamic State just lost its capital at Raqqa and with it the last of the terrorist group's fantasies of establishing a Middle East caliphate. In recent years, ISIS has horrified global audiences with video clips of unspeakable atrocities. What sort of humans could behead, incinerate, drown, torture and blow up innocent civilians, mock and record such horror, and then narrate their macabre videos for a world audience? How could such pre-modern psychopaths ever be defeated, given that in a matter of months ISIS had managed to overrun vast swaths of Iraq and Syria? The zealotry of the Islamic State...

U.S.-backed forces in Syria are celebrating the defeat of ISIS in its former stronghold of Raqqa. Fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces danced and chanted in the streets. Losing Raqqa is a major blow for ISIS as the terror group once called the city its capital.

History Channel Origin of Taps includes the history of Taps and a look at the Broken Note at John F Kennedy's funeral in 1963

Defense Secretary James Mattis told the US Army it “must stand ready” and have military options “our president can deploy” in case diplomacy fails to solve the standoff with increasingly belligerent North Korea. “There’s one thing the U.S. Army can do, and that is you have got to be ready to ensure that we have military options that our president can employ if needed,” Mattis told the Association of the US Army’s annual meeting in Washington, DC, on Monday, according to The Hill. “But that means the U.S. Army must stand ready, and so, if you’re ready, that’s your duty...

The Department of Defense took over the distribution of hurricane relief from government officials in Puerto Rico this weekend after local mayors failed to appropriately disperse the emergency items to the territory’s 78 municipalities, The Miami Herald reported Sunday. According to The Herald, food, water, and medical supplies were previously delivered to 10 regional staging sites in Puerto Rico, but the mayors did not coordinate properly to distribute the large containers of relief at the staging sites. Instead, 10 to 20 soldiers will be posted in every municipality with vehicles and logistical support, where they will deliver relief to every...

The U.S. military said on Saturday it has opened an investigation into fake mobile phone alerts and social media messages advising U.S. military personnel and their families to evacuate the Korean Peninsula. The phony messages, which were spread on Thursday, came at a sensitive time, with tensions high after North Korea conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3. The test and a series of missile launches have triggered a war of words between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un.

Thirty-seven years after the U.S. Air Force shut down a mountain-top radar station in the hills south of San Jose that scanned the skies for Soviet bombers during the Cold War, the summit of Mount Umunhum is finally opening to the public this week as a new park, with stunning views of San Francisco Bay, Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay. The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, a public agency that owns the 3,486-foot peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains east of Los Gatos, spent $25 million over eight years on the project. Supporters say the new summit, which visitors will...

The U.S. military on Friday pulled back surveillance aircraft that had been watching an 11-bus ISIS convoy filled with hundreds of militants and their family members -- at the request of the Russian government. The ISIS convoy was given safe passage over 10 days ago to travel from the Lebanon-Syria border across the Syrian desert to the Iraqi border in a deal struck between Syria and Hezbollah, which angered the U.S. military.