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On July Fourth in Afghanistan, Sgt. Raymond Munden (and 7,000 other U.S. troops) will be homesick and hot--but ready to do battle The sky above is pitch black as U.S. Army Sgt. Raymond Munden, an M4 assault rifle slung across his shoulder, gazes at a patch of stars, clustered thick and white. "With this wind," says Munden, 29, "with this big sky, I might be home right now." But Munden is a long way from home. It is some 7,400 miles from Clarksville, Tenn., where he lives with his wife, Kelly, to Afghanistan's Bagram Air Base, where Munden is serving...

In the wake of U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s decision to cancel the U.S. Army’s Crusader self-propelled howitzer program, it has become fashionable to paint America’s top defense official as somehow anti-Army. Why else would Rumsfeld try to kill such a critical program? Similar thinking has infected other U.S. military services whose cherished programs — the V-22 tiltrotor, the Comanche armed reconnaissance helicopter, the F-22 fighter, the CVN(X) future aircraft carrier — are facing cuts or cancellation. Some senior military officials now ask: Why doesn’t Rumsfeld like us? They miss the point. Rumsfeld is not acting out of malice or...

POPE AIR FORCE BASE, North Carolina — The 82nd Airborne Division has launched for Afghanistan, ending what had become a frustrating period for many paratroopers waiting to join America’s war on terrorism. In the early morning hours of June 25, the first of about 3,000 soldiers from 3rd Brigade took off in a C-17 Globemaster to relieve their comrades from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). In the past, the Army has relied on the 82nd’s rapid-deployment capability when it needed to put forces on the ground in a hurry. They were among the first combat troops to be...

KABUL, Afghanistan — Capt. Rick Baynes has by far the oddest shopping list in Afghanistan. On a single sweaty day in the teeming markets of Kabul, the Army contracting officer will try to procure the following items requested by American units at Bagram: a leather pistol holster; 100 feet of electrical wiring; hair-clipper oil; two dozen 20-foot ladders; 40 chains and 40 winches; 100 printer cartridges; magnetic signs; red, white and blue plastic plates and napkins. Remarkably, he will find — or find someone who can make — everything on the list. Except for the plates and napkins, which...

High-tech devices that can help prevent friendly fire and satellite-based systems to communicate over long distances are among the technologies that will receive more emphasis in the future, said soldiers and Marines who returned recently from Afghanistan. "There are any number of things that you can do to mitigate those concerns," said Marine Corps Maj. Daniel Greenwood, the operations officer for the battalion landing team of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. "We have got infrared markers that we put on vehicles, and it [the signal] can be picked up by jets and helicopters. If the GPS systems that we...

My deliberately provocative title is borrowed from Leonard Krishtalka, who directs the Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas. Hired-gun "design theorists" in cheap tuxedos have met with some success in getting close to their target: public science education. I hope to convince you that this threat is worth paying attention to. As I write, intelligent design (ID) is a hot issue in the states of Washington and Ohio (see Physics Today, May 2002, page 31*). Evolutionary biology is ID's primary target, but geology and physics are within its blast zone. Creationism evolves. As in biological evolution, old forms...

New 'WSW' makes credible debutHosts and guests offer thoughtful financial discourseBy David FolkenflikSun Television WriterJune 29, 2002It started with the hyperkinetic energy of Fox News and ended with the soothing back-and-forth cadence of CSPAN's Book Notes. Yet the inaugural episode of Wall Street Week with Fortune suggests that, as advertised, it is possible to have a thoughtful and watchable financial news program without the puns and punditry of one Louis Rukeyser, the deposed king of the PBS show's original version. The program's producer, Maryland Public Television, has held out new hosts Geoffrey Colvin and Karen Gibbs as the Oscar and...

Bad: The Department of Defense—already short of suits to protect military personnel from terrorist biological or chemical weapons attacks—is selling some suits for only $3 or less on the Internet, even as the Pentagon shells out $100 to $200 apiece for new suits. It is laying out a cool $1 billion to buy millions of suits over 14 years. Worse: Then there are thousands of other suits—some of them affording defective or inadequate protection against chemical or biological agents—that still are out there somewhere, waiting to be issued to unsuspecting military personnel, but the Department of Defense doesn't really...

The US Army has renewed its interest in acquiring new medium-lift transport aircraft to deliver future forces into battle and is engaged in discussions that may determine if and how the concept will move forward. The effort is not funded, a situation that has long stalled development of a future utility platform. However, the army is revising its ideas for the system to align it with its Objective Force plans and in doing so is grappling with issues concerning its missions and capabilities. The US Department of Defense (DoD) and the rotorcraft industry have for some time been studying...

Should new oil and gas drilling sites be established in the Rocky Mountain region? Yes (111) 35% No (205) 65% Total number of votes: 316

The US Department of Defense (DoD) has begun a joint programme for developing and producing a command and control (C2) system that would be used by joint task forces and easily deployed worldwide. Senior officials at the DoD have been interested in pursuing such a programme to close a shortfall in joint task force operations. There is currently no standardised package for deployment, and C2 capabilities are assembled using existing service systems, many of them unable to interoperate. The US Navy, which has already begun work on a sea-based C2 centre, has been designated to lead the effort, and...

Democrats gained a political argument, but President Bush got the Senate to agree to his $7.8 billion request for development of a missile defense program in a $393.3 billion defense authorization bill. The Senate overwhelmingly approved the legislation June 27 after working out a compromise on the divisive issue of missile defense. The vote was 97-2. (Senate Vote 165, p. 1773) Bush´s success in the Senate removes at least one dispute facing House and Senate conferees, who will work next month to come up with a final version of the fiscal 2003 bill. In broad terms, the missile defense...

A Few of FR's Finest...........Every Day FR is a Treasure Trove of talented, compassionate, patriotic, wonderful people who gather every day to discuss the latest news and issues;  salute and support our military and our leaders;  tell a few jokes;  learn a new word;  write poetry;  pray for those in need;  and congratulate those who are deserving. Thank you, Jim Robinson, for giving us the vehicle in which we can express ourselves. Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.  I can remember lurking when there were only a few regulars...

A recent Rand study warns that the Army should invest more money in developing better defenses against cruise missiles, which will pose more of a threat than ballistic missiles. In a report prepared for the commander of Army Air Defense Artillery Center at Fort Bliss, Texas, Rand researchers said that when comparing a number of possible future scenarios, cruise missiles, not theater ballistic missiles, emerged as the most likely threat to U.S. security. "One conclusion we draw from our analysis is that the threat of cruise missile attack, and the need to defend against it, is present in all...

July 1, 2002 His Excellency Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister, State of Israel, Jerusalem, Israel Your Excellency: We hope this letter, written to you and the people of the great nation of Israel from your friends in the United States, will be an encouragement. We want to remind the Israeli people that they are not alone in their hour of need. On September 11, 2001 the United States suffered a horrendous attack. As we mourned our losses we were shocked to see dancing in the streets, in celebration of our pain, in some parts of the Middle East. But in Israel...

On June 27, a major on the verge of retirement conducted a one-on-one briefing with Vice Chief of Staff Gen. John Keane in the latter’s roomy Pentagon office. The major had a blunt message: the Army is broken, and fixing it will require the most comprehensive overhaul of the service in decades. The major then offered the four-star general a plan to do just that. His proposals included: shattering the personnel system; keeping a battalion’s troops together for four-year cycles so they achieve true cohesion; eliminating division, corps and army-level commands; and slashing the number of general-officer billets. That...

An active ideology incompatible with universal standards of freedom and equality. Human rights and the concept of jihad are two incompatible ideas. In Judeo-Christian societies, the concept of human rights is based on the biblical interdiction against killing, and the equality of all human beings. Though it has religious roots, this notion of human rights evolved mainly from the 19th century in a secular European and American framework. It then acquired a universal character, proclaiming the equality of all human beings and the inviolability of their natural human rights. But it was only after World War II that this...

The Army must change its culture if it is to succeed in communicating the importance of Transformation to its own soldiers and to the American people, according to a report delivered by an outside consultant with close ties to Vice Chief of Staff Gen. John Keane. As they stand now, Army communications efforts "are seriously inadequate… [and] grossly under-resourced," writes Victor O’Reilly in his report, "The Communication of Army Transformation: Issues for Immediate Action," delivered to Keane April 16. Army Times obtained a copy of the report. Army leaders did not respond to requests for comment. O’Reilly, an Irish...

With the establishment of U.S. Northern Command, it is likely the Navy and Coast Guard will continue to expand their National Fleet agreement to cover sharing of intelligence, small boats and other resources, according to the Coast Guard's program executive officer of its Deepwater program. "I don't think there's any question that the Northern Command has the responsibility in terms of coordinating and attending to homeland defense requirements," Rear Adm. Patrick Stillman said last week. "In that construct, I think it's reasonable to assume that the Coast Guard and the Navy will continue to expand their 'National Fleet' agreement,...

The US Navy has decided to lease a new high-speed vessel (HSV) to both temporarily serve as its operational mine countermeasures (MCM) command and control ship, and to conduct experiments during downtime. Rear Adm Robert Sprigg, head of the Navy Warfare Development Command (NWDC), said the service had opted to lease the ship - to replace the MCM command and control mission formerly conducted by the Iwo Jima-class USS Inchon ( MCS 12) - following its experiences with the Bolinger/Incat USA Joint Venture High Speed Vessel X1 (HSV-X1) that conducted limited mine-warfare and anti-submarine warfare experiments (Jane's Defence Weekly...