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Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Five U.S. service members were killed when a helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan, a U.S. official said early Tuesday. The chopper went down Monday in the Daman district of southern Kandahar during a rain storm, said Jawid Faisal, a government spokesman for the province. There was no enemy activity in the area at the time of the incident, according to a statement by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The U.S. official, who did not want to be identified, did not offer additional information about the victims.

SIERRA VISTA— The U.S. Army suspended its tuition assistance program on Friday, which will impact many local soldiers who use those funds to take courses at Cochise College, though those already enrolled are not affected. In response to the suspension, the Cochise College Foundation has re-opened its scholarship application system, extending the deadline to March 20, according to a release from the college. Generally, students need to be enrolled in at least six credits to be eligible for one of the 100-plus scholarships available starting in the fall semester. Cochise College could see an impact from this suspension before the...

The U.S. Army chose a quiet community in central Utah as the training ground for Special Forces soldiers needing to develop Jason Bourne-like skills and to learn how to build a resistance movement by infiltrating the town leadership. With the deeply religious culture present in Manti, Utah and the desert landscape of the area, residents were deemed ideal candidates by the Defense Department to role play with soldiers in the 10th Special Forces as part of a two week training exercise in July on unconventional warfare tactics. Now that sequestration is in full effect, the Utah mission was called on...

“It’s not meant for contractors… It wasn’t intended for contractors,” said Abney of the email, which details how folks should deal with the press because of sequestration (mandatory spending cuts). But, Abney conceded, he “can’t swear” that contractors—that is, civilians—did not receive the message either. In fact, at least some of the 6,000 contractors that work with JMC received the message. The message was “intended to remind our employees that they are not spokespersons for the government,” said Abney on the phone today. Abney says he was just reminding employees that the commander in chief—President Barack Obama—is their boss. Here's...

Army requirements officials are not backing away from the service’s plan to field a tracked Ground Combat Vehicle that could weigh more than an Abrams M1 tank. While a final weight hasn’t been decided upon, Army officials maintain that the GCV will likely have to be considerably heavier than the Bradley Fighting Vehicle it’s replacing to protect the nine-man squad and crew from the powerful blast effects of enemy improvised explosive devices. “It’s fairly easy for us to make a thicker underbelly plate or add a V-shaped hull to make the vehicle survivable, but what that does not address is...

The term “moronic” is defined as “notably stupid or lacking in good judgment.” It is frequently used as an insult. The Obama administration is moronic. This is not an insult. President Obama’s latest “notably stupid” stoke of America’s calculated slow burn is the decision to lift the ban on women in direct combat. Along with the move a few years back to turn the Officers’ Club into the Blue Oyster Bar, this most recent social experiment with national security represents one small step for the “progressive” agenda and one giant prance toward the pansification of the greatest military in world...

Once seen as the future of surveillance, the Long-Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle has been terminated, InsideDefense.com reports. Is the military airship revival drawing to a close? UPDATE, 6:30pm Thursday: The Army confirmed that the LEMV airship project has been canceled. Here's the statement an Army spokesman emailed us: "The Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV), a hybrid air vehicle, is a technology demonstration project administered by the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command. This project was initially designed to support operational needs in Afghanistan in Spring 2012; it will not provide a capability in the timeframe required. Due to technical and...

How exactly does one earn so many medals they won't even fit  on the coat with an army that hasn't seen combat for 60 years? Hazing recruits?  Parades...?

WASHINGTON: Rarely have such pretty slides told such an ugly story. While Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno tries to talk up "The Force of Tomorrow," Army briefing documents obtained today by AOL Defense lay out the near-term impact of sequestration, the Continuing Resolution, and unresolved overseas contingency operations needs: an enormous $18 billion shortfall for the service that will be borne almost entirely by federal workers and military readiness. You can see the slides by clicking "download this document" (up and to the left) and read the detailed talking points here, but the highlights are harrowing enough: Training:...

(CBS News) What does war look like from a soldier's point of view? Tens of millions of YouTube viewers now know, thanks to a video taken in Afghanistan that's gone viral. CBS News spoke with the man who shot the helmet cam video -- and got shot himself in the process. The video has become one of the most viewed three minutes of war video ever, with 23 million hits on YouTube. It's video of a battle with Taliban forces in Afghanistan, as seen through the helmet camera of Pfc. Ted Daniels. It started when he purposely moved into the...

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The sight of Army helicopters and the sound of gunfire created a lot of concern Monday afternoon in one Houston neighborhood. We received a lot of phones calls, Tweets and Facebook posts from worried neighbors, wondering what was going on. SkyEye 13 HD was over the south side where at first look, it appeared there was a massive SWAT scene happening. With military helicopters flying above her southeast Houston neighborhood, Frances Jerrals didn't know what to think. "When you see this, you think the worst. When you hear this, you think the worst," Jerrals said. And so,...

A gang of elite British Army soldiers who smuggled drugs and guns into the UK have been jailed for a combined total of almost 50 years today. Trooper Lemar Loveless, 26, masterminded the operation to bring a cache of guns, ammunition and £70,000 worth of cocaine through the Channel Tunnel loaded into the back of BMWs. He had discharged himself from the Queen's Royal Hussars, the most senior light cavalry regiment of the British Army, just days before his arrest.

The U.S. military reportedly ordered soldiers to remove a cross and a steeple from atop a chapel and to board up cross-shaped windows at a remote American forward operating base in Afghanistan. The removal of Christian symbols from the chapel at Forward Operating Base Orgun-E came after a solider complained — leading American Atheists president David Silverman to send a letter to the Pentagon. (snip) “The local command in Afghanistan is aware of this chapel and has taken appropriate action to ensure that it is changed into a neutral facility,” said a statement from an Army spokesman at the Pentagon...

Yes, women in combat. Women, who can’t figure out how to go to the Target pharmacy and $9/month birth control, will be gunning down terrorists. Women, who think that telling them to buy their own birth control, cupcake, is a “war on women,” will be seeing actual combat. Women who complain about a “rape culture” want girls out into the front lines as rape-bait if captured by the enemy (and those front lines will be six thousand miles away from the nearest Planned Parenthood clinic). The same people who think that it’s a right wing nutjob idea for women teachers...

Defense: As sequestration looms and an advocate of military budget cuts prepares to be confirmed as Secretary of Defense, the Army reports that it will have to cut base operations by almost a third, jeopardizing its missions. 'The readiness of our Armed Forces is at a tipping point," Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey wrote to Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in a Jan. 14 letter also signed by the chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. The letter was written as the Pentagon braces for a looming...

How bad will the cuts to defense spending affect the military readiness of the US? The Pentagon has begun to game out the impact of another round of steep cuts, and even fly-overs at public events will feel the slice of the axe. More importantly, Army base operations will get reduced by 30%, and military leaders are warning of a "hollow force" with a mandate that cannot possibly be met: Bracing for the possibility of steep congressionally mandated budget cuts, senior military officials have issued directives for fiscal retrenchment that include a 30 percent cut for Army base operations this...

Honolulu (AP) - A Schofield Barracks soldier was shot and killed by police early Tuesday after he repeatedly rammed multiple police cars with his truck in Waikiki. Several police officers were injured in the incident. The 25th Infantry Division said in a statement that it's cooperating with the Honolulu Police Department as officers investigate. The unit won't release the soldier's name until his family members are notified. "This is an incredibly tragic incident, and we offer our condolences to the soldier's family and to the officers injured," Lt. Col. Derrick Cheng, spokesman for the 25th Infantry Division, said in a...

It apparently takes more than a few good men, according to the U.S. Marine Corps. It takes all kinds of people to support military families, including same-sex spouses of service members. CNN published a story this week about a woman married to a female lieutenant colonel at Fort Bragg who believes she was rejected from an officers' spouse club because she's gay. Less than a day later, Maj. Gen. Vaughn Ary advised Marine Corps legal staff such clubs conducting business on its bases must admit same-same spouses. If they do not, the clubs will be barred from meeting on any...

To the editor: A recent editorial called for unlimited gun ownership to defend against the government. I hear this argument a lot, but what good is your AR-15 when you're fighting the full force of the United States military? All they have to do is drop a smart bomb on your house from high above and you're done. You wouldn't even see it coming. Alternatively, they could simply run over your house with a Kevlar-plated M1 Abrams tank, or shell your dwelling from cannons positioned far away. I support the right to bear arms to protect your home and family...