Free Republic

The Army wants a contractor to conduct detailed social media data mining to “identify violent extremist influences” around the world that could affect the European Command, responsible for operations in Europe as well as Iceland, Israel, Greenland and Russia. Though the project is classified Secret, an Army contract shop in Europe posted a wealth of information on the FedBizOps contract website Tuesday. The data mining contract, which has the very long title of “Social Media Data-mining, Localized Research, Market Audience Analysis, and Narrowcast Engagement Requirements,” will support both the European Command and Special Operations Command Europe. In its request for...

Ohio National Guard stages drill fighting fictional “right-wing terrorists” Robert Spencer Feb 10, 2014 Useful idiots They had a drill fighting left-wing terrorists last year, until leftists complained, whereupon they apologized. Meanwhile, no one would even dare to suggest that they hold a drill involving fighting against Islamic jihadists. Everyone knows that Islam is a Religion of Peace and that Tiny Minority of Extremists that has hijacked it is nowhere near Ohio, right? Well, there was Nuradin Abdi, who in August 2002 planned a jihad attack against an Ohio shopping mall. And Abdullah Mohammed Muslim, an Ohio Muslim who trained...

As Capt. Tom Davis stands at the tailgate of the military cargo plane, the night air sweeps through the hold. His eyes search the black terrain 1,200 feet below. He grips the canvas of his reserve parachute and takes a deep breath. Davis and the men who make up his Special Forces A-team are among the most highly trained soldiers in the U.S. Army. It's 1972, and Davis isn't far removed from a tour in Vietnam, where he operated along the Cambodian border. His communications sergeant served in Command and Control North, which was responsible for some of the most...

WASHINGTON — The Army is conducting an investigation into large-scale fraud tied to an Army recruitment program, Sen. Claire McCaskill, the head of the Senate Subcommittee on Financial and Contracting Oversight, disclosed Monday, a day before she held a hearing on the scandal. Investigators have found that $29 million in taxpayer money has been lost to fraud, but that number could increase to nearly $100 million by the time the probe is over, Maj. Gen. David Quantock, the Commanding General of U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, told lawmakers at the hearing Tuesday. The Recruiting Assistance Program began in 2005 at...

More than 1,200 people are under investigation for a US military recruitment fraud during the Iraq war, officials say. Two generals and dozens of colonels are implicated in the alleged scheme, in which referral fees were illegally collected for recruiting soldiers.

Capt. Tejdeep Singh Rattan, a 31-year-old dentist, has become the first turbaned officer in a generation to graduate from the U.S. Army’s officer basic training program. Rattan graduated from Fort Sam Houston after securing an exception from the Army’s uniform policy, which since 1981 has barred conspicuous religious articles of faith, such as headgears and beards. An official link: http://usarmy.vo.llnwd.net/e2/-images/2010/12/09/94230/

Army Brigadier General Martin P. Schweitzer received a "memoranda of concern" following a lurid set of emails between him and another general, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Schweitzer was briefing Brigadier Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair on a recent meeting he had with tea party Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.) in 2011. From WaPo: “First — she is smoking hot,” Schweit­zer wrote. “Second — briefing went well . . . she was engaging . . . had done her homework. She wants us to know she stands with us and will work/push to get the Fort Bragg family resourced.”

Defense: Budget cuts, sequestration and indifference to maintaining what was once "the arsenal of democracy" have led to units that are not deployment-ready and soldiers with weapons their grandfathers could have used. The standing ovation given at the State of the Union to Sgt. 1st Class Cory Remsburg, seriously wounded in an Afghan war that his commander in chief did not believe was winnable, was well deserved. It also served as a tribute to all the heroes we send into battle, particularly under rules of engagement that often make the proverbial "one hand tied behind your back" a preferable option....

I need help on finding free records of my grandfather who fought in world war 2 and the Korean war.

This video of actual combat in Afghanistan will make you smile and make you angry. It will make you smile because it follows the work of two Apache helicopter crews as they destroy a nest of Tally –ban troops who were trying to set up an ambush of a Special Forces patrol. It will make you angry because it...

An opera diva claims her career might be over — because she can’t belt out big notes without passing gas. Singer Amy Herbst is suing an Army hospital over allegedly botching a procedure that’s forced her off stage with chronic incontinence and flatulence. The opera performer and her hubby, US Army Staff Sgt. James Herbst, are plaintiffs in the federal complaint against Fort Campbell’s Blachfiled Army Community Hospital in Kentucky.

Lt. Tyler Tessman awoke in the desert one day this week with two problems. He had to rethink a tough training mission that stacked the odds against his Joint Base Lewis-McChord Stryker platoon. And he had to consider the possibility that his team might be grounded before he could even start on the battle plan. Three of the four Strykers vehicles in his platoon were immobilized — one from too many busted tires, one from a broken axle and one from an assortment of safety issues that made it undrivable.

Unwarranted NSA surveillance, the passage of NDAA, stop and frisk programs, and the rise of warrior cops, have essentially turned America into a centralized police state. Blurring the lines between the U.S. military and local sheriff departments sets a dangerous precedent that erodes freedom and civil liberties.Those lines are being blurred right now in South Carolina.According to The State, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department will participate in secretive joint exercise Monday and Tuesday with unnamed units from Ft. Bragg.The drills are scheduled to run up to midnight on both days and occur primarily in Lower Richland, around Hopkins and Eastover....

Sgt. Richard A. Darvial and Spc. Corey C. Canterbury, Bayonet Company, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, Task Force No Slack, fire mortar rounds from a ridge overlooking the Ganjgal Valley in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar Province. Dec. 2010.U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Mark Burrell.

UK armed forces cuts will limit the country's ability to be a major player on the world stage, ex-US defence secretary Robert Gates has warned. The UK plans to cut 30,000 armed forces personnel by 2020, leaving 147,000. ...On the UK's military cuts, Mr Gates told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "With the fairly substantial reductions in defence spending in Great Britain, what we're finding is that it won't have full spectrum capabilities and the ability to be a full partner as they have been in the past." The spectrum refers to the ability of a country's military to fight...

RCP77, (2nd Platoon, A Co., 2/34 BSTB, 2nd BCT, 34th ID) clearing a route east of FOB Mehtlar Lam, Laghman Province. June 2011.Submitted by the photographer, Sgt. Chuck Soliday, U.S. Army.

Since Barack Obama has been in the White House, high ranking military officers have been removed from their positions at a rate that is absolutely unprecedented. Things have gotten so bad that a number of retired generals are publicly speaking out about the “purge” of the U.S. military that they believe is taking place. As you will see below, dozens of highly decorated military leaders have been dismissed from their positions over the past few years. So why is this happening? When I was growing up, my father was an officer in the U.S. Navy. And what is going on...

U.S. Army Soldiers from Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, engage enemy forces during Operation Moshtarak in Badula Qulp, Afghanistan. Feb 2010.DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Efren Lopez, U.S. Air Force.

U.S. Army Col. Benjamin J. Corell, Task Force Red Bulls commander, takes cover as a UH-60 Blackhawk lands upon a mountaintop during Operation Bull Whip in Laghman province, Afghanistan. March 2011.U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Erick Saks.

"It is with a heavy heart that I come to you all asking for assistance. The Warfighter community received a message yesterday that could not go unnoticed. A young spouse of one of our Brothers passed away at the young age of 24. They have transported her back to Maryland for her viewing and funeral. They do not have any close family and there will be little to no emotional support for the Soldier in his darkest hour. I ask that if you are in the Lansdowne Maryland area or know anyone around there please go show your support and...