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WASHINGTON (RNS) More than two years after first making his request, Army Maj. Ray Bradley can now be known as exactly what he is: a humanist in the U.S. military.Ray Bradley listens during a planning meeting for the Central North Carolina Atheists and Humanists. Photo by John Nichols, courtesy of U.S. Army This image is available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow. “I’m able to self-identity the belief system that governs my life, and I’ve never been able to do that before,” said Bradley, who is stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and works on...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan summed up the armed federal standoff between agents with the Bureau of Land Management and cattle rancher Cliven Bundy, his family and his supporters: It was all over an unpaid bill. “You don’t send the Seventh Cavalry to collect a bill, and that’s exactly what happened,” he told Sean Hannity on his radio show Monday. He went on, Breitbart reported: “And when they put all those forces out there — that’s what attracted all the others, the history of what happened at Waco, Ruby Ridge. And so these folks came to that rancher’s defense. But the...

After the 9/11 attacks, tens of thousands of young men and women joined the military, heading for the rugged mountains of Afghanistan and dusty deserts of Iraq. Many of them now are officers in the Army with multiple combat deployments under their belts. But as the wars wind down and Pentagon budgets shrink, a lot of them are being told they have to leave. It's painful and frustrating. In quiet conversations at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Eustis in Virginia, captains talk about their new worries after 15-month deployments in which they battled insurgents and saw roadside bombs...

For the first time, one of the three Army Ranger platoon mates who fired at Pat Tillman speaks publicly about what happened that fateful day, ten years ago this week. OLYMPIA, Wash. -- In his first public statements about the death of Pat Tillman, the former NFL player turned Army Ranger, one of the fellow Rangers involved in the 2004 friendly-fire incident in Afghanistan told ESPN's "Outside the Lines" he has lived for 10 years with the thought that he might have fired the fatal shots. "It is possible, in my mind, that I hit him," said Steven Elliott, who...

WASHINGTON — Former Army Sgt. Kyle J. White will be awarded the Medal of Honor on May 13, 2014, the White House announced late Tuesday afternoon. White will receive the nation's highest military award for his actions during a dismounted movement in mountainous terrain in Aranas, Afghanistan, on November 9, 2007. He was then serving as a Platoon Radio Telephone Operator assigned to C Company, 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade. White, who now works as an investment analyst in Charlotte, N.C., will be the seventh living recipient to be awarded the Medal of Honor for actions...

The National Guard is following a direct order — but it’s not happy with it. All of the Guard’s AH-64 Apache helicopters are scheduled to go to the active Army, and there’s nothing its top brass can do about it. “None of us like what we’re having to do,” National Guard Chief Gen. Frank Grass told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, the military website Defense One reported. “My big concern right now is figuring out how I’m going to move, and how many states I’m going to have an impact on, and what’s the cost of...

Black female lawmakers have now weighed in on an Army controversy over what one soldier calls “racially biased” hairstyle regulations. Sixteen female members of the Congressional Black Caucus signed a letter Thursday to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, stating that the changes are “discriminatory rules targeting soldiers who are women of color.” The rule in question, Army Regulation 670-1, bans hairstyles that require twists and dreadlocks, among other options preferred by minority soldiers. The Army contends that the grooming requirement is needed to “maintain uniformity.”

In his latest White House teleprompter reading on Tuesday, President Barack Obama railed against the alleged problem of pay inequality between male and female workers. He stated assertively at one point, "Equal pay for equal work, it's not that complicated." Obama also signed two more executive orders that are tangental to the issue. So assuming that Obama is a man of his word, it is fair to say that he is about to embark on his own latest 'war on women' and declare that female members of the U.S. Army should be paid less than their male counterparts. How can...

Washington (CNN) -- The U.S. Army's new ban on many types of ethnic hairstyles has African-American women who wear their coifs in dreadlocks, braids and cornrows in a twist. The Army's regulations stipulate such guidance as hair "must be of uniform dimension, small in diameter (approximately ¼ inch), show no more than 1/8 (inch) of the scalp between the braids." Dreadlocks "against the scalp or free-hanging" are banned. "Unkempt" or "matted" braids and cornrows are also considered dreadlocks and "are not authorized," according to the regulations that were updated this month. It's that type of language, words like "unkempt" and...

<p>The spree began in one building of the sprawling complex, where Lopez, who was 34, first pulled his .45-caliber Caliber Smith & Wesson handgun and killed one, injuring 10.</p> <p>"The deceased and one of wounded had been involved in the verbal altercation with subject," Grey said.</p>

by Gina Cassini | Top Right News Outrageous. Reckless. Senseless. That is what many military families are calling the continuing ban on concealed carry for servicemembers on U.S. military bases. Bases like Ft. Hood, where 3 brave members of our military were gunned down by an apparently mentally-compromised Spc. Ivan Lopez. And the outrage will only grow in light of a new shocking report that Lopez was able to remain free for 15 to 20 minutes -- more than enough time for him to kill 3 and wound 16 -- before finally being confronted by a military policewoman, whereupon he took...

Fort Hood gunman Ivan Lopez sought mental health treatment Published: April 3, 2014 7:05 AM By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FORT HOOD, Texas - An Iraq War veteran being treated for mental illness was the gunman who opened fire at Fort Hood, killing three people and wounding 16 others before committing suicide, in an attack on the same Texas military base where more than a dozen people were slain in 2009, authorities said.

EXCLUSIVE: The FBI is searching for a recent Army recruit believed to be planning a "Fort Hood-inspired jihad against U.S. soldiers," FoxNews.com has learned. The alert, whose legitimacy was confirmed by military and law enforcement officials, stated that a man identified as Booker had told friends of his "intention to commit jihad." Booker, who is also known as Muhammad Abdullah Hassan, was recruited by the U.S. Army in Kansas City, Mo., in February 2014 and was scheduled to report for basic training on April 7. But he was discharged last week, apparently after law enforcement authorities learned of his alleged...

MSNBC loves to find a racial controversy in the most unexpected of places and on Wednesday’s NewsNation, anchor Tamron Hall seized a golden opportunity to do just that. Hall brought on Sgt. Jasmine Jacobs, a soldier who started a White House petition asking the president to force the U.S. Army to reconsider its updated appearance and grooming regulations. [T]he U.S. Army just released its updated appearance and grooming regulations and it's drawing sharp criticism for rules many say unfairly target African-American women's hair... [O]ne of the rules which only applies to women is a ban on twists, dreadlocks, and multiple...

The proposed move will take the Pentagon from the banks of the Potomac River to northwest Kansas. WASHINGTON (April 1, 2010) -- Top Army officials unveiled plans early today to relocate the massive Pentagon building to the western part of Kansas sometime this summer. "This move will be a huge undertaking, but we determined it was a necessary step as we realign our force structure," said one of the Army's top generals. "Once we started investigating the possibility of the move, we determined that it was not only critical to our efforts, but that it would be good for our...

WATSON, LA (WAFB) - On a rainy Monday afternoon, the buzz of air-powered tools rattled through the garage at CSC Lifts, Liners, and Accessories. The experienced hands of Darrell Carmena applied just the right pressure to make the tools sing. It was a song he has played since he left the US Air Force in 1974. During the Vietnam era, Carmena re-skinned damaged aircraft with shiny new aluminum. These days, he turns small trucks into monsters. Carmena said the Ford F-350 on his rack that day is for a very special person. When he is finished, it will be a...

The U.S. Army is coming under fire for changes to its appearance and grooming standards, which some say discriminates against black women who wear their hair natural...Within and outside of the Army, women of color have been calling the guidelines racially biased. A White House petition has amassed more than 3,000 signatures to date requesting that the Army reconsider...Unauthorized hairstyles now include twists, dreadlocks, Afros and braids that are more than a quarter-inch thick – styles commonly worn by many African-American women...Army veteran "Tonya" [name has been changed to protect identity], who has dreadlocks...

Fort Jackson and the post’s local supporters are bracing for the possibility that 3,100 military and civilian jobs could be lost by the end of the decade. The cuts, which would eliminate more than 40% of Fort Jackson’s current workforce of 7,000 troops and civilians, could happen if Congress allows budget sequestration to resume in 2016, said Col. Dan Beatty, chief of staff at Fort Jackson. At Wednesday’s meeting of the S.C. Military Base Task Force, Beatty emphasized that no decision has been made and that the worst-case scenario is part of an Army study on how the potential personnel...

Behind closed doors the U.S. government is giving Russia free military equipment—also used to train American troops—even after President Obama announced punitive sanctions against Moscow and, more importantly, a suspension in military engagement over the invasion and occupation of Ukraine. The secret operation was exposed this week by members of Congress that discovered it in the process of reviewing the Fiscal Year 2014 budget and the proposed Fiscal Year 2015 budget request. It turns out that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has been providing the Russian Federation with the Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (MILES), the federal legislators say....

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