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A federal judge has slammed Miami-Dade County for knocking down the home of an active United States soldier. The county sent a number of violation notices. The US Army Staff Sergeant said he was doing what he could while fighting overseas, but the county demolished his home anyway. All that is left is an empty field with a tattered American flag and a sign that says: “This is how the U.S. Government thanks the service of an active army soldier.” CBS4 spoke with Sergeant First Class Jesus Jimenez who’s now stationed in Texas about what happened to his home. “That...

About 550 Army majors, including some serving in Afghanistan, will soon be told they have to leave the service by next spring as part of a budget-driven downsizing of the service. Gen. John Campbell, the vice chief of the Army, acknowledged Friday that telling troops in a war zone that they're out of a job is a difficult task

The Army has selected a new camouflage pattern to begin fielding next year, an unidentified senior Army spokesperson announced in a statement late Thursday. “The Army has confirmed through testing that the pattern would offer exceptional concealment, which directly enhances force protection and survivability for Soldiers,” according to the statement from the Army. The pattern will be used in all combatant commands, including Afghanistan, the Army said. Uniforms and equipment with the existing pattern won’t be discarded, but replaced only as they wear out. The pattern was developed by the Army under the name Scorpion W2 to replace the much-maligned...

A German Army brigadier general who recently served with NATO forces in Afghanistan is assuming duties as the chief of staff of U. S. Army Europe, the first time a non-American officer has held that position.

A German Army General has been appointed to Chief of Staff of U.S. Army Europe. This is the first time a non-U.S. officer has held this position.

The Army says it will soon notify 550 majors that they must leave the service by next spring as part of a budget-driven downsizing of the service. Some of those soldiers will get the bad news while they are on the front lines in Afghanistan. The Army has close to 514,000 soldiers now, but due to budget cuts must be down to 510,000 by October, and down to 490,000 by October 2015.

An independent panel appointed by the Pentagon and Congress said Thursday that President Obama’s strategy for sizing the armed services is too weak for today’s global threats. The National Defense Panel called on the president to dump a major section of his 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and write a broader strategy that requires the military to fight on multiple fronts at once. It also said the shrinking U.S. armed forces, which are being downsized to fit that strategy and budget cuts, is a “serious strategic misstep on the part of the United States.” The forces’ numbers spelled out in...

A German Army brigadier general who recently served with NATO forces in Afghanistan is assuming duties as the chief of staff of U. S. Army Europe, the first time a non-American officer has held that position.

For weeks, the Army has been taking a verbal beating for sending “pink slips” to officers while they were deployed. It was no joke or Internet rumor, either: About 1,100 captains received notice last month that they would be required to leave active duty within a year as the service shrinks, and some of them were in Afghanistan and other volatile areas. Reaction was swift. It was a “stunning display of callousness,” one Army veteran wrote earlier this month in the New York Daily News. It was an “outrageous and and heartless way to ‘thank’ combat veterans,” responded one writer...

Of the more than 1,100 Army captains notified last month their military careers would soon end, 87 were deployed worldwide and 48 were serving in Afghanistan at the time, Army officials said Wednesday. The Army has been talking for months about the need to separate the captains as well as more than 500 majors this summer as part of the broad Army drawdown, but it’s the first time details have emerged about the sobering business of delivering pink slips to troops in harm’s way.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's attorney, Eugene Fidell, has apparently been retained to launch a hyper-partisan political campaign against Fox News. The Army has not charged Bergdahl with anything. According to some news reports, the Army hasn't even begun investigating Bergdahl. Nonetheless, one of Fidell's first media appearances was with the Huffington Post where he vilified Fox News for vilifying his client: “It’s very unfortunate that Fox News has an opportunity to use this case in an effort to stir up the base, use this in an effort to vilify my client, who everybody knows has gone through a terrible five-year long...

by Jason DeWitt | Top Right NewsAt a military funeral this weekend in Florida, a couple of Marines confronted a man dressed in a U.S. Army dress uniform. The back-and-forth, in West Palm Beach on Sunday, started off well enough, with polite questions about his medals and ribbons.  Then the Marines started to real suspicious of the self-proclaimed “sergeant major.” WATCH:

At a military funeral this weekend in West Palm Beach, Florida, a couple of possibly retired Marines confronted a man dressed in a U.S. Army dress uniform. At first the conversation, posted on the Facebook page U.S Army W.T.F! moments, is cordial, then the Marines started to get suspicious of the alleged “sergeant major.” During the conversation, the Marines catch him in one too many lies about everything from violating uniform code to wearing the wrong ribbons and medals. The man also called himself a sergeant major, a military policeman, and a special forces operator. He also claims to have...

The USA fired its last above-ground nuclear test at a test site in Nevada on this day, 17 July, in 1962. The operation was a culmination exercise that brought together nuclear warhead tests (code-named Little Feller, as a nod to the W54 warhead’s light weight and low yield) and nuclear weapons employment maneuvers code-named Ivy Flats. The test was a pretty-much full-spectrum test of an actual tactical nuke, and a very unusual one — a nuclear infantry weapon called the Davy Crockett. A lot of tripe is written about the Davy Crockett, including that it could not fire a projectile...

The Army wants to retire its supply of 9mm handguns and replace it with a more accurate and user-friendly model that also will provide soldiers with more “knock-down” power. Army officials say their inventory of more than 200,000 semi-automatic Beretta M9 and Sig Sauer M11 pistols has become outdated, worn out and needs to be replaced with an updated model that also offers more reliability and durability.

Iowa Senate candidate Joni Ernst will take a break from campaigning for two weeks to take part in active-duty training for the Iowa National Guard. But before lacing up her boots, Ernst was to record the Republicans' national radio address, the Republican National Committee said Friday. Ernst, a lieutenant colonel and state senator from southwest Iowa, recorded the speech Thursday evening just hours before she was scheduled to report for duty at 6 a.m. From central Iowa Ernst was leading a convoy to Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, where for the next two weeks she will drill with her transportation battalion....

In a stunning display of callousness, the Defense Department has announced that thousands of soldiers — many serving as commanding officers in Afghanistan — will be notified in the coming weeks that their service to the country is no longer needed. Last week, more than 1,100 Army captains — the men and women who know best how to fight this enemy because they have experienced multiple deployments — were told they’ll be retired from the Army. The overall news is not unexpected. The Army has ended its major operations in Iraq and is winding down in Afghanistan. Budget cuts are...

"Soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have complained that the 9mm round is not powerful enough to be effective in combat. “The 9mm doesn’t score high with soldier feedback,” said Easlick, explaining that the Army, and the other services, want a round that will have better terminal effects — or cause more damage — when it hits enemy combatants. One of the major goals of the MHS effort is to adopt a pistol chambered for a more potent round than the current 9mm, weapons officials said. ..."

HOUSTON - Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was a prisoner of war in Afghanistan for five years, has been allowed to venture off the Texas military base where he is receiving care as part of his "reintegration process" into society, a U.S. Army spokeswoman said Wednesday. Bergdahl has been allowed to go, with supervision, to a grocery store, restaurants, shopping centers and a library as part of the process of getting him comfortable with being out in public, Army spokeswoman Arwen Consaul said. **SNIP** He has not commented publicly on the circumstances of his disappearance, and the Army has made no...

According to the Obama Administration’s newly released National Climate Assessment, climate change is already impacting communities in every corner of the country, with an increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events – storms, floods, and droughts – and rising sea levels destabilizing the everyday lives of Americans. Worse, the impacts of these changes are accelerating, and they are affecting communities around the world. The Pentagon’s most recent Quadrennial Defense Review warns that “climate change may increase the frequency, scale and complexity of future missions.” Some of the least stable states in the world will face changing weather patterns that...