Free Republic

A 20-year-old Kansas man plotted to kill American soldiers with a vehicle bomb at the Fort Riley military base, an attack he planned to carry out on behalf of the ISIS terror group, prosecutors announced Friday. John T. Booker, also known as Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, was arrested as part of a lengthy FBI investigation. Federal authorities said he was arrested near the army base in Manhattan, Kansas, as he completed final preparations to detonate the bomb, which had, in fact, been rendered inert while he was under FBI surveillance. “As alleged in the complaint, John Booker attempted to attack U.S....

A former Green Beret officer who was stripped of one of the military’s top awards for heroism by the Army secretary will soon face a panel of officers that can throw him out of the service, according to the officer’s lawyer and Army officials. Army Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn will face an administrative hearing known as a board of inquiry the week of May 18, according to a memorandum sent March 26 by the panel’s top officer, Col. Stuart Goldsmith. It is believed the board will review evidence against Golsteyn in the 2010 death of a Taliban bomb maker that...

Six more female soldiers have qualified to attend Army Ranger School later this month after passing the same physical fitness standards as men, including six pull-ups, 49 push-ups in two minutes, 59 sit-ups in two minutes and a five-mile run in 40 minutes, Army officials said Wednesday. The six additional women, all of them officers, will join at least six other female soldiers who have passed the Ranger Training Assessment Course that qualified them to attend the first gender-integrated Ranger School course that will begin April 20 and last for two months.

Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division will deploy to Iraq in support of Operation Inherent Resolve this summer. About 500 paratroopers from the division headquarters will leave in June for a nine-month deployment, Fort Bragg said in a news release. Paratroopers will have a contingent in Iraq. Other paratroopers will be based outside Iraq in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. The division will serve as the Combined Joint Forces Land Component Command-Iraq and provide command and control of coalition troops who are training, advising and assisting Iraqi Security Forces. The 1st Infantry Division of Fort Riley, Kansas, is...

White privilege is not a thing.Mentioning those two words in a time when America is more diverse than it has ever been is a red herring. White privilege is a topic so easily defeated that liberals simply entertain the notion just to bring up how racist white America still is in their eyes.It’s a deflection of the real problems we currently face – illegal immigration, 93 million not in the workforce, Iran, etc.The left wants it to be true, but their failed attempts on the subject never manifest into coherent logic. It’s the victim mentality. “Oh poor me, I can’t seem to...

Some designs are just too good to die. The Hughes 369, or the OH-6 Cayuse when in uniform, is one of them. After 50 years of production, the “Little Bird” as it is known in Spec Ops circles, has reached a new level of capability with the AH-6i, which may soon get its baptism by fire at the hands of Saudi pilots in the skies above Yemen. The AH-6i is one smart, nimble, observant, and heavily armed little battle chopper. It takes the best parts of the AH-6M Little Bird operated by the 160th SOAR 'Nightstalkers' and infuses it with...

Chelsea Manning, the transgender Army private imprisoned for exposing national security secrets, has joined Twitter with the help from a communications firm. The company, Fitzgibbon Media, confirmed that it is handling Manning's account, @xychelsea, posting messages she dictates by phone and telling her about the responses. Her introductory post went up Friday afternoon. She finished the day with seven more, thanking friends and supporters, expressing the effort it takes to Tweet by phone from prison, and promising "I don't want this Twitter feed to be a one-way street/conversation." By Friday evening she had more than 20,000 followers. Manning revealed her...

If Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl were convicted of “misbehavior before the enemy” a century ago, he might also have been subject to a humiliating send-off. His sword might be broken or his insignia ripped from his uniform in front of his unit. Along with desertion, Bergdahl was accused last month of violating the little-understood Article 99 of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice — misbehavior before the enemy — for abandoning his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and thereby endangering his unit. Although desertion cases are not uncommon, few military lawyers have ever prosecuted, or defended, a misbehavior before the enemy...

Hi everybody, I’m Bill Whittle and this is the Firewall. Let’s just assume for a moment that you’re a radical, left-wing zealot, who was raised by actual communists, and who, naturally enough views the United States military as the tool of capitalist exploitation and colonial racism. Now, further assume that through a perfect storm of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, fate, money, power and media bias somehow conspired to make you Commander in Chief of those same armed forces. What would you do? You couldn’t very well scuttle 11 carrier strike groups. You can’t just destroy entire...

WASHINGTON — U.S. Army Special Operations Command is pushing back against alarmist claims that an upcoming U.S. military exercise is a preparation for imposing martial law or subduing right-leaning groups and individuals. Conspiracy theories about the exercise, known as JADE HELM 15, appeared online this week. Some commentators railing against the event referred to an online slide show allegedly created by USASOC, which outlined a special operations exercise slated to take place across multiple states, outside the confines of U.S. military bases. In the slide show, a map of the southwest region of the United States labels Texas and other...

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who abandoned his post in Afghanistan and was held captive for five years by the Taliban, was charged Wednesday by the U.S. military with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy and could get life in prison if convicted. The misbehavior charge could land Bergdahl in prison for life, though some legal experts said a lengthy sentence was unlikely. He also could be dishonorably discharged and forfeit all his pay if convicted on either charge. Next, an Article 32 hearing — similar to a civilian grand jury proceeding — will be held at Fort Sam Houston in...

He will be charged with desertion among other charges.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier who was recovered in Afghanistan last spring after five years in captivity, faces charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, according to his lawyer.

The Army’s Fort Hood Disgrace No one who supervised the shooter has been held to account, but the victims are denied pay and benefits. By Kathy Platoni March 19, 2015 7:08 p.m. ET 257 COMMENTS It was more than five years ago that the gunshots rang out, but those of us who survived can still hear their echoes. On Nov. 5, 2009, an Army psychiatrist named Nidal Hasan—an American radicalized by extremist Islamic beliefs—opened fire on his fellow soldiers in Fort Hood, Texas, killing 14 people, including an unborn child, and wounding 32. I was there. A beloved friend, Capt....

Colorado's National Guard boss, Maj. Gen. H. Michael Edwards, describes the relationship between state Guard leaders and Army brass as broken, saying the two entities are giving each other the silent treatment over budget battles. "The relationship is not good and it is sad," said Edwards, an Air Force officer who reports to Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper rather than the Pentagon. Tensions are high over Army proposals to strip the Guard of attack helicopters and shave the Army Guard's ranks by 8,000 troops to save cash. Army leaders were a no-show at a gathering of top National Guard commanders in...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-03-12/can-231-445-people-who-want-tom-cotton-tried-for-treason-be-wrong-yes-

<p>Search-and-rescue crews are looking for seven Marines and four soldiers after an Army helicopter crashed late Tuesday during a routine night training exercise in the Florida Panhandle.</p> <p>Eglin Air Force Base spokesman Andy Bourland told the Associated Press that the helicopter was reported missing at around 8:30 p.m. local time and crews found debris from the crash at around 2 a.m. Wednesday.</p>

A change in policy issued by the Army Friday evening will make it harder to dismiss transgender soldiers, according to advocate groups. Various media outlets reported on the new directive. “The Army issued a directive Friday that protects transgender soldiers from being dismissed by mid-level officers by requiring the decision for discharge to be made by the service’s top civilian for personnel matters,” reported USA Today. “The Army’s new policy is the latest indication that the military’s ban on transgender troops may be eased or even lifted.” USA Today was the first news outlet to report the possibility of a...

Leonard Nimoy—the famed actor synonymous with Star Trek’s iconic Mr. Spock—died on Feb. 27. He leaves behind two children, a storied career and one of the most recognizable characters in pop culture. He’s also a reminder of a different era in America—the years after World War II when the military was more connected to the public, and when it wasn’t so strange for an actor to be a soldier at the same time. In the early ’50s, Nimoy was just another hungry actor with parents who worried he’d never have a real job. So he did what a lot of...

The US Army Still Trains For Trench Warfare Even in an era of combat aircraft, tanks, and an endless array of technological advances, the US Army still trains troops in the tactics of trench warfare. And sometimes they go to Poland to do it. It may sound archaic, but the truth is that while trench warfare – and the horrors that go along with it – are more closely identified with World War I, the practice has continued throughout the last century. During WWII, Russia was well known for its use of trench warfare as a defensive measure. The outcome...