Free Republic

NDO/VNA – The tank team of the Vietnam People’s Army beat Tajikistan, Myanmar and Uganda, ranking first in the semi-final round of Group 2 of the “Tank biathlon” event on August 11 at the ongoing Army Games 2019 in Russia. The Vietnamese team finished in 2 hours 39 minutes 34 seconds. With the excellent performance, Vietnam are likely to secure a berth in the final round, but still waiting the results of the remaining teams of Group 2 – Uzbekistan, Laos, Cuba and Kuwait – which will compete on August 13. The team had an impressive performance at the round...

As the Army, Navy and other services contend with a thriving economy and a directive to expand their ranks, there is a growing debate over whether the military should consider lowering the minimum enlistment age from 17 to 16. More than a dozen countries, including the United Kingdom, already have adopted the policy. Critics say the idea is deeply flawed and presents a host of societal problems, but supporters argue that the Pentagon needs to think outside the box if it wants to continually overcome one of the toughest recruiting environments in decades.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) – A Fort Stewart soldier is in military police custody after an explosive outburst that took place in a local mall parking lot. In the video, the man can be seen yelling profanity and even twisting the arm of the woman he was with. The man, who military police say is a member of the 3rd Infantry Division (ID), was dressed in full uniform. At one point in the video, he even uses profanity to criticize the country. Officials at the 3rd ID said the incident, which has been viewed over 300,000 times on social media, is...

BUTLER COUNTY — Stevie Rose never met her uncle, Roger Lee Woods, but through the letters he mailed to his father, she understood what was going through his mind during the Korean War. Twice in his hand-written letters, Woods asked about his sister, JoAnn, and the baby she was carrying. That girl was Rose, who was born in April 1950, one month after one of the letters arrived. “That’s when I realized I was part of this story,” she said. Army Pfc. Woods, a native of Hamilton County, was last seen on July 29, 1950. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency...

Astrophotographer Ralf Vandebergh captured an image of the US Air Force's X-37B space plane in orbit. The reusable, uncrewed space vehicle, designated OTV-5, is on a secret testing mission since its launch in September 2017. From Vandebergh's post at Spaceweather.com: Images were taken through a 10 inch F/4,8 aperture Newtonian telescope with an Astrolumina ALccd 5L-11 mono CMOS camera. Tracking was fully manually through a 6x30 finderscope.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Ahead of Trump's planned July 4 military parade, several dozen Imperial walkers began to arrive in Washington throughout the week. The AT-ATs were dropped off by U.S. Space Force Star Destroyers just outside the city and then slowly marched toward the capital (rather than being dropped right next to their target, for some reason). Military bands solemnly played the Imperial March in honor of their arrival. Trump was seen at the White House, pointing excitedly at the looming all-terrain armored transports through an Oval Office window. "Wow, look at those guys!" he said while gleefully clapping his hands. "Do...

Shortened title. Full title: National Assn of Scholars backs Raymond Ibrahim against Muslim pressure group in open letter to President Trump The National Association of Scholars (NAS), "the leading organization of scholars and citizens committed to higher education as the catalyst of American freedom," has come forth in my support and written an open letter to the president of the United States. The signatories call President Trump's attention to the U.S. Army War College's recent capitulation to CAIR and Linda Sarsour and "urge you to use the 'bully pulpit' of the presidency to call on USAWC Commandant Gen. John Kem...

The House Armed Services Committee is preparing a budget mark-up statement that would restore funding for planned upgrades to Army Chinook CH-47F helicopters at Boeing Corp.'s Ridley Township military aircraft factory for at least a year, and urge Army leaders to commit to the program in the long term. In a statement, obtained by The Inquirer, the committee complains that the military’s Future Years Defense Program doesn’t fund “Block II” Chinook upgrades, as the previous year’s budget did. So it is asking for an extra $28 million to keep the upgrade program active during the next five years, adding that...

Decorated Iraq War Veteran and WBEN talk show host David Bellavia will be awarded with the Medal of Honor. Bellavia will receive the Medal of Honor on June 25 in a ceremony at the White House. Bellavia is already a highly decorated veteran and was awarded the Silver Star for his actions during the Second Battle of Fallujah. Bellavia has also received the Bronze Star, three Army Commendation Medals, two Army Achievement Medals and the New York State Conspicuous Service Cross. Bellavia enlisted in the Army in July 1999 and deployed to Iraq after serving in Kosovo. His perspective on...

Brig. Gen. Laura Yeager will make history later this month when she becomes the first woman to command a U.S. Army Infantry Division. Yeager, a former Black Hawk helicopter pilot who deployed to Iraq, will assume command of the California National Guard's 40th Infantry Division during a ceremony in Los Alamitos, California, on June 29, according to a news release from the California Guard . . . Outside of her own career trajectory, Yeager is familiar with military leadership. Her father, Ret. Maj. Gen. Robert Brandt, was also a helicopter pilot who served two tours during the Vietnam War and...

The U.S. Army issued a tweet ahead of Memorial Day weekend with a question for service members and veterans: "How has serving impacted you?" Among the thousands of responses: harrowing tales of trauma, depression and sexual assault. In a thread, an Army tweet that preceded the question featured a video by Pfc. Nathan Spencer, a scout with the Army's First Infantry Division. In the video, Spencer says, "To serve something greater than myself. The Army's afforded me the opportunity to do just that, to give to others, to protect the ones I love, and to better myself as a man...

The U.S. Army’s newest tank in the summer of 2019 should enter service with the first large unit to use the type. The Army in late 2017 accepted the very first M-1A2C Abrams tanks. Nearly two years later the service has enough of the new vehicles to equip an entire brigade. “We’re in the throes of getting that together,” Hank Kennedy, a manager at General Dynamics’ tank plant in Lima Ohio, told Lima News.

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." —Winston Churchill As we do on this day each year, we pause to remember the men and women who died fighting for our freedom. We stand by humbly, gratefully, silently, to honor their sacrifice.We remember…We mourn for those lost…And we mourn for those they’ve left behind…As we reflect once again on the the steep price of freedom.By all means, enjoy your picnics, parades and celebrations today – it is a holiday after all. But do pause to remember and honor all the...

The successor of Kashmiri terrorist Burhan Wani, Zakir Musa has been eliminated by security forces in an encounter in Tral, reports India Today. The police said that the identities of the terrorists killed have still not been verified. An encounter ensued between terrorists and the security forces in Dadsara village of Tral in Pulwama district in south Kashmir on Thursday evening. Trapped, the chief of Ansar Gazwatul Hind, Musa, died in the gun-battle. Divisional Commissioner Baseer Ahmad Khan informed that the schools and colleges across the Kashmir division will remain closed tomorrow (24 May) as a precautionary measure. Zakir Musa,...

MARACAIBO/PUNTO FIJO (Reuters) - Soldiers oversaw rationing of gasoline at service stations in several parts of Venezuela on Sunday as worsening fuel shortages forced angry drivers to wait for hours to fill their tanks, prompting protests in some areas. Venezuela, whose economy is reeling from a five-year recession amid a prolonged political crisis, saw long lines of vehicles appear at services stations in several regions this week after a shutdown at the OPEC nation’s second-largest refinery. Shortages have been exacerbated by tough U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) in January, which have slashed crude...

Need advice. I have a grandson in law who was discharged from the Army about a year or so ago. He'd spent a year in Korea, and then spent a year in poland. He received extra pay for his time in Poland. Now, the Army is demanding that extra pay back saying he was never in Poland. His discharge papers say otherwise, and he also has photographs of himself while there. He protested their error and told them about his papers, and tje woman he spoke with said she didn't care what HIS papers say, the Army says he wasn't...

The U.S. Army has unveiled a new uniform designed to look like the iconic green suits used by officers during World War II. The design choice was intentional, copying the old green gabardine wool field coat and khaki trousers worn by officers in the 40s, a nod to the service's finest hour. 'We went back and asked, when is the most prominent time when the Army’s service to our nation was universally recognized, and the answer came very quickly,' sergeant major of the Army Daniel A. Dailey said to the New York Times.

EUFAULA, Ala. (WRBL) - Former Delta Force Commander and retired Major General Eldon A. Bargewell has died, age 72, Barbour County Coroner Chip Chapman confirmed. Bargewell died in a lawnmower accident at his Eufaula, Ala., home on Monday. Bargewell was pronounced dead at 9:36 p.m. CDT, following when a lawnmower rolled over an embankment behind his house on Barbour creek, said Chapman. He was an American soldier who fought on the nation's battlefields from Vietnam to Afghanistan.\ Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Jeff Mellinger has known Bargewell for 45 years. "I remember in 1974 as a young Ranger in the still-forming...

Fleets of tanks lined up among a pool of military trucks. Fatigues hung from clothing lines, airplanes waited to propel into action at the edge of an airfield while cannons and crates of munitions stacked high waited to be loaded onto camouflaged jeeps. Radio signals picked up by the Axis Power intelligence community confirmed what Nazi reconnaissance planes saw while flying overhead: the United States Army's 23rd Headquarters Special Troops was a robust, thriving, battalion of 30,000 men ready for action. What the Nazis didn't know is that they were being duped. The tanks, airplanes, munitions and jeeps were in...

The Department of Justice announced Monday the arrest of a former U.S. Army infantryman who is accused of plotting a "mass casualty" terrorist attack at a white nationalist rally in Long Beach, California over the weekend. Agents arrested the suspect, Mark Steven Domingo of Reseda, California, on Friday evening after an undercover source for the FBI sent the suspect what he believed was a live bomb that he could use to carry out his attack. "This investigation successfully disrupted a very real threat posed by a trained combat soldier who repeatedly stated he wanted to cause the maximum number of...