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Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., made the announcement in a statement, calling the woman's graduation from the Special Forces Qualification Course "an important and hard-earned milestone." "This achievement is a testament to this soldier's individual strength, courage and commitment, and also an important institutional milestone for U.S. Special Operations Command as it embraces the cultural change that will continue to make it the most successful and elite Special Operations Force in the world," Stefanik said. . . . In mid-June, the National Guard soldier finished the final requirement by making it through a culminating field exercise that drops candidates into a...

A pair of top Democrats has introduced a bill aimed at blocking President Trump’s plan to withdraw thousands of U.S. troops from Germany. The bill, introduced by Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) in their respective chambers, would prohibit funding to implement a withdrawal in Europe unless several conditions are met. “The current U.S. troop presence in Germany is in the U.S. national security interest. Full stop,” Menendez said in a statement. “The administration has made no effort to explain how our country is stronger because of this...

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he “will not even consider” renaming military bases like Fort Hood or Fort Bragg. But perhaps it is still worth considering the possibilities of offering recruits more truth in advertising via modern names. The following suggestions were sent in to us at The Federalist as potential solutions for this thorny problem: Fort I Just Wanted Tuition Assistance Fort 100% Promotion Rate Fort 24% Interest Rate On A Camaro Fort Distract Everyone With New Uniforms Fort We’ve Been Using The Same Small Arms For Fifty Years But The Navy Needs A New Carrier Fort Don’t...

It has been suggested that we should rename as many as 10 of our Legendary Military Bases, such as Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Benning in Georgia, etc. These Monumental and very Powerful Bases have become part of a Great American Heritage, and a history of Winning, Victory, and Freedom. The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these Hallowed Grounds, and won two World Wars. Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations. Our history as the Greatest Nation in the World will...

CHINA may be planning to genetically-modify its soldiers for an army of Terminator-style super troops, a defence think tank has warned. Experts at Rusi say GM soldiers could be faster, stronger and cleverer than their battlefield opponents and even feel no pain. Their DNA could also be adapted to help them recover more quickly from injuries or give them superior hearing and night vision. Rusi’s Professor John Louth said: “The threat is obvious and real. Chinese money could be stealing a march on western armed forces and that is deeply concerning.” The warning comes after Chinese scientist He Jiankui said...

A senior Army chaplain earlier this month emailed other chaplains the text of “Coronavirus and Christ,” a brief book by famed author, podcaster, and pastor John Piper. The command chaplain of U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys in South Korea, Col. Moon H. Kim, wrote in his email: “This book has helped me refocus my sacred calling to my savior Jesus Christ to finish strong. Hopefully this small booklet would help you and your Soldiers, their Families, and others who you serve.”This email and the attached book have led to complaints from 22 other chaplains, who’ve enlisted the help of the Military...

Top Pentagon officials late Sunday blasted The New York Times for a Memorial Day weekend editorial that criticized the military for naming bases after Confederate generals. The piece, titled “Why Does the U.S. Military Celebrate White Supremacy,” ran in Sunday’s print edition of the newspaper. It argued that “it is time to rename bases for American heroes — not racist traitors.” The editorial singled out Georgia’s Fort Benning, North Carolina’s Fort Bragg and other installations

The U.S. Army has reactivated V Corps, a unit of 635 soldiers that will bring more command and control support to missions in Europe, the service announced Tuesday. The unit will be based at Fort Knox, Ky., and will include a command post in Europe that will be supported by 200 rotational troops. The location of the Europe post hasn’t yet been announced. The headquarters is expected to be operational by the fall, the Army said. The corps was inactivated in 2013 as part of an Army force reduction in Europe. However, over the past five years as the Army...

Scientists at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) may be on the verge of discovering new COVID-19 antibodies capable of attaching onto and destroying the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, reports suggest. Researchers at the ARL and the University of Texas (UT) in Austin have been pushing to pursue technical innovations aimed at “discovering” and engineering new potentially “neutralizing” antibodies, reported Warrior Maven. Scientists at the ARL told the outlet that the “neutralizing” antibodies, if discovered, may potentially be life-saving for critically ill patients infected with COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP virus, a novel coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan,...

Two brothers from Boston, Lincolnshire, built an incredible, full-scale Second World War trench and bunker in their back garden during lockdown. Alfie Oglesbee, nine, and his big brother Jacob, 11, decided to construct their amazing creation just in time for the 75th anniversary of VE Day. The pair both love learning about the Second World War so they decided to find out all they could about the life of the soldiers and recreate it.

FREDERICK, Md. — In 2019, an Army laboratory at Fort Detrick that studies deadly infectious material like Ebola and smallpox was shut down for a period of time after a CDC inspection, with many projects being temporarily halted. The lab itself reported that the shutdown order was due to ongoing infrastructure issues with wastewater decontamination, and the CDC declined to provide the reason for the shutdown due to national security concerns. ABC7 has received documents from the CDC outlining violations they discovered during a series of inspections that year, some of which were labeled "serious." Earlier that year, the US...

Maatje Benassi, a US Army reservist and mother of two, has become the target of conspiracy theorists who falsely place her at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, saying she brought the disease to China. The false claims are spreading across YouTube every day, so far racking up hundreds of thousands of apparent views, and have been embraced by Chinese Communist Party media. Despite never having tested positive for the coronavirus or experienced symptoms, Benassi and her husband are now subjects of discussion on Chinese social media about the outbreak, including among accounts that are known drivers of large-scale coordinated...

Vortex’s entry to the Next Generation Squad Weapon-Fire Control (NGSW-FC) program is a 1-8x first focal plane optic with an integrated rangefinder and overlaid display. (Photos: Vortex) Wisconsin-based Vortex Optics announced Monday they have entered into an agreement with the U.S. Army an agreement to deliver an optic for evaluation as a component of the service’s Next Generation Squad Weapon. The contract between the Pentagon and Vortex is an Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreement, an award type traditionally used to fund innovative prototype procurement and development of forward-looking technology. Vortex said in a statement they will provide the Army with...

Military pensions are important, and it's natural that the agencies investing them would want to get them the best possible returns. But a new report from John Solomon's JustTheNews site suggests that something a little disturbing is going on: U.S. military and other federal pensions are apparently going to be invested Chinese entities if a new investment setup goes through. Christine Dolan of JustTheNews writes: In November 2017, FRTIB Chairman Michael Kennedy, who is Managing Director of Korn/Ferry International, and his board decided to change $50 billion in U.S. government retirement funds to a new global investment index known...

The hastily built field hospital set up by the Army in Seattle's pro football stadium is shutting down without ever seeing a patient, so the service can shift resources where they're more urgently needed, Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee said. Medical equipment at the CenturyLink Field Event Center is being returned to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for use elsewhere, but the governor cautioned against reading too much into the move. "Don't let this decision give you the impression that we are out of the woods," Inslee said in a statement Wednesday. "We have to keep our guard up and...

SANTA FE — In a telephone conversation between President Donald Trump and governors today, the president told Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham that he will grant her request for a U.S. Army field hospital in Albuquerque. The governor had asked the federal Department of Defense for the 248-bed hospital last week, citing concern about New Mexico hospitals’ ability to absorb a surge of novel coronavirus cases. During the phone call today, Lujan Grisham brought up the request and said her office had not yet received word on the hospital from U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper. In response, Trump told the governor...

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK - U.S. officials want to build hundreds of temporary hospitals across the country to cope with the thousands of new coronavirus cases being diagnosed daily after the United States endured its deadliest day yet on Monday with 575 fatalities. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which converted a New York convention center into a 1,000-bed hospital in the space of a week, is searching for hotels, dormitories, convention centers and large open space to build as many as 341 temporary hospitals, the chief of corps said on Tuesday. “The scope is immense,” Lieutenant General Todd Semonite of the...

The U.S. Army is asking retired soldiers who served in health care fields if they want to come back on active duty to help deal with the response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. "These extraordinary challenges require equally extraordinary solutions and that's why we're turning to you," wrote Lt. Gen. Thomas Seamands, deputy chief of staff for Human Resources Command, in an email sent to former service members on Wednesday. "When the Nation called, you answered, and now, that call may come again," Seamands wrote.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Retired soldiers with medical experience are being asked to volunteer to return to duty because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with emails suggesting they "re-join the team" being sent directly to former military members. Calling it a "voluntary recall," the U.S. Army "is reaching out to gauge the interest of our retired officers, noncommissioned officers and soldiers who would be willing to assist with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic response effort should their skills and expertise be required," said the email, which was first reported by TucsonSentinel.com.--snip--

Anxious to recapture "the patriotic solidarity of the German people during World War II," Chancellor Angela Merkel is calling on the Army "to smash the virus like we smashed Poland in 1939." The Chancellor was unable to lay out any specific actions the Army would take other than to suggest "it would definitely be a rapid, blitzkrieg type of approach. If we can inspire the same kind of fanaticism among the troops that enabled us to conquer Poland in less than six weeks, I'm confident that we can conquer the coronavirus in short order. And this time we will not...