Free Republic

Lions Led by DonkeysThe 248-year-old institution that this country depends upon to fight and win our wars has lost its focus, which is, “to win our nation’s wars.” Preparing to do that is one of the most complex tasks on earth. There is no profession more complex, more dangerous, or more crucial to the country’s survival than the United States Army. But its focus on “woke” social solutions has diluted the necessary focus on that duty. The Army has thousands of magnificent and highly skilled officers and enlisted men and women who perform continuously at the highest levels. Yet, as...

Russian lawmakers have passed legislation changing the age categories for those called up for the military potentially meaning that older troops could be sent to fight in Ukraine. With President Vladimir Putin's forces reportedly facing heavy losses in his invasion of Ukraine, Russia's parliament, the Duma, has this week passed a raft of measures to help with mobilization, including tougher fines for those who avoid the draft as well as extending upper age limits for reserves. The State Duma said Tuesday it had adopted a law raising the maximum age by half a decade for those who had already completed...

A U.S. soldier, 23, who vanished only to return a day after his transgender wife was found dead in their military home has been cleared as a person of interest. Spc. Craig Chamberlain, 23, is a Fort Cavazos (formerly Fort Hood) soldier who, unbeknownst to his wife, stopped showing up for duty in March. On May 15, after lying about reporting to the military base in Texas for two months, he left their home in Killeen and failed to return. Craig's wife, Cameron, reported him missing to police and to the base. She was found dead inside their home on...

A former Afghan interpreter for U.S. Army Special Forces, who managed to escape the Taliban, was gunned down inside his car while working as a Lyft driver in Washington, D.C., on Monday. D.C. Police found 31-year-old Nasrat Ahmad Yar unconscious inside his car early Monday with a single gunshot wound...

Major Jones may very well be exempt from all physical fitness and height-weight standards. ... Physical Fitness Testing Physical fitness is a fundamental requirement of your service. You are required to meet the physical fitness testing standards based upon your gender marker in your Service’s personnel data system and in accordance with Service regulations. If temporarily unable to meet the standards, it may be necessary to request an ETP or medical waiver. While the 6-month exemption from physical fitness standards is not unusual for servicemembers undergoing rehab after an injury, applying it to someone for failing to make height-weight standards...

Diversity is our strength. Except, apparently, the more diversity the military seeks, the less strength it requires.That seems to be the lesson of the Army’s physical fitness standards, which do not apply to people who are getting “gender-affirming” care.The Army obesity crisis is worse among the “diversity” hires — women, blacks, Hispanics, and transvestites.Shocker!https://t.co/ZdRNGjckZ4— Revolver News (@RevolverNewsUSA) July 5, 2023One of the shibboleths of the Left is the claim that increasing the acceptance of “gender-diverse” individuals into the military merely extends the same opportunities to transgender folks as those afforded to people who identify with their natal sex (man, finding...

As part of a ‘Pride’ celebration, The U.S. Army shared to social media the story of a transgender Major who now identifies as a woman after previously being suicidally depressed.The DoD tweeted the following post linking to the story of Maj. Rachel Jones, claiming ‘she’ has ’embraced authenticity’ and should ‘inspire us all’ after becoming head of the U.S. Army Sustainment Command’s Cyber Division:.@USArmy Maj. Rachel Jones found solace after coming out as a transgender female. Her journey from battling depression & suicidal thoughts to embracing authenticity inspires us all. #WhyWeServe https://t.co/9llx7skuC3 — Department of Defense 🇺🇸 (@DeptofDefense) July 2,...

Law guarantees Veterans receive a compensation adjustment next year On June 14, 2023, President Joe Biden signed into law the Veterans Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Act of 2023, which directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide a cost-of-living adjustment for Veterans benefits in 2024 equal to the COLA applied to Social Security benefits, as determined by the Social Security Administration (SSA). The legislation, passed with bi-partisan support in the House and Senate, is an annual procedure for Congress but an important one, as it must be accomplished to ensure Veterans receive a COLA, and that it keeps pace with...

Sky Nisperos’s grandfather came to the U.S. from Mexico, and became an American citizen by serving in the U.S. Navy. Her father, Ernest Nisperos, is an active-duty officer in the Air Force with two decades of service. For years, Sky planned to follow a similar path. “I wanted to be a fighter pilot,” the 22-year-old said. “It was stuck in my head.” Now, one of the most influential people in her life—her father—is telling her that a military career may not be the right thing. The children of military families make up the majority of new recruits in the U.S....

There wasn’t any reason to think Cole James Bridges was anything more than an average young American. After he graduated from high school, he worked at a Papa John’s pizza shop in Stow, Ohio, for a while, and then, in Sept. 2019, joined the U.S. Army. He got sent to Fort Stewart in Georgia, where he became a cavalry scout. Thousands of young Americans have followed paths similar to the one Bridges embarked upon, but then he took a sharp turn no one expected: on Wednesday, Cole James Bridges pleaded guilty to trying to aid ISIS’ efforts to kill American...

Women are at least twice as likely as men to be injured in Army basic training, according to data collected over six years by the service. Most of those injuries were musculoskeletal -- meaning they affect the bones, muscles, joints and tendons of female recruits. Military.com obtained the injury data as the Army is looking for ways to boost recovery for men and women moving through boot camp. During 2022, nearly 30% of female recruits were injured on average each month during Army basic training. The average was 23% per month between 2017 and 2022, the data shows. During those...

In a valley far from the front lines last week, several men practiced dropping a half-full bottle of water from a small aerial drone, as though it were a grenade. Others fired rifles at targets 100 yards away. A third group set off for a trek through the surrounding hills, which burst with white and yellow flowers.Almost none of them had military experience before last year. The Ukrainian military is racing to turn civilians into elite soldiers for the cutting edge of a critical summer offensive.Kyiv has been holding some 20 brigades back from the fighting and training them to...

A team of researchers at the University of Adelaide have found that as many as 80 percent of tweets about the 2022 Russia-Ukraine invasion in its early weeks were part of a covert propaganda campaign originating from automated fake “bot” accounts.An anti-Russia propaganda campaign originating from a “bot army” of phony automated Twitter accounts flooded the internet at the start of the war.The research shows that of the more than 5 million tweets studied, 90.2 percent (both bot and non-bot) came from accounts that were pro-Ukraine, with fewer than 7 percent of the accounts being classed as pro-Russian.

Last week, it became public that two officers in the US Army 5th Security Forces Assistance Brigade were under investigation for misconduct. The commander, Colonel Jonathan Chung, and the commander of one of the organic battalions in that brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Meghann Sullivan, have both come under official scrutiny for very different things, and very different things happened.Let me preface this by saying a) I don’t know anyone in this story, and b) the story is based on information that has appeared in the media. The Army is being closed mouth about the investigations, but they have had the opportunity...

After four helicopters crashed in a matter of weeks, the chief of staff of the US Army ordered all pilots who are not involved in critical missions grounded until they have completed the necessary training

A female Army commander is under investigation for sexual harassment after allegedly “forcefully kissing” her male subordinates and grabbing them below the belt. Col. Meghann Sullivan, commander of the 5th Brigade Engineer Battalion at the 5th SFAB, has been under investigation over an alleged pattern of assault and harassment against the men under her watch, according to Military.com. Sullivan allegedly assaulted two male subordinates by forcefully kissing them and grabbing a man “below the belt” without consent, sources told the outlet. In addition to the two sexual assaults, the commander faces accusations of sexually harassing several additional subordinates, according to...

A wide-ranging advertising campaign appears to have been launched in Russia urging citizens to join the military. It comes as the Russian armed forces have reportedly been suffering heavy losses and struggling to make progress in Ukraine more than a year after invading it. The Defence Ministry in Moscow released a video appealing to Russians to give up their civilian jobs in favour of a contract with the military. The video features a supermarket guard, a fitness instructor and a taxi driver - all apparently disillusioned with civilian life and finding fulfilment after joining the army. The video promises a...

Obesity is the single greatest barrier to recruitment in the American military today, and the problem is only getting worse.The Associated Press reported last week nearly 10,000 active-duty Army servicemembers emerged from the coronavirus lockdowns obese, “pushing the rate to nearly a quarter of the troops studied.” Major weight gains were also seen in the Navy and Marines. A pamphlet from the American Security Project (ASP) published last month raised the alarm over the nation’s runaway obesity epidemic jeopardizing national security. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 42 percent of the U.S. adult population was obese...

Participants in a Department of Defense training exercise at a Boston hotel entered the wrong room Tuesday and mistakenly detained a guest instead of the person assigned the role of the person to be detained, according to the FBI. The mistake happened about 10 p.m. ET with the Boston Division of the FBI helping the U.S. Department of Defense in conducting the Defense Department exercise. The exercise was meant to simulate a situation that personnel might encounter during an actual incident.

The Department of Defense is getting ready to overhaul its air and missile defenses on Guam, perhaps the most critical U.S. military hub in striking distance of China. DOD plans to invest $1.5 billion in a new missile and air shield for Guam in fiscal 2024, part of a long-awaited effort to better defend the territory. “Current forces are capable of defending Guam against today’s North Korean ballistic missile threats,” Michelle C. Atkinson, the director of operations for the Missile Defense Agency, told reporters March 13. “However, the regional threat to Guam, including those from [the People’s Republic of China]...