Free Republic

Coverage of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza is mostly dominated by talk of weapons. Reporters and analysts focus on suicide drones, on shell deficits, on targeting algorithms. But for all the attention devoted to modern weapons and munitions, both conflicts are proving that modern war still comes down to people.... ... Before Covid, fewer than 3 in 10 Americans in the prime recruiting demographic — ages 17 to 24 — were eligible to serve in uniform. Those numbers have shrunk further since the pandemic began. Only 23 percent of young Americans are qualified to enlist without a waiver.... In...

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) asked the U.S. Army in a letter Friday for a full report and a briefing on former President Trump’s visit to Arlington cemetery, after reports of a confrontation between his staff and cemetery officials surfaced. Raskin, the ranking member on the House Oversight Commitee, sent the letter, obtained by The Hill, to Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth. The lawmaker asked her to provide a report on the incident, including whether the former president’s staff “violated federal law or Cemetery rules and whether the Trump campaign informed the families of servicemembers buried at the Cemetery that...

The U.S. Army Private who ran across the border from South Korea to North Korea is set to plead guilty to desertion and assault and three other charges as part of a deal with Army prosecutors, his attorney says. Travis King was charged with 14 fourteen offenses under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for the July 2023 incident in which he left a tour group and bolted across the Demilitarized Zone into North Korea.

Aug. 13 (UPI) -- A U.S. Army soldier and intelligence analyst with top secret security clearance pleaded guilty Tuesday to selling American military secrets to China... Korbein Schultz of Fort Campbell, Tenn., faces decades in federal jail after pleading guilty Tuesday to a six-count indictment...He was also accused of trying to recruit other members of the U.S. military to join the conspiracy.... Information...included deployment information in support of NATO in Eastern Europe, manuals for the HH-60 helicopter, the F-22A fighter jet and operation of Intercontinental Ballistic Missile systems... U.S. military exercises with allies South Korea and the Philippines...[and] information on...

Command Sgt. Major Veronica E. Knapp has been relieved as the senior enlisted leader of the sprawling military task force responsible for defense and day-to-day military operations in Washington D.C. following an investigation, an Army spokesman said. Knapp made news in 2021 as the first woman named Command Sgt. Major of the 101st Airborne Division. She was in a similar role for the Joint Task Force-National Capital Region/United States Army Military District of Washington, or JTF-NCR/USAMDW... The JTF-NCR/USAMDW’ is a sprawling military organization established after the 9/11 attacks as a central hub for defense and day-to-day military operations around Washington...

Israel will soon be met with "a strong and definite response" to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Chief Commander of the Iranian Army Abdolrahim Mousavi said on Wednesday, according to Iranian news sites. According to IFP News, Mousavi was speaking at a ceremony commemorating Journalist's Day in Bandar Abbas, a port city in Southern Iran. “The Zionist regime will soon receive a strong and definite response, and there is no doubt about it," Mousavi reportedly said, according to IRNA and Tasnim. "It is clear that they themselves have realized the speed of their own destruction, and...

A near-week of threats hasn’t had the hoped-for impact for Sir Keir Starmer, who on Monday announced a change of tack with the establishment of a “standing army” to crush riots where they appeared. The Prime Minister, a seasoned lawyer with a usually assured and slick style seemed unsure of his words at times and lacked his normal energy as he spoke to journalists on Monday after he stepped out of a government crisis meeting. Speaking at his official residence and office Downing Street, where it appears a certain degree of bunker mentality has set in — the husband of...

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Three Army Reserve officers were disciplined for dereliction of duty following a rampage in which a reservist killed 18 people in Maine, according to an Army report that cited communication failures within the chain of command and between military and civilian hospitals, among other shortcomings. The report released Tuesday unearthed “a series of failures by unit leadership,” said Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels, chief of the Army Reserves, and administrative actions taken against the officers could prevent their further military advancement. The officers weren't identified. Survivors and victims’ family members have been critical over missed opportunities to...

Following massive online criticism, Fort Liberty has walked back a slide in an anti-terrorism presentation that claims pro-life Americans are terrorists. As LifeNews.com reported, Journalist Sam Shoemate exposed the terrorism briefing on X (Twitter) that was held at Fort Liberty (Bragg) yesterday where they listed several Pro-Life organizations as “terrorist organizations.” The military facility has since walked back the slide with a post on X (Twitter). “After conducting a commander’s inquiry, we determined that the slides presented on social media were not vetted by the appropriate approval authorities, and do not reflect the views of the XVIII Airborne Corps and...

Military officials under the Biden administration continue to teach that their peaceful political opponents are violent extremists, according to a report about a terrorism presentation given to U.S. Army members at Fort Liberty (the renamed Fort Bragg). Sam Shoemate, an independent journalist and self-described “advocate for service members seeking justice,” posted to X/Twitter Wednesday evening a photograph of a slide he said was shown during an anti-terrorism briefing at Fort Bragg, right after one about the Islamist terror group ISIS.

WASHINGTON — According to documentation circulating on social media and confirmed in a statement by Fort Liberty, an anti-terrorism briefing created by a local garrison employee equated National Right to Life with terrorist groups and accused NRLC of fomenting violence and clinic bombings. “In a presentation that is deeply offensive to pro-life Americans across the nation, Fort Liberty promoted outright lies about National Right to Life in a demonstration of lazy scholarship,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “In our over 50-year history, National Right to Life has always, consistently, and unequivocally, condemned violence against anyone.” The...

A series of slides shown at an anti-terrorism briefing held at Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg), an Army base in Louisiana, have gone viral after one slide portrayed pro-life groups as terrorist organizations. A photo of the slide in the briefing was captured by someone in attendance, and listed National Right to Life (which has advocated for legal protections for preborn children since 1968) and Operation Rescue (which “exposes abortion abuses” by obtaining and publishing public records like 911 calls from abortion businesses) as examples of terrorist groups. The slide was reportedly displayed after one about ISIS. Bullet points on...

A federal law has forced thousands of disabled veterans to return the separation incentives they received, throwing many into sudden hardship.. Vernon Reffitt got $30,000 to leave the Army in 1992. It was a one-time, lump-sum special separation benefit offered to service members when the U.S. had to reduce its active-duty force. Now, more than 30 years later, the federal government wants that money back. In May, the Department of Veterans Affairs began withholding the monthly disability compensation payments that Reffitt had been receiving for three decades until he repays the $30,000. It would take the 62-year-old nearly 15 years...

"A Massachusetts man was attacked by a grizzly bear protecting her cub in Yosemite National Park and lived to tell the tale. Shayne Burke was on his honeymoon with wife Chloe when he went off into the park to try to get pictures of a rare owl."

There has arisen in America a generation which never heard of a lowly enlisted combat medic in the US Army who defied Bill Clinton and his entire chain of command, refusing to serve on a United Nations deployment wearing a blue helmet under the command of a general officer from a foreign country. It happened this day, 1995. Ask people over 50 years old, or better yet, 60. MANY of them remember the story - it was front page and nationwide, indeed worldwide news. No good deed unpunished, however, and Army SPC4 Michael New was court-martialed, received a kangaroo trial,...

Biden interrupted his weekend getaway in Delaware to visit New York and give the 2024 commencement speech at the United States Military Academy, West Point. During his address, Biden made several mistakes and shared inaccurate information, including falsely claiming that he was “appointed” to the Naval Academy.

Heavy seas tore four U.S. Army vessels from their moorings Saturday while they were trying to assist humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza. Two vessels are beached along Israel’s coast near Ashkelon while the other two are anchored on the beach near the temporary pier built and put in place by the U.S. military, U.S.Central Command announced. No U.S. personnel were injured by the stormy seas, CENTCOM said, while Israel Defense Forces are assisting in recovering the vessels, and the pier remains fully functional.

Two Chechen men who spoke broken English were found near the soldier's home. The family alleges the suspected intruder, 35-year-old Ramzan Daraev of Chicago was taking photos of their children. When confronted near a power line in a wooded part of the property, an altercation ensued and Daraev was shot several times at close range. -snip Sheriff Ronnie Fields said in a statement: "The caller indicated that an individual was observed taking photographs on the property and had become aggressive towards a resident outside their home…. The deceased was found approximately 250 yards from the roadway, along a powerline on...

Story from ~ 2 Months ago: One of the Army's top generals may have abused his authority and subverted the service's process for selecting senior leadership in what some officials have described to Military.com as a conspiracy to prop up a subordinate officer who was deemed unfit for command. A Military.com investigation found that Gen. Charles Hamilton, who oversees Army Materiel Command, spent about a month last year trying to pull strings behind the scenes for a female lieutenant colonel to breeze through the service's Battalion Commander Assessment Program, or BCAP. This included directly lobbying at least three generals on...

An American soldier was detained on charges of criminal misconduct in the Russian Far East city of Vladivostok last week while on leave after finishing his tour of duty in South Korea, officials said Monday. US Army spokesperson Cynthia Smith said that the soldier, whose name was withheld, was detained Thursday, and that the US Army notified his family of his detention. The soldier was on leave in Russia following the completion of his tour of service in South Korea, a US official told Yonhap News Agency. He was in the process of returning to the United States for his...