Free Republic

Like many active-duty soldiers and veterans in the area, Mark Erskine goes to the commissaries on Fort Bragg to buy food and basic household supplies. Erskine, who is commander of American Legion Post 230, cannot imagine not having the stores. Yet the Defense Department has reportedly asked the Defense Commissary Agency for a plan to close all stateside base commissaries. The stores have long been a subject of scrutiny on Capitol Hill, with the grocery benefit regarded by some lawmakers as an outdated, unnecessary expenditure

The warrior's tale is a simple enough thing. Strong as steel, but fragile as chance. It is the wind in his soul and the wall we build around ourselves to tell us who we are. Before there were cities or nations, and railways and airports, computers and telephones-- the tale was told around campfires. Acted out in pantomime, dressed up in animal furs and cave paintings. But the tale was the same. The people were confronted with a threat and they called upon the best and strongest of their men to go out and fight it. These were their warriors....

As the family of Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance reeled Friday over his convictions for the deaths of two Afghan nationals, observers said it's rare to see military officers prosecuted for combat-zone killings. Some said the Lorance case shows why U.S. forces must adhere to strict rules of engagement when deciding whether to fire their weapons. Lorance, a 28-year-old 82nd Airborne Division officer, was convicted at Fort Bragg on Thursday of murder for ordering soldiers under his command to shoot three Afghans who were riding a motorcycle. Two were killed, the third ran away. No weapons or equipment that insurgents...

A group of experts advising the nation’s premier cancer research institution has recommended changing the definition of cancer and eliminating the word from some common diagnoses as part of sweeping changes in the nation’s approach to cancer detection and treatment. The recommendations, from a working group of the National Cancer Institute, were published on Monday in The Journal of the American Medical Association. They say, for instance, that some premalignant conditions, like one that affects the breast called ductal carcinoma in situ, which many doctors agree is not cancer, should be renamed to exclude the word carcinoma so that patients...

Six national vet groups are among a list of the top 50 worst charities in the U.S., according to The Tampa Bay Times. The Tampa Bay Times compiled the rankings for an investigative reporting project published on Thursday. The charities were put on the list because only a small portion of their donations were used toward those in need. Charities provided as little as 2 percent back to the earnings they collected in some cases. The vast majority of the roughly $1 billion contributed by Americans went to the corporations in the business of making the phone calls and collecting...

Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world. Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is...

STANFORD, Calif. — AFTER fighting two wars in nearly 12 years, the United States military is at a turning point. So are the American people. The armed forces must rethink their mission. Though the nation has entered an era of fiscal constraint, and though President Obama last week effectively declared an end to the “global war on terror” that began on Sept. 11, 2001, the military remains determined to increase the gap between its war-fighting capabilities and those of any potential enemies. But the greatest challenge to our military is not from a foreign enemy — it’s the widening gap...

For the first time, the Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden tells his story — speaking not just about the raid and the three shots that changed history, but about the personal aftermath for himself and his family. And the startling failure of the United States government to help its most experienced and skilled warriors carry on with their lives. Read more: Man Who Killed Osama Bin Laden - Treatment of Veteran Who Shot bin Laden - Esquire http://www.esquire.com/features/man-who-shot-osama-bin-laden-0313#ixzz2Kgh5erQB

The gun control debate, like all debates with the left, is reducible to the question of whether we are individuals who make our own decisions or a great squishy social mass that helplessly responds to stimuli. Do people kill with guns or does the availability of guns kill people? Do bad eating habits kill people or does the availability of junk food kill people? To the left these are distinctions without a difference. If a thing is available then it is the cause of the problem. The individual cannot be held accountable for shooting someone if there are guns for...

Here is a strong indicator that the Obama Administration’s crusade to appease Islam has gone too far; a new U.S. military handbook for troops deployed to the Middle East orders soldiers not to make derogatory comments about the Taliban or criticize pedophilia, among other outrageous things. It gets better; the new manual, which is around 75 pages, suggests that Western ignorance of Afghan culture— not Taliban infiltration—is responsible for the increase in deadly attacks by Afghan soldiers against the coalition forces. The soon-to-be-released Army handbook is still being drafted, but a mainstream newspaper got a sneak preview and published an...

It has not been a good year for America’s armed forces. David Petraeus’s extramarital affair dominated headlines; 25 instructors are under investigation for systematic sexual abuse of cadets at Lackland Air Force Base; and a rash of senior officers—at the rank of colonel or higher—have been reprimanded for serious misconduct. Last month, Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote to all four-star generals and flag officers asking for institutional soul-searching. Has the military’s behavior, he seemed to be asking, threatened the “sacred trust” among top officers, the men and women they lead, and the American people? “I...

Winston Churchill once said, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.” On September 11, Christopher Stevens, a career diplomat, became one of the first Americans in Libya to feed the crocodile of Ansar Al-Sharia and learned too late that while appeasers may hope to be eaten last, they are often eaten first. Christopher Stevens was a Middle Eastern diplomat who typified the new breed going from the University of Berkeley and the Peace Corps to desks in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria. He taught English to Moroccan children in the Peace Corps and...

In Memory of a Fallen Comrade I write this in memory of MSG William B. Hunt, U.S. Army Special Forces, MIA, November 4, 1966. It is an account of the sacrifice he made to his country, to his comrades, and to the Vietnamese people. In November 1966, SSG Hunt and I served together at Special Forces ODA Camps under Detachment B-32, 5th Special Forces Group, Tay Ninh Province, in the Republic of Vietnam. Hunt was with ODA-322 at Camp Suoi DA, and I was assigned to ODA-323 at Camp Trai Bi. Our camps were about 30 kilometers apart and we...

The Fort Bragg soldier who fatally shot her neighbor, Jerry Dale Martin Jr., on Mawood Avenue a week ago believed he was assaulting a woman who was, in fact, his mother, according to the call she made to 911. That call, from Gracie Lee Ramirez, and others reporting the shooting were released Friday by the Fayetteville Police Department. Ramirez, 34, who lives next door to Martin's family, is charged with voluntary manslaughter in the man's death. The shooting happened about 8:30 p.m. in the front yard of Martin's home in The Oaks neighborhood between Skibo and Morganton roads. Ramirez placed...

WASHINGTON - A course for U.S. military officers has been teaching that America's enemy is Islam in general, not just terrorists, and suggested that the country might ultimately have to obliterate the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina without regard for civilian deaths, following World War II precedents of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima or the allied firebombing of Dresden. The Pentagon suspended the course in late April when a student objected to the material. The FBI also changed some agent training last year after discovering that it, too, was critical of Islam.

A Marine Corps officer has filed a whistle-blower complaint with the Department of Defense alleging that he was retaliated against for voicing concerns about a commander who put U.S. troops in danger in Afghanistan. Maj. Fred C. Galvin of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, currently stationed in Okinawa, Japan, filed the complaint earlier this week through a former Fayetteville lawyer. Galvin, a 24-year Marine Corps veteran, had been facing the potential end of his military career until Thursday. That's when he went before a Marine Corps Board of Inquiry at Camp Butler, Japan. The board was charged with determining if...

In February 2005, Erik Zettergren came home from a party after midnight with his girlfriend and another couple. They had all been drinking heavily, and soon the other man and Mr. Zettergren’s girlfriend passed out on his bed. When Mr. Zettergren went to check on them later, he found his girlfriend naked from the waist down and the other man, Jason Robinson, with his pants around his ankles. Enraged, Mr. Zettergren ordered Mr. Robinson to leave. After a brief confrontation, Mr. Zettergren shot him in the temple at point-blank range with a Glock-17 semiautomatic handgun. He then forced Mr. Robinson’s...

A masked man blasted a passing vehicle on Interstate 95 with a shotgun early Sunday, then robbed the occupants when they stopped to check on the damage, according to the Robeson County Sheriff's Office. The gunman fired birdshot at a southbound 2007 Dodge Nitro driven by 23-year-old Angela Greene of Conway, S.C., striking the vehicle in the side about 5:45 a.m. Sunday, said sheriff's Maj. Howard Branch. No one was injured, he said. "We think he was in the woods right there in that area," Branch said. "Just a random vehicle shot at." Passenger Maggie Hennigan, 48, said the four...

With shop owners still surveying their losses in the wake of the riots in Great Britain, American radicals are preparing for their own “spontaneous” demonstrations against U.S. capitalism. September 17th has been designated a “Day of Rage,” in which demonstrators are encouraged to occupy Wall Street. The highly organized effort comes complete with a web site, Facebook page, Twitter campaigns, and detailed instructions on the proposed occupation of the financial capital of the world. And this doesn’t come from a few disaffected societal dropouts either. The national web site and movement has close ties with leaders of major U.S. unions...

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- The Defense Department is grooming a new type of commander to coordinate the military response to domestic disasters, hoping to save lives by avoiding some of the chaos that plagued the Hurricane Katrina rescue effort. The officers, called dual-status commanders, would be able to lead both active-duty and National Guard troops - a power that requires special training and authority because of legal restrictions on the use of the armed forces on U.S. soil.