Free Republic

Before citizen-soldiers of the 48th Infantry Brigade deployed to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Georgia National Guard troops spent months training away from their families and day jobs as they prepared for war. Now a shrinking Army wants them able to get ready for combat sooner. The brigade’s 4,200 soldiers are the first of 13 National Guard and Army Reserve units nationwide chosen to test a new role that pairs them with commanders on active-duty who will oversee their training. The Pentagon hopes the change will make the Guard and Reserve troops better prepared to fight overseas at a...

A HERO cabbie who took on the Glasgow Airport terror suspects told yesterday how he booted one of them in the privates. Alex McIlveen, 45, kicked the man, whose body was in flames, so hard that he tore a tendon in his foot. But he said last night: "He didn't even flinch. I couldn't believe he didn't go down. "A doctor told me later I'd damaged a tendon in my foot."

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, March 9, 2007 – The highest-ranking officer of the Army National Guard met with deployed Guardsmen here March 4. Army National Guard Director Lt. Gen. Clyde A. Vaughn speaks to deployed Guardsmen at the Kandahar Airfield main dining facility Mar. 4. Vaughn is the highest-ranking officer of the Army National Guard. Photo by Sgt. Tony J. Spain, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Army National Guard Director Lt. Gen. Clyde A. Vaughn received a warm welcome from fellow Guardsmen at the Kandahar Airfield main dining facility. More than 40 Guardsmen deployed from across the U.S....

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30, 2006 – Employees at the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections feel their employer treats them right when they're called to active duty in the National Guard and Reserve. Corrections officer Keithe Turner nominated his employer, the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, for the 2005 Secretary of Defense Freedom Award. The department was selected as one of 15 recipients for strong support of its citizen-soldiers. Turner works at the Dixon Correctional Institute and is a sergeant first class in the Army Reserve's 1190th Deployment Support Brigade, with headquarters in Baton Rouge, La. Courtesy...

The United States now has a mercenary army. To be sure, our soldiers are hired from within the citizenry, unlike the hated Hessians whom George III recruited to fight against the American Revolutionaries. But like those Hessians, today's volunteers sign up for some mighty dangerous work largely for wages and benefits.... Neither the idealism nor the patriotism of those who serve is in question here. The profession of arms is a noble calling, and there is no shame in wage labor. But the fact remains that the United States today has a military force that is extraordinarily lean and lethal,...

<p>Relatives of four Army reservists from Pennsylvania who are accused of beating and abusing Iraqi prisoners say they fear their loved ones are targets of a vendetta.</p> <p>The four U.S. soldiers accused of abusing prisoners of war include, clockwise from top left, Sgt. Timothy Canjar, Master Sgt. Lisa Marie Girman, Staff Sgt. Scott A. McKenzie and Sgt. Shawna L. Edmondson.</p>

EGLIN AIR FORCE BAS -- After being called to duty at Duke Field last September, Special Operations pilot Lt. Col. David B. was deployed to the Middle East. He spent two months flying an MC-130E Combat Talon I on missions into Afghanistan, sometimes at speeds of 250 mph just 250 feet above hostile territory -- usually while wearing night vision goggles. But because he has been serving his country in that demanding role, he is no longer qualified to deliver packages in a DC-10 for his civilian employer, FedEx Express. "Now I am completely unqualified in my [FedEx Express] aircraft...