Free Republic

FORT HUACHUCA — With a toss of a football Wednesday morning Brig. Gen. Peter A. Gallagher symbolically handed off the leadership of the Network Enterprise Technology Command to Brig. Gen. John B. Morrison Jr. It was a light moment following the formality of the assumption of command ceremony held in the Greely Hall auditorium, which saw senior officers speak about the importance of NETCOM. The Army’s chief information officer Lt. Gen. Robert S. Ferrell praised the command for its work “providing unprecedented communications for over 12 years of war.” It was NETCOM’s leadership, not only at the headquarters but its...

The commander of a West Side police district plans to knock on the doors of the most dangerous gangbangers to issue warnings to stop the violence. The effort by Austin District Cmdr. Barbara West comes as Chicago police try to quell gang violence with both innovative ideas and more traditional methods such as paying hundreds of officers to work overtime on their days off. West told reporters she and an undisclosed community leader planned on Friday to begin going to the homes of about two dozen people who have been singled out on the department's "heat list" as those most...

Syrian Rebel Bites Heart of Dead Soldier: Video BEIRUT (Reuters) - A video of a Syrian rebel commander cutting the heart out of a soldier and biting into is emblematic of a civil war that has rapidly descended into sectarian hatred and revenge killings, Human Rights Watch said on Monday. The New York-based group said an amateur video posted on the Internet on Sunday shows Abu Sakkar, a founder of the rebel Farouq Brigade who is well known to journalists as an insurgent from Homs, cutting into the torso of a dead soldier. The video has caused outrage among both...

As I wrote in Full Green Ahead in the current issue of Mother Jones, the US Navy is paying close attention—and giving far more than lip service—to the problems underway from a changing climate. But until now no one's said it quite so loudly as Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander of the US Pacific Command. Locklear met privately with scholars at Harvard and Tufts universities on Friday and said that the biggest long-term security threat in the Pacific region is climate change, reports the Boston Globe, and that significant upheaval related to the warming planet is: "Probably the most likely thing...

The commander of U.S. Special Operations Command said Tuesday that his unit’s budget would lose $1 billion this year as a result of the defense budget stalemate in Washington. During an annual National Defense Industrial Association conference for special operators, Navy Adm. William McRaven noted that the Defense Department is operating on a continuing resolution, which limits spending to 2012 levels, even as automatic, across-the-board spending cuts called sequestration are set to begin March 1. “The continuing resolution … in all honesty puts a greater constraint on us than sequester

Commander John W Price, 42, oversaw SEAL Team Four, which was training Afghan police in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan Father of a young daughter Jillian, 9, is also survived by his wife Stephanie SEALs have suffered heavy casualties in Afghanistan The leader of Navy SEAL Team Four, one of the most senior commanders in the elite world of special operations, has died after apparently committing suicide in Afghanistan, it was reported today. Commander John W Price, 42, was found dead in his quarters with a gunshot wound on Saturday - just three days before Christmas. Cmdr Price was based in Naval...

Lt. General Tom McInerney told Judge Jeanine tonight that the only reason the Obama administration ordered the FBI to investigate the Benghazi attack is to stall it through the election. He says this was an act of war against the United States and if this had been assigned to the military we would have known 2 days later what happened. He adds that we know who they are and where they are and that we should have already attacked those people. Former USS Cole Commander Kirk Lippold said that the parallels between this case and the attack on the USS...

Iran commander: 'Nothing will remain' of Israel if it takes military actionPublished September 16, 2012 Associated Press TEHRAN – The top commander in Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard warned Sunday that "nothing will remain" of Israel if it takes military action against Tehran over its controversial nuclear program. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari said Iran's response to any attack will begin near the Israeli border. The Islamic Republic has close ties with militants in Gaza and Lebanon, both of which border Israel. Iran has in the past made reference to the destruction of Israel but his comments at a Tehran news conference...

WASHINGTON – The top U.S. commander in the Middle East will warn Congress on Tuesday against efforts to scale back the Navy's presence in the embattled region, saying threats from Iran and elsewhere will require more ships and maritime missile defense capabilities. Marine Gen. James Mattis, head of U.S. Central Command, also said Syria has a "substantial" chemical and biological weapons capability and thousands of shoulder-launched missiles. Until now, the U.S. military has largely declined to describe the expanse of weapons that President Bashar Assad's regime has at its disposal. Mattis laid out his concerns in testimony prepared for Senate...

Colonel Martha McSally was a pilot in the United States Air Force. She was the first American woman to fly in combat since the 1991 lifting of the prohibition of women in combat. McSally is also the first woman to command a USAF fighter squadron, the 354th Fighter Squadron (354 FS) based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. in 2001 Martha McSally successfully challenged the military policy that required US and UK servicewomen stationed in Saudi Arabia to wear the body-covering abaya when traveling off base in the country. .....

Washington— The U.S. commander in Afghanistan has prepared a request for more troops to serve as advisors for Afghan military units, a sign that Washington and its allies are trying to speed up the hand-over of combat operations to the Afghans as they prepare to withdraw, U.S. and NATO officials said. The stronger emphasis on training may keep more U.S. troops on bases next year and help reduce U.S. military casualties before presidential elections next November. President Obama's Afghan policy is already an issue. Marine Gen. John R. Allen, who took command in Afghanistan last summer, wants 1,700

The Navy has fired another commanding officer, the 18th this year, surpassing last year’s mark of 17 with slightly less than four months left to go. Cmdr. Mark Olson of USS The Sullivans was relieved of his command due to a loss of confidence in his abilities following an Admiral’s Mast on Wednesday, according to a Navy news release. Vice Adm. Daniel Holloway, commander of U.S. 2nd Fleet, made the decision after close examination of an incident that occurred Aug. 17 during a gunnery exercise in the Cherry Point Operating Area range, the release said. Navy officials said inert rounds...

US President Barack Obama warned the US east coast was in for a "long 72 hours" as he led his government's response to Hurricane Irene at a disaster command center in Washington. Obama on Saturday chaired a meeting at the National Response Coordination Center (NRCC) set up at the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) headquarters in Washington, which is marshaling federal and local hurricane-relief efforts. "This is going to be a tough slog getting through this thing," Obama said during a video teleconference including senior federal officials and local government agencies in the east coast path of Irene. "It's going...

CBS News has learned that a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan in June killed senior al Qaeda commander Ilyas Kashmiri. Kashmiri was believed to be a key planner of the Mumbai Terror attacks in 2008 and, according to sources, was involved in planning terror strikes in Europe last fall, which led to alerts across the continent. Most recently, Kashmiri was al Qaeda's military operations chief in Pakistan, and was suspected of plotting attacks against U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Kashmiri.

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (AP) — 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. No one commander had that authority in the aftermath of Katrina, and military and civilian experts say the lack...

Adm. Eliezer Marom says only purpose of Gaza flotilla is to clash with IDF soldiers, create media provocation, and delegitimize Israel. Published 21:00 19.06.11 Latest update 21:00 19.06.11 Israel Navy commander: 'Hate flotilla' to Gaza must be stopped Adm. Eliezer Marom says only purpose of Gaza flotilla is to clash with IDF soldiers, create media provocation, and delegitimize Israel. By Anshel Pfeffer Tags: Gaza flotilla Israel Navy commander Adm. Eliezer Marom issued a stark warning on Sunday for the organizers of the Gaza flotilla intended to set sail at the end of the month. "The Navy has prevented and will...

Commander Etta Jones, officer in charge of the Norfolk, Virginia-based Ponce, was sacked for not properly investigating sailors involved in the humiliating rituals, the Navy said. Commander Jones also failed to properly handle a 9mm handgun during a security alert, which endangered some of her crew, the Navy said. Lieutenant Commander Kurt Boenisch, the ship's executive officer, was also sacked, after he failed to provide support to the command and commanding officer, according to the Navy. The sackings come as the the amphibious transport dock Ponce - pronounced 'ponsay' - is deployed in the Mediterranean, after recently taking part in...

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/143396 and http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/143381

Friends of the colonel, who cannot be named for security reasons, said he had grown increasingly despondent with service life following the cuts imposed on the military by the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). It is understood that two highly respected Brigadiers, one of whom also served with the Special Forces, are considering their positions. Senior officers have warned that many more high calibre officers are expected to resign in the coming months especially if the Continuity of Education Allowance--which pays for a proportion of boarding school fees for service families--is cut.

Col. Williams earns place among worst criminalsBy Maria Babbage, The Canadian Press 1 hour, 49 minutes ago BELLEVILLE, Ont. - The unprecedented, sadistic crimes of convicted sex killer Col. Russell Williams have earned him a place among the worst criminals Canada has ever seen, court heard Thursday as the final chapter in the shocking case drew to a close. "The depths of the depravity demonstrated by Russell Williams had no equal," Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Scott said as he sentenced the once decorated officer to two concurrent life sentences with no possibility of parole for 25 years. "One suspects...