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Nine senior commanding generals have been fired by the Obama administration this year, leading to speculation by active and retired members of the military that a purge of its commanders is underway. Retired generals and current senior commanders that have spoken with TheBlaze say the administration is not only purging the military of commanders they don’t agree with, but is striking fear in the hearts of those still serving. The timing comes as the five branches of the U.S. armed forces are reducing staff due to budget cuts, and as U.S. troops are expected to withdraw from Afghanistan next year....

MIAMI — NASA is questioning whether Apollo 13 commander James Lovell has the right to sell a 70-page checklist from the flight that includes his handwritten calculations that were crucial in guiding the damaged spacecraft back to Earth. The document was sold by Heritage Auctions in November for more than $388,000, some 15 times its initial list price. The checklist gained great fame as part of a key dramatic scene in the 1995 film "Apollo 13" in which actor Tom Hanks plays Lovell making the calculations. After the sale, NASA contacted Heritage

By the time the CH-47 transport helicopter descended to 150 feet above an unprotected landing zone in Afghanistan around 2 a.m. on Aug. 6, the element of surprise had been lost. Hours earlier, two other Chinooks had deposited 47 Army Rangers at another nearby landing site, undetected. The landing triggered a nighttime ground and aerial firefight that raged for several hours as a few Taliban “squirters,” as the military called them, tried to escape from the targeted compound and regrouped with other fighters. *snip* When the third chopper — carrying 38 passengers and crew, and one dog, in a reinforcement...

In promising a U.S. military pullout from Afghanistan will begin in July, President Barack Obama is permitting his commanders to decide critical details, including the number of troops to depart first and whether any of those will be combat forces, administration and military officials said Sunday. Providing that leeway is important to Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. It allows him to pace this year's phase of the withdrawal in a way that preserves combat power through the end of the traditional fighting season in October or November.

Barack Obama kept military commanders hanging by declaring he would 'sleep on it' before taking 16 hours to give the go-ahead to raid Bin Laden's compound. Hit squads of specialist Navy Seals - who were not even told who they were preparing to capture - had practised the mission at two reconstructions of the terror chiefs sprawling compound. The mission looked set to be given the all clear last Thursday when analysts confirmed beyond doubt that Bin Laden was in busy town of Abbottabad in northern Pakistan.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal might be fired Wednesday because he made contemptuous remarks about senior US officials to Rolling Stone magazine. If he does lose his job, it will represent a rare – but not unprecedented – dismissal of a wartime military commander by civilian leaders. The most dramatic such replacement since World War II was probably President Truman’s sacking of Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur. At the time, MacArthur was commander of the United Nations forces defending South Korea in the Korean War. His daring amphibious assault at Inchon helped turn the tide of that conflict, but his public statements criticizing...

* 251 complaints of unacceptable behaviour * Rise in "irresponsible alcohol consumption" * Female trainees "sexually aggressive" NAVAL commanders have been warned of a rising tide of alcohol-fuelled sex abuse and "sexually aggressive females" at training bases. As the Navy reels from the HMAS Success allegations, the Herald Sun can reveal that 251 complaints of unacceptable behaviour were made to fleet commanders in the last financial year. They included 36 sexual offence allegations, 21 claims of sexual harassment, and 23 complaints of "inappropriate workplace relationships", according to documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws.

LONDON (AFP) – Hundreds of insurgents have been trained in Iran to kill NATO forces in Afghanistan, two Taliban commanders told a British Sunday newspaper. The unnamed commanders told The Sunday Times that Iranian officials paid them to attend three-month courses in desert training camps in southeast Iran. They were taught how to carry out complex ambushes and lay improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the roadside bombs which have been responsible for many of the deaths of British troops in Afghanistan. One of the commanders told the newspaper that the military's crackdown in Pakistan was forcing Taliban leaders to turn to...

KABUL, Dec. 29, 2009 – Afghan and international security forces captured some Taliban commanders and other suspected militants and seized weapons yesterday in Kandahar and Khowst, Afghanistan, military officials reported. The forces captured a Taliban commander believed to be responsible for homemade bomb attacks during a series of raids in Kandahar. They also detained three other suspects. Also in Kandahar, a combined force captured another Taliban commander and a small group of militants believed to be responsible for supplying weapons to insurgents. In Khowst, a combined force detained suspected militants while searching for a Haqqani terrorist network commander. No Afghan...

KABUL, Dec. 16, 2009 – Combined Afghan and international forces detained four Taliban commanders and other suspected militants in three operations in two Afghanistan provinces today, military officials reported. In Wardak province, a combined force searched a compound near the village of Bhardokheyl where intelligence sources reported militant activity. They detained two Taliban commanders involved with bombing activity and responsible for several attacks in the area. Another Taliban commander and a few other militants were detained in an operation in western Kandahar. This commander has led a sizable militant element and is responsible for a number of bombing attacks in...

TAJI — Iraqi Army (IA) Brigade and Battalion commanders recently met for the first-ever Tactical Commander’s Course (TLC) to share experiences and learn modern training systems. The course, which lasted 10 days and was conducted at the Counter-Insurgency Training Center here, was designed to provide the attendees with current updates on tactical, operational and logistical trends, provide a tactical operation and plans exercise, and provide an update on senior staff perspectives, trends and policies from Iraqi and Coalition senior leaders. This TLC is intended to be a combat multiplier that will contribute to the professionalism of the Iraqi Joint Forces...

Afghanistan: Top U.S. Commander Optimistic On Developments In Eastern Region Afghan National Army soldiers (file photo) (AFP) August 4, 2007 -- A top U.S. commander in eastern Afghanistan says the country's armed forces are increasingly able to hold their own against insurgents in one of the country’s more troubled areas. Speaking this week in a video-link news briefing from the Bagram airfield in Afghanistan, Brigadier General Joseph Votel, deputy commander of NATO's regional eastern command, praised the Afghan National Army's growing competence. He also praised its ability to cooperate not only with NATO forces, but also with local authorities and...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17, 2006 – The most important thing military leaders can offer their people is an up-front assessment of what they’re facing, as exemplified by the way the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team’s leaders informed the troops about their extension in Iraq, DoD’s top enlisted adviser told American Forces Press Service. Army Command Sgt. Maj. William J. Gainey, senior enlisted adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, shared his thoughts after returning from Alaska, home of the “Arctic Wolves.” The Defense Department announced July 27 that the brigade, which was in the midst of wrapping up...

WASHINGTON, July 24, 2006 – Commanders will shift U.S. forces in Iraq to deal with insurgent threats, but this does not mean more American troops will go into the country, nor that the announced rotation will change. Multinational Force Iraq commander Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr. will shift forces already in Iraq to Baghdad, Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of U.S. Central Command, said in an interview with New York Times reporter Michael Gordon. "There is a very serious effort to make sure that it is not just weighted with additional U.S. capability, but also additional Iraqi capability,"...

WASHINGTON – Crusty and unapologetic, Donald H. Rumsfeld is the public face of an unpopular war and a target of unrelenting criticism. A growing number of commanders who served under him say he has botched the Iraq operation, ignored the advice of his generals and should be replaced. The White House insists the defense secretary retains President Bush's confidence. Few close to the administration expect him to be shown the door. “The president believes Secretary Rumsfeld is doing a very fine job during a challenging period in our nation's history,” Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said Thursday as the administration circled...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, April 6, 2006 – Provincial reconstruction team commanders from around the country converged here last week to share ideas on how to improve stability and security in Afghanistan. PRTs extend the visibility and reach of the Afghan government, shape the environment for reconstruction, and provide a visible international presence that deters terrorist and criminal activities, especially in remote areas. Afghanistan has 23 provincial reconstruction teams: 14 in the south and east, the areas in which the coalition has primary security responsibilities, and nine in the north and west, where NATO's International Security Assistance Force carries out...

2/14/2006 - SOUTHWEST ASIA -- The 380th Air Expeditionary Wing’s command post Airmen have one of the most important areas in the area of responsibility to track. With four controllers and a superintendent covering around-the-clock operations this group is ready for anything. “We are the nerve center for the base in this war environment,” said Senior Master Sgt. Joseph Howell, command post superintendent. “And we all understand our work can have a big effect on the mission here.” That mission impact was evident to first-time deployer Staff Sgt. Lynn Brown the moment he arrived. “There is a definite adjustment we...

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 12, 2006 – Special operations commanders know what is needed to meet the ever-changing challenges facing their forces fighting in the global war on terrorism, a panel of special operations leaders said here yesterday. "We've got to field a warrior or technician that is culturally attuned (and) linguistically capable," Navy Capt. Sean Pybus, commander of Naval Special Warfare Group 1, said. "Those are key requirements in the years to come." The panel spoke at WEST 2006, a technology, communication and national security conference co-sponsored by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association and the U.S. Naval Institute....

Last month over 1,500 family members who have lost a loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan gathered at Arlington National Cemetery at the behest of an organization called Faces of the Fallen, which has assembled dozens of artists to paint portraits of those killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was the keynote speaker. While his speech managed to strike a few emotional chords, it was what he did after speaking that was remarkable. Hours after his speech concluded General Myers was still standing out in a cold drizzle talking at...

The debate continues about US troop strength and its impact on the ability of our forces to conduct sustained combat operations in the War on Terror. Recently, The Weekly Standard published a bi-partisan Open Letter to the majority and minority leaders of both houses of Congress. The letter urges the Congressional leaders to enact legislation to increase the size of the US Army and the US Marine Corps by 25,000 per year over a period of “several years.” The letter is signed by an impressive group of retired military leaders, military historians and analysts, and former members of the civilian...