Free Republic

Ukrainians in the Bay Area are watching with worry as the Russian military enters their country. Many are concerned about loved ones as an already deadly conflict over democracy appears to be escalating. Jean Elle reports. Ukrainians in the Bay Area are watching with worry as the Russian military enters their country. Many are concerned about loved ones as an already deadly conflict over democracy appears to be escalating. Obama to Russia: "There Will Be Costs" for Ukraine Intervention Nick Bilogorskiy is a Bay Area resident concerned with the developments in Ukraine. He said his father is in a politically...

This is the grim state of our military’s readiness: An Air Force F-15C that broke in half during flight, two F-18s that have caught fire aboard ships, every single cruiser with cracks in its hull, A-10C Warthogs with fuselage cracks, the UH-1N Twin Huey helicopter fleet that is regularly grounded, and over half the navy’s deployed aircraft not ready for combat. That is the picture of the U.S. military in disrepair—what The Heritage Foundation’s Mackenzie Eaglen calls a “readiness crisis” among all U.S. military services, including the National Guard and reserves. Readiness is “dangerously lower,” she writes, leading to “delayed,...

FORT BELVOIR, Va., Aug. 18, 2006 – There’s plenty of fuel available to fill the tanks of U.S. military vehicles and aircraft despite widely reported accounts of a commercial oil pipeline rupture in Alaska, a senior Defense Department logistician said here yesterday. “We’re in good shape all the time. We have significant fuel reserves. If fuel became locally unavailable, … we could move fuel from elsewhere in the United States to cover DoD’s requirements,” John S. Bartenhagen Jr., Defense Energy Support Center deputy director for operations, said. The center buys fuel for defense department needs. It is a component...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31, 2005 – More than 11,000 Army and Air National Guard members and 7,200 active-duty troops, mostly Navy, are supporting hurricane relief operations along the Gulf Coast, and 10,000 more National Guard troops are expected to join the effort within the next 48 hours, Defense Department officials said today. Army Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, told Pentagon reporters today the additional troops, who hail from 13 states outside the region, will be evenly divided between the hardest-hit states, Mississippi and Louisiana. There, he said, they will augment forces already on the ground...

By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press WASHINGTON (June 26, 2002 3:18 p.m. EDT) - Merging the military's commands over its space and nuclear forces will get rid of overlapping duties, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Wednesday in announcing a plan aimed at making it easier to respond to attacks. "Merging the two into a single entity will eliminate the redundancy and streamline the process," Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference. President Bush recently approved the proposal. The new command, which is yet to be named, would combine the U.S. Space Command and the U.S. Strategic Command. It is expected...