Free Republic

a tax on troops -- taken from their Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) payments, roughly $460 per month that is automatically deducted from the paychecks of service members who live in barracks and is intended to help cover food costs. For junior enlisted troops who earn about $30,000 annually, the cost can be consequential. 2024 financial records provided by the service from 11 of the Army's largest bases show that more than $151 million of $225 million collected from soldiers was not spent on food. Given that the Army operates 104 garrisons, the true amount of unspent funds is likely...

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) slammed President Trump’s decision to grant sweeping pardons to those convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, suggesting they are “political foot soldiers” for Trump. “Are they being released as a reserve army of political foot soldiers to act on behalf of MAGA and Donald Trump?” Raskin told CNN’s Erin Burnett during an appearance on the network Tuesday night. “I think that’s what’s so profoundly troubling to a majority of the American people who rejected the idea of freeing at least the violent criminals and the ones who were convicted of seditious conspiracy, which means...

President Volodymyr Zelensky says his military has briefed him that soldiers from North Korea will be deployed to the front lines against Ukraine as soon as Sunday or Monday. The deployment of thousands of North Korean troops to fight alongside Russian soldiers against Ukraine has been a matter of speculation for weeks. Now, President Zelensky says their arrival on the front lines is imminent. The Ukrainian leader said he’d been told by his Commander-in-Chief, four-star general Oleksandr Syrsky, who, in addition to giving a broader picture of progress on the frontline of the Russian invasion, also gave an update on...

North Korea’s communist dictator Kim Jong-un regaled his soldiers with a violent rant in which he questioned the mental abilities of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, state media reported on Friday, and asserted he would “without hesitation” use nuclear weapons if deemed necessary. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang’s flagship state propaganda outlet, reported that Kim supervised military training and delivered his remarks to commanding officers in his military on Tuesday, focusing on response to South Korea celebrating its Armed Forces Day with a parade on the same day. The South Korean parade featured the display of some of...

The Russian government is completely writing off all debt, mortgages, and loans for their soldiers who were wounded or received awards for service in Russia’s Special Military Operations. American soldiers get assistance but not an exoneration of mortgages and debts. Putin also ordered the country’s military to expand to 1.5 million active troops, bringing the total military personnel to nearly 2.4 million. The growing prospect for World War III continue to unfold.

Donald Trump’s nephew, Fred Trump III claimed Monday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that his uncle, former President Donald Trump, did not care about members of the U.S. military. Trump said, “We spoke the last time we were here about how I had the honor of meeting Senator McCain.” He continued, “This is a genuine hero. Let’s make no mistake about it. The fact that Donald called him, in essence, a loser, I don’t get it. But anyone who is disabled or anyone who he deems lesser than him is a loser, which, ok, that’s just the way he is. That ain’t...

NBC News’ Meet the Press admitted Sunday that anchor Kristen Welker had been incorrect to say that Vice President Kamala Harris had met the families of Americans killed in Afghanistan — though it also botched the correction. In an interview with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Welker challenged the Republican over former President Donald Trump’s visit last week to Arlington National Cemetery to pay his respects to the 13 fallen American soldiers on the third anniversary of the terror attack on Abbey Gate at the international airport in Kabul. The Harris/Walz campaign accused Trump of politicizing the memorial, amid controversy over...

The State of Israel marked its traditional Memorial Day on Sunday evening with 620 soldiers added to the rolls of those who have fallen in battle since the state’s independence in 1948. Memorial Day is taken very seriously in Israel, a small society where almost everyone knows, or is related to, someone who fell in battle over the decades.

Ukraine’s soldiers have been reduced to rationing ammo and checking daily for any updates from US lawmakers over whether Congress may cough up more aid, a Democratic senator claimed Sunday. “Ukrainians on the front lines are rationing bullets! More people are dying, more territory is being taken by Putin, because Republicans are afraid of what they call ‘procedural violence’ – ‘a motion to vacate’ or a ‘discharge petition,'” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) posted on X, referring to the congressional chaos over proposed legislation that includes billions of dollars in additional funding for Ukraine. “Suck it up and pass the bill,”...

Oh, how much the times have changed!The United States Army is now begging COVID unvaccinated soldiers, who underwent involuntary discharge for their refusal to take the vaccine, to return to service and also permits them to correct their military records!Just two years ago, in a shameful campaign, the Pentagon was gleefully discharging soldiers who refused to take Covid vaccines:https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2021/12/14/air-force-…We were assured that these discharges would “not affect military readiness.”“I can tell you there are no operational impacts across the force for readiness,” Marine Corps Lt. Gen. David Ottignon told lawmakers. “There’s no one community that has signaled an instance where...

Odds are, they were Hugo Chavez's shock troops, engaging in the invasion Hugo envisioned. A few weeks ago, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre assured a press questioner that Joe Biden "had done more than anyone to secure the border." (The wry Spanish comment, by noted Venezuelan film director Jonathan Jakubowicz, says: "At the rate we are going, there will soon be more Venezuelans in the U.S. than in Venezuela.") They are all single young men, marching in single file, the way people do who are certain they will not be cheated, so no need to rush, and one of them...

The Biden administration announced on Monday it is preparing to send $200 million in military aid to Ukraine to help the eastern European nation amid its ongoing conflict with Russia. The new aid package comes amid Americans’ increasing opposition to continually shipping U.S. dollars to Ukraine. According to a press statement from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the $200 million in U.S. aid will include “air defense munitions, artillery rounds, anti-armor capabilities, and additional mine-clearing equipment.” The announcement came days after the White House asked Congress to authorize an additional $24 billion in aid to Ukraine, which comes on top...

Obesity rates in the U.S. military surged during the coronavirus pandemic and its associated lockdowns, data released Sunday details. AP reports in the Army alone, nearly 10,000 active duty soldiers developed obesity between February 2019 and June 2021, pushing the rate to nearly a quarter of the troops studied. Increases were seen in the U.S. Navy and the Marines, too.

Washington is concerned by Kiev’s dwindling supply of ammunition, air defenses and experienced troops, according to the outlet Ukrainian servicemen. US officials estimate that more than 100,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed since the outbreak of the conflict with Russia last February, Politico has reported, without disclosing its sources.“Many of these losses are taking place in Bakhmut,” it added.

ON THE ROAD The air-raid siren sounded again through the defiant city, but William McNulty refused to be bothered by it. After a long morning of meetings in Kyiv with Ukrainian partners in need of medical tourniquets and cold-weather clothing, the man had earned an afternoon nap. The air flowing through the hotel room’s open window nipped of brittle autumn, and sunlight was leaking through gray clouds; winter, as the Ukrainians liked to quip, was coming. F**k it, McNulty thought. The chances of getting hit by a drone strike in a city of three million people seemed low. A U.S....

In contrast to the uplifting statements of the top Ukrainian leadership and Yermak's publications about the "task to reach the borders of 1991 by military means", the Ukrainian military personnel stationed in Bakhmut (Artyomovsk) are sounding a real alarm. The statement of the former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and now an officer of the 72nd brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Igor Lutsenko is published on the network. This statement attracts special attention, since it (as Lutsenko himself writes) is firsthand, from Ukrainian soldiers stationed in Bakhmut:"The 30th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near...

An interesting event took place at the German training ground Eckernförde, where the preparation of Ukrainian military personnel for operation began. tanks German made Leopard2. Two Ukrainian tankers turned to the German authorities with a request for political asylum. This is reported by The Financial Times.According to the publication, instead of learning to drive German-made tanks, Ukrainian servicemen decided to ask Berlin for help. They said they did not want to die in a "senseless conflict.

The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.One of the reasons my son separated from the Navy was because of nonsensical command decisions and political toadies more interested in climbing the career ladder than doing the right thing. He separated well before the pandemic hit and the Pentagon’s mandate that each service member submit to, and take the COVID-19 jab. He knows former team members who retired rather than submit to an experimental “vaccine” that wasn’t really a “vaccine.” They had the advantage of retiring rather than being “fired” for refusing...

Soldiers are leaving the Army National Guard at a faster rate than they are enlisting, fueling concerns that in the coming years units around the country may not meet military requirements for overseas and other deployments. For individual states, which rely on their Guard members for a wide range of missions, it means some are falling short of their troop totals this year, while others may fare better. But the losses comes as many are facing an active hurricane season, fires in the West and continued demand for units overseas, including combat tours in Syria and training missions in Europe...

If your daughter is planning to join the Army, she might find more hanging out in the shower than expected.As reported by Breitbart beneath the banner of “exclusive,” the branch’s training includes updated instructions for bathing. And the rules are plenty far from what veterans would find familiar.Official guidance — purportedly delivered via scenarios labeled “vignettes” — prescribes proper responses to issues concerning transgenderism.Vignette Nine deals with mandated urine specimens: What if an “observer” is uncomfortable having to watch a soldier — who has “not [had] sex reassignment surgery” — pee into a cup?Comfort-minded measures are on the table:Commanders may...