BattlelandNational Security
A Different Kind of War Story
Too often, stories out of Afghanistan are about young people dying. Here’s one from outside Kabul about saving a life — in Florida.
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BattlelandNational Security
BattlelandNational Security
Is This A Great Country Or What?
The Navy’s Pacific Fleet reports:
U.S. Navy Commander Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz has visited dozens of ports over the course of his career, but none has ever evoked the emotions that will come when his ship USS Mustin visits Cambodia in December, marking the first time in 37 years that he has returned to the land of his birth.
As a
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BattlelandNational Security
All Players Stick to Script At Senate Hearing On Repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
The first of two days of hearings before a Senate panel on the future of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” unfolded like a high-school drama production, with each side speaking its memorized lines. Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican, played his role as the key opponent of allowing openly gay men and women to serve to the hilt, calling it “a …
BattlelandNational Security
The Ultimate War Game
The Pentagon has just launched a supercomputer assembled from 1,760 Sony PlayStation 3 processors. But military scientists who brought the computer online yesterday probably won’t be playing PS3 games like Call of Duty: Black Ops, God of War, or Killzone 3. The Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate at Rome, N.Y., bolted …
BattlelandNational Security
Reckoning For A Female Captain Bligh
Earlier this year, the Navy set off fireworks when it released a report detailing Captain Holly Graf’s “cruel and unusual” treatment of her crew aboard the guided missile cruiser USS Cowpens.
It generated lots of online commentary, but ended with her fate undecided. This week she has been called before a formal board of inquiry, which …
BattlelandNational Security
"Follow The Money"
That Hollywood advice to young reporters brought down a President, and now it’s going to keep China out of a second Korean war. In the just-published winter issue of the Air Force’s Strategic Studies Quarterly, a U.S. intelligence analyst specializing in northeast Asia and nuclear matters predicts that China’s reliance on world trade …
BattlelandNational Security
Pentagon Report Reinforces Push To End "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
What the Pentagon calls the FEBA — the “forward edge of the battle area” — shifted sharply Tuesday with the release of a comprehensive study showing that more than two of every three troops surveyed that believe letting gays serve openly will have no significant impact on U.S. military readiness and morale. But make no mistake about
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BattlelandNational Security
Pentagon: OK To Dump "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
The Pentagon has concluded, based on a nearly year-long study and a survey of troops, that jettisoning the policy that bars openly gay men and women from serving in uniform isn’t a big deal. Seventy percent of those polled said junking the 17-year old ban would be positive, neutral or of no consequence. We’ll have a broader look at …
BattlelandNational Security
About That Federal Pay Freeze…Exemption
The White House’s proposal to freeze federal pay announced Monday exempted the military. It would be DOA on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have been giving the troops an extra half-percentage-point pay hike above and beyond whatever the Pentagon requests for several years. The troops and their families have been doing great work for a …
BattlelandNational Security
Just In Time For The Holidays!
The once-Great British navy has put the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible up for sale on an eBay-like website. It’s a sad end for a proud 690-foot warship that sailed Her Majesty’s seas from 1980 to 2005, and took part in the Falklands, Balkans and Iraq campaigns. Its crew of more than 1,000 piloted the ship’s two-dozen aircraft up to …
BattlelandNational Security
"Don't Ask" Showdown Looms in Senate This Week
President Obama’s fight to let openly gay men and women serve in the U.S. military enters its political endgame this week. The Pentagon will release its report on Tuesday saying most troops don’t care, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, will tell the Senate Armed Services Committee on …
BattlelandNational Security
A Marine's `Black Friday'
In honor of Black Friday — when all good Americans demonstrate their profound sense of materialism and economic entitlement — it’s worth noting that the U.S. Marines have been doing their bit to boost the economy, too.
Prior to 9/11, it cost about $1,200 to outfit a Marine for war, and this is what he looked like.
These days, it …
BattlelandNational Security
North Korea Option: Lowest Common Diplomatic Denominator
Defense Secretary Robert Gates may be a crafty bureaucratic infighter and seasoned national-security pro, but he also knows the limits of his own considerable knowledge: “To any question beginning with ‘Why?’ with regards to North Korea, my answer is the same: `I don’t know.'”
While Gates made that remark shortly before North Korea …