Hard to believe the first, and next-to-last, combat use of the atomic bomb happened 67 years ago today.
Battleland has always been fascinated and appalled, for all the predictable reasons, concerning its use.
National Security
The Navy SEALS’ Dying Words
Monday, August 6 marks the first anniversary of the Afghan crash of a U.S. military CH-47 Chinook helicopter that killed 30 Americans, including 17 Navy SEALS. It was the worst single loss-of-life day for the U.S. in the war in …
The Sikh Temple Shooter’s Army Past — and a U.S. Army Sikh’s Reaction
After James Holmes launched a Batman-movie massacre in Colorado on July 20 that killed 12, the U.S. Army quickly issued a statement declaring that he had never served in an Army uniform. Monday morning, Aug. 6, alas, Battleland …
New Study: U.S. Military Suicide Rate Now Likely Double or Triple Civil War’s
Editor’s note: we spent a lot of time trying to dig up historical data on suicide in the U.S. military for our recent story on the current epidemic. The Army itself has only been keeping accurate suicide statistics for about 30 years, making historical comparisons difficult. A pair of scholars in the field has just released a
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Grounded…for Now
“The Fight Doesn’t End When They Get Home”
Dealing with the nation’s veterans – both those who have served since 9/11, and the older ones who came before – has always been a challenge. That’s what makes the approach being championed by Soldier On in Massachusetts …
Greener Grass Dept.
Battleland has dealt with both Andy Krepinevich and Ann Sauer while covering national-security issues in Washington for more than 30 years. On Thursday, it learned that Sauer had collected, or will collect, some $1 million as a parting gift from her decade of work at Lockheed before returning to an armed-services committee job with …
Sauer Grapes: Do the Lockheed and McCain Dots Connect?
Senator John McCain (R.-Ariz.) and the Lockheed Martin Corp. have been behaving in ways that parallel one another.
That could be explained by their common political objectives, or by a separate action by McCain — the rehiring …
Sequestration Countdown: Five Months to Go
It’s almost funny the way that Congress poured gasoline into its chambers last year, with each party convinced the other side would never light the match. Yet that is what is drawing closer every day.
Ash Carter, the …
Warrior Pups
The cutest and noblest golden retriever pups ever bred to be service dogs are at the Warrior Canine Connection just north of the capital. You can find them way up on on Georgia Avenue, in Brookeville, Maryland, nursing in an old …
Battlefield BS’ing Just Got Tougher
The Pentagon has launched a website designed to keep track of U.S. military veterans who have earned the nation’s highest awards for valor. This has been a thorny issue since the Supreme Court ruled in June that anyone can lie about winning a Medal of Honor or other military decoration. It is going to be tougher to do now that the …
