People
Why Are Military Marriages So Strong?
There’s a head-turning article in the latest edition of the Journal of Family Issues (admittedly something rarely found on Battleland’s nightstand) about how well military marriages are faring after 10 years of war.
After …
“We were initially briefed there would be 10 to 15 possible insurgents in the area…And what we found out after the fact -- once we got back -- after analyzing the intelligence, that there was over a hundred that had moved into the area during the fight.”
Pentagon Contractor = Iranian Contractor?
Is a Pentagon contractor doing business with Iran, the North Star of the Axis of Evil (NSAE)? Former Time comrade Adam Zagorin probes the relationship among the Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company, Tehran, and the Pentagon. It’s an investigation for the Project on Government Oversight, an independent stone unturner. “Amid renewed …
Afghan Massacre Suspect: News From Home
Time’s Bonnie Rochman files from Seattle on Afghan massacre suspect Robert Bales:
In 2007, Staff Sergeant Robert Bales participated in a bloody, two-day battle in Iraq in which 250 enemy troops died. After the bullets stopped flying, he and his comrades pitched in to assist the wounded and their families. “We ended up helping the
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RIP: Magnificent Valor
In the spring of 1944, the focus of the American army in Europe was the fighting in Italy. Van Barfoot was a sergeant in the 157th Infantry, part of the 45th Division. The 25 men in his platoon, like the other 150,000 Americans on the beachhead, had been bombed and shelled regularly by German aircraft and artillery since they arrived …
Air Force Rocks
When Battleland thinks of an Air Force-related rock group, Jefferson Airplane for some reason springs to mind. But today’s Air Force isn’t relying on some psychedelic 1960s’-era band for its cred. Instead, it’s counting on Max Impact, made up of Air Force non-commissioned officers.
Granted, it’s not the Air Force Strings …
Top Brass’s Pensions Can Be Higher Than Their Pay
File under: Doesn’t make a lick of sense. Thanks to a change stemming from the 2007 defense authorization law, retired generals and admirals can, under the right circumstances, make more in retirement than they can while actually working for the military. USA Today’s Tom Vanden Brook has the scoop:
The highest pension, $272,892, is
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Look Out, 4-Star General Coming Through…the Revolving Door
On Friday last week, Raytheon, a major defense contractor, announced it scored a four-star general! Marine Corps Gen. (Ret.) James E. Cartwright, the recently departed vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, joined the …
The Man Who Believed Himself
TOKYO – Wars can attract some odd, fringe characters, but I never met anyone stranger or more out on the fringe than Jonathan Keith Idema, who died recently in Mexico of complications from AIDS.
A career con artist and military wannabe, Idema showed up early during the war in Afghanistan. He posed variously as a government …
Thanks, General Chiarelli
Tuesday marks the final day in uniform for General Pete Chiarelli, the Army’s vice chief of staff. As the service’s No.2 officer, he has been the key driver on fighting to reduce the mental toll of the nation’s wars on its …
