Troops

A Navajo Code Talker…Speaks So We Can Understand, at Last

For those of us to young to remember, the exploits of the Navajo code talkers during World War II have become legend. They were the guys who transmitted messages in their native language (with some English mixed in) between the Marine units closing in on Japan – a code the Japanese could not crack. Chester Nez, now 90, tells his …

Twenty-One. Not a Gun Salute.

 

So far this year, the Navy has relieved 21 commanding officers. The details surrounding Commander Jay Wylie, captain aboard the USS Momsen, are just now coming to light. One has to credit the Navy with airing its dirty laundry from the halyard, for all to see. But one also has to wonder: how did such an apparent creep end up …

Why Are Today’s Anti-War Protests So Muted?

For folks of a certain age, the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations bring back memories of Chicago (“The whole world is watching”) 1968, and the anti-war protest I covered in Boston. How come there is scant protest about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars now?

Is it because they have been waged so brilliantly and economically that …

Mullen’s Mulligan

It usually takes months for retired chairmen of the Joint Chiefs to have their formal portraits hung in the Pentagon’s E-ring hallway, alongside all those who have come before. But not so in the case of Admiral Mike Mullen, who left his post as the nation’s top military officer September 30.

Strolling along that wood-lined …

Hail, Hail, The Gang’s All Here…

Sure you know the military has the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. But what about the Bloods and the Crips? Not to mention other street and prison gangs like the Asian Boyz, Gangster Disciples, Latin Kings, MS-13, Sureños, Tiny Rascal Gangsters, the Juggalos, the Aryan Brotherhood, Barrio Azteca, Texas Syndicate, along with …

Driving and Dying

What kills most troops who die in their first year back home? Suicide? That’s a predictable response, but it’s wrong. It’s traffic accidents:

Government officials are worried about the number of young veterans getting into fatal car accidents after they return home from the battlefield. The ones dying most often tend to be young,

Take This (Defense) Job and…Love It

Paper cuts are becoming an occupational hazard of covering the debate over how to trim Pentagon spending. If you feel like getting slashed with competing reports, a pair of studies released Tuesday should send you running for bandages.

Bottom line: we can cut spending if we defend less. But if we defend less, we’re going to lose a …

Iraqi IEDs? Iranian IEDs? How About U.S.-Iranian IEDs…

Improvised explosive devices are the leading killer of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Tuesday morning comes word from the U.S. Department of Justice of a plot that “caused thousands of radio frequency modules to be illegally exported from the United States to Iran, at least 16 of which were later found in unexploded improvised …

Army Pain, Army Shame…Nation’s Gain?

 

Interesting comment at a Tuesday morning breakfast with Army Col. Kevin Galloway, the service’s pain czar*:

You used to drive around outside a military post and what was outside — pawnshops and tattoo parlors. You know what you see now? You see pain clinics popping up. They’re meeting an unmet need that’s inside the gate. Some

F-22 Raptors Grounded, Again, Due to Thin Air

It was only a month ago that the Air Force let its F-22 warplanes — the most costly fighters in world history — back into the skies after more than four months confined to the tarmac.

As we noted September 21:

The Air Force has decided to let its fleet of F-22 fighters back into the air beginning Wednesday without fixing the

Trick or Treat, Moammar Goblinafi!

Somehow seems appropriate that NATO’s mission in Libya is now slated to end October 31, a week from Monday. That would be Halloween (want to scare your neighbors? Get your Gaddafi mask here). “We have taken a preliminary decision to end Operation Unified Protector on Oct. 31, and we will take a formal decision in the next few days,” …

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