There’s going to be plenty of Petraeus pageantry and partying all around Pentagon property Wednesday. That’s because Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is hosting a no-holds barred retirement ceremony for Army General David Petraeus after 37 years in uniform. “I’ve been privileged to command organizations that …
Troops
U.S. Troops, Wired for War
Fascinating peek into the electronic lives of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by TIME’s John Wendle:
The men who started out in 2001 as Generation Kill have transformed into Generation iPod. As technology has become miniaturized and more portable, U.S. soldiers have increasingly taken laptops, terabytes of movies and video-game systems
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U.S. Afghan Toll Reaches New High
Here’s an eye-opener: the number of U.S. troops killed in action in Afghanistan in August — 61 so far, according to the independent iCasualties.org — is more than the total who died in the first three years of the war: 59.
In fact, the deaths of 30 U.S. troops — including 17 Navy SEALs — shot down in their CH-47 Chinook …
Baby-Killing Python Slated to Help Train Army Rangers
Do you find this unsettling?
A python that killed a 2-year-old Florida girl in 2009 will now be used in training at Eglin Air Force Base. The 8-foot, 6-inch python, named Gypsy, has lived at the Camp Rudder snake house since shortly after the incident. The albino Burmese python now will be used in swamp training at ranger camp…
It seems
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Chomp! Let’s Take a Big Bite Out of the Army! Chomp! Chomp!
The last time something so dangerous came from the sea was when Jaws hit screens across America in the summer of 1975. This time, the looming menace from the littorals are Navy advocates who see no problem slashing the Army in the coming budget battles and using some of the savings to keep a sleek and powerful 300-ship U.S. Navy …
“Hop Gun”
Proud Navy pilots around the world are grimacing at this picture of one of their prized, but wounded, F-18 warbirds hitching a recent ride. Air Force loadmasters packed the dewinged Super Hornet into the cavernous belly of their C-5 cargo plane for a nearly 8,000-mile hop from Kandahar, Afghanistan, to San Diego. The plane’s brakes …
National Guard to the Rescue!
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Watch a pair of what appear to be New Jersey National Guard trucks on Sunday, gloriously plowing through Hurricane Irene’s waters in Manville, N.J., some 30 miles southwest of New York City. It’s impressive, at least until they cross under a railroad bridge …
Neither Rain Nor Hurricane Nor Gloom of Night…
Mom Always Said It Was Brain Food
Can fish oil help curb the epidemic of military suicides? That’s the startling finding in a new study just published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. It links suicides by military personnel to low level of docosahexaenoic acid — found in fish oil — and finds that troops with higher levels of DHA in their blood were less …
No Wonder…
…the Air Force bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade by mistake.
SEAL’s Best Friend
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Even if you’re not one of those so-called “dog persons” — and I’m not — you’ve got to find this video affecting. It’s Hawkeye, the Labrador retriever of Jon Tumilson. He was a Navy SEAL and chief petty officer first class, one of 30 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan August 6 when …
“Raunchy” Captain Gets to Stay, For Now
The Navy earlier this week decided that the former No. 2 officer aboard the carrier USS Enterprise — who achieved notoriety last December when his off-color shipboard videos became public — gets to stay in uniform. But Captain Owen Honors career is likely over, and could be selected for early retirement in the coming days.
Gas Alert!
Our troops are charged with winning hearts and minds in Afghanistan. Looks like some of them have been going about it in the wrong way…(be sure to check out the comments at the end of the item).