BattlelandVeterans
The Army veteran of combat in both Afghanistan and Iraq wasn’t named in a recent Department of Veterans Affairs’ inspector general’s investigation. So we’ll just refer to him by the IG report’s number. Plainly, he had a family who cared about him, and VA personnel who sometimes did their best – and sometimes …
BattlelandMilitary Mental Health
Charges of improper diagnosis related to PTSD at Madigan Army Medical Center, at Joint Base Lewis-McCord have been in the headlines. The alleged shooter in the Afghan massacre was from the Washington state post, as was the …
BattlelandAfghanistan
This video is ricocheting around the Internet. Early indications are that it is an AH-64 Apache helicopter gunship from Forward Operating Base Sharana in eastern Afghanistan. No one was reported hurt. Just one more thing the Army is going to have to explain.
“There is no known design issue that cannot be overcome by effective engineering.”
A California Air National Guard HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter hoists a badly-burned fisherman from a Chinese fishing vessel more than 700 miles off the coast of Acapulco, Mexico. Just how a rescue chopper was able to reach so far out into the middle of the Pacific Ocean to pluck the injured man from his ship and bring him to the …
BattlelandDrones
It’s an ancient proverb about military snafus wrought by small oversights or neglect that has been recited in various forms for centuries. But the same thing, believe it or not, can still happen with the Pentagon’s 21st …
BattlelandPolitics
Four female veterans are making history by running for Congress this year. While women make up more than 50% of the population, they are severely underrepresented in public office. It’s about time that started changing.
A few weeks ago, I received an email from Colonel Martha McSally (USAF, ret) announcing her intention to run for …
BattlelandAfghanistan
Despite a rash of recent bad news – culminating last week with the apparent slaughter of 16 Afghan civilians by a U.S. soldier – the architect of the campaign didn’t step on any landmines Tuesday in testifying before …
BattlelandMissile Defense
TOKYO – Japan knows just what to do if North Korea goes ahead with a thinly disguised test of a new ballistic missile next month: shoot the @#$! thing down.
Japanese Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka told Diet members Monday …
BattlelandAuthor Q&A
When the Pentagon was wrestling with the idea of ending the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban on gay men and women serving openly in the military, the Marine Corps quickly came to be seen as the service most opposed to the change. After all, General James Amos said he feared lifting the ban would be a “distraction” that could lead …
BattlelandMilitary Mental Health
In the national quest to understand what motivated Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales to leave his compound in the middle of the night, and allegedly gun down 16 men, women and children, there have been many motives already put forth. These include a “witches brew” of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury …
BattlelandMilitary Mental Health
The Afghan massacre, allegedly carried out by Staff Sergeant Robert Bales a week ago Sunday, is only going to highlight the chronic shortage of Army mental-health experts that we reported on in 2010. An Army social worker in …
BattlelandMilitary Justice
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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