BattlelandVeterans
The nation’s top military officer worries that the growing chasm between the U.S. armed forces and the American public means disaster for the country. “Long term, if the military drifts away from its people in this country, that is a catastrophic outcome we as a country can’t tolerate, can’t afford, in no way,” Admiral Mike Mullen, …
BattlelandVeterans
Members of the Zumwalt family have been proud members of the U.S. military since the Revolution. It was that tradition that led James Zumwalt to join his father and brother in the Navy, before transferring to the Marines. During his 26 years in uniform, the now-retired lieutenant colonel saw service in three conflicts — Vietnam, …
BattlelandWeapons
…obviously something to do with all those Russian-built choppers we’ve been using in Afghanistan and Iraq. Amazing. Large-text version here.
BattlelandWeapons
The White House has announced that Army Staff Sergeant Leroy A. Petry is the second living post-9/11 Medal of Honor recipient (seven others have been awarded posthumously). President Obama is slated to bestow the light-blue-beribboned medal — the nation’s highest — at the White House on July 12. Petry earned the honor for what …
BattlelandTroops
The U.S. military has long complained that Taliban and al Qaeda forces have sanctuary inside Pakistan along the Afghan border, and can launch attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan and then scoot safely back into Pakistan. So it seems only fair to note, as Long Wars Journal does Wednesday, that al Qaeda and Taliban forces have begun …
BattlelandWeapons
The Pentagon has long had troubles developing an IFF system — a sophisticated electronics box aboard an aircraft that tells the pilot if the blip on her heads-up display represents a friend or foe many miles away (IFF stands for identification friend or foe). Now it seems to be having the same challenge in the wars it’s …
BattlelandWeapons
When charts like the one above surface inside the Pentagon, they’re generally some action officer’s guesstimate about how much her program’s top-line budget is going to grow in the out years (also known as the FYDP [pronounced fidd-IP], for future years defense program) Or, as we call it: the future.
But this chart is different. …
BattlelandVeterans
The military is supposed to be apolitical, and serving officers generally take that seriously. As Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, put it in an oft-quote 2008 article: “The U.S. military must remain apolitical at all times and in all ways. It is and must always be a neutral instrument of the state, no …
BattlelandNational Security
Once again, Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned Tuesday against air attacks that kill innocent civilians. If they continue, “we will be forced to take unilateral action in this regard,” he said in Kabul three days after a NATO air strike killed nine civilians, most of them women and children, in southern Helmand Province.
This is …
BattlelandNational Security
Fascinating article in this morning’s Wall Street Journal on how the Pentagon has concluded it can defend against, or respond to, cyber attacks with bombs. Fascinating, and typical (Kinetic rules!). Only three problems with it: the Pentagon doesn’t make these kinds of decisions, finding the perpetrator can be next to impossible, and …
BattlelandTroops
President Obama doubled down on the Army Monday, picking an Army general as chairman of the Joint Chiefs — after picking another one to run the CIA, and a third — a one-time low-level Army lawyer — to run the Pentagon. There may be lots of red, white and blue around the capital today, but it felt more like red, white and Army …
BattlelandVeterans
Powerful piece from Rajiv Srinivasan, an Army platoon leader in Afghanistan last year, on the passing of a comrade:
The hardest part about writing this piece was not the recollection of the sights and emotions of a friend’s passing but deciding what to call him. Perhaps it will mean more to you if you reread the roll call, inserting the
…
BattlelandVeterans
Memorial Day is a strange holiday when so many Americans are disconnected from the wars now underway. Did you know that over the past week, more than a dozen U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan? It’s easy for me to keep track: I get Pentagon press releases every time a U.S. soldier is killed, sprinkled in among those …
