BattlelandNational Security
[vodpod id=Video.5238398&w=425&h=350&fv=] It’s hard to believe 20 years after Tailhook that some Navy officers still don’t get it. So here’s the drill: if you don’t want your gay-bashing and sexual-harassment antics leading the network news, keep your comments close-held among like-mind cronies….and, God forbid, don’t broadcast them …
BattlelandNational Security
For more than a half-century, most U.S. troops headed to South Korea for one-year tours without their families, over concern that a sudden war would trap spouses and children in the “sea of fire” the North Koreans promised to unleash if provoked. But over the past several years, that policy has come to an end — just as tensions in the …
BattlelandNational Security
It seemed closer to Halloween than New Year’s in a Wachovia Bank just outside the capital earlier this week when a robber brandishing a gun — and wearing a Hillary Clinton mask — demanded money. He got away with an unspecified amount of loot, and the local sheriff is now investigating. Looks like he might have been wearing this …
BattlelandNational Security
Busy as North Korea may be lobbing artillery shells at a South Korean island, it’s also making time to fire orders at its 23 million people about its dictator-in-the-wings. You may recall that in September the NoKos awarded Kim Jong Un, the youngest son of ailing dictator Kim Jong Il, with the rank of Daejang, equivalent to a U.S. …
BattlelandNational Security
The top U.S. commander in the Pacific says the Chinese military has developed and begun deploying a new missile capable of sinking U.S. aircraft carriers. Adm. Robert Willard says the DF-21D is designed to be fired into space as a ballistic missile, homing in on its target as it returns to Earth. A top Pentagon official warned earlier …
BattlelandNational Security
So, you think we’re going to start withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan this summer? Here’s something that might give you pause: you’ve just spent $130 million building a better gas station for aircraft at the huge U.S. military base at Bagram Airfield, just north of Kabul. Bagram is the central pit stop for the U.S. war effort, and …
BattlelandNational Security
Aviation buffs are buzzing over blurry photographs now surfacing on Chinese military websites purporting to show Beijing’s first stealth fighter jet, the Chengdu J-20 fighter. Chinese aviation fans says they have been snapping pics of the jet during recent taxi tests, with a first flight likely still weeks away. It’s the best holiday …
BattlelandNational Security
Amid major legislative achievements – nuclear-arms pacts, repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” tax deals – sometimes it’s the smaller items that matter most, at least to some people. Here’s a tale of a Marine, his wife, and their son – and how Congress, last week, and the President, yesterday, helped a shattered family. They acted on …
BattlelandNational Security
President Obama has just signed the law allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the U.S. military. “This morning I am proud to sign a law bringing an end to ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” he said. No one should have to “sacrifice their integrity” to wear the uniform of the U.S. armed forces, he said.
He singled out Defense Secretary …
BattlelandNational Security
Military officials have been complaining for years that a growing share –about 25 percent – of the nation’s youth is too obese to enlist in the service. Now comes word that 23 percent can’t pass the military’s initial entrance examination. Even as the U.S. military continues to meet its recruiting goals, the evaporating pool of …
BattlelandNational Security
In the wake of the Senate’s vote to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” on Saturday — and President Obama’s plan to sign the bill into law Wednesday morning — just how long is it going to be before gay men and women can serve openly? Some Pentagon officials have suggested it could be a lengthy process, perhaps more than a year, while a new …
BattlelandNational Security
I missed the racial integration of the U.S. military, but I witnessed up close the mixing of women into nearly every rank and file. Soon it will be time for openly gay men and women to serve, as well. I can recall the tirades against opening up more billets to women some 20 years ago. There was a special commission set up to deal with …
BattlelandNational Security
The Senate voted 65 to 31 this afternoon to kill “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” a law that had been used to kick nearly 14,000 gay men and women out of the U.S. military since 1993. The measure, which already has passed the House, is on its way to the White House for President Obama’s signature. It marks a significant victory for Obama – who …
