Army Major Greg Escobar served as an operations officer in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011, training Afghan police in Kunar province for the first half of his deployment, and Afghan troops in Paktika province for the second …
Afghanistan
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
Solemn Semper Fi
“My Daughter Was Scared of Me”
Army Major Andrew March has pulled three combat tours – a pair in Iraq and his most recent, in 2010 and 2011, in Afghanistan. In this recently-posted June interview with the Combat Studies Institute at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, March details his role keeping aircraft flying – and spying – as part of Task Force Odin.
The MRAP: Brilliant Buy, or Billions Wasted?
The Lariam Mystery Continues
In March 2012, Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales allegedly massacred 16 Afghan villagers. I posted a blog then, wondering if he could have been on mefloquine (Lariam), an anti-malarial agent.
The silence from the Defense …
“My Husband is a True American Hero”
My husband, Staff Sergeant Jeremy Breece, is a True American Hero.
In 2008, my husband and I thought it would be best that I separate from the Air Force because of two reasons. One being I was pregnant and two, my husband had …
Sky-High WiFi
If civilian passengers can now get the Internet on airplanes, shouldn’t troops be able to get it on the battlefield?
The Air Force has just awarded Northrop Grumman a $20 million contract to do just that, by adding new …
General Misconduct
“At the end of my military career, some 40 years later, that [Vietnam] war had a lot to do with the way I handle myself in the wars that we're in right now, part of which means to make sure that the American people know what's going on - to put a face on that, to put a face on those we've lost. I was a big advocate for opening Dover [Air Force Base] to the public and the families for just that reason. We want people to know what's going on and to consciously say “yes” or “no” -- we will continue this, or we won't continue it. The Vietnam War began, the American people didn't support the men and women in uniform, and that is not the case now.”
“We've begun a transition in Afghanistan, and America and our allies will end our war on schedule in 2014.”
A Modest Proposal…
If someone had told Battleland when he was a whippersnapper on the defense beat that this pair of statements would be issued on the same day by the nation’s two ground forces, we wouldn’t have believed it:
— The Army announces that Major Nidal Hasan, the psychiatrist who faces trial for allegedly killing 13 people at Fort Hood
…
The Securitization of Instability
Having escaped Iraq after eight years, now mired in the nation’s 12th year in Afghanistan, Americans are probably ready for a book looking at the kind of missions the U.S. military has taken on post-9/11. They’re not pure …