I look down and I see my combat boots walking over the dust-filled rocky landscape again.
I feel like I am over-heating under the weight of my kit.
The sun is so bright, and the sound of the rocks rubbing together sends …
Women in Combat: Listening to Those Who Have Been There
When I heard Leon Panetta’s announcement about lifting the combat restrictions on women in the military, I immediately thought of former Army National Guard Sergeant Paigh Bumgarner.
Bumgarner had deployed to Iraq, where she …
“Duck!”
A B-52H Stratofortess comes in for a landing at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., Jan. 7.
Well, If Superman Can Use a Phone Booth…
…why can’t U.S. soldiers change on the fly, depending on their changing mission?
Apparently, they soon will be able to, according to this recently-updated solicitation, which begins:
The Soldier Protection System
…
Living-Room War: Stressed-Out Marines
We noted a couple of weeks ago the Navy’s efforts to try to reduce sexual assaults in the ranks by getting rid of the so-called “bystander mentality.” That’s where people – in the instant case, sailors – look the other way …
Infernal Eternal Devices
U.S. Marines and Afghan National Army troops check out a suspected improvised explosive device in Kajaki, Jan. 17.
Navy Hat Trick
Over breakfast the other day, a four-star general said the budget crunch means that any contract he issued for more than $5 million now needs a higher-up’s OK. He joked that he’d probably be issuing a lot more $4.9 million contracts soon.
At least Battleland thought he was joking.
The first three items listed in Friday’s roster of …
American Amazons: Hiding in Plain-Jane Sight
Until last Thursday, the Pentagon barred women from roughly a quarter-million jobs involving combat. Coincidentally – but, interestingly — that’s about the same number of women who have gone to war in Afghanistan and Iraq …
Same-Sex Spouse Standoff Surrender
Not 48 hours after Battleland’s piece in the dead-tree version of Time on the same-sex spouse squabble at Fort Bragg hit the street last Thursday, the Association of Bragg Officers’ Spouses decided to let Ashley Broadway become a …
“We do not conceal the fact that, in this all-out war of confrontation, which is a new stage of the anti-U.S. struggle century after century, various satellites and long-range rockets which we will launch one after another and a high-level nuclear test that we will conduct will all target the United States, our people's arch-enemy.”
— Jan. 24 statement from North Korea’s National Defense Commission, Pyongyang’s most powerful body. It almost reminds you of a spoiled and screaming (albeit perhaps nuclear-armed) toddler.
What Took So Long?
Thursday, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced that the military would be lifting the policy preventing women from filling billets in units tasked with direct combat.
As an Afghanistan veteran, I found myself …
Lifting the Ban: Now What?
The timing was right, politically, for the outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to declare that he is — upon the recommendation of Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs — lifting the ban on women in …
Ready! Aim! Procure!
You know you’ve been at war too long when you send 300 troops to sunny Fort Bliss, Texas, for more than two weeks to take part in JCRX 2013.
JCRX 2013? What kind of war game is that?
Well, it’s not actually a war game, in …