Battleland was invited to be on Friday’s PBS NewsHour, but this invitation had a twist that made it different than all that had come before. Host Jeff Brown and his producer, Dan Sagalyn, wanted a two-fer: first, they wanted to …
Military
“Keep Your Mouth SEALed!”
So a group of former Special Forces guys is complaining that national-security leaks from the Obama Administration are harming national security. Some of the recent leaks – about the Stuxnet computer virus aimed at the heart of Iran’s nuclear program, for example – have seemed brazen to Battleland.
But it seems a tad incongruous …
Black Hawk Down: Double-Edged Blades
Helicopters are wonderful machines that, like a bumblebee, are supposed to be unable to fly. It’s all that whirling hardware linked by shafts, masts, transmissions, cyclics and collectives that give them their amazing …
Grim Record: Soldier Suicides Reach New High
A record number of soldiers – 38 – are suspected of killing themselves in July, the Pentagon said Thursday. It marks a startling jump in the suicide epidemic that has been frustrating Army leaders for years.
This Isn’t Funny…
The Army’s failure to cut down on its suicide rate makes it a target for people without taste. Alas, the July figures due out shortly are unlikely to help.
As someone who has covered military suicides, and the folks waging the …
War’s Legacy Plagues Japan and Its Neighbors
Resentment stemming from World War II resurfaces as Asian neighbors dispute over island territories
FDR
*Foreign Disaster Relief, per this Pentagon inspector general’s report released Wednesday.
This opens up a whole new field:
JFK: Joint Foreign Kaffeeklatch (sure to be big in Brussels).
LBJ: Landing Beach Jalopy (new Marine amphibious assault craft, obviously).
The U.S. Plot to Blow Up the Afghan Ministry of Defense
Times have gotten tougher in Afghanistan given the latest green-on-blue attacks, where Afghan troops – or at least killers clad like Afghan troops – have taken to killing U.S. and other allied personnel with firearms or suicide vests. Army Major David Fitzpatrick, who was deployed as a trainer for the Afghan military in Kabul from …
“At a time when I am sure that there's an awful lot to be mad about, there's a lot to be proud of when it comes to our men and women in uniform.”
Planning for SNAFUS
The Air Force spent a lot of time and money a generation ago when it designed its C-17 cargo airplane to take off and land at short, unimproved runways around the world – “austere” was the word of choice. But it couldn’t imagine that capability would be needed because a pilot would someday err and land at the tiny Davis Islands …
What’s It Like When Your Warship Runs Into an Oil Tanker?
Ever wonder how one of the Navy’s most sophisticated warships, the guided missile destroyer USS Porter, could collide with an oil tanker just outside the Strait of Hormuz early Sunday? Well, safe to say the Navy is trying to …
Navy Skippers: The Gift that Keeps on Giving
Ernest Borgnine, God bless him, may have passed on, but real Navy skippers can fill the void left by Lieut. Commander Quinton McHale’s passing. Check out the latest from the New London Day:
Navy Cmdr. Michael P. Ward II, who
…
Stop Complaining About How Long It’s Taking to Get Your VA Benefits
Nearly a century after her late husband served in the World War I U.S. cavalry, Alda Collins is finally getting the VA benefits his service entitled her to receive. Her son, 73, tells the local Daily American: “I’ve been trying …