It’s almost funny the way that Congress poured gasoline into its chambers last year, with each party convinced the other side would never light the match. Yet that is what is drawing closer every day.
Ash Carter, the …
Military
Battlefield BS’ing Just Got Tougher
The Pentagon has launched a website designed to keep track of U.S. military veterans who have earned the nation’s highest awards for valor. This has been a thorny issue since the Supreme Court ruled in June that anyone can lie about winning a Medal of Honor or other military decoration. It is going to be tougher to do now that the …
Segregated Air Force Training: Not the Answer
Air Force leaders are conducting a closed-door briefing on Thursday with the House Armed Services Committee to discuss developments in the criminal investigation into pervasive sexual assaults occurring at Lackland Air Force Base …
Get Serious, Lockheed
Over the last few months, the aerospace industry has become a thespian, staging a drama of fear about the impact of a sequester on defense. Lockheed CEO Robert Stevens warned his employees that as many at 10,000 Lockheed jobs …
The Chemical Weapons Scam
Syria has threatened to use chemical weapons against foreign militaries that invade the country. And the world is responding with fear. Or at least anxiety.
Which is why some of us call chemical weapons “weapons of mass …
For Want of An ROE…
Army Major Bryan Bowlsbey spent much of 2006 and 2007 in Iraq as a logistics officer with a unit from the Illinois Army National Guard unit. He became frustrated with the hidebound nature of a military force at war.
Bowlsbey spoke about his deployment in this recently-posted May interview with the Combat Studies Institute at Fort …
Cost of Fielding A Single Troop Has Nearly Tripled Since 1980
Despite decades of efficiency efforts designed to wring every flabby dollar from Pentagon spending, the cost of fielding one active-duty airman, sailor, soldier or Marine continues to climb.
The $57,000 it cost to field a troop in 1980 ballooned to $217,000 in 2010 — not including inflation. Sure, as the Congressional Budget Office …
Mail, Medals and Condolence Letters…
Army Major Kenneth Gettinger served as a planner with the 3rd Corps Support Command (COSCOM) at Camp Virginia, Kuwait, and Joint Base Balad, Iraq during 2003 and 2004, supporting the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Such personnel are part …
Dancin’ Marines
These days, when troops get bored in the war zone – and there’s plenty of time for that to happen – they make music videos. Here’s the latest from the Marines (and some soldiers) at Kandahar airfield in Afghanistan, lip-syncing to what Battleland is told is Carly Rae Jepson’s summer hit “Call Me Maybe.”
Dan Lamothe …
General’s Final Flight
Female Vets Running for Congress: Into Double Digits
Four months back, I wrote about four female veterans running for Congress. It turns out they’re not the only ones, by a long shot.
And boy are they needed: in the 112th Congress, women only hold 16% of the 435 House seats and 17 of the 100 seats in the Senate. Amazingly, there are only 92 veterans in the House of Representatives, …
Common Sense from an Enlisted Man
No, not just any enlisted man, but Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force James Roy, the service’s senior enlisted man. It’s unusual not only because it comes from an enlisted leader, but because it comes from the Air Force, …
The Empire Strikes Back
The latest chilling dispatch from a reporter known only as “A Time Reporter in Syria”:
“Is it real? Is it really almost over?” asked a young FSA fighter who took up arms a year ago. “I’m so sick of guns, bullets,
…