My Battleland colleague Nate Rawlings has done excellent work at keeping us all aware of trends in official Army reading lists. Like many veterans, I suppose, I have a shelf of books I own solely because some previous commander put it on his mandatory reading list. These lists are handed down as part of the boilerplate leadership …
Military
Breakthroughs TK
“TK” is what we write in the draft of a Time story in place of facts we don’t yet have, like someone’s age or hometown. That’s kind of like the Pentagon latest list of 190 awards for high-tech gear to help the nation’s scientists develop the next big thing. The instrumentation will be used for, among other things:
Magnetic Resonance
…
Taking a Knee
So What’s the Unemployment Rate Among Veterans?
Jobless vets – those who have recently waged America’s wars – are a national disgrace. The dignity and purpose that accompanies work is one of the best salves a veteran can apply to a mind rattled by combat. But the numbers can be like mercury. On Sunday, Mike Mullen, the retired admiral and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, …
$240 million
An $80 Million Sitting Duck
The U.S. has abandoned its just-finished consulate in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif after spending $80 million outfitting the former hotel as a symbol of U.S. resoluteness. This is the kind of fiasco that tends to …
How To Build a War Machine
Arthur Herman is one of those scholars who grips the past and just won’t let go, which is lucky for those of us stuck in the present. In these days where attention spans are collapsing into overflowing rivers of data, every once in awhile you need a historian to point out what’s important.
Herman’s new book, Freedom’s Forge: …
“These days, it takes only seconds for one picture to suddenly become an international headline. And those headlines can impact the mission we’re engaged in, they can put your fellow service members at risk, they can hurt morale, and they can damage our standing in the world.”
EAGLE
…otherwise know as the Army’s Enhanced Army Global Logistics Enterprise. Or, as the Army says:
The Enhanced Army Global Logistics Enterprise (EAGLE) program will be used to procure logistics services requirements, primarily Material Maintenance Services, Retail/Wholesale Supply Services and Transportation Support Services in support
…
“Taking into account a missile-defense system’s destabilizing nature -- that is, the creation of an illusion that a disarming strike can be launched with impunity -- a decision on pre-emptive use of the attack weapons available will be made when the situation worsens.”
Psychiatrists Pondering PTSD in Philadelphia
Next week is the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting in Philadelphia, the largest yearly gathering of its kind. It’s exciting because of the prominence military matters are going to get. Last year there were perhaps 15 military-related sessions at the meeting in Hawaii. This year, there’s going to be twice as many …
Winning Hearts and Minds, One Eyeball Scan at a Time
Why Is Getting Out of the U.S. Army So Tough?
Awhile back, there was a post here on Battleland featuring U.S. Army Private Daniel Houten, who was contrasting his service in the Israeli Defense Forces with that of the U.S. Army. Private Houten stated that he feels the U.S. …