In the spring of 1944, the focus of the American army in Europe was the fighting in Italy. Van Barfoot was a sergeant in the 157th Infantry, part of the 45th Division. The 25 men in his platoon, like the other 150,000 Americans on the beachhead, had been bombed and shelled regularly by German aircraft and artillery since they arrived …
Military
Rush Hour
About 10,000 people have signed a petition on the White House website urging the Pentagon to remove radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh from the military’s radio network. The petitioners acted after Limbaugh called a college student a “slut” for advocating insurance-provided contraception. He has lost several advertisers …
Afghan Pullout Will Not Accelerate
The spate of killings of U.S. troops by their purported Afghan allies following the Koran-burning at Bagram has lots of national-security types wondering if that might trigger a speeded-up U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
No …
Concrete Answers on Iran
Turns out, Iran’s susceptibility to earthquakes has generated some of the world’s toughest concrete. That helps buildings survive temblors. But it also could blunt the impact of any bunker-busting bombs Israel or the U.S. might …
“That's probably the biggest misperception and lack of understanding of the expense of doing things down here. It's unlike any place else in the world mainly because we don't have the opportunity to capitalize on the local economy.”
Life Inside a Baghdad ER
The war in Iraq is over. But the memories and recollections will be with us for decades to come. It’s nice, for a change, to focus on those who dedicated their time in country to saving, rather than taking, lives.
Dr. Todd Baker has just published Baghdad ER: Fifteen Minutes, about his tour as chief of the emergency section of …
“Green on Blue”
Pentagon officials won’t concede it, but privately defense officials say the spate of “green-on-blue” killings by Afghans of their purported U.S. allies over the past two weeks could lead to major changes in U.S. strategy. If …
“Warning! The Nation Is Under Missile Attack!”
Always best when those kinds of disconcerting messages turn out to be false alarms. The ace FOIAers over at the National Security Archive at the George Washington University have just released a two-page once-SECRET memo that then-defense secretary Harold Brown sent to President Carter in 1980 over such a couple of false alarms that …
SEALs Seek Ship
The Navy’s Military Sealift Command is sniffing around the nation’s shipping industry to see if there’s someone who might be able to help the service’s SEALs get around.
Lots of this is secret, of course, but the Pentagon …
NoKo Déjà Vu
The State Department declared Wednesday that Pyongyang has changed its stripes and agreed to suspend its nuclear activities and halt nuclear and long-range missile tests. If true, this is good news for the world and the North …
Military Migraines
Combat gets blamed for all sorts of ills. Some are obvious, like physical wounds. Others are less visible, and range from traumatic brain injury to post-traumatic stress disorder. Well, “deployment to southwest Asia” – that would be Afghanistan and/or Iraq –apparently also triggers headaches.
“Factors that appeared to be …
Second U.S. Troop Killed in Afghan Interior Ministry ID’d
Army National Guard Major Robert J. Marchanti II, 48, was a former elementary-school gym teacher just outside Baltimore. He and Air Force Lt. Col. John Darin Loftis were working inside a small room at the National Police Coordination Center in the Afghan interior ministry Saturday afternoon when a ministry driver entered and killed …
“Tipping Point?”
So just how close to the tipping point – that’s the phase heard most over the past several days – is the U.S.-led military mission in Afghanistan? Not close, according to the Obama Administration. Remember, this was the “good …