Military Benefits

Sailors’ Time at Sea Heading Skyward

Wars come and go in cycles, and so does everything that accompanies them. The U.S. public wanted war after 9/11, but now they are exhausted. Weapons wax and wane from complex (F-111) to simple (F-16) to complex again (F-35). And …

Air Force Rocks

When Battleland thinks of an Air Force-related rock group, Jefferson Airplane for some reason springs to mind. But today’s Air Force isn’t relying on some psychedelic 1960s’-era band for its cred. Instead, it’s counting on Max Impact, made up of Air Force non-commissioned officers.

Granted, it’s not the Air Force Strings …

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 …

The Nearly $1 Million-a-Year Soldier

The Pentagon’s top bean-counter was ready when a senator asked him a simple question Tuesday: how much does it cost to keep a single American soldier in Afghanistan for a year? “Right now,” Robert Hale, the Pentagon comptroller responded, “about $850,000 per soldier.”

That’s akin to the $400-per-gallon cost of fuel, and $30-per-gallon …

PTSD…And Cash

The Army removed Colonel Dallas Homas, commander of Madigan Army Medical Center in Washington state, on Tuesday from his post because of an investigation into whether post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnoses were reversed …

They Don’t Seem to Get Better…

That might be one conclusion to be drawn from this wrenching chart in a new Congressional Budget Office report on how the Department of Veterans Affairs is handling wounded troops suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. The chart shows that nearly all the troops afflicted with both ailments remain …

When is it War?

If you were in Iraq in 2008, just after the wave of troops for the troop surge had crested with 160,000 or so American troops in country, you might have had a pretty good reason to think you were involved in a war. …

Real Soldiers, Fake Pregnancies

Army combat vets – remember, they’re limited to men — are donning fake breasts and bellies so they can better understand how pregnant soldiers feel during physical training. It’s part of the service’s Pregnancy Postpartum Physical Training Exercise Leaders Course.

“This whole thing is pretty uncomfortable,” Sergeant Michael …

A Two-War Hangover

The Pentagon brass are trekking to Capitol Hill this week to detail how they’re trimming their budgets now that all U.S. troops are out of Iraq, and have begun coming home from Afghanistan. But it’s important to remember that wars’ costs last far longer than wars’ duration.

Here’s a new chart from the Department of …

A 7,000-Mile Sniper Shot

Jeff Hackett died in the war. He was a career Marine, a mustang who rose through the enlisted ranks to become a gunnery sergeant, then through the officer ranks to become a major. In Iraq, Jeff led a highly specialized unit of …

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