“For all of our tactical valor, and the hedgehog nature of how our incredibly tough, brave and committed small units go about the missions we give them [in Afghanistan], once again our strategic compass is unmoored -- in part, maybe largely because we rotate 2-star and 3-star HQ constantly, leaving no enduring frame of reference for what we are doing.”
Military Families
“I am really thankful to Jay [Leno] for his willingness to put this little Italian car up for sale. As [Army General and Chief of Staff] Ray [Odierno] said, it's Odierno, it's Panetta, it's Leno, you better damn well bid on this Italian car and make it a good bid.”
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.
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 …
Help If You’re Worried About Your Military Loved One
Over at Time’s Healthland blog, Alexandra Sifferlin has a to-do list for family members who are concerned that their soldier, sailor airman or Marine might be thinking of suicide.
Captains Courageous
The two soldiers couldn’t have been more different. One was young and handsome enough to be known as “Captain Brad Pitt,” a 2007 West Point graduate trained to deliver ordnance from the Army’s most terrifying flying machine, an AH-64 Apache helicopter gunship. The other was a decade older, a bomb-squad grunt who high school …
Compen$ation: What Troops Care About
Anyone who has ever tried to calculate military income knows it’s made up of lots of moving parts – basic pay, housing, retirement, health care, assorted bonuses, etc. They’ve marched in lockstep for a long time, so defense-budget whiz Todd Harrison asked 2,600 troops: what do you care about when it comes to compensation? Such …
Bet General Amos Loves This
Here’s the latest in the Crazed Commerce Division of We’ll Peddle Whatever We Want and Give Some Money to the Military So Leave Us Alone:
According to a press release tossed over Battleland’s electronic transom, a “former Marine” – mistake No. 1, there is no such thing, most jarheads will tell you – has “just launched a …
“Daddy’s Home!”
“Going Postal”
Any soldier’ll tell you that mail from home – even in this day of cell phones and email – is a real morale-booster for troops on the front lines.
Army Major Peter Perzel pulled postal duty during his assignment in Iraq in 2008-09, before a second tour in Afghanistan in 2009-10. He shared some of what he learned in a …
Breast-Feeding … in Uniform
Breast-feeding while in uniform has suddenly become a hot topic since two Washington Air National Guard moms were photographed in uniform while nursing their babies.
The photos were posted by the group Mom2Mom to promote World Breast-feeding Week coming in August. The group, founded by a military wife on Fairchild Air Force Base, was …
Civilians, Into the Breach
I am encouraged recently to see that community-based, civilian clinicians want to be prepared to meet the mental health needs of returning veterans and their families. One great example is the extraordinary response to a free …
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 …
