Army Major Stephen Bussell served as a personnel officer at Iraq‘s Camp Speicher north of Baghdad in 2004 and 2005. Once again, his recollection serves to remind us that the guys and gals running patrols “outside the wire” in …
Military History
Trying to Make Sense of the Senseless…
What have I learned from the tragic shooting that took the lives of six Sikhs in Oak Creek, Wisconsin on Sunday? It reminded me of who I am.
People wept for the senseless loss of life. Some were afraid to come out of their homes. They complained that their leaders had segregated them and that their pleas for justice had fallen …
Military Extremists: Nothing to Bragg About
Like many others, the question of military service and the mass shooting by Wade Page at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin got me curious.
So I simply Googled “military extremism Ft Bragg.”
A fascinating mélange of …
Hiroshima…
Hard to believe the first, and next-to-last, combat use of the atomic bomb happened 67 years ago today.
Battleland has always been fascinated and appalled, for all the predictable reasons, concerning its use.
Epic Battle Of The Pacific, Forgotten In Japan
TOKYO – When dignitaries and guests gather on the remote island of Guadalcanal this week to commemorate the epic battle where Japan’s relentless advance in World War II was finally halted, one group will be conspicuous by …
New Study: U.S. Military Suicide Rate Now Likely Double or Triple Civil War’s
Editor’s note: we spent a lot of time trying to dig up historical data on suicide in the U.S. military for our recent story on the current epidemic. The Army itself has only been keeping accurate suicide statistics for about 30 years, making historical comparisons difficult. A pair of scholars in the field has just released a
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“Afghan Good Enough”
U.S. troops working with the Afghan military have long known that the American way of war – lot of manuals on how to do things, the money to make it happen, and the mindset to get it done – isn’t practical in Afghanistan. So …
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 …
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 …
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, …
Fun Facts To Know & Tell
Ever want to know how many U.S. military veterans they are? How many are men, where they live, how much they earn and how educated they are compared to their non-vet peers? How many fought in more than one war?
Of course, it doesn’t make any difference if you want to know – you’ve already paid for the information. It has …
No Fading Away For MacArthur Over Here
TOKYO – More than six decades after U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur stepped down as lord and master of Japan, he remains a towering figure of the postwar era – an enigmatic, controversial and yet revered figure who helped …