It has always struck Battleland as a little strange how many sailors come from middle America, far from the nation’s coasts. Here’s the latest example, from Mansfield, Texas.
It’s written by Amanda Rogers for the …
National
Not Raindrops on the Roof
A pair of U.S. snipers on a rooftop scans for threats while protecting leaders meeting in Kandahar province Jan. 30.
China To Find A Target-Rich Environment
TOKYO – If Chinese warships escalate from locking-on radars to actually pulling the trigger in the East China Sea, they’ll have lots to shoot at – and it won’t be just the Japanese.
With little fanfare, U.S. commanders …
That Old Benghazi Magic
The Pentagon screws up. A lot. Sometimes here at Battleland, we even take note of it when it happens.
But watching Thursday’s hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee into the role, or lack of a role, played by the …
Spending Our Way to Victory
Army Major Scott Hamilton was a civil affairs officer who deployed to Iraq in 2007-08 during the U.S. troop surge. He says he was unable to spend the Commander’s Emergency Response Program money as fast as his commanders wanted …
29%
— The share of U.S. military veterans deployed to Afghanistan and/or Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder, among those receiving health care from the Department of Veterans Affairs between 2002 and 2012, according to a new study from the Congressional Research Service. h/t Steven Aftergood, Federation of American Scientists
Time to Change the Rules of the Cyber-Security Game
Cyber criminals and spies are breaking into companies and government agencies on a daily basis.
The last few days have highlighted yet another series of such cyber-crimes, this time against the New York Times, Wall Street …
“I visited with our top leaders and they have told me we have gone past cutting the fat, we've gone past cutting the meat, we're into the bone. And it is now where they're going to have to cut will reduce the ability to train and equip these people properly. And that's going to start costing lives.”
— Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the armed services committee, on Wednesday.
Sorting the Treasure from the Trash
LOGAR PROVINCE — The road from Forward Operating Base Altimur runs mostly downhill during the 20 minutes or so it takes to drive to Forward Operating Base Shank, across a desert valley floor. Every couple of days — sometimes …
Both Barrels
Batteries Definitely Included
Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter in Turkey where U.S. Patriot missile batteries now guard against Syrian missiles.
This Explains a Lot
Rural Rescue: A Timeline of the Alabama Hostage Crisis
The hostage standoff in Midland City, Ala., ended with a shootout between kidnapper Jimmy Lee Dykes and law enforcement and the rescue of the 5-year-old boy he abducted from a school bus after shooting its driver to death. Dykes, …