Governor Scott Walker survives his nasty recall vote earlier this month, a dynamic triggered by his brutal reshaping of Wisconsin’s public sector unions. Pundits are interpreting all this in terms of November and what it means …
Pentagon
War Games…For Warriors Only
The military’s growing separation from U.S. society is filtering into bizarre nooks and crannies of American life. Check out this new video game: Medal of Honor Warfighter Military Edition. It’s a joint venture by GovX, Inc. – “the largest online shopping destination exclusively serving verified military, law enforcement and …
“Buck” Starts Here
Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, the California Republican who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, is out with his latest video on the perils of impending sequestration. It’s increasingly looking like mutual Russian roulette: the GOP doesn’t want the military’s future spending plans cut by $600 billion over the coming decade …
BUFF at 60!
Designation Resignation
Battleland was at a party this weekend where someone got the X-37B confused with the X-47B. You’d think the Air Force and the Navy would have a Joint Operating Coordination Committee on Aircraft Designation and Nomenclature to avoid fielding two new aircraft with such similar designations (but you’d be wrong: back in the early 1980s …
The Military’s Medical Alternatives
Complementary and alternative medicine — CAM — also known as integrated medicine, or complementary healing, is alive and well in military medicine.
I recently attended part of a exciting symposium on the subject at the new …
$890 Billion
“As we recognize Pride month, I want to personally thank all of our gay and lesbian service members, LGBT civilians, and their families for their dedicated service to our country...The successful repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" proved to the Nation that just like the country we defend, we share different backgrounds, different values, and different beliefs -- but together, we are the greatest military force in the world.”
Wars’ Lagging Costs
Here’s a bracing chart from a new report from the Congressional Research Service detailing the cost of veterans’ care:
In FY1940, the budget authority for veterans’ benefits and services was $561.1 million, and in FY2012 the budget authority was $125.3 billion, or more than 200 times the FY1940 budget authority. In constant 2011
…
“Mapmaker, Mapmaker, Make Me a Map!”
Army Major Michael Yeager has deployed three times to Afghanistan and Iraq, most recently to Afghanistan in 2010 as a special operations planner for the Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command.
But in this recently-posted March interview with the Combat Studies Institute at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, he spoke mostly about …
Happy Birthday, Army!
No Love For The Marines’ V-22 In Japan
TOKYO – Pity the poor V-22. The Marines’ beleaguered tilt-rotor aircraft can’t get any love even overseas. Even before the crash this week of an Air Force V-22 in Florida, local leaders in Japan were lining up against plans …
Air Force Capt. Tony McPeak, Over Vietnam
Merrill “Tony” McPeak served as the U.S. Air Force’s 14th chief of staff – its top officer – from 1990 to 1994. A fighter pilot — who flew over Vietnam, in war, and as a member of the Air Force’s Thunderbirds aerial acrobatic team, in peace – McPeak ran the service during 1991’s Gulf War. He has always been an outspoken …
