Troops
“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
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“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 …
DoD DaDs…
The Department of Veterans Affairs is posting tributes to military fathers over on its Vantage Point blog (Sunday is Father’s Day):
Growing up with a military dad, all sorts of stereotypes come to mind: strict rules of
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Happy Birthday, Army!
Veteran Workers Are Good Workers
Hiring a veteran is not charity. It is good business.
That’s the premise of the new report from the Center for New American Security presented Wednesday at its annual meeting. Drs. Margaret Harrell and Nancy Berglass interviewed representatives from 69 companies. The report listed both the pluses and minuses associated with hiring …
No Trespassing
Suicides Eclipse Car Crashes as Top Non-Combat Cause of U.S. Troop Deaths
For years, motor-vehicle accidents have killed more U.S. troops than any other non-combat cause. There have been safe-driving campaigns on military posts since troops and transportation first got together. “Many military members are young, single, male, and high-school educated,” the Pentagon’s Medical Surveillance Monthly Report …
“As a military force today, if you're in Afghanistan, you get up in the morning, you get in an armored vehicle, you go on patrol, and then you come back. You're heavily armored; you're heavily defensive; it's called an occupation force. Is that what we want for our military?”
Devil Dogs — And A Real One — Hunt for Drugs
PsyWar of Words
The Army’s psychological operations manual spells out – literally – how psyops soldiers are supposed to help the guys with the guns win. Toward that end, they’re supposed to draft psyop plans with “strong verbs” instead of those dreaded “weak verbs.”
For those of you who weren’t paying attention in English class, the …
