The Air Force has its first two Global Hawk drone pilots groomed from the ground up to fly drones, without ever having flown “real” airplanes first. It’s a new career field for the Air Force, and these guys are the first …
Troops
Kind of Like Washing a Rental Car
The Army Corps of Engineers has just finished building new terminals at Afghanistan’s Shindand air base for $18 million. “This facility will play an important role as the coalition begins to move equipment and personnel out of …
General Fogleman: Back to the Future
Ron Fogleman (Air Force chief of staff, 1994-97) is the only member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to request, and take, early retirement over a matter of principle (see why here). That makes him pretty rare, and worth listening …
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Army Suicide: The Struggle Continues
The rash of suicides among Army troops, including reservists, abated for the first time in four years in 2011, the service reported Thursday. The total of 278 was a 9% drop from the year before. But the toll continued to climb in the active-duty force, rising from 159 in 2010 to 164 last year.
A pair of leading indicators of …
Murderous Vets: Casting Aspersions
Better Late Than Never: The Afghan War Handbook
After a decade of war in Afghanistan, there’s a new guidebook out on just who we’re fighting. It’s The Afghan Way of War by Robert Johnson, Oxford historian. It is his subtitle – How and Why They Fight – that should be required reading for the leaders of both the U.S. and U.K., as well as the grunts on Afghan soil. …
Getting Disability Pay to the Vets Who Need it
The Department of Veterans Affairs’ inspector general is out with a report assessing how well the VA’s regional office in White River Junction, Vt., does when it comes to awarding disability pay to vets:
True, it’s only a half-million dollars in over-payments. But when you extrapolate that sum – White River Junction is …
About That Trillion-Dollar Cut
Seems all the bluster about cutting military spending by $1 trillion over the next decade – about 15% — isn’t the hair-on-fire moment that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and his congressional allies have been …
Airport Terror: A Strange Way to Die
Two things have happened since Monday worth noting. Both involve the deaths of Air Force personnel at the hands of radical Muslims. In one case – in which nine Americans died – the killer used a handgun apparently paid for by …
Pilots Downed in Libya Tell Their Tale
The crew members of that F-15E that went down in Libya nearly a year ago have finally surfaced to tell their story. Over at CNN’s Security Clearance blog, one of them tells Barbara Starr what it felt like:
Very much like if
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Everydad…
Over at the VA’s blog, VAntage Point, an old salt who once served in the Navy writes about what it’s like to have his Army son fighting far from home – and then coming home.
“Every night when I went to bed, I prayed …
“Aye-Aye Skipper!” There Should Be More Stories Like This…
Hoo Yah!!! (that’s Navy diver-speak for “this is good”). In the January 16th edition of Navy Times, there’s finally a good news story about “Amazing Skippers” …Commanding officers who are considered to be the best in …