Troops
96 Seconds
It takes years to become an F-16 pilot, but only seconds to lose your plane – and perhaps your life – when things go haywire. On May 4, an Air Force pilot aboard a Viper during a routine war game over Utah ran into serious …
Military Mental Health: An Outsider Takes a Peek Inside
Marjorie Morrison is a San Diego psychologist who took time out of her busy private practice to provide “pro-active” mental-health counseling to more than 500 Marines at the recruit depot there. Such counseling removes stigma …
Graduating Into War
The U.S. Naval Academy’s Class of 2002 was just beginning its senior year on September 11, 2001. Thirty-three of its 965 members this week will be publishing In the Shadow of Greatness: Voices of Leadership, Sacrifice, and …
Heading Home
Buying Peace
Winning a war can be tricky business, especially if you’re a U.S. soldier outfitted with the U.S. military’s formal guide for reintegrating the Taliban into a peaceful Afghan society. This is is different from the money the …
“Tonight we pay tribute to the Americans who still serve in harm's way. We are forever in debt to a generation whose sacrifice has made this country safer and more respected. We will never forget you, and so long as I'm commander-in-chief, we will sustain the strongest military the world has ever known.”
Three Good Things About Drones…
1,000 Words
The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan issued a statement Thursday detailing the steps now being taken to curb so-called insider attacks that have killed 45 allied troops so far this year.
Marine General John Allen’s statement contains no news, but its length alone makes clear the U.S. and its allies, including Afghanistan, view the …
On the Jobs Front, Reservists Fight to Take the Lead
During my first summer as an Army officer I took a Combat Lifesaver course at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Other than a fellow new lieutenant–like me, a recent ROTC graduate–the class consisted of a company of artillerymen from the …
Same Old Story for Women in Uniform
The Army’s Women’s Health Task Force has just issued a paper dealing with the concerns of female soldiers serving in Afghanistan.
As usual, it contains both bad news and good news.
In terms of bad news, the themes are …
Capital Flight
“For all of our tactical valor, and the hedgehog nature of how our incredibly tough, brave and committed small units go about the missions we give them [in Afghanistan], once again our strategic compass is unmoored -- in part, maybe largely because we rotate 2-star and 3-star HQ constantly, leaving no enduring frame of reference for what we are doing.”