There’s going to be plenty of Petraeus pageantry and partying all around Pentagon property Wednesday. That’s because Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is hosting a no-holds barred retirement ceremony for Army General David Petraeus after 37 years in uniform. “I’ve been privileged to command organizations that …
Veterans
Neither Rain Nor Hurricane Nor Gloom of Night…
Mom Always Said It Was Brain Food
Can fish oil help curb the epidemic of military suicides? That’s the startling finding in a new study just published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. It links suicides by military personnel to low level of docosahexaenoic acid — found in fish oil — and finds that troops with higher levels of DHA in their blood were less …
Women are Heroes, Too
Let the generations know that women in uniform also guaranteed their freedom. That our resolve was just as great as the brave men who stood among us. And with victory our hearts were just as full and beat just as fast – that the tears fell just as hard for those we left behind.
— World War II Army Nurse.
Those …
Walter Reed, In Transit
There was a pretty big movement of U.S. troops this weekend, and here’s betting you didn’t even hear about it. Some 200 wounded military personnel traveled five miles from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. That’s because, on September 15, after 102 years in operation, …
Return of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”?
Buzz from articles like this have started to make people nervous about the possibility of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy coming back, even after it has been rescinded. I’ve heard talk like this from some members of Congress on Capitol Hill for a while, and have been both curious and concerned about the logistics of …
The New Greatest Generation
Colleague Joe Klein has a great cover story this week on the flip side of veterans’ joblessness, PTSD and suicide: the exemplary examples being set in fields far removed from the battlefields by vets of our post-9/11 wars. As he notes, it’s currently behind the Time paywall, which means you won’t be able to read it online for awhile. …
$1 Trillion in Cuts Looming
It hardly seemed possible when we first broached the possibility in April that defense spending could be cut by $1 trillion over the coming decade. But there it was Wednesday in the latest issue of National Journal, one of those heavy-duty – and costly – magazines read by all of Washington’s policy wonks:
The Pentagon is
…
Military Retirement Pay: Changes are Coming
The chart makes it clear: military pay — including retirement and health benefits — is no longer small beer. While self-described mega-rich man Warren Buffett said Monday on the op-ed page of the New York Times that “the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan,” the truth is that the average soldier is paid, in cash and …
The Maine Reason Cutting Defense Spending Is So Tough
There was a report out the other day suggesting one thing the Pentagon might have to cut, as it tightens its belt, is the $1.3 billion it provides the Defense Commissary Agency, which runs 252 grocery stores around the world. Sure, those kinds of places made sense when troops and their families were stationed in far-off corners of …
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”: External Pressure or Internal Struggle?
The end of the 60-day waiting period for the full and final repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is rapidly approaching. On September 20, the first day I can legally be “out,” I have a feeling it will initially feel just like any other day. At this point, I have no idea what country I will be in, but when the alarm on my cell phone …
Revolutionary Athletes…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wOK2a5UuNEk]
The annual National Veterans Wheelchair Games wrapped up in Pittsburgh this past weekend. More than 600 athletes from 46 states participated in 17 events that challenged their strength and endurance. It’s worth checking out the video to see the grit — and …
Vets Aren’t Victims
Vets aren’t victims.
Like many people of Celtic descent, I don’t just have a temper – I have an Irish temper. (Hooray genetic enablers that double as rationalizations!) And one of the things that consistently stokes those mind-flames is the “vets are victims” fallacy.
We volunteered. In some cases, we volunteered …