BattlelandVeterans
Jeff Hackett died in the war. He was a career Marine, a mustang who rose through the enlisted ranks to become a gunnery sergeant, then through the officer ranks to become a major. In Iraq, Jeff led a highly specialized unit of …
BattlelandMarines
The corps – which likes to think of itself as the most elite of the nation’s military services – finds itself grappling with Nazi SS flags, scout-snipers urinating on Taliban dead, and a young leatherneck who committed suicide after intense hazing by fellow Marines on the front lines in Afghanistan. Over at the independent …
BattlelandTroops
Monday the Pentagon warned its troops that some of them may be laid off, future raises are going to be smaller, and retirees will be paying more for health insurance. Seems only fitting, then, that the next day – Valentine’s Day, ironically – the Pentagon’s own Defense Logistics Agency is seeking a shaft.
BattlelandMilitary Spending
The Obama Administration came to a fork in the road this year on military spending: given the financial pressures facing the nation, it could have fundamentally set U.S. defense policy on a new path. Or it could have kept pretty much everything and just sucked it in as it tightened its belt.
It has elected to do the latter, and …
BattlelandJapan
TOKYO – What were they thinking?
A plan that was supposed to ease the controversy over a noisy Marine Corps air base in Okinawa has instead infuriated local officials and galvanized opponents. And could hasten the removal of …
BattlelandClose-up
U.S. Marines were introduced to some of the extreme cuisine on offer in the jungle — bugs and snake blood anyone? — during a lesson in survival with the Thai Navy. It was part of “Cobra Gold 2012,” a joint military exercise in …
BattlelandMilitary Spending
That was the headline from the Pentagon’s official news service report on Monday’s release of the Defense Department’s proposed 2013 military spending plan. It’s a safe bet other reporters will echo that refrain in the coming days.
Not exactly stop-the-presses news, you think? Turns out you have a good memory – or have …
“China and US create less pacific ocean”
BattlelandMilitary Spending
Monday is Budget Day. This is not a drill: head for a soundproof, locked, windowless, Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility to avoid the howls and screams as the Pentagon releases its proposed 2013 spending plan. Here’s the hardware slice already giving some Crystal City defense-contractor types the vapors.
But we already …
BattlelandProcurement
There’s a lot of talk these days about reducing the cost of military technology projects. The most intelligent conversations on this topic inevitably converge on the idea of building the proverbial “70% solution.” These …
BattlelandMilitary Women
I just found out that President Obama has nominated Air Force Lieut. General Janet Wolfenbarger for her fourth star, making her the first woman in the Air Force to earn that rank, and only the second woman in the history of the …
BattlelandArmy
Daniel Houten is in basic training to become an infantryman in the U.S. Army at Fort Benning, Ga. Nothing unusual about another 11 Bravo – except that he recently finished an 18-month tour with the Israeli Defence Forces. The heck with generals and colonels weighing each army’s pluses and minuses – let’s talk to someone who …
BattlelandClose-up
TIME’s photo editors bring you the best pictures from the front lines and home.
