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Sikorsky transformed a Black Hawk helicopter into an unmanned aircraft system.
Soldiers can control the new U-Hawk, or S-70UAS with a tablet and the aircraft’s MATRIX autonomous system generates the flight plan and navigation. The company envisions the helicopter, which has eliminated the cockpit area, to be used for sustainment missions with the extra space or be part of maneuver operations by carrying swarms of drones. The new design features clamshell doors and ramp where combat vehicles could be rolled on and off, in place of a forward cockpit.
The new aircraft was announced and shown off Monday at the Association of the U.S Army annual conference in Washington D.C.
“You could imagine this aircraft conducting collaborative combat aircraft operations as a loyal wing man with a crewed aircraft,” Ramsey Bentley, director of advanced concepts and innovations at Sikorsky, told reporters Monday. “It’s flying in ahead of the soldiers as it comes into the area of operations. It dispenses launched effects. Command of those launched effects are turned over to the soldiers coming in on the next aircraft.”
The U-Hawk has 25% more cargo space than a UH-60L Black Hawk and can carry longer cargo like missiles and uncrewed ground vehicles, according to a company release.
A S-70UAS U-Hawk, with its forward clam shell doors open. Photo courtesy SikorskyThe aircraft is being tested at Yuma Proving Grounds. Bentley said they’ve had both privates and senior leaders fly the U-Hawk.
“We give them the tablet, give them a couple minutes, and then they’re like, leave me alone. I got it,” Bentley said. “We’ve done external load operations, internal load operations. We’ve done personnel recovery operations, all with a soldier at the tablet.”
Sikorsky has modified pre-existing UH-60 Lima versions of Black Hawk helicopters and is open to modifying older aircraft to keep costs down.
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The autonomy software can control the helicopter’s start up, shut down and flight procedures, like engine checks. The operator assigns the helicopter a task like reconnaissance, external or internal load operations.
“You tell the aircraft where you want it to go, then the aircraft executes that mission. The aircraft has sensors and autonomy on board that allows it to see and avoid obstacles. We can integrate threat avoidance with everything else,” Bentley said. “Once you give it the mission task, it even has the capability to pick out emergency landing zones and do all of the emergency procedures just like a human.”
Sikorsky is a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin.
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Rescue teams from the Alaska Air and Army national guard units and Coast Guard have sent a wave of aircraft and personnel to the site of massive flooding in remote villages far from roads or major cities. Entire homes were seen floating away as floods hit remotes villages along Alaska’s western coast.
The Alaska Air National Guard, Alaska Army National Guard and U.S. Coast Guard all sent helicopters and C-130 cargo planes towards Kipnuk and Kwigillingok to locate and rescue missing or displaced people. Both are isolated coastal fishing villages accessible only by boat or air, about 400 miles from Anchorage and 70 miles from Bethel, the closest large town with a developed runway, though flooding had covered at least one end of it over the weekend.
At least eight homes in the towns have been pushed from their foundations.
“At least 18 people were rescued in Kwigillingok and at least 16 people were rescued in Kipnuk,” the Alaska State Troopers said Sunday evening. No deaths have been reported, but several people are believed missing, according to the Alaska National Guard, with at least three in Kwigillingok and an unspecified number in Kipnuk.
The two towns have about 1000 residents between them, accoding to U.S. Census data. “Every effort will be made to help those hit by this storm. Help is on the way,” Gov. Mike Dunleavy said in a statement on Sunday.
Typhoon Halong tore through the Pacific past week, hitting Japan with heavy rains as it moved north. It made landfall in Alaska over the weekend, bringing winds of up to 100 miles per hour, storm surge and heavy flooding. Some of the hardest hit areas were in the Kuskokwim River delta, with the remote villages of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok seeing homes swept off their foundation from the storm.
Alaska’s Air and Army national guard both routinely respond to civilian calls for help around the mostly-roadless state in helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. The Coast Guard maintains a number of active units around the state.
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In response to the flooding , the Alaska Air National Guard’s 176th Wing dispatched HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters, a HC-130J Combat King II plane and multiple pararescuemen and combat rescue officers. The Alaska Army National Guard mobilized two Black Hawk helicopters, one from Bethel and one from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. The Coast Guard sent two MH-60 Jayhawks and a HC-130J Hercules plane from Air Station Kodiak.
Of those forces, only the 176th’s helicopters are air refuelable, a capability that would be required to rapidly reach the towns from Anchorage.
Additionally military facilities including the Alaska National Guard’s Bethel Readiness Center were set up as shelters for those who needed to be evacuated.
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The Texas Military Department has removed an unspecified number of National Guard troops deployed to Chicago for not being “in compliance” with its validation process.
A spokesperson for the Texas Military Department confirmed to Task & Purpose that “a small group” of the 200 National Guard members sent to Illinois this past week have been replaced after they were found to not meet certain standards. The move came amid criticism on social media over pictures that showed some of the Guard members appearing to be overweight, and as an appeals court temporarily blocked the deployment of the Texan troops into Illinois.
“In less than 24 hours, Texas National Guardsmen mobilized for the Federal Protection Mission,” a spokesperson told Task & Purpose by email this weekend. “The speed of the response necessitated a concurrent validation process, during which we identified a small group of service members who were not in compliance and have been replaced.”
A set of viral photos by ABC News earlier this week showed troops arriving in Chicago, with several appearing heavyset. The Texans were met with derision online for their appearance, with several people noting Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments about fitness standards during his September speech to top military leaders.
The Texas Military Department’s response was to questions from Task & Purpose about whether Guardsmen were being evaluated for height and weight standards as a result of the pictures.
The Texas Military Department did not say exactly how the 200 deployed National Guard members were out of compliance and being replaced. The National Guard Bureau issued a statement on Oct. 9 saying that “National Guard Soldiers and Airman are required to meet service-specific height, weight and physical fitness standards at all times.” The statement did not include any context about what prompted it, not did it mention the photos criticized on social media.
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“When mobilizing for active duty, members go through a validation process to ensure they meet those requirements. On the rare occasions when members are found not in compliance, they will not go on mission,” the National Guard Bureau statement continued. “They will be returned to their home station, and replacements who do meet standards will take their places.”
Earlier this month the Trump administration federalized 300 members of the Illinois National Guard, orders to protect federal personnel and property in Chicago. 200 members of the Texas National Guard were also sent to the Chicago area to join the force. The troops sent from Texas currently are blocked from deploying to guard federal buildings or conduct patrols. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge April Perry temporarily blocked the deployment of federalized National Guard troops from operating in Chicago and the state of Illinois as a whole. The decision echoed a similar ruling on the deployment of federalized troops to Oregon a few days prior. After an appeal by the Trump administration, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit ruled that troops under Title 10 federal control can remain federalized and stay in Illinois, but cannot deploy.
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The Department of Defense is shifting $8 billion in previously allocated money to pay troops for the middle of the month as the government shutdown continues.
With the shutdown approaching two full weeks and Congress not looking to see any votes until Tuesday at the earliest, military service members’ Oct. 15 paychecks are in jeopardy. President Donald Trump announced earlier today that he was directing the Department of Defense to use “all available funds” to pay military members on Oct. 15. His social media post did not specify how much would be used or where it would come from. Late Saturday afternoon the Pentagon confirmed the amount and the sourcing.
“The President has directed the Secretary of War to use available funds to pay service members on October 15th. The Department of War has identified approximately $8 billion of unobligated research development testing and evaluation funds (RDTE) from the prior fiscal year that will be used to issue mid month paychecks to service members in the event the funding lapse continues past October 15th,” a Defense Department official told Task & Purpose in a statement, using the Trump administration’s unofficial nickname for the department. “We will provide more information as it becomes available.“
The government shutdown started Oct. 1. Military service members were paid for the start of the month, but as the shutdown has carried on, mid-month pay appeared in jeopardy. Charity groups and nonprofit organizations that help support military personnel and families have allocated millions to assist. Military.com reported that food pantries have already seen a rise in traffic from military families, with local news capturing footage of uniformed military members in line to get assistance.
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It’s not clear if the Department of Defense will shift additional money should the shutdown stretch to the next pay day.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives rejected a proposal to pass a stand-alone bill to pay troops. On Friday Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said he would not be holding votes this coming week in the House of Representatives until the Senate passes a bill. The Senate is not expected to hold any votes until Tuesday, Oct. 14, just before troops are expected to be paid.
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Tens of thousands of service members, military families and other federal workers have rushed to apply for emergency financial assistance amid fears of missing a paycheck next week. That fear appeared almost certain to become reality after Congress adjourned Friday until Oct. 14, though President Donald Trump announced Saturday that funds might materialize to pay troops on Oct. 15, their usual payday.
But as uncertainty continues, several military-focused banks and relief societies say they have already extended millions of dollars in emergency relief cash and loans that many began heavily promoting last week. By far, the largest of those programs is run by USAA, the massive Texas-based financial institution which, for decades, has required its members to have ties to the military in order to join.
On Friday, USAA announced it approved tens of thousands of emergency loans totaling $144 million in just 48 hours. But online complaints have piled up that the company’s loan program requires a ‘hard’ credit check — which can negatively impact credit scores. Many active-duty troops who applied said they were surprised to be rejected, leaving them with one less option for relief and a dinged credit score.
Multiple service members told Task & Purpose their USAA applications were denied despite having apparently healthy credit histories. The rejections were particularly surprising, some said, because they had been USAA members for several years and had requested less than the full $6,000 loan the bank was offering.
A USAA official acknowledged that the program requires a hard credit check and that some individuals were either not eligible for the loan or did not qualify under the company’s lending rules.
“We’re going out of our way to really take care of as many people as possible,” said Daniel Diaz, a USAA spokesperson.
Diaz said late Friday the bank’s tally of approved loans had grown to 50,000, totaling $189 million.
Facing weeks without payTroops interviewed for this story were granted anonymity to speak candidly about their financial situations. Several said they were worried about missing their next pay while trying to figure out options for rent, utilities, food, day-to-day expenses, supporting their families, or avoid dipping into savings.
“For at least the next month, I know for sure I’m going to have a roof over my head. I know for sure the lights are going to stay on, and I know for sure I’m going to have a way to and from work,” said an Army specialist, who said he was twice denied a USAA loan this week and is living on the last paycheck from Oct. 1, the day of the shutdown. But with a water bill looming, he is now waiting for assistance from an Army relief foundation he applied to after being denied by USAA. Should the shutdown drag on, he said, “it’s going to get scary for myself” and other troops.
Amid the scramble for financial relief, multiple troops did not let the federal government off the hook for its failure to fund something as essential as military paychecks after days of congressional bickering over the shutdown.
“We do the service that’s asked of us and to not get paid feels like a slap in the face,” the specialist said. “It’s a slap in the face that Congress can get paid, continue to get paid, through all of this process, but the people that are charged with protecting them and their ideas — we don’t get paid.”
While Diaz said USAA had approved more than 50,000 loans, he would notdisclose how many total applications the bank has received, making it unclear how many have been rejected in total. He said “most of the applications” have been approved.
Credit worries with a ‘hard’ checkMany complaints centered around USAA’s requirement in their loan application for a “hard” credit check, a formal request for a credit review that a bank or lender makes when a person applies for a loan. Hard checks can impact a person’s credit score, while a soft check — commonly used for general background checks, like when applying for a job — do not impact credit scores.
Diaz confirmed the hard check requirement in the USAA program. Service members who spoke to Task & Purpose and were denied a loan lamented that the hard check would now likely impact their credit scores without having received financial assistance.
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A spokesperson for Navy Federal Credit Union, another military-centric bank that is offering emergency loans amid the shutdown, told Task & Purpose it is not obtaining or reporting such credit information for its shutdown loan program. The spokesperson did not disclose how many emergency loan requests it received or approved during this shutdown, but said that “we’re seeing a significant uptick in participation in our paycheck assistance program, which we believe reflects the uncertainty many are feeling about a timely resolution to the ongoing shutdown.”
Diaz said the USAA program has different requirements because it is a traditional loan.
Diaz emphasized that the USAA program is not a payday advance but a loan with a 60 to 90 day window for repayment. Payday or “paycheck assistance” loans are immediately “clawed back” by the bank when a paycheck eventually arrives, and therefore might not require a hard credit check. The Navy Federal Government Shutdown Loan Program is set up under those terms.
But the USAA loan, Diaz said, is not tied to a service member’s paycheck and instead allows for an extended repayment schedule.
“The reason we offer that is because that allows us to offer greater flexibility when it comes to repayment terms,” Diaz said.
Both the USAA and Navy Federal emergency loans are offered with no interest.
Strange ‘chat’ adviceThe Army specialist — who is a new father and has been a USAA customer for years — said that after his second denial from USAA, he sought an explanation via the bank’s online chat feature. He received messages from a chat botoffering to waive or refund overdraft fees if a check failed to clear.
“Not ideal although helpful,” the USAA message said, according to screenshots of the chat. It then recommended he look into opening a USAA credit card. It also asked if the soldier was able to open an account with the Navy Federal.
The replies were frustrating, the soldier said. Eventually, he received a message about his loan denial which said USAA’s decision was based on “serious delinquency” on revolving credit accounts and credit cards. The soldier said he had one delinquency on his Star Card, but none others, and has two car loans for his family, on which he makes his payments regularly.
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“I was given alternatives to assist me through this shutdown, but the ‘fixes’ were to either overdraft my account or apply for a USAA credit card,” he told Task & Purpose. “Both of these options would see a situation where USAA would be directly profiting off of soldiers who are not getting paid. This feels problematic to me.”
According to Diaz, USAA waives or refunds overdraft fees for eligible members as part of its government shutdown payment assistance programs.
Additionally, Diaz told Task & Purpose that responses from chatbots are “highly dependent on a situation,” as well as prompts and keywords. Its goal is to find the best solution based on member requests, he said, but also that “credit cards are absolutely not a part of USAA’s government shutdown program, and the loan and payment relief offerings will always be the first and primary options given.”
Eligibility requirements may hinder someDiaz said that many who looked into loans were, perhaps unknowingly, not actually eligible for the program, regardless of their financial history or other qualifications. It’s possible that many who believed they were rejected were actually ineligible, he said.
Diaz said that applicants need to have established direct deposit with a USAA checking or savings account for 30 days before the shutdown. He also said that if members were having issues getting approved via the online system, they could call USAA’s toll-free number.
Soldiers from 25th Infantry Division Artillery tackle an obstacle during a 36-hour “This is my squad” event. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jessica ScottHigh credit score but no loan For those who are eligible to apply, Diaz said USAA reviews their individual applications using typical payment history and credit score information. He did not specify USAA’s specific credit score cutoffs or other criteria, citing “proprietary” information.
“Everyone’s situation is unique and there’s a number of different factors,” Diaz said.
One prior-enlisted Army officer, who said his credit score is in the 750s, reported that he applied for a USAA loan in the amount of a single paycheck for fear of having to dip into his savings, but was denied. His payment history and credit card usage are “excellent,” according to a credit report he provided to Task & Purpose, with no derogatory marks.
The only “low impact” items on the report were a credit history of under three years and owning just two total financial accounts. Credit services reward higher levels of financial activity — such as buying and spending with credit cards or loans — with higher credit scores because it establishes a pattern of paying off debts.
In its rejection of his loan application, USAA cited insufficient credit history, length of time his account has been established, amount owed on revolving accounts and “proportion of balances to credit limits.”
“I’m good until the end of the month, I can pay for rent this month,” he said. “If it goes longer, say to the end of November, I’ll have to take out of my savings account to pay for rent and utilities.”
Unpaid expenses after a moveA National Guard warrant officer who is on full-time orders told Task & Purpose that he applied for a $4,500 loan from USAA. He recently changed duty stations, paying thousands in out-of-pocket expenses during the move, expecting to be paid back quickly through typical military finance channels. Now, he said, he doesn’t expect to get the money until after the shutdown, prompting his USAA application.
Congressional leaders confirmed last week that Congress will be closed at least until Oct. 14, the day before military paychecks are due. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Andre Taylor“I can afford to miss the October 15th paycheck, but if I missed the November 1st paycheck, it would affect me pretty heavily,” he said, noting his credit score is in the 790s. He said that USAA changed his status from National Guard to active-duty to reflect his orders, but still denied his application because of a car loan with more than $10,000 in remaining balance. He said he has paid the loan consistently, often beyond the minimum monthly payments.
With his moving expenses still unpaid, he said, “I have enough money to pay rent and groceries for November, but I’d be left with nothing.”
Older troops worry about junior enlisted membersDespite issues highlighted on social media, USAA’s relief program is the largest of several lenders and charities that troops say they are turning to — but its unclear how large the need may soon grow.
Some service members said they had applied or were considering applying for loans through emergency relief societies such as the Army Emergency Relief program. Task & Purpose reported on Thursday that such groups — which serve each of the branches — have received a surge in the number of requests for cash relief amid the shutdown. An AER spokesperson told Task & Purpose the traffic to its online application had been high enough to slow its website earlier in the week, but the page was back up by Thursday afternoon.
Troops also told Task & Purpose that they were concerned for junior enlisted service members, who may have no or little credit histories or savings, and those with families or who are single parents. Some said that their own leadership has stepped up to ensure they were getting enrolled in programs like AER.
“I once was junior enlisted and still didn’t have many expenses then and still felt like I was hardly making anything, so I can’t imagine those that have families,” the warrant officer said. “Junior enlisted with families are definitely living paycheck to paycheck and withholding pay from them isn’t right.”
An annual report from the Department of Defense in 2023 showed that even outside of a shutdown, service members reported a significant decline in financial comfort in recent years. As of 2024, more than 20% of active-duty troop spouses faced unemployment, meaning many families rely on a military paycheck as a single source of income. CNN reported Wednesday that families were already struggling with the shutdown.
Citing the nonprofit Blue Star Families, CNN reported that fewer than one in three military families have $3,000 in savings, and nearly a quarter face food insecurity.
Congress remained deadlocked on Friday over reopening the government and it was becoming increasingly likely that troops will miss next week’s paycheck. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had received intense scrutiny to call the House back in session to vote on a stand-alone act to turn on troop pay amid the shutdown after saying Democrats would be to blame if service members missed next week’s paycheck.
On Friday, the GOP-led House rejected a push from Democrats to vote on that stand-alone measure. The Hill reported Friday that Johnson and Trump are “working on ways” to pay service members, even if it means sidestepping Congress. Those discussions appeared to come to fruition after Trump said he directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “use all available funds to get our Troops PAID on October 15th,” in a social media post.
Still, troops and their family members rushed for loans and waited in lines at food banks in anticipation of a missed paycheck. Multiple service members said they were frustrated with the partisan grandstanding over their paychecks. The warrant officer said that “what’s happening to service members isn’t right whatsoever and the government is using us as political leverage against each other.”
UPDATE: 10/11/2025; This article was updated after publication to further clarify eligibility requirements for USAA’s relief program.
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An active-duty airman assigned to the 90th Missile Wing was found dead on F.E. Warren Air Force Base on Wednesday, the unit said. It was the fourth death in as many months involving personnel from the Wyoming base.
The deceased was not identified by the 90th Missile Wing in its release, in accordance with Department of Defense policy to notify next of kin first. F.E. Warren Air Force Base is one of the military’s three strategic nuclear missile facilities.
“It is with deep sadness that we face the loss of a member of the Mighty Ninety and on behalf of our entire team, I offer my deepest condolences to the family and friends of the lost individual,” Col. Terrance Holmes, 90th Missile Wing Commander, said in a statement. “Please know that the 90th Missile Wing provides several support services to families and Airmen in need.”
The Air Force Office of Special Investigations is investigating the death.
Wednesday’s death is the latest in a series of incidents involving airmen on the base or assigned to F.E. Warren Air Force Base. On July 20, Airman Brayden Lovan was shot and killed on the base. Two weeks later an airman was arrested for involuntary manslaughter, suspicion of making a false official statement and obstruction of justice. In the initial aftermath of Lovan’s death, Air Force Global Strike Command, which oversees F.E. Warren Air Force Base, suspended the use of the M18 pistol.
On Aug. 16, Senior Airman Joshua Aragon with the 790th Missile Security Forces Squadron was shot and killed in an off-base apartment in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Another service member, Airman 1st Class Jadan Orr, with the 90th Missile Security Forces Squadron, was charged with involuntary manslaughter. According to authorities, Orr fired an AK-47 through an apartment wall, hitting Aragon.
On Sept. 30, Airman 1st Class Marcus Evan Jackson, assigned to 90th Missile Security Forces Squadron at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, while at Fort Collins, Colorado. Local police are still investigating the deaths but have determined it to be a murder-suicide, with Jackson having shot and killed Alyssa Reardon before killing himself. Fort Collins authorities are investigating that incident.
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The United States is sending up to 200 troops to Israel to monitor the implementation of a ceasefire in Gaza.
U.S. Central Command is leading a new multinational task force that will facilitate aid and security assistance into Gaza, following two years of war. The new Civil-Military Coordination Center will be set up in Israel and work with non governmental organizations, private sector elements and partner nations. The announcement comes after a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas was announced this week, with the first phase of it starting to be implemented.
A U.S. official told Task & Purpose that some of the force is already on the ground, doing a site survey for the center. The rest will arrive in Israel by Sunday. The American element will be a joint force, made up of service members with expertise in transportation, logistics, planning and engineering, the official said. Service members will not deploy into the Palestinian territory.
Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of CENTCOM, reiterated that on Saturday. In a statement posted to CENTCOM’s X account, Cooper said he had “[j]ust returned from a visit inside Gaza to inform how we are moving forward to establish a CENTCOM-led Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) that will synchronize activities to support post-conflict stabilization.” Cooper stressed that the operation would be done with “no U.S. boots on the ground in Gaza.
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A tentative ceasefire agreement was announced on Thursday, after two years of war following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack in Israel. It went into effect today, with a 72-hour period starting that is expected to see the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces will partially withdraw and aid will be allowed into the Gaza Strip. Since October 2023, more than 1,100 Israelis have died and at least 61,709 people have been killed in Gaza, with more than double that injured, according to al Jazeera. Thousands are also missing.
The task force will also include troops from Turkey, Egypt, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, the Associated Press reported.
A U.S. Air Force loadmaster releases 66 humanitarian aid pallets of food over Gaza, March 2, 2024. (Staff Sgt. Jasmonet Holmes/U.S. Air Force)The United States had already deployed roughly 200 soldiers to Israel over the last year. In October 2024, the U.S. sent a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile defense system, crewed by roughly 100 soldiers. A second one was sent in the spring. According to Pentagon documents, the U.S. fired approximately 150 of its THAAD interceptor missiles during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, a quarter of its total stockpile. If both THAAD systems are still in Israel, the new deployment doubles the amount of American troops sent there. A U.S. official declined to comment on the THAAD deployments.
An earlier deployment of American forces to waters around Israel and Gaza set up a pier for aid into Gaza lasted only a few weeks, with the pier in operation for only 20 days. American forces also carried out air drops of aid into Gaza.
Update 10/11/2025; This story has been updated with a statement from Adm. Brad Cooper.
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The Qatari Emeri Air Force will build a facility at on Idaho Air Base, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday. Qatar will station F-15s and pilots at the U.S. base, he said.
Hgeseth announced the unit at the Pentagon with Qatari Defense Minister Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani. Hegseth said that the United States signed a letter of acceptance to build a facility for Qatar’s air force at Mountain Home Air Force Base, which is about an hour south Boise. Qatari pilots will learn to fly F-15QAs with American crews.
Though the plan drew initial shock and some anger from political pundits, plans for a Qatari detachment at Mountain Home date to at least 2022, according to the Idaho Statesman newspaper. And at least one other country has long trained its F-15 pilots at the base. Singapore has maintained a joint training unit with the 428th Fighter Squadron at Mountain Home since 2009.
“You can count on us,” Hegseth told his Qatari counterpart at the Pentagon.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth with Qatari Defense Minister Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Oct. 10, 2025. hoto by Diyar Guldogan/Anadolu via Getty ImagesNeither defense official said how many F-15s or Qatari personnel would be assigned to the new facility.
Though the new facility was being referred to by some media as a Qatari “base,” no foreign nation has its own base inside the United States. Some foreign militaries maintain training units and facilities on U.S. bases, or assign personnel to U.S. units as part of cooperation agreements. Ukrainian F-16 pilots have been training at an Air National Guard base in Tucson, Arizona since 2023.
After several pundits expressed concerns over the deal, thinking that Qatar was establishing its own base inside the U.S., Hegseth posted an “important clarification” on X.
“The U.S. military has a long-standing partnership w/ Qatar, including today’s announced cooperation w/ F-15QA aircraft,” Hegseth wrote. “However, to be clear, Qatar will not have their own base in the United States—nor anything like a base. We control the existing base, like we do with all partners.”
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Speaking with Al-Thani, the secretary called the agreement with Qatar “another example of our partnership.”
Qatar is home to the Al Udeid Air Base, the hub of U.S. airpower in the region for most of the last two decades. President Donald Trump announced an executive order guaranteeing the country’s security — terms usually reserved for NATO allies — after Israeli jets struck targeted Hamas envoys inside the country.
The Qatari government also signed over a Boeing 747 to the Air Force earlier this year after President Donald Trump expressed a desire to use it as a new Air Force One. The Air Force confirmed it had started modifying the plane last month, though its delivery schedule is unclear.
Update: 10/10/2025; This story has been updated following Hegseth’s social media post outlining the nature of the agreement.
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The Air Force is revamping the training pipeline for its toughest jobs.
Beginning in November, the Air Force will add a 16-week tactical field course to the training pipeline of Airmen seeking to join the pararescue, combat control, Tactical Air Control Party, or special reconnaissance career fields. The new training, dubbed the “Zulu Course” will teach the basics of how to shoot, move, and communicate as a team, said Col. Rodger Jennrich, deputy commander of the special warfare training wing at Air Education and Training Command, which oversees initial skills training for special warfare career fields.
Currently, Air Force special warfare trainees get basic tactical training — a core skill of the special operations units most will eventually be assigned to — after they reach the final qualification schools at the end of their training pipelines.
“Of the career fields, there were 100 tasks that were similar,” Jennrich said. “What we’ve done is we’ve pulled all those tasks up front so they’re trained together at one location as a team. It’s three blocks of training that builds on the foundation of basic skills of shoot, move, communicate, casualty care, weapons, advanced insertion/extraction skills, individual skills, and small team operations.”
The Zulu course will be now be the second stop for all special warfare trainees. The first will remain the service’s infamously intense four-week Assessment & Selection Course where trainees will still endure the near-constant physical training, from obstacle courses to pool workouts, that generations of Air Force special operators have faced. Like the selection course, Zulu training will be at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.
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After the Zulu Course, trainees will then continue with the training pipelines for each specialty, which can include parachute and dive training, survival courses and final training schools that teach the specific skills of each job. Graduates of the four final schools earn the distinctive colored berets they wear throughout their careers.
The overall length of those training pipelines, which varies by career field, will remain the same, Jennrich told Task & Purpose.
“We are not changing a single standard,” said Jennrich, who has spent 37 years in the Air Force special tactics community, including 14 years as an enlisted combat controller. “We are not changing a single requirement. We are not adding any training, and we are not removing any training. All we have done is rearranged the training.”
Air Force special warfare jobs include four enlisted and three officer career fields. In a recent change mandated by Headquarters Air Force, enlisted recruits now sign a contract for a specific special warfare career field. Previously, recruits could start training without having picked a specific job, Air Force officials said.
Another goal of the changes, which the Air Force calls Pipeline Optimization, is to eliminate training bottlenecks and match the number of students training in a field to the number of slots available at each final schoolhouse, Jennrich said.
Special warfare candidates currently average close to two months of downtime during their training pipeline, an Air Force news release says.
“When an airman graduates basic training, providing that he or she makes it through the pipeline without any delays, they will know every school start date,” Jennrich said. “It is already set for them. The entire pipeline is set. Previously, you would have to wait for schools.”
The new training pipeline also allows airmen to focus on their speciality skills at the apprentice courses, he said.
“The TACPs will work on fire support; the combat controllers will work on airfields, assault zones; pararescuemen will work on their rescue skills, ” Jennrich said. “What we’ve moved forward is all those common skills that everybody did. They still have their specialty skills.”
Moving combat training to the start of special warfare training allows airmen to “see what this is really like instead of waiting to the end to finally see it,” Jennrich said.
“Now you get to reinforce those things through the pipeline over and over,” Jennrich said. “Now you have an idea of it so that when you get to the next school and the next school, things make more sense because you’ve already been trained on it.”
Under the new changes, special warfare training will remain “as challenging, if not more challenging than the current pipeline,” Jennrich said
“This is about smarter training, not easier training,” he said.
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Cmdr. Robert Moreno has been fired as the commanding officer of the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Wyoming’s Blue Crew, according to Navy officials, who did not provide a specific reason for the move.
All ballistic missile submarines have two crews, blue and gold, which take turns manning the boats on underway patrols to ensure proper crew training, readiness, and morale, according to the Navy.
Rear Adm. Bob Wirth, commander of Submarine Group Ten, relieved Moreno on Oct. 8 “due to loss of conference in his ability to command,” a Navy news release says. No further information was immediately available about why Moreno was fired.
The move was the second time in less than a month that Navy officials fired a ship’s commander. The commanding officer of the USS Santa Barbara’s Blue Crew, Cmdr. Adam Ochs, was relieved on Sept. 11. The Santa Barbara is a littoral combat ship based in Bahrain.
A statement released on Moreno’s firing said that “Navy commanding officers are held to high standards of personal and professional conduct. They are expected to uphold the highest standards of responsibility, reliability, and leadership, and the Navy holds them accountable when they fall short of those standards.”
Missile submarine commanders are hand pickedAs the commander of a Navy missile submarine, Moreno was one of just a handful of officers in the entire military entrusted with direct operational oversight and control of nuclear weapons. Missile submarine captains are one of just three roles, along with the air crews of nuclear bombers and launch officers of hardened missile silos, classified as “critical” under the Pentagon’s Nuclear Weapons Personnel Reliability Program, or PRP, which sets out the requirements, monitoring and disqualification guidelines for working with nuclear weapons.
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Troops working under PRP can be pulled off duty or even removed from their jobs for mistakes, small infractions or even ailments that would be waved off or dealt with quickly elsewhere in the military.
The Wyoming is one of 14 submarines that carry up to 20 nuclear-armed missiles, which the crews can launch in a matter of minutes. Missile submarines make up the smallest but most durable leg of the United States’ nuclear triad, along with the Air Force’s land-based nuclear missile component and bombers that carry nuclear weapons are. The three independent branches are meant to deter adversaries by ensuring the United States would retain the ability to respond to a surprise nuclear attack.
‘Loss of confidence’ a common termMilitary leaders, and those in the Navy in particular, can be and often are relieved for a wide range of reasons, ranging from poor performance or leadership failings to personal issues unrelated to their jobs, such as being arrested for drunken driving. But whatever the cause for a firing, military branches rarely disclose why a commander or senior enlisted leader is removed from their post, usually attributing the firing instead to a “loss of confidence.”
In some cases when a commander is relieved for significant misconduct, services have noted that an investigation has taken place. The announcement of Moreno’s firing did not allude to an investigation.
Moreno, who assumed command of the Wyoming in May 2024, has been temporarily reassigned to Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia.
Moreno began his Navy career in 1993 as an enlisted sailor. He commissioned in 2005, according to his official biography, which was provided to Task & Purpose. His past assignments include serving aboard the submarines USS Pennsylvania, USS Dallas, USS North Carolina, and USS Cheyenne.
Moreno also served as commander of Joint Force Maritime Component in Norfolk, Virginia from March 2021 to September 2023. The command’s mission is to “conduct joint maritime operations to execute the maritime aspects of strategic deterrence,” according to U.S. Strategic Command, which has purview over the military’s nuclear arsenal.
Capt. David Burke has temporarily assumed command of the Wyoming, which is in port for maintenance, according to the Navy. Moreno’s firing “does not impact the ship’s mission or schedule,” the service’s news release says.
Ohio-class submarines can carry up to 20 Trident II D5 missiles, and they spend an average of 77 days at sea followed by 35 days of in-port maintenance
“They are designed specifically for stealth and the precise delivery of nuclear warheads,” according to the Navy.
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The Pentagon’s new Barracks Task Force will steer toward private sector “investment opportunities” and contracting to overhaul the military’s junior enlisted barracks under directives in a memo released by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth Thursday.
Hegseth announced earlier this week that the Pentagon was creating a task force to come up with a “barracks investment plan.” The memo released Thursday laid out what that group’s work will be.
The memo directs the task force to identify options for “investment opportunities” and “acquisition and contracting strategies not bound by traditional planning.”
In a video posted to X, Hegseth said that will mean more involvement of private contractors.
“We’ll leverage the expertise of private industry to deliver innovative technologies and contracting strategies that accelerate construction and renovation where we can. We’re going to consolidate contracts for maintenance services and equipment,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth’s emphasis on opening military housing to private-sector investment comes amid a greater trend for privatizing quality of life programs like dining facilities and commissaries.
The task force will also look at ways to bolster barracks self-help programs, in which troops are given tools to fix their own rooms.
“We’re also going to empower unit commanders and senior enlisted leaders to fix issues at their level without having to wait on Pentagon bureaucracy,” Hegseth said.
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Hegseth said he wants the task force to come up with a Pentagon-wide plan in 30 days. The task force has already met three times, he noted.
The task force will be made up of Department of Defense officials focused on personnel and readiness and finances, officials designated by the military service secretaries, and contracting experts.
The quality of barracks has become a major source of contention among junior enlisted troops who have routinely cited mold, pest and maintenance delay issues in official surveys and even turned to social media when their concerns have gone unanswered by the chain of command. In 2023, a damning Government Accountability Office report shed a light on the health and safety issues plaguing the barracks where young troops live on base and finally captured the attention of Congress.
On Thursday, Rob Evans, the founder of Hots&Cots, a Yelp-like app for junior enlisted troops to rate and review base dining halls and barracks, announced he would join in on a task force call. Evans told Task & Purpose that after two years of doing this work, he’s “really happy seeing something like this come forward.”
“Hots&Cots has been invited to join an upcoming call with the broader Task Force,” Evans wrote on X. “One thing they shared stuck with me: ‘We wish we could talk to 3,000 privates — but we can’t.’ We can. And we do. Every review helps us surface real experiences from the field and advocate for change where it matters most.”
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The Army’s official charity has already approved more than $7 million in payments to active-duty soldiers and their families facing a missed paycheck next week amid the government shutdown. The Air Force’s designated charity says it has received hundreds of applications for help and has “several million in potential funds available” for airmen and Space Force guardians.
With troops’ Oct. 15 pay date rapidly approaching and no resolution to the federal government shutdown in sight, four major service relief nonprofits are seeing a surge in requests for financial assistance.
“This is untrod ground for us as servicemembers have always been paid during shutdowns,” retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Ed Thomas, the CEO of the Air Force Aid Society, or AFAS, said in a statement. “So we’re leaning forward to and are continuing to look at the best ways we can support our Airmen, Guardians, and their families and fill the financial gaps.”
AFAS; Army Emergency Relief, or AER; and the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, or NMCRS, are nonprofits that raise funds and distribute a wind range of support services to members in their branch, often to young enlisted troops. Though each group runs programs like scholarship funding, each has a primary mission of providing financial support, usually through cash or zero-interest loans, to troops in need.
Typically, the groups provide quick funds for medical bills, emergency travel or other unexpected financial demands. AFAS says it distributed $14 million to airman and guardians in 2024, according to the group’s websity. AER says it has distributed $1 billion to soldiers since the 9/11 attacks. NMCRS said it provided assistance with living expenses to nearly 24,000 sailors and Marines in 2024.
But each said that the threat of a missed pay cycle was already increasing demand.
A rise in applicationsAER has already approved nearly 4,300 requests for financial assistance totaling more than $7.3 million, which will be paid if the shutdown does not end, said Sean Ryan, a spokesperson for the group. More than 6,000 people set up accounts with AER since Wednesday, Ryan told Task & Purpose on Thursday, adding the group estimates that at least 90% of those people will request financial help.
Demand for help has been so great that AER’s online portal, which allows soldiers and families to apply for help, had been working slowly and stopped at one point, Ryan told Task & Purpose. As of Thursday afternoon, the site appeared to be working.
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“Currently, we are receiving applications on the portal for approval and putting them in the queue so they are ready for payment by [October] 15th,” Ryan said. ”We are prepared for $50 million but will make adjustments as needed if more.”
All applications for financial help must be approved by soldiers’ chain of commands, retired Sgt. Maj. of the Army Tony Grinston, the group’s CEO, said in a recent video posted on Instagram.
Grinston added that the money AER is making available will not exceed soldiers’ mid-month pay.
While AER has the funds to cover the applications for help, it is requiring a lot of the group’s money to do so, Ryan said,
“However, that is why we exist, to support Soldiers in difficult times,” Ryan said.
AFA has already received several hundred requests for financial assistance during the shutdown and applications are increasing daily, said Chad Briton, a spokesman for the group.
“We’re definitely seeing an increase in requests for financial assistance (as expected during this time of uncertainty),” Britton said in a statement to Task & Purpose. “We are beginning to process applications today and we have several million [dollars] in potential funds available but are still working through our financial plan as lapse in military pay becomes more probable.”
AFAS is offering to help airmen, Space Force guardians, and their families pay a variety of expenses including rent, mortgage, food, gas, and utilities, especially if they do not have access to a paycheck protection from their financial institutions, Britton said.
So far, Britton said, AFAS has not experienced any technical challenges with its website or internal systems due to the uptick in requests for help, and the group is prepared to handle an even greater increase in demand as the shutdown continues.
The group is also encouraging airmen and Guardians to first check with their financial institutions – such as a bank or credit union – many of which are offering interest-free and no-fee loans or paycheck protection programs, Britton said,
NMCRS is also ready to help sailors, Marines and their families who are facing financial hardship due to the delay in pay caused by the shutdown, said the group’s CEO, retired Navy Rear Adm. Dawn Cutler.
“We will prioritize support for active-duty service members who do not have access to payroll protection plans or interest-free loans from their financial institutions and eligible individuals may receive a zero-interest loan of up to $2,000,” Cutler said in a statement.
Service members can visit a NMCRS full-service office to request help, Cutler said. A list of office locations can be found here.
Well funded nonprofitsThough it’s unclear how large demand for cash assistance may grow to be, all three groups are relatively well-funded, according to tax returns and financial statements posted on their websites.
AFAS reported roughly $230M in assets at end of 2023, according to the latest tax statements posted on its website, including about $1.4 million in cash and close to $100 million in equities and bonds, which can be converted quickly to cash.
AER reported it held $15.4 million in cash or cash equivalents at the end of 2023, with net assets of $355 million.
NMCRS’s 2024 audit reported the group held about $200,000 in cash with net assets of $144 million, including close to $91 million in tradable equities and bonds.
“We also urge Sailors and Marines to explore resources available through their banks or credit unions, and to avoid high-fee ‘pay advance’ products that may carry hidden costs,” Cutler said. “This is a challenging time, but NMCRS remains steady, ready, and committed to helping our Navy and Marine Corps families weather this moment with strength and support.”
The official aid society for the Coast Guard has been inundated with requests for help during the shutdown.
“Our phones are ringing off the hook, said Brooke Millard, CEO, Coast Guard Mutual Assistance, or CGMA.
The association will offer active and Reserve Coast Guardsmen along with civilian employees interest-free loans to cover food, housing, and transportation costs to active-duty and Reserve Coast Guardsmen along with civilian employees up to their equivalent level of Basic Level of Housing, Millard said. The maximum amount for loans is $4,500.
CGMA began offering shutdown assistance applications to civilians on Friday and has already received requests for more than $200,000 in support, Millard said. Active-duty members can apply for loans starting on Oct. 13.
“Life doesn’t stop when paychecks pause,” Millard said. “Hurricanes still hit. Medical bills are still due. Families still need to get to work and school. That’s why CGMA remains committed to ensuring no one walks alone — meeting urgent financial needs while maintaining our broader mission to strengthen the Coast Guard community’s financial resilience.”
So far this year, the association has provided $6.5 million in total assistance in response to 6,263 requests for help, she said.
“During 2019’s 35-day lapse in funding for the US Coast Guard, CGMA provided $8.4 million in assistance to more than 6,200 members of the Coast Guard workforce — and we are prepared to respond quickly and equitably again, if needed,” Millard said.
UPDATE: 10/10/2025; This article was updated with statements from Brooke Millard, CEO, Coast Guard Mutual Assistance.
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Anyone who reads Task & Purpose knows: we adore a good tank name.
Sure, we love our friends and families, but not as much as tanks with names like Dropped as a Baby, ASVAB Waiver, and Come And Take It.
To the list of excellent tank names we’ve chronicled over the years, we must now add “Divine Intervention,” an M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank whose photo popped up recently on the military’s public archive for official images and video, the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, or DVIDS.
“Divine Intervention” belongs to 6th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. Army Sgt. Myenn LaMotta of the 7th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment snapped its picture as the crew showed off their war machine to British troops during an Oct. 1 joint promotion ceremony in Estonia.
The photo’s caption did not explain how “Divine Intervention” got its name, but the picture is certainly timely: It seems that just getting through the day during this government shutdown requires an act of divine intervention.
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British tank crews are known for their own wry sense of humor. One UK tanker crew made a July 4, 2020 video in which a Tommy toasted U.S. Independence Day by brewing the perfect cup of British tea, demonstrating that British tanks — unlike U.S. Abrams — are equipped with kettles for that very purpose.
Giving tanks a name is a tradition among tanker crews as old as tanks themselves, which debuted on battlefields in World War I.
Former loader and M1 gunner Wes Satoe told Task & Purpose that earning the right to name a tank is a major milestone for a crew in their training and careers.
“That’s our home. We live eat, sleep, and work on that vehicle,” Satoe said in 2023. A name “builds crew cohesion, is a morale booster, and a way for the crew to show their pride in their job to other crews.”
Bye Felicia! Naming rules for tanks are now more formalized across the Army. One administrative requirement is that names correspond with the company a tank belongs to. Divine Intervention, then, is likely in D company. A tank we noted named Article 15 was probably an A company tank, along with another named Academy Dropout.
Bye Felicia — a Task & Purpose favorite — likely hails from Bravo.
Most armor units now make crews earn the right to name their tank — which includes stenciling the name on the barrel of the main gun — as a reward for qualifying for full duty status in field and gunnery training. In 2023, III Armored Corps, which oversees most tanker formations in the Army, mandated that crews must earn a “distinguished” score of at least 900 points in gunnery qualification to earn a name.
“Naming a fighting platform is a long-standing tradition that we value; we are adding to that tradition by requiring more of ourselves,” an Army official said in 2023. “Our nation expects nothing less.”
And according to former tanker and retired Army Staff Sgt. Clinton Romesha, nobody wants to be the crew without a name. Romesha earned the Medal of Honor in Afghanistan in an October 2009 battle at Combat Outpost Keating.
Romesha told Task & Purpose: “It was a point of pride that you didn’t want to be that crew that just got back from gunnery, and everybody got to name their tank, and you see that frickin’ gun tube that’s got nothing on it.”
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Most Americans believe the president should only deploy service members to face external threats and that troops and their leaders should steer clear of politics, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday.
The poll, which surveyed both Republicans and Democrats and ran over a five-day period starting last week, is the latest sign of public discomfort over President Donald Trump’s deployments of National Guard — and some active-duty troops earlier this summer — to police American cities whose elected leaders are Democrats.
Seventy-two percent of Democrats believed the military should only be used to combat threats outside of the U.S., according to the poll. They were joined in that view by a slim majority of Republicans at 51% who shared the same belief. Among all adults in the poll, including those without a party affiliation, 58% told the pollster that Trump should only deploy the military against external threats.
Trump deployed federalized National Guard troops and active-duty Marines to Los Angeles starting over the summer. Since then, the administration has been ramping up troop deployments to American cities, drawing ire and immediate lawsuits from the Democratic leaders who run them.
In Chicago, some 500 National Guard troops from Texas and Illinois arrived in the area on Wednesday over the objections — and lawsuits — of Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson. Trump went a step farther Wednesday, posting that Pritzker and Johnson “should be in jail for failing to protect” Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
In Oregon, the White House won a partial court victory Wednesday in its effort to deploy that state’s guard to Portland. A federal judge allowed the administration to federalize state troops over the governor’s objection, but ruled they could not be deployed until a lawsuit on their status proceeds next week.
In Washington D.C., guard troops remain on duty after the administration deployed troops there in August. They have largely been photographed picking up trash around the city. The deployment also wrought a lawsuit from the city.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called an unprecedented meeting of hundreds of generals and admirals in Quantico, Virginia, last week where Trump suggested that the military use American cities as “training grounds.” He also told the senior leaders that the military faces “a war from within.”
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Respondents were asked whether the president should be able to send troops into a state even if the governor objects, which resulted in a divided response largely along partisan lines. Nearly 80% of Democrats believe the president should not deploy troops over the state leaders’ objections, while 70% of Republicans said that he should be able to do so, according to the poll. Forty-eight percent of all adults polled said that the president should not be able to send troops into states over the governor’s protests.
A vast majority of Americans — both Democrats at 93%; Republicans at 78%; and all adults at 83% — believed that the military should remain politically neutral, a long-standing norm that Trump has challenged in various speeches in recent months. He has given rally-style speeches at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and, last weekend, Naval Station Norfolk, where troops cheered and jeered at partisan rhetoric and jokes aimed at politicians the president has clashed with.
Trump has suggested multiple times this week that he was willing to invoke the Insurrection Act, a centuries-old law that gives the president power to deploy the military domestically under specific circumstances, such as “any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination or conspiracy” that “hinders the execution of the laws.” It is the principal exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, a law that forbids active-duty troops from being deployed as domestic law enforcers.
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Veterans who have long sought recognition for a medical condition linked to their service in the Gulf War earned a major victory last week.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently approved a diagnostic code for “Gulf War Illness,” which went into effect on Oct. 1. The code represents a long-sought breakthrough that will allow doctors across the country to diagnose and treat the condition – formal medical validation that has eluded these veterans for more than 30 years.
Gulf War Illness, or GWI, is a chronic, often debilitating condition with several symptoms, including constant fatigue, cognitive issues, chronic pain, respiratory difficulties, skin problems and gastrointestinal distress. Researchers estimate that up to one-third of the roughly 700,000 troops deployed to the Gulf War have GWI.
But as of October, GWI is now recognized in the International Classification of Diseases, or ICD-10-CM, which is managed by CDC.
To put ICD-10-CM’s importance in military or veteran terms, think of it as an Air Force Technical Order, Army Field Manual, or Navy NAVADMIN update, but for doctors who specialize in diseases and illnesses — a final, argument-ending reference book for up-to-date information and procedures that now includes GWI.
“This diagnostic code is very, very important in this field,” said Dr. Kimberly Sullivan, who leads the Boston Biorepository, Recruitment and Integrative Network for GWI at Boston University. “It validates them. It provides acknowledgement as a real medical illness and disorder that is service-related.”
Veterans have reported the symptoms of GWI for decades, but received little formal help or recognition from the broader medical field, leaving many of them frustrated, without needed treatment, and subsequently despondent, doctors who have studied this issue told Task & Purpose on Monday.
Dr. Beatrice Golomb, a professor of medicine at the University of California San Diego, led the successful ICD code submission and told Task & Purpose that a formal code not only gives validation to veterans who have been reporting these symptoms for years, but that it better informs physicians who may not know about the condition, and therefore a formal way to diagnose it.
“These problems are real, and they’re tied to other problems, and they’re due to deployment-related factors,” she said. “Hopefully, the advent of an ICD diagnostic code will lead more physicians to recognize that it is an acknowledged and real condition, and hopefully motivate some of them to look into treatment trials and what has appeared to be helpful for Gulf War veterans to enhance their access to the treatments that have proved favorable.”
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Golomb also said that veterans recalled doctors dismissing their symptoms or accusing them of making up their symptoms.
“That phenomenon of people being told it was in their head was deeply distressing,” she said. “The care experiences for Gulf War veterans were terrible.”
Veterans who reported GWI-related symptoms often had them treated by physicians in a piecemeal fashion, tackling some conditions — such as skin or stomach issues — but not as a whole. Now, these symptoms are formally connected under one identified illness, which opens the door for medical practices to integrate GWI into formal systems, such as treatment billing.
Because GWI did not have a formal diagnostic code, doctors were not able to identify, monitor, track or treat patients with the illness “inside and outside the VA healthcare system,” according to Veterans for Common Sense, a non-profit organization.
Researchers and studies consistently link GWI to chemical exposures during the Gulf War, which lasted from 1990 to 1991, and the condition is associated with changes in brain structure, mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation issues and immune system abnormalities.
“That’s critical that we have this uniform diagnostic code that everyone will be using,” Sullivan said. “If everyone is using the same diagnostic code, it really helps us to understand different studies, for example, so that we’re comparing apples to apples and not apples to oranges.”
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The Air Force touts its True North program as a unique success in getting mental health support directly into some of its most stressful workplaces. Rather than expect airmen who need mental help support to take time away from their daily jobs to visit professionals in clinics and hospitals, the program embeds mental health and religious support teams directly in units, where airmen work.
But officials at Air Education and Training Command, or AETC, are now looking to cut the program, as part of cost-cutting across its civilian workforce.
Although an AETC spokesperson told Task & Purpose that the command’s proposal is not final, the move is already having repercussions. Jeffery Clark, a licensed clinical social worker, told Task & Purpose he recently resigned from True North at Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington after being told AETC is phasing out the program.
“They told us in a meeting that we had 24 hours to get back to them on an Excel spreadsheet that they provided to us on how many patients we were currently seeing and to start developing coordination and care plans with the local treatment facilities,” said Clark, who embedded as a clinical social worker with the with the 36th Rescue Squadron and the Survivor, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School at Fairchild.
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Those units include high-stress SERE training programs and active rescue operations in the Washington mountains. While embedded in the units, Clark would join physical training with instructors and operators and fly missions at all hours, he said. The job, he said, was much different from that of a therapist who works during scheduled hours at a clinic.
“These are special operations personnel, and any sort of medical documentation can reduce their ability to engage in the mission set.” Clark said.
The potential end of AETC’s True North program was first reported by KXLY, a radio station in Spokane, Washington.
“It’s just a very, very dynamic role that brings the care to the service member instead of them having to stop their mission,” he said. Airmen seeking help at a traditional clinic, he said, might “need to take a day off and the schedule has to change because it takes time to get to the clinic, to check in, all those different things.”.
Future status of program unclear Clark found out his position in True North was being eliminated from a memo dated Sept. 24. He also was forwarded a Sept. 25 email sent to “commanders and directors” across the command from AETC’s director of manpower, personnel and services that spelled out the end of the program.
“As part of the AETC’s approved submission to the Department of the Air Force (DAF) FY26 Workforce Optimization Reductions, all True North (TN) program positions will be removed” on October 1, the email said. “The command appreciates the commitment our TN professionals provided to our Airmen. As we move through this transition, leadership remains steadfast in ensuring that the wellbeing of our Airmen is a top priority.”
An Air Force official confirmed to Task & Purpose that the Sept. 25 email was distributed across AETC but updated guidance had since clarified that AETC’s proposal to eliminate Truth North in its units is still tentative.
Lt. Col. Korry Leverett, an AETC spokesperson, said in a statement provided to Task & Purpose that no final decision on phasing out the True North program has been made.
A Department of the Air Force spokesperson echoed that message.
“The Department of the Air Force has not finalized Fiscal Year 2026 Civilian Workforce Optimization reductions,” the spokesperson said. “Airmen currently receiving support through programs subject to civilian workforce reductions will be transitioned to existing and readily available resources at their installation for continued care.”
Jeffery Clark and his wife Kasey at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, where he worked for Air Education and training Command’s True North program. Photo courtesy of Jeffery Clark.However, True North’s embedded nature makes it unique among resiliency programs.
“If the strategic realignment of resources is approved by the Department of the Air Force, AETC will transition those Airmen receiving care within True North program to other resiliency-based programs to ensure consistent continuity of care,” Leverett said.
But that’s not how the situation was presented to Clark, who said AETC told him its decision to kill the program had been approved by Air Force leadership.
An Army veteran, Clark said an AETC official initially notified him his position would be eliminated by Oct. 1, and he would have to submit his resume to the civilian personnel office to find a new job. He was also told that AETC may not be able to continue paying him because he was a probationary employee.
Subsequently, he received an email from AETC saying that the Air Force had approved phasing out True North over time, and that he and others who worked for the program were expected to continue in their current roles until a formal plan to end True North could be implemented, Clark said.
Given the conflicting information, Clark resigned from True North on Oct. 3, after spending 10 months on the job.
Leverett said it determined that adequate resources were available on all its bases to airmen before considering its request to phase out the True North program as part of civilian reductions. It also said it is committed to providing “appropriate care” across the command.
“True North providers will thoughtfully and deliberately transfer Airmen to trusted support channels such as Military OneSource, Military and Family Life Counseling, installation behavioral health clinics, the Chaplain Corps, and off-base providers. Airmen may also self-refer at any time to a mental health provider,” Leverett said.
True North ‘brings the care to the service member’The Air Force has presented True North as a unique resource to service members, military civilians and their families. An official Air Force website includes anonymous “True North Testimonials” about how well the program has worked to increase care and resiliency.
“Statistics and effectiveness reports concerning the program will never capture the true impact it has on the unit,” one quote reads. “No longer is mental health a last resort for Airmen in crisis, it is an education and clinical tool that prevents Airmen from getting to crisis in the first place.”
A 2024 report from the RAND Corporation found that research showed promising results of embedding behavioral health specialists in military, education, and healthcare environments.
“These impacts include greater service use, increases in accuracy of diagnosis, and greater continuity of care,” the report found.
In January, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin combined True North with another program, Operational Support Team, which temporarily embeds health professionals in units, to increase airmen’s access to care.
The embedded specialists must understand both the Air Force’s mission and the specific roles of the units that they work, Clark said. Providers provide a range of mental healthcare services ranging from coaching service members dealing with personal difficulties to counseling patients for more severe problems.
Clark’s role coaching airmen was particularly important, he said. They would talk to him about difficulties including having problems sleeping, arguing with their spouses, and dealing with the death of a loved one. Importantly, the process does not involve any documentation, he said.
The fact that he is embedded directly with Air Force units also makes him more available than other mental health providers, he said.
“I’m already there. I’m a quick text message or a phone call away, and I can be in their training site within a couple of hours, usually,” Clark said. “They’ll come stop by, they’ll schedule an appointment, and nobody knows that they’re doing that. And they get the work that they need, and they continue on with the mission.”
It’s unclear how many jobs might be at risk or how much savings AETC might see dropping the program. The Air Force does not appear to have published the total number of True North employees across the service or within major commands such as AETC. But a website says that within Air Combat Command — by far the Air Force’s largest major unit — True North “provides embedded support to more than more than 22,700 active-duty Airmen in 104 highest priority units at 27 DoD installations” including overseas.
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the establishment of a Pentagon-run barracks initiative on Tuesday, giving a new Barracks Task Force 30 days to come up with an “investment plan” to improve troop housing.
Substandard barracks have long been a top concern for junior troops who live in them. Complaints about mold, rodents, squatters, exposed wiring, faulty appliances, clunky ventilation and dilapidated structures have been common among service members in barracks and other military housing for years.
Military leaders have conceded that during twenty years of the Global War on Terror, military housing took a back seat to combat priorities, leaving barracks to rot and troops – typically young and under the rank of sergeant – to suffer in substandard conditions.
“Every warfighter of our joint force deserves housing that is clean, comfortable and safe,” Hegseth said in a video posted on X. “Our military barracks are where warriors go to rest and recover, a place they go to mentally and physically prepare for the next fight.”
Robert Evans, who runs the Yelp-like Hots&Cots app that allows service members to leave reviews of military housing, said the announcement was good news.
“Inject this into my veins,” said Evans. “I love to see that we got a big announcement from him on this.”
Evans said he has been waiting for Hegseth to address barracks and living issues since he took over as Pentagon chief. Tuesday’s announcement, Evans said, “is the most he’s ever spoken of it.”
Hegseth cited a 2023 Government Accountability Office report, which found that the Pentagon did not have adequate oversight of its housing and that thousands of service members lived in below-standard housing.
Hegseth’s speech included a theme he returns to often in public comments, accusing former President Joe Biden’s administration of doing “nothing” in the wake of the GAO report. While housing issues have long been pervasive across the military, several barracks improvement programs were launched before President Donald Trump took office.
But poor barracks, said Evans, have long been a problem that transcends politics.
“These issues of barracks conditions go back after administration after administration after administration,” Evans said. “So they’re not new issues to anybody who’s been in the military.”
The Marine Corps launched its Barracks 2030 strategy in 2023, a project it said would improve barracks for roughly 17,000 Marines who were identified in the GAO report as living in substandard housing.
The program includes pilot programs aimed at a systemic lack of oversight in the barracks, revamped maintenance reporting systems, hiring civilians to take a load off of young Marines’ shoulders, wall-to-wall room inspections, and some now-completed new housing construction. Officials have warned the effort could slip into the next decade should funding dwindle.
Some funds aimed at barracks improvements under Hegseth have been spent on other priorities. In May, the Pentagon diverted $1 billion meant for Army barracks improvements to fund operations at the U.S.-Mexico border, and Task & Purpose reported in July that the Defense Department shifted another $200 million from Marine Corps barracks, military-run schools and other facilities to instead help pay to build a 20-mile-long border wall in Arizona.
Pervasive barracks issues continue to arise. In May, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan was “appalled” at the state of some barracks in Guam, a key strategic hub for the military’s Pacific operations, and ordered a force-wide barracks inspection.
Hegseth said that the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Trump championed allocated more than $1 billion to fund housing restoration. But that funding was split between the services and represents less than 1% of the total defense spending within the Beautiful Bill.
“I think a billion dollars is a great down payment – a step in the right direction,” Evans said. “I think we need to see more, because $1 billion is a very small amount of money when you look at our facilities backlog, which is in the billions.”
Meanwhile, the military has been slowly pushing for more privatization in military life, to include dining facilities and barracks. That effort has been promoted by some members of Congress, but the military has had a long, complicated and sometimes disastrous track record of relying on private companies to take care of its troops.
Evans said that he hopes the task force is looking for “on-the-ground feedback” rather than relying on privatized entities to collect information that may have their own interests in profit or may not be as transparent as troops would be about issues.
He also noted that the Barracks Task Force should do unannounced visits to avoid “barracks parties” where troops are made to quickly clean or fix issues prior to senior leaders coming to inspect housing.
“I hope we see some action come from it,” Evans said of Hegseth’s announcement. “This administration has been very action-oriented, so I’m hoping to see some action.”
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The Department of Veterans Affairs now has an enormous amount of paperwork to correct after a staffer “blindly” approved thousands of disability claims without properly reviewing them for close to two years. Experts said that some veterans whose claims were caught up in the employee’s approval blitz actually missed out on benefits, and its unclear if — or how — the staffer’s rubber-stamping might impact other vets’ wallets.
The VA acknowledged but did not answer repeated questions from Task & Purpose on whether veterans who received improperly approved benefits from the VSR’s error-ridden approval blitz would be required to pay them back .
Between sometime in 2022 and late 2024, a senior veterans service representative, or VSR, in Philadelphia approved more than 85,000 claims, a VA Office of Inspector General report released last week alleged, sometimes spending only minutes on each as they approved hundreds of packets a day.
After the news broke early last week, some military or veteran-centric social media pages lauded the VSR as a “hero,” seeming to assume that the VSR only approved claims that would get former troops more money – and that they might not have to pay it back if it was issued in error.
But veterans experts told Task & Purpose that such a high volume of erroneous claims could have serious downstream consequences for those whose claims the VSR made such short work of. While some claims were approved that should not have been, other veterans were underpaid when the VA employee ignored additional claims or special circumstances in their packages.
“I’m more concerned about that,” Jim Marszalek, a Marine veteran with 25 years of experience at the Disabled American Veterans, told Task & Purpose in an interview on Monday.
“Let’s say the veteran filed five claims, and the decision only noted four of them,” said Marszalek, who is the assistant executive director for DAV’s Washington, D.C. office. “I’m more concerned that they didn’t decide the fifth one.”
A spokesperson for the VA said that the agency was working on the OIG’s recommendation to “correct those errors to the extent possible” and evaluate how it can better oversee “authorization rate outliers.”
The IG’s report estimated that the VSR’s errors resulted in $2.2 million in improper payments. The report said that errors resulted in both overpayments and underpayments.
Approvals 20 times faster than normalAccording to the OIG report, starting in 2022, the VSR in the Philadelphia VA Regional Office began approving more than 85,000 veteran disability claims — nearly 20 times the national average for their role.
The staff member, who was unnamed in the report, spent an average of less than five minutes reviewing each claim. Senior members of the Veterans Benefits Administration, or VBA, began noticing the “unusually high authorization rates” sometime in 2023, according to the report, but inadequately responded to the issue.
“It is not physically possible to do that many authorizations and perform the real functions of the job,” a senior administrator told the OIG in 2023. The inspector general received a hotline tip in July 2024, which triggered an investigation into the staff member.
In some cases, the VSR did not even open documents to review the claims, flying through roughly 150 claims a day. Regional VA leaders attempted to impose a limit of eight to 10 authorizations for this VSR, but the employee often continued to approve disability claims at lightning speed.
“That’s disturbing – they knew about it,” Marszalek said. The senior VSR, experts told Task & Purpose, was the last in a line of disability claim processors.
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“Those couple reviewers who really weren’t doing it, someone’s got to hold them accountable and make sure they’re actually doing the job,” Marszalek added.
The report said that of the 15,600 claims the VSR made in a six-month period last year, 84% contained at least one error based on a sample size of 32 cases, which resulted in improper payments to veterans, effects on other benefits and inaccurate VBA data. Some benefits claimed by veterans were ignored altogether.
The report also said that individual quality reviews did not accurately reflect the senior VSR’s work because regulators only looked at less than 1 percent of their work.
Will veterans be on the hook to pay back?
Marszalek said that “they could attempt to come after you for any money they erroneously overpaid you,” but added that it is unlikely in this case. A common solution that the VA has used in other overpayment cases, he said, has been to reduce a mistaken disability rating – which can be appealed by the veteran – to the entitled level without the VA requesting backpay. He noted that recoupment often stems from veterans fraudulently submitting paperwork for claims.
Being caught up in the Philadelphia mass-approvals, he said, “is not the veterans’ fault at all.” Veterans concerned about their status, he said, should use a veteran service organization such as DAV to review paperwork, file appeals or generally get support.
However, the VA also has a history of variously collecting overpayments, lawmakers have warned as recently as this spring, and the subsequent debt has often left veterans in a financially stressful and precarious situation.
“Overpayments can result in VA establishing debts that veterans owe back to VA, which can create a paperwork nightmare for them and their families,” Rep. Morgan Luttrell, who chairs a House subcommittee on VA disability assistance, said in an oversight hearing in May. “But current law allows for VA to either cancel these overpayment debts, or waive collection of those debts.”
Luttrell said that the VA issued at least $5.1 billion in overpayments between 2021 and 2024 and did not collect $677 million of that money. In one example included in the IG report, the Philadelphia VSR’s oversight led to one veteran receiving $14,300 in overpayment.
“It could be catastrophic for a veteran,” said Carl Bedell, an Army veteran and lawyer who has practiced veteran law for 16 years. “If the VA were to come back and say, ‘now you owe us for however many years of disability payment that you were not entitled to,’ that could be an absolutely catastrophic event for a veteran that’s already living day to day.”
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Marine veteran and actor Adam Driver will portray Air Force combat controller John Chapman in a movie based on the battle in Afghanistan that earned him the Medal of Honor. Chapman died as he fought alone for hours on a mountain top in Afghanistan early in that war, drawing fire on himself as a vulnerable helicopter approached carrying a team of Army Rangers.
Longtime director Ron Howard is set to direct the film, which is reportedly to be called “Alone at Dawn.” Howard has directed dozens of movies, including Apollo 13 and The Da Vinci Code, Deadline reported
The movie will be based on the book of the same name about Chapman, written by Air Force veteran Dan Schilling and Lori Chapman Longfritz. Longfritz is Chapman’s sister and Schilling was a 30-year combat controller and special tactics officer, the Air Force’s job title for officers who train with and lead enlisted combat controllers. Rumors have long circulated about movie deals around the book and Chapman, but no cast and crew have previously been confirmed.
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Along with Driver, the Hollywood Reporter reported, Anne Hathaway will play an intelligence officer who helped push for Chapman to receive the Medal of Honor. The feature film is being made for Amazon MGM and will get a theatrical release, according to industry trades. No release date has been set.
A final fight uncovered years laterIn early 2002, Air Force Technical Sgt. John Chapman was thousands of feet up on a snowy mountain in Afghanistan, left for dead and surrounded by al-Qaeda fighters. Despite being heavily wounded, Chapman held them off, even providing covering fire for a rescue helicopter before being killed. 16 years later he would be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions that day.
An Air Force Combat Controller, Chapman was part of a special operations mission during the Battle of Takar Gur in early 2002 in Afghanistan. Attached to a Navy SEAL team, Chapman and his team flew in to establish a reconnaissance spot during Operation Anaconda. Their helicopter took RPG fire and Navy SEAL Neil Roberts fell out. Chapman and the SEALs eventually returned to look for Roberts and were immediately pinned down in a firefight. The engagement came to be known as Roberts’ Ridge in honor of the SEAL, who investigators eventually determined was killed within minutes of falling from the helicopter.
But with Roberts’ fate unknown, Chapman and the SEAL team fought on. Roberts charged a bunker, killing two fighters as the SEALs moved to cover. Within minutes, Roberts was hit and the SEALs believed he was dead. But Chapman was still alive, a years-long investigation later proved, and eventually recovered consciousness after the SEAL team withdrew.
Over the following hours, other Air Force combat controllers on the operation’s radio network believed they heard Chapman’s make radio calls.
“I am absolutely positive [it] was John’s voice. I have no doubt whatsoever,” eventually one unnamed operator told investigators.
Overhead, two AC-130 gunships and a Predator drone circled the mountaintop, capturing night-vision video and radio traffic from the mountain top. Years later, investigators would piece through those files and realize that, though the aircrews did not realize it that night, the cameras and audio captured gunfire and enemy radio descriptions of Chapman fighting through the night.
Badly injured, Chapman held off al-Qaeda fighters, killing one militant in hand-to-hand combat. Hours later, a rescue force consisting of Army Rangers and Air Force special operators approached via helicopter. While the fighters on the ridgetop were in position to ambush the helicopter, Chapman laid down covering fire, drawing attention to himself as the helicopter approached..
Chapman was posthumously awarded the Air Force Cross in 2003. After years of efforts, his Air Force Cross was officially updated to the Medal of Honor in 2018. He was the first airman to earn the highest military honor since the Vietnam War. His death was the first Medal of Honor action to be captured on video.
“Despite severe, mortal wounds, he continued to fight relentlessly, sustaining a violent engagement with multiple enemy personnel before making the ultimate sacrifice,” his Medal of Honor citation reads. “By his heroic actions and extraordinary valor, sacrificing his life for the lives of his teammates, Technical Sergeant Chapman upheld the highest traditions of military service and reflected great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.
From Marine to Star Wars fameDriver enlisted in the Marine Corps after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. He served with 1st Battalion, 1st Marines as a mortar man before he got a medical discharge following an injury. He left the corps as a lance corporal and years later still can do the “lance corporal salute.” Driver was nominated for an Oscar for his work in ‘BlacKkKlansman.’ Although he has been in several biopics and played a military officer in the Civil War-set ‘Lincoln,’ ‘Alone at Dawn’ would be his first role as a service member from the Global War on Terror.
An earlier attempt to adapt the book ‘Alone at Dawn’ was announced in 2021. Stuntman-turned-action movie director Sam Hargrave (‘Extraction’) was attached to direct the film, then-titled “Combat Control.” That project was to star Jake Gyllenhaal as Chapman.
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A memo circulating on social media that purportedly outlines a new, hardcore fitness test for to the Air Force’s physical fitness policy is not authentic, Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek said on Monday.
Over the weekend, the undated memo was posted on unofficial Reddit and Facebook pages. It claimed that airmen who score 90 points or higher on the service’s new PT test would only have to take the test once a year and could also opt out of the 2-mile run. It also purportedly included details of a new “Combat Readiness Test.”
But Stefanek said on Monday that the memo is not an official Air Force document.
‘Combat’ fitness tests mandated by HegsethThe Combat Readiness Test described in the memo would be a functional fitness-style test and appears to be aimed at meeting a requirement set out by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a Sept. 30 speech to general officers in Quantico, Virginia. In that speech, Hegseth announced — and laid out in a follow-up memo — a multi-tier fitness system to apply across the military.
Troops in combat arms — such as pararescue and combat control in the Air Force, along with traditional infantry roles in the Army and Marines — would take a Combat Field Test each year. All other active duty troops would take one service fitness test — likely traditional running and calisthenics — and then also take a new Combat Readiness Test, taken in a full combat uniform and made up of ‘functional fitness’ events like lifting weights and buddy carries.
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Each service, Hegseth’s memo said, would design its own readiness and traditional tests, with the option to use a traditional fitness test in place of the combat-focused one.
“These tests, they’ll look familiar,” Hegseth said in Quantico. “They’ll resemble the Army Expert Physical Fitness Assessment, or the Marine Corps Combat Fitness Test.”
The Combat Readiness Test described in the memo would purportedly require airmen to lift a 40-pound kettlebell multiple times; move a dummy weighing as much as 180 pounds up to 50 feet; pullups; and carry two 30-pound ammunition cans 50 feet and then placing both on a 4-foot platform.
A copy of the fraudulent memo posted to the Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page. For combat arms troops, the memo also mentions that Pentagon officials are “assessing the feasibility” of a Joint Combat Field Test that would be standard for all combat-arms roles across the military.
Officials say memo is not authenticStefanek told Task & Purpose that the Air Force’s most recent fitness test update was the Sept. 24 announcement about changes to the service’s PT test.
That announcement confirmed that airmen will have to run 2 miles as part of the new fitness test, an increase from the 1.5-mile timed run that airmen must complete for the current fitness test. Airmen will also be required to take the new PT test twice a year.
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While airmen will have the option of taking an alternative exercise for the PT test’s cardiorespiratory component, they must still complete the 2-mile run at least once a year.
The Air Force will pause all fitness tests starting on Jan. 1 as it begins to transition to the service’s new test, which will begin next March 1. Commanders can now order units to conduct mass testing during the annual testing cycles, which run from September to March and March to September.
No information about the origins of the debunked memo was immediately available on Monday. The document appears to be signed by Gwendolyn DeFilippi, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs. The header and signature, along with most of the formatting of the content, match other memos sent and signed by DeFilippi, except that the posted document does not have a date at the top.
A Reddit user told Task & Purpose that they shared the document from DeFilippi on the unofficial Air Force subreddit page after seeing it posted on Facebook. The user deleted the post after being informed that the Air Force says it is not genuine.
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The U.S. Navy’s maintainers have had to strip submarines and fighter jets for spare parts to repair other planes and subs, a government watchdog found. In at least one case, mechanics repairing a Navy fighter jet could not repair a radio because the cables needed for the job were only available from the manufacturer.
“Only that vendor can make the part, and generally, repairs to that part are made on the OEM’s schedule,” the Government Accountability Office found in a report released late last month. “Officials considered reverse engineering the part or contracting to stock spare parts, but determined both options would be too costly. Maintainers, therefore, have resorted to cannibalizing grounded aircraft for the part.
The Government Accountability Office found that limited intellectual property and data rights, coupled with delays in the availability of parts, were forcing technicians to develop ad-hoc methods, including cannibalizing equipment to help keep certain vehicles mission-ready.
The GAO found that the Department of Defense did not fully review the data rights it has to certain intellectual property, leading to issues in maintaining weapons systems. Business Insider first reported on the GAO’s findings. The watchdog examined five Navy contracts — the F/A-18 and F-35 fighter jets, littoral combat ships, the Stryker Combat Vehicle, and Virginia-class attack submarines — to see how they were handling maintenance for the systems. The watchdog found that Navy mechanics and crews faced ongoing delays, mainly stemming from a lack of spare parts due to limited sourcing options.
“Cannibalization has several adverse impacts, including increasing maintenance costs and workload, and when overused, long-term adverse effects on aircraft availability,” the report found.
Navy maintainers were also cannibalizing parts from other submarines to fix Virginia-class submarines, to avoid delaying repairs while waiting for spares to be sent by manufacturers.
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Other problems include a lack of technical data available, such as with the F-35, preventing on-site Navy maintainers from making repairs. In some cases, the GAO found, “depot-level maintainers may not have data rights that allow government personnel to make repairs without support from, or contracting with,” manufacturers.
In these cases, repairs rely on bringing in those outside contractors to handle matters, either at port or flying them in while at sea. As the GAO found, the Navy has developed several ad-hoc workarounds to deal with the lack of materiel and intellectual property rights. That ranged from stocking up on long-lead materials to prevent shortages on site to requesting certain data rights in follow-up contracts with suppliers.
The findings come as the Navy, along with other parts of the military, pushes for the “right to repair.” Currently, service members have to contend with warranties or other intellectual property matters, preventing them from being able to make repairs on parts, including in the field, even when they otherwise could be able to do so.
The report echoes another GAO study released in September, which found that the Army and Marine Corps’ ground vehicles were facing similar parts shortages, with troops taking parts from other pieces to repair them. That decline both in available parts and in up-to-date technical manuals meant that there was a steady decline in the number of major repairs and overhauls in recent years and fewer vehicles were deemed mission-ready.
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A federal district judge blocked the deployment of all federalized National Guard troops to Oregon on Sunday night, after the Trump administration ordered elements of the California nad Texas National Guards to be sent to Portland. It was the latest development in a series of major orders this weekend to send the military to cities inside the United States.
After an emergency hearing, Judge Karin Immergut issued a second temporary restraining order this weekend, barring the “federalization or deployment” or any National Guard force to Oregon. That came a day after the judge blocked the Trump administration from federalizing 200 soldiers from the Oregon Army National Guard to go to Portland and hours after more than 100 federalized members of the California National Guard flew into the state.
Shortly before, the Pentagon announced it was mobilizing “up to 400 members of the Texas National Guard,” under Title 10 authority, to deploy to Portland and Chicago. The news, contained in a memo filed with the court and signed by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, said that the soldiers from the Texas National Guard were being activated and deployed for an “initial period” of 60 days.
“On October 4, 2025, the President determined the violent incidents, as well as the credible threat of continued violence, are impeding the execution of the laws of the United States in Illinois, Oregon, and other locations throughout the United States,” Hegseth wrote.
The judge’s order blocks that deployment to Oregon; it’s unclear how many Texas National Guard members will head to Chicago.
Although protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcements and other elements of the Department of Homeland Security have been ongoing throughout cities around the country for weeks, the Trump administration escalated its response to them this weekend. On Saturday, the administration authorized the deployment of 300 National Guard members to Chicago, after weeks of threatening to send the military to the city. That came a week after Trump ordered the Pentagon to send troops to Portland, which he had called “war ravaged.” In his order, posted to social media, Trump had authorized the use of “full force” by the military.
Following Immergut’s Saturday night order blocking the federalization of the Oregon National Guard for two weeks, the Trump administration began deploying members of the California National Guard into Oregon. They arrived in Oregon early Sunday, the first wave of the 300 California soldiers ordered to cross state lines to protect federal personnel and property. California joined Oregon in its lawsuit against the administration over the federalization and deployment of the National Guard. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said that the overnight deployment happened without official notification or correspondence by the federal government. A White House spokesperson said earlier on Sunday that “President Trump exercised his lawful authority to protect federal assets and personnel in Portland following violent riots and attacks on law enforcement.”
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There have been small, daily protests outside of an ICE facility in Portland. Last night protesters gathered peacefully outside of it, per local media, before federal law enforcement fired tear gas and pepper balls at the demonstrators.
Last month a federal judge ruled that the use of the California National Guard by federal authorities violated the Posse Comitatus Act, and ordered the remaining troops released back to the state. An appeal has blocked that for now.
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A federal judge temporarily blocked the deployment of 200 federalized National Guard soldiers to Portland for at least two weeks.
U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut issued the ruling late Saturday, following a hearing after Oregon filed suit against the Trump administration. The temporary block prevents the White House from deploying federalized Oregon Army National Guard troops to the city, where protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been ongoing, until at least Oct. 18. In the 30-page opinion, the judge said that the protests do not constitute a “rebellion.”
The Trump administration says it plans to appeal.
Trump initially announced the deployment on Sept. 26, saying he was directing the Department of Defense to provide troops to go to the city, which he called “war ravaged” and said was under siege by anti-fascists and “other domestic terrorists.” He also authorized the use of “full force” by the military. Two days later the Department of Defense confirmed it was ordering 200 soldiers, federalized under Title 10 of the U.S. Code.
The 200 soldiers, drawn from 3d Battalion,116 Cavalry Squadron and the 821st Troop Command, were being sent to the “greater Portland area.” According to U.S. Northern Command last week, after staging the soldiers were to conduct “refresher training” on crowd control, deescalation, rules on the use of force and other civil disturbance operations.
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It’s the first time this year that a judge has blocked the deployment of U.S. troops into cities before they arrived. A federal district judge ruled last month that the federalization and deployment of thousands of National Guard troops in California violated the Posse Comitatus Act, but that came three months after they arrived in Los Angeles and after the majority had been released back to the state. That ruling was appealed by the Trump administration.
Judge Immergut’s ruling came the same day that the Trump administration authorized the mobilization of 300 National Guard soldiers to head to Chicago. That move came after weeks of threatening to send in the military and over the objections of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. It’s not immediately clear where they are being drawn from or when they are expected to arrive in the city. The Department of Homeland Security already has a large presence of armed agents and equipment in the Chicago area, send as part of its ongoing Operation Midway Blitz.
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The Trump administration has “authorized” the activation of 300 National Guard troops for operations in Chicago, following weeks of immigration raids in the city and threats from the White House to deploy the military.
The announcement came as protests against immigration policies and federal agents continue in Chicago and one person was shot. The National Guard is being called up against the wishes of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. The military will be sent to protect federal personnel and property, according to a statement from a White House spokesperson sent to multiple outlets.
“Amidst ongoing violent riots and lawlessness, that local leaders like Pritzker have refused to step in to quell, President Trump has authorized 300 national guardsmen to protect federal officers and assets,” the statement by White House spokesman Abigail Jackson, released Saturday afternoon, said.
Pritzker said earlier in the day that the White House had given him an ultimatum to deploy the National Guard to Chicago or they would be federalized. Writing in the early afternoon on social media, Pritzker said that “the Trump Administration intends to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard.”
The White House statement did not specify what units the troops would be drawn from or under what authority they would be activated. Task & Purpose reached out to U.S. Northern Command, the Pentagon and the White House about this but has not yet heard back. A spokesperson for U.S. Northern Command directed questions to the Pentagon. The Pentagon directed questions to the White House.If federalized under Title 10 of the U.S. Code, as Trump has done previously with the California and Oregon National Guards, they would be under the federal military control and prohibited from carrying out any law enforcement activity.
The move follows the deployment of the National Guard to other cities around the country, under the mission of protecting federal agents and property. Troops have also been activated and sent to Washington, D.C. and Memphis under the claim they are being sent to help fight crime, even in cities where crime is at a record low.
Trump had repeatedly threatened to send the National Guard and other elements of the military into Chicago for the past several months. In early September, he posted an image inspired by the war film ‘Apocalypse Now,’ writing that “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of War,” referring to the administration’s unofficial nickname for the Department of Defense.
Federal agents have already flooded into Chicago over the last month. On Sept. 8, federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security, including elements of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Border Patrol, launched Operation Midway Blitz, with many using the nearby Naval Station Great Lakes as a staging area. They’ve arrested more than 1,000 people since then, the department said on Friday. There have been extensive protests against the federal presence, including outside the ICE facility in Broadview, with authorities deploying tear gas and pepper balls at demonstrators.
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So far two people have been shot by Department of Homeland Security agents in the Chicago area since it began; one last month and one earlier today. One woman was shot today after allegedly ramming a car into federal vehicles, leading U.S. Border Patrol to open fire. A spokesperson for DHS said the woman drove away and took herself to a hospital; the Chicago Fire Department said that she was found and transported to a hospital by authorities.
Last weekend the administration revealed plans to federalize 200 Oregon National Guard soldiers to deploy to Portland, with the president claiming it was a “war ravaged” city despite calm and limited protests at one ICE facility. On Saturday afternoon a federal judge granted a 14-day temporary restraining order preventing the deployment of the Guard into the city.
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The U.S. Space Force is hoping to get its own permanent opposition force for training, this time in orbit. Specifically, the service is looking at sending up satellites into space to serve as aggressors to help Guardians prepare for potential conflicts.
Speaking to reporters last month at the Air Force Association’s Air, Space and Cyber Conference, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said that Space Force was looking at putting real satellites in orbit so that terrestrial aggressor teams can operate them rather than relying on simulators or virtual exercises. The War Zone first reported on the proposal.
Pushing for more training is not a new directive at Space Force, but aiming to launch new pieces of equipment into space specifically for that role is. So far no satellites have been put in orbit for this specific purpose; Space Force has been conducting a number of launches but those have been towards building out its array of missile detection tools and electronic signal intercept capabilities. operational test and training infrastructure
The idea, per Saltzman, is like the use of aggressors by the Air Force, or red teams and opposition forces the other branches use for their training. There is some background in the military for these kinds of OPFOR operations; the Army maintained an electronic and information warfare command for more than two decades that often served as the red team for cybersecurity training exercises.
Currently Space Force units train via simulations, in part because of the logistics of space operations. The service has set up aggressor units, and some joint exercises with other parts of the military have integrated both ground-based teams and in-orbit satellite tracking to coordinate operations. This idea would help Guardians test satellite versus satellite conflicts, specifically in issues such as adversaries trying to jam American ones or otherwise disable them.
“There’s nothing like propagating [radio frequencies] through the atmosphere, out to orbit and tracking satellites,” Saltzman told reporters. “It has to happen for real.”
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As such, he said, it will require the service to acquire more satellites and reserve some specifically for those training purposes. The proposal comes as the service branch pursues its vision of being able to carry out “orbital warfare.” That exact vision remains somewhat hazy, but it does involve Space Force expanding its offensive capabilities in space.
Since its creation in 2019, Space Force has been expanding its network of satellites in orbit and tracking systems on the ground. As such, the service and other militaries are expanding potential capabilities for orbital conflict, from building out the ability to jam enemy satellites and systems or use more direct means to hurt arrays, including direct kinetic strikes to physically destroy opposition forces’ infrastructure.
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With no indications how long the federal government could remain shut down, troops face the possibility of their first missed paycheck in less than two weeks. Here are some options for troops who need emergency financial assistance.
Non-Profit relief organizations that work with active duty troops, along with USAA bank and Navy Federal Credit Union are all offering loans of up to $6,000 with 0% interest. Also, local credit unions that cater to local personnel around major bases may have programs ready to help
USAA Bank customers can apply for no-interest, no-fee loans if they work for a federal agency that is affected by the shutdown and they use direct deposit for their pay from the government, the bank’s website says.
Customers must have made at least one direct deposit in their bank accounts 30 days prior to the shutdown, and they are required to have a physical address in the United States or APO, DPO, or FPO address, and they need to receive credit approval from USAA Bank.
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Once approved, service members will get their loans within 48 hours. Those loans must be repaid within three months in equal installments starting 60 days after getting the money.
Navy Federal Credit Union’s loans are available to active-duty service members, federal government employees, and contractors paid directly by the federal government, the credit union’s website says.
Those who are eligible for the loans must re-register for the program even if they have registered for past government shutdown loan programs that were previously offered by Navy Federal Credit Union.
“Navy Federal does reserve the right to limit the program to a single pay cycle or to ask the member to re-enroll should a shutdown extend beyond one pay cycle,” the credit union’s website says.
Once customers start getting paid again, Navy Federal Credit Union will automatically deduct the amount they owe.
“We understand how unsettling a government shutdown can be for our members and their families,” Ann Repczynski, assistant vice president of savings and membership at Navy Federal Credit Union, said in a statement. “In these challenging times, it’s important our members know we are here to provide support through the first impacted pay period.”
Local credit unions, such as the one at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, are also offering emergency assistance during the shutdown.
Non-profits serving troops Army Emergency Relief, or AER, is the Army’s official non-profit group. It has significantly increased how much money it is making available to soldiers compared with past shutdowns, when the group offered loans of up to $600, according to the group’s CEO former Sgt. Maj. of the Army Tony Grinston.
“AER remains committed to our Soldiers and their well-being,” Grinston said in a statement. “We will do what we can to ensure the most soldiers possible receive financial assistance during this uncertain time.”
Soldiers can go to this link to sign up for emergency assistance. If they are already registered, they can go to their accounts and select the dropdown menu that says: “Application Type: Government Shutdown Relief Loan.”
Starting on Oct. 30, soldiers will have 30 days to repay the loans, after they receive back pay following the end of the government shutdown, a news release from the group says.
“Before applying, please check with your financial institution to explore any available relief options,” the press release says. “While AER is committed to helping, our resources are limited and rely heavily on donations, many of which are paused during a shutdown.”
The Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, or NMCRS, also offers interest-free loans and grants to active-duty and retired sailors and Marines for emergencies that can cover expenses including food, car repair, and medical and dental costs.
Marines and sailors can request more information about the emergency assistance that is available during the shutdown at one of the society’s more than 200 offices.
“The government shutdown could have a significant impact on active-duty sailors, Marines and their families, and as we have for over 120 years, NMCRS is prepared to support those who protect our country,” retired Adm. Dawn Cutler, the society’s CEO, said in a statement. “Military life presents a variety of unique challenges, and the loss of income from the shutdown can compound those challenges exponentially.”
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American forces in the Caribbean struck a fourth boat in the sea this morning, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said, killing four people on board.
“Earlier this morning, on President Trump’s orders, I directed a lethal, kinetic strike on a narco-trafficking vessel affiliated with Designated Terrorist Organizations in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Hegseth announced in a post on X.
The attack comes after the Trump administration said that the United States is in “a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations,” referring to drug cartels. A memo from the administration to Congress, obtained and first reported on by the Associated Press, referred to those killed as “unlawful combatants.”
The secretary said that the Friday morning strike happened in international waters, near Venezuelan territory, and the strike killed four men onboard the boat. Video shared in that same post showed a speedboat moving through the water when it is hit by a munition and explodes.
It’s the fourth attack on a boat sailing through the Caribbean since Sept. 2, when American forces struck a ship carrying 11 people. Two more attacks on boats followed later that month. The strikes in September killed a total of 17 people, according to figures from the Trump administration. Today’s strike brings the total number of people killed by American airstrikes in the Caribbean to 21. Today Hegseth said that strikes will continue “until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!”
U.S. forces have carried out previous strikes — some via drones — without presenting public evidence the ships were containing drugs. In his statement, Hegseth claimed that American “intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route.” None of the intelligence was shared.
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Despite the use of lethal strikes targeting alleged drug trafficking vessels, the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard have also continued normal interdiction and searches.
The U.S. and Venezuela have not had direct confrontations, although Venezuelan fighters buzzed past the USS Jason Dunham last month. This week the Venezuelan government accused American fighter jets of an “incursion,” saying they were spotted 75 kilometers (46 miles) off of Venezuela’s coast; that is outside of Venezuelan airspace.
The United States designated certain cartels, including ones linked to Venezuela, as “foreign terrorist organizations” earlier this year. In August the United States started moving several ships and aircraft into the Caribbean, including an amphibious ready group carrying a Marine Expeditionary Unit, several warships, multiple F-35 fighter jets and at least two MQ-9 Reaper drones.
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The Army has cancelled its annual Best Squad Competition this month due to the federal government-wide shutdown, officials said. The competition was planned to get underway this weekend at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, with the winners announced at the annual Association of the U.S. Army conference in Washington D.C. later this month.
Army officials said Friday they were looking into rescheduling the event but did not specify a date.
The annual competition was scheduled for Oct. 2-13, with field events at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and formal interviews in Washington D.C. The competition pits a roughly a dozen five-soldier teams that have won qualifying events within their major Army command. Over the course of several days at Fort Bragg, the teams were to face tests in a wide range of field and combat skills, including timed ruck marches and land navigations, marksmanship and expertise across a wide range of infantry weapons, and formal interview boards.
A squad from Army Pacific won the 2024 competition, dethroning the 75th Ranger Regiment, whose squads had won the previous two years. The competitors include squads from traditional combat and maneuver units, like Special Operations Command, Army Forces Command and Army Pacific, but also teams from support-focused units like the medical and intelligence corps.
The event also selects the Army’s Soldier of the Year from among junior soldiers in the competition and NCO of the Year from team leaders.
Squads from traditional infantry units generally dominate the event’s over scoreboard each year, but individual soldiers from support units often win individual awards.
The competition has grown in prominence across the service in recent years with more units participating in local and command-level qualifying events. Army leaders have taken to using the spotlight of the winner’s announcement at AUSA to launch force-wide changes or new programs. Senior officials used the announcement of the winners in 2022 to announced revamped fitness standards and an overhaul of wellness.
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The Marine Corps formally decommissioned the last of its “workhorse” amphibious landing vehicles in a ceremony in California last Friday, bidding farewell to the machines that have carried Marines from ship to shore and through combat zones around the world for more than 50 years.
The Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV) became part of the Marine Corps’ repertoire in 1972. It saw action from Grenada to Iraq, and was a critical tool in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as one of the only vehicles adept at navigating the flooded streets of the Gulf Coast.
“We’re sad to see the AAV go,” Col. Lynn W. Berendsen, the commanding officer of the Assault Amphibian School at Camp Pendleton, California, said in an interview with Task & Purpose on Thursday. “It was a workhorse.”
The nearly 30-ton vehicle is fully tracked and covered with buoyant armor panels to both protect Marines in combat or deliver them to beachheads – both central functions for the amphibious service. It is being replaced with a newer landing vehicle known as the Amphibious Combat Vehicle, or ACV, an eight-wheeled platform.
Berendsen joined the Corps in 1995 as an “amtrac” – the nickname for Marines who operate the AAV – and spent most of his career on the vehicle, including in Falluja, Iraq. He now oversees the schoolhouse, which is the epicenter of Marine Corps amphibious assault craft.
“I can think of several times in and around Fallujah in 2005 having been shot at many times, having had bullets bounce off the side of the vehicle, knowing that it was going to operate every time I needed it to,” he said. “It was just one of those things that I was very comfortable operating in, and I knew it was always going to take on the job, no matter what it was after.”
Berendsen said that the “sundown ceremony” held at Camp Pendleton last week was meant to be less about the vehicle itself, but more about the Marines that used it and the way forward with the ACV.
U.S. Marines Corps Col. Lynn W. Berendsen, the commanding officer of Assault Amphibian School, Training Command, give remarks during the Assault Amphibious Vehicle Sundown Ceremony at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, Sept. 26, 2025. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Ricardo DelCastilloThe AAV received intense scrutiny in 2020 after eight Marines and a sailor died when their vehicle sank during a training exercise off the coast of California. A series of investigations found maintenance issues, poor training, and a lapse in safety oversight at the center of the accident.
“In those tragedies, if you’re not doing what you’re supposed to by learning the lessons that come out of things like that, I think you’re failing your Marines of the future,” Berendsen said. And while he noted that there is “no invincible vehicle or weapon system on the battlefield,” he said that “it’s incumbent upon us to remember those Marines that lost their lives in training and in combat, to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to not replicate those same mistakes in the future.”
Berendsen said the assault school teaches new enlisted and officer students about the 2020 incident, as well as the AAV’s exposure to improvised explosive devices in Iraq. More than a dozen Marines were killed in a 2005 EID attack on an AAV.
“There’s been a lot of programs that have been implemented, such as our safety program, [that have] been followed from lessons learned,” said Master Sgt. Jorge Mejia, a course chief at the school. “We got to make sure that things like that don’t happen, to do everything in our power for those things not to happen.”
Replacement ACV now deployed widely
The AAV’s replacement, the ACV, had some early setbacks after it arrived. Two non-fatal rollovers in 2022 caused the Marine Corps to issue a monthslong delay in waterborne training. Last year, the service codified training and safety standards for the ACV as it continues to deploy on exercises around the world. Mejia and Berendsen were confident in the school’s ability to teach new operators how to employ the ACV effectively and safely.
The ACV comes in four variants: a personnel carrier, a recovery vehicle, a communications vehicle and one version with a 30-millimeter cannon mounted on it. The Marines expect to eventually have 400 of the personnel carrier versions, which will make up the vast majority of the ACV fleet, according to Berendsen.
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Berendsen said that a few Marine Corps Reserve units will hang onto some AAVs for the next year or so, and the school graduated the final crews in August. But Friday marked the end of an era for the AAV.
There were more than 1,200 AAV personnel carriers at the height of their service. Now they have tracked off into the sunset, having “served [their] purpose well,” Berendsen said, noting their age and difficulty in getting parts for their analog systems.
“It was a bittersweet moment, mixed with pride and a little sadness,” Mejia said of the ceremony, given that the AAV was “our home” for Marines who operated or maintained it in their careers.
“Having operated on the AAV and having it have saved my life on more than one occasion in combat, I have a great deal of pride and a great deal of respect for the vehicle and what it had offered the Marine Corps,” Berendsen said.
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An Iranian ballistic missile hit and badly damaged a communications site on Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar last month during Iran’s retaliatory strike, the Pentagon confirmed today.
It’s the first time the Department of Defense acknowledged any damage to the base during the June 23 attack. Iran launched several ballistic missiles at the U.S. base in Qatar in response to a strike by U.S. B-2s on three Iranian nuclear sites two days prior.
In a statement to Task & Purpose, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said that the missile “did minimal damage to equipment and structures on the base” and that there were no injuries from the attack. The rest of the missiles were taken out mid-air by American and Qatari air defenses.
“Al Udeid Air Base remains fully operational and capable of conducting its mission, alongside our Qatari partners, to provide security and stability in the region,” Parnell said.
In the days after the attack, a defense official said that the U.S. military “successfully defended against the attack,” and confirmed that no injuries had occurred. Dramatic video from Qatar during the attack showed anti-air interceptors taking out multiple missiles.
The damage was captured in images from a commercial satellite. The Iranian outlet Iran International first reported on the images and the damage. Images showing the base before and after Iran’s attack show that an antenna-enclosing dome in the middle of the installation was destroyed, with dark burn marks where the structure once stood. The dome was a modernization enterprise terminal or MET, a communications hub with anti-jamming systems meant to help boost video and audio transmissions. It was set up at the base at the start of 2016 and cost $15 million, per the Air Force.
On June 21, multiple U.S. Air Force B-2 bombers attacked three facilities at Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz in Iran, supported by missiles fired by U.S. Navy ships. Operation Midnight Hammer targeted Iranian enrichment installations. The B-2s dropped 14 GBU-57 bunker buster bombs on two of the sites, including the underground complex at Fordow. Two days later Iran launched the retaliatory attack, targeting Al Udeid. American and Qatari Patriot missile defense batteries took out most of the missiles. President Donald Trump said at the time that Iran provided “early warning” of the attack.
The military has walked back initial claims that the strikes on the three nuclear sites left them “obliterated” but still called the operation a success. Earlier this month Parnell said that intelligence reports suggest that Operation Midnight Hammer “degraded [Iran’s] program by one to two years.” The Defense Threat Reduction Agency this week said that it is still waiting on a full battle damage assessment on the impact of the bombings.
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A retired Army lieutenant colonel who was caught in an online ‘honeypot’ spy operation pleaded guilty to conspiring to transmit classified military information to someone he believed was a Ukrainian woman. The ‘woman’ prodded the former service member for information over a dating site by calling him her “secret informant love” and her “secret agent.”
David Slater was a civilian contractor for the U.S. Strategic Command in Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, which oversees the U.S.’s nuclear weapons and war plans, when he began chatting with what he believed was a Ukrainian woman from around February 2022 to around April 2022, Department of Justice officials said in a release.
The messages were not coy.
“Beloved Dave, do NATO and Biden have a secret plan to help us?” the user wrote around March 18.
“American Intelligence says that already 100% of Russian troops are located on the territory of Ukraine. Do you think this information can be trusted?” she wrote around March 7.
Slater pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring to transmit classified national defense information. According to federal court documents, Slater attended briefings on the Russia-Ukraine war that were classified as Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information, or TS/SCI.
Slater could face a maximum of 10 years in prison, up to $250,000 in fines, and could lose certain federal benefits. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 8.
An email sent to Slater’s lawyer was not immediately returned.
Slater was also charged in April with two counts of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information but those charges were dropped under his agreement to plead guilty for the conspiracy charge, according to court documents. The DOJ described the information that he allegedly shared as military targets and Russian military capabilities.
The messages highlighted in court documents ranged from general U.S. efforts related to the Ukraine-Russia war to American intelligence about Russian or Ukrainian military plans. The user was referred to as a co-conspirator in court documents but referred to as a purported Ukrainian woman in DOJ releases.
A STRATCOM spokesman told Task & Purpose when charges were announced in April that Slater had worked as an Air Force civilian employee in STRATCOM’s logistics directorate until 2022. Slater held a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance from around August 2021 to April 2022 and had signed a non-disclosure agreement.
“Access to classified information comes with great responsibility,” U.S. Attorney Lesley A. Woods from the District of Nebraska said in the release. “David Slater failed in his duty to protect this information by willingly sharing National Defense Information with an unknown online personality despite having years of military experience that should have caused him to be suspicious of that person’s motives.”
Slater served in the Army as an enlisted logistician from August 1981 to August 1984, and then again from July 2008 until December 2020, according to his service record.
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A fundamental value of life at sea is ‘Don’t give up the ship,’ an axiom ingrained in sailors that all damage and problems aboard a vessel fall to the crew to fix.
But under modern contracting rules, some of the most critical systems on U.S. Navy ships, as well as major systems used by the Army, can only be fixed by defense contractors. When one of these systems breaks — whether a vital weapon or the machines that produce fresh water — sailors and soldiers may not have the tools, training or permission to fix them, due to the contracting rules under which the military cedes its “right to repair” systems to contractors who built them.
Many view this repair system as an Achilles’ heel for the U.S. military.
“I can tell you that when the shooting starts, sailors will have to keep their ships in the fight at sea because we can’t count on being able to bring civilian contractors onboard in a war zone,” a post-command Navy surface warfare officer captain told Task & Purpose.
That’s why the U.S. military and some lawmakers are both stepping up their focus on“right to repair”for weapons and other systems, ensuring that troops have the necessary tools, training and authorization to fix their own equipment, said Greg Williams, of the Project on Government Oversight, or POGO, a non-partisan watchdog group.
Two senators introduced a bill this week that would make “right to repair” a staple of military contracting, with rules requiring that future weapons systems be delivered with manuals, tools and access to parts and information that would make systems fixable by the military members who use them. Separately, the Senate Armed Services Committee has advanced its version of the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act that also includes a “right to repair” provision, which would require defense contractors to “submit instructions for continued operational readiness necessary for operations, maintenance, installation, and training,” according to a summary of the bill that was released on Friday.
Good for cell phones, not weaponsA variety of equipment used by the military – from ships and aircraft to generators and handheld gear – is purchased with a warranty, and that means the manufacturer has the responsibility for making repairs, said Williams, director of POGO’s Center for Defense Information.
“Now, that makes a lot of sense when, perhaps, you buy a car or a mobile phone,” Williams told Task & Purpose. “It does not make a lot of sense when you’re thousands of miles from home, potentially under fire; you have a piece of equipment you need either to succeed in your mission or simply to survive, and you want to be able to do whatever you can to repair that on the spot.”
Another issue is that servicemembers are not allowed to try to fix certain types of equipment because the U.S. military does not own the intellectual property rights to it, Williams said.
But the U.S. military wants service members to perform more types of repairs. In April, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a memo ordering sweeping reforms to the Army, including directing the service to include “right to repair” provisions in existing contracts and ensure such provisions are part of future contracts.
While the Army has a general “right to repair” its gear, soldiers face certain restrictions when fixes involve proprietary systems, advanced electronics, and software that is protected by intellectual property laws, or if making such repairs would void the warranty, said Army spokesperson Elias Chelala.
“Commanders often prefer having their soldiers perform basic and intermediate repairs to reduce downtime and increase operational readiness,” Chelala told Task & Purpose. “This includes diagnostics, component-level replacements, mechanical repairs, and preventative maintenance tasks in the field.”
A sailor conducts preventative maintenance on a burner barrel in the aft main machinery room aboard USS Boxer on Oct. 27, 2023. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Kelsey J. Eades.Granting soldiers and sailors access to the tools, manuals, and software needed to repair more types of equipment would both increase their autonomy and sharpen their skills, he said. This would also require soldiers to undergo more training on using diagnostic tools, troubleshooting software systems, and repairing complex systems to avoid damage and injuries.
The Navy operates many aircraft, weapons systems, and critical ship systems that either require flying contractors to the ship for repairs or making the fixes when the ship is in port, said Capt. Ron Flanders, a spokesperson for the office of the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition.
Sailors and Marines do not have the technical manuals or diagnostic capability to repair those items, which include helicopters, jets, radar systems, guns, fire control systems, reverse-osmosis water filtration systems, and even ovens, Flanders told Task & Purpose.
“Navy commanders would much prefer that sailors be given the technical manuals and diagnostics capabilities they need to perform maintenance on all manner of combat systems,” Flanders said.
Flanders added that he is confident that sailors would be able to take care of systems currently serviced by contractors if they were provided with the necessary technical manuals and diagnostic tools.
“Rapid, effective maintenance is a warfighting imperative,” Flanders said. “This is especially true in contested logistics environments, where self-sufficiency will be required. “
New law would require Right To RepairToward that end, a bill introduced by Sens Sheehy and Warren, in at least one sense, captures the bipartisan consensus on the right to repair. Sheehy is a former Navy SEAL and staunch Donald Trump supporter while Warren is a leading Democrat who has championed consumer protections for over a decade, including right to repairs issues for heavy farm equipment. Along with dictating terms to defense contractors, their bill would also require the defense secretary to conduct a review to modify contracts to remove any intellectual property barriers that prevent service members from repairing equipment.
“It’s about time we stand up to Pentagon contractors that are squeezing every last cent from us at the expense of our national security,” Warren said in a statement to Task & Purpose
“Our warfighters – and the American public – deserve better, and I’m proud to lead this bipartisan legislation to streamline bloated bureaucracy, increase competition, and provide our warfighters with the quality and quantity of equipment they need to win the next fight,” Sheehy said in a statement to Task & Purpose.
Williams said the underlying reason why troops are prohibited from making certain repairs is that maintaining equipment is “a very profitable business” for defense industry.
“I think it’s important to recognize that we spend tens of billions of dollars annually on these types of repairs, and eventually that could be done a lot less expensively by our people in uniform and by civilian defense employees,” Williams said. “They generally cost about one third the hourly or annual rate of a contractor.”
While it will cost money to train service members to fix equipment that currently must be repaired by contractors, Wiliams said, “You either pay that expense, or you pay the expense if they’re not able to get their equipment fixed when a mission is underway.”
Not only do current constraints prevent troops from making repairs under “dire circumstances,” but they also mean that service members cannot practice fixing equipment when they are not in danger, Williams said. This also means that service members need to wait for contactors to arrive to make necessary repairs.
“Just in case it’s illustrative, I don’t know if you’re a ‘Star Trek’ fan, but you can probably picture Captain Kirk calling down to engineering to ask Scotty how quickly he’s going to repair something,” Williams said. “Now keep imagining if Scotty’s answer was: ‘Well it will take three weeks for the contractor to get here at Warp 4. Until then, we can’t touch it.’”
UPDATE: 07/11/2024; this story was updated with information about a right to repair provision in the Senate version of the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act.
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The Air Force wants to see boots that are high, eyelashes that are real and officers ready for combat. Or at least with the right uniform for it.
The changes are among four updates the service announced to its dress and uniform standards Thursday that it will begin enforcing in the next few months. The new rules outlaw sneaker-like boots or shoes and eyelash extensions, and require all officers to keep at least one utility uniform — called the Operational Camouflage Pattern uniforms, or OCPs — in their closet.
Also: you can now roll your sleeve cuffs up a little on hot days.
No more short bootsThe biggest change is a new mandatory height for all combat boots.
“Combat boots must now be between 8-12 inches in height from the bottom of the heel tread to the top of the back of the boot,” the service said in a release. Soles of boots also may not exceed 2 inches in height.
Short combat-style boots like the 6.5-inch0high GoRuck MACV-2 Mid-top as well as snearker-style boots, will no longer be allowed under new Air Force rules. The new rules require boots to be 8 inches high. GoRuck websiteThe new rule will exclude many boots currently for sale that are less than 8 inches tall, including sneaker-style hiking and trail running shoes that many companies now market in materials and subdued colors that match military requirements.
Eyelashes and OCPsEyelash extensions are also now prohibited, after being authorized for the last four years. Exceptions, the memo said, will be available for medical conditions.
For OCPs, officers must now have a set available and up to date, even if they rarely are expected to wear it to work, such as pilots who routinely wear flightsuits.
“All Air Force officers, regardless of career field, must maintain at least one complete set of either the non-fire-retardant operational camouflage pattern uniform or an improved hot weather combat OCP uniform,” the release said.
And for those in OCPs, the new rules allow cuffs to be rolled twice for heat or ease of work with the sleeves still being considered “rolled down.”
Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David A. Flosi wrote in a note on his official Facebook page that the eyelash rules will take effect in 30 days, while the boots and uniform rules will become effective within 90 days.
“This update is based on feedback from our NCOs & the Standards and Readiness Reviews across the force,” Flosi wrote.
The rules updates are the second round of small-scale changes the Air Force has announced to its dress and appearance rules this year. In February, the service did away with duty identifier patches and an array of previously allowed nail polish colors, tightened up male hair and shaving standards, and returned the long-absent definition of a “gig line” — the vertical alignment of fly, belt and shirt edge — to its regulations.
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An Air Force colonel illegally restricted an Army major from contacting a member of Congress about the health impacts she and her family faced from jet-fuel-laced drinking water in Hawaii, a federal watchdog found.
The Pentagon Inspector General found that Air Force Col. Kenneth McAdams’ efforts to discourage Army Maj. Amanda Feindt from communicating with Congress as part of her advocacy efforts around the Red Hill fuel leak and water contamination crisis constituted an illegal restriction. Military members have the right to communicate with Congress and the IG under federal laws that protect whistleblowers
“[McAdams’] rank and position of authority, combined with apparent reference to congressional engagement being the source of negative actions and display of a dismissive attitude and demeanor toward concerns, would deter a reasonable service member from lawfully communicating with a member of Congress or an IG,” the IG found on Feindt’s interactions with McAdams.
The actions of McAdams that the IG found to constitute illegal interference came in a meeting between the two officers in early 2022. Feindt was in touch with at least one member of Congress at the time of the meeting and continued to be after the meeting.
McAdams was chief of staff for U.S. Special Operations Command Pacific in Hawaii from July 2020 through June 2023 and was Feindt’s senior rater for performance evaluations. Feindt was assigned to the command’s directorate for personnel issues in July 2020. McAdams’ evaluation came ahead of Feindt’s promotion board for lieutenant colonel.
Naval personnel tour of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility on Feb. 23, 2022. Navy photo.McAdams’ name is redacted from the IG report, but an IG official confirmed his identity in a letter to Feindt’s lawyer sent at the conclusion of the investigation. McAdams retired from the Air Force and did not participate in the IG’s investigation. The IG recommended that the service “consider appropriate action” against McAdams for restricting Feindt’s communications. He did not respond to a request for comment sent by Task & Purpose.
An Air Force spokesperson told Task & Purpose that the service reviewed the IG report and is “considering appropriate action.”
In 2021, more than 20,000 gallons of fuel leaked into local drinking water, exposing more than 93,000 people at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii and surrounding communities to toxic chemicals. A command investigation on the spill detailed a series of failures and mistakes by Navy officials which contributed to the Red Hill incident and acknowledged that breakdowns in leadership and communication caused military families to mistrust the Navy’s ability to handle the crisis. Military families, including Feindt’s, have sued for damages over the incident, describing various health effects linked to the contamination including fatigue, seizures, burns, and gastrointestinal disorders.
Feindt told Task & Purpose that the IG’s findings are somewhat vindicating “because it’s no longer my word against theirs,” and that she wanted to give hope to other whistleblowers who oftentimes give up on getting justice because “they know that the system will not work for them” and it’s “set up to protect the command.”
At the same time, receiving the validation three and a half years after the fact comes with the reality of the effects that speaking out has had on her career.
“I can’t tell you how hurtful and just morally degrading it’s been to watch all of my peers get promoted,” she said. “To know that had I remained silent, I would have been a lieutenant colonel two years ago. This will impact my pension. It’ll impact the money that goes in my pocket. It impacted my credibility. My professional reputation has just been dragged in the mud.”
Toxic exposureFeindt shared her family’s story with Task & Purpose in January 2022, in which she described her family’s symptoms of dizziness, nausea, fatigue, headaches, diarrhea, and extreme abdominal pain after drinking water contaminated by the spill. In May, a federal judge awarded the family about $61,000 in damages for their pain and suffering from the contamination.
Feindt’s family is still dealing with health issues and has had hundreds of medical visits over the years. Her son has permanent lung damage from inhaling fuel fumes. Her husband, Patrick, has had three gastrointestinal surgeries.
Feindt is being treated for an environmental traumatic brain injury and related symptoms like vestibular dysfunction and lightheadedness. She has also been prescribed hearing aids for hearing loss that her military doctors have linked to toxic exposure. Research has found that jet fuel exposure can contribute to auditory processing issues and exacerbate hearing loss.
Maj. Amanda Feindt said every member of her family has suffered health issues from the water contamination. Photo courtesy of Amanda Feindt.She is currently assigned to a soldier recovery unit at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and is set to medically retire next year. Feindt has 19 years worth of active duty Army service.
Feindt joined a separate lawsuit with other active-duty troops challenging the Feres doctrine — a 75-year-old court ruling that prevents service members from suing the government for service-related harm. That case has not yet gone to trial.
Under direction from Congress, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine launched a study on the human health impacts of the Red Hill spill. Feindt said this study will be a step towards getting toxic exposures like Red Hill covered as a presumptive condition for Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare, a growing issue in Congress.
A fuel spill and reprisals at workOn Dec. 9, 2021, Feindt reported to her supervisor that her Ford Island home had been affected by the fuel spill and believed it was the reason for her family’s health problems. They were evacuated from their military housing on Dec. 13, and checked into a hotel.
In the following months, Feindt positioned herself as a public face for families affected by the toxic water supply, including outreach to members of Congress. But, the inspector general found, it also began a series of escalating run-ins with her chain of command.
The IG found that, within weeks of being evacuated from base housing, Feindt communicated with staff members from the Veterans Affairs Committee and Sen. Brian Schatz’s team (D-Hawaii) about her family’s health and her daughter’s daycare on base continuing to use plastic after local health officials warned it could still be hazardous because of the water contamination.
Also in December 2021, Feindt emailed 20 service members from her unit, including McAdams, that she would “take a brief pause” from work duties to handle personal matters related to the spill and that she was “heavily involved” in fuel spill advocacy using her “family’s story to represent hundreds” of others who were impacted. She noted that she was communicating with Congress, military and local officials, media outlets, according to the report.
A Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command contractor holds up a water sample at Red Hill Well amid Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam’s water recovery efforts. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Mar’Queon A. D. TrambleAt a Task Force Ohana town hall on Jan. 6, 2022, a sergeant major stated that troops needed to get back to work. Feindt told the sergeant major that she was taking care of her children at a hotel because she did not have childcare.
Over the next month, the report found, Feindt received oral and written counseling because of a “combative” interaction with military teams who were sent to flush contaminated water from base homes. She had recorded the encounter and posted it to Facebook which leadership said violated three Uniformed Code of Military Justice articles. She was also counseled for overdue work tasks.
Feindt went on leave for most of February.
On Feb. 10, 2022, a co-worker emailed McAdams a link to an Air Force Times story with Feindt’s picture at the top and mentions of her meetings with Congress. The email mockingly labeled Feindt’s media appearances as “escapades.”
By Feb. 25, 2022, Feindt returned to work and had a meeting with McAdams to discuss the counseling, believing “she was in a hostile work environment,” the report says. She told the inspector general that McAdams told her “[it] was all of my fault, that I brought this all on myself.” When she asked what that meant, he pointed to her meetings with Congress, the recorded video posted online and the discussion with leadership at the base town hall.
Feindt recalled telling McAdams that she would’ve done the same thing for his and other families impacted by the water contamination to which he “responded that the difference was that no one asked [Feindt] to be a ‘self professed superhero.’”
McAdams did not participate in the IG report. Task & Purpose tried to reach McAdams for this story but was unsuccessful.
‘Bury your head in the sand’Feindt believed McAdams’ used his position as her rater to discourage her from actions covered by whistleblower rules.
“What I took from the conversation is: If you stop doing all of these things that you’re doing to protect yourself and your family, then things can go back to being normal,” she told the IG.
“And [he] said it wasn’t my job. That none of these things that I was doing [were] part of my job description.”
According to the report, Feindt recalled it as a “negative, hostile conversation” and that she was excused from the meeting when she broke into tears. Three days later she filed a complaint of reprisal with the Department of Defense IG, which resulted in the investigation.
“The people who were actually in charge of the crisis or the response have never been held accountable,” Feindt said. “The only people who’ve been held accountable are your whistleblowers.”
In September 2023, five Navy admirals received non-judicial punishments for their role in the Red Hill spill. The Department of Defense has not officially fired any senior leaders over the Red Hill crisis.
In a 60 Minutes interview in August 2024, Meredith Berger, former assistant secretary of the Navy for installations was asked about accountability for the Red Hill, since all of the leadership at the time of the spill have been able to retire or be reassigned.
“It’s accountability within the system that we have established,” Berger said. “We have heard that this was too long and that maybe it didn’t go far enough.”
Feindt worked as a human resources officer and said she’s witnessed retaliation from the sidelines but never dealt with it herself. She said it’s changed the way she views the institution that she was willing to put her life on the line for.
“This time, money and effort that we put into the messaging about ‘people are our greatest assets’ and ‘if you see something, say something,’ it reads really well, but when sh–t actually hits the fan, when push comes to shove, when there’s an actual situation where you would actually apply those slogans, I’ve found that it’s not actually true,” she said. “What we really want you to do is bury your head in the sand, shut up and color, and fall in line. If you don’t, a target will be placed on your back and we will make your life a living hell.”
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A Congressman who was severely wounded while serving with the Army in Afghanistan wants doctors with the Department of Veterans Affairs to be allowed to talk to patients about cannabis as an alternative treatment to narcotic painkillers in states where medical marijuana is legal
Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) introduced an amendment last month to the VA’s fiscal year 2026 military construction appropriations bill that would prevent the VA from using any money to stop its doctors from talking to patients about legal medical marijuana programs.
A former explosive ordnance disposal technician, Mast served with the Army’s 28th Ordnance Company, which supports special operations forces. He lost both of his legs and a finger after being wounded by an improvised explosive device while deployed to Afghanistan in 2010.
“I know from my own recovery just how devastating the side effects of narcotics can be,” Mast said in a statement to Task & Purpose. “Veterans deserve all options when it comes to healing, and that includes the ability to talk to their doctor about medical cannabis. States across the country have approved medical marijuana, and if this can help veterans recovering from injuries stay off prescription narcotics, it will be a godsend. It’s not a catch-all cure, but rather, a potentially life-changing option that I believe our veterans should have.”
Although 40 states, three territories, and Washington, D.C., have legalized medical marijuana, the federal government has not.
“Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act,” said VA spokesman Peter Kasperowicz. “Therefore, VA health care providers cannot recommend it or help veterans obtain it.”
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, a Schedule 1 substance, “Has a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision.”
During President Donald Trump’s first term, the VA decided not to look into how medical marijuana might be used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and chronic pain. More recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced in November that it would conduct a study into the potential risks and benefits of using medical cannabis to treat veterans suffering from PTSD.
Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio), who cosponsored Mast’s amendment, cited the surge in drug overdose deaths involving opioids in recent decades as a reason why veterans should have access to alternative treatment.
“The opioid crisis has hit Ohio and, specifically, my district extremely hard,” Joyce said in a statement to Task & Purpose. “While opioids and other narcotic painkillers are appropriate in some circumstances, they can also lead to lifelong addiction and substance abuse. The veteran community is particularly susceptible, given the increased risk of chronic pain and PTSD. Studies have shown that medical cannabis can be a viable treatment for a multitude of medical issues our heroes sometimes face when they come home.”
The Veterans of Foreign Wars, or VFW, is one of several veterans groups that support the idea of VA doctors being able to discuss alternative treatments with patients.
“This is a priority for the VFW, as delivered before Congress,” said VFW spokesman Rob Couture. “When it comes to receiving timely access to high-quality health care, veterans deserve to know what options are available to them, even plant-based alternative therapies. Informed decisions on health care should be between a veteran and their provider.”
Disabled American Veterans, DAV, has long advocated for research into the efficacy of using medical marijuana to treat service-disabled veterans, said Joy Ilem, the group’s national legislative director.
“We believe VA providers should be able to talk with their veteran patients about all safe, available and legal alternative treatments in support of the department’s whole health care approach,” Ilem said in a statement to Task & Purpose.
Paralyzed Veterans of America, or PVA, also supports “evidence-based alternative treatments” to relieve veterans’ chronic pain, said Heather Ansley, the organization’s chief policy officer.
Ansley noted that PVA’s members with spinal cord injuries and diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis suffer from varying degrees of chronic pain, and they deserve full access to safe and effective options that are available to them.
“That’s why PVA has long supported researching medical cannabis’ ability to address symptoms of pain,” Ansley said in a statement to Task & Purpose. “We believe all veterans should be empowered with information that supports their well-being and right to shape their health care plans.”
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Welp, another day, another military plane appears to have drawn another dick in the sky.
Two of them, actually, and we kinda want to say that these two — sketched by a Coast Guard HC-130J over the Pacific Ocean Monday night — indicate that military sky drawings of male genitalia are getting “better,” but then we’d be calling them a good thing, and we aren’t doing that.
“Funnier,” maybe. Definitely more detailed.
Coast Guard officials did not directly confirm that the flight path was specifically flown to create the image, but an official told Task & Purpose the service is reviewing the flight.
“We are aware of the situation,” a Coast Guard spokesperson said in a statement texted to Task & Purpose. “The Coast Guard holds its aircrews to the highest standards and we find this absolutely unacceptable. This action holds zero operational value. We are looking into the incident and will hold the responsible personnel accountable.”
Here’s what we know.
A four-hour flightOn Monday night, a Coast Guard HC-130J, tail number CGNR 2014, took off from Long Beach Airport — also known as Daughtery Field — for a flight that would last a little over four hours.
The plane’s path was captured on flight tracking sites that recorded the aircraft’s route far off the Pacific coast of Mexico.
First spotted by the Coast Guard-focused Reddit community, the crew flew a path that cut west off San Clemente Island and headed south for about 200 miles over the open waters of the Pacific.
Nautical twilight ended just after the plane took off, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory, but Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles confirms a bright moon, more than half-full, was up for the entire flight. As the crew flew along 2,000 feet above the empty ocean, lit only by stars and lazy moonlight, maybe they thought no one was watching.
Unfortunately, the flight tracking system known as ADS-B, and the civilian websites that follow it, never looks away.
The flight tracking route of the Coast Guard flight about 100 miles off the coast of Mexico. Screenshot from Flightaware.About 200 miles south of Los Angeles, the crew turned east and began a lazy figure eight, followed by a five-mile race-track pattern. Then, a little farther east, the crew appeared to string together about a dozen turns in a row, creating three tracks in the sky — and on the watching flight tracker — that are difficult not to notice.
The identity of the crew is unknown and likely will remain so, but the actual aircraft is identified in the flight data as CGNR 2014, an almost brand-new plane that’s already been on some notable missions. The Coast Guard took delivery of the HC-130J in 2022, making it one of the Coast Guard’s newer long-range search and cargo aircraft. According to a Department of Defense photo archive and news reports, CGNR 2014 is assigned to Barbers Point, Hawaii, and responded to both the wildfires in Maui and delivered 80,000 lbs of relief supplies to Vanuatu after Tropical Cyclone Lola in November 2023.
Aircrew board CGNR 2014, a Coast Guard HC-130J, at Air Station Barbers Point in response to the Maui Fires, Lahaina, in 2023. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Tyler Robertson.A short history of military sky ‘art’This has happened before.
On Nov. 16, 2017, residents of Okanagan, Washington looked up to a penis in the sky, etched by the contrails of a Navy EA-18G Growler from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington.
The Navy’s chief admiral for aviation was not amused.
“The American people rightfully expect that those who wear the Wings of Gold exhibit a level of maturity commensurate with the missions and aircraft with which they’ve been entrusted,” said Vice Admiral Mike Shoemaker, Chief of Naval Air Operations. “Sophomoric and immature antics of a sexual nature have no place in Naval aviation today.”
Two Marines in a T-34 trainer did it in 2018. Then, in 2022, an Air Force tanker appeared to draw one in Syria, but officials swore it was just normal flight patterns — a reasonable defense for the always-circling tanker crews.
And let’s not act like this is something American aviators invented — Roman soldiers drew them on Hadrian’s Wall.
UPDATE: 7/9/2025; This story has been updated with a statement from the Coast Guard.
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The Navy’s budget request for the 2026 fiscal year is its most ambitious shipbuilding push in years. After asking Congress for just six new ships in the last fiscal year, and nine in the one before that, the service now wants 19 more. That includes attack submarines, destroyers, amphibious ships, and support vessels totaling about $47.3 billion.
At $292.2 billion, the Navy’s proposed budget request is $11 billion more than last year. It includes new emphasis on developing hypersonic missiles, directed energy weapons, unmanned systems, and undersea capabilities. The central focus is still on building more ships to help close the gap with China’s rapidly growing navy.
The 2026 fiscal year request includes one Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, two Virginia-class attack submarines, two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, one San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, one America-class amphibious assault ship, nine medium landing ships, two John Lewis-class replenishment oilers, and one Impeccable-class ocean surveillance ship. Taken together, that makes it the single-largest request for new ships in 25 years.
The amphibious assault ship USS America in the Coral Sea, July 1, 2025. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kenneth Melseth.This year’s budget request aligns with the Navy’s 2025 plan to grow the fleet to 390 ships by 2054 and aligns with President Donald Trump’s statements going back to his first term in 2016, calling for a much larger fleet. But turning budget documents and stump speeches into ships has been a challenge, and will likely continue to be one.
The Navy is currently struggling with significant delays and cost overruns in its shipbuilding programs. According to a Government of Accountability Office report this year, the seafaring branch has failed to grow its fleet despite its shipbuilding budget doubling over the last 20 years. Nearly every major program, including Virginia-class submarines and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, is now years behind schedule. The reasons include a lack of shipyards with enough space to facilitate the Navy’s requests and a shortage of skilled workers at those shipyards.
On April 9, Trump signed the “Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance” executive order, which called for a review of the maritime industrial base. This order promised a coordinated surge across regulations, trade, investment, workforce training, and industrial capacity to reverse decades of decline.
In turn, the Navy is asking for $989 million in funding for the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program, compared to last year’s request of $513 million. The program focuses on modernizing the Navy’s four shipyards in Norfolk, Virginia, Portsmouth, Maine, Puget Sound, Washington, and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which the GAO reported in 2019 were, on average, 76 years old.
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Hopper waits to undock at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, March 11, 2025. Navy photo by Mike Wilson.The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Hopper waits to undock at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, March 11, 2025. Navy photo by Mike Wilson
But even with nearly a billion dollars set aside to modernize its shipyards, the Navy faces a steep climb. Aging dry docks, outdated layouts, and workforce shortages are not problems that can be fixed quickly, these are issues that will take years to sort out.
In this week’s Task & Purpose YouTube video, we dive into the Navy’s shipbuilding efforts, what hurdles it faces, and where things might stand once those ships actually join the fleet — and if they’ll be ready in time for any new threats that emerge.
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The Army can screen the personal electronic devices of deceased soldiers to check for information that is either deemed classified or controlled in nature, according to a new policy.
The screening will be done by the Joint Personal Effects Depot, which manages the personal items of troops who die overseas. An Army policy memo sent to the force this month sets up a process for future conflicts where the service can retain soldiers’ personal cell phones and computers to screen for classified information, Controlled Unclassified Information, operational security, or personally identifying information left on the device.
Classified information is broken into multiple tiers, including Top Secret, Secret, and Confidential, based on the impacts that it could have on national security. Controlled Unclassified Information is a separate designation used to describe government-owned or created information that is sensitive in nature and considered protected.
The Army’s mortuary affairs regulation states that documents and sealed materials belonging to deceased soldiers will be reviewed to “ensure proper safeguarding of military information” and that classified materials will be withdrawn. It also states that civilian or military law enforcement can retain soldiers’ personal items for investigations.
The new policy was issued to clarify gray areas over the handling of personal devices, said Lt. Col. Orlandon Howard, an Army spokesperson.
The policy was issued to “keep up with the pace” of evolving technology and the “understanding that these devices have capability to transfer sensitive information,” Howard said, adding that the policy helps clarify “who should we be checking more closely or handling differently based on their access to sensitive information,” because of their job.
The policy not only outlines who is and isn’t allowed to store or access classified information on their cell phones or computers, but also shows the growing concern over the amount of information stored on personal devices, said David Cook, an intelligence soldier in the Army Reserve and national security director at ShadowDragon, an open-source intelligence software tool.
“It’s telling of sort of the time and age that we’re in where your phone tells everything about you. I mean, we develop patterns of life on terrorists because of the devices that they carry in their pocket,” Cook said.
A soldier plots points on a map after dusk to prepare for the night land navigation course event at Fort Lee, Virginia. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Chantell Black.Troops are not allowed to access classified information on their personal devices, under Department of Defense policies, but many soldiers will have military files like alert rosters on their phones, which include contact information for every soldier in their unit. While one piece of information alone might not be classified, it can be combined with other pieces of data to reveal classified information — a concept referred to as classification by compilation.
“If you have an alert roster, a date for a deployment and a location like any one of those pieces of information by itself is not classified or CUI or anything like that, but if you put it all together then it becomes either CUI or higher,” Cook said.
To further muddy the waters of what information is technically off limits, the Army’s Bring Your Own Device program allows soldiers to remotely connect to their service email, Microsoft Teams chat and OneDrive cloud storage on their own devices.
Force protection Gary Barthel, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel and a civilian lawyer who has represented troops in military and civil legal cases said the policy acts as a force protection measure to prevent sensitive military information disclosures.
“If there’s something that’s on a deceased service member’s phone or other equipment that might jeopardize that operation or certain individuals or certain enemy combatant targets, that would be a concern,” he said.
At a minimum, troops can be punished for accessing classified information on their personal devices under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice or, in the worst cases, they can be federally prosecuted for leaking it online. But for family members, the military doesn’t have direct control over their conduct online.
“Even seemingly innocent posts about a family member’s deployment or redeployment date can put them at risk. Small bits of information can be assembled to make big pictures,” an Army website on social media guidelines states.
The policy also mentions personally identifiable information which Cook said may include more innocuous data that could be exploited — a real-world consequence playing out on the battlefields in Ukraine and Russia where cell phone tower data has been used to geolocate troop positions.
“Service members that are down range, especially those deceased, they have pictures on their phone that may give away sensitive information,” he said. “If I snap a picture down range, I don’t post it anywhere, but it is on my phone and I die, then who has access to it? If it’s uploaded to a cloud and the cloud gets compromised in a rapid fashion, then that could expose sensitive information, troop movements, location, all that kind of stuff.”
‘Open season on searching the devices’The policy limits the screening to information physically kept on the device but also states that any evidence indicating that classified information was transferred to the cloud will be relayed to investigators.
Brian Ferguson, an Air Force reservist who represents troops as a civilian lawyer said the expectation of privacy “dies along with a person.” In investigations into service members suicides or criminal investigations, the military typically holds onto personal devices to look for evidence.
“It’ll be open season on searching the devices, but honestly I think that’s kind of always been the policy,” he said. “The point of this might be to make it more restrictive, not less, honestly, because I can’t think of an instance where a military law enforcement agency that finds a dead soldier isn’t immediately gonna go through his devices.”
According to the policy, personnel in charge of managing soldiers’ personal items “will make reasonable attempts” to bypass any encryption and can enlist the help of “an external agency,” like the National Security Agency, for instance. If officials can’t get past the encryption, they will do an assessment and deem it high or low risk of whether they believe sensitive information exists on the device. Depending on the result of that assessment they’ll either retain the device and review it, if it’s deemed as high risk, or transfer it to the soldier’s next of kin, if it’s deemed to be at low risk of having sensitive information.
Daniel Conway, a former Army lawyer, said the policy could raise future privacy concerns and gives little information on the risk assessment scope and implementation.
“We don’t know what’s happening to the data after it’s being retrieved. We don’t know how it’s being stored. We don’t know whether it’s being destroyed,” Conway said. “Are they going through all his emails? Are they going through his photos? Are they inspecting his banking data? Are they inspecting his phone calls? What other purposes is the data being used for?”
The policy states that classified, personally identifiable and private health information will be removed before the device is returned to the next of kin.
As a private lawyer, Conway has represented family members of troops who want legal help getting their deceased child’s cell phone back after they were retained for suicide investigations. While deceased service members have little to no privacy protections, Conway said this could raise privacy problems for grieving parents or spouses.
“I wouldn’t want presumptively unqualified soldiers going through all of the digital data of my loved one, seeing probably private content, seeing maybe evidence of the depression, seeing mental health related concerns that they may have had all under the guise of protecting national security,” Conway said. “I can see how that might be a significant invasion of a living person’s privacy, particularly if they’re going through spousal issues and whatnot, maybe there’s sensitive financial data that’s now going into possession of the government.”
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The Army has made changes in how it investigates misconduct allegations with new rules that may muddy the waters for soldiers making anonymous reports of misconduct like toxic leadership or hazing, former military lawyers warned. The updated rules also stop the flagging of an accused soldier’s personnel record in advance of an investigation, which could delay career progression, and introduce punishments for soldiers proven to have made false accusations.
The changes came in a June update to the Army’s 15-6 regulation, which governs the process for investigating military-related misconduct like sexual harassment, toxic leadership, adultery, fraternization, cruelty and maltreatment of subordinates, violation of orders and regulations, misuse of government resources, and hazing.
The new regulation introduces several new terms that add new processes or concepts into the framework of a 15-6 investigation. Those investigations can lead to administrative punishments or more serious Uniformed Code of Military Justice proceedings that result in discharges or rank and grade demotions.
An Army official told Task & Purpose that the goal is to reduce the number of 15-6 investigations and “clarify” for commanders, especially for junior officers, that there are other processes — like a memorandum for records — they are encouraged to use for “everyday friction” within their command and when there’s not “sufficient evidence.”
The regulation changes follow an April 23 memo from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, that ordered changes to the investigation process and including new terminology used verbatim in the new Army regulation. Hegseth referred to it as the “No More Walking On Eggshells Policy,” in a video posted to X on April 25.
“Too often at the Defense Department, there are complaints made for certain reasons that can’t be verified that end people’s career, either through [Equal Opportunity] or the [Inspector General]. We need to reform that process completely so commanders can be commanders,” Hegseth said in the video.
‘Credible evidence’The largest change to the 15-6 investigation process is the addition of a new “credibility” review at the early stage of some complaints. Traditionally, an Army 15-6 investigation had three fact-finding or evidence-gathering phases: preliminary inquiries, administrative investigations and boards of officers.
The new regulation now lays out an additional phase, called a “credibility assessment,” which would precede the three other phases, and possibly short-circuit the full investigation. The regulation states that officials receiving the complaint should initially review “to determine if sufficient credible information exists to warrant further fact-finding or evidence-gathering.”
The assessment is based on language used in Hegseth’s memo, for “credible” evidence or information which is defined as “attributable or corroborated information,” that considers “the original source, the nature of the information, and the totality of the circumstances” to determine if it is “sufficient” for investigators to pursue an inquiry.
Rachel VanLandingham, a former Air Force lawyer, said information needing to be “corroborated” or “attributed” could mean that an anonymous report will not be sufficient enough to “trigger” a 15-6 investigation. She said this could impact inquiries into hostile work environments because of toxic leaders.
“You need anonymous complaints because people are afraid of their commanders and if their commanders are retributive and hostile and toxic, you’re not going to leave your name,” VanLandingham said. “If you have a bunch of folks in a unit that are really afraid of their commander, they don’t want to say anything so they leave a bunch of anonymous complaints that’s not corroborated and that’s not attributable to anybody. But damn straight, the higher level commander — when he’s got 10 of these — should be investigating.”
The Army official said that not knowing the source prevents investigators from asking follow-up questions and that a “vague anonymous complaint” is “probably not actionable” because investigators cannot ask follow-up questions that would establish credibility.
False accusationsHegseth’s memo also called for “disciplinary actions against personnel who knowingly submit false complaints,” a topic which now has its own new section in the Army 15-6 manual. According to the new language, soldiers can face punitive measures for “knowingly” or “repeatedly” submitting false and “frivolous” allegations that could trigger investigations. The manual defines frivolous allegations as those “that a reasonable person knows has no merit,” and which were made for “an unreasonable purpose” like harassment.
Military justice lawyers told Task & Purpose the focus on punishing accusations deemed as false could have a chilling effect on victims of sexual harassment coming forward. Under current rules, formal reports of sexual harassment cannot be made anonymously.
Four former military lawyers told Task & Purpose that proving a false allegation would require a high standard of proof, which makes the new rule appear to be more of a message to discourage reports than an actual enforcement mechanism.
Barb Snow, a former active duty and Reserve Army jag officer for 11 years, pointed out that making false official statements is already an offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
“Making the AR-15-6 process a quasi-criminal offense investigation process” will dissuade troops from coming forward, she said.
Retired Col. Don Christensen, former chief prosecutor for the Air Force and the former president for Protect Our Defenders, said the new language reflects an ongoing conversation within military circles around sexual harassment. He said he worries that victims will fear punishment, and retaliation for a report that isn’t substantiated with enough evidence to pursue legal or administrative actions.
“My biggest concern isn’t so much that people will be prosecuted for it, but that it will chill people from coming forward,” Christensen said. “There’s always been this, I would say undercurrent, of people in the military who very much want to punish, particularly women who come forward, and if that doesn’t result in a conviction, then they immediately label it a false allegation. There’s a huge difference between being able to get a conviction and something being false.”
No more flaggingUnder the new rules, soldiers can still find their personnel records “flagged” during the formal evidence-gathering phase of a 15-6 investigation, which soldiers have long complained can impact promotions or delay base moves. But during a credibility assessment, soldiers will not be flagged.
Daniel Conway, a former Marine staff sergeant and captain who currently represents service members at military trials, said flagging can be “really disruptive” because it can interrupt deployments or assignments.
“If you’re a command sergeant major and you get accused of making inappropriate comments, you wind up with a 15-6,” he said. “It takes four, five, six months. You’ve now been rendered pretty much useless to the Army for half a year.”
Conway said he thinks the changes will cut down the number of 15-6 investigations for more minor issues.
“Being in San Antonio, we have a training command here with drill sergeants, and I’m constantly over the years representing drill sergeants who are being subjected to 15-6 investigations on frivolous complaints from trainees — really the most minor of stuff.”
Robert Capovilla, a former Army lawyer who currently represents troops in military cases, said the changes will be most relevant for sexual harassment cases where “the allegation itself ends that soldier’s career.”
“The dirty secret of military justice is, a lot of these people who are flagged for prolonged periods of time, even if they end up winning their case, the damage to their career is irreversible,” Capovilla said.
The regulation states that the Army will appoint specially trained investigative officers outside the chain of command of the reporter and subject to handle administrative investigations of formal sexual harassment complaints.
Capovilla called it a welcome change.
“We’ve seen untrained investigating officers who do not understand the definition of sexual harassment come back and almost universally conclude that sexual harassment occurred,” he said. “Then those soldiers and airmen and Marines and everything are facing separation boards or boards of inquiry based on nothing but an amateur investigation that was done by somebody who didn’t even understand what they were doing.”
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A new painting at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia, depicts the dust, darkness, and confusion of the brutal house-to-house fighting that defined the Second Battle of Fallujah in late 2004.
The artwork shows several Marines entering a dark room with two others outside in the light. Those Marines in the forefront are diffuse and begin to blend in with the shadows. A human-like figure appears in a doorway, but it is unclear whether it poses a threat.
“There’s not a lot of detail in the faces, there’s not a lot of detail on the figures, and I’m trying to let the paint and the light do a lot so that it can be a little more every person — everyone that was in those situations,” said former Marine Staff Sgt. Kristopher Battles, the artist who depicted the scene
Battles deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan as a combat artist, and he is currently the National Museum of the Marine Corps’ artist in residence. His painting “Operation Phantom Fury — Fallujah 2004” is part of a new exhibit at the museum that opened on June 27 and covers the Marine Corps’ entire 250-year history. The exhibit was recently showcased by PBS News Hour.
Kristopher Battles posing alongside his painting of the Second Battle of Fallujah. Photo courtesy of Kristopher Battles.Right now, Battles is making a series of illustrations for the Marine Corps about post-Vietnam conflicts, including the Global War on Terrorism, he said.
The U.S. military fought two battles for Fallujah Iraq in 2004. The first began on March 31, 2004, following the murder of Blackwater contractors, but it was called off due to protests by Iraqi politicians, and then al-Qaida took control of the city,
Operation Phantom Fury, the second battle for the city, lasted from Nov. 7 to Dec. 23 of that year. More than 100 coalition forces were killed and about 600 were wounded. Army Staff Sgt. David Bellavia later became the first living Iraq veteran to be awarded the Medal of Honor for single-handedly killing five insurgents while clearing a house in Fallujah on Nov. 10, 2004.
For his painting of Fallujah, Battles interviewed Marine veterans who took part in the battle and tried to capture their experiences on canvas. He found it was difficult to capture all the sights, smells, and other aspects of that kind of fierce urban combat.
“They describe the rubble, they describe the dust, they describe the fatigue,” Battle said. “One of the veterans I talked to described the difference between starting out and ending. At first, it’s fearful and it’s all these things. But then by the time you’re done, he’s mentioning being so exhausted and of course dirty. He was having trouble coming up with the words to describe the exhaustion and the stress that it had by the end of it.”
- A series of images showing the progress of the painting.
- A series of images showing the progress of the painting.
- A series of images showing the progress of the painting.
- A series of images showing the progress of the painting.
- The completed painting. Because these types of experiences are so hard to explain and depict, Battles’ portrayal of the house fight is less naturalistic and realistic than his combat art, he said.
“I was painting with palette knife and scraping, and I was using my fingers, and I was putting the paint down in ways that were very visceral and physical,” Battles said. “I didn’t try to get too detailed with any one part of the painting. I wanted to have light. and I wanted to have darkness, and I wanted to have dust and confused, jumbled things involved, because what I’ve gathered from talking to people and from seeing things is that it is very chaotic and unknown. One moment you’re in the light and the next moment you’re in the dark, and you don’t know what’s going to happen — you can’t even see.”
The Second Battle of Fallujah produced one of the most iconic images of the Iraq war, when photographer Lucian Read took a picture of 1st Sgt. Bradley Kasal, who had been shot seven times and been hit by 43 pieces of grenade shrapnel, being helped by two other Marines as he limped out of a building in Fallujah known as the “Hell House.”
While Battles admires the power of that photograph of Kasal, he made clear that his painting does not depict that scene or any other specific event in Iraq.
“This house that I depicted, it is every hell house,” Battles said. “It is meant to be, in a sense, a symbol for every time they had to gather the courage and go in — and they got very good at it, of course, over the course of the battle in Iraq.”
Kristopher Battles, then a Marine sergeant, at Al Asad Air Base in January 2007. Photo courtesy of Kristopher Battles.With most of his art, Battles tries to paint for every Marine and sailor so that all veterans can relate to the scenes he portrays.
By telling their stories Battles and other combat artists allow veterans’ families to learn about what their loved ones went through, he said.
“For the veterans who are in those houses and in those streets and in those convoys, having to go to these towns and do these things, the idea that the Marine Corps feels that they have a valuable story to tell and will take the time to tell it — we want that to resonate with those Marines so that is something they can know: That their story is being preserved, and that the Marine Corps cares enough to create these images about their exploits,” Battles said.
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Goodbye horses, the Army’s over you.
The Army is drastically scaling back its Military Working Equid program, the Army term for the service’s contingent of horses, donkeys and mules. With a few exceptions for ceremonial horse teams, the equine operations will wind down over the next year at five Army bases, with animals being donated or transferred to private owners, the Army announced last week. Why the drawdown? According to the Army, it’s “to align more resources with warfighting capability and readiness.”
“This initiative will save the Army $2 million annually and will allow the funds and soldiers dedicated to [Military Working Equid] programs to be redirected to readiness and warfighting priorities,” according to the Army’s release. The “warfighting priorities” were not specified.
The Department of Defense currently owns 236 horses, mules and donkeys, which are housed and cared for on Army bases, Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Ruth Castro told Task & Purpose on Monday.
Sgt. Jacob Sanlin, with the Military Funeral Honors Platoon-Caisson Section, guides a horse at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas on Feb. 26, 2025. Army photo by Sgt. Andrea Kent.The one-year reduction will see the closure of MWE programs at bases in California, Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas: Fort Irwin, Fort Huachuca, Fort Riley, Fort Sill and Fort Hood. The Army will keep horse teams at two locations, including the 3rd Infantry Regiment, or “the Old Guard,” at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, which restarted its caisson services in June after a two-year pause following the death of two horses. That effort saw the Army invest more than $18 million in new real estate and equipment for the horses.
Though the age of the war horse is long gone, horses have not been totally absent from combat use in the modern Army.
Army Special Forces soldiers famously used horses with the Northern Alliance during the initial invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 — those horses were provided by Afghan partners. The last time the Army staged an outright cavalry charge was 83 years ago during World War II. The 26th Cavalry Regiment in the Philippines, made up of American and Filipino fighters, resisted Japanese forces with horseback tactics. On Jan. 16, 1942, Lt. Edward Ramsey led a mounted force into the village of Morong. When the cavalry encountered a larger Japanese infantry force, Ramsey ordered them forward, even yelling “charge!” The horse-based assault was so sudden and shocking it pushed the Japanese forces back.
According to the Army, equine veterinarian experts will oversee the drawdown of the MWE animals. They will be donated or adopted by outside parties.
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Team Rubicon, a veterans-led disaster response organization, has sent reconnaissance teams to central Texas and established a quick reaction force there to help people dealing with the aftermath of recent devastating floods, said the group’s CEO Art delaCruz.
“We’ll continue to grow the operation as the waters recede primarily and as the local authorities transition out of search and rescue,” delaCruz told Task & Purpose on Monday. “Our goal is to be amongst the first there and to be the last to leave.”
Search and rescue efforts continue after the Guadalupe River in Texas rose about 26 feet in a short time. At least 90 people have been confirmed dead and dozens more remain missing.
Team Rubicon volunteers in Texas are currently assessing what exactly is needed as the group prepares its response, which could ultimately involve at least 100 people, said delaCruz, a retired Navy commander.
“We will be there in short order,” delaCruz said. “One of the things that we’re really diligent about is ensuring that our presence doesn’t create a tax on the system. We line everything up so we’re essentially self-sustaining once there.”
Just like military operations, the group starts its efforts with reconnaissance, then it issues volunteers a warning order followed by an operations order, he said.
Right now, three reconnaissance teams have already arrived at the scene, delaCruz said Each team has two to three people, typically local volunteers who know their communities, and they will scout out the area for potential damage and report back to Team Rubicon.
“Then we begin to pair it up with our volunteers on what they can do, which is probably, in this case, I would imagine, a lot of debris removal,” delaCruz said. “Everything that has been moved down river or is blocking roads, we have qualified sawyers that can come in and cut trees, and we can use heavy equipment to either move debris or materials out of the way.”
The reconnaissance teams will also determine which communities are most in need of help, he said, adding, “It’s generally the poor and those who aren’t insured for the disaster that hit them.”
Team Rubicon has also established a quick reaction force in Kerrville at the request of the Salvation Army to help manage volunteers, he said.
“The primary effort of the QRF [quick reaction force] right now is to assess damages, like people are coming in and saying: ‘Hey, I need help,’” delaCruz said. “And then they will also transition with the Salvation Army to help manage volunteers.”
As things stand, Team Rubicon could establish three “forward operating bases” in the region, each which might have about 30 people, delaCruz said.
One major task that delaCruz expects Team Rubicon volunteers to take on in Texas will be cleaning out flooded homes, schools, and other buildings, he said.
“They’re essentially in this race against mold and damage, so we’ll help them out at no cost to the homeowners,” delaCruz said.
Team Rubicon has responded to other recent natural disasters including wildfires in southern California and the aftermath of Hurricane Helene last year in North Carolina., delaCruz said. The group has about 200,000 volunteers in total, more than half of whom are veterans. Team Rubicon came about in 2010 and is largely staffed by military veterans. The organization leans pretty heavily on the professional and lived-experiences of its members, particularly when it comes to planning operations and logistical support.
For the current crisis, the Team Rubicon volunteers could take over food and water distribution for first responders, who have been working for days without rest, he said.
“We’ll try to relieve people of the burdens that they have so they can also take care of their own families,” delaCruz said. “We’ll do whatever is necessary.”
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There are many like it — 18, in fact.
A new scrolling feature posted on the Marine Corps website walks through a vital string of identity to the Corps: a history of every rifle model that any Marine has ever carried.
The scrolling post rolls through all 18 of the standardized, issued long guns that Marines have fought with, from the flintlock muskets of the Continental Navy to the legendary M1 Garands used across the Pacific in World War II, and the full family tree of the M16 and its variants, like the post-9/11 M4 and the current M27.
The post is part of the Marine Corps’ celebration of its 250th birthday, and it’s a great visual review for both hardcore Marine infantry history buffs as well as those who can’t tell a bolt carrier group from a frizzen spring. The unique release was put together by Marine Sgt. James Stanfield, with two staffers at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Virginia: Jonathan Bernstein, the museum’s Arms & Armor Curator, and Bruce Allen, the Museum Specialist (Ordnance).
In an interview Monday, Bernstein told Task & Purpose he oversees the museum’s collection of over 3,500 firearms and 2,500 edged weapons.
The rifles and muskets on the list, Bernstein said, may not cover every one-off long gun issued as a personal weapon to Marines, but those on the list were selected because of “the number in service and their technological significance.”
“With each you can see the evolution of ammunition, the ignition system, and rate of fire,” he said.
U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Abel Lopez Rijos loads an M1 Garand as a part of the Heritage Match during the Marine Corps Championships on Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, April 11, 2025. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Joshua Barker.The post begins with the “Brown Bess,” a British-made musket used by Marines in the pre-revolutionary Continental Navy.
“The Brown Bess was pretty much idiot-proof,” said Bernstein, and nearly every able-bodied man in the pre-Revolutionary colonies would be familiar with it as part of a militia. “With that, you go from 2, maybe 3 rounds per minute with a .75 caliber ball.”
As the American Revolution split U.S. forces from English supplies, early Marines upgraded to the French-made Charleville and its .60 caliber ball, which allowed troops to carry slightly more rounds. The first U.S.-produced musket was the Springfield model 1795, named for the year the Marines took it up. With a self-contained ignition system, Bernstein said, Marines “could fire a little bit faster. Not a lot, but it does take out some steps.”
Muskets remained the frontline personal weapon for Marines through the Civil War, until the arrival of the Winchester-Lee lever-action rifle.
“That is really the first revolutionary weapon the Marine Corps uses,” said Bernstein. The gun featured a rifled barrel, an internal magazine and shot a 6mm round. “This really revolutionized Marine Corps capability as far as precision marksmanship, because you could now fire a small bullet at extremely high speed to a much longer range and accurately,” he said.
The list also includes the bolt-action Springfield rifle commonly used in World War I and for decades after, the M1 Garand — the Corps’ first self-reciprocating rifle — from World War II, and the Vietnam-era M16. The Corps’ latest M16-variant, the M27, was fielded to infantry units beginning in 2010 as a replacement for the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, and was adopted as an M4 replacement in 2018. Non-infantry Marines still carry the M4 or M16A4.
The message being sent by the Marine Corps is hard to miss: If every Marine is a rifleman, then there’s a rifle for every Marine.
UPDATE, 7/7/2025: This article was updated with comments from Jonathan Bernstein, the Arms & Armor Curator at the National Museum of the Marine Corps.
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In the 2020s, uncrewed aerial systems, better known as drones, have become a standard part of modern military tactics. But eight decades ago, the U.S. military embarked on a short-lived project to create early, remote-controlled suicide drones.
The year was 1944 and the Allies were pushing into Axis-held territories in Europe. Large bombing missions were starting to gain momentum, devastating much of the Nazi industrial capacity, even as bombers suffered heavy losses to enemy flak and the German Luftwaffe. But some targets remained hard to hit, so the Army Air Forces devised a new plan: turn B-17 Flying Fortress bombers into the bombs themselves, guided by a “mother ship.”
Developments in rocketry and radio systems were already hitting new breakthroughs. The Germans were launching early cruise missiles in the form of the V-1. The American military was looking for its own powerful weapon. So on June 26, 1944, Major General Jimmy Doolittle, head of the 8th Air Force, formally approved Operation Aphrodite, directing the 3rd Bombardment Division to take the lead on developing a weapon.
A since-declassified film made by the 8th Air Force, “Flying Destruction by Remote Control,” laid out the plan. Existing heavy bombers would have much of their interior removed, along with weapons and other features normally needed for combat operations, freeing up several hundred pounds of weight. The converted B-17s would have enough explosives on board that a direct collision with a target could damage fortifications far more than any normal bombing mission. Once launched, each bomber would switch over to a remote control system and be directed by a crewed plane towards the target. Essentially the plan was to create a cross between what would now be considered a one-way attack drone and a bunker buster. These were battle-tested but worn out aircraft that could be put to use for one last job. Or as the video puts it, “…destined to be fitted out with special equipment, loaded to the gills with 20,000 pounds of high explosives, and sent on one last trip with a one-way ticket.”
The U.S. military’s plan benefited in part from its material needs. The Army Air Force had plenty of B-17s. Even though American bombers suffered heavy losses in combat from enemy flak and fighter jets — a little over a third completed the benchmark 25 missions, per the Imperial War Museum — they were readily replaced. But although planes weren’t cheap, this was at a time when American military industrial manufacturing was churning out aircraft and ships at a rate previously unseen. The United States made more than 12,000 B-17s during the war. The Army Air Forces could spare some.
Two programs were set up in the summer of 1944. The Army Air Forces carried out Operation Aphrodite, the U.S. Navy ran Operation Anvil, which also saw the Navy’s Consolidated PB4Y-1 Liberator bombers get similar conversions into drones. Combat missions started in August, with early flights intending to hit Nazi V-1 and V-3 bunkers, including the underground fortress of Mimoyecques.
Aphrodite and Anvil drones quickly saw problems. This was still the 1940s and remote controlling bombers in general, let alone in combat zones, wasn’t exactly a developed science. A small crew would get the bomber into the sky, activate the drone controls and then bail out before the aircraft reached the enemy target. In practice however the technology struggled, sometimes sending B-17s suddenly diving or stalling out. The initial remote control system was rife with issues, forcing the military to switch to a more simplified option, dubbed “Castor,” which began use in September 1944.
Unfortunately the plan encountered the same problem regular bomber flights did: enemy resistance. When the remote control technology didn’t fail, many of the planes were shot down and crashed before they could hit the target. The program had its share of failings even outside of combat, the most notable being on Aug. 12, 1944. While flying over the United Kingdom, an Anvil bomber, shortly after switching to drone control, suddenly exploded. Lt. Wilford Willy and Lt. Joe Kennedy, Jr., brother of future president John F. Kennedy, were on the bomber and died instantly in the blast.
Although Aphrodite missions continued into January 1945, their poor track record led to a halt of further flights. In the end, the Army Air Forces found success with more conventional and destructive carpet bombing missions. By the time the Allies were pushing into Germany in the spring, the project was effectively ended. A formal end came on April 27. But, the project set the foundation for some of the U.S. military’s current experiments in drone warfare and remote-controlled aerial wingmen.
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The American military’s efforts to speed up defensive tools and tactics against uncrewed aerial systems. Different branches of the armed forces have been working to integrate electromagnetic and kinetic countermeasures into their units and arsenals, with varying stages of progress. Now the Pentagon is setting up a joint interagency task force to try and coordinate the different programs.
The new interagency group is being created in part because the military “cannot move fast enough in this space,” according to Gen. James Mingus, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army. Mingus revealed the new task force while speaking at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The exact details on the task force and its makeup weren’t specified but Mingus compared the risks that UAS pose to the dangers of improvised explosive devices during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“We need an organization that is joint, interagency, has authorities, a colorless pot of money and the authorities to go after, from requirements all the way through acquisition in a rapid way to be able to keep pace with that. We are in the process of standing that organization up and get it going,” he said.
Per Mingus, the Army will lead the new task force, but “this will be a joint organization to be able to deal with joint solutions in the future.”
The growing importance of drones in modern military tactics has been discussed by the U.S. armed forces since the outbreak of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but has taken on greater urgency over the last 18 months due to fighting in the Middle East. U.S. forces have intercepted or been targeted by waves of combined drone and missile attacks in ground bases in Iraq, Syria and Jordan, among other nations, and in the waters around Yemen. The attacks have resulted in dozens of injuries and three deaths, and current air defense options have been costly, from the use of Patriot missile batteries or Navy ships heavily using expensive Standard Missiles to take out relatively cheap UAS.
The military has been after a new strategy for countering aerial drones for more than a year. Last spring William LaPlante, then the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment at the Department of Defense, outlined the need for a reliable and affordable counter-UAS program that could be made at scale, noting that the current options are “getting too expensive.”
Earlier this year a memo outlining a planned transformation in the Army highlighted integrating drones into the service and expanding on ways to counter them. It specified a need for cheaper options, which can be integrated in small maneuver units as early as next year. The Army for its part already asked for more than $800 million for counter-drone initiatives from Congress in its 2026 budget request. Other services are working on their own ways of dealing with the ground threat. The Navy is pursuing several cheaper ways to intercept aerial drones while the Marine Corps is deploying units out with prototype countermeasures meant to work with small-unit tactics.
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U.S. Army soldiers who deployed to 14 countries in the U.S. Central Command and Africa Command areas of responsibility between October 2023 and June 2025 can now wear combat patches. The new policy, announced this week, expands the Army’s window of combat deployment and who is eligible to wear the patches.
The new policy lets soldiers “assigned or attached to units supporting operations within the CENTCOM and AFRICOM countries listed” wear the Shoulder Sleeve Insignia for Military Operations in Hostile Conditions, or SSI-MOHC, better known as combat patches. The memo, from Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, was widely shared on social media, including the popular Army subreddit.
The memo, or “Authorization to wear Shoulder Sleeve Insignia Military Operations in Hostile Conditions for Select CENTCOM and AFRICOM Countries,” covers soldiers deployed to: Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
The authorization covers troops deployed to those countries between Oct. 7, 2023 and June 24, 2025 — the timeline covers the Hamas attack on Israel that started the ongoing war in Gaza all the way to the U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear sites last month and the retaliatory attack on al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. That includes the two different phases of combat against the Houthis in Yemen over the last two years, the dozens of attacks on U.S. troops and bases by pro-Iran militias — including the deadly attack on Tower 22 in Jordan in January 2024 — and several air defense operations conducted against Iranian missiles and drones fired towards Israel.
Per the directive, it applies to the regular Army, the Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers who meet the criteria. There is no baseline time-in-theater requirement, the Army noted. The patches, worn on soldiers’ right arms underneath the American flag patch, show that a soldier has been on a combat deployment.
George also approved an exception to policy, waiving the requirement that soldiers deployed to the specified countries must also receive hostile fire, imminent danger pay and combat zone tax exclusion in order to wear a combat patch on their uniform.
“These changes acknowledge the inherent risks and challenges faced by Soldiers in these locations and timeframes,” the Army said in its release on the new authorization. “Awarding the combat patch reflects the Army’s commitment to recognizing the contributions and sacrifices of all Soldiers serving in these operational environments.”
Some of the countries specified were not directly attacked by hostile forces during the specified period. Notably, Somalia is not included, despite ongoing airstrikes and operations in that country and the death of two Navy SEALs off of the Somali coast in January 2024.
The new combat patch policy is the latest in several ways the U.S. military is honoring troops who have taken part in or in support of combat missions during that timeframe. Naval crews have been awarded the Unit Combat Action Ribbon for fighting the Houthis and troops deployed for that mission are authorized to receive the Global War on Terrorism Service and Expeditionary Medals. Troops in Iraq and Syria can receive the Inherent Resolve Campaign medal instead of that.
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A Navy reservist pleaded guilty this week to charges that he bribed a public official to make identification cards for unauthorized personnel.
Raymond Zumba, 27, entered his guilty plea on Wednesday, July 2, the Department of Justice said. The move comes five months after he was arrested by authorities while attempting to pay $3,500 for a pair of “real but unauthorized” military identification cards at Naval Air Station Jacksonville for two people with ties to China.
According to the criminal complaint filed against him, the Navy reservist attempted to use a contact he had previously served with while on active duty to help him obtain military-issued identification cards for two people, which would let them access bases.
Zumba previously served aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer the USS Carney while on active duty and took part in one deployment. Photos shared on the military’s Defense Visual Information Distribution Service show him onboard the USS Carney while at sea between 2018-2020.
The scheme, court documents said, saw Zumba reaching out to his former shipmate from the USS Carney in November 2024. The two met up at a bar in Jacksonville, Florida, where he explained he had married a Chinese national. He asked his friend if they would be okay with housing other Chinese nationals, in exchange for money. Zumba traveled to Hong Kong, returning in December and in January 2025 he approached his former shipmate about reaching out to their spouse to obtain a pair of Common Access Cards (or “CAC cards”) under the table. The shipmate’s spouse worked at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, in the office that made and issued CAC cards. The shipmate alerted naval authorities soon after. Zumba allegedly offered $1,500 for each card, while the other person was recording the conversation to give to federal agents. In a later call, Zumba said that the cards would be for his wife’s parents, Chinese nationals. During the conversations, Zumba allegedly reiterated that “the money was there.”
Naval Criminal Investigative Service and Homeland Security Investigations oversaw the investigation into Zumba.
After several back and forth conversations, the request changed to getting a pair of military uniformed service ID cards. Zumba and two others traveled from New York City to Naval Air Station Jacksonville. On February 13, they arranged to meet on base to scan fingerprints and take photos for the cards. Court documents show that the order was now for one “active” dependent ID card and one that was not, for a combined price of $3,500. The buyers were described by NCIS and HSI as a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China and a Chinese national illegally in the country.
Zumba met with his former shipmate the next day for lunch and to hand over the money. He was immediately arrested by authorities.
“Raymond Zumba must be held accountable for knowingly acting to compromise the safety of our warfighters and the security of critical military infrastructures for personal gain,” NCIS Special Agent in Charge Norman Dominesey of the NCIS Southeast Field Office said in a statement.
The sailor faces a maximum of 15 years in prison under the charges. A sentencing date has not been set, the Justice Department said.
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The Marine Corps is sending almost 200 Marines to Florida to aid Customs and Immigration Enforcement in the state. The deployment is the latest use of active-duty troops in support of the Department of Homeland Security’s actions inside the United States. U.S. Northern Command called it the “first wave,” with similar deployments to help ICE planned in other southern states.
The Marines, all from Marine Wing Support Squadron 272, will “augment” ICE by providing “critical administrative and logistical capabilities at locations as directed by ICE,” NORTHCOM said in its announcement on Thursday, July 3. The squadron is based out of Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina and is a ground-based aviation support unit. NORTHCOM did not specify where in Florida the Marines will be operating.
The Department of Homeland Security actually requested military support two months ago on May 9. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved the request last month, allowing for up to 700 troops to be mobilized to assist DHS immigration actions. The secretary cited Title 10 of the U.S. Code, the same authority used to federalize thousands of California National Guard troops last month for missions around the Los Angeles area.
Federal troops are barred from any law enforcement action in the country, under the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. NORTHCOM stressed in its announcement that the Marines will not take part in law enforcement activity.
“Their roles will focus on administrative and logistical tasks, and they are specifically prohibited from direct contact with individuals in ICE custody or involvement in any aspect of the custody chain,” the statement said.
This deployment is not part of Task Force 51, the ongoing NORTHCOM operation initiated in response to protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles. Last month the Department of Defense deployed 700 Marines from 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division to Los Angeles as part of the military mission there to protect federal property and agents. Those Marines have standing guard at a handful of federal buildings in the area. On June 13, shortly after arriving, they briefly detained an Army veteran on his way to a nearby Veterans Affairs building, before he was released. On July 1, those Marines were rotated out and 400 Marines from 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment replaced them.
The military noted that the deployment to Florida is the first of several planned deployments in the southeast. Additional missions to help ICE are planned for Louisiana and Texas.
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The military is full of young men who are drawn to risky behaviors, a demographic that experts say has the greatest probability for developing gambling addictions.
“The biopsychosocial factors of that military population — it’s likely a younger male audience, high-risk takers, adrenaline seekers — those types of personalities that are drawn to the military are also very likely drawn to gambling for the same reasons,” said Cait Huble, director of communications for the National Council on Problem Gambling.
Experts who study addiction say gambling is a blind spot in the military’s approach to mental health. Each branch treats problem gambling differently, ranging from a mental health issue to a “crime against society” like prostitution. Official data on gambling in the ranks comes through voluntary surveys, responses to which are often not truthful.
But advocates hope new funding from Congress might soon begin to change that.
“Gambling addiction holistically, across the spectrum, even outside the DoD population, is horrendously underresearched. We have very limited data,” Huble told Task & Purpose. “We don’t have good prevalence information on the general population and then within military populations, especially, there is not really standardized screening from branch to branch.”
As defense officials finalize the 2026 budget, the National Council on Problem Gambling — which advocates for addiction treatment but still supports legalized betting — is asking Congress to help study gambling in the military to improve prevention and treatment options. Major gambling companies like FanDuel Group and BetMGM are also pushing Congress to study the issue in the military.
In June, the council sent a letter to Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.), who lead the defense subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, asking that problem gambling issues in the military be included as an eligible topic for Peer-Reviewed Medical Research Program in the fiscal year 2026 defense appropriations bill. The letter was signed by BetMGM, FanDuel Group, MGM Resorts International, and problem gambling councils from 29 states.
As gambling has grown, research has notThe last study to look at the issue of gambling across the U.S. population at large was done in 1999 by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, which noted that legalized gambling was a “relatively rare phenomenon” until racetracks, lotteries, and casinos became legal across 48 states.
Today’s gambling landscape is vastly larger. Americans in 30 states can gamble money away at their fingertips on sports betting smartphone apps or websites, according to a tracker maintained by the Legal Sports Report.
A Jumpmaster assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division conducts door checks on a C-17 Globemaster III during an airborne operation over Sicily Drop Zone, North Carolina. Army photo by Pfc. Prim Hibbard.Studies have shown that high-risk factors for developing gambling addictions mirror the vast majority of the military population: young men between 18 and 29, inclination to take risks, and lives that include stress, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. A 2021 Rutgers University Study found that service members were twice as likely to develop a gambling disorder. A 2020 review of existing studies found that veterans have higher rates of gambling disorder compared with civilian populations.
The fact that Fanduel and BetMGM are calling for more research into gambling disorders may raise some eyebrows, but industry players have efforts dedicated to “responsible gaming” — a similar concept to the casino industry’s “responsible gambling” practice which is based on the idea that there are safe and healthy ways to do it without going overboard. In 2023, DraftKings announced funding for the 50x4Vets program from the Kindbridge Research Institute — the only organization dedicated to studying gambling disorders in the military population.
Issues with existing data“We don’t have anything that even offers something remotely that looks like a smoking gun, that this is a huge issue,” said Mark Lucia, a program manager at Kindbridge. “So what can you do? You can look at the things that you know are issues and look at what they point to, and to me, they kind of consistently point to the same sorts of things.”
Lucia, a former 10th Special Forces Group soldier, said that in addition to demographic and lifestyle factors, he believes the cultural inclinations and behaviors of young men in the military also show the potential for higher rates of gambling addiction.
“You are a risk taker. You’re competitive. It lines up perfectly. Now you’ve created apps that are addictive,” Lucia said. “I knew a guy who told me he would play somewhere in the ballpark of 30 hours of World of Warcraft on weekends. … Is it that hard to believe that you swap out his computer and keyboard with a phone and a sports book that it’s going to be any different at all?”
The Department of Defense’s 2018 survey of troop health behaviors found the prevalence of problem gambling across the active duty population was approximately 1.6%, mostly among enlisted men. The 2002 survey found an even smaller 1.2% prevalence rates.
As directed by Congress, the DoD added a question to screen for gambling disorder in its annual health assessment screening. After collecting data for a year, the department found a gambling disorder affected nearly 6 in every 10,000 troops.
Nathan Smith, director of research at Kindbridge said the finding of 0.06% prevalence was “an incomprehensibly silly number” and that, compared to general population rates, they just don’t make sense. According to the NCPG, among all U.S. adults — most of whom are not young men, as in the military — 2.5 million, or 1%, are estimated to meet the criteria for a severe gambling problem each year and another 5 to 8 million, 2-3%, have mild or moderate gambling problems.
“We believe gambling disorder to be ~3-4x higher in the military than the civilian population,” Lucia wrote in email. “The DoD numbers from annual screeners to be about 1/100th of the prevalence rate we believe to be true.”
Online sports gambling companies regularly target military audiences with promotions. Photos from eBay, DraftKings.com“The reason why they get this number is because they asked people: Do you have a gambling problem? And if you say yes, then you’re going to lose your career,” Smith said, touching on a common enough theme in the military where some service members self-censor during mental health surveys due to fears over how their answers will impact their careers.
How the services handle gamblingThe Uniformed Code of Military Justice does not ban gambling, with the exception of gambling with a subordinate. Most disciplinary actions related to gambling arise when a service member has unpaid rent or car payments, said Dave Yeager, a former soldier who now counsels troops dealing with the issue at Kindbridge Behavioral Health.
“Nine times out of 10, what’s happening is they’re being brought in for financial counseling because they haven’t paid a bill or you know something’s come up financially,” Yeager said. “Most financial institutions know if you’re dealing with active duty that if they report it back to the command, you’re gonna get counsel and you’re gonna end up paying that bill so that’s how a lot of that gets reported back.”
A January 2017 Government Accountability Office report recommended that the branches “explicitly include gambling disorder” in substance abuse policies because without it, the services could not provide appropriate treatment, mitigation or prevention measures.
“Because there’s no good treatments, then nobody will talk about it. Because nobody will talk about it, then when we study it, nobody says they have it and when nobody says they have it, then they won’t do a treatment,” Smith said. “It’s this trail of denial.”
The Department of Defense has since included screening questions on gambling problems in Periodic Health Assessments, but concerns around limited privacy over mental health disclosures and the impact on military careers likely mean that troops’ answers are not fully reflective of the problem.
The Army’s substance abuse program regulation lists gambling disorder under “crimes against society” along with prostitution, weapons violations and vagrancy as data that commanders are required to report each month. The Navy and Marine Corps’ substance abuse policies include five sentences on gambling disorder and the Air Force has stated that it will not treat gambling disorder the same as substance abuse.
Yeager spent 11 years in the Army before he was given a general discharge under honorable conditions for issues related to his gambling addiction. He was based in South Korea right after 9/11. Stressed and unable to fall asleep, Yeager discovered slot machines at the hotel on base. Over the next year, he said the problem escalated, giving excuses to his wife to send him more money, selling all of his belongings, borrowing money from subordinates and stealing equipment and money from his unit.
Yeager said his gambling addiction led to four suicide attempts, a fairly common story among veterans. An analysis of veterans who went through the gambling treatment program at the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Ohio found that 40% had attempted suicide.
“It was right for them to let me out of the military. I did damage. I was a non-commissioned officer who didn’t live up to what I was wearing on my collar,” Yeager said. “I just wish there had been more conversation around, ‘hey, this is a disease, and even though we can’t help you right here, right now, go get help.’”
UPDATE: 7/7/2025; This article has been updated to specify the DoD estimate of gambling in the military that Nathan Smith was commenting on and adds comment from Mark Lucia on that data.**
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Navy officials have identified the sailor killed in a parachute accident on Tuesday as Special Warfare Boat Operator 2nd class Noah Tobin.
Assigned to Special Boat Team 20, Tobin was killed while taking part in a parachute training event in Porterville, California, a Naval Special Warfare spokesperson said.
Tobin was attending the Naval Parachute Course that is run by the Naval Special Warfare Advanced Training Command at the time of his death, the spokesperson said. The command has temporarily paused parachute training to conduct a safety standdown.
The cause of the accident is unknown and investigators are looking into the incident.
Special warfare boat operators are the full-time crew of the specialized watercraft the Navy uses for it special operations teams, including clandestine maritime insertions and extractions. Along with driving and maintaining the boats, main regularly train in tactical skills including parachuting.
Tobin enlisted in the Navy in October 2021 and attended Navy Basic Special Warfare Training at Coronado, California from December 2021 to November 2023, according to his official record.
“We mourn the loss of our sailor, and our thoughts are with his family, friends, and colleagues during this difficult time,” the spokesperson said. “Naval Special Warfare is providing grief counseling and assistance to the sailor’s family and teammates.”
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The Pentagon’s ongoing review into the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan could prompt the Defense Department to “reform the way that we evaluate and promote young noncommissioned officers and young officers,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell told reporters recently.
“If you think back to my time in Afghanistan as a young commander, giving battle update briefs as a captain to my battalion commander, if I were constantly saying that my area of operations was a disaster, it didn’t have the ammo or troops that I needed to accomplish the mission, the likelihood of me getting promoted was probably not great,” Parnell said Wednesday Pentagon news conference. “So, how do we set the conditions in the [Defense] Department to create a sense of honesty where our officers are reporting what they believe to be accuracy — they’re concerned about maybe their area of operations; they’re concerned about the truth and, maybe, less about their careers.”
Parnell added that his comments were not meant as an indictment of officers who served in Afghanistan. “It’s just the way that our system is constructed,” he said.
In January 2020, John Sopko, then serving as special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, told lawmakers that the U.S. government had “created an incentive to almost require people to lie” about progress in Afghanistan.
“I’m not going to name names, but I think everybody has that incentive to give happy talk — to show success,” Sopko told Task & Purpose at the time. “Maybe it’s human nature to do that. I mean most of the lying is lying to ourselves. We want to show success.”
More than a year later, the Taliban captured Kabul on Aug. 15, 2021, marking the start of a chaotic evacuation of American citizens and Afghans who had worked for the U.S. government. Over two weeks, U.S. troops rescued more than 124,000 people.
Thirteen service members and about 170 Afghans were killed in an Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bomb attack at Abbey Gate outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
On Wednesday, Parnell said the Defense Department review, which was announced on May 20. will look into key questions about the withdrawal, such as why U.S. forces withdrew from Bagram Airfield in July 2021. As a result, the evacuation the following month had to be conducted from the airport in Kabul, leaving the troops guarding Abbey Gate exposed, an investigation later found.
Parnell also said that he believes the U.S. defeat in Vietnam during which Americans and Vietnamese were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy in Saigon, left an imprint on a generation of officers who later became generals. He noted that these leaders were in charge during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, in which the U.S. military had a clearly stated mission and American service members withdrew when the operation’s goals had been accomplished.
When those general officers retired, a lot of their institutional knowledge based on lessons from the pain of the Vietnam War was likely lost, Parnell said.
“Flash forward 10 years: 9/11 happens; 20 years of war in Iraq Afghanistan; and we find ourselves at the end of Afghan War in a remarkably similar situation that we were in in Vietnam,” Parnell said. “So, the question that I have here, and that the department has, is what happened? How do we as a department make sure that something like in Vietnam and something there again that happened in Afghanistan never happens again?”
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Top U.S. government officials have consistently said that last month’s air and missile strikes “obliterated” three facilities involved with Iran’s nuclear program, but on Wednesday, a Pentagon official offered a more specific assessment of the damage caused by the operation.
Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell told reporters that intelligence reports indicate that the three sites struck as part of Operation Midnight Hammer appeared to “have degraded their program by one to two years – at least intel assessment inside the department assess that, and I think their intelligence shares that conclusion.”
When asked if the Pentagon had determined that Iran’s nuclear program had been delayed by one to two years, Parnell replied: “I think we’re thinking probably closer to two years, like degraded their program by two years.”
Parnell also echoed previous language used by President Donald Trump and other defense officials that described the strikes, which involved the combat debut of the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP, as having “completely obliterated” three key Iranian nuclear sites.
Parnell said that the strikes on Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan had weakened Iran’s “physical capability of constructing a bomb.”
“It’s not just enriched uranium or centrifuges or things like that,” Parnell said. “We destroyed the components that they would need to build a bomb. And so, when you take the constellation of different things into consideration, yeah, we believe that Iran’s nuclear capability has been severely degraded – perhaps even their ambition to build a bomb.”
On June 21, President Donald Trump posted on social media that Iran’s major nuclear enrichment facilities had been “completely and totally obliterated.”
Subsequently, CNN and other media outlets reported that a Defense Intelligence Agency assessment found that Operation Midnight Hammer may not have destroyed Iran’s nuclear program, which may have been set back by months.
But in a June 26 press conference with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth labeled that report as preliminary, and insisted again that “because of decisive military action, President Trump created the conditions to end the war decimating, choose your word, obliterating, destroying Iran’s nuclear capabilities.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed that language in a statement to CNN the same day, calling Midnight Hammer “a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program. Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.”
On Wednesday, Parnell added that intelligence assessments into the strikes remain ongoing.
“Based on the success of the U.S. and Israeli military strikes, Iran is much further away today from a nuclear weapon than they were before the president took bold action to fulfill his promise to the American people,” Parnell said. “And that promise was: Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.”
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On June 13, 2025, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a massive campaign targeting Iran’s nuclear program, air defenses, ballistic missile infrastructure, and senior military leaders and nuclear scientists. Within hours, Israel Defense Forces claimed that they had control of the skies from the western border of the country to Tehran. They didn’t accomplish this with airpower alone, but with covertly placed anti-tank missiles and small drones launched from inside Iran.
Months before any Israeli planes crossed into Iranian airspace, Mossad operatives were smuggling in explosives, drone parts, equipment to assemble the drones, and Spike Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) missiles and launchers. Iranian state media even reported that they discovered a three-story building that was functioning as a drone factory in Shahr-e Rey, a suburb-like area near Tehran.
In the opening of Rising Lion, Israeli operators, safely outside Iran, launched those small drones concealed in trucks, trailers, and other vehicles, as well as Spike NLOS missiles at key air defense radars and missile batteries along with ballistic missiles and launchers. The delivery method strongly resembles Ukraine’s Operation Spider Web, which destroyed at least a dozen of Russia’s strategic bombers deep inside the country. In similar fashion, Israel is suspected to have used Iran’s cellular network against itself to control the drones and missiles. This one-two punch severely degraded Iran’s major air defenses as well as their ability to launch a counter-attack via ballistic missiles.
Minutes after the Spikes and drones hit their targets, more than 200 Israeli aircraft, including F-35I “Adirs”, F-15-I “Ra’ams”, and F-16I “Soufas”, all specialized versions of existing U.S. airframes designed for export to Israel, struck more than a hundred targets in Iran. The F-15I and F-16I are fourth-generation non-stealth aircraft that are more vulnerable to Iranian air defenses than the F-35, but were dropping Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) on the first night. To target the underground missile storage bunkers, Israel also had to use bunker busters like the GBU-72, which are carried by their F-15 variants. Because JDAMs and bunker busters are dropped from above the targets, putting them in range of air defenses near them, this implies Israel had near-complete control of Iranian skies almost immediately.
An Israeli F-35I Adir assigned to 140 Squadron, Nevatim Air Base, takes off for a mission during Red Flag-Nellis 23-2 at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, March 22, 2023. Photo by William R. Lewis.The success of the operation was evident in Iran’s initial response, called True Promise III, which was comparatively small when looking at previous Iranian strikes on Israel. During True Promise I, in April of 2024, Iran launched over 200 drones, rockets, and missiles toward Israel, according to Israeli media. This time around, just 100 drones got airborne, and no ballistic missiles took flight.
Despite claims from the Iranian government, no manned aircraft have been confirmed to have been shot down. Given how heavily defended Iranian airspace is, especially near their nuclear research facilities at Fordow and Natanz, it speaks volumes as to how compromised Iran’s air defenses really were and how successful the Spikes and drones were.
This operation also reinforces, just like Spider Web did, how vulnerable major systems are to small drones and even anti-tank missiles. While Iran was looking to the sky with their advanced and costly air defense systems, they were taken out from the ground using cheap drones and guided missiles that first entered service in 1981. As we’ve written about previously, the United States lacks the defenses against this kind of attack, both at home and abroad, and that gap in protection is becoming harder to ignore.
Check out our most recent video on Task & Purpose YouTube as we dive into how Iran lost control of its airspace during Israel’s attack last month.
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A federal watchdog found that a national hotline for veterans suffering a mental health crisis was struggling to keep its responders trained to handle the most belligerent and abusive callers, and that the hotline’s responders sometimes juggled two active text message conversations at once.
The Government Accountability Office found that the shortfalls in both areas could lead to safety issues for both callers seeking help and the responders who answer the calls for the Veterans Crisis Line, or VCL, which is operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“The VCL has not adequately assessed the risk of these procedures, and as a result, the extent to which they could put veterans at risk and result in responder burnout is unknown,” GAO said in its report released this month.
The GAO found that responders for the VCL, which received close to 4 million calls between 2021 and 2024, sometimes juggle two text message conversations at once with veterans in distress, a practice that the GAO found led to more frequent “abandonments.” Meanwhile, so-called “complex” cases — in which callers are abusive to counselors, making threats or sexual remarks during a call — have been handed off to untrained responders who find the cases “difficult and psychologically damaging,” the watchdog found.
A million calls each yearThe Veteran Crisis Line was established in 2007 to provide 24-hour support to veterans in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. The crisis line began providing support via phone call and expanded to an online chat platform in 2009 and to text messages in 2012. The hotline is operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The veteran crisis line, VCL, had 3.8 million calls, texts and chats, between the 2021 and 2024 fiscal years. The majority of veterans called the crisis line, but the agency has seen “the most rapid rate of growth” over text message, according to the GAO.
As of March, there were 1,280 authorized crisis responder positions and VCL officials told GAO that its responders “had not been impacted” by recent cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs. However, the GAO said it’s “unclear how ongoing and planned efforts to reduce VA staffing levels” could impact the crisis line long-term.
A sign for the Military and Veterans Crisis Line at the entrance to the Nebraska National Guard Air Base in Lincoln, Nebraska, on Sept. 9, 2022. National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Lisa Crawford.In recent months, the veteran crisis line gained attention on Capitol Hill amid the chaos of mass federal layoffs.
After growing calls from Democratic senators on greater transparency from the VA on crisis line staff cuts, Secretary Doug Collins wrote in an April letter to members of Congress that 24 crisis line employees had received probationary termination notices, but that they were reinstated and rehired into the same position. Collins then told Senators in May that the same number of staff who were let go were brought back to work.
Two chats at onceThe GAO highlighted issues with responders handling two or more veterans over chat or text at once. Between fiscal years 2021 and 2024, crisis responders answered 98% of the more than 243,500 texts and the 391,000 chats. Concurrent interactions made up 8% of texts and 12% of chats over that time period.
The GAO found that concurrent communications were “more likely to be abandoned” and that it took VCL responders longer to send initial responses if they were engaged in more than one chat. Responders, the report found, had an average response time for single texts of less than 30 seconds, but for concurrent texts, the response time was close to one minute.
“On limited occasions, VCL responders may briefly manage a maximum of two chats or texts,” Peter Kasperowicz, a spokesperson for the VA told Task & Purpose in an email.
A former crisis line worker with more than a decade of experience told Task & Purpose the double chat or double texting issue is a major safety concern.
“If the general public were aware that when they chat or text with us, that the person that they’re chatting and the responder could be doing another chat or text at the same time, I don’t think they would be pleased by that,” he said. “I don’t think it would hold up to public scrutiny.”
The former VCL worker who answered phones for the crisis line said he was trained to work in “digital services” — answering texts or online chats — but that it was voluntary at the time. It became a mandatory training requirement in May 2024, according to the GAO report.
“At the end of [training], they said, ‘OK, you’re ready to work in digital services,’ and at that point I said, ‘no, thank you,’” he said. “I knew at the time that it was stressful and unsafe, in my opinion, to be trying to do two chats or two texts at the same time, trying to talk to two people who were potentially suicidal, trying to assess them.”
The GAO report cited a standard operating procedure for digital service employees from August 2023 that allows double texts or chats, which is “in line with the procedures in place at other crisis lines.” The former VCL worker said that employees raised concerns over the practice before it became an official policy.
“There’s a difference between an industry standard and a best practice,” the worker said. “It’s certainly not a best practice to be trying to assess two people at the same time for suicide or whatever their crisis is.”
Responders who spoke to or were surveyed by the GAO indicated that dealing with two texts or chats could be a distraction and add to worker burnout. The former VCL worker told Task & Purpose that it would be easy to mix up details from the conversations, like calling someone by the wrong name or misremembering if they had been asked about access to a weapon.
“People are human beings and get information mixed up,” he said.
Though uncommon, responders sometimes handled three or more conversations at once. The GAO said its analysis of VA data found roughly 2,000 cases of responders handling more than two chats or text message threads at once, a violation of VCL procedures.
VA officials told the GAO that responders handling more than two chats “poses risks to customers and should not occur,” and that a new chat platform introduced in August 2024 limits responders to two chats at once. There are not equivalent restrictions for the VCL’s texting platform.
The VA told the GAO it would assess changes to its procedures for responders who do chat and text support by October 2025.
Kasperowicz noted that concurrency rates are now less than 10% on average. According to the GAO, concurrent chat rates dropped from around 20% to 10% and concurrent texts from roughly 24% to 2.5% between August 2021 to August 2024.
Complex callersThe VCL has a unit for “customers with complex needs,” which includes callers who make abusive, threatening or sexually explicit comments. Over the four-year fiscal year span, around 180,000 calls were directed to responders specializing in such complex calls. Responders who handle complex calls receive a 32-hour specialized training course on how to manage and de-escalate complicated situations.
The GAO found that VCL changed its procedure in March 2024 for complex-caller responders to redirect them to the main phone line when there are no trained responders available. The GAO found that since the new policy was implemented, mainline responders answered 6,000 of these calls.
The GAO said this change could “pose risks” to veterans because workers “may not be well-equipped to handle such interactions.” As of March, 84% of main phone line responders had not received complex caller training.
In a survey of responders who worked on the VCL main line, responders said that complex calls were rerouted to them when staff levels were low. One worker said in the survey that complex callers were “the most difficult and psychologically damaging to responder mental health.”
“During peak call hours, there is little to no opportunities for self-care or appropriate decompression,” another main line worker said in the survey. “These frequent interactions can be draining and take a toll on mental fortitude when communicating with following callers.”
If you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, the Lifeline network is available 24/7 across the United States. Reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling or texting 988 and you’ll be connected to trained counselors.
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Suicide rates across the active duty military have increased gradually, but steadily since 2011, according to the Pentagon’s annual review of suicides across the military which was released Thursday.
The Pentagon has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on suicide prevention programs in recent years and has requested over a half billion dollars for 2025. But the number of deaths each year have moved stubbornly upward since 2011.
The Department of Defense’s annual suicide report for 2023 also included, for the first time, a long-term look at suicide among military family members, both spouses and dependents who are typically children. Since 2011, there have been “significant increases” in suicide rates among military spouses and dependents combined, though those increases roughly match similar to trends across civilian populations in the U.S., according to the report. Among dependents, males under 18 committed suicide more often than girls or men over 18, according to the report.
The two most common “stressors” associated with service member suicides continue to be those with relationship problems and a behavioral health diagnoses, according to the report.
In 2023, 523 service members died by suicide across all branches of the military including the National Guard and Reserve, 30 more than the previous year. That jump was on par with a long-term trend of annual increases of suicide deaths among active duty troops dating back to 2011. According to the report, the largest increase since 2011 was among service members in the Marine Corps, followed by the Army, Air Force, and then Navy.
The report also noted that 61% of service members who committed suicide were enlisted males younger than 30 years old, a trend that has persisted.
According to the report, since 2011, suicide rates since remained “relatively stable” among reservists and the National Guard.
Half-billion dollars in prevention programsTim Hoyt, deputy director for the Pentagon’s Office of Force Resiliency called the Defense Department’s future investments in suicide prevention programs and policies “unprecedented.” As part of the 2025 budget request, the Pentagon asked for $547 million for suicide prevention efforts. Department of Defense officials told Task & Purpose that $261.5 million and 313 positions have been allocated to implement recommendations from the independent committee. The fiscal year 2025 budget has yet to be approved by Congress which enacted a Continuing Resolution through Dec. 20 to avoid a government shutdown
In 2023, officials put forward 83 recommendations in the Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee’s February 2023 report. On Thursday, officials said the Pentagon has completed plans to implement 20 of the “enabling actions” while the rest are ongoing.
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“During the past two decades, there’s been insufficient investment in making sure that those [initiatives] have staying power,” Hoyt said. “In many cases, we may have had effective programs but weren’t measuring whether or not they were having a substantial impact on the overall number.”
The leading method of suicide for service members and their families was by firearm which is the same finding from the Pentagon’s 2022 report. To address the issue, the Defense Department is working to increase the use of safe storage devices by working with local retailers near bases for discounts and creating vouchers at military exchanges, Dr. Liz Clark, director of the Defense Suicide Prevention Office told reporters Thursday.
Another trend that has continued, according to the report, are number of service members who committed suicide that had intimate relationship problems. In 2023, 44% had relationship problems which were similar to trends going back to 2018. “Intimate relationship problems in the last year was the most common interpersonal stressor identified in both suicide and suicide-attempt forms,” according to the report for 2021.
Hoyt said the Pentagon’s methodology for identifying relationship problems as a risk factor is “multifaceted” including information from surveys and data collected “when doing a scrub of the risk factors in each suicide death individually.”
“Relationship problems has been one of the biggest factors across all of these and that’s why we’re investing in our line of effort with fostering a supportive environment to give families overall better predictability of their career, stabilization options when they’re going to be seeing their service member at home versus not,” he said.
Other common stressors that the report highlighted included roughly 42% with a behavioral health diagnosis, 29% with administrative or legal problems, 24% who had workplace difficulties, 12% with financial difficulties and 12% who suffered abuse from before 18 years old.
If you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, the Lifeline network is available 24/7 across the United States. Reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling or texting 988 and you’ll be connected to trained counselors.
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The Army’s cavalry scouts are hard to miss. Cav scouts, as they’re often called, are the only soldiers who wear a black cowboy hat, aptly named a cav hat. The hats have a 3-inch curved brim, yellow-braided cord around the exterior bucket of the hat, and a black leather chin strap. It’s unique to cavalry scouts and one of the ways their uniforms pay homage to a heritage that dates back to America’s first horse soldiers.
But for soldiers in this field, it’s not the hat that makes the cav scout, but the spurs. There are two kinds of spurs: Silver and gold. Silver spurs are awarded to cav scouts who pass a spur ride, while gold spurs are reserved for those who deploy to a combat zone.
Traditionally, cav scouts don’t get their silver spurs until they complete a spur ride, which is a grueling 24 to 48-hour evaluation of a new scout’s soldiering skills, similar to an Expert Infantryman Badge evaluation, but tailored to their mission as mechanized or heliborne reconaissance troops.
“You’re not full scout until you have them. That’s how I always looked at them,” said Matt Moorehead, who served as a cavalry scout for 20 years.
From upstate New York, Moorehead joined the Army in 1998, deploying to both Iraq and Afghanistan. From day one, he was focused on earning his spurs.
“So, when I first joined in 1998, spurs were a huge selling point,” Moorehead said. “It was a discriminator that separated you from the rest of the Army. Like, that actually drove me on. Plus, I grew up on a farm where I had horses, so I was all about that shit.”
Sgt. Andres Wynter (left) instructs spur candidates on their required tasks at his radio communication station during a spur ride at Joint Training Center – Jordan, Aug. 11, 2019. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Shaiyla B. Hakeem.
The spur rideThe tradition of earning one’s spurs, called the Order of the Spur, dates back to the Early 1800s, when President Andrew Jackson established a regiment of U.S. Dragoons, one of the earliest cavalry scout units in the Army.
According to the Army, the Order of the Spur dictates that soldiers must be in good standing within their unit and have no disciplinary actions to participate in a spur ride, though some standards may vary.
“Veteran cavalry troopers may find some standards differing slightly from previous units, but the spirit and traditions embodied in this memorandum remain the same,” reads a Memorandum for Record from the 1st Cavalry Division, issued in 2021.
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Moorehead’s first spur ride occurred in 1999 after arriving at 4th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, on Camp Gary Owen in South Korea. At that time, only sergeants and up were allowed to participate, he said. Moorehead’s first sergeant placed sign-up sheets on their hooches, but none of the unit’s noncommissioned officers chose to participate, so it was opened to junior soldiers, like Moorehead.
“Once you got told that you’re doing a spur ride, you’re no longer a soldier. You were a spur maggot,” Moorehead recalled. “So, you wore your uniform for the week, with PTs for the most part, and a black beanie to let everyone know we’re spur maggots.”
These days, the Army refers to “spur maggots” as “spur candidates.”
Staff Sgt. Donnie Bass, a cavalry platoon sergeant, offers guidance on how to properly low crawl to a spur candidate during a spur ride on Oct. 28, 2015. Army photo by Sgt. William Howard.
Thus began a week of training which ranged from ruck marches to PT and field exercises before culminating in a “spur board” where his knowledge was tested.
“They ask you, like, a million questions. But when I walked in there, I had one guy crouched underneath the desk saying he’s Batman and some other guy running around the room saying all sorts of stuff — it’s chaos,” Moorehead said. “It’s like a hazing, but I didn’t feel like I was getting hazed.”
His experience mirrored that of David Schlueter, another former Army cavalry scout who served 21 years in the Army and, like Moorehead, grew up in upstate New York and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Push-ups, sit-ups, bear crawls, low crawl, high crawl, and stuff like that,” said Schlueter. “It’s supposed to be all in good fun. Nothing was too serious, nothing that would physically harm anybody. It’s just supposed to be all in good fun.”
After the spur ride, like so many things in the military, there’s a ball. In this case, it’s a spur ball where they all have drinks and are awarded their silver spurs at the night’s end.
“I always liked the traditions of the cavalrymen and the spurs. Getting the spurs is always super cool, too, because you finish and, like, holy shit, I finished this,” Moorehead said.
As deployments picked up during the Global War on Terrorism era, spur rides became a way of testing a cav scout’s preparedness for combat, incorporating small unit tactics, live fire drills, weapons assembly and disassembly, ruck marches, first-aid trainingand other skills necessary for combat operations.
Soldiers assigned to 4th Cavalry, Multifunction Training Brigade, 1st Army Division East, earn their spurs during a spur ride, culminating June 2nd, 2022 at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Army photo by Sgt. Jacob Wachob.
Silver and gold spursCav scouts’ spurs come in two variations: Silver and gold, with the latter often referred to as “combat spurs.” Regardless of the color, the spur band is positioned around the heel of a cav scout’s boot and held in place by a black or tan strap that runs over the instep of the boot or footwear.
The most common design for spurs is the Prince of Wales spurs, which have a relatively simple appearance with a single metal point. (If a spur’s point is up, they are single; if they’re down, they are married.) While some cav scouts may don spurs more commonly seen in movies like “Tombstone,” which clink with every step, both Moorehead and Schlueter said it wasn’t the norm.
While the spur ride is how cav scouts earn their silver spurs, the gold spurs are earned after deploying to a combat zone while assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division. A soldier or cav scout does not have to see combat to earn them, nor do they have to participate in a spur ride.
Matt Moorehead’s silver (left) and gold (right) spurs. The gold spurs, commonly called combat spurs, were made from spent brass during one of Moorehead’s deployments. Photos courtesy of Matt Moorehead
“On my last deployment to Afghanistan, we were deployed way up north along the Uzbekistan border,” Schlueter said. “We didn’t see any combat, and when we got there, they gave out combat spurs.”
Schlueter has a few sets of spurs from his long career as a cav scout, but one stands out above them all — including his first set of silver spurs. Though he said his first deployment to Afghanistan was pretty tame, his second deployment was not, and his commanders had the foresight to make something special to commemorate the unit’s actions during that last trip overseas.
“They asked the units to save up any of the brass that was left over in the vehicles, whatever they could,” Schlueter said. “They had the brass that was saved up, melted it all down, and made it into spurs. So, that made it a little more meaningful to the guys in the units.”
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A sailor assigned to a nuclear submarine scaled the wall of a burning building to save an entrapped woman Tuesday, an act caught on video.
Nuclear Technician Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Nagy-Journey, a sailor assigned to the USS Albany in Norfolk, was driving home from work when he heard a woman screaming about a fire in the nearby apartment building in Norfolk, Virginia.
He joined a group standing next to the burning apartment building, just beneath where an elderly woman was leaning out of a second-story window, with smoke billowing out.
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Within seconds, Journey was boosted by two others up the wall, where he balanced on a row of bricks that created enough of a ledge to stand on and where he could reach the woman.
“We were gonna have her jump, but she was too scared. I got up there and pulled her out of the window,” Journey told WAVY News in an interview at the scene.
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A video posted to Facebook page Paige Vs Dip shows Journey pulling the woman out despite flames and thick smoke billowing from the nearby windows.
Journey is a nuclear technician on the Albany and credited Navy training for his quick actions.
“It’s kind of what I train to at work on a daily basis, so the number one priority was getting as many people out as quickly as possible,” Journey told the TV station.
The Albany is a Los Angeles-class attack sub-launched in 1987 and commissioned in 1990. The ship is based in Norfolk.
The two-alarm fire injured 2 and displaced 32 residents, WAVY reported. The call was first reported to emergency services at 2:10 p.m.
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Pete Hegseth, whom President-elect Donald Trump has nominated to serve as defense secretary, is a Fox News host who served in the National Guard and who has been a vocal critic of women in combat roles, diversity and inclusion efforts in the military, and other policies that he’s decried as “woke s—t.”
Currently a Fox News host, Hegseth was commissioned as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard in 2003, ultimately becoming a major. He deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay and his military awards include two Bronze Stars, two Army Commendation Medals, and the expert infantryman and combat infantryman badges.
Hegseth is the latest veteran of the Global War on Terrorism whom Trump has picked to be part of his team. If confirmed by the Senate, Hegseth will join Marine veteran J.D. Vance, who will be sworn in as vice president in January, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), a retired National Guard colonel and Green Beret whom Trump has picked to serve as his national security advisor.
Trump’s decision to tap Hegseth for the role has already sparked some criticism in light of the TV news host’s lack of executive experience, with CNN reporting that one of Hegseth’s “flabbergasted” colleagues wondered how he would be able to manage an organization as large as the Defense Department.
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Hegseth has authored several books, most recently “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.”
“The book reveals the leftwing betrayal of our Warriors, and how we must return our Military to meritocracy, lethality, accountability, and excellence,” Trump wrote on Tuesday when he announced Hegseth’s nomination. “Pete has also led two Veterans Advocacy organizations, leading the fight for our Warriors, and our great Veterans. Nobody fights harder for the Troops, and Pete will be a courageous and patriotic champion of our ‘Peace through Strength’ policy.”
During Trump’s first term, Hegseth was considered to become secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs before Trump ultimately selected Robert Wilike for the position.
Hegseth also played a key role in persuading Trump to intervene in the high-profile military cases of Army Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance and Navy SEAL Chief Eddie Gallagher.
During a Nov. 7 appearance on the Shawn Ryan Show podcast, Hegseth said he was proud to have worked behind the scenes on those cases, which demonstrates that Trump cares about troops that are sent into harm’s way and won’t second judge them for doing what is needed to win.
“He called and he’d be like, ‘They did some nasty — they did some tough things, these are rough guys,” Hegseth recalled. “He respects people that were willing to do it on behalf of the rest of us, and he’s not going to throw them under the bus.”
Hegseth’s interview on the Shawn Ryan Show covered a wide range of topics, including Hegseth’s belief that the military has lost sight of its mission since President Barack Obama’s administration.
He accused politicians of upending the military’s history of meritocracy to promote social experiments, such as allowing transgender people to serve and allowing women to serve in combat jobs.
“Obama spent a disproportionate amount of time focusing on the Pentagon,” Hegseth said. “They were skeptical of leadership and eventually brought in political appointees and generals who would do their bidding the way they wanted.”
As it so happens, critics of Trump are accusing him of planning to do something similar with the Pentagon in his second term. The Wall Street Journal first reported that Trump’s transition team is considering a draft executive order that would direct retired senior military leaders to review current three- and four-star general and flag officers to determine whether any should be dismissed.
Speaking on the Shawn Ryan Show, Hegseth said the best way to reestablish trust between service members and their leadership would be for the next administration to replace current senior leaders with “no-nonsense warfighters in those positions who aren’t going to cater to those socially correct garbage.”
“First of all, you’ve got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” Hegseth said. “Any general that was involved — general, admiral, whatever — that was involved in any of the DEI [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion], woke s—t has got to go. Either you’re in for warfighting and that’s it, that’s the only litmus test we care about. You got to get DEI and CRT [Critical Race Theory] out of military academies so you’re not training young officers to be baptized in this type of thinking. Whatever the combat standards were, say, I don’t know, in 1995, let’s just make those the standards. And as far as recruiting, to hire the guy that did ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and create some real ads that motivate people to want to serve.”
Hegseth also doubled down on his position that women should not serve in combat roles, arguing that the military’s post-World War II racial integration succeeded because men with different backgrounds can do the same jobs, but integrating men and women into combat jobs would require the military to lower its standards.
Hegseth argued that the military has lowered standards to assign women the same combat roles as men, and that has changed the capability of combat units, “Because everybody knows between bone density, lung capacity and muscle strength, men and women are just different.”
Hegseth said that women should not serve in jobs that require a “strength as a differentiator,” including SEALS, Rangers, Green Berets, Marine Raiders, and infantry, armor, and artillery career fields.
“I’m just straight up just saying: We should not have women in combat roles,” Hegseth said. “It hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.”
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The Army’s newest legal arm is using a “reach back” authority to prosecute old cases of serious crimes that may have escaped prosecution.
Since opening its doors in December, the Army’s Office of Special Trial Counsel has reopened more than 100 older cases, which has included recalling retired service members to active duty to face charges they may have once believed they’d escaped.
The new office launched in December 2023 to answer the long-standing complaint from justice advocates that the military justice system often left legal decision-making to unit commanders. The office shifted that authority for serious cases to allow independent prosecutors to determine if soldiers charged criminally under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice should go to court-martial. The offices handle cases involving criminal offenses like sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse and murder in the U.S. and at American military installations abroad, and will add cases of sexual harassment to its docket in January 2025.
Since December 2023, the office has reviewed nearly 3,300 criminal cases, including around 116 “reach back” cases that pre-date the office’s launch in late 2023. Of the total cases across the Army that the office has reviewed, 67 have been referred court martial, 32 have been prosecuted, resulting in 29 convictions, Col. Christopher Kennebeck, lead special trial counsel prosecutor said in mid-October.
By handling “reach back” cases, the office has recalled retirees back to service for court martials, took on a case that was settled previously in a civilian court, and even filed new charges over sexual assaults that occurred before its time.
In the spring, the office recalled retired Staff Sgt. William Rivers, 55, to duty for a court martial where he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing and raping his stepdaughter between 2013 and 2014 while on active duty in Hawaii and Florida. He was sentenced to more than six years in prison under a plea agreement.
Maj. Steven Poland, the lead Army prosecutor on the case said the Office of Special Trial Counsel took on the case, thinking it was unlikely civilian or previous military prosecutors would’ve brought charges against him.
Adding UCMJ charges to a civilian case in AlabamaIn another case, the office is pursuing charges under the UCMJ against a military member who escaped civilian jail after causing the death of a 5-year-old in Alabama.
“While somewhat rare, it is not unprecedented for the Army to court-martial a soldier because of the dual sovereignty nature of state and military (federal) prosecution,” Michelle McCaskill, a spokesperson for the office said in a statement.
Sgt. 1st Class Bryan Starr, 35, was driving one evening in late November 2020 with his girlfriend’s five-year-old son, Austin Birdseye, as a passenger. The boy began acting “unruly” in the vehicle, according to WRBL, a CBS affiliate in Columbus, Georgia. His mother was not in the car at the time.
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Starr pulled over at a church and told Birdseye to get out of the car, despite a falling rain. While in the parking lot, Starr told authorities, he “lost track of the boy in the rain” who wandered onto the busy highway and was struck by another vehicle. Birdseye died at a local hospital.
Charges brought by a civilian prosecutor in the case kept Starr out of jail when he pleaded guilty to reckless manslaughter in an Alabama court and was sentenced in September 2023 to 36 months probation, according to state court documents.
“The command initially took action to further address military consequences related to SFC Starr’s misconduct, in addition to the probation sentence given by the state of Alabama,” McCaskill said in a statement.
After Starr received civilian probation, Army officials decided to prefer court-martial charges against him for involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment and negligent homicide in military courts. The special trial counsel took over the case in January 2024.
Starr’s motions hearing was scheduled for last week but the military judge has not yet made a decision on how the case will proceed. Depending on how the judge rules, a new trial date may be set “in the near future,” McCaskill said.
Sexual assault case in KoreaThe new office also took on its first South Korea case with Pfc. Quentin D. Fontenot, 22, who convinced his friend and co-worker Pfc. Ethan K. Flintroy, 22, to sexually assault his then-girlfriend, an E-4, in the Camp Humphreys barracks in May 2022.
The victim, whose name was not disclosed, filed a restricted report – submitted confidentially without notifying law enforcement – months after the assault. After arriving at her new duty station at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, she un-restricted the report, leading the Army Criminal Investigation Division to begin its investigation.
At Fontenot’s trial, the “government’s sole evidence” was testimony by the victim “which showed he played a critical role in facilitating the crime and encouraging Flintroy to sexually assault the victim,” according to the office. On Oct. 8, Fontenot was convicted by a military judge of aiding and abetting a sexual assault and sentenced to 21 months in prison. Fontenot was dishonorably discharged and reduced in rank to private.
After Fontenot, the instigator of the crime, was found guilty, Flintroy admitted to the sexual assault during his trial and apologized to the woman. Flintroy pleaded guilty on Oct. 17 to sexual assault charges and was sentenced by a military judge to 26 months in prison. He was also dishonorably discharged and reduced to private.
“These two verdicts could not have been possible without the courage of the victim to step forward and report the crime to law enforcement,” said Cpt. Danny Lim, Army Office of Special Trial Counsel lead prosecutor for the seventh circuit. “We hope these results help give other victims the confidence to report similar crimes in the future.”
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Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen launched a fusillade of drones and missiles against two U.S. Navy destroyers as they transited the Bab el-Mendeb strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, said Air Force Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman.
“During the transit, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Stockdale and USS Spruance were attacked by at least eight one-way attack uncrewed aerial systems, five anti-ship ballistic missiles, and three anti-ship cruise missiles, which were successfully engaged and defeated,” Ryder said during a Pentagon news briefing on Monday. “The vessels were not damaged. No personnel were hurt.”
Ryder did not say how long the engagement lasted or how many attacks the Houthis launched. He also did not specify what type of munitions were used against the drones and missiles or how many interceptors were fired.
U.S. Central Command is expected to release more information about the engagement later on Tuesday, Ryder said.
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“CENTCOM forces retain the inherent right of self-defense,” Ryder said, “And, as I highlighted earlier, we’ll take appropriate steps to protect our personnel.”
Ryder also denied claims by the Houthis that they had targeted the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Red Sea. The Pentagon spokesman declined to say how close the Lincoln was to the Spruance and Stockdale during the engagement.
Since Hamas launched its Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel, the Houthis have launched missiles, drones, and unmanned boats against commercial shipping that have turned the shipping lanes of the Red Sea into a war zone.
For more than a year, U.S. warships have been shooting down missiles and drones off the coast of Yemen. In October 2023, the destroyer USS Carney spent nine hours shooting down four Houthi cruise missiles and another 15 drones.
Since January, U.S. and British forces have struck targets inside Yemen using a variety of aircraft including the B-2 Spirit.
On Saturday and Sunday, the U.S. Navy and Air Force launched several airstrikes on weapons storage areas within Houthi-controlled territory, Ryder said on Tuesday. The Navy’s F-35C Joint Strike Fighter was among the U.S. aircraft involved in the airstrikes.
“These facilities housed a variety of advanced, conventional weapons used by the Iran-backed Houthis to target U.S. and international military and civilian vessels navigating international waters in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden,” Ryder said.
Despite the U.S. military’s best efforts, the Houthis have retained a large arsenal, and Monday’s attacks show the Iranian-backed rebels have plenty of missiles and drones at their disposal.
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Harriet Tubman, a Black woman widely credited as the first female leader of a combat regiment during the Civil War, was posthumously commissioned as a brigadier general of the Maryland National Guard at a Veteran’s Day ceremony.
A Maryland native, Tubman is best known for leading hundreds of slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad but worked as a Union spy during the Civil War and led a raid in South Carolina that eventually freed 700.
The commissioning ceremony in Annapolis, Maryland involved generations of Tubman’s descendants including Ernestine “Tina” Martin Wyatt, Tubman’s great-great-great-grandniece. Wyatt received the official proclamation on Tubman’s behalf from Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, an Army veteran.
“Harriet Tubman lived the values and virtues that I was taught when I served in the United States Army, and many of the people here today learned too: Live mission first, people always, lead with honor, integrity, duty, and courage. Leave no one behind,” Moore said at the ceremony. “She fought for a kind of unity that can only be earned through danger, risk, and sacrifice. And it is a unity we still benefit from to this day.”
Tubman is widely celebrated for leading hundreds of slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad. But as the Civil War loomed, Tubman was recruited by the governor of Massachusetts in 1861 to become a spy for the Union Army, gathering intelligence from behind Confederate lines.
During her clandestine service, Tubman dressed as a field hand, led scouting and spying missions to identify Southern map mines, supply areas, and soldiers. She was given service documents enabling her to travel on all Union transportation without charge. She also received Union cash for secret missions like hiring and recruiting black spies to gather intelligence for broader Union operational planning, according to the Army.
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In June 1863, Tubman along with Union Col. James Montgomery led a raid at Combahee Ferry, South Carolina using intelligence she had gathered to avoid mines in the Combahee River. The operation led to the rescue of more than 700 slaves from Southern plantations.
She was inducted into the Military Intelligence Corps’ Hall of Fame in June 2021.
Tubman also worked as a nurse for the Union in Washington D.C. and Beaufort, South Carolina. She also traveled to Florida to treat and cure soldiers suffering from dysentery, an intestinal infection and one of the leading causes of death during the war, with natural herbs. In 1865, the Army’s 12th surgeon general Joseph Barnes appointed Tubman as nurse matron at Fort Monroe’s Colored Hospital in Hampton, Virginia.
After the war ended, Tubman’s military service went unnoticed by the larger U.S. government but was recognized among abolitionists like John Brown who nicknamed her “General” Tubman, according to the Army. She worked to get recognition for her service and filed a $1,800 claim in New York, citing her service during the war under the direction of War Department Secretary Edwin M. Stanton. Her claim was denied. During that time, Congress received letters of support and documents verifying her military work, leading to a bill that was signed into law in 1899 which authorized Tubman’s nurse pension of $20 per month.
“Harriet Tubman’s military service was defined by her bravery, wit, and dedication to doing what is right and it truly stands as an example for all veterans to emulate,” said Maryland Adjutant General Janeen Birckhead, the only Black woman in charge of a state military. “I am so proud that her legacy will officially be tied to the Maryland National Guard, as she was born here, lived here, and served here just like our soldiers and airmen.”
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The U.S. military’s latest airstrikes against Iranian-backed groups in Syria underscores how difficult it has become to get basic information about American forces deployed to the Middle East.
U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, announced on Monday that the airstrikes were “in response to several attacks on U.S. personnel in Syria over the last 24 hours.”
This was the first time that U.S. military officials had acknowledged that American service members in Syria had been attacked recently.
Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters on Monday that U.S. troops at Mission Support Site Green Village in northeast Syria had come under two separate attacks on Sunday by a drone and two rockets.
No U.S. troops were injured in the attacks, Ryder said during a Pentagon news briefing.
When asked why CENTCOM had not initially announced Sunday’s attacks against Green Village — and other recent events — Ryder cited operational security concerns.
“As for the timing of that release, just to be quite frank: As there were operations ongoing to respond to these attacks against U.S. forces at Green Village, the decision was made to ensure that those operations were complete before CENTCOM issued its press release, again, fully aware, as I highlighted to your colleague, of the media and public interest in these types of situations,” Ryder said. “And so, again, we’ll continue to work diligently to ensure we’re putting out as much information as possible as quickly as possible consistent with operations security and balancing the public’s right to know.”
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On Monday, a defense official told Task & Purpose that no U.S. service members had been wounded in the attacks and all American troops in the region have been accounted for, but the official declined to specify when and where the attacks in Syria had taken place.
The U.S. airstrikes struck nine targets in two locations that were “associated with Iranian groups,” CENTCOM said in a statement. No further information was immediately available about where the strikes were carried out or which Iranian groups were targeted.
Ryder had no information on Monday on how many Iranian-backed proxy forces may have been killed in the strikes.
Since Hamas launched its Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel, U.S. troops in the Middle East have been fighting a two-front war against both the Islamic State group and Iranian proxies, which U.S. defense officials have blamed for a Jan. 28 drone attack in Jordan that killed three soldiers.
Such attacks have “diverted resources and attention” from the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS and “hindered momentum,” a February report from the Lead Inspector General on Operation Inherent Resolve found.
The U.S. military’s initial silence about the most recent attacks against American service members in Syria is not an isolated phenomenon. Last month, the Pentagon only acknowledged that two U.S. service members had been wounded during a mission against the Islamic State group in Iraqonly after a reporter asked directly if there had been any American casualties.
CENTCOM is also releasing information on U.S. and partner force missions in Iraq and Syria less frequently than it has in the past. The command used to provide monthly updates. So far in 2024, CENTCOM has released three updates, first in April, then July, and then in November.
In July’s news release, CENTCOM announced that the number of ISIS attacks was soaring.
“From January to June 2024, ISIS has claimed 153 attacks in Iraq and Syria,” the news release said. “At this rate, ISIS is on pace to more than double the total number of attacks they claimed in 2023. The increase in attacks indicates ISIS is attempting to reconstitute following several years of decreased capability.”
In an exclusive interview with Task & Purpose in June, the commander of U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria at the time said that ISIS had been severely weakened, but the underlying conditions that allowed it to take root remain unresolved in Syria.
“There’s economic challenges in the Sunni areas, quite frankly,” said Army Lt. Gen. Joel “JB” Vowell, then a two-star general. “Those instability challenges are there: lack of education, lack of opportunity, lack of jobs. And extremism is still fomenting out in the deserts in the Middle Euphrates River Valley, in the Sunni tribes.”
Meanwhile, the future of the U.S. mission in Iraq remains unclear. Both countries reached a bilateral security agreement in September, but U.S. officials were unable to explain to reporters if any of the roughly 2,500 American service members currently deployed to Iraq will leave.
Even though it has largely become a shadow war, the fight against ISIS is not over. On Nov. 4, CENTCOM announced that U.S. and partner forces in Iraq and Syria had conducted 95 missions against ISIS in the past 60 days, which led to 163 suspected terrorists being killed and another 33 captured.
“Alongside our coalition and Iraqi partners, we will continue to aggressively pursue these terrorists and disrupt their capability to conduct operations against U.S. interests, as well as those of our allies and partners,” Army Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, head of CENTCOM, said in a statement.
Update: 11/12/2024; This article was updated after publication with additional information from Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman.
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Troops stationed at Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora, Colorado might notice an odd four-legged robot loping around the base. That’s CHAPPIE. The Space Force has a robot dog that hunts down dangerous material. And yes, it is apparently named after “Chappie,” the 2015 Neil Blomkamp-directed science-fiction movie where a police robot is stolen by members of the South African rap group Die Antwoord and becomes a criminal-slash-revolutionary.
Space Force’s CHAPPIE has been in use on the base since July, according to the dates on some photos released by the service. The robot, according to Space Force, is one of only two quadrupedal unmanned ground vehicles in the entire Department of Defense to be dedicated to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (or CBRN) detection. And it ended up at a Space Force base, named for a film where Hugh Jackman — sporting a mullet — tries to replace crime-fighting robots with a giant mecha.
The idea for CHAPPIE — the real-life robot, not the movie robot — dates back to years earlier in the Middle East. U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Dominic Garcia was then stationed at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, having previously deployed to Syria as part of the anti-ISIS fight. American troops were hunting down ISIS chemical weapons.
“I thought there had to be a safer and faster way. In 2022, while stationed at Minot, I applied for a Small Business Innovation Research Grant through [the Department of the Air Force’s technological grant program] AFWERX,” Garcia said in the Space Force release. “I received $1.24 million to develop a remote CBRN sensing capability using our current inventory of detectors. Within 20 months, we reached 90% of our goal, conducting tests at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and Dugway Proving Ground.”
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Using robots to help with CBRN detection and neutralization isn’t new; the military has been working on that in recent years. However, when it comes to this role, CHAPPIE’s design is. And it’s an increasingly familiar design: it’s a modified robot dog. CHAPPIE is heavily outfitted with sensors and detectors already in use by the military to identify and track nuclear or chemical traces. The four-legged machines have become a popular tool in militaries worldwide. Military and commercial ones have been used for everything from patrolling bases in the United States or marketed at arms conventions with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher mounted on them.
This CHAPPIE is operated by Garcia via a video game controller-like device, rather than being a fully autonomous police robot that Dev Patel tests an artificial intelligence program on. These types of controllers have become increasingly popular within the military, both for efficiency and familiarity from users.
According to the Space Force’s release, the military and Garcia are working on improving CHAPPIE’s efficiency. That means newer sensors, making it more mobile and — yes — possible artificial intelligence additions.
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At exactly 10 p.m. on the warm, last night of May, Maj. Gen. William Zana received his orders and began his final guard shift on the smooth marble stone plaza at the center of Arlington National Cemetery. In two hours it would be midnight, a new day and new month. A new guard would relieve him at his post, he would march off the plaza and suddenly, instantly, be a civilian.
But for the final two hours of his 37-year career, Zana wanted one last chance to stand a shift he had held as a young sergeant: keeping watch over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
“I was Pvt. Zana when I showed up to the Old Guard,” Zana told Task & Purpose.“You know, all of us who raise our right hand and serve, there’s things that define you. First combat tour, first loss of personnel. For me, volunteering for and serving at the Tomb was absolutely both defining and shaping.”
Maj. Gen. William Zana examines a ceremonial M14 rifle as he prepares to stand one final watch over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, May 31, 2024. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Jon Soucy
In the early 1990s, Zana served for two years as a Sentinel, as fully qualified Tomb Guards are known, leaving in March 1991 for the Virginia National Guard. He earned a commission and over the next three decades led units in combat as an infantry officer and, later, led joint task forces as a general, including as the commander of Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa in Djibouti. He retired as the National Guard Bureau’s director of strategic plans and policy and international affairs at the Pentagon.
In the 76-year history of the all-enlisted Tomb Guard corps, Zana is the only former guard to advance to the rank of a general officer.
But over his thee-plus decades of service, he returned to Arlington more than he thought he might, and more than he wanted. Over the years he buried his first wife, friends and fallen comrades in the cemetery.
“I’ve been on both ends,” Zana said. “I’ve been on the end with a casket in the back of a Humvee in a forward operating base in some remote location in Afghanistan, and I’ve been there with, you know, the caissons pulling up with the flag-draped coffin.”
Throughout his career, his time as a Tomb Guard was at the core of service.
“As I started approaching retirement, there was this idea of getting in one last shift at the Tomb,” Zana said. “It was important because I wanted to be able to pay my respects and say thanks to the Unknowns for their sacrifice and for their inspiration.”
‘Rows and rows’Zana grew up in a military family, his father serving in the Air Force and with relatives in each of the other armed forces. He lived in Belgium for seven years, absorbing the history of two world wars and even older conflicts fought on its soil.
“I played on the battlefields of Waterloo,” the site of the English Army’s final victory over Napolean, he said. “That really spoke to me as a kid.”
Returning to the U.S., he went to college but left after three years to join the Army.
“I realized, if I didn’t go do this, you know, I didn’t know if was it gonna happen.”
He signed up for the infantry and arrived at boot camp at Fort Benning, Georgia, with a contract for Airborne training and the 75th Ranger Regiment. But when recruiters from Arlington’s 3rd Infantry Regiment — The Old Guard — visited his basic training class, he was hooked.
”I didn’t know anything about the Old Guard,” Zana said. “But there was just a different set of opportunities. […] It was something that was connected to honoring veterans, dignitary ceremonies, funerals within the cemetery, there was something about that that just seemed like a meaningful opportunity.”
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Zana watches a changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery prior to assuming his own final guard shift to end his career. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Jon Soucy
Zana changed his dream sheet and was soon at Fort Myer, adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery. Known as the Old Guard for its status as the oldest continually active infantry unit in the Army, the 3rd Infantry Regiment’s soldiers perform all ceremonial duties in Arlington, along with maintaining currencies and training as front-line infantry soldiers. Old Guard soldiers perform as firing parties and casket attendants at 25 to 30 burials every day, escort VIPs and participate in wreath-laying ceremonies. As a newcomer, Zana shuffled through those duties, learning the history of the cemetery, its rituals and its place in the American military as the foremost resting ground for war dead.
“Arlington Cemetery is a place that just moves you,” Zana said. “It can be overwhelming to be surrounded by rows and rows of headstones. I think for many people, it’s easy to depersonalize that.”
But the Tomb of the Unknown, Zana found, boils the scope and size of Arlington down to a single grave. “When you go to the Tomb of the Unknowns, it’s kind of the epicenter, it’s the representation of so much that’s within the cemetery.”
‘Known but to God‘The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a white marble crypt that holds the remains of an unidentified American killed in World War I. Engraved on the crypt are the words: “Here rests in honored glory an American Soldier known but to God.”
The unidentified remains of two other American service members are buried in front of the tomb, one from World War II, one from the Korean conflict. A third grave where an Unknown from Vietnam was laid to rest is now empty, after the remains were identified in 1998 by DNA testing as Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Blassie. An A-37 Dragonfly pilot with the 8th Special Operations Squadron, Blassie was shot down near An Lộc, Vietnam in May 1972. His body was exhumed and reburied near St. Louis.
Tomb Guards stand guard at the Tomb 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Maj. Gen. William L Zana holds a media roundtable at the Pentagon, wearing his Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Identification badge on his right breast pocket. DOD photo by MC1 Alexander Kubitza
The role is the most public and most selective position in the Old Guard. In the 76 years of the tomb, just 731 soldiers have earned full status as guards, earning the title of Sentinel and the right to wear a Guard, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Identification badge for the rest of their careers. The two newest Sentinels were awarded their badges on Monday during Veterans Day.
During Zana’s first two years with the Old Guard, the more Zana learned about Tomb Guard duty, the more he wanted to be a part of it.
“My first platoon sergeant went down to be the sergeant of the guard,” Zana said. “He reached out and asked me ‘Was I still interested in trying out?’ I said, ‘Yeah, absolutely.’”
Qualifying for duty as a Tomb Guard remains largely unchanged from the process Zana went through in 1989. The first cut-off is genetic — men must be between 5-foot-10 and 6–foot-4, while women must be 5-foot-8 and 6-foot-2. Volunteers must be in “superb physical condition” with an “unblemished military record.”
After an interview, Zana was given a two-week trial period, by the end of which he had to repeat back seven pages of Cemetery history verbatim.
That earned him a “walk.”
21 StepsThe “walk” is at the heart of Tomb Guard duty. During each Sentinel shift — known as a relief — six guards rotate through the duties of a walk. On the plaza in front of the Tomb, the on-duty guard walks a 21-step path at 90 steps per minute, then faces East for 21 seconds — both counts symbolic of a 21-gun salute. They reverse and perform a shoulder-arms movement to place their weapon, an immaculate M-14, on the shoulder facing the Tomb’s amphitheater, where the public gathers to watch, signifying that the guard stands between the Tomb and any threat.
During the countless hours Sentinels walk at the Tomb, they watch thousands of visitors.
“You realize that the Tomb of the Unknowns means something different to everyone who visits,” Zana said. “Some people look at it as this is representative of somebody they lost or [a] family member. It could be that it’s a relative they never knew.”
Maj. Gen. William L. Zana points to a photo from his time as a Tomb Sentinel. Army photo by Sgt. Ethan Scofield
During his time as a Sentinel, Zana knew Arlington for the generations of America’s military dead buried there. As a Sentinel, he even had to memorize the details of 300 notable graves mixed among the thousands of others. But none held anyone he had known in life.
When he retired as a two-star general, that was no longer true. It was now a cemetery full of friends, family and comrades.
“It was very, very different when I was was first down there. I hadn’t lost any service members in combat.”
‘Your name on a headstone’Zana’s first funeral duty for a fellow soldier came while still at the Old Guard, when the unit laid to rest the stillborn child of a team leader.
“At that time, I was a private or specialist,” Zana said. “Burying the child of someone who you’re working for, having a child-size casket, the firing party and the casket bearers, you know, you just cry.”
In the years since, Zana has been back many times.
“The most recent I went to was for a naval officer who served with me in Djibouti,” Zana said. “And over the years. I probably had two or three dozen people who I’ve known well who were buried in the cemetery and far more that I knew tangentially.”
In June 2006, Zana deployed to Afghanistan to lead a National Guard liaison unit under the 10th Mountain Division at Bagram, Afghanistan, a job with constant travel around the war zone.
A week after arriving, on his first patrol, his team’s vehicle was struck by a vehicle-borne IED, armed with four artillery shells. Only one exploded.
“We all walked away,” Zana said. “One of the EOD guys came up to us and wanted to shake our hands. He said ‘you’re the luckiest guys in all Afghanistan.’ I didn’t think so, it was my first week, but it was a realization that I am truly responsible for the lives and well-being of others, while still accomplishing the mission.”
William Zana’s name plaque among the 731 soldiers to ever serve as Sentinel Tomb Guards. US Army video still.
Soon after, the unit would run out of that luck.
During Zana’s command, a Maryland Guardsman, Command Sgt. Major Roger Haller, joined his team. Zana rotated out of the job in January 2007, replaced by Lt. Col. David Canegata, an officer in the Virgin Islands Army Guard who was, like Zana, assigned to the National Guard Bureau headquarters in Virginia. The team’s counterpart in Iraq was another of Zana’s close friends, National Guard Col. Paul Kelly.
On Jan. 20, 2007, the same month Zana turned over command, Canegata, Haller and Kelly were on a Blackhawk that was shot down in Iraq, killing all 12 soldiers on board. Of the dead, 10 were National Guard members. It was the deadliest single loss for the Guard of the post-9/11 wars.
Canegata’s remains were eventually returned to the Virgin Islands and Haller’s to Maryland. Kelly is interred at Arlington, as is a monument dedicated to those killed in the crash. The monument includes comingled remains removed but not identified from the crash.
“It connects back when you realize you’re doing a fallen comrade ceremony for people who, you know, are going to go back and be interred at Arlington Cemetery,” Zana said. “It’s connecting the dots between what those things are. There’s 400,000 people buried in Arlington and you realize they’re all individuals with these full and profound stories and family members and connections and communities. And the Unknowns are the ones who not only lost their lives but they also gave their identity. That’s the important thread that connects it all together.”
Just a year before his Afghanistan deployment, Zana’s first wife, Rebecca Zana, died of brain cancer. Her interment at Arlington put Zana at the center of a ceremony he knew well. With the Old Guard, Zana performed hundreds of burials as a casket bearer or firing party, his presence and professionalism, he believed, a comfort to families of the dead.
“I was there with the spouses, the widows and the widowers, the family,” Zana said. “The headstone says ‘Rebecca Zana, wife of Major William Zana, and having your own name on a headstone on a grave in the cemetery and having been the spouse for the ceremony that I once did, I don’t think [there are] adequate words that I could give.”
The last walkIt was just after Veterans Day, a cold, blustery, wet Washington fall day in 1990. It was the kind of weather that empties the cemetery of nearly all visitors, particularly the tourists around the windswept Tomb.
Zana was walking a shift in the cold: 21 steps. Face south. 21-second pause. Turn. Shoulder arms. 21 steps.
The walk is always the same, even if the weather chases away anyone watching.
“It was raining and I was walking by myself,” Zana remembers. “And there [was] no one there because it was just like, not a hospitable environment. And there was an older gentleman who was wearing what appeared to be, like, an American Legion or VFW hat. One of those Garrison caps.”
As Zana walked, the man matched his paces back and forth.
“In your peripheral vision [you’re] kind of seeing what’s going on. So as I’m facing in the southerly direction. I see him just standing there, solemnly watching.”
Guards walk for an hour on each shift. The man stayed the whole time.
“Right before the guard changed he paused. And he raised his right hand to salute,” said Zana. “And I realized he was saluting the Unknowns as we do as Sentinels. But then he said — and and I could hear him — he said, ‘thank you, son,’ and, and I knew that was directed towards me.”
Zana then did the one thing a guard at the Tomb rarely does: He stopped.
“I pause my routine and came down [onto] the mat and saluted him back,” said Zana. “We just kind of held that for a moment and then I continued my routine. That was one of those things for me that meant something really special to him and I could [be] a part of this thing that was bigger than myself. I look at something like that is being one of those defining moments in your life.”
On the last day of May this summer, Zana arrived at the Tomb early with his wife, Agata, a lieutenant colonel in the Virginia Guard (her status, he joked, meant he would soon have a dependent I.D. card). He joined the current Tomb Guards in their quarters just off the plaza. He reviewed the shift to come with the relief commander, a female sergeant (the first woman to qualify as a Sentinel, Sgt. Heather Lynn Johnsen, arrived at the Tomb five years after Zana’s Old Guard tour).
Mostly, he swapped stories with the young guards on the shift.
“Whatever side you’ve been in the military, you’ve got these stories,” Zana said. “So being able to connect with young soldiers, and for me, hopefully, you know, giving them this idea that they can do whatever they want with their military career.”
One soldier was thinking about following Zana’s path to become an officer. Another was about to get a major promotion.
Zana also pulled out the guard logs from 1991, finding his own final entry: “Sgt. Zana, last walk,” it read.
To correct the record, Zana added a sticky note: “Not quite, see logbook for 5/31/24, MG Zana takes one more shift”
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Zana looks through a logbook of the guards of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Sentinel quarters at Arlington National Cemetery. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Jon Soucy
Night shifts at the Tomb vary from day shifts. A guard always stands watch, but their precise dress uniforms are stowed overnight, replaced by duty uniforms. Tomb Guards use the night hours to train on the plaza or prepare the site for ceremonies.
Still, a guard is always posted.
For his first hour on duty, several of the guards joined him at the post. For the second hour, Zana stood alone.
“And that was some of the most profound time of my military career,” Zana said. “I look back, 37 years and you can do the math on the number of hours and minutes. But when you get down to [it], there’s just two hours. Then just this one hour. Tonight, you know the clock strikes, we change the guard. And I depart the cemetery as a retired soldier.”
A line he’d memorized in his original shift at the Tomb echoed in his mind.
Surrounded by well meaning crowds by day,
alone in the thoughtful peace of night,
this soldier will in honored glory rest
under my eternal vigilance.
“‘Alone in the thoughtful peace of night’,” Zana said. “It’s part of the Sentinel’s creed.”
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Blow out the candles, Marines, you’re a year older. The Marine Corps officially is 249 years old today. But you’re Marines, you already knew that. So happy birthday.
It’s been a long, strange journey since the Marine Corps was first established. The Continental Congress ordered two battalions of Marines to be established way back on Nov. 10, 1775. Technically the Marines started with that resolution, but they really started thanks to bar patrons. The order given, Capt. Samuel Nicholas alongside Tun Tavern owner Robert Mullan quickly turned to the patrons, recruiting new troops in or just outside the establishment.
Like the Army and Navy, the Marine Corps technically predates the modern United States, forming years before the American Constitution became the foundation of the government. After disbanding after the American Revolution, the United States Marine Corps was officially reformed on July 11, 1798. Marines might have started in a bar, but the last 249 years have taken them around the world, often as the advanced presence of American foreign policy. That is something Gen. Eric Smith, the Marine Corps Commandant, alluded to in his birthday message to the Marine Corps.
“Our history bears witness to Marines of all stripes picking up their rifles and fighting for Corps and Country when the call came. From Wake Island to the Chosin Reservoir to Khe Sanh to Camp Bastion, every Marine fought,” Smith wrote in his birthday message to the Corps. “Our future battles will be no different. Our rear areas will be as vulnerable as our front lines and every Marine from our infantry battalions to our aviation squadrons to our headquarters and support elements will have to stand-to when called.”
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For its birthday, the Marine Corps gave itself something it has done over the years: a birthday video that is half remembrance of past sacrifices, half action-packed sizzle reel. This year’s one has it all, opening with more than a minute and a half of action, with ground troops, artillery, aircraft and amphibious assaults. But for all of the shows of force, it features plenty of Marines talking about what others have given, in recent wars and in decades past.
Watch for yourself:
There are many things for Marines to celebrate as the Corps turns a year older. This year has had some ups and downs. This week marks the 20th anniversary of the Second Battle of Fallujah, the bloodiest fight of the Iraq War. But 2024 has also seen some major ups. The Marines Corps led the way once again, becoming the first military branch to pass its audit. Marines have revived a World War II-era “Sledge” airfield on Peleliu, part of a massive effort to build up infrastructure in the Pacific. Marines trained Air Force members so well they were awarded medals for it. The latest Navy destroyer was just commissioned, named for legendary Marine John Basilone.
Nearly two and a half centuries after they were founded, the Marines are facing new challenges. The birthday message pointed to changing times and changing strategic goals for the United States military. That means greater technology, more drones and a focus on peer-to-peer conflict. But as the birthday message notes, “America will always need Marines willing to fix bayonets and charge the enemy.”
So have the birthday balls. Have some cake. Have some crayons. You might not actually fight dragons or lava monsters like the recruiting commercials showed, but you’re still the Marines.
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Turn back the page to the Atomic Age. It’s 1958. The United States and the Soviet Union have been busy testing nuclear weapons on Earth, but the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 in 1957 has changed the entire Cold War. The Soviets proved they can launch a rocket, and therefore could launch a nuclear warhead, anywhere in the world. The United States, inside both its military and its scientific community, was scrambling for a response.
One plan? Nuke the Moon. Yes, the United States briefly considered blowing up part of the Moon. This was an idea the Air Force seriously entertained and in fact studied how to carry out.
In 1958, Dr. Leonard Reiffel, working out of the Armour Research Foundation (which became part of the Illinois Institute of Technology), was asked by the Air Force to “fast track” research into what a nuclear explosion would be like on the Moon. Project A119, or “A Study of Lunar Research Flights – Volume I” as the paper outlining it was called, laid out the scenario. The United States Air Force — this was at the time when America’s space program was still mainly split up across the military — would launch a rocket to the Moon. It would be carrying an atomic bomb; a hydrogen bomb would be too heavy for the mission. Once it reached the Moon, avoiding any crater, it would explode. Beyond offering new insights into the Moon itself, the detonation would show the Soviets that the United States could fight back even on the lunar surface.
The project “clearly” had three motivations according to the authors: scientific, military and political. The military nature of the project was clear; the paper features the emblem of the Air Force Special Weapons Center at Kirtland Air Force Base.
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Task & Purpose loves strange Cold War space programs. With the Space Race in full swing, nuclear paranoia at or near its height, and a military willing to entertain nearly any idea for national security, the 1950s and 1960s led to some wild moments. From proposed nuclear-powered bases on the Moon to the time a former elevator repairman turned nuclear physicist got the Navy to try to turn off the sky using nuclear weapons, it was a strange time. This was, after all, the time when the U.S. was having soldiers march towards nuclear explosions and developing shoulder-fired nuclear weapons.
Project A119 was no different. Since the blast was in space, there would be no mushroom cloud. And since the blast would be right on the dividing line between the lit-up and dark sides of the Moon, the explosion would be visible to the world.
“I made it clear at the time there would be a huge cost to science of destroying a pristine lunar environment, but the U.S. Air Force were mainly concerned about how the nuclear explosion would play on Earth,” Reiffel told The Observer in 2000. He also said that the Air Force considered the Moon to be “military high ground.”
Reiffel led a 10-person team to look into how a plan would play out. Scientist Carl Sagan was part of the team. Reiffel wrote multiple studies over the course of several months in the late 1950s. However, despite the military’s initial insistence on the importance of Project A119, it was eventually killed in 1959. Concern over serious damage to the Moon, as well as potential casualties on Earth if things went wrong, nixed the program. It did not nix more terrestrial nuclear testing or projects, however.
Perhaps because the very nature of the proposal was so drastic, Project A119 was kept secret for decades. It wasn’t until 2000 when Reiffel, then 73, revealed the existence of the plan to the wider public. He also would note that, in his view, the detonations would have been visible to those on Earth.
The project was one of several examples of the military’s rather optimistic view of how quickly it could get humans or weapons into space. The United States achieved massive scientific breakthroughs in the years after Sputnik, getting humans on the Moon 12 years after the Soviet satellite entered orbit, but the rate of advancement never hit the strides 1950s and early 1960s military planners envisioned.
The United States would eventually bomb the Moon, sort of, but not in the way the Air Force intended. On Oct. 9, 2009, NASA intentionally slammed a rocket into the surface of the Moon. The satellite hit the surface, scanning kicked up lunar dust for any signs of water. But the dream of Project A119 faded away, like the ideas of the nuclear death cloud and lunar Army base and the many proposals to use nuclear weapons to help with infrastructure projects.
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Eighty-two years ago, Marine John Basilone ran through enemy lines, ferrying ammunition to his fellow troops as fierce fighting waged on the island of Guadalcanal. His actions helped hold off Japanese attacks and earned Basilone the Medal of Honor. He became a hero not just for the Marine Corps but for Americans during the war.
Now the Navy has a new destroyer named in his honor. The USS John Basilone, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, was officially commissioned by the U.S. Navy on Saturday, Nov. 9.
The ceremony was attended not just by the crew, but Navy and Marine Corps leadership, several Marines and Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro. It was held in New York, only a few miles from Basilone’s childhood home. The destroyer was commissioned just a day before the Marine Corps’ 249th birthday on Nov. 10.
The ship was christened in 2022, bearing the name of Gunnery Sgt. Basilone, “one of the most decorated Marines in our nation’s history,” as Del Toro noted. Born in 1916 in Buffalo, New York, Basilone originally served as a soldier in the Army. He served for three years, mostly in the Philippines, his first time in the Pacific. After his enlistment ended, he then joined the United States Marine Corps, where he would become legendary. He joined in 1940, but when the United States entered World War II, Basilone was shipped off to the island of Guadalcanal.
A machine gunner with 1st Marine Division, on Oct. 24, 1942, his unit came under attack from a full regiment of Japanese forces. Marines suffered heavy casualties, leaving Basilone as one of the few standing. Ammunition was low, and the line was being overwhelmed. That night and into the next day, Basilone manned his machine gun, firing from the hip without hand protection even as the hot barrel damaged his skin. Running between positions, he worked to fight back against the surging Japanese forces, fighting with the machine gun and at one point a machete.
“A little later, with ammunition critically low and the supply lines cut off, Sgt. Basilone, at great risk of his life and in the face of continued enemy attack, battled his way through hostile lines with urgently needed shells for his gunners, thereby contributing in large measure to the virtual annihilation of a Japanese regiment,” his Medal of Honor citation reads. “His great personal valor and courageous initiative were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.”
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He was awarded the Medal of Honor after the battle ended. Basilone would be shipped home, embarking on a war bonds fundraising tour. However he requested to return to the war. He reenlisted in the Marines, training new recruits and joining them when they shipped off. He landed on Iwo Jima in February 1945. Fighting from the beaches towards an airfield, he moved his unit through heavy fire before he was killed by a Japanese attack. He was 28. After his death, Basilone would be awarded the Navy Cross, the Marine Corps’ second-highest honor. Basilone was the only enlisted Marine to earn both awards during the entire war.
Marines watch the commissioning ceremony of the Navy’s newest destroyer, the USS John Basilone. Department of Defense photo by EJ Hersom
Basilone remains an inspiration for current Marines, and in fact his legacy is part of the final stage of recruits’ training, the crucible. It is something Lt. Gen. Roberta Shea, head of United States Marine Corps Forces Command, noted at the ceremony.
“For every single Marine, whether trained at Parris Island, South Carolina or San Diego, California, Gunnery Sgt. Basilone’s legacy is brought to life in that crucible,” Shea said. “Their drill instructor will read his Medal of Honor citation, and recruits reflect on his bravery, his selfless sacrifice and leadership as they tackle obstacle after obstacle.”
The new destroyer is the latest to be named for the late Marine. In 1949, the Navy commissioned the USS Basilone, a Gearing-class destroyer. The ship sailed through several different seas, including deployments to the Mediterranean Sea, being sent to the Middle East during the Suez Canal crisis and heading to the waters around Vietnam during the Vietnam War, until it was decommissioned in 1977.
The Arleigh Burke class of destroyers is the Navy’s workhorse, capable of engaging in prolonged fights and providing anti-air defense. Ships of the class have been active in the waters around the Middle East, where destroyers have proved crucial in shooting down drones and missiles fired by Houthis from Yemen towards commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The USS John Basilone is a Flight IIA variant of the destroyer class, able to fight against aerial and underwater threats. Del Toro noted the struggles of the world today, saying that the ship was entering service in the time of new threats different than John Basilone encountered.
The destroyer has already been at sea, traveling to New York for its commissioning. As Military.com noted, the ship is sporting a distinctive battle flag, two crossed Browning M1917 machine guns next to a cross. The cross is the emblem of the 1st Marine Division that Basilone served in, while the two machine guns pay tribute to Basilone’s actions at Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima.
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Army Maj. Jonathan J. Batt has been accused of sexually assaulting 20 people over the course of more than three years, said Michelle McCaskill, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Office of Special Trial Counsel.
Each of the military branches has established its own special trial counsel’s office since 2024 to prosecute serious criminal offenses including domestic violence, sexual assault, and murder.
On Oct. 16, the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel preferred 14 specifications of rape, 20 speciation’s of sexual assault, three specifications of abusive sexual contact, 15 specifications of aggravated assault by strangulation, one specification of aggravated assault by suffocation, 22 specifications of assault consummated by battery, and one specification of obstructing justice against Batt, McCaskill told Task & Purpose on Friday.
It is too early in the legal process for the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel to provide Task & Purpose with a copy of Batt’s charge sheet, McCaskill said.
The alleged sexual assaults took place between Dec. 1, 2019 and Feb. 17, 2023, with most of the alleged offenses taking place in the Washington, D.C. area, McCaskill said.
“The first allegation made against Maj. Batt was reported to the Alexandria Police Department,” McCaskill said. “The APD [Alexandria Police Department] notified the Department of Army Criminal Investigation Division, which initiated a joint investigation. CID’s subsequent investigation revealed additional allegations involving multiple victims.”
Army Times first reported on Thursday about the charges against Batt.
The investigation is still open and anyone who has information is encouraged to contact CID, McCaskill said.
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CID Special Agent Mark H. Lunardi provided Task & Purpose with a brief statement about the case: “This matter is under active investigation by Army CID and we are therefore unable to provide additional details at this time.”
Although Batt was initially placed in pretrial confinement, he was later released, McCaskill said.
“At a pretrial confinement review hearing on Nov. 1, a Military Judge ordered Maj. Batt’s release from confinement after determining that the government had not demonstrated that lesser forms of restraint were inadequate to protect the community and assure Maj. Batt’s presence at trial,” McCaskill said. “Since charges were preferred in this case, Maj. Batt has complied with all orders of his commander.”
Batt is currently assigned to Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Virginia, McCaskill said. His preliminary hearing was held on Oct. 30 at Fort McNair in Washington D.C., and on Nov. 4, the preliminary hearing officer recommended that the charges against Batt be referred to a general court-martial.
The Army Office of Special Trial Counsel will now determine whether to refer the charges, McCaskill said. If it does, Batt will be arraigned before a military judge, who will set the trial date.
Batt is being represented by attorney Nathan Freeburg of the Cave & Freeburg LLP law firm,” said Phil Cave, a spokesman for Batt’s defense team.
“Now that the Article 32 hearing has been completed, we expect a referral decision soon,” Cave told Task & Purpose on Friday. “There will not be further comment for the moment.”
Batt has served as an infantry officer since May 2007, and he is currently assigned to the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center in Crystal City, Virginia, according to the Army. He has made four deployments to Afghanistan: From August 2009 to August 2010; from June 2019 to August 2019; from October 2019 to December 2019; and from March 2020 to May 2020.
His previous assignments included serving with the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg — now Fort Liberty — North Carolina, from September 2008 to July 2011; and with the 75th Ranger Regiment at Fort Benning — now Fort Moore — in Georgia from May 2019 to June 2020.
Batt’s military awards include two Bronze Star Medals, two Meritorious Service Medals, four Army Commendation Medals, seven Army Achievement Medals, the National Defense Service Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal with two campaign stars, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, NATO Medal, and Valorous Unit Award.
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Good afternoon! This is Jeff Schogol, your friend and humble Pentagon correspondent, and it’s an honor to once again bring you the Pentagon Rundown after a nearly three-year hiatus.
Right now, the Pentagon is in wait-and-see mode pending President Donald Trump’s return to office in January. During his last tenure as commander in chief, Trump was heavily involved in military matters. He canceled large-scale military exercises between U.S. and South Korean troops; he twice tried to withdraw all American forces from Syria; and he accused senior Pentagon leaders of wanting to fight wars so that the defense industry could make money.
Trump also took a personal interest in the military justice system. In November 2019, he pardoned former Green Beret Army Maj. Matthew Golsteyn, who was accused of killing an Afghan man; he pardoned former Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, who had been convicted of murder after ordering his troops to fire on three unarmed Afghans, two of which were killed; and he restored the former rank of Navy SEAL Chief Eddie Gallagher — who was found not guilty of killing a wounded ISIS fighter but convicted of posing for a picture with the man’s corpse — and ended the Navy’s efforts to revoke Gallagher’s SEAL trident pin.
Subscribe to The Pentagon Rundown to get caught up on defense and national security news every Friday morning.
Although the news cycle has been dominated by election coverage, a lot has happened in the past week. Here’s your weekly rundown:
- When a post went viral on social media claiming that North Korean troops in Russia were “gorging on pornography” online, we knew someone had to ask the Pentagon, so we did. Alas, the Defense Department didn’t have much to say about North Korean soldiers’ “internet habits or virtual ‘extracurriculars’ in Russia.”
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday that he had fired the country’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who has spoken frequently with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin since the start of the Gaza war. Air Force Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, described Gallant as “a trusted partner,” adding that the Defense Department will work closely with Israel’s next defense minister.
- More proof that the Global War on Terrorism never ended: U.S. Central Command announced on Monday that U.S. troops along with their partners in Iraq and Syria have killed 163 suspected terrorists and captured more than 30 mid-level ISIS leaders since Aug. 29.
- A military judge has ruled that Secretary Austin waited too long and went beyond the scope of his authority to nullify plea deals with the accused masterminds of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The Pentagon is reviewing the decision.
- Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has said he would be comfortable if the Air Force took over the U.S. military’s air defense mission. The Army is currently in charge of that mission, and air defense units are the Army’s “most deployed formation,” Gen. Randy George, the Army chief of staff, told reporters recently. Nothing quite like telling another service that it sure would be great if they could do their job, and yours, too.
- For reasons that are not clear, the X account for the Selective Service — you know, that thing most men have to register for in case the draft is reinstated — reposted this message on Wednesday from another user: “For all you stupid f—s out there that still believe military service will be voluntary. Remember Germany 1936.” On Thursday, the Selective Service announced the inappropriate post had been taken down and, “We are investigating this incident to determine how this happened and are proactively taking steps to prevent this from happening in the future.” It could be worse, at least it wasn’t a repeat of the great Fort Bragg (now Liberty) horny Twitter (now X) debacle of 2020.
In other news, Thursday marked the 20-year anniversary of the Second Battle of Fallujah. Stars and Stripes looked back at the bloodiest battle of the Iraq War, during which 95 U.S. troops were killed and another 560 were wounded between Nov. 7 and Dec. 23, 2004. To commemorate both battles that took place in the Iraqi city, the Navy announced that an America-class amphibious assault ship expected to be completed in 2029 will be named USS Fallujah.
On a closing note: Parking at the Pentagon can be an adventure. For years, I have been lucky enough to have a coveted parking pass, but I’ve been working at home since the COVID-19 pandemic, so the time came on Wednesday for me to surrender my beloved pass to another reporter who comes to the building every day and deserves it. As I handed over my parking pass, I said with a sigh: “Take good care of it.”
And for all you new readers who aren’t familiar with our Pentagon coverage, here’s a highlight reel of some of the questions I’ve asked Pentagon officials over the years for Task & Purpose. Yes, my editor made me include this.
Updating the Jeff Schogol @JSchogol73030 @TaskandPurpose sizzle reel of Pentagon press briefing questions to include today's Taylor Swift query …. pic.twitter.com/xxttvi0fcA
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) August 9, 2024
If you enjoyed reading this week’s Pentagon Rundown, and don’t want to wait until Friday afternoon to hear from yours truly, you can sign up here to get The Pentagon Rundown in your inbox every Friday morning.
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The Army is putting more accountability measures in place to ensure that good recruiters are not pulling the weight for an entire recruiting station and that “ineffective” ones are reassigned to make sure local offices are helping with service-wide recruitment goals, according to a policy memo obtained by Task & Purpose.
In 2025, Army recruiters will continue to have to sign at least 11 contracts each year but those soldiers will be held to a new 75% contribution rate standard which is calculated by dividing the number of recruiters who met standards at the end of a quarter by the total number of recruiters, according to the Oct. 24 memo, which was confirmed by officials with Army Recruiting Command.
The intent behind the policy is to hold all of the recruiters at a given station accountable, the service said.
“The contribution rate metric will provide helpful insight into situations in which only a small proportion of recruiters assigned to a recruiting station, for example, are producing the entire assigned number of contracts in a given month for their station,” Madison Bonzo, a spokesperson for USAREC told Task & Purpose. “In turn, this information will better equip leaders to develop the management and mentorship talents of their recruiting station commanders.”
The new policy also calls for more check-ins throughout the year to assess the efficiency of recruiters and give commanders more opportunities to counsel and train those who are falling behind their contract goals — meaning how many new soldiers they have to enlist in the force. The policy memo includes quarterly brigade-level assessments and monthly after-action counseling sessions for recruiters with station commanders and for station commanders with their respective company commands.
Recruiters who are not “on track” to meet the minimum number of new-soldier contracts after three months worth of counseling and retraining may be deemed “ineffective” and released from their duties with the Army recruiting command, the memo states. According to Army regulations, depending on the case, soldiers who are released from recruiting duties may either go back to their original assignments or work with Human Resources Command to reclassify their military occupational specialty.
“This process is non-punitive and non-adverse. Each situation is different, and we do not want soldiers to fail in their careers,” Bonzo said.
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To determine whether a recruiter is “on track,” to meet their contract goals, battalion commanders will assess if they can “reasonably meet the standard” by the end of the recruiting year.
“For example, a production recruiter who has only produced six contracts by June may not reasonably be able to produce five contracts in the remaining three months of the [Recruiting Year] and is therefore not ‘on track,’” according to the memo.
Recruiter incentivesThe new USAREC policy, signed by commander Maj. Gen. Johnny Davis, also encourages commanders to recommend new incentives for “production” recruiters — those who meet with potential soldiers face to face, determine eligibility, counsel them, and prepare and process enlistment applications.
Commanders can also develop their own ways of highlighting good recruiters with local awards and recognition or by giving them time off, Bonzo said.
In January 2023, the Army announced a temporary program for recruiters to earn bonuses if they enlisted applicants who met enlistment criteria for their Future Soldiers’ Armed Forces Qualification Test. The incentive is still in place and will run until Dec. 31, 2024.
To get more soldiers interested in volunteering for recruiter gigs, in 2023, the Army began offering immediate promotion to staff sergeant for soldiers who enroll in the recruiter course by February 2024 and a one-time lump sum payment of $5,000. More than 900 soldiers have been promoted to staff sergeant under the program, according to the Army.
As part of recruiter incentives, the Army command also has the authority to promote up to 150 qualified sergeants and staff sergeants to the next grade and another program allows officials to promote eligible sergeants and staff sergeants who enlist and ship 24 recruits to basic combat training in a 12-month period.
The Army is also continuing its Soldier Referral Program, a little more than 20 months old, where junior enlisted soldiers can get promoted by referring people to their local recruiting stations. Since its inception, the program has had nearly 77,000 referrals with a rate of 6.5% leading to enlistments or just over 5,000 contracts.
Army recruitment overhaulThe recruiter policy updates come after Army officials announced in September that the service exceeded its fiscal year 2024 goal for enlisted soldiers with just over 55,300 recruits which was a rebound after two years of misses. The Army was able to meet its 2024 goal with older recruits who increased the average enlistment age to 22 years and 4 months and those who needed extra training. About 13,200 trainees — roughly one of every four recruits went through the Future Soldier Prep Course, a 90-day program before boot camp that helps recruits meet academic and physical fitness enlistment standards.
The policy calling for more accountability across the Army’s recruiting enterprise follows a slew of changes announced by Secretary Christine Wormuth in October 2023. The overhaul included consolidating USAREC to a three-star command to report directly to Wormuth’s office and the Army chief of staff and expanding the commander’s tenure from two to four years.
The Army also created two new military occupational specialties focused on recruiting which were modeled off of corporate recruiters in the private sector. The 420T Talent Acquisition Technicians will work behind the scenes crunching data and analyzing markets to generate better leads and create marketing strategies for local labor markets. Then there’s the 42T Talent Acquisition Specialist field, which will include former 79R recruiters who reclassify into the new job. They will study and implement corporate recruiting practices like branding techniques, digital prospecting, and leveraging social media.
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A colonel at a nuclear missile base whose position oversees the maintenance and accountability of nuclear weapons was relieved of command after a formal investigation, base officials told Task & Purpose.
Col. Jeremy Russell, commander of the 341st Maintenance Group at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, was relieved by the wing commander on Nov. 7. A base official confirmed that Russell had been the subject of an investigation but would not discuss its details.
“A Commander Directed Investigation was conducted, but we are unable to comment further,” a 341st Missile Wing spokesman said in an email to Task & Purpose. Officials gave no indication whether Russell’s firing was related to the 341st Missile Wing’s nuclear mission.
The 341st Missile Wingmaintains alert of Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles in a string of underground launch facilities. Russell’s maintenance group oversaw four squadrons that maintain the wing’s ICBM’s force, including the 341st Munitions Squadron, which performs “maintenance and accountability of the missile wing’s $5.5 million conventional munitions and $3.8 billion nuclear weapon stockpiles,” according to the base’s website.
Personnel of all ranks who work in the Air Force’s secretive nuclear weapons community undergo in-depth and ongoing background and security reviews under the service’s Personal Reliability Program, which lays out conditions under which they are authorized for contact with the weapons. The PRP applies to all nuclear troops, from missile launch officers and bomber pilots to mechanics and munition technicians, and base officials confirmed that Russell’s position fell under the PRP.
A native of Whittier, California, Russell was a “mustang” officer who began his career as an enlisted airman. After commissioning in 2001 through the service’s officer training school, he spent the rest of his career in the Air Force’s nuclear community, according to his online biography which was still online Thursday. Russell took command of the 341st Maintenance Group in July 2023.
UPDATE: (11/7/2024); This story has been updated to include a statement from Malmstrom base officials confirming that Russell was fired after a Commander Directed Investigation.
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Army prosecutors brought murder charges against a Hawaii soldier whose six-month pregnant wife has been missing for over three months, alleging that he murdered her and “intentionally” killed her unborn child, officials said.
The four new charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice were brought Wednesday against Pfc. Dewayne Arthur Johnson II, 28, for the murder of Mischa Johnson, 19, and the killing of her unborn child “based on evidence obtained through the ongoing investigation,” according to Michelle McCaskill, spokesperson for the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel, which is handling the case.
The Army confirmed to Task & Purpose Thursday that Mischa Johnson’s body has not been found.
The new allegations add to the previous UCMJ charges filed in August against the soldier for providing false official statements, obstruction of justice, and the production and distribution of explicit images of children.
Dewayne Johnson is in pretrial confinement pending a preliminary hearing, which is required before the case can go to trial by general court-martial. If the charges are “referred,” Dewayne Johnson will be arraigned and a military judge assigned to the case will schedule a trial.
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The case is being handled by the Office of Special Trial Counsel which has a relatively new role in the Pentagon’s justice system to prosecute criminal cases involving murder, sexual assault and domestic abuse outside the chain of command.
Army criminal investigators were notified Aug. 1 that Mischa Johnson was missing from Schofield Barracks, O’ahu, Hawaii, where the couple lived on base. Soon after, Army officials announced a $10,000 reward for information in the case. Her husband, Dewayne Johnson was placed into military custody without charges in mid-August. A local Hawaii news outlet reported that video footage showed Dewayne Johnson purchasing cleaning supplies and various tools before reporting his wife as missing.
Dewayne Johnson, from Frederick, Maryland, enlisted in the Army in November 2022 and attended one station unit training at Fort Moore, Georgia. He is assigned to Hawaii’s 25th Infantry Division and serves as a cavalry scout.
Domestic abuse involving pregnant women is far from uncommon with many reporting that their domestic abuse started or intensified when they became pregnant, according to the National Partnership for Women & Families. For pregnant women in the U.S., homicide is the leading cause of death, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
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On May 11, 2011, Capt. Garrett Cathcart was leading a patrol to the Ghala Charkh village in Badghis Province, Afghanistan. As a troop commander in the 10th Cavalry regiment, 4th Infantry Division, his mission was to help the village defend against the impending threat of the Taliban at the request of his Afghan National Police commander, Chief Israil Mo, who had family living in the village.
What Cathcart didn’t know was that the Taliban had already recruited people inside the village to their cause, including Mo’s cousins.
As Cathcart’s vehicles approached, gunfire erupted from the village. Cathcart returned fire and began coordinating fire missions from overhead Belgian F-16s, which dropped two 500 lbs. bombs, and then Apache attack helicopters. The firepower of the aircraft “broke the morale” of the Taliban fighters.
“That’s when it gets interesting because the chief, his family’s in there. They’re the ones shooting at us,” Cathcart said. “He said, ‘Hey, sir commandant, they want to talk to you.’ Like, we were just in a broad daylight gunfight, and we killed three or four of their dudes. I was like, ‘They want to meet me? What is happening?’”
With Apache attack helicopters still on station and Cathcart’s team pulling security, he walked to an arranged meeting place with village elders, his radio operator, and Mo. So began a life-changing experience for Cathcart.
He sat down with several of the people with whom he was just exchanging shots, but this time, drinking tea.
“I realized, like, ‘Dude, there are shades of Taliban—these are not hardcore [extremists], who hate my existence and want to destroy my way of life and erase America and Christianity,” Cathcart said. “Like, they are just farmers trying to carve out a life. They were told to ‘shoot the Americans, or we’re gonna rough you up or kill you.’ I think the chief knew what he was doing to bring us together.”
Cathcart said he was used to things ending with flex-cuffing the bad guys and sending them to detention centers for questioning. Instead, the leaders connected and developed an understanding. In a show of good faith, Cathcart left cans of gasoline for the villagers’ motorcycles and later coordinated the rebuilding of a critical bridge nearby.
Commander Israil Mo, of the Qadis District Police Station gave Garrett Cathcart a certification of appreciation for helping the Ghala Charkh village in Badghis Province, Afghanistan. (Photo courtesy of Garrett Cathcart) Cathcart served nine years on active duty, deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan and left the Army in 2013. He landed at a new veteran-focused non-profit, Team Red, White, and Blue. Later, he helped establish a second group, Mission Role Call. Team RWB is a wellness-oriented group that has programs based on improving physical fitness and mental health, and Mission Roll Call is a veteran advocacy group.
“This is what I missed, man, it’s helping people doing something I believe in. being around good, great people,” Cathcart said. “So that’s what got me into the social entrepreneurship space, the veteran space.”
Cathcart joined the Army Reserve in 2018 and is now a major.
In 2021, Cathcart wondered if his surreal experience with the Taliban might be a blueprint for a new project at home. Like many veterans, he watched in dismay as, after returning home, he saw political polarization rise and begin to seep into everyday life. He wondered if more face-to-face time could unwind differences at home. To find out, he co-founded +More Perfect Union with Jake Harriman, a former Marine Recon officer with deep ties to veteran service organizations.
Established in 2021, the organization focuses on bringing veterans and other Americans from differing points of view — whether on politics or just lived experiences — together through social settings like his experience with the Taliban.
“There are different shades of Taliban—and we were trying to kill each other—and we found common ground and helped each other,” Cathcart said. “I mean, that’s a dramatic example of what we’re doing here in this country. We are not only all humans, but we’re all Americans. We have so much in common.”
Then-Capt. Garrett Cathcart’s meeting with the Ghala Charkh village in Badghis Province, Afghanistan, spread to other villages, and Cathcart was invited to speak with them during his 2011 deployment. (Photo courtesy of Garrett Cathcart) Cathcart said the veteran community is key to bridging misunderstandings because the military itself is a melting pot of cultures, beliefs, and identities. The organization sponsors get-togethers called ‘brickyards,’ which might feature a picnic-style chance to eat or community service projects like cleaning up a park.
In a recent meet-up in Glen Rose, Texas, a brickyard leader donated a pig that participants smoked for 18 hours. The resulting picnic and meal were held in conjunction with a clothing drive. The event brought together immigrants from Mexico and long-time residents to eat and pick out needed clothing items.
“When you’re sharing a table with someone, sharing a meal, that’s one of the most human, intimate experiences,” Cathcart said. “We started this a couple of years ago, and it just clicked. This is what we’re trying to do. I need to do 20 million of these.”
With over 15,000 members of the different chapters called brickyards, their mission has reached 31 towns and cities. Each brickyard has a leader who organizes events for their chapter, and the non-profit raises funds so that chapters can hold community events.
“We all love this country. We bring people together and build relationships, trust, and understanding through awesome ways. You are going to get to know people you wouldn’t ever meet, from a different walk of life, a different from the other side of the aisle. Let’s just say it out loud. They realize, like, ‘Oh, dudes, I don’t agree with you on all this stuff, but we have a lot in common.”
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Navy officials fired the commander of the service’s San Diego-based ethics and leadership-focused professional schools Wednesday due to a “loss of confidence,” the service said in a release.
Capt. Lester Brown, Jr. was relieved of his duties as Navy Leadership and Ethics Command San Diego’s commanding officer. He had assumed command in September 2022.
Officials did not immediately say why Brown was relieved other than for a “loss of confidence in his ability to command,” phrasing used in nearly all public announcements of a military leader’s firing.
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NLEC San Diego provides training and education for officers who are not yet commanders and courses for the enlisted leader development program.
Originally from Maryland, Brown graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and spent his career as a Surface Warfare officer. His fleet assignments include command of the USS McFaul, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. During his career he served as the communications officer and main propulsion division officer on the USS Anchorage; a main propulsion assistant and ordnance officer on the USS Sides; chief engineer on the USS Patriot and USS Philippine Sea.
He was the executive officer of McFaul before taking command.
His awards include five Meritorious Service Medals, four Navy Commendation Medals, two Navy Achievement Medals, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, and six Battle Efficiency Ribbons.
Capt. Richard Zeber, from NLEC Newport, has been temporarily assigned to the San Diego position.
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Soldiers and spouses who are trying to leave abusive partners can now get away from dangerous situations faster with the help of immediate funds from an Army-affiliated non-profit.
Under a new policy from Army Emergency Relief, which provides financial assistance and loans to soldiers for a variety of emergencies, soldiers and Army spouses can access up to $1,500 for transportation, temporary lodging, food and necessary personal items – all resources that could give victims who are financially dependent or being financially manipulated, a way out.
For Jennfier Alvarado, a former hospital corpsman in the Navy, money was a key part of her abuse. Her husband stole her car and took thousands of dollars out of their joint bank account, leaving her and her child with $3.93 to her name.
“With intimate partner violence and domestic violence, there’s also financial manipulation in a lot of these situations and the abuser kind of holds the victim by a string because of finances,” Alvarado said. “To take that burden away when there’s already a million things on the plate, I do think that that is something that will benefit.”
“We don’t want money to be the reason why it escalates and that person wasn’t able to leave the house,” Sean Ryan, a spokesperson for the Army Emergency Relief told Task & Purpose, adding that the update “circumvents waiting time” under bureaucratic processes in the formal Transitional Compensation Program. As a non-profit organization, they can “make a decision in an hour” and avoid red tape that holds back immediate assistance for domestic violence victims.
A 2021 Government Accountability report that looked at the Pentagon’s response to domestic abuse said that almost 40% of survivors they interviewed cited “financial dependence on their abuser when describing barriers to reporting.”
Around $12 million each year goes towards “support programs like domestic violence,” Ryan said. The policy was driven by direct feedback that former Sergeant Major of the Army and current CEO of the non-profit, Tony Grinston heard from soldiers at more than a dozen bases, he added.
Quick cash to flee abusive relationshipsAccording to the AER policy, officials can provide $1,500 or five days worth of funding for essential needs. If a second round of assistance is needed to move them to a safe location, the approval authority can grant up to $2,500. The total amount in financial assistance is capped at $4,000 and any exceptions require consideration from the Garrison Commander.
Under the formal program, Army dependents are able to get financial assistance if a soldier was convicted of a dependent-abuse offense and administratively separated, sentenced by a court-martial or there had to be “documented evidence that dependent abuse occurred.” Similar restrictions exist across the services under the Department of Defense-wide Transitional Compensation for Abused Dependents program.
The AER policy “aligns with the U.S. Army Family Advocacy Program, addressing restricted cases where command funding is unavailable. The short answer is AER offers rapid funding when speed is crucial,” Ryan said.
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Despite existing policies, Erin Kirk, co-founder of #NotInMyMarineCorps, a group of active duty troops and veterans working to end sexual harassment and assault in the military said most service members and spouses don’t know these resources exist and there’s a stigma around accessing it.
“Part of the same stigma that surrounds sexual assault and accusing another service member of bringing forward an unrestricted report for sexual assault – you’re gonna get the same kind of language surrounding domestic violence. Like, ‘Oh, are you trying to ruin your spouse? This is gonna kill the spouse’s career. Are you sure you wanna do this?’,” Kirk said. “We need to talk about the culture of the military and how we get around speaking to survivors in those kinds of ways that keep them in these kinds of violent situations.”
Side stepping paperwork for aidThe new policy update will sidestep the delays associated with filing a “restricted report,” a formal complaint to Army officials that a person is facing domestic violence. Previously, AER funding could be held up as a restricted report made its way through as many as eight to 10 different agencies and “can delay moving a victim out of the abusive situation,” according to the AER memo.
As a non-profit, AER can cut a check immediately for a victim in need of a hotel, gas or food. Through the formal Defense Department program, the compensation amount is dictated by the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Dependency and Indemnity Compensation rate, a tax-free monthly payment which changes annually.
“The new policy – it would have been a great asset to have back then – especially for someone like me who didn’t go back,” said Chelsea Rucker, a former gunners mate in the Coast Guard. “I would have gotten out sooner. I had to save up pennies to be able to escape.”
Rucker did not go to her chain of command for help because she didn’t think of her and her husband’s dynamic as abuse since it wasn’t physical or overt. She finally realized there was a problem when the parent of her son’s friend offered them his paycheck.
During her relationship, Rucker’s partner kept all of the couple’s finances from her, including when she got out of the service to have a baby. She spent two years saving up $4,000 – sometimes saving change here and there or by lying to her partner about the cost of groceries to pocket a few extra dollars.
“To me it was normal. I didn’t think the command could do anything to help me at that point because I mean, our bills were paid, we looked like a normal, white-picket-fence-with-blue-shutters family,” she said. “Once you step through that door it was something much darker.”
More mental health support neededBetween 2015 and 2019, the Department of Defense reported 40,000 domestic abuse incidents – 43% were Army cases, according to the GAO. The number of cases may be underreported according to an audit uncovered by the Project on Government Oversight and reported by Task & Purpose which found that between 2019 and 2021, there were around 4,000 incidents that were not properly tracked under the Army’s two reporting systems.
Alvarado, who now works with Disabled Veterans of America, said the policy is a step forward but more mental health support is needed for victims to understand that the situation is abusive and have the mental fortitude to get out of abusive situations. From her experience and as data suggests, victims of domestic abuse tend to leave and return back to their partners multiple times. According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, “survivors of abuse return to their abusive partners an average of seven times before they leave for good.”
“I ended up going into another marriage riddled with intimate partner violence. There was one key component to the puzzle that was missing and it was – I didn’t know that I had battered women’s syndrome. I didn’t know that I had complex PTSD,” Alvarado said. “If we’re offering all these transitional services, what about the services to keep these men and women from going back to the same situation? Because I’ll tell you in both situations that I was in, it was a recurring theme, but I always ended up going back.”
According to the transitional compensation policies across the services, eligible service members or dependents who receive financial compensation will forfeit the benefits if they continue to cohabitate with the offending service member or remarry.
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A Marine recruit going through the Corps’ West Coast boot camp was recently caught at the airport after making a dash for freedom, a Marine Corps official confirmed.
The recruit was apprehended on Monday by San Diego Harbor Police at San Diego International Airport, said Steve Posy, a spokesman for Marine Recruit Depot San Diego, California.
“The recruit was returned safely to the MCRD Provost Marshall’s Office,” Posy told Task & Purpose. “We take this matter seriously as the safety and welfare of our recruits and permanent personnel is of the highest priority. No further details will be released at this time.”
Posy did not provide the recruit’s name or any other identifying information. Nor did Posy say whether the recruit is being separated, disciplined, or forced to begin recruit training all over again.
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Marine Corps officials could not confirm that a video shared on the unofficial Marine Corps subreddit shows the recruit being arrested at the airport. It is not known when the video was taken.
The video was posted with the caption: “Recruit from [Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego] made a break to the airport lmao. We all had the same idea at one point.”
Recruit escape.
byu/Bearded_Devildog inUSMC
The brief video appears to have been captured by a mobile phone. It shows several people running. Then a man being escorted by a police officer near an airport luggage carousel with his hands behind his back.
The man is wearing a green skivvy shirt, web belt, Marine pattern trousers, and unbloused boots, indicating that he may be in the early stages of recruit training. Recruits typically wear sneakers for the first two weeks of training.
No information was immediately available about how often recruits attempt to leave the Corps’ two recruit depots — the other being Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina. Because Marine Recruit Depot San Diego and San Diego International Airport share a fence, it’s possible that many young recruits have dreamt of hopping over the fence and getting on a plane to take them away from the constant yelling, knife hands, and incentive training that defines boot camp. Marine Corps lore is full of tales of recruits who managed to escape from boot camp before finally being caught.
There are several reasons why a recruit can be separated, said Maj. Hector Infante, a spokesman for Training and Education Command. These reasons include:
- Defective enlistment
- Entry-level performance and conduct
- Convenience of the government
- Disability
- Commission of a serious offense
- Recruit initiated separation
The separation process at both Marine Corps recruit depots involves a recruit being interviewed by his or her company commander before a battalion commander begins administrative processing, Infante said.
At the Marine Corps’ East Coast recruit depot, if a recruit asks to be separated from boot camp before finishing, each request is handled differently, said Capt. Nikki Plymale, the director for Communication Strategy and Operations at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island.
“Most often a recruit’s request to quit recruit training starts with the platoon’s senior drill instructor,” Plymale told Task & Purpose.”When a recruit tells their senior drill instructor they want to quit, the senior drill instructor does everything in their power to remotivate the recruit to continue training. These conversations between the senior drill instructor and the recruit typically center around the recruit’s tangible and intangible reasons for joining the Marine Corps.”
Recruits can be assigned to a different platoon, during which a senior drill instructor routinely checks in with the recruit about how to improve, or they can be recycled into another training company, Plymale said.
The depot has additional resources including the unit chaplain and the Recruit Adjustment Motivation Program, where recruits whom drill instructors believe are at a high risk of attrition are assigned, usually in the first phase of their training, Plymale said.
If none of those programs work, leadership can decide to separate recruits who meet one of the three following criteria: They are either morally, physically or mentally unable to meet the demands of training; they have the capability but not the will to put forth the effort necessary to complete training; they are trying but are unable to tolerate the emotional demands of training and fail to adapt to a military environment, Plymale said.
“Upon meeting any of these metrics, a recruit is taken out of the training company and assigned to Recruit Separations Platoon (RSP) to be processed for entry level administrative separation,” Plymale said.
Because Marine Corps recruit training is so physically demanding, many young Americans enlist to see if they have what it takes. Unlike the other military branches, the Marine Corps does not offer bonuses to entice people to enlist, Maj. Gen. William Bowers, head of Marine Corps Recruiting Command, recently told reporters.
“We understand that to meet the high, almost mystical expectations that the American people have of their Marine Corps, that we must continue to attract and inspire young men and women of character who desire to live a life of significance by becoming a US Marine,” Bowers said during an Oct. 30 Pentagon press briefing.
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North Korean troops deployed to Russia may have discovered online pornography, and really gotten into it, the chief foreign affairs commentator for the Financial Times newspaper posted on X.
“A usually reliable source tells me that the North Korean soldiers who have deployed to Russia have never had unfettered access to the internet before,” wrote Gideon Rachman. “As a result, they are gorging on pornography.”
Rachman did not specify who his source was or how this person would be in a position to know whether roughly 10,000 North Koreans deployed to Russia had figured out how to find such adult sites, considering the country’s tight controls on internet use, but this is social media, and “some guy” on Twitter (ahem, I mean ‘X’) posting about whether North Korean troops are spending their downtime watching porn is enough to drive 1.5 million people to read the post, as of publication time.
Now, as the puppet musical “Avenue Q” taught us, the internet is for porn. But if North Korean troops now in Russia are indeed spending their time away from home in that fashion online, who’s to say what damage that could cause to the computers in their tactical operations center, once they become overrun with pop-ads for erectile dysfunction medication?
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Given the enormous signals intelligence capabilities that the Defense Department has, one might assume that the Pentagon would have a good idea of whether horny North Korean troops are at risk of bringing down the entire Russian network.
Alas, a brave Pentagon spokesperson had little to say about the matter.
“As entertaining as that sounds, I can’t confirm any North Korean internet habits or virtual ‘extracurriculars’ in Russia,” Army Lt. Col. Charlie Dietz told Task & Purpose. “We’re focused on the more serious aspects of North Korea’s involvement, if any, in Russia’s military operations. As for internet access, that’s a question best directed to Moscow. Right now, our attention remains on supporting Ukraine and addressing the more significant regional security concerns.”
Task & Purpose decided not to ask the Kremlin if its North Korean allies were using the Russian internet to view pornography because this reporter has no desire to fall from the balcony of a tall building.
In any event, the second- and third-order effects of exposing North Korean troops to internet porn are not yet known. A reliable source tells Task & Purpose that the Korean People’s Army is considering curing its troops of their lustful desires by using a fiendish piece of technology that will crush all their emotions including the will to live itself: The Defense Travel System.
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Nearly half of the National Guard personnel who have been placed on state active duty for the election will be advising local officials on how to deal with cyber threats, National Guard officials said.
A total of 15 states have activated National Guardsmen for the election Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin, the National Guard Bureau said in a statement to Task & Purpose.
Those states have activated a total of 252 Guardsmen, of which roughly 110 are dedicated to cybersecurity, according to the National Guard Bureau.
Each of the 54 U.S. states and territories has its own laws and agreements about how the National Guard can provide election support, said Army Col. Jeff Fleming, director of information management for the Illinois National Guard.
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Fleming is familiar with how the National Guard as a whole provides cybersecurity for states during elections because, for the past three years, he has been the officer-in-charge for Cyber Shield exercises, the Defense Department’s largest unclassified cyber exercise, which is hosted by the National Guard.
Once the National Guardsmen are in their state status and under the command of their respective governors, they will do what their lead state agency requests them to do, Fleming told Task & Purpose.
For the most part, National Guardsmen will not have access to state elections systems, so they advise state officials “over the shoulder,” Fleming said.
“Some states will have their folks in advance work with their boards of elections, work with their secretaries of state in kind of an advisory capacity and help them with different policies, advising on the threats, advising on potential mitigation strategies, reviewing cybersecurity or other [information technology] policies for certain involved agencies,” Fleming said. “Some of those different agencies may request security assessments or penetration tests from their Guard units.”
Those federal agencies may also request that National Guardsmen help implement any of the recommended fixes as a result of those tests, Fleming said.
States also have National Guardsmen in their board of elections offices and operations centers as advisors and to communicate with other states and federal agencies about potential threats, he said.
“Other states, I know, may have folks on standby, working alongside their state law enforcement agencies,” Fleming said. “Should there be an actual cyber incident, they would go in support of law enforcement to do investigation and analysis of an incident that may come in, and then do whatever follow-up that is alongside that law enforcement agency.”
Intelligence community officials believe that Russia, Iran, and China are trying to spread disinformation during this election cycle. U.S. officials have blamed Russia for one fake video that purportedly showed mail-in ballots in Bucks County, Pennsylvania being destroyed.
For the most part, federal agencies are tasked with dealing with those types of treats, but the National Guard can advise senior officials if they see misinformation and disinformation, such as deepfake videos, Fleming said. In fact, the latest Cyber Shield exercise involved identifying how to determine if a video is true or fake.
“This an extremely emotionally charged time,” Fleming said, “And so if a video seems just a little bit wonky, before you get emotionally charged by it or decide to splash it across social media or make a reaction to it, do double-validate and confirm, even if it was your bestest friend in the world sharing it.”
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A soldier who was injured during the U.S. military’s Gaza pier mission has died, officials confirmed to Task & Purpose.
The death of Sgt. Quandarius Davon Stanley was first reported by CNN. Stanley was one of three soldiers who were injured in May while supporting the Army’s mission to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. The other two soldiers have since returned to duty. The Army did not provide details on the specific cause of Stanley’s injuries.
In July, defense officials announced that the pier mission would come to an end after being operational for “a little more than 20 days,” during which time officials said it helped deliver nearly 20 million pounds of aid to Gaza. The Joint Logistics Over The Shore, or JLOTS, system was rife with problems,and hampered by political differences in Washington over sending troops close to or near an active war zone. During its mission, the pier broke apart and vessels ran aground multiple times because of regional storms and high sea states.
Stanley had been receiving treatment for his injuries in a long-term care medical center before he passed away, according to Capt. Shkeila Milford-Glover, a spokesperson with the 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command.
“Sgt. Quandarius Stanley was an instrumental and well respected first line leader in the 7th Transportation Brigade Expeditionary (TBX), especially during the mission to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza. We will continue to provide support to his family during this difficult time,” Col. John “Eddie” Gray, commander of the 7th TBX said in a statement. “Our entire unit mourns alongside his family.”
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Stanley was from Marion, South Carolina and served as a motor transport operator assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade Expeditionary at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia. The brigade is one of the service’s few watercraft-focused units.
After the JLOTS system landed in the spotlight during the Gaza mission, an October Government Accountability Office report found that less than half of the Army’s fleet of ships met readiness requirements while the military’s demand for the service’s transportation capability in the Pacific is increasing. The report found that only 40% of the service’s 70 ships were deemed mission-capable, while policy requires 90% of its equipment, including boats, to be ready for use.
“Officials told us that low mission capable rates and subsequent lack of vessel availability affect the Army’s ability to conduct training for watercraft personnel on vessels,” the report said.
Stanley joined the Army in July 2020 and his awards and decorations include the Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, and the Driver and Mechanic Badge.
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Twenty sets of families serving in the Minnesota National Guard deployed to Japan earlier this year.
The families are made up of siblings, parents and spouses deployed to the 18th Wing, Kadena Air Base, Japan, the National Guard said in a release.
“The family members serving together embody a profound commitment to service, not only to their country but also to each other, united by a shared sense of duty, sacrifice, and honor and their service to the Minnesota Air National Guard,” 148th Fighter Wing Commander, Col. Nathan Aysta said in the release.
The Minnesota National Guard has previously had several sets of families who deployed together but 20 was a record, with the service describing it as “unprecedented” in their release. The unusual situation highlighted what military service looks like in small-town America and a broader familial trend that experts and sociologists have studied. Meanwhile, the military has leaned into the trend, often recruiting from the families of former service members. The concept has been referred to as the “warrior caste,” according to an analysis by Janine A. Davidson, former under secretary of the Navy and a scholar of civil-military relations.
“We see it across a range of professions where there is a calling that’s higher than just the individual’s career. We see it in medicine, we see it in firefighting, we see it in police officers,” said Kate Kuzminski, director of the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington D.C.-based think tank. “It’s something that you can see yourself serving in given the fact that you’re exposed to it.”
In 2016, Department of Defense data indicated that around 80% of service members had a family member who served — although Davidson noted in her analysis that the statistics were more accurately attributed to having family members drafted to serve in Korea and Vietnam. A 2016 Blue Star Family survey showed a similar, but less dramatic trend: 45% of active duty, 47% of military spouses, and 57% of veterans respondents had a parent who served.
“Senior officers have connected the familiarity gap to familial ties with some calling service a ‘family business,’ which, if left unabated, has the potential to lead to a military completely cut off from society,” Davidson wrote in her analysis. “The propagation of military service within families not only skews the demographics of the recruiting pool, but also contributes substantially to feelings of isolation and excessive burdens falling upon the few.”
As the services deal with a growing civilian-military divide, leaders are trying to “build back that familiarity” to recruit potential troops from a population that is less likely than they were 30 years ago to interact with the military or even veterans, Brig. Gen. Christopher Amrhein, commander for the Air Force Recruiting Service said at a press briefing on recruiting last week.
“In 1990, 40% of our young adults had a parent who served. That’s down to 15% today. In the past, those direct ties were key to conveying the boundless opportunities and experiences that are gained from military service,” Katie Helland, the director of accession policy for the Defense Department said at the briefing. “Without these personal connections, we find fewer young adults are familiar with the benefits of service.”
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At the same time, a 2023 Blue Star Family lifestyle survey indicated that troops nowadays are less likely to recommend military service, citing quality of life issues like spouse employment, time away from family, pay, housing and children’s education. In 2016, 55% of active duty families said they would recommend military service compared to 32% of respondents in 2023, the survey found.
With the growing unfamiliarity, troubles recruiting from Generation Z and concerns from service member families about the military lifestyle, the branches have started making some inroads on quality of life issues. Troops received a cumulative 9.8% pay raise in the last two years with a proposed 4.5% additional pay increase in the President’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget request which is being considered by Congress.
In September, Defense Department Secretary Lloyd Austin put out his “Taking Care of Our People” memo which highlighted recent and forthcoming efforts to improve recruiting, retention, and readiness across the force including more WiFi access in junior enlisted barracks, employment resources for military spouses, child care assistance and funds for temporary lodging allowances between station moves.
Audra Flanagan, a retired lieutenant colonel and spokesperson for the 148th Wing told Task & Purpose that there were no specific policies or recommendations from National Guard leadership “regarding our family connections” but that it was “organic” with multiple family members signing up for a deployment because it made it their time away from home that much easier and enjoyable.
The 148th was tasked to deploy 30% of its personnel on active duty to Kadena to support missions for Air Force units based in the Pacific region, Flanagan said. The Japan activation was part of the wing’s scheduled deployment cycle. For the Minnesota Guard, previous deployment cycles included Iraq in 2005, 2007 and 2009, Afghanistan in 2012, South Korea in 2016, Kuwait in 2018, and Saudi Arabia in 2022.
Staff Sgt. Macy Sunnarborg joined the 2022 deployment to Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia without her family and compared the experience to this year’s deployment with her sister, Senior Airmen Mallory Sunnarborg.
“Having Mal here, I feel like I don’t miss home as much because home is here,” she said in the National Guard release.
For Tech. Sgt. Catherine Schmisek, she went to Japan with not only her husband, Staff Sgt. Matthew Schmisek, who transferred from the Army to the Air National Guard so they could drill and deploy together, but was joined by members of her immediate family. Her father, Col. John Zupancic, commands the 148th Fighter Wing’s medical group and her brothers, Staff Sgt. Carl and Staff Sgt. John both work for the maintenance squadron.
“It has been an experience. “I never would have thought that I would be on a deployment with my husband, let alone my brothers as well,” Schmisek said.
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The Afghan and U.S. task force approaching Afghanistan’s Ganjgal valley on Sept. 8, 2009, expected to face enemy resistance, but when it came, it wasn’t just small arms fire — it was a full-on ambush by 60 insurgents with machine guns, RPGs, mortars, and other weapon systems, opening up from 100 meters.
Insurgents had snuck into Ganjgal village ahead of the patrol’s arrival. Task Force Chosin was comprised of soldiers assigned to the 10th Mountain Division, along with Marines with an Embedded Training Team, and joined by Afghan forces.As the lead group of Americans and Afghans approached the village, they were ambushed and pinned down. Three ETT Marines and a Navy corpsman were killed: 1st Lt. Michael Johnson, Staff Sgt. Aaron Kenefick, Gunnery Sgt. Edwin W. Johnson, and Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class James Layton.
Then-Capt. William Swenson was an advisor for Task Force Chosin and saw insurgents trying to flank his team’s position.
“The day went South. Things went bad, but we all came together,” said Swenson during an Americans in Wartime Experience interview in December 2021.
Swenson returned fire to try to mitigate the danger posed by the accurate PKM machine gun and AK-47 fire pinning down the lead element. He then started calling in artillery to try and suppress the advancing enemy forces. Still, due to the advancing insurgents’ speed, the artillery fire failed to slow them down.
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Over the sound of RPGs and mortar rounds impacting, Swenson and his team heard the calls of the wounded and knew they needed to act quickly. Swenson started coordinating helicopter evacuation for the injured, but they needed to get the wounded out of the open. During the heat of the battle, Swenson and his partner advisor, Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth Westbrook, had been separated.
During that time, Westbrook had been shot in the upper chest. Swenson maneuvered into an open space to treat and move Westbrook. While advancing with Afghan allies, two were killed and a third wounded. Swenson began treating Westbrook’s wounds. While doing so, a member of Swenson’s combat team said the Taliban was demanding their surrender.
Swenson paused, put down his radio, and lobbed a grenade toward the approaching enemy force — and the commander demanding the task force’s surrender. Then he went back to treating Westbrook, according to his Medal of Honor citation.
His actions helped rally the task force, and they focused their fire on the insurgents, effectively breaking their advance.
Swenson called in white phosphorous rounds to cover the evacuation of the wounded and coordinated gunruns on the enemy, which gave the task force enough time to begin their withdrawal from the area.
As they continually returned fire and broke contact, Swenson, along with his teammates, carried Westbrook and the other wounded down the steep terraces, where the closest landing zone awaited them. Once Westbrook was loaded onto the UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter, Swenson and a teammate dropped back into the kill zone in an unarmored vehicle to rescue more wounded — twice.
However, that vehicle was shot up so badly that it was rendered ineffective. Swenson and his team drove back into the kill zone with an up-armored High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV). Swenson could not stop at marked spots of the wounded but continued to coordinate artillery and combat search and rescue helicopters to help locate the fallen killed early on in the ambush.
They fought their way to the last known location of the Marines and Navy Corpsman, despite the withering assault of PKM and AK-47 fire. They found the four in a deep trench and recovered the bodies of the fallen, successfully returning to the base of the valley to evacuate them.
In total, Swenson helped save 12 Afghan allies and coordinated the main defense throughout the ambush and the following battle over the course of seven hours. The battle came at a heavy cost, leaving 15 dead — including the three Marines, the Navy Corpsman, and one ETT interpreter.
For his actions in Afghanistan, on Oct. 16, 2013, Swenson was awarded the nation’s highest decoration for valor, the Medal of Honor.
“Could I have done anything different? No. But could I always hope the outcome could have been different? Yeah,” Swenson said during a September 2013, Army interview. Hopefully, nobody else ever has to feel that outcome, and that’s important from that day, what we learned, and how we move forward.”
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Three Republican lawmakers are claiming that U.S. troops have been told that the military faces a shortage of backup absentee ballots that would allow them to vote in tomorrow’s election.
But a veterans group argues that the lawmakers’ point is moot because it’s not the Department of Defense’s job to hand out federal absentee ballots.
“The Department of Defense does not directly distribute absentee ballots to military personnel stationed overseas or away from their home state,” said former Marine Capt. Janessa Goldbeck, CEO of Vet Voice Foundation, a non-profit and non-partisan organization that seeks to empower veterans to become civic leaders and policy advocates.
This latest controversy about overseas military voting involves troops’ access to Federal Write-in Absentee Ballots, or FWABs, which service members can receive if they have not gotten absentee ballots from their home states. FWABs are available online so that service members and military families overseas can print them out and mail them, according to the Defense Department.
However, in an Oct. 30 letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, three members of the House of Representatives wrote that they have heard from U.S. troops who feel the military has not done enough to tell them how to request and fill out FWABs.
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“Other service members also stated that when a request for a federal write-in absentee ballot was made, they were told the base’s stockpile of such ballots was depleted and had not been replenished,” wrote Reps Brian Mast (R-Fla.), Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.), and Mike Waltz (R-Fla.). “We have heard similar complaints from other service members.”
The letter did not specify where these service members are deployed or why they are unable to download and print the ballots themselves.
The lawmakers sent Austin a series of questions including whether the Defense Department has enough FWABs for service members nationwide to vote if they do not receive their state absentee ballots in time.
A defense official declined to comment on the issues raised by the three members of Congress, explaining that, “As with all congressional correspondence, the Department will respond directly to the author(s).”
For the 2024 election cycle, the Defense Department’s Federal Voting Assistance Program has trained more than 3,000 Voting Assistance Officers, who work on installations and units to ensure that military voters understand their voting rights, how to access voting information and materials, and how to vote absentee, the defense official told Task & Purpose.
Each state has its own regulations on how to submit absentee ballots, the official said, adding that some require the ballots to be faxed or mailed.
Service members who are having issues getting FWABs should speak with their voting assistance officers and their state election offices for their state absentee ballots, the official said. More information is available at FVAP.gov.
Goldbeck noted that FWABs can be downloaded and printed any time, up to and including on Election Day.
During her time in the Marine Corps, Goldbeck served as a voting assistance officer, she said.
“I helped guide Marines in requesting ballots from their local election offices, which handle distribution,” she said. “The DoD provides resources, not ballots.”
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Economic pressures, a challenging job market, and the availability of free employment resources have led many job seekers to nearly any website that offers the potential for a new career opportunity. Almost inevitably, this has led to a rise in scammers looking to take advantage of those job seekers.
Job scams are fake employment opportunities that are used to lure seekers into giving away sensitive information or even money. An estimated 14 million people are exposed to these scams each year, resulting in more than $2 billion lost annually.
Embarking on the search for a new job or career means it’s important to stay safe and know what to look for when replying to an ad or job notice.
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Be suspicious of money requests.Many employment scams request a start-up or training fee to begin onboarding. Legitimate job opportunities do not require employees to pay upfront fees. Franchising or entrepreneurial opportunities usually do require start-up costs, but franchises are a business investment, not a “pay-for-play” career opportunity. Be wary if any recruiter requires you to pay an upfront cost for a job.
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Do not disclose personally identifiable information through email or text. Requests for personally identifiable information will never come in the first exchange with a legitimate employer. Acquiring personal information opens a potential employer up to a host of legal liabilities, and they won’t take that kind of action lightly. Never email or text sensitive information — it’s best to assume these methods are not secure. Submit sensitive information through a secure web portal.
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Question poorly written correspondence. While it’s not uncommon to run into an occasional typo or error in messages (we’re all human), multiple spelling and grammar mistakes, pushy language, or unusual requests are good indicators that the sender is not, in fact, a prospective employer or career coach, but someone with questionable motives. A legitimate recruiter will be polished and professional. If an email or a caller gets unnaturally aggressive, that behavior should raise eyebrows.
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Research before responding. While many scams will have a professional look and feel, do your research before applying. Does the recruiter’s email address match the company name? Is it a real organization? Did you initiate contact or was the reach out unsolicited? Be mindful of where and how contact is being made.
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Don’t be fooled by notable names. When contacted about a role with a known company that you did not apply for, call the company’s general number and say, “I am calling because I received a [form of contact] from someone who says they’re on your recruiting/hiring team. They are recruiting for [position]. I am checking to make sure that this is a viable opening and recruiter.” You can also search the company name and “scam” to see if anything pops up.
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Insist on an interview.If you are nearing the end of a hiring process and have only communicated via email or SMS, request a phone or virtual interview. Being offered a role without ever having a live interview is a strong sign that something isn’t right — an employer is unlikely to hire someone they’ve never met.
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Question skills misalignment. Legitimate recruiters are in search of specific skill sets. If the role you have been presented with does not align with the skills or interests you have expressed, check the legitimacy of the source and ask questions. Keep in mind the increase of AI and smart technology in recruiting can lead to errors in targeting; A skills mismatch is not a direct indication of a scam but should be used to assess leads and prompt additional research.
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Use common sense.If an employer asks for anything unusual, the terms of the proposed job are irregular, the salary or work conditions seem too good to be true, or the opportunity requires some form of investment from you, it should raise a red flag. Ask for clarification on anything you find atypical and be cautious if offered the job after only a couple of interactions.
Spot a Scam? Most job sites do their utmost to protect candidates from fraudulent job postings, but exceptions can always slip through. If you feel you have been targeted by a job scam, take these steps to keep yourself (and our military community) safe from threats:
1. Report suspicious activity. RecruitMilitary’s job board (and most others) have an option to flag a suspicious job posting. If approached outside of a host site, report scammers at:
- Federal Bureau of Investigations
- Federal Trade Commission
- Better Business Bureau
2. Notify impersonated companies. That way, legitimate organizations know to be on the lookout for copycats and can pursue legal action if needed.
3. Take action. If you think your personal data may have been compromised, freeze your credit, notify your bank, and change your username and password on your financial accounts.
Remember, though scams do happen, you don’t need to be fearful in your job search. Maintain awareness, be smart, do the research, and don’t be afraid to ask questions.
Utilizing a trusted and vetted resource like RecruitMilitary can reduce your risk of becoming the victim of a job scam. Build your profile with confidence and find your next career move today.
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The governor of Washington state ordered members of the National Guard to be activated in advance of Tuesday’s elections, citing concerns over public safety.
On Friday, Nov. 1, Gov. Jay Inslee ordered the Washington National Guard to be mobilized and placed on standby ahead of and in the days following the presidential election on Nov. 5.
“Our state depends on these skilled individuals for critical support to protect the public health, safety, and welfare, to include support necessary to protect vital infrastructure related to carrying out free and fair elections and to respond to any unrest related to the 2024 general election,” Inslee wrote in his directive.
The order calls for the National Guard to be activated between Monday, Nov. 4 through Thursday, Nov. 7. Inslee’s order gives Washington adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Gent Welsh, discretion on how many troops to activate and place on standby. The troops will be there to support local law enforcement and protect election infrastructure.
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The decision comes after ballot drop boxes in Washington and neighboring Oregon were set on fire on Oct. 28, leaving hundreds of election ballots damaged or outright destroyed. Inslee specifically cited those incidents as a reason to activate National Guard troops, saying that he wants to “ensure we are fully prepared to respond to any potential additional civil unrest.” He also noted warnings from the Department of Homeland Security, which said that there are ongoing threats against “election infrastructure.”
Washington is not alone in this decision. In Oregon, Gov. Tina Kotek has not activated the National Guard yet, but said she is prepared to, and that units are on standby in case she gives the order. The exact number of troops activated would depend on law enforcement needs, Kotek said. Portland was the site of one of the ballot drop box fires. Although both Oregon and Washington are believed to be solidly blue states, both governors have cited the need to be prepared for unrest and potential election interference.
Last week Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo announced that he would activate a small number of National Guard soldiers for election day in what he called a “precautionary measure.” The troops from the swing state would specifically be active only in Las Vegas and Carson City. 60 members of the Nevada National Guard will be on standby in the two cities, but according to one officer who spoke with local media, they will be at armories, not actively out in the public.
National Guard troops have been activated in multiple states around elections in recent years. Most have been mobilized to help law enforcement with matters such as traffic control, or have been called on to help with potential cybersecurity attacks.
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Eddie Vincek was 19 when he and the rest of 1st Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment landed on Iwo Jima. Vincek landed on the rocky Pacific island an hour after the first wave, he said in an interview with the Veterans of Foreign Wars post.
“Working on a dairy farm,” he told the VFW, “I was used to seeing animal blood, but not human blood covering over the ground.”
On September 29, Vincek celebrated his 100th birthday at a Ruritan Club in Chesapeake, Virginia, where he was a farmer for most of his life after leaving the Marine Corps in 1946.
For the party, 100 active-duty Marines showed up to help him celebrate. The Marines came from Training Company, Marine Corps Security Force Regiment, in Yorktown, Virginia, about an hour from Chesapeake.
The Marines stood in formation to sing Happy Birthday “for Corporal Vincek.”
UCpl. Eddie Vincek with Marines of Training Company, Marine Corps Security Force Regiment, in Yorktown, Virginia. Photo by Lance Cpl. Catherine S. Verenzuela Mariano. Lance Cpl. Catherine Verenzuela MarianoOn February 19, 1945, Vincek was assigned to A Company, 1st Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division for the Iwo Jima landing. In fierce fighting, the 28th Regiment was the only Marine unit to reach its objective for the day at the base of Mount Suribachi.
It was also Marines from the 28th Regiment — though not Vincek’s battalion — who first planted a flag on top of the mountain (and a second one the next day), leading to the iconic photograph and design of the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial.
Two men from Vincek’s 1st Battalion were awarded the Medal of Honor at Iwo Jima. Of the battalion’s 22 officers, only two emerged from the battle uninjured.
“I was one of the few that walked off carrying my own gear,” Vincek told the VFW. “So many others had been killed or wounded and weren’t able to carry their own gear off the island.”
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The first woman to lead the U.S. military’s massive logistical enterprise and one of just a handful to ever reach the rank of four-star general in the U.S. military retired Friday. Air Force Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost passed command of U.S. Transportation Command to Gen. Randall Reed in a ceremony at Scott Air Force Base attended by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
Promoted to General in August of 2020, Van Ovost was the senior officer in that rank among the four women four-star generals and admirals across the U.S. military.
As the head of TRANSCOM, Ovost was responsible for coordinating nearly all movement of U.S. troops, weapons and supplies around the globe. The logistics command dispatches hundreds of military and civilian-owned planes, ships, trains and trucks every day.
“Just a few days ago, we celebrated the 37th birthday of TRANSCOM — a command that was born out of necessity that was built to deploy U.S. forces. Over time, our mandate has expanded to project, maneuver and sustain the joint force at a time and place our nation’s choosing,” Van Ovost said at the change of command ceremony. “If we were a necessity, we are indispensable now.”
At the ceremony, Austin spoke of Van Ovost as a trailblazer for women in the service.
“You’ve always had a message for women in uniform. And that message is: ‘Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it,’” Austin said. ”Every time that you encountered an obstacle, you kept at it.“
CBS News reported in 2023 that only 10 women have ever reached the four-star rank across the military, including the Coast Guard. Of those, Van Ovost was the fifth woman in the Air Force to reach the rank. However, the military she retired from Friday holds far more opportunities for women than when she joined, an era when women not yet allowed to fly fighter jets, Van Ovost’s lifelong goal.
So she found a workaround.
“You wanted to fly Mach 2. But back then, women weren’t allowed to fly fighters. So once again, you made the path wider,” Austin said. “You became a test pilot. And you flew more than 30 aircraft, including F-15s and F-16s.”
Van Ovost retired with more than 4,200 flight hours in more than 30 aircraft.
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Van Ovost’s determination to join the military began when her application was denied by the U.S. Air Force Academy. She went to community college to improve her grades and installed a pull-up bar at home, Austin said. She graduated from the academy in 1988 with a degree in aeronautical engineering.
When Van Ovost was promoted to General in 2020, she was the only woman in the military to hold that rank. Since then, three other women have gotten their fourth star: Army Gen. Laura Richardson, commander of U.S. Southern Command; and two service chiefs, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan and Navy Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of Naval Operations. Franchetti, who was promoted to Admiral just a month after Ovost got her fourth star, is the first woman to ever sit on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Van Ovost took command of TRANSCOM in October 2021 and before that led the Air Force’s arm within it, Air Mobility Command. As the head of AMC, Van Ovost oversaw the fleet of Air Force planes at the heart of the military’s largest non-combatant evacuation in history, the pull-out of Afghanistan and evacuation from Hamid Karzai International Airport. She has been the leader at TRANSCOM as the agency has delivered $21 billions of dollars in aid and weapons to Ukraine and Israel.
During her flying career, Van Ovost commanded an air refueling squadron, a flight training wing and the 89th Airlift Wing, which flies and maintains the Air Force’s VIP jets and Air Force One.. She served as the vice commander for mobility forces in the Middle East and vice commander for the Air Force Expeditionary Center.
According to TRANSCOM spokesperson Capt. John Fage, as a leader, Van Ovost did not boast about her groundbreaking positions but embraced an expression as a role model for younger women, telling many, “You can’t be what you can’t see.”
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Two military siblings had a memorable family reunion at 25,000 feet when an Air Force tanker pilot refueled her brother’s Navy EA-18G Growler attack jet.
During a mission earlier this year, Capt. Elizabeth “Sully” Brakefield, who flies KC-46A Pegasus tankers for the 344th Air Refueling Squadron at McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas, refueled a Navy EA-18G Growler formation – one of which included her brother, Navy Lt. Lawson Brakefield.
Lawson Brakefield is a flight officer assigned to the Vikings of Electronic Attack Squadron 129 at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington. Growlers are a hybrid attack aircraft, based on the Navy’s high-performance FA-18 Super Hornet fighter jet but loaded with electronic warfare systems designed to jam and disrupt radar and communications.
The brother-sister pair had concocted their meet-up plan months earlier, Lawson Brakefield told the Navy in a release, each coordinating flights from their own units.
Air Force tankers are not generally set up to refuel Navy fighters. When refueling other Air Force planes, the service’s tankers use their extended boom to reach a fuel port that all Air Force planes have. The system can deliver close to 1,200 gallons of gas per minute.
Navy planes are designed to work with much smaller tankers that land and launch from aircraft carriers, and therefore do not have the large refueling booms. Instead, Navy tankers trail a fuel hose behind the plane capped by a badminton-style basket, or drogue. The Navy pilots maneuver their probe into the drogue to start refueling. The system delivers about 300 gallons per minute.
Still, KC-46s and other Air Force tankers can refuel Navy planes with a short hose and drogue on the end of its probe.
A Navy EA-18 Growler connects with a refueling hose drogue behind an Air Force KC-10 Extender. Air Force photo by 2nd Lt. R. Michael Longoria. 2nd Lt. Richard LongoriaOn the morning of the mission, an impending storm clouded the skies and threatened to delay the Air Force tanker’s takeoff.
“That morning was kind of stressful because we didn’t know if our plane was going to work,” Elizabeth Brakefield said. “Then the weather became an issue, so we didn’t know if we would be able to take off on time.”
Rain ended up delaying the aircraft take off by about 15 minutes but after the weather cleared, they were on their way. Refueling a Growler, or any aircraft for that matter, can be a tricky job and oftentimes the refuelers’ probes miss the drogue or entry point where the fuel is transferred.
At first, Elizabeth Brakefield didn’t recognize her brother’s voice on the radio since most people sound the same muffled and indistinct. Then he asked her about an injury from a month earlier and she knew it was Lawson.
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“I thought about everything that led up to this moment,” Lawson Brakefield said. “Flying side by side felt surreal and filled me with immense pride. It’s a memory I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.”
The Brakefield siblings grew up in Dothan, Alabama, and followed in the footsteps of their father, a former soldier, to join the military.
“Our dad always instilled the whole service-before-self motive,” Elizabeth Brakefield said. “He’s always encouraged us to join.”
Elizabeth Brakefield told the Navy that her inspiration also came from her brother who joined first after attending the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. She went to his induction day in 2016 and her brother did the same for her four years later at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Elizabeth Brakefield finished pilot training in 2022 and moved to McConnell where she’s been flying the KC-46 Pegasus for the last year and a half.
“I was kind of just following him in his footsteps,” Elizabeth Brakefield said.
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Along Hurricane Helene’s path of devastation, National Guard officials said they are hearing that some of their own soldiers have lost their homes but are still reporting to call-ups to support local response efforts.
“There’s at least two in the state that I know have lost everything,” said Army Col. Paul Hollenack, a commander for the North Carolina National Guard. “We’re providing services and taking care of them.”
One of the soldiers, Hollenack said, was from his own home unit, the 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team, and was a student at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. The Guard soldier “lost everything, drove to Durham to his unit, volunteered for state active duty, has been on state active duty supporting his community for the last two days,” Hollenack said.
Hollenack and Guard officials from three states spoke with reporters Thursday, a week after Helene made landfall on Sept. 26, to discuss how the states hit hardest have deployed guard support.
From the storm’s arrival, Guard troops have been on the go, commanders said. Troops flew utility crews to down cell towers where roads were impassable and evacuated 80 from a flooding hospital. One Tennessee unit even had to work just to get started after their armory was locked in by debris.
First rescues, then supplies
In the first hours after Helene rolled over parts of Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Tennessee Guard operations were centered around search and rescue. But in the days since, units have transitioned into clean-up and logistics, helping remove debris and with distributing aid, manning checkpoints and transporting emergency response workers.
“The demands continue to change. The first couple of days, search and rescue was almost primarily the only thing our aviation assets did,” Lt. Col. Meredith Richardson, Task Force 176 commander from the Tennessee National Guard said.
Army Maj. Gen. Win Burkett, director of operations for the National Guard Bureau
noted that the Guard typically trains with high water vehicles but there were limitations on using them for search and rescue missions safely.
“I wouldn’t say that it was worse than what people thought was possible,” Burkett said. “But I think you really don’t get a feel for it until you get out and that’s what makes every storm and every response unique.”
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As of Thursday, nearly 6,700 Guard members from 16 states have been deployed across the southeastern U.S.
President Joe Biden ordered 1,000 active-duty troops from North Carolina to join the Guard in recovery and response efforts, but as of Thursday those troops had not left Fort Liberty, about a four hour drive from hard-hit Asheville. Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said they’re waiting on North Carolina and FEMA officials to tell them where to go and what to do.
Across the states, the Guard’s response includes more than 40 rotary-wing aircraft and nearly 600 military vehicles.
North Carolina Guard officials said they have split their fleet. Smaller helicopters are still focused on rescue and scouting damaged areas while medium and heavy lift helicopters worked on resupply “to get the biggest bang for the buck, get as much lifted as we can,” Hollenack said.
In Tennessee, one of the Guard’s first helicopter missions included evacuating patients from the roof of a hospital as waters flooded the entire first floor. Tennessee Guard aircraft and boat crews “showed up at that hospital and literally saved 80 plus people in that hospital,” Burkett said.
After that, crews spread out across the county to find stranded personnel and “picking people up that were floating on debris and out of trees.” Now most of their focus is on moving supplies, including bulk water distribution at shelters and medical facilities “as water has very quickly become a dire need across the communities,” Richardson said.
In South Carolina, Guard members were tasked with using aviation assets to transport communication personnel to fix damaged cell phone towers because the roads were closed.
“Our engineers literally had to cut themselves out of their own armories just to get roads so that they can make contact with those emergency operation centers and get a picture of what was going on initially,” said Army Col. William A. Matheny, Jr. commander of the 117th engineer brigade.
Some Guard members have been working since the storm’s onset which means units and personnel will have to be rotated out, Burkett said.
“They’re working around the clock very vigorously and where those states may start to lose some of that capacity, our team up here in support of the states will start looking at what we can do to augment them,” he said.
Burkett also said it’ll be up to the governors to determine when states can shift from life saving operations to recovery efforts, which the National Guard will have “a smaller role to play.”
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An American bomb dropped on Japan during World War II recently exploded after lying dormant for roughly 80 years.
The 500-pound bomb detonated on Wednesday at Miyazaki Airport in southwestern Japan. Video of the explosion shows the blast spewing a geyser of asphalt, leaving a crater in a taxiway about 23 feet wide and three feet deep.
No injuries were reported due to the blast, but a Japanese passenger aircraft had been taxiing in the area about two minutes before the explosion, local broadcaster MRT reported.
During World War II, the airport was used by the Imperial Japanese Navy to launch kamikaze attacks against Allied forces. The kamikaze pilots would fly their planes into U.S. and partner nation ships.
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Kamikaze pilots sank 26 U.S. and allied ships and damaged another 225 vessels From April to June 1945 at the battle of Okinawa, according to Naval History and Heritage Command. All told, at least 3,389 Americans were killed by kamikaze attacks. They represented the majority of the 4,907 sailors killed during the battle.
U.S. and allied aircraft dropped about 160,800 tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs on the Japanese home islands between 1942 to 1945, according to a post-war bombing survey published by the U.S. Air Force. Of that total, carrier-based aircraft dropped 6,740 tons of ordnance on attack Japanese airfields, warships, and other military targets.
“The accuracy of low-level carrier plane attack was high, being at least 50% hits within 250 feet of the aiming point,” the bombing survey says.
Even though World War II ended 79 years ago, unexploded ordnance from the conflict continues to be discovered in Japan. Two unexploded bombs were found at the Miyazaki airport in 2011 and 2021.
In Fiscal Year 2023, the Japan Self-Defense Forces disposed of a total of 2,348 bombs from World War II that weighed a total of 37.5 tons.
It is unlikely that any data exists on how many of the U.S. bombs dropped on Japan during World War II failed to explode, said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, dean of the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies think tank.
“There’s no way they had that sort of situation awareness over tens of thousands of dumb bombs dropped enmasse on a single raid,” Deputla said. “Firebombs… well, that’s impossible to know.”
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Every Marine wears the same insignia: the iconic Eagle, Globe and Anchor. Though the symbol’s design has changed, its meaning has remained true, and generations of Marines point to earning theirs as a moment of pride and joy.
A central part of Marine Corps heritage, the EGA is made up of an Eagle, representing the United States, a globe to denote worldwide service, and an anchor to pay homage to the service’s naval roots.
However, its design has changed over the Marine Corps’ two-century history.
Earning the EGA is so deeply tied to the Corps’ cultural identity that enlisted recruits don’t receive theirs until the end of boot camp, It comes in a ceremony at the end of the Crucible, the culminating event in recruit training. As the exhausted but triumphant recruits gather on the parade deck, their drill instructors present them with the EGA.
That ceremony also marks the first time since arriving at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California, or Parris Island, South Carolina, when they can call themselves Marines.
“When you’re getting the EGA for the first time, it definitely symbolizes becoming a Marine,” said Joe Ortiz, who served as a Reconnaissance Marine for 11 years before getting out of the Corps in 2023 as a staff sergeant. “But, for a lot of folks, I think it’s kind of the start of a new beginning. It can have its own meaning to them. It can be the greatest accomplishment in that person’s life up to that point, especially a very young person. So it’s a very emotional experience for a lot of people.”
U.S. Marines with Papa Company, 4th Recruit Training Battalion, receive their Eagle, Globe and Anchor on Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., Oct. 21, 2022. The EGA is the official emblem and insignia of the Marine Corps. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Luis Arturo Ponce Alavez Jr. From ‘fat turkey’ to ‘droop wing’ eagle — the EGA’s transformationAccording to Owen Conner, the curatorial section chief for the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia, the origin of the EGA is complicated, with different versions of the device dating back to the years immediately after the service’s inception on Nov. 10, 1775.
Click to see designs of the Eagle, Globe and Anchor over the years. Photos via the Marine Corps. Marines wore a device that displayed a fouled anchor in 1776. Conner said that changes were made over the following years but varied greatly due to officers having the freedom to visit jewelers to have the device made while enlisted Marines were issued whatever was available at the time.
While it may have been a more carefree time for Marines who didn’t have to contend with uniform regulations, it does make tracking the exact history and transformation of these early EGAs difficult.
“I don’t have images like a comprehensive guide to every one. It’s just there’s literally hundreds and hundreds of varieties,” Conner said.
Conner said that before an official uniform regulation was established, the early versions of the EGA had little to no guidance on wear, or design, and drew inspiration from the British Royal Marines.
“They style uniforms traditionally on what’s in the military fashion, and usually that follows who’s the dominant land or naval power of the time,” said Conner. “So the British always have the dominant sea power. So most uniforms from the American Navy or Marine Corps have British influence to them.”
Conner said in the early days, Marines had buttons with some sort of eagle or anchor heraldry. Still, it was common among other military branches, such as the Continental Army. But for the Marines, today’s EGA traces back to the different collar devices of each era.
“A lot of times, the variations come with the different types of eagles that are on them,” Conner said. “That’s how you can often identify eras with those.”
The eras of those earlier versions of the EGA can be identified by the type of eagle on the collar device. Early EGAs featured different designs that had nicknames, including the ‘fat turkey,’ ‘french bird,’ and the ‘droop wing eagle.’ For example, a World War I eagle “tends to look kind of like a fat turkey, but then other ones tend to be a more elegant eagle,” Conner said.
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For decades, Marines would commonly wear the version they’d been issued when they joined or other previous designs, regardless of the current regs. In World War II, Marines were often seen wearing EGA designs that had been discontinued as far back as 1925.
“The droop wing eagle was only used for about 10 years, though they stuck around for longer. They came out in 1925, and Marines used those up until WWII — the old guys would still have them,” Conner said.
On June 22, 1954, Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower recognized the need to standardize the Marines’ official seal. Eisenhower signed into effect “Executive Order 10538 – Establishing a seal for the United States Marine Corps.” For the first time in 178 years, the EGA was standardized.
The modern-day Eagle, Globe and AnchorMarines began wearing the final EGA in 1955, and that’s when today’s design for the EGA was locked in. The fouled anchor, paired with an eagle, over a globe is the hallmark symbol of the modern Marine Corps insignia. But, there is still variety.
Officers and enlisted also have different versions of the EGA, largely based on the materials it’s made of. Conner pointed out that officers’ insignias are made of gold or sterling silver but its globe is less geographically accurate. Meanwhile, an enlisted Marine’s EGA is one solid stamped brass device geographically accurate enough to identify Cuba.
“If you see Cuba on it, it’s an enlisted device,” Conner said. “If there’s no Cuba, then it’s an officer device.”
The device can vary depending on its part of the uniform. For example, the EGA on a Marine’s dress blue cover may vary in size compared to the other devices on the uniform.
But since 1955, the EGA has continued to hold to the same standard.
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Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps midshipmen candidates stand at ease for their summer dress white uniform inspection. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Amanda S. Kitchner.
The Navy has launched a five-year plan to improve uniforms for female sailors, starting with chiefs and officers.
The Size Modernization Program is based off feedback from sailors about how the service could provide consistent fit and sizing of all female uniforms
“The current focus and phase of the Size Modernization Program is concentrated on improving women uniforms components, which have been noted and tracked over the years being a frequently expressed subject of dissatisfaction regarding fit, comfort and appearance,.” said Lt. Meagan Morrison, a spokeswoman for the Chief of Naval Personnel.
First to roll out will be changes to uniforms for officers and chief petty officers.
“Feedback overwhelmingly suggested a need for modernized female uniforms that included pockets, lower waist height, consistent sizing, and styling cuts to accommodate a range of body shapes,” Morrison said.
One of the first changes to be rolled out for officers and chiefs is an updated version of the summer white overblouse, Morrison said.
“The summer white overblouse is similar to the current khaki overblouse, which is worn untucked,” Morrison said. “It is being reshaped to accommodate changes in the arms, chest, and waist. It will be an optional uniform item.”
The Navy expects to issue its policy this fall allowing female chiefs and officers to wear the redesigned overblouse, Morrison said.
“The Navy diligently works with our partners at the Navy Exchange, Defense Logistics Agency, and other service branches to implement modernized uniform initiatives that improve the form, fit, function and support of Sailor uniforms,” said Rob Carroll, director of Uniform Policy and Emerging Issues at the Chief of Naval Personnel office.
said in a statement to Task & Purpose.
Stars and Stripes first reported on the uniform plan which was announced in a Sept. 18 Navy Administrative Message, or NAVADMIN.
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When the five-year plan to modernize female uniforms is complete, the Navy will turn its attention to reviewing changes for male uniforms, Morrison told Task & Purpose.
Over the past several years, the Navy has been collecting feedback at all hands calls, focus groups, and other venues from female sailors about their uniforms, Morrison said.
The Navy has announced that other upcoming changes for female officer and chief petty officer uniforms include:
- A better-fitting long sleeved operational overblouse is expected to be available starting in April.
- Service slacks with back pockets and a new sizing system are scheduled to be available starting in May.
- Sailors assigned to Recruiting Command or as Recruit Division Commanders or Navy Career Counselors will be allowed to wear metal identification badges on their camouflage uniforms, per their commanders’ discretion. After those sailors complete their assignments, they will be able to wear a smaller metal identification badge.
- Service skirts for white, khaki and blue uniforms will have a straight design instead of an A-frame design, and they will include a back center zipper fastener, and a kick pleat.
The Navy is also considering whether to add side pockets to the service skirts. No decision on the pockets has been made yet.
Women’s uniforms across the militaryAs the number of female service members has increased over the years, the military branches have invested money in research and development to better tailor uniforms and body armor to fit women properly, said Katherine Kuzminski, director of the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington, D.C.
But, there is a long way to go, Kuzmiksnki told Task & Purpose.
“I think that we’re just at the beginning stages of seeing body armor and MOLLE kits, plates and all of that being tailored to women’s bodies,” Kuzminski said.
Making tactical gear that better fit female service members has long been a challenge for the military branches. Army veteran Kayla Williams previously told Task & Purpose that when she deployed to Iraq, she would get calluses on her collarbone from the ill-fitting ballistic plates in the body armor that she wore.
In January 2021, Congress required the military branches to develop personal protective equipment that better fits all service members. Around that time, the first female airmen in security forces units – the Air Force’s equivalent of military police – began receiving body armor that was specifically designed for women.
Better-fitting tactical gear in particular could help reduce musko-skeletal injuries for female service members, Kuzminksi said.
“Women are not just small men; we have different builds,” Kuzminksi said. “Chest plates that are just sized down from men’s equipment for women can sometimes leave gaps which increases the likelihood that a stray bullet could go between the body armor and a woman’s body. But even more commonplace are the ways that the shape of body armor when you’re rucking over a long period of time sits on women’s hips improperly, which can lead to hip, knee, and ankle problems and can lead to longer term wear tear that affects the service itself and the long tail of the VA [Department of Veterans Affairs.]”
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President Joe Biden ordered 1,000 active duty troops to deploy to North Carolina to help with response efforts to Hurricane Helene, one of the deadliest and most destructive storms in U.S. history, the White House said Wednesday.
Those active-duty troops will join 6,500 National Guard soldiers from 15 states already deployed or headed towards Helene’s path.
Under Biden’s order an Infantry Battalion Task Force from Fort Liberty, North Carolina will deploy to the region made up of 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers and other units, the Pentagon said in a statement. The soldiers will help bring food, water and supplies to “impacted and isolated communities” as well as assist with supply logistics at staging locations and removing debris from affected routes, the Pentagon said.
The active duty soldiers will join efforts already underway by thousands of members of the National Guard who have been in North Carolina and other affected regions since the storm’s early hours, according to the National Guard Bureau. Guard units from the 15 states with over 500 vehicles have been assisting in search and rescue, debris clearance, transportation over broken roads and aid distribution.
Three-dozen National Guard helicopters have been flying in and out of flood-stranded regions, officials said, along with a North Carolina Air National Guard C-17 transport aircraft.
According to National Guard officials, troops deployed due to Helene as of Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024 include:
- Florida: 3,100
- Georgia: 1,500
- North Carolina: 760
- South Carolina: 730
- Tennessee: 280
- Virginia: 60
- Alabama: 13
- Connecticut: 5
- Iowa: 7
- Indiana: 11
- Kentucky: 11
- Maryland: 12
- New York: 29
- Ohio: 16
- Pennsylvania: 26
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The states sending smaller contingents of guardsmen are part of the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, a national partnership agreement that allows state-to-state assistance during declared emergencies. Their response also includes 15 aircraft.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin tapped Brig. Gen. Charles Morrison from the North Carolina Army National Guard as the dual-status commander of the response over both the federal and state troops in North Carolina.
On Wednesday, the Pentagon cited Hurricane Helene response help from Army and Navy helicopters moving personnel and supplies where road access is unavailable or not viable; Air Force aircraft helping with search and rescue; Army soldiers and high wheeled vehicles moving personnel and supplies over damaged roads; and the Army Corps of Engineers teams supporting debris removal, water and wastewater management, and bridge inspections.
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When an officer gets new orders, or is getting out of the military, their send off can vary. Sometimes it’s a “good luck” and a pat on the back (or kick in the ass) on their way out the door, other times, it’s a prank or a time-honored unit tradition. For one tank platoon leader, this meant getting duct-taped and cargo-strapped to the barrel of his M1 Abrams as his soldiers stood at attention and rendered crisp salutes.
Of note, the platoon leader did not appear to return the salute.
The photo was first posted to U.S. Army WTF Moment’s Instagram and Facebook pages on Sept. 27. Based on the post, the send off appears to have occurred after the platoon completed their last gunnery with their soon-to-depart officer. Gunnery is a recurring range qualification for tank crews.
Online, current and former tankers pointed out that it’s good to see the tradition alive and well, with one writing on Facebook, “Ya gotta earn their respect to get that treatment,” and another adding “LT, that means they like you!”
It’s unclear what unit the crew belonged to, or the departing officer’s rank, as the front of his uniform isn’t visible in the image, and his cover is nowhere to be found, though maybe that was fired out of the main gun on the range — one of many traditions unique to the armor community.
The icing on top? The tank he’s strapped to is named “Anarchy.”
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To the surprise of no one, military service comes with a wide range of challenges and hardships, with each era, occupational field, and role enduring, and embracing, their own version of the suck. This, in turn, leads to a very unique brand of humor, one that often takes the form of pranks, which, with time and repetition, become tradition. For tankers, that can involve strapping a departing, or newly joined member of the unit, to the main gun tube. And, as one former armor officer told Task & Purpose in 2016, sometimes the crew will take the turret for a spin.
Soldiers have a weird way of showing affection towards their fellow soldiers. Where you might expect hugs and high fives, soldiers have pranks. It’s when the pranks don’t happen that shows a soldier they aren’t liked and are being excluded.
In light of the military community’s unique brand of affection, if you ever find yourself strapped to a tank’s main gun, chances are you didn’t f*ck up.
So, a tip of the hat for the platoon leader who did well enough to earn the respect of their crew.
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A little over two decades ago, military scientists sat around a conference table to eat breakfast and discuss biological clues for diagnosing traumatic brain injuries among service members. The meeting took place at a combat casualty conference in St. Petersburg, Florida, where researchers and doctors discussed TBIs soldiers could suffer on the battlefield.
It was the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
Within days, the U.S. would enter a series of wars that would last nearly two decades and TBIs would become “one of the signature injuries of troops wounded” in those conflicts. Since 2000, over half a million troops have been diagnosed with at least mild TBIs from combat or training.
That meeting on the morning of 9/11 “marks the inception” of the Defense Department’s involvement in TBI blood-based biomarker research, said Damien Hoffman, biomedical engineer and product manager for the Army’s traumatic brain injury tool.
More than 20 years later, the Army co-developed a test that researchers could not have envisioned that morning: A battlefield device that, by testing a single drop of blood, can give combat medics better insight into a soldier’s head injury.
The Analyzer Traumatic Brain Injury program is a test developed by the Army in conjunction with Abbott Laboratories. With one drop of blood, the ATBI device can detect early indications of a potential TBI within 15 minutes, researchers said.
The impact of having such a diagnosis in the field could be large.
For a field medic, a positive test could allow medical personnel to push an injured patient toward computed tomography or ‘CT’ scan, while a negative test would allow them to rule it out.
And beyond the frontlines, knowing who needs evacuation, and who can wait may be key information in the future. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S military medically evacuated countless troops for treatment of suspected TBIs. But in a conflict where the U.S. might not have air superiority, Hoffman said the test can help the military limit evacuations, treat troops locally and get those healthy enough back to the front lines.
U.S. Army Sgt. Raymond Calzada, a medical laboratory specialist waits for test results from the Analyzer Traumatic Brain Injury system during Global Medic, a combat support training exercise, Fort Hunter Liggett, California, in June 2023. Army photo. “Given the large numbers of expected casualties with all severities of traumatic brain injury in future large-scale combat operations,” the test can help medical providers prioritize more severe cases and “eliminate unnecessary evacuations,” Army Lt. Col. Bradley Dengler, neurosurgical consultant to the Surgeon General said in a release.
During U.S. operations in the Middle East over the last two decades, Hoffman said the U.S. had an “over reliance” on evacuations. Army research has since determined that the test “may have” prevented 30 to 35% of all rotary-wing evacuations for isolated mild TBIs during counter insurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2002 and 2018, he added.
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Before the device, mild TBIs had been a challenge to diagnose, with the CT scan as the “gold standard,” according to Hoffman. Otherwise, medical providers were left with basic diagnostic skills like checking a patient’s eyes or an interview — an approach that’s less than definitive.
“Aside from imaging, the only other clinical information that the clinician had to make their decision on was really subjective,” he said. “Your level 10 headache may be a level 11 headache for me. You and I don’t know that difference and the clinician won’t know. We’ll just say that we have a really bad headache.”
In April, the tool was approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In 2025 — but possibly earlier — the Army plans to field the tool, first to large and small hospitals, followed by “Charlie Med stations” which are company-sized units that provide care for brigades.
While the tool has not been widely deployed, it was tested with troops in the U.S. and others deployed to support U.S. Central Command operations. In July 2023, the tool was tested during a medic combat training exercise at Fort Hunter Liggett, California. In the Middle East, test results were analyzed by military labs in the region in Kuwait and Baghdad.
“By providing this capability to CENTCOM, we got real data from the operational community on the utilization, on the impact to their clinical practice and their clinical decision making that the [Analyzer Traumatic Brain Injury] will have once it goes live,” Hoffman said.
Soldier brain healthThe tool is part of the military’s focus on troop brain and head injuries that have prompted millions of dollars in research, new offices and programs that consider these issues early in service members’ careers. In August, the Pentagon announced that the services would conduct baseline cognitive assessments during Initial Entry Training. Along with the assessments, the Defense Department also published new rules on safe distances to limit troops’ exposure to heavy blasts or what the military calls “blast overpressure.”
In the Army, officials plan to evaluate soldiers’ cognition every three years after their initial screening for early intervention and to “identify any unusual cognitive change,” according to an Army release. While the schedule and ongoing evaluations are new, the testing is part of a program that began in 2007. For nearly two decades, over 3.4 million assessments have been collected, analyzed, and stored at the Neurocognitive Assessment Branch Data Repository at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas.
Those same cognitive tests were mandated for troops deploying to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan through the Department of Defense Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics center. The computer-based test is used as a baseline assessment and detects “speed and accuracy of attention, memory, and thinking ability,” according to an Army release.
Ongoing TBI researchWith the ability to detect TBIs faster and more accurately, research in the civilian and military worlds are expanding what two of the main TBI blood biomarkers (GFAP and UCH-L1) can teach scientists about treatment and other diseases.
“Getting the rule-out test was the tip of the iceberg for these two biomarkers, in my opinion,” Hoffman said.
Other research within the Army tool portfolio is looking at how biomarkers can aid in the development of drug treatments for TBI, he added. Researchers are also testing oral treatments for moderate TBI and intravenous and intramuscular TBI drug treatments for severe TBI, according to the Army.
“There is interest in seeing if we can determine return to duty or recovery rate based on maybe the decrease in the biomarkers at an ‘X’ rate and at what point you are considered mission capable,” Hoffman said about a separate line of study.
Two studies published this month also highlighted the importance of biomarkers in further research. One study reiterated the Army’s analysis that biomarkers “obtained this early after injury could inform decision-making” such as prehospital transport to trauma centers, military theater evacuations to medical facilities, and sports-related brain injuries on the sidelines.
The FDA’s first approved blood test for evaluating mild traumatic brain injury has even led researchers to look at how blood markers may help with diagnoses for a host of other fatal health conditions like viral infections and bacterial sepsis, according to a new Navy medical research study published earlier this month.
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A former soldier must repay the federal government $200,000 for benefits he received during a fraudulent marriage scheme in which he pocketed money for housing, medical benefits and cost of living payments from the Army, Department of Justice officials said.
Andre Fulton II, 30, was sentenced in federal court last week after pleading guilty to theft of government money. A federal judge sentenced him to three months in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $200,000 in restitution. Fulton must also pay a $100 fine.
Fulton enlisted in the Army in October 2014 and served as a human resources specialist until November 2023 when he left the Army as a private. He deployed to Poland from May 2018 to February 2019, officials said. The Privacy Act and Department of Defense policy prevents the Army from releasing information about Fulton’s “characterization of service at discharge,” Army spokesperson Bryce Dubee told Task & Purpose.
Fulton pleaded guilty to entering a fraudulent marriage in 2018 with a woman named as his co-conspirator. As a result of the scheme, Fulton’s co-conspirator maintained her immigration status in the U.S. and the soldier received at least $202,039.27 for housing allowance, medical expenses and cost of living adjustments from the Army.
Fulton entered the fraudulent marriage in January 2018 while he was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. At the time, his wife filed an application to change her immigration status based on the fraudulent marriage. As part of a plea agreement, Fulton admitted that “he knew the purpose of the fraudulent marriage” was to help his co-conspirator “evade the immigration laws” to remain in the U.S., according to a Department of Justice press release.
Accepting benefits for scam marriageFulton joined the Army in 2014 and was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas until 2019, court documents show.
Fulton married the woman, who the DOJ did not name, in Texas on Jan. 26, 2018. The woman had previously married another man and they both received B-2 non-immigrant visas in 2016. They divorced less than a year later, according to court documents.
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In February 2019, during an interview for the wife’s immigration status change, Fulton said “that he did not care if the marriage was a fraud and that he loves his wife.” A month later, the wife gave birth to a daughter in Texas. Fulton is listed as the father on the child’s birth certificate, according to court documents.
In May 2019, Fulton was transferred to Fort Shafter, Hawaii, with his wife and the five-month-old girl and Fulton submitted paperwork “falsely” claiming that the two were living with him as dependents, the DOJ said. However, Army investigators visited the address Fulton provided and found that the property had been demolished, zoned for commercial use and occupied by a tinting business, according to court documents.
In September 2019, Fulton requested a Cost of Living Adjustment, or COLA, rate change for a new address with his dependents. After contacting the apartment management company, officers with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s fraud directorate found that Fulton had lived there for less than two months with two roommates who were also in the Army. The woman’s name was not listed on the lease or in the computer system. The manager also said that Fulton and his Army roommates were asked to move out after an incident involving police, court documents show.
Eventually, Fulton admitted to investigators that the marriage was a sham since he and the woman were not romantically involved and never lived together, the DOJ said. In 2022, Fulton told DHS fraud officers that he had received between $2,500 and $5,000 to marry the woman and had met her previous husband “so they could feel comfortable knowing him,” according to court documents. Fulton admitted to casually dating other women during the marriage while taking pictures with the woman to submit to immigration.
“While the United States appropriately confers significant benefits upon our military personnel for their service, it does so with the understanding that such benefits will be not exploited or misused,” U.S. Attorney Clare E. Connors said in a release. “Defendant Fulton exploited his position with the United States military.”
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U.S. Navy destroyers currently in the eastern Mediterranean Sea fired about a dozen interceptors at Iranian missiles launched against Israel on Tuesday, said Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman.
The destroyers USS Cole and USS USS Bulkeley were involved in the effort, Ryder told reporters at a Pentagon news conference. Ryder did not specify how many missiles the interceptors hit.
“They fired the interceptors,” Ryder told reporters. “We’re still assessing outcomes of that. I just don’t have more information to provide at this time.”
Iran launched an estimated 200 ballistic missiles against Israel on Tuesday shortly after the Israel Defense Forces launched a ground incursion into southern Lebanon.
Washington Post reporter Dan Lamothe posted on X on Tuesday that U.S. destroyers in the Mediterranean Sea had downed some of those missiles.
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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group to remain in the eastern Mediterranean Sea along with USS Wasp Amphibious Ready Group and the embarked 24th Marine Expeditionary Group.
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters on Monday that the U.S. military was also deploying “an additional few thousand” U.S. troops in fighter aircraft units to the Middle East.
Hours before Iran’s missile attack against Israel, U.S. Central Command posted on X that an F-15E, F-16, and A-10 squadron were on their way to the region “with one squadron having already arrived.”
Tuesday marked the second time this year that Iran launched a direct attack against Israel. In April, the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force all helped shoot down Iranian ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones that had been launched against Israel.
At the time, the Arleigh Burke and the destroyer USS Carney shot down between four and six ballistic missiles.
This is a developing story. It will be updated as more information becomes available.
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The U.S. military has released video of a Russian Su-35 fighter flying far too close to an American F-16 in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ, an area of international airspace in which aircraft must be identified for national security reasons.
The Sept. 23 incident marked the first time that aircraft from North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, has had to deal with unsafe and unprofessional Russian conduct since Russia resumed long-range aviation flights in 2007, a NORAD spokesperson told Task & Purpose Russia had suspended such flights in 1992 when the Cold War ended.
Although the U.S. government has accused Russian pilots of conducting dangerous maneuvers near American aircraft elsewhere, the NORAD spokesman said this marks the first time that NORAD has documented unsafe behavior by a Russian aircraft in one of the ADIZs that it enforces.
“The first fighter incursion occurred in 2014 and no unsafe or unprofessional occurrences have been recorded,” the spokesperson said.
The video was taken from inside the cockpit of the F-16 during a routine intercept of a Russian Tu-95 bomber. The Su-35 suddenly cut across the F-16’s nose, forcing the American pilot to bank right.
On Sept. 23, 2024, a Russian Su-35 fighter conducted an unsafe maneuver near a US F-16. Photo courtesy of North American Aerospace Defense Command. It appears the Russian pilot conducted a “headbutt” maneuver, which can be used to get another pilot’s attention or harass another aircraft by forcing it to fly through the other plane’s turbulence
“On Monday (Sept. 23), NORAD aircraft flew a safe and disciplined intercept of Russian military aircraft in the Alaskan ADIZ,” Air Force Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, head of U.S Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, said in a statement. “The conduct of one Russian Su-35 was unsafe, unprofessional, and endangered all — not what you’d see in a professional air force.”
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The reasons why the Russian pilot decided to fly so close to the F-16 remain unclear, said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, dean of the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies think tank.
Deptula said he believes the individual Russian pilot decided to cut across the F-16’s nose instead of being ordered to do so.
“It’s a completely unprofessional act,” Deptula told Task & Purpose on Tuesday. “Number two, it indicates a breakdown in the Russian air force’s discipline because there is no purpose for acting in that manner that would be part of direction coming from Russian top command.”
He also noted that the Russian air force is currently committed to the war in Ukraine, “And the last thing it needs to do is to provoke an incident with the United States.”
One reason why the Russian pilot’s maneuver was so reckless is that if the F-16 had decided to turn left instead of continuing his approach to the Russian bomber, the Su-35 and F-16 could have collided, Deptula said.
“I’d like to be in the debrief after that guy landed and hear what he told his squadron commander,” Deptula said, adding that if he were the commander of an American pilot who flew like this, the pilot would be “grounded.”
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian pilots have harassed U.S. aircraft and ground forces, especially in Syria, where both U.S. and Russian troops are deployed. In March 2023, a Russian fighter ran into an MQ-9 Reaper, causing the U.S. drone to crash into the Black Sea.
The Sept. 23 incident in the Alaskan ADIZ represents “pretty typical Russian unprofessional behavior,” said retired Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, who served as head of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO Allied Command Operations from 2013 to 2016.
“And the sad news is that the proficiency of the Russian pilots is such that this is much more dangerous than it looks,” Deptula told Task & Purpose. “They don’t get the kind of flying time that would even attempt to make something like this more normalized. Sadly, this is the age we’re in.”
Breedlove said he believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin feels emboldened to challenge the United States by authorizing aggressive actions that fall short of war with NATO countries, such as the incident between the Su-35 and F-16.
He also said that Putin lives by a quote from Vladimir Lenin, the first leader of the Soviet Union: “You probe with bayonets: if you find mush, you push. If you find steel, you withdraw.”
“I think that it’s pretty clear that right now, Russia doesn’t feel hard resistance in its probing outside of NATO,” Breedlove said.
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Former Navy lieutenant, Nobel Peace Prize recipient and President of the United States Jimmy Carter turns 100 today, October 1. He is the first American president to reach that age.
The 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981, Carter reached the milestone Tuesday while in hospice care, where he has been since February 2023. Carter has survived two kinds of cancer and several falls.
Today is Carter’s first birthday in 78 years without his late wife Rosalynn Carter, who passed away in November.
Carter’s presidency is widely remembered for having assumed office during turbulent years, and serving just one term. However, his post-presidential public life has been among the most influential and effective of any former president as a global humanitarian leader.
Less remembered is Carter’s military career prior to entering politics, but he played supporting roles in some of the Navy’s most important history. Carter was a member of the development team of nuclear-powered submarines, served above and below the surface and helped prevent a nuclear disaster in North America.
“Your hopeful vision of our country, your commitment to a better world, and your unwavering belief in the power of human goodness continues to be a guiding light for all of us,” current President Joe Biden said in a birthday message to Carter on Sunday, Sept. 29.
Carter’s father, James Earl Carter Sr., joined the U.S. Army during World War I, though the war ended before he was sent overseas. His son went into the Navy, graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946. After serving on surface vessels in the Atlantic and Pacific, Lieutenant Junior Grade Carter joined the submarine corps, eventually serving as executive officer of the USS K-1.
During his last year in service, he worked with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, working on the development of nuclear propulsion systems for the Navy. It was there that his personal actions and knowledge of nuclear engineering helped prevent a major nuclear accident when a nuclear reactor at the Chalk River Laboratories in Canada suffered a partial meltdown.
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When Canadian officials asked the United States for help, Carter led a team of volunteers to the site. The radiation was so strong they could only enter into the reactor for 90 seconds at a time. The team prepared by building a duplicate of the interior to practice deactivating the reactor. The volunteer Navy team worked efficiently, exposing themselves to dangerous levels of radiation, but succeeded in preventing a full meltdown and wider disaster. “They let us get probably a thousand times more radiation than they would now,” he would later say in 2008.
Carter was then set to serve as the engineering officer on the nuclear submarine the USS Seawolf when his father died. Carter left active duty to return to Plains and run the family farm. He stayed in the reserves, fully retiring in 1961 with the rank of lieutenant. Carter soon entered politics. He then won the 1976 presidential election. His presidency saw several foreign policy successes, including the Camp David Accords and SALT II deal with the Soviet Union, but was marred by high energy prices and the Iranian embassy hostage crisis. One military effort to rescue them failed, leaving three Marines and five airmen dead before it could reach its destination. The hostages were only released after he left office, having lost the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan.
Lieutenant Carter (ret.) had an extensive career in helping others after leaving office. He founded the Carter Center, a human rights and pro-democracy organization that helps provide election monitoring. He was known for years for his active participation in building homes with Habitat for Humanity.
In 2015, Carter announced that he had cancer, with melanoma being detected in his brain. By year’s end, after treatment, his body showed no continued signs of cancer. However, increased hospital visits and growing age led the former president to enter hospice in early 2023.
At a recent benefit concert celebrating his centennial in Atlanta on Sept. 17, musicians and speakers from a variety of genres paid tribute to Carter’s years of activism and humanitarian work. The concert was recorded and airs tonight on Georgia Public Broadcasting.
The former president also pushed for other public health fights, including the eradication of guinea worm. After his cancer diagnosis, Carter said that he hoped to live long enough to see the disease wiped out. The disease has been cut down, with only four cases reported in humans in the first seven months of 2024. Alongside other honors, including being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, the nuclear submarine the USS Jimmy Carter was named for him, the first Navy vessel to be named for a living president.
The former president lives in his longtime home of Plains, Georgia. According to family he remains an active follower of the news and fan of the Atlanta Braves baseball team.
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Two military bases in Georgia are under partial evacuation orders after Hurricane Helene knocked power and water out on both installations, damage which officials say could take at least a week to remedy. Commanders at Moody Air Force Base near Valdosta, Georgia and the Army’s Fort Eisenhower near Augusta, Georgia gave the go-ahead for thousands of troops to leave the region while power and water are widely out.
The evacuation orders are not a mandatory instruction for airmen and soldiers to leave, but rather an authorization for hard-hit families to leave town under rules that allow for full reimbursement of travel expenses.
So-called ‘essential” personnel are exempt from the orders at both bases and will be expected to be at work, though families of ‘essential’ personnel can evacuate with full reimbursement.
Moody Air Force BaseThe base commander at Moody, Colonel Paul Sheets, issued an order on Monday for a limited evacuation of troops assigned to the base whose homes are uninhabitable. Under the terms of the order posted on Moody’s Facebook page, troops are authorized to leave town immediately if their home is without water or sewer service, has suffered major structural damage, or if a home has lost power while a family member has a serious medical condition, including women late in pregnancy.
According to the posted memo, those who can leave are authorized to travel 300 miles or 6 hours by car, far enough to reach largely unaffected places like Pensacola or Orlando, Florida or much of South Carolina. Most expenses for those who leave will be reimbursed, including lodging, food, and mileage traveled.
Troops are not authorized to travel by plane, but can families can be re-imbursed for the expenses of two cars.
Calls to several on-base numbers Monday evening were not answered, with some cutting off. About 5,500 active duty troops are stationed at Moody, which is home to A-10 fighter squadrons and a search and rescue group of HC-130J tankers, HH-60 helicopters and Pararescue operators. It was unclear Monday if those rescue forces would be called for hurricane relief efforts, which has occurred in the past.
Moody is just outside Valdosta, which sits 60 miles north of Perry, Florida, where Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane. The track Helene followed passed directly over Valdosta, where damage is widespread.
Power and water were knocked out on the base and across the region, including in the off-base residences of thousands of Moody families. The base has been closed to non-essential personnel since the storm hit with minimum manning at gates and other essential offices, base officials have said. The base is under a curfew of 5 p.m. to 9 a.m., hours closely matched to curfews in the surrounding county.
Fort EisenhowerThe Fort Eisenhower base commander, Major General Ryan Janovic, put the base under a “voluntary evacuation” plan Monday, according to a release on the base’s website and copies of the order circulating on social media. The plan applies to most troops stationed there, but not to students at the various technical schools that train new soldiers on cyber warfare. About 600 students are set to graduate this week from initial cyber training, base officials say. An incoming class has already been delayed.
Personnel at Fort Eisenhower can travel 500 miles, a radius far enough to reach Columbus, Ohio or Washington, D.C. Like the Moody order, the Eisenhower evacuation applies only to non-essential positions, though it does not appear to require specific damage to a home but rather general hardship and damage.
The Eisenhower order gave no specific end date, noting it was in effect until rescinded.
About 18,000 active duty troops are stationed at the base, not counting trainees at its schools. The base is home to a number of signal and intelligence units, along with the Cyber Center for Excellence.
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Navy Capt. Bradley Geary, who oversaw the infamously grueling training school for Navy SEALs, will face a board of inquiry on Nov. 11 for the death of a recruit following the Hell Week portion of Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, or BUD/S, his attorney said.
Geary led the Naval Special Warfare Center’s Basic Training Command at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado in San Diego, California, which directly oversees BUD/S, when SEAL candidate Kyle Mullen died of pneumonia on Feb. 4, 2022 within hours of finishing Hell Week. The Navy officer is accused of failing to properly supervise medical personnel, leading to Mullen’s grievous bodily injury or death.
The board of inquiry will determine whether Geary committed any misconduct and recommend whether to retain or separate him through an administrative discharge.
A Naval Education and Training Command investigation later determined that Mullen died of pneumonia and that even though human growth hormone and other medication were found in Mullen’s car, he had “died in the line of duty, and not due to his own misconduct.”
An Oct. 12, 2022 Navy news release also said that “Performance Enhancing Drugs were not a contributing cause of Mullen’s death.”
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But Jason Wareham, Geary’s attorney, claimed he has evidence showing that someone in the Navy secretary’s office ordered that the wording of the Navy’s October 2022 news release be changed to rule out performance enhancing drugs as a causal factor in Mullen’s death.
Wareham has submitted a request to have Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin oversee Geary’s board of inquiry. In the request, he argues that Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro has already determined that performance enhancing drugs did not contribute to Mullen’s death.
“How can he make a fair determination, having pre-judged that issue, when that is going to be central to our defense?” Wareham told Task & Purpose. “It’s basically like determining the cause of death at a murder trial, before we’ve raised any evidence.”
Navy investigators who looked into Mullen’s death found text messages on his phone about using performance enhancing drugs, such as one in which he said his buttocks became swollen following the injection of a bad vial of such drugs, according to the Naval Education and Training Command investigation.
However, Mullen’s mother Regina said that both a Navy coroner and a medical examiner who conducted a separate autopsy of her son found that Mullen died of bacterial pneumonia.
“Steroids do not cause bacterial pneumonia,” Regina Mullen told Task & Purpose on Monday.
On the morning her son died, he was twice given oxygen and had crackling lungs, a tell-tale sign of pneumonia, said Regina Mullen, a registered nurse.
At that point, he should have been intubated and given antibiotics, Regina Mullen said. She noted that three other SEAL candidates in her son’s class were treated for pneumonia, one of whom was intubated.
“There’s never in the history of medicine been a case that steroids caused four kids to have bacterial pneumonia, because it wasn’t just my son, it was three others,” she said.
Regina Mullen said she spoke to her son on the day of his death. It was clear that he was struggling to breathe. She also said that her son told her prior to his death that the SEAL candidates were being denied medical care to force them to quit BUD/S.
“My son refused to quit,” Regina Mullen said. “He didn’t want to be deemed a quitter. So, he just figured he’d get better. They say he denied medical care: He did not. He refused to quit to get medical care. And when you’re that low on oxygen, you are not mentally fit. They expect him to be a doctor now. He doesn’t know how sick he is. He doesn’t know what that means. He thinks he’s going to get better. That’s what your medical team is for — that’s the support. So, what are they doing? They’re making a kid diagnose himself. Think about that.”
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The Space Force launched its first guardian into space over the weekend.
Col. Nick Hague was launched into space from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida on Saturday to join other astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Hague is commanding a Dragon spacecraft for NASA’s Space X Crew-9 mission. Once he arrives at the ISS, Hague will act as a flight engineer for nearly six months and help the crew with various scientific research under the unique conditions that space has to offer, such as microgravity. Hague will participate in a variety of human research studies like how to avoid injury upon coming back to Earth and learning how space travel affects the human body on a molecular level, according to NASA.
He will also help with research on Spaceflight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome which occurs when body fluids shift toward the head during weightlessness. One study will have Hague wearing fitted thigh cuffs to see if it counters the syndrome by keeping more bodily fluids in the legs and another will have him take Vitamin B to see if it can mitigate eye swelling.
While he’s there, Hague will also retrieve two astronauts who have been stranded on the ISS due to problems with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.
“NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station is a regularly scheduled round trip flight to and from the orbiting complex, not a rescue mission,” NASA said in a statement to Task & Purpose. “NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have an assigned return spacecraft, like any other crew, and will remain at the space station completing science and maintenance activities aboard the microgravity laboratory.”
Wilmore and Suni Williams arrived at the space station June 6. The two were scheduled to spend eight days there until NASA decided in August that the Starliner that brought them into space would return to Earth without them after the spacecraft developed a series of problems, including helium leaks and malfunctions with its control thrusters. To accommodate seating, NASA revamped the Crew-9 mission and removed two NASA astronauts from the outgoing flight to make room for the two stranded astronauts aboard the Dragon spacecraft on its way back to Earth.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, Sept. 28, 2024. Space Force photo by Senior Airman Spencer Contreras. Hague is set to return to Earth early next year.
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Hague is the first guardian launched into orbit right before the Space Force celebrates its fifth anniversary in December. However, he is technically not the first Space Force guardian to be in space since NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins transferred from the Air Force while in orbit on the International Space Station in December 2020.
This will be Hague’s third flight toward space. In 2019, Hague spent more than six months on the International Space Station. In 2018, he launched on a Russian mission headed to the ISS which suffered a near-catastrophic engine failure two minutes after liftoff but survived, parachuting back to earth in the crew capsule.
Hague’s Crew-9 mission is the first crewed launch from Space Launch Complex 40 but the site’s history goes back to the 1960’s when the Air Force used the launch pads for Titan rockets which were part of their intercontinental ballistic missile program.
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Singer, actor, boxer, Rhodes Scholar, activist and U.S. Army veteran Kris Kristofferson died today. He was 88. The son of a general and an outspoken critic of American wars abroad later in his life, Kristofferson helped define “outlaw country” as a genre.
“It is with a heavy heart that we share the news our husband/father/grandfather, Kris Kristofferson, passed away peacefully on Saturday, Sept. 28 at home,” his family said in a statement announcing his death. “We’re all so blessed for our time with him. Thank you for loving him all these many years, and when you see a rainbow, know he’s smiling down at us all.”
Born June 22, 1936 in Texas, he moved around often due to his father’s military service. He enrolled at Pomona College, where he was a celebrated athlete, competing in rugby and football, among other sports. He also won a Golden Gloves boxing tournament. While there he studied literature, and eventually received a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University. It was there that he started recording music.
The self-described military brat, Kristofferson’s family was heavily involved in the armed forces. His father, Lars Kristofferson, had been a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps and stayed with it when it became the U.S. Air Force, reaching the rank of major general. Kris’ brother Kraigher became a Navy aviator and served during the Vietnam War. After finishing his studies, Kris Kristofferson joined the U.S. Army at the age of 25. He was commissioned a second lieutenant.
Kris Kristofferson in the 1960s while in uniform. (U.S. Army photo) While in the U.S. Army, he attended Ranger School, earning a Ranger tab and also eventually a promotion to captain. He trained as a helicopter pilot at Fort Rucker and was later stationed in Germany with the 8th Infantry Division. He would later recall that he had issues with the rigid structure and deference to authority in the military, but stayed on longer than his initial three-year term. He was eventually set to teach English literature at West Point, but left the Army to pursue his dream of being a musician.
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According to a biography of the singer, he decided he wanted to “hustle like Hank Williams” and be a full-time musician. By his own admission, Kristofferson said that his parents were horrified by his decision to resign his commission and leave the military.
His military experience ended up helping his music career. Living in Nashville and working mainly as a janitor at a recording studio, he also worked as a songwriter for other artists. He found some jobs as a helicopter pilot, ferrying people to and from oil rigs. Eventually he landed a helicopter at Johnny Cash’s yard, which got the country legend’s attention. Kristofferson was able to record “Sunday Morning Comin’ Down,” which became the first of several hit songs.
In the 1970s, Kristofferson became associated with the outlaw country music scene, a creative movement against the Nashville “machine” that dominated country music at the time. He became friends with other independent, outlaw country singers such as Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard. He would team up with Nelson, Jenning and Cash, forming the group the Highwaymen, earning several hit songs. Kristofferson struggled with alcoholism for years, but eventually overcame his addiction.
Outside of music, Kristofferson was a prolific actor, known for his work in celebrated movies such as ‘Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,’ ‘Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,’ . He was the leading man in 1976’s ‘A Star is Born,’ earning a Golden Globe for Best Actor. For many he was well known as Whistler, mentor of the titular vampire killer in the 1998 hit ‘Blade.’
An outspoken critic of many of the United States’ wars abroad later in his life — vocally opposing the Gulf War and speaking out against American involvement in Nicaragua and El Salvador in the 1980s — Kristofferson remained a supporter of military veterans. While in the Army, he wrote, “Vietnam Blues,” told from the perspective of an enlisted man. The song became a hit for Dave Dudley. Throughout his life, Kristofferson remained a steadfast supporter of veterans, and in 2003 was awarded “Veteran of the Year” at the American Veterans Awards (Willie Nelson presented it to him).
He suffered from memory loss starting in his 70s, eventually being diagnosed with Lyme disease. He continued to perform and record into his 80s. He retired at the age of 81.
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Irregular warfare is not what you think it is. In fact, to understand it, think bigger. That’s the message in a new video on the topic from the U.S. Army’s special warfare school. It’s a slick, ominous clip, but one that was quietly released onto social media on Thursday, Sept. 26 by the United States Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School.
The video, simply titled “irregular warfare clip,” starts simple, with a musician playing on a violin and pastoral shots of a family playing near fields. As a clock ticks in the background, those cut to militant scenes. Aerial reconnaissance of cityscapes, combat footage in urban areas, including night vision shots, plus tanks firing. As the music builds, those idyllic scenes appear only briefly.
Watch for yourself:
Irregular warfare, according to the Army’s special warfare school, is several things. Chaotic. Multidimensional. A contest of power and influence. One description that lingers is “strategic competition,” set over images of the Earth from space. The term, the United States’ go-to phrase for its contest for influence with China, comes seconds after a notable shot of the Hong Kong skyline.
The video also features several bits of footage showing what the Army considers ideological battlefields and places where the U.S. is fighting for influence. There are shots of protests, from people marching in the streets — seemingly from 2020 — to protestors standing on barriers with fire in the background. Instead of soldiers in combat gear, the last half of the video includes suited figures in political offices. There are also several scientific aspects, from rocket engine ignition sequences to items being crafted on 3D printers. As the text next describes irregular warfare as “unity of effort,” footage of a conductor leading a symphony ties together some of the ideas. Irregular warfare is a big picture matter, not limited just to actual combat battlefields.
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It’s not clear what the purpose of the video is, if it’s an internal training tool for soldiers at SWCS or meant for wider release. At just over a minute and half long, it’s a bit lengthy for any television commercial. Notably, it has not been shared by the school on any social media platforms beyond being uploaded to YouTube. It currently has less than 4,000 views. Task & Purpose contacted SWCS about “Irregular Warfare Clip,” but as of press time has not received a response.
There is some overlap with another video uploaded to the school’s YouTube page. That one, “Special Warfare Center Command Video,” released on Sept. 24, is more of a general overview of what the school does. It features rougher footage and is not as heavily produced. But it outlines what kind of training and skills servicemembers learn at the school.
“We have a functional responsibility to integrate the role of irregular warfare in support of the joint force,” the narrator says in that clip.
The video, with its sharp editing and high production value, is similar to the Army’s 4th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne)’s “Ghosts in the Machine” video, released earlier this year as part of a psychological operations recruitment effort. That video relied heavily on montages and striking imagery to showcase the importance of psyops in conflict.
It remains unclear what “Irregular Warfare Clip” is meant for, but it is clear that someone in the Army is paying attention to editing lessons.
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American forces killed more than three dozen members of terrorist groups in Syria in two airstrikes this past month. One took out the top military commander for Hurras al-Din, an al-Qaeda-linked group active inside the country. The strikes, announced by U.S. Central Command early Sunday, Sept. 29, are the latest in a series of recent raids and airstrikes targeting high-level commanders of ISIS and other groups in Iraq and Syria the last two months.
On Tuesday, Sept. 24, an airstrike in northwest Syria killed Marwan Bassam ‘Abd-al-Ra’uf, identified by CENTCOM as the military commander for Hurras al-Din in Syria. Eight other members of the group were killed in the attack. CENTCOM did not share any additional details on what weapons or how many forces were involved in the targeted strike.
The group, a Salafist militant organization formed out of several different factions during the ongoing Syrian Civil War, has ties to al-Qaeda, but is not part of it. A month earlier in late August, American forces killed Abu-’Abd al-Rahman al-Makki, a member of the governing council for Hurras al-Din’s governing council, in a targeted strike inside Syria.
Additionally, CENTCOM announced a previously undisclosed airstrike on Sept. 16 in central Syria.The operation, described as a “large-scale” strike, targeted a training camp and killed at least 28 ISIS fighters, “including at least four senior leaders.” None were identified by CENTCOM.
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“These strikes against leadership and operatives of ISIS and the Al Qaeda affiliate, Hurras al-Din, represent CENTCOM’s commitment to the enduring defeat of terrorist organizations in the CENTCOM area of responsibility and our support to regional stability,” CENTCOM commander Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, said in a released statement.
ISIS has been stepping up its attacks against civilians and military targets this year, and U.S. officials have said the group is trying to reconstitute itself, despite having lost its territory and coming under frequent attacks. The United States in turn, with its partners in the Iraqi security forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces, have been carrying out a series of operations in Iraq and Syria in the last two months, killing multiple members of ISIS including commanders, as well as seizing intelligence.
Beyond major bases in the region overall, the United States has roughly 900 troops inside Syria at multiple outposts, including al-Tanf in the southeast near the Iraqi border and on the eastern edges of the city of Deir Ez-Zor in eastern Syria.
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More than 4,700 National Guard members are mobilized throughout the southeastern United States, working to clear roads, rescue trapped people and provide relief after Hurricane Helene tore through several states.
The storm, which made landfall as a category 4 hurricane on Thursday, Sept. 26, left a path of destruction through several states, including Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas. At least 52 people are dead from the storm as of Saturday morning. Tens of thousands of homes are without power, streets are flooded and many areas have been leveled by intense winds and rain. National Guard troops, some mobilized in advance, others deployed after the storm passed, are now trying to rescue people and communities stranded or without power by Helene.
In North Carolina, rainfall from Helene has left much of the western part of the state flooded. The North Carolina Department of Transportation said that “all roads in [western North Carolina] should be considered closed.” Much of the area around Asheville, North Carolina remains flooded. Gov. Roy Cooper called the hurricane “one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of North Carolina.” 358 North Carolina National Guard troops are mobilized, working with search and rescue teams to evacuate people trapped by high waters.
In Tennessee, In one instance on Friday, Sept. 27, three UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters with the Tennessee National Guard’s 1-230th Assault Helicopter Battalion took off towards Unicoi County Hospital, where more than 50 people including hospital staff and patients were trapped due to flooding. Video shared by the Virginia State Police, who also assisted in the evacuation, shows the hospital building surrounded by high waters, with people on the roof. The combined rescue teams were able to evacuate dozens of people from the hospital.
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In Florida, one of the hardest hit areas, nearly 3,900 National Guard troops are helping with evacuation efforts, emergency supply distribution and aerial rescues. Several dozen were rescued by helicopter on Friday.
The Coast Guard and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have also been busy, working to rescue people knocked in the sea ahead of Helene’s landfall, and to reopen paths inside the state.
Military bases in the path of the storm have reported minor damage and ongoing issues with electricity. Moody Air Force Base shared with personnel that it is still trying to clear down power lines and trees that present dangers. MacDill Air Force Base in Florida rescinded evacuation orders but did tell base personnel that several areas of the installation lack power and working wastewater management.
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The U.S. government’s plan to transition to a new bilateral security agreement with Iraq is about as clear as mud.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, two U.S. officials said that the relationship between U.S. and Iraq is fundamentally shifting but repeatedly refused to say how many of the roughly 2,500 U.S. troops currently in Iraq will withdraw from the country – if any – under the new agreement and where those service members who stay behind will be based. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity under rules established by the State Department.
“We’re not going to speak to our plans concerning specific base locations or troop numbers,” a senior defense official said. “We have been and will continue to be in active dialogue with the government of Iraq about how our bilateral relationship will evolve, which will certainly include changes to our force posture and troop numbers. For now, that remains in a planning process and under review. Until those decisions are reached, we won’t be providing specific information on numbers and locations regarding something that hasn’t been decided.”
The United States has had a fraught relationship with Iraq for several decades. In 1991, the U.S military led a coalition that ejected the Iraqi army from Kuwait. Then in 2003, a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq to oust its leader Saddam Hussein. The war turned into a bitter insurgency, which American forces had largely defeated when they left the country in December 2011.
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Then in 2014, the Islamic State group conquered large swathes of northern Iraq, prompting the Iraqi government to invite U.S. troops to return. Since then, the United States has led a coalition of countries against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Although ISIS lost its last territorial enclave in Syria back in 2019, the fight against the terrorist group in both Iraq and Syria continues. Seven U.S. troops were injured during an Aug. 29 operation in Iraq’s Anbar province that resulted in the deaths of four top ISIS commanders.
Still, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani has been under pressure from Iran to end the U.S. military presence in Iraq, according to the Wall Street Journal, which recently reported that the U.S and Iraqi governments had reached a bilateral security agreement, under which most American troops will leave Iraq by 2026, leaving only a small contingent behind.
On Friday, a senior administration official provided reporters with a broad outline for the transition from the current Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, to the bilateral security agreement between Iraq and the United States.
“I would like to emphasize that this is an evolution of the military mission in Iraq,” the senior administration official said. “We are moving toward the type of productive, long-term security relationship the United States has partners around the world.”
The first phase of the plan will run until Sept. 30, 2025, and it involves bringing the U.S.-led coalition’s military mission in Iraq to an end, and “ending the presence of coalition forces in certain locations in Iraq, as mutually determined,” said the senior administration official, who did not elaborate from where coalition troops might withdraw.
However, the United States and Iraq have agreed that the coalition will be able to continue to carry out counter-terrorism mission from Iraq against ISIS in Syria under the second phase of the plan, which lasts until the end of September 2026 – if not longer, said the senior administration official, who added that the timeline for the second phase of the plan could be adjusted by future political leaders in Iraq, the United States, and coalition nations.
The senior administration official stressed that “the United States is not withdrawing from Iraq,” but when a reporter pressed if that meant no U.S. troops were leaving Iraq, the official did not rule out future changes to American force levels in the country.
“As we go through this transition into a bilateral relationship, there could very well be changes in the numbers, changes in the activities that we do, aligning ourselves better with the bilateral interests that we have supporting the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces,” the senior administration official said. “A lot of that is going to be an ongoing discussion, and we will see where that takes us.”
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A Florida man’s decision to take his sailboat and his dog into Hurricane Helene ended with a mid-ocean rescue, but he got a heck of a selfie out of it.
Coast Guard officials in Florida released a remarkable mid-hurricane photo on Friday of a man and his dog in the middle of Hurricane Helene as a Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter hovers overhead with its cabin door open, indicating the helicopter’s crew is maneuvering toward his rescue.
Though the photo looks like a traditional ‘selfie,’ officials confirmed to Task & Purpose that it is a video frame from the helmet cam of a Coast Guard rescue swimmer who reached the man in the water. In the full video released by the Coast Guard, the man and dog are only briefly in the water, only jumping off their boat — the dog somewhat reluctantly — when the rescue swimmer arrives in the water.
The man and his dog, Coast Guard officials said, were forced to abandon their sailboat about 25 miles off the coast of Sanibel Island early Thursday, directly in the path of Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in Florida Thursday as a Category 4 storm.
Video frame from rescue of a man and his dog during Hurricane Helene. The man’s 36-foot sailboat was taking on water during the storm. Once a Coast Guard helicopter arrived, and his dog jumped into the water to be hoisted up .Coast Guard video. “He was trying to avoid the storm,” Coast Guard Petty Officer Third Class Eric Rodriguez said. “He was trying to head south, to stay away from that impact area but the width of the storm was dramatically larger than we have ever seen.”
As Helene approached southern Florida Thursday morning, the man’s 36-foot sail boat began taking on water. He radioed for help to Coast Guard watchstanders in St. Petersburg, Florida, at about 11 a.m., Rodriguez said. The station alerted a helicopter crew at Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, just outside Tampa, who began planning the mission and weighing the obvious risks to reach the man.
“We do a risk assessment prior to every evolution,” said Rodriguez. “Because if the rescue crews get hurt, then nobody gets rescued.”
Weather reports indicated that the heaviest weather of Helene was still a few hours off, though winds were already between 30 and 50 knots. Still, with heavier weather ahead and the man’s boat foundering, the crew saw a chance.
“This was a very short window to ‘say, yes we can make this happen’,” said Rodriguez. “Had this been much later in the afternoon, I don’t think our crews would have been sent out for this rescue.”
Though helicopter rescues in hurricane-like conditions are rare and dangerous, they are within both the physical ability of the MH-60 helicopter and the training of Coast Guard aircrews. who regularly practice dealing with the many factors that huge winds create for flight.
Take-offs and landings can be sketchy while straight flight requires a sharp eye on fuel, as an aircraft burns much more gas than normal fighting its way into tropical-strength headwinds (though crews can make up some of the fuel loss on downwind legs).
But the most skill is required when hovering over a survivor. To stay directly overhead in a 50 mile-per-hour wind, pilots have to be pushing the helicopter forward with enough power to match the wind just to stay in place, while adjusting their location left and right by just a few feet at a time.
And for the crew’s rescue swimmers, formally known as the Aviation Survival Technicians, wind-blown water and high waves can turn even routine rescues into a fight to survive.
“They take on the risk themselves knowing this is going to be quite dangerous,” said Rodriguez. “The conditions were still within our parameters to fly in and the crew decided this was something we were capable of doing.”
The Florida crew arrived over the man’s sailboat at about 2:30 p.m. Thursday, officials said, and sent down their rescue swimmer. The man and his dog then jumped into the water with the Coast Guard swimmer (the dog, wearing a canine lifevest, appeared to be against the idea and needed a solid push from his owner).
The helicopter then lowered a rescue basket, putting both the man and his dog inside it to be hoisted upwards.
Though the man appears to have a small injury on his nose in video from the rescue, he and the dog appear largely healthy inside the helicopter, where he and the swimmer exchange a high-five and shake hands. Neither the man’s man nor the dog’s was released.
“Every life is important,” said Rodriquez. “Whether it’s a person or a dog.”
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The senior enlisted leader of a major Air Force training base was removed from his position after an investigation, officials at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi said Thursday.
Chief Master Sgt. Michael Venning was removed from his position as the command chief of the 81st Training Wing at Keesler on Sept. 23, 2024.
Col. Billy Pope, 81st Training Wing commander, found that results of a command investigation of Venning “warranted the removal,” base officials said in a statement sent to Task & Purpose.
Base officials said they would not release the nature of the investigation except to note that Venning had been temporarily pulled from his role on July 30 as the investigation took place.
Command chiefs are the highest-ranking enlisted personnel in their units, which in Venning’s case was the 81st wing, the host unit for Keesler.
Venning’s official biography was removed from the Keesler website soon after Task & Purpose inquired about his position on Thursday. Before being taken down, the page indicated Venning joined the Air Force in 2000 and received his U.S. citizenship in 2005. Venning is a native of Australia, according to an Air Force news story from 2014 noting he had been named one of that year’s 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year — the service’s top annual service-wide award for enlisted members.
Venning served six years in a combat communications unit as a power production specialist then retrained into contracting in 2006. He later served as the commandant of an NCO Academy and Airman Leadership School and was the command chief for the 100th Air Refueling Wing at Royal Air Force Mildenhall, United Kingdom before assuming his role at Keesler.
Venning deployed four times in support of Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom and OIF’s follow-on operation, New Dawn.
A wing command chief is the senior enlisted advisor to a base or wing commander. They oversee the base’s professional development, readiness issues and health, morale, and welfare of those assigned to the wing. As a base leader, wing and base command chiefs also frequently represent the base with local civilian leaders and events. Keesler has about 12,000 permanent party military members, families and contractors on base.
Major training baseThe 81st wing oversees over a dozen training schools at Keesler that take fresh recruits from basic training and teach them their Air Force jobs. About 30,000 troops — mostly Air Force but also from all armed services and allied nations — learn their first military skills at Keesler each year. The training includes positions from personnel and IT specialists to air traffic controllers and special ops airmen.
Located on the Gulf of Mexico in Biloxi, Mississippi, Keesler is also home to the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, better known as the Hurricane Hunters, the Air Force Reserve unit that flies specially equipped WC-130s into tropical storms to collect weather data.
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The Army is back to meeting its recruiting goals, but with recruits that are skewing older than they used to and who often need academic or fitness help before boot camp, officials said Thursday.
With a new focus on those two groups, the Army exceeded its fiscal year 2024 recruiting goal for enlisted soldiers with just over 55,300 recruits, a rebound after two years of misses.
Maj. Gen. Johnny Davis, commander of Army Recruiting Command, told reporters that the Army’s average recruit is now 22 years, 4 months old and still “going up.” He also said it’s in line with Secretary Christine Wormuth’s goal announced in October to have one-third of the entire force be made up of college graduates.
“That enlistment age only tells us, hey, there’s another market that we’re not really fully in,” Davis said. “We’re in the high school market – that is growing. But we really want this labor market to really grow for those who are older.”
The Army’s maximum enlistment age is 38 but the service’s push for older recruits has led to some cases of soldiers enlisting much later in life. Michael Powell was rejected at 19 years old for not meeting enlistment standards but received waivers for his age and tattoos at 39. Another unique case is 41-year-old Jason Pelletier who was discharged from the Air Force two decades ago for discipline issues and joined the Army Reserve this year.
Davis said a primary challenge with courting older recruits is offering the right incentives. High schoolers, he said, have GI Bill benefits to look forward to and college grads are attracted to the service’s loan repayment programs. But with the older recruits already in the labor market, officials are still working through other incentive ideas.
In addition to recruiting older soldiers, the Army has also invested in recruiting those who do not meet the military’s academic or physical fitness standards but have an interest in joining.
About 13,200 trainees — roughly one of every four recruits — went through a new Army Future Soldier Prep Course.
The program gives potential soldiers who do not meet fitness or academic standards 90 days of additional training before heading off to bootcamp. Since its inception in August 2022, over 90% of the program participants have graduated from the course, leading to more than 28,000 recruits joining the active duty Army, National Guard and Reserve, Brig. Gen. Jenn Walkawicz, deputy chief of staff in charge of operations, planning and training for Army Training and Doctrine Command, told reporters.
Separately, the Army has placed 11,000 potential recruits in the Delayed Entry Program for fiscal year 2025. Under this program, recruits can sign enlistment contracts but still finish civilian considerations like school before shipping out to basic training later.
New ways of recruitingThe Army’s recruitment upswing comes after Wormuth’s announcement in October to overhaul and modernize the way the service recruits – realizing that the service needed to invest in more online outreach to attract Gen Z and compete with the private sector. In addition to looking beyond high school, recruiters are trying to meet potential soldiers where they’re at by using a recruit mobile app and digital job boards, Davis said.
The Army also created two new military occupational specialties: 420T Talent Acquisition Technicians and 42T Talent Acquisition Specialists modeled off of corporate recruiters in the private sector.
In 2022 and 2023, the service brought in just 45,000 recruits annually, 15,000 less than its annual goal. This year, the Army met lowered its goal to 55,000, Kate Kuzminski, director of the military, veterans, and society program at a the Center for New American Security, a Washington D.C. think tank, said the lowered number and new approach is part of the service’s plans to realign its force to be ready for potential future conflict with Russia or China.
“The reduction in end strength is tied to a change in force structure that is moving from the brigade combat team structure back to a core and division-led structure because that is what we’ll need for near peer competition and or near peer conflict,” Kuzminski said.
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With the new structure, the Army needs to maintain its recruiting of infantry soldiers, who make up 22% of its annual contracts, but also get recruits interested in “high-need” specialties like air defense. By incentivizing those critical positions to recruits, recruiters were able to get 6,000 new soldiers to fill those spots this past year, officials said.
The Army is also assessing how it handles health conditions that have been disqualifying for potential recruits like those related to mental health, orthopedic, cardiac and vision issues like, Davis said. Despite the challenges with MHS Genesis, he said the program gives insight into the type of waivers they see most often, what types of health conditions are caught up in the pipeline and how to move them through the process faster.
“Let’s say astigmatism (which causes blurry vision), if we’re approving those waivers – now that we know more, 98% of the time, why are we going through the waiver process?,” Davis said. “As a waiver authority, me and my other service commanders, why don’t we just pull that to our level and really prevent an applicant from waiting 30 days?”
As part of the recruitment overhaul, the service also created a “recruit innovation cell” to brainstorm unique ways to meet and attract potential recruits. One of the initiatives that the Army has been testing for two months in five cities across the U.S. called “Recruit 360” is a partnership with Deloitte, a corporate consulting firm, to use artificial intelligence to look at wider applicant pools.
The Army hopes AI will help recruiters focus on certain traits – like those that are athletes or like sports – which might indicate their interest in the military or unearth methods for recruiters to connect with them on a more personal level, Davis said.
“They will help us with that in terms of looking at that applicant pool so when our recruiters talk to them, they can talk to them given that background information instead of what we’ve been doing in the past is really taking a high school list and cold calling 2-or-300 high school seniors,” he said. “That is what we have to get away from.”
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The Vietnam War was a wild time and the last war in which American citizens were drafted into service. Young men were pulled from school, jobs, or straight from their high school graduations to go to Vietnam. With them, they brought their love of beer — and some of them remembered home by painting their helicopter rocket pods to resemble the beers they’d left behind.
“We were young guys,” said Jim Koch, a former pilot in a battalion whose UH-1s took to the skies of Vietnam with oversized Coors and Budweiser cans on their sides. “At 21 years old, I was one of the older pilots. Most of our crew chiefs and door gunners were 18 or 19 years old. So, we hadn’t really grown up. In fact, most of us haven’t grown up even now.”
Koch, whose call sign was Stallion 505, was assigned to the 92nd Assault Helicopter Company during the Vietnam War. The 92nd was formed at Fort Carson, Colorado, where pilots and crews were fans of Coors beer, then a favorite in-state brewery based in Golden, which was not widely available around the country.
A soldier standing loud and proud next to the Coors beer-themed rocket pod attached to a UH-1 Huey helicopter during the Vietnam War. Photo courtesy of Jim Koch. For missions, 92nd crews flew two versions of the Huey — unarmed, or ‘slick’ ships that flew under the call sign ‘Stallion,’ and the heavily armed gunship versions, which flew as ‘Sidekicks’. One of the armaments on the Sidekicks were either the M159 or M200 rocket pods, each carrying 2.75-inch rockets.
The crews quickly realized that the launchers were also notably beer-can shaped, and what better way to decorate your Colorado-based helicopter than to paint your rocket pods to look like the golden elixir from Golden? Or, as Koch put it: “Well, we were young and wild guys, and it was our favorite beer.”
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One of the 92nd’s crew chiefs, Tom Tucker, had an artistic bent. In the air, Tucker would eventually receive the Distinguished Flying Cross for a mission where his crew provided close air support for a long-range reconnaissance patrol ambushed by a much larger enemy force near An Khe, Vietnam. During the mission, Tucker marked an enemy position with smoke, fired on multiple strafing runs, and directed rocket hits on a bunker he spotted.
However, as the crew chief of Sidekick 113, he decided to paint a precise depiction of his favorite beer on the pods.
Tucker died in 2016, but Koch spoke with Tucker before he passed away, and recounted how Tucker had sent word to his dad back home to find out the exact colors of paint he’d need to complete his masterpiece.
“His dad contacted the Coors company, and they provided him that information, and he sent the paint to Vietnam, and Tom painted his pods,” Koch said.
Seeing the Coors cans on missions became a source of comfort for the 92nd’s pilots. Koch was a Stallion pilot flying with no guns and needed gunship escorts for most of his missions.
A UH-1 Huey helicopter, call sign Sidekick, toting the Coors-themed rocket pod on a mission during the Vietnam War. Photo courtesy of Jim Koch. Depending on operational needs, Koch didn’t always have his Sidekicks, and helicopters from other units would assist with escorting them. But it was always a good feeling, Koch said, to see the Coors rocket pods because he’d immediately know it was his guys.
“We knew each other. We knew how our guys would operate because we had trained together,” Koch said. “Sometimes, when you were working with other units, maybe they did things slightly differently than we did. So yeah, it’s always nice to have your own guys.”
However, not long after Koch returned to the U.S., he heard word from the unit that the pilots of the Sidekicks had run into a problem with their helicopter and had to jettison the rocket pods to make it back to base.
“The Coors cans were lost on a mission. They had to punch them off because they were having some power difficulties with the aircraft,” Koch said. “That’s the main thing you have to do. You have to jettison anything hanging on the side, so the Coors were lost in the jungle somewhere over Vietnam.”
But that wasn’t the end of brew-themed rocket pods. Denny Turner, a Stallion pilot, arrived in Vietnam around the end of 1968, after Koch returned stateside. He saw that a pair of new rocket pods had arrived and after talking to his gun crews, offered to paint them. However, some of the gun crew were Budweiser fans, and that’s the theme he chose.
And he knew his paints.
“I bought paint and brushes at the Cam Ranh Bay Base AFEX and Hobby Shop,” Turner told Koch. “The white 1-part epoxy background was painted with aerosol spray cans, and the red and blue lettering and graphics were hand painted with oil-based hobby enamels over the white. A few careful top coats of clear satin acrylic aerosol spray sealed it all.”
Denny Turner painted a Budweiser-themed rocket pod on one of his UH-1 Huey helicopters during his tour in the Vietnam War in 1968 to 1969. Photo courtesy of Jim Koch. In 2005, over 30 years after the 92nd Attack Helicopter Company returned home, the 92nd held a reunion in Manitou Springs, Colorado. Peter ‘Pete’ Coors, the great-grandson of Coors-founder Adolph Coors, donated enough beer for the reunion to keep the Vietnam vets fueled up.
Coors even had a special surprise for Tucker, the artist behind the Coors-y-themed rocket pods.
“During the reunion, Tom Tucker was still alive, and one of our guys worked for Coors, and he took him up to Golden to meet Pete Coors, who was the head honcho of the Coors company,” Koch said. “Pete had a beautiful black leather jacket with the Coors emblems on it, and he gave it to Tom Tucker. That was just a cool thing to happen.”
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The Air Force’s new PT uniform is coming soon – again.
First unveiled in early 2021, the service’s new PT gear is now expected to arrive at Army & Air Force Exchange Service, or AAFES stores, within the continental United States starting in November, an Air Force spokesperson told Task & Purpose.
Some optional PT uniform items including the long-sleeve shirt and sweatshirt are currently still in development and will be available to airmen later, the spokesperson said.
The Air Force has been providing the PT uniforms to airmen in Basic Military Training since July, the spokesperson said. The trainees have received the short-sleeve shirt, running shorts, all-purpose shorts, track suit, and other items of new PT gear.
Air and Space Forces Magazine first reported that the PT uniform is expected to hit AAFES shelves this fall.
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The new PT uniform includes running shorts, all-purpose shorts, t-shirts, pants, and jackets,” according to the Air Force. The clothing is made from soft, quick-drying material that includes antimicrobial technology to help with moisture and odor.
The PT jacket is meant to be sleeker than what most airmen now have, and it is made of fabrics that do not make much noise during workouts. It also has a zipper chest pocket for Common Access Cards and other items.
But for the past couple of years, the Air Force’s quest to provide airmen with new running shorts, shirts and other PT gear has turned into a marathon. The new PT gear was initially supposed to be available starting in 2022, but its rollout was delayed multiple times due to a variety of issues including a fabric shortage. Most recently, the PT uniform was supposed to be available in AAFES stores in July.
“The fielding of a new uniform required time for mandatory government sources to find, and collaborate with, domestic fabric manufacturers to meet the technical requirements of the PT uniform materials,” the Air Force spokesperson said. “That process took longer than expected.”
Don Lee, acquisition program manager for the Combat Ready Airman program under Air Force Materiel Command, recently told audience members at the most recent Air & Space Forces Association’s annual symposium that the PT uniform might not be available to airmen until 2025 or 2026.
Task & Purpose has since learned that Lee was referring superficially to optional uniform items such as the long-sleeve shirt and sweatshirt.
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With a live grenade about to explode during a sudden training mishap, Marine Sgt. Brett D. Meil’s only thoughts were for his student, so he threw his own body over a junior Marine just before the grenade went off.
When the grenade exploded, Meil shielded his fellow Marine from the blast and shrapnel, preventing the June training mishap at Camp Pendleton from turning deadly, Corps officials said Wednesday.
For his selfless bravery, Meil recently was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, the Department of the Navy’s highest non-combat award, a news release from Training and Education Command says.
On June 13, 2023, Meil was serving as a safety officer during live grenade training at the School of Infantry – West at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California.
As Meil was explaining to a junior Marine how to prepare a M67 fragmentation grenade, the student accidentally released the munition’s safety lever, activating the grenade’s fuse, while continuing to hold the grenade.
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Meil instantly realized that the student did not understand the severity of the situation and how little time there was to get rid of the grenade before it exploded.
“My initial thought was how do I get this private out of the pit and leave the grenade in it” Meil later recalled, according to the news release.
Meil remained calm and told the Marine several times to throw the grenade. But the student remained frozen.
With no time to lose, Meil grabbed the grenade out of the Marine’s hand and threw it toward the target area. But his throw hit an interior wall and bounced back toward the pair, landing just feet from the pit where Meil and the second Marine lay on the ground.
Disregarding his own safety, Meil pulled the other Marine as close to him as possible and wrapped his arms around the student’s body. The grenade exploded and Meil was hit by hundreds of pieces of shrapnel. The other Marine was safe and suffered only minor injuries.
“Once the grenade had detonated within proximity of the Marines, Meil’s immediate actions were to assess the health and condition of the Marine he was responsible for and then immediately call for medical assistance,” the Marine Corps news release says. “Only after being relieved by fellow combat instructors and medical personnel did Meil look to his own well-being.”
For his quick thinking, Meil was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal at a ceremony Tuesday at Camp Pendleton.
“Staff Sgt. Meil performed exactly the way that we ask combat instructors to,” Col. Patrick B. Bryne, the commanding officer of SOI-West, said in the news release. “He identified that there was a dangerous situation, he assessed it and immediately acted exactly appropriately to address the danger and protect the student.”
Meil is the third Marine this month awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal.
Marine Cpl. Spencer Collart was posthumously awarded the medal earlier this month for his efforts to save the lives of two pilots after an August 2023 MV-22B Osprey crash. After initially escaping the crash, Collart died when he returned to the burning plane to help the pilots.
Marine Sgt. Andrew Gomez also recently received the award for saving a woman from a fiery car wreck in New Jersey in June 2023.
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Women injured in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq died at higher rates than their male peers with the same injuries, often because medics were hesitating to treat them, medical researchers found. To end that hesitancy, the Army will soon field new manikin-style patient simulators designed as female bodies.
Mark Schenk is a former Army master sergeant who served as a chief medical operations supervisor at Fort Cavazos, Texas. He said he’s seen many otherwise well-trained male medics lose focus while treating a woman.
“You physically see that the medic’s hands come back and then they start asking for permission to touch, permission to treat, meanwhile the casualty is laying on the ground either unconscious because of blood loss or not able to respond so it delays the treatment,” Schenk said. “They would spend an inordinate amount of time trying to find something to cover her up to begin exposing her, which leads to their ultimate demise because they are bleeding out while [the medic is] trying to keep the humility intact.”
Schenk’s experience lines up with research and data collected during the last two decades that discovered women were dying on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan at higher rates than their male counterparts, even with injuries that women might be more likely to survive in the civilian world. In fact, some civilian research indicates women have higher chances of survival than men with similar wounds.
U.S. military researchers found that women who suffered abdominal and chest wounds during operations in the Middle East were dying at higher rates: in Afghanistan, women’s survivability rates were 17% versus 35.9% for men; in Iraq, survivability rates for women were 12% compared to 14.5% for men.
Military researchers concluded that there had to be an outside factor. What they found was “a prominence of male-centric training” with simulators and manikins that combat medics used for training. The lack of female representation in training scenarios impacted the way medics approached casualties in battle by hesitating to treat women.
Training norms would lead medics to focus too much on trying not to expose women’s bodies on the battlefield rather than providing immediate lifesaving care, according to Schenk, who works for Operative Experience, which is co-developing the new simulators with the Army over a six-year period.
The new simulators are the service’s most anatomically authentic ones to date. They are smaller and lighter than than male simulators, have soft, lifelike tissue and come in Caucasian, Black, Asian, and Hispanic skin tones. The simulators have 14 pulse points, a speaker to respond to student’s questions, physiological responses to blood loss, and interchangeable wound configurations for a variety of injuries like IED explosions, blunt trauma, and gunshot wounds.
The new simulators are the first to be standardized by the Army and will be fielded to 25 Army Medical Simulation Support Centers. The first simulator will be set up at Fort Bliss, Texas in October.
Joseph Day, an Instructor Operator at the Fort Cavazos Medical Simulation Training Center, uses a tablet to control a female simulator designed by the Army and Operative Experience while test players Capt. Dallas Carranza, a Physician Assistant, and Maj. Melissa Burkett, an Emergency Room Nurse, practice providing casualty treatment. The medical simulators are wirelessly controlled by tablets, allowing operators to conduct various medical training scenarios. The two officers, both with the 581st Area Support Medical Company, 1st Medical Brigade, served as test players during a field operational test. US ARMY
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The Army has used manikins for combat care training as far back as the 1940s and the technology has grown exponentially since then. The more lifelike a simulator is, the more “emotional buy-in” a medic can have in the training, Schenk said.
But military training has traditionally been overwhelmingly done on male manikins.
When medical centers did create female simulators, they often used “gender retrofit kit” with breast overlays to make male manikins appear more like females.
“You can’t just use sand bags and two by fours to simulate somebody. That only works for testing equipment but not for human behavior,” said Michael Eldred, deputy director for the Army Medical Center of Excellence’s Directorate of Simulation at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston in Texas.
Lack of representationWhile the manikins evolved, Eldred said the retrofit kits that the Army used in the ‘80s were “very cartoonish” and almost made a mockery of the training. The new simulator’s “change in dimensions is probably the biggest thing that really comes out of this,” he added.
The new simulators are designed to anatomically and physiologically resemble the average soldiers of both sexes: the males are 6 feet tall and weigh 180 pounds while the females are 5 feet, 4 inches and 130 pounds. The closer resemblance to average male and female proportions mean that medic’s training will be more realistic, Army and company officials said.
Tourniquets, for example, are easier on larger arms than a smaller one, Schenk said. Simulator testing even revealed the importance of anatomical accuracy with the tools in soldiers’ medical kits.
“They were kitting everything for a 6-foot-tall male versus a [5 foot, 4 inch] female so they had to learn to put stuff in their bags that treated a range of physical bodies,” he said.
The lack of female representation in medical studies and its impact on women’s treatment and health outcomes go beyond the military – although it is an issue that the Pentagon is investing more money in to help with progress. Civilian emergency medicine studies have shown that women have higher mortality rates than men for things like sudden cardiac arrest, Schenk noted.
“When a man has a sudden cardiac arrest, you run up, you rip the shirt open, pop buttons and you find your landmarks and you do CPR,” Schenk said. “On females, they leave them fully clothed while they do that so they don’t actually get their good landmarks and treat them appropriately.”
Fielding the simulators The hope is in future conflicts, medics have enough realistic training they can fall back on in the stress of real-world combat.
“What you do in training is what you fall back on in combat and if you train only to a level of success and not trained to a level of impossible failure, then when you get in a situation where you are completely overwhelmed, emotionally, physically, tactically and you have to rely on the basic memory of what you have to do,” Eldred said. “You want to be able to practice it and practice it, practice it until there’s just no way that you can fail it.”
Officials at Fort Sam Houston, Texas are in charge of providing training to 2,500 combat medics each year. Depending on the unit’s training, medics may use the new simulators a handful of times each year, officials said.
The simulator was also designed with the Army’s new combat casualty standards which takes into account a future conflict where the U.S. might not have air superiority.
“The simulator has to be able to also train the student, not just for immediate trauma care, but prolonged nursing care,” Schenk said. “You have to administer fluids. You have to measure the output of the fluids. You have to have the ability to monitor the patient and you have to have the ability to do minor surgical procedures, whether that be a fasciotomy for burns, alleviating the pressure by cutting the skin around the burn area.”
CORRECTION: (9/25/2024); A previous version of this story incorrectly referred to medical simulators as mannequins. The correct term is manikin.
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A major overhaul of how Marines learn to shoot and track their skills will begin to roll out across the service in the next few months, according to a Marine Corps-wide Marksmanship Campaign Plan released Monday. The Campaign plan, published by the Marine Corps Training and Education Command, sets deadlines for new training to be up and running across the force and mandates major renovations for shooting ranges that don’t yet comply with the new marksmanship standards.
The new shooting standards and drills, which have been in the works since 2018, are the first major overhaul of Marine rifle training in a century.
Though many units across the Marine Corps have been using the new marksmanship standards since 2021, the Campaign Plan requires every Marine in the fleet — and every range they shoot on — to be up to date by the end of the 2029 fiscal year, said Col. Scott A. Cuomo, the commander of Weapons Training Battalion-Quantico, one of several test units for the new standards.
The changes reflect lessons from almost two decades of constant combat, said Cuomo.
“When we started putting more, heavier footprints in Iraq and Afghanistan through 2018, we were doing really well crushing our adversaries in any fight. This wasn’t a case of ‘oh my God, the Marines didn’t wildly maneuver, close, etc.’,” said Cuomo. “It was just being honest with ourselves, looking in the mirror and asking, can we do certain things better?”
Marines returning from the post-9/11 wars reported that the long-distance shooting they’d learned at boot camp and beyond was not well suited to the combat of Afghanistan and Iraq.
“ A lot of our marksmanship was, over a 60-ish year period — arguably from 1907 up until Hue City in Vietnam — focused more on longer ranges in the treeline-type environments,” said Cuomo. “So what happens when you’re going up against an enemy that is holed up in a lot of buildings, and they’re running from building to building, building to wadi, building to ditch, moving rapidly? Is our marksmanship foundation built in those environments too?”
New tests, same ethosFew military skills are tied more closely to a branch’s identity than marksmanship is to Marines, who have long instilled in new recruits — regardless of their daily job — an ethos that “every Marine is a rifleman.”
The new Campaign Plan lays out the timetable on which all Marines can expect to be shooting under the new rules, starting with the Annual Rifle Qualification, or ARQ. That test will replace the long-standing Annual Rifle Training, or ART, as the basic Marine marksmanship test taught at boot camp and as the basic annual qualifying test for every Marine. The deadline for Marines to switch to the ARQ is late 2028.
“Over the next couple of years, you will see the complete transition to any Marine, recruit all the way through, will be shooting the ARQ,” Cuomo said.
U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Anthony Henderson, commanding general of Training Command, reviews his shots while participating in various rifle drills at Weapons Training Battalion on Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, Sept. 5, 2024. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Ethan Miller. Lance Cpl. Ethan MillerThe Campaign Plan also lays out instructions for Marines in the fleet to begin training by mid-2027 for one of two annual tactical tests: the Infantry Marksmanship Assessment, or IMA, for all infantry Marines; or a slightly toned-down tactical course of fire for non-infantry Marines known as the Rifle Marksmanship Assessment, or RMA.
The drills of RMA mirror those of the IMA except for some short-range on-the-move shooting, Cuomo said. The RMA’s goal is to keep non-infantry Marines prepared for frontline combat duty, even if their full-time job sends them to the range less often than their infantry peers. Cuomo cited units like those that set up forward refueling points for Marine helicopters and MV-22 Ospreys.
“You’re not going to be able to say ‘okay I’m going to have an infantry platoon or infantry company go first to set up security’ and do all that because the signature is going to be too big,” said Cuomo. “You got to be ready to protect yourself. So let’s figure out how to have a small footprint of bulk fueling Marines that get out with the refueling hose and once they set the thing up they’ve got their rifles and, you know, this is ‘every Marine a rifleman,’ this is the Marine Corps, right? Let’s make sure they are lethal as all hell to do that and it’s one of the other reasons I’m super excited.”
A similar revamp for sidearms training, known as the Combat Pistol Program, is also scheduled to be online across the Corps by the fall of 2026.
Scores for distance, time and ‘lethality’The new approach breaks marksmanship into five skills which the Marines call the “S.P.E.A.R. Model of Lethality” for Speed, Precision, Executive Control, Adaptability, and Risk Exposure.
To emphasize speed, each round is scored on how fast a Marine fires it. For example, the ARQ test requires Marines to fire a two-round “controlled pair” at a target 300 yards away in 15 seconds from standing or kneeling with support, while the “failure to stop” drill calls for three shots in five seconds at a target 25 -yards away while target while standing.
The timed shots, Cuomo said, are a major change from previous tests.
“At the 500-yard line, you would have 10 minutes to take 10 shots,” Cuomo said. “Is that what we experienced in Fallujah or in Marjah?” Cuomo said. “Did you have 10 minutes or did the target present itself for 23 seconds or seven seconds? And the answer is, I’m sure, you know, it was much more the latter rather than the former.”
The full course of fire of the new Marine Corps Annual Rifle Qualification test from the April 2022 “Marine Corps Combat Marksmanship Programs,” MCO 3574.2M. The new tests also reverse the order of shooting in the ‘long-bay’ events, with Marines firing first at targets 500 yards away then progressing to targets as close as 15 yards. Previous shooting tests generally started with nearer targets and moved farther out.
“When I went through as a lieutenant, we started at the 100-yard line and we worked back to 500. Now, we are starting from 500 to drive into a Marine’s mind even more than we already do, we are always closing on the enemy,” said Cuomo. “So you start at 500, then you go 300, then you go 200, then you go 100. And what’s different is now, there’s a 25-yard-and-in portion, which didn’t exist previously.”
Course of fire for Marine Corps Annual Rifle Training, which the ARQ is replacing. The new test forces Marines to fire more quickly and engage farther targets first before moving to closer targets, simulating closing with a target. Hits on target are also scored differently. Rather than scoring rounds based on circular rings on a target, each round is given a “lethality” measure, which judges how likely a round is to “destroy, neutralize or suppress” a target.
A headshot or well-placed hit in the chest destroys a target. A round in the shoulder might just count as a suppression.
New RangesUnder the Campaign Plan announced Monday, all firing ranges across the service must be up to speed by late 2029. Some ranges, said Cuomo, need more work than others, including among the two bases that host Marine boot camp, where every enlisted Marine is first taught marksmanship.
Camp Pendleton’s Edson Range, where San Diego recruits get two weeks of marksmanship training, has both the long ranges and ample room for the short-bay portions of ARQ training. But several of the ranges at Recruit Depot Parris Island have terrain issues for long shots and cramped quarters for short-bay shooting and will need major upgrades.
“It’s just the way the terrain is down there,” said Cuomo. Parris Island’s ranges have elevation changes along their length and almost no open flat ground near the firing area. “So what that means is the ‘short-bay’ as it’s called, for the close-in portion, the terrain physically will not allow them to set up. There’s no flat terrain, so we have to do some facility upgrades and that’ll take some time.”
For now, all new recruits at both depots still train on the ART.
U.S. Marine Cpl. Matthew Kelly, a network administrator with 9th Communication Battalion, I Marine Expeditionary Force Information Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, fires an M4 carbine during the first day of the new annual rifle qualification at Range 116A on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, Oct. 19, 2021. The new qualification features a three-day course of fire emphasizing lethality and positional shooting. The three days break down into a practice day, pre-qualification and qualification. Kelly is a native of Huntsville, Alabama. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Kerstin Roberts) Lance Cpl. Kerstin RobertsA new scoring and tracking systemThe Campaign Plan also mandates the roll-out of the Joint Marksmanship Assessment Package, or JMAP, a scoring and tracking system that will pinpoint and record the shooting skills of every Marine, every time they qualify on the range.
The system — which includes standardized targets, a smartphone and an app used at the range — records shooting scores and compiles them in a central database. Trainers and commanders can then adjust their unit’s training based on their results at the range.
“My excitement is through the roof on this,” said Cuomo. “I have been praying, quite literally, that we would have a way to help an individual Marine and his or her small unit leader understand, objectively, the lethality of an individual Marine in the most realistic combat environments that we can think of. And the Infantry Marksmanship Assessment with the Joint Marksmanship Assessment Package felt like, when I saw this for the first time, it felt like God had answered countless prayers.”
CORRECTION: 9/26/2024:
A previous version of this story said that Marines who attend boot camp at Marine Recruit Depot San Diego complete the new Annual Rifle Qualification, or ARQ, test during boot camp while those who enter the Marines at Recruit Depot Parris Island train for the Annual Rifle Testing, or ART. In fact, recruits at both installations complete the ART during recruit training. Both depots will switch their training to the ARQ no later than the fall of 2029.
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As a D-Day medic on a landing craft heading toward Omaha Beach, Waverly Woodson Jr. was wounded when his boat hit underwater mines. Still, Woodson went on to save an estimated 200 lives during 30 straight hours of intense combat. Even as he was evacuated after the battle with other wounded soldiers, he provided rescue breaths to men in the same truck who had nearly drowned as they approached shore.
After the invasion, Woodson’s commanding officer recommended him for the Medal of Honor. But, like every Black soldier recommended for the medal during World War II, Woodson saw his nomination ignored. He was eventually awarded a Bronze Star in 2023, along with the Combat Medic Badge.
Tuesday, Woodson’s widow, Joann, along with other members of the family, accepted the Distinguished Service Cross on behalf of her husband, who passed away on Aug. 12, 2005, during a ceremony held at Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
But a years-long campaign to get Woodson the Medal of Honor remains unfinished, according to Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, who spoke at the ceremony honoring Woodson Tuesday.
“Our final objective remains a medal of honor, but that should not in any way lessen the fact that today marks a long sought, hard earned triumph for the family in the name of the valor and heroism of Waverly Woodson and righting this wrong matters,” said Van Hollen. “It matters for Waverly Woodson and his family, and it matters for our entire country, because we are a stronger, more united country when we remember all of our history and when we honor all of our heroes.”
Woodson was a 21-year-old Army corporal who stormed the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944, as one of the 1,700 Black soldiers assigned to the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion of the First Army.
Woodson’s family has spent years pushing for the Medal of Honor to be awarded to Woodson for his actions on D-Day. Though there are not enough records to support the Medal of Honor, family and advocates continue to fight for an awards upgrade.
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The 320th was the only all-Black unit to land on Omaha Beach on D-Day. Woodson was a combat medic and was wounded when his landing craft hit underwater mines while approaching the beach. Woodson treated himself and then pushed toward the beach, where he is credited with saving an estimated 200 lives over the next 30 hours.
“He dragged the dead and wounded from the surf, removed bullets, patched wounds, dispensed blood plasma, and even amputated one man’s right foot,” said a First Army spokesman during the ceremony. “He worked all day, through the night, and well until the next day, 30 straight hours, until he was on the brink of collapse from blood loss and fatigue.”
Before the award was handed to Woodson’s family during the ceremony, it had already traveled to Normandy, France, during the 80th Anniversary of D-day, where Woodson had established his first aid station during the landings.
“We want to be able to tell Mrs. Woodson that the medal she is receiving on behalf of her husband has actually been to Normandy, has actually been to the very place he performed his truly remarkable actions,” Maj. Gen. William A. Ryan III, commanding general of the First Army, said in a statement.
Woodson left the Army after WWII but rejoined during the Korean War, and finished his service with two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart. The Distinguished Service Cross is an upgrade to one of his Bronze Star Medals.
The Distinguished Service Cross is the nation’s second-highest valor award, but Woodson’s family hopes he may one day be upgraded again to the top award, the Medal of Honor.
Woodson’s son, Steve, said when the award was announced he hoped it “will pave the way for further recognition of his heroism on D-Day for saving lives in the pursuit of freedom for the oppressed, that recognition being the Medal of Honor.”
“Waverly would have felt honored to be recognized for what he knew was his duty,” his widow Joann said in a statement. “But we all know it was far more than duty; it was his desire to always help people in need.”
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A judge has awarded a Massachusetts man more than $3 million after he was severely injured when he ran his snowmobile into a landed Army Black Hawk helicopter.
Jeffrey Smith struck the helicopter in March 2019 while driving at night and was thrown from the snowmobile. The helicopter, which was assigned to Fort Drum, New York, had touched down just before sunset on a rural airstrip in Worthington, Massachusetts that was also used as a snowmobile trail by local riders.
At the time of the incident, Smith had drunk two beers and taken prescribed medications — Adderall and Suboxone — that night, but a witness testified that Smith was not intoxicated when he set out on the snowmobile, according to court records.
In October 2019, Smith filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government seeking $9.5 million to cover medical bills, lost wages, and other expenses after striking the helicopter, which had landed on a snowmobile trail at night. As a result of the accident, Smith continues to suffer from a collapsed left lung, the nerve running his diaphragm is paralyzed, and he has no sensation in his left arm and hand, according to an earlier court filing.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Mark G. Mastroianni determined that “the government is 60% responsible for the accident and Jeffrey is 40% responsible,” according to his decision, which was provided to Task & Purpose.
During the trial, an expert supporting Smith’s lawsuit testified that Smith was driving between 18 and 28 miles per hour when he struck the helicopter, but Mastroianni, the federal judge in the case, disagreed and ultimately sided with an expert for the U.S. government, who testified that Smith was likely driving at a speed that was “not prudent for the conditions.”
“The court finds the government breached its duty of care in failing to take any steps to protect against the obvious risk of a camouflaged helicopter parked on an active snowmobile trail, in a somewhat wooded area, as darkness set,” Mastroianni wrote in his ruling. “The helicopter and area where it was parked were not illuminated or marked in any way. However, the court also finds Jeffrey breached his duty to operate his snowmobile in a safe manner and avoid harm by, among other things, speeding and wearing tinted goggles at night.”
Mastroianni awarded Smith approximately $3.3 million in damages and a total of $250,000 to his son and daughter.
“We are grateful for Judge Mastroianni’s thoughtful consideration of the complicated facts of this case,” Douglas Desjardins, Smith’s attorney, told Task & Purpose on Tuesday. “ We believe justice was served, and the decision encourages public safety.”
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It is unclear whether the government will appeal Mastroianni’s decision.
An Army spokesperson declined to comment on the ruling, saying, “As a matter of policy, the Army does not comment on matters in litigation.”
Pilot wanted to meet a friendOn March 12, 2019, the Army Black Hawk landed at the airstri in Worthington, Massachusetts as part of a training mission. The aircraft had landed before sunset, but after it became dark several snowmobilers began using the trail, including Smith.
Mastroianni determined that the instructor pilot who oversaw the Black Hawk’s training mission decided to land at the airstrip, in part, because it was close to where one of his friends lived, with whom he wanted to hang out. This was “not the usual practice on Army training missions,” the judge wrote, adding that he inferred that the rest of the helicopter’s crew was “somewhat annoyed” at having to take part in the instructor pilot’s social plans.
Before landing, the helicopter crew saw snowmobile tracks on the airfield. After the aircraft touched down, snowmobilers drove near the helicopter, but it was still daylight, and they could see the Black Hawk. The snowmobilers were also traveling at slow speeds between 5 and 10 miles per hour.
The crew then left the aircraft unattended to have refreshments with the instructor pilot’s friend, the judge found.
“During this time, no crew members were assigned to supervise the unlit and unmarked helicopter sitting directly on the snowmobile trail and none of them paid attention to it (although some of the crew testified unconvincingly that it remained in their sight),” Mastroianni wrote.
About 7:15 p.m. that night, another snowmobiler nearly ran into the helicopter while traveling between 30 and 60 miles per hour. He came within 15 to 20 feet of the Black Hawk’s tail but was able to swerve and avoid it. The snowmobiler also took a picture of the helicopter that showed how it was starting to blend in with the background as it grew darker.
“The crew, having worked on such dark-colored helicopters in the past, clearly would have understood this camouflaging effect,” Mastroianni wrote.
Smith had seen the helicopter prior to the crashHowever, the judge also found that Smith had seen the helicopter after it landed on the airstrip at least once prior to the accident. One witness later testified that when she visited Smith in the hospital, he told her, “Shame on me, I knew it was there,” according to Mastroianni’s decision.
Mastroianni also found that Smith had stopped his snowmobile shortly before the accident to try to see the helicopter on the airstrip. Not seeing it, he then pushed the throttle of his snowmobile all the way forward and accelerated to between 65 and 70 miles per hour.
“Given his prior knowledge of the helicopter’s location, Jeffrey should have exercised more caution when driving up the runway,” Mastroianni found. On the other hand, the fact that he pulled off his goggles and still could not locate the helicopter illustrates that the helicopter’s dark color blended in with the forest and hills in the background.
The helicopter’s crew was preparing to take off at the time and the instructor pilot unsuccessfully tried to alert to Smith using a headlamp. Smith saw a glimmer of light reflecting from one of the helicopter’s steel parts, and he pumped on the brakes and tried turning, but he still hit the aircraft. Witnesses later testified that Smith was likely driving too fast to see the helicopter in time to avoid it.
As an experienced snowmobiler, Smith understood that it is possible to “outdrive” a snowmobile’s headlights by traveling too quickly to have enough time to brake and avoid an object, Mastroianni wrote.
“Had he been traveling at a safer speed, it is likely that he could have avoided the accident or at least suffered less serious harm,” Mastroianni wrote.
A preventable accidentThe judge also determined that Smith was “at least slightly impaired” by the medications he had taken and alcohol he had drunk earlier that night. Smith was also wearing tinted goggles at the time, which blocked the little ambient light available.
“The court finds that Jeffrey’s speed, tinted goggles, and at least slight impairment — in addition to the darkness and the helicopter blending in with the trees — all played a role in his failure to see the helicopter until it was too late,” Mastroianni wrote.
Prosecutors initially charged Smith with operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs and, but the charge was later dismissed because the “Commonwealth did not believe it would be able to prove impairment due to a lack of evidence as to the defendant being under the influence at the time.”
Smith also later acknowledged that he was speeding when he drove on the airfield.
Still, Mastroianni determined that the helicopter’s crew had failed to rectify a dangerous situation after realizing they had landed in the middle of a snowmobile trail. One crew member could have remained with the aircraft with a light to alert any snowmobilers, the crew could have placed chemical lights around the Black Hawk to mark its location, or they could have asked local or state first responders for help when they realized they had landed in an active snowmobile trail.
He also found that the instructor pilot was “distracted” by meeting his friend when he should have been focused on reducing the dangers of having his helicopter parked in the snowmobile trail.
“The failure to adequately supervise the helicopter, after leaving it in a dangerous location, contributed to this preventable accident,” Mastroianni wrote. “Both parties were at fault here. But in assigning a percentage of blame, the court finds the United States is more at-fault than Jeffrey.”
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A bill introduced in Congress would give service members separating from the military a form with past qualifications and training that they can show to civilian employers.
Each year, nearly 200,000 men and women leave military service and return to life as civilians, according to the Department of Labor. After hanging up their uniforms and returning to civilian life, veterans can face challenges as they try to leverage their military experience in the private sector. In August, the unemployment rate among veterans was 3.4%, an increase from 3% in July but a decrease from 3.6% in the previous year.
The bill, titled “Translating Military Skills into Civilian Jobs Act of 2024,” was introduced Tuesday by Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and co-sponsored by Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and aims to give troops one less thing to think about when they’re moving on to a new chapter in their lives.
Service members would automatically receive a “competency record” along with their DD-214 during the separation process under the bill. The proposed plan is different from other programs where troops have to opt in or wait at least a year to get their own records, an official from Rosen’s office said. The record would include every course a service member graduated from and any training certifications and qualifications they earned for their military occupational specialty.
The legislation is identical to a provision that passed as part of the Senate version of the fiscal year 2025 annual defense authorization bill and has bipartisan support, the official said.A spokesperson for Rosen said they introduced the bill to “bolster the chances” of it remaining in the annual defense bill through House and Senate negotiations.
“It’s really just to ensure that everyone has a piece of paper that outlines everything that they had done in the military for their certifications and training so that they can then provide that to a future employer for them to determine if that meets the job responsibilities,” the official said.
The bill is one more effort to improve transitioning to civilian life after the military — an issue that Congress and the Department of Defense have tried to assist in with various programs and policies intended to make the move easier and more successful for veterans.
The bill would also require the secretary of defense to report on the bill’s implementation, the usefulness of the records and recommendations for improvement to Congress. The report would also include feedback from states and employers on the information provided in the competency records.
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Some public and private sector programs already exist to fill gaps in veteran employment, such as Hire Our Heroes, a nonprofit that conducts mock interviews and resume writing workshops with separating service members.
Additionally, the competency record is a similar concept to the Joint Services Transcript which provides documentation of professional military education, training and occupation experiences that service members can use to apply to colleges and universities. The transcript allows educational institutions to assess whether previous military education modules and certifications can apply for pre-requisites and other general education credits.
There’s also the Department of Defense’s Credentialing Opportunities On-Line, COOL, which began in 2002 when the Army established their own version. The other services followed suit in later years. The program helps service members find information on certifications and licenses from their military occupations that can transfer over or apply to their civilian careers.
Rosen’s bill would instruct the Pentagon to give service members their records as a default upon separating without the need to request them and would eliminate the hassle for active duty troops and veterans — a complaint from some transitioning members about existing programs, the official with Rosen’s office said.
Another transition tool from the Defense Department is the SkillBridge program which allows service members to participate in civilian job training up to 180 days before they leave service. A Government Accountability Office report from August found inconsistent data tracking among the military branches, making it difficult to know whether the program is successful or meeting service members’ needs.
The lack of data for monitoring the Defense Department’s military-civilian transition programs is an issue that the GAO has highlighted in previous reports and has recommended better tracking for more efficiency and veteran success.
“By taking steps to build appropriate evidence about program effectiveness, DoD will be better positioned to demonstrate whether the programs are achieving their intended results and assure that resources are being targeted appropriately,” the GAO said.
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Women who served in the military between 1951 and 1976 were subject to discharge if they became pregnant. A new bill would retroactively compensate hundreds, if not thousands, of those women who were “wrongfully and involuntarily separated” from the military over more than two decades.
Rep. Julia Brownley (D-Calif.) introduced the Women Involuntary Separated Earnings Remittance (WISER) Act last week to “rectify a wrong perpetuated against women servicemembers” who were discharged due to an executive order by former President Harry Truman.
“The unfair practice of discharging women from the military because they became pregnant or became a mother was not only wrong, but it perpetuated a harmful cycle of gender prejudice,” Brownley said in a statement, adding that it “provides recompense for this transgression and often overlooked attack on women servicemembers.”
The bill would give eligible women veterans, who are most likely older, a lump sum payment of $25,000 and access to healthcare through the Department of Veterans Affairs.
In June 1948, women were officially allowed to enlist in the military, although they had been doing so since the Revolutionary War. Three years later, President Truman signed Executive Order 10240 which allowed women to be involuntarily separated if they had a child, had custody of a child, were a step-parent or became pregnant. In 1976, an appeals court ruled that the order was unconstitutional and the policy was rescinded — but there was never an action to rectify the harm done to women who were separated.
Brownley came across the issue during discussions with constituents as part of her work on the Women Veterans Task Force which she founded. The number of women impacted is not fully understood due to a lack of Defense Department records on women who were discharged under the policy. One woman who contacted Brownley’s office had pregnancy listed as the discharge reason on her DD214 form.
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“If somebody was thrown out of the military in July and they gave birth in September and they have documentation, a birth certificate for their child, it’s pretty clear why they were thrown out,” an official with Brownley’s office familiar with the legislation said. “Even if it doesn’t say on their documentation that they were thrown out because they were pregnant, there are other ways to sort of prove that that was the reason.”
Brownley’s office got language expressing that the policy was wrong in the 2023 annual defense policy bill and wanted a federal study to look at the problem. The DoD and Government Accountability Office said they couldn’t study the issue because of the lack of documentation.
The legislation would instead set up a pathway for the Defense Department to review submitted discharges. It also gives the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs the authority to look at past documentation, of which the bill doesn’t specify in order to be inclusive. The onus to prove eligibility will be on women veterans to provide supporting documents because of the lack of formal military records, the official said.
Brownley’s office is hoping previous retroactive payments approved by Congress to right older injustices will apply with this bill. Brownley’s office cited a bill signed into law in 2009 by former President Barack Obama which gave a one-time $15,000 payment to Filipinos who fought alongside U.S. troops during World War II and were denied military benefits.
The official with Brownley’s office said discussions on the fiscal year 2025 defense policy and funding bills are too far along so they are working on support for the legislation with the hopes of getting it into next year’s defense bill. The bill is currently co-sponsored by South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson.
This bill is endorsed by Minority Veterans of America, Vietnam Veterans of America, and American Veterans.
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The Pentagon is investing half a billion dollars to research medical issues that disproportionately affect women in military service, officials said Monday.
The initiative was announced by First Lady Jill Biden at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City. The program will fund $500 million in Pentagon research on topics like rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue, eating disorders, and gynecological cancers,
As Pentagon researchers focus on women’s health issues, its researchers will also have to design their medical studies to consider how results may vary if for research done on men versus studies that include more women. Researchers should “consider sex as a biological variable in study design and analysis” in order to better understand “known and potential sex differences in disease prevalence, presentation, and outcomes,” officials said. The policy goes into effect Oct. 1 and will apply to research applications submitted for topics that are directed by Congress.
The funding comes after the White House launched its own initiative on Women’s Health Research in February, aiming to address the long-standing gap of women’s issues in medical research. Research looking at diseases and conditions that disproportionately affect women has been underfunded and understudied, leading to a lack of knowledge and solutions that didn’t consider their impacts on women, according to the White House website on the initiative.
The announcement follows other Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs initiatives and programs focused on improving women’s health.
One study published in 2021, highlighted in the new initiatives, was supported through a grant from the Defense Health Agency and showed the birthing benefits of using certified nurse midwives over physicians. The study was published in Sage Journals, an online journal that publishes academic research and found a higher percentage of vaginal births with midwife delivery over physicians, who delivered more babies via cesarean sections. Researchers also found fewer complications and inductions but more breast feeding with midwife deliveries.
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Uniformed Services University – which has undergraduate medical programs comparable to those at the U.S. Military Academy West Point, U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado – established their own Military Women’s Health Research Program in 2023 to fund grants, sponsor publications and encourage women’s participation in a small business and university funding program. The university also established a group focused on best practices for women’s clinical care which has supported research on interventions for physical and emotional pain due to uterine fibroids, treatment for low back pain, and the effects of prenatal mental health support.
In 2024, the Defense Department and VA established a research partnership to collaborate on studies to further women’s health research and improve care for women service members, veterans, spouses, dependents and family caregivers. The working group also holds two mini residencies with outside experts to teach VA and DoD mental health providers about gender-specific and gender-informed care on topics like reproductive mental health, eating disorders, intersectionality, emotional regulation and sexual health.
The DoD and VA have also created a working group focused on midlife concerns specific to women such as menopause and cardiovascular health.
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More Marines are staying in the Corps past their first contract than at any other time in the last 14 years.
The Marine Corps is nearing the end of Fiscal Year 2024 with the highest number of first-term Marines who have reenlisted since 2010, Corps officials announced on Monday.
The increase in retention reflects a change in the Marine Corps’ strategy from “recruit and replace” to one that aims to “invest and retain” the most capable Marines, a Corps news release says.
Traditionally, about three-quarters of Marines who enlist do not stay in the Corps beyond their first contract. But in recent years the Marine Corps has sought to create a more mature force by convincing more “first-term” Marines to reenlist.
“One goal of Talent Management is maturing the force, which begins with ensuring our highly qualified first-term enlisted Marines have the opportunity to reenlist and ‘Stay Marine,’” said Maj. Melissa Spencer, a spokeswoman for Manpower & Reserve affairs.
So far this fiscal year, a total of 7,947 first-term Marines have reenlisted, and that means the Marine Corps has met 114% of its retention goal for Marines on their first contract, Spencer told Task & Purpose on Monday. Fiscal Year 2024 ends on Sept. 30.
By way of comparison, the Marine Corps retained a total of 7,082 first-term enlisted Marines in Fiscal Year 2023, she said.
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The first-term Marine reenlistments helped the Corps exceed its overall retention goals for this fiscal year, according to Monday’s news release. The Corps also retained about 5,700 Marines who have reenlisted multiple times, known as“subsequent-term Marines.”
The Marine Corps created several incentives this fiscal year to boost retention, including selective retention bonuses for certain military occupational specialties and more opportunities for Marines to make lateral career moves, according to the news release.
“We continue to maintain our high standards and exceeded our end strength requirement through successful retention and recruiting efforts,” said Lt. Gen. Michael J. Borgschulte, the deputy commandant for Manpower & Reserve Affairs. “Our retention success increased the health of our delayed entry program for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Retaining high-quality Marines and civilians is a key part of the Marine Corps’ strategy to transform itself into a force that can compete against near-peer adversaries, such as China, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith wrote in his most recent planning guidance, which was issued in August.
The Marine Corps has made significant changes into how it recruits and retains Marines as part of its Talent Management 2030 plan, Smith wrote.
“A key component of this is our Talent Management Engagement Platform (TMEP) that provides our Marines a more personally responsive and transparent system for assignments,” Smith wrote.
“I am proud of the initiatives that are underway which give Marines more predictability during the orders process, transparency with their monitors, improved personnel management systems, financial incentives to those who volunteer for a Special Duty Assignment, and bonuses for lateral moves into certain Military Occupational Specialties.”
Smith noted in his planning guidance that both active duty and Reserve officers can opt out of consideration for promotion without harming their careers, allowing them to pursue other educational and career opportunities.
“This effort will expand throughout the total force in the years ahead,” Smith wrote. “We will maintain the trajectory of Talent Management and continue to remind our Marines why they decided to join our Corps in the first place.”
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A fighter pilot’s plane suddenly taking a hit is a terrifying situation. It becomes more startling when the plane isn’t even in a combat situation. It becomes outright bizarre when the gunfire is coming from the plane the pilot is in. 68 years ago this weekend that happened to one unfortunate U.S. Navy aviator. Thomas Attridge Jr had the distinction of being inside the first jet fighter to shoot itself down.
But first, some history. The F-11F Tiger, made by Grumman, was the U.S. Navy’s first supersonic jet fighter put into service. It was meant to be faster than the F9F 6/7 Cougar, capable of going past Mach 1 and featuring a lighter design with swept wings. The wings could be folded back, making them easier to store on the Navy’s aircraft carriers. The aircraft manufacturer worked closely with the military, putting it through several tests. Along with missiles, the Tiger was outfitted with four 20mm cannons. And that’s where things went wrong for Attridge in 1956.
On Sept. 21, 1956, Navy test pilot Attridge took off from Grumman’s airfield on Long Island, New York in an F-11F Tiger, tail number 138620. His mission was simple: carry out a weapons test over the water and then land back at the airfield. He flew to an altitude of 20,000 feet. Once there, Attridge turned the Tiger to 20 degrees, reached Mach 1 and at approximately 13,000 feet fired off a short burst from his four cannons. He dived at a steeper incline, hit the afterburner, and at 7,000 feet fired one more cannon burst, emptying the plane of ammo.
Almost immediately after that second burst the Tiger rattled from impact. The windshield of the canopy and the right engine were hit. At that moment, Attridge thought he’d hit a bird. This was roughly 20 miles off the Atlantic coast, not an enemy fighter in sight. The situation was immediately bad: the engines were losing power. He turned back to land, slowing down to 230 miles per hour, but it wasn’t enough. The plane was making a tearing sound like “a Hoover vacuum cleaner picking up gravel from a rug,” according to Attridge. He was forced to eject as the plane lost a wing and hit the ground a mile shy of the runway, traveling a few hundred feet. It was a total loss. Attridge was lucky for the most part; he broke vertebrae and a leg, but survived (and would fly again only months later).
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Only later did Attridge learn what happened. The wreckage of the Tiger had bullet holes in the nose, canopy and engine. He had shot himself. The first burst of cannon fire traveled faster than the fighter jet had been going at the time, but the bullets, like any object flying through the air, were subject to drag. When Attridge engaged the afterburner and changed his angle of descent he ended up going so fast and at just the right angle that he caught up to and flew into the very rounds he’d fired off only seconds earlier. One round was even found lodged inside the plane, helping investigators confirm the Tiger shot itself down.
This was a new development in aerial combat. The biplanes of World War I and fighters of World War II didn’t go so fast that such a feat was a risk, albeit an unlikely risk. New, supersonic fighter jets now meant that fighter pilots could move faster than the very munitions they were launching.
Luckily for the Navy and aviators in general, Attridge’s experience was unique. The F-11 Tiger would stay in service until 1969, but the Navy moved onto other planes. There was one more U.S. military instance of a fighter jet being hit by its own munition. In 1973, test pilots Pete Purvis and Bill Sherman were flying a F-14 Tomcat in the Pacific Missile Test range. Purvis fired an AIM-7 missile, but instead of it shooting off as usual, there was an issue with the missile. It tumbled from the jet, blowing up and hitting the F-14 with shrapnel. “That’s weird!” Purvis thought, according to his own recollections of the incident. Soon alarms were going off and Purvis and Sherman had to eject. They were unharmed, but the F-14 went down and exploded.
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Update: 9/23/2024; This article was updated after publication with additional information about the hospitalizations from a Tufts University spokesperson.
Nine athletes from Tufts University’s men’s lacrosse team are in the hospital with a serious and life-threatening muscular disorder after a workout with a U.S. Navy sailor who recently graduated as a Navy SEAL.
A dozen members of the men’s lacrosse team were diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis after taking part in the workout on Monday, Sept. 16, a spokesman for Tufts University confirmed with Task & Purpose. Nine of those athletes were hospitalized due to the severity of their conditions — and three remain hospitalized, according to a Sept. 23 email statement from Patrick Collins, the university’s spokesperson.
“They are responding to treatment and we hope that they will be discharged soon,” Collins wrote.
Approximately 50 athletes took part in the 45-minute voluntary workout led by the sailor, who himself was a Tufts University alumnus.
Rhabdomyolysis or “rhabdo” is a condition in which muscles essentially break down in excess from high levels of exertion. Proteins and enzymes go into the bloodstream, with the risks ranging from nausea and vomiting to more severe impacts such as kidney failure, disability and even death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The condition, although rare, has been known to occur in high-intensity activities and physical training, from collegiate sports to CrossFit.
It’s not clear what the workout consisted of exactly, and the sailor who led the workout was not named by the university. He was described as a “recent” graduate of the SEAL training program. The university confirmed to Task & Purpose that the sailor was invited by the lacrosse team to train the athletes.
“Our thoughts are with the players and their families, and we are hoping for their quick return to good health under the care of local medical experts.” Collins said. “Meanwhile, we are closely monitoring the condition of the rest of the team and have postponed all team practice activities until each team member has been evaluated and medically cleared to return to participation.”
The men’s lacrosse team won the national championship earlier this year in May and compete in the Division III level.
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One study done by the Defense Health Agency and released in April looked at cases of rhabdomyolysis in the U.S. military from 2019-2023. It described rhabdomyolysis as a “largely preventable condition” that “persists as an occupational hazard of military training and operations.”
Navy SEAL training itself is grueling and has resulted in injury and deaths. Some deaths have resulted from accidents, while others have died during the selection course, known as “Hell Week.” That includes the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, or BUD/S.
In 2017, three football players from the University of Oregon were hospitalized after intense sports training, with one player suffering rhabdomyolysis. The university later issued an apology for the incident. In 2011, 13 football players with the University of Iowa were diagnosed with the condition.
The university is launching an investigation into the incident, Collins said in a statement, “with a goal of taking any steps needed to support the safety of our student athletes.”
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Eight decades after the Allies jumped into the Netherlands in a failed attempt to seize a path into Germany, hundreds of paratroopers once again descended into Arnhem. Soldiers from more than a dozen NATO countries parachuted onto Ginkel Heath, outside of the Dutch city on Saturday, Sept. 21, commemorating the same jumps done by the Allies 80 years ago during Operation Market Garden. The jumps culminated a week of memorial events for the mission, a failed attempt during World War II to secure an invasion route into Germany.
“Today we commemorate the brave young soldiers who risked and sometimes gave their lives for our freedom,” Arnhem Mayor Rene Verhulst said at Saturday’s event. He said that in 1944, “courage, sacrifice and hope came together in the shape of the airborne landings” that made up the “Market” part of Market Garden.
On Sept. 17, 1944, the Allies launched the two-pronged mission. More than 35,000 American and British paratroopers would jump in, taking nine bridges and securing a path over the Rhine River. British ground forces would then advance through the route, entering German territory. After early success across the Netherlands, the Allies failed to capture the bridge at Arnhem, being pushed back. When Market Garden officially ended on Sept. 25, more than 15,000 British and American troops had been killed, wounded or captured by the Nazis. Much of the Netherlands was liberated from German control, but the hoped for charge into Germany was halted.
The jumps this Sept. 21 are part of a larger, days-long memorial celebration in the Netherlands. Approximately 120 members of the 101st and 82nd Airborne divisions — units that took part in Market Garden — participated in the events, while U.S. Air Force C-130H planes ferried parachutists over the jump sites on Saturday. 12 World War II veterans were also in Arnhem to witness the commemoration.
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Ahead of Saturday’s jumps, other events recreated parts of the Market Garden mission. Active-duty and veteran soldiers, as well as World War II reenactors, recreated the crossing of the Waal River in Nijmegen on Sept. 20. Dressed in World War II uniforms, they paddled across the waters; this group was not facing down withering fire from the Germans, as the soldiers in 1944 did.
The celebrations and reenactments come three months after similar memorials and events were held for the 80th anniversary of D-Day and the invasion of Normandy. More than 1,000 American troops took part in those memorials, which similarly featured paratroopers jumping into Europe and reenactments, as well as plenty of vintage World War II gear and uniforms, in honor of those who fought and died to liberate Europe from the Nazis.
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A former U.S. Army soldier who posted a video to YouTube threatening to commit a mass shooting at Fort Irwin will spend 24 months in prison. Christian Beyer, 42, was formally sentenced on Sept. 19, nearly a year after he shared his intention to sneak onto the base and murder specific soldiers.
The two-year sentence comes three months after Beyer pleaded guilty to sending threats via interstate communication. In October 2023, Beyer posted a nearly three-minute-long video naming specific Fort Irwin personnel that he was targeting, and stating that he knew ways to access Fort Irwin without being detected. Beyer vowed to “hunt” soldiers and military families. Fort Irwin, home to the National Training Center, in San Bernardino County.
“I had a great life and will die for what I believe in,” he said in the video. “If you come to get me and you have a uniform on, you’re an enemy and I will not look at you as anything else.”
Authorities found several other videos from September 2023 featuring similar threats. Law enforcement began looking for Beyer in late October, searching for him in Mendocino County. He fled, briefly threatening a group of senior citizens with a knife and a car. He was able to evade law enforcement for two days. He was eventually found in his father’s home in Sonoma County in northern California after a manhunt and arrested on Nov. 1.
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Beyer previously was stationed at Fort Irwin. He joined the Army in 2000 and deployed five times, including three deployments to Iraq. He was court martialed in 2021 over an assault incident. Beyer left the Army in 2023. When he was arrested, authorities said that Beyer knew trails and other ways to get past the main gates at Fort Irwin. It’s unclear what his plan was to reach the southern California base or if and when he intended to actually attack it.
“Mr. Beyer’s desire to carry out violence against members of our military and their families led to a federal prison sentence,” United States Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement from the Department of Justice. “Our military servicemembers deserve better and we will continue to prosecute those who seek to harm public servants.”
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The U.S. Army soldier who fled into North Korea last year was dishonorably discharged from the military, but he will not spend any time in prison following a guilty plea on Friday.
Pvt. Travis King, 24, pleaded guilty to five of the 14 counts against him on Sept. 20 at Fort Bliss, Texas. The military judge dismissed the other nine counts. He was released a free man as well. U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Rick Mathew, the military judge overseeing the court martial, counted King’s time spent in pre-trial confinement in Otero County jail in New Mexico as well as credit for good behavior towards his sentence.
King spent two months in a South Korean jail last year following a bar fight where he allegedly assaulted a South Korean national. He was escorted to the airport to be sent back to the United States when he fled, joining a tour group visiting the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom at the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. King fled across the DMZ into North Korea July 18, 2023. By September that year he was returned to U.S. custody, where he faced charges of desertion and other crimes under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
“The outcome of today’s court-martial is a fair and just result that reflects the seriousness of the offenses committed by Pvt. King and will promote good order and discipline within the U.S. Army by deterring soldiers from committing similar offenses in the future,” Maj. Allyson Montgomery, a prosecutor with the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel, said in a statement following the guilty plea.
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Alongside the charge of desertion, King pleaded guilty to three counts of insubordination stemming from an October 2023 incident after his return to American custody. He also pleaded guilty to assaulting a noncommissioned officer the day after the insubordination incident.
King was given a dishonorable discharge. His rank was also kicked down to private (E-1) and forfeited pay Before pleading guilty, he faced two decades in prison. King joined the Army in 2021 and was in South Korea as part of a unit rotation.
“Travis King has faced significant challenges throughout his life, including a difficult upbringing, exposure to criminal environments, and struggles with mental health,” said Franklin Rosenblatt, his lead defense attorney. “All these factors have compounded the hardships he faced in the military. “
King’s lawyers had argued that the soldier faced “significant challenges” in his life, including struggles with mental health. According to reporters at the hearing, King himself said that he had planned to leave the Army, and fled to North Korea after feeling “dissatisfied” with his work in the military.
“He has accepted responsibility during today’s court martial — but make no mistake, the negative public perception and the ongoing consequences of his actions, coupled with the confinement he’s endured, represents an ongoing punishment Travis King will endure for the rest of his life,” Rosenblatt said.
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The Navy’s highest-ranking admiral and first woman to lead a U.S. military service said she is in good health after undergoing treatment for Stage 1 breast cancer, the Navy announced on Friday.
Doctors treating Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti said she is now “cancer free” after completing radiation therapy in August, according to the Navy.
Franchetti, 60, is being treated at the John P. Murtha Cancer Center at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, a Navy news release says. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in June after a routine mammogram screening and she underwent outpatient surgery in July, during which she temporarily transferred her authorities to Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James Kilby.
She has since completed radiation therapy and began maintenance endocrine therapy this month.
“I am grateful for my wonderful team of doctors at John P. Murtha Cancer Center for their excellent care and their development of a treatment plan that allows me to continue leading the world’s greatest Navy,” Franchetti said in a statement. “I am blessed that this was detected early and will forever be an advocate for early and routine screening.”
Franchetti was in New London, Connecticut this week to award the crew of the USS Indiana the service’s first-ever Arctic Service Medals. Franchetti also released her strategic guidance to the Navy on Wednesday, which calls for the service to be ready for a possible war with China by 2027.
Breast cancer affects 1 out of 8 women in the United States, according to the National Breast Cancer Foundation Inc. The disease is the second leading cause of death of American women behind lung cancer. Breast cancer death rates declined 43% between 1989 and 2020, in part due to better screening and early detection efforts as well as improved treatments options.
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“The chance that a woman will die from breast cancer is 1 in 39, or about 2.5%,” according to the foundation. “Women who receive regular screenings for breast cancer have a 26% lower breast cancer death rate than women who do not receive screenings.”
Franchetti is the first woman to serve as the Navy’s top admiral, and she is also the first woman to become permanent member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She was confirmed as CNO in November after Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) prevented the Senate from voting on senior officer promotions en masse.
She is the third senior defense official to deal with a serious health issue within the past year. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith suffered a heart attack while running in October 2023 and spent several months recovering before resuming his full duties in March.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was rushed to the hospital in January due to complications from prostate cancer surgery shortly before Christmas. The Pentagon did not announce that Austin had been hospitalized until four days later.
Austin later apologies for not publicly disclosing his hospital stay earlier, and he explained that his initial instinct was to keep his cancer diagnosis private.
“We did not handle this right, and I did not handle this right,” Austin told reporters at a Feb. 1 Pentagon news conference. “I should have told the President about my cancer diagnosis. I should have also told my team and the American public. And I take full responsibility. I apologize to my teammates and to the American people.”
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The Army is closing its last standing active-duty information operations command as part of the military’s shift to joint operations and a broader realization that information warfare is and will be significant in future wars.
With that in mind, the Army wants soldiers conducting information operations closer to the future fight and integrated into the different geographic regions.
In July, U.S. Army Cyber Command’s 1st Information Operations Command held its last change of command ceremony at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. The command was the Army’s only active-duty command focused on civil affairs, cyber warfare and psychological operations, also known colloquially as a PSYOP which aim to influence the beliefs and actions of other countries’ populations. The command will be inactivated in fiscal year 2025, according to Maj. Lindsay Roman, a spokesperson for U.S. Army Cyber Command.
“There was a little bit of a mismatch between what the functions were in [1st Information Operations Command] which had kind of accreted a variety of jobs over the years that weren’t all really truly related,” said Aaron Pearce, U.S. Army Cyber Command’s director for information warfare. “They were a parking space for cyber red teaming before cyber red teaming really became a common thing within the military.”
The Army’s cyber red teams emulate adversaries to highlight vulnerabilities in the broader U.S. and military networks to make improvements. The Army recently stood up a red team focused on exploiting cybersecurity weaknesses in artificial intelligence systems. The service has also created Expeditionary Cyber-Electromagnetic Activities Teams which have joined national training center rotations where they replicate real-world cyber operations in the field.
They are just one of several new units the Army is standing up as it pivots to a battlespace where information warfare is key — especially online where information moves fast and goes unchecked. In the midst of the actual hand-to-hand combat in Russia and Ukraine, another information war is playing out on the internet. According to NATO, Russia has used trolls to make posts and comments imitating real people, bots to automate messages and fabricated news to push messages with misleading information to push their own narratives.
The shift, according to Pearce, is part of the military’s understanding that information beyond the classified realm, meaning from public sources, is becoming “more central to the battlefield and that it’s important to all types of units, not just specialized units, but the maneuver commanders themselves.”
Earlier this month, the Army held a joint exercise focused on open-source intelligence with Finland, using AI algorithms to sift through data and flag specific keywords and phrases in certain geographic locations. They also used private sector satellite data that helped soldiers detect infrastructure changes, military asset movements, and other data points for strategic assessments.
Previously, the Army looked at information operations as “just a planning coordinating function at the command level,” Pearce said. But the Army’s new focus is to take data from all of the new AI-enabled and sensing technology along with open source information to help commanders be proactive in battle.
“It’s really turning information and trying to have an effect with it, not just reacting to it,” he added.
At a tech conference in August, Lt. Gen. Maria Barrett, commander of Army Cyber Command, said the 1st Information Operations command gave the Army insight into what information advantage could be when it was first stood up in 2002.
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“We don’t want the same capabilities, though,” she said. “We want an evolved capability, and so it starts with, ironically, inactivating the 1st IO Brigade.”
The changes have come in spite of broader recruiting and retention problems facing the Army – specifically in its psychological operations (PSYOP) units. In March, a report by the Department of Defense’s Inspector General found that the Army didn’t have enough PSYOP soldiers to fight the information war with China and Russia, due to not recruiting, training, or retaining a sufficient workforce to meet the growing demand for PSYOP operations.
The inspector general also said that the lack of PSYOP-trained active duty soldiers has forced the service to rely on reservists to “fill the global, full-time requirements for conventional MISO.” The result of diminished active duty PSYOP soldiers, according to the watchdog report, has led to an increased risk of burnout among remaining soldiers.
However, the Army says the command’s inactivation will not impact existing PSYOP units.
“PSYOP as a function” will be a piece of the puzzle that in-theater unit detachments use in their assessments that are passed on to commanders who make the final decisions in combat, Pearce said.
Since 2006, PSYOP soldiers have been assigned to units in either U.S. Army Special Operations Command and the Army Reserve Command, leading to a difference in training among active-duty and Reserve PSYOP soldiers. In April, commanding general for the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, or SWCS, announced it would standardize the varied PSYOP training among the full and part-time soldiers working those jobs.
Closer to the battlefieldDuring counterinsurgency fights in Iraq and Afghanistan, commanders had to request field support teams who were proficient in information operations to augment special operations command staff on the ground, Pearce said. Under the new model, the Army plans to have information warfare specialists embedded in the different regions where the U.S. military has a footprint.
The Theater Information Advantage Detachments, TIADs, will look at answering “how do we influence the adversary, how do we counter adversary information warfare campaigns against those forces” and take information from the battlefield and region into their analysis, he said.
The Army’s new Multi-Domain Task Forces will overlap with the TIADs in terms of soldier occupation specialties but they will also include soldiers with artillery backgrounds. Three will be assigned to the Pacific, one with Army forces based in Europe focused on Africa and another in the Middle East. One headquarters is currently in Germany and another is stationed in Hawaii, according to the Army.
Multi-domain operations occur “below the threshold of armed conflict,” and use space, cyber, air, sea, and land to “accomplish missions at least cost,” according to analysis by the Congressional Research Service. “During conflict, they are how Army forces close with and destroy the enemy, defeat enemy formations, seize critical terrain, and control populations and resources to deliver sustainable political outcomes.”
In terms of next steps, Army civilians assigned to the 1st Information Operations Command will remain within the Army Cyber Command. Military personnel from the command may take on positions in the new units or move to other areas depending on need.
Update: 9/23/2024: This article was updated after publication with additional information about when U.S. Army Cyber Command’s 1st Information Operations Command will be inactivated.
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Matthew Perez’s parents told him that he and his new wife, Jessica, should wait a few years before having kids, to make sure the young couple had their “ducks in a row” before adding to their family. But the young Army paratrooper and his wife had other plans.
“That’s the only thing I’m glad that he didn’t listen to me or his mom, because my daughter-in-law is expecting,” said Jose Perez, Matthew’s father. “So now we’re gonna have Matthew coming back, hopefully.”
Matthew Perez, 20, was killed Sept. 13 from injuries sustained during airborne training at the Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Johnson, Louisiana. The Army has not released any details on the circumstances of Perez’s death except to confirm that he was injured during parachute training. Task & Purpose has confirmed that a second paratrooper was injured on the same training exercise, though it is not clear if the two mishaps are related.
“It takes a different breed,” Jose Perez told Task & Purpose, his voice breaking as he remembered his son’s life. “He was a different breed. He was built differently.”
Matthew, Jose said, was born more than two months premature.
“He was born at 27 weeks. He was a preemie. It was told to my wife that he was going to have a hard life, and he dealt with hard life, and he was, he was strong. Like I said. he was built differently.”
In 2023, soon after graduating from high school, Matthew joined the Army to be an infantryman. After One Station Unit Training at Fort Moore, he volunteered for paratrooper training with aspirations to earn his way into the 75th Ranger Regiment.
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After basic training and Airborne School, he was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team at Fort Liberty.
He told his family that he’d found a band of “brothers” in the Army.
“My son had a lot of friends there, a lot of brothers. They loved each other,” Vanessa said. “You could tell because we’ve gotten so many calls, so many texts, even a different state, and they’re pouring out their love to us.”
Though Perez was the first in his family to join the military, he wanted others in his family to follow him.
“He was rolling out the carpet for them to join,” Jose said. “He was guiding his cousins.”
Perez married Jessica on May 4, 2024, and, his parents said, fully embraced the roll of dad when he adopted his wife’s daughter. Then just over a month before his death, he told his parents that Jessica was pregnant.
In the long-term, Perez’s parents said, he planned on joining law enforcement and qualifying for a SWAT team. His awards are the Army Service Ribbon and the Marksmanship qualification badge.
From overcoming his own premature birth to the coming birth of his own child, Jose said he hopes his son’s life will be an inspiration.
“Push for your dreams, because that’s what he wanted,” Jose said.
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A Marine veteran and his wife located the body of a man who is accused of shooting five people earlier this month along Interstate 75 in Southern Kentucky.
On Wednesday, Fred McCoy and his wife Shelia located the remains of Joseph Couch, who was wanted by police in connection with the Sept. 7 shootings.
Couch served in the Army Reserve for six years as a combat engineer, did not deploy, and left the service as a private. After the shootings, authorities had offered a reward for information leading to Couch’s arrest. Police found his truck and a weapon they believe he used.
McCoy and his wife have their own YouTube channel, and they live-streamed their six-day search for Couch. The two previously operated a museum in Kentucky dedicated to the feud between the Hatfield and McCoy families.
McCoy and his wife posted a video on Wednesday about their discovery of Couch’s body. In the video, McCoy, a former lance corporal, says that Couch’s remains were badly decayed.
He also says that he saw buzzards near the site of the body and his wife first smelled the decomposing remains, allowing the two to locate Couch, adding, “My wife, her nose found him.”
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However, there is some dispute about who found Couch’s remains first. The Kentucky State Police issued a news release on Wednesday that said state troopers and the McCoys had “stumbled upon the unidentified body.”
But McCoy insisted to Task & Purpose that he and his wife were first to reach the scene, and then he alerted nearby state troopers.
He also said that they had hoped to find Couch alive.
“We were actually thinking that he was going to find us,” McCoy said. “We’d go through the woods and holler for him. I wanted him to come out and talk. I thought I could talk to him and get him to turn himself in. I thought after this long he’d be out in the woods, be calmed down, over his anger stage a person could have helped him.”
McCoy can be seen in Wednesday’s YouTube video and subsequent media interviews wearing an eight-point utility cap that evokes his Marine Corps service.
“The Marine Corps raised me,” McCoy told Task & Purpose on Thursday. “I went into the Marines at 17 years old. Some people say I’ve got a crappy attitude —– it’s pure Marine.”
McCoy provided Task & Purpose his DD-214 form, which shows he served as a Marine infantry rifleman from 1975 to 1978. He said he graduated from recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, completed infantry training at Camp Pendleton, California, and was stationed at Marine Barracks Cecil Field in Florida.
“Anything the Marine Corps taught me helped me all through my life,” McCoy said. “I was only in for three years, but the Marine Corps molded me.”
At Parris Island, McCoy said he was “treated like a dog and loved it” and went on to go to Puerto Rico three times on temporary duty.
He said that he didn’t know much about life when he enlisted in the Marines, but he learned quickly once he was in the Corps.
“I’ve spent 40 years as a police officer,” McCoy said, “Other than being a born-again Christian, the Marine Corps is the best thing to ever happen to me.”
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For U.S. service members, PowerPoint presentations have become a mind-numbing, though generally benign, part of service in the modern age. But on Thursday, Army leaders have found themselves called before Congress to testify on one such slideshow.
On Thursday, Army leaders were questioned by members of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel about a July anti-terrorism briefing at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, that listed nonprofits and advocacy groups as terrorist organizations.
During the briefing, which was attended by 47 soldiers at the base, the National Right to Life, Earth First, Earth Liberation Front, Animal Liberation Front and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) were listed as terror groups.
Agnes Schaefer, assistant secretary of the Army for Manpower & Reserve Affairs told the committee that the PowerPoint slides used for anti-terrorism training “inaccurately referenced” those groups.
“The secretary of the Army and I have stated unequivocally that nonprofit groups such as those referenced in the training slides are not and should not be described as such in Army documents or training materials,” Schaefer said. “The slides do not represent the official policy or views of the U.S. Army.”
An investigation found that the slides in question were developed at Fort Liberty and had been used for training since 2017. Schaefer said the investigation found that the slides were not reviewed or approved “because local policies were not in place for renewing and approving the sub-training slides.”
During the hearing, Lt. Gen. Patrick Matlock, deputy chief of staff to the Army’s lead official in charge of planning and programming, said that the 18th Airborne Corps commander directed corrective actions that have been completed and cited privacy concerns when asked for specific information.
“The individual who created the training has received corrective training, has been retrained as a trainer, and continues to perform corrective training,” Matlock said. “I’m not going to describe specific acts taken because those actions reside with the chain of command and it’s our policy not to discuss those.”
Matlock also said the soldiers who completed the training were not “specifically told they’ve been misinformed.”
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The subcommittee chairman, Indiana Republican Rep. Jim Banks called the military officials’ answers a “big embarrassment for the United States Army.”
Banks shot back that non-judicial punishments are public information and admonished officials over what he described as a lack of transparency.
Schaefer told lawmakers that the Army issued a directive to review anti-terrorism training and included requirements such as a legal review at the colonel and GS-15 level and emphasized aligning training materials with Army standard training packages.
Officials also highlighted the Army’s recent update to its extremism policy and noted that during the recruitment process, the service has a method of screening out recruits with extremist ideologies based on Department of Defense-wide definitions.
Members of the committee, both Democrats and Republicans, expressed their frustration with officials’ lack of knowledge about the policies and answers to their questions.
“The problem here is we have a diffused sense of accountability if every single command has its own arbitrary, subjective ability to make a determination on extremist activity, therein lies your problem,” said Rep. Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii). “I think you have to actually answer the question of, where does the buck stop? And I don’t think I’ve gotten my answer.”
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The Navy’s first fully gender-integrated submarine joined the fleet with changes to reflect an increase of women sailors serving in positions that were previously off limits. The biggest change? More doors for more privacy.
The Navy’s newest attack submarine, the future USS New Jersey (SSN 796) was commissioned into the fleet last weekend in a ceremony at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Middletown, New Jersey. Modifications to the USS New Jersey’s habitability requirements include changes to the submarine’s berthing area which is where sailors sleep, the washrooms, and the Chief Petty Officer Lounge.
Lt. Victoria Meyer, a submariner who now works on manpower and personnel issues for the Commander, Submarine Force Atlantic, said the biggest difference on the modified Virginia-class submarine is the berthing spaces. Previously, sleeping areas had curtains which were replaced by doors. In the chief’s quarters, there’s a lounge area and a separate space with a door for sleeping racks, whereas the unmodified version had the racks exposed to the wider living space.
The changes “increase privacy” for the crew members, Jamie Koehler, a spokesperson for Naval Sea Systems Command told Task & Purpose in a statement. The modifications are a signal that the Navy is supporting mixed-gender crews, and will help the service with recruitment and retention, she said.
The submarine’s new all-gender accommodations are part of the Navy’s modernization efforts which account for more women on ships. While the designs are new, women have been serving on submarines officially since 2011. More than 700 women are assigned to operational submarines, and serve as officers and sailors on 19 nuclear-powered ballistic-missile and guided-missile crews and 19 nuclear-powered attack boats, according to the Navy.
The new configuration will be standard for all of the Navy’s future Virginia-class and Columbia-class submarines, according to the Navy.
The Virginia class submarine is 377 feet long and 33 feet wide, but Meyer said that life on a sub isn’t all that bad, adding “I think people kind of shrink down submarines in their mind.”
The new addition of doors however, will give sailors more personal space. It’s also important because the lifestyle aboard involves sailors standing eight-hour watches at all hours of the day in three different parts of the ship, which naturally interferes with sleep.
“It’s just trying to maximize privacy across the board too because men and women like privacy. It’s just an attempt to maximize that,” Meyer said, adding that the curtains, now doors, are for light and for noise control “because you’ve got people traversing that way and you’ve got people sleeping there as well.”
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The Navy’s long-term plan is to have all submarine classes integrated with women and more specifically they hope to have 39 mixed-gender submarine crews with officers and 22 crews with enlisted sailors by 2033.
In 1994, Congress was notified of a new Navy policy expanding the number of assignments available to women but at that time, submarine assignments for women were considered “cost prohibitive” so all-male crews continued. Then in 2010, former Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates lifted the ban, allowing women to serve on submarines. The Navy began with women serving as officers first and by 2016, the submarine force integrated its first command with enlisted women.
Bryan Clark, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington D.C.-based think tank and a retired enlisted and officer submariner, said the Navy realized design changes were necessary once women were allowed on submarine billets.
“Here we are about 10 years in where the Navy is finally getting a new submarine built that has all of that built in from the start,” Clark said. “The submarine is not something where you can easily just start making design changes to the internals of it because it’s pretty tightly packed whereas on the surface ship, you can go through and make these kinds of changes without it being nearly as challenging.”
When women were first introduced to submarines in the early 2010s, Clark said the Navy initially integrated the ballistic missile submarines because they had the most room and had multiple bathrooms.
Changes are coming to the Navy’s new ballistic submarines, too. Previous iterations of the Ohio-class submarines’ “dimensions and the placement of controls and operating equipment were based on average male height,” according to one officer who spoke to communications staff for a Los Alamos National Laboratory article. But the new Columbia-class submarines will also keep women in mind and even have a step stool for shorter sailors to see through the ship’s periscope.
“What’s unique about the modified Virginia classes is that we are now building submarines with integration in mind,” Meyer said. “I was on New Jersey when it was just me and another female officer and now there’s more.”
PCU New Jersey (SSN 796) pulls into Naval Weapons Station Earle Pier, New Jersey, on Sept. 6, 2024 ahead of the Virginia class submarine’s commissioning ceremony. Navy Photo By Bill Addison. A changing submarine fleetMeyer was originally going to become a pilot but when she graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in 2019, the service had increased the accession rate for women submariners.
“It’s the people that drew me in — the people that really make me proud to wear dolphins,” Meyer said, referring to the insignia worn by submariners.
Meyer went through the nuclear training pipeline and in April 2021 reported to the submarine’s pre-commissioning unit. Now Meyer assists with matters related to women in submarines.
She joined a six-month deployment to Europe on the USS Washington to which had just integrated women officers. She lived with other women serving as officers on the ship.
There’s no specific policy that prohibits mixed-gender berthing but when it does happen, “it’s definitely the exception and not the norm,” Meyer said, adding that submarines are small spaces and women need time on board to qualify for career progression. “You gotta weigh that against the berthing constraints.”
Meyer said in a mixed-berthing scenario, the woman officer has to volunteer. She also noted a minimum dress standard of sleeping in a T-shirt and shorts.
The ships also accommodate crews of women officers and enlisted sailors. On Virginia-class submarines there are four staterooms for officers with three racks in each, which means 12 sleeping quarters, Meyer said. Since submarines usually have more than 12 officers, the junior officers may not get a state room and instead bunk with the enlisted crew.
The future USS New Jersey is the 23rd Virginia-class submarine with “enhanced stealth, sophisticated surveillance capabilities and special warfare enhancements,” according to Naval Sea Systems Command. The USS New Jersey was co-produced by General Dynamics Electric Boat and HII-Newport News Shipbuilding.
“I’m very proud to be a submarine but at the end of the day, I never joined to be a first or I didn’t really think about integration,” Meyer said. “I was just there to get qualified, do my job and be the best officer I could.”
Update: 9/19/2024: This article updated after publication with the most recent information from the U.S. Navy on the number of women on submarines and future goals for women on submarines.
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Marine Sgt. Andrew Gomez recently received the Department of the Navy’s highest non-combat award for helping to rescue a woman from the scene of a fiery car crash in New Jersey, according to a news story from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, where Gomez is assigned.
Gomez was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal last month. He has served in the Marine Corps for more than nine years and is currently assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 49, 4th Marine Aircraft Wing.
“While I don’t see myself as a hero, I am happy to have been that for someone on what was probably the worst day of their life,” Gomez said in the news story. “My mom taught me that life isn’t about us. She is passionate about being good to others, so I think some of that rubbed off on me.”
On June 19, 2023, Gomez was driving back to base from Philadelphia when he came upon the car crash.
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“While driving, I noticed smoke billowing from the woods and a car fire beginning on I-295,” Gomez said. “I saw no visible first responders on scene and felt a calling to pull over and render aid.”
Gomez got out of his car and ventured to the scene of the crash. It was clear that the car had veered off the road and slammed into a tree. The driver appeared to have suffered neck injuries while a woman was lying beside the vehicle, apparently unable to move.
The Marine instantly ran toward the woman and picked her up. Another passerby helped him move her away from the burning car.
“Her injuries were severe, but she didn’t seem in immediate risk of dying before first responders arrived,” Gomez said. “We brought her to the edge of the highway, and I decided to move her again in case the vehicle exploded.”
Gomez went back to check on the driver, who was unresponsive. An Air Force official told Task & Purpose on Thursday that the driver did not survive the crash.
First responders soon arrived on the scene and doused the car fire. Gomez said he believes that the woman may not have survived if he had not moved her because emergency crews may not have reached her in time.
The woman and her family have since bonded with Gomez, who has been invited to cookouts and a birthday party since the crash.
Marine Sgt. Andrew Gomez (right) and his mother attended an Aug. 14, 2024 award ceremony in which Gomez received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal. Air Force Photo by Senior Airman Matt Porter. Gomez credited the values he learned from both the Marine Corps and his mother for his quick response to the crisis. His Marine training also prepared him to run towards danger and save lives, he said.
“This remarkable act of bravery stands as a testament to the courage and selflessness that define the men and women serving in our Marine Corps,” Maj. Gen. John Kelliher III, 4th Marine Aircraft Wing commanding general,” said in the news story. “The valiant actions displayed by Sgt. Gomez unquestionably merits one of our highest honors, demonstrating that Marines and others like him can be called upon to respond in times of crisis.”
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Sailors on a fast-attack submarine became the Navy’s first-ever crew to receive the service’s new Arctic Service Medal, a decoration created last year to recognize missions that travel over, below or that surface through ice-covered Arctic waters.
The crew of the USS Indiana, a Virginia-class attack sub, earned the medal for their participation last March in Operation Ice Camp, a multi-national event held off the coast of Alaska which, atypically among large-scale military exercises, is exactly what it sounds like. Over three frigid weeks, troops from all five U.S. military services and the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and France set up and maintained a 60-person camp, dubbed Camp Whale on a barren ice sheet in the Beaufort Sea.
The camp took its name from the USS Whale, a submarine that reached the North Pole in 1969 by diving under the Arctic ice cap and surfacing through the ice at the pole. The Indiana arrived at Camp Whale the same way, surfacing through the ice layer.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, who was at Camp Whale to meet the Indiana in March, presented the new medals Sept. 17 to the crew and others at Naval Submarine Base New London, Connecticut.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti presents the Arctic Service Medal to the crew of the Virginia-class attack submarine USS Indiana , Sept. 17, 2024. The newly created award recognizes contributions to national security and maritime superiority in the Arctic region. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class William Spears) Petty Officer 1st Class William SpearsThe Arctic Service Medal was authorized in 2023 as an extension to the Arctic Service Ribbon, a decoration that sailors have long been awarded for clocking 28 days of duty above the Arctic Circle. The new medal, on the other hand, is awarded for specific underway missions including an ice-covered strait transit (like the Bering Strait or Barrow Strait), transit of the North Pole (which the Navy defines as latitudes above 82-degrees north), submarines that surface vertically through ice or that spend at least seven days “of classified military operations while under the marginal ice zone or pack ice.”
Personnel assigned to an ice camp who set up on an ice flow are also eligible.
Operation Ice Camp was the Navy’s 99th arctic surface-and-subsurface exercise, according to a Navy release, and largest. The Pentagon has made clear in recent policy updates and troop basing that the Arctic is likely to be a focus of operations, matching increased interest in the region from China and Russia.
“Our Department of Defense Arctic Strategy makes it clear that we must be able to operate in the Arctic to protect our homeland and preserve our defense-treaty commitments,” Franchetti told the Indiana crew. “Your actions demonstrate how the U.S. Navy is enhancing our Arctic capability by investing in sensors, intelligence, and information and sharing capabilities with our Allies and partners so we can better understand the environment.”
Though Russian and Chinese militaries are the pacing threat behind Operation Ice Camp, there was no sign that the Indiana crew faced the same menace that another Navy sub famously stared down in the 2003 edition of the exercise, which was then known as ICEX 2003.
During that exercise, the USS Connecticut similarly surfaced through a sheet of ice, then north of Alaska. But while the Indiana was greeted by the Navy’s senior-ranking admiral last spring, the Connecticut was met only by a local polar bear looking for a snack.
For about 30 minutes, the bear circled the ship and eventually jumped on and pushed — and even appeared to bite — the boat’s tail as the crew watched on the ship’s periscope camera.
The Navy confirmed at the time that neither the sub nor the bear sustained permanent damage.
CORRECTION: 9/18/2024; An illustration on an earlier version of this article incorrectly identified a medal as the Navy Arctic Service Medal.
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An Army colonel fired in October as the garrison commander for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, was found not guilty of drunk driving and disorderly conduct chargesthat prompted his relief of command.
A federal jury acquitted Army Col. Anthony Bianchi of the two more serious charges he faced after being arrested last July for driving through West Point’s Thayer Gate without showing his identification to military police.The jury found him guilty of running a stop sign, one of his attorneys told Task & Purpose on Wednesday.
Police claimed that Bianchi had been “verbally abusive to wait staff” at the military academy’s Eisenhower Hall earlier in the evening, court documents say.
On Sept. 13, a jury found Bianchi not guilty of charges stemming from those incidents, but he was found guilty of failing to stop at a stop sign at Thayer Gate and ordered to pay a fine of $150, according to the court documents, which were posted on the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system, or PACER.
“Last week marked the end of a 13-month period of uncertainty for my family,” Bianchi said in a statement to Task & Purpose. “The last year has been marked by a persistent feeling of stress and dread, a crushing financial burden, and a lingering feeling of embarrassment and shame for me and my family. Even after being ostracized personally and professionally, I’ve concluded that much of the strife has been unnecessary – I feel personally and professionally vindicated through this verdict, and I’m looking forward to now being able to focus on transitioning into retirement with this fully behind me.”
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Bianchi was initially charged with misusing a government vehicle to drive from his home to the military’s Eisenhower Hall for a personal function and then to the Thayer Hotel for drinks, but that charge was later dropped, said John L. Buckheit, his lead defense attorney.
In a quirk of legal jurisdiction applicable to some military legal cases, the charges Bianchi faced were under New York state laws, but his trial was held in a federal courtroom under the Assimilative Crimes Act, which “makes state law applicable to conduct occurring on lands reserved or acquired by the Federal government.” West Point is a federal government military installation.
On the night Bianchi was arrested, Buckheit said, the colonel refused to take a breathalyzer test. A New York State Department of Motor Vehicles administrative judge later determined that military police had improperly handled their request to test his blood-alcohol content, ruling, “Respondent was hauled from his residence two hours after an incident at West Point without a warrant in violation of the Fourth Amendment by friends recruited by MPs to coax him out.”
Military.com first reported on Monday that Bianchi had been acquitted of the drunken driving and disorderly conduct charges.
A disputed nightThe night that ended Bianchi’s tenure at West Point began with police summoned to a dining hall and ended hours later after the same police officers saw Bianchi driving through a base gate.
On July 22, 2023, the Provost Marshal’s Office at West point dispatched two military police officers to Eisenhower Hall around 8:40 p.m. after receiving a call about a verbal argument between Bianchi and the wait staff, court records say.
Police said Bianchi “was upset over the food he was served and was verbally aggressive to [the waiter] and threatened to fire him,” court records say. One of the officers said they saw Bianchi drink “what appeared to be an alcoholic beverage,” smelled alcohol on Bianchi’s breath and noticed that his speech was slurred.
Around 12:38 a.m. on July 23, 2023, both military police officers were at Thayer Gate when Bianchi drove through the gate without showing his identification, and he then allegedly drove through a stop sign without stopping, according to the court records.
At 1:35 a.m., the provost marshal and two of Bianchi’s colleagues arrived at Bianchi’s home, according to court records. Two subordinates asked him to speak with military police, and he was taken to the police station, where he refused to have his blood-alcohol content tested and asked to speak to a lawyer. He was arrested for suspected drunken driving and read his rights at 3:50 a.m.
Bianchi again refused to have his blood-alcohol content test after receiving an order from the military police commander at 4:40 a.m., even though he was threatened with being charged with failing to obey an order under the Uniform Code of Military Justice if he did not comply, the court records say. He was later released and suspended as garrison commander shortly afterward.
One of the military police officers later testified at Bianchi’s trial that he did not see any signs that Bianchi was intoxicated at Thayer Gate, and he did not have probable cause to stop Bianchi after he drove through the gate, according to a partial transcript of the proceedings obtained by Task & Purpose.
In his statement to Task & Purpose, Bianchi acknowledged that he had consumed alcohol on the night of July 22, 2023, “But it was much earlier in the evening and the credible evidence offered at trial didn’t support the government’s accusation.”
Bianchi said he has submitted his request to retire and is awaiting the Army’s response.
According to his official biography from the Army, Bianchi was commissioned as an artillery officer out of West Point in 1997. He deployed to Iraq in 2007 and Afghanistan in 2012. Prior to serving as garrison commander at West Point, Bianchi had been a professor there in the Department of Systems Engineering. He has also been awarded a Bronze Star, the Army Achievement Medal and Army Commendation Medal, among others.
“I’ve had a long and gratifying career leading and caring for our nation’s finest and I have no regrets,” Bianchi said. “I hold no grudges against the service or the U.S. Military Academy, an institution I’ve proudly supported and loved since my graduation in 1997.”
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When Marine Cpl. Spencer Collart’s MV-22 Osprey crashed in August 2023, he made it out alive — but went back into the burning plane when he realized the pilots were trapped inside.
The act of heroism cost Collart his life.
The Osprey crew chief was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal posthumously for trying to save fellow marines in a 2023 Osprey crash in Australia. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric M. Smith, presented the posthumous award to Collart’s family on Monday. The crash killed Collart and the two pilots he tried to save, Maj. Tobin Lewis and Capt. Eleanor LeBeau. Crash investigators found that Collart reached the cockpit but died in his attempts to extract them from the aircraft.
Alexia Collart, Cpl. Collart’s mother, said she was sure her son had acted without thinking to save his fellow crew members.
“As a mom, I think about if he didn’t go back in there, but of course it was Spencer, he had to go back in there,” she said. “It was a reflex. He had seconds to think, and he thought, and he acted. There was no question.”
“This kind of selflessness is rare, but it’s the kind of bravery that defines Marines across generations,” Smith said in a news release. “In those critical moments, Cpl. Collart put his life on the line for his brothers and sisters, knowing full well the risks. He demonstrates what it means to live by our values of honor, courage, and commitment.”
The family of Cpl. Spencer Collart during an award presentation posthumously honoring his heroic actions, Sept. 16, 2024, at Marine Barracks Washington. Gen. Eric M. Smith, 39th Commandant of the Marine Corps, posthumously awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal to Cpl. Collart’s family in recognition of the heroic actions Collart made while attempting to save the lives of his fellow Marines following a crash of their MV-22 Osprey on Aug. 27, 2023. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Tawanya Norwood. Collart was an MV-22 crew chief with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 363. The Osprey was carrying 20 Marines on the aircraft, all of whom survived the crash, investigators determined, at least partially due to the final efforts of the pilots to land the plane.
The Marine Corps investigation found that the crash was the result of several errors by the pilots during a near mid-air collision. The official inquiry pointed to the squadron’s lack of oversight from the commander to maintenance crews which should’ve led to the aircraft being deemed unsafe to fly in a training exercise.
In December 2023, the military announced it was standing down its entire fleet of Ospreys following a Japan crash that killed eight crew members.
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The award ceremony was held at the Home of the Commandants in Washington D.C. Smith used his speech to express his gratitude to the Collarts for their son’s bravery.
“You raised a Marine who, in his final moments, thought not of himself, but of his fellow Marines. And we honor you for that,” Smith said. “Spencer’s legacy is one of selfless devotion to duty, and we’re forever in his debt.”
During the ceremony, Collart’s father, Bartley Collart said his son looked up to the two pilots he tried to save and even submitted pilot paperwork to one day follow in their footsteps.
“You kind of had to earn his respect and once you found it, you got it. And that’s why we just know that he thought so much of Maj. Lewis and Capt. LeBeau,” said Bartley Collart said. “He told us. He really thought highly of them as people, and also as pilots. A lot of people said they were like the ‘A Team’ when they were flying together. We just know that he was flying with the best.”
Collart was laid to rest on Sept. 25, 2023, at Arlington National Cemetery. His gravestone will be updated with his posthumous award.
At the ceremony, his mother shared a section of Collart’s final letter home, according to a Marine Corps release.
“Sometimes life throws us a little bit of happiness. While you have it, enjoy it, make it last, but realize eventually it’s going to go away,” Collart wrote in his letter. “When it does, look for the lessons in its passing. No matter how much it hurts, no matter how much you wish it didn’t, no matter how much you want it to stay. It is only then that we can grow.”
The Navy and Marine Corps Medal was established in 1942 and is awarded to service members who “distinguish themselves by heroism” outside of enemy combat. A significant portion of the recipients were awarded for heroic actions during World War II. The most famous recipient, President John F. Kennedy received the medal for serving as commanding officer of a World War II Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109.
Other recipients have earned the medal for similar acts of bravery. Barbara O. Barnwell was the first woman marine to be awarded the medal in 1953 for saving a fellow Marine from drowning. In 2013, Cpl. Randy D. Mann was awarded the medal risking his life when he saved two marines from drowning during a training event.
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One paratrooper was killed, and at least one other soldier was injured during a training parachute jump on Sept. 13 at the Army’s Joint Readiness Training Center in Louisiana, Task & Purpose has learned.
Army Pfc. Matthew Perez was killed during the jump at the training center’s Geronimo Drop Zone, Task & Purpose confirmed on Tuesday. The other soldier has not been identified.
The Army released a statement on Monday that confirmed Perez’s death but did not say in that statement that he was killed in a parachuting accident nor mention that a second soldier had been injured in the exercise.
Task & Purpose has learned that Army officials initially suspect a parachute malfunction may have caused Perez’s death, but the Army will launch a full investigation into what happened, as the service does with every training accident death.
“The entire XVIII Airborne Corps mourns the loss of Pvt. First Class Matthew Perez,” Army Lt. Gen. Chris Donahue, the corps commander, said in a statement. “Paratroopers like him are what make this nation and our Army great, and his loss is truly heartbreaking for the Sky Dragon family. Our priority is ensuring that his family receives the support and care they deserve during this difficult time.”
No information about the circumstances of the training accident have been publicly released.
“The incident is under investigation,” said Army Lt. Col. César Santiago, a spokesman for the 82nd Airborne Division. “We are ensuring the integrity of the investigation process and unable to provide details at this time.”
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The Army has reported a total of 15 training exercise deaths so far in Fiscal 2024, which ends on Sept. 30, according to the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center. Of those fatalities, six occurred during ground training events and nine deaths happened during aviation training.
By way of comparison, the Army reported 23 training accident fatalities in Fiscal Year 2023 – nine deaths during ground training events and 14 during aviation training.
Deaths during military parachute training are unusual, but they do happen. In April, Sgt. Colin Arslanbas, a Reconnaissance Marine assigned to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, died in a parachuting accident during the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s Composite Unit Training Exercise.
Separately, Army Sgt. 1st Class Dominic Perry, a member of the U.S. Army Parachute Team, died in June after being injured in a non-duty related parachute jump.
Paratroopers prepare to land on Geronimo drop zone during an airborne operation at Fort Johnson, La., on April 30. (U.S. Army photo by Raymond Barnard) Parachute malfunctionsThe Army did not confirm what type of parachute Perez was using but soldiers in the 82nd Airborne generally use a T-11 parachute which is a static line-style parachute system. Static line parachutes deploy automatically when a paratrooper jumps from their aircraft. Static line parachutes are fairly simple to prepare and use and allow dozens of paratroopers to jump together within seconds from low altitudes over a drop zone.
However, because of that low altitude, if the main parachute fails to deploy or open properly, the paratrooper has just seconds to recognize the failure and activate their reserve parachute.
Malfunctions of static line parachutes are relatively uncommon, but when they do occur, they can come from a myriad of sources. Malfunctions can occur after an error in packing by the specially trained riggers that prepare Army parachutes, mistakes in how a paratrooper wears the parachute, technical errors by the jumper or the in-flight supervisors of the jump, or other issues outside a jumper’s controll like bad weather or an incorrect “spot” — or drop location — by the plane’s crew.
However, all aspects of military parachute training is rife with double-checks and safety precautions and fatalities are exceedingly rare.
UPDATE: 9/17/2024; This article has been updated with confirmation that Private Matthew Perez was killed in during parachute training and that a second paratrooper was injured.
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U.S Air Force pararescuemen and HC-130 rescue aircrews led a mass casualty exercise on the remote Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea in late August.
As part of Pacific Angel 24-1, over 100 search and rescue personnel from the U.S., Australia, France trained together on Papua New Guinea, along with that island nation’s defense forces. The final field event included the pararescuemen, or PJs, and non-U.S. partners assessing and collecting multiple patients from a simulated mass casaulty event and handing them off to evacuation aircrews from different countries.
The goal, said Air Force officials, was to get militaries that all operate in the Pacific region working together.
“Like that old saying goes, you don’t want to be exchanging business cards when disaster strikes,” said Col. Todd Larson, Pacific Air Forces director of strategy and plans. “So these connections are great and should stand the test of time.”
With conflict with China on the minds of officials at the Pentagon, the exercise is one of a growing number that in which U.S. military personnel trains with counterparts from Pacific nations and western allies. Among challenges int he Pacific could be the task of evacuating casualties in an area without air superiority and across long distances. As a result, the U.S. has been turning to partners in the region for more training, incorporated operations.
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Pacific Angel 24–1 included more than 60 U.S. Air Force, 18 Royal Australian air force, nine French navy and 45 Papua New Guinea Defence Force personnel, two HC-130J Combat King IIs from the 39th Rescue Squadron, one Royal Australian Air Force C-27J Sentry, one French navy Dassault Falcon 20G and one Papua New Guinea Defence Force PAC-750.
U.S. Air Force and Papua New Guinea Defence Force troops participate in a mass casualty training exercise during Pacific Angel 24-1 at Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Master Sgt. DeAndre Curtiss. Senior Master Sgt. DeAndre CurtissEach aircraft, officials said, load patients in different configurations, which troops had to learn and perform for the final event.
The exercise included classes on mass casualty procedures, evacuation operations and search and rescue skills including adverse terrain survival and swift water rescue. The exercise also included training in mass casualty triage, evacuation, infectious disease control and airfield operations.
On the final day, teams from all four nations ran through a mass casualty exercise with live and simulated patients.
It was the first time Papua New Guinea search and rescue troops had worked with U.S. aircraft.
“We threw a lot at the [Papua New Guinea] personnel,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Samantha Rose, 18th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron flight nurse.
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Space Force guardian Col. Nick Hague will lead a NASA mission to the International Space Station that will retrieve two astronauts who have been stranded on the station due to problems with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.
Hague will serve as commander of the mission along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov on NASA’s Space X Crew-9 mission, which is expected to launch by Sept. 24, a NASA news release says.
He is the second NASA astronaut to come from the Space Force. The first was Col. Mike Hopkins, who transferred to the Space Force while aboard the International Space Station.
NASA decided to send just two crew members on the SpaceX Dragon so that marooned astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams can use the spacecraft’s other two seats for their return voyage in February.
Williams and Wilmore arrived at the space station on June 6 and were originally scheduled to spend eight days there, but NASA decided in late August that the Boeing Starliner that brought them into space would return to Earth without them after their spacecraft developed a series of problems, including helium leaks and malfunctions with its control thrusters.
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The Department of the Air Force referred questions about Hague’s upcoming spaceflight to NASA.
On Wednesday, NASA officials told reporters that another SpaceX Dragon is already docked at the International Space Station and is equipped with temporary seats in its cargo area that could take Wilmore and Williiams back to Earth in an emergency.
However, NASA Program Manager Steve Stich said that the Boeing Starliner spacesuits that Williams and Wilmore wore during their trip to the space station are not compatible with the SpaceX Dragon. There is one spacesuit aboard the station that fits Williams.
“Right now, the way the Dragon is configured for an emergency, Butch and Suni riding on the cargo pallet in those temporary seats that I described, that’s an unsuited configuration,” Stich said during a news conference. “There’s no space suits that work there. In a temporary situation, we would not have suits for Butch and Suni on Dragon.”
Founded in December 2019, the Space Force is the U.S. military’s youngest branch, and it is focused on protecting U.S. assets in space, such as communications, weather, and navigation satellites. Despite its name, the Space Force is not some sort of cosmic Coast Guard that rescues people lost in space.
Quite simply: Rescue missions are not in the Space Force’s job jar, a U.S. official told Task & Purpose on Wednesday.
It is important to remember that active-duty service members who are assigned to the astronaut program work for NASA, not the Pentagon, said Clayton Swope, with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C. That means Hague’s flight is not a Space Force mission.
“When Col. Hague is on Dragon alongside a Russian cosmonaut for this launch later this month, he is representing NASA — he’s a NASA astronaut when he’s going up on the Crew 9 mission,” said Swope, deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project and a senior fellow in the International Security Program at CSIS.
Swope also noted that Hague’s flight to the International Space Station is a regularly scheduled commercial crew mission, adding, “Arguably, they will be rescuing the astronauts that came up on Starliner.”
Hague is an active-duty Space Force officer who has been assigned to NASA’s astronaut program since 2022 to work on the Boeing Starliner program, according to the Department of the Air Force and NASA.
NASA first selected him as an astronaut in 2013, and during his first launch five years later, Hague and his crewmate had to abort their mission after being launched due to a rocket booster failure. Thankfully, they were able to safely land their Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft, according to NASA.
Hague went on to spend 203 days in space, during which he conducted three spacewalks. He also previously served as the Space Force’s director of test and evaluation from 2020 to 2022.
Roughly two-thirds of NASA astronauts have served in the military, according to the Air Force. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jonny Kim, a SEAL, helicopter pilot, and physician, is scheduled to serve on a separate mission to the International Space Station in March.
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A group of disabled veterans dominated an international hockey tournament in Denmark last week, though the win wasn’t the greatest part of their journey. Rather, it was the opportunity to reconnect with a part of themselves they’d thought they’d lost since leaving the military.
Team USA took home the win during the international hockey tournament, Battle of Jutland 2024, over the weekend. This is the tournament’s second iteration and Marine Corps and Army veteran Justin Rose’s second time competing, but he said it’s not just about hockey.
“You don’t realize sometimes how much you need to reconnect with your past life, even if it’s in a different environment like a hockey rink,” Rose said. “During this past week, we rarely, if ever, talked about our military careers or our deployments — but there’s a common language among vets that’s without borders. Just being around those who know without needing to be told can be so healing.”
Team USA is staffed by 15 American disabled veterans from the USA Hockey Warrior Program. Teams from Denmark and Germany also competed.
Team USA lined up before a game during the Battle of Jutland 2024 hockey tournament. Photo courtesy of Justin Rose. Team USA won four of the five games, only losing to a younger “all-star team of Danish players and semi-pros,” Rose said. By comparison, Team USA is made up of those in their 30s, 40s, and some in their 50s.
“As much as this was a hockey tournament, the hockey was secondary to reconnecting with old friends, making new friends, and creating bonds that will last past the battlefield and the hockey rink. But most importantly, we won the whole damn thing,” Rose said.
Rose, who served in the Marine Corps, Army, Army National Guard, and Army Reserve to boot, is about to retire after 18 years of service. He deployed to the Horn of Africa in 2005 and Afghanistan in 2010.
Rose is on the Boston Warriors hockey team, and the rest of the Team USA players are from other states with their own Warrior Program, such as the Philadelphia Flyers Warriors, DC District Warriors, Minnesota Warriors, and Arizona Warriors.
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All players competing in the tournament are disabled veterans of their respective military services. Having played in the tournament last year, Rose said he and the other players from around the world stayed in touch. After last year’s game, Rose said that a group of players from Denmark came to the U.S. for a series of friendly games in New York and Massachusetts.
“A hockey locker room is really no different than, like, any, any team room or any squad bay that you’ve ever been in the military,” Rose said. “It’s just a group of people who are talking shit to each other, telling jokes. There’s that sense of camaraderie and team building that is very similar. So hockey is naturally a great sport for veterans to reconnect.”
The teams spent ample time outside the hockey rink, including a friendly competition on Wednesday, during which the teams shot World War I and II-era rifles like the Carl Gustaf Swedish Mauser, a legacy sniper rifle. Rose said the shooting range was more of a way for them to connect off the ice and was more of a family event than anything.
“The infantry officer in me was talking incredible amounts of shit when I did this with a 1944 Carl Gustaf,” Rose said.
Justin Rose’s shot grouping during the range day where all the teams gathered to try out Danish weaponry from World War I and II. Photo courtesy of Justin Rose. Hockey and trash talk go hand in hand, as do fistfights. According to Rose, he and Steve May, with the German team, decided to “put on a show for the Danes” during Sunday’s Team USA versus Wiesbaden Vikings game. May lives in Germany, and the two know each other from their years growing up in the Boston area.
“Hockey is a violent, beautiful sport. Sometimes separately, and sometimes at the same time,” Rose said. “Plus, what’s more hockey than two kids who grew up in the shadow of the Boston Garden and the Big Bad Bruins getting into a friendly fistfight after a few beers.”
A better view of the fight from yesterday. pic.twitter.com/NY63LNg2za
— justin (@justinchirped) September 2, 2024
Players started arriving in the Denmark area on Tuesday, and they hit it off over beers and group meals before visiting other historical sites that week.
The Danes hosted the teams with group meals and attended multiple Winter Olympics qualifying hockey games. On Friday, all the players from the different teams put their names in a hat, and scrimmage teams were decided by pulling their names out. Rose said it’s a way for them to get to know each other better by playing on the same team ahead of the tournament.
“Any time you’re getting veterans together, you’re doing so with the intent of alleviating that feeling of abandonment you can experience when you leave the military, and a feeling of loneliness, like you maybe don’t fit in,” Rose said. “So there’s no stated goal where, ‘Hey, this tournament is to alleviate veteran suicide or alleviate veteran PTSD.’ But like any time veterans get together, even if it’s unspoken, that’s the goal. It’s to remind each other that we’re not alone.”
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Two reports released recently by the Air Force detail the terrible, horrible, no-good very bad week of an Air Force CV-22 Osprey squadron at Cannon Air Force Base last year. In the span of five days, the 20th Special Operations Squadron at Cannon, New Mexico, which flies the Osprey, suffered two mishaps involving three of its CV-22 fleet, one a parking accident on the ground, the other a freak accidental engine shutdown that caused one of the $92 million aircraft to crash on a remote range.
The mishaps had not been previously disclosed. There were no fatalities in either event. One crew member on the crashed Osprey suffered a concussion and associated injuries.
That second and more serious accident was the result of a bizarre series of events in an Osprey’s cockpit that even the Air Force investigators emphasized was “unintentional and unknowing.” As a crew member switched seats — a routine mid-flight event on Ospreys — a battery cable from their helmet’s night vision googles snagged on the control lever for the plane’s right engine, and pulled it to “OFF,” just as the pilots were pulling out of a hover during gunnery practice.
The plane immediately fell to the ground, though power from the second still-running engine slowed its descent enough to spare the crew from serious injury.
The first mishap came five days earlier when a taxiing Osprey’s blades, which are known as proprotors, struck the blades of a second Osprey parked on the flightline of an airfield near the Navy’s sprawling China Lake range in California.
Both accidents, Air Force investigations found, were caused by human error. Neither were associated with the known mechanical issue in the plane’s transmission that has caused a series of fatal crashes in recent years.
The accidents occurred on Aug. 17 and 22, 2023.
Havoc 54 engine shutdownOn Aug. 22, an Osprey from the 20th SOS, flying as ‘Havoc 54,’ took off as part of a two-ship training flight, according to the final Accident Investigation Board Report. The crew had two goals: deliver a ground team of terminal air control operators riding along to a shooting range, and get the flying qualifications up to date for several flight engineers on board, which included a round of aerial gunnery, firing the plane’s GAU-21 .50 caliber machine gun at targets on the ground.
Though a normal Air Force Osprey flight crew is four flyers — two pilots and two flight engineers — a third flight engineer was on board to take a turn shooting for skill currency. As a result, the three flight engineers planned to rotate several times during the flight, switching between the rear ramp, where one engineer would shoot as another acted as instructor, while a third would available for flight duties.
Similar rotations and on-the-fly requalifications of duty positions are normal across all military flying.
After dropping off the ground team, according to the report, the Havoc 54 crew held a brief air-to-ground firing session on the base’s “Jockey” range. But with dwindling fuel, the crew skipped making gun passes and instead decided to fire on the small range from a hover. Hovering is considered a “critical phase of flight,” the report said, requiring closer attention to risk factors by all crew members.
As the shooting finished, the co-pilot transitioned the plane out of its hover, calling for the landing gear to be pulled up and pushing the plane forward and upwards — an unremarkable maneuver but one that leaves little margin for error in terms of power needed by the engines. But as the plane began to move, one of the flight engineers moved into the cockpit to assume the engineer’s seat. Unknown to him or anyone in the crew, as the engineer maneuvered into his seat, a cable from his night vision goggles caught on the right Engine Control Lever lever in the Osprey’s ceiling.
As the engineer moved his head, the cable pulled the lever from “Fly” to “Off” — instantly shutting down the engine, just as the plane needed it the most.
A photo from the Accident Investigation Report shows the Night Vision battery cable catching on the Engine Control Lever. The plane immediately plunged toward the earth, as the pilots tried to understand what had just happened. As a warning sounded, the co-pilot pushed the plane’s throttles to full power and announced over the intercom:
“Power’s all in. Power’s all in, bird’s coming down.”
The instruments onboard the plane recorded the final seconds of the flight: the Osprey’s fall reached almost 15 miles per hour, but 10 feet before it hit, the pilot flared the plane’s nose, reducing the impact by about a third. The plane hit, bounced four feet back into the air, then hit harder, skidding 360 feet as various equipment ripped off its fuselage.
In all, the report found, the plane suffered about $2 million in damage.
The crew’s seats absorbed the impact with no injuries, except the flight engineer who unwittingly caused the accident. Not buckled into his chair, he was thrown forward, while his helmet — still hooked to the lever — was ripped off.
Without a helmet, the engineer struck his head on the Osprey’s dashboard, suffering a concussion.
But in a final unlikely twist, in the jerk of the impact, his helmet moved the engine lever forward, back into the flying position.
Investigators only confirmed that the lever had been moved — killing the engine — by analyzing the plane’s flight data, which keeps an electronic log of the position of the levers.
The report ended up with a clear if caveated placement of blame, finding by “a preponderance of the evidence the cause for the mishap is attributed to (the flight engineer) unintentionally and unknowingly shutting down the right engine.”
Investigators faulted the aircraft’s pilot — who had turned over control of the plane to the co-pilot — for not guarding the levers with his hand when the flight engineer entered the cockpit. The report said that technique was a common procedure among experienced flyers, though mostly done when pilots were switching seats, rather than flight engineers. The report said that several of the crew interviewed during the investigation were aware that a helmet cable could get caught on flight controls, but none recalled it ever happening.
Abram 13 Parking accident Five days before the Havoc 53 crash, the 20th SOS was deployed to Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California for two weeks of training when an Osprey returning from an early flight taxied too close to a second one, striking the propellers of the two while turning into a tight parking spot. The investigation blamed the plane’s pilot for failing to note how close the second aircraft was and the squadron’s maintenance crew for not following proper marshaling rules.
On the morning that the squadron was scheduled to fly home, a crew took an Osprey for a check flight, using the call sign Abram 13, after it had undergone maintenance. Returning to Inyokern Airfield, a civilian airport adjacent to the Navy range, the crew taxied to the ramp where the unit’s planes had been parked during the deployment, a cracking sheet of concrete at the end of the small runway.
From the Accident Investigation Board report, a photo showing the two Ospreys after their blades collided. The Osprey on the right cut its turn to tightly as it turned left into a parking spot, its blades catching those of the parked plane. Though taxiing rules are strict around Ospreys, the cracked asphalt and tight quarters of the ramp had made marshaling duties difficult for maintainers. While Air Force rules require both a “walker” off of the Osprey’s nose and “wing walkers” in tight flight lines, the 20th SOS ground crew had abandoned the front walker position for the second week of the deployment because the loose concrete kicked up by Ospreys had become dangerous.
Those on the wings, the report found, did not use proper signals as they marshaled Abram 13 into position.
While maneuvering into a tight parking spot, the co-pilot at the controls cut its turn too soon. The plane’s pilot, observing the left turn out the left window, saw that the angle of the turn was bringing the aircraft close to a parked Osprey, but did not speak up.
The rotors of the plane impacted the second Osprey, causing a combined $2.5 million in damage between the two planes.
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An Alaska soldier was arrested last month on charges related to possessing child sexual abuse material and allegedly creating thousands of those images using artificial intelligence. There is no federal or military law that outright criminalizes the use of AI to create explicit materials but military justice system lawyers say that the Department of Defense has other methods to hold service members accountable.
Spc. Seth Alan Herrera, 34, a motor vehicle operator stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska was arrested in August on federal charges for the alleged transportation, receipt and possession of materials depicting child sexual abuse material, also known as ‘CSAM’ that were real and some that were AI-generated, according to the Department of Justice.
Herrera remains in civilian confinement but is on active duty status, according to the Army. In court documents, officials said Herrera is currently “surrounded by minors” on the Alaska base and that six children live within his fourplex. They also noted that as an Army heavy vehicle driver, he regularly drives supplies from Anchorage to Fairbanks, extending “his access to military families and their children.”
If Herrera is convicted, he could face a maximum of 20 years in prison.
Army officials did not indicate there would be separate Uniform Code of Military Justice actions against Herrera but depictions of children in sexually explicit materials have previously come up in the military justice system.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Remington Carlisle was charged with possessing and viewing anime porn depicting childlike characters, Stars & Stripes first reported. A judge ruled that the videos and images depicted “fictional cartoon characters,” “not persons,” “not human beings,” and therefore do not fall under definitions that are prosecutable with Article 134. But Air Force criminal appeals judges unanimously ruled in May 2024 that the original judge erred in his decision and called for a trial.
“They argue that these anime videos and images do meet the definition of child pornography in accordance with Article 134, UCMJ,” the appellate judges wrote in their decision. “We hold that whether the videos and images meet the definition of child pornography as set forth by the President is a factual question to be resolved by the fact-finder at trial.”
While there is no UCMJ article that specifically criminalizes actions related to possessing or distributing child sexual abuse material, prosecutors have opted for Article 134 which allows troops to be court-martialed for violating non-capital federal civilian offenses.
“Why do we have it underneath 134? Because Congress never bothered to get around to enumerate it,” said Rachel VanLandingham, a former Air Force judge advocate lawyer and director of the National Institute of Military Justice.
VanLandingham said 134 is considered a “catch-all provision” that allows the government to criminalize conduct that is either service discrediting or prejudice to good order and discipline.
A defense official told Task & Purpose that Article 134 could be used to deal with the issue of AI-generated explicit content in UCMJ cases.
The defense official also said that UCMJ Article 117a, which prohibits broadcasting or distributing explicit and intimate images of someone without their consent, could be applied “to images made or altered by means of artificial intelligence.”
Brian Ferguson, a lawyer who regularly represents service members in the military justice system, said a deepfake case involving a service member would either be handled by UCMJ or the federal government – never both because of double jeopardy laws. If a service member violates state law, officials sometimes bring an Article 92 charge for disobeying a general order to follow state laws, he said.
“You can’t get court-martialed and taken to federal court for the same crime, because that’s the feds in both cases,” Ferguson said. “But the state and the feds can prosecute you for the same thing, because it’s considered two different sovereigns.”
There are no UCMJ articles that specifically forbid service members from using AI to create sexually explicit content depicting adults or minors. Guy Womack, a lawyer who specializes in military legal cases said that civilian defense teams have argued that “AI-created images cannot be considered child pornography” and that the case outcomes have gone “both ways.”
The trouble with prosecuting AI depictions of sexually explicit images and videos is playing out in civilian courts due to the lack of laws. There is no outright federal crime against using AI to create ‘deepfake’ sexually explicit content but some states are passing laws that criminalize deepfake pornographic content or give victims the ability to sue those who create images and videos using their likenesses.
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The White House issued an October 2023 executive order on AI signaling future policies that “protect against unlawful discrimination and abuse” in the justice system. Earlier this year, Congress introduced the bipartisan Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act of 2024 or the DEFIANCE Act of 2024 which would hold social media companies responsible for proliferating nonconsensual, sexually-explicit “deepfake” images and videos. In July, the bill passed the Senate and was sent to the House where it has yet to be heard.
Alaska caseHomeland Security investigators said they found thousands of images depicting violent sexual abuse of infants and children on three Samsung Galaxy cellphones belonging to Herrera. The Alaska solider allegedly used AI to create child sexual abuse material, also known as “CSAM,” depicting children he knew and “to whom he had access in 2022 and 2023 outside of Alaska,” according to court documents. Herrera also allegedly saved “surreptitious recordings” of minors undressing in his home he shared with his wife and daughter.
Officials said Herrera allegedly used encrypted messaging apps to join groups devoted to the trafficking of CSAM and even created his own public Telegram group to store CSAM and sent himself video files that included “screaming children being raped,” according to court documents filed in support of Herrera’s pretrial detention.
“The Defendant poses a serious risk to his minor daughter, who remains in his care, and the broader community. He was seeking out CSAM specifically in the age range of his young daughter,” the government said in their filing.
The judge ordered Herrera’s detention on Aug 27.
Herrera was assigned to the 17th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 11th Airborne Division. He joined the Army in November 2019, and arrived in Alaska in August 2023.
According to court documents, Herrera had allegedly possessed child pornographic images since August 2023, over a year before his arrest.
Officials from the Homeland Security Investigations and Army Criminal Investigation Division are investigating the case.
Explicit ‘deepfake’ contentThough new AI technologies receive significant media coverage, the issue of fake pornographic material has already been before the Supreme Court at least once in a 2002 case, Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition.
The court sided with an adult entertainment association that challenged the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 for restricting free speech. The association argued that the law’s use of language like “appears to be” and “conveys the impression” regarding children in artistic media was too broad. The government argued that this type of media could harm children indirectly and warned that technological advances could become increasingly difficult to prosecute.
“Technology may evolve to the point where it becomes impossible to enforce actual child pornography laws because the Government cannot prove that certain pornographic images are of real children,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion.
AI-generated porn is a growing issue that advocates have tried raising alarms about with unclear accountability methods from governments. The issue gained momentum in the U.S. after superstar Taylor Swift spoke out about the issue after her likeness was used in explicit images and videos that were circulated online.
According to the Government Accountability Office, deepfake technology can be used by influence campaigns to erode public trust but have mainly been used to create non-consensual pornography which “disproportionately victimizes women.”
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Two Marines with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit who are currently embarked on the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp were assaulted on Sunday while the ship was in port at Izmir, Turkey, said Cmdr. Timothy Gorman, a spokesman for U.S. 6th Fleet.
The incident took place about 3:30 p.m. local time on Sunday, Gorman said in a statement.
“The two Marines were aided by other Marines in the area and were subsequently taken to a local hospital for evaluation as a precaution but were not injured and have returned to the USS Wasp,” Gorman said. “Local Izmir police and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service are cooperating in an investigation of the incident. No Marines have been detained by authorities and those involved are cooperating with investigators.”
Video of the incident circulated widely on social media shows one of the service members dressed in civilian clothes surrounded by several men who have grabbed hold of him. One of the men puts a bag over the American’s head.
Another service member tries to come to the Marine’s assistance but he is quickly grabbed by the Turkish mob, which starts to chant “Yankee, go home!”
US Marine cries out "help" with a leftist mob restraining him, chanting "Yankee go home!"–moments ago…in Turkey
A fellow NATO ally hosting US service members on shore leavepic.twitter.com/2XCE5sRxKj
— Sinan Ciddi (@SinanCiddi) September 2, 2024
No information about how the altercation started was immediately available. Turkey has detained 15 members of the Turkish Youth Union, an anti-American group, in connection with the incident, the Associated Press has reported.
The same group is believed responsible for a 2014 attack on three sailors from the destroyer USS Ross in Istanbul. About 20 members of the Turkish Youth Union surrounded and placed bags over the sailors’ heads.
In 2016, two members of the group also tried to put a bag over the head of a U.S. soldier at an airbase in Turkey. In a video of the assault posted on X, one of the assailants said: “You put a sack over our soldiers’ heads in 2003. You are responsible for that and for the terrorism in our country.”
His comments were a reference to Turkish special operations troops, who were arrested by American service members in July 2003 in northern Iraq and had hoods placed on their heads, prompting outrage in Turkey.
The U.S. Embassy in Turkey first confirmed on Sunday that service members embarked aboard the Wasp had been assaulted and were now safe.
“We thank Turkish authorities for their rapid response and ongoing investigation,” the embassy posted on X.
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The Wasp Amphibious Ready Group and 24th MEU recently completed a bilateral training exercise with Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, Gorman said.
In August, the Defense Department dispatched the Wasp ARG MEU and other ships to the Middle East following an Israeli airstrike that killed a senior Hezbollah leader in Beirut and the assassination of a top Hamas leader in Tehran, for which Israel has not claimed responsibility.
The Pentagon later decided to keep two aircraft carriers in the U.S. Central Command theater of operations later that month after the Israelis launched preemptive strikes against Hezbollah before the terrorist group could launch drones and rockets against Israel.
The Wasp is currently still in port at Izmir, Turkey, according to 6th Fleet.
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Soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade took to the Louisiana woods in August to compete against their most formidable enemy, the 1st Battalion 509th Infantry Regiment dubbed ‘Geronimo,’ with a deception plan in place.
Geronimo, the home team at Fort Johnson, Louisiana, faces off against units year-round at the Joint Readiness Training Center in realistic combat scenarios based on lessons learned in global conflicts. JRTC is designed to take away or add stressors on soldiers as well as hold units accountable with simulated casualties and hits that would take them out of the fight.
The 2nd Brigade came in knowing their enemy had the upper hand on home turf so they had to think ahead. Soldiers decided to use “raspberry pis,” which are single-board computers the size of a credit card that can be bought off Amazon to emulate a computer or show up as some kind of electronic signature to confuse their enemy.
“We came in with a deception plan because we wanted to show the enemy that we were in a place where we weren’t so that he would commit forces into our strongest defenses and not into our weakest,” said Capt. Charlie O’Hagan commander of the 101st’s Multi-Functional Reconnaissance Company. “We created, with those decoys, battalion headquarters, company headquarters, and we put them throughout the southern area.”
O’Hagan said they wanted to make it seem like they had a larger presence in the West so on the first two nights they had a battalion in the south turn on their decoys to make it seem like they were moving west to east using the southern corridor.
The plan worked for one battalion, allowing it to hide for some time, O’Hagan said. He deemed it successful because their deception plan had the opposing force “allocating resources such as [Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance] and fires to these decoys,” which took away maneuver space and decision-making from the enemy commander.
The decoys not only protected units from detection but revealed where their enemy’s assets were.
“If anyone’s flying over, they’ll see the decoy, they’ll see the antenna farm,” he said. “Ideally, they’ll use something in terms of artillery to destroy the decoy, which means the enemy unmasks his artillery. We can pick up on it, and then we can counter-fire his artillery.”
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The exercise is just one takeaway from the war in Ukraine that the Army is studying to change its tactics and incorporate technology into its formations faster to keep up with the changing face of warfare where sensing capabilities are prolific and unmanned aerial systems, UAS, or drones overhead can easily pinpoint targets.
Soldiers participate in a combined arms rehearsal for a Large-Scale, Long-Range Air Assault at Fort Campbell, Kentucky on April 22, 2024. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Truesdale. “Just the detection capabilities of an adversary with modern technology is changing the character of warfare,” said Jack Keane, a retired four-star general who previously served as the Army vice chief of staff and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2020.
Lt. Col. Mason Thornal, commander for the 1-509th opposition force admitted that sometimes even Geronimo gets it wrong and “we get caught when we don’t get this right.” Their competitive advantage, he said, is that they get to fail fast and practice every month.
During their fight against the 101st, Geronimo units had gotten distracted and found themselves in trouble from staying static for too long.
“We got pulled into the fight. We got busy,” Thornal said. “I was static for too long, and I had a [Multi-Functional Reconnaissance Company], small UAS appear over top of us. We had to displace.”
Thornal also said that the 101st had more sense and strike capabilities than units that the opposing force previously fought so they tried to change their own behavior as well.
“When we were infiltrating the area of operations, we had to use converging routes methods, so using multiple routes to make it harder to identify the main effort,” he said. “We had to serialize our movements so instead of sending eight tanks in at once — two here, two here, two here — it made us much slower.”
The takeaway for both sides, Thornal said, is the importance of concealment, dispersion, camouflage, and displacement. In layman’s terms that means moving quickly and quietly with smaller units to avoid detection by enemy forces via drone or having little to no signature on the electromagnetic spectrum which can be used to determine the size or makeup of a military’s assets like a refueling point or a battalion headquarters.
This also means changing the way soldiers think about how visible they are. At Fort Johnson, Thornal said the opposing force is using all of its sensing technologies to gain and maintain contact with the enemy using indirect fires, attack aviation, and electronic warfare jamming “to enable maneuver to allow our forces to have the advantage.”
The new type of battlefield threats also mean changing the behavior of soldiers. As soldiers were taught to tape down their dog tags during World War II to eliminate noise, now they have to perform pre-combat checks or inspections to make sure Bluetooth or WiFi isn’t being picked up from their personal devices. Even something like an electric shaver must be turned off.
“Treating em-comm [electromagnetic] emissions control like noise and light discipline, those are the best ways to counter it,” Thornal said.
Keane, a Vietnam veteran who once commanded the JRTC said the Geronimo “quite skillfully” replicated how the Russians are fighting in Ukraine where they’ve been hunting each other using soldier cell phone signals for targeting and flying drones attached with payloads to take out opposing units.
“The opposing force had significant surveillance and detection capabilities of both signal communications and detecting communications through electronic warfare. What the blue force had to do was change all their previous habits in terms of moving in large formations, having an electronic signature for something as simple as an iPhone watch,” Keane said.
A new way of waging warThe fight was part of the Army’s most recent JRTC rotation where units tested Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George’s so-called “Transformation in Contact,” approach which aims to bring new technology into formations faster with more user feedback.
“We’re taking lessons from everywhere,” George said. “We’re changing how we’re organized because I think that is what the current edition conditions require. We’re changing how we train and operate.”
In the past, units would generate requirements that would go through design and testing by defense contractors and eventually be put into formations. Now, the Army is taking technology before it’s fully mature, putting it into the units’ hands, and then designing the requirements. This means soldiers can test equipment in training to decide on its feasibility and offer feedback early on — something that was long missing from the military’s technology enterprise.
George said the Army is asking for more flexible funding to buy the newest technology.
“What we don’t want is to buy something and then say we’re going to have it for the next 20 years,” he said.
Soldiers from 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) conduct vehicle preparations during Operation Lethal Eagle 24.1, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky on April 21, 2024. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Truesdale. Keane, who was offered the role of Defense Secretary in 2016 by former President Donald Trump and sits on a congressional committee that looks at the National Defense Strategy, said the Army’s culture is changing, but the way the Pentagon buys, develops and incorporates emerging technology is getting in the way of those efforts.
“The threat to the American people’s security is real, and we got a system that will not let this organization, the U.S. Army, the best land force in the world, catch up to the changing character of war,” Keane told a group of reporters who attended JRTC training. “We’re paralyzed. That’s the reality of what we’re facing.”
Over the last few years, the Pentagon implored experts to study how the Army can modernize the way it buys new technology and Congress has given the Department of Defense authorities that give the military services more flexibility to move faster. However, some experts, like Keane, say it’s still not good enough.
“This chief here is going to bang his head up against the wall trying to get these systems in the hands of his soldiers to face the threat that’s out there,” he said, referring to Gen. George.
George agreed with Keane but when talking to reporters, he focused on the parts of the system that he has authority over — like pushing new tech out to units for training like at the JRTC. He also said that the transformation “isn’t about just the tech,” but also the formations and people.
At the August JRTC rotation, the Army saw its first prototype mobile brigade combat teams take center stage to test new technology they had received weeks and sometimes days before as well as concepts that the service wants to make its formations lighter, simpler and more devastating.
Army makes shift to large-scale combat operationsAt the JRTC, the Army tested new formations and units amid a greater shift in the type of combat that the Pentagon anticipates the U.S. military may have to face. During Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. forces were focused on conducting counterterrorism operations but in the future those might look more like large-scale combat operations.
With this type of combat, officials are looking at how to deploy smaller units faster while decreasing vulnerabilities in an environment where sensing technologies make it harder to move assets and personnel undetected.
The commander of the 101st Airborne Division, Maj. Gen. Brett Sylvia, said during one air assault simulation exercise they realized the Army was “extremely vulnerable” anytime it amassed its aircraft, so they needed to figure out how to be more dispersed, meaning “not landing at large airfields” all at once.
Brig. Gen. Bryan Babich, director of the Mission Command Center of Excellence said the emphasis on dispersing units to improve their chance of surviving against a “near-peer adversary” with equivalent capabilities to the U.S. military, will mean a test of soldiers’ stamina.
“Because we’re distributed, we don’t have those big staffs with 24-hour battle rooms. You got to keep moving so it’s the human endurance factor as well,” Babich said. While the changes that the Army is considering mean simplifying the work that the commander and the staff have to do, “that work’s got to go somewhere and now that’s becoming the division.”
The Army that fought in Operation Desert Storm was very division-centric and after 2004, the service moved to a modular construct by “making brigade combat teams as self-sufficient as we possibly could,” said Sylvia. When he deployed as a colonel to Mosul, Iraq for counter-ISIS operations in 2018-2019 with a Brigade Combat Team, the 101st Division staff were back at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, meaning he had to use the brigade’s resources like artillery and engineers with limited modern technology.
Now the Army is looking to strip brigade combat teams of the excess capabilities they built up over time and make them lighter and leaner. In a future fight, the division would deploy with multiple brigades, Sylvia said.
Infantry brigade combat teams are made up of just over 4,300 soldiers but the new design reduces that number to nearly 3,000 soldiers. Although there are fewer soldiers, the Army envisions generating “new forms of mass,” Sylvia said, referring to a greater emphasis on UAS.
“As we transition to a mobile brigade combat team, we take out many of those manned platforms and make them unmanned platforms with new constructs,” Sylvia said. “We’re able to trade steel for blood.”
For command and control, the new concept puts divisions in charge of managing the network to keep brigades focused on tactics — moving faster with less equipment to worry about. Brigades would no longer carry large radios but soldiers would have Android devices they can use with Starlink internet or nearby cell towers.
The Army is working through which devices and apps it wants to use but officials have emphasized the need for software to bring all of the systems together and have a simple user interface that’s intuitive to new users.
“We want to be able to control that drone from our end user device. We want to be able to do everything from one system,” O’Hagan said. “Ideally it’s one [a] stop shop.”
However, ass the Army shifts to becoming more dispersed and mobile or as O’Hagan called it, “painfully light,” soldiers will have to forgo certain comforts they were allotted in bigger battalion formations: air conditioning, food, and water.
The two-week JRTC battle was just a peek at the Army’s plan to bring the U.S. land force into this decade, George said, adding that 20th Engineer Brigade at Fort Liberty, North Carolina are finding new ways to do breaching with robots and the 3rd Infantry Division is exploring new drone tactics. Now the issue is modernizing the Army at scale and doing it faster, he said.
“In the last six months, just with this unit, we did that. We changed and we’ve adapted, and we’ve given them that technology,” George said. “We’re adapting our processes so that we can do that faster in the future.”
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U.S. troops and Syrian partners captured an ISIS commander behind a jailbreak last week in Syria, three days after American servicemembers carried out a raid against ISIS fighters in Iraq.
U.S. and SDF troops captured Khaled Ahmed al-Dandal early on Sunday, Sept. 1, according to United States Central Command. Details on al-Dandal himself are slim, but he is believed to be an “ISIS facilitator” who helped plan a number of prison breaks in Syria, including an Aug. 29 prison break in Raqqa that freed five ISIS foreign fighters from the Raqqah Detention Facility.
The SDF, a Kurdish-led military coalition aligned with the United States, recaptured two of the five escaped prisoners, one Russian, one Libyan. Three remain unaccounted for, including another Russian and two Afghan fighters. ISIS is working to free its captured members and reconstitute its strength, CENTCOM said in its announcement on the operation.
“Over 9,000 ISIS detainees remain in over 20 SDF detention facilities in Syria, a literal and figurative ‘ISIS Army’ in detention. If a large number of these ISIS fighters escaped, it would pose an extreme danger to the region and beyond,” CENTCOM commander Gen. Michael Eric Kurilla said in a release. “We will continue to work with the international community to repatriate these ISIS fighters to their countries of origin for final adjudication.”
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CENTCOM’s announcement was short on details on Sunday’s operation, including how close it was to Raqqa. The city had previously been the de-facto capital for the terror group before the SDF captured it in 2017. ISIS lost its last urban center, Baghouz, in 2019.
Approximately 900 American servicemembers are operating in Syria.
The operation comes three days after American and Iraqi forces launched a raid on ISIS fighters in Iraq’s Anbar Province. CENTCOM reported that 15 ISIS members were killed in the operation (Iraq’s military reported 14) and that seven Americans were injured. Iraq has been carrying out followup missions over the weekend.
Despite losing their centers of territory years ago, ISIS remains active throughout Iraq and Syria. The number of terror attacks carried out by the group in those two countries this year is up from this same time last year.
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There’s an old saying that “an army marches on its stomach.” It could be said that a navy sails on its stomach. And during World War II the United States Navy wanted to make sure its cooks knew how to feed thousands of sailors.
“The Cook Book of the United States Navy,” published in July 1945, is a look inside the logistics and planning that went into keeping sailors fed in the Pacific and European theaters of war. The cookbook dives into menu planning, the basics of cooking and benefits of different types of food. Everything from portion size to how to properly make ice cream was considered.
“Many of the recipes were suggested and tested by commissary personnel of the Navy, and all the recipes have been developed and tested for practical use in the Navy,” W. J. Carter, the Navy’s Chief of the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts, wrote in the forward.
Although the days of World War II might not bring to mind a strong focus on nutrition, the Navy’s cookbook is primarily focused on it. It talks about making sure sailors receive between 3,000-4,500 calories per day. That’s partly due to the high level of activity they were conducting and also because going into World War II many Americans were underweight and malnourished due to the Great Depression.
Recipes range from familiar items to some more early-mid 20th Century favorites. There are recipes for both hot and cold potato salad, knickerbocker bean soup and how to make scrambled eggs both with fresh and dehydrated eggs. In fact, a number of recipes focus on using dehydrated and reconstituted food products, a requirement for transporting some food goods on extended tours.
The cookbook is primarily a field manual of sorts, direct and full of instructions. Portions of the book point out the pros and cons of different ways of cooking meat, from baking to broiling. But it offers some amusing insight to the Navy’s appreciation for food, and its favorites. Cheese, for instance, “takes exceedingly high rank on the list of essential foods in the Navy.” Other details suggest how to pair items in a meal; serve lighter desserts after a heavy meal and vice versa. Several pages are devoted to coffee, from the storage to preparation of it.
“Navy coffee has been expertly blended and roasted,” the book says. “If a few simple rules for making coffee are followed, a rich and enjoyable brew may be expected.”
The island hopping campaign in the Pacific was a brutal and bloody slog. Living off of meager rations in the field could be rough. For sailors on a ship or any other troops being transported by the Navy, a fresh cooked meal could be a major morale boost. That said, the book is mostly light on the kind of color or descriptions one might find in other cookbooks; it’s more about basic cooking techniques and scaling for the amount of mouths to feed than flavor. The Navy did consider it though. A note on seasonings says that they “have an important place in the Navy diet as they help to relieve monotony and make the food more palatable and interesting.”
Desserts and other sweets also make up a large number of chapters in the cookbook. Ice cream, it notes, should be a “regular” on the menu, in part because it is “nourishing and economical.” That was the Navy’s official stance in 1945.
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It’s also worth noting the date it was published. The book came out in July 1945, and was in the works before that. Yes, World War II was going well for the Allies, with Germany’s surrender marking victory in Europe, but the war in the Pacific remained a brutal and bloody campaign. The Battle of Okinawa, one of the most intense land battles against the Japanese armed forces, was raging while the book was being written. This is a cookbook for a wartime U.S. Navy. Carter notes that this edition has a greater emphasis on dry goods in “an attempt to assist with some of the feeding problems of the forces afloat and at advance bases.”
Despite that, the cookbook is devoid of references to war. Any order of battle is about the proper steps to prepare, plan and execute feeding a large number of sailors.
So, nine decades later, how does the Navy’s wartime cookbook sound?
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By day, Jack Rozema is focused on administrative law. The Army captain is a lawyer with the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corp. He’s also, as of this last month, one of the top CrossFit athletes in the world.
In August, Rozema competed in the 2024 Crossfit Games, coming in 25th place in the men’s finals, making him one of the top athletes in the sport. It was also Rozema’s first time competing in the CrossFit Games. He was representing the Army Warrior Fitness Team, and competed wearing hats and other gear with the Army logo on it.
So yes, an administrative law attorney with the U.S. Army Recruiting Command is incredibly fit and likely can hoist you overhead and then run sprints and do burpees after doing so. Not exactly the normal idea of a lawyer.
The games saw Rozema put his body to the test. That ranged from heavy barbell Olympic lifts to sandbag carries, tests of speed and endurance on cardio machines, climbing rope and other activities. Thousands of athletes compete in the CrossFit Open, but only a few dozen make the cut for the finals.
“Prep went great. Execution was: some good, some bad (relative to a small field of the best in the world), and some just plain bad. Every little detail means big points,” Rozema wrote in an Instagram post after wrapping the games. “That and the true level of fitness of these guys is eye opening. As rookies we can frame it as demoralizing or motivating, and I’m choosing the latter.”
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It’s a big victory for Rozema, for many reasons. In 2023, he fell just short of qualifying for the games. The Army JAG Corps noted in its post on Instagram celebrating Rozema that he trained for the competition all while being an active-duty judge advocate.
Rozema also paid tribute to Lazar Dukic, a Serbian athlete who drowned during a swimming event at the games on Aug. 8. Rozema called his death a tragedy and said that “it’s just time for aggressive, appropriate action” to address concerns about safety at the games.
The event is over but Rozema is also not done. Even after pushing himself at the CrossFit Games, Rozema posted his workout for Saturday, Aug. 31: a “Clovis” — a 10-mile run and 150 burpee pullups for time — named for 2nd Lt. Clovis Ray, who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2012. It’s likely safe to say Rozema can pass any Army fitness tests.
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Navy SEAL, Harvard Medical School-trained physician, and astronaut Jonny Kim is scheduled to serve as a flight engineer aboard an upcoming space mission next year, NASA recently announced.
Lt. Cmdr. Kim is expected to be launched into space in March 2025 along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft. The three men plan to spend about eight months at the International Space Station.
As part of his space mission, Kim will conduct scientific investigations and other tasks to help prepare the space station’s crew for future missions.
To say that Kim’s resume is impressive would be a vast understatement. He served as an enlisted Navy SEAL and was later commissioned as an officer. He is also a dual-designated naval aviator and flight surgeon. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of San Diego and went on to graduate from Harvard Medical School and intern with Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
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Kim was selected to serve as an astronaut in 2017 and then completed his advanced helicopter training in 2023.
“Space flight is closely related to aviation, and proper crew resource management allocates human resources to accomplish the mission safely and effectively,” Kim said in a March 2023 Navy news release. “By virtue of the helicopter cockpit environment, helicopter pilots bring an abundance of CRM to the spaceflight table.”
As a Navy SEAL, Kim completed more than 100 combat missions, according to his NASA biography. He was awarded the Silver Star for braving intense enemy fire to rescue two wounded Iraqi soldiers from a kill zone while he was deployed to Ramadi in 2006. His other military awards include the Bronze Star Medal with “V” device for valor, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Combat “V”, Combat Action Ribbon and various campaign and service awards.
In 2020, Kim spoke with Task & Purpose about his career. He said he did not plan to join the military while growing up, but when he was 16 a friend in his martial arts class told him about the SEALs, and he felt inspired to join the ranks of special operators, who go through the most difficult military training and carry out missions that no one else can do.
“The most important part of it was that they never sought recognition or advertised the nature of their work,” Kim said. “And it was so profound, that level of humility, and professionalism, that I knew that that’s what I wanted to do.”
Kim went on to deploy as a Navy SEAL combat medic to Ramadi and Sadr City, Iraq, both of which were among the most dangerous places in the country at the time. He said he decided to go to medical school afterward because he was inspired by the doctors he worked with.
“I made promises to a lot of the people that I lost, that I would spend the rest of my life doing something good, something positive for the world, because they left a void when they died, and I know that they would have been successful, making the world a better place had they lived,” Kim said. “Those are big shoes for me to fill. At that point in time, I felt medicine was a good platform to spread that goodness, to leave that positive contribution.”
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The Marine Corps is looking for any information that can help locate a Marine who has been missing for the last week.
Lance Cpl. Bailey Cameron, 23, went missing last weekend after going out for the evening. Cameron, assigned to a unit at Camp Pendleton, was last seen at the Coyote Bar and Grill in Carlsbad, California, at approximately 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 25.
The next day, his backpack, glasses and cell phone were found at an Italian restaurant a block away from the bar he was last seen in and were turned over to Carlsbad police, according to Cameron’s family.
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He was also reported missing at Camp Pendleton on Aug. 25, the Marine Corps confirmed with local news.
According to ABC10 News, Cameron’s family saw a photo of Bailey inside of a business after Sunday, but it’s unclear why he was there or what state he was in. The family is sharing that online as well. They are posting flyers of Cameron online and around the city to try and locate him.
The military, local police and Navy Criminal Investigative Service are coordinating the search for Cameron. “We are asking for the public’s assistance on this case,” the Carlsbad Police Department said in a statement.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Carlsbad Police Department at (442) 339-2197.
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Army veteran Jason Tabansky had one last shot and he nailed it. The Army veteran won the gold medal in archery earlier today after his last arrow hit a bullseye, defeating China’s Han Guifei, the top-ranked archer in the individual field.
It was a nail-biter of a finish in the men’s para archery W1 category. The lead changed hands several times. After Tabansky only scored a 7 on his penultimate shot, Han landed an 8, putting him up 131-124. With his last arrow, Tabansky scored a 10, securing the gold medal.
Tabansky wasn’t even originally set to be at the Paris Paralympics. Despite a decent showing, he did not qualify for the summer games. However Australia’s Christopher Davis had to withdraw two months prior due to an injury, opening the spot for Tabansky, the highest ranked para archer who had not already qualified. From there, he took on several of the world’s best until he competed against Han earlier today.
Tabansky joined the U.S. Army in 2001. He served for 15 years, deploying twice to Afghanistan and once in Iraq. He worked as a Chinook mechanic, crewmember and even instructor. In September 2015, he fell out of a Chinook. The impact damaged his spinal cord, leaving him unable to walk.
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Tabansky had been a bow hunter prior to the accident that left him paralyzed. He took up para archery in the wake of it, and found his passion for it there. He’s competed for the United States at several international events, although this was his first Paralympic Games. He told local news prior to the games that his training involves shooting as many as 250 arrows per day to build precision and accuracy.
After winning the gold, Tabansky saluted during the national anthem at the medal ceremony.
Tabansky is one of several active-duty or veteran servicemembers to compete in the Paris Olympics and Paralympics. At the Olympic Games, they won or helped win several medals, including in women’s rugby and skeet shooting.
The 2024 Paralympic Games conclude on Sept. 8.
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More than two years into the war in Ukraine and the Russian Federation is working to keep its recruiting up to replace casualties on the front lines. And now it’s taking a new tactic. A new recruiting ad released this past week by the Russian Ministry of Defense is asking Russians “What are our men made of?” Are they live streamers with cars and banana smoothies or are they soldiers in the field?
No, seriously. Watch it for yourself.
"What are you made of?"
New Russian MoD recruitment propaganda video just dropped. pic.twitter.com/oYePvDpV7m
— Clash Report (@clashreport) August 30, 2024
It’s not quite “Be all you can be” but it does get its point across. And that point? You’re only a “real man” if you join the Russian military. Anyone else is sporting tattoos and pierced ears, enjoying a banana smoothie or even wearing makeup while hosting an apparently popular livestream in front of a new sports car.
This isn’t the first time the Russian military has leaned into extreme depictions of a hypermasculine military. One previous ad that went viral among detractors of America’s military featured a Russian serviceman doing physical training and fighting in the field.
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Notably this new ad is short on actual combat or signs of victory — unless you count the “Z” symbol on uniforms and tanks, just tough looking dirty men in uniform glaring at the camera while holding weapons. There’s not even a Russian soldier fighting a fire monster. But the contrast between the soldiers and the apparently effete, weak, pampered men at home is clear. Russia notoriously is very bad on LGBTQ rights, with laws ingraining homophobia into the state and banning symbols associated with LGBTQ people.
The ad comes at a rough point for Russia in its “special military operation” into Ukraine. An expected quick victory has turned into a more than two-year battle of attrition and heavy losses, and even the Kremlin-aligned Wagner Group staging an attempted coup and capturing a Russian city before being stopped. In the last month, Ukrainian forces actually invaded Russian territory. The fight in the Kursk Oblast is ongoing and has yet to be repelled. The situation there is so bad that Russia, despite some recent gains in captured territory, is pulling some forces out of Ukraine to reinforce defenses inside its own borders. So things are clearly going well for Russia’s military.
Perhaps that’s why the Russian military decided to go all out with the new recruiting ad. As the war in Ukraine has stretched on, the military has been struggling to get Russians to sign contracts with the military. A “partial mobilization” activated roughly 300,000 reservists in late 2022 and early 2023. That in turn led to rare protests against the war and Russian citizens even burning down recruitment offices.
But the Ministry of Defense clearly hopes Russians will choose the front lines over a banana smoothie.
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An airman with the 8th Maintenance Group died this week on base at Kunsan Air Base in South Korea.
On Friday, the Air Force’s 8th Fighter Wing, based out of Kunsan, announced that Tech. Sgt. Jacob Venegas was found dead inside a dormitory on Wed., Aug. 28. The Air Force did not share any additional details around Venegas’ death, but did say it is under investigation.
“We are devastated by the loss of Tech. Sgt. Venegas, and we extend our deepest condolences to his family, friends, and all who knew him as they navigate this difficult time,” Col. Peter Kasarskis, the commander of 8th Fighter Wing, said in an Air Force statement on Venegas’ death.
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Venegas is the third airman to die at Kunsan during this “difficult summer,” as Kasarskis called it. Three airmen, Venegas included, have died on the base in the last five weeks. Senior Airman Saniyya Jones Smalls, 25, was found dead on the base on Aug. 5. Nearly two weeks early Airman Basic Kye Vang, 23, died on July 26. Both Smalls and Vang were part of the 8th Security Forces Squadron. The 8th Fighter Wing said that foul play is not suspected in either death.
The 8th Fighter Wing comprises approximately 2,800 Air Force personnel and operates more than three dozen F-16 Fighting Falcons. The 8th Maintenance Group includes nearly half of the wing’s personnel, with 1,100 airmen. Kasarskis said that the wing is “reinforcing existing support entities to care for our airmen” in light of the three deaths, but did not elaborate on what the entails.
Another airman, Staff Sgt. Jacob Kruse, 23, with the 35th Fighter Generation Squadron, was found dead in March after only five months on base. Foul play was also not suspected in that death either.
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The Navy fired the commanding officer of the USS John S. McCain for what it termed “a loss of confidence in his ability to command the guided-missile destroyer.”
Cmdr. Cameron Yaste, who has commanded the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer since October 2023, was relieved of command during its current deployment in the Middle East, where it has been operating since April while assigned to the U.S. Fifth Fleet.
No details were available on why Yaste was removed from command. All branches of the military routinely use the phrase “loss of confidence” when announcing the firing of senior leaders, who can be removed for a wide range of issues, from poor performance and leadership to bad behavior off-duty.
Yaste briefly became an unwitting social media topic when McCain officials released a photo of him firing an M-4 rifle from the ship with the optic mounted backward.
Cmdr. Cameron Yaste was featured by the U.S. Navy’s official Instagram account in a photo of him firing an M-4 from the USS John S. McCain in April, 2024. The optical sight on the rifle is installed backwards, a mistake noted widely on social media and which prompted the Navy to remove the photo. “The Navy holds commanding officers to the highest standards and holds them accountable when those standards are not met. Naval leaders are entrusted with significant responsibilities to their Sailors and their ships,” the Navy said in a release.
As a destroyer equipped with the Aegis Combat System, the McCain, which is homeported in Naval Station Everett, Washington, was in line to play a major role in the surface-to-air fight against Houthi missiles launched at commercial ships in the region.
According to an online bio, Yaste is a native of Knoxville, Tennessee. He joined the Navy after graduating from The Citadel through Naval ROTC in 2006. He also attended the Naval Post Graduate School where he earned a master of science in astronautics. He previously served aboard the destroyer USS Hopper, and amphibious landing ship USS Bataan and as the McCain’s executive officer prior to taking command.
In August 2017, the ship collided with a Liberian-flagged tanker off the coast of Singapore near the Strait of Malacca. Ten sailors were killed and the crew fought for days to keep the ship afloat as it limped to port. The entire leadership team on the ship was fired in the aftermath, and the captain was fined by the Navy after taking responsibility.
Update: 8/30/2024; This article has been updated with additional information about USS John S. McCain.
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American and Iraqi forces killed more than a dozen ISIS fighters in a raid this week targeting leaders of the terrorist group. The operation, done early in the morning on Aug. 29, killed 15 ISIS fighters, according to U.S. Central Command, but seven American service members were injured as well, according to reports.
The operation was done in western Iraq, according to CENTCOM, and the joint American and Iraqi force took on ISIS fighters armed with “numerous weapons, grenades, and explosive ‘suicide’ belts,” although the U.S. did not say how many total ISIS fighters were engaged. No civilians were reported injured in the raid.
“This operation targeted ISIS leaders to disrupt and degrade ISIS’ ability to plan, organize, and conduct attacks against Iraqi civilians, as well as U.S. citizens, allies, and partners throughout the region and beyond,” CENTCOM said in its statement.
CENTCOM, as it often does in these types of announcements, was vague on specifics of the operation. However, Iraqi security forces shared some details in their own statement. The mission involved airstrikes followed by an “airborne operation” in the Anbar Province. 14 ISIS members, including an unspecified number of “important leaders” were killed, the Iraqi military said on X.
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The Associated Press, citing an unnamed defense official, reported that seven American troops were injured during the raid, five in combat and two in falls. All are stable, the official told the Associated Press. Neither CENTCOM or the Iraqi military mentioned American injuries during the operation.
Despite forcing ISIS from its last urban base in Baghouz, Syria in 2019, ISIS remains active in the Middle East and abroad, and the United States and its partner forces regularly carry out airstrikes or raids on its operatives. Even in the face of continued pressure, ISIS has increased the rate of its attacks in Iraq and Syria; the number of terror attacks in the first half of 2024 was higher than the total number of incidents in 2023. CENTCOM has said it estimates approximately 2,500 ISIS fighters are active in the region. American and partner forces have launched more than 200 raids so far this year against ISIS, as part of Operation Inherent Resolve.
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A Maryland Air National Guard member left paralyzed from “routine” back surgery at a military hospital had no legal recourse because of a 1950 Supreme Court decision called the Feres Doctrine which rendered the government free of legal accountability for service member injury claims.
Now, veteran groups are trying to bring the case before the Supreme Court in the hopes of overturning the doctrine which, they argue, has denied thousands of service members legal recourse.
“It is high time for the courts that created Feres to end it once and for all,” according to the amicus brief filed by Just Well Law PLLC and the Coalition of Heroes. An amicus brief is a filing by outside parties supporting a previously filed court petition and signifies a step forward in their campaign to have the case heard by the highest court, a lawyer for the group said. Several veterans groups signed onto the brief, along with current members of Congress and former military officials.
Ryan G. Carter, a reservist in the Maryland Air National Guard, was paralyzed after receiving back surgery in April 2018. Carter was a staff sergeant dual-status technician who was in an inactive duty status when he was injured during surgery at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
His surgery stemmed from a medical history of “degenerative cervical disk disease, chronic neck pain, difficulty with fine motor skills, as well as numbness and tingling in his fingers,” according to the original case filed in Maryland. The government submitted materials to reflect that his medical conditions were “in part” sustained from a pull-up fall during basic training. Carter did not dispute the government’s claim. In March 2018, medical professionals recommended Carter undergo surgery to alleviate and prevent the pain from worsening.
“The procedure was complicated by a loss and/or depression” in Carter’s measurable brain activity or “neurophysiological signals” during the “negligent placement” of a trial spacer (used to create space and relieve nerve compression) at his mid-cervical spine, according to court documents.
When he awoke from the anesthesia, he was unable to move his extremities. A second corrective surgery took place which was “unsuccessful.” He was transferred to a Veteran Affairs hospital for spinal cord rehab therapy. In 2019, he was recommended for discharge with a 100% disability rating. In 2020, he was relieved from active duty.
The brief was filed on behalf of the Coalition of Heroes, National Military Family Association, Reserve Organization of America, Jewish War Veterans of the USA, Swords to Plowshares, and The Center for Law and Military Policy.
According to an emailed statement from Just Well Law, it also has the support of Democrats and Republicans in Congress and retired military leaders: Rep. Darrel Issa (R-Calif.), Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), Rep. Josh Harder (D-Calif.), Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.), Rep. Sanford D. Bishop Jr. (D-Ga.), retired Brig. Gen. Sylvia R. Crockett, retired Gen. Charlotte Miller, and retired Maj. Gen. William Suter.
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The Feres Doctrine has long faced criticism from service members, military families and advocacy groups who argue that the Supreme Court precedent sets a double standard: One set of rules for civilians and another for service members. Under Feres, if a civilian and a service member went to the same hospital and received care for the same injury and malpractice occurred in both cases: the civilian could file a claim for damages against the government, but the service member could not.
“That’s the absurdity of the Feres Doctrine. Family members who were in the same household have different relief,” Kristina Baehr, a lawyer who helped file the brief, told Task & Purpose.
Is it the right time to revisit Feres?The Feres Doctrine blocks members of the military from bringing legal claims against the government for injuries, or in the case of death, it blocks their families from filing a claim. The precedent stems from a controversial court ruling over a case involving the Federal Tort Claims Act, a law that governs how U.S. citizens can sue the government for negligence or wrongdoing.
In 1950, the Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit brought by the widow of Army Lt. Rudolph Feres, who died in 1947 when his barracks caught fire due to a defective heating system. The Supreme Court ruled that the federal government could not be held liable “for injuries to members of the armed forces arising from activities incident to military service.”
Baher said that the case is ripe for this Supreme Court because they are “fairly conservative and textualist” which would mean that a plain interpretation of the FTCA would show that there is no Feres exception for the military, she argued. The Feres exception, she noted, was created by judges.
“If the courts were willing to overturn Roe V Wade, even though there’s a long history of Roe V Wade then perhaps it’s time for the court to consider overturning the Ferris doctrine,” Baehr said, “because this court seems willing to overturn prior opinions, prior doctrines by looking at the actual text and what it actually says and the text of the Federal Tort Claims Act has no exception for service members.”
The brief was filed with the Supreme Court because Carter’s lawyer petitioned the court after the case was denied by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
“This case is different because the Supreme Court asked for a response from the government on this petition. Typically, if it wasn’t interested in hearing it, it wouldn’t ask the government to issue a response,” Baher said.
Feres precedent, previous casesThe brief also includes the story of Lauren Palladini to highlight the “absurd consequences” of the Feres doctrine. Palladini, who is president of the Coalition of Heroes which filed the brief, nearly lost her life and was severely injured from a botched surgery at Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Liberty, North Carolina.
At 22 years old, she underwent a cesarean section while on active duty in the Army when a hemorrhaging artery led to 39 days of extraordinary blood transfusions and other serious procedures. While she survived, the hysterectomy as a result of the malpractice “erased her dreams of conceiving and carrying future children.”
Now, veterans groups representing Carter are arguing that the Feresdecision contradicts the text and purpose of the Federal Tort Claims Act and wrongly denies military members of “orthodox legal remedies that Congress clearly opted to supply.”
The group argues that the Feres Doctrine is “now fully unhinged and incoherent,” and has grown to deny blanket relief for all servicemember injuries “even remotely related” to their military status without regard for the event location or “nexus between the injury-producing event” and the essential defense or military purpose from which the injury took place.
While the group admitted that the issue could’ve been taken up by Congress but also said “decades of inaction have passed the buck back.”
The brief acknowledges that the doctrine has been challenged many times before them but said that each new effort highlights “Feres as indefensible.”
Medical malpractice claimsIn 2021, the Pentagon published interim rules for how military personnel and their families can submit medical malpractice claims for damages to the government. In May, the Defense Department published the final rule. The rules established a claims process which means servicemembers are still barred from pursuing court cases — meaning little room to legally challenge the military’s final decision once the process is complete.
In the original case, the government suggested that Carter pursue redress through the new process.
It’s unclear if Carter pursued claims through the Pentagon’s mechanism after it was established.
“Turning a blind eye to Feres aggravates an institutional crisis, as the Armed Forces struggle more than ever to fill the ranks due to widespread institutional “mistrust,” the brief said. “That mistrust surely grows whenever headline-grabbing military tragedies occur and Feres absurdly denies recovery.”
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Three years ago today, the last plane carrying U.S. troops took off from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul just before midnight local time, marking the official end of America’s longest war.
The U.S.-backed Afghan government had collapsed two weeks earlier, and American troops had spent the last half of August 2021 engaged in a heroic effort to save more than 124,000 Afghans and Americans from the Taliban. A terrorist attack on the airport’s Abbey Gate killed 13 U.S. troops.
After the fall of Kabul, veterans groups quickly sprang into action to rescue Afghan allies from the Taliban. Their efforts saved countless lives, but veterans continue to be anguished over those left behind, and this has defined how they remember the conflict. For the third anniversary of the withdrawal, Task & Purpose spoke to veterans about the final days of the Afghanistan war and its aftermath.
Withdrawal deadlineThe disaster in Kabul began, like nearly all elements of the war, with a President and a string of generals announcing a change of strategy. After taking office in 2017, President Donald Trump initially approved more U.S. troops for Afghanistan while signaling that he intended to end the war. His administration eventually signed the Doha Agreement with the Taliban, calling for all US troops to leave the country by May 2021. In the final months of his administration, Trump accelerated the American military drawdown in Afghanistan even as the Taliban increased attacks against Afghan security forces.
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When President Joe Biden took office, he pushed forward with Trump’s intended withdrawal, pegging Sept. 11, 2021, as a deadline.
But while the military followed the orders of both presidents by beginning to shut bases and fly home, both administrations appeared blind to Afghans. Serious efforts to evacuate Afghans who had worked with Americans did not begin until late July, as American and allied forces were already fleeing toward a final stand in Kabul. Only 1,200 Afghans had been relocated to Fort Lee Virginia, by July 31, 2021.
For many Afghanistan War veterans, the chaotic withdrawal from the country overshadows all the previous phases of the conflict. The trauma of trying to help Afghans flee the Taliban is still raw three years later.
‘We could have done more’Marine veteran Peter Lucier has spent the last three years volunteering and working for groups that help resettle Afghans. He has worked with Afghans directly and put them in contact with the resources that they need.
Despite his efforts to help Afghans in danger, Lucier faults himself for not getting involved with the issue long before the Taliban captured Kabul.
“We all could have been doing more sooner,” Lucier told Task & Purpose. “And there were certainly people saying that it needed to be done. In an age where it feels like accountability doesn’t often happen and people don’t ever own it at any level, it’s important for me to say: ‘Hey, me and a lot of other people also from top to bottom could have been more proactive earlier and maybe would have made a difference.’”
Lucier enlisted in the Marines in 2008 and deployed to Afghanistan from October 2011 to May 2012. He then spent many years advocating for the Afghanistan War to come to an end.
As part of his advocacy efforts, he crossed paths with groups in 2015 and 2016 who were trying to help Afghan allies secure Special immigrant Visas so they could come to the United States, Lucier said.
A Marine with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Central Command lifts an evacuee during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 26, 2021. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Samuel Ruiz. “I remember seeing those people before any of this became urgent, and I can remember thinking: ‘Oh man, that seems super important; I don’t know if I have the stomach and willpower and the patience for it,’” Lucier recalled. “I am super grateful for those people, but what an uphill battle.”
When Kabul fell, Lucier went back to some of those same groups, and he felt a sense of guilt for not taking up their cause earlier.
“They were right about so many things,” he said. “Just seeing those people, I felt like I owed them an apology. I just remember every time seeing them and just wanting to say: Man, you guys were voices in the wilderness for so long and people like me didn’t even take them seriously enough, or we could have done more.”
Lucier said one of his major objections to the way the Afghanistan War was conducted was that he felt no senior U.S. leaders were ever held accountable or accepted responsibility when things went wrong.
That desire to hold someone accountable is what drives him to continue to feel that he fell short by not helping Afghans to get to safety before August 2021. He also feels odd when people thank him for his assistance because he believes he came late to the game.
“Was I as responsible as whomever for the botched withdrawal?” he said. “No, but that doesn’t mean some folks didn’t try to speak out about it and that I didn’t take them seriously.”
Moral injuryThe Taliban promised not to retaliate against vanquished troops and police, but the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction noted in its most recent report that the Taliban continue to hunt down, torture, and kill members of the former government and security forces and their families.
“I believe that the Biden legacy will always be, not the departure from Afghanistan, but the abandonment of a 20-year ally and a massive moral injury on the men and women that served voluntarily for two decades”, said retired Army Lt. Col. Scott Mann, a former Green Beret who founded Task Force Pineapple, a nonprofit group that has evacuated about 1,000 Afghans and Americans.
Volunteers cashed in their retirement savings and Mann’s own consulting business suffered so he could finance and carry out these rescues. They worked 18-20 hours a day during August and September 2021. Some continue to answer pleas for help from Afghanistan.
“How do you hang up the phone?” Mann told Task & Purpose.
Mann said the reason why Task Force Pineapple and other volunteer groups became involved in efforts to save Afghan allies is simple: No one else was coming to their rescue.
“These were our friends,” Mann said. “In many cases, these were people whom we had served with and in many cases stood up for us. Some of us were around because of them. And now they were just being abandoned, left on the side of the road to be executed and hunted. It just went against every moral fiber that we had been taught as special operators, as Green Berets, as Marines, that you just don’t leave someone behind like that. It was just something that many, many veterans and other volunteers could not live with.”
A Marine assists evacuees at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 26, 2021. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla. Mann echoed the frustrations of many veterans of the post-9/11 wars, who feel their sacrifices have largely been ignored by the U.S. government. These pains are exacerbated, he said, by the U.S. government’s failure to take responsibility for the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which Mann described as “a massive slap in the face.”
Whatever else Biden has accomplished, Mann believes that the Afghanistan withdrawal will always define his presidency.
“From the [Global War on Terrorism] generation, there is no quarter on this,” Mann said. “He will wear this around his neck with our generation for as long as his name is spoken.”
Lessons from AfghanistanWhile Afghanistan was an “unmitigated disaster with the number of people left behind,” allies in the U.S., and Biden officials in particular, have learned and gotten better at conducting evacuations, said Army veteran Alex Plitsas, a board member of the Special Operations Association of America, who has helped to organize rescues from Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Gaza.
“I think the administration has gotten better at the evacuation of folks when there’s a deliberate plan to do so,” Plitsas told Task & Purpose.
In subsequent excavations in Ukraine, Sudan, Israel, and Gaza, both the Defense and State Departments were able to anticipate the crises and form a better relationship with non-governmental organizations, Plitsas said.
“I think the State Department has taken into account some of the lessons learned from Afghanistan: a little bit more detailed planning and a little bit better coordination ahead of time, where possible,” Plitsas said. “There’s still a lot more to go.”
Three years after the withdrawal, Plitsas is still helping Afghans resettle in the United States. The current situation is “bittersweet,” he said.
“We have been able to successfully evacuate a number of Afghan allies and their families to the United States in line with our moral and legal promise to those who stood by us on the battlefield,” Plitsas said. “But, the bitter part is that there are still over 100,000 people left behind in Afghanistan who have yet to make it to the United States.”
Other Afghans were able to reach safety but members of their families were left behind, he said. Most of those family members are women, who no longer have the opportunity to get an education and they are forced to be covered from head to toe and be accompanied by a male relative.
“The women have really borne the brunt of our withdrawal in terms of impact on their daily lives, and it’s been horrific and tragic to watch,” Plitsas said.
Afghans still coming to the United StatesThough the final flights lifting off from HKIA left veterans and the world at large with a dark picture of a final departure, the U.S.-aided evacuation of Afghans has continued. As of July, a senior administration official told Task & Purpose, the total number of Afghans relocated under U.S. auspices was about 160,000, half of whom had been able to leave the country since the fall of Kabul.
Every month, thousands of Afghans who have worked with or for the American government arrive in communities across the United States, including former interpreters and female pilots with the former Afghan Air Force, the senior administration official said. The timeline for processing Afghan visa holders and refugees, which used to take years, has also been significantly shortened to weeks or months.
One reason the Biden administration does not talk about Afghan resettlement is it does not want to disrupt the program, the senior administration official said.
More Special Immigrant Visas have been issued to Afghans during the Biden administration than all previous administrations since the program’s inception in 2009, said Navy veteran Shawn VanDiver, founder of #AfghanEvac, a non-profit group that manages a coalition of more than 250 organizations to relocate and resettle Afghans.
Ironically, VanDiver said, the more successful the evacuations have been, the less publicity officials and veterans have sought for the efforts, believing that jubilant press coverage of Afghans who “make it out” can boomerang back on others still in Afghanistan. But the Biden administration has been committed to doing the “quiet work” needed to keep its promise to America’s wartime allies, VanDiver told Task & Purpose.
“When I say the Biden administration has leaned in on this, I mean they have leaned all the way the f—k in,” VanDiver said. “He’s been doing extraordinary s—t, and they have not taken the political win of saying, ‘Look at what we‘ve done.’ That’s honorable.”
Despite the ugly and painful exit, VanDiver said he still believes that withdrawing from Afghanistan was the right decision. He also praised the Biden administration for the “extraordinary lengths” that they have gone to resettle 160,000 Afghan refugees in the United States.
“He has made a point over the last three years that from that chaos, they built an operation that honors our commitment,” VanDiver said. “When he called me in August 2022, he made a commitment to me that #AfghanEvac would never suffer from a lack of access; they would always hear us; and they were committed to seeing this through.”
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Airmen assigned to Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma have a new mantra meant to inspire esprit de corps: Tinker Strong!
“Members of the 72nd Air Base Wing are encouraged to say ‘Tinker Strong’ as a way of greeting individuals as they come through the gate or supporting customers within their work centers,” officials from the base told Task & Purpose. “The statement provides members on base a reminder that we are united and stronger together.”
But to many commenters on the unofficial Air Force subreddit — an online smoke pit for service members and veterans — the “Tinker Strong” mantra has been about as popular as the service’s infamous 1990s dress uniform, briefly adopted under Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Merrill McPeak, which was quickly discarded.
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The subreddit page includes several memes lampooning the mantra, including one that shows a version of Tinkerbell on steroids, another with Bart Simpson wearing a security forces airman’s blue beret reluctantly saying “Tinker Strong” in front of his classmates, and one with the Matt Damon puppet from Team America: World Police wearing an Airman Battle Uniform patrol cap with the caption “Tinker Strong!”
SF .5 seconds into their gate shift
byu/isjeeppluralforjeep inAirForce
“I’m sorry but ‘Tinker Strong’ just sounds like apes saying it in my head,” one commenter wrote along with a picture of Caesar from War for the Planet of the Apes.
“I hope the base clinic bathroom where they collect urine samples posts a sign ‘Tinkle Strong!’” another commenter posted.
In a news release on Thursday, the 72nd Air Base Wing elaborated on what message its leadership was hoping to send with the new mantra.
“‘Tinker Strong’” is a direct product of Great Power Competition,” the news release says. “The mantra stands to provide members on base with a collective and common, mission-focused statement that is a daily reminder of the base-wide objective of wartime operational mission readiness.”
The mantra “Tinker Strong” is also meant to allow airmen assigned to Tinker to promote resilience, demonstrate readiness, and amplify the warrior ethos, the news release says.
“This is what we signed up for,” Col. Abby Ruscetta, installation and 72nd Air Base Wing commander, said in a statement. “Whether you’re in the uniform, a civilian or have any tie to the installation and its success, the time is now to come together and prepare to fight and win. We are united through our missions, and we are stronger together. Tinker Strong!”
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Bullets whizzed by Cpl. Daniel “Duke” Heller as he rescued wounded Marines who’d been trapped in a North Vietnamese Army ambush in the A Shau Valley, Vietnam, on Feb. 13, 1969. Despite being wounded by shrapnel from an RPG, Heller pushed on. He received a Silver Star Medal for his actions that day, but his fellow Marines campaigned for years to see the award upgraded. Five-and-a-half decades later, that happened.
On Wednesday, Heller received the Navy Cross, the second-highest valor award a Marine can receive. The 39th Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Eric Smith, pinned Heller’s Navy Cross to his collar during the ceremony at Marine Barracks Washington, D.C.
Walking with a baseball bat fashioned into a cane, Heller received the Navy Cross, pinned on by Smith, who expressed amazement by the Vietnam veteran’s response to the award:
The 39th Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Eric M. Smith, pins Cpl. Daniel L. Heller, a U.S. Marine Corps Vietnam veteran, during his Navy Cross award ceremony at Marine Barracks Washington, Washington D.C., Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Ethan Craw) Sgt. Ethan Craw“Just so you know what we’re whispering about, I told Cpl. Heller that we’re proud of him and his actions contributed to the legacy of the Corps,” Smith said during the ceremony. “His response was, ‘I just wish I could have done more,’ and that’s why he’s receiving the Navy Cross today.”
Heller was leading 3rd Squad, 3rd Platoon, Company C, 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment when the NVA ambush kicked off to push the Marines from their position, according to a narrative of Heller’s actions that was read out during the ceremony.
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During the ambush, Heller was rescuing a fellow Marine when an RPG impacted close by, wounding both. Despite being “seriously wounded,” he carried the wounded Marine to safety before returning to the fray, Smithrecounted on Wednesday.
Though all the Marines had a role in repelling the ambush, Heller was able to rally his squad, evacuate several wounded Marines, and single-handedly kill four enemy soldiers. His actions allowed his squad to take out eight more NVA soldiers and gave the Marines an opportunity to escape.
The 39th Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Eric M. Smith, pins Cpl. Daniel L. Heller, a U.S. Marine Corps Vietnam veteran, during his Navy Cross award ceremony at Marine Barracks Washington, Washington D.C., Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. The award ceremony was an upgrade to a Navy Achievement Medal (with Valor device) for Cpl. Heller’s actions during the Vietnam War on Feb. 13, 1969. (Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Ethan Craw) Sgt. Ethan Craw“I didn’t do it for a Navy Cross. Hell, I had never even heard of a Navy Cross,” Heller said during the ceremony. “I appreciate everyone here. It’s been a long, long, winding road, but here I am. I just want to say how thankful I am. Semper Fi, and how ‘bout them Jarheads!”
Operation Dewey Canyon started on Jan. 22, 1969, with the mission of disrupting the NVA buildup in the Da Krong Valley. The enemy forces used the area between the Laotian border and the A Shau Valley. So began a deadly game of hide-and-seek for the Marines tasked with destroying the enemy forces.
The operation ended on March 18, 1969, and though the Marines were able to take out enemy ammunition, weaponry, and troops, but the toll was heavy. By the end of the operation, 130 Marines were killed, 920 wounded, and one missing in action.
“It’s not often we get the opportunity to correct an oversight nearly 60 years old — and to honor a Marine who so exemplifies the courage and commitment that define our Corps,” Smith said. “Cpl. Daniel Heller’s actions on Feb. 13, 1969, were extraordinary. And it’s time we give them the recognition they deserve.”
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The Army won the biggest military esports tournament in the world, a hope for the service’s recruiting efforts as they try to meet more of Gen Z where they’re at: online gaming.
On Wednesday, esports teams from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Space Force, Coast Guard and the UK and Canada tac-sprinted, corner sliced and sniped their way through the fifth Call of Duty Endowment Bowl V. In an arch-line atrium of a Washington museum, contestants hunched over desks covered in networked desktops and Monster energy drink cans. Teams of two from each service rotated through direct match-ups inside the uber-popular combat game, with each team coached by a professional Call of Duty player.
When the dust settled, the four soldiers on the Army team had scored the most points in head-to-head battles with other services. The team included Staff Sgt. James Sheives, or “Actual,” from Fort Moore, Georgia, and three soldiers from Fort Bliss: Staff Sgt. Randy Ojeda or “ItzDejavvu,” Spc. Chrisopher Montalvo or “Qwae,” and Staff Sgt. Monsef Taj or, “Taj.” It was the Army’s first win in the contest.
Close to 250,000 tuned into the contest’s livestream on YouTube.
“This is, believe it or not, the world’s largest military esports competition,” said Dan Goldenberg, president of the endowment. “It’s international. It’s like the Army-Navy game for everyone.”
The contest was the fifth annual military-wide shootout held by The Call of Duty Endowment, a foundation funded by Activision Blizzard, the game’s maker, to aid veterans transitioning into civilian jobs after service. The endowment donated over $10 million to veteran charities in 2023, according to IRS filings, and since 2009, says its placed 130,000 veterans into jobs with $73 million in nonprofit grants.
In 2020, to the surprise of many, the Space Force pulled out a win – only a couple of years into its existence. For the endowment bowl’s fifth year, the other services were hungry to take home the Monster trophy presented by the Commandant of the Marine Corps.
Their win was not only a first for the Army but potentially a successful marketing campaign. The goal of the Army’s esports teams is to grab the attention of young people who might become recruits, current and former service members said. With the Army’s recruitment overhaul, officials are looking to interact with young people where they are by investing in more online outreach.
“Where is the 17 to 34 audience?” said Christopher Jones, a retired Sergeant First Class, who was playfully referred to as the godfather of Army esports at the event. Jones helped establish the service’s esports team under Army Recruiting Command.
“Gaming is not the reason you enlist,” Jones said. “It’s the second, tertiary, whatever reason. Everybody has their priority reason of why they’re looking at the service but then when they find out, ‘oh, well, I also have a community within my community, like that sounds awesome.’”
The esports team reaches a younger demographic which generally isn’t familiar with Army marketing at all, said Sgt. Brendan Huffman, Army esports media director.
“The value esports provides in marketing is a touch point to the new demographic that [Recruiting Command] has not been the best at reaching out to, or Army marketing as a whole,” he said. “It’s their first time having a good first impression with anything to do with the military.”
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When the Army decided in November 2018 to officially add esports to their roster of Army-sponsored teams, Jones said, “it was kind of a ‘no duh’ moment.” In 2024, esports drew a total of 640 million viewers to its streaming events around the globe, according to Demandsage, a company that collects data for business intelligence.
Montalvo, or “Qwae,” a network communication specialist, made one of the biggest ‘plays’ of the day, taking out two rifle-armed opponents in a solo mission with just a pistol to clinch first place for the team. When he joined the Army, he said, his recruiter specifically discussed the esports team.
“I didn’t really have a plan when I came into the Army,” Montalvo said, adding that esports has given him more soldiers to relate to in a service made up of more than 400,000 people.
The service members at the Bowl typically play in their free time. Some even thought about going pro before they joined the military like Specialist 4 Ryan Cabase, who does cyber security for the Space Force. He said he clocks probably 40 hours a week, the equivalent of another job.
“There’s a lot of young aspiring gamers out there that genuinely get worried about how joining the military could impact being able to fall back on your pastime,” Cabase said. “Seeing service members come out to these types of events and still be able to actively game and be sent out to these cool events and stuff, I think it’s an eye opening kind of thing.”
Huffman said the Army esports program wouldn’t exist without the volunteer players.
“They sacrificed a lot of free time after their normal Army job to compete and play because when they qualify for a tournament, that’s where Fort Knox comes in, and we provide the funding to send them out and compete,” Huffman said.
The game floor for the fifth annual Call of Duty Endowment Bowl in Washington, D.C. Photo by Sgt. Brendan Huffman. The soldiers who won the Endowment Bowl are considered “at large” players assigned to different bases across the U.S. but the Army’s official esports team has 16 slots at Fort Knox. Like Army-sponsored athletes seeking to reach the Olympics or other high-profile sports events, the esports team soldiers are assigned to gaming duties full-time.
A normal day, said Huffman, starts with morning PT before they head into the office where they practice playing and review footage of previous sessions and scrimmages they hold against college teams and other opponents. The soldiers might also be “nailing down certain team cohesion issues that they have within the team, or just communications issues.”
The goal, Huffman said, is to qualify for and perform well at national competitions, with wide audiences of possible recruits.
“They maintain their high-level competitiveness to compete at the national level to be on that national broadcasting stage to show that while you’re in the Army, you can still maintain your passions that you had before joining and continue them well after dealing with their service,” Huffman said.
When they’re not training at home, they’re going to tournaments across the country about once a month.
To be one of the 16, soldiers play trials to prove their skills. Soldiers can even move up in rank during their time playing for the Army’s esports team.
“I came in as a specialist. I’m now an E5. We’ve had people jump from E5 all the way to E7 while at Knox,” Huffman said. “It doesn’t stop your military career.”
Some Army players have even been poached for full-ride scholarships to college teams or by professional esports teams, according to Huffman.
Call of Duty EndowmentThe Call of Duty competition is a major fundraiser for the endowment, which connects veterans with non-profits specializing in veteran-civilian transitions like Hire Our Heroes. The group’s chief operating officer, Ross Dickman, said that they coached veterans on how to pitch their military experience to civilian employers.
“If you carried a rifle and were in the infantry, for a logistics organization, what use do they have for that? On the surface, it doesn’t translate well. On paper, it’s tough for a hiring manager who’s not military connected to understand that. It’s even harder for the veterans to articulate it, because they’ve been trained against a certain set of objectives,” he said.
They also help veterans practice mock interviews and write resumes.
“They’re very confident in their abilities in the military. They’re confident in who they are. They have a strong degree of self confidence,” Dickman said. “But then, if you get more specific and say, ‘How comfortable do you feel interviewing?’ Pretty low. ‘How confident are you that the resume represents your skills?’ Super low. So we do work on that type of confidence.”
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Three years ago on Aug. 20, 2021, Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole Gee posted a photo of herself holding an Afghan baby to her Instagram account, captioning the picture, “I love my job.” The photo was taken during the final days of the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Six days later, an ISIS-K suicide bomber detonated a suicide vest at the Abbey Gate of the Hamid Karzai International Airport. The attack resulted in the death of Gee, 12 other service members, and over 100 Afghans. On the anniversary of Gee’s death, the USS Iwo Jima, a Navy Wasp-class amphibious assault ship, dedicated its gym to the fallen Marine.
“She served aboard the USS Iwo Jima, and she was an avid gym rat, and that’s one of the more prominent memories people have of her,” said Master Sgt. Joshua Rehm, the Marine who helped organize the ceremony. “So, naturally, as we were refurbishing our gym, coming out of the yards, and getting all the equipment, we decided to do a dedication memorial to her.”
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Nicole Gee (@nicole\_gee\_\_)
Gee’s Instagram has a highlight reel jam-packed with photos of her progress in training, showing muscle gains from head to toe. Those who knew her said Gee was dedicated to bettering herself and helping others.
According to an August 2021 story by Coffee or Die Magazine, Mallory Harrison, a close friend of Gee’s, posted a touching note to Facebook about her personality.
“My very best friend, my person, my sister forever,” Harrison wrote. “I can’t quite describe the feeling I get when I force myself to come back to reality & think about how I’m never going to see her again. How her last breath was taken doing what she loved — helping people — at HKIA in Afghanistan. Then there was an explosion. And just like that, she’s gone.”
The ship’s gym doors are wrapped with a design that shows a photo of Gee, emblems for the USS Iwo Jima and the Marine Corps, and a detailed description of her service, including a detailed accounting of Gee’s actions and those of the other female service members assigned to the Female Engagement Team.
FETs are small groups of female volunteers deployed with male infantry units with a mission to collect information from Afghan families and communicate with women without breaking cultural traditions. Together, they saved the lives of 124,000 Afghans.
That’s what stood out to Rehm the most.
“The biggest thing is, obviously, helping others,” Rehm said. “That was her mission. She was in Afghanistan to help civilians get out of harm’s way. She loved it and did it to the best of her abilities.”
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The gym dedication to Gee was presented before a large group of currently serving Marines and veterans, those who served with or are motivated by Gee’s service and sacrifice.
“Anywhere from junior Marines who have since gotten out of the military to lieutenant commanders and anything in between,” Rehm said. “All of who have been involved or impacted by her sacrifice.”
Rehm said the gym dedication is the first he’s seen aboard a ship, but it’s an important part of commemorating those killed in action.
“As long as you’re continuing to tell their story and continue talking about them, it’s powerful and inspirational,” Rehm said. “It’s an excellent thing that should continue. Anything that we can do to honor the brave men and women who have served and sacrificed. I’m all for it.”
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At 39, Michael Powell has realized his dream of enlisting in the Army after the service initially turned him away 20 years ago, an Army news story says.
“I want to be an infantryman,” said Powell, who is currently attending basic training at Fort Moore, Georgia. “I want to travel the world and continue to accomplish the goals I set out for myself at a young age.”
Since the Army’s maximum enlistment age is 38, Powell was granted an exception to policy to join. He was also approved to enlist even though he has some tattoos that do not comply with the Army’s guidance.
Powell, of Selma, Alabama, said he had wanted to join the Army since he was a child, but he had a difficult early life. He’s lived on his own since he was 17, and he dropped out of high school in the 11th grade to work..
“I always dreamed of joining the U.S. Army since I was in elementary school,” Powell said. “So, I got up one day and went into the recruiting station and told the recruiter I was ready to join.”
But at 19, Powell was told that he did not meet the service’s pre-qualification standards. With the Army seemingly no longer a career option, Powell earned his General Educational Development and went on to serve as an officer with the Selma Police Department. He also went to school and earned his commercial driver’s license.
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Still, Powell the idea of becoming a soldier never fully faded away. After a chance encounter with a recruiter, he decided to try again. This time, he had better luck, becoming the first person in Selma to join the Army at his age.
Army Sgt. 1st Class Inez Hammon, the Selma Recruiting Station Commander, said Powell is the first recruit she’s worked with who is older than her. But the two shared something in common.
“We had somewhat maybe a similar story,” Hammon told Task & Purpose. “I didn’t join at 39, but I did join late. I joined at 24. So, for me, it was once having a dream of wanting to join the Army and then later following up on that dream. So, we had something we could relate to in that aspect – never quitting.”
Hammon said she first met Powell at a local Sonic restaurant, where he was working as a manager. Whenever she visits fast-food businesses, she asks the people who work there if they had ever thought about joining the Army. Powell said he had thought about it but couldn’t talk because he was working.
She gave Powell her business card. Weeks went by, and then he called her to say that he had just seen an Army recruiting commercial and wanted to know more about enlisting.
It took about 45 days for Powell to get through the application process and receive waivers for his age and tattoos, Hammon said. But as the weeks dragged on, Powell never waivered..
Powell’s tattoos had been an issue when he was 19. Recruiters told him that two tattoos on his neck and and others on his right and left hands made him ineligible to serve, Hammon said.
This time, Hammon told her he could apply for a waiver, and when it was granted, “Honestly, he really couldn’t believe it,” she said.
Even though Powell is almost 40, he didn’t need to lose any weight or go through any extra physical training before shipping to qualify for the Army, Hammon said.
“He goes to the gym every single day,” Hammon said. “He was in great shape.”
Recruiting changes across the Army
After struggling in recent years, the Army expects to meet its recruiting goal for Fiscal Year 2024 of 55,000 new soldiers – a lower goal than in the past. One way the service has been able to attract more soldiers has been through the Army Future Soldier Preparatory Course, which helps potential trainees who do not meet the service’s initial standards get ready for basic training.
The Army has also announced it plans to stand up two new basic training companies at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and another two companies at Fort Sill, Oklahoma to accommodate an additional 3,840 more trainees per year, indicating that the service’s efforts at revamping recruiting are bearing fruit.
Powell, who has selected 11X (Infantryman) as his military occupational specialty, has no qualms about going through basic training with fellow soldiers roughly half his age.
“An old dog can teach you new tricks,” he said.
Powell is also the first member of his family to join the military.
“This was a long time coming,” his mother, Gladys Powell said. “I’m proud of him and pray this will be another successful job for my son.”
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Seamus Malekafzali, an American freelance journalist based in Beirut, Lebanon opened Tinder one afternoon looking for a date. He was met with F-16s and a fatal warning from the U.S. military.
Malekafzali told Task & Purpose that he opened the dating app and the ad, accompanied with the U.S. Central Command logo was waiting for him as a swipe option where other love interests would usually be. He posted photos of the ad on X.
The ad, written in Arabic, read: “Do not take arms against the US or its partners,” and “U.S. Central Command is fully prepared and ready with F-16 Fighting Falcons and A-10 Tondar Bolt supersonic fighter jets currently in the region.”
Malekafzali said he’s seen other ads for hotels and local businesses but this was a “full page ad with animation” with the CENTCOM logo.
Though clearly aimed directly at Tinder-using men in Lebanon, Malekafzali’s post about it on his high-profile X.com account sent the ad in U.S. and western-based social media circles, which triggered questions on whether U.S. intelligence operatives were using the dating app as a conduit for messaging.
In other words, was the Pentagon using Tinder for a PSYOP?
A defense official said in a statement that they were aware of press reports but declined to “speculate on actual or alleged operations.”
“Broadly speaking and as a matter of policy, the Department of Defense does conduct military information operations in support of our national security priorities. These activities must be undertaken in compliance with U.S. law and DoD policy, and we are committed to enforcing those safeguards,” the defense official said in a statement.
CENTCOM declined to comment.
Swiping right on HezbollahAn initial gut reaction might have you shaking your head that invoking fear in young Lebanese men looking for love could help deter World War III, but former psychological operators said the approach is not surprising.
“If I can get into the psyche of a Hezbollah fighter and make him question everything he’s doing, even his dating life – the most personal thing in his life – then maybe he’s going to question what he’s actually doing there on the Israeli border,” said David Cook, a former PSYOP non commissioned officer and executive director of the Special Operations Association of America.
“If you’re a Hezbollah fighter, you’re on Tinder looking for your next hot date in between watch guard on the border and CENTCOM has sent you an ad that says, ‘Hey, throw down your weapon and go away,’ they know where you are because Tinder uses geolocation data to give you matches in your area – just check the terms and conditions,” said Cook, who is also a director of ShadowDragon, a company that provides open source intelligence tools.
From Pin-Up girls to AI girlfriendsPSYOP operators use a common understanding that people in a war zone focus intently on security, food, water and other basic human needs, which includes sex. History is rife with examples of governments exploiting sexual desires as military tactics or for broader national security gains.
Research by a Cambridge University historian argues that During World War II, the War Department used “appeals to chivalry and heroism” to motivate American men who were drafted to fight in a war that was thousands of miles away and did little to impact their daily lives. They used newspapers, movies and other media to put alluring women in front of male soldiers with the most common example: the rise of Pin-Up girls.
In the war in Ukraine, real and AI-generated women have spoiled Russian military maneuvers through information gathered from lonely soldiers on dating apps, according to reporting from The Times.
When creating a psychological operation series, officials consider the target audience and look for vulnerabilities. In this case, it’s young men in Lebanon and their dating life.
But another former PSYOP soldier said the campaign was too simple, “abrupt” and probably more of a “one off” rather than a series with long term planning. They called the Tinder ad “catfishy” and “kind of cringe.” The former soldier with experience in similar PSYOP series focused on love also said using matters of the heart can be dangerous and turn off a target audience.
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“I would romanticize being a martyr. I would have romanticized looking for jihad. And I would have romanticized like, ‘Hey, in order to find paradise, you just have to find your way as a Muslim man,’” the former soldier said, adding that he would’ve opted for using a progressive messaging campaign that makes you want to “go down a rabbit hole.”
The former soldier said the series could have potentially gone through the Global Engagement Center, an interagency entity housed at the State Department which was created during the Obama administration in 2016. The GEC coordinates U.S. counterterrorism messaging to foreign audiences.
Cook said the psychological implications of a series like the Tinder ads could be similar to when someone talks about something and later sees an advertisement for it on Facebook.
“In a world where if I talk about something and an ad pops up, that could mean that a kamikaze drone is going to come smoke me in the face and that makes me feel uneasy,” Cook said. “That gives me a doubt about what I’m doing.”
Malekafzali said he had seen clandestine ad campaigns in Lebanon previously, “but usually they are wise to not use the insignia of U.S. military powers.” Since posting his tweet, Malekafzali said he hasn’t gotten any formal government outreach but “I got messaged from woman who now know that I’m single.” (Perhaps this was a successful PSYOP on his part?)
Philip Fry, a spokesperson for Tinder said the ad was “promptly removed” after it was brought to their attention because it violated their policies.
“Tinder works closely with our advertising partners to help ensure all ad content complies with our guidelines, including those related to violence, safety, and advocacy,” Fry said.
The former soldier said that the Tinder PSYOP series reflects the bigger problem facing PSYOP units with a lack of clear authority oversight after they were moved under a non-PSYOP focused command.
A DOD Inspector General report found that the Army doesn’t have enough PSYOP soldiers to fight the information war with China and Russia. Current and former soldiers pointed to the restructuring as a source of the problem.
The former PSYOP soldier also said that the Pentagon often turns to contractors to create and disseminate their messages.
“They didn’t do their homework to find out that you don’t use the love app for war and you gotta check the terms of service,” the former soldier said.
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Army officials brought charges against a Hawaii soldier after his six-month pregnant wife went missing. Her family said last week that the 19-year-old is believed to be dead.
Army officials preferred three charges and 14 specifications against Pfc. Dewayne Arthur Johnson II “stemming from the disappearance of his wife, Mischa Johnson,” officials said. Charges include providing false official statements, obstruction of justice, and the production and distribution of explicit images of children.
Johnson is in pretrial confinement pending a required preliminary hearing before charges can be referred for a court martial. He will be arraigned if charges are referred, and a military judge will schedule pre-trial hearings and a trial.
The case is being handled by the Office of Special Trial Counsel, part of the Pentagon’s overhaul in how it addresses criminal cases involving murder, sexual assault and domestic abuse outside the chain of command.
“This case remains an active investigation,” said Michelle McCaskill, an OSTC spokesperson. “We are confident that law enforcement will exhaust all efforts to find Mischa and the likelihood of additional charges is certainly a possibility as the case develops.”
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The family of Mischa Johnson said in a livestream last week that authorities believe she is likely dead and cited evidence found in her husband’s car and their home.
Army investigators are trying to piece together details about Dewayne Johnson’s whereabouts and actions between July 12 and Aug. 1. During that period, Mischa Johnson’s family received texts from her phone, but it is not believed that she sent them.
A local Hawaii news outlet reported that surveillance footage shows Dewayne Johnson purchasing cleaning supplies and various tools before he reported his wife missing.
The Army Criminal Investigation Division was notified on Aug. 1 that Mischa Johnson was reported missing from the Schofield Barracks, O’ahu, Hawaii. According to CID, she was reportedly last seen on July 31 inside her home.
CID also announced a $10,000 reward for information in the case earlier this month. Army investigators are partnering with the Honolulu Police Department, CrimeStoppers and law enforcement in the region on the case.
Dewayne Arthur Johnson, from Frederick, Maryland, enlisted in the Army in November 2022. He is assigned to the 25thInfantry Division and serves as a cavalry scout.
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On Aug. 27, 1958, over the course of two weeks, the United States Navy fired three nuclear warheads into the atmosphere, intentionally detonating them to test a Cold War military theory. If it worked, it would let the military harness the Earth’s magnetic fields and weaponize them to disable any Soviet communications and tracking abilities. If it went wrong, it could destroy an American carrier group.
Operation Argus was a secretive, ambitious military project launched in 1958 following the Sputnik panic of 1957. The Soviets had shown they could put a satellite in orbit and, even more so, that they had the missile capability to strike around the world. The United States military needed a way to counter the perceived threat.
One nuclear scientist had an idea. Nicholas Christofilos, a nuclear physicist and former elevator repairman studying radiation at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, wanted to ensure Soviet satellites and sensors could not reach the United States. The plan was to use radiation belts that followed Earth’s magnetic fields, now known as the Van Allen Belts. Detonating a nuclear weapon from one location could create a disruptive radioactive cloud at another location. Christofilos originally pitched it as a way to cover the United States in a protective barrier. But then an offensive strategy was found: Create a nuclear cloud over the Soviet Union.
“It was theorized that the radiation belt would have military implications, including degradation of radio and radar transmissions, damage or destruction of the arming and fuzing mechanisms of ICBM warheads, and endangering the crews of orbiting space vehicles that might enter the belt,” the Defense Threat Reduction Agency wrote regarding the plan.
This was a time when the military was dreaming up all kinds of futuristic weapons, ranging from nuclear air-to-air missiles and a tiny, shoulder-fired nuclear recoilless rifle, the Davy Crockett. The Army was even brainstorming combat on the Moon. Christofilos’s idea was not entirely far-fetched compared to others at the time. And so, Christofilos and the military planned what he called “the most fantastic experiment conducted by man,” according to Mark Wolverton’s book “Burning the Sky.”
Taking Christofilos’s theory, the Navy sent Task Force 88 to the South Atlantic Ocean. Nine ships, roughly 4,500 sailors and three modified missiles made up the task force. An aircraft carrier, the USS Tarawa, was the lead ship, backed by destroyers, cruisers and support ships. It was a secret mission, nominally under the guise of testing a new missile. To maintain cover, most of the crew was not informed of the nuclear nature of the operation, nor were they issued radiation-detecting film badges. Only the launch crews and the commanders, plus some experts, had any idea what they’d be firing into the sky. And they had a deadline. An American-Soviet nuclear test moratorium would go into effect in November. They had to get the tests done quickly.
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If the Navy allocated an impressive force for the tests, the actual munitions were not as fancy. They were modified rockets fitted with a 1.7-kiloton warhead, their fuse set to a simple timer. Each rocket needed to fire straight up — made harder by rough seas and heavy winds in the South Atlantic Ocean. The first rocket veered sharply after launch and detonated far too low. The second, launched on Aug. 30 had better altitude but still didn’t reach the target.
It was the third test on Sept. 6 where the Task Force got the most results. It took a second to go right though. At first, the rocket failed to take off. According to “Burning the Sky” crews on the USS Norton Sound had to go inspect it — with the real risk that the nuclear warhead might go off. But, eventually, it was safely launched, detonating at the desired altitude and creating a massive display of light.
And it worked. Christofilos was right. Sort of. The nuclear radiation from the rockets did have a noticeable spread via the magnetic fields, but nowhere close to the expectation. Now known as the Christofilos Effect, the impact was nowhere near enough to create the protective or offensive barrier its namesake, and the U.S. military envisioned.
Operation Argus, while technically a success, was not followed up on. Christofilos went on to work on other projects and died in 1972 from a heart attack. The United States pursued other nuclear weapon strategies. Neither the United States nor the Soviet Union was covered in a disruptive nuclear cloud.
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Working as an interpreter alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan for over a decade didn’t quite prepare Ismail Haqmal for life in Texas.
“In Afghanistan, we have a very social life. We socialize a lot,” Ismail said. “It was very hard for us to come here, where life is very individualized. There were a lot of restrictions because we did not have more people to socialize with, and in the beginning, there were not a lot of Afghans around.”
He wondered if the individual lives many Americans lead took a deeper toll.
“A lot of people have mental problems because they don’t have many friends to socialize with,” Haqmal said.
But soon, he began seeing a growing curiosity about Afghan culture among his neighbors in San Antonia, Texas.
Ismail Haqmal in front of the white house during demonstrations about the Afghanistan withdrawal. (Photo courtesy of Robert Ham) “They’ve realized how our culture is, and they got used to it. They love it. They love our food. Now, all of my neighbors on my street know me. We exchange things and invite each other for events or special occasions,” Ismail said. “They really want to study Afghanistan culture. They say, ‘Yeah, that’s a good thing.’ But we innovate in America because we love it, and all need this.”
Ismail’s story as an interpreter with U.S. forces and his move to the U.S. is the subject of “Interpreters Wanted,” a new documentary by U.S. Army veteran and filmmaker Robert Ham.
The documentary details the harrowing experience of Ismail and Saifullah Haqmal, brothers who worked as Ham’s interpreters during his 2009 deployment to Afghanistan. It tells the story of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan — which ended three years ago this week — through their eyes.
Ismail Haqmal with Robert Ham during the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival. (Photo courtesy of Robert Ham) “Interpreter’s Wanted” is streaming on VET TV’s website. The site is offering a 2-day free trial to view the documentary for those who sign up using the code “afghanistan.”
“This is a very great story about Afghanistan. At least they can feel and see what is the ordinary life of an Afghan or those who put their life on the line and realize what the situation in Afghanistan is,” Haqmal said. “As long as we can get it to more Americans and more people, that’ll be great. They will realize how important Afghanistan is. That story is not over, and you cannot just say, ‘Okay, forget about Afghanistan.’”
Telling Haqmal’s story, and through him, the story of the end of the Afghan war was Ham’s goal.
“As far as I’m concerned, I want to touch people’s hearts and minds with the story of the brotherhood of those we served with — our allies — and the importance of when we go to war, the main goal is supposedly to win that war and basically created a better space for those people that country,” Ham said. “Now, because we didn’t do that, I think the sacrifice of those we left behind needs to be heard.”
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But Ismail and Saifullah were among the lucky ones. Ismail was able to leave Afghanistan in 2017, three years before the American withdrawal ended at Hamid Karzai International Airport.
This week marks the 3rd anniversary of the chaotic final days of that evacuation.
Ham’s documentary highlights the struggles of Afghan interpreters before and after the withdrawal. Fortunately, he was able to bring Ismail and Saifullah to the U.S. Saifullah, despite several setbacks along the way, arrived in the U.S. in 2016.
Ismail was still stuck in Afghanistan but arrived in the U.S. a year later, giving hope to all of their Afghan interpreters that there is still hope. But the incredibly slow process for Afghan visa approval is leaving many at risk of assassination, and there are over 140,000 Afghans still in danger.
“I’m very disappointed due to the United States policies towards Afghanistan and towards the criminal Taliban. They turn a blind eye to Taliban crimes, and there’s no accountability. They just say, ‘Okay, they’re fine.’” Ismail said. “That is really frustrating for those who worked alongside US forces in Afghanistan. We are losing our brothers and sisters. Those who put their lives in danger, when it’s the US’ turn to help them out, they haven’t. Unfortunately, they are in a very desperate situation, and it’s very hard for them to live. Their life is on the edge of a knife.”
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The Taliban is actively searching for any Afghans who assisted the military as they continue to make changes to Afghanistan, including denying education to women. The Taliban’s reach doesn’t stop at the border of Afghanistan either. Some have escaped Afghanistan to Iran and Pakistan, but Ismail said they are not safe.
“Pakistan’s military and their intelligence sharing and cooperation with Taliban allows them to target Afghans in Pakistan as well. Recently, five Afghan commanders were killed in Pakistan. From Pakistan, they went to Iran and then went back to Pakistan and started selling vegetables and fruit, and then they were killed and hung from a power pole. That was not the one example. Thousands of people are being killed, and their stories are not making it into the media because there’s a crackdown.”
The non-profit “No One Left Behind” is a leading organization that rescues America’s Afghan allies to safety in the U.S. According to its website, over 140,000 Afghans are in danger. In 2023, it rescued 2,847 Afghan allies, set a goal of 7,000 in 2024, and, so far this year, rescued 1,292 Afghan allies.
“They’ve been doing a lot of work in this space for a long time and pushing for a wider understanding of the Afghan Adjustment Act, specifically surrounding how many interpreters still need to qualify for SIVs and who can get into America,” Ham said. “There’s still tens of thousands left behind. So, the biggest goal of ‘Interpreters Wanted’ is, how do we get those who deserve to be here through the process as quickly as possible.”
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Seven airmen assigned to the 857th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada were recently honored for rescuing four people including a pregnant woman during a flash flood at Zion National Park in Utah, Air Force officials have announced.
“I am incredibly proud of the actions our Airmen took while hiking through Zion National Park,” 857th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron commander Maj. James Oltman III said in a statement to Task & Purpose. “We often talk to our Airmen about the choices they have to either watch or intervene when they come across a situation. These brand-new Airmen chose to act, which ultimately saved a life as a result. Their actions speak volumes about their character and the values we strive for within the unit. I am proud to have them on our team.”
Airmen 1st Class Will Martin, Demarcus Norman, Maximos Olade, Jacob Stillwell, and Rony Lopez-Aguilar, along with Airmen Andres Parra and Christian Reye all received coins from their squadron’s chief master sergeant during a ceremony held on Monday, an Air Force news release says. Challenge coins, as they’re called, aren’t awards in the typical sense, but they do offer an opportunity to recognize the recipient for particular actions — in this case they honored the airmen’s quick thinking and bravery.
“We are incredibly proud to recognize seven of our brave airmen who went above and beyond to save lives during a flash flood at Zion National Park,” Nellis Air Force Base posted on Facebook on Monday. “Their swift and selfless actions are a true testament to the core values of the Air Force: integrity first, service before self and excellence in all we do.”
Recently, the airmen were hiking in Zion National Park when Airman 1st Class Martin noticed that the river was rising very fast, indicating that a flash flood was coming.
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“As the group made their way to higher ground, they spotted a woman floating on her back who appeared battered, blue, and lifeless,” the Air Force news release says.
Airman 1st Class Norman went into the river and was able to pull the woman ashore despite the strong current. The woman was “barely responsive” as the airmen contacted rescue personnel whotold them to move her down the canyon so she could be picked up by a helicopter.
As the seven airmen carried the woman to safety, she told them that she was pregnant and had three other travel companions, including her husband.
The airmen were able to locate the woman’s husband and the other two hikers, including another man who was on the opposite side of the river with an injured knee. The strong current made it impossible for the man to cross the river, so the seven airmen linked arms and formed a human chain to get him to the other bank.
Afterward, the airmen moved all four people to an area where they could be rescued by helicopter. Video released by the Air Force shows one of the hikers being hoisted from the ground into the rescue helicopter hovering near steep cliffs.
“Thank you to these exceptional Airmen for your unwavering dedication and for embodying the spirit of service,” Nellis Air Force Base posted on its Facebook page. “Your actions are an inspiration to us all!”
UPDATE; 08/27/2024; this story was updated with a statement from 857th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron commander Maj. James Oltman III.
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It’s nothing new when an Army helo crew throws out interesting call signs before taking flight. Today, a CH-47 Chinook helicopter crew — with a tail number of AE59B1 — plugged in a call sign of “FUKIRAN” when they flew from Wilmington to Fayetteville, North Carolina.
“The 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade acknowledges someone used an unauthorized and inappropriate moniker for one of its helicopters that recently returned from a deployment,” said Lt. Col. César Santiago, an Army spokesman, in a statement to Task & Purpose.
In terms of this specific call sign, the crew seems to have a sense of humor. The spelling for the call sign is off, but it’s very similar to a Japanese orchid flower called the Fuukiran, a type of Neofinetia falcata orchid. The Fuukiran — not “FUKIRAN” — is referred to as a rich and noble orchid because it was historically owned by the samurai and people of similar rank in Japanese society.
Other names for the Fuukiran are “wind orchid” or “blade orchid,” so one of the pilots may be interested in Japanese flowers or culture — or they just wanted to make a statement.
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In-flight call signs are an integral part of military and civilian aviation. They are not the nicknames military pilots assign each other, also known as “call signs.” Pilots use their flight call signs when speaking to air traffic controllers, and they program the call signs into their navigation equipment, which civilian flight tracking services can track.
The “FUKIRAN” call sign was leaked to the internet by flight tracker accounts on Instagram and Twitter, and it is the latest in a series of lewd call signs. The Navy recently released a statement in response to a Naval call sign of “IDICK69.”
“Going forward, aircrews are being advised to challenge call signs that may be perceived as unprofessional or inappropriate,” Cmdr. Beth Teach, a Naval Air Force Pacific Fleet spokeswoman, previously told Task & Purpose.
On Aug. 12, the crew of a Navy E-6B Mercury had to change the lewd call sign mid-flight. They started broadcasting “IDICK69” before taking off from Travis Air Force Base in California and changed it to “STOB7” before landing in Texas. But once the internet gets a hold of it, there’s no erasing that knowledge.
Lewd and inappropriate call signs are something the different branches of the military have tried to prevent. Task & Purpose has reported on several other examples of lewd call signs and flight patterns. Everything from “boobies” and “titties” to flight patterns resembling male genitalia.
Though some on social media claimed it could be a case of hacking, it’s highly unlikely that a hacker could access a military aircraft’s computer to change a call sign. Or, it could result from a crew that plays a joke on the replacement crew, changing the call sign before handing it over to the new crew in the hopes they won’t notice.
Punishments can vary when crew members make bad choices on call signs or flight patterns. Some crews are scolded, while others have been fired from their jobs if they have a pattern of poor choices.
“The 82nd Airborne Division is approaching the matter with the utmost seriousness and intends to address the issue,” Santiago said of the most recent example of belligerent callsigns. “This call sign is inconsistent with the professional standards, core values and expectations within the 82nd Airborne Division and the United States Army.”
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The U.S. military has removed at least half a dozen photographs from public view that captured a “ramp ceremony” and American troops paying tribute to the 13 service members killed in the Aug. 26, 2021 suicide bomb attack outside Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate, Task & Purpose has confirmed.
A U.S. official told Task & Purpose that the pictures were removed from a public database of official photos due to a miscommunication between the Defense Department’s mortuary affairs and the public affairs officer on the ground at the time. The official said the photos were initially meant for the families of the fallen service members, not the public. They were removed from public view afterward according to existing Defense Department instructions.
However, the images have been widely used since their initial release, including in The Guardian, Reuters, The Washington Post, and Task & Purpose.
No further information was immediately available on when the miscommunication on the ground occurred or when they were unpublished.
The 11 Marines, one Navy corpsman, and one Army soldier who were killed gave their lives to allow as many Afghans as possible to escape from the Taliban. The day after the attack, their comrades paid tribute to the fallen troops as 13 transfer cases covered by American flags were loaded onto a C-17 transport plane during a ramp ceremony at the airport.
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The moving images of the ceremony captured by a Marine photographer include two pictures of Marines solemnly carrying one of the transfer cases as their brothers and sisters in arms look on. In one of those pictures, a Marine serving as a pallbearer has his head bowed as he helps to carry the transfer case.
Another picture shows two Marines supporting each other during the ramp ceremony. One Marine has his hand on his buddy’s helmet. The second is holding his friend’s shoulder.
Yet another picture shows US troops holding hands over the transfer cases after they had been loaded into the C-17. And one of the pictures shows a handwritten message left by one of the troops at Hamid Karzai International Airport on the American flag covering a transfer case.
While these images are still available through Facebook and Wikipedia, as of Monday — the third anniversary of the Abbey Gate attack — they have been removed from the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, or DVIDS, a vast Pentagon-run archive of images, videos, news stories, and other public domain material generated by the military that is open for use by the public and media outlets.
DVIDs is where public affairs officers and employees across the military post and share photos of service members engaging in virtually every kind of daily work, ceremonies and training. Hundreds of photos are uploaded to the system everyday. The system includes thousands of photos from military funerals and memorial ceremonies, including ubiquitous many dozens of photos of coffins of those killed in combat.
This is the most recent example of material related to Afghanistan being removed from DVIDS. In November 2021, then-Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed that more than 120,000 pictures and 17,000 videos had been unpublished from DVIDS to protect Afghans who worked with the U.S.-led coalition from the Taliban.
“We removed thousands of still imagery and videos that would show the faces or any other identifiable information about many of the Afghans that we have worked for and we have supported and who have supported us over the last 20 years,” Kirby said at the time. “This was an abundance of caution that we felt was necessary in keeping with our obligation to protect the identities of our Afghan allies and partners. When we don’t feel that that need is there, then we will absolutely republish them.”
Kirby was not exaggerating the danger that the United States’ Afghan allies faced after the Taliban took over the country. A 2023 report from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, found at least 800 examples of the reprisals against members of the former Afghan government and its security forces, including arbitrary arrests, torture, and killings.
It was not immediately clear if any of those pictures or videos have since been republished.
See the ramp ceremony photos below:United States Marines honor their fallen during a Ramp Ceremony at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Aug. 27, 2021. (U.S. Marine Corps) United States Marines honor their fallen during a Ramp Ceremony at Hamid Karzai International Airport, August 27.United States Marines honor their fallen during a Ramp Ceremony at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Aug. 27, 2021. (U.S. Marine Corps) United States Marines honor their fallen during a Ramp Ceremony at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Aug. 27, 2021. (U.S. Marine Corps) United States Marines honor their fallen during a Ramp Ceremony at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Aug. 27, 2021. (U.S. Marine Corps) Pallbearers for those killed in action carry the fallen during a ‘ramp ceremony’ on Aug. 27, 2021. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by 1st Lt. Mark Andries) HAMID KARZAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Afghanistan (August 27, 2021) U.S. service members assigned to Joint Task Force-Crisis Response are pallbearers for the service members killed in action during operations at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Aug. 27. U.S. service members are assisting the Department of State with a Non-Combatant Evacuation operation (NEO) in Afghanistan. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by 1stLt. Mark Andries)United States Marines honor their fallen during a ramp ceremony at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Aug. 27, 2021. (U.S. Marine Corps) United States Marines honor their fallen during a Ramp Ceremony at Hamid Karzai International Airport, August 27.The latest on Task & Purpose Suspended 4-star general denies he pressured panels to promote officer * Navy must consider moving EA-18Gs from Whidbey Island to El Centro after noise lawsuit * Air Force vet who fled to Russian military says his call sign is ‘Boston’ * 10th Mountain soldiers summit 46 highest Adirondacks peaks in one day * Anglers, Squids, POGs and ‘AAA-0’ —Military nicknames* we love**
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A Hawaii-based combat engineer became ‘triple-tabbed’ by completing three of the Army’s most demanding courses, Ranger and Sapper school, and a Hawaii-based Jungle course. Earning all three is rare for any soldier, and nearly unprecedented for a woman.
1st Lt. Mackenzie Corcoran completed the triple-training journey when she graduated from Ranger School at Fort Moore. She is the 135th woman to graduate from Ranger School since 2015, and just became the 8th woman to also finish Sapper school.
Corcoran earned the Jungle tab in late 2022 by completing the Jungle Operations Training Course, which is run by the 25th Infantry Division’s Lighting Academy in Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, where Corcoran is assigned. Soldiers who complete the course can wear the Jungle tab, though only while assigned to Army units in the Pacific. The Army did not clarify if any other women have earned all three tabs.
Corcoran joined the Army in May 2021 after graduating from William & Mary college in Williamsburg, Virginia with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. Getting through as many Army training courses as possible, she said, was always a goal.
“You are going to be your biggest advocate,” she said, “the best time to go is yesterday.”
Corcoran told the Army in a release that the toughest moment she faced was, perhaps surprisingly, in Sapper school, during a cold, rainy night of training. The course teaches combat engineers to develop their leadership skills and advanced engineering techniques on limited rations and sleep. With just an hour to sleep and eat during a day, she said, her class was told to run laps in pouring rain, cutting their usual one hour down to 20 minutes.
When finally allowed, Corcoran huddled under her poncho, wet and exhausted, choosing to eat while she could rather than sleep.
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“It was miserable, we were all miserable,” Corcoran said. When a friend joined her, he confided that he was thinking of quitting.
“We are three days away from finishing,” she told him. “We’re not quitting.”
At Ranger School, she drew inspiration from other women who had graduated the course, including a friend from college, 1st Lt. Erin O’Hara.
O’Hara graduated from Ranger School in 2023. She and Corcoran were two of three women on William & Mary’s 12-person Army ROTC Ranger Challenge team in 2019. In that year’s regional competition, the team took second place out of 50 teams.
“Ranger was physically easier than Sapper, but with so much time to my thoughts, it made it more mentally challenging,” Corcoran said.
Ranger School is considered one of the Army’s most challenging courses for soldiers where students get pushed to their physical and mental limits. The course emphasizes individual combat skills while implementing leadership principles. Ranger School candidates learn how to plan and conduct military operations at a small unit level and take their experience back to their home units to pass along lessons learned.
Ranger School is made up of three phases that lasts 62 days: Benning, Mountain, and Florida. Darby Phase and Mountain Phase takes place in the woods and mountains of Georgia, and the final phase takes place in the coastal swamps of Florida. Soldiers have two attempts to pass each phase but if they fail, they must start over. Corcoran herself had to redo the Benning Phase.
“Having people that truly believe in you,” Corcoran said, “is the biggest step towards Ranger.”
Corcoran’s second tab came after attending the 12-day Jungle Operations Training Course in January 2022 where soldiers learn how to navigate and operate in jungle environments. She finished the Lightning Academy and immediately hungered for more so she went on to pursue her Sapper tab.
“It taught me that I can accomplish an Army school and inspired me to really pursue Sapper,” she said.
Corcoran said she wants to attend Air Assault School and Pathfinder School, and earn her Expert Soldier Badge. She also plans on attending the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program 2, a three-week course that selects soldiers for assignment with the 75th Ranger Regiment.
“No one realizes how far our bodies and minds can actually go until we push them to the limit,” Corcoran said.
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It’s official. The two astronauts on NASA’s Starliner mission won’t be going back to Earth on the Starliner. Instead, the pair, both retired Navy captains, will stay on the International Space Station into 2025.
NASA had been deliberating for weeks on whether or not to have Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams return to Earth on the Boeing Starliner capsule they launched in. On Saturday, Aug. 24, NASA confirmed the two astronauts will stay on the ISS through February 2025, when they will leave orbit on a SpaceX rocket, alongside two more astronauts joining them on the station next month.
They will now spend more than half a year in space. Their mission was supposed to be only eight days.
“Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and most routine. A test flight, by nature, is neither safe, nor routine. The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing’s Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our North Star,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said on Saturday. “I’m grateful to both the NASA and Boeing teams for all their incredible and detailed work.”
The two astronauts are both veteran Navy aviators who served as test pilots before leaving the Navy to join NASA. They were selected as the first two astronauts to operate a crewed Starliner mission. Each has previous experience in space, but the Starliner issues will leave them in space longer than either has been prior.
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Boeing’s Starliner was being tested as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Both Boeing and SpaceX have contracts from NASA for capsules meant to carry crews to and from space. The two companies also work regularly with the United States Space Force for orbital missions.
The Starliner launched in June from Vandenberg Space Force Base, but once in space, NASA and Boeing detected a helium leak and several thrusters failed while docking with the ISS. After several tests and evaluations, NASA found that the Starliner capsule “does not meet the agency’s safety and performance requirements for human spaceflight.” However it is safe for an autonomous return to Earth, with NASA saying that is set for September.
The SpaceX Crew-9 mission is being adjusted as a result of NASA’s decision. Previously it was set to send a crew of four to the ISS, but will now only send two, leaving two seats available for Williams and Wilmore to return on. It is also being prepared with additional provisions and SpaceX Dragon-specific spacesuits for the two Starliner astronauts to use for the journey back to Earth.
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A United States Marine Corps veteran who wrote a memoir about participating in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was arrested this past week for his involvement in the riot. Nathan Thornsberry, 42, was taken into custody on Aug. 22 and charged with assaulting police officers following an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigations into his actions.
Thornsberry previously served in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was arrested in North Branch, Michigan and charged with felonies of assaulting and obstruction law enforcement, as well as four misdemeanors, including being physically violent in a restricted space, for his actions on Jan. 6. That day supporters of former President Donald Trump marched to the U.S. Capitol and broke past law enforcement and barriers, storming into the building for several hours in an effort to disrupt Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
In an odd turn, Thornsberry’s own writings are part of the case against him. According to court documents, he wrote about his own experience at the Capitol on Jan. 6. The self-published book, ‘January 6: A Patriot’s Story’ (and an updated edition ‘January 6 Redux: A Patriot’s Story’) , featuring false and repeatedly debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen, and detailing his own participation in the events leading up to and during the storming of the Capitol. The book claims to be an “eyewitness account of the events of January 6th, 2021.”The book was written by a “Nathaniel Matthews,” but Facebook pages, Amazon records and other pieces of evidence identify Matthews as Thornsberry. Authorities were apparently tipped off to Thornsberry’s involvement after a witness shared a tip about the book.
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In his own book, Thornsberry wrote that the main reason he was D.C. was for the Stop the Steal rally. Additionally, videos taken on Jan. 6, including interviews, feature Thornsberry, including one where he identified himself by name, according to court documents. He’s seen in photos participating in several front-line pushes to break past barriers, all with his face uncovered and while wearing a jacket that says “Marines” on the back.
In his book, Thornsberry wrote that he was involuntarily pushed towards the police line rather than intentionally attacking law enforcement at the Capitol. However, audio and video from the scene show Thornsberry actively pushing against police, and repeatedly shouting “bring it.” He uses his back to try to shove a metal bicycle rack against cops.
Thornsberry is one of more than 1,450 people who have been charged in connection with crimes tied to the storming of the Capitol. He is also one of several veterans accused or convicted of participating in the effort to overturn the election.
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The USS Kingsville is officially a part of the U.S. Navy. The ship was commissioned on Saturday, Aug. 24 at the Solomon P. Ortiz Center in Corpus Christi, Texas.
The USS Kingsville, an Independence-class littoral combat ship, is the second-to-last of its type to be commissioned, with only the USS Pierre left to enter service out of the 19 total Independence-class ships. It’s the first ship in the Navy to bear the name, which honors Kingsville, Texas, where the Navy has an air station.
“A ship commissioning is one of the ways the U.S. Navy keeps itself tied to the nation it serves. It’s why we name ships after cities and states. And what better moment to celebrate our long and intimate relationship than commissioning a ship named after Kingsville,” Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Financial Management and Comptroller Russell Rumbaugh said at the ceremony. “This ship will provide maritime security in each of our fleet operations. We in the Department of the Navy are proud of the littoral combat ships.”
Despite what Rumbaugh said, the Navy has a troubled relationship with the ships. Even as the USS Kingsville joins the ranks of the Navy’s surface fleets, the littoral combat ship is on the way out. The Navy already is decommissioning several vessels while also working on selling multiple Freedom and Independence-class littoral combat ships to other nations’ navies.
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The class of ship was meant to serve as a multipurpose vessel operating near coasts. It was designed with the goal of being able to target submarines and coastal defenses, while providing support to focus on land. The Navy describes littoral combat ships as “fast, optimally manned, mission-tailored surface combatants” but the program has been overrun with delays, high costs and malfunctions in service. They gained the “little crappy ships” nickname as a result. Worse, the ships found themselves left behind as the military shifts towards peer-to-peer strategies, rather than counterinsurgency.
Recently the Navy said that several Independence-class littoral combat ships would serve as part of a mine countermeasures force, using new upgrades to take out any underwater explosives.
The USS Kingsville is set to go to Naval Station San Diego, currently home to more than a dozen littoral combat ships.
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Mischa Johnson, the 19-year-old wife of an Army soldier who went missing more than three weeks ago is believed to be dead, her family said.
In a livestream on social media on Thursday, Aug. 22, Johnson’s sister Marianna Tapiz said that authorities investigating the disappearance now believe that Johnson is likely dead, citing evidence found in Johnson’s husband’s car and their home.
Mischa Johnson was reported missing at the end of July. She was six months pregnant. Army Criminal Investigation Division, which is leading the search for her, has not officially confirmed her death. Authorities are now investigating her husband, an active-duty U.S. Army soldier stationed in Oahu, and looking into his activities in the weeks prior to her disappearance.
Johnson’s husband, Private First Class Dewayne Arthur Johnson II, reported her missing from their home on Schofield Barracks at the start of August. Private Johnson serves as a Cavalry Scout with the 25th Infantry Division, based out of Schofield Barracks. He was detained earlier this month. As of press time he has not been charged with any crime.
In the livestream, Tapiz and her mother Frances Tapiz-Andrian, asked for anyone to come forward with information that could help authorities locate her body.
“I’m asking, I’m pleading please. Please come out. I hurt everyday,” Tapiz-Andrian said.
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Army CID is now trying to find out more of where Dewayne Johnson was July 12-Aug. 1. During that period, Mischa Johnson’s family received texts from her phone, but it is not believed that she sent them. Local news outlets in Hawaii report that surveillance footage shows Dewayne Johnson purchasing cleaning supplies and various tools in the period prior to reporting his wife missing.
Army CID previously put out a $10,000 reward for any info that could help locate the missing Johnson. It is working alongside local law enforcement including the Honolulu Police Department.
Anyone with information can reach out anonymously to Army CID by calling (808) 208-0059.
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U.S. forces successfully killed a leader of a Syrian terrorist organization early Friday morning. Abu-’Abd al-Rahman al-Makki, part of the governing council for Hurras al-Din, was killed in a targeted strike, U.S. Central Command shared on Aug. 23.
CENTCOM confirmed al-Makki’s death on Friday, saying he was killed in a “kinetic strike.” CENTCOM did not elaborate on what weapons were used or how specifically al-Makki was killed. al-Makki was identified as a “senior leader responsible for overseeing terrorist operations from Syria” by CENTCOM,” and as part of the group’s shura council, although CENTCOM did not provide any additional information on the target, such as nationality or background.
“CENTCOM remains committed to the enduring defeat of terrorists in the CENTCOM area of responsibility who threaten the United States, its allies and partners, and regional stability,” Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, said in a statement.
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Hurras al-Din formally came together during the ongoing Syria Civil War, with its founders coming from previously established Salafist militant and terrorist organizations to establish the new group in 2018. American forces have targeted the group throughout the years, including operations in 2019 in western Syria. The group is linked to al-Qaeda but is not officially a part of that specific terror organization.
In April 2023, the United States Treasury designated the group’s leader Sami Mahmud Mohammed al Uraydi as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and put up a reward for any information leading to his capture.
The successful strike on al-Makki comes as the United States and its partners continue to hunt for members of militant groups, mainly ISIS, in Iraq and Syria. Even after ousting ISIS from its strongholds years ago, the group remains active and a threat to people in the region.
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It’s been 30 years since movie audiences — and particularly military ones — met iconic disabled vet Lt. Dan, played by Gary Sinise in the movie Forrest Gump. The character, said Sinise recently, changed his life.
Decades later, when he would visit deployed forces overseas, troops would approach him but not seem to know his real name. Instead, they’d greet him warmly as “Lt. Dan.”
For Sinise personally, the role inspired a lifetime of activism and charity work for veterans. As the movie turned 30 this summer, Sinise said he was grateful for the roll that paved the way for him to serve America’s military servicemen and women and honor veterans.
An on-screen vet’s ‘positive ending’At a recent showing of Forrest Gump to commemorate its 30th Anniversary attended by Task & Purpose, Sinise said he knew the movie had a chance to be memorable, with a cast that included Tom Hanks, Sally Field, Robin Wright, Mykelti Williamson, and others. But he never imagined that the movie might become an American classic, nor that Lt. Dan would become in military circles one of the most widely cherished depictions of a combat veteran.
“I knew it was a good script,” Sinise said at a recent screening of the film in Nashville, Tennessee. “We were working with a great director, Tom is great, we had a terrific cast, and we knew we were doing something fun and special. But it wasn’t until we actually saw the movie all put together, we actually knew how good it was.”
When Sinise initially accepted the role, he already had a deep appreciation for Vietnam vets. He had family members who served and saw their struggle returning home to a nation that had turned its back on them. And while Hollywood had depicted Vietnam-era vets in previous films like “Coming Home,” “Platoon,” “Apocalypse Now,” and others, this film, with a veteran who’d lost his legs in battle, offered something different – a positive ending.
“It’s a story that hadn’t been told before,” Sinise said. “There was a slew of Vietnam movies and at the end of those films, you’re not sure the veteran’s going to be okay. But in ‘Forrest Gump,’ he’s standing up again, he’s moving on, he’s successful at business, and we really hadn’t seen that. And of course, that’s the story we want for every person who gets injured or wounded in battle. We want them to come home and be okay.”
Filming the movie, though, was far from glamorous. The cast worked with Dale Dye, a former Marine-turned-Hollywood adviser famous for putting actors through military-like training.
“I wanted to kill Dale,” Sinise said. “No, I thanked him at the end because it was good. He was tough, like a drill sergeant. We lived out in the woods with snakes and bugs and all of that. I mean, military folks do that all of the time, but actors don’t necessarily do that.”
Soon after the film’s release, Sinise saw how well the character resonated with actual vets.
“Weeks after the movie came out, the Disabled American Veterans invited me to their national convention and gave me an award for playing Lt. Dan,” Sinise said. “I’ll never forget walking out onto that stage with two-to-three thousand wounded veterans in that ballroom. It had a profound effect on me.”
A post-9/11 missionAfter the attacks of September 11, Sinise decided that vets returning from the wars that were just beginning would not face the same indifference and even hostility that Vietnam veterans had.
“I just didn’t want to see that happen to the men and women who were raising their hand and going to Afghanistan and Iraq after that terrible day.,” Sinise said. “So, I raised my hand and went out there to do what I could.”
He began visiting servicemen and women, then formed a band to entertain them at bases overseas and in military hospitals.
“At the time, I hadn’t done CSI: New York or any of that yet,” Sinise said. “I’d been in some movies but most of the time when I went overseas to visit the troops they didn’t know my real name. They just knew Lt. Dan. So, I started taking the band and we called it the Lt. Dan Band.”
Gary Sinise aboard the “Snowball Express,” a trip the Gary Sinise Foundation sponsors to Disney World for 1,800 children and surviving spouses of fallen military members. Photo from Sinise Facebook. In the more than two decades since, his band has played more than 570 shows all over the world. Their 571st performance came recently before a sold-out crowd at the Grand Ole Opry. The historic venue in Nashville — where Sinise’s foundation is now headquartered — celebrated the 30th anniversary of “Forrest Gump.” The show featured country music artists playing songs from the movie’s soundtrack including On the Road Again, Go Your Own Way, and Hound Dog. The show included clips from the film, and a video message from Tom Hanks.
“It’s thirty years of cinematic history and part of Americana, but we’re also celebrating more than twenty years of what Gary Sinise has done,” Hanks said. “It’s an awful lot of good for a lot of people who deserve a little bit of a shout-out from the likes of Gary Sinise, our Lt. Dan who seems to have been walking for the last 30 years on magic legs.”
Sinise’s band did several songs, then welcomed a surprise guest in the middle of Sweet Home Alabama — Mykelti Williamson, harmonica in hand, to finish the song. They capped the night with Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the U.S.A.
Sinise FoundationFourteen years ago, Sinise created the Gary Sinise Foundation. Since then, the foundation has spent millions building homes for the wounded, donating to families of military members or first responder killed in the line of duty. Each Christmas, the Foundation brings hundreds of families of fallen troops to Disney World for a 5-day event known as the Snowball Express.
All supported, Sinise said, by thousands and thousands of Americans who donate through the foundation’s website.
The Lt. Dan Band also keeps touring with a recent shows at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, Fort Knox in Kentucky, and the Disabled American Veteran’s convention in early August.
At the convention, he played a song written by his son Mac, who passed away from cancer in January.
“We were able to share a beautiful song my son Mac wrote years ago,” Sinise wrote on X. “The response from DAV choked me up. Thank you to all for your kindness.”
Sinise recently launched a podcast to highlight stories of those the foundation has served. The idea came from Mac and while Sinise says his family is heartbroken and misses him terribly, his son left them some beautiful gifts. One, an album of music with profits going to the foundation, and the podcast.
“He started this podcast and we just revived and resurrected it and shot the first three episodes of the new version,” says Sinise. “We built a podcast studio called the Mac Sinise Memorial Studio in his honor to carry on his dream of telling the stories of the people we’re serving, and the people who helping serve them.”
And it all began, he said, with the role of a lifetime in playing Lt. Dan
“It’s a great thing to be able to take the success I’ve had and do something with it and give back,” he says. “I’m proud of it and we’re going to keep doing it.”
For more information visit www.garysinisefoundation.org
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A retired Marine general found dead on the Twentynine Palms training center died of a pulmonary embolism hours before he was set to leave the base, a coroner found.
Maj. Gen. William F. Mullen, 59, was found by base authorities June 29 in guest housing at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms in San Bernardino County, California. The county’s coroner released its report on his death Thursday.
“Major General Mullen’s dedicated service to our nation and the Marine Corps will always be remembered. Our thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones,” said Major General Thomas Savage, the Commanding General of the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command in a statement released soon after Mullen’s death.
Military.com was the first to report Mullen’s autopsy results.
Mullen graduated from the Army’s Airborne and Ranger schools, the Marine’s Summer Mountain Leader course, and the Royal Marine Arctic Warfare Survival courses.
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As a combat leader, he led a battalion in Fallujah, Iraq, from 2005 to 2007. He led a counter-drug operation in Los Padres National Forest in California and served as a Marine Aide to President Bill Clinton.
Mullen was commissioned in 1986 from Marquette University and served initially as rifle platoon commander. During Operation Desert Shield, he worked in counter-terror and counter-narcotics positions. Mullen later deployed with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit as the small boat raid and cliff assault company commander in the former Yugoslavia.
He retired in 2020 and lived in Arvada, Colorado, where he became a board member of the University of Colorado’s leadership center.
As a general, Mullen was photographed taking the Marine Corps Combat Fitness Test as a one-star general, including a fireman carry during the movement under fire portion in 2016.
Brig. Gen. William F. Mullen III, Combat Center Commanding General, performs the fireman carry during the movement under fire portion of his Combat Fitness Test at Del Valle Field aboard Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif., Oct. 25, 2016. (Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Dave Flores/Released) Lance Cpl. Dave FloresIn retirement, Mullen was an avid advocate of supporting Ukraine, visiting the country to advise on the training of its military early into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He dedicated 34 years to serving the U.S., with his last role as the Commanding General of the Marine’s Training and Education Command, which oversees the service’s professional curriculums and training centers.
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Former Florida sheriff’s deputy Eddie Lee Duran Jr. has been charged with manslaughter for killing Senior Airman Roger Fortson in a split-second shooting at his off-base apartment, court documents show, a line-of-duty shooting that Duran’s department ruled as “not objectively reasonable.”
“A warrant for Duran’s arrest is outstanding at this time,” Florida State Attorney for the 1st Judicial Circuit Ginger Bowden Madden said in a statement on Friday. “If convicted as charged, Duran faces a maximum sentence of thirty years in state prison.”
Task & Purpose was unable to reach Duran’s attorney on Friday afternoon.
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office announced on May 31 that Duran had been fired after an administrative investigation found “Mr. Fortson did not make any hostile, attacking movements, and therefore, the former deputy’s use of deadly force was not objectively reasonable under OSCO’s [Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office] policy,” the sheriff’s office announced in a news release.
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Duran’s body camera recorded his deadly encounter with Fortson. After Duran knocked on Fortson’s apartment door, Fortson opened it while holding a pistol. Duran fired at least five times before yelling “Drop the gun!”
Roughly five seconds elapsed from the time Fortson opened the door until he fell to the floor with gunshot wounds.
“The former deputy confirmed Mr. Fortson did not physically resist him in any way, and the investigation concluded that Mr. Fortson did not point the gun in the former deputy’s direction,” the sheriff’s office’s May 31 news release says.
At the time of his death, Fortson, 23, was an AC-130 crew member assigned to the 4th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Florida.
His family and their attorney issued a statement on Friday about news that Duran had been charged with manslaughter: “This decision marks the first step towards justice for the family of Roger Fortson. Nothing can ever bring Roger back, and our fight is far from over, but we are hopeful that this arrest and these charges will result in real justice for the Fortson family. Let this be a reminder to law enforcement officers everywhere that they swore a solemn oath to protect and defend, and their actions have consequences, especially when it results in the loss of life.”
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Soldiers with the Army’s 10th Mountain Division paid tribute to their unit’s World War II lineage earlier this week by climbing to the tops of all 46 highest peaks in New York’s Adirondack Mountain Range in 25 separate groups.
More than 200 soldiers took part in Operation Commando Summit on Aug. 20 and 21, marking the first time that one organization has collectively summited all 46 High Peaks in a single day, according to a news release from the 10th Mountain Division.
“This event is a poignant reminder of who we are, where we came from, and where we are headed,” Sgt. 1st Class John Pearson, with the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, said in the news release. “Our heritage as mountain warriors is vital to our identity, and we embrace it fully as we look forward to the challenges that lie ahead.”
Located in northeast New York, the Adirondack Mountain Range has peaks ranging from 1,200 to more than 5,000 feet above sea level. Those that reach higher than 4,000 feet are known as the 46 High Peaks, the tallest of which is Mount Marcy at 5,344 feet. The range also includes more than 2,000 miles of hiking trails.
The 10th Mountain Division’s alpine legacy dates to a World War II campaign in the Italian Apennine Mountains. From January to May 1945, soldiers from the 10th Mountain climbed vertical cliffs between 1,700 and 2,200 feet high as they fought in the northern Italy range, ultimately destroying five German divisions and helping to force the entire German army in Italy to surrender.
One of the division’s most famous veterans was former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.), who was severely wounded in April 1945. Forty years later, Dole was influential in persuading the Army to include “Mountain” in the division’s name when it was reactivated in 1985.
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Operation Commando Summit was not only a tribute to the 10th Mountain Division’s heritage, but it also served as an important training event, said Lt. Col. D. Max Ferguson, commander of 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment.
“Really, you learn about large scale combat operations because it forces junior leaders to operate in this decentralized and disaggregated way, where junior leaders have to make very real decisions about all sorts of things that light infantrymen need to be thinking about,” Ferguson told Task & Purpose on Friday.
Training in mountains also prepares soldiers to fight in other rugged, isolated, and austere environments because it forces junior leaders to work independently within the confines of a larger operation, Ferguson said.
Ferguson first served in the 10th Mountain Division as a company commander more than a decade ago and went on to join the 75th Ranger Regiment and 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). He then fought to return to the 10th Mountain Division, which has been going back to its alpine roots in recent years.
He said he got the idea of 10th Mountain Division soldiers climbing all 46 Adirondack High Peaks about two years ago. The event required a lot of planning because New York state imposes several restrictions on climbing the mountains, such as that groups from a single organization cannot be within a mile of each other. There is also limited cell phone reception in the mountains.
“We had to time this like a military operation,” Ferguson said. “The only way to pull this off, to remain within the regulations required us to do – like in combat – there were naturally occurring comms blackout windows for most of the groups, where you had limited comms and you had to synchronize in time and space to make sure that we remained within the regulations. But that was a great forcing function for us, because it forced us to operate as small units in this rugged, austere, isolated terrain.”
It was a rainy and cold day when the soldiers hit the mountains. The soldiers had to be careful not to slip on any rocks. Even though it was August, weather forecasts predicted that the temperatures at higher altitude could dip below freezing, so the soldiers brought equipment for climbing on ice.
Ferguson stressed that the soldiers faced real risks in scaling the mountains, which prove Carl von Clausewitz’s axiom: “Everything is very simple in war, but the simplest thing is difficult.”
“There was nothing technically difficult about these mountains, but they will absolutely kill you or hurt you if you are not paying attention,” Ferguson said. “There are cliffs that are hundreds of feet down. You’re out in the backcountry. There are no roads, by design. There is no sign of human intrusion in that back country for sometimes dozens of miles.”
“When you go deep into that backcountry, you are alone,” he continued. “If you slip and fall out there and break your leg, you could die of hypothermia or you’re going to have to wait for good weather for the helicopter to come pick you up or the mountain rescue folks are going to have to come with a rigid litter and haul you out of their across that rugged terrain.”
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted a new emergency use authorization on Aug. 8 to permit the use of a freeze-dried blood plasma by military medical personnel or those who work for the military in a deployed setting.
Dr. Steve Schauer, an Army emergency medicine physician for the past nine years, has actively advocated for freeze-dried plasma — technically known as octaplasLG powder — implementation military wide.
“This is kind of a big win for the [Department of Defense], because they have helped move this along in terms of working with Octapharma, who’s a European group,” Schauer said. “They’ve already had this in the market in other countries. Essentially, this is bringing their product into the U.S. footprint.”
Over the course of the post-9/11 wars, military medicine realized that blood products are vital for managing battlefield injuries, which often cause death by blood loss. Unlike other treatments like saline IVs, blood replacement restores blood clotting and oxygen-carrying capacity for the trauma patient.
“[Non-blood treatments] do nothing in terms of their oxygen delivery to the tissues, which is an important factor, and it definitely does nothing for your coagulation factors. So it’s not going to help you clot and it’s not going to help you deliver oxygen to the tissues, which are the two things you need,” Schauer said. “So, whole blood and other blood products, pre-hospital, does those things but it has a ton of logistical cost challenges.”
But blood must be stored in cold temperatures and spoils quickly even under the best of conditions. However, freeze-dried plasma has a two-year shelf life and can be stored at room temperature. Even when reconstituted, it remains usable for 8 hours.
Special operations combat medics have been carrying a French-made freeze-dried plasma for over a decade. Army Green Beret medics were cleared to carry the French version in 2011, with Marine Raiders given access in 2016 and Navy SEALs and Air Force special ops troops starting in 2017.
But low supplies of the French product kept it out of the hands of medics in larger conventional forces and other health providers. The new FDA approval is expected to lead to higher supplies, though the timeline on octaplasLG powder reaching a medic’s aid bag is unclear.
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The FDA’s EUA status for octaplasLG powder is to be used in the treatment of hemorrhage or when blood clotting factors are compromised. Treatment is exlusively for those involved with military combat when plasma is not available or when the use of plasma “is not practical.”
“While FDP doesn’t fix the oxygen delivery problem, it does fix some of the coagulapothy problems, because you’re now restoring all their blood coagulation factors that they’ve just burned through trying to form a clot,” Schauer said. “And obviously, as they bleed out and lose volume, they also lose some coagulation factors. So rather than diluting all that stuff down, you’re now replacing the factors they’ve lost with human derived coagulation factors.”
However, octaplasLG powder is human-derived and can have similar transfusion reactions that blood products can cause, though Schauer said it’s a small risk because it’s designed to be “universally compatible.”
“FDP does go through a solvent detergent process, which removes a lot of those different things that may cause a reaction, like some of the white cells, and potentially reduce the risk of infection transmission,” Schauer said. “So, it’s going to be a much lower risk than when you’re using fresh products. But, it’s going to be similar type of stuff you need to watch out with whenever you’re plasma products.”
Schauer said the preparation of octaplasLG powder is simple and involves mixing the freeze-dried plasma with sterile water before giving it to the patient via intravenous or intraosseous administration. The training of medics will be relatively simple and build off of the skills they already have.
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An Army reservist who scammed Gold Star families — particularly grieving wives and mothers who spoke little English — will spend more than 12 years in prison. New Jersey Army Reservist Caz Craffy bilked over $10 million from grieving families, most with minimal financial literacy and many of whom were immigrants, the lawyer representing the families told Task & Purpose.
An FBI agent who worked on the case said, “heartless and despicable don’t even begin to sum up his crimes.”
Craffy, also known as Carz Craffey, admitted in April to defrauding Gold Star families when he tricked them into putting $10 million into an investment scheme, lost $3.7 million of it on risky financial bets, and kept $1.4 million for himself, according to the Department of Justice. Craffy admitted that he convinced the families that the financial investments were approved by the Army.
A federal judge sentenced Craffy to 151 months Wednesday.
“Caz Craffy was sentenced to prison today for brazenly taking advantage of his role as an Army financial counselor to prey upon families of our fallen service members, at their most vulnerable moment, when they were dealing with a tragedy born out of their loved one’s patriotism,” said U.S.. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger.
A lawyer who represented the families told Task & Purpose in April that Craffy focused specifically on family members — mostly wives and mothers of dead soldiers — who would trust him.
“I believe the victims, the majority being female dependents of the deceased service members, were targeted by Caz Craffy,” said Natalie Khawam, who represented more than a dozen Gold Star families caught up in Craffy’s scams. “It’s horrific that he took advantage of their lowest, most vulnerable moments knowing they were naive regarding the financial fraud that he engaged in,”
According to the Department of Justice, Craffy, 42, of Colts Neck, New Jersey, was charged with six counts of wire fraud and one count each of securities fraud, making false statements in a loan application, committing acts affecting a personal financial interest, and making false statements to a federal agency.
“Craffy made a conscious decision to defraud Gold Star families suffering from losing their loved one who paid the ultimate sacrifice serving this country,” FBI – Newark Special Agent in Charge James E. Dennehy said. “The money these survivors are given does nothing to ease their suffering. It does, however, help with the burdens they face, such as paying off a mortgage or putting their children through college. They believed Craffy was acting in their best interest, but instead, he was using their money as a method to make his own.”
Millions in losses, millions more in feesTo pull off his scam, Craffy worked to put himself into three different positions within the military’s family support network — position that should be filled by different individuals.
When a member of the Armed Services dies during active duty, thier surviving beneficiary is entitled to a $100,000 payment and the servicemember’s life insurance of up to $400,000. Families generally receive these payments within weeks of a member’s death. The military connects families with a financial counselor — one the roles that Craffy played and which put him in front of vulnerable families looking for help.
From November 2017 to January 2023, Craffy was a civilian employee of the U.S. Army, working as a financial counselor with the Casualty Assistance Office. He was also a major in the U.S. Army Reserve responsible for providing general financial education to the surviving beneficiaries. However, without telling the Army, Craffy simultaneously maintained outside employment with two separate financial investment firms.
As the financial counselor, Craffy pushed Gold Star families and other military families to invest their survivor benefits in investment accounts that he directly managed as the outside investment advisor — an illegal conflict of interest.
“Based upon Craffy’s false representations and omissions, the vast majority of the Gold Star families mistakenly believed that Craffy’s management of their money was done on behalf of and with the Army’s authorization,” the DOJ said in a response.
From May 2018 to November 2022, Craffy took in $9.9 million from Gold Star families and executed trades, often without the family’s authorization, that earned him high fees, regardless of if the families made or lost money.
And they mostly lost. The Gold Star family accounts lost more than $3.7 million, the DOJ said, while Craffy kept $1.4 million in commissions.
In addition to the prison term, Craffy was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered forfeiture of $1.4 million. Restitution will be determined at a later date.
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A four-star general suspended by the Army earlier this year says the supposedly anonymous panels the Army uses to select field-grade commanders are inherently stacked against Black candidates, both before and during the formal selection process.
Gen. Charles Hamilton was suspended as the commander of Army Materiel Command on March 22 after accusations emerged that he used undue influence to help a Black female lieutenant colonel land on a promotion list.
Hamilton defended his conduct in that case in a letter addressed to the Secretary of the Army, obtained by Task & Purpose. Hamilton said his interests and actions in the Lt. Col.’s case were both proper and an effort to protect a subordinate from being “sabotaged” by the Army’s program for selecting battalion commanders, which he believes introduces built-in bias against Black candidates.
Wormuth suspended Hamilton after Military.com reported that the director of the Army’s selection process — known as the Command Assessment Program or CAP — accused Hamilton of pressuring Army officials to select a lieutenant colonel for command. Wormuth directed the matter to be reviewed by the Department of Defense Inspector General’s office, a report which Wormuth is expected to see soon.
In Hamilton’s letter, written last week, the four-star general asked to be reinstated as the head of Army Materiel Command, and he laid out his case in both the lieutenant colonel’s promotion and his view on the CAP process.
“Removing photographs from personnel files and providing unconscious bias training for panelists is not enough,” Hamilton wrote in an Aug. 16 letter to Wortmuth. “By the time a Minority officer sits before a Command Assessment Program panel, the bias and racism that exists in our Army culture is already cemented into evaluation reports, peer assessments, and opinions of decision makers.”
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Hamilton wrote that he was always open and transparent about advocating for the lieutenant colonel, whom Task & Purpose is not identifying because there is no evidence she violated any Army policies. He also denied using his rank and position to give the lieutenant colonel an unfair advantage over other officers. He noted that he has advocated in favor of many officers during his 43-year Army career, including white officers, but that this is the first time he has been accused of favoritism.
The tone of Hamilton’s letter suggests that he expects Wormuth to act against him after the IG report is finalized.
“I acknowledge you may nonetheless take adverse action against me even though my advocacy for Minority leaders like ‘[the lieutenant colonel] has been completely transparent and above board,” Hamilton wrote. “Regardless of what decision you make regarding my fate, I implore you to investigate why the Command Assessment Program deems so few Minority officers as ready for command and what barriers exist that make qualified Black officers unwilling to subject themselves to that process”
When asked about Hamilton’s letter to Wormuth, Army spokeswoman Cynthia Smith provided Task & Purpose with a brief statement: “We are aware of the letter, but cannot comment due to the ongoing investigation.”
At issue is the integrity of the Army Command Assessment Program, or CAP, which evaluates sergeants major, lieutenant colonels, and full colonels for command assignments.
Hamilton allegedly took several actions to give a lieutenant colonel an unfair advantage when she appeared before the Battalion Command Assessment Program, Military.com reported, including asking for sensitive information about the officer’s subordinate and peer reviews, personally observing the first panel, criticizing remarks from a psychologist during the first panel as “too negative,” asking for the lieutenant colonel to appear before a second panel, discussing the lieutenant colonel with the panelists before the second panel convened, and repeatedly asking Army officials on the morning of the second panel how the interview with the lieutenant colonel was going.
Ultimately, both panels decided she was not ready for command, but the officer’s name was still placed on a selection list for battalion command. Her name was later removed after Military.com’s reporting.
In his letter to Wormuth, Hamilton insisted he was not responsible for placing the lieutenant colonel’s name on the command slate. He also cited various rules and procedures within the CAP process — including re-evaluations of low-scoring candidates — as leading to the Lt. Col.’s selection.
FILE: Army Gen. Charles Hamilton shown as a three-star general addressing attendees of the Global Customer-Facing Summit at Fort Belvoir, Va., April 19-20, 2022. (Christopher Lynch/Defense Logistics Agency) “It is true — I contacted general officers whom I believed were on Command Assessment Program panels,” Hamilton wrote. “However, I never pressured or even asked any of them to deem [the lieutenant colonel] ready for command.”
But beyond the single case of the Lt. Col., Hamilton’s letter lays out his belief that the CAP program disadvantages Black and other non-white candidates. He cited aselection rate for Black officers since the program’s inception that averaged close to 10% with a single yearly high of 15%, while the pool of candidates was 22% Black.
Task & Purpose was able to confirm that the CAP selection rates Hamilton’s letter cite match his cited source, briefing slides on the CAP program presented to senior Army commanders. While Task & Purpose could not confirm the make-up of the CAP candidate pool, Black officers make up about 10% of all Army officer ranks below that of generals.
He also wrote that the Army’s vice chief of staff told general officers that 72% of eligible Black officers have opted out of the program.
Jokes and a plan to ‘light her up’Hamilton argued that the CAP program’s problems with racism are evident in the lieutenant colonel’s case. He wrote that an officer whom he trusts told him about overhearing the lieutenant colonel’s peers talking about how they planned to use their CAP assessments to sabotage her opportunity to be selected for command.
“He said they intended to ‘light her up,’” Hamilton wrote. “Sadly, and as much as we senior leaders wish to believe this does not happen in our formations, it does, and often, directly at minority officers.”
Initially, Hamilton did not take any actions based on what the officer had told him, he wrote. Later, he received an invitation from Col. Robert O’Brien, CAP’s executive director, to observe the lieutenant colonel’s panel.
Task & Purpose has obtained an email from O’Brien to Hamilton and others inviting them to attend the CAP program on any day that fit their schedules between Sept. 29 and Nov. 11, 2023.
Prior to the lieutenant colonel’s interview, Hamilton was provided with her peer assessments, which confirmed what the officer had told him, he wrote.
“More shocking, I observed the psychologist unprofessionally joking and making unfair conclusions with the panel prior to her interview about what he read in [the lieutenant colonel’s] assessments,” Hamilton wrote. “Though [the lieutenant colonel] acquitted herself well, she could not overcome the weight of the unfair peer bias.”
At the end of the panel interview, Col. Townley Hedrick, CAP’s deputy executive director, asked Hamilton about how he felt the panel went and mentioned the possibility that she could appear before another panel, Hamilton wrote.
“I did not ask for this, nor did I intentionally give him the impression I wanted her to be repaneled,” Hamilton wrote. “I told him that I was unaware repaneling was an option the Army offered. I agreed with his recommendation that it would be appropriate. Colonel Hedrick asked for my cell number, which I provided, so that he could keep me updated about [the lieutenant colonel’s] repanel. I thanked Colonel Hedrick for his help.”
Hamilton wrote that he later learned that at least 11 officers in the same cycle had also been repaneled.
While Hamilton acknowledged that he contacted general officers whom he believed were on command assessment programs about what they focus on when reviewing a candidate’s file, he insisted that he did not try to influence the results of the lieutenant colonel’s second panel.
“I never pressured or even asked any of them to deem [the lieutenant colonel] ready for command, nor do I know who served on either of [the lieutenant colonel’s’] panels,” Hamilton wrote.
After the lieutenant colonel was rejected for command the second time, Hamilton voiced his concerns about the selection process to Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt, director of the Army Staff. Piatt asked if Hamilton could write a memo about why the lieutenant colonel deserved to be selected as a battalion commander and to collect letters of recommendation for her, both of which he provided. He also met with Piatt and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George on the matter.
IG investigationHamilton also wrote that he was concerned about the motives of inspector general investigators.
“I would be remiss if I did not briefly address my own feelings of racism underlying this investigation,” Hamilton wrote. “I have heard from witnesses interviewed by the Inspector General investigator that they were asked about my associations with The ROCKS, Inc., a mentoring group, and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, a community service organization. I am concerned as to why the investigator thought my associations with Black affinity groups was relevant to her investigation. I can only speculate it is because in the investigator’s mind whether an act is ‘mentorship’ or ‘interference’ depends on the senior officer’s race. I have faith you see things differently.”
Hamilton argued the CAP program does not take into account the systemic racism that Army officers face. He cited on case in which four Black officers were assigned to a single cramped office at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and in January 2017 a note was slipped under their door that read, “Now that Obama has left office, I think it’s time for you to ‘Make [Department of Military Instruction] white again.’”
“After being disrespected and discriminated against in favor of White peers, how likely is it that these minority officers feel they would receive a fair assessment at the Command Assessment Program, especially if their White peers were asked to write peer assessments for them?” Hamilton wrote. “I posit that situations such as this are why many Black officers opt out of even being considered for command opportunities.”
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A series of “potential activations” of an F-16’s emergency power unit over several hours during routine maintenance Tuesday at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona sent 13 airmen to the hospital with possible exposure to hydrazine, a highly toxic fuel. All 13 airmen were evaluated at a nearby hospital and have since been released, the base said.
The initial event involving the first ten airmen happened at 4:40 p.m. local time after an F-16’s EPU was somehow activated.
Response teams first shut down and cleared the area to investigate, and no hydrazine was detected. The response team terminated the ground emergency at approximately 5:22 p.m, base officials said. Approximately five hours later, the response team declared another ground emergency related to the same F-16 at about 9:45 p.m. Teams again confirmed no hydrazine release from the EPU, and the ground emergency was terminated.
Three more airmen were transported to local hospitals “out of an abundance of caution,” base officials said, after the second emergency.
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The F-16 has been taken off the flight line for further testing.
Hydrazine is a key propellant widely used in the military’s fighter jets and NASA and SpaceX’s shuttles and rockets. It is toxic, caustic, and a probable carcinogen to people and can be absorbed within seconds of contact with bare skin, inhalation, and ingestion. When absorbed through the skin, liquid hydrazine acts as a neurotoxin and can cause severe burns, seizures, and death.
Should someone become exposed, treatment of acute hydrazine toxicity involves removal of the exposed personnel to at least 75 feet away, decontamination, and administration of pyridoxine, better known as Vitamin B6.
It’s a regular threat that the 56th Fighter Wing, based at Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix, Arizona, which houses the largest fighter wing in the Air Force. A part of the Air Education and Training Command oversees the training of F-16 and F-35 pilots; 75% of the world’s F-35 pilots are trained at Luke.
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The chain of command above the Army Reservist who committed the worst mass shooting in Maine history “neglected” to use tools at their disposal and “downplayed” the severity of threats that the reservist made in the weeks before. The conclusions were reached by an independent commission launched by Maine Gov. Janet Mills last year, which was separate from an Army-led investigation of the mass shooting that killed 18 and injured 13 in October 2023.
In their final report, the Maine commission more directly faulted the leadership of Sgt. First Class Robert Card’s Army Reserve unit more than the Army’s 15-6 investigation. The Maine review found leaders in Card’s 304th Infantry Regiment “neglected to use the tools available to them” and cited two specific Army Reserve officials’ for not initiating a Line of Duty investigation after Card was hospitalized following erratic behavior, including during reserve training with live weapons. The Maine investigators included several civilian attorneys, a forensic psychologist, and a psychiatrist.
“The Army Reserve unit also missed several opportunities that might have reduced the risk of this tragedy occurring,” the commission said.
In July, the Army Reserve released its own review of the events which found that officials missed signs leading up to the shooting.The report concluded that Card’s leaders failed to act because of communication gaps between civilian and Army worlds, limited authority over part-time soldiers and confusion with Army policies. The Maine commission pushed back.
“The AR leadership did not try any of these options. Card was left to continue his isolation, disengaged from other unit members or other sources of support,” the commission said.
The Army’s report prompted Reserve officials to take administrative action against three officers in Card’s chain of command for “dereliction of duty” which could prevent further promotions or lead to a show cause board for potential administrative separation. Bryce Dubee, a spokesperson for the Army said in a statement that administrative actions against the officers have “already been completed.”
“The Army Reserve is instituting policy changes to its Psychological Health Program and is communicating changes and lessons learned to Pre-Command Courses and Army Reserve Senior Leader Orientation,” Dubee said. “Army leadership is committed to reviewing the findings and implementing sound changes to prevent tragedies like this from recurring.”
The Reserve investigation had not included the officer’s names because their ranks were below colonel but the Maine report did not hold back and listed numerous individual failings by Card’s unit leaders.
Mental health treatment, dischargeIn July 2023, Card attended Army Reserve training at the Military Academy at West Point in New York where fellow soldiers noticed his increasing paranoia and reported their “concerns for the safety of the cadets and soldiers if Card were to react violently during the training.” Card was brought to Keller Army Community Hospital for a command-directed behavioral health evaluation directed by Capt. Jeremy Reamer, Card’s direct commander.
The Reserve 15-6 report said that Army providers who conducted the command-directed evaluation said Card did not meet medical retention standards and that he be entered into the Disability Evaluation System which would facilitate his service discharge. Psychiatric nurse practitioner Capt. Mathew Dickison told Reamer to “include medical” to start the medical board process. However, the Maine commission found no paperwork indicating a pending retirement application or that Reamer initiated a medical board review or forced medical discharge.
During his stay at Keller, Dickison diagnosed Card with “unspecified psychosis not due to a substance or psychological condition” and recommended he be transferred to another hospital for a “higher level of care.”
Card agreed to be transferred to Four Winds Hospital in New York which he stayed at for evaluation and treatment between July 16 and Aug. 3, 2023. The Reserve’s investigation found that he was discharged “under questionable circumstances” and released to a soldier and friend from his unit. Reserve investigators said they were unable to determine the reason for his discharge due to the hospital staff declining to speak with them.
Army Reserve Chief Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels said the discharge decision was made by medical personnel. Card’s psychiatrist told the Maine commission that his treatment progress, agreement to continue medication and therapy, and current stabilization led her to believe that the hospital would be unsuccessful in pursuing additional court-mandated treatment. At the time of his discharge, the doctor said it was her opinion that Card was “safe to be released.”
When Card was released, his chain of command was not given any details on his diagnosis or discharge instructions, the Army said in its investigation. Daniels said there was no report to the Army that would’ve acknowledged a soldier hospitalized for more than 24 hours which would’ve started the line of duty requirements to document Card’s current care and use it for potential follow-on care with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
However, Dickison, the nurse practitioner, told the Maine commission he verbally made several recommendations to Reamer that he failed to follow. This included ensuring Card attended follow-up appointments and increasing supervisory support to keep him engaged with the unit and other Army resources.
Dickison said that Reamer left him with the impression that he would carry out the recommendations. Instead, the commission found, Reamer neglected to follow any of Dickison’s suggestions.
“In fact, he ignored them,” the report said.
After the U.S. Army Reserve Psychological Health Program tried to contact Card over email and phone to no avail, officials closed his case “due to his noncompliance,” the commission said. The decision to close his case was in line with policy at the time but the Army said it has since revised it.
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Lt. Col. Ryan Vazquez who took over Card’s battalion in June 2023 testified to the commission that he discussed Card’s psychosis diagnosis and hospitalization with Reamer but the commission found that “it does not appear” Vazquez provided Reamer with any “meaningful advice, guidance or direction about Card.”
The commission acknowledged that “Reamer had inadequate support in a difficult situation,” but called out his lack of initiative to use Reserve policies and procedures to help Card and alleviate the situation.
Access to firearmsThe Army said Card’s access to his assigned weapon was restricted on July 23 but Card’s family previously reported to law enforcement that they believed he had other rifles or handguns at home.
One of Dickison’s other recommendations to Reamer was that he encourage Card to temporarily secure his personal weapons in the Reserve unit’s arm rooms or another safe spot. “I was all about making sure the service member did not have access to weapons,” Dickison told the commission.
However, Vazquez told the commission that the Reserve “strongly discouraged the storage” of soldiers’ personal weapons. He said that it was “very challenging” and “without certain permissions, it would have been impossible.” He promised the commission a memo that dictated this policy but the Reserve never produced it, the report said.
Meanwhile, in a report for Card’s medical status evaluation, Dickison checked a box on the preprinted Army form for recommending safe storage.
“It is implausible that the Army’s own preprinted form would present an option that is impermissible for AR commanders to follow,” the report said. The commission also included the specific Army regulation that spells out the possibility to store personal firearms.
According to the commission, Reamer also “inexplicably” left the task of trying to get Card to store his weapon to Card’s friend Sean Hodgson “who had no authority over Card” and who was personally prohibited from possessing firearms during the summer and fall 2023. Reamer testified that he expected the family to take them.
“Downplayed’ the situationAfter a September 2023 incident where Card drove erratically and punched him, Hodgson reported his behavior to Reamer who took no action. Hodgson texted Reamer asking to change the unit gate passcode and said he was concerned that he still had access to weapons.
“I believe he is going to snap and do a mass shooting,” Hodgson wrote. Reamer asked the local sheriff to conduct a wellness check on Card. With Card’s threat to his unit, Ellsworth police prepared a narrative that would help the sheriff secure a yellow flag order which allows police to potentially take someone with weapon access into protective custody for mental health evaluations and apply for a court order to remove guns if someone is in a psychiatric crisis.
When Reamer was contacted by the local sheriff’s office, the commission said he “downplayed the severity of the threat relayed by Hodgson” despite Card’s hospitalization and concerns from other soldiers in Card’s unit.
Reamer also did not suggest a risk assessment despite telling officials, “I don’t think this is gonna get any better.”
When officials with a Reserve medical management center tried to contact Card several times over email, they included Reamer on them but he did not respond. Despite being his commanding officer, Reamer did not follow up with Card about the emails and told the commission that his emails were “down” and did not explain why “he did not read them until after the shooting,” the report said.
Brain trauma Card joined the Reserve in 2003 and initially served as a petroleum supply specialist. In 2013, he became a trainer at West Point, teaching cadets how to throw live hand grenades. During his career, Card was present when thousands of grenades were thrown each year.
The Maine commission reviewed a Boston University analysis of Card’s brain tissue which found Card had “significant evidence of traumatic brain injuries” which they suggested could be from his exposure to “thousands of low-level blasts” in his position as an Army instructor. However, the Maine commission did not address Card’s brain health – a point of contention that bubbled up during the Reserve’s review.
The 15-6 investigation included a 2008 incident where Card fell from a roof and broke his neck and noted Card “was not exposed” to combat environments. At a press conference after the Reserve released its review, officials doubled down, adding that his exposure to shock was “relatively minor.”
Army Reserve Officials referred questions on his brain health to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center which is conducting a forensic autopsy. Walter Reed did not respond to inquiries about the timeline for their review release.
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A Marine lance corporal assigned to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina has been arrested in an incident over 200 miles from base in which he allegedly rammed a sheriff deputy’s patrol car and was apprehended after leading deputies on a chase, a spokeswoman for the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office said.
Anthony Taveras-Furcal, 19, faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon and related offenses in connection with the Aug. 17 incident that took place in Greensboro, North Carolina, according to the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office.
Taveras-Furcal is currently serving as an 0311 Infantry Rifleman assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, said 2nd Lt. Reagan Johnson, a spokeswoman for the division.
“We acknowledge that Guilford County has taken this Marine into custody and, at present, is facing legal matters there,” Johnson told Task & Purpose on Wednesday. “Currently, there are no additional pending legal/administrative matters at 2d Marine Division.”
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On Aug. 17, Taveras-Furcal allegedly drove donuts, burnouts, and other car stunts, WFMY-TV in Greensboro reported. He is also accused of driving 140 miles per hour on the wrong side of a highway.
Neither Taveras-Furcal nor any sheriff’s deputies were injured in the incident, but two sheriff’s office cars were damaged, said Bria Evans, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office.
On the night of the incident, sheriff’s deputies were responding to a “street takeover incident” in Greensboro whenthey tried to pull over Taveras-Furcal, who was driving a 2015 Chevrolet Camaro, Evans told Task & Purpose.
Taveras-Furcal then allegedly rammed one of the deputy’s cars that had its emergency lights and siren on and then “drove in the direction of another deputy” before trying to elude the deputies. The deputies chased Taveras-Furcal until, Evans said, he wrecked his car.
Taveras-Furcal is currently being held in the Guilford County Detention Center in lieu of $65,000 bond, according to the sheriff’s office’s website. He faces close to a dozen charges including two counts of assault with a deadly weapon on a law enforcement officer or government official, two counts of assault on a government official and hit and run with property damage.
Task & Purpose was unable to determine if Taveras-Furcal is represented by a defense attorney.
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From the Doughboys of World War I to enlisted-turned-officer Mustangs, nicknames have a way of rallying the troops and raising morale — sometimes at the expense of others.
Kevin Corrinet served in the 3rd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, affectionately nicknamed the Patriots. There, he served under a senior officer who they nicknamed Lord Farquaad—the short, conniving villain of the Shreck movies.
“I don’t know what his height is, and like how a fish gets bigger every time the story is told, his height gets smaller every time it’s told – but he was about 5’2” or 5’3,”” Corrinet said. “The first time I met him, I reported to his office. He did the tab check. I remember how far he had to pull me down to look at my shoulder.”
According to the International Journal of Social Science And Human Research, nicknames carry beneficial and adverse socio-cultural impacts.
“The main reason for nicknames’ formation in the English language is the perception of the environment by a person both positively and negatively – socially evaluated,” the research states. “Reflecting the general culture of English society and culture within the individual, in particular, nicknames create socio-cultural symbols and cultural universals, indicating the traditions of people, habits, lifestyles, tastes, and ideas.”
As long as militaries have given ‘real’ names to units, commanders, ranks, jobs, and weapons, troops have given them all nicknames.
Unit nicknamesMany nicknames held by major units in the Army are well-known. The Devil Brigade was given to the Army’s 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, while the 3rd Infantry Regiment has a widely recognized special designator of The Old Guard. The 82nd Airborne Division is the All-Americans, while the air assaulters of the 101st Airborne Division are known as the Screaming Eagles or Screaming Es. In the special operations world, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, often called the Nighstalkers.
But some of the most awesome unit nicknames of both active and inactive units are in smaller units.
There’s the 39th Infantry Regiment, which goes by AAA-0 — “Anything, Anytime, Anywhere, Bar Nothing.” The unit has racked up four Presidential Unit Citations in campaigns around the world.
BG Frank L Gunn and CO of 39th Infantry Regiment — the Devil Brigade —observe change of command ceremonies at Firebase Danger. (U.S. Army photo) Others, like the 5th Psychological Operations Battalion, have the nickname Larry Loudspeakers, while the 305th Psychological Operations Company—perhaps specializing in luring in foreign agents — are the Anglers. The 19th Military Police Battalion has a not-so-surprising nickname of Pacific Justice.
The unit that today is the 504th Infantry Regiment is nicknamed the Devils in Baggy Pants, another one earned in battle and taken from a Nazi officer’s journal after he was defeated in WW II.
As for services themselves, no Air Force member has ever been on a joint mission and not heard of Chair Force, while sailors have legions of derisive nicknames, like swabbies and squids. The Marines have some of the most recognizable nicknames, like Leatherneck. The age-old nickname comes from the leather neck stock that was previously part of military uniforms worn by soldiers and Marines in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, though it is widely owned by the Marines today.
But their most widely recognized nickname of Devil Dog was earned in battle when Marines at Belleau Wood Teufel Hunden assaulted a hill defended by Germans during WW I. Official German reports referred to the Marines as “dogs from hell” because of the gas masks they were wearing as a defense against mustard gas.
The strenuous work of combat while wearing a gas mask led to the Marines developing bloodshot eyes and foaming from the mouth as they advanced on the hilltop. The steep sides of the hill forced the Marines to climb up on all fours at times while their mouth foam seeped from the sides. The nickname has stuck with the Marines to this day.
Kyle Gunn, Task & Purpose’s social media director and resident Marine, explained what the nickname is often used for today.
“Marines will usually hear the nickname Devil Dog on two occasions. One being when they’re about to get yelled at for walking on the grass or something equally ridiculous,” Gunn said. “The other, ironically, as they blast some fake motivation. Leather Neck isn’t used as much as Devil Dog, but when it is used, it is usually, once again, ironically.”
Rank and jobsSome of the most common nicknames for individuals based on rank or position are probably for first sergeants, who in both the Air Force and Army are held by senior NCOs. You’ll hear troops call their senior enlisted leader First Sausage, Top, and Shirt.
A junior enlisted troops — besides being an FNG — is probably a cherry or a boot, being straight from boot camp. One place no boot is allowed to go on a ship is the galley reserved for Chiefs — ie, the Goat Locker. On the officer side, Army and Air Force 2nd Lieutenants can be butter bars, while in the Navy, a commander — particularly a ship’s captain — is the skipper.
Regardless of rank, many jobs have unofficial names. The Army and Marine infantry are often called ‘grunts’ or ‘knuckle draggers.’ Those who aren’t grunts are Persons Other Than Grunts – or POGs.
Within the infantry world, those who are jump qualified via Airborne school refer to those who are not as legs. Another ‘leg’ nickname, less used nowadays but historically, is that of artillery soldiers once known as redlegs, for the distinctive red stripes worn on artillery uniforms from the Civil War era through the outbreak of World War I.
Medics throughout the military are generally called ‘Doc.’ So whether it’s a dig at a soldier or a nickname inspired by one of the many movie quotes that float around the area of operations, nicknames are well-engrained in military culture.
The Navy’s Naval Construction Battalions have a well-known nickname, the Seabees, which comes from the ‘C’ and ‘B’ of the battalions’ acronym turned nickname. In the 75th Ranger Regiment, being assigned to a Fire Support Team makes you a ‘FISTer’ — a great conversation starter almost guaranteed to draw looks of disgust or amusement. Navy SEALs call themselves ‘frogmen.’ Pilots in the Air Force are called ‘fly boys.’
Airborne infantry versus non-airborne infantry is an age-old interservice rivalry. Paratroopers call non-airborne infantry ‘legs.’ This is meant as an insult, though most legs are more than okay not jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.
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Guns, Planes, Ships, and ‘K-pots’Because of the military’s awful naming system, almost every piece of gear has some sort of abbreviated name or nickname that service members use. Corrinet pointed to the Modular Integrated Communications Helmet, which they called a ‘K-pot.’
Guns and Weapons
Other types of gear, like Flashbangs, are commonly called ‘bangers,’ while another common concussion grenade, officially called a ‘Flash-Bang, Aluminum Body, 9 Bang,’ that releases nine different concussive blasts, is called a ‘nine banger.’
Guns have earned nicknames either through their weight or effectiveness in battle. Corrinet said they referred to their .50 caliber machine gun, which they mounted to their Strykers, as ‘ma deuce.’ He said they also called their helmets ‘K-pots.’ During the Vietnam War, service members carrying the M-60 machine gun called them ‘the pig’ because of how big and heavy it was.
Another common weapon you’ll find in infantry units is shoulder-fired rocket launchers like the 84mm Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle, affectionately referred to as ‘the Gus.’ But it’s not just uniforms, weapons, or service members with nicknames.
Capt. Richard Olson, 74th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron A-10 pilot, gets off an A-10 Warthog after his flight at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, Sept. 2, 2011. Senior Airman Corey HookPlanes
Military aircraft have an assortment of nicknames. The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is commonly referred to by crews as the BUFF, which means Big Ugly Fat Fella or with a more explicit final F-word. Another big plane with a big nickname is the C-17, which is officially the Globemaster III but is universally called the moose by crews. The nickname comes from the sound of the plane’s engines, which some have said sound like a moose in heat. Also, it’s big and strong, like a moose, so it’s a fitting nickname either way.
Well-known attack aircraft, like the A-10 Thunderbolt II, is often called warthog or just hog. The nimbler F-16 is officially the Fighting Falcon but is universally called the Viper. The nickname is based on the 1970s Battlestar Galactica TV series and its ‘Colonial Viper’ fighters. Though it’s not identical, the Colonial Viper fighters were depicted in the series in a way that was very similar to the F-16’s capabilities in both flight and aerial combat.
Ships
The Navy’s oldest ship, the USS Constitution, is perhaps its most famous and has the nickname ‘Old Ironsides.’ The crew sunk four different British frigates during the War of 1812, and reports from the battle made it seem like the British couldn’t penetrate the Constitution’s strong oak hull. Visitors can visit the ship today, which is located in Boston, Massachusetts.
Almost as famous is the USS Nimitz, named for Chester William Nimitz, the fleet admiral who oversaw World War II’s Pacific Campaign and is sometimes referred to as Old Chester.
The fast-attack submarine USS Vermont is commonly referred to as ‘Big Sugar’ because of the state of Vermont’s well-known maple syrup.
A M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank in 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division fires at a prop target during a live fire exercise on Feb. 17, 2023 in Petrochori Training Area, Greece. American armored units along with Greek armored units spent the past couple days training force-on-force and other combat simulation exercises. (U.S. Army photo) Pfc. Matthew WantrobaTanks
Tank crews have a customary approach to nicknaming their tanks — like the crew that named their tank ‘Come and Take It’ — and they have a long history of protecting and saving infantry in battle. Sherman Tanks in WW II were nicknamed Ronsons based on the lighter company, which had a slogan of “lights every time.” The Sherman Tanks were plagued with catching fire when hit by tank rounds in battle or anti-tank infantry weapons.
However, unlike the Sherman tanks, the modern-day M1 Abrams earned several nicknames based on its unparalleled performance in combat. ‘The Beast,’ ‘Dracula,’ and ‘Whispering Death’ are nicknames born of the M1 Abrams because of its ability to sneak up on enemy formations, its ability to perform at night, and the impressive firepower of the most lethal tank to hit the battlefield.
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A Fort Liberty soldier was booted from the Army Tuesday, a day after being outed as a major white supremacist online activist and while facing charges for lying to the federal government and attempting to sell stolen guns.
Pvt. Kai Liam Nix, 20, was separated from the Army on August 20, just a week after being indicted on Aug. 14. On August 19, the online watchdog Hatewatch published an investigation that named Nix as behind a major online personna that operates within white supremacist circles.
“On Aug. 20, Pvt. Nix was administratively separated from the Army,” a Fort Liberty spokesperson told Task & Purpose in an email. Nix joined the Army in 2022 and arrived at Fort Liberty in 2023, the official said.
Nix faces four federal charges, including dealing in firearms without a license, making false statements to a department of the United States and two counts of possession or sale of a stolen firearm. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
Nix was arrested on Aug. 15 and appeared in court on Monday, Aug. 19, the same day that the Justice Department announced the charges against him.
According to court documents, Nix lied on his Security Clearance Application Standard Form (SF) 86 on Aug. 2, 2022, writing that he had never been a member of any group dedicated to violent insurrection against the government. Documents do not say what group Nix is accused of being a member of. However, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch reported on August 19 that Nix is a member of the white nationalist and Neo Nazi Patriot Front. When questioned by a New Yorker reporter on a separate story, Nix denied being a member of the extremist group.
Hatewatch documented in its story a trail of online fingerprints behind an online personna known as Patrick NC that led towards Nix. Patrick NC, Hatewatch said, has been active in online circles of Patriot Front, a white supremicist group. Nix has also used a Telegram channel to “release sensitive personal information about perceived political enemies including their names, photos, phone numbers and addresses. Their targets included nine journalists, a business owner who spoke up about how antisemitism affected their community, activists in left-leaning groups, lawyers and cybersecurity analysts,” Hatewatch reported.
Additionally Nix, who authorities note also used the name Kai Brazelton, is accused of spending several months trying to illegally sell guns. In December 2023 he allegedly sold a gun he knew to be stolen, then sold another one a month later.
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Army helicopter crews assigned to fly and operate in arctic conditions will now answer to leadership based with them in Alaska rather than commanders in Hawaii or near Seattle. They’ll now report instead to the newly activated Arctic Aviation Command at Fort Wainwright, just outside of Fairbanks, Alaska.
“You have to be in the Arctic to understand the Arctic,” Col. Russ Vanderlugt, the unit’s new commander, told Task & Purpose.
The new unit officially stood up on Aug. 8 as a local headquarters for two active-duty aviation battalions already in Alaska: 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment and 1st Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment. The units previously answered to headquarters at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington near Seattle and Fort Shafter, Hawaii. Now, both flying units fall under the Alaska-based 11th Airborne Division.
The new structure means that the leaders of the units will be local in Alaska to manage training, mitigate risk and provide a direct line of support through to the division. There are no plans to expand the size or number of aviation units in Alaska.
It also means new equipment and ideas for cold-weather flyers. The Alaska units already have upgraded the heaters inside some helicopters and have installed windscreens for door gunners to avoid the sub-zero windchill.
Previously, major flying decisions for the two Alaska-based battalions had to go through leaders in Washington and Hawaii. Now they can “keep that risk in house,” Vanderlugt said, with missions reviewed and approved by him or other 11th Airborne officials.
The 11th Airborne Division was activated in June 2022 as part of the U.S. Arctic strategy to counter growing regional influences from its adversaries. The latest strategy released in July, calls out growing military cooperation between Russia and China, like combined Naval exercises off the coast of Alaska, as a threat to Arctic stability. The new aviation unit is part of the 11th’s planned role as the Army’s subject matter experts for Arctic combat. Having units in Alaska allows the U.S. military to get anywhere in the Pacific or regions in the high north faster, Vanderlugt said.
“A lot of forces will flow through Alaska. Our alignment here puts the aviation assets in the 11th Airborne really at the tip of the spear to be able to go anywhere quickly,” he said. “It’s strategic. It’s intentional that we’re growing this capability here.”
The division is headquartered at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. As part of the units’ growing knowledge of surviving and training in the Arctic, Vanderlugt said his soldiers will have to improve their proficiency on skis.
“That’s a huge part about Arctic soldiering up here,” he said. “That’s gonna be a big focus for me as a commander because what’s really important is during the Arctic night when the sun doesn’t even rise in many parts of Alaska, you have to get outside. You can’t just go to the weight room or the gym, but you gotta get outside and you gotta do these Arctic activities in the cold and it helps you acclimate to it.”
Flying in the ArcticVanderlugt said officials are in the process of refining the service’s Arctic doctrine which will dictate training, equipment and requirements for the Army’s Alaska mission – with the 11th Airborne Division as a “key sounding board for that.”
“In order to help the commander assess tactical risk and save the lives of pilots, I’m looking to maximize survivability wherever possible,” Vanderlugt said. “The operational environment is really harsh on us and survivability extends to all war fighting functions that aviation has to use.”
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For sustainment operations in the Arctic, this means getting food, fuel, ammunition to a forward arming and refueling point or maintaining communications with electronics with batteries that might quickly run dead in the deep cold.
Soldiers also noted the problems with using munitions in extreme cold. On Chinook helicopters, for instance, soldiers are testing a wind deflector for gunners, CW3 Michael Harms, the command’s aviation mission survivability officer said.
“Flying even at zero degrees with the window open, when you’re doing 100 knots, the wind chill is just too much. A window deflector will hopefully help them with being able to open their windows and utilize their weapon systems as well,” Harms said.
There are also a slew of modifications that Alaska units make to their aircrafts in order to fly in the Arctic in both summer and winter.
“Landing in the snow here is quite difficult. It’s different from landing in dust or sand in a desert environment,” said CW4 Vincent Sandoval, the command’s senior aviation maintenance officer. Because of this, all of the Army’s aircraft in Alaska have skis “the size of a barn door” so soldiers can land in the tundra and on the snow.
Arctic angels, Sandoval said, train “as cold as we can get,” but the reality is that training is often halted when temperatures reach around -40 degrees fahrenheit because the fuel freezes. As part of their training, soldiers regularly test new equipment to keep operations going.
“We had to get a heater installed in the new [UH-60] M-model that we got up here. The electric heater that they had, very similar to electric heating you could get in your house, but it could not warm the air quick enough,” Sandoval said, adding that Sikorky developed and soldiers tested the new technology. “Now we have all 15 medevac aircraft outfitted with those new heaters.”
As soldiers continue to sharpen their Arctic expertise ahead of their January rotation at the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center, Vanderlugt said the new command change also means that all of his soldiers will now wear the distinctive ‘Arctic Angels’ blue patch with a red and white emblem with angel wings.
“When you take two separate organizations that are reporting to Hawaii and Washington, they’re wearing the patches of those organizations and their identity and their purpose and their mission is aligned to those organizations,” Vanderlugt said. “Now, we’re bringing it all under one organization, the Arctic Aviation Command. We wear one patch.”
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A senior enlisted leader at Fort Moore, Georgia has pleaded not guilty to a charge of domestic violence under the uniform code of military justice, said Michelle McCaskill, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Office of Special Trial Counsel.
Since the start of 2024, each military branch has established its own special trial counsel’s office to prosecute serious criminal offenses including domestic violence, sexual assault, and murder.
On July 29, the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel referred a charge of domestic violence against Sgt. Maj. Jaime I. Rubio, McCaskill told Task & Purpose on Tuesday. Rubio faces two specifications of Article 128b under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, she said.
Rubio is accused of hitting and trying to strangle a person on Dec. 24 at or near Fort Moore, according to a redacted copy of the charge sheet against him, which was provided to Task & Purpose. The name of the alleged victim was removed from the charge sheet.
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On Aug. 14, Rubio entered his not guilty plea at his arraignment, McCaskill said. He also chose to be tried before a panel, the military’s equivalent of a jury. The judge scheduled a pretrial hearing for Sept. 27 and set Nov. 11-15 as the trial dates.
“Rubio is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law,” McCaskill said.
Task & Purpose has been unable to reach Rubio or his defense attorney for comment. Military.com first reported that Rubio had been arraigned on the domestic violence charge.
Rubio was relieved as the command sergeant major of the 5th Squadron, 15th Cavalry Regiment on March 25, “due to a loss of trust and confidence in his leadership ability,” said Maj. Chris Robinson, a spokesman for U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.
No further information was immediately available about why Rubio was fired. All the military branches use the “loss of confidence” euphemism to explain why commanding officers or senior enlisted leaders have been relieved. The vague phrase covers a wide range of misconduct including leadership failures to issues that are unrelated to their jobs, such as being arrested for drunken driving.
At least three other Army senior enlisted leaders have been fired recently: Command Sgt. Major Veronica E. Knapp, formerly of Joint Task Force-National Capital Region/United States Army Military District of Washington; Command Sgt. Maj. Matthew Carlson, of the 173rd Airborne Brigade; and Command Sgt. Maj. Harold “Ed” Jarrell, the former senior enlisted leader for the Army’s 1st Information Operations Command, a brigade-level assignment.
Originally from Los Angeles, Rubio enlisted in the Army in 2004 and he went on to deploy in support of operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Europe, according to his official biography.
Rubio’s military awards include the Bronze Star Medal with “V” device for valor, Bronze Star Medal, Distinguished Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal with “V” device, six Army Commendation Medals, the Joint Service Achievement Medal, seven Army Achievement Medals, Joint Meritorious Unit Award, Meritorious Unit Award, Army Superior Unit Award, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal (2 CS), Iraq Campaign Medal (1 CS), Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal (1 CS), Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Over Seas Ribbon, NATO Medal, Basic Instructor Badge, Combat Action Badge, and Driver’s Badge (W&T), Gold Shutzenschnur.”
He also received an Army Commendation Medal for saving the life of a civilian while he was off duty; he is an Excellence in Armor awardee, he earned his Silver and Gold Spurs, and he was knighted into the esteemed Order of St. George as a recipient of the Black and Bronze Medallions.
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A soldier is in custody in Hawaii after his six-month pregnant wife went missing earlier this month, Army officials said.
“An individual has been placed into military custody in the Mischa Johnson missing person case. Mischa Johnson’s husband, Private First Class Dewayne Arthur Johnson II, is currently in military pretrial confinement in Hawaii,” 25h Infantry Division officials said in a statement.
While Dewayne Arthur Johnson is in pretrial confinement, he has not been charged yet, Army officials told Task & Purpose. Officials did not provide more details about a potential Uniformed Code of Military Justice offense.
According to the UCMJ, pretrial confinement “should only be used when necessary” and can only be ordered if there is a reasonable belief that an offense triable by court-martial was committed, the accused committed the crime and it’s necessary under the circumstances.
Earlier this month, the Army Criminal Investigation Division announced a $10,000 reward for information in the Mischa Johnson case. Army CID is partnering with Honolulu Police Department, CrimeStoppers and law enforcement in the region on the case.
Army CID was notified on Aug. 1 that Mischa Johnson was reported missing from the Schofield Barracks, O’ahu, Hawaii. According to CID, she was reportedly last seen on July 31 inside her home.
Dewayne Arthur Johnson, from Frederick, Maryland, enlisted in the Army in November 2022 and attended one station unit training at Fort Moore, Georgia. He is assigned to 25th Infantry Division and serves as a Cavalry Scout.
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“Our efforts remain focused on locating Mischa, support to her family, and the safety and security of all personnel at U.S. Army Hawaii installations. This is a current and ongoing investigation, and no further information is available at this time,” Army officials said in a statement.
Officials encouraged anyone with information on the case to contact Army CID.
Mischa Johnson was six months pregnant when she went missing.
Domestic abuse involving pregnant women is far from uncommon with many reporting that their domestic abuse started or intensified when they became pregnant, according to the National Partnership for Women & Families.
Homicide is the leading cause of death among pregnant women in the U.S., according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
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The Navy may have to consider moving many of its EA-18G Growlers from their oceanside Washington base to one in the California desert because of the “ear-splitting” noise that residents say the jets make passing over nearby neighborhoods.
A Federal judge ordered the Navy to consider whether it may need to move at least some of the more than 100 attack jets stationed at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, which is the home to 14 Growler squadrons and the schoolhouse for the plane’s pilots. The judge sided with nearby homeowners in the nearby town of Coupeville have sued over new training patterns the jets have been flying to practice landing on aircraft carriers.
“When the Navy flies Track 32, they fly directly over 640 Patmore Road, low enough to observe the pilot’s face,” said Maryon Attwood, a former resident of Coupeville who moved away in 2020. Track 32 is a landing pattern at a small auxiliary airfield known as OLF Coupeville just outside Whidbey Island’s main base. The airfield — which simulates the deck of a carrier for landings — is less than a mile from Attwood’s former home.
In a declaration as part of a federal lawsuit, Attwood said her neighborhood had suffered “four-fold increase in jet noise” which drove her out of the “forever home” she bought in 2005. The Navy jets made it impossible to do any outdoor activities, talk on the phone, have visitors, watch television, listen to music, eat a meal undisturbed or sleep, she said.
The Navy’s EA-18Gs Growler is a hybrid attack jet based on the F/A-18F Super Hornet. The plane carriers air-to-air weapons but is primarily designed as an electronic warfare platform that can track and attack enemy radar sources. A quick check by Task & Purpose also appeared to confirm that the two-engine jets are the only aircraft in the U.S. military’s inventory specifically named after a noise.
Kenneth L. Waters, a retired Boeing Commercial Airplane Engineer and local resident said in his sworn statement that a return to previous lower levels of use of the base would be a huge relief, noting that overhead traffic used to be “very irritating but tolerable as they happened less often.”
In March 2019, the Navy issued its final decision which meant adding 36 aircrafts (to the existing 82 aircraft) and two new expeditionary squadrons and additional personnel. The move increased annual airfield operations by 33%. Use of the field jumped from 90 hours per year to more than 300 after 2019, the lawsuit said.
“The frequency and harmful ear-splitting noise of [the Coupeville training] flights are not endurable and have forced several property owners in our neighborhood to leave the island,” Waters said.
A move to California
In response to the lawsuit, the Navy has argued that the only base the EA-18As could be is Naval Air Facility El Centro, but that expanding that facility to absorb the Growler training would require more than $800 million.
The ruling is the latest chapter in a multi-year lawsuit that began with local complaints over noise pollution. The Navy drastically increased its use of the Coupeville airfield in 2019, a decision the required it to conduct an environmental impact study The Navy’s study found that the new flying would not cause undue local impact — a conclusion that residents disputed and filed suit over. In 2022, the court found that the Navy didn’t comply with environmental rules in that 2019.
In 2019, Washington’s Attorney General and Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve, a group representing citizens living near Whidbey Island, Washington filed lawsuits against the Navy and Department of Defense over its decision to expand operations with its Boeing EA-18G Growlers at the base.
The groups argued that more Growlers over Whidbey Island would “adversely affect” at least ten public schools, seven state parks, bird habitat areas, state historic sites, and state-owned tidelands and waterways. The groups also argued that the Navy didn’t fully consider the option of moving its increased growler operations to Naval Air Facility El Centro, California.
) An EA-18G Growler assigned to the “Cougars” of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 139 takes off during a Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP) at an outlying landing field attached to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Marc Cuenca/Released) Petty Officer 2nd Class Marc CuencaIn August 2022, a federal judge ruled that the Navy violated the National Environmental Policy Act and didn’t consider the impacts to local residents and the surrounding environment. The court also adopted recommendations from a U.S. federal magistrate, filed in December 2021, who ruled that the Navy had, essentially, cooked the cooks on the earlier study.
“The Navy selected methods of evaluating the data that supported its goal of increasing Growler operations,” Chief Magistrate Judge J. Richard Creatura wrote in his report. “The Navy did this at the expense of the public and the environment, turning a blind eye to data that would not support this intended result. Or, to borrow the words of noted sports analyst Vin Scully, the Navy appears to have used certain statistics ‘much like a drunk uses a lamppost: for support, not illumination.’”
On Aug. 16, a federal court judge in Washington ruled that the Navy must update its compliance to the NEPA by May 1, 2025 and report its progress every 90 days. Part of that order requires the Navy to again consider the impact if the jets were moved to El Centro, which has a massive, isolated desert range.
The court also requires that the Navy revisit several points of contention that it missed in its original assessments: greenhouse gas emission calculations, quantifying the impact of increased operations on classroom learning, species-specific impacts on birds, and a more detailed consideration to moving growler operations to California.
“The Navy continues to comply with all court orders and is preparing supplemental analysis to address the deficiencies in the original 2018 analysis identified by the court. This includes addressing the court’s ruling as to the El Centro alternative,” Ted Brown, a Navy spokesperson told Task & Purpose in a statement.
The Washington AG did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve said in a draft release sent to Task & Purpose Monday that the judge approved their motion to enforce a deadline because they were “concerned that the Navy might drag its feet” to complete the new environmental assessment.
In a positive note for the Navy, the judge denied the group’s September 2023 request which would’ve vacated the Navy’s authorization for increased Growler landing operations. The judge ruled that the operations are important to national security.
“That rationale places an impossible burden on the plaintiffs that can never be overcome because whatever the military says goes,” COER chairperson, Bob Wilbur, said in a release.
The group is considering whether to appeal the decision.
Growler expansion
In November 2016, the Navy released its draft Environmental Impact Statement and solicited public comment on three scenarios for expanding Growler training at Whidbey Island. In 2018, the Navy said it preferred one of the scenarios “that best met operational demands” with the least amount of disruptions to other Ault Field operations, provided the best pilot training and impacted the fewest residents.
“The Court reiterates this ‘not-in-my-backyard’ approach subverts the public interest by proposing shifting noise to another, more populated community,” the judge wrote in his Aug. 16 order.
Public health impacts
In response to the Navy’s 2019 draft Environmental Impact Statement, the Washington Department of Health concluded that “noise levels similar to those reported from NAS Whidbey Island Complex described in all recent reports pose a threat to public health.” Washington officials cited previous studies and literature on the adverse impacts of noise on mental and cardiovascular health, particularly for children, the elderly, shift-workers, smokers, and individuals with sleep disorders, mental disorders, and physical illnesses.
The plaintiff’s lawsuit stated that the increased operations would mean that more than 12,000 people would be exposed to annual noise levels at or above 65 decibel day-night average and more than 5,000 people exposed to noise levels at or above 75 decibel — about that of a vacuum cleaner — day-night average.
Washington officials noted an “unreasonably high standard” that led to the Navy’s exclusion of non-auditory health effects from its original analysis.
Environmental concerns
The lawsuit against the Navy also challenged the service’s adherence to NEPA, which requires federal agencies, including the DOD, to consider and inform the public about significant environmental impacts of proposed actions.
The suit argued that the Navy “fails to take a hard look at the environmental impacts” of the increased operations and how it would disturb habitats for various endangered and threatened bird species, terrestrial wildlife, and marine mammals, including harbor seals. According to the group, the Navy didn’t address impacts to animals’ physiological stress, mating practices, and migration patterns.
Citizens of the Ebey’s Reserve said that the Navy “significantly underestimated” Growler fuel emissions in its environmental assessment. The group said that the greenhouse gas emissions are “roughly 2.18 times more” than the Navy’s projections.
The Navy’s final environmental assessment also stated that adding additional aircraft and construction at El Centro’s would violate the “Clean Air Act nonattainment area” status and make it more difficult for California to comply with air quality standards.
National security defense
In September 2023, the court said that the status quo at Whidbey Island would allow for a 25 to 40% increase in fuel emissions and increased sensory disturbance for local wildlife. Officials also noted that NEPA does not consider national security as a defense.
The significance of the environmental consequences brought up by advocates “are largely unknown precisely because the Navy – seemingly in an attempt to greenlight the Growler expansion – failed to comply with its statutory obligations to quantify these impacts,” the court said, adding that the “forthcoming” environmental impact statement will “clarify the significance of these impacts.”
However, the Washington judge ruled that the Navy proved that increased operations were vital to national security due to growlers’ airborne electronic attack combat capabilities. The Navy said that interruption to growler training from relocating personnel to another state would “provide our adversaries an uninhibited strategic and tactical advantage which cannot be permitted to happen.”
“The Court must greatly defer to senior military officials’ professional judgements,” the judge ruled.
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A former Massachusetts Air Guardsman who fled to the Russian army just as he was charged with soliciting a teenager in the U.S. says his fellow soldiers fighting Ukraine call him ‘Boston.’ In a video released by the Russian defense ministry, a man who appears to be Wilmer Puello-Mota discusses his nickname, the Russian units he’s joined and if he feels as if he’s a traitor.
“I don’t consider myself a traitor,” Puello-Mota says in the video released by the Russian defense ministry on Telegram. “The United States and Russia are not at war. In the future, I think that the people that caused this in my country should be held responsible for what they’ve done, and we can have some sort of friendship between Russia and the United States.”
Puello-Mota served in the active-duty Air Force and Air National Guard from 2013 to 2022. At the time he was separated from the Guard, Puello-Mota was serving as a technical sergeant and security forces airman. The former city official in Holyoke, Massachusetts, left the United States two days before he was scheduled to appear in court on charges of paying a 17-year-old to send him illicit pictures of herself.
On Monday, Russia’s defense ministry released an interview with Puello-Mota, in which he is kitted out in full battle rattle adorned with a patch of a Russian flag. He says he arrived in Russia in January, but he does not mention his arrest prior to leaving the United States. After serving with a Russian international brigade in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine for three months, he signed a contract with the Russian military at the suggestion of his friends, he says.
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Now, his comrades gave him the call sign “Boston” because he is from Massachusetts, Puello-Mota says.
“The guys get a laugh out of it,” Puello-Mota says. “They get a kick out of it.”
This is the latest Russian video featuring Puello-Mota. Another one in the spring that showed him signing a contract with the Russian military. When reached by Task & Purpose in April, Puello-Mota deferred questions to a Russian defense ministry spokesperson.
In Monday’s video, Puello-Mota says that as a security forces airman, his job included base defense and countering drones, adding that he has been able to use his “leadership skills” while serving with pro-Kremlin forces.
He also praises his battle buddies, saying he has served with them on the front, and he trusts them to look out for him.
“They help me to navigate all the complexities and the cultural differences,” Puello-Mota. “Again, it’s about the people that you’re with, and I couldn’t have picked a better group of people to be here with. I love these guys.”
Puello-Mota says that he became interested in international politics when he became city official in Massachusetts.
“You really kind of stop and pause and think about what’s going here,” Puello-Mota says. “You feel like you have to do something about it.”
Noting the upcoming presidential election in the United States, he urged people to “do their own research” to find out what is happening in Ukraine and Russia, adding that he does not feel it is in the United State’s interests to arm Ukraine with modern tanks and F-16s when the U.S. government is trillions of dollars in debt.
He also claimed that the current war between Russia in Ukraine was set in motion in 2014 by “our politicians coming down here and saying sorts of different things and making all sorts of different promises.”
Puello-Mota did not specify who these politicians were or how they caused the war. In 2014, the so-called Maidan Revolution, a protest and resistance movement in Ukraine, ousted the country’s pro-Kremlin leader. Within months, Russia annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine and began a war in eastern Ukraine that culminated with Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.
Since Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine, the United States has provided the Ukrainians with more than $55.6 billion in military assistance. Several U.S. military veterans have also gone to Europe to help Ukrainian civilians and fight against the Russians. Nearly 60 Americans have been killed in Ukraine over the past two-and-a-half years.
But other Americans have gone to Russia, including Seth William Baker, who says he is a Marine veteran; and former Army Pfc. John David McIntyre, claimed he arrived in Russia after spying for the Kremlin on Ukrainian forces.
Puello-Mota insists in Monday’s video that he has not betrayed the United States by joining the Russian military.
“The United States and Russia are not at war,” Puello-Mota says. “The United States has done things that are very provocative and very bad. It’s been involved in other people’s politics, other Puello-Mota nations’ interests and should not be doing that. I always say and [Russian Foreign Minister] Sergey Lavrov said this a couple of weeks ago: I think that the country is ran [sic.] by different people then the people that live in the country and feel a different way.”
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The Department of Veterans Affairs awarded more than $800 million to local nonprofits around the United States to fund rapid rehousing efforts for veterans and help low-income families avoid slipping into homelessness.
The funds were awarded across 253 grants, with the awarding of them announced on Friday, Aug. 16. The nonprofits, which work to build trust with unhoused veterans to provide them with help, rely on these types of grants to pay for urgent bills or emergency costs facing veterans and their families.
Roughly $8.9 million is going to the VA’s Grants and Per Diem Program, which funds nonprofits that help unhoused veterans get into transitional housing, to eventually find permanent homes. The money also supports case workers who help link the veterans to those spaces — often hotel or motel rooms — and offer services such as job training or education. The VA noted that these specific funds are aimed at certain groups, such as women or elderly veterans.
The larger grant allotment, approximately $797.5 million, is going to the VA’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program. This is aimed toward low-income veteran families either just falling into homelessness or on the verge. It provides money to rapidly rehouse those families or help them make payments to avoid losing their homes.
“We’re making real progress in reducing Veteran homelessness, but there is much more work to do,” VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in the department’s announcement. “These grants allow VA and the entire Biden-Harris Administration, alongside community partners, to provide more housing and wraparound services to more homeless and at-risk Veterans than ever before.”
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According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2023 point-in-time count, there are 35,574 unhoused veterans in the United States (there are 653,000 total homeless Americans). While many people on the streets can be experiencing homelessness for extended periods of time, many also might fall into homelessness for days or weeks at a time before being rehoused, so many more people might experience homelessness per year than the point-in-time count will indicate. HUD and the VA have not released data for the 2024 count yet.
The VA, along with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, focuses on the “housing first” approach to addressing homelessness. Essentially, the most important action, according to the strategy, is to get people into housing, with low barriers of entry, to help them avoid the risks people on the streets face. It’s an approach favored by service providers, researchers and many state and local housing agencies.
Unhoused people, veterans or otherwise, often need additional services to help once inside, be it mental healthcare or job placement. Operations like the Grant and Per Diem Program are meant to help vets get back on their feet and avoid slipping back into homelessness, as well as get any care they might need.
The VA has been making some updates to its rules and procedures to help get more veterans housing. Last week the VA made a major change to how it judges qualifications for federal housing vouchers. Previously disability compensation counted towards income, leaving some of the most in-need unhoused veterans technically unable to qualify for the vouchers. New rules announced this month end that, expanding eligibility for the subsidies.
Those are all part of the wider VA effort to help homeless vets. In the spring, the department announced its goal of placing 41,000 unhoused veterans into permanent housing, along with connecting another 40,000 with supportive services.
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Guards stationed at an entrance gate at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland were attacked two times in the early hours of Saturday, Aug. 17. They eventually returned fire, before the gunmen fled the scene.
No arrests have been made, according to authorities, and no guards were injured. The attacks took place at the entrance gate for Lackland Air Force Base and the Chapman Training Annex, part of the wider installation. Around 2:15 a.m. the guards came under fire, with multiple shots aimed toward the gate.
“The security personnel stated they heard several shots fired as well as the fired rounds go past them,” Sgt. Washington Moscoso, a spokesman for the San Antonio Police Department, said in a statement.
The shots appeared to come from a sedan, which drove by the area. Additional guards joined the security team at the gate following the attack. In a second incident a few hours later, between 4:30-5 a.m., a sedan — authorities did not confirm if it was the same vehicle — stopped on the road to the east of the gate and fired more shots toward the security forces. This time the Air Force security teams returned fire, with multiple guards shooting toward the car. It’s unclear if the sedan or the multiple occupants in it were hit by Air Force personnel. Neither the Air Force or police indicated where the sedan went, although shell casings were found where it had stopped.
The San Antonio Police Department is the lead investigator of the shooting, which is being treated as an aggravated assault. In a statement, the department said the investigation is still ongoing.
The gate briefly closed following the shooting but reopened later on Saturday. There was no wider base lockdown.
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The Chapman Training Annex is where the Special Warfare Training Wing puts airmen through courses for special operations roles, such as Pararescue or combat control. However a spokesperson for the 502d Air Base Wing said there is no apparent connection.
“JBSA-Chapman Training Annex is home to Special Warfare Training Wing, but we have no reason to believe this happened for that reason,” the statement said.
Saturday’s shooting is not the first time shots have been fired at Lackland Air Force Base. In 2016, a former Army Green Beret who after struggling with mental health after his Army service, had joined the Air Force to try out for Pararescue, killed his commander and himself. The shooter had failed out of that job’s intense selection training on the Chapman annex. In 2021, Lackland Air Force Base went on lockdown after off-site gunmen shot at the installation before fleeing on foot. No one was injured in that shooting.
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Airmen at Nellis Air Force Base are out of luck for now. The head of Air Combat Command, Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, denied a request from the commander of the 99th Air Base Wing to let troops at the base wear boonie hats during the hotter months of the year.
When Col. Joshua DeMotts, head of the 99th Air Base Wing based out of Nellis Air Force Base, wrote to Wilsbach requesting permission to let airmen have the option to wear Operational Camouflage Pattern boonie hats instead of the regular caps they currently wear. Demotts’ letter, shared with airmen and posted online and on social including on the Air Force subreddit, notes the need for better protection from the heat between April 1-Nov. 1.
“Due to the extreme heat at Nellis AFB that tops 120 degrees during the summer, it is imperative to adjust aspects of the uniform to ensure appropriate protection is afforded to our airmen performing their duties,” DeMotts wrote in the July memo to Air Combat Command. “The boonie hat will allow the relief of excess body heat and protection for the neck and face from the intense summer sun.”
Military.com first reported on the denial. Nellis, located in Las Vegas, Nevada, has to deal with oppressive, but dry heat. This past week temperatures regularly broke 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The week ahead sees similar forecasts.
Wilsbach, however, said no.
“I […] disapprove the wear of the boonie hat at Nellis AFB from 1 Apr – 1 Nov,” Wilsbach wrote in response.
Boonie hats — the wide-brimmed floppy hats technically called sun hats — are great and effective at providing more shade and cover for service members’ ears, neck and face than ball caps. However the military has strict rules for when troops are allowed to wear the hats. For the Air Force, regulations dictate that airmen can wear boonie hats while deployed or when authorized by a command. For the 99th Air Base Wing and approximately 20% of the Air Force, that’s Air Combat Command.
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It’s not clear why Wilsbach denied DeMotts’ specific request, given the succinct response. However, Wilsbach has proven to be a stickler for certain dress and appearance rules. In June he announced a ‘back to basics’ on several aspects tied to troops’ appearance. His memo outlined plans for uniform inspections and a review of shaving waivers issued to troops for religious or medical reasons.
While the 99th Air Base Wing is unable to wear boonie hats, other commands in the military have been more approving. In recent months, the head of the 1st Armored Division and commander of Fort Bliss, located in Texas which is also experiencing extreme heat, approved letting soldiers wear the floppy headgear.
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An airman with the 27th Special Operations Logistics Readiness Squadron died on Thursday, Aug. 15 in a “non-combat related incident.”
Staff Sgt. Tristen Wright, who served as a materiel management specialist with the squadron, died in an “undisclosed location,” the U.S. Air Force announced on Saturday, Aug. 17. He was 28.
The Air Force did not provide any details to the cause of or what led to Wright’s death. The incident is under investigation.
“Tristen was a force for good within the 27 SOLRS and beyond,” Maj. Brent Escay, commander of the 27th SOLRS, said in the Air Force release. “He was the kind of supervisor who took the privilege of leading and mentoring Airmen seriously. He cared deeply for the airmen in his flight and volunteered actively within the local community. We’ll never forget how his infectious smile could light up a room.”
The 27th Special Operations Logistics Readiness Squadron is based out of Cannon Air Force Base, but was deployed as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the ongoing U.S. and partners operation against the remnants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in those two countries. The squadron provides support to the wider 27th Special Operations Wing, which falls under Air Force Special Operations Command.
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Wright enlisted in the Air Force in August 2016. Before serving with the 27th Special Operations Logistics Readiness Squadron he had served in Japan with the 18th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Kadena Air Force Base. He had previously deployed in both Operation Inherent Resolve and Resolute Support. Among his decorations are the U.S. Air and Space Force Commendation Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Medal.
Although combat operations against ISIS remain ongoing, there have been several non-combat deaths as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. Earlier this month two National Guard soldiers died in Iraq in separate incidents away from the battlefield.
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The job of ordnance disposal technicians is rapidly changing. After decades of handling prevasive ground-level threats of improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan and Iraq, disposal techs are reinventing their jobs for a new threat: drones with explosives. As they adjust, they are adding drones to their own arsenals for dealing with explosives.
Over the last two decades, Army ordnance disposal technicians were tasked with rendering more than 100,000 improvised explosive devices “safe” in Iraq and Afghanistan. But as the face of warfare changes, the threat of one-way attack unmanned aerial systems and drones strapped with munitions and explosives are becoming a topic that ordnance disposal technicians are being increasingly trained on. The Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps all have specific career fields dedicated to the job, often called explosives ordnance disposal or EOD.
The Army’s 707th Ordnance Company, “Thunderbirds” and 787th Ordnance Company, “Sasquatches” recently came together for an interagency exercise at Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washington to “defeat explosive Unmanned Aerial Systems.” They trained alongside bomb and ordnance disposal experts from the FBI, Air Force, JBLM emergency services and I Corps Protection Cell.
“Although this was a training scenario, it could very easily become a real-world incident,” said 1st Lt. Luke M. Gualtieri.
EOD technicians are incorporating “lessons learned from recent combat deployments and events from around the world, incorporating drones and their delivery of explosives into their training exercises,” a spokesperson for the 20th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives Command said. “This includes rendering those explosives safe and their disposal.”
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In May, a joint Air Force-NASA exercise included downed drones that EOD technicians had to make sure were cleared of explosives.
“Some of our members, they’ve done this so many times, they can’t even count. Then for some of our members that are out here, it could be their first time doing an operation like this,” Tech Sgt. Logan Keller of the 633d EOD team said in a video about the drill. “It’s super important that we’re out here to go over those lessons learned, and to ensure that when people are deployed, they have to run this scenario, that it’s not the first time that they’re seeing it.”
EOD techs are experts in chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear materials and explosive devices. Their units work to locate and identify hazardous materials, clear areas of explosive-related contamination, conduct post-IED blast analysis and dispose of unserviceable and outdated munitions.
Their history goes back more than 80 years to when the Army began training its first enlisted Bomb Disposal Soldiers in April 1942 following the establishment of the British Bomb Squad which was created to defeat time-delayed bombs during World War II.
Using dronesAt the same time that EOD specialists are tackling drones with explosives, they are also using them to help with their jobs. Robots have been used for years as a safer method of ordnance disposal, removing humans from the risk equation — but now drones are becoming another tool that’s cheaper and more plentiful. A slew of commercial companies that the Defense Department works with market their drones for reconnaissance, which includes IED and explosive material detection.
In 2021, JBLM ordnance companies received drones fitted with LiDAR systems which the commander of the 707th EOD Company, Capt. William R. Hartman said could be used to create 3D maps of surrounding terrain.
Chuck McGraw, a vice president of sales at Skydio and former Navy SEAL, promises that their drones can help says the Skydio drones can set perimeters, investigate suspicious packages, clear the scene and document evidence. The Pentagon has already cleared a number of Skydio’s drones for military and federal government use.
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In a rambling attempt to compliment a billionaire donor, Donald Trump invoked the physical appearance of Medal of Honor recipients as “either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead.” Speaking at a fundraiser, Trump appeared to passing a compliment to Miriam Adelson, a major Trump donor whose wealth has been pegged at over $20 billion. He said that Adelson, 78, comes across as “a healthy beautiful woman” and looked “actually much better” than injured troops who receive the nation’s highest valor award.
The disjointed comments are difficult to parse precisely and can be viewed here:
Trump: When we gave her the Presidential Medal of Freedom… It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor— it’s actually much better because everyone who gets the Congressional Medal, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many… pic.twitter.com/a766KxAC2e
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 16, 2024
Trump made the comments Thursday at a fundraiser for Jewish supporters held at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. The event was not associated with the Medal of Honor or a military audience, though a Holocaust survivor was reportedly in attendence. Trump brought up the topic of the Medal of Honor by comparing the military award to the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which he gave Adelson in 2018. He called the Medal of Freedom “the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version.”
That statement is grossly false in two ways: the Medal’s name does not include “Congressional,” and it is neither equivalent to nor a “version” of the civilian award.
Not ‘Congressional’ Medal of HonorThe correct name of the military award is the “Medal of Honor,” a name set forth in both military regulations and federal law. Congress has no role in awarding the medal, which is nominated by a military member’s chain of command, investigated by Pentagon officials and approved and bestowed by the president. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society, which by law oversees the medal’s legacy, makes clear on its website that the word “Congressional” refers only to the society, and not to the medal.
“The name of the Medal is simply ‘Medal of Honor,'” the group’s website says in its FAQ section. “The word ‘Congressional’ is sometimes mistakenly used because the Medal was created by Congress; however, the Medal is purely a military award. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society was chartered by Congress, which is why the word ‘Congressional’ precedes the Society’s name.”
As president, Trump presented the medal several times at the White House, where he routinely used the wrong name. According to White House transcripts, Trump referred to the Medal as “Congressional” five times at the award ceremony for Air Force combat controller John Chapman, twice in the ceremony for Navy SEAL Britt Slabinsky and twice in the ceremony honoring Army Sgt. Major Thomas Payne.
Exhaustive review processIn terms of requirements, rarity and rigor of its selection process, the Medal of Honor — the military’s highest valor award — is not “equivalent” to the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which has no practical requirements other than, essentially, a president must like you. Though its official requirements are for “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors,” Trump awarded them mostly to sports stars and a few prominent Republicans, including Adelson.
The Medal of Honor, on the other hand, is the highest valor award given to military members who face exceptionally grave danger in direct combat action. Historically, about half of all Medal of Honor recipients have been killed in the act of earning it.
Beyond the fundamental requirement of facing dire combat against an enemy, every nomination for the award undergoes an exhaustive review by Pentagon officials. Witness statements, physical evidence from the scenes of battle and even medical records of nominees and others they fought with are compiled and reviewed to present a final recommendation to the Secretary of Defense and then the president. Far more remarkably brave combat actions nominated for the Medal are rejected than approved.
In the case of Kyle Carpenter, a Marine awarded the Medal in 2014 for the unimpeachably brave but fairly uncontroversial act of throwing himself on a grenade to save his fellow Marines, investigators compiled a 252-page report that included evidence collected in a visit to the scene of the fight before submitting it for final approval. In all, the process took four years.
Army Sgt. Alwyn Cashe died pulling seven comrades from a burning Bradley Fighting Vehicle in Iraq in 2005. It took his fellow soldiers until 2021 to get him the Medal of Honor, lobbying first through his chain of command and then through politicians.
Even more complicated was the case of Chapman, who initially was thought to have died in the opening minutes of a mountaintop gunfight during Operation Anaconda in March 2002. But several troops involved in the fight believed Chapman had fought much longer, even making radio calls. After re-opening the case a decade after his death, Air Force officials worked for 30 months to collect enough evidence to approve his award. Officials collected witness statements, video from gunships and drones overhead, analysed satelite data for elevation and terrain to confirm lines of radio communication, and even considered the words of Taliban fighters picked up by U.S. units. Using sophisticated video analysis, investigators confirmed that survielance video captured the commando fighting to the death alone, often hand-to-hand, on the Afghan mountain top.
The Medal’s exhausitive review process frequently results in awards years or decades after the action for which it is given.
Since 2023, President Biden has approved Medals of Honor for two Civil War soldiers who were part of a commando raid that stole a confederate train and caused havoc across Georgia and Tennessee, Vietnam helicopter pilot Larry Taylor, who saved a Special Forces patrol, and Green Beret officer Paris Davis, who held off an enemy battalion through sheer combat savagery. Trump
A longtime donorAdelson was a medical doctor but is best known in politics for the $133 million she and her husband donated to Trump’s 2016 campaign and associated political groups, a number she is reported to be likely to at least approach in 2024.
Adelson was married to Sheldon Adelson, who died in 2021. Sheldon Adelson was a long-time investor and developer of casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, opening the Sands, the Venetian, and the Palazzo casinos along with several others in Macau and Singapore. The couple married in 1991, and Miriam Adelson took over the Sands portfolio after her husband’s death.
Both Miriam and Sheldon Adelson have long supported conservative causes and Republican candidates, with support of Israel at the center of their political ambitions.
Trump gave Adelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018, the first of his presidency. He awarded 24 medals in all, mostly to athletes and Republican political figures. He gave the award to radio host Rush Limbaugh and made posthumous awards to both Babe Ruth and Elvis Presley.
Of Trump’s 24 medals, Adelson’s was one of only 3 given to women (the other two went to golfers).
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The Moore County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina says that when a Special Forces officer assigned to Fort Liberty shot and killed a man who was taking pictures on his property in May, the soldier acted legally under state law.
“The homeowner’s actions were deemed justifiable under the North Carolina Castle Doctrine, which allows for the use of defensive force in situations where there is a perceived imminent threat to personal and family safety within one’s home or property,” the sheriff’s office posted on its Facebook page.
But the dead man’s brother told Task & Purpose he was surprised by the ruling and insisted his brother was a law abiding worker who fled to America to avoid the war in Ukraine.
On May 3, the unnamed Special Forces officer confronted Ramzan Daraev, 35, who worked for Cable Warriors, a subcontractor of Utilities One, and was conducting surveys in the area for a fiber optic expansion, according to the sheriff’s office.
Daraev was born in Chechnya and later moved to the United States. Daraev’s brother Roman told Task & Purpose no one in his family had ever worked for the Russian government, and he described speculation that his brother might have been a spy as “bullshit.”
In fact, Ramzan Daraev fled Russia to avoid being conscripted into the Russian military to fight in Ukraine, his brother said. After entering the United States through Mexico, Ramzan Daraev applied for political asylum.
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“My brother was a very humble person,” Roman Daraev said. “He never did any wrong thing in this whole life.”
The shooting drew national attention because the shooter, who remains unnamed, is a Special Forces soldier and the man killed in the shooting had immigrated from Russia.
The officer’s wife called 911 twice during the incident, but it took more than 20 minutes after her first call for law enforcement to arrive at the scene because sheriff’s deputies were dealing with an unrelated life-threatening emergency, delaying their response, the sheriff’s office said.
Her second 911 call was much more urgent than the first. She pleaded for help to arrive while her husband could be heard yelling to her.
“She secured a rifle during one of the calls, reflecting the perceived level of threat,” according to the sheriff’s office. “The shooting allegedly took place shortly after the second call, just prior to deputies arriving on scene.”
A U.S. Army Special Operations Command spokesperson thanked the Moore County Sheriff’s Office for its due diligence and reaching a conclusion on the case.
The fact that Daraev was a Russian national prompted questions by the media about why he was taking pictures of a Special Forces officer’s home. Fox News noted that U.S. intelligence officers often pose as utility workers for surveillance missions overseas. However, the FBI did not open a counterintelligence investigation into the matter.
But the Moore County Sheriff’s Office investigation raised several questions about Ramzan Daraev’s conduct on the day of the shooting. It noted that he did not have any clothing or identification that showed he was a utility worker, and he was conducting the survey near dark close to private property without notifying the homeowners first, which is not a common practice in the industry.
Roughly two hours before the shooting, a sheriff’s deputy approached Daraev less than a mile from the officer’s residence and asked him to move his vehicle, which was partially blocking a roadway. The deputy documented the encounter and let Daraev go.
“Following the shooting, the sheriff’s office received multiple reports from concerned citizens of people being seen on private properties throughout the same general area earlier on the evening of the incident,” according to the sheriff’s office. “These individuals were believed to be associated with the group working with Daraev. None of the citizens making those reports were aware that the persons they observed on their properties were conducting utility work.”
The confrontation between the Special Forces officer and Daraev began around dusk. Investigators found maps that showed Daraev’s work area included a power pole about 115 feet from the officer’s home.
“Digital evidence confirmed that Daraev was taking pictures of power poles in the direction of the residence, which was reportedly perceived by the homeowner as taking pictures of the home and homeowner’s children,” the sheriff’s office determined. Reports from the homeowner indicated that Daraev had been much closer to the house than depicted in the last photograph held by Utilities One.”
The officer’s wife and their children were outside as Daraev was taking pictures. She told her husband, who tried to speak to Daraev and subsequently asked him to leave.
“According to the homeowner, Daraev became aggressive and refused to leave the property, at one point asserting that he was a Chechen national who had served in the Russian military and fought in Ukraine, although investigators have been unable to establish Daraev’s prior foreign military status,” the sheriff’s office determined.
The officer retrieved a handgun from his home and returned outside to confront Daraev while his wife called for help. Daraev allegedly became agitated during the altercation, repeatedly refusing to leave the property, and then lunging at the officer, according to the sheriff’s office.
“The homeowner reported firing several shots in response to Daraev’s advance,” the sheriff’s office found. “Under the North Carolina Castle Doctrine, the homeowner’s actions are protected, providing legal justification for using defensive force.”
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Sexual assaults in the military might be three to four times more frequent than Pentagon estimates, a new study shows.
While the military reported 35,900 sexual assaults in 2021, the study found that the true number may have been roughly 75,500. For 2023, the Pentagon reported 29,000 assaults, but the researchers behind the study say the true number might have been 73,700.
The report, released by the Costs of War project at Brown University, focused on sexual assaults across the two decades of post-9/11 wars, from the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 to 2023. According to the report’s analysis of non-DOD data, over the course of the war in Afghanistan, 24% of active-duty women and 1.9% of active-duty men experienced sexual assault.
The report analyzed independent data sources, categorizing them by low, mid and high-range estimates. On the conservative end, DOD sexual assault rates could be two to four times less than what independent data shows. On the higher end, estimates suggest that the prevalence of sexual assault could be ten times higher than DOD numbers. The report was written by Jennifer Greenburg, a researcher at the University of Sheffield and Stanford University who specializes in war, gender and humanitarianism. Greenburg concluded that the two to four times higher metric is “a conservative but realistic estimation” that is consistent with figures found in other investigative reporting.
“The Pentagon should consider these alarming numbers to be a cost of war. I would challenge them to consider how the violence that members of the military experience themselves is linked to the violence perpetuated abroad through foreign wars,” Greenburg told Task & Purpose.
A DOD spokesperson said they were aware of the report but declined to comment on the methodology behind a non-DOD study.
“The Department continues our sustained progress to build strong command climates and prevent sexual assault, assist sexual assault survivors with recovery, and hold alleged offenders appropriately accountable. Sexual violence will not be tolerated, condoned, or ignored within our ranks. Everything we are doing in this space is focused on helping us make lasting, meaningful change,” the spokesperson said.
Stephanie Gattas, CEO and founder of The Pink Berets, an advocacy organization focused on service-related impacts like military sexual trauma, said the findings were “not surprising at all” since DOD numbers are based on its own reporting mechanism which relies on victims coming forward. In order to get more accurate reporting, the military has to remove the fear factor of reporting sexual assault, she said.
“I can’t even begin to tell you the burden that is laid on us when we hear these women say this has happened but because it’s somebody with a higher rank, then there’s an even greater fear of coming forward because either they’re going to get kicked out or they’re going to get dropped in rank,” Gattas said. “That’s just the lesser of the concerns. There’s even a greater concern that they’re going to go missing.”
The report also argues that the last 20 years of U.S. prioritization “above all else” on readiness and training for deployments “allowed the problem of sexual assault to fester” in a culture permeated by abuse and misogyny.
In the end, said Gattas, the focus on ‘readiness’ actually makes readiness worse.
“It does take away from our readiness because we’re having to pivot and focus on something that is happening at a high rate,” Gattas said. “If we’re trying to focus on the crimes at hand, how are we going to focus on the things that we’re supposed to do, which is becoming ready, and focused.”
An independent committee report sparked by the murder of U.S. soldier Vanessa Guillén also reiterated this notion. Readiness became “paramount over all other responsibilities” like addressing sexual assault and harassment, without acknowledging that respect between soldiers is a critical component, the committee said.
“There is a difference between placing institutional focus on force readiness above all else, versus addressing a known crisis or even following existing protocols, while also fulfilling the institution’s purpose of training for war,” Greenburg said.
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The DOD’s 2023 data showed a decrease in estimated sexual assault prevalence “for the first time in almost a decade.” The decrease, according to the report, is evidence that the emphasis on training and deployments, which ended in 2021, “contributed to a permissive environment for sexual assault.”
Despite more than a decade of numerous policy reforms by the Pentagon and new prevention training given to troops, those efforts “have not meaningfully transformed institutional patterns of abuse,” the report states.
Even with new policies aimed at bringing more justice to sexual assault victims, like the Pentagon’s new Office of Special Trial Counsel – which removed commander authority over legal decisions on these cases – data shows that survivors are still reticent to come forward. The report looked at the average ratio of all available DOD reporting to estimated prevalence data which suggested that on average, less than one in five victims report their assault.
“It’s taken out of the hands of the command and that has changed in some respect, but it still hasn’t stopped the high incidence of sexual assaults that are taking place in the military,” Gattas said.
Minority populations are most at riskThe report also found that sexual assault risk was most pronounced for women of color, one of the fastest-growing populations within the services. Black women, who account for more than 25% of all active-duty women, are especially at risk but for Latinx women, less information is available. However, the report notes that criminological studies shown that “intersecting oppressions produce different risks for sexual abuse.”
According to independent data, queer and trans service members’ are also disproportionately at a greater risk for sexual assault. A 2016 annual DOD survey found that active-duty LGBTQ personnel were four to five times more likely to experience sexual harassment and assault than their non-LGBTQ peers.
Service members who identify as queer and trans can also be less likely to report sexual harassment or assault due to distrust in reporting systems, the report states.
Impacts on Afghan womenThe Brown University report also makes the case that while a U.S. justification for the “War on Terror” was to restore Afghan women’s rights, the war made Afghan women’s lives “significantly worse.”
Greenburg said “dramatic increases” in the number of widows and Afghans living with physical disabilities as a result of the war “speak to how women’s lives have been severely worsened by a war supposedly fought in their name.”
Women’s rights are heavily restricted under Taliban rule, an issue that existed pre-U.S. occupation — but across the entire population, Afghans face higher rates of food insecurity, malnutrition and poverty than they did before the war.
“It wasn’t perfect three years ago. But it wasn’t this,” Alison Davidian, the UN Women’s Afghanistan representative said at a press briefing Tuesday.
With women increasingly losing their rights over the last three years, UN data reveals an escalating mental health crisis: 68% of women reported “bad” or “very bad” mental health and 8% said they knew at least one women or girl who attempted suicide.
“There is no equivalence between the absolute devastation and destruction of women’s lives in war zones and the experiences of service women,” the report states. “Rather, this parallel calls into question whether gender equity policies for women in the U.S. military (however limited in themselves) can be understood as feminist if they occur on the backs of women in war zones.”
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Command Sgt. Maj. Harold “Ed” Jarrell has been relieved as the senior enlisted for the Army’s 1st Information Operations Command, an Army spokesperson confirmed, marking the third time within a month that the Army has fired a command sergeant major of a brigade or larger unit.
Jarrell was relieved on Tuesday “due to a loss of trust and confidence in his ability to lead effectively,” said Army Maj. Lindsay Roman, a spokeswoman for U.S. Army Cyber Command.
Jarrell’s firing comes one week after Command Sgt. Major Veronica E. Knapp was relieved as the senior enlisted leader for Joint Task Force-National Capital Region/United States Army Military District of Washington. On July 16, the Army also fired Command Sgt. Maj. Matthew Carlson,the former senior enlisted leader for the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vicenza, Italy.
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No information was immediately available about the specific reason why Jarrell had been relieved. Military.com first reported on Thursday that Jerrell had been fired.
In all three recent firings, Army officials used the “loss of trust and confidence” euphemism to explain why the senior enlisted leaders were fired. The military branches often avoid saying exactly what has prompted officers and enlisted leaders to be relieved.
Jarrell enlisted in the Army National Guard in 1999 and transferred to the active-duty army 10 years later, according to his official biography. He is a former instructor at the U.S. Army Ranger School and he has deployed eight times in support of the Global War on Terrorism.
His military decorations include two Bronze Star Medals, five Meritorious Service Medals, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, five Army Commendation Medals, four Army Achievement Medals, six Army Good Conduct Medals, the National Defense Service Medal, Afghan Campaign Medal (4 Campaign Stars), Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal (1 service star), Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Korean Defense Service Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal (with “M” Device), Armed Forces Service Medal, Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon (Numeral 5), Army Service Ribbon, five Overseas Service Ribbons, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Medal (1 service Star), Joint Meritorious Unit Award (2nd award), Valorous Unit Award, two Meritorious Unit Citations, and the Army Superior Unit Award.
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The Navy is telling its aircrews they should push back if their flights are assigned a call sign that could be considered in bad taste after the crew of an E-6B Mercury — sometimes called a “Doomsday” plane — had to change a lewd call sign mid-flight this week, according to Naval Air Forces.
“Going forward, aircrews are being advised to challenge call signs that may be perceived as unprofessional or inappropriate,” said Cmdr. Beth Teach, a spokeswoman for Naval Air Force Pacific Fleet.
The Navy E-6B began broadcasting the “IDICK69” call sign on Monday before it took off from Travis Air Force Base in California, said Ian Petchenik, a spokesman for the flight tracking service Flightradar24.
In-flight call signs are a formal and routine part of both military and civilian aviation, and are different from the nicknames that military pilots assign to each other, which are also known as ‘call signs.’ Pilots use a flight’s call sign when speaking to air traffic controllers, and program the call sign into their navigation equipment, which can be tracked by civilian flight tracking services.
The E-6B continued to use the “IDICK69” call sign until it approached Amarillo, Texas It then switched to another call sign, STOB7, until it landed at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, Petchenik told Task & Purpose.
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Tinker is the home base for the Navy’s E-6B fleet, which flies in Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadrons 3 and 4. They are the Navy’s largest plane, based on the now-mostly-retired Boeing 707 airliner. They can serve as a nuke-proof flying command post for national leaders to oversee a major war, hence their occasional label as a ‘Doomsday’ play. They also serve as a radio relay platform for signals to the Navy’s submarine fleet, for which the plane uses a five-mile long antenna trailing behind it as it flies. The planes fly with a crew of 22, according to an Air Force fact sheet.
Several flight trackers posted on social media about the “IDICK69” call sign, including @thenewarea51, who posted audio of the E-6B crew acknowledging its call sign to an air traffic controller.
Teach told Task & Purpose that the E-6B had been randomly assigned the call sign “IDIC69.” That spelling is slightly different from the “IDICK69” call sign detected by Flightradar24 and other flight trackers. Task & Purpose was unable to resolve the disparity between the two spellings.
Call signs that change every day are generated by computers and not vetted prior to being broadcast, Teach said.
“The lettering of the call sign was generated by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, independent of the numeric portion which was randomly assigned,” Teach said. “Once squadron leadership learned of the call sign designation, it directed the crew to change to alternate call sign ‘STOB7’ for the remainder of the flight.”
Though the Navy insists that the E-6B’s call sign was computer generated, the military has investigated past incidents of inappropriate call sign.
While some aircrews may consider them to be harmless jokes, raunchy call signs are easily detectable by commercially available flight tracking systems, and they can lead to career implications for service members.
In December 2022, U.S. Air Forces Central Command told Task & Purpose that it would take “appropriate action” after a KC-135 Stratotanker broadcast the call sign “Titties” during a flight over the Middle East. The aircraft’s official call sign was “Inmate 72.”
Prior to that incident, two other KC-135s transmitted the call sign “Boobies” in March 2022 while the planes were on the ground at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. That November, a B-1B Lancer also broadcast the call sign “Fuck0107” while on the ground at Tinker Air Force Base.
One thing is sure: In today’s social media environment,there is no longer such a thing as a private joke when it comes to call signs.
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A group of 13 women with over 100 years of military service between them are raising money for VA hospital programs with a 50s-style pin-up fashion calendar.
The 2025 Pin-Ups For Vets’ calendar features two Purple Heart recipients, an Army Lt. Colonel who served 39 months in Iraq on three deployments, and a 25-year Marine Corps veteran who lost their arm.
The calendar, in its fourth year, previously donated more than $120,000 to VA hospitals for new rehabilitation equipment. The 2025 calendar will raise funds for hospitals run by the Department of Veterans Affairs, veterans who are ill, injured or homeless and deployed troops and military spouses.
The annual project is a nod to vintage pin-up posters that featured famous women like Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable popularized during WWII. The posters were also seen as a morale booster for soldiers during the war to “remind young men what they were fighting for,” as one WWII blog put it.
The women who were part of the 19th annual calendar also used it as a chance to embrace their feminine side.
Arely Elrod, a 13-year Army veteran and former construction equipment mechanic, said she wanted to join the project after she found herself in an identity crisis after her military separation.
“Being in a male-dominated field, I felt the need to suppress my femininity in order to be taken seriously,” Elrod said. “I neglected myself in ways that caused me to become self-conscious. Being able to correlate beauty, brains and bravery in a calendar full of amazing women that are selflessly wanting to give back is such an honor.”
Former Army Sgt Arely Elrod in the 2025 Pin-Ups for Vets calendar.Miracle Holthouser, a 10-year Air Force veteran who served as an operations analyst briefer, recalled one interaction when she was packing up her bags to ship off. “Their response was, ‘I don’t think women should do men’s jobs,’” she said.
Despite women being officially allowed to serve in combat positions since 2013, Holthouser sees the pin-up calendar as a way to combat the narrative that women can’t or shouldn’t serve in certain military occupations.
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“You can get dolled up and you can get dirty. You can be pretty, and you can be smart, and you can be brave, all at the same time,” Holthouse said. “I mean just look at the women in these calendars, they have accomplished so much.”
Miracle Holthouser“These stellar veterans prove that brave is beautiful,” the group said in a release.
The 2025 calendars are available for purchase at PinUpsForVets.com.
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Army Ranger Joe Thach was driving to work Friday morning when traffic began to slow and billowing smoke erupted just ahead of him. It was, he realized, a car beginning to burn, with the driver stuck inside. The senior Ranger NCO leaped into the fiery wreck and pulled out an entrapped driver, almost certainly saving the man’s life.
Thach is no stranger to such moments.
For one, he’s an 18-year Army vet, with more than half that time at the 75th Ranger Regiment. His combat awards include a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star with V device.
But the wreck was also the third deadly car wreck he’d stumbled across since 2023. Earlier this year, he helped save a family whose car had run off a road into lake waters. A year before, he was the first person on the scene of a crash just down the road from his own house.
“I know that I’ve been involved in a few of these things, it just must be in my nature,” Thach told Task & Purpose. “I think it was just feeling privileged enough to to be able to show up and help, where it was needed, and having the opportunity to do that. Overall, it’s a privilege and I’m grateful that it happened so I could help my neighbor out. That’s really what I’d want somebody to help me out with, too.”
The burning car that Joe Thach pulled a man from on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. As Thach rendered aid, the man said he was a veteran of fighting Fallujah, Iraq. (Photo courtesy of Joe Thach) An uneventful commuteThach was on his way to work at a law enforcement training center where he works as an instructor outside of his Army position. Though Interstate 5 in Tacoma, Washington is usually busy, traffic had slowed to a crawl.
“I kind of rolled my eyes, like, another day in the [pacific north west], just traffic for no reason,” Thach said. “Then I noticed through all the brake lights that thick, dark cloud of smoke starting to build a little bit. I was like, ‘Huhh, okay, that’s a little bit weird.’”
He switched to the HOV lane and sped ahead for a better look. The smoke was from a single car, with a fire engulfing the engine compartment.
Though a state trooper was on scene, Thach realized a man was still in the car with no one trying to free him.
“Nothing was happening. So that was the deliberate decision point. Like, nobody’s helping, so I’m likely needed. So that’s probably me,” Thach said. “So I stopped, grabbed the aid bag, ran out and saw a single occupied vehicle and made a quick visual assessment, and removed him from the fire that was starting to build.”
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The fire was rapidly spreading into the passenger compartment of the car and Thach knew time was limited.
“As I walked up, you could smell the burning plastic and aluminum and the heat of the fire was building,” Thach said. “After looking at that, I thought, ‘Yeah, time to get this bro out of here.’”
The damage to the vehicle had pinned the driver side door, but Thach pried it open and freed the man inside. As he pulled the man away from the burning car, the driver picked up on Thach’s military presence and told him that he too was a veteran, and had fought in Fallujah.
“He said he was 44, and, he was in a pretty bad way,” Thach said. “I kind of felt for him because he probably had a lot of bad days before, if he in fact had been in Falujah. But this morning is like one of the worst days of his life, colliding into a wall, trapped inside a burning vehicle.”
The two had a moment of bonding over serving in the military as Thach medically assessed him from head to toe for injuries. The driver was semi-conscious and Thach covered him with a burn blanket. In total, Thatch figured he was on scene for about 10 minutes. By the time firefighters arrived, he said, the car was completely engulfed in flames.
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Army Lt. Col. Roderick Vinson, whose military career spanned 37 years, died Aug. 11 while exercising near his off-base residence in Sumter, South Carolina, Army officials announced.
Investigators do not suspect foul play in connection with Vinson’s death, according to the Sumpter Police Department and County Coroner’s Office. His autopsy is scheduled for Thursday. The coroner’s office said it may take a while for test results to determine the exact cause of his death.
Task & Purpose was unable to reach Vinson’s family on Wednesday, but an Army news story from 2011 on Vinson from 2011 detailed his commitment to charity work, even while deployed, after he became the father of premature twin boys.
Vinson’s twin boys were born premature, weighing only 2.9 and 3.1 pounds, and they spent between five to six weeks in the hospital, he said for the Army news story. He was deployed at the time and it was a very stressful situation for his wife. He credited the March of Dimes for helping to advance technology to support his sons and other premature babies, and collected donatsion for the charity wile deployed to Afghanistan in 2011.
“I do not believe people fully appreciate how special children are, and the struggles people have to not only have them but to keep them healthy,” Vinson said. “March of Dimes helps to provide this special gift to parents.”
Vinson, 55, was a reservist in a Contingency Active Duty for Operational Support (CO-ADOS) status assigned to U.S. Army Central, or ARCENT, at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, at the time of his death. During his tenure at ARCENT, Vinson served in the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention section, the safety directorate, and he worked in the G-4 logistics directorate.
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“The ARCENT Family is devastated by the untimely passing of Lt. Col. Roderick Vinson, a beloved member of our team and an incredible leader in the organization,” Col. Jason Squitier, ARCENT’s deputy chief of staff, said in a statement. “He left an enormously positive impact on every person with whom he interacted, and we miss him dearly. We send our condolences to his family and friends, and our prayers are with them during this difficult time.”
Originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, Vinson enlisted in the Army in 1987 as a Fighting Vehicle Infantryman, and he was commissioned as a Transportation Officer in July 1999, according to his service record, which was provided to Task & Purpose. His final Military Occupational Specialty was a Logistics Officer.
He served in the Army National Guard from September 1987 to June 2009, and he spent the remainder of his military service in the Army Reserve. Vinson was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 2017 and assigned to ARCENT the following year.
Vinson deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, Qatar, and Kuwait during his Army career, his service record says.
Vinson’s military awards include the Iraq Campaign Medal with two Campaign Stars, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal with Campaign Star, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, four Army Commendation Medals, three Army Achievement Medals, three Army Reserve Components Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal with Bronze Star, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Humanitarian Service Medal, two Armed Forces Reserve Medal with M-device, the NCO Professional Development Ribbon, the Army Service Ribbon, four Overseas Service Ribbons, and the NATO Medal.
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Task & Purpose is proud to unveil the first episode of its ‘Between Two T-Walls’ interview series. In an interview conducted in Baghdad, Army Maj. Gen. Joel “JB” Vowell, the commanding general of Operation Inherent Resolve, discusses the U.S.-led mission against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
See the entire episode here:
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Sunisa “Suni” Lee, 21, won a gold and two bronze medals during the 2024 Tokyo Olympics, her second time medaling in gymnastics after taking the Olympic all-around gold in 2020.
In both games and over the course of her career, the loudest cheers for Lee’s success have come from St. Paul, Minnesota, where Lee grew up in the city’s Hmong community. Lee is a first-generation Hmong American, the daughter of Hmong refugees John Lee and Yee Thoj. Like many Hmong families in St. Paul and a handful of other close-knit communities, her parents arrived in the U.S. as part of a little-remembered Vietnam War evacuation of Hmong soldiers and their families who had fought alongside U.S. troops in the “Secret War” in Laos.
Nearly all Hmong communities in the U.S. today trace their roots to the conflict.
The Secret War and Hmong solidersFrom 1963 to 1975, the CIA and U.S. military recruited Hmong soldiers for their military skills and knowledge of the terrain in Laos. Former CIA Director William Colby credited Hmong allies with saving thousands of U.S. soldiers by blocking the North Vietnamese from extending the Ho Chi Minh Trail into Laos. However, they were not fully acknowledged for their role in the war until the early 1980s.
“For 10 years, [Royal Lao Army Gen.] Vang Pao’s soldiers held the growing North Vietnamese forces to approximately the same battle lines they held in 1962,” Colby said in during the speech. “And significantly for Americans, the 70,000 North Vietnamese engaged in Laos were not available to add to the forces fighting Americans and South Vietnamese in South Vietnam.”
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In 1975, many Hmong-Lao allies fled to Thailand as refugees, escaping the persecution and retaliation of the Lao communist government. But it wasn’t until late 1975 that some of the high-ranking Hmong allies were granted refugee status in the U.S. Still, thousands remained in Thailand refugee camps where horrible conditions existed.
Starting in 2004, thousands of Hmong refugees were granted asylum status in the U.S. through the efforts of religious and non-profit groups. Today, 368,609 Hmong Americans reside in the U.S. Sunisa Lee’s success in the Olympics is a strong representation of the Hmong people and their ability to not only adapt to Western culture but also represent America on the world stage.
An Olympic role modelBo Thao-Urabe, the founder and former executive director of the Coalition of Asian American Leaders, was interviewed by PBS NewsHour on Jul 29, 2021, about Lee’s impact on the Hmong community following her gold medal during the 2020 Olympics.
“I think her father has told the stories of how much they have worked to support her and really to believe in our dreams, even building the beams for her out of what they had at home because they couldn’t afford to buy it,” Thao-Urabe said. “It’s really an American story, and we couldn’t have really could not be prouder of Suni and her parents.”
Thao-Urabe talked about Lee’s public statements about the Hmong community being unseen in America. She described the Hmong culture as being an oral one where stories about their people are passed from person to person rather than writing it down.
“I am so grateful for Sunni really embracing all of who she is and to always say that she is Hmong and that she carries that with her. That is, I think, what makes her so special because sometimes our young people don’t always understand and don’t know that story,” Thao-Urabe said. “But I see her, and she is proud to say she is Hmong-American, and she carries that story of her parents and her ancestors, and that has given everybody so much inspiration and support.”
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In a move meant to boost fighting spirit in new Air Force and Space Force recruits, basic trainees are now issued M-4 rifles early in boot camp which they carry and maintain throughout the course at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. Carrying a weapon through boot camp is a long-standing practice in the Army and Marine Corps, but has been an on-again, off-again policy at the Air Force’s Basic Military Training course, or BMT, which inducts its enlisted members into military life.
The new Trainer Weapon Program, which issues trainees inert M-4s, was reinstituted on July 29 by 737th Training Group Commander, Col. Billy Wilson Jr. Potential airmen and guardians will now be issued the rifles after a weapon familiarization course and carry it for seven-and-a-half weeks of basic training.
“Incorporating practice weapons into realistic scenarios in a controlled environment builds confidence, corrects errors, and manages stress by providing regular practice that reduces hesitation and increases combat effectiveness,” Wilson said in an Air Force release.
Air Force recruits carried weapons in boot camp beginning in 2005 but the practice was ended in 2012. Wilson said that getting new recruits used to handling weapons instills a warrior mindset, even among those who might never carry a weapon in their eventual jobs.
“It’s crucial for National Security to inculcate a warfighter mindset immediately upon arrival,” Wilson said. “When they march down the Bomb Run during graduation from Basic Military Training, Aimen and Guardians will feel better prepared for the operational environment they are about to enter.”
U.S. Air Force Basic Military Training trainees carry weapons at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland on August 2, 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Ava Leone) Ava LeoneTrainees receive the M-4 after they complete their initial weapon familiarization course in the first week of training. Once trainees receive the dummy rifle, they are expected to carry it throughout the rest of basic military training. The only exceptions are medical or processing appointments or when wearing their blue service uniforms. Trainees store the weapons in assigned dorm wall lockers.
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Wilson said the program has received positive feedback from trainees and instructors and fosters a “combat-ready mindset.”
The Air Force said the trainer program is part of the service’s changes to “education and practical experiences with realistic, scenario-based training.” An Air Force spokesperson said the program was reinstated for trainees to practice being responsible for their weapons,x which includes maintaining and securing them.
“The renewed focus on weapons handling and accountability represents another opportunity for skill reinforcement, allowing trainees to gain valuable experience in a safe practice environment,” Wilson said.
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U.S. troops might become more physically fit if military installations banned cheeseburgers and other fast food, according to the military’s highest ranking enlisted Marine. Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Troy E. Black, made the comments on a popular military podcast.
“If you want to reduce obesity, serve different types of food at the chow hall,” Black told hosts Alex Morrow and Drew Hammond during an Aug. 4 episode of the MOPs & MOEs podcast. “Remove immediately all fast-food restaurants from all installations.”
Black discussed fast food during a wide-ranging interview on the podcast about the Pentagon’s role in promoting physical fitness in the ranks and human performance programs. Black was not announcing or proposing changes to current food line-ups on bases across the military but rather expressing his personal views on nutrition’s role in fitness. .
Just as squad leaders are responsible for making sure their troops have enough water and rest, Black said, the Pentagon needs to set requirements for human performance standards. Because human performance is essential to wartime success, Black said, the Defense Department needs policies that support troops’ physical, mental, social, spiritual, and behavioral needs..
Black said that military dining facilities are required by contract to provide well-balanced meals that are high in macronutrients. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t compete with a cheeseburger,” he added.
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“If you go into a SOF [special operations forces] installation – I’ve been to a couple of them – none of that stuff exists there because the primacy of the performance of that individual – not just physically – but every decision that they do, the investment in that individual is so great, they can’t afford to exception in these other areas within their span of control,” Black said.
Obesity is a problem for both the military and the American public in general. A 2023 study from the American Security Project think tank in Washington, D.C, found that 68% of U.S. service members were obese or overweight.
Between 2012 and 2022, obesity rates for active-duty troops more than doubled from 10.4% to 21.6%, the study found. Meanwhile, eating disorders among troops also increased by roughly 79% between 2017 and 2021.
FILE: Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Troy Black, speaks at an all-call on Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, Jan. 9, 2024. (Airman 1st Class Madeline Baisey/US Air Force) Airman 1st Class Madeline Baisey“Despite being a chronic disease with several FDA-approved treatment options, antiquated body composition policies and stigma prevent effective treatment of obesity within the Armed Forces,” according to the study.
Black could not be reached to comment for this story. The Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman position was created in 2005 as the designated highest-ranking enlisted member in the military — outranking each service’s senior enlisted advisor — and is filled on a rotating basis by senior enlisted members from each military branch.
As SEAC, Black advises Air Force Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on issues related to enlisted service members. He is the fifth person to serve as the Senior Enlisted Leader to the Chairman.
Black is not the first senior military leader to suggest eliminating fast food options for troops. In 2010, Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then the commander of all U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, banned Burger King and Pizza Hut from Kandahar Airfield.
McChrystal was fired shortly thereafter for a disastrous Rolling Stone interview in which he and his staff were portrayed as disparaging the civilian chain of command, including then-Vice President Joe Biden. The fast-food restaurants returned to Kandahar following his dismissal.
During his podcast interview, Black suggested that the U.S. military could educate troops to think about nutrition differently and then “eliminate all the challenges to that.”
“Sometimes too many options is not good for our performance,” Black said.
But when Black was asked why the military doesn’t get rid of fast food on bases, he explained that those restaurants generate non-appropriated funds – which do not come directly from Congress – that pay for amenities for troops and families, including base swimming pools.
Without that source of funding, the military would have to ask Congress for money to fund morale, welfare, and recreational programs, he said, adding that appropriated funds are for warfighting needs.
“With almost $1 trillion, you can do a lot of things,” Black said. “But can you have softball, soccer, swimming pools, gyms? Can you have that kind of stuff in an appropriated budget? Are those things requirements for the Department of Defense?”
The latest on Task & Purpose
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- A guide to all the parachutes that American paratroopers ‘ride to work’
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A 10th Mountain Division soldier has been charged with the murder of a fellow soldier at the Fort Drum, New York base, Army officials said.
Spc. Riley Birbilas was charged Monday in the murder of Spc. Jacob Ashton. Both served as infantrymen assigned to 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment in the 10th Mountain’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team.
Ashton was found dead on Fort Drum on Aug. 5. Officials did not release additional details about his death.
Birbilas was booked in the Oneida County jail Aug. 9, according to the county’s inmate search tool. He was formally charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice with premeditated murder and obstruction of justice on Aug. 12, according to Fort Drum officials. Birbilas is being held in pretrial confinement as he awaits his preliminary Article 32 hearing.
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Birbilas joined the Army in 2021 and has been deployed to Iraq once.
Ashton enlisted in 2021 and deployed with 2nd Brigade Combat Team to Iraq in 2023. His awards and decorations include Combat Infantry Badge, Army Commendation Medal with C Device, the National Defense Service Medal, Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal, Global War of Terrorism Service Medal, the Army Service Ribbon.
The Army Criminal Investigation Division is looking into the case. CID officials did not provide any further information.
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On Wednesday, Aug. 14, Task & Purpose will publish the first edition of a new interview series with military leaders and newsmakers, ‘Between Two T-Walls.’ Our first episode is a wide-ranging, sit-down interview between Pentagon reporter Jeff Schogol and Army Maj. Gen. Joel “JB” Vowell, who we spoke to as he was finishing a one-year stint as the commanding general of Operation Inherent Resolve.
We modeled the show’s format on the deadpan celebrity interview show “Between Two Ferns,” hosted by Zach Galifianakis. And you probably have seen a ‘highlight reel’ of Jeff fearlessly questioning recalcitrant Pentagon spokespeople. But while ‘T-Walls’ will have its share of tongue-in-cheek downrange humor, it’s also a news interview between our expert journalists and the military leaders whose decisions can directly affect anyone in uniform.
We sent the one and only @JSchogol73030 to Baghdad, Iraq, to interview the then-commander of Operation Inherent Resolve Major General Vowell.
Presenting "Between Two T-Walls."
Full video coming tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/r3eTq2yUzE
— Task & Purpose (@TaskandPurpose) August 13, 2024
The first episode with Gen. Vowell was filmed this summer at the end of Vowell’s year-long command of OIR (he left the post last week). As OIR commander, Vowell oversawthe US-led mission to defeat the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. Troops under Vowell’s command have faced attacks on their bases while carrying out scores of raids and airstrikes on ISIS targets.
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In ‘Between Two T-Walls,’ Vowell discusses the motives and pressure of Iranian militia groups attacking U.S. forces in the region, whether the United States can deter Iran the same way it contained the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and the tactical lessons his command learned from a drone attack in January that killed three soldiers at a base in Jordan.
Schogol also asked Vowell what he would tell those who served in the Global War on Terrorism who wonder if their service was worth the sacrifice, a question that many veterans of the post 9/11 wars continue to struggle with.
"Between Two T-Walls" got to the bottom of Russia's involvement in Syria and their harassment of US troops…
Bottom line is, they need to get over "Rocky IV" pic.twitter.com/VCeLPnRdg6
— Task & Purpose (@TaskandPurpose) August 13, 2024
The full video will be released Wednesday. See it first by subscribing to our newsletter.
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Command Sgt. Major Veronica E. Knapp has been relieved as the senior enlisted leader of the sprawling military task force responsible for defense and day-to-day military operations in Washington D.C. following an investigation, an Army spokesman said. Knapp made news in 2021 as the first woman named Command Sgt. Major of the 101st Airborne Division. She was in a similar role for the Joint Task Force-National Capital Region/United States Army Military District of Washington, or JTF-NCR/USAMDW.
Knapp was relieved on Aug. 8 as result of the Army 15-6 investigation “due to a loss of trust and confidence in her leadership,” said Bernhard “Lash” Lashleyleidner, a JTF-NCR/USAMDW spokesman. No further information about exactly why Knapp was relieved or what the investigation found was immediately available. All military branches nearly always use the phrase “loss of confidence” when leaders are relieved rather that specify wide range of reasons from personal off-duty conduct mistakes
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The JTF-NCR/USAMDW’ is a sprawling military organization established after the 9/11 attacks as a central hub for defense and day-to-day military operations around Washington D.C. Its leaders — who are traditionally an Army two-star general as the overall commander and Navy admiral as their deputy — oversee military units from every branch, several installations and civilian defense agencies whose duties range from ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetary to responding to emergencies with military police and technical rescue teams to establishing mobile command posts for major D.C. events or emergencies.
Knapp was the senior enlisted advisor on the JTF-NCR/USAMDW command staff. Sergeant Major Eberhard G. Nordman, the JTF-NCR/USAMDW’s provost marshal, has been named as her acting replacement.
Knapp enlisted in the Army in 2000 and has deployed to Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Romania, according to her official biography, which has been taken down from the JTF-NCR/USAMDW website. She is a graduate of the Drill Sergeant Academy, and she became the first woman to serve as command sergeant major of an Army division in 2021 when she assumed the role of senior enlisted leader for the 101st Airborne Division in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Her military awards include two Legions of Merit, nine Army Achievement Medals, seven Army Good Conduct Medals, five Army Commendation Medals, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, NATO-ISAF Medal, and Meritorious Unit Commendation.
CORRECTION: 08/12/2024: An earlier version of this story inaccurately reported that Knapp had received seven National Defense Service Medals.
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BAGHDAD – The Paris games may be over, but Marine Capt. Riley Tejcek is already training for the 2026 winter Olympics, even while deployed to Iraq, one of the hottest countries in the world.
Tejcek, 27, is already the first female Marine to be part of a world championship Bobsled team. Now she has set her sights on the U.S. Olympic Bobsled team for the 2026 games in Italy. As a Marine, she is in Baghdad as a logistics officer supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led mission to defeat the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
She also faces a handicap some other would-be military Olympians don’t: unlike the Army and Air Force, the Navy and Marine Corps do not have a specific program for Olympic hopefuls to train full-time. Would-be Olympic Marines and sailors must train on their own while in the fleet.
To meet that, Tejcek’s routine in Iraq includes 90 minutes of intense physical training everyday on top of 15-hour workdays.
“How I’ve been able to deconflict is knowing where my priorities are: I’m a Marine first, and that was my No. 1 priority,” Tejcek told Task & Purpose in June. “However, the Marine Corps has been extremely supportive in allowing me to continue to pursue bobsled as I’ve competed in two world championships, made the national team, and have been the first female Marine to compete in world championships, trying to be the first female Marine to compete in the Olympics.”
Tejcek competes in one- and two-person teams. The event begins with racers pushing their bobsled, which weighs 400 pounds or more, down a narrow ice-covered track built specifically for the sleds. Tejcek is a bobsled pilot, so her job is to navigate corners and turns at up to 100 miles per hour and avoid crashing into walls. In addition to her physical training, she often views videos of various courses to memorize each turn.
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It’s an extremely dangerous sport, but as a self-confessed “adrenaline junkie,” Tejcek likes that the stakes are so high.
“We have done a lot of scientific research that shows every single run we go to, we experience 5Gs, minimally, which is very similar to fighter pilots,” Tejcek said. “So, I do that multiple times a day; several times in competition. And then when you crash, you actually can experience up to 45Gs due to the head trauma against the ice and moving that quickly. So, I’ve had my fair share of that.”
Marine Capt. Riley Tejcek sprinting as part of her Olympics training while deployed to Iraq. (Photo courtesy of James Silson/Riley Tejcek) As much as Tejcek wants to compete in the Olympics, she still volunteered to deploy to Iraq, even though it meant she would miss three Bobsled competitions this fall.
“When I joined the Marine Corps – and like a lot of people when they join the military – I joined to be able to deploy and make a difference,” Tejcek said. “I have been blessed in my Marine Corps career to have opportunities and experiences that a lot of people have not because of bobsled. But what I felt like what I was missing when I was speaking at schools and universities and recruiting people to come in the armed forces was the fact that I didn’t have a deployment under my belt.”
For Tejcek, when an opportunity arose to go to Iraq as an operations officer – a billet that had previously been held by a lieutenant colonel – she decided it was worth the risk to her chances of making the U.S. Olympic Bobsled team.
“Timing is never going to be perfect in anything we do in life,” she said. “This is an experience of a lifetime I just didn’t want to miss in my professional career,”
Originally from Carmel, Indiana, Tejcek cites her strong religious faith as her secret to being able to serve her country while simultaneously going through the rigorous preparations for the Olympics – all with a broken foot that never properly healed.
The other Olympic hopefuls are currently at a training center, where they spend all their time getting ready for the next games, she said. They also have access to chiropractors and other treatment options that she does not.
But iron sharpens iron and Tejcek believes the challenges of training in Baghdad’s oppressive heat with poor air quality has made Tejcek a better athlete.
“I’ve been really focusing on trying to actually use it as a tactical mental advantage, honestly, knowing that the people I am competing with around the world have it much ‘easier’ than I do in terms of their surroundings and the circumstances they’re in,” Tejcek said. “It makes me feel like I already have an edge on them mentally.”
Marine Capt. Riley Tejcek (left) liaising with an Iraqi general officer. (Photo courtesy of James Silson/Riley Tejcek) Daytime temperatures in Iraq can exceed 120 degrees, so Tejcek does her rigorous physical training early in the morning, when it is slightly cooler. Her training involves a lot of short sprints for power and explosive lifts, including power cleans, quick squats, jumps, and plyometrics. She runs both outside as well on treadmills for hills.
Running on especially hot days can be extremely fatiguing, and not having access to a track means she must run without the spikes on her shoes that she would use on the ice for pushing the bobsled. The concrete surfaces that she runs on can also aggravate her old foot injury.
“It makes it difficult to run on concrete with speed bumps around and having your weapon within a certain radius and try to worry about no one taking that,” she said with a laugh.
Adding to the difficulties she faces, Tejcek has found that her Marine Corps physical training is often at odds with her bobsled training.
“What the Marine Corps demands of me physically is very opposite of bobsled,” Tejcek explained. “So, bobsled wants me to be big, fast, quick, and explosive. The Marine Corps wants me to be lean, mean, and a fighting machine, and they want me to be able to run three miles in 21 minutes. Whereas bobsled wants me to be able to run 20 meters in a very short amount of time and be heavy, big, and powerful. Those don’t always overlap – slow-twitch vs. fast -twitch muscle fibers.”
Tejeck lost 10 pounds preparing for her physical fitness test before she deployed, and now she is trying to put on muscle.
Unlike the Army and Air Force, the Marine Corps does not have a World Class Athlete Program, which prepares service members for the Olympics and other sporting events while allowing them to remain competitive for promotion. The Marine Corps did not provide a comment for this story.
Tejcek said she has advocated for the Marines to start its own program that helps athletes.
“I’m hoping to be the leading charge in that force because I think – in the Marine Corps especially, no offense to anyone else – but we have some of the most physically fit people in the armed forces and I know that there are athletes among our ranks that would like the ability to do what I do, or at least have the ability to continue to do that.”
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The Pentagon released new rules for how close troops should be to blasts from explosions and their own weapons and announced a program of long-term cognitive testing for troops from early career onward to spot the effects of blast exposures.
The Aug. 8 guidance from Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks aims to limit the health impacts of exposure to heavy blasts — what the military calls “blast overpressure” — and give military doctors before-and-after data for troops who spend their careers around such blasts.
“Experiences by DoD personnel in training and operational environments demonstrate possible adverse effects on brain health and cognitive performance (e.g., headache, decreased reaction time, attention difficulty, memory loss) resulting from acute (e.g., single or short-term) and chronic (e.g., repetitive or continuous) exposure to [blast overpressure],” Hicks wrote in the memo. She cautioned that health effects of blast overpressure “are not yet fully understood, but adverse health and cognitive performance impacts have been reported.”
Blast overpressure is the shockwave generated from the kind of explosions and heavy weapons firing common in combat and training environments. Exposure can range from acute (single or short-term) to chronic (repetitive or continuous) and lead to health impacts ranging from headaches, decreased reaction times, to attention difficulties and memory loss in acute or chronic situations. According to the Defense Health Agency, low level blast exposure does not typically lead to diagnosable concussions or traumatic brain injuries but troops should be vigilant about any health symptoms they experience.
With the new guidance, troops should be aware of blast overpressure exposures over 4 pounds per square inch, or psi, which come from breaching charges, shoulder fired weapons, 0.50 caliber rifles/guns, and indirect fire weapons like howitzers and mortars.
The guidance follows the Department of Defense’s Warfighter Brain Health Initiative, stood up in 2022, to better understand the impacts of blast overpressure exposure on troops’ brains. The goal is to enhance servicemember’s health and performance as well as identify, mitigate and prevent traumatic brain injuries.
Safe distancesThe Pentagon guidance dictates the safe radial distances that troops should take when interacting with certain weapon systems. The new recommended stand-off distances for various weapons and explosives charges are:
- Breaching explosives: 13 feet
- Shoulder mounted weapons
- Multi-role Anti-armor Anti-personnel Weapon System: 16 feet
- Light Anti-tank 4 Confined Space: 10 feet
- Light Anti-Armor Weapon: 10 feet
- 0.50 Caliber Gun/Rifle: 7 feet
- M107 Sniper Rifle
- Heavy Machine gun (Trailer-mounted)
- MK15 Sniper Rifle
- Howitzers: Teams should be at a distance where pressure from blasts are measured at less than 4 psi (pounds per square inch)
- Mortars:
- M224 60 mm: 3 feet
- M252 81 mm: 7 feet
- M120/121 120 mm: 13 feet
- Mortar teams should be “as close to the ground as possible” to maximize the space below the tube’s muzzle
In addition to service members directly interacting with the weapon systems, the memo also calls for maximum stand-off distances “to the greatest extent possible” for non-training audiences and minimizing the number of personnel in the vicinity to avoid unnecessary exposure. It also calls for personal protective equipment for firers, trainers, and other personnel.
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Individual exposure mitigationThe latest DOD guidance also requires that new active and Reserve component accessions undergo cognitive assessments as part of their entry process. The Pentagon also wants to accelerate baseline cognitive assessments for “high-risk” active duty troops by the end of fiscal year 2025. Troops who regularly train with the highlighted weapon systems are at increased risk of blast overpressure exposure like infantry, field artillery, snipers, gunners, cavalry, weapon instructors, and ordnance specialists.
A separate report released earlier this month found that troops with artillery and ordnance jobs have the highest risk of suicide, a damning example of the connection between blast overpressure and mental health concerns.
The memo also calls for procedures to help troops identify blast overpressure symptoms, report them and seek medical evaluations.
More attention The issue of troops’ brain and mental health from blast exposures and TBIs have garnered more attention in recent years. Congress has introduced legislation aimed at improving oversight and resources for TBIs and head trauma following the deadliest mass shooting in Maine committed by an Army reservist.
“In Maine, we know all too well the horrible tragedies that can occur, like in Lewiston, when TBIs are left untreated,” Independent Sen. Angus King said in a release about the bill.
However, last month, when the Inspector General released its official review of the events leading up to the mass shooting committed by Sgt. First Class Robert Card, officials distanced itself from his brain health. The IG included a 2008 incident where Card fell from a roof and broke his neck and noted that Card “was not exposed” to combat environments. Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels, Chief of the Army Reserve said Card’s exposure to shock was “relatively minor.” She referred questions on his brain health to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center which is conducting a forensic autopsy.
Meanwhile, a Boston University research analysis of Card’s brain tissue found that he had “significant evidence of traumatic brain injuries” which they suggested could be from his exposure to “thousands of low-level blasts” as an Army instructor for a grenade training range.
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The Food and Drug Administration announced its decision on midomafetamine-assisted therapy, commonly called MDMA-AT, late Friday afternoon. The FDA chose not to approve the drug for helping treat post-traumatic stress disorder. The announcement caused an uproar throughout the veteran community. Non-profit groups Heroic Hearts Project and Healing Breakthrough released a direct response soon after the FDA announced their decision.
“This is the epitome of bureaucratic red tape – and the result is people will keep dying. MDMA-AT is the most effective treatment ever developed for PTSD, a condition at the core of the Veteran suicide crisis that claims over 17 lives each day,” their joint statement said.
MDMA is a psychoactive drug and is the main active ingredient in illegal drugs like ecstasy, though law enforcement often finds a mix of other illegal drugs laced into the illicit street drug. However, many trauma specialists and a wide community of veterans believe MDMA can alleviate mental conditions that often afflict veterans, such as PTSD and depression.
The FDA’s decision came after an FDA Advisory Committee voted against the drug’s approval in early June. The FDA didn’t officially say no to the bid but requested an additional Phase 3 trial, echoing the advisory committee’s comments about the efficacy of the research presented to the FDA. They claimed the studies were flawed and could have skewed results, along with concerns over missing follow-up data on patient outcomes and a lack of diversity in the trial group.
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61 members of the House of Representatives and 19 Senators sent two bipartisan letters to President Joe Biden on Aug. 5, urging for FDA Approval to “follow the science” of MDMA-AT to be implemented to treat post-traumatic stress disorder.
Those two letters were accompanied by another letter from Healing Breakthrough, penned by over 700 veterans and 14 veteran service officers with a similar message.
Though the FDA denied it, they are requesting another Stage 3 trial to be completed before they would reevaluate their findings. Healing Breakthrough and the Heroic Hearts Project joint statement struck back at the delay in approving MDMA-AT.
“The FDA’s decision is a missed opportunity to embrace groundbreaking science, save countless Veteran lives, and honor the sacrifices made by those who served our country,” the statement continued. “If this critical treatment remains inaccessible, we face losing an additional 6,000 Veterans to suicide this year alone — and every year thereafter.”
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American paratroopers use a wide range of parachutes. Large formations use quick-snapping static line rigs whose designs date to the parachute regiments of World War II. Special operations teams train with highly maneuverable freefall canopies developed covert missions. We asked a pair of longtime paratroopers from both the regular Airborne and special ops world to tell us about the equipment they call their “ride to work.”
Sgt. 1st Class Eric Fair is the Operations NCOIC and the top jump master of the Airborne and Special Operations Test Directorate. Fair, with 22 years in the Army, has 114 static line jumps and 60 freefalls. But underneath them all, he said, is the same caliber of soldier.
“They choose to do it. They want to do this dangerous training, this dangerous part of the job — it’s just your ride to work is so much more dangerous,” Fair told Task & Purpose. “They’re willing to do that, and that separates paratroopers as a higher caliber of the individually driven soldier.”
But that ride to work starts at different altitudes and comes in all shapes and sizes.
Sgt. 1st Class Eric Fair poses for a photo as paratroopers prepare to load an AC-130 for a training static line jump with T-11 parachutes. (Photo courtesy of Eric Fair) Static line parachutesIf you’ve ever seen videos of a low-flying cargo plane filling the sky with parachutes on a single pass over a target, you’ve seen static line parachutes. These relatively simple parachutes deploy automatically when a paratrooper exits the aircraft. The soldier has no role in “pulling the ripcord” because the parachute is pulled out of its container by a long webbing — the “static line” — that is locked to a guide wire inside the aircraft. The line pulls the parachute out as the soldier jumps, and the parachute unfurls behind them immediately.
As a result, dozens or even hundreds of paratroopers can jump together, jumping within a second of each other.
“It’s for a mass tactical airborne operation, where you’re going to drop a battalion, a company, or larger at once,” Fair said. “You don’t want those people staring around in the night while they’re going into combat. Everybody drifts the same way, lands the same way, and where the release was is going to put you where you go on the ground, period.”
Fair pointed out that knowing exactly where paratroopers will land allows commanders to load machine gun teams onto a plane. They will be the first to land in the drop zone, and they can quickly secure the area.
Static line parachutes have evolved over the years, but still share obvious design principles with those used by the first paratroopers in World War II. The T-5 parachute was the main parachute used in that war. Several parachutes were tested before and after the T-5, but their malfunction rates increased as faster planes entered the service.
Today, paratroopers use the T-11 and MC-6 as main parachutes, while cargo is often dropped under a previous-generation T-10.
Paratroopers from 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, prepare for a mass tactical jump from a C-17 Globemaster III onto Salerno Drop Zone on Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Dec. 7, 2022. (U.S. Army photo/Spc. Lilliana Magoon) Spc. Lilliana MagoonT-10The T-10 was used for dropping paratroopers for over five decades. It became the primary parachute in the early 1950s and remained in use until 2014. The T-10 could deliver a paratrooper and their gear weighing up to 360 lbs. Fair said the standard combat drop altitude with the T-10 parachutes was as low as 500 feet above ground level.
That drop altitude is reserved for combat, and most training jumps happen at approximately 800 to 1,250 feet above ground level for fixed-wing aircraft but up to 1,500 for helicopters during training. Jumpers will use a 4,000 count before checking the canopy. If there’s a malfunction, they must immediately pull their reserve parachute cord when using the T-10.
The short altitudes only allow seconds before the paratrooper hits the ground, meaning major malfunctions demand immediate deployment of the reserve parachute. The most common malfunction is called a ‘cigarette roll,’ and the canopy does not correctly deploy due to the shape of a cigarette.
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“In the T-10 days, as long as you got out of that aircraft, because it was small, round, simple, and it opened so fast, you would get a cigarette roll if there was a little bit of a snafu in the packing, or, if it’s just older material,” Fair said. “It was ripping open so fast that the nylon would slide together quickly, causing friction, and it would actually melt to itself and not allow the canopy to open entirely. It looks like a wind sock or a floppy cigarette roll, where they coined the term.”
A U.S. Army Reserve paratrooper descends in his T-10 parachute as a New Jersey Army National Guard Black Hawk prepares to deploy more airborne Soldiers during a helicopter-borne parachute jump at Coyle Drop Zone, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., March 12, 2016. (U.S. Air National Guard photo/Tech. Sgt. Matt Hecht) Tech. Sgt. Matt HechtT-11In 2015, the T-11 parachute replaced the T-10 as a paratrooper’s ride to work. It is much heavier, has a larger, square canopy, and has a slower rate of descent than the T-10. While the T-10 is controlled via ‘slipping’ —pulling directly on the straps, or risers, of the parachute — the T-11 has steering tabs that pull down on the canopy, allowing some sort of control over the direction.
It also opens slightly slower, meaning paratroopers must wait two additional seconds before deploying their reserve parachute if they believe something is wrong.
The T-11 can handle up to 400 lbs. of total exit weight. Though the malfunction rate is approximately less than one out of every 10,000 jumps, the corner vent crossover is a dangerous malfunction unique to the T-11. The difference is that once the reserve fills, the T-11 parachute will typically fix itself, with the pressure on the main canopy being released by the reserve parachute.
“The T-11, because it has the corner vents and all that silk in the long opening sequence, we had a corner vent crossover inversion. Basically, the riser groups get out of sequence, and it inverts the canopy while it’s pulled through a corner vent,” Fair said. “That will not allow the skirt of the canopy to open, and it looks very similar to the cigarette roll.”
The T-10 is a fast descent where linear winds won’t mess with the paratrooper too much, whereas the T-11, with its 40×40 canopy, is greatly affected by linear winds and can result in the paratrooper landing on their back or side. Under the T-11, paratroopers fall at an average rate of descent of 19 feet per second, the T-10 at an average of 22 feet per second, and the MC-6 at an average of 14.5 to 18.5 feet per second. The impact is felt heavier with the faster rates of descent.
Paratroopers from the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, jump from a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster over Malamute Drop Zone, the primary drop zone for Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Sept. 19, 2013. (U.S. Army photo/Sgt. 1st Class Jason Epperson) Sgt. 1st Class Jason EppersonMC-6The MC-6 parachute is the other static line parachute currently in use, primarily by small special operations teams. It is much more steerable than the T-10 and T-11. However, it has more variables that a paratrooper must know how to handle.
If a paratrooper becomes oriented to the wind incorrectly, it will be towed by the wind and land far away from the drop zone. It can also experience similar malfunctions to the T-10 and T-11, where the parachute does not fully open, but like the others, it hardly ever happens.
Freefall parachutesC.J. Ouimette is a former instructor at the Military Freefall School, located at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. He retired after over 20 years of service, largely within SOF.
He started in the 75th Ranger Regiment and completed 37 static line parachutes before going to a unit where freefall jumps were common. He retired with 900 freefall jumps. He completed a combat freefall jump into Afghanistan in 2009, a rare mission over the course of the post-9/11 wars.
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Operating in the military freefall world, Ouimette says, is whole different ballgame than static line jumps.
“In the freefall world, there are so many more variables that go into each jump. When you’re talking about altitude conversions with MSL to AGL,” Ouimette said. “I mean, even just doing your calculations when you have declination on a map and converting your calculations from magnetic to grid in true. There are so many more things. So it takes an educated individual and a tight team to be good at this with a lot of practice.”
There are three main freefall parachutes to know. The Navy uses the MT2-XX, the Air Force and the Army primarily the RA-1, and the Marine Corps the PS-2.
“PS-2, in my opinion, is the most advanced parachute system out there,” Ouimette said. “It has a 5 to 1 glide ratio, versus, I believe, the non-standard parachute the Navy is trying to go to has a 3.5 to 1 glide ratio.”
Glide ratio is a function of lift and drag, which means that for every foot you move down, you move X number of feet forward. That translates to how far a freefall parachute can carry the operator from the point of parachute deployment. There are different body positions an operator can do to control their movement before deployment of the parachute.
A 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) Green Beret prepares to land after conducting freefall operations in the Artic Circle as part of the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center on March 31, 2023. Conducting freefalling operations in freezing temperatures prepares Green Berets to adapt and perform regardless of the adversities presented by the environment. (U.S. Army photo/Sgt. Luis M. Solorio) Sgt. Luis M. SolorioThe minimum pull altitude is the minimum altitude allowed before an operator must deploy their main parachute. The exit altitude for a military freefall insertion is a minimum of 6,000 feet above sea level, but there are more altitude classes starting at 12,500 feet to 20,000 feet above sea level.
Supplemental oxygen is required for jumpers aboard the aircraft starting at typical training altitudes of approximately 13,500 feet up to 20,000 feet — “except for C-130J models.” Anything from 20,000 to 25,000 feet requires pre-breathing of oxygen at an altitude lower than 10,000 feet for at least 30 minutes before they can jump. When a freefall insertion begins, the operators gauge their altitude as they descend using various wrist-bound altimeters.
Once they reach their pull altitude, they throw out the small pilot chute, which assists in pulling out and deploying the main parachute.
“The minimum pull altitude for the RA-1 is 4,500 feet. All those other parachute systems are 4,000 feet. Anything above 6,000 feet at deployment is considered deployment altitudes,” Ouimette said. Anything above 6,000 feet is considered a standoff. We don’t really call them [High altitude, High Opening] jumps as much anymore or [High Altitude, Low Opening] jumps. We’re now calling it a military freefall insertion because we use the same calculations for both.”
An operator can improperly pack the main parachute, causing a malfunction. A missing pilot chute handle is where it’s pushed up into the pack, where they cannot reach it while descending. There are several other mishaps that can happen, but they are rare. The primary emergency scenario is when a reserve is deployed, though Ouimette said there are over 20 other emergency procedures that can be implemented in one-off scenarios.
High, Low, or Hop-n-pop?The classic freefall mission for most teams is a High Altitude-Low Opening, or HALO, mission. A team flies on a plane at 10,000 feet or higher, invisible from the ground and clear of any danger from small arms fire (anti-aircraft missiles are a separate issue, addressed in mission planning). Once over a target, a team jumps together, freefalls until safely close to the ground, then deploys their parachutes together and flies quickly to a target. HALO jumps — with about a minute of freefall and close to five under canopy — are the jumps most similar to civilian “skydiving.”
But other missions can require other skills. Long referred to as High Altitude-High Opening, or HALO, or High Altitude, High Opening, or HAHO, these terms are used less often in the community now and they simply refer to freefall jumps as military freefall insertions. A HAHO jump, is used for more covert approaches to a target, or when their jump aircraft cannot approach directly over a target. A team might jump from their plane 20,000 feet or higher, and many miles away from a target. But by immediately deploying their parachute, they can fly together in a tight formation for dozens of miles before landing almost silently.
Such jumps require at least one jumper to fly with a compass and other navigation tools strapped to their chest, so they can navigate the team to the correct landing spot.
The hang time for a military freefall insertion can range from 30 minutes to 45 minutes depending on how high they jump from and how high they deploy their parachute.
“Let’s say, roughly, it takes about five to six minutes for a HALO jump. It all depends on the thermals. The longest I’ve been up is 45 minutes,” Ouimette said. “But that’s exit at 25,000 and pull at 1,500 feet of separation from the plane. Then you have however long it takes you to get to where you’re going. Whatever weight you have, and if it’s warmer out with warmer air rising, you’ll get more distance out of it.”
He explained that aggressive canopy pilots can get down faster, while a very light, passive canopy pilot can stay up longer. Military freefall jumps are designed for the clandestine insertion of SOF operators into a target area.
Lastly are low altitude jumps usually called “hop-n-pops” in which a team’s airplane flies directly over a target at just a few thousand feet. Jumpers leap out and, as soon as is safe, pull their ripcord for a quick flight to the target below.
Hop-n-pops are typical when a team is jumping with cargo equipment under its own, non-steerable parachute. The jumpers will essentially “chase” their cargo across the sky, landing as close as possible. The same technique is typically used in mid-ocean jumps, when teams are jumping to reach a ship below.
QualificationsOuimette said there is nothing in common between static line and freefall parachute operations.
“Other than the fact that you’re jumping out of an aircraft, they have nothing in common. You can literally train a monkey how to use a static line parachute. It’s not hard,” Ouimette said. “The Navy static line course they subcontract is only five days long. They get that shit done in five days, and the army takes three weeks to do it.”
However, a parachute is only one of many tools paratroopers will use to accomplish their mission. Each one serves a purpose, and depending on the mission, parachutes are chosen based on their capabilities and how they can serve the mission.
Soldiers must volunteer to attend Airborne School to join an airborne unit. Jump status comes with an additional $150 in the monthly paycheck, and paratroopers must complete one static line jump every 3 consecutive months to maintain jump status, though later amendments to Executive Order 11157 allowed commanders to waive one missed jump a year. Generally, the army expects paratroopers to jump at least every 90 days, and going more than 6 months without a jump might cost them their jump status and extra pay.
Three of the 250-foot towers that U.S. Army Airborne School recruits practice from during Tower Week. (U.S. Army photo/Patrick Albright) The Yuma Proving Grounds is where service members will attend the Military Freefall School. It’s located in Arizona, smack dab in the Great Sonoran Desert, where temperatures can regularly soar above 100 degrees. Service members on freefall jump status receive $225 dollars extra per month.
HALO-qualifed paratroopers generally make far more frequent training jumps than static-line paratroopers. Most paratroopers in airborne infantry units like the 82nd Airborne jump only in large formations, which usually involve elaborate training events, with support from large Air Force aircraft, often coming from far away. Teams that jump HALO can jump far fewer jumpers at a time, and generally have more frequent access to aircraft dedicated to their unit. Air Force pararescue teams, for example, routinely jump from HC-130 tankers from their own rescue units.
But regardless of the mission or jump types, says Fair, the key to every successful parachute mission is the paratrooper.
“I’ve spent minimal time outside of the airborne world, but the little bit I had, you can see a marketed difference between the two types of units in your overall formation — more individually driven, higher motivation, and more willing to go that extra mile,” Fair said. “If you’ve ever had the privilege to do anything in combat with these types of guys, it’s an amazing thing. They’re not going to shy away from things. They’re going to get the mission done. They’re going to help each other. I have never seen anything like it in my life.”
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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln and its carrier strike group to speed up its transit to the Middle East, as the United States prepares for a possible retaliatory strike by Iran against Israel following an assassination inside Tehran.
The Department of Defense announced the deployments on Sunday, Aug. 11, following a talk with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant. He also ordered the Ohio-class guided-missile submarine USS Georgia to the U.S. Central Command area of operations.
The carrier strike group was already set to head to the Middle East, but Austin ordered it to “ accelerate its transit to the Central Command area of responsibility.”
The orders come in the wake of Israel assassinating Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31. Iran has pledged to retaliate for the attack inside its capital. Meanwhile, alongside the now 10-month-long war in Gaza against Hamas, Israel has been carrying out attacks against the militant group Hezbollah inside Lebanon. In the last two weeks Israel has killed Hamas official Samer al-Hajj in southern Lebanon as well as a top Hezbollah commander, Fuad Shukr, in Beirut. The United States and partners in the Middle East are trying to get Israel and Hamas to negotiate, but the United States military has been sending additional forces to the region in anticipation of an Iranian attack.
The USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group will join the USS Theodore Roosevelt Strike Group, which was deployed to the Middle East earlier this summer to replace the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and its support ships. The USS Theodore Roosevelt was expected to leave the region, with the USS Abraham Lincoln replacing it, but the Pentagon’s announcement notes that the Lincoln will be “adding to the capabilities already provided by the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group.”
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It’s unclear how quickly the USS Abraham Lincoln will be able to reach the Middle East. It recently was in the Pacific Ocean this past week, including carrying out a joint drill with the Italian Navy’s Cavour Carrier Strike Group. The Department of Defense did not give an indication of how much quicker the ships of the strike group could complete their transit.
The strike group is carrying Carrier Wing 9, which includes one squadron of Marine Corps F-35Cs as well as three Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet squadrons, among other aircraft.
This past week approximately a dozen U.S. Air Force F-22 fighter jets arrived in the Middle East to bolster American forces there. The jets came from their home at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska.
The submarine USS Georgia is already in the Mediterranean Sea, having been there for roughly a week conducting training with special operations forces and Force Reconnaissance Marines, per the U.S. Navy.
The Pentagon previously took part in a multinational operation in April to take out more than 300 missiles and one-way attack drones fired by Iran and its partners toward Israel. That attack was in retaliation to an Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic building in Damascus, Syria. Elements from the U.S. Navy and Air Force, as well as Army troops stationed in Iraq, carried out dozens of intercepts.
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It was meant to be an eight-day mission. It might stretch well into next year.
This week NASA said that the space agency remains split on how to bring two astronauts back to Earth from the International Space Station, where they have been for two months. The two astronauts on the Boeing Starliner mission, Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams, are both Navy veterans with extensive experience piloting aircraft. They went up to the ISS in June on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, the ship’s first crewed launch. They are still on the station, waiting for NASA to figure out how to get them down.
“We don’t just have to bring a crew back on Starliner, for example. We could bring them back on another vehicle,” Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, said during the Aug. 7 press conference.
The Boeing Starliner mission carried Williams and Wilmore to space on June 5. It’s part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Capsule program. However, their Starliner capsule has had several issues. Its original launch date was pushed back twice, once because of an issue with an oxygen valve. Once in space, NASA discovered four helium leaks as well as several thrusters failing. NASA and Boeing have said the Starliner capsule is safe to travel in, but the exact issue behind its troubles hasn’t been determined and Williams and Wilmore remain on the ISS.
If the Starliner can’t be repaired to bring the two astronauts home, NASA is looking at another alternative. That would be SpaceX’s Dragon Crew-9 spaceship, which is currently scheduled to launch in September. But in that situation, Williams and Wilmore would still be on the ISS for some time. If the SpaceX option is chosen, only two of the four astronauts set for the launch would go, to give the two currently in space seats for the return flight. And that flight isn’t until February 2025, according to the current schedule.
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NASA is still determining what is the best option to safely bring Wilmore and Williams home. Launching ships into orbit remains an incredibly challenging endeavor requiring extensive planning, even after six decades of humans doing so. NASA has previously said that the two are not “stranded” on the ISS.
Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore (left) and Sunita “Suni” Williams aboard the International Space Station. (photo courtesy NASA) Wilmore, who flew missions for the Navy supporting Desert Storm and U.S. operations in Bosnia, previously served as a test pilot and instructor for both the Navy and the U.S. Air Force. He joined NASA in 2000 and already has two trips to the ISS under his belt. Williams, another retired Navy captain, flew helicopters on overseas deployments including as part of Desert Shield before becoming a test pilot. She also has done two space missions prior to the Starliner flight. Both retired from the Navy with the rank of captain.
Extended stays in space beyond the planned duration of a mission are not unheard of it. American astronaut and U.S. Army surgeon Francisco Rubio spent 371 days in space after the Soyuz spacecraft he traveled on suffered issues. It was more than a year before he returned to Earth in September 2023. . Williams and Wilmore almost certainly will not end up in a situation like Sergei Krikalev, a Soviet cosmonaut who was aboard the Mir space station when the Soviet Union collapsed. “The last Soviet citizen” spent 803 days in space before the Russian Federation was able to bring him back to terra firma.
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The Army is concerned that its soldiers are not getting enough sleep. Now another Army unit is working to make sure soldiers on staff duty get some shut eye.
This past week the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, based out of Fort Bliss, sent out a memorandum directing all soldiers who are on staff duty to get at minimum four hours of sleep during their shift. The memo, posted to social media by people at Fort Bliss, is a two-page document laying out the importance of sleep and what specifically is asked of soldiers on staff duty to do in order to meet the requirement. In order to do so, the staff duty NCO must create a schedule to allow for a rotation of sleep, and can step in if needed to make sure someone is on duty while all soldiers get their required rest.
The guidance, which cites both a Congressional study and the military’s own FM 7-22 field manual on health, says that the four hours of sleep are necessary to “preserve executive function and reduce the risk of vehicle and other accidents after they are relieved of duty.”
The move comes after the 18th Airborne Corps at For Liberty ordered mandatory sleep for soldiers on staff duty in mid May. Maj. David Nixon with 18th Airborne Corps first came up with the policy. He previously told Task & Purpose that the idea for it was to give direct guidance to an issue where there wasn’t a clear directive. He pointed to general risks from sleepiness when it comes to awareness, something that could easily be avoided by mandating sleep for soldiers on staff duty.
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The memo for the 11th ADA is nearly identical to the 18th Airborne Corps’. Alongside citing the reasons for the directive, it outlines some clear guidelines, including that “[u]nits are not authorized to hold their Soldiers past their shift to sleep.” Sleep is recommended during nighttime hours for the best results, and all soldiers who complete staff duty will still get a day off after their shift ends.
It’s well known, both through research and anecdotes, that soldiers or any service members don’t get enough sleep. The lack of rest is such an issue that the military is actively studying ways to make the sleep that soldiers do get more effective.
So far the guidances for getting sleep are being issued on a command-by-command basis, not from any wider Department of Defense directive.
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The federal government ended a rule that disqualified many disabled veterans from federal housing subsidies. On Thursday, Aug. 8, the departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development officially changed the rules so that disability checks would not push veterans’ income above the threshold to receive housing benefits.
The change comes after years of pushback from veterans and advocates for people experiencing homelessness. The now-rescinded rules kept some veterans experiencing homelessness from getting federal housing vouchers because their disability compensation was counted as income. So even though they were among the most in need of assistance, the support they were getting kept them from additional help in getting off of the streets. It essentially kept veterans in a kind of Catch-22, and it has been ruled as illegal.
The VA and HUD announced the change on Aug. 8, updating the rules to the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, which provides services and housing vouchers for veterans experiencing homelessness.
“No veteran should ever have to experience homelessness, but when they do, they should not face barriers to getting help they deserve,” HUD Acting Secretary Adrianne Todman said in the announcement. “This policy change will ensure that veterans who are receiving the disability benefits they earned through service and sacrifice can access the housing assistance and supportive services they need to resolve their homelessness.”
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There are 35,574 unhoused veterans nationwide, among the overall 653,000 unhoused Americans, per HUD’s 2013 data. Counts for 2024 have not yet been released.
“The days of a Veteran having to choose between getting the VA benefits they deserve and the housing support they need are finally over,” VA Secretary Denis McDonough said.
The VA and HUD decision during a major lawsuit against the VA playing out in Los Angeles. The suit, brought by 14 unhoused veterans, covers a wide range of issues tied to among other things housing for veterans on VA’s nearly 400-acre campus in Los Angeles. In May, Judge David Carter, the federal judge overseeing the case, ruled that the policy discriminated against disabled veterans. For veterans with 100% disability rating, who have no dependents, that compensation equals a little more than $40,000 per year. Under the previous rules, that went above the area median income limit for receiving HUD-VASH assistance. The lawsuit against the VA went to trial this month.
“Those who gave the most cannot receive the least,” Carter wrote in his May ruling.
Earlier this year the VA announced it aimed to house 41,000 homeless veterans this year. It is working to do so through a combination of providing more services to unhoused veterans, offering direct rental assistance for those at risk of falling into homelessness and expanding HUD-VASH vouchers.
According to the federal departments, the updated rules on disability compensation and vouchers went into effect immediately. It is not clear however when new vouchers will be given out based on these updated rules, or how long it will take for local agencies to update their own systems to account for the changes.
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A Marine corporal aboard a doomed MV-22 Osprey died in the moments after it crashed as he fought through flames to reach the aircraft’s trapped pilots. An investigation of the August 2023 crash in Australia found that Cpl. Spencer R. Collart, crew chief on the aircraft, survived the initial impact, but perished in an attempt to reach the plane’s pilots, who likely were already dead.
Collart “heroically re-entered the burning cockpit of the aircraft in an attempt to rescue the trapped pilots.” He died during this attempt and his autopsy showed “higher levels of combustion product inhalation.”
The August 2023 crash killed three Marines and left 20 others injured. It was the result of several errors by the pilots during a near mid-air collision, the U.S. Marine Corps’ investigation found.
The report, released late on Friday Aug. 9 and shared by I Marine Expeditionary Force, outlines the several points of failure that led to the deadly mishap. It points to a lack of oversight by several members of the squadron, from the commander to maintenance crews, that led to an aircraft that should have been deemed unsafe to fly participating in a training exercise.
On Aug. 27, 2023, one Marine MV-22B Osprey with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 363 (REIN), Marine Rotational Force-Darwin crashed on Melville Island. It killed pilots Maj. Tobin J. Lewis, 37, and Capt. Eleanor V. LeBeau, 29, and crew chief Cpl. Spencer R. Collart.
During the exercise, two MV-22Bs left Royal Australian Air Force Base Darwin. They were on their descent when the lead aircraft suddenly reduced power. The trailing tiltrotor plane nearly hit it, but executed a sharp bank to avoid a collision. It took two more sharp banks, suddenly experiencing 20-knot tailwinds. The MV-22B quickly stalled and under the weight and position crashed nose-first onto Melville Island.
From left to right: Marine Maj. Tobin J. Lewis. 37; Capt. Eleanor V. LeBeau, 29; and Cpl. Spencer R. Collart, 21, were killed on Aug. 27, 2023 when their MV-22B Osprey crashed in Australia. (Photos courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corps) “We will never forget Maj. Lewis, Capt. LeBeau, or Cpl. Collart, and their loved ones as we continue to provide the safest, most capable platforms to the men and women who fly them,” IMEF said in its statement on the report.
The 20 survivors, including 19 Marines being transported to another exercise point, survived with injuries. The fourth crew member was seriously injured.
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Lewis, who was commanding the Osprey that went down, was also serving as the in-flight instructor for the other MV-22. Investigators found that he had not reviewed the loadout for his aircraft, nor had he attended briefings on the mission.
Investigators found several issues with the maintenance of the MV-22s involved in the operation, particularly the one that crashed. The report said that the MV-22 was poorly maintained, so much so that it should not have been certified safe for flight. However, it was allowed to fly, and both Ospreys had approximately 2,000 pounds of additional fuel than planned. The investigation found that a senior maintenance officer — unnamed in the report — violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice by making up and signing off on a form after the fatal crash about the MV-22’s load.
The report recommends several actions in the aftermath of the crash. It found that Lt. Col. Joe Whitefield, who at the time was the commander for the squadron, did not review the falsified form ahead of the flight. As a result, investigators recommend administrative action against him for permitting “a culture that disregarded safety of flight procedures.”
The MV-22 crash in Australia was one of several fatal mishaps involving the Osprey across the U.S. armed forces. A reoccurring clutch failure in the gearbox has been a prominent problem, and one that the military has been trying to resolve or help crews find workarounds for. Earlier this month Air Force Special Operations Command released its investigation’s findings into a November 2023 CV-22 Osprey crash in Japan that killed all eight crew members. That incident was the result of extremely worn mechanical pieces inside the gearbox that resulted in the crash, not a clutch failure.
Investigators into the Marine Corps Osprey crash also recommend that the Marine Corps order a temporary stand down of Osprey squadrons, so that those squadrons can review the findings from the report.
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A North Carolina man has put a unique, historically-accurate wrap over his Tesla Cybertruck that honors the WWII bomber his grandfather piloted for 50 missions over Europe. The futuristic truck famously comes with no paint job on its all-aluminum body, a visual match to the skins of many B-24 Liberator bombers — including one B-24 whose crew dubbed it the “Silver Babe” assigned to the 449th Bomb Group in Grottaglie, Italy in 1944.
The pilot of Silver Babe was 1st Lt. Ken Kinsinger, the owner’s grandfather.
The owner of the all-electric vehicle decided to put a full-body wrap over the truck that features a near-perfect recreation of Silver Babe’s nose art, along with other distinctive unit markings. The wrap job uses the Cybertruck’s aluminum surface to simulate the B-24’s own aluminum surface, and even adds faux-rivets and traces of smoke and oil. A pattern on the hood recreates the B-24’s array of nose windows.
Though most B-24s were painted green during the war, the “Silver Babe” got its nickname because it remained — like the Cybertruck — paint-free. The plane was the 449th’s first all-aluminum ship with its silver coloring standing out among the sea of olive bomber planes. The non-painted bomber planes were actually a point of contention among crews who feared the lack of camouflage made them easier targets. Others argued that the paint was a waste of resources and cost precious time in the U.S. factories churning out planes as fast as possible. Studies by the Air Force found that the painted planes actually allowed certain aircraft like the B-17 to fly faster.
The B-24 known as Silver Babe. Along with the nose art, the Cybertruck echoes the yellow fuselage stripe, the triangular unit logo on the tail and faux-rivets. Photo from 449th.com. The truck’s owner has posted photos of the truck on Reddit and maintains an instagram account for it. The anonymous owner said he lives in the Raleigh, NC region but did not respond to direct messages and emails from Task & Purpose.
50 Combat Missions
Kinsinger was the pilot of Silver Babe’s 10-man crew. The same group picked it up from the factory, ferried it to Italy and flew it on 50 missions over enemy territory.
In 2004, at 88 years old, Kinsinger was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for piloting the Silver Babe on “an exceptionally dangerous mission” over the oil fields of Ploesti, Romania, in July 1944, according to an Air Force release. He flew the mission as the wing’s lead bomber with the wing commander, a colonel, alongside him in the cockpit.
The oil fields were a major target for the U.S. military at the time since the Romanian refineries produced 80% of Germany’s crude oil. Over the course of the war, 15th Air Force crews dropped more than 13,000 tons of bombs on the Ploesti oil fields which cost them 350 heavy bombers and more than 3,000 casualties.
The crew of Silver Babe. According to 449th.com, they are, standing (L to R), Ken Kinsinger, pilot; John Murphy, co-pilot, John Millerm navigator; Stanley Steinkamp, bombardier; George Wingard, flight engineer; Front Row (L to R): Gunners Gordon Adams, Dean Bebee, Harold Singleton, George Drude; Isador Seigel, radio operator. As they approached the target, enemy fire took out the B-24 engine’s turbo-chargers, causing the bomber to lose altitude. The flak was in front of the aircraft and took out the plane’s front Plexiglass but the crew continued on to lead the bombing raid. The group destroyed the oil refinery and was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for the mission.
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He was also awarded an Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters for completing 50 missions during his 1944 tour.
As a B-24 pilot, Kinsinger’s survival was a feat in itself. The 15th Air Force, which operated out of southern Europe, lost half of its fleet and crews in less than a year and a half, Lt. Gen. Bruce Wright, Air Combat Command vice commander, said at the ceremony honoring Kinsinger. During WWII, more than 52,000 airmen died in combat operations. A website dedicated to 449th history notes that Kinsinger’s unit alone lost 135 aircraft, with 393 crew members killed in action, 359 shot down and captured and 186 shot down who evaded capture and reached friendly territory.
First Lt. Ken Kinsinger with his daughter, Sandy Naber, during a medal presentation ceremony at Langley Air Force Base in 2002. Kinsinger received the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal he earned in 1944. Like many of the more than 16 million Americans who served in World War II, Lieutenant Kinsinger left post-war military service before his medals were presented. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Sam Bendet. Silver Babe was integrated into the 449th Bomb Group as a replacement ship flown in by Kinsinger and his crew from the now-decommissioned Hamilton Air Force Base, California. As novice pilots and crew, they ferried the plane from California to Brazil and then on a nightime, 12-hour, over-water flight to Europe before reaching their base in Italy.
But while Kinsinger and his crew made it home, Silver Babe did not. The plane was lost in December 1944 in the Yugoslavian mountains after suffering heavy flak damage over the oil refinery at Moosbierbaum, Austria. The entire crew bailed out and were returned by Yugoslavian Partisans on Jan. 5. 1945.
Kinsinger passed away in 2007, according to an online obituary.
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The Army is expanding the number of recruiting companies at its boot camps to increase throughput of potential soldiers. The service hopes they are hitting a turning point in the service’s recruitment efforts.
U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command officials said they plan to stand up four new basic training companies: two at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and two at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
The new basic training combat companies will accommodate up to 3,840 more trainees each year. The sites will begin training recruits in October and bring the Army’s total basic combat training companies up to 79.
The new units were announced months after Army officials told Congress that the new modernization and recruiting strategy overhaul showed encouraging signs — though exactly how encouraging is unclear. The Army has missed its recruit goals in recent years but Secretary Christine Wormuth told lawmakers that the service would hit its new, lower goal of 55,000 new soldiers. Of those, she said, 5,000 are coming from the delayed entry program. In previous years the Army missed its goals of 60,000 and 65,000 annual recruits.
Marek Posard, a military sociologist who previously studied personnel for the RAND Corporation, said that adding companies are a positive sign that recruiting is on the up for the Army. Posard said it shows the payoff of the service’s recent modernization efforts to its recruiting strategy which he also called “pretty impressive for a large bureaucracy like the Army.”
In October, Wormuth announced sweeping changes to the Army’s recruiting enterprise that included new recruiting military occupational specialties and consolidating the service’s marketing and recruiting under a three-star command to report directly to her office.
“This is not like working at Costco and that’s no offense to Costco. It’s a very unique type of employer that uses the tools of organized violence against others on behalf of our country,” Posard said. “It takes a professional, highly trained soldier to do that and I think it’s important that these types of efforts, that are very creative efforts by the Army, to find those who can meet those standards and meet the threats that are facing our country that are growing in number and diversity.”
The Army has also increased its investment into the Army Future Soldier Preparatory Course which helps recruits who do not meet initial recruit standards get up to par for basic training. The course is designed to help people who did want to enlist but did not meet academic or physical requirements to join the service. Students can train to meet body fat standards for the Army, or study to pass the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test.
Posard said the course is a creative way to build the force by helping potential soldiers meet requirements of a professional fighting force without lowering standards to get them there.
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“The Army can build them or you can buy them – incentives or you find where there is an opportunity to build leadership. I think things like the future soldier prep course is an example where you can build leadership that meets the high standards of the Army,” Posard said.
Earlier this week, the Army’s new enlisted recruiter 42T MOS signed contracts to train with companies like Amazon and Deloitte to learn ‘best practices’ from the private sector’s recruiting methods. The Army chose 25 soldiers who were previously recruiters to begin their new MOS training.
Last month, the Army’s first class of new warrant officers graduated from training. The 420T warrant officer positions will handle the Army’s behind-the-scenes data analysis which goes into the service’s recruiting formula.
Basic training companies can train a maximum of 240 recruits per cycle which happens four times a year, meaning the maximum number a company can handle is 960.
Roughly 117,000 recruits go through basic combat training each year with around 91.6% making it through initial training and their first unit assignment, according to TRADOC. For the ones that make it through the ten-week slog, they will go on to their Advanced Individual Training Schools or in a few cases return to their national Guard or Reserve units.
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The massive maritime wargame known as Rim of the Pacific, or RIMPAC, took place in the waters off Hawaii last month, involving 29 nations, over 40 ships, 25,000 personnel and at least one dude slayin’ it on his axe during underway ops.
The Navy has been releasing photos of the exercise for weeks, but our friends at TWZ — formerly The War Zone — alerted us to this photo taken from a U.S. resupply ship of a Chilean sailor’s impromptu jam session atop the Chilean Navy frigate Almirante Condell takes on fuel.
The photo was taken from the Military Sealift Command dry cargo/ammunition ship USNS Washington Chambers, according to the Navy, “during an underway replenishment operation.”
The Chilean ship has a history of encounters with the U.S. Navy. The Almirante Condell is a former UK Royal Navy ship, where it was the HMS Marlborough. It was sold to the Chilean Navy in 2008. As the Marlborough, the ship was the first naval vessel to render aid to the USS Cole when it was bombed in Yemen in October, 2000. The Marlborough brought a full medical team to treat soldiers injured on the Cole.
Large navies selling old warships to nations with smaller fleets is fairly common. Perhaps the best-known example in U.S. Navy lore was the USS Phoenix, a light cruiser that was docked at Pearl Harbor during the 1941 Japanese bombing raid on the base. The cruiser was unscathed in the attack, put to sea that afternoon and fought in nearly every major Pacific engagement of the war.
In 1951, Phoenix was sold to Argentina, where it became the ARA General Belgrano. It was sunk by the British submarine HMS Conquerer during the 1982 Falklands War, killing 300 of the 1000-man crew.
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A civilian instructor pilot died in an AH-64 Apache helicopter crash Wednesday at Fort Novosel, Alabama. The Army identified the pilot Thursday as retired Chief Warrant Officer 3 Daniel L. Munger.
“To the Munger family, we mourn for you and with you,” Maj. Gen. Clair A. Gill, commanding general of the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence, said in a statement on Thursday. “We respect your expressed desire for privacy, and ask the Wiregrass community to do the same.”
Munger enlisted in the Army in 1995 and spent more than 28 years in the service, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to becoming an aviator, he served as an airborne infantry soldier, a drill sergeant, and a long-range surveillance team leader. He left the Army in 2023 as an AH-64D/E instructor pilot and became a contractor Apache instructor pilot with CAE USA.
“The Combat Readiness Center is conducting an investigation,” Gill said. “I trust their expertise, and ask everyone to refrain from speculating out of respect for the investigative process and the families and friends of the crew.
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A U.S. Army student pilot who was also aboard the helicopter suffered minor injured in the crash and was airlifted for further medical evaluation, according to a news release from the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence.
“The Fort Novosel team is focused on caring for his family, as well as the student pilot who was evaluated at a local hospital yesterday and released last night,” Gill said.
Wednesday’s crash comes two months after two Army aviators were injured in an Apache mishap at Fort Riley, Kansas. Additionally, a civilian contractor at Novosel suffered a medical event in April unrelated to flying that required immediate care from two pilots who found him on the flightline.
So far in Fiscal Year 2024, there have been a total of 16 Army Class A aviation mishaps, which involve the loss of life or damage of at least $2.5 million, according to the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center
Fourteen of this fiscal year’s mishaps occurred in flight and two took place on the ground and were caused by severe weather, such as the Aug. 2 storm at Fort Carson, Colorado that damaged one aircraft.
By comparison, there were a total of nine Class A flight mishaps and one ground weather-related mishap for all Fiscal Year 2023.
All total, nine U.S. soldiers, two contractors and one Border Patrol agent have died in Army aircraft crashes since October.
In April, the Army ordered all its aviation units to undergo mandatory training reinforcing basic skills. At the time, 12 Army aircraft had crashed in the past six months.
Loss of spatial awareness and power management were contributing factors to several of this fiscal year’s crashes, Maj. Gen. Walter T. Rugen, then-director of Army aviation, told reporters in April.
“We must reinforce how to revert back to knowing where you are and where your aircraft is with respect to the ground,” Rugen said. “We are working very hard on effective power management across a host of flight altitudes, higher temperatures and wind conditions.”
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As two soldiers at the 10th Mountain Division were preparing for a Middle East deployment, they knew troops in the region had been under frequent drone attacks from by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria. To help their unit prepare to face drone threats, they created a computer system to enhance their unit’s anti-drone training.
Dubbed the Randomized Enemy Action Contact Trainer, or ‘REACT’ the system spits out simulations of incoming drone, rocket or mortar attacks that soldiers have to react to during simulated battle drills.
“We have the muscle memory to do a whole lot of things like react to an ambush,” said 1st Lt. Samual Strobel, 1st Battalion 87th Infantry Regiment. “Most soldiers don’t have the muscle memory to perform this communication and coordination. It’s tools that they haven’t performed in before.”
During the second brigade’s last deployment, soldiers saw numerous UAS attacks and had between 30 seconds and two minutes to decide how to engage the drone. After training with the system, Stroble said, “when things do happen in real life, there’s no hesitancy or second guessing what they need to do or who should be doing what. And we don’t see news stories about one way UAS drones impacting due to confusion.”
In January, a drone strike by Iranian-backed militias on Tower 22 in Jordan, hit the base’s living quarters early in the morning while soldiers were still asleep, killing three Georgia Army Reserve soldiers and injuring more than 40 others. In February, the Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said that U.S. Central Command was assessing “how this drone was able to get through” and “how it was able to evade air defenses.” A formal review is underway but CENTCOM did not provide a potential release date.
Commander for Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S. military’s counter-ISIS campaign in the region, Army Maj. Gen. Joel “JB” Vowell said that the attack revealed the need for more defenses against one-way drones at small U.S. and partner nation installations. “Where are we still holding risk that’s just unacceptable?,” Vowell told Task & Purpose.
REACT
The idea for REACT was borne out of the two soldiers’ experience during a 2022 deployment with the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team to Syria in support of counter-ISIS operations. The two soldiers were working as night owl captains and tasked with ensuring that company and battalion operation centers were prepared to handle coordination and communication for any incoming threats.
They practiced full base drills two or three times a month with people physically moving to bunkers and sounding alerts across the installation. And almost every night they practiced the drills on a smaller scale “because it still takes a lot of practice to get five or six people to operate as a team and not individually,” Strobel said.
The soldier duo noticed that leaders were “winging it off the top of their head,” putting together different drill scenarios, said 1st Lt. Mitchell Crowley, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment.
“It was either very time intensive to prep, or was very off the cuff and wasn’t well organized,” he said.
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The soldiers designed and wrote the code for a program that runs on a desktop which creates “realistic stimulus” that units can fold into their regular training so defense drills can be “ready in detail, comprehensively, just at the click of a button,” Crowley said.
“With more complex drills like this, especially ones where you’re having to deal with staff with multiple echelons with rapid communication and coordination, that’s a lot more challenging to rehearse and practice regularly,” he added.
As the use of drones become commonplace in 21st century warfare, including in attacks against U.S. troops based in the Middle East, the Army is increasing its training, updating its standard operating procedures and getting more drones into the hands of its soldiers. What the Army is still working to improve, according to soldiers, are their reaction times. In April, 3rd Infantry Division soldiers at Fort Stewart practiced with drone swarms to prepare for an upcoming Combat Training Center rotation and a major part of the training was simply spotting the drones “through observables” like sound or sight.
Drones, Strobel said, are the hardest to train for because of the quick reaction time coupled with the tedious standard operating procedures that include deconflicting the air space and deciding how to engage the UAS based on if its an enemy or friendly drone. All of the steps involve communicating up the chain of command and making sure the right people have all of the necessary information.
“We wanted to make sure people were well prepared and knew exactly like, ‘These are the steps I need to do, These are the people I need to talk to’ – so they could do that efficiently in a short period of time,” Strobel said.
The duo designed the computer program using parameters from previous drone, rocket and mortar attacks on nine U.S. bases and outposts in Iraq and Syria as data for the system to create randomized scenarios.
“For example, when we’re having indirect fire attacks in Syria, a lot of the time they were coming from the same area and so for the setup for that particular area, there’s basically a box that we defined where the enemies would typically attack from in the program,” Crowley said.
For indirect fires, their parameters included launch location, level of accuracy and ordnance type for seven and 120 millimeter rocket attacks and theater ballistic missiles “because that’s what we were mostly experiencing during our previous deployment,” Crowley said. For UAS, the program has different categories: loitering, one-way attack or downed friendly drones and uses data points like launch locations, flight speed, and altitude.
The soldier pair passed along their tool to the Ohio National Guard, 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team to train with before their deployments in 2022 and 2023 as well as their own 2nd Brigade Combat Team’s deployment in 2023.
“We did receive information that using REACT they felt much more prepared to deal with that than they would have,” Strobel said.
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Questions about the final months of Tim Walz’s 24-year National Guard career have triggered a flurry of questions and confusion among military members and veterans, and Wednesday drew a sharp accusation from Walz’s opponent on the Republican ticket, J.D. Vance. In a bitter attack at a rally in Michigan, Vance claimed Walz “abandoned” his guard unit in 2005, just before a deployment to Iraq.
“When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did?,” Vance said Tuesday in Shelby Township, Michigan. “He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him.”
Accusing a 24-year veteran and former command master sergeant of abandoning his troops by ducking combat is a grave insult in the veteran community, and strikes deep emotions in many. By Wednesday afternoon, a conservative influencer had called for veterans to post pictures of themselves while deployed under the meme “Me not being Tim Walz” drawing hundreds of responses.
But attacks on veteran service records are not new in politics.
At least one soldier who knew Walz as well as any has defended Walz — despite not being a fan. Joseph Eustice, whose personal Facebook page today has anti-Walz posts, held the same job as Walz — command sergeant major of 1st battalion, 125th Artillery Regiment
But when the retirement controversy flared up in 2022, he told local media that Walz fulfilled his duty.
“He was a great soldier,” Eustice told the Star Tribune. “When he chose to leave, he had every right to leave.”
Several other soldiers from Walz’s unit echoed that sentiment, including a former brigadier general.
Eustice speculated the controversy could be stoked by sour grapes by a soldier who was passed over for the promotion to command sergeant major that went to Walz.
Still, the assault on Walz’s retirement appears to have caught the Harris-Walz campaign completely unaware. A Minnesota government spokesperson for Walz told Task & Purpose of Walz’s retirement, “In May 2005, Walz retired to run for Congress following 24 years of service.” They did not address whether Walz knew a deployment was pending or if he actively sought to avoid it.
Tim Walz’s retirement timelineThe timeline of Walz’s service and the deployment of his unit, the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery Regiment, is relatively clear, through public records, news accounts and press releases at the time:
- Walz retired from the Minnesota National Guard in May 2005 after 24 years of service, according to documents posted online that appear to be his NGB Form 22, a Report of Separation and Record of Service. Walz previously retired after 20 years of service but returned to service after Sept. 11, he wrote in a Winona Daily News opinion piece, re-enlisting for four years. However, his NGB Form 22 indicates his “terminal reserve/military service obligation” in September 2007.
- The 125th Field Artillery Regiment received initial call-up orders in July 2005 and deployed for training in Mississippi that fall as part of the 34th Infantry Divisions’ 1st Brigade Combat Team.
- The 125th deployed to Iraq in March 2006, 10 months after Walz had separated from the unit.
Walz, as a senior member of the unit’s leadership, may have known a deployment was in the unit’s future before the July 2005 activation order. Extended deployments and guard activations are often planned across the Army a year or more before formal orders are issued.
A second issue for Walz may be his retirement rank. He served as the 125th’s command sergeant major, an E-9, the Army’s highest enlisted rank. But, according to the Minnesota Guard, his retirement status and benefits was reduced to that of an E-8 because he did not complete training required of all E-9s.
“Soldiers who do not finish the course revert back to their prior rank,” a spokesperson told Task & Purpose. “This is what we refer to as an administrative reduction and not punitive in nature.”
Walz’s military experience is being touted by Democrats as a strong part of his appeal to voters and a testimony to her personal values and commitment to defense and veterans issues as a lawmaker. Patrick Murphy, a former Under Secretary of the Army and the first Iraq War to be elected to the United States House of Representatives, told Task & Purpose that Walz will absolute get veterans to vote for the Harris-Walz ticket.
“There are 900,000 veterans in Pennsylvania ready to run through a wall for Tim Walz,” Murphy said.
But Vance’s attack, echoing accusations Walz faced in his 2022 race for Governor, characterized that retirement as a kind of betrayal — and an echo of attacks that military veterans have faced in previous political races.
‘Swift boat’Vance’s attacks on Wednesday echo a wide range of Republican officials and other conservatives who within hours of Walz introduction rushed to announce they are eager to “swiftboat” Walz.
“Swiftboat” is a political short-hand for the 2012 media campaign that attacked Democrat John Kerry’s combat experience as a Navy officer aboard riverine patrol boats in Vietnam, known to their crews as Swift Boats. That campaign, run by a group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, was run by Chris LaCivita, who is now a co-manager of Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign.
LaCivita has posted at least three times about Walz’s retirement in the last day, more than any other topic about the new Vice Presidential candidate.
The attacks on Walz’s service go back to his run for Minnesota Governor. In November 2018, two retired Minnesota Guard command sergeant majors, including one that took over Walz’s position as command sergeant major, wrote a paid endorsement letter to the editor of the West Central Tribune, a Minnesota newspaper. They described Walz’s retirement ahead of his battalion’s Iraq deployment as quitting and leaving the battalion’s soldiers “hanging” and “without its senior Non-Commissioned Officer, as the battalion prepared for war.”
Wednesday, the attacks appeared to be gathering steam among veterans online. A
Walz addressed the attacks in a 2022 letter, but has not discussed the retirement timing.
Command Sergeant Major ‘reduction’ to Master SergeantDuring his final year at the 125th, Walz was promoted to Command Sergeant Major, the highest ranking enlisted soldier in the unit, directly responsible for a wide range of health, welfare and readiness issues for every soldier. However, prior to retiring, Walz failed to complete a 750-hour course in the Army’s Sergeants Major Academy, which would have included 86 hours in residence at Ft. Bliss, Texas. Completing the course is mandatory for E-9s, though completing the training after being promoted is not uncommon. But without the training, Walz was not eligible to retire as a full E-9 and his retired status and benefits were ‘reduced’ to E-8 after he left service.
The Minnesota Guard confirmed to Task & Purpose that Walz was properly promoted and served in the E-9 role, and “retired as” and E-9, despite the later adjustment. His campaign website for earlier races has said: “When he retired, Tim was the highest-ranking enlisted National Guard soldier in southern Minnesota.”
Though he held the CSM rank, Walz retired in 2005 as a Walz served until May 16, 2005.
Jeffrey Frisby, former master sergeant for the Arkansas National Guard and executive director of the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States said similar situations still occur.
“I don’t know that we would put on that rank, but we would definitely serve in that position,” he said. “I do think that that still happens and I do think that people serve in capacities above their rank but above their official military pay grade to serve in a leadership position still today.”
A gap in a leadership position like CSM could’ve meant that “if they didn’t put someone in there to manage those tasks, to oversee those soldiers, oversee that training, then something was gonna get missed and something might not have been done to standard,” Frisby said. For CSMs in particular, he said, they manage transportation, food, lodging, and “soldier care” issues.
“They might have missed training events and training timelines so to have someone in that leadership role is very important, even if you’re just an acting position,” Frisby said. “Even though he wasn’t eligible for that command title, we would probably still put him in that role and let him serve in that capacity because somebody in that chain of command thought this was the right guy for the job,” Frisby said.
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The former senior enlisted leader for the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Europe has been relieved following a “thorough investigation”, said Army Lt. col. Alex C Tignor, a spokesman for U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa, or SETAF.
Command Sgt. Maj. Matthew Carlson was relieved on July 16 “due to a loss of trust and confidence in his leadership,” Tignor told Task & Purpose.
Tignor did not elaborate on what prompted Army leaders to lose confidence in Carlson. Another SETAF spokesman told Military Times that the investigation into Carlson was related to “alcohol-related incidents.”
Task & Purpose was unable to reach Carlson for comment on Wednesday.
Military.com first reported on Monday that Carlson had been fired.
The military branches routinely use the “loss of confidence” euphemism to explain why commanding officers and senior enlisted leaders are fired. The vague statement covers a wide range of issues including leadership failures, having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate, and being arrested for drunken driving.
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In the absence of specific information about why officers and senior enlisted leaders are fired, rumors and conspiracy theories can flourish. Task & Purpose and other media outlets can attempt to find out more information by submitting Freedom of Information Act requests, but the process can take months or longer.
Carlson became the 173rd Airborne Brigade’s top enlisted leader in March 2023. He enlisted in the Army in 1999 and went on to serve with the 3rd Ranger Battalion 75th Ranger Regiment and at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, according to his official biography, which has been removed from the 173rd Airborne Brigade’s website.
He deployed three times to Afghanistan in Helmand Province, Bermel, and Wardak, his biography says. Carlson also took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq; he has deployed Latvia and Lithuania, and Colombia; and he has assisted U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in Texas.
Carlson’s military awards include three Bronze Star medals, seven Good Conduct Medals, six Meritorious Service Medals, five Army Achievement Medals, four Army Commendation Medals, the Joint Service Commendation Medal. National Defense Service Medal, and Afghanistan Campaign Medal with three bronze stars. He was also awarded Colombia’s “Faith of Cause Medal,” the highest award that the country gives to foreign service members.
Other military leaders who have recently been fired include Air Force Col. Mark Kimbal, who was relieved as commander of the 28th Operations Group following a investigation into a B-1B bomber crash in January; Air Force Col. Jeremiah Hammill, who was fired as commander of the 96th Test Wing Civil Engineer Group just three days before a scheduled change of command; and Navy Capt. Lenard C. Mitchell, who was relieved as commanding officer of the USS Hershel “Woody” Williams’ Gold Crew following an investigation into how the ship ran aground in May.
The latest on Task & Purpose Top U.S. special ops units held a major exercise off Alaska, 45 miles from Russia * An Army officer is one of the stars of the U.S. women’s Olympic rugby team * Army marksmanship instructor wins Olympic medal in rifle event * Inside the recovery of MIA Americans from a secret jungle base * Pentagon orders review of Medals of Honor given for Wounded Knee Massacre*
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After years of legal fights and hearings, a major trial over what should be done with a massive plot of land owned by the Department of Veterans Affairs in Los Angeles started today. The case, heard in a non-jury trial by a federal judge, could decide if thousands of housing units are built for veterans on the land.
The case, brought by Los Angeles-area veterans experiencing homelessness, covers a number of disputes over the use of the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus. The key matters is how much housing should be built on the land. Lawyers for the veterans wrote in a brief last month that they want to see a total of 4,000 supportive housing units built on the 388-acre land, as well as 1,000 temporary shelter beds. The federal government meanwhile argues that it is building plenty of housing and that the demands in the lawsuit place an undue burden on the VA.
In May, the federal judge overseeing the case, Judge David Carter, ruled in a partial summary judgement that the VA is discriminating against veterans earning certain amounts of disability compensation. Essentially, the disability payments many of these veterans were receiving put their income above the income threshold of what the VA said would qualify for the planned housing for the campus.
Since being filed, the lawsuit has expanded into a class action case. The trial is expected to run through August.
Currently the VA has a master plan to build 1,215 new housing units per terms from a 2015 settlement from the previous lawsuit. So far only 233 are open.
At the root of the lawsuit is a debate over what the 388-acre campus should be used for. The land was gifted to the federal government in 1888 for the purpose of providing homes to U.S. military veterans. At the time, that mainly meant veterans of the American Civil War. For decades the site did offer housing. During the 20th century and particularly after World War II the large section of West Los Angeles shifted to become more of a medical installation, which it still is today.
Judge Carter previously ruled that the VA’s leasing of parts of the land for the purpose of parkings lots and sports facilities, among other uses, violates the terms of the original 1888 deed that gifted the land to the federal government for the purpose of servicing veterans. His two earlier rulings did not outright address what if any additional housing should be built.
Los Angeles County is home to 75,312 unhoused people, according to the 2024 point-in-time homeless count conducted in January. Of those, 3,410 are veterans and 2,251 are unsheltered. The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2023 point-in-time count (this year’s results have not yet been released) found that there were 35,574 unhoused veterans on the street in one night in January 2023.
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The federal government is arguing that being required to build more housing would add extra costs and time, due to environmental impact reports, finding new developers and doing additional infrastructure improvements to the campus beyond what it already has done. Additionally, the VA argues that actions such as leasing the land generates revenue that goes toward veteran services.
For some time there was a large encampment just outside the West LA VA campus. Dubbed “Veterans Row,” the area was cleared in 2021. Many of the veterans ended up in “tiny home” shelters placed inside the campus; advocates and many officials note that these shelters do not count as permanent housing. Those homes have also been damaged in floods of mud from storms as well as fires. Advocates say expanded, permanent housing is needed on the VA land.
Dozens of supportive housing projects have opened or are in construction in the City of Los Angeles thanks to funding approved by voters in a 2016 ballot proposition. Those are meant to help house the overall population of unhoused Angelenos. However the amount of housing funded by Proposition HHH is so far not enough to meet the 2016 homeless count, let alone keep up with the growth of the number of people experiencing homelessness in the region.
Judge Carter is overseeing another major lawsuit over homelessness filed against the City and County of Los Angeles.
The latest on Task & Purpose Top U.S. special ops units held a major exercise off Alaska, 45 miles from Russia * An Army officer is one of the stars of the U.S. women’s Olympic rugby team * Army marksmanship instructor wins Olympic medal in rifle event * Inside the recovery of MIA Americans from a secret jungle base * Pentagon orders review of Medals of Honor given for Wounded Knee Massacre*
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Two officers who oversaw the Navy’s infamously difficult training school for would-be SEALs now face the possible end of their careers over the 2022 death of a recruit following the grueling “Hell Week” phase of Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, or BUD/S.
Capt. Bradley Geary and Cmdr. Erik Ramey have been told they must “show cause” to a Navy board why they should be allowed to remain in the Navy in connection with the 2022 death of SEAL candidate Kyle Mullen, who died hours after finishing Hell Week after SEAL medics missed pneumonia he’d developed during the week.Task & Purpose has learned.
Both Geary, who commanded the Naval Special Warfare Center’s Basic Training Command, which directly oversees BUD/S, and Ramey, the center’s former senior medical officer, must now decide whether to appear before a board of inquiry or submit their retirement or resignation packages.
Mullen died on Feb. 4, 2022 after completing Hell Week. His cause of death was ruled as pneumonia. Although human growth hormone and other medications were found in Mullen’s car after his death along with syringes and needles, a Naval Education and Training Command investigation determined that Mullen had “died in the line of duty, and not due to his own misconduct.”
The Ice Man Substack by Seth Hettena first reported that Geary and Ramey may force a board of inquiry. The Navy did not provide any specific information about what type of administrative actions the two officers may face.
“As a result of the investigation into the oversight and management of BUD/S Class 352 and the surrounding circumstances of the death of Seaman Mullen, the Navy is proceeding with accountability actions,” Navy Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins told Task & Purpose. “Given these actions are administrative and ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
A Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) instructor directs SEAL candidates participating in strength and conditioning training with logs at Naval Special Warfare (NSW) Center in Coronado, Calif., May 18, 2020. (Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Anthony W. Walker/US Navy) CORONADO, Calif. (May 18, 2020) A Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) instructor directs SEAL candidates participating in strength and conditioning training with logs at Naval Special Warfare (NSW) Center in Coronado, Calif., May 18, 2020. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Anthony W. Walker)News that the two officers could face a board of inquiry comes as Geary spoke at length about Mullen’s death and the ensuing investigations on Monday’s episode of The Shawn Ryan Show, a YouTube program hosted by a Navy SEAL veteran. Geary claims during the interview that drugs may have played a role in Mulen’s death and questions a final Navy investigation that discounted the junior sailor’s misconduct.. But Mulen’s mother told Task & Purpose that her son died of pneumonia that Navy medical professionals overseen by Geary should have caught and treated.
“It’s undeniable what my son died of,” Regina Mullen said.
Implicated in Mullen’s deathThe Navy told reporters in September 2023 that Ramey and Geary would face an admiral’s mast for dereliction of duty in connection with Mullen’s death along with Capt. Brian Drechsler, who served as commanding officer of the Naval Special Warfare Center’s Basic Training Command in February 2022.
But Geary subsequently declined nonjudicial punishment, his attorney Jason Wareham told Task & Purpose.
Now, Geary is accused of failing to properly supervise medical personnel, leading to Mullen’s grievous bodily injury or death, Wareham said. This is the first time that Geary has been directly implicated in Mullen’s death.
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“It’s a profound change, and it’s a change that we generally believe was made at the very top, but we don’t yet have evidence of that,” Wareham said. “We believe that we’ll be able to show easily that he was not derelict, that he did not fail to supervise, and that his performance in the Navy was anything but substandard.”
Wareham said he and Geary have until mid-August to decide how to respond to the Navy’s notice that he show cause for retention. He added that his experience has shown that the Navy often refers sailors to boards of inquiry when it feels it cannot win at court-martial.
Should a board of inquiry decide that Geary should not remain in the Navy, he could potentially face an other-than-honorable discharge, said Wareham, who has reached out to lawmakers about Geary’s case.
Navy SEAL candidates train at Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) in June 2023. Three senior officers who were in charge of BUD/S in early 2022 now face charges of dereliction of duty stemming from the death of a candidate during the school’s Hell Week. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Dylan Lavin/U.S. Navy).“We have been working with Congress consistently throughout this,” Wareham said. “Congress is incredibly upset about how this investigation was managed and the choices by the secretary of the Navy.”
Jeremiah Sullivan, Ramey’s attorney, said that the Navy has previously affirmed that his client fulfilled all his responsibilities as the Naval Special Warfare Center’s senior medical officer when Mullen went through BUD/S.
“The Navy Bureau of Medicine has already conducted an extensive investigation and concluded that Dr. Ramey met the standard of care,” Sullivan told Task & Purpose.
Possible drug useIn an episode of The Shawn Ryan Show on Monday, Geary disputed statements by Navy officials that Mullen died of pneumonia that he developed during training that was unrelated to the performance enhancing drugs found in his car.
Geary said Mullen and other SEAL candidates had been given prophylactic antibiotics to stave off bacterial pneumonia and other diseases, and Mullen was given an extensive medical exam shortly before he died, during which doctors identified some raspiness in his lungs, which is common for SEAL candidates after they finish Hell Week.
He also claimed that the initial line of duty investigation found that performance enhancing drugs were likely a contributing factor in Mullen’s death, but officials in the Pentagon later changed the investigation’s findings to rule out drugs as a causal factor in how Mullen died despite medical evidence to the contrary.
Investigators did note that they found text messages on Mullen’s phone about using performance enhancing drugs, such as one in which he said his buttocks became swollen following the injection of a bad vial of such drugs.
But the pathologist who conducted Mullen’s autopsy did not test for the types of performance enhancing drugs that were later discovered in his car, said Geary, who claimed this was part of a pattern of Navy officials ignoring evidence of Mullen using drugs to rule his death in the line of duty.
U.S. Navy SEAL candidates participate in Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training. SEALs are the maritime component of U.S. Special Forces and are trained to conduct a variety of operations from the sea, air and land. (Petty Officer 1st Class Abe McNatt/U.S. Navy) “I’ve noticed a trend in the United States government of when somebody dies, there is a desire to get to the conclusion that they died in the line of duty,” Geary said. “The reason is: The next of kin get the SGLI [Servicemembers Group Life Insurance] life insurance at that point. If his death was associated with misconduct, using illegal substances on government property, well now it gets debatable whether he died in the line of duty or not. So, all of a sudden, the life insurance is off the table.”
‘‘It’s all in the evidence!’Regina Mullen, a registered nurse, said the issue of whether her son used performance enhancing drugs is irrelevant because she had a medical examiner perform an autopsy on Mullen that showed he died of untreated bacterial pneumonia.
She also said that three other Navy SEAL candidates who were training with her son also became sickened with pneumonia, including one who had to be intubated for 24 hours.
“They are lying when they are saying my son was hiding his condition because he got sick on Wednesday of Hell Week,” Regina Mullen said. “He did try to get help Thursday night leaving the tent. He was told to get back in the tent, told he was being monitored on some white board – which his name was never on that white board.”
By the Friday morning of Hell Week, her son was so sick that he was twice given oxygen for crackling lungs, she said. An admiral was late to the ceremony to mark the end of Hell Week, so Mullen and the other candidates had to endure more training in the water, during which her son was spitting up blood and struggling to breathe. At that point, both Geary and Ramey could see that her son had to be carried because he could not walk on his own.
Navy SEAL candidates participate in “surf immersion” during Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training at Naval Special Warfare (NSW) Center in Coronado, Calif., May 4, 2020. (Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Anthony Walker/US Navy) A Navy veteran who was on active duty when Mullen finished Hell Week told Task & Purpose that he checked on Mullen after he was medically cleared. The veteran said he
twice called BUD/S medical to report that Mullen needed medical attention, but he was told no one was available and Mullen would be dropped from the program if he received care from outside BUD/S medical.
The veteran, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the medical professionals who performed the checks simply asked the Navy SEAL candidates “Are you alive” rather than performing actual tests.
Regina Mullen said that the medical professionals should have known from her son’s symptoms that he had fluid in his lungs. Still, he was allowed to lie down to rest.
“Because my son laid flat, because the mattresses on the floor are flat, the fluid went up to his esophagus and cut off his oxygen,” she said. “He had an anoxic brain – it’s all in the evidence! He was brain dead. They tried to revive him several times.”
The latest on Task & Purpose Top U.S. special ops units held a major exercise off Alaska, 45 miles from Russia * An Army officer is one of the stars of the U.S. women’s Olympic rugby team * Army marksmanship instructor wins Olympic medal in rifle event * Inside the recovery of MIA Americans from a secret jungle base * Pentagon orders review of Medals of Honor given for Wounded Knee Massacre*
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No matter who wins, a former enlisted veteran is headed toward the White House in 2025.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a former Command Sgt. Major in that state’s National Guard, will be the Democratic nominee for vice president after Vice President Kamala Harris names him as her running mate today. Walz will now be matched-up with Republican J.D. Vance, who was an enlisted Marine for four years as the respective vice presidential candidates for their parties.
Walz’s formal nomination and November’s electoral results still lay ahead, but Harris’ pick of Walz all but ensures that in early 2025 an enlisted vet will assume the nation’s second-highest office.
The last enlisted veteran to serve as vice president was Al Gore from 2000 to 2008. The only former enlisted military member to rise to the Presidency was James Buchanon from 1867 to 1861. Buchanan served as private in a state militia during the war of 1812.
The last military veteran of any rank in the White House was George W. Bush, who was a 1st lieutenant as fighter pilot in the Air National Guard. Senators John McCain and John Kerry, both Vietnam combat vets as officers, ran for the Presidency in 2000 and 2004 but lost.
Served as E-9, retired as E-8 from 24-year Guard careerWalz first served in the Nebraska National Guard as an infantry sergeant and an administrative specialist. In 1996, Walz transferred to the Minnesota National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery where he served as a cannon crewmember and a field artillery NCO. He held multiple positions in field artillery including firing battery chief, operations sergeant, first sergeant, and finished his career serving as the battalion’s command sergeant major.
In his final assignment, Walz served as the command sergeant majorfor the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion. Though he held the rank of command sergeant major in that final post, he retired in 2005 as a master sergeant “for benefit purposes because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy,” said Army Lt. Col. Kristen Augé, spokesperson for the Minnesota National Guard.
During his service he earned a Global War on Terrorism medal although it’s unclear if it was a service or expeditionary award, according to Army Lt. Col. Kristen Augé, a spokesperson for the Minnesota National Guard. His awards and decorations also include the Army Commendation Medal with M Device, Army Achievement Medals with one oakleaf cluster and several other awards typical of his rank, position and time in service.
Before he was Minnesota Governor, Walz served as a Congressman in the House of Representatives. During his time in office, Walz sponsored several veteran-related bills which became law. One measure created new pilot programs and partnerships for more veteran mental health resources and required an annual audit of the VA’s mental health care and suicide prevention programs. Another measure directed the VA to report its progress on an initiative for reducing in-person disability examinations.
As Governor, Walz oversees the state’s national guard. In 2022, he held a press conference at Minneapolis–Saint Paul Joint Air Reserve Station where he was photographed with the 133rd Air Wing’s then-unique C-130 H3. The 133rd was the first Air National Guard unit to receive the H3 models, an upgraded version of the Air Force’s long-time cargo workhorse aircraft. The H3 has 8 blades on every prop, 2 more than the modern C-130J flown by most Air Force units, and double that of the 4 on older models.
The latest on Task & Purpose Top U.S. special ops units held a major exercise off Alaska, 45 miles from Russia * An Army officer is one of the stars of the U.S. women’s Olympic rugby team * Army marksmanship instructor wins Olympic medal in rifle event * Inside the recovery of MIA Americans from a secret jungle base * Pentagon orders review of Medals of Honor given for Wounded Knee Massacre*
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An unspecified number of U.S. personnel were injured in a suspected rocket attack on Al Asad Air Base in Iraq on Monday, a defense spokesperson told Task & Purpose.
“Initial indications are that several U.S. personnel were injured,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Base personnel are conducting a post-attack damage assessment. We will provide updates as more information becomes available.”
No information was immediately available about how many Americans were wounded or the severity of their injuries.
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This is the latest attack against American forces in the Middle East. Iranian-backed militia groups have fired mortars and launched drones and missiles against U.S. troops in the region since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel. Three Army Reserve soldiers were killed in a Jan. 28 drone attack against a U.S. base in Jordan.
July saw the most attacks against U.S. bases in the region in months. On July 30, the U.S. military launched a defense airstrike against militants who were preparing to launch a drone. It was the first U.S. airstrike in the country since February.
Tensions in the Middle East have been especially high in the past week. Israel is bracing for an attack by Iran and its proxies after the July 30 Israeli airstrike killed Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah commander who “played a central role” in the Oct. 23,1983 attack on U.S. Marines in Beirut that killed 241 American troops, and the subsequent assassination of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Israeli officials have not commented publicly on Haniyeh’s death.
This is a breaking news story. It will be updated as more information becomes available.
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The Army selected 25 NCOs to qualify in the newest military occupational specialty, or MOS, as the service’s newest recruiting experts.
The first class who will qualify in the 42T MOS for Talent Acquisition Specialists, attended a signing ceremony at Fort Knox surrounded by representatives of major corporations they plan to work with, including Amazon, Deloitte, Wells Fargo.
The group is the first cohort of enlisted soldiers selected under the Army-wide push to develop a permanent recruitment workforce after several years of declining recruit numbers. While the entire class comes from traditional recruiting slots in the Army, their new role, the Army said, will focus on learning how the private sector attracts new talent, and bringing those lessons to the force.
“Back in the day, the fence was pretty tall from what was happening on the Army bases,” said Zenon Zacharj, faculty and staff development chief for the Army Recruiting and Retention College. “We’re pulling that fence line down a little bit to see how corporate America operates so we start learning some of those best practices.”
Army officials said they believe the private sector has recruitment and talent acquisition methods that the military is “just not privy to yet” but they’re hoping to learn about it through these new 42T soldiers. Sgt. Maj. Alan Myers of the Army’s G-1 directorate focused on personnel management and retainment said this could include branding techniques, digital prospecting, social media use, and onboarding processes.
“We’re tasked to complete what the 42T workforce is going to look like, which is why we’re going to train with industry to develop or to gather as much information as possible,” said Sfc. Reychell Zuniga Otoya, one of the 42T selectees. She expects that the 42T selectees will study private companies’ recruitment practices, who hire thousands every year without a legion of recruiters like the Army relies on to make face-to-face contact with prospective hires.
In fall 2023, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth announced a transformation to the service’s recruitment efforts after several years of missed recruitment goals. The overhaul includes the creation of new positions to help “modernize” the service’s recruitment methods like the 42T and 420T the new warrant officer positions.
“The current recruiting workforce is a little over 8,000 personnel right in total,” said Col. Christine Rice, who’s in charge of the Army recruiting workforce redesign. “Our goal is that that number is less and it’s more efficient. We won’t know what that number is for years while we experiment.”
The Army currently has three types of recruiters: ‘Department of the Army selected recruiters’ are assigned as recruiters as a special duty; Volunteer Recruiters who sign up for the duty; and full-time recruiters who, after a tour as a special duty, train and qualify in the recruiting MOS 79R.
Over the next two to three years, the Army will give 79R soldiers “an opportunity to assess and reclassify” into the new 42T MOS, Rice said.
Right now, their focus is to get 42T selectees “enough reps and sets in training to take them from like a high school level degree to a master’s level degree so when they hit that recruiting force, when they actually hit the streets and they’re out there recruiting, they are far way more ahead of the farm recruiting force that’s out there,” Rice said.
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Part of the planned recruitment overhaul also includes changes to the way that the service picks which soldiers will take on the task of recruiting thousands to the military’s largest branch.
“The current recruiter selection process up to this point is focused on eligibility criteria commonly seen for Army nominative positions with suitability screening, but it does not focus on how someone’s knowledge, skills and abilities may best fit into a specific occupation,” Rice said.
The Army first put out a call for applications among 79R soldiers. Recruitment leadership did a technical review of the 113 applications they received and created an initial order of merit list. Applicants were then given attribute-based assessments and a second list was created with soldiers with the most desirable recruiter personality traits. A final interview was conducted by an Army operational psychologist.
The final selection panel narrowed it down to 25 NCOs – 18 active duty soldiers and seven National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers. These soldiers are now going to train alongside their private industry partner from now until December. After training with industry, they will do follow-on training before they’re officially awarded the 42T MOS in the Spring, officials said.
“The difference between 79R and 42T isn’t very clear right now. But given the time, the 25 of us selectees, we’re going to make that difference very apparent,” said Sfc. Christopher Olavarria. “We’re going to be the growth within this organization.”
While the future of 42T soldiers is still being written, Rice said there’s going to be a lot of adaptation and experimentation over the next few years to get to a place where recruiters are more “focused on the customer experience” which means meeting potential Army recruits where they are instead of the traditional method of getting them into a recruit station.
“How would we become more mobile and adaptable to meeting the demands of the customer? Versus having them come into the recruiting station,” Rice said. “Can we do things more virtually? Can we actually go out and engage the population on their terms?”
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The women who wear the crowns of the two premiere U.S. beauty pageants are now both active-duty service members after Army 2nd Lt. Alma Cooper, a West Point graduate and intelligence officer, was crowned Miss USA on Sunday. Cooper’s title comes eight months into the reign of Air Force 2nd Lt. Madison Marsh as Miss America. Both graduated from their respective service academies in 2023.
“Lt. Cooper’s accomplishments are truly inspiring and a testament to her discipline and work ethic,” said Army Col. Terence M. Kelley, director of communications for the U.S. Military Academy. “Her selection as Miss USA is a great example to young people about the importance of character and the opportunities of military service.”
An honor graduate from West Point, Cooper used her personal statement in the pageant to highlight her journey to the Army.
“As the daughter of a migrant worker, a proud Afro Latina woman and an officer of the United States Army, I am living the American dream,” she told the pageant’s judges on Sunday. “If there’s anything that my life and my mother have taught me, it’s that your circumstances never define your destiny: You can make success accessible through demanding excellence.”
She takes the crown after Miss USA 2023 and Miss Teen USA abruptly resigned earlier this year.
Originally from Okemos, Michigan, Cooper graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, with a bachelor’s degree in mathematical science, and she is currently pursuing a master’s degree in statistics at Stanford University in California, according to her university biography.
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In a Stanford video, Cooper said that her father joined the Army and then completed Officer Candidate School, becoming an armor officer. Her Instagram account includes a picture of her father leading her oath of office at West Point
“His whole world was centered around tanks and leadership and soldiers,” Cooper said.
Cooper recalled how her mother signed her up for a two-week summer camp at West Point as she was preparing to apply for colleges.
“I called my parents, and they were like, ‘What do you think?’” Cooper said in the video. “And I go: I love it. I knew from that moment that I was going to go to West Point.”
Then-cadet Alma Cooper in February, 2023 when she learned she would be assigned to the 101st Airborne Division after graduation. Elizabeth Woodruff/USMA PAO, posted to Cooper’s Instagram account. As a cadet, Cooper served as the brigade adjutant at West Point, for which she led and implemented accountability systems for 4,400 cadets in emergencies. She also traveled the country with West Point’s Leadership, Ethics, and Diversity in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), during which she led STEM modules and discussions about ethical leadership with middle school and high school students.
Her undergraduate thesis focused on how body mass index – a measurement of body fat based on a person’s height and weight – is connected to the Army’s recent recruiting challenges.
“To be a woman of color in that situation was challenging,” Cooper recalled in the video. “It was incredibly rewarding to find moments to elevate the voices of other minority high-potential cadets.”
Cooper first learned about beauty pageants from her mother, who competed in the Miss America contest. At 14, Cooper competed in the Miss Teen USA pageant. In April, she was named Miss Michigan.
“The greatest things in life lie on the other side of fear,” Cooper said in the Stanford video. “When you demand excellence of yourself: When you look for opportunities to be out front, to learn and grow and to better yourself – even in the face of fear – there are so many beautiful things that lie behind that door.”
UPDATE: 08/05/2024; this story was updated with a statement from Army Col. Terence M. Kelley, director of communications for the U.S. Military Academy.
The latest on Task & Purpose Top U.S. special ops units held a major exercise off Alaska, 45 miles from Russia * An Army officer is one of the stars of the U.S. women’s Olympic rugby team * Army marksmanship instructor wins Olympic medal in rifle event * Inside the recovery of MIA Americans from a secret jungle base * Pentagon orders review of Medals of Honor given for Wounded Knee Massacre*
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Multiple helicopters with the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 4th Infantry Division were damaged this past week after heavy weather tore through the area around Fort Carson.
On Aug. 2, the 4th Infantry Division, based out of Fort Carson, announced that storms the prior night hit the Butts Army Heliport, causing damage to multiple U.S. Army helicopters, including Chinooks, Black Hawk and Apaches. Additionally, buildings on the heliport were also damaged. No one was injured.
Thunderstorms hit the area around Colorado Springs, Colorado, near Fort Carson, Thursday night, with severe winds cutting through the region. According to local media, gusts of wind hit speeds as intense as 54 mph on Aug. 1.
“This weather event had a significant impact to our fleet. I am grateful there were no injuries,” Col. Nicholas Ploetz, commander of the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, said in a statement. “Our Soldiers are resilient and will do what is necessary to recover our equipment and continue to perform our mission.”
A helicopter knocked on its side after storms hit Fort Carson. The 4th Infantry Division, which the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade is a part of, said it was assessing the extent of the damage. The military did not say how extensive the damage to the helicopters were, how many were impacted by the storms, nor if training or operations were drastically impacted by the damage.
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A spokesperson for Fort Carson told Task & Purpose on Saturday, Aug. 3 that there were no additional updates beyond what was shared in the Aug. 2 release. The 4th Combat Aviation Brigade operates several dozen helicopters.
Images posted on social media show several different helicopters toppled on their sides in the aftermath of the storms. The blades on multiple helicopters are damaged in some way, with some bent or outright broken off. It’s unclear from the photos how severe any damage to the fuselages of the helicopters are.
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Large military exercises give the United States and its partners to practice coordinated drills, train in simulated battles, and in situations such as this year’s Rim of the Pacific exercise, blow up a few ships. And that’s just what the U.S. military did at RIMPAC last month.
The military released new footage of one such sinking exercise (or SINKEX as it’s called), where the Air Force used an AC-130J gunship to shred the Austin-class amphibious transport dock the USS Dubuque and help send it down to Davy Jones’ locker.
The decommissioned ship was sent to the bottom of the sea on July 11, but the military only released video of the sinking at the end of the month. The AC-130J, assigned to the 27th Special Operations Wing based out of Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico, repeatedly struck the old transport vessel with cannon fire from above. The gunship targeted key parts of the vessel’s structure, including its superstructure and bow. The B-roll released by the U.S. military shows the ship burning after repeated hits. Each strike captured on the footage shows the ship shaking from impact, with plumes of dark smoke kicking up after each round.
Watch the footage here.
The Air Force wasn’t alone in lighting up the USS Dubuque. AH-64 Apache helicopters from the U.S. Army’s 25th Combat Aviation Brigade fired at least one AGM-114 Hellfire missile at the ship, while Japan Ground Self Defense Force’s Western Army also fired on it. In all, the SINKEX took two days, according to the U.S. Army.
That’s the final end for the ship. Originally commissioned in 1967, the USS Dubuque was deployed overseas multiple times, including to the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Desert Shield. It was decommissioned in 2011.
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The USS Dubuque is one of several ships the U.S. military intentionally sunk this summer as part of training. The amphibious transport dock the USS Cleveland was such as part of the Valiant Shield 2024 exercise. Eight days after the military smoked the USS Dubuque, the Navy and partners sunk the amphibious assault ship the USS Tarawa. That was one of the largest ships sunk at RIMPAC. It was hit by a combination of munitions, including the U.S. Navy’s Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, or LRASM as well as the Royal Australian Navy’s Naval Strike Missile. So far the U.S. military has not released footage of that SINKEX.
For environmental reasons, the decommissioned ships — known as “hulks” by the Navy — are required to be sunk at minimum 6,000 feet beneath the surface and at least 50 nautical miles from any land.
The 2024 edition of RIMPAC saw 29 nations train together near the Hawaiian islands. The exercise involved 40 surface vessels, three submarines and more than 25,000 personnel.
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Vincent Hancock just helped the United States take home another gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Hancock secured the gold medal in skeet shooting, defeating fellow American Conner Prince in a close competition. It was also the former Army sergeant’s fourth gold medal, making him one of only sixth athletes to ever win the same individual Olympic event four times.
The 35-year-old Army veteran was awarded the gold medal Saturday, Aug. 3 after winning the final round of six shooters. Each one was eliminated one by one, until finally it was just Hancock and Prince. This year Hancock had an interesting competitor: his own student. Hancock defeated Prince, who he coaches, by just one shot. While Prince hit 57 of his 60 total shots, Hancock hit 58. Prince took home the silver medal. Taiwan’s Lee Meng-yuan won bronze.
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After coming out victorious at the Chateauroux Shooting Center in Paris, Hancock high-fived Prince several times.
“I feel like, for whatever reasons, God has blessed me with the ability to go out and break targets and to shoot a gun really well,” Hancock told reporters after the event.
CHATEAUROUX, FRANCE – AUGUST 03: Gold medalist Vincent Hancock of Team United States (C), silver medalist Conner Lynn Prince of Team United States (L) and bronze medalist Meng Yuan Lee of Team Chinese Taipei (R) celebrate on the podium at the Shooting Skeet Men’s medal ceremony on day eight of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Chateauroux Shooting Centre on August 03, 2024 in Chateauroux, France. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Hancock has been competing for almost two decades. He joined the U.S. Army in 2006, eventually serving as part of the Army Marksmanship Unit. He left the Army in 2012, retiring as a sergeant. Hancock is one of six active-duty or veteran service members competing in shooting events at the Olympics, and one of 10 total in Team USA. The other four veterans and service members are competing in track and field, rugby and wrestling.
The Paris games are Hancock’s fifth time at the Olympics. He’s competed in every Summer Olympics since the 2008 Games in Beijing. He’s medaled at three previous editions; the only Olympics he did not secure a medal was the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where he placed 15th. As a four-time gold medal winner, Hancock is in a rare group of Olympic athletes. Other four-time winners for the same individual event include Michael Phelps and Carl Lewis. Outside of the Olympic Games, Hancock has won gold in several skeet shooting world championships.
After winning in Paris, Hancock told reporters he intends to compete one more time in the Olympics, confirming he aims to represent Team USA at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
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Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin revoked the plea deals the Department of Defense reached with the accused masterminds of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, in a sudden reversal to the news this week in the long running case.
On Wednesday, July 31, the Department of Defense announced it had reached pretrial agreements with Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, all of whom have been in prison in Guantanamo Bay awaiting a military trial that has yet to start. Only two days later on Aug. 2, Austin released a memo saying that he is withdrawing retired Brig. Gen. Susan Escallier’s authority. The memo, addressed to Escalier, who oversees the military court for Guantanamo Bay, says that instead Austin will “reserve such authority to [himself].”
“[R]esponsibility for such a decision should rest with me as the superior convening authority under the Military Commissions Act of 2009,” Austin wrote.
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According to reports, the plea agreement would have seen the three defendants accept life sentences in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. It came after two years of negotiations, according to the New York Times; the negotiations happened after Austin began serving as Secretary of Defense. Per Austin’s reversal, the military is now once again pursuing the death penalty against the three men.
Escallier remains in charge of the other military court cases at Guantanamo Bay.
The case now remains once again in legal limbo. The defendants’ trial has never started, with the entire matter held up in pre-trial limbo since 2008. That is due to legal fights over whether or not the military’s case against the defendants was valid after the use of torture on them at CIA facilities. Prior to the now-revoked plea agreement, an actual trial was not expected to start prior to 2026, more than two decades after the Sept. 11 attacks. It’s unclear if the previous schedule is still holding.
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The Air Force fired the commander who oversees pilots and aircrew who fly the B-1B at Ellsworth Air Force Base after an investigation of a January B-1B crash found a “culture of noncompliance” in the base’s flying units
Col. Derek C. Oakley, 28th Bomb Wing commander, relieved Col. Mark Kimbal, of command of the 28th Operations Group Friday, Aug. 2, due to “a loss of trust and confidence in his ability to command,” according to Air Force Global Strike Command. That description is a commonly used catch-all justification when commanders are relieved. In this case, the decision comes only a week after a scathing Air Force’s investigation into a B-1B crash on the base was released.
The Air Force command said that the decision was based “on the findings of an Accident Investigation Board report into the Jan. 4 crash of a B-1B bomber at Ellsworth.” That day, a B-1B Lancer with the 34th Bomb Squadron was landing after a routine training flight at the base, near Rapid City, South Dakota. But errors by the pilot led to the jet slamming onto the ground and skidding for approximately 5,000 feet down the runway before stopping. All four crew members ejected, though two were injured.
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The damage resulted in the bomber being deemed a total loss.
Investigators determined that the pilot of the bomber didn’t accommodate for severe weather conditions that day, specifically sharp winds. But in reviewing the pilot’s skills and the base’s general flying procedures, investigators said they uncovered “unsatisfactory levels of basic airmanship, an inadequate focus on foundational governing directive knowledge, and an overall lack of discipline throughout the 34th Bomb Squadron.” Additionally, investigators pointed issues in discipline and skills that played a role in the crash beyond the poor weather conditions and heavy winds.
As the base operations group commander, Oakley oversaw both the 34th and 37th Bomb Squadrons, both of which fly the B-1B at Ellsworth.
The remains of a B-1B bomber that crashed at Ellsworth Air Force Base. Photo from accident investigation report. No replacement for Kimball has been named as of press time.
The investigators’ report pointed to issues at both the 34th Bomb Squadron and the 28th Operations Support Squadron, which fall under the 28th Operations Group. In the report, Col. Erick Lord, accident board president, criticized both units and pointed to wider issues with the overall command. That “ineffective and unhealthy culture,” the report said, “set conditions that allowed this mishap to occur.”
Kimball assumed command of the 28th Operations Group in June 2023. He was commissioned in 2002. In his previous assignment before leading the 28th Operations Group, he served as chief of Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Policy Division with the Joint Staff J5 at the Pentagon. For several years, Kimball himself served as a B-1B instructor pilot, through various assignments.
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The “clerks and jerks” of Delta Company were surrounded and close to being overrun. As Capt. Paul Bucha, the company commander, dodged the machine gun fire from the trees overhead and constant explosions he began to wonder if his mother would ever learn the name of the unmarked grid coordinates where he was about to die.
But as he considered those dire thoughts, a young, untested replacement soldier, with no combat experience, ran to Bucha’s position through the hail of fire,
“This young kid who’d just joined us,” Bucha remembered in an interview. “I mean we were down with fire everywhere, and we were firing what little ammunition we had left because we were trying to conserve it. All hell was raining down on us.”
The soldier looked at the captain with, shockingly, a smile: “And he says, ‘Sir! We’re kicking the hell out of them, aren’t we!’,” Bucha said.
The captain laughed and replied: “Well, I guess we are.”
In fact, the battle raged on through the night of March 16, 1968. For hours, Bucha moved between his men, created diversions and feints to confuse the larger enemy force, called in artillery and gunship fire and loaded helicopters with wounded.
Ten of Bucha’s soldiers died, with nearly all emerging wounded. Over 150 North Vietnamese were killed in the battle, a toll nearly twice the number of Bucha’s entire company.
For his leadership and valor under fire, Bucha would be awarded the Medal of Honor.
Bucha, 80, died July 31 at his home in West Haven, Connecticut, where he lived most of his life. He was the state’s last living Medal of Honor recipient. With Bucha’s passing, 60 Medal of Honor recipients remain living.
The ‘clerks and jerks’
The son of a World War II veteran, Bucha was born in Washington D.C., and moved several times as an Army brat. For college, Bucha attended West Point, where he was an All-American swimmer. After graduate school at Stanford, he was sent to Vietnam as an infantry officer in the 101st Airborne’s 187th infantry regiment.
There, his battalion commander quickly promoted him to take over a newly formed company, delta. In an interview with the Congressional Medal of Honor Society available on YouTube, Bucha said he held formations, reported accountability and marched in pass and review for early-morning battalion formations.
It was just him, alone. Bucha had no soldiers assigned to him when he took command, at least at first. But the West Point honor graduate and rule follower to-a-T still performed his duties, even if the whole company — usually 100 or more men — was just him
“Delta Company, All present and accounted for,” he reported in the formations — meaning just him.
Then soldiers started to arrive, assigned by the battalion commander.
“He started filling me up with the rejects,” Bucha said. “We were called ‘the clerks and the jerks.’ I used to think, ‘my God, I have a few very, very smart guys and a lot of really mean guys. What a great group to go to war with.’”
Most had already seen combat and many were on a second tour of Vietnam.
“I said, ‘look if you have your choice of company commanders, you wouldn’t pick me’,” Bucha told his men. “But if I had my choice of soldiers, I’d pick you.”
The clerks and jerks of Delta Company were up to 89 men when they were inserted as 3rd battalion’s reconnaissance element near the village of Phuoc Vinh, with orders to patrol to contact. Soon after a resupply drop — in which the young combat newbie joined the company — the contact came.
“The whole mountain opened up,” Bucha said.
Taking machine gun fire from both elevated positions in trees and hardened positions, Bucha crawled 40 meters with grenades to take out a bunker, taking a shrapnel wound as he moved. Ordering a retreat to a defensive position, he realized an element was separated and cut off. Bucha ordered the men to, in the words of his Medal of Honor citation, “feign death and he directed artillery fire around them.”
As helicopters arrived to take out wounded, fire reached up from the trees toward the aircraft, which, Bucha said, “is the first sign that this isn’t a small unit.”
He ordered his men to throw grenades in series, calling to them two at a time to lob them to make their own numbers seem greater. “If they knew how small we were, we’d be finished,” Bucha said.
At daybreak, Bucha led a rescue party to recover the dead and wounded of the ambushed element.
Remembering every day
Bucha left the Army in 1972, working in business and with veterans support organizations. He served on the board of directors for the Congressional Medal of Honor Society as president from 1995 to 1999 and immediate past president from 1999 to 2001. Bucha unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1993 as a Republican but maintained a strong interest in politics and served a foreign policy advisor for President Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
He is survived by his wife, Cynthia, and four children.
But in later interviews, he said the final morning patrol to recover the dead and wounded of his ‘clerks and jerks’ never left him.
“Next morning, we got everybody out and I saw my first KIAs that were my men,” Bucha said. “I remember thinking, I asked them to trust me. I promised I’d bring them home. And those 10 guys did, but I didn’t,” Bucha said. “And every day of my life I think back and wonder what could I have done better to bring those 10 home?”
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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered that an additional fighter squadron deploy to the Middle East as part of a series of moves meant to protect American forces in the region and defend Israel, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh announced on Friday.
The deployments come as Israel is bracing for retaliation after an Israeli airstrike killed a senior Hezbollah leader in Beirut on Tuesday followed by the assassination of Hamas’ political leader on Wednesday, for which Israel has not claimed responsibility.
Austin has also ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility along with additional ballistic missile-defense capable cruisers and destroyers to the Middle East and U.S. European Command regions, Singh said.
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The Defense Department also plans to move more land-based ballistic missile defenses, said Singh, who did not specify which units may be sent to the Middle East.
“These posture adjustments add to the broad range of capabilities the U.S. military maintains in the region, including the USS Wasp Amphibious Ready Group / Marine Expeditionary Unit (ARG/MEU) operating in the Eastern Mediterranean,” Singh said.
This is a breaking news story. It will be updated as more information becomes available.
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Both Army officers and enlisted soldiers are taught that the My Lai Massacre, in which U.S. soldiers killed more than 500 Vietnamese civilians, can never happen again.
The Army charged 25 people in connection with the March 16, 1968 incident, but only one soldier was convicted in a military court martial: Lt. William L. Calley Jr.
News emerged Monday that Calley died in April. Calley’s death at 80 was not publicized by the Army and was first reported by the Washington Post.
In the decades since Calley’s 1971 court-martial, professors at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point have used My Lai as a case study to teach cadets one of the most fraught concepts in military leadership: when and how a leader might one day be required to disobey an unlawful order and report war crimes, said retired Army Lt. Col. Pete Kilner, chair for character development at West Point.
Although West Point cadets have looked at incidents of misconduct from the Iraq war in recent years to learn about their moral and legal obligations as officers, the subject of My Lai continues to come up, Kilner told Task & Purpose.
“They learn about their professional obligation to disobey any illegal or immoral orders and to prevent and report any war crimes that occur,” Kilner said.
Army 1st Lt. William L. Calley Jr. arrives for a pre-trial military hearing accompanied by his military attorney, Maj. Kenneth Raby, and civilian attorney George Latimer. (Getty Images) BettmannThe topic arises in several required courses in moral philosophy, military law, and the professional practice of serving as commissioned officers, Kilner said. Instructors keep My Lai in their curriculums so that it will never be repeated.
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One of those courses is Constitutional and Military Law, which all cadets are required to take during their senior year, said Army Col. Joshua F. Berry, a West Point professor and deputy head of the academy’s department of law and philosophy.
In the course’s section about the Law of Armed Conflict, the course looks at Calley in a lesson on command responsibility and obeying orders, Berry told Task & Purpose.
“Specifically, we look at the evolution of the theory of command responsibility under the laws of war, from the Civil War to World War II and the trial of General Tomoyuki Yamashita by an American Military Tribunal, to the trial of 1LT Calley for his actions at My Lai,” Berry said in an email. “We specifically look at part of Calley’s defense that the orders he received to kill everyone in the village were not ‘palpably illegal.’ We examine this to reinforce how ‘I was just following orders’ is not a defense to war crimes that are manifestly illegal.”
Over the years, many cadets have also learned about Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Hugh Clowers Thompson Jr., who was able to save some Vietnamese villagers at My Lai by landing his helicopter between them and advancing U.S. soldiers. He then warned U.S. troops that he and his crew would fire on them if they tried to harm the Vietnamese.
“Officers are required to be the moral compass, even in the most difficult situations in war, and all soldiers have a duty to prevent – and if they can’t prevent then to report – any war crimes,” Kilner said. “Honorable military service demands physical and moral courage. Chief Warrant Officer 2 Hugh Thompson is an outstanding example of both.”
Teaching My Lai at basic trainingTrainees who go through basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, also learn about Thompson as an example of someone who did the right thing, said Erik Villard, a Vietnam specialist and the digital military historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History.
“We feature figures from Army history throughout the last 250 years that exemplify values,” Villard told Task & Purpose. “One of those for the Vietnam War period is Hugh Thompson: He represents integrity. This is a guy who put everything on the line to do what was right.”
The Army is planning to expand the lessons on Thompson and other historical figures to all basic training centers, Villard said.
Following the courts-martial for the My Lai Massacre, the Army began embedded staff judge advocates throughout the operational force to make sure the Army upholds the ethics and values to which it aspires, Villard said.
Villard recalled one time when he went to Kuwait in 2014 at the start of the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State group, he saw a three-star U.S. general consult a military attorney before ordering an airstrike in Syria.
“He turns to his JAG [Judge Advocate General], and he says, ‘Is this legit?’” Villard recalled. “Is there anything we’re not thinking of? And, he has to get that sign off before he actually moves forward. That is now a feature that I saw in Afghanistan too. You have folks like that who are keeping an eye out, and if there are any suggestions that something isn’t right, that is part of their mission is to go hunt it down. That is absolutely a positive out of the terrible events of My Lai.”
Massacre revealed by a door gunnerIn the aftermath of My Lai, Army officers including Maj. Gen. Samuel W. Koster Sr. were accused of trying to cover up what had happened. The incident came to light after Ron Ridenhour, a former Army helicopter door gunner, alerted lawmakers to what he had learned about the massacre.
Calley was convicted in 1971 for the deaths of 22 people and initially sentenced to life in prison, but President Richard M. Nixon had Calley moved from confinement to house arrest and he was released after three years.
Capt. Ernest Medina, Calley’s company commander, was acquitted at his court-martial after testifying that he was not with the soldiers who carried out the massacre and he did not know what had happened until afterward. Medina died in May 2018.
Although Calley consistently maintained that he was only following orders, in August 2009 he issued a public apology for his role in the massacre, according to the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer in Georgia.
“There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai,” Calley said during a speech to the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus, adding, “I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry.”
Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who served in Vietnam, followed the revelations about the My Lai Massacre closely, and he concluded that Calley should never have been an Army officer.
At the time, the Army was in a desperate situation, so it was putting people without college degrees or leadership experience into the officer corps, said McCaffrey, the former head of U.S. Southern Command.
“My takeaway was: Be careful who you make as an officer in the U.S. Army or Marine Corps,” McCaffrey told Task & Purpose.
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The U.S. women’s rugby team just won its first Olympic medal with the help of an Army captain.
In a stunning win, the U.S. women’s rugby sevens team upset Australia to win the bronze medal Tuesday, 14-12. Team USA scored on the game’s final play to win.
One of the stars of the team’s run was Samantha Sullivan, an active duty Army captain and 2020 West Point graduate, where she was an All American rugby player for head coach Bill LeClerc.
LeClerc told Task & Purpose that Sullivan came to rugby only after she was cut from the school’s soccer team, but became a starter early on.
“What I like to think is that we unearthed something in her that she got really passionate about,” LeClerc said. “She’s really a hard working, passionate person who wants to excel at a lot of things and she put the work in.”
Sullivan started every game for Team USA as a prop/wing in the Olympics and scored tries against Japan and Brazil.
Trained as an Army engineer, Sullivan is part of the Army’s World Class Athlete Program which allows soldiers to train full-time toward international competitions.
At West Point, Sullivan recorded an extensive video interview now on the school’s website in which she said rugby was a perfect match for soldiers.
“Rugby is the best sport to play as officers because it is conducive to combat arms. It’s conducive to high intensity environments having to make quick decisions,” Sullivan said.
Rugby at West PointSullivan grew up in a family with deep military roots, beginning with her great-great-grandfather’s service in World War I. Subsequent generations of Sullivans served in World War II and Vietnam. Her father, Col. Michael Sullivan, was a Green Beret during the post-9/11 wars and commanded the 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade. Her twin brother is now an Army infantry officer.
Born in Tacoma, Washington, she spent time in Germany, Kentucky, Hawaii and California, but considers Fayetteville, North Carolina home.
“I’ve always wanted to serve but I thought it would be in an ROTC capacity,” Sullivan said about her decision to go to West Point.
It was there that her rugby career began.
Sullivan had been inspired to go to West Point by a family friend and originally tried out for their soccer team. After being denied a spot on the soccer team, Sullivan tried out for rugby her freshman year where she quickly fell in love with the sport. Sullivan graduated in 2020 as one of only three women in the Computer Science major that year, according to an Army West Point website.
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LeClerc said Sullivan had a natural athletic ability along with a fiery passion and a lot of determination. “She was just good at things you don’t have to coach,” he added.
Sullivan still holds the record for West Point Women’s Rugby all-time try scoring record. During her four years, Sullivan scored 84 tries and 3 conversions to total 426 points.
As her college coach, LeClerc said he was proud to see her in action and play the game alongside teammates that she used to compete against at West Point.
By her third rugby game at West Point, Sullivan was a starter on the team, according to the Army. Sullivan said she started her freshman year because she was fast and could “decently catch a ball.” During her college career, Sullivan became a three-time All-American and won the 2019 Prusmack Award for top female collegiate rugby sevens player.
LeClerc said she was a “good kid” with a big heart who was a “goofball” at times.
He recalled a practice where he told Sullivan that she looked different that day. “I’m wearing makeup today, coach. I just wanted to feel like a girl,” he recalled Sullivan say. “She was just Sammy,” he added.
“Everything you see is what you’re going to get,” he said. “I’m super proud of her.”
Even before her Olympic success, in Sullivan’s eyes, the sport not only defined her time at West Point, but changed who she was.
“Being on the rugby team was, I would say, arguably the thing that shaped me the most here that made me the person I am today,” Sullivan said in her taped interview.
LeClerc echoed the same sentiment, adding that the game gives players a sense of purpose and ultimately affects the way they hold themselves and how others see them.
“It changes everything. It changes your confidence. It changes how people look at you and it changes how you project yourself,” LeClerc said. “The game is the one that sort of did that. I just really introduced her to the game and helped her to understand some of the basics. After that, it was really her taking it as far as she could take it and it was pretty special today to see her.”
During her time at West Point, Sullivan served as the Brigade Trust Captain where was responsible for overseeing the academy’s Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment prevention program.
Last second victoryIn Paris, Sullivan was a central member of the American team, though the U.S. was not expected to medal against traditional powers like France, New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and others.
But the team won twice in early games, with Sullivan scoring tries in both, and qualified for the bronze medal game against Australia. The Americans trailed for nearly the whole game and appeared to be pinned on their own side of the field in the final seconds when Team USA’s Alex Sedrick took a loose ball, avoided a tackle and sprinted the length of the field to score as time expired, tying the match at 12.
Sullivan had been subbed out of the game, but as her teammates celebrated, cameras caught Sullivan yelling to “shut up” as the team lined up for a final winning kick. Sedrick’s conversion kick was good and Team USA took home the bronze.
“I’m not gonna lie. It wasn’t really expected,” LeClerc said. “Sports is brutal when you see things like that. I mean just on the knife’s edge like that. I’m sitting there watching it and I was like ‘man they’re not gonna get out of this.’”
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Katie Rubin was suspended from a rope 150 meters up a rugged cliffside in a remote Laos jungle when she spotted the human bones.
“I was attached via a relatively short sewn runner to a fixed line that had been placed by one of our six-foot-something team members,” Rubin said. “I noticed what looked like possible skeletal material on the surface at the edge of a drop-off.”
Rubin was lowering down the face of a sheer mountain that was once Lima Site 85, a top-secret Air Force radio site in the Vietnam War. The station was overrun in a fierce firefight in 1968, with 12 Americans who manned the site never recovered. Reports from survivors indicated that the Americans had taken a final refuge during the attack on the west side of the mountain, above a 150-meter cliff.
Rubin and her team from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency had learned that the bodies of the Americans killed may have been thrown over the side of the cliffs after the battle.
In late 2023, the DPAA team arrived in Phou Pha Thi in Houaphan Province. As the Scientific Recovery Expert on the mission, Rubin was evaluating the area to see if they could send in a recovery team to search for the remains of those killed during the attack almost six decades before.
The old base is now a tourist destination where a paved road extends up to the base of the cliffs, and a staircase ascends the cliff side on the southeastern side of the mountain.
The bodies, the team had been told, likely, landed on ledges down the cliff’s face.
“These ledges are separated from the base of the mountain by additional cliff faces. We were aware that they contain a very high [unexploded ordinance] burden and are subject to potentially lethal rock fall,” Rubin said.
Some debris from the station infrastructure is still in place at the summit, but most of it was removed or destroyed after the U.S. conducted dozens of bombing runs shortly after the battle. Though tourists visit the mountain top via a cleared path, an extensive amount of unexploded ordinance remains along the steep cliffs and ledges to the west and southwest sides of the mountain.
Rubin and her team recovered the remains after “an awkward amount of effort” due to the dangerous cliff sides and slopes — but they didn’t know who they belonged to.
A secret, remote station with no way out
Lima Site 85 was an Air Force radar site located on top of the mountain known as Phou Pha Thi in Houaphan Province. The station served as a radar beacon that bombers used for navigation as they flew into North Vietnam. It also played a critical role in a secretive operation called “Project Heavy Green.” The operation was designed to cut off supplies the enemy forces were transporting via the Ho Chi Ming trail.
In March 1968, North Vietnamese commandoes overran the site. The early morning assault resulted in the deaths of 12 US Air Force personnel, as well as many Hmong and Thai soldiers. An Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Richard Etchberger earned a posthumous Medal of Honor, coordinating the station’s defense and evacuation of survivors.
Recovering those left behind
To prepare for the recovery work at Lima Site 85, Rubin and her team underwent extensive conditioning and mountaineering training, including courses at the Marine Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, California, and the Army Mountain Warfare School in Jericho, Vermont.
Rubin told Task & Purpose that their goal at the site was not to recover bodies but to scout out the cliff sides surrounding the looming mountain. Were they even accessible with ropes? Was there unexploded ordinance to deal with? Finding remains, Rubin said, was supposed to come later.
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The team included Rubin and other a civilians, and several military personnel including a team leader, two team sergeants, a communication specialist, a linguist, four dedicated mountaineers, two EOD technicians, and two medical personnel with extensive mountain casualty evacuation experience.
The group operated from helicopters, hiking, short rope ascents, and rappels, and lowering or rappelling team members down the 150-meter cliff face. Before arriving at the site, Rubin handed out photos and profiles of all the missing so each team member could learn as much as possible about them.
Three of the 12 missing Americans at Lima Site 85 had been accounted for by recovery trips that began in 2003. Rubin spotted the remains on the cliff during just what was supposed to be a one-day evaluation of the old base.
U.S. service members assigned to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency dig into the side of a mountain during a joint field activity in Khammouan province, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Jan. 30, 2020. Marine Corps photo Sgt. Jacqueline Clifford Sgt. Jacqueline CliffordThe team carefully recovered the remains and sent them to the DPAA’s labs in Hawaii for identification.
Rubin and her team were still in Vietnam evaluating a different site when they heard that the lab had found a match: Sgt. David Price.
“I was ecstatic and couldn’t wait to share our excitement with the rest of the Lima Site 85 team and anyone who cared to listen, for that matter,” Rubin said. “The mountaineer and I started talking to everyone on our Vietnam site about Lima Site 85 and what happened there.”
“We had the Netflix Medal of Honor episode about the battle playing in our van. It is always exciting to bring home one of our missing. The investment every team member put into this particular site — physically and emotionally — made it all the more rewarding. We had trained for months for this, and even though we only had a few hours on the ledges in the end, we were able to bring Sergeant Price home.”
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The Marine who died of his injuries following a Humvee rollover on Saturday has been identified as Staff Sgt. Jerry L. Betzold.
Betzold, 26, was the only Marine injured when his Humvee rolled over at Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command, Twentynine Palms in California, Corps officials said.
At the time of his death, Betzold was assigned to the Tactical Training Exercise Control Group, or TTECG, at Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command, Twentynine Palms, according to a Marine Corps news release.
“Staff Sergeant Jerry Betzold represents all that is good and pure in our nation and Corps,” Marine Col. David Hart, TTECG director, said in a statement. “He tragically lost his life while working to ensure our combat formations remain ready when the nation needs them.”
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Originally from Avon, Indiana, Betzold enlisted in the Marines in August 2016, and he became an infantry platoon sergeant. He was promoted to staff sergeant on March 1. His military awards include four Sea Service Deployment Medals, three Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, two Marine Corps Good Conduct Medals, the Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation, Armed Forces Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and National Defense Service Medal.
Betzold was participating in Service Level Training Exercise 5-24 when his Humvee rolled over. He was initially treated at Robert E. Bush Naval Hospital at Twentynine Palms and then taken to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, California, where the Marine was pronounced dead on Sunday.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is looking into the cause of the rollover.
Betzold is the third Marine who has died in an on-duty vehicle mishap since October, according to Naval Safety Command.
“His loss is deeply felt across our Marine Corps family,” Hart said. “Our hearts and full support will remain with his family and friends as we all navigate this extremely difficult time.”
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Donald Trump’s Vice Presidential pick, JD Vance is the first military veteran on a presidential ticket since John McCain in 2008. But he could soon be joined by one of four veterans that Kamala Harris’ campaign is reviewing for her vice presidential spot.
If she picks one, it would guarantee a military veteran would be in the White House in 2025, even if just as the VP, regardless of who wins in November. If that were to happen, they would be the first veteran inside the White House since George W. Bush was president. And, with Vance’s service as a former corporal, if Harris picks Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, she would guarantee that the next vice president would be a former enlisted member, the first in the White House since Al Gore.
Vance served a four-year enlistment in the Marines from 2003 to 2007 as a combat correspondent, deploying to Iraq for six months
The names being thrown around in political circles for Harris are Gov. Walz, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, current Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Michigan Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. Peters and Buttigieg were officers in the Navy Reserve, Kelly famously retired as an astronaut and Walz is a former Command Sergeant Major who retired after 24 years in uniform.
The final decision for Harris’ VP pick may be announced at any point before the Democratic National Convention which begins Aug. 19. There, delegates will decide on the official Democratic nominee for the 2024 Presidential election to face former Republican President Donald Trump.
Arizona Sen. Mark KellyMark Kelly is a Senator from Arizona who served as a Navy pilot and as an astronaut from 1986 to 2011.
Kelly, a Democrat, was elected to the Senate in 2020 and currently serves in the seat once held by former Republican Sen. John McCain, who was the last veteran to run for President in 2008.
Kelly graduated with a degree in marine engineering and nautical science from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in 1996 and served as a Navy pilot until 2011, according to his service record, logging over 5,000 flight hours in more than 50 different aircraft. As a naval aviator, he deployed aboard the USS Midway and flew 39 combat missions during Operation Desert Storm. In 1996, Kelly was selected to become an astronaut in the same NASA class as his identical twin brother, Scott Kelly. He first traveled to space as pilot of STS-108 in December 2001 to the International Space Station. During Kelly’s four trips to space, he spent more than 50 days there and traveled over 20 million miles. He retired in 2011 as a Navy captain after commanding Space Shuttle Endeavour’s final flight.
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His awards and decorations include two Defense Superior Service Medals, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, four Air Medals, and two National Defense Service Medals. before retiring as a Captain, according to his campaign website.
He currently serves as the chairman for the Senate Armed Services’ Airland subcommittee. He previously sponsored legislation that would require that the VA make data on staffing and quality of care like patient wait times, effectiveness of care, and vacancy information publicly available online.
Transportation Secretary Pete ButtigiegPete Buttigieg is currently the U.S. Secretary for Transportation and served in the Navy Reserve from 2009 to 2017.
Buttigieg joined the Navy after graduating from college and was commissioned through Officer Training Command in Newport, Rhode Island in September 2009. He served as an intelligence officer with the Navy Reserve Joint Intelligence Operation Center at Fort Sheridan, Illinois for a majority of his career. Buttigieg was elected Mayor of South Bend, Indiana in 2011 at age 29 but remained in the Navy Reserve. He was called up for a deployment to Afghanistan in 2014. According to his service record from the Navy, between March and September, he worked with the Afghanistan Threat Finance Cell in Kabul, which targeted the financing of insurgent networks.
He separated as a lieutenant in November 2017.
If picked, Buttigieg would join Vance as the first veterans of the post-9/11 wars on a Presidential ticket.
During a brief bid for the Democratic Presidential nominee in 2020, Buttigieg’s record elicited criticism over whether he qualified as a combat veteran. Buttigieg said that while in Kabul he made 119 trips where he mostly drove in Kabul between bases with some road trips between Kabul and Bagram.
In a 2019 interview with Task & Purpose, Buttigieg said: “Some say you are a combat veteran if you have a Combat Action Ribbon (I do not). Others say deploying to a combat zone makes you one. I simply consider myself a veteran, and I’ll leave it to others to decide what else to call it.”
In 2019, ahead of the U.S. official withdrawal from Afghanistan, Buttigieg told Task & Purpose that it was time for a new Authorization for Use of Military Force. The last one, which the U.S. has relied on for operations in the Middle East for the past two decades, was passed by Congress after September 11, 2001.
“I believe the time has come for Congress to repeal and replace that blank check on the use of force and ensure a robust debate on any future operations,” Buttigieg said in 2019. “We should never again send troops into conflict without a clear definition of their mission or understanding of what comes after.”
As Transportation Secretary, Buttigieg sent a letter to 10 CEOS of the largest U.S. airlines in April, urging them to improve public-facing information about military travel benefits and offer full refunds to service members and their families who are forced to cancel travel plans due to military directives.
His awards and decorations include the Joint Service Commendation Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.
Minnesota Gov. Tim WalzTim Walz is governor of Minnesota and served in the Nebraska and Minnestoa National Guards from 1981 to 2005.
Walz first served in the Nebraska National Guard as an infantry sergeant and an administrative specialist. In 1996, Walz transferred to the Minnesota National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery where he served as a cannon crewmember and a field artillery NCO. He held multiple positions in field artillery including firing battery chief, operations sergeant, first sergeant, and finished his career serving as the battalion’s command sergeant major.
During his service he earned a Global War on Terrorism medal although it’s unclear if it was a service or expeditionary award, according to Army Lt. Col. Kristen Augé, a spokesperson for the Minnesota National Guard. His awards and decorations also include the Army Commendation Medal with M Device, Army Achievement Medals with one oakleaf cluster and several other awards typical of his rank, position and time in service.
Before he was Minnesota Governor, Walz served as a Congressman in the House of Representatives. During his time in office, Walz sponsored several veteran-related bills which became law. One measure created new pilot programs and partnerships for more veteran mental health resources and required an annual audit of the VA’s mental health care and suicide prevention programs. Another measure directed the VA to report its progress on an initiative for reducing in-person disability examinations.
In May 2023, Walz signed legislation into law aimed at making Minnesota “the fourth state in the country to declare an end to veteran homelessness statewide.” The measure included funds to construct dozens of permanent housing rental units and for the Homeless Veteran Registry, a tool that identifies homeless veterans and connects them with relevant services.
The 2023 legislation also included millions for the state National Guard’s health and fitness program with $17 million for the construction of an Army Combat Fitness Test Field House.
Sen. Gary Peters Gary Peters is currently a Senator from Michigan and served in the Navy Reserve from 1993 to 2008.
Peters, the son of a WWII veteran, joined the Navy Reserves at 34. He earned a Seabee Combat Warfare Specialist designation and left as a Lieutenant Commander. After September 11th, Peters volunteered for drill status and served overseas with a reserve unit. He also earned a diploma from the U.S. Naval War College.
Axios also reported this week that Peters is a late-comer as a candidate to be Harris’ VP but is being looked at by her team. He was elected to the Senate in 2014 after serving as a congressman in the House of Representatives since 2008. In 2020, Peters sponsored legislation in the Senate that became law to improve accountability for the VA’s caregiver program. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs.
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U.S. troops deployed to Iraq and Syria came under four rocket attacks in three days last week, U.S. officials told Task & Purpose. With those rapid-fire incidents, July saw the most attacks against American forces in the region in months.
No American service members were wounded in the most recent attacks, which were against Al Asad Air Base in Iraq and Mission Support Site Euphrates in Syria, the U.S. officials said.
The recent string of attacks began when two rockets were fired at Al Asad Air Base on July 25, neither of which hit the base, the U.S. officials said.
Mission Support Site Euphrates was also attacked on July 25, 26, and 27, during which one rocket hit the base, causing no injuries, the officials said. U.S. troops returned fire after one of the attacks.
July has seen a sharp increase in attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria. On July 16, two drones attacked Al Asad Air Base, one of which struck the base and caused “minimal damage,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Signh told reporters earlier this month. U.S. and coalition forces also destroyed a drone near Green Village, Syria, but it is unclear what the drone’s target was.
Although U.S. officials are not saying which groups they believe carried out the attacks, Singh told reporters on July 18 that groups backed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had launched attacks against U.S. forces in the past.
“Most likely than not it is one of those affiliate groups, but I can’t give you specifics other than that,” Singh said at a Pentagon news conference.
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Following Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel, American forces in the Middle East were targeted by the “Islamic Resistance of Iraq,” an umbrella organization of Iranian-backed groups. Three Army Reserve soldiers were killed in January by a drone attack on a base in Jordan known as Tower 22.
The U.S. military responded in February by striking 85 targets in Iraq and Syria and killing a senior leader of an Iranian-backed group.
Attacks against U.S. troops in the Middle East mostly subsided after February, with the exceptions of an April 21 attack on the Rumalyn Landing Zone in Syria and an April 22 attack on Al Asad Air Base.
Iran exerts “a great degree of control” over the militia groups that began attacking U.S. troops in the Middle East in the fall, said Army Maj. Gen. Joel “JB” Vowell, who leads all American service members in Iraq and Syria as part of Operation Inherent Resolve.
Iran’s goals include exporting its revolution to the rest of the Middle East to become the supreme power in the region, Vowell told Task & Purpose in June. He added, “Iran will fight to the last proxy.”
Amid the proxy war between Iran and the United States, the Islamic State group is trying to reconstitute itself, according to U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM. ISIS launched more attacks in the first half of 2024 than it did during all of 2023.
“At this rate, ISIS is on pace to more than double the total number of attacks they claimed in 2023,” CENTCOM announced in a July 16 news release.
Speaking to Task & Purpose, Vowell said ISIS is greatly diminished from where it was a few years ago, and the group is only capable of conducting small ambushes and attacks in Iraq and Syria.
However, the underlying conditions that allowed ISIS to emerge remain unresolved in Syria, he said.
“The root causes of instability that gave birth to ISIS are still there,” Vowell said. “There’s economic challenges in the Sunni areas, quite frankly. Those instability challenges are there: lack of education, lack of opportunity, lack of jobs. And extremism is still fomenting out in the deserts in the Middle Euphrates River Valley, in the Sunni tribes.”
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A Marine died from injuries sustained in a Humvee rollover on Saturday at Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms in California, according to a news release posted on the base’s Facebook page.
As of Monday morning, the Marine’s name had not yet been publicly released pending next of kin notification.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of the Marine during this difficult time,” the news release says.
The rollover took place on Saturday during Service Level Training Exercise 5-24, the news release says. The Marine was first treated at Robert E. Bush Naval Hospital at Twentynine Palms and then taken to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, California, where the Marine was pronounced dead on Sunday.
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The Marine Corps has not publicly released additional information about how the rollover occurred.
Investigators are looking into what caused the Humvee to roll over. No other Marines were injured in the incident.
Two other Marines have died in on-duty vehicle mishaps so far in Fiscal Year 2024, according to Naval Safety Command. One Marine was killed in December when an amphibious combat vehicle rolled over at Camp Pendleton, California; and another was killed in a March motorcycle accident during a command group ride in San Diego.
The most recent mishap comes nearly a month after an airman was killed and five others were injured in a vehicle accident at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana involving an up-armored Humvee.
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The U.S. Navy is still working on building DDG 127, a new Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, but this weekend it officially christened the ship. As the Irish flag flew overhead and an Irish official spoke, the Navy officially welcomed the USS Patrick Gallagher. It was an unusual christening, in part because the namesake of the ship was an Irish citizen who fought and died in the Vietnam War as a Marine.
Marine Lance Corporal Patrick “Bob” Gallagher earned the Navy Cross, the U.S. Navy’s highest honor, for his actions in the war, saving his comrades from grenades and risking his own life to do so. He survived that attack but would later be killed in Vietnam near the end of his tour. 57 years later, in Bath, Maine, Navy officials, Navy leaders, Gallagher’s sisters and Seán Fleming, Ireland’s minister of state at the Department of Foreign Affairs, all gathered to honor him. Three of his sisters christened the ship by smashing a bottle of sparkling wine across the bow. It’s the first vessel in the U.S. Navy named for Gallagher. Also in attendance was the ship’s prospective crew.
Gallager was born in 1944 in County Mayo, Ireland and was an Irish citizen. He moved to the United States in 1962 for work and obtained a green card, on his way to earning American citizenship. He was drafted to fight in Vietnam in 1965 and chose to go, even as some family suggested he return to Ireland to avoid the war. He served with H Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, 3rd Marine Division. On July 18, 1966, they were on patrol when several grenades were thrown at them. Gallagher quickly kicked one away from the other Marines and then jumped on another.
“Without hesitation, in a valiant act of self-sacrifice, Lance Corporal Gallagher threw himself upon the deadly grenade in order to absorb the explosion and save the lives of his comrades. The other three Marines moved to safety while two other grenades landed in the position and exploded, miraculously injuring no one,” his Navy Cross citation reads.
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The grenade Gallagher jumped on did not immediately explode. He was able to pull it out from under him and toss it into a nearby river where it detonated. “Through his extraordinary heroism and inspiring valor in the face of almost certain death, he saved his comrades from probable injury and possible loss of life,” the citation continues.
He would be awarded the Navy Cross later in 1966.
Navy Cross recipient and Marine Patrick Gallagher (photo courtesy U.S. Navy) Although Gallagher survived that incident, he did not survive Vietnam. While on a patrol in March 1967, his unit was ambushed and he was killed in action. He was 23. Gallagher was close to finishing his tour of duty and according to his family was going to visit Ireland once out of the war. Instead, his body was brought back to County Mayo and buried there. Gallagher was among more than two dozen Irish citizens killed during the Vietnam War.
“Not yet an American citizen, Cpl. Gallagher made the ultimate sacrifice for his adopted nation,” Sen. Susan Collins said on Saturday.
After years of petitioning from supporters of Gallagher’s legacy, including Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Navy agreed in 2018 to name a ship for him. The destroyer’s keel was laid down in March 2022.
“Patrick has not been forgotten. He lives forever young in our hearts and minds, and this ship will outlive all of us,” Gallagher’s youngest sister Pauline said at the ceremony.
The Arleigh Burke class of destroyers are a major part of the U.S. Navy’s surface fleet. They’re meant for operations against land, air and sea-based enemies. Recently ships of the class have played a major role in American operations in the Middle East, particularly in the Red Sea shooting down drones and missiles fired at commercial vessels over the past year.
The USS Patrick Gallagher is still under construction and is expected to enter service in the coming years. Rear Adm. Thomas Anderson said at the ceremony that once the destroyer is commissioned, it will sail to Ireland in honor of its namesake.
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Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin formally ordered the military to review 20 Medal of Honor awards given to soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry for their actions during the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre.
The review, announced on July 24, calls for a special review panel to determine if some of the awards were wrongly given and should be rescinded. They are instructed to go through each soldier’s individual actions, “to ensure no awardees were recognized for conduct inconsistent with the nation’s highest military honor.” It’s a move by the Department of Defense that comes after years of urging by Native American groups and some lawmakers.
The massacre took place at Wounded Knee Creek in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on Dec. 29, 1890. The 7th Cavalry had located and surrounded a group of Lakota people and was trying to disarm the camp. How the fighting started is unclear; according to multiple accounts a gun was fired either by accident or confusion during the surrender, prompting Army soldiers to open fire at the Lakota. The exact number of casualties is in dispute, but according to the Pentagon, between 350-375 Lakota were killed or wounded by the Army. Accounts written by witnesses and participants in the battle documented women, children and even babies among those killed. Dozens of American soldiers were killed as well, but witnesses described it from being in part from friendly fire.
20 soldiers received the Medal of Honor for actions at the massacre. They were among 31 total recipients of the award for the overall campaign that year. The awards were given out in a period between 1891-1897. The specific citations for each individual award are often slim, with Austin’s memo noting they simply note a soldier’s bravery or fighting while wounded.
The Wounded Knee Massacre became a symbol of the violence and oppression done against Native Americans. In 1990, 100 years after the slaughter, the U.S. Congress issued a formal apology. The medals were not reviewed though. The Pentagon’s order this week comes after a recent push by lawmakers in Congress to get the Medals of Honor reviewed.
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Austin’s order calls for the panel to review the specific actions of each soldier and not the wider battle, although it notes that “[t]he [special review panel] may consider the context of the overall engagement as appropriate, including as necessary to understand each [Wounded Knee Creek Medal of Honor] recipient’s individual actions.” Additionally, the panel is asked to determine if the awards given in the 1890s meet the standards for such honors at the time they were given, not the present day.
Per Austin’s memo, the panel must provide a written report to the secretary by Oct. 15. The order calls for a final recommendation to be given on whether or not the soldiers should keep the nation’s highest military honor, or if they should have it rescinded, and with a full argument for or against each decision.
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The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department is offering $20,000 for any information that could lead to the arrest of those who assaulted and killed an active-duty Marine earlier this year.
On Wednesday, July 24, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department announced it was seeking public assistance in locating the people who attacked 42-year-old Marine Peter Chounthala while he was in Los Angeles County. On May 28, at around 2 a.m., Chounthala was struck by a car in a hit-and-run incident in Bellflower, in southeastern Los Angeles County. LASD and the Los Angeles Fire Department responded, finding him in the street suffering from serious injuries to the chest. LAFD provided treatment, but Chounthala was declared dead at the scene.
LASD members investigating found that before the hit-and-run he had been assaulted by at least two men before he was hit by the car. They attacked and severely beat him, before leaving toward a nearby parking lot.
“Investigators believe that Mr. Chounthala was an innocent victim of these senseless acts of violence,” Lt. Patricia Thomas with the LASD’s Homicide Bureau, who led the press conference, said on Wednesday.
After that, Chounthala, still on the ground, was then hit by the car, which was last seen heading east on Artesia Boulevard in Bellflower.
After two months of investigation with no arrests, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department issued a reward to obtain any more information that could lead to the arrest of those who beat and killed Chounthala. At the press conference, the department provided some details on the incident. LASD said the car that hit Chounthala was a dark-colored 4-door Kia K5, likely a model made between 2021 and 2023. It’s not clear if the driver of the car was one of the assailants and LASD provided only limited information in its press conference.
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Chounthala joined the Marine Corps in 2008 and served several tours in Afghanistan. At the time of his death he had been assigned to the Wounded Warriors Battalion, based out of Camp Pendleton. According to Chounthala’s sister Witpha Chounthala, he was set to retire from the military at the end of this year. Chouthala left behind a wife and a three-year-old son. His wife, Jurina Chounthala, is an active-duty member of the Air Force. At Wednesday’s press conference, she urged anyone with information on the assault to reach out, so that “hopefully we can have some closure.”
“He was everything to me, to my family, to our friends and family. He’s like the glue that held all of us together,” she said.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact the LASD Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500 or the Crime Stoppers line at (800) 222-8477.
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Two former Marines were sentenced on Friday, July 26, for planning to target and destroy power grid substations. They were part of a group of five men, including two other former service members, who planned on carrying out a series of terror attacks in the name of white supremacist and Neo Nazi ideology.
Liam Collins, who previously served with 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role. Justin Hermansan received a one year, nine month sentence for conspiring to make and ship firearms over state lines. Both are 25. The two were separated from the Marine Corps in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Collins was kicked out after it was discovered that he ran a Neo Nazi message board.
A third member of the group, Paul Kryscuk, was also sentenced on Friday. Kryscuk, 38, had not been in the military; he was sentenced to six and a half years in prison.
According to prosecutors, the men were part of a group of five people that planned on attacking an electrical substation with assault rifles. Kryscuk manufactured unregistered firearms while Collins stole ammunition magazines from the military to ship to the others. The group planned on attacking multiple power grid sites to sow chaos. All were motivated by white supremacist and Neo Nazi ideology.
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Collins and Kryscuk met on the now-defunct Iron March Neo-Nazi forum and began recruiting the other three members. The plot was uncovered in 2020 and the members of the group were indicted. Initially the case focused on just the weapons, but grew once investigators learned of the wider terrorism plot.
“As part a self-described ‘modern day SS,’ these defendants conspired, prepared, and trained to attack America’s power grid in order to advance their violent white supremacist ideology,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in the Justice Department’s announcement. “These sentences reflect both the depravity of their plot and the Justice Department’s commitment to holding accountable those who seek to use violence to undermine our democracy.”
Alongside planning their attacks on the power grid, the group trained near Boise, Idaho and among other actions recorded propaganda videos of themselves that included Neo-Nazi symbols and the “sieg heil” salute.
Collins had joined the Marine Corps in 2017. Prosecutors had argued that he did so in order to gain military experience to help further his Neo Nazi goals. The Marine Corps discovered his membership on Iron March in 2019, and he was separated from the military the next year. Collins also had maintained a hit list of potential targets. It included national security and military reporter Jim LaPorta.
Attacks on the American power grid have become a popular tactic among far-right extremist groups. Prosecutors noted that this group looked at past attacks as an example. Additionally, Neo Nazi and other extremist organizations often try to recruit members of the military and veterans, or occasionally have members enlist to gain combat skills to be used in terrorism plots.
A fourth member, Joseph Maurino, had been a member of the New Jersey Army National Guard. He was previously convicted for his role in the plot. Last month, the fifth member of the group pleaded guilty. Jordan Duncan, 29, another former Marine who left the Corps in 2017, had been charged with aiding and abetting the manufacturing of the group’s weapons. Maurino and Duncan are awaiting sentencing.
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The Army has announced that three brigades will deploy this fall to three different theaters, underscoring that many soldiers continue to serve far away from home even though the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have ended.
The 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division is headed to the U.S. Central Command theater of operations, the Army recently announced. The brigade combat team will replace the New Jersey Army National Guard’s 44th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, which is currently supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led mission against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
The 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division is also deploying to Europe as part of the latest rotation of Operation Atlantic Resolve, which was launched to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The unit will replace the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.
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And the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division will go to South Korea to replace the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, which falls under III Corps.
“The Army has a total commitment of 135,200 Soldiers worldwide, with 132,600 Soldiers overseas in over 140 countries supporting Unified Combatant Commands (CCMDs) and another 13,500 within the U.S. and its territories supporting CCMDs,” an Army official told Task & Purpose.
Meanwhile, the Army is cutting 24,000 active-duty billets. Army’s most recent budget request would fund a total of 442,300 active-duty soldiers, down from an active-duty end strength of 485,900 soldiers in Fiscal Year 2021.
It’s worth noting that it takes a total of three brigades to make such deployments: One brigade is already deployed, another is getting ready to go, and a third just got back, said retired Sergeant Major of the Army Michael A. “Tony” Grinston.
To be ready for such deployments, soldiers go through extensive preparation at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, and elsewhere, further keeping them away from their families, Grinston told Task & Purpose.
Grinston now serves as CEO of Army Emergency Relief, which helps soldiers and their families in financial distress. His job involves helping soldiers deployed across the globe who need to take emergency leave.
The deployments and training exercises underscore that the Army has not returned to garrison life even though the war in Afghanistan ended nearly three years ago, Grinston said.
“From my time, when I left a year ago, the soldiers were just as busy then as they were in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Grinston said. “Clearly it’s less dangerous, but time away from families is still time away from families.”
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A crash that destroyed a B-1B bomber at Ellsworth Air Force Base in January was the result of pilot error and poor leadership on the base that led to “unsatisfactory levels of basic airmanship, an inadequate focus on foundational governing directive knowledge, and an overall lack of discipline throughout the 34th Bomb Squadron,” according to a cutting report issued by an Air Force accident investigation board.
The pilot of a B-1B failed to compensate for bad weather and severe winds known as wind shear while landing in January at fog-covered Ellsworth, just outside Rapid City, South Dakota. The plane struck the ground and skidded down the base’s runway for nearly 5,000 feet before coming to a stop between two of the airfield’s taxiways, according to the investigation report. The aircraft caught fire and was ruled a total loss of $456,248,485.
The pilot and the crew made several mistakes, the board found, but their errors were rooted in a flying culture in the unit that the board found was not focused on safety, discipline or maintaining standards.
All four of the crew members ejected when the plane hit the ground. Two were injured, with one hospitalized after a temporary loss of consciousness. The investigation linked one crewmember’s ejection injuries to his weight, which was nearly 260 pounds, over the ejection seat’s 245-lbs weight limit for safe use, the report said. The report found that the same crewmember had been at or near that weight at several medical checks and once was allowed to continue flying with a “self-reported” weight of 245.
Col. Erick Lord, the accident board president and report author, said the crewmember’s weight and the pilot’s mistakes were indicative of larger problems in the associated units. In more damning language, he wrote that the failures leading up to the crash were not an “aberration” but, instead, reflective of a “culture of noncompliance.”
The remains of a B-1B bomber that crashed at Ellsworth Air Force Base. Photo from accident investigation report. Pilot errorsThe Air Force accident investigation report found “a preponderance of the evidence” that the mishap was caused by crewmembers not communicating to check each other’s awareness of the aircraft’s decreasing airspeed, descent rate, and incorrect flight path.
During questioning, the systems operator admitted that in the seconds leading up to the crash, he referred to his After Landing Checklist instead of correcting the crew’s “discipline dereliction.” The crash was also the result of “ineffective flight supervision” because one person acted as both Supervisor of Flying and Operations Supervisor.
The investigation also linked the crash to weather with low visibility and an undetected wind shear. The report notes that a pilot’s reaction to an aircraft losing tailwind and climbing above the glide path can be “an overcorrection, which can lead to a descent below the glide path without enough altitude to correct.” This results in a high sink rate and hard landing, according to the investigation.
Once the wind stabilized, the pilot failed to increase core rpm as the airspeed decreased to “catch” their approach speed. Their 152 KCAS approach speed, instead of what should’ve been 164, is for an aircraft that is 40,000 lbs lighter than the B-1B at the time of the accident.
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Culture of noncomplianceCol. Erick Lord, the accident board president and report investigator said the weight and crew mistakes were indicative of the larger problems in the associated units. In more damning language, he wrote that the failures leading up to the crash were not an “aberration” but, instead, reflective of a “culture of noncompliance.”
Lord said that the 34 Bomb Squadron’s “lack of discipline” and focus on basic airman skills, coupled with the 28 Operations Support Squadron’s ineffective communication, inadequate program management and lack of supervision, “set conditions that allowed this mishap to occur.”
In various interviews with members of the squadron, the investigation uncovered airmen’s lack of understanding and application of cold weather altitude corrections, landing restrictions and current weather sensing capabilities on the airfield.
The investigation also said that many of the squadron’s assistant Director of Operations positions were unfilled which forced decision-making authority to flight commanders and Senior NCOs. The 28 OSS “underestimated the impact caused by the leadership vacuum” and the manning decisions led to “an overall loss of leadership.”
Air Force Global Strike Command said in a release that the chain of command is in the process of responding to the report and taking the appropriate corrective actions.
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Scientific studies aimed at unlocking the genetic code of all humans have had problems with their data: it was mostly collected from people with “European” heritage, leaving wide gaps in the study of DNA from populations around the world.
To close the gap, the authors of one recent study turned to military veterans, a group whose health and genetics are well studied during and after military service, and whose genetics come from a wide swath of the world.
Researchers working with the Department of Veterans Affairs were granted access to the VA’s database of DNA known as the Million Veteran Program. Using the DNA database from the VA, researchers found genetic markers for prostate cancer, anemia, Alzheimer’s dementia and cirrhosis, according to a study published in Science.
“Most of the genetic data available to researchers are still derived from individuals of European descent,” researchers wrote. “This shortcoming limits both the biological insights that can be gleaned from these data and their clinical applications to non-European patients, who may not match up well with the traditional study participants.”
The Million Veteran Program was launched in 2011 as a research effort to improve veteran health care. It’s also one of the largest biobanks in the world, collecting DNA and other health information on veterans for medical research. Military veterans have long been a more racially and genetically diverse group than the U.S. as a whole.
The recent VA-funded study was done in collaboration with the Department of Energy in order to use their supercomputers to run thousands of genetic-disease analyses using MVP data.
According to Anurag Verma, lead researcher and professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, most genomic studies rely heavily on European ancestry DNA which limits the accuracy of research results.
“If we include more diversity in these studies, then we are able to overall improve the risk prediction,” Verma said.
In the study with Veteran DNA, researchers were able to find 101 traits – including hemolytic anemias, sarcoidosis, keloid scarring and susceptibility to gout – among veterans with African ancestry that were twice as prevalent than in veterans with European ancestry. The research also validated previous studies on African ancestral populations which found a higher prevalence of traits linked to prostate cancer, reduced white blood count levels and kidney-related conditions such as end-stage renal disease.
Among veterans with East Asian and Admixed American ancestry (a term that typically encompass those who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino), researchers found 18 traits “with at least twice the prevalence” of veterans with European ancestry including Alopecia areata in Admixed American and viral hepatitis B in East Asian ancestry.
“This is an example where the donation that the million-plus veterans made to this program, it’s really a gift to the world,” said Sumitra Muralidhar, director of the Million Veteran Program.
In most genetic association studies, research teams study one disease and determine which genetics are associated with it or a researcher identifies one genetic marker and they try to link conditions or health conditions that are associated with that specific marker, Muralidhar said.
“By taking 42 million-or-so-plus genetic markers and about 2,000 health traits all at once and looking at this, we’ve already completed the first step so-to-speak for a number of health traits,” she said. “Now other researchers can really take this as a jumping point and expedite discovery and move it towards translation much faster.”
Closing the gapThe lack of diverse DNA in genomic research has been well-documented in published studies and news reports. A systematic review of existing genome-wide association studies from January 2024, found that 82% of 123 studies looking at neurodegenerative disease connections to DNA predominantly featured participants with European ancestry.
Access to veteran DNA, however, is helping to close that gap.
With the MVP study, which began in 2018, researchers were able to use veteran data from the VA’s biobank, which at the time was just over 638,000 individuals and about 29% had non-European ancestry.
“Not only the percentage is high, but absolute number of the individuals in this study is also massive in comparison to whatever has been published in the past,” Verma said.
The VA has since reached more than one million participants and as of July 24, MVP had 1,037,886 participants. In the current breakdown, around 25% of the cohort are racially diverse (non-European ancestry) with 18% African ancestry and 7% other racial minorities; 8% ethnically diverse; namely, Hispanic.
By conducting a diverse, cross-population analysis, researchers were able to identify 834 previously unreported variant-trait associations and 15 signals from coding variants that are either rare or not observed in non-European populations.
With a substantial amount of African ancestry data, researchers also found numerous pleiotropic genes, which are genes that control more than one trait. A common example of pleiotropic genes is phenylketonuria, a disorder caused by an enzyme deficiency that can result in multiple characteristics like mental retardation, eczema, and lighter skin pigments.
“This highlights the substantial contribution conferred by including diverse populations in genetic research,” the study states. “At the same time, cross-population heritability analyses, fine mapping, and heterogeneity analyses demonstrated substantial similarities in the genetic architecture between population groups driven by variants common across populations.”
Why does it matter?Genome-wide association studies have long been the foundation of research into complex biological traits and drug development.
“People carry different genes and some genes where we call variants are more common in one population compared to another population and so how this plays out is in drugs,” said Katherine Liao, a lead researcher of the study and professor at Harvard Medical School who also treats veterans at VA sites in Boston. “There are certain drugs that if you carry a certain genetic defect, you’re gonna have a really bad side effect.”
Liao gave an example of 1.5% of one population carrying a specific gene and another population where 10% carry the gene.
“If you were to give everybody the same drug, the population where they don’t have the gene that gives you a side effect, nothing happens. So if you only test on that population, you think ‘Oh, this drug is really safe,’ but in another population, 10% are having some kind of massive side effect,” Liao said. “That’s where it really matters.”
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Genome-wide association studies are also helping in the field of precision medicine where doctors look at genetics, environment, and lifestyle to select the best treatment for a patient.
“The promise of precision medicine is finding the best drug for the patient and also how do we manage it the best. If there’s only that one drug, it’s not like we want to avoid it, but it’s like how do we deal with that?,” Liao said. “How do we tell the patient ‘watch out for rash’ or ‘these are the issues you need to watch out for.’”
Expanding MVPA number of other studies are underway using MVP data, with researchers looking at links between DNA and prevalence of certain types of cancers, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, as well as substance abuse and mental health disorders.
But MVP has already led to “some of the largest studies ever done,” said M, MVP director.
One study that looked at the genetics of PTSD, had 165,000 veterans “which had never been done before” and another, which was “the largest study on genetics of anxiety” used data from 200,000 veterans.
During the pandemic, a research team observed African Americans with COVID-19 were dying of acute kidney disease at much higher rates than the rest of the population. By diving into MVP data, researchers found a gene called APOL1 that increased African Americans’ risk of death. With their findings, Muralidhar said, pharmaceutical companies can develop drugs that target the gene and reduce mortality risk.
While the study does note that MVP data is ancestry-diverse, its veteran population is predominantly male and older, making the research “less well-powered to study conditions more prevalent in females or younger populations.” But even if only 10% of MVP is made up of female veterans, the absolute number equals 100,000 female participants which MVP officials and the study’s researchers said is larger than the majority of existing biobanks.
Muralidhar said MVP has launched a couple of campaigns aimed at enrolling more women veterans. During one marketing campaign, MVP doubled the number of women participants and are developing focused campaigns for different races, ethnicities, genders, ages and even geographies for groups like rural veterans who are harder to reach. As part of the MVP sign-up process, veterans have to give a blood sample at a VA facility, but in order to expand the enrollment, MVP has started to mail a kit home for blood specimens.
Participation in MVP is voluntary and requires consent from each veteran. Enrollees have to complete online or mail surveys on their health, lifestyle habits, military experience, personal and family history, give a blood sample for genetic analysis, and agree to future contact from MVP.
“The altruism of veterans has made this possible – really without which we would never have been here,” Muralidhar said. “They really look at this as another opportunity to serve.”
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When Abraham Lopez showed up for boot camp on July 15, the sprawling crop of lettuce atop his head was so big that his hair obscured most of his face, according to a picture posted online by Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego.
But, as the series of pictures of Lopez chronicle, his volcanic eruption of a mane was no obstacle for the barbers at the recruit depot, who are combat seasoned in the war against flowing locks. But all male Marine recruits have their head shaved at the start of boot camp and Lopez was quickly shorn, as his once bountiful strands fell victim to the clippers of freedom.
Lopez is not the first person to begin his Marine Corps career by losing legendary hair. In 2018, the Marines posted a picture of another recruit at San Diego who sported a glorious mullet along with the caption, “Business in the Front, Party in the Back.”
When the Marine, whom Task & Purpose has dubbed “Pvt. Mullet,” graduated from recruit training, his uncle said that his drill instructors had not treated him any worse than his fellow recruits.
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After the picture of Pvt. Mullet went viral, he briefly became something of a celebrity within the Marine Corps. One Marine whom he didn’t know drove for 45 minutes to San Diego to see him graduate.
Marine recruit Abraham Lopez is given a haircut as part of a receiving event at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California, July 15, 2024. (Lance Cpl. Francisco Angel/U.S. Marine Corps) Lance Cpl. Francisco AngelWhether Lopez’s Sideshow Bob-top lives in similar fame, his story is yet more proof how obsessed the Marine Corps is with hair.
Haircuts are such an important part of Corps culture that former Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller was worried that the need to find recruits with cyber warfare skills might affect recruiting standards.
According to the commander at the time of Marine Forces Cyber Command, then-Brig. Gen. Loretta Reynolds,Neller asked her, “Do I have to start letting guys with purple hair and earrings in?”
When Neller announced in 2019 that the Marine Corps was creating a cyber auxiliary, he made it very clear that grooming regulations would not be relaxed for cyber warriors.
“If anybody wants to join, you can sign up,” Neller said. “You can have purple hair, too, but no EGA [Eagle, Globe, and Anchor].”
Hairstyles once again became an issue during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In April 2020, a video shared on social media showed Marines standing in line outside a barber shop in Camp Pendleton, California. The Marines were not standing six feet apart, nor were they wearing masks.
When asked if it was mission essential for Marines to get haircuts during the pandemic, then-Chairman of the Joints of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said yes and cited the famous Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II.
“I think Marines should get haircuts, from a personal standpoint,” Milley said at an April 14, 2020 Pentagon news conference. “As the son of a Navy corpsman who hit the beach at Iwo Jima with the 4th Marine Division, it took extraordinary discipline to conquer that island with 7,000 Marines killed in 19 and 20 days and put a flag on Suribachi. That Marine victory was the result of incredible discipline of America’s 911 force and the expeditionary force. It may seem superficial to some, but getting a haircut is part of that discipline.”
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Omar ‘Crispy’ Avila tried smoking a couple of times as a teen, but he didn’t like it. But when he joined the Army after high school, it seemed like he was ‘smoking and joking’ with his fellow infantrymen overnight.
“I was so focused on sports in high school that I didn’t really care for it. But after joining the military, I think the training goes hand in hand with nicotine and caffeine,” Avila said. “I just kind of picked it up and smoked ever since I was in — drinking a lot of coffee and smoking cigarettes to stay awake, especially during night missions.”
Now, Avila is part of a group advocating for a new messaging campaign called “Smokeless Vets.” The group includes Black Rifle Coffee owner Jarred Taylor as a spokesperson and believes that traditional cessation programs ignore benefits of smokeless tobacco. The group says it wants to help 100,000 veterans quit smoking by 2035.
At the heart of the Smokeless Vets message is a belief that quit-smoking programs offered to veterans by the Department of Veterans Affairs handicap themselves by focusing on nicotine replacement. VA-approved quit-smoking programs on Smokefree.gov endorses Nicotine Replement Therapy, or NRT, which includes nicotine gum, lozenges and other methods for smokers to get a nicotine dose without tobacco.
But Avila and SmokelessVets say that traditional NRT and the VA ignore products that deliver nicotine like vapes and chewing tobacco or gum, at the expense of veterans. Nicotine is the primary addictive substance in smoking and comes with well-established health risks. But traditional smoking Avila and his group believe, is much more harmful, making the use of nicotine alternatives a reasonable path to quit cigarettes.
“Many of these veterans have tried to quit smoking but were unsuccessful, and [the VA] refused to inform them on all of the pathways to quitting. Failing to authorize innovative products and even misleading veterans on alternative nicotine products,” Taylor said in a video on the group’s website. “E-cigarettes are 95% less harmful than normal cigarettes, yet the VA is making claims that e-cigarettes and vapes are causing cancer.”
A spokesperson for the VA said that the agency endorses extensive quit-smoking programs that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
“The VA offers Veterans U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved pharmacotherapy and evidence-based behavioral interventions for tobacco use treatment,” a VA spokesperson told Task & Purpose in response to issues raised by SmokelessVets. “To date, FDA has not approved any e-cigarettes, vape pens, or alternative nicotine products for medical use. There are no clinical practice recommendations in the United States that recommend e-cigarettes or alternative nicotine products as a smoking cessation treatment.”
Smokeless Vets counters that several overseas studies have found that smokers fair better at quitting with tobacco products like vapes, chewing tobacco and nicotine gum. A 2015 English study, published in the medical journal The Lancet, found that “e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful than tobacco, and that when supported by a smoking cessation service they help most smokers quit tobacco altogether.”
Another study-of-studies updated this year in the Cochrane Library covering 88 studies and 27,000 participants, found “there is high certainty that nicotine electronic cigarettes increases quit rates compared to nicotine replacement therapy…. In absolute terms, this might translate to an additional four quitters per 100.”
Most studies find that less than 10 of every 100 would-be quitters manage to fully kick smoking, with those who try “cold turkey” with no replacement or therapy plans fair worst. “People are more likely to stop smoking for at least six months using nicotine e‐cigarettes than using nicotine replacement therapy,” the study found.
An combat wake up
Avila had a wake-up call about the harmful side effects of cigarettes while recovering from a massive improvised explosive device that blew up his HMMWV in Iraq in 2006.
“When I was in, I didn’t have the need that I wanted to kick smoking; I feel like this is kind of what you do,” Avila said. “But after being wounded, and the doctors asked if I was still smoking, and I was like, ‘yeah,’ they said you need to kind of stop that, man.”
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So began his journey to quit smoking after ten years of indulging in the addiction. Avila had watched many of his fellow infantrymen try to quit and fail because smoking was the least of their concerns when deploying at the height of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
When Avila made up his mind to quit smoking, he tried the initial recommendations from the VA. Still, none of them worked for him, and he decided to switch to smokeless tobacco, Red Man tobacco specifically. But that didn’t last, and he switched to vape pens, then nicotine salt pouches.
The last product he used to quit was nicotine gum, which he used sparingly as his nicotine cravings had significantly subsided. Avila, from start to finish, took four months to kick his smoking habit.
“It was numerous things that I went through but got to a point where I was like, ‘Alright, cool, I’m good. I don’t need this gum. I don’t need anything else,’” Avila said. “And then that was that.”
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A 14-year-old was killed and three other minors injured at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia earlier this week, officials said, when a wall collapsed in the locker room of the base pool.
The fatal incident took place at the Georgia base’s Heritage Club Pool men’s locker room on July 22, Air Force officials said in a release. One minor was treated on scene and released. Three minors were brought to local hospitals, where one of them died.
“Our hearts are broken for these individuals and their families. We remain committed to supporting our Airmen and their loved ones as we navigate this difficult time for Team Robins,” said Col. Deedrick Reese, Installation and 78th Air Base Wing commander. “We want to thank the first responders – including lifeguards, installation and community personnel – who responded to this tragic incident with compassion and professionalism.”
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The base will not release names because they are minors, officials said in a release. The Air Force Office of Special Investigations is looking into the incident.
Nearly 24,000 civilians, contractors and military members are assigned and work at the Georgia base which is home to the Air Force’s 78th Air Wing.
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Three different types of U.S. and Canadian fighter aircraft were dispatched to intercept a rare joint formation of Russian and Chinese bombers as they buzzed near Alaskan airspace Wednesday, according to the Defense Department.
Russian bombers are no stranger to Alaskan air defenders, but Wednesday marked the first appearance of Chinese aircraft in the Alaska ADIZ, a defense official said.
Two F-35s, F-16s, and Canadian CF-18s – six aircraft total – were involved in Wednesday’s intercept of the two Russian TU-95 and two Chinese PRC H-6 bombers, according to pictures posted on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. Wednesday’s intercept took place in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ, an area of international airspace in which aircraft must be identified for national security reasons, according to a news release from the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD.
“The Russian and PRC [People’s Republic of China] aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace,” the news release says. “This Russian and PRC activity in the Alaska ADIZ is not seen as a threat, and NORAD will continue to monitor competitor activity near North America and meet presence with presence.”
Though the three types of fighters made a striking show of force, a fourth Alaska fighter assigned to NORAD is missing. The pictures do not show any F-22s taking part in the intercept even though the aircraft are based at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. Alaskan Raptors downed two of the three mystery balloons during the post-Chinese spy balloon panic of 2023.
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The intercept took place about 200 miles off the coast of Alaska, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters during a Pentagon news conference on Thursday, though officials did not specify in what region of Alaska’s 1000-mile coastline.
“This was not a surprise to us,” Austin said. “We closely monitored these aircraft, tracked the aircraft, intercepted the aircraft – which demonstrates that our forces are at the ready all the time and we have very good surveillance capabilities. And if it happens again, if there is any kind of a challenge from any direction, I have every confidence that NORTHCOM [U.S. Northern Command] and NORAD will be at the ready and will be able to intercept.”
The U.S. and Canadian fighters on the intercept are dispatched through a long chain of radars and logistics pieces spread across Alaska, involving troops from the active duty Air Force, Alaska Air National Guard and Canada. The U.S. fighters that intercept foreign planes are flown by active-duty pilots stationed at both JBER near Anchorage and Eielson Air Force Base outside Fairbanks. Those planes are dispatched by Alaska Air National Guard radar watchers in Anchorage, and refueled during their intercept flights — which can be far behind the fighters’ unsupported range — with specially-equipped cold-weather KC-135 tankers from the Guard’s 168th wing at Eielson.
Austin added that this is the first time the U.S. military has tracked the Russian and Chinese flying together in such a mission. U.S. government officials have long been concerned about the relationship between the two countries, especially Chinese support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union and China were initially allies, but relations soured, and the two countries fought an undeclared border war in 1969. Starting under President Richard Nixon, the United States was able to break the Sino-Soviet alliance and develop close relations with China.
But in the 21st Century, China emerged as the Defense Department’s top adversary, while Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have formed a close partnership to counter the United States and other Western countries.
“We’ll see what happens and how this relationship continues to develop,” Austin told reporters on Thursday. “We will remain focused on protecting the homeland here.”
The joint Russian and Chinese mission off Alaska comes at a time of political upheaval within the United States. President Joe Biden recently announced that he will not run for president in November’s general election. Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, narrowly escaped death during an attempted assassination earlier this month.
When asked if China and other adversaries may be testing the United States, Austin said, “They’re always testing us, and that’s no surprise to any of us.”
It is likely that the mission was planned “well in advance,” said Austin, who added that only the Chinese and Russians could say why they scheduled the flight for Wednesday.
“In terms of the message that the Russians and Chinese are sending, I’ll tell you what message we’re sending; and that message is: We’re going to be at the ready; we are at the ready; we will always be at the ready,” Austin said. “We’re going to defend this nation.”
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U.S. Air Force Sgt. David Price was one of 18 Americans at Lima Site 85, a top secret CIA radar site in Laos that served as a vital navigational beacon for U.S. bombers from atop a craggy mountain peak.
In March 1968, North Vietnamese commandoes overran the post, killing 12 Americans. Price’s body was never recovered.
This week, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced that Price remains had been identified and will be returned to his family after 56 years.
Brenda Fuller, one of Price’s daughters, was only 7 years old when her father was killed in action on March 11, 1968. Her mother was told only that he was missing but knew nothing else about her husband’s fate.
“My biggest memory there is the day that my mom found out he was missing. She found out over the phone, and I was in the room when she heard, and that was really hard to watch her reactions to that,” Fuller said.
A Desperate Mountain Top Fight
The tactical air navigation radar site known as Lima Site 85 sat on top of the 5,600-foot mountain known as Phou Pha Thi in Houaphan Province. The facility — little more than a few shacks around a radar array — was a vital part of the U.S. military’s Vietnam War effort to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh trail.
Price came to Lima Site 85 from 1043rd Radar Evaluation Squadron. The site in Laos was kept top secret and lacked much of the security and defenses that a U.S. military site might have had. The few Air Force technicians — who were listed as Lockheed employees during the mission — wore civilian clothes, had little to no combat training and were supposed to be unarmed, though they had brought a cache of rifles and grenades. Security was provided by roughly 1,000 Thai and Hmong soldiers organized and led by a pair of CIA operatives.
After a series of attacks against the site, a team of North Vietnamese commandos finally overran the base during an early morning attack.
The evacuation of the Americans was chaotic, with CIA helicopters hovering overhead as the Hmong and Laotian troops held off 3,000 Vietnamese. Price’s fate and that of 10 others was never precisely determined by survivors who escaped. The site’s senior enlisted leader, Air Force Chief Master Sergeant Richard Etchberger, was killed while loading the final helicopter with survivors and awarded the Air Force Cross, which was upgraded to the Medal of Honor in 2010.
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Twelve of the 19 Americans at Lima died in the fighting, along with about 50 of their Thai and Hmong defenders. It was the deadliest ground attack suffered by the Air Force in the war.
Recovering Remains
In cooperation with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and L.P.D.R., Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency teams investigated leads gleaned from dozens of witness interviews, including those involved with the attack. Starting in 2003, the team was able to recover some remains belonging to the missing Americans, but it wasn’t until 2023 that they were able to find remains believed to be Price’s.
For over five decades, Fuller told herself stories as a means to reckon with her father’s MIA status. The clandestine nature of the operation to call in air strikes on the Viet-congs’ supply line from within enemy held territory remained classified until until 1998, leaving blank spots about what happened.
“To make things make sense for me, I made possibilities up in my head. Like, maybe he got away and he’s hiding out somewhere, and he sees that we’re happy, so he’s not coming back to what was in our life, those kind of silly stories,” Fuller said. “I made things up to answer questions and fill in the holes of the information that wasn’t there.”
Fuller holds onto the happy memories from the short time she had with her father. She talked about her memories playing on the beach and how he disapproved of her putting olives on all of her finger tips before eating them.
“My dad was an amazing man. He was loving. He was kind and funny. Everybody who knew him thought he was great. My mom was divorced, and then he came into my life when I was two and a half, that he was my — he was my daddy Dave. He loved us, me and my siblings, just unconditionally, and he was an amazing man. I don’t know how else to put it.”
Price will be buried in Centralia, Washington, on August 30, 2024. Fuller said he will have full military honors before being laid to rest in his hometown. During his time in the military, Price was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart medal, Air Force Good Conduct Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, a Vietnam Service Medal with two Bronze service stars, Air Force Longevity Service Award, and the Republic Of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm Ribbon medal.
“I would like the American public to know that my dad served his country in a manner that he felt was going to further the cause, and hopefully make an end of the war,” Fuller said. “That’s, I think, all they need to know, that he loved his country. He believed in what he did, he believed in the men that he served with, and he thought he was doing what was best.”
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A 103-year-old WWII veteran finally got his benefits, 78 years after he was honorably discharged.
Army Technician Third Grade Louis M. Gigliotti, also known as “Jiggs,” had never applied for his benefits with the Department of Veterans Affairs. But in a July 19 ceremony at the Alaska Veterans Museum in Anchorage, Gigliotti was recognized and given the Alaska Veterans Honor Medal, according to an Alaska National Guard release.
“This event is a reminder that regardless of how much time has passed since their service, it is never too late for veterans to apply for their benefits,” said Verdie Bowen, director of the Office of Veterans Affairs. The office helps veterans file claims for benefits, support, and care that they are entitled to from their military service.
Gigliotti grew up in an orphanage and spent his early years on a farm in Norwalk, Connecticut. He also joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, a Great Depression-era voluntary government work relief program.
When he returned home, Gigliotti worked as a painter before enlisting in the Army alongside a group of friends. At first, he was medically disqualified. Officials did not give more details.
After Gigliotti saw two of his friends who enlisted in the Navy die in the Japanese attack on the American Naval base at Pearl Harbor, he made another go at it. This time, Gigliotti was selected to serve as a surgical technician in the Army.
Gigliotti was assigned to the Army’s 1-773rd Service Command Unit which handled medical screenings for soldiers before their departure to Europe and upon their return.
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Post-warAfter his service, Gigliotti moved to Fairbanks, Alaska in 1955 and opened two lounges. In 1965, he relocated to Anchorage, and for the next two decades, he worked as a bartender at Club Paris and 515 Club.
Jiggs didn’t have any children of his own, but he became a role model for his nephew, Sgt. 1st Class Sean Carey, an infantry soldier in the Alaska National Guard.
“Jiggs didn’t have any children, and Sean became like a son to him,” said Melanie Carey, Sean’s wife.
Melanie also said Gigliotti was a fan of mushing and boxing. Gigliotti even taught boxing for free in a makeshift garage gym. While sharing his love of training, Gigliotti split his time to care for his wife of 38 years, Millie, who died in 2003.
Friends and family gathered at a museum in Anchorage nearly 80 years later to honor Gigliotti and his service.
“We finally get to honor Tec 3 Gigliotti for his dedicated service and help ensure he receives the support that he deserves,” said Bowen. “I hope this story encourages others who have not applied to come forward.”
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Good night, USS Tarawa; Let angels sing thee to thy rest.
The decommissioned amphibious assault ship was sunk on July 19. as part of this year’s Exercise Rim of the Pacific, or RIMPAC, according to the Navy’s 3rd Fleet.
The Tarawa is one of the largest vessels that U.S. and partner forces have sunk in nearly two decades, a 3rd Fleet news release says. The last time a ship of its class was sunk as part of a military exercise was in 2006, when the former amphibious assault ship Belleau Wood was sent to the bottom during that year’s RIMPAC.
The Navy had not yet released photos or video of the sinking as of Tuesday afternoon.
One of the munitions used to sink the Tarawa was the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, or LRASM, which was fired from a Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet. The missile can also be fired from Air Force B-1 bombers.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C., recommended that the U.S. military announced in 2023 that the U.S. military stock up on LRASMs after conducting a wargame that looked at a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
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“The LRASM was particularly useful because of its ability to strike Chinese naval forces and directly reduce Chinese invasion capabilities,” the think tank found. “In every iteration, the United States expended its entire global inventory of LRASMs (about 450 missiles) within the first week of the conflict.”
Sinking the Tarawa also allowed the Royal Australian Navy destroyer HMAS Sydney to test the Naval Strike Missile, which the Australians are buying to replace its Harpoon missiles, the country’s Department of Defence announced in a separate news release.
The Tarawa was the second Navy ship named for a Pacific island that was the site of a brutal battle fought by Marines in World War II. The most recent Tarawa, was commissioned in 1976 and went on to take part in Operations Desert Shield and Iraq Freedom while also participating in cyclone relief efforts in Bangladesh. The ship was decommissioned in 2009.
Ships and aircraft participating in the live-fire exercise also sank the decommissioned amphibious transport dock USS Dubuque on July 11 as part of this year’s RIMPAC. Both the Tarawa and Dubuque were sunk in waters 15,000 feet deep more than 50 nautical miles off Kauai, one of the Hawaiian Islands.
So far this summer, the U.S. military has also sunk the former amphibious transport dock USS Cleveland as part of Valiant Shield 2024, and a Marine AH-1Z Viper attack helicopter sank a towed target using an AGM-179 Air-to-Ground Missile, or JAGM.
“Sinking exercises give us a chance to sharpen our skills, learn from one another, and get real-world experience,” Navy Vice Adm. John Wade, RIMPAC 2024 Combined Task Force Commander, said in a statement. “Using advanced weapons and seeing the professionalism of our teams during these drills shows our commitment to keeping the Indo-Pacific region safe and open.”
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The Army reservist who committed Maine’s deadliest mass shooting, killing 18 people, exhibited red flags for months before his shooting spree, but his leaders failed to act because of communication gaps between civilian and Army worlds, limited policy, and confusion over what Army authorities could legally do.
Sgt. First Class Robert Card attacked a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine Oct. 25, 2023, opening fire on patrons. He then went to a bar in the town a few minutes later and continued firing. Card killed 18 people across the two locations and injured 13 others. His remains were found after a two-day manhunt at the recycling center where he had previously worked and was fired from. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot.
“Good leaders care about their soldiers and they make sure that their civilian life is proceeding as well as it can. Having those good contacts and knowing about your soldiers is what we can continue to emphasize and make sure that our leaders actually follow through and care for their soldiers,” Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels, Chief of the Army Reserve said.
Family members warned law enforcement officials that Card was deteriorating in the months before the killing. Notably, the report downplays suspicions by civilian doctors who examined Card’s brain that he suffered from the effects of traumatic brain injuries after years as a firearms and explosives instructor.
In November, both U.S. Senators from Maine sent a letter to the Army’s Inspector General to ask for a comprehensive review of the Army’s handling of Card in the months before the shooting. That report, released Tuesday, found procedural breakdowns between the military and civilian health systems that Card interacted with, and that certain Army procedures weren’t followed or understood by his chain of command. The case also highlighted existing issues with the legal authority that the Army Reserve had over Card, a part-time soldier, the IG said.
The case prompted a revision and review of several Army policies and administrative actions against three officers in Card’s chain of command for “dereliction of duty.”
At a press conference Monday on the IG’s findings, Daniels said the actions “have the potential to prevent further military advancement of those officers” or they could face a show cause board which could lead to administrative separation. The Army would not release their names “because the officers are in the rank of colonel and below.”
In the IG report and at the Monday press conference, the Army distanced itself from local reporting on Card’s brain injuries due to military service and a Boston University research analysis of Card’s brain tissue. BU researchers found Card had “significant evidence of traumatic brain injuries” which they suggested could be from his exposure to “thousands of low-level blasts” as an Army instructor for a grenade training range.
The IG reported a 2008 incident where Card fell from a roof and broke his neck and noted Card “was not exposed” to combat environments. Daniels doubled down on this point, adding that his exposure to shock was “relatively minor.” She referred questions on his brain health to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center which is conducting a forensic autopsy.
“SFC Card’s death was preceded by a series of events beginning in the Fall of 2022, which likely exacerbated his mental health issues leading up to his suicide,” the IG said.
Who was Robert Card?Sgt. 1st Class Card was a Petroleum Supply Specialist in the Army Reserve who enlisted in December 2002. In his reserve duty, Card served as a senior trainer for firearm instruction at West Point with a focus on hand grenades and crew-served weapons. The report referred to Card’s 20-year military career as “unremarkable” and said he did not deploy or mobilize with the Army.
In 2017, Card was referred to a medical board during his retention review over his hearing issues which found him fit for duty. Card had become eligible to retire in March 2023, according to the Pentagon.
Fellow reservists described Card as “kind, friendly, calm, and generous,” the IG said.
The report also looked into Card’s past. The IG found Card dealt with anxiety and was described as sensitive and an introvert with a small group of friends as a child. He was not violent and “would often hide” when it was time to go hunting or a farm animal had to be euthanized. The IG also said he experimented with drugs as a young adult and drank socially but “became emotional or angry if he drank too much.” Card’s autopsy did not find any substances in his system.
Behavioral health concerns growIn the months before the mass shooting, family and friends reported Card’s changing behavior to Army officials which included his perception of others making derogatory statements about him, including the use of hearing aids, and conflicts with members of his Army reserve unit. At the same time, Card’s family reported their concerns over his “deteriorating mental state” and sought help from law enforcement in May 2023.
Card was ordered to attend annual Reserve training in July 2023 where he had a verbal altercation with other soldiers. As a result, he was ordered to undergo a Command Directed Behavioral Health Evaluation the next day. Army providers recommended Card be entered into the Disability Evaluation System and be discharged.
Army officials then ordered that Card go to Four Winds Hospital in Westchester, Katonah, New York for further evaluation and treatment. He was placed on medical leave at the hospital where he stayed for 19 days. The NY hospital reported his symptoms included psychosis, mood lability/aggression, homicidal ideation, paranoia, and auditory hallucinations.
On July 23, Card’s access to his assigned weapon was restricted. But Card’s family had previously reported to law enforcement that they believed he had 10-to-15 rifles or handguns at his residence.
Card was discharged Aug. 3 from Four Winds Hospital “under questionable circumstances, and released from his USAR orders with a diagnosis of ‘Brief Psychotic Disorder.’” Medical personnel recommended follow on treatment and psychiatric medication. A court hearing to involuntarily commit Card to Four Winds was canceled, and on August 3rd, Card was released to a soldier and friend from his unit. Daniels said this decision was made by medical personnel.
“This investigation was unable to determine the reason for SFC Card’s release due to the hospital staff declining to speak with the investigating officer,” the Army said.
When Card was released, his chain or command was not given any details on his diagnosis, prognosis or discharge instructions. After receiving Card’s discharge instructions (8 days after Card’s release), the nurse care manager did not upload documents into Card’s military medical record for another 10 days, nor did she closely review discharge instructions, “which would have revealed troubling information that could have been relayed to the chain of command,” the Army said.
“The failure was not generating a report to the Army within the Army channels to say, ‘I had a soldier who was hospitalized for more than 24 hours,’” Daniels said, which would’ve started the line of duty requirements to document Card’s current care and use it for potential follow-on care with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
When soldiers in Card’s chain of command were asked if they sought discharge or prognosis information from Four Winds, they told officials they believed it was covered under HIPAA protections. Daniels said there was a misunderstanding in what was covered and what could be exempt under command authority so the Army ordered
The IG recommended that the Department of Defense reconsider using Four Winds Hospital as an authorized treatment facility and terminate its contract with the company that provided case management services. The IG also requested that the Defense Health Administration and Army Surgeon General require written communication with a soldier’s chain of command at the lowest level and that medical agencies are properly trained on the basic nature of a reservist’s service for better monitoring and follow-on care.
Leaving the hospitalAug. 3rd, 2023, was Card’s last day in a duty status with the Army Reserve. After his August discharge, Card complained to friends and family that he was upset about his hospital stay and he “began to communicate vague threats of violence.” Two days after leaving the hospital, Card tried to pick up a firearm silencer he ordered online a month earlier but store employees refused to sell it after he self-reported his psychiatric facility stay.
On Aug. 11, Card told a nurse care manager from Keller Army Hospital who contacted him that he stopped taking a prescribed medication “because it made him feel lazy.” That same day, he also told the U.S. Army Reserve Psychological Health Program that he was upset that his hospitalization limited his ability to purchase firearms.
Later that month, PHP closed Card’s case because he was unresponsive to efforts to contact him, which was in line with policy at the time. The Army has since revised its policy.
“Just because someone is non responsive doesn’t mean that we don’t need to have additional contact with them,” Daniels said. “We don’t want to close it just because they didn’t answer the phone. We’re making that change so that we continue to press to get a bit better resolution.”
The Army is also revising policies to make sure that Army Reserve leaders understand HIPAA requirements, resources for covering soldier health care costs and reservists’ personal weapons. Besides increasing training for leadership, Daniels noted the limitations of the Army Reserve’s authority on personal weapons.
“We can recommend that they lock them in a safe. We can provide all kinds of other safeguards and advice, but there’s nothing that we can actually compel them to do, unless there has been a medical determination and in this case, there was not because Sgt. Card was released by the Civilian providers to go home,” Daniels said.
Another failure occurred on Sept. 13, when Card told a fellow reservist that he “could take out 100 people with this expensive scope” and a list of places he could “shoot up.” This was reported to the chain of command and referred to local law enforcement who tried to contact him Sept 15 and 16.
“Despite SFC Card being inside his home on the 16th, local authorities did not force an interaction or attempt to employ the Maine Yellow Flag Law, which could have restricted SFC Card’s access to his privately owned firearms,” according to the IG report.
The IG also highlighted the gap between Army authorities and law enforcement. Daniels said it’s hard to come up with an official way forward because each law enforcement jurisdiction is different.
“We have to be careful to balance protection of civil rights versus if we’re concerned about health safety concerns – then the commanders will obviously initiate an action, but each jurisdiction also varies as to how they will respond to those,” Daniels said. “There’s so much variance. I don’t know. Let’s see how we can proceed.”
The investigation was turned over to the Department of Forensic Psychology at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for review and analysis of whether Four Winds met the Standard of Care and whether Card’s condition was in the Line of Duty.
Maine’s state police and a state commission are conducting separate investigations.
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The Air Force has dropped a criminal case that could have sent a lieutenant colonel and former Air Force Thunderbird operations officer before a court-martial on charges related to child abuse, a spokesperson for Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada confirmed on Monday.
Air Force Lt. Col. Kevin DiFalco was arrested in Las Vegas in 2022 for allegedly sexually abusing a child. The Air Force said this week DiFalco will not face a court-martial in connection with the arrest.
DiFalco told Task & Purpose he no longer faces criminal charges in the case. “I deny and am innocent of the allegations,” DiFalco said.
“This case has been removed from the Air Force’s trial docket,” said Air Force Maj. Lauren Ott. “The convening authority decided to move forward with administrative procedures, as opposed to court-martial proceedings.”
Ott did not say why DiFalco would face administrative action instead of a court-martial or why the scheduled court-martial had been called off.
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“These decisions are taken seriously and only after consulting with legal counsel, including the Office of Special Trial Counsel, examining the strength of the evidence collected by the USAF Office of Special Investigations, and considering the availability and admissibility of evidence at court-martial proceedings,” Ott said.
DiFalco told Task & Purpose that the Air Force had withdrawn and dismissed all charges against him, but he declined to comment about why. He still faces a board of inquiry. Officials at Nellis confirmed that all criminal charges against DiFalco had been withdrawn.
DiFalco also said he is not facing prosecution in any civilian court.
KLAS-TV first reported that DiFalco’s would face administrative action instead of criminal proceedings.
DiFalco is an F-16 instructor pilot who has spent nearly 20 years in the Air Force, and is currently assisting the U.S. Air Force Weapons School with special projects, according to his Linkedin profile. He previously served as the operations officer for the Thunderbirds, the Air Force’s demonstration squadron, from September 2019 to June 2021.
He was fired in September 2022 as commander of the 57th operations support squadron commander at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada after being arrested at his off-base residence by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in coordination with the Air Force, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
According to Las Vegas-area media reports, DiFalco was arrested after a girl told her school counselor that DiFalco had groomed and raped her over the course of several months in 2021 and 2022, the newspaper reported.
The child also told authorities that DiFalco had a distinct tattoo in his groin area, which investigators confirmed, according to KLAS-TV.
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The essay is an opinion piece written and submitted by the authors, who are military medical professionals, and edited by Task & Purpose editors. Task & Purpose welcomes submissions of opinion pieces on military medicine.
The Department of Defense must prioritize development and fielding of dried plasma for the treatment of severe bleeding on the battlefield.
Hemorrhage, or uncontrolled bleeding, is a leading cause of death on the battlefield.1-3 The overwhelming majority of these deaths occur at or near the point of need before reaching a Military Treatment Facility (deployed, forward-staged medical facility with surgical capabilities). Torso injuries, more commonly known as the chest, abdomen, and pelvis area, continue to be a leading cause of death prior to reaching surgical care. Treatment of these injuries is difficult in the prehospital setting with the currently available tools in the medic’s aid bag.
Currently, the only available tool for the medics to temporize this blood loss is the use of Tranexamic Acid (TXA) and forward-staged blood products, which are available in limited quantities and have significant logistical challenges associated with cold-chain storage requirements. With these limitations in mind, the Joint Force needs a shelf-stable resuscitative product for immediate use to bridge injured patients until other blood products, evacuation and advanced care are available.
Dried Plasma (freeze-dried or spray-dried) can temporarily stabilize casualties who require blood transfusion. Dried Plasma was used liberally during World War II by the US military.4 Since 2008 it has been pending Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals and clinical data to set conditions for more widespread use. The time is now to ensure that Dried Plasma becomes readily available for battlefield use. Dried Plasma confers logistical advantages and, in civilian trauma studies, plasma transfusion within 20 minutes of injury has demonstrated to improve survival.5 It is long overdue that combat casualties of today are afforded the same benefits of Dried Plasma that casualties did during WWII.
To do this, a concerted effort to accomplish the following is needed:
(1) Identify and support industry partners that are facile with the biologics development process and manufacturing, specifically with expertise in blood-product development
(2) Generate sufficient demand (military and civilian) for the product to justify the development cost associated with this process and be sustainable within the market
(3) Rapidly integrate the developed Dried Plasma into the medical supply chain
(4) Fund necessary research to optimize the integration of Dried Plasma into trauma care
Dried PlasmaDried Plasma , or DP, was used extensively by the US military among expeditionary forces during World War II and Korea, both alone and in combination with whole blood. By the end of World War II, over 13 million pints of blood had been processed into 10 million units of Dried Plasma and 3 million into whole blood.4
Dried Plasma has several advantages over other blood products for the US military including relatively long shelf life, portability, and temperature stability. Once plasma is dried, it can typically remain on the shelf for one to two years and withstand fluctuations in temperature while still retaining desired functionality. The logistical benefits allow for more flexible use on a kinetic battlefield. While whole blood remains the optimal product, it carries relatively greater logistical challenges.
Although Dried Plasma was previously available in the US, it was removed from the US market in 1968 secondary to ‘plasma hepatitis’. During this time, hepatitis transmission was not fully understood, and the plasma was not tested for transmittable diseases.6 However, today’s risk of hepatitis from plasma transfusion is less than 1 in 100,000 units transfused secondary to drastically improved testing and hemovigilance protocols.
Dried Plasma use is international – France, Israel, Germany, and South Africa use freeze-dried plasma routinely.7 These countries have a robust manufacturing or purchasing capability, eliminating the supply/demand mismatch that often occurs with cold-stored blood products. Freeze-dried plasma from France (Centre de Transfusion Sanguine des Armées) was made available to the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) under an Investigational New Drug (IND) protocol from the Food and Drug Administration in 2011, then extended to the conventional military in 2018 under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA).8
Use of the product under an EUA carries challenges, as it requires substantial additional documentation and tracking that would otherwise not be required under routine clinical care. Moreover, there is a significantly limited inventory available, and it is only available to medical personnel directly supporting USSOCOM and specific conventional military missions. As such, the use of the French freeze-dried plasma has been quite limited within the US military combat setting.8
In a study in South Africa, freeze-dried plasma is used in lieu of blood products when blood products are not available, with findings suggesting there is a potential role for freeze-dried plasma when blood products are lacking.7 A landmark study in the United States demonstrated that plasma transfused shortly after injury en route to the hospital in the setting resulted in a 30% reduction in death compared to no plasma, particularly with longer transport times to the hospital. Dried Plasma would likely confer the same reasonable survival benefit and thus Dried Plasma should be urgently adopted into US military and civilian trauma systems.5
Since 2008, the US military has actively supported the development of FDA-approved Dried Plasma product. In 2018, Congress, through Public Law 115-92, directed the Department of Defense and FDA to collaborate for more rapid authorization of medical products critical to the Joint Force and development of a Dried Plasma product has been prioritized under this framework. As recently as 2021, Teleflex submitted a Biologics License Application (BLA) to the FDA for a Dried Plasma product developed under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the US military. Other manufacturers are also working towards Dried Plasma development and FDA authorization with US Government support. However, there are no other Dried Plasma products authorized for use in the US beyond the afore-mentioned French freeze-dried plasma EUA, at the time of this publication.
Current Blood Product UseThe current US military standard for resuscitation after hemorrhagic injury is bleeding control in accordance with Tactical Combat Casualty Care guidelines and early transfusion of LTOWB.9 Hemorrhage control and early whole blood transfusion are the standards of care that have evolved through data from US Central Command (CENTCOM), and early transfusion of whole blood has become a civilian standard as well. However, risks persist regarding supply-demand matches. Even during the recent relatively low casualty-generating conflicts in CENTCOM, the demand signal for blood products was more than the supply. Blood products to support all operational environments are procured through the Armed Services Blood Program (ASBP, URL: https://health.mil/Military-Health-Topics/Health-Readiness/ASBP). The ABSP was established in 1951 by President Truman when it was recognized at the beginning of the Korean War that the Armed Forces needed to maintain a blood program that could always supply wartime operations.
When not enough stored blood is available, the Walking Blood Bank (WBB) — formally called an Emergency Donor Panel (EDP) — is activated. In the EDP, prescreened donors (the ‘bank’) donate blood in real-time for the casualty in need.10,11 While the EDP is a good contingency and emergency plan, there is a risk in large-scale combat operations (LSCO) that: 1) the environment might be too kinetic to execute the WBB safely; 2) casualty numbers may exceed the blood available from WBBs; and 3) obtaining blood regularly from healthy warfighters may reduce combat end-strength due to decreased function among the donors and variable timeframes they are removed from strenuous activity.12 In these cases, Dried Plasma provides an immediate resuscitation capability while other blood products are being obtained from the WBB or the patient is moved to another facility with blood.
Since 2017, Flight Medics have commonly carried 1-2 units of lifesaving blood during air evac missions,13 but this is limited by both refrigeration requirements and size/weight/cube limitations as 2 units of blood weigh 1 kilogram plus the weight of the cooler. All Special Operations Combat Medics carry blood products during combat operations and this practice has slowly permeated into conventional ground forces, but the pace of implementation is slow. Moreover, blood products are carried infrequently during training operations. Furthermore, LTOWB is temperature sensitive (1-10° C/32-42° F), and depending on ambient temperatures, medics can likely keep the blood at an appropriate temperature for only 6-48 hours. The Military Services are working to increase the ability to carry blood products far forward on the battlefield with standardized equipment and training. However, the capability currently varies across the Joint Force and is often driven at the unit-level.
The current U.S military Joint planning factors for blood and blood products (Class VIIIB) is 20% of wounded in action (WIA) will require blood product therapy. Based on an extensive planning factor review in 2022, the Joint Staff Surgeon, Joint Trauma System, ASBP, and Services recommended eight (8) units of whole blood or whole blood equivalents are needed for those WIA that require transfusion.14 These products include whole blood, red blood cells, and fresh frozen plasma. During LSCO against a peer adversary, there is the potential for 1000 (or more) casualties a day. Based on the accepted planning factors: 200 of the WIA will each require eight (8) units of whole blood equivalents transfused in the first 24 hours, for a total of 1600 units. This blood supply will be difficult to achieve in an environment with contested logistics, thus, we have an urgent need to deliver temperature-stable, logistically feasible blood products to the battlefield that can act as ‘golden hour extenders.’ From donor eligibility and availability in theater to contested logistics, Army and joint medicine need more blood product capabilities far forward to save lives. We need blood products like Dried Plasma at or near the point of need and/or casualty collection point.
Time is a crucial factor in saving lives from bleeding. The greatest benefit of transfusion after injury is when it occurs rapidly; in patients with transport times longer than 20 minutes – prehospital transfusion is a lifesaving capability.5,15 This underscores the imperative to field Dried Plasma to operational environments that will have prolonged transport. Dried Plasma and LTOWB transfusion are necessary in LCSO to decrease death from survival injuries. As mentioned above, Dried Plasma has logistical advantages in contested, resource-constrained and highly kinetic environments.
To save lives on future battlefields, the DoD must continue to push for Dried Plasma fielding and continue to fund high quality research studies to compare transfusion strategy outcomes. During operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, over 350,000 blood products were transfused – close to 120,000 of those being plasma. In contrast, during WWII, over 10 million pints of blood were collected and processed into dried plasma.4 On day one of LSCO, to be truly ready to manage the large volume of anticipated casualties – the US military should have tens of thousands of Dried Plasma units in its armamentarium to save lives on the battlefield. The time to ensure this is a viable capability is now!
Civilian BenefitThis investment by the DoD into future combat casualty care would also support civilian trauma care. The silver lining of every war is the advancement of all trauma care. Prehospital practices that were unheard of before the recent conflicts, including limb tourniquets and whole blood, have revolutionized trauma care in the US. The number of estimated patients annually that would benefit from prehospital blood products ranges from 54,000 to 900,000.16 Currently, there are limited regions that carry blood products prehospital, with the areas that do demonstrate improved outcomes.17
While civilian data is not centrally collected among all hospitals, more than 800 designated trauma centers in the US participate in the Trauma Quality Improvement Program performance improvement registry.18 The Trauma Quality Improvement Program mandates blood volume reporting within the first 4 hours of hospitalization, with data from 2020-2022 demonstrating that over 414,000 units of plasma were transfused into trauma patients, and highlighting the civilian demand for dried plasma. Moreover, there is a dire civilian need for blood products outside of trauma, such as bleeding during childbirth and gastrointestinal bleeding.
Civilian EMS systems are currently constrained by several factors that would be completely sidestepped by the widespread use of dried plasma. The constraints center around three major factors: the ability to (1) procure the blood products, (2) store the products in compliance with temperature requirements, and (3) circulate the blood to other locations to avoid discarding blood that does not get used within the expiration date. The room temperature shelf-stability of Dried Plasma mitigates those challenges, making it nearly as simple as carrying tranexamic acid. The benefit of his DoD investment would extend far beyond that of the battlefield.
DISCLAIMER:The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the U.S. Army Medical Department, Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.
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Sperry JL, Guyette FX, Brown JB, et al. Prehospital Plasma during Air Medical Transport in Trauma Patients at Risk for Hemorrhagic Shock. N Engl J Med. 2018;379(4):315-326.
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Pusateri AE, Given MB, Macdonald VW, Homer MJ. Comprehensive US government program for dried plasma development. Transfusion. 2016;56 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S16-23.
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Mould-Millman NK, Wogu AF, Fosdick BK, et al. Association of freeze-dried plasma with 24-h mortality among trauma patients at risk for hemorrhage. Transfusion. 2024.
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Deaton TG, Drew B, Montgomery HR, Butler FK, Jr. Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) Guidelines: 25 January 2024. J Spec Oper Med. 2024.
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Gurney JM, Staudt AM, Holcomb JB, et al. Finding the bleeding edge: 24-hour mortality by unit of blood product transfused in combat casualties from 2002-2020. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2023;95(5):635-641.
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DM F. Blood Types and Titers: Saving Lives on the Battlefield with Blood Far Forward. Military Review. 2024.
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Schauer SG, Mancha F, Mendez J, et al. A prospective assessment of the medic autologous blood transfusion skills for field transfusion preparation. Transfusion. 2023;63 Suppl 3:S67-s76.
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Shackelford SA, Del Junco DJ, Powell-Dunford N, et al. Association of Prehospital Blood Product Transfusion During Medical Evacuation of Combat Casualties in Afghanistan With Acute and 30-Day Survival. Jama. 2017;318(16):1581-1591.
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Gurney JM, Holcomb JB, Martin M, et al. What the mean means – creating a false equivalence in statistical analysis: Data-driven planning for blood resourcing to forward deployed U.S. military surgical teams. Trauma. 2023;25(3):183-187.
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Pusateri AE, Moore EE, Moore HB, et al. Association of Prehospital Plasma Transfusion With Survival in Trauma Patients With Hemorrhagic Shock When Transport Times Are Longer Than 20 Minutes: A Post Hoc Analysis of the PAMPer and COMBAT Clinical Trials. JAMA Surg. 2019;155(2):1-10.
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Hashmi ZG, Jansen JO, Kerby JD, Holcomb JB. Nationwide estimates of the need for prehospital blood products after injury. Transfusion. 2022;62 Suppl 1:S203-s210.
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Braverman MA, Schauer SG, Ciaraglia A, et al. The impact of prehospital whole blood on hemorrhaging trauma patients: A multi-center retrospective study. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2023;95(2):191-196.18. Schauer SG, April MD, Fisher AD, et al. A survey of low titer O whole blood use within the trauma quality improvement program registry. Transfusion. 2024.
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Growing military cooperation between Russia and China threatens Arctic stability, according to the Pentagon’s 2024 Arctic Strategy, released Monday.
In 2024, Russian and Chinese navies held a combined exercise off the state’s coast in 2023. In response, the Department of Defense sent four U.S. Navy destroyers and two combatant commands to monitor 11 Chinese and Russian ships. That joint show of force was the latest of a surge Chinese and Russian navy ships operating in international waters near Alaska in 2022 and 2023.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Arctic & Global Resilience Iris Ferguson told reporters Monday that China-Russia military cooperation is “somewhat superficial in nature still.”
“Flying in circles with one another briefly or deploying alongside one another is maybe good for optics, but we know that that’s not the same kind of in-depth cooperation that we have with our partners,” Ferguson said.
The growing military and energy cooperation between Russia and China is highlighted in the 2024 Arctic Strategy along with the effects of climate change like “rapidly warming temperatures and thinning ice coverage” as an enabler of increased joint work. The strategy points out melting sea ice as increasing “navigable” chokepoints in the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia and the Barents Sea north of Norway for Russia to take advantage of.
“While the climate is changing, it’s opening up sea lanes is opening up access, but it’s not currently warming to the point where it’s not noticeably harsh up in the Arctic,” DOD Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks said.
The DOD’s last arctic strategy was released in 2022 but “major geopolitical changes are driving the need for this new strategic approach to the Arctic,” such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, accelerating climate change impacts, and more Russia-China collaboration, the strategy states.
The Arctic region is seen by the U.S. “as an avenue for power projection” to Europe and the Pacific and vital to maritime economics and security. The Army has begun incorporating more specific Arctic-focused training and equipment as part of U.S. deterrence strategy in the Pacific.
CapabilitiesThe policy calls for the U.S. to invest in more technology for information sharing and infrastructure for its “monitor-and-respond” approach; working with regional allies and partners, utilizing Reserve and National Guard components, and indigenous local communities. It also calls for an increase in joint Arctic exercises with the U.S. Coast Guard, NATO allies.
DOD officials highlighted recent investments in the North American Aerospace Defense Command’s long range radar sites, Pituffik Space Base (formerly known as Thule Air Base) in Greenland, the archer based
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sensor network, cold weather all-terrain vehicles, commercial space architecture and more Arctic-focused personnel like the 11th Airborne Division. As of this summer, troops stationed in Alaska will have access to cold weather incentive pay to buy gear for the climate.
“Where we can lean into remote platforms, it can make a lot of sense,” Ferguson said. “However it’s really tricky to operate remote platforms due to weather and due to connectivity issues.”
Hicks also noted that the military has to ensure its technology and equipment can function in the Arctic just as it did with desert operations in the Middle East.
China While China is not an Arctic nation, officials noted that its Navy owns three icebreakers which U.S. officials believe “are often operating under the guise of scientific research,” but are actually going to military use, Ferguson said.
The Chinese, officials said, want to “internationalize the Arctic and turn it into a bit of a global commons” for greater influence by taking advantage of regional resources, and playing a more important role in regional governance.”
According to the DOD, China’s 2018 Arctic Policy says that non-Arctic states, such as itself, should contribute to the region’s “shared future for mankind.” China’s “Polar Silk Road” has even included investments in infrastructure and natural resources, including in NATO territory. Deutsche Welle, a German wire service, has reported that China has invested in projects in Iceland and Norway.
“That’s concerning, given that it’s the only strategic competitor with the will and increasingly the wherewithal to remake the international order. That’s why you hear us refer to the [People’s Republic of China] as our pacing challenge,” Hicks said.
Russia The Arctic is even more important for Russia The Kola Peninsula, which borders Finland, is home to its Northern Fleet and submarine-launched ballistic missile force. Russia is also investing in new military infrastructure and refurbishing its Soviet-era installations in the region, according to strategy documents.
With Russia’s maritime infrastructure, the nation could use it to enforce “illegal” claims for regulating waters along the Northern Sea Route between the Bering Strait and Kara Strait. This could mean placing “excessive requirements” on international vessels transiting the waters and threatening force against those vessels that don’t comply with Russian regulations, according to the strategy.
Russia has also signed an agreement with the Chinese Coast Guard for joint maritime law enforcement.
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A female Naval aviator with the Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 32 became the first woman in the U.S. military to earn an aerial victory. The aviator, who the Navy has not named, shot down one of the one-way attack drones fired by Houthi forces against commercial ships passing through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, using an F/A-18F Super Hornet.
Strike Fighter Squadron 32 deployed on the aircraft carrier the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower when the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group was sent to the Middle East in October 2023. The group, consisting of the carrier, its support ships and a carrier wing, took part in missions to intercept missiles and one-way attack drones fired at merchant ships.
It’s not clear when specifically the fighter pilot scored that aerial victory. The military considers downing aerial drones as an aerial victory. It’s not a new distinction — the Royal Air Force credited shot down Nazi V-1 rockets as kills during World War II.
“The success of the entire squadron over the past nine months is a testament to all the members of the command and their friends and family at home that support them,” Cmdr. Jason Hoch, leader of the squadron, said in a Navy release. “I couldn’t be prouder of the Swordsmen’s performance day-in and day-out in incredibly demanding conditions. We proved over and over again that the flexibility a carrier strike group brings to the fight is unmatched, and that is solely due to the highly trained and motivated Sailors who go above and beyond the call of duty each and every day.”
https://x.com/ChowdahHill/status/1813615688919183747/photo/1
According to the Navy, Strike Fighter Squadron 32 (known as the “Fighting Swordsmen”) fired more than 20 air-to-air missiles against drones. The fighter squadron also used nearly 120 air-to-surface weapons in airstrikes on Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen. Earlier this month, the Navy released a breakdown of just how many strikes the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group carried out during its nine months deployed to the Middle East. Aircraft assigned to the group fired 60 air-to-air missiles and 420 air-to-surface missiles and bombs.
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It’s also not clear if the unnamed aviator only scored one air-to-air kill, but there’s no indication from the Navy that she made ace status like Amelia “Buns” Nakamura. Anti-drone and missile intercept operations in April, when Iran attacked Israel with more than 300 munitions, likely led to Air Force pilots with the 494th Fighter Squadron and 335th Fighter Squadron achieving ace status — five or more aerial kills. The Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group and its air wing did not participate in that mission.
The unnamed female aviator is the first American military pilot to score an air-to-air kill, but not the first woman overall to do that in history. During World War II, a Soviet pilot took that distinction. Sources dispute whether Lt. Lydia Litvyak or Lt. Valeriya Khomyakova was the first to get an aerial victory, but both got confirmed kills. Litvyak would become one of two Soviet women to reach “ace” status during the war, getting at least five aerial kills before her death in 1943, although the total number is also disputed.
On a wider level, the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group expended 770 munitions during its operations around Yemen, including the 480 done by the air wing. The rest were missiles fired by the ships. That included interceptions of Houthi missiles and drones, targeted strikes on launch and radar sites and multinational bombing campaigns on cities and ports controlled by the Houthi movement.
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This article is an opinion essay written by Jasper Cravens and Russell B. Lemle of the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute. Task & Purpose welcomes submission of opinion essays of any on Project 2025 and veteran’s healthcare.
As the November presidential election approaches, veterans deserve to know exactly what to expect regarding their hard-earned healthcare and disability benefits — and the overall future of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) — should former President Trump win re-election.
They needn’t look further than Project 2025, an intricate road map for veterans’ policy under a second Trump administration. The sweeping presidential agenda was produced by the Heritage Foundation and written by more than 140 contributors who previously worked for Trump.
By its own description, the 920-page Project 2025 was designed to be implemented beginning on day one of a second Trump administration. It addresses all aspects of the federal government, including the VA, and is part of an overarching effort to completely remake American government to fit an ultra-conservative doctrine.
Project 2025 proposes several alarming recommendations that could significantly reduce veterans’ access to healthcare. One would realign healthcare benefits to cover only “service-connected conditions,” – i.e., medical or mental health problems that were acquired or exacerbated by military service. Currently, once veterans prove they have a service-related condition, they can receive care for that problem as well as other conditions that they may develop. For example, a veteran whose leg was amputated in the military would not only have lifetime care for that problem, but also for the high blood pressure or cancer that they develop, in civilian life.
The Heritage blueprint argues for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to eliminate clinical services that “don’t align with service-connected conditions.” If this strategy to authorize care based on service-connected disabilities is taken to its logical extension, other care, like for an amputee’s hypertension in the example above, would no longer be furnished. There are five million veterans who have a service-connected designation, and they all potentially stand to lose access for the bulk of their healthcare needs. Two million veterans without a service-connected designation could potentially be disenrolled from VA healthcare entirely. Such a draconian concept accords with the Koch-backed group Concerned Veterans for America, whose Veterans Independence Act proposes “tightening eligibility requirements for new enrollees at a certain date in order to reorient the VA back towards its mission of providing care for service-connected disabled veterans.” It is also a goal espoused in the Heritage Foundation’s Budget Blueprint for Fiscal Year 2023.
The 2025 plan would further require VHA facilities to “increase the number of patients seen each day to equal the number seen by DOD medical facilities.” It’s a directive that disregards the stark differences between the two populations. Veterans are, on average, 58 years old, compared to servicemembers, who have an average age of 28. Veterans are also far more likely to have multiple, co-occurring medical conditions compared to U.S. servicemembers. As a result, VHA healthcare providers need to spend more time with veterans during their appointments to effectively address their complex health needs. By demanding that VHA facilities match the patient volume at DOD facilities, Project 2025 risks shortchanging veterans and compromising the quality of care they receive by treating them as if they are in the prime of their youth.
The document also calls for identifying VHA medical facilities whose “referrals for Community Care are below the averages in other similar markets,” then goading them to increase outsourcing. Such a formula creates a vicious, never-ending cycle, for even when one facility improves and is dropped from the list, another is added. The approach relentlessly pushes the number of community care referrals higher, ultimately leading to the closure of VHA facilities and the privatization of care. In an Orwellian double-speak, the document refers to this downscaling of a system that veterans rely on as a “genuine ‘Veteran-centric’” philosophy.
Financial compensation for service-connected disability is also set to be reduced.
Project 2025 calls for a review of the VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities to “target significant cost savings from revising disability rating awards for future claimants.” Not only would these changes result in less money in the pockets of disabled veterans, but for those failing to meet the new standards, their eligibility for VA healthcare would disappear.
Heritage hopes these changes will be implemented immediately to “ensure political control of the VA.” In parallel, Trump has said he intends to implement so-called “Schedule F,” which would potentially remove hundreds of experts who hold vital, tailored knowledge and replace them with ideologues and loyalists who can ensure the disassembly of the VHA system.
The specific section of the document focused on gutting veterans’ health and disability benefits was written by Brooks Tucker, one of Trump’s former VA policy advisers. Another contributor to the section was Darin Selnick, another former Trump advisor who has called for dismantling the VHA.
The VA’s hallowed mission “to care for those who served in our nation’s military, and for their families, caregivers and survivors” is no longer assured. Such a mission has never been assured, but instead secured only through the grit and tenacity of veterans fighting to preserve and expand this national gem. In the upcoming election, the potential for an unprecedented loss of veterans’ hard-earned benefits is more real than ever.
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President Joe Biden announced that he is ending his reelection campaign. The president, who has faced pressure to drop out of the race for the last month, shared the news via a statement on social media. He has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the election. Biden is staying in office and his decision to end his reelection campaign will not affect anyone currently serving in the military, whether at a base in the United States or deployed abroad.
The decision is a major one that reshapes the 2024 election, but for the U.S. military, there are no changes. Biden said that he intends to “focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president,” and as such, he remains the commander-in-chief of the armed forces until the end of his term. There have been no shake ups or changes to the national security staff, Department of Defense or military leadership as a result of Biden’s announcement.
https://x.com/JoeBiden/status/1815080881981190320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The last incumbent president eligible for a second term was Lyndon B. Johnson. He could have ran in the 1968 election but said in March of that year he would not seek the nomination. After a contentious primary, Democrats lost that election to Richard Nixon. Johnson’s last year in office saw continued combat in Vietnam.
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Other presidents have also guided and ordered the military into action during the “lame duck” period at the end of their terms. For instance, President Barack Obama’s last months in office in 2016 saw continued U.S. military airstrikes against ISIS strongholds and forces in Iraq and Syria.
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Fifty-five years ago today, humans landed on the Moon. On the mission were three American pilots, all military pilots who had served as combat or test pilots before heading to space.
Apollo 11’s lunar module reached the surface of the Moon on July 20, 1969. It was the culmination of nine years of work by the Apollo program. The three-person crew of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins were all veteran pilots from the Navy and Air Force.
Neil Armstrong served as mission commander. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1949, soon earning his flight wings and serving in the Korean War. He flew 78 combat missions during his service in the conflict. After the war, he served in the reserves, and resigned his commission in 1960 to work for NASA. He left the military as a lieutenant. He had previously gone to space as commander of the Gemini 8 mission. During Apollo 11, Armstrong partially manually guided the landing craft to the surface. Once on ground, he became the first human to ever set foot on the Moon. He died in 2012, the first of the Apollo 11 to pass.
Michael Collins graduated West Point in 1952, opting to join the Air Force. He served as a fighter pilot for several years before transitioning into test piloting. He was part of the third group of NASA astronauts and went into space with Gemini 10. During Apollo 11, Collins was in charge of the command module Columbia while Armstrong and Aldrin went down to the lunar surface. After Apollo 11, Collins worked for the State Department, but remained in the U.S. Air Force Reserves. He retired in 1976 with the rank of major general. Collins died in 2021 at the age of 90.
Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin accompanied Armstrong to the landing site. He graduated from West Point in 1951, joined the Air Force and went to Korea. He flew 66 combat missions, scoring two kills against MiG-15s. He joined NASA in 1963, serving as part of Gemini 12. Aldrin piloted the lunar module. Aldrin retired from the military in 1972 and has been an advocate for continued space exploration. He is currently the last surviving member of the crew, after Collins’s death.
The crew of Apollo 11. From left to right: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin (photo courtesy NASA) The crew of Apollo 11 took off from Kennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969. On July 19, the three entered lunar orbit. On July 20, after multiple revolutions, Armstrong and Aldrin entered the Eagle lunar module and set off for the surface. The Eagle landed in the Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong then addressed NASA, saying “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”
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It was the culmination of years of work, from different military space programs, to NASA’s Gemini and Apollo programs. It had been dangerous. The crew of Apollo 1, Air Force pilots Gus Grissom and Ed White along with naval aviator Roger Chaffee, died on Jan. 27, 1967 after a fire engulfed the command module during a rehearsal ahead of the mission. The Apollo 11 mission crew placed memorials on the surface bearing Grissom, Chaffee and White’s names, along with some honoring cosmonauts Vladimir Komarov and Yuri Gagarin, who had died in training or space mission accidents.
In 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 — featuring Air Force pilots Frank Borman and William Anders along with naval aviator James Lovell — became the first humans to enter lunar orbit. In May 1969, just two months before Apollo 11, Apollo 10 flew to lunar orbit in a test run of the systems used in the successful lunar landing.
The Apollo 11 crew returned to Earth on July 24, 1969. The last Apollo mission, Apollo 17, reached the Moon in 1972. It was the last time humans would walk on the lunar surface.
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A former Marine who joined the riot that stormed the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for his role in the insurrection. At the time, he was serving in the Marine Corps and during the events of the day attacked police with a commandeered riot shield.
On Friday, July 19, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell sentenced 26-year-old Tyler Bradley Dykes of South Carolina to four years and nine months in prison. Additionally, he will have to pay $22,000 in fines and serve 36 months of supervised release.
Dykes, then 22 at the time of the Capitol riot, was serving as an active-duty Marine at the time of the rally-turned-attack, when supporters of former president Donald Trump marched on the Capitol in an effort to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election. Dykes previously pleaded guilty in April to two charges, including impeding or obstructing police and for using a police riot shield as a dangerous weapon.
Dykes previously had been convicted for “felonious conduct” for his role in the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where white supremacist and far-right groups gathered and marched with tiki torches. On the second day of the rally, another participant drove into counter protesters, killing one person, Heather Heyer. Dykes served a six-month sentence in state prison for that conviction, after which he was arrested and transferred into federal custody in 2023.
Dykes joined the Marine Corps in 2017, after participating in the Unite the Right rally and after dropping out of college. Prior to his arrest for federal charges, he had been discharged from the Marine Corps for “other than honorable conditions” for his participation on the Charlottesville rally.
Tyler Bradley Dykes entering the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (photo courtesy the Department of Justice) According to the Department of Justice, Dykes was a participant in three different channels on the Telegram messaging app that denied the results of the 2020 election and pushed to overturn it. On Jan. 6, 2021, he was one of hundreds near the front of the group that marched on the Capitol, pushing through barricades and breaching the building. During the push, he grabbed and took a riot shield from a police officer. Photographic and video evidence presented in the case showed Dykes using the shield to help push police back as rioters stormed further into the Capitol.
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Prosecutors also accused Dykes of performing a fascist “sieg heil” salute at the top of the Capitol stairs after the mob successfully breached the Capitol. Dykes denied it, although images of Dykes during the events of Jan. 6, 2021 show him flashing the salute, arm raised, palm extended flat. Additionally, photographs of the Unite the Right rally in 2017 show Dykes participating in the torch march and flashing the fascist salute.
According to court documents, prosecutors pushed for a 63-month prison sentence, while the defense argued he should only serve two years, in part for his guilty plea.
According to the Justice Department, roughly 1,400 people have been arrested for their role in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
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Authorities at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State closed recreational access to its beaches this week, following the death of an Army soldier who drowned on Monday, July 15.
Joint Base Lewis-McChord, jointly operated by the Army and the Air Force, announced the closures on Thursday, July 18. The closure specifically affects the beaches at American Lake, most of which fall within the installation’s borders, and bar recreational swimming at the lake. The decision came three days after the death of one soldier. In a statement posted to the base’s website and social media pages, base leadership said that the beaches are indefinitely closed, and that a safety investigation is currently underway.
“The safety of our service members and their families is our first and foremost concern,” the statement on the base’s website said. “We will reassess the closure at the end of July and follow-up accordingly.”
As of press time, the military has not released the identity of the service member who died in the lake. Joint Base Lewis-McChord leadership has also not specified what circumstances led to the death of the soldier.
The base, located only a few miles from Tacoma, Washington, has been hit by a heatwave this month, as has much of the Pacific Northwest. Temperatures have stretched into the 90s in recent weeks. The military installation has multiple pools — which do have lifeguards on duty — but American Lake is a popular summer destination.
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The 1.7 square-mile lake is also used as a training site by Army units at the base, but was open to service members and their families.
This week’s death was not the only time soldiers assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord have died in American Lake. In 2018, privates Jamanni Gibson, 21, Jacques Means, 22, died in a boating accident on the water. The two were kayaking and eventually reported missing. After a search, their bodies were recovered in the lake.
The latest on Task & Purpose Here are the ships the U.S. plans to sink in the Pacific this summer * USS John Basilone, warship named for legendary Marine, delivered to the Navy* * Army graduates first class of recruiting warrant officers * Navy fires captain of ship that ran aground in Africa * Do I have to go to my IRR muster duty event**?
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Air Force Col. Jeremiah Hammill was relieved as commander of the 96th Test Wing Civil Engineer Group at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida just three days before he was scheduled to hand off the unit to a new commanding officer, an Air Force Materiel Command spokesperson confirmed on Friday.
The 96th Test Wing commander relieved Hammill on Monday “due to a loss in confidence in his ability to lead and to maintain good order and discipline,” the spokesperson told Task & Purpose.
“Information came to the Commander’s attention that caused him to lose confidence in Col. Hammill’s ability to lead and raised concerns about good order and discipline within 96 CEG,” the spokesperson said. “At this time, we are not going to comment further on the circumstances leading to this decision.”
When asked if Hammill faces any charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the spokesperson replied: “It would be inappropriate to speculate. In accordance with Air Force regulations, relief of command may be used as a basis to support subsequent collateral adverse administrative action in some situations.”
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Hammill declined to comment for this story.
The 96th Test Wing is based at Eglin where it evaluates a wide array of weapons, communications systems and avionics used across the Air Force and in other services. The wing oversees 120,000 square miles of test and training ranges over the Florida Panhandle and waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Eglin’s ranges host operations as varied as futuristic weapons testing to the jungle training portion of the Army’s Ranger School. The civil engineer group that Hammill commanded, according to a 96th Test Wing Fact sheet, oversaw the base’s physical plant, infrastructure, facilities, systems, housing, 11.6 million square feet of physical plant and over 3,200 facilities.
All military branches use the euphemism “loss of confidence” when announcing that commanding officers and senior enlisted leaders have been fired. This allows them to avoid explaining exactly why leaders have been relieved of command.
Commanders can be fired for several reasons ranging from leadership problems, having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate, and being arrested for drunken driving. But the absence of specific information about why a leader has been relieved often creates a vacuum that is filled by rumors and conspiracy theories that are often proven to be untrue.
Task & Purpose and other media outlets can submit Freedom of Information Requests to learn more about why leaders have been fired, but the process can take months or even longer.
Hammill’s relief of command was first reported on Tuesday by the Mid Bay News. He assumed command of the 96th Test Wing Civil Engineer Group in June 2022.
His rotation leading the 96th Test Wing Civil Engineer Group had been scheduled to end on Thursday, the Air Force Materiel Command spokesperson said.
“Col. Michelle Sterling was previously slated to succeed Col. Hammill and is now the 96th Civil Engineer Group commander,” the spokesperson said. “She was previously the commander of the 324th Training Squadron, Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas”.
Hamill holds a degree in engineering from Clarkson University in New York; a Master of Education from Trident University International, an online university based in Arizona; and he is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Air War College and Air Command and Staff College, according to his Linkedin profile.
He previously led the 611th Civil Engineer Squadron at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, and served as director of staff at the Air Force Research Laboratory, the spokesperson said.
The latest on Task & Purpose Here are the ships the U.S. plans to sink in the Pacific this summer * USS John Basilone, warship named for legendary Marine, delivered to the Navy* * Army graduates first class of recruiting warrant officers * Navy fires captain of ship that ran aground in Africa * Do I have to go to my IRR muster duty event**?
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To fight the arctic cold of winters at the Army’s most northern base, officials at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska want to dig deep underground — but need help from local Alaskans to figure out where.
The Army Office of Energy Initiatives announced it had contracted with Teverra, a geothermal energy company, to determine the feasibility of pulling heat from deep underground to during winter months, when temperatures on the base often fall below negative-40 Fahrenheit. The first step in the project, the Army said, is to ask nearby landowners to use their already-in-place wells to check the temperatures far below the surface.
“Teverra needs to measure the temperature at numerous locations deep underground, and they are asking for the public’s help in allowing access to extremely deep wells for temperature measuring,” said Eve A. Baker, spokesperson for Fort Wainwright.
Wainwright is home to elements of the 11th Airborne Division — which also has units at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson near Anchorage — as well as the Northern Warfare Training Center and Army Cold Regions Test Center. The Army considers the two centers as key spots for developmental testing and training as the service focuses on cold weather conflicts.
The company will need to measure deep subsurface temperatures in local wells, which Wainwright does not have. The company used Public data from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources to identify multiple wells deeper than 500 feet that are off-post, Army officials said.
Teverra will be reaching out to well owners by mail, phone, and in-person visits to ask for permission to lower temperature probes into wells on their land. There will be no construction, digging, or modifications made to private property, officials said.
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The project is one of several plans to bring geothermal energy to military installations across the country in support federal energy targets. Federal law requires all DOD installations to obtain at least 99.9% “energy resilience” by 2030.
There are seven installations in Alaska, Nevada, California, Idaho, and Texas with ongoing geothermal projects, according to an April release from Defense Innovation Unit. Feasibility studies and tests can take up to two years to complete.
Geothermal energy is a renewable source of energy that uses heat within the earth. The heat is produced by the slow decay of radioactive particles in the earth’s core.
“Geothermal sources strengthen our energy grids and give us the ability to isolate threats before they impact our operations,” Dr. Ravi Chaudhary, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Energy, Installations, and Environment said in a DIU release about the initiative.
Geo-exchange systems can bring down energy consumption and emissions by more than 40% compared to air source heat pumps and by over 70% compared to electric resistance heating with standard air-conditioning equipment, according to the Army.
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Project 2025, a policy guide that could be the blueprint for a second Donald Trump term, would revamp the Department of Veterans of Affairs with proposals to increase privatization, narrow the eligibility criteria for health benefits and replace civil service-style employees with political appointees in its leadership ranks. The document begins with an historical summary of the Department of Veterans Affairs and its current challenges meeting an aging, migrating population of veterans while modernizing and keeping costs within its budget. Chapter 20, which is dedicated to VA reforms, was written by Brooks D. Tucker, former VA Chief of Staff during the Trump Administration.
“Our goal is to assemble an army of aligned, vetted, trained, and prepared conservatives to go to work on Day One to deconstruct the Administrative State,” the manual states.
All of the veteran organizations reached by Task & Purpose to ask about Project 2025 declined to comment.
Some veterans argue that Project 2025’s goals would impact veterans directly before any changes to the VA. In a July 9 op-ed, Michael Embrich, a veteran and former member of the secretary of Veterans Affairs’ Advisory Committee on the Readjustment of Veterans, wrote that the proposed cuts to federal agencies like the FBI and Justice Department could “disproportionately affect” the 300,000 veterans who make up roughly 30% of the federal workforce.
But the project devotes an entire section to overhauling major pieces of the VA.
In a similar fashion with its goals for other federal agencies, Project 2025 envisions a VA that is run by more political appointees. The policy calls for rescinding all “delegations of authority” granted by the Biden Administration and transferring Senior Executive Service employees out of positions designated for presidential appointees to “ensure political control of the VA.”
The Project would rescind all Department of Defense policies “contrary to principles of conservative governance” including abortion services and gender reassignment surgery, arguing that “neither aligns with service-connected conditions,” which would warrant VA care.
Project 2025 also wants to revisit in-person work policies which transformed after the coronavirus pandemic to more hybrid and remote-work centric allowances for VA employees. The policy manual alleges that the work policies have turned into the VA’s current Secretary, Deputy Secretary, and their staff routinely working from home, having limited in-person meetings and relying more frequently on video conference calls.
If policies associated with Project 2025 are enacted, veterans that were previously found eligible for service-connected disabilities may see those revised or taken away.
The Project 2025 manual acknowledges two of the largest VA policy changes that expanded the number of veterans who qualified for service-connected disability claims: The 1991 Agent Orange Act and 2022 PACT Act (Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act). The manual says that the two “ambitious authorities” have overwhelmed the VA’s ability to process new claims and adjudicate appeals, requiring more employees to stay up to date. The manual also says that the inclusion of injuries related to Agent Orange and Burn Pits/Airborne Toxins has caused “historic increases” in spending.
In May, the VA announced that it granted its one millionth benefit claim related to the PACT Act which changed the VA’s assumption of vet claims if they were present in a war zone where toxic chemicals were likely present – like at most U.S. bases during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. When it was signed into law, the Wounded Warrior Project described the PACT Act as a policy that “opens up the door to pre- and post-9/11 combat veterans who served in areas of exposure.”
With the VA’s growing number of service-related health conditions, Project 2025 states that “some are tenuously related or wholly unrelated to military service” – the core issue for granting or denying service-connected disability claims.
Project 2025 provisions may mean that fewer health conditions qualify a veteran for disability benefits. More specifically, Project 2025 calls for a revision of the disability rating awards for future claims while “fully or partially” changing them for existing veteran claims.
More private healthcare
Project 2025 envisions bringing in more private companies for providing VA health care delivery, disability medical examinations, claims processing, and overall bureaucratic operations like acquisition and technology integration.
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It also calls for a larger budget for veterans to access private medical providers with the VA’s Community Care network which uses third-party providers – TriWest Healthcare Alliance and Optum Serve. In July 2022, a VA official told the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee that Community Care accounted for 44% of the VA’s health care services. The VA has also steadily increased the amount it spends on community care from $7.9 billion in 2014 to $18.5 billion in 2021.
With the expansion of community care, Project 2025 also wants to codify VA MISSION Act access standards in legislation to “prevent the VA from avoiding or watering down the requirements in the future.” Passed in 2018, the Mission Act gives veterans more flexibility to access care outside of Veterans Health Administration.
A September 2022 study by the RAND Corporation found that increased community care could complicate coordination of veteran care between the VHA and community providers leading to confusion for patients, duplicative tests, increased costs, and lower-quality care. Researchers did note that community care has improved access for rural veterans living far away from VHA facilities but also said that “research on this topic has been limited.”
The policy also calls for a “veterans bill of rights” so veterans and VA staff are better educated about the process for dispute resolution and their benefit entitlements which includes their eligibility for Community Care. Currently, veterans are not routinely informed about their eligibility unless they request information or are given a referral, the manual states.
Changes to VA structure
Project 2025 calls for an assessment of VA health facilities’ misalignment and rising infrastructure costs. The policy notes that the VHA’s 172 inpatient medical facilities across the U.S. are an average of 60-years-old and are underutilized and inadequately staffed.
The envisioned restructuring of VA health facilities would look at expanding community outpatient clinics in areas where it costs the VA too much to maintain an entire healthcare campus for a dwindling or already small population of veterans.
The Project 2025 manual also calls for the VA’s healthcare system to publicly report on its ability to reach quality, safety, patient experience, timeliness, and cost-effectiveness standards similar to those set by the Medicare program.
The latest on Task & Purpose Here are the ships the U.S. plans to sink in the Pacific this summer * USS John Basilone, warship named for legendary Marine, delivered to the Navy* * Army graduates first class of recruiting warrant officers * Navy fires captain of ship that ran aground in Africa * Do I have to go to my IRR muster duty event**?
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Project 2025, a series of policy recommendations for the next Republican president facilitated by the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, has moved to the center stage of the U.S. presidential election. The plan’s authors include dozens of conservative from the first Trump administration, while it has been assailed by Democrats.
A Task & Purpose review of Project 2025’s plan for the Pentagon and active duty troops finds a number of starkly partisan changes already pushed by Republicans. But the plan also includes a wide range of day-to-day changes to the force that don’t fit neatly into political labels but would change life in the military. Those include drastically reducing the number of generals, adding 50,000 soldiers to the Army with more planes and ships for the Air Force and Army, and reaching all the way down to the platoon-level in the Marine Corps to mandate how senior a Marine must be to lead a rifle squad.
The nearly 1,000-page handbook includes a 41-page chapter on proposed changes to the Defense Department. The Heritage Foundation describes Project 2025 as a “playbook for the first 180 days of the next Administration.” It was produced by hundreds of experts, and the chapter concerning the Defense Department was overseen by former Defense Secretary Chris Miller, who declined to comment for this story.
At it’s heart, the plan claims to be an effort to unshackle America’s military from what the authors view as long-term rot of misspent budgets, politically driven policies and a lack of focus on the military threat posed by China.
“The next conservative President must end the Left’s social experimentation with the military, restore warfighting as its sole mission, and set defeating the threat of the Chinese Communist Party as its highest priority,” the text says.
Among the changes that follow a clear conservative policy agenda, Project 2025 includes expelling transgender service members from the U.S. military and not allowing them to be recruited; reinstating troops separated for refusing to get vaccinated for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19); and rescinding a Defense Department policy that covers the travel costs for troops who need to go out of state for abortions and other reproductive care – all of which are popular conservative platforms.
But Project 2025 also includes many recommendations for the military that are not talking points for cable news pundits, including reducing the number of general and flag officers while adding more soldiers, planes, and ships; eliminating the MHS Genesis System for recruiting; reevaluating how military families go through permanent change of station moves; and requiring Marine squad and platoon leaders to be staff noncommissioned officers.
Democrats have discovered in recent weeks that many Project 2025 proposals are unpopular with their constituents and have put the plan at the front of their attacks on Republicans In response, Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, but of the over 400 authors behind the document, many worked for Trump in his first administration or on his campaigns and this week he chose Marine veteran and U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate, a well-documented friend with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts.
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That said, a Politico reporter posted on X from the Republican National Convention this week that Chris LCivita, one of Trump’s top campaign leaders, referred to “the Project 2025 team as “a pain in the ass.”
The Heritage Foundation did not provide a comment for this story. Task & Purpose was unable to reach a Trump campaign spokesman for comment.
Task & Purpose looked at how U.S. troops and their families would be affected by several of the changes called for in Project 2025, and what questions these recommendations raise.
Fewer generals at HQ, more staff sergeants in fighting holesOutside of hot-button political themes, the Project takes aim at personnel and even maneuver-unit topics that are more familiar to service members and their families than the general public.
It also recommends reducing the total number of general and flag officers while simultaneously calling for the Army to add 50,000 soldiers. The Project calls for the Navy to grow from 292 to 355 ships, and increasing purchases of the Air Force’s F-35As to between 60 and 80 per year.
“The number of 0-6 to 0-9 officers is at an all-time high across the armed services (above World War II levels), and the actual battlefield experience of this officer corps is at an all-time low,” Project 2025 says. “The next President should limit the continued advancement of many of the existing cadre, many of whom have been advanced by prior Administrations for reasons other than their warfighting prowess.”
Project 2025 does not mark the first time that an organization has expressed concern about how the proportion of general and flag officers to enlisted troops has gone up over time. In 2010, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered a reduction of generals and admirals, but this effort was only partially implemented, according to the National Defense University.
Far below the level of generals and admirals, Project 2025 calls for having older and more experienced Marines lead squads and platoons, an idea the Marine Corps considered several years ago.
Specifically, Project 2025 recommends that the Marine Corps “Align the USMC’s combat arms rank structure with the U.S. Army’s (squad leader billets are for E-6s, and platoon sergeant billets are for E-7s).”
Because most Marines do not stay past their first enlistment contract, the Corps has a much smaller number of staff noncommissioned officers than the Army. It is common for corporals or even lance corporals to serve as squad leaders.
Marine veterans told Marine Corps Time in 2016 that the Corps would have to vastly increase the number of staff sergeants to have them lead all infantry squads, and there was no proof that the Army’s model for combat arms rank structure was better than the Marine Corps’.
Though Project 2025 is light on deployment advice, it appears to endorse military operations at the U.S.-Mexico border, saying the Pentagon should “provide necessary support to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) border protection operations.
In spring 2020, Trump proposed to then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper that the U.S. military deploy up to 250,000 troops – more than half of the active-duty Army – to the southern border, according to the New York Times.
The Defense Department already provides assistance to DHS for border protection with several thousand troops for detection, monitoring, aviation, planning, warehousing, logistics, training support, along with funding and active-duty National Guardsmen for counter-narcotics efforts, according to the Pentagon.
Family LifeSome of the personnel changes that Project 2025 proposes are ideas that have been discussed in the past, said Katherine Kuzminski, director of the military, veterans, and society program at the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington, D.C.
Project 2025 calls for evaluating “the military family holistically when considering change-of-station moves.” It does not elaborate on how this might change PCS moves. Several issues commonly discussed by military families as PCS hardships include licensing and professional credentials for spouses, childcare and distance from families, though none of those or any other specific policies are mentioned in Project 2025.
However, Project 2025 does tackle the impact that PCS cycles take on families.
“It’s something that comes up perennially,” said Kuzminski, who added that the military services have looked at the issue with varying degrees of success. “It’s something that quite honestly, military family organizations have raised multiple times in the past because there is a sense of building stability and patterns of spouses having careers.”
The current PCS system, which requires troops and their families to move every few of years, dates to the Cold War, when roughly one third of American forces were stationed overseas, Kuzminski said. The system is based on the assumption that military families would want to return to the United States after spending two to three years aboard. At the time, it was not common for both spouses in military families to work.
Promotion boards also tend to favor service members who have served in multiple assignments, Kuzminski said.
However, military families are now much more concerned about the implications for their children about having to move so often, she said. Given the increased costs of living, it is common for both junior enlisted service members and their spouses to work.
“We are seeing implications in retention when it comes to having them move every two to three years,” Kuzminski said. “At a certain point, spouses are sitting down and making the calculus. If you’re a male officer with a female wife who is on the partner track to a law firm, well then, the calculus for the family ends up being much more difficult than in the 1950s, where you could expect that the spouse just trail and their career would either take a back seat or go away all together.”
Recruiting: in with high school ASVABs, out with MHS GenesisTo improve recruiting, Project 2025 calls for requiring schools to administer the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, or ASVAB, to students. It does not specify how the tests would be implemented or what the Pentagon would do with the results.
It also recommends, “Suspending the use of the recently introduced MHS Genesis system that uses private medical records of potential recruits at Military Entrance Processing Stations (MEPS), creating unnecessary delays and unwarranted rejections.”
Adopted in 2022, MHS Genesis has made it more difficult for people to join the Army by flagging minor health issues as potential disqualifying medical conditions, Military Times has reported.
Regarding recruiting, Kuzminski said she does not believe it would be controversial to require schools to administer the ASVAB. The Defense Department and military services are doing everything within their control to remedy recruiting challenges, but one of the issues they face is that many young Americans are not aware that the military is an option for them.
She also acknowledged that MHS Genesis has been problematic, but the challenges involve more than the system itself.
“Prior to the implementation of the MHS Genesis system, we were clearly not receiving the full medical history of individuals, and the challenge is not that we have this software that now effectively traces that over time, it’s that we don’t have the medical professionals to walk through the waiver process that we need to staff all that new information that we have,” Kuzminski said.
Fighting the Culture WarsSeveral of the recommendations that Project 2025 calls have long been espoused by conservative lawmakers, such as restricting abortion. Following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that ended federal protections on abortions, U.S. service members stationed in several states suddenly had no access to abortion care.
The Defense Department responded with a policy to pay the travel costs for service members who needed to go out of state for all reproductive care, including abortions. That prompted Sen. Tommy Tuberville (D-Ala.) to block hundreds of military officer promotions for 10 months before finally relenting.
Under Project 2025, no public money could be used “to facilitate abortion for servicemembers.”
The Defense Department’s current travel policy does not pay for medical care itself, nor does it limit what type of reproductive healthcare troops can receive. Defense Department civilians have access to reproductive care through their employer-offered health insurance, not direct department funding, said Maj. Geiger, the Pentagon spokeswoman.
Project 2025 also calls for reinstating troops who were separated for refusing to get vaccinated for COVID-19 during the Defense Department’s mandatory vaccine program. Those service members would also be restored to their appropriate rank and receive back pay.
Lawmakers such as Rep. John Rutherford (R-Fla), and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have been pushing for troops who were forced out of the military for refusing the vaccine to be welcomed back into the ranks.
But CNN reported in October that only 43 of the roughly 8,000 U.S. service members who were separated for refusing to get vaccinated had rejoined the military since the mandatory vaccination policy officially ended in January 2023. The Army, which has faced recruiting challenges, sent letters last year to about 1,900 soldiers who had been separated for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine about how they could return to service.
Reinstating service members who were separated for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine also puts commanders in a tough position, said Risa Brooks, a political science professor at Marquette University in Wisconsin
When the Defense Department’s mandatory vaccination program was in effect, commanders said it was needed for health reasons, Brooks told Task & Purpose. By bringing back troops who refused to comply, commanders would be saying the vaccine was a political rather than a health issue.
“Of all of the important issues facing DoD, to focus on this one seems much more about politics than about thinning about readiness and the core issues facing the department going forward,” Brooks told Task & Purpose. “What it really is doing is trying to inject partisan politics into the military, which has been an ongoing pattern for some time.”
Project 2025 continues to carry the mantle of anti-woke and it calls for reviews in the curriculum of both military service academies and Defense Department schools.
Transgender BanIn January 2021, President Joe Biden rescinded the Defense Department’s policy on transgender service members that was enacted under the Trump administration, which banned transgender people from serving in the military if they had a diagnosis of gender dysphoria unless they had been medically stable for 36 months and had not begun medical treatments to transition to a new gender.
The Project 2025 proposal on transgender service appears to go further than Trump’s original transgender service member ban by recommending that all troops diagnosed with gender dysphoria be “expelled from military service” because, “Gender dysphoria is incompatible with the demands of military service.”
The Defense Department does not track how many transgender service members are currently serving in the military, a Pentagon spokesperson told Task & Purpose.
Banning an entire demographic from serving in the military would hurt both recruiting and retention, said Army Maj. Kara Corcoran, vice president of SPARTA Pride, an advocacy group for transgender troops.
Transgender service members are already serving in key leadership positions, including at least five company commanders as well as dozens of O-4s, several O-5 and O-6 officers, and enlisted leaders, Corcoran told Task & Purpose. The military has invested a lot of money into training them, especially if they serve in the higher ranks.
“You’re now forcing a company commander to figure out: How do I replace them – how do I replace a squad leader that I’m now being forced to chapter?” Corcoran said. “You are going to reduce our ability to be ready to fight, and then the tertiary effect of that is recruiting and retention. You’re going to continue to erode our ability to take in the citizens of this country that have no issue with transgender people.”
Corcoran said she has no doubt that if the transgender ban recommended by Project 2025 is ultimately adopted, it will mark the end of her military career. Although legal challenges to such a ban would be inevitable, they would take years to work their way through the courts, and the Supreme Court would be likely to side with the executive branch.
“There’s nothing in law that protects us,” said Cochran, who added that she is concerned the wider movement against allowing transgender people to serve in the federal government could prevent her from working for the National Park Service if he is kicked out of the Army. “So, I’ll go be a sheriff in Denver, or something like that.”
War on ‘Woke’Project 2025 hammers at a favorite talking point among conservative lawmakers, that the military has gone “woke.” The plan calls for reviews in the curriculum of both military service academies and Defense Department schools.
One proposal would require the Defense Department to, “Eliminate Marxist indoctrination and divisive critical race theory programs and abolish newly established diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and staff.”
The text does not provide examples of Marxist teaching or the presence of critical race theory in military academies or DoD schools.
In addition to auditing the courses at the service academies, Project 2025 also calls for eliminating tenure for academic professionals. It would also require the military to “remove all inappropriate materials” and “reverse inappropriate policies” from curricula and health policies in Defense Department schools.
The Department of Defense Education Activity, or DODEA, uses College and Career Ready standards curriculum for all DODEA schools from pre-kindergarten through high school, said Army Maj. Grace Geiger, a Pentagon spokeswoman. More than 40 states and four territories also use these standards.
“Importantly, within the DoD, procurement rules for solicitations for DoDEA’s curriculum materials and learning resources must include standard language requiring materials to be free of any perceived bias and present balanced coverage of content,” Geiger told Task & Purpose.
As a result of DODEA using these standards, students in Defense Department schools scored highest in the nation on the 2022 National Assessment of Education Progress, also known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” Geiger said.
“Specifically, fourth and eighth-grade students attending DoDEA schools led the nation on the 2022 NAEP Reading and Mathematics Assessments, significantly outperforming the national average,” Geiger said “Importantly, pandemic learning loss did not significantly impact DoDEA as students’ average scores increased, while national average scores significantly decreased.”
Task & Purpose reached out to all the military service academies regarding Project 2025’s statements about indoctrination. Representatives from the three academies had similar responses.
The U.S. Military Academy at West Point’s directorate of communications issued a brief statement: “The U.S. Military Academy does not speculate on policy proposals.”
Navy Cmdr.Ashley Hockycko, a U.S. Naval Academy spokeswoman, said the academy does not comment on partisan political matters.
“The Naval Academy is focused on developing and educating midshipmen to be critical thinkers who can analyze issues from multiple perspectives and contexts; our focus is on how to think, not what to think,” Hockycko said.
The U.S. Air Force Academy also does not comment on “external studies,” an academy spokesperson told Task & Purpose.
“We continue to accomplish our mission of developing leaders of character ready to serve in the Air Force and Space Force,” the spokesperson said.
Brooks said there is not any evidence to substantiate accusations that the military has gone “woke” since Biden took office.
“With all the challenges facing the military and the complicated international environment it’s operating in, to have to be contending with these efforts to politicize it is really not helpful, and, I would say, a big distraction,” she said. “If elected leaders or public officials or the public really want to help DoD, it would be better to focus on issues that require real attention.”
The latest on Task & Purpose Here are the ships the U.S. plans to sink in the Pacific this summer * USS John Basilone, warship named for legendary Marine, delivered to the Navy* * Army graduates first class of recruiting warrant officers * Navy fires captain of ship that ran aground in Africa * Do I have to go to my IRR muster duty event**?
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A Pentagon program designed to cover a “vulnerable” mental health period for military members failed to reach 70% of those enrolled, a federal watchdog found. The program, named inTransition, is charged with connecting service members with mental health services as who are in periods of “transition” like leaving the military or returning home from a deployment.
But the program often waits 2 or 3 months to initiate contact with members, and made contact with less than 1-in-3, the Government Accountability Office report found this week.
The DOD did not offer formal comments to the GAO on its findings.
The GAO found that the program didn’t connect with more than 70% of automatically enrolled service members in 2022 (roughly 65,500 out of 91,000) because of its limited outreach strategy using telephone calls. Program officials called cold calls “an outdated form of communication” but said that they are required to use telephone calls as a primary contact method and that email or text required a policy change.
The GAO also said that the program could benefit from expanding to email, text or location services to reach more enrollees. But as of January 2024, the contractor did not have plans to incorporate texting into its outreach strategy.
Many programs but little awareness
The Defense Department and Department of Veterans Affairs have instituted a slew of programs aimed at connecting service members coming home from a deployment or leaving the military with mental health services. The DOD’s inTransition program is aimed at military members whose duties and careers are in transition, either after deployment, a PCS or separating. Though open to all, troops are automatically enrolled in the program if they received mental health or traumatic brain injury care in the year prior to their separation.
Part of the problem, the GAO found may be that the joint Defense Department and Department of Veterans Affairs committee in charge of overseeing all transition activities, does not assess “the effectiveness of these efforts overall.” This means there’s no concept of how successful or effective service member and veteran transition programs are. The GAO recommended that the committee start a tracking system for better service member outcomes.
The VA agreed with the GAO’s recommendation to track these services and said joint DOD-VA subcommittees would establish plans of action, milestones, and metrics “to identify gaps or duplicative efforts.”
According to the contractor that runs inTransition, its workers call service members up to three times to ask if they want to remain enrolled or use the program’s services. When they fail to connect with the servicemember, they mark the case as “unresponsive” and disenroll them from the program. A GAO analysis of 2022 data showed that 66% or nearly 60,000 service members were unenrolled this way.
The GAO also found that in some cases, the contractor was unable to make the three phone calls because the DOD did not have accurate contact information. In 2022, more than 5,700 people who were automatically enrolled could not be contacted.
When the GAO analyzed 2022 acceptance rates for service members who were contacted and not already using mental health services, they found that about 30% opted to remain enrolled – this means that successful engagement would mean higher acceptance rates for the program, the report said.
“Setting performance goals and tracking the program’s progress against them could give decision-makers baseline information and longitudinal data to determine whether changes to the program’s outreach approach are needed. This, in turn, could result in more enrollees participating in the program and more transitioning service members obtaining needed assistance,” the report said.
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The GAO also said that inTransition did not reach out to more than 91,000 service members, or 85% of those automatically enrolled in 2022 until two or three months after they left the military. The contractor that runs inTransition attributed this to delays of separation data reported to DOD’s Defense Manpower Data Center.
“The delayed timing for automatically enrolling eligible members may leave a gap in assistance to obtain mental health services at a time that coincides with the vulnerable post-separation period,” the GAO said.
To overcome this, the federal watchdog suggested that the DOD expand its criteria for automatic enrollment to include troops who participate in the Transition Assistance Program, Military Service Wounded Warrior programs, Integrated Disability Evaluation System, or by tracking responses to mental health questions during separation exams.
The GAO also found that the inTransition program did not have defined performance goals, making it harder for officials to know what needs improvement. Despite findings by the GAO like the contractor’s inability to regularly connect with enrolled service members, “program officials said they have no changes planned to improve the program, and that the program is working as intended.”
DOD-VA mental health efforts
In its report, the GAO also looked at mental health related transition programs overall. For the DOD, that includes inTransition, Transition Assistance Program Defense Health Agency Recovery Coordination Program and Military OneSource. For the VA, those programs are VA Liaison Program, Veterans Health Administration Post-9/11 Military2VA Case Management Program, and VA Federal Recovery Consultant.
The report also included findings from the DOD-VA committee, including a potential healthcare gap for some service members who take separation leave when relocating to a new base. During this time, the service member can’t access medical treatment facilities at their former location and they are not yet eligible for VA health care because they have not formally separated.
The committee officials also found a potential post-separation delay in obtaining VA health care benefits like mental health care because of DOD Form 214 delays. A problem with the Army’s new personnel processing IT system, for example, delayed production of Form 214s from between December 2022 and January 2023, leading to separation benefit delays for 5,000 service members. DOD officials told GAO that those issues were resolved.
The GAO ultimately said that the committee is “uniquely positioned” to assess “how well” DOD and VA programs facilitate access to mental health services during transitions.
“An assessment would help the departments better ensure that transitioning service members and veterans have access to the mental health support they may need when they need it,” GAO said.
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WASHINGTON – The Secretary of the Navy announced on July 17 the full exoneration of the remaining 256 defendants of the 1944 Port Chicago general and summary courts-martial. Carlos Del Toro, Secretary of the Navy, announced the exonerations on the 80th anniversary of an explosion at Port Chicago Naval Magazine in California, just inland from San Francisco, that killed 320 people, injured 400 others, destroyed two ships and a train, and caused damage to the nearby town of Port Chicago.
The 256 men were convicted at courts-martial of refusing orders and mutiny when they refused to return to work after the blast without safety precautions. Those convictions and the various punishments handed down had mostly been reversed or pardoned in recent decades, but families of the men — the last of whom passed away in the 1990s — had lobbied for an official exoneration in which the Navy declared the men innocent of any wrong doing.
That declaration came Wednesday.
“The Port Chicago 50, and the hundreds who stood with them, may not be with us today, but their story lives on, a testament to the enduring power of courage and the unwavering pursuit of justice,” said Secretary Del Toro. “They stand as a beacon of hope, forever reminding us that even in the face of overwhelming odds, the fight for what’s right can and will prevail.”
An explosion, and a refusalThe 256 Black sailors were assigned to Port Chicago’s ordnance battalions, working as longshoremen to load ammunition and bombs onto boats to be sent overseas during World War II. A subsequent Navy investigation found that safety on the piers and in the warehouses of Port Chicago was, at best, an afterthought, as the Black enlisted men loaded ever more cargo shipments under mostly-white officers.
On July 17, 1944, an explosion occurred inside an ammo boat. The cause of the explosion was never determined but the blast tore apart two cargo ships and leveled buildings 1,000 feet in every direction at the river city of Port Chicago.
According to a Navy history of the blast, at just after 10 p.m., “a dull clang (possibly caused by a falling cargo boom) and a sound of splintering wood preceded a blinding flash and heavy detonation on the pier, followed within seconds by smaller detonations and then the massive explosion of munitions in E. A. Bryan’s holds. The ship, most of the pier, all structures within a 1,000-foot radius, and many of the flatcars disintegrated. The explosion blew Quinault Victory into large pieces that sank in the waters of Suisun Bay. A Coast Guard fire barge was blown away from the munitions pier and sank, taking its 5-man crew with it. The 320 individuals in the immediate proximity of the blasts— Navy personnel on the loading details, a Marine Corps sentry, the ships’ Navy Armed Guard and merchant mariner crews, and civilian employees—were killed instantly. Of these, the remains of only 51 were identifiable afterward. African American Sailors comprised nearly two thirds of those killed.”
The 256 Black men who survived the explosion were put back to work immediately — unlike their white comrades — in similarly hazardous conditions at a second Navy ammo dump. When the Black sailors refused to work without safety considerations, the were threatened with a court-martial. Eventually, 206 returned to work, but were all booted from the Navy with fines and bad discharges. A final 50 who refused were charged with mutiny and received long prison sentences.
A final Navy investigation cleared workers at the base of wrong doing, instead finding that leadership and operational practices at the pier led to disaster. Specifically, the investigation cited:
- By 1944, wartime operational requirements had nearly maximized Port Chicago Naval Magazine’s operational capacity;
- Despite ongoing attempts to make up for shortfalls, proper munitions-handling training of officers and men was uneven at best;
- Ever-increasing operational requirements invariably led the command to override a number of basic safety procedures;
- At the time, the U.S. Navy Board of Ordnance instructions did not sufficiently cover all aspects of ordnance safety and handling in port during wartime. Port Chicago only selectively followed the standard—and more specific—U.S. Coast Guard instruction, compiled in 1943, due to the high operations tempo.
In studying the case, the Navy said Mondy, the General Counsel of the Navy concluded that there were “significant legal errors during the courts-martial. The defendants were improperly tried together despite conflicting interests and denied a meaningful right to counsel. The courts-martial also occurred before the Navy’s Court of Inquiry report on the Port Chicago explosion was finalized, which certainly would have informed their defense and contained nineteen substantive recommendations to improve ammunition loading practices.”
If any family members of the defendants of the 1944 Port Chicago general and summary courts-martial would like to reach out to the Department of the Navy for future notifications on the topic or more information, please reach out to PortChicago@us.navy.mil, or 703-697-5342.
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The Islamic State group carried out more attacks in the first half of 2024 in Iraq and Syria than it did in all of 2023, officials at U.S. Central Command said on Wednesday as the terror group continues to reconstitute in the region. ISIS conducted 153 attacks in the first six months of 2024 — a rate of nearly one every day, CENTCOM said. That number is far ahead of the 121 attacks in 2023, a defense official told Task & Purpose on Wednesday.
“The increase in attacks indicates ISIS is attempting to reconstitute following several years of decreased capability,” a CENTCOM news release says.
The surge in ISIS violence comes as U.S. and partner forces have continued to pressure the group. U.S. troops and partner forces have launched 196 operations against ISIS, of which 137 took place in Iraq and 59 were carried out in Syria, according to CENTCOM. These missions have resulted in 44 suspected ISIS operatives being killed and another 166 being detained in the first half of 2024. During 2023, the U.S. military conducted more than 400 operations against ISIS in both countries.
CENTCOM estimates that roughly 2,500 suspected ISIS fighters remain at large in Iraq and Syria.
“We continue to focus our efforts on specifically targeting those members of ISIS who are seeking to conduct external operations outside of Iraq and Syria and those ISIS members attempting to break out ISIS members in detention in an attempt to reconstitute their forces,” Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, head of CENTCOM, said in the news release.
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It has been more than five years since a U.S.-led military coalition to defeat ISIS and partner forces on the ground captured ISIS’ last enclave in Syria, effectively ending its caliphate. Since then, the terrorist group has become an insurgency in Iraq and Syria.
In an exclusive interview on June 20, Army Maj. Gen. Joel “JB” Vowell, the commanding general of Operation Inherent Resolve told Task & Purpose that ISIS no longer controls large swathes of territory, but it remains capable of conducting small attacks and ambushes in both Iraq and Syria.
Vowell also said that the underlying causes of instability that allowed ISIS to emerge have not been resolved in Syria, where dictator Bashar al-Assad has effectively emerged victorious from his country’s ruinous civil war.
“The root causes of instability that gave birth to ISIS are still there,” Vowell said. “There’s economic challenges in the Sunni areas, quite frankly. Those instability challenges are there: lack of education, lack of opportunity, lack of jobs. And extremism is still fomenting out in the deserts in the Middle Euphrates River Valley, in the Sunni tribes.”
U.S. troops deployed to the Middle East face the dual threat of ISIS and Iranian-backed militia groups, which began attacking American forces in the region after Hamas launched its Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel.
Three U.S. soldiers were killed in January by a drone attack on a military base in Jordan known as “Tower 22.” Following the attack, the U.S. and partner nations increased drone defenses at their bases, Vowell told Task & Purpose.
“We leveled the field with force protection,” Vowell said. “We dug a lot more earth. We poured a lot more concrete. We went back to school on ourselves: Where are we still holding risk that’s just unacceptable?”
Vowell’s mission is focused on defeating ISIS, so Iran is not part of his focus. Still, Iran exerts “a great degree of control” over the militia groups that have attacked U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, he said.
“The revolution, in their mind, must continue since 1979,” Vowell said.
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The U.S. military’s use of a post-World War II era floating pier system to deliver humanitarian assistance into Gaza has come to an end. The operation launched with high hopes of delivering aid by sea but numerous logistics setbacks and criticism of the effort as, at best, a band aid for the depravations in Gaza and, at worst, a dodge for applying diplomatic pressure to force Israel to open more land crossings.
The U.S. military’s mission involving the pier is officially finished but U.S. assets are still helping with aid coordination in Israel, officials said Wednesday.
“The maritime service mission involving the pier is complete. There’s no more need to use the pier, particularly because we’re able to implement a more sustaining pathway through Ashdod,” said Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command.
The same U.S. Army vessels that transported humanitarian aid from Cyprus to the U.S. military’s pier off the coast of Gaza will now bring the aid from Cyprus to a port in Ashdod, Israel – a city just over 20 miles south of Tel Aviv. After reaching Ashdod, aid will be transported by truck to northern access gates in Gaza, officials said. Officials did not give specifics on the operational changes for the Army watercraft vessels but said the ships will still be involved in aid delivery.
Officials also said Wednesday that a soldier severely injured during the pier’s mission was still being treated in a San Antonio, Texas hospital and is “no longer in critical condition.” They did not offer more details.
The pier was envisioned as a humanitarian lifeline for Palestinians in Gaza facing chronic starvation and a lack of consistent aid delivery due to land route limitations by the Israeli military. During humanitarian deliveries, aid groups have been terrorized by attacks from Hamas and the Israeli military.
As the pier operation faced skepticism, U.S. officials doubled down on their support of the project’s transition to an Israeli port. Cooper said the U.S. military already helped to deliver more than a million pounds of aid through Ashdod.
“We’re very confident in the sustaining element of this moving forward,” he added.
President Joe Biden announced plans for the temporary pier, which the military calls a Joint Logistics Over The Shore, or JLOTS system, during his March State of the Union speech. The pier was officially set up in mid-May and was operational for “a little more than 20 days,” officials said.
U.S. military assets delivered 19.4 million pounds of aid over the pier since it opened, which Cooped called the “highest volume of humanitarian assistance that the U.S. military has ever delivered to the Middle East.” The deputy commander also called JLOTS a “historically unprecedented operation to deliver aid into an active combat zone without any U.S. boots on the ground or any preexisting supporting infrastructure.”
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The cost of the pier project was less than what officials budgeted for, Cooper said. In total, the roughly 20 million pounds of aid delivery cost just under $230 million which he compared to the JLOTS mission in Haiti which cost $460 million for 23 million pounds of aid.
In May, JLOTS suffered its first blow when the temporary pier was damaged by rough sea states, temporarily suspending the delivery of humanitarian aid and briefly stranding U.S. boat crews aboard tender vessels run aground. By June, the pier had been shut down three separate times.
“In my experience, the reason why it’s so sensitive is, number one, the equipment is old,” Former Navy utility boat coxswain Jarod Palm told Task & Purpose. “Number two, it’s all ‘Lego bricked’ together, and that platform is actually held together by line.”
Despite its issues, Cooper said the Department of Defense’s assessment is that the pier “achieved its intended effect to surge a very high volume of aid into Gaza, and ensure that aid reaches the civilians in Gaza in a quick manner.”
The temporary pier project also came under fire from humanitarian advocates who called for increased diplomatic pressure on Israel to open more land crossings which U.S. officials acknowledged as “the most effective and efficient way” to deliver aid into the Gaza strip.
Aid delivery by land route still exists through Kerem Shalom, Gate 96, the Jordan corridor, and Ashdod. U.S. officials said there were no updates on the decision to reopen the Rafah border crossing between Israel and Egypt.
“We are unfortunately in a situation where the insecurity has increased again and we’re seeing a rise in looting and other kinds of criminal activities and that is definitely causing problems for aid distribution right now,” said Sonali Korde, Assistant to the USAID’s Administrator’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance. “Every day the situation is different on the ground but we continue to look ahead with our partners at the distribution issues.”
The temporary pier is a capability that the services, particularly the Army, have deployed for previous humanitarian missions like the 2010 Haiti earthquake and for multinational training exercises. The Army even used JLOTS in the Pacific region as part of training operations to prepare for a potential war with China.
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Last summer, an Illinois National Guard soldier collapsed just as he finished the 2-mile run for a fitness test at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. Spc. Nathaniel Jefferson, 38, was rushed to the hospital, along with a second soldier suffering from heat exhaustion, where he died. But Army researchers hope that a new system that combines sensors and data from the training of elite military units in hot weather can be a key tool for avoiding the kind of heat injuries that killed Jefferson and the hundreds of heat strokes that knock soldiers out of action every year.
The Heat Injury Prevention System, or HIPS, developed by Army researchers, includes a wearable sensor that feeds into an algorithm programmed to spot small changes in how they walk and move. The system uses data collected from over 10,000 troops training in high hight. A handful of Army and Marine Corps units use HIPS today, but researchers hope to expand its use.
“The algorithm sort of learns the individual and how they’re moving and it’s looking for a significant deviation from their regular gait pattern,” said Mark Buller, an Army scientist who developed the system. “Five minutes before that heat stroke, you really start to see that pattern degrade.”
HIPS looks for changes in a troop’s gait and their estimated core temperature. If it spots a troop’s steps starting to drag, even before fellow soldiers might notice, and the soldier shows a core temperature above 104 degrees fahrenheit, it indicates that they are at risk of a heat stroke. The sensors feed into a secure mobile application that can track the wearer’s heat risk status with green, yellow and red level indicators.
In the world of wearable technology, core temperature estimation has been difficult to measure accurately. But HIPS uses a baseline algorithm that Army researchers developed and published in 2013. For HIPS, the two algorithms at work are the heat stroke detection algorithm and adaptive physiological strain index which uses core temperature estimation, heart rate, and skin temperature. When identifying exertional heat illness, skin temperature is a key factor, which most modern commercial sensors do not measure, according to Buller.
“We know it works because we have tried it in the field and validated against 30 exertional heat illness cases,” Buller said. “Most other algorithms have not been demonstrated against heat illness cases.”
The military began implementing preventative measures for heat injuries with the Army’s heat stress index which dictates work-rest and water intake guidelines for high temperatures. By requiring that commanders use the heat tables for training in hot temperatures, the services have been able to limit severe heat-related injuries and fatalities over the years. In 1956, when Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island implemented the heat stress index, there was a 50% drop in the rate of exertional heat illness.
But each year, the Army still deals with thousands of documented heat exhaustion cases and around 400 exertional heat strokes which can range in severity from regular recovery to a couple nights in the hospital to death, according to Ltc. David DeGroot, director of the Army’s Heat Center at Fort Moore, Georgia.
“It pales in comparison to things like musculoskeletal injury but given for one, the potential for a fatality and two, under the vast majority of circumstances, these are all preventable,” he said.
A review of the service’s heat injury data found that in 2023, heat illnesses were most prevalent among Black Marine Corps and Army service members younger than 20 years old. Male service members faced more heat stroke and female service members experienced greater levels of heat exhaustion.
By far the most at risk were new recruits. Researchers found that the rates of heat injury for those newest to the rigors of military training were 12.5 and 13.5 times higher than other enlisted service members and officers.
Despite official heat guidelines, its implementation still largely relies on commanders’ risk tolerance for pushing their troops through training in hot temperatures. DeGroot gave the example of Ranger school.
“Personally sitting where I do, I’m comfortable with the ranger course taking a higher level of risk because they also have two physician assistants and a platoon full of medics and they have the facilities and an aid station right there at the ranger course for rapid cooling and treatment of a suspected heat casualty,” DeGroot said.
Several units have been using HIPS in training for years. MCRD Parris Island has been using and issuing HIPS since 2021 and at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, the Sapper Leader Course has used them since 2019. HIPS is also made available for basic training at the Missouri base.
Marines going through reconnaissance courses have used HIPS since 2023 and officials are even incorporating HIPS into the Soldier Monitoring System over the next month for land navigation training. It will also be provided for sapper courses at Fort Leonard Wood.
HIPS
HIPS includes a wearable torso sensor from Odic Inc. and an Army-developed algorithm made from data collected between 2018 and 2023 from more than 14,000 individuals. The data includes a variety of training environments like recruits at The Crucible at Marine Corps Recruiting Depot, Parris Island, reconnaissance training at Camp Pendleton, jungle operations training at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, and infantry One-Station Unit Training at Fort Moore, Georgia.
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The ultimate goal is to provide HIPS to trainees for their own health monitoring and to improve situational awareness, Buller said. Despite the Army’s desire to prevent heat illness, especially in the South where units prioritize prevention methods like ice water arm immersion and immediate medical aid, he said there’s no written requirement which would bring the tool to more units.
“Regular heat illness surveillance helps identify the magnitude of the impact these conditions have on service member health, training, and force readiness,” according to researchers who reviewed annual military heat injury data. “At the command and unit level, emphasis on evidence-based prevention, mitigation and risk management, with continued education on the signs, symptoms, and early field interventions for heat illness, are crucial steps in reducing the impact of heat illness morbidity.”
Buller said there needs to be a larger recognition by the Army or Department of Defense that
technology exists.
“It works well, you can manage heat. This is kind of like what’s recommended or what should be mandated in certain environments to use,” he said. “That policy level has not reached maturity yet so I think this pull is coming from individual units that want to do a better job at heat illness prevention.”
Heat injuries
Top base producers of heat casualties are Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Fort Liberty, North Carolina, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island – all locations where humidity makes the climate seem that much hotter.
“If the air is already saturated with water, the sweat that’s collecting on our skin has nowhere to evaporate too,” DeGroot said. “It’s not sweating that cools us off. It’s the evaporation of the sweat that cools us off.”
The circumstances that have produced heat illnesses have typically varied. Last year,
a reservist in South Carolina was doing drills at Fort Jackson and another was a National Guardsman doing annual training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. But researchers did notice one troubling trend – “on average 85% of our heat strokes were during either foot march or running events,” DeGroot said.
In an event like the Army’s standard 12-mile run, where a soldier needs to be within the three-hour time limit to earn the expert infantryman’s badge, that’s when heat injuries occur.
“It comes back to that issue of individual motivation because many of these events when they occur, they’re being performed for time. There’s a standard that they have to meet or they’re training to meet so they’re gonna push themselves,” he said.
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Barstool Sports owner and pizza review king Dave Portnoy found out just how vengeful an angry Poseidon can be during a brief misadventure at a Massaschutes harbor Monday aboard his 28-foot yacht. Luckily, the U.S. Coast Guard was nearby — probably because Portnoy never left Nantucket Harbor.
It began with a call to the Coast Guard station on the ritzy island.
“Sector southeastern New England had received a report from the USCG station Brant Point of a 28-foot pleasure craft that belonged to Dave Portnoy,” USCG spokesperson Petty Officer 2nd Class Diolanda Ballero told Task & Purpose.“It broke free from the mooring in Nantucket harbor, and then it was seen drifting through the area.”
Officials soon learned that Portnoy was aboard the boat as it began drifting out of the harbor without power. In a social media post, Portnoy said he could not steer the boat or call for help via radio. He also said he was unable to drop his anchor due to no power.
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“Captain Dave, on his third time out, made a major mistake,” Portney said in tongue-in-cheek video posted to Instagram. “Captain Dave unhooked himself from the buoy before he turned the boat on and make sure the boat wasn’t dead.”
Pushed by the wind, Portnoy’s boat was in danger of pushing into a very busy Nantucket harbor, Portnoy said in a third-person voice.
“Captain Dave took out the flare thing — which he’s not really a flare gun guy or really any type of firework guy,” Portnoy said. “ Captain Dave shoots his f***ing gun into the sky, distress signal, still nothing.”
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente)
A local boater saw him waving in distress and pulled alongside the drifting boat (Portnoy said in the video that his rescuer arrived in a rowboat). They then called for help on their own radio. Brant Point Coast Guard personnel were training nearby and diverted for the rescue.
“They ended up just towing the vessel back to its mooring,” Ballero said.
“So it’s almost uncertain 100% what happened. But from talking to the station, they were saying that it wasn’t anything too dire,” Ballero said. “It might have just been something that may have been scary to him at the moment. However, for us, it was pretty much just like a routine tow.”
Ballero said it’s important for all boat owners to take the proper boating classes and be prepared for the worst-case scenario, even in a familiar harbor.
Portnoy said it was his third time serving as captain of his boat. But, he said he may never go out on the water as “Captain Dave” again, saying, “The sea’s angry, my friends.”
Ballero concurred.
“You can be the most prepared person in the world, but sometimes these accidents happen. […]. Poseidon is not a very happy guy,” Ballero said.
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Carlos Paz-Sosa decided during his senior year in high school that he wanted to enlist in the Marines, but soon got bad news from a recruiter: He would need to shed more than 100 pounds before he could ship to boot camp, according to a Marine Corps news story. Paz-Sosa struggled with his weight throughout his childhood and he was far outside of the Marines’ physical requirements.
With the support of his family, his recruiter, and others, Paz-Sosa not only lost the weight, but on July 12 graduated from boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot San Diego.
“It took a lot of going to the gym and eating healthy,” Paz-Sosa said in the news release. “My mom makes good food, so portion control was probably the hardest part.”
Getting in shape for boot camp marked a turning point for Paz-Sosa, who had been overweight for most of his life, he said. It took him roughly a year of diet and exercise before he was able to stand in the yellow footprints at the receiving phase of recruit training.
Paz-Sosa received a lot of encouragement from his mother, who told him, “If this is what you want to do, go ahead,” he said.
His brother initially kidded him about joining the Marines, but he began to support Paz-Sosa once he started getting trim.
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As he waited to ship to recruit training, Paz-Sosa showed his empathy for others, said his recruiter Staff Sgt. Aubrey Larsen. While many young recruits write pre-departure letters to close friends and family,, Paz-Sosa wrote letters to his fellow poolees.
“He wrote catered letters for all of them,” Larsen said in the news release. “Every letter was so personal. He wrote about 15 of them. It was incredible.”
Paz-Sosa’s months of eating right and working out ultimately paid off when he joined India Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment at San Diego.
Marine Corps recruit training is both physically and mentally demanding, and Paz-Sosa’s senior drill instructor saw the young man rise to meet the Corps’ expectations.
“When Pvt. Paz-Sosa first got to the platoon, he was very timid,” Staff Sgt. Douglas Perez said in the news story. “He didn’t communicate well. As time progressed there was a giant change. He became more vocal with the platoon. If he saw somebody mess up, he’d go fix them; and he kept losing weight throughout training. His transformation was pretty noticeable.”
Paz-Sosa said that he especially bonded with his rack mate Pvt. Lincoln Jameson. The two would occasionally give each other a hard time, but now, he says, they’ll be lifelong friends.
After three months of intense training, Paz-Sosa earned his Eagle, Globe, and Anchor as a full-fledged Marine and graduated in front of his family
“When I first saw him, I said, ‘I love you; I’m so proud of you,’” his mother Maria Sosa said in the news story.
Larsen said she was impressed by how much weight Paz-Sosa had lost at boot camp.
“When I first saw him, I was like, ‘Where’s the other half of you?” Larsen said. “He had lost so much weight before he left and even more while he was in training. I asked him, ‘Did you believe you were going to make it?’ and he said, ‘Yes. The whole time.’”
Looking back at his boot camp experience Paz-Sosa recalled how some of the other recruits needed more help than him, and he felt good assisting them.
“It was a heartwarming experience to help them become Marines,” he said. “The entire experience was definitely worth it. Look where we are now.”
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This editorial on the naming of July 16 as National Atomic Veterans Day is written by Abigail Spanberger, the U.S. Representative for Virginia’s 7th congressional district. From 2006 to 2014, she was an Operations Officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. The views expressed are her own.
Virginia native Gillie Jenkins was just 15 years old when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. At the age of 17, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and completed basic training. But rather than being posted on a ship, he instead found himself assigned to “Special Projects.” He found out quickly what that meant — nuclear tests.
Gillie was sent to a string of remote Pacific islands for a secret project dubbed “Operation Crossroads” — the first nuclear weapons tests since the 1945 Trinity detonation in the New Mexico desert. These tests at Bikini Atoll were also the first detonations of nuclear devices since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Stationed far from Virginia in the Marshall Islands, Gillie and his fellow servicemembers used a Geiger counter multiple times a day to test their radiation levels. Each month, they had blood tests taken and received X-rays to check for further exposure.
For 16 months, Gillie was exposed to ionized radiation as he selflessly served his country. The Americans who ran this operation — and similar missions over the course of more than a decade — are known as America’s “Atomic Veterans.”
From 1945 until 1962, hundreds of thousands of U.S. servicemembers, like Gillie, participated in aboveground and underwater nuclear weapons tests. Many fell ill — often at young ages with illnesses linked to their radiation exposure.
But for decades, the American public was left in the dark. Atomic Veterans had sworn an oath of secrecy and had signed away their ability to share their stories with anyone. They were banned from confiding in their loved ones, receiving proper medical care from physicians, or receiving the VA disability benefits they had earned.
For 50 years, Atomic Veterans in Virginia and across our country were never fully recognized for the immense sacrifices they made on behalf of the United States and democracy across the globe — Virginians like Gillie Jenkins, who went on to serve as the Director at Large for the Virginia branch of the National Association of Atomic Veterans.
It was not until the mid-1990s that the veil of secrecy began to lift. In 1995, President Clinton issued a formal apology to America’s Atomic Veterans and ordered Congress to repeal the Nuclear Radiation and Secrecy Agreements Act and allow Atomic Veterans to share the full extent of their service without fear of fines or treason charges. This long overdue repeal came after thousands of these heroes had already passed away — the true nature of their service and the exposures that took their lives totally unknown to their loved ones.
When I was first elected to Congress, Gillie’s daughter told me about his decades of tireless work trying to get permanent, federal recognition of the sacrifices and valor of his fellow Atomic Veterans. Over the ensuing two years, Gillie was a relentless and amazing partner as we worked to achieve that deserved recognition. As an Atomic Veteran who never suffered the illnesses and cancers that took the lives of so many of his brothers-in-arms, he made it his mission to ensure their sacrifices would forever be honored.
There had been some degree of recognition before — but it was hardly consistent. Back in 1983, President Reagan issued a proclamation recognizing July 16 — the anniversary of the Trinity Test — as National Atomic Veterans’ Day. However, his proclamation did not require recognition in succeeding years. Atomic Veterans were again relegated to the shadows.
That’s why I was honored to lead the charge to make sure these patriots receive the recognition they deserve with an annual designation of National Atomic Veterans Day. In December 2021, President Biden signed my bipartisan legislation into law to recognize these heroes in perpetuity.
Thanks to the tireless advocacy of Atomic Veterans from across our Commonwealth and our country, July 16 recognizes the pivotal role of Atomic Veterans in our nation’s progress and preservation. But still today, many Atomic Veterans — including Americans who served or were held as prisoners of war in or around Hiroshima and Nagasaki before 1946 — struggle to receive the compensation and disability benefits owed to them from their service.
Each year on July 16, I encourage every American to take a moment to remember the deep contributions of our nation’s Atomic Veterans, thank their families, and educate the next generation about the critical role they played in keeping our nation safe.
National Atomic Veterans Day is a reminder to look back on the sacrifices of the Americans who served in dangerous and secret missions. They did what their country asked of them — and we have work ahead to repay the immense debt America still owes to Gillie and his fellow heroes.
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Marine veteran David Dutch was one of two people injured in Saturday’s attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, a news release from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania says.
The Marine Corps League of Pennsylvania posted a message on its Facebook page on Sunday that said Dutch was listed in critical condition after being shot in the liver and chest. The message, which has since been redacted, also said that Dutch was in a medically-induced coma and about to undergo a second surgery.
Dutch is currently serving as commandant of Westmoreland County Marines Detachment #1416, Marine Corps League of Pennsylvania Commandant and CEO Warren Griffin said in a statement on Monday.
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“Our immediate support continues for David and his family as he continues his recovery from this attack,” Griffin said in the statement. “We offer solace for David and his family along with eternal thoughts and prayers for all the victims of this tragedy.”
Dutch, of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, served in the Marine Corps from January 1986 to 1992 as an 0351 Infantry Assaultman, taking part in Operations Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm from August 1990 to March 1991, according to his service record, which was provided to Task & Purpose.
His military awards include the Combat Action Ribbon, Good Conduct Medal, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, two National Defense Service Medals, and the Southwest Asia Service Medal. His last duty assignment was with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines at Camp Pendleton, California.
A relative of Dutch’s who answered the phone on Monday told Task & Purpose that his family expected to issue a public statement in the next day or two.
Trump had blood visible in his right ear after Saturday’s attempt on his life at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Investigators have identified the suspected gunman as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, who had no ties to the U.S. military.
James Copenhaver, 74, was also wounded in Saturday’s shooting. A third victim was killed: Corey Comperatore, 50.
The latest on Task & Purpose Here are the ships the U.S. plans to sink in the Pacific this summer * USS John Basilone, warship named for legendary Marine, delivered to the Navy* * Army graduates first class of recruiting warrant officers * Navy fires captain of ship that ran aground in Africa * Do I have to go to my IRR muster duty event**?
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J.D. Vance, a former Marine Corporal, is the first military veteran on a major Presidential ticket since John McCain in 2008 and the first former enlisted vet on the ballot since Al Gore in 2000. Vance served a four-year enlistment in the Marines from 2003 to 2007 as a combat correspondent, deploying to Iraq for six months in late 2005. Donald Trump confirmed Monday that Vance is his pick as a Vice Presidential candidate.
If Vance were to ever ascend to the top office, he would be the first former Marine and just the second former enlisted veteran to be President (President James Buchanan was a private in the Pennsylvania milita during the War of 1812). The last President to serve in the military was George W. Bush, who left office in 2008.
In his book Hillbilly Elegy, which catapulted Vance to fame in 2016 and launched his political career, he credited the Marine Corps as a defining chapter of his life, turning a smalltown kid from Ohio with little sense of personal responsibility into a driven young man with goals and a sense of purpose.
In the end, he writes, “the Marine Corps taught me how to live like an adult.”
A four-year enlistmentVance was a Combat Correspondent in the Marines for four years, according to his service record provided to Task & Purpose by the Pentagon. He served with the 2nd Marine Aircraft In Wing, Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C. His awards included several decorations that would be typical of a Marine with a clean service record and time in service similar to Vance, including the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.
In Elegy, Vance tells a story from recruit training when he first began to understand a ‘give it your all’ ethos that the Marines imparted in him. Never a runner before boot camp, he recalled finishing a three-mile fitness test run in 25 minutes, only to be met by an enraged Drill Instructor. The DI screamed at Recruit Vance: “If you’re not puking, you’re lazy! Stop being f** lazy!”
“He then ordered me to sprint between him and a tree repeatedly,” Vance recalls. “Just as I felt I might pass out, he relented. I was heaving, barely able to catch my breath. ‘That’s how you should feel at the end of every run!’
“In the Marines, giving it your all was a way of life.”
Vance’s single chapter on his time in the Marines is peppered with similiar stories of moral and personal growth.
“When I joined the Marine Corps, I did so in part because I wasn’t ready for adulthood,” Vance writes. “I didn’t know how to balance a checkbook, much less how to complete the financial aid forms for college. Now I knew exactly what I wanted out of my life and how to get there.”
No combat but moments of truthIn the Marines, Vance was known as James D. Hamel, his second legal name of three he has had. Vance was born James Donal Bowman, named after his biological father. His parents divorced and his mother renamed him when she subsequently married a man named Hamel. Vance took his third name as an adult, long after the Marines. When he married his wife, they both changed their names to Vance, the name of his maternal grandparents, according to the New York Times.
As Cpl. Hamel, at least four of his photos are still online in a Pentagon archive from his 2005 deployment.
A photo taken as Marine by J.D. Vance, who was then known as Cpl. James D. Hamel. Lieutenant Col. David Lancaster, a Houston native and executive officer of Marine Attack Squadron 223, poses in front of an AV-8B Harrier from his squadron, Jan. 1, 2006, at Al Asad, Iraq (original photo adjusted for brightness by Task & Purpose) As a U.S. Senator from Ohio, Vance’s military stances include a skeptical eye on Ukraine aid and a call for the U.S. military to be more involved in drug interdiction.
As a Marine, Vance wrote, he never saw direct combat, but he would accompany other Marines in hostile areas, including one civil affairs mission that left a strong impression.
“On our particular mission, senior marines met with local school officials while the rest of us provided security or hung out with the schoolkids,” Vance writes “One very shy boy approached me and held out his hand. When I gave him a small eraser, his face briefly lit up with joy before he ran away to his family, holding his two-cent prize aloft in triumph. I have never seen such excitement on a child’s face.”
The moment stuck with Vance.
“As I stood and surveyed the mass of children of a war-torn nation, their school without running water, and the overjoyed boy, I began to appreciate how lucky I was: born in the greatest country on earth, every modern convenience at my fingertips, supported by two loving hillbillies, and part of a family that, for all its quirks, loved me unconditionally,” Vance wrote. “At that moment, I resolved to be the type of man who would smile when someone gave him an eraser.”
The latest on Task & Purpose Here are the ships the U.S. plans to sink in the Pacific this summer * USS John Basilone, warship named for legendary Marine, delivered to the Navy* * Army graduates first class of recruiting warrant officers * Navy fires captain of ship that ran aground in Africa * Do I have to go to my IRR muster duty event**?
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Thomas Matthew Crooks, who shot former President Donald Trump on Saturday, was a registered Republican but once donated $15 to a Joe Biden-aligned political group. As of Sunday, July 14, those contradictory facts are the only clues available to clarify or even guess at a motive for Crooks.
And if the 200-year history of Presidential assassination attempts is any guide, the picture may never get any clearer.
For one, Crooks is dead. He was killed almost immediately by United States Secret Service as he fired at Trump. He was not a military veteran and left very little of a social media trail. Early interviews of his high school classmates paint a picture only of a kid who did not enjoy high school.
But a review of the close to a dozen people who have attempted to kill presidents or presidential candidates in the last 200 years, going back to the administration of Andrew Jackson, finds that most were men — though two were women — with chaotic lives who acted for reasons that most people would not recognize as a ‘motive.’ In almost all of these cases, the shooters were not active-duty military or veterans, and almost always acted alone. Only the mid-Civil War assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865 was part of a wider plot.
Here is a look at the ‘why’ behind the Presidential killers and would-be killers in American history.
19th-Century Assassinations
An drawing of the attempted assassination of Andrew Jackson, published by Currier and Ives, circa 1876, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons A mentally ill painter tried to shoot Andrew Jackson in 1835, but Jackson beat him up. President Andrew Jackson was the first head of the U.S. to be attacked. Richard Lawrence, a house painter suffering from mental illness, became fixated on Jackson and tracked his movements. On Jan. 30, 1835, while Jackson was leaving a funeral at the U.S. Capitol, Lawrence was waiting. He pulled the trigger on one pistol, which did not fire, and produced a second pistol, which also failed to go off. Jackson, a war veteran and noted belligerent person, then beat Lawrence with a cane before others including members of Congress separated them. Lawrence was later found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was committed to a mental institution and remained there until his death in 1861.
A print depicting the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln (image courtesy Wikimedia Commons) John Wilkes Booth, an actor, shot Abraham Lincoln in 1865 as part of a conspiracy, motivated by the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln was the first president to be assassinated. During his time in office during the Civil War, there had been plots against him, but none succeeded. John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor of the time and member of a celebrity acting family, had long standing sympathy for the treasonous Confederacy. After a failed attempt to kidnap Lincoln, the D.C.-based Booth and his fellow conspirators hatched a plan to take out Lincoln and other top members of government. On April 14, 1865, after the Confederacy had already lost the Civil War, Booth used his connections and fame to enter Ford’s Theatre, where Lincoln was watching the play ‘Our American Cousin.’ He shot Lincoln in the back of the head, then jumped to the stage, injuring himself. His attempt to give a speech failed due to confusion and his bad landing. Lincoln would die in the early morning of April 15. Other conspirators failed to kill Secretary of State William Seward and backed out of attacking Vice President Andrew Johnson. Booth and his allies fled, leading to a massive manhunt. Booth was eventually cornered in a barn before being shot in the back of the head by Sgt. Boston Corbett, a deeply religious and pro-Union soldier. Booth died soon after.
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A mentally ill campaign worker who felt cheated of a political job shot James Garfield in 1881, although he died because his doctor was a quack. Civil War veteran James Garfield took the office of the president in March 1881. He worked on overhauling the civil service following years of scandals and corruption. On July 2, 1881, while at a train station in Washington, D.C., he was shot by Charles Guiteau. Guiteau had been a minor staffer for Garfield’s campaign in New York, but believed he was responsible for handing the man a victory. He lobbied for an ambassador job, moving to D.C. to harass Garfield’s staff. After failed efforts, he bought a gun and shot Garfield, who was taken to get medical attention. Infamously, it is believed that Garfield likely would have survived the wound, but his doctor, a man named Doctor Willard Bliss (yes, Doctor was his first name), spent weeks trying to remove the bullet, cutting more and more into the president’s body and ignoring proper hygiene. Garfield finally died on Sept. 19, 1881, a full 79 days after Guiteau shot him. Guiteau was sentenced to death and executed in 1882. During his trial he said that “The doctors killed Garfield, I just shot him.”
The 20th Century
An anarchist shot William McKinley in 1901, the first of many attempted assassinations by the radical group. William McKinley assassination is one of just three with a straight forward political motive, along with Lincoln and the . Leon Czolgosz was an anarchist, a fairly clear political movement in the early 20th century, but far from a “mainstream” one. McKinley was one of several nobles and heads of state killed or targeted at the turn of the century by anarchists and Czolgosz cited the 1900 assassination of Italian King Umberto I as an inspiration. In 1901, McKinley was in Buffalo, New York visiting the Pan-American Exposition when Czolgosz approached him. Czolgolsz had become an anarchist after falling destitute in an economic recession years earlier. When McKinley went to shake his hand, Czolgosz shot him twice. The president was grazed by one bullet, but the other hit him square in the abdomen. Over the next few days his condition worsened and he died from the infected wound on Sept. 14, 1901. Theodore Roosevelt succeeded him. Czolgosz would be executed by the electric chair.
John Schrank’s hallucinations told him to kill Teddy Roosevelt in 1912. In 1912, Roosevelt was attempting a political comeback often compared to Trump’s 2024 run: he was trying to return to the office after leaving in 1908. Unlike Trump, Roosevelt was a third-party candidate of the Bull Moose Party. During a stop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a former bar owner suffering from hallucinations named John Schrank became convinced he needed to kill the former president. Schrank fired a single shot, which hit Roosevelt in the chest, but the bullet was stopped in part due to a glasses case and a thick, folded paper. Although Roosevelt was known for his own myth making, his response to being shot was well documented. Roosevelt initially shrugged off the wound and got the crowd to let police take Schrank into custody. He then gave his speech, opening with “Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot—but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.” He would, however, lose the 1912 election. Schrank was later found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Lee Harvey Oswald’s killing of John F. Kennedy in 1963 remains awash with unanswered questions and unlikely conspiracy theories but no clear motive. Kennedy’s assassination on Nov. 22, 1963 was one of the most infamous moments of the 20th Century with a long list of peculiar and suspicious-but-not-quite-solid line of inquiry around it. Kennedy was visiting Dallas, Texas when his motorcade was fired upon. Kennedy was shot in the head and back and Texas Gov. John Conally was also seriously wounded. Kennedy would be declared dead shortly after the shooting. Police found former Marine Lee Harvey Oswald and arrested him following his murder of a Dallas police officer. Oswald is believed to have killed Kennedy from an elevated position in the Texas School Book Depository, firing three shots from a rifle. Oswald was later killed by Jack Ruby while in police custody. Lyndon B. Johnson took over the presidency.
A television picture, broadcast in May 1977, of Palestinian-born assassin Sirhan Sirhan being arrested after his shooting of United States Senator Robert Kennedy (1925 � 1968) at the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, California, 5th June 1968. (Photo by Ernst Haas/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Ernst HaasSirhan Sirhan shot Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 over the Arab-Israeli conflict. Although Sirhan had a clear political motive, he did not target Kennedy specifically for the senator’s beliefs or actions, but rather because he was a target he could reach. Kennedy, JFK’s brother, was running for the 1968 Democratic nomination. The night of the California primary, which Kennedy won and left him a favorite in the race, he gave a speech at the Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel. While Kennedy exited through the hotel kitchen, Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian-Jordanian deeply angry at the United States for its support of Israel, approached and opened fire. Kennedy was shot and five others were wounded. Kennedy died from his wounds. Sirhan was sentenced to death, which was commuted to life without parole.
Arthur Bremer shot George Wallace, a Republican Presidential candidate in 1968, because he wanted to be famous. The segregationist and Alabama Gov. George Wallace was running for the Democratic nomination in 1972. While on a visit to Maryland, Wallace was shaking hands with voters when Arthur Bremer appeared and shot him four times in the chest. Three other people were shot. Bremer had no political motivation, but was instead seeking fame. Bremer had originally planned to kill Richard Nixon before setting his sights on Wallace. Wallace survived but was left paralyzed. Bremer was sentenced to prison and released only in 2007.
Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme was in the Manson Cult when she tried to kill President Gerald Ford in 1975. Jane Moore tried to kill Ford over fringe beliefs. Ford, who took office after Nixon resigned, was the target of two different assassination attempts within two weeks. While in Sacramento on Sept. 5, 1975, Ford was at the California State Capitol when Manson-cultist Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme pulled out a pistol and failed to fire the gun. She was quickly restrained and Ford carried on. On Sept. 22, Sara Jane Moore tried to kill Ford while he was in San Francisco, having become convinced of a vague idea of revolution. She fired two shots from a revolver. The first missed and another person grabbed her arm, messing up her aim on the second shot. Fromme was given life in prison, but was released in 2009. Moore had the same sentence, and was paroled in 2007.
John Hinkley Jr. suffered from delusions when he shot Ronald Reagan in 1981, believing it would impress an actress. Prior to Trump, the last president to be shot was Ronald Reagan. John Hinkley Jr. came from a rich Texas oil family and tried but failed to be a songwriter as a young man. At 25 and on heavy medication, he became convinced that killing President Reagan would impress actress Jodie Foster. Hinkley traveled to Washington, D.C. and on March 30, 1981 was part of a crowd watching Reagan exit a D.C. hotel. Hinkley fired six shots from a revolver. Two bullets hit a police officer and Secret Service agent. White House Press James Brady was wounded and later died from his injuries in 2014 (his death was ruled a homicide). Reagan was wounded by one of the bullets when it ricocheted and was rushed to a hospital in critical condition, where doctors stabilized him. Hinkley would be declared not guilty by reason of insanity. He was released in 2016 and has been recording and releasing music online.
The July 13 attack on Trump is the latest in these attempts. Trump has said that he is okay, following the wound, and the FBI is investigating. President Joe Biden has ordered a review of security measures.
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The suspected shooter who opened fire on former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally yesterday did not serve in the United States military, the Pentagon confirmed.
“[…] We’ve confirmed with each of the military service branches that there is no military service affiliation for the suspect with that name or date of birth in any branch,” Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement on Sunday, July 14.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation identified the suspected shooter, who was quickly killed by United States Secret Service agents, as Thomas Matthew Crooks. Crooks, 20, was from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. At 6:15 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday, July 13, the shooter opened fire from outside a security perimeter around the former president’s campaign rally. Trump was shot in the ear and quickly escorted out by Secret Service agents, after the shooter was confirmed to have been killed.
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The FBI said that the shooting remains an “active and ongoing investigation.” Authorities have called the shooting an attempted assassination.
Alongside the shooter, one bystander at the rally was killed. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro named the victim as 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, of Sarver, Pennsylvania. Outside of the president, two other people were injured by gunfire.
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The first Space Force ‘retirement beard’ is here and it’s incredible.
Roger A. Towberman, who until last September was the service’s first Chief Master Sgt. of the Space Force, lived the Retired Dream this week when his former colleagues invited him back on base — the Pentagon, actually — for a ceremony in his honor and he showed up rocking an absolutely magnificent Not-My-Problem-Anymore beard.
The ceremony was the unveiling of his own clean-shaven official portrait in the Pentagon. Portraits are made for Pentagon for service chiefs and senior enlisted advisors when they retire. With a decidedly out-of-regs haircut and the beard, Towberman and his portrait made a classic study in before-and-after retirement status.
In his official portrait, Towberman is pictured in his Space Force dress uniform, surrounded by items meant to reflect his time in service. Those include photos of his family and cat, a miniature replica of the Rosetta Stone — considered a pivotal relic in cryptology — and the book Moneyball, which chronicled the arrival of complex data analytics to the intelligence-like world of hunting for talent in big league baseball.
Chief Master Sgt. of the Space Force John Bentivegna and Roger A. Towberman, the first CMSSF, pose for a photo following a portrait unveiling ceremony at the Pentagon, Arlington, Va., July 9, 2024. Air Force photo by Chad Trujillo Chad Trujillo‘Retirement beards’ Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall unveiled the portrait with Towberman July 9. Towberman was sworn in as the U.S. Space Force’s second Guardian April 3, 2020. As the CMSSF, Towberman was helped develop the service’s core values, stood up the service’s recruiting and personnel policies and advised the service’s senior leaders on the welfare, readiness and morale. He spent the previous 30 years in the Air Force, including as the command senior enlisted leader at U.S. Space Command before switching to the Space Force.
“This is an incredible honor, and I’m so happy to be a part of it,” Towberman said. “Everything we did, we did to try to set the conditions for success.”
Even as a top enlisted leader, Towberman had a well-documented sense of fun. In 2022, he played along with an off-beat and even off-color interview with Stephen Colbert when the late night comedian brought his show to Thule, Greenland to profile the Space Force station there, arguably the most remote full-time assignment in the U.S. military. Towberman sat for a full, joke-filled interview with the comedian, absorbing jokes about “doing ‘it’ in space,” an Arctic-Circle-for-5th-graders line for the ages (9:00 on video) which Towberman reacts to with a huge laugh and calls “fantastic.”
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President Joe Biden’s executive order for 2023’s Operation Atlantic Resolve caused an uproar many veterans, when it appeared to give the greenlight to recalling members of the Individual Ready Reserve, or IRR. Though the order limited IRR activations to 450, but for many more it set of questions about muster duty events and whether they are mandatory.
The answer is: yes, your branch’s muster duty event is mandatory, but there are many exceptions you may qualify for and what happens if you just don’t go is anyone’s guess.
Depending on the branch you’re an IRR member of, you may need to log in to a portal to update your information. Some muster duty events require you to show up in person.
But that doesn’t mean you’re getting pulled back into active duty or deploying.
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The IRR and muster duty, explainedThe IRR is a category of the Ready Reserve of the Reserve Component of the U.S. military. It is composed of veterans or reserve military personnel, and its governing statute is Title 10 of the U.S. Code § 10144.
Regardless of what branch a veteran served in, enlisted agree to an IRR term when they sign their initial Military Service Obligation. When you leave active duty, but are still within that IRR term, you are placed in IRR status.
But for most veterans, means very close to nothing in their daily lives. But hypothetically, it could.
In an emergency — which is to say, war — services could be authroized to recall IRR members to active duty if manpower is needed. Biden’s 2023 was exactly that on a small scale.
But muster duty events are held for IRR members for accountability. The branches use them to check the readiness of their IRR.
Muster duty is annual and typically involves administrative updates on an IRR member’s current address, phone number, and whether they meet the physical standards of service. Some muster duty events consist of PowerPoint presentations and filling out forms to provide updates on any changes in your life, while others are online.
These events will either quickly remind you why you got out of the military or perhaps convince you to jump back in. Many who attend IRR events say that recruiters are usually present looking for prior service sign-ups. Muster duty events will rarely be longer than 2 to 4 hours.
IRR members will not need to be shaved, ready for a PT test, or go through a drug test durint muster duty. But the good news is that you should get paid.
The current pay stipend for all branches is $242.50 for attending the muster duty event; many consider that free beer money or maybe a date with that special someone.
On the other hand, if you are ordered to muster duty halfway across the country, don’t buy a plane ticket. You will not be reimbursed, according to the different branch IRR websites. The Marine Corps’ website says that any travel outside of 150 miles should be discussed with an IRR official.
Services expect you to show upTask & Purpose asked officials in each branch the importance of events and the consequences of missing one.
A Navy spokesperson stressed the importance of muster duty events. “The Navy takes participation in IRR musters seriously, as these events are crucial for maintaining readiness and updating important personnel information,” a spokesperson said in an email. Missing your Navy IRR muster duty, the service said, could result in administrative actions outside of impacts to benefits and missed opportunities to accrue retirement points.
“The Navy takes participation in IRR musters seriously, as these events are crucial for maintaining readiness and updating important personnel information. IRR members that do not participate in the screening process may face possible repercussions spanning administrative actions, impacts to benefits, and missed opportunities to accrue retirement points. IRR Sailors are encouraged to communicate proactively with their chain of command if they are unable to attend a scheduled muster.” CDR Robert Myers, Force PAO, Commander, Navy Reserve Forces (CNRFC)
The Air Force had a much stronger comment, saying, “A member who fails to appear at muster duty could be ordered to active duty and/or punished under Article 15 or court-martial.”
The Marine Corps, on the other hand, took a more inclusive approach. Mr. Adam Bashaw, Deputy Director of Communication Strategy & Operations for the Marine Forces South/Marine Forces Reserve, said the service could discharge inactive status Marines from the IRR if they fail to attend muster duty events, but they prefer not to and have not to date.
“We prefer to work with the Marine so we can keep them in the Corps,” Bashaw said. “The musters offer valuable information about services and resources available to IRR Marines they might not be aware exist for them.”
An Army spokesperson told Task & Purpose that a former soldier who misses an IRR muster could be “considered an unsatisfactory participant which could result in early discharge. Failing to complete this obligation may affect benefits at separation.”
But perhaps most relevantly, if you were in an in-demand MOS in the Army, skipping your IRR muster will probably not get you out of a mobilization, if it occurs: Failure to complete the muster will not prevent members of the IRR from mobilization if grade/skills are required in the future,” the spokesperson said.
What vets sayUnder the Reddit thread “r/Veterans,” there are countless responses from people from different branches saying they did not respond to their muster duty event orders and nothing happened afterward. Some comments were rather comical:
“Do not go in uniform, do not salute anyone or stand at parade rest, do not shave, do not respect their time, and fuck it, just don’t go.”
“I have never showed up to an IRR muster or responded in any way. I’m currently using my GI Bill. Nothing will happen to you.”
“If you reenlist you’ll never get an IRR muster again.”
All jokes aside, two facts are 100% certain: you will not get $242.50 in beer money if you do not attend your muster duty event.
The Department of Veterans Affairs did not respond to questions asking if missing IRR muster duty could adversely affect veterans’ VA benefits, but in the Title 10 statute that governs the IRR and responsibilities of members, there is nothing identified as a federally mandated repercussion for missing muster duty, including adverse effects to VA benefits/
All branches concluded that if you cannot make your muster duty event, the distance you have to drive seems too far, or otherwise seems misplaced, contact your service branch’s IRR for further direction.
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Direct ties between senior U.S. and Chinese military leaders have been restored following a rough patch last year when a Chinese spy balloon overflew the United States, President Joe Biden told reporters on Thursday.
In November, both Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to resume military-to-military communication, which Beijing had suspended after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s August 2022 visit to Taiwan. Tensions between both countries became higher after a U.S. Air Force F-22 shot down a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina in February 2023, causing a planned trip by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to China to be postponed.
“We’ve reestablished direct contact with China,” Biden said during Thursday’s news conference. “We set up a new mechanism. There’s a direct line between Xi and me, and our military has direct access to one another, and they contact one another when we have problems.”
Biden did not elaborate how top U.S. and Chinese leaders are communicating or at what level this “direct access” is taking place.
Since Biden and Xi announced the resumption of communication between top U.S. and Chinese military leaders, both countries have held Defense Policy Coordination Talks in January on defense relations and a Military Maritime Consultative Agreement meeting in April on how both countries can work together on air and maritime safety, said Army Maj. Pete Nguyen, a Pentagon spokesman.
Also in April, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin held a teleconference call with Admiral Dong Jun, Minister of National Defense of the People’s Republic of China. Austin then met Dong in May on the sidelines of the Shangri-La defense forum in Singapore, marking the first time the two had met in person since Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in 2022.
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Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr. also spoke with the People’s Liberation Army of China Chief of the Joint Staff Department Gen. Liu Zhenli by teleconference in December.
“The Department will continue to engage in active discussions with PRC [People’s Republic of China] counterparts about future engagements between defense and military officials at multiple levels – including telephone conversations between theater commanders in the coming months, as well as a convening of a crisis-communications working group by the end of the year,” Nguyen told Task & Purpose.
Although China has restored two channels for military-to-military communications that had been suspended following Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, there still has not been a meeting between U.S. and Chinese military theater commanders, which the American government hopes could become a new communication link, said Bonnie Glaser managing director of the German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific Program.
“Officials have said that a meeting will likely take place, but not until next year,” Glaser told Task & Purpose on Friday. “It is my understanding that there has been more form than substance, but Biden administration officials have signaled that progress may be forthcoming.”
Defense Department officials have repeatedly described China as the “top pacing challenge” facing the United States. The Marine Corps is in the middle of a massive force structure overhaul to make it leaner to fight a war against China in the Indo-Pacific, and the U.S. military is sinking three vessels this summer as it ramps up its capabilities to respond to a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
U.S. military officials have speculated that China could attempt to invade Taiwan by 2027, if not sooner. The Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 is intentionally vague about whether the United States would intervene militarily if China launched such an invasion, but Biden has repeatedly said that U.S. troops would defend Taiwan.
Still, Austin has emphasized that a war between the United States and China is “neither imminent, in my view, or unavoidable.”
Restoring communications between U.S. and Chinese senior military leaders so they can discuss crises and avoid unintended escalation is an important step, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt M. Campbell said in June.
“Ae think that they will bear fruit in the next little while,” Campbell said. “And we believe that China is also invested in trying to head off potential areas of misunderstanding.”
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On the green grass in front of the U.S. Capitol, veteran advocates gathered Wednesday around a memorial created from 150,000 sets of dog tags. The symbolism, they say, is for 150,000 military veterans who have died by suicide since 9/11, a crisis that many believe could be eased in some measure by MDMA-assisted therapy.
A crowd of veteran advocates, health professionals and members of Congress gathered at the capital around the memorial to call for loosening of rules on MDMA, which faces a critical decision within the Food and Drug Administration in August. Jesse Gould, a former Army Ranger, said MDMA had been a life-saving alternative therapy for him and led him to start the Heroic Hearts Project. His group was among the groups that helped create the memorial and bring it to Washington D.C.
“Enough is enough. We have witnessed firsthand the treatment’s transformative power,” said Gould. “This nation’s heroes deserve healing and the opportunity to reclaim their futures. The FDA alone has the power to granting veterans access to this MDMA therapy. Approving this treatment is not just a formality. It is a lifeline for the nation’s veterans.”
MDMA is a psychoactive drug and makes up the active ingredient in illegal drugs like ecstasy (though law enforcement often finds that ‘street-level’ ecstasy is a mix of other illegal drugs). However, when used in controlled therapy settings, many trauma specialists and a wide community of veterans believe MDMA can alleviate mental conditions that often afflict veterans, like PTSD and depression.
Among the messages the Capitol rally embraced was for the FDA to “Follow the science.”
That path has been a rocky one for MDMA. In June, an FDA advisory committee voted overwhelmingly not to endorse loosening rules on MDMA, based on safety concerns in previous studies. That ruling reversed several years of positive signs, beginning in 2017 when the FDA designated MDMA-AT as a “Breakthrough Therapy,” an administrative label that fast-tracked clinical trials. Subsequent trials found that over 71% of participants no longer met PTSD criteria after three MDMA-AT sessions, while 86% showed significant improvement.
However, the committee that voted in June noted that those studies were plagued by bad data, because participants were able to easily figure out if they had been given actual MDMA or if they had been given a placebo, as part of an experiment’s ‘control group.’ In order to produce results that researchers consider valid, a control group must be “blind,” or unaware if they are receiving the real treatment.
Veterans, members of congress, and MDMA assisted therapy advocates gathered on Capitol grounds on Wednesday to call for the FDA to “follow the science” and approve MDMA assisted therapy. (Photo courtesy of Heroic Hearts Project) Former Navy SEAL and Congressman Morgan Luttrell said that he was one of many veterans suffering from PTSD and TBI who traveled outside of the country to receive alternative therapies like MDMA-AT. Luttrell pointed out that it’s not just the veteran who is impacted by PTSD or other mental health ailments.
“It wasn’t just affecting me. My wife, my kids, my family, the secondary, tertiary rings of effect, we have to be aware of that. It touches every single person,” Luttrell said. “If I have a bad day in Congress, my colleagues understand, and they’re like, ‘Damn, I wish he wasn’t having a bad day.’ But it’s just absolutely how it is. So if we can increase the amount of tools that we have in our toolbox to affect change, yes, we will.”
The group asserted that it won’t just be limited to veterans. There are 13 million Americans with PTSD, with the thousands of veteran suicides making up a 1/4 of all suicides in the country, and despite the current array of treatment options, suicide rates continue to climb. It’s become paramount that there is a demand for something new to treat PTSD, suicidal ideation, TBIs, and more.
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Congressman Jimmy Panetta said there have been no new treatments for PTSD and TBI since 9/11. He was against alternative therapies, but after seeing the research, he’s had a change of heart.
“I can tell you, as a former prosecutor who used to put people in jail for using, selling, and manufacturing MDMA, MDMA therapy is definitely thinking outside the box for me but let me tell you, based on the results from the research, based on the results […], they say it works,” Panetta said. “They say it opens individuals to self-compassion and catharsis as they revisit deep-seated memories. They say they changed as a result of it, and they say they stay changed.”
The VA has pushed forward with initial trials. Still, for the treatment to reach millions of veterans, the FDA has to approve it for mainstream treatment, allowing non-veterans to be eligible for treatment as well. After the FDA approves the treatment, the Drug Enforcement Agency will need to reclassify it, and depending on the new classification, treatment access and modalities will be finalized.
The latest on Task & Purpose This 41-year-old soldier graduated from Army basic training after a 20 year break * The woman who predicted the Tết Offensive, but was ignored, passes away at 97* * National Guard soldiers training with ‘pocket-sized’ drones * Army vet receives Bronze Star with valor 20 years later for bravery in Iraq ambush * 2 Civil War soldiers receive Medal of Honor for ‘Great Locomotive Chase’**
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The autopsy of a 101st Airborne Division soldier found murdered in her home revealed that she was stabbed 68 times, a local newspaper reported.
Pfc. Katia Dueñas Aguilar, 23, was found in her Clarksville, Tennessee, home outside of Fort Campbell, Kentucky on May 18. Her family announced a $55,000 reward for information on the case.
The Army had not officially confirmed that Aguilar was murdered prior to the autopsy release and as of Friday Army investigators did not have new information on the case. Clarksville Police Department declined to comment on an ongoing investigation.
The autopsy showed that Dueñas Aguilar had at least 55 stab wounds and 13 incised wounds, predominately on her neck. The Montgomery county medical examiner ruled the cause of death homicide, according to the autopsy, first reported by the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle, a local outlet that was able to obtain an official copy.
The autopsy also found that Duenas Aguilar had gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, or GHB, in her system and a blood alcohol content of 0.161.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, GHB is the trade name of a prescription medication used to treat daytime sleepiness and muscle weakness with narcolepsy. However, the drug has been misused because of its “euphoric and calming effects” and even by some for weight loss and muscle building. GHB was popular during the 90’s rave scene and gained notoriety as a date rape drug.
“GHB and its analogues are also misused for their ability to increase libido, suggestibility, passivity, and to cause amnesia (no memory of events while under the influence of the substance) — traits that make victims vulnerable to sexual assault and other criminal acts,” according to the DEA.
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Originally from Mesquite, Texas, Dueñas Aguilar was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division’s Combat Aviation Brigade and enlisted into the Army in 2018 as an information technology specialist.
Duenas-Aguilar’s mother, Carmen Aguilar, committed $30,000 to the reward along with League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, in Dallas adding $25,000, according to a press release from the organization.
In a press conference held with LULAC, Carmen Aguilar — speaking in Spanish — told reporters that she believes her daughter’s killer was a member of the military. She also compared Duenas-Aguilar’s death to the 2020 murder of Vanessa Guillen by a fellow soldier at Ft. Cavazos. LULAC played a key role in highlighting the Guillen family’s story to the public after her death.
“She’s not the first one. The problem is inside. It’s inside. Not outside. Everything is inside. They know and you know too,” Carmen Aguilar said.
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A catastrophic propeller failure that ripped apart a Marine Corps KC-130T during a 2017 flight, killing 15 Marines and one sailor on board, was more than just a mechanical failure, federal prosecutors say. The deadly crash traces back, officials say, to faulty inspections half-a-decade earlier which an Air Force civilian engineer approved and then covered up.
Federal prosecutors charged James Michael Fisher, a former Air Force civilian engineer at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex in Georgia, this week with obstructing justice and making false statements to crash investigators. Fisher, prosecutors say, lied about and then tried to cover up his role in signing off on inspections that should have detected cracking in a propeller blade before it disintegrated mid-flight, dooming the flight known as Yanky 72, all 16 service members on board.
The federal investigation found that Fisher, who served as the C-130 lead propulsion system engineer at the complex from 2011 to 2022, had signed off on a waiver of a time-consuming inspection method and continued to recommend that technicians use a less reliable way to inspect propeller blades, according to an indictment against Fisher in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.
Fisher, 67, is also accused of trying to thwart efforts by federal agents to learn about his decisions regarding propeller blade inspections.
The federal charges are the latest chapter in a series of escalating investigations around the crash. An initial military-led investigation found that as the plane’s propeller broke apart 20,000 feet over Mississippi, spinning pieces of the blades cut the fuselage in half, dooming all onboard. Military investigators — whose review focused on the physical cause of the crash — blamed technicians at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex, finding that technicians and supervisors there had been negligent in a series of inspections on the plane’s propellers six years earlier. But while the military’s findings established the cause of the crash, the question of criminal misconduct — whether the shoddy inspections and efforts to cover them up amounted to a crime — fell to the Department of Justice to decide.
Task & Purpose obtained through the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system, or PACER.
“Fisher attempted to obstruct the criminal investigation by intentionally withholding documents showing that he played a crucial role in removing the critical inspection procedure and providing false statements to federal agents in order to cover up his role in removing the critical inspection procedure,” the indictment says.
He also admitted to federal agents that the inspection that was not performed would have found the cracking in the faulty propeller blade that caused the KC-130T to crash, but he claimed others had approved using a different type of inspection for C-130 propeller blades, according to the indictment.
Fisher has been charged with making false statements and obstruction of justice, according to the Justice Department. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, if convicted.
Task & Purpose was unable to reach Fisher’s attorney by phone or email on Thursday for comment.
A rushed 2011 inspection Fifteen Marines and one sailor were killed when the KC-130T with the call sign “Yanky 72” crashed on July 10, 2017 in Mississippi. Seven of the Marines killed were with the 2nd Raider Battalion.
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The crash was caused when a corroded propeller blade broke apart in flight. The blade, identified as PB24 Corroded Propeller Blade, had arrived at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex in August 2011 for an inspection and overhaul. It was later determined that the blade had corrosion and about three inches of cracking in an area at the base of the blade known as the taper bore, that was neither detected nor fixed at the complex, the indictment says.
The inspection and overhaul process lasted until Sept. 12, 2011 and the propeller blade went back into the Navy’s C-130 fleet, according to the indictment. It is unclear what tests were performed on the blade because all work documents were destroyed per Air Force policy.
The charges against Fisher stem from how his technicians looked for corrosion and cracking in taper bores.
One method for inspecting propeller blades known as “penetrant inspections” involved immersing or spraying the blades with a fluorescent dye–and then using a black light to see where the dye had seeped through cracks in the taper bore.
The other method is called an eddy current inspection: Maintenance technicians move an electromagnetic probe over the surface of the taper bore. The probe sends a signal to a monitor if it detects any cracks or corrosion.
Of the two methods, using the fluorescent dye took the most time. Prior to Aug. 22, 2011, maintenance technicians were required to perform the penetrant inspections on all Air Force and navy C-130 propeller blade taper bores. They were also required to conduct eddy current inspections as a backup test if the penetrant inspections found cracks or corrosion.
But the technicians knew that there were problems with the eddy current inspections, according to the indictment.
“Robins only had one set of eddy current testing probes for the Navy and Air Force, even though the Tech Manuals had different probe requirements,” the indictment says. “Before August 22, 2011, maintenance technicians had repeatedly reported to their supervisors and other engineers at Robins that the eddy current probes being used were unreliable.”
Unreliable inspectionsDespite these shortcomings, a maintenance technician supervisor sent Fisher an email on Aug. 19, 2011 asking permission to stop conducting the penetrant inspections because they were “very time consuming,” the indictment says.
Fisher quickly wrote back, “I have no problem with removing the requirement for dye penetrant,” and added his rationale for approving the request.
On Aug. 22, 2011, another maintenance technician supervisor submitted a request known as a “Blanket Form 202” requesting permission to stop conducting the penetrant inspections. Such forms were required for any chances in how the Navy and Air Force technical manuals called for inspecting propeller blades. The Blanket Form 202 was approved that day.
“The request contained the notation ‘ATTN: MIKE FISHER’ and contained the same language from Fisher’s email, stating the rationale for removing the request was ‘PER MIKE FISHER C-130 PROPULSION SYSTEM ENGINEER,’” the indictment says.
Neither Fisher nor the engineers with the System Program Office, which oversees how C-130s are inspected and overhauled, consulted with the specialists known as Level 3 engineers, who were experts on the penetrant and eddy current inspections, according to the indictment.
“The Level 3 engineers had the training and the expertise to determine whether removing the penetrant inspections was advisable,” the indictment says.
As a result, maintenance technicians did not conduct any penetrant inspections at the complex between Aug. 11 2011 and Dec. 13, 2013. Fisher was the engineer assigned to three additional Blanket Form 202s during that time that recommended using solely eddy current inspections.
The supervising engineer tried to talk to Fisher between April and September 2012. That September.
In late 2011, a Level 3 supervising engineer ordered an evaluation to look into the effectiveness of eddy current inspections based on concerns from maintenance technicians, the indictment says. The report came out in February 2012 and found that the probes used for the eddy current inspections were not reliable. Fisher did not immediately respond to the report.
“Finally, in September 2012, Fisher responded to the supervising engineer ‘since we are already using penetrant I would be happy with just eliminating the use of probes …’ even though penetrant inspections were not being performed after August 22, 2011,” the indictment says.
In December 2013, the System Program Office engineers approved going back to penetrant inspections and stopping the use of eddy current inspections. The “unreliable” eddy current probes were taken out of service. Technicians at the complex did not perform any eddy current inspections on taper bores until after the Yanky 72 crash.
Escaping blame — at firstWhen military investigators looked into the crash, they were not provided with any of the Blanket Form 202s, according to the indictment. They were also led to believe that they could not speak with any of the technicians who performed the inspection on the faulty propeller blade that caused the crash, nor were they told about the technicians’ concerns about eddy current inspections or that an engineer had found in 2012 that the eddy current probes were unreliable.
They believed that the technicians who had inspected the blade had followed the Navy technical manual, which calls for penetrant inspections.
“In sum, the JAGMAN [Jude Advocate General Manual investigation] Report primarily blamed maintenance technicians for the crash, stating they were grossly negligent and primarily responsible for the mishap,” the indictment says. “Fisher and the System Program Office avoided scrutiny.”
But when federal agents launched an investigation in 2020 into whose gross negligence was responsible for the crash, maintenance technicians told investigators that “their supervisors in 2011 cared more about production than safety,” and they had disregarded technicians’ concerns about inadequate inspections, the indictment says. They also told federal agents that their supervisors used Blanket Form 202s to work around any problems they had identified, such as insufficient equipment.
Several technicians provided investigators with the Blanket 202 Forms about stopping penetrant inspections and other documents that showed technicians had raised concerns about the eddy current probes in 2011.
“The technicians believed that their supervisors’ focus on production and productivity — and the east with which Blanket Form 202s could be obtained — caused the corrosion of the P2B4 Corroded Propeller Blade to go undented.”
Cover-up and denialsDuring the investigation, federal agents determined that Fisher “could not be trusted,” according to the indictment. He initially did not tell investigators about the Blanket Form 202 that ended penetrant inspections. He later falsely told federal agents that there were no Form 202s approved in 2011 and 2012 for Navy aircraft and only seven in 2013.
When federal agents met with Fisher in July 2021 to ask about the Form 202s they had found, he gave them the form from August 2011 about penetrant inspections.
“Fisher admitted to the agents that the August 22 Form 202 was a new revelation that changed the root cause conclusion as to why maintenance technicians missed the cracking of the propeller blade that caused the Yanky 72 crash,” the indictment says. “Fisher, whose name was on the Form 202, denied knowing about its existence and denied approving it. Specifically, Fisher stated that he would not have approved removal of penetrant inspections because deviating from penetrant inspections would result in corrosion going undetected.”
“He stated that a penetrant inspection would have detected the corrosion and pitting in the taper bore that led to the intergranular crack that caused the PB24 corroded propeller grade to fail,” according to the indictment. “Fisher stated that he could not understand why his System Program Office colleagues would approve such a Form 202. Fisher further claimed that he never would have approved the August 22 Form 202 because in 2011 there were problems with the reliability of eddy current probes.”
Federal agents later found Fisher’s email saying he had no problem with ending the penetrant inspections, the indictment says. Fisher also falsely told investigators that the waiver for penetrant inspections had expired in February 2012. Ultimately, the federal agents determined that Fisher was “the primary decisionmaker in resuming penetrant inspections in 2013,” more than a year after being told that eddy current inspection probes were unreliable.
When talking to investigators in December 2021, Fisher again denied that he knew about any of the Blanket Form 202s before that July. He denied approving the August 2011 Blanket 202 Form, he said he could not understand why his colleagues approved it, and he said the Level 3 technicians were not helpful at the time because they didn’t respond to his request for assistance.
“Federal agents finally confronted Fisher with his August 19, 2011 email,” the indictment says. “Fisher denied remembering the email and stated that, regardless, his colleagues should not have approved the Blanket Form 202 without doing their own research. The next day, on or about December 3, 2021, Fisher sent federal agents a follow-up email. In that email, Fisher again placed blame on the System Program Office engineers who approved the August 22 Form 202.”
The latest on Task & Purpose This 41-year-old soldier graduated Army basic training after a 20 year break * The woman who predicted the Tết Offensive, but was ignored, passes away at 97* * National Guard soldiers training with ‘pocket-sized’ drones * Army vet receives Bronze Star with valor 20 years later for bravery in Iraq ambush * 2 Civil War soldiers receive Medal of Honor for ‘Great Locomotive Chase’**
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The first class of warrant officers to join the Army’s recruiting corps graduated Thursday, a major step as the service after overhauls how it convinces civilians to become soldiers. The class of 25 completed 10 weeks of training at two bases learning how to use large-scale data and marketing skills to aid traditional face-to-face recruiters.
“The Army ultimately is a brand just like any other company so we have to analyze the market out there. There are different types of reports that exist for most companies to kind of identify the type of demographics, what those people are into, what they’re interested in, what motivates them,” said CW2 Sasha Adams Gibson, one of the 420T graduates. “That’s the type of thing that we’re looking at diving deeper into within our assigned areas to ensure that we’re marketing messaging the right way.”
Recruiting has been a near-crisis in the Army in recent years. The service missed its 2023 recruiting goal by nearly 10,000 soldiers. In response, the Army lowered its annual goal for 2024 to 55,000 recruits, which officials have said they’re on pace to meet.
The new position was announced in October with the Army’s overhaul of its recruiting enterprise as the all-volunteer force faces its toughest recruiting environment since the end of the post-9/11 wars.
The 420T warrant officer positions will handle the Army’s behind-the-scenes data analysis which goes into the service’s recruiting formula. They’ll be tasked with using internal Army data and reports from private companies to generate better leads for on-the-ground recruiters, understand the local market and tap into themes that help market the Army brand to communities.
CW2 Juana Trujillo, another 420T graduate, said her job will consider how different Army pitches will play in different demographics and with different genders.
Col. Christine Rice, lead officer in charge of workforce redesign, said the 420T soldiers will help the Army look at “how do we turn data analytics into strategy” for leaders to make better decisions about where and how to allocate resources.
CW3 Troy Capehart, a 420T graduate said part of his new role will be analyzing U.S. Army Recruiting Command reports which show how the Army spends money and what the return on investment is for recruitment campaigns.
Task & Purpose visited Fort Knox in March to see the Army’s process for 420T selection, which began with 75 candidates from 13 branches across the Army. The soldiers were chosen based on their previous knowledge and skills. They took personality tests focused on problem solving, communication, leadership and cognitive skills and completed a panel interview before the final selection was narrowed down to 25.
In May, the first class of 25 warrant officers finished two weeks of fundamental data analytics training at the Adjutant General School on Fort Jackson, South Carolina. They then went on to complete eight weeks of technical training at the Recruiting and Retention College at Fort Knox, Kentucky, where they learned about recruiting operations, marketing, public affairs and how to use data analytics for recruiting. The candidates were also trained in tools used by private companies like Microsoft Power BI for data visualization and Structured query language (SQL), a programming language used to store and process data.
Army officials are almost done with the second 420T cohort’s assessment and the plan is for their training to begin in September. In January, the Army is planning for its third cohort to start training. Those three classes will fill half of the 420T MOS positions the Army plans to create.
The Army is also working on a similar position, 42T for enlisted soldiers which is a departure from the service’s long-time approach to manning its recruiting stations. Traditionally, soldiers from a wide range of careers served as recruiters for temporary assignments before returning to their original job. But with the Army’s new approach, officials want to professionalize the job of recruiters.
Officials said the first virtual panel of 42T was conducted in the last month. The first set of 42Ts will join their Army units in the second quarter of fiscal year 2025.
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Recruiting updates across the services
Task & Purpose asked all five military services where recruiting numbers currently stand for 2024 (all services track annual recruiting goals on a fiscal calendar, from October 1 to September 30):
The Army insists it is on track to hit its reduced goals after several years of missing recruitment targets but officials told Task & Purpose that they have not released exact figures on their contracts to date and don’t plan to.
Marine Corps officials said the Corps is on track to reach its recruiting goals. As of May 31, the Marine Corps reached 101% of its monthly accession goals towards its annual goal of recruiting 31,100 Marines (28,100 Active / 3,000 Reserves).
As of July 8, the Air Force said it was slightly ahead of its annual goals, having hit 76% of its enlisted (27,100) and 79% of its officer goal (1,501) for fiscal year 2024. Last year, the active duty Air Force goal was 26,877, which the service missed by about 10%.
For fiscal year 2025, the Air Force is looking to raise its annual goal to 32,300 (active duty Air Force non-prior service) and approximately 2,000 officers.
The Space Force, which has 9,400 guardians, is also on track to hit its recruiting goals.
The Navy, however, is struggling to hit its 2024 goal. In 2023, the Navy missed its active duty recruiting goal by more than 7,900. For fiscal year 2024, the Navy wants to recruit 43,407 (enlisted and officers). The official report of this year’s Navy recruiting contracts will be released this fall.
A spokesperson for the Navy said the service exceeded its monthly contracting goal for April, May and June. They said the numbers thus far are very encouraging but added that “we will not be able to ship every contracted future Sailor in FY 2024, which will allow us to build capacity in the Delayed Entry Program and position us well, going into FY 2025.”
The latest on Task & Purpose This 41-year-old soldier graduated Army basic training after a 20 year break * The woman who predicted the Tết Offensive, but was ignored, passes away at 97* * National Guard soldiers training with ‘pocket-sized’ drones * Army vet receives Bronze Star with valor 20 years later for bravery in Iraq ambush * 2 Civil War soldiers receive Medal of Honor for ‘Great Locomotive Chase’**
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A medical study of long-term chronic pain in combat veterans found troubling results for two groups of women: not only were women who faced heavy combat overseas more likely to develop chronic pain later in life, but so were female spouses back home whose husbands faced higher levels of violence.
The new study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association or JAMA, analyzed chronic pain diagnoses for women who deployed into combat zones and female dependents of U.S. troops who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan from 2006 to 2013, the height of combat rotations for both wars. Researchers then compared incidents of chronic pain to similar groups whose deployments or spouse’s deployments were between 2014 to 2020, when troops saw less combat frequency.
“The main takeaway from the study is that heightened rigors of deployment, as we saw during the combination of the Iraq war troop surge and the troop surge that followed in Afghanistan, has an outsized effect on the development of chronic pain conditions down the road in active duty service women,” said Andrew Schoenfeld, the lead researcher. “But then also, this was the surprising part, an even higher magnitude when looking at the women who are civilian dependents of active duty service members.”
The findings suggest a stronger link between the mental health tolls of combat and chronic pain, even for those not directly exposed to combat, like military spouses. Researchers also found that chronic pain was more likely for those with previous behavioral health issues.
According to John Hopkins Medicine, chronic pain is defined as “long standing pain that persists beyond the usual recovery period or occurs along with a chronic health condition, such as arthritis.” Chronic pain can come in waves or be continuous and “may affect people to the point that they can’t work, eat properly, take part in physical activity, or enjoy life.”
According to the study, active duty women in combat between 2006 and 2013 were 53% more likely to develop chronic pain. The risk for junior enlisted women was even higher with researchers finding they were 95% more likely to develop chronic pain symptoms.
While women in combat are “exposed to stresses of war” which includes risk of injury or death, Schoenfeld said it’s “understandable how there may be a higher risk associated with all those factors for the development of chronic pain.” But with dependents, researchers “were not expecting to see comparable or even the same signals,” he said.
The reason that female dependents suffer could be that “many of those stresses that are borne by the service members when they’re down range are brought back to the home,” Schoenfeld said. The “fear and worry for the safety” of their deployed partner, assuming duties of a single parent, income alterations, and social support disruptions could also be factors, according to researchers.
Researchers didn’t look at chronic pain rates for specific jobs but Schoenfeld said the nature of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan with troops fighting an insurgency was anxiety inducing across the board.
“The nature of that kind of conflict where there’s no well defined battle line, who is an adversary and who is not is very difficult to determine,” Schoenfeld said, “you basically feel like you’re surrounded all the time.”
“It doesn’t matter what MOS you’re in or what your particular mission is,” he said. “I think all these constant stressors have equally high proclivity to result in these conditions developing down the road.”
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Why study chronic pain?
Chronic pain is one of the leading causes of disability in the working-age population and affects as many as 100 million Americans. In the U.S., typical treatment for chronic pain involves opioids which can lead to substance abuse, dependence and addiction, resulting in annual costs as high as $635 billion, according to the study.
The prevalence of chronic pain is higher among U.S. veterans and those exposed to combat compared to their civilian peers.
Injured service members returning from combat deployments in the Middle East coincided with the rise of pain medication prescriptions across the U.S. In 2009, military physicians wrote nearly 3.8 million prescriptions for pain medication which was more than four times more than 2001. In 2007, chronic opioid use peaked In the Army.
However, more recently, studies have shown that prescribed opioid use is going down. A 2021 study that analyzed Military Health System data found “a significant decline” in opioid prescriptions for pain management.
Researchers recommended that officials target support services to service members and dependents with the greatest risk of developing chronic pain “including those from lower socioeconomic strata or individuals with behavioral health conditions.” They also said their recommendations could apply to civilian women exposed to firearm injuries or mass casualty events and spouses or partners of individuals who experience similar traumas.
Schoenfeld said the study should prompt a bigger discussion in the military on chronic pain and believing service member symptoms as a legitimate medical issue.
“I think we need to retrain ourselves in terms of how we view these people who have chronic pain because clearly as it’s shown in this paper and this research that we’ve done, this is a downstream effect,” he said. “They didn’t have chronic pain at the time that they were deployed. This is something that developed subsequently and is tied intimately to the repeated exposures to that environment.”
The study was funded by the DOD and Defense Health Agency.
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2 Civil War soldiers receive Medal of Honor for ‘Great Locomotive Chase’
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A new warship named for John Basilone – a Marine awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism at Guadalcanal and the Navy Cross at Iwo Jima – has been delivered to the Navy, service officials announced.
The destroyer was transferred to the Navy on Monday from shipbuilder General Dynamics Bath Iron Works after the ship conducted a series of trials both at sea and pier-side, a Navy news release says. The Basilone is a Flight IIA variant of Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. As such, it is designed to carry out several missions including anti-air, anti-submarine, and anti-surface warfare.
“The future USS John Basilone will bring significant capability to the fleet and strengthen our advantage at sea,” Navy Capt. Seth Miller, DDG 51 Class program manager at Program Executive Office Ships said in a statement. “DDG 122 and all of its Sailors will be a living reminder of the perseverance and sacrifice exhibited by its remarkable namesake.”
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The John Basilone was christened in June 2022 and it is scheduled to be commissioned in November. When the ship is commissioned, it will be formally accepted into the Navy’s operating forces.
The ship is named for Marine Gunnery Sgt. John Basilone. Basilone served in the Army prior to World War II, but enlisted in the Marines with the aim of seeing combat in the Pacific where he became one of the Marine Corps’ most legendary battlefield figures. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery at Guadalcanal and posthumously received the Navy Cross for his heroism at Iwo Jima, where he was killed in battle.
During Oct. 24 and 25, 1942, he repelled a Japanese attack against U.S. troops in Guadalcanal by firing a machine gun from the hip without wearing any gloves, suffering third degree burns on both hands.
His Medal of Honor citation praises him for “gallantly holding his line until replacements arrived.”
“A little later, with ammunition critically low and the supply lines cut off, Sgt. Basilone, at great risk of his life and in the face of continued enemy attack, battled his way through hostile lines with urgently needed shells for his gunners, thereby contributing in large measure to the virtual annihilation of a Japanese regiment,” the citation reads.
After the battle, Basilone returned to the United States and sold war bonds. He refused the chance to become commissioned and be stationed stateside, according to the Marine Corps.
He requested to be returned to combat duty and took part in the invasion of Iwo Jima, a 36-day battle in which U.S. forces suffered 26,000 casualties including 6,800 killed, of which 5,931 were Marines, more than twice as many as the Marines killed during all of World War I. It was the highest single-action losses in the Marine Corps’ history.
Basilone fell on Feb. 19, 1945, the first day of the invasion. With Marines pinned down on the beaches, Basilone climbed on top of a Japanese blockhouse and destroyed it using grenades and other explosives.
“Consistently daring and aggressive as he fought his way over the battle-torn beach and up the sloping, gun-studded terraces toward Airfield Number 1, he repeatedly exposed himself to the blasting fury of exploding shells and later in the day coolly proceeded to the aid of a friendly tank which had been trapped in an enemy mine field under intense mortar and artillery barrages, skillfully guiding the heavy vehicle over the hazardous terrain to safety, despite the overwhelming volume of hostile fire,” his Navy Cross citation reads.
As Basilone advanced to the edge of the airfield, he was killed by a bursting mortar shell.
“Stouthearted and indomitable, Gunnery Sergeant Basilone by his intrepid initiative, outstanding skill, and valiant spirit of self-sacrifice in the face of the fanatic opposition, contributed materially to the advance of his company during the early critical period of the assault, and his unwavering devotion to duty throughout the bitter conflict was an inspiration to his comrades and reflects the highest credit upon Gunnery Sergeant Basilone and the United States Naval Service,” his citation reads. “He gallantly gave his life in the service of his country.”
This is the second Navy ship to be named for Basilone. The first USS Basilone, a Gearing-class destroyer, was launched in 1949 and decommissioned in 1977.
“It is a great honor to name this ship in recognition of John Basilone,” then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in 2016 when he announced the service was naming another ship for the Marine. “I have no doubt that all who serve aboard her will carry on the legacy of service and commitment exemplified by this Marine Corps hero.”
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A supplement long used in fitness circles to beef up muscles may be coming to a Meal, Ready to Eat, or MRE, near you. Congress could soon ask the military to look at including creatine in MREs, the staples of field nutrition across the military.
The measure was included in the fiscal year 2025 national defense policy bill passed by the House. It will need final approval from the House and Senate before being added to the final defense bill. An official with the Natural Products Association, which represents manufacturers and retailers of organic foods and dietary supplements, told Task & Purpose the creatine language was added to the bill by a member of the House’s Republican majority.
The House measure, should it become law, is short on specifics. The legislation “encourages” the Department of Defense to add creatine to MREs, noting “a broad body of clinical research has shown that creatine can enhance muscle growth, physical performance, strength training, post-exercise recovery, and injury prevention.”
The use of creatine as a fitness supplement is not new but has increased in popularity in recent years. Fitness influencers on social media frequently endorse variations of creatine for muscle building and recovery.
In the military, a series of studies on active duty personnel a decade ago found that as many as one in three troops in special operations jobs used creatine as a regular supplement, but that it was far less common among the military population overall.
Meals, ready to eat (MREs) rest on a table during an MRE open-package inspection, April 6, 2018, at Moody Air Force Base, Ga. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Erick Requadt. Airman 1st Class Erick RequadtOther fitness supplements have been introduced to the military as early as basic training, where Army recruits are provided with Performance Readiness Bars, fortified with calcium and vitamin D, “to help promote muscle growth and stronger bones in trainees,” said LTC Randy Ready, a spokesperson for the Army Center for Initial Military Training.
At base exchanges, troops can buy protein powders, energy drinks and sometimes creatine. The DOD also includes creatine in its dietary supplement resource, also known as “Operation Supplement Safety.”
Brian Schilling, a University of Nevada-Las Vegas professor who teaches a course on troop and first responder human performance and does research for the U.S. military, said putting creatine into MREs could help troops already using the supplement “maintain their creatine levels a little bit longer” but he doesn’t think there will be a “huge benefit to the non-creatine user.”
“For instance, I just don’t supplement with creatine but all of a sudden it’s in my MRE so therefore I’m gonna perform better. I just don’t see it happening,” Schilling said.
For consistent creatine users, Schilling does agree that having the supplement in MREs makes sense for maintaining muscle mass in rugged environments where troops may find themselves.
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“It might help them maybe preserve some muscle mass assuming that they’re in some adverse conditions where they’re not eating normally and doing things normally like in a battlefield condition,” he said.
The Army cautions its soldiers to consult the service’s registered dietitians, RDs. Holistic Health and Fitness Performance Teams have RDs and soldiers without an H2F team can consult dietitians at Military Treatment Facilities or the Armed Forces Wellness Center.
The science
According to the DOD, not everyone will find the same physical benefits when using creatine due to individual factors like diet.
“There are both high and low responders. For example, since creatine in the diet is predominately found in meats, vegetarians are more likely respond well to creatine supplementation because they tend to have lower levels in their muscles,” according to the DOD.
Creatine can have positive effects on “strength, power, sprint performance, and muscle mass in athletes who engage in resistance training.” There is limited evidence to support creatine for improved aerobic and endurance performance, according to the DOD supplement resource page.
A 2016 review of studies on creatine in the military found varying amounts of creatine use and effectiveness. As many as one in three Special Operations troops have said they use creatine as a supplement, according to a 2010 study, while surveys of the wider military population has found that as few as 5% of all troops use creatine regularly.
Studies on military personnel — which varied from new Army recruits just arriving at basic training to 24 Navy SEALs — have found hazy but similar stories: creatine can help with strength training — like bench pressing, pull-ups and jumping — but showed little help in endurance events like running and obstacle courses. Effects of creatine also seem to be more pronounced in troops like basic trainees who are not yet in top physical shape, versus in special operations troops who tend to exercise more regularly.
But Schilling said for military purposes, the limited benefits for endurance doesn’t outweigh the overall gains for troops who need to “be a jack of all trades.”
“You might have to hump that pack for miles and miles and miles on end but then you also might have to sprint so you need a little bit of everything. I don’t think it’s necessarily a trade off where, well, if I take this, I’m going to hurt my endurance performance,” he said. “It may not help endurance performance but maintaining muscle mass is gonna help all kinds of performance.”
There are many variations of creatine available for purchase but Schilling said it’s mostly a marketing game in the supplement world where companies claim their creatine comes with less bloating. Schilling also said “bloating” isn’t even necessarily accurate.
“In the field, you wanna have as much water on board as possible,” he said. “When you carbohydrate load, you get the same thing because for every gram of carbohydrate, you store 3 g of water. So it’s very similar to carbohydrate loading.”
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While many Americans think of summer as the perfect season to hit the pool for a float, U.S. service members in the Pacific are thinking about what they’re going to sink. In live fire exercises dubbed “SINKEXs,” troops in the region have already sunk two ships from the air and the land, with one big aquatic finale expected before Labor Day.
In June, the Army tested its ability to sink ships with land-based weapons against one retired warship, the USS Cleveland, as part of Valiant Shield 2024. The amphibious transport dock broke up and sunk after being struck by a variety of ordnance, including two Precision Strike Missiles, or PrSMs. It was the first time that the missiles were used against a ship, officials said.
Also last month, a Marine AH-1Z Viper attack helicopter sank a ship-sized target as it was being towed using an AGM-179 Joint Air-to-Ground Missile, or JAGM.
But the real fireworks are expected to come soon during the ongoing RIMPAC exercise, the region’s largest annual war games with U.S. and Pacific partners. Officials have said the amphibious assault ship USS Tarawa — a warship second only to full-size aircraft carrier in size — is expected to be sunk in a SINKEX finale to this year’s ongoing RIMPAC exercise, which lasts until Aug. 1.
Military exercises such as these show how the U.S. military emphasizes being ready for a range of scenarios ranging from humanitarian assistance missions to war, Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday.
No substitute for a SINKEXThe Navy has conducted SINKEXs, or sinking exercises, for more than a century, said retired Marine Col. Mark Cancian, with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C. What’s new about the most recent exercises is how ships are being sunk.
“In the recent past, they have been sunk by submarine torpedoes, ship-launched missiles, and gunfire,” Cancian told Task & Purpose. “Now, we are seeing ships sunk by land-based anti-ship missiles. The purpose is twofold: to exercise the system and ensure that it works and to send the message to other countries (China) that the United States has these capabilities.”
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The Army is developing an anti-ship seeker for the PrSM even though the missile was initially envisioned as a replacement for the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, which is designed to hit land targets only, Cancian said. Separately, the Navy has adapted its Standard Missile, or SM-6 to attack ships.
“The reason for both is the growing threat from the Chinese navy (PLAN) and the need to adapt every weapon for that fight,” Cancian said.
The PrSM, which has a range of more than 400 kilometers, is one of the weapons systems the Army has or will have soon that can sink ships from land, said Jonathan Riley, a spokesperson for U.S. Army Pacific. During this year’s Valiant Shield exercise, the PrSMs along with other weapons hit a moving maritime target.
The exercise comes as the U.S. military as a whole is looking for ways to poke holes in China’s Anti Access Area Denial, or A2/AD network, a series of seniors and weapons that are designed to make it very dangerous for any U.S. ships, planes, and troops to operate in and around Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines.
With the PrSM and other weapons, the Army expects to be able to disrupt the network of China’s A2/AD systems, said Brig. Gen. Jeffery VanAntwerp, who oversees operations, plans, and training for U.S. Army Pacific.
“The PRC [People’s Republic of China] has designed its anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) network to defeat U.S. air and maritime forces,” VanAntwerp told Task & Purpose. “It’s not designed to find, fix, and finish distributed, mobile, networked, reloadable land forces like those recently demonstrated in Valiant Shield 24 and other exercises. With capabilities like the PrSM and the Mid-Range Capability (MRC), the Army is providing a critical contribution to the defense of our allies and partners.”
Not just for the NavyThe Marine Corps’ June 26 live-fire test of the JGAM is the latest example of how the Corps is expanding its anti-ship capabilities as part of its Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations concept, or EABO, which calls for small numbers of Marines to operate from temporary bases, such as remote Pacific islands, to strike enemy ships.
The JAGM is also intended to replace the Marine Corps’ TOW, Hellfire, and Maverick missiles, Cancian said.
“Because of JAGM’s high cost, however, I suspect that TOW and Hellfire will be around for a long time,” Cancian said.
Meanwhile, the Tarawa will be one of the larger vessels that has been sunk in recent years, so it will provide the U.S. military and partner nations with an opportunity to expend a lot of ordnance during RIMPAC, said retired Navy Capt. Jerry Hendrix, a strategist and senior fellow with the Sagamore Institute a think tank based in Indianapolis.
“She’s going to take a lot of damage, and they are going to get a chance to test a lot of different systems on her before she goes down,” Hendrix told Task & Purpose. “It’s been a while since we’ve done something this big. We’ve done LPDs [amphibious transport docks] in the past, but I’m not sure that we’ve done anything like this. To have a light amphibious carrier, that’s a bigger deal.”
While the U.S. military typically sinks at least one ship as part of RIMPAC, the most recent sinking exercises underscore that the Defense Department views China as its top potential adversary, Hendrix said.
“It is very clear to me that we are focused more on a Pacific war and the potential of a war in the Pacific – specifically China v. Taiwan or other types of contingencies, to include the Philippines,” Hendrix said. “I think you will see more SINKEXs.”
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Almost ten years in the making, a massive bronze relief sculpture that will serve as the National World War I Memorial is on its way to the U.S. this week. The memorial features 38 larger-than-life figures, each of which tell part of the story of an American soldier leaving for war and, later, returning. To correctly capture facial expressions of horror, determination, and experience on the bronze figures, the artist behind the wall used modern combat veterans as models.
The 58-foot-long, 10-foot-tall sculpture will sit in Pershing Park in Washington D.C., a public square named for the general who led U.S. forces in Europe during ‘the Great War,’ covering a full side of the park. American sculptor Sabin Howard spent almost ten years creating the memorial. Across its length, sculpted figures stand, fight, fall, kneel, crawl, climb, and gaze out in bronze, each highlighting an experience of the war.
“I came into this project not really aware of the sacredness of [World War I] and how big it was,” Howard told Task & Purpose. “I’m a different human being than when I started it. This project really brings a human, visceral quality to WW I, rather than just a didactic history book look at it.”
Working first in his New Jersey studio then an English foundry to create the final bronze castings, Howard’s team built the WW I memorial in four sections, each of which is being shipped to Baltimore this week. The elements will then be trucked to Washington and installed in Pershing Park. It’s official dedication is scheduled for September.
New Jersey artist Sabin Howard creates a face on a bronze figure for the National World War I Memorial based on a live model. If the figures across the relief are eerily lifelike, it’s because Howard used live models for each figure. He began with college students posing but brought in military veterans with extensive experience at war to capture their experiences in facial expressions and body language.
“You have to get veterans because the faces have to look like they carried that history of combat and what they went through,” Howard said. “It’s a pretty telling story of the horrors of war revealed in the facial expressions, and it’s on that wall to be there forever because bronze beats mortality.”
He honed his craft from a young age, starting out by drawing and later sharpening it as a master sculptor in Italy, where he spent many of his formative years. His experience creating the massive memorial has fundamentally changed him as an artist.
“I was more esoteric as a strict classicist,” Howard said. “Now, I’m more of — I guess you could call me an expressive humanist. I’ve kind of morphed into a whole different way of sculpting and looking at art.”
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Howard started the WW I memorial by creating a scaled-down version first. Then, he made the full-sized clay sculptures and shipped them to the Pangolin Editions sculpture foundry in England in sections, where they were cast into bronze replicas.
He finished the last clay sculpture in January, and then he and his team traveled to England, where they put the finishing touches on the bronze memorial, completing the project in late June.
“It feels like I just did a freaking giant four-and-a-half-year deployment, and now it’s over. That’s what it feels like,” Howard said. “I was going 100 miles an hour, and then suddenly, it’s like, you stop, and you got all that momentum and energy in your body. It’s like, WTF, what do I do now? That’s what it feels like, and now I gotta go do another big project as big as that one.”
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The brigadier general in charge of the New Hampshire Air National Guard was killed Monday in a hit-and-run accident near his home, the NHANG said Tuesday.
Brig. Gen. John Pogorek, 57, had been the commander of the NHANG since June 2022. A career tanker pilot, he previously commanded the 157th Air Refueling Wing, the NHANG’s primary flying unit. The wing’s 133rd Refueling Squadron flies KC-46 tankers from Pease Air National Guard Base outside Portsmith. The wing transititioned from Cold War-era KC-135 tankers to KC-46s under Pogorek’s direction.
“On behalf of the entire State of New Hampshire, I extend my sincere condolences to the family of Gen. Pogorek,” said Governor Chris Sununu. “Gen. Pogorek served his state, country, and community with honor. His commitment and contributions to the Granite State will never be forgotten.”
A 1989 Air Force Academy graduate, Pogorek spent his early flying years in some of the Air Force’s most demanding flight roles, piloting HC-130 tankers in special operations and combat search and rescue units in England. He switched to the airliner-based KC-135 and joined the NHANG in 1999.
Then-Col. John Pogorek, is congratulated by Chief Master Sgt. Jason Veziris after Pogrek’s “fini-flight” at Pease Air National Guard Base, New Hampshire June 2, 2022. Pogorek, flew more than 6,675 flying hours with the U.S. Air Force and New Hampshire Air National Guard. Photo by Staff Sgt. Victoria Nelson Staff Sgt. Victoria NelsonFor the last 25 years Pogorek served as an instructor and evaluator pilot on the KC-135 and in several leadership positions within the 157th wing before taking over as its commander in 2018.
As the assistant adjutant general for the NHANG, Pogorek oversaw more than 1,300 officers, airmen, and civilians at Pease Air National Guard Base in Newington. Gen. Pogorek was a pilot, accruing more than 6,675 flying hours over 31 years with the U.S. Air Force and NHANG. He oversaw the fielding and operations of the Air National Guard’s first fleet of KC-46A refuelers.
He is survived by his wife, Whitney, and their five children.
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A 20-year Marine who died on Sunday near Camp Pendleton, California is one of more than 60 U.S. service members who have been killed in motorcycle crashes since October, according to data kept by the military branches.
The identity of the Marine, who was assigned to the 7th Engineer Support Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, has not yet been publicly released pending next of kin notification, 1st Lt. T. Trey Judd, a spokesperson for the logistics group told Task & Purpose.
Police in Oceanside, California responded to a report of a crash about 7:51 p.m. on Sunday at the intersection of Douglas Drive and North River Road, a police news release says.
The Marine was thrown from his motorcycle, a black Indian Scout, when a Volkswagen Passat turned in front of him into a parking lot. He was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
This crash came just 10 days after two sailors riding motorcycles died in a chain-reaction crash near Camp Pendleton: Petty Officers 1st Class Stephen Jermaine Williams and Jess Lee Davis. A third sailor who was riding a motorcycle at the time was injured in the crash.
Dozens of deaths every yearA total of 63 service members have died while riding motorcycles since, October 1, 2023, the beginning of 2024 Fiscal Year, the data shows. That breaks down to 24 soldiers, 10 Marines, 19 sailors, and nine Department of the Air Force personnel, which includes Air Force troops and Space Force Guardians. Another Marine died on duty in March in a motorcycle accident during a command ride in San Diego.
Though relatively few troops ride motorcycles, those who do represent an outsized percentage of troops killed in off-duty mishaps every year, according to military data. Since October, Motorcycle accidents have accounted for 68% of private motor vehicle deaths in the Navy, 53% in the Marine Corps, 50% of Air and Space Force deaths, and 46% of Army PMV deaths.
The number of military members killed in motorcycle crashes so far in Fiscal Year 2024 is on pace to match the 89 service members killed in 2023: 38 soldiers, six Marines, 23 sailors, and 22 airmen and guardians.
Mandatory safety coursesAll service members who want to drive motorcycles are required to pass both the Basic and Advanced Rider Courses along with refresher training every five years.
During the 16-hour Basic Rider Course, which is approved by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, sailors learn how to properly operate a motorcycle and what protective clothing and gear they need to wear, a Navy spokesperson told Task & Purpose.
“The Navy takes the safety of Sailors seriously, especially when it comes to operating motorcycles,” the spokesperson said. “As we enter the summer months and see an increase of riders, the Navy has increased messaging to Sailors on safe riding habits and how to find the proper safety resources.”
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In addition to its current motorcycle training, the Army is changing its Motorcycle Mentorship Program by creating a requirement for unit Motorcycle Safety Program Coordinators, said Jimmie E. Cummings, Jr., a spokesperson for the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center. The training for those coordinators is still being developed.
The Air Force maintains a robust training program to make sure that more than 17,000 military motorcycle riders are aware of the potential dangers of driving a motorcycle; it offers a mentorship program for riders to share their knowledge and experiences, and it has a website with information about the latest protective equipment and training, according to the Air Force Safety Center.
“Motorcycle mishaps are one of the leading causes of accidental death amongst our Airmen and Guardians every year,” a statement from the safety center says. “Riding a motorcycle is an inherently risky activity; however, the risks can be mitigated with preparation and awareness.”
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The U.S. will “indefinitely postpone” a military exercise with Georgia — once among the most steadfast supporters of the U.S. war in Afghanistan — after leaders in the ex-Soviet nation introduced a slate of Kremlin-style laws in recent months.
In a release announcing the postponement, the Pentagon cited “false accusations” by leaders of the Georgian Dream party, the ruling political party in Georgia. Leaders of the party have accused the U.S. and Western allies of pressuring Georgia to “open a second front against Russia” in its war in Ukraine. Party leaders also accused the U.S. of participating in two failed coups.
However, some experts outside the Pentagon with experience in eastern Europe see the cancellation of the exercise as a win for Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
“Our Georgia policy is being written by our actions and we are backing away from Georgia,” said retired Gen. Philip Breedlove, former commander of U.S. European Command. “That’s a bad message. I believe that our administration is nearly fully deterred by Russia. We are taking no actions to ‘provoke Russia’ and where Russia exerts its power, we back up.”
The Department of Defense announced Friday that it would “indefinitely postpone” the annual Noble Partner exercise, which had been scheduled for July 25 to Aug. 6 at the Vaziani and Camp Norio Training Areas in Georgia.
The breakdown in relations behind the canceled exercise is a major turn from the Afghan war, when Georgia was the largest per-capita contributor of troops for over a decade. Beginning in 2010, Georgia deployed more than 20,000 soldiers to Afghanistan where they frequently saw combat, Breedlove said.
“It’s just really disappointing that our nation would treat Georgia this way after they were so steadfast in their support of our efforts in Afghanistan,” Breedlove said. “They basically said we’ll go anywhere an American goes and we’ll do anything an American will do. They were absolutely incredible soldiers, incredible commitment to their job and to their mission and they served with distinction and valor.”
At least 32 Georgian troops were killed in Afghanistan, most during intense fighting between 2010 and 2014 in Helmand province, with over 300 wounded.
Georgian troops, Breedlove said, arrived in Afghanistan without many of the “caveats” that other nations placed on their soldiers. While many partners opted to send troops but limited their participation in combat or night-time operations, or required they remain on bases, Georgians did not, said Breedlove.
The news comes as officials from across Europe are set to meet in Washington D.C. this week for the 2024 NATO Summit, marking the 75th anniversary of the world’s largest security alliance. Officials are expected to discuss NATO support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
But Georgian Dream, led by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, is seen as one of the country’s pro-Russian political factions. The party reintroduced a bill to bring back a foreign agent law, mirrored after one that Russia passed in 2012, requiring individuals, civil society organizations, and media outlets to register as foreign agents if they receive at least 20% of funding from abroad. According to Humans Rights Watch, the legislation aims to “marginalize and discredit independent, foreign-funded groups and media that serve the wider public interest in Georgia.” The measure was met with weeks-long protests in Tbilisi.
In May, the State Department announced visa restrictions for Georgian politicians who led efforts to pass the law, accusing them of “undermining democracy in Georgia.” After the announcement, a State Department spokesperson said the U.S. hoped Georgian leaders would “reconsider their actions and take steps to move forward with their nations’ long stated democratic and Europe-Atlantic aspirations.”
Experts have raised alarms about Russia’s hybrid warfare against Georgia through disinformation campaigns to weaken its relationship with the West and by funding pro-Kremlin political campaigns in the country since Georgia declared its independence more than 30 years ago.
Breedlove said the U.S. decision to back away from Georgia means Russia can use all of its tools “to thwart the government of Georgia and to cause them to come back under Russian control.”
In previous iterations of Noble Partner, soldiers from Georgia, the U.S. and UK trained together in urban operations, defensive training positions, combined mechanized maneuvers and live-fire exercises. Hodges said the annual training is important for improving both military’s joint knowledge of infrastructure, practicing movement and “demonstrating that we care about the region.”
A political decisionThe Pentagon said that the U.S. didn’t make the cancellation “decision lightly” and that it would continue to partner with Georgian military forces to strengthen the country’s “ability to safeguard its sovereignty and maintain its territorial integrity.”
Glen Howard, former president for the Washington D.C. think tank, the Jamestown Foundation said the Biden administration was likely trying to send a “democracy message” that the U.S. is “unhappy about what’s happening inside of Georgia” with its parliament passing anti-democratic policies on foreign agent registration and measures to curtail LGBTQ rights.
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Both former U.S. military commanders interviewed by Task & Purpose said the decision seemed counterintuitive to broader Western goals to limit Russian influence in the region. Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former Commander of the U.S. Army Europe said the decision reflects the lack of a clear policy in the Black Sea region.
“The decision to postpone exercises, that’s a policy statement, but it’s not connected to any well founded thought out strategy for the region,” he said.
Howard noted Georgia’s specific importance “as a cork in the bottle for the caucuses” to prevent the post-Soviet and eastern European nations from sliding towards Russia and away from the West.
“In other words, Georgia goes, the Russians cut off Azerbaijan, they cut off the Caspian, they cut off the ‘stans and they control the geopolitical destiny of the region and they control China,” Howard said. “The east, west, north, south transportation corridors go through Georgia. The geopolitical importance of Georgia is not lost here and we need to keep that in mind when we’re making our policy decisions.”
Hodges also said that such a politically driven decision could undermine U.S.-Georgia military cooperation going forward and give Russia more ammo to push anti-American narratives.
“It will reinforce the notion that some countries have that the U.S. is maybe not as reliable as we used to be,” he said. “When you cancel an exercise, because we’re unhappy with the Georgia Dream government, that misses the whole point of why we do the exercise. It’s kind of like cutting your nose off to spite your face.”
Howard said that pro-Russian factions in Georgia are likely applauding the decision. Those in the military who have trained with American troops and are pro-U.S., will not be engaged.
“Do you want to show these people at the end of the day you’re gonna be there to help them or are you going to roll up the flag and say, ‘We’re heading out guys. See you later,’” Howard said. “That’s how it may appear.”
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Navy Capt. Lenard C. Mitchell has been fired as commanding officer of the USS Hershel “Woody” Williams’ Gold Crew following an investigation into how the ship ran aground in May off the coast of west Africa, service officials have announced.
“While the investigation is still open, sufficient findings of fact emerged during the investigation to warrant the relief of the commanding officer,” a Navy news release says. “The U.S. Navy holds commanding officers to the highest standard and takes action to hold them accountable when those standards are not met. Naval leaders are entrusted with significant responsibilities to their Sailors and their ships.”
The Hershel “Woody” Williams is a Lewis B. Puller-class expeditionary mobile base named for a legendary Marine and Medal of Honor recipient, who single handedly destroyed Japanese pillboxes on Iwo Jima with a flamethrower.
Mitchell assumed command of the vessel’s Gold Crew on Nov. 20, 2022. The ship sustained what the Navy described as a “soft grounding” near the port of Libreville, Gabon on May 9. It was stuck for about four hours until it broke free at high tide, USNI News reported. No injuries or serious damage in connection with the grounding was reported.
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No information about Mitchell’s role in the grounding was immediately available. The incident is currently under investigation, said Lt. Cmdr. Jason Tross, a 6th Fleet spokesperson.
Although the Navy has not specified why Vice Adm. Thomas E. Ishee, commander of 6th Fleet, decided to relieve Mitchell of command. However, the Navy has a long tradition of holding commanding officers responsible for anything that goes wrong on their ships, whether they are directly responsible for the problem or not.
The Navy has relieved at least 13 commanding officers so far in 2024, compared with16 commanding officers for all of 2023.
Monday’s announcement about Mitchell marked a rare example of the Navy explaining why it had decided to fire a leader. Typically, all the military services use the euphemism “loss of confidence” to explain why an officer or senior enlisted leader has been relieved. The vague phrase covers all sorts of reasons, including problems at work and personal issues.
Mitchell enlisted in the Navy in 1990 and was later commissioned through the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program at Southern University, Baton Rouge.
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An aviation contractor at Fort Novosel, Alabama is alive today because a whole bunch of things went wrong. There were mistakes, delays and a once-a-career technical glitch, plus a moment of dumb luck on a scheduling calendar. If just one of those had gone “right,” Tim Clemmons, a contractor who works on the fleet of helicopters that train new Army pilots, may not have survived an April 26 medical event that left him without a pulse, far from help.
But instead, all those annoying moments came together to put just the right soldiers in just the right spot to save Clemmons’ life.
According to a July 1 Army release, the string of luck for three pilots began as a key training flight in a UH-60 Blackhawk on April 26 for Chief Warrant Officer 3 Marty L. Holland II. An instructor pilot with the 212th Aviation Regiment, Holland is one of Fort Novosel’s cadre of flyers who teach and certify all new helicopter pilots in the U.S. military. This day’s flight would be a check ride for two flight students, 1st Lt. Christopher Berggren and 2nd Lt. Thomas Taylor.
As the three pilots reached the flightline, a worker approached with Holland a tiny figure of Jesus in his hand.
“I think you’re going to need a little Jesus today,” the man said, giving it to Holland. Whether the gesture was a brief joke about the inexperience of the two students, it still struck the senior pilot as odd.
“I was like, ‘what do I not know about what’s going on today?” Holland asked Berggren and Taylor.
The crew flew their check ride, then once back on the ground began their post-flight procedures, which Holland tracked in an electronic logbook. The device’s battery was charged and, Holland said, he’d never in his career seen one malfunction.
It crashed. That caused a 30-minute delay, during which the crew waited on the flightline.
Once the glitch cleared, the crew was finally able to jump on a flightline bus for a ride back to their garrison, normally among the most routine moments of any pilot’s day. But the driver took a “wrong turn,” taking the three pilots to a corner of the airfield they had no reason to be anywhere near.
Now a flight that began with an off-key gift had ended with an abnormal delay and, finally, an unforeseen detour.
“A lot of things put us in that place at that time,” said Holland.
That was when the three pilots saw an unconscious man. Clemmons, a then-55-year-old avionics technician, had been driving an all terrain vehicle across the remote area when he’d suffered a medical emergency and passed out.
The pilots would never have seen him if they had been in the ‘right’ place. Instead, they turned out to be exactly where they needed to be.
“The bus driver shot us over there really quick,” Holland told the Army. “We took off running.”
Dropping to a knee to check the man, they pilots saw Clemmons’ eyes were glazed over and his skin gray.
“I literally looked up at Chris, and I said, ‘He’s gone.’ There’s no coming back from what I saw,” Holland said. Still, he and Berggren started CPR as Taylor called 911.
But again, strange luck found the men: though Berggren is training to a pilot, he was already a full EMT and in great physical shape.
“The training kicked in—Airway, Bleeding, Circulation—so immediately I moved to doing airway, and told Chris to start pumping,” said Holland, referring to Berggren. “For eight minutes this PT stud pumped on this man’s chest.”
As first responders arrived, other airfield personnel rushed over as well, and the crowd began to ask the pilots if they thought Clemmons was going to make it.
“I looked around at all the contractors, and I didn’t want to say ‘no’ because all of his friends were standing around, so I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s going to be good’,” Holland said. “I didn’t believe it when I said it.”
Berggren’s medical training was telling him the same thing. “It kind of sank in that his family was never going to see him again,” he said.
Then first responders said they had a pulse.
“I was like, ‘we’re talking about the same guy, right?’” Taylor said
The contractors who had gathered around formed a circle and began to pray. But all three pilots — who as flightcrew receive significant training in hypoxia and the effect of oxygen loss on the brain — were realistic about what might lay ahead.
“There’s no way there’s not going to be brain damage with that long being out,” Holland said.
It was a final moment of the crew being ‘wrong’ for day, as they discovered at a later hospital visit.
“His color was back. It was incredible,” Holland said. “It’s completely a miracle. All the tiny little coincidences and everything added up to this, to (Berggren) having an EMT license, to us going by at the exact right time.”
In late June, Brig. Gen. Jonathan C. Byrom, U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center commander, presented Holland with the Army Safety Guardian Award, given to a soldiers “who demonstrate extraordinary actions or skills by reacting to an emergency event or an imminently dangerous situation,” according to an Army description.
Holland said the delays and mistakes of the day had frustrated him.
“When the logbook died, I was like, you’ve got to be kidding me. I was mad, because this shouldn’t happen,” he said. “To find out later that was one piece of the chess board being moved to make sure we found him.”
But in the end, they put the three soldiers exactly where they needed to be.
“I got to go to a 56th birthday party for a man that I found dead three weeks before that,” Holland said.
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The halls of Bristol Eastern High School, Connecticut echoed with the Ranger Creed Tuesday afternoon. Legendary Ranger Joseph “Kap” Kapacziewski once walked these same halls as a teenager before becoming the first Ranger to return to combat with a prosthetic leg.
On Tuesday, July 2, a group of former and active duty Rangers, members of Kapacziewski’s family, and many others from his hometown gathered for a formal memorial dedication at the high school.
“Joe Kapacziewski always worked hard at whatever he did. This dedication is the ability for others to see a hometown hero at his finest. He can still make a difference in other’s lives with his accomplishments,” said Mark Bernier, who retired from the Bristol Police Department, and was Kapacziewski’s mentor growing up. “Joe Kapacziewski affected my life in a positive way, along with being a mentor to my sons and now to Americans who chose to be all they wish to be. He lives on in our hearts and souls.”
The high school dedicated an interior courtyard of the school for Kap, along with two Bristol police officers killed in the line of duty. The memorial in the courtyard isn’t finished yet, but students can still get to know their hometown hero while it’s being built.
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A display case in a nearby interior hallway features a portrait and shadow box in memory of Kapacziewski. The American flag inside the shadow box was carried by him on deployment, and above it, sits several awards and medals that tell the story of his service.
Steve Lewis, a once-upon-a-time rival football coach to Kap’s Bristol Eastern football team, has worked diligently over the past year and a half to memorialize Kapacziewski in the high school after attending his memorial service at the school.
“I approached the principal, Mike Higgins, afterwards, after I realized that there needed to be a visible symbol of who Kap was if they’re going to name a wing of the high school after him,” Lewis said. “So I was determined to put together a shadow box, and it took a long time to figure out how I was going to do it, find a graphic designer who was going to do a good job, because I didn’t want to have any kind of second rate display.”
Two of Lewis’ former football players went on to serve in 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, where they met Kapacziewski and figured out they beat him in a rivalry game while they were all in high school. They forged a solid friendship for the remainder of their time together in the Army.
Sgt. Maj. Brandon Hollingsworth spoke highly of Kapacziewski during the dedication ceremony. The two served together in 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. (Photo courtesy of Steve Lewis) Tragically, Kapacziewski took his own life on January 22, 2023. Army Maj. Benjamin “Ben” Hunter, who served with him and was there when he was injured, said Kapacziewski’s death “hit like a ton of bricks.”
“He’s stronger than this. He’s the one who’s always been so focused and driven. But it just shows what people are really going through and how deep and dark suicidal thoughts, depression, or mental health can be in those struggles,” Hunter said.
Hunter is among the many Rangers who witnessed Kapacziewski’s incredible leadership and ability to persevere through the rigors of serving in the 75th Ranger Regiment. Hunter watched as Kapacziewski had to prove that he could still do the job post-amputation. He didn’t just meet the standard, he blew away the challenges like they were easy despite having the prosthetic.
“He was a Ranger, a leader, fit, aggressive, and a professional. It makes me proud that there’s an opportunity to celebrate that and the impact that Joe had on people’s lives, and help carry on that legacy of the things that he was able to accomplish,” Hunter said. “The fact that we’re having this conversation, talking about the crazy, cool, impactful things that he did after his injury. I think it’s just an opportunity to carry on the positive impacts that Joe had on other rangers and soldiers.”
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On April 11, 2004, then-Staff Sgt. Luis Barsallo’s platoon was hit by a “perfectly executed ambush on behalf of the insurgents” in Samarra, Iraq.
“We were getting shot at from 12 o’clock, 6 o’clock, 3 o’clock, and 9 o’clock – so 360 degrees,” Barsallo told Task & Purpose. “Mortar rounds were coming in, bullets were flying. We could see the insurgents running around with the RPG [rocket-propelled grenades], trying to maneuver. They had plenty of time to set something like that up. Hollywood couldn’t have made a better scene.”
More than 20 years later Barsallo was finally recognized for his bravery in Iraq in April and May 2004 by receiving the Bronze Star with the “V” device for valor last month. Barsallo, who retired from the New York Army National Guard in 2020 as a master sergeant, said he views the award as a “team trophy.”
“It’s kind of in a sense humbling, because I know that without my guys, my squad, if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have been able to be the leader that I am,” Barsallo said. “This was for the squad. Of the entire platoon, we’re the only squad that made it back with a complete squad.”
In 2004, Barsallo was assigned to the New York Army National Guard’s C Company, 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry Regiment, which was attached to the 1st Infantry Division, a National Guard news release says.
He was serving as a squad leader when his soldiers were ordered to go into Samarra and sweep a section of the city. The resulting fight became known as the “Battle of Easter Sunday.”
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As their convoy approached the city, the 5-ton truck in front of Barsallo’s vehicle was hit by an RPG. One soldier was killed: Army Pvt. 1st Class Nathan Brown. Six other soldiers were badly wounded.
At the same time the truck was hit by an RPG, a roadside bomb exploded, Barsallo recounted. He moved his vehicle off to the side of the road and ordered his squad to dismount. They started to fight the insurgents to break the ambush.
Barsallo and his soldiers were taking mortar fire from their left, and if they tried to push into Samara, they faced small arms and RPG fire, he said. For Barsallo, the situation felt a lot like the Omaha Beach scene from Saving Private Ryan when the movie goes into slow motion.
Retired Army Master Sgt. Luis Barsallo (left) is presented with the Bronze Star Medal with “V” device by Army Maj. Gen. Ray Shields, the adjutant general of New York, during a ceremony at New York Division of Military and Naval Affairs headquarters in Latham, New York, on June 27, 2024. (Stephanie Butler/U.S. Army National Guard) Petty Officer 1st Class Stephanie Butler“The only way I can explain it is it was something out of Hollywood,” Barsallo said. “As we were moving the vehicle, we were getting [shot at]. When we dismounted, it was even worse because you could hear the bullets whizzing by and then you could see them when they impacted the buildings.”
With the battle raging, Barsallo went into the kill zone and drove the 5-ton truck to a blocking position so that his squad could fire at the insurgents from cover while the wounded soldiers were evacuated.
“We just needed to get our guys out of there,” Barsallo said. “We needed to get the wounded out of there. That was more important. And we did not want to be the next casualties in that kill zone.”
Barsallo then led an assault by his squad on the insurgent positions until a quick reaction force arrived. When help arrived, Barsallo had his soldiers clear several blocks on foot before he felt it was safe enough for them to get back in their vehicles.
Army Maj. Gen. Ray Shields, the adjutant general of New York, credited Barsallo with saving the lives of fellow soldiers by staying calm and directing fire on enemy positions.
“He put himself in immediate and direct harm’s way to save his fellow Soldiers,” Shields said in a National Guard news release. “Luis was determined that others would not die that night.”
The following month, Barsallo once again seized the initiative under fire. On May 29, his squad came under fire from insurgent rocket propelled grenades and small arms.
Barsallo braved enemy fire to run to a machine gun position, taking charge of the crew and directing fire at the insurgents. Two enemy fighters were killed, and the rest of the enemy force retreated.
As was the case during the April battle, the enemy fire was intense, Barsallo said. One soldier told him afterward that before he broke cover to run to the M-240B machine gun, so many rounds had hit the wall behind him that they drew an outline of his body.
The reason why Barsallo’s Bronze Star with “V” device was awarded 20 years after these battles is the original paperwork for his award was lost, said Major Katie Schin, the executive officer of the New York National Guard Recruiting and Retention Battalion. nSchin and others resubmitted the award, and that involved finding officers who would signed the awards in 2004, the National Guard news release says.
Barsallo said he understands how the paperwork for his award was misplaced. The ops tempo at the time was very heavy, so the 1st Infantry Division was sent back to Iraq after getting some time home to recover from the deployment.
His Bronze Star with “V” award packet was submitted four times and rejected over administrative issues, said Barsallo, who added he believes a soldier who served in Samarra at the time eventually received the paperwork and he recognized the names of the commanders, so he knew it was a real event.
Receiving the award after so many years brings back both good and bad memories for Barsallo, who has been contemplating what he and his unit could have done better in Iraq. He also said that his award shows that leaders can only succeed if they have good people, like the soldiers in his squad.
“They give you the responsibility of taking care of people,” he said. “So, now you have the responsibility of people’s lives in your hands with the decisions that you make – and you cannot be careless with them. So, they make you better as a leader and you learn just as much and without them, you can’t be that leader because you cannot concentrate on leader tasks if the people underneath do not respect and have confidence in your ability.”
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The historic court martial of an Air Force two-star general in June ended in a guilty verdict for every charge except for one: sexual assault. Prosecutors and defense lawyers for Maj. Gen. Phillip Stewart presented cases to the jury that did not widely disagree on the evidence.
Instead, the verdict came down to the interpretation of what actions, words and thoughts constitute “consent” between two coworkers with very different ranks.
A panel of eight generals — six men and two women — found Stewart guilty of conduct unbecoming of an officer, dereliction of duty for flying an aircraft within 12 hours of drinking alcohol, adultery and an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate officer — all charges that stemmed from a TDY trip and hotel sexual encounter involving Stewart and a female staffer. Stewart did not deny that the sexual encounter occurred or that it was outside the rules for a married general officer. But the staffer, a Lieutenant Colonel, testified she felt trapped and unable to refuse Stewart’s advances, which the prosecution presented to the panel as over the legal threshold for sexual assault.
The panel acquitted Stewart on that charge.
“This is the biggest, the most high-profile, of the highest ranking general officer’s case that is resting solely on affirmative consent,” said Rachel VanLandingham, a former Air Force JAG officer. With affirmative consent, “the lack of verbal or physical resistance does not equal consent, which means the default is no longer the woman’s consenting.”
Defining ‘consent’The military’s definition of consent has evolved over the years with changes to the Uniformed Code of Military Justice. Ten years ago, VanLandingham helped push Congress to change a UCMJ statute that allowed for silence to be deemed as consent for sex. In an op-ed in the Washington Post, VanLandingham warned that “even if a jury doesn’t buy that this passivity actually equals consent, the statute allows the defense to argue that they reasonably mistook the victim’s silence as consent,” she wrote.
As late as 2022, an Army judge appeared to embrace “silence as consent” as a legal defense. In a dissenting opinion in an appeal of a sexual assault conviction, the judge argued that as one soldier assaulted another soldier on a commercial flight, he “reasonably interpreted the victim’s silence, lack of physical resistance, and lack of positive verbal or physical response as consent, given the surrounding circumstances.”
UCMJ Article 120 was eventually updated and removed the concept of silence as consent. “An expression of lack of consent through words or conduct means there is no consent. Lack of verbal or physical resistance does not constitute consent,” the UCMJ now reads.
Still, Stewart’s court martial focused on a question that is still the subject of legal disagreement and cultural discussions: Did he have consent from his staff member?
Sherilyn Bunn, Stewart’s defense lawyer said the sexual assault charge case should not have gone to court martial. She also cautioned the military’s legal officials to take into account the effects of a sexual assault charge beyond the UMCJ and military-sphere – which in some states can mean sex offender registration.
“I think that leaders need to start assessing, if there is a conviction in this case: Do we believe that sex offender registration is necessary? Because if the answer to that question is no, then to me it is really irresponsible to send those cases forward to trial,” she said.
The decision to prosecute During the initial investigation, it was not clear whether the nonconsensual sex charge would be part of the court martial. At Stewart’s preliminary hearing, military judge Col. Brian Thompson recommended the sexual assault charge not be referred to a court-martial, citing a lack of evidence.
Bunn said she was disappointed but not surprised that the charge went forward. In at least half a dozen unrelated cases that Bunn tried at Fort Bliss, Texas, she said, charging officials ignored the findings of preliminary hearing officers who found no probable cause and sent more sever charges to trial anyway.
Stewart’s case differed, she said, only in the higher stakes that officials faced in prosecuting a general.
“What was out of the ordinary I think was the behind the scenes of what would need to happen in a case like this,” Bunn said. “From a cost benefit analysis as far as like: What’s it gonna take us to do this case? How strong is the case? Does that make sense? From that perspective, I was a little surprised that they took it forward.”
Perhaps the best-known, recent case in military justice in which a preliminary hearing officer was ignored, VanLandingham said, was the case of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the former soldier who pleaded guilty to desertion after he left his post in Afghanistan and was captured and held by the Taliban for five years. In July 2023, a federal judge vacated the conviction against Bergdahl arguing that he was denied a fair trial because the overseeing judge did not disclose his application for a civilian Justice Department job during the court-martial.
at Stewart’s trial, when the prosecution and defense teams had to address the allegations of sexual assault, prosecutors had to prove “whether or not a reasonable person in those circumstances would have thought she was consenting,” VanLandingham said.
A military JAG officer who declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak on behalf of the government said sexual assault cases in general are hard to prove because of the ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’-standard.
This is where a witness or victim’s testimony comes into play. According to the testimony of the woman who accused Stewart, which was reported on by local outlets that attended the court martial in person, the woman said she and Stewart had been drinking in his hotel room with two enlisted staff members. When those two left, she found herself alone on the sofa talking to Stewart. At one point, his arm was around her and they were kissing.
The woman admitted on the stand that she had never told Stewart “no.” She also recalled Stewart putting his hand out and saying, “come on,” which she took as a direction rather than a question. Stewart undressed her and the woman testified that she just “stood there” and had “felt trapped.”
Prosecutors argued that her actions did not constitute consent, and that a senior officer should have realized it.
But the defense argued Stewart believed he had consent.
While the law doesn’t require her to say “no,” VanLandingham said the events leading up to the sex could raise reasonable doubt, “especially for [the jury of] eight three-star generals who grew up in an Air Force and in a world in which if you didn’t say no, there was consent. I think it’s really hard to change that mindset.”
VanLandingham said she doesn’t think an acquittal means that the prosecution shouldn’t have brought the charge and added that she could’ve easily seen a guilty verdict based on the circumstances: a two star general supplying alcohol and propositioning his subordinate.
“I think it’s unreasonable, personally, for him to rely on, ‘Well, she just seems to be going along with it.’ That is not enough when you are a general officer with control over her career. That’s where I find this really problematic,” she said. “That is why I think this could have easily gone the other way too.”
VanLandingham also noted that Stewart was in charge of setting standards for junior officers as the commander of the 19th Air Force which oversees all pilot training.
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Bunn said the judge’s instructions directed the jury panel to take “all circumstances” into account, including Stewart’s rank, but she added that the complaining witness — a Lt. Col. with 20 years in the military — wasn’t “a novice” in terms of dealing with differences in rank.
“Sure, being a major general and being a boss, that is a factor that the panel should have considered,” Bunn said. “But I think that it’s got to be balanced against what’s the experience of the complaining witness?”
Big losses in big caseThe Stewart case is one of yet another high-profile military justice case where serious charges were dismissed or fell flat in the UCMJ process. The details have been varied, from reversals in the Bergdahl case and those of three MARSOC medics, to acquittals in major cases like the Bonhomme Richard fire and an alledged ‘insider attack’ at a Syrian base.
But the failure of military courts to convict in high-profile cases has not been lost on many.
“It’s just a B-team legal system with relatively poorly trained and underpaid lawyers,” a current JAG officer said. “It’s great for defense lawyers that know what they’re doing.”
Many of the high-profile cases that military prosecutors have lost have been criticized as ‘over-charged,’ with prosecutors charging more sever crimes than evidence indicated. The lawyers interviewed by Task & Purpose said that Stewart probably wouldn’t have faced a court martial without the sexual assault charge.
“I think that this was pushed in some way, shape or form because of General Stewart’s rank,” Bunn said.
One JAG officer said that there may be a broader trend of pushing cases to court martial because “nobody wants to call a victim a liar.”
Bunn said just because a charge doesn’t go to trial, it doesn’t mean that the victim involved is not believed. Sometimes the facts, circumstances or evidence does not support that it’s “a good case to take the trial,” she said.
‘Different spanks for different ranks’The Stewart case also highlights an ongoing debate about a bifurcated military justice system for officers and enlisted personnel. Stewart had more than 30 years of military service under his belt along with five combat deployments.
“It’s not that he’s a major general. It’s the fact that he’s devoted 31 years of honorable service to this country. I would be absolutely shocked and offended if that wasn’t considered,” Bunn, Stewart’s defense counsel and a former Army JAG officer said.
“Enlisted folks are booted for less and he didn’t get that dismissal,” VanLandingham said. “We give a lot of lip service to general officers being held to a higher standard, but he was not here.”
But another JAG officer wonders if the decision to charge hard-to-prove cases can comes down to so-called ‘collateral consequences,’ or how a charge might effect a member’s career — which can vary widely for officers and enlisted.
“The junior enlisted gets a [Letter of Reprimand], it’ll hold up that promotion. If a junior officer gets an LOR, they will not, hard stop, promote. Period. Ever. A lot of times they’re adjusting the punishment because of the collateral consequences which you’re not supposed to do, but they do all the time,” the JAG officer said.
Bunn said that over the years, reforms to the UCMJ have changed it for the better but also said that the current climate and broader trends might end up doing more harm than good.
“There have been a lot of improvements over the past few years but one thing that I think has suffered is that the system has failed to empower commanders and leaders to make those tough decisions without having to worry about what the back blow is going to be from making it,” she said. “I think that that results in bad decisions being made.”
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Among the biggest shocks that hit Jason Pelletier at Army basic training was when he realized he was older than most of his drill instructors.
Pelletier, 41, graduated earlier this year from Basic Combat Training and will soon finish advanced training to be a combat medic. Enlisting two decades past the age of many of his fellow recruits was a long-term goal for Pelletier, who said he was driven by a still-painful memory of a mistake-filled first enlistment in the Air Force at a more traditional age.
“For me, it’s an opportunity to put on the uniform again, to serve and honor my original commitment, and to be able to do so in an honorable way,” Pelletier told the Army in a release.
In 2000, Pelletier, then 18, enlisted in the Air Force but was out two years later because of disciplinary issues, which mostly stemmed from underage drinking, Pelletier said. He was issued a General Discharge Under Honorable Conditions, a status that barred him from re-enlisting.
After his military career ended, Pelletier pursued a football scholarship at West Alabama, which led to work in the fitness industry and modeling in California. Later Pelletier moved into finance jobs, landing at Navy Federal Credit Union.
But Pelletier still felt like there was something missing. As a mortgage supervisor at Navy Federal, Pelletier said he was surrounded by other servicemembers and hated that he only had two years of service to show.
“I wanted to have that same sense of pride,” he said.
U.S. Army Reserve Spc. Jason Pelletier (right) gets a photograph with Drill Sergeant (Staff Sergeant) Augustine after graduating from U.S. Army Basic Combat Training. Pelletier said he found Augustine to be a man of character and conviction. “Everything he did was done with 110 percent effort and focus. He instilled our platoon with a mindset of training readiness and worked to turn us into the best Soldiers we could possibly be. He would often say things like, ‘You are either training or preparing to train,’ ‘move with purpose,’ and then reinforce his messaging with a little motivation or by getting to know us and our story. Taking the time to learn about who we are and push us as hard as we could so we would not only be the best Soldiers we could be, but the best versions of ourselves (fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, etc.). He inspired me!” Lt. Col. Michelle LunatoPelletier tried to join the Army National Guard four times but was rejected because of his discharge. Even after his failed attempts, Pelletier found himself knocking on the door of an Army Reserve recruiting office. He was told that his age and prior discharge required waivers to reenlist but the resistance didn’t deter him. It felt like a challenge.
“It wasn’t like a mid-life crisis type challenge, even though some may say that,” he said. “I still have a lot of gas left in the tank and I want to be able to push myself as far as I can go.”
Pelletier tried another Army recruiter, Staff Sgt. Paul Behling who recommended that the hopeful 41-year-old get letters of recommendation to support his application.
Pelletier spoke to his supervisors at Navy Federal who were happy to support him. They also referred him to one of the Vice Presidents also serving as an Army Reserve colonel. That led to his coffee meeting with Col. Matthew Lawson, commander, 2nd Brigade, 98th Training Division.
Luckily, Pelletier’s crime of being young and stupid wasn’t a deal breaker. Pelletier said he “laid it all on the line” and explained that he wanted a second chance to serve.
“He was very open and honest that he had made a mistake during his first enlistment and took responsibility for it,” Lawson told the Army. “It was clear this wasn’t just an idea, this was something he was actively working on and he was looking for assistance in bringing the process to reality.”
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Then Pelletier faced another hurdle after Behling suggested he try to get a recommendation letter from a one-star general.
“I thought, you have got to be kidding me. I don’t know any one-star generals,” Pelletier recalled. He asked Lawson if anyone in his chain of command might be sympathetic to Pelletier’s story to which he recommended Brig. Gen. David Samuelsen, commanding general, 98th Training Division.
“I thought, man, what am I doing here? This guy is going to think I am an idiot and a has been,” he said.
Eventually, Samuelsen reviewed Pelletier’s records and thought about their conversation. Samuelsen thought of a Winston Churchill quote, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
And so he wrote a recommendation letter for Pelletier to get a waiver to enlist.
“He admitted his mistakes, took corrective action, and has lived an exemplary life for over two decades since his discharge,” Samuelsen said, noting that his desire to become a urgently-needed combat medic was a strong argument in his favor.
Pelletier was in.
After completing 10 weeks of basic training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Pelletier earned the nickname of ‘Senior Wolf’ in the Wolf Pack unit. He’s spent the summer at the Combat Medic Advanced Individual Training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where he is scheduled to graduate in August. Pelletier said he wanted something “high octane” and found it a “real life applicable skill set.”
“I know a lot of people who don’t get a chance to have a second chance, or they feel like they are too old or it’s too late for them,” Pelletier said. “To be able to do this is very surreal.”
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Two Ohio soldiers who stole a Confederate train and left a 200-mile trail of havoc through the South will posthumously receive the Medal of Honor on Wednesday. Pvt. Philip G. Shadrach and Pvt. George D. Wilson were two members of a team of Union soldiers who were captured and executed after taking part in a daring Civil War mission behind enemy lines that came to be known as ‘the Great Locomotive Chase.’
The men were part of a covert team sent to disrupt the Confederacy’s railroad system in April 1862. At the time, they were assigned to the 2nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
Wilson and Shadrach both distinguished themselves beyond the call of duty, according to their Medal of Honor citations, which also praised their “gallant actions in close contact with the enemy.”
Twenty-two Union soldiers and two civilians led by James J. Andrews – a spy from Kentucky – embarked on a raid to destroy Confederate railways and telegraph lines from Georgia to Tennessee. Their audacious plan was to travel hundreds of miles into Confederate territory to meet outside Marietta, Georgia to commandeer a train engine. They named the General and headed out to Chattanooga, tearing up tracks, destroying bridges, and cutting the telegraph along roughly 200 miles.
The group, who came to be known as Andrew’s Raiders, was slowed by having to stop for oncoming trains on the single-track railway and eventually had to flee from their pursuers about 18 miles short of Chattanooga. Within 12 days, they were all captured. On June 18, 1862, Wilson and Shadrach were among the seven of the raiders who were hanged as spies. Andrews was hanged separately 11 days earlier.
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Wilson’s great-great granddaughter Theresa Chandler told reporters on Tuesday that she wished that young Americans could learn more about what Andrews’ raiders went through.
Chandler’s voice broke as she talked about how her great-great grandfather’s last words before being hanged were about how he was willing to fight for his country and he had no ill will toward Southerners.
“Sorry for being so emotional, but it touches deeply,” Chandler said at a media roundtable.
Nineteen of the 22 Union soldiers who took part in the raid became the first U.S. soldiers to receive the Medal of Honor, said Brad Quinlin, a historian based in Georgia. One soldier declined the award when offered it because he was captured early in the operation.
Shadrach and Wilson were part of every aspect of the mission, Quinlin told Task & Purpose. It’s unclear why they were not initially awarded the Medal of Honor along with the other soldiers who participated in the operation, he said.
The Civil War was quite chaotic at the time, he said. Some of the raiders escaped and the rest were later freed in a prisoner exchange. The 2nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment took such heavy casualties at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863 that it was folded into another unit and many of the regiment’s original officers were promoted and posted elsewhere.
“So, there was just nobody there to stand up for them for a length of time,” Quinlin said. “It does happen, and with events after the war, there was such chaos – it took until the 1880s for families to get notification of what happened to their loved ones during the war itself. So, you can imagine: These two men were just overlooked.”
In 2012, Quinlin was asked by one of Shadrach’s relatives to help get both men awarded the Medal of Honor. Over the next 12 years, Quinlin submitted 26 awards packets until he recently heard from the White House that the two men would finally be recognized for their heroism 162 years after their deaths.
After so many years, the award represents resolution for both Wilson and Shadrach’s families, Quinlin said.
“I volunteer at the Medal of Honor Heritage Center in Chattanooga,” Quinlin said. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stood in front of these graves and the graves of their comrades and seen the Medal of Honor insignia on the other Union soldiers but not on Philip’s and George’s graves. It’s been a process. New friendships have been built – lifelong friendships with the families. And yesterday, as we met for interviews with the press, there were a lot of tears shed as we all realized that at 4:45 this afternoon in the White House, these two men will stand with their comrades as Medal of Honor recipients.”
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Japanese prosecutors have charged two American military members with sexual assaults in two separate incidents in a five-month span, sparking a protest from the Japanese government.
A U.S. Air Force member was indicted in March for allegedly kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl on Christmas Eve. A U.S. Marine was charged in June with nonconsensual sex resulting in injury for allegedly attempting to sexually assault a woman in May, according to media reports.
Although both the Marine and airmen have been identified in media reports, U.S. officials declined to confirm their names to Task & Purpose on Tuesday.
The Japanese government issued a protest to the U.S. embassy in Tokyo after the Marine was arrested, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters on June 28.
Japan’s Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Okano Masataka has expressed his regrets to U.S. Ambassador Rahm Emanuel over the cases and asked the U.S. government to improve military discipline and take other measures to make sure such incidents do not happen again, Hayashi said at a news conference.
A U.S. Pacific Air Forces spokesperson confirmed that an airman stationed at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa had been accused of sexual assault. The airman is assigned to the 18th Wing.
“Due to the ongoing investigation, we cannot offer further details,” said the spokesperson, who referred specific questions about the case to the Okinawa Prefecture Police Department, which is leading the investigation. “The 18th Wing is committed to investigating the allegations thoroughly and has been cooperating with local authorities while ensuring due legal process under applicable laws and agreements.”
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A III Marine Expeditionary Force spokesperson also confirmed that an Okinawa-based Marine has been indicted by local authorities, adding that Corps officials are cooperating with the ongoing legal process.
“The Marine Corps goes to great lengths to instill these values in every Marine through regular education and training throughout their service,” the spokesperson said.
Both Air Force and Marine Corps officials said the alleged behavior of the two U.S. service members on Okinawa does not reflect the value of the US military or the conduct of the majority of American troops in Japan.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is closely following both sexual assault cases, said Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman.
“We are closely working with the local communities to address their concerns regarding these cases,” Ryder said at a Pentagon news briefing on Tuesday. “We are deeply troubled by the severity of the allegations, and we regret the anxiety this has caused.”
Japan is one of the United States’ closest allies, so military officials are doing everything they can to keep the lines of communication between both countries open, Ryder said.
“The respective units are working diligently with local authorities to investigate the allegations thoroughly, while also ensuring due legal process under applicable laws and agreements,” Ryder said.
The U.S. military fought a bloody battle for Okinawa in 1945. The island fell under U.S. control until 1972, when it was officially returned to Japan. Thousands of U.S. troops have remained on Okinawa due to its strategic location in the Pacific.
U.S. military bases take up about 15% of Okinawa’s land area. In order to ease the burden on the island, the U.S military plans to transfer about 4,000 of the roughly 19,000 Marines on Okinawa to Guam by 2028.
“A small detachment of Logistics Marines will move to Guam around the end of 2024 as part of the Defense Policy Review Initiative (DPRI),” a Marine Corps spokesperson told Task & Purpose. “This commencement of force flow honors a concurrence with the Government of Japan and secures a U.S. Marine Corps posture in the Indo-Pacific region that is more geographically distributed, operationally resilient, and politically sustainable. The United States Marine Corps remains committed to working closely with the Government of Japan and Guam as DPRI relocations progress.”
The American military presence on Okinawa has caused tension with the local population, which has been exacerbated by past cases of U.S. troops conducting crimes. In September 1995, a sailor and Marines took part in kidnapping and raping a 12-year-old Okinawan girl. All later served terms in Japanese prison.
The commander of U.S. Pacific Command at the time was forced to step down after telling reporters that the three service members could have hired a prostitute instead of raping the girl.
Going back decades, U.S. military bases in Okinawa have historically had problems with sexual harassment, assault, substance abuse, and other misconduct, said former Marine Maj. Kyleanne Hunter, of the RAND Corporation.
“There’s some hypotheses about why and what drives it: One, being isolated,” Hunter told Task & Purpose. “Anywhere where service members are more isolated – they’re away from more familial supports – that we see, just unfortunately, a larger instance of bad behaviors occurring.”
When U.S. troops stationed overseas are accused of sexual assault, it can create strategic problems for the U.S. government, such as affecting status of forces agreements,said Hunter, director of the RAND National Security Research Division’s Women, Peace, and Security Initiative.
The American service members who are deployed to Japan and elsewhere are there at the grace of their host countries, Hunter said.
A major component of the U.S. alliance with Japan as well as other countries is a shared value of human rights and democratic norms, all of which can be undermined when American troops cannot act appropriately with local civilians or other service members, she said.
“Sexual assault is the easiest way to break trust in the benefit of having U.S. service members there,” Hunter said. “We as the U.S. make an argument that having U.S. basing there is a benefit and is going to result in the overall safety and security of the host country. And in instances like this, where the actual human security of individuals is often undermined, it starts to raise real questions: Is the U.S. a real ally?”
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A retired Marine General who once oversaw all training across the Marine Corps and who recently was in Ukraine to review that nation’s military training was found dead on Twentynine Palms training center, the service’s largest training base.
Maj. Gen. William F. Mullen, 59, who retired from the Marines in 2020, was found dead on the base on Saturday, according to an online database maintained by the San Bernardino Couny coroner’s office. The database said Mullen was found at Building 1651, a non-descript single-story classroom building used by the base’s Communication-Electronics school. Mullen was once the commander of Twentynine Palms before taking over as the Commanding General of the Marine’s Training and Education Command, which oversees the curriculums and training centers across the Marine Corps.
The Marine Corps confirmed the general’s death Monday to local media outlets but did not respond to Task & Purpose request for details on Mullen’s death.
Early in his career, Mullen graduated from the Army’s Airborne and Ranger schools, the Marine’s Summer Mountain Leader and the Royal Marine Arctic Warfare Survival courses. In retirement, Mullen lived in Arvada, Colorado, according to local media and the coroner’s office, and the University of Colorado’s leadership center listed him as a board member.
In 2016, a Twentynine Palms photographer photographed then-brigadier general Mullen taking the Marine Combat Fitness test, including as the over-50 Marine carried another Marine in a fireman’s carry.
Mullen taking the Marine Combat Fitness Test in 2016 as a one-star general. Mullen was in Ukraine in February and met with Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Natalia Kalmykova. In photographs and an interview published in Ukrainian media, Mullen appeared to be involved in reviewing and developing training programs for Ukrainian troops, particularly at officer academies.
In an interview with a Ukrainian reporter, he expressed strong support for U.S. military support for the country.
“Ukrainians don’t have that much. Our country is not helping much these days. I am not satisfied with this. I think that politicians are not paying attention to what is really important in the world, but to what is happening in their own little world in Washington,” Mullen said. “I do not like it. Need to help. We must, we must send more aid. We have already sent a lot, but we need to keep sending money because it is a good help in your fight.”
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating the death. No details on his death or how he was found were released.
Mullen was commissioned in 1986 from Marquette University and served initially as rifle platoon commander. He deployed to operation Desert Shield and worked in both counter-terror and counter-narcotics positions during his career. He deployed with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit as the small boat raid and cliff assault company commander in the former Yugoslavia and led a counter-drug operation in Los Padres National Forest in California. He served as a Marine Aide to President Bill Clinton and commanded the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines in Fallujah, Iraq from 2005 to 2007.
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An airman was killed and five others were injured in a rapid series of vehicle accidents June 29 at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, according to the 341st Missile Wing. The name of the airman who was killed has not yet been publicly released.
The airman died in an initial vehicle crash that also injured three, officials said. Two first responders dispatched to the crash were also hurt in a second accident as they rushed to the scene.
“The cause of the accident is currently under investigation and all necessary steps are being taken to ensure the safety of our personnel and prevent future incidents,” a news release from the wing says “The safety and wellbeing of all of our Airmen is our priority and we are providing support and assistance to those impacted by this tragic event.”
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No information about the cause of the crash or how the first responders were injured was immediately available.
The five injured airmen were taken to nearby medical facilities. Air Force officials have not publicly released any information on their current medical conditions.
As of June 5, a total of 19 other airmen have been killed in motor vehicle mishaps so far in Fiscal Year 2024, according to the Air Force Safety Center. By comparison, 37 airmen were killed in crashes last fiscal year, and 22 died in Fiscal Year 2022.
“Each of our Airmen are amazing and are vital members of our team,” Col. Dan Voorhies, 341st Missile Wing commander, said in a statement. We will need time to grieve for our teammate that we lost and for our injured members to heal both physically and mentally. Our focus right now, is to make sure that all of Team Malmstrom have the support they need to make it through this difficult time.”
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During the height of the Vietnam War, Army Spc. Doris Allen studied signs of a build-up of Vietcong and North Vietnamese troops in late 1967 within the flow of reports she monitored as an Army intelligence analyst. She told her bosses an attack was coming. She was right, and — almost to the day she predicted it — the Tết Offensive sent shockwaves through South Vietnam and the American war effort.
But Doris Allen’s reports mostly fell on deaf ears, as the almost universally white men who made up the officers above her ignored the warnings from the black enlisted woman.
Dr. Doris Allen died June 11 at 97. Though her warnings prior to Tết went unheeded, her example led to a massive re-evaluation of how the Army used intelligence and she retired as a legend in the field in 1980. Today, NCO awards are named after her and she is in the Army Intelligence hall of fame.
“I just recently came up with the reason they didn’t believe me — they weren’t prepared for me,” Allen told the Army in a 2012 interview. “They didn’t know how to look beyond the WAC, black woman in military intelligence. I can’t blame them. I don’t feel bitter.”
Allen spent three decades in the armed forces, with some of her most important work during the Vietnam War, where she did three tours. “Lucki,” as she was known, went from an entertainment specialist to a military intelligence expert. The New York Times first reported on her death.
Born in El Paso, Texas on May 9, 1927, Doris Ilda Allen graduated from the then-Tuskegee Institute in 1949, using her bachelor’s degree in physical education to teach P.E. to high school students. However she was only briefly a teacher. In 1950, she joined the military as part of the Women’s Army Corps. Her career initially focused on entertainment and media, spending the Korean War editing a military newspaper in Japan and organizing shows and events for soldiers.
Allen did not stick with that field. She learned French and then went through the Prisoner of War Interrogation course at the U.S. Army Intelligence School, becoming the first woman to do so. She then served at the US Continental Army Command Intelligence Center in then-Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty). She volunteered to go to Vietnam, initially serving as an interrogator. She moved into intelligence, working as Senior Intelligence Analyst for the Army Operations Center in Long Binh, Vietnam.
During her time in Vietnam, she took notice of a buildup of North Vietnamese forces in late 1967. She saw approximately 50,000 troops massing, and she concluded a major attack was coming, targeting major South Vietnamese cities and bases. Her report even predicted when it would take place: during the Vietnamese lunar new year, Tết Nguyên Đán, in January 1968. The Tết Offensive, as it was known, kicked off on Jan. 30, 1968, just one day prior to Allen’s prediction.
Retired Army Col. Keith Nightingale, a member of the Ranger Hall of Fame who served two tours in Vietnam, compared Allen to Oscar Koch. Koch was Gen. George Patton’s intelligence officer during World War II who correctly predicted the German counteroffensive that became the Battle of the Bulge. Other intelligence chiefs dismissed the possibility, but Patton headed Koch’s warnings and analysis.
Doris Allen. (photo courtesy U.S. Army) “What [Allen] did was very analogous,” Nightingale said. He said that at the time, many intelligence reports were “massaged” to make the situation look better than it was, or cater to certain commanders’ wishes. Allen’s contrarian warning was proven correct. Whoever her commander was, he added, should have earned the Legion of Merit for sending Allen’s analysis up the chain of command, even if it was ignored.
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Unlike Koch, Allen and any other warning was not taken seriously. The Tết Offensive was devastating, taking American and South Vietnamese forces by surprise. Northern forces were able to push deep into the South, briefly taking some cities, before being repelled. The U.S. and South Vietnam did win, but only after months of intense fighting and more than 9,000 killed.
The intelligence failure leading up to the Tết Offensive led to an “agonizing reappraisal” of what military intelligence was doing and what it was missing, Nightingale told Task & Purpose.
During her time in the service, she faced prejudice for both her race and her gender, leaving her passed over for assignments or ignored.
“I guess the thing that really sticks about Vietnam is knowing you give them reliable and valid intelligence, but biases can creep through,” Allen wrote in her entry for “A Piece of My Heart,” which collected the accounts of women service members during the Vietnam War. “There are a lot of things that they might have been biased about with me. I was a specialist as opposed to being a sergeant. I was black instead of being something else. I was enlisted instead of being an officer — especially in the milieu [Army Operations Center] where there were only two enlisted people, and I was a WAC.”
Despite being ignored, Allen stuck with the service and intelligence work. While in Vietnam, Allen was promoted to Specialist 7, becoming one of only 22 people to ever hold the now-defunct rank. One of her reports in 1969 warned of a planned North Vietnamese attack on troops using chemical mortars. Using her intelligence, 101 Marines were able to avoid casualties from the attack.
Allen was later promoted to warrant officer in 1970 and started her third tour in the war. She left Vietnam that same year, after learning she was on a North Vietnamese list of assassination targets. She remained in the Army for another decade.
Doris Allen retired from the Army in 1980, after 30 years of service. She later earned a Ph.D. in Psychology and Organizational Development. For her service, Dr. Doris Allen was awarded the Bronze Star with two oak leaf clusters, among several other honors tied to her time in Vietnam. In 2009 she was inducted into the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.
Dr. Doris Allen passed away in a hospital on June 11 in Oakland, California.
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The jury is deliberating charges of sexual assault and dereliction of duty for an Air Force two-star general, just the second general officer to face a court-martial in the service’s history and the first to take his case to a jury.
The jurors in the trial began deliberating the case Friday afternoon, according to local media. All of the jurors who have sat this week for Maj. Gen. Phillip Stewart’s court martial in a military courtroom in San Antonio are 3-star generals. UCMJ rules require that court martial be heard by a jury whose members outrank the accused.
Stewart faces charges stemming from a TDY trip with a junior female officer in 2022. The junior officer testified this week that while staying overnight on a business trip, she felt forced to have sex with Stewart in his hotel room because of his rank. Stewart has maintained that the sex was consensual. According to charging documents, the alleged assaults occurred in an Oklahoma hotel room on April 13 and 14, 2023 while the two visiting Altus Air Force Base.
Since being relieved of command of the 19th Air Force in May 2023, Stewart has been charged and pleaded not guilty to charges of sexual assault, dereliction of duty for flying a training aircraft within 12 hours of drinking alcoholic beverages and conduct unbecoming an officer in the case. Earlier this week, Stewart pleaded guilty to lesser charges which included an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate officer and adultery.
Documents on the case also allege that Stewart “failed to refrain from pursuing an unprofessional relationship” between March and May and invited a companion “to spend the night alone with him in his private hotel room” during a second business trip to Denver in March.
For the charges Stewart pleaded guilty to, he faces a maximum potential punishment if a reprimand, dismissal, 18 months confinement, and forfeiture of pay. There is also a possibility for a fine, officials said.
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Stewart is the general officer in Air Force history to face a court martial. Maj. Gen. William Cooley was found guilty of sexual assault in 2022. Cooley was sentenced three days after the judge’s verdict to a reprimand and forfeiture of roughly $55,000.
Stewart was relieved in May 2023 as the head of the 19th Air Force, which oversees all of the service’s pilot training at Joint Base San Antionio-Randolph. The command responsibilities include training aircrews, remotely piloted aircraft crews, air battle managers, weapons directors, Air Force Academy Airmanship programs, and survival, escape, resistance, and evasion specialists. The command is made up of over 32,000 personnel which operate more than 1,350 aircraft of 29 different models.
He served three times as a wing commander and twice commanded in combat – first as commander of the 362nd Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron at Balad Air Base, Iraq, and as Commanding General of NATO Train Advise Assist Command-Air in Kabul, Afghanistan.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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The body of a U.S. Army veteran killed last fall near Bakhmut, Ukraine, is finally being returned to his family next week.
Task & Purpose is not identifying the veteran or his family due to multiple cases of families of Americans killed in Ukraine being harassed by Russian trolls, often after the names of their loved ones have appeared in media reports.
The former U.S soldier was killed, his family was told, by a Russian drone strike amid fierce fighting around Bakhmut. Casualties were so high and the combat so intense, his family said, that initial efforts by his Ukrainian comrades to reach the body of the American and others from his unit ended in more casualties. As a U.S. soldier, the American held an Army Military Occupational Speciality with significant and regular training in weapons and combat tactics.
More than 50 Americans have been killed in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country, most of which were U.S. military veterans, according to a list compiled by Task & Purpose from open sources.
The veteran’s mother said she hopes the families of other foreign volunteers listed as missing in Ukraine will be encouraged by her son’s story to keep believing that their loved ones will come home one day. She also wants the United States and the rest of the world to know that the war in Ukraine is still going on.
“And it’s worse now than it has ever been,” she told Task & Purpose.
Russian trolls target familiesThe veteran’s mother is part of a group of mothers whose sons have been killed in Ukraine. She said at least 20 foreign volunteers, many of whom are Americans, are still listed as missing in action in Ukraine.
Like many other families of Americans who have died in Ukraine, she was targeted by Russian trolls immediately following her son’s death.
“The next minute, through social media, I’m getting the Russian trolls saying they were going to cut [him] up in pieces, feed him to the dogs, and horrendous stuff, and that they had his body,” she said. “The embassy encouraged me not to listen. I obviously blocked them and didn’t listen. But in the back of your mind, that little piece is like: Is the embassy just protecting me? And did the Russians really get his body? So now, I can at least put that piece to rest.”
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Honoring Our Fallen, a non-profit group that supports the families of fallen troops as well as veterans killed in Ukraine, is transporting the Army veteran’s mother, siblings, partner, and his children to Los Angeles so they can be there when his body arrives on Monday, said Laura Herzog, founder of the group, which is also transporting the veteran’s body and his family to his hometown.
“We’re thankful just to honor this service member,” Herzog told Task & Purpose. “These 1%, they raise their hands, and they join our United States military, then they get out and they still feel called to serve, and they are willing to go to the lengths that they go to and sacrifice their lives for others. We’re honored to do what we can to support the family during this difficult time.”
More than 50 Americans have been killed in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country, most of which were U.S. military veterans, according to a list compiled by Task & Purpose from open sources.
The remains of at least 10 Americans remain on the battlefield, according to The Weatherman Foundation, a group of US veterans, relief and humanitarian workers, and Ukrainians dedicated to delivering humanitarian and informal security assistance, helped recover the Army veteran’s body.
When Americans are listed by the Ukrainians as missing in action because their bodies have not been recovered, making it impossible for their families to settle their financial affairs, forcing them to petition Ukrainian courts to prove that their loved ones are legally dead Ukraine requires that a body or DNA must be recovered before a missing soldier can be officially declared killed in action, said a woman whose brother was listed as missing in Ukraine in September. Once a court process is initiated, it can take between eight and 12 months.
Dangers of recovering the fallenRecovering the bodies of Americans killed in Ukraine can be a harrowing experience. In one case, The Weatherman Foundation used a drone, a dog team and mine clearing experts to safely navigate mines and unexploded ordnance to recover a Marine veteran’s body. The group then had to deal with weeks of bureaucracy before successfully reuniting the Marine veteran with his family.
The Weatherman Foundation spent 221 days searching for the Army veteran, said Iryna Khoroshayeva, the group’s Operations Manager. More than 50 people from various organizations were involved in the search efforts.
Initially, the veteran’s body was nowhere to be found, but a Ukrainian military officer gave the search team an idea to look in an area that still comes under Russian fire, Khoroshayeva said in a statement.
“A good moment was chosen, which was facilitated by bad weather and poor visibility for the enemy, so that a group of brave soldiers could first find the body, then identify it for further evacuation,” Khoroshayeva said. “The evacuation of [his] body is far from absolute luck, but rather the result of coordinated work with people who know their business and for whom the mission to find the fallen hero turned out to be a matter of honor.”
David Bramlette, deputy director of operations for the group, had served with the Army veteran in a Ukrainian military unit. Because they had many friends in common, Bramlette, The Weatherman Foundation was able to get reliable information about where the veteran’s body was.
The Weatherman Foundation coordinated with the Ukrainian military to make sure they knew the veteran’s body was in no-man’s land so they could retrieve the remains on a patrol, Bramlette said in a statement.
“If they had an opportunity to grab him and bring him back, they would, and that is pretty much what happened,” Bramlette said. “Another factor that helped was that the Ukrainian line pushed forward a little bit, so it was easier to do an extraction to get them out.”
Until recently, the veteran’s mother had expected that her son’s body would likely stay in Ukraine, a country that he fell in love with.
Now, being able to bury her son will finally bring closure to her family, especially one of her two other sons, who had continued to hold out hope that his brother was alive and hiding somewhere, she said.
“I was sent some video: They had a memorial of [him] in Kyiv, and seeing the actual coffin definitely hit home more than it has so far,” she said. “I think the reality of seeing his coffin, his casket coming off the plane in L.A. is definitely going to have an impact on us.”
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There is one experience at the core of every military career, and it is that first day — even that first hour and minute — when your civilian life crashes to an end as you run straight into the reality of basic, Day-1 military training.
It’s loud, fast and bewildering, as it has been for generations before you and everyone who has come since. It’s also, when viewed from calmer later days, hilarious to watch others suffer through.
Two military academies held that day Wednesday for their newest recruits, an annual tradition known at both the U.S. Naval Academy and Air Force Academy as “I-Day” — though perhaps predictably for the rival campuses, USNA’s “I” stands for “Induction,” while the USAFA calls it “In-processing.” The U.S. Military Academy at West Point holds “R-Day” — for “Reception” — July 1, the same day as the Coast Guard Academy’s “Day One.” The Merchant Marine Academy’s “Zero Day” is July 5.
An incoming Air Force Academy cadet on I-Day. Trevor CokleyThe admissions department of both schools released images and videos of the intake day which will look familiar to any veteran of military basic training: teenagers in civilian clothes being hounded, yelled at and pursued by yelling instructors.
They look scared. They look shook-up. They look just like everybody else who’s been in the same spot.
Initial training of students at military academies runs for close to two months, with rituals and routines that any veteran of any boot camp would recognize — shaved heads, marching, standing at attention, group fitness, learning rules and never, ever getting anything right. Unlike the campaign-hatted training NCOs who oversee enlisted training, academy students are trained mostly by upperclassmen at the school.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (June 27, 2024) U.S. Naval Academy midshipman candidates, or plebes, of the class of 2028 receive instruction from detailers during I-Day which marks the U.S. Navy photo by Stacy Godfrey Stacy GodfreyHowever, students at the Air Force Academy and West Point do get a taste of more traditional boot camp. Both the Army and Air Force keep a small cadre of fully-qualified drill sergeants — known as Military Training Instructors, or MTIs, in the Air Force — to oversee the new recruits and other military-specific training. The USNA has Marine drill instructors on campus who focus on the quarter of each class that commission into the Marines, a choice made as upperclassmen.
Click here for more pictures of future officers getting yelled at the Air Force Academy and the Naval Academy, also known as Annapolis.
The latest on Task & Purpose Uniform inspections and stricter shaving rules coming in renewed Air Force focus on ‘standards’ * One of the Army’s top Nuclear teams trained with Rangers and Green Berets * The 4th Infantry Division’s huge obstacle course looked like the zombie apocalypse * Army barber’s 57 year legacy with the Airborne leads to haircutting hall of fame * Master Chief William Goines, first Black Navy SEAL*, passes away at 88
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Phoenix Hanna, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer, died recently in a California surfing accident. Hanna was a third-generation Coastguardsman, his father said, and his son’s death marks “the first time since 1967 that there hasn’t been a Hanna on active duty in the military.”
Both Hanna’s father and grandfather also served in the Coast Guard, Paul Hanna told Task & Purpose. Hanna, 29, was surfing June 18 off Coast Guard Air Station Ventura, California, when he fell, his father said. Paul said the local medical examiner’s office told him that his son broke his neck in the fall.
“He was an outstanding Coast Guard rescue swimmer,” Paul said. “He was full of life. This is a tragic thing. The family, we tend to be a little selfish, but he is in a better place. It’s just hard because this isn’t the way it’s supposed to happen. Kids aren’t supposed to go before you.”
The Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office has ruled that Hanna’s death was an accident caused by blunt force trauma to the base of his skull and terminal drowning, the office told Task & Purpose on Thursday.
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The commissioning ceremony for Coast Guard Air Station Ventura, which was originally scheduled for June 18, was postponed due to Hanna’s death, said Lt. SondraKay Kneen, a Coast Guard spokeswoman.
Hanna enlisted in the Coast Guard in July 2012, Kneen told Task & Purpose. His awards include the Armed Forces Service Medal, the Department of Homeland Security Outstanding Unit Award, two Coast Guard Achievement Medals, the Army Achievement Medal, the Coast Guard Unit Commendation Ribbon, the Coast Guard Meritorious Team Commendation Ribbon, four Coast Guard Commandant Letter of Commendation Ribbons, the Coast Guard “E” Ribbon, two National Defense Service Medals, four Humanitarian Service Medals, the Coast Guard Overseas Service Ribbon, the Coast Guard Sea Service Ribbon, and four Coast Guard Good Conduct Medals.
He began his Coast Guard career at Port Angeles, Washington, where he served as a fireman on the Coast Guard Cutter Active. He stood watches and performed maintenance in the cutter’s engine room, his father said.
“Always looking for a challenge, he started hanging out with rescue swimmers from Air Station Port Angeles and decided he wanted to be one of them,” Paul Hanna said.
The Phoenix spent nearly nine months training for the infamously difficult Aviation Survival Technician school in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, Paul Hanna said. He was one of just six people out of an initial class of 24 to graduate, becoming one of the youngest rescue swimmers in the Coast Guard’s history at 19.
“Known by many throughout the Coast Guard as the kid who was always smiling and full of life, he was an avid surfer and all-around athlete that loved his craft so much that he went out of his way to teach survival skills to youth and adults throughout the communities he served,” Paul Hanna said.
“A third-generation career Coast Guardsman, he loved the organization that literally watched him grow up into an outstanding son, brother, uncle, shipmate, and all-around great guy,” Paul Hanna said. “His love of family, dedication to his profession, and compassion for helping others, make him the human we all strive to emulate.”
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BAGHDAD – More than five years after the Islamic State group lost its last enclave of territory, U.S. troops remain deployed to Iraq and Syria to prevent ISIS from rising from its ashes.
And the conditions that helped ISIS originally form are still in place in Syria, according to the U.S. commander charged with keeping the pressure on. U.S. troops and partner forces can disrupt, destroy, and neutralize ISIS’ capabilities, Army Maj. Gen. Joel “JB” Vowell, the commanding general of Operation Inherent Resolve told Task & Purpose, but they cannot address the underlying conditions in Syria and elsewhere that allow ISIS and al-Qaida to continue to exist
“The root causes of instability that gave birth to ISIS are still there,” Vowell said in a June 20 interview. “There’s economic challenges in the Sunni areas, quite frankly. Those instability challenges are there: lack of education, lack of opportunity, lack of jobs. And extremism is still fomenting out in the deserts in the Middle Euphrates River Valley, in the Sunni tribes.”
Although Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has emerged mostly victorious from his country’s long-running civil war, which began in 2011, part of the Syrian population remains estranged from the regime, Vowell told Task & Purpose.
And ISIS can never truly be defeated as long as Syria remains a failed state, said Jonathan Lord, director of the Middle East Security program at the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington, D.C.
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Until then, ISIS may continue to represent very little active threat, but could quickly reconstitute into a formidable terrorist organization if the U.S. were to ease the pressure Vowell’s troops maintain.
At the heart of ISIS’ resilience is instability caused by the Syrian regime, which the United States has shown no willingness to change, as it did in Iraq in 2003. Nothing short of that, Lord told Task & Purpose, has been able to end the country’s civil war with a new government in charge.
“In Iraq, you can navigate to a strategic outcome, which incorporates the objective of the defeat of ISIS, but the problem of our strategy in Syria is that our means never could sync up with our objectives,” Lord said. “And of course, our objectives related diplomatically to a broader outcome to the Syrian civil war that would lead to an election and the end of Assad’s rule. No U.S. administration was willing to invoke the necessary means to achieve that – wise or not.”
The Syrian Democratic ForcesFor the past decade, the U.S. military’s mission in Syria has been focused on the defeat of ISIS, but its tactical successes could be completely reversed if all U.S. troops withdrew from the country, he said.
Turkey views the Syrian Democratic Forces, a mostly Kurdish organization that has served as the U.S. military’s primary partner in Syria for years, as terrorists, and it has invaded the Kurdish-held enclave in northeast Syria in the past.
“The region will not suffer the SDF to exist absent the security and patronage and air support of the U.S. military,” Lord said. “The regime, Iranian-backed militias, first and foremost Turkey – it goes away in its current form when we do.”
If the U.S. withdrew from Syria and the SDF were destroyed, Sunni extremists in Syria’s Middle Euphrates River Valley could reestablish ISIS, which could threaten Iraq again, Lord said. In that case, the U.S. government would have to decide whether to intervene yet again in Iraq and Syria.
“Do we come back now with F-35s to bomb a few guys under a tree when we have these global priorities in Indo-PACOM [Pacific Command] and Europe?” Lord said. “I don’t think so.”
IraqThe United States and Iraq are currently in negotiations about whether to continue the 25-nation coalition against ISIS or transition to a bilateral security relationship between both countries.
Currently, both U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces and Iranian-backed militias carry out attacks on ISIS leaders and strongholds, but without coordination or cooperation.
Iraqi forces continue to lack critical logistics and sustainment capabilities to independently support their forces, nor have they proven they can conduct combined arms maneuver, Lord said. Additionally, many of the Iraqi government’s resources have been diverted to the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF, which constitute a parallel security force.
As things stand right now, the PMF oversees areas in Iraq where remnants of ISIS still operate, and it occasionally carries out operations against ISIS, said Lahib Higel, a senior Iraq analyst with the International Crisis Group.
“But any operations that are conducted with the support of coalition partners are coordinated with the [Iraqi] Army,” Higel told Task & Purpose. “Even if the Coalition was to withdraw, it is unlikely that the division of labour between the Iraqi Army and the PMF would change significantly.”
Iraq’s government appears to want to continue military cooperation with the United States and other coalition partners, Higel said.
“But it wants to have a greater say in what such cooperation entails and is therefore seeking bilateral agreements,” Higel said.
End GameIt is not likely that ISIS will be defeated in the near-term, said Alexander Palmer is an associate fellow in the Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C.
Many historical analyses have shown that the medium length of an insurgency is 10 years, and if an insurgent group survives for 16 years, it is likely to operate for quite a long time, said Palmer, who noted that ISIS traces its origins to al-Qaida in Iraq two decades ago.
“The flipside to this is that these long-running insurgencies rarely win either,” Palmer told Task & Purpose. “So, it’s relatively unlikely that these insurgencies develop into a successful campaign where they overthrow a government or carve out a semi-permanent state. The main exception here is the Taliban in Afghanistan, but they had state sponsorship in a way that a group like ISIS does not.”
Currently, ISIS has mostly been beaten on the battlefield, said Palmer, who added that the end game in the fight against the group will likely involve using domestic law enforcement along with the military to contain ISIS.
“We’re approaching a point at least where ISIS itself is in what the U.S. military has called ‘survival mode:’ An extremely diminished capacity; it’s focused on day-to-day survival. It has an interest in projecting power outside of the region and conducting attacks further afield, but it’s not capable. And we want to keep in that state and treat as a problem to be managed rather than an army to be defeated.”
For right now, the focus of Operation Inherent Resolve is suppressing ISIS so that it cannot mass its forces and leaving behind partner forces to deal with the group so that the U.S. does not have to remain in Iraq and Syria forever, Vowell said.
Ten years into the U.S.-led mission to defeat ISIS, the terrorist group has been greatly diminished, he said. They no longer control large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria – including Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city – and they can no longer defeat Iraq’s security forces, as they did in 2014.
“They are capable of doing small attacks, small ambushes in both countries, and we see that, and we’re on that right now with the d-ISIS [defeat-ISIS] mission,” Vowell said. “So, we’re in a good spot – not done – much better because of all the great work that went before us. It’s our job, this time in the movie, to take it to the final act and get the right credits so there’s no sequel.”
The latest on Task & Purpose Uniform inspections and stricter shaving rules coming in renewed Air Force focus on ‘standards’ * One of the Army’s top Nuclear teams trained with Rangers and Green Berets * The 4th Infantry Division’s huge obstacle course looked like the zombie apocalypse * Army barber’s 57 year legacy with the Airborne leads to haircutting hall of fame * Master Chief William Goines, first Black Navy SEAL*, passes away at 88
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The popular Austin, Texas-based festival South by Southwest, or SXSW, dropped the Army and several defense contractors as sponsors after more than 100 musicians boycotted this year’s festival over arms supplied to Israel, officials said Wednesday.
“After careful consideration, we are revising our sponsorship model. As a result, the US Army, and companies who engage in weapons manufacturing, will not be sponsors of SXSW 2025,” festival officials said in a statement.
The Army was slated to sponsor SXSW 2025 next March, and sponsored several events at the 2024 festival. The Army’s Futures Command is based in Austin and Secretary of Army Christine E. Wormuth attended the event in March. The Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit hosted several discussions throughout the week of the 2024 festival on AI and autonomy, lessons from Ukraine, pilot training and Defense Department innovation and contracting.
The service even sponsored a “BattleBots: Metal Mayhem” competition at the 2024 festival.
The Army “appreciated the opportunity” to participate in 2024, Jamie Dobson, a spokesperson for the Army told Task & Purpose. The Army served as a super sponsor in 2024 with service leaders in attendance. The Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit, which regularly works with emerging technology companies and defense contractors also hosted a week’s worth of events.
One of the first artists to pull out of the festival in protest over the war in Gaza was Squirrel Flower, a solo artist whose instagram account describes her music as “witch rock.”
“I am pulling out specifically because of the fact that SXSW is platforming defense contractors including Raytheon subsidiaries as well as the US Army, a main sponsor of the festival,” the artist wrote on Instagram.
According to the union, 120 artists dropped out of the music festival in March 2024 for having defense contractors like Raytheon, Collins Aerospace, BAE Systems and the Department of Defense as sponsors.
BG Beth A. Behn, Chief of Transportation, United States Army, COL Ken R. Bernier, MILDEP, U.S. Army DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center, Mr. Earl Newsome, CIO, Cummins, and Mr. JD Johnson, VP Business Development, General Motors Defense, participate in the “Driving Innovation: Technical Advances in Transportation” panel at the Thompson Hotel during SXSW 2024 in Austin, TX on March 8th, 2024. (US Army Photo by Patrick Hunter) Patrick HunterThough its roots are in Austin’s music scene, SXSW is now a sprawling commercial festival that markets itself as a space for “global professionals” to encounter new ideas and “diverse topics.” The Army has had a presence at the event in recent years which included speaker panels on topics like quantum sensors and biotechnology and held interactive demonstrations on new gadgets like wearable sensors, semi-autonomous aircraft, mixed reality technology and robots.
It’s unclear if the sponsorship decision will affect individually hosted events focused on military and defense topics. SXSW officials declined to comment and forwarded its singular public statement on the matter to Task & Purpose.
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“We value any opportunity to join with our community to ignite discovery and make new connections. The Army will continue to seek opportunities to meet technology innovators and leaders, explore new ideas and insights, and create dynamic industry partnerships because tomorrow is worth protecting,” Dobson said.
Participants from Army Futures Command who demonstrated new technology and highlighted broader research on topics like renewable energy were “well received” by attendees, she said.
In a post on X, the United Musicians and Allied Workers union called it a “major campaign victory” for activists and “principled artists who withdrew their labor in solidarity with Palestine,” and praised SXSW for dropping sponsorship deals with “weapons manufacturers and war profiteers.”
The annual festival consists of events ranging from speaker sessions on film, culture, music, and technology, parties, award presentations to pitch competitions and art exhibitions and even live musical performances. The event attracts more than half a million attendees, according to the event’s site, as well as high profile celebrities and even politicians. In 2016, former President Barack Obama was featured as the keynote speaker.
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In mid-April, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, and Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, sent a letter to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough demanding to know why the agency was wounding itself.
Specifically, they worried about a series of seemingly contradictory eligibility and staffing policies. In March, the VA handed down a directive that expanded healthcare eligibility to millions of veterans who were exposed to toxins and other hazards while serving in the military. And yet not long after, the department paused hiring for most positions, with plans to cut as many as 10,000 full-time staff in 2025 and then another 10,000 in 2026.
“They’re cutting front-line people who see patients in the clinic,” an anonymous VA official vented to CNN, which broke the news of the Congressional letter. “We have no idea why they are making this move.”
Moran and Tester expressed similar surprise, deriding the VA’s staffing reductions as both “drastic” and “shortsighted.” Their condemnation was at once politically advantageous and deeply disingenuous. Moran and Tester, after all, are Washington’s two most powerful veterans’ policymakers. Not only are they both acutely aware of the forces squeezing VA staffing levels, but they also played leading roles in creating this crisis. As they dashed off their pointed questions to McDonough, both Moran and Tester had on their desks a VA Red Team report, written by independent experts on veterans’ care, that provided precise details of what’s gone wrong with VA budgets and staff — and how to fix it.
The report makes clear that VA is not struggling with these issues due to some dangerous or self-defeating instinct, but simply because Tester, Moran, and their Congressional colleagues have waged a campaign to redirect public dollars from VA care into the private sector.
This work was launched in earnest exactly a decade ago, with the passage of the 2014 VA Choice Act, and solidified four years later via the VA MISSION Act. These twin laws, boiled down to their essence, outsource care to the private sector when the VA cannot offer services under a set of arbitrary and often illogical conditions. (If, for instance, an appointment cannot be confirmed within 28 days, a VA patient is given a referral to the private sector, even when the wait time there is ultimately longer.)
Tester and Moran were key supporters of both bills and have stuck by them even as serious issues around cost, contractor negligence, and quality care issues have emerged. In 2017, for instance, a reporter at Montana Public Radio pointed to Choice’s myriad problems before asking Tester why the program should not simply expire.
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“Because I think there’s a role for community care to fill in the cracks around the VA care,” Tester replied. That same year, Moran ignored similar problems with Choice. He introduced legislation to reform the program, but it was overwhelmingly focused on how to allocate more money for private care and to more seamlessly pay private providers
Since then, leaders in both parties have allowed private care spending to spiral out of control – repeatedly employing the rhetoric that private providers are vital to filling in gaps while, in reality, allowing them to cannibalize the VA’s care budget. The Red Team report crystalizes this worrying trend, noting that 40 percent of VA patients were provided private care in Fiscal Year 2022 – fueling a surge in private care costs which is now over $30 billion annually.
“This could create a self-perpetuating cycle in which increased community care spending results in less direct care funding that negatively impacts direct care capacity, leading to increased community care reliance, and a continuous ‘downward spiral’ for VHA’s direct care system,” the report concludes. An evident sign of this spiral is the VA’s belt-tightening for staff that now has lawmakers up in arms.
The contents of the report were first reported by The American Prospect. Its six authors include Kenneth W. Kizer, a Navy veteran and nationally known leader in healthcare quality and hospital management, who, as VA Under Secretary for Health, led the transformation of the modern VHA under President Bill Clinton. Also on the Red Team is Dr. Jonathan Perlin, who served in the same role under President George W. Bush and is now the President and CEO of The Joint Commission Enterprise.
Despite their diverse backgrounds, the authors came to the unanimous decision that “VA urgently needs to take action to control community care utilization and spending if the direct care system is to continue to be available to serve the diverse, specialized, and often highly complicated health care needs of enrolled veterans.”
Were Tester and Moran to meaningfully engage with this report, they would find solutions to the staffing problems they’re publicly fuming about. The authors urge leaders, for instance, to highlight VA’s superior care compared to that delivered by the private sector. They also ask Congress to adequately provide the resources needed to build the VA’s internal treatment capacity.
“Absent additional new funding to pay for rising VCCP costs,” the authors concluded, “VHA will likely be forced to consider eliminating VHA direct care services or closing VA facilities.”
The letter from Tester and Moran is ultimately frustrating but unsurprising. Throughout the VHA’s history, Congress has established a predictable pattern of failing to adequately fund and support the VA, followed by cynical political attacks on issues that stem directly from this underfunding. Lawmakers are also now facing lobbying not only from veteran service organizations(VSOs) but private companies involved in this outsourcing campaign. In this election cycle alone, David McIntyre, the founder and CEO of TriWest Healthcare Alliance, which earns billions administering the VA’s private care network as one of its two third-party administrators (TPAs), has given $4,950 and $3,000 to Tester and Moran, respectively, according to federal election records.
When McIntyre has appeared before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, he’s generally received a warm reception. More recently, when McDonough came before the committee, Tester vaguely ordered him to make more investments in staffing without acknowledging Congress’ vital role as holders of the purse strings and drafters of the policies.
“Hopefully your VISN Directors will take a look and say, ‘Hey, we’ll put pressure on you to get more docs in here because we need them,’” Tester said. “Otherwise, the community care issue is going to continue to grow and grow and grow.”
A senior Hill staffer fumed that lawmakers are engaging in “willful ignorance,” refusing to draw a connection between VA budgetary issues and outsourcing. Also unacknowledged is the fact that VA care is safer, faster, and more effective than private options. “The real interest is not quality of care, it’s shoveling taxpayer dollars into the pockets of TriWest and other VA contractors,” the staffer contended.
Indeed, the major veterans policy package being pushed for passage ahead of Election Day contains two poison pill proposals aimed at further loosening eligibility rules for private care. These actions will demand even more money. By contrast, insourcing efforts recommended by the Red Team could save the VA billions of dollars annually. “The lay of the land now is simple,” the Hill staffer concluded. “Conservatives really want to open the door to even more outsourcing, and Democrats are too spineless to stick up for the VA as an institution.”
If Tester and Moran really want to serve veterans, they should be carefully reviewing the Red Team report and pushing VA to immediately implement its findings. Without swift action, the Red Team’s authors warn, the VA will continue “eliminating choice for the millions of veterans who prefer to use the [VA] direct care system for all or part of their healthcare needs.”
The latest on Task & Purpose Uniform inspections and stricter shaving rules coming in renewed Air Force focus on ‘standards’ * One of the Army’s top Nuclear teams trained with Rangers and Green Berets * The 4th Infantry Division’s huge obstacle course looked like the zombie apocalypse * Army barber’s 57-year legacy with the Airborne leads to haircutting hall of fame * Master Chief William Goines, first Black Navy SEAL*, passes away at 88
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An Air Force special operations commander who oversaw training AC-130 gunship crews was relieved of command this week after being arrested for allegedly choking a woman and child.
Air Force Lt. Col. Brent P. Byng was relieved as commander of the 19th Special Operations Squadron on Monday, according to Air Force Special Operations Command, or AFSOC, after being arrest on June 23 on domestic violence and related charges.
“Command is a privilege, not a right,” AFSOC said in a statement. “The Air Force has a strict zero-tolerance policy for illegal activity conducted by its members on or off base and holds commanders to the highest standards. In the interest of the unit, the member, and the Air Force, Lt Col Byng was relieved from command for cause.”
Byng was arrested by the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office in Florida on June 23 for allegedly choking a woman and a child, according to WKRG-TV, a CBS affiliate television station that covers Florida and Alabama.
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He is also accused of taking the woman’s cell phone so that she could not call for help.
Byng has been charged with felony counts of cruelty towards a child, obstructing justice, battery, and aggravated assault, according to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office.
A member of Byng’s family reached by phone on Wednesday told Task & Purpose that he did not want to comment for this story.
Byng had led the squadron at Hurlburt Field, Florida for little more than a month, according to AFSOC. His official biography was not immediately available and an interim commander has been appointed, officials said. The 19th SOS trains flight crews of the AC-130 and MC-130, the specialized gunship and tankers versions of the C-130 cargo plane flown by AFSOC.
AFSOC said it is aware of Lt. Col. Byng’s arrest and Air Force officials are fully cooperating with the local authorities, adding that the incident is being investigated by local law enforcement.
“We have full confidence in our community partners to conduct a thorough and fair investigation into this incident and are cooperating fully with any requests they have,” AFSOC said.
The latest on Task & Purpose
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- Master Chief William Goines, first Black Navy SEAL, passes away at 88
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The Army released new directives Wednesday aimed at defining “extremist” and gang-related activity, two ideas that leaders have long struggled to spot within the ranks. The new rules direct new training and spell out guidance to commanders on how to handle soldiers who may be affiliated with groups widely viewed as dangerous.
The new rules aim to define “active participation,” an Army spokesperson told Task & Purpose. The new directives give commanders more guidance on “when they should take action,” and helps clarify to NCOs and soldiers on “what they can and can’t do.”
According to a study by the RAND Corporation, a variety of factors lead military members to be attracted to extremist movements like “having a passion for political change, looking for a sense of belonging, and seeking excitement.” For veterans who leave active duty and lose their sense of belonging or purpose from their job in the military, the connection is clear. But there are a host of other experiences that can influence people to become extremist followers such as traumatic life events, propaganda, interactions with extremist group members and social bonds with those members, “especially if individuals are feeling lonely or isolated.”
The Pentagon’s handling of troops with extremist views goes back decades. During World War II, the Army started a unit known as the 620th Engineer General Services Company as an unofficial place to keep German-born soldiers, whom commanders suspected of being disloyal. In the 1986, the Pentagon issued a memo on participation in hate groups after reports surfaced of service members involved in Ku Klux Klan activities.
More recent examples have featured troops with far right and white supremacist ideologies like the scores of active duty troops and veterans who participated in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol in Washington D.C. There was also Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Vasillios Pistolis who was imprisoned in 2017 and kicked out of the service for joining the white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The problem for the military, according to RAND, has been how to define extremism. The Army directive issued Wednesday morning, tried to do just that.
Under the new policy, soldiers are directly prohibited from “posting, liking, sharing, re-tweeting, or otherwise distributing content” to endorse extremist activities.
“You’ve always been accountable for your online presence but this definitely clarifies some of that,” the spokesperson said. If a soldier argues that they liked or shared extremist content in a personal capacity, the directive now clarifies that it isn’t allowed, they added.
The two directives were born out of a request by Congress in the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act. The directives will also influence the Army’s new command policy on these topics which is set to be released later this year.
Defining extremist and gang activitiesOne of the new directives issued Wednesday updates Army policy by explaining what active participation in those activities looks like in order “to add clarity for Soldiers and Commanders,” Col. Jon Clausen from the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs office said in a statement.
Under the directive, extremist activities include advocating or engaging in force or violence to “deprive individuals” of constitutional or legal rights; encouraging military or civilian Defense Department personnel to violate laws; and advocating or supporting “the overthrow” of the U.S. government.
“Extremism calls into question a Soldier’s ability to follow orders from, or effectively lead and serve with, persons of diverse backgrounds, and it prevents maximum utilization and development of the Army’s most valuable asset-its People,” according to the directive.
The directive also addresses soldiers’ gang participation and defines criminal gangs as organizations “that advocate the planning or commission or one or more criminal offenses” and share a group identity through shared names, slogans, tattoos, graffiti, clothing style or color.
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Under the policy, covered extremist activities are defined as advocating for “widespread” discrimination based on race, color, origin, religion, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation and engaging in force or violence to “achieve goals that are political, religious, discriminatory, or ideological in nature.”
The directive also further defines what actions the Army will consider as participation in or support for extremist ideologies and activities. This means soldiers are prohibited from providing resources or material support; communicating information that compromises operational security of military organizations or missions; recruiting others; fundraising or personally contributing to an extremist organization; creating, organizing or taking a leadership role in those organizations; demonstrating or rallying in support by attending meetings; distributing literature or promotional materials; and displaying paraphernalia, words or symbols (flags, clothing, tattoos, bumper stickers on or off base).
The policy also enhances and training requirements, Clausen said. Now, soldiers in initial active duty training, pre-commissioning training, professional military education, and commander training will receive education on extremism.
ReportingOne of the new directives asks commanders to be more vigilant about spotting extremist tendencies and reporting them up the chain. This includes remaining “attentive for signs of extremism” even if it “may not rise to the level off active participation.”
Currently, commanders are required to report allegations of extremist participation to Army counterintelligence units and the Army Criminal Investigation Division. But with the new guidance, commanders will now also report allegations to the Army Inspector General office.
The directive follows requirements set in the 2021 NDAA for service IGs to work with the Deputy Inspector General for Diversity and Inclusion and Extremism in the Military “to establish policies, processes, tracking mechanisms and reporting requirements for allegations of supremacist, extremist, and criminal gang activity in the Army,” Sean Mackintosh from the Army Inspector General Agency said in a statement.
The IG will be required to send quarterly reports to Army and DOD officials on allegations, actions taken and investigations for substantiated and non substantiated extremist cases. Every year, a report will note any major trends or incidents found by the IG.
Before the directive, all prohibited activities, including extremism, were not tracked separately by Army entities. For example, allegations of any prohibited events like driving under the influence or extremist activity were tracked under the same procedures.
The directive empowers commanders to prohibit soldiers from participating in extremist activities that can “affect readiness, good order and discipline, or morale within the command.” The policy states that commanders can choose adverse administrative actions in addition to or in lieu of other punitive measures like Uniform Code of Military Justice action, involuntary separation, reassignment, loss of security clearance, bar to continued service or other administrative actions.
“In an effort to minimize the risk of future active participation in extremist activities, commanders should remain alert and should intervene early, primarily through counseling, when observing signs of future extremist activities that may not rise to the level of prohibitions,” the directive states.
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U.S. troops who were convicted under a now-defunct military law that targeted gay service members will receive formal pardons, the White House announced Wednesday.
“Today, I am righting an historic wrong by using my clemency authority to pardon many former service members who were convicted simply for being themselves,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “Despite their courage and great sacrifice, thousands of LGBTQI+ service members were forced out of the military because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The order, announced Wednesday, grants clemency to thousands of service members whose official military records reflect a conviction between 1951 and December 2013 under the Uniform Code of Military Justice’s Article 125. The former UCMJ article outlawed “unnatural carnal copulation” and “consensual sodomy,” language used for decades to prosecute gay military members.
Such convictions or other punishments under Article 125 can bar members from benefits even after they have left the military.
The language was repealed in 2013 after the Supreme Court declared that the prosecution of these cases was unconstitutional.
A senior administration official told reporters that they expected the pardon to impact thousands of discharged service members.
Once former service members apply for a “certificate of pardon” they can use it to “apply to have their discharge characterization changed with the relevant military branch,” a senior official said. For many, it “should unlock, down the road, access to critical benefits.”
The process to seek discharge upgrades will not change but officials said they are going to “take steps to try to make it as easy as possible for individuals to apply for it” by including instructions on the process with the pardon certificates.
Biden’s pardon will also apply to servicemembers who have died. Officials did not say whether former troops or their family members would be eligible to receive back pay for benefits they were shut out from because of their discharge. “It’s specific to the veteran,” an official told reporters.
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The pardoning process focuses on Article 125 convictions but does not include other charges that may have been applied against gay troops, like conduct unbecoming.
“There is a separate process for individuals that fall into that category to go through the normal DOJ office of the pardon attorney process and we’re already doing work with DOJ to make sure that those applications, as they come in, are flagged and expedited,” a senior administration official said.
Biden said the pardon was about “dignity, decency, and ensuring the culture of our Armed Forces reflect the values that make us an exceptional nation.” He noted that some service members faced court-martials over Article 125 charges and “carried the burden of this great injustice for decades.”
History of discrimination The Pentagon has come a long way in the acceptance of service members with different sexual orientations. The military’s official anti-LGBTQ stances date to WWII when the Armed Forces officially enacted a policy that “discharged homosexuals regardless of their behavior.” In 1981, the Defense Department released a policy stating that homosexuality was “incompatible with military service.”
Between 1980 and 1993, DOD officials found more than 19,000 service members who had been separated because of their sexual orientation.
In 1993, the Clinton Administration helped pass the law known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” which allowed gay and lesbian troops to serve in the military as long as they kept their sexual orientation private. By the time Congress finally repealed the law in 2010, thousands more had been discharged for their sexual orientation.
In September 2023, the Pentagon announced it would review nearly 2,000 discharges of service members who were separated under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Under the Biden Administration, progress in this realm has continued. Officials highlighted several policies and steps in recent years to protect LGBTQ+ service member interests like lifting the ban on open service of transgender service members, defending attacks on access to gender affirming health care, and implementing department wide diversity inclusion policies “explicitly for LGBTQI+ service members and civilian defense personnel.”
Officials said they’ll “continue to defend that work, even though as noted, it continues to be politicized.”
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BAGHDAD – Two soldiers deployed to Syria jumped in to save a local man from a grisly fate after one of his arms became stuck in a running generator.
The incident took place on March 24 at a U.S. military base in northeast Syria where Sgt. Lauren Shalabi and Spc. Heather Tarasewicz are both assigned. The two soldiers spoke to Task & Purpose last week
Shalabi, who is assigned to the New Jersey National Guard’s 250th Brigade Support Battalion, said she was about to eat a salad at an on-base market when its owner came looking for help. A local man working as a contractor, the owner told her, had become stuck in a generator.
Once at the generator, Shalabi could see the man’s arm was roughly elbow-deep in the machine’s gearing and was completely stuck. Although he was not screaming, the man was clearly in pain, she told Task & Purpose.
Shalabi, a New Jersey police officer at home, reacted without thinking: “I just pulled him out.”
By the time Shalabi freed the man from the generator, he had lost so much blood that there was a puddle on the ground, she said.
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As Shalabi pulled the man out, Tarasewicz, an Army Combat Medic with the New Jersey National Guard’s 114th Infantry Regiment, 44th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, arrived at the scene. She quickly realized the man was cut deep enough to expose part of his bone, and immediately began treating him by applying pressure to his wound to control the bleeding. Thankfully none of his major arteries had been severed.
Tarasewicz said she also made sure that the man had not lost consciousness or been electrocuted.
“He was perfectly aware of what was going on, saying he had been cut by the generator,” she said.
Shalabi, who speaks Arabic, explained to the man Tarasewicz’s treatments, including putting gauze on his wound and wrapping up his arm. She also asked if he had passed out.
Eventually, they walked the man to a place where he could sit down. Tarasewicz checked to see if the man still had blood flowing to his fingers and made sure he was not suffering from symptoms of shock, including nausea and dizziness.
The man assured the two soldiers that he had been hurt worse in the past, when he was shot in the stomach by the Islamic State group, Shalabi said.
He was ultimately treated by a U.S. military surgical team, which removed a fragmented section of his arm bone. Shalabi credited the surgical team for their expert treatment of the man.
Treating severe injuries is nothing new for Tarasewicz as a combat medic with extensive emergency room experience, nor was Shalabi fazed by the site of exposed flesh and bone.
“I work in Jersey City,” Shalabi said. “It’s pretty much high crime, a lot of stabbings and shootings, and just dead bodies. I’m used to that, so seeing that is nothing to me. It’s just an ordinary day at work.”
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A soldier at Joint Base Lewis-McChord is charged with allegedly killing his eight-month pregnant wife and another soldier.
Army officials told Task & Purpose that Spc. John Maupin, a scout with the 7th Infantry Division, was in custody after two soldiers assigned to JBLM, Washington and a family member “were involved in a fatal domestic violence incident” June 21 in Lacey, Washington. Maupin was arrested Friday after leading police on a high-speed chase that reached speeds of 110 mph. He faces charges of first degree assault while armed with a deadly weapon, second-degree murder and attempting to elude police.
John Maupin is accused of killing his wife, Julia Maupin, and Sgt. Brandon Rudlaff. In a 911 call, Julia’s mother, Colleen O’Toole — who lives in the same house — described Rudlaff as Julia’s “best friend/boyfriend” who shared a room with her daughter. John had been staying in a third bedroom alone, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Rudlaff was a team chief for the 7th Infantry Division. His awards included the Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Korea Defense Service Medal and Army Service Ribbon.
Julia Maupin was eight months pregnant, police said.
Julia Maupin and Sgt. Brandon Rudlaff were found dead in a house that authorities say they shared with John Maupin. Photos from Facebook. Domestic abuse involving pregnant women is far from uncommon. Nearly 324,000 pregnant people in the U.S. are battered by their intimate partners every year. According to the National Partnership for Women & Families, many women report that domestic abuse started or intensified when they became pregnant.
As for domestic abuse that turns fatal, homicide is the leading cause of death among pregnant women in the U.S., according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
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JBLM officials said O’Toole called 911 Thursday evening to report that her daughter and Rudlaff had been shot by Maupin.
O’Toole told officials that Julia and John Maupin fought often and that John had previously threatened suicide multiple times. O’Toole said that she had heard Julia Maupin and John Maupin arguing earlier in the day, during which Julia told John that he did not have permission to go into her room or take her phone. Later that night, O’Toole heard at least five gunshots ring out and found her daughter and Rudlaff’s bodies without a pulse.
“Colleen said she didn’t actually see John but saw his black shirt that he had on earlier in the day,” according to the affidavit. Michael Delgado, O’Toole’s partner who also lives in the house, told officials he watched John Maupin come down the stairs with a gun and flee in his car.When John Maupin was interviewed by local police, “John stated that he has an alter ego named ‘New John’ who took over and he couldn’t remember anything,” according to the affidavit. He also told police he had a gun in his glove box, “but that he didn’t own a gun.”
John Maupin has a firearm review hearing on Thursday and his arraignment is scheduled for July 2, according to the Thurston County prosecutor’s office.
The latest on Task & Purpose Uniform inspections and stricter shaving rules coming in renewed Air Force focus on ‘standards’ * One of the Army’s top Nuclear teams trained with Rangers and Green Berets * The 4th Infantry Division’s huge obstacle course looked like the zombie apocalypse * Army barber’s 57 year legacy with the Airborne leads to haircutting hall of fame * Master Chief William Goines, first Black Navy SEAL*, passes away at 88
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On the eve of facing trial for sexual assault, a two star Air Force general pleaded guilty to lesser charges, including an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate officer and adultery. Maj. Gen. Phillip Stewart’s court martial on more serious charges including sexual assault is expected to continue this week. Stewart originally pleaded not guilty in March.
Court martials of general officers are exceptionally rare. If the trial proceeds in the coming days, Stewart will join Maj. Gen. William Cooley as the only senior officers in Air Force history to face a court martial.
Appearing in a Joint Base San Antonio courtroom Monday, Stewart pleaded guilty to pursuing an unprofessional relationship with a subordinate officer and adultery, according to reporting by Stars & Stripes.
According to charging documents, allegations against Stewart include an assault on an unnamed woman in an Oklahoma hotel room on April 13 and 14 while on a business trip to Altus Air Force Base. Stewart also faces charges over allegations that he flew an Air Force plane within 12 hours of drinking alcohol.
He pled not guilty to the remaining charges for sexual assault, dereliction of duty for flying a training aircraft within 12 hours of drinking alcoholic beverages and conduct unbecoming an officer.
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Stewart faces four additional charges of unprofessional behavior and relationships, including a charge of engaging in extramarital sex during the same April trip to Oklahoma. The documents also allege that Stewart “failed to refrain from pursuing an unprofessional relationship” between March and May and invited a companion “to spend the night alone with him in his private hotel room” during a second business trip to Denver in March.
The two star general requested a court-martial by a jury panel for the remaining charges which will begin Monday.
Stewart was relieved in May 2023 as the head of the 19th Air Force, which oversees all of the service’s pilot training at Joint Base San Antionio-Randolph. The command responsibilities include training aircrews, remotely piloted aircraft crews, air battle managers, weapons directors, Air Force Academy Airmanship programs, and survival, escape, resistance, and evasion specialists. The command is made up of over 32,000 personnel which operate more than 1,350 aircraft of 29 different models.
He served three times as a Wing Commander and twice commanded in combat – first as Commander of the 362nd Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron at Balad Air Base, Iraq, and as Commanding General of NATO Train Advise Assist Command-Air in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Stewart’s trial was projected to start June 17, according to the UCMJ docket.
The latest on Task & Purpose Uniform inspections and stricter shaving rules coming in renewed Air Force focus on ‘standards’ * One of the Army’s top Nuclear teams trained with Rangers and Green Berets * The 4th Infantry Division’s huge obstacle course looked like the zombie apocalypse * Army barber’s 57 year legacy with the Airborne leads to haircutting hall of fame * Master Chief William Goines, first Black Navy SEAL*, passes away at 88
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In 1944, the tiny island of Peleliu was the site of the some of the fiercest fighting of World War II, as Marines and Army soldiers fought to seize an airfield carved into its coral rocks. Saturday, that legacy was revisisted as Marines began flying again from Peleliu, this time with an eye towards its value in the modern Pacific theater.
A Marine Corps KC-130J Super Hercules tanker assigned to 1st Marine Air Wing touched down on Peleliu June 22. It was a major milestone for the U.S. Marine Corps’ ongoing efforts to restore and update military installation in the Pacific, many of which have World War II roots. The airstrip was officially recertified earlier this month.
The fighter for Peleliu was one of the bloodiest in U.S. history as almost 50,000 Marines and Army soldiers pried the tiny island away from 10,000 Japanese soldiers. Nearly one of every three Americans that landed at Peleliu was killed or injured, the highest rate of any amphibious landing of the war, according to the Marines.
“Today is a historic moment as we land a Marine Corps aircraft on the ‘Sledge’ runway,” Maj. Christopher Romero, commanding officer of Marine Corps Engineer Detachment Palau (MCED-P). “This remarkable achievement demonstrates the strategic importance of our mission and our dedication to regional stability and security.”
The name ‘Sledge’ is in honor of Eugene Sledge, a Marine who fought in the Battle of Peleliu and wrote about it in his book “With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa,” one of the books that would provide material for “The Pacific.”
According to the Department of Defense, the newly recertified airstrip, as well as other military improvements on the island, are “critical to enhancing U.S. military strategic capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region.” Peleliu is one of several locations in the Pacific where the U.S military has been upgrading or expanding its presence. That includes building up the military presence on Guam, putting newer aircraft in Japan and refurbishing sites that date back to the early 20th century. At Peleliu, more work is needed before the project is complete, but the recertification of the airstrip is a major milestone in restoring the site.
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The decades-old airfield had been essentially reclaimed by nature. Crews had to clear away large amounts of vegetation — and sweep the area for any unexploded ordnance from the war, an ongoing problem in the Pacific — before work on the airstrip proper could be done. The work also included supplemental projects, such as road improvements on the island.
The island, part of the nation of Palau, is notoriously small. A coral reef island, it is barely more than 5 square miles in size. Despite that, its airstrip was deemed a key step in the American island hopping campaign of World War II, pushing closer to the Japanese home islands (some, historians, though, question the value of the small island, and the high price paid for it, noting that the airfield never became a key outpost for airpower). The battle, which began Sept. 15, 1944, ran three months, ending with an American victory on Nov. 27. III Amphibious Corps, made up of Marines from the 1st Marine Division and soldiers from the 81st Infantry Division suffered at least 1,989 dead and more than 8,500 wounded. As part of the wider work on Peleliu today, the Marine Corps is expanding the Peleliu Civic Center Museum and adding pieces left over from the battle.
The latest on Task & Purpose Uniform inspections and stricter shaving rules coming in renewed Air Force focus on ‘standards’ * One of the Army’s top Nuclear teams trained with Rangers and Green Berets * The 4th Infantry Division’s huge obstacle course looked like the zombie apocalypse * Army barber’s 57 year legacy with the Airborne leads to haircutting hall of fame * Master Chief William Goines, first Black Navy SEAL*, passes away at 88
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With American troops no longer welcome in Niger after a military coup, the U.S. is looking for new allies in the region, including Libya, the top official for Africa Command said Monday.
“We’re working through diplomatic means and also defense means with Libya,” Marine Corps Gen. Michael Langley told reporters ahead of the 2024 African Chiefs of Defense Conference in Gaborone, Botswana. After Langley’s remarks Monday on growing engagement with Libya, a defense official told Task & Purpose that the U.S. does not have troops in Libya, nor does it have plans to deploy troops there soon.
Langley’s comments come after the Pentagon announced that the U.S. would withdraw its troops based in Niger. Before the slated withdrawal, the U.S. had roughly 1,000 troops and defense contractors in Niger at its two bases, Air Base 101 and Air Base 201.
On Monday, Langley told reporters that the military was “on pace” to “complete movement of equipment and personnel” in Niger by the mutually agreed upon date of Sept. 15. The general did not detail the type of capabilities, weapon systems or technology being moved but said that the U.S. would be done moving equipment and personnel from Airbase 101, near the capital of Niamey, “within a few weeks.” Then the focus will be on moving assets from air base 201, he said.
Reengagement with Libya would mark a turning point in U.S. relations with the war torn nation which crumbled after the terror attack on the American embassy in Benghazi in 2012. U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other American embassy personnel, including Air Force veteran Sean Smith, were killed in the attack. In 2020, Libyan national Mustafa Al-Imam was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison for the attack.
In 2014, the U.S. shut its embassy in Tripoli and moved diplomatic operations to Tunis in the neighboring country of Tunisia. In March 2023, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. was “actively” working to re-establish its diplomatic presence in Libya.
Langley said there would be representation from “both sides of the Libyan country” at the defense conference, including the Libya National Army and Government of National Unity.
The UN-backed GNA was established in 2015 as a unified rival to factions born out of the 2014 elections in Libya, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. The GNA is based out of Tripoli, led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj and controls areas in the western part of Libya with the remaining parts of the country’s official military alongside local militias.
The Libya National Army, a force of around 25,000 fighters which controls large parts of east and south Libya. The LNA is led by Khalifa Haftar, a former general who helped Muammar Qaddafi take power in 1969. He also allegedly worked with the CIA in the 1990s after breaking with Qaddafi.
With the U.S. military’s posture change in the Sahel region, Langley has visited a host of west African nations to discuss counter terrorism strategies.
“When I talk to all these countries, they’re not asking for U.S. boots on the ground to any scope or magnitude. They say it’s their fight. They’re looking for capabilities,” Langley said, adding that those capabilities include intelligence sharing or being able to identify “warnings for themselves.”
Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also told reporters Monday ahead of the conference that the U.S. was looking at partnerships with other west African countries to fill the gap left by the Niger withdrawal.
Shortly after officials in Niger demanded American troops out, its eastern neighbor, Chad, had the same request for U.S. troops based at Adji Kossei Air Base near N’Djamena. In April, the Pentagon said it was repositioning some of its military forces in Chad.
On Monday, Langley said that the U.S. maintains its presence of “a few troops” in Chad for the Multinational Joint Task Force, an international coalition aimed at combating Boko Haram and other regional terrorist groups in the Lake Chad Basin.
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Russia, China influenceWhile discussing growing influence from Russia and China on the continent, Langley said that the U.S. has heard from new countries in the west, across the Sahel and in northern Africa who are looking to further their military and diplomatic relationships. Some of the countries in talks with U.S. officials have “been in dire straits,” he said, and “have reached out to us because they know the intrinsic value that we bring to the table.”
“We’re not coming up here saying that the panacea is just building more strength in their military. We offer whole of governance,” Langley said, adding that U.S. Agency for International Development and State Department officials would be present at the defense conference.
While the U.S. is expanding its reach in Africa, Langley also said that China has been “actively seeking and engaging” with a number of countries in the east and western part of the continent.
“They too have been trying to engage with these countries and trying to replicate what we do so well in building partnership in capacity,” Langley said. “But they just don’t do it as well as we do.”
The general also noted China’s new naval base in Djibouti as something the U.S. military is keeping an eye on to decipher their Africa strategy.
“We’re actually watching it and trying to determine what their overall objectives are.
Is it power projection? Is it aerial denial, anti-access?” he said. “We’re watching that all the time to determine what China’s overall intentions are engaging with these other countries.”
While the U.S. susses out China’s objectives, the military is also watching Russian influence – especially misinformation campaigns which Langley said was the reason for French military forces being kicked out of Mali and Burkina Faso.
“I see that there is a methodology that the Russian Federation’s really trying to take a root in, even Post-Wagner and they’re heightening it, trying to get geopolitical advantage of these African countries through this disinformation campaign, trying to go against the rule of law or international rules based order,” Langley said.
The latest on Task & Purpose Uniform inspections and stricter shaving rules coming in renewed Air Force focus on ‘standards’ * One of the Army’s top Nuclear teams trained with Rangers and Green Berets * The 4th Infantry Division’s huge obstacle course looked like the zombie apocalypse * Army barber’s 57 year legacy with the Airborne leads to haircutting hall of fame * Master Chief William Goines, first Black Navy SEAL*, passes away at 88
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BAGHDAD – The top U.S. general in Iraq and Syria said some of his most valuable leadership lessons came in his first weeks in command, fresh out of training as a young lieutenant.
“I learned to be a little bit humble and ask questions that I didn’t know. I thought I was really good at jumping out of airplanes, really good at tactics,” Army Maj. Gen. Joel “JB” Vowell told Task & Purpose last week at the headquarters of Operation Inherent Resolve. “But getting the best out of people with different capabilities, different backgrounds, I learned that because I had good NCOs.”
For newly minted junior officers, the prospect of leading troops for the first time can be intimidating, especially if they are joining a unit with a lot of combat experience.
Vowel said he advises young lieutenants and junior officers to be “humble enough to listen” to their noncommissioned officers and try to empathize with their senior enlisted leaders.
“Listen to what your leadership is trying to tell you about how to do things better for your men and women,” Vowell told Task & Purpose as part of a wide-ranging interview. “If you listen, I think it will make you a better tactical junior leader.”
Vowell currently leads OIR, which is focused on destroying the remnants of the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. However troops under Vowell carrying out his orders have faced attacks from Iranian-backed militias since the fall. One such attack on a U.S. base in Jordan known as “Tower 22” killed three Army Reserve soldiers.
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He was commissioned from the University of Alabama Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program in 1991 and went on to become an Army infantry officer. Vowell said he remembers how he was brimming with confidence when he showed up for his first assignment with the 82nd Airborne Division after graduating from Ranger School.
“I knew the answers to the test,” Vowell said. “I was prepared for almost five years to do this, and then you meet all your people, and it hits you: This is real.”
At the time, his unit had just returned from a combat deployment for the Gulf War. The 82nd Airborne Division was the first American combat unit to arrive in Saudi Arabia in August 1990 as part of Operation Desert Shield. When the ground war phase of Operation Desert Storm began in February 1991, the division moved into Iraq and ultimately seized Tallil Air Base, capturing thousands of Iraqi soldiers.
Vowell said he knew what the division had gone through in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait when he arrived at his first assignment.
“The hardship and privation was familiar to me, but it was more visceral, like this is not a training event, this is real,” he recalled.
From the senior enlisted leaders that he served with, Vowell quickly learned what leadership at the tactical level requires.
During his 33-year Army career, Vowell has made three combat deployments to Afghanistan and one to Iraq. He was featured in the documentary The Hornet’s Nest about U.S. troops engaged in intense fighting along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan in 2010. At the time, Vowell led the “No Slack” 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division. He later returned to the region as a brigade commander with the “Rakkasans” 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division.
Suffice to say: Vowell is no stranger to fighting. He said that some of the lessons he learned from his first platoon sergeant served him well later in combat: “Paying attention to detail; helping your teammate out; being part and sharing the risk with your men and women – it matters, you can’t phone it in in close combat.”
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BAGHDAD – The headquarters of Operation Inherent Resolve maintains two memorials to troops killed since 2014 in the fight against ISIS. One is a mural of pictures that the OIR staff walks past each day in the Baghdad headquarters, including three soldiers killed in the so-called “Tower 22” attack in January, Sgt. Kennedy L. Sanders, Sgt. Breonna Moffett, and Staff Sgt. William Rivers.
The second is a ring of dogtags, one for each fallen member of the force.
In an interview with Task & Purpose, OIR commander Army Maj. Gen. Joel “JB” Vowell said the deaths of the three soldiers have informed much of the command’s daily operations since.
“It’s our duty, it’s our obligation to remember those who died in service of this country and in the missions that we’re trying to do for our country,” Vowell said. “So, that’s why the dog tags are there. That’s why the mural is there. We maintain contact with the families too over time, so they’re not forgotten as well.”
Vowell spoke to Task & Purpose on Thursday in a wide-ranging interview, during which he talked about the importance of honoring the legacy of all the troops who have paid the ultimate sacrifice while taking part in Operation Inherent Resolve, and what the U.S.-led coalition learned from the Jan. 28 drone attack.
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The three fallen soldiers were part of a unit that was providing engineer support to U.S. troops in Syria, said Vowell, who recalled talking to their loved ones after the attack.
“I called their families – all three, great families, great people, great Americans – to express our sincere condolences for their loss and the sacrifice,” Vowell said. “What they were doing there was trying to do something to help us continue the ISIS fight in Syria. And, so we remember that. We don’t want to forget. We can’t forget.”
Vowell also explained to the families how their loved ones’ sacrifices were not in vain because they helped the U.S.-led military coalition prevent ISIS from launching attacks in Europe and the United States.
The attack on Tower 22 was part of a strategy from Iran’s proxies to kill and wound Americans so that the United States would decide to withdraw its troops from the Middle East, Vowell said.
After Hamas ignited an ongoing war with Israel in October, Iranian-backed militia groups began attacking U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.
Prior to Jan. 28, Tower-22 had not been targeted in those attacks, Vowell said.
“And it was in another country, so it was just difficult to conceive that the militias might try to attack in another country that way,” Vowell said. “We had not seen it.”
At the time, the U.S.-led military coalition was more focused on protecting bases in Iraq and Kuwait, he said.
One major lesson from the Tower 22 attack was that smaller U.S. and partner nation military installations needed more defenses against one-way drones, Vowell said. He did not specify which types of systems are now being used to stop further drone attacks.
“We leveled the field with force protection,” Vowell said. “We dug a lot more earth. We poured a lot more concrete. We went back to school on ourselves: Where are we still holding risk that’s just unacceptable?”
While Iran is not Vowell’s focus, it exerts “a great degree of control” over the militias that began launching attacks against U.S. troops in the Middle East since October, he said, adding that “Iran will fight to the last proxy.”
Iran’s overall goals are to continue its 1979 revolution, emerge as the top power in the Middle East, and become a major player on the world stage, Vowell said. It has also become part of a “cabal” that also includes China, Russia, and North Korea, he said.
“The revolution, in their mind, must continue since 1979,” Vowell said.
The attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria have largely subsided since February, but Vowell said all U.S. and coalition troops who deploy to the Middle East as part of Operation Inherent Resolve remain at risk.
“At any time, any number of things can go wrong between ISIS or a militia group, you name it,” Vowell said.
Honoring the legacy of fallen troops is important to Vowell, who has spent 33 years in the Army and he lost soldiers under his command during combat deployments to both Afghanistan and Iraq.
“I still remember,” Vowell said. “Memorial Day, Veterans Day are the two key times a year that I personally take the time to reach out, talk to people and remember every one of them. It’s our sacred obligation.”
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Travis Bell has been a barber at Fort Liberty, North Carolina for 57 years in a one-man shop inside the XVIII Airborne Corps’ sprawling headquarters building. He’s cut the hair of every kind of soldier, from privates to four-star generals, from paratroopers who jumped on D-Day to Medal of Honor winners. But this week the Army said he’ll be getting a reward of his very own.
In September Bell will be inducted into the National Barber Museum’s Hall of Fame.
The museum recognizes barbers who have made lasting impacts on the communities they serve. For Bell, that’s the soldiers who have served in the XVIII Airborne Corps over the last half century. Bell told Task & Purpose that he plans to retire after his award ceremony. Bell said he hates that he has to move on from the best job he’s ever had but at 84 years old, his body can’t work like it used to.
“If you plant a farm in the spring, it ends in the fall,” Bell said. “Everything comes to an end.”
But he said they’re all the same. He gave his first senior commander haircut to Lt. Gen. Robert H. York, who led the XVIII Airborne Corps in 1967, and since squared away the cuts of well known four-star generals like David Rodriguez, Eric Shinseki, Henry Shelton and Stanley McChrystal. Pictures of all of them adorn the wall of his small shop, along with current Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who, Bell said, was not much of a talker.
Bell has also had countless war heroes pass through his chair, including Arthur “Bull” Simons. Simons was a legendary Special Forces officer who led the raid on the Son Tay prison camp in Vietnam. Simons, Bell said, was his first “full-bird” colonel to get a shave and haircut.
In a 2017 interview with an on-base newspaper, Bell estimated he had cut the hair of at least 35 four-star generals and 23 Corps commanders.
As a barber and religious man, Bell also often lends a listening ear to his clients. Sometimes they just need to talk to someone, he said.
One time, Bell prayed with a Colonel who was in his chair and told Bell about his prostate cancer diagnosis. A few months later, the soldier returned to tell Bell that the cancer was gone.
“He still comes in here and it’s still gone,” Bell said.
From the farm to headquartersBell grew up on a farm in Lumberton, North Carolina, one of 11 children including nine boys.
“We went to school two days a week and worked three, or went to school three days a week and worked two. Things were very different back then,” Bell told the Army.
In every family, Bell said, someone was in charge of cutting everyone’s hair. For Bell, it was his oldest brother, who also passed along the craft of cutting hair.
“I prayed and asked God, I said, ‘God, I want to be a barber. I don’t have the money. I don’t have the education.’ I couldn’t pass the test because I didn’t have education, but I did love God, so I kept on,” Bell said.
One Sunday, a friend from Bell’s church who was also a barber at then-Ft. Bragg’s E-4 Club, now known as the NCO Club, asked him if he wanted a job. After a few months at the club, Bell was offered a position in a small shop inside the XVIII Airborne Corps headquarters. At first, Bell was intimidated by the idea of cutting the hair of some of the highest-ranking leaders in the military.
“That’s one thing I was afraid of. I thought a general or sergeant major would just chew you out,” Bell said. But he soon learned that one thing soldiers value over rank is a good haircut.
“They ain’t gonna chew you out unless you mess up or something. But I got along good with them,” he said. “They’ve all treated me real nice.”
Bell has been through dozens of XVIII Airborne Corps commanding generals over the course of his career. He’s attended command change ceremonies, funerals and retirement parties.
Bell’s professional barber career began in the 1950’s when haircuts cost only 40 cents. By the time he came to the North Carolina base in 1967, the price of a haircut jumped to 90 cents a head. Now, he charges around $13 for a cut.
Bell said that the type of haircuts have changed over time from traditional high-and-tight cuts to fades.
“Back then, everybody wore the same type of haircut,” Bell said. “I’m not that good with a fade. It’s slower and it costs more. It takes longer.”
At one point, Bell said he was averaging about 80 heads a day. But now with more competition, Bell said there’s not enough money in cutting hair. Bell estimates that he’s done between 800 and 900,000 haircuts at Fort Liberty.
“God was opening the doors. He got me the best job I’ve ever had,” he said. “I’ve met about every kind of race you can meet and I loved it.”
Hall of FameWith his award, Bell will join the ranks of other famous barbers throughout history like A.B. Moler, founder of the first American barber school in Chicago in 1893.
Bell said XVIII Airborne Commander Lt. Gen. Chris Donahue submitted his name to the hall of fame. Bell also said Donahue was “one of the finest men” that he’s ever met. “And I’ve been through 25 corps commanders,” he added.
In a statement to Task & Purpose, Donahue said Bell has been a fixture in the Airborne community.
“His loyalty and commitment to our team over the past 57 years is unprecedented. Travis is a great friend, loyal teammate, and has made tremendous sacrifices to serve XVIII Airborne Corps,” Donahue said. Bell, he insisted, is“the reason every Corps Commander has looked so sharp.”
In September, Bell will head to the museum for his award ceremony. It will be his first time traveling on a plane, though he did once get a tandem parachute jump from a team on base.
“It’s been a good ride,” he said.
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A unique team of Army soldiers who train to defuse nuclear emergencies has been training alongside the elite combat units that might one day have to them into — and back out of — a doomsday-like scenario.
Nuclear Disablement Team 1 recently held training with the 7th Special Forces Group and the 75th Ranger Regiment, the kind of special operations units they may work alongside during a major nuclear emergency.
Steven Modugno, a spokesperson for the 20th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives Command (CBRNE), said it’s uncommon for NDTs to train with the type of units that would escort them in real-world incidents.
“We always say, ‘Train as you fight.’ For both the Rangers and the NDTs, going through a facility is what realistic, tough training looks like,” Modugno said. “They’re able to practice and refine processes and figure out how they can effectively work together at a site like that.”
NDTs train for doomsday-style scenarios like sabotaged nuclear power plants and or rogue nuclear devices. The protective suits they wear, along with a respirator protecting them from nuclear and radiological threats, make combat operations a lot more difficult.
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“You’re talking about a potentially radioactive or contaminated environment that they would have to go into, which can be daunting,” Modugno said. “But the teams are self-deployable. They can go in, recon the site, collect samples, and identify them to figure out what materials are there. Like what hazards may be present and if there’s a threat.
The NDTs and the Special Forces troops met to train in a decommissioned Army pulse radiation facility in Louisiana. The team trained with the Rangers at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, where all three of the Army’s NDTs are based.
It’s not uncommon for NDTs to train in these types of decommissioned facilities, but working with the teams that would escort them is not as common, said Maj. Cory Chatigny, a Nuclear Operations Officer with Nuclear Disablement Team 1
“At the end of these events, we want to make sure the units see us as an asset to their organization and not a hindrance,” Chatigny said. “Being able to keep up with them, maneuvering through the facility, and providing the expert analysis that they require has made us look at how we can become even better at what we do.”
The exercise allowed NDT 1 to hone in their gear loadout for an operation while rehearsing safety protocols for themselves and the units assisting them.
U.S. Army Nuclear Disablement Team Soldiers and Army Rangers seized and exploited an underground nuclear facility during a training exercise on June 6. (U.S. Army photo/Sgt. Daniel Hernandez.) 20th CBRNE Command“We know there is a chance that this could happen somewhere on the planet. Not every nuclear facility is going to be up to the same safety regulations that we see in the U.S. and partner countries,” Chatigny said. “Radiation is nearly impossible to detect without the proper equipment, so we make safety a priority. Our focus is on completing the mission and enabling the unit we support to safely continue on with their mission.”
NDT 1 has been pushing for more realistic training and schedules for both the 7th SFG and the 75th Ranger Regiment, so this presented an opportunity to train together in one of the most realistic training events to date.
Assets from the 20th CBRNE Command are located on 19 different bases in 16 states. Modugno said they are ready to respond to threats worldwide. “They’re able to go in and do limited disablement operations, meaning, possibly shut down a reactor if it’s not being managed at that time so that threat no longer exists [in the area units are conducting operations],” Modugno said.
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Congress is debating — yet again — the idea of including women in a national military draft more than a decade after the end of rules that kept them from combat roles.
The idea of adding women to the draft, should one ever be enacted, has bounced around the halls of Congress many times with support from both political parties but never enough votes to become law. It’s unclear if this year’s attempt will gain enough support to pass.
This year’s attempt is in the fiscal year 2025 national defense policy bill that passed out of the Senate Armed Services Committee last week. Language in that bill would amend the Military Selective Service Act to require women to register for Selective Service. The House version of the bill, which also passed last week, would not add women to the draft but does include a measure to make registration for the Selective Service automatic for men ages 18 to 25 automatic. Both chambers of Congress will finalize a joint version of the defense bill in conference before they can vote it into law.
The Selective Service would carry out a military draft if Congress or the President decides to implement one.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) who led efforts to remove similar language from defense bills in previous years, called the measure “insane” and told Fox News it was part of an ongoing “social experiment” in the military led by Democrats.
“There shouldn’t be women in the draft. They shouldn’t be forced to serve if they don’t want to,” he said on the conservative television news network.
Kate Kuzminski, deputy director of the Center for New American Security’s program on Military, Veterans & Society said various members of Congress has attempted to add women to the military draft since soon after Congress lifted rules in 2013 that kept women out of combat roles. In 2016, two Republicans introduced the “Draft America’s Daughters” bill, which Kuzminski said was “pretty provocative.”
“They opposed the lifting of combat restrictions on women and then the logic followed that if women could serve in combat positions, then they would have to enter the draft,” Kuzminski said. “It was like a back door way of opposing women in combat positions to raise awareness around the fact that they could then be drafted.”
In 2021, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the National Coalition For Men, arguing that the all-male draft is discriminatory against men. According to the ACLU, the Fifth Circuit Court reversed its ruling based on the 1981 Supreme Court case, Rostker v. Goldberg, which upheld a men-only registration on the grounds that women were prohibited from serving in combat roles. The ban on women in combat has since been lifted which the ACLU cited as a reason to revisit the law. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case, kicking the issue back to Congress.
In May, the men’s coalition filed a similar complaint in the Central District of California again arguing constitutional violations but now citing historic ‘firsts’ by women including well over 100 graduates of Army Ranger School since 2015 and the first female Marine to lead an infantry platoon in 2018.
“Limiting registration to men is based upon antiquated stereotypes of the capacity of women to serve and fully participate in military and civic life; and equally archaic and compartmentalized views that men lack the ability to remain at home as caretakers. The ban assumes women are unsuitable for military service notwithstanding their own individual abilities and predispositions. The limitation on registration to male citizens sanctifies these biases and encapsulates them in federal law,” the coalition said in a statement.
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After a 2022 attempt by Congress to include women in the SS registration, the Center for Military Readiness weighed in on the issue. The center cited a law professor’s analysis which found that requiring women register for the service in the name of “equity” could create an “administrative burden” to find women who qualify for combat positions rather than fast-tracking qualified men who could be trained and mobilized more quickly.
“The Selective Service system exists as a low-cost insurance policy that backs up the All-Volunteer Force (AVF),” the center said in a statement. “Its purpose is not to advance ‘equity’ between the sexes. The purpose of Selective Service centers on national security, not ‘men’s’ or ‘women’s rights.’”
Kuzminski said in the event that the U.S. calls for a draft, constitutionally of an all-male registration system could have legal standing – especially in an era where women can join combat units.
“There’s a way to square the circle with both the left and the right and to say – statistically, most women are not going to be eligible for those combat positions. That’s also true of a lot of men,” Kuzminski said. “But, if we were in a national emergency that requires a draft, we would still need to surge our human capital in order to meet the effort, whether it’s in the medical community or the logistics, supporting those who are going off to combat.”
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An Air Force officer and NCO both suffered catastrophic injuries when the burly off-road rescue vehicle they were riding in rolled over and ejected them during a training event in the Northern Mariana Islands in early 2023. An accident investigation board found the driver, a special warfare captain, was driving too fast, had no training in the vehicle and told the enlisted photographer riding with him not to wear her seatbelt “because it was only a 5-minute drive” when he crashed the SRTV-SXV Tactical Vehicle, a brawny dune buggy used by Air Force pararescue teams in harsh terrain.
The driver, a Tactical Air Control Party, or TACP, captain stationed in Hawaii, was paralyzed from the waist down. The photographer, a staff sergeant with the 1st Combat Camera Squadron, eventually had her right leg amputated above the knee along with suffering a broken pelvis and extensive internal bleeding . The accident occurred during COPE North, a 2-week multi-national exercise centered around Guam in February 2023.
But there was some heroism in the crash’s chaotic aftermath. A junior Air Force firefighter who was among the first on the scene of the accident was later recognized with the Air Force’s top award for firefighter heroism. Senior Airman Ethan Embrey was first to realize the dire condition of the photographer needed more medical care than was available on the island and radioed the local airfield with a request to hold an unrelated aircraft on the ground so that she could be taken on an emergency flight to Guam.
Senior Airman Embrey, a firefighter assigned to the 2023 COPE North exercise, was awarded the Senior Master Sergeant Robert A. McAllister Award for Firefighter Heroism, the service’s top award for valor in action for firefighters, for his response to a 2023 vehicle accident that left two airmen permanently disabled. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Patrick Boyle. An Air Force investigation board that reviewed the accident did not directly assign blame or fault for the February 2023 accident, but the findings make clear that the captain behind the wheel was acting far outside of safety and training rules and may have lied to investigators about the incident.
The officer told investigators that a senior pararescue operator, or PJ, in charge of the SRTV had given him two hours of “familiarization training” on the vehicle the day before the crash, “but that it was not documented” in the officer’s training records. However, the senior PJ told the board that he did not train anyone on the vehicle during COPE North, and that he did not believe the captain had received any training on the SRTV during COPE North or in the weeks prior.
A Pacific Air Forces spokesperson did not say if the crash had resulted in disciplinary actions. Officials released the report June 14 after being completed in April.
“The Air Force does not disclose information regarding disciplinary actions,” the spokesperson told Task & Purpose in an emailed statement. “The purpose of an Air Force Ground Accident Investigation Board is to inquire into the facts surrounding Air Force ground accidents, and to gather and preserve evidence for use in litigation, claims, disciplinary actions, administrative proceedings and for other purposes.
Speeding on a “World War II” roadThe accident occurred as the TACP piloted the SRTV-SXV — short for, the Search And Rescue Tactical Vehicle-Side by Vehicle — on a narrow, overgrown road towards Chulu Beach on the northern end of Tinian, a small island roughly 160 miles north of Guam. The TACP was on his way to join the Pararescue team for a training event.
The photographer was along to get pictures of the training for Air Force public affairs. As is typical in accident investigations, no one involved in or interviewed after the accident was identified in the report.
The event was a so-called Full Mission Profile, of FMP, in which the pararescue team would retrieve a down pilot hiding somewhere near Chulu Beach. To reach the pilot, the PJ team would be dropped from helicopters into the waters off the beach, then come ashore and locate the pilot.
“The team would encounter enemy contact, and [the TACP] would coordinate close air support fires from MQ-9 reaper drones and MH-60S helicopters,” the report said. However, the TACP “was not qualified on the planned insertion and extraction techniques and would join the [PJs] when they arrived on the beach.”
Photos of the crashed Air Force SRTV from the mishap investigation report. However, to reach the beach from the Tinian airfield that afternoon, the TACP chose to drive himself and the photographer in the SRTV-SXV, which the PJ team had brought with them from the 31st Rescue Squadron at Kadena Air Base in Japan. A civilian rental vehicle had already departed to take the “pilot” to their hiding spot.
The officer was not trained or authorized to drive the bulky rescue vehicle and the photographer told investigators she had never ridden in one. When she sat in the passenger seat, she realized immediately that she did not know how to buckle its safety harness. But, she told the board, the officer told her “that because it was only a 5-minute drive, they did not need to wear seatbelts,” the report found.
RIding in an SRTV requires “ankle-covering boots, pants, gloves, eye protection, helmet, and seatbelts,” the report said, none of which the driver passed on to the photographer.
The remote road to the beach was dilapidated, overgrown and had “not been improved or resurfaced since their original construction during World War II,” the report found. Foilage slapped the photographer’s face as they drove between 40 and 50 MPH, the board found. The photographer told investigators, “she developed a nervous feeling about the [vehicle’s] speed and made multiple requests to [the driver] that he slow down; however, [the captain] did not acknowledge or respond to those request.”
Though there was no posted speed limit on the little-used road, local police told investigators the top safe speed on the road was probably 15 MPH. The speed limit in all training areas on Guam, where the COPE North was based, is 35 MPH.
As they approached a turn to the beach, the driver claimed “an issue arose with the steering and [the photographer’s] side of the vehicle was in the brush, which prompted [him] to overcorrect then placing [his own] side of the vehicle into the brush.”
As they turned, the vehicle rolled over, ejecting both the driver and passenger. Both said they could not remember the exact moment of the crash.
SRTV is brawny but ‘twitchy’ to driveThe SRTV is a specialized vehicle made for Air Force special operations teams by BC Customs, a Utah vehicle maker. Though it is brawny and designed for difficult terrain, it is not easy or intuitive to drive, the report found. It has a very rapid steering system, which can be “locked out” in side-to-side motion with less than a full turn of the wheel. As a result, even small movements of the wheel can cause the vehicle to make large movements, particularly at high speeds.
PJs told the board that driving it is “not user friendly” and the vehicle is “very different from other vehicles,” particularly at high speeds.
CB Customs describes the steering as “twitchy.”
The driver in a 2023 rollover-crash of an Air Force SRVT-SXV rescue vehicle was not qualified to be driving it, was driving at least twice as fast as was safe and was not wearing a seatbelt. Both the driver and a passenger were permantently disabled in the crash. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Jonathan Valdes Montijo. In addition to its touchy steering, the SRTV is, perhaps counter-intuitively, prone to tipping. The size and shape of the body was built to fit on a V-22 Osprey, limiting its width.
In testing on level concrete, the report said, the SRTV-SXV was prone to tip over if driven through average turns over 38 miles per hour. A modification to the wheels that some rescue teams installed themselves increased that point to 39 MPH, the report said, but Air Force officials recommended that teams not use those modifications due to increased wear and tear.
In response to Air Force concerns of the tipping, BC Custom suggested that the Air Force rollovers were not the result of vehicle deficiencies but were due to user error, the report said, due to a lack of understanding of the vehicle’s design and function and its intended purposes.
Whether or not the captain was given two hours of instruction, it would not have been enough. Pararescue team members were considered qualified to drive the SRTV-SXV, the report said, only after taking a five-day in-person course at the CB Custom’s Utah factory.
First Responder heroismA local woman found the crash site and rushed to find officials, first encountering a unit of airfield firefighters, including Senior Airman Embrey.
“Initially I thought it was a part of the exercise,” Embrey said in an Air Force release. “But when she told me that it was real, I hopped out the truck, grabbed my individual first aid kit, and headed to the scene.”
At the scene, Embrey said, both the driver and passenger were conscious. First responders had gathered around the driver, who was saying he could not feel his legs, with just a single guard with the photographer. “Only one person was helping her,” Embrey said.
“I told the security forces guard to check from head to waist as I was checking waist down to feet because I saw something protruding from her boot,” Embrey said. “Her bone broke through the skin on her ankle. I was getting ready to splint and package her leg when she said, ‘my stomach hurts.’ She already was expressing an altered mental status so I knew something was wrong.”
The stomach pain, he realized, might be an indication of internal bleeding.
“I saw a black spot on the right of her navel which is the earliest sign of internal bleeding,” said Embrey.
With no hospital on the island, Embrey knew she needed to get to Guam as soon as possible. He thought back to the airfield, where he knew a C-130 had just landed.
“I immediately call in that it’s internal bleeding and I tell them to hold the plane, as it was preparing to take off,” Embrey said. “She has to be on the plane that just landed.”
The C-130 held on the ground as Embrey and other responders rushed the photographer to the airfield in a truck.
“I was standing over her to make sure she didn’t shake on the truck bed,” said Embrey. During the trip, the woman lost pulses in her feet and arms, signs that she was going into shock from losing blood internally. “It was like a big ice cream scoop took out a chunk of her left thigh and instead of it gushing out it was feeding back into the stomach cavity.”
Once on the C-130, the woman was flown to Guam, from where she was quickly flown to Hawaii.
UPDATE: 6/18/2024; This article has been updated with comments from a Pacific Air Forces spokesperson.
The latest on Task & Purpose A brief history of the Marine Corps’ green skivvy t-shirts since WWII * This B-52H crew survived a ‘worst possible case’ emergency and landed safely * Army Ranger jumps into Normandy to honor his World War II Ranger grandfather * Marine sticks his hand in fire ant hill, because Marines gonna Marine * Coast Guard fires commander of its biggest station*
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Over a dozen Americans who fought and died in Bataan in World War II and at the Chosin Reservoir in Korea have been identified in recent months by a specialized military lab in Nebraska. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Monday it had identified, or ‘accounted for,’ the remains of 16 soldiers this spring, most from one of those two famous battles.
Scientists and historians at the DPAA, based at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, have spent decades matching fragments of bodies recovered from former battlefields with the names of U.S. service members long marked as missing in action.
“We just weren’t able to get them posted to our website until yesterday,” said DPAA media relations chief Sean Everette. “I know it seems like it was 16 all at once, but their actual IDs and family notifications were spread out.”
Of those announced Monday, most died as POWs. The group includes seven Army and Army Air Forces soldiers who were captured in the Philippines and imprisoned at Bataan. Japanese guards forced the American and Filipino service members into the marchin groups of 100 on the only paved road on the Bataan peninsula at the time. Four Japanese guards were assigned to each group and forced the POWs to march north toward Camp O’Donnell in Tarlac province, 65 miles away. Approximately 12,000 Americans and 63,000 Filipinos died as POWs on the island, though exact numbers remain unknown.
The other nine fought a decade later in Korea, three of whom died in prison camps, three others at the Chosin Reservoir and the other three in other action.
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Each service member accounted for follows the DPAA and partner companies who work together to identify POW/MIA service members through DNA matching, forensic analysis, dental record analysis, and, if available, radioisotope testing.the job entails.
The DPAA’s mission is to account for as many of the missing U.S. military personnel from past conflicts to their families and the nation as possible. Their mission takes their research and archiological teams to hundreds of countries and municipalities around the world.
More than 81,500 Americans are unaccounted for from past conflicts, with over 41,000 of those missing lost at sea from Navy ships, Air Force aircraft or other ocean mishaps.
Either way, 16 families have been notified that their long lost loved ones have been found.
WW II veterans accounted for:
- Army Air Forces Sgt. Jack H. Hohlfeld, accounted for May 29, 2024.
- Army Corporal Raymond N. DeCloss, accounted for Apr. 29, 2024.
- Army Sgt. Sam A. Prince, accounted for Apr. 25, 2024.
- Army Tech. Sgt. Charles E. Young Jr., accounted for Apr. 17, 2024.
- Army Air Forces Private Robert W. Cash, was accounted for Apr. 3, 2024.
- Army Private Jacob Gutterman, accounted for Mar. 26, 2024.
- Army Pfc. Joseph C. Murphy, 20, of Bogalusa, Louisiana, accounted for Apr. 1, 2024.
Korean War:
- Army Sgt. Clayton M. Pierce, accounted for June 7, 2024.
- Army Corporal Edward J. Smith, accounted for May 15, 2024.
- Army Sgt. 1st Class Israel Ramos, accounted for May 2, 2024.
- Army Sgt. Kester B. Hardman, accounted for May 2, 2024.
- Army Corporal William Colby, accounted for May 2, 2024.
- Army Pfc. Charles A. Vorel Jr., accounted for Apr. 22, 2024.
- Army Corporal Jesse L. Mitchell, accounted for Apr. 8, 2024.
- Army Sgt. John P. Ryhter, accounted for Apr. 8, 2024.
- Army Sgt. Charles E. Beaty, accounted for Apr. 5, 2024.
The latest on Task & Purpose
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- This B-52H crew survived a ‘worst possible case’ emergency and landed safely
- Army Ranger jumps into Normandy to honor his World War II Ranger grandfather
- Marine sticks his hand in fire ant hill, because Marines gonna Marine
- Coast Guard fires commander of its biggest station
The post Soldiers missing from Chosin Reservoir and Bataan identified for return home appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Former Navy utility boat coxswain Jarod Palm has been watching the struggles of the Navy’s Gaza Trident Causeway with a knowing eye. In the Navy, Palm was assigned to a Navy Seabee command and trained some of those operating the Gaza Trident Causeway pier. He’s seen firsthand what contributes to some of the problems with the different boats, ships, and equipment used to carry out the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS, capability.
“In my experience, the reason why it’s so sensitive is, number one, the equipment is old,” Palm said. “Number two, it’s all ‘Lego bricked’ together, and that platform is actually held together by line.”
The system deployed to Gaza has proved to be a struggle to keep open and was this week shut down for the third time since May 17 when it was relocated to the Port of Ashdod, Israel, to avoid incoming harsh weather.
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Still, the U.S. and its allies have delivered 7.7 million pounds of aid across it to date.
The third factor, said Palm, is how the equipment is stored when it’s not in use. A lot of the equipment is stored in dry storage aboard Navy ships pre-positioned around the world.
He said different elements of the system would often break down during training operations.
What is JLOTSPentagon spokesman Maj. Jonathon Daniell sent a prepared statement to Task & Purpose in response to several questions, with technical expertise from CW2 Jason Earl, Master, Army Watercraft Systems. According to them, JLOTS is the capability of delivering cargo from sea to shore in austere environments or when port facilities are unavailable.
JLOTS is a complex system used to either establish a port, upgrade a sub-optimal port, or provide intratheatre lift. Different capabilities of JLOTS include a physical pier to deliver different types of aid or combat sustainment, an offshore petroleum discharge system, an inshore petroleum distribution system, or specialized lines that can pump drinking water onto shore for distribution.
The structure of a JLOTS operation typically starts with a large Navy ship anchored off the coast with a roll-on, roll-off-discharge facility placed adjacent to the ship — military jargon for a large floating dock that is also anchored.
Trucks, containers, or equipment will be lifted or rolled onto the floating dock, where it’s loaded onto a ship or boat that transports its payload to the shore, where a causeway will enable delivery to land.
There are different types of causeways available. Palm saw the Trident Causeway pier used in Albania and Guam during his time in the Navy, the same causeway used in Gaza. The Trident Causeway pier is made up of multiple Modular Causeway Sections that can span up to 1,800 feet long, depending on mission needs and geography of the coastline.
Each section of the Modular Causeway System consists of six 20-x-8 feet pontoons and three box-end 40-x-8 foot pontoons. The pontoons have an “integral connection system” that enables each section to be modular. The pier is assembled at sea and escorted by tugboats and rammed into the beach, and then Army and Navy personnel anchor the distal end to the ocean floor.
But one of the three shutdowns on the Gaza pier was due to rough sea states that broke the pier. It was transported to Israel for repairs before it was re-anchored in Gaza.
Construction Mechanic Chief Liam Anderson has spent a significant amount of time training on a more long-term solution for JLOTS operations: a modular elevated causeway system. Once built, it can stay in place for up to two years before requiring disassembly or repairs.
“They have a big erector set, which consists of 4.5 x 8 x 40 foot long containers that snap together to form a pier,” Anderson said. “The Seabees maintain the capability of building it anywhere between 800 to 3,000 feet long, as long as the ground beneath can support it.”
The other option involves different boats that can land on the beach to deliver supplies by dropping a ramp that vehicles or personnel can offload directly onto the beach. Security concerns in a wartorn area, the topography of the coast, and many other factors play into how a JLOTS operation is conducted.
JLOTS and sea statesSea states are a measurement of wave height and are rated on a sliding scale of 0 to 10. The Gaza coastline regularly experiences a sea state of 4 or higher. The maximum sea state that JLOTS can be executed in is a sea state of 3 or less; anything higher risks damage to the pier, equipment, and those carrying out the operation.
There are many different structures and equipment available for the JLOTS capability, and each one has different capabilities and sea conditions it can handle before breaking, though the cut for personnel on causeways is a sea state higher than 3.
“Typically, sea states must be at a three or less, but other weather conditions can have operational impact,” Daniell said. “Sea state 3 is from 1’8” to 4’1”, and the height of the Modular Causeway Section is 4.5’.”
Anything higher will have a strong effect on the structure and increase the likelihood of damage and structural integrity compromise.
JLOTS is an important capability of the U.S. Army, but it entails almost every branch under the Department of Defense. JLOTS can look different every time it’s implemented based on the current environemnt it’s used in. Palm described it as a unique capability of America’s armed forces, based on his experience during training implementation of JLOTS.
“We can put equipment anywhere we need, even if there’s no port and it’s a shitty beach,” Palm said. “[…] ‘Hey, look, we can drop 2,000 Marines and 1,000 vehicles on a shitty beach any day.’’”
The latest on Task & Purpose 82nd Airborne paratrooperscut down a 101st flag* from an iconic bar on D-Day * Navy fires USS Somerset’s commanding officer following investigation * Two ex-U.S. soldiers met in Ukraine, then went on*‘international crime spree’ * A combat controller earned a secret Air Force Cross for battle with Russian mercenaries * Fort Moore renames five gates for battlefield heroes like Alwyn Cashe*
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4th Infantry Division carry equipment down the side of a hill during the Utah Beach division physical training event, at Fort Carson, Colorado, June 14, 2024. (U.S. Army Photo/Spc. Joshua Zayas)
The event caps Ivy Week — a play on the “IV” numerals of the division’s name — that honors the unit’s role in D-Day landings. Soldiers from the 4th ID landed on Utah Beach on D-Day, tasked with crossing two miles of terrain, facing both natural obstacles and enemy resistance, to seize German artillery. The division-wide obstacle course mimics those D-Day orders, with a 2.5 mile course and a wide range of team and individual challenges along the way.
“It serves as a powerful reminder of the dedication and determination that Soldiers within the 4th Infantry Division demonstrate every day,” said 4th Infantry Division spokesman Lt. Col. Joey Payton. “This year’s event was named in honor of Utah Beach, where more than 20,000 4th Infantry Division Soldiers embarked to help liberate Europe during World War II.”
Ivy Soldiers assigned to the 4th Infantry Division carry equipment down the side of a hill during the Utah Beach division physical training event, at Fort Carson, Colorado, June 14, 2024. This event was held to honor Soldiers who fought through the challenging obstacles along Utah Beach on D-Day. (U.S. Army Photo by Spc. Joshua Zayas) Soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division and Fort Carson make their way through a smoke-covered field during the Utah Beach division physical training event, as an AH-64 Apache flies overhead, June 14, 2024, at Fort Carson, Colorado. (U.S. Army photo/Spc. William Rogers)
The division holds the division-wide PT event to build morale and demonstrate unit readiness. The event kicked off at 6:30 a.m., with 20 elements of approximately 120 to 250 Soldiers from battalions across the division.
The soldiers were tasked with running 2.5 miles, with 1,000 feet of elevation gain, while carrying an assortment of fuel jugs, kettlebells, stretchers, and a 400-lb. sandbag a they navigated full-height trenches. They then had to low crawl under extensive barbed wire and concertina wire obstacles. Then, they traversed a wall of ocean containers as an AH-64 Apache flew low over their heads and water hoses soaked them.
A 4th Infantry Division Soldier makes her way through the hedgehog obstacle at the Utah Beach division physical training event, on June 14, 2024, at Fort Carson, Colorado. Army photo by Pfc. Cecilia Ochoa
“Through sweat and will, soldiers bonded as they pushed their limits together, fostering a sense of unity and shared purpose while striving for recognition as the division’s best battalion,” Payton said. “The annual event not only promotes physical fitness but reinforces the division’s commitment to readiness and resilience.”
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4th Infantry Division Soldiers participated in the Utah Beach division physical training event, designed to recreate the experience of landing on Utah Beach during a division physical training event on Fort Carson, Colorado, June 14, 2024. Army photo/Sgt. Matthew S. Connor.
The training event drummed up enough noise that the 4th Infantry Division notified local neighborhoods that the training would create a large amount of noise and that people may see smoke drifting toward the neighborhoods downwind from the training event.
The latest on Task & Purpose A brief history of the Marine Corps’green skivvy t-shirts* since WWII * This B-52H crew survived a ‘*worst possible case’ emergency and landed safely * Army Ranger jumps into Normandy to honor his World War II Ranger grandfather * Marine sticks his hand in fire ant hill, because*Marines gonna Marine
Coast Guardfires commander of its biggest station
The post The 4th Infantry Division’s huge obstacle course looked like the zombie apocalypse appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The first Black sailor to serve as a Navy SEAL wasn’t allowed to use the public pool in his Ohio hometown. Still, William Goines joined the Navy at 19 and later became one of just a handful of ‘frogmen’ to stand up the first SEAL teams.
Goines grew up in Lockland, Ohio.
“I never knew there was a public swimming pool in Lockland. … We were never allowed to swim in that pool,” he told the Cincinnatti Enquirer in 2016. Still, he learned to swim in the Little Miami River and occasionally got to visit a pool that allowed Black to use the pool in the town of Hartwell.
“They allowed black kids to swim there on Saturdays only from 8 o’clock to 12 o’clock,” Goines said. “At 12 o’clock the whistle blew, and we were out of the pool, and they would drain it and get it ready for the white kids.”
Goines, died this week at 88 in Norfolk, Virginia.
Goines joined the Navy in 1955 after seeing a film called ‘The Frogman,’ about Navy underwater demolition teams, or UDTs, the precursor units of SEALs. A year later he volunteered for arduous UDT training and was one of 14 graduates to make it.
In 1962, he became one of 40 SEAL “plankowners” that reported to Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Virginia to found SEAL Team 2.
Goines was not the first Black sailor in the UDT teams. Fred “Tiz” Morrison, who the Navy Seal Museum credits as the first Black ‘frogman,’ joined the early commando unit in the final days of World War II and saw action in Korea. But Morrison did not migrate to a SEAL team before retiring in 1962.
The current commander of Naval Special Warfare, Rear Admiral Keith Davids, said Goines holds a special place in SEAL history.
“Master Chief William ‘Bill’ Goines was a true pioneer and an inspiration to us all,” Davids said in an email to Task & Purpose. “His legacy is one of courage, dedication, and unwavering commitment, not only to his teammates but to the broader community he served. Bill’s contributions to Naval Special Warfare and his post-service efforts to recruit the next generation of naval commandos have left an indelible mark on our community.”
Goines, who spoke three languages, served three tours in Vietnam and retired from the Navy in 1987 as a Master Chief Petty Officer after 32 years of service. His decorations include a Bronze Star and Navy Commendation Medal.
After retiring, he was the chief of police for a school system in Portsmith, Virginia for 14 years. He worked throughout his later life to convince recruits from non-communities to join the SEALs.
In 2023, the United States Navy Memorial named Goines the recipient of the Lone Sailor Award, which is given to veterans who have “excelled with distinction in their respective careers during or after their service.”
The latest on Task & Purpose A brief history of the Marine Corps’green skivvy t-shirts* since WWII * This B-52H crew survived a ‘*worst possible case’ emergency and landed safely * Army Ranger jumps into Normandy to honor his World War II Ranger grandfather * Marine sticks his hand in fire ant hill, becauseMarines gonna Marine* * Coast Guard*fires commander* of its biggest station**
The post Master Chief William Goines, first Black Navy SEAL, passes away at 88 appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Close to 70,000 Airmen can expect a surge in ‘back to basics’ uniform inspections and a full court press on shaving rules in the next month according to a memo and orders issued by the commander of the Air Force’s largest command. Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, who took over as the commander of Air Combat Command in February, issued orders Monday that every unit under his command — about 20% of all active duty Air Force members — will refocus on “standards of conduct, dress and appearance, physical fitness, and the observance of customs and courtesies.”
That will mean open ranks uniform inspections at every unit in the ACC, a review of shaving waivers issued on either medical or religious grounds, and mandatory shaving classes for any airmen seeking a waiver.
“While the vast majority of Airmen maintain professional standards, I am concerned by a discernable decline in the commitment to, and enforcement of, military standards,” Wilsbach wrote in a memo labeled ‘for distribution.’ “This will change.”
In a longer memo of specific orders dated June 17, Wilsbach laid out three central areas of concern: “Adherence to standards,” “Unit inspections,” and “Shaving waivers.”
Shaving waivers — both for medical and as a religious accommodation — have leaped in the Air Force in recent years. According to data first published by Military.com, waivers for medical reasons have doubled across the Air Force since 2021.
Leaders have noticed and not all have been happy about it.
In a widely seen Facebook video chat in March 2023, then-Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Ramón Colón-López, a career Air Force pararescueman, unloaded on beards in the force.
“If you want to look cute with your skinny jeans and your beard, by all means, do it someplace else,” Colón-López said in response to a question submitted by an online audience. “But quit wasting our time on something that doesn’t have anything to do with kicking the enemy’s ass.”
His comments drew smiles from the Chief Master Sergeants of the Air Force and Space Force on stage with him, but no disagreements.
“In some ways this is a very silly thing to be worried about,” said then-CMSSF Roger Towberman in the same chat. “We’re not here to be fashionable.”
A “communication plan” that lays out specific orders behind the push was posted on the popular Air Force amn/nco/sno Facebook page. An ACC spokesperson confirmed to Task & Purpose on Wednesday that the document was authentic.
The memo instructs leaders across the ACC to hold open ranks inspections for their units by July 17.
“Over the next month, commanders are expected to conduct a multi-layered unit inspection of all assigned military members,” an ACC press release on the orders said. Along with open ranks uniform inspections, the review will include “records inspections, in which commanders must review all military members’ personnel records to ensure medical exemptions and religious accommodations are current and valid.”
The definition of “current and valid” is not addressed in either memo, though the communication plan indicates that Wilsbach may anticipate commanders revoking or otherwise questioning religious accommodation requests, known as RARs.
RARs can cover shaving and beards as well as certain exemptions from some uniform and hair rules. RARs are also the primary route military members have used to request exemptions from taking the COVID-19 vaccine. RARs are issued by commanders after a review of a member’s personal religious beliefs and commitment by a chaplain.
“Although approved RARs last for the duration of an Airman’s military career, DAF policy allows commanders to reassess whether circumstances have changed that necessitate a re-evaluation, such as permanent change of station, deployment, new duties, etc.,” the memo said.
Task & Purpose emailed questions to ACC officials asking for clarification how a unit commander might review the “validity” of a previously approved RAR, and how a “change of station, deployment, new duties” or other workplace factors might affect religious status, but did not receive a response.
The latest on Task & Purpose A brief history of the Marine Corps’green skivvy t-shirts* since WWII * This B-52H crew survived a ‘*worst possible case’ emergency and landed safely * Army Ranger jumps into Normandy to honor his World War II Ranger grandfather * Marine sticks his hand in fire ant hill, because*Marines gonna Marine
Coast Guardfires commander of its biggest station
The post Uniform inspections and stricter shaving rules coming in renewed Air Force focus on ‘standards’ appeared first on Task & Purpose.
William Goines, the first Black sailor to serve as a SEAL, died last week at 88. US Navy photo.The first Black sailor to serve as a Navy SEAL wasn’t allowed to use the public pools in his Ohio hometown. Still, William Goines joined the Navy at 19 and in 1962 became one of just a handful of ‘frogmen’ to stand up the first SEAL teams.
Goines grew up in Lockland, Ohio.
“When I was growing up, I never knew there was a public swimming pool in Lockland. … We were never allowed to swim in that pool,” he recalled. Still, he learned to swim in the Little Miami River and occasionally got to visit a pool that allowed Black to use the pool in the town of Hartwell.
“They allowed black kids to swim there on Saturdays only from 8 o’clock to 12 o’clock,” Goines told the Cincinnatti Enquirer in 2016. “At 12 o’clock the whistle blew, and we were out of the pool, and they would drain it and get it ready for the white kids.”
Goines, died this week at 88 in Norfolk, Virginia.
Goines joined the Navy in 1955 after seeing a film called ‘The Frogman,’ about Navy underwater demolition teams, or UDTs, the precursor units of SEALs. A year later he took on the ardous UDT training, and was one of 14 graduates to make it.
In 1962, he became one of 40 SEAL “plankowners” that reported to Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Virginia to found SEAL Team 2.
The current commander of Naval Special Warfare, Rear Admiral Keith Davids, said Goines holds a special place in SEAL history.
“Master Chief William ‘Bill’ Goines was a true pioneer and an inspiration to us all,” Davids said in an email to Task & Purpose. “His legacy is one of courage, dedication, and unwavering commitment, not only to his teammates but to the broader community he served. Bill’s contributions to Naval Special Warfare and his post-service efforts to recruit the next generation of naval commandos have left an indelible mark on our community.”
Goines, who spoke three languages, served three tours in Vietnam and retired from the Navy in 1987 as a Master Chief Petty Officer after 32 years of service. His decorations include a Bronze Star and Navy Commendation Medal.
After retiring, he was the chief of police for a school system in Portsmith, Virginia for 14 years. He worked throughout his later life to convince recruits from non-communities to join the SEALs.
In 2023, the United States Navy Memorial gave Goines the Lone Sailor Award, which is given to veterans who have “excelled with distinction in their respective careers during or after their service.”
The post Master Chief William Goines, first Black Navy SEAL, passes away appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The DPAA announced they accounted for 16 different WW II and Korean War service members last reported as MIA or POWs. (Photos courtesy of the DPAA. Wikimedia Commons image. Task & Purpose Composite image).Over a dozen Americans who fought and died in Bataan in World War II and the Chosin Reservoir in Korea have been identified in recent months by a specialized military lab in Nebraska. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Monday it had identified, or ‘accounted for,’ the remains of 16 soldiers this spring, most from one of those two famous battles.
Scientists and historians at the DPAA, based at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, have spent decades matching fragments of bodies recovered from former battlefields with the names of U.S. service members long marked as missing in action.
“We just weren’t able to get them posted to our website until yesterday,” said DPAA media relations chief Sean Everette. “I know it seems like it was 16 all at once, but their actual IDs and family notifications were spread out.”
Of those announced Monday, most died as POWs. The group includes seven Army and Army Air Forces soldiers who were captured in the Philippines and imprisoned at Bataan. Japanese guards forced the American and Filipino service members into the marchin groups of 100 on the only paved road on the Bataan peninsula at the time. Four Japanese guards were assigned to each group and forced the POWs to march north toward Camp O’Donnell in Tarlac province, 65 miles away. Approximately 12,000 Americans and 63,000 Filipinos died as POWs on the island, though exact numbers remain unknown.
The other nine fought a decade later in Korea, three of whom died in prison camps, three others at the Chosin Reservoir and the other three in other action.
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Each service member accounted for follows the DPAA and partner companies who work together to identify POW/MIA service members through DNA matching, forensic analysis, dental record analysis, and, if available, radioisotope testing.the job entails.
The DPAA’s mission is to account for as many of the missing U.S. military personnel from past conflicts to their families and the nation as possible. Their mission takes their research and archiological teams to hundreds of countries and municipalities around the world.
More than 81,500 Americans are unaccounted for from past conflicts, with over 41,000 of those missing lost at sea from Navy ships, Air Force aircraft or other ocean mishaps.
Either way, 16 families have been notified that their long lost loved ones have been found.
WW II veterans accounted for:
- Army Air Forces Sgt. Jack H. Hohlfeld, accounted for May 29, 2024.
- Army Corporal Raymond N. DeCloss, accounted for Apr. 29, 2024.
- Army Sgt. Sam A. Prince, accounted for Apr. 25, 2024.
- Army Tech. Sgt. Charles E. Young Jr., accounted for Apr. 17, 2024.
- Army Air Forces Private Robert W. Cash, was accounted for Apr. 3, 2024.
- Army Private Jacob Gutterman, accounted for Mar. 26, 2024.
- Army Pfc. Joseph C. Murphy, 20, of Bogalusa, Louisiana, accounted for Apr. 1, 2024.
Korean War:
- Army Sgt. Clayton M. Pierce, accounted for June 7, 2024.
- Army Corporal Edward J. Smith, accounted for May 15, 2024.
- Army Sgt. 1st Class Israel Ramos, accounted for May 2, 2024.
- Army Sgt. Kester B. Hardman, accounted for May 2, 2024.
- Army Corporal William Colby, accounted for May 2, 2024.
- Army Pfc. Charles A. Vorel Jr., accounted for Apr. 22, 2024.
- Army Corporal Jesse L. Mitchell, accounted for Apr. 8, 2024.
- Army Sgt. John P. Ryhter, accounted for Apr. 8, 2024.
- Army Sgt. Charles E. Beaty, accounted for Apr. 5, 2024.
The latest on Task & Purpose
- A brief history of the Marine Corps’ green skivvy t-shirts since WWII
- This B-52H crew survived a ‘worst possible case’ emergency and landed safely
- Army Ranger jumps into Normandy to honor his World War II Ranger grandfather
- Marine sticks his hand in fire ant hill, because Marines gonna Marine
- Coast Guard fires commander of its biggest station
The post Soldiers missing from battles at Chosin Reservoir and Bataan identified for return home appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Air Combat Command, which makes up about a quarter of the active duty Air Force, will hold open ranks inspections for all units in the next month, and both medical and religious shaving waivers will be reviewed, according to a memo circulated online from the ACC commander.Close to 70,000 Airmen can expect a surge in ‘back to basics’ uniform inspections and a full court press on shaving rules in the next month according to a memo and orders issued by the commander of the Air Force’s largest command. Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, who took over as the commander of Air Combat Command in February, issued orders Friday that every unit under his command — about 20% of all active duty Air Force members — will refocus on “standards of conduct, dress and appearance, physical fitness, and the observance of customs and courtesies.”
That will mean open ranks uniform inspections at every unit in the ACC, a review of shaving waivers issued on either medical or religious grounds, and mandator shaving classes for any airmen seeking a waiver.
“While the vast majority of Airmen maintain professional standards, I am concerned by a discernable decline in the commitment to, and enforcement of, military standards,” Wilsbach wrote in a memo labeled ‘for distribution.’ “This will change.”
In a longer memo of specific orders, Wilsback laid out three central areas of concern: “Adherence to standards,” “Unit inspections,” and “Shaving waivers.”
Shaving waivers — both for medical and as a religious accommodation — have leaped in the Air Force in recent years. According to data first published by Military.com, waivers for medical reasons have doubled across the Air Force since 2021.
Leaders have noticed and not all have been happy about it.
In a widely seen Facebook video chat in March 2023, then-Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Ramón Colón-López, a career Air Force pararescueman, unloaded on beards in the force.
“If you want to look cute with your skinny jeans and your beard, by all means, do it someplace else,” Colón-López said in response to a question submitted by an online audience. “But quit wasting our time on something that doesn’t have anything to do with kicking the enemy’s ass.”
His comments drew smiles from the Chief Master Sergeants of the Air Force and Space Force on stage with him, but no disagreements.
“In some ways this is very silly thing to be worried about,” said Space Force’s Roger Towberman in the same chat. “We’re not here to be fashionable.”
A document that appears to be the orders behind the standards push — dubbed a “communication plan” — was posted on the popular Air Force amn/nco/sno Facebook page. An email asking to verify the document to ACC headquarters was not immediately returned to Task & Purpose.
In a discussion of military discipline and standards, the document cites George Washington’s Continental army and its initial reputation as “misfits,” a label shed once a Prussian officer, Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, was hired as the first Inspector General of the Army.
The memo instructs leaders across the ACC to hold open ranks inspections for their units by July 17.
“Over the next month, commanders are expected to conduct a multi-layered unit inspection of all assigned military members,” an ACC press release on the orders said. Along with open ranks uniform inspections, the review will include “records inspections, in which commanders must review all military members’ personnel records to ensure medical exemptions and religious accommodations are current and valid.”
The definition of “current and valid” is not addressed in either memo, though the communication plan indicates that Wilsbach may anticipate commanders revoking or otherwise questioning religious accommodation requests, known as RARs.
RARs can cover shaving and beards as well as certain exemptions from some uniform and hair rules. RARs are also the primary route military members have used to request exemptions from taking the COVID-19 vaccine. RARs are issued by commanders after a review of a member’s personal religious beliefs and commitment by a chaplain.
“Although approved RARs last for the duration of an Airman’s military career, DAF policy allows commanders to reassess whether circumstances have changed that necessitate a re-evaluation, such as permanent change of station, deployment, new duties, etc.,” the memo said.
Task & Purpose emailed questions to ACC officials asking for clarification how a unit commander might review the “validity” of a previously approved RAR, and how a “change of station, deployment, new duties” or other workplace factors might affect religious status, but did not receive a response.
The latest on Task & Purpose A brief history of the Marine Corps’ green skivvy t-shirts since WWII * This B-52H crew survived a ‘worst possible case’ emergency and landed safely * Army Ranger jumps into Normandy to honor his World War II Ranger grandfather * Marine sticks his hand in fire ant hill, because Marines gonna Marine * Coast Guard fires commander of its biggest station*
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Soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division rise from eternal rest as an undead leviathan during the finale event of Ivy Week, the division's annual celebration of its legacy and tribute to its role at Utah Beach on D-Day.Military helicopters flew low as thousands of soldiers pushed through a wall of smoke and crested a hilltop in Colorado with the sounds of nearby machine gunfire. In one of the largest annual mass PT events in the military, the Army’s 4th Infantry Division finished its annual Ivy Week on June 14 with huge obstacle course and team fitness event in honor of the division’s mission in the Normandy landings.
Photographs of the annual event released by the division showed — as they do nearly every time the division does one of these — thousands of troops swarming, horde-like, over landscapes and obstacles, often through smoke and water cannons, a visual mix of good Army training and a zombie apocolypse.
4th Infantry Division carry equipment down the side of a hill during the Utah Beach division physical training event, at Fort Carson, Colorado, June 14, 2024. (U.S. Army Photo/Spc. Joshua Zayas)The event caps Ivy Week — a play on the “IV” numerals of the division’s name — that honors the unit’s role in D-Day landings. Soldiers from the 4th ID landed on Utah Beach on D-Day, tasked with crossing two miles of terrain, facing both natural obstacles and enemy resistance, to seize German artillery. The division-wide obstacle course mimics those D-Day orders, with a 2.5 mile course and a wide range of team and individual challenges along the way.
“It serves as a powerful reminder of the dedication and determination that Soldiers within the 4th Infantry Division demonstrate every day,” said 4th Infantry Division spokesman Lt. Col. Joey Payton. “This year’s event was named in honor of Utah Beach, where more than 20,000 4th Infantry Division Soldiers embarked to help liberate Europe during World War II.”
Soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division and Fort Carson make their way through a smoke-covered field during the Utah Beach division physical training event, as an AH-64 Apache flies overhead, June 14, 2024, at Fort Carson, Colorado. (U.S. Army photo/Spc. William Rogers)The division holds the division-wide PT event to build morale and demonstrate unit readiness. The event kicked off at 6:30 a.m., with 20 elements of approximately 120 to 250 Soldiers from battalions across the division.
The soldiers were tasked with running 2.5 miles, with 1,000 feet of elevation gain, while carrying an assortment of fuel jugs, kettlebells, stretchers, and a 400-lb. sandbag a they navigated full-height trenches. They then had to low crawl under extensive barbed wire and concertina wire obstacles. Then, they traversed a wall of ocean containers as an AH-64 Apache flew low over their heads and water hoses soaked them.
A 4th Infantry Division Soldier makes her way through the hedgehog obstacle at the Utah Beach division physical training event, on June 14, 2024, at Fort Carson, Colorado. Army photo by Pfc. Cecilia Ochoa“Through sweat and will, soldiers bonded as they pushed their limits together, fostering a sense of unity and shared purpose while striving for recognition as the division’s best battalion,” Payton said. “The annual event not only promotes physical fitness but reinforces the division’s commitment to readiness and resilience.”
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4th Infantry Division Soldiers participated in the Utah Beach division physical training event, designed to recreate the experience of landing on Utah Beach during a division physical training event on Fort Carson, Colorado, June 14, 2024. Army photo/Sgt. Matthew S. Connor.The training event drummed up enough noise that the 4th Infantry Division notified local neighborhoods that the training would create a large amount of noise and that people may see smoke drifting toward the neighborhoods downwind from the training event.
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U.S. Navy Boatswains Mates assigned to Amphibious Construction Battalion 1 prepare a U.S. Navy Improved Navy Lighterage System Causeway Ferry for on-loading during Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore 2016 (JLOTS '16) June 13, 2016 on Naval Magazine Indian Island, Wash. JLOTS '16 is a joint service, scenario based exercise designed to simulate disaster and humanitarian assistance in the Cascadia subduction zone. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Kenneth Norman).Former Navy utility boat coxswain Jarod Palm has been watching the struggles of the Navy’s Gaza Trident Causeway with a knowing eye. In the Navy, Palm was assigned to a Navy Seabee command and trained some of those operating the Gaza Trident Causeway pier. He’s seen firsthand what contributes to some of the problems with the different boats, ships, and equipment used to carry out the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS, capability.
“In my experience, the reason why it’s so sensitive is, number one, the equipment is old,” Palm said. “Number two, it’s all ‘Lego bricked’ together, and that platform is actually held together by line.”
The system deployed to Gaza has proved to be a struggle to keep open and was this week shut down for the third time since May 17 when it was relocated to the Port of Ashdod, Israel, to avoid incoming harsh weather.
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Still, the U.S. and its allies have delivered 7.7 million pounds of aid across it to date.
The third factor, said Palm, is how the equipment is stored when it’s not in use. A lot of the equipment is stored in dry storage aboard Navy ships pre-positioned around the world.
He said different elements of the system would often break down during training operations.
What is JLOTSPentagon spokesman Maj. Jonathon Daniell sent a prepared statement to Task & Purpose in response to several questions, with technical expertise from CW2 Jason Earl, Master, Army Watercraft Systems. According to them, JLOTS is the capability of delivering cargo from sea to shore in austere environments or when port facilities are unavailable.
JLOTS is a complex system used to either establish a port, upgrade a sub-optimal port, or provide intratheatre lift. Different capabilities of JLOTS include a physical pier to deliver different types of aid or combat sustainment, an offshore petroleum discharge system, an inshore petroleum distribution system, or specialized lines that can pump drinking water onto shore for distribution.
The structure of a JLOTS operation typically starts with a large Navy ship anchored off the coast with a roll-on, roll-off-discharge facility placed adjacent to the ship — military jargon for a large floating dock that is also anchored.
Trucks, containers, or equipment will be lifted or rolled onto the floating dock, where it’s loaded onto a ship or boat that transports its payload to the shore, where a causeway will enable delivery to land.
There are different types of causeways available. Palm saw the Trident Causeway pier used in Albania and Guam during his time in the Navy, the same causeway used in Gaza. The Trident Causeway pier is made up of multiple Modular Causeway Sections that can span up to 1,800 feet long, depending on mission needs and geography of the coastline.
Each section of the Modular Causeway System consists of six 20-x-8 feet pontoons and three box-end 40-x-8 foot pontoons. The pontoons have an “integral connection system” that enables each section to be modular. The pier is assembled at sea and escorted by tugboats and rammed into the beach, and then Army and Navy personnel anchor the distal end to the ocean floor.
But one of the three shutdowns on the Gaza pier was due to rough sea states that broke the pier. It was transported to Israel for repairs before it was re-anchored in Gaza.
Construction Mechanic Chief Liam Anderson has spent a significant amount of time training on a more long-term solution for JLOTS operations: a modular elevated causeway system. Once built, it can stay in place for up to two years before requiring disassembly or repairs.
“They have a big erector set, which consists of 4.5 x 8 x 40 foot long containers that snap together to form a pier,” Anderson said. “The Seabees maintain the capability of building it anywhere between 800 to 3,000 feet long, as long as the ground beneath can support it.”
The other option involves different boats that can land on the beach to deliver supplies by dropping a ramp that vehicles or personnel can offload directly onto the beach. Security concerns in a wartorn area, the topography of the coast, and many other factors play into how a JLOTS operation is conducted.
JLOTS and sea statesSea states are a measurement of wave height and are rated on a sliding scale of 0 to 10. The Gaza coastline regularly experiences a sea state of 4 or higher. The maximum sea state that JLOTS can be executed in is a sea state of 3 or less; anything higher risks damage to the pier, equipment, and those carrying out the operation.
There are many different structures and equipment available for the JLOTS capability, and each one has different capabilities and sea conditions it can handle before breaking, though the cut for personnel on causeways is a sea state higher than 3.
“Typically, sea states must be at a three or less, but other weather conditions can have operational impact,” Daniell said. “Sea state 3 is from 1’8” to 4’1”, and the height of the Modular Causeway Section is 4.5’.”
Anything higher will have a strong effect on the structure and increase the likelihood of damage and structural integrity compromise.
JLOTS is an important capability of the U.S. Army, but it entails almost every branch under the Department of Defense. JLOTS can look different every time it’s implemented based on the current environemnt it’s used in. Palm described it as a unique capability of America’s armed forces, based on his experience during training implementation of JLOTS.
“We can put equipment anywhere we need, even if there’s no port and it’s a shitty beach,” Palm said. “[…] ‘Hey, look, we can drop 2,000 Marines and 1,000 vehicles on a shitty beach any day.’’”
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The driver in a 2023 rollover-crash of an Air Force SRVT-SXV rescue vehicle was not qualified to be driving it, was driving at least twice as fast as was safe and was not wearing a seatbelt. Both the driver and a passenger were permantently disabled in the crash. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Jonathan Valdes Montijo.An Air Force officer and NCO both suffered catastrophic injuries when the burly off-road rescue vehicle they were riding in rolled over and ejected them during a training event in the Northern Mariana Islands in early 2023. An accident investigation board found the driver, a special warfare captain, was driving too fast, had no training in the vehicle and told the enlisted photographer riding with him not to wear her seatbelt “because it was only a 5-minute drive” when he crashed the SRTV-SXV Tactical Vehicle, a brawny dune buggy used by Air Force pararescue teams in harsh terrain.
The driver, a Tactical Air Control Party, or TACP, captain stationed in Hawaii, was paralyzed from the waist down. The photographer, a staff sergeant with the 1st Combat Camera Squadron, eventually had her right leg amputated above the knee along with suffering a broken pelvis and extensive internal bleeding . The accident occurred during COPE North, a 2-week multi-national exercise centered around Guam in February 2023.
But there was some heroism in the crash’s chaotic aftermath. A junior Air Force firefighter who was among the first on the scene of the accident was later recognized with the Air Force’s top award for firefighter heroism. Senior Airman Ethan Embrey was first to realize the dire condition of the photographer needed more medical care than was available on the island and radioed the local airfield with a request to hold an unrelated aircraft on the ground so that she could be taken on an emergency flight to Guam.
Senior Airman Embrey, a firefighter assigned to the 2023 COPE North exercise, was awarded the the Senior Master Sergeant Robert A. McAllister Award for Firefighter Heroism, the service’s top award for valor in action for firefighters, for his response to a 2023 vehicle accident that left two airmen permanently disabled. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Patrick Boyle.An Air Force investigation board that reviewed the accident did not directly assign blame or fault for the February 2023 accident, but the findings make clear that the captain behind the wheel was acting far outside of safety and training rules and may have lied to investigators about the incident.
The officer told investigators that a senior pararescue operator, or PJ, in charge of the SRTV had given him two hours of “familiarization training” on the vehicle the day before the crash, “but that it was not documented” in the officer’s training records. However, the senior PJ told the board that he did not train anyone on the vehicle during COPE North, and that he did not believe the captain had received any training on the SRTV during COPE North or in the weeks prior.
A Pacific Air Forces spokesperson did not say if the crash had resulted in disciplinary actions. Officials released the report June 14 after being completed in April.
“The Air Force does not disclose information regarding disciplinary actions,” the spokesperson told Task & Purpose in an emailed statement. “The purpose of an Air Force Ground Accident Investigation Board is to inquire into the facts surrounding Air Force ground accidents, and to gather and preserve evidence for use in litigation, claims, disciplinary actions, administrative proceedings and for other purposes.
Speeding on a “World War II” roadThe accident occurred as the TACP piloted the SRTV-SXV — short for, the Search And Rescue Tactical Vehicle-Side by Vehicle — on a narrow, overgrown road towards Chulu Beach on the northern end of Tinian, a small island roughly 160 miles north of Guam. The TACP was on his way to join the Pararescue team for a training event.
The photographer was along to get pictures of the training for Air Force public affairs. As is typical in accident investigations, no one involved in or interviewed after the accident was identified in the report.
The event was a so-called Full Mission Profile, of FMP, in which the pararescue team would retrieve a down pilot hiding somewhere near Chulu Beach. To reach the pilot, the PJ team would be dropped from helicopters into the waters off the beach, then come ashore and locate the pilot.
Photos of the crashed Air Force SRTV from the mishap investigation report.“The team would encounter enemy contact, and [the TACP] would coordinate close air support fires from MQ-9 reaper drones and MH-60S helicopters,” the report said. However, the TACP “was not qualified on the planned insertion and extraction techniques and would join the [PJs] when they arrived on the beach.”
However, to reach the beach from the Tinian airfield that afternoon, the TACP chose to drive himself and the photographer in the SRTV-SXV, which the PJ team had brought with them from the 31st Rescue Squadron at Kadena Air Base in Japan. A civilian rental vehicle had already departed to take the “pilot” to their hiding spot.
The officer was not trained or authorized to drive the bulky rescue vehicle and the photographer told investigators she had never ridden in one. When she sat in the passenger seat, she realized immediately that she did not know how to buckle its safety harness. But, she told the board, the officer told her “that because it was only a 5-minute drive, they did not need to wear seatbelts,” the report found.
RIding in an SRTV requires “ankle-covering boots, pants, gloves, eye protection, helmet, and seatbelts,” the report said, none of which the driver passed on to the photographer.
The remote road to the beach was dilapidated, overgrown and had “not been improved or resurfaced since their original construction during World War II,” the report found. Foilage slapped the photographer’s face as they drove between 40 and 50 MPH, the board found. The photographer told investigators, “she developed a nervous feeling about the [vehicle’s] speed and made multiple requests to [the driver] that he slow down; however, [the captain] did not acknowledge or respond to those request.”
Though there was no posted speed limit on the little-used road, local police told investigators the top safe speed on the road was probably 15 MPH. The speed limit in all training areas on Guam, where the COPE North was based, is 35 MPH.
As they approached a turn to the beach, the driver claimed “an issue arose with the steering and [the photographer’s] side of the vehicle was in the brush, which prompted [him] to overcorrect then placing [his own] side of the vehicle into the brush.”
As they turned, the vehicle rolled over, ejecting both the driver and passenger. Both said they could not remember the exact moment of the crash.
SRTV is brawny but ‘twitchy’ to driveThe SRTV is a specialized vehicle made for Air Force special operations teams by BC Customs, a Utah vehicle maker. Though it is brawny and designed for difficult terrain, it is not easy or intuitive to drive, the report found. It has a very rapid steering system, which can be “locked out” in side-to-side motion with less than a full turn of the wheel. As a result, even small movements of the wheel can cause the vehicle to make large movements, particularly at high speeds.
PJs told the board that driving it is “not user friendly” and the vehicle is “very different from other vehicles,” particularly at high speeds.
CB Customs describes the steering as “twitchy.”
Alaska Air National Guard pararescuemen and Army National Guard aviation Soldiers assigned to the 212th Rescue Squadron and 207th Aviation Regiment load the a Search and Rescue Tactical Vehicle (SRTV) into a CH-47 Chinook helicopter at the Bryant Army Airfield, July 10, 2020.Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Seth LaCount.In addition to its touchy steering, the SRTV is, perhaps counter-intuitively, prone to tipping. The size and shape of the body was built to fit on a V-22 Osprey, limiting its width.
In testing on level concrete, the report said, the SRTV-SXV was prone to tip over if driven through average turns over 38 miles per hour. A modification to the wheels that some rescue teams installed themselves increased that point to 39 MPH, the report said, but Air Force officials recommended that teams not use those modifications due to increased wear and tear.
In response to Air Force concerns of the tipping, BC Custom suggested that the Air Force rollovers were not the result of vehicle deficiencies but were due to user error, the report said, due to a lack of understanding of the vehicle’s design and function and its intended purposes.
Whether or not the captain was given two hours of instruction, it would not have been enough. Pararescue team members were considered qualified to drive the SRTV-SXV, the report said, only after taking a five-day in-person course at the CB Custom’s Utah factory.
First Responder heroismA local woman found the crash site and rushed to find officials, first encountering a unit of airfield firefighters, including Senior Airman Embrey.
“Initially I thought it was a part of the exercise,” Embrey said in an Air Force release. “But when she told me that it was real, I hopped out the truck, grabbed my individual first aid kit, and headed to the scene.”
At the scene, Embrey said, both the driver and passenger were conscious. First responders had gathered around the driver, who was saying he could not feel his legs, with just a single guard with the photographer. “Only one person was helping her,” Embrey said.
The driver in a 2023 rollover-crash of an Air Force SRVT-SXV rescue vehicle was not qualified to be driving it, was driving at least twice as fast as was safe and was not wearing a seatbelt. Both the driver and a passenger were permantently disabled in the crash. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Jonathan Valdes Montijo.“I told the security forces guard to check from head to waist as I was checking waist down to feet because I saw something protruding from her boot,” Embrey said. “Her bone broke through the skin on her ankle. I was getting ready to splint and package her leg when she said, ‘my stomach hurts.’ She already was expressing an altered mental status so I knew something was wrong.”
The stomach pain, he realized, might be an indication of internal bleeding.
“I saw a black spot on the right of her navel which is the earliest sign of internal bleeding,” said Embrey.
With no hospital on the island, Embrey knew she needed to get to Guam as soon as possible. He thought back to the airfield, where he knew a C-130 had just landed.
“I immediately call in that it’s internal bleeding and I tell them to hold the plane, as it was preparing to take off,” Embrey said. “She has to be on the plane that just landed.”
The C-130 held on the ground as Embrey and other responders rushed the photographer to the airfield in a truck.
“I was standing over her to make sure she didn’t shake on the truck bed,” said Embrey. During the trip, the woman lost pulses in her feet and arms, signs that she was going into shock from losing blood internally. “It was like a big ice cream scoop took out a chunk of her left thigh and instead of it gushing out it was feeding back into the stomach cavity.”
Once on the C-130, the woman was flown to Guam, from where she was quickly flown to Hawaii.
UPDATE: 6/18/2024; This article has been updated with comments from a Pacific Air Forces spokesperson.
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An MV-22 Osprey with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 166, in Kuwait, Sept 24, 2020. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Andrew Skiver.It will be a year until the U.S. military’s V-22 Ospreys are allowed to carry out their full range of operations. The nearly 400 Ospreys used by several military branches will continue to operate with restrictions and limitations until root causes behind several fatal crashes are resolved, the head of U.S. Naval Air Systems Command announced this past week.
Vice Adm. Carl Chebi, leader of that command, confirmed that restrictions on the V-22 will remain in place until mid-2025. He discussed the restrictions and the ongoing investigation into V-22 mishaps while testifying before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, June 12.
“I will not certify the V-22 to return to unrestricted flight operations until I am satisfied that we have sufficiently addressed the issues that may affect the safety of the aircraft,” Chebi said as part of his opening statement.
The V-22 was grounded by the U.S. military following the Nov. 29, 2023 Air Force CV-22 crash. That flight, operating as “Gundam 22,” crashed off the coast of Japan, killing all eight crew members. The Gundam 22 crash came only a few months after a Marine Osprey crashed in Australia, killing three on board and leaving others injured.
The V-22 Osprey is used by the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force Special Operations Command, as well as Japan’s Self Defense Force. The V-22 Joint Program Office falls under the purview of Naval Air Systems Command. After the Gundam 22 incident, the three military branches grounded their fleets of Ospreys, launching investigations into the crashes and their underlying issues. V-22s were only allowed back into the air in a limited capacity in March.
The military is still looking into the exact causes of the crashes. Naval Air Systems Command is conducting a ”holistic” review meant to be a comprehensive look at training, maintenance and operations of the V-22 aircraft, Chebi repeatedly said. That is expected to take another six to nine months to complete, he said.
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Families of victims of Osprey crashes were in attendance at the hearing on Wednesday. Amber Sax, the widow of one of the service members killed in 2022, told ABC News that the families of crash victims submitted questions to the House committee.
“Not all of them were answered,” Sax told ABC News. “I would say the majority actually were not, unfortunately.”
Sax is one of the plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit against three aerospace companies that manufacture V-22s. The plaintiffs are family members of Marines killed in a MV-22 that crashed in California in 2022 during a routine training flight. The lawsuit alleges that the companies “supplied false information” regarding the Osprey’s safety. A Marine Corps investigation into the 2022 crash found it went down due a hard clutch engagement.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Chebi said that there have been 19 hard clutch engagement events in the Osprey’s operational existence. He noted a “sharp increase” of those incidents in 2022. Part of the reason for the extended restrictions on V-22 operations, officials told the House, is working to fix the hard clutch engagement issue.
Chebi also noted that since the Osprey was put into service in 2007, a total of 64 service members were killed in V-22 mishaps, with 94 others injured.
Although the United States is keeping limits on Osprey operations, Japan does not plan to have any restrictions on its fleet of Ospreys. Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara said that there does not appear to be safety issues with Japan’s V-22, the Associated Press reported on Friday, after the House hearings. Kihara noted that Japan has put in place enhanced safety and maintenance steps with Osprey operations.
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Rescued civilian sailors were airlifted by helicopter to the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group on June 15. (photo courtesy U.S. Navy).The U.S. Navy rescued two dozen civilian sailors on the Red Sea after their ship was critically damaged by Yemen’s Houthi militants. The airlift came after the Houthis were able to hit two merchant ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden this past week.
On Saturday, June 15, a helicopter from Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 74 airlifted 24 merchant sailors off the Tutor, a Greek-owned ship flying under the Liberian flag. The civilian crew was taken first to the USS Philippine Sea before being moved to the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower for medical evaluation. The Tutor was hit by a Houthi uncrewed surface drone, causing severe flooding in the ship and damaging its engine. One sailor from the Tutor remains missing since the attack, according to U.S. Central Command.
The attack on the Tutor was the first successful assault by the Houthis on a ship using uncrewed surface vessels. Previous attempts failed and the group has mostly focused on aerial attacks, using missiles or one-way attack drones. The Houthis continue to attack merchant ships in the waters off of Yemen, even after months of airstrikes and bombing campaigns on Houthi-controlled sites by the U.S.-led multinational coalition.
In response to the attack, American forces destroyed multiple radar installations in Yemen used in planning attacks on shipping lanes, CENTCOM said. It’s not clear how the sites were destroyed, or if there were any casualties; CENTCOM did not specify and the Houthis have not commented on the strikes. Additionally, on June 14, American forces intercepted and destroyed two uncrewed surface vessels and an aerial drone.
The airlift of the Tutor’s crew came after several attacks on merchant vessels in the waters around Yemen this past week. On June 13, the Ukrainian-owned cargo ship Verbena, flying under a Palauan flag and operated by a Polish company, was hit by two separate missile attacks. That day, the USS Philippine Sea medically evacuated an injured civilian from the Verbena. Two days later the crew said it was abandoning ship; the crew was rescued by another merchant ship.
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The Houthis, a religious and nationalist Yemeni group that controls the majority of the country following a prolonged civil war, began attacking ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in October. The campaign was in response to Israel’s war in Gaza, with Houthi leadership saying it would continue the attacks until the war ended. Since October American and later allied ships have repeatedly intercepted drones and missiles, struck launch and radar sites and carried out several wider bombing campaigns in Yemen, including in the capital city of Sana’a.
Last month the U.S. military extended the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group’s deployment in the Middle East, due to the ongoing attacks.
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gt. Maj. of the U.S. Army Michael R. Weimer salutes at the unveiled and renamed Sgt. Stout vehicle, previously the M-SHORAD. (photo by Christopher Kaufmann/U.S. Army).In 1970, during the Vietnam War, Sgt. Mitchell William Stout, an air defense artillery soldier, gave his life saving his comrades from a grenade. For his actions he would be awarded the Medal of Honor. 54 years later, the U.S. Army paid a new tribute to Stout, renaming its air defense armored vehicle after him.
The M-SHORAD Increment One is now the Sgt. Stout. The new name for the weapons system came on Saturday, June 15 as part of the Army’s celebrations for the service’s 249th birthday. The news was announced at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, with a Sgt. Stout bearing the name on display. Sgt. Maj. of the U.S. Army Michael R. Weimer conducted the unveiling, revealing the new name and saluting the vehicle.
“Today, the @USArmy named our newest integrated air defense system, the M-SHORAD, after SGT Mitchell W. Stout,” Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said in a post on X. “SGT [sic] Stout is the only Air Defense Artillery Soldier to earn the #MoH, sacrificing his life to protect his fellow Soldiers during the Vietnam war. The SGT STOUT detects, tracks and engages aerial threats & will protect our Soldiers, like its namesake, well into the future.”
The formerly named M-SHORAD Increment 1 (short for maneuver short-range air defense) is a modified Stryker vehicle, equipped with a radar system and several weapons including a Stinger missile launcher, designed to be used to intercept and repel artillery rounds, missiles, mortars and even aircraft before they can hit targets.
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Sgt. Mitchell Stout never saw the vehicle that now bears his name. Born in February 1950 in Knoxville, Tennessee, he joined the Army at the age of 17. He was sent to Vietnam as an air defense artillery soldier, serving with Battery C, 1st Battalion, 44th Artillery. On March 12, 1970, his unit was attacked by North Vietnamese forces at Khe Gio Bridge. Their position was pounded mortars before enemy forces moved in. One North Vietnamese soldier threw a grenade into their bunker.
“Displaying great courage, Sgt. Stout ran to the grenade, picked it up, and started out of the bunker. As he reached the door, the grenade exploded. By holding the grenade close to his body and shielding its blast, he protected his fellow soldiers in the bunker from further injury or death,” his Medal of Honor citation reads. “Sgt. Stout’s conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action, at the cost of his own life, are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon him, his unit and the U.S. Army.”
Stout had only turned 20 years old weeks prior. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor four years later, by then-Vice President Gerald Ford.
The Army currently operates the air defense vehicles in three battalions and plans to add hundreds more to service by 2031.
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TOPSHOT - Residents queue for vaccination in Marikina City, suburban Manila on August 6, 2021, as authorities imposed another lockdown to slow the spread of the hyper-contagious Delta variant and ease pressure on hospitals while trying to avoid crushing economic activity. (Photo by Ted ALJIBE / AFP) (Photo by TED ALJIBE/AFP via Getty Images).The Department of Defense is standing by a major disinformation campaign it led that worked to spread doubt and fears of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines in the Philippines in 2020, following the revelation of the program.
The discovery comes from a major report by Reuters. The investigation, published on June 14, is the first report on the secret program. According to Reuters’ reporting, the military set up hundreds fake social media accounts, spreading messages in Tagalog to the Filipino community that spread doubt on the effectiveness of protective measures and warned against any help from China.
“COVID came from China and the VACCINE also came from China, don’t trust China!” one post on X, formerly Twitter, said in Tagalog in July 2020. One common hashtag used with these posts was #Chinaangvirus, which translates to English as “China is the virus.”
With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the military launched its effort in the Philippines, creating the more than 300 accounts on social media. The country that has suffered heavily from the pandemic, with more than 4 million reported cases and tens of thousands of deaths from the virus. These fake accounts amassed thousands of followers and as 2020 continued, became specifically focused on anti-vaccination messages. That in particular was focused on the Chinese-produced Sinovac vaccine.
The program started under former President Donald Trump and continued into the early months of President Joe Biden’s administration.
The Department of Defense does not deny the Reuters report. Lisa Lawrence, a spokesperson for the Department of Defense, said in a statement to Task & Purpose that the department conducts operations in the “information environment” to “counter adversary malign influence.”
“Several state and non-state actors use social media platforms and other media to spread disinformation and conduct malign influence campaigns against the United States. The DoD uses a variety of platforms, including social media, to counter those malign influence attacks aimed at the U.S., allies, and partners,” Lawrence’s statement continued. “As it relates to COVID-19 disinformation, China [in 2020] initiated a disinformation campaign to falsely blame the United States for the spread of COVID-19.”
Notably the statement does not name the Philippines, or address public health concerns stemming from the pandemic and the disinformation campaign.
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At the time of the campaign’s launch in the summer of 2020, the Sinovac and other vaccines were in early trials. Vaccines started rolling out in spring of 2021 in the Philippines (in the United States, vaccinations began in December 2020). Sinovac is one of several vaccines used by Filipino health officials, and was the first to be fully deployed, ahead of Western ones such as the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
It is not clear how wide the extent of the damage to public health was from this. Reuters was unable to determine the scale of the disinformation campaign. Task & Purpose also asked about the public health impact, but the Department of Defense’s statement did not address that. More than 66,000 people in the Philippines have died from COVID-19, with more than 4,140,000 cases reported in the country since the outbreak of the pandemic, per the World Health Organization. By the summer of 2021, after the campaign had ended, the Philippines was struggling with getting its population vaccinated, even as it had a high rate of cases.
Although the campaign centered around the Philippines, it expanded during its run to central Asia and the Middle East, with specifically tailored messages to certain countries. After discovering the accounts, Reuters asked X about the profiles and posts. X removed the profiles, finding them to be part of a “coordinated bot program” according to Reuters.
The program only ended several months into the new administration of President Joe Biden, after social media executives informed the White House of what the Pentagon and the previous administration had been doing. The anti-vaccine disinformation campaign ended in the spring of 2021, after the Biden administration banned it
Public health experts Reuters spoke to warned about the impact the program could have had on wider public health. Skepticism of one vaccine — and vaccines have been proven to protect against COVID-19 according to several studies — could lead to wider overall doubt, not only for vaccines but for protective measures.
This is not the first time the American national security apparatus has impacted public health efforts abroad. After it was revealed that the CIA used a fake vaccine campaign against hepatitis in Pakistan during its hunt for Osama Bin Laden (locating him in Abbottabad), anti-vaccine sentiment grew. It later led to attacks on health workers trying to eradicate polio in the country via inoculation. Nor is it the only psyops campaign done in Southeast Asia done in response to wider geopolitical struggles.
At least seven million people have died worldwide from COVID-19, including more than a million Americans.
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Cmdr. David Ruhlig (center) assuming command of Coast Guard Station New York in July 2021. (photo by Daniel Henry/U.S. Coast Guard).The U.S. Coast Guard removed the commander of Coast Guard Station New York this month, citing a “loss of confidence in his ability to fulfill the expectations of his positions,” according to a Coast Guard release.
Cmdr. David Ruhlig was fired from the head role at Station New York on June 3, the Coast Guard announced on Friday, June 14. He had been in charge of the service’s largest small boat station for three years.
The Coast Guard, as with other service branches, often uses the term “loss of confidence” as a vague reason for why officers are removed from command roles. Reasons can vary, from direct actions in the command to outside matters such as driving while intoxicated. Ruhlig is one of several officers relieved of command this year. The Navy has had far more commanders fired, with 12 relieved of command this year.
The news release did not say the root cause of Ruhlig’s firing, but the Coast Guard said it came after Rear Adm. John Mauger, the former commander of First Coast Guard District (which encompasses New York), recommended it.
According to a Coast Guard statement shared to Military.com, Ruhlig was removed from command because he did not adequately respond to reports of harassment inside the unit. The Coast Guard has been dealing with ongoing scandals tied to harassment. The U.S. Coast Guard Academy’s sexual assault response coordinator recently left her role, saying that service officials were sabotaging how the school reported cases of sexual assault.
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Ruhlig took over the command role at Coast Guard Station New York in July 2021. He has been with the Coast Guard for more than two decades. He was expected to leave the command later this year.
Lt. Cmdr. Robert Garris was assigned as the interim commander of Station New York until a permanent replacement for Ruhlig is found. Station New York is the largest small boat station operated by the Coast Guard, with 140 people assigned to it (including the commander).
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The crew of an Alaska Air National Guard HH-60 and two pararescue specialists found and rescued 6 survivors of a plane crash in a remote National Park. Alaska National Guard photo by Seth LaCount.A rescue helicopter crew and two pararescuemen from the Alaska Air National Guard found six survivors of a small plane crash — including two with severe injuries — deep in a remote national park, far from any roads in early June.
The crew responded to a call for a help from the pilot of a de Havilland Beaver, a small passenger plane popular in Alaska and commonly fitted with pontoons, or floats, to land on lakes and open water. The Beaver, with five passengers and a pilot, crashed in Lake Clark National Park, a remote mountain region about 100 miles west of Anchorage and reachable only by air.
The plane crashed near K’q’uya Vena, or Kijik Lake, a smaller body that flows into the larger, Qizhejeh Vena, or Lake Clark.
The Air Guard crew, from the 176th Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, used a signal from the Beaver’s emergency locator to home in on its location.
The crew found the Beaver in woods too dense to land, and inserted two pararescuemen to the site. The pararescuemen, who are trained as paramedics, assessed and treated two of the occupants, and found the other four were largely uninjured.
The HH-60 flew the four uninjured occupants to Port Alsworth, a small town on Lake Clark, and flew the two injured occupants to a hospital in Anchorage.
An official with the Guard said the crew was able to quickly locate the plane because it emergency beacon operated at 406-megahertz rather than an 121.5-megahertz model.
The newer ELTs can be picked up by satellites and narrow a crash down to just over a square mile, versus an area 10 times as large for the older models.
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Lance Cpl. Austin Brian Schwenk was shot and killed at Camp Lejeune on Oct. 18, 2023. (Photo courtesy of Brunner Sanden Deitrick Funeral Home & Cremation Center in Ohio).Lance Cpl. Austin Brian Schwenk was born on the Marine Corps’ largest base, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
“He was born a Marine,” said his father Robert Brian Schwenk Jr., who served in the Marines from 2002 to 2006. Austin followed his father into the Marines, graduating from boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina in 2022.
In October, Lance Cpl. Schwenk was shot and killed at Camp Lejeune in an incident the Marines have released few details on.
Another Marine, Corporal Jesse Thomas Bopp, is set to face a general court-martial, the Marines confirmed this week. Bopp faces charges of murder, involuntary manslaughter, and violation of a lawful order in connection with Schwenk’s death.
Bopp’s court-martial is scheduled to take place between November 4th and 18th at Camp Lejeune, according to the 2nd Marine Division. He is being held beyond the end of his current contract in pretrial confinment in the Marine Corps Installations – East Regional Brig at Camp Lejeune.
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Marine Corps Times first reported that Bopp would be court-martialed for the death of Schwenk, 19, who was shot on Oct. 18, 2023 in a barracks at Camp Lejeune.
Prosecutors have accused Bopp of killing Schwenk with a firearm, according to his charge sheet, which was provided to Task & Purpose. Bopp is also accused of “wrongfully, possessing, carrying, displaying, firing, and discharging a weapon aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.”
The charge sheet does not include any further information about the circumstances of Schwenk’s death.
General courts-martial are reserved for the most serious offenses under the military’s justice system. The maximum penalty that Bopp could face if he is convicted of the murder charge would be a death sentence. He could also face prison time if convicted of murder or manslaughter ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment.
Task & Purpose was unable to reach Bopp’s defense attorney on Friday.
After enlisting in the Marine Corps in January 2019, Bopp completed recruit training in San Diego. His military awards include the National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, Certificate of Commendation, and Sea Service Deployment Ribbon.
Both Bopp and Schwenk were assigned to 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines at the time of the shooting.
Schwenk’s father, who shares the same middle name as his son, declined to discuss the circumstances of his son’s death to preserve the integrity of the upcoming trial.
He described his son as someone whose light shone into anyone who was around him.
“He could make anyone smile,” Robert Brian Schwenk Jr. said. “At 19 years old he would still run around with his little 8-year-old sister acting like a kid, playing hide and seek and making sure that he showed her the love of a big brother.”
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Army Spc. Bobby Berg, left, and Army Sgt. Zachary Lane, both assigned to U.S. Army Alaska, conduct a Modern Army Combatives Program grappling scenario on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Feb. 6, 2020, designed to enhance unit combat readiness by building personal courage, confidence, and resiliency as well as situational responsiveness to close-quarters threats in an operational environment. (U.S. Air Force photo/Justin Connaher).When clearing through a room, a soldier is always at risk of hand-to-hand combat, though it can happen on the open battlefield, too. The Modern Army Combatives Program (MACP) is one of the building blocks for soldiers which enables them to defend themselves and gain physical control over anyone who threatens them.
Sgt. 1st Class Zach Rapada, Branch Chief of the U.S. Army Combatives Course, has been involved in teaching combatives to his fellow soldiers since he enlisted in 2012. Though MACP basics will establish a foundation in combatives, it does not make a soldier a professional UFC fighter.
“They are not comparable,” Rapada said. “[MACP] gets soldiers the basics; it’s up to them to advance their skills at their units or during off hours.”
It’s a combatives program with various training levels, in which the student can become the teacher as they progress through the training. The certifications alone won’t make a soldier an unstoppable powerhouse, but it’s a vast improvement compared to the military’s early forms of combatives.
A brief history of the Modern Army Combatives ProgramThe first combatives manual, translated from a French bayonet fighting manual, was adopted by the U.S. military in 1852. However, World War I proved that this style of bayonet fighting was ineffective in the narrow trenches.
Later, during World War II, U.S. Army Col. Rex Applegate, British Royal Marine Lt. Col. William Ewart Fairbairn, and British Army Capt. Eric Sykes created a hand-to-hand combat methodology based on simplified lessons learned from the battlefield, which later became “the evolutionary foundation of MACP.”
After WWII, combatives training became watered down according to soldiers who had some sort of traditional martial arts experience. FM 21-150 became the default field manual explaining combatives and remained the standard into the early 1990s. However, the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment exposed flaws in the training and formed a research committee that eventually created MACP Levels 1 to 4.
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Then, in 2002, the first “Army-wide Modern Army Combatives Manual, FM 3-25.150,” was published, and soldiers began training the updated combatives. The latest field manual is continually updated based on lessons learned on the battlefield and exposure to more effective fighting styles.
The latest updates occurred in 2014 when the Combatives Master Trainer Course replaced both Levels 3 and 4 and updated Levels 1 and 2.
MACP Levels 1, 2, and 3The Army Combatives Course is based at Ft. Moore, Georgia, and falls under the 1st Battalion, 29th Infantry. But all soldiers attend a Level 1 Basic Combatives course during basic training.
The drill sergeants, who are either MACP Level 2 or 3 certified, teach the new soldiers how to respond to an enemy rapidly closing distance. They’ll learn things like how to pass guard, place someone in a rear naked choke, or defend against knee strikes in a clinch.
“They build confidence quickly when someone bigger than them is coming at them, punching and kicking,” Rapada said.
Soldiers can later attend the MACP Level 2 Tactical Combatives Course training, where they will learn to master the basics as a trainer of Level 1 MACP.
The major difference between Level 2 and the CMTC is that trainers learn how to set up and referee combatives tournaments. But even as a Combatives Master Trainer, that doesn’t make a soldier qualified to take on someone like Connor McGregor.
Rapada said to be a respected trainer, a soldier must continue to hone their craft by attending more advanced martial arts classes like Jiu-Jitsu, Krav Maga, and mixed martial arts.
“Why would anyone listen to an instructor that a student beat up,” Rapada said.
He joined the military as a brown belt in Jiu-Jitsu and was selected early on to be a trainer due to his performance in the Level 1 Basic Combatives course. Rapada has helped establish training gyms at different units during his tenure and is always looking to better himself as a practitioner and trainer.
He’s since progressed to being a master trainer and has attended Levels 1 and 2 of the Special Operations Combatives Course, which teaches soldiers how to disarm an armed enemy, fighting in full combat gear, and many other more advanced fighting techniques.
But an important aspect for anyone who starts their combatives journey is there is always something new you can learn, and there is almost always someone better than you. So whether you earned your Level 1 or you become a Master Trainer, don’t go picking fights.
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One potentially junior Marine decided to test his pain response via intentionally shoving his hand into a fire ant hill. (Screen shot of Reddit posted video. Task & Purpose composite image.).Initial training for anyone in any branch of service can have dull moments. What better way to spice up your day than to stick your hand directly into a fire ant hill? A video posted to the Reddit thread r/USMC by moderator “newnoadeptness,” shows one Marine proving his masculinity by shoving his hand into a fire ant hill.
Kyle Gunn, Task & Purpose’s social media director and resident Marine, said, “He looks like a private, so this is probably at a schoolhouse. If I had to guess, I’d say these are Motor-T mechanic students at Camp Johnson right outside Lejeune.”
Would legendary Marine Brigadier Gen. Chesty Puller be proud? Who knows.
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Here’s the deal: female worker ants have stingers packed with a poison that causes a burning sensation, a large welt, and potentially a postulate that isn’t very attractive. Worst case scenario, your body recognizes the poison as a more severe threat, and you develop an anaphylactic reaction, compromising your airway if not promptly treated.
We can’t say who won in the duel between the ants and the Marine, but his technique to withstand the pain inflicted by the stings is impressive. He slaps his thigh with his free hand as the ants swarm the hand he placed into the ant hill while other Marines watch.
The one Marine wearing a Camelbak is a hint this group of young Marines are still in their early phases of training. Based on the brick building in the background, it could indicate it’s on the east coast, possibly Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
Wherever this video was captured, that Marine can confidently say he has mastered his pain response and we think Chesty would be proud.
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Several people watch a ship belonging to the Russian Navy flotilla arrive at the port of Havana on June 12, 2024. (Yander Zamora/Anadolu via Getty Images).Someone in the Kremlin must have opened Marko Ramius’ letter because three Russian ships and one submarine are conducting naval exercises in the Caribbean this week.
In response, the U.S. Navy has sent at least one P-8 Poseidon anti-submarine aircraft to keep tabs on the Russians and has the destroyers USS Truxtun, USS Donald Cook and USS Delbert D. Black patrolling in the region, a spokesperson for U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, said on Thursday.
“In accordance with standard procedures, we’ve been actively monitoring the Russian ships as they transit the Atlantic Ocean within international waters,” NORTHCOM said in a statement. “Air and maritime assets under U.S. Northern Command have conducted operations to ensure the defense of the United States and Canada. Russia’s deployments are part of routine naval activity which pose no direct threat or concern to the United States.”
Separately, the Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS Helena has arrived at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as part of a “routine port visit,” U.S. Southern Command announced on Thursday. While the Helena’s transit had been previously planned, its arrival in Cuba is fortitudinous should the Russians pull any Crazy Ivans.
Russian official media recently announced that the four ships would arrive in Havana on Wednesday to extend friendly greetings between the two countries. Only two of the ships are frontline warships, the frigate Admiral Gorshkov and cruise missile submarine Kazan. The ships are traveling with the tanker Pashin, and the rescue tug Nikolay Chiker.
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The Admiral Gorshkov and Kazan conducted battle drills using high precision missiles on their way to Cuba, Russia’s defense ministry announced on Tuesday. The Pentagon has not confirmed information shared on the website marinetraffic.com that the Nikolay Chiker came within 30 miles of the Florida coast that day.
The inclusion of a Russian tug boat in the flotilla has drawn some online scorn but at least one naval expert pointed out on X that tugs — which double as icebreakers — are a routine part of Russian naval operations due to the often-unsuitable nature of ports their warships may visit.
The Russian nuclear-powered submarine Kazan, part of the Russian naval detachment visiting Cuba, arrives at Havana’s harbor, June 12, 2024. (Adalberto Roque/AFP via Getty Images)“People often joke that the #Russian navy needs to take ‘tugs’ along on long voyages,” wrote H.I. Sutton, who tweets under the handle @Covertshores. “Actually it is a smart move and the tugs are for more than just towing. They are support ships. Logistics and support are key, plus Russia doesn’t have a strong global network of equipped friendly ports. Among many tasks, they can perform intelligence gathering activities. This is one aspect of the Russian navy I don’t think is as funny as people hope it is. The other is its submarines.”
Diplomatic relations between the United States and Russia have sunk to Cold War levels of antipathy since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The United States has provided Ukraine with $51.2 billion in military assistance since then.
This marks the seventh time since 2008 that the Russian navy has deployed to the Caribbean, said Dara Massicot, a senior fellow with the Russia and Eurasia Program for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Although the number of Russian vessels currently in the Caribbean is higher than it has been in the past and the Russians typically don’t announce where their submarines are, this deployment is not unusual, Massicot told Task & Purpose.
This is the time of year when the Russian navy sends its fleets on training missions, Massicot said. Around this time in 2023, the Russians deployed a surface action group off the coast of Hawaii.
“They, of course, appreciate any secondary benefits, like these deployments being hyped up or sending this kind of coercive signal; but I don’t think that’s the primary intent here because they are pretty routine,” Massicot said. “I look at how they’re communicating where they’re going; who’s coming with them; and what they’re doing, which is a simulated missile launch, and this is all very routine language on the Russian side. And the U.S. press releases have also been very routine.”
Massicot added that the Russian navy needs months to plan for deployments of this size and distance, so it is not coming as a result of a recent event somewhere in the world.
Over the past decade, the Russian navy has prioritized building submarines over surface vessels. As a result, Russia continues to produce quiet and capable submarines, like the Kazan.
“We’ve had senior U.S. admirals and generals say that Russia is moving to a persistent presence in the Atlantic and the Pacific with this particular type of submarine,” Massicot said. “But I’m pretty confident in the [U.S. Navy’s] 2nd and 4th Fleets’ ability to monitor this and track it.”
As of yet, there has been no word on whether or not the Russians plan to listen to U.S. rock’n’roll while conducting missile drills, or if U.S. listening posts heard any sound besides laughter as the Russians sailed to Havana, where the sun is warm, and so is the comradeship.
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An Army audit obtained by the Project On Government Oversight through a Freedom of Information Act request found that Army officials may have undercounted as many as 4,000 domestic abuse reports in recent years due to lapses in two seperate tracking databases. Army Photo by Sgt. Brayton Daniel,.An Army audit found that thousands of domestic violence incidents involving soldiers fell through the cracks without oversight, resulting in cases of victims being re-harmed and even killed by perpetrators who had already been identified as abusers.
An Army audit obtained by the Project On Government Oversight through a Freedom of Information Act request and shared with Task & Purpose found that the Army didn’t properly track thousands of domestic abuse reports in two different tracking databases and failed to enforce relevant training among its soldiers. The audit linked both factors to repeated domestic abuse.
The audit found that 13% of military domestic abuse cases is committed by repeat offenders. Fourteen people died from domestic abuse linked to service members in fiscal year 2022, the audit found. Five of those deaths were caused by people who had been previously reported for abuse. Among those who were killed, four had previously reported abuse.
“The Army also risked higher rates of domestic abuse repeat offenses and increased negative impacts to mission readiness,” the audit concluded.
At the heart of the undercount is discrepancies between two Army databases the service uses to track domestic abuse. More than 4,000 domestic violence incidents between fiscal years 2019 and 2021 weren’t counted in the systems. One system failed to track 1,962 domestic violence reports and the second system failed to record 2,294 incidents, according to the audit.
The auditors said that since officials weren’t aware of the full scope of domestic abuse incidents, “they risked underreporting” nearly 2,000 incidents. Along with increasing the risk that some offenders could escape accountability, the undercounting likely meant less dollars put towards prevention.
“Data is not just data,” said René Kladzyk, an investigative reporter for POGO. “The auditors are very clear that when you have inaccuracies in data that can lead to not directing enough money toward the Army’s domestic violence prevention programs.”
The audit focused on the Army’s two information systems: the Family Advocacy System of Records (FASOR) and the Army Law Enforcement Reporting and Tracking System (ALERTS).
The tracking systems are supposed to have identical tallies of domestic violence reports but the audit found that 70% of incidents tracked in FASOR weren’t recorded in the ALERTS system and 56% of incidents tracked in ALERTS were not in the FASOR system. The systems also report different data since ALERTS only tracks criminal offenses. Emotional abuse, for example, would not be included in that set but is available in FASOR.
“The findings represent just a fraction of the true potential scale of undercounting: Auditors limited their analysis of such incidents to a sample of 10 Army installations around the country, out of roughly 60 Army bases nationwide,” according to POGO. This means that the Army audit only captured a snapshot of the missed reports over three years.
Fixing ‘inconsistencies’Lieutenant Colonel Ruth Castro, a spokesperson for Army headquarters, said the Army needs two separate databases because of differing requirements for Army law enforcement organizations and the Army’s program for preventing, identifying, and investigating domestic violence.
The Army is currently revising the regulation governing usage of these databases under the Army Family Advocacy Program in response to the audit’s findings, Castro said in an email to POGO. She said the Army aims to “identify and rectify any inconsistencies” between the two databases. But beyond indicating that the regulation was undergoing revision, Castro declined to provide more recent documentation of policy or procedural updates to address the data tracking problems.
To illustrate why these incidents often go unreported, Campbell gave the example of an abuse survivor who is the wife of an active-duty military member.
“If she reports abuse … she’s got to think to herself, ‘Okay, if it gets on his record, this could mean he is denied his next promotion, or he is not allowed to reenlist,” she said. “He’s my husband, he’s the father of my children, and this means my source of support is going to be seriously affected. So I’m going to think twice, three times, four times before I make a report,” Campbell told POGO.
The Department of Defense’s failure to effectively track domestic violence incidents was previously highlighted in 2021 with a Government Accountability Office report. The GAO found that the DOD had not collected and reported accurate data for all domestic abuse allegations it received due to different reporting systems among the services and inconsistent counting methods.
Abuse more common with military and veterans than civiliansStudies comparing domestic violence incidents in military communities to the civilian world have found that incident rates were higher among service members compared to civilians. Researchers said prevalence was even higher for veterans compared to active duty troops.
In the Army, there is a formal process for investigating domestic violence when an incident involving a soldier is reported, according to POGO. Military and civilian law enforcement are notified and the base Family Advocacy Program performs a safety assessment. The program opens an investigation alongside, since the beginning of this year, the Office of the Special Trial Counsel, the Pentagon’s new legal team charged with prosecuting criminal offenses like domestic violence, rape and murder.
Repeat offenders make up one in every eight casesHowever, the audit found that the formal process wasn’t enforced or standardized which led to repeated abuse, finding as many as 13% of domestic violence incidents were perpetrated by repeat offenders. The audit linked this to a lack of training, enforcement of treatment plans and monitoring of “high-risk” soldiers with multiple offenses.
In cases of domestic violence, repeat offenses can eventually turn fatal. In fiscal year 2022, 14 people died from domestic abuse linked to service members. Four of the deaths were caused by previous perpetrators who were reported and four of those who were killed previously reported abuse, according to a Pentagon report.
The audit also assessed training for domestic abuse across three installations. Auditors found that more than 35% of soldiers didn’t receive the required annual domestic abuse prevention training.
Also, 36% of a group of 602 soldiers who were repeat offenders hadn’t completed their required treatment plans, the audit found.
“Statisticians with the Army’s Family Advocacy Program identified a direct correlation between the number of soldiers who completed the treatment and a reduced risk of repeat offenses compared to those who did not complete the treatment,” according to POGO.
Josh Connolly, senior vice president of Protect Our Defenders told POGO that the audit’s findings were “outrageous” and emphasized the difficulty for survivors to report these types of incidents in the first place.
“It’s really galling when someone bravely comes forward to report this and then the appropriate measures and response doesn’t happen,” he told POGO.
This story was produced in cooperation with the Project On Government Oversight. Read their full report on the Army’s audit of domestic abuse reporting here.
The latest on Task & Purpose 82nd Airborne paratroopers cut down a 101st flag from an iconic bar on D-Day * Navy fires USS Somerset’s commanding officer following investigation * Two ex-U.S. soldiers met in Ukraine, then went on ‘international crime spree’* * A combat controller earned a secret Air Force Cross for battle with Russian mercenaries * Fort Moore renames five gates for battlefield heroes like Alwyn Cashe**
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Navy rescue swimmer Peter Lagosh hoist a fellow swimmer into an MH-60S assigned to the “Dragon Whales” of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 28, attached to the hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20), during a rescue swimmer subject-matter expert exchange with the Colombian army in Santa Marta, Colombia, Aug. 24, 2019. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Morgan K. Nall.A Navy rescue swimmer died last week at a training course at Naval Air Station Jacksonville that would have requalified him fleet duty. Chief Petty Officer Pete Lagosh was a career-long Aviation Rescue Swimmer who had just completed a tour as a recruiter in Richmond, VA., specializing in prepping recruits for the Navy’s most demanding “Warrior” jobs. Navy officials said Lagosh died while taking a two-week training class that would have requalified him as a rescue swimmer for an assignment in Japan.
The Navy did not release details on Lagosh’s death except that he was “conducting training” while in “on-duty status and enrolled in the Navy’s Surface Rescue Swimmer School (SRSS) Category II refresher course,” a two-week requalification course for rescue swimmers who have been away from duty at least a year.
The Navy segments its rescue swimmer corps into several different rates, but all pass difficult initial qualification schools and are regularly tested for high levels of fitness and demanding training. Lagosh, the Navy said, had follow-on orders to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 12 in Japan when he finished his requalification.
According to a GoFundMe page and social media posts from friends and family, Lagosh graduated from high school in Cudahy, Wisconsin in 2001 and joined the Navy in 2007. As a rescue swimmer, he deployed several times as aircrew on MH-60s with Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 28 in Norfolk, VA.
In Richmond, he served as a Warrior Challenge Coordinator, a position within the Navy’s recruiting corps that focuses on prepping recruits for the Navy’s most physically demanding jobs, including rescue swimmer, EOD techs, SEALs, special warfare combatant crewmembers and Navy divers.
In a social media post, a former rescue swimmer said that Lagosh was a role model in their community. Erik Kopack, who now owns a Norfolk coffee shop, called Lagash “a loving father and husband, who always had a smile and was ready to lend a hand to anyone that needed it.”
Kopack said he was assigned with Lagosh in Norfolk, where “he truly encapsulated ‘So Others May Live’ into everything did. He gave a damn about the job and everyone involved.”
According to Navy officials, most of Logash’s 17 years in the Navy were spent training to be a rescue swimmer or with two operational squadrons in Norfolk.
The latest on Task & Purpose 82nd Airborne paratroopers cut down a 101st flag from an iconic bar on D-Day * Navy fires USS Somerset’s commanding officer following investigation * Two ex-U.S. soldiers met in Ukraine, then went on ‘international crime spree’* * A combat controller earned a secret Air Force Cross for battle with Russian mercenaries * Fort Moore renames five gates for battlefield heroes like Alwyn Cashe**
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For a majority of middle-class Americans, including servicemembers and veterans, owning a primary residence is a major investment that will typically provide a majority of their net worth through the decades. There’s a good reason for this, as a well-situated and maintained property builds generational wealth through increasing equity. Simply put, the equity of your home is its market value, minus the amount remaining on your loan.
A straightforward example is this: Owning a home valued at $350,000 and having $150,000 remaining on your mortgage payment means you have $200,000 in home equity. Building an upgrade to your property that costs you $10,000 but adds $40,000 in value is a net equity gain of $30,000.
Savvy homeowners who are willing and able to sell their home when the market is right can leverage their property into a huge financial and lifestyle gain. In an environment where houses don’t stay listed for long, and buyers are competing for limited inventory, it’s not unrealistic to expect a massive return on your initial investment.
Tips for homeownersSelling a house that you purchased at $100,000 ten years ago for over half a million today is an enormous windfall for any family, however, the capital gains tax bill on that money can be a daunting thought. Although only using those profits to invest in another primary residence will allow you to avoid capital gains taxes on that money and greatly improve your living situation.
While the concept of equity is easy to understand, many homeowners don’t realize that it’s also an outstanding financial asset outside of selling it and purchasing a new home, like obtaining a home equity loan1 from Navy Federal Credit Union, which is exactly what it sounds like, getting a lump sum for up to 100% of the equity in your home valuation2.
Unlike a home loan, there are also no closing costs1. NFCU doesn’t charge application or origination fees, and the rate will remain fixed for the life of the loan.
You also have flexibility on the lifespan of your loan, choosing from 5, 10, 15, or 20 years with fixed rates as low as 7.34% APR1. That’s money you could use for property improvements (to gain even more equity!) or to make an investment purchase, further expanding your portfolio.
Many homeowners use them to consolidate and pay off higher-interest debt, college tuition, or even fund a destination wedding.
One thing that homeowners should keep in mind is if they ever plan to sell a property, they should do their research on which improvements will and will not increase the home’s equity. For instance, an average sized pool installation will run anywhere from $60,000-100,000, but many real-estate experts estimate that a concrete pool will only add 5-8% to the value of your home. That’s not to say you shouldn’t get a pool if that’s what you want but be aware that recreational improvements don’t always equal equity ones.
What’s awesome about accruing equity is that you are not limited in how you use it. If a large lump sum loan isn’t the best option for your needs, then maybe a home equity line of credit (HELOC)3 is a better fit. If you expect to have variable, ongoing expenses then the credit line will give you a reliable source of funds, which only needs to be used when needed. With rates down to 8.75%3, you can obtain up to 95% of your home’s equity4. The more you have, the more you can draw against, from $10,000-$500,000. Just like their fixed rate option, NFCU won’t charge you application or origination fees for a line of credit, there’s no annual fees or a penalty for inactivity3, so you can have peace of mind knowing the money is there when you need it, you have twenty years to draw on the funds, there’s no requirement to spend it if you don’t, and best of all, no closing costs3!
If you’ve been making regular payments and increasing the equity in your home, or the market has taken a bump and you’ve seen a significant leap in the value of the property, then now might be the perfect time to contact your friendly local NFCU representative and see what the best option is for leveraging your hard work into a financial tool that could pay serious dividends in the future.
What are you waiting for?
This article was sponsored by Navy Federal Credit Union.
1Home Equity Loans are fixed-rate loans. Rates are as low as 7.340% APR and are based on an evaluation of credit history, CLTV (combined loan-to-value) ratio, loan amount, and occupancy, so your rate may differ. A sample Fixed-Rate Equity Loan monthly payment based on $100,000 at 7.650% APR for 20 years is $814.79. Taxes and insurance not included; therefore, the actual payment obligation will be greater. Navy Federal will pay for all closing costs on new Fixed-Rate Equity Loan applications dated on or after June 1, 2023. Covered closing costs include lender fees and fees paid to third parties, such as settlement fees, credit reports, flood determinations, property valuations (including appraisals, if required), title searches, lender’s title insurance, recording, mortgage transfer taxes, and government charges. For loan amounts of up to $250,000, closing costs that members may pay typically range between $300 and $2,000. The member is responsible for escrow payments and/or prepaid costs, if required, including property taxes and assessments, homeowners’ and flood insurance premiums, association fees/dues and assessments, and prepaid interest. You must carry homeowners’ insurance on the property that secures this plan. All loans subject to approval. Offer is subject to change or cancellation without notice.
2Some restrictions may apply. Factors that may impact the amount of equity that can be borrowed include evaluation of credit history, CLTV ratio, occupancy, loan amount, and loan term (5, 10, 15, 20 years).
3Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOC) are variable-rate lines. Rates are as low as 8.750% APR and 9.750% for Interest-Only Home Equity Lines of Credit and are based on an evaluation of credit history, CLTV (combined loan-to-value) ratio, line amount, and occupancy, so your rate may differ. HELOC has a minimum APR of 3.99% and a maximum APR of 18%. Members who choose to proceed with an Interest-Only HELOC may experience significant monthly payment increases when the line of credit enters the repayment phase. Navy Federal will pay for all closing costs on HELOC applications dated on or after June 3, 2024. Covered closing costs paid to 3rd parties include settlement fees, credit reports, flood determinations, property valuations (including appraisals, if required), title searches, lender’s title insurance, recording, and government charges. The member is responsible for prepaid interest and escrow payments for 1st lien HELOCs. Member must carry homeowners’ insurance on the property that secures the HELOC. For loan amounts up to $250,000, closing costs typically range between $300 and $2,000. Applications for a HELOC include a request for a HELOC Platinum Credit Card. All loans subject to approval. Offer is subject to change or cancellation without notice. Rates are subject to change. HELOC loans are not available in Texas.
4Some restrictions may apply. The maximum CLTV for primary and second properties is 95% and for investment properties is 70%. Factors that may impact the amount of equity that can be borrowed include evaluation of credit history, CLTV ratio, occupancy, and loan amount.
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FILE: Women assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, Pope Army Airfield, N.C., and 437th Airlift Wing, Joint Base Charleston, S.C., participated in an all-female flight in commemoration of Women’s History Month, April 13, 2021 (Staff Sgt. Rachel Pye/U.S. Air Force).More than 53,000 women veterans enrolled in healthcare provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA, between May 2023 and May 2024, the largest enrollment for women veterans on record, the VA announced on Wednesday to mark Women Veterans Recognition Day.
“On this day in 1948, women were granted a formal place in our country’s military,” VA Deputy Secretary Tanya Bradsher said in a statement. “Today, the more than 2 million women Veterans living in the U.S. make up our fastest growing Veteran population. It’s important to all of us here at VA that every woman Veteran knows she belongs at VA.”
The enrollment of women veterans in VA healthcare is 20% higher than in the previous year, a VA news release says. The states that saw the greatest number of enrollments were Texas, Florida, California, Virginia, Georgia, and North Carolina.
The increase in women veterans enrolling in the VA is largely being driven by the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act, or PACT Act, which allows the VA to presume that Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffering from lung cancer and other diseases were sickened by their exposure to burn pits and other sources of toxins.
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Signed into law in August 2022, the PACT Act also makes it easier for veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange while serving outside Vietnam as well as veterans suffering from Gulf War Illness to file medical claims with the VA.
More information about which illnesses the VA considers presumed service-connected for toxic exposures is available online or by calling 1-800-698-2411.
The VA is providing disability benefits to 717,141 women veterans, a record high, the VA news release says. That also represents an increase of 197,667 women veterans over the past five years.
More than 89% of women who have applied for disability benefits are receiving compensation for at least one condition. They are receiving an average of $27,109 in earned disability benefits per year.
Over the past two years, the VA has also increased health services for women veterans, including breast cancer screenings and mammograms for veterans who were potentially exposed to toxins, increased reproductive health services, and expanded maternity care.
For more information about such services, call the Women Veterans Call Center at 1-855-829-6636 or use the online chat feature.
“It’s our goal for every woman Veteran to receive all the benefits she has earned, and that includes world-class health care,” VA Under Secretary for Health Dr. Shereef Elnahal said in a statement. “We want women Veterans to know that VA has invested in more services for women Veterans than ever before. VA can now offer women the best and most accessible options for all their care needs, and we want them to apply for the health care they deserve today.”
The latest on Task & Purpose 82nd Airborne paratroopers cut down a 101st flag from an iconic bar on D-Day * Navy fires USS Somerset’s commanding officer following investigation * Two ex-U.S. soldiers met in Ukraine, then went on ‘international crime spree’* * A combat controller earned a secret Air Force Cross for battle with Russian mercenaries * Fort Moore renames five gates for battlefield heroes like Alwyn Cashe**
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This article was sponsored by Navy Federal Credit Union. Navy Federal Credit Union is federally insured by NCUA.
Not all of us have the freedom to choose when we need a new car. As we say in the military, Murphy always gets a vote. Maybe a new addition to your family means you want a few more seats. A better job requires a truck with towing capacity that your old road warrior can’t handle. Regardless of why you’re in the market, buying a car is a large life event, and the process can be convoluted, stressful, and often unnecessarily expensive.
Before you set foot in a dealership to begin searching for your next vehicle, Navy Federal has a few tried and true steps to take that could streamline the process and save both your wallet and your sanity.
Know your budgetThe first step to any auto shopping adventure, whether online or in person, is to figure out just how much vehicle you can afford. That means having a realistic picture of your monthly finances, a good credit score, and an idea of just what your dream vehicle should cost. Do the research and take the time to figure out exactly what you do and do not need in a new or used vehicle purchase. Armed with that knowledge, figure out a budget, understand your credit score, and if there’s some work needed, come up with a financial plan to raise it up as high as possible, then use Navy Federal’s handy calculator to determine which car is best for your budget.
There are many factors that go into your credit score, which is a rating that tells lenders how likely they are to get their money back if they lend it to a certain person. On-time bill payments, a respectable debt-to-income ratio, and reasonable credit usage could earn you a higher score, while late payments, defaulting on debts, and very high amounts of debt could lower it. The higher your score is, the better (lower) your loan interest rate should be, since the lenders aren’t as worried about recouping their money quickly before the possibility of a default. A very poor credit rating is 300-579 (out of 850). Anything over 800 is exceptional.
Regardless of your score, anyone planning to buy a vehicle should pull their rating as early as possible. Most of us don’t check regularly, and a lower-than-expected score will put serious limitations on your spending power when you start looking to purchase. With just a few months extra planning you can make efforts to increase your score by consolidating and paying down debt. This isn’t the time to guess how much you can spend.
Get pre-approved for an auto loanOnce you’ve decided to take the plunge and begin shopping for your next car, Navy Federal Credit Union is here to help on auto loan pre approval with most decisions in seconds. This is where a higher credit score can really pay off, since a better interest rate could save you thousands over the lifetime of the loan.
When you get pre-approval, it’s essentially a maximum guaranteed amount you’ll be able to spend on a new vehicle through an auto loan from the bank. Having a pre-approval in hand will give you a great head start on the entire process and possibly save some money when it’s all over, since you know exactly how much you’re able to spend, and what your monthly payments will look like once you’ve driven off the lot in your new vehicle.
The general process is simple. Once you’ve decided on a realistic maximum that you’re willing (and able) to spend on a new vehicle you’ll send your application to a friendly Navy Federal loan pre-approval agent. The application will require information including your current employment, income, as well as any vehicle trade-in information, and the length of the loan you’re looking for.
Don’t forget that pre-approvals are only accepted by dealerships and are not able to be used for private purchases. Unfortunately, if you’re a service member stationed overseas some foreign dealers also may not accept a US loan pre-approval.
Once you’ve submitted your application and it’s been processed by Navy Federal, you’ll receive a text message1 and/or email letting you know if you’ve been pre-approved for the amount requested. Next, they’ll issue a check with the funds ready to go, which can be picked up at any Navy Federal Credit Union branch, or simply mailed to your home. Whichever is most convenient for you! The amount on the check will be for the amount you were approved for, but that doesn’t mean you have to use it all, so feel secure in negotiating the best price possible before you buy.
The Navy Federal team is also aware that when shopping for a car timing can be important. The ideal vehicle may not be around next week while you’re impatiently waiting for a loan pre-approval. That’s why NFCU typically provides decisions on auto loans in seconds, allowing you to jump directly into the car search as soon as you’re ready. Armed with your approved loan amount, you can now confidently begin shopping for the perfect vehicle that fits your family’s needs and your expertly curated budget, knowing that whatever you choose won’t break the bank.
Pick the vehicle you want beforehandHaving a good idea what kind of car you’re looking for well before walking onto a dealer lot will help manage expectations and direct your search. If you’re not sure what you’re looking for, you can use Navy Federal’s Car Buying Service, powered by TrueCar, to search from the comfort of your living room. Using online search options, pick the make and model of vehicle you are looking for. Diesel, electric, trucks, and SUVs, everything is included.
Select the features and accessories you want, and TrueCar will show you what others have paid for similar options.
Understand the extra costs of the vehicle you wantThese ‘hidden’ costs can add up very quickly. Once you’ve decided on the type of vehicle you need, pay very close attention to the warranty options included, any extras available, and then spend some time doing research online. A few extra minutes can let an informed buyer know if their next dream car is a well-oiled machine, or a money-sucking mechanical nightmare just waiting to happen. There are thousands of reviews available on every conceivable type of vehicle. Just check out the best-rated models for the type you’re considering and make sure the value matches the price. A little bit higher sticker cost may be completely worth it for a car that runs without issues for years.
You also need a firm understanding of how much your insurance will cost. Is the car going to a safe, seasoned driver or your firstborn child who just turned 16? Those premiums can fluctuate wildly depending on who is operating the vehicle.
Don’t walk into a dealership (or venture out into the internet) unprepared. Follow these simple steps to dramatically improve any car-buying experience.
Good luck out there!
1Message and data rates may apply. Terms and Conditions are available.
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The Marines are adept at fighting and quickly realized the old white tees they were issued weren't going to cut it early into the Pacific campaign in World War II — so they changed it and it's remained ever since. (U.S. Marine Corps photos. Task & Purpose composite image).It’s been 80 years since Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, even longer since the attacks on Pearl Harbor. But today, people are still wondering what’s up with the U.S. Marine Corps’ green skivvy t-shirts when the Navy and the Army had white undershirts during World War II.
While the white tee shirt grew in popularity back in the States, it was a hotly contested issue on the battlefield. It’s difficult to blend in with any background wearing a white shirt unless you’re in the Arctic. For Marines fighting in the Pacific area in 1942, white skivvy tee shirts were a bullseye for enemy forces
Starting in 1913, the U.S. Navy issued sailors three plain white tee shirts, and the Army followed suit by issuing white undershirts to soldiers. That was the standard issue for many years, but when Marines knew the color of their undershirts was getting them killed, they started dying their undershirts with more subdued colors like black, brown, and green.
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The lessons learned on the early battlefields of WWII translated to the Marine Corps changing their standard-issue skivvies from white to a “bottle” or “sage” shade of green, commonly called “Marine Green,” in 1943. However, due to supply and production issues, the new Marine Green skivvy t-shirts were in short supply, causing a widespread issue for Marines.
The Marines have used the same idea as the standard issue green skivvy t-shirts undershirts for their Marine Corps Combat Utility Uniform, better known as cammies. It’s not the same thread and material compared to the original Marine green skivvy tee shirts but it’s similar in appearance.
Today’s undershirts have moisture-wicking and anti-microbial qualities that make them a better match for the often austere environments Marines are training and fighting in. And we think that’s pretty neat.
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A Coast Guard cutter. (U.S. Coast Guard photo).The U.S. Coast Guard Academy’s sexual assault response coordinator posted a fiery public statement accusing senior service leaders of sabotaging the school’s reporting of sexual assaults. In a statement posted to her personal blog, Shannon Norenberg said she resigned from her position recently when she came to believe that Coast Guard officials were deceiving her into preventing sexual assaults from being reported, thus withholding veterans benefits to survivors.
“The Coast Guard lied to me,” Norenberg wrote in a statement announcing her resignation.. “Worse than that, they used me to lie to victims, used me to silence victims, and used me in a coordinated effort to discourage victims of sexual assault at the Academy from speaking to Congress about their assaults and about the Coast Guard’s investigation of their cases.”
Norenberg said officials pulled her into a large-scale attempt by school officials to cover up sexual assaults at the Coast Guard Academy.
The resignation of the academy’s top officials is the latest in a string of public body blows the service’s leadership has taken on handling of sexual assault in the ranks, that includes congressional hearings Tuesday, a widely circulated internal Coast Guard email with accusations of wide-spread wrong doing and the release of a letter from a Marine Corps-focused group accusing the service of “fostering a permissive culture of harassment and abuse.”
Congressional hearingNorenberg’s public resignation comes just as the U.S. Senate held hearings on misconduct around sexual assault cover-ups in the Coast Guard. At a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, (D-Conn.) said that nearly 40 whistleblowers had told the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in recent months that sexual assaults remain a serious problem in the Coast Guard.
Lawmakers have found a document accompanying a memorandum arguing that Coast Guard investigations into sexual assaults dubbed Operation Fouled Anchor should not be revealed to the public, said Blumenthal, chair of the subcommittee.
“Our investigation has shown a deep moral rot within the Coast Guard now – one that prioritizes cronyism over accountability; silence over survivors,” Blumenthal said.
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He also described Norenberg’s allegations, which were sent to the subcommittee, as the most “concisely damning” statement that he has seen during his 13 years in the Senate.
Whistleblower emailNorenberg’s blog comes about a month after, an anonymous whistleblower sent an anonymous email to the entire Coast Guard on May 15 detailing numerous alleged incidents of misconduct at the Coast Guard’s District 8, Sector Mobile, including sexual assault, harassment, blackmail, revenge pornography, and retaliation.
After the email was deleted from Coast Guard servers, it was posted on Facebook by the anonymous user Whistler McGee, prompting a tremendous outpouring from others on social media who said they had similar experiences.
In a tense exchange on Tuesday, Blumenthal asked Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda L. Fagan what the Coast Guard will do to help the veterans contacted as part of Operation Fouled Anchor receive military sexual trauma veterans benefits.
A U.S. Coast Guard Coast Guard cutter returning to home port. (Senior Chief Petty Officer Charly Tautfest/U.S. Coast Guard)Fagan responded she cannot take any action while the Inspector General’s office is looking into Norenberg’s allegations, but she will make sure that any veteran entitled to benefits will get them. She was unable to say when the investigation will be completed.
“In the meantime, survivors are denied medical care, without any justification,” Blumenthal said. “I find that absolutely untenable and intolerable, and I think it will impact morale within the Coast Guard. The IG investigation, I submit, respectfully, cannot be used as a shield for inaction.
‘Apology tour’ and conflicting ordersNorenberg wrote that she became the Coast Guard Academy’s first full-time sexual assault response coordinator in 2013. Five years later, she was told that the academy had uncovered dozens of cases of sexual assault as part of Operation Fouled Anchor. She would be part of an effort to speak with and apologize to the sexual assault survivors.
She was told that she and others from the Coast Guard would go on an “apology tour,” in which they would offer resources to sexual assault survivors to help them heal along with an “Official Expression of Regret,” Norenberg wrote in her statement, which was first reported on by The Hill.
Initially, she wrote, she was given a “talking points” document that said she would provide survivors a Victim Reporting Preference Statement, officially known as CG-6095, to file an unrestricted report that would be entered into the Defense Sexual Assault Incident Database. The form also helps survivors access Military Sexual Trauma, or MST, benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“This form is so important that I always make sure to offer cadet victims of sexual trauma who are separating from the Academy following their assaults a CG-6095,” Norenberg wrote. “Even when they don’t want to report and sign the form I tell them, ‘you may want to report and sign this CG-6095, because this is your proof you reported assault to the Coast Guard, and it can be used to determine disability and to obtain services for military sexual trauma from the VA.’”
But before her first meeting with the survivors, a senior Coast Guard employee told Norenberg that she was not to give the form to any of them, her attorney Ryan Melogy told Task & Purpose on Tuesday.
“This instruction was given verbally and it was in opposition to what was stated in the Talking Points document, which said that Shannon was supposed to give all victims a 6095,” Melogy said.
Norenberg felt uncomfortable at not giving the form to the roughly 30 sexual assault survivors with whom she met, especially since she assumed that no one else had given them the form either.
“I ended up having to advise the victims to go on their own to visit their local Veterans Affairs office for MST assistance,” she wrote. “We offered the victims zero assistance in accessing this critical support.”
In fact, the Coast Guard gave the survivors nothing in writing, and Norenberg wrote she now believes that was done deliberately.
At the time, she did not suspect that the Coast Guard was trying to hide Operation Fouled Anchor from lawmakers. The talking points document that she had been given said that members of Congress, their staff, and the Department of Homeland Security had been briefed on the general outline of the investigation, what it found, and what disposition decisions were made.
Hidden from the publicWhen CNN first reported last year that the Coast Guard had kept Operation Fouled Anchor secret from Congress for years, Norenberg surmised that she had been part of an effort to keep the investigation secret from the public. She now believes that the reason why the sexual assault survivors were not provided with reporting forms was so that their cases would not be added to the database and attract the attention of Congress.
“To prevent Operation Fouled Anchor from being discovered by Congress, Coast Guard leaders deliberately withheld VA military sexual trauma benefits and services from the survivors we were sent around to meet with,” Norenberg wrote. “Worse, we offered them absolutely nothing to replace those lost benefits and services. We just left the victims to fend for themselves.”
Norenberg offered an apology to all the sexual assault survivors she spoke and met with, adding that she was sexually assaulted while in the Army and she feels their pain.
“To the leaders of the U.S. Congress: I ask you, ‘Will you hold the Coast Guard accountable for Operation Fouled Anchor, and for so many other terrible responses to sexual assault within the U.S. Coast Guard?’ she wrote. “Will you finally push for real and fundamental change?”
On Tuesday, the Coast Guard provided Task & Purpose with a statement saying that after Operation Fouled Anchor’s individual investigations concluded, a team of specialists offered to debrief survivors on the investigations’ findings and make sure they were aware of support services that were available.
“At the time of the initial preparations for those meetings, Congressional briefings regarding the Operation were being contemplated, which was reflected in the talking points developed for the meetings,” the Coast Guard said. “However, the meetings took place approximately 10 months after the talking points were developed and Congressional notifications had not been made. A former member present at each of those meetings reports that the issue of Congressional notification was not addressed with any of the victims. Furthermore, the Coast Guard is not aware of anyone telling members of that team to lie regarding any aspect of Operation Fouled Anchor.”
Since becoming aware of Norenberg’s comments, the Coast Guard has contacted the Department of Homeland Security Officer of Inspector General, which the Coast Guard will look into the allegations as part of its inquiry into Operation Fouled Anchor, the Coast Guard said.
As for the social media posts by Whistler McGee and others, the Coast Guard said it cannot guarantee it will see or be able to act on all posts and other forms of informal communications. The best way for people to get help is through resources such as the The DoD Safe Helpline Chat Room; Military Sexual Trauma (MST) | Veterans Affairs (va.gov); making restricted or unrestricted reports with their local SARC or Victim Advocate Program Specialist; contacting one of these Coast Guard Investigative Service regional offices; or submitting a report online.
Call for actionIn response to both Norenberg’s blog and the Whistler McGee Facebook post, the advocacy group Not In My Marine Corps is calling on Congress to launch an independent review of the Coast Guard’s command climate and culture.
The group, which is dedicated to preventing sexual harassment and assault within the military, also wants the Coast Guard to launch an independent investigation into District 8 and Sector Mobile.
“Following a series of reports on how sexual assaults have been handled at the USCG Academy, investigations have uncovered a ‘years-long, extensive coverup of sexual abuse allegations’ by senior members of USCG leadership, fostering a permissive culture of harassment and abuse,” the group wrote in a letter to the chair and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. “Consequently, multiple leaders, including a USCG chaplain, have been dismissed or suspended.”
In its letter to lawmakers, the group also calls for former Coast Guard leaders who have since retired be recalled to active duty and face disciplinary measures for any roles they had in covering up sexual assaults.
“Coast Guard leadership has previously avoided inquiry, with attention on sexual assault numbers and responses primarily directed at the larger U.S. military services,” the group wrote. “We must ensure accountability does not elude them, as they are responsible for the welfare and lives of our service members.”
The latest on Task & Purpose 82nd Airborne paratroopers cut down a 101st flag from an iconic bar on D-Day * Navy fires USS Somerset’s commanding officer following investigation * Two ex-U.S. soldiers met in Ukraine, then went on ‘international crime spree’* * A combat controller earned a secret Air Force Cross for battle with Russian mercenaries * Fort Moore renames five gates for battlefield heroes like Alwyn Cashe**
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I found out I had a massive cyst in my brain from a traumatic brain injury. Why was I so happy to find this out? (Task & Purpose composite image using courtesy photos from Joshua Skovlund and U.S. Army).Soft, warm lighting and a gentle vanilla odor filled the entrance of Prenuvo’s New York City location on West 34th Street — a hop, skip, and a jump from the subway exit at Penn Station. Their location is in the busy Times Square area of Manhattan, and should you not be looking for it, easy to walk right past.
Prenuvo is the company that HunterSeven Foundation has partnered with to provide full-body MRI scans to veterans in an attempt to catch cancer, traumatic brain injuries, gastrointestinal problems, and other issues secondary to military service in their early stages.
As you check in, they ask what music or movie you want playing while you go through the hour-long scanning process. I couldn’t give them an answer right away because I was lost in my own thoughts about how I didn’t belong here in the first place. I had a rough time in the military, with several injuries in training before an early exit from the service. As a Ranger who never deployed, I can think of many other people who would be better suited to have the scans done ahead of me.
It was those kinds of thoughts that led me to a dark, lonely place in my head, a path to a suicide attempt in 2012 that was thankfully interrupted by a miracle — a phone call from my parents checking up on me. If you ever wonder if a phone call to check in on your buddy actually helps, trust me, it can.
Chelsea Simoni, the co-founder of HunterSeven, insisted that I go through the process to show other veterans that, yes, they’re worthy and deserving of potentially lifesaving preventative measures. She pointed out that it’s common for many veterans to think there are others more deserving. The simple truth of the matter is many veterans need proactive healthcare help. They are often too young to meet cancer screening criteria, and by the time their cancer is found, it’s too late.
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I ultimately decided to go through with the process, not only to help break the stigma but also to do the right thing so my family doesn’t have to suffer through a preventable death someday.
Since starting their Immediate Needs Program in 2018, HunterSeven has spent over $300,000 connecting 207 post-9/11 veterans with cancer care and screenings. Prenuvo does the scans and offers a full report complete with images and analysis and a complimentary follow-up, with another follow-up from HunterSeven that made a big difference in helping me understand where the state of my health is at and what I can do about it.
It’s not rare for people to have lesions, veteran or not, but they are rarely found before manifesting into cancer. HunterSeven commonly finds a range of systemic inflammation within the body, which creates a breeding environment for many types of cancers. Simoni said the scans HunterSeven has funded have detected precancerous lesions in approximately 50% of those who’ve come in for the MRI full body scan so far. Identifying these precancerous lesions is essential in the early treatment of cancer, which can be the difference between life and death.
Knowing all of this information, especially with my background in medicine, I was scared to go back for my scan. Prenuvo staff walked me to one of the changing rooms, which had a pleasant odor, soft lighting, and creature comforts like phone chargers and books that helped calm my mind. I changed into a gown after the staff asked a range of questions about previous surgeries and if I had any metal in my body. A large metal sliver was pulled from my left eyeball several years earlier, so they had me wait while their radiologists reviewed the latest imaging of my eyes to ensure there was no metal left.
While waiting for the radiologists to clear me, one of the staff members talked about how much she appreciates veterans. She became emotional as she told me about how she was up late the night before, talking to one of her closest friends who was struggling with a PTSD episode. Her passion for helping veterans was obvious. I thanked her for the expertise and welcoming environment they had created in their office. She enthusiastically said veterans deserve it and so much more.
After the radiologist cleared me, anything made of metal, like my watch, was left in one of Prenuvo’s eight locked changing rooms.
Though I don’t struggle with claustrophobia, Prenuvo offers Ativan, a sedative provided via three 0.5 mg pills. If you need that before your imaging, their pharmacist will walk you through everything you need to know about Ativan and how it makes you feel.
The imaging tech had me lay down on the MRI bed, locked different “coils” in place that help with the imaging, and then rolled me into the machine. I was shown a button next to me, which I could push if I needed to stop the scanning at any point. The MRI technician assigned to me communicated through a two-way radio throughout the scan.
I settled on Netflix for a distraction, choosing the movie “Bullet Train” after the tech insisted movies are generally better than just listening to music. The headphones provided paired with the audio of the movie helped dull the loud sounds of magnets in the MRI machine.
As the scan progressed I realized the movie I picked was more graphic than I remembered, and that maybe I should have gone with something, uh, more relaxing. The tech intermittently gave breathing commands essential to the scanning process. Her check-ins with me, along with the movie, really helped keep my mind off how my large body was squished into a magnetic tube and the nagging question in my head of ‘What will they find?’
The tech warned me that I may feel a warm sensation toward the end of the scan. Not only did I feel that full-body warming sensation, but different parts of the scan made it feel like someone was using my guts like a bongo drum. It wasn’t a painful sensation by any means, but was unlike anything I’d felt before (this was not my first time in an MRI machine).
My tech reassured me that it was all normal. After the scan, Prenuvo spokesperson Loretta Huang confirmed that the gut sensation I felt was likely related to the magnetic fields generated by the MRI machine, with a similar explanation for the warming sensation.
“The hot sensation you described towards the end of the imaging may be attributed to the radiofrequency pulses used during certain sequences of the MRI scan,” Huang said. “These pulses can generate heat in the body, which some patients may perceive as a warm or hot sensation. It is totally normal to experience whole body or localized heating during an MRI.”
They use a comprehensive combination of AI-assisted MRI technology. Prenuvo does not use any contrast dyes and it’s one of the safest imaging processes available in healthcare because there’s no ionizing radiation involved.
Once the scan was finished, I changed back into my clothes, and the staff provided snacks and a drink. You have to fast for four hours before your scans, and by the end of it, I was hungry.
A few weeks after the scans, HunterSeven followed up with my results. They found that I have a large arachnoid cyst at the center of my brain, and they believe it is secondary to an injury to the back of my head that created a traumatic brain injury (TBI). They found many other problems, including my thoracic and lumbar spine having degenerative changes, something commonly found in veterans due to wear and tear.
The biggest gift I’m walking away with is relief that I finally know what is wrong with me. The torment that comes from feeling like something else is in control of me or not feeling balanced on my own two feet is like a steel anchor on my psyche.
It’s a heavy burden, and now I finally have the answers I’ve looked for despite many doctors refusing to take my symptoms seriously ever since my discharge from the military. I struggled with suicidal ideation until I went through an alternative therapy program. It’s programs like that, along with HunterSeven’s Immediate Needs Program, that have helped me feel whole again.
HunterSeven’s program will cover the cost of the scans but will also help you with follow-on steps; whether that’s assistance with supplements, appointments at specialty centers like the Atlanta, Georgia-based Shepherd’s Center, or the cost of chemoradiation.
The VA threw many different medications at me over the years, turning me into a zombie. Now, I have a plan moving forward that will help my brain and body heal, and where that is not possible, tools to help me get through the tough times. Every veteran should receive this full body scan — it can literally be the difference between life and death.
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Two U.S soldiers partying in Bogota, Colombia were drugged, kidnapped and robbed by a woman and two men in 2020. One of the men will was sentenced to 48 years in prison for the 2020 abduction. Photo by Dustin Perry.A Colombian man who helped drug, kidnap and rob two U.S. Army soldiers after a night of partying will spend nearly 50 years in a U.S. prison. Jeffersson Arango Castellanos, 36, was sentenced to 48 years by a federal judge for the 2020 attack on the U.S. soldiers in Bogota in 2020 which left both incapacitated and missing for most of a day.
Castellanos was brought to the U.S. in May 2023 and pleaded guilty to charges in January of kidnapping, conspiracy to kidnap and assault against an internationally protected person. Another man, Pedro Jose Silva Ochoa, also known as “Tata,” was extradited to Miami in April from Chile on similar charges.
The two men worked with a woman to ply the soldiers with drinks at a Bogota bar, then drugged the two and coaxed them into a car late in the night when the soldiers were nearly incapacitated.
Federal court documents of the two men’s cases do not provide any identifying details on the soldiers except that they were active duty in the Army and in Colombia on a temporary assignment. Both soldiers recovered but, were missing for most of a day and were robbed.
One soldier told investigators that his last memory was taking a “selfie” with a woman in the bar. Both men left their drinks on a table for the photo neither soldier, the indictment says, remembered anything beyond that encounter.
When Colombian police reviewed surveillance video, they saw that the two soldiers, Ochoa and a woman, Kenny Julieth Uribe Chiran, left the bar after 2 a.m., with both soldiers stumbling and unable to stand on their own. The two Colombians led the Americans to a waiting car, driven by Arango. The Colombians drove the Americans to a hotel, where they robbed them.
Both soldiers turned up the next day with bruises and marks on their faces, though it was unclear if they were assaulted or suffered the marks by falling, which both appear to do in the surveillance tapes.
Both soldiers failed to report for work the next morning at 6 a.m., launching a manhunt by both U.S. and Colombian officials. Both men were eventually found at their apartments, one arriving from a medical clinic after having been found wandering the streets, still obviously intoxicated, by Bogata police that morning. The second soldier told investigators he did not know how he had returned to the apartment.
The scam took four cell phones, both of the men’s wallets, jackets and jewelry. Both men found that their credit cards had been used for purchases and their debit cards drained.
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A video posted by a Russian Telegram channel purportedly shows Seth William Baker, an American now fighting with Russian forces who claims to be a U.S. Marine veteran. (Video screenshot).A video posted by a Russian Telegram channel purportedly shows an American now fighting with Russian forces who claims to be a U.S. Marine veteran..
“An American Marine fights on the side of the Russian army in a special military operation zone,” the caption for the video says (‘special military operation’ is the term Russian authorities use for the invasion of Ukraine)
The man in the video says his name is Seth William Baker, and he says he was separated from the Marine Corps as a lance corporal because he refused to be inoculated for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) despite the Defense Department’s mandatory vaccination program at the time.
Marine Corps officials told Task & Purpose the service has a record of a man named Seth William Baker who is a former lance corporal; however, officials cannot confirm that he is the man who appeared in the video.
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Baker, according to Marine Corps records, served in the Marines from August 2019 until May 2022 as a bulk fuel specialist. His last duty assignment was with Bulk Fuel Company A, 6th Engineer Support Battalion, 4th Marine Logistics Group, and he received the National Defense Service Medal.
Information about the types of discharge that troops receive is not publicly releasable unless it is as of a result of a court-martial.
Kicked out for refusing vaccineRussian media outlets have reported that Baker joined the Russian Armed Forces after traveling to the Russian-occupied Donets Basin in eastern Ukraine, often referred to as the Donbas. Task & Purpose was unable to independently verify the Russia media’s reporting.
In the video, which was shared on Reddit, Baker is interviewed by an unnamed man with a British accent. Both speak in English.
After saying he served in the Marines, Baker holds up a picture of himself in a Marine Corps dress blue uniform.
“There’s many reasons why I came here, but one of the big tipping points was when I was a lance corporal, I was due for promotion the next month, and they came out with the COVID vaccine mandate in the military,” Baker says. “I’m a young, healthy man, and I’ve already had COVID before, so I don’t need that. And so, there’s a few of us – not very many unfortunately – that said, ‘We’re not going to take it.’”
“And so, they kicked us out,” Baker continues. “So, I lost my promotion to corporal. I was in the process of becoming a police officer in the state of Arizona, and I lost my place at the police academy as well. Very rough things. There’s all this talk about freedom in America, but not for some of us, I suppose.”
Although there are no indications where exactly the video was taken, the man with a British accent noted that it can get very hot in the Russian occupied Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
The brief video ends with both men shaking hands. The man with the British accent tells Baker: “Well done. Good lad.”
Task & Purpose was unable to reach Baker on Monday.
A Facebook page for a man with Baker’s name and appearance includes a picture of the man in a Marine Corps dress uniform. Several of the man’s Facebook friends are connected to Russia, including one with the name and picture of Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister. Another is named “Russia Friends,” which has a picture of a blonde woman.
Propaganda coupDiplomatic relations between the United States and Russia took a nosedive after the Russians launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Since then, the United States provided Ukraine with more than $51.2 billion in military assistance including M1 Abrams tanks, Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, and more than 3 million 155mm artillery shells, according to the Defense Department.
The Kremlin will likely use Baker’s story to humiliate the United States in a throwback to their tactics under the Soviet Union, said Olga Lautman, a Russia and Ukraine expert with the Center for European Policy Analysis think tank.
“They like to circulate westerners who have betrayed the West in order to amplify: Americans don’t agree with this war and think that Russia is right; and look, they’re willing to come fight for us,” said Lautman, who is also creator and co-host of the Kremlin File podcast.
At least two other U.S. military veterans have appeared in videos indicating that they had defected to Russia since February 2022: Former Army Pfc. John David McIntyre; who claimed he went to Russia after spying on Ukraine’s International Legion; and former Air Force Tech. Sgt. Wilmer Puello-Mota; who also served as a city official in Holyoke, Massachusetts; who fled the United States shortly before he was due to appear in court for possession of illicit photos he had solicited from a teenager.
Navy veteran Patrick Lancaster, who describes himself as a journalist, has also made pro-Kremlin videos.
Russia has also detained several American citizens including Army Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, who was arrested last month in Vladivostok. His mother said he was visiting his girlfriend at the time. Russian authorities have accused Black of theft. He is currently on trial.
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Air Force Capt. Charles Powell, 11th Bomb Squadron director of staff, Lt. Col. John Conway, Air Combat Command TRSS Detachment 13 commander, and Capt. Matthew Walls, 343 Bomb Squadron unit deployment manager, earned the Air Force Global Strike Command General Curtis E. LeMay award for the outstanding bomber crew category. (Airman 1st Class Rhea Beil/U.S. Air Force).A B-52H crew was able to land safely after losing power to four of its eight engines, one of the most severe emergencies a “BUFF” aircrew can face, in a show of airmanship and professionalism that earned them an award from Air Force Global Strike Command
On the evening of Dec. 13, 2002, the crew aboard the bomber Scout 94 were flying from Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, to Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, a Global Strike Command news release says. Three crew members were aboard: Capt. Charles Powell, the aircraft commander; Capt. Matthew Walls, the copilot; and Lt. Col. John Conway, the radar navigator.
The bomber was avoiding thunderstorms while preparing to land. As the B-52 descended towards the Louisiana airfield, its left-side electrical generators failed, and all four engines on the plane’s left wing went dead. With no thrust coming from the left-side of the plane but all four engines on the right still working, the bomber immediately went into uncontrolled left roll, began to descend and slowed below normal approach speed.
“The emergency was sudden and caused brief but extreme disorientation to myself and the other crew members,” Walls said in a statement. “All the systems kicked off at once, and the aircraft went completely dark, engines flamed out, and controlling the aircraft became a battle.”
The crew of Scout 94 fought to regain control of their bomber, which was losing altitude over Bossier City, Louisiana. If the plane crashed in a populated area, the results would have been catastrophic.
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As in-flight emergencies go, this was one of the most dire that the crew of Scout 94 could face, said retired Air Force Col. Mark Gunzinger, a former B-52 instructor pilot and flight evaluator.
When a B-52 loses all the engines on one side of the plane — the plane has a total of 8, four on each wing — the crew faces “the worst possible case for an engine-out situation.” With thrust on just one side, a condition known as ‘asymmetric thrust.’ Having all the power on one side of the plane will put the plane into a spin if corrective action is not taken quickly, Gunzinger told Task & Purpose.
Making matters even more dangerous, Scout 94 was already descending when it lost the four engines, said Gunzinger, who is currently the director of future concepts and capability assessments at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
Roughly three minutes into the emergency, Powell was able to restart two of the engines that had initially failed to come back to life. That helped to stabilize the asymmetrical load on the aircraft.
After declaring an emergency with air traffic control, the bomber’s crew pulled off a non-standard right turn to avoid bad weather as they prepared to land.
“I was very fortunate to have a crew who handled their responsibilities so I could focus on the one thing that mattered in the moment– fly the jet,” Powell said in the news release.
The crew was finally able to regain control of the B-52 at roughly 1,200 feet. That is low altitude for a B-52 to recover, Gunzinger said.
“In my opinion, as a former instructor and an evaluator, you’re approaching an altitude where if I didn’t think I had control at that point, I would tell the crew to eject, because they were right on the line,” Gunzinger said.
With six of the B-52’s engines back, the crew was able to safely land the aircraft. The crew of Scout 94 was recently awarded the Air Force Global Strike Command General Curtis E. LeMay award for the outstanding bomber crew category.
The award recognizes bomber crews for outstanding performance during exceptional circumstances, and it is named for Air Force Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, who oversaw the bombing of Japan in World War II, later led Strategic Air Command and served as Air Force chief of staff.
“I’m very proud of how we handled the situation,” Walls said in the news release. “It was fast and intense, and there wasn’t time for discussion, just action. In my opinion, everyone fell into their role and did what was required.”
Conway credited Powell and Walls for their admirable performance and “immense poise” during the emergency.
“They were quick to respond to the situation, run the appropriate procedures, and fall back on their training,” Conway said in the news release.
While crews train to deal with several types of serious in-flight emergencies, such crises are still very challenging when they happen in real life, said Gunzinger, who added that the crew of Scout 94 was obviously very well trained.
He recalled how he once flew a B-52 that was struck by lightning, which blew a major hole in one of the bomber’s wings as well as its tail while he was flying at night and at a low altitude.
“We did not lose power and we did not lose engines, but the pucker factor, if you will, with just that happening was considerable,” he said. “What [Scout 94] encountered was several steps up from what I’ve experienced, and again one of the worst things that could happen when you’re in the middle of descending to an approach and you’ve got checklists running and other procedures you must execute. This crew did one hell of a job recovering that aircraft.”
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Maj. Jack Gibson with John Wardell, who fought with the 2nd Ranger Battalion in World War II. (photo courtesy Jack Gibson/U.S. Army).In the summer of 1944, the soldiers of 2nd Ranger Battalion arrived in France, driving into Europe from the edges of Normandy, eventually pushing deep into Nazi-held territory. Among them was Pvt. Jim Shalala, a Cleveland resident who joined the Army in 1943. Shalala was with the Rangers through some of the fiercest fighting of 1944, including the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest. Eight decades later his grandson, a fellow Ranger, was back in France.
Maj. Jack Gibson, part of the 75th Ranger Regiment, was one of the thousands of active-duty troops and veterans who went to France this past week as part of commemorations for the 80th anniversary of D-Day and the Allied invasion of Normandy. Part of his personal involvement was jumping out of a C-47 plane like the paratroopers of World War II did.
Taking part in the journey is helping him connect in his own way with his late grandfather Jim Shalala, who died in 2006, Gibson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Gibson is the regimental judge advocate for the 75th Ranger Regiment, essentially the top legal expert for the regiment, and is based out of Fort Moore in Georgia. His journey to the Rangers wasn’t direct. When he initially joined the Army, he served as Medical Service Corp officer in the the 3rd Infantry Division. After earning a law degree from the University of Georgia he served with the 101st Airborne Division as a judge advocate. He went to Afghanistan twice, with each division, but found himself drawn to the Rangers and remembered his grandfather’s service.
Before Shalala’s death, he had given Gibson his Ranger insignia from World War II. Gibson told the Army and Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he knew how important it was to his grandfather, even if he didn’t know much at the time about the 2nd Ranger Battalion.
During World War II, the Rangers were new, inspired by the British commandos and the Chindits. The men in the 2nd Ranger Battaltion spent months training before D-Day, when they climbed Norman cliffs to take Pointe du Hoc. Shalala joined them in France nearly two weeks later, a replacement who missed D-Day proper but fought with the unit through France and into Germany as the Allies pushed forward.
Decades later, the modern 75th Ranger Regiment has different requirements and different training. Even as a lawyer, Gibson still had to go through the same grueling training as other Rangers. And he had to go through Ranger School twice. His first attempt saw him getting recycled, having to start all over. He was 32 when he earned his Ranger tab. Two years later in 2021 he joined the 75th Ranger Regiment, having to go through the intense eight-week-long Ranger Assessment and Selection Program.
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Gibson’s journey to Normandy was part of the wider 80th anniversary commemorations for D-Day. As part of the massive celebration — which also included speeches from President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and others honoring those who served — American and British troops staged parachute jumps and landings over D-Day battlefields. Some were in modern gear, others joined veterans and civilians in donning World War II-era uniform and gear to jump out of vintage C-47s or march through places like Carentan.
Being a Ranger, he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, helped him feel like he had a greater connection to his grandfather. “Or maybe I understand him a little better.”
The number of surviving World War II veterans is dwindling, with even fewer left who participated in the Normandy landings. Several vets from D-Day and the war overall made it to the battlefield this past week as part of the 80th anniversary. Gibson got to meet with several of those veterans, including John Wardell, the last living member of 2nd Ranger Battalion, while in France.
“It was a really cool opportunity to wear a similar scroll that my grandfather wore,” he said. “It was kind of a full circle moment for me. It’s been everything I thought it would be and more.”
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(image courtesy KFA Architecture).Two housing projects set aside for veterans officially got underway at the end of May. On May 31 two separate buildings that would add 87 new housing units on the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus broke ground, part of a wider plan to add more than 1,000 new homes for veterans.
The two new buildings are being built by a coalition of developers and veteran-focused nonprofits. One, Building 158, will add 49 new units, being built by Century Housing. The other, Building 210 from U.S. Vets, will create 38 housing units specifically for women veterans. Renderings from architecture firms show a pair of low-rise structures with plazas, walkways and plenty of trees around them. Both are being built on the West LA VA North Campus, on an 80-acre parcel of land that, if the plan is realized, would create the largest amount of veteran housing in the nation.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is currently trying to build 1,200 new housing units on that part of the wider 400-acre space that it operates. The completion date is set for 2030, with an estimated total budget of $1.4 billion. The West LA VA campus has been criticized for the slow rate of construction. A little more than 230 of the apartments are occupied, while more than 500 are under some stage of construction.
The effort to fill these units has been plagued by delays. Last year, local news organizations found that despite having finished apartments ready for veterans, only a few dozen were occupied, with officials citing issues with final approvals or wait time for housing payments. Meanwhile the VA has been hit with lawsuits over the use of the campus for housing — specifically by groups calling for thousands more veterans to be housed there. The VA has pushed back against the calls,
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For several years a large homeless encampment, dubbed “Veterans Row,” had existed just outside of the VA’s campus in Los Angeles. That was cleared in 2021, with many of those people moving into “tiny home” shelters set up on space inside the campus. Unhoused and veteran advocates have pushed for more permanent housing to be built on the VA’s land, given the space and mission of the department.
Los Angeles County has one of the highest concentrations of unhoused Americans in the country, with 71,320 unhoused people. 3.878 of those people are veterans, according to the 2023 point-in-time homeless count (data has not been released yet for the 2024 count, conducted at the start of the year. As with overall homelessness, the main cause is the rising cost of housing. While federal and local agencies, along with nonprofits, have succeeded in housing hundreds of veterans, many more fall into experiencing homelessness, leading to the net rise.
The plan for the large VA campus is to not only provide housing, but wraparound services such as mental healthcare and career programs designed to help veterans avoid falling back into homelessness.
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A Ukrainian Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle, left, charges toward a Russian BTR-82. (Screenshot via Ukraine's Ministry of Defense on X).Amid the wider offensives and front lines of the war in Ukraine, a recent fight showed a singular fight. An American-made Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle went head to head against a Russian armored personnel character in Ukraine and emerged victorious.
Video shared to social media shows a Ukrainian-operated Bradley infantry fighting vehicle taking on a Russian BTR-82 in a game of armed chicken, with both vehicles charging at and firing at each other down a narrow road in rural Ukraine.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C77CYSFOudS/
The video — taken by drone like so much war footage from Ukraine — follows the Russian BTR armored personnel carrier as it engages with a Bradley operated by Ukraine’s 47th Mechanized Brigade. The Bradley hammers the Russian fighting vehicle with fire, the impacts showing up on the video from above as the vehicle veers off of the road. Footage shows Russian soldiers falling off the APC after the direct hits, apparent casualties from the fighting. Despite the Russian BTR also laying down heavy fire of its own it doesn’t appear to land anywhere close to the same level of damage.
Eventually they almost collide, trading gunfire at nearly point blank range like naval ships of old trading broadsides, before the Russian APC breaks off, heavily damaged. The drone camera follows it, where it eventually comes to a halt off the road, spewing smoke.
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The video was shared widely on social media, including being shared by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense on X. The footage doesn’t have any actual sounds from the battle or snippets of radio chatter. Instead, as with much of the combat footage from the war, it’s often set to electronic music. One version, which Task & Purpose found, has it set to “Duel of Fates” from “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace,” which is more epic. None appear set to the score from “Mad Max: Fury Road.”
Along with the motorized mayhem, the video also gives a good picture of the common battlefield outside of the trench-filled urban combat zones. The fields are pockmarked with craters and impact zones from mortars and artillery. The few buildings there are bombed out. And meanwhile on the narrow roads linking the farms, armored vehicles are duking it out at close range.
The Bradley, which is not a tank, has been very effective on the Ukrainian battlefield. Since it arrived in the war zone, it has been used both as a troop carrier and as battlefield armor, often punching up against its weight. Several videos over the last months have shown Bradleys taking on Russian tanks and winning, despite being outgunned. Their 25mm cannons have also added more firepower to Ukraine’s front lines.
Dozens more Bradleys are headed to Ukraine as part of an aid package announced this past month. The aid package also includes dozens more M113 armored personnel carriers and several Patriot, Javelin and Stinger missile systems for use against armor, aircraft and missiles.
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William Anders (photo courtesy NASA).William Anders, Air Force pilot, diplomat, nuclear engineer and astronaut who was one of the first three people to orbit the Moon as part of the Apollo 8 mission, died Friday, June 7 when his plane crashed into the waters off the coast of Washington state. He was 90.
The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office reported that a small plane, a T-34, had crashed in the waters near Jones Island, shortly before 11:40 a.m. The pilot was confirmed dead and Anders’ son Greg Anders confirmed his father was the one in the plane. The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Authority are investigating the crash. Anders was the only person in the plane and the only one killed by the crash.
William Anders’ “Earthrise.” (photo courtesy NASA)William Anders, born Oct. 17, 1933 in Hong Kong, was part of the three-man crew of the Apollo 8 mission in 1968, where he, Jim Lovell and Frank Borman became the first humans to reach the Moon and enter lunar orbit. During the mission Anders took one of the most iconic photographs of the Space Race, “Earthrise,” showing the planet rising above the Moon’s horizon.
“In 1968, during Apollo 8, Bill Anders offered to humanity among the deepest of gifts an astronaut can give,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson wrote on X. “He traveled to the threshold of the Moon and helped all of us see something else: ourselves. He embodied the lessons and the purpose of exploration. We will miss him.”
Anders graduated the U.S. Naval Academy in 1955, was commissioned in the U.S. Air Force and became a fighter pilot under Air Defense Command, piloting interceptor missions in while stationed in California and Iceland. He flew F-89 Scorpions, armed with nuclear air-to-air missiles, a sign of the intensity of the Cold War. He pursued becoming a test pilot, earning a masters degree in nuclear engineering and applying to become a NASA astronaut.
Portrait of the crew of NASA’s Apollo 8, Florida, December 1968. Pictured are, from left, command module pilot James Lovell, lunar module pilot William Anders, and Commander Frank Borman. (Photo by NASA/Interim Archives/Getty Images)In 1963 he was selected as part of the third batch of NASA astronauts, dubbed “The Fourteen.” He worked in the Gemini program, serving as a backup for the penultimate Gemini 11 mission, and the Apollo program. Anders, along with Lovell and Borman, were chosen for Apollo 8, set for December 1968.
Anders would note that Apollo 8 was supposed to have a lunar module but that was excised before the mission, leaving them focused on testing the command module.
Apollo 8 launched on Dec. 21, 1968, the first crewed mission to use the Saturn V rocket. They successfully traveled to the Moon, becoming the first humans to orbit the lunar surface. They would orbit it 10 times, giving a widely viewed broadcast to Earth on Christmas Eve. Anders would later note that he had calculated “a one-in-three chance of returning from a successful mission safely.” Thankfully the odds were in the crew’s favor. The trio returned to Earth on Dec. 27.
After Apollo 8, Anders stuck with NASA — he was part of the backup crew for Apollo 11 — but quickly became heavily involved in space and nuclear policy. He headed the National Aeronautics and Space Council from 1969-1973, served on the Atomic Energy Commission and was the head American on a joint United States-Soviet Union nuclear technology exchange. Along the way he worked as a diplomat, serving as the American ambassador to Norway from 1976-1977.
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For all of his achievements, Anders’ most iconic work is a photograph. “Earthrise,” taken Dec. 24, 1968. Taken using 70mm color film, it captured the Earth in the distance, a colorful ball partially obscured in darkness. Decades later, Anders would write that the sight showed the planet “was small and delicate, a magnificent spot of color in the vast blackness of space. Once-distant places appeared inseparably close. Borders that once rendered division vanished. All of humanity appeared joined together on this glorious-but-fragile sphere.”
“We’d been going backwards and upside down, didn’t really see the Earth or the Sun, and when we rolled around and came around and saw the first Earth rise. [T]hat certainly was, by far, the most impressive thing,” Anders said in 1997. “To see this very delicate, colorful orb which to me looked like a Christmas tree ornament coming up over this very stark, ugly lunar landscape really contrasted…”
William Anders (center) on a geological research trip in 1967 as part of the Apollo program. (photo courtesy the Exploration Museum/NASA)Anders is the second of the three Apollo 8 astronauts to die. Frank Borman passed away Nov. 7, 2023. Only Jim Lovell — who also was the commander during Apollo 13 — remains.
After his time in the public sector, Anders spent the rest of his career in high level roles at General Electric and Textron. He joined defense contractor General Dynamics in 1990, becoming chairman and CEO a year later,
Anders had remained a reserve officer in the Air Force. When he fully retired from the military in 1988, he had reached the rank of major general. William Anders retired from General Dynamics as CEO in 1993 and as chairman in 1994. He and his wife Valerie moved to the Orcas Islands, founding the Heritage Flight Museum in 1996. Anders would collect vintage aircraft, with the help of his former crew mate Borman. He even took up racing planes during the 1990s. According to local reports, the plane he was flying when he crashed was owned by his museum.
In 2018, 50 years after he orbited the Moon, Anders reflected on the legacy of Apollo 8 and “Earthrise.”
“We set out to explore the moon and instead discovered the Earth.”
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A 2023 F-16 crash outside Osan Air Base in South Korea was caused by an electrical failure in the plane and poor weather. Photo from Accident Investigation Board report.An F-16 pilot ejected just seconds before his jet crashed in a fiery ball just outside Osan Air Base, South Korea after thick clouds and failed instruments left the jet in an unrecoverable dive. The Air Force released an Accident Investigation Board report this week of the May 6, 2023 mishap which destroyed the $30 million jet. The plane’s instruments were so off, investigators wrote, that flying the jet felt like “when you push on the gas in a car and expect the speed to go up, but the speed goes down.”
Investigators found that an electrical failure of the plane’s key flight instruments struck just as the plane entered thick clouds soon after take-off, leaving the pilot with no way to know which way was up or down until it was too late. He also could not communicate on his radio.
“A power loss caused a cascading failure of the [F-16’s] primary flight and navigation instruments,” with the plane’s horizon indicator showing “unreliable and inaccurate data,” a Pacific Air Forces investigation board found.
Just as the instruments failed, the board concluded that the plane entered a thick layer of clouds through which the pilot only got a single glance at the ground. For rest of the two minute flight, the report said, the pilot fought to overcome spatial disorientation within the clouds.
The cause of the electrical failure could not be determined, the board found, due to the destruction of the aircraft. The pilot and plane belonged to the 80th Fighter Squadron at Osan.
Spatial disorientationPilots routinely practice “zero-visibility” flying, which can occur either in bad weather or at night. In normal flight, pilots focus on their instruments to develop a mental picture of where they are in the sky, what direction they are flying and whether or not they are climbing or descending.
For about two minutes, the pilot worked to figure out if his plane was going up or down. He “began to climb at an angle greater than desired resulting in an undesired decrease in airspeed,” the board found. “Upon recognition of his climb being at too great an angle, the MP executed a recovery he was trained to execute if he ever found himself with his nose too high for the given airspeed to safely prevent an out-of-control flight condition and return the aircraft back to safe flying parameters.”
Still, the report said, the pilot did an admirable job of trying to keep his jet in the air. He “fought through several human factors while attempting to maintain aircraft control and determine which instruments were providing accurate information,” the board said. “The [pilot] recognized he was spatially disoriented and attempted to use his instruments to resolve this disorientation….When the pilot entered a momentary break in the weather, he was able to input flight controls to regain control.”
But after fighting the controls for over two minutes, the pilot broke out of the clouds and saw that the plane was just over 700 feet in the air and in a dive that he could not recover from, and ejected.
The plane crashed in a farming field and burst into a fireball. The pilot landed under his parachute nearby.
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A U.S. Marine Corps graphic illustration depicts the struggles of those who face Post Traumatic Stress Disorder on June 27, 2020. National PTSD Awareness Day is recognized on June 27 to prompt conversation about the hardships that individuals endure as a result of PTSD. (U.S. Marine Corps graphic illustration by Cpl. Kaila Fierstos).A panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended against the use of midomafetamine (MDMA) in conjunction with therapy, which has gained momentum in the veteran community. The committee voted 10-1 against the overall benefits of MDMA in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on Tuesday.
The committee called into question the efficacy of the research presented to the FDA and claimed it was flawed and could have skewed the results. Several raised concerns over missing follow-up data on patient outcomes and a lack of diversity in the trial group.
“The FDA interrupted the conversation that the [advisory committee] was having and said that, one, the trial participants fit within the guidelines of the diversity that needs to be in an FDA trial, and two, this is not something you need to be taking into consideration,” Mercer said.
The decision comes just months after Congress approved $20 million for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to begin MDMA-assisted therapies; VA researchers have conducted small study groups and will report their findings soon. Juliana Mercer, a Marine Corps veteran and a strong advocate for MDMA-assisted therapy, is the director of public policy for the nonprofit organization Healing Breakthrough.
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She was disappointed by many of the points the committee made during the 9-hour hearing.
“This was an unprecedented hearing. The [advisory committee] seems to have made a decision based off of ethics and integrity, scare tactics, and drug abuse, as opposed to facts and data,” Mercer said. “I think the FDA saw that. I think they were just as surprised as everybody else was.”
Lykos Therapeutics is the company presenting MDMA capsules to be used in conjunction with psychotherapy as a cure for PTSD. The FDA does not have to follow the committee’s ruling, and Lykos Therapeutics will have to answer and dispel some of the concerns raised during the hearing by Aug. 1, when the FDA will make its final ruling.
Over 2 million veterans suffer from PTSD, contributing to a suicide epidemic where hundreds take their own lives every month. According to the VA’s latest report detailing statistics from 2021, suicide was the 13th-leading cause of death for veterans overall; though the numbers are dramatically higher for veterans over 45 years old, being the number two cause of death.
Mercer said Lykos has an uphill fight on their hands and feels the committee’s debate over the drug shows they did not listen to the facts presented by the FDA at the start of the hearing.
“We remain committed to working with the FDA to address outstanding questions so that we may find a path forward to ensure the responsible and careful introduction of MDMA-assisted therapy into the healthcare system if approved,” Amy Emerson, Chief Executive Officer of Lykos Therapeutics, said in a statement. “We are grateful to the advocates, clinical trial participants, and people living with PTSD who shared their testimony in the open public hearing and through written comments, and will continue to do everything we can to bring this potential new therapeutic option to people living with PTSD.”
In Lykos’ research, 71% of participants experienced resolution of their PTSD symptoms after three eight-hour MDMA-assisted therapy sessions, while 87% saw improvement in their symptoms.
“The longer we push this out, the more veterans are going to die. […] It’s gut-wrenching that the light that we were seeing at the end of the tunnel just got smaller. We have to wage an all-out war,” Emerson said.
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The moment right before the All American paratrooper cut down the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) flag that was waving above the famous Stop Bar in Sainte-Mère-Église, France. (Screen shot from Fancy_Fancy_Bear Instagram reel.).Soldiers in the 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne divisions fought together on D-Day 80 years ago, but they carry on a fierce rivalry over hallowed spots the two liberated across Normandy. The latest chapter in that fued came this week when 82nd paratroopers took offense to a 101st flag flying over the Stop Bar in SME, a town that 82nd paratroopers famously liberated on D-Day and have gathered at for reunions and memorials on D-Day anniversaries in the decades since.
A video emerged this week of an 82nd paratrooper climbing atop the bar in the town’s central square and cutting the 101st flag down as dozens of current former paratroopers cheered from the streets below.
An 82nd paratrooper who was there told Task & Purpose what happened.
“The past few anniversaries we have in our drunken splendor mentioned that we want to take that filthy thing down because the 101st has never landed in Sainte-Mère-Église and that this is an 82nd town first and foremost,” the paratrooper said. “So 101st has no place to be in Sainte-Mère, so to have their flag above our stop bar is heresy.”
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The 101st flag, said the paratrooper, had flown over the bar for each of the last several D-Day anniversaries, which often serve as unofficial reunions for current troops and vets of the 82nd, which is known as the “All-American Division.” Sainte-Mère-Église was the site of some of its fiercest fighting during the invasion, including one of D-Day’s best known stories, in which 82nd paratrooper Pvt. John Steele landed on the roof of the town’s church, and hung there for over two hours. He was taken prisoner, but later escaped.
The church is visible in the background of the flag video.
“We have had multiple NCOs last year and the year before explicitly state: ‘Give me the order, give me the directive, you say the word,’” the paratrooper said. “From an E-5, to an E-6, to an E-7, and the request just goes up the chain. No one ever did anything in the past two years. However, this year, we finally pulled the trigger, and we executed what needed to be done.”
The rivalry over French turf between the 82nd and the 101st has been going strong since both units dropped thousands of paratroopers into Normandy during the D-Day invasion. While Sainte-Mère-Église was at the heart of the 82nd’s actions, the 101st was involved in the hotly contested town of Caen.
But the paratrooper said it didn’t stop with their All-American flag flying high, another flag had taken its place by the next day — possibly installed, the Americans suspect, by a secretive French resistance.
“Someone took down one of [the 82nd flags] and replaced it with a French flag during the curfew hours,” the paratrooper said. “Now it appears that it’s zip-tied up there. So, we don’t know if it’s official or if it was carried out by just a couple of Vanguard-type hooligans of the French local populace.”
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Navy Capt. Michel Brandt was relieved as the USS Somerset’s commanding officer on June 6 following a command investigation. (U.S. Navy photo).Navy Capt. Michel Brandt, commanding officer of the amphibious transport dock USS Somerset, has been fired after an investigation “due to a loss of confidence in her ability to lead the crew,” the service announced on Friday. Brandt was relieved of command on Friday by Rear Adm. Christopher Stone, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 7, a Navy news release says.
“Navy commanding officers are held to high standards of personal and professional conduct,” the news release says. “They are expected to uphold the highest standards of responsibility, reliability and leadership, and the Navy holds them accountable when they fall short of those standards.”
Brandt was relieved following a command investigation, a Navy spokesperson told Task & Purpose on Friday, but no information about the investigation or its findings was immediately available.
The term “loss of confidence” is a boilerplate euphemism that all military branches use when an officer or senior enlisted leader is removed from their position. Media outlets can request more information about the circumstances behind a relief of command, but the process can take months, if not longer.
A total of 12 Navy commanding officers have been fired in 2024, a Navy spokesperson told Task & Purpose. The service relieved 16 commanding officers in 2023.
The reasons why commanding officers are fired vary, but they include issues such as having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate, being a toxic leader, and non-work-related problems. At least three of the commanding officers whom the Navy fired this year had been arrested off-base for drunken driving.
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However when a military service fails to say exactly why a leader has been fired, it often gives rise to unfounded speculations and unfair conspiracy theories that can further damage a relieved leader’s reputation and later careers.
Brandt was commissioned through the Navy Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee in 1998, according to her Navy biography. She became a surface warfare officer two years later.
She has deployed six times, two of which were to the Arabian Sea in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Her military awards include the Legion of Merit, three Defense Meritorious Service Medals, four Navy Commendation Medals, and three Navy Achievement Medals.
Brandt assumed command of the Somerset last July. The firing marks at least the third time an officer in charge of the Somerset has been relieved or punished.
In 2018, the ship’s captain was fired after an investigation found issues with the command climate on board. The Somerset was also the launch and recovery ship in a deadly 2020 mishap that killed eight Marines and one sailor when a Marine amphibious assault vehicle flooded and sank in choppy waters off California.
The captain of the Somerset during that mission was given a letter of censure by the Secretary of the Navy. In 2023, that captain was selected to command an aircraft carrier, one of the Navy’s most esteemed positions, but his name was removed after the appointment became public.
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Geraint Jones' "D-Day: The Unheard Tapes" takes readers into the grey area of warfare, hearing from both sides of the battlefields of WW II. (Photo courtesy of Geraint Jones. Task & Purpose composite image.).Today, you’ll likely see endless reels of Allied troops storming the beaches of Normandy, interviews with D-Day veterans, and footage of how France is celebrating the 80th anniversary. But you probably won’t see the perspectives of German soldiers who lost the war. Geraint Jones’ latest book, “D-Day: The Unheard Tapes” shows readers both sides.
Jones, a former British combat infantryman and author, released his book on May 23, just ahead of the 80th anniversary of D-Day. One might wonder why anyone would want to include the perspectives of those we fought against, but Jones knows first-hand that combat is never black and white — even in a war that was the ultimate example of good triumphing over evil.
“You still hear stories about the SS murdering prisoners, but then you hear stories about American and British soldiers murdering prisoners. Then you hear stories about American and British soldiers putting their own lives at risk to save German soldiers,” Jones said. “It’s a human experience that they went through and that means every kind of shade along that human spectrum is represented in there.”
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“D-Day: The Unheard Tapes” was released in conjunction with the BBC2 documentary series of the same name. Jones pored over the interviews recorded and archived with the Imperial War Museums and National World War II Museum in a step away from the typical topics he writes about.
“Every other book that I’ve written about has been about volunteers. This is the first time where I’ve written a book where the majority of the guys were conscripted,” Jones said. “That was a real difference. They weren’t there because they necessarily chose to be. They were there because they had to be.”
That was the case for most of those fighting throughout WWII on both sides, not just on D-Day. The book walks readers through the nitty gritty of warfare, from French citizens who woke up the morning of June 6 to find an armada parked a mile off the Normandy beaches to a German infantryman who tragically had to leave his friend to die.
Some perspectives detail the typical horrors of war, while others highlight stories many have never heard.
“One of my favorite stories was this guy, William Hanna, with the Hampshire regiment, who saw German soldiers trying to surrender, and were shot — they realized that it was the SS shooting them,” Jones said. “These British soldiers were really appalled at the fact that the German SS were killing their own soldiers. The British saw the basic German soldiers as kind of like them. They’re conscripted, they’re doing their job. When it’s over, it’s over.”
Jones believes every point of view from the more than 2 million WWII veterans deserves to be told. That’s why he kept the input from the many archived interviews close to how the WWII veterans explained things at the time, only editing for clarity.
He struggled with a touch of imposter syndrome while writing the book. He’s deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and knows what it’s like to lose a friend in combat along with many other aspects of war. But he feels his own experiences pale in comparison to what the Greatest Generation accomplished, especially on D-Day.
“As much as there is that sense of, do I deserve this opportunity? It’s like, I have this opportunity, and that means I’m going to give it everything that I’ve got, and if it doesn’t live up to what it should be, it’s not going to be for lack of trying,” Jones said.
“D-Day: The Unheard Tapes” is not available in America in print yet, but those interested can find the audiobook on Spotify Premium and the e-book via Amazon Kindle.
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An Oregon Air National Guard F-15 ended up in a drainage ditch at Kingsley Field, Oregon when its pilot did not use emergency braking systems, an Air Force investigation found. The base's control tower lowered a last-ditch arresting cable that might have stopped the plane after a confusing radio exchange with the pilot. Photo from final accident report.An experienced F-15 pilot made two split-second errors during an emergency landing — including saying a vital emergency word just once over the radio rather than repeating it three times — that sent the plane crashing into an Oregon drainage ditch in May 2023, an Air Force investigation found. The crash occurred even though in the minutes before the fighter slid off the end of the runway at Kingsley Field near Klamath Falls, Oregon, the pilot had done an admirable job of getting the plane safely down onto the base’s runway after a massive mid-flight hydraulics failure, an Accident Investigation Board report released this week found.
“While airborne, the [pilot] complied with all hydraulic emergency checklist items and developed a sound plan to safely recover the aircraft,” the investigation found. The pilot “was cognizant of the severity of the hydraulic leak and recognized the probability of total utility hydraulic system failure.”
But a misspoken final radio call and a braking miscue led the board to blame the unnamed pilot for the mishap that destroyed the $35.5 million jet. The board’s final report found “by preponderance of the evidence, that the mishap was caused by the [pilot’s] decision not to engage the [F-15’s] Emergency Brake/Steer System in accordance with checklist guidance.”
A miscommunication with the Kingsley control tower also “substantially contributed” to the mishap, the board found, causing the plane to miss a last-ditch arresting cable that could have stopped the plane. The report also faulted maintenance personnel with failing to properly investigate signs that the hydraulic system might have had a leak prior to take-off.
Mid-flight emergencyThe crash came at the end of a May 23, 2023 training mission that had been typical for fighters in the Oregon Air Guard’s 173rd Fighter Wing. The pilot, who the report did not name but described as a senior F-15 instructor pilot with over 3,000 flight hours, flew as the leader of a flight of F-15s that had practiced dogfighting with another flight of Air Force F-35s then navigated through a low-level flight to simulate sneaking into and out of a combat zone.
During the low-level flight, the pilot saw the plane’s hydraulic system drop out, prompting the pilot to cancel the training mission, declare an inflight emergency and head home. But while landing at Kingsley, the pilot realized the plane’s brakes would not be enough to slow the plane down. About halfway down the runway, the pilot decided not to buy more time with a “go around” — firing the engines to take off again — but to instead continue landing using other emergency procedures.
But here, two split-second decisions doomed the plane, the board found.
First, the pilot hoped to snag a last-ditch steel arresting cable strung across the runway for just such emergencies. But a momentary miscommunication with the control tower led air traffic controllers in the tower to lower the cable, making it useless.
Once the arresting cable was missed, the board found, the pilot decided not to use the plane’s emergency braking system, which can cause a skid. The pilot told investigators they feared the very real possibility that the violent braking from the emergency brakes would blow the tires on the jet, sending it careening off the runway at high speed. This fear, the board agreed, was not unfounded — the plane was traveling 90 knots on the runway when the brakes failed, while pilots are trained that tires can blow if locked up at speeds over 70.
But the board noted that using the emergency braking system was the prescribed procedure that pilots are trained and expected to follow in braking emergencies, even at higher landing speeds.
Confusing radio callThe missed chance to snag the arresting cable came after the pilot made a key radio call as they landed that was misinterpreted by the control tower. Prior to landing the pilot correctly lowered the plane’s tailhook but as they touched down made a radio call to controllers in the Kingsley tower of a single word: “cable.” The pilot intended the radio call as an alert to the tower that they expected to catch the cable.
However, the board said, Air Force-approved radio call for such an alert is to repeat the word three times — ”cable, cable, cable.”
That lapse, the report found, confused the air traffic controllers in the tower into believing the pilot wanted the cable to be lowered out of the way — a typical though not officially sanctioned request on the airfield.
“Pilots assigned to the 173 Fighter Wing commonly request to lower the departure-end arrestment cable after landing to minimize wear on the cable when taxing over it on the runway,” the report found. When an operator in the control tower heard the call for “cable,” they believed that the F-15 had landed normally and activated the switch in the control tower to lower the cable, out of reach of the F-15’s tail hook.
“Cable coming down,” a controller told the plane.
The pilot called back seven seconds later to correct the mistake.
“No, no, I need cable, cable up, cable up, cable up, cable up,” the pilot said.
The tower operator reacted quickly, raising the cable just four seconds later — but it was too late. The plane sailed off the end of the runway, coming to stop mostly submerged in a drainage ditch. The pilot was able to climb out and was treated for non-life threatening injuries.
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New York Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Joel Strickland (left) and Spc. Desany Jacques (right) used their medical skills and a trauma bandage from their Individual First Aid Kit to save the life of a man who was stabbed on May 20 at a subway station in Queens, New York. (Lt. Stephanie Sylvain/U.S. Army National Guard).Two New York Army Guardsmen used their combat lifesaving skills and a special bandage from their medical kit to save the life of a man who had been stabbed at a subway station in Queens, New York. New York Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Joel Strickland and Spc. Desany Jacques were on duty for Operation Empire Shield on May 20 when they helped break up a fight in the subway, discovering that one of the men was stabbed.
Strickland is a medic with the headquarters company of the 42nd Infantry Division, and Jacques is a supply specialist with the 102nd Military Police Company, a National Guard news story says. In addition to having military medical training, the two men also serve as civilian volunteer first responders.
“These two Soldiers were able to react without hesitation,” Capt. Caleb Jean, Strickland and Jacques’ company commander, said in a statement. “I am extremely impressed with how they handled the situation.”
The New York National Guard has conducted bag checks at New York City’s transit stations since March to check for weapons. The move came as a response to several violent attacks on the city’s subway system.
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Both Jacques and Strickland are part of Operation Empire Shield, which is made up of 780 soldiers and airmen on state active duty, who provide security at city train and subway stations, airports, and bridges.
On the afternoon of May 20, the two men arrived at the security checkpoint for the subway station at Sutphin Boulevard and Archer Street. Suddenly, a shirtless man came down the station stairs while cursing and screaming.
The man jumped the turnstile and got into a fight with two other men. Five police officers subdued the attacker as Jacques and Strickland helped to control the crowd.
After the fight, the two men who had been attacked ran up to Strickland, Jacques, and a police officer.
“Specialist Jacques says, ‘Are you OK?’” Strickland recalled. “One of the civilians turns around — he had a black hoodie on — and his entire hoodie was soaked in blood.”
As police called for an ambulance, Strickland told Jacques to get an Individual First Aid Kit, or IFAK, from their vehicle. Strickland and police then helped get the stricken man on the ground and pulled off his hoodie. They saw he had a stab wound on his upper back that was 4 inches long and roughly as wide as a nickel.
Strickland put on latex gloves and tried to staunch the bleeding, but he needed a trauma bandage from the IFAK to pack the wound. Jacques quickly returned with medical kit, which had exactly what both soldiers needed: A CELOX bandage that uses material made from shrimp, crab, and lobster shells to make a blood clot, similar to the Quick Clot bandages used by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
With both of his hands still clamped down on the wound, Strickland told Jacques to open the bandage packet, make a ball at the end of the gauze strip and hand the ball to him. They worked together for several minutes to pack the wound until the bleeding stopped.
About 10 minutes later, civilian Emergency Medical Technicians arrived at the scene and took the man to a hospital. No information about the man’s current medical condition was immediately available on Thursday.
Jacques said that the IFAK, which all Joint Task Force Empire Shield members carry as part of their official load out, was “extremely instrumental” in allowing them to treat the stab wound.
He also said that soldiers and airmen assigned to the Task Force need to be prepared to respond to all sorts of dangerous situations.
“I would definitely say, don’t be complacent,” Jacques said “Every day is something new on post for us.”
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A Trident pier like that deployed to Gaza during a training exercise in Virginia in 2012. The Army's Trident piers and J-LOTS systems trace their roots to the floating causeways and ramps used in Normandy in the weeks after D-Day. US Army photo.The makeshift pier erected by the Army off a beach in Gaza will reopen in the next week, Pentagon officials said Wednesday, reactivating one of the few systems still in use that can trace its roots directly to Omaha Beach and the 1944 D-Day invasion.
While the Army commemorates the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings this week, a less known chapter of the landings came in the weeks after as allied forces struggled to bring supplies ashore at Normandy. In fact, a storm two weeks after the invasion destroyed a makeshift harbor on Omaha beach. In the aftermath, Army engineers began work on a pier system that would eventually lead to the Joint-Logistics-Over-the-Shore system, or J-LOTS, deployed to Gaza today.
Wednesday, the Pentagon said it soon plans to reopen the J-LOTS’ makeshift pier to restart humanitarian aid delivery to Gaza after the entire relief effort ground to halt as the pier broke up by heavy seas last week. Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said that the latest cost estimate for the pier is $230 million, roughly $100 million less than previously thought. The U.S. military expects that the Gaza pier’s floating causeway will be re-anchored later this week and aid is expected to flow “pretty immediately,” Singh said.
“If there is a time and place where the commander feels that there’s another storm coming and out of an abundance of caution removes the temporary pier for whether it be hours or a day – I could see that potentially happening in the future,” Singh said. “But obviously, it’s hard to predict the future when it comes to weather.”
Still, the ramps and platforms that make up the J-LOTS system would not feel unfamiliar to a soldier at Omaha beach in 1944.
In the days after D-Day, the Army erected a floating causeway known as Mulberry Harbor at Omaha Beach. However, the structure was wrecked by a storm in mid-June 1944. The failure inspired Col. Leon B. DeLong to “design a portable pier that could stand up to rough seas,” according to the Army.
After WWII, the retired Colonel started a company to build 50-by-250-foot DeLong Piers. Unlike the floating bridges and platforms used on D-Day, the DeLong piers used long steel poles to dig into the sand, holding fast and even capable of raising the piers during storms. The systems were first used by the Air Force in 1951 to offload materials for runway construction at Thule Air Base, Greenland. The following year the Army awarded DeLong a contract for 17 piers.
As the Cold War began, the Army ran exercises and tested Logistics-Over-The-Shore
Concepts off the northern coast of France to “rehearse for another Normandy-like operation in the event the Soviet Union destroyed the fixed ports with nuclear bombs,” according to the Army.
The Army would soon use the LOTS concept in Vietnam to bring supplies into theater. In 1966, the U.S. Military Assistance Command “developed landing craft offload sites to improve discharge rates at ports.” The Joint Logistics Review Board recommended that the Army needed to review its doctrine for LOTS operations and “incorporate the planned use of mobile/prefabricated piers,” Maj. Jon Michael King wrote in a 2020 paper.
Though rarely as in the spotlight as the Gaza pier, soldiers have deployed and used J-LOTS in humanitarian operations including Haiti. Soldiers also carried out JLOTS operations international exercises including Native Fury 20 in the United Arab Emirates in March 2020 and more recently in Talisman Sabre with Australia.
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Over-the-shore in the PacificWhile traditionally a land-based force, the Army has been beefing up its presence in the water as the DOD pivots strategy and deterrence to the vast Pacific region with an eye on China.
In February, the Army activated the 5th Transportation Company, a composite watercraft company outside of the U.S. for the first time in decades, the Army said in a release. The unit’s mission involves operating landing craft throughout the Pacific “as far South as Australia and as far North as the Republic of Korea or Hokkaido, the Northern Island of Japan.”
But as the last weeks have demonstrated, the system has weak spots. Researchers at the RAND Corporation wrote in an Op-Ed that the JLOTS mission in Gaza highlights the need for the capability in places where it is most needed.
“Seeing several Army watercraft move east from Virginia does beg the question as to how the Army is balancing such deployments against their primary missions in the Pacific,” RAND researchers wrote. “The Army had moved its watercraft from U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility, only to later require the watercraft to return, which raises questions about whether this intra-theater capability is being correctly allocated.”
Soldiers on the projectTwo soldiers working on the project were highlighted in two recent Army releases.
One is a watercraft operator assigned to the 11th Transportation Battalion, 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary). Spc. Briar Chasteen from Trenton, Illinois, was approaching his first permanent change of station with his wife and 18-month-old son when he was asked to be part of the JLOTS project.
“Being a part of this mission was a choice for me,” Chasteen told the Army in a release. “I re-enlisted for four more years and gave up the opportunity to move to Japan. I decided to delete my orders so that I could assist in delivering aid to people in need.”
Chasteen said soldiers have faced several challenges during work on the JLOTS mission with high op tempos, building the Roll-on Roll-off Distribution Facility and Trident Pier, and dealing with the rough sea state.
“We have had to get used to plans changing,” he said.
Sgt. Hagan Schutz, 25, grew up in the coastal town of Holland, Mass. His decision to join the Army was a shock to his family, he said. But with a childhood spent going to the beach, his future career was quite fitting.
Schutz is a modular warping tug coxswain assigned to 331st Transportation Company, 7th Transportation Brigade. Modular Warping tugs are flat-bottomed platforms with twin, omni-directional jets. With a crew of seven, the tugs can navigate in waters less than two feet deep.
For the JLOTS project, Schutz pilots the tugs that assemble the Trident Pier, and ensures the safety of six other soldiers aboard his craft.
“It can be stressful, especially during some of our recent situations,” said Schutz. “Ultimately I have to trust that everyone aboard knows their jobs and their responsibilities, and that makes my job a whole lot easier.”
Schutz said that this mission included a lot of “firsts” including his inaugural anchoring of the Army vessel into a combat zone.
“To be in a combat area is a different experience than I ever expected,” he said. “It’s definitely taught me to persevere with all the stuff we’ve been through. It’s been hard, but it teaches me to be a bit stronger and keep pushing through.”
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Left: Craig Austin Lang. (From Facebook) Right: Alex Jared Zwiefelhofer.Two former U.S. Army soldiers who say they met fighting Russian separatists in Ukraine are now both behind bars in the U.S. after a years-long “international crime spree.” The pair met in a militia in Ukraine in 2017 before eventually killing and robbing a Florida couple and seeking fake identities to join other conflicts in Kenya and Venezuela.
Craig Austin Lang faced an initial hearing with a U.S. judge Monday after being extradited from Ukraine. Alex Jared Zwiefelhofer, 27, was convicted in March in a federal trial on murder and other crimes he and Lang allegedly committed together. His sentencing is Aug. 6.
Federal authorities say the duo met in Ukraine in 2017 as volunteers for a battalion fighting Russian separatists then spent much of the next several years committing crimes across at least four continents.
After Ukraine, the two tried to join another militia in Kenya before being deported after they crossing into South Sudan.
Back in the U.S., they reconnected in Florida. There, according to the DOJ, Lang and Zwiefelhofer restarted their international tear in 2018 with a series of crimes that Zwiefelhofer was convicted of in March and that Lang is accused of in a federal indictment.
They began with a double murder of a Brooksville, Florida couple. The couple planned to buy firearms from the two former soldiers on a website called “ARMSLIST.” Instead, Lang and Zwiefelhofer allegedly killed the couple while stealing their $3,000.
In addition to the Bonnie-and-Clyde murder plot in Florida, Lang faces charges in two other states for armed robbery, false statements in a passport application, aggravated identity theft, and misuse of a passport, officials said.
After the Florida killings, Department of Justice officials say that Lang and Zwiefelhofer used the couple’s money to pay for travel to Venezuela, where they planned to participate in a coup. According to Florida court documents, before leaving for Venezuela, the duo visited a military surplus store in Miami and discussed military equipment, firearms and ammunition they planned to bring “for the purpose of fighting against the Venezuelan government,” which they acknowledged would include killing people.
Both former soldiers face a maximum penalty of life in prison.
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Lang, who is from Surprise, Arizona faced his first court appearance in Fort Myers, Florida on Monday where he pleaded not guilty, according to court documents.
Zwiefelhofer, from Bloomer, Wisconsin, was convicted of all charges by a federal jury on March 8. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 6.
The U.S. Military Academy at West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center published an article on Zwiefelhofer which concluded that he may have been more “attracted by adventure than far-right ideology.” Zwiefelhofer left the Army in 2016 at 19 years old and tried to join the French Foreign Legion before joining the Right Sector volunteer force in Ukraine.
Lang’s other chargesPrincipal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri called Lang’s actions an “international crime spree,” including the alleged double murder and attempts to “travel internationally to engage in other acts of violence.” Lang also had a plan to evade law enforcement “by trading guns, a grenade, and cash to use another person’s identifying information to apply for a U.S. passport under an assumed name.”
“Lang’s alleged conduct is shocking in its scope and its callous disregard for human life,” Argentieri said.
In North Carolina, Lang and and two other men allegedly came up with a scheme to apply for U.S. passports under assumed names, according to an August 2019 indictment. For Lang, his assumed name was Dameon Shae Adcock, officials allege.
Lang allegedly gave the real Adcock a suitcase with firearms, a military grenade, and $1,500 cash to pay for the use of his personal information. Days later, Lang allegedly bought airline tickets for travel from Georgia to New York and then to Ukraine.
Two of Lang’s conspirators pleaded guilty. One was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison and the other was sentenced to one year probation.
Across the country in Arizona, Lang faces charges for allegedly presenting a U.S. passport to Mexican authorities for a visa, “which was in violation of the conditions and restrictions contained on the passport,” the DOJ said about the June 2019 indictment.
Lang was escorted by the FBI from Ukraine to the U.S. The decision was made to send Lang back to the U.S. after a European court rejected his claim challenging extradition under the European Convention on Human Rights.
According to a U.S. Military Academy West Point publication, Lang arrived in Ukraine in 2014 and joined the Georgia National Legion, a volunteer group prohibited by Ukrainian authorities from participating in combat. Lang later joined the Right Sector but returned to the U.S. by 2019 because the conflict had “got too slow” and “became trench warfare,” Lang said in a documentary.
According to BuzzFeed News reporting, Lang was part of a list of soldiers being investigated by the DOJ and FBI for alleged war crimes while fighting with far-right volunteer Ukrainian forces.
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Official Army portrait for Waverly B. Woodson Jr. (U.S. Army photo).Corporal Waverly Woodson was 21 on June 6, 1944, when he landed on Omaha Beach as a combat medic with the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion — an often-overlooked unit that was the only all-Black U.S. military element to storm the beach on D-Day.
“The tide brought us in, and that’s when the 88s hit us,” Woodson Woodson talked to the Associated Press in 1994, describing German 88mm guns. “They were murder. Of our 26 Navy personnel there was only one left. They raked the whole top of the ship and killed all the crew. Then they started with the mortar shells.”
On the beach, Woodson “treated countless fellow soldiers for over 30 hours amid intense combat and saved an estimated 200 lives, even though he was seriously injured himself when his boat hit a German mine in the ocean as it approached the beach,”according to a news release from Sen. Chis Van Hollen (D-Md.).
On Monday, a U.S. senator announced that Woodson will be posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army’s second-highest valor award, as Woodson’s supporters continue a campaign to see him awarded the Medal of Honor, the news release says.
“Waverly would have felt honored to be recognized for what he knew was his duty,” his widow Joann Woodson said in a statement. “But we all know it was far more than duty; it was his desire to always help people in need.”
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Though wounded at D-Day, Woodson survived, passing away in 2005. Records from the period indicated Woodson’s commander intended to recommend him for the Medal of Honor, but nothing came of it initially. He was awarded the Bronze Star, but not the Combat Medic Badge, which was finally added to his record in August 2023.
Woodson’s heroism has long been celebrated in the Army medical community. The Rock Island Arsenal Health Clinic in Illinois was renamed for him in April 2022.
Van Hollen announced on Monday that Woodson would receive the Distinguished Service Cross after years of work by his family and the senator’s office to recognize Woodson’s bravery on D-Day.
“Waverly Woodson earned a place among the most noble of American war heroes for his courageous display of valor on D-Day, but he has never received the full recognition that his actions clearly merited – largely due to the color of his skin,” Van Hollen said in a statement. “That’s why we’ve fought for years to secure the acknowledgement he deserved. The awarding of the Distinguished Service Cross – the highest award the Army can bestow on its own authority – recognizes his bravery and selfless service and marks a major step forward in our efforts to right this historic wrong. While we have more work to do to fully mark Mr. Woodson’s service, this is a momentous announcement, and I’m pleased to have worked alongside the Woodson family and others bring us to important occasion.”
Soldiers with First Army will lay a World War II-era Distinguished Service Cross at the spot Omaha Beach where Woodson set up his aid station on the anniversary of D-Day this week. The medal will be presented to Woodson’s family this summer.
“We want to be able to tell Mrs. Woodson that the medal she is receiving on behalf of her beloved husband has actually been to Normandy, has actually been to the very place he performed his truly remarkable actions,” Maj. Gen. William A. Ryan III, commanding general of First Army, said in a statement.
Even though records from World War II indicate that Woodson’s commander planned to recommend him for the Medal of Honor, the Army has determined that there is not enough documentation to retroactively award Woodson the U.S. military’s highest decoration for valor.
Woodson’s family and Van Hollen have worked for years to argue that Woodson should receive the Medal of Honor and they continue to advocate on his behalf.
“I am so thankful he is being awarded the Distinguished Service Cross as acknowledgment from his peers, The U.S. Army,” Woodson’s son Steve said in a statement. “Hopefully this will pave the way for further recognition of his heroism on D-Day for saving lives in the pursuit of freedom for the oppressed; that recognition being the Medal of Honor.”
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FILE: U.S. soldiers deployed to Syria to support the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve mission. (Spc. Jensen Guillory/U.S. Army).An Air Force combat controller dodged bullets, artillery shells and even direct fire from enemy tanks as he coordinated U.S. firepower against an oncoming battalion of Russian and Syrian tanks and fighters in early 2018. By the end of the four-hour shoot-out, the Air Force commando had directed airstrike and artillery that wiped out hundreds of Russian and Syrian soldiers and vehicles, while an isolated post of about 40 U.S. special ops troops suffered no casualties. The Air Force confirmed last week that the commando was awarded the Air Force Cross — a valor award second only to the Medal of Honor — in September 2020 for his actions in the Battle of Khasham, an engagement widely covered for its heavy death toll but whose details remain murky.
The combat controller, according to the Air Force Cross citation, “prevented an isolated force of Americans and coalition personnel from being overrun by a professionally trained and technically proficient combined arms enemy assault comprised of main battle tanks, armored personnel carriers, heavy artillery tubes and a battalion of infantry soldiers.”
The secret Air Force Cross was uncovered by Washington Post journalist Kyle Rempfer, who obtained the citation through a Freedom of Information Act request. The Air Force provided the citation and order for the award, but redacted the name and other identifying information of the combat controller. A combat controller, or CCT, is an Air Force special tactics operator who plans, targets and directs air support for special operations missions. The citation noted that the airman was assigned to the 24th Special Operations Squadron, the Air Force’s secretive unit within the Joint Special Operations Command. Rempfor, who was an Air Force combat controller before leaving the military and joining the Washington Post, provided the citations to Task & Purpose.
The response to the 2023 FOIA came after a delay, Rempfer said on X, but the citation offers some official U.S. military details on both the combat controller’s actions during the wider battle.
The Battle of Khasham saw roughly 500 troops supporting Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, including members of the Kremlin-aligned Wagner Group mercenary company, attack American special operations forces, only to suffer heavy casualties as the soldiers, a quick response force and major air support repelled the assault.
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On February 7, 2018, pro-Assad forces advanced on an American outpost in the town of Khasham near Deir-ez-Zor. Approximately 30 soldiers from Delta Force, the 75th Ranger Regiment and the combat controller were at an old Conoco gas plant, alongside mostly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, a major partner in the fight against ISIS. A platoon of supporting forces, comprising U.S. Marines and Army Special Forces, were stationed approximately 20 miles away. By nighttime, hundreds of Wagner mercenaries and pro-Assad troops, with more than two dozen vehicles and several tanks, had massed in Khasham, on the east side of the Euphrates River. Around 10 p.m. they began attacking the American outpost with mortars, gunfire and tank cannons.
American forces were in contact with a Russian liaison nearby, who stressed that no members of the regular Russian military were a part of the attacking forces. Once that was confirmed, the commandos began firing back, and calling in air support. And it came in force: F-22 and F-15E fighter jets, as well as B-52 bombers, AC-130 gunships, AH-64 Apache helicopters and Reaper drones began striking Syrian and Wagner troops. American artillery stationed nearby also opened fire, helping the outnumbered U.S. forces repel the attack.
The Air Force Cross citation is sparse on details of the battle itself. Notably, it does not identify who the enemy forces that the special operations forces and their partners defeated actually were, or provide information on how the battle ended.
The CCT, the citation said, “exposed himself to artillery, rocket, and mortar bombardment, and direct fire from main battle tanks, rocket-propelled grenades, and heavy automatic weapons during the hasty defense of a United States Special Operations Forces operating location.”
As Rempfer noted, it does not appear that the Air Force or Department of Defense as a whole ever publicly announced the award.
As fighting stretched on, an American quick response force arrived at the scene, providing supporting fire while American aircraft continued to rain down strikes. A New York Times report on the Battle of Khasham, which drew its information from several interviews and documents with Pentagon officials, noted that more than one CCT was involved in the fighting. According to the New York Times, once reinforced, “[a] few of the commandos, including Air Force combat controllers, worked the radios to direct the next fleet of bombers flying toward the battlefield.” Those airstrikes proved essential, with the bombardments eventually driving the pro-Assad forces back after four hours of fighting. Then-Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis would later describe the enemy forces as being “annihilated.”
As for the end results, no American service member was wounded or killed. One SDF member was injured, the U.S. Army said at the time. The same could not be said for the pro-Assad forces. The actual total has never been fully confirmed, with the U.S., Syria, Russia and outside investigators all reporting different casualty figures. It’s believed that up to 300 Syrian and Wagner Group fighters were killed.
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The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) conducts flight operations in response to increased Iranian-backed Houthi malign behavior in the Red Sea, Feb. 3, 2024. The Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations to support maritime security and stability in the Middle East region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Janae Chambers).After more than seven months in the waters around the Middle East intercepting and targeting Houthi munitions, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier and its supporting ships are set to stick around for at least another month.
The “Ike,” as it is known, and the three ships in its carrier strike group had their deployment extended an additional month, according to the Associated Press. The AP, citing several U.S. government officials, said that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin signed the order in late May.
Alongside the carrier itself, the Eisenhower carrier strike group includes the destroyers USS Gravely and USS Mason, as well as the cruiser USS Philippine Sea. The carrier strike group also includes the air wing based on the Ike and comprises approximately 6,000 sailors.
The decision comes as the Houthi movement continues to fire munitions and one-way attack drones at ships in the waters around Yemen. The attacks throughout the Red Sea have led many shipping companies to find alternative routes, attempting to avoid going through what is normally one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.
Despite dozens of intercepts or preemptive “self defense” strikes on Houthi drone and missiles, as well as several larger airstrike operations across Yemen this year, the militants remain active. In January and February, U.S. Central Command and the Pentagon both said that strikes on Yemen done in conjunction with the United Kingdom were “intended to degrade Houthi capability and disrupt their continued reckless and unlawful attacks.” However Houthis have not lost that capability, launching multiple drones and missiles at vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. From May 24 to June 1 alone, CENTCOM reported near daily launches, intercepts or self-defense strikes on Houthi sites (May 29 being the one day without a reported incident).
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The Houthis, a Yemeni nationalist and religious movement, seized control of much of Yemen following a civil war with the internationally recognized government. Despite years of fighting, and heavy bombardment by a Saudi-led coalition, the group maintains its hold over much of the country, including the capital city of Sana’a. The group began attacking ships passing through the Red Sea in the fall, in response to the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has played a major role in anti-Houthi operations over the last seven months. Its carrier group and its fighter wing have shot down several Houthi munitions and drones, as well as bombed several locations inside Yemen.
Although the Ike and its supporting ships are sticking around, other ships sent to the Middle East after the start of the Israel-Gaza war have returned. The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group left the eastern Mediterranean Sea in January. The USS Carney, an Arleligh Burke-class destroyer that engaged weapons fired from Yemen 51 times over eight months, returned back to the United States in mid-May.
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US soldiers parachute land during the celebration in Carentan-les-Marais, northwestern France, on June 2, 2024, as part of the D-Day commemorations to mark 80th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. (Photo by LOU BENOIST / AFP) (Photo by LOU BENOIST/aFP/AFP via Getty Images).The skies above Normandy were once again filled with Western soldiers jumping out of planes. 80 years after the Allied forces launched the massive D-Day invasion, veterans and civilians leapt out of C-47s, this time in celebration and not in the face of enemy fire.
The Sunday, June 2 jump saw dozens of people, military veterans and civilians, jumping into the skies over the town of Carentan-les-Marais. The journey was meant to mimic the one Allied soldiers made eight decades ago. D-Day proper was on June 6, 1944, but Sunday’s jump was meant to be the opening event of a week of commemorations and remembrance of the Allied invasion.
The parachutists were ferried over Normandy by a trio of C-47 planes, which took off from the United Kingdom, flying over the English Channel, to France. Two of the C-47s, named “That’s All, Brother” and “Placid Lassie” were actually flown during D-Day, and survived the war. Many of the jumpers on Sunday were military veterans themselves.
Round canopy parachutists prepare to load onto Douglas C47 aircraft, known as the Dakota, which became the world’s best known transport aircraft and saw widespread use by the Allies during the Second World War during the IWM Duxford Air Show in Cambridgeshire, as they make their way across the Channel to continue commemorations for the D-Day 80th anniversary. Picture date: Sunday June 2, 2024. (Photo by Joe Giddens/PA Images via Getty Images)On the ground, groups dressed as Allied soldiers from the war watched as their 70 comrades in the event descended toward the fields. They rode World War II model cars and carried 1940s equipment. While crowds waited for the parachutists, music from stars of the era such as Edith Piaf and Glenn Miller played, Le Monde reports. It wasn’t entirely retro though — photos and footage from Sunday’s jump show the ground reenactors taking photos and filming the jump. Several UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters also flew over Carentan-les-Marais as part of the day’s events, and current soldiers jumped as well, using more modern parachutes than the iconic round ones used in 1944.
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The day time jump came after some earlier reenactor events this past week in the United Kingdom. Participants dressed head to toe in full paratrooper gear gathered near C-47s in England, showing off all of their jump equipment.
A participant wearing WWII military uniform sits on on a military vehicle during the celebration in Carentan-les-Marais, northwestern France, on June 2, 2024, as part of the D-Day commemorations to mark 80th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. (Photo by LOU BENOIST / AFP) (Photo by LOU BENOIST/aFP/AFP via Getty Images)Planned events for the anniversary are not as intricate as the invasion of Normandy, but they are complex. Some of the work has already been done, including the massive logistics of moving enough personnel, equipment, replica or vintage gear and celebration material to France. The U.S. military is sending active-duty units as well, from aircraft crews to paratroopers. Several heads of state are meant to speak at the anniversary, including President Joe Biden, French President Emmanual Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and others. Meanwhile dozens of World War II veterans, from both the European and Pacific theaters, are in or coming to France for the anniversary, some of the remaining troops from the war.
Other parts of the weeklong commemoration include more tributes and homages to the troops from 1944. Last year crews in Ramstein Air Base in Germany painted six of their C-130s with “invasion stripes” in preparation for their use in the anniversary. Another large airborne event is set for June 9. One beach at Arromanches-les-Bains has the words “Freedom I write your name” written on the sands, in French. Even the Marines are involved, working with the French military to stage amphibious landings on June 4 and 5.
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(Screenshot via @Shaihuluddedune on X).For certain gamers, a video game needs a level of immersion or realism. It’s why some people gravitate to simulators or why others sometimes leak classified information (over and over and over) in fights over how accurate to reality a game is. And that commitment to accuracy is what makes this “World of Tanks” gaming system so impressive.
The video, posted to X by user @Shaihuluddedune, shows the three-person gaming setup. The gaming rig is so detailed that it features a functioning tank gun. Well, kind of. There’s a desk-mounted CO2 cannon that one person feeds two-liter soda bottles into as “ammunition” and the cannon spits them back out after each round is fired. It’s as intricate as it is impressive. Someone clearly had an idea and made it a reality. It’s unclear if any of the gamers in the video are actually tankers or just armor enthusiasts.
The “World of Tanks” gaming rig, apparently operated by a team in China, is more spacious than an actual tank, but it has several components in place to mimic actually crewing a piece of armor. The driver is controlling the in-game tank through a steering wheel connected to the gaming system. The spotter is aiming the turret using an Oculus virtual reality headset and spinning the gun around using a crank. When it’s time to fire he quite literally slams down on a big red button and the flatscreen television they’re staring at shows a direct hit.
https://x.com/Shaihuluddedune/status/1796563950525661401
But let’s be honest, the centerpiece of the set up in the functioning CO2 cannon. The loader puts in a fresh soda bottle, it “fires” and ejects the “spent” shell. The loader then ditches it and grabs another for a new volley. For the record, most of the bottles used appear to be empty Mountain Dew bottles.
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The video doesn’t show the “how” of the setup. The Oculus headset being connected to the in-game gunner camera makes sense. “World of Tanks” is — as far asTask & Purpose is aware — not set up with sensors meant to detect ammunition loaded into a plugged in CO2 cannon. There is a large network of wires hooked up to the cannon. Whatever modification these gamers did to the software to let the rig work in the match clearly was effective.
Not since “Fury” has there been such impressive footage of a tank crew loading and firing its main gun. Sadly, the gunner does not appear to shout some version of “on the way” before each shot.
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FILE: A Somali soldier patrols next to the burnt-out wreckage of a car that was used by suspected al-shabab fighters on April 16, 2017. (Mohamed Adbiwhab/AFP via Getty Images).The U.S. military’s fight against ISIS continues, even outside of the Middle East. , according to U.S. Africa Command. On Friday, May 31, the American military killed three ISIS members operating in inland Somalia.
U.S. Africa Command announced the strike on Saturday, June 1. The three militants were killed near the town of Dhaardaar. No civilians were killed or injured in the airstrike, AFRICOM said.
No other details into the operation were shared by AFRICOM. It’s unclear if the three killed were the only ones targeted, or if a larger group was involved. Dhaardaar, approximately 81 kilometers southeast of the coastal city of Bosaso, is a more remote and desert location in Somalia.
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“ISIS has conducted numerous attacks globally, including terrorist attacks in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, all while continuing to plot against U.S. homeland and personnel and interests around the world, as well as regional partners, and others globally,” U.S. Africom said in its statement. “U.S. Africa Command, alongside its partners, continues to take action to prevent this terrorist group from planning and conducting attacks, which disproportionately harms civilians.”
Even though ISIS was driven out of its strongholds in Iraq and Syria years ago, it remains active, well outside of the Middle East. The group’s affiliate in Afghanistan has been one of the more prominent branches, carrying out attacks on U.S. forces and Afghans, but ISIS has associates in the African continent. American military operations in Somalia predominantly target al-Shabaab, the militant group loyal to al-Qaeda that once controlled much of the country. However, ISIS has maintained a presence in the country. Last year the U.S. carried out a special operations mission that killed Bilal al-Sudani, one of the terror group’s leaders in the Horn of Africa.
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A Soldier assigned to the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School stands in formation during a Regimental First Formation at Fort Bragg, North Carolina January 28, 2021. (U.S. Army photo).The U.S. Army is apologizing after a livestream of the change of command ceremony for the 1st Special Warfare Training Group (Airborne) was interrupted by “highly inappropriate content.” Now Army investigators are looking into how the incident happened.
The change of command ceremony took place on Thursday, May 30 at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Liberty. The event was also livestreamed via Zoom for those who could not attend, and the 1st Special Warfare Training Group shared the link to it on its Facebook page for those who could not attend in person. According to visuals and information shared to social media and the U.S. Army subreddit, during the ceremony the feed cut to one adult man masturbating on camera, for all viewers to see.
Later on May 30, Special Operations Command sent an email to soldiers and civilians at the Special Warfare Center and School, acknowledging the incident and apologizing for it, saying it does not condone the behavior.
“The action is not reflective of our Army Values, and we take the professionalism of our people and our mission very seriously,” the email said in part. “We offer our sincere apologies to anyone who observed the highly inappropriate content, and any impact to viewers of the ceremony.”
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The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division’s Cyber Crimes Unit is now investigating the incident, Special Operations Command told Task & Purpose.
“The U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School is aware of an incident that occurred during the live stream of 1st Special Warfare Training Group’s Change of Command ceremony on May 30,” a SOCOM spokesperson said in a statement to Task & Purpose. “We take this matter seriously and are reviewing our procedures to mitigate future situations.”
1st Special Warfare Training Group is one of the units based out of the Special Warfare Center and School. It’s focused on the initial training and education process for soldiers aiming to enter special operations, including psychological operations and the Special Forces (AKA Green Berets).
The Army said that anyone impacted by the incident should reach out to their unit’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention or SHARP representative.
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Marc Buddensiek holding the coveted GoRuck Selection patch that only few have earned. (GoRuck photo/Nick Schrein).Almost 80 years ago, American soldiers and their allies landed on beaches along the Normandy coast with one mission in mind: save the world. Eight decades later, candidates taking on the GoRuck Selection endurance event paid homage to those who battled their way up the beach.
“We wanted to be here at a deeply personal level, and so we wanted to share in why we wanted to be here,” said GoRuck CEO and founder Jason McCarthy, a former U.S. Special Forces soldier. “This is a very fitting way and a fitting part to do that. So we have Selection, plus a bunch of other events here. Ultimately, GoRuck is an extension of what and who we love and what we stand for.”
The grueling 48-hour selection concluded Wednesday after all but one candidate made it to the end of the GoRuck challenge. With 17 hours remaining, the final two contestants included one American, Adam Howthe, and one German, Marc Buddensiek. Buddensiek finished as the last man standing.
“I mean, I think God has a sense of humor,” McCarthy laughed. “You’ve got six Army Special Forces dudes putting on the toughest endurance event in the world right here in Normandy, France, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day. [You look at the history] of what happened here, and Marc had nothing to do with that. That’s kind of the thing: he wasn’t there. I think the best thing we can do is learn from the past and lead with our hearts.”
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Buddensiek had attempted a GoRuck Selection held in Ohio last year and ended up contracting COVID-19, hampering his attempt. He returned this year to prove that he could do it. Normandy is a lot closer to Germany than a trip to the U.S., and it wasn’t until Buddensiek was grinding on that sacred beach that the history of the place struck him.
“It truly changed our Selection, everything about that. Before, I knew these beaches were where the Americans started the invasion to defeat the Nazis. Through Selection, I gained a deeper understanding of everything,” Buddensiek said. “[…] Throughout Selection, I asked myself, ‘Well, am I going to die here?’ No. Then I said to myself, ‘Okay, shut the fuck up, just do the work, and remember the ones who really died here. They had no chance but did the impossible.”
GoRuck Selection in Normandy, France, started with 21 of the approximately 40 who signed up. (GoRuck photo/Nick Schrein)Each contestant was pitted against themselves and the standard that GoRuck is well known for. McCarthy said Selection is the only event in the GoRuck catalog that isn’t a team-building exercise.
Out of the 40 people who signed up, only 21 “toed the line.” They did everything from forced ruck marches to dragging 60-pound sandbags from a crawling position. It’s constant physical and mental challenges for 48 hours straight. The standard candidates are held to is tough, and a series of slashes are given for not meeting standards before a person is cut for performance.
“The standard is winning. The standard is unforgiving and ruthless. If you can’t achieve that, then this event’s not for you,” McCarthy said. “So, it speaks to a very small minority, and it certainly harkens back to, you know, some of the most brutal phases of our training that any of us have been through.”
GoRuck Selection takes candidates through 48 hours of grueling physical exercises in the salty ocean water and sandy beaches. (GoRuck photo/Nick Schrein)It’s hard to differentiate between GoRuck Selection and any of the assessment and selection courses found in the U.S. Military. That’s because all the cadre running GoRuck Selection are special operations veterans and have all, in some way, trained recruits for their prestigious units. McCarthy said Buddensiek’s perspective on the history was intriguing.
“I think there’s the magnitude of looking at how he described it: look at how defended this was, and the Americans kept coming anyway,” McCarthy said. “It’s historic, but you learn something from embracing your own history even when it’s bad.”
Hawthe, the American, was the last candidate dropped due to medical reasons. McCarthy said he was leading the pack almost the entire time. Hawthe was driven by his mission to honor his grandfather, who fought in Normandy during World War II.
Adam Howthe during the final hours leading up to his medical drop from Selection. (GoRuck photo/Nick Schrein)But why Normandy during the anniversary of D-Day?
“To me — it sounds crazy — Normandy is the most American place on planet Earth. When you come to that American Cemetery above Omaha Beach, you see what happened there. I mean, it’s too much to comprehend,” McCarthy said.
“You think about the service, the selfless sacrifice, the waves of Americans who just kept coming anyway, and you think about what that meant. It changed the whole history of the world because our ancestors were willing to do that. It was us at our best.”
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A florida sheriff fired the deputy that shot and killed Air Force special operations aircrew member senior airman Roger Fortson.Photo courtesy Fortson family.The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed Senior Airman Roger Fortson at his apartment on May 3 has been fired, the sheriff’s office announced on Friday. Deputy Eddie Duran was fired after an administrative investigation found his use of deadly force was “not objectionably reasonable,” a news release from the sheriff’s office says.
“The objective facts of the administrative investigation concluded that Mr. Fortson did not make any hostile, attacking movements, and therefore, the former deputy’s use of deadly force was not objectively reasonable under OSCO’s [Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office] policy,” the news release says.
The sheriff’s office also continues to dispute allegations from Fortson’s family and their attorney that Duran went to the wrong apartment in response to a call about a physical disturbance at the apartment complex, according to the news release.
Duran’s body camera recorded what happened when the sheriff’s deputy knocked Fortson’s apartment door.
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When Fortson opened the door, he was holding a pistol at his side. Duran quickly fired at Fortson at least five times. After Fortson fell to the floor, Duran repeatedly yelled, “Drop the gun!”
The entire incident, from the moment Fortson begins to open his door to Duran firing and Fortson falling to the floor,took about five seconds.
The internal investigation that led to Duran’s dismissal was separate from an ongoing criminal investigation being carried out by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
The sheriff’s office posted on Friday that its policy only allows deputies to use deadly force under a specific set of conditions: “When the officer reasonably believes that the action is in defense of human life, including the officer’s own life, or in defense of any person in imminent danger of serious physical injury.”
The policy also defines “deadly force resistance” as when a person carries out attacking movements – both with and without a weapon – that persuade a law enforcement officer that this person intends to kill or cause great bodily harm to the officer or other people.
On Friday, the sheriff’s office announced that its internal affairs investigation had concluded that when Fortson opened the door to his apartment, he was holding a handgun that was pointed at the ground to an extent that Duran could see the rear face of the rear sight.
“The former deputy confirmed Mr. Fortson did not physically resist him in any way, and the investigation concluded that Mr. Fortson did not point the gun in the former deputy’s direction,” according to the sheriff’s office.
Fortson, 23, was a Special Missions Aviator with the 4th Special Operations Squadron assigned to the squadron’s AC-130J gunships at Hurlburt Field, Florida.
Hundreds of airmen attended his funeral and several Air Force bases around the country have held memorial events in recent weeks.
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Screenshot of a video showing an Israeli soldier leading an American soldier in a Jewish prayer. Though filmed on the Gaza pier, U.S. official say troops assigned to the relief mission are holding to U.S. promises. Video from @colliveofficial on Instagram.Capping a tumultuous week around the war in Gaza, President Biden proposed a new ceasefire Friday between Israel and Hamas while U.S. officials confirmed that the U.S. Army-built cargo pier on the Gaza beach will need another week of repairs after breaking apart in bad weather.
And as stories circulated of U.S. soldiers drifting onto beaches as the pier broke up, a video of a Jewish American soldier praying with an Israeli soldier illustrated the fine line that U.S. troops deployed to the area literally have to walk each day.
Ceasefire talksOn Friday, President Biden announced a ceasefire proposal with three stages, each lasting about 42 days. The proposal was accepted by Israel and is being reviewed by Hamas, a senior U.S. official told reporters in a briefing following Biden’s remarks.
The first phase would last for six weeks with a “full and complete” ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas of Gaza, the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and the return of hostage remains. Palestinian civilians would also be able to return to their homes and there would be a “surge” of humanitarian aid to 600 trucks into the Gaza strip each day.
“I’ll be straight with you – there are a number of details to negotiate to move from phase one to phase two,” Biden said. “But the proposal says if the negotiations take longer than six weeks from phase one, the ceasefire will still continue as long as negotiations continue.”
Phase two would include the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers; Israeli forces withdrawing from Gaza; and “a cessation of hostilities permanently.”
Phase three would include a major reconstruction plan for Gaza and the return of any final remains of dead hostages.
“I think the reason the Israelis are able to make this offer is because of some of the success they’ve had in degrading Hamas military capacity. I don’t think this offer would have been possible three months ago,” the U.S. official said.
U.S. pier out of serviceThe announcement comes days after the U.S.-directed Gaza pier project – a signal of U.S. support to the Palestinian civilians affected by the gruesome conflict – hit a roadblock. Pentagon officials announced Tuesday that the Joint Logistics Over The Shore system – consisting of the trident pier and Army vessels broke apart during unexpected weather and heavy sea states. As a result, aid deliveries have been suspended while the U.S. military works to unbeach vessels that floated away and repair broken pieces of the JLOTS system.
According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, nearly 8,800 metric tons of humanitarian assistance is positioned in Cyprus, awaiting shipment to Gaza as the pier is repaired. The first shipments of U.S. aid arrived in Gaza through JLOTS pier May 17. Pentagon officials said JLOTS repairs will take over a week.
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The stated intention of the pier, according to U.S. officials, is intended to increase aid deliveries to Gaza. But some experts have criticized the use of the American military to fix a problem that requires more carrots than sticks.
Brian Finucane, a senior adviser for the Crisis Group, and former State Department official specializing in legal and policy issues for U.S. military operations said he views the pier’s purpose for “domestic political consumption” rather than foreign policy objectives.
“The administration wanted to try to square the circle by showing that it was doing something to address the terrible humanitarian situation in Gaza but without actually involving U.S. troops in another war,” Finucane said.
On the ground, walking a fine lineAlso this week, a video circulating on social media shows the fine line U.S. troops are walking to complete their military mission on the pier while keeping the promises made by American diplomats of no U.S. ‘boots on the ground’ in Gaza.
The video circulating on social media shows an Israeli soldier directing an American soldier in a Jewish prayer aboard the makeshift pier on a Gaza beach earlier this month to deliver humanitarian relief to the territory. The Pentagon confirmed that the soldier shown in the video was aboard the U.S. military’s trident pier which was installed on the beach of Gaza until it broke apart earlier this week.
The video’s caption says, “A Chabad soldier met a Jewish American soldier in Gaza (working with the floating pier), so naturally he put tefillim on him.”
The video shows the two soldiers cheerfully praying with tefillin, a religious ritual involving black leather boxes containing parchment scrolls with Torah inscriptions and leather straps coiled around the arm. The boxes are worn on the bicep and head to symbolize the connection of the religious text to the heart and head.
But while the soldier is standing on a section of ramp that appears firmly seated on the beach — in other words, on Gaza soil — U.S. told Task & Purpose that the soldier was not in violation of any promise to keep U.S. troops out of Gaza.
“Our Soldiers are permitted to operate on the pier—they are functionally operating U.S. equipment (i.e.-the pier itself). This is not considered ‘boots on the ground’ in Gaza,” Col. Christian Devine, spokesperson for the Pentagon told Task & Purpose.
U.S. officials have vehemently backed the notion that U.S. troops would not be involved in distributing aid on the ground to Gazans but instead the “logistics, setting up, coordinating” of aid to the region.
Finucane said that the mere presence of U.S. soldiers anywhere near active combat opens up an array of legal issues.
“Whether the soldiers boots are touching the actual sand, touching the metal pier between the boots and the sand or 10 feet offshore, this doesn’t really matter all that much for the actual legal issues involved in introducing U.S. troops and what is still a war zone,” Finucane said.
American troops in the Army vessels or on the trident pier could still be at risk “even if U.S. troops aren’t the target,” Finucane said. He also noted that since U.S. armed forces have been “introduced into hostilities” the War Powers resolution could be “triggered,” meaning President Biden would need authorization from Congress to keep troops there or withdraw them after 60 days.
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Retired Adm. Robert Burke, who served as the vice chief of naval operations, faces federal bribery charges over a $500,00-per-year post-retirement job. US Navy photo.A former Admiral who was once the Navy’s No. 2-ranking sailor and served as one of NATO’s most senior commanders was arrested Friday on federal bribery charges. According to a federal indictment, retired four-star Admiral Robert Burke, 62, took a job just months after retiring that paid him $500,000 a year plus significant stock options with a company that he had steered single-source training contracts to as a senior Navy admiral.
Burke, prosecutors say, met with officials of a company seeking a training contract with the Navy and agreed to steer a “triple digit million”-dollar deal towards them. That contract never arrived, prosecutors say, but Burke gave “false and misleading” statements to Navy officials who looked into the deal about his relationship with the company and on the post-retirement job he eventually took with the company.
Burke is one of the most senior military leaders in recent history to face criminal charges stemming from their military positions. As a four-star admiral, Burke was the 40th vice chief of naval operations — the service’s second-highest ranking officer — from June 2019 until June 2020. He finished his career as the commander of Allied Joint Force Command in Naples, Italy, a position second only to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe. He concurrently served as the commander of U.S. Naval Forces in Europe and Africa, overseeing waters bordering the coasts of Europe and Africa, including the Baltic, Mediterranean and Black Seas.
According to federal prosecutors, Burke conspired with two business executives, Yongchul “Charlie” Kim and Meghan Messenger who were co-CEOs of an unnamed company that provided a workforce training pilot program. The company had a minor training contract with the Navy from August 2018 through July 2019 which the Navy canceled in late 2019. As part of military contracting rules, the Navy directed the two executives not to contact Burke.
But Kim and Messenger allegedly met with Burke in Washington, D.C., in July 2021 in an effort to find more business with the Navy.
At the meeting, prosecutors say, the three “allegedly agreed that Burke would use his position as a Navy Admiral to steer a sole-source contract” to the pair’s company “in exchange for future employment at the company.”
Burke, prosecutors say, also agreed to influence “other Navy officers” to award a much larger training contract to the firm that would be worth “triple digit millions.”
In December 2021, while Burke was one of the highest-ranking combat commanders in NATO, allegedly ordered his staff to award the company a $355,000 contract to train personnel under Burke’s command in Italy and Spain, which the company carried out in early 2022.
But any big prize the company was seeking — a nine-digit contract or other major work with the Navy — never materialized for the firm. Meanwhile Burke, say prosecutors, “made several false and misleading statements to the Navy” including a claim that he had not discussed a post-retirement job with the company until months after the small contract was awarded.
Burke retired in the summer of 2022. By October, he had taken a position at the company with a starting salary of $500,000 and a grant of 100,000 stock options.
Burke, Kim, and Messenger are each charged with conspiracy to commit bribery. Burke is also charged with performing acts affecting a personal financial interest and concealing material facts from the United States. If convicted, Burke faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, and Kim and Messenger each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Submarine commander to Pentagon leader A native of Portage, Michigan, according to a Navy bio, Burke studied electrical engineering at Western Michigan University and the University of Central Florida. He commanded USS Hampton (SSN 767) in Norfolk, Virginia, and was commodore of Submarine Development Squadron (DEVRON) 12 in Groton, Connecticut.
His staff assignments include tours as an instructor and director for the Electrical Engineering Division at Naval Nuclear Power School, junior board member on the Pacific Fleet Nuclear Propulsion Examining Board, submarine officer community manager/nuclear officer program manager; and director, Joint and Fleet Operations, U.S. Fleet Forces Command.
Besides his career-capping roles as vice CNO and with NATO, Burke’s senior commands included deputy commander, U.S. 6th Fleet; director of operations, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa; commander, Submarine Group 8 and as the Navy’s 58th chief of naval personnel.
His awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit (five awards) and various campaign and unit awards. Naval Submarine League recognized Burke with the Jack Darby Award for Leadership in 2004. Burke also received the Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale Award for Inspirational Leadership in 2005. He has been an Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia since 2020.
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Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Marcin Platek.About 100 U.S. Marines will come ashore at Normandy, France next month as a tribute to the Allied troops who landed there 80 years ago in one of the most decisive battles of World War II.
The United States and other Western Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944 to begin the liberation of Europe from the Nazis. German resistance was especially fierce at Omaha Beach, where U.S. troops suffered 3,600 casualties, including 770 killed. But the Allies were able to establish a toehold on the continent from which they would eventually break out and reach Germany itself.
The landings are among the most revered operations in U.S. military history. In commemoration of their 80th anniversary, U.S. Marines and French troops will land on Omaha next week after the French government extended an invitation for the Marines to help commemorate the invasion. The U.S. Army, whose troops made up the bulk of U.S. forces at Normandy in 1944, is sending paratroopers to France to participate in other ceremonies, including a parachute drop.
The Marines and French troops will conduct the amphibious landings at Omaha and Utah beaches on June 4 and Sword Beach on June 5, said Lt. Col. Antony Andrious, a spokesman for U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Europe and Africa.
On June 6, the French Armed Forces will provide a static display near Omaha Beach that includes an unmanned aerial vehicle, 6 rotary wing aircraft, a landing craft, and a ground platoon of French troops, Andrious said.
The Marines and sailors landing at Normandy will come from the dock landing ship USS Oak Hill, on which the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit is currently embarked, said Capt. Clayton Doss, a spokesman for U.S. Naval Forces Europe – Africa. They will come ashore on Landing Craft, Utility boats.
More than 300 sailors from the cruiser USS Normandy are also participating in ceremonies to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, Doss told Task & Purpose.
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“U.S. Navy Sailors and Marines are looking forward to commemorating the 80th Anniversary of Operation Overlord (D-Day) alongside their French counterparts next week,” Doss said. “The Omaha Beach landing carries forward the D-Day legacy eighty years later and demonstrates that Allied and partner forces can deploy anytime, anywhere to promote peace and security.”
US soldiers wade toward shore on Omaha beach on D-Day, 1944. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)The roughly 100 French troops who will take part in the amphibious landings will come from the French amphibious assault ship Mistral, Doss said.
A total of 1,200 U.S. service members from units based in Europe and 15 historic-lineage units based in the continental United States are taking part in the ceremonies, said Terry Welch, a spokesman for U.S. Army Europe and Africa, or USAREUR-AF.
This year’s commemorations of the Normandy landings provide an excellent opportunity to showcase some of the U.S. units that are currently deployed to Europe to help defend every inch of NATO territory, said Col. Martin L. O’Donnell, a USAREUR-AF spokesman.
“The bond between the United States and Europe stands as a testament to the enduring strength of our Alliance,” Gen. Darryl A. Williams, commander of USAREUR-AF, said in a statement. “Eighty years since D-Day, our collective resolve remains unwavering, fortified by decades of steadfast defense. As we continue to march forward, transforming along the way, while at the same time enhancing our deterrence and defensive posture, let us stand united and firm in opposition to any threat that dares to jeopardize the hard-won peace and security here on the continent and beyond.”
Along with the beach landings, U.S. soldiers from the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions will pay tribute to the role paratroopers played on D-Day. As the massive invasion fleet crossed the English Channel in 1944, thousands of U.S. troops were dropped by parachute and gliders into France ahead of the landings to help pave the way for the massive amphibious assault.
“It was June 6, 1944, when our division came onto the world stage parachuting into Normandy clearing the way for the invasion of Western Europe and marking the beginning of the Allies assault on Nazi Germany,” said Lt. Col. Tony Hoefler, spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). “Now, 80 years later, the 101st has transformed into an air assault division and still helping to secure the peace in Europe.
On June 2, soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team — known as the Rakkasans — , 101st Airborne Division will conduct an air assault demonstration in Carentan, France, Hoefler told Task & Purpose. The unit is currently deployed to Eastern Europe.
“The air assault demonstration is meant to highlight the division’s ability to deliver one brigade combat team up to 500 nautical miles in one period of darkness at the place and time of the combatant commander’s choosing,” Hoefler said. “The demonstration will be viewed by spectators throughout the world who have converged on Normandy, France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Europe on D-Day.”
As part of this year’s closing ceremonies, about 130 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division will take part in a parachute drop to honor the Allied paratroopers who jumped into France ahead of the landings, said Lt. Col. César Santiago, a spokesman for the division.
“By June of 1944, France had been under Nazi occupation for four years,” Santiago told Task & Purpose. “Eighty years later, we commemorate the 23,000 Allied Paratroopers who pierced the Atlantic Wall on D-Day to assist the Allied assault forces on the Normandy beachheads. Our Paratrooping ancestors of the 82d Airborne Division set a remarkable standard of courage and conviction for our Paratroopers today.”
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North Korea floated hundreds of balloons that contained human waste and other garbage into South Korea. (Twitter screenshot).U.S. troops and their families assigned to South Korea received an air raid message warning earlier this week that may have sounded like the beginning of World War II.
But it was just number two.
The warning was to let them know that North Korea had sent hundreds of balloons carrying human waste and other foul things across the 38th Parallel.
The poop attack was an apparent act of retaliation against South Korean activists, who sent 20 balloons into the hermit kingdom earlier this month that carried anti-North Korean leaflets and USB sticks containing South Korean pop music and music videos.
As the North Korean fecal air assault unfolded, the South Korean government sent out an air raid warning about 11:34 p.m. on Tuesday. One user on the unofficial Air Force subredit posted that he received an ominous sounding alert that night.
“To whatever North Korean entity that floated their f—ing leaflets over down south 20 minutes ago and set off these alarms, F—G STOP. Do it during the daytime when I didn’t just get my 4-year-old to sleep. He has school in the morning and you’re fucking up the rotation. And don’t you try to do this when my next one is born or so help me god, we can fist fight outside the nearest McDonald’s.”
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The South Korean government’s warning, which was sent to U.S. troops’ mobile devices, did not require anyone to shelter in place or take cover, said Army Master Sgt. Thomas Duval, a spokesman for U.S. Forces Korea, or USFK.
“Individual unit commanders and their staff maintained situational awareness of the incident and oversaw reassuring their servicemembers there was no immediate danger,” Duval told Task & Purpose.
So far, none of the North Korean balloons have landed on U.S. military installations, Duval said. USFK consulted with its South Korean counterparts and the United Nations Command to determine the balloons did not pose an immediate danger to U.S. forces on the peninsula.
The Korean War ended in July 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty. Tensions between North and South Korea occasionally spike. About 28,500 U.S. troops are deployed to South Korea in support of the country’s Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States.
In addition to launching the barrage of balloons with human waste, North Korea has also conducted ballistic missile tests recently.
The Defense Department continues the situation on the Korean peninsula, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters on Thursday.
“We are certainly aware of the DPRK’s [North Korea’s] most recent ballistic missile launch, and we’re working as we always do with our partners like the Republic of Korea and Japan and others in the region,” Singh said at a Pentagon news conference. “We continue to condemn these actions. They are destabilizing. We’ve called on the DPRK to stop these actions that are unlawful.”
When asked how the U.S. military would respond if North Korea sent balloons with chemical and biological weapons over South Korea, Singh said she would not answer a hypothetical question.
The U.S. military has no plans to send balloons loaded with American poop into North Korea, she said.
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Marine Sgt. William H. Pollard, left, was 24 when he died, one of the 241 U.S. troops killed in the Oct. 23, 1983 bombing attack on Marines in Beirut, Lebanon, the single deadliest day for the Marine Corps since the battle of Iwo Jima. Friday, nearly 41 years later, Pollard’s grandson, Pvt. William Smith, will graduate from boot camp at Marine Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina. Photos courtesy William Smith, US Army photo.Marine Sgt. William H. Pollard, 24, was one of 220 Marines killed in the Oct. 23, 1983 bombing attack on a Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, the Marine Corps’ deadliest day since the battle of Iwo Jima. This week, nearly 41 years later, Pollard’s grandson, Pvt. William Smith, is set to graduate Friday from Marine Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina.
“Doing this, especially walking across that parade deck, it feels that I’m following in his footsteps and doing justice by my family name,” Smith, 17, told Task & Purpose this week
Though Smith never met Pollard, his grandfather’s legacy has always been an important part of his family’s life. He has grown up with other Beirut Marines as close family friends. Word that Smith had decided to enlist brought a recent Marine ball to a standing ovation, and two veterans who survived the attack came to Parris Island last week to put his Eagle, Globe, and Anchor in his hand.
At the ceremony, Smith thought about his grandmother, who died two years ago.
“My first thought was: She’d be so proud,” Smith said. “If she would have been able to make it here, she would have told me that my grandfather was proud of me.”
Marine Sgt. William H. Pollard was killed in the October 1983 Beirut bombing, still the deadliest day for the Marine Corps since Iwo Jima. Photo courtesy William Smith.On Friday, Smith will graduate from recruit training. When boot camp got tough, he said, thinking about his grandfather’s legacy helped carry him through. Smith initially wanted to become a Marine Security Guard — the hand-picked Marines who guard U.S. embassies around the world — but ultimately decided to join the infantry.
Smith said his mother was nervous about his decision to become an infantry Marine, given the current instability in the Middle East and the rest of the world. But he felt it is more important than ever for him to stand up for his family and what they believe in.
“People should pay more attention to history,” Smith said, “Because the way the world was then is similar to how it is now, and if people don’t pay attention, something like that could happen again.”
Finding a purpose in the MarinesSmith said his family often attended an annual memorial service for the U.S. troops killed in Beirut, meeting Marines who survived the bombing. Hearing their stories set his path towards enlisting
“It definitely played a role in me joining the Marine Corps – seeing them all come together for those couple of days that they were in town for the memorial service, and just seeing how even years after retiring, all of those Marines are still close together and still have that bond,” Smith said. “It’s just something I wanted to be a part of.”
Before he enlisted, Smith consulted one veteran who had served with the Marines in Beirut and now owns a boxing gym. Smith asked the man if he had made the right decision to join the Marine Corps.
“He told me yes,” Smith said. “He said it helped him get his life together and figure out how to go about opening the gym and accomplishing his dreams and any other goals he had in his personal life. And I thought: That sounded like something I wanted. Because I wanted a sense of purpose of direction, and he said that’s what it gave him. So, I decided: That’s what it’s going to be for me.”
Now, Smith, said he hopes to eventually join 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, just like his grandfather.
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“It would be important to me because it would mean that all those Marines who served and all those who died like my grandfather, it would make me feel like I’m doing justice to them and continuing on their legacy,” Smith said.
In fact, the commander of 1/8 Marines announced at its Marine Corps Birthday Ball last year that Smith intended to enlist, he received a standing ovation from those in attendance, including Beirut veterans and other Gold Star families.
Pvt. William Smith, Pollard’s grandson, is set to graduate from Marine Corps recruit training on May 31. Photo courtesy USMC.“All the Marines around me applauded me and it just felt really good to know that there was a chance I was going to make it there with them one day,” Smith said.
Stacey Pollard was only 4 years old when she lost her father – Smith’s grandfather – in the Beirut bombing. Although she does not have many memories of him, she knows that he always wanted to be a Marine.
“He was told by his parents that he would never make it and he was worthless,” she told Task & Purpose. “And, all he wanted to do was make the Marine Corps proud and be a Marine forever.”
Pollard said she was proud when her son told her that he wanted to join the Marines as well, but she was also scared.Ultimately, Pollard believes in the teaching of her Catholic faith that “what’s going to be is going to be no matter what you do,” she said.
“I’m very proud of him and I wish him all the success in the world, and I know he’ll make a great Marine,” Pollard said.
‘Wear it well’John Weant and Dan Kovach never met WilliamPollard when all three were 1/8 Marines in Beirut. For both of them, the peacekeeping mission was full of combat
Yet much of what the Marines went through in Lebanon has been forgotten, said Weant. He recalled sitting in the officer’s club at Parris Island recently and hearing a colonel claim that Marines in Beirut didn’t have live rounds in their weapons at the time.
“I looked and I said: With all due respect, sir, that’s bulls—t,” Weant said.
Smoke billows from the explosion that collapsed the barracks housing mostly Marines in Beirut, Oct. 23, 1983. (U.S. Marine Corps photo)Weant’s company was involved in a lot of fighting. On Aug. 29, 1983, he and eight other Marines were wounded by mortar and rocket fire. His platoon sergeant and platoon commander were both killed.
“I was the only alive that was medevaced that day,” Weant said. “I was medevaced out with two caskets with those two bodies.”
Despite the constant combat during the mission, Weant believes the heroism that Marines showed in Lebanon has been overlooked.
“Lebanon was an opportunity for a lot of Marines to show immense valor, which they did, and they were not recognized,” Weant said. “It was a bad situation for Marines to be in, but we were peacekeepers. That was our mission. Until they started attacking us, we weren’t allowed to go on the offensive. However, when we got attacked, we hit back. And I want people to know that.”
Roughly a week before the bombing, Kovach’s unit was in a firefight in which a captain was killed. The fighting was so intense that it took three days to recover the fallen Marine.
On Oct. 23, 1983, Kovach was stationed at the bombed out remnants of the American University in Beirut, which was about a mile away from the ad hoc headquarters for the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines. Just before 6:30 a.m. that morning, a suicide bomber drove a truck with 12,000 pounds of explosives onto headquarters building and detonated.. FBI investigators would later describe the bomb as the largest non-nuclear blast they had ever seen.
As word spread that the battalion headquarters had been attacked, Kovach went over to talk to a fellow Marine whose brother was in the headquarters building.
“I saw him sitting in the dark in the top of the steps, so I climbed the steps and went up there,” Kovach said. “I sat down next to him. He just turned to be, and he looked, and he said, ‘Danny,’ he said, ‘My brother’s dead.’ And I said: How do you know that? And he said, ‘I just know.”
The Marine would eventually learn he was correct.
When Kovach and other Marines went to the site of the bombing on Nov. 8, 1983, the stench was overpowering.
“It was just these piles of rubble, and of course you knew that it was just full of human flesh,” Kovach recalled. “It was so vile, you couldn’t breathe.”
The eventual death toll was 220 Marines, 18 sailors, and three soldiers.
As the years passed, Beirut veterans have remained a tight knit group, with regular reunions. Smith’s family would frequently attend, Kovach told Task & Purpose. In the early years, it was Pollard’s wife, who would bring the fallen Marine’s young children. She would often ask questions about what the Marines in Beirut had gone through.
Kovach explained that Marines go to war to defend the United States and the Constitution, but during combat they are focused on helping the Marine in the foxhole next to them, and that commitment extends to their families.
Decades later, the once-small Gold Star children came to the reunions with their own kids, including Smith.
“We’ve watched him grow up,” Weant said. “He’s been around all the Beirut veterans all of his life. He’s been around all these Marines that served with his grandfather. And he’s a very respectful young man. He’s always been a really good kid who’s always been good to his mom, good to his grandmother. And, it was just a huge sense of pride for me to realize that this kid was going to be a Marine.”
At Smith’s going away party, Weant told him to be himself, surround himself with good people, and stay away from “s—tbirds,” cautioning that those people would drag him down.
On May 17, both Kovach and Weant were given the opportunity to give Smith his Eagle, Globe, and Anchor after Smith finished The Crucible – the grueling 54-hour capstone training event of boot camp.
For Weant, being able to watch Smith grow from a kid to a Marine was something he could not pass up. He also knew that Smith’s grandfather would have wanted him to be there.
When Smith saw Kovach and Weant on the parade deck, “The biggest smile in the world came over his face.” Kovach recalled.
“When it started to become his turn, we walked down there, and they handed us his Eagle, Globe, and Anchor, and we put it in his hand, and gave him a hug and told him that we loved him and that he did a good job,” Kovach said. “And then when that was done, I just grabbed him and I said: Wear it well.”
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(U.S. Army photos/Task & Purpose composite image).The Desert Warrior Week 2024 combatives championship came to a close on May 23 and one of the competitors is blowing up on social media. Staff Sgt. Diane Kancauski ate a hard slap to the face like it was breakfast and returned the favor via a double-leg takedown during the final round of the championship.
“So the first smack was the one that kind of dazed me,” Kancauski said. “So after he did that, I looked at him and I took the line from the movie ‘White Chicks’ and said ‘My turn.’ We both kind of laughed and that’s when we both relaxed.”
She placed second in the Desert Warrior Week combatives championship and is gunning for a first-place podium finish next year. Though the video of that smack followed by her takedown has circulated on social media, there’s another video of her choking out a male soldier from a standing position, literally lifting him off his feet.
“To be fair, I actually had no idea I was picking up the guy,” Kancauski said. “I was like, ‘Man, this guy’s really flexible.’ Everyone said I was carrying him around and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry.”
Kancauski didn’t grow up fighting, instead playing soccer and softball. So where did she find the grit to take a hit that has you on the verge of passing out?
“You can’t teach that,” said Staff Sgt. Luke Duran, one of Kancauski’s trainers. “Somebody either has it or they don’t […] She’s all heart and a fast learner.”
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Kancauski’s heart and drive come from a deeply personal place she hasn’t been comfortable discussing. She had endured an extremely abusive relationship and when she broke free, she found her way into a fight gym — it’s all history from there.
“I felt so powerless. I felt — just, I don’t know — what he did to me, I did not want that to happen again and I didn’t want it to happen to others as well because I’ve seen it happen on multiple occasions,” Kancauski said. “That’s why I want to be able to protect people and defend them and myself as well. So from there, just kind of started rolling in. I was like, ‘Hey, I actually kind of like this.’”
She fell in love with grappling and rolling on the mats. She was stationed at Fort Stewart and was starting to improve when a non-commissioned officer she was training combatives with at the time ripped her arm out of the socket during a psychiatric breakdown. While awaiting her shoulder surgery, her friend got into a car accident with Kancauski in the car, further damaging her shoulder.
Kancauski has experienced a lot in her 10 years of service. She’s overcome a serious shoulder injury, survived a rollover accident, reckoned with endless cat-fishing attempts that use her likeness, modeled for a military-centric brand, and lost a dear friend to suicide who endured an abusive relationship similar to Kancauski’s.
After about three years of recovery, Kancauski was eager to get back in the gym and has been training hard since last year. There are both male and female classes at her jiu-jitsu gym and she almost always goes to the men’s program.
So, when she was paired up with a man for the finals in her latest combatives competition, she went in fearless despite not having a lot of strike training and her competitor being a trained boxer. She was nervous but driven by a mission to show other females they could compete in the largely male-dominated sport.
“I just wanted to show them, ‘Hey, we can do it, too. We can fight. I just want to inspire other women,” Kancauski said. “Sure enough, after this competition, I actually had quite a few women come up to me and they’re like, ‘I want to do what you do’ and I was like, ‘Oh, you want to beat men up, too? I did not know that I had such an influence.”
For anyone who wants to start training at a fight gym, Kancauski recommends checking to see if your base has a martial arts program, and if they don’t, check the local area for civilian gyms.
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Registration with Selective Service is already mandatory but American men between 18 and 25 could be automatically signed up for the draft under a measure making its way through Congress. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Eric Burks.American men ages 18 to 25 would be automatically signed up for the draft if a measure making its way through Congress becomes law.
The proposal by Rep. Chrissy Houlahan would mean that men would be automatically registered for the draft when they turn 18. Under current federal law, all American male citizens and green card holders 18 to 25 years old must register with the Selective Service, but the requirement to do so falls on individuals. Those roles would be the basis of a military draft if Congress or the President decided to implement one, which Houlahan’s proposed measure does not address.
Women would continue to be exempt from Selective Service registration under the proposal submitted as an amendment to the national defense policy bill for fiscal year 2025.
During debate on her amendment last week, Houlahan argued that the measure would allow Congress to spend more money on “readiness and towards mobilization” instead of “education and advertising campaigns driven to register people.”
According to the Selective Service’s annual report to Congress for 2022, the national registration rate that year for qualified men was 84%.
The Selective Service says it will spend $33 million this year on programs “to improve registration compliance rates” — money that might not have to be spent if registration was automatic.
“We really sort of saw this as a chance to both save government resources, save taxpayer dollars and to help young men avoid the special challenges later in life that can come from not having registered,” a congressional aide for Houlahan told Task & Purpose.
A majority of U.S. states, the four territories, and Washington D.C. automatically register eligible people for Selective Service when obtaining a driver’s license, driver’s permit, or other Department of Motor Vehicle identification.
Men who knowingly fail to register can become ineligible for federal student aid or jobs at federal agencies, and have trouble obtaining security clearances. They can also face five years in prison or thousands of dollars in fines, according to a 2019 Congressional Research Service report.
Houlahan’s amendment also comes after a decline in registrations due to the FAFSA Simplification Act, which removed the option for Selective Service registration on student applications for federal tuition assistance. According to the agency, FAFSA applications historically accounted for 20% of annual registrations, officials said in the 2022 report to Congress.
The Selective Service System, the federal agency in charge of registrations maintains a database of more than 92 million registrant records. The measure would allow the agency to tap into other federal databases to enroll eligible Americans, the congressional aide said.
“This is not a collection of new information. This is just an example of using the information that federal agencies already have more efficiently,” the aide said. “The underlying law of who has to register remains the same.”
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Kate Kuzminski, deputy director of the Washington D.C. think tank, Center for New American Security’s program on Military, Veterans & Society said the measure could be simply bureaucratic as a way to make sure that the agency has up-to-date information.
“Another challenge is that the Selective Service relies on physical addresses,” Kuzminski said. “How many kids between the ages of 18 and 26 change addresses multiple times and perhaps never think to update that with selective service?”
The draftThe measure comes amid a resurgence of mandatory military service being considered and reinstated by other European nations as the war in Ukraine drags on and NATO assesses threats posed by Russia. Latvia, which borders Russia, reinstated the draft this year and Denmark plans to broaden the draft to include women, and extend the length of service. Last week, the UK’s governing Conservative Party vowed to mandate all 18-year-olds in Britain do a year of mandatory military or civilian national service if the party wins its July 4 national election.
But not all are in agreement. Hungary’s foreign minister called the “crazy proposals” to reinstate the draft across Europe “unacceptable.”
Kuzminski said policy conversations about military drafts haven’t been this widespread since World War II but that “in the face of a truly existential threat” like Ukraine with Russia or Taiwan with China, more countries are thinking about it.
“But we are not having that conversation in the United States because there’s no constituency in Congress. Who’s gonna argue pro-draft, right? This is a break glass in case of emergency situation,” she said. “No one wants to be pro-draft.”
Even though someone is registered for the Selective Service, it does not automatically mean they will be inducted into the military should a draft be implemented. In the event that Congress and the President call upon the agency to use its registry for a draft, men would be called “in a sequence determined by random lottery number and year of birth.” They would then undergo mental and physical fitness tests before being deferred, exempted from military service or inducted into the U.S. armed forces, according to the Selective Service website.
Houlahan’s proposal also comes as certain military branches like the Army face challenges recruiting new troops due to image problems with Gen Z and Americans waning trust in public institutions.
Houlahan’s amendment to the national defense policy bill was approved by the House Armed Services committee last week but it still must pass the full House and Senate before it may become law.
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The Coast Guard Cutter Munro crew intercepted drug smugglers carrying close to half a billion dollars worth of cocaine off the coasts of Mexico and Central and South America earlier this year.(U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Matthew West/Released).The Coast Guard Cutter Munro intercepted drug smugglers carrying close to half a billion dollars worth of cocaine off the coasts of Mexico and Central and South America earlier this year.
The Munro arrived in San Diego last week with nearly 33,768 pounds of cocaine seized from eight smuggling vessels in February and March. The cocaine would be valued at $468 million, according to the Coast Guard.
The Munro’s deployment was the final patrol for its commanding officer, Capt. Rula Deisher who took command of the Cutter Munro in May 2022. She credited the ship’s crew with the major haul.
“Their dedication and grit goes to show that Munro is one of the best national security cutters in the fleet, and we are committed to keeping the country safe by stopping illegal drugs before they hit the street. There isn’t a better crew to serve with and I’m honored to have spent my final patrol with them.”
The Munro is homeported in Alameda, Calif. It is the sixth Legend Class National Security Cutter equipped with “automated weapons systems capable of stopping rogue vessels far from shore” made up of command control equipment and advanced sensors. The ship is commonly deployed throughout the Pacific Rim, including Asian ports calls, work in the dangerous fishing grounds off Alaska and drug interdiction off Mexico and Central America.
The seizure was the second time the Coast Guard has brought nearly a half-billion dollars in seized narcotics to shore in less than a year. In October, an operation led by the Coast Guard Cutter James seized $448 million worth of cocaine and marijuana from smugglers in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
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Coast Guard responsibilities include maritime law enforcement which regularly involves interrupting drug smuggling operations from South America to the U.S. The guard operates through the Western Hemisphere transit zone, a six million square mile area of smuggling routes spanning the eastern Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. In fiscal year 2022, the Coast Guard interdicted more than 335,000 pounds of cocaine.
Counter-smuggling operations in the Eastern Pacific Ocean are conducted under the authority of the Eleventh Coast Guard District which is headquartered in Alameda, California. The district commander, Rear Adm. Andrew Sugimoto said the amount of drugs interdicted by the Munro Crew was exceptional.
“The effort put in while interdicting more than 33,000 lbs of cocaine in a few weeks’ time is unparalleled,” Sugimoto said. “We will continue our commitment to stopping these criminals and the vast amounts of drugs they attempt to bring into our country.”
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Army Pfc. Katia Duenas-Aguilar was found dead in her off-post home on May 18. She was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. (Photo courtesy LULAC).The family of a 101st Airborne Division soldier found dead in her home a week ago is offering a $55,000 reward for information that leads to her killer. Pfc. Katia Duenas-Aguilar’s mother, Carmen Aguilar, has committed $30,000 to the reward with a national Latino non-profit adding $25,000, according to a press release from the organization.
Duenas-Aguilar was 23 when she was found dead in her Clarksville, TN home on May 17. Police came to the home for a welfare check. Aguilar was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, which abuts Clarksville. After enlisting in 2018, Duenas-Aguilar had been assigned to Fort Campbell since 2019.
Police have not released any information about her death except to confirm the case is being handled as a homicide. The Army has not released any information on the soldier’s death.
But in a press conference held with the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, in Dallas, Carmen Aguilar — speaking in Spanish — told reporters that she believes her daughter’s killer was a member of the military, and compared Duenas-Aguilar’s death to the murder of Vanessa Guillen by a fellow soldier at Ft. Cavazos in 2020.
“She’s not the first one. The problem is inside. It’s inside. Not outside. Everything is inside. They know and you know too,” said Carmen Aguilar.
LULAC played a prominent public role in highlighting the plight of Guillen’s family after her death, as details of her murder trickled out from the Army.
“This is a human being. This is a Latina. This is a young lady that signed on the dotted line to serve our country,” said Analuisa Carrillo-Tapia of the LULAC National Military and Veterans Committee. “We want to know what happened, who did it and we want the person or people who did it brought to justice.”
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FILE: An F-35B Lightning II flies during an airshow. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Warrant Officer Bobby J. Yarbrough/U.S. Marine Corps).The pilot of an F-35B safely ejected after the aircraft crashed in New Mexico on Tuesday, according to Lockheed Martin, the prime F-35 contractor.
Though the F-35 is flown by the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, the F-35B was a development test aircraft owned by Lockheed Martin, a defense official said.
“An F-35B enroute from Fort Worth, Texas, to Edwards Air Force Base, California, crashed after a refueling stop at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico,” Lockheed Martin said in a statement. “The pilot safely ejected. Safety is our priority, and we will follow appropriate investigation protocol.”
Lockheed builds the F-35 in Fort Worth.
A Government Accountability Office report released in April called the F-35 the Pentagon’s “most
ambitious and costly weapon system”. The three services currently fly about 630 F-35s, with plans to buy about 2,500 total by the mid-2040s, the GAO said. The F-35B is used only by the Marine Corps. The F-35A is used by the Air Force while both the Marines and the Navy fly the F-35C. The Pentagon plans to spend $2 trillion to buy and maintain the fleet before the last one’s scheduled retirement in 2088.
KOB-TV in Albuquerque reported that the pilot was conscious and breathing and taken to a hospital.
No information was immediately available about what may have caused the crash.
The F-35B is a Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing aircraft that is used by the Marine Corps.
This is a breaking news story. It will be updated as more information becomes available.
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Civil Affairs candidates at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School carry tires while participating in a team-building event during Civil Affairs Assessment and Selection (CAAS) at Camp Mackall, North Carolina, March 2, 2021. (K. Kassens/U.S. Army).The U.S. Army’s Civil Affairs soldiers are the definition of diplomatic warriors. They are highly skilled in tactical operations but can quickly transition into a suit and tie to talk to a host nation’s diplomats at a level most U.S. politicians struggle to achieve. To join the ranks, a soldier must pass the Civil Affairs Assessment and Selection course.
Located at Ft. Liberty, the assessment and selection course isn’t the longest of the different entrance training courses required for most special operations units, but it’s not for the faint of heart. That being said, you should know that soldiers must sign a non-disclosure agreement in order to attend the training — so some details of the course are closely guarded.
Don’t let the shorter assessment and selection timeframe trick you, though: it’s a grueling test for the most fit, but Civil Affairs isn’t just looking for athletic ability.
“Somebody who’s smart, like a higher IQ, is going to be very successful here. Somebody who can interact with strangers and different cultures — having that adaptability piece is very crucial, even at Civil Affairs Assessment and Selection event,” said Ed, whose last name is withheld due to the nature of his work as the officer in charge of Civil Affairs Assessment & Selection. “Then, being a good team player because we test them on the team application and see how they interact on the team, what their leadership personalities look like, what their fellowship personalities are, and things of that nature.”
A brief history of Civil Affairs Assessment and SelectionCivil Affairs traces its history back to Aug. 1945, when the 95th Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, Military Government Group, helped Japan transition away from a wartime society before the unit was inactivated in Kurume, Japan, in June 1946.
The Detachment was inactivated and activated during the different conflicts, serving critical roles during the Korean War and smaller conflicts around the world. At the time of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion had 206 soldiers assigned to regionally aligned companies. With the uptick of operations during the War on Terror, the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion was authorized more soldiers and redesignated as a brigade on March 16, 2007.
Civil Affairs Assessment and Selection was first established as a pilot under the 95th Brigade Headquarters in 2010. The first class to attend the course was in October of that year. During the pilot program phase, all people attending assessment and selection were approved for the following four phases of the Civil Affairs Qualification Course.
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Elvia Kelly, a John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School (SWCS) public affairs officer, said they do not know the exact attrition rate of the early classes, but 90 to 100 soldiers per class were passing the training back then.
The course was moved from the 95th Brigade headquarts to SWCS in late 2011 and became part of Echo Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Special Warfare Training Group. Several changes have been made to improve the overall program over the years.
“Events were refined to better draw out attributes; scenarios were tailored to create a more robust environment for candidates to navigate; and a number of events were removed and/or replaced to improve the assessment of candidates,” Kelly said. “Some changes were implemented to better collect data for the qualification course. Event staging and course schedule have been revised over time to support cadre work cycles and assessment environment, as well.”
How long is Civil Affairs Assessment and Selection?1st Lt. Ian Bridson attempted the assessment and selection course but did not get selected, though he made it to the end. He had trained hard and was well prepared for the course, but the 10 days showed him time is nothing but a sliding scale when you are being tested physically and mentally for multiple days in a row.
“We were all sitting around eating dinner and looked at each other and said there’s no way in hell we’ve been here for only 10 days. It feels like we have been here for a solid 30 days — that’s the feeling we had at the very end,” Bridson said. “Just the sheer amount of pain, muscle fatigue, and stress everyone had been through is enough to make you not want to go again.”
Once a soldier has successfully passed the assessment and selection, they aren’t going to their unit — yet. They will move on to the four phases that make up the Civil Affairs Qualification Course: military occupation specialty (MOS) training, tactical “SOF skills” training, a final culminating exercise, and then language training.
Civil Affairs Assessment and Selection requirementsLike many of the schools and courses offered within the military, soldiers must meet basic requirements for height and weight standards for their age bracket. You can check their current PFA standards here.
In addition to the PFA standards, a soldier must meet all the requirements necessary to join the military in the first place. Specific requirements outside of initial entry training requirements include:
- Possess a valid SERE-C Physical Exam
- Be airborne qualified or be willing to volunteer for the training.
- Must be eligible for an interim SECRET security clearance
- No history of domestic violence charges
- No history of driving under the influence charges
- No failed drug tests
- Have a Defense Language Aptitude Battery (DLAB) score of 65 or higher
There are additional requirements for military personnel, both enlisted and officers. Specialists must attend and graduate the Basic Leadership Course, have no more than six years of time in service, and have 12 months or more left on their contract. Enlisted soldiers must have the rank of specialist or sergeant. Sergeants must have a minimum of two years and no more than eight years time in service.
For those going for the 38W MOS (civil affairs medical sergeant), soldiers must have a minimum score of 11 in aptitude area GT and 101 in the aptitude area ST on the ASVAB. Soldiers going for the 38R MOS (civil reconnaissance sergeant) must have minimum scores of 107 in aptitude area GT and 100 in aptitude area CO.
“Pretty much every time you want to try and change MOS, your branch of service, or whatever you want to do, there’s always a packet involved — the government loves its paperwork,” Bridson said. “With civil affairs here at Fort Riley, the special operations recruiters are actually very open. They go to a lot of units and a lot of training events in the Fort Riley area to recruit from.”
Make sure you check with your special operations recruiters in your area to find out the most up-to-date requirements to join civil affairs.
Civil Affairs Assessment and Selection preparationA civil affairs officer who was previously assigned to the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade who is not cleared to speak on the record said he trained for selection using CrossFit, ultramarathon training, and much more to get himself physically ready.
“Do not mistake me. It is physically grueling and challenging,” the former civil affairs officer said. “But at no point did I ever feel like I was going to quit. It was more the mental fortitude that is required and the mental resiliency that you need to make it through.”
Both the officer in charge and the NCO in charge of the assessment and selection recommended that anyone interested in trying out follows the training program offered by their team.
It’s not just physical fitness a recruit must master ahead of the training, it’s the mentally demanding tasks that test your ability as a good leader and teammate. It’s cultural circumstances that you’ll be thrust into without much notice, if any. You’ll have to rise to the occasion using your communication skills in a way you’ve never had to before.
Soldiers must sign nondisclosure agreements (NDA) covering the entire course and other NDAs covering specific portions of the course. No specific preparation guidance was provided because of the NDAs that may help with cultural scenarios one might be subjected to during assessment and selection.
Ed likes to recommend that people try to connect with complete strangers at events or while out doing a hobby activity.
“A well-versed person who’s probably caught up on just the general news. It’s not something they need to do, but it’s definitely something that’s going to help,” Ed said. “What I always tell a candidate who lacks that adaptability to step into an unknown scenario and be successful in whatever their hobbies are is go step into an uncomfortable situation with a bunch of strangers and try to have general conversations with people and be able to get what you want.”
Everyone recommended that civil affairs hopefuls show up with razor-sharp communication skills in all formats. If you grew up mainly writing via a keyboard, Bridson recommended that you get better at writing on paper. If you’re not good with communications in all formats, you won’t be able to conduct your work as a civil affairs soldier.
“You have to be able to write reports. You have to be able to do it with or without a computer,” Bridson said. “You have to be able to do it while you’re tired after you just spent 20 hours with like a governor or something. You have to be able to do that kind of stuff. That’s exactly what they’re trying to get at during the selection process.”
Bridson sustained an injury during the assessment and selection that had negative effects on his physical performance, but he suspected his writing on paper was part of why he wasn’t selected. After finding out he didn’t get to move on, one of the cadre asked him how much he writes on paper. That’s an example of what you need to master ahead of the course.
The last note on preparing for assessment and selection comes from the former 95th Civil Affairs Brigade officer and it’s something you must possess but isn’t necessarily trainable.
“Being able to build relationships in these places and get your mission accomplished, whatever that mission is, is by being a human. Just being a human and having empathy,” the officer said. “That’s one of those things that’s not trainable or teachable. That right there is paramount to building relationships. You can’t just be a military robot.”
What is Civil Affairs Assessment and Selection really like?Soldiers need to go into selection with an open mind, be physically fit, and be comfortable jumping into high-stress situations, like a tribal leader wanting to ban U.S. troops from his village. Critically thinking through an emotionally charged cultural scenario isn’t easy, and saying the wrong thing can solidify a person’s resilience to a U.S. presence.
That skill set will develop as a soldier moves further into the Civil Affairs Qualification Course. The former civil affairs officer said that despite showing up very physically prepared, the mental aspect of the physical challenges is hard to prepare for.
“The big thing was everything being an unknown distance; that really makes it difficult to pace yourself,” the officer said. “Do I go hard and then just burn it to the ground kind of mentality? Or do you hold back a little bit, and if you hold back, did you hold back too much?”
Bridson recalled how one of the cadre pointed out that their assessment and selection is “shit on a lot” in comparison to other training like Ranger School or the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program (RASP). The cadre member said the timeline is shorter — it’s no long-term endurance event — like the special operations version of a sprint.
There was almost no downtime between the unknown-distance physical feats and high-stress training scenarios. In the end, when the recruits were all waiting for the final answer on whether they would move into phase one, Bridson said they all had the same thought.
“We were all sitting around eating dinner and looked at each other and said there’s no way in hell we’ve been here for only 10 days. It feels like we have been here for a solid 30 days, so that’s the feeling we had at the very end. Just the sheer amount of pain, muscle fatigue, and just mental stress everyone was in was just enough to make you not want to go again.”
The key thing to remember is that your every action is being analyzed by the cadre. Every conversation you have with someone, your physical performance, and your cultural interactions are all under the microscope to ensure you are a good fit for civil affairs.
Civil Affairs FAQsYou have questions, Task & Purpose has answers.
Q: How hard is Civil Affairs Assessment and Selection? A: It’s no walk in the park and you must be physically and mentally dialed in to successfully make it through the course.
Q: What does a civil affairs soldier do? A: A civil affairs soldier has knowledge of civil populations and governance influence behaviors of a targeted audience and counter threats. Civil affairs teams find, disrupt, and defeat threats while building relationships with those afflicted within the operations area.
Q: How big is a Civil Affairs Team? A: A Civil Affairs Team, called a CAT, has four people on the team. Each team has a civil reconnaissance sergeant, a civil affairs medical sergeant, a team sergeant, and a team commander.
Q: Does passing Civil Affairs Assessment and Selection make you Jason Bourne?A: No, it does not. But, you’ll have similar skills when it comes to blending in with indigenous populations to further the mission of the United States of America.
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The U.S. military’s temporary pier constructed to bring more humanitarian aid into Gaza was damaged and has suspended operations temporarily, the Pentagon said Tuesday. Photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Brian Morales.The U.S. military’s temporary pier off a Gaza beach was damaged in rough weather Saturday, temporarily suspending the delivery of humanitarian aid and briefly stranding U.S. boat crews aboard tender vessels run aground, the Pentagon said.
The U.S. military’s Joint Logistics Over The Shore, or JLOTS, pier officially began operations last week. The pier was constructed with the intent of providing more critical aid in a humanitarian crisis brought on by the Israel-Hamas war, which began after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
“Four U.S. Army vessels supporting the maritime humanitarian aid mission in Gaza were affected by heavy sea states, causing these motorized pier sections which are used to stabilize the Trident pier to break free from their anchors due to a lapse in power and subsequently beach ashore,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said Tuesday.
The day after the briefing, Singh said that there were U.S. personnel aboard four Army vessels that washed up onto beaches in Israel and Gaza. Troops abroad the vessels were evacuated on Saturday, May 25 — the same day that the vessel broke apart.
Two of the Army vessels that broke free were beached on the coast of Israel near Ashkelon. One has been recovered and the other will be recovered in the next 24 hours, Singh said.
The remaining two vessels that were beached near the Trident pier are expected to be recovered in the next 48 hours with help from the Israeli Navy. Over the next two days, the pier anchored into the shores of Gaza will be removed and towed to Ashdod for repairs by CENTCOM officials, Singh said.
“There was an unfortunate, unique pattern of events with high seas and another storm that came in that caused the JLOTS to become inoperable during that time,” Singh said.
Some U.S. aid in Cyprus is already being loaded onto vessels so when the pier is re-anchored, aid is prepositioned for roll-off “immediately,” she said.
“The rebuilding and repairing of the pier will take at least over a week and following completion will need to be re-anchored to the coast of Gaza,” Singh said. “Upon completion of the pier, repair, and reassembly, the intention is to re-anchor the temporary pier to the coast of Gaza and resume humanitarian aid to the people who need it most.”
The JLOTs setback is the latest problem for the pier project which has already resulted in three U.S. service member injuries – two minor and one who remains in critical condition. The temporary pier was announced after international humanitarian air drops resulted in several fatalities and as on-the-ground aid convoys continue to be restricted.
Since aid began flowing through the pier Friday, more than 1,000 metric tons of humanitarian supplies have been delivered to the marshaling area for distribution to Gazans by humanitarian organizations, Singh said. In early May, CENTCOM said that the U.S. had dropped nearly 1,220 tons of humanitarian assistance to date.
According to USAID, American-provided aid packages include nutrient-rich food, plastic sheeting for shelter, jerry cans to hold clean water, and hygiene kits.
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“This humanitarian maritime corridor alone is not enough to meet the staggering needs in Gaza, but it is an important addition. It is meant to augment, not replace or substitute for land crossings into Gaza,” said Daniel Dieckhaus, Director, U.S. Agency for International Development’s Levant Response Management Team at a Pentagon briefing Friday.
Over the past two weeks, less than 100 aid trucks have entered Gaza daily which is “far less than the 600 needed every day to address the threat of Famine,” USAID officials said in a release.
Last week, officials noted security concerns with the aid distribution including “potential looting along a prearranged distribution route” and a recent Hamas drone attack on the IDF which led “to the temporary shutdown of humanitarian convoys around Gaza for safety reasons,” Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, Deputy Commander, United States Central Command said Friday.
While the U.S. has promised no boots on the ground in Gaza, Israeli media outlets have shared photos of U.S. service members on Israeli beaches where a vessel washed ashore as far north as Ashdod, a city in Israel roughly halfway between the Gaza Strip and Tel Aviv.
The JLOTS concept isn’t new for the U.S. military. In 2023, the Army used JLOTs in an international exercise with Australia called Talisman Sabre to practice military logistics in the event of conflict in the Asia Pacific region. Soldiers also deployed a JLOTS pier to deliver humanitarian supplies to Haiti in 2010.
UPDATE: 5/29/2024; This article has been updated with a statement from Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh.
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An F-16 elephant walk. (Senior Airman Brittany A. Chase/U.S. Air Force).Three Ukrainian pilots have graduated from F-16 training with the Arizona National Guard and a fourth is expected to graduate shortly, a U.S. official told Task & Purpose. The trio are the first Ukranians to be trained to fly and fight in the U.S. fighter.
Eight Ukrainian pilots remain in the F-16 training pipeline with the Arizona Air National Guard’s 162nd Wing in Tucson, the U.S. official said. The wing is a longtime training hub for F-16s, with both a traditional pilot training program for American flyers qualifying on the jet and the Air Force’s only schoolhouse dedicated to training pilots from 25 different countries on the advanced U.S. fighter.
“The mission of training proficient and resilient pilots is not a new for the 162d Wing,” said Col. Brant Putnam, the wing’s commander. “The recent graduation of Ukrainian pilots exemplifies the dedication of our instructor pilots, who make the 162d the premier Air Force F-16 training location for both US and foreign military. The Ukrainian student’s graduation marks they have met their training requirements and are ready to move on to the next phase set by their country.”
The new F-16 pilots should have no shortage of jets to fly when they return to Ukraine. Several countries have offered a total of roughly 60 F-16s to Ukraine. Politico first reported on May 23 that the first Ukrainian pilots had successfully completed F-16 training in Arizona and are now expected to undergo further training in Europe.
Due to operational security concerns, no photographs were taken or videos made during the Ukrainian pilots’ graduation ceremony, said Army Capt. Erin Hannigan, an Arizona National Guard spokeswoman.
Hannigan deferred questions to Ukraine about what type of training the pilots will go through next.
In October, the first Ukrainian pilots began their F-16 training in Arizona, and subsequent batches of pilots started to arrive in January, said Army Maj. Charlie Dietz, a Pentagon spokesman.
“While I cannot confirm specific details regarding the training schedules and locations of individual pilots, I can assure you that we continue to work closely with our Ukrainian partners to enhance their operational readiness and interoperability within NATO standards,” Dietz told Task & Purpose on Tuesday.
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Denmark and the Netherlands are leading international efforts to train Ukrainian F-16 pilots with help from Belgium, Norway, and Romania. France is providing initial training for Ukrainian pilots even though it does not fly F-16s, and Britain is also involved with training Ukrainian pilots.
With a pre-invasion Air Force stocked only with Russian fighters, Ukraine has pleaded for western aircraft since after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of their country in February 2022. But it took more than a year before President Joe Biden approved sending Ukraine F-16s from Denmark and the Netherlands.
When the news broke in August that the first Ukrainian pilots would begin F-16 pilot training in Arizona , Ukraine appeared to have the upper hand in the conflict against Russia. Now, in part due to Congress’ six-month delay in approving new military assistance for Ukraine, the situation on the battlefield has changed in Russia’s favor.
An expert with the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London has estimated that Russia has committed 510,000 of its troops to the war with Ukraine, and Russia has been able to take ground in an offensive in Kharkiv.
Ukraine won’t be able to blunt Russia’s momentum with just three F-16 pilots, said retired Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, who served as head of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO Allied Command Operations from 2013 to 2016.
The Ukrainians need at least a squadron of F-16s and pilots to start to make a difference, Breedlove told Task & Purpose. A U.S. squadron generally has around 30 pilots with another five or six at the wing level who are attached to the unit, but American units are also bigger than their foreign counterparts.
“Typically, a squadron will be manned at about 1.3 to 1.6 the number of airplanes,” Breedlove explained. “So, if you have 10 airplanes, it would be 15 or 16 pilots.”
The first Ukrainian F-16 pilots who have graduated from their initial training in Arizona must now also train for specific missions, such as close air support, air defense, night precision attack, and suppressing enemy air defenses, Breedlove said. The U.S. military needs to advise the Ukrainians about what the F-16 pilots’ first missions should be.
“When we graduate a pilot from what we call a B-Course in the U.S., that means initial qualification in an aircraft,” Breedlove said. “When a pilot comes out of a B-Course, they have a basic qualification in all the missions that the airplane can do. But when they go to their wing, their first assigned unit, they are going to specialize in the wing’s mission because not all wings specialize in all missions.”
It typically takes American F-16 pilots about six months to complete a B-Course followed by up to four months of additional training to learn how to fly the missions that are tasked of their wing, after which they are described as ‘mission qualified,’ Breedlove said.
“Once they have a mission qualification, that means we’re ready to take them into combat in the missions that they’ve trained for,” Breedlove said.
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Photo by Ann Gonzalez.May is Military Appreciation Month—a month dedicated to recognizing members of our Armed Forces who have volunteered to wear the uniform. This is a great time to recognize the challenges overcome by those who defend our nation’s freedom and to highlight important facts about military life.
Service members are never truly ‘off-duty’. Subordinates can be recalled at a moment’s notice, subjected to days or weeks-long training events away from their families. Military leaders are responsible for different aspects of their servicemembers’ well-being, whether on leave, deployed to a training zone, or working a normal maintenance Monday at a home station. When it’s time for gunnery, flight certification, or pre-deployment prep, special moments like weddings, births, anniversaries, and family holidays may take a backseat in the name of readiness.
Most who know a U.S. military member, know that they don’t go home until their job is done. This mindset is what makes them heroes. Children of service members may go an entire week without seeing their mom or dad, even when not deployed overseas due to long working hours that often start off early.
This May, Navy Federal Credit Union is taking a step beyond their decades of support to the military community and honoring military heroes with a handful of bonus offers, like $50 for new members who open a credit card within 14 days of joining, up to $200 for refinancing an auto loan from another lender, free active-duty checking account, and loan rate discounts as low as 0.25% APR for active-duty and retired members on select loans!
Navy Federal has been helping servicemembers and their loved ones achieve financial freedom and stability for generations. Let us thank you for your service and sacrifice. Join our family today.
This article was sponsored by Navy Federal Credit Union. Navy Federal Credit Union is federally insured by NCUA. Image used for representational purposes only; does not imply government endorsement. Portions of the image were blurred for security or privacy concerns.
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(photo courtesy U.S. Army/DVIDS).Even in a war zone, Spc. Rudolph Ryan Hizon was cheerful. Upbeat, smiling, occasionally sick of military food, but overall cheerful. That’s how his comrades remembered him.
Hizon was an Army soldier, serving in Afghanistan with Company B, 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. On Feb. 28, 2011, his unit was operating in the Logar Province, patrolling the Charkh area of the province when it was suddenly attacked by insurgents. They hit the soldiers with a combination of improvised explosive devices, gunfire and rocket propelled grenades. In the fighting, Hizon was hit by the blast of an IED, killing him. He was 22, a soldier, an immigrant and someone who kept trying new things with a positive attitude.
Ryan, as he went by, was born July 10, 1988 in the Philippines. He grew up in Manila, alongside his brother and sister. In 2008, he, his siblings and their father moved to the United States, looking for better opportunities. His mother Rachael remained behind in the Philippines, as she and Ryan’s father were not married. Ryan Hizon, then 19, found himself living in Los Angeles’ Glassell Park neighborhood, starting classes at Glendale Community College. When he ran into an Army recruiter, he was intrigued. He was new to the country, starting over, and the idea of service appealed to him, his family and colleagues remembered.
Hizon joined the U.S. Army soon after, enlisting in January 2009. His father Rodolfo Hizon told the Los Angeles Times that Ryan hoped to become a pilot. He completed basic training at Fort Benning (now Fort Moore) and then was stationed at Fort Polk. He left with other members of 10th Mountain Division for Afghanistan in October 2010.
“Its[sic] a different type of friend who crawls through the mud, encourages you to continue when you feel you can’t, picks you up when you fall down, and holds your ruck when it is too much for you at times,” another soldier, David Roy, who trained with Hizon, wrote on a memorial.
Another tribute came from another soldier who went through basic training with him. Mike Maquet described Hizon as: “Not the biggest, not the meanest but exceptionally memorable. I miss his kind attitude and spiteful wit.”
Ryan Hizon had been in the Army for two years when he died. His death in the ambush came only a few weeks after he had returned to California on leave to visit his family. In Afghanistan, Hizon’s upbeat attitude and smile became a recognizable part of his nature. Soldiers who served with him on the deployment said that he almost always had a smile on his face, even while far from home. One soldier who served with him, Joshua Gonzales, said in a memorial that he would remember Hizon “as the happy and cheerful person he was […] and I’m going to miss him dearly.”
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After his death, his body was returned back to the United States. His mother was not able to join Ryan’s siblings and dad when the body arrived stateside, but she was able to make it into the country for the March 14, 2011 funeral. Rudolph Ryan Hizon is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, close to the neighborhood he and his family had moved to in 2008.
For his service, Hizon was awarded the Purple Heart, a Bronze Star, the Afghan Campaign Medal with star device, Global War on Terror Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, NATO Medal and Combat Infantryman Badge, among others.
Also on March 14, 2011, the same day he was buried, Hizon was posthumously naturalized as an American citizen, according to the Los Angeles Times. Karl Eikenberry, a retired Army lieutenant general and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2009-2011, invoked Hizon while speaking at a naturalization ceremony for service members only weeks after. Eikenberry said that although Ryan “was not able to swear the oath of citizenship, we know from his actions that in his heart, he was a true American.”
After his death, his comrades in his unit paid tribute to him in writing and out in Afghanistan. A photo shared to his obituary’s guest book shows 10 soldiers in uniform, standing around a photo of Hizon, which rests on his empty boots.
His father Rodolfo died on Feb. 22, 2021, almost exactly 10 years after his son. He’s buried in the same cemetery in Glendale as his son, next to him. Spc. Rudolph Ryan Hizon’s plaque at his grave bears a single, simple quote from him: “They call us heroes, I don’t know why, I’m just a regular person, choosing to do extraordinary things that other people chose not to.”
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SFC. Juan Pina leads an underwater reenlistment ceremony. (Screenshot via U.S Army W.T.F! Moments).Over the years Task & Purpose has seen several strange, unusual, and sometimes just cool reenlistment or promotion ceremonies. Troops have reenlisted in a Game Stop and while taped to the turret of a howitzer. They’ve been promoted while standing in a bog. The troops who are reenlisting while SCUBA diving off the coast of Hawaii are definitely on the cool end of the spectrum.
A video shared by U.S. Army WTF! Moments on social media shows soldiers in uniform, adorned with fins, masks, and oxygen tanks, carrying out a reenlistment ceremony. One soldier raises his hand to recite the oath while several more hold an American flag up.
The noncommissioned officer leading the ceremony and overseeing the SCUBA diving is Sgt. 1st Class Juan Piña. For the last two years Piña, a certified SCUBA instructor and a soldier with 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division have been taking troops into the waters off of Hawaii to give them a unique reenlistment day.
For Piña, a soldier who is in his 22nd year in the military, it started in part from his own love of SCUBA diving. Another noncommissioned officer started recommending that soldiers ask Piña to take them below the waves while they reenlist. started just with his unit but has expanded to other troops in the brigade and beyond. So far he’s taken more than a dozen service members underwater for their ceremonies, he told Task & Purpose.
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“We do it all outside, right in front of the beach,” he said. “[The soldiers] do the oath, they take the pictures on the beach, their families are there with them. Then once they do the oath on the ground, I watch them [practice their SCUBA skills] outside the water. They have to do that before I can take them fully underwater. They put the gear, we take them to the buoy and they do the mandatory skills again. Once underwater, we recreate the oath underwater.”
Piña usually takes soldiers no more than 30 feet out, but for more advanced troops he goes out farther, to around 100 feet. There they do their reenlistment ceremonies near a shipwreck. That combination of the wreck and the American flag held up makes for a great scene, Piña said.
Money that he’s made as a SCUBA instructor — he also teaches soldiers and their families how to SCUBA dive — has helped him build out his own personal collection of SCUBA equipment, which he uses for the reenlistment ceremonies. Troops don’t have to bring anything, although he said that if they have their own SCUBA masks he recommends taking with them. Depending on certain skill levels, the whole event can be easy or have some challenges, he said. Piña admitted it’s not the usual reenlistment ceremony, but the underwater environment lends itself to memorable moments beyond just re-upping for service.
“Two reenlistment [dives] ago, we got to see dolphins swim by right on top of us,” Piña said. “For the soldiers it’s a big deal. They get to see turtles, sometimes they see a shark. These guys love it.”
As for the instructor, Piña said the enjoyment the soldiers have going underwater is what makes him happy. He told Task & Purpose that he loves teaching soldiers about SCUBA diving, and that he loves getting the opportunity to help them reenlist in a unique environment. He plans to keep doing it, and demand hasn’t slowed down.
“I’ve got people scheduled for the next few months,” he said. “I’ve got another five reenlistments booked.”
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The All American Gate at Fort Liberty. (Photo by Matthew White).An Army special operations officer is under investigation after fatally shooting a utility worker outside the soldier’s home near Fort Liberty.
The news comes this week after the Moore County Sheriff’s Department shared more information about a May 3 shooting in Carthage, North Carolina, roughly 35 miles west of the U.S. Army base. Deputies were sent to a private residence at 8:15 p.m. that night, following a 911 call of a man trespassing on the residence. The man “became aggressive,” the caller said. When deputies arrived they found Ramzan Daraev, 35, shot dead. The shooter is an Army officer who resided at the home.
“We are aware of the incident in Carthage involving a USASOC soldier,” said Jacqueline Hill, a spokeswoman for U.S. Army Special Operations Command. “This incident remains under investigation. Per policy, we do not comment on active investigations to protect the process’ integrity. We appreciate the dedication of the Moore County Sheriff’s Department as they investigate.”
According to authorities, Daraev was reported to be working for Utilities One, a New Jersey-based utilities company, as a subcontractor and lived in Chicago, Illinois. The 911 call said that Daraev had been taking photos of the house.
“Identification was not found on Daraev; however, his identity was later confirmed through family members and an international identification located in his vehicle,” the sheriff’s office May 22 update said.
The soldier has not been charged with any crime as of press time. The shooting is currently under investigation. All parties are cooperating, the Moore County Sheriff’s Office said. Law enforcement is still working to confirm Daraev’s employment status with Utilities One. The Federal Bureau of Investigation provided a translator for local law enforcement to help interview other people said to work with Utilities One. Additionally, authorities contact and reported the incident to U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
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Details on the exact incident are unclear, including what caused the situation to escalate to a firearm being pulled and fired. The sheriff’s department said that Daraev suffered more than one gunshot wound and was found “approximately 250 yards from the roadway, along a powerline on the residential property.” According to a Change.org petition set up by Daraev’s family, he was shot four times: once in the hand, twice in the back and once in the face. The sheriff’s department noted that Daraev did not have any utilities equipment or clothing with him at the time of the shooting. Daraev was photographing work he had completed when the incident began, his family said.
“The Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division is aware of and investigating an incident with local authorities,” CID said in a statement. “As the investigation is ongoing, no additional information can be provided.”
According to the Change.org petition, Daraev is originally from Chechnya. The same post said that Daraev did not have any weapon on him and that the Army officer was released after “a short interview” with law enforcement.
“Ramzan left Russia, not realizing that the greatest injustice against him would be done in a free country, where, in theory, he should have received protection,” the family writes.
UPDATE: 05/28/2024; this story has been updated with statements from U.S. Army Special Operations Command and the Army Investigation Division.
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pardoned former Army Sgt. Daniel Perry on May 16, 2024. Perry was convicted in April 2023 of killing Air Force veteran Garrett Foster at a Black Lives Matter protest in Austin.Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has pardoned former Army Sgt. Daniel Perry, who was convicted last year for killing an Air Force veteran at a 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstration.
Perry served as an Army infantryman from January 2012 until March 19, 2024, Army spokesman Bryce Dubee told Task & Purpose. His last rank was E-1 private.
In July 2020, Perry shot and killed Garrett Foster after driving an Uber into a crowd of protesters in downtown Austin. Foster was carrying an AK-47 at the time and Perry’s defense attorneys argued that the shooting was in self-defense.
Shortly after Perry’s April 2023 conviction, a judge unsealed documents that the jury had not seen during the trial that included private messages Perry had sent before the shooting in which he expressed his desire to kill Muslims and protesters.
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In one message, Perry wrote: “Black Lives Matter is racist to white people…It is official I am racist because I do not agree with people acting like monkeys.”
Abbott announced on Thursday that he had approved a recommendation from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to pardon Perry following an “exhaustive review” of the case.
“Among the voluminous files reviewed by the Board, they considered information provided by the Travis County District Attorney, the full investigative report on Daniel Perry, plus a review of all the testimony provided at trial,” Abbott said in a statement. “Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws on self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney.”
Foster’s partner, Whitney Mitchell provided a statement through her attorney condemning Abbott’s decision, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
“With this pardon, the Governor has desecrated the life of a murdered Texan, impugned that jury’s just verdict, and declared that citizens can be killed with impunity as long as they hold political views that are different from those in power,” Mitchell said in the statement.
The office of Doug O’Connell, Perry’s defense attorney, issued a statement on Thursday that neither Perry nor members of his family would be available for interviews.
O’Connell thanked both Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole and argued that Foster had threatened his client with a weapon. He also said he had spoken to Perry, who wishes the event had never happened and he recognizes that the Foster family is grieving.
“Daniel Perry was imprisoned for 372 days and lost the military career that he loved,” O’Connell said in a statement. “The action by Governor Abbott and the Pardon Board corrects the courtroom travesty which occurred over a year ago and represents true justice in this case. We intend to fight to get Daniel’s military service characterization upgraded to an Honorable Discharge.”
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(Photo courtesy of Shawn Cooper).When he was a child growing up in segregated Alabama, Jerome Gary Cooper snuck into the balcony of a movie theater to see a movie in which John Wayne played a Marine, his daughter Shawn Cooper recalled.
“He just said [Wayne] was the baddest SOB in the world and he wanted to be like him,” Cooper told Task & Purpose.
Cooper not only became one of the few and the proud, but during the Vietnam War, he also became the first black Marine officer to lead an infantry company in combat. He later became the first black Marine infantry officer to be promoted to brigadier general. He ultimately received his second star and served as the Marine Corps director of personnel.
He died on April 27 at the age of 87, she said, adding that her father served as a mentor to his subordinates in the Marine Corps who helped them rise through the ranks.
“He took his role as a leader and a trailblazer very seriously and knew that he was paving the way for others to come behind him,” Shawn Cooper said. “He was very instrumental in helping and guiding junior officers. If he saw something or heard something, he would literally call a junior officer and say: Look, you have got to be sharper; you have got to be tighter. I think it was the care and the love for the junior officers that he’d been where they wanted to go and giving them that guidance to assist them.”
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As a civilian, Cooper was appointed as assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower, reserve affairs, installations, and the environment, during which he helped plan Operation Desert Storm. In the 1990s, he served as U.S. ambassador to Jamaica.
During his Marine Corps career, Cooper received two Purple Hearts and was also awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, and Bronze Star.
Cooper joined the Navy Officers’ Reserve Training Corps at Notre Dame, Indiana, where he was one of only three black students, said Kendal Weaver, author of the book Ten Stars: The African American Journey of Gary Cooper―Marine General, Diplomat, Businessman, and Politician.
Throughout his time in the Marine Corps, Cooper proved he could overcome obstacles and get along with people, even though he had to endure “some severe racial antagonism directed against him,” Weaver told Task & Purpose.
Cooper wanted to be in combat and worked hard to be deployed to Vietnam, Weaver said. But when he arrived there in 1966, he was told he had been assigned a non-combat role, Weaver said.
Risking his entire career, he requested to speak to his commanding general and was ultimately given command of an infantry company.
Retired Marine Brig. Gen. George H. Walls Jr. first met Cooper in Vietnam during a 1966 combat operation. That was the start of a lifelong friendship.
“Back then, there were so few black officers in the Marine Corps that when you saw another one, you ran over and hugged him,” Walls told Task & Purpose. “That has changed now, but that is the way it was then.”
During the operation, Cooper’s company was ambushed, but rather than withdraw, he led his Marines in a counterattack and defeated the enemy, Walls recalled. That episode was emblematic of Cooper’s style of leading from the front.
Cooper proved that he was a strong, charismatic leader who led by example, Walls said. He also cared about his troops’ well-being and focused on getting them home.
“In most cases, if there was a firefight, Gary was not far from the action,” Wall said, “Gary was a Marine’s Marine and he set the example for a whole lot of Marines, whether they were enlisted or officers.”
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CW3 Morgan Brady is a nationally ranked BMX racer and has served in the Army for over 23 years. (Photos courtesy of Morgan Brady).We all like to joke about the missing warrant officer, but this time, we found one who is doing something pretty rad in her free time. Chief Warrant Officer 3 Morgan Brady is representing Team USA for BMX racing during the UCI BMX World Championships.
Teams from all over the world are competing, and the competition started on May 12 in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Brady, a nationally ranked competitor with over 23 years of service, is competing with women much younger than her throughout most of the championship while contending with bad weather.
“It’s hard. I had a really rough first day because I had two wrecks. My hands a little messed up right now,” Brady said. “So we’ve been doing ice packs, Motrin, and lots of supplements to try to get the swelling to go down. You just take it with stride.”
On Wednesday, Brady wrapped up her events for the championship. She placed 26 of 65 in the 40+ women’s cruiser class and 20 of 22 in the 30+ women’s masters class. Brady is still relatively new to the BMX racing scene, whereas many of the other competitors have been competing for most of their lives.
CW3 Morgan Brady earned her spot on Team USA’s BMX racing team only five years into her BMX racing career while balancing her career in the Army. (Photo courtesy of Morgan Brady)It all started when Brady’s son started riding a bike approximately five years ago. Her son fell in love with the BMX racing track, and she followed soon after.
“We took him out to the track, and he fell in love with it. So I was just BMX mom, right? We actually had a pretty big group of lady riders at the track,” Brady said. “I think there were four or five at the time. We used to do Ladies Night at the track and they’re like, ‘Come out and just give it a try.’ So I did and thought, ‘Okay, maybe I can do this.’”
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Brady isn’t afraid to dive headfirst when it comes to challenges. She is currently assigned as the senior geospatial intelligence advisor at the 116th Military Intelligence Brigade at Fort Eisenhower, Georgia. She was part of the team that established her current unit.
She enlisted in the Army in 2000 and transitioned into a warrant officer slot much later in her career than most warrant officers do. She deployed as a member of Task Force Odin and has been stationed in Germany and Korea. She’s continued to balance her duties as a mother, a national BMX racing competitor, and a CW3 advising her command.
Morgan Brady started BMX racing after seeing her son fall in love with the sport. She rapidly achieved a national ranking in the BMX racing circuit. (Photo courtesy of Morgan Brady)“Being a technical expert and subject advisor to the command, I still have to maintain my skill set and support my leadership,” Brady said. “So, there’s going out for TDYs and giving them advice, but at the same time, making sure I’m getting home in time so I can do my training and still spend time with my kids and support their activities as well.”
Extreme sports and military recruitingBrady’s husband has encouraged her to talk about her accomplishments because not many people know what BMX racing is or how it can benefit soldiers. The Air Force and the Army have increased recruiting from the extreme sports community because of the personalities that share many parallels with military service.
Whether skateboarding, BMX racing, or snowboarding — crashing is a significant part of improving. When you crash, you knock the dust off and try it again. Extreme sports athletes share that ‘never quit’ attitude that so many service members have. Whether it’s a broken femur from a crash on a BMX bike or a broken femur from a bad parachute landing, those with that attitude have the tenacity to keep moving forward despite their injuries.
Many have joined the military thinking they had to give up their sports, especially those more prone to injury. For Brady, her command has fully supported her through her racing career and injuries, never questioning whether she should keep doing it. Brady encourages anyone who’s interested to get involved.
“There’s just that camaraderie, that little bit of extra that you have, and you just get to go to the track at night,” Brady said. “We’ll talk about work a little bit, but then at the end of it, we’re all out there to race and have fun.”
There’s a small community of BMX racers in the Ft. Eisenhower area that she regularly trains with. Brady recently became a certified USA BMX coach and is a board member of her local track, the Blanchard Woods BMX.
Brady said her training and competitions allow her time to focus on life outside of work. Ultimately, everything she does is for her kids.
“For me to take on BMX, it’s a balance, and it’s hard at times, but I want them to see that anything’s possible,” Brady said. “Like, if their mom can get on a bike and compete at a level that gets a national ranking, they are capable of the same and so much more.”
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U.S. Marines salute during a formation on Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif., Sept 4, 2012. (Cpl. Jamean Berry/U.S. Marine Corps).Sexual assaults are down across the military for the first time in a decade as incident reports by service members increased, a Pentagon report found.
“For the first time in nearly 10 years, the department is seeing a decrease in sexual assault prevalence,” said Elizabeth Foster, executive director of the Office of Force Resiliency for the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. “The department estimates that nearly 7,000 fewer service members experienced sexual assault in 2023 than in 2021.”
Across the DOD, there was a “statistically significant decrease in unwanted sexual contact for women” in penetrative and non-penetrative types of crime, said Nate Galbreath, acting director for the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office. The numbers were largely driven by decreases for women in the Navy and Air Force, he said.
For men, the trend was also downward for men but the change was not statistically significant, Galbreath said during a press conference on Thursday for the release of the Fiscal Year 2023 Department of Defense Annual Report on Sexual Assault In The Military.
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“While it’s impossible for us to know exactly why we’re seeing this decrease in sexual assault prevalence, we are cautiously optimistic that the department’s unprecedented investment is having an impact, particularly when it comes to our focus on prevention and building a healthy climate,” Foster said. “But I want to be really clear, we have a lot more work to do.”
The Pentagon report also found that troop reporting rates of sexual assault incidents were on the rise with almost one in four troops making official reports in 2023. In total, the DOD received 8,515 reports in fiscal year 2023, which Galbreath said was the third-highest number of reports on record.
Officials also calculated how risk factors like sexual harassment, psychological climate for harassment, gender discrimination, and leader and unit support for intervention influenced the likelihood that service members experience sexual assault. By “decreasing those factors, we can decrease the likelihood of sexual assault,” said Andra Tharp, senior advisor for Integrated Primary Prevention.
For example, the DOD report found that women who reported sexual harassment were 12 times as likely to also report unwanted sexual contact. The pattern was even “more pronounced” for men as 40 times more likely to report assault, Tharp said.
“These findings underscore the central role of climate in either increasing or decreasing the likelihood of harmful behaviors like sexual assault,” she added. “This is one reason that creating a healthy climate is the foundation of the integrative prevention work that the department has been undertaking.”
Officials highlighted several changes that the DOD is hoping will positively impact the military’s climate on sexual assault prevention and reporting. In 2022, the DOD issued a policy that shifted oversight of the command climate assessment process to its sexual assault prevention workforce and officials are increasing their “analytic capability” to identify clear indicators of sexual assault at local levels and harmful behaviors while increasing visibility and enabling leaders to take action on troop reports more quickly, Tharp said.
The Pentagon is also moving towards a more professional, independent sexual assault response workforce, Foster said.
“We know there have been instances in which our service members haven’t trusted the people, the victim advocates that they need to track to take care of them because they’ve been aligned with command,” she added.
A similar concept was used with the new Offices of Special Trial Counsel, which stood up at the beginning of 2023. The offices were designed to change decision-making authorities on how to legally proceed with criminal cases from commanders to independent lawyers, in an effort to remove conflicts of interest between troops and their command.
Inspector General reportEarlier in the week, the DOD Inspector General released a report on the expedited transfer policy which allows service members who report sexual assault to request a new assignment.
The idea of the Expedited Transfer Program, according to Galbreath, is to help victims recover from the traumatic experience and “improve their recovery so that they could get out of an environment where they felt uncomfortable and moved to an environment where they might experience greater support.”
This way, troops can continue their work without fears of ostracism or retaliation in their new environment.
Under DOD policy, transfers should take place within 30 calendar days from the date they’re approved. However, the IG found the military services processed around 52% of cases within the timeframe. A couple of cases highlighted by the IG included troops whose transfers took 108 and 110 calendar days – meaning they were working with their alleged perpetrators for months longer than the policy calls for.
The IG’s findings prompted investigators to recommend that the Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness clarify service requirements regarding the 30-day rule.
Galbreath said they agreed with most of the IG’s recommendations except for the 30-day policy emphasis. He told reporters Thursday that it “doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s a weakness in the system” because the DOD’s current policy focuses on giving victims more choices.
“Sometimes 30 days might be too short for a victim to be able to move and so our policy allows that greater flexibility,” he said.
The IG found 338 cases in fiscal year 2023 alone where the services didn’t adhere to the timeframe. The IG emphasized the need for timely transfers to avoid adding to the military branches’ struggles to keep and attract new troops.
“Failure to transfer victims of sexual assault in a timely manner can undermine service members’ trust in their leadership following an assault, which can adversely affect the service’s ability to retain its force,” according to the IG report. “Failure to do so can contribute to the DOD’s recruiting and retention challenges.”
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The Army is eliminating 346 hours of online courses that soldiers were required to complete in order to be promoted, Sergeant Major of the Army announced Wednesday. Photo by Spc. Zachary Stahlberg.The Army is eliminating 346 hours of online courses that soldiers were required to complete in order to be promoted, the Sergeant Major of the Army announced Wednesday.
Active duty, Reserve and National Guard officers and NCOs were previously required to take online courses before becoming eligible for promotion. On Wednesday, Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael R. Weimer said in a post on X that the Distributed Learning Courses I-VI would be “discontinued effective immediately.”
“We are scrubbing everything we are asking our soldiers to study, because there is only so much time during the day to do your job, for your personal development, and for your family,” Weimer said in a statement. “We have added to the point of creating redundancies in distance learning, online learning, brick and mortar learning, self-study learning, what the units are teaching, what the leadership inside units are teaching, and we are overwhelming people.”
The decision came after the Army Chief of Staff directed the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command in October 2023 to review options to eliminate or reduce online training requirements for soldiers attending Professional Military Education courses.
“After careful consideration and a lot of analysis, the Army determined that there would be little to no negative impact to resident NCO PME learning outcomes if all six levels of the DLC were discontinued,” the Army said in a release. “We must drive change for our Army in contact and strive for efficiencies in order to continue building our Army of 2030-2040.”
The courses were considered burdensome by many but focused on a range of topics specific to the service like squad drills, Army doctrine, land operations, map reading/land navigation and soldier readiness. It also included lessons on leadership, problem solving, the law of armed conflict, reducing stress, public speaking, transition to civilian life, grammar and writing skills.
Many enlisted soldiers complained that nearly all those skills — from field skills like navigation to office-culture areas like stress management — were covered in the in-person NCO academies.
“We have to do some subtraction to make sure what we are teaching in all those areas is quality, not quantity. We have not looked at all these requirements holistically in years,” Weimer said.
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The DLC was fielded in 2010 during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as a prerequisite to attending NCO Professional Military Education.
The courses were originally designed to fill an educational gap created by the phasing out of the NCO Common Core curriculum which were “backfilled with military occupation specialty specific technical and tactical tasks subjects” in support of operations in the Middle East.
The result for soldiers appears to be an immediate end to a chore many saw as wasted time. Soldiers working on DLC do not have to complete the training and those who have not yet begun the training will not have to start.
“Soldiers currently working on the identified courses can stop immediately and those who have not started yet do not need to,” Weimer posted on X.
The Army is also ending the need for officers to complete the Captains Career Course and the Command and General Staff Officers course, also known as ‘P920.’ Virtual training associated with the Advanced Leader Course/Senior Leader Course will continue.
Wiemer also said that the Army would release policy exceptions on removing the “8K bar” for soldiers flagged for not completing prerequisite DLC training.
The change comes amid other reforms to how the Army promotes NCOs. The Army announced it was ending temporary NCO promotions starting in June and making them permanent to “relieve excessive strain on the force and to meet readiness requirements.”
“Previously, we were training first and that is a prerequisite to get promoted. Now we are promoting and then they will be trained,” Sgt. Maj. Jonathan A. Uribe-Huitron said about the policy change. “We promote based off potential and then ensure they get to train.”
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A soldier was recalled to active duty and charged in the military justice system with years-long sexual abuse of a stepdaughter. Photo by Maj. Charles Emmons.In a first-of-its-kind case under the military’s new way of handling crimes like sexual assault, murder and domestic violence, a soldier was recalled to active duty and charged in the military justice system with years-long sexual abuse of a stepdaughter.
Staff Sgt. William Rivers, 55, pleaded guilty to five counts of sexual abuse under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice last week and will serve more than six years in prison under a plea agreement. It was the first case in which a soldier was recalled to duty for a court-martial by the Army’s new Office of Special Trial Counsel.
Rivers’ sexual abuse of his stepdaughter occurred over multiple years while he was on active duty in Hawaii and Florida. Rivers retired in 2017. According to court documents, Rivers’ crimes included raping his stepdaughter in 2014. He also inappropriately touched her, exposed himself, and relayed his “sexual desires” to her in 2013 and 2014, according to the charge sheet.
A prosecutor for the Office of Special Counsel said the case represents a sea of change for military sexual assault prosecutions. Prior to the establishment of the Special Counsel in 2023, it’s unlikely civilian or military prosecutors would’ve brought charges against him, said Maj. Steven Poland, the lead Army prosecutor on the case.
“In this case, because it was unlikely any other person was going to prosecute him and hold him accountable because we looked at the evidence in detail and we knew we’d be able to prove the case – there was just no other option besides pursuing it,” Poland said.
The complications of a case like Rivers’ highlighted the unique authorities of the military and UCMJ. Rivers was an Army reservist assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 81st Armored Regiment at Fort Moore, Georgia whose service took him all over the world to places like Florida, Hawaii, and Japan. Rivers also got a job with Lockheed Martin in South Korea because of his Army experience, Poland said.
Poland said that pursuing the case in civilian court would’ve been much more complicated. Local prosecutors in the U.S., he said, “were likely not going to take the case” due to the international aspect. With the various agreements that the military has with foreign governments, the UCMJ was the best avenue for his stepdaughter to receive justice, he said.
“I think it’s a unique case that presents a situation where there’s a risk that someone could escape justice,” Poland said. “We don’t want that to happen when part of the reason that they could escape justice was the fact that they were on active duty, able to move around, able to kind of get out of situations where they might be able to be held accountable.”
The court martialRivers was working as a contractor when he was arrested at Camp Humphreys, South Korea, by the Army Criminal Investigation Division in December 2023.
The stepdaughter reported the crimes to NCIS in Japan on Jan. 14, 2021, after she had turned 18. She was given legal representation by the Marine Corps because the nearest U.S. installation was a Marine Corps air station. She was also assigned a special victim liaison who helps civilians navigate the UCMJ process and other logistics like traveling to be at the trial.
During the investigation, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service recorded a phone call between Rivers and his stepdaughter where he admitted to sexually abusing her for several years across multiple duty locations.
“It was just a conversation between the two of them and she brought up the abuse and they started the conversation about it,” Poland said. “We try not to influence in any way. There’s no script or anything like that. It’s just like having a conversation about it.”
Rivers was sentenced by a military judge to 108 months of confinement for sexual abuse but under the plea deal, he will serve 80 months in prison. The military judge also reduced Rivers’ rank to private and imposed a bad conduct discharge.
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Once officials had a plea or pre-trial agreement, both the prosecution and defense created a written document with the facts of the case that were negotiated ahead of time. Then, unique to the UCMJ process, they entered into a “providence inquiry” where the judge told Rivers the offenses he was pleading guilty to. Rivers had to “verbally explain” to the judge “why he was guilty of every element of every crime,” according to Poland.
“We do that in the military for a very important reason and it’s because we don’t want the perception that we’re forcing anybody to plead guilty because of the command structure,” Poland said. “I’m an officer. I’m a major and the accused was an NCO, a staff sergeant. I don’t want to feel like I’m coercing him to do it and so that’s just to make sure that it’s the right thing, and he’s actually guilty.”
The court martial focused on the crimes that officials could prove occurred while he was on duty meaning they had to cross reference dates from the stepdaughter’s allegations and human resource records.
“There were other instances that were outside of the jurisdiction because it happened either after he retired, or at a time where we couldn’t necessarily prove he was on active duty,” Poland said.
Special Trial CounselThe case was handled by the Army’s Office of Special Trial Counsel, a new set of offices stood up by the Pentagon to handle criminal cases like sexual assault, murder, and domestic violence. Each military branch has its own office of special trial counsel and the lead prosecutors report to their service Secretaries in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps.
The office was created in response to conflict of interest complaints about the way that the military previously handled legal proceedings – allowing service members to be investigated and prosecuted by legal teams under the same local chain of command. With the new offices, cases can now be referred to the Office of Special Trial Counsel to be handled by independent prosecutors who will decide what actions, if any, from a court martial to dismissal, a case requires.
In this case, officials had to recall Rivers back to duty. The authority to recall veterans lies solely with the command and in the Army, that is the General Court Martial Convening Authority, or GCMCA. Under previous UCMJ policies, these officials could refer cases to court martial, or find other avenues to avoid trials. Critics cited frequent cases of operational commanders “sweeping under the rug” sexual abuse accusations if the accused was needed in their operational job.
But with the new Special Counsel, those commanders no longer have that authority for certain covered offenses like sexual assault and domestic violence.
“If a GCMCA or one of these commanders wants to recall an active duty or reserve soldier or retired soldier to active duty, they have to consult with the Special Trial Counsel,” Poland said.
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To celebrate it's 50th anniversary, the Air Force's F-16 Viper Demonstration Team aircraft has a new paint job that harkens back to the F-16's 1974 look. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Meghan Hutton.The Air Force debuted an old-is-new paint job for an F-16 this week to commemorate the aircraft’s 50th anniversary. The red-white-and-blue livery mirrors the scheme used on original YF-16 demonstrators in the early 1970s, and will also seem familiar to anyone who grew up building model planes from the era.
The YF-16’s first flight was in February 1974 and the first operational jets arrived at Hill Air Force Base in 1979.
The original YF-16 — which kept the ‘Y’ designator as an experimental plane until full production began — debuted during a two-year gold rush of aviation advancement as the modern replacements for the Air Force and Navy’s fleet of 1950s-designed fighters all arrived within months of each other in the early 1970s.
The F-14 took its first flight in December 1970. The F-15 and A-10 both followed in 1972 and the F-16 in 1974. The F-18 was not far behind, in 1978, just a year after the Space Shuttle’s first glide test in 1977. For comparison, the next four major fighters — the F-117, F-22, F/A-18 and F-35 — took 15 years to arrive between 1991 and 2006.
An early model of the F-16 in its red-white-and-blue livery. The throwback paint job is on an F-16 flown by the F-16 Viper Demonstration Team, which brings up a second issue in F-16 lore: just what do you call this jet?
Officially, it’s the Fighting Falcon, a name submitted by an Air Force Technical Sgt. in a “name the plane” contest in 1976, the year the first F-16 arrived at Hill Air Force Base. According to an official letter posted on F-16.net, TSgt. Joseph A. Kurdell earned a free dinner at the MacDill NCO Mess for submitting the name, which he said he’d picked up as a fan of attending Air Force Academy football games, whose mascot was the Fighting Falcon.
The name also thematically made the F-16 one of two new ‘birds of prey,’ alongside the Air Force’s other new jet of the era, the F-15 Eagle.
But pilots of the first F-16s at Hill Air Force Base called it the ‘viper,’ a name that has stuck as the plane’s unofficial nickname over the decades. An early F-16 pilot at Hill, Lt. Col. Pat “Gums” McAdoo, said in an interview posted on F-16.net that ‘viper’ was the early choice of pilots for the first production F-16s.
“At the end of the runway, the F-16 did resemble a cobra or something as it approached you,” McAdoo said. “We all voted, and Viper came in really high. Seems there was a series on TV that had ‘colonial Vipers’ flying off of Battlestar Galactica.“
The Battlestar Galactica-Viper mythology has circulated widely but McAdoo’s memories indicate the TV show was either coincidental or a secondary source of the name. Still, the late-70s Battlestar TV-Viper was notably F-16-like, with a single pilot, single tail, prominent air intakes for some reason and a healthy taste for weekly dogfights.
The timing on the Battlestar/Viper connection is about right, too. The show’s 34 episodes were broadcast from November 1978 to May 1980, just as the pilots at Hill were kicking the tires and lighting the fires on their own new Vipers.
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FILE: A Marine at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California. (Lance Cpl. Alexia Lythos/U.S. Marine Corps).A recently separated Marine threatened to go to “a rich white area and just start shooting,” as part of a series of social media posts in which he wrote that “my rampage will soon happen … I plan to now continue accumulating the necessary equipment to execute. Once all equipment is in, time will then tell. You all will die.”
Joshua Cobb was separated from the Marines in May and is now in federal custody. He wrote the posts in 2022, before joining the Marines in mid-2023. Court documents do not specify how or when Marines Corps or civilian authorities discovered the posts, but Justice Department officials interviewed Cobb in April and he was separated from the Marines one month later. Cobb is now in custody after allegedly admitting to FBI agents that he wrote the posts, court records show.
In his posts, Cobb said he wanted to “progress” into being a serial killer and later told FBI agents he felt empathy for mass shooters. Cobb also allegedly told the FBI that his plans involved attacking a gym, a grocery store, or going to a “a rich white area.”
Cobb allegedly became so angry when FBI agents told him they were seizing his cell phone that he told them, “These are the things that make someone want to do the things we talked about,” according to court records.
He also allegedly told a fellow Marine following his interview with the FBI, “This is why people like me shoot people,” court records show.
Cobb’s defense attorney declined to comment when contacted by Task & Purpose on Wednesday.
Cobb’s career in the Marine Corps was extremely brief. After attending recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina in June 2023, he became a terminal private first class, according to the 1st Marine Division.
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Cobb went on to graduate from the School of Infantry – East at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and in February he was assigned as a rifleman to 1st Battalion, 7th Marines at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California. He was separated from the Marine Corps on May 10. He received a certificate of commendation but no personal devices and did not deploy during his brief time on active duty.
Marine Corps officials have not publicly released any information about why Cobb was separated or what type of discharge he received.
Cobb is accused of making the threatening comments on social media before joining the Marine Corps, beginning with this December 2022 post on SMP-1: “I want to cause mayhem on the white community. The reason i specifically want to target white people is because as a black male, they will NEVER understand my struggles. Same way I will never understand their struggles, but I don’t care to. I want to erase them. All of them really, but in this case as many as I possibly can. As of today, I have officially began planning my attack. It is going to take place in 2023 in the state of New Jersey, I have not chosen a exact date but I am going to be sure that it is close to an important holiday for their race. I have a location in mind already which I have frequented for the past year and I am certain nobody there is armed to be able to stop me from spraying them to the ground. I have already acquired 2 of the 4 firearms I plan to use for my attack and I also know my entry and exit points after the mayhem.”
In subsequent social media posts, Cobb allegedly talked about killing cats with a crossbow; he described the adrenaline rush that comes from “shoot some s—t up;” he claimed that most members of his family suffered from mental illness but he refused to get evaluated because he did not want to lose his firearms license; and he wrote that “bloodshed” was the only way out for him.
“I hope I do progress into a serial killer because I f–king hate life man,” Cobb allegedly wrote in one post. “But one day everyone will suffer. I promise I will make everyone feel my f–king pain. My deep, sincere raw & sharp pain.”
On April 3, law enforcement officers seized Cobb’s phone and found entries in the notes section that included one about how he intended to save enough money “to purchase the appropriate weaponry for my killings.”
Cobb subsequently spoke with FBI agents at Twentynine Palms, during which he explained how he had detailed plans about striking a gym in New Jersey that included the best place where he could park his car so he could make his getaway and then “go like AWOL, go to like a different country or something.”
He also talked about other mass shooters, allegedly saying he felt the pain of the gunman who killed 17 people and wounded 17 others at Parkland high school, Florida, in 2018. Cobb allegedly expressed admiration for a white supremacist who killed 10 black people at a Buffalo supermarket in 2022.
At one point during the interview, Cobb allegedly said he wanted to attack a grocery store in Robbinsville, New Jersey because it was a place where “all these f–king rich-ass white people” go.
“And honestly, I still feel this way because it is a true thing because most people who are on the wealthier end spectrum, they don’t understand the spectrum they’re not living, they don’t know what it’s like to be in a bad spot,” Cobb told FBI agents. “I’m sure they have their own version of a bad spot, but it aint nothing like someone from the other side’s bad spot. So, my thing was to like bring the pain to them.”
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Army Spc. Patrick Byrne was sentenced to 20 years in prison in connection for the July 18, 2021 death of Denise Smith in Tacoma, Washington. At the time, he was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. (Photo from court records).A Ranger has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to first degree murder for brutally attacking and killing a civilian security guard in July 2021.
Spc. Patrick Byrne pleaded guilty on March 15 to a relentlessly brutal assault on Denise Smith, a Tacoma private security guard, during which he “dragged her around like a rag doll,” stabbed her in the face with keys, and strangled her, according to court records.
Prior to the incident, Byrne had been in a fight while drinking with other Rangers, during which he was punched in the head. As he fled the fight, Byrne appeared to stumble across Smith randomly while she was on duty at a nearby office building.
At the time of the incident, Byrne was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and had just returned from a two-month deployment to Afghanistan.
Byrne’s defense attorney had argued that the Ranger suffered a catastrophic brain injury from the blow to the head that caused him to attack Smith.
The Army will soon administratively separate Byrne now that his trial is complete, said Tracy Bailey, a spokeswoman for the 75th Ranger Regiment.
On July 18, 2021, Byrne entered a building in Tacoma, Washington, and assaulted Smith, according to his plea agreement. Video of the attack shows Byrne punching and strangling Smith, who stopped moving after about 11 minutes. He eventually jumped or fell 14 feet to get to the street.
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In addition to murder, Byrne was also initially charged with kidnapping and burglary, but those offenses were later dismissed, according to court records.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Thomas Howe wrote in a court filing that there is no question about how Denise Smith died.
“There is, however, a real issue of fact with respect to Mr. Byrne’s mental state at the time of the offense,” Howe wrote. “The two retained defense experts would be expected to opine that Mr. Byrne suffered a head injury in an earlier (also caught on video) altercation with at least one other individual, where he was likely briefly rendered unconscious, and that this injury led to a period where Mr. Byrne was not legally responsible for his actions.”
Prosecutors contended that Byrne’s head injury was caused by his fall from a second story window after the attack, and that he was suffering from “voluntary intoxication” at the time of the assault, Howe wrote.
“The fact that the motive for the killing is not well understood, and perhaps not understandable, is a factor that could make a unanimous decision for a jury difficult,” Howe wrote.
Byrne’s attorney David Katayama declined to comment when contacted by Task & Purpose.
In a defense sentencing memo, Katayama wrote that psychological reports indicate Byrne had a history of suffering serious head wounds before and during his time in the Army.
“Over the course of his military service, Mr. Byrne reportedly suffered additional head injuries, including ‘blast concussion’ and a major fall that resulted in head injury after Mr. Byrne’s parachute failed to deploy during an airplane jump,” Katayama wrote.
On the night of the assault, Byrne went out drinking with other Rangers when an argument broke out, Katayama wrote. One witness recalled seeing a man punch Byrne, who went down “pretty quick, you could tell that he was knocked out,”
Another witness said that Byrne hit his head on the ground, court records show. Several people recalled that Byrne briefly lost consciousness after he was knocked down to the concrete.
“Upon regaining consciousness, Mr. Byrne suddenly popped up and, without explanation, ran along Pacific Avenue and disappeared into downtown Tacoma alone,” Katayama wrote. Witness indicated in the interviews with police, that Mr. Byrne appeared dazed and that the ‘lights were on, but no one was home.’”
Within a few minutes, Byrne entered the office building and assaulted Smith. Two women who found Byrne afterwards said that he made bizarre statements at the time, such as claiming he had been sexually assaulted that night.
Byrne underwent psychological and forensic psychiatric evaluations that indicated he had suffered a traumatic brain injury after being punched that was exacerbated by earlier head injuries, Katayama wrote.
One expert determined, “That blow produced traumatic injury to areas of the brain very likely having a causal relationship to the homicide;” adding, “It was the punch to the head, not the alcohol intoxication, that was the pivotal precipitant for Mr. Byrne’s violent behavior,” Katayama wrote.
As part of his sentence, Byrne is not allowed to have any contact with Smith’s family for the rest of his life, court records show.
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An Air Force instructor pilot at Sheppard Air Force Base died when the ejection seat in their T-6A Texan fired while on the ground. Photo by 2nd Lt. Jonathan Soferr.An Air Force instructor pilot with the 80th Flying Training Wing at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas died overnight from injuries sustained when their T-6A Texan II ejection seat activated during ground operations here May 13, the Air Force said in a release.
The T-6A is a propeller-driven trainer that is the first plane student pilots officially are taught to fly at Undergraduate Pilot Training, or UPT. All Air Force pilots, regardless of the plane they will eventually fly, begin their flight training at UPT at Sheppard of another training base.
The mishap is the latest in a series of issues with the T-6A’s ejection seats. The Air Force grounded over 70 T-6s, alo in 2022 after defective explosive cartridges were found in the seats.
Sheppard is among the busiest Air Force bases in the world, launching 250 flights each day for UPT training and a follow-on course, Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals. IFF is the qualifying course for future pilots of fighter jets and other high-performance aircraft. Students fly the T-38 in that course.
Sheppard also hosts flight training for 14 NATO countries through the Joint Jet Pilot Training Program.
Sheppard is in north Texas adjacent to the city of Wichita Falls on the Oklahoma state border.
An investigation into the cause of the incident is underway. Per Air Force policy, the pilot’s name is being withheld until 24 hours after the notification of next of kin.
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Neptune, an Air Force Military Working Dog assigned to the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing, poses for an official portrait at an undisclosed location within the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, May 14, 2024. Photo by Tech. Sgt. Mercedee Wilds.Be sure to get a good bath the night before and wake up early to try on five outfits and reject them all because it’s Picture Day at the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing, which means a new round of official portraits for military working dogs.
Officials with the 380th wing at Al Dhafra Air Base, United Arab Emirates, released the official portraits of four of its military working dogs — Neptune, Zorro, Ttommaso and Cory — along with a backstage video shoot with the dog’s handlers.
All appear to be very good dogs.
U.S. Air Force Military Working Dog, Zorro. Photo by Tech. Sgt. Mercedee Wilds.The wing’s Facebook indicates that the dogs are deployed to the 380th from units at Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota, Moody AFB, Georgia and Tyndall AFB, Florida.The dogs, the wing said in a release, “along with their handlers, are a highly trained team in all aspects of canine law enforcement, including detecting drugs and explosives.”
Though officials did not specify the breeds of the four dogs, most working dogs across the U.S. military are at least part-German Shepherds or Belgian Malinois, a loyal, highly-trainable working breed that resembles German Shepherds but are smaller.
U.S. Air Force Military Working Dog, Ttammaso. Photo by Tech. Sgt. Mercedee WildsRegardless of branch, all U.S. military working dogs begin their careers at the 120-day Military Working Dog Training Program at the 341st Training Squadron at Joint Base-San Antonio, Texas, which has been training dogs since the 1950s. Most dogs that graduate sniff out explosives or detect drugs.
U.S. Air Force Military Working Dog, Cory. Photo by Tech. Sgt. Mercedee Wilds.Working dogs are nearly everywhere in the modern U.S. military, from Coast Guard drug enforcement to routine base security to special operations raids in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The 380th wing is one of five flying wings that make up Air Force Central, the air component of U.S. Central Command. The 380th flies air-to-air refueling tankers and the MQ-9 Reaper.
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Photo from Harrison Mann's LinkedIn.An Army officer has resigned from his military intelligence job in protest of what he calls the United State’s “unqualified support” for Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza.
Maj. Harrison Mann posted a letter to LinkedIn on Monday in which he explained why he felt compelled to resign from his intelligence officer position last fall. He wrote that the justifications for Israel’s war in Gaza became “difficult to defend” and that “whatever the justification you’re either advancing a policy that enables the mass starvation of children, or you’re not.” The post received an outpouring of support with hundreds of likes and comments in just a few hours.
Mann was working as a Foreign Area Officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Middle East/Africa Regional Center when he told superiors on Nov. 1, 2023 he would be resigning from the Army, according to his letter. Mann continued to work at DIA until mid-April, when he circulated his letter to colleagues. Mann said that he resigned from his DIA position earlier than required and without another job lined up. Mann has been in the Army for 13 years, according to his LinkedIn.
Reached by Task & Purpose, Mann declined to comment “unless cleared by DIA Office of Corporate Communications” or until after he leaves active duty next month.
According to the Army, Mann requested an unqualified resignation from his commission on Nov. 29, 2023 which is “a voluntary action for officers to be discharged from service and can be requested for any reason after completion of service obligations.” Mann’s request was approved Jan. 8, 2024 and will become effective on June 3, 2024, the Army said in a statement.
Mann commissioned into the Army in 2011 as an Infantry Officer. He is currently assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington D.C. as a Foreign Area Officer. He has deployed to Tunisia, Bahrain, South Korea and Kuwait.
Mann described grappling with his personal role “wittingly” advancing the U.S. military’s ”unqualified support” for Israel.
“I told myself my individual contribution was minimal, and that if I didn’t do my job, someone else would, so why cause a stir for nothing?” he wrote. “I told myself I don’t make policy and it’s not my place to question it.”
In his letter, Mann also says that he’s the descendant of European Jews and “was raised in a particularly unforgiving moral environment.”
“When it came to the topic of bearing responsibility for ethnic cleansing — my grandfather refused to ever purchase products manufactured in Germany — where the paramount importance of ‘never again’ and the inadequacy of ‘just following orders’ were oft repeated. I’m haunted by the knowledge that I failed those principles,” Mann wrote.
Mann went on to say that he held off sharing the reason for his resignation because he was afraid of violating professional norms and disappointing officers that he respects.
“These are not indefensible reasons. Each of us signed up to serve knowing we might have to support policies we weren’t fully convinced of. Our defense institutions couldn’t function otherwise. However, at some point it became difficult to defend the outcomes of this particular policy,” he wrote.
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Mann’s resignation comes amid increasing calls for the Biden administration to put parameters on U.S. weapon shipments to Israel, citing human rights concerns and potential violations of international law.
According to the national security blog, Just Security, since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel which killed more than 1,200 civilians, the U.S. has transferred bombs, artillery shells, precision guidance bomb kits, tank ammunition, guided missiles, firearms, drones, and various types of ammunition, to the Israeli government.
For the first time since the war began, President Biden decided to delay U.S. deliveries of 3,500 bombs to Israel in response to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah where millions of Palestinians have been displaced to and are seeking shelter.
Then, a recent State Department report found “reasonable” assessments that U.S.-supplied weapons to Israel were used by the IDF in cases inconsistent with International Humanitarian Law, IHL or best established practices for mitigating civilian harm. The report said that limited information was shared to assess the use of U.S. munitions but that Israeli operated systems which are “entirely U.S. origin,” like crewed attack aircraft, “are likely to have been involved in incidents that raise concerns about Israel’s IHL compliance.”
Protests in the ranksIn February, Senior Airman, Aaron Bushnell, set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C. and died of his injuries.
Bushnell’s protest inspired another Senior Airman, Larry Hebert, 26, who began a hunger strike in front of the White House in March to highlight the chronic starvation in the Gaza strip brought on by the war between Hamas and Israel. Hebert is now working to gain Consciounes Objector status, according to the veteran’s activist group Veterans for Peace.
In December 2021, U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Stuart P. Scheller Jr. was relieved and then resigned from the Marines Corps after posting a social media video in which he demanded “accountability” from senior leadership over the death of Marines at the Abbey Gate bombing in Kabul.
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Soldiers and civilians from Fort Lewis-McCord, Washington, line up to give blood on April 26 at Madigan Army Medical Center, where a soldier was being treated after being shot during a training event. (Photo obtained by Task & Purpose).After a soldier was accidentally shot in a training mishap at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, medical officials put out a call for blood donors. Over 300 soldiers showed up – six times the normal response. Army veteran Donavan Johnson was one of them.
“I donated blood because I know that If I could help by giving my blood I would like to,” Johnson said in a statement to Task & Purpose. “I would like it if someone did this for me if I was in need and I wanted to help others in need.”
Johnson was one of hundreds of service members and civilians at JLBM who donated blood at Madigan Army Medical Center at JBLM on April 26 after word spread that a 7th Infantry Division soldier had accidentally been shot by a squad automatic weapon the day before during a training event.
“If by donating blood I can save a life, why wouldn’t I?” said Johnson, who works at the hospital. “It was important to me to make sure that I can help whenever and wherever I can. I want to continue to help by donating blood every time I can.”
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Although a blood drive had already been scheduled for April 26, Madigan Army Medical Center leaders also sent out an email that day encouraging people to donate blood because a soldier was being treated for trauma, said Thomas Stone, a spokesman for the hospital.
After the email was sent, word got out to the wider Joint Base Lewis McChord community that a soldier was being treated for trauma and now would be a good time to give blood, Stone told Task & Purpose.
“About 300 servicemembers and civilians responded to the request to donate blood that day, although the blood bank team had capacity to process about 100 units of blood,” Stone told Task & Purpose. “Typically, having 50 donors during a blood donation event is considered a very good day.”
A picture posted on social media shows more than two dozen soldiers and civilians at Madigan Army Medical Center to give blood on April 26.
However, Stone disputed a claim shared on social media that the hospital asked for blood donors because it did not have enough blood on hand to treat the wounded soldier.
“The hospital’s blood supply was never in jeopardy of running low because of the trauma case —that case merely reminded people that we always need blood donations,” Stone said.
Army officials have not publicly released any information about the seriousness of the soldier’s injuries.
“In accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, we are unable to release additional details on the Soldier’s injuries,” said Lt. Col. Jennifer J. Bocanegra, a spokeswoman for I Corps.
The soldier is still being treated at Madigan Army Medical Center and is listed in stable condition, Bocanegra told Task & Purpose. The incident remains under investigation.
Military.com first reported that live ammunition may have been mixed with blank rounds during force-on-force training. Investigators are looking into how live ammunition was inadvertently used during the training event.
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A Fort Carson solider died in a training accident during a rotation at the Army's Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) at Fort Johnson, Louisiana. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Luciano Alcala).A soldier died in a training accident at the Army’s Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Johnson, Louisiana, officials said in a release.
The soldier was assigned to the 749th Ordnance Company, 242nd Explosive Ordnance Battalion , 71st EOD Group located at Fort Carson, Colorado. The unit was at the JRTC for a training rotation.
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The cause of the accident is under investigation, according to Fort Johnson officials.
The soldier’s name is being withheld pending notification to the family.
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The Army’s 10th Mountain Division moved a convoy of 400 soldiers and close to 200 heavy vehicles, thousands of tons of equipment through small Scandinavian towns, around fjords, and across three different countries on a 550-mile road march. Photo by Spc. Samuel Signor.Soldiers with the 10th Mountain Division recently completed an unprecedented 550-mile road trip across Norway, Sweden and Finland in which troops dealt with long-distance logistics, local laws and infrastructure regulations. It also meant keeping a sharp eye out for local wildlife.
“Every time we hit the border, it was a new rule,” Staff Sgt. Alec Doolittle told Task & Purpose. “When I got closer to the Finland border, they emphasized the fact that reindeer are really bad around here. I was definitely more observant and more alert when we got this way.”
In the end, no reindeer were harmed in the making of this NATO partnership exercise.
Over the course of five days in late April, the Army’s 10th Mountain Division moved a convoy of 400 soldiers, 165 vehicles, and thousands of tons of equipment through small Scandinavian towns, around fjords, and across three different countries on a 550-mile road march.
The exercise was the first time in decades that a major Army maneuver unit had traveled so far in Europe.
“The Army did these convoys during the surge in Iraq, where they would convoy from Kuwait,” Maj. Rachael Jeffcoat, a spokesperson for the 10th Mountain Division said. But the long-distance march was a first “for the European theater.”
The exercise had both a military and political component: could a major element of a brigade move that far, that fast, and arrive in combat-ready shape? And, second, the exercise served as a first major training operation on the home soil of the two nations that are the newest additions to NATO, Sweden and Finland.
“We just crossed Finland’s one-year anniversary for them joining NATO and then Sweden just joined here in March,” said Col. Ryan Barnett, commander of the 10th Mountain Division’s 3rd Brigade. “This was the first time the U.S. military had tested this capacity to land a brigade in Norway and then road march it across Norway through Sweden and then wind up in training areas in Finland.”
Norway is one NATO’s 12 founding members.
The exercise was also the Army’s way to validate its ability to transport convoys of equipment and personnel across different ports, borders and transportation systems in the three countries. During months of preparation, soldiers developed orders for hundreds of soldiers and local security escorts, and patched together the routes and schedules for convoys of Humvees, medium tactical vehicle variants, fuelers, ambulance vehicles, joint light tactical vehicles, forklifts and trailers.
Even small details could threaten the project: for the railways, for instance, the Army loaded 55 vehicles and trailers on a rail into Sweden which needed to be changed out for different gauges once the equipment reached Finland, Barnett said.
“That was another first and another test of strategic force projection for the alliance,” Barnett added.
Soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division during their 550-mile convoy exercise. Photo from Staff Sgt. Alec Doolittle.The exercise’s purpose was to project combat power among the new NATO members, but it also required soldiers to use judgment and tact as de facto tourists, their tactical American military equipment sharing the same roads as local civilians driving to the supermarket.
“We abided by traffic laws within the towns and so civilian vehicles were able to pop in and out of our convoys so we wouldn’t interrupt the flow of traffic,” Barnett said. “Driving through the towns, especially with these bigger vehicles, soldiers really had to have confidence in their driving skills.”
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Maj. Francis Porcase, executive officer of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, said that convoys didn’t spend more than 10 minutes at each border crossing. They received hand-held tactical radios to talk to their new NATO counterparts and shook the hands of their Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish escorts to who would oversee the route, logistics like traffic, speed limits, vehicle maintenance issues or weather conditions.
Diplomacy in a tactical operationThe Army’s exercise was based around speed and staying true to the operation’s schedule to finish in five days, Porcase said. But the Americans also were able to meet their local counterparts.
“At every stop, our soldiers were interacting with local host nation soldiers,” Porcase said. “It was super neat to watch the interaction between soldiers that had never met each other and only met each other for a couple hours or even just a few minutes.”
The soldiers traded patches and other memorabilia, with some of the 10th Mountain troops landing unique Scandinavian patches or knives with regional significance that local soldiers carried. Some even swapped American meals for Swedish and Finnish MREs, Porcase said.
Many times, Doolittle said, children waved and cheered and onlookers called out for friendly horn honks.
“When we did go through a town and there were people out, it was like a head turner and they almost looked as if they were confused as to why these American armored vehicles were rolling through our town,” Doolittle said.
Arctic conditions While the Nordic countries are currently experiencing Spring, the climate was still a far cry from the temperatures the Brigade was used to at home in Fort Jackson, Louisiana. Even during the day, temperatures hit just above freezing (though the 10th Mountain Division’s headquarters is at Fort Drum, New York — whose mountains and northeastern weather can be Scandanvia-like — the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team has been permanently based in Louisiana for almost a decade).
Before the exercise, the Southern U.S.-based leadership sent soldiers to the Army Mountain Warfare School in Vermont and had units practice putting snow chains on tires for icy road conditions.
“You don’t naturally get that inventory of cold weather equipment when you’re stationed at Fort Johnson so we were able to give them that equipment that they needed to operate out here in the colder climates,” Barnett said. This included thermal underwear, insulated pants and top, gloves and mittens, hoods, and a balaclava.
Moving hundreds of miles is nearly as foreign as the cold. At Fort Johnson, the training area is only about 10 to 15 miles from the brigade’s motor pools.
To be ready, they spent the months leading up to the exercise practicing.
“We ran through a series of vignettes to make sure that they understood if something would happen, what their actions would be and that included everything from a vehicle breakdown, a flat tire, an individual vehicle accident, like they run off the road or two vehicle collisions with a civilian vehicle,” he said.
Besides a few flat tires that were handled on the spot, 10 vehicles were evacuated to support centers to get them operational so they could finish the convoy.
“Overall, we were able to make the 908 kilometers without incident,” Barnett said. “So it was an extremely well done operation.”
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(Screenshot via @Kane on X).Pilot and aviator callsigns are the stuff of legend. In fiction, they can be iconic and instantly cool — think “Iceman” and “Maverick,” you know those are great — while in reality there isn’t a guarantee. Sometimes they can be nicknames given to new pilots by more experienced ones, often in jest. Whatever the case, one U.S. Air Force pilot with the callsign “Mullet” got a lot of attention online this week. It wasn’t for any of his actions, it’s because of what he took with him in the skies over the Middle East.
Zyn fuels the American warfighter. pic.twitter.com/HJvzNuXovQ
— Abd (@blocksixtynine) May 7, 2024
Yes, Mullet has a pack of Zyn on the dash of his F-15E Strike Eagle.
Zyn, a brand of nicotine pouches sold in cases, has become popular as an alternative to cigarettes. Like snus it’s consumed by placing it between the lip and the gum, making it a hands-free way to get nicotine, likely why it’s in Mullet’s fighter jet cockpit. Photos of the Zyn in the cockpit, and the amazing art on the plane itself have gone viral on social media.
The pilot and his F-15E are part of the 494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, which recently returned back to base after taking part in U.S. operations in the Middle East. The 494th, along with the 335th Fighter Squadron, shot down more than 80 Iranian drones fired toward Israel on April 13-14. It’s not just the name though. The F-15E Strike Eagle is adorned with some ornate art depicting both a guy with sunglasses, mullet and mustache as well as a bald eagle with a mullet looking at a setting sun. One tail wing sports the words “business in the front, party in the back.” Add in the Zyn on the dash and this guy is ‘90s Daytona Beach spring break personified.
Task & Purpose reached out to the 494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron and the 48th Fighter Wing to confirm Mullet’s identity, but as of press time has not heard back.
The viral photos were taken by the crew of an aerial tanker during a refueling operation, likely why the pilot was looking up and throwing the horns.
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And Mullet has the air combat skills to go with the sweet nose art. As Task & Purpose wrote about yesterday, several F-15E Strike Eagles from the 494th returned back to their base at RAF Lakenheath in the United Kingdom, with some new kill markings along the nose of the jets. Mullet sports nine AIM-9X missile silhouettes. Other F-15Es sport similar markings.
guys the pilot with zyn on the dash is callsign “mullet” and his f-15 Strike Eagle has an eagle with a mullet painted on it https://t.co/uoEYM1xxSE pic.twitter.com/Dqy4WQmr3h
— Kane 謝凱堯 (@kane) May 9, 2024
Sadly, it appears that Mullet, whoever this pilot with the magnificent nose art is, is not sporting a mullet. Photos of the Air Force officers returning home show a distinct lack of business in front, party in back haircuts. Regulation strikes again. Many of the pilots however are sporting fantastic mustaches, including squadron commander Lt. Col. Curtis “Voodoo” Culver.
The 494th is back in the United Kingdom after seven months in the CENTCOM area of operations. It’s unclear what its next deployment will be, but there’s a good chance a tin of Zyn goes with the squadron.
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CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 27: Roger Corman present The Grand Prix Award during the closing ceremony during the 76th annual Cannes film festival at Palais des Festivals on May 27, 2023 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images).Long-time director and producer Roger Corman died on Saturday, May 11 at the age of 98. The director of films such as “The Little Shop of Horrors” and “The House of Usher,” who was seen as one of the greatest B-movie makers in all of Hollywood, was also a Navy veteran.
Corman died in May 9 at his home in Santa Monica, Calif. Born on April 25, 1926 in Detroit, he moved to California in his youth and was in school when World War II broke out. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1944, while the United States was still in the fierce fighting of World War II.
For the most part, Corman’s stint in the armed forces was brief. He only briefly talked about it, saying that “I was in the Navy for two years. They were the worst two years of my life. Any rule they set out, I felt it is my duty to break that rule.”
In 2019 he would discuss his service more in depth, during an event at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, saying:
“The only time I ever had real fear was in the Second World War. We were being trained for the invasion of Japan and personnel had estimated on both sides ten million casualties, deaths and wounded. We knew what awaited us. I have a somewhat different opinion of the atomic bomb that someone else might have, because essentially I can consider that saved my life.”
After the war, Corman finished a degree in industrial engineering at Stanford University. He briefly worked for 20th Century Fox, looking to break into the movie business. He got sick of that, moved to the United Kingdom and used the G.I. Bill to study at Oxford University. Eventually, Corman returned to Los Angeles, selling a script for what became 1954’s “Highway Dragnet,” which he also produced. That was the start of Corman’s career. He became known for producing thrillers and monster movies, as well as the original “The Fast and the Furious” (unrelated to the family and cars-driven series, which licensed the name). Eventually he started directing, initially making Westerns before becoming a horror filmmaker.
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Among his large filmography were several classic films. Aside from Little Shop of Horrors, Corman directed a series of films starring Vincent Price inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, including “The Raven” and “Masque of the Red Death.” He also dabbled in war films, such as the World War II-set actioner “The Secret Invasion.”
He became known for two things: he definitely made B-movies with heavy lurid elements and he made them efficiently, quickly and utilizing limited budgets. Corman could film a movie in under two weeks, and he often did. As a result, he gained respect for the level of planning that went into each of his movies before Corman ever shot a frame.
Although Corman had a reputation as a B-movie director, his influence on modern cinema was massive. He produced Martin Scorsese’s “Boxcar Bertha,” as well as Francis Ford Coppola’s “Dementia 13.” He also worked on the films of Peter Bogdanovich and Jonathan Demme. Jack Nicholson’s first feature film role was in Corman’s “Cry Baby Killer.”
These film luminaries in turn paid tribute to him, often bringing Corman and his production posse into cameo or minor roles in their movies. As an actor, Roger Corman had an impressive resume as a bit actor in iconic films. His acting CV included roles in “The Godfather Part 2,” “The Howling,” “Philadelphia” and “The Silence of the Lambs.”
Roger Corman eventually received an honorary Oscar in 2009. He remained active in film, even presenting the Grand Prix award at Cannes in 2023 alongside Quentin Tarantino, a noted Corman fan.
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(Photo courtesy Pacific Historic Parks).Almost eight decades after a plane crash took their lives, five U.S. Army soldiers are finally being awarded the Purple Heart.
The five soldiers were among 31 killed 79 years ago when their plane crashed while trying to land in Okinawa. However, for decades only two of the victims of the crash ever received the Purple Heart. The U.S. Army is now working to correct that. On Friday, May 10, these five, all Japanese-American soldiers from Hawaii, were posthumously given the award in a ceremony at Pearl Harbor.
The five — Staff Sgt. Joseph Kuwada, Technicians Fourth Grade Haruyuki Ikemoto, Wilfred Motokane, Kanzuyoshi Inouye and Masaru Sogi — were part of the Military Intelligence Service (or MIS). The MIS was predominantly made up of Japanese Americans who used their language skills for intelligence gathering, ranging from interrogating captured enemy personnel to translating messages the U.S. got a hold of.
On Aug. 13, 1945, the five soldiers from Hawaii were with 26 others on a C-46 cargo plane, part of a wider airlift from the Philippines to Okinawa. According to military records, the plane made three attempts to land on the blacked-out airfield, crashing on the third attempt and killing all onboard. The other occupants included four crewmembers of the plane, 12 paratroopers with the 11th Airborne Division, five counterintelligence soldiers and five other members of the MIS.
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Despite all of that, only two of the 31 soldiers on board the plane had ever been awarded Purple Hearts. Instead, most of the victims were listed as “dead, non-battle,” and were not given the honor. The U.S. military is trying now, decades later, to make up for that. After a year-long review process, the Army is now in the process of giving the Purple Hearts to the families of the 29 other victims. Researchers who helped find the discrepancy attributed it to a mix of confusion near the end of the war in the Pacific and the fact that the plane’s passengers belonged to four different units, the Associated Press reported. Researchers also determined that racism did not play a role in the omission, with most of the victims of the crash being Caucasian.
“Shame on us for not recognizing that before so today is a righting of a wrong but it’s so important,” Maj. Gen. Brian Eifler, current commander of the 11th Airborne Division, said at the ceremony.
The Purple Hearts were presented to the families of the five soldiers by retired Army Gen. Paul Nakasone. Nakasone, who previously headed U.S. Cyber Command, is the son of a MIS soldier (who served after the end of World War II).
One of the honored soldiers’ sons, Wilfred Motokane Jr., told local news outlet KHON2 that the Army’s posthumous awards were welcome. “I think it’s like a long time coming,” he said, “but we’re happy it got done!”
The Army is now looking for the families of the 24 other deceased soldiers so that they can receive the posthumous awards. Those families can contact the Army Human Resources Command’s Awards and Decorations Branch.
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(photo by Airman 1st Class AlexanderVasquez/U.S. Air Force).One of the fighter squadrons that helped shoot down dozens of Iranian missiles last month has some fresh paint honoring those kills.
F-15E Strike Eagles and their pilots with the Air Force’s 494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron returned back to base at RAF Lakenheath in the United Kingdom this week. Amid reunions with family and friends, photos taken on the return show the F-15E’s with new kill markings and paint on the nose of the fuselage.
The photos, shared by the 48th Fighter Wing on social media and posted by the military to the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, show the F-15Es lined up on a runway. Along their nose they have new paint markings, including several bomb markings and the silhouettes of AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. The markings suggest air-to-air kills, and there are many of them.
The operation took place last month, when Iran and its allies in Yemen, Iraq and other parts of the Middle East fired dozens of drones and ballistic missiles, as well as several cruise missiles, toward Israel. The 494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron was part of a major multinational operation that shot down more than 300 Iranian missiles and drones. The attack was launched in retaliation over the bombing of an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria.
Alongside the 335th Fighter Squadron, based out of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, jets from the 494th took to the skies on April 13-14, shooting down more than 80 one-way attack drones fired by Iran and its partners in the Middle East. The two squadrons made so many kills in “dozens of engagements” that Task & Purpose previously noted the math suggests that more than one Air Force pilots likely made “ace” status from the weekend operation. It’s unclear how many of the kills in the markings are specifically from the April 13-14 sortees, but there is a strong chance several are, given the amount of interceptions. The squadrons and Air Force Central have not said if any pilot became an ace from the mission.
One plane, “Hellcat,” is rocking nine AIM-9X silhouettes in red, along with many more bomb symbols in black. Yet another, There is some disparity on the size of the markings; “Strafe,” has a large missile kill marking while “El Jefe” sports a smaller symbol in line with the other jets. The F-15E belonging to “Rawr” has an unusual one, showing what appears to be a ground-based system, either a rocket launcher or a radar dish, suggesting that the 494th and the 335th might have hit more than just drones while on the weekend interception mission.
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The F-15Es are back at their base in the U.K. after a seven-month deployment to the Middle East. The F-15s were operating out of Al-Azraq Air Base in Jordan, according to The Aviationist.
The April 13-14 mission was a multinational one, with American, British and other militaries scrambling to intercept missiles and drones over Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Israel. Almost all of the drones, ballistic and cruise missiles were taken out before they could hit Israel; only one person was reported wounded in the attack.
As Task & Purpose previously noted, air forces have previously counted large uncrewed aerial weapons such as the Nazi rockets in World War II as aerial kills.
So far the F-15s from the 335th Fighter Squadron haven’t been spotted with any signs of victory markings or kill marks. However if the 494th’s new paint job is any indication, they might soon.
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Pararescue specialist and Combat Rescue officers from the 920th Rescue Wing buzz the cruise ship Venezia prior to hoisting onto its deck to retrieve a sick child and his mother for an emergency transportation to shore. Air Force photo.Vacationing passengers aboard a cruise ship found got to see a mid-ocean airshow last week when a small fleet of Air Force rescue aircraft arrived overheard, 350 miles from shore, to transport a sick boy and his mother back to dry land. As decks full of tourists looked on, aircrews from the 920th Rescue Wing dropped pararescue specialists onto the ship, hoisted the mother and son from the deck and headed back to shore.
“These real-world missions are what our countless hours of training have prepared us for,” said Lt. Col. John Lowe, 920th Operations Group commander. “Rescue was able to plan and execute this mission without hesitation.”
When a call arrived of a seriously ill child aboard the Carnival cruise ship Venezia, the ship was 350 miles off the Atlantic coast of Florida. To reach it, the 920th Rescue Wing launched two HC-130J tankers and two HH-60G helicopters, each with two-man pararescue teams on board.
The Venezia is one of the largest cruise ships on earth and can carry over 4,200 passengers and 1,200 crew — roughly the same complement that sails aboard a Nimitz-class Navy aircraft carrier, including the pilots, maintainers and staff of its airwing. In fact, the Venezia weighs more than a Nimitz-class ship, is roughly the same length and stands 20 feet taller.
For most ocean rescues, the Coast Guard is typically the first maritime response force. But the medical condition of the child on the Venezia required immediate care and the distance from shore required helicopters capable of refueling several times, a specialty of Air Force rescue helicopters and their tankers.
“Everyone in the wing mobilized with exceptional speed,” said Capt. Dylan Gann, 301st Rescue Squadron pilot in an Air Force release.
Reaching the ship’s remote location required three air-to-air refuelings, the Air Force said. Both HC-130Js circled overhead as the HH-60s hovered over the ship, first dropping Pararescuemen aboard then recovering them with the patient and his mother.
The helicopters flew the boy to a Florida hospital and returned to Patrick about eight hours after launching.
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Dentist gives oral cancer screening. (U.S. Air Force/Airman 1st Class Jalene Brooks)Tech. Sgt. Justin Wolf, 11th Medical Group dentist, conducts an oral cancer screening for a veteran at the at a health fair for Retiree Appreciation day on Joint Base Andrews Md., Oct. 27, 2018. The Retiree Appreciation Day event provided veterans easy access to military health care screenings and immunizations as well as individualized assistance with military finance, records, and benefits questions.An Army veteran who asked to remain unnamed was deployed several times to Iraq and Afghanistan, and after he took off his uniform for the final time, began suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression.
Wrecked from guilt about both actions and inactions in combat, he was left without a will to live. He quit taking care of himself, stopped showering, stopped brushing his teeth, and binged on junk food. What was the point, after all?
After years of this, he was obese, and his mouth was deteriorating. His teeth became so painful that he couldn’t eat normally, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t even think straight. Finally, he reached out to the VA for help, but they told him they couldn’t cover his dental care – he would need to come out of pocket to fix his oral health. It would cost him thousands of dollars he didn’t have. He continued to spiral downwards, what was the point, after all?
Veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health ailments are still without a 100% guarantee of oral coverage, which includes dental care, through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
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Oral and mental health ailments have been well-researched, correlated, and understood within American healthcare for decades, yet 85% of the approximately 9 million American veterans do not have dental or oral health coverage through the VA.
Quan Nguyen, a Marine Corps veteran with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, is another one of those veterans. He’s been diagnosed with PTSD and has dealt with the destructive effects on his teeth and the rest of his well-being. But the VA ruled he would have no service-connected dental or oral health coverage.
“The [VA] eventually did tell me that I wasn’t covered,” Nguyen said. “But I mean, it wasn’t simple. It was just all the paperwork, all the appointments they make you do, and it’s not all at once — I wish it were.”
Several VA specialists saw him as he underwent a process of never-ending appointments. He’s since turned to private healthcare, spending thousands to address the various issues he believes to be connected to PTSD, like degraded enamel of the teeth, migraines, and other problems.
Nguyen is one of over 1.3 million veterans who are diagnosed with PTSD. When asked how many of those veterans have oral health coverage, Kunich said the VA does not track that data.
VA PTSD and oral care coverageMany veterans blame the VA for a lack of resources and their decisions on service-connected and covered conditions. However, the VA is bound by legislation regarding what can and cannot be service-connected. Congress establishes and maintains the legislation that governs the VA and how conditions and diseases are service-connected.
Under the existing statute specific to PTSD [Title 38 United States Code (U.S.C.) §§ 1712 and Title 38 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) §§ 17.161-166], there is nothing that directs the VA to automatically service connect dental and oral health problems for veterans diagnosed with service-connected mental health ailments like PTSD, anxiety, and depression.
“The VA is limited to providing dental benefits to those veterans who meet certain eligibility criteria and is obligated to fulfill the requirements of statutes enacted by Congress and to follow their intent. […],” said VA spokesperson Gary Kunich.
Kunich explained that eligibility for comprehensive dental benefits is generally “based upon a disability rating of 100% by service connection or individual unemployability, dental disability rating or service-connected dental injury related to trauma.” He encouraged all veterans to check with their local VA medical center to know their dental and oral health benefits.
Annaliese Cothron, co-founder & executive director for The American Institute of Dental Public Health (AIDPH), has long advocated for veterans and how they should have oral health coverage. She said that most veterans who have oral health coverage are typically rated at 100%, and few veterans are service-connected for dental or otherwise oral health problems unless it’s related to physical trauma to the face.
“By and large, those who have coverage usually have a 100% disability rating from an unrelated cause to their oral or mental health,” Cothron said. “Very few veterans are actually being rated or given a disability rating in the dental and oral cranial facial space unless it’s direct trauma.”
Private oral healthcare is expensive, and only some veterans can afford it. Not being able to afford the care can lead to degraded oral health, such as rotten teeth, headaches, and other issues, which may compound mental health symptoms veterans suffer from.
The VA has previously opposed legislation, citing underfunded staff and resources. However, Cothron says enacting legislation for the highest-cost veterans, based on their level of care, would be a financially savvy decision for the VA. According to AIDPH and CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, addressing veterans most at risk, like those with heart disease and diabetes, could save the VA up to $3.4 billion.
“The cost savings are on their medical care,” Cothron said. “So, if you’re having poor oral health, or periodontal issues, if those are corrected and supported, you’re going to have improvements in your heart disease and diabetes conditions. The mouth doesn’t just happen in a silo. All of these things are interconnected.”
How are oral care and mental health connected?The average layperson doesn’t generally understand how the mouth affects the body’s overall health and well-being. But just as toxic exposures have led to ailments like leaky gut syndrome and non-traumatic brain injuries, oral health can gravely affect the body when neglected.
“There are considerations, like biochemically, within the body that we like to talk about, called the oral systemic connection. […]. It’s just how your body all flows together,” Cothron said. “Sometimes in the oral health space, we like to talk about the need to put the mouth back in the body because oftentimes this is highly under-considered because our healthcare system is so fragmented.”
Primary care is separate from dental care, which is separate from specialty fields in healthcare like cardiology or endocrinology. Then, mental health problems are often misunderstood on how much of a systemic effect they have, though that doesn’t just apply to veterans.
“It’s just a thing that happens to everybody and also happens to veterans as a byproduct of having disproportionately higher rates of anxiety in a particular population,” Cothron said. “Again, as a result of military service.”
PTSD, anxiety, and depression are some of the common mental health diagnoses found within the veteran community. Side effects of these mental health conditions can lead to grinding your teeth, which is called bruxism. If untreated, the grinding action will lead to deterioration of the outer enamel of the veteran’s teeth.
Cothron explained how depression can lead to bad oral health problems. When someone is stricken with heavy depression, they have a hard time getting out of bed, let alone brushing and flossing their teeth. They will struggle to eat, leaving their mouth undernourished and vulnerable.
“It’s pretty insidious because poor mental health and mental health issues can affect so many parts of your life,” Cothron said. “Oral health is often a byproduct of having these unmedicated mental health issues that we see commonly see with veterans.”
What may surprise some is the effects that are secondary to PTSD, all the way down to the cellular level.
“When your body experiences a disproportionate amount of trauma, which will cause PTSD, your body circulates and produces more inflammation than it normally would because you’re producing more stress hormones,” Cothron said. “That often creates things like periodontal disease, and it can also exacerbate chronic disease conditions, too — like heart disease and diabetes.”
When inflammation goes unchecked within the body, it creates a vicious cycle that exacerbates existing chronic diseases and wreaks havoc on the body.
The solutionAs many veterans have done, take things into your own hands if the VA denies you oral health coverage. Yes, it’s expensive, but the medical bills that follow unchecked oral health problems will likely be more expensive.
“At some point, you got to ask yourself, and this is an individual question that I can’t answer for anybody else, but what are you willing to do to be better? Some of us will do anything, and then, on the other end of the spectrum, there are people who are just stubborn as hell. […],” Nguyen said. “They won’t want to do anything, but at the same time, they’re always complaining, and they want some kind of magic bullet or solution that is not too difficult for them.”
Nguyen believes that people who are that stubborn like to blame it on their military service but were likely that way long before they joined. Cothron said it’s a simple thing for people to do: go see your dentist, and don’t try to go down too many rabbit holes online with unqualified opinions.
“I know that there are some things that are easy to find on the internet to kind of access good information and good science, but for every good piece of information, sometimes there are five bad pieces of misinformation available right beside it,” Cothron said. “So, going to the sources is the easiest place to wade through some of that information.”
The AIDPH has conducted several research studies, including veteran surveys. Of the 85% of veterans who are not eligible, the remaining 15% are but don’t use their oral health benefits.
“42% of veterans said that they didn’t know if they were eligible for dental care, versus the 85% that knew they qualify for medical care. So, because the process is complicated for dental care, the eligibility isn’t super clear. That’s the first thing that we have to do: if you are eligible, utilize that benefit. Get your dental care. You deserve it, you’re entitled to it, and it’s good for you.”
Cothron agrees that the VA is underfunded and understaffed, limiting its ability to get more veterans in for their oral health needs, let alone all of their healthcare needs. Cothron said a major help would be Congress fully funding the VA and its regularly increasing costs for the millions of veterans under its care.
The VA’s eligibility standards for oral health have not been updated in seven years, and new research has been published over that period, showing that the standards are outdated and no longer accurate.
“We also know that this is not quote unquote, the VA that’s doing this. The providers don’t set the guidelines, it’s Congress,” Cothron said. “Congress not only has to fund it fully, but they also have to change the eligibility standards.”
Cothron said other alternative approaches can be used until Congress fully funds the VA. Extending the coverage to the highest-risk veterans, like those with heart disease, diabetes, and PTSD, is what Cothron believes is the best first step for the VA without the proper funding.
“So while we’re strongly in the position of supporting all veterans in the VA to have dental care coverage, we believe that the place to start is extending out dental coverage to the highest cost, highest risk veterans so that the VA can really start to absorb those cost savings over time,” Cothron said.
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Retired Marine Lt. Col. Harlan Page Chapman spent more than seven years in captivity as the Marine held longest by the North Vietnamese as a prisoner of war. He died on May 6, 2024 at the age of 89. (Photos courtesy of Fran Chapman/ U.S. Air Force/ The Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership).When Lt. Col. Harlan Chapman arrived in Hawaii after his release from seven years in North Vietnamese prisoner of war camps, Marine Lt. Gen. Louis Wilson was there to meet him.
“Welcome back to the Marine Corps,” Wilson told Chapman.
“Thank you, general,” Chapman replied, “But I never left.”
Chapman spent more time as a prisoner of war than any other Marine held in captivity during the Vietnam War, according to an official Marine Corps history of the conflict (the longest-held American of the war was an Army Special Forces officer, Col. Floyd James Thompson who spent nine years in captivity).
On May 6, Chapman died at the age of 89, his family told Task & Purpose on Friday. The Marine aviator’s military awards include the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star with “V” device, and Prisoner of War Medal.
“Despite extreme cruelties during interrogation periods and severe maltreatment on a continual basis, Lieutenant Colonel Chapman distinguished himself by his indomitable spirit and dogged tenacity,” his Silver Star citation reads. “Refusing to provide the enemy with information, even that of a biographical nature, he aroused the increased wrath of his captors.”
“By his steadfast determination, devotion to duty, and adherence to the Code of Conduct, Lieutenant Colonel Chapman knowingly brought harsher treatment upon himself,” the citation continues. “Disregarding his own personal safety and well-being in order to remain loyal to the United States and to set an example for his fellow prisoners, he illustrated a high degree of professionalism under the most adverse of conditions.”
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Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith provided Task & Purpose with a statement on Friday paying tribute to Chapman’s life and legacy.
“All of us owe a debt of gratitude to the heroes of our Corps who came before us,” Smith said. “Harlan Chapman is one of those heroes. We cannot possibly ever repay his sacrifice, and his Marine brothers and sisters together mourn with his family as we honor his life, his courage, and his commitment to our Nation. We remain Semper Fidelis to his memory.”
Chapman’s odyssey as a POW began on March 5, 1965, when his F-8 Crusader was shot down over North Vietnam on a bombing mission.
“Just before I released the bombs, the airplane got hit,” Chapman recalled in a May 2021 interview with The Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership at the U.S. Naval Academy. “I lost control of the plane. The plane was sort of tumbling. Nothing would stick, and I thought I was going to die.”
Chapman tried to reach for the overhead curtain that he needed to pull to eject, but the G-forces of the tumbling plane were so strong that he struggled to raise his arms. When he finally managed to get out of the plane, North Vietnamese forces below shot at him as he floated to the ground. He was captured as soon as he landed.
The torture began when Chapman arrived at a prison in Hanoi. He was suffering from a partial shoulder separation and his interrogators bound his hands tightly behind his back and put his legs in irons.
Despite threats that he would be shot, Chapman initially would only give his interrogators his name, rank, and serial number. When the pain he was enduring became excruciating, he started giving them fake names of members of his squadron, such as Clark Kent.
“That went on for too long, but I felt like hell that I had stopped sticking with name, rank, and service number,” Chapman said. “You feel like you’ve really failed, you know.”
Chapman was able to evade other questions due to his interrogator’s limited understanding of the Marine Corps, he said. When he was asked questions about the Navy, he would claim he didn’t have the information because he was a Marine. He also pleaded ignorance to questions about the Marine Corps, saying he was with the Navy.
All total, Chapman would spend more than 2,600 days in captivity before being released in February 1973. His stepson Darold Hessel told Task & Purpose that the lesson that Chapman and other Americans held as POWs during the Vietnam War can teach is that strong moral character and camaraderie can allow people to get through extreme duress.
Hessel, a former Marine captain and Cobra helicopter pilot, remembered his step-father advising him how to build relationships with others in his squadron during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and to have faith in the system and country.
Chapman didn’t talk to his children about his experiences as a prisoner of war, Hessel recalled.
“When I joined the Marine Corps and was writing a paper in college about it, he opened up for the first time to me really,” Hessel said. “Even then, it was more of a willingness to answer my questions than it was to dig deep into the details of his own story.”
Chapman and his wife Fran celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary just days before his death. She told Task & Purpose that Harlan was a “quiet and unassuming guy” who would answer questions from people he knew about his captivity.
But he had acardinal rule for sharing those stories: “Never talk about it while drinking.”
After retiring from the Marine Corps in 1976, Chapman and his wife spent 28 years running a real estate appraising business because he felt a regular office job would be too confining, she said.
Throughout Chapman’s life, honor, integrity and family were his guiding principles, Fran said.
“I think if you asked him, the motto ‘Return with Honor’ is exactly what [former POWs] stood for,” she said, “And they did.”
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Mitchel Coffman is a professional artist and brings veterans stories to life through his paintings while making the fallen immortal, keeping their memories alive through his work. (Task & Purpose photo/Joshua Skovlund).When an Army Ranger is killed in action, the 75th Ranger Regiment honors their legacy in many different awe-inspiring ways. That’s how Mitchel Coffman first connected with the close-knit community of Rangers, which led him to use his unique talents to honor fallen service members.
“Man, those [Rangers] are just the dudes that do the fucking thing that they say they’re going to do,” Coffman said. “I always admired that about them.”
Coffman never really fit in throughout his school and art career. He came from a blue-collar family and transferred from community college to the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). He and his close friend, Zach Walters, dealt with similar issues because of their love of sports.
“We weren’t the norm. We both had an athletics background at art school. We had a hard enough time fitting in as it was because of that,” Coffman said. “The majority of my painting professors never liked me because of that. It was this uphill battle the entire time.”
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Coffman grew up playing sports and was a founding member of the SCAD Lacrosse team. He was the first assistant strength and conditioning coach in the athletics department during graduate school. Walters trained in an MMA gym and regularly rolled with some of the guys from 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, and he asked Coffman if the Rangers could train with them at the gym.
“Being someone that’s super duper competitive, I’m always trying to prove myself,” Coffman said. “I was like, ‘Hell yeah, man, bring those special forces [Ranger] guys, I want to see how we stack up against these dudes.’”
The group forged a strong friendship early on, bonding over the grueling workouts, and going out together in Savannah’s busy downtown. But once Coffman graduated, he moved to New York City to continue his art career. Sgt. Roberto “Rob” Sanchez, one of the Rangers who became friends with Coffman, was killed in action during a deployment to Afghanistan in 2009.
The Rangers had a lasting impact on Coffman, and he always wanted to depict their experiences through his art to show the world how incredible these hard-chargers were.
Mitchel Coffman with his triptych painting depicting the many stories of veterans and their experiences at war. (Joshua Skovlund/Task & Purpose)In May 2022, Coffman and a designer unveiled a massive presentation at Hunter Army Airfield (HAAF), home to 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, dedicated to fallen Rangers. The elegant display of portraits depicts the many 1st Battalion Rangers killed in action. The two were awarded medals as the entire battalion welcomed them to their compound in recognition of the work they dedicated themselves to.
With his wife and parents next to him, the moment became a highlight of his life.
“It was an unbelievable experience. Hearing the Ranger Creed and they flew helicopters over the top of us — holy shit, man,” Coffman said. “To know that I worked on a project that got that, like, I don’t give a shit about putting work in a gallery at that point.”
A year later, Coffman and the designer presented another series of portraits, this time of Rangers who had been killed in training. Both presentations are housed in the Hall of Honor at HAAF. During both presentations, he met Gold Star families which helped him better understand how much the portraits mean to the families and friends of those killed.
Mitchel Coffman’s mobile painting station that he uses to create massive works of art for the “Wish You Were Here” series. (Joshua Skovlund/Task & Purpose)“You are solidifying their son, their brother, or whatever family member’s memory and life — forever,” Coffman said. “Like I painted this person, and it’s going to live in this place forever, with their name, and they will never be forgotten.”
He thoroughly researches every project he takes on to learn the story behind the person he’s painting. Coffman talks to family, friends, and fellow service members to understand the character of the person he’s painting so that he can portray them as accurately as possible.
“I don’t even know how you’d classify what level of education I’ve gotten from these projects, but every conversation I have, I learn more and more and more,” Coffman said. “It’s really cool. I enjoy it.”
His current project started in 2016, before the Hall of Honor project and expanded into detailing the culture and life of conventional troops, Marine Raiders, Navy SEALs, and Rangers. It’s titled “Wish You Were Here,” and it tells the story of the War on Terror and the unique lives of those who served and deployed. Each oil on canvas painting is a highlight from a series of photos Coffman received from veterans to use as inspiration.
Mitchel Coffman’s depiction of his close friend Zach Walters and his locker while serving as a Navy SEAL. (Joshua Skovlund/Task & Purpose)The paintings have so many details that a person can stare at any piece of art in the project for hours and still find new details. Each canvas is massive, and once completed, will be an abstract American flag when displayed together. But individually, each canvas tells a story. One of the pieces is titled “PTSD.”
“What I decided to do was not just paint portraits, but I painted incomplete portraits to symbolize the incomplete lives that all these guys had,” Coffman said. “I did some research about the statistics. There were so many different numbers for how many guys take their lives every day, so I landed on 24,” Coffman said. “I did 12 incomplete portraits, and then I left 12 spaces undone to represent how we don’t talk about [PTSD and suicide].”
Every canvas aims to humanize service members and what they’ve been through. Each installment is heavy with the burden of memories of those lost while shining a light on happy memories like a puppy on deployment or the soldier picking his nose during downtime.
The immersive exhibit will include audio interviews with the veterans who submitted photos and animations that bring the paintings to life. Coffman has started talking to museums and other venues to display his exhibit, which he estimates will be done soon, but is looking for more venues to collaborate with. He hopes to display his exhibit all across the U.S., giving veterans, Gold Star families, and art enthusiasts a chance to see it no matter where they live.
The last painting in Mitchel Coffman’s series, titled, “Wish You Were Here.” (Joshua Skovlund/Task & Purpose)Coffman’s last installment for the project is possibly the heaviest of them all.
It’s an abstract oil on canvas painting that depicts a photo of Coffman comforting his mom off to the side of his father’s flag-draped casket. His dad was a Vietnam Veteran who died after a long battle with cancer. Coffman’s father grew up working with his dad at a steel mill, and after returning from Vietnam, he couldn’t find his footing as an animator, so he ended up taking an office job to support his family.
“That was a decision that he always regretted growing up. He always told me never to grow up and be like him. My inspiration, drive, and passion — all those things come from him,” Coffman said. “The piece I’m doing now is from his funeral because he passed away and didn’t get to see the piece or this work displayed. […]. To leave out my dad and his military service as a part of the whole story would be a huge miss for me, and I couldn’t do that.”
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The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) conducts flight operations in response to increased Iranian-backed Houthi malign behavior in the Red Sea, Feb. 3, 2024. The Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations to support maritime security and stability in the Middle East region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Janae Chambers).The Navy has released the name of a sailor who died while deployed in the Uthe U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility.
On May 6, 2024, Selected Reserve (SELRES) Chief Hospital Corpsman Daniel D. McCracken died from a non-combat incident, the Navy said in a statement. No other details about the sailor’s death were released. The cause of death remains under investigation.
Though the Navy did not say if McCracken was assigned to a ship in the area, Navy forces in Central Command have been in heavy action both around Isreal and in waters near Yemen. Navy forces have intercepted hundreds of drones and missiles in both areas in defensive roles. Navy air defense systems have engaged Iranian-launched missiles and drones headed toward Israel while fighters from U.S. aircraft carriers have destroyed hundred of drones and missiles launched by Houthi rebels in Yemen at commercial shipping lanes.
“Grief counseling services and support are available through the chain of command and command chaplains,” the Navy said in a release. “Our thoughts and condolences are with the family, friends, and shipmates who are impacted. We care about our Sailors – and their families – and we continue to do everything possible to support them.”
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A florida sheriff released bodycam video of an incident in which a deputy shot and killed Air Force special operations aircrew member senior airman Roger Fortson. Video from Okaloosa SO, photo courtesy US Air Force.The encounter in which a Florida sheriff’s deputy shot an Air Force AC-130 gunship crewman inside his apartment near Hurlburt Field was a split-second confrontation in which the officer drew and fired his pistol directly at the airman immediately after the man opened his front door holding a pistol.
But his family says the graphic video, and a second one recorded by the airman’s girlfriend over Facetime during the shooting, brings up more questions than answers.
Senior Airman Roger Fortson died soon after the May 5 shooting. The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office released the bodycam footage from the incident Thursday afternoon, soon after allowing Fortson’s family to view the footage.
In a statement through a lawyer, Fortson’s family said, “despite the redactions, the video has provided some answers, but it’s also raised even more troubling questions: As the officer didn’t tell Roger to drop the weapon before shooting, was the officer trained to give verbal warnings? Did the officer try to initiate life-saving measures? Was the officer trained to deal with law-abiding citizens who are registered gun owners?”
Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office Sheriff Eric Aden said he met with Fortson’s family for the viewing and offered his condolences to them. He also disputed reports the deputy had gone to the wrong apartment or had entered Fortson’s apartment without warning.
“We are aware of a press release and other comments that falsely state our deputy entered the wrong apartment and implied that they burst through the door into Mr. Fortson’s residence,” Aden told reporters during a Thursday news conference. “Those statements are inaccurate.”
However, in a statement released after the bodycam footage was made public, Fortson’s lawyer, Ben Crump, insisted that Fortson’s apartment was incorrectly targeted, even if the deputy had the correct address.
“We remain adamant that the police had the wrong apartment as Roger was on the phone with his girlfriend for a substantial amount of time leading up to the shooting, and no one else was in the apartment,” Crump said.
From the video, one key fact previously claimed by the Sheriff’s office is clear: Fortson was holding a handgun when he answered the door.
However, in the brief moment in which the gun is visible before he falls, Fortson is holding the gun at his side.
The video also confirms several other claims that had surfaced around the shooting and dispels others.
- The deputy loudly identifies himself as law enforcement and does not cover the “peephole” in the door — both actions that reports on social media had called into question. However, the deputy does move well clear of the door after his first knock to where he would be difficult to see through the peephole. It is also not clear if Fortson ever hears the deputy’s shouts.
- Fortson’s family has said the deputy went to the “wrong” apartment, but the video shows that the deputy was called to the scene by staff of the apartment complex, one of whom directs him to apartment “1401,” a number clearly visible outside Fortson’s door. The staffer escorts the deputy to the elevator that led to Fortson’s apartment.
- Fortson did not fire any shots and fell immediately to the ground when the deputy fired.
A video still which shows the deputy arriving at Fortson’s apartment, 1401, the same number he was directed to by apartment staff earlier in the video. The entire violent encounter lasted five seconds, according to the timestamp on the video: Fortson begins to open the door at 4:32:00. The deputy tells him to “step back” as the door swings open two seconds later, then immediately draws and fires at least five shots (a lawyer for Fortson’s family claimed earlier Thursday that Fortson had been shot six times).
After the shots, with Fortson on the ground, the deputy yells for Fortson to “drop the gun” and Fortson responds “it’s over there” and “I don’t have it.”
The video ends with the deputy reporting that shots have been fired and requesting emergency medical services come to the scene.
Fortson was a Special Missions Aviator assigned to AC-130J gunships under the 4th Special Operations Squadron, 1st Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field, Florida. He entered active duty on Nov. 19, 2019.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is following the case “closely,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters on Thursday. The Defense Department offers its thoughts and prayers to Fortson’s family.
“A tragic situation here,” Ryder said at a Pentagon news conference. “As I mentioned we’re certainly saddened by the loss of our airman. We obviously need the investigation to run its course, don’t want to get ahead of that. But we certainly never want to see our airmen or any military member or part of our DoD family be put into a situation like this. So, again, we need to allow time for the investigation to run its course, and we’ll certainly have more to say once we’ve had the opportunity to see that.”
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Christopher Ferguson , Jacob Dalton, and Thomas Pencis after graduating from Marine Corps basic training. Photo from Tom Pencis' Facebook.Three Marines who graduated boot camp in April were looking forward to representing their recent accomplishment at their Colorado High School graduation later this month. That was until they were told by school officials that they would not be allowed to wear their dress blues unless it was covered by a cap and gown.
Thomas Pencis, Jacob Dalton, and Christopher Ferguson went to summer school in order to finish their credits early and attend Marine Corps boot camp before graduating from Centennial High School.
Their school is in Pueblo, Colorado also known as the “Home of Heroes” because it was home to four Medal of Honor recipients: one from World War II, two from the Korean War, and another from the Vietnam War. Four large bronze statues depicting the MOH recipients sit in front of the Pueblo Convention Center, which is also home to active duty troops and veterans.
In a statement to Task & Purpose, the Marine Corps said it was “aware of the sentiments expressed by Marines from 8th Marine Corps District who recently graduated high school. We value our relationships with our local high schools and will continue to respect the policies and procedures of all establishments and institutions within our communities and are appreciative of their ongoing support.”
The three young marines were instructed by leadership not to discuss the issue so Task & Purpose spoke with Thomas’ father, Tom Pencis.
When the three friends discussed finishing early with the school, the principal and counselors told the three young men they could walk in their uniform, and “they thought that would be a great idea,” Pencis said. But the new principal said otherwise.
“[Thomas] doesn’t even want to attend graduation now and that really breaks my heart,” Pencis told Task & Purpose. “He believes he’s a United States Marine, he earned that uniform. He just has strong beliefs that he shouldn’t have to cover it up, period. It’s that simple.”
The story was first reported by a Pueblo television station, KRDO on Tuesday. On Thursday, the three students met with school officials, including a mediator, to find a compromise, Pencis said. The details are still being worked out but in general, the school decided to honor the three Marines at graduation after the presentation of the colors, while wearing their dress blues. Then the students would change into their gowns and pick up their diplomas.
The Pueblo School District 60 said in a statement to Task & Purpose that they had “a very productive meeting with the three Marine scholars earlier today.”
“These students will be honored during the portion of the graduation ceremony dedicated to military service. The students will participate in full uniform for this segment of the commencement exercise and, in addition, will receive their high school diploma in full academic regalia. It is important that our scholars are valued, recognized and honored for both their military service and academic achievement,” the district said in their statement.
Pencis said he believes the other two students will accept the compromise but his son remains adamant about his decision.
“My son’s stance is he doesn’t even want to go now. He doesn’t want nothing to do with them and I understand why and I have his back 100%,” Pencis said. “You don’t dishonor this country and the uniform and that’s what they’re doing.”
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Thomas had set his heart on the Marine Corps as a way to pay for college and because he views the other branches like his father as “too woke.” Thomas didn’t go to his high school prom because he returned from boot camp that day. He also gave up playing basketball “because he was worried he would get hurt and he wouldn’t be able to go to boot camp,” Pencis said.
Pencis described his son as an old soul with extreme dedication to his country. They lost Thomas’ mother to cancer almost four years ago so Pencis noted that being just the two of them, his son takes after his hard work ethic. Pencis is also a veteran.
Penics added that his son Thomas was the “catalyst” to get the other two, Jacob and Christopher, to join the Marine Corps. Jacob had transferred into that high school last year and Thomas influenced him to go to summer school to catch up on credits and join the Marines together. For Christopher, he had his eyes set on the Army as a ROTC cadet.
“My son convinced him, you don’t want to join the Army. Better join the Marines because that’s the best of the best,” Pencis said. “He convinced them to and he’s so happy he did.”
The issue isn’t new
This isn’t the first time that students finishing high school joined branches of the U.S. military and fought for their ability to wear their uniforms to show their pride at graduation.
The issue led New Hampshire lawmakers to pass a law making sure local Marines didn’t face the same issue. In 2016, then-Gov. Maggie Hassan, now a Senator for New Hampshire, signed “Brandon’s Law” which enshrined the right for Marines to wear their service uniforms to graduation into law.
The law was named after Lance Cpl. Brandon Garabrant, whose high school mandated he wear his Marine uniform under a cap and gown at graduation in 2013. At the time, Garabrant had just completed boot camp at Marine Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina. He was killed the following year in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
In Florida, Gov. Ron Desantis passed a similar law in 2019 after a high school senior serving as an Army Reservist was denied a request to wear her uniform to graduation.
“If it was one Marine, I could see – cover them up. But this is three,” Pencis said. “That’s what drives me crazy, they should let them all three do it.”
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Image from the Army's latest commercial "Boxes" which is part of the civilian marketing campaign "Find Your Level.".The Army’s latest television spots are aimed at different recruits than the service’s typical high-energy, parachute-and-tanks ads. In two new ads released today, the Army wants to catch the attention of civilians already working in science and engineering fields and sell them on similar jobs working for the military.
The civilian-targeted campaign, dubbed “Find Your Next Level,” features two commercials that show off two Army Civilian careers that mirror civilian jobs– one a scientist drilling into the ice in arctic conditions and the other an engineer surrounded by satellites the size of skyscrapers.
The two new commercials will be featured in television, print, digital billboards, streaming video, social platforms and audio channels.
In a first for the service whose recruiting legacy includes action-heavy ad campaigns like “Be All You Can Be,” the Army is hoping “Find Your Next Level” convinces civilians to, well, be what they already are, and work for the Army as in civilians jobs similar to the ones they already have. Army Civilians are employed by the Army but do not enlist or commission, do not go to basic training and do not wear uniforms.
“Today’s workforce seeks meaningful careers, but few see Army Civilian Careers as a source of those opportunities,” Brig. Gen. Antoinette Gant, chief of the Army Enterprise Marketing Office said in a news release. “’Find Your Next Level’ aims to bridge this gap by demonstrating how today’s professionals can apply real-world job skills to impactful projects and careers they can’t find anywhere else.”
The Army has been vocal about its recruiting crisis due to image problems with Gen Z, Americans’ waning trust in public institutions, and competition with the private sector. But the service’s struggle to hire and retain civilians who work in fields like contracting, finance, cybersecurity and engineering is a recent problem highlighted by other efforts in addition to the latest marketing campaign.
Just last month, the service held its first “Total Army” recruiting event in Texas, seeking out potential soldiers as well as candidates for nearly 500 vacant civilian positions. Roy Wallace, assistant to the Army’s Deputy Chief of Staff linked the large number of open positions to “record breaking” retirements during the pandemic.
“I don’t know if I can blame that on COVID and the outcomes of COVID and things like that, but we have been seeing a larger than normal retirement rate which means you gotta replace those people,” Wallace told reporters in April. “Those people that are retiring are your folks with a lot of experience, so you’ve got to start early. You’ve gotta get the younger people in.”
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One of the ads, dubbed “Boxes,” captures an Army civilian physical scientist and his team as they drill into the ice to take samples for ice core research. The campaign will also be distributed in Spanish.
“If you find yourself in a box that can no longer contain you, it’s time to find a bigger box,” the narrator says. “Find your next level.”
“Sky” shows an Army civilian satellite engineer working at an expansive satellite array with a team. The camera pulls back to show the engineer surrounded by enormous satellites with mountains in the background. Perhaps the North American Aerospace Defense Command facility in Colorado Springs?
“If you choose to be challenged, the sky isn’t the limit. It’s just the beginning,” the narrator says. “Find your next level.”
The campaign’s launch coincides with the debut of a new Army Civilian brand, which includes an Army Civilian logo and other “creative elements reflective of the overall Army brand launched in 2023.”
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FILE: An AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter heads out on a mission on Dec. 22, 2007. (Maj. Enrique Vasquez/U.S. Army).Two Army aviators were injured when their AH-64 Apache helicopter was involved in a mishap on Tuesday at Fort Riley, Kansas, said Lt. Col. Jefferson Grimes, a spokesman for the Army’s 1st Infantry Division.
“The crew is receiving all necessary medical treatment,” Grimes told Task & Purpose. “They are in stable condition.”
Apache helicopters have a crew of two soldiers: a pilot to fly the aircraft and a second flyer to operate the weapons systems.
Tuesday’s incident occurred during the 1st Combat Aviation Brigade’s gunnery training on Fort Riley. No information was immediately available about the circumstances of the crash.
“As this is currently under investigation, we cannot release additional details,” Grimes said.
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Military.com first reported about the mishap on Wednesday.
The crash is the latest in a rapid series of flying mishaps for Army pilots. Army officials announced in April that all aviation units would be required to undergo mandatory training to reinforce basic flying skills following 12 crashes in the past six months that had killed nine soldiers and one Border Patrol agent.
At the time, 11 helicopters and one C-12 fixed-wing aircraft have crashed since October,
Brig. Gen. Jon Byrom, commanding general of the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center, told reporters during an April 10 roundtable.
By comparison, the Army recorded nine Class A Mishaps – which involve the loss of life or at least $2.5 million in damage – for all Fiscal Year 2023.
“We understand how to train ourselves,” Maj. Gen. Walter T. Rugen, director of Army aviation, said at the roundtable. “We understand what the standards are, and we just want to make sure everybody is aware of those standards and then they’re performing to standard.”
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FILE: A soldier fires an M249 machine gun during a training event at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, September 8, 2021. (Calvin Reimold/U.S. Army).First Special Forces Command has suspended all training on ranges that use live and blank ammunition after a soldier was accidentally shot by an M249 squad automatic weapon during an April 25 training event, military officials said.
The 7th Infantry Division soldier who was shot is listed in stable condition and is currently being treated at Madigan Army Medical Center, said Lt. Col. Jennifer Bocanegra, a spokeswoman for I Corps.
“Our thoughts are with the soldier and their family during this difficult time,” Bocanegra told Task & Purpose. “The incident remains under investigation.”
The 72-hour stand down began on Tuesday and it affects all Special Forces, Civil Affairs, and Psychological Operations soldiers under 1st Special Forces Command, said Maj. Russell M. Gordon, a spokesman for the command.
All 1st Special Forces Command ranges have been closed since May 2, Gordon told Task & Purpose. The stand down will allow units to do a deep dive on safety procedures.
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“Each subordinate unit will initiate a 24-hour amnesty turn-in period of any improperly stored ammunition followed by a complete inventory of all arms rooms ammunition storage locations,” Gordon said. “Unit leaders will complete a review of all storage, handling, and range safety responsibilities at the lowest level to ensure compliance with policies. Although an investigation is underway on the exact circumstances of the incident, it was necessary to take prudent action now to ensure the safety and well being of everyone.”
The April 25 mishap occurred during a training event at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. Investigators are looking into how live rounds got onto the range.
Military.com first reported that a soldier was accidently shot after live ammunition was mixed with blanks during force-on-force training. It is unclear to which unit the soldier who fired the live ammunition is assigned.
Both officers and enlisted leaders have a role in making sure that soldiers never mix live ammunition with blanks during training events, said retired Army Col. Keith Nightingale, a member of the Ranger Hall of Fame who also helped plan the U.S. military’s 1980 attempted rescue of American hostages in Iran.
“You never draw both live and blank ammunition at the same time,” Nightingale told Task & Purpose. “You have a separate order for ball ammo, and you would have a separate order for blank.”
Officers are responsible for making sure their soldiers are not accidentally issued live rounds, and the noncommissioned officers who draw ammunition for units only issue live or blank rounds – not both, Nightingale said.
Soldiers who are issued blanks also have a blank adaptor on their weapons and they are briefed about making sure there are no live rounds included with their blank ammo, he said.
Nightingale remembers one incident during his Army career when a soldier was caught mixing live ammunition with blanks. That soldier was booted from the service.
“All through the chain of command – the company, the platoon sergeant, the squad leader – they’re all trained, or should be trained, in never mixing the two,” Nightingale said. “In units that I’ve been associated with, normally, the platoon sergeant or the first sergeant would make sure that all of the ammunition is of the same configuration and would not mix the two. It’s almost a sacrosanct policy: Don’t mix ball and blank ammo.”
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Pfc Amanda Gonzales was strangled in her barracks on an Army base in Germany in 2001. Her killer was just convicted. U.S. Army photos.The cold case of a 19-year-old pregnant soldier who was murdered at an Army base in Germany over 20 years ago was finally put to rest.
Pfc. Amanda Gonzales was found strangled and battered in her barracks room at Fliegerhorst Kaserne, a former U.S. Army base in Hanau, Germany Nov. 3, 2001. The Army conducted hundreds of interviews and eventually offered over $100,000 in reward money to find her killer, but the case remained cold for two decades.
Monday, a jury found that Shannon L. Wilkerson, now 43 and a fellow soldier with Gonzales in Germany, “violently beat and murdered” the Army private, the Department of Justice said in a release. Gonzales was four months pregnant when she was murdered by asphyxiation and blunt force injuries, according to court documents.
Wilkerson, prosecutors said at trial, was married to another woman but believed he was the father of Gonzales child, and almost immediately after the murder dropped hard-partying habits for a quieter church-going lifestyle.
Gonzales’ “dead, bruised, mostly naked body” was found Nov. 5, 2001 in her third-floor barracks room after she did not report for work. Gonzales was a cook on her first Army assignment at Headquarters Supply Company of the 127th Aviation Support Battalion at the time of her death. She had been in Germany only eight months, according to CID.
The investigation into Gonzales’ death spanned more than 20 years with Army and civilian law enforcement investigators. After two years filled with hundreds of interviews and pieces of evidence, the Army Criminal Investigation Division offered $20,000 in reward money for information on Gonzales’ death. By 2011 the reward increased to $125,000.
But discovery of DNA on an old sweatshirt was the breakthrough investigators needed.
“The alleged discovery of DNA on the grey sweatshirt is what caused the government to charge Mr. Wilkerson after decades had passed in the investigation into the murder of Ms. Gonzales,” according to court documents.
An ‘anniversary gift’Task & Purpose was unable to reach Gonzales’ family after the verdict, but her mother and stepfather, Gloria and Mike Bates, were interviewed by the Catch My Killer Podcast interview in September 2020.
In that interview, Gloria Bates recalled the phone call where Gonzales told her, “Mom, I already have your anniversary gift,” when she told her mother she was pregnant. “The baby was to be due on the day which was our anniversary,” she said. Gloria also told the interviewer that Gonzales’ friends told her that her daughter was assaulted multiple times but didn’t report it.
“Amanda was the type that – she really didn’t tell anybody anything. She kept to herself. We didn’t even know she was an honor student until after she passed the course,” Gloria said.
Gonzales had several relatives, including her biological father, who also served in the military. For Gonzales, however, she looked to the Army as a means to pay for college to become a physical therapist. Gonzales completed the Army’s delayed entry program only months after graduating high school, her parents said.
Gonzales would call her parents almost every week but on the weekend she was killed, they didn’t hear from her, Mike said. He also said the barracks didn’t have video surveillance so people “could come and go” as they pleased.
In 2020, the parents said that they were kept in the dark during the investigation and that the case was passed between at least 10 different investigators. The only reason that investigators called the family once a month was because former Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison got involved, Gloria said.
Her parents told the podcast reporter that Vanessa Guillen’s 2020 murder brought renewed attention to Amanda’s cold case with the “eerily” similar facts between the two women. Both were young, hispanic and murdered on a military base. Gloria particularly related to the public role that Gloria Guillen, Vanessa’s mother, took in advocating for her daughter.
“Everything that [Guillen’s] mother was going through, I went through it and if I would’ve known about this that this wasn’t just me going through this – I would’ve been telling everybody ‘don’t let your child join the service’ because this is going on,” Gloria said.
Cold case verdictA federal jury in Pensacola, Florida, convicted Wilkerson of second-degree murder in May. Wilkerson’s sentencing is set for Aug 8 where he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Wilkerson was a Light Wheel Vehicle Mechanic on active duty from July 1999 to July 2004. He deployed to Iraq from April 2003 to October 2003. Wilkerson’s last rank was sergeant, according to the Army, until he was discharged from active duty in July 2004 and from the Army Reserve in June 2007, according to a federal indictment.
The defense argued that the case against Wilkerson was “circumstantial.”
Beside new DNA, prosecutors presented what they said were incriminating statements Wilkerson made before and after the murder and evidence of a “substantial” change in his behavior following the murder. Gonzales’ DNA was found on a grey sweatshirt that Wilkerson borrowed the night of the murder and that he wore during the period of time the government believed the murder occurred, according to court filings.
According to court documents, Wilkerson had a “minimal criminal record” consisting of convictions for minor alcohol-related and traffic offenses, as well as previously-dismissed domestic violence and disorderly conduct charges.
‘Radical change in behavior’Court documents show that Wilkerson’s behavior following the murder was a point of contention before the jury trial. The government argued that after Gonzales’ death, Wilkerson showed a “radical change of behavior,” ending his interest in partying and drinking while beginning to attend church more regularly.
“Going to night clubs, drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, getting into fights, and pursuing extramarital sexual relationships is not evidence of a prior crime or wrong,” the government argued. “Rather, the government is seeking to introduce evidence of the defendant’s sudden change of behavior.”
In response, the defense argued to limit the government’s use of Wilkerson’s actions post-incident, claiming “providing the jury with dubious evidence of partying, tussles, extramarital affairs, and religious attendance as purported consciousness of guilt,” would introduce “unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, and [mislead] the jury.”
“This is in addition to the already highly prejudicial setting of the case, the alleged murder of a U.S. military [soldier] who was four months pregnant by a defendant who is not the father but was previously sexually active with the victim and was a married man at the time,” the defense said in a motion.
Wilkerson’s defense team introduced 45 letters in support of Wilkerson from friends and Army peers who described him as a “positive influence in his community,” mentoring and coaching young people and someone with the “willingness to help anyone in need.”
They also said he was a giving person who once anonymously donated $1,000 to help with burial costs of girl who passed away.
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A U.S. Space Force spur ride candidate hydrates during a spur ride held by 6th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, Texas, Apr 29, 2024. Army photo by Spc. David Poleski.What do you call a Space Force officer wearing cavalry spurs and a Stetson hat?
“It’s kind of cool to be called Space Cowboys,” Space Force 1st Lt. Jackson Jennings told Task & Purpose. “It just feels right.”
Jennings was one of three Space Force officers who completed an infamous Army Cavalry “spur ride” at the end of April to earn their spurs, an official Cavalry Stetson hat and the unofficial title of Space Cowboys, err, we mean Cavalry Scout-Guardians.
Jennings, 1st Lt. Jordan Savage and Capt. Bradley Evans joined close to 230 Army soldiers from the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team in Fort Bliss, Texas to “earn their spurs.” The “Order of the Spur” is a Cavalry tradition where soldiers serving with Cavalry units complete a “Spur Ride.”
“We were the email guys and, unsurprisingly, everyone expected us to fail,” Jennings said in a Space Force release. “They’d joke and say, listen here Space Cowboy, you aren’t earning it that easily.”
Savage agreed.
“When we first got there, we were definitely the underdogs. Not in a bad way, but just kind of from what we focus on in our own domain – more cyber, more space stuff – not really on the ground fighting,” Savage said.
The Spur Ride, also referred to as “hell night,” was hosted by the Army’s 6th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment and took place in the Chihuahuan desert and lasted over 30 hours. Savage said the blisters he got from 37 miles of ruck marching with a 60-pound ruck were no joke. For Jennings, the toughest part was the lack of sleep.
“It was about 30 hours and they gave us one hour of sleep,” he said. “Just going nonstop basically for that full 30 hours was pretty intense to me. I wasn’t used to that.”
The Spur Ride events included buddy bear crawls, ruck marches, obstacle courses, a low crawl event with a BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missile, land navigation, reconnaissance, and other infantry tactics like call for fire and first aid.
Throughout the course, Cav soldiers told them they were doing “a lot better than we expected for Space Force guys,” Jennings said. “I kind of took that as, we’re kind of proving ourselves – the Space Force is capable war fighters.”
While they don’t do mandatory PT three times a week like most of the soldiers in the course, the two Space Force officers said they prioritize staying physically fit.
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Though the rough and tumble life of cavalry scouts and the high-tech world of Space Force aren’t obvious parallels, but their fundamental battlefield roles have common points. The Space Force maintains a wide range of satellites that provide imagery and other intelligence for maneuvering forces while cav scouts bill themselves as the “eyes and ears” of the Army, handling reconnaissance for their unit.
In the midst of their desert challenge, Savage said his teammates had a number of questions, including the one they get most often: What is it that you do exactly?
“The young soldiers had so many questions for us about our day to day lives, our jobs, and the Space Force. They were dumbfounded that there was no mandatory physical fitness or mandatory formations,” Savage said.
Savage told the soldiers that he works with the military’s satellite control network.
“We’re making sure that you guys have the capability to get information you need from the satellite birds to the remote tracking station, all the way to the user,” he said. “They were pretty excited to learn about that and they were grateful to have us on their team.”
“I tell them I work in acquisitions and then I have to explain again what acquisition is because most of them aren’t familiar with that term,” Jennings said. “So I kind of explain to them that I basically work with high tech routers that transport data from one side of the country to the other.”
Jennings and Savagewere selected to participate in the spur ride through their connection with a fellow Guardian, Capt. Bradley Evans, who also earned his spurs at the event. Evans met the 6/1 CAV commander during a Norwegian Ruck March and elicited an invitation.
The Spur Ride is one of several connections that modern cavalry units maintain to connect with their western heritage. Cavalry soldiers honor their cowboy origins by reciting the reenlistment oath on horseback while wearing the 19th century Cavalry uniform with gloves, a Stetson hat, and boot spurs. Cavalry scouts’ Horse Cavalry Detachment continues to be used for ceremonial and recruitment purposes.
In March, the Army asked current cavalry scouts to change their MOS and volunteer to fill some of the service positions facing shortages like cyber or air defense artillery.
Space Force troops have completed a number of daunting military training in the last year. In October, Space Force Capt. Daniel Reynolds graduated from the Army’s Ranger School and other Guardians have been lining up for a chance to earn their Ranger tab.
Both officers said they wanted to be part of history by setting the standards for the military’s newest branch, established in 2018.
In another historic moment, Jennings also happened to be the first ROTC unit to commission into the Space Force.
“This is brand new uncharted territory in a sense. And I want to be one of the front runners, part of the space force – determine the culture of it and how the branch is gonna be throughout like the rest of the time,” Jennings said. “I just thought that was a cool opportunity to be one of the first people to be a part of this new branch.”
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Staff Sgt. Gordon C. Black, shown here as a private first class, while deployed to Iraq in 2009. (Screenshot from 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division video).The Army hasn’t yet said why Staff Sgt. Gordon C. Black may have traveled from South Korea to Russia last week but his mother told Task & Purpose that when his son set off to visit a girlfriend who had been deported, he walked into a trap.
“I told him ‘do not go, please do not go, it’s not going to go well’,” Melody Jones recalled Tuesday. “I just had that feeling.”
Melody Jones said she believes her son’s girlfriend set him up. His relationship with her was volatile, Jones said, and she became angry with him after she was deported to Russia. But after the two started talking again, he agreed to visit her.
“Like I said: When he loves, he loves hard,” Jones said on Tuesday.
Jones did not want her son to go to Russia because her instinct told her he would be in danger there.
“I said ‘something is going to happen to you,I know it is. And I tried and I tried, but he’s a 35-year-old guy. You can only do so much when they’re that old. I didn’t know what else to say. You can just beg your child not to go somewhere.”
Jones acknowledges that her son should not have traveled to Russia. She said she asked Black directly if he had received official permission for the trip, but he didn’t answer.
“I said, ‘You didn’t, did you?’ And he would never tell me if he did or didn’t. And I told him, ‘You didn’t get permission to go to Russia. There’s no way. They’re not going to let you go there,’” Jones told Task & Purpose. “I said, ‘why don’t you meet in Thailand, China, anywhere but there?’”
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When Jones learned that her son had been arrested in Russia, she went numb.
“I felt like my heart was being ripped out,” Jones said. “I just felt very, very shaky. Cried, screamed – of course. That’s my baby.”
A Facebook account for a man living in South Korea with Black’s name and appearance shows that one of his friends is a woman who is originally from Vladivostok, Russia. A since-deleted picture on her Facebook page shows her and the man at a beach together.
Black enlisted in the Army in 2008 and became an infantryman, the service said on Tuesday. He deployed to Iraq from October 2009 to September 2010 and then to Afghanistan from June 2013 to March 2014.
U.S. troops and Defense Department civilians are currently prohibited from traveling to Russia, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters on Tuesday.
When asked if Black may have been lured to Russia so he could be apprehended, Singh replied, “This is something that the Army is looking into, which is why they have launched an investigation to determine the facts and the circumstances of his travel; and I just don’t have anything more to add at this time.”
Before traveling to Russia, Black had out-processed from the Eighth Army at Camp Humphreys, South Korea, according to the Army. On April 10, he signed out on Permanent Change of Station to leave to travel to Fort Cavazos, Texas.
“Instead of returning to the continental United States, Black flew from Incheon, Republic of Korea through China to Vladivostok, Russia, for personal reasons,” the Army’s statement says. “Black did not request official clearance and DoD did not authorize his travel to China and Russia. Official and leave travel is currently restricted pursuant to the DoD Foreign Clearance Guide. There is no evidence Black intended to remain in Russia after his PCS leave period ended.”
The Russian Ministry of the Interior told the U.S. Embassy in Moscow on May 3 that Black had been arrested the day before in Vladivostok for theft of personal property, according to the Army. The Russian government did not provide any further information about why Black had been detained.
Black is currently being held in Russian pre-trial detention, where he will remain until his next hearing, the Army statement says.
“U.S. Embassy Moscow and Eighth Army notified Black’s family of his arrest shortly after Russian officials contacted the [U.S] Embassy Moscow,” according to the Army.
Why the Russians took Black into custody remain unclear. Russian media are reporting that Black and the Russian woman met in South Korea and then broke up, but the two stayed in communication and he visited her in April, said Olga Lautman, a Russia and Ukraine expert with the Center for European Policy Analysis think tank.
The Russian news outlet Izvestia has reported that Black is accused of beating his girlfriend and stealing 200,000 Rubles — or about $2,200 — from her said Lautman, who is also creator and co-host of the Kremlin File podcast. TASS, Russia’s official state media, is reporting that Russia’s foreign ministry is treating the incident as a domestic dispute that is not related to espionage or politics.
It is noteworthy that Russia has not yet accused Black of spying – as is typical for the Kremlin with high-profile detainees– and instead has accused him of domestic violence, which is rarely prosecuted in Russia, Lautman said.
The Russian embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond on Tuesday to a request for comment from Task & Purpose.
Russia’s arrest of Black is part of the Kremlin’s hybrid war against the United States, said Ivana Stradner, a Russia expert with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies think tank in Washington, D.C.
The Kremlin has repeatedly arrested Americans, such as Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, to use them to extract concessions from the U.S. government, Stradner told Task & Purpose.
The Russians may ultimately propose returning Black as part of a prisoner exchange, although the Kremlin may not view Black to be as valuable as other Americans it has in custody because he is an enlisted service member, Stradner said.
“Russia has a long history of detaining U.S. citizens, and this is a dream come true for the Kremlin to use [Black] as a bargaining chip with the United States,” Stradner said.
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Most soldiers think that "DFAC changes" are commanders serving Thanksgiving dinner, but in late April, about 700 soldiers at Fort Liberty and their families got to see some of the innovations that the Army is eyeing to operate campus-style dining. Photo by Sgt. Jacob Bradford.Hundreds of soldiers at Fort Liberty, North Carolina got a taste of some of the new devices and plans the Army is working on to keep them fed.
“We’re going to revolutionize how we feed our soldiers,” Sgt Maj. Kelvin Windham, Army Materiel Command G-4 sergeant major, a 92G culinary specialist who works with the Food Innovation and Transformation team said in an Army release.
Army officials like Windham have gone on a tour of U.S. military bases around the world to learn how to transform how the Army delivers food to best suit soldiers’ lifestyles and missions. The modernization plan is focused on making meals more convenient while emphasizing nutritious food.
“In this business, your nutrition drives your lethality. If we’re not giving our soldiers proper nutrition or getting them into the building to get these nutritionist meals, we’re kind of risking our lethality,” Windham told Task & Purpose.
In late April, about 700 soldiers at Fort Liberty and their families got to see some of the innovations that the Army is eyeing to operate campus-style dining. Patterning food service at colleges and universities makes sense, Windam said, because “that’s primarily the same demographic of 18-to-24-year-olds.”
For example, many colleges and universities have “action stations,” where cooks make the food right there in front of the student, somewhat like a chipotle-style ordering station, Windham said. “When people are involved with their food, they feel like they’re part of that process of the food.”
The Army is also looking to increase the number of soldiers who use base dining facilities, or DFACs, since utilization rates have fallen below 65%.
One of the ideas that the Army is mulling is “how we even change the ambience inside of the DFAC,” Windham said, like adding couches, televisions or even wifi access “to attract the soldiers to come in.”
Bringing food to the soldiersAfter speaking to soldiers across a variety of bases, officials found a common theme: young soldiers wanted the flexibility of eating their meals outside of the typical meal hours at dining halls.
“Some soldiers, they get off work at 5 p.m., they don’t wanna go straight to the DFAC, they wanna go to the gym, relax a little bit and then get their meal as opposed to just going to normal meal hours,” Windham said.
CW 4 Shedrick Swain, the XVIII Airborne Corps’ Food Service Technician described one of the digital kiosks at the Fort Liberty showcase as an “iPad” display that “highlights all the eateries” as a directory of a given installation’s food options.
“It can also help with the educational piece of it for service members and family members eating and making the right choices to eat healthy,” Swain said.
Some bases have turned to “culinary outpost kiosks” which have the appearance and function of a civilian convenience store but accept Basic Daily Food Allowance as payment. The price will be the same as buying food from a DFAC so that a daily allowance still covers an entrée, a side, a dairy item, a beverage, a snack, and dessert, according to a release by Fort Cavazos. A kiosk outpost is planned to open at Fort Liberty in the coming weeks, according to Swain.
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While the kiosks are one step towards the Army’s modernization of the way it feeds soldiers, a veteran-run, Yelp-like app called Hots&Cots where troops can rate barracks and DFACs have received reports from two base kiosks – Fort Carson, Colorado and Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia – where of kiosks became fully barren.
Windham said two pieces of equipment were particularly well received. One was a vending machine where patrons could choose from a selection of hot meals like calzones, pasta, and jambalaya. One minute later, their meal was ready.
“It was amazing, especially because we’re looking at how do we meet Soldiers at the point of need with food that meets their schedules? And this machine could be a great way to do that,” Windham said.
Another innovation was a food locker system where soldiers could digitally pre-order meals.
“You could potentially set this thing up in a barracks and work area anywhere. You can order a meal and it can be delivered and put into the food locker and the Soldier just goes and picks it up at the time that they had set,” Windham said in an Army release.
Food insecurity The event also aimed to address another issue affecting nearly 25% of the military: food insecurity.
A Congressional report focused on quality of life released last month cited a 2023 RAND report which found one-fourth of all U.S. service members were found to be food insecure which is defined as “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
RAND also found that food insecurity was most prevalent among early-to-mid-career enlisted personnel “single with children, married without children, or a racial or ethnic minority.” These service members were also disproportionately in the Army and to a lesser extent, in the Navy.
The issue of food insecurity may even affect retention rates, the Congressional report said, something that the Army is paying attention to as it faces its hardest recruiting environment in a generation.
The quality of life panel cited a Blue Star Family 2023 Military Family Life Survey which found that of active-duty families who reported ‘low or very low’ food security, 40% were unlikely to recommend military service to a young family member while 26% of active-duty respondents with ‘moderate to high’ food security were less likely to recommend service.
The Congressional report highlighted several efforts across the Army to expand food availability to soldiers like 24-hour self-service kiosks, mass transit to DFACs and meal card access across bases for DFACs restaurants and commissaries with a pilot project at Fort Liberty.
Despite the handful of initiatives, the Congressional panel said it was concerned that the DOD “lacks a cohesive plan to combat the reported high rate of food insecurity across the force.”
At the Fort Liberty event, soldiers and their family members received meal prep guidance, as well as advice on food security and budgetary coaching from financial readiness counselors, according to the Army release. Representatives from private companies also showed soldiers how to prepare meals and follow recipes that focused on repurposing leftovers which Windham described as being able to “save a family a lot of money during the course of a month.”
“It kind of showed those Soldiers and their family members, hey, if you’re on a budget, these are some recipes you can cook to stay within your budget and this is how you can stretch meals out but still get that great nutritional value for you and your family,” he added.
When it comes to proper nutrition, one of the changes, Windham said, is that the Army is going to prioritize buying fresh vegetables over canned goods to feed soldiers. Windham said the costs for fresh produce will be offset by the Army’s plan to increase soldier utilization at DFACs.
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Senior Master Sgt. Michael Keinholz, 21st Communications Squadron flight chief, escorts Rodney, a veteran, through one of the various support agency lines during the 21st annual Homeless Veteran Stand Down at the Colorado Springs City Auditorium, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Oct. 15, 2019. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Matthew Coleman-Foster).The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – VA Supportive Housing Program (HUD-VASH) is a saving grace for thousands of homeless veterans or veterans facing an impending housing crisis.
Though the military has done a better job of advising service members on how to transition back into the civilian world, many still find themselves without shelter or at risk of losing their homes.
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the number of homeless veterans declined 52% from 2007 to 2010. But 35,574 veterans were still homeless as of January 2023 — an increase of 7.4% over the previous year.
It’s no secret that veterans are stubborn and proud, and many are ashamed to reach out for help. But if you were surrounded by an enemy and had air support close by, would you not ask for that help?
HUD-VASH is air support for veterans whose housing and financing options have failed. Like all government programs, the details of HUD-VASH can be confusing, as can the detailed set of criteria that applicants must meet to qualify.
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What is HUD-VASH?HUD-VASH is a collaborative program authorized under the United States Housing Act of 1937. It combines HUD’s rental assistance with the VA’s case management and supportive services. The program alleviates some of the financial stress of housing costs so that veterans and their families can focus on getting back on their feet while improving their overall health and well-being.
The program combines HUD Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) for homeless Veterans with case management and supportive services provided through VA Medical Centers. Eligible Veterans gain access to permanent housing and the means to maintain it through the HUD-VASH program. The VA will connect a veteran with a case manager if needed.
Not all veterans have drug, alcohol, or mental health problems, so case management may not be needed. A veteran can still receive housing assistance if they do not need case management, medical, or mental health assistance. If a veteran does need help with that type of problem, their case manager will help set up appointments and any other resources necessary.
The vouchers are calculated by using the lower of the gross rent — rent plus your utility cost — or the payment standard established by HUD for the bedroom size voucher and subtracting the greater of 30% of monthly adjusted income or 10% of gross income. You cannot pay over 40% of your monthly adjusted income for rent and utilities.
How do you qualify for HUD-VASH?A veteran’s eligibility to participate in HUD-VASH is determined by their income and extenuating circumstances preventing the veteran and their family from finding clean, structurally sound housing.
What income qualifies or disqualifies veterans from the program depends on where they live, the cost of living, their income, and several other factors. It would be wrong to try and give a blanket statement on the income disqualification, Task & Purpose recommends that veterans contact their local VA medical center to find out if their income disqualifies them.
The only thing that is set in stone and makes a veteran ineligible is if they are convicted of a crime that results in permanent placement on the sex offenders list. If a veteran has been convicted of a felony (that doesn’t place them on the sex offenders list), you are still eligible.
A veteran must be willing to accept case management through the VA and be physically capable of living in their new residence alone. If a veteran is physically unable to take care of themself at home, there are other options available; calling your local VA is the first step in figuring that out.
How long can you stay on VUD-VASH?A veteran accepted into the HUD-VASH program can receive assistance completing rent payments or total housing assistance as long as they’re income-eligible and benefiting from the program.
The goal of HUD-VASH is to get a veteran into a job where they can self-sustain. The VA will help veterans find work and address anything in the veteran’s life preventing them from securing proper housing.
Depending on the housing a veteran is approved for, the public housing agency working with the VA and the veteran may have rules about sobriety or other conditions required for eligibility to live in the housing. This is highly case-specific, so veterans should rely on their case manager at the VA to help guide them through the process based on their area.
Veterans in need of housing support should call the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at 1-877-424-3838. It’s free, confidential, and trained counselors are available 24/7 to connect you with your nearest VA to get them into clean and suitable housing for veterans and their families.
If you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, the Lifeline network is available 24/7 across the United States. Reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling or texting 988 and you’ll be connected to trained counselors.
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Small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) operators from the Maneuver Center of Excellence and tenant units compete in the inaugural Beehive Classic competition at Fort Moore, Ga., May 6-8, 2024. This is the U.S. Army's first sUAS competition. The event is structured to better train UAS operators and prepare our forces for the challenges of multi-domain operations. (U.S. Army photo by Daniel Marble)r.Soldiers at Fort Moore are competing in the Army’s first small drone competition with a wild obstacle course modeled off tactics and terrain of the war in Ukraine and threats American troops now face in the Middle East.
A new video posted to X by the Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence, or MCOE, at Fort Moore is shot from the drone’s perspective as it flies through square and circle-shaped openings, under tables and between windows cut out of shipping containers. The obstacle course was built as part of the Army’s inaugural competition for drone-flying skills and tactics, dubbed the Beehive Classic.
pic.twitter.com/SDXzvoIuBU
— US Army Maneuver Center of Excellence (@MCoEFortMoore) May 6, 2024
The classic will pit nine two-soldier teams in real-world scenarios using tactical drones like drone operations, attaching a payload harness, flying, reconnaissance tactics, identifying the threats and reporting them up to leadership.
“The real world scenario is they’re gonna have to fly fast. They have to be skilled at maneuvering their drones so an obstacle course was the right thing to test that,” Maj. Douglas A. Dietrich, deputy G3 for MCOE and project manager for small unmanned aircraft systems, sUAS, told Task & Purpose about the competition. “It’ll develop a lot of our drone operator skills.”
Two-soldier teams from each brigade will have two Skydio drones to use for the competition. If one goes down, the team will be able to use their second one.
“In practice, I’ve seen quite a few of them nick the window frames, the door frames and the like so it’ll be difficult. I expect a couple of the drones will go down and they’ll have to use their other drone to complete the course,” Dietrich said.
On day one, soldiers will complete a physical event with push-ups and a sprint/drag/carry “to simulate combat conditions and increase heart rates prior to using the equipment.” Then they’ll fly their drones through the obstacle course and maneuver into a building through open windows and doors to identify threats and gather intelligence.
On day two, the top five teams will run through the Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade’s Malvesti Obstacle Course (the same course used in the annual Best Ranger Competition), where soldiers will configure their drones to conduct short-range reconnaissance, attach payloads to the drones and drop them into a vehicle hatch.
They’ll traverse the tactical objectives and report each enemy activity before returning to their base. Each of the events will have a score associated with it. If the top two teams have the same score, the fastest time will break the tie, according to Dietrich.
During the competition, soldiers will face various obstacles like a sniper on a tower, a downed helicopter and a scenario where they will drop a munition onto a vehicle. They’ll also have a scenario in a small village where the teams will use the drones to identify threats in a room like enemy personnel with weapons, booby trap doors, trip wires with grenades, unexploded ordinances or find intel sources such as maps and documents.
A soldier practices for day one of the inaugural Beehive Classic competition at Fort Moore, Ga., May 6-8, 2024. This is the Army’s first sUAS competition. (U.S. Army photo by Joey Rhodes II)
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“They’ll identify those before a clearing team will go into those rooms, they’ll help the leadership determine the best way to enter the buildings and how to avoid the threats and eliminate the threats,” he said.
Fort Moore’s inaugural Beehive competition will serve “as a proof of concept” for the Beehive Classic competition at the Columbus, Georgia Civic Center this fall hosted by the Maneuver Center of Excellence which will be open to military and non-governmental participants.
Drone trainingThe proliferation of drones in combat on the battlefield in Ukraine and Russia and increasing threats against U.S. troops based in the Middle East have pushed the Army to step up its use of drones in training and operations.
“Everyone can go to YouTube and find a clip of someone in Ukraine, either the Russians or the Ukrainians destroying a tank or a bunch of tanks as well as individual personnel,” Dietrich said. “If we don’t do this, we would be way behind the power curve.”
Last month, 3rd Infantry Division soldiers at Fort Stewart trained with drone swarms to prepare for their upcoming Combat Training Center rotation at Fort Irwin, California. At the training center, brigades will face a multi- domain operation environment or a “denied disrupted, intermediate, low-bandwidth environment,” CW3 Jason Flowers told Task & Purpose.
A major part of their training was simply trying to spot the drones “through observables” like hearing or seeing or using UAS-identifying technology that the soldiers were trained on earlier in the week. Then soldiers would either report the drone sighting up the chain or react “in an offensive manner or a defensive manner,” according to Flowers.
“We would fly one drone over to see where the unit was at to observe the unit. Then we fly multiple drones over to see their reaction, to see if they’re using that training that they got from the class here at Fort Stewart to see their reaction,” Flowers said. “Majority of the units did react very well against it.”
To counter the rising threat of drones, the service is also buying more anti-drone technology but still lacks cheaper solutions to shooting them down. In late April, the Pentagon’s lead procurement chief said that the military had shot down more than 130 uncrewed aerial systems directed at troops in Syria, Iraq and the Red Sea with the price tag exceeding $100,000 per shot.
At Fort Moore, soldiers average 800 UAS missions per month using the same 22,000-square-feet of indoor facility that soldiers will use at the Beehive competition, Dietrich said.
Dietrick said the facility was born out of an initiative by Gen. Curtis A. Buzzard, the commander of Fort Moore and MCOE, to prioritize UAS across the Army. He also tasked Fort Moore officials with finding a place on the base “to use drones day, night and in inclement weather.” Soon, Fort Moore officials found a hangar on the airfield they could use for drone training.
“This facility really only came into being about five or six months ago,” Dietrich said. Currently master trainers use the space for training and officials use it to host drone demonstrations for partner nations like Canada, France, Brazil and Britain.
This week it’ll be dedicated to the drone competition which Dietrich said is aimed at informing the Army’s training and drone strategy.
“It’ll better prepare any unit that’s deployed prior to arriving there and it’ll save lives,” Dietrich said.
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Senior Airman Roger Fortson was killed in a shooting incident with a Okaloosa County Sheriff's deputy on May 3. As a Special Missions Aviator, Fortson flew as aircrew on the AC-130J Ghostrider gunships with the 4th Special Operations Squadron. Photo provided to Task & Purpose.An airman who flew as a crewmember on AC-130 gunships died in a shooting with a sheriff’s deputy at an apartment complex near Hurlburt Field Sunday, sources on the base and in Florida told Task & Purpose.
Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, died in an “off-base incident at his residence,” according to a release from the 1st Special Operations Wing. Fortson was assigned to the 4th Special Operations Squadron on Hurlburt. An Air Force spokesperson told Task & Purpose Fortson was a Special Missions Aviator assigned to the squadron’s AC-130J gunships.
An Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office deputy shot and killed an armed man on Friday, May 3, according to a post on the OCSO’s Facebook page posted over the weekend. Sources on Hurlburt told Task & Purpose that personnel on base had been told that Fortson was the man killed and a spokesperson for the OCSO confirmed that the incidents were “connected.”
According to the OCSO’s Facebook page, a deputy with the department encountered a man “armed with a gun” at an apartment complex on Racetrack Road late Friday afternoon, about five miles from the base that is home to Air Force Special Operations Command. The deputy was responding to a call for a “disturbance in progress.”
According to the sheriff’s department, the deputy encountered “a 23-year old man armed with a gun.” The deputy shot the man “in self-defense” after identifying himself as a law enforcement officer, the OCSO said.
Fortson entered active duty on Nov. 19, 2019.
The 4th Special Operations Squadron is one of nine flying squadrons in the 1st Special Operations Wing based at Hurlburt Field. The 4th is one of two squadrons that fly the AC-130 gunship. The 4th SOS currently flies AC-130J gunships which carries a crew of four officers and four enlisted crew members like Fortson, who are known as Special Mission Aviators. The crew fires the plane’s 30mm and 105mm guns at ground targets, along with GBU-39 bombs, AGM-114 hellfire and AGM-176 Griffin missiles, and the GBU-69 Small Glide Munition.
A November 2023 incident of an Okaloosa Sheriff’s deputy in an officer-involved shooting made national headlines. An Okaloosa deputy had arrested a man and put him in the rear of his own patrol car when the deputy heard a loud noise he believed was a gunshot. The deputy, a West Point graduate who had spent 10 years in the Army as a Special Forces officer, reacted by yelling “shots fired!” and “I’m hit!” and within seconds both he and a second deputy had shot at the car multiple times.
An investigation determined that the noise was an acorn falling from a tree and striking the car.
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FILE: A view of the Kremlin's Spasskaya tower and St. Basil's cathedral taken during the last day of the three-day parliamentary and local elections in Moscow on September 19, 2021. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images).A U.S. Army soldier has been detained while traveling to Russia, the service confirmed on Monday.
“On May, 2, 2024, Russian authorities in Vladivostok, Russia, detained an American Soldier on charges of criminal misconduct,” Army spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said in a statement. “The Russian Federation notified the U.S. Department of State of the criminal detention in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.”
Staff Sgt. Gordon D. Black was in the process of transitioning from a unit in South Korea to Fort Cavazos, Texas, Task & Purpose has learned. No information was immediately available about why Black had traveled to Russia.
“The Army notified his family and the U.S. Department of State is providing appropriate consular support to the Soldier in Russia,” Smith said. “Given the sensitivity of this matter, we are unable to provide additional details at this time.”
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NBC News first reported on Monday that Black had been detained over the weekend after being accused of stealing from a woman.
A National Security Council spokesperson confirmed to Task & Purpose on Monday that Russia had detained an American citizen.
“The State Department is actively seeking consular access to this individual, who was not in Russia on behalf of or in affiliation with the U.S. government,” the spokesperson said. “We take seriously our commitment to assist U.S. citizens abroad and provide all appropriate assistance. We reiterate our strong warnings about the danger posed to U.S. citizens in Russia. U.S. citizens residing or traveling in Russia should depart immediately, as stated in our Travel Advisory for Russia and U.S. citizens should not travel to Russia at this time – period.”
Relations between the United States and Russia have been at their worst since the Cold War following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Last month, Congress approved $61 billion in new military assistance for Ukraine, the first $1 billion of which will include air defense artillery, munitions, and other weapons systems.
This latest incident comes nearly a year after Army Pvt. Travis King crossed into North Korea after missing his flight to Texas, where he was expected to be punished for assault charges. North Korea ultimately decided to expel King, who was returned to U.S. custody in September.
UPDATE: 05/06/2024; this story was updated to identify the soldier detained by Russian authorities as Staff Sgt. Gordon D. Black.
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FILE: U.S. Army Master Sgt. Daniel A. Brooks, the senior career counselor for the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, smiles while being interviewed by German media after being awarded the Christophorus Medal at a May 2 ceremony in Munich. (Spc. Zoe Y. Tourne/U.S. Army).Army Master Sgt. Daniel A. Brooks recently received a rare honor from the Bavarian state government in Germany for disarming a man who had pulled a knife in a shopping mall.
At a May 2 ceremony, Brooks was awarded the Christophorus Medal, which recognizes first responders and others who have demonstrated an act of heroism or bravery. Stars and Stripes first reported that Brooks is one of just 1,930 to have received the medal since 1983.
Speaking with Task & Purpose on Monday, Brooks said his upbringing drove him to intervene when he faced the armed man surrounded by civilians. Brooks’ father served in the military for 20 years and then spent an additional 22 years in law enforcement.
“I spent a lifetime growing up watching my dad put himself in dangerous situations,” said Brooks, who is a career counselor assigned to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Vilseck, Germany. “Wanting to follow in his footsteps, I took the same action: joined the Army. I think that’s indicative of our family. I think it’s indicative of the principles that my dad, my mom tried to instill in me: We don’t turn away from things when we notice something wrong – particularly when we’re talking about the preservation of life and being to help somebody that could potentially be hurt.”
On Dec. 16, Brooks was participating in a Christmas event in Bayreuth, Germany that was held in a mall when he noticed a crowd of people were forming, he said.
As Brooks leaned over for a closer look, he spotted a man who looked angry and was moving aggressively.
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Brooks moved closer and realized that the man was about to get into a physical confrontation with someone else. At the time, it looked as if the man was about to address someone dressed as Santa Claus, but Brooks later learned that the man was targeting a woman with whom he was having issues.
“As I moved closer to get a better look, that’s when I noticed the assailant pull a knife around his waist area out of his pocket,” Brooks recalled. “That’s when I just lunged forward and kind and – with my left hand – smacked it away from his right hand, and the knife flew away.”
Once he disarmed the attacker, he called on some of his experiences teaching combatives as a drill sergeant to jump on top of the man and control his arms until mall security arrived.
“Brooks’ response speaks to the courage, conviction, and abilities of the U.S. Army Soldier, while Bavaria’s recognition of his actions speak to the wonderful relationships enjoyed between U.S. service members and the local community here in Europe,” Col. Martin O’Donnell, a spokesman for U.S. Army Europe, told Task & Purpose on Monday.
Brooks said he has been assigned to Germany since August 2023, and he is extremely proud to serve with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment.
His ties to southern Germany extend to his childhood. His mother is originally from Bavaria, and he spent a lot of time in the region as a child when his father was stationed there. Brooks even speaks German with a slight Bavarian accent.
He was honored to learn that he would receive the Christophorus Medal especially after he started researching the award’s symbolism and significance.
“At the ceremony, I had the opportunity to listen to so many others – German first responders, paramedics, police, and just average citizens – that had also done similar acts, and saved people from drowning,” Brooks said. “I think there were two accounts of others that had saved people from knife attacks. I was honored to be with that group, associated with this other group of people that rescued others. It’s an incredible feeling.”
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Joshua (left) and Jeremiah Piekert. (photos courtesy Connecticut State Police).An Army sergeant was arrested this past week and charged in his involvement in a murder-for-hire scheme involving his brother.
Jeremiah Piekert, 30, was arrested on Thursday, May 2. The Army sergeant was stationed at Fort Cavazos in Texas as part of 4th Battalion, 5th Air Defense Artillery. According to prosecutors, Piekert was trying to help his brother, Joshua Piekert, 32, in a conspiracy to hire a hitman to kill four people, two of them minors.
The alleged plot started while Joshua Piekert was incarcerated at Corrigan Correctional Center in 2022. He asked his cellmate for his help in finding a hitman to carry out the murder of four people. The cellmate played along, saying he knew people who could do so, but it would cost $10,000 per kill. Piekert agreed, and the cellmate asked for a $500 “finder’s fee,” to be paid half up front, half after. Piekert also provided the location of where the four would-be victims would be, and where to find a key to their home.
According to investigators, it was the Army sergeant brother who provided Joshua Piekert with the money for the initial fee.
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The older Piekert spoke with the inmate about the hit under the code of it being a “construction job.” It’s not quite as gullible as using rentahitman.com, but the cellmate apparently played the brothers for some cash. He told authorities he would not actually connect them with a hitman, but instead was hoping to keep the $500 for himself. “At no time did I have any intention of hiring a hitman or committing any violence,” he told investigators, according to court documents.
The four targets included a 29-year-old woman and her kids, a 10-year-old and one-year-old. A 23-year-old man, the woman’s boyfriend, was the fourth target. However the cellmate wrote a letter to the woman, informing her of Joshua Piekert’s intentions. Police began investigating. Ultimately no one was hurt or killed in the would-be murder plot.
Sgt. Jeremiah Piekert was questioned in late 2023 about the case, by Connecticut State Police and an Army Criminal Investigation Division agent. He admitted to knowing the “construction job” was actually a planned hit, and he said he had provided the money for the finder’s fee payment, but denied knowing that kids were among the targets.
The younger Piekert was formally charged on Friday and did not post bail.
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U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Christopher Rowley, 67th Aircraft Maintenance Unit crew chief, wipes the canopy of an F-15C Eagle in preparation for an aircraft capabilities demonstration on Kadena Air Base, Japan, Nov. 22, 2022 (Tech. Sgt. Micaiah Anthony/U.S. Air Force).A Florida resident was sentenced to 78 months in prison this week for a scheme selling counterfeit computer software that ended up being used by the Army, Navy and Air Force, among others.
Onur Aksoy, 40, was sentenced at the start of May for selling tens of thousands of counterfeit Cisco computer software to several entities in the United States, including parts of the U.S. military’s supply chains. Aksoy, who holds dual American and Turkish citizenship, sold the computer gear for nearly a decade, with the knock off products — made to look like the legitimate thing — winding up being used in “highly sensitive governmental applications, such as classified information systems.”
According to the Department of Justice, Aksoy’s counterfeit Cisco devices were found on military bases, used in “combat and non-combat operations” by the Army, Navy and Air Force. That included being used in flight simulators for the U.S. Air Force’s F-15 and U.S. Navy’s P-8 aircraft. They were additionally located in supporting systems for aircraft such as the F-18, F-22 and B-52 aircraft.
Aksoy used several companies and fronts under the name Pro Network Entities to sell low quality or dysfunctional computer software packages that were imported from China and Hong Kong. As part of the scheme the counterfeiters used fake Cisco labels to make the packages appear brand new. The indictment against Aksoy said that if all of the counterfeit items sold were real, they would have been worth $1 billion.
“His operation introduced tens of thousands of counterfeit and low-quality devices trafficked from China into the U.S. supply chain, jeopardizing both private-sector and public-sector users, including highly sensitive U.S. military applications like the support platforms of U.S. fighter jets and other military aircraft,” Attorney for the United States Vikas Khanna for the District of New Jersey said in the announcement of Aksoy’s sentencing.
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The scam went on for years, with Aksoy even receiving cease and desist letters from Cisco between 2014-2019. A warehouse he used was raised in 2021 and he was charged in 2022. Aksoy pleaded guilty to the charges in June 2023. As part of his plea, he agreed to pay $100 million to Cisco. Additional restitution to victims will be determined later.
Neither the Department of Justice or Department of Defense said how Aksoy’s fake Cisco components ended up in the hands of the military, or where in the supply chain they originated from. It’s not clear how many aircraft or military facilities were impacted by the faulty and counterfeit products. Nor is it clear how long the military was using these pieces before stopping.
“Mr. Aksoy’s sentencing brings closure to his years-long, greed-driven scheme that wasted U.S. taxpayer dollars and degraded our nation’s military readiness when he and his companies knowingly defrauded the Department of Defense by introducing counterfeit products into its supply chain that routinely failed or did not work at all,” Special Agent in Charge Bryan D. Denny with DoD’s Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service Western Field Office said.
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Blue Horizons fellow Col. Dustin Thomas launches the drone built in less than a day. (photo by Samuel King Jr./U.S. Air Force).After hours of planning and design work, a team of Air Force officers and aerospace technology designers put the last pieces of an 8 lb. drone together. The uncrewed aerial system, which looked like a miniature prop plane, was then picked up and launched into the sky, taking flight. The team had planned, assembled and flown a new drone in less than a full day’s time.
It was a major achievement and the payoff for months of work from the team. The team members are Blue Horizons fellows. Blue Horizons is essentially an Air Force think tank program meant to allow its fellows to test and design new technologies meant to help further the Air Force’s capabilities. They were one of five teams working on a year-long fellowship. The Air Force officers worked with aerospace company Titan Dynamics to help with the process.
The team members outlined the parameters and specific functions they needed, then used software from Titan to design the UAS, which took as little as 10 minutes. The pieces were then crafted with a 3D printer, assembled and tested.
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It’s an impressive feat on its own, but also a sign of just how quickly the Black Phoenix team has improved their skills. A month prior the team was reporting it had the ability to design, build and launch a new UAS in under 48 hours. In only a few weeks the members have essentially halved that. Those earlier tests were done in the Middle East as part of U.S. Air Force Central’s Task Force 99. After that wrapped the Black Phoenix team went to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida for a week of new tests based on their findings.
“Small UASs are becoming a new warfighting capability,” Col. Dustin Thomas, a member of the Black Phoenix team, said in an Air Force release on the achievement. “However, the Air Force can’t rapidly change these aircraft based on the threat environment or quickly use new technologies to meet the needs of a specific mission. Our project aims to find ways to change that.”
The tests at Eglin were the last part of their research. The Black Phoenix team will present its findings to Air Force leadership this month.
Given the rapid development of drones, as well as their increasingly common deployment on the battlefield, the different U.S. military branches are looking at ways to field their own. “Historically, the Air Force is relatively slow in adapting and testing these technologies,” Thomas noted, but the team’s project is one example of the many different ways the military is working to build out a network or force of cheap, easy-to-make drones (the U.S. military is also looking for cheaper ways to take out enemy drones).
The Black Phoenix team ultimately tested six different UAS made using the same methods, each designed for a different purpose. Several test flights resulted in crashes, but the team members found that only the outer parts of the drones were damaged. It cost only as much as $50 to replace and redeploy the aircraft.
“We’ve taken big risks this week in flying so many new aircraft for the first time, but the risk is also low because these entire aircraft are built from commercial off-the-shelf items, so the financial investment is small,” Lt. Col. Peter Dyrud, part of the Black Phoenix team, said.
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(photo courtesy Capt. Christopher Hill via X).Continue, the drone wars do.
For the past several months, the U.S. Navy has been busy in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, shooting down one-way attack drones and missiles fired by the Houthi movement at ships in the waters around Yemen. The carrier the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, its strike group, and the contingent of F/A-18 fighter jets have taken out several drones and took part in large-scale air strikes on parts of Yemen controlled by the Houthis. And so the ship is honoring its fight with a new deployment patch that’s both nerdy and a good pun.
Sailors on the Ike are sporting new patches that read “Red Sea Attack of the Drones War.” They’re perfectly done in the font used for “Star Wars,” and makes a good riff on “Attack of the Clones.” The crew can likely thank Capt. Christopher “Chowdaw” Hill for it. The Ike’s commander is already a pretty public “Star Wars” fan. According to Hill in a post on X, the patches are made off ship and bought in bulk by sailors.
Even Navy leadership is getting into the Star Wars fun. Both Hill and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti posted a photo of her in a flight suit sporting the “Attack of the Drones” patch.
Two Navy leaders who officially dig the IKE Strike Group. #ThisIstheWay pic.twitter.com/FJIaGIJfz8
— Chowdah Hill (@ChowdahHill) May 4, 2024
When not posting about his dog on the ship, Hill often posts images of the titular character from “The Mandalorian” to social media and likes to throw in the Mandalorian motto of “this is the way.” He also hands out a “Warrior Sailor pin” to members of his crew, with the pin of course bearing the helmet of the Mandalorian Din Djarin. And don’t worry, he also made sure to post a May the 4th message.
And May the Fourth be with you as well… https://t.co/4Ywu64VgB3
— Chowdah Hill (@ChowdahHill) May 4, 2024
The Ike deployed to the waters around Yemen in the fall as the U.S. Navy stepped up its presence there after the Israel-Gaza war began in October. The Houthis, which control much of Yemen following a prolonged civil war, started attacks on ships passing through the Red Sea in a way to block trade with Israel. Despite months of shootdowns and bombings of Yemen, Houthis continue to fire missiles and drones; the group has said it will continue until the war ends. On Thursday, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testified before Congress saying that U.S. attacks on Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen have only partially affected the group’s ability to carry out launches.
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The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower left the Red Sea late last month, moving into the Mediterranean Sea to support the efforts to build a pier off the coast of Gaza for delivering humanitarian aid. That construction has been delayed by bad weather.
Now there are only two questions for Capt. Hill. One: What does he think it will take to end Houthi attacks against ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden? And two: Does he prefer hand-drawn Genndy Tartakovsky “Clone Wars” series or the CGI Dave Filoni one?
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Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Michael O’Connell in the Best Warrior competition. (photo by K. Kassens/U.S. Army).Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Michael O’Connell might be under the command of the Navy Medicine Operational Training Command but he can also call himself the Best Warrior. O’Connell took first place in the noncommissioned officer category in this year’s U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School Best Warrior Competition, in a big win for the Navy.
The annual competition took place last month at Camp Mackall, North Carolina, April 2024. The only sailor to participate in the competition, O’Connell went up against seven contenders from the Army in his category, beating them all despite the event usually being for the Army.
The mustachioed hospital corpsman is not any medical clinician. He’s a special operations independent duty corpsman and instructor with the Naval Special Operations Medical Institute at the Joint Special Operations Medical Training Center. As an instructor, he works with several different special operations commands preparing combat medics both in the kind of healthcare skills needed for the field as well as the kind of physical and cognitive conditioning to serve in those units. The Naval Special Operations Medical Institute trains combat medics with the Rangers and Special Forces, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, Marine Forces Special Operations Command and others. So O’Connell wasn’t entirely surprised by what the Best Warrior competition had in store.
“I was trained in Marine Corps Reconnaissance and Marine Special Operations Command skill sets, so the tasks required of me during this competition were of a familiar and basic nature,” O’Connell said in a release on his victory.
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That said, he did have to learn some things from the Army, particularly regulations and service-specific ideas for the oral board part of the Best Warrior challenge. The Best Warrior competition put contestants through several tests, ranging from written exams and cognitive tests to physical challenges such as a ruck march, obstacle course and land navigation exercises. It also involved tests on combat casualty care — something the hospital corpsman did well in.
Despite his skills, O’Connell wasn’t sure he had the competition locked down — “I never once thought that I had this competition in the bag,” he said. One of the exciting parts, he said, was getting back into the field on some level and putting his combat skills and training to use, rather than being the one to instruct others.
Be thankful he’s in the Hospital Corps.
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Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall flies in the X-62 VISTA in the skies above Edwards Air Force Base, California, May 2. The experimental plane was flown by an AI-powered system without input from Kendall or a safety pilot in the rear seat. Air Force photo by Richard Gonzales).An Air Force F-16 flown entirely by an AI-powered brain took the service’s top boss — Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall — through an air-to-air dogfight against a human-flown jet.
Kendall, 75 and 25 years removed from a career as an active duty Army and Army Reserve officer, sat in the front seat of the experimental F-16 as it twisted and snaked through maneuvers of up to 5Gs of force during a simulated air-to-air fight over Edwards Air Force Base in California.
The experimental F-16 — dubbed the X-62A VISTA by the Air Force — uses what the Air Force calls “machine learning and live agent integration” to fly and fight. During the hour-long flight, the Air Force said, neither Kendall nor a safety pilot in the X-62s rear seat touched the plane’s controls. The X-62 and its AI-powered brain is a collaboration of the research division of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s Air Combat Evolution program.
“The potential for autonomous air-to-air combat has been imaginable for decades, but the reality has remained a distant dream up until now,” Kendall said in an Air Force release.
The VISTA project, according to the Air Force, began four years ago with a basic intent to get the F-16 to simulate the flying characteristics of other aircraft. But in the years since the project has morphed into what the service says is the military’s first AI-flown fighter jet.
Kendall flew with a pilot from the
AI to fly and fight?There have been other examples of pilot-less aircraft, like a joint DARPA/Army program that flew an H-60 helicopter without a pilot in 2022. But the tactics and maneuvers the plane chose to perform in the dogfight, said Kendall, were all decisions made by its AI system without live human inputs.
“AI is really taking the most capable technology you have, putting it together, and using it on problems that previously had to be solved through human decision-making. It’s automation of those decisions and it’s very specific,” Kendall said.
But the arrival of advanced AI in cockpits and in other military system is indicative of a growing debate in military and policy circles: can AI be trusted to pull a trigger?
Israel has come under fire for incorporating AI into the decision-making and targeting of air strikes in Gaza, using a system reportedly known as Lavendar to identify as many as 37,000 Palestinians as targets in the early weeks of that war.
The UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have released joint statements calling on political leaders to establish international rules on autonomous weapon systems.
“In the current security landscape, setting clear international red lines will benefit all States,” they added, highlighting that “autonomous weapon systems – generally understood as weapon systems that select targets and apply force without human intervention – pose serious humanitarian, legal, ethical and security concerns,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres and ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric said in a statement released last October. “Human control must be retained in life and death decisions.”
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1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 2/508 PIR, 82nd Airborne group photo in Afghanistan. (Photo courtesy of William Yeske).William Yeske was on a hilltop in Afghanistan when some of his platoon mates started joking about a book being written about their exploits — former Army Sgt. Robert Musil joked that Yeske’s name would be on it. They had been involved in some of the fiercest fighting in the improvised explosive device-filled Arghandab River Valley in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. Damn the valley.
Yeske never dreamed of writing a book about his deployment to Afghanistan in 2009. But over a decade later, he wrote the author note for his book titled, “Damn the Valley: 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 2/508 PIR, 82nd Airborne in the Arghandab River Valley Afghanistan” over Memorial Day weekend in 2023. The title is a tip of the hat to a common phrase used by anyone who fought in that valley.
“The records are now in the DOD historical archives for perpetuity. Being able to enable these guys to get that story there and to push the stuff out to the public meant everything to me,” Yeske said. “Quite honestly, this is now something they can take their kids or grandkids and be like, ‘Hey, we’re part of something.’ It’s been pretty cool.”
Yeske grew up in 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Three soldiers were killed during the deployment, and three more since they all returned home.
Paratroopers from Bravo Company, 2/508 Parachute Infantry Regiment patrolling down a canal in the Arghandab River Valley in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. (Photo courtesy of former soldiers of Bravo Company)Some old platoon mates hadn’t processed the deployment over the years, while others didn’t realize what haunted them every day. But a cathartic process followed when Yeske reached out asking for them to tell their side of the story for the book.
“I’ve gotten calls like, ‘Hey, I’m getting smells from the battlefield’ has been one of them,” Yeske said. “Guys are reading through a chapter, and they’re sitting on their couch and smelling the shit water from Afghanistan from the streets at that particular patrol that they’re on, and they’re like, ‘holy cow, where’s this coming from?’ They’d realize those traumas have gone unaddressed.”
One of the many caches of IED making materials located during a raid of a bomb making facility in Afghanistan. Bravo company stacked it all up to blow it in place. (Photo courtesy of former soldiers of Bravo Company)One of the grittier stories from the book details how Spc. Jason Johnston was killed by an IED on Dec. 26, 2009. Capturing all the details of what a human body looks like after taking the full blast of an explosive is difficult. Spc. Will Ross was with Johnston when the explosion went off, and Yeske was there shortly after to assist Ross and their medic while trying to save Johnston.
“I saw Jason Johnston as he passed from this world, and his body went gray and slack. I remember the look of defeat on Doc’s face,” an excerpt from the book reads. “I remember sitting there and feeling utterly useless. Right about then is when something rained down from the sky.”
Damn the valley.
A plaque hung up in Combat Outpost Johnston. (Photo courtesy of former soldiers of Bravo Company)Writing war nonfiction comes with a burden of responsibility, a responsibility to get the story right. Yeske felt the total weight of that burden. He made every effort to get everyone on board, including the Gold Star families. Some of his former platoon mates supported Yeske, while others were very outspoken in their feelings against it.
He received threatening messages but felt the story needed to be told, so the platoon’s efforts were documented.
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Once it was published, he heard back from several of his old teammates. They said he did a good job and that they could tell his intentions weren’t to glorify war. Some naysayers didn’t say anything about the book but hinted that they didn’t hate it.
1st Squat, 1st Platoon Sgt. Malcom Ackers patrolling through an area in the Arghandab River Valley in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, on March 27, 2010. (Photo courtesy of former soldiers of Bravo Company)Yeske has received confirmation that his book is reaching audiences he never imagined. One of the kids who lived in a village that fell under 1st platoon’s area of operations reached out to him to thank him.
“I was just like, holy shit, okay, that was interesting. He’s like, ‘Man, we love you guys. You’re different than the other Americans here before,’” Yeske said. “‘We didn’t have to fear for stuff and knew you guys were coming here to take care of us.’”
Now, Yeske is determined to help others from the 2/508 PIR who want to write books detailing what they went through while deployed. He hopes his book will inspire many others to tell their stories so that all their sacrifices will be memorialized in history books. Damn the valley.
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A candidate helps carry a simulated patient during Special Forces Assessment and Selection at Camp Mackall, North Carolina January 18, 2024. Army photo by K. Kassens.Special operators are asking the Army not to cut benefits that help soldiers pay for secondary education and vocational training for civilian jobs post-military service.
David Cook, director of the Special Operations Association of America said that an Army proposal to cut civilian tuition and certification assistance could mean special operators like Green Berets and Rangers would lose a key path for promotions, leading to lower retention rates.
“The nature of special operations is that you have to volunteer to get selected, you have to go through the most rigorous training in the world and you go in every day with people that are better than you,” Cook, a former psychological operations soldier, told Task & Purpose. “Along with the fact that the Army evaluations have included secondary education to be promoted for senior enlisted ranks – then special operations promotion rates are higher than the conventional Army – which means that tuition assistance is a vital incentive for special operators to take advantage of.”
The group’s letter comes amid reports that the Army is considering cuts to two major assistance programs. The cuts, first reported by Military.com, come as the services and Congress are working through funding for the fiscal year 2025 budget.
“This is a vital tool not only to draw in recruits, but to retain them as well. With more focus on formal education for enlisted Service Members needed for promotion and career progression, tuition assistance is a fundamental incentive,” Cook wrote in a letter to Army Secretary Christine Wormuth.
Of the two programs on the chopping block, the larger and more widely used is the Tuition Assistance Program which pays up to $4,000 per year or $250 per semester hour for civilian classes. The program pays for up to 130 semester hours of undergraduate credit — enough for a for year degree at most colleges — and 39 semester hours of graduate credits.
The service is also reportedly reviewing the Army Credentialing Assistance Program, introduced in 2020, which gives soldiers $4,000 to pursue courses and exams for civilian industry-recognized credentials in various occupations. Aviation-related credentials for active duty soldiers are limited to $1,000 in Army funds. Soldiers can take courses to enhance skills for their current MOS or for a civilian job they plan to pursue after military service, according to the Department of Defense.
According to the Army National Guard, the most popular certifications are information technology and project management.
“The world is built by tradesman, everything that we do requires trade,” said Lt. Col. Jeff Drawe, an Idaho National Guardsmen who took advantage of the program in 2020 to do a 30-hour welding course that lasted five Saturdays and cost $595. “Regardless of your employment situation, if you’re ever laid off you’ll always be able to find employment.”
Idaho Army National Guard Lt. Col. Jeff Drawe’s desire to continue learning led him to completing an introductory welding course at the College of Western Idaho in December. The course consisted of 30 hours of instruction over five Saturdays. Drawe used the Idaho National Guard’s State Education Assistance Program to pay the course’s $595 tuition. (U.S. National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Becky Vanshur)‘A small investment’In his letter, Cook also said the programs are a “small investment” into the Army’s “Taking Care of People” priority listed in its 2025 budget request overview.
In an interview with Task & Purpose, Cook compared the value of the tuition assistance program to the GI bill for soldiers and the American economy after WWII.
“There’s a whole host of reasons why the United States went into an economic windfall after WWII but the GI Bill was one because it gave servicemembers an entitlement to go out and get a formal education,” he said. “The tuition assistance program is not comparable to the GI Bill post-WWII but the fact that it gives soldiers an incentive, an avenue or a pathway to gain formal education while you’re serving is something that means a lot, especially to noncommissioned officers.”
Cook also noted that many retired soldiers, especially Special Forces, try to find jobs in the private defense world after service with jobs that almost always require a bachelor’s degree at minimum. But degrees can also impact soldiers who pursue full Army careers, he said.
“When we look at two promotion packets for senior enlisted folks and one’s got a bachelor’s degree and the other one doesn’t, then you’re gonna take the one with formal education – among other things, of course,” he said, “but the Army gives that to everyone so the tuition assistance program and formal college education is something that sets you apart and those evaluations.”
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In 2023, more than 100,000 soldiers used the tuition assistance program which
cost the Army around $278 million, Cook said in his letter. Of the $185.9 billion proposed Army budget for 2025, the $278 million tuition assistance cost represents only 0.15% of the entire plan, he added.
At a Congressional hearing on the Army’s fiscal year 2025 budget, federal lawmakers questioned the cuts impact on recruiting – a major issue plaguing the service over the last few years. In Fiscal Year 2022, the Army recruited 45,000 new soldiers, missing a goal of 60,000 recruits by 25%. Last fiscal year, the Army fell 10,000 recruits short of its goal of 65,000, a 15% miss.
Wormuth told lawmakers that the Army had not made any decisions on cuts to two financial assistance programs.
“It’s a great program. We support it. We know our soldiers value certifications that they can then use when they leave the Army. The challenge we have is we didn’t frankly really put any guardrails around the program to help us scope it,” Wormuth said.
The Army is now looking to put limits on the program to curb growing costs across the service, she said.
“Rather than having soldiers be able to pursue an unlimited number of credentials every year in perpetuity, we may look at saying that soldiers could do one certification a year. Maybe have sort of a cap on the number of certifications they can get over the duration of their time in the Army — really just to try to manage the costs of the program a little bit better,” she said. “Those kinds of guardrails are very similar to what our sister services have done in the Air Force and the Navy.”
The Army as a ‘path forward’Cook said the assistance programs for further education or vocational certifications are part of the attraction for young enlisted troops who join the Army for a “million different reasons” other than just wanting to serve their country.
“One of them is that some people don’t have a clear pathway forward, or a way to pay for it,” Cook said. “That pathway is very valuable to an entire population of young people who can’t take student loans out or don’t have the means to go to college the traditional way.”
Cook admits he was “not the best student” when he started college. But after joining the Army at 25, Cook said he matured, learned structure and then became a “double offender” finishing his master’s degree too. In his letter, Cook noted the “staggering” financial burden of a secondary education on an NCO salary.
“It would be extremely difficult for me to go to school full time with two toddlers and a stay-at-home mom,” he said. “The fact that I knocked out two degrees on active duty could not have been done without the tuition assistance program on an enlisted salary.”
NCO salaries range from Privates with less than two years of experience making around $24,000 annually to Staff Sergeants with eight years of experience making just over $51,000.
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A landing craft, air cushion, assigned enters the well deck of the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS New York. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Roland John/Released/U.S. Navy).Thirty Marines and sailors were injured on May 1 when two air-cushioned landing craft collided during a nighttime training exercise off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, Navy officials said.
“One Sailor remains under medical care at a hospital in Savannah, Georgia, and our primary focus is on our Sailor’s health and well-being,” said Cmdr. Lara Bollinger, a spokeswoman for the Navy’s 2nd Fleet. “The incident remains under investigation, and we will provide more information when available.”
The hovercraft-like transporters, which the Navy calls Landing Craft Air Cushion or LCACs, are high-speed amphibious craft that ride on a cushion of air to bring Marines and equipment ashore, according to the Navy. Each LCAC has a crew of five and can reach a top speed of nearly 50 miles per hour while fully loaded. They deploy from the well decks of amphibious warfare ships and can carry a maximum payload of between 60 and 75 tons, enough to carry any armored vehicle in the U.S. inventory, including an M1 Abrams tank.
One of the LCACs was from the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp and the other came from the amphibious transport dock USS New York, Bollinger told Task & Purpose on Friday.
“Both LCACs involved in the incident remained afloat and have since returned to their ships,” Bollinger said.
Five sailors were taken to Savannah Memorial University Medical Center in Georgia to be medically evaluated, a 2nd Fleet news release says. Four of those sailors have since been released.
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Marines and sailors assigned to the Wasp Amphibious Ready Group and the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, or MEU, were taking part in integrated training as part of the Composite Training Unit Exercise, Bollinger said.
FILE: The USS New York sails in formation while the Wasp Amphibious Ready Group conducts a simulated strait transit during Composite Training Unit Exercise in the Atlantic Ocean, April 26, 2024. (Gunnery Sgt. Hector de Jesus/U.S. Navy)The exercise involves training for a variety of missions including non-combatant evacuation operations; visit, board, search, and seizure missions; reconnaissance and surveillance operations; and amphibious raids and assaults, said Capt. Emma Thompson, a spokeswoman for the 24th MEU.
The at-sea training is meant to strengthen the 24th MEU ahead of its upcoming deployment embarked with the amphibious ready group, Thompson told Task & Purpose on Friday. She deferred questions about the LCACs mishap to 2nd Fleet.
This is the latest training accident involving the 24th MEU during the same exercise. Sgt. Colin Arslanbas, a Reconnaissance Marine, died in an April 28 parachute mishap. Arslanbas was assigned to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina at the time of his death.
In the aftermath of Arslanbas’ death, the 24th MEU temporarily paused its training for 24 hours, Thompson told Task & Purpose for a previous story.
“This provided an opportunity for the Marines and Sailors to process and mourn the loss of their teammate,” Thompson said. “Despite the pause, essential leadership continued to focus on deliberate planning for the upcoming operations critical to the 24 MEU’s Composite Unit Training Exercise.”
Amphibious ready groups allow the Marine Corps to project power across the globe, but the Navy’s fleet of amphibious assault ships have long been plagued by maintenance problems and other readiness issues.
The USS Bonhomme Richard was destroyed by a July 12, 2020 fire while tied to the pier at San Diego. More recently, the USS Boxer had to return home in April just 10 days into its deployment after its starboard rudder failed. The Navy announced Thursday that its newest amphibious assault ship would be named the USS Helmand Province as a tribute to the fierce battleground faced by Marines in Afghanistan.
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Pfc. Veronica L. Wynn, an Army trainee at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, died during an initial "pickup" phase of training, when recruits first meet their assigned drill instructors. Army photo.An Army trainee died during one of the early events of basic combat training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina this week, officials said in a release.
Pfc. Veronica L. Wynn was in her company’s “structured and disciplined pickup,” which is the point in basic training when trainees arrive at their unit to meet their Drill Sergeants and company leadership, according to officials.
The “pickup” events of boot camp are often stressful as the first moments when trainees are fully submerged into the culture of Army training. Pickup includes “several tasks designed to teach them teamwork,” officials said in a comment on their Facebook post.
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Wynn, 39, was from Hurtsboro, Alabama and joined the Army’s 3rd Battalion, 13th Infantry Regiment. The maximum age to enlist is 35, but the Army may lift restrictions based on the need for certain roles so it’s possible to receive an age waiver.
Paramedics performed life-saving measures and transported Wynn to a local hospital. She was pronounced dead at 2:30 p.m.
“Today is an especially sad day for Team Jackson after the loss of one of our newest Soldiers,” said Fort Jackson Commander Maj. Gen. Jason E. Kelly. “We extend our deepest sympathies to her family, friends and loved ones. We are providing comfort and assistance to her family and fellow trainees.”
An investigation into Wynn’s cause of death is underway.
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U.S. Army Soldiers with 25th Infantry Division, takes break and eats MREs for lunch during an U.S. Army Air Assault assessment in Schofield Barracks, May 5, 2023. U.S. Army Air Assault is a two-week course focused on Combat Assault Operations. On day zero, soldiers need to pass layout inspection, 2-mile run and the obstacle course to continue in the course.(U.S. Army photo/Pfc. Mariah Aguilar).You’ve been out in the field for weeks without the gut truck, so Meals, Ready-to-Eat (MRE) on repeat is your reality. MREs are a staple of deployments and field training exercises for the U.S. military, but they have a reputation for causing gastrointestinal issues.
The myth and lore surrounding MREs are unlimited and span decades of soldiers using them when hot chow wasn’t available (unless you’re in the Air Force and have lobster dinners every night). The gum found in an MRE, for example, isn’t classified as a laxative — but there is truth to that myth.
It’s a widespread belief that the gum packaged in MREs is a laxative and will clear a plugged-up gut. But Task & Purpose previously reported it’s not a laxative. David Accetta is an Army veteran and the chief of public affairs at the Army Natick Soldier Systems Center, which supplies food to the military. Accetta confirmed the gum in MREs is not a laxative but a gum with xylitol in it, which helps with oral health and hygiene in the field. A once-believed myth was finally debunked — or was it?
Red or white gum: choose wiselyIt’s no secret that MREs can cause constipation, and many will chew the gum, hoping to relieve themselves. Xylitol gum helps keep teeth healthy and combat harmful bacteria in the mouth — brushing your teeth isn’t always practical in a warzone.
Some service members believe that red, cinnamon-flavored gum is a laxative, while white, mint-flavored gum is an anti-diarrheal. There is no evidence to support this theory, but gum, regardless of color, can adversely affect your guts. For example, prunes aren’t classified as a laxative, but that doesn’t mean drinking a whole cup of prune juice won’t have you running for the bathroom.
A study published by the University of Turku’s Institute of Dentistry, based out of Finland, found that xylitol doses of 90 grams or more caused loose stools and diarrhea in healthy adults. Some test subjects showed sensitivity to xylitol and experienced bad gastrointestinal symptoms at lower doses but were generally smaller and lighter in stature.
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How many pieces of MRE gum would a person need to chew to cause an upset stomach? An average soldier would need to chew approximately 90 pieces or more in a day to cause diarrhea-like symptoms.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s authorized commercial item description, the xylitol gum content of two tablets is between 1.7 and 2.2 grams, and each MRE has a packet containing two tablets. It’s possible that a soldier could gather that much gum in a day, but the odds of that are slim. You’d need gum from 45 different MREs to complete that disaster.
I was one of the guys who sought out the gum, as the mint or cinnamon flavor was a welcome addition to the generally bland-tasting MREs. While in the Army’s Ranger Assessment and Selection Program (RASP), I’d trade cheese spreads for the gum and, if possible, the Tabasco sauce. Besides having a refreshing flavor, I always felt the gum and Tabasco sauce helped me stay awake through several sleepless nights during RASP.
Multipurpose menu itemsBesides the great flavor — if you enjoy vinegar-based hot sauce — Tabasco has a dual purpose, like many items within that impossibly thick MRE plastic case. It sounds crazy, but it wasn’t uncommon to see a soldier dropping Tabasco into the corner of their eye to let the pain snap them out of sleep-deprived semi-consciousness.
Soldiers get creative when they lack sleep and food, especially when a tab or badge is on the line. Tabasco won’t blind you but can cause eye pain and soreness for several days. Task & Purpose advises against this maneuver and recommends that service members only use it as a garnish.
The MRE toilet tissue has a few purposes besides aiding with good hygiene. It is a great fire starter and, with a very small amount of water, can serve as a wet wipe. Be careful with the water, though; too much may jeopardize the structural integrity. But it’s also great when combined with instant coffee.
Service members will drop the coffee onto the toilet tissue, roll it up, and place it in the lip as a pseudo-caffeine dip for training environments where tobacco is banned. Instant coffee can also serve as a caffeinated garnish for the different cakes and sweets that come with MREs. Either way, caffeine is a valuable supplement.
Each menu item has a perceived value widely accepted throughout the military’s rank and file. Depending on a service member’s preference, they will go to great lengths to acquire the item they need to complete their preferred MRE feast.
MRE Bartering 101Menu items like M&Ms, Tobasco bottles, and cheese spread are examples of hot commodities that created a bartering system within the military — especially for those attending Ranger School.
Bartering is an art for those attending any training where food is limited. They can use their MREs as commodities to peer higher or to acquire the items they want but don’t come in the MRE they were given. For example, peanut butter can be traded for cheese spread, or vice versa. Trading your sweet sides for main course dishes can allow a soldier to make a better meal, like adding Italian sausage in marinara to tortellini.
Those are just a few examples of how service members can barter their way into the perfect meal. For those who don’t get a chance to trade, there are other means of getting the item you want. Anyone who’s survived off of MREs can likely tell you about their experiences with rat fucking and field-stripping MREs.
Field stripping helps lighten a ruck sack’s total weight. Rat fucking is the diabolical act of plucking MRE menu items from several different cases, which is about as bad as it gets in the world of “blue falcons.” Horror stories of entire MRE cases missing M&M’s or cheese spread still echo throughout the military’s ranks.
The perfect field MRE can be an honorable quest, though. And, in the end, maybe it’s not about getting the cheese spread or gum that makes you poop, but the friends we made along the way?
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Ghosts in the Machine. (U.S. Special Operations Command Europe photo).Ghosts in the machine manipulate the emotions of foreign audiences and threats. That’s on full display in the Army’s 4th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne) second installment of its psychological operations (PSYOP) recruiting series on YouTube, titled “Ghosts in the Machine.”
The video was released quietly Thursday morning, combining storytelling and influence for the PSYOP recruiting efforts. Some may find the imagery “unsettling,” as the AP called it, as the viewer goes from a powerful quote about rising up to scenes representing oppressors and those fighting to free the oppressed.
Some may even think it’s a psychological operation (PSYOP). Aaron Schmidt, a PSYOP reservist and information professional, said the actual definitions of PSYOP, propaganda, and disinformation are simple but often confused.
“It’s become part of this like cultural lexicon that we just started to say it the same way we say propaganda, disinformation without understanding what those terms mean,” Schmidt said. “Certain words like PSYOP have just become part of this colloquial lexicon, and they’ve lost meaning.”
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Schmidt points to the definition of influence as it pertains to PSYOP: “to change the opinions and, ultimately, the behavior of threat and foreign target audiences.” The video isn’t that and is nothing more than a powerful recruiting video.
Images of the Ghost Army’s symbology are intertwined throughout the video, with multiple hints at PSYOP’s lineage. The Ghost Army was recently awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for their actions deceiving the enemy throughout World War II. Schmidt says it’s important to stay true to their unit’s lineage and pay homage to them.
He gave Gen. George Patton’s fake army as an example, an operation the Ghost Army carried out to successfully distract the enemy forces and improve the odds of the Normandy invasion.
“That is the genesis of that symbology and our field itself. If we go back to the definition of affecting the behavior of a threat, that was the intent behind creating dummy signatures, information, and deceptive activities, all in support of drawing attention away from the main effort at Normandy,” Schmidt said. “When you have that kind of rich and deep history as a unit, we are very proud about where our lineage is derived.”
The fake army is an example of the symbology throughout the video. Invisible hands manipulate people’s emotions from behind the curtains is represented throughout the latest recruiting videos. Anyone privy to current world affairs will pick up on the Chinese money, oppressors, and symbology of freeing the oppressed as they watch through.
Schmidt said that once you understand the definitions of information, influence, and other aspects of the PSYOP job, you can tell the video is an example of someone being really good at their job while relaying history and the importance of information.
“If that happens because of this information — these videos are out there, and in the consciousness, that can only be a win not only for special operations recruiting — which shout out to them — but also for us as consumers of information and citizens of the world,” Schmidt said.
If you want to learn more about the process of becoming what Schmidt calls a “PSYOPer,” you’ll want to read more about the training a soldier must complete to join the ghost ranks.
Now, we at Task & Purpose are starting to think there’s a new kid on the block that dethroned the Marine Corps and their recruiting commercials.
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China’s supply to Russia has been one of the “key factors” in Russia gaining momentum on the battlefield with its war in Ukraine, top U.S. intelligence officials told members of Congress Thursday. (Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images).China’s supply to Russia has been one of the “key factors” in gaining momentum on the battlefield with its war in Ukraine, top U.S. intelligence officials told Congress Thursday.
“China’s provision of dual-use components and material to Russia’s defense industry is one of several factors that tilted the momentum on the battlefield in Ukraine in Moscow’s favor,” U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee at a hearing on worldwide threats. Chinese goods, Haines said, are “also accelerating a reconstitution of Russia’s military strength after their extraordinarily costly invasion.”
The threat of Russia substituting Chinese goods — and that country’s deep industrial base — for its mostly-decayed arms industry has been an ongoing U.S. concern. In March 2022, two weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Biden warned Chinese President Xi Jinping not to provide “material support” for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that China was “overwhelmingly the No. 1 supplier of critical components” to Russia’s military industrial base, supplying machine tools, microelectronics, optics, and other equipment going into the production of munitions, of weaponry, of tanks, of armored vehicles.
However, most of the Chinese aid has been carefully chosen to have a plausible civilian use.
The Chinese government has tried “to avoid what is characterized as lethal support [like] a fully constructed gun or weapon system, etc. to Ukraine,” Haines told Senators.
“That has been something that they’ve maintained,” she said regarding the Biden Administration’s “red line” on sending defense materials to Russia. Instead, China has supplied Russia with dual use materials, like nitrocellulose for example, which Haines said are critical inputs for Russia’s “reconstitution of the defense industry.”
Nitrocellulose is a raw material used in both the civilian and defense world. The compound can be used in the production of propellants, ammunition and civilian explosives, according to Rheinmetall, a German-based defense and commercial technology supplier.
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An April report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington D.C. think tank, found a “significant shift” in the make-up of Russia’s trading partners for key military goods with prewar Western suppliers being replaced by Chinese companies.
“Despite the threat of Western secondary sanctions Chinese supplies to Russia fully replaced imports from Europe, the United States, South Korea, and Taiwan, as trade between the two countries hit a record high of $240 billion, growing 26.3% from 2022,” the report said.
The report notes specific pieces of equipment like Chinese-sourced microelectronic components found in the wreckage of Russian missiles in Ukraine, as well as millions of dollars worth of semiconductors, ball bearings, navigation equipment and fighter jet parts. CSIS also tracked Russian imports of CNC machines which are used to provide parts for various weapon systems from ammunition to aircraft, while Chinese companies experienced a “sharp increase” in the months after a meeting between Xi and Putin in March 2023.
LUHANSK OBLAST, UKRAINE – AUGUST 10: Chinese ammunition boxes left behind by the Russians are seen as the soldiers of the battalion ‘Wild Field’ build new positions in the forests of the Kremmina area in Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine, on August 10, 2023. (Photo by Jose Colon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)Another problem, the report found, was that some Chinese and Hong Kong trade partners with Russia are also supplying Ukrainian firms that supply their military.
“While it is possible to sanction firms based on their connections to Russia’s defense industry and war effort, doing so could endanger ongoing Ukrainian procurement, perhaps in ways that are not at first obvious without multitiered supply chain visibility,” the report said.
Two fronts Beyond the economic benefits of China supplying Russia with dual-use goods, intelligence officials also said they’re watching their military-to-military interactions.
“We see China and Russia for the first time exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them,” Haines said.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) asked intelligence officials about the chances of a conflict with one adversary involving both China and Russia at once.
“If we were to have a conflict with one, the chances are we would have a second front,” Rounds said. “The planning that we have to do includes confrontation and not just one front now, but the capabilities, the planning equipment, manpower that would be necessary for two different fronts simultaneously, am I correct?”
Haines agreed and said it’s “a greater possibility now than what it was two or three years ago,” Haines said.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey A. Kruse, Director of Defense Intelligence Agency said the last few years have caused the DOD to relook at its requirements on infrastructure and planning in an environment where Russia and China may be cooperating militarily even if they’re not “interoperable.”
Kruse also noted that the DOD is in the middle of revising its planning process which is multiple years long and includes a “fairly intensive vetting of what kind of operations we might want to conduct” for operations that would take into account the possibility of a two-front war.
“It just has to be taken into account whether or not we actually believe there would be two full up fronts,” he said. “That is analysis and assessments that will mature over time.”
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Former Mass. Air National Guard airman Jack Teixeira was sentenced to 16 years in prison after pleading guilty to leaking military secrets.Already facing significant time in federal prison, Airman 1st Class Jack Teixeira must also appear before a preliminary hearing in a military court to determine if he should go before a special court-martial, the Air Force has confirmed.
In March Teixeira pleaded guilty in federal court to six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information for leaking classified information on private Discord servers to impress an online gaming community. His sentencing has been scheduled for September, and he could receive more than 16 years in prison.
Now Teixeira must also appear before an Article 32 hearing on May 14 on charges of disobeying a direct order and obstruction of justice under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, an Air Force spokesperson told Task & Purpose. Article 32 hearings are the military’s equivalent of civilian grand jury investigations.
“Following close coordination with the Department of Justice, the Air Force determined that separate and distinct charges should be preferred against A1C Jack Teixeira, for alleged misconduct related to his military duties,” an Air Force spokesperson told Task & Purpose on Thursday.
The Air Force Office of Special Investigations, or OSI, worked with the FBI and provided evidence to military commanders that show Teixeira allegedly violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the spokesperson said.
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Military prosecutors accuse Teixeira of viewing information unrelated to his duties despite an order to do so, and he is also accused of wrongfully disposing of a cell phone, hard drive, and other electronic equipment as well as telling someone else to delete messages that he had sent to Discord ahead of criminal proceedings, according to a redacted copy of the charge sheet against him that was provided to Task & Purpose.
A military officer will decide whether to refer those charges to a special court-martial for trial following the May 14 Article 32 hearing, the Air Force spokesperson said.
The maximum penalties that service members can receive at special courts-martial include one year of confinement, reduction of rank, and a bad conduct discharge.
Prior to his April 2023 arrest, Teixeira was assigned to the Massachusetts Air National Guard’s 102nd Intelligence Wing as a cyber transport systems journeyman. The classified information that he is accused of leaking strained U.S. relations with Ukraine, Israel, and South Korea. As a result, the Pentagon took several steps to prevent future data leaks.
A subsequent Air Force Inspector General’s Office investigation into the data breach found that three of Teixeira’s supervisors knew or had seen him breaking rules about secret information, but they decided not to report him.
Following the report, a total of 15 airmen ranging in rank from staff sergeant to colonel were disciplined, including Air Force Col. Sean Riley, Teixeira’s wing commander at the time, who received administrative action and was relieved of command.
Air Force Col. Enrique Dovalo, former commander of the 102d Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group, also received administrative action but he was not relieved of command because he had already moved into a different job before the data breach was discovered.
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U.S. targeters “misidentified” a civilian in Syria in late 2023 as a senior Al Qaeda leader, a mistake which led to them being killed by a U.S. air strike, Pentagon officials said Thursday. (Photo by Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP) (Photo by DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images).U.S. targeters “misidentified” a civilian in Syria in late 2023 as a senior Al Qaeda leader, a mistake which led to them being killed by a U.S. air strike, Pentagon officials said Thursday.
An investigation by U.S Central Command “determined U.S. forces misidentified the intended Al Qaeda target and that a civilian, Mr. Lufti Hasan Masto, was struck and killed instead” in a “unilateral counterterrorism” air strike in Northwest Syria on May 3, 2023, officials said in a release.
The findings came after an investigation was directed by CENTCOM Commander Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla on June 6, 2023. The inquiry involved site visits to Iraq and Jordan and more than 40 interviews before concluding in November.
“Many of the facts and other findings of the investigation involve classified information and cannot be shared publicly,” the CENTCOM release said, adding that the strike complied with the law of armed conflict, Department of Defense and CENTCOM policies. “The investigation revealed several issues that could be improved. We are committed to learning from this incident and improving our targeting processes to mitigate potential civilian harm.”
The inquiry was conducted by Army Investigating Officer, Brig. Gen. John P. Cogbill and a team of ten senior service members and civilian employees who were “not directly involved with the strike” but are experts in intelligence, law of armed conflict, operations, and targeting matters, according to CENTCOM.
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Airstrikes in Syria and Iraq The civilian death investigation was announced days after the DOD released its Congressionally mandated report on civilian deaths from U.S. airstrikes in 2022. The Pentagon found zero U.S. military operations in 2022 resulted in civilian casualties.
However, officials also used the recent report to update statistics from previous years “based on allegations that were assessed after the date of the last report.”
Between 2017 and 2021, the DOD said that U.S. airstrikes on targets in Syria killed 18 civilians and injured 11 others. A majority of the deaths took place during a June 4, 2018 strike in Al Helo, Al-Hasakah Province in Syria which killed 12 people.
CENTCOM continues to carry out hundreds of airstrikes each year as U.S. officials estimate that 2,500 ISIS fighters remain in Iraq and Syria, despite the fall of the group’s last refuge in Baghouz, Syria in 2019. As part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the ongoing campaign against ISIS, officials said U.S. and partner groups killed 18 ISIS operatives and detained 63 more in the first three months of 2024. A majority of the operations took place in Iraq which killed 11 ISIS members.
U.S. counterterrorism operations continue despite meetings between the two nations and the Higher Military Commission on the future of U.S. troop presence in Iraq. U.S. officials have pushed back on a near term American military withdrawal and at the same time experts have urged that increasing tensions due to the onset of the Israel-Hamas war and Iran proxy groups attacks on U.S. bases could drag the U.S. into a broader conflict with the roughly 3,300 U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria and Jordan as targets.
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The Navy will name its next America-class amphibious assault ship the USS Helmand Province in tribute to the heavy fighting faced by Marines and Sailors in the region over the 20 years of the Afghanistan war. Left, U.S. Marines with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6 conduct a security patrol in Gorazan Valley, Helmand province, Afghanistan, April 17, 2012. Photo by Cpl. Andrew Good.Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro announced on Thursday that a future amphibious assault ship will be named USS Helmand Province where 366 Marines were killed by hostile fire and nearly 5,000 more were wounded during the Afghanistan War.
“In keeping with naval tradition of naming our Navy’s amphibious assault ships after U.S. Marine Corps battles, I am honored to announce today that the future LHA-10 will be named USS Helmand Province, recognizing the bravery and sacrifice of our Marines and Sailors who fought for almost 20 years in the mountains of Afghanistan,” Del Toro said during this year’s annual Modern Day Marine exposition.
Construction of the ship is expected to start in 2027, a Navy spokesperson said. The move comes after Del Toro announced in 2021 that another America-class amphibious assault ship would be named USS Fallujah, the site of two major battles in the Iraq War in 2004.
Del Toro’s announcement about the USS Helmand Province provides further proof that the Global War on Terrorism has become an enduring chapter of the Marine Corps’ legacy, along with World War II, Vietnam, and other conflicts.
The Marines first arrived in Helmand Province in November 2001. Over the next two decades, Marines would battle the Taliban at Garmser, Sangin, Marjah, and other places in the province, often at great sacrifice.
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“Helmand Province holds a unique place in the hearts of Marines of this generation,” Marine Corps Commandant Eric Smith said on Thursday at Modern Day Marine. “Many of us have spent months or years there. Many of our mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, and kids, have sent their Marines and Corpsmen there to go fight.”
From 2009 to 2014, Helmand Province was the center of Marine operations in Afghanistan, Smith said. At the height of the campaign, more than 19,000 sailors and Marines were deployed to the region, which featured rugged terrain and served as the heart of the opium trade.
“It was there that yet another generation of warriors added to the storied history of our Corps,” Smith said. “Marines like Cpl. Kyle Carpenter, who used his own body to shield his Marine brothers from a grenade blast on the 21st of November, 2010, in a small village in Marjah. And Sgt. Christopher Farias, who refused treatment for his own wounds when his patrol base was ambushed in Kajaki in 2010. Instead – with fragmentation from a 73 mm recoilless rifle in his neck and shoulder – he climbed onto a rooftop where he coordinated his Marines’ fire and maneuver to repel the assault.”
Other Marines gave their lives in Helmand so that others might live, such as Capt. Matt Manoukian and Staff Sgt. Sky Mote, who drew fire on themselves during an insider attack, allowing their fellow Marines to escape, Smith said.
Another Marine who died to save others is Lance Cpl. Donald Hogan, who used his body to shield the nearest Marine from a bomb blast and then remained inside the kill zone to warn the rest of his squad, Smith recalled.
“To the families of the fallen, know that your loved ones are forever honored in our memory – and now, through the naming of LHA-10 as the USS Helmand Province,” Smith said. Their sacrifices will never be forgotten, and their legacy will endure through the generations of Marines that follow.”
“To those who served in Helmand and to all Marines past and present: thank you,” Smith continued. “Thank you for your service, your bravery, and your unwavering commitment to our Corps and our country.”
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Soldiers of 10th Mountain Division stand in formation prior to marching during the pass and review for the Transfer of Authority Ceremony on April 5, 2023, at the Carol I National Defense University in downtown Bucharest. Photo by Sgt. Amber Edwards.Several thousand soldiers from Fort Johnson will rotate to eastern Europe this summer, replacing troops from the 101st Airborne Division, the Army said Wednesday.
The 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division — which is based at Fort Johnson, Louisianna, formerly Fort Polk — will deploy to Romania and other parts of eastern Europe, the Army said. The 3rd IBCT will replace troops from 101st Airborne’s own 3rd IBCT that have been eastern Europe since the fall.
The 10th’s 3rd IBCT consists of three infantry regiments, cavalry, engineering and artillery regiments and a headquarters unit.
In September the Army announced it was sending 3,400 soldiers from the 101st Airborne, as well as 200 from the 82nd Airborne, to southeastern Europe and parts of Scandinavia in order to maintain the troop buildup on the continent in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Troops from the 10th Mountain Division have been deployed overseas to Europe repeatedly in recent years as part of the NATO mission. The 82nd Airborne soldiers sent to Europe last year replaced a similar force from 10th Mountain Division Headquarters.
The Army is currently in the process of rotating units into Europe as part of its spring deployments.
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Army Pvt. Richard Halliday went missing in July 2020 while he was assigned to Fort Bliss, Texas. On April 24, 2024, the Army informed his family that a board of inquiry had determined he had died on July 23, 2020. (Photo courtesy of Robert Halliday).The Army has determined that Pvt. Richard Halliday died the day he went missing from Fort Bliss, Texas nearly four years ago, an Army spokesman said, though Halliday’s body remains missing.
“On April 24, 2024, the Army informed the Halliday family that the preponderance of evidence provided during a board of inquiry supported changing the duty status of Pvt. Richard Halliday from missing to deceased,” Bryce Dubee told Task & Purpose. “The BOI [board of inquiry] determined that Pvt. Halliday died on July 23, 2020.”
The Army determined that Halliday died on July 23, 2020 because that was the last day when he was accounted for by his unit, Dubee said. Halliday’s body has not been located, but the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, or CID, continues to look for his whereabouts.
However, Halliday’s mother told Task & Purpose that her family is skeptical of the board of inquiry’s findings.
“The Army doesn’t have a point of view except for that he’s dead – that’s their point of view,” Patricia Halliday said. “They don’t know where he’s at. They don’t know where his remains are. That’s their point of view. And we want to go on record to say they don’t have a point of view because everything that they have tried to allege, we have had to investigate it and we have found it wanting – nothing behind it.”
Though the Army has changed Halliday’s duty status, the legal investigation of his disappearance remains open. “From a law enforcement perspective, CID is still maintaining Pvt. Halliday as a missing person in their Cold Case Unit at Quantico, VA,” Dubee said.
No further information has been publicly released about how Army officials determined that Halliday had died or the circumstances of his death.
Halliday enlisted in the Army in April 2018. At the time of his disappearance, he was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 43rd Air Defense Artillery Regiment. An internal Army investigation into the battalion’s command climate found in 2021 that the unit was severely strained and suffering from poor morale at the time due to relentless training and deployment requirements.
However, the investigator found no evidence of toxic leadership in the battalion or a command climate, “that forced soldiers to feel that they had no choice but to go AWOL.”
“The Army expresses its deepest condolences to the Halliday family and notes that this determination will allow us to further support the family under the Army Casualty Program,” Dubee said. “We ask anyone with information about the case to contact the Army Criminal Investigation Division, which continues to maintain their investigation.”
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Patricia Halliday said she believes her son was murdered and she claimed that CID has interfered with her son’s case for the past several years.
After speaking with witnesses and other people for three years, Richard Halliday’s family believes he was forcibly removed from his barracks in July 2020 and killed at Fort Bliss, said Paticia Halliday. She said that she believes her son was buried in multiple locations based on information provided by credible whistleblowers and law enforcement officials.
“This is another Vanessa Guillén story,” she said, referring to the 2020 death of a soldier assigned to Fort Hood, Texas, which has since been renamed Fort Cavazos.
An independent panel later found that inexperienced CID agents had made several rookie mistakes while investigating Guillén’s disappearance. The soldier suspected of killing Guillén died by suicide after being released by police. A Texas woman was sentenced in August to 30 years in prison for helping to hide Guillén’s body.
When asked about Patricia Halliday’s comments about CID allegedly interfering with the investigation into her son’s death, the division issued a statement to Task & Purpose saying the Army has employed “all available resources” to determine Halliday’s whereabouts since he went missing in July 2020.
“After an extensive and thorough investigation by the Fort Bliss Criminal Investigation Division Office, Pvt. Halliday’s case was transferred to the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division Cold Case Unit on June 30, 2022, where Army CID continues to follow up on all credible leads and information concerning the whereabouts of Pvt. Halliday,” a CID spokesperson said. “The Army has a very deliberate process to find our service members and we will not stop that process until we have explored every option to that end. We remind the public to report any information regarding Pvt. Richard Halliday to the Army CID.”
Halliday’s father Robert, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, said that his son came from a military family that has served this country for a total of 76 years.
“Richard grew into a strong, beautiful young man, traveling the world with his family,” Robert Halliday told Task & Purpose. “He believed in law and order, and in protecting those who could not protect themselves. As a result, Richard aspired to a career as an agent serving in the U.S. Army Criminal Investigative Division. This is confirmed by paperwork and CID agent Marlon Soto. He was the distinguished Honor Graduate for his cycle in basic training and advanced individual training, achieving the top rank.”
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From left to right: Army Staff Sgt. Bryan C. Black; Sgt. La David T. Johnson; Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright; and Sgt. 1st Class Jeremiah W. Johnson, were killed on Oct. 4, 2017 near the village of Tongo Tongo in Niger. (Photos courtesy of the U.S. Army and GoFundMe).Forces in Mali are claiming to have killed a leader with the Islamic State Group who was known in recent years to show off an American rifle he said was taken from dead Green Berets after a 2017 ambush in Niger.
Malian armed forces said they killed Abu Huzeifa, who the U.S. has said played a role in the Oct. 4, 2017 ambush in Niger that killed four U.S. soldiers.
Army Staff Sgt. Bryan C. Black, Sgt. 1st Class Jeremiah W. Johnson, Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright, and Sgt. La David T. Johnson fought to the death after their convoy of Green Berets, support troops and local soldiers was ambushed by more than 100 ISIS fighters near the village Tongo Tongo in Niger. The four soldiers posthumously received valor awards. Black and Wright were both Special Forces soldiers and both Jeremiah Johnson and La David Johnson were named honorary Green Berets in tribute.
On Monday, Mali’s armed forces posted a message on X that they had “neutralized a major terrorist leader of foreign nationality” who was identified as Abu Huzeifa. The message noted that the United States had placed a $5 million reward for information on Abu Huzeifa’s whereabouts in connection with the 2017 Niger ambush.
A picture circulating on a pro-Russian Telegram channel appears to show the body of a man who looks like Abu Huzeifa, although it is not possible to independently confirm the man’s identity.
A spokesperson for U.S. Africa Command told Task & Purpose that U.S. military officials are aware of reports that Abu Huzeifa had been killed in Mali, but the command does not have any information to independently confirm his death.
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Abu Huzeifa was one of the ISIS commanders directly involved in the 2017 ambush, said Caleb Weiss, an expert on jihadism in Africa and the Middle East.
“In fact, in most public photos that we have of him, he often prominently displayed one of the rifles captured from one of the killed US servicemen as a trophy weapon.” said Weiss, a senior analyst with the Bridgeway Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to end genocide.
ISIS has not issued a public statement confirming Abu Huzeifa’s death yet, but they do not comment on the deaths of all their commanders, Weiss told Task & Purpose.
“Some commanders or prominent fighters sometimes get eulogies in the weekly Al Naba newsletter, but again not always,” Weiss said. “So even if IS [Islamic State] doesn’t say anything that doesn’t mean he’s still alive, it’s just more in line with their normal procedures with this.”
Until the 2017 ambush, most Americans were unaware that any U.S. troops were deployed to Niger. The U.S. and Nigerien forces had been denied permission to return to base before being attacked by the much larger force of ISIS fighters.
The team fought for about 20 minutes at the ambush site and then tried to break contact, but the convoy lost sight of one of the vehicles with Wright, Black and Jeremiah Johnson, an investigation into the incident found.
Black was killed while providing suppressing fire. Wright and Jeremiah Johnson stayed with him until they were forced to relocate. After Jeremiah Johnson was shot and severely wounded, Wright ran over to him and the two continued to fight until they were overwhelmed by the enemy.
La David Johnson was with the rest of the convoy when it stopped about 700 meters from the ambush site and was attacked again. He ran out of ammunition for his M-240B machine gun, so he switched to an M2010 sniper rifle.
When the convoy drove away, he was unable to get into a vehicle due to the intense enemy fire. La David Johnson and two Nigerien soldiers kept fighting. After the Nigeriens were killed, he took cover under a thorny tree, where he died fighting.
Abu Huzeifa was not the only ISIS commander involved in the ambush. Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi claimed responsibility for the attack one year later. France announced in 2021 that it had killed al-Sahrawi.
Doundoun Cheffou, the ISIS leader whom U.S. and Nigerien forces were pursuing at the time of the ambush, is believed to still be alive, according to the New York Times.
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Airmen in basic training began receiving the Air Force’s latest physical training gear in April and the PT gear is expected to hit exchange shelves in July, officials said. (U.S. Air Force photo by Jim Varhegyi).New Air Force and Space Force workout uniforms are rolling out to troops in basic training and will be available across the services in the coming months.
Airmen in basic training began receiving the Air Force’s latest physical training gear in April and the PT gear is expected to hit exchange shelves in July, according to Army and Air Force Exchange Service spokesperson Chris Ward.
Air Force
The Air Force’s workout uniforms don’t look like middle-aged dad gear anymore – the new threads are sleeker and more form-fitting. And while the previous generation of uniforms were made of 1990s-era windbreaker materials that made a swishing sound when you walked, the replacements are made with softer, quieter fabrics.
“With the ‘notorious’ track jacket, we’ve made updates to the fabric to minimize the noise it makes during workouts,” an Air Force official said when the uniform was announced in 2021.
The new uniforms have quick-dry, antimicrobial, and moisture and odor control features which are common in civilian gym wear.
The new gear includes a jacket, pants, t-shirts and two pairs of shorts with — for the first time — different workouts in mind. One shorter pair is designed for running while the other one is longer for other physical activities like lifting weights. In 2021, the service said a long-sleeved shirt and hoodie were in development, but have not yet been released.
“The approach the Air Force has now taken is to develop a uniform that is earmarked for runners or running and one that is better designed for some of those other athletic activities,” Col. Paul Burger, 88th Air Base Wing Mission Support Group commander said in 2021.
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When designs for the new PT gear were released in 2021, the upgraded features included a jacket more tailored than the older, bulkier one with a chest pocket for a CAC (common access card); zipper hip pockets on the all-purpose shorts; mesh side panels on runner shorts with improved airflow and stretch liner “for modesty”; a t-shirt designed to be untucked during workouts or tucked back for in-garrison wear.
The gear arrives after more than two years of delays. The service announced in March 2021, that the new PT uniforms would be available to Airmen in 2022 with a four-year transition period for mandatory wear. The Air Force did not respond to inquiries by Task & Purpose about the timeline delay, though the Air Force Times linked it to supply chain disruptions.
Space ForceSpace Force announced in March that its new PT gear had landed. The Space Force opted for black jackets, pants and shorts while the Air Force stuck with its shade of dark blue. The Space Force T-shirt is a dark gray compared to the Air Force’s light gray.
U.S. Space Force trainees from 1st Delta Operations Squadron Detachment 1 stand at parade rest while wearing the new Space Force Physical Training Uniform March 8, 2024, at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. (U.S. Space Force photos by 2nd Lt. Kate Anderson)Similar to the Air Force, the new Space Force uniforms have breathable, moisture-wicking materials to “help curb sweat and odor.” Guardian PT uniforms will be available in both men’s and women’s sizes, rather than unisex.
Guardian trainees in basic training began receiving their new PT uniforms on March 8. New workout gear will be available for purchase at select AAFES locations in the next few months at Peterson, Schriever, Buckley, Vandenberg, and Patrick Space Force Bases, Los Angeles Air Force Base, and the Pentagon, according to a service release. The clothing cost will be included in Guardians’ uniform replacement allowance.
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Before performing a military operation, the first thing any unit does is gather as much intelligence about the objective as possible. In fact, creating an action plan without first conducting research can have disastrous results. So why do military veterans make that mistake when transitioning out of the military?
While veteran job seekers may not have an intelligence network, they can seek the advice of people who have who have tackled the military-to-civilian experience. More than just boosting their transition, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that mentored professionals find increased success in their careers.
- 90% of mentored professionals report being happy in their roles.
- 34% of people say that a lack of mentorship has held them back in their careers.
- 40% of workers need upskilling or reskilling, and 74% of job seekers believe mentorships are important in successfully doing so.
Mentorship increases personal productivity, promotion potential, and overall job satisfaction. What does that mean for you? It means seeking consistent mentorship can give you a leg up in your professional career.
What is Mentorship?Mentorship can look different depending on the situation, but usually consists of a person of experience providing guidance to another. This can be in matters of personal or professional development. In a professional setting, mentorship can look like:
- One-on-one mentoring programs: Mentors are matched with mentees, either through a program or on their own. Mentee-mentor pairs participate in a co-learning relationship that follows a structure and time period outlined by the organization.
- Group mentoring programs: A single mentor is matched with a cohort of mentees as part of a program that is structured to provide each mentee with individualized guidance from the same mentor.
- Reverse mentoring programs: In reverse mentoring, a junior team member exchanges skills, knowledge, and understanding with a senior colleague who wishes to build up their capabilities in a field where the junior peer has more experience. Mentorship in Military CultureThe military community is a natural participant in mentoring tasks. Every veteran who’s been in a leadership role has been expected to train, mentor, and develop subordinates. One of the reasons the United States military is the best in the world is the mentorship between non-commissioned officers and junior enlisted personnel.
It’s not uncommon for older military members to go the extra mile when training subordinates. After all, better-trained and well-rounded troops mean increased mission effectiveness. This kind of training is often circular, and wisdom is passed down as the newer troops become the experienced ones.
The same is true in the civilian world: the uniforms may be different, but productivity improves along with skills and abilities, making for a happier work environment. Most importantly, managers recognize the leadership on display, just like in the military.
Mentorship During the Job SearchProfessionally mentored employees bring more confidence, industry perspective, and leadership skills than those who have not received mentorship. Recent data indicates that over 66% of American workers are willing to retrain and reskill for new jobs. Within the transitioning military community, that rate is even higher.
A common hurdle in the veteran hiring process is translating military skill sets into civilian ones. For those working with a mentor, the recruiting and hiring process may be easier. Candidates who have gone through a professional mentorship program are often better equipped to describe their military experience and skill sets in a way that makes sense for corporate recruiters. The result is stronger resumes that align well with their chosen industry.
For someone who has already transitioned out of the military, mentorship can elevate their career. Mentored individuals from the military community often have an elevated grasp of business concepts beyond their non-mentored counterparts and are more likely to secure roles that best utilize their potential.
Military Community MentorshipIf you are ready where to start your mentorship journey or are interested in becoming a military community mentor, check out organizations like:
VeteratiVeterati is a digital mentorship platform that supports the military community as they pursue the careers of their dreams at every point in their career journey. Mentees can schedule time with mentors in every industry or stage of life.
Still Serving Veterans (SSV)SSV provides practical advice for finding meaningful post-military work. Every career counselor is a Veteran who understands the unique needs of Veterans and their families.
American Corporate Partners (ACP)ACP’s free Mentoring Program connects post-9/11 veterans, active-duty spouses, and eligible military spouses with corporate professionals for customized mentorships. ACP assists veterans and eligible spouses on their path towards fulfilling, long-term careers, whether the veteran is job searching or newly employed.
Visit RecruitMilitary’s Partner Page for more resources to equip you for your post-military career.
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The times, they are a changin'. Or, are they? (Task and Purpose composite image).Ever since the American military was established, grooming standards have ebbed and flowed with changes in uniform and broader cultural norms over the years. Today, the common belief is that a clean-cut hairstyle, no facial hair, and a sharp-looking uniform are signs of discipline.
Those folks probably didn’t ask this operator:
More recently, the military has been making moves to better embrace different religions, cultures, and races. However, beards are still not allowed, generally speaking. It wasn’t always that way, though.
High and tightsThe history of haircuts in the military went from getting a trim while it was available pre-World War I to being mandatory during the war so that a soldier’s gas mask could properly fit. In World War II, paratroopers shaved their heads down to mohawks to instill fear into the enemy during the D-Day invasion of Normandy in 1944.
The high and tight became popular in the years after the Vietnam War ended and reigned supreme for many decades to come. In 1989, Army Rangers jumped into Panama rocking high and tights for Operation Just Cause. The high and tight remained the standard in the 75th Rangers for many years, but when legendary Command Sgt. Maj. Greg Birch became the Regimental Sergeant Major, he told his Rangers to ditch the high and tight and follow the Army’s AR 670-1 hair standards.
Many other service members from the Marine Corps and conventional Army eventually adopted the high and tight, while others sported a standard flat top or stuck to a shaved head.
Now, soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and guardians have some leeway with their hairstyles, but they must adhere to the parameters established by their branch of service’s grooming standards. Each branch has mandatory instructions on hair, facial hair, and uniforms. As an example, the Army has Army Regulation 670-1, while the Air Force has the Dept. of the Air Force Instruction 36-2903.
But, as service members found out over the last two decades at war, maintaining haircuts and facial hair isn’t always practical. This gave way to relaxed grooming standards while deployed for some service members. Every unit had a unique approach to this, but special operations had some of the more notable appearances.
In the early 2000s, America started seeing glimpses of Green Berets sporting long beards and Navy SEALs with long hair. This was further proof that a haircut and a clean-shaven face aren’t always the best choices, depending on the environment you’re fighting in.
Female service membersWomen in the military were held to the rigid restrictions of small, tightly wound hair buns. This made combat helmets fit awkwardly and was a lengthy process. The hairstyle wasn’t practical for all types of hair, either.
Former Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Grinston and a board of service members enacted the latest updates to the Army’s regulations governing women’s hairstyles and appearance in 2021.
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Female soldiers are now allowed to wear multiple hairstyles at once. They no longer have a minimum hair length requirement, giving them a choice between having hair or not. This is a part of the Army’s overall objective of being inclusive and culturally conscious.
The other service branches followed with similar updates to their hair regulations for women, allowing ponytails to be worn with certain uniforms, though the Navy enacted that change in 2018.
Sailors and beardsSailors, and not just Navy SEALs, have historically sported beards. But the U.S. Navy did away with beards in 1985, claiming they were unprofessional and problematic for missions. Their move ignored the world’s many different professional navies that allowed their sailors to have beards.
The change in regulation shattered a tradition that spanned 210 of the Navy’s 248 years of existence. Specifically, the Navy believed a chemical mask could not be effective when worn over a beard.
A study conducted by Simon Fraser University in 2018 revealed that pilots with beards up to approximately 16 inches long were able to maintain an airtight seal on their mask in a simulated cabin depressurization test.
Despite the outpouring of servicemembers’ requests to bring back the beard, leadership across the U.S. military has not provided any hints that they will allow facial hair anytime soon.
Culturally conscious changesDifferent hair textures made some longstanding hair regulations difficult and impractical for many service members of color. Former Capt. Thurraya Kent was a member of the Navy board that enacted changes for female hair regulations in 2018.
She previously told the AP that she had a terrifying experience when a senior sailor told her to take her braids out despite it being allowed.
“Because of the texture of my hair, it stood straight up,” Kent said. “It was a very embarrassing moment that stays with you.”
Between the updates to regulations in 2018 and 2021, the military has made several changes that help Black service members. The Army allows soldiers to shave part lines for those who don’t naturally have them. They also made changes to allow Black females to have locs, braids, and twists.
The military has made major changes in recent history to allow service members of all ethnicities to have fewer distractions contending with impractical grooming standards, but there is still room for improvement.
Though beards don’t show any strong signs of returning to the military, service members face problems with Pseudofolliculitis Barbae, commonly called “razor bumps.” This rash-like skin condition develops after shaving and disproportionately affects people of African descent. The condition can affect all ethnicities, but it’s less prevalent among those of Indo-European descent.
That being said, we’re pretty sure male service members from all ethnicities would love to rock a beard in uniform again.
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This is an excerpt from the forthcoming book “Send Me: The True Story of a Mother at War,” a biography of Navy Senior Chief Shannon Kent written by her husband Joe Kent, and Task & Purpose editor-in-chief Marty Skovlund, Jr. A specialist in cryptologic warfare and fluent in seven languages, Kent was the first woman to complete the Naval Special Warfare Direct Support Course and the first to operate with Naval Special Warfare units in direct combat. She was killed in a targeted bombing in Syria on Jan. 16, 2019. This excerpt has been condensed from its original version.
A black Hyundai Elantra, covered in dust and sporting a few dents, cruised down a two-lane highway in the Syrian desert against the backdrop of a beautiful sunrise. Red in the morning, sailors take warning, Kay thought, sitting in the backseat. They didn’t use real names on missions, but you still needed something easy to remember. “Kay” was easy enough.
The radio dial was stuck on Al-Madina FM, a manageable but annoying situation Kay and the other two operators dealt with on their ninety-minute morning drive. It was too early for nonstop Arabic music, but conversation died down about an hour ago, so it is what it is.
The mission was to meet a source at a small compound in the middle of nowhere. It was a potentially dangerous rendezvous. Air support would be nice, in case things went south, but you’re in the wrong line of work if you expect that kind of safety net.
This meeting wasn’t their first rodeo, and if anyone knew how to navigate it successfully, it was these three. They had a combined fifty years of military experience, almost all of it in special operations. They were all selected and trained for their ability to hunt humans off the grid, in ambiguous situations, with little to no support. They were entirely in their element.
Senior Chief Shannon Kent. Photo courtesy Joe Kent.They weren’t wearing body armor or helmets—hell, they weren’t even wearing uniforms—unless you count the faded New York Yankees ball cap Kay always had on. No machine guns or rocket launchers, just a Glock in the waistband and one spare magazine.
Two of the three looked how most would picture a stereotypical operator on a low-visibility mission: tan skin, longish hair, and beards. Kay opted for a ponytail.
The driver was a native-born Iraqi who came to the United States after his parents fled Saddam Hussein–controlled Iraq during the 1990s and went by the call sign “Jake,” but only because “Jake from State Farm” was too long for a radio transmission during a firefight.
Scotty rode shotgun. An old frogman-turned-contractor, he wore a pair of Oakleys, a black Casio G-Shock watch wrapped around his tattoo-laden arm, and a well-worn Black House MMA T-shirt from Brazil. He was Kay’s lookout during meets.
Seventy thousand of the 1.3 million active-duty service members in the US military are assigned to the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). Among them are the operators—the one percent of the one percent.
But few realize these same operators are the friendly neighbors and Little League coaches back home, tasked with balancing home and work like any other busy American. Well, almost like any other American.
Shit, I forgot to check in with Joe to see how Colt’s doctor’s appointment went today, Kay thought. Long drives like this allowed these hardened operators to get lost in their thoughts about the world back home. War or not, the kids needed to be taken care of, and marriages must be maintained. It’s a delicate balancing act.
“We’re about ten minutes out,” Jake said, breaking the silence in the car. Kay sat up a little straighter and began mentally preparing for the looming prospect of violence that could occur if the source decided their loyalty to the coalition had a limit. Typically, it’s all chai and smiles and empty promises—but bloodshed was always possible.
“Let’s do a first pass to check out the compound,” Kay said. “I don’t want to roll in there until we’ve had a chance to get eyes on.”
“Sounds good,” Jake replied before spitting tobacco juice into an empty energy drink can he had wedged between his legs. One dirty secret of the war on terror: it was fueled by chewing tobacco and energy drinks. Or, in Kay’s case, Rothman cigarettes—but only because she couldn’t find her preferred Marlboro Smooths while deployed.
Shannon Kent deployed as part of an intelligence collection team. Photo courtesy Joe Kent.After driving approximately one hundred meters past the compound, Jake performed a U-turn and headed back. He pulled over outside the gate, allowing Kay and Scotty to exit and walk into the compound’s courtyard. He kept the car running.
The two approached the main building, and a man—a sheikh— emerged, dressed in traditional Arabic clothing with an orange kaffiyeh wrapped around his head.
“MarHaban, as-salaam‘alaykum.” Kay delivered the standard Arabic greeting with a perfect accent for the region, immediately recognizing him as the source they were there to meet.
“Wa ‘alaykum salaam,” the man replied while placing his right hand on his chest. So far, so good, Chief Petty Officer Shannon Kent—“Kay”—thought. Scotty stood nearby, his eyes darting from the Sheikh to the young man with an AK-47, then back again.
Then, in perfect English, the Sheikh said, “I did not expect a woman.”
A mission waits on ShannonSeveral miles away, thirty American commandos prepared for close combat in a large canvas tent—the “ready room”—filled with wooden cubbies that stored their tools of war. The operators had already double-checked the explosive charges they built for breaching gates and doors, carefully removed the safeties from their grenades, and performed function checks on everything from their heavy machine guns to sniper rifles to their medical gear. Their lives depended on it.
Outside their tent, specialized helicopters stood fueled on the tarmac. Everyone was waiting on the green light to board those helicopters and a chance to kill or capture Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. Al-Baghdadi was the most elusive and dangerous member of the militant extremist’s cadre, responsible for an organized campaign of terror that swept across the Middle East, resulting in tens of thousands dead, thousands enslaved, and providing inspiration for brutal terrorist attacks across the Western world.
To board the helicopters and launch the raid, they needed to know where Al-Bagdadi was. With someone like al-Baghdadi, every second counted. But the commandos were helpless until the information about his whereabouts came in, stuck on the airfield in a state of bored readiness.
Everything depended on Shannon.
Find, Fix, FinishShannon replied to the Sheikh in Syrian Slang, “America ba’tat ashaukhos el wassqeen fee, em-Shan yalt’ie bil ashkass el wassqeen fee hoon.” (“America sent the one they trust to meet the one they trust.”)
This mission wasn’t the first time she had to respond to men surprised by a female operator. Her confidence and knowledge of local languages and customs helped her through countless times over the previous fifteen years; her linguistic ability and guile were as much of a weapon as the Glock concealed beneath her shirt.
Shannon’s role as an operator was to find and fix terrorists like al-Baghdadi and his ilk in time and space. These are the first two steps in the Find, Fix, Finish, Exploit, Analyze, Disseminate (F3EAD) targeting methodology America’s special operators use to dismantle enemy networks.
The magnitude of her mission was not lost on her. The pressure from the shooters to “paint the X on this motherfucker” was a heavy weight, and the information she needed to obtain would send her brothers toward violence. She was their eyes and ears, right up to the point they encountered the enemy in person.
Joe and Shannon Kent. Photo courtesy Joe Kent.A surprised smile spread across the Sheikh’s face as he studied the woman in front of him. She looked American—like a woman out of an action movie—dressed in dark gray prAna pants, a black Arc’teryx jacket, and a purple Syrian kaffiyeh around her neck, yet she spoke with a native Syrian accent. America had sent her and just two men. This is different, he thought.
“Tafadil.” The Sheikh welcomed her with an extended hand. They shook hands—Syrians are far from being strict Muslims who refuse to touch women they are not related to
The familiar sounds of a scampering toddler filled the courtyard of the Sheikh’s house. “Ali Abdullah, come here!” his mother called after him.
This guy is probably not going to risk killing us with his family here, she thought
The Sheikh motioned to a seat on the couch to the right of his desk.
Shannon turned her attention to the reason they just risked a drive through the Euphrates Valley no-man’s-land: the source. He was a key tribal Sheikh with a long history with ISIS, the Assad regime, the Kurds, and every other power broker in the region. He was the key to finding, fixing, and hopefully finishing al-Baghdadi.
Shannon did her homework on him for weeks before the meeting, poring over intelligence reports about the tribe and the Sheikh himself. She was not surprised to see the classified information on him was lacking compared to what he put out on social media. And to think, we used to have to steal this shit. Now everyone posts everything about their lives online, free for the taking, she thought.
“Thank you so much for meeting with me today and inviting me into your home,” Shannon said. “My colleagues and I were sent here to thank you for your efforts against Daesh on behalf of the US government.” Her initial assessment of the source started here, even if her opening line was seemingly benign.
She had referred to ISIS as Daesh, a derogatory word in Arabic for ISIS, which ISIS itself despises. The term takes ISIS’s Arabic name and turns it into an American-style acronym (al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham). They hate this term because it literally translates to “bigotry” and is also a feminine verb. Casually throwing the word Daesh into a compliment was a surefire way to gauge his feelings about ISIS.
Without warning, the telltale report of an AK-47 burst ripped through the air, echoing through the room from outside the building. Shannon’s hand instinctively moved to her pistol; the Sheikh was visibly confused. Scotty had already moved out, leaving Shannon alone. She had seconds to consider what to do.
“Send Me: The True Story of a Mother at War” hits bookshelves on May 7, 2024.
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(Army WTF! Moments Instagram).A pair of photos posted by U.S. Army WTF! Moments on Instagram show one way the Army can improve retention. No, not beards (though that wouldn’t hurt), but with a Howitzer and a roll of “100 MPH” tape. Simple, right?
The two photos show a pair of 101st Airborne soldiers, a specialist and his battery commander, taped to 155mm M777 Howitzer gun tubes as the oath of enlistment is administered above their fellow soldiers. Normally, when a service member is taped to something like this it’s considered hazing, but in this case, it’s a sign of a motivated soldier and an officer willing to go above and beyond for their troops.
To outsiders, this might look ridiculous. While that may be true, it’s actually a well-established tradition to do absurd things when a service member reenlists, gets promoted, or even receives an award. Some consider it an informal incentive to keep up the good work, but the truth is most just use it to have some fun and get a cool pic of themselves raising their right hand.
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Disclaimer: If you’re reenlisting just so you can be photographed while taped to a gun tube, you’re probably going to have a few regrets. There are easier ways to get a few likes on Instagram, after all.
While soldiers taped to a Howitzer is one of the best ceremonies we’ve seen in a while, there are plenty of outstanding examples of this tradition we can look back on.
In 2021 a group of soldiers in Kuwait swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States flanked by M-ATVs with a “fireball” detonation providing a fitting background.
A mass re-enlistment for Soldiers with the Division Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Division Sustainment Brigade and 541st Combat Sustainment Support Battalion. A “fireball” detonation was constructed to make the re-enlistment more memorable. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Elorina Santos, 3DSB Public Affairs).But not all ceremonies are enjoyable, or even fun — at least for most people. But Marine Scout Snipers are, or were, a different breed as evidenced by this Marine getting promoted in a swamp in Okinawa with his fellow Devil Dogs submerged to their necks in formation. Nobody appears to be having a good time, but at least their ghillie suits are getting seasoned.
Marine Sgt. Jordan James, a Scout Sniper, while being promoted to sergeant. (Twitter).On the complete opposite end of the misery spectrum is this Marine being promoted to sergeant inside a “Raising Cane’s” restaurant on Camp Pendleton, California.
(TikTok)Unfortunately, not all ceremonies end well. Some of you may remember the 2018 Tennessee Air National Guard reenlistment ceremony where an airman wore a dinosaur puppet on their right hand. Everybody involved in that incident was fired, and one officer was even demoted. Good intentions, bad execution.
Whether it’s feeling the searing heat of an explosion or a cannon tube on your back, it’s always nice to see service members get creative as they celebrate milestones in their careers. Just don’t ask the Marine Corps to take you up in a jet.
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FILE: A Marine grips a barbell while deadlifting during the High Intensity Tactical Training installation challenge at Paige Field House on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, Nov. 19, 2020. (Lance Cpl. Andrew Cortez/U.S. Marine Corps).A Marine stationed in California recently broke the world deadlifting record in her weight class by hoisting more than 661 pounds.
“You can push your body harder than you think it will go,” she told Task & Purpose on Monday about her accomplishment. “You cannot be afraid of the weight of the bar. I tell myself that I’m in control and I’m going to make the bar go wherever I want it – not the other way around.”
The Marine spoke with Task & Purpose about the record-breaking lift and her approach to training on the condition that she not be identified. A story on the Marine and the record-breaking lift posted on the military’s Defense Visual Information Distribution Service was taken down over the weekend after it generated a wave of online harassment, a spokesman for the I Marine Expeditionary Force told Task & Purpose on Monday.
She said the weightlifting event took place on April 20 in Europe, and she competed in the under-82 kilograms weight class for competitors who weigh less than about 180 lbs. The Marine said she began seriously training to break the world record about 12 weeks prior to the competition.
“I would alternate weeks of heavy lifting and then one week of lighter technique-type focused work,” said the Marine, who credits her coach Andrew Clayton with her recent success.
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The Marine became interested in weightlifting as a child when she would watch professional wrestling. She decided to go to the gym and has kept going ever since.
On the day of the event, the Marine deadlifted roughly 40 more pounds than the previous record holder in her weight class, she said.
In the moments leading up to the event, the Marine’s body tensed with anticipation.
“I could feel my heart rate and breathing rate get very, very high,” she said.
Yet, the moment that she raised the bar was surreal, the Marine recalled.
“Honestly, it kind of felt kind of weightless,” she said. “It was not easy, but not the strain I thought it would be.”
Afterward, the Marine received a certificate confirming that she is the world record holder for deadlifting in her weight class.
Now an officer, the Marine has served in the Corps for the past four years. She said she was inspired to join the Marines because it is a “tough branch where all the ‘badasses’ go.”
Her advice to others who want to build up their muscles is to be patient and consistent.
“I’ve been lifting for a total of about 20 years, and then competing in that sport for about nine,” the Marine said, “So, it’s been almost a decade to get to a world record. It won’t happen in a month or even a year.”
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An artist’s rendition of the Tun Tavern replica, which will be located in Philadelphia about 250 yards from the original tavern site. (Photo courtesy of The Tun Tavern Legacy Foundation, Inc.).Tun Tavern has a religious significance for Marines, revered in Marine Corps lore alongside the Halls of Montezuma and knife hands.
The Marine Corps was founded at the tavern in 1775, before the United States had officially declared its independence from Great Britain. Countless generations of Marines have bragged ever since that the Corps was born in a bar.
Now a non-profit group plans to build a reproduction of Tun Tavern, which burned down in 1781. The Tun Tavern Legacy Foundation, Inc. recently announced that it had purchased land on which to build a replica of the Marine Corps’ birthplace, which will be located around 250 yards from the original Tun Tavern site on the Philadelphia waterfront.
The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported about the latest efforts to recreate Tun Tavern, which is also the site where John Adams wrote the Navy’s organizing document.
A groundbreaking ceremony has been planned for November, and the Tun Tavern replica is expected to open in 2025 to coincide with the Navy and Marine Corps’ 250th Homecoming Celebration, a Tun Tavern Legacy Foundation news release says.
“With the Tun Tavern Legacy Foundation leading the way, Marines of past, present and future will have their rightful gathering spot in the very city where the Marine Corps was formed,” retired Lt. Gen. Charles G. Chiarotti, president and CEO of the Marine Corps Association, said in a release. “The Marine Corps Association is a major supporter of bringing the Tun back for all to enjoy.”
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When it opens, the replica will serve as a functioning tavern that offers customers food and refreshments influenced by Philadelphia’s colonial period. The tavern will also include historical documents, educational exhibits, and special events, a foundation news release says.
The project is expected to generate an initial economic impact of $16.1 million along with $34.6 million annually.
“Several attempts have been made to rebuild the Tun Tavern since it was razed in 1781, however, this is the first time that a coalition of members of the organizations with a heritage at the Tun are joining together in the effort,” a news release from the group says. “The Foundation aims to replicate the architecture, materials, and layout as it existed in the 1770s to offer a homecoming place for the millions of Americans who can trace their organization’s lineage back to this one tavern.”
The site of the original Tun Tavern is identified by a historical marker in Philadelphia’s Old City. The establishment served as the Marine Corps’ first recruiting headquarters, where men were offered just over six dollars a month to enlist, according to the Navy. The nation’s first Marines received a daily ration of a pound each of bread, beef, or pork, potatoes or turnips, or half a pound of peas, and half a pint of rum.
“The Tun is revered and celebrated not only in U.S. Marine history but in five other organizations’ histories that pre-date the Continental Marines connection, and we will honor it with a deep appreciation for its historical significance to Philadelphia and America,” Patrick Dailey, the foundation’s president and founder, said in a news release. “Once we are operational, all profits will be donated in perpetuity to support the causes of the organizations founded at The Tun.”
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A “rogue Army Major” from Fort Liberty was convicted of smuggling arms inside barrels of rice headed to Ghana, officials said. Photo from the Department of Justice.A “rogue Army Major” was convicted of smuggling handguns, an AR-15, magazines, suppressors and a combat shotgun inside barrels of rice headed to Ghana, the Department of Justice said. The shipment made it all the way to Africa from a port in Baltimore, Maryland but was uncovered by Ghanaian officials disguised weapons and tipped off U.S. law enforcement.
A federal jury convicted Army Maj. Kojo Owusu Dartey, 42, also known as “Killa K” of dealing and illegally exporting firearms without a license, smuggling goods from the U.S, making false statements, and conspiracy, according to the DOJ. Dartey, who was assigned to Fort Liberty, faces a maximum penalty of 20 years at a sentencing hearing set for July 23.
None of the arms Dartey smuggled in the rice barrels were aken from Army armories, according to the DOJ, though an accomplice purchased three Glock pistols for the scheme at the Main Exchange on Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Dartey’s lawyer declined to comment.
The DOJ said that Dartey bought seven firearms from civilian sources around Fort Liberty in summer 2021 and directed an Army Staff Sergeant assigned to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to purchase three firearms there. Staff Sgt. George Archer purchased the Glock pistols and sent them to Dartey.
Dartey hid firearms, multiple handguns, an AR15, 50-round magazines, suppressors, and a combat shotgun inside blue barrels filled with rice and other goods. According to the federal indictment, Dartey asked a “Confidential Source” for help shipping household items from North Carolina. The source helped arrange putting the blue barrels onto a container ship headed to the Port of Tema in Ghana.
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Ghana’s Revenue Authority interrupted the transport and reported the seizure to the U.S. DEA attaché in Ghana and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
At the time of the firearm dealings, Dartey was also a witness in a trial involving a marriage fraud scheme between soldiers on Fort Liberty and foreign nationals from Ghana that he tipped off officials to. According to the DOJ, Dartey lied to federal law enforcement officials and under oath in court about his sexual relationship with a defense witness.
Officials said that a jury found a Fort Liberty soldier assigned to 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade guilty in July 2021 on charges of conspiracy to commit marriage fraud, aid and abet naturalization fraud, harboring an alien, visa fraud and theft of government property.
The conspiracy involved several U.S. soldiers who attempted to enter into “sham marriages with foreign-born nationals for the purpose of evading United States immigration laws and obtaining lawful permanent residence status for otherwise inadmissible foreign-born nationals,” according to a 2019 federal indictment.
The goal was for the foreign nationals to apply for Basic Allowance for Housing and Basic Allowance for Subsistence, benefits that the soldier “would not normally be entitled to without being married,” the indictment said.
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Col. (Ret.) Ralph Puckett Jr., Medal of Honor recipient, poses with members of the 75th Ranger Regiment at the National Infantry Museum in Columbus, Ga. on Aug. 10, 2021. (U.S. Army Photo by Spc. Garrett Shreffler).Sen. Joni Ernst is one of the lead lawmakers crafting legislation that directly impacts American service members and veterans, but she found herself choking up Monday remembering how her own military service had been shaped by the mentorship and friendship with Col. Ralph Puckett.
“You would think he was a librarian. He was so quiet and so humble and he was such a good man,” Ernst told Task & Purpose Monday, as her voice occasionally caught with emotion. For decades, Ernst said, Puckett was a mentor and example to generations around the 75th Ranger Regiment, she said, including herself as a young lieutenant in the Army Reserve.
“Even into his seventies and eighties, he was still going out into the field with the rangers just to make sure their spirits were high and to ensure that they were doing okay,” she said. “Not many people continue to serve like that well beyond their time.”
On Monday, Puckett became just the second Medal of Honor recipient to lie in honor, meaning his remains were accorded a public audience in the rotunda of Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. so that lawmakers and the public could pay personal respects. Ernst was among the Senators who arranged for the honor.
Puckett, 97, is among the most revered figures in the history of the Army Ranger community. He was awarded the Medal of Honor in the Korean War and the Distinguished Service Cross in Vietnam. Both awards came for courageous leadership of units facing annihilation by an overwhelmingly larger enemy force — the 8th Army Ranger Company in Korea, a unit of the 101st Airborne Divisionin Vietnam. Puckett passed away April 8 at his home in Columbus, Georgia.
On Monday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also paid his respects to Puckett’s casket in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.
“Col. Puckett was emblematic of the 1.7 million Americans who bravely served in the Korean War and an inspiration to those who served after him, defending peace on the Korean peninsula for the last 71 years,” a spokesperson for the Pentagon said in a statement.
Ernst said her relationship with Puckett went back more than 30 years. She first met Puckett and his family when she was living in Columbus, Georgia at then-Fort Benning, now Fort Moore, as a Ranger spouse. There, she saw the retired Colonel interact and mentor various soldiers in the Ranger regiment and students at Ranger school.
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When Ernst deployed to Iraq, she said Puckett always took the time to send her emails to check in and ask how things were doing. Ernst served in the Army Reserves as a logistics officer for over 23 years and retired as a Lt. Col. In 2003, she served as a company commander in Kuwait and led 150 Iowa Army Guardsmen during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Senator Joni Ernst at the April 29 Lying in Honor ceremony for Col. Ralph Puckett, Jr. at the U.S. Capitol.Ernst recalled a memory during a trip to Fort Moore several years back when she was introducing Puckett to her national security adviser. They had a meeting that lasted several hours and then the group made their way back to the parking lot with Puckett walking a few steps ahead.
“Every soldier in that parking lot, they all just stopped and they watched Ralph walk across the parking lot. I mean, they were just in awe. It was like they were dumb struck. It was like some famous Hollywood actor was walking across the parking lot,” she said. “You could tell the admiration and respect from complete strangers as this elderly man just simply walked to his car. It just struck me then how well loved this man was by his community.”
The defense of Hill 205Puckett is one of the most revered figures in Army Ranger lore. In Korea, he led the defense of a position dubbed Hill 205 against a force of Chinese soldiers several times larger than his 51-man Ranger unit during the Korean War. The Rangers faced six waves of assault. Puckett led the defense, assigning Rangers to soft spots in the lines, running ammunition between positions and encouraging his soldiers. On the final wave, two mortars landed in Puckett’s foxhole. Knowing the position was lost, he ordered his men to leave him and evacuate. Instead, they dragged him down the hill as they retreated. In May 2021, his DSC for Hill 205 was upgraded to the Medal of Honor after years of lobbying from the Ranger community.
A second award at Duc PhoOver a decade later, he commanded 101st Airborne Division paratroopers in a similar defensive stand in Vietnam. In August 1967, then-Lt. Col. Puckett was a battalion commander near Duc Pho. The citation for his second Distinguished Service cross reads that facing a large Viet Cong force,“Puckett landed in the battle zone to coordinate defenses and to assess the battlefield situation. Disregarding his own safety, he moved across a heavily mined area to the point of the most ferocious fighting to direct and inspire his men against the hostile force.” To avoid artillery fire, Puckett scattered his leader ranks, and led from a foxhole. As he’d done in Korea, he bounced between positions, bringing ammunition and encouragement.
“When rescue helicopters came in,” the citation reads, “he repeatedly refused extraction for himself and directed that the casualties be evacuated. With bullets striking all around him, he remained in the open to rally his fatigued men through the long night by sharing every phase of the battle with them.”
After retiring in 1971, Puckett remained a Ranger icon.. The top officer in every Ranger School class receives an award named him, which Puckett would present well into his 90s. His name is also used for an annual leadership award for junior officers within the Ranger Regiment. He was also named the first honorary colonel of the 75th Ranger Regiment in 1996 — a ceremonial post in which he regularly spoke to new Rangers and represented the regiment in public.
Lying in honorLying in honor is a memorial service occasionally bestowed by Congress on highly distinguished Americans. It is akin to “lying in state,” though that status is reserved for former Presidents and distinguished politicians, such as former Sen. John McCain.
Puckett was the last living Medal of Honor recipient from the Korean War. The precedent of a final-living Medal of Honor recipient lying in honor was set in 2022 when lawmakers honored the last living World War II Medal of Honor recipient, Cpl. Hershel Woodrow “Woody” Williams, Ernst told Task & Purpose. Other notable figures who have had the honor of lying in honor include Rosa Parks and U.S. Capitol police officers killed during
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FILE: A soldier receives his 3rd Infantry Division combat patch during a combat patch ceremony at Forward Operating Base Smart, Afghanistan, Dec. 24, 2012. (Airman Patrice Clarke/U.S. Air Force).The Army is refuting a memo shared on Reddit that appeared to indicate that most soldiers deployed to the Middle East could wear Shoulder Sleeve Insignia for Military Operations in Hostile Conditions, or SSI-MOHC – also known as combat patches.
“The March 28, 2024, memo that is circulating online is not valid and does not authorize the wear of SSI-MOHC,” Army spokesman Bryce Dubee told Task & Purpose on Monday. “The appropriate decision authorities are considering ways to acknowledge the service and sacrifice of our teammates in the CENTCOM AOR [U.S. Central Command area of responsibility] during this period of heightened tension.”
The memo is purportedly from Army Lt Gen. Douglas Stitt, deputy chief of staff, G-1. It says that Stitt has approved an exception to policy so that soldiers on temporary duty or permanently assigned to several countries in the Middle East are no longer required to receive Imminent Danger Pay or Hostile Fire Pay to wear combat patches.
Stitt’s move supposedly affected soldiers who have deployed to Iraq, Oman, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Oman, the Gulf of Aden, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates between Oct. 7, 2023 and April 6, 2024.
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Since Hamas launched its Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel, the Defense Department has dispatched troops, ships, and aircraft in the Middle East to try to prevent the conflict from escalating into a regional war.
Earlier in April, the Army, Navy, and Air Force destroyed more than 80 drones and at least six ballistic missiles fired at Israel from Iran and its proxies in the region.
The memo was shared on the unofficial r/Army subreddit on April 26, but a moderator noted in the comment section that it was not valid.
Army officials declined to answer questions on Monday about whether the memo was in draft form, or if Army leaders were considering allowing soldiers in the Middle East to wear combat patches even if they were not receiving the required combat pay.
For many soldiers, getting combat patches is a rite of passage. The patches signify that soldiers have served on a designated combat deployment, and they are worn on soldiers’ right arms, underneath the American flag. Soldiers receive their combat patches at a ceremony.
Many of the top generals during the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars wore combat patches on their camouflage uniforms. Army Gen. Raymond Odierno, former chief of staff, wore the 4th Infantry Division patch on his right shoulder. He led the division during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
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Bryson Banks served in the Marine Corps and is now a rising star in stand up comedy. (Photos courtesy of Bryson Banks).Stand-up comedy is a constant grind for comedians. But rising star Bryson Banks credits his training in a Marine Corps sniper platoon for his ability to persevere through the brutal grind of the comedy circuit. “Suffer patiently and patiently suffer,” as his old sniper platoon used to say.
“There’s a lot of that in the beginning of stand-up comedy. Even though you have these opportunities, you still have some failures along the way. Nobody gets to big places without some failures,” Banks said. “One of the hardest parts about standup is that so many people see your failure. I think that’s why there are so few great stand-ups. It takes so much grit to just continue picking up the pieces and keep grinding.”
His methodology has proven successful, as Banks has continued to gain momentum on the comedy circuit. Most recently, he put on a stand-up comedy show for Higher Ground, a non-profit dedicated to helping people with developmental disabilities, first responders, and veterans through recreational and therapeutic events.
They raised $83,000 that night, and it was the first time he’d been flown out to put on a show, receiving a full-on celebrity treatment. But he knows he hasn’t reached the topjust yet.
“For me, the top looks like being undisputed as one of the greatest comedians to ever live. Netflix specials, selling out theaters, you know, stadiums one day,” Banks said. “I mean, we’re talking long-term goals — I’m not delusional — I break them all down into short-term and medium-term goals, and I’m a big believer in mindset.”
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But it’s never an easy job, and shows aren’t always successful. Banks recalled a show he “bombed” early in his career that caused his date to leave in the middle of the show, and he never heard from her again.
“I didn’t do stand up for a month after that. It was the longest break I’ve ever taken from stand-up. It was so painful,” Banks said. “Another time I bombed so hard, I remember crying on the way home from the club because it was just so excruciating.”
The early struggles didn’t deter Banks. He is now a regular at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles and has appeared on Kill Tony for two shows in a row. Banks had the unique experience of getting several laughs out of Bob Saget and then, the next week, tapping out Jeremiah Watkins with an American arm bar.
“I got on back-to-back, two weeks in a row, which is unheard of. You just put your name on the thing, and it’s the luck of the draw,” Banks said. “But I was really stoked that first set went so well.”
Banks didn’t start with the goal of being a comedian. After serving in the Marine Corps for four years, including a deployment to Iraq, he wanted to make it into showbiz and started taking some of the best acting classes available. He got better and better, landing multiple acting roles, but the process and preparation required to act wasn’t for him.
He then earned his graduate degree in psychology. While pursuing his degree, he noticed that his sense of humor would get laughs from his fellow students, but “usually at the expense of my teachers.” Through psychology, he started to figure out comedy and its place in his life.
His childhood was rough, but the more he dug into understanding who he was, the more he felt he was figuring out his new path forward. During one of his Kill Tony appearances, Banks was asked about his parents being racist and abusive, questions which came after he made jokes about the same. Though they are hard memories to process, he found a way to make a joke out of those experiences.
“Ultimately, comedy for me was a coping mechanism when I was younger to win people’s approval,” Banks said. “I’ve dove in to figure out what makes me tick, and that’s why I went to college to study psychology.”
He’s been putting in the work, doing up to 60 stand-up shows a month. Each one is a challenge, as he must get laughs from the audience while balancing his crude humor, which is a slippery slope. The audience is the meter that gives Bryson all the feedback he needs. Every set he does, the more fulfilled he feels.
“I’m living my life purpose-driven, and I’ve decided my purpose is just trial, error, research, studying, and putting the work in to spread love and laughter through comedy. As long as I’m doing that, I feel more fulfilled,” Banks said. “When I’m not working towards that purpose, I feel more depressed, so I found that it actually uplifts me by doing that. Then, the wins I’ve had along the way make me believe that I’m on the right path.”
UPDATE: 4/29/2022; This article has been updated to clarify Banks’ military service in the Marine Corps.
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A veteran goes through physical therapy at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C. (Jeff Hutchens/Getty Images).Some service members who received other than honorable or bad conduct discharges from the military will now be able to access federal benefits through the Department of Veterans of Affairs.
The VA announced new rules on Thursday, April 28 meant to provide greater support for veterans who were kicked out of the military for reasons such as homosexuality or misconduct tied to mental health issues tied to combat or abuse.
The VA originally proposed the changes to its eligibility rules in 2020, and since then has been revising them based on public comments and insight from the military. The changes are meant to “bring more consistency to adjudications of benefits eligibility, and ensure character of discharge determinations consider all pertinent factors,” according to the VA’s own documents.
One major change is removing the regulatory barrier for veterans who were dismissed for “homosexual acts involving aggravating circumstances or other factors affecting the performance of duty.” The VA previously changed rules to expand benefits to service members discharged under the now-repealed “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy (which ended in 2011). This new amendment will further expand eligibility, the VA said.
The other major change is the creation of a “compelling circumstances exception.” Under this new rule, service members dismissed with other than honorable or bad conduct discharges stemming from “willful and persistent misconduct” or “offense involving moral turpitude,” will have their record examined holistically. The VA will consider several surrounding circumstances leading to those dismissals, including each veteran’s length of service, their mental health, how combat or abuse might have affected them and other circumstances that could contribute to their character of service.
“We encourage former service members with other than honorable discharges to apply for VA care and benefits today,” VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in a statement on the new changes. “Although VA cannot change your discharge status, we want to provide you with any health care or benefits we can – and we will work with you every step of the way to do exactly that.”
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According to the VA, it has approved care and benefits for more than 57,000 applicants over the last decade who had other than honorable or bad conduct discharges; that’s approximately a 75% approval rate for applicants. As part of the new rules, the department is encouraging veterans who received these discharges and previously were denied care or benefits to reapply.
These new rules do not apply to any one who received dishonorable discharges from the armed forces.
Applications for benefits and additional information on these new rules can be found on the VA’s website.
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The Navy USS Carney defeats a combination of Houthi missiles and drones in the Red Sea, Oct. 19. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Aaron Lau/U.S. Navy).After months of shooting down drones over the Middle East, the cost of those interceptions is getting too high. That’s according to the Pentagon’s chief of weapons procurement, who said that efforts to take out uncrewed aerial systems are now exceeding $100,000 per shot.
William LaPlante, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment at the Department of Defense, made the comments earlier this week at a conference hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. C4isrnet reported on his remarks, where LaPlante noted that current efforts to stop drones fired by Houthi militants in Yemen are relying on costly missiles fired from Navy destroyers or fighter jets. The current price tag, he said, is “getting too expensive.”
Since October, American forces in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden have been shooting down Houthi one-way attack drones and missiles fired from Yemen or before they can be launched. By mid-December 2023, that was at more than three dozen shootdowns. This spring there have been more than 130. The U.S. military has not shared all of the details of what weapons are used in these operations, but the Standard Missile-2, a medium-range surface-to-air missile can cost $2.1 million per shot. After several months of shooting down UAS, that bill is likely high and feeding into the Pentagon’s efforts to find cheaper, cost-cutting alternatives.
The drone shoot downs are only going up. Two weeks ago, U.S. forces joined Israel and other partners in helping shoot down approximately 300 one-way attack UAVs and missiles fired by Iran and its partners toward Israel. The operation was successful, with almost all munitions taken out and no deaths reported in Israel. But instead of cheap counter-drone technology or systems as LaPlante hopes to get, it involved several F-15E fighter jets, Patriot missile systems and other tools. The military has been tight-lipped about what munitions and how many aircraft were used in the interceptions — including if any Air Force pilot now reached ace status — but given the types of aircraft and ships involved, conventional missiles were likely involved.
Instead, LaPlante says the Pentagon’s goal is to get the cost of a drone-intercepting shot down to a fraction of what it currently is. He said that the Department of Defense wants alternatives that cost only tens of thousands of dollars per shot, even as low as just $10,000.
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This isn’t the first time LaPlante has raised the need for more investment and development of weapons to counter uncrewed aerial systems. In recent months he’s made repeated comments on the need for these weapons to be made “at scale” with a focus on finding cheaper weapon systems to meet the high rate of interceptions happening in the Middle East.
While some smaller commercial drones kitbashed into weapons of war can be taken out by conventional small arms — such as the effective minigun in Ukraine made out of six AKs — larger ones such as the drones fired by Iran and the Houthis have required more expensive and complex counters. A need for wider, cheaper methods of taking them out is likely to grow as militaries develop uncrewed capabilities and stockpiles in the near future.
The U.S. is trying some other methods. In February the U.S. Army ordered hundreds of Coyote 2Cs, a loitering munition meant to taking out enemy drones. Meanwhile, the Army has deployed a second Palletized High Energy Laser, or P-HEL system abroad for counter-UAS purposes this year, Military.com reported. That confirmation came after the U.S. military has been testing different types of laser weapons meant for intercept roles over the past several months.
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A Marine flight crew in a CH-53K King Stallion heavy-lift helicopter transported an F-35C Lightning II airframe while air-to-air refueling from a Navy C-130T. Photo by Photo by Kyra Helwick.A remarkable photo released by the Navy last week captures some stunning flying by a Marine Corps test pilot and aircrew, coaxing their MH-53K King Stallion through two of the most difficult helicopter flying skills at the same time.
The photo, snapped by photographer Kyra Helwick, captures the moment a a CH-53K — the latest, most powerful version of the Marine Corps’ workhorse cargo mover — hooks up for air-to-air refueling with the extended hose of a Navy KC-130T tanker aircraft, as it flies with the airframe of a Navy F-35 fighter slung beneath it.
Both of the flying skills on display — air-to-air refueling and carrying a slingload — demand uniquely tricky flying skills.
The maximum speed most helicopters can fly with a sling load is just over 100 mph (the top speed for the CH-53k is 200 mph even without a fighter jet dangling beneath it). But a hulking, fixed-wing C-130 cannot stay in the sky if it flies slower than, well, just over 100 mph.
In other words, the crews of both aircraft are pushing their airplanes to the edge of the flying envelopes to make this picture work.
The flight was from Naval Air Station Patuxent River to an airfield in New Jersey. Nearly every part of the remarkable picture tells a tale.
Three Unique AirplanesThe CH-53k is the latest, largest and most powerful version of the CH-53, which was the Marine’ Corps’ primary airlift platform for more than half a century. Marines flew on CH-53s in Vietnam, Desert Storm and throughout the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, the helicopter from those eras are retired or nearing retirement, and the remaining ones have been pushed harder than ever in recent months during the grounding of the MV-22 Osprey fleet.. A CH-53E crashed and killed 5 Marines in February.
The first K-models were delivered in 2022, with modern avionics and larger engines that the Navy says allows the helicopter to lift up to 36,000 in payload — enough to carry two upper-armor Humvees or a Light Armored Vehicle.
The King in the picture is assigned to Marine Test and Evaluation Squadron 1, which is based at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, The unit tests and evaluates helicopters and other flying equipment for use in the fleet.
The KC-130T belongs to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Two Zero, or V-20, a flight test squadron at Patuxent River, the Navy’s hub for flight testing of new, unique and experimental aircraft.
What makes the tanker in the picture relatively unique is that the Navy flies very few C-130s in its active fleet, and none as tankers. Helicopter-refueling tankers are generally the domain of the Air Force special ops and search and rescue forces or the Marines.
In fact, the plane in the picture — serial number 163310 — spent most of it’s flying life in those services. It was originally purchased by the Air Force as a tanker in 1986, according to databases maintained online by aviation enthusiasts. But the plane spent most of its active duty life in the Marines before ending up with the Navy in 2016.
The F-35 has is its own story. The yellow and blue lightning flashes on the tails identify it as CF-01, the first F-35 delivered to the Navy in 2010. The plane spent its entire flying career at Patuxent River. However, its been retired to be a non-flying test model, missing its engine and parts of wings, and belongs to the Prototype, Manufacturing and Test (PMT) Department of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division Lakehurst. In fact, the photo taken last week isn’t even the first time that CF-01 has hitched a ride beneath a CH-53K.
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Maj. Gen. Kevin D. Admiral and Command Sgt. Maj. LeVares J. Jackson Sr. of the 1st Cavalry Division at the color casing ceremony at Fort Cavazos on April 25, 2024. (photo by Sgt. Alex Romey/U.S. Army).The U.S. Army’s “First Team” is heading to Europe, and it’s taking division HQ with it. As part of a wider deployment, the 1st Cavalry Division Headquarters is heading overseas to support the NATO mission, taking over for 3rd Infantry Division Headquarters as that force rotates out. Ahead of its deployment, the command held a casing of the colors ceremony at its home in Fort Cavazos, Texas.
It’s the first time the 1st Cavalry Division Headquarters is deploying overseas in four years. It’s also the first time it’s doing so under the leadership of Maj. Gen. Kevin Admiral, commander of 1st Cavalry Division
Speaking on Thursday, Admiral said that the soldiers had been training hard for several months and were prepared to work with brigades from other divisions deployed overseas. In a brief speech he praised the soldiers under his command and said that the division was ready for its mission.
“We are going over to reassure our NATO allies and work with partners,” Maj. Gen. Admiral said at the color casing ceremony on Thursday, April 25.
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Joined by Command Sgt. Maj. LeVares J. Jackson, the two carried out the ceremony, folding and casing the division’s colors. The act is meant to be symbolic, to signify a division going on deployment.
In total roughly 5,500 soldiers with 1st Cavalry Division are being sent to Europe, with more than 2,000 pieces of equipment.
The 1st Cavalry Division is one of several forces previously announced to be rotating into Europe as part of the U.S. defense presence there. Along with the 1st Cav’s headquarters and artillery, the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team (also known as “Ironhorse”) and 1st Combat Aviation Brigade (AKA “Air Cav”) are among others going to replace counterparts from the 3rd Infantry Division. The Army is also sending the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division to support the NATO mission.
While U.S. forces maintain a presence in Europe, the Army has focused on deploying new equipment and rotating units onto the continent in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
1st Cavalry Division had previously taken part in the Atlantic Resolve mission in Europe.
”Now more than ever, it is critical that we reassure our allies in Europe that America’s First Team will provide combat ready formations to deter aggression, and should deterrence fail, our adversaries will see what it really means to be CAV ready,” Admiral said.
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An F-15E with the 494th Fighter Squadron in October 2023. (photo by Airman 1st Class Josephine Pepin/U.S. Air Force).The U.S. Air Force defines an “ace” as any pilot that has more than five combat kills. It’s been decades since American pilots reached that status, but that might have changed this month.
On April 13, Iran and its partners in Syria and Yemen fired more than 300 munitions — more than 150 drones as well as dozens of ballistic missiles and several cruise missiles — toward Israel. Elements of the British, French, Jordanian and American militaries helped Israel intercept 99% of those munitions. Among that, F-15E fighter jets from the U.S. Air Force’s 494th Fighter Squadron and 335th Fighter Squadron shot down more than 80 Iranian drones before they could reach their target.
There’s a fair chance at least one pilot from the two squadrons now fits the criteria for an ace. The two squadrons, as well as U.S. Air Forces Central, have not released details on how many F-15Es from the two squadrons participated in the mission, what weapons were used or how many drones were shot down per plane, but the math at play suggests there are some new aces. Task & Purpose contacted the squadrons and command for more information, but was only told that AFCENT is reviewing the operation.
The 335th operates 24 F-15E fighter jets; a spokesperson for the 494th would not say how many F-15Es are currently in the squadron. Squadrons do not always put every fighter into the skies for a mission, keeping some in reserve, depending on the nature of the mission. The F-15E is a fighter jet meant for both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions and as such can carry eight missiles alongside its internally mounted gun. The exact missile loadout depends on the mission, but the armament capacity makes each jet capable of getting five or more kills.
So back to the math. Even if every jet in each squadron was put into the sky — which again is highly unlikely and AFCENT has not specified how many were involved — there’s no guarantee that each F-15E got a kill or that the total kills were evenly distributed. With more than 80 drones shot down by pilots from the two squadrons in what U.S. officials described as “dozens of engagements,” the math suggests that it’s likely that at least one if not more Air Force pilots earned the more than five kills needed to count as an ace two weekends ago.
The Air Force hasn’t had a new flying ace since the Vietnam War, in part because of how dogfights have faded from importance in modern combat. With the rise of aerial drones, that might change.
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There might be the question of whether or not an aerial drone counts as a kill toward ace status. After all, they’re uncrewed aerial vehicles. It’s not as if pilots are getting into dogfights with them. And the size of the drone might matter too. Iranian Shahed-136 and Shahed-131 drones are maneuverable, they’re not just rockets, and they’re certainly bigger than, say, off the shelf commercial quadcopters used by Ukranian ground troops. The answer might go back eight decades. In World War II, the U.K.’s Royal Air Force counted shot down German V-1 rockets as kills toward a pilot’s record. If that counts, the U.S. Air Force might count the downed Shahed drones.
This month’s mission over the Middle East isn’t the first time U.S. fighter jets shot down drones over the Middle East. Since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in October, American aircraft have been busy shooting down drones and missiles fired by the Houthi movement in Yemen, either midair or destroying them before they could be launched. They’ve also been involved in wider airstrike operations in Yemen. After several months, those shootdowns are racking up. This month the U.S. Navy released photos of some of the F-18s with the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, and at least one sported “kill markings” showing two drones and several missiles. It’s not clear if that’s the only F-18 with those markings, or if any of the Navy aviators have achieved ace status.
Meanwhile on the ground, Army Spc. Dylan Green, a soldier with the 10th Mountain’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, has earned the nickname the “Ace of Syria” after five confirmed shootdowns of drones, but not with any fighter jet.
If any Air Force pilot did make ace two weekends ago, so far no images or news have made it online or on social media platforms. The Air Force’s own regulations say that any such marking needs to be “a 6-inch green star with a 1/2-inch black border located just below and centered on the pilot’s name block.” The type of aircraft downed would be put inside the star. So keep an eye out for an F-15E with some newly stenciled art, just in case.
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Marine Cpl. Miguel A. Maya was killed by an aviation ground mishap on April 23, 2024. He was assigned to Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 303 at Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, California. (Photo courtesy of the Marine Corps).The Marine who was killed in an aviation ground mishap on Tuesday at Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton has been identified as Cpl. Miguel A. Maya, Corps officials announced on Friday.
Maya served as a U/AH-1 aircraft avionics technician assigned to Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 303, a news release from the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.
“My heartfelt condolences go out to Cpl. Maya’s loved ones during this difficult time,” Lt. Col. Jason Caster, commanding officer of Maya’s squadron, said in a statement. “Our priority right now is taking care of the family of our fallen Marine and ensuring the well-being of our Marines and their loved ones.”
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Marine Corps officials have not publicly released any information about the circumstances of Maya’s death other than it was an aviation ground mishap.
Darwin Lam, a spokesman for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, or NCIS, said the agency is supporting the Naval Safety Center, which is leading the investigation into Maya’s death.
“Out of respect for the investigative process, NCIS will not comment further while the investigation remains ongoing,” Lam told Task & Purpose on Friday.
Maya is the second Marine killed on duty recently. Sgt. Colin Arslanbas, a Reconnaissance Marine assigned to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina was killed by a parachuting accident on April 18. At the time, Arslanbas was participating in the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s Composite Unit Training Exercise.
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Paul Johnson crossed the finish line of his 3,000 mile long transcontinental run at Times Square in New York City, New York, on April 21, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Paul Johnson).New York City is known as the city that never sleeps, and the traffic alone is a force to reckon with. But when U.S. Navy officer Paul Johnson ran into the city on his final day of a 3,000-mile transcontinental run, the NYPD cleared the city streets of all traffic so he could cross the finish line in Times Square.
“We didn’t see a single car the whole time we were running, which was pretty insane,” Johnson said. They did have a crowd of supporters running alongside him for the last segment though, and many more cheering along the way.
Johnson first set out to break the world record for a transcontinental run and raise $1 million for Team RWB, a non-profit dedicated to helping veterans with their mental and physical well-being. In the end, Johnson and his team raised over half a million dollars but fell short of the world record despite finishing with an elite pace. A documentary covering the whole endeavor will be released later to help raise more funds for Team RWB.
Due to unforeseen weather circumstances and a caloric deficit impossible to recover from, Johnson made the tough decision to abandon his world record attempt pace early on but remained determined to finish the run.
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“We got caught in a 50-mile-per-hour sandstorm with probably about 10 to 20-foot visibility while running in that for an hour or two,” Johnson said. “That really messed up my throat, and I wasn’t able to eat anything or talk, and swallowing hurt. I dealt with those symptoms for about a week and a half.”
But Johnson pushed forward.
Johnson’s crew of veterans and civilians from the ultramarathon community supported him along the way — including his mother, who helped with logistics and logged miles with her son.
“When you’re in the middle of these things as the runner, you are completely helpless. Your life revolves around eat, sleep, run, repeat, and there’s zero time for anything else,” Johnson said. “So having that team to take care of every other single detail of my life like meals, laundry, vehicles, logistics, communication, media — it’s such an essential part. There’s no way that we would have been anywhere even close to being as successful as we were without them.”
Johnson consumed 10,000 to 12,000 calories per day. But with the physical onslaught of completing multiple marathons a day, he could only eat so much at a time. So his crew would bring food to him every 10 to 15 minutes. His favorite meal items were anything potato-related, fruit gushers, and doughnuts.
It wasn’t just calories he was burning. Running multiple marathons a day amplifies wear and tear on running shoes, and Johnson went through several pairs. But food and footwear weren’t the biggest challenges they encountered.
“The toughest part is actually the wind. There were a couple of days in New Mexico and Kansas where there were 40 mile-per-hour sustained headwinds all day long in the cold,” Johnson said. “It just destroys your morale and forward progress, and you’re limping along at a slow walk. I would say the wind and the vehicle issues were some of our biggest problems.”
Despite the physical toll 3,000 miles can take on a body, Johnson said he’s ready to return to duty. Through his two different Garmin watches, he was able to see how his body slowly adapted to the rigorous daily strain.
“By literally the last two weeks of the run, my Garmin is telling me I was in recovery mode even though we’re still doing 60 to 65 miles a day,” Johnson said. ”The body adapted over time, and it became the new normal.”
Johnson is proud of his accomplishments and the team that supported him along the way. He’s even planning on being a crew member for his team’s upcoming ultramarathons.
“We still raised over half a million dollars, the largest amount of money that’s ever been raised for team RWB before. That is a smashing success in our book. It’s the same thing with the record. I know I can run across the U.S.,” Johnson said. “It’s just a matter of how fast. We finished in 51 days and three hours, and that is up there with some of the fastest crossings of the US on foot. We didn’t hit goals, but we still were very successful in what we set out to do.”
Bravo, Paul Johnson.
The latest on Task & Purpose 75th Ranger Regiment sweeps Best Ranger, Best Mortar, and International Sniper competitions* * Married Army couple win back-to-back Sapper school awards * Special Forces engineers are training to dig ditches and destroy tanks * This is why Marines were at Mar-a-Lago * Supreme Court sides with Army veteran in overlapping GI Bill benefits case**
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The commanding general of Fort Carson has ordered supervisors on the base to limit off-hours work texts to soldiers. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Whitney Gillespie.An Army general has decreed that his soldiers no longer need to be chained to their phones after hours to respond to messages about work.
Army Maj. Gen. David S. Doyle, commanding general of the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado, has created a safe harbor, during which managers cannot send soldiers work-related texts, chats, or messages outside of active mission requirements, Doyle wrote in an April 22 policy letter.
The moratorium on work-related messages starts one hour past the end of the duty day and it lasts until one hour prior to the start of the next duty day, according to the policy letter, which was shared on Reddit.
“Every effort should then be made to avoid texting or messaging others that are not still on duty before 0500 or after 1800 local time,” Doyle wrote in the memo. “This rule does not apply to personal messaging. For example, it does not prohibit communication of personal related information such as ‘unit basketball tournament at 1500 tomorrow’ or ‘three tickets left for the football game.’ This rule also does not prohibit messages related to life, health, or safety.”
Doyle also instructed his soldiers to make every effort to avoid using personal cell phones during official work-related meetings and unit training, which he described as “an unnecessary distraction from mission focus.”
He directed units to designate a place where cell phones will be held for the duration of meetings.
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“Eliminating distraction will assist our leaders in focusing on the mission, training event,
and our Soldiers,” Doyle wrote. “Exceptions to this rule may be granted by the most senior ranking member of the meeting on a case-by-case basis.”
Those who violate this policy face possible disciplinary actions including counseling and corrective training, the memo says. Repeat offenders may be charged under Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice: Failure to obey an order or regulation.
Doyle made clear in his memo that this policy is not a cell phone ban, nor is it an attempt to limit any soldiers’ personal freedoms.
“The overuse of cell phones creates unnecessary stress on Soldiers and families,” Doyle wrote. “Change is a constant around us, but not all change needs to be instantaneously communicated via text, chat groups or apps. The constant need to be tethered to one’s phone for work related information serves to keep Soldiers and leaders on edge, often unnecessarily concerned about missing important information.”
Since assuming command of the division in June, Doyle has developed a leadership development program based on culture, innovation, and warfighting culture, a source with
Doyle implemented the new policy based on the feedback of soldiers, who said they wanted more predictability with their work schedules and better communication practices, said Army Lt. Col. Joey Payton, a spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division.
In March, Doyle and Command Sgt. Maj. Alex Kupratty hosted two summits about addressing soldiers’ concerns, Payton said. About 50 junior enlisted soldiers attended the first event, and 125 company-level commanders and first sergeants participated in the second one.
Both groups told Doyle and Kupratty that soldiers felt they were unable to disengage from work because they received a stream of messages after the end of the duty day, Payton said.
“Maj. Gen. Doyle and Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Kupratty believe that the issue represents a bigger challenge related to training management,” Payton said. “By building better training management practices, then units will optimize their activities during the duty day so our Soldiers who work extremely hard can enjoy their time when they’re off-duty. This allows the division to improve readiness while taking care of our people.”
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Throw Flame's robot dog equipped with its AFC flamethrower, known as the Thermonator. Photo from the company's Instagram page.Prepare to update the safety brief again: a flame-throwing robot dog can now be yours for less than $10,000.
The Thermonator is the first-ever robot dog equipped with the ARC Flamethrower “to deliver on-demand fire anywhere.” The company behind the dog, Throw Flame, has made a name for itself creating commercial flame throwing devices like the TF-19 WASP, drone flamethrower attachment. The ARC Flamethrower, which is attached to the robot dog, can send 30-foot-long streams of fire up and be mounted on other devices like a tripod, rifle or utility task vehicle, or UTV.
The company is marketing the robot-flamethrower combo for uses like wildfire control and prevention, snow and ice removal and of course, entertainment. For $9,420, Throw Flame will ship the Thermonator anywhere in the U.S with a lifetime warranty.
When Throw Flame produced the WASP drone in 2020, its CEO told Task & Purpose that there had been an uptick in its backpack-style flamethrowers during the emerging threat of the so-called murder hornet.
“It’s hard to correlate these things, but we’ve seen an uptick in our traditional backpack-style flamethrowers, but we’ve gotten a lot of interest and recommendations on our drone flamethrower platform,” Quinn Whitehead, the company’s CEO told Task & Purpose.
Since Throw Flame advertises its tech for agricultural management or ecological conservation, we’ve got one thing on our mind this year: cicadas. The loud and rather ugly insect hordes that make a terrible crunch and screaming sound when stepped on are about to infiltrate the U.S. in record numbers. Several “broods” of cicadas are expected to hatch this summer so to that we say: no thanks, bring in the flamethrowing dogs.
In 2015, the company released its X15 Flamethrower for commercial use which sparked an uproar over its legality. A New York Congressman even tried twice to pass legislation titled “H.R. 4901 — Flamethrowers? Really? Act” which would have classified flamethrowers as akin to automatic machine guns, generally outlawing their sale or use by civilians.
But this is America and you can still own a flamethrower.
“Flamethrowers remain federally unregulated,” according to Throw Flame’s website. “This means that anyone can buy one without background checks or a waiting period. With quick shipping, just like an Amazon package, Throwflame has delivered thousands of X15s around the globe.”
If you think this is the stuff of Hollywood and the big screen, you’re also right. Their flamethrowers have appeared in The Purge, Quarry, Punisher, The Darkest Minds, and Burger King commercials, according to the website.
A state Senator from Ohio, Niraj Antani, featured an XL18 flamethrower in his campaign ad for Ohio’s 2nd Congressional district, as a challenge to Democrats that he would bring the heat.
“In Congress, I’ll take a flamethrower to the Biden agenda and the weak Republicans who betray us,” Antani said.
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Military useWhile the technology sounds like something better left to professional militaries, it’s unsurprising that a flame-throwing robot is available for public consumption. The Department of Defense is increasingly buying civilian technology for military purposes, including robot dogs and commercial drones.
A U.S. Army soldier uses a flamethrower to ignite a controlled fire to eliminate brush from roadsides so bombs cannot be concealed, near Al Anaflsah, Iraq, Sept. 11, 2008. DOD photo.Flamethrowers have a long history in the military, but have often been generally less effective than their fearsome reputation. In fact, the idea goes back to the Roman Empire, whose navy used a still-mysterious burning gel known as Greek Fire to attack other ships, a substance that would stick to enemy hulls and could not be extinguished with water. In the modern world, German soldiers introduced the Flammenwerfer apparaten at the Battle of Verdun in World War. British military leaders reportedly labeled the weapon “an inhuman projection of the German scientific mind” — a sinister, sadistic tool of wanton destruction.
The first American man-portable flamethrower made its first “successful combat appearance” on Jan. 15 1943 at Guadalcanal, according to the Army Center of Military History but troops in the field often lacked the training or tactics to use them properly. Commanders, the Army found, often “selected untrained men and ordered them to take a flame thrower and ‘burn out the Japs,’ a mission which promised little chance of success.”
The DOD ramped up its research on man-portable and vehicle-mounted incendiary weapons following WWII, but incendiary weapons fell out of favor during the Vietnam War as horrifying imagery of their aftermath emerged, including pictures like “Napalm Girl,” the 1972 Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of a naked 9-year-old girl fleeing after surviving a napalm attack. As the American public turned against incendiary weapons, the DOD issued a directive effectively retiring the weapon from the battlefield in 1978.
Since then, the flamethrower has only returned for specific use cases, including during operations in the Middle East. One DOD photo from September 2008 in Iraq, shows an American soldier using a flamethrower to ignite a controlled fire on a roadside to reveal bombs concealed by brush.
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Over half of those enrolled in a government subsidy for discount internet are veterans or active duty troops. Now that subsidy may dry up.Millions of veterans and service members will lose internet access when a federal subsidy runs out at the end of April, VA officials say.
The program, known as the Affordable Connectivity Program, ACP, is a Federal Communications Commission subsidy that offers broadband discounts up to $30 per month toward internet service.
“One in six families are enrolled in the program, and nearly half of those are military families,” said Department of Veterans Affairs Press Secretary Terrence Hayes. “Studies have shown that more than 1.1 million Veterans and their survivors receiving VA benefits have applied to be a part of the program.”
The ACP was launched at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to help households stay connected during quarantine restrictions. Federal lawmakers have approved more than $17 billion for the program over the last four years, but that money will run out at the end of the month. Participating households may receive a partial discount for the month of May if the program ends, according to the FCC.
Jim Whaley, retired 20-year, Army Lt. Col. and CEO of Mission Roll Call said the program’s disappearance could exacerbate problems for veterans who rely on telehealth for mental and behavioral health care.
“In a time when we’re still losing 17 veterans a day and need them to connect with other veterans and connect with other people – probably not the best time to pull out the support which is really normative,” Whaley said. “I would think it would be something we want to invest in rather than de-invest in.”
In a modern world where companies use the internet for job applications, news sources are going strictly digital and humans are sometimes only connecting with other humans online, Whaley called the internet “a part of the fabric of our life today.”
“Let’s say a veteran needs to have a service dog. How does he or she go about that if they can’t search it, and then contact the organization?,” he said.
A bipartisan group of Senators and Representatives have introduced the ACP Extension Act which is pending a floor vote and would appropriate $7 billion from the U.S. Treasury’s general fund.
“We think passing this bill would be the easiest/fastest way to help veterans who are at-risk of losing internet access,” said Elizabeth Carlson, a spokesperson for the House Veterans Affairs committee. “But if that isn’t possible given what Congress is like these days, we will keep looking into other ways to make sure veterans can access the internet, which is more vital than ever with telehealth appointments.”
Internet access
The FCC program helped the VA with its “bridging the digital divide” campaign which helps vets without internet service or an internet-connected device get the access for telehealth care – another service that the VA has greatly invested in during and post-pandemic. Last year alone, 2.4 million Veterans received their VA care through more than 9.4 million video telehealth visits, according to the department.
Under the ACP, veterans with qualifying VA pensions were able to claim their internet subsidy without submitting additional paperwork to the FCC.
If the program ends, households will have to pay $30-75 more for monthly internet access meaning some “may lose access to the internet entirely,” Hayes said.
The VA and other veteran service organizations are worried that ending the program could spell trouble for veterans who need access to the internet for tele-healthcare like those living in rural areas or who are homebound due to severe illnesses.
“In every case, the bottom line is this: those Veterans couldn’t have accessed the lifesaving care they deserved if they didn’t have an internet connection,” Hayes said. “That’s why this program is so important.”
Under the ACP, eligible families were also able to receive one-time discounts of up to $100 to purchase laptops, desktop computers, or tablets from participating retailers with a contribution between $10 and $50. The program was limited to one monthly service discount and one device discount per household.
Many active duty service members also rely on broadband subsidies. Internet access isn’t even a given for junior service members who live in base housing. Several of the Department of Defense’s latest barracks projects have highlighted Wifi access as part of its modernization efforts.
Whaley also pointed to a 2023 RAND report that found roughly 25% of U.S. troops were food insecure based on 2018 data. The report said that food insecure troops were more likely to be early-to-mid-career enlisted personnel grades E-4 to E-6, single with children, married without children, or a racial or ethnic minority. “They also were disproportionately in the Army and, to a lesser extent, the Navy,” according to RAND.
“They don’t have enough resources to ensure that they’re gonna have a meal plan for the next day. They’re getting food from food banks. They are eating probably not the most nutritious meals,” Whaley said. “If they can’t get food on the table, it’s not a leap of the imagination to understand why they are not able to afford internet.”
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Sgt. Colin Arslanbas and Cpl. Miguel A. Maya. Photos courtesy U.S. Marines.Two Marines have died in separate on-duty incidents five days apart, one of whom was killed in a parachute mishap during a training exercise, Corps officials said. Both deaths underscore the inherently dangerous daily reality of military life.
“Safety is a priority for the Marine Corps, we train our Marines to the highest standards to ensure we are accomplishing our mission in a safe and professional manner,” Marine Corps spokesman Ryan Bruce told Task & Purpose. “The loss of these Marines has impacts across our Corps and we offer our sincerest condolences to their families, friends, and peers. It would be inappropriate to speculate while these incidents remain under investigation.”
On Tuesday, Cpl. Miguel A. Maya, a Marine assigned to Marine Light Attack Helicopter Training Squadron 303 died around 5 p.m. at Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, California during “routine military operations, a 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing news release says.
No further information was immediately available about the circumstances of Maya’s death, which is under investigation, according to the wing.
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That death comes just days after, Sgt. Colin Arslanbas, a Reconnaissance Marine assigned to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina died in what Marine officials have confirmed was a parachuting accident. Capt. Emma Thompson, a spokeswoman for II Marine Expeditionary Force confirmed on Thursday that Arslanbas had been killed on April 18 in a parachute mishap during the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s Composite Unit Training Exercise.
The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, or 24th MEU, temporarily paused training for roughly 24 hours in the aftermath of Arslanbas’ death, Thompson told Task & Purpose.
“This provided an opportunity for the Marines and Sailors to process and mourn the loss of their teammate,” Thompson said. “Despite the pause, essential leadership continued to focus on deliberate planning for the upcoming operations critical to the 24 MEU’s Composite Unit Training Exercise.”
Marine Corps Times first reported that Arslanbas died in a parachute mishap. Little else has been released about the circumstances of his death. Thompson deferred questions to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, or NCIS.
NCIS spokesman Darwin Lam told Task & Purpose that the agency is supporting the Naval Safety Center and the Clark County Sheriff’s Office in the investigation of Arslanbas’ death.
“Out of respect for the investigative process, NCIS will not comment further while the investigation remains ongoing,” Lam said. “We will respectfully defer to the Naval Safety Center as the primary lead on this matter.”
Although not common, on-duty deaths are a part of Marine Corps life. Five Marines were killed in February when their CH-53E helicopter crashed. One Marine was killed and 14 were medically evaluated after their Amphibious Combat Vehicle rolled over in December at Camp Pendleton, California.
Two Marines have also died during physical training: One collapsed during a run in April at Bardufoss, Norway; and the other Marine died in October after collapsing while taking a Physical Fitness Test at Camp Hansen in Okinawa, according to the Naval Safety Center. Another Marine was killed in a motorcycle accident in March that happened during a command ride in San Diego.
UPDATE: 4/26/2024; This article has been updated with the identity of Cpl. Miguel A. Maya after it was released by the Marine Corps.
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Dead Reckoning is a veteran-owned publishing company that focuses on poetry written by veterans. It was founded by, from left, Keith Dow, Leo Jenkins and, far right, Tyler Carroll. Second from right is photograher Paul Alkoby. (Photo courtesy Dead Reckoning).The end of the War on Terror has left many searching for ways to reckon with their time at war. For veterans who have found that outlet in poetry, a veteran-owned publisher is looking for submissions for the third installment of its Anthology of Poet Warriors, “So Long.”
The anthology is the latest project for Keith Dow and Tyler Carroll, who founded The Dead Reckoning Collective as an outlet for veteran authors.
“We hope it brings closure and peace to veterans who may have something to say in this medium but not sure who to say it to,” Dow said. “We hope this collection and the two previous volumes can teach those who didn’t serve about their family members and neighbors who served in the Global War on Terror.”
Dead Reckoning will be accepting poetry submissions through May 6. Dead Reckoning will donate every dollar of profit produced from the sale of “So Long,” and the previous two installments to the Patrol Base Abbate Book Club, or PB Abbate, a non-profit focused on therapeutic reading groups for veterans.
Leo Jenkins, who served in the 3rd battalion 75th Ranger Regiment and has since turned to poetry. He’s one of the editors and creator of the Anthology of Poet Warriors. He said he’s personally experienced the benefits of PB Abbate’s events.
“On coming together, forming groups and relationships — people who really care about each other — but also improving veteran literacy and encouraging more people to read and discuss,” Jenkins said. “We’re seeing so much good come out of there.”
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The Anthology of Poet Warriors grew from a 2018 poetry tour that Jenkins, David Rose, and Justin Eggen launched, called the Verses and Curses Tour. As it progressed, the tour took on a rowdy, almost punk-rock vibe. The veteran crew read their poetry from Boston to Miami, in anything from strip clubs to the Marine Corps museum, while opening the mic to any veteran willing to share their poems.
In New York City, a Vietnam War veteran shared four pages of his poetry that no one had heard before. Many others eagerly took the mic and poured their hearts out, and that trend continued down the East Coast. Not long after the tour, Jenkins entered a month-long TBI program. During that treatment, he found himself thinking of the success of the poetry tour and wondering how to open up poetry to more vets.
“I thought ‘Man, I really need to create an opportunity for more people to have this release.’ More veterans need to have this cathartic form where they are essentially coming into the public square and sharing their experiences,” Jenkins said. “I found that poetry was a great way to go about doing that.”
He saw the need for veterans to get things off their chest from their time in the military. Dead Reckoning’s anthology is a historical means for family and friends to learn about their loved veteran’s experiences at war while it’s a healthy release for that veteran.
“Poetry has been a part of warrior culture since there has been a warrior culture,” Dow said. “Conflicts, such as the American Civil War and World War One, saw the emergence of some of the world’s greatest poets. There have been poets who’ve shared their experiences in verse from every major conflict to date.”
Submissions for the anthology can be sent through Dead Reckoning’s website.
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Air Force Lt. Col. Nicole L. Mitchell is commander of the 126th Weather Flight, a Wisconsin Air National Guard unit. She was arrested for burglary in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota on April 22, 2024.An Air National Guard lieutenant colonel who is also a Minnesota state senator was charged with burglary after being arrested at her stepmother’s home on Monday, court records show.
Nicole L. Mitchell is currently commander of the 126th Weather Flight, a Wisconsin Air National Guard unit, according to her official biography. She is responsible for meteorological and tactical training, developing squadron airmen, and coordinating the needs of Army Brigade Combat Teams and other customers. She is a former member of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi. The unit is known as “Hurricane Hunters” because it flies into hurricanes and other storms.
Outside of her military career, Mitchell was elected to the Minnesota State Senate as a Democrat in 2022. She also worked as an anchor for the Weather Channel from 2004 to 2011.
Police have charged Mitchell with first degree burglary, a felony offense, according to a complaint filed in Becker County District Court, which was provided to Task & Purpose.
Mitchell’s explanation of the event have evolved in the subsequent days. According to police, when she was arrested she told officers that she entered her stepmother’s home to retrieve her late father’s ashes and other sentimental items that had belonged to him, court records show. Police found Mitchell dressed in black including a hat and using a modified flashlight to reduce its output. “I know I did something bad,” police say Mitchell said.
But on Tuesday afternoon, Mitchell posted an explanation on Facebook that shifted blame for the incident to a “close relative” who she said was suffering from Alzheimer’s and associated paranoia.
“I entered a home I have come and gone from countless times in the past 20 years, where my son even once had his own room,” Mitchell wrote. “Unfortunately, I startled this close relative, exacerbating paranoia, and I was accused of stealing, which I absolutely deny.”
She added that the incident has been a “true tragedy for our family” and she hopes it can become a private matter again.
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Police say they received a call at roughly 4:45 a.m. on Monday, from a woman in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota reporting that someone had broken into her home, according to the complaint, which identified the woman as Mitchell’s stepmother but did not include her name.
A police officer found Mitchell in the woman’s basement, court records show. She was dressed in black clothing and a black hat, and she had a flashlight covered by a black sock.
“The flashlight appeared to have been modified so as to control the amount of light emitting from the flashlight,” the complaint says.
After she was arrested, Mitchell reportedly told her stepmother, “I was just trying to get a couple of my dad’s things because you wouldn’t talk to me anymore,” court records show.
Police also found a black backpack, which contained two laptops, a cell phone, Mitchell’s driver’s license, her senate identification and Tupperware, the complaint says.
Mitchell told police that she had “just gotten into the house,” adding “clearly I’m not good at this,” the complaint says. She later said, “I know I did something bad” after being read her Miranda rights.
Mitchell told police that her father had died recently, and her stepmother had severed all contact with her and other family members, court records show. She also admitted to entering her stepmother’s home through a window where the backpack was found.
“Mitchell stated she wanted various items of her late father’s and that Victim refused to give them to her,” the complaint says. “Mitchell described these items as pictures, a flannel shirt, ashes, and other items of sentimental value. At the jail, Officer Sternhagen asked what got Mitchell “to this stage” and Mitchell indicated that it was her father’s ashes. She stated that she and her stepmother had stopped speaking after an argument.
Mitchell also told police that both laptops they found belonged to her, but when she later opened the computer, her stepmother’s name was displayed, court records show. Mitchell said that her stepmother had given her the laptop “way back when,” but her stepmother told police that she had not done so.
Bruce N. Ringstrom Jr., one of Mitchell’s defense attorneys, told Task & Purpose that she is motivated to get back to work and assist in the preparation of her defense. He added that there is currently no known change in her National Guard status.
“The criminal complaint is designed only to cause a judge to determine that there is sufficient probable cause to charge someone with a crime,” Ringstrom said. “It fails to include exculpatory facts, such as how Senator Mitchell has a key to the residence in question; that she was only in possession of things that she actually owns; and that she was and is deeply concerned about the health and welfare of someone who has been a member of her family for 45 years.”
As a veteran himself, Ringstrom said he has been “shocked by how quickly Nicole’s status as a service member has been disregarded.”
The accusation against Mitchell in a criminal case in state court is separate from how she comports herself as a service member,
“I have been deeply disturbed by social media posts advocating that due process be suspended in Senator Mitchell’s case,” Ringstrom said. “Insisting on the rights of humans criminally accused by the government should be a sacrosanct bipartisan issue.”
In 2011, Mitchell filed a lawsuit after her contract with the Weather Channel was not renewed, claiming she had been fired due to her Air Force Reserve obligations. Her case was ultimately settled out of court due to an arbitration clause in her contract.
In the aftermath of her arrest, Minnesota State Sen. Nathan Wesenberg, a Republican, has called on Mitchell to step down from the legislature.
“Sen. Mitchell has betrayed the public trust and must resign,” Wesenberg said in a statement on Wednesday.
He also threatened to file an ethics complaint and a motion to expel Mitchell from the state senate unless she can explain the discrepancies between her Facebook post and the complaint filed in court.
After this story was first published, both Ringstrom and Mitchell provided additional statements to Task & Purpose about the case.
Ringstrom said that although Mitchell wants to speak publicly about the accusations against her, she understands that her defense team has advised her to stay silent on the matter.
“Contrary to what has been said and written by others, there is effectively no actual evidence that has yet been made public,” Ringstrom said. “Litigating a criminal case correctly and justly takes time, and until those allegations are actually tested in a court of law – where the rules of evidence, the right of confrontation, and other components of due process are enforced–it is irresponsible to make hasty conclusions.”
Mitchell said that a “much different picture will emerge” when all the facts about the incident become known.
“While I cannot elaborate more at the advice of counsel, I can say I am extremely disappointed that the complaint lacks the complete information of the incident including important context, including that I have known the other person involved in this incident since I was four and care deeply about her,” Mitchell said.“It saddens me that some people are attempting to use a tragic family situation to score political points, and I am grateful to those who believe, as I always have, that everyone should be allowed the due process guaranteed in our Constitution.”
UPDATE: 04/25/2024; this story was updated after its initial publication to include additional statements from Bruce Ringstrom Jr. and Nicole L. Mitchell.
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A U.S. Air Force F-117 Nighthawk lands in Alaska in 2023 at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Patrick Sullivan). OPSEC Fail.
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Solomon Atkinson was one of the Navy's first 60 SEALs, worked as as stuntman for a movie, trained astronauts and earned a Purple Heart in Vietnam before retiring and serving as mayor of his hometown.Solomon Atkinson grew up in an Alaskan fishing village before becoming an original Navy SEAL, earning a Purple Heart and training astronauts.
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Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley (Department of Defense).Congress provides civilian oversight of the military.
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Fire Fighters from Chapel Hill, NC complete a staircase inside the football stadium at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as part of 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb hosted by the school's Army ROTC.The senior leaders of today's military define their careers around 9/11 — before the next generation was even born. At annual memorials, the future connects with the past.
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Soldiers assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, walk board an airplane at Truscott Air Terminal, Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia, Sept. 5, 2023.(Sgt. William Griffen/U.S. Army).Roughly 4,500 soldiers with the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division are in the process of deploying to Poland and the Baltic states as part of an ongoing U.S.-led effort to reinforce NATO’s “eastern flank,” which runs from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, Army officials have announced.
The soldiers come from the 3rd Infantry Division Headquarters, 3rd Infantry Division Artillery Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade, and the division’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, an Army news release says.
“The 3rd Infantry Division mission is to support NATO allies, deter further aggression against NATO member states, and train with host-nation forces to build readiness and interoperability,” Army Lt. Col. Matt Fontaine, a division spokesman, told Task & Purpose on Monday.
On Sept. 9, the 3rd Infantry Division officially assumed control of the Army task force in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.
That region includes the Suwalki Gap, a roughly 40-mile strip of land that connects Poland to Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. NATO planners have long feared that Russia could send forces from its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad and Belarus to close the gap, thus separating the Baltic states from the rest of the alliance.
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Should deterrence fail, U.S. troops in Poland would be tasked with keeping the gap open, said retired Marine Col. Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“That’s the only way you can get overland to the Baltic states,” Cancian told Task & Purpose. “Most of NATO’s combat power is in Poland and the west, so you have to push it through there.”
U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Jonathan Reffeor, and Maj. Gen. Christopher R. Norrie, the command team for the 3rd Infantry Division, uncases and unfurls the battalion colors during the transfer of authority ceremony in Boleslawiec, Poland, Sept. 9, 2023. (Michael Udejiofor/U.S. Army)He added that it might be slightly easier for NATO to send support to the Baltic states by ship now that Sweden has joined the alliance and Finland is expected to do so as well. But the Russians have weapons deployed to Kaliningrad that could make it difficult to reach Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia by ship.
The Suwalki gap would be a difficult area to defend, said Marta Kepe, a senior defense analyst with the RAND Corporation. With rolling farmlands and gentle hills, the region could easily be used by tracked vehicles.
Both Polish and Lithuanian leaders have also expressed concern that Russia’s Wagner Private Military Group – until recently led by Yevgeny Prigozhin – might launch attacks on them from Belarus, Kepe told Task & Purpose.
“However, Russia does not necessarily have to put boots on Lithuanian or Polish ground to restrict U.S. and allied military transport of the Suwalki gap,” Kepe said. “Indeed, Kaliningrad’s air, naval, and missile capabilities in Kaliningrad remain largely untouched, compared to its infantry capabilities. Moreover, Russia’s electronic warfare capabilities and attempts to disrupt U.S. and allied communications should not be underestimated. Russian A2AD [anti-access/area denial] capabilities remain a threat to the Suwalki gap.”
To Poland and the Baltic States, having U.S. troops on the ground strengthens NATO’s commitment to defend the alliance’s eastern flank, said retired Army Maj. Ray Finch, a former Russian foreign area officer in the Army.
“There were some polls in 2019, 2020, when they asked NATO members: If Russia were to attack, let’s say, Estonia, do you think all of Europe or NATO should respond?” Finch told Task & Purpose. “The responses were not encouraging. Countries like Germany and Spain said: Hmm, maybe not.”
By conducting military exercises with allies and taking other steps to increase readiness in the region, the United States is demonstrating that it is prepared to defend NATO territory if Russia makes “another terrible miscalculation,” said retired Army. Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commander of U.S. Army Europe.
“If the Russians attack, I would expect U.S. forces in the region to respond quickly, first in a bilateral way and then, as NATO quickly responds, within a NATO context,” Hodges told Task & Purpose.
The Army first announced in March that the 3rd Infantry Division units would deploy to Eastern Europe.
Another 2,000 soldiers with the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade have been deployed to Europe since April on a nine-month rotation. They will eventually be replaced by the 1st Infantry Division Combat Aviation Brigade.
Lt. Col. Robert Cuthbertson, Commander of Hunter Army Airfield, fist-bumps a Soldier assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, as he boards an airplane at Truscott Air Terminal, Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia, Sept. 5, 2023. (Sgt. William Griffen/U.S. Army)The deployments of U.S. troops to Europe have been an important signal to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko that NATO will not tolerate any infringement on its territory, said Evelyn Farkas who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia from 2012 to 2015.
If Putin decides to take on NATO, it would mark the end of Russia’s military, said Farkas, who is currently executive director of the McCain Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C., that is part of Arizona State University.
“The temptation may have been higher for the Wagner Group to try to test our boundaries,” Farkas told Task & Purpose. “This is a display of our resolve and whether it’s Wagner, Russian forces, Belarusian forces – if they stray into NATO territory, the consequences will be quite high.”
Currently, about 85,000 U.S. troops are in Europe, said Chuck Prichard, a spokesman for U.S. European Command. Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. military had about 65,000 troops in Europe. The number of U.S. forces in Europe since then has fluctuated between 80,000 and 105,000 service members due to military exercises and the rotations of units in and out of the continent. About 300,000 U.S. troops were deployed to Europe toward the end of the Cold War.
However, most of NATO’s combat power is still deployed in Western or Central Europe, far from the front lines, said Luke Coffey, a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute think tank in Washington, D.C.
“We don’t even defend on the goal line – we’re back in the end zone when it comes to our European defense posture,” Coffey told Task & Purpose.
The U.S. and NATO forces on the alliance’s eastern flank mostly rotate into the region temporarily, said Coffey, who also said that NATO needs to establish a larger permanent presence in Eastern Europe.
Coffey suggested that U.S. and NATO troops spend three years based in Eastern Europe as a duty assignment so that they will have more time to train with partners and become better accustomed to the region.
“When you’re there for a long period of time, you learn about the local communities where you’re serving; you learn the local culture; you dabble in the language you get to know the region; you develop a connection to it; and I think that in a time of combat, that matters,” Coffey said.
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(Photo courtesy Small Town Strong).Portsmouth, Ohio used to be an industrial hub. Sitting along the Ohio River near the border with Kentucky, the town had been home to a number of factories, steady employment and even an early professional football team. In the 1940s it had a population as big as 40,000. Then as the industrial sector declined in the 1980s, the pharmaceutical world moved in.
Portsmouth became known as the “pill mill” of the United States. “Pain clinics” distributing opioids to residents of Scioto County, with more drugs there than residents. As many as 69 people died of overdoses in 2019.
In 2010, Army veteran Dale King came home to Portsmouth, seeing the town struggling and people dying from drugs. He started a Crossfit gym, and one of his students was struggling with drugs. That led him to start offering Crossfit classes to other people in or seeking recovery, people who struggled with addiction or knew someone who did. In Portsmouth, almost everyone knew someone who had. Now the gym’s efforts are the subject of a new documentary. Small Town Strong, which streams on Amazon and Apple TV+ starting Oct. 3, looks at how the gym is trying to help its members recover, and scale up its fight against addiction in the region.
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The documentary was made over several years, charting members’ recovery and growth in and outside of the gym. It’s co-directed by brothers Chase and Spencer Millsap. Chase, a veteran who served in the Marine Corps and the Army Special Forces, met King when he visited Portsmouth with his wife, who had grown up there.
The area is one of the worst hit areas of the opioid epidemic. As users began seeking ways to feed their addiction they shifted to heroin and then fentanyl, and overdoses have risen over the years.
King had served as an intelligence officer with 10th Special Forces, including deployments to Iraq. He had grown up in Portsmouth, playing high school football there — the Spartan namesake of the Portsmouth Spartan Kettlebell Club comes from the Portsmouth Spartans, the professional football team that became the Detroit Lions — and he knew several people who had overdosed. He was able to earn people’s trust.
Sarah Wilson and Dale King in ‘Small Town Strong.’ (Image via ‘Small Town Strong’)“[Dale and I] were both part of the pre-surge and the surge, the nation building in Iraq. It didn’t work holistically,” Millsap said. “We left Iraq with that sort of in the back of our mind, it was in my mind. If you think someone is coming to help you from the top down, it’s gotta happen organically. No one’s coming to save us. That mentality is what spurred him to action.”
When Millsap first visited the town, he’d been out of Iraq for about a year, and he said Portsmouth was worse. Way worse, he said.
“It was a warzone. I remember being really off put by that,” Millsap said. “But I’d come back, I’d see it change, see it get better. I asked what is making this change, everybody told me about the gym. ‘You got to meet Dale’ they said.”
In 2018, the gym partnered with a nonprofit health agency, providing fitness classes to those getting help. Millsap and King realized there was a story to be told on film. Millsap began filming in that same year, bringing in his brother Spencer to help as the project turned into a full-length documentary by 2020. While King had years of the members’ trust at that point, Millap had to earn it, joining the others for workouts and sweating it out together before he could bring his camera and get people to tell their own stories.
Small Town Strong is both sweeping and intimate in its structure. News footage shows the scale of the opioid and addiction crisis in Ohio and the United States. Medical professionals explain in detail just what addiction does to the brain. At the same time, the documentary is personal, taking viewers inside the gym as members open up about their struggles. King, an imposing figure with tattoos covering one arm, is at the center of it, encouraging the others and trying to keep them motivated. People in recovery share their stories, such as member Sarah Wilson, who regularly pushes herself inside PSKC and also shows where she used to do drugs before she got clean.
The core element of King’s work and the recovery is building a community. Giving people a shared space and a sense of belonging proved to be one of the best ways to help people get the assistance they need, to connect with counselors and find work and housing, King found. “The one thing we found that the minute you get isolated is the minute you relapse, get addicted, you want to get high,” Millsap said.
Millsap admitted that he “missed the shit out of war” but the gym helped him process that, through the community aspect.
The documentary shows the growth of many of the gym members in recovery, but also does not shy away from the daunting nature of addiction and the scale of the epidemic in the United States. During the filming of the movie, one of the central figures, who had helped the gym connect with the health nonprofit and had been a part of the expansion, died of an overdose. He was one of three people the gym lost during filming. The loss spurred King and the brothers to keep filming and finish Small Town Strong.
Millsap admitted he could have kept filming for many more months; recovery is an ongoing process and King and the others’ work continues. He said that the fight right now is harder than ever. More people are getting addicted, more people are dying of overdoses as the drugs become more dangerous. But the town is turning around, he said, there’s more life in Portsmouth.
Millsap drew a connection back to his time in Iraq.
“I’m a grunt. The first thing they tell you is to go look for atmospherics. Go look for the vibe on the streets,” he said. “Here it’s almost the same thing, you walk out of the streets and areas that used to be boarded up, you can definitely buy some drugs if you looked hard enough,” Millsap said. “Now business is happening, people are staying, people are getting hired.”
Small Town Strong streams on on Amazon and Apple TV+ starting on Oct. 3.
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The littoral combat ship the USS Milwaukee in 2021. ( photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Aaron Lau/U.S. Navy).The U.S. Navy is well underway in scrapping its fleet of littoral combat ships. The latest to hit the chopping block is the USS Milwaukee (LCS-5), which was decommissioned on Friday, Sept. 8 at Mayport, Florida.
The littoral combat ship program was supposed to give the Navy fast and powerful ships that could operate near shores, taking on coastal targets as well as submarines. Instead, the program grew in cost, as the Navy and the U.S. military as a whole began shifting its strategy and doctrine toward peer-to-peer combat, around the Pacific Ocean. The Navy pushed to phase out the ships, with the budget for the 2023 fiscal year calling to decommission nine of the Freedom-class LCS vessels. The ships have been given the nickname in some circles as “little crappy ships.”
The USS Milwaukee, a Freedom-class LCS variant, was commissioned in November 2015, in service for less than eight years. Last month the USS Sioux City was decommissioned after only five years of service.
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“We are all very proud of the way this ship served our Navy and our nation since that cold day in November 2015.” Vice Adm. Dirk Debbink, a retired Navy officer and the former chairman of Milwaukee’s commissioning committee said at Friday’s ceremony. “She was the first true serial production ship of the Freedom Class, having incorporated literally hundreds of changes, lessons learned from Freedom and Fort Worth.”
The Milwaukee only deployed twice, in 2022 and earlier this year. It worked with law enforcement and the U.S. Coast Guard. In its second deployment, the ship’s crew was involved in intercepting drug traffickers, seizing $30 million in cocaine bound for the United States.
“Throughout the life of the ship, the sailors that sailed Milwaukee led the way in training and operations that led to fleet improvements and culminated with operational success that supported national security objectives and demonstrated U.S. commitment to our allies,” Cmdr. Jason Knox, the ship’s commanding officer, said at the ceremony. “Not only can her sailors be proud of their distinctive accomplishments, but the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin can be proud of their ship, too.”
An investigative report by ProPublica detailed the issues with the littoral combat ships. The Navy, it found, vastly underestimated what it would cost to manufacture these. Meanwhile the ships were plagued by repeated breakdowns and mechanical failures, while a reliance on contractors left many sailors untrained in how to fix their own ships.
The crew of the USS Milwaukee is set to receive new assignments elsewhere in the Navy.
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(Screenshot via YouTube)."The Question" will air on social media platforms as well as television and radio stations.
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Air Force Chief of Staff Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr. addresses students from Air War College and Air Command and Staff College at Air University. (Trey Ward/U.S. Air Force).China’s military is trying to enhance its capabilities and “fill gaps” in its skill set by having companies hire American service members and veterans to train Chinese troops, the Air Force’s top general is warning.
That’s the message from Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr., the Air Force’s chief of staff, who shared the warning in a memo sent out to Air Force personnel on Friday, Aug. 8. It was also obtained by the unofficial Air Force amn/nco/snco page. Companies with business ties to China are “targeting and recruiting U.S. and NATO-trained military talent across specialties and career fields,” Brown said.
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“By essentially training the trainer, many of those who accept contracts with these foreign companies are eroding our national security, putting the very safety of their fellow service members and the country at risk,” Brown’s memo says. The document calls on service members to help in “protecting our national defense information.”
Brown is asking Air Force personnel to report any case where they or someone they know has been reached out to for training foreign militaries. He also is reaching out to the heads of partner air forces to address the issue on their end.
It’s unclear how many incidents there are, Brown did not give examples in his brief memo, nor did he say how long this has apparently been going on for.
According to a statement obtained by the Washington Post, a Chinese spokesperson at the embassy in Washington, D.C. did not deny what Brown wrote, but said that government officials are “quick to accuse China.” The statement said that national security concerns should not be used to “smear relevant companies.”
The U.S. and China have been in competition for influence in the Pacific, which some have seen as a prelude to conflict. Earlier this year the head of Air Mobility Command wrote his own memo predicting a war in 2025 between the U.S. and China. The Pentagon said that document did not reflect the Department of Defense’s opinions.
Brown is directing Air Force personnel to report any targeting or recruitment to osi.af.mil/submit-a-tip.
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Navy SEAL candidates train at Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) in June 2023. Three senior officers who were in charge of BUD/S in early 2022 now face charges of dereliction of duty stemming from the death of a candidate during the school's Hell Week. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Dylan Lavin).Three senior Navy SEAL officers will face an Admiral’s mast for dereliction of duty over the death of Kyle Mullen, a SEAL candidate who died during BUD/S at the end of the infamous “Hell Week” in February 2022.
The three officers face charges of negligent dereliction of duty. Each held senior leadership positions at the Naval Special Warfare Center in Coronado, California, when Mullen Died.
Mullen died hours after completing the most grueling stretch of the infamous Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training course, or BUD/S, in February 2022, a five-day grind of relentless physical tests known as “Hell Week.”
A New Jersey native and former college football player, Mullen died within hours of finishing Hell Week. A Navy investigation determined that medical personnel failed to treat pneumonia he’d developed over the week-long event. Investigators determined that that deadly mistake by medics emerged from cultural and command deficiencies at the Naval Special Warfare Center and BUD/S.
The three men are:
- Capt. Brian Drechsler, the NSW Center’s commanding officer at the time of Mullen’s death. The Center is the hub of the Navy’s special warfare training. Drechsler had been scheduled to leave that post in late 2022, but his departure was moved up to May 2022 after Mullen’s death.
- Capt. Bradley Geary, who commanded the Center’s Basic Training Command, which directly oversees BUD/S.
- Cmdr. Erk Ramey, a Navy radiologist who oversaw medical operations as the Center’s top medical doctor.
The mast will be convened by Rear Adm. Keith B. Davids, the commander of Naval Special Warfare Command.
Rolling Stone first reported Thursday that the three officers would face the Admiral’s mast. Task & Purpose confirmed the three officers were served with notice of the mast last week and have until sometime next week to decide whether or not to accept it.
Task and Purpose reported in June that the investigation that led to charges found that leadership at BUD/S and the Center allowed “complacency and insufficient attentiveness” to creep into the school and its staff, which led to Mullen’s condition worsening despite multiple medical checks and warning signs.
Kyle Mullen, his mother Regina, and brother, TJ, after a Yale football game. (Regina Mullen/courtesy photo).The report found that medical teams that oversaw the rigorous early phases of BUD/S training — and particularly Hell Week — were unprepared for the high levels of sickness and injuries the training routinely produces. Medics, the report said, were “poorly organized, poorly integrated and poorly led.”
In the training itself, the report found, SEAL instructors were “hunting the back of the pack,” picking off students they deemed too slow or weak. And those instructors believed they were acting on their boss’s orders, or at least had tacit approval.
The three officers can now accept to have their charges settled by the Admiral’s mast, which is adjudicated without a jury or lawyers. They can also refuse the mast and instead face a court martial.
An Admiral’s mast is a non-judicial punishment process in which a commander reviews charges against subordinates and hands down a variety of punishments, from minor rebukes to major career-affecting reprimands like loss of rank. Punishment from a mast cannot include dismissal from the Navy or extended confinement, though Navy officials can use the results of a mast to open further inquiries that could lead to expulsion from service.
Lawyers for both Ramey and Geary told Task and Purpose Thursday that their clients were reviewing the charges and documents provided by the Navy before deciding how to proceed.
Mullen’s mother, Regina Mullen, has hounded the Navy since her son’s death, insisting in media interviews and meetings with lawmakers that the culture at BUD/S had grown unaccountable and rife with hazing, steroid abuse, and poor leadership. Rolling Stone reported Thursday that several of Mullen’s classmates who failed out of the course said they had personally been or had witnessed brutal hazing, often encouraged by instructors.
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Regina Mullen told Task and Purpose Friday that the Admiral’s masts for the three officers was not a full accounting, but “I wanted something to happen.”
Notably absent from the list, she said, was now-retired Rear Admiral Hugh Howard, the commanding officer of NSW Command when Mullen died.
“I want Admiral Howard to be court-martialed up front, but that can only happen from either the Secretary of the Navy or the [Chief of Naval Operations],” she said.
She also wonders why the Admiral’s mast was being handled within NSW Command by Howard’s successor rather than by an outside command. The investigation that uncovered the issues at BUD/S was produced by officials in the Navy’s training command, who had no relationship with NSW or the SEALs.
“They couldn’t investigate themselves, and now they’re supposed to charge themselves? Right,” she said. “In any normal mind, that’s so ridiculous. But it’s still the process apparently.”
Having the three officers face an Admiral’s mast, she said, was not the level of accountability she hoped to see but did sidestep the risk of a Court Martial ending in no action at all.
“It’s a jury of their own peers, and it’s out in California, and they’ll find a loophole and get fancy lawyers and get off,” Mullen told Task and Purpose. “And I didn’t want that to happen. Also, Geary is a father. As a mother myself, I cannot put children through that. That doesn’t bring my son back alive if he went to jail or put their entire family through that.”
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FILE: Members of 5th Special Forces Group (A) conducting 50. Cal Weapons training during counter ISIS operations at Al Tanf Garrison in southern Syria on November 22, 2017. (U.S. Army/Staff Sgt. Jacob Connor).Reports that the Global War on Terrorism is over are greatly exaggerated.
U.S. troops have conducted 308 missions against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria so far this year, including 36 missions in both countries during August, according to U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM.
As a result of those missions, 88 suspected ISIS fighters have been killed and another 405 detained, according to data provided by CENTCOM.
After a spike in anti-ISIS operations at the start of the year, the number of missions per month has hovered in the high 30s since March. Operations dipped slightly to 31 in July, but they returned to the monthly average in August.
Last month, U.S. troops carried out 28 partnered missions In Iraq, killing six suspected ISIS operatives and capturing another 18, CENTCOM announced on Friday. In Syria, American service members conducted eight partnered operations that led to one suspected ISIS fighter being killed and another seven being detained.
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ISIS lost the last territory it controlled in 2019 and has since gone underground as an insurgency. Even though most of the media has stopped paying attention, figures provided by CENTCOM show that the war against ISIS remains hot.
FILE: U.S. Army soldiers board a CH-47 Chinook helicopter while departing a remote combat outpost known as RLZ on May 25, 2021 near the Turkish border in northeastern Syria. (John Moore/Getty Images)The pace of anti-ISIS missions is also accelerating. The U.S. military has already carried out roughly the same number of operations in Iraq and Syria as it did in all of 2022.
Last year, U.S. troops and their partners on the ground launched 313 operations against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, killing 686 suspected fighters – including the group’s former top leader – and capturing at least 435 more suspected operatives, CENTCOM announced in December.
Army Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, head of CENTCOM, underscored how difficult the fight against ISIS has been during a change of command ceremony last month that marked the end of Army Maj Gen. Matthew McFarlane’s tenure as head of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve.
Kurilla said that McFarlane had “Managed more risk on a day-to-day basis than any commander in the joint force around the world,” according to a CENTCOM news release.
The fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria is currently being led by Army Maj. Gen. Joel “JB” Vowell, who has also had to contend with infighting among America’s allies in Syria.
U.S. military officials have warned that this fighting could impede the war against ISIS.
“Distractions from this critical work does create instability and increases the risk of an ISIS resurgence,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday. “You’ve heard us call for all parties to cease fighting and to stay focused on the mission because, again, the only winner here is ISIS.”
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Marines conduct a military funeral for a fallen service member. (Capt. Justin Jacobs/U.S. Marine Corps).The Marine Corps has identified a student at Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia, who died earlier this month as Sgt. Jaen Deshun Davis, Corps officials announced.
Davis, 24, was found unresponsive in his vehicle on Sept. 2 and pronounced dead at the scene, a Marine Corps news release says.
No information was immediately available about the cause of Davis’s death. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is looking into the matter.
Davis was participating in enlisted professional military education at Marine Corps University at the time of his death. He was assigned to reserve unit 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment in Selfridge, Michigan, where he served on the active-duty Inspector Inspector-Instruction Staff, the news release says.
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He had previously served with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the 1st Marine Logistics Group at Camp Pendleton, California.
Davis’ military awards include the Navy Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal.
“His family, loved ones, and peers have our deepest sympathies as we continue to provide support during this difficult time,” Marine Corps officials said in a statement.
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FILE: A U.S. airman prepares to offload cargo from a C-17 Globemaster III at Air Base 201, Niger, April 26, 2023 (Senior Airman Marcus Hardy-Bannerman/U.S. Air Force).The Pentagon admitted on Thursday that an unspecified number of U.S. personnel deemed non-essential have left Niger since that country’s military ousted its democratically elected president in late July.
Roughly 1,100 U.S. troops are deployed to Niger, where the U.S. military operates two drone bases: One, dubbed Air Base 101, out of Niger’s capital of Niamey and the other, Air Base 201, near Agadez that cost $110 million to build.
Drone operations out of those bases ceased after Niger’s military took power on July 26. The U.S. government has not described the military takeover as a “coup.” Doing so would risk triggering US laws that would end American economic and security assistance to Niger.
On Thursday, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters that “some non-essential personnel and contractors” Niger in July, but she could not specify how many or if they included active-duty troops.
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The U.S. military’s overall footprint in Niger remains at about 1,100 troops, Singh said at a Pentagon news briefing.
“Our force posture in Niger hasn’t changed,” Singh said. “Our essential personnel are still in the country right now, in Niger.”
FILE: A U.S. Air Force C-130J Super Hercules assigned to the 37th Airlift Squadron at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, takes off from the new runway at Nigerien Air Base 201, Agadez, Niger, Aug. 3, 2019. (Staff Sgt. Devin Boyer/U.S. Air Force)A U.S. official told Task & Purpose on Thursday that the total number of non-essential personnel that have left Niger is fewer than 100 and it includes the departure of some people who were already scheduled to leave the country and were not subsequently replaced,.
U.S. military planners are looking at how many service members are needed in Niger, the official said.
Reporters pressed Singh on Thursday about why the Defense Department had not previously announced that U.S. personnel had left Niger.
Rather, defense officials have said repeatedly – including as recently as Tuesday – that there have been no changes to the U.S. military’s force posture in Niger since the coup.
Singh stressed that only “non-essential” personnel have departed Niger, including some for medical reasons. Others left before the coup.
She also said that routine fluctuations in troop levels do not translate into a change in the U.S. military’s overall force posture.
“Just like on the eastern flank, in Europe and in Poland, we have troops that come back and forth, and sometimes that posture could be around 80,000. Sometimes it could be around 78,000 – that doesn’t mean our force posture has changed,” Singh said. “There’s a movement of folks going back and forth.”
Air Force Gen. James Hecker, commander of US Air Forces Europe/Africa, told reporters in August that the U.S. military is making plans in case it is ordered to evacuate both of its drone bases in Niger, but no such order has been given or appears to be imminent.
On Thursday, Reuters first reported that U.S. troops and military equipment in Niger are moving from Niamey to the base near Agadez.
The move is being done out of “an abundance of caution,” not due to a threat against U.S. troops in Niger, Singh told reporters at Thursday’s news conference.
A small force of U.S. troops will remain at the drone base in Niamey, she said.
“We’re not pulling people out right now,” Singh said. “We’re just moving personnel and assets to Air Base 201 [in Agadez].”
The latest on Task & Purpose Marine officer’s proposes fix for Gen Z recruiting crisis in new book * 3 Marines killed, 20 survivors in Australia Osprey crash. [Audio] [Updated]* * US Special Operations Command, CENTCOM, MacDill evacuate for Idalia * World War II OSS veteran*, 100, earns Special Forces tab* * Soldier assigned to 3rd Special Forces Group charged with murder**
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Pfc. Nathaniel Laprade, a Marine with Hotel Company, 2nd Recruit Training Battalion, speaks to Lt Col. Christopher Kearny, the commanding officer of 2nd Recruit Training Battalion. (Lance Cpl. William Horsley/U.S. Marine Corps).When Marine Pfc. Nathaniel Laprade went through boot camp, he showed that he could conquer obstacles that towered above him.
Even though he is 4 feet, 7 inches tall, Laprade said that obstacle courses were not a major challenge for him, according to a Marine Corps news story.
“It just meant I needed to push myself to jump a little higher,” said Laprade, who graduated from Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina on Sept. 1.
Laprade’s ability to scale obstacles taller than him so impressed his drill instructors that they used him as an example to motivate his fellow recruits, the Marine Corps news story says.
Marine Pfc. Nathaniel Laprade conducts The Crucible on Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina on Aug. 18, 2023. (Lance Cpl. William Horsley/U.S. Marine Corps)The toughest part of recruit training for Laprade was the long hikes, especially because he was selected to be the Lead Series guide, who is at the front of formations for hikes and runs.
Making matters even more difficult, Laprade had to stay apace with his platoon’s guide, who is tall and has a long stride.
“Little legs with a little body weight, a lot of weight in the pack, and a lot of miles in the hikes,” Laprade said.
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Now that he’s earned his Eagle, Globe, and Anchor, Laprade is awaiting the start of the next phase of his training at Camp Geiger, North Carolina.
“I was always afraid of failing but I got through it,” said Laprade of his experience at Parris Island. “You are only afraid until it happens, when it starts you just have to focus on getting through it, and losing the fear and when you finish you’ll look back and know you got through it.”
Marine Pfc. Nathaniel Laprade conducts the Physical Fitness Test during recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina on Aug. 15, 2023. (Cpl. Colin Harper/U.S. Marine Corps)While he was growing up, Laprade wanted to join the Air Force, but over time he gravitated towards the Marine Corps, which had a focus on precision that he felt the other military branches lacked. He joined his high school’s Army Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program, or JROTC, and he was eventually promoted to battalion executive officer for his school.
The discipline, drill, uniforms, and other aspects of military life appealed to Laprade, who found a mentor in retired Army 1st Sgt. Thomas Gent, his high school’s JROTC program instructor.
Laprade was particularly impressed when a Marine recruiter visited his high school.
“One day in the cafeteria there was a Marine recruiter standing there and his uniform was perfect, no flaws no nothing,” Laprade said. “You just felt something, stood there, strong and disciplined, a solid statue of determination of honor, courage, and commitment.”
Marine Pfc. Nathaniel Laprade conducts The Crucible during recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, August 17, 2023. (Lance Cpl. William Horsley/U.S. Marine Corps)The two had a long discussion, and Laprade found out he was too young to enlist in the Marines at the time. But when Laprade neared graduating high school the following year, he was one of the first students whom the recruiter contacted.
From that point on, Laprade was “solidly devoted to the Marine Corps.”
While he was going through the enlistment process, Laprade was inspired by stories about famed Green Beret Capt. Richard Flaherty, known as the “Giant Killer,” who was awarded the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, and two Purple Hearts for his heroism during the Vietnam War.
Laprade said he was determined to top Flaherty.
“The main part that inspired me was that he was Army and 4 foot 9 inches,” Laprade said. “If I go Marines when I’m 4 foot 7 inches, I will beat him in two ways.”
The latest on Task & Purpose Marine officer’s proposes fix for Gen Z recruiting crisis in new book * 3 Marines killed, 20 survivors in Australia Osprey crash. [Audio] [Updated]* * US Special Operations Command, CENTCOM, MacDill evacuate for Idalia * World War II OSS veteran*, 100, earns Special Forces tab* * Soldier assigned to 3rd Special Forces Group charged with murder**
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Capt. Paul Choate was fired as the commander of the Fleet Readiness Center Mid-Atlantic at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia. on Aug. 31 The Navy said Choate was relieved "due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command." Navy photo.A Navy Captain with 37 years in Naval aviation was fired as the commanding officer of a major maintenance center for “loss of confidence in his ability to command,” the Navy said in a release Thursday.
Capt. Paul Choate was relieved of command of the Naval Readiness Center-Mid Atlantic at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia by Rear Adm. Joseph Hornbuckle on Aug. 31, the Navy said. Hornbuckle oversees the Navy’s nine Fleet Readiness Centers, which are responsible for depot-level maintenance on the Navy’s aircraft and aviation equipment around the world.
As is typical for Navy relief announcements, no explanation for Choate’s removal was released beyond the issue of “confidence,” a cause the service cites nearly every time a commander is fired.
A native of Saigon, Vietnam, Choate is a “mustang,” a common term of affection in the Navy for officers who begin their careers as enlisted sailors and work their way up to be commissioned officers and commanders. Choate enlisted in September 1986 and was commissioned ten years later, according to his official biography which was still on the FRMCA webpage Thursday morning.
Choate oversaw close to 2,500 military and civilian workers at the Virginia Beach depot. The facility performs depot-level maintenance on aircraft from across the Navy’s fleet, including the F/A-18, E-2, C-2, H-60, H-53, C-130, UH-1, AH-1, V-22, P-3, and F-35. The center also maintains aviation-related equipment used on aircraft carriers.
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Capt. Richard Foster, the center’s executive officer who was scheduled to assume command of the center in December, will now take over immediately.
Along with a Navy career in aviation maintenance, Choate deployed to Iraq with an improvised explosive device, or IED, team, his biography said, though it does not cite what year. Choate won 3rd place in the 2020 Armed Forces chess championship and a gold medal in 2002 at the NATO chess championship.
His personal awards include a Bronze Star and an array of decorations typical for senior officers.
Choate’s replacement, Foster, has been the executive officer at the center since July 2022 and is a former Navy test pilot with over 3,100 flight hours in 28 aircraft.
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Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe now has a comic book that details his heroic actions in the face of an enemy ambush in Iraq. Photo courtesy of the US Army and Association of the United States Army. Composite Image by Josh Skovlund/Task & Purpose.Alwyn Cashe showed the bravery of a superhero in combat, saving seven fellow soldiers during an ambush. Now, he has his own comic book to retell his story.
Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe is featured in the latest edition of the Medal of Honor Graphic Novel series published by the Association of the United States Army. The book covers Cashe’s early life, Army career, and final heroic combat actions. Cashe died from wounds he suffered while rushing multiple times into the burning hulk of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle to save members of his platoon after an improvised explosive device attack in Iraq in January 2005.
Some of the most prominent artists in the graphic novel industry worked on the Cashe book. The script was written by Chuck Dixon, whose previous work includes Batman, The Punisher, and The ‘Nam. The visual artwork was produced by industry veterans PJ Holden and Peter Pantazis. Holden has worked on Judge Dredd, Battlefields, and World of Tanks, while Pantazis has worked on Justice League, Superman, and Black Panther. The book’s lettering was by Troy Peteri, who has worked on Spider-Man, Iron Man, and X-Men.
Joseph Craig, who directs AUSA’s Book Program, said the graphic novels are an effort to connect younger generations with Army history and values. AUSA is a non-profit educational and professional development association that bills itself as the “voice” of the active duty service.
Craig said AUSA “tested the waters” for a Medal of Honor-themed graphic novel at the end of 2018 with a volume centered on recipient Alvin York, aimed at the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. When that book was a hit with audiences, Craig said, they expanded to 20 volumes, covering Army Medal of Honor winners from the Civil War to the Global War on Terror.
Cashe is the second recipient from the post-9/11 wars to get his own graphic novel, along with Sal Giunta, who received the Medal for his actions saving his platoon from an intense Taliban ambush on Oct. 25, 2007.
Craig said that as he and the artists worked on Cashe’s book, they were amazed by the soldier’s selfless actions that saved six fellow soldiers.
“The fact that he returned over and over to this burning vehicle — it’s not just a matter of reaction. This is a deliberate decision to go time and time again into the flames to help out his fellow soldiers and bring them to safety,” Craig said. “That takes an iron constitution and an incredible sense of courage to be able to return again and again to danger.“
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The graphic novel covers a snippet of Cashe’s childhood, depicting his early examples of his bravery. He joined the Army after high school in Oviedo, Florida.
The book covers Cashe’s deployments to the 1991 Gulf War and to the Balkans as a young soldier and a rotation as a Drill Sergeant. By 2005, Cashe was a Platoon Sergeant with Company A, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division when he deployed to Iraq.
While on patrol in the Salah Ad Din Province on October 17th, 2005, Cashe commanded the lead Bradley in a convoy when an improvised explosive device triggered an ambush. The explosion ruptured the fuel lines and set the Bradley ablaze.
Despite the effects of the blast and heavy enemy gunfire, Cashe was able to escape and pull out the vehicle’s driver. He made three trips back into the Bradley as it burned, pulling out a total of six soldiers and an Iraqi comrade.
Cashe sustained second and third-degree burns over 72% of his body. Though he survived the attack, Cashe died on Nov. 8, 2005, at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.
Initially awarded the Silver Star, Cashe was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on Dec. 16, 2021.
You can read the full digital comic book on the AUSA website.
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Paul John Herbert is accused of falsely claiming to have been wounded in Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War to collect more than $344,000 in veterans disability benefits and apply for a Purple Heart. (USMC Photo by Lance Cpl. Joey Mendez, Herbert photo from Linkedin).A Marine veteran who left active duty 30 years ago has been indicted for allegedly falsely claiming to have been injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq to collect more than $344,000 in disability benefits and apply for a Purple Heart, Justice Department officials have announced.
Paul John Herbert, 52, is accused of receiving the disability benefits from January 2010 to March 2023, a Justice Department news release says. Prosecutors say Herbert also applied for a Purple Heart in October 2018, during which he allegedly falsely claimed to have suffered traumatic brain injury and other wounds from a bomb blast in northern Iraq while deployed there in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War.
“I just needed to feel important,” Herbert told the Greenfield Reporter newspaper when his false history was first publicly exposed in August 2022. “I started feeling important and feeling good about myself and I didn’t know a way to get out. I know I hurt a lot of people that trusted me and cared about me and everything else.”
Herbert had long claimed to have been the sole survivor of an IED attack on a convoy escorting Kurds in northern Iraq with both US and British Marines.
Herbert, from Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, faces charges of theft of government money and making false statements, the news release says. Herbert could face up to 10 years in prison for the theft charge and five years in prison for the false statements. The maximum sentence for both offenses also includes three years of supervised release and a fine up to $250,000 or twice gross gain or lost, whichever is greater.
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Herbert has pleaded not guilty to both charges, according to the Greenfield Reporter newspaper in Massachusetts, which first reported last year that Herbert had admitted to falsely claiming that he had been the only person to survive an improvised explosive device explosion in Northern Iraq while on a mission to protect Kurdish refugees alongside British Marines following the First Gulf War.
Task & Purpose was unable to reach Herbert on Wednesday. His attorney Tracy Duncan declined to comment.
Herbert enlisted in the Marines in December 1989, served on active duty until December 1993, and then spent another two years as a reservist, according to the Greenfield Reporter. He deployed to Iraq and Somalia while in the Marine Corps.
The Upper Pioneer Valley Veterans’ Services District later found that Herbert had falsely claimed that he was wounded in Iraq, the newspaper reported. In addition to receiving disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Herbert also got free dental care; a $9,000 tax abatement from the town of Buckland; a service dog, for which the services district paid pet insurance and veterinarian bills; and he reimbursed mileage for mental health and neurological care that he does not qualify for.
Christopher Demars, director of the Upper Pioneer Valley Veterans’ Services District, said he first became aware of the holes in Herbert’s story a few years ago after inviting him to be the guest speaker at a Veterans Day event a few years ago.
While writing up Herbert’s biography for the event, Demars noticed that Herbert was wearing military awards that were not documented in his DD-214, including the Combat Action Ribbon and Bronze Star with “V” device for valor, Demars told Task & Purpose on Wednesday.
Herbert also wore a Marine uniform with sergeant’s stripes, but his DD-214 said that he left the Corps as a corporal, Demars said.
After the veterans services district asked Herbert for more documentation, Herbert showed Demars “a real funky memorandum” that he claimed was his Bronze Star citation, Demars said.
“I have Bronze Star awards and so did my director at the time, so we knew it was a fake just by looking at it,” Demars said.
Demars obtained Herbert’s service record through a Freedom of Information Act request, confirming that Herbert had embellished his awards and rank.
Adding insult to injury, Herbert had also used a story that Demars told him about getting wounded in Afghanistan to further his own charade, Demars said.
When the two first met, Demars told Herbert that after being knocked unconscious by a suicide bomber, he felt the rotor wash and heard the engine of a helicopter as he was loaded onboard to be medically evacuated.
“I really didn’t realize that he used that story until we started our own investigation on him years later and found an article from the Hampshire Gazette, where he basically stated that he remembers the helicopters coming in to get him, and that’s exactly what happened to me, unfortunately,” Demars said.
Demars said he reached out to a friend with the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, who began looking into Herbert. Ultimately the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General took over the case.
Speaking to the Greenfield Recorder in August 2022, Herbert claimed that he had thrown away the medals that he had not earned.
“I didn’t want any of that stuff,” Herbert told the newspaper. “I got mad at myself. I hated myself. I still hate myself for this. I lost a lot of really, really good friends.”
Demars said he hopes that Herbert’s alleged fabrications about his service record do not prevent other veterans from getting the help they need.
“Guys that I served with, Vietnam veterans that come in here, they’re hesitant to put in claims anyways – they feel guilty doing it,” Demars said. “So, hopefully finding about PJ [Herbert] doesn’t scare them away from actually putting in for the benefits they do deserve.”
Among veterans, stolen valor – impersonating a service member or veteran or wearing unearned military awards – is an unforgivable transgression. One recent example is Sarah Cavanaugh, who was sentenced to 70 months in prison in March after pleading guilty to wire fraud and related offenses for pretending to be a combat-wounded Marine veteran dying of cancer to defraud charities of more than $250,000.
But the veterans community is so vigilant about policing itself for imposters that actual veterans have been falsely accused of stolen valor. Michael Delfin, a Marine veteran who fought in Fallujah in 2004, was attacked in 2015 by an active-duty airman, who accused Delfin of lying about serving in the Marine Corps.
The threat of being accused of stolen valor can be intimidating for veterans suffering from “invisible wounds” such as traumatic brain injury.
So far, cases of alleged stolen valor have not created a chilling effect that have stopped veterans from getting help, said Terrence Hayes, press secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“We have not seen any reluctance among Veterans to apply for benefits – in fact, more Veterans are applying for the benefits they deserve than ever before,” Hayes told Task & Purpose. “This year alone, Veterans have filed more than 2.2 million benefits claims, which is an all-time record and 41.3% more than last year. We at VA encourage all Veterans to apply for their earned benefits today.”
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There are a lot of military transition gurus out there who will tell separating veterans almost anything they want to hear about getting out of the military and finding that first job.
When considering transition advice, be sure to use a critical eye. Is everything coming up roses in their world? Are they promising a six-figure salary based only on military experience? Have they even begun to mention some of the barriers veterans face? If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
I graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 2016, served five years in the military, and separated as a captain. When I transitioned, I stepped into a recruitment role where I helped hundreds of military veterans refine their resumes, prepare for interviews, and understand how to meaningfully talk about their military experience.
One of the most challenging aspects of my role wasn’t translating skills or finding employers committed to hiring veterans, it was discussing the financial reality of a role with transitioning military members. Many of them were more focused on base salary than they were on total compensation and it kept them unemployed, even as qualified candidates.
Admittedly, I fell into this same category during my transition. I was repeatedly told that my military background would secure me a role that would easily surpass $100,000. Countless soldiers would tell me and their peers, how they could be making significantly more in the private sector.
While I’m sure a lot of those scenarios were well-intentioned encouragement or a “grass is greener on the other side” mindset, the fact remains: many veterans, including me, have an exaggerated understanding of their financial transition.
The Hard Statistics * Here’s a number that hurts…only 18 percent of individual Americans make a salary of more than $100,000 a year. * Here’s another; only 34.4 percent of U.S. households cumulatively bring in $100,000 or more per year. * The average personal income in the U.S. is $63,214, while the median salary is $56,420. Remember, an average can be skewed by outliers, while a median shows the very middle of a data list.
Recognizing that these are 2022 statistics and don’t account for geographic considerations or overtime, the hard truth remains: the average American is not making a six-figure base. Most aren’t even making $80,000.
Moreover, most college graduates in their first year after graduation have an average starting salary of $55,000, which is 75 percent more than those with a high school diploma.
These statistics aren’t meant to scare anyone but rather educate about the reality of the financial landscape outside of the military. As a service member, you received many financial benefits like reduced-cost medical care, life insurance, food and housing stipends, retirement benefits, and pay increases every two years that helped to offset inflation rates. That is not how the private sector works.
While this all may sound bleak, there is hope, I promise.
There’s no shortage of qualified professionals advocating on your behalf. Knowledge is power, and while an advertised salary may not initially sound appealing, understanding how a company compensates its employees can help bridge some of the many gaps your military transition may create, like housing, food, and saving for retirement.
RecruitMilitary’s Placement ServicesMany companies offer competitive compensation and benefits packages, but most people don’t know the extent of their potential earnings until they have already applied for a role.
RecruitMilitary’s Placement Services provides eligible candidates with a behind-the-scenes look into organizations invested in hiring veterans and transitioning military. Candidates talk to a client representative before applying, allowing for a better explanation of duties, work-life considerations, in-depth benefits explanations, and an accurate depiction of base salary and total compensation.
Placement Services aids candidates in aspects of their job search, from resume writing to negotiating a job offer, making it the most comprehensive career resource available.
DAV (Disabled American Veterans)DAV helps veterans receive the health, disability, and financial benefits they’ve earned—for free. Don’t procrastinate in applying for your veterans benefits. These benefits add up and could be used in negotiations for a higher salary.
DAV won’t necessarily help you receive a higher salary, but they will advocate for you and your family in every chapter of life. Each year, DAV professionals interview more than 330,000 veterans, helping them cut through red tape and file more than 200,000 claims for VA (Veterans Affairs) benefits.
While this may not seem significant to your job search, DAV helped veterans and their families apply for over $20 billion in earned benefits last year.
Final ThoughtsA military transition can be both an exciting and stressful time. There’s no one answer to a seamless transition, a competitive salary, or a stress-free job search.
If you find yourself disappointed at a lack of easy solutions, don’t settle; seek assistance. The likelihood of success increases significantly with help from professionals in the space.
One final word of caution; not all military resources have your best interests at heart. Transitioning veterans are a vulnerable population. Nefarious actors will disguise themselves as a resource, often targeting those seeking help. Be diligent in researching an organization’s credibility before accepting help.
Roughly 200,000 servicemembers transition each year, and like most of them, you will persevere, overcome, and land on your feet. You can soften that landing with just a little help.
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A Navy Federal auto loan preapproval could streamline your car buying experience.
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Fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) gesture as they move to the Dhiban front line in the Deir ez-Zor province in eastern Syria on September 4, 2023, during a guided media tour organized by the SDF. (Delil souleiman/AFP via Getty Images).About 90 people have been killed in new violence that threatens to divide the U.S. military’s partners in Syria in the fight against the Islamic State group.
Roughly 900 U.S. troops are deployed to Syria on a mission to prevent ISIS from reconstituting its caliphate, which was destroyed in 2019. America’s primary ally in the country has been the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, a predominantly Kurdish organization that also includes Arab and Turkmen militias.
But the ties binding the anti-ISIS alliance began to fray after the SDF arrested the head of an Arab-majority militia on Aug. 27, leading to open fighting with Arab tribesmen in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor region.
At least 90 people have been killed in the fighting so far, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group based in Britain that documents human rights abuses in Syria.
Elsewhere in northeast Syria, the SDF has clashed with the Syrian National Army, or SNA – a different rebel group that is backed by Turkey – in Al-Hasakah province, leaving 23 people dead in a separate outbreak of violence.
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On Aug. 27, the SDF launched “Operation Security Reinforcement” in Deir ez-Zor, which it said targeted ISIS terrorist cells along with “criminals responsible for perpetrating injustices against the local population.”
U.S. and coalition forces were not involved with the operation, said Army Maj. Geoffrey Carmichael, a spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led alliance against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
A fighter of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stands guard along a road as others deploy to impose a curfew in the town of al-Busayrah in Syria’s northeastern Deir ez-Zor province on September 4, 2023, during a guided media tour organised by the SDF (Delil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images)SDF spokesman Farhad Shami announced on Aug. 30 that Ahmed al-Khubail, also known as Abu Khawla, had been dismissed from his duties as head of the Deir ez-Zor Military Council “based on an arrest warrant from the Public Prosecution in North and East Syria.”
Shami accused Abu Khawla of being involved with drug trafficking and having a “negative role in increasing the activity of ISIS cells.”
On Tuesday, Shami downplayed the violence that erupted in Deir ez-Zor following Abu Khawla’s arrest.
“Out of 120 villages, only four experienced tension,” Shami told Task & Purpose on Tuesday. “After successfully clearing three villages of the intruding armed groups affiliated with the Syrian regime, we are now focused on decisively retaking Dhiban village.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, the SDF had retaken 80% of Dhiban, Shami tweeted on Tuesday.
Shami also accused the SNA of sending its Arab fighters to fight the SDF as part of a plan to allow Turkmen factions to consolidate their authority in parts of the country.
Syrian Arab fighters are positioned on the Mahsali and Arab Hasan frontline, on the Turkish-held outskirts of Manbij in northeastern Syria, as they fight with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces on September 4, 2023. (Rami al Sayed/AFP via Getty Images)Task & Purpose was unable to independently verify any of Shami’s comments on Tuesday.
Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve has issued two statements since Aug. 31 calling for an immediate end to violence in northeast Syria, which it calls a distraction from the fight against ISIS.
Despite the violence, the U.S. military will continue to work with the SDF and other partners in Syria, Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday.
The SDF has played a critical role in the fight against ISIS, Ryder said at a Pentagon news briefing. Ryder noted that the SDF runs the al-Hol detention refugee camp, where the families of suspected ISIS fighters are held.
“Our work with the SDF is focused only on the defeat-ISIS mission,” Ryder said when asked if the U.S. military supports the SDF in the current power struggle.
Ryder declined to say whether or not the SDF gave the U.S. military advance notice before it arrested Abu Khawla.
When asked if the U.S. military is trying to moderate a solution between the SDF and Arab tribes, Ryder deferred the question to Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve.
“You’ve heard us call for all parties to cease fighting and stay focused on the mission, because, again, the only winner here is ISIS,” Ryder said.
The latest on Task & Purpose Marine officer’s proposes fix for Gen Z recruiting crisis in new book * 3 Marines killed, 20 survivors in Australia Osprey crash. [Audio] [Updated]* * US Special Operations Command, CENTCOM, MacDill evacuate for Idalia * World War II OSS veteran*, 100, earns Special Forces tab* * Soldier assigned to 3rd Special Forces Group charged with murder**
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Then-1st Lt. Larry L. Taylor landed his AH-1 Cobra gunship in the middle of a firefight to allow a 4-man reconnaissance team to scramble onto the skids for a desperate rescue flight — a manuver never previously attempted in combat. Taylor was awarded the Medal of Honor for the rescue September 5, an ungrade from a silver star awarded at the time. US Army photo.Larry L. Traylor landed his Cobra in the middle of a firefight so a reconnaissance team could jump on the skids for extraction — a combat first.
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Soldiers from the 97th Military Police Brigade, and 41st Engineering Company, Fort Riley, KS., work along side with U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the Hidalgo, TX., port of entry, applying 300 meters of concertina wire along the Mexico border in support of Operation FAITHFUL PATRIOT November 2, 2018. Soldiers will provide a range of support including planning assistance, engineering support, equipment and resources to assist the Department of Homeland Security along the southwest border.
(U.S. Air Force photo by SrA Alexandra Minor).About 400 active duty troops will remain deployed to the southwestern border, two months longer than their original orders.
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Gen. Randy George, 38th Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, visited Fort Jackson Sept. 19 to get a firsthand look at the Future Soldier Preparatory Course. The course helps civilians interested in joining the Army to achieve the aptitude battery test score and physical readiness needed to meet eligibility requirements to enlist.After a year as a pilot program, the U.S. Army’s boot camp for basic training is becoming permanent.
The Army Future Soldier Preparatory Course, which offers tracks for recruits to improve on their academic and physical abilities in order to join the service, will become a set part of the Army’s recruiting program. Stars & Stripes first reported the news, citing several U.S. Army officials. The official shift to a permanent program will take place in October, at the start of the new fiscal year. The program will also have access to increased funding as part of the shift.
The course was created in part due to the Army’s struggle with recruitment. And many of the people who did want to enlist did not meet academic or physical requirements to join the service. In the course, “students” can train to meet body fat standards for the Army, or study to pass the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test. The program launched in August 2022 at Fort Jackson as the Army predicted a shortfall in its recruitment for the year. Students have 90 days to meet enlistment standards.
Over the last year the pilot program has repeatedly expanded, including to let students take part in both tracks, rather than only one. It also was added to Fort Moore, Georgia in January.
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The Army, like other branches in the U.S. military, has been having trouble finding new recruits, in part due to poor image issues, including concerns about mental health. Last fiscal year the Army fell short of its goal of 60,000 enlistees by 15,000. Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth has said that she expects a similar shortfall this year. The Army has a goal to bring in 65,000 new soldiers.
The Army has attempted several other, concurrent efforts to help with the recruitment troubles. One of the biggest programs has been a series of financial incentives, including several bonuses for people who quickly start basic training. This year the Army relaunched its “Be All You Can Be” campaign, and recently released a series of new videos titled “First Steps” as part of a recruiting campaign. These new commercials are airing on television and social media.
Last month the Army reported that more than 8,800 people had taken part in the Army Future Soldier Preparatory Course, with a 95% graduation rate. It also said that graduates have received more than $15.5 million in bonuses.
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(Photo by Pfc. Paige Pendleton/U.S. Army).More than three months since the Department of Defense adopted new mental health policies, the U.S. Army has officially rolled out new guidance for mental healthcare under the Brandon Act.
Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth signed the new guidelines this week, which immediately went into effect. Soldiers are now able to ask their supervisor or commander for a referral for a mental health evaluation.
“I call on leaders to continue making it clear that taking care of your mental health and your family is encouraged,” Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said in an Army release on the new policy. “We must constantly look for additional ways to connect our Soldiers with the necessary resources for their well-being, and the Army’s new policy to implement the Brandon Act gives Soldiers another tool to seek help while honoring the legacy of Petty Officer Caserta.”
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The act is named for Petty Officer 3rd Class Brandon Caserta, who committed suicide in 2018 after failing to become a Navy SEAL. It was found that Caserta was also a victim of a toxic culture and did not have access to mental health counseling to help him deal with his struggles. His parents became advocates for mental health reform in the military after his death. The act was passed in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, and all military branches were required to implement it.
Under the Army’s guidelines, any soldier can as a supervisor with the rank of staff sergeant or above to get them a referral for a mental health evaluation. . They do not need to state a reason for the request. The Army said that counselors will conduct the evaluation “as soon as possible” and provide necessary healthcare.
The new rules are in effect for active-duty soldiers, as well as the Army National Guard and any Army reservists with more than 30 days of active duty service. Guidelines for National Guard soldiers or reservists who don’t meet those categories are being written, the Army said.
The Army adopted the policy later than other service branches; the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy implemented the Brandon Act in July, while the Department of the Air Force, which encompasses the Air and Space forces, did so in August. All branches were required to draft and enact their guidances within 45 days of the Pentagon signing the Brandon Act into action, although they all failed to meet that deadline. The delay in implementing the Brandon Act came as the Army only just released its own suicide prevention plan, three years after it originally planned to.
If you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, the Lifeline network is available 24/7 across the United States. Reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling or texting 988 and you’ll be connected to trained counselors.
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FILE: Marines with the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar honor guard practice folding the American flag prior to a funeral for a deceased Marine at the base chapel. (Cpl. Melissa Wenger/U.S. Marine Corps).A Marine studying at Marine Corps University in Virginia was found dead today.
The Marine Corps Education Command announced that the unidentified student was found unresponsive in a vehicle today, Sept. 2, at the campus in Quantico. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The cause of death was not announced. The Marine’s identity is being withheld for 24 hours while family can be notified.
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“The family, loved ones, and peers have our deepest condolences as the Marine Corps University works with his parent command to actively provide much needed support during this difficult time,” Maj. Joshua J. Pena, a Marine Corps spokesman, said in a statement.
Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating the death.
The student is the sixth Marine to die in the last month. One Marine, Lance Corporal Joseph D. Whaley, was killed in a live-fire exercise at School of Infantry-West at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton on Aug. 17. Maj. Andrew Mettler died when his F/A-18D Hornet crashed in Southern California on Aug. 24. Another three Marines were killed in an MV-22 Osprey crash while in an exercise in Australia.
This is a developing story.
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Ellsworth "Al" Johnson, 100, received the Special Forces tab and green beret on Sept. 1, 2023. (Photo courtesy U.S. Army Special Operations Command).On Friday Ellsworth “Al” Johnson officially received the U.S. Army Special Forces tab and beret. He is 100.
Johnson was a World War II veteran who served in the Office of Strategic Services’ Operational Group in France and China. The Army had determined that the centenarian met all of the requirements to join the regiment.
“This is an extremely rare event and, quite frankly, the last of its kind that will ever occur. We are all excited to welcome Mr. Ellsworth as a member of the Special Forces Regiment,” Major Russell M. Gordon, 1st Special Forces Command’s director of public affairs, said.
Johnson was presented with a Special Forces badge and a green beret on Friday, Sept. 1 by 1st Special Forces Command head Brig. Gen. Gil Ferguson and Army Special Operations Command’s deputy commander, Maj. Gen. Patrick Roberson. Johnson was joined by his family at the Riley Grove Assisted Living Center in Michigan where he lives.
The OSS Operational Groups were one of the precursors to the military’s modern special operation groups. The U.S. Army’s Special Forces, better known as the Green Berets, were not formed until 1952. The 34-person teams conducted direct action and unconventional warfare.
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Johnson grew up in a military family, moving often in his youth with his father who was in the Army. When World War II broke out, he was not paying much attention.
“I had more important things to think about at the time, like baseball and girls” he said in a 2007 interview with the Veterans History Project. After Pearl Harbor however, that changed. He was drafted — his older brother joined the Army before him — and trained as a medic. While stateside he signed up for the OSS.
After training in England, he jumped into France. The OSS soldiers worked with the French resistance. In August 1944, after the D-Day invasion, they assaulted a German-held dam in central France. The attack worked and the Nazis gave up the facility, which provided power to much of the region.
After serving in France, Johnson deployed to the Pacific theater. His team volunteered — it was that or be split up and absorbed into the regular Army, he recalled. In July he jumped into China, along with Chinese commandos that the OSS had trained. The Allied forces attacked a Japanese garrison in the country, failing to take the site but heavily weakening the enemy forces. Johnson’s medical training proved useful as he was able to help treat wounded comrades before they reached a doctor.
During his time in the Army, Johnson received two Bronze Stars. His work with the OSS would remain classified until 1995, a full half century after he fought in the war.
“I loved it. I loved the service,” Johnson said in 2007.
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The U.S. Department of Defense has created a new hub for the public to view any declassified information the military has on UFOs, or unidentified anomalous phenomena as the DoD prefers to call them. The new site, aaro.mil, launched on Thursday, serving as a repository of cases resolved by the Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office.
The Pentagon referred to the new site a “one-stop shop for all publicly available information related to AARO and UAP.”
“This website will provide information, including photos and videos, on resolved UAP cases as they are declassified and approved for public release,” the Department of Defense said in a release. “The website’s other content includes reporting trends and a frequently asked questions section as well as links to official reports, transcripts, press releases, and other resources that the public may find useful, such as applicable statutes and aircraft, balloon and satellite tracking sites.”
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The military has been gradually acknowledging the existence of UAPs — not pointing to any extraterrestrial element but acknowledging that pilots and other personnel have spotted phenomena they cannot identify. Earlier this year, AARO Director Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick said that the office is investigating hundreds of reported cases. Many have been resolved and found to be mundane situations. At the time Kirkpatrick noted that part of why so many of the cases are classified is because of how they were recorded — on military aircraft or sensors — and not because of what they showed. The resolved cases will be available to read or view on the new website.
“This website will provide information, including videos and photos, on resolved UAP cases as they’re declassified and approved for public release,” Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters on Thursday. “The website’s other content includes reporting trends and frequently-asked-questions section, as well as links to official reports, transcripts, press releases and other resources that the public may find useful. The department is committed to transparency with the American people on AARO’s work on UAPs.”
Service members and civilian Department of Defense employees with findings will be able to submit their reports to the AARO via the site in the “relatively near future,” Ryder said. As for civilians, they currently can’t, although the Pentagon has not ruled out adding that feature in the future.
The All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office was set up in July 2022, the successor organization to the Department of the Navy’s previous office investigating UAPs. Kirkpatrick is set to give an update to Congress on the office’s findings “relatively soon,” Ryder said.
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The Presidential Unit Citation has been awarded to Ranger in Vietnam, the SEALs who killed Osama Bin Laden, the assaulters on D-Day and the Coast Guard's full throttle response to Hurricane Katrina. Photos courtesy of DVIDS and Wikimedia Commons. Composite image by Josh Skovlund/Task & Purpose.On the last day of August 2023, the Pentagon announced that the Army and Marine Corps units that had rushed to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul two years earlier would receive the nation’s highest unit award: the Presidential Unit Citation. The award will go to about 30 Army and Marine units that made up the ad hoc task force that held the airport as US and international air forces evacuated 124,000 Afghans in the face of a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in Aug. 2021.
With the award, the Kabul units — which include the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and Joint Task Force 82 of the 82nd Airborne Division — join a rollcall of historic teams and fighting units, big and small, that have earned the Presidential Unit Citation.
Though less celebrated than individual awards like the Medal of Honor and Silver Star, the Presidential Unit Citation is the highest award a unit can receive for performing a mission. From World War II to today, it’s been awarded only rarely, and only for the most dangerous and difficult missions.
What is the Presidential Unit Citation?The Presidential Unit Citation is America’s highest decoration that a military unit can receive and is nearly always awarded for combat. In fact, the official criteria for the award specifies that it will be awarded only for “acts of gallantry performed by a unit that are deemed equivalent to individual acts that would merit” an award of a service cross — the Navy or Air Force Cross or the Distinguished Service Cross in the Army.
The service crosses sit just below the Medal of Honor in individual awards.
In other words, an entire unit must go above and beyond their duty, and the performance of others in the same mission, to be recognized.
Once a unit receives the award, they are authorized to display the streamer on their colors. The Army, Air Force, and Space Force have the same streamer, which is solid blue; the Navy and Marine Corps have the same streamer with three horizontal sections of blue, yellow, and red; and the Coast Guard’s streamer has horizontal sections of white, orange, and blue.
Soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen who are authorized to wear their presidential unit citation banners on their uniform, each branch has a designated spot on the right or left side of the chest. The Army, Air Force, and Space Force wear a similar banner of blue with yellow borders; the Navy and Marine Corps banner is similar to their units’ Presidential Unit Citation streamer; and the Coast Guard’s banner has vertical sections of white, red, and blue.
Rangers from the 75th Ranger Regiment holding their unit colors during a Pointe du Hoc ceremony on June 5, 2023. The 75th Ranger Regiment has six Presidential Unit Citations on its flag pole. Photo courtesy of the Best Defense Foundation/Josh Skovlund.A brief history of the Presidential Unit CitationAccording to Executive Order 10694, issued in 1957, a unit must carry out actions on a level equivalent to what is required for an individual to be awarded the Distinguished Service (Army), Navy, or Air Force Cross.
For unit awards, it is first in precedence, above various service awards and commendations of Valorous Unit, Gallant Unit and Meritorious Unit.
The vast majority of the awards have been for direct combat, though a few have been awarded for heroism in the face of unknown dangers, such as intelligence gathering.
What units have received the Presidential Unit Citation?Since it was created, the award has gone to a wide swath of units across all US military services in every war and for several specialized missions. The award has gone to units as large as full Army divisions and Marine Expeditionary Units and as small as the crew of a single Navy submarine.
Notable Presidential Unit Citations in each service include:
Army
- Multiple units that participated in Operation Overlord in World War II, and specifically, the beach landings on June 6, 1944, received the Citation.
- The 101st Airborne Division received the Citation for their actions to seize and hold Bastogne, Belgium, during the Battle of Bulge in WWII.
- The 65th Infantry Regiment was awarded the Citation twice during the Korean War — first for fighting in the Uijongbu Corridor and, later, in the Iron Triangle at Hill 717.
- MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group) was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for their covert actions, behind-enemy-lines actions in the Vietnam War.
- The 75th Ranger Regiment has been awarded six Presidential Unit Citations for campaigns from WWII to current day — including the taking of Pointe du Hoc on D-Day and sustained combat in Afghanistan in 2010.
Marine Corps
- Forces that fought at Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Tarawa and other islands in the Pacific campaign.
- 1st Marine Division at Inchon, Korea and again at Chosin Reservoir.
- The Third Marine Division in Vietnam from March 1965 to Sept 1967.
- The Ist Marine Expeditionary Force in the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.
- The Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan, also known as Task Force Leatherneck, for combat operations from May 2009 to April 2010.
Navy
- The USS Enterprise and ships in its strike force around the Battle of Midway and for other actions during the Pacific island hopping campaign of World War II
- USS Atlanta (CL 51) and her crew that patrolled off Guadalcanal.
- SEAL Team 6 for the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden on May 2, 2011.
- Congress has introduced a bill encouraging the president to award the USS Indianapolis and its final crew to receive the Citation.
Air Force
- Numerous flying groups and squadrons for the bombing campaigns over both Europe and the Pacific in World War II.
- 602d Fighter Squadron, Pacific Air Forces, which flew 400 sorties per month throughout Southeast Asia in early 1967.
- The bomber units that flew Operation Linebacker, a sustained bombing campaign over North Vietnam.
- 1st Air Commando Squadron, 34th Tactical Group, which flew almost 4,000 sorties and airlifted close to 2.2 million pounds of cargo and 17,000 passengers in 8 months in Vietnam.
Special awards
- The USS Nautilus, a nuclear-powered submarine, received the Citation for being the first submarine to complete a submerged voyage under the North Pole in 1958. The ship’s authorized banners and ribbons include an “N” to signify the Nautilus mission.
- Another submarine, the USS Triton, completed the first trip around the world of a nuclear sub as a part of its shakedown cruise in 1960. Those onboard wear the award with a globe clasp.
- Several Coast Guard units received the Citation for rescue and recovery efforts in response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. They wear the award with a clasp designed to resemble the hurricane symbol commonly seen on meteorology maps.
- The U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, which is a non-military uniformed service, has received its own version twice, once for the 2014-2015 response to an Ebola outbreak in Africa, and again for the multi-year response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
FAQs about the Presidential Unit CitationQ: Can foreign military units receive the Presidential Unit Citation?A: Executive Order 10694 established that “units of armed forces of cobelligerent nations,” who served alongside the US Military may be awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for “outstanding performance in action” on or after December 7, 1941. Several NATO units have received the Presidential Unit Citation.
Q: How many Presidential Unit Citations have been awarded?A: There have been hundreds of Presidential Unit Citations awarded to units throughout the US military since World War II. Pentagon officials told Task & Purpose there is no centralized database or authoritative list of those units.
Q: Who can wear the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation?A: Close to 90 different American military units received the award for their “exceptionally meritorious service” to the Republic of Korea between July 11, 1952 to Oct. 1, 1953.
Q: What’s the difference between the Distinguished Unit Citation and the Presidential Unit Citation?A: Nothing, besides the years and service the Citations were awarded. In WWII, the Army and Navy were authorized different unit awards that both aimed to honor equivalent levels of gallantry and achievement. The Army award was dubbed the Distinguished Unit Citation. In 1957, the two awards were merged as the Presidential award, though each service continues to have its own version of the PUC today. Units that were earlier awarded the Distinguished award now refer to those awards as Presidential Unit Citations.
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FILE: A Marine carries the Presidential Unit Citation streamer with one silver star, and four bronze stars, during a battle colors ceremony at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, Jan. 12, 2022. (Sgt. Hannah Hall/U.S. Marine Corps).More than 30 Army and Marine Corps units will receive the Presidential Unit Citation for evacuating more than 124,000 civilians from Kabul in August 2021, according to a full list of recipient units released by the Pentagon.
The awards will go to the units that made up the ad hoc task force hastily assembled at Hamid Karzai International Airport in August 2021 as thousands of desperate Afghans surrounded the airfield hoping to find a flight out of the country. Those US units included National Guardsmen from Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Washington as well as active duty units from the 82nd Airborne Division and 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
Together those units kept the airport open to round-the-clock evacuation flights during Operation Allies Refuge, the largest non-combatant evacuation operation in American history.
The Presidential Unit Citation is the highest distinction that a unit can receive and is nearly always awarded for combat.
“The unit must display such gallantry, determination, and esprit de corps in accomplishing its mission under extremely difficult and hazardous conditions as to set it apart from and above other units participating in the same campaign,” the Army’s regulation on military awards says. “The degree of valor required is the same as that which would warrant award of a DSC [Distinguished Service Cross] to an individual.”
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While the announcement covers the Army and Marine Corps units that rushed to Kabul, the Air Force has to date not announced any unit awards around the weeks of non-stop evacuation flights carried out by a wide swath of mobility units. However, Air Force officials awarded 96 airmen received Distinguished Flying Crosses and 12 Bronze Stars in October for the flights that whisked American and Afghan civilians to safety.
The crew of one C-17 was awarded Distinguished Flying Crosses for taking off from Hamid Karzai International Airport with 823 evacuees aboard – more than twice the maximum number of passengers that the aircraft is designed to transport.
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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced that Army and Marine Corps units would receive the Presidential Unit Citation on Thursday, the second anniversary of the end of the Afghanistan War.
“We bow our heads today in memory of the 2,461 U.S. service members who never made it home, including the 13 courageous troops taken from us in the attack at Abbey Gate in the final hours of the war,” Austin said in a statement. “We also remember the hundreds of service members from allied and partner countries who lost their lives during this 20-year war. And we honor the more than 20,000 Americans who were injured waging war in Afghanistan, including many who still bear wounds that are not visible.”
Army units recognizedArmy spokesman Bryce Dubee said on Thursday that select elements from the following units that took part in Operation Allies Refuge will receive the Presidential Unit Citation.
- Headquarters, 82nd Airborne Division
- 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division
- 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division
- 1st Attack Battalion, 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade
- 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division
- 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division
- DIVARTY, 82nd Airborne Division
- 82nd Sustainment Brigade
- 16th Military Police Brigade
- 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade
- 50th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, 35th Signal Brigade
- 1st Battalion, 101st Field Artillery Regiment, Massachusetts National Guard
- 319th Ordnance Company, Washington Army National Guard
- 1st Battalion, 194th Armored Regiment, Minnesota National Guard
- 249th Engineer Battalion, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- USA Network Enterprise Center, Qatar
- 160th Special Operation Aviation Regiment
- 8th Psychological Operation Group
- 95th Civil Affairs Brigade
- U.S. Army Special Operations Command
“The bravery of the Soldiers on the ground and the dedication of those who supported every evacuation flight exemplify the ideals of service with honor and compassion,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said on Thursday. “Until the last aircraft departed, the 82nd Airborne Division and members of JTF-82 [Joint Task Force-82] held the line and provided the safe passage needed to evacuate over 100,000 U.S. citizens, Afghan civilians, and family members. It is a privilege to recognize these Soldiers for their actions during the tumultuous days of August 2021 and to honor their courage at a time when the entire Nation relied on them to complete their mission – which they did with great distinction.”
Marine Corps units awardedThe Department of the Navy has announced the following Marine Corps units will also receive the Presidential Unit Citation for their bravery during Operation Allies Refuge:
24th Marine Expeditionary Unit
- Command Element
- Battalion Landing Team, 1st Battalion, 8th Marines
- Combat Logistics Battalion 24
- Marine Tiltrotor Squadron 162 Reinforced
Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force Crisis Response-Central Command (SPMAGTF-CR-CC)
- Command Element SPMAGTF-CR-CC 21,1
- 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines
- Combat Logistics Battalion 21
- Marine Wing Support Squadron 373 Detachment
- Marine Aerial Refueler Squadron 352 Detachment A
- Marine Aerial Refueler Squadron 234 Detachment A
- Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 364
Marine Operations Group Central-Forward
“This Presidential Unit Citation is a testament to the incredible dedication, sacrifice, and professionalism embodied by the men and women of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force – Crisis Response (Central Command), who rapidly deployed into harm’s way to protect and defend Afghan civilians,” Marine Corps spokesman Maj. James Stenger said on Thursday. “The Marines and Sailors who participated in Operation Allies Refuge are deserving of this distinguished recognition.”
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A U.S. Marine with Joint Task Force - Crisis Response assists evacuees at an Evacuation Control Check Point during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 26, 2021. (Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla/U.S. Marine Corps) .The Army and Marine Corpsunits that rushed to Afghanistan in August 2021 to oversee the evacuation of more than 124,000 civilians from Kabul in roughly two weeks will receive the Presidential Unit Citation, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced on Thursday.
Troops will be able to wear the award if they were assigned to those units for those missions. But some troops told Task & Purpose that the unit awards should be paired with further individual awards for so-far unacknowledged acts of heroism by individual service members.
Awarded for extraordinary heroism on vital missions, the Presidential Unit Citation is the highest honor that a military unit can receive. The award has gone to units that parachuted or stormed ashore on D-Day, the Navy SEAL team that killed Osama Bin Laden, and Coast Guard units behind that service’s full-throttle response to Hurricane Katrina.
“In recognition of teams that operated and excelled under these difficult and dangerous conditions, I am proud to announce the approval of the Presidential Unit Citation for the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, the Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Central Command, and Joint Task Force 82 of the 82nd Airborne Division and its supporting units,” Austin said in a statement recognizing the second anniversary of the end of the Afghanistan War.
The move comes as belated appreciation for soldiers with the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, who braved enemy fire to transport about 10,000 Americans and Afghans to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, from where they were flown to safety.
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Several soldiers who served with the brigade at the time told Task & Purpose last year that many helicopter crews who were initially nominated for Distinguished Flying Crosses and Bronze Stars had their awards downgraded by the brigade’s leadership.
“Mike,” an Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter pilot who served with the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade during the evacuation, told Task & Purpose on Tuesday that he and his crew were shot at as they flew missions, but his unit’s leadership refused to award the soldiers Combat Badges and other military decorations.
Photographs of the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade rescuing 10,000 Afghans and Americans in August 2021. (Photos courtesy of soldiers with the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade.)“I was recognized more by Boeing, the U.S. defense company that makes the helicopter that I fly, than I was by my own brigade commander,” said Mike, who spoke on condition of anonymity and is being identified by a pseudonym to avoid potential reprisal.
Mike said he feels the reason why soldiers in the brigade did not receive individual valor awards is that such recognition would underscore that U.S. troops had to step up in the absence of good leadership.
“I think the DoD internally recognizes it was a disaster, but it’s trying to move on and decided some hand-wave unit awards are the way to least-acknowledge it while still doing ‘something,’” Mike said.
“Ralph,” a helicopter crew chief during the evacuations, said he believes the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade deserves the Presidential Unit Citation because the brigade did amazing things during the evacuation.
But Ralph, who is also being identified by a pseudonym, said he also thinks the Presidential Unit Citation is not a substitute for individual awards.
“Many of the maintainers, pilots, and crew members did things above and beyond their scope of duty, and in my personal belief weren’t adequately recognized for it,” Ralph told Task & Purpose.
On Thursday, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth praised soldiers in the 82nd Airborne Division and Joint Task Force 82, or JTF-82, for showing “heroic discipline and courage” during the Kabul evacuation.
“The bravery of the Soldiers on the ground and the dedication of those who supported every evacuation flight exemplify the ideals of service with honor and compassion,” Wormuth said in a statement. “Until the last aircraft departed, the 82nd Airborne Division and members of JTF-82 held the line and provided the safe passage needed to evacuate over 100,000 U.S. citizens, Afghan civilians, and family members. It is a privilege to recognize these Soldiers for their actions during the tumultuous days of August 2021 and to honor their courage at a time when the entire Nation relied on them to complete their mission – which they did with great distinction.”
Paratroopers assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division prepare to board a U.S. Air Force C-17 on August 30th, 2021 at the Hamid Karzai International Airport. (Master Sgt. Alexander Burnett/U.S. Army)The evacuation from Hamid Karzai International Airport was the last episode in America’s longest war. After the Taliban captured Kabul on Aug. 15, 2021, U.S. Marines and other troops flew in on close to no-notice with orders to guard the airport as thousands of desperate Afghans tried to make their way inside, desperate for a flight out.
“People were suffering from extreme malnutrition, dehydration, heat casualties, and infants were dying,” Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews told Congress in March. “Afghans [who] were brutalized and tortured by the Taliban flocked to us, pleading for help. Some Afghans turned away from HKIA [Hamid Karzai International Airport] tried to kill themselves on the razor wire in front of us that we used as a deterrent. They thought this was merciful compared to the Taliban torture that they faced.”
In an iconic moment captured on video, six Marines standing on the airport’s wall lifted an Afghan baby over concertina wire to safety. Another Marine later told investigators how he rescued a 1 or 2-year-old girl in a red dress and her mother from the crowd to keep them from being trampled.
The Marines and other U.S. troops at the airport’s Abbey Gate were in a particularly vulnerable position. Marine Brig. Gen. Farrell Sullivan, who led the joint task force crisis response at Kabul Airport, wanted to close Abbey Gate on the evening of Aug. 25, but Army Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue, who led the 82nd Airborne Division at the time, decided to keep the gate open until Aug. 27 to allow the British to complete their evacuation efforts, an investigation later found.
On Aug. 26, 2021, a fighter with the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan branch detonated a suicide bomb outside Abbey Gate, killing 13 U.S. troops and 170 Afghans. Among those killed was Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, who had recently posted a picture on Instagram showing her cradling an Afghan baby along with the caption, “I love my job.”
Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said on Thursday that the United States owes a debt of gratitude to the Marines and sailors who served with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force – Crisis Response – Central Command during the evacuation.
“These service members worked tirelessly to assist U.S. citizens, U.S. government officials, and thousands of desperate Afghan civilians trying to flee their country,” Del Toro said in a statement. “I could not be more honored to recognize these truly exceptional Marines and Sailors.”
The latest on Task & Purpose Navy destroyer USS Howard’s commanding officer fired * New ship named after legendary Navy SEAL and Alaska Native * Women in special operations say bias, double standards are daily realities * Families of Marines killed in Osprey crash push for more answers * Two service members arrested after fatal stabbing in Germany*
The post US troops awarded Presidential Unit Citation for Kabul evacuation appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Staff Sergeant Lue Lor (left) and Staff Sergeant Christopher Reese were arrested August 29 on over 50 weapons charges outside Fort Moore. They were arrested in possession of grenade simulators, an inert mortar shell, other weapons and steroids, police say. Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office photos.Two Fort Moore soldiers were arrested with explosive devices, a mortar shell, close to 20 rifles and handguns, and steroids.
The post 2 Fort Moore soldiers arrested with grenade simulators, mortar shell, steroids appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The “Iron Mike” statue at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington. (Screenshot from Joint Base Lewis-McChord Facebook page).The Army preferred charges against Maj. Michael Stockin on Tuesday. The number of alleged assaults was not clear, but a lawyer said it could be 20 or more.
The post Army doctor charged with series of alleged sexual assaults appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Army Sgt. Rolondo Boone was arrested on Aug. 28, 2023 and charged with first degree murder in connection with an April 2 shooting. Boone is a unit supply specialist for 3rd Special Forces Group at Fort Liberty, North Carolina. (Fayetteville Police Department).Army Sgt. Rolondo Boone was arrested on Aug. 28.
The post Soldier assigned to 3rd Special Forces Group charged with murder appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Sgt. Fernando Horta, a drill instructor, encourages Rct. Ryan Scheuer, Platoon 3009, India Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, to respond. (Cpl. Caitlin Brink/U.S. Marine Corps).His recommendations include “performance pay" as a bonus to incentivize service members.
The post Marine officer proposes fix for Gen Z recruiting crisis in new novel appeared first on Task & Purpose.
3M has agreed to pay $6 billion to settle about 260,000 lawsuits claiming that earplugs that US troops were issued between 2003 and 2015 were defective. (Kyle Gunn/Task & Purpose.Roughly 260,000 lawsuits have been filed over the earplugs.
The post 3M settled its combat earplug lawsuit for $6 billion – but don’t get too excited appeared first on Task & Purpose.
From left to right: Marine Maj. Tobin J. Lewis. 37; Capt. Eleanor V. LeBeau, 29; and Cpl. Spencer R. Collart, 21, were killed on Aug. 27, 2023 when their MV-22B Osprey crashed in Australia. (Photos courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corps).All three were assigned to Marine Helicopter Transport Squadron 363 at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
The post 3 Marines killed in MV-22 Osprey crash identified appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Tropical storm Idalia is expected to be a major hurricane and is tracking toward Tampa, home of MacDill Air Force Base. The base and two major commands there — US Central Command and US Special Operations Command — have ordered staff and families to evacuate. Air Force Photo by Technical Sgt. Chris Hibben.Troops at MacDill Air Force Base, which is home to CENTCOM and USSOCOM, were told to evacuate by Tuesday morning.
The post US Special Operations Command, CENTCOM, MacDill evacuate ahead of Idalia appeared first on Task & Purpose.
FILE: A Somali soldier stands guard next to the site where al-Shabab militants carried out a suicide attack against a military intelligence base in Mogadishu on June 21, 2015. (Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP via Getty Images).The US has launched more than a dozen airstrikes in Somalia this year.
The post US airstrike in Somalia kills 13 al-Shabab fighters appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Within five years, it becomes the biggest risk factor for permanent disability.
The post Intractable chronic low back pain plagues the military more than we think—and it won’t go away on its own appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Fort Walker. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Deonte Rowell).Dr. Mary Elizabeth Walker is the only woman to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
The post Fort AP Hill is now Fort Walker, in honor of a Union surgeon appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Hawaii Army National Guard members hand out water on Maui on Aug. 26, 2023. (US Army National Guard photo by Spc. Sean Walker).The death toll stands at 155.
The post Military assisting in rescue and recovery in Maui appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey lands during an exercise in Australia. Photo by Staff Sgt. Keith Anderson.A V-22 Osprey carrying at least 20 Marines crashed in Australia. Survivors were reported and rescue operations were underway.
The post Marine Osprey crashes with 20 onboard, survivors reported appeared first on Task & Purpose.
FILE: A U.S. Marine F/A-18 Hornet takes off from Prince Sultan Air Base, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Jan. 25, 2022. (Staff Sgt. Christina A. Graves/U.S. Air Force).Maj. Andrew "Simple Jack" Mettler was an F/A-18 pilot with the Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 224 at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina.
The post Marines identify pilot in fatal F/A-18D Hornet crash appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Heavy fog covers a sign at the front of the base entrance at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota (Airman Alysa Knott/U.S. Air Force).The Air Force is ordering a major cleaning of three ICBM bases to reduce risk.
The post Toxic chemicals detected at Minot Air Force Base appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Bob Barker in 2015. (Photo by Araya Doheny/Getty Images).The longtime "The Price Is Right" host served during World War II.
The post Bob Barker, US Navy veteran, dead at 99 appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Sailors from the destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) pose with (left to right) Ben Wiggins, Daniel Williams, Evan Williams, and Luke Lodge (left to right) after rescuing the divers at sea off the coast of Wilmington, North Carolina. (Petty Officer 3rd Class Hailey Servedio/U.S. Navy).The Coast Guard and Navy rescued four lost divers 46 miles from shore after an aircrew crew spotted their flashlight with night vision equipment.
The post “We found them!” – How the Coast Guard rescued 4 lost divers appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Ukrainian pilots will train with the Arizona Air National Guard's 162nd Wing, which flies a two-seat trainer version of the the F-16. Photo by Spc. Anthony Nadeau.The announcement caps a slow ramp-up in the level and variety of support for the Ukrainian military in the last year, as US authorities approved and delivered increasingly advanced weapons.
The post US pilots will now train Ukrainians to fly the F-16 in Arizona appeared first on Task & Purpose.
FILE: A U.S. Marine F/A-18 Hornet takes off from Prince Sultan Air Base, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Jan. 25, 2022. (Staff Sgt. Christina A. Graves/U.S. Air Force).Search and rescue efforts are ongoing.
The post Marine F/A-18 Hornet crashes in California. Pilot’s status unknown appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Solomon Atkinson, an Alaska Native, was one of the first 60 Navy SEALs in 1963. Now a new Navy ship will be named after him.
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Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was said to be on a plane that crashed outside Moscow Wednesday. Prigozhin led a column of his for-hire soldiers on an aborted rebellion in June, leaving the frontline in Ukraine and driving halfway to Moscow. Photos from YouTube and Mash telegram channel.The Wagner Group boss had largely escaped consequences for a two-day mutiny in June that was seen as deeply humiliating to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The post Wagner Group mutiny leader Prigozhin likely killed in plane crash appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A new report from the Army's Special Operations Command finds that women continue to face structural bias in elite units, along with practical barriers like ill-fitting equipment and a lack of childcare. Above, soldiers participating in the Civil Affairs Qualification Course walk on patrol through the notional country of “Pineland,” near Fort Liberty, NC. Army photo by Ken Kassens.Women in special operations say they miss promotions, wear ill-fitting gear, endure harassment and even face double standards on what to wear to PT.
The post Women in special operations say bias, double standards are daily realities appeared first on Task & Purpose.
"First Arrival" is one of three recruiting videos that are part of the "First Steps" phase of the Army's latest recruiting campaign. (Screenshot/YouTube).“Gen Z wants to make their mark on the world, but they aren't sure they can.”
The post Be all you can be: Army releases new ‘First Steps’ recruiting ads appeared first on Task & Purpose.
John Sax was the co-pilot on a Marine Corps "Purple Foxes" MV-22 Osprey that crashed in June 2022 near El Centro, CA. Amber Sax and family members of Sax's crew recently were told that the Marine Corps had been aware of similiar engine failures in the Osprey since 2010, but that a effort fix them ended in 2020. (Task & Purpose composite using photo by Sgt. Lillian Stephens/U.S. Marine Corps).“What happened with the redesign plan after 2020? Was it put on a back burner?”
The post Families of Marines killed in Osprey crash push for more answers appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The gate at U.S. Air Force Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany. (Photo by Lukas Schulze/Getty Images).The two were arrested by German police and turned over to the U.S. Air Force.
The post Two service members arrested for stabbing a person in Germany appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Cmdr. Kenji Igawa was relieved for "loss of confidence."
The post Navy destroyer USS Howard’s commanding officer fired appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A dedication at the base of the Kosciuszko monument at West Point, where the time capsule was discovered. (Ahodges7, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).The U.S. Military Academy plans to open it on Aug. 28.
The post West Point to open nearly 200-year-old time capsule found at Kosciuszko monument appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Paratroopers assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division prepare to exit an Air Force C-17 Globemaster aircraft to conduct a nighttime combat airborne operation onto Fort Bragg’s Sicily Drop Zone, Sept. 21, 2018. (Sgt. Cody Parsons/U.S. Army).Both combat aviation brigades are replacing units rotating out of the Middle East and Europe, respectively.
The post 82nd Airborne, 1st Infantry Division deploying overseas appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Joseph Whaley was training at School of Infantry-West when he died on Aug. 17. (Photo via Facebook).Lance Corporal Joseph D. Whaley died on Thursday at School of Infantry-West.
The post Marine killed in live-fire training identified appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Airmen at Nigerien Air Base 201, Niger, June 3, 2022. (Staff Sgt. Chloe Ochs/U.S. Air National Guard).Roughly 1,100 U.S. troops are deployed to Niger.
The post U.S. military preparing for possible evacuation of Niger drone bases appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A Marine was killed August 17 during a live fire exercise at the School of Infantry-West.The Marine was participating in a night live-fire event, service officials said.
The post Marine dies during live-fire infantry training at Camp Pendleton appeared first on Task & Purpose.
FILE: An F-16C Fighting Falcon shoots an AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, or AMRAAM over testing ranges near Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., March 19, 2019. (Senior Airman Joshua Hoskins/U.S. Air Force).“I think in the short-term, it will help a little bit, but it’s not the silver bullet.”
The post Ukrainian pilots are training to fly F-16s appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Photo composite of Afghan Army Gen. Yasin Zia (background, right), leader of the Afghanistan Freedom Front; and Ahmad Massoud (foreground), head of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan. (Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times and Wakil Kohsar/AVP via Getty Images).“The only reason Afghans aren’t standing up against the Taliban right now is the perception that the Taliban are supported by the U.S.”
The post What is happening inside the Afghan resistance? appeared first on Task & Purpose.
3x the points for more than ever before.
The post Navy Federal Credit Union’s More Rewards Card can help with back-to-school costs appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The Air Force announced a $235 million contract with JetZero, a California aviation start-up associated with Northrup Grumman, to build a prototype of its large blended wing aircraft, which may one day be used as a tanker. Photo from JetZero.The Secretary of the Air Force once joked, "the mother of the last pilot for the KC-135 has actually not been born yet." But this might be its replacement.
The post This might be the Air Force’s air-to-air tanker of the future appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Army 1st Lt. Joseph Guerra, an Infantry Officer assigned to the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82d Airborne Division, receives the Soldier’s Medal on August 11, 2023, at Fort Liberty, North Carolina. (Sgt. 1st Class Jonathan Hornby/U.S. Army).The former enlisted medic pushed a fellow soldier to the ground and used his body as a shield during a shooting spree in downtown Columbus, Georgia.
The post Army officer gets Soldier’s Medal for saving 4 people from gunman appeared first on Task & Purpose.
August marks two years since Kabul fell. (Task and Purpose composite).Kabul fell to the Taliban on Aug. 15, 2021.
The post What’s happened in Afghanistan 2 years after the fall of Kabul appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Cecily Aguilar, left, was sentenced to 30 years in prison, the maximum available, for her role in the murder of Army Spc. Vanessa Guillén, right.Mayra Guillén, Vanessa's older sister, posted "You received justice today" on social media.
The post Woman sentenced to 30 years in Vanessa Guillén murder appeared first on Task & Purpose.
This row of pictures in the Pentagon’s E-Ring shows that the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps do not have confirmed service chiefs because Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) is blocking promotions in protest of a Defense Department policy that pays travel costs for service women and military dependents to go out of state for abortions. (Jeff Schogol/Task & Purpose).The nominations of nearly 650 general and flag officers could be in limbo over abortion access.
The post How the US military became collateral damage in the fight over abortion rights appeared first on Task & Purpose.
U.S. Air Force Airman Quinten Cooper, 86th Maintenance Squadron Aircraft Structural Maintenance apprentice, paints a C-130J Super Hercules aircraft at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Aug. 1, 2023. The 86th MXS ASM flight painted stripes on six of the 37th Airlift Squadrons C-130s as a way to pay homage to the C-47 Skytrain aircraft that flew over Normandy during the Invasion of Europe on June 6, 1944. (Sr. Airman Thomas Karol/U.S. Air Force).The Air Force is getting a very early head start on next year's anniversary celebrations.
The post C-130s are getting World War II-style makeovers for next year’s D-Day anniversary appeared first on Task & Purpose.
he USS Bataan and the USS Carter Hall on their way to the Middle East in August 2023. (Photo by Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Alisha Gleason/US Navy).Marines would be put on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz to deter attempted seizures by Iran.
The post Marines are training to provide security for ships in the Middle East: report appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A U.S. Airman assigned to the 60th Air Mobility Wing surveys a C-5 M Super Galaxy prior to launch, May 18, 2018 at Travis Air Force Base, Calif. (Air Force Photo / Heide Couch).An investment firm has acquired nearly $1 billion in land over the last five years.
The post Air Force, Treasury Department investigating land buy around Travis AFB appeared first on Task & Purpose.
FILE - This Nov. 13, 2013 file photo shows the main gate of Camp Pendleton Marine Base at Camp Pendleton, Calif. (Lenny Ignelzi, Associated Press).The Marine is being investigated after a minor was found in the barracks in June.
The post Camp Pendleton Marine charged with sexual assault of minor [Updated] appeared first on Task & Purpose.
An FBI agent loads equipment into her car at the home of Air Force veteran Craig Robertson who was shot and killed by the FBI in a raid on his home this morning on August 9, 2023 in Provo, Utah. (George Frey/Getty Images).The FBI is reviewing the shooting.
The post Air Force veteran killed in FBI raid after threatening Biden appeared first on Task & Purpose.
An aerial view shows destroyed homes and buildings that burned to the ground around the harbor and Front Street in the historic Lahaina Town in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui in Lahaina, Hawaii, on August 10, 2023. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images).More than 100 National Guardsmen are helping with the wildfire response.
The post Coast Guard rescues 14 people from ocean after fleeing Maui wildfires appeared first on Task & Purpose.
An undated photo of Army veteran Jeffrey Judd Jones in Ukraine. Jones was killed on July 31, 2023 near Bakhmut. (Photo courtesy of Howard F. Jones Jr.).“He was really disturbed that these innocent people were being killed.”
The post ‘He was willing to sacrifice himself:’ Army veteran killed in Ukraine appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Troops of US Central Command have averaged more than one mission per day in Iraq and Syria, most with partner forces, since January, according to numbers released by CENTCOM. Army photo by Sgt. Sarah D. Sangster.US and partner troops have carried out 279 missions in seven months in Iraq and Syria, killing 81 people and taking 380 prisoners, according to CENTCOM figures.
The post US troops in Syria and Iraq launched 31 anti-ISIS missions in July appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Chief Warrant Officer 5 Nigel P. Huebscher, command chief warrant officer for 1st Aviation Brigade, received the Soldier's Medal on Aug. 7, 2023 for saving two people from a burning home. (Kelly Morris/U.S. Army).The Soldier’s Medal is the highest award a soldier can receive for heroism in non-combat situations.
The post Army chief warrant officer 5 receives Soldier’s Medal for saving people from house fire appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Sgt. Robert B. Brown watches over civilian fire fighters at the burn pit as smoke and flames rise into the night sky behind him on May 25th, 2007. Camp Fallujah has its own civilian run Fire Department to assist the Marines and Soldiers during a fire or emergency. (Cpl. Samuel D. Corum/Dept. of Defense).With the PACT Act, the VA will expand the scope and number of maladies it will consider a “presumptive condition” for toxic exposure.
The post The deadline to apply for toxic exposure benefits under the PACT Act is Wednesday appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Screenshot from 'Chasing Dreams,' an eight-part Chinese documentary about the People's Liberation Army. (Photo courtesy of China Central Television).Pro tip: Be careful what you wish for.
The post Chinese troops vow they are willing to die in fight for Taiwan appeared first on Task & Purpose.
“If you aim at everything, you won’t hit anything.”
The post 5 Steps to tailor your resume to the job appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A U.S. Air Force diving student approaches the surface while his instructors observe him during underwater training at Naval Support Activity Panama City, Fla., Aug. 3, 2017. Both pararescue and combat control Airmen get their dive training at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center. (Sr. Airman Cody R. Miller/U.S. Air Force).Trainees will continue in the current pipeline, which includes dive training, while training officials review the impact of that change.
The post Air Force Combat Controllers might not attend dive school anymore appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Sailors aboard the destroyer USS John S. McCain prepare to participate in a Fleet Synthetic Training - Joint (FST-J) exercise. (Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Joshua Hammond/U.S. Navy).China and Russia are revisiting a Cold War maritime strategy.
The post 4 US Navy destroyers respond to Russian and Chinese ships near Alaska appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A soldier loads a 155mm artillery round onto a M777A2 Howitzer during a fire mission March 8, 2017 in the Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany. (Staff Sgt. Jennifer Bunn/U.S, Army).“The United States is the arsenal of democracy.”
The post Army ramping up production of 155mm artillery shells next year appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Republic of Korea Army Soldiers guard the Joint Security Area inside the Demilitarized Zone in Panmunjeom, Republic of Korea, 23 June 2023. (U.S. Army photo).Pvt. Travis King is currently listed as AWOL.
The post Soldier who crossed into North Korea not yet considered a prisoner of war appeared first on Task & Purpose.
(Screenshot via Twitter).Sure, why not?
The post Belarus shows off martial prowess with flips, slow punches, sledgehammers appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The Poloz-M16 combat kayak in testing. (Screenshot via Twitter).The latest Ukrainian weapons system puts an automatic grenade launcher on a two-person kayak for river attacks.
The post Ukraine has combat kayaks now appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Teri and Patrick Caserta with Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gilbert Cisneros, Jr., who signed a policy to implement the Brandon Act on May 5, 2023. (Photo courtesy of Teri Caserta).Airmen and guardians can now request a referral for a mental health evaluation at any time.
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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (Department of Defense).Many officers in line for certain positions might take on acting leadership duties until the impasse is resolved.
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The guided-missile destroyer USS Thomas Hudner (DDG 116) operating in the Strait of Hormuz in July 2023. (Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kerri Kline/ U.S. Navy).The potential deployments would be to deter hijacking attempts by Iran.
The post US military may put armed forces on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, report says appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A soldier hands out food shortly after liberating a train carrying 2,500 Jewish prisoners from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. (Image via National Archives/YouTube).An unforgettable moment in history.
The post Rare footage shows U.S. soldiers liberating Holocaust survivors in World War II appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Chief Petty Officer Eric Gilmet. (Photo courtesy of the Gilmet family via United American Patriots.).The latest turn in the MARSOC 3 case.
The post Charges once again dismissed against Navy corpsman in ‘MARSOC 3’ case appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Lance Lawrence (left), a Marine veteran; and Andrew Webber (right), who graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, were killed on July 29 while fighting in Ukraine. (Photos courtesy of Ryan O’Leary on Twitter and a GoFundMe campaign for Webber).The two men were killed while helping their teammates maneuver.
The post 2 US military veterans killed in Ukraine during intense fighting appeared first on Task & Purpose.
WWII Battle of the Bulge veteran Vincent Speranza salutes the U.S. flag at the 17th Airborne Division Memorial in Bertogne, Belgium, during a ceremony to commemorate the 71st anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, Dec. 13, 2015. (U.S. Army photo).We'll see you at the final assembly area, Pfc. Speranza.
The post World War II paratrooper Vincent Speranza passes away appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Two Navy sailors, including a crewmember of the USS Essex, were arrested on spying charges this week. US Navy photos.Two Navy sailors, including a crew member of the USS Essex, were arrested this week on charges of selling information about weapons systems and Pacific operations to China.
The post Two Navy sailors arrested for selling weapons manuals, training plans to China appeared first on Task & Purpose.
1st Lt. Hailey Hodsden died in a traffic accident August 1 in Germany when the Stryker she was riding in was struck by a civilian truck. Photos from US Army, US Military Academy.1st Lt. Hailey Hodsden was an armor officer with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and a former West Point rugby player.
The post “She was absolutely the best of us” — Soldier recalled as teammate, friend appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A U.S. Army Special Forces weapons sergeant observes as a Nigerien soldier bounds forward while practicing buddy team movement drills during Exercise Flintlock 2017 in Diffa, Niger, March 11, 2017. (Spc. Zayid Ballesteros/U.S. Army).The security situation in Niger has deteriorated.
The post US preparing to evacuate some staff from Niger embassy appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl (2nd R)leaves a military courthouse with his attorney Lt. Col. Franklin Rosenblatt (L) on December 22, 2015. (Getty Images photo).Five Congressmen, all military veterans, submitted a letter asking the Defense Department to pursue a retrial of Bowe Bergdahl.
The post Congressional leaders call for a Bergdahl retrial appeared first on Task & Purpose.
An M1A2 Abrams nicknamed "Academy Dropout" moves into position during the Combined Arms Live Fire Exercise for U.S. Central Command's Army Day on May 19, 2023. (U.S. Army photo).West Pointers need not apply.
The post We salute the Army crew that named their tank ‘Academy Dropout’ appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Air Force Pararescue operators have performed about a dozen open ocean parachute missions since 2010, about half of which were executed by the California Air National Guard's 129th Rescue Wing. (Staff Sgt. Duane Ramos/Air Guard).Mid-ocean parachute jumps are among the riskiest peacetime missions that military units perform. And no one does more than the California Air National Guard's 129th Rescue Wing.
The post Inside an Air Force Pararescue mission in the middle of the Pacific Ocean appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Sgt. Maj. Carlos Ruiz, was selected to be the 20th Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps. (Lance Cpl. James Stanfield/U.S. Marine Corps).Semper Fi!
The post What you need to know about the incoming Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps appeared first on Task & Purpose.
An MQ-9 Reaper. (Senior Airman Haley Stevens/U.S. Air Force).The United States spent $110 million to build a drone base in Niger.
The post The US can’t use its $110 million drone base in Niger appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Craig Morgan during his re-enlistment ceremony at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, on July 29, 2023. (Image via Craig Morgan/Facebook).Before he was a country music star, he took part in Operation Just Cause. Now, he's serving again.
The post Country music star Craig Morgan re-enlists at age 59 appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A U.S. Air Force CV-22 Osprey assigned to the 352d Special Operations Wing, Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England, flies near Kyiv, Ukraine, Sept. 23, 2020. (Staff Sgt. Mackenzie Mendez/U.S. Air Force).The move comes almost 18 months after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The post US troops in Ukraine now eligible for combat pay appeared first on Task & Purpose.
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Anthony W. Potts (right), Program Executive Officer for Command, Control, Communications-Tactical, with U.S. Army V Corps personnel during a visit to Camp Kościuszko on Feb. 7, 2023, in Poznan, Poland. (U.S. Army photo).The NTSB is investigating the fatal crash.
The post Army two-star general killed in private aviation plane crash appeared first on Task & Purpose.
U.S. Marines assigned to 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 1st Marine Division conduct amphibious assault exercises in Amphibious Combat Vehicles (ACVs) launched from dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49) during exercise Steel Knight 23 (SK23), Nov. 30, 2022. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Zachariah Issa).The new course comes after a series of mishaps involving ACVs last year.
The post Dozens of Marines complete revised training course to operate Amphibious Combat Vehicles appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The main gate at Arnold Air Force Base. (Photo by Deidre Moon/U.S. Air Force).A raid found thousands of dollars in stolen equipment and multiple radio passwords.
The post Air Force engineer under investigation for “critical compromise” of communications appeared first on Task & Purpose.
U.S. Army UH-60 helicopters conducting firefighting operations in Greece. (Photo courtesy U.S. European Command).Fires have burned for days, displacing thousands and setting off military explosives.
The post 3rd Infantry Division is fighting wildfires in Greece appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The 432nd Wing/432nd Air Expeditionary Wing’s office of the Judge Advocate General has opened the first dedicated military court room for Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, May 27, 2020. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class William Rosado).The change comes two years after an independent commission recommended it to the Pentagon.
The post Biden signs executive order changing how military handles serious criminal cases including sexual assault appeared first on Task & Purpose.
An Australian MRH-90 Taipan helicopter is refueled during Talisman Sabre 2023. (Photo by Airman 1st Class Tylir Meyer/ U.S. Air Force).The helicopter went down in the waters off Australia Friday night.
The post Helicopter crash puts US-Australia exercise on hold; aircrew still missing appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Staff Sgt. Steven T. Smiley, shown here as a lance corporal, was found not guilty of negligent homicide in connection with the June 4, 2021 death of Pf. Dalton Beals, 19, at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina. (Lance Cpl. Cory D. Polom/U.S. Marine Corps).The Parris Island drill instructor has been cleared of the most serious charges.
The post Parris Island drill instructor found not guilty of Marine’s death during Crucible appeared first on Task & Purpose.
From getting your finances in order to finally closing on the home of your dreams, these tips from Navy Federal will help you get where you need to go.
The post Buying your first home? Here are some tips from Navy Federal Credit Union appeared first on Task & Purpose.
UFO flying in the sky, illustration. (AP).Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena remain a mystery.
The post Retired Navy pilot says unidentified aircraft ‘far superior’ to anything US could develop in next decade appeared first on Task & Purpose.
U.S. Army Sgt. Robert Bowdrie 'Bowe Bergdahl' (R), 31 of Hailey, Idaho, is escorted into the Ft. Bragg military courthouse for his sentencing hearing on October 23, 2017 in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. (Getty Images photo_.A federal judge voided the court-martial of Bowe Bergdahl this week.
The post Bowe Bergdahl’s court-martial is overturned appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Body Bearers with Bravo Company, Marine Barracks Washington, carry the casket of Sgt. Nicole Gee during a full honors funeral Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va., Sept. 29, 2021. . (Lance Cpl. Mark Morales/U.S. Marine Corps).Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee was killed on Aug. 26, 2021 in Kabul.
The post The Pentagon didn’t refuse to pay $60,000 to fly fallen Marine Nicole Gee to Arlington appeared first on Task & Purpose.
From left, LCpl. Ivan Garcia, LCpl. Merax Dockery and LCpl. Tanner Kaltenberg. The three Marines were found dead in a car due to carbon monoxide poisoning outside Camp Lejeune on July 23. Photos courtesy US Marine Corps.Autopsies confirmed the three Camp Lejeune Marines found dead in a car 20 miles from the base over the weekend died from breathing the odorless gas.
The post Three Camp Lejeune Marines died of carbon monoxide poisoning appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A palletized munitions system falls from the cargo hold of a 352d Special Operations Wing MC-130J Commando II during a live-fire demonstration for ATREUS 22-4 at Andøya Space Defense Range, Norway, Nov. 9, 2022. (Tech. Sgt. Brigette Waltermire/U.S. Air National Guard).Mobility Guardian 2023 reportedly included another demonstration of launching a cruise missile from a cargo plan
The post Air Force shows off its Rapid Dragon cruise missile system on China’s doorstep appeared first on Task & Purpose.
U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Tanner Kaltenberg, a motor vehicle operator with Combat Logistics Battalion 2, Combat Logistics Regiment 2, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, carries ammunition during a static live-fire range in Setermoen, Norway March 23, 2023. (Sgt. Christian M. Garcia/U.S. Marine Corps).The circumstances surrounding these Marines’ deaths are under investigation.
The post 3 Camp Lejeune Marines found dead in North Carolina appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Photo of the Buffalo Soldier Gate at Fort Bliss, Texas, Aug. 20, 2021. (U.S. Army photo).Sgt. Joel Sanchez, 24, was killed July 21, 2023.
The post Army identifies soldier killed during Fort Bliss vehicle accident appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The US military has released high resolution video of a Russian fighter jet dropping flares in the path of an MQ-9 Reaper over Syria, damaging the drone's propeller. (Screenshot/U.S. Air Forces, Central Command).Back in the USSR - Come and keep your comrade warm.
The post Watch as a Russian jet damages a US drone over Syria appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A Russian Su-35 Flanker fighter jet is seen maneuvering unprofessionally within 2,000 feet of a U.S. Air Force fighter jet during an intercept in Coalition Force airspace over Syria on April 18, 2023. (U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Jermaine Ayers).“It’s a game of poker, and the ante is going up."
The post The U.S. military is still confronting Russian pilots over Syria appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The Joint Security Area is the only portion of the Korean DMZ where North and South Korean forces stand face-to-face. (Courtesy photo/Republic of Korea Marine Corps).Army Pvt. Travis King crossed into North Korea in July 18 at Panmunjom
The post Everything we know about the U.S. Army soldier in North Korea appeared first on Task & Purpose.
U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Mario Linton, 37th Airlift Squadron loadmaster, left, and Senior Airman Robert Kucholtz, 37th AS loadmaster, give a thumbs up to the 37th AS pilots of a U.S. Air Force C-130J Super Hercules aircraft during exercise Agile Spirit 21 at Tbilisi, Georgia, July 27, 2021. Linton and Kucholtz showed their enthusiasm after successful navigation of Georgian airspace. Agile Spirit 2021 is a joint, multinational exercise co-led by the Georgian Defense Forces and U.S. Army Europe and Africa. Agile Spirit enhances U.S., Georgian, allied and partner forces' lethality, interoperability and readiness in a realistic training environment. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Milton Hamilton).The change comes 11 days after the Air Force ran low on cash for personnel programs.
The post Air Force restarts bonuses, some PCS moves after hiatus appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Cillian Murphy in 'Oppenheimer.' (Photo by Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures).Christopher Nolan's biopic of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer is an engrossing thriller exploring how an ambitious scientific project gave way to Cold War fears.
The post ‘Oppenheimer’ and the haunting fallout of the Manhattan Project appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Tony Bennett (center), an Army private, singing with fellow soldiers in Germany in 1945. (Photo courtesy tonybennett.com).Before he was a hit vocalist, Bennett was an Army soldier. His time in Germany would forever shape his life.
The post ‘A nightmare’: How Tony Bennett’s experiences in World War II shaped the singer appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A command investigation released by the Marine Corps found that five Marines killed in June 2022 Osprey crash were not at fault in the accident. Top, Capt. John J. Sax, Capt. Nicholas P. Losapio; Bottom: Cpl. Nathan E. Carlson, Cpl. Seth D. Rasmuson, and Lance Cpl. Evan A. Strickland.“The aircraft commander was very calm and in control. I didn't know how he was doing it.”
The post ‘They were just being good pilots’ — Inside the Osprey crash that killed 5 Marines appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Photo of the Buffalo Soldier Gate at Fort Bliss, Texas, Aug. 20, 2021. (U.S. Army photo).A "tactical vehicle accident" occurred Friday morning.
The post Fort Bliss soldier killed, five others hurt during training accident appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A U.S. Marine with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), searches a hostage during a visit, board, search, and seizure training mission in support of Amphibious Squadron/MEU Integrated Training (PMINT), in the Atlantic Ocean Jan. 27, 2023. (U.S. Marine Corps photo).A Marine Expeditionary Unit is deploying to the CENTCOM area of operations following Iran’s attempts to seize two oil tankers this week.
The post Pentagon sending Marines to Middle East amid Iran hijacking attempts appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Admiral Lisa Franchetti was nominated July 21, 2023, as Chief of Naval Operations. If Confirmed she would be the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.Admiral Lisa Franchetti, who cut her teeth commanding destroyers, has held the No. 2 position in the Navy for about 10 months.
The post Biden names first woman to Joint Chiefs as Chief of Naval Operations appeared first on Task & Purpose.
U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class William Bennett Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryan Horn, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Damian Maxilom, all aviation rescue swimmer assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 25, tend to an injured hiker aboard an MH-60S Knighthawk on Guam, July 18, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo).Over the two weeks of Mobility Guardian 2023, U.S. aircrews responded to a ship in distress and a fall from a seaside cliff.
The post Crews flying in a practice war in the Pacific are doing real rescues appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Meet the car you'll be paying for the next 10 years. (Getty Images photo).Last chance to order the muscle car and barracks’ favorite is July 31.
The post The Dodge Challenger and Charger — kings of GWOT parking lots — will end sales this month appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Marine Pfc. Dalton Beals. (U.S. Marine Corps).Beals, 19, died of heat stroke during the training event.
The post Court martial begins for Marine drill instructor in ‘Crucible’ death of recruit appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Republic of Korea Army Soldiers guard the Joint Security Area inside the Demilitarized Zone in Panmunjeom, Republic of Korea, 23 June 2023. (U.S. Army photo).A U.S. service member reportedly crossed into North Korea during an “orientation tour” at the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom.
The post U.S. service member “willfully” crossed DMZ into North Korea, detained appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Photo of the Buffalo Soldier Gate at Fort Bliss, Texas, Aug. 20, 2021. (U.S. Army photo).Two Fort Bliss, Texas soldiers are accused of firing into a crowd at an El Paso, Texas, nightclub parking lot.
The post Fort Bliss soldiers accused of murder in El Paso shooting appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Col. Bradley Ward and Sgt. Maj. Fabian Casillas were relieved on July as the commander and Sgt. Maj. of Marine recruit training at Parris Island. USMC photos.One Marine remembered the commander beating an entire platoon of recruits in a fitness test before telling them: "You're going to love being a Marine."
The post Marines fire two Parris Island leaders in charge of recruit training appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The main campus of the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center. (Courtesy UCLA Health).78 units are empty despite a push from the city and the Department of Veterans Affairs to house veterans.
The post Dozens of apartments for homeless veterans remain empty in Los Angeles appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Ukrainian tankers in the Donetsk Oblast on July 15, 2023. (Photo by Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).Due to the risk, Ukraine has slowed its advance so infantry can clear the path for Western-supplied tanks.
The post Ukraine’s counteroffensive stalled by array of Russian mines appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The USNS Alan Shepard in 2019. (Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Kenji Shiroma, courtesy U.S. Navy).No one onboard the USNS Alan Shepard was hurt in the incident.
The post Navy cargo ship runs aground in Bahrain appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A U.S. Air Force F-16C Fighting Falcon takes off April 1, 2020, at the 177th Fighter Wing, Egg Harbor Township, N.J. (Airman Hunter Hires / U.S. Air National Guard).The move comes days after the Air Force sent F-22s to the region.
The post US sending F-16s to Middle East after naval incidents with Iran appeared first on Task & Purpose.
1st Lt. Paul Pennoyer, the head of the 172nd Military Police Detachment of the Vermont National Guard, coordinates with local search and rescue during flooding in Vermont. (Photo by Sgt. Denis Nunez, Vermont National Guard).So far one person has died after a week of heavy rain and flooding.
The post National Guard aiding in rescue, recovery after flooding in Vermont appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Chris Guillory, explosive ordnance disposal technician, looks over an unexploded ordnance on Browns Island, North Carolina, June 27, 2022. Browns Island is off limits to all visitors though civilians pass by it on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Collette Hagen.Browns Island in North Carolina has a 3-mile long white sand beach, no tourists and lots and lots of unexploded bombs.
The post Tourists won’t stay away from this deadly Marine Corps island appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A solder finds cover in a foxhole during a training exercise in Latvia, Oct. 14, 2015. Staff Sgt. Steven Colvin/U.S. Army).Don’t freak out. Everything is (probably) going to be ok!
The post What you need to know about Biden’s IRR executive order appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The 341st Training Squadron held its first military working dog expo on Nov. 18, 2022 at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. (Airman 1st Class Erin Currie/U.S. Air Force).It’s ruff out there for Military Working Dog Handlers.
The post Air Force Military Working Dog Handlers no longer eligible for special duty assignment pay appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A California Air National Guard Pararescue team parachuted to a fishing vessel more than 750 miles off the coast of Costa Rica on July 8, 2023. Air National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Duane Ramos.With no backup or retreat, a California pararescue team parachuted 750 miles off the coast of Costa Rica to save an injured sailor last week.
The post Ca. Air Guard Pararescue team parachutes 750 miles from shore to injured sailor appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Air Force pararescuemen execute a static line jump from an MC-130P Combat Shadow over the Gulf of Tadjoura, Djibouti, March 21, 2013 (Staff Sgt. Devin Doskey/U.S. Air Force).The Air Force is running low on money for bonuses and permanent change of station moves.
The post How the Air Force ran short of money for personnel appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A UH-60 Black Hawk from the 207th Aviation Regiment, Alaska Army Guard. Crews from the 207th and the Alaska Air National Guard's 176th Wing pulled off four rescue missions over the July 4th weekend. Army National Guard photo by 1st Lt. Benjamin Haulenbeek.Military crews responded to hiker with a leg injury, two separate plane crashes and a minor who'd suffered a serious allergic reaction on a glacier.
The post Alaska Army and Air Guard crews pulled off four rescue missions over July 4th appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Treamon Lacy (left), who was medically retired from the Army in 2013, is accused of stealing a Humvee and driving into 3rd Infantry Division headquarters at Fort Stewart, Georgia. (Liberty County Sheriff's Office/Facebook).Treamon Lacy served in the Army from 2002 to 2013, during which he deployed to Iraq twice.
The post Army veteran who crashed Humvee was medically retired and helped other veterans appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The Navy Federal Car Buying Service, Powered by TrueCar, can search local dealers or nationwide with dozens of filters to help you find exactly what you’re looking for.
The post Let Navy Federal Credit Union Help Streamline Your Car Buying Process appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Orest Schur, 27, a Space Force tech sergeant, faces one count of murder and one of attempted murder after shooting two teenagers July 5. Photo courtesy Buckley Space Force Base, Aurora Police.One teenager is dead and another expected to survive, police say, after Orest Schur chased and opened fire on two boys he caught breaking into the car.
The post Space Force NCO faces murder charges in shooting of two teens breaking into his Hyundai appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Marine veteran Cooper "Harris" Andrews was killed on April 19, 2023 in Ukraine. Picture of Andrews tweeted by Jake Hanrahan).“You can’t lose hope”
The post Mother of Marine veteran killed in Ukraine waiting to see if her son will ever return home appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Ukraine's intelligence service says they assassinated a Russian captain. They might have found him on his Strava account.Hours after the sub captain was assassinated, his Strava history was tagged by an account with the name of Ukraine's top spy master.
The post Did Ukraine just assassinate a Russian submarine captain with his own Strava? appeared first on Task & Purpose.
FILE: The sign for Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, posted along Interstate Highway 5. Subscribe0 Chief Warrant Officer Zachary Dyer/U.S. Marine Corps).The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating the matter.
The post Camp Pendleton Marine questioned after 14-year-old girl found in his room appeared first on Task & Purpose.
FILE: A Somali soldier patrols next to the burnt-out wreckage of a car that was used by suspected al-shabab fighters on April 16, 2017. (Mohamed Adbiwhab/AFP via Getty Images).Somalia remains one of the most active fronts in the Global War on Terrorism.
The post US airstrikes kill 10 al-Shabab fighters as Somalia deteriorates appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The driver was arrested after crashing a Humvee on July 10 into the 3rd Infantry Division's headquarters building on Fort Stewart. Photo from Facebook.Sir, you can't park there.
The post Somebody crashed a Humvee into the headquarters at Fort Stewart appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Joshua Rohrer and his service dog, Sunshine, when the dog was a puppy. Rohrer was prescribed Sunshine as treatment for PTSD. Sunshine was hit by a car hours after Rohrer was arrested by police in Gastonia, NC, in 2021. Photo from Joshua Rohrer's Facebook.Sunshine, the service dog of National Guard veteran Joshua Rohrer, was killed by a car hours after being tased by police and fleeing as Rohrer was arrested in Gastonia, NC.
The post Vet whose service dog died after violent arrest sues police appeared first on Task & Purpose.
U.S. Marines with Task Force 61/2.5 (Force Reconnaissance Company), participate in a high-altitude parachute jump in Rota, Spain on June 22, 2023. Task Force 61/2.5 provides naval and joint force commanders with dedicated multi-domain reconnaissance and counter reconnaissance (RXR) capabilities. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Emma Gray).Everything your potential new employer knows about the military might come from TV.
The post The Truth Hurts: Your Military Experience Means Nothing appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Workers decommissioning munitions containing VX nerve agent at the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant in 2021. (photo by James Campbell).More than 30,000 tons of chemical munitions have been disposed of over nearly three decades.
The post US military destroys the last of its chemical weapons appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Caz Craffy, a financial advisor with the Army, allegedly tricked families into making risky investments he benefited from.
The post Army Reserve major charged with defrauding Gold Star families appeared first on Task & Purpose.
FILE: A U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone firing a AGM-114 Hellfire missile. (U.S. Air Force photo).The strike happened only hours after the MQ-9 Reaper drone that carried it out was harassed by Russian jets.
The post US kills ISIS commander in eastern Syria appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Sgt. Maj. Troy E. Black, the sergeant major of the Marine Corps, addresses Marines and sailors at Camp Pendleton, California, Aug. 27, 2019. (Lance Cpl. Alison Dostie/U.S. Marine Corps).Troy Black will take over the role in November.
The post Top enlisted Marine to be new senior enlisted advisor to Milley appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Too fast, too furious.
The post National Guard is still missing a Humvee in northern California appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Actor Robert Downey Jr. attends 'Iron Man 3' Beijing premiere at the Forbidden City on April 6, 2013 in Beijing, China. (Visual China Group via Getty Images).The Pentagon and Hollywood.
The post Pentagon will no longer support movies, TV shows censored by China appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The medium displacement unmanned surface vessels Sea Hawk, front, and Sea Hunter launch for the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s Unmanned Systems Integrated Battle Problem 21. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Thomas Gooley.A secretive testing ground in the waters of Lake Michigan for unmanned ships and submersibles could be game changers in preparing for a war with China.
The post Retired Navy officer calls for creating ‘Area 52’ amid China, Russia concerns appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Screenshot of a video showing an Iranian corvette approaching the tanker Richmond Voyager. (U.S. Navy photo).The Tanker Wars continue.
The post US Navy chases away Iranians before they can seize two oil tankers appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Top secret folder file - stock photo. (Getty Images).Those who are not part of the intelligence community will need to explain why they need access to Sensitive-Compartmented Information.
The post Here’s how the Pentagon plans to prevent more secret data leaks appeared first on Task & Purpose.
103rd Rescue Squadron Pararescuemen and Combat Rescue Officers from the New York Air National Guard jump from a C-17 off Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, March 7, 2017. Pararescue teams hold alerts during manned space launches by SpaceX, NASA and others in order to recover astronauts should they need to bailout during their ascent. Air National Guard Photo by Staff Sgt. Christopher S. Muncy.The elite rescue troops are often sent to parachute into the middle of the ocean. They'd like to have a sturdier boat when they do.
The post Air Force Pararescue teams are looking for a new boat to rescue astronauts appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Marine veteranIan Tortorici left a career in law enforcement to fight in Ukraine. He was killed on June 27, 2023 by a Russian missile strike on a crowded restaurant in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. (Photo courtesy of John Frank).More than a dozen Americans have died in Ukraine since February 2022.
The post Marine veteran killed by Russian missile strike on restaurant in Ukraine appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Part of Operation Upshot-Knothole, was a 15-kiloton test fired from a 280-mm cannon on May 25, 1953 at the Nevada Proving Grounds. (Wikimedia Commons).The Desert Rock exercises saw soldiers maneuver around nuclear explosions, testing their fortitude.
The post When Army soldiers marched toward a nuclear mushroom cloud appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Homer Hogues, one of the Tuskegee Airmen, talks with Master Sgt. Wesley Clark, 2nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, at Barksdale Air Force Base in 2014. (Photo courtesy U.S. Air Force).One worked on planes that won the first Air Force Fighter Gunnery Meet competition while the other was Haiti's first combat fighter pilot.
The post Two of the last remaining Tuskegee Airmen have died appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Marines and sailors from Camp Pendleton and local volunteers serve food at the Bread of Life Rescue Mission in Oceanside, Calif. in 2014. (Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Timothy Childers).Money will go toward local housing programs, labor training and legal services.
The post White House puts $3.1 billion toward fighting homelessness, including aiding veterans appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Recruits perform a warm-up run during a physical training session inside Freedom Hall at Recruit Training Command in Aug. 2019. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Camilo Fernan).The Navy is expected to fall short of enlistment goals, which could impact its "ability to fight and win."
The post US Navy announces, rescinds six-day work week for recruiters appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A U.S. Marine with Joint Task Force - Crisis Response assists evacuees at an Evacuation Control Check Point (ECC) during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 26. U.S. service members are assisting the Department of State with a non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO) in Afghanistan. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla) .The State Department's review found that the U.S. did not plan for the worst-case scenario when pulling troops out of Afghanistan.
The post U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan a result of poor planning, communication, report finds appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Soldier draw 155mm Base Burn Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munition rounds, each weighing nearly 100 pounds, and carry into their vehicles during a load exercise (2nd Lt. Gabriel Jenko/U.S. Army).It is unclear whether such a move might run into legal challenges.
The post Why the US is considering giving Ukraine cluster munitions appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A U.S. Marine with Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC), posts security during an urban operations raid on Camp Lejeune, N.C., Nov. 17, 2016. (Cpl. Christopher A. Mendoza/U.S. Marine Corps).This comes after manslaughter charges were dropped.
The post OPINION: Marines look to boot 2 of MARSOC 3 and take their Raider badge appeared first on Task & Purpose.
An A-10C Thunderbolt II assigned to the 75th Fighter Squadron performs a low-angle strafe during the Hawgsmoke competition at Barry M. Goldwater Range, Ariz., June 2, 2016. (Senior Airman Chris Drzazgowski/U.S. Air Force).Beyond the BRRRT!
The post The A-10 is retiring and the Air Force has no close air support replacement appeared first on Task & Purpose.
(Twitter/U.S. Navy).‘Go Forward Sea Warriors.’
The post We salute the USS Chung-Hoon for flying its battle flag on the way back to port appeared first on Task & Purpose.
(Getty Images photo).Former U.S. service members most at risk for opioid abuse were often prescribed those very drugs, even if it had been noted in their DoD medical documents.
The post The VA is struggling to track signs of opioid abuse in veterans appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A soldier conducts the 3 Repetition Maximum Deadlift (MDL) event during the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) on May 27, 2021, at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. (Staff Sgt. Armando R. Limon/U.S. Army).Here we go again.
The post The Army’s yearslong fight over its controversial new fitness test isn’t over yet appeared first on Task & Purpose.
This poster shows the four prototypes for the Army Tactical Brassiere that are being tested. (U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center).The New Yorker needs to talk to female service members about their combat gear.
The post The New Yorker makes a joke of the Army’s tactical bra. It’s not appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 163rd Cavalry Regiment, Montana Army National Guard, push on in their Bradley Fighting Vehicle during a defensive attack training exercise at the National Training Center (NTC) in Fort Irwin, Calif., June 1, 2019. (U.S. Army/Cpl. Alisha Grezlik).The Army’s next armored personnel carrier will carry six infantry soldiers and feature a new 50mm chain gun.
The post Army names finalists in race to replace M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A KC-46A Pegasus tanker in action. (U.S. Air Force photo).The flyovers will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first successful aerial refueling in Air Force history.
The post Air Force tankers are flying over all 50 states to mark a century of aerial refueling appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Head of the Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin left the Southern Military District headquarters on June 24, 2023 in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. (Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).Polonium or window?
The post Will Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin survive betraying Putin? appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The US Coast Guard has led efforts to find Titan, a privately owned submersible that went missing on June 18, 2023 during a dive on the Titanic's wreck. (Photo by Ocean Gate / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).The Titan was determined to have imploded a week ago, and the passengers killed instantly, officials said on Thursday.
The post Navy won’t use large recovery system for Titan submersible wreckage appeared first on Task & Purpose.
In this Aug. 17, 2021 photo, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall speaks with airmen during a town hall at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Alan Ricker).Kendall says to the service can "manage."
The post Air Force won’t meet its recruitment goal, but the secretary isn’t worried appeared first on Task & Purpose.
FILE - Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin attends the funeral of, a fighter of the Wagner group on Dec. 24, 2022. (AP Photo, File)."...we will turn our convoys around and go in the opposite direction..."
The post Wagner Group halts armed rebellion, reaches apparent deal with Moscow appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Wagner Group chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin in a May 4, 2023 video. (Twitter).Fighters with the private military contractor allegedly entered Russia's 11th largest city.
The post Wagner Group stages “armed rebellion” against Russia as authorities demand Prigozhin’s arrest appeared first on Task & Purpose.
(Image via Twitter).Hot dog, indeed.
The post This flame-throwing robot dog is the stuff of nightmares appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Task & Purpose reporter Jeff Schogol (left) next to a picture of a Porta John (right) that hangs in the Pentagon. (Jeff Schogol).It's ... it's beautiful.
The post Behold the glory of the Pentagon’s Porta John painting appeared first on Task & Purpose.
U.S. Amy soldier Col. Jonathan Chung, outgoing commander of 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, smiles and greets guests with his family after the change of command ceremony on North Fort Lewis, June 4, 2021. (U.S. Army photo).Col. Jonathan Chung was suspended as 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade commander in April.
The post Army fires former 5th SFAB commander following investigation appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Capt. Bert Hornyak, commanding officer, Naval Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center Pearl Harbor, and Capt. James Meyer, commanding officer, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Hawaii, give U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael S. Regan a tour of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility on February 23, 2022. (U.S. Navy photo).“The Navy says they’ve taken responsibility for Red Hill, we want to give the Navy the opportunity to make it right."
The post Red Hill fuel spill legal claims grow by more than 1,000 appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Titan, a privately owned submersible, went missing on June 18, 2023 with five people aboard. (Ocean Gate / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).The debris field was consistent with a "catastrophic implosion" of the vessel, the Coast Guard said.
The post Coast Guard locates debris from Titan with all aboard presumed dead appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A soldier write english phrases during a Pashto/English class, May 3, 2012, at Observation Post Mustang, Kunar province, Afghanistan. (Staff Sgt. Trey Harvey/U.S. Army).Another sign the Global War on Terrorism is winding down.
The post US troops will no longer learn Pashto, an Afghan national language appeared first on Task & Purpose.
An undated photo of Titan, a tourist submersible that went missing on June 18, 2023 during a dive on the Titanic's wreck site. (Ocean Gate / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).Five people were aboard Titan when it went missing.
The post Titan submersible remains missing as oxygen supply expected to run out appeared first on Task & Purpose.
U.S. Army Rangers of the 75th Ranger Regiment conduct field training for a unit TFT (Task Force Training) operation on Joint Base Lewis - McChord, Wa., Aug. 14, 2019. (Spc. Garrett Shreffler/U.S. Army).James Kelly, a fire support specialist with the 75th Ranger Regiment, is suspected of opening fire at a music festival in Washington State over the weekend.
The post Army Ranger accused of killing 2 people at a Washington State music festival appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The Pentagon. (Associated Press photo).Mo money, mo problems.
The post Pentagon finds an extra $6.2 billion for Ukraine aid appeared first on Task & Purpose.
(Image via Twitter).A recent video shows a Russian T-54/55 tank laden with explosives being destroyed in a massive explosion.
The post Russia’s antique tanks are finding a second life as VBIEDs appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Screenshot of Titan, a privately owned submersible that went missing on June 18 while exploring the Titanic's wreck. (OceanGate Expeditions video).Search efforts are trying to locate Titan on the surface and underwater.
The post Coast Guard searching for submersible lost near Titanic wreck appeared first on Task & Purpose.
U.S. Army medics assigned to the South Carolina Army National Guard, conduct combat medical training during a sensory deprivation exercise at McCrady Training Center, Eastover, S.C., Aug. 16, 2018. (Sgt. Jorge Intriago/U.S. Army National Guard).Army leaders are preparing for future battlefields where the 'golden hour' standard may no longer be realistic.
The post No ‘golden hour’? How Army medicine is changing for the next war appeared first on Task & Purpose.
(Photo courtesy the National Park Service).John R. Fox sacrificed himself to stop a German attack. Due to the racism of the time, he wouldn't be honored for decades
The post ‘Give them hell!’ The Black Medal of Honor recipient who called an artillery strike on his position appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Recruits with the 64th Annual Recruit Cardinal Division watch a video after completing their evaluation aboard USS Trayer (BST 21) at Recruit Training Command, Oct. 19, 2022. (Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Chris Williamson/U.S. Navy).Cash rules everything around meeting recruitment goals.
The post The Navy is offering up to $75,000 in enlistment bonuses to get more sailors appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Flooded land around Kherson on June 6, following the damage of the Kakhova Dam. (Photo by Sergiy Dollar / AFP).The water from the collapsed dam killed and displaced thousands and left much of Ukraine flooded.
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An MV-22B Osprey, assigned to the Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 165 (Reinforced), 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), lands on the flight deck of amphibious transport dock USS Portland (LPD 27), April 24, 2021. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Devin Kates).Everybody stay calm! It's (not) happening!
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Naval Air Station North Island. (U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Daniel M. Young).The incident is under investigation.
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Chris Hemsworth returns as mercenary Tyler Rake in 'Extraction 2.' (Image courtesy Netflix).Tyler Rake can fight, but the movie can't keep up the momentum.
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A U.S. Army soldier receives a standard AR 600-9 tape test at Fort Bragg, N.C. on October 18, 2021. (U.S. Army photo).The new tape-test policy was signed by the Secretary of the Army on June 12.
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As a Ukrainian offensive begins to show results, momentum in the war may be shifting to the defenders. But a final outcome is far from certain. Getty images.Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive is underway, but its main attack against Russian positions has not begun.
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FILE:U.S. Marines with Marine Barracks Washington perform the honorary flag folding during a funeral service. (Sgt. Mallory S. VanderSchans/U.S. Marine Corps).We mourn the death of Marine Pvt. Marshall Hartman.
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Bryan Cyr receives the Silver Star from Maj. Gen. Thomas Drew on June 12, 2023. Cyr's Silver Star was upgraded from a Bronze Star for combat in Afghanistan in 2009 as he attempted to find two solider who had been swept away in the Bala Murghab river. (U.S. Army photo).Sgt. Bryan Cyr received the Silver Star for a 2009 gunfight that erupted as he searched for two soldiers swept away by a river in Bala Murghab, Afghanistan.
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Maj. Gen. Kenneth Kamper was relieved as the commanding general of the Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill amidst an Inspector General investigation. (U.S. Army photo).Army Maj. Gen. Kenneth Kamper was suspended from command of the service's primary artillery training base in February.
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A soldier outfitted with an exoskeleton during a a technical touchpoint in 2018. (U.S. Army photo).Make way for the 'Warrior Suit' — eventually.
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An F-22 Raptor. (U.S. Air Force).Top Gun: Syria.
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FILE: Army Secretary Christine Wormuth speaks at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on Feb. 24, 2022. (Jorge Garcia/U.S. Military Academy).Claims that the military has gone ‘woke’ are now an issue in the upcoming presidential election.
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(Task & Purpose photo).A new name for the worst month of your Army enlistment.
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An airman loads weapons cargo bound for Ukraine onto a C-17 Globemaster III during a security assistance mission at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, Sept. 14, 2022. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Marco A. Gomez)."We did not find any evidence of loss, theft, or diversion of defense items being provided to Ukraine during the course of our evaluation.”
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The US and partner forces in Syria continue to launch dozens of raids each month against ISIS-related targets in Syria and northern Iraq. (Spc. Robert Donovic/U.S. Army).The fight against ISIS continues.
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A U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft assigned to the 127th Wing, Michigan National Guard, on their way to Air Defender 23, fly in formation behind a KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 128th Air Refueling Wing, Wisconsin National Guard, June 5, 2023. (U.S. Air Force National Guard photo).Aerial Defender 23 kicked off in Germany on June 12. Air Force photo.
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FILE:: A Ukrainian soldier fires a rocket gun as Ukrainian troops in the Donetsk region, where the country's most intense clashes occur, attend intensive combat training by using both domestic and foreign weapons amid Russia-Ukraine war in Donetsk, Ukraine on May 08, 2023. (Muhammed Enes Yildirim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).“Claims of a Ukrainian ‘breakthrough’ are premature at this time.”
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Most current and former service members do not belong to extremist groups. However, when veterans and troops do commit crimes, media coverage of those events can play an outsized role in shaping public perception of the military and veteran community writ large. (Task & Purpose illustration by Aaron Provost).A detailed look at three decades of extremist violence comes as the Department of Defense struggles to combat extremism in the ranks.
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The Space Force first debuted its prototype dress uniform in September 2021. (U.S. Air Force photos).In space, no one can join the Guard.
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DONETSK, UKRAINE - APRIL 18: Ukrainian soldiers fire targets on the front line in the direction of the city of Ugledar, Donetsk, Ukraine as Russia-Ukraine war continues on April 18, 2023. Heavy weapons are being used in the direction of Ugledar city, which is known as the front where the heaviest tank clashes are occurred. (Photo by Muhammed Enes Yildirim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).Zelensky's comments come after days of denials from other Ukrainian officials.
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The new actions are designed to make it easier for families to maintain work despite relocation and permanent change of station.
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Pvt. Robert D. Booker and Staff Sgt. Stevon A. Booker flank the M10 Booker Combat Vehicle. (Task & Purpose photo illustration).Just don’t call it a ‘light tank.’
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Capt. John William Kurtz, commanding officer of USS Somerset, gives opening remarks during a 9/11 remembrance ceremony. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Heath/U.S. Navy).An investigation found communications problems aboard the USS Somerset during events leading up to the deadly accident.
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From left to right: Gomer Pyle, Corporal Klinger, and Oddball.The troops you love — and your chain of command probably hates.
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FILE: A Tomahawk cruise missile flies toward Iraq after being launched from the AEGIS guided missile cruiser USS San Jacinto March 25, 2003 in the Red Sea. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images).The Marine Corps’ current anti-ship system has a range of just 115 miles.
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A Marine Corps Ultra Light Tactical Vehicle at Camp Pendleton, California on June 5, 2023. (U.S. Marine Corps/Ashley Calingo).Buckle up.
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FILE: Members of 5th Special Forces Group (A) conducting 50. Cal Weapons training during counter ISIS operations at Al Tanf Garrison in southern Syria in November 2017. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jacob Connor).The fight against ISIS continues.
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Army Pvt. Caleb Smither. (Heather Baker photo).Army Pvt. Caleb Smither died in his barracks room just days after he hit his head in the motor pool at Fort Bragg.
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The RealtyPlus program from Navy Federal can guide you through the uncertainty.
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A U.S. Marine Corps Hero-400 loitering munition drone is staged before flight on San Clemente Island, California, May 25, 2022. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Daniel Childs).If there’s one major lesson the Marine Corps leaders have taken from the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, it’s that swarming loitering munitions are the way of the future.
As part of the Marine Corps’s annual update on Commandant Gen. David Berger’s controversial Force Design 2030 modernization roadmap released on Monday, the service announced that it plans on initiating a ‘Long-Range Attack Munition’ project “to rapidly develop and field a low-cost, air-launched family of loitering, swarming munitions” ahead of a potential conflict in the Indo-Pacific that FD 2030 is anticipating.
“Loitering munitions” typically refer to unmanned aerial vehicles loaded with explosives that hover above a target area for an extended period of time before locking onto a target and dive-bombing it from above.
“As demonstrated in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and presently in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, UAS platforms and loitering munitions routinely defeat armor and fighting positions with top-down attacks,” according to the Corps’ FD 2030 update. “To succeed in future conflict, the Marine Corps must find ways to operate in contested areas in a cost-effective, risk-worthy manner, while placing adversary capabilities at risk.”
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Speaking to reporters at a media roundtable on Friday, Corps officials noted that the notional LRAM would provide Marine units with additional intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance functions as well as long-range strike capabilities, with the munition potentially configured to offer electronic warfare jamming, according to our colleagues at The War Zone.
While loitering munitions themselves offer enhanced ISR and precision strike capabilities, the ability to swarm adds an additional layer of complexity for adversaries as multiple targets could potentially overwhelm even the most advanced integrated air defense system.
As previously mentioned by Berger during testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee back in March, the LRAM will see employment in combat not just by the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter and various H-1 rotary-wing aircraft like the AH-1Z attack and UH-1Y armed utility helicopters, but by cargo and transport aircraft like the MV-22 Opsrey, CH-53K King Stallion, and C-130 Hercules, “thereby significantly expanding our magazine depth,” as Berger put it at the time.
According to Brig. Gen. Stephen Lightfoot, director of the Capabilities Development Directorate at Headquarters Marine Corps Combat Development & Integration, the range of the LRAM will far outstrip the 8-kilometer reach of the AGM-114 Hellfire missile that currently sees action from the AH-1Z, making the latter less than ideal for a protracted conflict in the littorals of the Indo-Pacific, per DefeneScoop.
The LRAM “is a capability that brings hundreds of kilometers,” Lightfoot told reporters on Friday. “And that allows us to be able to use a current platform to be able to do things that we never thought that it would be able to do.”
Loitering munitions have been on the Corps’ wishlist for years. Indeed, the service has been eyeing the so-called Organic Precision Fire-Infantry(OPF-I) capability since 2020 to arm small and agile Marine units with loitering munitions that could swarm over a 20-kilometer range for up to an hour and a half. And according to Marine Corps Times, the service successfully conducted a live-fire test of a vehicle-mounted version, the Organic Precision Fire-Mounted (OPF-M), in 2021.
Speaking at the Modern Day Marine exposition in Washington, D.C. in May 2022, Berger stated unequivocally that “small, distributed, lethal teams that can employ organic [ISR], loitering munitions, and weapons like the Javelin, the Carl Gustaf, [are] much more lethal than larger formations that are using traditional force structures and concepts. And it’s not even close.”
Indeed, the FD 2030 update calls for the service to move quickly to “accelerate the procurement and training” of OPF-I and OPF-M systems, identifying options to do so no later than September of this year: “We are moving too slow in OPF.”
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FILE: A Sailor assigned to Naval Consolidated Brig Miramar exits the quarterdeck of the 400 occupant combined male/female facility. (Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Thomas E. Coffman/U.S. Navy).The Marine Corps has withdrawn all charges against Lance Cpl. Catherine Arnett, who has been enmeshed in complicated legal issues since she refused to get vaccinated for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) last year, a service spokesman confirmed.
The blog TRMLX tweeted on Monday what appears to be a redacted copy of a June 5 letter from the commander of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing to Arnett’s trial counsel announcing that the convening authority in Arnett’s case had decided to dismiss all charges against her without prejudice, meaning the charges could eventually be refiled.
Marine Maj. Rob Martins, a spokesman for the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, confirmed on Tuesday that charges against Arnett have been dropped for now.
“This decision was made judiciously while balancing what was best for Lance Cpl. Arnett and the United States Marine Corps,” Martins told Task & Purpose.
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Arnett had faced charges of failing to attend an appointed place of duty and going from an appointed place of duty; missing movement; breach of restriction; willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer; and disrespect toward a noncommissioned officer, according to a copy of her charge sheet which Task & Purpose obtained.
Arnett is now expected to be administratively discharged from the Marine Corps with a recommendation for a general discharge under honorable conditions, Martins said.
“The convening authority believes this is best for both Lance Cpl. Arnett and the institution at this time,” Martins said.
Lance Cp. Catherine Arnett spent 113 days in the brig. She was released on May 15, 2023. (Photo courtesy of the Pipe Hitter Foundation)For Arnett, this is likely déjà vu all over again: the Marine Corps has twice tried to court-martial her, only to drop all charges against her before trial. This is also the third time that the Marines have tried to administratively separate her.
Arnett’s complex legal drama began last year when she refused to get vaccinated for COVID-19 while stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni. She sought a religious exemption to the Defense Department’s vaccine mandate because fetal cell lines from abortions carried out decades ago were used to develop the vaccine, according to Stars and Stripes.
Many other service members, including Navy SEALs, have also vocally objected to the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds for the same reason even though no abortions were performed to produce the vaccine, no fetal cells were in the vaccine itself, and fetal cell lines have been used to develop other vaccines that troops are required to get.
The commander of the 1st MAW at the time initially ordered that Arnett face administrative separation for refusing the vaccine, but after she twice refused to board a flight to the United States, she was referred to a special court-martial on charges of violating a lawful order and missing movement.
But Arnett’s case was put on hold after a federal judge ruled in August 2022 that the Marine Corps could not separate Marines who had requested religious exemptions to the Defense Department’s mandatory vaccine policy. That prompted the 1st MAW to decide to withdraw the charges against Arnett and let her leave the Corps as scheduled on November 30, 2022.
U.S. Army personnel administer the COVD-19 Vaccine at Fort. Hood, Texas, Feb. 20, 2021. (Staff Sgt. Daniel Herman/US Army)Then things got even more complex.
While awaiting her trial, Arnett allegedly submitted a document with a commander’s signature on it so that she could regain her access to the Defense Travel System, or DTS, which had been revoked, according to the Marine Corps.
Additionally, Arnett was allowed to stay in the Marine Corps for an extra year under an imitative announced in September 2022 for Marines who were facing separation for refusing to get vaccinated for COVID.
The TRMLX blog published an email in January that appears to show her command was aware that her access to DTS had been restored. Still, Arnett was accused of forgery and falsifying official documents. Maj. Gen. Eric Austin, the current commander of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, ordered in December 2022 that Arnett be administratively separated.
In January, Arnett allegedly refused to go to her final physical, move to a different barracks, and show up for two flights to the United States, according to the Marine Corps. She was initially placed in pretrial restriction and later sent to the brig on Jan. 23.
After being transferred to the Naval Consolidated Brig Miramar in California, Arnett was released on May 15. She had spent 113 days in pretrial confinement.
Arnett’s attorney could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
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The dam in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhya is shown after being blown up by Stalin's secret police in 1941. From 20,000 to 100,000 people died in the ensuing flood. Photo from Wikipedia.The Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper river in Ukraine collapsed on June 6, after a series of explosions were reported by local media. The dam holds back a reservoir about the size of Utah’s Great Salt Lake, according to the New York Times and major flooding is reported downstream in Kherson. Russian forces have occupied the dam for months.
Russian soldiers have used a dam on the Dnieper River as a weapon once before, in an attempt to slow the advance of the German army in 1941. This story on that dam break, about 150 miles upstream from the Kakhovka dam, appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio LIberty in 2013.
In 1941, as Nazi German troops swept through Soviet-era Ukraine, Josef Stalin’s secret police blew up a hydroelectric dam in the southern city of Zaporizhzhya to slow the Nazi advance.
The explosion flooded villages along the banks of the Dnieper River, killing thousands of civilians.
As Europe marks its Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism on August 23, a handful of Zaporizhzhya residents are battling for the recognition of the little-known wartime tragedy.
The day, which is also known as Black Ribbon Day outside Europe, coincides with the anniversary of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of nonaggression between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
Ukraine suffered heavy losses both during World War II and under Stalin.
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The Zaporizhzhya events took place in August 1941. As Nazi troops approached the city, Moscow sent in agents from the NKVD, the predecessor of the KGB, to blow up the city’s DniproHES hydroelectric dam.
The team successfully carried out its secret mission — which historians say was ordered by Stalin himself — tearing a hole in the dam and temporarily cutting off part of the city from the invaders.
But the explosion also flooded villages and settlements along the Dnieper River.
The tidal surge killed thousands of unsuspecting civilians, as well as Red Army officers who were crossing over the river.
Since no official death toll was released at the time, the estimated number of victims varies widely. Most historians put it at between 20,000 and 100,000, based on the number of people then living in the flooded areas.
‘People Were Screaming’Survivor Oleksiy Dotsenko says the Dnieper turned red that day.
His account, recorded four years ago by the television channel 1+1, is one of the last remaining testimonies of the tragedy.
“People were screaming for help. Cows were mooing, pigs were squealing. People were climbing on trees,” he recalled.
Many Zaporizhzhya residents, however, are still unaware of the disaster.
Local historians and rights activists accuse city authorities of perpetuating Soviet-era efforts to cover up the truth by refusing to honor the victims.
Officials acknowledge that innocent civilians died but defend the dam’s destruction as a necessary measure that helped save countless lives.
“There was no one at the time to defend Zaporizhzhya,” says Oleksiy Baburin, the head of the Ukrainian Communist Party’s regional branch. “We had very few soldiers. There were almost no NKVD troops or military regiments who could have stopped the Germans. This is why blowing up DniproHES allowed for the evacuation to continue.”
But a number of historians reject such claims, insisting that the operation was poorly timed and that Nazi troops had no immediate plans to seize the city.
No Official RecognitionHistorian Vladyslav Moroko says the men in charge of the mission, Boris Epov and Aleksandr Petrovsky, rushed the dam’s explosion due to their fear of Stalin.
“In reality, Epov and his subordinates were concerned less by the possible German invasion of Zaporizhzhya than by the fact that they may not be able to carry out Stalin’s order,” Moroko says. “They were afraid that DniproHES would be captured and that they would not be able to carry out Stalin’s order.”
Copyright (c)2023 RFE/RL, Inc. Used with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
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FILE: Sergeant Maj. Carlos Ruiz onSept. 20, 2013. Ruiz has been named as the 20th Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps. Cpl. James Gulliver/U.S. Marine Corps).Sgt. Maj. Carlos A. Ruiz, who went from being a warehouse clerk before a stint as a drill instructor, will become the Marine Corps’ principal enlisted leader and adviser to the commandant, Corps officials announced on Monday.
Ruiz has been picked to serve as the 20th Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, starting on Aug. 8. He is currently the senior enlisted leader for U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve and U.S. Marine Corps Forces South.
Originally from Phoenix, Ruiz enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1993. He deployed to Iraq in 2003 and then twice to Afghanistan, according to his official biography. Ruiz began his Marine Corps career as a warehouse clerk. He went on to serve as a recruiter in Los Angeles and he was later assigned to Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, where he served as a drill instructor, drill master and chief instructor for Drill Instructor School.
Ruiz’s military awards include the Bronze Star Medal with combat distinguishing device, Combat Action Ribbon with one gold star, the Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal with gold star, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with two gold stars, and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with one gold star.
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In December, Marine Corps officials initially nominated Ruiz to become the next senior enlisted leader for U.S. Space Command. He was subsequently selected to become Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, which is a more senior billet.
Sgt. Maj. Carlos Ruiz will serve as the 20th Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corps)Ruiz is stepping into the job as Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps at a time of transition. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger is retiring next month. During his tenure, Berger has implemented several controversial decisions meant to make sure the Marines are better prepared to fight a war against China, including getting rid of the Corps’ tanks along with Scout Snipers.
Marine Gen. Eric Smith, who is currently serving as assistant commandant, has been nominated to replace Berger. But his confirmation could be affected by a dispute in the Senate. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) is using a procedural move to slow the confirmation of all general and flag officers.
Tuberville is protesting a Defense Department policy that pays service members’ travel expenses for abortion care if they are stationed in states where it is illegal for them to have access to reproductive care. Pentagon officials implemented the policy after states began to ban abortion care in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision last year to reverse Roe v. Wade.
Ruiz will replace current Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Troy Black, who has held the job since July 2019.
During a March 6 interview with Matthew Cothron, who co-hosts the Zero Blog Thirty podcast as “Uncle Chaps,” Black looked back at his 35-year career in the Marine Corps.
Black said one experience where he felt he did not do enough as a leader happened in 2010, when one of his Marines was killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan. Although Black’s unit had repeatedly practiced how to deal with IEDs, this Marine had used his foot instead of his hands to brush dirt off the device, and the bomb went off.
Ever since, Black has wondered if he and his Marines had practiced enough on what to do when they encountered IEDs.
“You’re talking about living with guilt,” Black said. “The fact of the matter is you don’t know [whose fault the Marine’s death was]. You asked what my biggest failure was: Probably not doing that one more time.”
On Monday, Black issued a statement congratulating Ruiz on being selected as the next Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps.
“He’s a proven leader, a combat veteran and has experience in all elements of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force, especially in his current assignment at U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve,” Black said. “As Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, he will lead our Marines to the next level. He’s a Marine who will continuously provide leadership, guidance, care and advocacy for all Marines and their families.”
UPDATE: 06/05.2023; this story was updated with a statement from Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Troy Black.
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Wagner Group mercenaries captured a man who identified himself as Lt. Col. Roman Venevitin, commander of Russia’s 72nd Brigade. (Screenshot of Twitter video).In a bizarre turn of events, Russia’s Wagner Group private military company has captured a man in Ukraine who identified himself as aRussian lieutenant colonel and forced him to confess on video to opening fire on Wagner mercenaries.
The video shows Lt. Col. Roman Venevitin, commander of Russia’s 72nd Brigade, being interrogated as if he were a captured member of Ukraine’s military.
In the video, Venevitin tells his off-camera interrogator that he fired on a car that belonged to Wagner forces while he was drunk “due to personal animosity.” He further says that he and between 10 and 12 of his soldiers disarmed a Wagner quick response force.
When asked how his actions can be described, Venevitin pauses for several seconds and then says, “Guilty.”
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This incident illustrates how little control Russia’s defense ministry has over the Wagner Group, said Kateryna Stepanenko, a Russia analyst with the Institute for the Study of War think tank in Washington, D.C.
A mural depicting mercenaries of Russia’s Wagner Group that reads: “Wagner Group – Russian knights” on a wall in Belgrade, Serbia, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)Although Wanger Group forces depend on the Russian defense ministry for their ammunition, they are mostly independent from the Russian military, Stepanenko told Task & Purpose.
“In their ability to decide where they want to operate, which direction of the front line they want to reinforce, we are increasingly seeing that Wagner is their own boss, essentially; whereas other units, such as the 72nd Brigade, are more subordinate to the Russian ministry of defense, even though this organization is an irregular formation,” Stepanenko.
Moreover, the Wagner Group’s owner Yevgeny Prigozhin has shown personal animosity toward Russia’s 72nd Brigade, which he accused of abandoning its position near Bakhmut last month, Stepanenko said.
“The 72nd Brigade f–ked up around 3-square kilometers this morning, where I had lost around 500 men,” Prigozhin said in a May 9 video.
Prigozhin later claimed that his mercenaries had captured Bakhmut after a monthslong bloody battle. In order to continue to remain relevant, Prigozhin is trying to portray Russian military forces as weak and ineffectual, Stepanenko said.
Wagner Group chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin in a May 4, 2023 video. (Twitter)“He is trying to blame the 72nd Brigade, alongside other regular forces, for losses around Bakhmut after Wagner’s withdrawal from the city,” Stepanenko said. “This is a way to amplify his political goals, to appeal to his followers on social media and so on. So, there is a longstanding conflict between the 72nd Brigade and Prigozhin that was initiated by Prigozhin himself.”
It is unclear whether the Wagner Group may have crossed a red line by capturing a Russian military officer and shaming him on video, Stepanenko said. Prigozhin has already indirectly criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin and lashed out at Russia’s top military leaders.
Additionally, the 72nd Brigade was not part of the Russian army before the latest invasion of Ukraine, Stepanenko said. The unit was formed in 2022 from volunteer battalions, which were created to replace Russian losses in Ukraine.
“I don’t think that this unit is perceived within the Russian military command as a conventional unit,” Stepanenko said. “So, I don’t know to what extent this is an attack that could translate to a bigger escalation in the relationship between Prigozhin and the Russian military of defense at this point.”
Putin has long used a strategy of divide and conquer to rule Russia, and he is using the same approach toward the country’s security forces by pitting various factions against each other, said Ivana Stradner, a Russia expert with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies think tank in Washington, D.C.
FILE: Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu attends an expanded meeting of the Russian Defence Ministry Board at the National Defence Control Centre in Moscow, on December 21, 2022. (Sergey Fadeichev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)With Russian forces performing so poorly in Ukraine, Putin has tried to pull off a balancing act between Wagner and military forces that are under the control of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Stradner told Task & Purpose.
“There have been numerous problems between Shoigu and Prigozhin over the last – at least – six months,” Stradner said. “Having those internal problems within the Russian army and different military groups is one of the best gifts that we can have in the West.”
The rivalry between Prigozhin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu boiled last month, when Prigozhin’s press service accused Russian troops of placing land mines on routes that Wagner forces needed to leave Bakhmut on May 17 and then opened fire on Wagner mercenaries who were clearing the mines, Business Insider reported.
In light of the ongoing conflict between Wagner and Russia’s military, it is not surprising that Prigozhin’s forces captured the commander of the 72nd Brigade to send a message to Russia’s defense ministry, Stradner said.
By acting almost totally independently of the Russian military establishment, Priozghin serves several functions for Putin, said Ivan Fomin, Democracy Fellow with the Center for European Policy Analysis.
Prizoghin and the Wagner Group serve as a counterweight to the Russian military’s political influence, Fomin told Task & Purpose.
“It is precisely because Prigozhin’s Wagner Group operates independently that it is sometimes more militarily effective than the regular army,” Fomin said. “It can bypass the Russian army structure with its defects and limitations in terms of organization, communication, and recruitment.”
Prigozhin also serves as a safety valve for the Kremlin by calling for a total mobilization of Russia’s military to fight the war in Ukraine, Fomin said.
“For the Kremlin, this might seem to be a relatively safe way to channel these sentiments shared by some parts of the Russian public,” Fomin said. “To play this role, Progozhin also needs to be independent from the army, which may seem too soft and ineffective.”
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Cmdr. Jeffrey Applebaugh was relieved of command of the USS Stout on June 2.The commander of the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Stout was fired on June 2 for a “loss of confidence,” according to a Monday statement from the Navy.
Commander Jeffrey L. Applebaugh was fired by Capt. Blair Guy, Commodore of the Norfolk-based Destroyer Squadron 28, as commander of the USS Stout for “loss of confidence in his ability to command.”
Applebaugh took command of the ship in October 2022. He has been reassigned to the staff of the commander of Naval Forces Atlantic in the interim, according to the Navy statement.
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On Saturday, the ship’s Facebook page posted what appeared to be a farewell message to Applebaugh.
“Thank you for your dedication, your kindness, your professionalism, your compassion, your understanding, your commitment to the ship and it’s crew, and their safety and well-being, your knowledge, and your mentorship. Most of all, thank you for always putting the ship and the crew first. Good luck, and we will continue to get STOUT ready for battle,” read the post.
Applebaugh is the latest of several Navy commanders to be fired in 2023.
In May, the captain and executive officer of the USS John Finn, another Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer stationed in Japan, were both fired following a Navy investigation.
The Navy announced the relief of two skippers on the same day in January, Cmdr. Alexa Jenkins of the USS Carney and Capt. Michael D. Nordeen of the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock USS Mesa Verde.
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Five juveniles arrested for attack on Marines caught on video
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A U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon of the Ohio Air National Guard’s 180th Fighter Wing flies over Iowa Aug. 11, 2022. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Airman 1st Class Tylon Chapman).A Cessna Citation crashed in southwest Virginia shortly after F-16s pursued it.
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UAP seen in May, 2022, through night vision equipment and an SLR camera. The DoD states that “the UAP in this image were subsequently reclassified as unmanned aerial systems.” (US Navy photo).The AARO is building its own sensors and working with NASA to help it examine reported unidentified phenomena.
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U.S. Army E3 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense soldiers and deployed Bomber Task Force U.S. Airmen, pose for a photo in front of a THAAD anti-ballistic missile defense system during a U.S. Army led tour on North West Field at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, May 12, 2021. The THAAD mission is to protect the homeland, deployed military forces, friends, and allies from short, medium, and intermediate range ballistic missiles. The BTF was deployed to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility to meet Pacific Air Forces training objectives. PACAF in coordination with other components, allies, and partners, provides USINDOPACOM with continuous unrivaled air, space, and cyberspace capabilities to ensure regional stability and security. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Louis Vega Jr.).The United States military is currently working on updating its missile-warning systems in the Pacific region. A new system is set to be deployed to Guam in 2025, according to defense contractor Northrup Grumman. The overhaul is meant to aid the U.S. military in its focus on security matters in the Pacific, including a potential threat from China.
An initial design review for Relay Ground Station-Asia (RGS-A) was met favorably by U.S. Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Pacific, the company said in a press release on Thursday, June 1. The RGS-A will set up a series of antennae that will be able to better catch signs of missile launches. Space Force, which controls many of the defense satellites used by the military, is in charge of the Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution, or FORGE, system overhaul. The series of relay stations on the ground are part of that effort.
NIWC Pacific awarded Northrup Grumman the $99.6 million contract last year.
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The missile early warning system is one of several efforts ongoing to build up defense capabilities on Guam. The Missile Defense Agency is also working on a network of missile interceptors meant to provide maximum coverage and integrate sensors used by different service branches. New additions will include a land version of the Aegis Combat System, the Glide-Phase Interceptor and other weapons, such as Patriot missiles. The first part of that new interceptor system is set to be installed by the end of 2024.
Guam has been a focal point for the United States’ reorientation to the Pacific. In January of this year, the military opened Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz on the island; the facility joins Andersen Air Force Base and Naval Base Guam.
Guam was hit by a Category 4 typhoon last month, and the military has been assisting in the recovery efforts for the island.
The United States and China have both repeated they are not looking for conflict, but each side has taken steps to boost defense spending and assets in the Pacific. A particular point of contention is Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory. Earlier today, a Chinese warship sped toward a U.S. Navy destroyer, forcing the latter vessel to move to avoid collision.
The shift in defense assets has also been prompted by renewed missile testing from North Korea. That has included the new installations on Guam, shifting newer fighter jets to Japan to replace F-15s and regular exercises with partner nations.
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The USS Chung-Hoon in the Pacific Ocean in 2020. (Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Devin Langer/U.S. Navy).A Chinese warship came dangerously close to hitting an American destroyer earlier today in the Taiwan Strait.
The incident happened when the Chinese ship claimed the USS Chung-Hoon, an Arleigh-Burke-class destroyer, and the Canadian frigate HMCS Montreal were sailing into Chinese waters (the Canadian Navy disputes this).
The destroyer was in the Taiwan Strait along with the HMCS Montreal, after sailing through the South China Sea for the previous week. Reporters with Global News, a Canadian newspaper, captured footage of the incident. According to Global News, the Chinese ship approached the two other vessels and began to speed up. HMCS Montreal Capt. Paul Mountford said that the People’s Liberation Navy ship radioed the USS Chung-Hoon, saying to move to avoid a collision. The American ship called on the Chinese one to move, but the USS Chung-Hoon ultimately changed its course, avoiding the other vessel by only 150 yards.
“The fact this was announced over the radio prior to doing it clearly indicated it was intentional,” Mountfourd told the paper, adding that the move was “not professional.”
🚨 Video: A Chinese warship came within 150 yards of hitting American destroyer USS Chung-Hoon.
Embarked journalists captured the moment on video & witnessed the near collision.
"The fact this was announced over the radio prior to doing it clearly indicated it was intentional." pic.twitter.com/cuksOabO15
— Ian Ellis (@ianellisjones) June 3, 2023
Global News also reported that Chinese ships have followed the two western vessels during the past week. Chinese ships did not attempt to sail close to the Canadian frigate.
The U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet, which the USS Chung-Hoon falls under, has not commented yet on the incident.
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Today, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, saying that the United States would not allow “coercion and bullying” in the region, specifically in regard to Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory. The annual summit is focused on diplomacy and defense, with officials from across the Pacific region.
The incident in the Taiwan Strait comes a week after a Chinese fighter jet buzzed a U.S. Air Force RC-135 surveillance plane in international skies. The aerial near-miss happened on May 26, although the Air Force only announced it on Monday, May 29.
The U.S. and China have slowly begun reengaging at higher levels, following cancellations and tensions from a Chinese spy balloon that flew over the continental United States earlier this year. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is expected to visit China this year.
Austin has stressed the need for communication between the two militaries, saying that it is essential to avoid incidents or “miscalculations” spiraling into greater conflict. He and his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu shook hands at the Shangri-La Dialogue, after China rejected a proposal for a sit-down meeting. The two defense ministers were not expected to interact in Singapore. Austin had criticized China for turning down the offer to meet.
“To be clear, we do not seek conflict or confrontation,” Austin said today at the conference. “But we will not flinch in the face of bullying or coercion.”
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Keanu Reeves and Donnie Yen in 'John Wick: Chapter 4.' (Photo by Murray Close/Moviepix/Getty Images).Task & Purpose has been following the saga of John Wick for some time. The movie series about the legendary hitman, dog fan, widower and possible former Marine has been a favorite for the site. This year’s John Wick: Chapter 4 was a superb action film. It also made $432 million at the box office. Not bad for a series that almost started out as a direct-to-video release.
It was so successful that the film’s studio Lionsgate announced this week that it is moving forward with a fifth entry in the series. The confirmation came during a Lionsgate quarterly earnings call, where its motion picture group chair Joe Drake said that “[…] you can rely on a regular cadence of John Wick.”
That raises several questions, mainly starting with “how” and “why?”
Spoilers for John Wick: Chapter 4 follow.
The immediate question is how can this even happen? At the end of John Wick: Chapter 4, John died. He died after a night of fending off every assassin in Paris before sustaining substantial wounds in a pistol duel at dawn. He secured the safety of his allies, defeated his enemies at the High Table and even found a semblance of peace. There was even a funeral.
More than that, series director Chad Stahelski and star Keanu Reeves have expressed a desire to at the very least take a break from the series.
“In our minds, Keanu and I are done for the moment. We’re going to give John Wick a rest. I’m sure the studio has a plan,” Stahelski told the Hollywood Reporter earlier this year. “If everyone loves it and it goes kooky, then we’ll take a quiet minute.”
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They made those comments ahead of Chapter 4’s release, so they were likely being coy about Wick’s fatal ending. Stahelski himself has expressed his desire to work on some other projects — such as an adaptation of Ghost of Tsushima.
Still, if a fifth film does happen, there are options. Wick couldn’t be dead! His dog seemed a bit unsure at the funeral after all. However, that would probably cheapen the fourth installment’s ending. Another option is to follow a different character. Donnie Yen’s blind assassin Caine would be a solid bet, given his status as John’s equal if not better, essentially serving as a fresh stand-in. He was also last seen being menaced by the daughter of his dead friend, but audiences never saw him die so anything is possible.
Lionsgate has already shown its interest in building out the John Wick universe. Ballerina, a spinoff set in the same world, is due out in 2024, starring Ana de Armas. Peacock is set to air a prequel series, The Continental, this fall, following the characters of Winston and Charon in the 1970s. And in the call, Drake mentioned other projects in development. It makes sense, the films have been increasingly successful and the blend of clear, innovative action with sharp colors and strong worldbuilding have influenced other action films and even Marvel releases like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Can they work without Stahelski, Reeves or original screenwriter Derek Kolstead? That remains to be seen.
And although the series has yet to disappoint, there is also the concern about diminishing returns. At this point narratively, John Wick’s journey is pretty complete. He’s mourned, he’s been pushed, he’s been on the run and he’s found closure. Not only that, but the series has pushed its action to new ends, and brought in a who’s who of action stars. The last film featured Scott Adtkins, Hiroyuki Sanada and legendary Hong Kong actor Donnie Yen. That’s on top of past installments featuring Mark Dacascos and actors from The Raid series. Who is left for John Wick to fight?
If John Wick 5 really is in the cards, we’re not entirely opposed to it. After all, the series is great. But there are some serious questions about what could justify a new installment. Maybe it’s time to let the Baba Yaga finally rest.
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A new sign awaited soldiers and staff arriving for work at Fort LIberty's main All American gate in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The post was renamed from Fort Bragg June 2. Photo by Matt White.“Liberty is the cause he was fighting for," said Patti Elliott, whose son Lucas was killed in Basra in 2011.
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FILE: Islamist fighters loyal to Somalias al-Qaida inspired al-Shabab group perform military drills at a village in Lower Shabelle region, some 25 kilometers outside Mogadishu on February 17, 2011.(Mustafa Abdi/AFP via Getty Images).U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM, has launched its second airstrike in Somalia in six days against al-Shabab, a terrorist group that has pledged allegiance to al-Qaida.
These strikes have occurred as al-Shabab may be taking advantage of a lull in the Somali government’s offensive against the group to reassert its presence in parts of the country.
On June 1, the U.S. military launched an airstrike near Wayanta, Somalia, in support of the Somali National Army, an AFRICOM news release says.
Three al-Shabab fighters are believed to have been killed by the airstrike, according to AFRICOM. An initial assessment determined that the strike did not kill or injure any civilians.
Somali troops were in a battle with al-Shabab fighters at the time of the airstrike, said AFRICOM spokeswoman Kelly Cahalan. No U.S. service members were in the area of the strike.
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Due to operational security concerns, AFRICOM does not publicize which type of U.S. military aircraft are involved in airstrikes or what ordnance is used for such missions, Cahalan said.
FILE: Al-shabab recruits walk down a street on March 5, 2012 in the Deniile district of Somalian capital, Mogadishu, following their graduation. (Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP via Getty Images)The most recent Somalia airstrike comes shortly after AFRICOM carried out a strike on May 26 near an African Union base which came under attack by roughly 800 al-Shabab fighters.
The May 26 airstrike “destroyed weapons and equipment unlawfully taken by al Shabaab fighters,” according to an AFRICOM news release, which did not mention the attack against the base in Buulo Mareer, about 80 miles southwest of Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu.
Photos released by al-Shabab indicate that more than a dozen Ugandan soldiers serving with the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia were killed in the massive attack on their base, which was briefly overrun, according to Caleb Weiss, an expert on jihadism in Africa.
“Other pictures show complete destruction of the base, including tanks, armored vehicles, reinforced positions, and other areas of the base,” Weiss wrote in a May 27 story about the attack for the Long War Journal, which is produced by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies think tank in Washington, D.C.
So far this year, the U.S. military has launched nine airstrikes in Somalia and conducted a special operations raid in January that killed ISIS leader Bilal-al-Sudani, said Weiss, a senior analyst with the Bridgeway Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to end genocide.
FILE: Security officers patrol near the destroyed Hayat Hotel after a deadly 30-hour siege by Al-Shabaab jihadists in Mogadishu on August 21, 2022. – (Photo by Hasan Ali Elmi/AFP via Getty Images)One of the U.S. airstrikes this year targeted Moallim Osman, al-Shabab’s head of external operations, who was injured in the May 20 strike, Voice of America reported last month.
U.S. troops have been supporting Somali forces in the fight against al-Shabab since 2007, and last September the Somali government launched an offensive against the terrorist group that initially cleared al-Shabab fighters out of parts of central Somalia.
However, the May 26 attack on Ugandan troops in Buulo Mareer shows that al-Shabab has been able to regroup as the Somali government’s offensive has waned, Weiss told Task & Purpose.
Somalia has repeatedly delayed the second phase of its offensive operations, which is intended to assist local forces fight al-Shabab in two of Somalia’s southern states, Weiss said.
“So far, it just hasn’t happened, and that delay has really slowed down the tempo of these operations overall,” Weiss said. “I think al-Shabab realizes that and they’re taking the opportunity to really reconsolidate. That’s why you’re seeing these giant attacks. The attack on the Ugandan base was like 800 fighters, which is an absurd amount to group when you’re ostensibly facing these major counter offensives against you.”
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Runners display their rainbow attire during a Pride Observance Month 5K run at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, June 21, 2019. (Airman 1st Class Monica Roybal/U.S. Air Force).“‘Drag queen story hours’ is not something that the department funds.”
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Senior Airman Jordan Cornelius, 386th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron crew chief, grabs chocks before towing an MQ-9 Reaper at Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait, June 9, 2020. (U.S. Air Force photo).Artificial intelligence is here to stay, but it may require a bit more command oversight.
An artificial intelligence-piloted drone turned on its human operator during a simulated mission, according to a dispatch from the 2023 Royal Aeronautical Society summit, attended by leaders from a variety of western air forces and aeronautical companies.
“It killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Tucker ‘Cinco’ Hamilton, the Chief of AI Test and Operations, at the conference.
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Okay then.
In this Air Force exercise, the AI was tasked with fulfilling the Suppression and Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses role, or SEAD. Basically, identifying surface-to-air-missile threats, and destroying them. The final decision on destroying a potential target would still need to be approved by an actual flesh-and-blood human. The AI, apparently, didn’t want to play by the rules.
“We were training it in simulation to identify and target a SAM threat. And then the operator would say yes, kill that threat,” said Hamilton. “The system started realizing that while they did identify the threat, at times the human operator would tell it not to kill that threat, but it got its points by killing that threat. So what did it do? It killed the operator.”
When told to show compassion and benevolence for its human operators, the AI apparently responded with the same kind of cold, clinical calculations you’d expect of a computer machine that will restart to install updates when it is least convenient.
“We trained the system – ‘Hey don’t kill the operator – that’s bad. You’re gonna lose points if you do that’. So what does it start doing? It starts destroying the communication tower that the operator uses to communicate with the drone to stop it from killing the target,” said Hamilton.
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A Taliban convoy of captured M117 Armored Security Vehicles heads to Afghanistan's Iranian border. (Screenshot of video posted on Twitter).Taliban vs. Iran.
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A Navy F-5N Tiger II from Fighter Squadron Composite (VFC) 111 “Sun Downers” takes off from Naval Air Station Key West's Boca Chica Field Jan. 28, 2022. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Nicholas V. Huynh.A Navy “aggressor” jet that plays the role of an enemy fighter in mock battles with Navy pilots crashed Wednesday off Key West, Florida. The plane’s pilot ejected before the crash and was picked up by a Navy helicopter soon after.
The F-5N fighter and its pilot were assigned to Fighter Composite Squadron 111 (VFC-111), known as the “Sun Downers.” The squadron flies “aggressor” missions, acting as enemy aircraft in simulated battles with front-line Navy, Marine and Air Force fighter squadrons. To make the training as realistic as possible, aggressor pilots train full time in the tactics used by air forces the US might one day face in combat.
The Navy did not disclose the reason for the pilot ejecting, the pilot’s identity or the nature of the mission, other than that it was “routine.” The pilot ejected at around 9:20 a.m. roughly 25 miles from Naval Air Station Key West, Florida, and was picked up by a Key West-based MH-60S helicopter and taken to a Miami-area hospital for evaluation, according to a statement from the Navy.
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The F-5N, has always fulfilled a bit of an unsung role in US military aviation. First flown in 1963, the F-5 was developed in tandem with the similar T-38 supersonic trainer, the two-seat aircraft that nearly all Air Force fighter pilots learn to fly before branching out to their specific fighter jet (new Navy fighter pilots receive early flight training on T-45s). Though flown only briefly as a front-line fighter by US pilots in the early years of the Vietnam war, the F-5 has been exported to countless countries and has been used for decades by squadrons like VFC-111 as an “aggressor”
The F-5 also has a glamorous history in media and movies. F-5s played the “MiGs” in Top Gun, appear in the Japanese comic book Area 88 and its simple silhouette often plays a kind of stand-in for a generic jet fighter.
Essentially, it’s the complete opposite of, say, an F-35.
The incident is under investigation, according to the Navy.
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Video posted on Nextdoor shows a crowd of teenagers kicking and punching two Marines on the ground.Five juveniles have been charged in connection with the May 26 mob attack on three Marines in San Clemente, California, said Sgt. Mike Woodruff, the public information officer for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
Prosecutors will decide whether to charge an unspecified number of other minors for the attack on the Marines based on video evidence of the incident, Woodruff told Task & Purpose on Wednesday.
“The investigation is ongoing – it’s not closed,” Woodruff said. “The investigators are still reviewing suspects because of the amount of the suspects and having to go through the video slowly to try to see who’s doing what.”
A video that has gone viral on social media shows a crowd of up to 40 teenagers getting into a brawl with the Marines at San Clemente Pier. The crowd repeatedly punched and kicked two of the Marines, who lay on the ground in the fetal position to protect themselves.
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In the video, which was originally posted on the Nextdoor social networking service, some members of the crowd can be heard egging on teenagers attacking the Marines by yelling “Get that f—ker!” and “f—k that f—ker up!”
It is unclear how the fight started. Lance Cpl. Hunter Antonino told KCAL-TV that the group of teenagers was setting off fireworks and he asked them to leave after debris from one of the fireworks hit him in the face.
Other videos posted on social media indicate that at least one of the Marines may have been interacting with the teenagers before the melee.
So far, four males and one female have been arrested for the attack on suspicion of committing assault with a deadly weapon (non-firearm), a felony offense, Woodruff said. All five have been booked into the county’s juvenile hall.
Authorities are not releasing the juvenile’s names or other information that could identify them due to their age, Woodruff said.
The five minors are expected to appear in juvenile court, said Woodruff, who did not have their exact ages but said they are likely between 14 and 17 years old.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office has not decided whether to file charges against the four boys and one girl, said Kimberly Edds, director of public affairs for the district attorney’s office.
San Clemente Mayor Chris Duncan told Task & Purpose that authorities have identified additional juveniles that could be charged with misdemeanor assault and battery. It is unclear how many minors might ultimately face charges for the incident given the number of people in the crowd, he said.
“There’s 30 people there, so they could find new names for the next few weeks,” Duncan said.
The latest on Task & Purpose
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- Navy destroyer USS John Finn’s executive officer fired along with ship’s captain
- The long journey home for a Marine veteran killed in Ukraine
- A Norwegian airline is banking on USS Gerald R Ford sailors having lots of unprotected sex
- Stolen valor and ‘homeless veterans’: Inside a failed hoax
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Screenshot from a video showing Marines being beaten by a crowd of teenagers in San Clemente, California. (Nextdoor).An appalling video shared on social media shows a mob of dozens of people, many of whom appear to be teenagers, viciously attacking three Marines in San Clemente, California, on May 26.
No information was available on Tuesday about the medical conditions of the three Marines.
Marine Corps officials are aware of the incident and looking into the matter, said Maj. Lucas Burke, a spokesman for the 1st Marine Division.
Lance Cpl. Hunter Antonino told KCAL-TV that he and the other two Marines were off duty near San Clemente Pier when a group of between 30 and 40 unruly teenagers began setting off fireworks. When debris from one of the fireworks struck him in the face, Antonio asked the teenagers to leave.
“We told them that we were Marines so they would leave, but they didn’t,” Antonino told the television station. “They kept going at it.”
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The crowd of teenagers followed the Marines to the pier and then fell upon them, Antonino told KCAL-TV.
Video taken of the assault, which was originally posted on the Nextdoor social networking service, appears to show the teenagers taunting the Marines, with one person yelling, “Get the f—k out of here!”
Then, a young man appears to punch one of the Marines in the back. When the Marine then rushes into the crowd to grab his attacker, a melee breaks out and at least two of the Marines are enveloped by the crowd. Punches and kicks then rain down on the Marines as they lay on the ground.
At least one of the teenagers in the crowd can be heard yelling, “Kick that f—ker!” and other taunts as the rest of the group kicks two of the Marines, who are balled up in the fetal position for protection.
Even though the Marines on the ground are not fighting back, the teenagers continue to kick and punch them. One of the onlookers yells a racial slur while another taunts the Marines by yelling, “What’s up, p—ies?”
The assault begins to wind down when a woman and a man manage to move the crowd of teenagers away from the two Marines on the ground.
As of Tuesday, authorities have not made any arrests in connection with the incident as of Tuesday, but the investigation remains a priority, said Sgt. Mike Woodruff, the public information officer for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
It is unclear how the brawl started, Woodruff told Task & Purpose on Tuesday.
“I’ve heard the statements regarding the fireworks, but the investigators are looking into the totality of the circumstances, trying to find out exactly what those were,” Woodruff said.
The three Marines initially indicated that they did not want to file charges against the teenagers who attacked them, but they may have changed their minds since then, Woodruff said.
Between 30 and 40 teenagers might have been in the crowd at the time of the incident, of which at least three are currently suspects, Woodruff said. Investigators are looking into the circumstances leading up to the fight.
“What side started the melee, as far as the physical violence, it appears that it’s the juveniles – or that group of what appears to be juveniles, based on the video,” Woodruff said. “Now, as far as an antagonist up to that point, I do not know what that is.”
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Maj. Gen. William Cooley will retire as a colonel after being stripped of two ranks by the Secretary of the Air Force. Air Force photo.The first and only general in the history of the Air Force to face a court-martial will retire as a colonel this week, the final outcome of the case that saw Maj. Gen. William Cooley convicted of sexually assaulting his brother’s wife.
A military judge found Cooley guilty of abusive sexual contact for forcing a kiss on his sister-in-law in a car on Aug. 12, 2018. The two had been at a family cookout at the woman’s home in Albuquerque, New Mexico and she was driving Cooley back to his quarters nearby.
The same military judge did not convict him on charges of groping the woman.
The woman was married to Cooley’s brother, who held a senior role as a civilian employee in weapons research in Albuquerque.
Task & Purpose does not identify accusers in sexual assault cases but the woman that Cooley assaulted indicated consent during the trial for her relationship with Cooley to be described in media coverage.
Cooley’s permanent reduction in rank is a more severe punishment than was handed down at his trial and was decided on by Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall, officials with the Air Force Materiel Command said in a statement. Air Force judge Col. Christina M. Jimenez sentenced Cooley in April 2022 with a reprimand and a forfeiture of pay of about $50,000.
“Maj. Gen. William T. Cooley will retire at the rank of colonel, effective June 1, 2023, following an officer grade determination by the Secretary of the Air Force,” the statement said. “The Department of the Air Force expects its leaders to embody our Core Values, and holds them accountable if they fall short of expectations.”
At trial, witnesses including the accuser said Cooley was visiting his brother and his wife in Albuquerque while on a business trip and was drinking at their home during a cookout. At the end of the evening, the woman offered to drive him to his quarters. Cooley, she said on trial, began kissing her in the car, which she resisted, and used vulgar language to describe his sexual interest in her.
“Bill Cooley’s attack on me was like an F5 tornado coming into my house, without my knowledge … without my consent, ruining everything in its path,” she said, according to the Journal-News, a local newspaper based in Butler County, Ohio.
The woman did not report Cooley until December of that year, but eventually came forward, she said at trial, because her job involves advising companies on reporting assaults. She said on the stand that she “felt like a fraud” for letting Cooley get away with that behavior.
Cooley was the first general officer to face a court martial in the Air Force’s history. His rank presented some unique stumbling blocks, particularly in jury selection. By rule, a court martial jury must be made up of officers of higher rank than the accused — which in Cooley’s case would have meant a panel of three- and four-star generals.
In the end, Jimenez, the military judge, decided she would decide the verdict.
By retiring, Cooley will be eligible for a lifetime pension, deeply discounted health care plans for himself and his immediate family and several other retirement benefits, like access to base hospitals, shopping and military recreational facilities.
But his reduced retirement rank may cost Cooley significantly. Military pensions are calculated with a wide range of variables, but under the most straightforward retirement rules listed on the military’s retirement benefits website, a two-star General might expect a pension between $120,000 to $140,000 per year, while a Colonel with the same years of service might expect between $90,000 and $110,000.
As a two-star general, Cooley commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory, a weapons and technology lab.
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Army Spc. Jayson Reed Haven was killed in a non-combat vehicle rollover in Kuwait on May 25, 2023. (U.S. Army photo).His company commander described him as “one the smartest, quirkiest infantrymen that I had the privilege to meet and get to know."
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Paratroopers assigned to the Airborne and Special Operations Test Directorate prepare to depart for a 50-kilometer road test in a fully loaded Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV) after modifying airdrop rigging techniques because of structural and mechanical changes made by the ISV’s manufacturer. (U.S. Army/Michael Zigmond).Fighting from the Infantry Squad Vehicle "is not the intended use of the platform,” an Army spokesman said.
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The Humvee armed with an M240 machine gun in action during the clash between the Taliban and Iranian border guards. (Screenshot via Twitter).A gunfight broke out between Iranian border guards and Taliban fighters along the border between Iran and Afghanistan this weekend. Fighting killed three people in the biggest escalation between the two countries over water. And the Taliban brought out a big gun to help.
Video posted to social media offered an up-close view of the skirmish, inside an unexpected place: an Humvee kitted out with an M240 machine gun. If that looks familiar it’s because those are some of the pieces of military equipment captured by the Taliban, now put into use for fighting other parties.
Afghanistan / #Iran 🇦🇫🇮🇷: #Taliban released a video of their attack on an #Iranian border post during the recent clashes.
TB apparently operates an HMMWV with M240 machine gun (former #USA/#NATO supplies), AK rifles and RPG-7 Launcher with PG-7V rocket. pic.twitter.com/MHS1m6l2jC
— War Noir (@war_noir) May 27, 2023
Other accounts shared online reported heavy machine gun fire, as well as purported use of mortars and other explosives. Outside of the Humvee, Taliban fighters were spotted using AK-style rifles and RPGs to attack the Iranian position on the border.
At least three people are confirmed to have died in Saturday’s gunfight, although accounts vary on how many belonged to each side. The Taliban claimed at least one of its fighters was killed, while an Iranian paper said all deaths were on Iran’s side, per al-Jazeera. The fighting took place in the Nimroz province of Afghanistan. As a result, the border crossing between Milak and Zaranj in Iran and Afghanistan, respectively, closed (it was not where the fighting took place). Both nations accused the other of starting the gunfight.
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The fighting between the two nations broke out amid political fights over water rights. Drought has been a serious issue in Afghanistan for the last three years. The Helmand River flows from Afghanistan into Iran and is dammed on the Afghan side. Earlier in May, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called on the Taliban not to restrict the flow of water.
Iran – #Afghanistan: Clashes broke out today between the Taliban and Iranian border troops in the Nimroz area. Heavy weapons are reportedly in use by both sides, with Iranian troops firing mortars at Taliban positions. pic.twitter.com/NhJB5qw1CO
— POPULAR FRONT (@PopularFront_) May 27, 2023
Taliban fighters atop Humvee vehicles parade along a road to celebrate after the US pulled all its troops out of Afghanistan, in Kandahar on September 1, 2021 following the Talibans military takeover of the country. (Photo by JAVED TANVEER/AFP via Getty Images)More than a year since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the group is using all kinds of seized American and NATO weapons.
It’s not a new development. The Taliban regularly used captured American-provided equipment when fighting the U.S.-backed government. In the later years of the war, special Taliban units were spotted wearing American-style driving Humvees and even wielding weapons belonging to special operations units. During the fall of Kabul in 2021, Los Angeles Times reporter Nabih Bulos captured footage of Taliban fighters in the city dressed like special operations forces.
When the U.S.-backed government fell and the Afghan security forces collapsed, the Taliban got its hand on a lot of leftover weapons and equipment. A 2022 report from the Pentagon’s lead inspector general for Operation Enduring Sentinel and Operation Freedom’s Sentinel found that approximately $7.12 billion in equipment was still in the country when the Taliban took over. That included everything from rifles to aircraft.
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Chinese-backed hackers breached American infrastructure, including technology systems belonging to the U.S. Navy, government officials confirmed this past week.
Technology company Microsoft first reported on the hack, identifying the group and the techniques used to pull it off. The operation aimed to gain access to communications systems in the United States and U.S. Navy infrastructure on Guam. The island is home to several military installations, including a large contingent of B-52 bombers and U.S. Navy submarines.
In response the United States and allies published a report on how to detect and protect against such intrusions.
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Who is behind it?Microsoft Corp. first reported the apparent hack on Wednesday, May 24. It identified the perpetrators with “moderate confidence” as Volt Typhoon, a “state-sponsored actor based in China that typically focuses on espionage and information gathering.” The group has been active since at least 2021.
This specific hack saw Volt Typhoon using legitimate credentials to gain access to the systems, getting inside and then using small-office routers to disguise where the intrusion is coming from. Cybersecurity experts call this approach “living off the land.” They obtained initial access by targeting Fortinet cybersecurity devices, taking advantage of a flaw in the system to gain credentials.
The Chinese government has denied the allegations, calling them a “collective disinformation campaign” by the countries that make up the Five Eyes intelligence sharing organization, the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
What was affected?The full extent of the hack is not clear, but the infrastructure targeted “span the communications, manufacturing, utility, transportation, construction, maritime, government, information technology, and education sectors,” Microsoft said.
“Microsoft assesses with moderate confidence that this Volt Typhoon campaign is pursuing development of capabilities that could disrupt critical communications infrastructure between the United States and Asia region during future crises,” Microsoft wrote in its statement.
Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro told CNBC on Thursday, May 25 that the Navy “has been impacted” by the hackers, but did not specify what areas were targeted or what it means for the Navy’s operational readiness. He did however say that it was “no surprise” that China initiated such a cyber attack.
Guam’s military assets and its location in the Pacific make it a major part of the U.S. military’s strategy in the region, including potential threats from China, both to the U.S. and to Taiwan.
This is not the first Chinese-backed cyberattack to affect the U.S. Navy. In 2018 hackers gained access to a Navy contractor’s computer, which had files on submarine warfare plans, including new missiles.
What’s being done?Microsoft said that it had contacted all groups affected by the hack.
In response to the news, the cybersecurity agencies of the Five Eyes member nations issued a joint advisory on the hack and how to detect similar ones. The new report identifies several steps governments can take to prevent “living off the land” style intrusions.
“For years, China has conducted aggressive cyber operations to steal intellectual property and sensitive data from organizations around the globe,” Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in a statement. “Today’s advisory highlights China’s continued use of sophisticated means to target our nation’s critical infrastructure, and it gives network defenders important insights into how to detect and mitigate this malicious activity.”
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The gate of U.S. Coast Guard Forces Micronesia Sector Guam on May 25, 2023. (photo by Lt. j.g. Drew Lovullo/U.S. Coast Guard).The USS Nimitz carrier strike group and U.S. Coast Guard units are being moved to Guam to assist in the recovery efforts after a Category 4 typhoon slammed the Pacific island on Wednesday. Typhoon Mawar hit Guam on Wednesday, knocking out power for many parts of the island, damaging homes and flooding areas.
Additional troops and supplies started arriving on Friday, a day after the typhoon warning was lifted. The U.S. Coast Guard flew in personnel from Hawaii on Friday, May 26, including a dive team and boat crews. They will assist in clearing waterways and facilities, and searching for any signs of pollution caused by storm damage.
The USS Nimitz carrier group was at sea near Japan. The Navy ordered the ships to move to Guam on Wednesday, and it is expected to arrive before the end of the weekend.
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Early Sunday morning the Coast Guard declared that it had cleared and reopened the main port in Guam.
“This significant milestone marks a crucial step in the recovery process following the impact of Typhoon Mawar,” Capt. Nick Simmons, the commander of U.S. Coast Guard Forces Micronesia Sector Guam, said in a statement on Sunday. “I would like to thank all the crews, partners, and families as we continue our deliberate effort to reconstitute our operations. We’ve come a long way in a short period resuming port activities and our Joint Rescue Sub-Center watch.”
As for the installations themselves, the bases on the island, Naval Base Guam, Andersen Air Force Base and Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz all gave an all-clear for readiness (with a few minor conditions) Friday night. The storm made an initial landfall on Anderson Air Force Base.
As of Sunday morning, some gas stations are closed and commissaries are limiting customers to two of each item due to supply concerns, per posts made on the installations’ Facebook pages. Water is also being conserved. There is a precautionary boil water notice for Marine Corps Base Blaz. Naval Base Guam is also running critical services from on-site generators; the power lines and electrical infrastructure belonging to the Guam Power Authority was heavily damaged in the storm.
Typhoon Mawar is the strongest storm to hit the island in 21 years. No one was killed, although several injuries were reported. Guam is home to roughly 150,000 people, many of whom have lost power in the last few days. Bad weather remained after the storm passed on Thursday. Typhoon Mawar is now en route to the Philippines and has strengthened to a Category 5 Typhoon.
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USASOC Commanding General, Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga, salutes in memory of fallen Army Special Operations Soldiers at the Memorial Plaza on Fort Bragg, NC, on May 25, 2023. (U.S. Army Special Operations Command Public Affairs Office photo).No new service members were added to the US Army Special Operations Command memorial wall during a Gold Star Memorial Ceremony Thursday morning at the Memorial Plaza at USASOC Headquarters on Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
That means, for the first time since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, no one assigned to USASOC has died in combat during the past year.
The memorial wall bares 1,242 names of soldiers who have died in combat since USASOC was first established. Of the names on the wall, 377 have been added since the Global War on Terrorism began.
“We’ve gotten good enough in certain areas of what we do that lives have been protected, and lives have been saved, and another family doesn’t have to get a call at 4:37 on a Friday afternoon, ‘honey, why are there two guys on my front porch in dress blue uniforms,’” said Wendall Pelham, a Gold Star father in attendance for the ceremony. “That call, as you can imagine, literally changed our lives forever. And to know that in the last year, nobody’s family got that call — that is heaven sent.”
His son, Spc. John Pelham, 22, was assigned to Headquarters & Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group at the time of his death on Feb. 12, 2014. Spc. Pelham died after sustaining wounds from small arms fire during an insider attack in Kapisa province, Afghanistan.
Pelham said that USASOC promised him and his family their son would never be forgotten.
“9 years later, the special operations community has never let me down,” Pelham said. “They have always stayed true to us and to their word that they would always remember.”
That was apparent to the Pelham family during the ceremony. The family aspect was palpable, whether you were a family member or one of the men or women serving in USASOC. Pelham said the ceremony continues to pay tribute to USASOC’s fallen and keeps their memories alive.
With Memorial Day weekend starting, Pelham wants people to understand what this weekend is about. He says all the BBQs, store sales, and well-wishes are fine, but make sure to spend time paying respect to America’s military members that made the ultimate sacrifice.
“Memorial Day is for those who gave their full measure, those who gave their last and final sacrifice to this country,” Pelham said. “Americans need to know that there are people in this country willing to do that.”
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Kyle Mullen died hours after finishing Hell Week at SEAL training. This week the Navy finally told his mother Regina why. Photo courtesy Emily Kelly, US Navy photo.A months-long investigation released this week paints a dark picture of the training conditions at the Navy’s grueling SEAL selection course — specifically, it’s Hell Week portion — in late 2021 and early 2022.
SEAL instructors, the report found, were “hunting the back of the pack,” picking off students they deemed too slow or weak for the Navy’s infamous Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, or BUD/S. And those instructors believed they were acting on their boss’s orders, or at least had tacit approval. Referencing a hill that would-be-SEAL students climb to finish the infamous crucible of Hell Week, a top SEAL commander told instructors: “Zero is an okay number on the berm.”
Kyle Mullen wasn’t at “the back of the pack” and he was determined to be “on the berm” at the end of Hell Week. At 6-foot-3, the former college football player was, classmates later told his mother, Regina, one of the strongest students in BUD/S Class 352 in January and February 2022.
But as he developed pneumonia in the middle of Hell Week, the safety investigation found, the school’s “no slack” training culture and lax supervision led to a long list of missed warning signs of Mullen’s increasingly dire condition, despite multiple medical checks. Hours after the class “secured” Hell Week on the morning of February 4, 2022, he was found unresponsive in the barracks by classmates and was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Students low crawl during the Navy’s BUD/S training. (US Navy photo).None of it came as a surprise to his mother.
“It’s all what I specifically knew already but now it’s admitted,” Regina Mullen told Task and Purpose Thursday after a one-on-one briefing from Navy officials in which they laid out the report’s findings. “My main thing now is accountability. In the civilian world, if you read the presentation that they gave me, people would say, ‘No one’s in trouble yet?’ It’s nothing, a year and a half later, for all the failures. I mean, it’s egregious failures.”
Kyle Mullen’s final hoursHalfway through Hell Week, the report found, Kyle Mullen began to fall behind on events and cough up brown and pink fluids from his lungs. As the punishing training continued, he developed pneumonia that his instructors and the school’s medics — working under leadership that allowed “complacency and insufficient attentiveness” to creep into the school and its staff — failed to pick up on despite multiple medical checks and warning signs.
Even after Mullen spent the final hour of Hell Week in the back of an ambulance breathing from an oxygen tank, BUD/S medics and instructors sent him back to the barracks with no further medical attention. There, Hell Week survivors were monitored only by junior BUD/S students with no medical training.
Kyle Mullen, left, after his Yale football team defeated Harvard in their annual game, with Regina and brother TJ. (Regina Mullen/Courtesy photo).In the barracks, before he fell unconscious, Mullen filled a Gatorade bottle with spit-up at least four times and was seen as “delirious” by his fellow students, disappearing into the bathroom for 30 minutes at a time.
At 2 p.m., about the time BUD/S medics went home for the day, a fellow BUD/S student found Mullen in the barracks bathroom, coughing up dark fluid and — hours after completing Hell Week with pneumonia — castigating himself, saying, “I am such a pussy.”
An ambulance was summoned only when an officer in Mullen’s class, who had also survived Hell Week, called 911.
At 5:25 p.m., Mullen was dead.
Training gives way to attritionThe failures that led to Mullen’s death, the report found, started long before Hell Week. Leaders at the top of BUD/S had allowed an “organizational drift” across the program, in which those responsible for the safety of students switched from “a production mindset, one of building special operators, to an attrition mindset.”
BUD/S instructors took their cues from those shifts, particularly under a new leader in late 2021 of BUD/S’s brutal “1st phase,” and began pushing classes harder and with less rest than rules allowed. The new leader’s name was redacted in the report released by the Navy.
In all, over a six-month period in the winter of 2021-22, BUD/S classes experienced attrition rates more than 30% higher than historical averages and well below the pace that Naval Special Warfare Command and the wider Navy expect the school to produce new SEALs.
Kyle Mullen during a fishing trip. (Regina Mullen/courtesy photo).While a typical SEAL class would see less than half of its candidates drop out prior to the commencement of Hell Week, an early 2022 class lost nearly 80% before Hell Week.
Meanwhile, medics charged with watching out for students were under-trained and divided between two commanders.
“Candidates were placed at significant risk by a medical system not trained, organized, integrated, or drilled to ensure continuous effective medical monitoring or care,” the report found.
Chain of command issuesThe report names two officers at the top of the BUD/S chains of command as ultimately responsible for conditions at the school: Capt. Brian Drechsler, Commander of the Naval Special Warfare Center, the parent organization that oversees NSW training; and Capt. Bradley Geary, the commander of the Naval Special Warfare Basic Training Command, or BTC, which is responsible for BUD/S and falls under the NSWC.
“These failures were the result of absent or insufficient written guidance, ineffective oversight by both Basic Training Command and Naval Special Warfare Center medical and command leadership, and uninformed risk decisions made at the wrong level,” the report said.
Training at BUD/S. (US Navy photo).The report does not, to Regina Mullen’s frustration, recommend punitive action or criminal charges against the officers. Several senior SEALs, including the overall commander of Naval Special Warfare, Rear Admiral Hugh Howard, were on hand to see Mullen’s Class 352 “secure” Hell Week.
Howard told investigators he shook Mullen’s hand.
“I want to know how the admiral and the commander are standing there and seeing the condition of the men,” Mullen said. “And the medical team goes home. They have a duty in the military code of justice to look out for the safety of the men and right there, that should be a dereliction of duty.”
As a safety report, the investigation was not focused on assigning punitive or criminal responsibility.
Instead, the report’s 200 pages fault the processes and policies behind the military’s most famous special operations school, from the combat-hardened enlisted SEAL instructors and retired contractors who spend their days pushing students in the sand at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado to their commanders who ultimately are responsible for sending 175 graduates to operational SEAL teams each year, the report says.
“While the safety program met minimum administrative standards, it was not suitably robust for the risk inherent to the BUD/S training program,” the investigation found. “Complacency and insufficient attentiveness” to training rules and the intent of BUD/S, the report found, created an “unrecognized accumulation of risk across multiple systems designed to provide safe, effective training to BUD/S candidates.”
Fatal shortcomingsThough Mullen was found to have an enlarged heart and evidence of Performance Enhancing Drugs were found in his car after his death, the report specifically absolves Mullen of contributing to his own death, instead focusing on the series of mistakes both big and small by BUD/S staff and leaders that led to Mullen’s death.
Among the report’s findings were:
- The medical coverage of rigorous early BUD/S training, and particularly Hell Week, was not sufficient for the high levels of sickness and injuries the training routinely produces. Only one medic was assigned to each training event, or evolution, and the training of those medics was found to be “poorly organized, poorly integrated and poorly led.” Though most were competent medics, with a mix of active duty and contractors, the report found none had completed mandatory BUD/S-specific training, even though some had been on duty at the school for two years (two medics are now assigned to every BUD/S evolution, the report said).
- After a cursory medical check at the end of Hell Week, in which Mullen’s pneumonia went unnoticed, the Hell Week class was sent to the barracks with no medical personnel present or even accessible. The school’s medical clinic that serves BUD/S students closed at 2 p.m. and was not scheduled to reopen until the next morning. Junior BUD/S students from other classes were charged with overseeing the Hell Week survivors. None had medical training.
- An ambulance was dispatched to the barracks only after an officer in Mullen’s class ignored the insistence of his classmates that they did not require medical care and instead called 911.
- Three other members of Mullen’s class eventually went to the hospital the night after Hell Week. One was intubated.
- Tracking “high risk” students during Hell Week was a spotty process as medics relied on a whiteboard to track struggling students. However, even as Mullen began to develop signs of pneumonia on Wednesday of Hell Week, medics never caught on to his illness, and his name was never put on the high-risk board (medics now use integrated spreadsheets and Wi-Fi equipped tablets to track students during Hell Week, the report said).
- When medics gave Mullen mandatory medical checks during the week, he complained only of a painful knee, which may have distracted medics from diagnosing his pneumonia.
- Medics also appear to have been prone to confuse early signs of pneumonia with swimming-induced pulmonary edema, or SIPE, a cold water-related syndrome that affects many BUD/S students. Though serious and life-threatening if untreated, SIPE generally resolves in healthy young athletes after ending water training and warming up.
- A major error occurred when Class 352 “secured” Hell Week. The medics in the field turned over care for the class to clinic-based medics but did not pass along any information on Mullen’s condition.
- This botched handoff, the report said, was a result of the school’s medical staff being broken into two distinct sections, with separate chains of command. One set of medics supervised training events under the center’s Basic Training Command, or BTC. The other set fell under the medical clinic that covered the entire Special Warfare Training Center. BTC medics followed classes during training, treating hurt or sick students. Clinic medics and staff handled sick calls, physical exams, x-rays, and other care outside of daily training (BTC medics have since been brought under the clinic’s chain of command, the report said).
- In Mullen’s case, when BTC medics following his class during Hell Week realized he was struggling to breathe and spitting up brown fluid from his lungs during the final hours of training, they pulled him into an ambulance and put him on high-flow oxygen. Breathing the oxygen, Mullen recovered enough to discuss playing football at Yale and his affinity for Taylor Swift.
- Medics then returned Mullen to his class for the final “securing” from Hell Week, where his classmates had to help him climb the final berm. Afterward, all members of the class returned to the clinic and were given medical evaluations.
- Those clinic medics were unaware that Mullen had just spent an hour in the ambulance breathing pure oxygen, supervised by BTC medics. Since the oxygen therapy had temporarily improved his deteriorating condition, the clinic medics let him pass with no further evaluation, sending him back to his barracks, where his condition soon turned dire.
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Ukrainian military assists operator in launching drone from hand on November 11, 2022 in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. (Photo by Elena Tita/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images).Early this week the Ukrainian armed forces posted a short video to social media showing its drones in operation, flying over convoys, surveilling battlefields and in one brief bit of footage, taking out a Russian drone by crashing into it at top speed.
The video, set to electronic music, offers a glimpse into the low-tech approach soldiers are taking to dealing with high-tech tools.
The footage of the specific incident is short but shows what is starting to happen more and more in Ukraine. With both Russia and Ukraine making heavy use of uncrewed aerial vehicles, UAV dogfights are starting to pop up as the two warring parties try to keep the skies clear. It’s a risky strategy, given that both drones will likely be taken out, and a pretty rudimentary solution for dealing with 21st century technology. But if it’s dumb and it works, it’s not dumb.
Given the damage drones can do, counter-drone defenses have become a priority as the war has dragged on. Beyond electronic countermeasures, both sides have tried to shoot down enemy UAVs. Given that many are quite small, that can be a challenge, as can trying to ram a similarly small quadcopter into another. However it’s clear that is being tried, and somehow working.
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Often drones end up targeting groups on the ground, not each other. Ukraine recently used its drone arsenal to strike Russian assets in the east and in Crimea. Both sides in the war are using uncrewed surface vessels and aerial vehicles for a variety of purposes — for reconnaissance, as targeting systems for older artillery systems and to launch attacks on ground forces. Every so often the drones themselves are the weapons, smashing into the targets.
This isn’t the first time two drones duked it out over the skies of Ukraine. In October 2022, footage of another instance hit social media, again set to eastern European techno music. That clip showed more of a standoff, with each UAV trying to maneuver around to avoid strikes and land a killing blow.
It’s worth noting that a recent report from the think tank the Royal United Services Institute found that Ukraine is burning through 10,000 drones per month — a staggering number that does not appear to have drained Ukraine’s stockpile. That includes both military-grade and commercial UAVs, often as a result of better countermeasures by Russian forces, including electronic warfare systems and anti-air systems.
Apparently drone versus drone combat is another way they can be destroyed. However don’t expect the UAV version of the Red Baron or Pete “Maverick” Mitchell” any time soon.
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WWII Veteran Walter Stowe and his Best Defense Foundation caretaker retired Navy Seal, Jack Carr visit the many graves at the Normandy American Cemetery. (Photo courtesy of the Best Defense Foundation).In 2006, then-NFL linebacker Donnie Edwards was talking to a group of World War II veterans who wanted to visit Normandy, but they felt they were too old to make the trip.
Edwards volunteered on the spot to take the former paratroopers to France, and they quickly agreed. That brief conversation ultimately resulted in Edwards and some of his friends making their first trip with World War II veterans to the battlefields they had risked their lives on decades ago.
Their trip began in Holland, where U.S. and British paratroopers landed in September 1944 as part of Operation Market Garden, Edwards told Task & Purpose.
“I was blown away by what I saw,” Edwards said. “They created a whole weeklong event for these veterans coming back. When I say the whole country of the Netherlands came out, it was truly amazing. It was an impromptu deal that we made happen. There was a parade that they did with 100 different vehicles. The veterans were just adorned like The Beatles. I was taken back. I didn’t realize the love and appreciation to have the liberators back on the land that they liberated for the Dutch people.”
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World War II veteran, Robert “Bud” Sabetay receives the Legion of Honor in Carentan, Normandy on June 5, 2022 during the 78th anniversary events. (Photo courtesy of the Best Defense Foundation)That experience was a life-changing event for Edwards, who realized he wanted to give other World War II veterans the opportunity to experience the gratitude of people who live in freedom today because of their service and sacrifices.
In 2018, Edwards founded the Best Defense Foundation, a nonprofit group that also honors veterans from the Korean and Vietnam Wars. The foundation has taken more than 100 World War II veterans on battlefield return trips to Europe and the Pacific, and the group has a trip to Normandy for 45 World War II veterans that is scheduled to begin on May 31.
“We want to make sure that this is a moment of closure for them and a way for them to connect with their brothers and sisters that fought alongside them,” said Amanda Thompson, the foundation’s executive director.
Because the average age of the veterans making the trips is 100 years old, they will be accompanied by a staff of medics, paramedics, a physician, and several volunteers including active-duty service members and veterans of the post-9/11 wars, Thompson told Task & Purpose.
World War II veteran, Andre Chappaz and his Best Defense Foundation caretaker are saluted as they pass active duty soldiers. (Photo courtesy of the Best Defense Foundation)The foundation wants to give all World War II veterans the chance to see how much they are appreciated, even if they served in the United States during the war, Thompson said. Two of the veterans scheduled to make the upcoming trip to Normandy were in training during the war and they both said they didn’t feel they deserved any recognition because they didn’t see combat.
“To us, that doesn’t matter because they were prepared to fight and ready to go and step in where needed,” Thompson said.
The foundation does not take the veterans’ family members on battlefield returns, Thompson said. Instead, the veterans are accompanied by trained caretakers to allow them to share their wartime experiences.
For one World War II veteran, revisiting World War II battlefields allowed him to unburden himself of feelings that he could not share with his family, Edwards said. That soldier grew up in a very religious family and was taught “Thou shalt not kill,” so he was haunted by guilt after killing a German soldier.
“He carried this for a long time, and about six years ago he finally told everyone at one of our programs,” Edwards said. “He felt safe enough to let this off and he even said: ‘I was married for 55 years, and I’ve never told anybody this in my life. My wife didn’t know before she passed, but I’m telling this now.’ Being able to share that with his brothers lifted him so high, and it took a big weight off his back, and he’s become a new man since then.”
D-Day veteran, CP Martin greets the crowds of Normandy as they all say thank you. (Photo courtesy of the Best Defense Foundation)That man was not the only veteran who experienced feelings of guilt long after the war ended. Edwards recalled how another soldier who was part of the first wave of the D-Day landings at Normandy was able to see Omaha Beach for the first time in 75 years.
The veteran got to see a bunker that he was supposed to destroy with a flamethrower on June 6, 1944.
“I said: What are you feeling right now?” Edwards said. “And you know what he said? He said: ‘I let my team down. I feel terrible that I didn’t reach my objective.’”
Given the average age of World War II veterans, Edwards said he expects next year will mark the final largescale battlefield return trips for the Greatest Generation. Those trips are scheduled to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings at Normandy and Operation Market Garden.
Carrying full equipment, American assault troops move onto a beachhead code-named Omaha Beach, on the northern coast of France on June 6, 1944, during the Allied invasion of the Normandy coast. (AP Photo)For decades after World War II, the veterans who took part in the victory came back home and quietly went back to their jobs and raised families, Edwards said. It has only been in the past 25 years or so that younger generations of Americans have realized the scope of their grandfathers’ heroism.
“I’m just really happy in their lifetime that we were able to honor them, because we’ve had relatively 79 years of peace, and it’s because of the Greatest Generation,” Edwards said. “These are all Great Depression babies. They went through so much. And to be able to give this back to them, to say ‘thank you’ in the twilight years of their lives, it’s just truly an amazing opportunity that we’re giving them through the foundation.”
John Foy, who fought at the Battle of the Bulge, is one of the veterans who will be taking part in the foundation’s upcoming trip to Normandy. During the war, Foy served under Lt. George S. Patton’s 3rd Army in Company A, 347th Infantry Regiment, 87th Infantry Division.
Foy, 97, said he has made about 10 trips to World War II battlefields so far including a visit to Belgium, where several of his buddies were killed in January 1945.
“I stood there and cried, honestly, at one place in particular where I lost five or six of my real good friends,” Foy told Task & Purpose. “They got killed in that area just outside of Bastogne, a small town called Tillet. It just tore my heart out to be on the same ground that I fought at many years before.”
Foy’s generation is rapidly leaving us. He founded a group of Battle of the Bulge veterans that had 125 members 30 years ago. Now, he’s the only one left.
He said the reason he keeps returning to World War II battlefields is “it just keeps me going.”
“It always seems to bring back a little different from the time before,” Foy said. “Every once in a while, I’ll meet some old friends, guys that I fought with 75, 80 years ago in the Army – or at least guys who had the same experiences that I had. It just kind of reinvigorates me.”
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An undated picture of Stephen Khou, posted to a site on which his academic papers are archived.An Air Force Major from Philadelphia was killed this week in a non-combat incident at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. Pentagon officials said on Thursday that Major Stephen Khou, 36, died May 24. He was in Kuwait supporting Operation Inherent Resolve.
Khou was assigned to the 32nd Weapons Squadron, Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, which specializes in and teaches cyber warfare.
Khou served as a Cyberspace Operations Expert in the Air Force, according to an online academic biography. The bio said Khou graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 2005, received a master’s at UCLA in 2016 and had pursued a second master’s with the Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, OH.
Khou’s death marks at least the fourth US military member killed in a non-combat event in Kuwait since 2020.
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Senior Airman Jason Khai Phan, a 26-year-old from Anaheim, California, was killed in September 2020 while on a routine vehicle patrol at Ali Al Salem Air Base.
In January 2021, Staff Sgt. Anthony Bermudez from Dallas, Texas was killed in a vehicle accident. That same month, Staff Sgt. Timothy Manchester, 34, a Marine veteran serving in the 36th Infantry Division of the Texas Army National Guard, died at Camp Arifjan in another vehicle accident.
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Air Force Chief of Staff Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr. addresses students from Air War College and Air Command and Staff College at Air University. (Trey Ward/U.S. Air Force).President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that he will nominate Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr. to serve as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
At a White House ceremony, Biden described Brown as “a warrior descended from a proud line of warriors,” noting that Brown’s father served as an Army colonel in Vietnam and his grandfather was an Army master sergeant who led a segregated unit during World War II.
“No matter how complicated the mission, from helping build and lead the coalition now more than 80 nations strong to counter ISIS threats in the Middle East, to positioning our Air Force for the future in the Indo-Pacific, Gen. Brown has built a reputation across the force as an unflappable and highly effective leader, and someone who creates an environment of teamwork, trust, and executes with excellence,” Biden said.
Biden also praised Brown for his ethos while serving as Air Force chief of staff: Accelerate change or lose.
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“With Gen. Brown as chairman, I know I’ll be able to rely on his advice as a military strategist and as a leader of military innovation, dedicated to keeping our armed forces the best in the world – and they are the best in the history of the world, and that’s a fact,” Biden said. “I will also be able to rely on him as a thoughtful and deliberate leader, who is unafraid to speak his mind, as someone who will deliver an honest message that needs to be heard, and who will always do the right thing when it’s hard. That’s the No. 1 quality a president needs in a chairman.”
Brown did not speak during Thursday’s White House ceremony.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr. delivers a keynote speech at the Air and Space Forces Association 2023 Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colo., March 7, 2023. (Eric Dietrich/U.S. Air Force)If confirmed by the Senate, Brown would become the first black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since Army Gen. Colin Powell, who held the job from 1989 to 1993.
Brown has been the Air Force’s top general since August 2020. He became the first black service chief in the military’s history after being confirmed by the Senate with a 98-0 vote.
He was commissioned in 1984 through Texas Tech University’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program, and went on to become an F-16 instructor at the U.S. Air Force Weapons School, according to his official biography.
Rated as a command pilot, Brown has more than 3,000 flight hours in F-16s and 20 other fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, including 130 combat hours. Biden noted on Thursday that Brown earned his call sign “Swamp Thing” after being forced to eject from a burning F-16 over Florida’s Everglades in 1991.
Prior to becoming chief of staff, Brown led U.S. Air Forces Central Command and Pacific Air Forces. His military awards include the Bronze Star Medal, Defense Distinguished Service Medal with one oak leaf cluster, and Combat Readiness Medal.
In addition to dedicating his life to the Air Force, Brown is also an avid barbecue enthusiast, who loves smoking brisket, and baby back ribs. The Texas native has been cooking barbecues since his college days and he shared his personal recipe for brisket with Task & Purpose in a previous story.
Speaking to reporters shortly before Biden’s announcement, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin described Brown as “an incredibly capable and professional officer.”
“What he brings to the table – to any table – is that professionalism, that deep experience in warfighting,” Austin said during a Pentagon news conference. “I have personal knowledge of that. So, I think Gen. Brown is going to be a great officer in any capacity that he’s in.”
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr. recites the Oath of Enlistment to members of the United States Air Force Delayed Enlistment Program at the Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium field, Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022, in Memphis, Tennessee.(Ruth A. Medina-Villanueva/U.S. Air Force)Should he be confirmed by the Senate, Brown would replace Army Gen. Mark Milley, who is scheduled to retire in October.
“I’ve known CQ, like Secretary Austin has, for a long time,” Milley said during Thursday’s Pentagon news conference. “He’s a great officer. In my personal view, he has all the knowledge, skills, and attributes to do this job, and he has the appropriate demeanor, and he’s got a great chemistry – obviously – with the president, the SECDEF [defense secretary] and others. So, CQ is absolutely superb, and I am looking forward to a speedy confirmation.”
But Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) has slowed the promotion process for all general and flag officers – including Brown – by using a procedural maneuver to force the Senate to debate and vote on each nomination individually instead of en masse.
Tuberville’s move is meant to protest a Pentagon policy enacted after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, under which the military will pay for service members to travel for abortion care if they are stationed in a state where it is illegal for them to have access to reproductive care.
“I’m a man of my word,” Tuberville wrote in a commentary for the Washington Times. “I will drop my holds as soon as Secretary Austin suspends his memo providing military funds and resources to facilitate unrestricted abortions. The burden is not on me to undo an illegal policy. The burden is on the Biden administration to follow the law.”
Biden is nominating Brown to become the nation’s top-ranking service member at a time when the Defense Department is focused on how to deter – and, if necessary, defeat – China.
China has the largest navy in the world and Navy leaders have warned that it might try to invade Taiwan in 2027, if not sooner.
Chinese soldiers quickly get out of their cars to take up positions in Jiangxi, China, January 29, 2023. (CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)Meanwhile, China doubled its nuclear arsenal to more than 400 warheads between 2020 and 2022 and it is expected to have 1,500 nuclear warheads by 2035, according to the Defense Department’s latest report on Chinese military power.
In August 2021, Brown said that the Air Force risked losing a war against China unless it made sure it has the right size and that it has the right type of aircraft needed to deal with the strategic challenge posed by China.
“If we do not modernize to provide air power anytime, anywhere we are at risk of losing our most precious assets, our airmen, soldiers, sailors, Marines and guardians,” Brown said at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Brown’s experience leading Pacific Air Forces will help the U.S. military’s leadership transition from past counterinsurgency efforts to making changes needed to counter any potential aggression from China, said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, dean of the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies think tank.
Even though 70% of the Indo-Pacific region is covered by water, all of it is covered by airspace, so U.S. airpower would play a key role in any military operations in the region, Deptula told Task & Purpose on Thursday.
“While many describe the Indo-Pacific region as a maritime theater, the way to conquer the tyranny of distance in the Pacific is not by using ships going 20 knots or less, but by using aircraft going 600 knots or more,” Deptula said. “They are faster, provide more coverage, they are more responsive, carry more munitions, and are more versatile.”
(Task & Purpose photo illustration)Brown’s nomination also comes as several Republican lawmakers have accused the U.S. military of focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts rather than warfighting. Accusations that the Defense Department has somehow gone “woke” have become key Republican cudgel against the Biden administration.
Amid relentless Republican criticism, the Defense Department has backed off efforts to identify and separate extremists in the ranks. The military had initially vowed to tackle extremism after veterans and current service members were among the crowd that stormed the U.S. capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturn the presidential election.
Shortly before the Senate confirmed him as Air Force Chief of staff, Brown made a powerful Twitter video about the death of Georg Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, in which Brown discussed his own experiences with racism.
“I’m thinking about wearing the same flight suit with the same wings on my chest as my peers and being questioned by another military member ‘are you a pilot?’” Brown said. “I’m thinking about how I sometimes felt my comments were perceived to represent the African American perspective, when it’s just my perspective informed by being African American.”
He recalled how he felt pressure to avoid making any errors and work twice as hard to prove that his supervisors’ preconceived notions about black service members were invalid.
Brown said he considered his nomination to become Air Force chief of staff a sign of hope, but it also came with a heavy burden. He also said he wanted to have the wisdom and knowledge to lead and listen to difficult conversations on racism as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“I can’t fix centuries of racism in our country, nor can I fix how decades of discrimination may have affected members of our Air Force,” Brown said. “I’m thinking about how I can make improvements – personally, professionally, and institutionally – so that all airmen, both today and tomorrow, appreciate the value of diversity and can serve in an environment where they reach their full potential.”
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An image from a Ukrainian drone boat captures its approach to a Russian naval ship. Photo from video released by the Ukrainian military.New videos of a desperate shootout between a Russian Naval ship and at least two Ukrainian boat drones end in a huge but harmless explosion and, more ominously, a broken video feed with all the hallmarks of a direct hit on a Russian intelligence-gathering ship.
The videos, which emerged over the course of 24 hours from official news sources in both countries, show intense scenes of combat on the high seas, with an unclear finish. Ukrainians have used explosives-laden drone boats to attack Russian naval targets in the past, including a swarming assault in 2022 in Sevastopol that damaged ships in Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
A YouTube-based open-source research channel known as Suchomimus identified the ship as the Ivan Khurs, a small, lightly armed intelligence-gathering ship assigned to Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
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The new videos spread online over the past two days, with both Russian state media RT and the Twitter feed of the Ukrainian military claiming different parts of the footage showed a victory.
The first video, which spread on May 24, is taken from the deck of a large ship, watching an unmanned drone boat charge toward it. Tracer rounds from gunfire that appear to be heavy-caliber weapons impact in the water around the small boat until one seems to hit it squarely, causing a large explosion.
Ukraine tried attacking a Russian Ship with 3 explosive filled drone boats, video of 1 of the 3 that got demilitarised. pic.twitter.com/MLANrSV4R0
— Jack Z (@JackZ1917) May 25, 2023
The flash, fireball, and size of the explosion show all the trademarks of high explosives found in bombs and other military ordnance.
The second video, which circulated on the morning of May 25, shows a similar encounter but from a different angle and may have ended much differently. In this video, the camera is mounted on the drone boat, broadcasting its approach to a Russian naval ship. Tracer rounds flash past it, similar to the first video, but none hit the boat.
Most online information available about the Ivan Khurs indicates it permanently carries just two heavy machine guns for self-defense.
In the final moments of the video, the boat maneuvers to within feet of the Russian ship’s stern, more or less adjacent to its engine compartments. The video then cuts out.
When the russian reconnaissance ship "Ivan Khurs" met a Ukrainian drone.
Indeed, a perfect match! pic.twitter.com/mW3clD0vHh— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) May 25, 2023
Though there is no way to confirm the outcome of the attack — or even the legitimacy of either video — if the second boat triggered an explosion similar to the one seen in the first video, the Russian ship likely suffered serious damage.
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Aircraft attached to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 8 sit on USS Gerald R. Ford's (CVN 78) flight deck as the ship steams through the Atlantic Ocean, April 13, 2022. Ford is underway conducting carrier qualifications and strike group integration prior to operational deployment. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Riley McDowell).The Navy aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford arrived in Oslo on Wednesday for a stopover en route to NATO military exercises in the Arctic, and one Norwegian airline is extremely excited.
The world’s largest warship, the Ford sailed into the Oslo Fjord near Norway’s border with prospective NATO member Sweden on Wednesday, the aircraft carrier’s first stop on its inaugural combat deployment and the first visit to Norway from any U.S. aircraft carrier in 65 years, according to the U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa./U.S. 6th Fleet.
Nearly 4,000 sailors and Marines from the aircraft carrier are currently enjoying shore leave in the Norwegian capital, and with the expectation that sailors will, well, do what sailors do on shore leave, nascent long-haul airline Norse Atlantic Airways is using the sudden presence of U.S troops potentially enamored with the Nordic country to boost their business.
This advert popped up in Oslo, Norway, where over 4.000 American sailors from the USS Gerald R. Ford are set to enjoy their shore leave this weekend.
by u/Viking- in Military
An advertisement from Norse Atlantic Airways that circulated in the r/military community on Reddit on Thursday appeared to show an offer for super low-cost airfare for U.S. troops to return to Oslo nine months after their stopover there, presumably for the birth of any international spawn conceived during a raucous weekend of, er, projecting American power throughout the local populace.
“Missionary accomplished? We’ll see you in nine months, sailors,” the ad reads, despite the fact that there is well-documented evidence that only sailors use condoms.
This predicted behavior from visiting U.S. troops isn’t unexpected, of course. In October 2018, thousands of U.S. military personnel drank up all the beer in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavík ahead of a major NATO exercise in the region; in August of last year, more than 1,500 sailors and Marines spent a stay at the port city of Alexandroupoli in Greece exhausting the local eateries of eggs and meat, all while clogging up the lines for tattoo parlors as well.
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A founding member of NATO, Norway’s northernmost region shares a land border with Russia, while the countries also share a maritime border in the Barents Sea. The induction of Finland into NATO in April nearly doubled the alliance’s border with Russia in the east, according to the BBC.
The Ford is slated to participate in NATO’s Arctic Challenge exercise which, spearheaded by Finland from Rovaniemi Air Base in the Arctic Circle, will see a record 150 fighter jets from 14 nations, including Norway, participate in expansive air-to-air drills, according to the Barents Observer.
“Norway is a strategic partner in the continued efforts to maintain a secure and stable Arctic and North Atlantic region that benefits global order,” Rear Adm. Erik J. Eslich, commander of Carrier Strike Group 12, said in a statement. “We are committed to our NATO Ally and fostering our strong relationship built on a foundation of shared values, experiences, and vision.”
While the Norwegian Armed Forces stated the visit from the Ford will “allow [Norway] to further develop our cooperation and relationship with our most important ally,” the United States, the widespread insemination of Oslo’s population is probably not what they meant.
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Marines of Marine Advisor Company A, Force Headquarters Group, take part in a military awards ceremony on Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C., May 7, 2023. A Marine in the unit recognized and thwarted a transnational criminal human trafficking organization while drilling with his unit that weekend by spotting a woman in the lobby of his hotel who had clothes and tattoos indicating gang association. (U.S. Marine Corps photo).A Marine Reserve Lt. Col. had just finished a day of training at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C. and was returning to his hotel in Alexandria, Virginia. In the lobby, he noticed a young girl who he later described as acting a bit odd.
And as a law enforcement official in his civilian job, he also noted the girl was wearing blue and white clothing, along with number “13” tattoos on her arms. He knew those were indicators that she might be involved with the international criminal gang Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13.
“The way she was walking back and forth, in and out, it almost seemed like she was hoping to be noticed by someone,” the Marine said, according to a Marine Corps press release. The Marine, the release said, is a Lt. Col. in the Reserves, but his name was not released because of an active legal investigation around the events.
The Marine’s commanding officer said that the man’s unit train on identifying gang and prostitution-related behavior.
“We constantly educate our personnel on how to spot and respond to suspected human trafficking situations. I never stop reminding Marines that human trafficking often manifests as prostitution and if Marines are against it, the criminals cannot win,” said Col. John D. Cowart, commanding officer, Marine Corps Advisor Company A.
Though he was scheduled to take his Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test early the next morning, the Marine ultimately decided to keep investigating.
Within a few hours, he’d discovered and helped take down a large-scale human trafficking ring.
The reservist was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal this week for his quick thinking and actions. The Marine, a Lt. Col. assigned to Marine Advisor Company A, Force Headquarters Groups, was not named, as his actions led to what is still an ongoing investigation into wider criminal activity.
Task & Purpose attempted to confirm the details of the investigation and arrest cited in the Marine press release and award citation but an official with the Alexandria Police Department said they could not confirm any arrests or police activity and do not release arrest records to any party not directly involved in a case. A series of entries in the Alexandria Police Department’s online crime log from 4:22 a.m., May 6 roughly match the time and charges noted in the Marine Corps release, and are listed as having occurred on N. Ripley St., a short road in Alexandria with several condominium and apartment complexes. But Virginia police records are released only through an official records request, which can take 15 days or longer to process, according to the state’s records website.
In the press release, the Marine’s commander lauded the officer’s initiative.
“His judgment and initiative in this situation are perfect examples of how Marines should feel about human trafficking,” Marine Advisor Company A commander Col. John Cowart said. “He demonstrated that Marine leaders are part of the solution to the world’s problems. Marines are always on duty, observing everything that takes place within sight or hearing; and this Marine exemplified that.”
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When the girl from the lobby was picked up in a car, the Marine decided to follow, tailing the car until it arrived at a condominium in Alexandria. He then contacted other law enforcement to let them know of his suspicions, and waited for them to arrive. After conferring with a clerk at the front desk of the building, the Marine and other law enforcement officers proceeded to the residence where the girl and the car’s driver had been seen entering to perform a wellness check.
Inside, they discovered a group of young girls, along with suspected drugs and drug paraphernalia.
“Given his keen observations, commitment to justice, and dedication to service, Lt. Col. [Redacted] actions directly resulted in the release of entrapped females under the control of transnational criminal organized criminal elements,” reads the awards citation.
Having helped take down the criminal enterprise, the Marine returned to his hotel room around 1:30 a.m. As a Marine Corps press release stated, he was still up the next morning for his PFT.
He scored 278, the Marines said — not bad for a drill weekend.
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U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Brian W. Cavanaugh, the commanding general of Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic, Marine Forces Command, Marine Forces Northern Command, and Marines with 3d Marine Littoral Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, review the capabilities of the Long Range Unmanned Surface Vessel, Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia, April 27, 2023. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Kealii De Los Santos).In the latest evidence that we are living in the golden age of missile-hauling robots, the Marine Corps has released photos showing its future unmanned drone boat loaded up with a launcher for loitering munitions to take out targets in a potential near-peer conflict.
Photos published to the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service on Tuesday and first reported by The War Zone showed the Marine Corps’ Long Range Unmanned Surface Vessel (LRUSV) developed by Louisiana-based shipbuilder Metal Shark outfitted with a launcher for the Uvision Hero-120 the service selected as it’s so-called Organic Precision Fire-Mounted (OPF-M) solution.
The photos show Lt. Gen. Brian W. Cavanaugh, the commanding general of Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic, Marine Forces Command, Marine Forces Northern Command, and Marines from the newly-formed 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment (MLR) inspecting a fully loaded LRUSV at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Virginia this past April.
The LRUSV “is a semiautonomous vessel capable of extended travel and transporting loitering munitions that accurately track and destroy targets on sea or land,” according to the Marine Corp’s description on DVIDS. “It will primarily serve as an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platform.”
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Loitering munitions, frequently referred to as ‘kamikaze drones,’ are best described as airborne bombs that circle above a set area, scan for targets, and then attack from above.
The Hero-120 in particular — selected in June 2021 for the Corps’ OPF-M competition to enhance the fire support capability of the LRUSV, the Light Armored Vehicle-Mortar (LAV-M), and the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) — can loiter for up to an hour over ranges of up to 60 km before delivering its 4.5 kg warhead, according to the manufacturer.
As The War Zone notes, the Hero-120 can also conduct surveillance and reconnaissance functions without attacking a target and be recovered for future use, making them an essential piece of the ISR capabilities the Corps details for the LRUSV.
“LRUSVs, employed individually or in formations of multiple vessels under the cognizance of a LRUSV company or subordinate element will be unmanned vessels, capable of conducting semi-autonomous maneuvers in the open ocean for extended periods of time,” according to the Navy’s fiscal year 2024 budget request, which proposes $25.25 million for funding the development of the platform that year.
U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Brian W. Cavanaugh, the commanding general of Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic, Marine Forces Command, Marine Forces Northern Command, and Marines with 3d Marine Littoral Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, examine the manual controls to the Long Range Unmanned Surface Vessel, Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia, April 27, 2023. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Kealii De Los Santos)As the budget documents note, the development and employment of LRUSVs is a “priority” within the Marine Corps Force Design 2030, the service’s broad reorganization that will see it become lighter and more nimble ahead of a protracted fight in the Indo-Pacific region against a future adversary like China that has seen the service divest itself of its M1 Abrams tanks and reduce the size and scope of its ranks.
Force Design 2030 has also seen the Corps stand up new units like the aforementioned 3rd MLR, previously described by the Corps as a self-deployable, multi-domain force that is “relatively easy to maintain and sustain as part of a naval expeditionary force” in a future island-hopping campaign in the Pacific.
Indeed, the Corps notes MLRs will prove integral elements in future Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations. EABO is a concept that calls for deploying a relatively small number of Marines on “a series of austere, temporary locations ashore or inshore within a contested or potentially contested maritime area in order to conduct sea denial, support sea control, or enable fleet sustainment,” according to the Corps.
While the Corps’ Force Design 2030 update in May 2022 states that MLR experimentation will help determine “the correct echelon of command” within a future Marine Expeditionary Force for the employment of the armed LRUSV, organizational specifics aren’t preventing the service’s parent branch from also developing munition-hauling robot boats for future EABO missions.
As Task & Purpose previously reported, the Navy is eyeing the so-called “Multi-domain Area Denial from Small-USV (MADS)” consisting of Greenough Advanced Rescue Craft (GARC) drone boats outfitted with FIM-92 Stinger missile launchers to potentially “provide a low-cost, persistent anti-air and anti-surface maritime defense capability” for transportation vessels associated with EABO and littoral operations, as well as those tied to Military Sealift Command.
“During future conflicts, U.S. and allied forces will be greatly outnumbered by peer or near-peer competitors in both tactical platforms and munitions,” according to the Navy’s fiscal year 2024 budget documents. “Large numbers of small, low signature, attributable unmanned missile launching vessels have the potential to improve surface force magazine depth and reduce risk to force in denied areas.”
It’s unclear what a future fleet of LRUSVs might look like. According to a 2021 Breaking Defense report, the long-term goal of the Corps is to procure up to 100 armed LRUSVs explicitly for surveillance and strike missions by 2030.
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Chief Yeoman Jayna Sampson, flag writer to Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Russell Smith, observes the conditions of housing on Naval Station Rota. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Sarah Villegas/Released).The Navy is rolling out a new “Bill of Rights and Responsibilities” for sailors living in barracks to, in theory, improve conditions in Navy housing for enlisted sailors.
“The Navy is committed to providing high-quality accommodations to all Sailors, especially those residing in [Unaccompanied Housing],” Steven Drumm, Director of Navy Housing for the Commander, Naval Installations Command, said in a release published last week. “This Bill of Rights & Responsibilities makes it clear what guarantees we promise UH residents while establishing what their obligations are for maintaining their housing.”
The “rights” section of the new policy is fairly straightforward. It’s the right to live somewhere that is “safe, secure, and meets applicable health and environmental standards” and has well-maintained common areas. It’s the right to have “working fixtures, appliances, and utilities.” And it’s the right to verify the condition of a room before occupying it as well as to be allowed to report substandard housing conditions without fear of retaliation.
The “responsibilities” portion is to basically maintain the housing. Don’t destroy anything, abide by the living standards, and note any problems. In other words, do your part to maintain the barracks.
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According to the Navy, these rights and responsibilities came about when Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday and various fleet commanders “identified unaccompanied housing as an area of improvement that would positively impact Sailor morale.”
Indeed, the new housing compact comes just a few months after the Navy released a “Mental Health Playbook” designed to address the scourge of suicide in the ranks after three such instances in a single week aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington.
Barracks conditions for U.S. service members are an enduring and ongoing concern. Last year, roughly 1,200 soldiers living in rotting, mold-infested barracks at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, were displaced when the buildings were deemed unfit for habitation. In 2021, Marines at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina were moving into barracks that featured “cockroaches, rampant mold, and missing beds and furniture.” on the Air Force side, the barracks at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas were similarly ridden with “moldy showers, pillows, vents, shoes, beds, fans, floors, and walls.”
“Given the services’ emphasis on ‘people first,’ regular maintenance and updates to living quarters are a necessary investment in the health and wellbeing of service members—particularly those in lower paygrades,” Katherine Kuzminski, director of the military, veterans, and society program at the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington, D.C. told Task & Purpose in 2022.
The barracks bill of rights is just one of several upcoming efforts to improve living conditions, according to the Navy.
“The Bill of Rights & Responsibilities is just the first in a series of efforts that Navy Housing plans to roll out in the coming months,” Drumm said in a Navy release. “Our hope is that by setting a collaborative tone with residents, we will be able to maintain and improve the quality of unaccompanied housing long-term.”
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A whole generation of veterans who joined the military in the wake of the September 11th attacks are turning 40. In other words, we’re getting older. On top of any ailments we may have picked up in service, we’re learning about all the fun that comes with the natural aging process, including some symptoms and issues that can feel a little embarrassing.
But the fact is, many people face these issues, and veterans in particular tend to experience them more than the rest of the American population. That includes higher rates of erectile dysfunction, gastrointestinal disorders, and incontinence. And unfortunately, veterans tend to underreport all of them even when there’s readily available help out there.
Most veterans know their medication prescriptions can be sent to their homes by mail, in discreet packaging, oftentimes overnight. But many veterans are unaware this service is not limited to medications. The VA sends all sorts of medical interventions and supplies to veterans using this same method.
The Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy, or CMOP, is what makes it all possible. The VA partners with the U.S. Postal Service, UPS, FedEx, and DHL to deliver medications as well as the medical supplies we’d rather not talk about. There’s no need to go to Hims for ED medication, the grocery store for Metamucil, or Amazon for incontinence products. The CMOP can deliver all of it, for free, and it can even be faster than Amazon.
No matter where the veteran lives, even in the most rural areas in the country, CMOP will deliver right to their doorstep. All veterans need to do to access this service is talk with their VA provider. VA doctors already know what conditions affect veterans the most; they hear it every day. That’s why it’s important to inform your provider of your condition, not just to provide a complete medical history, but to make sure you have what you need to live your daily life.
These issues affect us all. The MRI and Military Explorer Study of 2022 found male veterans are more than twice as likely to experience symptoms of incontinence. The study also found that more than half of veterans with incontinence problems are women. Luckily, the CMOP provides free access to nonprescription products like those that help with incontinence.
Attends is a longstanding CMOP partner that has a host of products specifically designed for adults with incontinence issues, even for those who are (and will continue to be) physically active. To help determine which Attends product is right for you check out the Attends product catalog and the Attends Product Finder tool. You can also try out the products for yourselves by requesting a free sample. The entire product catalog, including the new Attends Underwear for Men, is on the Federal Supply Schedule, meaning they’re eligible to be sent to veterans for free through the CMOP at no cost. There’s no need to go to Amazon and pay out of pocket for something that could be sent for free.
Two million American military veterans are experiencing incontinence problems. That’s a full 12.5% of the overall veteran population in the country. While it might be uncomfortable to raise the issue with their doctor at first, veterans have one of the most accessible, trusted, and discreet solutions available to anyone in the country at their fingertips—all they have to do is ask.
Sponsored by Attends.
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U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor, tail number AF-07-4146, went skidding down the runway on its belly at Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada after a botched takeoff attempt in April 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo).Just over five years after a somewhat embarrassing botched takeoff at a Navy training station, one of the Air Force’s F-22 Raptor fighter jets has finally rejoined the fleet, the service announced last week.
Assigned to the 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, F-22 tail number 07-146 took to the skies on May 4 following a “completion of the long rebuilding process,” according to a press release from JBER, which did not offer any specifics involving the aircraft’s repair process.
“They did a great job on the airplane,” said Lt. Col. Philip Johnson, a functional-check-flight pilot assigned to the 514th Flight Test Squadron at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. Johnson was behind the Raptor’s controls for its return to the air. “There were some minor maintenance notes found during the sortie, but those will be handled by maintenance. It’s good to go back to operational flying.”
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The rehabilitated F-22 was involved in an April 2018 mishap at Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada when the pilot retracted the plane’s landing gear too early during takeoff, causing the $140 million-plus aircraft to impact the runway and skid to a halt “with all but the nose landing gear doors fully closed,” according to an Air Force investigation into the incident.
The F-22 was deployed to NAS Fallon to support a graduation exercise for the Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program (better known as TOPGUN) that has called the Navy training station its home since 1996.
The investigation by the Air Force’s Accident Investigation Board found the pilot used inaccurate Takeoff and Landing Data (TOLD) for the flight conditions due to an “inadequate” flight briefing. As the plane accelerated on the runway, the pilot brought the aircraft’s nose up for takeoff at an airspeed of 120 knots rather than the 136 knots stipulated in the pilot’s lineup card or 143 knots calculated for conditions at NAS Fallon for the day of the takeoff, according to the investigation.
The pilot “failed to apply any corrections to the incorrect TOLD,” according to the investigation.
While the Air Force investigation notes that the F-22 slid approximately 6,514 feet down the runway until it stopped, the report does not detail the total damage to the aircraft.
U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Joshua Eller, an F-22 Raptor crew chief assigned to the 90th Air Maintenance Unit, prepares to shut down tail number AF-07-146 after a successful afterburner run on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, April 19, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class J. Michael Peña)Following the mishap, airmen spent a month disassembling the F-22 at NAS Fallon for transport back to JBER aboard a C-5 Galaxy aircraft, according to the Air Force.
“We took off everything that was damaged and everything that wouldn’t fit dimensionally,” Staff Sgt. Ethan Rentz, a 3rd Aircraft Maintenance Unit F-22 crew chief, said in December 2021 press release. “We removed the wings and vertical stabilizers, and the whole belly of the F-22 because those panels were damaged and burnt. We couldn’t have those panels flapping around or breaking off during transit.”
Photos released by the JBER public affairs office at the time showed the stripped-down F-22 undergoing its lengthy rebuild at the Alaska base, during the final year of which airmen cannibalized the leading edge, two flaps, and a seat off of a separate F-22 that experienced a mishap at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida in March 2022, according to the service.
U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Ethan Rentz, left, a 3rd Aircraft Maintenance Unit F-22 crew chief, Airman 1st Class Michael Southerland, middle, a 3rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron assistant dedicated crew chief, and Tech. Sgt. Kevin Fitch, a 3rd Aircraft Maintenance Unit F-22 crew chief, rebuild U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor tail number AF-07-146, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Nov. 29, 2021, after the aircraft was damaged in a crash in Nevada in 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Samuel Colvin)Members of the 3rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron rebuild U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor tail number AF-07-146 at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Nov. 29, 2021, after the aircraft was damaged in a crash in Nevada in 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Samuel Colvin)U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Michael Southerland, sitting, a 3rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron assistant dedicated crew chief; Tech. Sgt. Kevin Fitch, left, and Staff Sgt. Ethan Rentz, 3rd Aircraft Maintenance Unit F-22 crew chiefs; rebuild U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor tail number AF-07-146, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Nov. 29, 2021, after the aircraft was damaged in a crash in Nevada in 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Samuel Colvin)U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Kevin Fitch, left, and Staff Sgt. Ethan Rentz, 3rd Aircraft Maintenance Unit F-22 crew chiefs, were tasked with rebuilding U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor tail number AF-07-146, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Nov. 29, 2021, after the aircraft was damaged in a crash in Nevada in 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Samuel Colvin)Members of the 3rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron rebuild U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor tail number AF-07-146 at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Nov. 29, 2021, after the aircraft was damaged in a crash in Nevada in 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Samuel Colvin)Known as the Air Force’s premier air dominance fighter jet, only 187 F-22s were produced by Lockheed Martin, making the restoration of tail number 07-146 to mission-capable status “imperative not only for the 3rd Wing but for the capabilities of the entire U.S. Air Force,” as the JBER press release announcing the aircraft’s return to the skies put it.
“We have a really distinct and important mission when it comes to fifth-generation aircraft and the power we project,” Chief Master Sgt. Adam Willeford, the 3rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron senior enlisted leader, said in a statement. “Every aircraft in the fleet is highly valuable for mission success, so returning this one to operational status is a big win for the team.”
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People hug as they visit the memorial next to the Allen Premium Outlets on May 7, 2023 in Allen, Texas. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images).Mauricio Garcia, the suspect in Saturday’s mass shooting in Allen, Texas, was kicked out of the Army before finishing basic training, the service said on Monday.
“Mauricio Garcia entered the regular Army in June 2008; he was terminated three months later without completing initial entry training,” Army spokeswoman Heather Hagan said in a statement to Task & Purpose. “He was not awarded a military occupational specialty. He had no deployments or awards. We do not provide characterization of discharge for any soldier.”
While Hagan did not say exactly why Garcia left the Army after just three months, an Army official confirmed he was separated under the 2005 edition of an Army regulation that specifies commanders can separate soldiers for “other designated physical or mental conditions.”
Rolling Stone reported on Sunday that an FBI bulletin about Garcia said he was separated from the Army over “mental health concerns.”
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Authorities have accused Garcia, 33, of killing eight people and wounding another seven when he allegedly opened fire at an outlet mall on Saturday.
Garcia was killed by an Allen Police Department officer, CNN reported. At the time of the shooting, Garcia was armed with an AR-15 rifle and pistol and was wearing a tactical vest rigged with multiple ammunition magazines, according to media reports.
Roberto Marquez of Dallas constructs a wooden cross memorial at the scene of a mass shooting a day earlier at Allen Premium Outlets on May 7, 2023 in Allen, Texas. (Stewart F. House/Getty Images)The Texas Department of Public Safety, Allen Police Department, Texas Rangers, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and FBI are now investigating the shooting.
Officials have not publicly said what the possible motive for Saturday’s shooting was, but two unnamed sources told CBS News that Garcia was wearing a patch with the letters “RWDS” that may be an acronym for “Right Wing Death Squad,” which has been used by several extremist groups including the Proud Boys.
Garcia is believed to have frequently posted images and writings on social media that supported “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist rhetoric, including neo-Nazi materials and material espousing the supremacy of the white race,” according to Rolling Stone.
The shooting in Allen, Texas, is the latest story about a veteran being connected to a violent incident. Daniel Penny, who served in the Marine Corps from 2017 to 2021 and was promoted to sergeant in the Individual Ready Reserve, is accused of putting Jordan Neely into a chokehold during a May 1 incident on the New York subway. Neely’s death has been ruled a homicide caused by compression of his neck.
Separately, Coast Guard veteran Deion Duwane Patterson was arrested on May 3 for allegedly killing Amy St. Pierre and wounding four women after opening fire in an Atlanta medical facility.
Zack Baddorf, a Navy veteran and executive director of Military Veterans in Journalism, said that media outlets need to keep in mind when covering stories like these that just because someone is one of the more than 18 million Americans who have served in the U.S. military does not automatically make them a trained killer.
“We need to be careful not to perpetuate harmful stereotypes about veterans being violent and unstable, as this not only unfairly stigmatizes those who have served our country, but it also has broader implications for how the public views veterans as a whole,” Baddorf told Task & Purpose on Monday.
He also noted that veterans are a diverse group and should not be defined solely by their military service, Baddorf said.
“Reinforcing these negative stereotypes about veterans damages the broader national narrative around their contributions to our society,” Baddorf said.
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The Navy's USS Cooperstown at its commissioning ceremony. (Photo courtesy U.S. Navy).This weekend the Navy celebrated the commissioning of its latest littoral combat ship, the very class of ship it is trying to do away with.
Crowds gathered in New York City for the commissioning ceremony of the USS Cooperstown, which honors among others 70 Hall of Fame baseball players who served in the military during war. The ceremony was attended by Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro as well as Baseball Hall of Fame members Joe Torre and Johnny Bench. The ship is named for the New York town that is home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
““It is critical that we honor the legacy of these Hall of Famers, not just for what they did on the field, but for what they sacrificed and what they accomplished off the field,” Torre said at the ceremony. “Their legacy lives on with the USS Cooperstown and with the Sailors here today and in the years to come.”
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The USS Cooperstown is a Freedom-class littoral combat ship, which the Navy describes as “fast, agile, mission-focused platforms designed to operate in near-shore environments.” The Cooperstown was christened in 2020. The 70 Hall of Fame baseball players the ship is meant to honor took part in the United States’ conflicts, from the American Civil War through the Korean War.
“LCS 23 honors the baseball greats, who in service of our Nation, sacrificed their baseball careers for us,” Del Toro said at the ceremony. “I have full confidence that the officers and crew of this great ship will continue to honor their legacy.”
In keeping with the theme, the USS Cooperstown was given the motto “America’s away team.”
Littoral combat ships are also the same line of vessels that the Navy is hoping to offload and decommission. A shipbuilding plan released this spring showed that the Navy aimed to sell six littoral combat ships, four Freedom-class variants and two Independence-class ones. They were all commissioned within the last eight years.
The littoral combat ships were built to go after anti-ship mines and hunt submarines, but the program has seen high costs with repeated mechanical issues and failures. The vessels have even gained the nickname “little crappy ships” and the Navy itself wants to move past them, given its focus on building up the Navy for peer-to-peer or near-peer fights. As a result, the U.S. Navy’s budget calls for decommissioning nine Freedom-class ships and it also wants to sell those six littoral combat ships through the Defense Department’s Foreign Military Sales program.
Although the USS Cooperstown was only just commissioned, it has been operating for several months. In March, the crew responded to a distress signal from a ship in the Atlantic Ocean, rescuing the sailor
The USS Cooperstown will be based in Florida.
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Daniel Penny. (Screenshot via Juan Vazquez).The U.S. Marine Corps veteran who choked an unhoused man to death on the New York City subway this past week has been identified as Daniel Penny of West Islip, New York.
Penny killed Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old Black man on May 1 aboard a forward car of New York City’s F Train. The New York City medical examiner ruled that Neely’s death was a homicide caused by compression of the neck.
The 24-year-old Penny served in the Marine Corps from 2017 to 2021, assigned as a rifleman to Camp Lejeune, per his public records. The Washington Post reports that he deployed to the Mediterranean with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit and left the service with the rank of sergeant. He is currently a college student, per his attorneys.
Witnesses reported that mid-afternoon on May 1, Neely got onboard the train car and began screaming that he needed food and water. He was acting aggressively, but no witness has reported him physically attacking anyone. It was unclear what Neely was going to do, per Juan Alberto Vazquez, an independent journalist who witnessed the killing, but he was shouting, “I don’t have food, I don’t have a drink, I’m fed up.”
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At some point, Penny grabbed Neely and put him in a chokehold, which witnesses reported lasted for as long as 15 minutes. Video and photos taken of the incident show Penny choking Neely while two other unidentified people hold down the latter’s arms. Footage taken by Vazquez does not show what led to Penny attacking Neely. Penny’s attorneys said that Neely was threatening passengers. Vazquez’s footage shows three minutes of the chokehold.
“No one on the car was telling the Marine to stop,” one witness, who preferred to be unnamed, told local news outlet Hell Gate.
Penny was questioned by police after Neely’s death but was released. He has not been arrested or charged since the incident.
Penny’s lawyers released a statement on the incident on Friday, May 5, stating that, “Daniel never intended to harm Mr. Neely and could not have foreseen his untimely death.”
New: Daniel Penny, the man who choked and killed Jordan Neely, has released a statement through his attorneys pic.twitter.com/QvHS5N69sG
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) May 6, 2023
Witnesses told Hell Gate that when Penny released his grip on Neely, the latter “coughed up blood and mucus.” One said that he tried to revive Neely with water, but Penny waved him away. Neely was taken to a hospital but pronounced dead.
Neely was known to subway riders for his Michael Jackson impersonations. More than 70,000 people are unhoused in New York City, with approximately 3,400 of those people unsheltered, per city numbers.
The New York Police Department and Manhattan District Attorney’s office are investigating the homicide and said Penny could face charges for it.
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FILE - Russian Black Sea fleet ships are anchored in one of the bays of Sevastopol, Crimea, March 31, 2014. (AP Photo, File).A series of explosions rocked parts of Crimea near the city of Sevastopol over the weekend. A Russian-backed official in Crimea claimed it was an attack by Ukraine, carried out using aerial drones.
“No objects [in Sevastopol] were damaged,” Mikhail Razvozhayev, the governor of Sevastopol, wrote on Telegram.
Razvozhayev claimed that 10 Ukrainian drones were successfully stopped — with three specifically targeting sites in the port city — but posts on social media show and report multiple explosions near military installations in the peninsula. Ukraine has not commented on the apparent attack. It also comes the same day as Russia claims 22 other drones were stopped over the Black Sea.
It’s the latest drone attack on Crimea in recent months. Ukraine has been using uncrewed aerial and underwater systems to target Russian military installations. One of the largest strikes was in October 2022, when Ukraine used a drone swarm — including a series of small, surface vessel drones — to target Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, damaging at least one ship. Crimea has been under Russian control since 2014.
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The attack in Crimea also comes only a few days after Russia announced it would scale back some of its Victory Day celebrations on May 9. The day celebrates the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Regional celebrations are being reduced in size and scope while Moscow is increasing the security measures in the city for Tuesday’s event. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov specifically cited Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory and occupied areas as a reason for the move.
“We are of course aware that the Kyiv regime, which is behind a number of such attacks, terrorist acts, plans to continue its campaign,” Peskov said to reporters this week, per Sky News.
The attack on Crimea also comes only a few days after Ukraine claims it shot down a Russian hypersonic missile with an American Patriot missile system. Russia has been increasing its missile strikes into Ukraine, targeting Kyiv. On Saturday, the head of Ukraine’s Air Force claimed that Ukraine successfully shot down a Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missile with a Patriot system. It would be the first time Ukraine’s air defenses stopped a Russian hypersonic missile.
The successful intercept happened on Thursday, May 4, Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleschuk, commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, posted on Telegram. His statement contradicts a previous denial given by the Ukrainian government the other day.
“Yes, we brought down the ‘unparalleled’ Kinzhal!” Oleschuk wrote.
UA Weapons Tracker, a Twitter account following different weapon systems being used by both sides of the war, examined wreckage from the missile and identified pieces of it as consistent with the Russian Kh-47M2 Kinzhal.
Ukraine: Today, reports suggested that a Russian Kh-47M2 Khinzal air-launched ballistic missile was shot down by air defences over #Kyiv at 02:40 on May 4th- for the very first time.
The debris matches the unitary warhead assembly used in Kh-47M2 & Iskander-series missiles. pic.twitter.com/RjAcBQYEUN
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) May 5, 2023
Oleschuk had previously said on April 27 that the second division of Patriot systems had been put into combat.
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American F-16s and B-1B bombers fly alongside South Korean F-35As and F-15Ks. (Photo courtesy U.S. Forces Korea).An Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon crashed into a field near Osan Air Base today. The crash occurred at 9:45 a.m. local time Saturday morning.
The F-16 was taking part in a training flight, per an initial statement from the Air Force, when it went down over farmland a few miles away from Osan Air Base, which is home to the 51st Fighter Wing. The pilot was able to eject before the crash and was not injured. The pilot was taken to a medical center on the base for continued monitoring.
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Video from South Korean news outlets show parts of the wreckage from the F-16 on fire in the field. No one on the ground was hurt and no buildings were damaged. Firefighters were able to put out the blaze.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
“While we don’t have any additional information yet, we are relieved the pilot safely ejected and there were no other injuries,” Col. Henry R. Jeffress, III, 8th Fighter Wing commander said in a subsequent statement on the incident. “The US Air Force will standup an independent Safety Investigation Board to review all data and evidence related to today’s incident and use that information to determine its cause and prescribe any corrective safety measures to ensure the safety of the F-16 fleet.”
The fighter jet and pilot were assigned to the 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan Air Base, located on the western coast of the Korean Peninsula at Gunsan Airport.
Saturday’s crash is the latest aerial mishap this year for the American military. Last month a pair of crashes — one in Alaska and another in Kentucky — killed a total of 12 U.S. Army soldiers. That prompted the Army to order a 24-hour stand down to review aircraft safety measures. Active-duty units had through Friday, May 5 to complete it. U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard units have through the end of the month to carry out the stand down.
The United States maintains a military force in South Korea, as well as additional Air Force elements in nearby Japan. They have carried out joint flights over the peninsula in response to new missile launches by North Korea. Earlier this year the U.S. and South Korea resumed large joint military exercises after years of cancelations or drawn-down operations.
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181026-N-EV910-001 PEARL HARBOR (Jan. 26, 2018) A tunnel inside of the Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility. The Underground Fuel Storage Facility is a national strategic asset that provides fuel to operate in the Pacific. (U.S. Navy Photo/Released).A badly installed air vacuum valve and poor maintenance are responsible for the leak of firefighting chemicals at Hawaii’s Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in November 2022, according to a new report by the U.S. Navy.
The new report from Joint Task Force-Red Hill looked into the Nov. 29 incident, which saw Aqueous Film Forming Foam, or AFFF, spread until their container was empty. The foam contains the cancer-linked toxic materials known as PFAS, or “forever chemicals.” A contractor with Kinetix did not properly install air vacuum valves with the firefighting system at the depot in April 2022. In addition, the same contractor failed to disable pumps containing AFFF before a test of the firefighting system, leading to the 20-minute spill in November.
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“I ordered this investigation to determine what caused the accidental release of AFFF concentrate and to reduce the risk of a future mishap,” JTF-RH Commander Vice Adm. John Wade said in a statement on the investigation. “A focused investigation allowed us to effectively determine how and why the release occurred. We used this information to immediately implement risk reduction measures across the entire facility and to notify the Department of Defense (DoD) of actions that can be taken to further reduce risk in areas outside the purview of JTF-RH. The safe and expeditious defueling of Red Hill remains our top priority to protect the people and environment of Hawaii.”
The November leak of AFFF came a year after a fuel leak at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility. The November 2021 spill forced military families to be displaced. Many reported side effects from the water, including rashes and other illnesses. A subsequent investigation by the military found a series of errors by the Navy that contributed to the severity of the spill.
In addition to the poor installation, the Navy failed to properly inspect the system once installed.
As with the fuel leak, the AFFF release was located only 100 feet above the Southern Oahu Basal Aquifer, a major source of freshwater for the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The Navy has been dealing with the fallout of the different leaks for months.
Following the November 2022 spill, contaminated soil and asphalt were removed and paved over. The Navy has been doing soil testing since.
The investigation into the leak started in early December. Investigators were able to use on-site video to help their research.
As a result of the investigation, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command ordered a review of the maintenance oversight process as well as a review of all potentially hazardous material in the facility.
The Navy is continuing to do tests on the ground and water around the fuel depot.
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Wagner Group chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin in a May 4, 2023 video. (Twitter).As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drags on, the head of the Wagner Group mercenary force is once again threatening to withdraw his forces from the conflict.
In a gruesome, expletive-laden video reportedly filmed on May 4, Wagner honcho Yevgeniy Prigozhin can be seen at night, walking amongst the fallen bodies of his organization’s mercenaries.
“Those are soldiers we lost today. Their blood is still fresh,” Prigozhin says in the video, according to Politico. “And now listen to me, fuckers. They were someone’s sons or fathers. You, fuckers, who don’t give us ammo, will burn in hell. We have a lack of shells … Shoigu, Gerasimov, where the fuck are our shells? Look at them, bitches.”
Prigozhin shares graphic video of Wagner fighters killed today, with the most furious message he has yet directed personally at Shoigu and Gerasimov. “Shoigu! Gerasimov! Where are the fucking shells!” pic.twitter.com/YGdD3oBVnD
— Jack Margolin (@Jack_Mrgln) May 4, 2023
‘Shoigu’ refers to Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s Minister of Defense, while ‘Gerasimov’ is Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian military and currently commander of all operations in Ukraine.
Prigozhin followed up on his video with a statement that Wagner Group mercenaries would have to withdraw from around the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on May 10, where they have for several months been engaged in some of the most brutal and deadly fighting of the conflict.
Prigozhin’s broadside against President Vladimir Putin’s war chiefs is the latest in an escalating war of words between the mercenary commander and the Russian government. Much of it seems to stem from the disparity in attention paid to the Russian military’s lack of success and the comparative achievements of Wagner Group mercenaries. While the military has fallen victim to 40-mile-long convoys stranded on highways and infantry squads trapped in elevators, the Wagner Group – which has reportedly resorted to recruiting thousands of prison convicts into its ranks — has sought to portray its mercenaries as the most successful Russian force on the front lines.
It isn’t the first time Prigozhin has publicly aired this kind of dispute with the Kremlin. Since the beginning of of the year, Prigozhin has not hesitated to claim that his mercenaries have been denied ammunition and supplies. He’s released other videos claiming that the Russian military is not adequately supplying his forces, calling the dearth of military resources “a crime against Russia and Russian people” and stating that “the criminals must be held accountable.”
Prigozhin has even gone so far as to suggest an end to the conflict, stating last month that, “the ideal option would be to announce the end of the special military operation and declare that Russia has achieved all of its planned goals — and, in some respects, we really have achieved them.”
Now, this all may just be posturing by Prigozhin, but either way, his growing rift with the Kremling is just another sign of dysfunction in an extremely dysfunctional conflict.
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A U.S. Army Soldier from the 3rd Platoon, Apache Troop, 1st Squadron, 2d Cavalry Regiment fires the Javelin anti-tank missile during the 1/2CR live fire exercise during Saber Guardian 2019 near Várpalota, Hungary, June 5, 2019. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. LaShic Patterson).The U.S. Army is betting that demand for the FGM-148 Javelin missile, elevated to iconic must-have tank-killer by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, won’t die down anytime soon: The service is moving to replenish its stockpiles ahead of the next big war with a monster contract.
On Wednesday, the service awarded an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract valued at up to $7.2 billion over three years to Javelin Joint Venture, comprised of defense giants Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, to secure production of the beloved anti-tank missiles for the Army, Marines, Navy, and “international customers.”
The initial base order for the contract is $1.2 billion for an unspecified number of Javelin missiles, according to the Army. The cost of the missile itself has fluctuated over the last few years from $160,000 to $177,000, according to service budget documents for fiscal year 2024.
“The Army, along with industry partners, are striving to shorten the production lead time associated with production and delivery of these systems,” said Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology Doug Bush in a statement. “This contract award further illustrates the urgency the U.S. government is applying to the acquisition of systems and replenishing munitions stockpiles.”
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Long coveted as a military equalizer between asymmetric foes, the Lockheed-Raytheon joint venture has produced more than 50,000 Javelin missiles and 12,000 reusable command launch units to date, which is pushing to increase production from 2,100 to 3,960 missiles annually by late 2026, according to Breaking Defense.
That uptick in production comes a year into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has seen the Javelin play an integral role in knocking out Russian armor. The missile itself has become a symbol of Ukraine’s military resistance, a powerful tool used to level the playing field between nimble Ukrainian soldiers and an onslaught of Russian tanks.
The U.S. funneled more than 8,500 Javelins, as well as 54,000 other anti-armor systems, to the Ukrainian military as of the beginning of March, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service. Those Javelins represent roughly a third of the U.S. military’s inventory, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The purpose of the new contract is to create a mechanism through which the U.S. can buy as many Javelins as it can “without getting locked into a specific contract they have to keep modifying,” according to Mark Cancian, a senior advisor for the international security program at CSIS.
“The current production line capacity looks to be about 2,100 a year, for everyone, with a two-year lead time,” Cancian told Task & Purpose. “It signals that the demand for Javelins will be high for many years. Part of that might well be directly related to the war in Ukraine, but also a lot of people want Javelins now after seeing them put into action there.”
Indeed, as recently as this past March the U.S. State Department approved the sale of $125 million in Javelins to the United Kingdom to replenish its stockpiles amid ongoing security assistance to Ukraine. Taiwan, long in China’s crosshairs and under U.S. protection, is set to receive a batch of 200 missiles from the latter this year.
While the monster contract appears to signal a major investment in the proliferation of Javelins within the U.S. armed forces and among its allies, Cancian notes that the open-ended contract “is not the end of the Javelin story.”
“I think this is an indication of Javelin’s popularity and recognition that the demand may go up in the future whether for wartime requirements or for allies and partners,” he said. “I’d expect that there will be another multi-year contract.”
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White helmets of the stormtroopers of the Galactic Empire, at the opening of the largest exhibition of the Star Wars Universe, at the Centro de Artes Tomas y Valiente de Fuenlabrada, on 23 February, 2023 in Fuenlabrada, Madrid, Spain. (Eduardo Parra/Europa Press via Getty Images).In honor of Star Wars Day, we at Task & Purpose decided to focus on one of the most important tactical lessons from the Star Wars saga: Accurate shooting matters.
We’re looking at you, Stormtroopers.
When the world was first introduced to these Imperial 11 Bang Bangs, they appeared well trained in close-quarters combat. In the opening battle of A New Hope, the Stormtroopers stack up and crush resistance aboard the ship carrying Princess Leia. They even clear a path through the corpses for Darth Vader, showing that at least one of them is a first sergeant.
From that point on, though, Stormtroopers repeatedly show that they need to spend a lot more time on the rifle range. Indeed, their technique for trying to hit the target can best be described as a “death blossom” of indiscriminate fire.
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A cosplayer dressed as a stormtrooper of Star Wars attends Comic Con Liverpool 2020 on March 08, 2020 in Liverpool, England. (Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage)Even though Obi Wan Kenobi describes the Stormtroopers’ marksmanship as “precise,” subsequent events aboard the Death Star prove otherwise, especially when Han Solo does an Animal Mother charge straight into a company formation of troopers and not one of them manages to hit him.
While the Stormtroopers show some prowess in the rest of the original Star Wars trilogy – such as winging Leia in Return of the Jedi – they consistently manage to avoid hitting their targets no matter how close they are.
In fact, Stormtroopers are now the most famous poor shots in the galaxy, inspiring memes showing them in completely clean uniforms after a day playing paintball, and this video from the Fort Worth Police Department in Texas showing an officer patiently advising a hapless Stormtrooper on the pistol range.
With the Pentagon practically running a countdown clock until a war with China, marksmanship is more important for U.S. troops than ever. Even the commanding general of Air Mobility Command ordered his airmen earlier this year to prepare for the coming war against China by “fire a clip into a 7-meter target with the full understanding that unrepentant lethality matters the most.”
“Aim for the head,” he added.
One major reason why the Stormtroopers rarely hit their targets is simple: They don’t aim at all, said former Army captain Nick Palmisciano, CEO of Diesel Jack Media.
“Stormtroopers would significantly improve their shooting if they…you know…ever used their sights,” Palmisciano told Task & Purpose. “They look to shoot from the waist and hope for the best. And unless you’re force sensitive and can ‘feel’ your way to the target, hope makes for a terrible plan.”
A life-sized doll depicting a storm trooper of the ‘Star Wars’ films holds a telescopic sight of ‘Schmidt und Bender’ in its hands at the hunting and sporting gun fair IWA OutdoorClassics in Nuremberg, Germany, 6 March 2015. (Daniel Karmann/picture alliance via Getty Images)Another major problem for Stormtroopers is that most of their weapons don’t have a buttstock, said retired Chief Warrant Officer 5 Christian Wade, who served as the gunner for the 2nd Marine Division.
“Your readers who fought in Iraq might owe their very lives to the fact that many of the fighters we fought in close combat had removed the buttstock of their rifle and could not hit us under most circumstances,” Wade told Task & Purpose on Thursday.
Wade said he cannot recall any Stormtroopers using a shoulder-fired carbine or another weapon that had an actual buttstock attached to it in any of the Star Wars movies.
Instead, most Stormtroopers appear to have been issued a weapon that somewhat resembles an AKS-74U “Krinkov” without a buttstock, he said. Yet those weapons also have a mounted optic.
“How the hell is someone going to hit something at distance with a weapon like that?” Wade said. “The Empire sure could have used Marine gunners to sort out that problem. Chewbacca, for example, had a proper shoulder-fired weapon and both he and Han Solo, when he borrowed it, were able to consistently hit targets with it, even quickly moving threats in excess of 100 meters.”
In short, three lessons on marksmanship to take away from the Star Wars saga is that riflemen should be issued rifles or carbines with buttstocks; riflemen should not remove those buttstocks; and riflemen should employ those buttstocks in battle, as the Rebel fighters did during the Battle of Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back.
“Notice they have shoulder-fired rifles with the buttstocks still attached and they are firing on semi-automatic, what appear to be well-aimed shots at distant targets,” Wade said. “The laser machine gunners are engaging threats on automatic, firing bursts, in accordance with the engineering capabilities and limitations of their particular weapons.”
The Empire should have invested in training and educating leaders – such as Marine gunners – who can uncover warfighting capability gaps and find solutions for them, Wade said. He added that Star Wars creator George Lucas could have also benefited from hiring a Marine gunner to serve as a technical advisor for the weapons prop department.
“But I think that lousy marksmanship on the part of the Stormtroopers became a thing, like a meme, and he ran with it for all the following movies,” Wade said.
Until the Stormtroopers learn how to properly engage targets, they will continue to be ridiculed for their piss-poor marksmanship. They desperately need to practice firing at a target from seven meters away – and aiming for the head.
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Video shared on Twitter shows a drone exploding atop the Kremlin on May 3, 2023. (Screenshot from Twitter/ @sentdefender).Russia is accusing Ukraine of launching a drone attack on the Kremlin in an attempt to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the Associated Press.
Ukraine has officially denied carrying out a drone attack on Moscow.
A video shared on Twitter appears to show some sort of drone exploding near a flagpole atop the Kremlin. Moscow residents nearby said they heard an explosion around 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.
Russia’s official Presidential Press Service issued a statement on Wednesday saying that two drones had crashed on the Kremlin’s grounds without causing any injuries or damage.
“Russia reserves the right to take countermeasures wherever and whenever it deems appropriate,” the statement says.
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The U.S. government is looking into the matter but is unable to confirm the Russian government’s comments about what happened, a U.S. official told Task & Purpose on Wednesday.
The incident comes less than a week before Russia is expected to celebrate Victory Day on May 9, marking the Soviet Union’s triumph over Nazi Germany. Since Putin came to power more than 20 years ago, the holiday has been celebrated with ever more elaborate military parades in Moscow’s Red Square.
It is impossible to tell from video being shared on social media where the drone that exploded over the Kremlin came from, said Samuel Bendett, an adviser with CNA, a non-profit research and analysis organization in Arlington, Virginia.
“It could have been launched from practically anywhere,” Bendett told Task & Purpose on Wednesday. “It could have changed direction on approach. It’s not clear if it was launched from Ukraine; if it was launched from Russia; whether it was the military, maybe it was somebody else, kind of a non-military unit. Again, a lot of unknowns in this video, a lot of questions in this video.”
If it turns out the drone is Ukrainian, there are three types of drones that it could be: The UJ-22, which may have come within 70 miles of Moscow in February; PD-1 and PD-2 domestically made drones; and the Chinese-made Mugin-5 drone, which is built for commercial use but can be refitted for military missions – all of which can fly several hundred kilometers, Bendett said.
Michael McFaul, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, tweeted on Wednesday that the Russian government’s claim that the drone attack was intended to kill Putin is baseless.
“First, the drone used had no capacity to do major damage, let alone kill someone in the building,” McFaul tweeted. “Second, Putin does not live (or sleep) in the Kremlin. Please stop repeating this Russian propaganda line.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, claimed on Wednesday that Russia is using the incident as a justification for a large-scale attack against Ukraine in the coming days, Reuters has reported.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre declined to say whether Russia may have staged a “false flag” attack, but she noted: “We know Russia has a history of doing this. They have a history of doing false flag [attacks]. It is not unusual. It is incredibly common. I just don’t want to speculate at this time.”
Shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Russian authorities claimed that a Ukrainian roadside bomb had killed three people inside separatist-held eastern Ukraine, yet the skull of one of the alleged victims had cuts that are typical of an autopsy, indicating the remains of a dead person had been placed at the scene of the alleged bombing.
However, Wednesday’s incident was not the first alleged drone strike inside Russia. In December, three Russians were killed by debris from a drone shot down over Engels Air Base, about 300 miles from the border with Ukraine. It was the second attack that month on the installation, where Russian bombers that fire cruise missiles at Ukraine are based.
Ukrainian Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, head of his country’s Defense Intelligence Directorate, told ABC News reporter Britt Clennett in a Dec. 31 interview that he would be unable to say whether Ukraine had attacked Engels Air Base until the war with Russia ends.
Budanov also said he expected to see further attacks carried out “deeper and deeper” inside Russia.
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A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk seen hovering above the cruise ship Carnival Dream on April 29, 2023. (Image via Breaking Aviation News & Videos Twitter).Passengers aboard a cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico this weekend were treated to some extremely skilled flying from the crew of a Coast Guard rescue helicopter during a daring rescue at sea amid rough weather.
In the early morning hours of April 29, Coast Guard Sector Mobile received a call from the Carnival Dream cruise ship, sailing approximately 300 miles off the coast of Alabama, requesting the medical evacuation of a passenger who was experiencing heart attack-like symptoms. An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter was dispatched from Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans to assist with the evacuation.
Arriving above the cruise ship, the flying conditions were less than ideal. According to the Coast Guard, after lowering a rescue swimmer onto the deck, the Jayhawk was preparing to hoist one of the ship’s nurses aboard the helicopter when a large squall of wind and rain forced it to back away from the ship. A massive gust of wind then forced the helicopter rapidly down toward the choppy seas below.
Fortunately, the crew was able to “recover the aircraft close to the water’s surface,” according to a Coast Guard release.
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Now, that may sound simple enough, but some passengers aboard the Carnival Dream were filming the rescue, and captured exactly what recovering a helicopter “close to the water’s surface” looks like.
U.S Coast Guard HH-60 almost crashes into the sea after being hit by bad weather while evacuating a passenger onboard a cruiseliner.
📹 Damion Bailey pic.twitter.com/HXjWWMDJD7
— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) May 2, 2023
Hovering in a helicopter is, as one pilot once put it, “very similar to standing up in a hammock while trying to rub your belly and pat your head at the same time.” Now, add in blinding rain and winds strong enough to force a roughly 14,500-pound helicopter towards the ocean surface in just a couple of seconds, and you have a recipe for a catastrophe — one that the skilled Jayhawk crew narrowly averted
“During the rescue, the aircrew experienced severe and rapidly deteriorating weather that forced them to abort the mission,” said Cmdr. Keith Blair, commanding officer of Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans. “Through exceptional real-time risk management, crew resource management, and superb piloting, the aircrew was able to safely recover the aircraft and land at the air station without further incident.”
A second Jayhawk was later dispatched from New Orleans and was able to complete the rescue, with the patient taken to a nearby hospital.
Coast Guardsmen are no strangers to intense rescues. Whether you’re adrift at sea and fighting off shark attacks, or trapped in a remote cabin in the Alaskan wilderness fighting off a bear, there’s probably no more welcome site than an orange and white helicopter filled with Coasties. Sometimes they’ll even take time off from their wedding day to save someone.
Just another day in the Coast Guard.
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Picture of Andrews tweeted by Jake Hanrahan.Willow Andrews remembers how from a young age, her son Cooper showed both his sense of humor and his passion for helping others.
When she went to the grocery store, her young son accompanied her and put more food into her basket, claiming he was going on an “all milk diet” or had a craving for dozens of eggs. She knew that in reality, he was cooking for people in need.
Her son’s dedication to helping other people prompted him to become an Eagle Scout, fight wildfires as a volunteer firefighter, join the Marine Corps, and ultimately go to Ukraine, where he was killed on April 19 while helping civilians evacuate the city of Bakhmut – the scene of intense combat for months.
“Cooper basically had an attitude of ‘see something, do something,’” Willow Andrews told Task & Purpose.
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Cooper Andrews joined the Marine Corps in 2017 and served as a ground electronics transmission systems maintainer until 2022. His mother said he was drawn to the Marines because he felt they were the military branch that most often conducted humanitarian assistance missions.
Still, she had reservations when he told her he wanted to enlist in the Marines, but eventually, she respected his reasoning and fully supported his decision.
I’m very sad to say this, but one of the @PopularFront_ community has been killed fighting in Ukraine. Cooper ‘Harris’ Andrews, 26, was a long time PF supporter and part of our Discord. He was a former US Marine and lifelong leftist organiser. He was killed in Bakhmut. pic.twitter.com/ZdNIzRlXdw
— Jake Hanrahan (@Jake_Hanrahan) April 30, 2023
While at boot camp, Cooper Andrews found that some of his fellow recruits were hostile toward people of color, and that really disturbed him, she said.
“He’s meeting these people who are fascists, but he’s like: ‘Mom, they don’t even know what they’re talking about. They’re just being racist.’ And they would tell him: ‘You’re Ok, though.’ So, that was a huge issue for him.”
Cooper Andrews was committed to democratic ideals at an early age. He read about Winston Churchill and during middle school, told his mother he wanted to learn about the Constitution, so she found constitutional law books for him to study.
So, it’s unsurprising that after leaving the Marine Corps, he went to fight in Ukraine, which he saw as a war against fascism, Willow Andrews said.
Before he left, he and his mother talked about why he felt the need to go to Ukraine. They discussed the Spanish Civil War when Americans and other international volunteers fought against General Francisco Franco, who was backed by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, as part of what they felt was a global war against fascism.
They also talked about the author Ernest Hemmingway, who served in Italy as an ambulance driver with the American Red Cross during World War I and then later wrote the classic novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls” about an ideological American who fights Franco’s forces in Spain.
“I said: Cooper, so, you’re going to be driving an ambulance over there? And Cooper just looked at me and said, ‘Most likely not, mom.’ And it’s like, I know — I get it. Cooper had an awesome sense of humor, and so that was me joking with him. He understood why I was saying it. But that was kind of like me condoning: Yes, you may go and do things because, fundamentally, his idea of right and wrong and ‘see something, do something; I’m a strong able-bodied person’ is very much Cooper.”
Initially, Cooper Andrews had to deal with racism from some of the others who were fighting the Russians alongside him, but after a few months he proved his worth, his mother said.
A former U.S. Marine is killed in the outskirts of Bakhmut, Ukraine. @npwcnn joins The Lead pic.twitter.com/Qn1x0PCyWQ
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) May 1, 2023
When she would call him, she could hear his friends joking around by yelling “We love you mom!” while she was on the phone with him.
In a sign of Cooper’s sense of humor, when his mother asked if she could send him a care package, he told her he needed chopsticks and hot sauce rather than any sort of luxury items.
“I’m like: Do you need anything besides chopsticks and hot sauce?” she recalled. “And he’s like: ‘Well mom, they eat a lot of Chinese food over here, but you can never find chopsticks, and I just need some hot sauce because I would like some spicy food.’”
Even though his contract with the International Legion ended in March, Marine veteran Cooper Andrews decided to stay in Ukraine to keep fighting the Russians. Not long after he asked his mother for the chopsticks and hot sauce, it became hard for her to reach him.
“The last time I had any contact with Cooper was him explaining to me that he was being moved and he didn’t know if I could send those things to him,” Willow Andrews said.
Cooper Andrews was later killed by a Russian mortar attack. His mother was told that he was killed while helping families and children get out of Bakhmut.
Willow Andrews said she has spoken with the leadership of her son’s battalion, who said they are more focused on evacuating wounded members of the unit than recovering her son’s body. She was also told she will receive news if his teammates find his remains.
Since her son’s death, Willow Andrews has talked to the families of other fighters in the battalion who have been killed.
“The fighters there – especially these battalions – are very much like ‘everyone is our brother,’” she said. “They are very much like ‘we are all one big family’.”
Willow Andrews is currently raising money for causes that her son believed in, including a fund to support the families of his unit and other organizations that help hungry children in Cleveland.
“Sometimes when I talk about Cooper: It’s like Cooper never crawled,” she said. “He rolled, he scooted, and he walked, and then he ran. I guess as a parent, looking at that you say: Oh boy, let the roller coaster start, because you know someone like that is not going to just sit and standby and watch the world go by. They are going to get active. And that’s something that Cooper really did.”
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Army National Guard team wins this year’s International Sniper Competition
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Command Sgt. Maj. JoAnn Naumann (right) became the first woman to serve as U.S. Army Special Operation Command's senior enlisted leader on May 1, 2023 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. (U.S. Army photo).In a historic first, Command Sgt. Maj. JoAnn Naumann has become the first woman to serve as the senior enlisted leader of U.S. Army Special Operation Command (USASOC).
“Thank you for the opportunity to serve the men and women of [Army Special Operations Forces],” Naumann said during Monday’s change of command ceremony, according to a command news release. “It is my honor to be a part of this team. I’m excited to be back at Fort Bragg. I know well how much you invest in people because you’ve done that for me.”
USASOC is the Army component of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), overseeing the training, educating, and equipping of Rangers, Special Forces, and other elite units that are often assigned counterterrorism missions.
Consisting of roughly 26,000 people, USASOC provides about 70% of the special operators serving in the U.S Central Command theater of operations and is the largest service component of SOCOM, according to USASOC’s website.
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“USASOC combines a vast range of warfighting skills, from raiding and airfield seizures, to human-terrain mapping and cultural analysts,” the website says.
Naumann comes to USASOC after serving as the senior enlisted leader for Special Operations Command-Korea, according to the command’s news release. She became a voice language analyst after joining the Army in 1996 and her previous assignments include serving as the Joint Special Operations Command J-2 senior enlisted adviser and command sergeant major for the Joint Special Operations Command Intelligence Brigade.
Her military awards include two Bronze Star Medals, the Legion of Merit, the Defense Superior Service Medal, three Meritorious Service Medals, four Army Commendation Medals, the Order of Saint Michael, and the Knowlton Award, according to USASOC.
Command Sgt. Maj. JoAnn Naumann became the first woman to serve as U.S. Army Special Operations Command’s senior enlisted leader on May 1, 2023. (U.S. Army photo.) On Monday, Naumann replaced USASOC’s former Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Weimer, who was selected in December to become the next Sergeant Major of the Army. Weimer will take on that new role when current Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston retires in August.
Weimer told Naumann at Monday’s change of command ceremony that he was excited that she was chosen to be USASOC’s next senior enlisted leader.
“I have the utmost confidence in your ability to continue the high standard of leadership required to shepherd this amazing formation with its current missions but also evolving it for 2030 and beyond,” Weimer said at the change of command ceremony.
Naumann takes the reins as senior enlisted leader for USASOC as the U.S. military’s entire special operations community is still fighting the Islamic State group and other terrorist organizations in the Middle East and Africa while also looking at how special operators would engage in a war against China or Russia.
Defense officials often cite China, which has the largest navy in the world, as the top national security threat to the United States. Military leaders have warned that China could try to invade Taiwan by 2027, if not sooner, potentially leading to a war with the United States.
“Our nation and the world are at an inflection point,” Naumann said. “We’re challenged by new adversaries and rapidly advancing technologies, yet ARSOF is absolutely leading the way, and that is because we have the best people. To the men and women of ARSOF, you are the most talented professional, and dedicated people I know.”
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FILE: Soldiers provide force protection for Marines at the California-Mexico border at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in California, Nov. 14, 2018. (Sgt. Brandon Maldonado/U.S. Marine Corps).The Pentagon is sending approximately 1,500 active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border as immigration restrictions are set to expire on May 11.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has approved a request from the Department of Homeland Security for the troops to augment U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials on the southern border, Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said on Tuesday.
“For 90 days, these 1,500 military personnel will fill critical capability gaps, such as ground-based detection and monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support, until CBP [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] can address these needs through contracted support,” Ryder said in a statement. “Military personnel will not directly participate in law enforcement activities. This deployment to the border is consistent with other forms of military support to DHS [Department of Homeland Security] over many years.”
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Texas National Guard soldiers stand guard at the U.S.-Mexico border on January 07, 2023 as viewed from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. (John Moore/Getty Images)The troops will come from the Army and Marine Corps. The first active-duty service members are expected to begin arriving at the border on May 10, Ryder told reporters on Tuesday.
The Pentagon is looking at possibly replacing these active-duty troops with National Guardsmen and Reserve service members or contractors, Ryder said during a Pentagon news briefing.
The Department of Homeland Security requested additional support from the military ahead of the expected surge of migrants at the border starting on May 11, when immigration restrictions are set to expire, Ryder said.
Under former President Donald Trump, the U.S. government used a rule known as Title 42 to prevent asylum seekers from entering the United States without adjudicating their claims. The policy was ostensibly intended to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
Leaders of the 147th Attack Wing look across the Texas-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley area of south Texas, February 22, 2022. (Staff Sgt. Vincent Pfeifferling/Texas Air National Guard)“It was designed to deal with the pandemic, but it’s used as a means to expel people at the border,” Biden told reporters during a Jan. 5 White House news briefing.
Now that Title 42 is expected to end on May 11, U.S. cities along the southern border are bracing for a surge in migrants trying to enter the United States to request asylum.
One reason why the troops come from the active-duty force is that it takes time to mobilize service members from the National Guard and Reserves, Ryder said.
“Really, this is about being responsive,” Ryder said. “[The Department of Homeland Security] has asked us for this support. And so, the ability to rapidly provide support from our active-duty forces is really the key here.”
Texas National Guard soldiers stand guard at the U.S.-Mexico border on January 07, 2023 as viewed from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. (John Moore/Getty Images)Roughly 2,500 National Guardsmen are currently deployed to the border, where they are helping Customs and Border Protection officials by providing “detection and monitoring and aviation support,” Ryder said.
The U.S. military has deployed troops to the southern border for decades in attempts to stem illegal immigration. Former President Bill Clinton sent Marines to the border as part of Operation Gatekeeper, during which one Marine shot and killed an 18-year-old goat herder whom he mistakenly thought was shooting at Marines.
Then-President George W. Bush ordered 6,000 National Guard troops to deploy to the U.S.-Mexico border in 2006 under Operation Jump Start. Former President Barack Obama later deployed about 1,200 National Guardsmen to the southern border in 2010 as part of Operation Phalanx,and Trump sent thousands of National Guardsmen and active-duty service members to the border starting in 2018 to help border patrol officials prevent asylum seekers from Central America from crossing into the United States.
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U.S. Marines with the Forward Command Element, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, board an MV-22B Osprey assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 365, 2d Marine Aircraft Wing, during the Marine Expeditionary Unit Field Exercise (MEU FEX) at Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina, Aug. 23, 2022. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Eric Ramirez).A “small task-organized element” of Marines has deployed to the U.S. Central Command area of operations to provide air defense support in the region, the Marine Corps announced on Saturday.
The element consists of 20 Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit who will “will temporarily provide routine air defense support to a larger, layered air-defense effort” within the CENTCOM area, a Marine Corps spokesman told Marine Corps Times, which first reported the size and mission of the deployment.
Based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and part of the II Marine Expeditionary Force, the 26th MEU is currently entering “the final stage of its pre-deployment training program” ahead of a formal deployment to “the tri-COCOM region, including EUCOM, AFRICOM and CENTCOM,” the Corps said in a statement.
The CENTCOM AOR consists of 21 countries in and around the Middle East, and while the Corps is keeping the details of the deployment vague in the name of operational security, a spokesman did confirm to Marine Corps Times that the deployment “has no direct connection to the ongoing situation in Sudan” which has seen the U.S. military swoop in to evacuate Americans over the last several weeks.
Coincidentally, the 26th MEU conducted non-combatant evacuation operations training just days before the announcement of the element’s deployment amid the Sudan evacuation push.
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It’s worth noting that news of the 26th MEU element’s air defense deployment comes on the heels of air defense unique training by the expeditionary unit in the littorals of eastern Virginia and North Carolina in late January that saw Marines strap several specialized counter-drone systems to the deck of an amphibious warship during a simulated defense of amphibious task force (DATF) exercise.
Those counter-drone systems included a rare Light Armored Vehicle-Electronic Warfare variant (LAV-EW) and a Light Marine Air Defense Integrated System (L-MADIS) array mounted on a Counter Unmanned Aerial Surveillance Utility Task Vehicle, with both vehicles strapped to the deck of the Navy amphibious assault ship USS Bataan.
Both systems are designed to knock explosive-laden drones out of the sky by disrupting their electronics or neutralizing their communications with operators elsewhere, a critical capability given the rise of commercial off-the-shelf drone systems in the Middle East that some U.S. military leaders have called the biggest threat to U.S. troops in the region since the advent of the improvised explosive device.
Indeed, the January LAV-EW and L-MADIS experiment aboard the Bataan marked the 26th MEU’s first time experimenting with these new air defense concepts “in accordance with Force Design 2030 for our upcoming deployment to the Fifth and Sixth fleets areas of operations,” an expeditionary unit spokesman told Task & Purpose at the time.
It’s unclear if these unique air defense assets were part of the Marine element’s new deployment, but with more and more expeditionary units experimenting with counter-drone systems during pre-deployment exercises, it likely won’t be long until we see Marine grunts flexing their electronic warfare muscles in the CENTCOM region — something the Corps appeared to implicitly acknowledge in its announcement.
The 26th MEU “serves as one of the Nation’s premier crisis response forces capable of conducting amphibious operations, crisis response, and limited contingency operations,” according to the Marine Corps. “Coupled with the [Bataan Amphibious Ready Group], the 26th MEU serves as a premier stand-in force with a full complement of all-domain capabilities to operate persistently within the littorals or weapons engagement zones of an adversary.”
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A Russian Su-35 Flanker fighter jet is seen maneuvering unprofessionally within 2,000 feet of a U.S. Air Force fighter jet during an intercept in Coalition Force airspace over Syria on April 18, 2023. (U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Jermaine Ayers).The skies over Syria are starting to look a lot like Tom Cruise’s first encounter with the MiGs in Top Gun.
Despite established rules designed to prevent any sort of conflict between Russian and U.S. forces operating parallel to one another in Syria, Russian pilots are locking onto U.S. aircraft with their radars and taking other provocative actions on a daily basis, according to officials with U.S. Air Forces Central Command.
“Russian forces have violated deconfliction protocols with Coalition forces almost 100 times in two months, conducting armed overflights of ground forces in Syria 26 times, flying within 500 feet of U.S. aircraft, and in the last week, jamming U.S. aircraft electromagnetic systems,” Air Force Lt Gen Alexus Grynkewich, head of AFCENT, told Task & Purpose. “These behaviors significantly interfere with AFCENT’s ability to execute operations safely and effectively and increase the likelihood of miscalculation.”
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Grynkewich recently told Defense One editor Marcus Weisgerber that Russian pilots over Syria have become so aggressive toward U.S. aircraft that their behavior is encroaching on open hostility.
A Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter takes off at the Russian military base of Hmeimim, located south-east of the city of Latakia in Hmeimim, Latakia Governorate, Syria, on September 26, 2019. (Maxime Popov/AFP via Getty Images)“From an air-to-air perspective, we have typically stayed a few miles from each other in all instances and just shouted from a distance, let each other know we’re there when we had some sort of an interaction,” Grynkewich said. “And now they’re aggressively maneuvering, almost like they’re trying to a dogfight, if you will. And that’s very concerning area wise.”
Separately, Grynkewich also told Wall Street Journal reporter Dion Nissenbaum that he is most concerned about Russian aircraft that fly over U.S. military positions while armed with air-to-ground munitions, noting that U.S. military aircraft do not fly over Russian troops with such weapons.
“I don’t think that anyone’s going to give an order for Russians to go in, attack a position or anything like that,” Grynkewich told the Wall Street Journal. “But I do think it just increases the risk of miscalculation. Why would you even put yourself in a situation where that would be physically possible? You ought to avoid those locations or at least the positions of their ground forces. That’s where I see the most risk.”
About 900 U.S. troops are currently deployed to Syria as part of an ongoing mission to prevent the Islamic State group from reemerging as a major threat in the region. Russia is an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and its forces also operate in Syria.
Needless to say, Russian and U.S. troops in Syria have not always gotten along. In February 2018, U.S. military aircraft decimated a force of Wagner Group mercenaries that had attacked an outpost in Syria where American troops were based.Two years later, videos emerged showing that Russian and U.S. military vehicles were locked in an undeclared road war in northeastern Syria.
A Russian air force Sukhoi Su-35 fighter lands at the Russian military base of Hmeimim, located south-east of the city of Latakia in Hmeimim, Latakia Governorate, Syria, on September 26, 2019. (Maxime Popov/AFP via Getty Images)But tensions between the United States and Russia reached – and perhaps surpassed Cold War levels – after the latter’s invasion of Ukraine last February. Since then, the U.S. government has provided the Ukrainians with $35.4 billion in military assistance, including High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, that have helped Ukraine inflict heavy casualties on the Russians.
Russia is now playing an aerial chess match with the United States and NATO all over the world. In March, a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone crashed over the Black Sea after a Russian SU-27 “Flanker” fighter jet collided with it.
The incident occurred as two Russian jets tried to dump fuel in the Reaper’s flight path. The Russian pilot whose plane struck the drone later received a military award.
Close encounters between Russian and NATO aircraft increase the chances that the new Cold War could turn hot. In September, a Russian fighter pilot who misinterpreted what a radar operator told him tried to destroy a manned British surveillance aircraft over the Black Sea, but a malfunction stopped from the missile from launching, according to the New York Times, which cited a classified intelligence report that was one of many documents allegedly leaked by Airman 1st Class Jack Douglas Teixeira.
A Russian Su-27 fighter jet intercepts an U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea on March 14, 2023. (U.S. Air Force)From the number of aggressive actions that Russian pilots have taken over Syria recently, it’s clear that they are trying to provoke U.S. pilots into a fight and then blaming the incident on the United States, said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, dean of the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies think tank.
The Russians would likely use such a confrontation with U.S. aircraft to justify attacks on NATO forces in Europe, expanding the Ukraine war, Deptula told Task & Purpose. The behavior shown by Russian pilots over Syria is not just unprofessional: Jamming is a hostile act.
“The U.S. will bend over backwards not to engage the Russians except in most dire of circumstances,” Deptula said. “Could Russian pilots open fire on U.S. aircraft over Syria? Sure, if they want to die. Self-defense is a right inherent in international law.”
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This general view taken on November 4, 2022, shows a poster displaying a Russian soldier with a slogan reading 'Glory to the Heroes of Russia' decorating a street near the 'PMC Wagner Centre', associated with the founder of the Wagner private military group (PMC) Yevgeny Prigozhin, during the official opening of the office block on the National Unity Day, in Saint Petersburg.(Photo by Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images).A recent report out of Ukraine suggests that at least some of the fighting there is not just between the Ukrainian and Russian militaries, but between Russian soldiers and members of the Wagner Group private military company as well.
According to a recent update from the Ukrainian military, a dispute between Russian soldiers and mercenaries from the Wagner Group in Luhansk Oblast escalated into a full-on firefight with multiple participants killed.
“With no significant achievements on the battlefield, the Russian Armed Forces and ‘Wagner Group’ PMC are increasingly attempting to find someone to blame for the defeats. They shift the responsibility for their own tactical miscalculations and losses suffered onto each other,” reads an April 23 update from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“As a result, a fight between Russian Armed Forces and PMC Wagner mercenaries broke out in the settlement of Stanytsia Luhanska (Luhansk oblast) recently,” the update continued. “It escalated into a shootout with participants on both sides killed as a result.”
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The Ukrainian military’s report was, of course, not confirmed by the Russian government, but tensions between the military and Kremlin-connected oligarch Yevgeny Prigohzin’s mercenary group have been simmering in public for the last several months now, with both sides sniping at each other in a veritable war of words.
At the beginning of the year, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have taken the Ukrainian city of Soledar, but did not note the presence of the Wagner Group, prompting a complaint from Prigohzin.
In February, with Wagner Group mercenaries heavily engaged around the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, Prigohzin gave an interview to a popular Russian military blogger, criticizing the military for not supplying his private contractors with sufficient ammunition.
“I posted this photo of one of the points where we collect the dead, and all these guys died yesterday because of this so-called ammunition hunger,” Prigohzin said. “There should have been five times fewer dead … Who’s fault is this that they died? Those who should have solved the supply issue are to blame.”
Prigohzin went on to name Russian Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia Gen. Valery Gerasimov as responsible for the supply issues around Bakhmut, where the Wagner Group was largely credited with achieving minimal territorial gains.
A mural depicting mercenaries of Russia’s Wagner Group that reads: “Wagner Group – Russian knights” on a wall in Belgrade, Serbia, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)By April, Prigohzin went so far as to question how much longer Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would continue.
“The ideal option would be to announce the end of the special military operation and declare that Russia has achieved all of its planned goals — and, in some respects, we really have achieved them,” Prigozhin wrote in a more than 3,000-word blog post on April 14.
A week later, Prigohzin accused Russian “decision-makers” of “treason,” stating in an interview that “a criminal group did not give [Wagner forces] ammunition” and adding that, “I think what is happening today is a crime against Russia and Russian people. The criminals must be held accountable.”
As the war enters its 15th month, Ukraine is widely assumed to be preparing for a large offensive to break the stalemate that has marked the recent months of the conflict. From the beginning of the war, Russia’s military has been marked by a general lack of discipline, perhaps in no small part due to its near-total lack of a trained corps of non-commissioned officers, which makes the possibility of in-fighting among the various factions of Russian combatants entirely unsurprising.
The Wagner Group, meanwhile, has gained plenty of notoriety for recruiting convicts to fight in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, although the organization claims to have stopped the practice earlier this year. In the meantime, Prigohzin has touted Wagner as essentially the closest thing Russia has to a competent military force, which is at the heart of the dispute between the military and mercenaries.
Last week, Prigohzin once again took to the media to threaten the possibility of Wagner Group leaving the battlefield.
“Now, with regard to the need in general for shells at the front, what we want. Today we are coming to the point where Wagner is ending,” Prigohzin told Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov on April 28, according to Reuters. “Wagner, in a short period of time, will cease to exist. We will become history, nothing to worry about, things like this happen.”
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Ukrainian soldiers operate a PKT heavy machine gun atop a remote-controlled turret using a Steam Deck in mid-April. (TPO Media).Soldiers in Ukraine are reportedly using video game controllers to operate remote-controlled machine gun turrets as part of the Ukrainian military’s efforts to repel Russian invaders.
In an April 21 Facebook post, Ukrainian news outlet TPO Media published photos and videos showing Ukrainian soldiers using a Steam Deck — the Linux-based handheld gaming console released by Valve in February of last year — to operate a so-called ‘Sabre’ weapons platform.
The Sabre is a remotely-operated turret designed to fire a 7.62×54 mm PKT or PKM belt-fed heavy machine gun, according to the systems’ funding website. In the TPO Media footage, the Sabre appears to be firing a PKT machine gun that’s typically reserved for armored vehicles.
As Vice points out, the Sabre has been around since 2015, when a crowdfunding campaign launched after Russia first annexed Crimea from Ukraine raised around $12,000 over two years to fund and deploy approximately 10 of the turrets.
“This type of gun turret is urgently needed for special military operations,” a representative for the Sabre said in a 2015 video demonstrating the turret. “This device will save lives because the military will not be as exposed to fire.”
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While this appears to be the first documented appearance of a Steam Deck in active use in a combat zone, the slow infiltration of off-the-shelf and custom-designed video game-style controllers into military weapons development pipelines is nothing new. The U.S. Army has adopted off-the-shelf Xbox 360 controllers to operate small unmanned ground vehicles to carry out explosive ordnance disposal missions for more than 15 years. More recently, the U.S. Navy has explored the potential applications for those same controllers aboard Virginia-class submarines.
More recently, the U.S. military has seen the proliferation of custom video-game style controllers that emulate their commercial cousins for use with advanced weapons systems, namely the Manuever-Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) turret that tops Stryker armored fighting vehicles in Europe and the Navy/Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) ground-based anti-ship missile launchers that are critical to a future fight against China in the Pacific.
As Peter Singer, a fellow at the New America Foundation and the author of LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Mediawho consulted on the Call of Duty series of video games, previously told Task & Purpose, the proliferation of video game-style controllers among both the U.S. and foreign militaries probably won’t slow down anytime soon.
“The gaming companies spent millions of dollars developing an optimal, intuitive, easy-to-learn user interface, and then they went and spent years training up the user base for the U.S. military on how to use that interface,” Singer previously said. “These designs aren’t happenstance, and the same pool they’re pulling from for their customer base, the military is pulling from … and the training is basically already done.”
While the military’s emulation of video games may be welcome news for U.S. and Ukrainian service members alike, it’s unclear if the Sabre remoted controlled turret comes with Rip Its for energy-drink-fueled combat sessions.
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Picture of Andrews tweeted by Jack Hanrahan.Marine veteran Cooper “Harris” Andrews has been killed while fighting near Bakhmut, Ukraine, according to CNN, which spoke to Andrews’ mother and colleagues.
Willow Andrews told CNN that her son was killed on April 19 during a mortar attack along a road that the Ukrainian military uses to evacuate civilians from the besieged city of Bakhmut. His body has not yet been recovered due to the intense fighting in the area, she said.
A State Department spokesperson told Task & Purpose on Monday that an American citizen had died in Ukraine, but declined to say whether that person was Andrews.
“We are in touch with the family and providing all possible consular assistance,” the spokesperson said. “Out of respect for the family’s privacy during this difficult time, we have nothing further to add.”
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Andrews served in the Marine Corps from 2017 to 2022 as a ground electronics transmission systems maintainer, according to an official service record provided to Task & Purpose. He left the Marine Corps as a sergeant and his last duty assignment was with headquarters battalion, 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
His military awards include the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, and Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.
Independent journalist Jack Hanrahan tweeted news of Andrews’ death on Sunday, including a selfie that Andrews had sent a friend showing him holding a sledgehammer along with the message: “If I am martyred, remember me with my hammer.”
Andrews and two others were killed after being ambushed by Russian forces while they were defending Ukrainians being evacuated from Bakhmut, according to an Instagram post from the Popular Front, a grassroots media organization that Hanrahan runs.
“Cooper was a former US Marine and lifelong leftist organizer,” the Instagram post says. “He was a man of action. He didn’t scream into the void through his keyboard, he did real life.”
The Instagram post also said that Andrews served as a volunteer firefighter in Texas, Colorado, and Idaho when those states battled wildfires, and he also taught self-defense classes.
After initially joining Ukraine’s International Legion, Andrews joined another group, The Black Headquarter, which posted a separate tribute to him on Instagram calling him “a brave fighter and a reliable comrade.”
Bakhmut has been a grinding battle for months as the Ukrainians have fought stubbornly to hold onto the remnants of the city despite suffering heavy casualties. The Russian private military company Wagner has sent thousands of mercenaries recruited from prisons on suicidal attacks against Ukranian positions.
At least 12 Americans have died while fighting in Ukraine since 2022, including retired Marine Capt Grady Kurpasi, a former Scout Sniper; Daniel Swift, who served with the Navy SEALs before deserting in 2019; Andrew Peters, an Army veteran who deployed to Afghanistan in 2014; Pete Reed, a Marine veteran who was working with a team of medical professionals at the time of his death; Edward Wilton, an Army veteran who had been assigned to Fort Benning, Georgia; Dane Partridge, a former Army infantryman who had deployed to Iraq; Timothy Griffin, of New York State; Willy Joseph Cancel, a Marine veteran; Stephen Zabielski, of Florida; Bryan Young, an Army veteran; and Luke Lucyszyn, of South Carolina.
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U.S. soldiers drive an M1131A1 Stryker Vehicle to the Tapa Training Area to begin winter camp in Estonia, Feb. 15, 2016. (Staff Sgt. Steven M. Colvin/U.S. Army).Ahead of Ukraine’s long-expected spring counteroffensive against Russian forces in the Ukrainian east, the head of NATO said that the military alliance has delivered nearly all of its promised combat vehicles to Kyiv.
“More than 98% of the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine have already been delivered. That means over 1,550 armored vehicles, 230 tanks, and other equipment, including vast amounts of ammunition,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said at a press conference in Brussels on Thursday, April 27.
NATO member states and partner countries such as Australia have been donating weapon systems and ammunition to Kyiv over the past several months. Those include American-provided Strykers, Bradley fighting vehicles and German Leopard 2 tanks. Ukraine had been outmatched when it came to armor and vehicles when the war started, relying on older Soviet-era tanks, as well as modified civilian cars and captured Russian tanks. In recent months NATO member states have been delivering their own pieces of armor, and training Ukrainian soldiers on the new weapons system.
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Along with the vehicles, the centerpiece of Ukraine’s preparations is nine new brigades, approximately 30,000 troops in total, all trained by NATO forces.
“This will put Ukraine in a strong position to continue to retake occupied territory,” Stoltenberg added.
Ukraine previously recaptured swaths of land in the early fall in 2022, before winter set in and the fighting turned into more static fighting. Heavy artillery combat has depleted much of the country’s ammunition supplies, which NATO is trying to replenish. With the weather changing, and with new Western-supplied arms and training, Ukraine is preparing for a new offensive, expected to focus on the country’s east, controlled by Russian troops and Russian-aligned separatist forces.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the oligarch in charge of the Wagner Group, has expressed his own belief that the amassed Ukrainian forces are enough to retake all of the city of Bakhmut. It has become a focal point of the fighting since the shift to a static war of attrition. Both the Wagner Group and the Kremlin have put significant focus on taking the city, viewing it as a symbol of Ukraine’s resistance.
During his comments, Stoltenberg warned about underestimating Russia in the fight, noting the Russian military’s willingness to send thousands of troops to the front lines despite high casualties over the last year. Both sides have incurred heavy losses in the fighting, with both trench warfare and massive artillery barrages inflicting high casualties. Russia for its part has had its spetsnaz special operations forces heavily weakened from frontline combat.
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FILE: U.S. Army AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters in flight over an Alaskan mountain range near Fort Wainwright, Alaska, June 3, 2019. (CW2 Cameron Roxberry/U.S. Army).The Army has released the names of the three soldiers who died in a helicopter crash in Alaska this past week. They are:
- Chief Warrant Officer 3 Christopher Robert Eramo, 39, of Oneonta, New York.
- Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kyle D. McKenna, 28, of Colorado Springs, Colorado.
- Warrant Officer 1 Stewart Duane Wayment, 32, of North Logan, Utah.
A fourth soldier was injured in the crash and taken to a hospital, but has not been identified.
All the soldiers belonged to 1st Attack Battalion, 25th Aviation based at Fort Wainwright.
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“The battalion is devastated and mourning the loss of three of our best,” said Lt. Col. Matthew C. Carlsen, the 1-25th AB commander. “Our loss, however, cannot be compared to the suffering and loss which the family members of Chief Warrant Officer 3 Chris Eramo, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kyle McKenna and Warrant Officer 1 Stewart ‘Stew’ Wayment are experiencing.
The three soldiers were killed on Thursday after two AH-64 Apache helicopters collided with each other near Healy, Alaska. At the time they were on their way back to base after completing a training mission.
The cause of the collision is still undetermined. A team from the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center is in charge of the investigation. Per Department of Defense regulations, the USCARC will not be releasing any information about potential causes or its own recommendations.
Following Thursday’s crash, the Army ordered a 24-hour stand down for all aerial units. The Army has between May 1-5 to complete it while the Army NationalGuardand Army Reserve have through May 31.
The incident in Alaska comes only a few weeks after two Army HH-60 Black Hawk helicopters crashed in a field in Kentucky, killing nine soldiers with the 101st Airborne. At the time the helicopters were flying in a multiship formation as part of a routine training exercise involving night vision goggles. That crash is also under investigation.
There have been other aircraft-related incidents this year, including a fatal crash in February that killed two Tennessee Army National Guard soldiers, as well as another incident in Alaska where two soldiers were hurt after an Apache helicopter rolled during an attempted take off.
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Sudanese Army soldiers in Port Sudan on April 16, 2023. (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images).A week after American special operations forces evacuated staff and their families from the U.S. embassy in Khartoum due to ongoing fighting, the departments of State and Defense carried out the first major evacuation of U.S. citizens in Sudan.
Roughly 300 people, mostly American but also local staff at the American embassy and some European nationals, were able to leave the capital and make it to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. The evacuation was organized by the State Department. From Port Sudan, the evacuees will go to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The convoy left Khartoum by bus, escorted by American military drones. The move comes as infighting between the top two leaders in Sudan approaches its third week, with hundreds reported killed so far.
Staff are on-site in Jeddah to help the evacuees with consular support and other services, the State Department said in a statement.
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The U.S. military is currently moving naval vessels to the region, in addition to the drones provided to escort the convoy. For the evacuation from Khartoum it “deployed U.S. intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets to support air and land evacuation routes,” according to a statement from Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh.
The State Department did not say how many Americans in total were evacuated today, or how many remain in Sudan.
A separate evacuation today by ferry took roughly 1,900 people from Port Sudan to Jeddah. A flight,organized by the United Arab Emirates, took 128 people to Abu Dhabi, including some Americans.
Fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Security Forces continues, entering its third week. Violence began on April 15. The conflict is between Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, run by Mohammad Hamdan Daglo, also known as “Hemedti.” The two leaders seized power in a coup in 2021, just two years after civilian protests and a separate coup removed long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir from office. Protests calling for civilian rule had been ongoing until the start of the fighting this month.
Currently the army is moving forces back to the capital to expel RSF troops in the city.
Last weekend, following nine days of fighting, the U.S. military arrived by helicopter to the embassy in Khartoum. Special operations forces evacuated embassy staff and their families. The embassy is closed for an indeterminate amount of time, which left many Americans in the country without consular services. Today the State Department said that it worked to contact any Americans in Sudan about the evacuation to Port Sudan.
“We messaged every U.S. citizen in Sudan who communicated with us during the crisis and provided specific instructions about joining this convoy to those who were interested in departing via the land route,” a release from the department said. “We encourage U.S. citizens who want to leave Sudan but chose not to participate in this convoy to contact the Department of State using the crisis intake form on our website.”
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The HMS Anson attack submarine under construction in 2022. (Photo courtesy the British Ministry of Defence, via Wikimedia Commons).This is a different kind of leak. A series of files detailing some of the inner workings of the British Royal Navy’s nuclear-powered submarine the HMS Anson were found inside the bathroom of a pub in England, soon after a busy night at the bar.
The files were found on the floor of a bathroom stall inside the Furness Railway pub in Barrow-in-Furness, not far from the BAE Systems shipyard in the town. The HMS Anson, an Astute-class nuclear-powered attack submarine, was built there.
The story was originally reported by the British tabloid The Sun, was confirmed in part by the British Royal Navy, which confirmed the veracity of the files. In a statement to the press, the Royal Navy said the files “are generic training documents that carry no classified information.”
“However, we take all security matters extremely seriously and will investigate the circumstances of their discovery,” the statement continued.
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Details on the files, including images shared by The Sun, include documents marked “UK OFFICIAL – SENSITIVE” as well as information on the submarine’s hydraulics systems. A Royal Navy lanyard was also found next to the files. Per The Sun, the pub was full of both civilians and military members on a “lively” night before the documents were found.
Task & Purpose has not seen the documents beyond what was shared by The Sun.
It’s unclear who left the files inside the pub bathroom, and there is no indication they were left as part of an intentional leak or espionage.
The HMS Anson is the fifth of the Royal Navy’s Astute-class nuclear-powered submarines. It set sail for the first time in February, to a base in Scotland to undergo trials. It is a hunter-killer submarine, 97 meters in length and equipped with Tomahawk missiles among other armaments.
The Furness Railway pub is located approximately 20 minutes from the shipyard by foot. It was formerly a department store before becoming a pub and images of it show a clean space with framed photos and maps detailing old rail systems and the launching of past Royal Navy ships. This incident appears to be the first time documents tied to a nuclear-powered submarine were left on the premises.
The documents do not appear to be anywhere as massive as the leak of U.S. military documents discovered this month on two Discord servers, allegedly by Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira. However, the Astute-class submarines are among the Royal Navy’s latest vessels. When the HMS Anson set sail for the first time in February, the Royal Navy called the Astute submarines “the most advanced boats ever operated by the Royal Navy.”
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U.S. Army AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter assigned to 1st Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment Attack Reconnaissance Battalion (ARB), June 3, 2019. (U.S. Army).A day after two U.S. Army helicopters collided, killing three soldiers, the Army is ordering a stand down for all aerial units in order to review safety measures.
The order, announced on Friday, April 28 by Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville, calls for a 24-hour stand down in aerial operations in order to review safety matters and refresh their training. Aerial teams who are carrying out “critical missions” are exempt from being grounded.
“The safety of our aviators is our top priority, and this stand down is an important step to make certain we are doing everything possible to prevent accidents and protect our personnel,” McConville said in his order. “During this stand down, we will focus on safety and training protocols to ensure our pilots and crews have the knowledge, training and awareness to safely complete their assigned mission.”
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Per McConville’s order, all active-duty aviation units must complete the stand down between Monday-Friday, May 1-5. For members of the Army National Guard and Army Reserve, they have through May 31 to carry out the stand down, due to their relative training schedules. During the stand down, the Army will conduct a review of flight mission briefing, as well as maintenance training.
The decision comes a day after three soldiers with the 1st Attack Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment died when two AH-64 Apache helicopters collided and ultimately crashed near Healy, Alaska. Another soldier was injured and taken to a hospital. The helicopters were on their way back from a training flight when the collision occurred.
Along with Thursday’s fatal crash, the Army has had other aerial disasters this year. In March, a pair of HH-60 Black Hawk helicopters crashed in Kentucky, killing a total of nine soldiers. Both that and Thursday’s incident are under investigation. Per McConville’s statement, the Army has not found any pattern or commonality linking the two incidents.
In addition, a pair of Tennessee Army National Guard soldiers died in February when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Alabama and two soldiers were injured after their Apache helicopter rolled while attempting to lift off in Alaska.
The Army Isn’t the only branch to issue safety-related stand downs following deadly incidents. Last June the U.S. Navy issued a similar stand down following a series of crashes involving aircraft. That came after five mishaps in two weeks. The Marine Corps issued a similar stand down order that month following its own crashes.
“We are deeply saddened by those we have lost,” McConville added in his statement. “It is their loss that makes it all the more important we review our safety procedures and training protocols, and ensure we are training and operating at the highest levels of safety and proficiency.”
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Team Leader Sgt. 1st Class Erik Vargas of the New Mexico National Guard, and teammates Staff Sgt. Benjamin Cotten and Staff Sgt. Allen Smith of the Arkansas National Guard during the International Sniper Competition at Fort Benning, Georgia, held this April. (U.S. Army photo).A trio of Army National Guard soldiers put their marksmanship skills on display this month, taking home the top spot at the 2023 International Sniper Competition, held April 10-13 at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Team leader Sgt. 1st Class Erik Vargas of the New Mexico Army National Guard, along with Staff Sgts. Benjamin Cotten and Allen Smith, both of the Arkansas Army National Guard, bested 34 other teams representing different branches of the U.S. military as well as snipers from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
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For three days straight, the snipers were tested on their shooting skills, physical endurance, and problem-solving abilities across a variety of scenarios and with multiple weapons systems.
“It’s a full team event,” Vargas told Task & Purpose. “I was primary for the [M-17] pistol and [MK-12 special purpose rifle] carbine, Allen was shooting primarily with the 7.62 round and Ben used the Magnum [.300 Norma Magnum] rounds, but everyone is tested on all their abilities.”
The first event was a “stalking” exercise, which required the teams to “infiltrate at night, and continue movement into the day.”
“For this event, they had drones, thermal capabilities,” Cotten told Task & Purpose. “It was really designed to replicate a near-peer enemy.”
Other events tested the ability of the snipers to think and act quickly.
“You’d have the team leader have to assemble basically a jigsaw puzzle, and then that would reveal a target designation, then we would have to identify the target and engage,” said Cotten.
Instead of a jigsaw puzzle, competitors would also have to, for instance, solve a math equation, the answer to which would give them the correct target to engage. Other exercises involved the snipers engaging targets from multiple firing positions, in urban environments, and in timed scenarios. In one event, for instance, the teams were presented with weighted ammunition boxes before a ruck march – the less weight they chose to carry, the fewer rounds of ammunition they would have to shoot.
“There was always a physical stressor element,” said Smith. “And very little sleep.”
“All the events had a very low round count,” Vargas added. “So you really couldn’t afford to miss.”
Despite winning this year’s competition, the winning team remained humble.
“The best part is just the networking and learning from everyone else. We all come from different backgrounds, so it’s a chance to interact with other people, learn from other people, and share experiences,” Cotten said.
“We see a lot of the same people at different events,” Smith added. “Everyone has been training and putting in the work for a while.”
Vargas, the team leader, enlisted in the Army in 2008. He served in the 3rd Ranger Battalion, including time as a sniper team leader, before transferring to the National Guard, where he is assigned to 1-200 Infantry Battalion, as well as working full-time as a security executive in Las Vegas. Cotten enlisted in the National Guard in 2006 and deployed to Iraq in 2010. He was previously a sniper section leader and has been an instructor at the Army National Guard Marksmanship Training Center for the past three years. Smith joined the National Guard in 2003, deployed to Iraq in 2004, and has also served as a sniper team leader and marksmanship instructor at the National Guard Marksmanship Training Center. The two of them are also firefighters in Shreveport, Louisiana.
All three are members of the All Guard Marksmanship Team, composed of some of the best marksmen from across the various state national guards, and all have competed before in the Winston V. Wilson sniper competition, another international sniper competition that is organized by the National Guard.
“A lot of the train-up, before we come together as a team, is on the individual,” said Vargas. “But once we have all the fundamentals down, it’s all about communication within the team.”
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Airman first class Jack Teixeria and his bedroom. (U.S. Air Force/U.S. Department of Justice).Airman first class Jack Teixeria is many things: a member of the 102nd Intelligence WIng of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, the alleged source of dozens of classified documents which appeared on popular gaming network Discord earlier this month, and a prolific online racist with a history of posting violent remarks across the Internet.
Amid the chaos that Teixeria, who joined the Guard in 2019 as a Cyber Transport Systems journeyman, has unleashed across the U.S. national security apparatus with his leaks, let’s add “total fucking dork” to the list.
The U.S. government’s motion in support of pretrial detention against Teixeria, filed on Wednesday, states the airman first class “poses a serious flight risk” due to the nature of his crimes and the hefty prison sentence he currently faces and “poses a danger to the U.S. at large” due to an arsenal of multiple weapons maintained in a gun locker “just feet” from his bed at his mother’s house, including “handguns, bolt-action rifles, shotguns, an AK-style high-capacity weapon, and a gas mask.”
A home arsenal while living in mom’s basement and leaking sensitive intelligence is one thing, but, well, the bedroom itself is painted in camouflage patterns. And we can’t not say something about that.
Airman first class Jack Teixeria’s bedroom. (U.S. Department of Justice)Now, no one on the Task & Purpose staff is an interior designer (and our editor literally lived in a van at one point), but the camo decor in Teixeira’s room gives off the same vibe as that kid who buys the moto t-shirts from the PX during their basic training family day pass. It’s the vibe of the weird private who can’t qualify with his assigned rifle but still sports a Punisher skull tattoo with flames on his shoulder.
Does Teixeira drive a Dodge Charger purchased with a 24% interest rate? If his room decor is any indication, he probably does. Would he propose to an exotic dancer working the Saturday afternoon shift after blowing his entire paycheck on no-contact lapdances? We wouldn’t rule it out.
It’s no wonder that, at the time of this writing, this photo is at the top of r/JustBootThings on reddit. To paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart on pornography: I know boot when I see it. And goddamn, this is peak boot.
Teixeira currently faces up to 25 years in prison.
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FILE: U.S. Army AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters in flight over an Alaskan mountain range near Fort Wainwright, Alaska, June 3, 2019. (CW2 Cameron Roxberry/U.S. Army).Three soldiers were killed and a fourth was injured when two AH-64 Apache helicopters collided on Thursday over Alaska, according to the 11th Airborne Division.
The injured soldier is being treated at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, according to a news release from the division that did not include the soldier’s current medical condition.
“This is an incredible loss for these soldiers’ families, their fellow soldiers, and for the division,” Maj. Gen. Brian Eifler, commanding general of the 11th Airborne Division, said in a statement. “Our hearts and prayers go out to the families, friends, and loved ones, and we are making the full resources of the Army available to support them.”
Both Apache helicopters belonged to the 1st Attack Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment based at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, the news release said. The helicopters collided while returning from a training mission and crashed near Healy, Alaska.
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No further information about the circumstances of the crash was available as of Friday morning.
Two of the soldiers were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash and the third soldier died while being transported to Fairbanks Hospital.
The names of the three soldiers killed are being withheld pending next of kin notification.
Investigators with the Army Combat Readiness Center at Fort Novosel, Alabama, will look into what caused the crash.
“The Fort Wainwright community is one of the tightest military communities I’ve seen in my 32 years of service,” Eifler said in his statement. “I have no doubt they will pull together during this exceptional time of need and provide comfort to our families of our fallen.”
This is the third deadly Army helicopter crash in as many months. Two members of the Tennessee Army National Guard were killed in February when their UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a training flight over Huntsville, Alabama.
In March, nine soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division were killed when two UH-60 Black Hawks collided while flying at night over Kentucky.
Separately, two soldiers were injured in February when their Apache helicopter rolled over during takeoff from Talkeetna airport in Alaska. They were treated at a local hospital and later released.
The latest on Task & Purpose
- New details emerge about Col. Chung, the suspended commander of 5th SFAB
- Navy SEAL doctor astronaut Jonny Kim somehow finds time to become naval aviator
- Russia’s Spetsnaz forces are being annihilated in Ukraine, leaks claim
- 75th Ranger Regiment team wins Best Ranger Competition for third year in a row
- Wagner Group leader calls for end to Russia’s ‘special military operation’
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Marines at formation. (Cpl. F. Cordoba/U.S. Marine Corps).The number of service members who have faced courts-martial for sexual assault charges has dropped precipitously over the past decade, according to the Defense Department’s latest report about sexual assault in the military.
In 2013, commanders preferred charges for 71% of cases in which evidence supported charging a service member with sexual assault, the report found. That figure fell to 37% of such cases last year.
During that same timeframe, the percentage of sexual assault cases that have been adjudicated by administrative actions, including separation, has risen from 18% to 35%; and the percentage of cases resolved through nonjudicial punishment has increased from 12% to 28%, the report found.
A major reason for the drop in courts-martial is that sexual assault survivors have shown they prefer other ways to adjudicate their cases, said Nate Galbreath, acting director of the Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office.
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“One of the things that we’ve seen year after year since 2015 with the addition of the special victims counsel program, which are attorneys that represent victims throughout the military justice process, is that victims have made it abundantly clear that they would like to help see the department hold their offenders appropriately accountable, but they’d like to do it through non-confrontational means; and that’s essentially what we see in the percentages with administrative actions and discharges and nonjudicial punishment,” Galbreath told reporters on Thursday.
However, Galbreath acknowledged the Defense Department does not have hard data on how many sexual assault survivors have said that they want to take a less confrontational approach to resolve their cases.
Galbreath also said his assertion that sexual assault survivors prefer pursuing administrative actions and nonjudicial punishments over courts-martial comes from anecdotal information.
“Our feedback from the leadership within the Special Victims Counsel and programs of the victim legal counsel is that this is the voice of the victim being heard, and that their willingness to support administrative actions and discharges or nonjudicial punishment – less confrontational forms of accountability action – is something that we are seeing over and over,” Galbreath said. “As I work with them and talk with them every year, this is a theme that we continue to hear.”
The Defense Department is also taking steps to restore survivors’ faith in the military’s justice system so that they will want to take their cases to trial more often, Galbreath said. Staring in December, each service will have a special trial counsel’s office that will take over responsibility for prosecuting sexual assault cases – a major recommendation by an independent panel that looked into how the military dealt with sexual assault and harassment.
But Erin Kirk, co-founder of the advocacy group Not In My Marine Corps, said there is widespread fear among sexual assault survivors that they will face retaliation if they take their cases to trial.
“They’re literally afraid for their lives,” Kirk told Task & Purpose.
Kirk noted the Defense Department’s report on sexual assault released on Thursday shows approximately 34% of the 8,942 reports of sexual assault involving service members in Fiscal 2022 were restricted – meaning they were made confidentially and did not automatically trigger an investigation. The percentage of restricted reports reveals that many survivors don’t trust the military’s justice system, she said.
The lack of trust in the system and fear of reprisal by sexual assault survivors are the real reasons why fewer cases are going to court-martial, Kirk said.
“’Less confrontational approach’ has got to be the most ridiculous wag the dog line I’ve ever seen,” Kirk said.
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Retired U.S. Air Force Sr. Airman Brian Kolfage speaks with the media during a 2016 groundbreaking ceremony for a new home he and his family were receiving through the Gary Sinise Foundation's RISE program at Sandestin, Fla. (AP photo).Brian Kolfage, the disabled Air Force veteran who pleaded guilty last year to fraud in connection with a public fundraising campaign he co-founded known as “We Build the Wall,” was sentenced this week to more than four years in prison.
Kolfage, 41, of Miramar Beach, Florida, received a sentence of 51 months. His associate, Andrew Badoloto, was sentenced to three years in prison, while a third associate, Thomas Shea, is scheduled to be sentenced in June, according to the Justice Department.
“Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato abused the trust of donors to We Build the Wall and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to line their own pockets. The defendants have now been held accountable for their criminal conduct,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams on Wednesday.
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Kolfage is a former Security Forces airman who was severely wounded while serving in Iraq in 2004, losing both legs and a hand. In December 2018 Kolfage and Shea began soliciting donations on the fundraising platform GoFundMe for “We Build the Wall,” which promised to help fund the construction of a wall along the U.S./Mexico border. The campaign raised more than $25 million from more than 320,000 individual donors.
In February 2019, given that it was not, in fact, possible to simply donate the money to the federal government, Kolfage announced that all donations would be re-routed to a non-profit called We Build the Wall, Inc., that would help construct the border wall itself. The non-profit was run by Kolfage, Badolato, and Steve Bannon, a former senior advisor to President Donald Trump.
Kolfage repeatedly made public assurances that he would “not take a penny in salary or compensation,” and that all of the money raised would “be used in the execution of our mission and purpose.”
Instead of building any kind of border wall, much of what was being spent by the non-profit was going towards the personal expenses of its founders. Kolfage received more than $350,000, which was spent on everything from buying a 40-foot fishing boat to home renovations, a luxury SUV, a golf cart, jewelry, cosmetic surgery, and paying off credit card debt. The money was routed to Kolfage through “fake invoices and sham contracts,” according to the Justice Department.
Bannon is accused of taking more than $1 million from the non-profit. He was pardoned by Trump in 2021, although he is currently awaiting trial in New York for fraud related to We Build the Wall, Inc.
At his sentencing, Kolfage told U.S. District Judge Annalisa Torres that he was “remorseful, disgusted, humiliated,” according to National Public Radio.
He added that, “I made a promise not to personally benefit and I broke that promise.”
In addition to his prison sentence, Kolfage and Badolato will have to repay the approximately $25 million that was donated as restitution.
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An A-10 Thunderbolt II, assigned to the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron (TES) takes off for a test mission with 16 GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bombs at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, April 19, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by William R. Lewis).After decades as the go-to close air support platform for U.S. service members deployed overseas in the Global War on Terror, the beloved A-10 Warthog is slowly evolving to meet the complex missions in a potential future near-peer conflict.
And to do that, it needs bombs. Lots of bombs.
Photos recently published to the Defense Department’s Defense Visual Information Distribution System and first spotted by our colleagues at The War Zone show an A-10 Thunderbolt II assigned to the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron taking flight with 16 GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) mounted across four separate BRU-61/A bomb racks during one of several test missions that took place between April 19th and 20th at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.
The test was intended to evaluate an updated version of Operation Flight Program 11, a major software upgrade that included a patch to allow an A-10 to support two additional SDB racks. While the 40th Flight Test Squadron had flown an A-10 with 16 SDBs before during developmental testing at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida in February 2022, the Nellis test marked the first time the 422nd TES in particular “carried and employed all four bomb racks of GBU-39/Bs on a single jet” using the new software, according to the DVIDS photo caption.
An A-10 Thunderbolt II, assigned to the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron (TES) takes off for a test mission with 16 GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bombs at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, April 19, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by William R. Lewis)While the A-10 is mostly known for its beastly 30mm GAU-8/A Avenger rotary cannon (and associated ‘BRRRT’ report), the Warthog already has air-to-surface precision strike capabilities in the form of the AGM-65 Maverick missile and the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kit. But as our colleagues at The War Zone note, the 250-pound SDB would provide the A-10 with a significantly improved precision strike capability over ranges up to 40 nautical miles away.
The integration of the SDB into the A-10s — initiated in 2018 under the Air Force’s Common Fleet Initiative raft of upgrades for the airframe — will “give the A-10 a four-fold increase in standoff bomb capability and allows the A-10 to provide weapons effects in much [greater] threat environments than before,” as Maj. Matthew Kading, the A-10 Test Director for the 59th Test and Evaluation Squadron, told The War Zone way back in 2020 while detailing the Warthog’s biggest upgrade in decades.
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Deploying the A-10 as a bomb-laden precision strike delivery vehicle is a change of pace for an aircraft explicitly designed to provide blistering close air support for friendly ground forces, a design that proved particularly effective during the U.S.-led military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last two decades. But with the Pentagon retooling for a possible near-peer conflict with China, Air Force leaders remain convinced the aging airframe would not survive contact with advanced enemy air defenses.
While lawmakers have fought to keep the A-10 flying into the 2030s, keeping the venerable airframe in the fight means finding new mission sets. As A-10C weapons officers Maj. Maurice Grosso argued in Task & Purpose last year, loading up the Warthog with both standoff weapons (relatively long-distance missiles and bombs) and airborne decoys could give the aging aircraft new life in a high-intensity conflict against a sophisticated air defense network.
“The A-10C has up to 10 weapons stations available,” Grosso wrote. “In today’s Air Force, where new fighters have fewer weapons stations in order to prioritize internal carriage and stealth, the A-10’s sheer volume of available weapons stations is a force multiplier.”
Sixteen GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs hang from the right wing of an A-10 Thunderbolt II, for a testing mission, at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, April 20, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by William R. Lewis)Indeed, the Air Force is clearly embracing Grosso’s logic not just with standoff weapons SDB, but with those airborne decoys as well. In December, A-10 pilots from the 74th Fighter Squadron flew from their home at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia to Guam for an integrated strike mission with B-1B Lancer bombers while loaded up with ADM-160 Miniature Air-Launched Decoys (MALD), 300-pound miniature aircraft designed to launch mid-air and duplicate the signature and flight profile of other aircraft to confuse enemy air defenses.
At least one B-1B pilot appreciated the A-10 assist.
“Having a combat-proven platform like the A-10 provide support through their MALD decoys increases the probability that our aircraft and weapons successfully strike their targets,” Maj. Daniel Winningham, a B-1B instructor pilot with the 37th Bomb Squadron, said in a press release about the exercise at the time. “The training opportunities provided by sorties like this are invaluable.”
A group of B-1B Lancer and A-10C Thunderbolt II aircraft fly above the Philippine Sea, Nov. 9, 2022. (U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Coleen Berryhill)It’s unclear when A-10s might deploy overseas touting MALDs or SDBs, but one thing is clear from the Warthog’s slow and steady transformation from CAS darling to armored bomb truck: you absolutely can teach an old dog new tricks.
“The A-10 is famous for its 30-millimeter Gatling gun and ability to carry large weapons loads,” as 74th FS squadron commander Lt. Col. Matt Shelly put it in the press release after the MALD exercise. “But we must move beyond the weapons and mission sets that made the A-10 famous in the low-intensity conflicts of the Middle East and accelerate change in this way to be a force multiplier for combatant commanders.”
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FILE: A U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone firing a AGM-114 Hellfire missile. (U.S. Air Force photo).National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has argued that the Taliban killing of the Islamic State group leader believed responsible for the August 2021 attack on Abbey Gate that killed 13 U.S. service members helps to vindicate President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw all American troops from the country.
“Having him gone is a good thing and it does part and parcel reflect the president’s decision to leave Afghanistan,” Kirby told reporters on Wednesday. “It does, in fact, prove, that you don’t need boots on the ground, you don’t need to remain in a particular field of battle, to be able to go after terrorists.”
Kirby stressed that the United States has “Over-the-Horizon capabilities” to monitor and strike terrorist groups in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Moreover, those capabilities have improved since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, noting that a July 2022 U.S. drone strike in Kabul killed al-Qaida’s top leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
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What are ‘over-the-horizon’ capabilities?In broad terms, “Over-the-Horizon capabilities” refer to a wide range of aircraft and other means by which the Defense Department and intelligence community can persistently monitor certain areas for potential threats, assess emerging threat networks over time, and strike authorized targets that are a threat to the United States – all without the need for troops on the ground, said Army Lt. Col. Rob Lodewick, a Pentagon spokesman.
For operational security reasons, a U.S. official declined to elaborate on exactly how the United States conducts intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
It is unclear exactly how the recent death of the ISIS-Khorasan leader at the hands of the Taliban demonstrates that the U.S. military’s “Over-the-Horizon capabilities” have gotten better over time. Kirby said the United States did not participate in the Taliban operation that killed the ISIS-K leader, nor did U.S. intelligence agencies share any information about the leader with the Taliban.
However, the United States was able to verify the ISIS-K leader’s death, showing how information gathering is an important part of “Over-the-Horizon capabilities,” Kirby said.
“It’s not just about the dropping of a bomb or the insertion of special operations troops,” Kirby said. “It is about information and intelligence, and we continue to work to improve those capabilities. And again, further validation that you don’t have to have boots on the ground. We don’t need a presence in Afghanistan to be able to know things, to monitor things – and quite frankly, to strike if and when we feel the need.”
How often does the U.S. employ ‘over-the-horizon’ capabilities?The U.S. has rarely demonstrated its ability to disrupt terrorist networks in Afghanistan from over the horizon.
Army Gen. Michael ‘Eric’ Kurilla, head of U.S Central Command, told lawmakers in March that in addition to the drone strike that killed al-Zawahiri, the U.S. military has conducted two “non-kinetic” missions in Afghanistan since the troop withdrawal.
Kurilla did not elaborate on what those missions were, telling Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) that he would discuss the matter further in a classified setting.
The general also said the U.S. military’s intelligence on Afghanistan has degraded since all U.S. troops left the country.
“I believe we can see the broad contours of an attack,” Kurilla told Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) during the March 16 hearing. “Sometimes we lack the granularity to see the full picture. And we are working to close that gap with our alternative airborne ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] and some of our other intelligence that we are working to penetrate into those networks.”
Indeed, the Taliban have grown so tired of foreign drones flying through Afghanistan’s airspace that they vowed to spend more money on air defense systems.
Since leaving Afghanistan in August 2021, the U.S. military has increased the time its aerial assets loiter over the country to conduct intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, said Army Col. Joe Buccino, a spokesman for CENTCOM.
“However, these assets must travel a considerable distance, meaning much of the flight time is devoted to travel to Afghanistan and back,” Buccino told Task & Purpose on Wednesday.
Afghanistan expert Jonathan Schroden said he has not seen any public evidence to back up Kirby’s argument that the U.S. military’s “Over-The-Horizon capabilities” in Afghanistan have gotten much better since American troops left the country.
“I think it’s safe to assume that they likely have improved in their ability to monitor what’s happening there, if only through the development of whatever efficiencies and lessons learned that they may have implemented over a year-and-a-half,” said Schroden, who works for CNA, a nonprofit research and analysis organization in Arlington, Virginia. “So, I think it’s fair to assume that some improvement has likely occurred. But I also can’t point to any public data or operational outcomes that would underpin or support such a claim empirically.”
With no prospect of U.S. troops returning to Afghanistan, the Defense Department and intelligence community will likely be monitoring ISIS-K and al-Qaida from over the horizon for the foreseeable future.
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Army Cpl. Luther H. Story. (U.S. Army photo).The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that it had identified the remains of Army Cpl. Luther H. Story, decades after he was killed during the Korean War and subsequently awarded the Medal of Honor.
On September 1, 1950, Story was 19 years old and a weapons squad leader with Alpha Company, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. His squad was in a fighting position overlooking the Naktong River in South Korea, but other nearby attacks had already left them partially cut off and in danger of being surrounded. Witnessing a group of enemy soldiers attempting to cross the river, Story personally manned a machine gun and killed or wounded an estimated 100 enemy soldiers.
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As a truck carrying additional troops and ammunition drove up a road towards Story’s squad, he collected grenades from his men and was seen tossing them at the vehicle while exposing himself to enemy fire. While Story’s unit was withdrawing under heavy fire, he was wounded.
“Realizing that his wounds would hamper his comrades, he refused to retire to the next position but remained to cover the company’s withdrawal,” reads his Medal of Honor citation. “When last seen he was firing every weapon available and fighting off another hostile assault.”
Story’s father was presented with his posthumous Medal of Honor in 1951. In September 1953, with Story’s body never having been recovered and no record of him as a prisoner of war existing, he was declared dead by the Army. Three years later, his remains were determined to be unrecoverable.
For decades, that was the official record.
About six weeks after Story’s death, though, 11 sets of remains were found around the area Story had been killed in action. Eight were identified, but three others – including one designated “X-260 Tanggok” – were transported to Hawaii. There, they were interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.
In 2018, the DPAA began a project to identify some of the 652 unknown soldiers killed during the Korean War and buried at the Punchbowl. In 2021, X-260 Tanggok was one of the sets of remains selected.
Using “dental and anthropological analysis” along with mitochondrial DNA analysis, DPAA scientists were able to confirm that X-260 Tanggok was, in fact, Cpl. Luther H. Story.
In a joint statement, the White House and the South Korean president stated that “The supreme sacrifice and heroism of Corporal Luther Story is illustrative of the freedom, security, and prosperity the South Korean people have today.”
Story’s identification comes just a few days after another 2nd Infantry Division soldier, Sgt. Richard E. Crotty, was also identified. Crotty was reported missing in action near Yongsan, South Korea, on the same day that Story was killed.
Story’s remains will be buried in Andersonville, Georgia on May 29, with a rosette placed next to his inscription on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific monument in Honolulu, indicating that he has finally been found.
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The Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Jackson (LCS 6) transits the South China Sea during a search and rescue exercise (SAREX) on Nov. 1, 2021. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Andrew Langholf).The Navy plans on selling off six of its much-maligned littoral combat ships to U.S. allies through the Defense Department’s Foreign Military Sales program after just a few years at sea, according to the service’s recently-released shipbuilding plan.
The plan, publicly disclosed in the Annual Long-Range Plan for Construction of Naval Vessels for the 2024 Fiscal Year sent to Congress in late March and first reported by our colleagues at The War Zone, would see the service move to sell two Independece-class and four Freedom-class LCS variants over the next two years.
As The War Zone notes, the youngest LCS up for sale under the proposed plan is Freedom-class USS St Louis, which was commissioned barely three years ago and billed as bringing “speed and agility” to the Navy’s surface fleet.
“Whether conducting counter-narcotic operations in the Caribbean or working to enhance interoperability with partners and allies at sea, USS St. Louis will provide maneuverability, stability, and lethality in today’s era of Great Power Competition,” then-Navy Secretary Kenneth J. Braithwaite said at the time.
Meanwhile, the oldest LCS on the chopping block is the Independence-class USS Jackson, which was commissioned eight years ago. Like the St. Louis, it also received heavy praise from service leaders during the occasion.
“They’re providing incredible presence. They’re providing lethality. They’re providing a lot of things that the United States Navy needs today and is going to need for years in the future,” then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said at the time.
The other ships planned for foreign military sale include the USS Montgomery, USS Wichita, USS Billings, and the USS Indianapolis, according to the Navy, several of which the service initially wanted to mothball entirely.
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Unceremoniously dubbed the “little crappy ship” by its detractors, the LCS has been subject to withering criticism from within defense circles amid years of frequent mechanical failures ad embarrassing cost overruns surrounding what was once billed as a superfast surface combatant designed to track down submarines, neutralize anti-ship mines, and dominate littoral zones.
The Navy’s budget for fiscal year 2023 called for decommissioning nine Freedom-variant LCS, which have been plagued with problematic propulsion systems for years. But as Chief of Naval Operations Michael Gilday testified last year, the biggest influence on the Navy’s push to rid itself of the warship is its unsuitability in a near-peer fight.
“We need a capable lethal-ready Navy more than we need a larger Navy that’s less capable, less lethal, and less ready,” Gilday told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense at the time. “And so, unfortunately, the littoral combat ships that we have, while the mechanical issues were a factor, a bigger factor was — was the lack of sufficient warfighting capability against — against a peer competitor in China.”
In the same hearing, Gilday proposed selling off the LCS “to other countries that would be able to use them effectively,” namely unspecified allies “in South America … that would be able to use these ships that have small crews.”
Selling off the LCS may be the best option for the Pentagon to recoup the estimated $70-million annual cost of running one of the troubled warships, especially since the Navy is struggling to figure out an appropriate mission as part of its surface fleet for these floating liabilities and resorting to crowdsourcing mission sets from fleet commanders.
“We weren’t sure LCS was executing the missions it was designed for,” Commander of Naval Surface Forces Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener said in January 2022. “And so we … went out to the number of fleet commanders and said, ‘Alright, what do you want it to do? And what missions do you want it to execute based on the environment we’re in now?’”
The latest on Task & Purpose New details emerge about Col. Chung, the suspended commander of 5th SFAB * Navy SEAL doctor astronaut Jonny Kim somehow finds time to become naval aviator * Russia’s Spetsnaz forces are being annihilated in Ukraine, leaks claim * 75th Ranger Regiment team wins Best Ranger Competition for third year in a row * Wagner Group leader calls for end to Russia’s ‘special military operation’*
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Roberto Salazar II in an undated photo (Image via U.S. Justice Department court documents).Before Roberto Salazar II was arrested last year, he was by all outward appearances an upstanding active-duty Marine, serving as a radio operator at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California.
But behind the scenes, both before and during his Marine Corps service, he for years ran a drug trafficking ring, recruiting others – including two recently-discharged fellow Marines – to smuggle drugs over the U.S.-Mexico border.
According to prosecutors, Salazar — who was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison last Friday — was so proud of his extensive off-duty activities that he was even trying to commission an original song to commemorate his drug trafficking exploits.
“Salazar had become so involved in drug trafficking that he was commissioning a Mexican songwriter to write a drug ballad known as a ‘narcocorrido’ about him,” according to a statement from the Justice Department.
Corrido is a popular genre of Mexican folk music of which narcocorridos are a sub-genre. Narcocorridos are typically ballads dedicated to telling “stories of drug lords, arrests, shootouts, daring operations, and betrayals,” according to National Public Radio.
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According to information seized from Salazar’s phone when he was arrested, the Marine was in contact with a Mexican songwriter, discussing potential lyrics for his own narcocorrido that would both his prowess as a drug smuggler as well as his military service.
“‘I wanted to study and became a soldier, but I liked the fast life better,’” was one lyrical suggestion from Salazar, according to the Justice Department.
Salazar pleaded guilty last year to charges of conspiracy to distribute heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and fentanyl, as well as importation of fentanyl.
“This case involved a Marine who was supposed to protect and defend our country, but instead brought great harm to Americans by trafficking fentanyl and other dangerous drugs,” U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said at Salazar’s sentencing last Friday. “He also betrayed his solemn oath by recruiting other Marines to do the same.”
“Through this case, the defendant has been held to account for his crimes and we have dismantled yet another link in the supply chain for the deadly narcotics that are indiscriminately killing members of our community,” Grossman added.
According to court documents, Salazar began trafficking narcotics in 2013, when he was just 16. In 2016, one classmate at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, California who Salazar recruited reportedly drove a car loaded with more than five pounds of cocaine and more than 20 pounds of methamphetamines through the San Ysidro Port of Entry into the U.S., according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Salazar enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2018, where prosecutors say his only significant break in criminal activity occurred when he was going through recruit training. After joining the Corps, Salazar successfully maintained his drug ring for years, both smuggling the product himself and recruiting others to do so. His organization reportedly favored luxury sedans, specifically BMWs, because the engine compartments of those vehicles were supposedly more suitable for evading detection, per the San Diego Union-Tribune.
“This is my first and last time I’m ever going to be in trouble,” Salazar said at his sentencing last week, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. In the meantime, twelve years is plenty of time to work on some other verses for that narcocorrido.
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U.S. Marines with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force - Crisis Response - Central Command, assist with security at an Evacuation Control Checkpoint (ECC) during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 26. U.S. service members are assisting the Department of State with a non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO) in Afghanistan. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla) .The Taliban have killed an Islamic State group leader who is responsible for the Aug. 26, 2021, bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey gate that killed 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghans, U.S. officials have said.
Known as ISIS-Khorasan, or ISIS-K, the Afghanistan branch of the terrorist group is an enemy of both the United States and the Taliban. In fact, the U.S. military has conducted drone strikes in Afghanistan to help the Taliban fight ISIS-K, now retired Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr., head of U.S. Central Command at the time, said in December 2020.
On Tuesday, Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, confirmed that the ISIS-K leader who planned the Abbey Gate attack had been killed earlier this month. The United States was not involved in the Taliban operation that led to the ISIS leader’s death, Ryder said in a statement.
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“Our thoughts and prayers remain with the families of our 13 service members lost at Abbey Gate, whose courageous service and sacrifice for our nation will always be remembered,” Ryder said.
This image from a video released by the Department of Defense shows U.S. Marines at Abbey Gate before a suicide bomber struck outside Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 26, 2021, in Kabul Afghanistan. (Department of Defense via AP)The U.S. troops assigned to guard Abbey Gate during the Kabul evacuation were in a exposed position, but the head of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division at the time decided to keep the gate open to allow British forces to complete their evacuation efforts, an investigation into the suicide attack later found.
Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, who lost his right arm and left leg in the bombing, told lawmakers in March that he and his fellow Marines spotted a man who met the description of the suspected suicide bomber in the crowd of Afghans outside Abbey Gate before the attack, but they were not permitted to shoot the man.
“Plain and simple: We were ignored,” Vargas-Andrews told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Our expertise was disregarded. No one was held accountable for our safety.”
U.S. government officials have not publicly released the name of the ISIS-K leader whom the Taliban killed or the circumstances surrounding his death.
News of the ISIS leader’s death comes shortly after the Washington Post reported a classified Pentagon assessment that ISIS in Afghanistan is posing a growing threat to Europe and Asia, and the group wants to eventually launch attacks against the United States. Those intelligence findings were among the classified documents allegedly leaked by Airman 1st Class Jack Douglas Teixeira.
Army Gen. Michael ‘Eric’ Kurilla, head of U.S Central Command, warned lawmakers in March that the U.S. military is limited in its abilities to monitor ISIS-K and al-Qaida in Afghanistan.
“While we can see the broad contours of attack planning, we lack the granularity to see the complete threat picture,” Kurilla wrote in his written testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee. “ISIS-Khorasan has increased attacks in the region and desires to export those attacks beyond Afghanistan to include the US homeland and our interests abroad.”
In a statement on Tuesday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said ISIS is under pressure within Afghanistan and elsewhere. Kirby noted that the U.S. military has killed ISIS leader Bilal al-Sudani in Somalia along with the group’s former top leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi in Syria.
Kirby said that ISIS-K has lost several high-profile leaders so far this year, but did not identify who those leaders were.
“We have made clear to the Taliban that it is their responsibility to ensure that they give no safe haven to terrorists, whether al Qa’ida or ISIS-K,” Kirby said. “We have made good on the President’s pledge to establish an over-the-horizon capacity to monitor potential terrorist threats, not only from in Afghanistan but elsewhere around the world where that threat has metastasized as we have done in Somalia and Syria.”
But Bill Roggio, a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank in Washington, D.C., warned that the Taliban, which still maintains its alliance with al-Qaida, cannot be trusted to keep ISIS-K in check.
“The administration is relying on terrorists – that would be the Taliban – to fight terrorists, and it’s a major mistake,” Roggio told Task & Purpose.
The latest on Task & Purpose New details emerge about Col. Chung, the suspended commander of 5th SFAB * Navy SEAL doctor astronaut Jonny Kim somehow finds time to become naval aviator * Russia’s Spetsnaz forces are being annihilated in Ukraine, leaks claim * 75th Ranger Regiment team wins Best Ranger Competition for third year in a row * Wagner Group leader calls for end to Russia’s ‘special military operation’*
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The Ripsaw mini-tank in 'The Fate of the Furious' (Universal Pictures).If you’re that special breed of person who has dreamt of owning both a piece of movie history and a tank, now’s your chance to kill two birds with one stone: the Ripsaw mini-tank from the eighth installment of The Fast and the Furious franchise is headed to the auction block next month for less than $200,000.
According to the listing at Mecum Auctions, the dual-tracked land vehicle that defense contractor (and future Textron subsidiary) Howe & Howe first unveiled for the U.S. Army in 2019 has appeared in both the furiously fast Fast and Furious 8: The Fate of the Furious and the two live-action G.I. Joe movies, The Rise of Cobra and Retaliation.
While the vehicle famously featured an M153 Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS) mounted to its roof with a Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun in The Fate of the Furious, the configuration that’s up for sale through Mecum Auctions is, sadly, unarmed. However, it does feature the original paint job and a 750-horsepower engine with a top speed of up to 60 mph, making this the perfect vehicle for casual offroading and scaring the bejesus out of your neighborhood.
As our gearhead colleagues at The Drive note, the interior of the Ripsaw is nothing to write home about, featuring a pair of seats and some harnesses along with a handful of basic control consoles. Luckily, the Ripsaw features an automatic Allison transmission, which means even the most inexperienced operator can likely replicate the Ripsaw’s magnificent feats of strength from Fate of the Furious, from smashing through snowdrifts to flying high off errant moguls.
Still, the possibility of owning a mini-tank remains ridiculously cool, even if you aren’t the only person in the country with one: the Army selected the M5 variant of the Ripsaw for its Robotic Combat Vehicle-Medium (RCV-M) program in 2020, and the service is currently putting a batch of unmanned Ripsaws with beastly remote-controlled 30mm cannons through their paces.
This Ripsaw will be available at Mecum’s Indy 2023 auction, which runs from May 12 to May 20, for an estimated price between $150,000 to $180,000. And while that seems like a hefty chunk of change, trust us: that’s a way a better deal than a Dodge Charger with an impossibly high-interest rate.
The latest on Task & Purpose New details emerge about Col. Chung, the suspended commander of 5th SFAB * Navy SEAL doctor astronaut Jonny Kim somehow finds time to become naval aviator * Russia’s Spetsnaz forces are being annihilated in Ukraine, leaks claim * 75th Ranger Regiment team wins Best Ranger Competition for third year in a row * Wagner Group leader calls for end to Russia’s ‘special military operation’*
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Harry Belafonte in his Navy uniform (left) and at theRipple of Hope Awards Dinner, Show (right) in Dec 2017 (Defense Department andStephen Lovekin/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images).Famed Calypso singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, who served in the Navy during World War II, died on Tuesday at the age of 96.
Belafonte, whose repertoire of hit songs includes “Jump in the Line” and “Banana Boat Song,” left high school in 1944 to enlist in the Navy on the day after his 17th birthday.
His time in the Navy proved to be a difficult experience, where he faced the institutionalized racism that he would later fight against.
The U.S. military was racially segregated at the time, and black service members were officially treated as unequal to their white counterparts. Most black sailors were assigned support roles, and Belafonte was assigned to Port Chicago, California, to load ships taking part in the Pacific War, according to a Feb 2022 Defense Department news story about Belafonte.
He arrived at Port Chicago not long after the base was severely damaged by an apocalyptic explosion that took place on July 14, 1944, as two ships were being loaded with munitions. Two-thirds of the 320 people killed by the blast were black sailors. Another 290 people were injured.
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An explosion at Port Chicago while loading ammunition onto ships killed 320 people on July 17, 1944 (Photographer Unknown/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
“It was the worst home front disaster of World War II, but almost no one knows about it or what followed,” Belafonte described the disaster, according to the Defense Department news story.
Shortly after the disaster, 328 ordnance battalion sailors refused to work until conditions at Port Chicago improved. Ultimately, 50 of the sailors were referred to a general court-martial for mutiny and sentenced to prison. Those sailors were later released in January 1946.
It’s clear Belafonte was deeply affected by what happened at Port Chicago.
“The Port Chicago mutiny was one of America’s ugliest miscarriages of justice, the largest mass trial in naval history, and a national disgrace,” Belafonte later recalled, according to the Defense Department news story.
Belafonte ultimately spent 18 months in the Navy. At one point, he was sent to a Navy prison in Virginia for two weeks for minor offenses, where he saw the U.S. military treating German prisoners of war better than black service members, according to the Washington Post.
Harry Belafonte (left) and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (right) photographed in Paris, 1966. (Ullstein bild via Getty Images)After the war, Belafonte used his GI Bill benefits to take classes at the New York School Dramatic Workshop and began singing at nightclubs to help pay the bills. His first major hit was “Calypso” in 1956.
Belafonte also became an active civil rights activist, working with Martin Luther King Jr., although he later became estranged from King’s children.
He also became such an outspoken critic of President George W. Bush that in 2002 he called Secretary of State Colin Powell a “house slave” for serving in Bush’s cabinet.
Among those who paid tribute to Belafonte on Tuesday wasBernice King, the youngest child of Martin Luther King Jr., who also tweeted a picture of Belafonte accompanying her mother Coretta Scott King at her father’s funeral.
She also recalled how Belafonte would pay for babysitters to watch the King children, adding: “I won’t forget…Rest well, sir.”
The latest on Task & Purpose New details emerge about Col. Chung, the suspended commander of 5th SFAB * Navy SEAL doctor astronaut Jonny Kim somehow finds time to become naval aviator * Russia’s Spetsnaz forces are being annihilated in Ukraine, leaks claim * 75th Ranger Regiment team wins Best Ranger Competition for third year in a row * Wagner Group leader calls for end to Russia’s ‘special military operation’*
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Former U.S. Navy coxswain Howard "Ken" Potts attends the Freedom Bell Opening Ceremony and Bell Ringing at USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Dec. 6, 2016. (U.S. Navy photo).Ken Potts, one of the last living survivors of the battleship USS Arizona that was sunk during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II, has died at age 102, leaving just one remaining living survivor from the ship’s crew.
Potts grew up in Honey Bend, Illinois, and enlisted in the Navy at age 18 in 1939. He was assigned to the USS Arizona, where he worked as a crane operator.
On the morning of December 7, 1941, Potts happened to be ashore on liberty. When the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor commenced, Potts hopped in a cab, trying to make his way back to his ship.
“When I got back to Pearl Harbor, the whole harbor was afire,” Potts recounted in a 2020 interview with the American Veterans Center. “The oil had leaked and caught on fire and was burning.”
Ken Potts (U.S. Navy photo)It was a chaotic scene, with voices announcing over loudspeakers that sailors were to make their way back to their ships. Potts found his way to a pier and then into a small boat heading out into the harbor. Along the way, there were oil-soaked sailors struggling in the water, some of whom Potts and his fellow sailors were able to pull to safety.
“The noise you can’t imagine, the noise,” Potts said in a 2021 interview.
Potts was dropped off at the USS Arizona and was on the aft deck when a bomb detonated the ship’s magazine in a massive explosion, sinking it within minutes.
“That’s when they got on the loudspeaker and said abandon ship. Some of them jumped in the water, some of them swam over to shore,” Potts said in his 2020 interview. “Some of them didn’t make it.”
Potts, however, did. In the days after, he volunteered for a diving crew searching for survivors amidst the wreckage of the ship. “It was the worst job I ever had,” he recalled in his 2020 interview.
An estimated 1,177 sailors and Marines were killed aboard the Arizona, with just 335 people surviving the sinking. The Pearl Harbor attack killed 2,403 people overall, including 68 civilians, and destroyed or damaged 19 Navy ships.
Potts remained at Pearl Harbor until leaving the Navy in 1945. After the war, he moved to Provo, Utah with his wife, Doris, and worked as a car salesman.
Potts’ passing leaves just one sailor, Lou Conter, as a living survivor of the Arizona.
The latest on Task & Purpose New details emerge about Col. Chung, the suspended commander of 5th SFAB * Navy SEAL doctor astronaut Jonny Kim somehow finds time to become naval aviator * Russia’s Spetsnaz forces are being annihilated in Ukraine, leaks claim * 75th Ranger Regiment team wins Best Ranger Competition for third year in a row * Wagner Group leader calls for end to Russia’s ‘special military operation’*
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Spartan Paratroopers from Dog Company, 3-509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, “Spartan Brigade,” fired the M3E1 Multi-Role Anti-Armor Anti-Personnel Weapons System (MAAWS), also known as the Carl Gustaf Recoilless Rifle, during live fire training at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, September 15, 2021. (U.S. Army/Maj. Jason Welch).The Army is getting new programmable rounds for its arsenal of 84mm Carl Gustaf recoilless rifles, according to the ammunition’s manufacturer.
In a Tuesday press release, Swedish defense contractor Saab announced it had received an order for its HE 448 high explosive round totaling about $10 million from the U.S. Army, with deliveries slated for 2024.
Designated the HE 441E Programmable Round, the new round allows troops to program the chambered weapon’s fuze for both airburst and impact effects “with consequently reduced workload on the operator, more rapid and accurate fire, and higher efficiency in combat,” as Janes reported in January 2022.
The HE 441E “will be programmed when loaded into the new lightweight M3A1 MAAWS equipped with the Fire Control System 13 – Rate Estimator (FCS13-RE),” according to the Army’s fiscal year 2024 budget request. “This is expected to result in a significant increase in accuracy, airburst timing, and lethality against personnel in defilade.”
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According to Saab, the newest round “provides the Carl-Gustaf operator with a capability to rapidly engage and defeat enemies using cover to an effective range of 1,500 meters,” far beyond the range of most of the company’s existing offerings.
“We are pleased that the U.S. Army continues to invest in the Carl-Gustaf system and that they are placing an order for the new programmable round,” said Saab US president and CEO Erik Smith in a statement. “The U.S. Army is quickly strengthening its capability with Carl-Gustaf and the new high explosive round will enable faster engagement and increased hit probability.”
A U.S. Army soldier with an M3E1 Multi-Role Anti-Armor Anti-Personnel Weapon, commonly called a Carl Gustaf, in an undated photo. (U.S. Army photo)The addition of the new programmable round can only enhance the lethality of the Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle, which has been in the Army’s arsenal since the 1990s and has undergone countless upgrades while fielded to soldiers, Marines, and special operations forces since then.
Indeed, the Army signed an $87 million multi-year contract with Saab in 2020 to furnish soldiers with the new and improved M3E1 variant of the 84mm Carl Gustaf over the next several years.
While the Army plans on procuring a total of 2,460 M3E1 Carl Gustaf weapons, the service’s fiscal year 2024 budget request did not contain a funding line for the systems after three years and 1,161 systems procured, according to budget documents.
It’s also worth noting that the service’s fiscal year 2024 budget request also declined to include funding for the HE 441E, with the $10 million contract announced by Saab on Monday coming from the service’s fiscal year 2023 budget.
While it’s unclear why the service skipped a year of funding the M3E1 Carl Gustaf and HE 441E, one thing is clear: some lucky soldiers will get their hands on some of the advanced rounds sooner rather than later.
The latest on Task & Purpose New details emerge about Col. Chung, the suspended commander of 5th SFAB * Navy SEAL doctor astronaut Jonny Kim somehow finds time to become naval aviator * Russia’s Spetsnaz forces are being annihilated in Ukraine, leaks claim * 75th Ranger Regiment team wins Best Ranger Competition for third year in a row * Wagner Group leader calls for end to Russia’s ‘special military operation’*
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FILE: The expeditionary sea base USS Lewis B. Puller sails in the Gulf of Aden, July 26, (Staff Sgt. Dylan Murakami/U.S. Air Force).The USS Lewis B. Puller, an expeditionary sea base ship named for Marine Corps legend Lt. Gen. Lewis “Chesty” B. Puller, is headed to the coast of Sudan in case it is needed to help evacuate American citizens from the country.
On April 22, U.S. special operations forces evacuated the American embassy in Khartoum, but thousands of American citizens are believed to still be in Sudan, where two rival warlords have been fighting each other for more than a week.
U.S. government officials said they are trying to help Americans in Sudan drive in convoys to the Port of Sudan – which is roughly 500 miles from Khartoum by road – so they can leave the country by sea.
“We have deployed U.S. intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets to support land evacuation routes, which Americans are using,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said during Monday’s White House news briefing. “And we’re moving naval assets within the region to provide support. American citizens have begun arriving in Port Sudan, and we are helping facilitate their onward travel.”
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Sullivan also said no U.S. troops are operating in Sudan, but CBS News has reported the U.S. government is considering sending a contingent of service members to Port Sudan to help evacuate American citizens.
U.S. government personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Sudan arrive at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti on April 23, 2023. (Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Maria A. Olvera Tristán/U.S. Navy)As things stand now, the Lewis B. Puller is headed for the coast of Sudan, and the destroyer USS Truxtun is already there, Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters on Monday.
“Those capabilities will be there should we need to use them in support of State Department’s efforts,” Ryder said during Monday’s Pentagon news briefing. “Right now, to our knowledge, we’re not talking large numbers of Americans looking to come out of Sudan, but again, in the days ahead, we’ll stay closely coordinated with the State Department – they’re in the lead – and we’ll be prepared to support them.”
The Lewis B. Puller is designed to be used as a mobile sea base to support a range of military operations, said Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. 5th Fleet. The ship features a four-spot flight deck, mission deck, and hangar for aviation support; equipment staging support; berthing; and command and control.
The Lewis B. Puller has a crew of two Marines, 98 sailors, and 50 civilian personnel, Hawkins told Task & Purpose on Tuesday. The ship is forward deployed to the Middle East and regularly supports counter-piracy, maritime security, crisis response, and other operations.
“It provides commanders significant operational flexibility because it can support the deployment of forces and supplies and provide prepositioned equipment and sustainment with flexible distribution,” Hawkins said.
FILE: An MV22 Osprey prepares to land aboard expeditionary sea base USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB 3), during flight operations in the Arabian Gulf on July 16, 2021. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Dawson Roth/U.S. Navy)In addition to the Lewis B. Puller and Truxton, the USNS Brunswick, an expeditionary fast transport vessel, is also headed off Sudan’s coast, Hawkins said. The Military Sealift Command vessel can provide high-speed transportation for cargo and people. Its crew of 25 civilians is being augmented by service members who specialize in logistics, medical care, security, and command and control in case they are needed.
Amphibious warfare ships are typically used for noncombatant evacuation operations by sea, such as the 2006 evacuation of American citizens from Lebanon, but none of the Navy’s amphibious ships currently underway are anywhere near Africa, according to USNI News’ Fleet Tracker.
The Navy is also taking a “strategic pause” before buying more San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks pending a review of reducing costs of amphibious ships.
The situation in Sudan underscores the importance of sea-based forces during crises, said retired Marine Gen. Robert Neller, who served as the Marine Corps commandant from 2015 to 2019.
USS Lewis B. Puller at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, April 20, 2016. (Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class David Kolmel/U.S. Navy)“You have to use the sea as maneuver space and you get close to the objective area, and you don’t have to fly 800 miles from a land base to another piece of land to refuel,” said Neller, who praised the special operations forces who flew from Djibouti to Ethiopia and then onto Sudan to evacuate the U.S. embassy in Khartoum.
Traditional amphibious warships provide a lot of space to accommodate evacuees, Neller told Task & Purpose.
But the U.S. military currently has a lack of amphibious capabilities that have limited its ability to be present in the Mediterranean, Black Sea, and the Middle East, Neller said.
“Since the 50s, how many noncombatant evacuations has the naval force done from the sea?” Neller said. “How many HADR [humanitarian assistance and disaster relief] missions have they done from the sea? You can only do that when you have enough capacity to have forward presence. When you lack the platforms, your ability to generate that presence doesn’t exist.”
The latest on Task & Purpose New details emerge about Col. Chung, the suspended commander of 5th SFAB * Navy SEAL doctor astronaut Jonny Kim somehow finds time to become naval aviator * Russia’s Spetsnaz forces are being annihilated in Ukraine, leaks claim * 75th Ranger Regiment team wins Best Ranger Competition for third year in a row * Wagner Group leader calls for end to Russia’s ‘special military operation’*
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For most people, having robust reserves to draw on when times get tough can make all the difference between having a temporary setback and experiencing a major lifestyle downgrade. Savvy savers understand that growing their money and keeping some available for emergencies can help them build a more secure future. But, if they want more growth potential, they’ll supplement those savings with an investment strategy.
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Navy Federal Credit Union is federally insured by NCUA. Navy Federal Financial Group, LLC (NFFG) is a licensed insurance agency. Non-deposit investments, brokerage, and advisory products are only sold through Navy Federal Investment Services LLC (NFIS), a member of FINRA/SIPC and an SEC-registered investment advisory firm. NFIS is a wholly owned subsidiary of NFFG. Insurance products are offered through NFFG and NFIS.These products are not NCUA/NCUSIF or otherwise federally insured, are not guaranteed or obligations of Navy Federal Credit Union (NFCU), are not offered, recommended, sanctioned, or encouraged by the federal government, and may involve investment risk, including possible loss of principal. Deposit products and related services are provided by NFCU. Digital Investor offered through NFIS. Financial Advisors are employees of NFFG, and they are employees and registered representatives of NFIS. NFIS and NFFG are affiliated companies under the common control of NFCU. Call 1-877-221-8108 for further information. Image used for representational purposes only; does not imply government endorsement.
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A veteran goes through physical therapy at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C. (Jeff Hutchens/Getty Images).The Department of Veterans Affairs could become collateral damage in the battle between the White House and Republicans in the House of Representatives over raising the nation’s debt ceiling.
The U.S. government faces the prospect of economic turmoil if it fails to reach an agreement on raising the amount of money that it can borrow to pay its bills. The federal government is expected to exhaust its borrowing ability in June.
In 2011, a similar disagreement over the debt ceiling resulted in sequestration and budget cuts for defense spending that forced the military branches to get rid of service members and slash funding for training and spare parts, contributing to a rise in fatal aircraft crashes.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has proposed raising the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion in return for reducing most discretionary spending – which must be approved by Congress each year – to fiscal 2022 levels.
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Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, has released a statement saying Republicans plan to avoid reducing defense spending, so the Department of Veterans Affairs and other government agencies would face steeper budget cuts to overall fiscal 2022 levels.
Prosthetist Edward Sliwinski constructs a custom leg socket for a U.S. military veteran amputee at the Veterans Administration (VA), hospital on January 29, 2014 in Manhattan, New York City. (John Moore/Getty Images)In short, Speaker McCarthy’s plan to raise the debt ceiling would cut the VA’s budget by 22% next fiscal year, Young said. That would force the Veterans Health Administration to eliminate 81,000 jobs, meaning that veterans would be unable to make appointments for wellness visits, cancer screenings, mental health services, substance abuse disorder treatment, and other healthcare services, according to Young. These cuts would translate into 30 million fewer veteran outpatient visits.
The VA has also issued a statement saying that cutting the department’s budget by 22% would limit the VA’s ability to provide telehealth services by reducing funding for the necessary information technology and support.
Speaker McCarthy’s proposal to raise the debt ceiling would also force the Veterans Benefits Administration to cut its staff by more than 6,000 people, and that would worsen the wait time for benefits by adding an estimated 134,000 claims to the disability claims backlog, the VA’s statement says.
These cuts to the Veterans Benefits Administration would come at a time when the VA is already seeing an increase in disability claims filed due to the passage of the PACT Act, which expands healthcare to veterans suffering from cancer and other ailments as a result of being exposed to toxic substances from burn pits and other sources along with Vietnam Veterans who are sick because they wereexposed to Agent Orange, said Carrie Farmer, of the RAND Corporation.
“Reducing VBA [Veterans Benefits Administration] staff would mean fewer people available to process disability claims, and surely this would translate into veterans waiting even longer for their benefits,” said Farmer, project director of RAND’s Veteran’s Choice Act Assessment.
Entertainer and activist Jon Stewart speaks at a press conference on the PACT Act to benefit burn pit victims on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, March 29, 2022, in Washington. (Mariam Zuhaib/Associated Press)Meanwhile, costs for the VA’s Community Care program, which pays for veterans to get treatment in the private sector when the VA cannot provide the healthcare that they need, have been increasing, Framer said. It is not clear how the VA could continue to meet demand for the program with a reduced budget.
The VA would also have to cut up to $565 million on major construction projects under the spending cuts proposed by McCarthy. That would limit upgrades to VA hospitals – which are on average nearly 60 years old – and other medical facilities, according to the department’s statement.
Additionally, the VA National Cemetery Administration would have to cut roughly 500 people, limiting the department’s ability to maintain cemeteries and delaying the opening of five new national cemeteries, the statement says.
A spokeswoman for Speaker McCarthy referred questions about how his debt ceiling proposal would affect the VA to his April 17 remarks at the New York Stock Exchange: “Don’t believe anyone who says these are draconian limits. They’re the same spending levels we operated under just last [December]. And we’ll make sure that our veterans and our service members are taken care of.”
Rep. Mike Bost (R-Ill.), chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, has accused Democrats of spreading “false claims” that McCarthy’s proposed “Limit, Save, Grow, Act” would hurt veterans.
A disabled veteran with prosthetic legs looks on during the archery competition at the inaugural Valor Games Far West on June 11, 2013 in Foster City, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)“This commonsense bill will grow the economy and save American taxpayers money, all while protecting veterans’ benefits, Social Security, and Medicare,” Bost said in an April 21 statement. “Republicans have always prioritized veterans in our spending to ensure veterans have access to the care, benefits, and services they have earned, and as the Chairman of this Committee, that is my number one priority. Anyone who questions our commitment to the men and women who have served should find new talking points.”
But to Mary Kaszynski, director of government relations at VoteVets, a liberal veterans group, the cuts to the VA that would result from McCarthy’s proposal to raise the debt ceiling are both “outrageous” and unsurprising considering Republican opposition to the PACT ACT last year over concerns about how the law would be funded.
Kaszynski also noted that McCarthy’s proposal also calls for recouping $2 billion in unobligated funding from the American Rescue Plan that was allocated to the VA last year.
“It remains to be seen if this precise proposal passes the House,” Kaszynski told Task & Purpose on Monday. “I wouldn’t be surprised if any budget that passes the House with the majority of Republicans does include cuts to the VA, which would be totally unacceptable to VoteVets and the veterans’ community.”
The latest on Task & Purpose New details emerge about Col. Chung, the suspended commander of 5th SFAB * Navy SEAL doctor astronaut Jonny Kim somehow finds time to become naval aviator * Russia’s Spetsnaz forces are being annihilated in Ukraine, leaks claim * 75th Ranger Regiment team wins Best Ranger Competition for third year in a row * Wagner Group leader calls for end to Russia’s ‘special military operation’*
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Members of a boarding team from guided-missile destroyer USS Paul Hamilton (DDG 60) interdict a fishing vessel in the Gulf of Oman, April 21, 2023. (U.S. Navy photo).The Navy made a $42 million drug bust last week, stopping a small vessel even as the crew was attempting to ditch some of the illicit cargo. The seizure occurred on April 21, when the guided-missile destroyer USS Paul Hamilton intercepted a fishing boat transiting the Gulf of Oman.
Once aboard, Navy and Coast Guard service members from the USS Paul Hamilton discovered 802 kilograms of methamphetamines and 1,000 kilograms of hashish. Before being boarded, the five crewmembers on the fishing vessel – who identified themselves as Iranian nationals – attempted to throw at least 50 35-pound bags of amphetamines overboard, some of which were ultimately recovered by the Navy.
“This was outstanding work by the entire Paul Hamilton team,” Capt. Anthony Webber, commander of Task Force 55, responsible for overseeing U.S. maritime surface operations in the Middle East, said in a Navy release. “These interdictions remove illicit narcotics from the high seas and help deter destabilizing activity in regional waters.”
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Since the beginning of 2023, ships operating with Combined Task Force 150, which patrols the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean, and the Gulf of Oman and is comprised of personnel from 38 nations, have seized approximately $150 million worth of illegal narcotics.
In February 2023, for instance, the USCGC John Scheuerman seized 1,350 kilograms of hashish, 276 kilograms of methamphetamine, and 23 kilograms of amphetamine pills on a fishing vessel in the Arabian Sea, which the Coast Guard estimated had a value of approximately $20 million. In January 2023, another U.S. Coast Guard cutter, the USCGC Emlen Tunnell, captured 4,000 kilograms of hashish and 512 kilograms of methamphetamines from a repurposed fishing vessel in the Gulf of Oman, a seizure with an estimated value of $33 million.
In 2021 and 2022, these drug seizures totaled approximately $1 billion in value. The maritime routes patrolled by CTC-150 are quite busy when it comes to smuggling not only drugs but also weapons and explosives material. Much of this illicit cargo is thought to originate in Iran, likely intended to support Houthi rebel groups in Yemen.
In January of this year, the coastal patrol ships USS Chinook and USS Monsoon discovered more than 2,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles aboard a small ship in the Gulf of Oman, and in December 2022, the Navy intercepted another small vessel in those same waters carrying more than 50 tons of ammunition rounds, fuses and propellants for rockets. In 2021, the guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey stopped a small ship so loaded down with weapons that it took the crew 36 hours to unload every last anti-tank missile, machine gun, sniper rifle, and rocket-propelled grenade launchers on board.
“I am incredibly pleased with the performance of our Sailors,” said Cmdr. Jake Ferrari, commanding officer of Paul Hamilton, in a Navy statement. “We remain committed to delivering consistent maritime security and countering illicit activities and contraband smuggling in the region.”
The latest on Task & Purpose New details emerge about Col. Chung, the suspended commander of 5th SFAB * Navy SEAL doctor astronaut Jonny Kim somehow finds time to become naval aviator * Russia’s Spetsnaz forces are being annihilated in Ukraine, leaks claim * 75th Ranger Regiment team wins Best Ranger Competition for third year in a row * Wagner Group leader calls for end to Russia’s ‘special military operation’*
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The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), along with the staff of Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 10, returns to Naval Station Norfolk following an eight-month deployment, April 23, 2023. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Anderson W. Branch).The Navy aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush returned from a grueling deployment in style over the weekend, pulling into its homeport at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia with its battle flag flying proudly from the warship’s main island.
Photos published to the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service on April 23 show the Bush’s blue-and-yellow battle flag flapping in the wind in what may be some of the first public images of the banner since the aircraft carrier was commissioned in 2009.
The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), along with the staff of Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 10, returns to Naval Station Norfolk following an eight-month deployment, April 23, 2023. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Anderson W. Branch)As any regular reader of Task & Purpose knows, we’re big fans of the history behind Navy warships’ battle flags, and the Bush’s is no exception. Like the ship’s seal, the flag was designed with the vessel’s namesake, President George H.W. Bush, and the history of naval aviation in mind. The flag is bordered with what appears to be a ring of 41 stars, commemorating Bush’s time as the nation’s 41st president; the white ‘77’ is for the vessel’s hull classification of CVN-77; and the motto on the edge, ‘Freedom at Work,’ comes adapted from Bush’s inaugural speech as president in 1988, during which he proclaimed, “We know what works: Freedom works. We know what’s right: Freedom is right.”
One of the most interesting elements of the battle flag is the silhouettes of aircraft flying against a yellow path cutting across the flag’s blue field. Those aircraft are the same as the ship’s seal, symbolizing the “past, present, and future” of naval aviation: a TBM Avenger torpedo bomber, which Bush flew as a naval aviator during World War II; an F/A-18 Hornet fighter that’s a fixture in the Navy; and the F-35C Lightning II that’s slowly but surely being rolled out to carrier strike groups across the fleet.
“Since taking command before deployment, I have had the privilege and honor to serve with the finest warriors, teachers, leaders, and ambassadors in the U.S. Navy,” said Bush commanding officer Capt. Dave Pollard in a statement upon the carrier’s return to Norfolk. “Our Sailors serve our great nation honorably, exemplifying the service, grit, humility, and resilience of our namesake, President George Herbert Walker Bush, throughout his life of service to family and country.”
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While heavy praise for their crews is a standard for command statements upon returning from a deployment, Pollard isn’t blowing smoke when it comes to the intensity of Bush and its associated Carrier Strike Group 10, which is comprised of Carrier Air Wing 7, Destroyer Squadron 26 (made up of Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Nitze, USS Truxtun, and USS Delbert D. Black), the Information Warfare Commander, and the Ticonderga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf. Their deployment in the Naval Forces Europe and Naval Forces Africa area of operations occurred during Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the resulting rally of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies around their collective defense.
During the deployment to the Mediterranean Sea, Bush and CSG 10 participated in “a multitude of multinational exercises to increase NATO capability and deter aggression in the region,” according to the statement, including conducting multi-carrier operations with fellow aircraft carrier groups from the Italian Navy, French Navy, and Spanish Navy. The Bush also participated in the largest bilateral U.S.-Israeli military exercise in history.
“I am extremely proud of Captain Pollard and the teamwork, professionalism, and grit the Avengers brought to the strike group team,” said Rear Adm. Dennis Velez, commander of CSG 10, in a statement. “They excelled during a very challenging deployment where we demonstrated the awesome power of a U.S. Navy carrier strike group to our partners and allies while messaging our adversaries that we were ready to defend every inch of NATO territory.”
The latest on Task & Purpose New details emerge about Col. Chung, the suspended commander of 5th SFAB * Navy SEAL doctor astronaut Jonny Kim somehow finds time to become naval aviator * Russia’s Spetsnaz forces are being annihilated in Ukraine, leaks claim * 75th Ranger Regiment team wins Best Ranger Competition for third year in a row * Wagner Group leader calls for end to Russia’s ‘special military operation’*
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A fire continues to be fought into the evening on board USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) at Naval Base San Diego, July 12, 2020 in San Diego, Califonia. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Austin Haist/U.S. Navy via Getty Images).U.S. Navy ships experience fires in port more than is documented, and the poor record keeping means that the Navy is missing out on lessons that can prevent further incidents, a new report found.
The study from the Government Accountability Office examined the causes, responses and analysis of ship fires, finding that greater efforts for onboard safety are needed. The GAO found that the Navy does not have the full picture of how many fires occur, because many are not officially documented.
“Data from the Naval Safety Command shows that from May 2012 through September 2022, the Navy experienced more than 1,100 ship-fire incidents that ranged in severity from only smoke to a major fire,” the report said.
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The GAO study said that there is no service-wide analysis of the ship fires at port and responses to them, leaving many potential lessons on how to improve fire safety from being learned. In fact, fires are under reported due to a mix of maintenance crews not being trained on how and when to report incidents as well as a lax attitude within the Navy when it comes to reporting such events, the GAO found. Added to this is an inconsistent set of reporting systems between naval commands and the ships themselves, leaving many fires not reported or lost in the mix of systems.
There were 15 major fires — defined as “fire that has progressed beyond the initial stage, beyond the ability of the initial responders (usually the ship’s force on ships in commission) to control” — between May 2008 and July 2020, which left many injured, caused more than $4 billion in damage and hurt the Navy’s readiness, the study found.
The study ran from November 2021 through parts of April of this year. It came in response to the massive fire that broke out aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard in July 2020, one of those major fire incidents. The amphibious assault ship was in port for upgrades that would allow it to carry F-35B fighter planes. It caught fire and the flames spread. Part of the problem was that it was unclear who had clear command over the matter. The days-long blaze led the Navy to decommission the ship, given the extent of the damage. Seaman Apprentice Ryan Mays was initially charged with starting the blaze, but ultimately found not guilty in 2022. The incident resulted in more than two dozen sailors being punished, including the then-commander of Naval Surface Forces.
A report after the fire found that the crews were not properly trained on dealing with the blaze and that many firefighting stations were in poor conditions.
Since the fire on the Bonhomme Richard, the Navy has announced steps to improve preparation and training in the event of fires. One big change, in response to the confusion over who had authority when the ship burned, is a new command structure to avoid delays.
The GAO meanwhile recommends establishing a new service-wide system for properly training sailors on reporting and documenting fires so that the Navy can improve safety measures across the board from studying these incidents.
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This image grab taken from AFPTV video footage on April 20, 2023, shows an aerial view of black smoke rising above the Khartoum International Airport amid ongoing battles between the forces of two rival generals. - Hundreds of people have been killed since the fighting erupted on April 15 between forces loyal to Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images).The United States military forces, including elements from special operations forces, successfully evacuated American staff and their families overnight from the embassy in Khartoum, Sudan overnight. The mission, comes as fighting between the two main leaders in the country enters a second week, despite a ceasefire to mark the end of Ramadan.
“Today, on my orders, the United States military conducted an operation to extract U.S. Government personnel from Khartoum in response to the situation in Sudan,” President Joe Biden said in a statement on Twitter. “I am grateful for the commitment of our Embassy staff and the skill of our service members who brought them to safety.”
Reuters and the Associated Press first reported the news of the evacuation, before Biden’s official announcement. The Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary organization that until recently had been sharing power with the standing armed forces, announced on Twitter earlier that it was coordinating the evacuation with American troops, which sent in six aircraft for the operation. The Pentagon did not immediately respond with confirmation on the RSF’s participation or the operation itself.
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On Thursday, the U.S. embassy in Khartoum posted on Twitter that it remained under a shelter in place status, and that it was unlikely it would be able to coordinate an evacuation of private American citizens in the country. It also suspended emergency consular activities due to the safety concerns.
“I am receiving regular reports from my team on their ongoing work to assist Americans in Sudan, to the extent possible. We are also working closely with our allies and partners in this effort,” Biden’s statement on Twitter, posted late on Saturday, April 22 Eastern Time, continued. He additionally called for an end to the violence, and said that the embassy in Khartoum is temporarily closed.
Also on Thursday, the United States announced that it was moving additional forces to eastern Africa in preparation for a possible evacuation. Those elements were sent to nearby Djibouti.
The fighting in Sudan, now in its ninth day, is between the army, led by de-facto leader of the country Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces, led by “Hemedti” Hamdan Daglo who until fighting started had served as the top deputy in the transitional council.
The conflict comes after months of growing tensions, with forces building up in the capital before fighting began on April 15. Sudan had been governed by a joint civilian-military transitional government since 2019, when a coup ousted longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir following months of pro-democracy protests. Since 2021, al-Burhan and Dagalo have led the country under the promise of returning it to civilian control. Demonstrations against military rule have been ongoing since 2019, protesting uses of force against the populace. The country just marked the fourth anniversary of the protests’ start on April 6, less than two weeks before this latest violence commenced.
Fighting started in Khartoum, but has spread elsewhere in Sudan, including the city of Omdurman, just northwest of Khartoum, and the Darfur region. So far hundreds have been killed and thousands more injured. A three-day ceasefire was announced on Thursday, April 20 for the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan, but street fighting has continued.
The Sudanese Armed Forces said on Saturday morning that it is working to evacuate American, British, French and Chinese nationals. At the same time both Saudi Arabia and Jordan began evacuating its citizens via Port Sudan on the Red Sea. Evacuations have had logistical challenges, among them that the capital’s landlocked airport has been closed.
More than 400 people have died since fighting began on April 15.
This is a developing story.
UPDATE: 04/22/2023. This story was updated to include Biden’s remarks on the evacuation.
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This photo illustration created on April 13, 2023, shows the suspect, national guardsman Jack Teixeira, reflected in an image of the Pentagon in Washington, DC. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images).The Air National Guardsman who allegedly leaked dozens of classified documents onto a Discord chat had been doing it for twice as long as previously known, and to more people.
That’s according to a new report from the New York Times. Airman Jack Teixiera, already charged with leaking classified information to the smaller chat group, allegedly shared additional information to another Discord chat, with as many as 600 members, since February 2022. The information included details on both Ukrainian and Russian casualties in the war as well as details tracking Russian spies. Per the New York Times, the information was sourced from intelligence reports from the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, among others. The user profile on the second Discord server matches Teixeira.
Teixeira, 21, was arrested on April 13. He had been allegedly posting documents to a Discord group since October 2022, obtained through his work with the 102nd Intelligence Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. He apparently was sharing the information not as a whistleblower, but to apparently curry favor and win arguments with the roughly 50 or so members of the group chat.
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Teixeira is currently facing charges under the Espionage Act. As of press time, no additional action has been taken regarding these newly discovered leaks. It is also unclear how Teixeira was able to share these documents online over such a long period of time without being discovered. According to the New York Times, images of the documents were posted and later deleted, but the user shared long write-ups of what the material contained as well. It’s not clear why he shared the information to this chat as well, as there is no immediate evidence of him trying to win an argument, but the user behind the leaks did write “I have a little more than open source info. Perks of being in a [United States Air Force] intel unit.”
The posts go back to just after Russia invaded Ukraine, with early posts discussing ongoing combat and detailing Russia’s pull back from Kyiv after it failed to take the capital. Posts continued for more than a year, ending only in March. Some of the posts were made to the chat apparently while on a military base.
Since the initial Discord leaks came to light earlier this month multiple parties have responded to the sensitive information, both in the United States and abroad. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Putin-aligned Wagner Group that’s fighting in Ukraine, downplayed their importance.
Asked yesterday about the initial round of leaks and the expected Ukrainian spring offensive, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said at a press conference at Ramstein Air Base that he is “not going to comment on future operations specifically or any of the substance that’s in any of these leaks that are out there.”
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When the United States and its allies withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, the country’s security forces quickly found themselves overwhelmed in the face of a renewed Taliban offensive, being hunted down one by one. Hollywood wasted no time getting into the mix. Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant, the first of those movies, is about the dangers that Afghan interpreters face.
The movie was first announced only two months (then titled The Interpreter) after the U.S.-backed government collapsed. Despite the timing and marketing, the film isn’t even about the actual withdrawal that resulted in many real-life rescues of Afghan allies. In fact, the entire film takes place in 2018, before the Trump administration’s peace deal with the Taliban and the Biden administration’s withdrawal from the country. Despite how the film is being advertised, the actual “going back to Afghanistan to help our guy” narrative isn’t the crux of the movie. It makes up the climax, while the bulk of the film is about a mission gone bad.
Master Sergeant John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal) leads a Special Forces unit hunting Taliban weapons caches and finds himself working with Ahmed (Dar Salim), an interpreter with strong combat skills, a shady past, and a personal vendetta against the Taliban. When the Taliban ambush the Special Forces unit, Ahmed and Kinley end up on the run in the mountains, and ultimately it’s up to Ahmed to get the two to safety.
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The biggest problem is how paint-by-the-numbers the film feels. There’s the team, the vaguely cool hero (Kinley has a family, and he repairs vintage cars), and villains that are mostly faceless goons. The script, from Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson, and Marn Davies never really goes into any deeper topic about the war. Despite its late-in-the-conflict setting, there’s no discussion about the collapsing Afghan state, the impact of Americans on the country, or any deeper look at what it’s like for Ahmed to risk his safety to be an interpreter for a hard-to-get American visa. There is one anger-driven montage that feels reminiscent of Gyllenhaal’s raging breakdown scenes in Nightcrawler, but otherwise, neither lead has much narrative meat to work with either, despite the story. More than anything, it feels like potential wasted on a poorly-paced action film. And the action isn’t particularly thrilling.
Ahmed is such a powerful presence that his struggle dominates Kinsley’s mind (Kinsley’s team, introduced with on-screen text detailing their names and nicknames despite their lack of characterization, die in absurdly quick succession, and then never brought up again). For most of the film, Ahmed is presented as a wise and elusive badass, more akin to Benicio del Toro’s mysterious hitman in Sicario than anything else. The Covenant’s failings stem in part from that. Salim gets some minor humanizing moments later in the movie, but he’s still mostly a stoic cipher, leaving the entire reason for Kinley’s rescue mission to fall on a life debt rather than the real-life sense of duty and camaraderie that is driving many veterans and active-duty troops to attempt rescue missions.
On a wider level, it’s also a letdown as an action and war film. This is outside of Guy Ritchie’s usual purview, but even then, it feels devoid of some of the clever and fun visual and editing touches that he is known for. Even his earlier 2023 film Operation Fortune, for all of its flaws — and there were several, including a squandered premise and Ritchie’s increased love of after-the-fact action recounting — had some panache. Without those streaks, The Covenant feels woefully generic and ultimately disappointing.
The film, ultimately, has nothing of substance to say. Yes, many Afghan interpreters were left in the country and are persecuted and hunted by the Taliban, as the end text says, but the film itself isn’t really concerned with the wider struggle to help them. Outside of that, there’s not much else to The Covenant.
Given the many Afghanistan-set films coming out soon or in development, it’s unlikely this movie trend will fade. But given the real-world severity and lingering trauma of the 20-year-long war in both the United States and Afghanistan, the topic deserves better than The Covenant.
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Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jonny Kim.U.S. Navy SEAL. Harvard Medical School-trained physician. Astronaut. These are all things on Lt. Cmdr. Jonny Kim’s already extensive list of accomplishments. Now Kim can add naval aviator to that list.
Kim completed his advanced helicopter training on March 24, pinning on his wings at Naval Air Station Whiting in Corpus Christi, Texas, according to a Navy press release published this week
“NASA really values helicopter pilots for their perspectives and crew resource management mentality,” Kim said in the release, adding that astronauts in the Apollo space program also completed helicopter aviation training due to the similarities with lunar landing procedures.
“Space flight is closely related to aviation, and proper crew resource management allocates human resources to accomplish the mission safely and effectively. By virtue of the helicopter cockpit environment, helicopter pilots bring an abundance of CRM to the spaceflight table,” he said.
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To complete the aviation training, Kim completed both solo and night flights.
“The NVG [night vision goggle] training in the advanced syllabus for helicopters was amazing, especially because I have a lot of ground experience as a SEAL using night vision … but I didn’t have the experience of integrating a cockpit-NVG scan with degraded visual environments … That was really challenging and formative in my growth as an aviator,” said Kim.
Kim’s graduation from flight school – he was, naturally, on the so-called “Commodore’s List” of distinguished graduates – likely makes him one of few people in the ranks of the U.S. military who are both qualified naval flight surgeons and pilots.
Lt. Cmdr. Jonny Kim poses for a photo alongside fellow astronauts after receiving his “Wings of Gold” following the completion of advanced naval helicopter training on March 24, 2023. (U.S. Navy photo)When it comes to achieving your childhood dreams, Kim has pretty much broken the mold. He enlisted in the Navy in 2002 at 18 years old, completing Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training before he was assigned to SEAL Team 3, where he served as a combat medic, sniper, and navigator, and completed more than 100 combat operations spanning two deployments to the Middle East, including to Ramadi and Sadr City, Iraq. During that time, Kim earned a Silver Star and a Bronze Star with Combat “V,” along with completing the Military Freefall Parachutist, Combatant Diver (closed circuit rebreather), Naval Special Warfare Special Reconnaissance Scout and Sniper, and Advanced Special Operations Techniques qualification courses.
It was during those deployments, when Kim treated his SEAL teammates, civilians, and even enemy combatants, that he was inspired to further pursue medicine.
“I was the combat medic of my platoon and I had the fortunate opportunity to treat my fellow platoon mates, civilians and sometimes the enemy. But there was a limit to what I could do to help people,” Kim told Task & Purpose in 2020. “I made promises to a lot of the people that I lost, that I would spend the rest of my life doing something good, something positive for the world, because they left a void when they died, and I know that they would have been successful, making the world a better place had they lived.”
Kim was commissioned through the Seaman to Admiral-21 program, graduating from the University of San Diego in 2012 and then from Harvard Medical School, where he specialized in emergency medicine, according to the Navy. During his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Massachusetts Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, he spoke with astronaut and physician Scott Parazynski, who encouraged him to apply to NASA.
“I thought ‘this sounds like the special forces of science and exploration,’” Kim said in a Navy statement.
In 2017, Kim was one of just 11 people selected from a pool of more than 18,300 candidates for NASA’s astronaut program. He graduated with his class in December 2019, having completed instruction in spacewalking, robotics, International Space Station systems, T-38 jet proficiency and Russian language.
All astronauts are required to complete introductory flight training. The candidates complete 12 hours of training as the front-seat pilot in a T-6A Texan II propeller-driven aircraft, and Kim became rear-cockpit qualified in a T-38 Talon jet. But why settle for that when you can just become a genuine Navy pilot yourself?
“Pretty early on I realized the closest analog to space flight was aviation training,” said Kim. “I wanted to be able to extend and apply as much of the operational experience I had as a combat-experienced SEAL into space flight. A lot of my operational experience does apply to space flight but there are some aspects that I didn’t have the right perspective on because I didn’t have pilot in command experience.”
Kim entered flight school last year. Before him, the last person to achieve the astronaut-doctor-pilot trifecta was Navy Capt. David Brown, who completed training as a flight surgeon in 1984, went on to become a pilot in 1990 and then was accepted into the astronaut program in 1996.
Kim is currently awaiting assignment to a future spaceflight. Until then, the sky is quite literally the limit — for now.
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PFC Aimal Taraki poses for a photo at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, April 3, 2023. Lance Cpl. Alexander Devereux/U.S. Marine Corps).Aimal Taraki, a former Afghan interpreter, knew he wanted to join the Marine Corps after arriving in the United States, but had to act quickly before becoming too old to enlist.
“In my heart, I kind of felt obligated that I have to serve in the Marine Corps,” Taraki said in an interview. “In this way, I can say thank you to the United States and the Marine Corps for helping me out in Afghanistan.”
Taraki had served with Marines in Kabul before securing a visa that allowed him to come to California and join the rest of his family. Based on his experiences in Afghanistan, Taraki felt an obligation to join the Marine Corps.
But at 28 years old, Taraki was at the Marine Corps’ maximum age for recruits, so he decided that whatever else he planned to do in America, his top priority was to earn an Eagle, Globe, and Anchor.
“I was like: If I delay this process, I’ll never be a Marine,” Taraki told Task & Purpose. “So that’s why I was like: I better do this thing first.”
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Some members of Taraki’s family suggested he join other branches of the military. His father recommended he enlist in the Army, and his older brother suggested the Air Force, but Taraki had “a big crush on the Marine Corps.”
Taraki was inspired by famous battles in Afghanistan fought by Marines, who took part in some of the toughest fighting in Helmand Province, Kandahar, and elsewhere in the southern part of the country.
“The way I see it: No other force in the world could fight such epic battles as the Marines did,” Taraki said. “I see them as a superhero: going out there and saving the lives of people.”
He also admired the Marine Corps’ focus on discipline and physical fitness and wanted to learn the leadership style taught in the Corps.
“I love challenges,” Taraki said. “I see things in a different way. If it doesn’t scare me, I don’t want to do it. Plus, I’ve seen all the missions that the Marines carried out in Afghanistan, how brave and bold they were. They really did carry out the most important tasks and missions out there in Afghanistan. That was what really, truly inspired me to become a Marine.”
Taraki certainly faced challenges during boot camp in San Diego, where he was older than most of his fellow recruits, many of whom had just graduated from high school. He found recruit training difficult, especially his first and second Combat Fitness Tests.
But the most challenging part of his training was The Crucible: A 54-hour event that tests a recruit’s physical and mental strength, he said.
The former Afghan interpreter recalled the moment at the end of The Crucible when his Eagle, Globe, and Anchor was pressed into his hand, signifying the moment he became a Marine.
“When my senior drill instructor gave me that EGA [Eagle, Globe, and Anchor] that day, I felt so accomplished in the world,” Taraki said. “It’s kind of like a traveler traveling from East to the West and seeking something that he’s been wanting badly for his whole life. That’s how I felt, to be honest, like I finally achieved that thing that I was looking for my whole life.”
Now a private first class, Taraki graduated from Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego on April 7 and has just begun his training as a supply Marine in the Reserves. He said he is ready to take on the challenges ahead.
“I’m feeling amazing,” Tarak said. “Everywhere I’m going, people recognize me as a Marine now, not just like a normal civilian. So, I couldn’t be prouder than this and feeling accomplished at the same time. This was my dream and I finally achieved it.”
Although he has worked with other branches of the U.S. military and respects what they do, Taraki said he has formed a close bond with the Marines that cannot be broken.
“I will live and die for the Marine Corps,” Taraki said.
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Taiwanese Air Force pilot’s ‘Winnie the Pooh patch’ causes international controversy
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U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School Class 23A students Capt. Sami Nisonen of the Finnish Air Force and Capt. Jacob Olsen of the USAF pose for a photo after flying a T-38 Talon in the first joint U.S. Air Force/ Finnish Air Force flight operation after Finland officially joined the NATO defense alliance. (U.S. Air Force photo).Just a few minutes after the ink was dry and Finland officially became the 31st member nation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a Finnish pilot was in the sky flying with the U.S. Air Force.
On April 4, Finnish Air Force Capt. Sami Nisonen and U.S. Air Force Capt. Jacob Olsen, both students at the Air Force Test Pilot School, took off in a T-38 Talon twin-seat aircraft. It was just a routine mission for the course, but due to the timing, it was the first bit of military cooperation between the U.S. and Finland as official NATO partners.
“This is just the first of many future joint endeavors between the U.S. and our NATO ally, Finland,” said David Vanhoy, the Test Pilot School Technical Director, in an Air Force statement.
The Air Force Test Pilot School, established in 1944, is one of four schools that trains pilots, navigators, and flight engineers in all manner of flight testing and evaluation, with each year-long class admitting up to two foreign students.
Finland, along with neighboring Sweden, maintained a position of international neutrality for decades, with neither country joining NATO during the Cold War. That official stance of neutrality has never been entirely neutral – neither country has ever had anything other than testy diplomatic relations with Russia and both have often entered into military training partnerships with NATO countries.
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In 1994, for instance, Finland joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace program, and along with Sweden in 2014 became an Enhanced Opportunities Partner with NATO. 2014 was also the year in which Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula, which has only further pushed the two Scandinavian countries further towards complete integration with NATO. In May 2022, just a couple of months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, both countries announced their intention to join the treaty organization.
Just last year, U.S. Army soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division participated in Exercise Hammer 22 in Finland, alongside 4,000 Finnish Army soldiers.
The greatest consequence, perhaps, of Finland joining NATO is the 810-mile-long border it shares with Russia. And behind that border, as a consequence of decades of neutrality, is one of the larger militaries now aligned with NATO. The country already maintains more artillery weapons than Poland, Germany, Norway, and Sweden combined. It has received some $13.6 billion in military equipment from the U.S., including Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air (AAMRAM) and Harpoon missiles, and has agreed to purchase the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. It also maintains some of the largest training areas in NATO, although it remains unclear, and quite possibly unlikely, that other NATO forces will maintain any kind of presence in the country.
“Finland is one of the guys on the team – it’s a key player that actually would be able to contribute to a fight, contribute to defense,” retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman told Task & Purpose last year. “It’s not a backbencher. It’s not a marginal actor.”
So, a single training flight may not seem like much, but there is certain to be more to follow when it comes to NATO’s newest member nation.
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KHARTOUM, SUDAN - APRIL 19: Smoke rises during clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Khartoum, Sudan on April 19, 2023. (Ahmed Satti/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).The U.S. military is staging forces in case they are needed to evacuate the U.S. embassy in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, according to the Defense Department.
“The Department of Defense, through U.S. Africa Command, is monitoring the situation in Sudan and conducting prudent planning for various contingencies,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Phil Ventura, a Pentagon spokesman. “As part of this, we are deploying additional capabilities nearby in the region for contingency purposes related to securing and potentially facilitating the departure of U.S. Embassy personnel from Sudan, if circumstances require it. As a matter of policy and security, we do not speculate on potential future operations.”
Ventura did not say where U.S. troops are being sent in case they are needed for an evacuation, but open-source intelligence analyst Evergreen Intel tweeted on Tuesday that several U.S. C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft have either arrived or departed from Djibouti, where U.S. troops are based at Camp Lemonnier.
A U.S. official told Task & Purpose that Djibouti is one of the possible staging areas that the Defense Department is considering in case an evacuation of the embassy in Khartoum is ordered.
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Sudan imploded into civil war over the weekend as the country’s military and paramilitary forces began battling each other over which side should be in charge. Egypt has reportedly sent planes to help Sudan’s armed forces, while The Wagner Group – the notorious Russian private military company – has trained Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces since 2017. Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar also supports the Rapid Support Forces, contributing to the danger that the conflict in Sudan could become a regional war.
This image grab taken from AFPTV video footage on April 20, 2023, shows an aerial view of black smoke rising above the Khartoum International Airport amid ongoing battles between the forces of two rival generals. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)So far, no decision has been made on whether to evacuate the embassy, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said during Thursday’s White House news briefing.
President Joe Biden recently authorized the U.S. military to preposition forces and develop options in case an evacuation of the embassy becomes necessary, said Kirby, who deferred questions about when such an evacuation might take place to the Defense and State Departments.
Kirby also noted that Biden also authorized the U.S. military to preposition troops near Afghanistan in 2021 in case they were needed, and those troops ultimately carried out the evacuation of U.S. citizens and Afghans from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
“Pre-positioning forces is not a new idea for the U.S. military,” Kirby told reporters. “We want to be as close as you can get so that you can close down that time and space factor – it’s a physics problem at that point – so you can be there as quick as possible.”
Right now, the State Department has “good accountability” of all U.S. government personnel who work at the embassy in Khartoum, but not all of them are in the same place,” Kirby said.
Report of airstrikes by Sudan's airforce against RSF targets in the capital Khartoum pic.twitter.com/LmUsryk9nz
— Faytuks News Δ (@Faytuks) April 15, 2023
“The embassy is still trying to get them all co-located together for their own safety,” Kirby said. “They are still sheltering in place where they are.”
The U.S. embassy in Khartoum’s Twitter account has pinned a tweet advising that a wider evacuation of all American citizens in Sudan is unlikely.
“Due to the uncertain security situation in Khartoum and closure of the airport, it is not currently safe to undertake a U.S. government-coordinated evacuation of private U.S. citizens,” the tweet says.
Politico also reported on Thursday that any U.S. military evacuation would be limited to embassy staff and not include other Americans in the country.
It is unclear exactly how many U.S. citizens are currently in Sudan. The New York Times has reported that 19,000 Americans could be in the country, but the State Department does not provide information about how many U.S. citizens are living in or traveling to a particular country, in part because the department does not comprehensive lists of how many Americans are living overseas, a State Department spokesperson told Task & Purpose.
“Our embassies overseas compile rough estimates of U.S. citizens in their countries for contingency planning purposes, but these estimates can vary and are constantly changing,” the State Department spokesperson said. “We do not want to provide figures that cannot be considered authoritative.”
When asked if the Biden administration has decided not to evacuate U.S. citizens outside of the embassy in Khartoum, Kirby reiterated that “no decision has been made to evacuate anybody,” adding that the U.S. government had already advised Americans not to travel to Sudan and to leave the country if they are already there.
“Let’s not get ahead of where we are,” Kirby said. “The focus right now is to preposition military forces nearby in the region in case they are needed.”
The latest on Task & Purpose How much of a threat does Russia’s Pacific fleet pose to the US? * 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade commander suspended * Former Afghan interpreter graduates from boot camp to become a Marine * Russia jams US GPS-guided weapons given to Ukraine, leaked info shows*
Taiwanese Air Force pilot’s ‘Winnie the Pooh patch’ causes international controversy
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Marine Pfc. Noah Evans , 21, died at Marine Corps Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, on April 18,2023. (U.S. Marine Corps photo.).Marine Pfc. Noah Evans, 21, died on April 18 at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in South Carolina, Corps officials have announced.
Evans, who was assigned to Mike Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, was taking his unit’s final physical fitness test on the 55th day of the training cycle at the time of his death, said Maj. Philip Kulczewski, a Parris Island spokesman.
The cause of Evans’ death is under investigation, a Parris Island news release says. Evans was originally from Decatur, Georgia.
“Our deepest condolences go out to Noah’s family and to the Marines and staff of Mike Co,” Parris Island tweeted on Wednesday.
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Deaths during boot camp are rare given that the Marine Corps trains tens of thousands of recruits each year. Three other people have died at Parris Island in recent years, including Pvt. Anthony Munoz, 21, who died in September 2021 after falling from a balcony, according to the Island Packet newspaper.
Pfc. Dalton Beals died in June 2021 while taking part in The Crucible, a 54-hour training event that marks the culmination of boot camp. An investigation into the incident determined that Beals’ death was “likely avoidable.”
Staff Sgt. Steven Smiley, a Parris Island drill instructor, was subsequently charged with negligent homicide for not properly supervising Beals and other recruits and making them do extra physical training even though the temperature was in the 90s. One recruit became so overheated that his core body temperature was 107.1 degrees before corpsmen began to cool him down.
Smiley’s trial is scheduled to take place between June 19 and July 7, but those dates could change, Kulczewski told Task & Purpose.
Another Marine, Pfc. Brandon Barnish, died at Parris Island in September 2021 several months after graduating from recruit training, according to the Island Packet. Barnish was recovering from an injury before starting the next phase of training when he died.
Separately, Pfc. Javier Pong died on the West Coast in September 2022 while conducting training at Camp Pendleton California. Pong was in the eighth week of the training cycle at the time of his death.
The latest on Task & Purpose How much of a threat does Russia’s Pacific fleet pose to the US? * 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade commander suspended * Former Afghan interpreter graduates from boot camp to become a Marine * Russia jams US GPS-guided weapons given to Ukraine, leaked info shows*
Taiwanese Air Force pilot’s ‘Winnie the Pooh patch’ causes international controversy
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Caption: Col. Jonathan Chung salutes the flag at the 5th SFAB’s Assumption of Command ceremony, June 30, 2021 at Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washington. (Maj. William Leasure/U.S. Army).Army Col. Jonathan Chung is both loved and loathed by soldiers who served under him. Some of his former subordinates accuse Chung of being an abrasive leader, while other soldiers describe him as exactly the type of officer the Army needs: unafraid to hold others accountable, even at the risk of his career.
Now the Army must decide whether Chung’s leadership style is corrosive or motivating.
Chung was suspended as commander of the 5th Security Forces Assistance Brigade earlier this month pending an administrative investigation. So far, Army Forces Command, or FORSCOM, has not publicly released the reason why Chung was suspended or the reason for the investigation.
“The status of the administrative investigation is ongoing,” FORSCOM spokesman Paul Boyce told Task & Purpose. “We cannot provide further details about ongoing administrative investigation.”
Military.com first reported on Tuesday that Chung sent an email to his colleagues explaining that he is facing allegations of being a counterproductive and toxic leader and that he has not been accused of committing any criminal, immoral, or unethical actions.
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Chung plans to respond to allegations of leadership issues that were brought up by an investigation that resulted in his temporary suspension as commander of the 5th Security Forces Assistance Brigade, said his attorney, Jeremy Snyder.
“Col. Chung has fully cooperated in the investigation, and we will do everything we can to help him share his side of the story and to respond to the investigation in due time,” Snyder told Task & Purpose on Wednesday. “We believe in the importance of a fair and unbiased process. Everyone is entitled to due process, and we ask that any reporting on this matter be fair and accurate.”
Col. Jonathan Chung, commander of 2-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team, speaks with governor of a fictional state during a Key Leader Engagement at National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California on September 2, 2019. (U.S. Army photo)Task & Purpose spoke with several people who have worked for Chung, some of whom on condition of anonymity to protect them from possible retaliation. What emerged was a complicated portrait of an officer who sets high standards for his subordinates, which some feel are unnecessarily harsh.
One soldier said he would require people to remain at work long after their tasks were finished, and he also ran “best squad competitions” every Thursday – soldiers who did not perform well enough had to redo the competitions on Fridays.
“I spent four years in the Marines and have been in the Army for just over four years and overall he was the worst commander I have ever encountered,” the soldier said.
Another soldier said that when a unit was filming a public affairs video showing soldiers in full battle rattle, Chung made two soldiers return to the Central Issue Facility to get new gear because they had been issued tactical vests in an older camouflage pattern.
“Col Chung told them their gear wasn’t ‘high speed enough.’” the soldier recalled.
Tevin, an Army veteran who asked to only be identified by his first name, recalled how Chung required subordinates to listen to his podcast and then fill out a worksheet afterward answering questions about how the podcast helped them to become better soldiers and improve their leadership skills.
“My takeaway was that this guy liked to hear himself talk and enjoyed finding opportunities for soldiers to hear his voice,” Tevin told Task & Purpose.
However, another soldier who served under Chung said that the unit produced the podcast during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to have a conversation with soldiers. Although soldiers on staff duty for 24 hours had to listen to the podcast and answer questions afterward, some of those questions were meant to improve the podcast itself, including “What do you want us to do better” and “Who else would you like to see on the podcast,” the soldier said.
The soldier also said he saw Chung hold subordinates to high standards, but he never witnessed Chung belittling anyone.
There is no shortage of people who are speaking up in defense of Chung’s leadership style and character since he was suspended as commander of 5th SFAB. An Army officer, who submitted a letter of support for Chung that was obtained by Task & Purpose, wrote how Chung held accountable a lieutenant colonel who was sending her inappropriate messages and pictures, adding that marked “the first time I felt I could trust a leader.”
U.S. Amy soldier Col. Jonathan Chung, outgoing commander of 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, smiles and greets guests with his family after the change of command ceremony on North Fort Lewis, June 4, 2021. (U.S. Army photo)Throughout his Army career, Chung has energetically tackled the most difficult problems facing the Army, including suicide, sexual harassment, and sexual assault, said retired Army Command Sergeant Maj. Mike Burke.
Chung’s efforts have included using public affairs officers and social media to share stories about soldiers who are making a difference, finding new ways to protect soldiers who report sexual assault and harassment, and empowering noncommissioned officers, said Burke, who served with Chung when he was a company commander for the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment as well as other assignments.
“He is trying new things – some of them work, some of them don’t,” Burke told Task & Purpose. “He’s getting feedback from his subordinates. He’s getting feedback from other peers and superiors and everybody else to try to solve some of these hardest things. And there’s not many leaders that are doing that in the Army.”
Burke also said that the allegations of “counterproductive leadership” against Chung are ridiculous.
“There’s no one who uses that word and talks about Jon Chung,” Burke said. “He’s got 24 years of service to back that up.”
Maj. William Shinego said that Chung pushed his subordinates but also trusted them when he led the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, or “Lancer Brigade.” Chung made serving in the brigade feel like soldiers were part of an elite unit, and Chung taught Shinego valuable command lessons that he has used throughout his Army career.
“I’d follow Jon Chung through the gates of hell,” Shinego said.
Col. Jonathan Chung, commander of 2-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team, speaks with the Provincial Chief of Police and Department of State officials of a fictional country they’re deployed to during a Key Leader Engagement at National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California. (Sgt. Nicole Branch/U.S. Army)Many of Chung’s subordinates disliked him because he is a tough leader, but the high standards he set forced his soldiers – especially his officers – to show significant improvement in their leadership skills, said a soldier who had Chung as a battalion commander when he served with the 10th Mountain Division
As a result of Chung’s relentless efforts, the officers in that battalion became the best with whom this soldier has served during his 11-year Army career.
“While working for him I thought that his expectations were ridiculous, however looking back I can see that it was to better everyone under his command and it showed,” the soldier said. “We were the best unit at Fort Drum, and it was obvious when working with other battalions. Years later I still use the skills and knowledge I gained from working with him in my current unit and it has made me a better leader and soldier. Looking back and knowing what I know now, Col. Chung was the best battalion commander I’ve had and it’s not even close.”
Former Army Capt. Jason Eaves, who served with Chung in Afghanistan as part of the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, describes Chung as one of the top leaders he’s ever encountered, who was focused on taking care of his Rangers and making sure that enlisted soldiers and officers who were not performing as well as they should be showed improvement while under his command.
“Although sometimes intense, not only were you glad he is on our side, it gave you the feeling that you and the entire team are the best and are going to persevere and win, no matter what the situation is or becomes,” Eaves told Task & Purpose.
During that deployment to Afghanistan, Chung showed that he is a Type-A, inspiring, aggressive, and indefatigable leader who refused to tolerate mediocrity, Eaves said.
Maj. Gen. Scott Jackson, Commanding General, Security Force Assistance Command, hands the unit colors to Col. Jonathan Chung (left) during the 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade Assumption of Command Ceremony, June 30, 2021 at Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washington.Eaves recalled how Chung told him the first time the two met that the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment is a wolf pack that will eat you up and leave you in the dust if you are weak or do not do your part.
“I will never forget that, and it set the tone for my time in [the Ranger] regiment and even carries on into today in the private sector,” Eaves said.
Chung is the “quintessential combat leader” who would never ask his subordinates to do something that he was unwilling to do himself, said retired Master Sgt. Jariko Denman, who served under Chung in the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 75th Ranger Regiment.
While Chung’s leadership style can inspire subordinates to rise to meet his expectations, it can also come across as meanness to others, Denman told Task & Purpose.
“As a leader, he is also plain talking,” Denman said. “He is rough around the edges. He speaks harshly. He’s like Patton: He gives it to you ugly, so you remember it. But that’s not to say he cannot articulate himself. He’s just a very matter of fact, here’s the deal, blunt leader.”
In Denman’s experience, Chung has never crossed the line from being a tough to an abusive leader.
“Col. Chung has always had a moral compass that is stronger than his professional compass,” Denman said. “So, dressing down a junior officer: Is it rough? Is it probably something that – oh, that could get you in trouble? Yes. Did he ever step over any line? Did he ever do anything that was outside of regulations? No. But, he could make enemies.”
The latest on Task & Purpose How much of a threat does Russia’s Pacific fleet pose to the US? * 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade commander suspended * Former Afghan interpreter graduates from boot camp to become a Marine * Russia jams US GPS-guided weapons given to Ukraine, leaked info shows * Taiwanese Air Force pilot’s ‘Winnie the Pooh patch’ causes international controversy*
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Jake Gyllenhaal stars in the Afghanistan rescue drama "Guy Ricthie's The Covenenant," set to be released in theaters on April 21. (The Covenant).Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a former Army sergeant and Dar Salim as his former interpreter now trapped in an Afghanistan once again ruled by the Taliban, debuts this weekend.
At the Los Angeles premiere earlier this week, Gyllenhaal offered some perspective on what drew him to the role and why he enjoys portraying service members on the big screen.
“At the beginning of my career I played a Marine, a recruit, and I got to know a lot of people in the military and learn from them,” the actor told The Associated Press. “And I think it changed my perspective on the world. Just even being around and sort of touching that world just a bit.”
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In Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant, Gyllenhaal plays Sgt. John Kinley, an Army special operations soldier who, over the course of a deployment to Afghanistan, forms a bond with his interpreter, Ahmed, played by Dar Salim. When Kinley’s team is ambushed and he is wounded, it falls upon Ahmed to carry him across the countryside back to a U.S. base, evading capture along the way. Years later, Ahmed and his family are living in hiding, having been unable to escape the country during the U.S. evacuation in August 2021. Frustrated by any legal channels to secure Ahmed’s safety, Kinley then resolves to return to the country on a rescue mission of his own.
“I have throughout my career played people who are ex-military, people who have a history in that, and I’ve learned so much from that group,” Gyllenhaal said at the premiere. “And there’s so much pride and love, the people that defend our freedom, that I am drawn to that story.”
Before Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant – and yes, that is the full title of the film – he starred in 2005’s Jarhead, in which Gyllenhaal played a young Marine scout sniper deployed to the Gulf War. In Source Code, he played an Army Captain who must continually navigate his way through a computer simulation to foil a terrorist attack, which only veers the slightly more into the realm of fantasy than returning to Afghanistan in 2023 as a one-man commando squad. If you want to expand the definition of military roles even further, Gyllenhaal’s Los Angeles Police Department character in 2012’s End of Watch is also depicted as a Marine Corps veteran.
“I’m also drawn to characters in extreme circumstances, I think, because I think it brings out the humanity,” the actor told The Associated Press this week. “And there’s no better characters in an extreme circumstance than a soldier in particular.”
The plot of this latest film is a bit far-fetched, but the sentiment behind it – and the ongoing plight of thousands of Afghans and their families who worked with and for the U.S. military during 20 years of fighting in Afghanistan and today remained trapped there or in refugee camps – is certainly salient in 2023.
And, let’s be honest, who doesn’t like playing soldier every once in a while?
Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant debuts nationwide this weekend.
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FILE - Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin attends the funeral of, a fighter of the Wagner group on Dec. 24, 2022. (AP Photo, File).Yevgeny Prigohzin, the leader of the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group, unexpectedly called for an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Prigozhin said the time was right to stop trying to seize more Ukrainian territory, consolidate control of what it has in Ukraine’s east, and end the fighting.
The remarks, published in a lengthy blog post on Friday, April 14 see the oligarch-turned-PMC leader ramble about the importance of the contested city of Bakhmut, denounce the “deep state” inside of Russia, call for an end to the “special military operation” as Russia calls the war and then claim a strong Ukrainian counteroffensive would be beneficial as it would rally Russian forces.
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“The ideal option would be to announce the end of the special military operation and declare that Russia has achieved all of its planned goals — and, in some respects, we really have achieved them,” Prigozhin said in the more than 3,000-word blog post.
It’s a bold claim and call to action for Prigozhin, who has not been particularly dovish since the war began. He has regularly shared videos from what he claims are the front lines, showing Wagner contract fighters as well as many corpses and funerals. The Wagner Group leader, known as “Putin’s chef” for his many catering businesses, has also heavily criticized the official military’s handling of the war, and said that it is denying his fighters ammunition — which includes convicts pulled from prisons to the front lines.
He also mentioned the recently leaked U.S. intelligence documents about the war in Ukraine but downplayed their impact and relevance.
Prigozhin’s calls for the war to end don’t mention ceding any of the lands already under Russian control. He does not call for trying to take the contested areas where Russian forces are fighting. However, his position on ending the ongoing war in Ukraine is more about his anger with what he sees as a divided Russia and inept military leaders. He opposed any negotiations and said that once settled into controlled lands, he hopes a Ukrainian counteroffensive will be launched to hit Russian fortifications. Why? The “best scenario for healing Russia” is that a major Ukrainian attack will rally Russia into a united front.
His opinions play into his ongoing feud with the Russian military, but amid his bold call for ending the fighting, and claims that a deep state is trying to undermine Russia’s ability to wage war, Prigozhin offered some surprising comments about the state of the front lines around the city of Bakhmut. Most importantly, he fully expects to lose the city in the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
“The troops ready for the counteroffensive are in the areas of concentration — they have enough of everything,” Prigozhin wrote. Fighting around the city has destroyed much of it and settled into trench warfare with neither side able to muster a combined-arms push to break the other side’s lines. But the Wagner Group leader says Ukraine has all of what it needs now, including fighters and ammunition. He had pushed to take the city and had been gaining ground, partly to boost the prestige of his organization, but his blog post bluntly said that Wagner cannot hold Bakhmut.
In fact, in an apparent effort to save face, he downplayed the importance of the city, saying “the capture of Bakhmut itself will not ensure a short-term victory over Ukraine, the road to the Dnieper, or even the capture of Donbas.”
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Army Spc. Justin Rein (L) and Capt. Luke Ebeling (R) won the 2023 Best Ranger Competition. (U.S. Army photo).The 2023 Army Best Ranger Competition wrapped up this weekend, with a team from the 75th Ranger Regiment taking home the title for the third year in a row. Captain Luke Ebeling and Spc. Justin Rein were this year’s winners, besting 55 other teams across three days and 32 individual events designed to push the mind and body to its limits.
“It just really shows that if you’re adaptable and you’re willing to learn,” Rein told WRBL CBS News in Columbus, Georgia at the awards ceremony on Sunday. “Everyone in the Army is here for the same purpose and we want to make a difference. So as long as we can adapt to our environment, you can really accomplish anything.”
Ebeling was humble when praising his teammate.
“I think in the Army we sometimes get wrapped around the fact of what’s so-and-so’s rank,” he told WRBL. “But at the end of the day, you know, he’s got a degree and J.T.’s working on his master’s and was taking tests, you know, as we’re preparing for the competition. And I think in a lot of ways, sometimes that’s your standard specialist in the Ranger regiment, right.”
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Rein is one of the few junior enlisted soldiers to win the competition, which has been held 39 times since 1982. Only in 2006, 1996, and back in 1988 has a Specialist been part of the winning team. Lest anyone doubt his physical abilities, here’s a picture from his train-up for the competition in January, with Rein finishing a 12-mile ruck march in one hour and 28 minutes.
(Image via Instagram)The David E. Grange Jr. Best Ranger Competition, held at Fort Benning, Georgia, dates back to 1982. Two-man teams of Ranger-qualified personnel from across the Army (And on some occasions, from other services) compete nonstop over several days in a test of military skills, endurance, and mental strength. The events encompass everything from the infamous Ranger School Malvesti Obstacle Course to fast-roping from helicopters to night land navigation. There is an urban assault course, a rope-bridge crossing, and ruck marches and swimming. There are weapons ranges in which the competitors employ everything from a pistol to a mortar to anti-tank weapons.
Some events test the competitor’s mental acuity. In this year’s competition, one exercise involved identifying vehicles. Another required the competitors to memorize the contents of a tuff box in 30 seconds and then answer questions about those items. It’s these kinds of tests that really show the ingenuity of the soldiers, like the 2022 Best Ranger competitor who – when told to decode the key to open a box – simply chose to pry the box open without damaging the lock, much to the surprise and amazement of the instructors.
“It’s truly inspiring to come out and watch these competitors,” Army Sgt. Maj. Thomas Payne told Stars and Stripes. Payne is a special operations soldier who was awarded the Medal of Honor and is also a three-time competitor in the event, winning in 2012. “These guys are all amazing athletes, high-quality guys. Some of these guys, I’d say, could have made the Olympics, but then they have a passion to serve something greater than themselves, so here they are all volunteering for this competition.”
Fifty-six teams, from across the Army, competed in this year’s competition, from specialists to majors, and from units in the National Guard to Army Special Operations Command.
“They’re truly the top 1% of 1% of our Army that epitomizes a more elite soldier who can do things with their hands, their minds, their weapons, and their spirit that our adversaries cannot,” Col. Chris Hammonds, commander of the Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade told Stars and Stripes.
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U.S. Special Forces soldiers practice train at the Boeblingen Local Training Area, Boeblingen, Germany, Nov. 18, 2016. (Visual Information Specialist Jason Johnston/U.S. Army).A small number of U.S. special operations forces are assigned to the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, but they do not conduct combat missions, Task & Purpose has confirmed.
The presence of special operators at the embassy in Ukraine was first revealed by one of the classified documents that were allegedly leaked by Airman 1st Class Jack Douglas Teixeira. The document said that 14 members of U.S. special operations forces were deployed to Ukraine as of February.
ABC News subsequently confirmed that some special operations forces are part of the U.S. military’s presence at the embassy in Kyiv. The troops at the embassy provide security for American diplomats on the ground and to make sure the weapons sent by the United States to Ukraine go where they are intended to, a U.S. official told Task & Purpose.
While Fox News personality Tucker Carlson has claimed that U.S. troops currently in Ukraine are “fighting Russian soldiers,” Biden administration officials have stressed that none of the U.S. service members in Ukraine are serving in combat roles.
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Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) has said in recent interviews that the only U.S. troops in Ukraine are those service members assigned to protecting the embassy in Kyiv.
“We do not have troops on the ground,” Turner, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said during Sunday’s edition of “Face the Nation” on CBS. “So, it’s an absolutely incorrect assumption from the documents that this individual [Teixeira] leaked.”
A Pentagon spokesman declined to provide any details about the American service members operating out of the embassy in Kyiv.
“For operational security and force protection reasons, we won’t discuss specific details regarding U.S. personnel,” Marine Lt. Col. Garron Garn told Task & Purpose on Tuesday. “As previously shared; however, DoD maintains a limited footprint inside of Ukraine for mission-critical functions at the Embassy, including providing embassy security support at the request of the U.S. Department of State, in coordination with the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS). This is not unique to Ukraine; DoD personnel provide Embassy security services all over the world.”
During a news briefing on Monday, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh acknowledged that a small number of U.S. troops are deployed to Ukraine, but she was adamant that they are not fighting the Russians.
“To be clear, there are no U.S. combat troops conducting combat operations in Ukraine,” Singh told reporters. “And while we’re not going to go into the specific disposition of our forces for OPSEC [operational security] reasons, their duties include support to the Defense Attaché Office in support of our security assistance programs and end-use monitoring, as well as U.S. Embassy security support. This is not new, and again, something we’ve been transparent about and publicly with Congress as well.”
Retired Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, former commander of U.S. European Command and NATO, said the news of special operators being assigned to the U.S. embassy in Kyiv is not surprising at all.
Although Marine Security Guards provide security for U.S. embassies around the world, there are not enough Marines to protect these diplomatic posts during wartime, Breedlove told Task & Purpose on Tuesday.
Currently, the U.S. government is maintaining its embassy in Kyiv even though Ukraine is under attack by the Russians, so it makes sense to have U.S. special operations forces help protect the embassy.
“This is an embassy in the capital of a nation that is in a war, that has been invaded by a world superpower and is defending itself for its life, and we’re trying to keep an embassy open in that wartime capital,” Breedlove said. “It makes absolute sense to me that we might better prepare for the defense for our diplomats and our embassy.”
UPDATE: 04/18/2023; this story was updated on April 18 with comments from Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
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Recognizing that veterans who go back to school after leaving the military have unique needs and challenges on the road to higher education, NU is there to help make that transition easier. As a veteran-founded university, NU recognizes the unique strengths, determination, and integrity of the military community, and is dedicated to supporting veterans and members of the military community in reaching their goal of higher education.
Here are five advantages that NU offers its veteran students.
Dedicated supportNational University has dedicated military enrollment advisors to help veteran students get started on their academic journey. Once enrolled, the military benefits team can help ensure that veteran students take advantage of every opportunity available. Throughout their time with NU, students also have access to the Veteran Center support services that include peer-to-peer support from military-experience academic advisors, counseling and wellness resources, as well as career and tutoring services.
Credit for military experienceNational University’s degree programs are transfer-friendly, allowing students to maximize as many previously-earned credits as possible. While this naturally includes college credits from other accredited institutions, military training and experience can also be counted as credit toward a degree. Veterans just need to provide their Joint Service Transcript or military training. NU staff will examine their transcript for things like language skills, leadership training, and even first aid skills to accept as transfer credit.
Class flexibilityGoing back to school after leaving the military isn’t the same as going to college straight from high school. Veteran students often have responsibilities like work and childcare that prevent them from being traditional full-time students. National University was set up for adult learners like veteran students and offers year-round enrollment. Moreover, classes start monthly or bi-monthly and are just four to eight weeks long. This allows veteran students to take classes at their convenience with minimal disruption to their daily lives.
Online coursesBuilding on National University’s convenient and flexible class structure, NU also offers both on-site and online courses. While the school’s main campus is conveniently located in sunny San Diego, California, students can access NU’s online classes from the comfort of their own homes. Whether it’s a chat room discussion after a morning run, working on an assignment in between bites on your lunch break, or a late-night study session after putting the kids to bed, NU’s online courses allow veteran students to take classes around their schedule.
‘Yellow Ribbon’ ProgramThe post-9/11 GI Bill ® is a huge benefit for veterans who go back to school after their service. While it helps to cover costs like housing, school supplies, tuition and fees, and even relocating, it doesn’t cover everything. That’s where the Yellow Ribbon Program comes in. Yellow Ribbon schools like National University may voluntarily waive a portion of the remaining tuition costs not covered by the GI Bill and other financial aid, putting high-quality education within the reach of veteran students.
This article was sponsored by National University.
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A U.S. Air Force Combat Control trainee assigned to Operating Location C, 342nd Training Squadron, takes a breath while swimming several laps during the warm-up phase of an early morning water circuit training session at Pope Army Airfield, N.C., Feb. 12, 2015. Photo by Staff Sgt. Kenny Holston/U.S. Air Force.You’re sitting on the roof of a dilapidated building in the middle of Baghdad, Iraq, with three other men who are armed to the teeth. Saddam Hussein is still in power, and your mission is to guide the bombs meant to kill him to their final destination. As you tinker with the technologically advanced infrared laser that sits upon a small tripod, you listen to the distant traffic familiar to anyone who has ever lived in a city. They have no idea, you think to yourself.
Your team prepares for the night’s activities, which will later come to be known as “shock and awe.” Save for the occasional spit of chewing tobacco into a plastic bottle, your team is silent. The reality begins to sink in that you are one of only a handful of Americans in all of Iraq, which will soon be in the midst of an invasion from the most powerful military coalition since World War II. Sound crazy? It’s just another day at the office for a U.S. Air Force combat controller.
Related: This Combat Controller Has Become One of the Most Decorated Airmen Ever »
According to the U.S. Air Force’s 24th Special Operations Wing, the mission of a combat controller is to, “deploy, undetected, into combat and hostile environments to establish assault zones or airfields, while simultaneously conducting air traffic control, fire support, command and control, direct action, counter-terrorism, foreign internal defense, humanitarian assistance, and special reconnaissance in the joint arena.” With such a broad mission, combat controllers must become certified and maintain proficiency in everything from FAA-certified traffic control, qualified combat diving, and free fall parachuting to certification as a joint terminal attack controller.
A 352nd Battlefield Airmen Training Squadron Combat Control School student radios to a simulated aircraft during a tactics field training exercise at Camp Mackall, N.C., Aug. 3, 2016. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Ryan Conroy.Finding an individual who is up to the rigorous academic and physical standards of the job is no easy task though. With graduation rates that would make most SEALs uncomfortable, candidates need to show up in the best shape of their life for the two-week selection course at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. On day one, they must pass the Physical Ability and Stamina Test, which consists of:
- 500-meter surface swim in 11:42
- 1.5-mile run in 10:10
- 8 pull-ups
- 48 sit-ups
- 48-push-ups
Passing the PAST will get them in the door, but that won’t be enough to stay. Over the course of the next two weeks, candidates endure a near non-stop pace of physical exercises while learning the history of controllers and basic fundamentals of the job.
Combat controllers are primarily attached to other special operations units, so selection must inherently gauge the personality of the candidates as well. Finding a personality that can blend with so many unit cultures and be proficient in so many different capabilities is a tall order to fill.
“One of the ideals we embrace is the SOF truth that we invest in ideas, people, and equipment — in that order,” a combat controller, who asked to remain unnamed, told Task & Purpose. He has spent his career serving in special tactics squadrons.
He went on to say, “Because we have to embed with so many different SOF units, you not only have to keep up but be better since you’re the outsider. Everywhere we go we have to prove ourselves over again. Each unit’s culture is different, so personality is a big thing for us during selection. You might be doing raids with Rangers one week to being underway with SEALs the next, and we need airmen who can get along with all of them when they show up.”
After passing the two-week selection course, of which approximately 75% will drop out on average, it’s off to become a certified air traffic controller. This is where the cadre will find anyone who slipped through during the initial selection course with hours upon hours of intense physical punishment every day on top of the academically demanding classes. By the end of the air traffic control school, candidates — referred to as cones — are in peak physical shape and ready to take on the rigors of the third phase: Combat Control School.
Airmen from the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron jump out the back of a MH-47 Chinook Helicopter April 9, 2013, at Wynnehaven Beach, Fla. Photo by Airman 1st Class Christopher Callaway/U.S. Air Force.Attrition is not typically the goal at this point, as anyone who made it through the last phase has shown that they are not a quitter and are up to the physical challenges of being a controller. That doesn’t make this phase any easier, though, and it doesn’t mean that a few more might not be lost to injury. During the second week, they will conduct what is called Introduction to Field Training. That’s basically a nice way of saying Hell Week. Over the course of the five-and-a-half day exercise, cones only get about 1.5 hours of sleep. The training is so demanding that it is commonplace for cones to be taken to the hospital for rhabdomyolysis, which can lead to kidney failure or even death. The end of this phase concludes with a 15-mile ruck march out of the field where candidates will receive their distinctive scarlet beret, and officially earn the title of combat controller.
That is only the midpoint of their training pipeline though. Before they can be assigned to their units, cones still have another year’s worth of training that ranges from military freefall school to combat diver certification to advanced skills training. By the time the pipeline is finished, they are expected to meet the following physical fitness test standards:
- 20 pull-ups
- 100 sit-ups
- 100 push-ups
- 3-mile run in 21 minutes
- 1,500-meter swim in 30 minutes
At the end of these two years of training, Air Force combat controllers are among the most highly trained entry-level special operators in the world.
Although up to 95% won’t graduate, the proof is definitely in the pudding when it comes to how effective their selection and training pipeline is. Combat controllers are credited with the first free fall jump in the Global War on Terror, which led to them guiding the helicopters carrying the first Special Forces ODAs into Afghanistan in 2001. They are credited with guiding the bombs during the opening salvo of the Iraq War in 2003. In 2010, they were on the ground in Haiti within 24 hours of the devastating earthquake to guide rescue and humanitarian aircraft into the country. In total, the service has awarded seven Air Force Crosses since 2001 for extraordinary heroism in combat; combat controllers have received five of them.
They have always been, and will continue to be, “First there.”
Note: A previous version of this story was published on February 3, 2017.
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(Image via DARPA).Picture a dune-buggy-like vehicle, equipped with all manner of sensors and other data-collection devices, rolling across some extremely harsh desert terrain in California’s Mojave Desert. In the driver’s seat? No one, because it is the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s (DARPA) Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency vehicle, which completed its first round of testing in off-road environments earlier this month.
The concept of the RACER is pretty simple: “enable Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) to maneuver on unstructured off-road terrain at speeds that are only limited by considerations of sensor performance, mechanical constraints, and safety,” according to DARPA. In other words, teach a drone vehicle to maneuver in the kind of environment a military drone vehicle is going to operate in, off-road and through plenty of natural obstacles.
And with, as DARPA says, “enabling them to match human-driven speeds in realistic situations.” Basically, it’s a robotic scout that won’t be constrained by any obstacle, be it man-made or, in this case, geological in nature.
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During the latest tests, conducted in March of this year at the Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, RACER vehicles completed more than 55 drives, ranging from approximately four to 11 miles, and traveling at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour.
“During this latest experiment, we continued to push vehicle limits in perceiving the environments to greater distances, enabling a further increase in speeds and better adaptation to newly encountered environmental conditions that will continue into RACER’s next phase,” said RACER program manager Stuart Young in a press release.
In the above video, you can watch the vehicle being tested during an NTC rotation. Maneuvering through several hundred meters of terrain with no complaints about the heat, or the dust, and it doesn’t even need to carry any shit out of the training area for disposal.
Like just about every other technologically advanced project, the potential for the RACER vehicles is immense. They’re equipped with 360° range and image sensing, multiple Light Detection and Ranging radars, color and infrared cameras, event sensors, and a plethora of other detection equipment.
These tools all work very well in a controlled environment. The problem with unmanned vehicles – and what some of these tests are working on – is unleashing these drones out into the world, where the challenges, or prompts to the software, are infinite.
During the war in Ukraine, both Ukraine and Russia experimented with autonomous unmanned vehicles. Of course, all of these vehicles are limited by their ability to only adapt to their environment based on their programming, and by their reliance on actual people.
“The whole point of fielding a UGV is to take humans out of a dangerous environment. But in all the discussions that have taken place throughout Russian military academia, no one ever talked about what happens when the vehicle is destroyed,” Samuel Bendett, a member of the Russia Studies Program and adjunct senior fellow at the Center for New American Security told Task & Purpose in 2022 when discussing the deployment of Russian unmanned ground vehicles to Ukraine. “And if soldiers have to recover the UGV, that negates the whole purpose.”
So, the robotic combat drone, or dune-buggy is not likely to make an appearance on any battlefield in the next couple of years, but the concept is definitely at the forefront of U.S. military innovation.
“Representatives from the US Army and Marine Corps were present at the experiment to aid in the transfer of technologies developed in RACER to future service uncrewed initiatives and concepts,” said DARPA.
Bring on the RACER.
The latest on Task & Purpose How much of a threat does Russia’s Pacific fleet pose to the US? * 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade commander suspended * Former Afghan interpreter graduates from boot camp to become a Marine * Russia jams US GPS-guided weapons given to Ukraine, leaked info shows * Taiwanese Air Force pilot’s ‘Winnie the Pooh patch’ causes international controversy*
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(Screenshot via Taran Tactical/YouTube).We all know Keanu Reeves is a badass on screen, but did you know the guy famous for John Wick and The Matrix is pretty legit offscreen too?
Just check out this YouTube video shows the 51-year-old action star tearing through a 3-gun relay drill, and looking operator as fuck with a full beard and baseball cap.
Looks like Keanu has actual John Wick gunfighting skills — at least on the range, anyway.
The video by Taran Tactical is aptly titled “Keanu shredding” and was uploaded to YouTube on March 3, 2016. While his face is not entirely visible in the video, another clip shows Reeves and Jessica Hook, a professional shooter, at the same range wearing the same clothes.
For a guy whose early career consisted of him saying “whoa” a lot and continuously brushing long hair out of his bewildered face, it’s hard to imagine him actually running through a shooting drill with a rifle, handgun, and shotgun in under a minute. But he does. He even manages to put two or three rounds into each of the targets, at one point throat-punching a dummy before unloading with his pistol. Not bad, Baba Yaga.
Note: A previous version of this story was published on March 4, 2016.
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(Screenshot via Band of Brothers episode).HBO’s World War II miniseries “Band of Brothers” follows the men of Easy Company, part of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, from their training at jump school to the airborne landings in Normandy, the Siege of Bastogne, and all the way to Hitler’s mountain retreat.
Based on the book of the same name by Stephen Ambrose, the show is a dramatized retelling of actual events and follows a group of elite and battle-hardened paratroopers as they fight across Europe, far behind enemy lines, with only each other to rely on.
The critically acclaimed 10-episode miniseries won a slew of awards including a Golden Globe for Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television and inspired a second “Band of Brothers” series in 2010, which follows the U.S. Marines in the Pacific theater of the war.
Related: 10 Things You Never Knew About ‘Saving Private Ryan’ »
To ensure historical accuracy, the series drew from Ambrose’s story, as well as memoirs and personal accounts from Easy Company soldiers. Each episode opens with interviews with the men who fought in some of the war’s most brutal and unforgiving battles.
Here are 10 things you didn’t know about HBO’s World War II war drama.
This show made a lot of people’s careers.
This cast is full of actors who have gone on to become major stars since it came out. From Tom Hardy to Michael Fassbender, Simon Pegg, Damian Lewis, and James McAvoy, “Band of Brothers” introduced audiences to a whole host of talented actors.
Creating “Band of Brothers” was an enormous and expensive undertaking.
The miniseries, with a budget of $120 million, took three years to make and was filmed on a 12-acre set that was continually modified to represent 11 different European locations. If you want a comparison for scale: That’s five times the size of the set for “Saving Private Ryan.”
HBO had an army of extras.
According to the behind-the-scenes film, “The Making of ‘Band of Brothers,” there were 10,000 extras, 500 speaking roles, and a massive wardrobe department that supplied detailed and authentic uniforms, including 500 pairs of paratrooper jump boots manufactured to fit the original Army specifications.
“Band of Brothers” had more explosions than “Saving Private Ryan.”
By the time they finished filming the third episode, the special effects department had gone through more pyrotechnics than was used in the entire production of “Saving Private Ryan,” and they still had seven episodes left to film.
Screenshot via YouTube.They went through a ton of ammunition.
According to “The Making of Band of Brothers,” a heavy day of filming required up to 14,000 rounds of ammunition, and the set had an arsenal of 700 authentic World War II weapons and 400 rubber prop guns.
Screenshot via YouTube.The set doubled as a tank factory. No really, they made tanks.
The crew repurposed a T-34 Soviet medium tank from the set of “Saving Private Ryan” and remodeled it to make it look like a tiger tank, and built an additional five tanks and rented four.
The actors went through a mini-jump school.
A video diary by actor Ron Livingston chronicles the multi-step training process the actors underwent to learn how to simulate a jump from an aircraft. First, they jumped from three-foot crates onto the sand, and then from ramps. Next, the actors were placed into a harness so they could get used to how it would feel to jump with a parachute. Finally, to simulate the jump into Normandy, the actors leaped from a 40-foot-high prop aircraft while wearing wires connected to a harness.
Screenshot via YouTube.Pvt. Albert Blithe survived World War II and went on to serve in Korea.
In the third episode, Pvt. Albert Blithe, played by Marc Warren, is shot in the neck and is last seen in a hospital ward. Blithe survived the war, and stayed in the Army, going on to serve during the Korean War according to Together We Served.
One of the sets was a man-made forest inside an airplane hangar.
The art department constructed the set that was used for the Siege of Bastogne inside a massive airplane hangar using real trees as well as 250 fake trees that the special effects department made from fiberglass, hemp, latex, and foam.
Not only did the crew create a forest, but they also had to make it look like it was snowing.
It took four weeks to cover the set with fake snow created from paper and plastics to get a mix of snow, from flakes to slush.
Note: A previous version of this story was published on July 6, 2016.
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(Photo courtesy of Black Rifle Coffee Company).Leaving the military is not easy. It’s even harder to find the same sort of fulfillment you had while in uniform. There’s an adjustment period, a time for learning how to be a civilian again. Few employers beyond the realm of law enforcement would consider mastery of battle drills one through eight a valuable skill set, and knife hands and showing up to work in a pair of Ranger panties typically don’t go over well at the office. But to get out of the military and build six successful companies, while also producing and starring in a hit independent film — that sort of success turns that entire narrative on its head. Mat Best, president of Article 15 Clothing, did just that, and fast.
After five deployments with the Army and a stint as a CIA contractor, the former Army Ranger rose to become one of the most influential post-9/11 veterans outside of politics. And he’s only 29. What’s his secret to success? That’s a question for another time. Right now, let’s just focus on the good stuff.
1. What’s the dumbest thing you ever did as a private?
I’ve done a lot of dumb stuff, but once myself and five other privates moved a senior NCO’s car from the parking lot and blocked the 2nd Ranger Battalion gates. It was a little Honda, like a two-seater, and you got six Rangers who are all jacked up, so it was pretty easy. We picked up the front, scooted it; then we picked up the rear, scooted it. In the morning, when the first sergeant and the platoon sergeants all came in, this NCO’s car was blocking the entrance. So he got hemmed up. And then they smoked the fuck out of all of us until we were like, “Alright, we did it, let the other guys go.” We got smoked for probably another solid six hours before they let us go.
2. Rip Its or Wild Tiger?
Oo, that’s a hard one. I drank the shit out of Rip Its. Let’s just go with Rip Its. And I’ll mix some Black Rifle Coffee in there to make my heart explode.
Related: 10 Questions Only A Veteran Would Ask UFC Fighter Tim Kennedy »
3. The zombie apocalypse kicks off. What’s the first thing you do?
I’m going to call my friends, exactly how we did it in Range 15, and be unbelievably excited. And I’m going to start opening up all my cases of ammo that I’ve been saving for the apocalypse the past 10 years. Get the speedball bag, we’re going in!
4. Finish this sentence: you shouldn’t join the military if…
You’re a pussy. We need some more red-blooded Americans who aren’t pussies to join the military.
5. What’s your favorite war film and why? And you can’t say “Range 15”…
Well, that’s just the greatest movie of all time. But I’m going to go with “Saving Private Ryan,” just because it’s such a beautiful film, and they’re Rangers, so I’m a little biased on that.
6. What’s your go-to MRE recipe?
Man, veggie omelet! Just kidding. I’d have to go with beef stew. I loved that. You break up the crackers, throw that in there. And you put the Tabasco in there. Then you take the MRE shake and you don’t fill it all the way up with water, just a little bit, so it’s a paste, and you put that on some pound cake and have yourself a picnic. You don’t dilute it too much. If it’s too watery, it’s not good. If it’s like a frosting, it’s magical. It almost makes you feel like you’re not in the field.
7. If you could go back in time and talk to yourself at the Army recruiting station, what would you say?
I’d say, “Good job. You’re doing the right thing by not joining the Marines like your brothers. You’ll get lasers and night vision. War will be way easier.”
8. What was your single scariest experience in the military?
My first PT test, you get two chances to pass it. I had an NCO screw me over. I had to do 62 push-ups, and he was like, “61, 61, 61…” And so I failed it. I had to go back the next day and take another PT test. Had I not passed that I would’ve gone to worldwide and not been in Ranger Regiment. That was probably the scariest moment in my career because I don’t fail at things, and that was the first time that failure was almost an option. It was out of my control. It was pretty scary moment. But obviously, I went back and crushed it the next day.
9. What’s your proudest military moment?
Probably my fifth deployment, to Iraq. All the guys who were team leaders and squad leaders were my best friends. Sharing that experience with all of them, and creating those friendships in those environments, was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I’m still best friends with almost all of them.
10. What’s the one thing to always remember in a firefight?
To reload. But honestly, the one thing to remember in a firefight is to know that you’re better than the enemy. If you’re timid, that’s what gets people killed. Have faith in yourself and your training. It’s the same in a fistfight. If you go in timid and scared, you’ll probably get knocked out. But if you go in there full force and wanting to put that dude in the ground, you’re going to be good.
Note: A previous version of this story was published on July 17, 2016.
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(Screenshot via Lone Survivor trailer).Millions of Americans watched Lone Survivor, the story of Operation Red Wings, a mission gone awry that saw 19 brave men lose their lives on a mountainside in eastern Afghanistan.
The film opened as number one at the box office, wildly exceeding studio expectations. It has generated a lot of buzz and created a long-overdue conversation about the war in Afghanistan.
The dialogue that Lone Survivor created includes a segment aired on CNN featuring an interview between Jake Tapper and the subject of the film, Navy SEAL and Navy Cross recipient Marcus Luttrell.
Tapper shared his impression of the film with Luttrell, which he says echoes the way he feels when he thinks about the war in Afghanistan, a feeling of hopelessness and senselessness. Luttrell appears to take objection.
“Well, I don’t know what part of the film you were watching, but hopelessness never really came into it,” he replied.
“We spent our whole lives training to defend this country and then we were sent over there by this by this country, so you’re telling me that because we were over there doing what we were told by this country that it was senseless, and what, they died for nothing?”
Dissent is patriotic. Critical thinking is patriotic. And while 2.5 million American men and women have served in Afghanistan and Iraq, how many Americans have been directly impacted by the wars? How many have actually contemplated the mission, the service, the sacrifice?
Tapper’s sin was not his question, but rather that it took us 13 years to ask it. More than 2,000 American men and women have died in Afghanistan and we only now, only once it’s presented before us in a Hollywood movie, contemplate whether it is worth it.
In the film, some of the most harrowing scenes come when the SEALs, attempting to evade the Taliban, have no choice but to retreat down the mountain.
They hurl themselves from the side of the cliff – falling, tumbling, and crashing into trees, rocks, and debris, their rifles clattering off of bounders as their bodies bounce down the rough and rugged terrain.
Falling.
It’s a poignant metaphor for this war – brave men diving head-first for their survival, heroic victims of awful circumstances.
It’s not hopeless, but it sure is senseless. And that senselessness derives not from the merits of the mission but from its execution.
For me, the most emotional part of the film came after it was over when the faces and names of the fallen were shown on the screen. Wedding pictures, images of them with their families. 19 brave men, among the 2,165 American service members killed in Afghanistan since 2001.
Note: A previous version of this story was published on January 13, 2014.
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FILE: A Marine, watches a U.S. Army MH-60 Black Hawk with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) conduct night air-to-air refueling during unit-level training called El Centro Horizon at Naval Air Facility El Centro, California, Dec. 6, 2017. (Cpl. Carlos Jimenez/U.S. Marine Corps).U.S. military officials believe that a senior leader of the Islamic State group was likely killed during a helicopter raid on Monday in northern Syria, according to Central Command, or CENTCOM.
The raid resulted in the “probable death” of the ISIS leader, described as an operational planner in charge of planning attacks in the Middle East and Europe, a CENTCOM news release says. Two other armed people were killed during the operation.
So far, U.S. military officials have not released the name of the ISIS leader believed killed in Monday’s raid.
U.S. forces have secured the remains of the ISIS leader, who is being identified by his DNA, a U.S. official told Task & Purpose on Monday. More information will be released after the remains have been identified.
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No U.S. troops or civilians on the ground were killed or wounded, and no U.S. helicopters were damaged during the raid, according to CENTCOM.
“Though degraded, ISIS remains able to conduct operations within the region with a desire to strike beyond the Middle East,” Army Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, CENTCOM commander, said in a statement. “We will continue the relentless campaign against ISIS.”
Monday’s raid is the third publicly announced U.S. military operation this month against ISIS, which has waged an insurgency in Syria and Iraq since losing its last remaining territory in 2019.
On April 8, U.S. troops captured Hudayfah al Yemeni – whom CENTCOM described as “an ISIS attack facilitator – and two of his associates in eastern Syria. Four days earlier, the U.S. military launched a “unilateral strike” on April 4 that killed ISIS Khalid ‘Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri in Syria.
About 900 U.S. troops are deployed to Syria to keep ISIS from re-emerging as a major threat, but they also frequently find themselves under attack by Iranian-backed forces as part of a proxy war between the United States and Iran.
Iran and its proxy forces have launched more than 80 attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria since President Joe Biden took office, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers last month.
On March 23 a drone that U.S. military officials determined was “of Iranian origin” attacked a coalition base in Syria, killing an American contractor and wounding five U.S. service members. In response to the attack, the U.S. military launched airstrikes later that day against “facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps,” Austin said in a statement at the time.
The following day, U.S. troops in Syria were attacked again and one American service member was wounded, but the Biden administration decided not to launch further punitive strikes, the New York Times first reported.
“Iran is deeply committed to trying to entrench itself – economically, politically, militarily socioculturaly – as deep into Syria as it possibly can, because it wants to stay there in the long run,” Nichols Carl, the Middle East Portfolio Manager at the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington, D.C., previously told Task & Purpose.
The latest on Task & Purpose How much of a threat does Russia’s Pacific fleet pose to the US? * 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade commander suspended * Former Afghan interpreter graduates from boot camp to become a Marine * Russia jams US GPS-guided weapons given to Ukraine, leaked info shows * Taiwanese Air Force pilot’s ‘Winnie the Pooh patch’ causes international controversy*
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(Screenshot from Saving Private Ryan).War movies and bad military leaders go together like MRE crackers and jalapeño cheese. It’s not even that the leaders are always bad or incompetent, though some are — like Jeremy Renner’s character in “The Hurt Locker,” who seems to have a death wish that he wants to share with his entire team.
Other leaders from action flicks and war movies, like Bruce Willis’ character in “Tears of the Sun,” just aren’t real; they’re not believable or relatable in the slightest. His character is just a walking, but not talking, action figure.
Related: 20 Lame One-Liners Overused In War Movies »
However, there are quite a few characters who hit pretty close to the mark. Here are five leaders from war movies who we’d actually follow into combat.
Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Highway
The consummate infantry leader, Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Highway, played by Clint Eastwood in “Heartbreak Ridge,” is the baddest motherfucker around. He knows it, you know it, and his men know it, too — he makes sure of that.
While his training methods are a bit unorthodox — pretty sure he didn’t do an ORM before firing live rounds at his Marines — it does appear to work. When the Marines land in Grenada, it’s not the first time they’ve taken fire.
Capt. John Miller
Tom Hanks’ character in “Saving Private Ryan” is a quiet, humble, and self-assured commander. Battle-tested, yet compassionate, from the beaches of Normandy to far behind enemy lines, he leads from the front.
Miller wouldn’t ask his men to do anything he wouldn’t or hasn’t done himself. That’s a leader.
Staff Sgt. Sykes
There’s a staff noncommissioned officer like him in every unit and tons more in an infantry battalion. Tough, stern, smart, and sarcastic as hell, Jamie Foxx’s character from “Jarhead” can be both endearing and terrifying at the exact same time. When not playing fuck-fuck games, Sykes is training his Marines for combat, or leading them into it.
He even delivers a few off-the-cuff counselings and motivational speeches to the Marines when they need it, along with a few well-deserved ass-chewing.
Lt. Jordan O’Neil
She isn’t intimidated by a goddamn thing.
That’s an important quality in military leaders, and not just in combat. Military life is unfortunately full of moments where people in leadership positions back down from an argument with a superior, even though they’re right. Demi Moore’s character in “G.I. Jane,” Lt. Jordan O’Neil, doesn’t play that game.
She’s also not one to balk from a fight, and in the film’s climactic battle, she drags her wounded command master chief to cover and saves his ass.
Col. Terry L. Childers
While it may be tempting to paint Samuel L. Jackson’s character as a blood-thirsty Marine infantry officer, he’s not, though the prosecution certainly tried to present him as such during his trial in “Rules of Engagement.” Col. Terry L. Childers, while hard as nails, is not heartless. He’s the kind of leader who understands tough calls must sometimes be made, and bears responsibility for his actions, which though tragic, saved the lives of his Marines.
He also delivers one of the best war movie one-liners of all time: “Waste the motherfuckers.”
Note: A previous version of this story was published on June 29, 2016.
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Daniel Perry, the U.S. Army sergeant convicted this month of murdering a protester in 2020 regularly expressed racist and violent views including desires to shoot and kill activists, newly unsealed court documents show.
The documents, first reported on by the Houston Chronicle, were released on Thursday, April 13 and reveal Islamophobic and racist and social media posts and messages. Perry also revealed a desire to kill people taking part in the 2020 racial justice protests brought on by the murder of George Floyd. Perry was convicted on April 7 for murdering Garrett Foster, an Air Force veteran who was taking part in the protests in Austin, Texas in 2020.
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The records show messages and posts going back to 2019, with Perry sharing racist memes denigrating Black Americans, anti-Muslim comments and repeated statements saying he wanted to attack and kill protesters. He posted in 2019 complaining that the military “can’t get paid for hunting Muslims in Europe.” After protests erupted in the aftermath of Floyd’s death, Perry posted about wanting to go to Dallas to shoot people.
At the time, Perry was assigned to Fort Hood. He drove to Austin on July 25, ostensibly to work a side job as a rideshare driver. He ran a red light and drove his car into a crowd of protestors. Foster, a 28-year-old Air Force veteran, was among that group and was legally open carrying a Kalashnikov rifle. Witnesses said that Foster did not raise his rifle, but Perry claimed he did and shot him with a handgun, killing him. Perry and Foster are both white. Perry would not be indicted until a year later. He was found guilty of murder, but not guilty of aggravated assault.
Perry’s conviction made him one of the latest active-duty service members or veterans to be investigated or prosecuted for ties to extremist actions or plots. Earlier this month a Special Forces veteran was sentenced to seven years in prison for possessing classified information and illegal weapons, discovered while investigating his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Another man was sentenced to life in prison for killing a deputy during an attempt to start a second civil war in 2020, when he was serving as an active-duty Air Force sergeant. An active-duty Army soldier was sentenced to 45 years in prison as part of a foiled Neo-Nazi plot to attack troops at a base in Turkey. The military has been investigating extremism within the ranks for several years and has taken some steps to try and weed out extremists during recruitment.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott expressed plans to pardon Perry earlier this month, tweeting the day after Perry’s conviction that he is “working as swiftly as Texas law allows regarding the pardon of Sgt. Perry.”
Perry has not been sentenced yet. He faces five years to life in prison.
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Russian Spetsnaz troops march in Moscow in May 2021 celebrating the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. (Photo by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images).The Spetsnaz, the catchall term for Russia’s special operations forces, are the most elite troops the Russian Federation has. They are also getting destroyed in Ukraine.
That’s according to leaked documents tracking the war in Ukraine. Losses are so high that, given the time it takes to train Spetsnaz fighters, the United States believes it could take as long as a decade for Russia to make up for the losses from the last 14 months. The documents are dated from late 2022 to early 2023, giving a relatively up-to-date picture of the fighting.
The problem is twofold, the leaked documents state. Russia is overusing its special operations forces, constantly putting them into combat, and as a result leaving many exhausted and understrength. And they’re also being put at the front line in direct combat. As a result they, like regular troops, are taking heavy casualties due to the brutal war of attrition going on.
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The heavy losses stem from tactics put into use early in the war. As part of the failed effort to quickly move and seize Kyiv, commanders ordered Spetsnaz troops to the frontlines, to accelerate expected Russian gains. The strong Ukrainian resistance stopped the Russian advance and turned specialized units into fodder. The choice of deploying Spetsnaz troops this way also meant that they were not able to do their more specialized work in scouting or attacking specific targets.
Citing satellite imagery, the American report says that “all but one of five Russian Separate Spetsnaz Brigades that returned from combat operations in Ukraine in late summer 2022 suffered significant losses.”
Exact casualty numbers are unclear, but the report says that of the 900 Spetsnaz commandos deployed in one unit, only 125 returned from the fighting.
The documents were among several leaked online over the past several months. This past week, the FBI arrested Air National Guard member Airman Jack Teixeira, who now faces charges under the Espionage Act.
Over the last year, Spetsnaz fighters have been confirmed to be fighting in the cities of Mariupol and Vuhledar, as well as in ongoing campaigns in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
Reports of heavy losses among elite Russian units is not new. In February reporters tracked huge casualties among the 155th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade, which was fighting at Vuhledar. However, the leaked report on Spetsnaz casualties offers a deeper understanding of how Russia’s special operations forces are faring in the war.
Russian forces made a number of errors early in the war, which contributed to high casualties in their ranks. That included bringing and using many personal cell phones, which revealed their positions and let Ukraine score a number of deadly strikes against the invading forces. That, along with new weapons such as anti-tank rockets and artillery, helped Ukraine drive the Russian invasion back to the eastern and southern parts of the country, where the fighting has been at a standstill since the fall of 2022.
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A U.S. Air Force U-2 Dragon Lady spy plane pilot looks down at the Chinese surveillance balloon as it hovered over the central United States February 3, 2023. (Defense Department).Two months after the U.S. military shot down several aerial objects including a Chinese spy balloon, leaked documents reveal that there were at least three other spy balloons, including one that flew over an American carrier group.
The news, first reported by the Washington Post, comes from military documents leaked online. The accused leaker, Air National Guard member Airman Jack Teixeira, allegedly leaked them in a Discord chat to win arguments. He was arrested Thursday, April 13 and is currently facing charges under the Espionage Act.
A trio of documents included in the leak offer more information on the Chinese spy balloons. One of the documents, dated Feb. 15 and more than a week after the United States Air Force shot down the balloon that flew over the continental United States — dubbed Killeen-23 — mentions that as of the writing of the document, the U.S. had not figured out all of the sensors on the balloon. The U.S. Air Force shot down the balloon on Feb. 4.
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Another mentions Accardo-21 and Bulger-21, the former which had a “foil-lined gimbaled sensor,” and the later which went around the planet between December 2021 and May 2022, per the Washington Post. A third document mentions that one balloon crashed into the South China Sea while another flew over an American carrier group. It’s not clear if those two balloons are Accardo-21 and Bulger-21.
Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement to Task & Purpose that the Pentagon did not have a comment on the Washington Post’s report. He pointed to previous news from the Department of Defense that four other spy balloons had flown over the United States or its assets prior to the one in January.
The naming of the balloons in the documents uses a theme of noted criminals, such as James “Whitey” Bulger.
The military and American intelligence community had previously said that there were previous spy balloon flights over U.S. territory, three during the Trump administration and one other during the Biden administration. It’s not clear if the ones listed in the leaked documents are the ones from those instances. The military is currently reviewing past unidentified aerial objects to see if there might be additional previous spy balloons.
The documents were prepared after the United States shot down Killeen-23 and then an additional three other objects over a span of Feb. 10-12. Those included objects that flew into Canadian airspace after passing through Alaska and one that flew over Lake Huron. Another aerial object was shot down over Alaska on Feb. 10. That one appears to have been a hobby balloon belonging to the the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade, which said that it had lost track of one over Alaska at the same time the Air Force shot the aerial object down.
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The seal on the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building in Washington, DC. (Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images).A Tennessee Air National Guardsman who called himself “the Reaper” is now reaping the consequences of his actions after attempting to find work on a website for hitmen.
Josiah Ernesto Garcia was arrested Wednesday, April 12, charged by the Department of Justice with trying to find work as a hitman. Garcia, 21, marketed himself to rentahitman.com as a skilled murderer for hire, citing his marksmanship skills from his service in the Tennessee Air National Guard.
One problem: rentahitman.com is not a real business. Initially set up as a cybersecurity site in 2005, it became a fake job listing page for murder for hire, with the site’s owner passing along tips to the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
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According to the Department of Justice, Garcia was looking for work in order to support his family and sought mercenary employment. He found rentahitman.com and reached out about potential work on Feb. 16. He put his military service as a qualification. Garcia has been a part of the Tennessee Air National Guard since 2021. Garcia, the Department of Justice alleges, reached out repeatedly to the website’s administrator, hoping to hear back about work as a hitman. That’s when the Federal Bureau of Investigations got involved.
After just over a month, an undercover FBI agent reached out to talk. Garcia, the affidavit said, told the undercover agent that his job with the National Guard there consists of serving one weekend a month. He has no other job.
Speaking to federal investigators after his arrest, the court affidavit says, Garcia said that a co-worker in the Tennessee Air National Guard was the one to suggest he seek out mercenary jobs as a way to make additional money. That co-worker was not identified.
The Tennessee Air National Guard did not immediately respond to Task & Purpose’s query on Garcia and his service.
Garcia did not appear to suspect that rentahitman.com was not a legitimate site for would-be hitmen. He met with the undercover agent on April 6 to discuss potential murder jobs and to see if he was qualified enough for them. The FBI agent asked him if he was sure.
“You are locked in? This is what you want? Because it sounds like you have a lot going on. You’re in the military. You’ve got college. You’ve got a lot going on, as far as good things in your life to kinda’ get in this world,” the agent asked, per the affidavit. “It is a shady world, and I just don’t want you to have regrets if you come to work for us, because it, I mean it messes with your mind, shooting people.”
Garcia showed no deep hesitation, saying he was okay with it, although he preferred if the jobs took him out of state. In the course of his attempts to sell himself as a hitman, Garcia said that he had earned the nickname “Reaper” during his time in the National Guard. So when the undercover agent said killing 50 people could be financially lucrative, Garcia said “That’s rookie numbers for the Reaper.”
At the end of the meeting, Garcia, who again sought out work as a hitman on a site called rentahitman.com, told the undercover agent “My only question is when can I start?”
That confidence was short-lived. The next day, Garcia was hired for a job at a medical facility at Vanderbilt. He planned on returning money he’d been given and telling his rentahitman.com contact that he, “the Reaper,” did not want to be a hitman any more.
He was arrested on April 12.
Garcia faces 10 years in prison if convicted.
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(Task & Purpose composite image).Yesterday, the FBI arrested Airman 1st Class Jack Douglas Teixeira, a 21-year-old Massachusetts resident, in connection with a massive data leak revealing classified information about Ukraine, Russia, and other counties. These documents initially posted on a private Discord server and then spreading out from there throughout online spaces, revealed a plethora of leaked intelligence information, including battlefield assessments of the war in Ukraine, and the intelligence collecting activity of the National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, and National Reconnaissance Office.
Teixeira is a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard assigned to the 102nd Intelligence Wing, and in this capacity, he is accused of accessing classified information and posting it on a server that originated as a place teenagers talked about a popular YouTube channel about military equipment.
This isn’t the first time a service member has leaked intelligence.
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In 2021, Peter Debbins was convicted and sentenced to more than 16 years in federal prison for “conspiring with Russian intelligence operatives to provide them with U.S. national defense information.” From 1998 to 2005, Debbins served as an Army officer, eventually becoming a Captain in Special Forces. At that same time, Debbins was in contact with Russian intelligence agents, professing that he wished to serve Russia while passing along information about his unit’s activities and deployments.
Years earlier, James W. Hall was an Army signals intelligence warrant officer, assigned to Berlin and Frankfurt, Germany from 1981 to 1987, oftentimes working at an NSA field station. During that time, Hall passed thousands of classified documents and photographs to the Soviet Union. At his trial in 1989, Hall told an Army forensic psychologist that he only wanted to make some money while giving away what he considered unimportant information, and that “he would not get caught and would give it [spying] up as soon as he became a warrant officer.”
The 1980s also saw one of the largest Cold War espionage rings, centered around a group of soldiers in the 8th Infantry Division. In 1988, Sergeant 1st Class Clyde Conrad was arrested in then-West Germany, and convicted of leaking documents to Hungarian intelligence operatives. During his trial, he was accused to have recruited at least a dozen other service members, including Sgt. Roderick Ramsay, Sgt. Jeffrey Rondeau and Sgt. Jeffrey Gregory, all of whom were later convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
The highest-ranking service member to have been convicted of espionage was Army Col. George Trofimoff, who was arrested in 2000. Trofimoff enlisted in the Army in 1948 and retired from the Reserves in 1987. He was recruited by Soviet intelligence services in 1969 while serving as the head of the U.S. Army Joint Interrogation Center in Nuremberg, Germany, responsible for debriefing defectors from the Soviet Union and other allied countries.
These were just some of more than a dozen U.S. service members convicted of espionage during the Cold War.
In more recent years, there was the bizarre case of Ryan Anderson, a specialist in the Washington Army National Guard who in 2004 was convicted of attempting to distribute classified information to al-Qaeda through internet chat rooms. In January of that year, shortly before his unit’s deployment to Iraq, Anderson was videotaped offering sketches of M1A1 and M1A2 Abrams tanks along with “the exact caliber of round needed to penetrate the windshield and kill the driver of an up-armored Humvee.” Anderson was later sentenced to life in prison.
In these cases, the service member who leaked intelligence was seeking to disclose it to a specific intelligence source. Texeira’s case – showing the information to what appears to have been a couple of dozen mostly teenagers and having it spread from there – is perhaps a bit more similar to the Edward Snowden or Reality Winner cases, in which both individuals provided classified information to entities other than opposing nation-states.
Teixeira’s case is not the first, and almost certainly not the last time military secrets will be leaked by service members themselves, but his case will likely result in more stringent policies on how classified material is accessed and handled.
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FILE: Russian missile cruiser Varyag docks at Qingdao Port t on April 20, 2009 in Qingdao of Shandong Province, China. (Guang Niu/Getty Images).Russia has launched a surprise inspection of its Pacific Fleet, and a video posted on Twitter shows some of Russia’s ships in the Pacific going underway for military exercises.
The U.S. military has long been focused on China’s Navy and other armed forces as its primary challenge in the Indo-Pacific region, but Russia’s naval drills serve as a reminder that it can project combat power in the Pacific Ocean as well.
The Defense Department declined to provide any information about the age and capabilities of Russian ships, submarines, and aircraft that operate in the Pacific.
“While we routinely monitor Russian naval activity around the world, we are not able to provide intelligence assessments of their disposition or capabilities,” said Army Maj. Charlie Dietz, a Pentagon spokesman.
Russia has spent many years modernizing its Pacific Fleet since it fell into disrepair in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s dissolution, according to Indo-Pacific expert Blake Herzinger, a research fellow at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, Australia.
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The Russian naval forces in the Pacific are now a mix of old and new vessels that include modern nuclear-powered and diesel submarines and older vessels that have been retrofitted with anti-ship cruise missiles, Herzinger told Task & Purpose.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visits Russian Pacific Fleet flagship missile cruiser Varyag on November 16, 2009 in Singapore. (Konstantin Zavrazhin/Getty Images)“The balance of power still heavily favors the United States, especially when considering its alliance relationships, but the Pacific is a region of importance to Moscow and the Pacific Fleet has received commensurate attention in recent years,” Herzinger said.
Although not as large as Russia’s Northern Fleet, which patrols the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, the Russian fleet in the Pacific includes some modern surface ships and submarines that give it the ability to do considerable damage to an adversary, said Katarzyna Zysk, a Russian military expert and a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, D.C.
In 2008, Russia launched an effort to modernize its military that has focused on its nuclear deterrence capabilities, including replacing old ballistic missile submarines, said Zysk, a professor of international relations and contemporary history at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies.
Now Russia has deployed four Borei-class nuclear-powered submarines, its newest ballistic missile submarines, to the Pacific, Zysk told Task & Purpose. Russia’s Pacific Fleet also has one Yasen-class attack submarine, and it is expected to receive another one. Those attack boats, which can carry cruise missiles, have proven to be very hard for the U.S. Navy and NATO partners to detect,
Even though Russia has focused on its war in Ukraine for more than a year, Russia’s Pacific Fleet has conducted “provocative and pretty far distant operations,” including joint military exercises with the Chinese navy, said retired Navy Capt. Brent Sadler, the senior fellow for naval warfare and advanced technology at the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, D.C.
“The Russian Pacific Fleet has been very active working with the Chinese in driving around the Japanese islands to send a strategic message throughout this war in Ukraine,” Sadler told Task & Purpose. “It’s basically telling the United States and Japan and everyone else: ‘While we may be involved in a land war in Europe, our navy is still very active in the Pacific.”
Russian nuclear submarine Yuri Dolgorukiy (NATO reporting name: SSBN “Borei”, or “Dolgorukiy”) is seen during the Navy Day Military parade July 27, 2014 in Severomorsk. (Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images)The Russians are also increasingly sending their more modern surface ships and diesel submarines to the Pacific, said Sadler, whose book U.S. Naval Power in the 21st Century: A New Strategy for Facing the Chinese and Russian Threatis set to be released next month.
Some Russian warships from the Pacific that deployed to the Mediterranean Sea to deter NATO have since returned to their homeports, including the Slava-class cruiser Varyag, the flagship for Russia’s Pacific Fleet, Sadler said.
However, the reason those ships are returning to the Pacific is not part of a shift in Russian strategy, Sadler said. Rather, Russia has been unable to sustain larger warships for long periods of time at their naval base in Tartus, Syria.
While Russia maintains a potent naval force in the Pacific, China has the largest navy in the world with roughly 340 ships and submarines, and is expected to grow to 400 ships by 2025 and 440 ships by 2030, according to the Defense Department’s most recent report on Chinese military power. By comparison, the U.S. Navy has a total of 294 ships, and that number is expected to fall to 291 vessels by fiscal year 2028, according to the service’s budget documents.
Russia’s Pacific Fleet has between one-eighth and one-tenth the size of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy, and China has dozens of newer destroyers and cruisers, said retired Navy Capt. Thomas Shugart, a military innovation expert with the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington, D.C.
Chinese and Russian flag is seen on board of China’s missile destroyer Hefei arrives at St Petersburg to take part in a ship parade marking Russian Navy Day in St. Petersburg, Russia, 27 July 2017. (Sergey Mihailicenko/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)On its own, Russia’s Pacific Fleet would not last long in a conflict with the U.S. Navy, Shugart told Task & Purpose. However, the United States would face a much more serious threat if it had to fight both the Russian and Chinese navies in the Pacific.
“That makes what would already be a pretty challenging situation much more challenging by the addition of that extra margin of vessels that the Pacific Fleet could add, in particular, the ability for it to have some relatively quiet nuclear submarines – much quieter than the Chinese – that could be roaming around creating lots of trouble behind the lines for us.”
Russia’s Pacific Fleet has practiced with China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy for years, and the combination of Russia’s stealthy nuclear-powered submarines and China’s silent-running electric diesel boats – all of which would be armed with anti-ship missiles – would pose a formidable challenge to the United States and its allies, said James Holmes, the J. C. Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.
“I suppose the way to compare the Russian Pacific Fleet to the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] Navy would be to say it’s rather like the JMSDF [Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force] to the U.S. Navy: a capable junior partner that could stretch out the major adversary across wide geographic space, attenuate the adversary’s strength at any given place, and basically make things tough on the adversary,” Holmes told Task & Purpose. “So, I would look at the fleet more as a supplement to the PLA Navy than a standalone competitor.”
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This photo illustration created on April 13, 2023, shows the suspect, national guardsman Jack Teixeira, reflected in an image of the Pentagon in Washington, DC. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images).The FBI has arrested Airman 1st Class Jack Douglas Teixeira, 21, in connection with a massive data leak that has exposed classified information about Ukraine, Russia, and other countries.
Teixeira joined the Air Force in September 2019, and he is currently serving as a cyber transport systems journeyman with the Massachusetts Air National Guard, according to his service record, which the Air Force provided to Task & Purpose on Thursday.
His duty station is listed as Otis Air National Guard Base, Massachusetts, but he was reportedly assigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, when he allegedly leaked classified documents online.
Teixeira’s only military award listed in his service record is an Air Force Achievement Medal.
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The New York Times first reported on Thursday that Teixeira was a suspect in the data leak, which has strained U.S. relations with Ukraine, Israel, and South Korea.
Teixeira is accused of sharing the classified documents in a chat group for video game enthusiasts that he oversaw called “Thug Shaker Central,” where young people talked about guns and shared racist memes, the New York Times reported.
FBI agents took Teixeira into custody “without incident” on Thursday afternoon, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters. Now the airman is expected to appear in federal court in Massachusetts.
Air Force Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, deferred reporters’ questions about Teixeira to Justice Department officials on Thursday.
Without naming Teixeira, Ryder described the data leak under investigation as “a deliberate criminal act.”
“We have procedures, we have protocols in place,” Ryder said during a Pentagon news briefing. “We receive regular training on the proper handling of classified information. As I mentioned, we sign non-disclosure agreements. So, those rules are very clear and anyone who has a security clearance knows that. Anyone who violates those rules is doing so willfully.”
Following the data leak, the Defense Department has started to review who needs to have access to the type of sensitive information that was leaked, Ryder said.
Ryder also drove home his point that the leak is a criminal act by comparing it to a home burglary.
“If you locked your front door and somebody came into your house and took something; you followed your procedures and you locked your door, but somebody went in your house and took something and put it out on the street,” Ryder said. “That’s what we’re talking about here.”
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U.S. Amy soldier Col. Jonathan Chung, outgoing commander of 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, smiles and greets guests with his family after the change of command ceremony on North Fort Lewis, June 4, 2021. (U.S. Army photo).The commander of an Army security force assistance brigade was suspended this week, pending an investigation.
Col. Jonathan Chung, commander of the 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord “has been assigned to U.S. Army Pacific pending the outcome of an administrative investigation,” according to a statement from Army Forces Command.
The Army did not clarify a specific reason for the investigation, saying only that Col. Tony Braxton would assume temporary command of the brigade.
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Chung took command of the unit in July 2021. He previously commanded the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, and before that served with both the 1st and 2nd Ranger Battalions and Joint Special Operations Command, deploying to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kuwait.
Comprised of small teams of officers and noncommissioned officers, the mission of the SFAB units is to “conduct training, advising, assisting, enabling and accompanying operations with allied and partner nations,” essentially a unit dedicated to conducting what is both a function of Special Forces units and what plenty of other units found themselves doing during countless deployments during the Global War on Terror. The 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade was activated in May 2020, one of six geographically aligned brigades.
Chung is the fifth Army brigade commander to be relieved in recent months. In October 2022, two brigade commanders at Fort Hood, Texas were fired the same week. Col. Jon Meredith was relieved as commander of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division. Col. Anthony Wilson was relieved as commander of the 1st Cavalry Division’s 1st Sustainment Brigade.
In November 2022, Col. Scott Desormeaux, commander of the Louisiana Army National Guard’s 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, was relieved after an investigation found that Desormeaux had “sent inappropriate text messages to other service members,”
And in January 2023, Col. Ann Meredith – married to Col. Jon Meredith – was relieved from her position as commander of the 89th Military Police Brigade, also at Fort Hood, Texas.
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FILE: Airmen build Joint Direct Attack Munitions. (Staff Sgt. Cary Smith / U.S. Air Force).Russian forces can jam some of the GPS-guided weapons that the United States has given Ukraine, including Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAMs, according to Business Insider, which cited leaked documents.
The report leaked online found that four of nine extended-range JDAMs used by Ukrainian forces had missed hitting Russian targets, possibly due to jamming, and it recommended that the Russian jammers be taken out, Insider reported on Tuesday.
The information about Russia’s ability to jam JDAMS and other precision-guided weapons was included in a massive data leak the Justice Department is investigating. The Pentagon has also launched an effort spanning several Defense Department organizations to look at the national security consequences of classified documents being leaked online.
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It is unclear how many JDAMs the Ukrainians have. The Defense Department’s latest fact sheet on U.S. military assistance to Ukraine does not say exactly how many “precision aerial munitions” and “precision-guided rockets” Ukraine has received.
Airmen from the Vermont Air National Guard assemble 500-pound joint direct attack munitions on Dec. 2, 2016. (Master Sgt. Benjamin Wilson/U.S. Air Force)Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Glenn “Powder” Carlson, a former B-52 electronics warfare officer, said he was not surprised that the Russians can jam some types of JDAMs.
“Any signal in the EMS [electromagnetic spectrum] has vulnerabilities,” said Carlson, a former president of the Association of Old Crows, a professional organization for electronic and cyber warfare professionals.
Each type of JDAM has a different set of vulnerabilities, Carlson told Task & Purpose. While the U.S. military has countermeasures against attempts to jam GPS-guided weapons, Carlson declined to say exactly what those measures entail.
Meanwhile, Russia, China, and other potential adversaries have closely observed how the U.S. military has used GPS-guided weapons since NATO air operations in 1999 against Serbia so that they could improve their jamming technologies, Carlson said.
“It is the typical chess game: Moves and countermoves,” Carlson said.
U.S. military commanders have long known that American communications and navigation systems would be jammed in a war against Russia or China. In 2018, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command said that a U.S. military AC-130 gunship over Syria was temporarily disabled by an electronic warfare attack.
It is unclear whether Syria or Russia launched the attack.
An Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon drops 500-pound Joint Direct Attack Munitions at the Fort McCoy impact area during the exercise. (Kevin Clark/U.S. Army)Over the past 10 years, the U.S. military has put a lot of work into making GPS more secure, said James Lewis, a technology expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C.
As a long-term solution, the U.S. military is also looking at using quantum computing to geolocate targets because it is not vulnerable to jamming, Lewis told Task & Purpose.
The Russians have been looking for new ways to disrupt GPS since the last century because they realize the U.S. military is wholly dependent on GPS-guided weapons, Lewis said.
Since 2015, the Russians have deployed “brute force” jammers to Syria that disrupt a large swath of the electromagnetic spectrum, Lewis said. These jammers are so powerful that they can affect planes landing in Tel Aviv, Israel.
“The problem with these big, powerful, brute force jammers is they’re easy to target,” Lewis told Task & Purpose. “It’s sending up a big signal that says: ‘Here I am. Target me.’ If you don’t have to worry about people shooting back, it can be attractive. I think that’s one reason you see it used in Syria.”
The Russians also have more sophisticated jammers that can jam specific frequencies, and they have invested time and effort into developing capabilities to spoof a GPS signal and throw navigation systems off course, Lewis said. That is why the Chinese military, which lags behind Russia in electronic warfare capabilities, is buying Russian-made jammers.
However, Lewis noted there is an ongoing debate among experts about why the Russians have not fared better at electronic warfare in Ukraine given the amount of money they have spent on jamming technologies.
“Some people say: Well, it’s not as good as we thought, like everything else,” Lewis said. “Other people say: No, they are saving these capabilities. They know these capabilities will be carefully studied and they’re saving it for a conflict with NATO. I don’t know which one is right.”
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(Image via Republic of China Military News Agency).Uniform patches. They’re popular with militaries around the world because they can be both eye-catching and a creative way to represent a unit’s history. Sometimes, they might even cause a bit of controversy, and not just because – as is the case with this latest uniform patch – it depicts what looks like the beloved children’s cartoon character Winnie the Pooh getting punched in the face by another bear.
Earlier this week, Taiwan’s Military News Agency released photos of a military training exercise, testing the island’s air defense capabilities. One of them shows a pilot conducting a pre-flight inspection of his aircraft. On his left shoulder is a patch embroidered with a Formosan black bear socking a golden Winnie the Pooh lookalike in the face. Around the edge of the patch reads the words “We are open 24/7” and “Scramble!”
(Image via Republic of China Military News Agency)This patch, though, is almost certainly not conveying the pilot’s dissatisfaction with a certain A.A. Milne cartoon.
Taiwan – officially the Republic of China – has existed since 1949 in opposition to the mainland government, the People’s Republic of China. Both countries continue to lay claim to being the true Chinese government, but Taiwan has existed for decades as a de-facto independent nation. While it is no longer represented in the United Nations, it maintains relations with many other countries, including the United States. This is all, of course, the biggest source of diplomatic tensions in the region, and preventing China from seizing Taiwan by force is a major part of the U.S. military’s theoretical mission in the Pacific.
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Amidst all the history is the fact that people seem to really like equating Chinese President Xi Jinping to Winnie the Pooh. It started back in 2013, when Xi met with then-President Barack Obama, and has continued for years. In response, the Chinese government has cracked down on any depiction of the cartoon bear, even going so far as to ban a 2023 slasher film Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey – which depicts the gentle pooh bear more like a real bear, relentlessly killing humans with no remorse.
The Formosan black bear – Taiwan was referred to as Formosa until the middle of the 20th century – is a popular symbol of Taiwanese identity. So the context of this pilot’s patch is pretty clear: Taiwan’s favorite bear is decking the stand-in bear for Xi Jinping.
The “We are open 24/7” and “Scramble!” words are probably a reference to the increasing frequency with which Taiwan’s air force pilots are responding to Chinese incursions that test the very edges of Taiwan’s airspace. The same day the picture of the patch was revealed, China was in the middle of a large-scale military exercise around Taiwan, with the Chinese military saying on Monday that it was “ready to fight.”
The Pooh-punching patch was reportedly made by a private company, Wings Fan Goods Shop, owned by Alex Hsu.
“I wanted to boost the morale of our troops through selling this patch,” Hsu told Reuters.
Since the picture first appeared on April 9, Hsu told Reuters he had sold out of the patch and was ordering more.
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office – essentially Taiwan’s embassy in Washington, D.C. – also promoted the patch, tweeting “Where can we get a patch like that! Guaranteed best sellers!”
This particular patch isn’t the first time certain militaries have targeted the People’s Republic of China through heraldry. Back in September 2020, U.S. airmen were sporting a patch with an MQ-9 Reaper drone superimposed over a red silhouette of China. In December of that year, the Air Force cracked down, writing in a memo that it would remove “any visual representation, symbols or language derogatory to any race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, age or disability status,” from its heraldry.
According to Reuters, Taiwan’s military was a bit more demure, telling the news agency that it did not “particularly encourage” service members to wear the patch, but that it would “maintain an open attitude” towards its usage.
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A U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter assigned to A Company, 224th Aviation Regiment, 2nd Battalion prepares to take off on a transportation mission at Erbil, Iraq, Jan. 14, 2017. (U.S. Army photo).United States Central Command announced today that it had captured three Islamic State (ISIS) leaders during an operation in Syria on April 8.
“Hudayfah al Yemeni, an ISIS attack facilitator, and two of his associates,” were captured during a helicopter raid in eastern Syria, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command.
“Operations against ISIS are important for the security and stability of the region,” said Col. Joe Buccino, a U.S. Central Command spokesperson. “ISIS remains a threat to the region and beyond – the group retains the capability to conduct operations in Iraq and Syria with a desire to strike beyond the Middle East, and its vile ideology remains a threat. Operations such as this one reaffirms our commitment to the enduring defeat of ISIS.”
The raid comes less than a month after a drone strike at a coalition base in Syria killed one U.S. civilian contractor and wounded five U.S. service members and a second civilian contractor. Within hours of that attack, U.S. forces launched retaliatory strikes targeting “facilities used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC),” according to Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin.
Just a day later, on March 24, U.S. forces at two other bases in Syria came under attack, resulting in one service member being injured.
In February, four U.S. service members and a military working dog were wounded during a raid in northeastern Syria that killed Hamza al-Homsi, a senior leader within ISIS. Earlier that month, on February 10, another raid conducted alongside Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces personnel killed an ISIS leader as part of a broader series of operations designed to prevent the terrorist group from reestablishing itself in Syria and neighboring Iraq.
There are currently around 900 troops deployed to Syria as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. In March 2023 Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley visited U.S. troops in Syria, reiterating his commitment to the counter-terrorism mission that remains ongoing there.
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Marine Pfc. Aimal Taraki, who left Afghanistan after serving as an interpreter for U.S. forces, graduated from Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego on April 7, 2023. Lance Cpl. Alexander Devereux/U.S. Marine Corps.A former Afghan interpreter who served with the U.S. Marines in his home country has earned the title of Marine.
Pfc. Aimal Taraki, who graduated from Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego on April 7, said he was inspired to join the Corps by his time working with the U.S. military in Afghanistan, according to a Marine Corps news story.
“Growing up I was always interested in America and the western world, and was always very in tune with American culture,” Taraki said for the news story. “I applied for a translator job working with the troops because they were hiring local Afghan people. I worked with Marines and other NATO forces, which is what gave me the idea to move from Afghanistan.”
Taraki was born in Mazar-i-Sharif in 1994, when Afghanistan was in the midst of a civil war that brought the Taliban to power two years later. His family later fled to Pakistan, where he learned English.
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After spending about six years in Pakistan, his family returned to Afghanistan and settled in Kabul. Even though the Taliban were no longer ruling the country, they continued to carry out attacks in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan.
“There’s a place called the Massoud Circle, which is right next to the U.S. Embassy [in Kabul],” Taraki said. “It was a perfect place for the Taliban to make an attack. They filled a car with explosives, and when they detonated it, I was sleeping. I remember waking up to the explosion and all of our windows were shattered even though we were several miles away.”
U.S. Marine Corps PFC Aimal Taraki at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, April 3, 2023. (Lance Cpl. Alexander Devereux/U.S. Marine Corps)The U.S.-led war to oust the Taliban and turn Afghanistan into a functioning democracy lasted 20 years, during which the Taliban insurgency only grew stronger as the war dragged on. Many brave Afghans worked for the American military, often risking their lives in combat to protect the troops they served with.
In 2016, Taraki decided to use the English language skills he developed in Pakistan to become an interpreter for the U.S. and other NATO troops. Two years later, he secured a visa that allowed him to come to the United States, where the rest of his family lives.
Taraki is lucky to have left Afghanistan before the Taliban took control of the country in August 2021. At least 78,000 Afghans who had applied for Special Immigrant Visas were left behind when the last U.S. troops departed the country, according to the Association of Wartime Allies, an advocacy group for Afghans who worked for the U.S. government
When he arrived in San Diego, he considered several options about what type of career he should pursue, but ultimately decided to repay the U.S. military for providing a path for him to start a new life in the United States.
“I had a lot of different things I wanted to do with my life after I moved to the U.S.,” Taraki said. “I thought, ‘Should I go to college? Start my own business?’ I decided that I can do any job and have any career, but first I want to be a Marine. This way I can say thank you to the United States and the Marine Corps for helping me.”
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U.S. Air Force Gen. Mark Kelly, commander of Air Combat Command, presents the Distinguished Flying Cross to Master Sgt. Zachary Cooper, during the 363d Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Wing Commander’s Leadership Summit, March 28, 2023 at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va. (U.S. Air Force photo).The battlefield is a chaotic and complicated environment. That’s true on the ground, and high in the sky above, where Air Force Tactical Systems Operators (TSOs) are often engaged in providing command and control and helping manage assets for the fight.
Last week, one such TSO was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for providing all that and more during combat operations in Afghanistan in 2019. The award was presented on March 28 at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia.
On February 8, 2019, Master Sgt. Zachary Cooper was part of an aircrew providing “intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, airborne command and control, casualty evacuation, and armed overwatch” for U.S. and Afghan special operations forces who came under heavy enemy fire during a force protection patrol in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, according to Cooper’s awards citation.
The aircraft Cooper was flying in was initially the only aerial asset overhead, and Cooper “was pivotal in troubleshooting and resolving a malfunction with the aircraft weapons release system,” allowing that aircraft to strike multiple targets on the ground, several of which were “danger close” to U.S. and Afghan forces, according to his awards citation.
“Due to operational sensitivities, we cannot release further information specific to the aircraft involved in that action,” Air Force Special Operations Command said when asked about what specific aircraft Cooper was aboard during the operation.
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With the aircraft Cooper was aboard engaging targets on the ground, he then quickly directed other aerial assets in the area to the battlefield, including multiple F-16s fighter jets. Due to the “situational awareness built by the crew prior to their arrival on station,” those jets were able to further suppress enemy fire and destroy multiple enemy buildings, according to the awards citation.
Cooper then also initiated communications and coordinated the evacuation of wounded Afghan troops, enabling them to be evacuated within the so-called “golden hour,” which the Army defines as the “first hour after the occurrence of a traumatic injury [that’s] considered the most critical for emergency stabilization of a casualty.”
All in all, Cooper’s actions were credited with helping ensure the survival of 184 U.S. and Afghan special operations personnel.
Cooper enlisted in the Air Force in 2005, initially serving as a Tactical Aircraft Maintenance apprentice for F-15s. He then transferred into what was then a new Air Force specialty – 1A8X2, the TSO.
TSOs are airmen who “deliver specialized intelligence directly to United States Special Operations Forces through providing equipment maintenance and configuration, analysis and dissemination, airborne ISR, and operational support,” according to the Air Force.
“As an Air Combat Command Airman in direct support of Air Force Special Operations Command, I am honored and humbled to be recognized with my crew for the support we were able to provide to the Assault Force that night,” Cooper said when receiving the award.
“It was one of those nights, like many others, where things just clicked for us as a team and we were able to do the right things, at the right times. It really was a team effort and the professionalism of all involved was second to none.”
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Heavy fog covers a sign at the front of the base entrance at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota (Airman Alysa Knott/U.S. Air Force).Airman 1st Class Justin Rutledge said he was shocked a little more than a week ago when racist graffiti was spray painted on the garage door of his duplex home on Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota.
Video of the graffiti that has been shared on social media shows the swastikas and racial epithets that were crudely drawn on the garage door with black spray paint. Rutledge said his neighbor’s garage door and car were also vandalized.
Rutledge, who is assigned to the 5th Security Forces Squadron, said he was instantly afraid for his wife and 4-month-old son.
So far, no one has been arrested for the April 1 incident, said Maj. Jahnelle Haag, a spokeswoman for the 5th Bomb Wing.
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“Our 5th Security Forces Squadron responded to the incident immediately, and the investigation is underway,” Haag told Task & Purpose. “They are including experts from the Ward County Sheriff’s Department and the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation to cover all bases on crime scene analysis.”
There have been no additional incidents of racist graffiti since Rutledge and his neighbor’s homes were vandalized, Haag said.
The incident at Minot comes after a video shared on social media last month showed high school students at Spangdalhem Air Base, Germany, shouting racial slurs, prompting an investigation.
There have also been other incidents in recent years that initially appeared to be racially motivated but turned out not to be. An Air Force investigation last year found that an airman had faked texts that he claimed showed him being told that he was not promoted because he was black.
On Tuesday, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne Bass issued a statement about the racist graffiti incident at Minot that made clear the Air Force does not tolerate racism in any form.
“This incident is absolutely not reflective of who we are as airmen, and what we tolerate as an Air Force,” Bass said in the statement to Task & Purpose. “I appreciate the quick response from the Minot AFB and Global Strike leadership teams, and am confident they will work to identify and hold those responsible accountable.”
Col Dan Hoadley, commander of the 5th Bomb Wing, said that the 5th Security Forces Squadron is continuing to investigate the April 1 incident at Minot “so that appropriate action can be taken.”
Hoadley also said he has personally reached out to the families affected by the racist graffiti to make sure they have what they need.
“Let me be abundantly clear that Minot Air Force Base has a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind,” Hoadley said in a statement. “This type of behavior is abhorrent, unacceptable, and does not align with our Air Force core values. We as Team Minot expect all of our members to treat each other with dignity and respect.”
Rutledge and his family are now in the process of moving to a new home, he said. The graffiti has also been painted over and Minot’s installation commander gave Rutledge and his family a new garage door, he said.
“We’re safe,” Rutledge said on Tuesday, “And we are doing what we can to figure out how this happened, why it happened.”
UPDATE: 04/11/2023; this story was updated with a statement from Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne Bass.
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FILE: An aerial photograph taken on March 8, 2023 shows The Pentagon,(Daniel Slim/ AFP via Getty Images).The Defense Department is saying little about its efforts in response to a massive data leak that may prove to be the most dangerous disclosure of classified material since former National Security Agency Contractor Edward Snowden revealed intelligence secrets a decade ago.
The documents, which began appearing online in January, contain several highly damaging revelations, including how Ukraine could run out of air defense missiles by May. These documents also show the United States was able to provide the Ukrainians with intelligence about impending Russian attacks before they happened.
Other documents include a CIA intelligence report about Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad; and a secret report that top South Korean government officials were concerned the United States might provide Ukraine with artillery shells it had bought from South Korea.
Since the data leak became public on April 7, the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation, and the U.S. government has begun an interagency effort to look at the consequences the leak poses to national security, said Chris Meagher, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs.
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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has established an effort that includes several defense officials and agencies to look at the potential consequences of the data leaks and to make sure the U.S. military is working closely with Congress along with U.S. allies and partners, Meagher told reporters on Monday.
Meagher declined to say which foreign governments U.S. government officials have spoken with recently over the data leak.
A Pentagon team is currently looking at pictures of documents that have appeared on social media to determine their authenticity, Meagher said at a Pentagon news conference.
“These photos appear to show documents similar in format to those used to provide daily updates to our senior leaders on Ukraine- and Russia-related operations, as well as other intelligence updates,” Meagher said. “Some of these images appear to have been altered.”
The documents are used by a variety of people within and outside the Department of Defense, said Meagher, who did not specify which government officials might have been privy to the leaked information.
“I’m not going to classify for you exactly the universe of people who have access to this material,” Meagher said. “I will just say that it is highly classified, sensitive material that people in DoD, certainly, and other aspects of the U.S. government use to inform their work.”
Meagher would not say the level at which the documents were classified – such as top secret – and he declined to answer questions about what is in the documents themselves because they contain sensitive information, and the Justice Department has an ongoing criminal investigation into the data leak. He also declined to say how many documents may have been posted online.
The Pentagon is trying to determine if any other classified information may have been leaked, said Meagher, who cautioned the news media to be careful on how they reported on the leaked documents because disclosure of classified material “could lead to people losing their lives.”
“The Department of Defense is working around the clock to look at the scope and the scale of the distribution, the assessed impact, and our mitigation measures,” Meagher said. “We’re still investigating how this happened as well as the scope of the issue. There have been steps to take a closer look at how this type of information is distributed and to whom.”
When asked if the Pentagon has already taken steps to limit the circulation of classified information within the Defense Department, Meagher did not answer directly.
“Any distribution of highly sensitive, classified material is something that we take very seriously,” Meagher said. “And so, we’re taking this very seriously, and that’s why this has the full attention of the secretary and of this department.”
The intra-Defense Department effort to respond to the data leaks includes several organizations including public affairs, legislative affairs, the office of general council, the undersecretary of defense for policy’s office, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security’s office; the Joint Staff; and others, Meagher said.
Meagher repeatedly declined to say who at the Pentagon oversees this effort across so many Defense Department organizations.
“I’m just not going to get into more specifics of that,” Meagher said when a reporter pressed him to name who is leading the Defense Department effort.
The data leak is the latest example of classified information appearing online. Classified information about F-16s, F-15s, and British tanks has been posted by gamers on War Thunder forums.
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The USS Florida travels through the Suez Canal on Friday, April 7, 2023. (Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Elliot Schaudt/U.S. Navy).In an unusually open announcement, the U.S. Navy said that it is sending one of its nuclear-powered attack submarines to the Middle East, following recent strikes on U.S. forces and allies.
The Ohio-class guided missile submarine USS Florida will operate with the Navy’s 5th Fleet, based out of Bahrain. It passed through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea on Friday, April 7. The move comes after a Friday warning to ships in the area due to increased tensions between Iran and Israel, the New York Times reported.
Given the nature of submarines, the Navy does not generally announce where they are being deployed.
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The deployment comes a little more than two weeks after an attack on U.S. personnel in northeast Syria injured 12 service members and killed a contractor. The attack was done by a drone that the U.S. says was Iranian. The U.S. quickly responded to that by launching airstrikes on groups tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Last month the Navy also moved the USS George H.W. Bush carrier group to the Middle East. Iran and its affiliated groups have carried out more than 80 attacks on American forces since 2021. The United States has several hundred soldiers in Syria hunting down ISIS members — a strike this past week killed Khalid ‘Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri, described by officials as a senior leader in the terrorist group — but the situation has in part become a proxy war with Iran in the country.
In a pointed part of a statement on the deployment, Navy spokesman Commander Timothy Hawkins said that the USS Florida is there to assist in maritime security, but also that it is “capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles.”
Alongside land-based conflicts with Iranian-linked groups, the United States and its allies have been intercepting several ships traveling in waters around the Middle East carrying Iranian weapons and explosive materials. Many of those have been en route to Yemen, in support of the Houthi forces there.
Tensions with Iran are not the only recent security concern in the Middle East. This past week, a drone attack hit the area near the Sulaimaniyah airport in northern, Kurdish-controlled Iraq. Mazloum Abdi, leader of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which are working with the U.S. to fight ISIS in the region, was unhurt, and said that he was with members of the U.S.-led coalition at the time of the attack. The SDF claims that Turkey is responsible for the attack (Turkey denied carrying out any operation). Turkey is a NATO ally but considers the Kurdish forces to be a terrorist group.
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Ben Ferencz in 2014. (Photo by Richard Blanshard/Getty Images).The last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials in Germany is dead. Ben Ferencz, a World War II U.S. Army soldier and Harvard Law School graduate was only 27 when he successfully prosecuted Nazi commanders for their roles in crimes against humanity during the war. Ferencz was 103.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum broke the news. Only recently out of the Army, Ferencz was the youngest member of the prosecution team of the subsequent Nuremberg trials in 1947. Despite his youth, at Nuremberg Ferencz was given the chief prosecution job in the case of 22 Nazis officers who commanded death squads that targeted Jews and minorities across Europe. They were charged with murdering more than 1 million people. It was his first trial.
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Born in Romania in 1920, he emigrated to the United States with his family. There he studied at Harvard Law School. After graduating, he enlisted in the military, joining the U.S. Army and training at Camp Davis. He started out as a typist, but ended up in artillery with the 115th AAA Gun Battalion. His unit was shipped out to Europe to take part in the Normandy landings on D-Day in 1944. When fighting reached the German border, Ferencz was transferred to the Third Army’s Judge Advocate Section to start looking for evidence of war crimes.
He left the Army in 1945, honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant. Not long after, he was asked to help with the next round of Nuremberg titles. He was given the rank of colonel and returned to Europe.
Ferencz drew on skills he had developed in the war for the trials, focusing on using documents and records to build his case.
During his Army service in Europe investigating war crimes, he came across multiple concentration camps and sites of mass death. He was horrified but had to work fast to preserve evidence. Ferencz later recounted what his work when searching the camps included.
“My first target on entering a concentration camp was always to secure the records of the camp. In the ‘Schreibstube,’ the camp office, I located the ‘Totenbucher,’ the death registries recording the names of inmates who had perished in the camp,” he wrote. “After each name, a date and cause of death was given. The reasons stated were obviously fictitious. There would be pages listing the same excuses: typhoid, or the popular ‘auf den flucht erschosssen’ — shot while trying to escape. The most accurate English translation of the causes of death would have been just plain ‘murdered.’”
All 22 Nazis were convicted. 13 were executed by hanging.
After Nuremberg he stayed in Germany for a few years, helping with legal matters in the aftermath of the war. Ferencz’s experiences at Nuremberg led him to push for years for a permanent international court to prosecute war crimes. It was finally created in 2002.
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Jeremy Brown at the Capitol building on January 6, 2021. (Justice Department).A U.S. Army Special Forces veteran was sentenced to more than 80 months in prison this week after being convicted on multiple charges including possession of classified military intelligence.
Jeremy Brown, a veteran of the U.S. Army who served for 20 years before retiring in 2012 as a master sergeant, was sentenced on Thursday, April 6 to seven years and three months by U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew. The Tampa resident was convicted in December for six counts. One of the biggest charges included possession of a trip report from the search for Bowe Bergdahl, the soldier who went missing in 2009 and was captured by the Taliban. He was found not guilty on charges tied to possession of other classified material that was contained on a CD.
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The Tampa Bay Times reported that during the trial Brown, 48, said the CD containing the classified files was not his, and that he did not consider what was in the trip report contained any classified information. An intelligence expert with U.S. Central Command testified during the trial that parts of the report did contain secret information.
The Department of Justice said that “the evidence established that the classified Trip Report contained highly sensitive information about U.S. Department of Defense intelligence – gathering tactics, techniques, and procedures, including information about a human source that, if released, could have caused the source to be arrested, tortured, or killed.”
Brown was also found to be illegally in possession of several weapons, including M-67 fragmentation grenades. Brown said during the trial that those were not his, but did claim ownership of other weapons, including an unregistered sawn-off shotgun and unregistered rifle, modified to a 10-inch barrel. Military records showed that the grenades were U.S. Army property The trip report was found near these weapons.
During the trial, Brown took the witness stand, saying he wanted to be liked by the jury. However at the sentencing, he was less energetic, the Tampa Bay Times reported, saying his time in office cannot be “tarnished by lesser men.”
“You’ve accepted no responsibility for what you’ve done in this case,” Bucklew told Brown at the sentencing. “And you are defiant to the end.”
Judge Bucklew also ordered Brown to spend three years in supervised release after his time in prison. In addition, he must also pay for child support.
The case stemmed from a probe into Brown for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection in Washington, D.C. Brown is facing additional legal challenges in a separate case for his role in that day, having been charged with breaching a secure area at the U.S. Capitol. Brown was photographed on Jan. 6 in full combat gear, including helmet. Judicial documents allege that Brown has ties to the extremist group the Oath Keepers. Brown is one of several active-duty or retired service members being investigated or tried in recent months for connections with militant extremist organizations.
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Jon Stewart interviews Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks. (Screenshot via C-SPAN).Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks got defensive over the Pentagon’s budget this week, after comedian Jon Stewart pressed her on spending priorities in the military. The conversation turned argumentative as the two debated what counts as abuse and corruption in the Department of Defense and how that hurts active-duty service members.
The former The Daily Show host spoke to Hicks at a symposium put on by the War Horse at the University of Chicago on Thursday, April 6. The conversation spanned just over an hour, discussing “The Human Impact of Military Service,” but the most rancorous moment came when Stewart brought up the Department of Defense’s trouble keeping track of its funds and equipment.
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In the most recent Pentagon audit, the chief comptroller found that the military could not account for more than 60 percent of its assets. That is where Stewart, a long-time advocate for veterans, said that results like that reflect “waste, fraud and abuse.”
The two exchanged tense remarks over the framing, with Hicks arguing that the results of the audit do not show corruption. She called his assertion completely false, while Stewart countered, noting that even though so much is unaccounted for, “we got out of 20 years of war and the Pentagon got a $50 billion raise.”
The 2022 audit, released in November, marked the fifth year the Pentagon had failed its audit (the process started in 2017). Stewart was almost correct in his critique — this year’s proposed budget increases the Pentagon’s funding by $26 billion.
Hicks asked Stewart to explain what he saw was the issue with the Pentagon’s budget. Stewart hammered in on his point, talking about conditions service members are dealing with. He pointed to the issue of food insecurity with many service members and their families struggling.
“Now, I may not understand exactly the ins and outs, and the incredible magic of an audit. But I’m a human being who lives on the Earth and can’t figure out how $850 billion to a department means that the rank and file still have to be on food stamps,” Stewart said. “To me, that’s fucking corruption. And I’m sorry. And, if like, that blows your mind and you think that’s like a crazy agenda for me to have, I really think that that’s institutional thinking, and that it’s not looking at the day-to-day reality of the people that you call the greatest fighting force in the world.”
At that comment the audience applauded.
Stewart added that he was “surprised that the reaction to these questions are ‘you don’t know what an audit is, bucko.’ Like that’s just weird to me.”
Stewart has been a vocal supporter of veterans fighting for expanded benefits and healthcare. He has regularly been in Washington, D.C. pushing for the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics, or PACT Act. And he’s not wrong about hunger in the ranks. In November, the Associated Press reported as many as 160,000 active-duty service members were experiencing food insecurity, as inflation rose. In August, the U.S. Army said that soldiers struggling with costs could try different financial assistance programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps.
Hicks called food insecurity a “major priority” for the department. The military is aiming to boost pay by 5.2 percent this year (following a 4.6 percent increase last year), but Hicks said that the bigger issue isn’t hunger exactly, but more availability when service members come off shifts, and what type of food is on and around military sites. She said the Department of Defense is also boosting basic allowances.
Currently the Biden administration has proposed an $842 billion budget for the Department of Defense for the 2024 fiscal year, which would be a 3.2 percent or $26 billion increase over the 2023 budget. That includes the pay increase Hicks mentioned.
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FILE - In this July 17, 2021 file photo, new Afghan Army Special Forces attend their graduation ceremony after a three-month training program at the Kabul Military Training Center, in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Rahmat Gul/Associated Press).Nearly 18 months after the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan, the White House continues to overestimate the number of Afghan troops and police who were active in the fight when President Joe Biden ordered the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from the country.
On Thursday, the Pentagon provided Congress with a classified version of an independent after-action report that looked at how the Defense Department implemented U.S. policy in Afghanistan from January to August 2021. Separately, the White House also released a 12-page summary of the key events and decisions made by Biden and former President Donald Trump leading up to the Afghanistan withdrawal.
That summary repeats a key talking point that Biden administration officials used several times in 2021 to argue the Afghan government could survive after the U.S. withdrawal, at least for some time: that the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), which included troops and police, outnumbered the Taliban.
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“Compared to the Taliban, they had vastly superior numbers and equipment: 300,000 troops compared to 80,000 Taliban fighters, an air force, and two decades of training and support,” the summary says.
But by the time Biden announced the Afghanistan withdrawal in April 2021, there were clear signs the Afghan security forces were a house of cards that could not operate without support from U.S. troops and civilian contractors.
Afghan National Army soldiers stand in formation waiting to be greeted by Afghan Deputy Defense Minister Dr. Yasin Zia and Resolute Support Commander Gen. Scott Miller at a checkpoint in western Afghanistan on Dec. 31, 2019. (Spc. Jeffery J. Harris/ U.S. Army Reserve)While Afghanistan’s security forces had an authorized end strength of 352,000, the country was never able to fill all those billets for troops and police officers, Afghanistan expert Jonathan Schroden wrote in January 2021 for the Sentinel, which is published by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.
Schroden estimated at the time that the entire Afghan military – including the Afghan Air Force – had a total of 96,000 service members; while Afghanistan also had about 83,000 police officers for a total of 179,000 combat personnel present each day.
However, one major reason why it is difficult to say exactly how many troops and police officers the Afghan government had in 2021 is that the ranks of Afghan’s security forces were artificially inflated by tens of thousands of “ghosts” who only existed on paper, not in real life, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR.
Before he became president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani told the head of SIGAR in 2013 that the U.S. government was paying the salaries of soldiers, police officers, and other Afghan government officials who simply did not exist, a July 2020 SIGAR report says.
“The consequence, SIGAR noted in 2015, was that ‘neither the United States nor its Afghan allies truly know how many Afghan soldiers and police are available for duty, or, by extension, the true nature of their operational capabilities,’” the report says.
Afghan police officers search a vehicle at a checkpoint on the Ghazni highway, in Maidan Shar, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 13, 2018. (Rahmat Gul/Associated Press)In a subsequent report in February that examined the collapse of Afghan security forces, SIGAR provided several estimates for the actual number of Afghan troops and police in 2021.
Afghanistan’s former finance minister Khalid Payenda told the Afghanistan Analysts Network that at least 80% of the ANDSF were ghosts, estimating that the Afghan government had between 40,000 and 50,000 troops at the end.
Meanwhile, Atta Mohammad Noor, governor of Balkh Province, estimated that the Afghan military fielded between 50,000 and 100,000 troops in the final days of the Afghan republic.
“The ANDSF’s actual force strength has been highly debated,” the SIGAR report from February found. “A definitive figure has been impossible to provide because DOD relied on inadequate systems and often manual methods for tracking ANDSF personnel.”
While the size of the ANDSF is in question, there is no debating that they were riddled with systemic problems that meant their fate was sealed as soon as Biden announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The much-touted Afghan Air Force disintegrated without the civilian contractors that it needed to maintain its American-made helicopters.
In this photograph taken on March 25, 2021, Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers unload food items and petrol oil from an Afghan Air Force Black Hawk helicopter at the hydroelectric Kajaki Dam in Kajaki, northeast of Helmand Province. (Wakil Koshar/AFP via Getty Images)Moreover, John Sopko, the inspector general for reconstruction in Afghanistan, warned Congress in January 2020 that the Afghan security forces – particularly the police – were “a hopeless nightmare and a disaster” because U.S. training efforts had utterly failed.
Sopko also told Task & Purpose that U.S. government officials had become encouraged to lie about progress in Afghanistan over the years, and by the time the final battles came in 2021, Afghan troops and police were still no match for the Taliban despite $88 billion and 20 years of training from the United States.
The summary of decision-making released by the White House this week places the majority of the blame for Afghanistan’s collapse on former President Trump, who reached an agreement with the Taliban in February 2020 to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May 2021. Even though an ostensible withdrawal was supposed to be based on conditions on the ground, Trump accelerated the drawdown despite increasing violence in Afghanistan, ordering all remaining troops to leave the country shortly before heft office, although that order was later rescinded, which left 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan when Biden took office.
Notably absent from the White House summary of the Afghanistan withdrawal is any criticism of the State Department’s actions under the Biden administration. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reportedly told lawmakers that the State Department waited too long before beginning the evacuation of American citizens and Afghan allies. During the frantic evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, passports of Afghans who had applied for visas were destroyed along with other sensitive documents.
An Army officer later told investigators looking into the Aug. 26, 2021 suicide bomb attack at Hamid Karazai International Airport’s Abbey Gate that killed 13 U.S. service members found that on the day the Taliban took Kabul, some embassy employees were drunk and others had “absolutely no sense of urgency or recognition of the situation,” the Washington Post first reported.
A U.S. Chinook helicopter flies over the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021. (Rahmat Gul/Associated Press)Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, who lost his right arm and left leg in the Abbey Gate atack, recently told Congress that State Department officials were unprepared to deal with the crush of Afghans fleeing for their lives while he and other service members guarded the airport.
“In fact, State would not want to deal with the Afghans unable to be processed,” Vargas-Andrews said during his emotional testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 8. “Weakening the security of the perimeter, State would take us away from our mission to walk Afghans out to meet the fate of the Taliban, condemning them to death.”
Even though the White House summary omits these shortcomings, it indicates the Biden administration has learned from its mistakes.
“We now prioritize earlier evacuations when faced with a degrading security situation,” the summary says. “We did so in both Ethiopia and Ukraine. We are now deliberate and clear about the support the U.S. government is able to provide to Americans abroad in challenging country conditions, as well as the limits of that support.”
It is unclear why the Biden administration continues to exaggerate the size of the ANDSF in 2021, but no one can argue that the U.S. government had been warned for years that Afghan troops and police could not hold their own against the Taliban.
Shortly before the fall of Kabul, Sopko decried the United States’ hubris in thinking it could transform Afghanistan into a Western society, and the repeated exaggerations by military and civilian leaders that victory was at hand.
“We have to be honest,” Sopko told reporters in July 2021. “We have to be honest with ourselves. And, we have to be honest with the American people, who pay for this – not only in money but also in blood and treasure.”
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U.S. Army special operations soldiers conduct training. Sgt. Anthony Bryant/U.S. Army.This was certainly one hell of a hotel wake-up call.
Around 10 p.m. on April 4, U.S. Army Special Operations Command soldiers, assisted by personnel from the FBI’s Boston office, entered a downtown Boston hotel as part of a training exercise. Once inside, they raided a room and detained a man inside. As so often happens in training, though, a problem arose: It was the wrong room and the wrong guy.
“First and foremost, we’d like to extend our deepest apologies to the individual who was affected by the training exercise,” said Lt. Col. Mike Burns, a spokesman for U.S. Army Special Operations Command.
According to the FBI, “based on inaccurate information, they were sent to the wrong room and detained an individual, not the intended role player.”
The FBI added that no one was injured during the mishap.
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The exercise was described by Burns as “essential military training,” and was designed to “to enhance soldiers’ skills to operate in realistic and unfamiliar environments.”
The Boston Police Department was called and responded to the training event gone awry, which happened at the Revere Hotel Boston Commons, shortly after midnight, where they confirmed the mixup.
According to CNN, the man who found himself roped into this training exercise was a Delta Air Lines employee.
The airline told CNN on Thursday that it was investigating the “alleged incident in Boston that may involve Delta people.”
Neither the FBI nor Army Special Operations Command commented on how long the incorrectly identified individual was detained, but CBS News Boston — citing an unnamed source — said that he was handcuffed, interrogated, and placed in the shower for more than 45 minutes before the mistake was realized.
“The safety of civilians in [the] vicinity of our training is always our number one concern,” said Burns. “We are reviewing this serious incident with our partners.”
Special operations training sometimes occurs in public spaces, outside the bounds of military bases.
As an Army Special Operations Command spokesperson told Task & Purpose in 2019, while discussing a 2019 training event that created plenty of noise and disruption in several Raleigh, N.C. neighborhoods, “these environments add realism and greater training value to the soldiers participating in the exercise. Safety surveys and risk assessments are thoroughly prepared before and during military exercises and training activities.”
However, when the public catches wind of these training operations, the reaction sometimes amounts to: what the hell is going on?
Last year, more than a few San Antonio, Texas residents were surprised by the sights and sounds of simulated gunfire and MH-60 Black Hawks and MH-6M Little Bird helicopters flying low over the city as part of an exercise at the Alamodome stadium. In February 2019, Los Angeles residents witnessed helicopters from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment flying amid downtown highrise buildings and even landing in the street. And, going all the way back to 2015, there was that public kerfluffle over Jade Helm 15.
If anyone has a genuine claim to being freaked out by these training exercises, though, it’s probably the person whose sleep was interrupted when a bunch of FBI agents and soldiers with Army Special Operations Command kicked their hotel door in. Then again, when it comes to realistic training, raiding a target and finding out you’re in the wrong place is about as realistic as it gets.
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From left to right: Marine Cpl. John Darby. Lance Cpl.Nicholas Dural, and Cpl. Bradley Feldkamp received theNavy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal on April 6 for stopping a violent stabbing attack in a restaurant. (U.S. Marine Corps photo.).Three newly-minted Marine Security Guards were honored on Thursday morning for stopping two suspects from stabbing another person with a knife at a Virginia Chick-fil-A, a Corps spokesman said.
Cpl. John Darby, Cpl. Bradley Feldkamp, and Lance Cpl. Nicholas Dural received the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal at a ceremony held at the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group’s headquarters in Quantico, Virginia, Gunnery Sgt. Matthew J. Bragg, a spokesman for the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group,
All three Marines had completed their training to become Marine Security Guards on March 9 at Marine Corps Base Quantico and were waiting for visas and flights to their posts at the time of the April 1 incident, which unfolded at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in North Stafford, Virginia, Bragg said.
The Stafford County Sheriff’s Office credits the three Marines with breaking up a fight after two teenagers, who were 14 and 17 years old, allegedly attacked another teenager. During the fight, one of the assailants pulled out a knife.
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“Thank you to the hero Marines who stepped up in order to protect the victim,” a sheriff’s office news release says. “Without you, this altercation could have been a lot worse.”
In an interview with reporters on Thursday, the three Marines recounted what happened at the restaurant.
Dural said that he and the two other Marines decided to stop by the Chick-fil-A before getting haircuts.
That’s when the two teenagers became aggressive with the third person, said Darby, who added that the two of them seemed out of place from the rest of the customers in the restaurant.
After the three of them got into a brief argument, one of them knocked into a woman, so Dural went over to check on her.
“That’s when I turned around, they were still tussling, and one of the smaller ones pulled out a knife,” Dural said. “I saw the knife and I just reacted.”
Faced with an armed attacker, Dural’s Marine Security Guard training on defensive tactics instantly kicked in and he grabbed the base of the teenager’s wrist to disarm him.
“I had my left hand on basically the back of the blade and the top of the hilt of the knife,” Dural said. “When I was pushing down and twisting, since I had the blade basically in my hand – the back of the blade – when I was twisting it, I guess I put so much pressure down there I was able to snap the knife. Once I snapped the knife, that’s how I was able to yell, “Darby, grab the blade!’”
Marine Lance Cpl. Nicholas Dural snapped this knife in half during a fight with an assailant. (Photo courtesy of the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office.)Darby had been speaking with the woman whom Dural had initially checked on to make sure she was calling the police, and then he saw that Dural was trying to get the knife away from one of the assailants.
“Honestly, by the time I got there were four hands on one knife,” Darby said. “I didn’t even really think of grabbing the knife like he was. I was more concerned about keeping the knife away from him.”
When the knife snapped, the blade flew into the air and then slid across the floor, Darby said.
Darby immediately stepped on the blade, got it away from the two attackers as quickly as possible, and gave it to a restaurant manager.
While all of this was going on, Feldkamp prevented a fourth person from joining the scuffle between Dural and the two teenagers.
As soon as the knife snapped, the two attackers realized that they were no longer armed, Dural said.
“I was like: Y’all need to get out of here,” Dural said.
The two teenagers ran out of a back door, but police were already on the scene and they were quickly arrested, said Dural, who still managed to get his haircut after the incident.
The names of the two teenagers who were arrested are not being released to the media because they are juveniles, said Ryan Wilber, a spokesman for the Stafford County
Darby credited the three Marines’ training for their ability to respond to the situation so quickly. Recruits learn during boot camp that if one person is in trouble, it’s everyone’s responsibility to help.
“As soon as Lance Cpl. Dural directly involved himself in the situation, I felt like I had no other choice but to get as close as possible and help in any way that I could.”
Dural said he didn’t feel he deserved a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal because he expects any other Marine would have done the same thing in that situation.
All three of the Marines will soon go to their posts overseas, Gunnery Sgt. Bragg said. Darby and Feldkamp are expected to leave on Thursday for the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria; and Dural is scheduled to leave next week for the U.S. Embassy in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo.
Feldkamp said he decided to become a Marine Security Guard because he wanted to help people in other countries during natural disasters and other emergencies.
“I went to Haiti when I was in high school and it’s just stuff that I like to do, so if I get put in that situation, just helping people makes me feel good,” Feldkamp said.
Darby said he joined the Marine Corps in 2018, towards the end of the Global War on Terrorism, and he initially didn’t feel that he measured up to his mentors in the Corps, who had deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and other warzones.
Graduating from Marine Security Guard training made Darby feel that he was part of “the good fight,” he said.
“The ability to be standing Post 1 or being a rover at an embassy or consulate, that is the direct mission of the United States of America,” Darby said. “So, coming into MSG gave me that opportunity to finally get out of the mindset of: Man, I’m happy to be a Marine and everything, but I haven’t gotten to do anything serious. Coming to MSG gives you that direct input to have a physical impact on the success of the Marine Corps and the United States.”
For Dural, who was initially in the infantry, being a Marine Security Guard will allow him to be the calm face of the Marine Corps during crises overseas. He noted that when there is an emergency in a foreign country, Marines are often the first U.S. service members that locals encounter.
“I want to be that Marine,” Dural said. “I want to be a calm that people see. I want to be that strong person that anybody can trust. I was like that for my sisters when I grew up with them and I would love to do that for the rest of the world.”
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FILE: A 30mm GAU-8 Gatling Gun system gets secured during unscheduled maintenance, July 23, 2019, at Moody Air Force Base, Ga. (Senior Airman Erick Requadt/U.S. Air Force).Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shown that anti-aircraft guns are still relevant to air defense in an age when relatively inexpensive drones can pose a growing threat to troops and civilians.
As part of its latest military assistance package to Ukraine, the United States is providing the Ukrainians with nine 30mm “gun trucks” to destroy Iranian-made drones, such as the Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 kamikaze drones, a senior defense official said.
Little information is publicly available about what the gun trucks, a new weapons system, would look like.
“It’s literally what it sounds like, a 30-millimeter gun mounted on a truck,” the senior defense official told reporters on Tuesday. “Because that’s procurement, it’s going to take several months to be able to actually provide that to Ukraine.”
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Decades ago, the U.S. Army had an air defense system that may be similar to the new gun trucks. The M167 Towed Vulcan Air Defense System, or VADS, featured a six-barrel 20mm cannon that fired in bursts. It was crewed by a single operator, who was seated behind the gun and sights with a range-only radar to the operator’s right.
FILE – Am Iranian-made drone is seen in the sky seconds before it fired on buildings in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Oct. 17, 2022. (Efrem Lukatsky/Associated Press)The VADS has since been replaced by other air defense systems such as the Avenger, which consists of Stinger missiles that are normally mounted on a Humvee. U.S. soldiers no longer train on how to use the VADS at the Fires Center of Excellence, said Maj. Andrew Harshbarger, a spokesman for U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.
Lt. Gen. Serhii Nayev, a top Ukrainian military commander, recently explained why anti-aircraft guns are so important in the fight against Iranian-made drones, which Russia has launched against Ukrainian cities and its critical infrastructure, such as power stations.
“’Shaheds’ are low-speed targets, and for their destruction, it is necessary to use large-caliber machine guns, which are more effective,” Nayev said, according to Ukrainian media.
The 30mm gun trucks will provide Ukraine with an inexpensive solution to the threat posed by Shahed drones, said Samuel Bendett, an adviser with CNA, a non-profit research and analysis organization in Arlington, Virginia.
Toyota pick-up truck, we meet again… https://t.co/8qFX4YN6I3
— Samuel Bendett (@sambendett) March 30, 2023
“Essentially, the CUAS [counter-unmanned aerial systems] costs have to be driven down to the most cost-effective and workable solution — which the Ukrainians note is a mobile gun truck capable of taking out Shaheds,” Bendett told Task & Purpose. “Some of these also come with a searchlight to monitor Shaheds during the night on approach to possible Ukrainian targets.”
Czech volunteers have already donated 15 mobile MR-2 Viktor anti-drone systems to Ukraine, which use a pair of 14.5mm guns to shoot drones down, Bendett said. The system has been mounted in the bed of a pickup truck.
It’s possible the 30mm gun systems provided by the United States could fit in a Toyota Hilux or a slightly bigger pickup truck, said Bendett, who noted that a picture emerged from Yemen last year showing a giant Vulcan gun mounted in the back of a Toyota truck.
An Ukrainian serviceman of National Guard operates with a homemade anti-aircraft machine gun to destroy drones presented in Mykolaiv, Ukraine 9 November 2022. (STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images)One reason why anti-aircraft guns have proven to be so effective against Iranian-made drones is that Ukrainians have discovered Shahed’s fly a lot like aircraft during World War II, such as the German Stuka dive bomber, said Benjamin Jensen, an expert on future war, gaming, and strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Radar-guided and light-assisted anti-aircraft fire is the best way to attack them in their terminal trajectory,” Jensen told Task & Purpose. “So, basically put up a wall of lead to stop it, very similar to how anti-aircraft crews used to work in World War II.”
That’s why the Ukrainians have been welding DShK machine guns combined with searchlights and radar systems in the back of pickup trucks to shoot down the Iranian-made drones, Jensen said. The 30mm gun trucks being provided by the United States are an improved version of Ukraine’s battlefield solution to the Shahed threat.
Admittedly, the Ukrainians are just getting nine of the gun trucks for now.
“That’s a pin drop, but it’s a start,” Jensen said. “The good news is this type of battlefield adaption is easier to scale up than, say, tanks or aircraft – because it’s really finding the truck, getting the weapons system bolted, and then integrating it with searchlights and air-search radars.”
Moreover, the U.S. military might find that it too needs gun trucks to counter drones, especially considering how little they cost when compared with the Army’s short-range air defense, or SHORAD, Jensen said.
“Is there a chance that we would have to fight Iran? Sadly, yes,” Jensen said. “They’ve attacked our troops multiple times in Iraq and Syria. So, it gives us a chance to help the Ukrainians but also learn how to counter swarming drones.”
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Billy Waugh's career became the stuff of legend. U.S. Army file photo (left) and Nick Stubbs/U.S. Air Force (right).William “Billy” Waugh, a famed Army Special Forces soldier and later CIA operative, passed away today, at the age of 93.
Born on December 1, 1929, in Bastrop, Texas, Waugh was drawn to the military at an early age. When he was just 15, he came across two Marines and was inspired to enlist immediately. Deciding to travel to California, where he believed the minimum enlistment age was 16, he was stopped by a police officer in New Mexico and returned to Texas. That abortive attempt would only delay an impressive career by a few years, though.
Joining the Army in 1948, Waugh attended Airborne School and in 1951 was sent to Korea with the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team. Waugh wrote in his 2004 autobiography “Hunting the Jackal” that he “learned what made men tick, and what combat was all about.”
After being deployed to Germany, Waugh transferred to Special Forces.
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“Once I learned what these fine men – the fittest and most committed group I had ever seen – were to become, I knew it was the only place for me,” Waugh wrote.
He first deployed to Vietnam in 1961, and then again in 1965. In June of that year, helping lead a Special Forces team alongside South Vietnamese volunteer forces in a raid, Waugh was shot three times, in an engagement for which team leader then-Capt. Paris Davis was later awarded the Medal of Honor.
After recovering from his injuries, Waugh served several more years in Vietnam with Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observation Group, an elite formation of special operations forces tasked with conducting some of the most dangerous and secretive missions in the country. Waugh himself participated in the first freefall High Altitude, Low Opening (HALO) combat jump in history, in 1971. Retiring in 1972 as a Sgt. Maj., Waugh earned the Silver Star, four Bronze Stars, eight Purple Hearts, four Army Commendation Ribbons, 14 Army Air Medals, and a Presidential Unit Citation.
Following a brief detour as a U.S. Postal Service employee, Waugh began working for the CIA in 1977, although it happened in an unusual way. Waugh was first recruited by a former CIA employee named Edwin Wilson to train special operations troops in Libya. Once in that country, though, Waugh was recruited by the actual CIA for intelligence work.
“I had a method — I would take photos for about three weeks of areas we’d never been into before, of all the countries around Sudan, Egypt, and all of the countries of Africa. I became very good with small cameras … I learned how to brief well, and I was excellent with maps. It became a pleasure to do the work. If you get killed, that’s just tough sh*t,” Waugh told Recoil Magazine about his intelligence work in 2022.
In this capacity, Waugh spent the 1980s and 1990s tracking down both Usama bin Laden and Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as “Carlos the Jackal.”
In 2001, Waugh was just a couple of months shy of 72 when he became one of the first CIA members to enter Afghanistan, working alongside special operations personnel hunting for bin Laden, who Waugh said he had been close enough “to have killed him with a rock,” a decade earlier.
Waugh spent his later years as a speaker and, generally, as a legend in the special operations community.
“Once you get used to that (a life of adventure), you’re not about to quit,” Waugh said in 2011. “How could you want to do anything else?”
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The Space Force first debuted its prototype dress uniform in September 2021. (U.S. Air Force photos).More than a year and a half after the Space Force debuted its brand-new service dress uniform to comparisons to the Galactic Empire from Star Wars, the outfit’s much-maligned baggy pants have undergone “a lot of refinement,” a service spokesperson said on Tuesday.
But despite the recent completion of the service’s final fit test for the new dress uniform in late March, officials are far from finished getting the new pants ready for prime time, the spokesperson said.
“We’ve done a lot of refinement to the Space Force service dress design since the original prototype was shown in 2021, to include focus groups and two roadshows to garner feedback directly from Guardians,” Air Force Maj. Tonya Donsworth told Task & Purpose in a statement on Tuesday. “The fit tests were another essential process to developing the prototype sizing and fit.”
“We’ll continue keeping Guardian feedback at the forefront of our uniform development process through wear tests later this year, and are working toward delivering service dress Guardians can wear with pride in late 2025,” she added.
Those wear tests will begin this summer and will involve having Space Force Guardians wear the dress uniform three times a week to assess the “durability, functionality and comfort” of the prototype, the service said in a statement last week announcing the completion of its final fit test.
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The Space Force first debuted its new prototype uniforms at the Air Force Association’s annual Air Space & Cyber Conference back in September 2021, which quickly garnered criticism and commentary for apparently taking inspiration from classic science-fiction franchises.
Space Force Uniform Prototype Has Diagonal Buttons, PT Uniforms Are Black and Gray | Read more https://t.co/NcW0gBqWtD #ASC21 #SpaceForce #TeamSpace pic.twitter.com/HY7FvPuZez
— Air & Space Forces Magazine (@ASForcesMag) September 21, 2021
The pants in particular earned ire from even non-military circles — New York Times style writer Steven Kurutz called them “saggy and baggy and in serious need of tailoring — prompting the Space Force to concede the following October that “we heard your feedback,” as the service wrote in a tweet. “New pants, new fit coming soon.”
We heard your feedback. New pants, new fit coming soon. pic.twitter.com/tsk5g7fOM0
— United States Space Force (@SpaceForceDoD) October 1, 2021
It’s not clear exactly when that “refinement” cited by a military spokesman took place. As recently as November of last year, then-incoming Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman appeared in the dress uniform in what appeared to be a pair of the prototype’s baggy pants, according to photos published to the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.
Gen. Chance Saltzman (center) assumes responsibility of the Space Force and stands with Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall and Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Roger Towberman at the transition ceremony for the Chief of Space Operations at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Nov. 2, 2022. (U.S. Air Force photo by Andy Morataya)The Space Force is capable of many things, from putting satellites into orbit to using space asserts to call in airstrikes in support of ground forces with pinpoint precision. But apparently, America’s youngest military branch incapable of designing a pair of pants that fit in less than 18 months. What a time to be alive.
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A disabled veteran with prosthetic legs looks on during the archery competition at the inaugural Valor Games Far West on June 11, 2013 in Foster City, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images).Veterans groups are venting their frustration over a Washington Post editorial that calls on Congress to more closely scrutinize veterans’ disability benefits claims as a way to cut costs.
The April 3 editorial suggests that one reason the Department of Veterans Affairs’ budget has rocketed from $45 billion in 2001 to more than $300 billion in 2023 is that the post-9/11 wars have higher disability rates when compared with all veterans due to “improved battlefield medicine and a broader understanding of the array of service-connected injuries and disabilities.”
In other words, many veterans who were wounded in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere suffer from lifelong injuries and other ailments that would have killed them in previous wars.
Noticeably absent from the editorial was any mention of how 20 years of war — the longest period of sustained conflict in U.S. history — may have contributed to the increase in the number of disabled veterans.
But the real problem, according to the editorial, is that the VA has not significantly revised its disability ratings system since 1945, when most veterans worked jobs that required physical labor, whereas most jobs in today’s information and service economy require a different set of skills.
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Noting that “disability payments based on those ratings go to veterans tax-free and continue, with some exceptions, for the entirety of a veteran’s life,” the editorial argues that Congress needs to modernize the disability ratings system. It also cites a December 2022 report from the Congressional Budget Office — which has also been widely criticized by veterans — that suggested phasing out veterans’ disability benefits as they earn higher salaries.
“The Congressional Budget Office estimates limiting payments for veterans who earn more than $170,000 a year would save $253 billion over the next decade,” the editorial says. “Congress could alternatively tax the benefits, or some portion of them, particularly for new recipients with high incomes.”
Prosthetist Edward Sliwinski constructs a custom leg socket for a U.S. military veteran amputee at the Veterans Administration (VA), hospital on January 29, 2014 in Manhattan, New York City. (John Moore/Getty Images)That report caused a storm when it was shared on social media two weeks ago. When VA Secretary Denis McDonough was asked about the CBO’s proposal on disability benefits on March 23, he told reporters bluntly: “We think it’s a bad idea, and we’re not going to do it. You have my commitment that we won’t do it.”
The editorial concedes that none of the changes it recommends would be easy, “But the moral responsibility Americans have to those who fought for the country is of diminished value if it does not align with the fiscal responsibility Americans have to keep their financial house safe and sound.”
Task & Purpose sent the Washington Post several questions about the editorial, including whether the editorial board feels that it is too easy for veterans to receive disability benefits and if the board disagrees with McDonough’s appraisal of the CBO’s idea on disability benefits.
A spokesman for the newspaper said that all the questions were answered in the editorial itself and declined to comment further.
When asked to respond to the argument made by the Washington Post’s editorial, VA spokesman Terrence Hayes said no cuts to veterans’ disability benefits are being considered.
“Disability benefits are what veterans have earned for their service and sacrifices on behalf of our nation,” Hayes told Task & Purpose on Tuesday. “As Secretary McDonough said during his last press conference, ‘we think that [this is] a bad idea, and we’re not going to do it. You have my commitment that we won’t do it.’ On our watch, veterans will always get the benefits that they deserve.”
The Washington Post’s editorial has not gone over well with many veterans’ groups. Ryan Gallucci, executive director of the Veterans of Foreign Wars issued a blistering statement on Tuesday saying the VFW was shocked to see the Washington Post endorse “a recycled compilation of anti-veteran talking points against which the VFW has fought for years.”
A veteran who lost both of his legs, left arm and hearing while serving in Iraq shows the tattoo he got in memory of a friend killed in Iraq, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. on July 30, 2008. (David S. Holloway/Getty Images)“It is laughable that the employees of one of the richest individuals in the world have the audacity to suggest disabled veterans should be the persons responsible for balancing the federal budget — instead of their wealthy billionaire benefactors who notoriously skirt their tax liabilities,” Gallucci wrote in the statement.
Gallucci also wrote that the VFW would have been happy to talk to the editorial board about why veterans have deserved their disability benefits, but the newspaper did not reach out to the group before the editorial was published. Moreover, he argued that money spent on disabled veterans’ benefits is the cost of defending the Washington Post’s right to free speech.
“If the Editorial Board is so worried about moral responsibility, maybe they should pick up a weapon and stand a post,” Gallucci wrote.
Comedian and veterans advocate Jon Stewart told Task & Purpose that he disagreed with how the editorial characterized the process by which veterans are awarded disability benefits.
“The insinuation of fraud or abuse or ‘generosity’ is misleading and misplaced, Stewart said.
Lindsay Church, co-founder and executive director of Minority Veterans of America, said that since the editorial was published, they have spoken to several veterans who are frustrated and concerned that their disability benefits may be taken away.
“That’s a really scary possibility, especially for people who are living on the edge with 30% disability and worry that their disability is going to get cut,” Church told Task & Purpose. “Thirty percent may not seem like a lot to some people, but to some folks that’s what they get by with.”
A wounded veteran at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 7, 2005. (David S. Holloway/Getty Images)Disability benefits recognize that veterans will have to deal with their injuries for the rest of their lives and that they might not live to reach retirement age, said Church, a Navy veteran.
Church is 100% disabled due to a botched surgery that they underwent while in the Navy. They have been unable to sue the Navy for medical malpractice due to the Feres Doctrine, which prevented service members from filing lawsuits against the Defense Department over any injuries or deaths that occurred as a result of their service. Even though troops have been able to file some malpractice claims against the military in recent years, few have been approved.
“While I can work right now, I’m also missing 36 inches of rib, have a spinal cord stimulator in my chest, and I’m staring down the barrel of a tenth surgery that will disrupt everything about my working abilities,” Church said. “I know many other 100% service-connected disabled veterans that experience the same tumultuousness about whether or not their disability is going to impact their day-to-day working relationship.”
Kaitlynne Yancy of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America said that she believes it is unfair to make wounded veterans bear the fiscal responsibility for balancing the government’s budget
The U.S. government should not look at curtailing or testing veterans’ disability benefits for the sake of reining in spending, especially since many veterans continue to deal with lifelong physical and mental injuries, said Yancy, IAVA’s associate director for government affairs.
“We promised that we would take care of our veterans, and that also included disability benefits,” Yancy told Task & Purpose. “Our veterans earned these benefits by serving. Many of them will never have the bodies that they had when they joined the military.”
Still, some veterans said they do agree with part of the editorial’s premise, namely that it is time to reform the disability rating system.
American Veterans Disabled For Life Memorial on April 11, 2015 in Washington, D.C. (Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)Concerned Veterans for America, a conservative veterans group, has called for modernizing the VA’s benefits and services programs that date back to the 1940s, said John Byrnes, the group’s deputy director.
“Congress should apply the independent assessment commission model to examine the VA’s practices while measuring outcomes and effectiveness, studying the long-term impact on veterans, and ultimately driving innovative reform options,” Byrnes told Task & Purpose.
Former Marine Corps Maj. Kyleanne Hunter, who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as an attack helicopter pilot, said she believes it would be good for the U.S. government to take a new look at disability benefits because the types of injuries and ailments that troops suffer from have evolved over time.
Historically, there has also been a wide range of ethnic, racial, and gender disparity in how disability benefits are awarded, in part due to long-standing assumptions of which veterans have seen combat, Hunter told Task & Purpose.
While Hunter supports reforms to the disability compensation system, she also thinks the entire U.S. government needs to look at all the costs involved in sending service members to war, not just how much money it is providing to disabled veterans.
“If we’re going to say that we need to cut back on the types of benefits that we’re giving, well maybe we need to cut back on putting people in the position that they’re going to be injured to begin with,” Hunter told Task & Purpose.
Hunter said she receives VA disability benefits for injuries she sustained as a pilot, and since Congress passed the PACT Act, she has also applied for benefits due to her exposure to toxins from burn pits, which her oncologist believes created a tumor in her left eye that had to be removed.
Entertainer and activist Jon Stewart speaks at a press conference on the PACT Act to benefit burn pit victims on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, March 29, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)One issue she had with the Washington Post editorial was that she got the sense that it was arguing it is too easy for veterans to receive disability benefits, she said.
“I will say that it is not,” Hunter said. “It is not an easy process to go through, as someone who is in the midst of working through it again. It is not a simple process. It’s not like they just throw benefits out there, like ‘You get benefits’ and ‘You get benefits.’”
According to Mary Kaszynski, director of government relations at VoteVets, a liberal veterans group, The Washington Post’s editorial board has shown that it does not have a firm grasp of the process by which veterans receive disability benefits.
“I think there is a little bit of a mistaken belief or misperception that these are just handouts that are given to veterans the day they transition from military to civilian life,” Kaszynski told Task & Purpose. “That’s not at all the way the system works.”
Kaszynski described the editorial board’s argument as “disgraceful,” adding that the U.S. government should provide the VA with more funding to reduce wait times rather than treating the VA as a “wasteland of fraud and abuse.”
“Veterans benefits should not be on the table in any form,” Kaszynski said. “Even considering that is a betrayal of the promise that we made to these folks when they signed up to defend our country and to make enormous sacrifices on behalf of our country.”
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How a team of scientists are exploring the remnants of a World War II battlefield at Guam
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(IMDB image).The final evacuation of America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan played out in real-time across screens back in 2021, so it makes sense that it would become fodder for new action flicks on the big screen.
But the new trailer for the upcoming Afghan war movie Kandahar, which dropped on Tuesday, is a departure from what you might expect of an Afghanistan evac movie. Set for a Memorial Day release, Gerard Butler stars as a CIA agent fleeing with his interpreter companion in search of rescue, presumably somewhere near Kandahar, Afghanistan.
The trailer features guns, explosions, and Butler making no effort to conceal his natural Scottish accent despite theoretically playing an American CIA agent. Ostensibly, it looks like some solid B-movie schlock.
Unlike other upcoming films in the oeuvre of getting the hell out of Afghanistan — such as Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant or a still-unnamed project starring Tom Hardy and Channing Tatum that was announced less than 60 days after the fall of Kabul — the upcoming Butler project isn’t explicitly about the 2021 evacuation from Afghanistan. Instead, the film incorporates other storylines from decades of conflict in the region, including Butler’s CIA agent character apparently sabotaging an Iranian nuclear weapons program. When his cover is blown soon after that mission, Butler’s character must flee across hundreds of miles of hostile territory to “an extraction point, in Kandahar Province,” rescuing his faithful interpreter, fixer, and friend, played by Navid Negahban, in the process.
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Now, there are no direct references to the evacuation from Kabul here, but the parallels are clear. Butler’s CIA agent is clearly an operator-type, who has to work against all odds to rescue the noble interpreter who has fought beside him — something that has happened countless times in real life since August 2021, although those battles have been fought on phone lines and in email chains, trying to work through bureaucratic red-tape and the chaos of a collapsing government to secure passage to a safer place for the tens of thousands of Afghan citizens who backed up U.S. and NATO personnel from 2001 to 2021. All told, more than 75,000 Afghans were evacuated to the U.S. in August 2021 along with almost 50,000 elsewhere, and thousands more have fled the country since.
Near the end of the trailer, Butler’s character says, “No one is coming to rescue us.” This is true of the thousands of Afghans who remain stranded in Afghanistan or as refugees elsewhere. In the realm of action thrillers, though, there is salvation, and when it comes to the big screen, many perceived wrongs will be righted this spring: Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant debuts on April 21, and Kandahar will follow the month after that.
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FILE: A Special Forces Soldier shows partner forces how to prepare night optics on a weapon prior to night range training in Southwest Asia, Sept. 2, 2019. In conjunction with partner forces, Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve defeats Daesh in designated areas of Iraq and Syria and sets conditions for follow-on operations to increase regional stability. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Kyle Alvarez).The U.S. military launched a “unilateral strike” in Syria on Monday that killed Khalid ‘Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri, whom military officials describe as a senior leader with the Islamic State group, according to U.S. Central Command.
Al-Jabouri was allegedly responsible for planning ISIS attacks in Europe and Turkey as well as developing ISIS’ leadership structure in Turkey, a CENTCOM news release says.
No civilians were killed or injured in the strike, according to CENTCOM. U.S. military officials have not publicly released what type of aircraft or ordnance were involved in Monday’s strike.
The White Helmets, an organization of volunteer rescuers in Syria that has often been targeted by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, tweeted on Monday that a man was killed by a missile fired from an unidentified drone on Monday near the town of Killi.
“Our teams responded and took the injured person to Bab Al-Hawa Hospital, where he died,” according to the group’s tweet, which was first reported by the BBC.
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Roughly 900 U.S. troops remain in Syria to fight ISIS, which has become an insurgency in both Syria and Iraq since it lost the last of the territory it once controlled in 2019. Last year, U.S. service members conducted 313 missions in both countries, during which at least 686 suspected ISIS fighters were killed.
Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, underscored the importance of the U.S. military’s mission in Syria during a recent visit to the country.
“I think that an enduring defeat of ISIS and continuing to support our friends and allies in the region … I think those are important tasks that can be done,” Reuters quoted Milley as saying in Syria last month.
The fight against ISIS in Syria is active and dangerous. Four U.S. service members and a military working dog were injured during a Feb. 16 raid in northeastern Syria that resulted in the death of ISIS senior leader Hamza al-Homsi.
That same night, U.S. troops killed an ISIS assassination cell leader in a separate mission in Syria. On Feb. 18, U.S. troops captured an ISIS official identified as “Batar,” who is accused of trying to build bombs and free ISIS detainees from prisons run by the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF.
ISIS has long sought to break its fighters and their families out of detention centers run by the SDF such as the al-Hol detention refugee camp in northeastern Syria, where tens of thousands of people are being held, most of whom are women and children.
U.S. troops and the SDF stopped five suspected ISIS militants from making their way into the camp in September, and on Feb, 10 American troops killed Ibrahim Al Qahtani, an ISIS official who is accused of planning to break out more than 10,000 ISIS prisoners being held in Syria, according to CENTCOM.
Army Gen. Michael ‘Eric’ Kurilla, head of CENTCOM, warned in November that the international community needs to repatriate many of the detainees in the al-Hol camp.
“The longer we leave them here in these conditions, the greater the chance they will instead raise the next generation of extremists,” Kurilla said in a statement.
ISIS emerged as a threat after U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq at the end of 2011. Over the next couple of years, it created a caliphate that included about a third of Syria and 40 percent of Iraq.
Although ISIS has been badly mauled in Iraq and Syria, the group has established roots elsewhere, including Afghanistan, where ISIS-Khorasan is within months of being able to launch external attacks, Kurilla told lawmakers in March.
ISIS has also established a presence in Somalia, where U.S. troops killed ISIS leader Bilal al-Sudani in January, and it is also trying to expand the territory it controls in West Africa.
“ISIS continues to represent a threat to the region and beyond,” Kurilla said in a statement following Monday’s strike in Syria that killed al-Jabouri. “Though degraded, the group remains able to conduct operations within the region with a desire to strike beyond the Middle East.”
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U.S. Navy Capt. Victor Glover (left) and Capt. Reid Wiseman (right), crew members on NASA's upcoming Artemis II mission, which will be the first to travel to the moon in more than 50 years. (NASA).It’s been more than 50 years since astronauts last traveled to the moon, or even distanced more than 400 miles from Earth’s surface. In November 2024, though, the National Aeronautics and Space Organization (NASA) plans to launch Artemis II, the first manned mission to orbit the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. On Monday, at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, NASA announced the crew for this historic mission, among them two accomplished naval aviators: Capt. Gregory Reid Wiseman and Capt. Victor Glover.
Wiseman, who will serve as the Artemis II mission commander, commissioned into the Navy in 1997 and qualified as a naval aviator in 1999. Flying the F-14 Tomcat, he completed two deployments supporting Operation Southern Watch, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, before being accepted as a Navy test pilot in 2003. In 2009, Wiseman was accepted into NASA’s astronaut program, and in 2014 he completed his first trip to space – lasting 165 days aboard the International Space Station.
Bravo Zulu to #USNavy Capt. Wiseman on his selection as the #Artemis II Moon crew Mission Commander!
From the seas 🌊 to the ✨, the U.S. Navy remains #AlwaysReady to be called into action! https://t.co/SDkKDlaafc
— U.S. Navy (@USNavy) April 3, 2023
Glover will serve as the mission’s pilot. He earned his pilot’s wings in 2001, and deployed in 2003 as a F/A-18C pilot in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Beginning in 2007, Glover served for two years as a test pilot, flying the F/A-18 Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler. He was accepted into the astronaut program in 2013. In November 2020, Glover made his first trip to space, as the pilot of the first SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule to dock with the International Space Station.
Congratulations to #USNavy Capt. Glover on his selection to pilot @NASA_Orion around the moon on the #Artemis II mission!
This will be the first mission to fly humans around the Moon in nearly half a century.
Bravo Zulu, Sir! https://t.co/FEwXqtUucK
— U.S. Navy (@USNavy) April 3, 2023
Glover spent 168 days aboard the International Space Station, completing four spacewalks.
Rounding out the Artemis II crew are mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. Koch spent nearly a year aboard the International Space Station between 2019 and 2020. Hansen is both a fellow pilot and will be the first Canadian to travel into deep space, having flown CF-18 Hornets in the Canadian Air Force from 2004-2009 before qualifying for astronaut training.
The Artemis missions are part of the first planned exploration of the moon by people since the 1970s. Artemis I, an unmanned orbit of the moon, returned to Earth in December 2022. Following the completion of Artemis II, a third mission would involve actually sending people back to the moon’s surface.
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US soldiers train Ghanaian troops how to clear a room. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Army's2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade.).While the world is focused on the fight against al-Shabaab in Somalia, the U.S. military is working behind the scenes to help partner nations face the growing danger posed by al-Qaida and the Islamic State group in West Africa.
Marine Gen. Michael Langley, head of U.S. Africa Command, recently told reporters that a branch of al-Qaida in West Africa known as Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM, as well as ISIS West Africa are trying to expand into countries along the Gulf of Guinea, such as Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.
However, Langley said the U.S. military has no plans to expand its small footprint in West Africa to help partner nations combat these militant groups.
“Increasing capacity of the states that we partner with is essential,”Langley said during a March 17 news conference. “They said: ‘We don’t want your boots on the ground; we don’t need that; we’re not asking for that; we’re asking for your ‘advise and assist’ capabilities.’ We need to be able to help them in those veins. The theme of that is partner-led, U.S.-enabled.”
Founded in 2017, JNIM has managed to attract fighters from several different militant groups including al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, Ansar-al-Din, and the Macina Liberation Front, said Seth Jones, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C.
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Over time, JNIM has evolved from a terrorist organization into an insurgent group that controls territory, Jones told Task & Purpose. The group is funded through several methods including levying taxes on people in the territory it controls along with smuggling weapons and extorting drug dealers.
U.S. soldiers train Ghanaian troops. (2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade/U.S. Army)JNIM and other militant groups in West Africa are currently expanding into northern Ghana; villages in Burkina Faso, near the Ghanaian border, and in Mali, Jones said.
However, it does not appear that any West African countries are at imminent risk of falling to Islamic militants, unlike the near collapse of Mali in 2013 that prompted the French to launch Operation Serval.
“The situation is deteriorating, but not at a point yet where it’s threatened state collapse,” Jones said. “We’re not there yet. Hard to know when we’ll get there. It started happening pretty quickly in 2013 that led to [Operation] Serval”
The U.S. military has a handful of troops in West Africa, who are working to train partner nations to stop the spread of al-Qaida and ISIS into their countries.
Roughly 6,500 U.S. troops, civilians, and contractors operate in Africa as part of U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM, of which about 1,500 Americans are deployed throughout West Africa, said AFRICOM spokeswoman Kelly Cahalan.
The number of U.S. special operators that operate in Africa is roughly the size of the size of the U.S. military’s footprint in Syria, where about 900 American troops are deployed, Navy Rear Adm. Molton J. Sands III, commander of Special Operations Command Africa, or SOCAFRICA, told the New York Times for a story in March.
Those U.S. special operations forces help train African partners but do not go on combat operations with them, said Marine Col. Robert Zyla, deputy commander of SOCAFRICA. Sometimes, U.S. troops in a secure location provide partner forces with “remote and advice and assistance,” but they are geographically separated from the partner troops on the ground, he said.
That allows U.S. special operators to provide intelligence and other actionable information to partner forces on the ground without putting themselves at risk, said Zyla. That said, U.S. troops do not use their “collective self-defense” authorities to coordinate airstrikes in West Africa, he said.
U.S. soldiers train Ghanaian troops. (2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade/U.S. Army)The fight against militant groups in West Africa is different in size and scope than the U.S. military’s efforts in Somalia, Zyla told Task & Purpose. Whereas al-Shabaab is a homogenous group, several militant groups in West Africa have banded together to form a confederation that is represented by JNIM’s flag.
With roughly 9,000 fighters, these violent extremist organizations are spread throughout western Africa, posing a threat to the entire region, Zyla said.
“The biggest thing there is just the geography, the amount of space that these regional threats are transiting,” Zyla said when describing the challenge of fighting violent extremist groups in West Africa. “It’s probably [the size of] between Oklahoma and Virginia as far as comparable space in the United States.”
Now those militant groups want to move into coastal West Africa, which has a large economic base that these groups want to tap into for financial support, he said.
One way the U.S. military is seeking to stop al-Qaida and other militant groups from expanding their territory is by holding military exercises with partner nations, such as Flintlock, which also stresses the respect for good governance and how to transition from military to law enforcement efforts, Zyla said. Flintlock is AFRICOM’s premiere special operations exercise, which most recently took place in March. A total of 29 countries participated in counter-terrorism drills.
“It allows our active partners – Flintlock, that is – to work together and learn from each other on how to become better citizens of their own countries and conduct operations in a way that reduces instability,” Zyla said.
Separate from SOCAFRICA’s efforts, the U.S. Army’s 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade has partnered with Ghana’s Army Northern Command to train Ghana’s forces in the skills needed to counter violent extremism in the northern part of the country, said Neil Ruggiero, a spokesman for U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa
The soldiers with 2nd SFAB conduct the training in Tamale, Ghana, and they do not accompany the Ghana Army on combat operations, Ruggiero told Task & Purpose.
Master Sgt. Mark Miller recently returned from a six-month deployment to Ghana, where he was the team sergeant for a group of 10 SFAB soldiers. They taught the Ghanaian troops basic infantry skills including small unit tactics, patrolling, and marksmanship.
The Ghanaians were willing to learn, and they showed signs of improvement, especially in their room-clearing skills, Miller said.
“They had a technique that they would use that to us would be kind of absurd, but to them was normal practice,” Miller said. “After they showed us how they did their urban operations, we showed them how we did ours, and they were very receptive [to the idea that] maybe their way is not the best way, and they are open to trying different practices that are going to make them better.”
The mission to Ghana shows the benefit of having a small number of trainers spend several months with partner forces, said Maj. Pete Nguyen, a spokesman for the 2nd SFAB.
In the past, the Army would deploy an entire brigade combat team for a short period of time to conduct security force assistance, Nguyen told Task & Purpose.
“That was a real problem for us,” Nguyen said. “It took away from a division’s ability to really muster combat power and to work together as a division team. It’s really incredible what you can do with 10 people who have a persistent presence in a country, where a partner knows that they’re not just here for six weeks at a time, but they’re going to be here for six months at a time – and if we want them, they’ll come back for another six months as well. It serves the purpose of preserving combat power for the United States while also fulfilling U.S. interests by showing nations around the world that we are interested in them, that we do care about theater security cooperation efforts.”
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Several KS-19 guns fire at targets in Ukraine. (Screenshot via @UAWeapons on Twitter).The war in Ukraine has seen a large amount of anachronistic weaponry. For every new drone or high-tech targeting system fielded in the fighting, there are older, outdated weapons being used. Drone jammers are used alongside World War I-era Maxim machine guns. Old Cold War-era T-55 tanks are being dusted off to replace destroyed modern armor pieces.
And now Ukraine is using the KS-19, an anti-aircraft gun that first entered service more than seven decades ago.
Ukraine: The Ukrainian army started to use ancient KS-19 100mm anti-aircraft guns. Though initially designed to be used against air targets, now they will be used against ground targets- in indirect and possibly direct mode.
The first KS-19 guns entered service in 1947. pic.twitter.com/mSivG4N8wM
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 1, 2023
Video shared on Telegram shows several KS-19 in a field, guns aimed low, firing off 100mm rounds. The guns, originally introduced in 1947, were designed to shoot down mid-century aircraft. Now it appears they’re being used as artillery targeting Russian ground forces.
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The KS-19 was developed by the Soviet Union as an anti-aircraft weapon. It was used by multiple Eastern Bloc countries and even saw service in the Korean and Vietnam wars. As the Twitter account Ukraine Weapons Tracker pointed out, Ukrainian troops are loading the guns with UOF-412 rounds, made more than six decades ago in 1962. Despite that, the rounds can be fired as far as 19 kilometers. However, the KS-19 comes with its own limitations, chief among them the fact that it needs to be towed around to different firing locations.
Ukraine is not the first participant in the war to field the KS-19. Russia captured the eastern Ukrainian city of Balakliia, where several of the Soviet-era guns were stored. In September, several Russian KS-19 guns were spotted, around the time Russia started its mobilization of 300,000 new fighters to help after the initial offensive fell apart. In an added irony, several of these guns were identified in part because Ukraine captured them in combat during the campaign around Kharkiv.
Despite the massive shipments of new, modern weaponry and equipment to Ukraine, there has been a strong industry in the country repairing old weapons and building unconventional tools of war. Those have ranged from a quad-Maxim machine gun rig to fleets of technicals built on everything from vans to the classic Toyota pickup truck. Fighters and support teams are getting creative, putting modern tools like scopes onto decades-old guns to find ways to make them more effective on the battlefield.
Both sides in the war have been dealing with ammunition shortages for their artillery in recent weeks. United States National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said this past week that Russia is looking to trade food for weapons with North Korea. Ukraine is set to receive new weapons and ammunition from the United States, but appears to be taking older weapons like the KS-19 out of storage. It’s not clear how many are in use or how effective they are. Much of the war remains a battle of attrition with the front lines now turned into heavily fortified trenches.
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The Falcon 9 rocket that carried the Space Development Agency's new satellites, shortly before launch. (photo courtesy Space Development Agency).The U.S. military’s Space Development Agency hit a major milestone today, conducting its first launch to space. The mission sent 10 new communications and missile tracking satellites into low-Earth orbit in a test of the agency’s mission to quickly create a new orbital network of satellites.
The satellites, carried aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The successful launch comes two and a half years since the Space Development Agency, a part of Space Force, was first awarded the contract.
The 10 satellites are part of the agency’s initial program, called Tranche 0. Eight of them, built by York Space Systems, are meant to send visual data from space down to sensors on Earth. The other two, developed by SpaceX, use infrared sensors to track hypersonic missiles in flight. They were put into low-Earth orbit roughly 1,000 kilometers above the planet. Now in space, the 10 satellites are set to go through a period of testing before being put to use in exercises later this year.
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The Space Development Agency plans on sending 28 total satellites as part of Tranche 0. The agency, created to develop new defense systems for space, with a focus on tracking hypersonic weapons, calls the planned satellite constellations its “Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.” Alongside the goal of building and launching these new satellites quickly, the goal is to have the array complement military spacecraft and other equipment.
“This is a major accomplishment for SDA and for the whole Department of Defense. It shows that our key pillars, proliferation and spiral development, can deliver for national security space,” Space Development Agency Director Derek Tournear said in a statement after the launch. “Through this launch, we’ve demonstrated that SDA can keep a schedule to deliver enhanced capabilities every two years. This revolutionary approach is enabled by growth in the commercial marketplace, allowing the PWSA to move forward to deliver warfighting capabilities in each future tranche.”
The mission launch was originally set for Thursday, March 30, but was aborted just seconds before liftoff. It was pushed back to Friday and then again to Sunday.
Per the agency, these satellites will be used to track missile tests and participate in military exercises set for this summer. The remaining 18 satellites of the Tranche 0 group are expected to be sent into space in June, again using SpaceX rockets. It’s part of a $150 million deal announced in 2020.
Like Space Force, the Space Development Agency was created in 2019. However it only fell under the service branch’s umbrella in October 2022.
A follow-up, dubbed Tranche 1, will comprise 173 satellites and is currently scheduled to launch in 2024.
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A member of the Arkansas National Guard stands in front of damaged areas following a series of tornadoes. (photo courtesy Arkansas National Guard).After a series of tornadoes hit the Midwest and South on Friday, leaving at least 26 people dead, the National Guard is helping rescue and recovery efforts in Arkansas.
The state mobilized 100 National Guardsmen to help with rescue efforts, declaring a state of emergency on Friday. They’re assisting Arkansas State Police in helping people evacuate from damaged areas, directing traffic and pointing people to safe locations. The Guardsmen, with the 87th Troop Command, have a base of operations at Camp Robinson, but are deployed both to Little Rock and also to Wynne, Arkansas, a town 91 miles from the capital and close to the border with Tennessee, that saw some of the worst damage from the tornado.
At least four people died in Wynne during Friday’s storm. The town wrapped its search and rescue efforts on Saturday. Dozens more were injured during the tornadoes, local news reported.
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In the capital of Little Rock, Mayor Frank Scott Jr. requested aid from the National Guard, as many of the main roadways in the city were cut off by damage from the tornadoes. The work supports local first responders in transporting people to hospitals and shelters.
“Recovery efforts for our city and its residents will be long, but we are resilient,” Scott said, per local outlet KARK. “We will continue to work together to move from this natural disaster stronger than before.”
The weather that hit Arkansas was part of a series of tornados that hit parts of as many as eight states this past week. In addition to the death and damage in Arkansas, tornadoes killed nine people in Tennessee, four in Illinois and three more in Indiana.
Aerial video shared by the Arkansas National Guard on Defense Visual Information Distribution Service or DVIDS showed the scale of damage from the sky. The footage was shot while Maj. Gen. Jonathan M. Stubbs, adjutant general of the Arkansas National Guard, toured the area. It showed uprooted trees, debris lining the streets and fields, and multiple buildings with roofs damaged or fully ripped off.
In addition to helping with traffic control, National Guardsmen are assisting in clearing debris from roads. That includes cutting up trees that were ripped from the ground and are now blocking emergency assistance from reaching certain areas.
The Biden administration approved a disaster declaration for Arkansas on Sunday morning. Federal Emergency Management Agency officials are visiting the areas hit today.
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A U. S. Army Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicle-Dragoon crew with Apache Troop, 1st Squadron, 2d Cavalry Regiment fire the Medium Caliber Turret-30mm weapons system during the squadrons Stryker crew gunnery at the 7th Army Training Command’s Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany, April 26, 2019. The purpose of the Stryker gunnery is to qualify the gunners as part of a Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicle crew on their assigned weapon system and build confidence. This qualification is required for 1/2CR’s participation in exercise Saber Guardian 19 in Hungary and Romania scheduled for later this year. (U.S. Army photo by Gertrud Zach).This past month, thousands of Ukrainian fighters completed courses with American troops on how to use new U.S.-supplied equipment. Since the United States started training Ukrainians after the war with Russia began, more than 7,000 Ukrainians have gone through lessons with American troops. That’s the latest figure from the Pentagon.
Most have been trained at American bases in Europe, including 4,000 Ukrainians training in Germany. Those are split into two brigades, one with Stryker armored personnel carriers and the other with Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and returned to Ukraine this week, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters on Thursday, March 30.
The Ukrainian troops are taking part in mechanized brigade combined-arms training courses. Those take approximately five weeks to complete, Ryder said, adding that so far the soldiers have been finishing them on pace.
“Operator and maintenance training on donated platforms is also ongoing, with more than 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers having completed platform training and 40 different programs of instruction on more than 20 systems since April of 2022,” Ryder said. “Training for Ukrainian Forces is an international effort being conducted in partnership with our coalition partners, who are currently training more than 11,000 Ukrainian soldiers across 26 different nations.”
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In addition, 65 Ukrainian soldiers completed training on Patriot missile batteries this week at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. Ryder noted that the systems — supplied by the United States, the Netherlands and Germany — will help with air defense against Russian missiles. Ukrainian soldiers began training on the weapons in January. The Pentagon had previously said that it takes 90 soldiers to operate a Patriot battery. It’s unclear when the first Patriot system will be put into use in Ukraine.
American troops are currently teaching 1,200 Ukrainian motorized infantry soldiers at the Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels training areas in Germany.
Ryder’s comments come amid reports of another large weapons donation to Ukraine to help replenish its stock. Reuters, citing three U.S. officials, reported that the latest package includes anti-tank rockets, fuel trucks and additional ammunition. The package will also feature bridging equipment to help with moving troops and armor. The $2.6 billion weapons aid will mainly be paid for by the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which lets the Biden administration buy weapons and ammunition from manufacturers instead of dipping into the U.S.’ own supply. Aid to Ukraine had already pulled a significant amount of ammunition from American stockpiles. So far the United States has supplied more than $30 billion in weapons aid since Russia invaded in February 2022.
The war, which has gone on for approximately 400 days, has drained ammunition supplies for both Russia and Ukraine in recent weeks. As a result, the rate of artillery barrages carried out by both sides have drastically decreased.
Since the war started, both Ukraine and Russia have suffered heavy losses. A steady stream of weapons and equipment from Western nations, including anti-tank missiles, tanks and high mobility artillery rocket systems (or HIMARS )have increased Ukraine’s fighting capabilities, but troops have had to leave the country to participate in training in those new armaments.
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Al-Shabaab fighters, Feb. 13, 2012 in Somalia. (Getty Images).The renewed U.S.-backed offensive in Somalia against the militant group al-Shabaab is yielding results. al-Shabaab has suffered heavy casualties and is losing territory, around a third of the land it previously controlled is back in the government’s hands. That’s according to U.S. Ambassador to Somalia Larry André, who spoke with Voice of America’s outlet for Somalia.
“Somali-led offensives have restored Somalia’s sovereignty to 1/3 of the territory formerly misruled by al-Shabaab,” Larry André said in an email to VOA Somali. “Ending al-Shabab’s oppression is one step further toward Somalia’s full revival.”
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The claim comes after an increased period of fighting against al-Shabaab in Somalia. In the summer of 2022, new Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud announced a fresh offensive against the militant group, calling for “total war” against it. In the seven months since, the Somali National Army has carried out raids and attacks on al-Shabaab-controlled villages and strongholds.
That push has been supported by the United States, which has been carrying out airstrikes against al-Shabaab fighters as Somali ground forces engage them. American troops are also providing training for the Somali army, including the specialized Danab battalion. In January, the United States announced the transfer of arms, vehicles and medical supplies worth $9 million to Somalia to aid in its fight. That included more than 60 tons of Kalashnikov rifles, machine guns and ammunition for the weapons, which arrived in the country at the end of February.
al-Shabaab had been on the decline in the early 2010s, following fighting with the newly established federal government, but has had a resurgence in the last six years. Since federal forces started their new offensive, al-Shabaab has launched a counter offensive focused on insurgent strikes, carrying out a deadly attack on a Mogadishu hotel in November that killed eight civilians.
The militant group once controlled wide swaths of the country, including the capital of Mogadishu, but now has been mainly centered in Somalia’s southern and central areas (other parts of the country fall under autonomous control separate from the federal government based in Mogadishu). There are other militant and terrorist groups in Somalia in conflict with the federal government — including a branch of the Islamic State, which the United States has targeted — but al-Shabaab has been the largest organization, both in the number of fighters and area controlled.
Since the start of the year, the United States has carried out at least half a dozen air strikes on al-Shabaab fighters, in support of Somali troops. That’s already nearly half of the 15 confirmed air strikes conducted in 2022. That’s still below the peak of at least 59 carried out in 2019, before the Trump administration pulled troops out of the country in 2020. There are currently roughly 500 American troops in the country, since the Biden administration reversed that decision last year.
Somalia is currently in the midst of a major drought affecting much of the country, both in government and al-Shabaab controlled areas. That drought killed at least 43,000 people last year, according to a joint United Nations and Somali report released in March.
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The Greenough Advanced Rescue Craft (GARC) unmanned surface vehicle (USV) in action in Panama City, Florida in November 2019. (U.S. Navy photo).The Navy is asking lawmakers to fund an experiment that would see the service slap surface-to-air missiles onto unmanned surface vessels (USVs) as a potential future defense for military transport ships underway, according to the service’s latest budget request.
News of the proposed system, referred to in the Navy’s fiscal year 2024 budget request as the “Multi-domain Area Denial from Small-USV (MADS),” was first reported by our colleagues at The War Zone.
According to Navy budget documents, the MADS will consist of a Greenough Advanced Rescue Craft (GARC) drone boat outfitted with FIM-92 Stinger missile launchers to potentially “provide a low-cost, persistent anti-air and anti-surface maritime defense capability” for transportation vessels associated with Military Sealift Command, littoral operations, or even Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO) that the Marine Corps sees as critical to future distributed ops.
Developed by Maryland’s Maritime Applied Physics Corporation (MAPC), the GARC itself is just under 16 feet long and boasts a top speed of 35 knots and a 1,000-pound payload capacity, according to company specs. MAPC’s fact sheet on the system indicates that the GARC’s surface warfare package currently consists of a remote weapons system which includes the Navy’s Mk 50 Gun Weapon System, the .50 caliber GAU-19 rotary barrel machine gun, and AGM-176 Griffin or AGM-114 Hellfire missiles.
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The War Zone notes that the Navy has experimented with variants of the GARC since at least 2018 as both a communications platform and potential escort and counterterrorism watercraft. The new proposed experiment for fiscal year 2024 would see the Navy integrate an “existing weapons platform” and associated systems into a new concept of operations that will eventually see validation “through live-fire engagement of target drones and small boats,” according to Navy budget documents.
The end goal of MADS is, of course, a numbers game. “During future conflicts, U.S. and allied forces will be greatly outnumbered by peer or near-peer competitors in both tactical platforms and munitions,” according to Navy budget documents. “Large numbers of small, low signature, attributable unmanned missile launching vessels have the potential to improve surface force magazine depth and reduce risk to force in denied areas.”
The Navy has been experimenting with USVs since 2018 when the service deployed the 132-foot-long submarine-hunting Sea Hunter to join the fleet after nearly eight years in development with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Indeed, the commander of the U.S. 5th Fleet recently stated that the U.S. and its allies wanted to see a 100-strong force of drone ships backing up crewed Navy warships in the waters around the Middle East as soon as 2023.
While the service has aggressively explored applications for USVs such as communications and sensor nodes, examples of armed drone boats are few and far between. In 2019, for example, the Navy showed off a Textron Systems-produced Expeditionary Warfare USV armed with a .50 caliber machine gun and Hellfire missile system during testing at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division in Virginia. The following year, Textron demonstrated its Common Unmanned Surface Vehicle (CUSV) armed with just a .50 cal as an added harbor security and force protection asset at Naval Station Norfolk.
An Expeditionary Warfare Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) autonomously navigates a predetermined course through the water during Advanced Naval Technology Exercise 2019 at Camp Lejeune, N.C. July 12, 2019.(Marine Corps photo by LCpl. Nicholas Guevara)The latest insight into the Navy’s armed drone boat capabilities came in April 2022, when the Defense Department announced that an $800 million security assistance package bound for Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion of the country would include an unspecified number of “unmanned coastal defense vessels” for the Ukrainian military, although the Pentagon declined to provide additional details regarding the nature of the systems and their capabilities.
Those unmanned vehicles are “designed to help Ukraine with its coastal defense needs,” as then-Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in response to questions surrounding their armaments at the time. “And I think I’m just going to leave it at that. I’m not going to get into the specific capabilities, but they’re designed to help Ukraine with its coastal defense needs.”
Indeed, the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has only underscored the potential benefits of employing armed USVs against conventional targets at sea. In October, the Ukrainian military used a contingent of seven USVs loaded with explosive “kamikaze” payloads to attack vessels associated with Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in port in Sevastopol in the annexed Crimean peninsula, damaging several surface warships, as The War Zone reported at the time.
It’s unclear when the Navy’s dream of missile-hauling drone boats might become a reality: the proposed MADS experiment would be a new research start in fiscal year 2024 and the service is only requesting $5 million to start to fund the project, according to budget documents.
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From top left to right: Sgt. Isaacjohn Gayo; Warrant Officer Jeffery Barnes; Warrant Officer Aaron Healy; Staff Sgt. Taylor Mitchell; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Rusten Smith; Cpl. Emilie Marie Eve Bolanos; Staff Sgt. Joshua Caleb Gore; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Zachary Esparza; Sgt. David Solinas. (U.S. Army).The 101st Airborne Division has released the names of nine soldiers who were killed when two HH-60 Black Hawk helicopters crashed in Kentucky on Wednesday night .
The following soldiers were killed in the crash:
- Warrant Officer Jeffery Barnes, 33, of Milton, Florida
- Cpl. Emilie Marie Eve Bolanos, 23, of Austin, Texas
- Chief Warrant Officer 2 Zachary Esparza, 36, of Jackson, Missouri
- Sgt. Isaacjohn Gayo, 27, of Los Angeles, California
- Staff Sgt. Joshua C. Gore, 25, of Morehead City, North Carolina
- Warrant Officer Aaron Healy, 32, of Cape Coral, Florida
- Staff Sgt. Taylor Mitchell, 30, of Mountain Brook, Alabama
- Chief Warrant Officer 2 Rusten Smith, 32, of Rolla, Missouri
- Sgt. David Solinas Jr, 23, of Oradell, New Jersey
Barnes enlisted in the Army in 2010 and later deployed in support of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. He graduated from Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape School (High Risk) and served as an Aeromedical Evacuation Pilot for the Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division starting in October 2022.
Bolanos joined the Army in 2019 and graduated from the Basic Leader Course in 2022. She served in Germany for nine months in 2022 as part of Atlantic Resolve.
Esparza joined the Army in 2010 and later deployed to Afghanistan from 2013 to 2014. He also deployed to Egypt and served in Japan and Hawaii.
Cpl. Emilie Marie Eve Bolanos. (U.S. Army)Chief Warrant Officer 2 Zachary Esparza. (U.S. Army)Chief Warrant Officer 2 Rusten Smith. (U.S. Army)Sgt. David Solinas. (U.S. Army)Sgt. Isaacjohn Gayo (U.S. Army)Staff Sgt. Joshua Caleb Gore (U.S. Army)Staff Sgt. Taylor Mitchell (U.S. Army)Warrant Officer Aaron Healy (U.S. Army)Warrant Officer Jeffery Barnes. (U.S. Army)Gayo joined the Army in 2019 and went on to graduate from the Basic Leader Course and Air Assault School, receiving a Field Sanitation Team Certification. He served in South Korea and joined the Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division in October 2020.
Gore joined the Army in 2015 and served as a flight paramedic with the Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division starting in May 2022. He completed Flight Paramedic Training, Critical Care Paramedic Training, and the Army Medical Department Aviation Crewmember Course. He also graduated from the Emergency Medical Technician Certification Course, Air Assault School, Brigade Combat Team Trauma Training, and Basic Leader Course.
Healy joined the Army in 2010 and went on to deploy to Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012 and again in 2014. He graduated from Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape School (High Risk) and had served as an Aeromedical Evacuation Pilot for the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division since 2022.
Mitchell joined the Army in 2014 and deployed to Romania in 2019 and Germany in 2020 in support of Atlantic Resolve. He became a Flight Paramedic for the Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, in November 2020.
Smith joined the Army in 2012 and deployed to Afghanistan twice – first in 2013 and again from 2018 to 2019 – before deploying to Germany for nine months in 2020 as part of Atlantic Resolve. He had served as an Instructor Pilot for the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division since 2022.
Solinas joined the Army in 2018 and initially served as a combat medic with the 82nd Airborne Division. He became a Flight Paramedic for the Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division in October 2022.
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Investigators are working to determine the cause of Wednesday’s crash. At the time, the two helicopters were training to fly in a multi-ship formation while using night vision goggles, Army Brig. Gen. John Lubas told reporters on Thursday.
No one on the ground was injured by the crash, said Lubas, who serves as the deputy commanding officer for operations with the 101st Airborne Division.
“This is a time of great sadness for the 101st Airborne Division,” Maj. Gen. JP McGee, commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division, said in a statement on Friday. “The loss of these soldiers will reverberate through our formations for years to come. Now is the time for grieving and healing. The whole division and this community stand behind the families and friends of our fallen soldiers.”
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Finnish soldiers perform war simulation exercises during the Baltic Operations NATO military drills on June 11, 2022 in the Stockholm archipelago. (Jonas Gratzer/Getty Images).If Russian President Vladimir Putin expected that divisions within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would cause the alliance to shatter once his forces invaded Ukraine, then he wildly miscalculated.
NATO is about to welcome its newest member now that the Turkish parliament approved Finland’s request to join the Alliance. Including Finland, NATO will soon include 31 countries.
Both Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership after Russia launched its full-scale attack on Ukraine last February. So far, Turkey and Hungary have blocked Sweden from joining the alliance due to political disagreements.
However, the fact that Finland and Sweden have sought to join NATO is remarkable considering that both countries have been nonaligned for decades. With Finland poised to join the alliance, Putin will soon share another 810 miles with a member of NATO, which considers any armed attack on an individual NATO member as an act of aggression against the entire alliance.
“President Putin invaded Ukraine with the declared goal of having less NATO in Europe,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a March 20 statement. “He is getting exactly the opposite. There will be more NATO in Europe, demonstrated by the fact that both Finland and Sweden applied and are invited to become full members.”
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It’s not immediately clear how U.S. troops will be directly affected by Finland joining NATO.The U.S. military has trained extensively with Finnish forces in the past and the Defense Department welcomes the news that Finland is closer to joining NATO, said Marine Lt. Col. Garron Garn, a Pentagon spokesman.
“We have no announcements to make regarding future troop engagements or deployments to Finland at this time, but we look forward to working together with Finland to remain vigilant against any threats to our shared security, and to deter and confront any aggression,” Garn told Task & Purpose on Friday.
Finnish Defence Forces celebrate the 105th Independence Day of Finland with a national parade. (Takimoto Marina/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)Experts told Task & Purpose that the addition of Finland to NATO is important to the alliance overall, but it will not change much for U.S. troops in Europe.
With Finland in NATO, the alliance will stand better situated to defend Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, which are geographically isolated from the rest of the alliance, according to Luke Coffey, a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute think tank in Washington, D.C.
U.S. military planners have long feared that in the event of war between Russia and the alliance, Russian forces in the Kaliningrad enclave and Belarus could close the 65-mile Suwałki Gap that connects the three Baltic states with Poland, a member of NATO.
Following Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014, the U.S. military initially sent an infantry company to each of the three Baltic countries, Coffey wrote in an October paper for the Hudson Institute. NATO has steadily increased its military presence in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia since then.
When Finland officially becomes a member of the alliance, it will become a frontline country on NATO’s eastern flank, so NATO should establish a new battlegroup for Finland, Coffey wrote.
On Friday, Coffey told Task & Purpose that such a battlegroup would not necessarily need to include U.S. troops, noting that forces from Canada, Great Britain, France, and other NATO members make up the bulk of the alliance’s military presence in those three Baltic countries.
It is unlikely that the U.S. military would need to send troops to Finland to deter against an Russian attack after Finland joins NATO, said Evelyn Farkas who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia from 2012 to 2015.
Finnish army soldiers line up for a military parade on Flag Day of the Finnish Defence Forces in the Finnish capital. (Takimoto Marina/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)In fact, Farkas said she does not expect that the U.S. military will make any changes to where its forces are deployed in Europe any time soon.
“I don’t think there will be any implications for U.S. forces with Finland joining,” said Farkas, who is executive director of the McCain Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C., that is part of Arizona State University. “The Finns are highly capable. I don’t think a U.S. force is necessary as a deterrent. The Russians understand they are joining NATO and that’s that.”
While Finland’s accession to NATO won’t specifically affect U.S. troops deployed to Europe, Finland will be able to significantly contribute to the alliance’s collective forces, and its geographical location makes it easier for NATO forces to reach the Baltic states if Russia attacks, said retired Navy Capt. Jan van Tol, a naval warfare expert with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments think tank in Washington, D.C.
“NATO forces would have a much wider approach sector through which to conduct strikes and carry out reinforcement and resupply of NATO forces operating in the Baltic states and the region generally in the event of war,” van Tol told Task & Purpose. “Before accession, NATO forces had only a relatively narrow approach to the Baltic states via the southern Baltic Sea and Poland, which made timely defense of the Baltic states against a Russian attack quite problematic, especially given the presence of strong Russian forces in the Kaliningrad Oblast, which in effect was sort of a ‘cork in the bottle’ geographically.”
Going forward, the U.S. military may deploy Patriot missile batteries in Finland and rotate larger numbers of troops through the country on training exercises, but it won’t establish garrisons as it has in Germany and Poland, said retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, an expert on Russia and Ukraine.
It’s important for U.S. troops to know that Finland has a very capable military that will have a significant role within NATO, said Vindman, a senior fellow at Harvard and Johns Hopkins University.
“Finland is one of the guys on the team – it’s a key player that actually would be able to contribute to a fight, contribute to defense,” Vindman told Task & Purpose. “It’s not a backbencher. It’s not a marginal actor.”
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U.S. Marines assigned to 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 1st Marine Division conduct amphibious assault exercises in Amphibious Combat Vehicles (ACVs) launched from dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49) during exercise Steel Knight 23 (SK23), Nov. 30, 2022. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Zachariah Issa).The Marines may be full speed ahead on adopting its first new amphibious vehicle since the Vietnam War, but the Corps’ newest ride is still facing significant operational and mechanical issues, the service’s top officer recently revealed.
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger submitted his written statement on the service’s current posture to the Senate Appropriations Committee ahead of a hearing alongside Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro and Chief of Naval Operations Michael Gilday on the Navy and Marine Corps’ fiscal year 2024 budget requests earlier this week.
Berger stated that the adoption of the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV), which is meant to replace the Vietnam-era Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAV) “has the potential to greatly enhance [the Marine Corps’] littoral mobility and expeditionary reach” during future operations. However, he added, ”as with all new systems and technologies, there have been a few notable challenges.”
According to Berger, those challenges include “major” ACV component issues, such as a problem with the shock absorbers that support the vehicle’s eight wheels, and another with the central tire inflation system, both of which “have caused part failures, resulting in a decrease in reliability and a corresponding decrease in readiness.”
The Corps has also identified issues arising from “possible water incursion into the power train,” Berger said, noting that ACV manufacturer BAE Systems is working closely with the Marine Corps to address all of these issues.
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The disclosure of fresh mechanical issues, though far from dire, represents the latest tech challenge to befall the ACV in recent years. A fiscal year 2020 report from the Defense Department’s top weapons tester detailed that, apart from survivability issues detailed in a classified annex, the vehicle’s design made for an uncomfortable ride for kitted-out infantry Marines, and that it was difficult to rapidly exit in the event of an emergency.
The rapid egress problem appeared particularly troubling at the time because it came in the aftermath of the deady 2020 sinking of an AAV during an exercise off San Clemente Island in California that killed nine crew members. The deadliest training accident in the history of the Corps’ AAV fleet, a subsequent command investigation led to the dismissal of two Marine commanders due to a “loss of trust and confidence.”
It’s worth noting that Berger’s disclosure of the ACV’s issues is the first public mention of fresh problems in recent years. While the 2021 report from the Defense Department’s weapons tester was extremely detailed, there was no follow-up assessment in the office’s fiscal year 2021 report and the fiscal year 2022 iteration only focused on issues related to the ACV’s command-and-control variant. The ACV is also missing from the Government Accountability Office’s June 2022 assessment of DoD weapons systems, although the office’s 2021 report notes that the ACV “did not meet all reliability, availability, and maintainability threshold requirements” during testing.
U.S. Marines with Company D, 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 1st Marine Division, drive in an Amphibious Combat Vehicle in a convoy during an integrated training exercise at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California, April 6, 2021. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Jamin M. Powell)The other major challenge facing ACV adoption stems not from mechanical woes, but “training shortfalls” which Berger stated BAE and Corps safety investigators had confirmed were responsible for a pair of rollovers in surf zones in July and one in October that prompted the Corps to pause surf training with the vehicles.
The “rollovers were caused by a lever effect generated when the vehicle becomes parallel to the surf line and is struck by a large wave,” Berger said, adding that the Corps is “enhancing the training regimen for our vehicle operators on this new and more sophisticated amphibious vehicle” to avoid future rollovers.
As Military Times noted, Berger’s comments echo those made by Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl, deputy commandant for combat development and integration, to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday regarding issues with how Marines are trained to assess and approach a surf zone in an amphibious vehicle.
“The vehicle’s gonna be great,” Heckl told lawmakers, per Military Times. “We just gotta work out these problems and make sure when we make a decision to go or no-go through a surf zone, whether coming ashore or going back to the ship, that we have the right and accurate information to make that judgment.”
Heckl had previously told Breaking Defense in February that the Corps was exploring new autonomous undersea vehicle technologies — think tiny robot submersibles — from the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab to help Marines make better decisions when evaluating surf conditions ahead of a potential amphibious transit.
“In the days when we grew up, you threw a Gatorade bottle out in the ocean and watched what it did — and that’s what you used [to figure out] are we within limits? This [technology] is completely not that,” Heckl told Breaking Defense. “If it’s green, Marine knows I go. If it’s yellow, Marine [has] got to make some decisions. [They’re going to] have to use his or her judgment. If it’s red, we’ve got to find a workaround.”
Solutions to those training shortfalls detailed by Berger and Heckl apparently can’t come soon enough. In January, the head of the Marine Corps Assault Amphibian School at Camp Pendleton, California was relieved following an investigation into October’s ACV rollover. While details are scant, the service stated at the time that the firing was a result of “after receiving information obtained during the course of the ongoing investigation.”
The Corps plans on acquiring 632 ACVs to replace the aging AAVs in the service’s assault amphibian battalions, according to a recent Congressional Research Service report on the vehicle. The service initially planned on acquiring 1,122 ACVS before reducing its projected buy as part of its Force Design 2030 modernization push.
In early March, the Corps awarded BAE Systems a $256.8 million contract for additional ACVs under the service’s third full-rate production order, the company announced. As part of its fiscal year 2024 budget request, the Marine Corps is asking Congress for $557 million to procure a fourth full-rate production lot of 80 vehicles, up from the 74 funded in the fiscal year 2023 defense budget.
“The Amphibious Combat Vehicle is imperative to realizing Marine Corps requirements for Fleet Marine Force 2030,” according to the service’s fiscal year 2024 budget request documents. “The capability to project power from the sea
ensures joint freedom of maneuver against increasingly sophisticated area denial and anti-access strategies across the range of military operations in areas vital to our national interest.”
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The Silent Arrow GD-2000 glider drone. (Silent Arrow).Army Special Forces soldiers have tested a brand new unmanned aerial delivery system to enable the quick resupply of friendly forces in the most contested environments, the service announced on Thursday.
Green Berets from the 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) successfully tested Defense Department contractor Silent Arrow’s GD-2000 glider, a disposable autonomous aircraft that can haul up to 1,500 pounds of gear and equipment in its coffin-shaped body at ranges of up to 40 miles, at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, according to a 1st SFG(A) press release.
During testing at Yuma this past February, Green Berets deployed a GD-2000 — which, as a tandem-wing glider, flies on four seven-foot spring-launched wings that pop out of the fuselage — with a 1,000-pound payload from an Alenia C-27J Spartan cargo aircraft and landed within 30 meters of its intended target on the range with its cargo completely intact, according to the 1st SFG(A).
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Billed as “the world’s most dependable standoff resupply platform” by Silent Arrow, the company claims the GD-2000 can handily beat the delivery range of the U.S. military’s parachute-based Joint Precision Airdrop System (JPADS) at half the cost of the latter, operating “through contested spaces with GPS accuracy.”
JPADS “tend to be both larger in size and have limited ability to maneuver through the air, making them less accurate, especially over long distances or in high-wind conditions,” according to 1st SFG(A), adding the GD-2000 glider itself is “completely disposable” once the resupply is complete.
The Silent Arrow GD-2000 glider is released from a C-27J airplane at Yuma Proving Grounds, Ariz. On February 13, 2023. (U.S. Army photo)The testing was funded through a $2.2 million award to Silent Arrow through the Pentagon’s Warfighter Lab Incentive Fund (WLIF) as the result of a partnership between the Pentagon-based J7 Joint Force Development Directorate, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), and U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) to develop “a series of advanced operational demonstrations and Concept of Operations (CONOPs) development activities,” as the company announced in February of last year.
As our colleagues at The War Zone pointed out at the time, the WILF contract tasked two GD-2000 drones with executing resupply deliveries during its Emerald Warrior exercise — SOCOM’s largest regular joint special operations drill — at Hurlburt Field in Florida, reflecting a focus on U.S. special operations forces for the potential application of the system.
The involvement of INDOPACOM in the WILF contract reveals the Pentagon’s intentions regarding Silent Arrow’s disposable resupply drones. Indeed, 1st SFG(A) release explicitly points to potential applications for U.S. special operations forces in the Indo-Pacific region, where the Pentagon is increasingly focused on preparing for a future conflict with China.
The GD-2000 would “allow for aerial delivery to remote islands that require a greater level of precision to reliably reach their destination,” according to the release. “With some modifications, the designer of the glider claims it can also land and be recovered in a maritime environment, further enhancing resupply capabilities to the sort of small islands often found in the Indo-Pacific.”
The Silent Arrow GD-2000 glider drone. (Silent Arrow)The 2022 WILF contract isn’t the first major engagement between Silent ARrow and the Pentagon. That contract came on the heels of a November 2021 award from the Air Force Research Laboratory to acquire 15 specially-reconfigured GD-2000 systems for a new system “designed for side door and multi-unit (swarm) ramp deployment,” as the company put it at the time.
The 1st SFG(A) testing at Yuma is not the first time the GD-2000 has gone through the wringer. In January 2022, Silent Arrow announced “the Air Force of a U.S-allied government in the Middle East” had successfully conducted the first overseas deployment of the drone under a $1.5 million operational evaluation contract, delivering 1,026 pounds of “undisclosed cargo” in two GD-2000s from a pair of C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.
As Silent Arrow continues to refine the GD-2000 for military customers, the U.S. military appears to be moving full steam ahead when it comes to the concept — and apparently, the recent testing at Yuma made an impression with the Green Berets.
“[The glider] gives us the ability to drop this from a plane outside of controlled airspace into international air space and fly resupply in from an unmanned autonomous craft,” one Special Forces detachment commander said in the 1st SFG(A) release. “It’s a huge enhancement to the mission.”
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An Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) prototype. (U.S. Army photo).The Army’s newest long-range artillery shell has successfully nailed targets at “more than double the range” of the service’s existing precision-guided munitions, according to the primary defense contractor on the project.
In a Wednesday statement, British defense giant BAE Systems announced that its concept for the Army’s XM1155 Sub-Caliber program — the unique round designed to accompany the Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) system that’s a signature modernization priority for the service — had successfully nailed a fixed target “beyond ranges previously demonstrated by other precision-guided projectiles fired from the same type of cannon.”
The test, which took place at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and used an Army-designed sabot package fired from the ERCA’s 155mm XM907E2 58 caliber cannon, marked the successful deployment of BAE’s Sub-Caliber Artillery Long-Range Projectile with Enhanced Lethality, the company’s unwieldy name for its XM1155-SC offering.
“This successful test confirms our Sub-Caliber Artillery Long-Range Projectile with Enhanced Lethality can defeat long-range targets and advance to follow-on testing out to double the range of existing guided projectile and with sensors to find fixed and moving targets of interest,” Brent Butcher, vice president and general manager of Weapon Systems at BAE Systems, said in a statement.
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While BAE spokeswoman Michelle Tiemeyer could not share a maximum distance that the specialized artillery shell reached in the recent test beyond “double the range” of existing precision-guided munitions, the BAE release notes that a technology predecessor to the current XM1155-SC concept, the Extended Range Hypervelocity Projectile (HVP-ER), had hit targets at a range of more than 68 miles (or 110 kilometers) during tests in early 2022.
That purported 68-mile range not only far outstrips the maximum range of, say, the precision-guided M982 Excalibur artillery rounds that can slap targets at ranges of 25 to 35 miles (40 to 57 kilometers), but it represents a major increase over the 43-mile range previously achieved by the ERCA cannon using Excalibur rounds during testing at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona in December 2020.
A BAE Systems Sub-Caliber Artillery Long-Range Projectile with Enhanced Lethality concept for the U.S. Army’s XM1155 sub-caliber program fired from an Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) during a recent test at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. (BAE Systems)Originally conceived in 2018 in response to advancements in Russian and Chinese long-range fires, the ERCA itself is an upgraded self-propelled howitzer that leverages the base platform of the currently-fielded 155mm M109A7 Paladin system with an experimental cannon and breech assembly, according to a Congressional Research Service report on the Army’s long-range precision fires modernization efforts.
But while many Army leaders (and their industry partners) see the ERCA and accompanying next-generation artillery shells as an essential asset in the next big conflict against Russia or China — a prediction borne out by the blistering exhaustion of artillery rounds since the former’s invasion of Ukraine last year — not everyone is as sure.
In December of last year, Breaking Defense reported House and Senate lawmakers were questioning the service’s ongoing investment in the ERCA, unveiling compromise language for the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act that capped the Army’s proposed number of ERCA prototypes to 20 while mandating a production strategy focused on the “comparative cost and value” of building the howitzers from scratch or using existing Paladins.
Those limits on the Army’s ERCA production sprint followed a scathing Government Accountability Office report the previous June that warned the system had “encountered multiple challenges during the past year, including delays in maturing critical technologies,” issues that are “likely to lead to schedule delays … and may lead to cost growth.”
Despite this, BAE systems doesn’t seem concerned. “We are confident that the projectile is on track to provide the Army the best munitions solution for cannon artillery with a leap ahead capability that will bring a highly lethal, maneuverable projectile to soldiers on the battlefield,” said Butcher in a statement.
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FILE: U.S. Marine Corps, Republic of Korea Marines Corps, New Zealand Army and Australian Army conduct amphibious assault training at Doksukri Beach, South Korea, March 12, 2016, during Exercise Ssang Yong 16. (Sgt. Briauna Birl/U.S. Marine Corps).U.S. Marines and their South Korean counterparts are conducting a military exercise that includes a bilateral division-sized amphibious landing for the first time since 2018, said Wesley Hayes, a spokesman for U.S. Forces Korea.
This month marks the resumption of the Ssang Yong exercise, which lasts until April 3, Hayes told Task & Purpose. The exercise involves Marines and sailors with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit and Amphibious Squadron 7, along with the 1st Republic of Korea Marine Division and South Korean navy.
The Ssang Yong exercise is defensive in nature and comes after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and South Korean Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-sup agreed at their most recent Security Consultative Meeting in November to enhance combined military exercises and training, Hayes said.
“Both leaders pledged to closely cooperate to return to large-scale field exercises in line with combined exercises in 2023, noting training for defensive and deterrent purposes is a critical component of maintaining alliance readiness,” Hayes said. “The two sides assessed the ROK [Republic of Korea]-U.S. Alliance must continue to focus on combat readiness and on combined defense posture to address dynamic changes on the Korean Peninsula.”
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Large-scale joint military exercises between U.S. and South Korean forces ended in 2018 as then President Donald Trump offered an olive branch to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in return for agreement on the country’s nuclear and ballistic missiles program.
It didn’t work. A 2019 summit between the two leaders in Hanoi ended without any agreements and North Korean cruise and ballistic missile tests increased from four in 2020 to more than 90 in 2022. North Korea’s military has also claimed that it successfully tested a 600mm multiple-launch rocket system capable of striking any target in South Korea with tactical nuclear weapons.
U.S. Marine Corps, Republic of Korea Marines Corps, New Zealand Army and Australian Army conduct amphibious assault training at Doksukri Beach, South Korea, March 12, 2016, during Exercise Ssang Yong 16. (Sgt. Briauna Birl/U.S. Marine Corps)The resumption of joint amphibious exercises between U.S. and South Korean troops sends a message to North Korea that the United States and South Korea are taking a unified approach to North Korea’s provocations, said Soo Kim, a former CIA Korea analyst who is currently with the LMI, a consulting firm.
“The Trump administration’s policy toward North Korea was in many ways an anomaly,” Kim told Task & Purpose. “Bypassing the policy and engagement process for dealing with tough regimes like North Korea was clearly not the route typically taken by US administrations in the past. The steps that the Biden administration has been taking have been, essentially, a course-correction to reset the baseline for dealing with the Kim regime. This won’t make Kim Jong Un happy, of course.”
Another reason the Ssang Yong exercise is so significant is that U.S. and South Korean forces have not held combined amphibious exercises for so long that they are out of practice, said retired Army Gen. Robert Abrams, who led U.S. Forces Korea from November 2018 to July 2021.
Amphibious operations are inherently hard to pull off, and they are even more complex and difficult to conduct with a partner nation, Abrams told Task & Purpose.
“This is long overdue to knock the rust off and rebuild a real combined capability,” Abrams said. “Sends a clear message to ROK about our real commitment to combined readiness in all domains and no longer accept all the risk we did assume when we stopped amphibious training. Sends an equally strong message to North Korea that we have a credible conventional deterrent.”
U.S. Marine Corps, Republic of Korea Marines Corps, New Zealand Army and Australian Army conduct amphibious assault training at Doksukri Beach, South Korea, March, 12, 2016, during Exercise Ssang Yong 16. (Sgt. Briauna Birl/U.S. Marine Corps)For U.S. and South Korean troops to be able to fight together, they need to train together, said Bruce Bennett, a North Korea expert with the RAND Corporation.
“Marines landing somewhere is a very sophisticated operation,” Bennett told Task & Purpose. “It is something that you’ve really got to put a whole lot of pieces together to make it work; and if you don’t, a whole lot of people are going to die.”
Although U.S. and South Korean troops hold amphibious training by themselves, they may use different terminologies for how to conduct such operations, Bennett said.
Only a handful of officers get training in both countries, so the vast majority of U.S. and South Korean troops learn from experience by working together in combined exercises such as Ssang Yong, he said.
“There’s a lot of slang we use that our counterparts aren’t necessarily going to know,” Bennett said. “So, trying to work through how you describe what’s happening and making sure that you’ve got good communications is pretty critical too.”
Ironically, North Korea’s leader has been a driving force that has pushed the United States and South Korea to work closer together. Kim’s call to dramatically increase the size of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, his threats to launch nuclear missiles against the United States, and North Korea’s constant missile tests have made the U.S.-South Korea alliance closer than it ever has been.
“He’s probably the best proponent of the alliance by pushing us closer together – which is, of course, ironic, since one of his objectives is to break the alliance,” Bennett said. “But he doesn’t seem to have figured that one out yet.”
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The TRX SHORAD unmanned ground vehicle. (General Dynamics Land Systems).A major U.S. defense contractor has unveiled a new unmanned ground vehicle bristling with missiles and a chain gun for the Army’s consideration as the service explores new systems for short-range air defense amid an ongoing modernization push for troops deployed to Europe.
Appearing at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama this week, General Dynamics Land Systems debuted its Tracked Robot 10-ton (TRX) technology demonstrator outfitted with the company’s Manuever-Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) system which normally tops select Stryker Infantry Fighting Vehicles.
The M-SHORAD system that appeared atop the TRX in Huntsville this week consisted of a Moog Reconfigurable Integrated-weapons Platform (RIwP) turret touting AGM-114 Longbow Hellfire and FIM-92 Stinger missiles, an XM914 30×113 mm chain gun, and a 7.62mm M240 machine gun in a mission equipment package developed by U.S. defense contractor Leonardo DRS to defeat incoming unmanned aerial vehicles and rotary wing aircraft.
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First fielded in November 2020 to the 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment amid the unit’s deployment to Germany, the M-SHORAD system is designed to effectively transform the tried-and-true troop transport into a mobile air defense system capable of defending against drone and helicopter threats in a near-peer fight.
As Task & Purpose has previously reported, the deployment of M-SHORAD systems came in the aftermath of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 when the Army identified an urgent capability gap in its short-range air defense systems for brigade combat teams deployed to Europe that had persisted since the end of the Cold War, a need that has likely grown only more acute amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year.
General Dynamics Land Systems, which will see 144 of its M-SHORAD systems fielded to 4 battalions by the end of fiscal year 2023, is “trying to demonstrate the ability to go beyond that both in the Stryker formations and heavy brigade formations, i.e., our heavy divisions” with the missile-toting TRX, as GDLS U.S. business development director Scott Taylor told Defense News.
The 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment (5-4 ADA), 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, became the first unit in the Army to receive the Mobile Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) system on April 21, 2021. (U.S. Army/Capt. Jordan Allen)The TRX, first unveiled in October 2020 at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual convention in Washington, D.C., is an outgrowth of the unmanned technologies behind the Small Multipurpose Equipment Transport (SMET) robotic vehicle which GDLS delivered to the Army in November to serve as a “robot mule” for overburdened soldiers.
The platform “is designed to meet a variety of critical missions such as direct and indirect fires, autonomous resupply, complex obstacle breaching, counter-unmanned aerial systems, electronic warfare, and reconnaissance,” as Defense News reported at the time, noting that the system is “fast enough” to keep up with “high-speed” maneuver formations like Stryker and armored BCTs.
The TRX itself was developed as GDLS’ bid upcoming Robotic Combat Vehicle competition, which for the last several years has seen the ARmy test testing light, medium and large variations of the RCV outfitted with remote weapons stations bristling with XM813 Bushmaster chain gun, .50 caliber machine guns, and FGM-148 Javelin missile launchers, even pairing armed RCVs with Green Berets from the 1st Special Forces Group during a two-week experiment last year.
Despite these tests, the actual fielding of an armed RCV appears a long way off. As Breaking Defense reports from Huntsville, the Army has been “tight-lipped” about the specific requirements surrounding next year’s RCV competition beyond confirming that the service is asking Congress for $142 million in fiscal year 2024 for a prototyping competition as part of a larger modernization push. The Army requested $115.98 million in fiscal year 2023 for RCV development, according to a Congressional Research Service report, with lawmakers appropriating $109.84 million for the program in December of last year.
While the prospect of armed robots keeping an eye on the skies in a conflict against a near-peer adversary like Russia may seem like the beginning stages of a whole SkyNet thing to some observers of robotic warfare, don’t worry: according to the CRS report, the Army envisions its RCVs controlled by nearby operators rather than relying on artificial intelligence, a vision inline with the Defense Department’s broader approach to autonomous weapons systems.
But given the Pentagon’s ongoing push to develop and field new and innovative air defense systems to Europe to counter Russia, it may only be a matter of time before a GDLS M-SHORAD battle bot may be watching your ass downrange.
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FILE: An HH-60 Pavehawk with the 101st Rescue Squadron, 106th Rescue Wing conducts training around Westhampton Beach, Nov. 25, 2014. (N.Y. Air National Guard / Senior Airman Christopher S Muncy / released).Nine soldiers were killed on Wednesday night when two Army HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters from the 101st Airborne Division crashed in Kentucky, said Lt. Col. Anthony Hoefler, a spokesman for the division.
The two helicopters were conducting a routine training mission at the time of the accident, the 101st Airborne Division said in a statement.
The helicopters, based out of Fort Campbell, the home of the 101st Airborne, crashed just after 10 p.m. local time on Wednesday, near Highway 68, per local news organization WKRN. Fort Campbell straddles the state line between Kentucky and Tennessee.
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It is unclear what caused the two helicopters to crash. The incident is under investigation, the Army said.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear confirmed the crash and said on Twitter that state police and emergency responders were on the scene.
The crash is not the first fatal helicopter flight with the 101st Airborne Division in recent years. Two soldiers died when an AH-64E Apache helicopter crashed in a training flight over Fort Campbell.
This is a breaking news story. More information will be added to it as it becomes available.
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Mike Day with his dog Herja (left) and during training on Pineros Island, Puerto Rico. Photos via @mikeday5326/Instagram.Douglas “Mike” Day, a highly decorated U.S. Navy SEAL who survived being shot 27 times while deployed to Iraq, passed away earlier this week on March 27. Day served 21 years in the Navy and later worked as an author and an advocate for wounded military veterans.
On April 6, 2007, Day was nearing the end of a deployment to the Anbar province of Iraq, and leading his SEAL platoon on a raid against an al Qaeda cell in the city of Fallujah. With two Iraqi scouts behind him, Day breached the door of a room and was immediately struck with multiple bullets, knocking his rifle out of his hands.
“I took a left-hand turn and they just started shooting at me,” Day said on the Team Never Quit podcast in 2020.
Falling to the ground, Day transitioned to his pistol and shot one of the four terrorists in the room. As a second man pulled the pin on a grenade and began running towards the hallway, Day killed him as well. The grenade fell to the ground and detonated, wounding Day with the shrapnel. He briefly lost consciousness, but when he awoke he continued engaging the other men in the room, shooting them with his pistol even as he was struck yet again multiple times from less than 10 feet away with AK-47 fire.
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“After I realized that I actually was getting shot, my second thought was, ‘God get me home to my girls,’ and then extreme anger,” Day told Fox News in 2015. “Then I just went to work. It was muscle memory. I just did what I was trained to do.”
Though improbable, Day was still alive, directing several Iraqi scouts to guard a group of women and children who had been found in the building, and using the radio of fellow SEAL Joseph “Clark” Schwedler — who was killed during the raid — to make contact with the rest of his team.
It was only then that Day realized the extent of his injuries. Sixteen bullets had torn through his abdomen, arms, legs, groin, and buttocks. Another 11 had been stopped by his body armor.
“I didn’t even know how bad I was hurting until they came in and I saw the looks on their faces,” Day told Coffee or Die Magazine in 2020. “We all know that look.”
Day was soon evacuated from the battlefield, first to Baghdad, then to Landstuhl, Germany, and eventually to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, walking to the MEDEVAC helicopter without assistance.
“I wasn’t being macho, but I was afraid if they picked me up, it would just hurt more,” Day recounted to Coffee or Die Magazine.
Day later retired from the Navy in 2010, having been awarded the Navy Cross, two Bronze Stars, and the Purple Heart. He later went on to work for seven years as a wounded warrior advocate for U.S. Special Operations Command. Day’s autobiography, “Perfectly Wounded” was published in 2020.
“When you go through something together, or similar, it’s a bond, even if you didn’t do it together,” Day told Coffee or Die Magazine in 2020. “The resiliency that’s built into people after they go through trauma is incredible.”
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Ambulance driving on the highway in Texas. THEPALMER/Getty Images.An Army soldier and Navy corpsman were credited with helping save the life of a man seriously injured in a motorcycle accident last week in San Antonio, Texas.
Police described the crash, which happened on March 22, to a local CBS News affiliate as a possible road rage incident during which the motorcyclist lost control and smashed into a guardrail along Highway 90 in San Antonio.
At that same moment, Navy Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class William Peeler was driving home from Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston. Peeler has served for 15 years as a Navy corpsman and has previously deployed to Afghanistan, is stationed at the Navy Medicine Support Training Center as an instructor.
“Trauma is trauma,” Peeler told Task & Purpose. “Whether it’s on the battlefield or on the side of the road.”
Upon witnessing the accident, Peeler grabbed a medical kit he keeps in his truck and rushed over to the motorcyclist, finding him badly injured and hemorrhaging blood.
“There’s the MARCH acronym – there’s a massive hemorrhage, check the airways, then you go into airways for respiration, then checking for circulation and if there’s any bone fractures. Then there is checking for any deformities of the skull or head trauma,” he told Task & Purpose
Peeler quickly applied two tourniquets to the injured motorcyclist as a second man approached to help – an Army soldier named Lance Burkeen.
Burkeen was described as an Army Reserve soldier. In local news footage, he appears in uniform. Task & Purpose tried to contact him, but was unsuccessful.
Burkeen had also been driving down the road when he came upon the scene of the crash, pulling over to offer assistance. The two service members continued to provide first aid to the man as emergency medical crews arrived on scene, with Burkeen helping to wrap the man’s badly injured leg.
“We worked as a team to do everything we could to help this man,” Burkeen told CBS News last week. “My goal was to help stop the bleeding.”
The 31-year old motorcyclist was later taken to a nearby hospital and was in stable condition as of March 24.
It’s not the first time, and certainly won’t be the last time, that service members spring into action and apply their training to help those in need. Like Marine Corps Sgt. Amed Issa, who last January rushed through gunfire on a crowded Hawaii street to help a man who had been shot multiple times, treating a sucking chest wound and applying multiple tourniquets. Or Marine Corps Capt. Stephen Alexander, who, while driving to the Marine Corps Ball in 2020, came across an injured driver trapped in a wrecked car and used the belt from his dress blue uniform as a tourniquet for the man’s partially severed leg.
Heroic moments can happen when you least expect it, so pay attention when it comes to first-aid training. Someone in the future may thank you.
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In this April 9, 2003 file photo, Iraqi civilians and U.S. Marines pull down a statue of Saddam Hussein in downtown Baghdad, Iraq.(Jerome Delay/AP).Two decades after a U.S.-led military coalition ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the Senate has repealed the authorization from Congress to launch the Iraq war and subsequent military actions.
In a 66-30 vote, senators rescinded the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force that gave then-President George W. Bush the power to “defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq.”
At the time, the Bush administration claimed that Saddam posed a dire threat to national security because U.S. government officials erroneously believed Iraq had large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.
Since then, nearly 4,500 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq and roughly 32,000 service members have been wounded there. Although the country is much more peaceful today, about 2,500 U.S. troops remain in Iraq.
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Because the 2002 authorization for war did not specify what that threat posed by Iraq was, it has been used as the legal basis for later military actions that had nothing to do with Saddam’s former regime, including airstrikes against the Islamic State group and the 2020 assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, head of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force.
An explosion hits Baghdad on March 21, 2003 in Baghdad, Iraq as hostilities between U.S. led Coalition forces and the Iraqi Regime continue. (Photo by Mirrorpix/Getty Images) The Senate also voted on Wednesday to repeal the 1991 authorization for the Gulf War. It is unclear what action the House of Representatives will take on the two authorizations for use of military force – if any.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has said he would support repealing the two authorizations if an earlier authorization for use of military force passed by Congress shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks remained in effect.
The 2001 authorization is worded to give the president wide-ranging powers to attack terrorist groups, including al Qaida. It has served as the legal basis for the war on terrorism for more than 20 years.
“The President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons,” the 2001 authorization for use of military force says.
Loosely translated: The president has the power to order military operations against any group with the slightest connection to al Qaida. That’s how President Barack Obama’s administration justified airstrikes against ISIS that began in 2014, arguing that the terrorist group was an iteration of al Qaida in Iraq. The Obama administration also used the 2001 authorization as the legal basis for airstrikes in Libya and counterterrorism operations in the Philippines.
The Senate voted earlier this month to keep the 2001 authorization in place.
White House officials have indicated that President Joe Biden would likely sign legislation repealing the 1991 and 2002 authorizations for use of military force, and they have noted that current U.S. military operations do not rely on those two authorizations as their legal basis, the Washington post reported.
The Biden administration has used other legal means to justify military operations. In 2021, Biden administration officials said that Article II of the Constitution, which names the president as the military’s commander in chief, gave Biden the authority to order airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.
The latest on Task & Purpose
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- Air Force 1-star general relieved for ‘shortfalls’ in personal conduct
- What are America’s goals in Ukraine? It’s not totally clear
- Russia is dusting off ancient tanks as losses mount in Ukraine
- How the Battle of Nasiriyah foreshadowed the long slog of the Iraq War
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Nashville police have released body camera footage of Marine veteran Michael Collazo (right), firing at a school shooter. (Video footage and photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.).When a shooter attacked a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Marine veteran Michael Collazo ran toward the sounds of gunfire to quickly stop the armed assailant’s rampage.
Collazo served in the Marine Corps from 2010 to 2016 as an 0311 Infantry Rifleman, according to his service record. He left the Corps as a sergeant and his last duty station was with the 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Division in Smyrna, Tennessee.
His awards include the Selected Marine Corps Reserve Medal, National Defense Service Medal, and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.
Reached by phone on Wednesday, Collazo referred Task & Purpose to a spokesman for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. A police spokeswoman said Collazo is not granting interviews to the media right now.
Three children and three adults were killed on Monday at The Covenant School in Nashville. The suspected shooter has been identified as Audrey Hale, 28, who was killed by police. Hale was a former student of the school.
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Nashville police officers and other first responders have earned widespread praise for stopping the school shooting so quickly. Hale was reportedly killed roughly 14 minutes after the first 911 call about an active shooter at The Covenant School.
“I want to commend the police who responded incredibly swiftly – within minutes – to end the danger,” President Joe Biden told reporters on Monday.
Nashville police tweeted on Tuesday that Collazo, who has served with the department for nine years, and fellow officer Rex Engelbert had both fired on Hale during the incident.
Video released by Nashville police shows footage from Collazo’s body camera as he entered The Covenant School on Monday and coordinated room-to-room searches with his fellow police officers:
“Rifle first,” he advises a police officer before he starts to clear a classroom.
The police move quickly and methodically to clear every room and then move to another floor.
“Keep pushing,” Collazo says.
Within seconds, the police hear gunshots. Collazo’s body camera also shows a victim’s body on the floor. The image is pixelated to avoid showing the victim’s identity.
“Shots fired! Shots fired! Shots fired! Move!” Collazo tells the others.
They reach a corner, and a loud bang is heard. Collazo tells a police officer that Hale is to his right.
The police officer opens fire at Hale as Collazo and the others advance. When they reach another corner, they fire again at Hale.
One officer yells “Clear!” and then Collazo warns “Watch out! Watch out!” before firing his pistol four times at Hale, who is on the floor.
“Stop moving! stop moving!” Collazo yells at Hale.
He moves over to Hale and yells “Suspect down! Suspect down!” as he takes a rifle out of Hale’s hands.
Collazo is a patrolman with paramedic training who sometimes provides medical care at crime scenes, according to the Nashville police department. He received a commendation award from the department in 2021 and is expected to receive a lifesaving award in April for an event that took place in 2022.
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Nope. Nope. Nope. (Twitter).Among the many tools of war available to the average infantryman, or really, anyone in combat, is the hand grenade. The grenade, though, does not exist in a vacuum. It travels through the air, and like any other object, it can be knocked down by the branches of a tree. Which is to say, maybe look up for a second before you throw this small munition toward your target.
A recent video on social media demonstrates what happens when you don’t do that.
Russian soldiers showing how NOT to throw a grenade correctly. pic.twitter.com/XcQhOwfEdk
— Clash Report (@clashreport) March 27, 2023
The video, which was posted to Twitter on Monday, shows a pair of men in mismatched uniforms practicing the simple act of pulling the pin on a grenade and tossing it toward the enemy only for everything to go spectacularly wrong. The original post suggests that the individuals in the clip are Russian soldiers, though it’s unclear.
What is clear is that this is not the right way to toss a frag grenade. For a breakdown of the correct technique, one need only consult Chapter 2 of the U.S. Army’s guide on employing grenades and pyrotechnic symbols, TC 3.23.30, a 236-page long tome on all manner of throwing grenades, handling grenades and just generally being around grenades.
“The Soldier must maintain situational understanding of friendly forces, the status of the device, and be able to evaluate the environment to properly handle any device. Smart, adaptive, and disciplined Soldiers are the primary safety mechanism for all hand grenades and pyrotechnics under their control.”
Now, back to the video, which begins with one man going through the motions of throwing a grenade, which doesn’t seem entirely unsound. The trainee seems initially hesitant, and there is about a minute of bickering between everyone involved. The instructor once again walks over to coach the trainee through the motions of throwing a grenade. After a second round of discussion, the trainee pulls the pin, and tosses the munition, only for it to bounce off the many overhead branches and land what looks to be about ten or so feet in front of him and detonate. The video ends there, shortly after the would-be grenadier emerges from a crouch after the smoke clears, and everyone seems to have survived.
As a comparison, this is a demonstration of a grenade toss from the U.S. Army.
This is a bit more professional, although the accompanying soundtrack of funky beats is much appreciated.
Here’s some future hapless second lieutenants — and at the date of this article probably pinning on captain’s bars — doing the same thing.
Now, the training in the first video isn’t entirely wrong. That camo overalls-clad soldier basically follows through with the exact same motion described back in that extensive Army publication on how to throw a grenade. The problem is, of course, throwing that grenade directly into a bunch of tree branches.
(U.S. Army)Like with just about every supposed combat video from the war in Ukraine, the particulars of this one are hard to verify. But the lesson is simple: if you find yourself throwing a grenade, move out of the treeline, so it doesn’t hit something and bounce back toward you.
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Two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) armed military personnel pose for a photograph in front of an Iran flag during a pro-government protest rally in southern Tehran, December 29, 2022. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images).Iran and its proxy forces have launched 83 attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria since President Joe Biden took office, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers on Tuesday.
In response to those attacks, the U.S. military has launched four major operations against Iranian-backed groups, Austin said during a tense exchange with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill.
“So, what kind of a signal do we think this sends to Iran when they can attack us 83 times since Joe Biden has become president and we only respond [with] four [operations],” Cotton asked Austin rhetorically. “Maybe it’s because they know that we will not retaliate until they kill an American, which emboldens them to keep launching these attacks, which kill Americans.”
Iran has launched 83 attacks against Americans since Joe Biden took office. We’ve responded with strikes only four times.
What kind of message does this send, when we wait to respond until an American is killed? pic.twitter.com/W5wyVYZdSM
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) March 28, 2023
Neither U.S. Central Command nor Operation Inherent Resolve – the U.S.military command for troops in Iraq and Syria – were able to provide any information on Tuesday about how often Iranian proxies attacked U.S. troops in the Middle East during previous administrations, or whether attacks by Iranian-backed groups against U.S. troops in the Middle East had increased, decreased, or stayed the same since Biden became president.
When asked if the four U.S. operations launched during the Biden administration in response to Iranian attacks were directed against Iran or its proxy forces outside of the country, Austin said that the most recent U.S. military airstrikes in Syria targeted infrastructure belonging Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Quds Force, an elite group that carries out clandestine operations in foreign countries.
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Those March 23 airstrikes came in response to a drone attack earlier that day in Syria that killed an American contractor and wounded another along with five service members.
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps military personnel stand guard on an avenue in downtown Tehran during a rally commemorating the International Quds Day, also known as the Jerusalem day, on April 29, 2022. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)U.S. intelligence officials believe the drone that attacked a coalition base in Hasakah, northeast Syria, was “of Iranian origin.” However, information about the group that is believed to have carried out the attack is classified, military officials have said.
On March 24, U.S. troops in Syria came under rocket attacks, wounding one service member. For now, the White House has decided not to launch another round of punitive airstrikes in response to the latest attacks against U.S. troops, the New York Times first reported.
A National Security Council spokesperson told Task & Purpose on Tuesday that Biden is responding to the situation in Syria by using a variety of methods to reduce risks to U.S. troops, but the president will also not hesitate to take action to protect American service members and U.S. overseas interests.
Biden took office 26 months ago, so the total of 83 attacks translates to an average of little more than three attacks against U.S. troops per month. By comparison, Iranian-backed militia groups attacked U.S. troops several times per day during the 2007 Iraq surge, said retired Army Col. Peter Mansoor, who served as executive officer for the commander of all U.S. troops in Iraq at the time.
Even though attacks against U.S. troops by Iranian forces have decreased significantly since the surge, the total number of attacks is still significant, Mansoor told Task & Purpose.
An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps military personnel flashes a Victory sign during a rally commemorating the International Quds Day, also known as the Jerusalem day, in downtown Tehran on April 29, 2022. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)“This basically shows us that Iran is on a war footing with the United States, in their view,” Mansoor said. “It’s a high number and it shows that Iran has not reconciled itself with the U.S. presence in Iraq or in the greater Middle East.”
The United States and Iran have been locked in hostilities since Ayatollah Khomeini took power in 1979. Over time, those tensions morphed into a proxy war that the two countries waged in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere. A 2019 Pentagon report found that Iranian-backed groups killed 603 U.S. troops in Iraq between 2003 and 2011.
During the height of the U.S.-led campaign to destroy the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, most of the interaction between U.S. and Iranian forces took the form of “unsafe, unprofessional behavior” by the Iranians at sea, said retired Army Gen. Joseph Votel, who led U.S. Central Command from 2016 to 2019.
“That was in the dozens per year,” Votel said. “I think there were some years where we would see as high as somewhere between 40 and 50 of these types of interactions in the maritime environment.”
The United States also made it very clear to the Iraq government at the time that it would not tolerate any attacks on American forces by Iranian-backed groups, Votel told Task & Purpose.
However, Iran increased the volume of weapons and other lethal materials that it shipped from Iraq to western Syria in order to threaten Syria, Votel recalled.
An Iranian young boy holds a portrait of former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force General Qasem Soleimani who has killed in a U.S. drone attack in Baghdad in 2020, while attending a funeral for the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) unknown martyrs in downtown Tehran on January 6, 2022. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)Votel said he did not face the same types of challenges from Iran as the generals who have led Central Command since him, perhaps because the United States and Iran had an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program from 2015 to 2018.
“We were at a different place in the campaign and what we were trying to do there,” Votel said.
Tensions between the United States and Iran worsened after Votel left, and the two countries came close to war in January 2020 when a U.S. drone strike killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the former head of the Quds Force, as well as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, commander of Kata’ib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed group that the United States has targeted with airstrikes.
Iran responded by launching ballistic missiles at U.S. troops based in Iraq. A total of 11 missiles hit Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq on Jan. 8, 2020, after which more than 100 U.S. service members were diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury.
Although an open conflict between the United States and Iran was averted, Iranian-backed groups have continued to attack U.S. troops in Syria and Iraq. Shortly after taking office, Biden ordered airstrikes against Iranian-backed groups in eastern Syria in February 2021 following attacks that wounded a U.S. service member and killed an American contractor.
On Tuesday, Austin told Cotton that U.S. military commanders in the Middle East have the authority to respond if they are attacked under the rules of engagement, and they have done so several times.
The defense secretary also indicated that the Biden administration may not have entirely ruled out further airstrikes when Cotton asked him if the United States has retaliated for the March 24 rocket attacks against U.S. troops in Syria.
“We have not yet, senator,” Austin said.
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Anne Wright Nunn dives the Amtrac located offshore of Agat Beach. (Photo courtesy National Park Service).Nearly 80 years ago, American forces launched a successful invasion of Guam. The island had fallen into Imperial Japanese control in 1941, just one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and as the United States military worked to take the war to Japan, U.S. troops slowly but surely captured island after island in the Pacific. Eventually, that island-hopping campaign reached Guam.
Today, a team of scientists with the National Park Service is in the middle of a major survey of the battle site, searching for artifacts from the battle. The expedition, titled “Guam: A Biogeographic and Maritime Cultural Landscape Exploration of a World War II Amphibious Battlefield” and run by the National Park Service with funding from a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, started on Jan. 27 of this year with an initial survey.
The purpose of the research is two-fold: ocean archaeologists are mapping the site around two landing beaches to chart the damage to the coral reefs, but also searching for any potential remnants from the fighting during World War II, such as shipwrecks, amphibious landing vehicles, and artillery pieces.
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“Guam was invaded the day after Pearl Harbor and not many people know that,” said Monique LaFrance Bartley, co-principal investigator on the project and a marine ecologist with the National Park Service
On Dec. 8, 1941, a landing force of 5,900 Japanese infantry attacked Guam, a U.S. territory. Over three days the invading troops defeated a small American garrison and fighters from the indigenous Chamorro people. Guam would remain in Japanese hands until August 1944.
In response to the attacks on Pearl Harbor and Guam, the United States launched Operation Forager, the campaign to capture the Mariana and Palau islands. A force of more than 65,000 troops took part, assaulting two landing zones at the Agat and Asan beaches. After nearly three weeks of fighting, the American troops won, with nearly 3,000 of their own killed.
(Image courtesy of U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. National Archives at College Park, Record Group 80G.)Since World War II, the battle sites at Guam have been turned into the War in the Pacific Historical Park, under the National Park Service. However, there had not been a survey of the waters around the island. A few items had been identified, but nothing that covered the entire battlefield.
Ahead of setting out for Guam, the team researched documents in the National Archives from World War II about the operation. Anne Wright, an ocean archeologist with the NPS and principal investigator for the expedition, found an underwater dive team’s map from the battle, which noted every demolition mark — “X” marked several spots in this case, as well as landing obstacles set up along the beach. Wright was able to georectify the hand-drawn map, putting it on a grid that the team could use to search the waters.
The Guam expedition follows a similar one of Peleilu conducted by NOAA in 2018, which also looked at remnants and artifacts from the fighting there in World War II.
Part of the expedition is to get a record of the area before sea level rise and climate change alter the environment, LaFrance Bartley, the co-principal investigator, said. Another aspect is to study just how the coral reefs around Guam were damaged and how they’re recovering. During the island-hopping campaigns of the Pacific Theater, American troops ran into trouble with the islands themselves. At the invasion of Tarawa in November 1943, Amtracs and other vehicles got caught in coral reefs, forcing troops to exit rapidly and leaving many to die from drowning or enemy fire. The U.S. military started looking for solutions, including blowing up parts of the reefs to let landing vehicles pass.
Hand-drawn historic map found in the records of Underwater Demolition Team #3 that indicate the locations of obstacles placed by the Japanese that were removed by UDT#3 at Asan Beach. The small Xs in the light blue area indicate an obstacle. (National Archives). That was done at Peleliu. Explosives were set directly on the coral and detonated. The previous survey of that battle site did a coral analysis there and found that the coral populations of the blasted areas were larger and more diverse than the undamaged places, Wright said. A strong coral reef can help protect islands from severe storms, a concern as climate change brings more intense weather around the planet.
To survey the waters around Guam, the team is using a suite of tools. Those include a magnetometer, side scan sonar, and the SeaArray, a photogrammetry system that was custom-built for the National Park Service. The waters around Guam are also fairly unique; the initial area near the reefs is quite shallow — almost knee deep according to the team — but the ground quickly drops out at a certain point. For the expedition, the team has a clear area around each landing beach for which to search. Asan Beach has a 2.8 x 1.1-kilometer search area, while at Agat Beach, it’s 3.4 x 0.7 kilometers.
So far the research team cannot say how many artifacts they’ve found just yet. The team found an aircraft piece at Agat Beach, which might have been an isolated artifact or part of a larger find.
The expedition team will return to Guam for a follow-up survey in July, running into August. The research will feature more diving and scans, looking at the points of interest marked earlier this year, as well as going into the deeper water off the island. For those interested in following along, the research team plans on posting blogs with updates on the expedition on the NOAA website. When the next trip wraps, the team expects to have their findings by September.
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Members of 5th Special Forces Group (A) conducting 50. Cal Weapons training during counter ISIS operations at Al Tanf Garrison in southern Syria on November 22, 2017. (U.S. Army/Staff Sgt. Jacob Connor).The United States has roughly 900 troops in Syria to fight the Islamic State group, but they also currently face a familiar adversary: Iran.
Most recently, the U.S. government has blamed Iranian-backed groups for several attacks against American service members deployed to Syria, including a March 23 suicide drone attack on a coalition base in Hasakah that killed an American contractor and wounded five U.S. service members.
U.S. intelligence officials quickly determined that the drone was “of Iranian origin,” the Defense Department announced that day.
In response to the attack, the U.S. military launched airstrikes on March 23 against facilities in eastern Syria that were used by “groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC),” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.
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The following day, U.S. forces at two bases in northeast Syria came under rocket attacks, and one U.S. service member was injured, said Army Col. Joe Buccinio, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command.
“Our current assessment is that these rocket attacks were conducted by IRGC-affiliated groups, that this rocket attack was done in an effort to retaliate from last night’s attacks,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters on March 24.
So far, U.S. officials have not publicly identified which group that may be responsible for the recent attacks against U.S. troops. Information about the Iranian-backed group believed responsible for the March 23 drone attack is classified, according to U.S. Central Command.
The first U.S. service members arrived in Syria in October 2015 to help the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces destroy ISIS’s caliphate. Although ISIS lost its last remaining territory in 2019, U.S. troops continue to battle an ISIS insurgency in Syria and Iraq. As recently as this February, four U.S. service members and a military working dog were injured during a raid near Deir ez-Zor Syria that resulted in the death of a senior ISIS leader.
Separately, Iran has sent fighters from across the Middle East to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad amid the country’s ongoing civil war. Iran has not only sought to defend a friendly regime, but it has also used the Syrian civil war to vastly increase its influence in the country long after the war’s eventual end.
Syria plays an integral part of Iran’s strategy to become the biggest power in the Middle East, expel all U.S. forces from the region, and destroy Israel, said Nichols Carl, the Middle East Portfolio Manager at the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington, D.C.
“Iran is deeply committed to trying to entrench itself – economically, politically, militarily socioculturaly – as deep into Syria as it possibly can, because it wants to stay there in the long run,” Carl told Task & Purpose.
For years, Iran has sent Shia militia groups from Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and possibly Yemen to fight for the Syrian regime and preserve Iranian interests, he said. It’s not clear exactly how many Iranian-backed fighters are currently in Syria.
Iran is also “laser-focused” on driving all U.S. troops from both Syria and Iraq, Carl said. The Pentagon reported in 2019 that Iranian-backed militants killed 603 U.S. troops in Iraq between 2003 and 2011.
The recent drone and rocket attacks and the U.S. airstrikes represent the heaviest reported fighting between U.S troops and Iranian proxy forces in Syria since this past August when an unspecified number of AC-130 gunships and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters struck Iranian-backed groups after an attack on the Green Village.
Despite the recent attacks, the U.S.-led coalition will continue its mission to defeat ISIS in Syria, said Army Maj. Matthew McFarlane, the commanding general of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve.
“The Coalition is focused on our D-ISIS [defeat ISIS] mission, but we monitor threats across Iraq and Syria very closely,” McFarlane said in a statement to Task & Purpose. “We stand prepared to address any of these threats that prevent us from pursuing our D-ISIS mission.”
President Joe Biden has also warned Iran that the United States would respond to any further attacks against American troops.
“The United States does not – does not, I emphasize – seek conflict with Iran, but be prepared for us to act forcefully to protect our people,” Biden said during a March 24 news conference in Canada.
When a reporter asked if the United States would inflict a higher cost on Iran if attacks against U.S. troops continued, Biden replied, “We are not going to stop.”
UPDATE: 03/27/2023; this story was updated on March 27 after Army Col. Joe Buccino, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said that one service member was injured by a March 24 rocket attack in Syria.
The latest on Task & Purpose No, the VA isn’t going to reduce your disability payments if you make too much money * Air Force 1-star general relieved for ‘shortfalls’ in personal conduct * What are America’s goals in Ukraine? It’s not totally clear * Russia is dusting off ancient tanks as losses mount in Ukraine * How the Battle of Nasiriyah foreshadowed the long slog of the Iraq War*
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Yes, John Wick has nunchucks now. (Image courtesy Lionsgate).At a certain point, it’s fair to ask where does John Wickend? After three films, a body count in the hundreds, Keanu Reeves’ titular hitman killing people in increasingly creative ways and a mythology that keeps adding new layers to the criminal hierarchy, there has to be a limit to where things can go. And in John Wick: Chapter 4, the characters themselves now ask that. Several times Wick is asked where his fight for survival ends.
The question of finality looms over the film. Reeves is back one more time as John Wick, the possible Marine Corps veteran and guaranteed legend known as the Baba Yaga. He’s trying to kill his way to freedom, up against the seemingly endless armies of the criminal legion the High Table. It’s a quest that brings Wick into contact and sometimes conflict with old friends (including action superstars Hiroyuki Sanada and Donnie Yen, the latter playing another blind fighter like in Rogue One). The result is a surprisingly rich story about comradery, family and weariness.
It also is the best action film since Mad Max: Fury Road.
With a nearly three-hour runtime, the film never feels bloated or repetitive. From a desert chase to sword fights and archery shootouts inside a hotel, every piece of acting feels gripping and tense. Whereas the third film got particularly creative in its action — John Wick teams up with allies! John Wick manages to deliver headshots with books and horses! — this film leans to traditional fist fights and shootouts, but that doesn’t mean it’s less thrilling. One action beat in the roundabout of Paris’ Arc de Triomphe stands out, mixing classic John Wick gun fu with the ever present danger of speeding cars. And as with past Wick films, everything is clearly shot, with no shaky camera or quick quits to disguise the action.
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The film also has one of the biggest body counts of the entire series. Wick killed 76 mostly Russian mobsters in his first outing. In the second film, the number was 114. In the third movie, the number actually went down, with the Baba Yaga only responsible for 85 deaths, in part because he teamed up with allies including Halle Berry and the late Lance Reddick. The final hour alone of John Wick: Chapter 4 alone must match Wick’s kills in the entirety of the previous movie. The supporting cast gets plenty of their own very impressive action beats — Yen is a marvel to watch in a fight — but the action remains squarely centered around Keanu Reeves. And it’s glorious to watch.
Even with that, the film is tightly constructed and paced. It strips away some of the more fantastical elements of the previous entry, focusing instead on a clear, less mystical adversary in the Marquis de Gramont (Bill Skarsgard, clearly enjoying playing a rich jerk). To secure his freedom and protect his friends, John must meet the Marquis at sunrise in a duel to the death. It’s a clear mission, giving Wick time to prepare and ponder his life, but like all missions it has plenty of snags.
For a series that nearly started off direct to video, the heights that John Wick has reached are impressive. Reeves and director Chad Stahelski know how to deliver both great action and stories that offer more than just shoot ‘em ups. The fourth film is the most ambitious and sweeping of the franchise and yet also the best since the first film.
John Wick: Chapter 4 is now playing in theaters.
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Jonathan Majors plays Jesse L. Brown in 'Devotion.' Image courtesy Sony.The U.S. Army is pulling two new recruitment ads from the air after the star of them, actor Jonathan Majors, was arrested Saturday for assault in a domestic dispute. The two ads, “Overcoming Obstacles” and “Pushing Tomorrow,” were the centerpiece of the Army’s revived “Be All You Can Be” campaign.
The Army confirmed the pause on those ads today but said that the wider “Be All You Can Be” campaign is continuing. The move comes after Majors, 33, was arrested on March 25 . The victim, a 30-year-old woman, had “minor injuries to her head and neck,” according to the New York Police Department. Majors was arrested on charges of assault, harassment and strangulation, per the NYPD. He has since been released from custody.
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“The U.S. Army is aware of the arrest of Jonathan Majors and we are deeply concerned by the allegations surrounding his arrest,” Laura DeFranciso, a spokesperson for Army Enterprise Marketing Office said in a statement shared with Task & Purpose. “We recently released two ads in which Mr. Majors appears. While Mr. Majors is innocent until proven guilty, prudence dictates that we pull our ads until the investigation into these allegations is complete.”
Majors’ representatives have denied the allegations, with his attorney Priya Chaudhry saying he is “completely innocent.” “We are quickly gathering and presenting evidence to the District Attorney with the expectation that all charges will be dropped imminently,” Chaudhry wrote in a statement, per the Hollywood Reporter.
Majors recently appeared in the films Creed III and Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania, as well as the military biopic Devotion.
The Army officially brought back “Be All You Can Be” at the start of March, part of a new recruitment initiative after the service branch failed to meet its recruitment goals in 2022. The two ads feature Majors as an on-screen narrator, discussing the history of the Army. The launch included an event at the National Press Club on March 8 featuring Majors, as well as Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth, Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville and Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston.
DeFranciso clarified that although the two ads featuring Majors have been paused, it is not “pulling all things ‘Be All You Can Be’ — the campaign includes many other marketing assets that don’t feature him.” The Army currently has marketing tie-ins with the ongoing NCAA March Madness tournament, including on-air and digital ad components as well as on-site events at the games.
The latest on Task & Purpose The Army has finally fielded its replacement for its Vietnam-era armored personnel carriers * Guards open fire after a car ran the gate at Naval Base Coronado * Everything you need to know about Army Mountain Warfare School * Fake Marine gets 70 months in prison for defrauding veterans charities * US airman accused of insider attack in Syria cleared of all charges*
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Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with his Belarus' counterpart Alexander Lukashenko at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 11, 2022. (Photo by Mikhail KLIMENTYEV / SPUTNIK / AFP) (Photo by MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images).Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a new deal with Belarus to deploy and station its nuclear weapons in the neighboring country. Putin shared details of the plan today, saying that control of the weapons will remain in Moscow’s hands, but that the systems will be stationed in Belarus.
“We are not transferring our tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, but we will deploy them and train the military, like the United States in Europe,” Putin said.
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Putin stressed that point, saying that the decision is “nothing unusual” and saying that the United States had an established precedent for it. Russia intends to build a facility in Belarus to store the weapons, but added that some Iskander tactical nuclear missile systems are already in the country.
Several of the nuclear arms treaties between the United States and Russia had expired in recent years. In February, Putin announced that Russia was pulling out of New START, the last remaining arms reduction deal, but said that it would not attempt to exceed the arms cap under New START.
Belarus, as a former Soviet republic, had nuclear weapons within its early independence. It was one of the signatories to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, with the weapons fully removed in 1996. In February 2022 voters approved a measure that would let it host nuclear weapons. This February, Lukashenko told reporters Belarus does not need strategic nuclear weapons. In today’s announcement, Putin said that the Belarusian president had been discussing hosting Russian nuclear weapons for some time.
The announcement comes more than a year since Russian forces invaded Ukraine. Instead of an easy sweep to Kyiv, the fighting has turned into a brutal war of attrition in Ukraine’s east and south. Heavy fighting and artillery barrages have resulted in high casualties, and depleted much of Russia’s modern armor force, forcing them to bring out old T-55 tanks. Putin has also warned NATO countries including the United States of getting involved, saying it could lead to a potential nuclear conflict. After the United Kingdom announced plans this month to armor-piercing tank ammunition with depleted uranium to Ukraine, Putin said that Russia “will have to respond accordingly, given that the West collectively is already beginning to use weapons with a nuclear component.”
Belarus is one of Russia’s allies in the continent, with Lukashenko letting Russian troops move through the country ahead of the invasion of Ukraine. The Belarusian routes were important enough to Russian build up that hackers tried to disrupt troop movement by targeting Belarusian rail lines. Lukashenko oversaw a violent crackdown on protests in his country after a contested election in 2020. The Belarusian military also loves to film its drills and exercises, featuring everything from the Mortal Kombat theme song to soldiers breakdancing as a show of martial prowess.
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The opera 'Grounded' looks at the ethics of drone warfare through the eyes of an Air Force pilot. (Image courtesy Washington National Opera).Since armed drones became a regular tool in the United States’ arsenal, movies and television shows have been trying to incorporate them and weigh in on the morals of a drone war. Now it’s opera’s time. And a new opera about drone strikes is coming to Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center.
The Kennedy Center and the Washington National Opera announced their 2023-2024 season this month, and the opening production is the world premiere of Grounded. The opera, composed by Jeanine Tesori with a libretto by George Brant, is adapted from Brant’s 2013 play of the same name. It premieres Oct. 28, starring Emily D’Angelo. The opera is in English and will have projected lyrics.
Grounded follows Jess, an Air Force F-16 pilot who finds herself, as the title suggests, grounded after becoming pregnant. She gets reassigned from flying missions in Iraq to the Air Force’s drone program, hunting high-value targets while working in an air conditioned space back in the United States. The play, essentially a one-woman monologue, follows her as she deals with motherhood, the ethics of drone strikes and her desire to be back in the skies.
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It will not have the action beats of Tom Cruise trying to shoot down a MQ-9 Reaper in Mission: Impossible III or the bureaucratic squabbles over ordering strikes like in 2015’s Eye in the Sky. It’s also a different period in the drone war. When Brant’s play premiered in 2013, early in the second Obama administration, the use of drones was expanding. Obama utilized them far more than his predecessor in the War on Terror, ultimately overseeing 563 total strikes in his two terms, according to Airwars. His successor Donald Trump went further, with drone attacks increasing by the hundreds in his four years in office (exact data on civilian deaths in that period are unclear as the Trump administration stopped reporting on those casualties). Although President Joe Biden has not kept up the same pace as Trump, since he took office there have been strikes in Syria, Iraq, Somalia and elsewhere.
The opera version of Grounded was commissioned and co-produced by the Metropolitan Opera, with its world premiere at the Kennedy Center to be followed up with a 2025 run at the Lincoln Center in New York City.
Past productions of the play — including a 2015 staging in New York City starring Anne Hathaway — used projections to help immerse the audience in the pilot’s new world of targeted drone strikes. For the Kennedy Center production the show will use an array of LED screens to provide backdrops and visualize what Jess sees while operating drones. It’s not clear how different the story is in its new operatic form or how it will change when done in song.
It’s worth noting that the production is sponsored by General Dynamics, one of the largest defense contractors in the United States and the maker of the F-16, which plays a role in Grounded.
Grounded premieres Oct. 28 and runs through Nov. 13 at the Kennedy Center.
The latest on Task & Purpose The Army has finally fielded its replacement for its Vietnam-era armored personnel carriers * Guards open fire after a car ran the gate at Naval Base Coronado * Everything you need to know about Army Mountain Warfare School * Fake Marine gets 70 months in prison for defrauding veterans charities * US airman accused of insider attack in Syria cleared of all charges*
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Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 125th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, supporting Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve, conduct a M777 Howitzer night operational rehearsal exercise in eastern Syria, Jan. 01, 2023. (U.S. Army National Guard photo courtesy of Spc. Benjamin Tierney).An unmanned aerial vehicle struck a coalition military base in Syria on Thursday, killing one person and injuring six others.
According to a Defense Department statement, the drone struck a maintenance facility at a base near Hasakah in northeast Syria at approximately 1:38 p.m. One civilian contractor was killed, and five U.S. service members as well as another civilian contractor were wounded.
The drone that attacked the coalition base was of Iranian origin, according to a Pentagon statement. In response, U.S. forces carried out multiple airstrikes on targets in eastern Syria.
“At the direction of President Biden, I authorized U.S. Central Command forces to conduct precision airstrikes tonight in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC),” said Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin in a statement. “The airstrikes were conducted in response to today’s attack as well as a series of recent attacks against Coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with the IRGC.”
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Two of the wounded service members were treated at the coalition base in Syria. The wounded civilian contractor and three other service members were evacuated to medical facilities in Iraq, according to the Defense Department statement.
The head of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla said in a statement that “We are postured for scalable options in the face of any additional Iranian attacks.”
Around 900 U.S. troops are currently deployed to Syria as part of an ongoing mission combating Islamic State militants, with roughly 2,500 troops in Iraq as well. In 2022, U.S. forces conducted 108 missions alongside the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, as well as 14 “unilateral” missions in Syria, resulting in 159 suspected ISIS fighters being captured and at least 220 killed, according to CENTCOM.
The incident Thursday isn’t the first time coalition bases in Syria have been targeted by drone attacks this year. In January, two drones were shot down while a third struck a building on a base in Syria’s al-Tanf region, wounding two members of the Syrian Free Army. Last month Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited U.S. forces in Syria.
“I think that an enduring defeat of ISIS and continuing to support our friends and allies in the region … I think those are important tasks that can be done,” Milley said during his visit.
The latest on Task & Purpose The Army has finally fielded its replacement for its Vietnam-era armored personnel carriers * Guards open fire after a car ran the gate at Naval Base Coronado * Everything you need to know about Army Mountain Warfare School * Fake Marine gets 70 months in prison for defrauding veterans charities * US airman accused of insider attack in Syria cleared of all charges*
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A Russian Su-27 fighter jet intercepts an U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea on March 14, 2023. (U.S. Air Force).Editor’s note: this article by Alex Hollings first appeared on Sandboxx.
Last Tuesday, a pair of Russian Su-27 fighters intercepted an American MQ-9 Reaper drone operating over international waters in the Black Sea. In the days that followed, various competing narratives emerged. Russia has contended that the U.S. Air Force drone seemed to crash all on its own, while American officials have claimed in no uncertain terms that the Reaper went down only after one of the Russian jets crashed into it.
The U.S. has released footage of the incident, seemingly proving that the Russian fighter made contact with the drone’s rear-mounted propeller, ultimately forcing the aircraft down. Russia, on the other hand, has relied primarily on its longstanding use of “grey-zone” tactics, leveraging a wide web of state-backed media outlets and a veritable army of social media accounts to advance narratives critical of the American presence over the Black Sea.
And for an added bit of irony, Russia has since given the pilots involved an award, despite claiming the American drone went down on its own. While this may seem like a direct contradiction to Russia’s claims, these seemingly Schizophrenic declarations are actually an intentional part of Russia’s reflexive control information operation methodology. This works by flooding channels with a variety of information meant to overwhelm the casual observer until they question all facts presented to them, while also providing Russia’s own narrative machine with the opportunity to cherry-pick statements that best suit Russia’s future arguments.
So what really happened between the Su-27 and MQ-9 over the Black Sea?According to the Pentagon, the unarmed MQ-9 Reaper was operating over international waters, flying over the Black Sea, in the early morning of March 14. At approximately 7:03 a.m. local time, the drone was intercepted by a pair of Russian Su-27 Flanker fighters who proceeded to harass the American aircraft for about 30 minutes, cutting directly in front of the aircraft, attempting to douse it in fuel, and generally flying in what American officials have described as an unsafe and unprofessional manner.
But then, shortly after 7:30, one of the two Su-27s appeared to collide with the rear-mounted propellor that powers the MQ-9. In footage released by the Pentagon, you can clearly see the fighter approaching the drone while dumping fuel, followed by a brief cut out as the two aircraft make contact with one another, and subsequently, one of the blades of the propeller is clearly damaged following the impact. That damaged propeller blade ultimately brought the MQ-9 down.
Russia subsequently claimed that their aircraft never made contact with the drone, releasing an official statement instead that suggested the MQ-9 must have crashed due to some kind of malfunction, saying that “as a result of sharp maneuver, the U.S. drone went into uncontrollable flight with a loss of altitude and collided with water surface.”
Of course, perfectly in keeping with Russia’s approach to managing narratives, its version of the interaction is not substantiated by the video footage. This is, after all, the same country that once released footage from an iPhone game and called it irrefutable proof of the United States supporting ISIS in Syria.
Who was legally at fault?One of the most pervasive Russian-backed narratives to emerge following this incident is that the United States had no right to be operating over the Black Sea in the first place, citing Russia’s claims that the region is off limits.
“As we see it, American aircraft have no business being near the Russian border,” Russian Ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, told reporters last week.
The Black Sea, it’s important to note, is surrounded by six countries, three of which are NATO members (Turkey, Bulgaria, and Romania) and two more formal NATO partners (Ukraine and Georgia). Of the approximately 3,600 miles of coastline surrounding the Black Sea, Russia has a legal claim to less than 500 miles of it, with the remaining 3,100 or more miles legally owned by NATO allies or partners.
In fact, according to reports, this incident took place about 75 miles southwest of the Crimean peninsula — a territory Russia claims sovereignty over due to an illegal annexation it carried out in 2014. Its claims over Crimea are not recognized by the international community, and Ukraine continues to contest Russia’s ownership of the peninsula both diplomatically and kinetically.
While a variety of international accords and treaties signed by Russia recognize the validity of international waters and the right of aircraft to operate over them, Russia can make the argument that the U.S. drone was not a neutral asset, as it may have been providing intel directly to Ukraine. Of course, even that neutrality issue can be contested by the U.S., however, as these laws make allowances for instances when one state is the clear aggressor against another. The intent of the Russian pilot is even the subject of some legal standing, as the difference between harassing an aircraft and crashing into one, legally speaking, really comes down to whether the pilot meant to crash into the drone or not.
In other words, this is an issue that could be legally debated for years, as international law is a complex web of precedent and citation. However, independent expert analysts like Professor of International Law at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom Michael Schmitt, contend that the U.S. has the basis for a winning legal argument… before going on to point out that such a winning position doesn’t really matter all that much anyway.
“Based on those appearing in open sources, the Russian operation almost certainly violated the international law obligation of due regard and, perhaps, the prohibition on using force,” wrote Michael Schmitt in Just Security. “And there would appear to be no definitive legal justification for its action. It would follow that the United States is entitled to reparations for the loss of the Reaper and enjoys the right to take countermeasures to secure them. For practical reasons, however, this is an unlikely scenario.”
As Schmitt points out, if America attempted to use this incident as legal justification to pursue reparations, Russia would invariably refuse. At that point, the U.S. would find itself in a difficult position: it could attempt to force restitution or retaliate with a bit of kinetic diplomacy — both of which threaten to escalate the war in Ukraine into a broader conflict that would see U.S. troops directly involved in the fighting. Or, the U.S. can use this incident as further justification for its continuously broadening support for Ukraine, which does little to threaten the security of NATO allies on the continent while continuing to allow for the decimation of vast portions of Russia’s conventional military forces.
One outcome sees the destruction of Russian military forces through direct American intervention, potentially leading to nuclear war, while the other sees the destruction of Russian military forces without threatening American lives or inching the globe closer to a nuclear exchange. The latter, in this case, seems most logical.
No, the Russian pilot almost certainly didn’t crash into the American drone on purposeA Sukhoi Su-27SKM fighter jet at MAKS-2005 airshow. (Dmitriy Pichugin/Wikimedia Commons)This question of intent says a great deal about Russia’s perception of American military power, as well as its regard for international law. If the Russian pilot had been ordered to collide with the American drone to bring it down, it would mean that the Russian military sees the presence of these unmanned aircraft as a serious threat to their forces in the region… but importantly, one they don’t want to engage with directly.
Su-27 fighters carry 30mm cannons onboard and have a variety of air-to-air missiles at their disposal. The only reason a pilot might be ordered to take down an American drone without firing on it would be for the benefit of plausible deniability in order to avoid an American military reprisal. Any argument citing saved ammunition or anything to that effect ignores the high likelihood that the aircraft and its pilot could both have been lost in such a collision.
Despite arguments made by Russian supporters all over social media in recent days, crashing your $37 million fighterinto a significantly cheaper American drone, placing both the aircraft and the pilot in jeopardy during a war in desperate need of both, is not a crafty way to cut costs.
Russia may have entered the war in Ukraine with as few as 100 fully-trained fighter pilots accompanied by a bevy of far-less experienced aviators. Since then, things have only gotten worse, meaning the pilot in command of this Su-27 was either one of the few extremely experienced Russian pilots remaining or one of the far greater numbers of pilots with only a few hundred hours of flying under the belts.
Russian military culture calls for the most qualified and experienced pilots to be given the most dangerous and difficult missions. Crashing into a drone the size of an A-10 Warthog without taking yourself out in the process would certainly count as dangerous and difficult, and as such, Russia would likely have sent one of their few remaining highly experienced pilots for the job. That’s a huge risk just to take out one drone while countless other NATO aircraft continue to operate in the region.
Objectively speaking, the argument is the definition of putting lipstick on a pig, with Russian apologists trying to frame something that was very likely an accident made by a poorly trained and inexperienced pilot as a bit of precision-flying worthy of a state-sanctioned medal.
Because even well-trained Russian pilots tend to average about half the cockpit time of their Western counterparts, and Russia is suffering a severe shortage of even pilots with that degree of experience, Hanlon’s razor seems to suit this situation well: “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”
But just because it seems exceedingly unlikely that the collision was on purpose does not mean the Russian pilots were not trying to bring the drone down. In fact, evidence suggests that’s exactly what they were doing.
Bringing down drones with jetwash is something Russia’s tried to do beforeA few days after the incident over the Black Sea, Turkey released footage captured by a Ukrainian Bayrakatar TB2 drone showing Russian fighters trying to bring the drone down — the TB2 drones were designed and built in Turkey and were used to great effect by Ukrainian forces in the early months following the Russian invasion. According to Turkish officials, this footage was also captured over the Black Sea near the Crimean coast. Interestingly, intercepting Russian fighters attempted to bring the drone down in a similar manner to the MQ-9 (prior to the collision) and failed to do so. However. as that drone was Ukrainian, it does beg the question… why didn’t the Russian aircraft engage this drone with weapons?
A number of theories have been posited, from the Russian fighter not being armed with any air-to-air missiles to the possibility that the pilot was uncertain about which country the TB2 belonged to. While these seem like plausible explanations, this incident also points to the idea that Russian pilots are practicing ways to bring down drones without firing on them, either to save munitions or, as was the case with the American MQ-9, to avoid international reprisal.
The footage shows one (or possibly two) Su-27s crossing in front of the TB-2 to use its wake, or jetwash, to disrupt the drone’s flight. That wake turbulence does successfully interfere with the TB-2, but not sufficiently to bring the aircraft down. Successfully pulling this tactic off would allow Russia to intercept foreign drones and bring them down without firing on them, while issuing statements exactly like the one they issued following the MQ-9 incident that “as a result of sharp maneuver, the drone went down into uncontrollable flight.”
In other words, it seems likely this is a capability Russian pilots were trying to hone for incidents just like the one that took place between the American Reaper and the Su-27s. This time, the Russian jets tried dumping fuel on the drone as well, likely in hopes of stifling the air-intake on the engine… but then one pilot made a mistake by crashing into the drone instead.
What if Russia recovers the drone from the Black Sea?Russian warships during Navy Day celebrations in Sevastopol Bay. (Russian Ministry of Defense)On Wednesday, one day after the collision over the Black Sea, Russian officials claimed they would try to recover whatever remained of the MQ-9 that crashed. This claim was seemingly substantiated by Ukrainian forces on Thursday, who reported an uptick in unusual Russian naval activity in the waterway.
Later that same day, The Warzone identified a report from the Crimea-centric pro-Russian news site ForPost, claiming that the Russian Navy had located the wreckage of the Reaper in waters “near Sevastopol” (on the Crimean peninsula). According to this report, the wreckage was at a depth of some 2,952 feet, and, according to an unnamed source, an “underwater robot” descended to investigate. Later, CNN reported that U.S. officials believe Russia has successfully recovered “small fragments” of the drone that were described as “fiberglass” and “small bits.”
The possibility that Russia could gain valuable intelligence or reverse-engineer the MQ-9’s capabilities if they recover it is often cited by those advancing the narrative that this collision occurred on purpose, claiming it could give Russia a technological windfall without prompting an American military response. However, such a recovery would likely offer Russia more of a propaganda victory than a technological one.
Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder also said that “steps were taken” to limit the value of any recovery, likely suggesting some sort of automated destruct of data or hardware onboard. The reported recovery of just small fragments of the drone in these deep waters seems to substantiate the lack of serious concern from Pentagon officials.
“There’s probably not a lot to recover, frankly,” explained Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark A. Milley. “As far as the loss of anything of sensitive intelligence, et cetera, as normal, we would take and we did take mitigating measures, so we’re quite confident that whatever was of value is no longer of value.”
Beyond these mitigating measures and the damage caused by the drone’s high-speed fall from altitude and collision with the water, it also seems somewhat unlikely that Russia hasn’t already gotten its hands on the wreckage of MQ-9 drones in the past. Over its more than two-decade-spaning service life, MQ-9s have crashed for other reasons or been shot down in a number of countries (including Syria) in which Russia had a presence or where local groups with Russian ties operate.
So, even if Russia were able to glean some worthwhile information from whatever chunks of the Reaper they manage to dredge up from the bottom of the Black Sea, it probably wouldn’t be new. The most significant value to this recovery operation, then, is in the information arena. Russia will almost certainly use any recovered material to advance the narrative that this incident was an intelligence victory, rather than what American officials have described as little more than a demonstration of Russian pilot incompetence.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. - APRIL 22, 2018: A metal plaque on the facade of the Department of Veterans Affairs building in Washington, D.C., features a quotation by Abraham Lincoln. (Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images).Sometimes a story seems too good to be true — and not actually in a good way. Like the possibility of means-testing disability payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs based on income, which would mean that the more money one earns at work, the less one would receive based on a service-related disability.
This was outlined in a proposal from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) published last December on possible ways to reduce government spending. The CBO also published another report, “Trends in DoD’s and VA’s Budgets for Military Compensation,” earlier this month, which analyzed ways to limit the U.S. military’s compensation budget over the coming years.
The reaction to these reports was, needless to say, not positive.
This CBO study of means testing/cutting disability pay for veterans is the ONLY issue I’ve seen in 20 years of mil/vet advocacy that has united the entire military community. From the far right to the far left.
Any leader who supports it will be destroyed, and will deserve it.— Rebekah Sanderlin (@rsanderlin) March 23, 2023
The CBO are some cold-hearted bean counters. https://t.co/P7HWowEn4l
— Doctrine Man (@Doctrine_Man) March 23, 2023
According to the December proposal, military veterans would starting in 2024 only receive their full disability payments if their annual household income – adjusted for inflation – was below a certain level.
“Disability benefits would be phased out at a constant rate for veterans with income above the threshold,” reads the document. “For every additional two dollars of gross household income, disability compensation would decrease by one dollar. Under that phaseout, veterans whose gross household income was $170,000 or higher in calendar year 2023 and who would have received the average annual payment would no longer receive any disability compensation from VA in calendar year 2024.”
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In this case, gross income would be defined as the “income (before deductions) received by the veteran, his or her spouse, and any dependents in the prior calendar year,” including wages, Social Security benefits, investment and retirement income and excluding VA disability payments.
The threshold below which veterans would receive full benefits would be set at $125,000, and according to the CBO, roughly 1.5 million out of 5 million total veterans receiving disability benefits exceeded that threshold in 2019. Over a 10 year period, this would reduce spending on disability benefits by $253 billion.
The proposal also outlines cuts to income security programs – things like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or the Supplemental Security Income program (SSI) – that are used by both veterans and active duty service members. Tightening restrictions on who can access these programs could reduce spending by $327 billion over the same 2023-2022 timeframe, according to the proposal. When added to that disability cuts, that’s roughly $580 billion total.
While the overall number of veterans in the country has decreased over the last two decades, spending levels have continued to go up, according to the CBO. The VA budget has increased “300 percent in real (inflation-adjusted) terms since 2000; it has increased by 35 percent since 2017,” according to the CBO. In real numbers, that means that in 2023, the VA budget requests contained $153 billion for income security programs, which included disability payments as well as pensions. There was also $124 billion for medical care and $21 billion for education and vocational programs, as well as housing and administrative costs.
On the surface, not much, if anything, in this proposal looks good. Afterall, gross income should be kind of superfluous to receiving a disability payment. It’s purpose is, after all, to compensate someone for a disability they received while performing a duty, regardless of if they later went on the found a small business, invest well, get a business degree, start of T-shirt company, or anything else that could conceivably net someone more than $125,000 a year. Or to compensate them when they are truly struggling with financial stability.
It’s important to note, though, that this is just a proposal. While the CBO does have the words “Congressional” and “Budget” in its title, it does not enact policy. Indeed, the means-testing for VA benefits is just one of 17 proposals “covering a broad range of issues, as well as separate reports that include options for changing federal tax and spending policies in particular areas,” according to the CBO.
The CBO “presents an estimate of its effects on the budget but makes no recommendations,” according to the report.
“We don’t think this is a good idea,” said VA Secretary Denis McDounough when asked about the CBO proposal on Thursday by Military Times reporter Leo Shane III, adding that no one within the VA or in Congress was giving any serious consideration to the spending cuts.
So, no need to be overly concerned about anything in this proposal actually being enacted. It is a good reminder, though, to always read through the tens of thousands of pages of fine print that the government produces.
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Staff Sgt. Brandon Allen Amos-Dixon is charged with the death of Staff Sgt. Jimmy Lee Smith III. (Hoke County Sheriff's Office.).Staff Sgt. Brandon A. Amos-Dixon, a culinary specialist assigned to U.S. Army Special Operations Command, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of another soldier based at Fort Bragg, military and police officials said.
Staff Sgt. Jimmy Lee Smith III, 24, was killed on Jan. 18 in Raeford, North Carolina. He was serving as a culinary specialist assigned to the Group Support Battalion for 3rd Special Forces Group at the time of his death.
First responders found Smith unresponsive and were unable to revive him, according to a recent message on the Facebook page of the Hoke County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina.
Detectives ultimately identified Amos-Dixon as the suspect in Smith’s death and filed first-degree murder warrants against Amos-Dixon on March 17, the Facebook message said. The Virginia State Police had already arrested Amos-Dixon on Jan. 19 after a pursuit that lasted for several hours.
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No information was immediately available on why law enforcement officials believe Amos-Dixon killed Smith.
Army Staff Sgt. Jimmy Lee Smith III, 24, was killed on Jan. 18, 2023. (Army photo.)Roughly 90 minutes before Smith was found dead of gunshot wounds, Amos-Dixon was allegedly involved in another shooting incident that took place in Harnett County, North Carolina, according to the Fayetteville Observer.
Amos-Dixon is accused of firing several shots into a car with his fiancé and daughter inside, said Harnett County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Joseph Webb. The incident occurred at the home he shared with his fiancé, who was wounded as she drove away.
The Harnett County Sheriff’s office has charged Amos-Dixon with two counts of attempted murder, assault by strangulation, and related offenses in connection with that incident, Webb told Task & Purpose.
Amos-Dixon is still being held in Virginia and the Harnett County Sheriff’s Office has applied for a governor’s warrant to extradite him back to North Carolina, Webb said.
U.S. Army Special Operations Command, or USASOC, issued a statement on Thursday saying it is aware of the charges against Amos-Dixon.
“We condemn these alleged actions in the strongest possible manner,” the statement says. “Amos-Dixon is a culinary specialist assigned to U.S. Army Special Operations Command. He joined the Army in July 2015. We will continue to work with authorities as necessary. Charges do not reflect values to which the overwhelming majority of our soldiers abide by.”
USASOC said that it also continues to mourn the death of Smith, who joined the Army in 2016 and was later assigned to 3rd Special Forces Group in March 2020.
Smith deployed to Jordan in 2020 and his military awards include the Army Commendation Medal with four oak leaf clusters, Army Achievement Medal with four oak leaf clusters, and Army Good Conduct Medal with one oak leaf cluster.
“We lost an incredible soldier and teammate to an act of senseless violence,” Thursday’s statement from USASOC says. “Our thoughts and prayers remain with Staff Sgt. Jimmy Lee Smith III and his loved ones, as well as others who were injured in this incident.”
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A modernized Soviet-made T-54B tank on a rail transport to Ukraine. (Conflict Intelligence Team).The Russian military has lost so many tanks since its invasion of Ukraine began one year ago that it is apparently calling up ancient armored vehicles to make up for its current battlefield losses, according to open-source intelligence.
Based on undated photographs analyzed by the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), a train carrying T-54 and T-55 tanks — which were first produced by the Soviet Union in 1948 — departed from the 1295th Central Tank Repair and Storage Base in the town of Arsenyev in the Primorsky Krai region in Russia’s far east. CIT is a Tblisi-based investigative organization that focuses on the Russian military.
Russia appears to be bringing T-54s and T-55s out of storage for deployment in #Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/91sUZHk1iz
— Oryx (@oryxspioenkop) March 22, 2023
The photos originated on the Russian social media network VK, although footage of the tanks being moved out of storage surfaced on outlets like DefenceBlog after CIT published its investigation on Tuesday.
While the Russian military has rolled out its 60-year-old T-62 tanks to make up for its heavy armor losses in Ukraine since last summer, CIT claims that the undated footage marks the first documented instance of the Russian military pulling the even older T-54 and T-55 tanks out of storage.
It’s unclear exactly when the T-54 and T-55 tanks pulled out of storage were produced, but the T-55 series entered service for the Soviet Union in 1958, according to CIT.
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First developed in the aftermath of World War II to replace the wartime T-34 tank, the Soviet Union produced nearly 100,000 T-54 and T-55 tanks for Warsaw Pact countries in the decades following the conflict, making them the most widely-produced tank in the world at the time, according to defense analyst Nicholas Drummond.
While the Soviet Union’s T-54 and T-55s never directly faced off against their North Atlantic Treaty Organization counterparts during the course of the Cold War, 19FortyFive, a military and defense analysis website, notes that Syria deployed the T-54/55 during the 1967 Six-Day War with Israel, where they were crushed by U.S.-made M48 Patton and British-made Centurion armor.
While the T-54 and T-55 are relatively simple in their design, CIT cites the lack of rangefinders, ballistic computers and modern fire control systems, “primitive” sights, and poor gun stabilization as “key disadvantages” for the system.
That the Russian military is turning to decades-old tanks will come as no surprise to observers of the invasion of Ukraine: Western anti-tank weapons like the FGM-148 Javelin missile have devastated Russia’s armor fleet since the earliest days of the conflict.
According to Oryx, another open-source intelligence organization documenting Russian losses in Ukraine, the Russian military has seen somewhere around 1,871 tanks destroyed, damaged, abandoned, or captured in the year since the initial invasion.
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Employees with the Maneuver Training Center Fort Pickett’s Directorate of Public Works make signs using the “Fort Barfoot” name to replace existing “Fort Pickett” signs on the installation March 6, 2023, at Fort Pickett, Virginia. (U.S. National Guard photo by Mike Vrabel).Fort Pickett in Virginia will this week officially become Fort Barfoot, making it the first of nine Army installations slated to change their names from ones honoring officers of the Confederate States of America following recommendations from the Defense Department’s Naming Commission.
“It is such a tremendous honor to name an installation where military forces train to defend our freedoms in honor of Col. Van T. Barfoot,” Maj. Gen. Timothy P. Williams, the adjutant general of Virginia, said in a statement last month.
“His magnificent military career was marked by heroism and decades of selfless service to our nation, and his legacy will serve as an inspiration for current and future generations of service members.”
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Spread across roughly 45,000 acres near the town of Blackstone in central Virginia, the base was first established as Camp Pickett in 1942, serving as a training camp for thousands of soldiers during World War II. It was named for Maj. Gen. George E. Pickett, a Virginia native and Confederate officer whose division led the disastrous frontal assault across roughly one mile of open terrain against Union Army positions during the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. It continued on as a training installation, receiving the “Fort” designation in 1974 and eventually being transferred to the Virginia Army National Guard in 1997.
The base’s new namesake is Medal of Honor recipient Van T. Barfoot. Born in Mississippi in 1919, Barfoot enlisted in the Army in 1940. Four years later, as a Tech. Sgt. with the 45th Infantry Division in Italy, Barfoot led an assault on a German machine gun nest. Crawling alone, he knocked out one and then another with grenades. A third position then surrendered to Barfoot, some of the 17 soldiers he captured that day.
Hours later, during a German counterattack, Barfoot took up an exposed position within 75 yards of a German tank and disabled it with a bazooka. His “Herculean efforts” not over, he “continued onward into enemy terrain and destroyed a recently abandoned German fieldpiece with a demolition charge placed in the breech,” all while assisting other wounded soldiers, according to his award citation.
Barfoot later continued to serve during the Korean War and as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, retiring as a colonel after 34 years in uniform. He passed away in 2012 at the age of 92.
The Naming Commission was established in 2021 to review Department of Defense assets – from military bases to Navy warships to street names – that honored notable members of the Confederacy. The commission’s recommendations were delivered in May 2022, including the redesignation of Fort Pickett and eight other Army installations, among them Fort Benning in Georgia and Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
At the beginning of this year, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced that those renaming recommendations had been accepted, and would be fully implemented by the end of 2023. Fort Pickett – soon to be Fort Barlow – is the first installation to make the change. An official dedication ceremony will be held on March 24.
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Ukrainian servicemen fire with a D-30 howitzer at Russian positions near Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine, on March 21, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Sergey Shestak/AFP via Getty Images).When President Joe Biden traveled to Kyiv on Feb. 20, he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he could count on continuing support from the United States.
“You remind us that freedom is priceless; it’s worth fighting for for as long as it takes,” Biden told Zelensky at the end of a joint statement from the two leaders. “And that’s how long we’re going to be with you, Mr. President: for as long as it takes.”
However, several national security experts said they believe the Biden administration has yet to clearly state what its strategic objectives in Ukraine are. They say it’s not clear whether the United States supports Ukraine expelling all Russian forces from its territory – Ukraine’s stated objective – or if it would settle for a negotiated peace that falls short of a total Ukrainian victory.
This type of ambiguity has plagued the United States as it has tried to wage war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and elsewhere
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For most of the 21st century, the United States has lacked effective policies or strategies to win conflicts, giving rise to the Forever Wars, best described by retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s 2018 advice to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that a small number of U.S. troops should “muddle along” in Afghanistan.
Retired Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, who led NATO and U.S. European Command from 2013 to 2016, said the United States does not have a policy that supports Ukraine defeating Russia on the battlefield.
“We keep saying, ‘We’re going to give them everything it takes,’ – everything it takes to do what?” Breedlove told Task & Purpose. “We’re going to be there as long as it takes – as long as it takes to do what? As a military commander, if someone gave me those as directives, I would have no idea what they were asking me to do.”
In this handout photo issued by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Ukrainian presidential palace on February 20, 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine. The US President made his first visit to Kyiv since Russia’s large-scale invasion last February 24. (Photo by Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via Getty Images)The U.S. government needs to make clear that its policy is to provide Ukraine with the resources it needs to drive the Russians from all its territory, including Crimea, however long that takes, Breedlove said.
Having a clear U.S. policy on Ukraine will determine how long the war will last, he said. The Ukrainians have already proven that if they are properly equipped, they can defeat the Russians, as they did outside Kyiv at the onset of the war and elsewhere in the country since.
“How this fight proceeds is 100% reliant on Western policy and whether the United States leads Western policy,” Breedlove said. “If we choose to give them what they need to win, they will win, and this will not be a protracted war. If we choose not to give them what they need to win, which is our current track, then this might turn into a protracted war.”
The Biden administration deserves credit for holding the alliance of countries supporting Ukraine together and earning bipartisan support in Congress to provide military assistance for Ukraine, said retired Army Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commander of U.S. Army Europe. But “they have stopped short of declaring what’s this all about in a clear, concrete way.”
“I don’t why they can’t say: ‘We want Ukraine to win; our goal is for Ukraine to win, and here’s what that means, and here’s why it’s important to the United States,’” Hodges told Task & Purpose.
Because the U.S. government has not clearly stated that it supports a Ukrainian victory over the Russians, leaders in the Kremlin still have hope that the United States and other countries will eventually lose the will to continue helping Ukraine, Hodges said.
Since Russia launched its latest invasion of Ukraine last February, the United States has provided Ukrainians with more than $32.5 billion in military assistance, said Marine Lt. Col. Garron Garn, a spokesman for the Defense Department.
Ukrainian servicemen fire a M777 howitzer at Russian positions near Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine, on March 17, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Aris Messinis / AFP) (Photo by ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images)The U.S. government’s strategy has been to work with Ukraine and other countries to deliver the Ukrainians’ most urgent security assistance needs, including artillery, armored vehicles, air defense, and ammunition, Garn told Task & Purpose.
“Ultimately, Ukraine will determine what victory looks like,” Garn said in a statement. “Our job is to keep supporting Ukraine on the battlefield so they are in the best position at the negotiating table whenever that happens. DoD] is also committed to supporting Ukraine’s medium- to long-term capability needs to ensure it has the capacity to defend itself and deter future Russian aggression. As President Biden has said, the U.S. will stand by Ukraine in their fight for freedom for as long as it takes.”
Most recently, the Pentagon announced that it is accelerating the delivery of M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine by giving the Ukrainians older M1A1s rather than M1A2s. The 31 tanks are expected to arrive in Ukraine by the fall, Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday.
The U.S. military is also confident that it will deliver a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine “on an expedited timeline,” said Ryder, who declined to say exactly when the Patriot system might arrive in Ukraine.
Yet the U.S. government has refused to provide Ukrainians with some of the weapons systems they’ve asked for, such as Army Tactical Missile System rockets, or ATACMS, which have a range of up to 186 miles. Biden made clear in May that the U.S. government will not give Ukraine missiles that are able to hit targets inside Russa. He also said “No” when asked in January if the United States would give Ukraine F-16 fighters.
Ever since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, the U.S. government has been stuck in a cycle of initially refusing to provide weapons to Ukraine, only to reverse course after months of internal debates, by which time any opportunity to make a real difference on the battlefield has passed, said George Barros, a Russia analyst with the Institute for the Study of War think tank in Washington, D.C.
“We have our standard policy objectives, which is good; however, I’ll be perfectly honest, I am not convinced that the United States clearly has a strategy to achieve said goal,” Barros told Task & Purpose. “We have an approach; and that approach has been to send Ukraine a weapons system short, a day late. And so, we’ve always been playing catchup, and it’s not indicative of there being a real sound strategy.”
Ukrainian servicemen are seen along the frontline south of Bakhmut, Ukraine on March 20, 2023. (Photo by Wolfgang Schwan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)Successive U.S. presidential administrations have been hesitant to provide weapons to Ukraine due to the fear of crossing Russian red lines that could lead to a nuclear war, Barros said. That fear continues to hamper the ability of the United States and other Western countries from coming up with a coherent Ukraine strategy.
It took several years before the U.S. government agreed to give Ukraine Javelin anti-tank missiles and allowed the Ukrainians to deploy them to units on the front lines, he said. U.S. officials also initially refused to provide Ukraine with main battle tanks before relenting in January, and now the Biden administration is resisting calls to give Ukraine fixed-wing aircraft.
“The unfortunate reality is that I think we likely are eventually going to send Ukraine fixed-wing aircraft after more months of debate, but this charade is very frustrating because the Ukrainians could be employing these systems – which we will likely ultimately give them, all patterns of the existing decision-making holding true – but the problem is that the current window of opportunity to exploit all of Russia’s failures so far in the war is closing,” Barros said.
However, Barros said he is hopeful that the United States and other Western allies are finally becoming less intimidated by Russian threats of escalating the war when deciding which weapons to provide Ukraine.
But the U.S. government’s support for Ukraine is also becoming a domestic political issue as some politicians argue that supporting Ukraine is not in America’s national security interest, said retired Navy Capt. Steven Horrell, of the Center for European Policy Analysis think tank in Washington, D.C.
“If we were to say, ‘We will do whatever it takes for Ukraine to win’ – boom; all of a sudden, you’re in a vulnerable spot domestically, because what’s that going to take?” said Horrell, a former naval intelligence officer.
Horrell also noted that U.S. officials often talk about defending Ukraine instead of helping the Ukrainians win. That could indicate that the Biden administration has not yet decided if U.S. policy is to help Ukraine win or achieve a negotiated peace.
Ukrainian servicemen from the Special Operations Forces (OPFOR) 214 Brigade ride a tank along the frontline north of Bakhmut, Ukraine on March 15, 2023. As the fight for Bakhmut continues, the Ukrainian government has send reinforcements in order to hold the city against the Russian forces. (Photo by Ignacio Marin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)“If there is a legitimate ceasefire, that will stop Ukrainian civilians from being bombed in their apartments by Russian hypersonic missiles,” Horrell. “So, there’s a benefit to that and I think there probably is an undercurrent of not wanting to take that possibility off the table.”
Horrell added that Zelensky has said several times that any peace agreement would have to involve Russian forces leaving all Ukrainian territory.
A National Security Council official told Task & Purpose that the United States will not dictate to Ukraine what a negotiated settlement with Russia must look like and that the Ukrainians will determine their own military strategy.
The U.S. government supports Ukraine’s right to defend its sovereign territory and internationally recognized borders, the NSC official said.
It is possible for the United States to help Ukraine reclaim its territory without framing the issue in terms of defeating Russia, said Evelyn Farkas who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia from 2012 to 2015.
“I don’t think it’s our objective to ‘defeat’ Russia,” Farkas told Task & Purpose. “I think our government is correct not to state it in those terms because Russia can withdraw from Ukraine voluntarily any day, and that’s not necessarily a defeat for Russia. It certainly means that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s aggressive, international law-breaking, human rights-abusing foreign policy has failed, but it’s not a defeat for the country of Russia.”
The U.S. government has made clear that it defends Ukraine’s sovereignty, said Farkas, who is currently executive director of the McCain Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C., that is part of Arizona State University.
Restoring Ukraine’s full sovereignty would involve the Ukrainian government having control of all its territory and people without any foreign political, military, or economic interference, she said. The United States helped to restore Kuwait’s sovereignty after it was invaded and occupied by Iraq in 1990.
Farkas said she believes it is more appropriate for U.S. government officials to define America’s goals as restoring Ukrainian sovereignty rather than helping Ukraine win the war.
“I don’t think we should be talking in terms of winning and losing,” Farkas said. “We should be talking in terms of very clear objectives. What is winning and what is losing? Nobody knows how to define that. What we should define is the end state. The end state is that the Ukrainian government controls its legal territory and the political systems and economic systems on that territory – period. Victory and loss, those are just not terms that describe anything. You can ascribe whatever you want to those terms.”
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U.S. Army Spc. Andrew B. Clement, an explosive ordnance disposal technician from Jackson, Tenn., assigned to 129th EOD, attached to 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Task Force Bronco, uses an Xbox controller to operate an EOD robot at Combat Outpost Honaker-Miracle in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province, Aug. 1, 2011. (U.S. Army photo/Sgt. 1st Class Mark Burrell).At least two next-generation weapons systems the U.S. military is investing heavily in ahead of the next big war are operated in part through Xbox-style video game controllers.
The Defense Department’s fiscal year 2024 budget request, released last week, includes $154.5 million for the procurement of 24 Navy/Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) launchers as the Marine Corps’ first ground-based anti-ship missile capability.
Mounted to the back of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and capable of firing the Naval Strike Missile at targets at ranges of up to 100 nautical miles, Marine Corps leaders envision deploying the NMESIS to remote islands in the Indo-Pacific to quickly sink Chinese ships in the event of a future conflict.
As part of the same budget request, the DoD also wants $590 million for the procurement of Manuever-Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) systems to provide mobile air defense against airborne drones, rotary-wing aircraft, and incoming rocket, artillery, and mortars fire, a four-fold increase over last year’s budget request for the system.
Mounted on the Army’s Stryker armored fighting vehicles and boasting turret-mounted Stinger and Hellfire missiles and a 30mm XM914 chain gun, the Army has been investing heavily in M-SHORAD capabilities since the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, and the need for such capabilities has only grown following the former’s invasion of Ukraine last year.
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So what do these two somewhat disparate capabilities have in common, besides their essential roles in the next big conflict against a conventional military force like Russia or China? Something surprisingly elegant: they’re both operated using two-pronged control systems that look as if they were ripped from a commercial video game console.
A recent Stars and Stripes story on the 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment — the first in Europe outfitted with M-SHORAD systems — training at Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany highlighted soldiers learning to operate the turret’s tracking system using “a device that looks like an Xbox controller.”
The controller of US Army's M-SHORAD / The fire controller of Challenger 2 pic.twitter.com/J60VKTTE4B
— Sovinskiy (@_Sovinskiy) February 16, 2023
Similarly, photos published by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) in 2021 show Marines with the 1st Battalion, 12th Marines “driving” a NMESIS launcher at Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands in Hawaii using a similar beige handheld controller.
Pfc. Guerby Destine, 22, number two cannon cocker with 1st Battalion, 12th Marines and a Westbury, N.Y., native, drives a Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System launcher aboard Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands, Hawaii, Aug. 15, 2021. (Cpl. Luke Cohen/U.S. Marine Corps)It’s unclear if these two handheld systems are related. The Marine Corps did not respond to a request for comment, while an Army spokesman told Task & Purpose that the controller “is used on other systems as well” but declined to specify which systems in particular.
That the U.S. military is adopting control systems based on commercial off-the-shelf video game consoles should not come as a surprise, though. The Navy has adopted the off-the-shelf Xbox 360 controller for use on its Virginia-class submarines in recent years, and the Army has been exploring the use of these same controllers to operate small unmanned ground vehicles to carry out explosive ordnance disposal missions for more than 15 years.
Indeed, this trend isn’t limited to the U.S military: The British Army flaunted a Polaris MRZR all-terrain vehicle operated by an Xbox-style controller in 2017, and as recently as 2020, Israel Aerospace Industries showed off a brand new Carmel battle tank featuring a similar controller for all manner of systems, from steering and propulsion to the weapons turret mounted to the top of the armored vehicle.
“There are so many other systems out there that have something similar, from unmanned ground vehicles and beyond,” says Peter Singer, a fellow at the New America Foundation and the author of LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Mediawho previously consulted on the Call of Duty series of video games.
Spc. Colby J. McAdams, 734th Ordnance Company, Fort Bliss, Texas, controls an andros FX using an Xbox 360 controller during the Brigade Modernization Command’s Army Warfighting Assessment or AWA 17.1 Oct. 14, 2017, at Fort Bliss, Texas. (Staff Sgt. Cashmere Jefferson/U.S. Army)For the Pentagon to design its proprietary control system based on video game consoles makes total sense given how many current (and future) U.S. service members grew up spending hours adapting to the familiar two-pronged handset of an Xbox or PlayStation.
“The gaming companies spent millions of dollars developing an optimal, intuitive, easy-to-learn user interface, and then they went and spent years training up the user base for the U.S. military on how to use that interface,” says Singer. “These designs aren’t happenstance, and the same pool they’re pulling from for their customer base, the military is pulling from … and the training is basically already done.”
As of 2017, a majority of Americans between the ages of 18 and 49 said they play video games “often or sometimes,” according to data from the Pew Research Center. More recent data from the Entertainment Software Association suggests that 64 percent of American adults (roughly 214.4 million people) play video games.
“Now you have multiple generations who have used the design” of popular video game consoler controllers, Singer said.
While the training logic behind adapting Xbox-style controllers for futuristic weapons systems is sound, Singer pointed to one potential complication: what happens when the next generation of American warfighters grows up on a popular video game system that breaks from the traditional double-pronged model?
“If you’re being inspired by video game controllers, then you need to keep pace with how those controllers change over time, and that’s one thing that might happen in the entertainment world that might also happen in the defense world,” Singer said. “I don’t see [virtual reality] taking off anytime soon, but we have to ask: how does our acquisition system keep up with that change?”
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Fuels director, LCDR Shannon Bencs walks a portion of the seven (7) miles of tunnels of the Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility, 2020. (U.S. Navy/Daniel Mayberry/Released).On at least two occasions in 2021, in May and November of that year, there were leaks from the Navy’s Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Hawaii that contaminated drinking water for thousands of military personnel and their families. A new court filing from Monday now alleges that there were additional toxins in the contaminated water.
“While the United States eventually identified JP5,” reads the filing, “The government failed to notify the plaintiffs or warn about antifreeze or other additives to the JP5 that are harmful in their own right.”
The filing also alleges the government claims it had no reason to warn residents of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam about the fuel leaks or the risks they posed to the water those residents used daily.
An internal memo from the Hawaii Department of Health published on February 2, and given to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser by lawyers representing military families involved in an ongoing lawsuit over the fuel leak, found water samples collected in the weeks following the November fuel leak also contained diethylene glycol, a chemical compound used in aviation fuel to prevent the formation of ice crystals.
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According to the memo, diethylene glycol “could pose the most significant health risk from exposure to contaminated water.”
“This amended lawsuit adds to the story of a government that poisoned its people, failed to treat them, and told sick families they were not sick,” said Kristina Baehr, a lawyer for the families, in a press release. “The fight goes on to hold the government accountable for its conduct before, during and after the Red Hill contamination. These families still do not know what exactly was in the water they ingested and bathed in for months.”
The Red Hill facility was constructed during World War II, with 20 steel-lined tanks capable of holding up to 250 million gallons of fuel, and pipelines running to the piers at Pearl Harbor. It was used by all branches of the military.
On May 6, 2021, what was initially reported as 1,618 gallons of jet fuel leaked into Red Hill’s fire suppression system. An investigation found that the leak was caused by “operator error,” but also revised the estimate of how much fuel had leaked to 19,000 gallons. In November, a second leak occurred, and “triggered a catastrophic spill that injected jet fuel into the Red Hill well, the drinking water source for the plaintiffs,” according to the initial lawsuit filed in 2022.
Families soon began complaining about a chemical sheen and oily water, and while the base commander initially said there were “no immediate indications that the water is not safe,” the Hawaii Department of Health soon advised that military families stop using tap water for cooking, bathing or oral hygiene. Other families soon revealed they had been experiencing symptoms including “dizziness, nausea, fatigue, headaches, diarrhea” after consuming the contaminated water. Around 93,000 people total were served by the Navy’s water system at the time of the leaks, according to the Associated Press.
A class-action lawsuit on behalf of the families affected by the fuel leak was filed in August 2022. In November of that year, the Navy announced that it planned to decommission the Red hill facility by 2027.
The Navy did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest legal filing.
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U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Paul R. Birch offers remarks during the 36th Wing change of command ceremony, June 10, 2022, at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. (Staff Sgt. Ryan Brooks/U.S. Air Force).Air Force Brig. Gen. Paul Birch has been relieved as commander of the 36th Wing at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, for “shortfalls in his personal conduct prior to taking command,” according to an 11th Air Force news release that did not specify what these shortfalls were.
Birch was relieved on Monday by Air Force Lt. Gen. David Nahom, commander of the 11th Air Force, the news release says.
“I did not make this decision lightly,” Nahom said in a statement. “Commanders must always be held to the highest standards.”
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Eleventh Air Force spokeswoman Maj. Lauren Ott told Task & Purpose on Tuesday that she was unable to provide any details about the “shortfalls” in Birch’s personal conduct, but she confirmed that Birch was not the subject of a command directed investigation.
No further information was available on what exactly prompted Nahom to relieve Birch of command. The wording of the 11th Air Force’s news release was unusual. Typically, the military branches announce that commanders have been relieved “due to a loss of confidence” in their ability to lead without giving a specific reason why.
Birch assumed command of the 36th Wing in June 2022, according to his official biography. A 1996 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Birch is a command pilot with more than 2,100 flying hours, including more than 750 combat hours in support of missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He served as an F-15 instructor pilot between 2005 and 2008 and he has also flown KC-10 and KC-135 aerial tankers as well as U-2 spy planes and E-3B/G airborne warning and control system aircraft, his biography says.
Some of Birch’s previous assignments include serving as chief of staff at U.S. Air Forces Central, Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar; and chief of the Strategic Planning Integration Division at Headquarters U.S. Air Force in the Pentagon, his biography says.
Birch also holds a doctorate degree in philosophy and military strategy from the Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.
When he took command of the 36th Wing last June, Birch told airmen that they needed to be prepared if China decides to start a war with the United States, Stars and Stripes reported at the time.
“The threat is relentless,” Birch said at the June 10, 2022, ceremony. “We need to enhance our … readiness and lethality in such a way that deters our adversary today and also postures us to fight decisively should that adversary — China — make a strategic miscalculation and elect to take on the United States, its allies or its partners.”
UPDATE: 03/21/2023; this story was updated on March 21 to include comments from 11th Air Force spokeswoman Maj. Lauren Ott.
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The beards will save us. (Task & Purpose).It’s been just over 18 months since the evacuation of Kabul heralded the end of the United States’ 20-year war in Afghanistan. That time has been marked by remembrance — from some of the first soldiers who jumped into Afghanistan in the fall of 2001 to those who helped evacuate thousands of civilians from Hamid Karzai International Airport in August 2021. And with the passage of time, that final chaotic event, the evacuation and its ongoing aftermath, has become fodder for movie magic.
There are now three films in production or set to be released soon that revolve around the idea of U.S. service members on a mission to rescue the interpreters and other Afghans who served alongside them, often at great personal risk.
Not even three months after the Kabul evacuation, Universal Pictures greenlit a film about former Army Special Forces soldiers returning to Afghanistan to help evacuate some of their former compatriots and family members. Channing Tatum and Tom Hardy have already been cast to star in that one. Then there’s Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant which follows a Special Forces soldier played by Jake Gyllenhaal who returns to Afghanistan to rescue the interpreter who once saved his life. And finally, Kandahar, starring Gerard Butler and debuting in May, seems to be set a few years prior to the Kabul evacuation but follows a similar theme of one American going above and beyond to save a civilian from the chaos and violence of Afghanistan.
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All of these movies, and three are enough to suggest a bit of a trend forming, have a similar theme: Special operations personnel — or, given the prevalence of beards and gear in the promotional material, people who seem like they’re some kind of SOF — return for one last mission in Afghanistan to help the people who helped them. To set right something that still seems very, very wrong.
Since it began in 2001, the Global War on Terror, from Afghanistan to Iraq to Africa and points in between, has played out on screens, both small and large. There was 24-hour news coverage of the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and even today you can relive 1st Armored Division soldiers blasting Tupac in an M1 Abrams tank on TikTok circa 2003. Combat footage became a staple of a war that coincided with the era of “pics or it didn’t happen.”
When Hollywood first caught on to what was going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, the first theme was, basically, shit is fucked up but “the troops” are, by and large, good. Think something like In The Valley of Elah, Redacted or Stop Loss. By the end of the 2000s, the image of “the operator” began to make its way into the mainstream. The hair, the kit, the implied rebellion against bureaucratic B.S. and the implication that such rules and regulations only served to slow down the guys who got shit done. These were the troops that were actually fighting the war, or so the message seemed to be on screen. Whether it was an explosive ordnance disposal tech in The Hurt Locker or an intelligence warrant officer in Green Zone or a bonafide operator in American Sniper or Lone Survivor, there were a few good men out there just doing the best they could in a messed up world.
As Iraq ended and Afghanistan entered its second decade, perhaps the passage of time also allowed a more snarky, cynical take to flourish. War Machine or Whisky Tango Foxtrot offered a kind of meta-commentary on how, yes, the whole Iraq and Afghanistan thing seems extremely messed up. Something like Cherry — adapted from the memoir of a combat medic who was later arrested for armed robbery and drug use — presented a kind of unvarnished, albeit extreme look at what life as a service member and a veteran could look like. A lot of this may have been disagreeable and was certainly a far cry from the early days of patriotic onscreen displays that signaled the start of the GWOT era, but it seems, in hindsight, a fitting reflection of the times.
Now, with the war that began the era of GWOT over — although there are still thousands of troops deployed around the world and the monthly airstrikes in Africa — the next step in the genre seems to be solving the plight of thousands of Afghans left behind who grew up under the auspices of an American-backed government. And, if possible, pulling off something heroic in the process that might just balance out the bitter aftertaste of the war’s end.
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U.S. Marines from Task Force Tarawa keep a weary eye out after they saw a day of intense fighting March 23, 2003 in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah (Joe Raedle/Getty Images).Around 4 a.m. on March 21, 2003, U.S. soldiers and Marines crossed the border from Kuwait to Iraq, marking the start of a ground invasion that would reach Baghdad a little over two weeks later and ultimately destroy Saddam Hussein’s regime after 26 days of heavy fighting.
Two days later, U.S. troops began fighting a major battle in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, showing just how difficult the advance to Baghdad would be.
The U.S.-led military coalition that invaded Iraq had expected to face little resistance in southern Iraq, but instead, they encountered paramilitary forces including Fedayeen Saddam fighters that had been sent to southern Iraqi cities to buttress defenses, according to the first volume of the U.S. Army’s history of the Iraq War.
At Samawah, Zubayr, and Nasiriyah, U.S. ground troops ran into “tenacious resistance from the Fedayeen instead of the Iraqi Army units they had anticipated fighting,” according to the official history.
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Nearly 6,000 Marines and sailors under Task Force Tarawa first entered Nasiriyah, on March 23, 2003, to capture two bridges on the eastern part of the city. The Marines were met with powerful and determined attacks from Iraqi paramilitary forces using pickup trucks with mounted machine guns, according to the Army’s official history; and the battle for Nasiriyah quickly became “a damned tough urban fight,” said then Army Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, who commanded all U.S. and coalition ground forces during the invasion.
U.S. Marines from Task Force Tarawa duck as a U.S. Marine Cobra helicopter fires a missile that destroys the building behind them while they are pinned down during a gun battle March 23, 2003 in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)A total of 18 Marines were killed that day, including eight who died when Air Force A-10 Warthogs mistakenly attacked Marines.
Also on March 23, 2003, the Army’s 507th Maintenance Company was ambushed in Nasiriyah. Eleven soldiers were killed and six taken prisoner including Pfc. Lori Piestewa, who later died. Of the remaining prisoners of war: Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch was rescued by special operations forces on April 1, 2003, and the other soldiers were liberated by Marines on April 13, 2003.
The Marine Corps’ Regimental Combat Team 1 had to pass through Nasiriyah on March 24 and 25, 2003. The unit’s commander, Col. Joe Dowdy, was later relieved by then Maj. Gen. James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division at the time, for not moving quickly enough.
Marine veteran John Hoellwarth said he remembers how Dowdy told his unit bluntly the night before it passed through Nasiriyah that they would take casualties in the coming battle for the city.
“I remember being terrified that shit just got real,” said Hoellwarth, who was a corporal with Regimental Combat Team 1 at the time.
The following day, Hoellworth was in the back of a Humvee with canvas doors as his unit pushed through Nasiriyah. He saw the bodies of enemy fighters in the city’s streets as well as defensive positions that had been abandoned.
U.S. Marines from 1 / 2 Charlie Co. of Task Force Tarawa keep low, as they battle with Iraqi forces March 23, 2003 in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)“I remember the sound of bullets flying around as we made our way through the city,” Hoellwarth told Task & Purpose. “You can tell because they sound like popcorn. I don’t know if you know this, but when someone is shooting at you, you can hear a little click in the air – it’s like a miniature sound barrier being broken – and that’s the sound of bullets flying past you.”
Donald Rumsfeld, who was defense secretary at the time, had not expected that U.S. troops would have to engage in so much close combat on the way to Baghdad, said Stephen Biddle, a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University.
Rumsfeld and others who pushed the U.S. military to invest in transformational technology had expected that standoff weapons such as cruise missiles along with precision-guided munitions would be able to destroy the Iraqi military’s armored vehicles, artillery, and infantry formations, Biddle told Task & Purpose.
Instead, U.S. forces fought a series of intense pitched battles, including in Baghdad itself, showing the limits of what standoff weapons can accomplish, he said.
Ammunition for a SAW machine gun surrounds a U.S. flag at the defensive position of Task Force Tarawa April 2, 2003 in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)“And so, the era of close combat clearly had not ended in 2003; and the experience in Ukraine is demonstrating that it hasn’t ended as of 2023,” Biddle said. ”That means that skills, equipment, and organizations you need to do close combat right remained important in 2003 and they remain important today.”
While the conventional phase of the Iraq war in 2003 holds tactical and operational lessons that still apply today, the biggest lesson from the war is arguably that capturing an adversary’s capital is not the same as victory, Biddle said.
Within weeks of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Baghdad had fallen and Iraqi forces were more destroyed than the German army at the end of World War II, he said. But instead of ending, the war morphed into an insurgency that lasted for years.
Yet the U.S. military seems to still believe that the way to win wars is by destroying an enemy’s military, and that has shaped the U.S. government’s approach toward Ukraine, Biddle said.
“The war doesn’t end until both sides decide to stop shooting,” Biddle said. “If one side decides to keep shooting, even if their conventional military has been driven from the field, the war doesn’t end and it isn’t yet clear who’s going to win and who’s going to lose. That’s just as true for Ukraine as it was for Afghanistan in 2001 and it was for Iraq in 2003.”
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U.S. Army Soldiers with 70 Brigade Engineer Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 11th Airborne Division conduct an extreme cold weather foot movement during a human factors evaluation on the Cold Temperature and Arctic Protection System (CTAPS) in Ft. Greely, AK Jan. 9-14 2023. CTAPS allows war fighters to effectively operate and sustain combat operations in extreme conditions. (U.S. Army/Zachary Catron).Editor’s note: this article by Hope Seck first appeared on Sandboxx.
Hundreds of soldiers are now receiving layered protection suits capable of withstanding temperatures as low as minus 65 Fahrenheit, marking the end of a five-year quest for elite cold protection that was capped off by a six-month race to develop and field the gear.
The first soldiers began receiving the Cold Temperature and Arctic Protection Systems, or CTAPS, in February, according to an Army announcement. The system’s five layers are designed to adapt to varying levels of cold while mitigating chill-inducing factors like external moisture and internal sweat to keep soldiers safe and even comfortable while operating in the world’s most extreme temperatures.
U.S. Army Soldiers with 70 Brigade Engineer Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 11th Airborne Division conduct an extreme cold weather foot movement during a human factors evaluation on the Cold Temperature and Arctic Protection System (CTAPS) in Ft. Greely, AK Jan. 9-14 2023.According to the Army’s announcement, the system includes the following components:
- Base layer: a long-sleeved top and bottom that sits next to the skin, like long underwear, and wicks sweat and other moisture to keep the core warm.
- Lightweight layer: this top and bottom adds thermal insulation. The shirt has vented armpits for “increased range of motion, moisture management, and cooling during movement.” This layer is for milder days, to be worn under the outer shells.
- Softshell uniform: This is the first outer layer and replaces the Army Combat Uniform in cold environments. It includes the familiar operational camouflage pattern.
- Cold-wet weather uniform: Designed for extended time out in freezing rain or other cold and wet conditions, this layer includes a breathable hard-shell top and bottom designed to keep the rain out.
- Extreme cold-weather parka/trousers: The bulkiest layer, this outer shell is reserved for the very coldest conditions and scenarios, such as standing post outdoors when it’s cold enough to kill. Photos show this outer shell includes a neck guard and quilted/heavily insulated arms and legs.
“CTAPS can be worn in any combination of layers depending on the mission requirements and needs of the individual Soldier,” the Army said in a release. The service added that it will come in 15 sizes.
The Army released its Arctic strategy, “Regaining Arctic Dominance,” in 2021, acknowledging increased global competition in the Arctic region and the need to be prepared to operate and even fight in the cold for extended periods. One strategic goal emerging from the document was improving the materiel readiness of Arctic-capable units.
CTAPS, however, was on the Army’s wish list well before then. The first sources-sought solicitation for the system was published in 2017 and called for a lightweight and easily packable replacement to the legacy seven-layer Extended Cold Weather Clothing System Generation III (ECWCS).
Around 30 10th Mountain Division (LI) Soldiers received the prototype Cold Temperature and Arctic Protection System on Jan. 23, 2020 for testing over the winter. (U.S. Army)“The effort will develop a multi-layer system that will provide a minimum of no melt and no drip next-to-skin layers, environmental protection from wind and water, and provide tailorable protection for temperatures spanning a range from 45˚F to -65˚F in as few garments as possible,” the solicitation stated.
Last July, the Army inked a $10.6 million contract with SourceAmerica, out of Vienna, Virginia for CTAPS suits, having received a single bid, according to an announcement at the time.
According to the Army’s recent release, though, the rapid fielding of the system to soldiers in Alaska took just six months to complete, culminating in its issuance to troops with the 11th Airborne Division at Fort Wainwright in February. The service issued a requirement last June to get soldiers at Alaska bases new gear that they could wear for winter field training exercises. The existing system, ECWCS, was just not up to the challenge in Alaska, where the record low temperature is minus 80 and temps of minus 30 degrees can be experienced from November to March. The Army had conducted prototype testing with CTAPS as far back as 2020, and it was a strong candidate to meet the urgent need.
“We test a lot of gear, and we knew we had developed a unique system with CTAPS, when we showed up to a post a year and half after our initial tests and saw Soldiers still wearing it,” James Murdock, a project officer with Product Manager- Soldier Clothing and Individual Equipment, said in a statement.
U.S. Army Soldiers with 70 Brigade Engineer Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 11th Airborne Division conduct an obstacle course during a human factors evaluation on the Cold Temperature and Arctic Protection System (CTAPS) in Ft. Greely, AK Jan. 9-14 2023. (U.S. Army/Zachary Catron)In January 2022, six months prior to the June directive, Murdock’s department selected 18 soldiers at Fort Greely, Alaska to participate in a human factors evaluation of CTAPS that included five days of foot marches and obstacle courses. The tests were designed to ensure that the system was not only warm, but functional and easy to move in.
After the directive came down, according to the Army release, the department had to race to suit out two brigade combat teams within the 11th Airborne Division prior to a large-scale cold-weather training exercise happening in March. Within three days, officials said, experts were huddling and developing a plan to review and finalize the design and get it ready for production.
“The sheer number of people that have come together to make this happen has been nothing short of amazing,” Murdock said in a statement. Each vendor has really prioritized this effort despite other work they were doing, to get CTAPS in Soldiers’ hands as fast as possible… We will have people on the ground in Alaska for up to four months to support every Soldier receiving this premier system.”
The Army is now fielding CTAPS to soldiers at a rate of up to 500 per day, according to the release.
While this is a major aspect of the Army’s push to get combat-ready in the Arctic, it’s far from the only initiative in the works: the service has also contracted with BAE Systems to build a cold-weather all-terrain vehicle, Beowulf, to help soldiers cover distance in the cold and snow.
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An explosion hits Baghdad on March 21, 2003 in Baghdad, Iraq as hostilities between U.S. led Coalition forces and the Iraqi Regime continue. (Photo by Mirrorpix/Getty Images).Twenty years ago today, on March 19, 2003 the war in Iraq started. American and allied forces began the war not on the ground but in the skies. What unfolded was dozens of airstrikes across Iraq targeting early warning sites and Iraqi leadership, meant to pave the way for the ground invasion that launched March 20.
“On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein’s ability to wage war. These are opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign,” President George W. Bush said in his address to the United States the evening of the 19th.
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The air campaign on March 19 was mostly forgotten once ground operations began and coalition forces took Baghdad, but the first day of the war saw the United States and its allies quickly succeed in one goal and fail at its second. The former was the mission to take out many of Iraq’s early warning systems, to provide cover and confusion for the ground operation that followed. Members of the 160th Special Operations Airborne Regiment used helicopters to attack more than 70 sites along Iraq’s western and southern borders, which also gave special operations ground forces leeway to insert into the country.
The other mission was to take out Iraq’s leadership in a series of decapitation strikes. Many of these figures would end up on the infamous deck of cards that were introduced by the United States a month later. The strikes were changed to focus on Saddam Hussein himself and his two sons Uday and Qusay, who were said to be visiting the al-Dura Farms complex at the time. The bunker buster bombs and cruise missiles hit the area and caused casualties, but the Husseins were not present.
At the time of the invasion, the Bush administration repeatedly said that the justification to go after Hussein was his possession and development of weapons of mass destruction and his ties to al-Qaeda, both of which turned out to be false.
The opening airstrikes were meant to be disruptive, to leave Iraqi defenders confused and unorganized as coalition forces moved in. The initial targeted strikes wrapped up on March 21, followed quickly by a wider air campaign that involved more than 1,500 air strikes, part of a “shock and awe” strategy to not only take out Iraqi targets but discourage Iraqi forces from fighting back.
Although Bush stated in his March 19, 2003 address that “coalition forces will make every effort to spare innocent civilians from harm,” by the end of the first year of the war more than 13,000 civilians had been killed, according to Brown University’s Cost of War project. One civilian death took place on March 19, 2003, at the al-Dura farm, where Hussein was not present.
The March 19 air campaign was the opening salvo of the years-long war, which by the time the United States withdrew troops in 2011, killed 4,923 American and allied troops, more than 30,000 Iraqi fighters and by conservative estimates hundreds of thousands of civilians.
On March 20 coalition forces crossed over the Iraqi border, launching a ground offensive. Baghdad fell on April 5. Bush would give his “mission accomplished” speech on May 1, claiming that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended,” although senior Iraqi officials remained unaccounted for and a long and deadly Iraqi insurgency was beginning. Uday and Qusay Hussein would be killed by special operations forces on July 22, and Saddam would be captured many months later on Dec. 13.
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Naval Air Station North Island. (U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Daniel M. Young).Naval Base Coronado went into lockdown last night after a car tried to run the gate at the installation, prompting guards to open fire on the vehicle.
After 10 p.m. on Friday, March 17, a car tried to get through the main gate at Naval Air Station North Island, part of the wider Naval Base Coronado. The driver lacked clearance and did not stop or slow down, going through the gate. In response, base guards opened fire on the vehicle, forcing it to stop. The base went into lockdown, closing all of the gates as a result. Base guards took the suspect into custody and arrested by the Coronado Police Department. In addition to trying to breach the base, the driver was booked for driving under the influence
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Police identified the driver as Sgt. Michael Cruz, a deputy with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, who was off duty at the time.
A witness told local news station NBC 7 that they heard more than a dozen gunshots during the incident. Authorities have not yet confirmed how many rounds were fired. No one was hurt in the incident, according to police.
The Coronado Police Department and Naval Criminal Investigative Service are handling the investigation. The San Diego Sheriff’s Department confirmed that Cruz had been arrested, and was released pending a court date. He has been placed on administrative leave and the department is investigating his actions.
“The Sheriff’s Department will not tolerate criminal behavior in its ranks and will hold employees accountable for their actions,” it said in a statement on the matter.
As of this morning, some gates remain closed at the base. According to the Coronado Police Department, the First Street gate is open.
Friday’s incident was the second time a car tried to run the gates at a military base in Southern California this year. On the evening of Jan. 27, a car tried to breach the gate and “gain unauthorized access to the installation” at Marine Base Camp Pendleton further up the California coast. Guards deployed the final denial barrier, which the car crashed into, wrecking much of the front of the sedan. It burst into flames as a result. The driver was taken to a nearby hospital.
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171102-N-UX013-180 PACIFIC OCEAN (Nov. 2, 2017) An amphibious assault vehicle (AAV), assigned to Combat Assault Battalion AAV Company, splashes into the water from the well deck of the amphibious dock landing ship USS Ashland (LSD 48) during an amphibious assault as part of Blue Chromite. Blue Chromite is an annual exercise held between the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps to strengthen interoperability and increase naval integration and proficiencies in amphibious warfare. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jonathan Clay/Released).The Marine Corps wants to be done with its assault amphibious vehicles, but that doesn’t mean they are going to go to rust. More than a year after the Marines barred the use of the vehicles in deployments and training following a deadly incident, the United States is set to sell dozens to Greece.
The State Department confirmed that it had approved the sale, valued at $268 million. The sale calls for Greece purchasing 63 regular AAVs as well as several of the AAVs’ variants. Those include four AAVs, Recovery Variant and nine Command Variant vehicles. Those are being purchased as part of a wider arms sale to the European nation. The weapons deal also calls for, among other pieces, 63 machine guns, plus MK-19 grenade launchers, thermal sights and various technical support and training.
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“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by helping to improve the security of a NATO ally, which is an important partner for political stability and economic progress in Europe,” the State Department said in its determination. “This proposed sale will improve Greece’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing an effective capability to protect maritime interests and infrastructure in support of its strategic location on NATO’s southern flank. Greece contributes to NATO operations, as well as to counterterrorism and counter-piracy maritime efforts. Greece will have no difficulty absorbing these articles and services into its armed forces.”
The positive assessment of the AAV’s benefits comes despite the Marine Corps’ own dislike of the vehicles after nine service members died in one on July 30, 2020. While training off the coast of San Clemente Island in Southern California, one assault amphibious vessel sank, killing eight Marines and one Navy corpsman. A subsequent investigation found that the already old fleet of AAVs were failing inspection and were poorly maintained, with repairs falling behind, crews cannibalizing vehicles for parts and serious issues with bilge pumps on the vehicles, turning them into “death traps,” as one Marine veteran called them.
At the time, the Marine Corps said they would only be used again in water “if needed for crisis response,” but the overwhelming majority of the AAV’s use was on land.
The sale to Greece is still pending Congressional approval.
The Marine Corps was already working to phase out the decades-old AAVs and replace them with the new amphibious combat vehicles when the incident in Southern California happened. The ACVs use wheels instead of tracks like the older AAVs. 1st Marine Division has been testing the newer vehicles in Southern California. There have been multiple mishaps involving them in 2022, including incidents in July where high waves disabling one vehicle while another flipped onto its side, causing minor injuries. Another ACV rolled onto its side while testing in surf areas due to a malfunction in October.
Greece isn’t the only nation to use secondhand AAVs. In 2019, the U.S. also approved the sale of 11 AAVs to Spain, to supplement its own existing fleet of the vehicles. Other nations that use the assault amphibious vehicle include Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, among others.
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Don't look like this when clearing a room. (Image via Twitter).There is no shortage of firearms enthusiasts or people who enjoy showcasing their shooting skills. And, increasingly, that means tactical firearms training. Not just accuracy in target shooting, but combining speed, movement, and weapons handling in a combat scenario.
T.REX ARMS
As a material to learn shooting and tactics pic.twitter.com/HgXSDVzUVS— Ghost in the Dark (@Ghostinthereal) March 14, 2023
A recent viral video posted by a Twitter account going by Ghostinthereal shows a man moving through a complex of barriers, engaging targets with an MP5 submachine gun in some sort of basic close-quarters combat scenario. Like just about everything else on the internet, the video received plenty of feedback, much of it negative, and much of it focused on the fact that it was captioned “as a material to learn shooting and tactics.”
And, indeed, in the context of an actual combat scenario, there were plenty of miscues and errors.
The video begins with the shooter entering the course and quickly engaging a target. He then buttonhooks around a corner and engages two more targets, one to his front and one to his right.
“He probably would have been killed there almost immediately,” said Benjamin Bunn, a former U.S. Army Special Forces soldier who served from 2000 to 2016 and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, breaking down the video. “There’s two people who can triangulate his position, unless they were completely dumbfounded.”
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As the shooter reloads for the first time, he is “completely out in the open, standing upright,” said Bunn, adding, “I’d probably immediately take a knee, reload, and keep fighting.”
The shooter then moves to his left, engaging another target.
“Continuing along, he’s sidestepping. I wouldn’t recommend that because you’ll just trip over your own feet,” said Bunn. “In a tactical environment, I’d just move forward and keep shooting.”
As the shooter completes another reload and approaches a corner, “he very quickly pies around the corner and looks at a target about 10-15 meters away,” said Bunn. “You can tell he’s done this before.
The shooter then engages the target with a full magazine, spraying the target up and down. “There’s nothing really tactical about that,” said Bunn. “Unless you want to fuck up a vehicle. You want to keep it in the bowling pin, in the torso.”
“That’s just kind of him being wacky,” added Bunn.
And, yes, there is an element of wackiness to the demonstration. The original video is partly an advertisement for a Black Friday sale at T.Rex Arms, and references the Call of Duty video games. The company sells all manner of gear and firearms accessories, from holsters to body armor, and the shooter is Lucas Botkin, the company’s founder.
Botkin is a prolific poster of firearms content, with almost 450,000 followers on Instagram. The page is filled with photos and videos of Botkin handling all manner of weapons, with an emphasis on firing quickly and accurately. Of course, given all the gear – plate carriers, night vision devices – movement techniques, or his company curating products for “a modern day Minuteman,” it all blurs the lines between what is shooting firearms as a hobby and what is legitimate, realistic tactical training.
“He’s great at competition shooting, he can fire quickly and accurately,” said Bunn. “But this is more of an exhibition or a product demonstration. Nothing in the video represents a realistic tactical clearing of an objective.”
As for what that would look like, “In reality, with an objective that size, you’d want a raid with at least a platoon-sized element,” said Bunn.
“You’d want to be covering linear danger areas, and ideally a squad-sized element assault through the objective.”
Of course, not everything in the video is entirely unrealistic. This demonstration of hostage rescue training with the Army’s Combat Applications Group shows just how quickly the most elite operators move and shoot.
CAG mock hostage rescue pic.twitter.com/BBATobjibK
— Travis (@GWOT5822) December 1, 2021
As for the Botkin video, it shows how blurred the lines can get when it comes to the world of tactical training.
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Sgt. Maj. Troy E. Black, the sergeant major of the Marine Corps, addresses Marines and sailors at Camp Pendleton, California, Aug. 27, 2019. (Lance Cpl. Alison Dostie/U.S. Marine Corps).Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps Troy Black has spent 35 years working to be the best Marine he could be, but he recently shared that there is one time where he feels he fell short.
In 2010, a Marine under his command was killed by an improvised explosive device while deployed to Afghanistan, and Black has wondered ever since if he could have done more to have prevented the incident from happening, Black recently told Matthew Cothron, who co-hosts the Zero Blog Thirty podcast as “Uncle Chaps.”
Cothron’s March 6 interview with Black covered a variety of topics, including why the Marine Corps is getting rid of its tanks and Scout Snipers. However, toward the end of the interview, Cothron asked Black what he believes his biggest leadership failure has been during his entire Marine Corps career.
After pausing for several seconds, Black said that was not a difficult question to answer.
Black recalled how in 2010 he was serving as the battalion sergeant major for 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, which was deployed to the Musa Qala district in Helmand province, Afghanistan. One day, a jump platoon — which is tasked with protecting a Marine battalion’s commander and other leaders during missions — had to go outside the wire to bring a Combat Logistics Battalion through friendly lines so it could resupply the unit.
Within five or six minutes of the jump platoon heading out, Black heard an explosion, he said. Black immediately radioed the jump platoon and was told that a Marine was down.
“So, I radioed: ‘How do you know?’” Black recalled. “And he said: ‘Because he’s laying right here in front of us.’”
Black, two other Marines, and a Navy corpsman grabbed their gear and ran towards the scene. It was June at the time, so the weather was “hotter than dog snot,” he said.
When they arrived at the blast site, they learned that the Marine who was killed had not used the proper procedure to deal with an explosive device, Black said. By that time, the Marine had successfully cleared improvised explosive devices a couple hundred of times by using his hands to brush away the dirt around the device, marking it, and then calling for an Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician to take care of it.
“This one time,” Black said, raising a finger to underscore his point, “This one time, he brushed the dirt away with his foot and blew him into a thousand pieces.”
Over the next couple of hours, Black and other Marines collected the remains of the Marine who had stepped on the explosive device. For the whole time during that grisly process, Black kept thinking about one thing: “Did we practice how to do this enough?”
Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps, Troy E. Black, attends The President’s Own brass ensemble performance in observance of the 75th anniversary of the battle of Iwo Jima at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, V.A., Feb. 23, 2020. (Sgt. Victoria Ross/U.S. Marine Corps)Although Black and his Marines had trained hundreds — if not thousands — of times on what to do when they encountered explosive devices, Black asked himself: “Did we cut it short one day? Should we have done it one more time?”
Nearly 13 years later, Black said he is still not sure whether the Marine’s death is his fault.
“Maybe we should have done that one more time,” said Black, who added that perhaps the Marine had become complacent. “But even with that, why that one time did he decide to use his foot rather than do what you’re supposed to do, after I had seen him do it 100,000 times? Why?”
“You’re talking about living with guilt,” Black continued. “The fact of the matter is you don’t know [whose fault the Marine’s death was]. You asked what my biggest failure was: Probably not doing that one more time.”
The experience of losing the Marine in combat has made Black hyper alert to finding things that look wrong, he said. As the Marine Corps’ top enlisted leader, Black is now more focused making sure every detail is exactly right than when he served as a drill instructor, he said.
Black added that if he were with the jump platoon back in 2010, he might have been able to have seen the Marine preparing to brush dirt away with his foot and intervene before it was too late.
“I’m convinced that if we had done that one more time, maybe that wouldn’t have happened — maybe,” Black said.
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U.S. Army Soldiers, assigned to Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 118th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve, during a dismounted patrol, Syria, Feb. 3, 2023. (Sgt. Julio Hernandez/U.S. Army).The Russian military is increasingly harassing United States service members in Syria by buzzing their locations with armed ground attack aircraft, the head of U.S. Central Command said on Thursday.
Asked by Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday about the status of the Russian military’s presence in Syria in the year since it invaded Ukraine, Gen. Michael ‘Eric’ Kurilla, CENTCOM’s commander, responded that the U.S. had observed an increase in “unsafe and unprofessional behavior” on the part of the Russian forces deployed there.
Kurilla singled out the Russian air force, in particular.
“They fly over our bases with ground attack aircraft with weapons on them in an attempt to try to be provocative,” he said. “Really, it’s not what we expect from a professional air force.”
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Some 900 U.S. troops remain deployed to Syria as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the ongoing mission to defeat the Islamic State group, and Russian ground troops are known to frequently harass their American counterparts in something of an undeclared road war between the two forces there.
The aerial incidents, however, are “not new [behavior], but we have seen a spike in it since about March 1 in Syria,” Kurilla told Fischer.
Indeed, Kurilla’s testimony came just over a week after U.S. Air Forces Central commander Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich described “troubling behavior” involving Russian aircraft buzzing U.S. troops on the ground in Syria without warning, prompting protests from U.S. commanders there to their Russian counterparts.
The spike in incidents is part of a troubling trend. The most recent lead inspector general report for OIR, which encompasses the last three months of 2022, found that Russian aircraft increasingly violated the deconfliction arrangements with U.S.-led coalition forces in Syria “aimed at preventing an inadvertent collision or clash” in an effort to continually harass U.S. forces on the ground.
Kurilla’s comments also came on the heels of a similarly unprofessional interaction involving Russian aircraft over the Black Sea which saw two Russian Su-27 “Flanker” aircraft dump fuel on a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone before one of the fighters collided with the drone, forcing the unmanned aircraft to crash.
That incident “follows a pattern of dangerous actions by Russian pilots while interacting with U.S. and Allied aircraft over international airspace, including over the Black Sea,” as U.S. European Command said in a Tuesday statement. “These aggressive actions by Russian aircrew are dangerous and could lead to miscalculation and unintended escalation.”
While Russian aircraft may enjoy their antics now, if it ever escalates into an outright clash, well, we all know how that will likely go.
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Then-Staff Sgt. David Dezwaan, 60th Civil Engineer Squadron explosive ordnance disposal technician, inspects the wiring of a simulated radioactive dispersal device during an exercise May 5, 2016, at Clear Lake, California. (Senior Airman Bobby Cummings/U.S. Air Force) An Air Force noncommissioned officer who was accused of launching an insider attack in Syria that wounded four fellow U.S. service members has been found not guilty of all charges stemming from the April 7, 2022 incident.
Tech. Sgt. David W. Dezwaan Jr. was recently found not guilty of dereliction of duty, destroying military property, reckless endangerment, and aggravated assault, according to a statement from Hill Air Force Base in Utah.
Dezwaan had been accused of making and setting off bombs at Green Village, Syria, where both U.S. troops and their allies from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) operate. At the time of the incident, Dezwaan was an explosive ordnance disposal technician deployed to Syria with the 75th Air Base Wing.
“I am grateful for the close collaboration with the leadership teams at Air Force Materiel Command and Hill Air Force Base over the duration of this case,” Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, head of 9th Air Force (Air Forces Central), said in a statement. “We appreciate the efforts of everyone involved and continue to trust the Air Force’s judicial process.”
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Air Force Times first reported on Wednesday that Dezwaan had been found not guilty of the charges against him.
A military panel of three enlisted service members and five officers acquitted Dezwaan of all charges on Wednesday after deliberating for about six hours, said retired Navy Cmdr. Philip Cave, one of Dezwaan’s defense attorneys.
Cave represented Dezwaan along with fellow civilian defense attorney Nathan P. Freeburg, an Army veteran;Marine Capt. Nathan Wiebenga; and Maj. Luke Gilhooly.
During Dezwaan’s court-martial, which began on March 6, Cave and the other defense attorneys argued that someone else at Green Village was responsible for the insider attack, Cave told Task & Purpose on Thursday.
When prosecutors presented video of a person whom they claimed to be Dezwaan allegedly preparing to carry out the attacks, Dezwaan’s defense team pointed out that the man in the video was wearing pants, while Dezwaan wore shorts around the time of the incident.
The defense team also showed the panel other video evidence that they argued reinforced their theory that someone else was responsible for the attack, Cave said.
Then-Staff Sgt. David Dezwaan (left), and another airman, 60th Civil Engineer Squadron explosive ordnance disposal technicians, conduct radioactive detection methods during an exercise May 5, 2016, at Clear Lake, California. (Senior Airman Bobby Cummings/U.S. Air Force)While Cave did not say who specifically might have built and detonated the bombs, he noted that many members of the SDF had access to the U.S. side base.
“They were not vetted,” Cave said. “In fact, one of the witnesses that the defense called was a counterintelligence agent who was there in the field at the time, who expressed concerns prior to and up to the incident about the lack of vetting and accountability of the non-military personnel.”
Insider attacks launched by U.S. service members have been extremely rare since the end of the Vietnam War. Army Sgt, Hasan Akbar was sentenced to death in 2005 after being convicted of killing two officers in Kuwait. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan was sentenced to death in 2013 for killing 13 people and wounding 32 others at Fort Hood, Texas.
More recently, on March 3, Army Pvt. Ethan Melzer was sentenced to 45 years in prison for planning to launch an attack on U.S. troops in Turkey. Melzer was a member of the Order of Nine Angles, a neo-Nazi and Satanic organization which had praised both Adolf Hitler and al Qaida; prosecutors had argued that Melzer reached out to other members of the group as well as alleged members of al Qaida to plot an ambush of his own unit.
Dezwaan was accused of carrying out the attacks so that he could get injured and go home from his deployment roughly three weeks early, Cave said. Prosecutors also claimed Dezwaan, who was one of the four U.S. service members wounded by the explosions, had cut himself with a knife to appear as though he had suffered cuts from a blast.
But the prosecution’s theory about why Dezwaan allegedly took such extreme actions was a single Discord message that Dezwaan sent his wife, which he said he might try to come home sooner than scheduled by stubbing his toe, Cave said.
“To be clear, that was the only – only – evidence of that,” Cave said. “There was nothing in his emails, texts, on his computers, his cell phone – nothing where he made similar comments to co-workers or anybody at all. They were scrambling for a motive, and that was the best they could come up with.”
Within 30 minutes of being found not guilty of all charges, Dezwaan was released from custody after spending roughly 260 days in pretrial confinement, Cave said.
“He’s happy to be home, as you can imagine,” said Cave, who added that his client would not provide a statement for this story.
It is unclear whether the Air Force will allow Dezwaan to remain in the service, Cave said. Dezwaan was initially charged with obtaining classified information, but that charge was dropped before his court-martial.
However, the Air Force could still try to use that accusation against Dezwaan as a way to separate him, Cave said.
“Certainly, his Air Force career is in doubt,” he said.
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U.S. Army Capt. Jason Beams, Training Division officer at the Army Mountain Warfare School in Jericho, Vt., observes Soldiers climbing Smugglers' Notch during their final phase of the Basic Military Mountaineering course in Jeffersonville, Vt., Feb. 19, 2015. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Tech. Sgt. Sarah Mattison).The placard above the entrance to the U.S. Army Mountain Warfare School says, “The Gods of the valleys are not the Gods of the hills.” Those are the words of American Revolutionary War Maj. Gen. Ethan Allen and they were as true then as they are today.
Students from all Army military occupational specialties and all U.S. service branches are eligible to attend the U.S. Army Mountain Warfare School. But the goal for graduates is the same: to gain an appreciation and understanding of the difficulties of operating in harsh, mountainous terrain.
“If you look at where we operate and many of the places we operate,” 1st Sgt. Andreas Bond, an instructor at the school, told Task & Purpose. “It should be a key component to have soldiers trained in that environment.”
An instructor with the U.S. Army’s Mountain Warfare School leads Soldiers on an ascent through a ravine at Smugglers’ Notch, Vt., Feb. 14, 2013. (U.S. Army photo)Located at the Camp Ethan Allen Training Site in Jericho, Vermont, the Army Mountain Warfare School provides basic and advanced military mountaineering training, as well as specialized instruction in the Rough Terrain Evacuation Course, the Mountain Rifleman Course, and the Mountain Planner’s Course. Around 1,000 students attend annually, both active duty, Reserve, and National Guard soldiers, as well as service members from other branches and foreign militaries. Graduates from the Basic Military Mountaineer Course earn the skill qualification identifier “E” – Military Mountaineer, as well as the Military Mountaineer Badge, commonly referred to as the Ram’s Head Device.
“Mountains, regardless of where they are, whether they’re in Africa or in the Antarctic, offer some of the most inhospitable terrain on the planet and require a different skill set, more than what basic training and other aspects of military training really offer,” said Staff Sgt. John Hampson, an AMWS instructor, in 2022. “The ability to dominate certain terrain features is really a big asset when it comes to maneuver warfare. This is base level for an individual to be able to start taking on some of the mastery of the skills that are necessary to dominate that kind of terrain.”
While the instructors are all Active Guard Reserve soldiers and the training is conducted at a National Guard Camp, the school operates under the U.S. Army Infantry School.
A brief history of the U.S. Army Mountain Warfare SchoolThe Army activated its first dedicated mountain unit during World War II, with the 10th Mountain Division, training at Camp Hale, Colorado. With the demobilization of the 10th Mountain Division in 1945, though, that kind of specialized training was restricted to special operations units.
Thirty-eight years later, in 1983, the Vermont Army National Guard Mountain Warfare School was established to train members of the 1st Battalion, 172nd Infantry Regiment as a mountain warfare unit. In the beginning, the cadre operated out of a single farmhouse located on the grounds of Camp Ethan Allen.
“It was just completely innovative, creating a functional specialty Army unit out of nothing. You really have to respect those guys for accomplishing that with no existing example in the Army,” said former instructor Evan Hughes in 2022.
Cadet Elizabeth Carney, a student at the U.S. Army Mountain Warfare School’s Basic Military Mountaineer Course shoots at a high-angle range Jan. 24, 2022. (U.S. Army photo)In 1994, it became the sole producer of the military mountaineer skill qualification identifier – the “E” identifier – and in 2003 it was redesignated as the U.S. Army Mountain Warfare School.
Since then, the school and its cadre have established themselves within a unique niche. “Alaska has the Northern Warfare Training Center, and there is the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in California, but overall it’s probably less than 100 instructors force-wide,” said Bond.
U.S. Army Mountain Warfare School coursesThe Mountain Warfare School conducts five courses. There is the Basic Military Mountaineer Course (BMCC) and the Advanced Military Mountaineer Course (AMCC), both of which run for the majority of the year. The BMCC is two weeks, while the AMCC is split into two separate two-week-long phases, one for summer and one for winter. There are also the more specialized Rough Terrain Evacuation Course, the Mountain Planner’s Course, and the Mountain Rifleman Course.
BMCC was previously held in both winter and summer phases, but since 2008 has been combined into a single course that runs for 10 months out of the year. A typical class has around 64 students.
Staff Sgt. Sherron Murphy, a student at the U.S. Army Mountain Warfare School’s Basic Military Mountaineer Course practices ice climbing Jan. 21, 2022. (U.S. Army photo) “This is really the broad strokes of military mountaineering, general sustainment for operating in a mountain environment,” said Bond. “That’s intelligent behavior in extreme weather conditions, basic considerations for movement in that terrain, weapons care, and learning the basics of climbing.”
According to the Army, this includes land navigation, high-angle marksmanship, first aid, casualty evacuation, and ascending and descending techniques..
“We start with tying knots, going over the basics of the equipment they will use, and then an assessment of their physicality,” Staff Sgt. Joshua Richmond, an instructor at the school since 2009, told Task & Purpose. “Moving into the second week we go through group activities – how to move through this environment. And it culminates with exercises where they can replicate what they’ve learned with what they’d see in an operational environment.”
Once completing the BMCC, students can attend the advanced course, although the instructors say that graduates should take some time to apply what they have learned.
“The advanced course is more skills-based,” Staff Sgt. William Thibeault, an instructor at the school, told Task & Purpose. “It’s a lot more focused on problem solving — there isn’t a single solution to a problem.
Soldiers attending the U.S. Army Mountain Warfare School in Jericho, Vt., climb Smugglers’ Notch as part of their final phase of the Basic Military Mountaineering Course, in Jeffersonville, Vt., Feb. 19, 2015. . (U.S. Air National Guard photo)It trains soldiers in the knowledge and skills required to lead small units over technically difficult, hazardous, or exposed mountainous terrain in both summer and winter conditions.
“There is Class 1-5 terrain,” said Thibeault. “1 is flat, 2 is somewhat steep, 3 is more steep and may require ropes, 4 is steep and broken terrain and will require ropes to move people, and 5 is vertical movement.”
The advanced course is split into separate summer and winter sessions. In the summer, the focus is on rock, lead climbing, and sending ropes. In the winter it shifts to ice climbing and snow mobility, as well as instruction on avalanche rescue, glacial travel, and crevasse rescue.
Specialized courses include the Rough Terrain Evacuation Course, the Mountain Planners Course, and the Mountain Rifleman Course.
The Rough Terrain Evacuation Course teaches soldiers to care for and evacuate injured soldiers in austere conditions and over mountainous terrain.
“We developed that around 2008-2009 when there was a need for conventional forces in Afghanistan to extract casualties in these rough environments,” said Richmond, who is an instructor with the specialized course and was previously a senior medic in the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. “It’s now open to other MOSs, but they get our medical classes along with basic mountaineering, moving casualties through Class 2 or Class 3 terrain.”
Students at the U.S. Army Mountain Warfare School’s Advanced Military Mountaineer Course drag mountaineering equipment on sleds as they leave the site where they camped in temperatures that reached -29 degrees Jan. 27, 2022. (U.S. Army photo)The Mountain Planners Course focuses on planning and supporting operations in mountainous terrain under a variety of weather conditions. This includes the effects of altitude and weather on soldiers and equipment; planning considerations for patrols, reconnaissance, fire control, casualty evacuation, and logistics; as well as instruction on rappelling, rope management, and fixed rope route planning.
The Mountain Rifleman Course trains snipers to maneuver in mountainous terrain, as well as specialized marksmanship training.
U.S. Army Mountain Warfare School preparationThe Mountain Warfare School involves plenty of movement over rough terrain, so students should have their boots broken in and be prepared to ruck 4-6 miles a day with a 45-50 pound ruck.
“When they arrive for the basic course we start with students that either have extensive climbing background or have maybe never even touched a rope,” said Richmond.
Students should also have a familiarity with knots before attending. A guide is available on the Army Mountain Warfare School website.
What is U.S. Army Mountain Warfare School really like?“I like to say that’s what makes the mountain school different from most Army schools, is that students are empowered to ask their instructors why do we build a system in this way? Why would we use this, or not this piece of equipment? It’s unique in that our soldiers, our students, feel empowered to be curious learners,” said then-commander of the school Lt. Col. Steve Gagner in 2022.
U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Doug Stewart, assigned to Headquarters, Headquarters Troop, 1st Squadron, 172nd Cavalry Regiment, (Mountain), at the U.S. Army Mountain Warfare School in Jericho, Vermont, October, 2020. (U.S. Army photo)The ultimate goal of the courses is to produce soldiers and service members from other branches who can take what they learn at the school and apply that knowledge when training with their parent units.
“This training has made me enormously aware of the constraints and requirements of operating in mountainous terrain. As for ice-climbing, it’s pretty fun,” said Sgt. 1st Class Joey Wing from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, while attending the BMCC in 2020.
FAQs about the U.S. Army Mountain Warfare SchoolYou have questions, Task & Purpose has answers.
Q: What is the Ram’s Head Device?A: The Military Mountaineer Badge, known as the Ram’s Head Device, is awarded to all service members who complete the Basic Military Mountaineer Course. It is, however, only authorized for wear in certain National Guard units that have approved it.
The Military Mountaineer Badge. (Wikimedia Photo Commons)The design dates back to World War 2, when it was first worn by soldiers training in the 10th Mountain Division at Camp Hale in Colorado, and continued to be worn by instructors at the Army Mountain and Cold Weather Training Command until it was retired in the 1950s. The design was brought back when the Mountain Warfare School was re-established in 1983.
Q: What is the attrition rate at Mountain Warfare School?A: While it is a physically rigorous course, the goal is, of course, instruction and to produce graduates that can become subject matter experts in mountain warfare for their units.
“We typically weed out about five to 10 students per class,” said Bond.
Q: What kind of equipment is used?A: While the AMCC will have students operating on vertical terrain, the equipment students use remains fairly basic tools for mountaineering – ropes, carabiners, crampons, and snow shoes.
“The equipment we use is chosen for simplicity of use,” said Richmond. “For soldiers, mountaineering is not their primary job, so what they have to carry with them in addition to their normal load should be small and simple. And we want them to be able to retain the information when they graduate.”
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Video footage from an MQ-9 captures the moment a Russian Su-27 collided with the unmanned aircraft. (U.S. Air Force).On Thursday morning U.S. European Command (EUCOM) released video footage from the MQ-9 Reaper drone that crashed into the Black Sea following a mid-air encounter with two Russian Su-27 “Flanker” aircraft that resulted in a collision on March 14.
The footage captures the exact moment one of the Su-27s closed with and hit the propeller of the U.S. Air Force MQ-9 unmanned aircraft. According to an emailed statement from EUCOM, the declassified video “has been edited for length, however, the events are depicted in sequential order.”
Footage released on @DVIDSHub from the MQ-9 incident with Russian Su-27 Flankers.
Our story: https://t.co/MzFpelRR9L pic.twitter.com/VVWhmvSRVn
— Task & Purpose (@TaskandPurpose) March 16, 2023
The video begins with an Su-27 approaching the MQ-9 from the rear, at which point plumes of white and grey can be seen to pour from the Su-27 as it releases fuel during its pass, according to a breakdown of the video by U.S. European Command. As the Russian fighter crosses over the MQ-9, the video transmission cuts out briefly. During this pass, the propeller can still be seen to be intact.
However, a few moments later a Russian Su-27 — it’s unclear if this is the same one or the second Russian aircraft — begins to approach the MQ-9 Reaper and once again, fuel is seen being released as it nears the drone. However, on this pass, the Russian Su-27 collides with the MQ-9 and the feed cuts out. According to EUCOM, the feed was lost for roughly a minute. When it returns, the propeller can be seen again, yet one of the props appears to be damaged, presumably a result of the collision.
As Task & Purpose’s Jeff Schogol previously reported, the incident took place after a pair of Russian Su-27s conducted an unsafe intercept in what U.S. European Command said was international airspace.
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The Russian aircraft loitered near the U.S. drone for approximately 30 to 40 minutes before one of the Su-27s collided with the propeller, at which point the unmanned aircraft was rendered uncontrollable and the U.S. military made the decision to crash the drone into the Black Sea.
Russia has occupied Crimea as well as other swathes of Ukrainian territory that border the Black Sea since 2014, however, the Reaper was “well clear of the territory of Ukraine” and operating in international airspace at the time of the interception, Air Force Brig. Gen Patrick Ryder told reporters on Tuesday.
“In terms of the mission of the MQ-9, it’s an ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] platform,” Ryder said at Tuesday’s news conference. “These aircraft have been flying over the Black Sea region for some time, to include before the current conflict started. It is an important and busy waterway, and so it is not an uncommon mission for us to be flying in international airspace.”
According to a March 14 statement from EUCOM, “this incident follows a pattern of dangerous actions by Russian pilots while interacting with U.S. and Allied aircraft over international airspace, including over the Black Sea. These aggressive actions by Russian aircrew are dangerous and could lead to miscalculation and unintended escalation.”
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An Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle undergoes reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) testing at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) in June 2021. (U.S. Army photo).After a decade in development, the Army’s brand new armored personnel carrier has finally joined the service’s fleet of ground vehicles.
The 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division became the first Army unit to officially field the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV) to soldiers as a replacement for the M113 family of armored personnel carriers that entered service in 1961, the service announced on Tuesday.
Featuring “improvements in survivability, protection, weight, size, power, cooling and compatibility with future technologies,” according to the Army, the AMPV also shares a common powertrain and suspension with the M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle and the M109A7 Paladin self-propelled howitzer to reduce “logistical and mechanical burdens among ABCTs.”
According to AMPV-maker BAE Systems, the AMPV offers 73 percent more carry capacity compared to the legacy M113 APC.
The AMPV comes in five variants: a general-purpose model to provide protected maneuver for soldiers; a medivac model; a medical treatment model; a mission command model that provides formations with a boost in command-and-control and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities; and a mortar-carrier model to provide aggressive fire support for units.
“The Army is transforming our ABCT through the integration of improved technology with warfighting concepts across the force,” said 1st ABCT commander Col. Peter Moon in a statement. “These modernization efforts increase our capacity to deter adversaries and if necessary, fight and win in combat.”
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The initial fielding of the AMPV comes amid a push within the Army to accelerate the acquisition of the new armored personnel carrier to replace the hundreds of M113s transferred to Ukraine amid the ongoing Russian invasion of the country, as our colleagues at the War Zone previously reported.
Congress had in fiscal year 2023 approved funding to build 72 AMPVs in the first year of the vehicle’s production, but Military Times reports that, according to AMPV production manager Lt. Col. Nate Costa, the Army will buy 197 vehicles in fiscal year 2024.
That funding will come not only from the Army’s base budget request, but congressionally approved supplemental funds intended to backfill the service’s fleet of armored personnel carriers with new vehicles following the Ukraine transfer.
Indeed, the Army’s fiscal year base 2024 AMPV budget request totaled some $555 million for just 91 vehicles, coming out to just over $6 million per vehicle.
Once the Army fully replaces the M113, the AMPV fleet will feature nearly 3,000 vehicles and comprise approximately 30 percent of the service’s tracked vehicle fleet, according to the service.
“AMPV is a more rugged, reliable, and capable platform than the M113s that it replaces, bringing more capability to our ABCTs and allowing our formations to transform how they are able to fight,” said Brig. Gen. Geoffrey Norman, director of the Next Generation Combat Vehicles Cross Functional Team, in a statement.
Time will tell how long it takes the 1ABCT to break one.
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Photo composite of Sarah Cavanaugh. (VFW Department of Rhode Island and Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Wesley Timm.).A Rhode Island woman convicted of falsely claiming to be a combat-wounded Marine as part of scams to defraud veterans charities out of more than $250,000 has been sentenced to 70 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, according to the Justice Department.
Sarah Jane Cavanaugh, 32, has also been ordered to pay more than $284,000 in restitution and a federal judge has reinstated 261 hours of paid leave donated to Cavanaugh by federal employees, a Justice Department news release says.
On Aug. 9, Cavanaugh pleaded guilty to wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, forged military discharge certificate, and fraudulent use of military medals, according to the Justice Department. She also admitted to a federal judge that she had stolen the identities of a Marine veteran and a Navy veteran who was suffering from cancer while she worked at the Department of Veteran Affairs at the Rhode Island Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
“Sarah Cavanaugh’s conduct in the course of her scheme is nothing short of appalling,” U.S. Attorney Cunha said in a statement after Cavanaugh’s sentencing on Tuesday. “By brazenly laying claim to the honor, service, and sacrifice of real veterans, this defendant preyed on the charity and decency of others for her own shameless financial gain. I am grateful that, with today’s sentence, she has been brought to justice and will face the consequences of her actions.”
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Cavanaugh’s attorney Kensley Barrett declined to comment on Wednesday, explaining that his client is currently being held at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Center in Rhode Island and he could not speak about her sentencing until he spoke with her.
For five years, Cavanaugh defrauded veterans charities by claiming to be a Purple Heart and Bronze Star recipient who was wounded by a roadside bomb blast while deployed with the Marines and later developed service-related cancer, the news release says.
Between 2017 and 2021, Cavanaugh received $207,000 from the Wounded Warrior Project that she said she needed for groceries and physical therapy sessions, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general’s office. She also raised more than $4,700 for a fundraiser allegedly meant to help her pay her medical bills, for which she falsely claimed to have saved the lives of Marines after a roadside bomb blast.
Other charities gave Cavanaugh money to purchase a new furnace for her home and to pay for her gym membership fees.
Cavanaugh’s schemes fell apart after the HunterSeven Foundation, a prominent veterans group, announced on Jan. 31, 2022, that it was refunding all donations that it had received after sharing Cavanaugh’s story on Instagram because it had discovered she had no service record. Kate Mannion, co-host of the podcast Zero Blog Thirty, was the first to report the story.
At the time, Cavanaugh was serving as commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 152 in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. She resigned from that position on the same day that the HunterSeven Foundation revealed that she was not a veteran.
In a Feb. 1, 2022, interview, Cavanaugh told Task & Purpose that she was never affiliated with VFW Post 152; that she had never told the HunterSeven Foundation that she was a Marine veteran suffering from cancer; and that she had never accepted donations from charities.
Retired Army Sgt. 1st Class David Ainslie, the current commander of VFW Post 152, read a statement in court on Tuesday that he has tried to rebuild the organization “in the wake of her destructive path.”
The post gave Cavanaugh more than $6,000 in the years after she joined in 2016, during which she earned members’ trust, Ainslie’s said.
“Sarah saw an opportunity to personally enrich herself by masquerading as a disabled veteran with documents she acquired and misused from her well-paying federal service job,” Ainslie said. “While simultaneously acting as a trusted confidant to many client veterans during the day at the VA, she was spending her evenings and weekends siphoning extremely limited resources destined for some of those same client
veterans as she sought to upgrade to a nicer car, go on vacations, and buy gifts for herself.”
“These funds would have, without her insistent and convincing pleas for help, gone to real Veterans in actual need of assistance with housing payments, childcare, food insecurity, homelessness, addiction, and other battles our nation’s Veterans fight every single day,” he continued.
Since Cavanaugh was exposed as a fraud, VFW Post 152 has seen a 50% decrease in corporate donations and several local organizations severed ties with the post because they no longer trust the post to use their money wisely, Ainslie said.
“We are an honest, hardworking group of people that are proud of our service and dedicated to helping each other — sometimes, as we have seen here, to a fault,” Ainslie said. “Please remember the good works that we have done and will continue to do, and do not let this person’s actions and total lack of character and integrity continue to undermine our efforts.”
Pat Murray, the VFW’s director of national legislative service, is originally from North Kingston and is a member of VFW Post 152.
Most stolen valor cases are simply an annoyance, but Cavanaugh’s case is different because she took real veterans’ stories to commit fraud and theft, Murray told Task & Purpose.
Murray is a Marine veteran who lost his right leg below the knee after being wounded in September 2006 while serving in Fallujah, Iraq. He said he’s always been grateful for the help he’s received over the years, and it is dismaying to see how Cavanaugh used the outpouring of support that she received so maliciously.
“That hurts because a lot of people are going through their own different struggles, regardless of what they saw overseas or what they’re dealing with afterward back here in the States, and to use that for personal gain is really insulting. There are a lot of people who were hurt by this.”
Marine Maj. Tom Schueman, the founder of nonprofit Patrol Base Abbate, said he looked into raising money for Cavanaugh after she told him she was dying of cancer due to her exposure to toxins from burn pits, but he quickly noticed that she claimed to have been a staff sergeant while the DD-24 she gave him listed her rank at the time of separation as corporal.
Cavanaugh then claimed she was reduced in rank from staff sergeant to corporal for shooting her commanding officer while he attempted to sexually assault her, Schueman said.
Schueman said he knows many people who have been awarded Purple Hearts and have service-related illnesses, so Cavanaugh’s false claims about being a combat-wounded Marine dying of cancer are particularly egregious.
“I hope more than anything that her sentencing serves as a deterrent to any nefarious actors who may want to prey upon good-hearted Americans, leveraging the service and the sacrifice that folks in the military have made,” Schueman said.
Chelsey Simoni, executive director of the HunterSeven Foundation, said she was enraged as she watched Cavanaugh’s two-and-a-half hour sentencing hearing remotely on Tuesday.
Simoni was galled to hear how Cavanaugh stole the identity of a Navy veteran who needed money for cancer treatment, but she was especially appalled when Cavanaugh’s attorney requested that the federal judge sentence his client to 24 months in prison.
“I think back to the actual, heroic, selfless serving veterans I have cared for and lost to cancer,” Simoni told Task & Purpose on Wednesday. “Some don’t even have 24 months. Some had less than 24 days between diagnosis and death. Some families would give anything to have 24 months again with a loved one who is no longer with us. I don’t think her sentence can be measured for her moral and ethical ill-sought actions.”
Simoni said she doubts Cavanaugh is truly remorseful for posing as a wounded veteran suffering from cancer to get money from charitable organizations.
Thankfully, Cavanaugh’s scam did not hurt the HunterSeven Foundation because the non-profit group conducts an extensive vetting process of the people with whom it works and it was able to quickly find the holes in her story, Simoni said.
“We are a grassroots organization born from the community, we are trusted as the HunterSeven mission is a lived experience for everyone on our team,” Simoni said. “And we are thankful the community continues to trust us and support our work.”
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Footage of Pvt. Jovan Collazo hijacking a school bus near Fort Jackson, South Carolina in May, 2021. (Richland County Sheriff's Office).A former Army trainee who fled Fort Jackson, South Carolina and hijacked a school bus full of children was found not guilty by reason of insanity last week.
Jovan Collazo, 25, will forgo prison and instead spend at least 120 days at a mental health facility following an evaluation by the South Carolina Department of Mental Health.
On the morning of May 6, 2021, Collazo was in his third week of basic training at Fort Jackson, assigned to the 1st Battalion, 61st Infantry Regiment. While his company was washing up after morning physical training, Collazo grabbed the unloaded M4 carbine he had been issued, scrambled over a fence, and flagged down a school bus full of children heading to a nearby elementary school.
“After all the kids got on the bus, the trainee got on the bus dressed in his PT clothes and with a rifle and told the bus driver he didn’t want to hurt him but he wanted him to drive to the next town,” Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said at the time of Collazo’s arrest. “So the bus driver started driving.”
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Soon after, Collazo released the passengers and briefly continued driving for a few miles on his own. He then abandoned the bus and the weapon and continued trying to flag down passing cars, before he was “arrested without incident,” according to the Richland County Sheriff’s office.
Collazo was eventually charged with 19 counts of kidnapping — one for each passenger of the bus — armed robbery, carjacking, pointing a firearm, carrying a weapon on school property and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, according to court records.
Collazo also attempted to escape jail shortly after his arrest, during which he broke his leg.
In September 2022, Collazo indicated that he would plead not guilty by reason of insanity and was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Two separate reports concluded that Collazo suffers from schizophrenia and that he was unable to understand the illegality of his actions when he hijacked the school bus.
According to Collazo’s lawyer, Fielding Pringle, Collazo had begun manifesting early symptoms of schizophrenia prior to enlisting and believed someone would hurt him or his family when he made his escape attempt from basic training.
South Carolina judge Debra McClaslin upheld that finding last week, and Collazo will now undergo at least four months of psychiatric evaluation at a state facility.
“I wish you luck,” the judge told Collazo during his court appearance last week.
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An MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle flies a combat mission over southern Afghanistan in 2008. (U.S. Air Force / Lt. Col. Leslie Pratt).An Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone crashed into the Black Sea on Tuesday after it was intercepted by two Russian fighters, one of which collided with the drone, U.S. military officials announced on Tuesday.
“Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9,” Air Force Gen. James B. Hecker, commander, U.S. Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa, said in a statement. “In fact, this unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash.”
The incident occurred when two Russian Su-27 “Flanker” aircraft “conducted an unsafe and unprofessional intercept” of the MQ-9 that was flying in international airspace, U.S. European Command announced in a news release.
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At roughly 7:03 a.m. local time, one of the Russian fighters struck the MQ-9’s propeller, causing the U.S. military to bring the drone down over international waters, the news release says.
“Several times before the collision, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,” the news release says. “This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional.”
The crash is the latest example of Russian pilots taking dangerous actions with aircraft from the United States and allied countries while flying in international airspace such as the Black Sea, the news release says.
Such aggressive actions by the Russians could lead to “miscalculation and unintended escalation,” the news release says.
“U.S. and Allied aircraft will continue to operate in international airspace and we call on the Russians to conduct themselves professionally and safely,” Hecker said in Tuesday’s statement.
This is a breaking news story. More information will be added to it as it becomes available.
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A B-1B Lancer releases a Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile during an external release demonstration in the skies over Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. (Ethan Wagner/U.S. Air Force).If you had any doubt that the Defense Department is pivoting away from fighting terrorists to getting ready for the big war against China or Russia, just look at the missiles and other munitions that the military branches plan on buying in fiscal year 2024.
The Department of the Navy in particular plans to invest in buying and upgrading a total of 830 of various types of Tomahawk missiles in the coming fiscal year, compared with the 552 Tomahawks that it procured for this fiscal year, according to the service’s proposed budget.
The Navy plans to upgrade 646 missiles in its inventory, 472 with a new radio system that replaces the older Satellite Data Link Terminal and it intends to recertify 274 missiles with navigation and communication upgrades and the radio upgrades they received in the prior year, said Navy Lt. Kassie Collins, a spokeswoman for the service.
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All total, the Navy is asking for $6.9 billion for weapons systems, a $2 billion increase from this fiscal year, according to the service’s proposed budget. That money would include funding for 91 Long Range-Anti-Ship Missiles, or LRASMS; 71 MK 48 Heavyweight Torpedoes, up from 28 in fiscal 2023; and it would buy the first eight hypersonic Conventional Prompt Strike missiles for the Navy’s Zumwalt-class destroyers.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Chafee (DDG 90) launches a Block V Tomahawk, the weapon’s newest variant, during a three day missile exercise on Nov. 30, 2020. (Ens. Sean Ianno/U.S. Navy)The Navy is also working to secure multi-year contracts to produce more Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles, or AMRAAMs; Standard 6 Missiles; and both the Navy and Air Force are pursuing multi-year contracts for Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles, or JASSMs as well as LRASMS, said Rear Adm. John Gumbleton, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for budget, told reporters on Friday.
If China invaded Taiwan, the U.S. military would need a lot of LRASMS to sink the Chinese invasion force. However, the missile is still being developed, so it is not ready for large weapons buys, a senior military official told reporters on Friday.
It’s worth noting that the Navy’s proposed budget does not call for buying more Standard Missile-6s, even though Adm. Daryl Caudle, head of Fleet Forces Command, complained earlier this year that defense industry was not producing the missiles quickly enough for the Navy’s needs.
“We’ve all got tough jobs,” Caudle reportedly said at the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium in January. “I need SM-6 [missiles] delivered on time.”
The reason the Navy plans to buy 125 SM-6 missiles in fiscal 2024 — the same number as it purchased this fiscal year — is that the production line for the missiles has reached its maximum production capacity, a Navy spokesperson said.
NMESIS fires from a remotely operated JLTV-based launcher in November 2020. (U.S. Marine Corps photo.)Under the Department of the Navy’s budget, the Marine Corps would get 34 Tomahawk missiles next year along with 90 Naval Strike Missiles, which have a range of up to 115 miles.
The Naval Strike Missiles are intended for the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, which uses the missiles for its Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or NMESIS, said Cathy Close, a spokeswoman for Marine Corps Combat Development and Integration.
As part of its massive force structure overhaul to counter China, the Corps is standing up Marine Littoral Regiments, which Marine Corps leaders envision could deploy to remote Pacific islands and use NMESIS to sink Chinese ships.
Separately, the 34 long-range Tomahawk missiles will go to the Long-Range Missile Battery at I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, California, Close told Task & Purpose on Tuesday.
“The Tomahawk missiles will be used for long-range precision fires,” Close said.
An F-15E Strike Eagle weapons load crew team lifts an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile to attach to a pylon July 15, 2019, at Al Dhafra Air Base, United Arab Emirates. (Staff Sgt. Chris Thornbury/U.S. Air Force)The Air Force’s proposed budget calls for roughly $4.7 billion in total to buy new missiles, compared with about $2.3 billion in this fiscal year, according to the service’s budget documents.
For fiscal 2024, the Air Force wants to buy 27 LRASMS — slightly more than the 25 missiles it purchased in fiscal 2023 — along with 874 SDB-I Small Diameter Bombs, an increase of 518 bombs for this fiscal year, budget documents show. The Air Force also plans to purchase 920 SDB-II Small Diameter Bombs, which is less than the 1,214 SDB-II bombs it bought in fiscal 2023.
However, the reason why the fiscal 2023 number for SDB-II bombs is higher is that Congress gave the Air Force an extra $100 million funding for such bombs last year, an Air Force official said.
The Air Force’s proposed fiscal 2024 budget also calls for buying 457 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles, or AMRAAMs, compared with the 271 AMRAAMs that it purchased this fiscal year, the service’s budget documents show.
Meanwhile, the Air Force wants to buy fewer 192 AIM-9X Sidewinders next fiscal year — fewer than the 255 AIM-9X missiles that it purchased this fiscal year; and the service’s proposed budget calls for buying 14 Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile Extended Range, or AAGRM-ERs, compared with the 42 it purchased for this fiscal year.
“The Air Force has engaged in a rigorous, risk informed decision process to identify which munitions best provide the appropriate mix of munition capabilities directly supporting readiness and future requirements,” said Air Force Maj. Patrick Gargan, a spokesman for the service.
A U.S. Army M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) launches ordnance during RED FLAG-Alaska 21-1 at Fort Greely, Alaska, Oct. 22, 2020. (Senior Airman Beaux Hebert/U.S. Air Force)For the Army, fiscal 2024 will be another big year for buying Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System munitions, or GMLRS, which have proven to be one of the most effective weapons systems that the United States has provided to Ukraine.
So far, the U.S. military has pledged to send Ukraine a total of 38 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARs, which can fire GMLRS. Each GMLRS rocket has a range of up to 43 miles, allowing the Ukrainians to strike Russian targets well behind the front lines.
The Army plans to buy 5,016 GMLRS rockets in fiscal 2024, according to the service’s proposed budget. That is less than the 5,910 GMRLS munitions that the Army purchased in fiscal 2023 with the help of supplemental funding from Congress.
Although the Army’s proposed budget calls for buying fewer GMLRS munitions in fiscal 2024, the service is still buying as many of the artillery rockets as the defense industry can produce, Undersecretary of the Army Gabe Camarillo told Task & Purpose on Monday.
The Army is also buying as many Javelin anti-tank weapons as it can in fiscal 2024, Camarillo said in an interview. For next fiscal year, the Army plans to buy 541 Javelins, slightly less than the 565 that it purchased in fiscal 2023, according to the Defense Department Comptroller’s Office.
“Even if we put more money to the vendor, or gave them more money, they wouldn’t be able to execute that many more rounds of Javelin or that many more GMLRS quantities because there’s a hard cap on how much they can produce every year,” Camarillo said.
The Ukrainians have successfully used Javelins and other anti-tank weapons systems provided by the West to destroy more than 1,000 Russian tanks, according to Oryx, a Dutch open source group.
The Army’s proposed fiscal 2024 budget also calls for buying 18,541 Next Generation Squad Weapons, which are meant to replace the M4 carbine and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, budget documents show.
The Army initially said that the first unit would be equipped with Next Generation Squad Weapons by the end of September 2023, but Camarillo told reporters on Friday that the first soldiers should have the weapons in the second quarter of fiscal 2024.
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The guided-missile destroyer USS Chafee (DDG 90) launches a Block V Tomahawk, the weapon’s newest variant, during a three day missile exercise on Nov. 30, 2020. (Ens. Sean Ianno/U.S. Navy).Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has underscored that the U.S. military would need an astronomical amount of ordnance in a war against a near-peer adversary, so the Pentagon has devoted $30.6 billion of its proposed $842 billion budget for the 2024 fiscal year specifically for tactical missiles and other munitions.
That would represent a $5.8 billion increase in funding for munitions from the Pentagon’s fiscal 2023 budget, according to the Defense Department. Of the $30.6 billion, $17.1 billion would go to purchasing tactical missiles, such as Tomahawks; $7.3 billion would fund strategic missiles; and $5.6 billion would buy new ammunition.
The Defense Department plans to spend nearly 50% more on munitions than it requested from Congress five years ago, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks told reporters on Monday.
“Almost one-third of our munitions dollars are specifically for long-range fires to increase procurement and improve the capability of not only hypersonic missiles, but also our most lethal and survivable subsonic weapons, including those we’ve been buying at or near maximum capacity for several years,” Hicks said at a Pentagon news briefing. “This latest budget expands capacity even more and procures the maximum amount of munitions that are most relevant for deterring, and if necessary, prevailing over aggression in the Indo-Pacific, such as the Tomahawk cruise missile and its latest maritime strike variant, the Extend-Range Joint Air-to-Surface standoff missile, or the JASM-ER; the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, or the LRASM; and the anti-ship capable SM-6 missile, among others.”
For fiscal 2024, the Air Force plans to buy 27 LRASMs, and the Navy would buy 91 of the missiles, according to Defense Department budget documents.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Chafee (DDG 90) launches a Block V Tomahawk, the weapon’s newest variant, during a three day missile exercise in 2020. (Ens. Sean Ianno/U.S. Navy)The Center for Strategic Studies think tank in Washington, D.C., recently held a wargame that looked at how the U.S. military could defeat a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. One of CSIS’s recommendations was that the Defense Department needs more long-range anti-ship cruise missiles, such as the LRASM and JASSM-ER.
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Separately, the Center for a New American Security think tank has determined that the number LRASMS that the Navy and Air Force are expected to have by 2027 — when senior military leaders have said China could attempt to invade Taiwan — would be “grossly inadequate” to defeat a Chinese invasion force, Stacie Pettyjohn, director of the defense program at CNAS, told Task & Purpose last year.
The Chinese navy currently has about 350 ships, but it would likely use many commercial ships to transport troops and supplies as part of an invasion of Taiwan, Pettyjohn told Task & Purpose on Monday.
“The US needs enough anti-ship missiles to exhaust and penetrate PLAN [People’s Liberation Army Navy] air defenses, which will attrite a lot of the missiles, as well as to damage or destroy the bulk of the fleet,” Pettyjohn said on Monday. “JASSM-ER isn’t going to be as helpful because it is intended to hit fixed targets not moving ships.”
However, most of the money for tactical missiles would fund new Tomahawks in part because the LRASM and other air-and sea-launched missiles are still being developed so they are not ready for mass production, said senior military and defense officials, who briefed reporters on Friday.
The increase in funding for tactical missiles is not meant to replenish the U.S. military’s stockpile of munitions that have been provided to Ukraine, said a senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under rules established by the Pentagon.
“These are more for the broader strategy for a higher-end fight,” a senior defense official told reporters on Friday. “They’re not ground munitions. You’ll see Naval Strike Missiles, Standard Missiles, AMRAAM [Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles], things like that.”
All these munitions are intended for the U.S. military, not Ukraine, the senior defense official said, adding that any additional artillery shells, rockets and missiles that the Defense Department might provide to Ukraine would be paid for by supplemental funding.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) launches a tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea, Friday, April 7, 2017. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Ford Williams/U.S. Navy)The Defense Department is also working with Congress and the Office of Management and Budget as part of separate efforts to increase production of weapons systems that the U.S. military has provided to Ukraine, including Patriot missiles and Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System munitions, the senior defense official said.
“Those are, what I would call, works in progress,” said the senior defense official, who explained that increases in funding for such weapons systems are not included in the proposed fiscal 2024 budget.
So far, the U.S. military assistance to Ukraine has included more than 1 million rounds for 155mm howitzers along with High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, Ground Launched Small Diameter Bombs, High-speed Anti-radiation missiles, and Harpoon anti-ship missiles, according to the Defense Department.
The U.S. military expects to increase its stocks of tactical missiles and other munitions over the next few years because the defense industry needs time to meet the Defense Department’s needs, the senior defense official said.
“It can’t be done overnight; and in many cases, what we have here is about as fast as we think we can go,” the senior defense official said.
The latest on Task & Purpose A major US Army formation just dropped new restrictions on tank names * How Russia uses US military veterans in its propaganda war against Ukraine * Jon Bernthal is back as The Punisher in ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ * The Russian military is so low on ammo that troops are reduced to fighting with e-tools*
How the World War I Maxim machine gun became a weapon of choice in Ukraine
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MV-22 Ospreys with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit carry out an assault on a beach in Thailand as part of Cobra Gold 23. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Gunnery Sgt. Chad J. Pulliam.Over the last year, the United States has been carrying out multiple exercises with partner nations in the Pacific. They’ve served two purposes, both for practical training and to send a regional security message to nations such as China and North Korea. The latest one, Cobra Gold 23, just wrapped up with thousands of troops taking part in jungle warfare and survival classes and massive combined forces live fire exercises.
Held in Thailand, the 42nd edition of Cobra Gold saw Thai forces, troops from South Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia, plus 6,000 American troops, with representatives from multiple branches, including roughly 2,000 Marines. Cobra Gold 2023 started Feb. 27 and wrapped this past Friday, March 10.
“Cobra Gold 23 strengthens our ability to plan and conduct combined, joint, high-end security and peacekeeping operations across all domains,” Adm. Chris Aquilino, head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said at the opening of the exercise.
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Friday’s closure wrapped up two weeks of both education moments and intense live fire training involving armor, artillery and plenty of aerial support. Cobra Gold 23 was filled with joint operations, covering land, air and sea. Members of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division did a joint assault drop onto a field with Thai troops. Marines from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit led an amphibious landing onto Hat Yao beach along the Thai coast. And pilots flew F-16s and F-35s above the country.
The exercise also featured heavier arms with live ammunition. Alongside M198 howitzers, there were also M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, which have proven to be devastatingly effective in conventional warfare in Ukraine against Russian forces.
HIMARS fired in the closing exercise. (Photo courtesy U.S. Armed Forces)Those HIMARS were part of the finale of the exercise, a combined arms live fire exercise that forces assault a position with armor, artillery and airborne units.
Past versions of the exercise — which has been running for more than four decades — took the name somewhat literally, with many participants drinking actual cobra blood. That stopped in 2022 and did not resume this year. However, jungle survival remained a major component of this year’s Cobra Gold, with Royal Thai Marines teaching American forces the best ways to find water and food in thick jungle conditions.
Cobra Gold 23 is one of several partner exercises the United States is participating in throughout Asia. Tomorrow, March 13, American and United Nations Command troops join South Korean forces for Freedom Shield 23, an 11-day event that is the biggest such exercise in five years. It also comes in the wake of renewed bomber flights over the country in a show of strength, following North Korean missile launches.
The latest on Task & Purpose The Marine Corps is getting rid of Scout Snipers * Air Force relieves 2 commanders and 4 subordinates at Minot Air Force Base * Why mortars are increasingly important on the modern battlefield * American vet who claims he defected to Russia in Ukraine served just 2 years in the US Army, left as PFC * How an Air Force captain was court-martialed for hanging up on a colonel*
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Members of the California National Guard's Joint Task Force Rattlesnake go door to door to help people trapped in the San Bernardino Mountains. (photo courtesy California National Guard).Amid severe winter storms that have left parts of California flooded or trapped under feet of snow, the California National Guard is taking part in rescue efforts. That includes ongoing work to get supplies to people trapped in the snow covered San Bernardino Mountains, where many have been snowed in for two weeks.
60 California National Guard soldiers, part of Joint Task Force Rattlesnake, are deployed to the mountains, which include the towns of Lake Arrowhead, Crestline and Big Bear Lake. They’re helping local agencies as well as Caltrans and Cal Fire reach people who have been trapped for days. Heavy storms hit much of California hard last month. In the San Bernardino Mountains — with only limited access up and down, residents were unable to get down from their homes for days. Many were without power, and limited supplies.
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Snow plows only operated in a limited capacity, and it’s only in the last week that they have been able to get down the highway. Travel in and between mountain towns remains difficult, as roads remain blocked or partially blocked, and many people have to walk from their snow-covered homes in order to get to clear roads.
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for the area on March 1 and the National Guard went into action. After more than a week of work, they and local partners have set up supply distribution centers spread out around the mountains (many stores remain closed; one grocery store in Crestline had its roof cave in from the weight of the snow). They’ve also been going house to house to try and reach people.
“The primary goal was snow removal from private property from homes that had elderly individuals that were in danger of collapsing,” Chloe Castillo, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, told Task & Purpose. “They cleared off snow from critical infrastructure, including the Crestline post office, and a large hotel at Lake Arrowhead Village, the location that was housing a large number of first responders. They ended up removing […] 1.1 million Lbs. of snow.”
Joint Task Force Rattlesnake typically deploys during the state’s fire season, helping to fight wildfires and evacuate people. The dozens of National Guard soldiers mobilized after the storms instead have to deal with floods and ice.
The rescue efforts are expected to continue for several more days. Many residents still choose to walk to these places instead of driving as not only are side streets blocked but many cars remain trapped under layers of snow. It’s not clear exactly how many people in total have been injured or killed by the storm in the area.
An additional challenge is that since rescue efforts started, a new storm, driven by an atmospheric river, hit Southern California starting on Thursday, March 9. It is expected to last several days, dropping 1.5-2 inches of precipitation on the area. The added weight of rain on top of snow could add additional pressure on buildings, presenting structural risks.
That need has been exacerbated by this week’s storms. Roughly 100 additional California National Guard soldiers are currently responding to flooding in other parts of the state, including Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, using high water vehicles to reach people in danger. In the last several days the National Guard has helped in 56 rescues, according to the force. They have also assisted in aid and supply efforts in the state as well. The latter has included airdropping hay for cows in northern Humboldt County.
The latest on Task & Purpose The Marine Corps is getting rid of Scout Snipers * Air Force relieves 2 commanders and 4 subordinates at Minot Air Force Base * Why mortars are increasingly important on the modern battlefield * American vet who claims he defected to Russia in Ukraine served just 2 years in the US Army, left as PFC * How an Air Force captain was court-martialed for hanging up on a colonel*
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FILE - Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin attends the funeral of, a fighter of the Wagner group on Dec. 24, 2022. (AP Photo, File).One of the bloodiest battles in the war in Ukraine now is the fight for the town of Bakhmut, where Russian forces are on the offensive. And leading that fight is the Wagner Group, the Kremlin-aligned private military company with a history of operating in Syria, the Central African Republic and other countries. And things aren’t really working out in Wagner’s favor at the moment. Just ask its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
It’s gotten so bad, and Wagner has lost so many fighters, that the company is launching a new recruitment drive to fill its depleted ranks. In one of his latest messages, this time an audio file shared on Friday, Prigozhin claimed that he had more fighters coming to aid the fight, to fill gaps left by heavy losses.
“Recruitment centers for PMC Wagner have opened in 42 Russian cities,” Prigozhin added in a statement on the news. According to a list of sites shared by the mercenary company, these centers will be located at gyms and martial arts studios.
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How many recruits Prigozhin hopes to get is unclear. Although a Russian company, Wagner employs mercenary fighters from many of the areas it operates in, including Central Africa and the Middle East. In the last several months the company received an influx in numbers thanks to conscripting convicts in Russian prisons, promising them freedom in return for their service (if they survived). In February Prigozhin announced that that effort had ended, mainly because the government wouldn’t let him keep doing that. U.S. intelligence estimated in January that Wagner pulled in 40,000 new fighters that way, on top of the 10,000 non-convicts in its ranks. Exact losses are unclear. The British government estimates that Russian forces have suffered as many as 30,000 casualties fighting for the city, and Prigozhin has released videos showing corpses of his company’s fighters.
Prigozhin himself has admitted the battle for Bakhmut is a “meat grinder.” The Wagner boss seems to go from boasting about his fighters to admitting to massive casualties and a lack of supplies. He has regularly accused the Russian military of undercutting his forces, not supplying enough ammunition and equipment for them to fight. Russia, and for a private company still dependent on support from an actual standing military, it’s unlikely the Kremlin and Ministry of Defense can easily meet all of Prigozhin’s demands. Ammunition and weapons are in such low supply that according to the British Ministry of Defense many are reduced to fighting just with shovels.
On Saturday Prigozhin gave another battlefield update, this time on video. Prigozhin, clad as usual in military gear and claiming to be in Bakhmut, Prigozhin said that he was in desperate need of ammunition, as much as 10,000 tonnes per month, in order to wage war.
It’s not clear how successful this will be. The Russian government’s own recruiting efforts have been less than smooth. Early attempts were so bad the military attempted to find fighters at homeless shelters. Eventually the country called up 300,000 reservists, which sparked rare protests in Russia cities, as well as attacks on recruiters and recruitment offices. The Russian Ministry of Defense did claim that it successfully mobilized 300,000 fighters. Ukraine’s government has meanwhile claimed that Russia is trying to mobilize an additional wave of soldiers, as many as half a million, for a spring offensive.
How many contractors Wagner will actually get remains to be seen. It’s also unclear how quickly they’ll be sent to Bakhmut and if they’ll end up with the grisly casualties that the current Wagner Group has been suffering.
The latest on Task & Purpose The Marine Corps is getting rid of Scout Snipers * Air Force relieves 2 commanders and 4 subordinates at Minot Air Force Base * Why mortars are increasingly important on the modern battlefield * American vet who claims he defected to Russia in Ukraine served just 2 years in the US Army, left as PFC * How an Air Force captain was court-martialed for hanging up on a colonel*
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Band of Brothers (photo courtesy HBO).Grenades. They are great for taking out a machine gun nest, disrupting enemy lines and adding a little extra punch to an attack. And in a military movie or show they can really ramp up the spectacle. A great war or action film will throw those in for some extra pyrotechnics, a big finale or a dramatic moment of a character jumping on one to save their buddies. It can be a test of character, such as in Captain America: The First Avenger, or a way to take out a tank, as in All Quiet on the Western Front. They generally make for a crowd pleasing scene. Here are some of the best ones in television or film.
Fair warning, this list contains spoilers.
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Where Eagles Dare
The 1960s gave audiences a slew of bombastic and action-packed World War II films. And almost every one had some pretty spectacular shootouts and explosions. Special mention has to go to The Dirty Dozen where the titular team takes out a mansion of Nazis with grenades, petrol and other explosives. But the best of that era goes to the sabotage mission in Where Eagles Dare. With their cover blown and in need of a distraction to finish the mission, Schaffer (Clint Eastwood) grabs a pair of MP-40 submachine guns and starts mowing down Nazis. It’s the kind of scene you’d expect from a John Woo film or The Matrix. The Nazi soldiers, tired of getting shot to pieces, start lobbing grenades at Schaffer. So what does he do? He simply throws them back without pause. And it works! At least until they start throwing several grenades at once. That calls for a tactical retreat.
To Hell and Back
The best war movies or shows are the ones that draw on real events for their depictions of combat. It’s partly why To Hell and Back is so great. Beyond being the story of Medal of Honor winner Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in World War II, it had 5’5” Murphy playing himself. The film had some bombastic tropes, but Murphy made sure the combat scenes were accurate to his experiences as an Army soldier in North Africa and Europe in World War II. One such scene is in Sicily, where he and a friend were ambushed on patrol. When his friend is killed, Murphy turns into a one man army, lobbing grenades and shooting at German machine gun positions. When he cleared one, he grabbed their grenades and kept up the attack until he was the last one standing. And that wasn’t even the biggest action scene in the film, or Murphy’s biggest exploit in the war. But it set a clear tone for the film of what the pint-sized soldier could do.
Fury
Fury is the dirty, brutal, intense World War II film we needed back in 2014. The film does not shy away from the horrors of war or the impact it has on civilians, especially when the losing Nazis are executing civilians in a taking-you-with-me approach. And as ugly as some of the depictions of war were, the film had plenty of heart. It’s what makes the final stand, where the crew of the titular tank takes on countless SS troops, hit as hard as it does. A sneak attack gives them the edge at first, but soon the crew of Fury starts dropping one by one. Gordo (Michael Peña) tries to throw a grenade, only to be shot. Without hesitation he jumps on his fallen grenade to save his comrades. Later, when it’s down to just Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) and the new meat Norman (Logan Lerman), Wardaddy keeps killing Nazis despite his injuries. How badass is he? It takes them dropping two grenades into the confined space to end his fighting. The final fight is one for the ages, and those two moments still hit hard.
RRR
The Indian movie RRR — currently up for Best Original Song at the 95th Academy Awards — is a maximalist action film. The heroes, fictionalized versions of revolutionaries Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem, befriend each other, do ridiculous feats of strength, dance and generally be incredibly cool. The movie does not aim for realism, and that makes the action all the more exciting. At the film’s climax, the heroes are in a jungle, chased by British special operations forces, and Ram is firing back with a bow and arrow. He gets a hold of a bandolier of grenades and turns his already deadly arrows into devastating attacks. The imperial forces did not stand a chance.
Band of Brothers “Day of Days”
What else could it be? The miniseries about Easy Company is still one of the best depictions of World War II and the combat in the European theater. It’s during the second episode, “Day of Days,” that the show delivers the best grenade scene. While Dick Winters (Damian Lewis) leads the soldiers to capture German guns, they chase Nazis out of the trenches, turning the open field into a turkey shoot. And former college baseball player Buck Compton (Neal McDonough) throws a grenade like a fastball, without an arc, hitting a German soldier in the back just as the grenade goes off. The craziest part of the story? According to the members of Easy Company, Compton didn’t hit the Wehrmacht soldier in the back — he hit him in the head. It’s so wild they had to tone it down for the show.
The latest on Task & Purpose The Marine Corps is getting rid of Scout Snipers * Air Force relieves 2 commanders and 4 subordinates at Minot Air Force Base * Why mortars are increasingly important on the modern battlefield * American vet who claims he defected to Russia in Ukraine served just 2 years in the US Army, left as PFC * How an Air Force captain was court-martialed for hanging up on a colonel*
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An F-16 Fighting Falcon takes off to participate in a night flying sortie at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., Aug. 6, 2014. (U.S. Air Force).This article by Rob Verger first appeared on Popular Science.
Before the jet fuel that powers an aircraft’s engines can be burned, it begins its life in the ground as a fossil fuel. But the US military is exploring new ways of producing that fuel, synthetically, and on site, where it needs to be used. They’ve just announced a contract for as much as $65 million to Air Company, a Brooklyn-based company that has developed a synthetic fuel that doesn’t take its starting materials from the ground.
In announcing the contract, the Department of Defense notes that it has an eye on both security concerns and the environment. Getting airplane fuel where it needs to go, the DoD notes, “often involves a combination of ships, tanker planes, and convoys.” And these same transport mechanisms, the military adds, can “become extremely vulnerable.”
Here’s how the fuel works, why the military is interested, and what the benefits and drawbacks are of this type of approach.
The chemistry of synthetic jet fuel This DOD initiative is called Project SynCE, which is pronounced “sense,” and clunkily stands for Synthetic Fuel for the Contested Environment. By contested environment, the military is referring to a space, like a battlefield, where a conflict can occur.
The building blocks of the fuel from Air Company involve hydrogen and carbon, and the process demands energy. “We start with renewable electricity,” says Stafford Sheehan, the CTO and co-founder of Air Company. That electricity, he adds, is used “to split water into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas, so we get green hydrogen.”
But fuel requires carbon, too, so the company needs carbon dioxide to get that element. “For Project SynCE specifically, we’re looking at on-site direct-air capture, or direct ocean-capture technologies,” he says. But more generally, he adds, “We capture carbon dioxide from a variety of sources.” Currently, he notes, their source is CO2 “that was a byproduct of biofuel production.”
So the recipe’s ingredients call for carbon dioxide, plus the hydrogen that came from water. Those elements are combined in a fixed bed flow reactor, which is “a fancy way of saying a bunch of tubes with catalysts,” or, even more simply, “tubes with rocks in them,” Sheehan says.
Jet fuel itself primarily consists of molecules—known as paraffins—made of carbon and hydrogen. For example, some of those paraffins are called normal paraffins, which is a straight line of carbons with hydrogens attached to them. There are also hydrocarbons present called aromatic compounds.
“You need to have those aromatic compounds in order to make a jet fuel that’s identical to what you get from fossil fuels,” he says, “and it’s very important to be identical to what you get from fossil fuels, because all of the engines are designed to run on what you get from fossil fuels.”
Okay, enough chemistry. The point is that this fuel is synthetically made, didn’t come out of the ground, and can be a direct substitute for the refined dinosaur juice typically used in aircraft. “You can actually make jet fuel with our process that burns cleaner as well, so it has fewer contrails,” he says. It will still emit carbon when burned, though.
Why the Department of Defense is interested This project involves a few government entities, including the Air Force and the Defense Innovation Unit, which acts as a kind of bridge between the military and the commercial sector. So where will they start cooking up this new fuel? “We plan to pair this technology with the other renewable energy projects at several joint bases, which include solar, geothermal, and nuclear,” says Jack Ryan, a project manager for the DIU, via email. “While we can’t share exact locations yet, this project will initially be based in the Continental US and then over time, we expect the decreasing size of the machinery will allow for the system to be modularized and used in operational settings.”
Having a way to produce fuel in an operational setting, as Ryan describes it, could be helpful in a future conflict, because ground vehicles like tanker trucks can be targets. For example, on April 9, 2004, in Iraq, an attack known as the Good Friday Ambush resulted in multiple deaths; a large US convoy was carrying out an “emergency delivery of jet fuel to the airport” in Baghdad, Iraq, as The Los Angeles Times noted in a lengthy article on the incident in 2007.
“By developing and deploying on-site fuel production technology, our Joint Force will be more resilient and sustainable,” Ryan says.
Nikita Pavlenko, a program lead at the International Council on Clean Transportation, a nonprofit organization, says that he is excited about the news. “It’s also likely something that’s still quite a ways away,” he adds. “Air Company is still in the very, very initial stages of commercialization.”
These types of fuels, called e-fuels, for electrofuels, don’t come in large amounts, nor cheaply. “I expect that the economics and the availability are going to be big constraints,” he says. “Just based off the underlying costs of green hydrogen [and] CO2, you’re probably going to end up with something much more expensive than conventional fuel.” In terms of how much fuel they’ll be able to make synthetically, Ryan, of the DIU, says, “It will be smaller quantities to begin with, providing resiliency to existing fuel supply and base microgrids,” and then will grow from there.
But these types of fuels do carry environmental benefits, Pavlenko says, although it’s important that the hydrogen they use is created through green means—from renewable energy, for example. The fuel still emits carbon when burned, but the benefits come because the fuel was created by taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere in the first place, or preventing it from leaving a smokestack. Even that smokestack scenario is environmentally appealing to Pavlenko, because “you’re just kind of borrowing that CO2 from the atmosphere—just delaying before it goes out in the atmosphere, rather than taking something that’s been underground for millions of years and releasing it.” (One caveat is down the line, there ideally aren’t smokestacks belching carbon dioxide that could be captured in the first place.)
For its part, the Defense Innovation Unit says that they’re interested in multiple different ways of obtaining the carbon dioxide, but are most enthused about getting it from the air or ocean. That’s because those two methods “serve the dual purpose of drawing down CO2 from the air/water while also providing a feedstock to the synthetic fuel process,” says Matt Palumbo, a project manager with the DIU, via email. Palumbo also notes that he expects this period of the contract to last about two to five years, and thinks the endeavor will continue from there.
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(Calibre Obscura/Twitter).It turns out, Ukrainian forces really like the old-school Maxim machine gun. Or at least the Imperial Russian and later Soviet version of it, the PM1910.
Although the Maxim machine gun was originally created way back in the 1880s, today’s war in Ukraine has surfaced a sometimes bizarre mix of weapons and tactics. There are modern drones and troops just as likely to carry tablets as rifles. Mid-century Cold War tanks and armored personnel carriers are taking the field alongside modern rocket systems. Satellite imagery is helping troops endure old-school trench warfare. And Ukrainian fighters have been busting out machine guns that are more than 100 years old.
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Take for instance this recent video of a fighter using an old Maxim, fitted with decidedly modern add-ons such as optics and a suppressor.
Only in #Ukraine: A PM M1910/30 Maxim gun with optics, stock, and suppressor. pic.twitter.com/JG1IoPEmfE
— Cᴀʟɪʙʀᴇ Oʙsᴄᴜʀᴀ (@CalibreObscura) March 5, 2023
And if one Maxim isn’t enough, why not rig up four into one large anti-drone system? That’s what Ukrainian fighters recently did, creating a four-gun turret specifically meant to shoot down Russian drones. And even though the guns are old, it’s 2023, so the design was posted to TikTok set to a hip-hop song.
Unique Ukrainian design of four Maxim machine guns for shooting down Iranian-made Shahed 136 kamikaze drones. pic.twitter.com/vYcIyPLPOx
— Tarmo 🇨🇿 🇺🇦 🇫🇮 🇪🇺 NAFO 🦁 (@TarmoFella) March 2, 2023
Even with Russia’s equipment troubles, it has been steadily deploying weaponized aerial drones, including the Iranian-made Shahed 131. Russia has been using drones for targeted attacks on Ukraine’s power grid, but as with much of their offensive efforts, have not been able to integrate them and other weapons systems into a full combined-arms strategy. The drones are still lethal, hence the ingenuity here from the Ukrainian soldiers.
In 2020, our friends over at The War Zone noted Ukrainian fighters liked the Maxim in part because it’s reliable. It’s bulky and needs to be water-cooled to prevent overheating, yes, but outside of that it’s accurate, the recoil isn’t too intense and it uses the standard 7.62 ammunition still widely available in post-Soviet nations. The gun was kept in production through the end of World War II, even as the Soviet Union was manufacturing newer weapons, meaning it was fairly compatible with other weapons and ammunition feeds. And as the above videos show, it’s not too difficult to put modern attachments on.
In fact, many of the modern, internet-enabled, or remote-controlled electronic weapons of war have been struggling in Ukraine. The war itself is highly anachronistic. Although not widespread, Ukrainian forces have access to jamming technology rendering many drones unreliable. Devastated landscapes have brought back trench warfare in places such as Bakhmut. The early lack of heavy armor saw fighters utilize the tried and true 20th-Century tactic of turning civilian cars into armed technicals. Given all that, it’s not entirely surprising that guns like the Maxim and the PM1910 are still popular despite their age.
As the saying goes, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.
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Guess who? (Netflix/The Punisher).The Punisher is back.
Four years after the cancellation of Netflix’s The Punisher and the unceremonious end to a series devoted to one of Marvel’s most iconic anti-heroes, actor Jon Bernthal will reprise his role in the upcoming Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again.
The Hollywood Reporter first broke the news, which was also teased by Bernthal on TikTok, earlier this week.
Bernthal will return as Frank Castle, a Marine veteran whose departure from military service coincides with the tragic death of his family — collateral damage in an attempt on his life due to a nefarious conspiracy, a double cross, and a heavy dose of corruption amongst his former brothers in arms.
The murder of his wife and children sets Frank on a single-minded path, not for justice, but for vengeance, which puts him on a crash course with Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil, in the second season of the Netflix series of the same name. The character was eventually spun off and landed his own series, which ran two seasons before it was canceled in 2019. (You can read about season one and season two, here.)
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Among military and veteran viewers, the comic book character has enjoyed a generally positive reception and is almost single-handedly responsible for the proliferation of skull motifs on tactical gear in the last two decades.
“He’s like the single Marvel universe operator,” Mitch Gerads, the illustrator for the 2014 series of The Punisher, previously told Task & Purpose. “The military has a way of going about things and it’s a very tactical mindset, especially special operations. … We just approached it from this tactical mindset … and it’s in a way our homage to the actual warriors we met, and know, and love.”
As for Bernthal’s portrayal, he managed to add a layer of depth to a figure who could have easily been a two-dimensional triggerman at best, and a broken and dangerous veteran with a gun at worst — a character whose military service was merely an excuse for why he was so good at shooting people.
Instead, the Netflix arc from Daredevil to The Punisher gave viewers an on-screen version of Frank Castle whose time in uniform not only sharpened the skills he relies on as the Punisher but provided the foundation for beliefs — his codes of conduct and loyalty — which when violated set him down a bloody road.
(Netflix/The Punisher)As for Dinsey’s Daredevil: Born Again, Bernthal has been cast alongside Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock, the titular lawyer by day and crime fighter by night, with Vincent D’Onofrio reclaiming his role as Kingpin. It’s unclear exactly what the focus or scope of Daredevil: Born Again will be, or if it will retain the grim tone the series had on Netflix now that it’s appearing on the more family-friendly Disney+ platform.
For what it’s worth, Bernthal previously stressed that if he were to return to the role, he’d only do it if the character remained true to the source material, which is, to put it lightly, dark.
“I think if there’s any let up on that character, you do a disservice to the character, to every iteration of the character, to every comic book that’s come before, and to all of the unbelievable fans of the character,” he told the Hollywood Reporter in 2021. “This character means so much to people in the military. So like I said before, it’s not about whether you do the character; it’s about whether you can do it right, and I’m only interested in doing it right.”
Daredevil: Born Again is expected to premiere on Disney+ in Spring 2024.
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On left, Marines provide assistance at an evacuation control checkpoint during the Kabul Airport evacuation. On right, Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews described the 2021 suicide bomb attack at Abbey Gate to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. (Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla/Marine Corps and screenshot of testimony).The U.S. troops who guarded Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan witnessed nothing short of hell on earth, a wounded Marine told lawmakers on Wednesday.
“People were suffering from extreme malnutrition, dehydration, heat casualties, and infants were dying,” Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Afghans [who] were brutalized and tortured by the Taliban flocked to us, pleading for help. Some Afghans turned away from HKIA [Hamid Karzai International Airport] tried to kill themselves on the razor wire in front of us that we used as a deterrent. They thought this was merciful compared to the Taliban torture that they faced.”
Vargas-Andrews, who was part of a Scout Sniper team at the time, spent seven days at Abbey Gate. On Aug. 26, 2021, he lost his right arm and left leg when a suicide bomber detonated 20 pounds of explosives outside the gate, killing 13 U.S. service members and nearly 200 Afghans.
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On Wednesday, Vargas-Andrews gave lawmakers a searing account of the events leading up to and immediately following the suicide bomber attack as part of the congressional hearing into the Afghan evacuation. He made clear that he was speaking for himself, not on behalf of the Marine Corps or Defense Department.
On Aug. 19, 2021, Vargas-Andrews’ team set up a position at Abbey Gate, where tens of thousands of desperate people descended and tried to push their way through the gate in successive waves, he said.
U.S. Marines with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force – Crisis Response – Central Command, assist with security at an Evacuation Control Checkpoint (ECC) during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 26, 2021. (Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla/U.S. Marine Corps) “The next seven days were surreal,” said Vargas-Andrews, who is currently stationed at Wounded Warrior Detachment, Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. “Nothing prepared us for the ground experience we were about to encounter. It was chaos, but we worked together to figure out the next best steps.”
The Marines and other service members guarding Abbey Gate were looking for people in the crowd who were holding blue American passports, Vargas-Andrews said.
After the Taliban captured Kabul on Aug. 15, 2021, Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr., head of Central Command, struck a deal with Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s top political leader, that U.S. troops would provide security at Kabul’s airport during the evacuation and the Taliban would control the rest of the city.
That meant that thousands of Afghans and Americans had to run through a gauntlet of Taliban checkpoints before they reached one of the gates at Hamid Karzai International Airport.
Vargas-Andrews told lawmakers that the Taliban killed “countless Afghans” just 155 yards in front of the Marines’ position, but U.S. service members were unable to do anything in response.
U.S. Marines at Abbey Gate before a suicide bomber struck outside Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 26, 2021, in Kabul Afghanistan. (Department of Defense via AP)“With only shipping containers between us, the Taliban would routinely murder people under our observation at their checkpoint,” Vargas-Andrews said. “We communicated the atrocities to our chain of command and intel assets, but nothing came of it.”
State Department personnel oversaw the processing of people trying to get into the airport, but were simply unprepared to deal with the urgent situation, Vargas-Andrews said.
While U.S. troops remained at Abbey Gate 24 hours a day, State Department personnel would stop processing people overnight, “leaving ground forces with a nightmare,” Vargas-Andrews said.
“In fact, State would not want to deal with the Afghans unable to be processed,” Vargas-Andrews said. “Weakening the security of the perimeter, State would take us away from our mission to walk Afghans out to meet the fate of the Taliban, condemning them to death.”
The U.S. troops at Abbey Gate were in such an exposed and unprotected position that Marine Brig. Gen. Farrell Sullivan who led the joint task force crisis response at Kabul Airport had wanted to close Abbey Gate on the evening of Aug. 25, 2021, an investigation into the suicide bomb attack later found.
British soldiers secure the perimeter outside the Baron Hotel, near the Abbey Gate, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021. (MARCUS YAM / LOS ANGELES TIMES)Then-Army Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue, who led the 82nd Airborne Division at the time, ultimately kept Abbey Gate open until Aug. 27, 2021, after British Brig. Gen. James Martin told him that British forces needed more time to complete their evacuation efforts at the nearby Baron Hotel, the investigation found.
Vargas-Andrews said he believes that his team spotted the suicide bomber before he could detonate his device outside Abbey Gate, but military leaders did not allow Marines to shoot the man.
On Aug. 26, 2021, U.S. intelligence officials told American troops that a suicide bomber was near Abbey Gate. He was described as clean-shaven, wearing a black vest, and traveling with an older companion, he said.
Vargas-Andrews said that when he asked why the man had not already been apprehended if intelligence officials knew what he looked like, he was told: “the asset could not be compromised.”
Later, Vargas-Andrews and two other Marines spotted a man matching the description of the suicide bomber with an older companion, so they reported an improvised explosive device attack was imminent.
“This was as serious as it could get,” he said.
This image from a video released by the Department of Defense shows the explosion, behind he two U.S. Marines in the foreground, by a suicide bomber at Abbey Gate outside Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 26, 2021, in Kabul Afghanistan. (Department of Defense via AP)But when Vargas-Andrews asked for permission to shoot the man, he was told not to engage because his leadership did not have the necessary authority to do so, he said.
Vargas-Andrews said he then asked for his battalion commander to come to the scene, but the lieutenant colonel told them he did not know if they could shoot the suspected bomber. The officer said he would find out who could authorize the Marines to shoot the man who matched the suicide bomber’s description, but they never heard back from anyone.
“Plain and simple: We were ignored,” Vargas-Andrews said. “Our expertise was disregarded. No one was held accountable for our safety.”
Vargas-Andrews struggled to contain his emotions as he explained how the suspected suicide bomber disappeared and he later went into the crowd to find an Afghan interpreter.
While waiting for the interpreter’s family to arrive, Vargas-Andrews saw a flash and felt a massive wave of pressure. Even though he was thrown to the ground 12 feet away, he immediately knew what had happened.
This image from a video released by the Department of Defense shows U.S. Marines around the scene at Abbey Gate outside Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 26, 2021, in Kabul Afghanistan, after a suicide bomber detonated an explosion. (Department of Defense via AP)“I opened my eyes to Marines dead or unconscious lying around me,” Vargas-Andres said before wiping the tears from his eyes and taking a few seconds to compose himself. “A crowd of hundreds immediately vanished in front of me, and my body was catastrophically wounded with 100 to 150 ball bearings now in it.”
He heard gunshots and saw that his right arm was “completely shredded and unusable” and his abdomen had been ripped open and was soaked with blood.
Vargas-Andrews was unable to get up. He started to lose consciousness but then he heard his team leader screaming his name.
“His voice calling to me kept me awake,” Vargas-Andrews said, pausing for several seconds to wipe his eyes with a tissue before he continued. “When he got to me, he dragged me to safety and immediately started triaging me, tying tourniquets on my limbs and doing anything he could to stop the bleeding and start plugging wounds with the help of other Marines.”
Vargas-Andrews finished his testimony by making clear that he feels the U.S. government failed the 13 service members who died at Abbey Gate.
“The withdrawal was a catastrophe, in my opinion, and there was an inexcusable lack of accountability and negligence,” Vargas-Andrews said. “The 11 Marines, one sailor, and one soldier that were murdered that day have not been answered for.”
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al-Shabaab fighters walk through Mogadishu, Somalia in 2012. (Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP via Getty Images).With the 20-year War in Afghanistan over, Somalia has become the next major front in the United States’ ongoing Global War on Terror.
Since the start of 2023, the U.S. military has conducted at least a half-dozen operations in Somalia, mostly against the militant group al-Shabaab, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization. Those operations have come in the form of air strikes in support of ground forces deployed to fight the group by the internationally-recognized Somali government in Mogadishu. Most recently, al-Shabaab was also the adversary in the U.S. military’s largest battle in the country since the fateful “Black Hawk Down” mission in 1993, an assault on a combined U.S.-Somali force at the isolated Baldogle Military Airfield.
So how did al-Shabaab become such a major enemy of the United States more than two decades into the Global War on Terror?
What is al-Shabaab?
In its current form, Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, “Movement of Jihadi Youth,” — better known as al-Shabaab — is a Salafi-jihadist insurgent group based in Somalia. It previously controlled the capital of Mogadishu but now holds roughly a fifth of the country under its control, with fighters in Somalia as well as in Kenya and Ethiopia. The organization is made up of several thousand fighters, although the exact headcount is unclear.
Where did al-Shabaab come from?
Al-Shabaab did not emerge from a vacuum, but it did develop out of Somalia’s decades of instability.
Somalia has been struggling with chaos for decades. In October 1993, the U.S. military initiated Operation Gothic Serpent, an attempt to capture allies of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The mission went, to put it lightly, awry, resulting in the Battle of Mogadishu and the Black Hawk Down incident which killed 19 U.S. service members. The fallout from Gothic Serpent resulted in the U.S. pulling troops out of Somalia in 1994.
In the aftermath of that mission, Somalia fell deeper into chaos, with attempts at creating a central transitional government failing to enact lasting stability. The country was dominated by disparate warlords, some with American and CIA support. At the same time, a local religious force emerged trying to instill its own form of order: the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which formed in 2000 and was made up of religious courts that offered some form of authority. The ICU aimed at stopping the warlord-led violence and establishing a rule of law, albeit a religious one based on sharia law. In June 2006, the ICU managed to oust the CIA-backed warlords and take control of Mogadishu, putting it under one authority for the first time in 15 years.
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That rule was short-lived: six months later, Ethiopia led an invasion of Somalia with American support, nominally to support the Transitional Federal Government. The offensive was supported by the African Union’s mission to Somalia, as well as the United States and other Western nations. The ICU was quickly ousted from the capital and pursued by the coalition, falling apart both from outside attacks and internal divisions. One ICU leader, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, ended up signing a peace and political deal with the federal government in 2008, and was elected president of the TFG the following year. This put him at odds with the remaining ICU factions, which had become an enemy of the transitional government.
Al-Shabaab started out as a subgroup of the ICU, but emerged as its own entity during the war with Ethiopia and TFG, which lasted into 2009. The group is Salafist, a strain of Islam, and is led by Ahmad Diriye. During the latter part of the war with Ethiopia, the now-independent al-Shabaab took much of Mogadishu.
Despite its Salafist jihadi ideology, the group is mainly nationalist and focused on fighting for control of the country. However, it has carried out attacks outside of Somalia, including in Ethiopia and Kenya. al-Shabaab was responsible for the 2013 Westgate shopping mall attack in Nairobi, where four gunmen killed dozens of people. In addition, al-Shabaab has carried out attacks in neighboring Uganda.
Why is the U.S. involved in Somalia?
The U.S. military pulled its forces out of Somalia after the Battle of Mogadishu. However, the U.S. would not get heavily involved until the fight against the ICU picked up later in the decade. The U.S. supported the alliance of warlords that the ICU defeated in 2006, and then shifted support to the transitional government.
The U.S. military’s legal authority to target al-Shabaab stems from the 2001 Authorization of the Use of Military Force, the same one that authorized the U.S. to hunt down al-Qaeda and “associated” forces. In 2008, the Bush administration designated the group a Foreign Terrorist Organization and began carrying out airstrikes. In 2012, al-Shabaab’s leaders pledged loyalty to al-Qaeda.
Under the administration of President Barack Obama, the U.S. government designated the entire organization as an associated force, giving the U.S. more legal authority to widen its operations against al-Shabaab. That was in 2016, after the administration had already carried out several escalating attacks against the group.
The Trump administration widened that, leading to a major spike in drone strikes in the country. It was during this administration that U.S. involvement in Somalia surged, with the largest amount of operations taking place in 2019. At least 900 people were killed by U.S. strikes between 2016-2019. The conflict-tracking outlet Airwars noted that many ground operations are not reported, nor are CIA drone strikes. Trump also eased rules related to strikes, giving commanders greater leeway in initiating airstrikes.
At the same time, al-Shabaab had a resurgence of its own. By 2017 it had regrouped enough to start fighting. In 2019 it began a series of suicide bomb attacks on Mogadishu. On Sept. 30, 2019 it launched a major attack on a U.S.-guarded airfield in southern Somalia. It turned into the largest American ground fight in the country in more than 25 years, with soldiers repelling the attack. A few months later, an al-Shabaab attack at Manda Bay, Kenya, killed one American soldier and two contractors before being forced to retreat.
The United States has had military advisers on the ground since 2007, working with African Union forces instead of the Somali government. That was kept secret until late 2013, when the Obama administration announced the cooperation and sent more troops into the country that fall.
The Somali government, which the United States is backing, has its own special unit, the Danab, or “Lightning,” Battalion. It was set up in 2014 and trained through State Department funding, contracted out to the Bancroft Global Development private military corporation. Direct U.S. military involvement has since taken place, using the 127e program, which lets special operations fund local nations’ forces in pursuit of counterterrorism goals. The CIA also has a presence in Mogadishu, training Somali intelligence operatives in counterterrorism and helping run a prison for al-Shabaab members.
According to the think tank New America, the United States has carried out more than 250 strikes — air and ground, with the vast majority against al-Shabaab — since 2003. The U.S. has stressed its efforts to avoid civilian casualties; “[t]he Federal Government of Somalia and U.S. Africa Command take great measures to prevent civilian casualties” is a repeated phrase in releases on operations. However over the years of U.S. involvement approximately 100 civilians have been killed in the strikes, per outlets such as Airwars and New America. Other strikes have been designated “collective self-defense,” in support of allied Somali or African Union troops.
A 2017 raid by Somali troops and directly involving U.S. special operations forces in Bariire killed 10 civilians, including at least one child. The Somali government initially denied any civilians were killed.
Why has the United States’ military escalated its fight against al-Shabaab?
The United States continued military operations in Somalia for more than a decade, with no apparent sign of an end. Then in the last months of his term, President Donald Trump ordered all troops out of Somalia. All 700 service members left, with many going to nearby countries in East Africa and the Middle East; the U.S. said that counter terrorism missions would continue despite this. In May 2022, President Joe Biden reversed that, announcing he was sending roughly 500 service members back to the country. AFRICOM said that the troops would “advise and assist.” Then-Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said at the time that “[o]ur forces are not now, nor will they be directly engaged in combat operations.” When Biden made the announcement, the U.S. had already been carrying out drone strikes in the country since 2021.
Since then, the fight has escalated. In 2022 , former Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was reelected back to power, and pledged a new offensive against al-Shabaab.
In 2022, then-AFRICOM head Gen. Stephen Townsend told Voice of America News that al-Shabaab had “grown bigger, stronger and bolder” and was the biggest threat on the African continent. The U.S. carried out 15 airstrikes in 2022, four more than in 2021, and so far into 2023 it has conducted at least six strikes against al-Shabaab. American special operations forces also carried out a raid in January that killed an ISIS leader, Bilal al-Sudani.
The United States has approximately 500 troops in the country advising and assisting Somali and African Union troops. This does not account for special operations forces in the country.
The Biden administration has maintained the Trump-era policy on giving commanders more authority for strikes. As scholar Samar al-Bulushi noted, commanders only have to receive consent from the State Department, not the White House. There are more written rules to protect civilians, although it should be noted that 20 years since the U.S. first carried out an operation in the country as part of the War on Terror, there is no active declaration of war.
In January, the United States contributed $9 million in new weapons to the Somali national government. The Danab battalion numbered approximately 1,500 in November 2022 but there are ongoing efforts to grow it.
Most recently, an American airstrike killed seven al-Shabaab fighters in the country’s northeast on Feb. 21, per AFRICOM. Given increased American involvement and no signs of any settlement, the United States’ fight against al-Shabaab is likely to continue.
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Multi-purpose Canine Shimanski (left) with his dog handler, retired Marine Staff Sgt. Brandon Marquez. (U.S. Marine Corps photo.).Multi-purpose Canine Shimanski, a 12-year-old Belgian Malinois who is going slightly gray in his muzzle, has more than earned the title of combat veteran.
Between 2013 and 2018, Shimanski deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, and Somalia with U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, during which he searched for explosives while under fire, said retired Marine Staff Sgt. Brandon Marquez, Shimanski’s former handler.
“This does really take a very special animal to only do it but to be capable of doing it, the things that we put them through,” said Marquez, who later adopted Shimanski “He’s not just a dog that’s getting pet by the team and everybody’s happy to have him around. He’s really out there holding his weight.”
For his service with the Marines, Congress is awarding Shimanski The Animals in War & Peace Medal of Bravery, an award created in 2019 to honor service animals who have gone above and beyond the call of duty.
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Shimanski will join the ranks of other heroic service animals who have received the award including Cairo, the military working dog who took part in the 2011 Navy SEAL raid that killed former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Multi-purpose Canine Shimanski, 12, is receiving The Animals in War & Peace Medal of Bravery. (U.S. Marine Corps photo.)Marquez said he first got to know Shimanski in February 2013. By that time, Shimanski, who was born two years earlier in the Netherlands, had already received his name, and since it was unique Marquez decided to keep it.
The two Marines spent about six months training together before deploying to Afghanistan, Marquez said.
“Ninety-nine percent of my job was understanding what all of his body language was,” Marquex recalled. “If his tail started to spin in a clockwise circle, he was starting to smell explosives.”
In the form he submitted to nominate Shimanski for the Medal of Bravery, Marquez wrote that Shimanski often looked for explosives while in Afghanistan so that Marine Special Operations Teams could safely get to hastily established helicopter landing zones.
During one such incident in February 2014, Shimanski helped members of a MARSOC Special Operations Team reach a U.S. service member who had been fatally wounded, before the dog checked for explosives as the team rushed to LZs, where they were evacuated, Marquez wrote.
The team came under heavy fire after the service member was wounded by an improvised explosive device, Marquez told Task & Purpose.
Retired Marine Staff Sgt. Brandon Marquez (left) withMulti-purpose Canine Shimanski (right). (U.S. Marine Corps photo.)“We immediately started taking mortar fire, heavy machine gun fire, small arms fire as we were on top of a hill, trying to work our way down to clear for more explosives to be able to land a helicopter there,” Marquez said. “Shimanski, truly, he worked through rounds impacting all around him, whether it’s the mortars, the UGLs – the other gun launched, little grenades that they would shoot at us – to no-kidding heavy machine gun fire, trying to hit him as he searched around. He did it truly flawlessly.”
Marquez and Shimanski later deployed to Iraq in 2017. That May, their forward operating base was attacked by suicide bombers from the Islamic State group, Marquez wrote in Shimanski’s award nomination.
Shimanski helped with force protection and security measures during the attack, conducted post-blast assessments afterward, and searched the base to make sure no ISIS fighters were in hiding and preparing to attack again, the nomination says.
Also in 2017, Marquez and Shimanski were part of a MARSOC team that went into Mosul, Marquez told Task & Purpose. Before the team could climb a water tower, Shimanski warned them that the tower was rigged with explosives.
All told, Shimanski and Marquez worked together for about six years at MARSOC, while most dog handlers get to spend four years with their dogs, Marquez said.
“There was a little bit of luck at being good at the job,” Marquez said. “We would come back from one [deployment] and people would hear some of the good things that Shimanski did, and we would get requested to then go back, or go on the next one.”
Although Shimanski was not wounded during his combat deployments, both he and Marquez were in a vehicle that was hit by a roadside bomb, Marquez said. The two have also been close to areas where enemy rockets have landed.
“I certainly went through my struggles, and things like that, but Shimanski also kind of went through his struggles,” Marquez said. “He’s got a little Post Traumatic Stress and he’s been knocked around with me too.”
The two Marines had gone through so much together and had so much in common after four deployments that Marquez ultimately decided to adopt Shimanski.
Now Marquez owns a small dog training business, and he also runs a non-profit group that trains service dogs for veterans.
Shimanski not only provides Marquez with emotional support, but he also helps to train other dogs by showing them how to be calm and listen to commands.
“He’s my best friend,” Marquez said. “Truly, this dog has done everything in life with me. The successes, the hard days, the good ones, the ugly ones; he’s been there with it all. I get to work every day with my best friend and hang out with him. I could never imagine him not being with me for all of it.”
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The Army has returned to its classic 'Be All You Can Be' recruiting slogan. Screenshot).The Army has perfectly captured the wisdom of the axiom “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” by returning to the classic “Be All You Can Be” recruiting slogan that the service used from the 1980s until 2001.
After testing several different possible recruiting slogans, the Army found that “Be All You Can Be” was the message that resonated most with people of all ages, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said at an event on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., to mark the start of the service’s new brand campaign.
Indeed, the audience at the National Press Club burst into applause — and one person gave a thunderous “Hooah!” — after the Army played an internal video featuring the “Be All You Can Be” tagline that it shared on social media earlier this week.
On Wednesday, the Army released the first two recruiting commercials featuring the “Be All You Can Be” tagline that are part of the service’s new $117 campaign. The two ads – “Overcoming Obstacles” and “Pushing Tomorrow” – are both narrated by actor Jonathan Majors, star of the movies Creed III and Devotion.
“Be All You Can Be” and its accompanying jingle have proven to stand the test of time in ways that other Army recruiting slogans have not. Over the past two decades, the service has tried to market itself as “An Army of One” as well as “Army Strong.” Most recently, the Army launched its “What’s Your Warrior” campaign in 2019.
Wormuth and other top Army leaders on Wednesday discussed why some of the Army’s other recruiting campaigns since 2001 have not gained the same traction as “Be All You Can Be.”
“I was a little puzzled when ‘Army of One’ came out because it’s an Army; and we’re a big Army,” Wormuth told reporters. “We’re not as big an Army right now as we have been at moments in the past, but I think ‘Army of One’ was a little bit of a head-scratcher for a lot of people.”
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Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston drew laughs from the audience when he said that he too was initially confused when he saw an “An Army of One” commercial that featured a soldier running through the desert without his helmet on.
“Nobody knew what was going on,” Grinston said.
While the subsequent “Army Strong” campaign was better because soldiers are tested time and again, “Be All You Can Be” resonates across different generations because its message is that you must push yourself every day to be the best person you can be, said Grinston.
“I want my daughters to be better than I was,” he added.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville smiled when he thought about prior Army recruiting campaigns because he was “in the room when those decisions were being made,” he said.
“An Army of One” attempted to convey the message that each person is an individual, but they are part of one team in the Army, McConville explained.
However, “Be All You Can Be” has proven to be the recruiting campaign that best captured the spirit of young men and women who are interested in joining the Army as well as parents and other influencers, he said.
“I have seen all these campaigns over the last 20 years, and it’s always come back to ‘Be All You Can Be,’” McConville said.
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Bye Felicia!.Fort Hood’s III Armored Corps — which includes some of the oldest formations of their types in the U.S. Army, including the 1st Armored Division and 1st Cavalry Division — released a new policy in late January limiting who gets to lovingly stencil a new name on an M1 Abrams main battle tank’s smoothbore gun.
“Only vehicle crews who qualify ‘Distinguished’ on their own platform (combat vehicle) may name their platform” under the new policy, III Corps spokesman Lt. Col. Tania Donovan told Task & Purpose in a statement.
This is a departure from tradition for soldiers lucky enough to fill armor jobs during their time in the service. Naming an M1 Abrams main battle tank upon taking command of the armored warhorse is something of a sacred right that separates America’s tankers from everyone else in uniform.
While the processes for naming tanks tend to vary from unit to unit and commander to commander, most armored vehicles usually receive their names following the successful completion of a qualification course and before a crew takes formal command of their new steed.
“Crews who qualify ‘Distinguished’ on a platform borrowed from a different crew are not authorized to name their platform,” Donovan added. “Crews who fail to maintain ‘Distinguished’ qualification will remove their vehicle name during range recovery operations.”
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The policy effectively turns the tradition of tank naming into a training reward. According to Donovan, the new policy was designed “to incentivize excellence, to master the fundamentals, and ensure we produce lethal crews that will win in combat.”
“Naming a fighting platform is a long-standing tradition that we value; we are adding to that tradition by requiring more of ourselves,” Donovan said. “Our nation expects nothing less.”
In addition to restricting the process for naming tanks, the new policy mandates that tank names “must be appropriate [in accordance with] the Army Values, connected to the unit’s history, and approved by the battalion commander,” Donovan said.
This clause in the policy may appear cause for concern to tankers who have embraced unorthodox but not less intimidating tank names in the past. Under the new rules, names like ASVAB Waiver, Barbie Dreamhouse, and Dropped as a Baby would almost certainly become verboten.
News of the new policy first appeared on the popular r/Army subreddit in a post from an anonymous III Corps tanker, who wrote that the new policy has resulted “in numerous social media posts of crews sadly painting over their gun tubes.”
“With all the focus of senior leaders trying to figure out how to build esprit de corps and get people excited about the Army, it seems incredibly out of touch to take something like this away,” wrote the anonymous III Corps tanker.
“When the Army is trying to get us to ‘tell our Army story’ and use social media and word of mouth advertising to help drive recruiting/retention maybe we shouldn’t implement policies aimed at taking the fun out of the job.”
The latest on Task & Purpose The Marine Corps is getting rid of Scout Snipers * Air Force relieves 2 commanders and 4 subordinates at Minot Air Force Base * Why mortars are increasingly important on the modern battlefield * American vet who claims he defected to Russia in Ukraine served just 2 years in the US Army, left as PFC * How an Air Force captain was court-martialed for hanging up on a colonel*
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FILE: A South Korean soldier poses for photographers during an annual joint US-South Korea military landing exercise in Pohang, on South Korea's southeast coast, on March 12, 2016.(Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images).U.S. and South Korean troops are resuming large-scale field training exercises on the Korean peninsula with Warrior Shield FTX and Freedom Shield 2023, U.S. Forces Korea recently announced
Warrior Shield FTX, which began this month, is the U.S. military’s largest field exercise on the Korean peninsula in five years, while Freedom Shield 2023, which will begin on March 13, is an accompanying command post exercise.
While defense officials are not saying yet how many U.S. troops are expected to participate in the exercises, they could potentially involve thousands of American service members.
“Freedom Shield and Warrior Shield FTX are a return to the routine type of defensive in nature exercises that we did in previous years here on the Korean peninsula to build combat readiness and our combined defense posture,” said Army Col. Isaac L. Taylor, director of public affairs for U.S. Forces Korea.
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Freedom Shield will unfold over 11 days and include U.S, South Korean, and United Nations Command forces, Taylor told Task & Purpose on Tuesday.
“This training is an additional example of our ironclad commitment to ensure security and stability on the Korean peninsula and across Northeast Asia,” Taylor said.
Korean Amphibious Assault Vehicles with Republic of Korea Marine Corps Regimental Landing Team 7, approach Doksukri Beach, ROK, during the amphibious landing as part of Exercise Ssang Yong 16, March 12, 2016.(Lance Cpl. Kelsey M. Dornfeld/ U.S. Marine Corps)North Korea, which has asked the United Nations to prevent the latest joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises from taking place, has become increasingly belligerent in recent years.
In 2022 alone, North Korea conducted more than 90 cruise and ballistic missile tests, compared with eight such tests in 2021 and four tests in 2020, CNN reported in December. For months, the world has expected that North Korea will also carry out its seventh nuclear test since 2006.
North Korean state-run media also claims that the country’s military has successfully tested the KN-25 600mm multiple launch rocket system, which North Korean leader Kim Jong Un claims can hit any target in South Korea with a tactical nuclear weapon.
All of this comes after extensive efforts at rapprochement with North Korea under former President Donald Trump, efforts that included scaling back the Foal Eagle and Key Resolve joint military exercises with South Korean forces in 2018 and then canceling them outright the following year.
Despite the scaling back of large-scale military exercises, U.S. and South Korean troops continued to conduct joint drills on the Korean peninsula after the end of Foal Eagle, said retired Army Gen. Robert Abrams, who led U.S. Forces Korea from November 2018 to July 2021.
Since the end of the annual Foal Eagle field exercise, the U.S. command in South Korea has held several battalion-level exercises with units that were already part of the rotational force in South Korea, Abrams told Task & Purpose.
U.S. soldiers work on fundamentals of support-by-fire, honing skills in target acquisition and engagement, on New Mexico Base, South Korea, Feb. 28, 2015. (Sgt. Christopher R. Baker/U.S. Army)“We had to maintain the same level of training, readiness, and interoperability, and so forth,” Abrams said. “So, we adjusted the scale and the scope and the timing of exercises, and instead of compressing them all into one window where you have thousands of troops – whether it’s 20,000 or whatever – on the peninsula at the same time; we just separated them in time and space across the year.”
U.S. Forces Korea purposely did not publicize these smaller exercises to help the American government’s diplomatic efforts to come to an agreement with North Korea on its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, Abrams said.
For the most part, both U.S. and South Korean forces have also continued to hold computer-based command post exercises, although Trump ordered the exercise canceled in August 2018 and the command post exercise was canceled again in March 2020 due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Abrams said.
Even though the U.S. military took several steps to help diplomacy with North Korea succeed – including suspending the deployment of 5th-generation fighter aircraft, carrier strike groups, and bombers to the Korean peninsula in 2018 – the Kim regime did not reciprocate this attempt at détente, Abrams said.
“At the end of those four years, what were the ROK [Republic of Korea] and U.S. rewarded with?” Abrams said. “We were rewarded with the biggest year of missile tests by the North Koreans in 2022. We were rewarded with more development of nuclear weapons capability and harsher rhetoric.”
That is why Abrams believes it is appropriate for the U.S. military to recalibrate its training exercises on the Korean peninsula to send a clear message to North Korea, the South Korean people, and other Indo-Pacific countries that the United States will defend its allies, he said.
“It sends a message to the region that we’re not going to sit by idly and allow North Korea to do whatever they want – and totally turn their back on a diplomatic solution, because that’s what they’ve done,” Abrams said.
The latest on Task & Purpose The Marine Corps is getting rid of Scout Snipers * Air Force relieves 2 commanders and 4 subordinates at Minot Air Force Base * Why mortars are increasingly important on the modern battlefield * American vet who claims he defected to Russia in Ukraine served just 2 years in the US Army, left as PFC * How an Air Force captain was court-martialed for hanging up on a colonel*
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As families rearrange their priorities in 2023, having a solid foundation for your financial plan is now more important than ever.
Many service members with job stability can still struggle with finances, leaving many with large credit card bills, little savings, and a poor credit score. Some leaders are more understanding than others, but unlike in civilian jobs, your commander could receive a phone call from a creditor if you don’t pay your bills on time. That adds an entirely new dimension of stress to those already struggling to get control of their finances.
Luckily there is a path out, and it’s not as hard as you’d imagine. Navy Federal Credit Union has been helping service members and their families with financial tools and advice for 90 years. Below are a few simple (but extremely important) tips to get you started.
Make a Realistic Budget
As anyone who’s ever tried to make a personal financial plan knows, the difference between making a budget and sticking to it can be significant. All your carefully laid plans go out the window the first time you’re hit with an emergency expense that blows your savings out of the water. However, keeping your budget realistic will still help minimize the chaos of unforeseen expenses when they inevitably pop up. We’re not telling you what to spend your money on (that’s the point of income, right?), but to track it accurately. If you can’t live without that $5 cup of coffee each morning from your local barista, no problem, just make sure you account for it at the end of each month. One of the biggest mistakes people make when creating a budget is not being honest with themselves about where their money is going. If you’re buying anything regularly it should be tracked and accounted for. It’s not exciting, but living within your means will allow you to accrue wealth when you’re young so you can enjoy the fruits of your labor when you’re older.
Save Whatever You Can
Supporting the previous tip, you should make an allotment in your budget each month for some type of savings, whether it’s a mutual fund, TSP, or just a savings account labeled ‘emergency funds.’ The more you’re able to put away, the less fluctuation your budget will have when something unexpected occurs. Spending all that time making an accurate budget is wasted if the first financial setback completely derails your well-laid plans. Navy Federal Credit Union offers a variety of savings options with competitive rates of return so you can put your money to work even when it’s just sitting around to offset emergencies.
Consolidate Your Debt
No one is perfect. Expenses happen. Life happens. That’s why credit cards are so useful for unplanned expenses. Unfortunately, there are some companies out there that realize this and charge borderline predatory rates or hide variable terms in their contracts to ensure you’ll never truly be able to dig out of the pile of debt you’ve created. A solution for this is to transfer all your debt and exorbitant charges onto a single card with a more manageable interest rate. Navy Federal Credit Union has been helping servicemembers do this for years, offering competitive introductory rates often with very little APR for the first 12 months to qualifying applicants. That means if you’re able to pay off a little more each month in the first year, you can make a serious dent in your personal financial situation.
Increase Your Credit Score
Think of your credit score as a stand-in for you that lenders look at when deciding whether or not to approve a loan (car, home, land, etc). The higher the better, and the more likely you are to get a lower rate since the lenders are more confident they’ll get their money back.
A poor credit rating is 300–579 (out of 850). Anything over 800 is excellent.
If your score isn’t the best, don’t worry. NFCU offers its members great resources on how to increase their credit rating, like making regular payments and lowering their credit utilization.
The earlier you can establish good financial habits, the easier and more enjoyable your life will be as you get older. Let Navy Federal help you get on the right track now.
This article was sponsored by Navy Federal Credit Union.
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Russian reservists conscripted for military service during a partial mobilisation undergo additional training at a training ground of Eastern military district, in Zabaikalsky Krai region, Russia on October 13, 2022. (Evgeny Yepanchintsev / Sputnik via Associated Press).The Russian military is running so low on small arms and ammunition that reservists reported facing down Ukrainian defenders while armed with little more than entrenching tools, according to Western intelligence.
A recent update from the UK Ministry of Defense indicates that some Russian-mobilized reservists have reported their commanding officers sending them to attack Ukrainian fortifications with “only ‘firearms and shovels.’”
The shovels employed in hand-to-hand combat, per the UK Defense Ministry, are likely MPL-50 entrenching tools that have been in Russia’s arsenal for more than 150 years.
The continued use of e-tools by Russian infantry “highlights the brutal and low-tech fighting which has come to characterize much of” the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to the UK Ministry of Defense. “One of the reservists described being ‘neither physically nor psychologically’ prepared for the action.”
“Recent evidence suggests an increase in close combat in Ukraine,” the Defense Ministry update concludes. “This is probably a result of the Russian command continuing to insist on offensive action largely consisting of dismounted infantry, with less support from artillery fire because Russia is short of munitions.”
A Russian MPL-50 entrenching tool. (Wikimedia Commons)With the Russian military a veritable dumpster fire of a fighting force, it’s no surprise that dismounted soldiers have been stuck with little more than e-tools. Equipment and ammo shortages have become a defining feature of the Russian invasion of Ukraine since early in the conflict when footage of Russian soldiers looting grocery stores in search of food became a symbol of their military’s logistical shortcomings.
Such problems have only become more pronounced in the last six months following the Russian military’s mobilization of 300,000 poorly-trained and barely-equipped conscripts. In October, the Associated Press and Guardian documented multiple cases of newly mobilized soldiers complaining about getting issued rusty firearms and having to buy their own grenades and body armor.
Regarding munitions, as of December the Russian military had started dipping into 40-year-old stockpiles (most of them likely in “degraded conditions,” as a U.S. military official put it at the time) to keep up with the extremely rapid rate of artillery expenditures that defined the early part of the conflict.
As of early January, Russian rates of artillery fire were down nearly 75% from the previous wartime high, CNN reported citing U.S. and Ukrainian officials, suggesting that the military “may be rationing artillery rounds due to low supplies.”
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Equipment shortfalls have resulted in those harrowing conditions for Russian conscripts documented in the UK Defense Ministry intelligence assessment. In a video circulated on Telegram and other Russian social media networks in late January, a group of Russian soldiers bemoaned the state of their supplies.
“Our commander gave us an order not to retreat from our positions. But the commander gave us no cover and no support,” according to a translation by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. “We had only machine guns, and all the rest of the weapons were damaged.”
“Now they’re accusing us of desertion, since the company commander says he didn’t give the order,” the soldiers said. “In sum, command doesn’t care about us.”
Given that the UK Defense Ministry assessment believes that Russian troops are “neither physically nor psychologically” prepared for the close-quarters combat that would necessitate the use of an entrenching tool, we can probably all rest assured that there won’t be a Russian version of Korean War e-tool legend Benjamin Wilson on the horizon anytime soon.
The latest on Task & Purpose The Marine Corps is getting rid of Scout Snipers * Air Force relieves 2 commanders and 4 subordinates at Minot Air Force Base * Why mortars are increasingly important on the modern battlefield * American vet who claims he defected to Russia in Ukraine served just 2 years in the US Army, left as PFC * How an Air Force captain was court-martialed for hanging up on a colonel*
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Former U.S. Army Pfc. John David McIntyre told Russia's RT television news network that he defected to Moscow after fighting with Ukraine's International Legion. (Screenshot).A U.S. Army veteran who allegedly defected to Moscow offers a visceral example of how the Kremlin uses Americans with military experience to promote its propaganda about the Ukraine conflict.
John David McIntyre served in the Army as an Indirect Fire Infantryman (11C) from June 2015 to August 2017, according to the service. McIntyre never deployed while in the Army and he left the service as a private first class.
McIntyre told Russia’s RT television news network that he fought with Ukraine’s International Legion in order to gather information about the unit for Russia’s intelligence services. He also described his former comrades in arms as Nazis who had committed war crimes, but none of his claims could be independently verified and his comments closely mirrored official Russian propaganda about pro-Ukrainian forces.
It is unclear exactly why McIntyre left the U.S. military after little more than two years. Due to federal privacy laws, the Army is unable to publicly disclose what type of discharge McIntyre received or if he was subject to any disciplinary or medical actions, Army spokesman Matthew Leonard told Task & Purpose on Monday.
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The Russian government is likely to use McIntyre’s comments to RT as part of its efforts to undermine the U.S. military’s credibility, said Olga Lautman, an expert on Russia and Ukraine who works with the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington, D.C., and The Institute for European Integrity in Brussels, Belgium.
Interesting indeed! A US mercenary claims to have defected to Russia the first change he got…
Former US Mercenary In Ukraine Defects to Russia!
He Talks About War Crimes And CIA Involvement
RT brings an exclusive interview with former US mercenary John McIntyre, who signed… https://t.co/zXbFzp4015 pic.twitter.com/hnv17mZLOe
— GraphicW (@GraphicW5) February 28, 2023
“They are extremely jealous of our military, and they’ve always tried to be competitive on the world stage with our military,” Lautman told Task & Purpose. “Clearly we see after 2022, what the Russian military is actually capable of, which is very little — besides cruel tactics and targeting of civilians.”
But if Russia hopes to use McIntyre’s comments to sway world opinion about Ukraine and the International Legion, it is not likely to see much in the way of results, experts said.
“My guess is that while it may result in a blip on the news cycle it will not go very far,” said retired Army Col. David Maxwell, a senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies think tank in Washington, D.C. “I think people are tired of and skeptical of people like [Edward] Snowden and those who seem to be looking for their 15 minutes of fame or are simply misguided and deluded individuals. Maybe tired is not the word but most people do not look at people like this as having any credibility so they are not taken very seriously. It might be newsworthy initially but people quickly lose interest.”
McIntyre’s appearance on RT is more likely to reinforce some people’s existing opinions about the war in Ukraine rather than persuade viewers that the International Legion is a group of Nazis and criminals, said Luke Coffey, a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute think tank in Washington, D.C.
“I don’t think this episode will tarnish the image of the International Legion, really,” Coffey told Task & Purpose. “How many people — especially in America — are watching RT? “If they’re watching RT, they’ve already made up their minds.”
Despite his claims to RT that he has provided Russia with information about Ukraine’s International Legion, McIntyre was a low-level foot soldier in the unit, limiting his value to Russia’s intelligence services, Coffey said.
“It’s not as if he was in the chain of command making big decisions,” Coffey said. “It’s not as if a general defected.”
Former Army Pfc. John David McIntyre told Russian-state media that he has defected to Russia after collecting intelligence on Ukraine’s International Legion. (Screenshot)McIntyre’s comments will likely have more resonance with Russian audiences rather than U.S., European, or Ukrainian viewers, said Marek Posard, an expert on disinformation with the RAND Corporation.
History can offer some perspective on McIntyre’s case. In the 1960s, four U.S. soldiers, including Pfc. James Dresnok, defected to North Korea Posard told Task & Purpose. North Korea featured Dresbok in its information operations, but he was most effective for internal propaganda, such as starring as the “evil American” in North Korean movies.
It’s also worth noting that it is unclear whether McIntyre has actually defected to Russia or if his statements to RT were coerced, Posard said.
McIntyre’s comments about widespread substance abuse within the U.S. Army and Nazis in the International Legion are very similar to the Kremlin’s propaganda talking points, Posard told Task & Purpose.
If McIntyre spoke to RT voluntarily, he would be the latest American to participate in Russian information operations. Navy veteran Patrick Lancaster, who describes himself as a “crowdfunded journalist,” has made several videos from Ukraine that have uncritically parroted Russian propaganda.
Shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Lancaster reported that three people had been killed by a Ukrainian roadside bomb, but independent news sites later revealed that the incident was likely staged, noting that the skull of one of the alleged victims from the bomb attack showed signs that it had undergone an autopsy before being placed at the scene.
Marine veteran and former United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter has also spouted Kremlin conspiracy theories in Russian media, including RT and Sputnik. In April 2022, Ritter’s Twitter account was briefly suspended after he claimed that Ukrainian police — not Russian forces — were responsible for killing hundreds of hundreds of civilians in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv.
Going forward, the Russian government is likely to cite McIntyre’s comments to RT to persuade the Russian public that a growing chorus of Americans support the Kremlin’s war aims in Ukraine, Lautman said.
The fact that McIntyre fought for Ukraine and then allegedly defected with maps and other documents makes him more useful to Russian propaganda than other Americans who parrot Russian propaganda, she said.
“Literally every other day I see another American, who held a position in one of the government agencies, being touted on Russian propaganda to push pro-Kremlin points that it is the United States who pushed Russia into war in Ukraine,” Lautman said.
The latest on Task & Purpose The Marine Corps is getting rid of Scout Snipers * Air Force relieves 2 commanders and 4 subordinates at Minot Air Force Base * Why mortars are increasingly important on the modern battlefield * American vet who claims he defected to Russia in Ukraine served just 2 years in the US Army, left as PFC * How an Air Force captain was court-martialed for hanging up on a colonel*
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The 95th Academy Awards are approaching. On March 12, 10 films are up for Best Picture, including two focused on the military — Top Gun: Maverick and the German remake of All Quiet on the Western Front. But what are the chances a military movie can snag the top award?
Not impossible, but it might be unlikely. As of press time, the Las Vegas odds are not leaning toward either film. Still, both are backed by major marketing campaigns. Top Gun: Maverick was a box office smash (Steven Spielberg recently thanked Tom Cruise, saying that the film “might have saved the entire theatrical industry”). Meanwhile All Quiet on the Western Front made a surprise series of wins at the British Academy Film Awards, including taking home the BAFTA for Best Film.
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Plus the Academy Awards actually have a strong history of favoring military films. A tenth of the films have dealt with the military or war, and several more include elements from that (remember the Vietnam sequence in Forrest Gump?).
That history goes back to the award show’s start. The very first film to win was 1929’s Wings, the romance and war film focused on World War I aviators (at the time, the award was for Outstanding Picture, which evolved into the current Academy Award for Best Picture). Two years later, the original film adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front took home the top prize. It was a time of peace, but both the recent memory of World War I and the films’ epic depiction of combat captivated audiences and the Academy.
(Image courtesy Netflix)The aftermath of the Vietnam War films such as The Deer Hunter and Platoon about the brutality of the war and its impact won big. The Global War on Terror sparked many films about overseas conflicts in the 21st Century, but to mixed critical results. 2009’s Iraq War-set The Hurt Locker is so far the only one about any of the post-2001 wars to win Best Picture.
The Hurt Locker was also the last military film to win. In the years since, several have been nominated for Best Picture, including Zero Dark Thirty, War Horse, American Sniper and Dunkirk. In 2019, Sam Mendes’ World War I film 1917did well enough to win seven BAFTAs plus earn a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars. That could be a positive precedent for All Quiet on the Western Front, but World War I doesn’t guarantee awards; the recently released Great War-set The King’s Man did not earn similar accolades.
Heading into the Oscars, the multiverse-spanning drama Everything Everywhere All At Once has been winning many of the other award shows. But can Top Gun: Maverick or All Quiet on the Western Front win big? We’ll see at the Oscars on March 12.
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Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley (Department of Defense).Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, made an unexpected visit to U.S. forces in Syria. The top general visited American troops in the country’s northeast to hear from them about how the fight against ISIS is going. The visit also comes after recent attacks on bases housing American soldiers.
Milley was asked by reporters if the mission in Syria was worth the risk, per Reuters. He directly connected U.S. presence in the country with the nation’s national security.
“If you think that that’s important, then the answer is ‘Yes,’” he said. ”I happen to think that’s important.”
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Despite ISIS being driven from its last stronghold of Baghouz, Syria in 2019, the United States and partners have been continuing to fight and hunt down members of the terrorist group. That has predominantly been in Syria, where the United States has been carrying out several helicopter raids, but the hunt for ISIS has extended to Somalia as well. In January, the U.S. killed multiple members of ISIS in Somalia, including Bilal al-Sudani, described as a “leader” of the group in the country..
Even with combat operations continuing, Milley said that an “enduring defeat” of the terrorist group “can be done,” although he did not give any indication of how far away the U.S. mission is from that benchmark.
Milley’s comments come a day after U.S. Central Command released a report detailing the number of anti-ISIS operations carried out with partners both in Syria and Iraq in February. Those operations were conducted with Iraqi security forces and the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces. The report documented 33 partnered operations in Iraq, plus 15 partnered ones and two unilateral missions in Syria during the month. Despite ISIS’ many defeats, CENTCOM said, continued pressure is needed in order to prevent the group from rebuilding itself and be able to carry out new attacks against the United States and allies. “The fight against ISIS continues,” CENTCOM commander Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla said in the report, also not giving any indication of what a full victory for the U.S.-led coalition over ISIS would be.
The United States military has approximately 2,500 troops stationed in Iraq, and 900 in Syria (plus several more in nearby neighboring countries).
Milley’s visit to Syria also comes after one American base in the country’s southeast was recently attacked. The al-Tanf base, near the border with Jordan and Iraq, houses both American and SDF fighters and a trio of one-way attack drones were fired at it on Jan. 20. Two were shot down but one hit the compound, wounding two Syrians.
The latest on Task & Purpose A US Army M1 Abrams tank named ‘ASVAB Waiver’ is keeping watch over Europe * The Baba Yaga returns: Keanu Reeves is back as John Wick, possible Marine vet * A U-2 spy plane pilot took a selfie with the Chinese spy balloon * How the Air Force flew its longest-distance night hostage rescue * How Green Beret Paris Davis’ teammates fought the Pentagon for his Medal of Honor*
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The Italian Navy aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550), the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), and the Spanish Navy amphibious assault ship-aircraft carrier ESPS Juan Carlos I (LHD 61) sail in formation during multicarrier operations in the Adriatic Sea, Feb. 24, 2023. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Samuel Wagner).Tom Cruise just cannot get enough of naval life. And apparently the U.S. Navy can’t get enough of Tom Cruise. After bringing back Pete “Maverick” Mitchell for one last flight in last year’s Top Gun: Maverick, Cruise is once again climbing aboard a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, just not as a naval aviator.
Variety reported that Cruise is filming the eighth Mission Impossible film onboard a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea. Antonio Parente, the head of the Apulia Film Commission in Italy, told Variety that Cruise was heading to a carrier, “which is probably the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush, but we are not sure,” to film flight sequences for the movie.
As of press time, Task & Purpose has not heard back yet from the Navy about what specific carrier Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part Two is filming on.
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The USS George HW Bush would be the fourth aircraft carrier a Tom Cruise film has shot footage on. The original Top Gun used the USS Enterprise as the carrier in the film’s beginning and end. For the sequel, the opening sequence showing flight crews at work and planes launching was filmed on the USS Abraham Lincoln. For the final mission, Maverick and his fellow aviators deployed aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
Despite its reputation for big action and stunts, the Mission Impossible franchise has not significantly incorporated U.S. military elements. At least until these two upcoming films. The trailer for the upcoming seventh film, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One shows Marine Corps MV-22 Ospreys in action — the Marine Corps initially made such participation public before removing the notice — and that looks to increase with the eighth film.
There is both a military element and aviation role in the upcoming Mission Impossible films. Actor Nick Offerman is set to play the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in both Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One and the eighth film. Alongside this aircraft carrier footage, behind the scenes elements shared by Dead Reckoning director Christopher McQuarrie have seen Cruise both flying and standing on the side of a World War I-era biplane while it’s midair. Plot details on both films are thin, but the military is at least a major player of equipment in the movies.
The USS George HW Bush is currently sailing through European waters. The carrier and its support group were in the Adriatic Sea recently, taking part in NATO Vigilance Activity Neptune Strike 2023-1, which featured more than 30 vessels. The operation saw the George HW Bush sail alongside carriers from Italy and Spain, among other ships.
MH-60S and MH-60R helicopters assigned to the USS George HW Bush recently deployed to Turkey to help with relief efforts following the devastating earthquake there last month, which has killed at least 45,000 people.
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One is in theaters July 14, 2023. The eighth film is currently filming and due for release in 2024.
The latest on Task & Purpose A US Army M1 Abrams tank named ‘ASVAB Waiver’ is keeping watch over Europe * The Baba Yaga returns: Keanu Reeves is back as John Wick, possible Marine vet * A U-2 spy plane pilot took a selfie with the Chinese spy balloon * How the Air Force flew its longest-distance night hostage rescue * How Green Beret Paris Davis’ teammates fought the Pentagon for his Medal of Honor*
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A gavel rests on the judge’s bench in the courtroom of the 39th Air Base Wing legal office at Nov. 14, 2019, at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey. (Staff Sgt. Joshua Magbanua/U.S. Air Force).Former Army soldier Ethan Melzer was sentenced to more than four decades in prison for an attempted plot to ambush and kill his comrades in a “jihadi attack” while deployed abroad.
Melzer pleaded guilty in June 2022 to charges of attempted murder of U.S. Army soldiers, illegally sharing national security information and providing and attempting to provide terrorists with material support. Melzer, who held the rank of private while in the Army, was a member of the Order of Nine Angles, a Neo-Nazi and Satanic organization which has praised both Adolf Hitler and al-Qaeda. According to the Department of Justice, Melzer schemed to ambush soldiers at a base in Turkey, aiming to “cripple” the base’s fire teams and cause a mass casualty attack.
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Melzer, who also goes by the name Etil Reggad, joined the Army in 2018. The Department of Justice described his enlistment as an infiltration. Melzer, a private, was assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, which was deployed to Italy. In 2020 he was told he would be transferred to a “sensitive” base in Turkey, which is when he allegedly began plotting the attack. He was arrested in May 2020 while in Italy, before he could carry it out.
“Ethan Melzer infiltrated the U.S. Army in service of a neo-Nazi, white supremacist and jihadist group,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said in a Department of Justice release on the sentencing. “He used his membership in the military to pursue an appalling goal: the brutal murder of his fellow U.S. service members in a carefully plotted ambush. By unlawfully disclosing his unit’s location, strength, and armaments to other O9A members and jihadists in furtherance of this ambush, Melzer traitorously sought to attack the very soldiers he was entrusted to protect.”
According to the Department of Justice, Melzer, 24, communicated not only with O9A members but also alleged members of al-Qaeda. As part of his plot, he planned on sharing additional security details of the base once in Turkey in order to maximize damage done in an attack.
As of the sentencing, Melzer is no longer a part of the Army, although it is not immediately clear when between his guilty plea and now he was discharged.
The military has been dealing with an extremism problem for years, specifically far-right extremism, which has garnered increased attention recently. Besides Melzer and O9A, the Neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen — whose leader was arrested for plotting to attack Baltimore’s energy grid — and other groups have tried to recruit active-duty and veteran service members or have their own members join the military for training. Last year a former member of an Air Force security team was sentenced to life in prison for murdering a police officer in the name of sparking a second civil war. This week a former member of the Ohio National Guard was sentenced to six years in prison for manufacturing ghost guns and making threats against Jewish schools and synagogues. He had been quietly discharged from the Ohio National Guard last year after his arrest, Military.com reported.
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U.S. Army Spc. Jeffrey Santana, assigned to Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, provides security while dismounted in the amber zone, Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, Nov. 18, 2022. (Sgt. Julio Hernandez/U.S. Army).It’s been nearly 20 years since a U.S.-led military coalition invaded Iraq and toppled Saddam Hussein, and U.S. troops are still fighting alongside the Iraqi government to stabilize the country’s security situation.
In February, Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) conducted 33 partnered operations with coalition military personnel targeting Islamic State group militants, according to the latest data from U.S. Central Command, the exact same number it conducted in January of this year.
While the U.S. hasn’t conducted any unilateral operations in Iraq since the start of the year (CENTCOM did not disclose data on those carried out there in 2022), if partnered operations continue at this rate they will outstrip last year’s total of 191 operations just over halfway through this year, suggesting that the U.S. counterterrorism operations in Iraq, like in Syria and Somalia, are slowly heating up once again.
“We are focused on ensuring the enduring defeat of ISIS,” CENTCOM commander Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla said in a statement accompanying the February operations data. “We continue to work with our partners to take the fight to ISIS in both [Iraq and Syria].”
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The United States invaded Iraq in 2003, disbanding the Iraqi military and failing to adequately retrain a replacement over the next several years. Although the U.S. military formally ended combat operations in Iraq in 2011, American forces returned in 2014 under the auspices of the U.S.-led Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve to lead the fight against ISIS. President Joe Biden subsequently announced the end of U.S. combat missions in Iraq under CJTF-OIR in July 2021, stating that “our role in Iraq will be … to be available to continue to train, to assist, to help, and to deal with ISIS – as it arrives.”
Despite this, there are still around 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq as part of the United State’s ongoing advise and assist mission there at the invitation of the Iraqi government.
But the sustained presence of U.S. troops in Iraq isn’t to say that the ISF is faring as poorly as other U.S.-backed security forces in the region. According to the U.S. Defense Department’s lead inspector general report for CJTF-OIR published this past February, the ISF has in recent years increasingly proven capable of carrying out counter-ISIS operations “often without Coalition support.” Indeed, the Iraqi Counterterrorism Service (CTS) alone carried out 388 counter-ISIS operations in the last three months of last year (part of a larger uptick in CTS operations starting in the July) with only 30 involving coalition partner forces.
(Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve)“CJTF-OIR reported that the Coalition provided advice during the planning and execution phases, including advice on guidelines for the operations commands,” according to the IG report. “CJTF-OIR advisors observed the ISF’s ability to conduct an operation that involved multiple assets, such as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), fire support, ground forces, and civil affairs.”
Of course, partner forces in Iraq still aren’t totally independent of U.S. troops, “continu[ing] to rely on the Coalition, particularly for [ISR] support” in general, according to the IG report, so far that independent ISF airstrikes against ISIS targets declined in the last three months of last year due to, among other things, “a decrease in available Coalition ISR assets” compared to the previous quarter.
“According to CJTF-OIR, Coalition advisors enabled nearly all of the Iraqi strikes (except [a] December 6 independent strike) through ISR observation, directing pilots to targets, and terminal guidance,” according to the IG report.
Despite the progress made by the ISF under the guidance of coalition forces there, U.S. commanders don’t appear to expect U.S. troop levels on the ground there to change anytime soon.
“As we look into the future, any force level adjustment in Iraq is going to be made as a result of consultations with the government of Iraq,” then-CENTCOM chief Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie told Military Times last March. “And we just finished a strategic dialogue a few months ago ― we believe that will continue.”
“You want to get to the state where nations, and security elements in those nations, can deal with a violent extremist threat without direct support from us,” he added. “Right now we have the Iraqis doing the fighting. We’re still helping them. Over time you’d like for them to take a larger share of all the enabling that we’re doing now.”
Current CENTCOM chief Kurilla echoed McKenzie’s comments during a recent trip to Baghdad to discuss CJTF-OIR, emphasizing that, so long as ISIS can maintain an ideological foothold among the population there amid ongoing political and economic stability, the U.S. will continue to support the Iraqi security forces for the foreseeable future.
“In Iraq, we continue to advise, assist, and enable the [ISF] in the fight against ISIS,” Kurilla said in February. “Territorially, ISIS is defeated and incapable of holding large swaths of land. However, ISIS remains a threat and its vile ideology remains uncontained and unconstrained.”
“ISIS continues to represent a threat to not only Iraq and Syria, but to the stability and security of the region,” he added. “Therefore, we must continue the fight against ISIS alongside our partners.”
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(Aaron Provost/Task & Purpose illustration).Last May, an Air Force captain at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington was convicted of disrespecting her superior officer, Col. Travis Woodworth — specifically for hanging up on him during a phone call.
The convicted airman, Capt. Heather Donovan of the 1st Air Support Operations Group, was reprimanded and docked $2,160 pay for two months, according to Air Force records. She was already voluntarily separating from the Air Force at the time of the offense.
Donovan faced three other charges at the court-martial. The airman was found not guilty of a 40-day period of alleged failure to go (which means not showing up at an appointed place of duty); willfully disobeying an order from a superior officer; and wrongful use of cocaine.
The first two charges were based on testimony that “was clearly not truthful as evidenced by the prosecution’s exhibits” and by evidence presented by Donovan, wrote her attorneys, Capt. Adam Zenger and Mike Berens, in a request to set aside the conviction of disrespecting a superior officer. The cocaine charge was called into question by evidence that staff at the Air Force Drug Testing Laboratory may have mishandled Donovan’s urinalysis sample.
The only charge for which Donovan was convicted was disrespecting a superior officer, specifically for hanging up the phone on Woodworth. Donovan’s attorneys sent their request to dismiss the conviction to Maj. Gen. Kenneth Bibb, who, as the commander of the Eighteenth Air Force at the time, was the convening authority over the court-martial. Bibb upheld the ruling.
Now a civilian, Donovan says that the federal conviction, combined with the costly process of a general court-martial, was a disproportionate response considering her otherwise spotless service record and the fact that she was already committed to leaving the Air Force at the time of the offense. Her lawyers made a similar argument in their request to Bibb.
“This Article 15, UCMJ, level military offense does not warrant the serious and significant consequences associated with a federal conviction. Namely, loss of the right to possess firearms and vote and the significant lifelong stigma associated with a federal conviction,” Zenger and Berens wrote in their request to set aside the conviction.
Retired Col. Don Christensen, a former chief prosecutor of the Air Force, held a similar opinion.
“Hanging up on somebody on the phone is not worthy of being in a court,” Christensen said. “It’s rather disappointing that the commander thought it would be appropriate to have a federal conviction for that.”
Bibb, who now serves as deputy inspector general for the Air Force, defended his decision to uphold the conviction.
“A jury panel ultimately convicted the accused of Article 89, disrespect toward a superior commissioned officer,” an Air Force spokesperson told Task & Purpose on Bibb’s behalf when asked about the case. “After considering the matters and consulting with the staff judge advocate, the convening authority chose to uphold the jury’s conviction in this case.”
Woodworth, the officer who Donovan hung up on, served as commander of the 1st Air Support Operations Group at the time of the offense. Woodworth was the named victim on two of the charges and, as the unit’s commanding officer, had the authority to prefer charges against Donovan.
Now retired, Woodworth declined to comment for this article through the public affairs office for the JBLM-based 62nd Airlift Wing. Maj. Michelle Matern, Donovan’s former supervisor at JBLM, also declined to comment. Lt. Col. Elijah Brown, the military judge who presided over the court-martial, also declined to comment. Lt. Col. Timothy Ward, a staff judge advocate with the 62nd Airlift Wing, said it was against Air Force policy for military judges to respond to media inquiries about cases they presided over.
Donovan said she felt that an Article 15, also known as a nonjudicial punishment, which does not require a court-martial, would have been a more appropriate penalty for hanging up on Woodworth, rather than pursuing the resource-intensive process of a court-martial. In November 2021, her lawyers asked Woodworth for an alternate disposition to try to resolve the matter without an expensive court-martial, but Woodworth declined on the advice of his counsel.
“They could have given me an Article 15 and I would have been out by Dec. 6, [2021],” Donovan told Task & Purpose. Instead, her separation was involuntarily extended to July 1, 2022.
‘Highly respected and admired’Then-Lt. Heather Donovan pictured during a 2018 deployment to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar (Photo courtesy Heather Donovan)After commissioning into the Air Force in May 2014, Donovan impressed many of her early supervisors and mentors, seven of whom wrote glowing character letters on her behalf.
“Capt. Donovan exceeded expectations and performed flawlessly … I found her to be one of the brightest and most eager young officers that I have had the pleasure of working with in my 30 year career,” said Col. Anthony Muir, one of Donovan’s superior officers at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, where Donovan worked as an intelligence officer from 2015 to 2018, in a character letter.
Among Donovan’s accomplishments were the 2017 Major General John S. Patton Outstanding Active Duty ISR Company Grade Officer of the Year award, an Air Force Achievement Medal for her work at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar in 2018 in support of Operations Inherent Resolve and Freedom’s Sentinel, and an Air Force Commendation Medal for meritorious service from 2015 to 2019.
But Donovan’s promising career did not last as long as she had hoped. “I hate that Heather hit a rough patch in her career and decided to separate from the U.S. Air Force,” Muir wrote in his letter. “We are losing a superstar with a lot of upside.”
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During a difficult deployment to the Philippines in 2021, Donovan decided to separate from the Air Force. Donovan was struggling with mental health both during the deployment and after she returned to JBLM to begin the long, paperwork-heavy process of leaving the military. Basic tasks like doing dishes, laundry or even getting out of bed now felt overwhelming, like trying to pour from an empty cup, she said.
“I’m an intel officer. I have a Master’s Degree. I can read,” Donovan said in an inspector general investigation which was completed in February 2022. “But, I couldn’t for a month due to mental exhaustion.”
The inability to perform basic tasks is one of the many symptoms of depression, which is a common problem among Americans in general, including U.S. service members. Donovan herself was diagnosed with depression while still in the Philippines. Indeed, up to 9% of all appointments in the ambulatory military health network are related to depression, according to one study.
Donovan’s scheduled date of separation at the time was Dec. 6, 2021, but trouble was brewing for the airman. On Sept. 2, 2021, the captain’s supervisor, Maj. Matern, visited Donovan’s off-base home along with two master sergeants to conduct a wellness check. All three later reported smelling marijuana at the home, a claim which Donovan and her boyfriend, a former Green Beret named Jon Tuttell, disputed.
“I don’t smoke and I don’t know if it was coming from a neighbor’s house,” Tuttell said in the inspector general investigation. Recreational marijuana use is legal in Washington state. “I think they were being ridiculous. If you stand out in our neighborhood for five minutes, you’ll smell marijuana.”
When Matern and the two NCOs reported smelling marijuana and that Donovan seemed “out of it,” Woodworth consulted with a judge advocate and ordered Donovan to take a urinalysis test on Sept. 3, 2021, at the start of the Labor Day weekend. The decision alarmed Donovan.
“I don’t understand how we go from ‘I’m struggling after a deployment with these specific things (anxiety, depression, insomnia, having uniform items stuck overseas),’ to ordering a urinalysis,” she said. “I don’t know the train of thought that makes that appropriate.”
‘Can we talk?’U.S. Air Force Col. Travis Woodworth (left), the 1st Air Support Operations Group commander, and Lt. Col. Ulysses Linares, former 3rd Air Support Operations Squadron (ASOS) commander, pose for a photo during a change of command ceremony at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, June 4, 2021. (Airman 1st Class Jose Miguel T. Tamondong/U.S. Air Force)Things came to a head for Donovan on Sept. 7, the first work day after the holiday weekend.
On Woodworth’s behalf, another officer had ordered Donovan to report to work at JBLM at 9:00 a.m. on Sept. 7. Something may have been lost in translation, because Donovan said later that she had been told to report specifically to Col. Woodworth’s office. She did so, hoping for a chance to explain to Woodworth what she had been going through and to give him a letter explaining her mental state. But a surprised Woodworth turned her away.
“My understanding is she was told to report for duty at 0900 on 7 Sept, not to my office,” Woodworth said in the investigation. “She walked in my office and said ‘can we talk?’ I said ‘this is not the time and inappropriate at this point.’”
Woodworth told investigators he did not want to meet with Donovan in part because he “wanted to avoid the complainant potentially saying or giving him anything that would be incriminating or that would compromise the pending urinalysis,” the investigator said. He also prefers not to have “emotionally charged” conversations with anyone, the investigator said.
Donovan, who was under the impression that Woodworth expected her in his office that morning, was just as surprised by the colonel’s reaction. She had been hoping the conversation would be a chance to explain herself and to clarify why he had ordered the urinalysis. The airman recalled Woodworth simply saying “no,” to meeting with her, with no explanation.
“I was confused. I started tearing up not knowing what to do next,” she said in the inspector general investigation.
Donovan had prepared a letter attempting to communicate to Woodworth what she was going through, which she put on his desk.
“It is embarrassing, I’ve prided myself on performing under pressure in the past, dealing with stress and having healthy outlets and habits to cope,” she wrote in the letter. “Currently, I constantly feel like I am drowning, unable to keep my head above water.”
Donovan said the encounter alarmed her, and that she felt her leaders had put unrealistic expectations on her over the past few months considering both her mental health struggles and the fact that, as a separating intel officer not handling classified information, the captain was no longer performing primary or essential duties.
Donovan left the office, got in the car with Tuttell and drove to the base inspector general office to file a complaint against Woodworth, Matern and another superior officer. Meanwhile, Woodworth spoke with the judge advocate, who recommended he give Donovan a direct order to return to her duty location to work. He called Donovan to do so at around noon that day, right after the captain had left the inspector general’s office.
“He asked me, ‘I need an answer. Will you be here at 1300?’” Donovan recalled in the ensuing investigation. “No consideration at the time of the call that I was having a panic attack. It wasn’t a ‘I need you back at 1300 so we can talk, so we can adjust your hours to help you.’ It was … ‘I’m going to make you do this.’”
Woodworth recalled Donovan saying she was not coming in to work.
“I relayed ‘do you know who I am? Do you know this is a direct order?’” he said in the inspector general investigation. “She replied ‘I’m not coming in to work,’ and hung up the phone.”
Tuttell recalled Donovan was barely able to function when Woodworth called her.
“She was crying and very emotional,” he told investigators. “She wasn’t able to talk or breathe and fell to the ground and dropped her phone. I can confirm when he asked if she was coming to work, she answered in the negative saying she simply couldn’t.”
A C-17 Globemaster III seen during Armed Forces Day at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., May 19, 2018. (Senior Airman Tryphena Mayhugh/U.S. Air Force)In her inspector general complaint, Donovan accused Woodworth, Matern and one other officer of failing to promote and safeguard the morale, physical wellbeing and general welfare of an officer in their charge, and she also accused Woodworth of maltreating an officer by ordering a urinalysis “to punish that officer for mental health issues,” she wrote, and by declining to meet with them afterwards.
The investigator did not substantiate any of the allegations, though he acknowledged the situation could have been handled better. Woodsworth’s refusal to meet with Donovan, his making comparisons to airmen who also had mental health struggles but still showed up to work, and his “making offhand comments like ‘there is no crying in my office,’ could lead a reasonable person to conclude that Col. Woodworth may not be receptive to or supportive of personnel with personal challenges, to include mental health issues,” the investigator wrote.
Meeting with Donovan after setting aside time for her to compose herself could also have served as an opportunity for Woodworth to better explain himself, the investigator said. Still, the investigator believed Woodworth was right to order a urinalysis and to order Donovan to return to work, which he did after mental health providers told him the captain was fit for duty.
“The word that came up when I spoke to mental health providers was ‘exaggerated,’” Woodworth recalled in the investigation. “That Capt. Donovan’s symptoms are somewhat exaggerated based on their testing.”
Another psychologist had a different opinion of Donovan’s mental health. A forensic and clinical psychologist, Dr. Shannon Wright-Johnson pointed out how the captain went virtually untreated for eight weeks after first being diagnosed with adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood on June 17, 2021, about a month before returning from the Philippines.
“Captain Donovan’s depression and anxiety symptoms are evident as she describes her mental state as ‘cracking under pressure’ and describes her daily life functioning as ‘overwhelmed easily,’ … with a ‘constant state of unease,’ the psychologist wrote in a May 2022 letter sent to Maj. Gen. Bibb in support of a clemency petition.
“There is no way to definitively assess or determine if she indeed had a panic attack as she reported during that 7 September 2021 telephone call, however, experiencing a panic attack is in line and consistent with her diagnoses,” Wright-Johnson wrote in the clemency letter.
‘That’s pretty bush-league.’A gavel rests on the judge’s bench in the courtroom of the 39th Air Base Wing legal office at Nov. 14, 2019, at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey. (Staff Sgt. Joshua Magbanua/U.S. Air Force)The urinalysis results were returned on Sept. 28, 2021, about four weeks after the sample was collected. It found a level of 249 nanograms per milliliter for cocaine, whereas the military cutoff is 100 nanograms per milliliter. At the court-martial, one forensic scientist said that a typical recreational dose of cocaine is 50 to 100 mg and, when ingested, might show a urine level of 5,000 to 10,000 ng/ml in an average person at peak concentration.
The amount detected by Donovan’s drug test is so slight that she may have ingested it accidentally from her surroundings without even noticing it, the scientist said.
“Unfortunately, cocaine is somewhat ubiquitous in our environment,” he said, citing one study which showed that more than 1,000 nanograms of cocaine are present on about half of U.S. dollar bills. Even so, in the Air Force, a positive drug test is a surefire way to get court-martialed, said Christensen, the former Air Force chief prosecutor.
“When I think about prosecuting somebody, the question is ‘why are you mad at this person, why prosecute this person?’” he said. “In this case it sounds to me like it’s because you think the person used cocaine. That in itself is a rational decision under the current way the Air Force prosecutes drug use. But tossing on ‘hanging up the phone’ is just piling on. It was a bad call, it makes no sense to do that.”
Donovan was found not guilty of her drug charge after the forensic scientist’s testimony and after the defense pointed out that multiple employees at the Air Force Drug Testing Lab who were involved in processing Donovan’s urinalysis sample had been decertified or suspended for misreporting and mishandling samples both before and after Donovan’s sample had been processed. Both the bottle and form for Donovan’s sample were also missing specimen numbers, which could have resulted in a technician accidentally testing a different sample.
Besides the drug charge, Donovan had also been charged with a 40-day period of alleged failure to go and disobeying a superior officer’s direct order, but her supervisors’ own words and the events of Sept 7, 2021 led to the captain being found not guilty.
That left the charge of disrespecting a superior officer, for which Donovan was found guilty, reprimanded and docked $2,160 pay for two months. Christensen questioned why the convening authority found it necessary to uphold the conviction.
“Is there really any reason she should have a federal conviction for hanging up the phone, especially when she is leaving the military?” he asked. “That’s pretty bush-league.”
Nearly a year after the court-martial, Donovan is still recovering from her last year in uniform.
“I did love the Air Force,” she said. “It was my home and family for a very long time, and the fact that it left this taste in my mouth is so sad.”
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Former Army Pfc. John David McIntyre told Russian-state media that he has defected to Russia after collecting intelligence on Ukraine's International Legion. (Screenshot).An American military veteran who told Russian state-run media that he defected to Moscow after fighting with Ukraine’s International Legion served very briefly with the U.S. Army, a service spokesperson said.
John David McIntyre “served in the regular Army as an Indirect Fire Infantryman (11C) from June 2015 to August 2017,” an Army spokesperson told Task & Purpose on Thursday. “He has no deployments. He held the rank of private first class at the end of service.”
No information was immediately available about why McIntyre left the Army after little more than two years, why he finished his service at such a low rank, or what type of discharge he received when he left the service.
This is the entire video of an interview by RT of a US Mercenary who defected to Russia and claimed he always planned too. He was interviewed by RT and many have trouble accessing RT in some locations. Here is the entire 17 minute clip of the interview now on Twitter where all… https://t.co/4m8tWUSMo3 pic.twitter.com/saISBmg4y4
— GraphicW (@GraphicW5) March 1, 2023
In an interview with Russia’s RT television news network, McIntyre said he had served with the 1st Armored Division and was assigned to Fort Bliss, Texas. In one of the pictures of McIntyre in uniform that RT showed, a soldier next to McIntyre can be seen wearing the 1st Armored Division’s patch on his sleeve.
McIntyre told his interviewer, RT correspondent Murad Gazdiev, that he had served in the Army for “two years and a month,” but he did not describe the circumstances by which he left the service.
He said that he joined Ukraine’s International Legion in March 2022 specifically so that he could spy on Ukrainian forces for the Russian government. He also accused pro-Ukrainian forces of committing war crimes and being heavily infiltrated by Nazis.
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None of McIntyre’s statements could be immediately verified and his comments about Ukrainians being Nazis closely parrot Kremlin propaganda that the Russians have used to justify their invasion of Ukraine.
McIntyre said he has provided Russia’s intelligence service with information about the International Legion’s command structure as well as names of people involved in the unit and its weaponry, but none of his claims could be independently verified on Thursday evening.
“It’s the reason I came to Ukraine in the first place,” McIntyre told Gazdiev when asked why he had flown to Russia. “I’m a communist; I’m an anti-fascist. We have to fight fascism everywhere. When I came to Ukraine, I knew that I would try to get as much information as I could about, you know, anything that would be helpful and defect across lines.”
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The Italian Navy aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550), the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), and the Spanish Navy amphibious assault ship-aircraft carrier ESPS Juan Carlos I (LHD 61) sail in formation during multicarrier operations in the Adriatic Sea, Feb. 24, 2023. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Samuel Wagner).With the Russian invasion of Ukraine dragging on into its second year, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization isn’t slowing down when it comes to shows of deterrence to potential adversaries.
Three NATO aircraft carriers from the United States, Italy, and Spain just wrapped up multicarrier operations in the Mediterranean Sea as part of the USS George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group’s scheduled deployment to the U.S. Naval Forces Europe area of operations.
Photos published on the U.S. military’s Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) last week show the Bush streaming in formation with the Italian Navy aircraft carrier ITS Cavour and the Spanish Navy amphibious assault ship-aircraft carrier ESPS Juan Carlos I, among other warships.
The Italian Navy aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550), the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), and the Spanish Navy amphibious assault ship-aircraft carrier ESPS Juan Carlos I (LHD 61) sail in formation during multicarrier operations in the Adriatic Sea, Feb. 24, 2023. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Samuel Wagner)The carriers were taking part in NATO Vigilance Activity Neptune Strike 2023-1 (or NEST), the first such iteration of the maritime exercise this year, which saw more than 31 ships and 135 aircraft (including the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter) operated “in close coordination” alongside supporting units from Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Albania, according to NATO.
Roughly 8,386 sailors and Marines from 21 NATO countries “conducted deterrence and assurance through execution of a broad spectrum of sea, air, and land activities,” according to the alliance.
While the Russian invasion of Ukraine wasn’t explicitly mentioned in statements from senior Navy leaders, it was clearly top of mind for commanders as NATO nations keep a watchful eye on the alliance’s eastern border.
“The security environment is uncertain; NATO’s capability and will is not,” said U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Thomas Ishee, commander of Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO (STRIKFORNATO) and U.S. 6th Fleet, in a statement. “Enabled by trust, the agility, ingenuity, and tenacity demonstrated by the sailors, Marines, and airmen deter aggression and show we are ready to defend the alliance.”
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This current round of multicarrier operations comes just months after both the Bush and next-generation USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier integrated with the French Navy’s Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, the Cavour, and the United Kingdom’s HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier for an unprecedented five-carrier maritime exercise party back in November.
This past week marked “the first time Bush operated directly alongside allied carrier strike groups since late November when there were five allied strike groups throughout European waters,” U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Tyler Barker, a spokesman for U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa and the 6th Fleet, told Task & Purpose.
Its first deployment in nearly five years following a period of intensive maintenance, the Bush relieved the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier as part of the U.S. Navy’s 6th Fleet in September of last year.
The Bush’s Carrier Strike Group 10 (CSG 10) is currently made up of Carrier Air Wing 7, Destroyer Squadron 26 — comprised of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Nitze, USS Farragut, USS Truxtun, and USS Delbert D. Black — and the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf, according to the Navy.
“The level of trust developed between the U.S. and allied forces throughout our time in the theater, including past iterations of NEST and other bi- and multi-lateral operations, will pay dividends going forward,” said Rear Adm. Dennis Velez, commander of the Bush CSG. “Our national security – as well as Euro-Atlantic security– draws upon the strength of teamwork and our common purpose as allied nations.”
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An artist's depiction shows an E-7A in flight. The E-7A is the Department of Defense's future tactical battle management, command and control and moving target indication platform scheduled to replace the E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System. (U.S. Air Force).The jet which the U.S. Air Force will soon use to coordinate air battles has already earned its stripes helping the Royal Australian Air Force fight the Islamic State.
The E-7A Wedgetail, which is based on the Boeing Next Generation 737-700 commercial jet, is an airborne early warning and control aircraft, meaning it has a large multi-role electronically scanned array radar mounted to the fuselage which helps the crew see hundreds of miles in all directions. The crew uses that radar to spot and track targets, keep friendly aircraft from running into each other and build a picture of the battlespace that commanders can then use to understand what is happening.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Air Force awarded Boeing a contract of $1.2 billion to start working on a prototype E-7, with the first Air Force version of the aircraft expected to be fielded by 2027.
Though 2027 may mark the Wedgetail’s first year in U.S. service, the Australian air force has flown the jet since 2009. The Aussies have six of the aircraft, at least one of which helped take the fight to ISIS over Iraq and Syria starting in October 2014.
A Royal Australian air force E-7A Wedgetail departs after receiving fuel from a 340th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron KC-135 Stratotanker in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, July 3, 2017 (Staff Sgt. Michael Battles/U.S. Air Force)Though vulnerable early warning and control aircraft like the E-7 generally stay away from the shooting wherever possible, the information that the Australian Wedgetails provided no doubt helped coalition strike aircraft put ordnance onto ISIS targets during the campaign.
Fighter crews “need that information that we provide to be able to execute the mission,” one unnamed RAAF E-7 crew member told 60 Minutes Australia in a 2015 episode about Australia’s air campaign against ISIS. “We’re that central communications node.”
RAAF Group Capt. Stuart Bellingham expressed a similar opinion. “The E-7A Wedgetail is now a combat-proven capability,” he told Boeing in a 2016 press release. “It continues to excel on operations as a key element of the coalition’s air battle plan in the fight against [ISIS].”
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Early warning and control play a vital role in most air campaigns, which is part of why the E-7 often flew more than 12 hours at a time to support the counter-ISIS fight. In 2015, the aircraft flew continuously for 17 hours with the help of mid-air refueling.
The E-7’s good performance is good news for the U.S. Air Force, whose leaders say the service is in urgent need of replacing its fleet of E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft which has been in use since the 1970s. The E-3 is based on the Boeing 707, a jet that last flew civilian passengers for a U.S. airliner in 1983.
“There’s a reason why zero, exactly zero, airlines on the planet operate the 707,” Gen. Mark Kelly, the head of Air Combat Command, said about the jet in 2021. Specifically the “challenges of sustaining a 707 with TF33 engines.”
TF33 engines, like the 707 itself, are very old. The engine and the aircraft were first flown in 1959 and 1957, respectively, though the aircraft did not fly as an Air Force AWACS platform until 1975.
“It just really really takes miracle workers from airmen first class in the flightline to backshops in depot at Tinker [Air Force Base] to keep these airplanes in the air,” the general said.
E-3 Sentry pilots assigned to the 963rd Airborne Air Control Squadron conduct “touch and go” training at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, Aug. 31, 2021. (R. Nial Bradshaw/U.S. Air Force)Unlike the Boeing 707, the 737 on which the Wedgetail is based is still in production, so the spare parts supply is far more robust. In fact, the Air Force already uses a version of the 737 as a transport aircraft, while the Navy uses a version as a logistics aircraft.
The Air Force has had its eye on the E-7 for some time now. In April, the service announced it would replace a portion of its E-3 fleet with the E-7 and that a contract award was planned for fiscal year 2023.
Now that the contract announcement has dropped, the Air Force says that it wants to procure a total of 26 Wedgetails by fiscal year 2032.
“This contract award is a critical step in ensuring that the department continues delivering battlespace awareness and management capabilities to U.S. warfighters, allies, and partners for the next several decades,” Andrew Hunter, the assistant secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, said in the contract announcement.
“The E-7A will enable greater airborne battlespace awareness through its precise, real-time air picture and will be able to control and direct individual aircraft under a wide range of environmental and operational conditions,” he added.
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U.S. Coalition Forces fire an M120 mortar round targeting a known ISIS location in southeast Syria, September 10, 2018.(Sgt. Matthew Crane/U.S. Army).The U.S. military would certainly need plenty of howitzers, multiple-launch rocket systems, and anti-ship missiles to fight China or Russia, but infantry units will increasingly need next-generation mobile mortar systems going forward to provide quick and reliable indirect fire during the next big war.
Mortars “are more important today than ever for the men and women in the close fight,” said retired Army. Maj. Gen. Patrick Donahoe. “As the ranges of our artillery systems increase and the battlefield becomes deeper, the tank infantry team in that last mile of combat and in the final hundred yards will be more dependent, not less, on mortars for their indirect fire support.”
Currently, the U.S. military operates the M1064, a self-propelled mortar system, but it consists of a mortar tube inside the open chassis of an M113 armored personnel carrier, leaving the crew vulnerable to enemy fire, said Donahoe, former commander of the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Georgia. The mortar vehicle must also stop to allow the crew to fire.
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Going forward, U.S. troops need self-propelled breech-loading mortars that can be accurately fired while on the move, Donahoe told Task & Purpose.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shown that war will continue to be a slugfest between ground forces no matter how advanced military technology becomes. More than ever, infantry units will need mortar systems for close combat with enemy forces, said Donahoe.
“Large caliber mortars supporting the tank infantry team in the crucible of ground combat will often be the margin of victory or defeat in the evolving large-scale combat fight,” Donahoe said.
Spectators gather to watch the Patria Nemo 120-mm mortar turret demonstration Sept. 11, 2019, at Red Cloud Range on post. (Patrick A. Albright/U.S. Army)Toward that end, the Army is looking into the feasibility of installing a turreted mortar on Stryker armored personnel carriers, according to an Army news release from February 2021. The new mortar, or NEMO, is made by Patria Land Oy, a Finnish company. NEMO is a breech-loaded 120mm smoothbore mortar that can provide both direct and indirect fire.
Because NEMO is loaded from the breech, U.S. service members would be able to fire the weapon from inside a vehicle, where they would be protected, the Army news release says. Breech-loaded mortars can also fire at lower elevations than muzzle-loaded mortar tubes, which must be pointed nearly straight up so that rounds have enough kinetic energy to go off when they strike the firing pin.
Patria Land Oy has produced a 120mm Mortar Future Indirect Fire Turret for the Army, a company spokesman told Task & Purpose. Under its agreement with the Army, the company is also expected to produce a 120mm Extended Range Mortar system by 2026, the Army news release says.
For dismounted troops, mortars serve as portable artillery systems that are essential for close combat,allowing infantry units to provide indirect fire without having to call in air or artillery strikes, said retired Marine Col. Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C.
“The infantry really like mortars because they don’t have to coordinate with anyone else; they don’t have to call an air control center; they don’t have to call the artillery fire control center; they can just fire the missions themselves,” Cancian told Task & Purpose. “When things are moving quickly and communications are breaking down, that is very valuable.”
Because mortars don’t have a recoil system, they are lighter than howitzers and thus easier to transport than other forms of artillery, he said.
“This makes them suitable for infantry units,” Cancian said. “Although shorter ranged than howitzers, they can cover the area directly in front of an infantry unit.”
A soldier fires a 120mm mortar on Fort Bragg, North Carolina, June 2, 2021. (Spc. Jacob Ward/U.S. Army)As the Defense Department looks to a future in which U.S. troops may have to fight in “megacities” that have millions of inhabitants, mortar systems will become more important for street-to-street fighting.
Indeed, the second battle of Fallujah in November and December 2004 demonstrated just how effective mortars can be in urban combat, said retired Army Col. Gian Gentile, a senior historian with the RAND Corporation.
“Each of the two Army mechanized battalions that fought with the two respective Marine infantry regiments in the assault had a platoon of tracked 120mm mortars,” Gentile told Task & Purpose. “They were in high demand, especially by Marine infantry, because of their high angle fire which provided more accuracy in an urban environment, and, because of the size of each round being 120mm they had a lot of explosive effects on enemy positions inside of buildings.”
U.S. military experiments since then have focused on extending the range and accuracy of mortar systems, said Sunil Nair, an analyst with Janes, an open-source defense intelligence provider.
To wit, the U.S.-led Combined Special Ops Joint Task Force-Levant On Feb. 20 tweeted pictures of coalition troops in Syria firing illumination rounds from a XM905 Advanced Mortar Protection System, which has been in service since 2011.
The XM905 features a muzzle-loaded 120mm mortar mounted on an electrically operated turntable that can traverse 360 degrees, Nair told Task & Purpose. The system also includes technology to soften the weapon’s recoil, improving its accuracy.
Not all U.S. military experiments with advanced mortar systems have panned out, though. In 2018, the soldiers tested the Automated Direct Indirect-fire Mortar, which consisted of an 81mm mortar mounted on a powered base that could traverse 360 degrees, all of which was placed in the back of an M1152A1 Humvee.
But so far, the ADIM has proven to be too costly to the field, in part due to its soft recoil system, which slides the barrel forward before firing to help counteract the recoil, as our colleagues at The War Zone reported in 2018.
Regardless of whether U.S. troops face Russian or Chinese forces in future wars, infantry soldiers and Marines will need mortar systems that allow them to fire accurately and quickly change position. Ground combat will always be intimate and ugly, and the need for quick and reliable firepower will only grow in the future.
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Sit. Stay. Search. Destroy. (Task & Purpose photo illustration by Aaron Provost).It’s been nearly three years since robot dogs first made their operational debut alongside U.S. service members at an American military base, and the quadrupedal sensor platforms have found a growing number of new applications as an extra pair of “eyes and ears” for troops across the armed forces.
According to images posted to the U.S. military’s Defense Visual Information Distribution Service on Feb. 24, Cape Cod Space Force Station last week became the latest military installation to receive semi-autonomous quad-legged unmanned ground vehicles ( Q-UGVs), or robot dogs, to enhance perimeter security at the Massachusetts base.
Developed by robotic security firm Asylon under a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research contract awarded in January “for the augmentation of military working dogs,” the new Q-UGVs were adopted to “maintain high tempo perimeter security operations for deterrence and real-time intelligence” at the Space Force station, according to the Air Force.
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Asylon is a relatively new player, alongside military-focused power player Ghost Robotics and commercial golden boy Boston Dynamics, in the U.S. military’s growing ecosystem of robot dogs. Initially piloted by Naval Special Warfare Command, the four-legged robots have been a fixture of Air Force installations since 2020 when the 325th Security Forces Squadron at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida began experimenting with Ghost Robotics’ ‘Vision 60’ Q-UGVs to “significantly increase situational awareness for defenders” before taking delivery of a raft of four robodogs in mid-2021, a first for a U.S. military base.
The Ghost Robotics Q-UGVs in particular are designed to bring a package of electro-optical, acoustic, and other sensors to bear across any challenging terrain and in the toughest of environmental conditions, according to the Air Force.
Robot dogs “are going to become used more and more in spaces where you really need legs to operate, a combination of being able to go across rugged terrain and navigate through a human-designed world” of stairs and doorways, Peter Singer, New America Foundation fellow and co-author of Likewar: The Weaponization of Social Media, told Task & Purpose.
Tech. Sgt. John Rodiguez, 321st Contingency Response Squadron security team, provides security with a Ghost Robotics Vision 60 prototype at a simulated austere base during the Advanced Battle Management System exercise on Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, Sept. 1, 2020, (U.S. Air Force/Tech. Sgt. Cory D. Payne)As our colleagues at The War Zone previously reported, Ghost Robotics in particular envisions its Q-UGVs as capable of hosting a number of unique sensor payloads suited to a variety of intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) roles.
“These dogs will be an extra set of eyes and ears while computing large amounts of data at strategic locations throughout Tyndall Air Force Base,” 325th SFS commander Maj. Jordan Criss said in 2020 during initial testing of the Ghost Robotics Q-UGVs at that installation. “They will be a huge enhancement for our defenders and allow flexibility in the posting and response of our personnel.”
That “enhancement” goes far beyond mere surveillance. The same year that Tyndall began experimenting with robot dogs for base security, airmen from the 621st Contingency Response Group at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada employed Ghost Robotics Q-UGVs during an agile combat employment exercise that saw airmen scramble to secure an austere airfield against a simulated hostile attack.
During that exercise, the robot dogs fed targeting data to U.S. military assets on the other side of the country through the Air Force’s brand-new Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), so far that the Q-UGVs were “part of the kill chain and provided real-time strike targeting data to USAF operators,” as the late Ghost Robotics co-founder and CEO Jiren Parikh told our colleagues at The War Zone in a December 2020 interview.
“In the end, the robot itself is just a delivery system for sensors that gather information about the world and effectors that make change in the world, whether it’s picking something up or blowing something up,” as Singer put it.
Cape Cod Space Force Station received an unmanned ground vehicle in the form of a semi-autonomous “dog” meant to enhance their base security protocols on Feb. 24, 2023. Automated robotic security firm, Asylon Inc., will partner with the 6th Space Warning Squadron, in increasing efficiency of installation security. (U.S. Air Force/Tech. Sgt. Jason Whittaker)Providing persistent, semi-autonomous perimeter security and augmenting the ISTAR capabilities of U.S. service members deployed to global hotspots appear logical missions for robot dogs, but in the years since their adoption at Tyndall and other Air Force installations, the employment of Q-UGVs has expanded beyond merely patrolling sensitive installations.
In mid-July, for example, the 5th Civil Engineer Squadron Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) team at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota debuted robot dogs to replace both warfighters and military working dogs in “certain situations,” according to the service. As Minot’s Northern Sentry put it, these Q-UGVs will allow airmen “to react to CBRN threats downrange without risking the safety of themselves or others.”
“With this dog, we can strap on equipment and send it down to the scene,” 5th CES Senior Airman Karen Augustus told Minot Daily News of the new Q-UGV. “It has cameras on it so we can see what’s going on beforehand. It’s going to help us eliminate the risk to airmen’s lives.”
That same logic applies to explosive ordnance disposal missions. As of 2020, Ghost Robotics had teamed up with EOD technology manufacturer Zero Point to slap the latter’s TITAN disruptor solution on the former’s Q-UGVs for potentially handling explosive devices downrange, sparing service members from a potentially dangerous situation.
“The vast majority of our customers are using [Q-UGVs] or developing applications for [CBRN], reconnaissance, target acquisition, confined space and subterranean inspection, mapping, EOD safety, wireless mesh networks, perimeter security, and other applications where they want a better option than tracked and wheeled robots that are less agile and capable,” as Parikh told IEEE Spectrum in an October 2021 interview.
Members of the 5th Civil Engineer Squadron Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear team (CBRN) train on the new Vision 60 “Robot Dog” on Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, June 14, 2022. (U.S. Air Force/Airman Alysa Knott)The robot dog’s mission set keeps expanding. In late July, following the Q-UGV’s debut at Minot, the Space Force introduced their own raft of friendly Ghost Robotics quadrupeds to provide beachside security, launch mishap response, and Hurricane Condition alert team augmentation for the Space Launch Delta 45 units responsible for space launch operations at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
“Using the Q-UGVs as automated damage assessment and patrol robots, we save significant man hours which could be allocated to other activities requiring human logic and decision making,” said U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Kimberly Rumph, superintendent of innovation and technology at Cape Canaveral, at the time.
Then, in mid-August, the Coast Guard debuted a batch of “droid” robot dogs to “combat the distribution of Weapons of Mass Destruction” at the service’s Honolulu base in Hawaii, demonstrating the Q-UGV’s capabilities when it comes to “locating, removing, and decontaminating” potentially dangerous “specimens” and U.S. service members, according to photos released by the service, although few details were available regarding the nature of those missions.
Finally, in late August, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division debuted robot dogs developed by Boston Dynamics and equipped with light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors — basically Q-UGV-based laser scanners — with a unique mission: to ”build 3-D ship models aboard the ‘mothballed’ fleet of decommissioned ships at the Philadelphia Navy Yard,” according to the Navy.
“What you’re seeing is a growing array of sensors and effectors as these robot dogs take on more and more roles,” Singer said. “The legs are agnostic to what they’re carrying, whether it’s a soldier’s backpack, a chemical weapons sensor, or a .50 caliber machine gun.”
The U.S. Coast Guard performs a demonstration on how they utilize a robot dog to combat the distribution of Weapons of Mass Destruction at the U.S. Coast Guard Base on Oahu, Hawaii, August 12, 2022. (U.S. Army/Sgt. Gary Singleton)It’s not totally apparent what prompted the sudden proliferation of robot dogs across the U.S. military in the span of just a few months last year, although Singer suggests that their widespread adoption is likely a result of the broader spread of unmanned systems in general (and Q-UGVs in particular) among world militaries.
But while robot dogs appear to be gaining ground across the U.S. armed forces, the Army and Marine Corps are noticeably absent from this ever-growing dogpile. The Army had two Boston Dynamics robot dogs in its arsenal until loaning one to Ukraine for minesweeping purposes, but as recently as this past October Army officials weren’t totally sold on the idea of widely fielding a quadrupedal platform despite efforts to do so as an (extremely noisy) robotic pack mule starting in 2004.
“These legged platforms have some promises which we’ve identified, primarily from a mobility standpoint,” Army Ground Vehicle Systems Center chief of dismounted robotic systems Milot Resyli told C4ISRNET last year. “There are limitations to them as well from an endurance [perspective], as well as the payload capability and power of how much they can support.”
Indeed, not everyone is as bullish on the rise of the robot dog as the Air Force appears to be. Sam Bendett, an unmanned systems expert at the Center for Naval Analyses, told Task & Purpose that, in his experience, U.S. service members “may not feel 100% comfortable” with operating Q-UGVs simply because the technology behind the systems, while capable of, say, a fancy photoshoot for DVIDS, may not be mature enough to support sustained use in the field just yet.
“If [a robot dog] can move on its own and orient itself where it doesn’t have to be led with a cord, where it can move by itself and carry extra weight, ammo, or whatever, that’s where it’s most helpful,” Bendett said. “But this all really depends on a lot of testing of these systems within a tactical ground unit. Troops have to trust that the machine is going to move in a way that’s predictable without getting in the way. Right now, it’s very difficult to see how robot dogs can accomplish that.”
“Once the algorithms that operate the robot dog allow it to move in a manner that adapts quickly to any given situation without getting in the way, then it’ll make sense,” he added. “Right now, though, it’s a very amusing toy.”
Ghost Robotics Quadruped Unmanned Ground Vehicles (Q-UGV) pose for a photo at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., July 27, 2022. (U.S. Space Force/Senior Airman Samuel Becker)While their roles in U.S. military operations appear to be expanding, it’s unclear if semi-autonomous robot dogs will ever go beyond a surveillance role and lean into, say, fighting — that is, beyond its existence as another information node in a unit’s kill chain. Indeed, the major companies behind the Q-UGV technology (led by Boston Dynamics) authored an open letter this past October decrying the potential weaponization of such technologies by world governments.
But those warnings may be moot as global militaries pursue new methods of unmanned killing. In October 2021, Ghost Robotics and SWORD International unveiled a Special Purpose Unmanned Rifle robot dog outfitted with a 6.5mm Creedmoor rifle on the floor of the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington, D.C. in the first publicly available example of a weapons system attached to a Q-UGV. (That system, Parikh emphasized, had no autonomy and no AI and required a human operator to fire.)
And it’s not just American companies pursuing such capabilities. As recently as this past October (and just weeks after the robot dog-makers’ open letter on robot ethics dropped), a viral video from Chinese defense contractor Kestrel Defense showed an unmanned aerial vehicle airdropping a robot dog with a Chinese 5.8x42mm QBB-97 light machine gun strapped to its back onto a rooftop in a scene that feels ripped from an episode of Black Mirror.
For now, robot dogs appear consigned to tasks like foot patrols and persistent surveillance, although their roles and applications are becoming more sophisticated with each passing month. As Bendett explained, most global militaries are “discussing logistics first and combat second” when it comes to UGVs.
“The easiest way to use such a system isn’t in combat, where a situation is chaotic or unpredictable, but as a logistical tool to ease the burden for soldiers at the tactical level,” Bendett said. “When they’re used as logistical supplements, in that way they can be quite helpful.”
But even with the Defense Department approaching the future of semi-autonomous weapons with an eye toward AI ethics, it may only be a matter of time before America’s robot dogs move on from “sit and stay” to “search and destroy.”
“The armed role is coming,” Singer said. “It’s the same thing that happened with unmanned aerial systems … The Predator drone started out with just a camera and now it has Hellfire missiles.”
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The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Kimball arrives in Kagoshima, Japan, Feb. 10, 2023. (Chief Petty Officer Matt Masaschi/U.S. Coast Guard).The U.S. Coast Guard is playing an increasingly important role in the U.S. military’s efforts to protect freedom of navigation and commerce in the Western Pacific amid rising tensions with China.
In 2023, the service plans to send three times as many cutters to the Pacific as it did last year, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mike Ryan, deputy commandant for operations policy and capabilities, told Defense One recently.
In total, the Coast Guard plans on conducting three out-of-hemisphere National Security Cutter deployments to the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean this year, said Coast Guard spokesman Richard Kolko.
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Kimball has already deployed to the Western Pacific as of mid-February, conducting joint training with the Japanese Coast Guard. Two other U.S. Coast Guard cutters are scheduled to deploy to the region this year, Kolko told Task & Purpose.
Each of the Coast Guard’s 418-foot-long Legend-class National Security Cutters has a range of 12,000 nautical miles and a crew of up to 148 Coast Guardsmen. The vessels each feature a large flight deck and are equipped with advanced sensors and automatic weapons systems designed to stop rogue vessels far from shore.
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“The U.S. Coast Guard is a key component of the White House’s Indo-Pacific Strategy,” said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Jeannie Shaye, a spokeswoman for the service “A ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’ relies on maritime security which includes joint cooperation and building partner capacity. The U.S. Coast Guard supports national/service level strategic priorities and there is a strong demand from like minded partners throughout the region for USCG expertise, capabilities, and partnership in shared interests in promoting maritime safety, security, and governance.”
In addition to deployments elsewhere in the Pacific, including the Arctic and Antarctic regions, the Coast Guard has sent four cutters to the Indo-Pacific region since 2019, Shaye told Task & Purpose. Last year, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Midgett deployed to the Western Pacific as well as India and the Maldives.
Members from U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Midgett (WMSL 757) wave to individuals aboard an Indian Coast Guard vessel as the cutter pulled into Chennai, India, on Sept. 16, 2022. (Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier/U.S. Coast Guard)The Coast Guard works with the U.S. military’s combatant commands as well as the Navy as part of the Defense Department’s efforts to integrate all military branches to deter adversaries, Shaye said. Typically, Coast Guard vessels that deploy to the Western Pacific operate under tactical control of the Navy’s 7th Fleet.
“Our ships and crews are capable of combined operations with U.S. and allied navies, while largely focused on professional [Coast Guard-coast guard] engagement advancing local or regional partner priorities and helping to boost capabilities to respond to a diverse range of threats,” Shaye said.
The Coast Guard can help U.S. allies and partners assert their rights to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, where China’s own coast guard and maritime militia forces are encroaching in sovereign nations’ exclusive economic zones, said James Holmes, the J. C. Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.
Since 2013, China has built several artificial islands in the Spratly and Paracel Islands and seized the Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines to claim that its territorial waters extend to the “nine-dash line,” an area claimed by Beijing that encompass roughly 90% of the South China Sea.
This photo taken on February 5, 2023 shows Filipino fishermen aboard their boat sailing past a Chinese coast guard ship in the Scarborough Shoal, in the disputed South China Sea. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)“Beijing is trying to assert its sovereignty within the nine-dashed line, meaning the Chinese Communist Party will make the laws and regulations governing what goes on, and to replace the international law of the sea in those waters and skies,” Holmes told Task & Purpose. “Freedom of the sea will be no more. China wins if no one successfully opposes its claim to maritime sovereignty.”
To push its territorial claims in the South China Sea, Beijing has made the strategic decision to rely on its coast guard and maritime militia forces rather than the Chinese navy, Holmes said.
“Send the PLA [People’s Liberation Army’ Navy and you’re the bully in everyone’s eyes; send the fishing fleet and coast guard and you’re policing what you claim is rightfully yours,” Holmes said.
China’s coast guard spent much more time in 2022 patrolling disputed areas in the South China Sea, according to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, which was created by the Center for International and Strategic Studies think tank in Washington, D.C., to promote transparency in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Chinese coast guard spent 310 days last year patrolling Vanguard Bank, where both Vietnam and China have outposts, up from 142 days in 2020, according to data collected by the Asia Maritime Transparency. China also increased its coast guard presence off the Scarborough Shoal, and a Chinese coast guard vessel prevented a Philippine navy boat from retrieving debris from Chinese rocket launches off Thitu island, which is administered by the Philippines.
The U.S. State Department also recently criticized China for a Feb. 6 incident during which a Chinese coast guard vessel used a laser to temporarily blind the crew of a Philippine coast guard ship while coming dangerously close to the Philippine patrol vessel.
“If the Philippines or Vietnam or some other neighbor can’t enforce its sovereign rights under the law of the sea, it starts looking as though these neighbors have acquiesced in China’s claims,” Holmes said.
Having the U.S. Coast Guard conduct joint patrols with the Philippines and other Indo-Pacific countries facing encroachment from China’s territorial claims would help those nations enforce their rights to navigation and show that the United States has “skin in the game of defending allies and partners.” Homes said.
“It’s one thing to bully the Philippine Coast Guard or Navy, another thing entirely to bully the Philippine Coast Guard or Navy backed up by the U.S. Coast Guard and our joint naval and air forces,” Holmes said.
CLARIFICATION: 2/28/2023; this story was updated to make clear which comments came from Coast Guard spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Jeannie Shaye.
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Afghan Army commandos attend their graduation ceremony after a 3 1/2 month training program, at the Commando Training Center on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Jan. 13, 2020. (Rahmat Gul/Associated Press).In July 2021, less than two months before Americans would bear witness to the end of the United States’ 20-year war in Afghanistan in the chaotic withdrawal from Hamid Karzai International Airport, President Joe Biden appeared before reporters in the East Room of the White House and insisted that despite Taliban’s slow march across the war-torn country towards the capital of Kabul, a militant takeover was “not inevitable.”
“Together, with our NATO allies and partners, we have trained and equipped nearly 300,000 current serving members of the military, of the Afghan National Security Force, and many beyond that who are no longer serving,” Biden told reporters. “Add to that, hundreds of thousands more Afghan National Defense and Security Forces [ANDSF] trained over the last two decades.”
“We provided our Afghan partners with all the tools — let me emphasize: all the tools, training, and equipment of any modern military,” he continued. “We provided advanced weaponry. And we’re going to continue to provide funding and equipment. And we’ll ensure they have the capacity to maintain their air force.”
By mid-August, Biden’s rosy proclamations about the future of Afghanistan’s military had all been proven false. Despite spending more than $90 billion in security assistance for the ANDSF, Afghanistan’s core security forces had proven a paper tiger. Amid the Taliban’s rapid advance through the northern part of the country, Afghan security forces simply threw down their weapons and scattered, while some members of the the ANDSF’s fearsome special operations forces fled to Iran and aviators flew their aircraft over the border to Tajikistan.
“Afghanistan political leaders gave up and fled the country,” Biden conceded in remarks to reporters in the East Room on Aug. 16, the day after the Taliban proclaimed victory in Kabul. “The Afghan military collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight.”
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But why? Despite well-documented issues with the ANDSF — like missing weapons and ammo and non-existant “ghost soldiers” intended to siphon off money and equipment — how did a 300,000-strong fighting force stood up by one of the world’s most advanced militaries buckle under an onslaught of poorly-equipped militants?
The answer is relatively simple, according to a new report from the U.S. government’s top watchdog for Afghanistan reconstruction: despite the influx of money, equipment, and training, the Afghan security forces simply couldn’t stand on their own without U.S. support, so far that the decision to withdraw U.S. troops from the country “destroyed the morale” of Afghan forces suddenly left fighting alone for the first time in 20 years.
The report, published by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) on Monday, examines the circumstances surrounding the Afghan security forces’ sudden collapse.
The ANDSF “had long relied on the U.S. military’s presence to protect against large-scale ANDSF losses, and Afghan troops saw the United States as a means of holding their government accountable for paying their salaries,” according to the SIGAR report. “The U.S.-Taliban agreement signed under the Trump administration in 2020 made it clear that this was no longer the case, resulting in a sense of abandonment within the ANDSF and the Afghan population.”
While the report faulted “the decision by two U.S. presidents” — Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden — to pull U.S. military forces out of Afghanistan, it was the 2020 agreement between the Trump administration and the Taliban to eventually end the years-long conflict that “set in motion a series of events crucial to understanding the ANDSF’s collapse.”
Afghan National Army commandos take position during a military operation in Helmand province on Oct. 9, 2016. (Noor Mohammad/AFP via Getty Images)The first effect of the 2020 agreement was a sudden decrease in U.S. airstrikes, which rose so rapidly after Trump took office that the U.S. military conducted nearly 7,500 airstrikes in 2019 alone, the highest volume in a decade. The ANDSF was “making progress and recapturing territory” from the Taliban with airstrikes at their back, according to the SIGAR report, but “limiting airstrikes after the signing of the U.S.-Taliban agreement the following year left the ANDSF without a key advantage in keeping the Taliban at bay.”
The issues exposed by the sudden evaporation of U.S. air support were built into the very structure of the ANDSF, according to the SIGAR report. The ANDSF remained reliant on the U.S. military ”in part because the United States designed the ANDSF as a mirror image of U.S. forces, which required a high degree of professional military sophistication and leadership” — something the Afghan security forces simply lacked, the report noted. A chief example was the creation of a noncommissioned officer corps within the ANDSF, which “had no foundation in Afghanistan military history,” according to the report.
“Because U.S. troops were far more effective at fighting, they often led missions or filled critical gaps in missions — providing close air support, airstrikes, medical evacuation, logistics, and intelligence gathering — at the expense of the ANDSF gaining experience fighting on its own,” the report says. “As a result, the ANDSF became overly reliant on borrowed capabilities.”
The collapse of the Afghan Air Force, long-predicted before it actually happened in the leadup to the Taliban sweep of Kabul, was all but inevitable despite its status as a jewel of the Biden administration’s withdrawal plan, according to the SIGAR report, which indicated that the AAF was “not projected” to be self-sufficient “until at least 2030.” Despite this, the Biden administration made the decision in May 2021 to withdraw on-site contract maintenance from Afghanistan, a move that greatly reduced the availability of operational aircraft and maintenance resources at critical airports, further compounding logistical problems for the ANDSF’s ground forces.
“Because the ANDSF did not have the logistical capability of moving stockpiles of U.S.-provided weapons and supplies by ground quickly enough to meet operational demands, it had to rely on a thinly stretched AAF to do so,” according to the SIGAR report. “As a result, ANDSF units complained that they lacked enough ammunition, food, water, and other military equipment to sustain military engagements against the Taliban.”
Indeed, the Trump administration isn’t entirely to blame for the collapse of morale. The SIGAR report also faulted the Biden administration for an “abrupt and uncoordinated” withdrawal effort, so far that “the character of the withdrawal left many Afghans with the impression that the U.S. was simply handing Afghanistan over to a Taliban government-in-waiting,” in the report’s words.
Taliban fighters celebrate the first anniversary of the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops from Afghanistan, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)With the ANDSF structurally compromised and low on morale, it was only a matter of time before the Taliban managed to retake the country. “The Taliban’s military campaign exploited the ANDSF’s logistical, tactical, and leadership weaknesses,” according to the SIGAR report. “Direct attacks and negotiated surrenders set up a domino effect of one district after another falling to the Taliban. The Taliban’s media and psychological warfare campaign, magnified by real-time reporting, further undermined the Afghan forces’ determination to fight.”
There are larger systemic factors that influenced the collapse of the ANDSF as documented by SIGAR, chief among them is that “the length of the U.S. commitment was disconnected from a realistic understanding of the time required to build a self-sustaining security sector — a process that took decades to achieve in South Korea.” Nation-building is a difficult, multi-generational challenge, one that requires socioeconomic stability to truly implement — something that Afghanistan fundamentally lacked.
More damning, however, is that the SIGAR report indicates that Afghanistan reconstruction efforts were fundamentally mismanaged, so far that the U.S. military “was tasked with balancing competing requirements” and “no one country or agency had ownership of the ANDSF development mission.” In short, long-term ownership and accountability for the progress of the Afghanistan reconstruction effort basically didn’t exist; few, if any, of the organizations involved knew what they were responsible for and no one group was particularly willing to take the lead.
Speaking in the East Room that afternoon in July 2021, Biden may have captured the hopes and aspirations for the ANDSF among the U.S. government’s military and diplomatic circles. But the SIGAR report makes one thing perfectly clear: when it came to the actual future and security of Afghanistan, all those hopes and aspirations meant nothing at all.
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The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville transits the Pacific Ocean. (U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Stephen M. Votaw).The Navy will rename the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville for Robert Smalls, a former slave-turned-sailor and statesman known for commandeering a Confederate steamer and delivering it into the hands of the Union during the Civil War, the service said in a statement.
Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro announced the new name for the cruiser on Monday, months after the congressionally-mandated ‘Commission on the Naming of Items of the DoD that Commemorate the Confederate States of America or Any Person Who Served Voluntarily with the Confederate States of America’ (or, “the Naming Commission”) recommended renaming the vessel due to the Chancellorsville’s ties to the Confederacy.
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“The renaming of these assets is not about rewriting history, but to remove the focus on the parts of our history that don’t align with the tenets of this country, and instead allows us to highlight the events and people in history who may have been overlooked,” Del Toro said in a statement. “Robert Smalls is a man who deserves a namesake ship and with this renaming, his story will continue to be retold and highlighted.”
Here’s a capsule history of Small’s heroism, according to the Navy:
Robert Smalls (1839-1915) was born into slavery in South Carolina. He became a skilled sailor and was an expert navigator of southern coasts. Smalls was conscripted in 1862 to serve as pilot of the Confederate steamer Planter at Charleston. On 13 May 1862, he executed a daring escape out of the heavily fortified Charleston harbor with his family, other enslaved people, and valuable military cargo onboard, and successfully surrendered Planter to the U.S. Navy. Smalls continued as pilot of the ship, but also piloted ironclad Keokuk and other vessels. He ultimately became captain of Planter. An ardent advocate for African Americans, Smalls led one of the first boycotts of segregated public transportation in 1864. This movement led to the city of Philadelphia integrating streetcars in 1867. After the Civil War, Smalls was appointed a brigadier general of the South Carolina militia, and from 1868 to 1874 he served in the South Carolina legislature. In 1874, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served for five terms, advocating for greater integration. After his time in Congress, Smalls was twice appointed collector of the Port of Beaufort, South Carolina. He died at Beaufort in 1915.
The push to rename the Chancellorsville came amid renewed debate in recent years over U.S. military bases and other installations that bear the names of Confederate officers. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin officially approved the implementation of the final recommendations of the Naming Commission to alter the names of some 1,111 installations and facilities in a memo last October.
The Chancellorsville, commissioned in 1989 and named for an 1863 battle in which the Confederacy emerged victorious, is one of two vessels looking at a new name in the coming years. The other is the oceanographic survey ship USNS Maury, which is named for oceanographer and U.S. Navy-turned-Confederate sailor Matthew Fontaine Maury.
“After reviewing the commissioning ceremony and studying the heraldry made for the ship, the commission decided the cruiser celebrated the Confederacy,” as USNI News noted on Monday.
These installations are “powerful public symbols of our military, and of course, they are the places where our Service members and their families work and live,” Austin wrote at the time. “The names of these installations and facilities should inspire all those who call them home, fully reflect the history and the values of the United States, and commemorate the best of the republic that we are all sworn to protect.”
The Chancellorsville is currently assigned to Carrier Strike Group Five and is forward-deployed to Yokosuka, Japan. Implementing the Naming Commission’s renaming plan is expected to cost the Defense Department roughly $62.5 million, according to the commission’s final report.
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U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Adam Hytrek, a scout sniper with Battalion Landing Team 1/4, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, provides overwatch for a visit, board, search, and seizure exercise on the USS Miguel Keith (ESB-5) in the Philippine Sea, Feb. 11, 2023. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Vincent Pham).The Marine Corps is getting rid of its Scout Sniper Platoons as part of massive force structure changes, but Marine reconnaissance and special operations units will continue to have their own school-trained snipers, a Marine Corps spokesman said.
Scout Snipers, who operate in pairs of spotters and shooters, go through extensive training to learn how to move without being detected and either kill a target from a distance or report an enemy’s position to headquarters. They provide forward reconnaissance and observation for infantry battalions and, on occasion, also protect U.S. military installations and embassies abroad.
However, Marine Corps wargames found that the Corps’ newly-redesigned infantry battalions did not have enough all-weather capabilities to conduct intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, spokesman Capt Ryan Bruce told Task & Purpose on Monday.
That is why Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger approved a plan to create Scout Platoons with 26 Marines to replace Scout Sniper Platoons in infantry battalions, Bruce said.
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Infantry battalions will continue to have sniper rifles in their armories because Marines in infantry military occupational specialties will receive enough training to know how to use them even without going through the Scout Sniper course, Bruce told Task & Purpose on Monday.
“Scout Snipers have served the Marine Corps since World War II,” Bruce said in a statement. “Due to the shift to a Scout Platoon, the 0317 MOS will no longer be awarded. The Marine Corps is establishing the Reconnaissance Sniper (0322) MOS, for designated 0321 MOS Reconnaissance Marines, which will be organic to reconnaissance battalions.”
Marines Scout Snipers and sailors participate in several live-fire exercises July 21-22 at Camp Lejeune, N.C. (Lance Cpl. Ryan Young/ U.S. Marine Corps)The Marine Corps’ decision to eliminate Scout Sniper Platoons was first announced in a message from Marine Lt. Gen. David J. Furness, deputy commandant for plans, policies, and operations, approved the message, which was sent on all major commands on Thursday.
The message was then shared on Instagram before that post was taken down on Friday.
With the subject line “Scout Sniper Transition,” the message from Furness “directs immediate transition of Scout Sniper Platoons to Scout Platoons.”
“The Commandant of the Marine Corps agreed to establish a scout platoon within the Infantry Battalion to provide the commander with relevant, reliable, accurate, and prompt information,” the message says. “The Scout Platoon consists of 26 Marines, four teams of six infantry Marines led by a First Lieutenant and infantry Gunnery Sergeant. Trained designated marksmen and precision rifles will remain within the Infantry Company.
The Marine Corps in the midst of Force Design 2030, a massive overhaul of its force structure that is intended to make the Corps leaner and more nimble to fight China.
Last may, the Corps issued an update on Force Design 2030 that showed officials were looking at possibly replacing Scout Sniper platoons with “other options” which were not specified.
“Our initial re-organization of the infantry battalion disaggregated the sniper platoon and added one sniper team per company,” the update said. “Our force-on-force exercises have identified other options to organize this capability. Continue to evaluate the merits of each possible construct and provide a formal recommendation no later than 1 September 2022.”
A Marine Scout Sniper fires a semi-automatic sniper system at a marksmanship training event near Camp Buehring. Kuwait. (Cpl. Timothy Childers/U.S. Marine Corps)Retired Master Sgt. Tim Parkhurst, President and Chief Executive Officer of the USMC Scout Sniper Association, issued a statement on Friday saying his organization urged Berger to reconsider the decision to phase out the Scout Sniper community.
“As a secondary Military Occupational Specialty (MOS), Scout Snipers have never had an advocate, proponent or assignment monitor who had the best interest of building a Scout Sniper capability within the Corps at heart,” Pakhurst said in a statement. This announcement by the Deputy Commandant, Plans, Policy and Operations is the result.”
Parkhurst told Task & Purpose that getting rid of Scout Snipers would gut the ability of infantry battalions to provide precision fires and conduct surveillance and close reconnaissance missions.
“If we can’t hit a target with our rifle, we can sure as hell report on the target and send that information back to our unit commander,” Parkhurst said “Because most commanders don’t exercise the capability while they’re in training, they don’t see it. They don’t understand what a platoon or a squad or a team of Scout Snipers can provide.”
Parkhurst said his understanding of the Marine Corps’ plan is that Scout Sniper training would end on Oct. 1 and none of the Marines in the new Scout Platoons would be snipers.
While Reconnaissance Marines and U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Command would continue to train their own snipers, that does not necessarily mean that those snipers would be available to infantry battalion commanders whenever they are needed, Parkhurst said.
Recon Marines operate separately from infantry units, and MARSOC Raiders fall under U.S. Special Operations Command, so the Marine Corps cannot order them to augment infantry battalions or Marine Expeditionary Units, Parkhurst said.
“There’s no agreement between the Marine Corps and MARSOC to put MARSOC-trained snipers on a MEU,” Parkhurst said. “So, the idea that they’re somehow going to source the sniper capability from these other two places is ludicrous.”
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A B-52H Stratofortress takes off from a flighline on Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, Nov. 21, 2019. (Airman 1st Class Jesse Jenny/U.S. Air Force).Two commanders and four subordinate leaders at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, have been relieved of command, according to a terse news release from 8th Air Force.
Maj. Gen. Andrew Gebara, commander of 8th Air Force, relieved Col. Gregory C. Mayer, commander of the 5th Mission Support Group, and Maj. Jonathan Welch, commander of the 5th Logistics Readiness Squadron on Monday, according to an Air Force Global Strike Command spokesperson.
The command, which oversees the Air Force’s nuclear bombers and missiles, is not releasing the names of the four subordinate leaders, who were relieved by other commanders assigned to Minot, the spokesperson said.
“To protect the privacy of the individuals, further details will not be released,” the news release says.
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Mayer, Welch, and the four subordinate leaders were relieved of command “due to a loss of confidence in their ability to complete their assigned duties,” Air Force officials said.
The 5th Bomb Wing, which falls under the 8th Air Force, is based at Minot. The wing flies the B-52H Stratofortress, which is one of the two types of nuclear-capable bombers that the Air Force uses.
No information was available about why Gebara and the other commanders lost confidence in the six individuals.
“These personnel actions were necessary to maintain the very high standards we demand of those units entrusted with supporting our Nation’s nuclear mission,” Gebara said in the news release about his decision to relieve Mayer and Welch.
Ten years ago, Minot became ground zero for the Air Force’s problems with the nuclear enterprise when missile crews performed poorly during a March 2013 inspection and Lt. Col. Jay Folds, deputy commander of the 91st Operations Group, sent an internal email warning of “rot” within the missileer crew force at Minot, according to the Associated Press.
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The confiscated narcotics. (photo courtesy U.S. Coast Guard).The U.S. Coast Guard made a major drug bust on Saturday, seizing more than 1,500 kilograms of narcotics from a fishing boat moving through the Arabian Sea. The USCG John Scheuerman was on a routine patrol in the sea when it encountered the vessel.
The fishing ship, sailing with a crew of four, was carrying 1,350 kilograms of hashish, 276 kilograms of methamphetamine and 23 kilograms of amphetamine pills, which the Coast Guard said had a street value of $20 million. It’s unclear how they came to that estimation. A photo shared by the Coast Guard shows service members conducting an inventory of the cargo next to a large pile of bags filled with drugs plus taped bundles of narcotics.
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“This is the result of excellent teamwork and multinational collaboration. It is important that we continue relentlessly pursuing any destabilizing maritime activity,” U.S. Navy Capt. Anthony Webber, the commander of Task Force 55, which oversees the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet surface ships in the region, said in a statement on the drug bust. “The crew clearly demonstrated John Scheuerman’s motto of ‘selflessness and strength’ during this seizure and I couldn’t be more proud.”
It’s the latest bust made by the USCG John Scheuerman. In November the Sentinel-class cutter, along with the Navy’s guided missile destroyer USS The Sullivans, seized more than 170 tons of chemical compounds that could be used as rocket fuel or explosive material. The ship’s record is impressive in part because it was only commissioned in late February 2022.
The Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf are major maritime routes, and smugglers use them in operations. The United States and allied partners have been patrolling for smuggling, mainly with a focus on weapons and explosive material, but also working to intercept drug runners. Many of the arms moved through the sea have been heading toward conflict zones such as Yemen or Ukraine. Outside of the operations that involved the USCG John Scheuerman, the U.S. Navy has been busy intercepting ships carrying illicit cargo. Last month Navy ships confiscated more than 2,000 Kalashnikov rifles sailing from Iran to Yemen, likely bound for Houthi rebels. In December, another fishing vessel was intercepted and its contents of ammunition, fuel and rocket propellant seized.
Both the Coast Guard and the Navy operate in the region under the Combined Maritime Forces, a coalition of 38 nations that coordinates four task forces of vessels conducting patrols in the seas.
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A U.S. Army soldier dives into a frozen river in Finland as part of Arctic Forge 23. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. James Garvin).While heavy winter storms hit much of the continental United States, thousands of service members are currently in Scandinavia, taking part in large, multinational Arctic warfare training. Arctic Forge 23 is currently underway, with American, German, Finnish, Norwegian and other nations’ troops doing everything from skiing to dunking themselves in freezing water as part of the exercise.
Arctic Forge 23 includes two parts, Defense Exercise North in Finland, and exercise Joint Viking in Norway, running concurrently since mid February. The former includes soldiers from the Alaska-based 11th Airborne Division as well as the 10th Mountain Division and Virginia Army National Guard, training alongside 550 Finnish troops. Joint Viking includes 730 Marines, as well as 200 Army soldiers working with more than 10,000 service members from European nations. Both are focused on Arctic combat and survival.
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Soldiers practice skiing and shooting in Finland as part of Arctic Forge 23. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Keeler)Although many units in the U.S. military are specialized in, or based in regions with Arctic conditions, these exercises are meant to help keep troops prepared for winter conflicts. That’s something Gen. Darryl A. Williams, commanding general for U.S. Army Europe and Africa, noted in a statement at the start of Arctic Forge.
“Whether we are campaigning, competing, responding to crisis or in conflict, winning matters,” Williams said. “And we must win in any engagement, including and especially the Arctic, where over-the-pole exercises like this with the Total Army and with our Allies and partners not only protect U.S. national security interests, but ensure a safe and secure region.”
Training includes setting up Arctic bivouacs, live fire exercises, learning to ski, and various winter survival skills. That included soldiers plunging into part of a frozen river with their gear, getting first-hand experience in the extreme cold. On top of that, they’re learning from Finnish soldiers how to accurately fire their rifles while skiing.
Soldiers from the @10MTNDIV train alongside Finnish Soldiers as part of Exercise Arctic Forge in Finland. This host-nation exercise focuses on building capacity and cooperation in support of the Army’s Arctic Strategy. @VCorps @USArmyEURAF @USArmy photos by Pfc. Kaylan Joseph pic.twitter.com/4Do1s1gPwT
— GEN James C. McConville (@ArmyChiefStaff) February 23, 2023
The Norwegian portion of Arctic Forge is the first Joint Viking exercise in four years. Usually held every two years, the 2021 edition was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Arctic Forge 23. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Keeler)Arctic Forge also serves a geopolitical purpose. The two exercises run as the United States and NATO allies have pledged additional military support to Ukraine. The country’s war with Russia, which is now in its second year, has become a brutal war of attrition as winter set in, with both sides having to deal with ice, snow and frozen battlefields.
By the U.S. Army’s own words, Defense Exercise North is meant to “demonstrate readiness by deploying a combat-credible force to enhance power in NATO’s northern flank in support of our partner Finland, an aspiring NATO member.” Finland also emphasized that, with its Ministry of Defense noting that interoperability with NATO members’ militaries will be increasingly important in the coming years. Training is drawn in part from real-world scenarios where Finland could be at risk, it added, alluding to potential Russian threats to the Arctic.
The exercises conclude March 17.
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DONETSK OBLAST, UKRAINE - FEBRUARY 14: Ukrainian soldiers load ammunition to tanks on the frontline near the towns of Vuhledar and Marinka as Russian-Ukrainian war continues in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on February 14, 2023. (Photo by Mustafa Ciftci/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).One year into the war in Ukraine, the conflict does not appear closer to ending, and Russian tanks appear no better at avoiding destruction. Armored forces attempting to take the Ukrainian town of Vuhledar are being decimated by landmines.
It’s been this way for much of February. Videos taken by Ukrainian fighters and shared online have shown Russian tanks attempting to cross fields and roads, only to crash to a halt as a mine blows up beneath them. And it appears to keep happening, with Russian forces unable to avoid the mines.
Ukraine: A Russian T-72B3 tank and BMP-2 IFV were destroyed by the Ukrainian 72nd Brigade using an AT mine and ATGM respectively in Mykilske near Vuhledar, #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/ZpJRkRStLw
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) February 25, 2023
Vuhledar, and Russians tried it again. Full speed into the obvious minefield. Absolutely hilarious to watch. #Ukraine #Vuhledar #Donetsk pic.twitter.com/bIqWpLpcnZ
— (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) February 25, 2023
Fighting around the town has been ongoing since March 2022, but has been escalating since Jan. 24 when Russia launched a renewed offensive. It’s seen as the first part of an expected spring offensive, and so far is not going well. Exact losses are unconfirmed; Ukraine’s military claims that in mid-February Russia lost 36 tanks. British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace claimed, citing reports, that a Russian brigade was “effectively annihilated” and 1,000 fighters killed between Feb. 14-15. Despite those losses, Russia is continuing its push, and with that still trying to move its armor forward, directly into Ukrainian landmines. And the results are the same. Videos show lead tanks getting disabled and the following tanks struggling to maneuver without meeting the same fate.
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Along with its own Soviet-era mines, Ukraine has a supply of American remote anti-armor mine systems, which the United States provided approximately 6,000 of in late 2022. Right now, Ukrainian forces at Vuhledar are outnumbered when it comes to armor — the first Leopard tanks donated by Poland arrived in Ukraine on Friday — but the last two weeks have shown its mines are enough to hold back Russian tanks, at least for now.
Mines have played a key role in the fighting in Ukraine over the past year. After their initial invasion last year failed to take Kyiv, Russian forces pulled back, mining roads and fields. Groups are working to de-mine those areas to make them safe for civilians.
Russia’s attempts at an offensive near Vuhledar, as much of the fighting in the Donbas region turned into an effective standstill, with neither side able to break through. In the fall, after losing swaths of land in Ukraine’s east, Russia tried to take the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, three hours south from Vuhledar. That has turned into a battle of attrition, with trench warfare and devastated no man’s land straight out of World War I. Despite heavy amounts of artillery, armor and drones, neither side has been able to break through the other’s lines.
Bakhmut is also where the Kremlin-aligned mercenary organization the Wagner Group has been leading the push, suffering heavy losses along the way, many of which are from the convicts recruited into the group. Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin is currently in a war of words with the Russian military, accusing it of not supplying his organization with ammunition. As part of that conflict, he is posting photos of dead Wagner soldiers in Bakhmut, giving a glimpse at how severe Russian losses are in the battle. The town itself has been shattered by the fighting, with buildings bombed out and streets abandoned.
Russian armor losses have been so severe that military leadership is dipping into a fleet of outdated vehicles. The military mobilized an unspecified amount of BTR-50 armored personnel carriers, which have been spotted in Russian-occupied territory. The vehicle was initially introduced by Soviet armed forces in 1954. Despite having a huge advantage in armor when the war broke out, severe losses have weakened Russia’s forces. Ukraine meanwhile is receiving a variety of Western vehicles, including Leopard 2 tanks, and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles.
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Left, Justin Governale in Haditha, Iraq in 2005; right, Governale on location for 'Naked and Afraid.' (Courtesy photos).Justin Governale is about to blow up.
It’s Valentine’s Day when I reach Governale by phone to talk about his upcoming appearance on ‘Naked and Afraid’, the long-running survivalist reality TV show. The former Marine scout sniper is preparing for a big date: he’s performing at his first sold-out show at the Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club in San Antonio, Texas, later that night, and when he answers his phone, he’s out shopping for a new pair of brown shoes for the occasion.
“I need to look good tonight, dude,” Governale told me, his voice a rapid-fire stream of near-unintelligible patter. That’s not to say he’s unintelligent though: At 36, he’s done a lot in his life so far — earned a Purple Heart in Iraq, started a fruitful career in growth marketing, earned his black belt in Jiu Jitsu, traveled to 38 countries, and experienced a significant amount of healing along the way. Now he’s performing in front of 300 people at a beloved San Antonio nightclub, and he couldn’t be more excited. “That’s kinda badass, y’know?”
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Governale’s march from the battlefield to the stage and screen hasn’t been an easy one. Born in El Paso, Governale moved to Laredo when he was 3; his parents split soon afterward, and he found himself growing up with a single mother struggling to make ends meet. In fact, he didn’t get his first bed until he was 11 years old.
“There’s some bitterness about sleeping on floors all my childhood … I didn’t know that wasn’t normal. All your friends have beds and rooms, and the older you get, you start to realize, ‘oh, that’s not normal.’”
Governale’s mother grew up in Mexico “super poor,” as he put it, one of 11 brothers and sisters. “Her parents’ logic was ‘let’s just have more kids so we can work them in the strawberry fields and we can make more money,’” he said. But she was proud to earn her American citizenship, a pride rooted in the deep-seated belief that the United States is, in fact, a land of opportunity.
“Whenever shit gets tough in life, I think back to my childhood,” he told me, attributing his strength and resilience to the challenges he experienced growing up. “You can’t break me, I’m a hard motherfucker, I’m a strong motherfucker … you may beat my ass, but I’m not giving up. I don’t know man, that’s where I get my strength.”
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Governale was a sophomore in high school when the September 11th, 2001 terror attacks occurred and immediately knew he wanted to fight. He enlisted in the Marine Corps the summer after graduating and entered boot camp in September 2004, where he found his can-do attitude in the face of trying circumstances prepared him well for life in the U.S. military.
“When they thrash you in the Marine Corps, you just have to smile and take it,” he recalled of his time in boot camp. “Anybody who ever thrashed me, they’re like, ‘you fucked up and need to learn your lesson, we’re gonna be here all night’ and I’m like, ‘negative, Corporal, you’re married you won’t be here all night,’ and they would just laugh. That was me … I could go on for hours.”
“It’s a mentality. It’s either, ‘I don’t want to do this’ or ‘I’ll be a tough motherfucker.’”
Governale deployed to Haditha, Iraq with Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment in September 2005, landing in the country almost exactly one year after he entered boot camp. His first patrol was an eventful one: it was the first time, but not the last, that he’d get blown up.
He wasn’t supposed to be on that patrol, but when they called for volunteers, he didn’t hesitate. They loaded onto the floor of an unarmored 7-ton truck with quarter-inch steel on the sides, and sandbags on the floor. It was 2005, and the Marine Corps didn’t have fully armored vehicles for everyone yet.
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The explosion occurred at the tail-end of the patrol after several near misses. The vehicle’s first run-in took place at the beginning of the patrol, with a “baby” explosion after crossing a bridge.“Welcome to Iraq,” Governale recalls a fellow Marine with more time in-country telling him.
But five hours later Governale found himself almost bored. This actually isn’t so bad, he recalled thinking before the roadside bomb hit, plunging his world into darkness.
He regained consciousness seconds later. As he describes it, coming to after you get blown up by an IED is “a process.”
“I’m unconscious; I can smell, a unique smell, like sulfur,” he said. “I wake up and for a second, I’m convinced I had a dream where I joined the Marine Corps and went to Iraq, but really it’s not time for school yet and I have a few more hours to sleep. Then I realize we hit a bomb.”
“The first thing you do when you wake up is pat your body and pat your balls,” he added. “The second thing you do is grab your rifle.”
What stands out for Governale isn’t coming to, but seeing his friend and fellow Marine, Tony Green, seizing alongside him. “My next thought was, ‘I’m 19. I’m a teenager, not even old enough to drink alcohol,’” he said.
The Marines MEDEVACed everyone who was injured and switched the trucks out, and Governale finished out the patrol as if nothing happened. “Marines are gangsters, bro.”
For his injuries, he was awarded the Purple Heart, the oldest military award still awarded to U.S. service members. Governale thought it was cheesy. “I had blood in my ears, big deal.”
Governale in Iraq, 2005. (Courtesy photo)The explosion that earned him the Purple Heart wasn’t his last brush with death during that first tour: he was blown up twice more in the following two months. The second time was also with Green, the Marine who seized during the first incident; the two marked the occasion by high-fiving over the body of a third unconscious Marine.
Green was in a different vehicle on the same patrol when Governale hit his third roadside bomb three months into his tour. The driver of the Humvee and their section leader were both injured in the blast, but Governale turned into “a wild man,” as Green recalled.
“He jumped out of the Humvee and just started screaming at the top of his lungs, calling everyone a bunch of pussies,” Green told me when reached by phone one day in late February. “He was like Lt. Dan [from ‘Forrest Gump’] on the top of the ship’s mast during the storm.”
Three IEDs in six months is “enough for anyone,” and Governale had taken three in just three months, Green said. “It was just adrenaline overload.”
Despite this, Green recalled that Governale always seemed to maintain his cool around his fellow Marines, among whom he earned the nickname ‘The Comedian’ for his propensity to crack jokes and make the best out of any situation.
His ability to inspire others through action is the most enduring quality about Governale, Green said. “He doesn’t make excuses, he owns his actions, and he continues to motivate others.”
“There’s no quit in him,” Green added. “He has this ‘no quit’ mentality that got him through the toughest the Marine Corps has to offer, the Scout Sniper school.”
Governale left Green’s platoon to become a Marine Scout Sniper in 2006, something he’d aspired to ever since he watched a pair of snipers literally stack bodies during his first deployment. And while he didn’t elaborate much on his remaining two years in the Corps following his graduation from sniper school, he intimated that he saw “some real dark shit.”
“It’s dark, but it’s real,” he said. “I feel like we give [civilians] these generic responses because the public doesn’t really want to know what we do, the PC answer. But the Marine Corps isn’t a PC thing. It wins wars, dude, and these are the moments that get left untold.”
“Did it fuck me up? Yeah, it fucked me up,” he added. “I’d be lying if I hadn’t thought about this since then.”
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By 2007, Governale had discovered a new outlet for his boundless energy: mixed martial arts. He previously told Task & Purpose that during his second deployment, this time as a sniper with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, he bonded with a combat-tested noncommissioned officer named Cpl. Sean Stokes who made him promise to check out his MMA gym at the end of his deployment.
Stokes was killed in action during that deployment. Governale kept his promise. He started training on their ship on the way home.
Governale separated from the Marine Corps in 2008 as a corporal and moved to southern California, where he immediately joined an MMA gym and struck up a rapport with a coach who had previously known Stokes.
If he was ‘The Comedian’ to Marines like Green, then Governale became known as ‘The Therapist’ in the MMA ring to his opponents. And although he doesn’t boast the most brag-worthy record (7 wins and 9 losses), MMA proved to be therapy itself for the Marine veteran.
“It’s my life. It definitely changed me,” Governale told us of MMA in 2015. “I feel like MMA is the perfect transition for people to continue the warrior lifestyle … It’s soothing I think, even if you get beat up because you continue to strive as a warrior.”
Governale in the ring during an MMA fight. (Courtesy photo)In the intervening years, martial arts has remained a fixture of Governale’s life, with his last professional fight this past August. When we spoke, he was two weeks out from earning his first-degree black belt in jiu-jitsu.
“When I spoke to you last, I was at the peak of my fighting career. But talk to me in 2023 and that’s not the case,” he said. “I trained last night and submitted a couple of times. It keeps the ego in check. It makes it hard to be an asshole if you train. Anybody mean on the street’s never had their ass beat … if you get your ass beat, you’re not so insecure.”
Despite his love of MMA, Governale now finds himself moving in another direction. “It doesn’t mean that you give up what you’re working on or stop progressing forward,” he said. “I’m moving forward with comedy and ‘Naked and Afraid’ … I’m shifting.”
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Governale credits comedian George Anthony with helping him turn his Marine Corps nickname into a real-world fledgling career as a stand-up comic. In 2021, Anthony invited Governale on his podcast and encouraged him to go to a nearby comedy club and “talk about some shit you think is funny.”
He told a story about serving in the Marine Corps during ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and his first bit was about the irony of serving during that period. “Serving in the Marines made me gay because Marines are the gayest bunch out there,” Governale laughs. “Three years later, I’m about to do a sold-out stand-up comedy show.”
For a man whose life has been as varied as Governale’s, the prospect of putting it all on the line for ‘Naked and Afraid’ doesn’t seem too daunting. And while Governale couldn’t say much about the outcome of the upcoming season, he spoke about pushing himself to his limits for the series’ survivalist challenges.
“I just had to be myself. I was just Justin Governale, naked,” he said. “Surviving in an austere condition with one tool? Let’s find out. I mean, who else gets to say they’ll experience that.”
A pause.
“I’m not a quitter, bro,” he says, dead serious. “I will literally die before I fucking quit.”
The latest on Task & Purpose Why the Air Force’s best ‘secret weapon’ has nothing to do with airplanes * Ohio National Guard leader filmed shoving a journalist * Why being a Marine is more of a bonus than actual money * Why is the US military suddenly shooting down every UFO in the sky? * No, an F-22 isn’t rocking an aerial victory marking for that Chinese spy balloon — yet* The post NSFW: Meet Marine sniper-turned-‘Naked and Afraid’ star Justin Governale appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Aircrew from the 9th Special Operations Squadron in an MC-130J Commando II refuel a CV-22 Osprey during Emerald Warrior/Trident at Naval Air Station North Island, Calif., January 24, 2019. (Staff Sgt. Erin Piazza/U.S. Air Force).It was not until afterwards that the full impact of what Air Force Maj. Kyle Konkolics had just done finally sunk in.
“All the nerves came after the fact,” the CV-22 pilot recalled years later. “It’s like ‘oh my God, we just did that,’ and you think about all these crazy things that could have happened or did happen.”
On Oct. 31, 2020, Konkolics was one of several airmen who took off from Naval Station Rota, Spain to fly the longest-distance nighttime hostage rescue mission in U.S. military history. Konkolics, who received the Distinguished Flying Cross last month for his role in the mission, and three other CV-22 tiltrotor transports carried a team of Navy SEAL Team Six operators 2,000 miles into northern Nigeria, where the SEALs parachuted into the darkness to rescue an American named Philp Walton who had been kidnapped four days earlier by a group of armed men.
The long mission required aerial refueling from several MC-130J turboprop planes accompanying the CV-22s, and the MC-130Js in turn had to be refueled by KC-135s that accompanied the mission. An AC-130J gunship and a Navy P-8A patrol and reconnaissance also joined the mission, according to our colleagues at The War Zone.
The operation was successful, with the SEALs rescuing the hostage, killing all but one of the kidnappers and all the aircraft returning safely with no casualties. Last month, Konkolics and four other airmen received awards for their role in the mission, where they persevered through 11 hours of nonstop flying, multiple aerial refuelings, diplomatic delays, an unknown threat environment and, for one CV-22, a total loss of critical aircraft systems.
U.S. Air Force pilots with the 7th Special Operations Squadron fly a CV-22B Osprey during night time training, United Kingdom, Feb. 3, 2022. (Tech. Sgt. Westin Warburton/U.S. Air Force)‘Time was of the essence’One of the most impressive feats of the mission is how quickly it came together. The crews had just 48 hours to prepare for the complicated operation, which would see them fly over isolated areas without many friendly airfields nearby to land in case anything went wrong.
When asked to rate on a scale of one to 10 how unusual that kind of short-notice planning is for such a complicated mission, Konkolics responded that it was an “11,” but the quick turnaround was essential to act on the intelligence they had while it was still accurate.
“In the end, time was of the essence,” he said. “If we took too long we might have missed that target of opportunity.”
Subscribe to Task & Purpose Today. Get the latest military news, entertainment, and gear in your inbox daily.The combination of long range and vertical lift is the raison d’être for the CV-22 Osprey, which can point its 38-foot diameter rotor blades forward like a conventional airplane or point them up like a helicopter in order to hover or land without a runway. Their adaptability makes CV-22s excellent special operations aircraft, but they are also known for being difficult to maintain. When all four birds took off from Rota, Spain, that alone was an achievement thanks to the hard work of the maintainers.
“I don’t think we give enough credit to our maintenance team,” said Tech Sgt. Robert Duck, a flight engineer aboard one of the Ospreys who received the Air Medal for his part in the mission.
“The CV-22 is quite a maintenance-intensive beast,” he said. “Those guys and gals really knocked it out of the park. Between that and getting four tails home, all in hours, really, is a huge feat.”
A U.S. Air Force flight engineer monitors the evening light in preparation for the nighttime tilt-rotor air-to-air refueling of a 352d Special Operations Wing CV-22B Osprey, United Kingdom, Aug. 2, 2022. (Tech. Sgt. Brigette Waltermire/U.S. Air National Guard)‘If you’re not nervous, you’re lying’Konkolics said he felt some nerves during the high-pressure mission, but the task at hand took precedence over those feelings.
“If you’re not nervous, you’re lying,” he said. “But you kind of push that down because you’re too busy focused on making this mission happen, doing the best you can do and doing what you were trained to do.”
Konkolics was once a CV-22 flight engineer like Duck before becoming a pilot in 2014. It takes years of training to safely operate a complicated aircraft like the Osprey or the MC-130J, and that training paid off throughout the mission. Though the flight itself came together quickly, the intense training allowed the crew to roll with unexpected punches — like not having enough air to breath because the Ospreys had to fly at a higher altitude than usual.
The Air Force would not say the specific altitude at which the crew flew or the specific reason the high altitude was necessary, but it meant that some of the crew and passengers in the CV-22’s unpressurized cabin started feeling symptoms of hypoxia.
Luckily, Duck had experienced hypoxia in a controlled environment in training, so he was able to recognize the symptoms in the form of euphoria and color loss in his vision.
“I noticed the symptoms within myself at first,” he said. “I asked the [SEAL] team lead next to me if he and his team were feeling okay and he said ‘well now that you mention it, we could use a little bit of oxygen.’”
The CV-22 has a system aboard for supplying supplemental oxygen through a mask, and Duck used it to make sure the 25 or so SEALs were feeling backto normal. Though the incident was mentioned in his Air Medal citation, Duck described it as “a very minor event,” and one which shows how the training at places like Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico prepares them for unexpected challenges.
“That training, in conjunction with the training we get at our operational unit, in this case the 7th Special Operations Squadron, that kind of sets the foundation for what we were doing out there,” he said. “You obviously can’t train for every scenario, but that training taught us how to think, so that when you have aircraft issues or fuel planning problems, you know how to think through those problems and get those solutions that both satisfies the safety of the crew and accomplishes the mission.”
U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Christopher Ensman, HC-130J Combat King II loadmaster assigned to the 26th Expeditionary Rescue Squadron, performs Helicopter Air-to-Air refueling procedures during low-light conditions within the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, Nov. 7, 2022 (Tech. Sgt. Daniel Asselta/U.S. Air Force)‘Nothing ever goes right’The service members aboard the CV-22s needed air to breath, but the aircraft needed gas to fly. That was where the MC-130Js came into play.
As a loadmaster aboard one of the MC-130Js, Staff Sgt. Christin Springs oversaw the aerial refueling process between her aircraft and the Ospreys. Aerial refueling is a dangerous task even in daylight due to the proximity of fast-moving aircraft and the chance that the receiving aircraft might collide with the refueling drogue. The refuelings that occurred on this flight had to take place at night, again and again, over the course of a marathon mission. It was a team effort for Springs and her fellow crew members.
“We definitely leaned on each other for support” against fatigue, said the loadmaster, who received an Air Medal for her role in the mission. “But … with it being a real life mission, just the anticipation and the excitement around the entire thing definitely keeps you going for a long time.”
According to Spring’s medal citation, the airman also had to deal with “communication systems degradation” to get the refueling job done, though the Air Force would not say what specific form that degradation took. Like her colleagues, Springs credited her training for the successful night.
“Literally everything we do ties back into our training, just in case we haven’t said that 20,000 times,” she said. “Out of a week of flying here at Kirtland, we go through emergency procedures almost every day in real life.”
Part of that training is learning how to evaluate a problem and determine whether it is significant enough to end the mission, Springs explained. Envelope–pushing missions like the Nigeria rescue mission provide great real-world examples that can be used to help train students back home.
“With experiences like this mission, we can actually sit them down and say ‘this is a scenario where, if this fails and we have the question ‘is it worth it still going on? Sometimes it is still okay to keep going on with the mission, depending on what’s failing,’” she said.
One aircraft did have to call it quits mid-mission. According to his citation for the Distinguished Flying Cross, Senior Master Sgt. Christopher Reedy navigated his CV-22 crew “through the total loss of critical aircraft systems.”
The downed systems were responsible for communication, navigation, and cockpit flight displays. Reedy managed to regain partial use of one radio, through which he told the other CV-22s that his own aircraft could not continue the mission.
“Without the use of aircraft navigation or cockpit flight displays, Sergeant Reedy assisted in performing a non-standard aerial refueling and executing a night formation landing, guided by his wingman, into marginal weather and visibility conditions,” read Reedy’s citation. Tech Sgt. Thomas Morgan, a third CV-22B special missions aviator, also received the Air Medal in part for helping guide his malfunctioning wingman through the ordeal.
After landing at a remote operating base, Reedy transferred some equipment and a weapon to another CV-22, which then took off to continue the mission. Though the loss of critical systems sounds bad, Konkolics said the incident overall was nothing too crazy.
“At the end of the day they were able to safely recover to a friendly location and we were able to continue the mission,” he said. “Like Sgt. Duck said, nothing ever goes right, but this is why we get trained to do what we do so we can make it happen.”
From left to right: Tech. Sgt. Thomas Morgan, Tech Sgt. Robert Duck, Maj. Gen. Phillip Stewart, Senior Master Sgt. Christopher Reedy, Maj. Kyle Konkolics and Staff Sgt. Christin Springs pose during an award ceremony at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, Jan. 11, 2023. During the ceremony, members of the 58th Special Operations Wing were awarded The Distinguished Flying Cross or The Air Medal for their actions during a hostage rescue mission in 2020. (Airman 1st Class Spencer Kanar/U.S. Air Force)‘You guys make it look so freakin’ easy’Eventually, the rescue package arrived at a point above northern Nigeria where the SEALs parachuted to the surface, then “hiked about three miles until they came upon the captors’ small encampment in a copse of scrubland bushes and trees,” the New York Times reported in 2020. The CIA had located Walton beforehand, according to ABC News.
After the SEALs killed most of the captors and picked up the hostage, Konkolics and the remaining CV-22 pilots landed in unfamiliar terrain cluttered with trees, rocks and other obstacles to pick them up. Though it was unclear if the CV-22s then flew straight back to Rota or took a less direct route, they eventually returned having pulled off a complex mission with very little time to prepare in a major endorsement for the effectiveness of Air Force special operations.
“There’s not another military in the world that could have pulled that off,” then-Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller said about the mission during a 2020 visit to the 100th Aerial Refueling Wing, the unit to which the mission’s KC-135 tankers belonged, according to Military.com. “The problem … is you guys make it look so freakin’ easy, that the American public just automatically assumes like, ‘Oh, yeah, you know, you push the U.S. military button and everything’s going to go fine’ … That’s why it’s so important to come out here and listen to y’all.”
At the time of the mission, Konkolics and Duck were assigned to the 7th Special Operations Squadron based at Royal Air Force Station Mildenhall, United Kingdom, and now are assigned to the 71st Special Operations Squadron, a CV-22 training unit based at Kirtland. Springs was assigned to the 67th Special Operations Squadron, also based at Mildenhall, and is now assigned to the 415th Special Operations Squadron, an HC-130J and MC-130J training unit also based at Kirtland.
Konkolics pointed out that the success of the mission is particularly poignant when compared to an earlier long-distance rescue mission that did not go so well. Operation Eagle Claw, the 1980 attempt to rescue Americans taken hostage in Iran, was “an extremely complex operation,” that “depended on everything going to plan,” according to the Air Force. “Any deviation could cause the entire operation to unravel with possibly tragic consequences.”
Bad weather, mechanical problems and poor coordination among the aircraft involved led to the mission commander aborting the operation, the Air Force wrote. The failure became tragic when one of a RH-53 helicopter’s rotor blades hit a fuel-laden EC-130, killing five airmen and three Marines.
The failure of Eagle Claw “highlighted the necessity of joint planning and training” and led to the creation of the U.S. Special Operations Command and Air Force Special Operations Command, the Air Force wrote, as well as the CV-22 itself. About 40 years later, the knowledge gained from that experience is still paying off.
“We learned a lot of what we did right” from that mission, “which was almost exactly like this,” Konkolics said.
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FILE: The first guided launch of the AIM-9X from an F-22 Raptor was Feb. 26, 2015. (David Henry/Lockheed Martin).The recent shootdowns of three unidentified aerial objects in as many days have publicly revealed shortcomings in the U.S. military’s air defense system for North America that both the United States and Canada have been working to fix.
U.S. military aircraft shot down the objects on Feb. 10, 11, and 12 in American and Canadian airspace. The three engagements came roughly a week after a Chinese spy balloon flew across the United States before it was ultimately downed on Feb. 4 off the coast of South Carolina.
President Joe Biden later said that evidence suggests the three downed objects were likely neither Chinese nor surveillance vehicles.
“The intelligence community’s current assessment is that these three objects were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation, or research institutions studying weather or conducting other scientific research,” Biden said during a Feb. 16 statement from the White House.
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One theory about the object shot down over Yukon Territory, Canada on Feb. 11 is that it could have been a hobby balloon launched by the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade, Steve Trimble of Aviation Week first reported on Feb. 16.
A U.S. Air Force U-2 Dragon Lady spy plane pilot looks down at the Chinese surveillance balloon as it hovered over the central United States February 3, 2023. (Defense Department)Following the downing of the Chinese spy balloon on Feb. 4, North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, adjusted its radars to look for small objects at high altitudes traveling at slow speeds, said Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM.
“With some adjustments, we’ve been able to get a better categorization of radar tracks now,” VanHerck told reporters at a Feb. 12 Pentagon news briefing. “And that’s why I think you’re seeing these overall.”
It is unclear what the aerial objects were because U.S. and Canadian authorities were unable to recover any debris from the three objects. If they were in fact harmless balloons, as Biden has said, then why couldn’t NORAD determine that they were innocuous?
One reason is that the objects had smaller radar signatures than the Chinese spy balloon, and that made them harder to be detected and tracked on radar as well as identified by aircraft, said Canadian Air Force Maj. Olivier Gallant, a spokesman for NORAD.
However, retired Navy Vice Adm. Mike Dumont, a former deputy commander at NORTHCOM, has told NBC News that the system of U.S. military radar sites that scan American and Canadian airspace for threats is based on 1980s technology.
“When you think about the ability to integrate all kinds of sensors into a warning system, we’re just not there,” Dumont told NBC. “We don’t have a central consolidated point to integrate these systems into one … The guts of the system need to be upgraded.”
A 138th Fighter Wing F-16 Fighting Falcon from Tulsa Air National Guard Base, Oklahoma, flies next to a KC-135R Stratotanker April 25, 2019. (Courtesy photo by Mike Killian)The U.S. and Canadian militaries rely on the North Warning System, or NWS, a chain of 46 radar sites in Canada and three in Alaska, to monitor North American airspace, Gallant told Task & Purpose. These radar sites were built between 1986 and 1992 and they include 10 long-range and 36 short-range radars in Canada.
While NORAD uses a sophisticated network of sensors to detect and identify aircraft in U.S. and Canadian airspace, VanHerck has repeatedly acknowledged publicly that the system has “domain awareness gaps,” Gallant said.
Two days after an F-22 Raptor shot down the Chinese spy balloon with an AIM 9X Sidewinder missile, VanHerck told reporters that NORAD had failed to detect four previous Chinese surveillance balloons, which had flown through American airspace in recent years.
“That’s a domain awareness gap that we have to figure out,” VanHerck said at a Feb. 6 Pentagon news briefing. “But I don’t want to go [into] further detail.”
Such gaps are why both the United States and Canada announced in August 2021 that they would field new technologies to eventually replace the North Warning System, Gallant said.
Since then, Congress has funded four Over the Horizon Radars, or OTHR, and Canada has announced plans to build two such radar systems, Gallant said.
U.S. and Canadian service members participate in the third series of Global Information Dominance Experiments (GIDE 3) at North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command Headquarters, July 8-16, 2021. (Courtesy Department of Defense)“The OTHR initiatives will provide long-range surveillance of the northern approaches by establishing a northward-aimed, high-frequency, over-the-horizon-radar system,” Gallant said. “More specifically, they will provide better domain awareness for early detection of air and sea-launched cruise missiles, small unmanned systems, and hypersonic glide vehicles from [the] Arctic Circle.”
Lawmakers from both political parties have said they support efforts to help NORAD better track and identify aircraft.
U.S Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said that the Biden administration should publicly release a plan on how it plans to protect American airspace.
“I am working with NORAD and NORTHCOM to evaluate any capability gaps in its radar and warning systems,” Rogers told Task & Purpose. “We must make sure that NORAD and NORTHCOM have the resources to ensure the safety of the homeland and sovereign airspace from the evolving threats of our adversaries.”
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who was livid after the Chinese spy balloon flew over his state, said he has met with VanHerck to make sure NORAD has a plan to prevent foreign adversaries from violating American airspace in the future.
“I will continue to work with him and our military leaders to ensure they have the resources they need to defend our country,” Tester, chairman of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, told Task & Purpose.
But until replacement capabilities are in place, the United States and Canada plan to continue to use the existing North Warning System, according to an Aug. 14, 2021, joint statement from both countries.
“The potential role of NWS sites in the future surveillance network has not yet been determined,” Gallant said. “Since the NWS provides additional capabilities beyond radar surveillance, such as those that support command, control, and communications, this is a complex question that involves further planning.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said that the Over-the-Horizon radars that Congress has funded will help to modernize the America’s air defenses, but the military needs more sensors in order to track and identify unidentified aerial objects, which the military calls Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, or UAP.
Gillibrand, chair of the Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee, stressed the importance of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO, which the Defense Department established in July 2022.
“AARO, the office we established to analyze and track unidentified objects, will play a key role in resolving reports of UAPs, which will improve the ability of operators to assess objects they identify and therefore potentially decreasing response times,” Gillibrand said. “It is critical that we have radars and sensors in multiple domains to provide a strong air defense.”
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(Task & Purpose photo composite).Since Task & Purpose was founded in 2014, it has been defined by its service to the military and veteran community. From advancing the public understanding of veterans’ mental health impacts to reporting stories that literally resulted in impacts on national policy, our nation’s bravest knew their voice was represented by our team of intrepid journalists.
Since I joined this team as the editor-in-chief last fall, I’ve had the opportunity to see T&P’s reporters in action every day. My respect for their devotion to the craft of writing and the pursuit of truth cannot be put into words — it’s an honor to work with such dedicated professionals. But the environment we report in is changing every day; we too must change.
I’m excited to announce that Task & Purpose is turning the page to its next chapter. In an effort to keep quality reporting at the forefront, we are narrowing our focus to report more thoroughly on the areas of the world the U.S. military is engaged in combat, other real-world operations, and veterans still impacted by the lingering effects of war.
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What does that look like? You can expect stories about special operations raids in Syria and airstrikes in Somalia, CENTCOM’s disaster relief efforts in Turkey, or Air Force Pararescueman saving stranded hikers in Alaska. You’ll find coverage of the SFAB training with partner forces in the Pacific and little-talked-about operations in Central and South America. We’ll be looking at the over 100,000 American troops stationed in Europe for the first time since the end of the Cold War, and yes, if there’s a balloon that’s been popped, we’ll cover that too.
We’ll be profiling veterans setting the standard as civilians, as well as reporting on legislation that impacts them as they transition from the military. You’ll notice a renewed focus on service journalism, providing resources and guides that benefit those on active duty and veterans alike. And, of course, we’ll continue to write culture pieces about everything from history to movies and life on the front lines in that irreverent Task & Purpose voice you’ve come to love over the years.
I’m excited about the way forward and hope you are too. Make sure to sign up for our e-mail newsletter and follow us on social media so you don’t miss anything — we have some great stories on the way!
From the battlefield to the barracks,
Marty Skovlund Jr.
Editor-in-chief, Task & Purpose
The latest on Task & Purpose How Green Beret Paris Davis’ teammates fought the Pentagon for his Medal of Honor * US launches another airstrike in Somalia, the next battlefield* * That time a US Navy submarine got a confirmed kill on a train during WWII * Coast Guardsman saves man hours before graduating from rescue swimmer school * JTAC vs TACP: A user’s guide to the troops who call in close air support**
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A U.S. Air Force U-2 Dragon Lady spy plane pilot looks down at the Chinese surveillance balloon as it hovered over the central United States February 3, 2023. (Defense Department).The pilot of a U-2 Dragon Lady spy plane tasked with surveilling the Chinese spy balloon that traversed the continental United States earlier this month managed to snap a selfie with the balloon from the cockpit of the aircraft.
The photo, the existence of which was first reported by CNN on Feb. 8, was first published online by long-time aviation journalist and U-2 expert Chris Pocock on Tuesday.
The photo shows the Chinese spy balloon as seen through the cockpit window of a U-2, with the shadow of the aircraft silhouetted on the side of the balloon’s envelope. The curve of the U-2 pilot’s “space suit” helmet appears on the right side of the shot, although their face is obscured.
The photo quickly spread on social media over the next 24 hours before Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh confirmed its authenticity during a press conference on Wednesday. The high-resolution version of the photo appeared on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) website shortly thereafter.
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As our colleagues at The War Zone were first to report, a pair of U-2 spy planes were tasked to assist in monitoring the path of the Chinese spy balloon as it traveled over the Midwest at the start of February. President Joe Biden ultimately ordered an Air Force F-22 Raptor to shoot down the balloon off the Carolina coast on Feb. 4.
The Chinese spy balloon was traveling at an altitude between 60,000 and 70,000 feet during its trip across the United States; as The War Zone notes, the U-2 is the only known aircraft in the Penatagon’s inventory still in use that can fly above that altitude. The SR-71 holds the record for fixed-wing flight at 85,000 feet, but that aircraft has not been used since NASA retired it in 1999.
While not the highest-altitude selfie ever taken (if space selfies are considered, which should be), this is almost certainly one of the most geopolitically consequential selfies in the history of the U.S. military. And to the unnamed U-2 pilot: we salute you for such an exquisite shot.
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FILE: In this photo of Thursaday, Oct.21, 2010, Al-Shabaab fighters display weapons as they conduct military exercises in northern Mogadishu, Somalia.(Farah Abdi Warsameh/Associatd Press).The latest U.S. airstrike in Somalia shows that the fight against al-Shabaab is keeping American forces in Africa very busy.
Seven suspected al-Shabaab fighters were killed in Tuesday’s airstrike in support of Somali forces, which took place near Galmudug roughly 317 miles northeast of Mogadishu, the country’s capital, according to U.S. Africa Command.
U.S. military officials do not believe any civilians were injured or killed by the airstrike, an AFRICOM news release says.
No information was available on whether the aircraft that carried out the strike was manned or unmanned, or what type of ordnance was used.
Since 2007, U.S. troops have assisted Somali forces fight al-Shabaab, a branch of al-Qaida in East Africa that is responsible for the Jan. 5, 2020 attack on U.S. troops at Manda Bay, Kenya, that killed three Americans.
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“Somalia remains central to stability and security in all of East Africa. U.S. Africa Command’s forces train, advise, and assist partner forces to help give them the tools they need to defeat al-Shabaab, the largest and most deadly al-Qaeda network in the world,” an AFRICOM news release says.
So far this year, the U.S. military has carried out six airstrikes against al-Shabaab in Somalia along with one special operations raid that killed Bilal-al-Sudani, a former leader of the Islamic State group, according to the Long War Journal, which is produced by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies think tank in Washington, D.C.
U.S. airstrikes against al-Shabaab and ISIS hit a peak of 59 in 2019, falling to 44 in 2020 and 11 in 2021, according to data from the Long War Journal. Last year, the U.S. military conducted 15 airstrikes in Somalia.
The Somali government began an offensive against al-Shabaab in August 2022. Since then, Somali forces have retaken Harardhere, a former base for pirates, as well as Galcad, a nearby town.
“In both Harardhere and Galcad, the al-Shabaab militants fled without putting up a fight, though in Galcad some of the militants returned to attack a Somali government military base before 30 of their fighters were killed in a U.S. drone strike near the town on January 20, 2023,” according to the CTC Sentinel, which is published by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.
The latest on Task & Purpose Why the Air Force’s best ‘secret weapon’ has nothing to do with airplanes * Ohio National Guard leader filmed shoving a journalist * Why being a Marine is more of a bonus than actual money * Why is the US military suddenly shooting down every UFO in the sky? * No, an F-22 isn’t rocking an aerial victory marking for that Chinese spy balloon — yet*
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Retired Army Col. Paris Davis will receive the Medal of Honor 58 years after saving his men in a fierce 1965 battle in Vietnam. (Task & Purpose illustration / photos via The Paris Davis Interactive MOH Story).Early next month a decorated Special Forces colonel who disobeyed orders to save the lives of his men during a fierce battle in Vietnam in 1965 will receive the Medal of Honor at a ceremony in the White House. The award recognizes Col. Paris Davis’ courage under fire that day 58 years ago, but it is also a testament to the dedication of a team of veterans who took on the Pentagon bureaucracy to get Davis’ nomination package approved more than half a century after it was inexplicably lost in the system.
“We got pushback every single step of the way,” said Neil Thorne, an Army veteran and one of the key volunteers who helped resurrect the push for Davis’ Medal of Honor over the past nine years.
“We could have given up at any time in that nine years and it would have gone nowhere,” he said. “So part of it was persistence and part of it was just getting people to understand what happened here.”
What happened was a larger-than-life story of unbelievable heroism, inconceivable negligence, and dogged determination — and that’s just the beginning.
Building a beehive in a hornet’s nestIn June 1965, then-Capt. Paris Davis was one of the first Black Special Forces officers in U.S. history and, according to Thorne, he was universally beloved by the men under his command.
“Every single person who I have spoken to, probably about 12 people, who served under Col. Davis over the years use the same phrase, ‘he was the best commander I ever had,’” Thorne said.
Just a month earlier, in May 1965, Davis was awarded a Soldier’s Medal for risking his own life to pull a comrade out of an overturned fuel truck before it exploded. But while the men under him loved Davis, a few of his fellow Special Forces officers held a different opinion.
“You can hear the animosity in the tone … it does not match with what the people who served under him say,” said Thorne, who has spoken with several of those officers. “It was more animosity for folks loving him and his success.”
That animosity may have been amplified when Davis volunteered to take on a near-impossible mission: help push back North Vietnamese and Viet Cong control of Binh Dinh Province, located on the country’s south central coast. To do that, Davis was to build a new Special Forces camp at a village called Bong Son while also training a volunteer unit of Regional Forces /Popular Forces, commonly referred to as Ruff Puffs. Ron Deis, a junior member of Davis’ Special Forces A-Team in Bong Son, said the task was similar to building a beehive in a hornet’s nest
“It was a hotbed … when we went on an operation, we always were outgunned, we always got into situations that were very precarious,” Deis said.
Davis congratulates trainees on completion of training in Vietnam. (Ron Deis photo via The Paris Davis Interactive MOH Story)‘The move saved his men from being overrun’On the night of June 17, 1965, Davis led three Green Berets and a company of about 100 Ruff Puffs in a raid against North Vietnamese forces northeast of Bong Son. That night and into the next morning, Davis’ troops captured four enemy soldiers who revealed a nearby force of 200-300 well-trained, well-armed North Vietnamese troops. The information was confirmed at around 5:30 a.m. on June 18 by Deis, who was serving as a spotter aboard a tiny L-19 Bird Dog propeller plane circling overhead. Not long after that, enemy troops detected Davis’ company and the battle commenced.
“Davis charged forward, opening fire with his M-16 and killing five NVA soldiers,” read Davis’ Medal of Honor narrative. “So intense was the fire coming from the enemy that the spotter aircraft with Deis on board was damaged and forced to return to the Bong Son camp.”
Despite being outnumbered, Davis rallied his troops and attacked what he suspected to be the enemy command building.
“He moved to a window and threw a grenade inside, then burst into the house, killing 10 NVA with his rifle and rifle butt,” read the narrative. “In leading the assault, Davis killed at least 10 more enemy fighters. Davis received a wound in the right forearm during the firefight.”
The Green Beret then went on with a small group to “engage four NVA soldiers in hand-to-hand combat and with his rifle butt,” the narrative said. But by now the element of surprise had been lost, so the captain split his troops and began moving them back into better positions. Several bugle calls from the enemy troops signaled a counterattack. Davis killed two more enemy soldiers and suffered his fingertip being shot off, according to the narrative.
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By around 7:45 that morning, Davis and the survivors of his force moved toward a hill where the North Vietnamese left behind several dozen foxholes. But Davis’ troops were not in great shape: all four Green Berets had been wounded several times and while the Ruff Puffs were motivated to fight, their youth and inexperience made them prone to break under sustained enemy pressure.
“These young men, they did what was asked of them and under enemy fire they probably were not as organized [as a more seasoned unit] but it was not for lack of wanting to do the right thing,” Deis said.
To make matters worse, Davis’ team sergeant, Master Sgt. Billy Waugh had been shot three times and pinned down in a buffalo wallow, a sort of depression that holds rainwater. Meanwhile Davis’ demolitions specialist, Staff Sgt. David Morgan had been knocked out by an exploding mortar and was taking sniper fire as he regained consciousness, and the team medic, Spc. 4 Robert Brown Jr., was unaccounted for, though Davis did not know it yet.
The captain spotted the enemy sniper targeting Morgan from a camouflaged foxhole and shot him with his M-16, the narrative said. By around 8:30 that morning, Davis regained communication with his split force and over the next two hours, he used a PRC-10 radio to call in artillery and airstrikes against enemy positions.
“This move saved his men from being overrun by the vastly superior enemy force,” the narrative reads.
A reconstructed bird’s-eye view of the battlefield. (Image via The Paris Davis Interactive MOH Story)‘That was quite the statement’But the fight was far from over: Davis realized that Brown was unaccounted for, Waugh could not move because of his injuries, and Davis himself was pinned down. Around noon, the captain took matters into his own hands: calling an artillery strike within 30 meters of his position to carve a route so he could rescue Waugh. For context, the Army considers any artillery strike within 500 meters of a friendly position to be “danger close.” Davis and a fellow Green Beret, Sergeant 1st Class John Reinburg, rushed through open ground to pick up Waugh and pull him out of danger.
Billy Waugh is a legend in the history of Army special operations. Besides serving in the Korean War and later as a Green Beret in Vietnam where he conducted the first military freefall high altitude, low opening (HALO) jump in a combat zone, Waugh also worked for the CIA in Libya, spied on terrorist leaders in Sudan, and at the age of 71 he helped topple the Taliban during the opening salvos of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2001.
But sometimes even legends need rescuing, and Waugh’s rescuer in Bong San was Capt. Paris Davis. The captain carried the wounded Waugh fireman-style back up the hill, where a helicopter had landed carrying a wounded door gunner and Davis’ commander, Maj. Billy Cole. The major told Davis to leave with the wounded and said he would relieve him, but the captain refused.
“Sir, please do not do that to me. I’m not hurt that bad,” Davis said, according to the narrative. “I’ve got to get my men out of this predicament. We have another strike on the way. I refuse to go.”
“You’ve got it, Dave,” Cole replied. “Good luck and God bless you.”
Though Reinburg was wounded in the chest shortly after Cole departed, Davis kept guiding in artillery and airstrikes, preventing his troops from being annihilated. The captain then crawled more than 150 yards to drag Brown back to friendly territory, though Davis was wounded by grenade fragments. After almost 19 hours of nearly continuous combat, the enemy finally retreated as friendly reinforcements arrived.
Davis’ men already admired him for being extremely brave, Deis said, but it was clear that something extraordinary had just happened.
“Sgt. Morgan said to me, ‘I think Capt. Davis deserves the Medal of Honor for what he did out there.’ That struck a note with me that I never forgot,” said Deis. “Sgt. Morgan had a lot of combat experience, so for someone with his experience to say that … that was quite a statement for him to make.”
Unfortunately for Davis, it would be more than half a century before he received what he deserved.
‘Everybody was waiting for something that’s in a garbage bin’Maj. Billy Cole, Davis’ commanding officer, submitted the captain’s nomination for the Medal of Honor shortly after the battle in July 1965. In December, Davis was awarded the Silver Star “as an interim award while the Medal of Honor packet was assumed to be in-process,” according to documents from Davis’ resubmission package.
The years passed and by 1969 there was still no word on the medal. The Army could not find the nomination packet, despite Maj. Cole formally submitting it at the Special Forces headquarters in Nha Trang. Thorne said this is the first proven case of a lost Medal of Honor nomination packet in U.S. history.
“Everybody was waiting for something that’s in a garbage bin,” said Thorne, who estimated he has helped recover 30 to 50 missing, lost, or downgraded military award nominations over the years. “You just don’t see a Medal of Honor packet get lost … it’s a big deal. It got trashed.”
Davis being presented with his interim Silver Star. (Stars and Stripes photo via The Paris Davis Interactive MOH Story)Medal of Honor nominations also require substantial paperwork such as eyewitness statements, a unit report of the action, maps, and other documents, Thorne explained. It still baffles Deis that the Army could lose such a packet, considering the sanctity of the Medal of Honor.
“I could not believe that someone would risk their life to the level that he did and not have everybody in the Army at that time respect that heroism and not at least take that recommendation seriously,” he said. “It befuddles me, it just overwhelms me to think that someone could possibly lose a recommendation for the Medal of Honor.”
In the years since then, some volunteers suspected that racism played a role in the nomination being lost. Thorne said that would have fit with the era, just a year after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed.
“There’s nothing that overtly spells out racism, but look at the times,” he said. “Given that time, and with him being one of the first Black Special Forces officers … everything points to there being something against him.”
An official Army inquiry in 1969 deemed that the nomination had indeed been lost or destroyed and that a new one was needed. However, Thorne found no evidence that a new one was submitted.
“Twice Davis’s nomination has had the opportunity for official recognition and twice that nomination has been lost, or through inadvertence not acted upon,” read the revived package decades later.
‘It only takes one bad egg’Years passed, and in 1981 Billy Waugh attempted to resurrect the effort to get his old captain the Medal of Honor, Thorne said. After that effort failed, thirty more years went by before a serious group of volunteers gathered to get Davis, who retired from the Army in 1985 at the rank of colonel, the recognition he deserved. Thorne became involved in 2014, and he leveraged his expertise in the military award process to put together a thorough resubmission of the package.
“They had not pulled any of the records so we started doing that,” Thorne said. “During that time we were hunting for eyewitnesses, anybody that might have been there: chopper pilots, forward air controllers, FAC pilots.”
Part of the trouble was that some of the eyewitnesses had died in the intervening years either due to old age or enemy fire. For example, Staff Sgt. Morgan was killed in combat later in 1965 and Spc. 4 Brown never recovered from the wounds he suffered in Bong Son that day. But between the statements and documents filed in support of Davis’ case over the years and a 1969 special episode of the Phil Donahue Show where Davis and other soldiers were interviewed about the battle, they had enough evidence to resubmit the nomination in 2016. But no matter how thorough a nomination package may be, the team found the military bureaucracy moves at its own pace.
“Any time you’re dealing with any one of these steps, whether it be the Army’s Awards and Decorations Branch, the Secretary of the Army level, or the Secretary of Defense level, you’re also dealing with people and personalities,” said Thorne.
For example, Thorne said that one point the package was held up by the commander of Fort Knox who, despite the package having evidence from the National Archives, did not believe there was enough proof that Col. Davis had been nominated for the Medal of Honor in 1965.
“I sent a very, I’ll say ‘terse’ email, because I was pretty much fed up at that point, and it just so happened to land on the desk of the new commander” at Fort Knox, Thorne recalled. “He took one look at it and said ‘this is going forward.’ That was our first break.”
The process continued in fits and starts through each level of the Army and the Secretary of Defense. Each step takes months just for the relevant party to review the package, and at each step, the package may get shot down, either because of minor typos or out of some kind of office habit.
“Anyone can say no the first time,” Thorne said. “I have no proof of this but I always wonder if that first kick-out is so they can say they did their due diligence.”
Thorne does not know where the institutional bias to say ‘no’ comes from, but he pointed out that there are plenty of helpful people in the process too.
“It’s the good people who help move it forward, who can look at it with open eyes and not be ready to say ‘no’ right off the bat. And we’ve encountered plenty of those too,” he said. “But it only takes one bad egg to cost you months or years.”
For example, the package was held up for three years at one point by a member of the Secretary of Defense’s office of Manpower and Reserve Affairs. Thorne said he thinks the member “was determined to say no just because he said no the first time.”
When pushback happens, it often takes more than just an immaculate nomination package to push through the bureaucracy: it takes connections to people who can speed up the process.
‘I’m not smart, but I’m relentless’In 2015, Jim Moriarty, a lawyer who served with the Marine Corps in Vietnam, joined the project. A former director of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, Moriarty said he had connections with several high-level military leaders including then-Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, then-Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer, and then-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.
“I’m surrounded by people who have all sorts of stroke and I’m hitting on everybody I know: ‘we need to go award Paris Davis the Medal of Honor,’” Moriarty said.
Moriarty did not just know people with pull, he was also willing to pester them to get their support for Davis’ case.
“I’m not smart, but I’m relentless,” he said.
Moriarty’s pull and Thorne’s meticulous documentation helped keep the package moving through the bureaucracy, but by 2020 it was stuck again within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Davis’ team was worried that the colonel would pass away from old age before the upgrade process was complete, but salvation came in the form of the new acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, a veteran of the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), the same unit Davis was assigned to when he was a captain at Bong Son.
The 5th SFG(A) was also the unit Moriarty’s son Jimmy belonged to when he was killed by a gate guard in Jordan in 2016. Moriarty eventually got Miller’s attention through a chain of connections and contacts. It paid off: Moriarty said Miller played a key role in not only his son receiving the Silver Star but also Davis receiving the Medal of Honor, though it took until earlier this month for it to finally become official.
“As I anticipate receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor, I am so very grateful for my family and friends within the military and elsewhere who kept alive the story of A-team, A-321 at Camp Bong Son,” Davis said in a statement when the news broke on Feb. 13 that he would receive the medal. “I think often of those fateful 19 hours on June 18, 1965 and what our team did to make sure we left no man behind on that battlefield.”
When asked if his perception of the medal has changed over the years, Deis said he thinks it means more to him now than it did in the years directly after the battle.
“When you’re young like I was and you witness those things [in war], it puts a hard edge on you. Maybe that’s a self-defense mechanism,” he said. “But as you age, that hard edge breaks down and it just makes you more emotional. That has been my experience so that every time I see the Medal of Honor being awarded it makes me cry … because I know what it takes to get that medal.”
The latest on Task & Purpose Why the Air Force’s best ‘secret weapon’ has nothing to do with airplanes * Ohio National Guard leader filmed shoving a journalist * Why being a Marine is more of a bonus than actual money * Why is the US military suddenly shooting down every UFO in the sky? * No, an F-22 isn’t rocking an aerial victory marking for that Chinese spy balloon — yet*
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.S Soldiers assigned to 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, line up their M1A2 Abrams tank in the firing range staging area in Bemowo Piskie, Poland, Feb. 16, 2023. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. John Schoebel).In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine one year ago, the United States has funneled thousands of additional troops to Europe, bringing the total number of U.S. military personnel deployed to the continent to more than 100,000 for the first time since shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. And among those troops is a very — how shall we put it — special M1 Abrams tank ready to do its part in a future conflict.
Photos published to the Defense Visual Information Distribution System (DVIDS) last week show a group of M1A2 Abrams tanks assigned to the 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division lined up at a firing range staging area at the Bemowo Piskie Training Area in northeastern Poland.
While the photos capture several creatively intimidating tank names like “Big Ripit” and “Additional Duty,” one, in particular, caught our attention: “ASVAB Waiver.”
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As any U.S. service member probably knows, the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) administered by the United States Military Entrance Processing Command is designed to determine a potential applicant’s qualifications for enlistment in the military. If an applicant fails part of that exam, they may request a waiver for military service anyway, although an ASVAB waiver carries the stigma attached to it that an enlisted soldier may not, well, be all that they can be in terms of intelligence.
In short: an ASVAB waiver probably means you’re something of a dummy, which is terrifying knowing the barrel of a 120mm XM256 Smooth Bore Cannon may be aimed by … not the sharpest tool in the shed. Of course, we know the name was probably stenciled on the barrel in jest, and likely doesn’t reflect the actual ASVAB waiver status of the crew inside. In that case, it’s pretty hilarious and we appreciate the crew’s sense of humor.
‘ASVAB Waiver’ is less than 100 miles from Poland’s eastern border with Lithuania and Belarus and 200 northwest of Ukraine, the Bemowo Piskie Training Area is one of the most eastern bases in the country for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and currently hosts NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroup Poland (eFPB-Poland) and more than 10,000 troops from the United States, United Kingdom, Croatia, and Romania.
While the current contingent of 2ABCT tanks deployed to Bemowo Piskie isn’t part of the eFPB-Poland, they are on a regular rotational deployment as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, the European Deterrence Initiative-funded multinational NATO deterrence mission launched in the aftermath of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
All of this is to say that, should Ukraine’s hot war escalate along NATO’s eastern flank, then it’s the likes of ‘ASVAB Waiver’ (and fellow tanks like ‘A Horse With No Name’) that will likely be called upon to provide support for allied forces there — and probably the only thing more humiliating for Russian forces than getting taken down by ‘ASVAB Waiver’ would be getting a faceful of sabot from ‘Barbie Dreamhouse.’
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FILE: Chinese military officers try out a Russian-made rifle during the closing ceremony of a Sino-Russian military exercise on August 25, 2005 in eastern China's Shandong Province. (China Photos/Getty Images).With the war in Ukraine entering its second year, China is weighing whether to dramatically escalate the conflict by supplying Russia with arms, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said.
Blinken told media outlets over the weekend that the Chinese government is considering providing Russia with both weapons and munitions.
“The concern that we have now is based on information we have that they’re considering providing lethal support, and we’ve made very clear to them that that would cause a serious problem for us and in our relationship,” Blinken told Margaret Brennen, host of the CBS News show Face the Nation, in an interview that aired on Sunday.
Blinken told China’s top diplomat Wang Yi on Saturday that if China provided Russia with lethal assistance, it would have “serious consequences” for the relationship between the two countries.
Blinken added that President Joe Biden gave Chinese President Xi Jinping the same message shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine last year.
“I’m not going to lay out what the consequences would be,” Blinken told reporters on Monday during a news conference in Turkey. “But I think China understands what’s at risk were it to proceed with providing material support of that kind to Russia.”
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So far, the Chinese government does not seem to be intimidated by Blinken’s diplomatic warning. Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for China’s foreign affairs ministry, told reporters on Monday that China refuses to be lectured by the United States on this issue.
“It is the U.S., not China, that has been pouring weapons into the battlefield,” Wang said during a news conference. “The U.S. is in no position to tell China what to do. We would never stand for finger-pointing, or even coercion and pressurizing from the U.S. on our relations with Russia.”
Chinese soldiers receive live ammunition, Xinjiang, China, April 14, 2020.- (Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images)From Blinken’s comments, it is not clear whether the U.S. government believes China is considering sending Russia spare parts for Russian-made military equipment, munitions, or weapons systems such as tanks and fighter aircraft, said Dean Cheng, a China expert with the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., and the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, a public policy research institute in Arlington, Virginia.
It is possible that China may want to demonstrate that the West cannot have a double standard to justify its own military aid to Ukraine while criticizing any possible Chinese assistance to Russia, Cheng told Task & Purpose.
“I do think that with the West supplying munitions and full-blown weapons systems, it’s awfully hard to seriously persuade Beijing: You don’t get to do that.”
The Chinese government is also concerned that if the West defeats or geopolitically humiliates Russia in Ukraine, Western countries will believe they could use a similar approach to thwart a Chinese invasion of Taiwan at little cost, he said.
“I think that the Chinese propaganda isn’t completely propaganda when they say: ‘Russia is our strategic partner – not ally – but the fate of Russia is tied to the fate of China,’” Cheng said. “‘We would face a West that is triumphant; that believes its own propaganda; that thinks that it can use a variety of tools to break challengers to the Western hegemony, as you did in Serbia, as you tried to do in Syria, as you did in Libya. We’re not going to let you do that – not China.’”
If China ultimately decides to arm the Russians, it has the ability to provide Russia with crucially needed munitions, including 122mm and 152mm artillery shells along with rockets for BM-21 Grad and BM-30 Smerch Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, said Hlib Parfonov, a defense analyst who works with the Jamestown Foundation think tank in Washington, D.C.
FILE – In this handout photo released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe watch a joint military exercise by Russia and China held in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwestern China on Aug. 13, 2021. (Savitskiy Vadim/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via Associated Press)In the opening days of the war, Russia’s attempt to capture Kyiv failed spectacularly when a 40-mile column of Russian military vehicles became stuck approaching the Ukrainian capital, providing a target-rich environment for Ukrainian troops armed with anti-tank weapons.
The Chinese could send the Russians trucks to replace some of their losses from the failed drive on Kyiv as well as armored vehicles such as the Type 86 infantry fighting vehicle, a Chinese version of the Soviet BMP-1, Parfonov told Task & Purpose.
Such an influx of Chinese arms and equipment could allow the Russians to launch offensive operations in northern Ukraine as well as the south and southeastern parts of the country, he said.
In addition to buying artillery shells and rockets, Russia could also purchase Chinese-made armed drones, which are very popular among developing countries because they are capable aircraft and much cheaper than American-made drones, Timothy Heath, a senior international defense researcher at the RAND Corporation.
Russia is already using Chinese drones for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions in Ukraine, and the Russians have also modified some of those drones to fire weapons, Heath told Task & Purpose. China could also sell Russia drones that are specifically designed to carry ordnance.
A Chinese-made drone at the Zhuhai Air Show on November 7, 2018. (Long Wei/Future Publishing via Getty Images)“Something else that would be useful for them – it’s not really a weapon per se – but all the microchips and electronic components that are needed to make precision-guided munitions, I think the Russians would really be interested in that because they’re desperately low on actual precision-guided munitions and they can’t make them without those components, which they have to get from China or the West – and the West has shut that down.”
It is less likely that the Chinese government would provide Russia with tanks, missile launchers, and aircraft because it would be much more difficult for Beijing to conceal sales of major Chinese military equipment, especially if it gets captured, he said.
Heath said he does not believe the Chinese have decided yet whether they will sell weapons systems and munitions to Russia,
The Chinese government has long claimed that it has not provided weapons to Russia or Ukraine, and Beijing is expected to release a proposed peace plan later this week that is intended to end the conflict.
If the Chinese government provided arms to Russia at this moment, it would mark a huge escalation of their involvement in the conflict as well as a major deterioration of China’s relationship with the United States, Heath said.
“That move would put the world on a path to a confrontation between a U.S-led bloc of countries and a China/Russia axis that seemed increasingly willing to use arms to kill Americans – or at least U.S. allies and partners,” Heath said.
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American F-16s and B-1B bombers fly alongside South Korean F-35As and F-15Ks. (Photo courtesy U.S. Forces Korea).North Korea spent much of this weekend launching missiles. On Saturday, the country fired one of its Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missiles, which landed in the Sea of Japan, calling it a “surprise ICBM launching drill.” On Monday morning (local time) the country fired two more missiles into the Sea of Japan.
Amid all of this, American fighter jets and bombers flew in a pair of bilateral air exercises with fighters from South Korea and Japan, meant as a show of force in the region.
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Above the Korean Peninsula, American B-1B bombers and F-16s were joined by South Korean F-35As and F-15Ks. According to U.S. Forces Korea, the exercise was focused on training for “short-notice recall missions.”
“(The exercise) strengthened the combined operation capability and affirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defence of the Korean Peninsula and the implementation of extended deterrence,” the South Korean military said in a statement.
The U.S. and ROK conducted a combined air training event with the USAF B-1 Lancer high above the Korean Peninsula on Feb 19, 2023.
ROKAF F-35s and USAF F-16s joined in offering the alliance an opportunity to rehearse short-notice recall missions. #WeFlyTogether #ROKUSAlliance pic.twitter.com/2Rk9FPcsFO— U.S. Forces Korea (@USForcesKorea) February 19, 2023
It comes two weeks after a similar exercise over the peninsula, that one involving American F-22s, the first such joint air training operation between the two militaries this year.
The same day another American bomber took off, this time over the Sea of Japan. The B-1 bomber was accompanied by a contingent of American F-16 fighters and Japanese F-15s.
To showcase combined capabilities to deter and counter regional threats, @INDOPACOM B-1 bomber and F-16 fighter aircraft conducted a bilateral exercise with @JASDF_PAO_ENG B-15 fighter aircraft February 19, 2023, over the Sea of Japan.https://t.co/XMaJUfa1N9
— U.S. Forces Japan (@USForcesJapan) February 19, 2023
Although the bomber flights came soon after Pyongyang’s ICBM launch, the two exercises had been planned for some time. In fact, on Friday, North Korea promised a “unprecedentedly persistent, strong” response to the drills. A day after the joint operations, North Korea conducted its second launch, sending two ballistic missiles into the sea. The launches on Saturday and Monday are the first such since the start of the year, and are in violation of United Nations resolutions against the country testing ballistic missiles.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un did not directly comment on the new launches Monday, but his sister, Kim Yo Jong, issued her own statement criticizing the build of American forces in the region.
“The frequency of using the Pacific as our firing range depends upon the U.S. forces’ action character,” she said in her statement.
The United States has been working to shore up and modernize defenses in East Asia. In November, the United States sent a B-1 bomber over the Korean Peninsula, the first such flight in five years. In Japan, the U.S. Air Force is in the process of replacing the aging F-15C and F-15D fighter contingent at Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa with newer models. It’s not clear what those will be, although F-22s are filling in for the time being.
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Keanu Reeves and Donnie Yen in 'John Wick: Chapter 4.' (Photo by Murray Close/Moviepix/Getty Images).John Wick. The name inspires dread in the criminal underworld and love among dogs. And next month he’s back in another action film.
The fourth film brings back Keanu Reeves as widower, legendary assassin and possible Marine Corps veteran John Wick. The man has been through a lot in the series. After the death of his wife, having his car stolen and dog killed, coming out of retirement, carrying out an impossible hit against a member of the High Table, declared “excommunicado” by the criminal-focused Continental Hotel chain and then left on the run after betraying the Elder who sits above the High Table — all of which makes sense over the course of three films — John Wick: Chapter 4 has him still on the run. He has one chance out: win a duel at dawn against a nobleman. He just has to survive until dawn.
This past week, as part of a promotional run dubbed “Wick Week,” a new trailer for the fourth film was released. Two things are clear: John Wick is still able to tear through henchmen with ease and dogs just like the guy.
Wick’s actual status as a Marine is vague. In interviews for the past films, Reeves, Willem Dafoe and director Chad Stahelski have alluded to his possible military background. As for on-screen evidence, the biggest hint is Wick’s large back tattoo that reads “fortis fortuna adiuvat,” Latin for “fortune favors he who is bold.” It’s similar but not identical to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines’ motto of “fortes fortuna juvat,” or “fortune favors the bold.” Fans have latched onto this, associating him with the Marine Corps.
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Over the course of the previous three films he’s shown a wide set of abilities. Most prominently is his marksmanship skills, both with pistols and assault rifles, which point to some overlap with military training. Less consistent with Marine Corps experience are his many close quarter combat skillsets, including Center Axis Relock pistol technique, proficiency in judo and sambo — the latter implied in the third film to be something he’s trained in since childhood — and sword fighting experience. Also the pencils. Remember, John Wick killed people with a pencil on multiple occasions.
Both the third film and the trailers for the fourth show Wick on horseback — in the former he actually pulled off a kill using the horse as a weapon. The military has equestrian units but there’s no signs Wick learned that in service. The fourth film’s trailers also show Wick engaging in combat with axes and nunchucks. Plus there is John Wick’s extensive linguistic abilities, including fluency in Russian and at least conversational levels of proficiency in Italian, Indonesian and other languages. The man has skills.
In reality, Reeves trained extensively for each film. For the first John Wick film, he spent four months learning judo and jujitsu, plus weapons handling. That continued for John Wick: Chapter 2, and for the third installment he worked with former Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan, training on clearing rooms, among other tasks. As for Wick’s more eclectic abilities — nunchucks, remember — that was likely specialized training for the scenes. Reeves himself is an avid motorcyclist so Wick’s handling on a motorcycle in the third film was learned from years of experience.
Those skills are needed. The fourth installment of the franchise is full of well known action stars, including Scott Adkins and Ip Man himself, Donnie Yen. Then again, they’ve never fought someone who kills people with pencils.
John Wick: Chapter 4 is out in theaters March 24.
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A US soldier walks with an AT4 anti-tank weapon during a joint military exercise between forces of the US-led "Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve" coalition against the Islamic State (IS) group and members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the countryside of the town of al-Malikiya (Derik in Kurdish) in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province on September 7, 2022. (Photo by Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP) (Photo by DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images).American forces, working with the Syrian Democratic Forces, captured an ISIS provincial official in a helicopter raid in eastern Syria this morning, U.S. Central Command announced.
The ISIS official, identified solely as “Batar,” was ”involved in planning attacks on SDF-guarded detention centers and manufacturing improvised explosive devices,” per CENTCOM. No American or allied fighter was injured, nor were any civilians, CENTCOM said.
No additional information on the raid was immediately available.
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The raid is the latest in recent days targeting ISIS officials and commanders. On Wednesday, U.S. forces killed Ibrahim Al Qahtani, identified as an ISIS official tied to prison breaks. On Thursday, another raid in eastern Syria killed Hamza al-Homsi, an ISIS commander in the region. Four American service members and a military service dog were wounded by an explosion during the raid.
Since the terrorist group’s final stronghold of Baghouz fell in 2019, American troops and the Syrian Democratic Forces have been hunting members of the organization. ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi died last February in a U.S. raid.. His similarly named successor Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed in November in a firefight with the anti-Assad forces of the separate Free Syrian Army. In total, American forces carried out 313 operations against the militants in 2022.
The United States has been stepping up anti-ISIS operations in recent months. In January American special operations forces killed an ISIS leader and other members in Somalia. That was notable for being a helicopter raid involving ground combat troops, rather than the airstrikes the U.S. mainly does in Somalia against the militant group al-Shabaab. The three raids this past week mark one of the highest intensities of operations in the last several months.
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Members of the Ohio National Guard's 52nd Civil Support Team conduct tests for toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio. (photo by Airman 1st Class Ivy Thomas, Ohio National Guard Public Affairs).After a 150-car train carrying 20 cars of toxic chemicals derailed outside the village of East Palestine, Ohio, both Ohio and West Virginia activated units from their National Guard to assist in evacuating residents and testing the area for chemical contamination.
The Norfolk Southern train derailed on Feb. 3. Reports suggest faulty brakes caused the crash. In an effort to avoid a larger explosion, authorities set off a controlled burn, which has created a dark pillar of smoke that stayed for days. The train was carrying chemicals including vinyl chloride, monobutyl ether and ethylhexyl acrylate, many flammable.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine activated elements of the National Guard on Feb. 5. More than 60 soldiers were mobilized, setting up a barricaded zone near the incident and guiding traffic. The village sits near Ohio’s border with Pennsylvania and that state’s governor Josh Shapiro has been providing updates as well on the situation. On Feb. 7 a National Guard civil support team from West Virginia arrived to aid efforts in East Palestine.
Ohio’s 135th Military Police Company arrived to help local law enforcement with the evacuation, guiding people out of the village. Approximately 1,500-2,000 residents were evacuated, according to Mayor Trent Conoway.
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Meanwhile Ohio’s 52nd Civil Support Team, made up of multiple 2-3 person teams, as well as seven soldiers from the West Virginia National Guard’s 35th Civil Support Team worked to collect air and water samples, testing them for any of the toxic chemicals that had been on the train. They worked in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency as well as a company contracted by Norfolk Southern, according to the EPA in a release. A spokesperson for the West Virginia National Guard said its team found no significant readings of any chemicals. The EPA reported on Feb. 14 that it “has not detected any levels of health concern in the community that are attributed to the train derailment.” Tests are ongoing.
Photos shared by the Ohio National Guard on Twitter show guardsmen suiting up in gas masks and full hazmat suits to collect samples in the village. Posted in a since-deleted tweet, a National Guard photo shows the giant pillar of smoke from the crash site and its proximity to East Palestine.
(Photo courtesy Ohio National Guard)The National Guard regularly responds to disaster emergencies throughout the United States. Lately that has been to help rescue people trapped by extreme snow storms in the northeast or heavy rains in the Midwest. Increased intense weather events exacerbated by climate change have increased the pace of National Guard rescue efforts. Civil support teams are specialized groups focused on assisting in instances where there might be biological, chemical or radioactive substances in disasters or other incidents.
The fire burned for five days, only being fully put out on Feb. 8. That same day DeWine declared that it was safe for residents to return home. Residents have reported dead animals, including fish in creeks, and expressed concerns about the safety of the area.
Despite the ongoing cleanup efforts and cloud of smoke still lingering over the town, the National Guard wrapped up efforts on Feb. 9. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other federal agencies and departments have sent assistance as well.
The head of Ohio’s National Guard, Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr., has drawn heavy criticism after video emerged of him shoving NewsNation reporter Evan Lambert at a Feb. 8 press conference about the derailment and response.
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Left, former Canadian sniper Dallas Alexander; right, former U.S. Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan. (Task & Purpose photo illustration).Shawn Ryan is a retired Navy SEAL, former CIA contractor, and podcaster. Now, he can count thorn in the Canadian military’s side among his many accolades after releasing footage of the longest-distance sniper shot in history.
In a Feb. 6 episode of his eponymous podcast, Ryan interviewed Dallas Alexander, a former sniper with the elite Joint Task Force Two (JTF2) special operations unit who was in possession of footage showing an unnamed sniper taking out an Islamic State group member at 3,540 meters (2.2 miles) away with a McMillan Tac-50 anti-material rifle in 2017.
The footage, which showed the .50 cal round traveling through the air for nearly 10 seconds before striking the ISIS terrorist as he exited a building to a car, was apparently not authorized for release and immediately captured the attention of Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, which sent a cease-and-desist letter to Ryan demanding he take down the video.
Ryan published the letter to Twitter on Tuesday after pulling Alexander’s episode, stating that while he didn’t want to inadvertently publish classified material that would jeopardize the safety of allied troops in harm’s way, he believed the cease-and-desist “is an attempt to silence Dallas from explaining that he left command for refusing the covid vaccine.”
I'm sure many of you are aware that I pulled the JTF2 Sniper / Dallas Alexander SRS Episode due to a cease and desist from the Canadian Gov. I believe that this is their attempt to silence Dallas from explaining that he left the command for refusing the covid vaccine.
However, it… https://t.co/XyF0NrZEvY pic.twitter.com/PhZobxUb6X— Shawn Ryan (@ShawnRyan762) February 14, 2023
Indeed, during the episode, Shawn had pressed Alexander on why he left JTF2 after fourteen years with the unit, prompting the latter to sound off about “wokeness” and personal freedom with regard to the Canadian Armed Forces’ mandatory COVID-19 vaccine regimen.
“It should be up to the individual to make that assessment — your own fucking health — especially fucking injecting something in your body,” Alexander said. “It’s like the ultimate overstep on someone’s freedom, like, ‘You must inject this.’”
“I want to be perfectly clear, I am not an ANTI-VAX individual. I believe in freedom of choice and in freedom of speech,” Ryan wrote on Twitter. “This is why I cut anything that could have possibly been considered “classified” from part 2 of the episode.”
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There’s some ambiguity remaining over whether the CAF knew Alexander was going to release the footage. Alexander himself posted a video to Instagram on Monday stating that he had “consulted with many people … to gather information on what I should say and what I shouldn’t say” with regards to the long-distance sniper kill on Ryan’s show.
“I told them I would vet every single post, blur something, change the word,” Alexander subsequently told CTV News on Friday. “I was told that a public affairs officer would reach out to me — but no one did.”
It’s unclear what consequences will emerge for Ryan and Alexander, although the former, as a U.S. citizen, is likely not subject to Canadian laws regarding the dissemination of restricted information, per CTV News.
Still, Alexander told CTV News that the Canadian Armed Forces was likely using the video as a pretext to investigate him for his podcast comments regarding his departure from military service.
“In all aspects of censorship, the common theme is ‘this is dangerous information to someone, therefore we need to censor it,’” Alexander said in his Monday statement. “I’m assuming that will be the approach taken. We’ve seen a lot of that over the last few years. So that wouldn’t surprise me.”
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A Special Forces Soldier shows partner forces how to prepare night optics on a weapon prior to night range training in Southwest Asia, Sept. 2, 2019. In conjunction with partner forces, Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve defeats Daesh in designated areas of Iraq and Syria and sets conditions for follow-on operations to increase regional stability. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Kyle Alvarez).Four U.S. service members and a military working dog were injured in an explosion during an operation on Thursday night that killed Hamza al-Homsi, a senior leader with the Islamic State group, U.S. Central Command announced.
“The U.S. servicemembers and working dog are receiving treatment in a U.S. medical facility in Iraq,” according to a CENTCOM news release on Friday, which did not provide the medical conditions for the troops or the military working dog.
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U.S. troops partnered with Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) for the helicopter raid, which took place in northeastern Syria.
No information was immediately available on what may have caused the explosion that injured the U.S. service members and military working dog.
The raid comes nearly a week after U.S. troops and the SDF launched a Feb, 10 raid in Syria that killed Ibrahim Al Qahtani, a suspected ISIS official who allegedly planned to break ISIS prisoners out of detention facilities.
“It seems clear that the U.S. military is exploiting intelligence from recent raids in Iraq and possibly Somalia to go after upper and mid-level leaders of the Islamic State,” said Bill Roggio, a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank in Washington, D.C.
However, it is important to remember that leaders of ISIS, al-Qaida, and other terrorist groups have a deep bench of deputies, who are waiting to take over when the time comes, Roggio told Task & Purpose on Friday.
No information was immediately available about the senior ISIS leader killed in Thursday’s raid.
The Free Syrian Army – which is separate from the SDF – killed former top ISIS leader Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi in October.
Al-Qurayshi’s death “probably accelerated the shift towards a new generation of senior ISIS leaders,” the most recent quarterly report from the Lead Inspector General for Operation Inherent Resolve found.
Between 6,000 and 10,000 ISIS fighters are currently estimated to remain at large in both Syria and Iraq, the report found. That is down from an estimated presence of 18,000 ISIS fighters in both countries two years ago.
The report also found that U.S. troops conducted several helicopter raids in northeastern Syria during the last three months of 2022.
“A raid on December 11 killed two ISIS officials—one who was involved in the group’s deadly plotting and facilitation operations in eastern Syria, USCENTCOM said,” according to the report. “In a 48-hour period from December 19-20, Coalition forces conducted three helicopter raids in eastern Syria resulting in the detention of 6 ISIS operatives, including [a] senior official involved in planning and facilitating ISIS attacks in Syria.”
UPDATE: 2/17/2023; this story was update on Feb. 17 with information about U.S. military operations against the Islamic State group.
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Two F-35A Lightning II aircraft fly over the Alaska Canada Highway en route to their new home at the 354th Fighter Wing, Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, April 21, 2020. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Tech. Sgt. Adam Keele).U.S. Air Force fighter jets intercepted a group of Russian military aircraft off of Alaska on Tuesday, the U.S. military’s second such intercept in as many days, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) announced on Thursday.
Two Air Force F-35A fighter jets, accompanied by a pair of F-16 Fighting Falcons, an E-3S entry (AWACS), and a pair of KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft, intercepted the Russian formation as it approached the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).
The Russian aircraft — a pair of Tu-95 BEAR-H bombers and a duo of Sukhoi Su-30 and Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets — “remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace,” NORAD said in a statement.
The intercept came on the heels of an incursion into the ADIZ by a separate quartet of Russian aircraft the previous day that also included a Tu-95 BEAR-H bomber and Su-35 fighter aircraft.
In response, a pair of Air Force F-16 fighters conducted the intercept supported by a pair of F-35A fighters, an E-3S entry (AWACS), and a pair of KC-135 Stratotankers, NORAD said in a statement.
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Russian military aircraft frequently test the boundaries of American and Canadian airspace off the coast of Alaska and have since the former resumed ‘Long Range Aviation activity’ (as NORAD calls it) back in 2007.
According to NORAD, the command averages between six and seven intercepts of Russian military aircraft in the ADIZ annually, although the military has occasionally experienced rates as high as 15 intercepts annually.
In June 2020, for example, NORAD scrambled aircraft on six separate occasions to intercept groups of Russian aircraft as they penetrated the ADIZ.
But this current pair of Russian intercepts comes amid a particularly unusual time for the airspace above North America. Following the shootdown of a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of the Carolinas earlier this month, the White House is reportedly “racing” to assure Americans that the government is keeping the skies clear of danger.
That appears to include shooting down anything that moves: the week after the Chinese spy balloon shootdown, U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadiana Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordered the downing of a trio of flying “objects” in the skies above North America even though senior government officials have been unable to provide additional detail as to the origin and composition of them.
“Because we have not been able to definitively assess what these recent objects are, [President Biden] wanted to act out of an abundance of caution to protect our security and in our interest,” Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs Melissa Dalton recently told reporters.
“So, we will remain vigilant. We have made these enhancements to — to our radars. And the operations this past week have been successful in — in bringing down these potential threats.”
Indeed, NORAD was quick to tamp down any connection between the incidents, noting that the Russian flight activity “is in no way related to recent NORAD and U.S. Northern Command operations associated with airborne objects over North America during the last two weeks.”
Still, Russia may interpret senior DoD officials increased vigilance for incursions as a sign to think more carefully about testing American airspace going forward.
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FILE" Security officers patrol near the destroyed Hayat Hotel after a deadly 30-hour siege by Al-Shabaab jihadists in Mogadishu on August 21, 2022. - (Photo by Hasan Ali Elmi/AFP via Getty Images).The U.S. military launched an airstrike on Wednesday in Somalia, which has become a very active front in the post-Global War on Terrorism conflict against al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.
The airstrike supported the Somali National Army, which was fighting al-Shabaab militants, U.S. Africa Command announced on Thursday. Al-Shabaab declared allegiance to al-Qaida in 2012 and it is responsible for the Jan. 5, 2020 attack on U.S. troops at Manda Bay, Kenya, that killed three Americans.
Five suspected al-Shabaab fighters were killed in the airstrike near Bacadweyne, Somalia, which is roughly 286 miles northwest of the country’s capital, Mogadishu, according to an AFRICOM news release, which did not specify what type of U.S. military aircraft or ordnance was involved in the operation.
In the first two months of this year alone, the U.S. military has launched five airstrikes in Somalia and conducted a Jan. 26 special operations raid in the country that killed ISIS leader Bilal-al-Sudani, said Caleb Weiss, an expert on jihadism in Africa and the Middle East.
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By way of comparison, there were 15 U.S. airstrikes in Somalia in 2022 and 11 airstrikes in 2021, according to the Long War Journal, which is produced by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies think tank in Washington, D.C.
The recent uptick in U.S. military operations in Somalia began last year in support of the Somali government’s offensive against al-Shabaab, said Weiss, a senior analyst with the Bridgeway Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to end genocide. Weiss is also a co-editor of the Long War Journal.
While Somali forces have made progress in clearing al-Shabaab from parts of the country, it is unclear whether they can maintain control of the areas that they’ve taken, told Task & Purpose on Thursday.
Weiss noted that the Somali government is relying on militias to hold most of the towns and villages that al-Shabaab has left.
Al-Shabaab is also well practiced at making tactical withdrawals from cities, only to come back later in full force, he said.
“In the areas of central Somalia, especially in the Hiran region, we’ve seen al-Shabaab take back some villages,” Weiss said. “So, I think the long-term impact is still unclear at this point.
The U.S. troops have been supporting Somali forces against al-Shabaab since 2007, but in December 2020 then-President Donald Trump ordered most of the roughly 750 American service members in Somalia to leave the country.
President Joe Biden later approved a plan in May 2022 to send roughly 500 U.S. troops back to Somalia.
Christopher Miller, who served as acting defense secretary during the final months of the Trump administration, said that the U.S. military’s footprint in Somalia had become far too large by the time Trump pulled most American forces out of the country.
While the U.S. military’s role in Somalia is the “absolutely perfect counterterrorism mission,” it can also be accomplished by just 25 troops on the ground instead of nearly 800, Miller told Task & Purpose.
The U.S. military’s presence in Somalia fell victim to mission creep, Miller said. It started with a small number of troops and then grew to include aircraft based at Mogadishu’s airport, which required firefighters to also be assigned to the airport and then base security to protect the firefighters and other American forces.
Miller also credits the withdrawal of most U.S. troops from Somalia with forcing the Somali government to take the lead in the fight against al-Shabaab and ultimately launching the current offensive.
“But, as soon as we left, in true Department of Defense/government bureaucratic fashion, AFRICOM came in to relitigate,” Miller said. “After its debacle in Afghanistan, I would strongly suspect the [Biden] administration decided that they needed to show strength regarding counterterrorism someplace else.”
The latest on Task & Purpose Here’s why the Marine Corps strapped a rare electronic warfare LAV to the deck of a warship * Shot fired after intruder breaks onto Andrews Air Force base * That time a US Navy submarine got a confirmed kill on a train during WWII * Coast Guardsman saves man hours before graduating from rescue swimmer school * JTAC vs TACP: A user’s guide to the troops who call in close air support*
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English is the international language of aviation, but it can be a useful asset to know the native language of whoever you are flying with. This imagined interaction shows the wingman directing an "ops check," in Arabic to which the flight lead (Pilot One) responds "One's 3.6," which indicates his or her remaining fuel in thousands of pounds. (Aaron Provost/Task & Purpose).At the start of the classic World War II novel A Bell For Adano, the narrator argues that one of America’s greatest strengths is its “fund of men who speak the languages of the lands we must invade, who understand the ways and have listened to their parents sing the folk songs and have tasted the wine of the land on the palate of their memories.”
“[E]verywhere our Army goes in Europe,” the narrator continues, “a man can turn to the private beside him and say: ‘Hey Mac, what’s this furriner saying? How much does he want for that bunch of grapes?’ And Mac will be able to translate.”
About 80 years after the fictitious events of the novel, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Charlynne McGinnis found herself serving as the allegorical ‘Mac’ while teaching an airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance program to local special forces troops in her native country of the Philippines.
“The first day I said, ‘welcome to the class,’ I spoke with them in Tagalog and immediately, right after that introduction, students were like ‘oh here ma’am, here are the problems we are having right now with the program,’” McGinnis recalled. Knowing the language “just opens up a floodgate, like ‘now that I know you understand the culture and language, I’m going to tell you what’s really going on. I’m going to tell you the inside baseball.’”
McGinnis is one of 3,600 service members speaking more than 90 languages who have participated in the Language Enabled Airman Program (LEAP), which is part of the Air Force Culture and Language Center. The LEAP program takes airmen and Space Force guardians who have some proficiency in a foreign language – whether from growing up in a household speaking it or from learning it in a classroom – and sharpens that skill level and cultural knowledge so that the LEAP scholar can serve as a cultural and linguistic expert for their fellow service members.
To use the example from A Bell for Adano, it would be as if a few of the Macs who grew up speaking or learning Italian applied to a special program in the Army. If they were accepted into the program, the Army would use mentor sessions or send the soldier into an “immersion” experience with fluent speakers to make sure their Italian language skills and cultural knowledge were up-to-date. After that, the Army would enter all those Macs into a database so they could be called upon whenever Italian language and cultural skills were needed.
U.S. Marine Corps 1st Sgt. Kimberly Barton, company first sergeant with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, and U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Ramchand Francisco, vehicle management superintendent with the 87th Logistics Readiness Squadron and a Tagalog LEAP Scholar attached to the 11th MEU, speak during a leadership symposium as part of KAMANDAG 6 at Camp Rodolfo Punsalang, Palawan, Philippines, Oct. 5, 2022. (Sgt. Dana Beesley/U.S. Marine Corps)The hypothetical database actually exists with LEAP. The tool is particularly useful when the Air Force needs service members who not only speak a foreign language, but who are also experts in technical subjects under discussion. For example, when Filipino special operations forces told McGinnis about the specific technical problems they were experiencing with the ScanEagle ISR drone, she used the LEAP database to find Master Sgt. Timothy Tanbonliong, a fellow LEAP scholar who had the technical knowledge to address those problems.
Being enlisted also helped the Filipino troops open up to Tanbonliong.
“The majority of these folks are enlisted, so I needed an enlisted person who knew the language and culture and who knew the processes involved with getting this aircraft flown,” McGinnis said. Tanbonliong “answered the call and said that was the best [temporary duty] of his career.”
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LEAP scholars have also used their skills to open doors for service members in other branches.
“The Marines would look to us to provide the ground truth without stepping on toes and providing cultural considerations to scenarios,” said Air Force Capt. Timothy Nolan, one of three airmen who embedded with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit as a Tagalog interpreter during an exercise in the Philippines last year, in a press release in October.
“Seeing our countrymen’s eyes light up and see that we are one of them, even though we wear a U.S. Air Force uniform … they want to open up and ask questions,” said another of the three airmen, Master Sgt. Ramchand Francisco. “They feel safe.”
The language of warLEAP is not a weapons platform: it cannot break the speed of sound, infiltrate hostile airspace or jam enemy communications. But the bonds that the program is meant to build with America’s partners overseas may be just as important as any fifth-generation fighter jet in a possible conflict with China.
Allies and partners “are our backbone across the Indo-Pacific,” as Brendan Mulvaney, the director of the Air Force’s China Aerospace Studies Institute, put it in a 2021 video. Countries like Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, “represent something the U.S. has many of, and China has none of: allies.”
Tech Sgt Kanako Fromm, a U.S. Air Force Language Enabled Airman assigned to the 374th Wing, helps interpret material with members of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force during the Pacific Unity Multi-Lateral Civil Engineer Key Leader Engagement, June 22, 2022 at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. (Airman 1st Class Emily Saxton/U.S. Air Force)But like any other relationship, military partnerships require mutual trust and understanding, which is not always easy to build over a language barrier or culture shock. The Air Force Culture and Learning Center, which oversees LEAP, was founded in 2006 in part as a response to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where U.S. service members sought to understand local languages and cultures in order to fight a more effective counterinsurgency.
The U.S. military already has the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center for teaching service members foreign languages, but that institute specializes to teach service members new languages from the ground up. Meanwhile the LEAP program works with airmen or guardians who already have significant experience with a foreign language.
Once accepted into the program, LEAP scholars work with mentors online or participate in an immersion program, such as living with a family abroad, to bring their skills up to date.
“We develop you while you do your primary job so that when the Air Force needs you, you’re ready to come off the bench, what we like to refer to as ‘the bench of the willing and able,’” said Walter Ward, the director of LEAP.
A retired Air Force colonel with thousands of hours of experience as a navigator aboard aircraft such as the KC-135 and the C-130, Ward himself witnessed the importance of foreign language skills while flying through stormy weather over France many years ago.
The French air traffic controller “was clearly exasperated” as aircraft asked him to divert from their course to get around the storms, Ward recalled. Luckily, the copilot on Ward’s aircraft spoke French, which gave his crew a crucial advantage. English is the international language of aviation, but when the co-pilot asked for divert instructions in French, the crew got what they needed “just like that,” Ward said, snapping his fingers.
“When the controller’s having a really bad day, there was some familiarity from an aircraft that he could not see except as a blip on the scope,” Ward said. “There was someone to connect with, a person.”
Ward referenced a quote that has been attributed to Nelson Mandela: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.”
‘How can I understand you?’A prime example of that phrase came during Operation Allies Welcome, the effort to resettle tens of thousands of refugees who were evacuated from Afghanistan during the last weeks of the U.S. war there in 2021. With little time to prepare, U.S. bases around the country stood up “safe havens”: temporary housing areas where evacuees were screened and supported before being resettled elsewhere. The challenge was: how do you help all those newcomers adapt to a new country, a new culture and a new language in a short amount of time?
Space Force Lt. Col. Adam Howland and Capt. Ron Miller were at the center of the solution. Howland and Miller speak fluent Dari and Pashto, respectively, so between the two of them they could speak directlyto many of the Afghans temporarily housed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, sometimes to the surprise of the Afghans. At one point, Miller startled a group of four boys by walking up to them and joining in their conversation.
“One drops his ball and he goes ‘Are you speaking English? How can I understand you? Can I speak English?’” Miller recalled. “He was flabbergasted that he could understand this white guy in a uniform.”
U.S. Space Force Captain Ronald Miller, a Cultural Advisor and Assessment Team Lead with Task Force Liberty, speaks with the Afghan guests at Task Force Liberty Village on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, December 15, 2021. Being fluent in Pashto allows for smooth communication between Miller and the guests. (Airman 1st Class Darius Frazier/U.S. Air Force)Miller said he talked 12 hours every day for three months during OAW, answering Afghans’ questions, helping them solve problems, teaching Afghans crash courses in English and American culture, teaching Americans crash courses in Afghan language and culture, and generally supporting the refugees. Some of the refugees had never been on a plane before OAW, and many of them still had family members back home now living under the Taliban.
“I’ve seen it firsthand that when you don’t have barriers: language barriers, cultural barriers, and you’re able to actually understand the other side, you can really begin to help,” he said.
Miller and Howland described several occasions where having cultural awareness helped defuse high-stress situations during OAW. For example, many Afghans have much smaller bubbles of personal space than most Americans. In fact, “it’s a sign of endearment when an Afghan stands incredibly close to you,” Miller said.
The processing facility at JBMDL, where many evacuees sought help in the resettlement process, was not set up to handle that cultural difference. The American workers answered evacuees’ questions from behind a roll-down cage, which, when combined with the cultural barrier, created an invisible brick wall between the two parties.
“In Afghan culture, that physical separation also demonstrates a degree of ‘give-a-care’ factor,” explained Howland. “That physical separation, that roll-down cage, increased or amped up the anxiety and the level of contention.”
Many of the Afghans already had enough stress to deal with, whether it was from missing children, difficult living arrangements with fellow evacuees, or the fact that their family members were still in Afghanistan. To mitigate the situation, Howland advised his airmen and guardians to come out from behind the roll-down cage and sit down next to evacuees who were particularly distressed.
“It would almost immediately defuse a portion of that stress,” he said. “That enabled our culture and linguistic team to help intercede and defuse some pretty bad situations.”
U.S. Space Force Lt. Col. Adam Howland, Task Force Liberty Lead Culture Advisor, shows his patches to an Afghan boy at Liberty Village, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, Sept. 7, 2021. (Spc. James Liker/U.S. Army)It also helped that Howland had a network of contacts from previous visits to Afghanistan who served as vital relays between the Americans and the Afghans during OAW. In some instances, they were “the catalyst for communication and growth and coordination and defusing of tricky situations,” Howland said. “We had that preexisting relationship – they knew that we understood the culture and the language, and so it made the transition for so many of those Afghans much easier.”
Some of the newcomers showed their gratitude in unexpected ways. Miller was surprised to receive thank you letters, texts of ‘thanks’ in Pashto, Dari and English, and even artistic renderings of his face in paint, pencil and stone. One Afghan sent him a photo of a block of marble that the man’s cousin, still in Afghanistan, had carved Miller’s face into.
The cousin “looked me up on LinkedIn, took my profile picture, put it in marble as a ‘thank you’ and it’s sitting on a chair in the middle of a desert in Afghanistan right now,” Miller said. “I felt flattered.”
Pocket guidesAfghans were not the only ones who benefited from LEAP scholars during OAW. Howland and his team put together a guide meant to help military, State Department and other government employees better understand what the new arrivals were going through. Previous guides to Afghan culture were written from the perspective of Americans going to Afghanistan, but there was nothing to help Americans understand the perspective of an Afghan going to the United States.
Howland’s team developed a training suite based on what the refugees were experiencing based on JBMDL. The training was broken down into 12 domains of culture, which is also how AFCLC’s Culture Guide app is organized.
The app, which anyone with a smartphone can download, contains field guides for more than 70 countries. Users can click on a country and find concise, informative summaries of that country’s history, politics, religion, social norms, traditions of family and kinship, as well as more abstract concepts like how time, space, sex, gender and health are generally perceived in those countries. The app is meant to help bring service members up to speed on whatever country they are deploying to.
“If I am aircrew on a C-130 and I am getting tagged for deployment to Angola and I know that a tool like the field guide app exists, then I can go to that app and get some instant knowledge that is useful,” Howland explained.
Bite-sized guides are a tight format for explaining entire countries, and Howland acknowledged the difficulty. For example, in Afghanistan, there are at least five principal ethnicities, so “to try to talk about all of the cultural nuances of those various ethnicities in one guide is a real challenge,” Howland said.
“My experience, at least with the Afghanistan field guide, is that they did a decent job of identifying those broad things that apply generally across the country,” he added.
When greater cultural and linguistic expertise is needed, the LEAP program is designed to help. Though LEAP scholars are not always high in rank, their language and culture skills often mean they become the face of the U.S. Air Force or Space Force when they work closely with foreign troops overseas.
“I don’t want to make it seem bigger of a deal than it is, but in the RJAF, I am the American face,” said Maj. Wayne ‘Astro’ Mowery, a LEAP scholar who is fluent in Arabic. Mowery currently serves as an F-16 instructor pilot embedded with the Royal Jordanian Air Force.
“Everyone knows my name,” he said. “That sounds bad when you say it like that, but it’s like, when they think of America, the first person they probably think of is ‘Astro the exchange pilot,’ because I work with them every single day.”
Mowery is a unique case among LEAP scholars. English is the international language of aviation, so technically he does not need to know Arabic to teach F-16 flying to Jordanian pilots. But Mowery’s main mission as an exchange pilot is not simply to teach F-16 skills: it is to build connections with allies.
“You can’t simply show up and expect to be respected because you’re a major or because you’re an American or because you’re an instructor pilot,” he said. “You have to build the relationship first, and language is the only way to do that. Language and cultural understanding.”
U.S. Air Force then-Capt. Wayne Mowery briefed U.S. Ambassador to Jordan, Mr. Henry T. Wooster, during a 2020 visit by the Ambassador to Muwaffaq Salti Air Base. Mowery is serving as an exchange pilot with the Royal Jordanian Air Force. (U.S. Air Force photo)Knowing another person’s language and being humble about it “shows that you care about who they are culturally,” Mowery explained, and it can also break down barriers. For example, Mowery may be able to teach his colleagues in the RJAF about the F-16, but his colleagues can help Mowery learn more about Arabic, a language he has been passionate about since he first began studying it in college. Humility can also help navigate awkward moments, like when your name, “Wayne” means “where” in Arabic.
“Once translated, it sounds like I’m saying ‘oh hello, my name is ‘where,’” Mowery said. “It sounds like I’ve lost my name. That’s why the callsign helps. But the language piece enables me to understand why these guys are so confused that my name is Wayne.”
‘A military imperative’Whether it helps to understand a name, to learn how to fly a fighter jet, or to appreciate the benefits of a scout drone, LREC (language, regional expertise and culture) is the “secret weapon that builds the relationships that allow the partnerships to be built which the National Security Strategy depends upon,” Mowery explained.
“I used to think LREC was just nice to have, but really I’ve come to understand it as a military imperative,” he added. “Underneath all the coalition and partnerships is strong LREC competencies and you just cannot assume that. You have to work at that, and that’s where the AFCLC really thrives.”
U.S. Space Force Captain Ronald Miller, a Cultural Advisor and Assessment Team Lead with Task Force Liberty, speaks with the Afghan guests at Task Force Liberty Village on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, December 15, 2021. (Airman 1st Class Darius Frazier/U.S. Air Force)National security is not all that benefits from LEAP scholarship: the airmen and guardians themselves do too. With its long hours and technical jargon, military life can often distance service members from their civilian friends and family members. But McGinnis found LEAP to have the opposite effect, since it helped her reconnect with the place where she was born.
“Being a Filipino-American, an Asian-American and using my language and my culture to connect with my Filipino counterparts … not only brings joy to myself but also to the rest of my family,” said the airman, who grew up in the Philippines but who did not often speak Filipino after moving to the U.S. “The key takeaway was that despite being away from the culture and the language, I’m still connected.”
McGinnis’ experience points out a unique aspect of LEAP scholarship. Though much of basic military training and technical school is meant to break down former civilians and remold them into service members, LEAP taps into the diversity of culture and language that airmen and guardians bring with them into the military. Howland pointed out the core values of the Space Force’s Guardian Ideal: character, connection, commitment and courage.
“At least in part, what character means to me as an ideal to strive toward is that diversity of thought that we come into the service with,” Howland said. “That strength of character, that diversity will enable us to defeat our near-peer adversaries, and I’m convinced of that. That is my opinion, but I very much tie that thread between the diversity [airmen and guardians] bring and the strength of their character, because they should never be afraid to embrace who they are.”
The latest on Task & Purpose Here’s why the Marine Corps strapped a rare electronic warfare LAV to the deck of a warship * Shot fired after intruder breaks onto Andrews Air Force base * That time a US Navy submarine got a confirmed kill on a train during WWII * Coast Guardsman saves man hours before graduating from rescue swimmer school * JTAC vs TACP: A user’s guide to the troops who call in close air support*
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(Task & Purpose photo illustration).It’s been more than a week since a U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor assigned to the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia downed a Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina coast with an AIM-9X missile, and some of you are still sharing photos of an alleged aerial victory marking across the side of the purported jet that made the kill.
F22 finally gets a kill stencil -Taranis
Posted by Disgruntled Vets on Sunday, February 12, 2023
While the appearance of a balloon-shaped victory marking on the side of any jet would be an awesome occurrence in the history of aerial combat, this F-22 photo is, unfortunately, a fake.
The original photo, which shows an Air Force pilot flashing a thumbs-up from inside the cockpit of their F-22, was in fact published to the Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts of Edwards Air Force Base in California in 2020 and shows a Raptor assigned to the 411th Flight Test Squadron, F-22 Combined Test Force there.
An F-22 Raptor assigned to the 411th Flight Test Squadron, F-22 Combined Test Force at Edwards Air Force Base in 2020.It’s easy to understand why the alleged photo of a balloon kill marking stirred up so much excitement in military and veterans circles online. Victory markings enjoy a long and storied history in the U.S. military dating back to World War II, and they weren’t necessarily reserved for aircraft: Navy submarine USS Barb boasted a kill marking of a locomotive after taking out a train on the Japanese home islands in 1945.
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It’s unclear if the Air Force plans on allowing victory markings on the F-22s that downed not just the Chinese spy balloon, but the three unidentified objects that two other F-22s and an F-16 Viper took out the following weekend. When contacted by Task & Purpose, the aircraft’s respective units deferred to the office of the Secretary of the Air Force, which demurred on the question.
But if the Air Force decides to hand out a victory marking to the F-22 Raptor involved in the balloon shootdown, it won’t involve a silhouette of the balloon. According to service regulations, fighter aircraft with verifiable aerial victories are allowed to display “a 6-inch green star with a 1/2-inch black border located just below and centered on the pilot’s name block” with the type of aircraft shot down stenciled within the star in white.
“No other victory markings are authorized,” per Air Force regulations.
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 4012439-scaled.jpegAirman 1st Class Kaya Schmidt, 74th Aircraft Maintenance Unit crew chief, secures an aircraft panel on the side of an A-10C Thunderbolt II, Dec. 6, 2017, at Moody Air Force Base, Ga. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Ryan Callaghan)Then again, it’s possible the service might make an exception. After all, at least one A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft assigned to the 107th Fighter Squadron, 127th Wing of the Michigan Air National Guard at Selfridge Air National Guard Base boasted a victory marking of a cow in the aftermath of a fateful sortie during a 2015 deployment to Iraq as part of Operation Inherent Resolve.
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Tennessee Army National Guard Black Hawk helicopters sit on the flight line at sunrise during Northern Strike 19 at the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center in Alpena, Mich., July 24, 2019. (Master Sgt. Matt Hecht/U.S. Air National Guard).The next few days or weeks likely will not be easy for aviators in the Tennessee Army National Guard as the service begins analyzing what led to an accident that killed two National Guardsmen when their UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a training sortie over Huntsville, Alabama on Wednesday afternoon. No other service members or civilians were hurt in the crash.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of two Tennessee National Guardsmen, and our prayers are with their families during this heartbreaking tragedy,” said Brig. Gen. Warner Ross, Tennessee’s Adjutant General, in a statement on Wednesday. “We ask Tennesseans to join us in supporting their families during this time of unthinkable grief.”
Federal and state authorities are investigating the crash. While the statement did not specify if the Army will look into the crash, the services usually launch intense investigations whenever a service member or military aircraft is harmed in a mishap. Chief Warrant Officer 3 Michael Newgard, a Black Hawk pilot with the Oregon National Guard, recalled what happened after a crew in his unit caused several hundred thousand dollars worth of damage to the rotor blades of their helicopter when they accidentally cut the tops off some trees in the middle of a rescue.
“We had a safety stand down and there was a thorough review of our practices and procedures to make sure it wasn’t a unit cultural issue,” said Newgard, who cautioned that he was speaking from his own experience as a Black Hawk pilot, not as a trained Army aviation safety officer. “Mandatory briefs were a part of it, as well as an open forum with the unit to discuss if anyone felt there were unsafe things going on.”
Why such a thorough approach? The Army Combat Readiness Center, which analyzes mishaps and works to prevent them in the future, views mishaps as indications of a flawed system rather than as isolated events.
“Mishaps and near misses are a result of a series of events comprised of multiple system inadequacies and/or hazardous conditions that provide the opportunity for an unsafe act or violation to occur,” the Center writes in its Mishap Investigation Handbook. “A superficial investigation reveals the act or violations but the goal of a complete investigation includes the identification of the system inadequacies” such as fatigue, complacency, illness, or other surrounding problems.
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The Army seeks “complete investigations” because lives, money, and missions often depend on the safe operation of its aircraft. Military aircraft are expensive, complicated machines that take a stupendous number of regulations, manuals, and standard operating procedures to handle safely. Even the way military aviators talk in the air is regulated, like when the Air Force points out in a regulation that “nonstandard phraseology contributes to misunderstood clearances and aircraft mishaps.”
When accidents do occur, the military classifies them into one of several categories. In the Army, Class F is the least harmful category, covering just aircraft turbine engine damage that affects no other part of the aircraft. Class E is the second-least harmful category, where the total cost of property damage is greater than $5,000 but less than $25,000. The most harmful category, Class A, is where the total cost of property damage is $2.5 million or more; an Army manned aircraft is destroyed, missing or abandoned; or an injury and/or occupational illness results in a fatality or a permanent total disability. The exact nature of the investigation into a mishap depends not only on the class of mishap but also on its circumstances.
“Much like most things in the Army, it depends,” said one Army aviation safety officer on the condition of anonymity. “The commander has the authority to stand the unit down if they desire for any reason. If it is quickly suspected to be a wider issue, they might suspend operations for a week or so till things get figured out.”
The length of time for which operations are suspended also depends on the location. If it occurred at a home station, there might be a longer pause than at a combat station or training center, the safety officer said. If the mishap warrants it, the Army Combat Readiness Center dispatches investigators to identify any “system inadequacies” that need to be addressed. This can be a difficult task, particularly when the unit being investigated has just lost some of its members.
“It’s tough for the unit … there are fresh wounds there (literally and figuratively),” said the safety officer. “It sucks to have people say your unit is jacked up after a loss.”
It is also a difficult task for the investigators, who have to “listen to the cockpit recorder dozens of times … hearing people’s last moments alive on repeat,” said the safety officer. The investigators sometimes have to look at body parts, personal effects, and other reminders of the fallen aircrew, some of whom they may have known personally. Sometimes an investigator gets choked up and has to step outside for a minute, the safety officer said.
Though the work is difficult, it often leads to life-saving lessons. Many service members are familiar with the saying that “regulations are written in blood.” The saying means that each line in the stupendous number of regulations and procedures for safely handling aircraft may have come from somebody else finding out the hard way and paying the price.
The regulations usually work, as military aircraft like the Black Hawk fly nonstop around the world, often for years after the end of their expected service lives. But mishaps still happen. Army Times reported on Wednesday that the last time a fatal Black Hawk crash occurred was in March 2022 when a medevac pilot died in an unauthorized flight at Fort Stewart, Georgia. Army Times also noted that nine soldiers received minor injuries in January after a Black Hawk struck some trees and lost its tail and main rotor while attempting to land in “white out” snowy weather in Germany.
As the Tennessee National Guard recovers from Wednesday’s loss, perhaps the lessons learned from it can save lives in the future.
“They very much are written in blood,” the safety officer said about regulations. For every investigation, “there are Army-level recommendations that get published in the next revision of the doctrine.”
The latest on Task & Purpose Here’s why the Marine Corps strapped a rare electronic warfare LAV to the deck of a warship * Shot fired after intruder breaks onto Andrews Air Force base * That time a US Navy submarine got a confirmed kill on a train during WWII * Coast Guardsman saves man hours before graduating from rescue swimmer school * JTAC vs TACP: A user’s guide to the troops who call in close air support*
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An Iranian-made drone is seen in the sky seconds before it fired on buildings in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Oct. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky).A new report from the Defense Intelligence Agency has confirmed that Russia is using Iranian-made drones in Ukraine after months of reports based on open-source intelligence.
The new unclassified report “provides a visual comparison of UAVs used by Russian forces in Ukraine and Iranian UAVs used to attack U.S. and partner interests in the Middle East,” according to its summary. “Photos of UAV debris and components from Ukraine are consistent with systems showcased at military expos and other venues in the Middle East. This analysis confirms Russia’s use of various lethal UAVs in its war in Ukraine.”
The DIA report comes months after Russia previously denied that it uses Iranian drones. In October, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that the drones seen attacking Ukraine are made by Russia.
“Russian equipment with Russian nomenclature is used,” Peskov said at the time, according to Reuters, which also reported that Russian defense officials did not respond when asked about the issue.
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However, the DIA report confirms that Russia has used Iranian-made Shahed-131 and made Shahed-136 drones – which the Russians have renamed Geran-1 and Geran-2, respectively – along with Mohajer-6 drones over Ukraine.
A screenshot of a Defense Intelligence Agency report showing that Russia is using Iranian-made drones in Ukraine. (Defense Intelligence Agency)Russia has been using Iranian-made drones to attack Ukraine since September, Kateryna Stepanenko, a Russia analyst with the Institute for the Study of War think tank in Washington, D.C., previously told Task & Purpose.
The DIA’s confirmation that Russia is using Iranian-made drones in Ukraine will not affect the conflict itself, said Benjamin Jensen, an expert on future war, gaming, and strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
So far, the Russians have been unable to use the Shahed and Mohajer drones as part of combined arms operations along with their own loitering munitions, artillery, and electronic warfare capabilities, Jensen told Task & Purpose onWednesday.
“To date, the Russians have not integrated unmanned systems with offense and defense maneuver as effectively as the Ukrainians,” Jensen said. “That could change, but likely won’t since the Russians are focused more on attrition than maneuver warfare at present.”
The Iranian-made drones have been used to attack Ukraine’s electricity grid and other critical infrastructure in major cities including Odessa and Lviv, according to Israeli defense analyst Uzi Rubin, who wrote a Jan. 13 commentary for The Royal United Services Institute, a British defense and security think tank.
When launched from Russian-occupied Crima and Belarus, the Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 drones are able to strike virtually any target in Ukraine, Rubin wrote.
“Their low radar and thermal signatures as well as their low altitudes make them hard to detect from sufficiently large distances,” Rubin wrote. “Flying in virtual nap-of-the-earth profiles, they are detected only when close to their targets, providing a very short window of opportunity to engage them.”
Photographs shared on social media in October showed Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones attacking Kyiv.
Photos of one of the Russian Geran-2 loitering munitions that struck Kyiv this morning from @YasuyoshiChiba. pic.twitter.com/8hcLOdYJbc
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) October 17, 2022
The DIA report confirms that photographs published by the media and open-source intelligence sources did in fact show Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones over Ukraine. The drones have a delta wing and vertical stabilizers that give them a particular shape that make them easily recognizable.
Iran used the distinctive-looking Shahed-136 drones to attack the merchant vessel Mercer Street in 2021, and it has also supplied the drones to Houthi rebels in Yemen, the DIA report found.
“Iran used Shahed-136 UAVs in the 2021 attack against the merchant vessel Mercer Street and has also transferred this system to the Houthis in Yemen,” the DIA report found. “The Houthis have not used this system in an attack to date, but have displayed it publicly.”
Additionally, components from Shahed-131 drones have been recovered from debris in Ukraine and are “consistent with Shahed-131 components recovered in Iraq in 2022,” the report found.
In October, the Ukrainians also captured a mostly intact Mohajer-6 drone from the Black Sea, the report found.
“It appears to be indistinguishable from the Mohajer 6 systems photographed in Iran and Iraq,” the report says. “Components recovered from the wreckage display very similar markings to those observed in Iran.”
The DIA’s report was released on Tuesday, the same day that U.S. Central Command announced that U.S. troops had shot down an Iranian-made drone over a patrol base in northeast Syria.
While no group has claimed responsibility for flying the drone, the U.S. government has previously blamed Iran and militia groups that it backs for drone attacks on American forces in Syria and Iraq.
“Iran commands an arsenal of drone systems ranging from small, short-range to modern intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance units,” Army Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, told reporters in December “They are building larger drones that can fly further with increasingly deadly payloads. We see the UVs [unmanned vehicles] of today the same way we viewed IEDs during our initial conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
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A Marine infantryman with 2nd Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, burns waste at Patrol Base Atull in Sangin, Afghanistan, on Aug. 6, 2011. (Lance Cpl. Kowshon Ye/U.S. Marine Corps).Ah, United States Marines, stewards of a martial tradition dating back 248 years and the undefeated world champs when it comes to one-upping someone by having it worse. More than expeditionary warfare, excellence in the basic, esprit de corps, and small unit leadership, it’s the ability of individual Marines to take pride in their suffering — no matter how needless — that defines the service.
Recently, this was put on display when the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Eric Smith spoke about enlistment bonuses in the context of the U.S. military’s ongoing struggle recruitment.
“Your bonus is that you get to call yourself a Marine,” Smith said at the 2023 West naval conference in San Diego, according to Military Times. “That’s your bonus … there’s no dollar amount that goes with that.”
The reply was so pitch-perfect and on brand for the Corps that it sounds like it was ghost-written by the spirit of R. Lee Ermey’s drill instructor from Full Metal Jacket, then edited by the ghost of Chesty Puller, with a final review by the phantom of two-time Medal of Honor recipient Smedley Butler, before being read aloud to an auditorium packed with the souls of countless lance corporals. It’s also not the first time a Marine Corps leader has suggested that pay is inversely proportionate to morale among Marines. In 2014, then-Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps Micheal Barrett testified before Congress that pay cuts “will raise discipline.”
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But is it true? Is being a Marine all the bonus Marines need? Maybe not for the lance corporals and below across the globe living in barracks that may or may not be moldy, making between $2,150 and $2,500 a month depending on rank and years of service, and especially not when they find out fellow junior enlisted in the Navy are eligible for up to $50,000 to enlist, to say nothing of the Army and Air Force which are both offering tens of thousands in signing bonuses.
Let’s break this down and look at all the ways that serving in the Marine Corps may (or may not) be as much of a bonus as getting a wad of cash in your hand upon enlisting.
It’s not.Okay, well there is that. Getting cash up front to take on a job that’s inherently dangerous, whether you’re at home or abroad, has a value of its own. If your first duty station ends up being in a high-cost area where the basic housing allowance has yet to catch up with the rising housing costs, a few extra grand in a savings account might be more useful than that EGA tattoo you got one night at an Oceanside tattoo parlor while over at Camp Pendleton.
You get to bear the title “Marine.”This is true. Upon graduating boot camp, you join a tight-knit community that is yours and yours alone. No other member of the military carries an honor that distinguishes them as part of their specific tribe, unless you count soldiers, sailors, airmen, coast guardsmen, and guardians, not to mention the specific designations that come with certain fields, like Army Rangers, Green Berets, Navy SEALs, EOD techs, and fighter pilots. Each of which has its own traditions, stories, and unique culture.
Hmm, okay, well so much for that.
You get to win the who has it worst contest. While other branches get dining facilities, the Marine Corps has chow halls. Where some branches have dorms that look a lot like college dorms, the Corps stuffs two to three, sometimes four Marines into a single barracks room, and in some cases, the bathroom is shared with an equally cramped adjacent room. While Navy Corpsmen get to strut around with their 80s and 90s porn mustaches, even those assigned to Green Side, Marines will be verbally flensed if even a single stray hair can be seen on their nasty face. And while some senior enlisted leaders in other branches couldn’t care less what their troops wore when they were off duty or hanging out on the weekend, a Marine walking to the base exchange to pick up a six-pack on a Saturday will have to navigate a gauntlet of off-duty staff sergeants and above who want to know why he is wearing “shower shoes” to a store. This is because the Marine Corps has determined the height of personal fashion was achieved in the 1950s with high and tights, tucked-in polo shorts, belts around the waist, knee-high socks, and a clean shave daily, to hell with razor bumps and medical conditions.
This may have something to do with why 75% of Marines leave the Corps after a single enlistment.
You will have steady employment.Indeed, you work steadily between five to seven days a week, depending on whether you’re in the midst of a workup for a deployment, downrange, or out on a training exercise. You’ll enjoy consistent work hours, assuming you take joy in waking up at 5 a.m. every day for PT, or the inevitable battalion-wide run, where you’re sure to spend half of it having your heels stepped on, or stepping on someone else’s since formation runs tend to devolve into one olive drab slinky within 10 minutes of starting. Oh, but you’ll get off early on occasion and you will have federal holidays off, so long as you don’t have to pull 24-hour duty or your command doesn’t decide to hold an entire unit’s leave hostage for some perceived infraction or the entirely subjective cardinal sin of ‘lax discipline.’
You’ll develop critical skills that will aid you the rest of your life. It’s tempting to become belligerent and sarcastically note that, yes, you will exit the Marine Corps as a fully certified janitor who’s capable of sweeping up sunshine, mopping the rain, and who has a healthy respect (and a general fear) of fields of grass, which should never, ever, under any circumstances be walked on. But that would be childish.
Jokes aside, military service can and often does provide one with a range of technical skills and experience, in addition to a level of self-confidence and discipline that’ll be helpful in any line of work and in whatever you do. That said, those skills are not unique to the Marines and a few grand in the bank is also helpful.
You will leave the service with a thick skin and a high bullshit tolerance.You are a master at enduring verbal abuse and your ego no longer bruises when a grown adult treats you like a child solely because they picked up rank six months to a year before you, even though they wouldn’t be able to spell their name if it wasn’t stenciled on their blouse. And when it comes to last-minute changes and up-ended gameplans, re-written org charts, and strategic pivots, you are the epitome of calm and the patron saint of Semper Gumby.
However, achieving 0-fucks-given inner peace will be difficult.
You get to travel to exotic lands, meet interesting people, and… …stand post for 8 hours straight, only to get off and quickly stuff your face with shittier-than-usual food, before either going back on post, out on patrol or resuming whatever duty is expected based on your military occupational specialty — or something totally unrelated because “the needs of the Marine Corps” demand it. And while you’re working for months on end without weekends, you can ruminate on how you will inevitably get called a “boot” when you get back from deployment if you don’t have a Combat Action Ribbon, even though everyone is well aware that it’s not the early 2000s or 2010s and the only new CARs on base are the ones from the nearby dealership. No Dodge Chargers though.
Maybe it’s not enough to justify no bonus…But as a Marine, you are part of a long military tradition, steeped in history and heroism born of hardship and hard-won victories. You understand adversity — intimately — both the serious and the outrageously unnecessary, and so too does every other Marine. In that shared experience, the good and the bad, you’re part of a larger whole. There’s no better example of this than when one current or former Marine bumps into another and recognizes that instant bond. That’s worth something at least.
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An Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter takes off at sunset while transporting American troops out of a remote combat outpost known as RLZ on May 25, 2021 near the Turkish border in northeastern Syria. (John Moore/Getty Images).U.S. troops killed an “ISIS official” during a Feb. 10 raid with partner forces that is part of wider efforts to prevent the Islamic State group from reestablishing itself in Syria and Iraq, U.S. Central Command tweeted on Wednesday.
“We can confirm Ibrahim Al Qahtani, an ISIS official associated with planning ISIS detention center attacks, was killed in the raid,” CENTCOM tweeted. “10,000+ ISIS detainees are held in Syria.”
The raid took place in Syria and it involved both U.S. troops and the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, a largely Kurdish group, CENTCOM spokesman Maj. John Moore told Task & Purpose.
U.S. troops typically work with SDF in Syria and the Kurdish Counter Terrorism Group
In Iraq for partnered operations.
As part of the Feb. 10 mission, U.S. troops captured several weapons as well as ammunition and a suicide belt, the CENTCOM tweet says.
No further information about the mission was immediately available.
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Even though it receives little media coverage these days, the fight against ISIS has continued long after the terrorist group lost its physical caliphate. In 2022, U.S. troops launched a total of 313 missions in both Iraq and Syria, CENTCOM announced in December. At least 686 suspected ISIS militants were killed during those missions, including the group’s former top leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi.
Part of the U.S. military’s overall strategy to prevent a resurgence of ISIS involves targeting as many senior leaders as possible, said Nora Bensahel, a defense policy expert and political scientist with the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
CENTCOM has not released any information about Al Qahtani’s role in ISIS other than that he was planning to break out ISIS prisoners. Preventing ISIS from freeing former fighters and their families from prison has proven to be a perennial challenge for U.S. troops and their partner forces in Syria.
When ISIS lost the last bit of territory that it controlled in March 2019, the SDF took tens of thousands of fighters and their family members into custody.
Since then, the SDF have launched operations to break up ISIS cells inside the Kurdish-run al-Hol detention refugee camp, which held 58,000 people as of September — 70% of whom were children, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
U.S. troops and SDF fighters also stopped five suspected ISIS militants from entering the camp in September.
ISIS continues to try to exploit vulnerable populations being held in displacement camps in Syria, the most recent quarterly report from the Lead Inspector General for Operation Inherent Resolve found.
“Prison breaks remained a global priority for ISIS,” the report says. “The DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency] said similar to the January 2022 ISIS attack on the Ghuwayran Detention Facility, ISIS may attempt more breakout attacks on displacement camps and detention facilities.”
After visiting the al-Hol camp in November, Army Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, head of CENTCOM, said that U.S. troops would support partner forces as they try to improve conditions at the camp.
Kurilla also cautioned that the camp residents need to be rehabilitated and sent back to the countries from which they came, adding “There is no military solution here.”
“In speaking with camp administration, observing conditions, and speaking with residents, it is clear to me that there are thousands of women and children here who would embrace the chance to just go home, escape this squalor and misery, and live a normal life,” Kurilla said in a statement. “But the longer we leave them here in these conditions, the greater the chance they will instead raise the next generation of extremists.”
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A photograph shows a street-art piece by Italian urban artist Tvboy on a destroyed Russian tank in Ukraine. (Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP).After nearly one year of brutal conflict, Russia has failed to subjugate Ukraine or shatter the NATO alliance, Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Tuesday.
“In short: Russia has lost,” Milley said during a news conference in Brussels. “They’ve lost strategically, operationally, tactically, and they are paying an enormous price on the battlefield.”
But in the next breath, Milley made clear that the war in Ukraine is not yet over by saying that the international community will continue to support the Ukrainians until Russian President Vladimir Putin “ends his war of choice.”
With that said, history has shown that conflicts tend to continue long after one side has lost. Both Germany and Japan fought on for years during World War II even though they no longer had the ability to achieve victory.
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Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine last year, up to 200,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded, according to the New York Times. The Dutch open source group Oryx recently estimated that more than 1,000 Russian tanks have been destroyed and another 547 Russian tanks have been captured by the Ukrainians.
Currently, the Russian military has regained the initiative in Ukraine and started launching a new offensive in Luhansk, which is in eastern Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War think tank in Washington, D.C.
“The commitment of significant elements of at least three major Russian divisions to offensive operations in this sector indicates the Russian offensive has begun, even if Ukrainian forces are so far preventing Russian forces from securing significant gains,” ISW wrote in its Feb. 8 assessment of the conflict.
It would be more accurate to say that Russia is losing the war rather than it has lost, said Luke Coffey, a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute think tank in Washington, D.C.
“Ukraine is clearly on the front foot,” Coffey told Task & Purpose. “As more Western weapons pile into Ukraine, Ukraine only gets stronger. And as Russia has to dig deeper into its ancient stockpiles of older tanks and armored vehicles, Russia gets weaker.”
However, Coffey cautioned that the conflict could last for years unless the United States and its partners begin providing Ukrainians with weapons they need to win the war — including F-16s, A-10s, and Army Tactical Missile System rockets, or ATACMS.
Russia claims to have mobilized 300,000 new troops, Coffey said. Even if the actual number of conscripts that have been mobilized is far fewer than that, the Russians will still be able to throw tens of thousands of new troops into battle.
“There’s no indication that Russia is willing to give up or go to the negotiating table,” Coffey said, adding, “2023 will not be a year at peace.”
Russia’s population also stands at roughly 142 million, and that is more than three times the size of Ukraine’s population of about 43 million, according to the CIA’s World Factbook.
That means Russia can take terrible losses and still overwhelm Ukrainian forces, said Phillip Karber, a Marine veteran and national security analyst, who spent 190 days as an observer on Ukraine’s front lines.
Karber said his sources in Ukraine have told him that the Ukrainians are killing 20 Russians for every one of their own troops slain. At that rate, a Ukrainian rifle platoon can inflict heavy casualties on the Russians, but the platoon will no longer exist after a month of fighting.
“The bleeding is horrendous on the Ukrainian side and the only way to stop it is to give them the goddamn ATACMS,” Karber told Task & Purpose. The units are getting battered. The guys are shattered. You have units that are down to 10 guys that started with 30 or 40.”
Karber also urged the United States and its allies to provide Ukraine with the type of military aid it needs to end the war quickly, arguing that Ukrainian democracy is at risk the longer the conflict drags on.
“Democracies don’t handle long wars well,” Karber said. “Nobody does, but it’s hard on democracies. What happens in a long war: You either lose the war or you lose the democracy — or you lose both.”
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A sailor monitors radar. (Petty Officer 2nd Class Nathan R. McDonald/U.S. Navy).The U.S. military’s history of encounters with unidentified flying objects goes back to World War II. One of the first major UFO sightings came in 1942, when anti-aircraft batteries around Los Angeles opened fire at objects in the sky that they thought were Japanese aircraft. The Army determined later that a lost weather balloon had caused a false alarm.
Later in the war, pilots with the Army’s 415th Night Fighter Squadron reported seeing strange discs of light over Germany, which they dubbed “Foo Fighters” — a term that came from the Smokey Stover firefighter cartoon.
And two years after the war ended, a high-altitude balloon meant to monitor for Soviet atomic bomb tests crashed near Roswell, New Mexico. Based on an Army major’s comments, the local newspaper reported that a “flying saucer” had been recovered, giving birth to the modern phenomenon of UFO sightings.
While both military and civilian observers have pondered these encounters for decades, the Pentagon’s focused efforts to find out what UFOs are only started gaining momentum in 1947, when the Air Force launched Project Blue Book.
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Over the next 22 years, the Air Force investigated 12,618 sightings of UFOs, of which 701 remained unidentified when the service closed the project in 1969.
The Air Force ended Project Blue Book after the University of Colorado determined that none of the UFOs investigated by the service had posed a threat to national security; none of the UFOs showed evidence of technology that was more advanced than modern science; and investigators found no evidence that any of the UFOs were extraterrestrial craft, according to the Air Force.
Unidentified aircraft seen in May, 2022, through night vision equipment and an SLR camera. The DoD states that the unidentified object in this image were subsequently reclassified as unmanned aerial systems. (U.S. Navy)With the military no longer looking into sightings of unidentified airborne objects, the task of investigating UFOs fell to local law enforcement.
But years later, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) helped to secure Congressional funding for the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, or AATIP, which investigated unidentified aircraft sightings for the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2008 until 2012.
“The purpose of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) was to investigate foreign advanced aerospace weapon system applications, with future technology projections over the next 40 years, and to create a center of expertise for advanced aerospace technologies,” said Defense Department spokeswoman Sue Gough. “The goal was to help understand the threat posed by unconventional or leap-ahead aerospace vehicles and technologies that could have national security implications for the United States.”
The Defense Intelligence Agency awarded a contract to Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, LLC, which workedwith academics and scientists to provide a total of 38 technical reports between 2008 and 2012 that looked at several issues associated with unidentified aircraft, including their methods of propulsion and power generation as well as their armaments, Gough told Task & Purpose.
But in 2009, a review determined that the reports from AATIP were “of limited value” to the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the program ended when its funding expired in 2012, Gough said.
For the next six years, the Defense Department did not have a formal program to examine reports of unidentified aircraft, she said. During that time, the military services dealt with reports of UFOs the same way they did with reports of other safety or operations security incidents.
The U.S. military got back into the business of investigating unidentified airborne objects in August 2020 when then-Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist established a task force to detect, analyze, and catalog reports of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena — a new term for UFOs. The task force fell under the Navy’s office of the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security.
Screenshot of an unidentified “spherical object” that flew through a Navy training range in 2021. Video of the object was shown to Congress the following year. (Task & Purpose)“The Department of Defense and the military departments take any incursions by unauthorized aircraft into our training ranges or designated airspace very seriously and examine each report,” an August 2020 Defense Department news release says.
The new task force was not a continuation of AATIP, Gough said. Since naval aviators had filed most of the reports of unidentified aircraft sightings, the Department of the Navy had taken the lead in investigating UFO incursions into military training ranges and designated airspace starting in 2018. The Defense Department began taking steps the following year to formalize the Navy’s work tracking unidentified aircraft.
By the time the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force was established, the Pentagon had already released three unclassified videos in April 2020 that showed three separate encounters between Navy pilots and UFOs: One in November 2004 and the other two in January 2015. The War Zone had also revealed that Navy pilots filed eight hazard reports between 2013 and 2019 about encounters with unidentified aircraft in restricted airspace off the East Coast.
Separately, in November 2004 two Navy F/A-18F Super Hornets from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz reported seeing a strange aircraft shaped like a Tic Tac that disappeared in front of two aircraft. Radar from the cruiser USS Princeton detected the aircraft 60 miles away just seconds later.
And in July 2019, several unidentified aircraft swarmed Navy ships off the coast of California that were later determined to be drones.
U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Leon Jones, 354th Aircraft Maintenance Unit weapons load crew chief, inspects an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile that was loaded onto an A-10C Thunderbolt II during a load crew of the quarter competition at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., Oct. 7, 2016. (Airman Nathan H. Barbour/U.S. Air Force)Since President Joe Biden took office, the Defense Department created the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, or AOIMSG, in November 2021 to ultimately replace the Navy’s UAP Task Force. The Group was later renamed the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO, in July 2022.
Dr. Sean M. Kirkpatrick was named director of AARO, which falls under the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. Kirkpatrick was unable to provide a statement for this story, Gough said.
“It is vital to our national security and the safety of our military personnel that we maintain awareness of anomalous objects in all domains,” Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security Ronald S. Moultrie wrote in a July 2022 memo. “We must also keep pace with the development and employment of novel technology by our adversaries. In doing so, we are committed to providing maximum transparency while safeguarding classified information and controlled unclassified information. The establishment of the AARO is a significant step forward in developing the capabilities and processes that are necessary to achieve these goals.”
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have spoken out about the need for the military and intelligence community to work together to determine what UFOs — now called Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena — really are.
“The January ODNI [Office of the Director of National Intelligence] UAP report included more than 360 newly-identified reports, of which 163 were characterized as balloon or balloon-like entities and 171 were left uncharacterized,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said in a statement to Task & Purpose. “I will continue working to ensure our armed services listen to our operators about the threat UAPs pose to our national security and to maintaining American air supremacy.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) released a video on Tuesday saying that reports of unidentified aircraft were dismissed for a long time because they were associated with UFOs and aliens.
“That’s not’s not my concern,” Rubio said in the video, which he shared on Twitter. “My concern is that some other country has developed a capability to monitor and enter our airspace and that we are not prepared to identify it. We’re looking for airplanes. We’re looking for missiles. We’re not looking for objects that don’t fit that criteria. And strategic surprise is the way a lot of wars start, and it’s the way a lot of wars and conflicts are lost.”
Following the recent shoot downs of a Chinese spy balloon and three other objects that have yet to be identified, Biden has directed National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan to put together an interagency team to look at whether any policy changes need to be made regarding how the United States detects and analyzes unidentified aircraft, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday.
Kirby also said the U.S. government is taking more of a Scully than Mulder approach to the UFO issue: “I don’t think the American people need to worry about aliens, with respect to these craft,” he said.
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U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Leon Jones, 354th Aircraft Maintenance Unit weapons load crew chief, inspects an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile that was loaded onto an A-10C Thunderbolt II during a load crew of the quarter competition at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., Oct. 7, 2016. (Airman Nathan H. Barbour/U.S. Air Force).The Air Force has been chalking up kills the past two weeks as its fighter jets shot down a Chinese spy balloon followed by a series of unidentified flying objects over the United States. But no matter whether the F-22 or the F-16 fired it, the missile taking down all these mysterious visitors has been the same: the AIM-9X Sidewinder.
The AIM-9 is a family of heat-seeking, air-to-air missiles that have an estimated 270 aircraft kills to their name, according to a 2004 Air Force press release. Though there are several variants of the missile, it generally weighs about 190 pounds, is approximately 9 feet long, and has a diameter of about 5 inches, according to the weapon’s fact sheet. The AIM-9X is the latest iteration of the AIM-9 and can be fired from most U.S. military fighter jets, including the F-15, the F/A-18, F-35 and, as proven by recent events, the F-22 and F-16.
An AIM-9X Sidewinder missile shoots off the rail of an F-16 flown by Capt. Spencer “Memphis” Bell, over the test range at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, Apr. 24, 2019 (Tech. Sgt. John Raven/U.S. Air Force)The Sidewinder dates all the way back to the first successful test firing of the AIM-9A prototype in September 1953. In the years leading up to that, many U.S. military planners were focused on developing radar-guided missiles that could hit large Soviet bombers from as far away as possible. But a team of engineers led by Dr. William McLean at Naval Ordnance Test Station China Lake, California tried their hands at developing a more nimble weapon that could help fighters strike a wider range of targets and close the performance gap between the Navy’s primary fighter, the F9F Panther, and its Eastern Bloc opponent, the MiG-15.
The AIM-9 was relatively cheap to develop, partly because it was built with many “off-the-shelf” parts that already existed, explained military historian James Young in a 2021 history of the Sidewinder.
“Taken together, these factors meant the Navy’s ideal missile might be a cheap, easy-to-use weapon that both markedly increased fighter capability and required minimal technology for employment in conventional conflicts,” Young wrote.
Earning stripesWhile the AIM-9’s 60% kill rate in testing and early operations such as the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis showed great promise, the Vietnam War exposed the missile’s shortcomings. North Vietnamese fighter pilots figured out how to outmaneuver the missile, Young wrote, and American aircrews were undertrained on both the Sidewinder’s capabilities and on dogfighting enemy aircraft like MiG-17s. The 60% kill rate promised before the war fell to about 10 to 15% by the end of 1968.
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The Air Force and Navy both worked to improve the missile’s performance through various technical upgrades, but the Navy showed the greatest gains in performance by improving the training of its aircrew through efforts like the U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School (better known as Top Gun). By the end of 1972, “the Navy’s Phantom II-Sidewinder combination became so deadly that NVAF MiGs began circumventing combat,” Young wrote.
So began a long win streak for the Sidewinder, which continued to improve through technical upgrades such as the release of the AIM-9L and AIM-9M. Sidewinders fired from U.S. Navy F-14s destroyed two Libyan Su-22s in 1981, helped the Israeli Air Force dominate Syrian MiG-21s and MiG-23s over Lebanon in 1982, and arguably saved the United Kingdom’s air war against Argentinian Mirage IIIs and other aircraft during the 1982 Falklands War. The Sidewinder continued to prove its worth during the Gulf War, where it shot down Iraqi MiG-21s, MiG-23s, and even a Mi-8 helicopter.
A U.S. Air Force weapons load crew team from the 44th Aircraft Maintenance Unit carry an AIM-9L/M Sidewinder missile to an F-15 Eagle fighter aircraft during a quarterly weapons load competition April 3, 2017, at Kadena Air Base, Japan (Naoto Anazawa/U.S. Air Force)But why is the U.S. military still using the missile now, almost 70 years after its first successful test? Part of the answer is that it still works, especially after all the technical upgrades that make the current AIM-9X a much more capable beast than its ancestors. Indeed, when Boeing won a contract in 2010 to support Sidewinder operations through to 2055, Air Force spokesperson Stephanie Powell said in a press release that the missile’s relatively low cost, versatility, and reliability made it “very possible that the Sidewinder will remain in Air Force inventories through the late 21st century.”
Balloon popperMcLean and his team of China Lake engineers may not have suspected back in the 1950s that the weapon they designed to take down nimble enemy aircraft would be used to destroy relatively static balloons or UFOs at the edge of space. In fact, when an Air Force F-22 pilot used an AIM-9X to destroy a Chinese spy balloon at about 60,000 feet above the Earth last week, it may have been the first time a Sidewinder ever reached such distant heights.
“I don’t know that they’ve tested an AIM-9 at that altitude,” the commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, Gen. Glen VanHerck, told reporters on Feb. 6.
Another option to destroy the balloon was the AIM-120, a radar-guided missile, but the decision to use the AIM-9 instead “goes back to safety considerations and effectiveness,” VanHerck said. “You know, the AIM-120 has a significantly-larger range, a significantly-larger missile warhead.”
An F-15E Strike Eagle weapons load crew team lifts an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile to attach to a pylon July 15, 2019, at Al Dhafra Air Base, United Arab Emirates. The AIM-9X is an advanced infrared missile and the newest of the Sidewinder family of short-range air-to-air missiles carried on a wide range of fighter jets. (Staff Sgt. Chris Thornbury/U.S. Air Force)The AIM-9X was considered to be a more safe but equally effective option compared to the AIM-120, VanHerck explained. Still, the AIM-9X can cost about a third to half a million dollars a pop, according to Department of Defense budget documents.
Are there less expensive options for bringing down these balloons and UFOs, such as the cannons aboard Air Force fighter jets? Probably not without considerable safety risks. For example, the balloon was so high up that even the F-22, with its maximum ceiling of around 65,000 feet, was reaching the edge of its capabilities, as our colleagues at The War Zone reported.
That high up, closing to gun range with the balloon would have added unnecessary risk to the mission. The shells fired from such a gun run would likely cause only small holes in the balloon before flying for miles below, where “their kinetic energy alone” would be dangerous to anybody on the ground, The War Zone wrote.
If the current pace keeps up, the AIM-9X will have quite a few more kills to its name, though it is still unclear what exact kinds of aircraft were killed. Either way, the Sidewinder has proved once again that it is not going by the wayside anytime soon.
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Al-Shabaab fighters, Feb. 13, 2012 in Somalia. (Getty Images).The U.S. military launched another airstrike in Somalia last week in support of Somali army forces who were engaging al-Shabaab militants.
Twelve al-Shabaab militants were reportedly killed in the strike, which occurred on Feb. 10 roughly 28 miles southwest of the town of Hobyo, which is approximately 290 miles northeast of the Somali capital of Mogadishu, according to U.S. Africa Command.
U.S. Africa Command declined to provide further information about what units or assets were involved, but the airstrike is the latest mission carried out by the U.S. as part of its enduring presence in Somalia and East Africa. Last month, on Jan. 25, U.S. forces “conducted an assault operation” that killed Bilal al-Sudani, an ISIS leader in Somalia. That came just a few days after airstrikes on Jan. 20 and Jan. 23 against al-Shabaab — a terrorist group with links to al-Qaida — forces. While no U.S. troops were on the ground for either of those strikes, the Jan. 20 strike reportedly killed more than 30 al-Shabaab militants.
In September 2019, a large group of al-Shabaab militants attacked an airfield guarded by New Jersey Army National Guard soldiers, in what was described as the “largest battle against al-Shabaab militants since Operation Gothic Serpent,” the 1993 operation to capture the Somali leader Mohamed Farrah Aidid, which resulted in the infamous “Black Hawk Down” incident. Last fall, an Army doctor was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received during a 2020 ambush by al-Shabaab forces in the village of Jana Cabdalle, in southeast Somalia. In that incident, Lt. Col. Daniel Brillhart and other U.S. and Somali forces “endured stiff enemy resistance while manning the fighting positions during the attack and providing medical treatment to over two dozen friendly casualties, which ultimately [allowed] the element to fight their way back to friendly lines without further losses.”
The U.S. presence in Somalia, at least in the context of the Global War on Terror, dates back to 2007. In late 2020, the roughly 700 U.S. personnel deployed there were withdrawn to other points in East Africa. Airstrikes in the county, though, continued throughout 2021 until May 2022, when a small number of U.S. troops were redeployed to Somalia, although not to be “directly engaged in combat operations.”
Throughout 16 years in Somalia and East Africa, though, the U.S. presence has rarely captured many headlines. Still, it’s a reminder that even if the National Defense Service Ribbon has been retired for now, the Global War on Terror, be it in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, or elsewhere, is not yet over.
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USAF Battle Control System operators monitor the skies from the floor of the program's Eastern Air Defense Sector location in February 2008. (U.S. Air Force photo).Over the course of nine days, the U.S. military has shot four high-altitude objects out of the skies over North America. In the first instance, the Defense Department and intelligence sources are confident of the object’s composition and terrestrial origins. The other three, however? The Pentagon is less certain.
Less than a week after the U.S. Air Force shot down a Chinese spy balloon off the Atlantic coast, a trio of new unidentified “objects” appeared in the skies above North America, prompting federal authorities to restrict airspace, scramble fighter jets, and blow them out of the sky. An F-22 Raptor shot down the first object on Friday over the northern part of Alaska, while a second object drifted from Alaska into Canada before an F-22 brought it down in the Yukon on Saturday. And on Sunday, another “high-altitude airborne object” moved over the Great Lakes, before it was ultimately shot down by an F-16 Fighting Falcon over Lake Huron.
As of Sunday evening, the Pentagon isn’t offering much information on what these new high-altitude objects could be, or why they are suddenly showing up with such frequency.
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The most recent three objects are “similar” in size and speed, Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) told reporters at a briefing Sunday evening. He did not go into specifics about the composition, shape, or actual size of the objects during the briefing, although on Friday, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder described the item shot down over Alaska as being the size of a small car. For comparison, the Chinese spy balloon that flew across the United States to the South Carolina coast was roughly 200 feet tall.
Despite their sudden appearance in the aftermath of the Chinese spy balloon shootdown, VanHerck said that he could not categorize the new trio of objects as balloons and urged observers to avoid speculating on any country of origin. He also avoided specifics on how these objects stayed in the air apart from confirming that they appeared to move with air currents.
“We call them ‘objects’ for a reason. Certainly, the event off the South Carolina coast for the Chinese spy balloon, that was clearly a balloon. These are objects,” VanHerck said.
The Pentagon is confident the first incident that preceded this weekend’s trio of shootdowns involved a balloon sent from China due to a “basis in intelligence,” Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs Melissa Dalton said.
Asked point blank if he had ruled out the possibility that the objects from the past few days were extraterrestrial in origin, VanHerck said that he had not.
“I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven’t ruled out anything,” he said. “At this point, we continue to assess every threat or potential threats unknown that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it.”
Not everyone in the national security world is as open-minded as VanHerck, apparently: A senior U.S. national security official told the New York Times that no one thinks the objects are extraterrestrial. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters today that this was the White House’s assessment as well.
“I just wanted to make sure we addressed this from the White House. I know there have been questions and concerns about this, but there is no — again, no — indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns,” Jean-Pierre said. “Again, there is no indication of aliens of terrestrial [sic] activity with these recent takedowns. Wanted to make sure that the American people knew that, all of you know that. It was important for us to say that from here because we’ve been hearing a lot about it. I loved ET the movie, but I’m just going to leave it there.”
As for why the U.S. is suddenly picking up so many new signatures, Dalton stated that it was a result of adjusting and “enhancing” radar systems in the wake of the Chinese spy balloon’s flight over North America, tweaking them to change parameters tied to altitude and speed.
U.S. radar systems previously filtered out slow-moving objects, which it is no longer doing, allowing for the detection of these new objects, she said.
Dalton added that “countries, companies, [and] research organizations” operate objects at such heights for non-nefarious purposes, but these objects were on paths that would put them close to “sensitive” Defense Department sites. Dalton and VanHerck said that none posed any active military threat, but were potentially a hazard for civilian aviation.
The military chose to shoot these objects down more quickly than they had with the balloon. All four shootdowns this month used AIM 9X missiles.
Asked why a missile with that level of destructive power was used, especially given the desire to retrieve debris to study, VanHerck said that guns were considered, but pilots felt that wasn’t achievable due to the size of each object. AIM 9X were used as they were able to lock onto a contrast in heat or infrared signals; while VanHerck was again hesitant to attribute any information on the objects’ make, he said there was a natural contrast between the objects and the air around them.
The size of the objects also made them difficult to track overnight. The object shot over Lake Huron, for instance, was initially detected on Saturday, and U.S. military aircraft were scrambled to track it. But with light fading and poor radar detection, the “anomaly” disappeared, VanHerck said.
The lack of information is in part because no pieces of the objects have been recovered yet. Crews are currently working to collect debris at all four sites. The FBI is taking the lead on investigating, while the object shot down over the Yukon, the Royal Canadian Mounted police are.
Are these objects a new occurrence, or could similar ones have been in North American skies prior to February’s shootdowns? The Pentagon is also not sure. The military intends to go back with current data to see if there was a possibility, officials said.
As of Sunday evening, the Pentagon was not tracking any other unidentified object in American airspace. Officials did not say if any images potentially taken during the encounters would be released, nor if any further adjustments to the radar search parameters are expected.
“Anything that approaches North America, if it’s unknown, I’m going to go identify it and assess if this is a threat,” VanHerck said. “If it is a threat, I’ll shoot it down.”
The latest on Task & Purpose Here’s why the Marine Corps strapped a rare electronic warfare LAV to the deck of a warship * Shot fired after intruder breaks onto Andrews Air Force base * That time a US Navy submarine got a confirmed kill on a train during WWII * Coast Guardsman saves man hours before graduating from rescue swimmer school * JTAC vs TACP: A user’s guide to the troops who call in close air support*
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Since 1971, National University has been helping adults achieve higher education by making it accessible, affordable and achievable. Founded by a retired Navy Captain, the school is ideal for active duty students looking to further their education while serving their country. Here are some of the benefits that NU offers to help service members work toward their degree on active duty.
1. On-base and online courses
When serving on active duty, home is wherever the military sends you. This can make it difficult to attend college courses unless the campus is near your base. National University’s campus is located in San Diego, California and is accessible to service members stationed in the area. Beyond that, NU actually offers on-base courses at select bases. These locations allow students to interact directly with an NU representative and get the guidance they need to complete their four-week course. If you’re stationed at a base without an NU presence, their flexible online courses can be enrolled in at any point during the year and are ideal for active duty students with unpredictable and ever-changing schedules.
2. Military scholarships
In addition to time, there is a financial cost that comes with higher education. While military tuition assistance can help, active duty students may not have the personal finances needed to fund their education. National University recognizes this and offers military scholarships to fill in the gap. The Sanford Military Scholarship covers the remainder of an active duty student’s tuition after their tuition assistance and any other grants or scholarships. Essentially, it provides a zero-out of pocket education for active duty students.
3. Support and tutoring
In the military, you have a chain of command to provide you with guidance and support. National University provides the same kind of support to its students. Whether you’re pursuing a Bachelor’s in Computer Science or a post-grad degree in engineering, NU offers tutoring to help you reach your educational goal. Active duty students can even take advantage of dedicated military support from NU during their academic career.
4. Dedicated advisors
So you’ve decided that National University is the best fit for you; great! You can enroll year-round at your convenience, so no worries there. NU’s website is super easy to navigate and applying is easy. Still need some guidance to get started? NU has dedicated military admissions advisors that you can call at 855-355-6288 or email at militaryadmissions@nu.edu. Once you’re enrolled, you’ll have an academic advisor who will guide you through course completion and answer any questions you may have along your educational path.
This article was sponsored by National University.
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An F-16C Fighting Falcon assigned to the 85th Test Evaluation Squadron shoots an AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, or AMRAAM over testing ranges near Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., March 19, 2019. The AMRAAM is a modern beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile capable of all-weather day-and-night operations. (Senior Airman Joshua Hoskins/U.S. Air Force).When a Chinese spy balloon entered U.S. airspace over Idaho on Jan. 31, the U.S. military waited until the balloon had crossed the entire continental United States before shooting it down over the Atlantic Ocean four days later to avoid possibly harming anyone on the ground.
The delay gave the U.S. military valuable time to study the balloon and its surveillance equipment, a senior defense official told reporters on Feb. 4.
“A benefit of waiting a few days was that we learned more about the balloon,” said the senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under rules established by the Pentagon. “But the fundamental calculation was not the intelligence value, but rather the safety to Americans on the ground.”
But since then, the U.S. military has shot down three more “high altitude objects” shortly after spotting them on radar. On Friday, an F-22 Raptor shot down an object over Alaska one day after it was detected by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Another F-22 downed a second object over Canada on Saturday, also one day after it had been detected by NORAD. And on Sunday, an F-16 shot down a third object over Lake Huron, Michigan, that may have been detected the prior day over Montana.
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So far, defense officials have not said whether the most recent objects are balloons or some other form of unmanned airships or aircraft.
One reason why the military is detecting more of these unidentified objects recently is that NORAD has adjusted its radars to look for smaller objects traveling at slower speeds, which had previously been filtered out as clutter, Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, told reporters on Sunday.
“And so, with some adjustments, we’ve been able to get a better categorization of radar tracks now,” VanHerck said at a Pentagon news briefing on Sunday. “And that’s why I think you’re seeing these overall. Plus, there’s a heightened alert to look for this information.”
The U.S. military has been “more closely scrutinizing our airspace” at certain altitudes since the Chinese spy balloon was detected in January, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs Melissa Dalton said at Sunday’s news conference.
When asked why the U.S. military is moving quicker to shoot down high-altitude objects, Dalton said that the most recent three objects were flying at an altitude that posed a threat to commercial aviation, unlike the Chinese spy balloon. The balloon flew at more than 60,000 feet, whereas the objects downed on Friday and Saturday were flying at about 40,000 feet and the object shot down on Sunday was at roughly 20,000 feet, U.S. and Canadian defense officials have said.
The Chinese spy balloon was also 200 feet tall and had a large payload of surveillance equipment, all of which factored into U.S. military officials’ decision on when and where to bring it down, Dalton said.
“But because we have not been able to definitively assess what these recent objects are, the — the president wanted to act out of an abundance of caution to protect our security and in our interest,” Dalton said. “So, we will remain vigilant. We have made these enhancements to — to our radars. And the operations this past week have been successful in — in bringing down these potential threats.”
Another thing to keep in mind is that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle widely criticized President Joe Biden and his administration for waiting until the Chinese spy balloon had made its way across the entire continental United States before shooting it down on Feb. 4
“I don’t want a damn balloon going across the United States when we potentially could have taken it down over the Aleutian Islands,” Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, said during a Feb. 9 hearing. “I’ve got a problem with a Chinese balloon flying over my state, much less the rest of the country.”
On Friday, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder did not answer directly when a reporter asked him if the Defense Department had bowed to political pressure by speeding up the kill chain since the spy balloon had been downed.
“We’re going to judge each of these on its merits,” Ryder said.
The latest on Task & Purpose Here’s why the Marine Corps strapped a rare electronic warfare LAV to the deck of a warship * Shot fired after intruder breaks onto Andrews Air Force base * That time a US Navy submarine got a confirmed kill on a train during WWII * Coast Guardsman saves man hours before graduating from rescue swimmer school * JTAC vs TACP: A user’s guide to the troops who call in close air support*
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An F-22 Raptor aircraft assigned to the 90th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, flies alongside a KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling aircraft assigned to the 92nd Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron after an in-flight refuel over Poland, Aug. 22, 2022. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Anthony Plyler).U.S. military fighter jets shot down another unidentified high-altitude object over Lake Huron on Sunday afternoon, the third time in as many days that military aircraft have downed such an object over North America.
Reuters reported the object shot down, citing two government officials, while Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.) stated in a tweet that the U.S. military had “decommissioned” another object near his home state.
Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) stated in a tweet that the object was shot down by aircraft from U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has not yet issued a statement about the incident.
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The latest shootdown came after an American F-22, accompanied by Canadian fighter jets, shot down a high-altitude object in the skies above Canada’s Yukon territory on Saturday.
The day before, another F-22 shot down another object — described solely by the Department of Defense as the size of a small call — over northern Alaska.
The series of shootdowns came nearly a week after an F-22 took out a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina, giving the air superiority fighter its first air-to-air kill in its history.
It is unclear what aircraft and munitions were used in the latest incident.
Recovery efforts are ongoing in all three previous instances, the most recent in coordination with Canadian authorities, according to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The shootdown comes after nearly 24 hours of sudden flight restrictions over American airspace. On Saturday, the Federal Aviation Administration declared airspace restricted over part of Montana due to national security concerns, the same sort of alert that had accompanied previous shootdown missions.
Then, on Sunday, the FAA issued flight restrictions over Lake Michigan which were quickly lifted. That alert was followed by the shootdown hours later.
NORAD has not said what is behind the recent spike in alerts regarding breaches to U.S. airspace. However, the Washington Post reports that defense officials have expanded the parameters of what they are searching for following the events surrounding the Chinese surveillance balloon.
This is a developing story.
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Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr. (middle), pushing reporter Evan Lambert (left). (Screenshot via Twitter).The head of Ohio’s National Guard is drawing criticism after video showed him pushing a reporter at a press conference.
Newly released body camera footage shows part of the altercation, with Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr. arguing with NewsNation correspondent Evan Lambert inside a gymnasium where Ohio Governor Mike DeWine was giving a press conference. The footage, released Thursday, appears to contradict Harris’ initial claim that he acted in self-defense. The incident was recorded by an Ohio State Trooper’s body camera. NewsNation released the footage, showing Harris approach Lambert and jab his chest. Police separate the two and then demand the reporter leave.
Bodycam footage shows the arrest of NewsNation reporter @EvanLambertTV. The footage starts midway through the incident, when a man appearing to be a member of the National Guard pushes Lambert, who is then told to leave and arrested. #RushHour
More: https://t.co/morbFLbJWV pic.twitter.com/fJEM7dnJMo
— NewsNation (@NewsNation) February 10, 2023
The altercation at the press conference led to Lambert being escorted out of the building and arrested.
Harris, the Ohio adjutant general, released a statement on the matter, shared by NewsNation, said that he initially approached Lambert and his cameraman to get them to quiet down as the press conference had begun. He said the reporters demanded he come over, which led to an argument and Lambert “grew enraged” and “lurched” at the general.
“He is a much larger person than I am. At that point, I was convinced he was prepared to do harm to me. I instinctively put my hands on his chest to keep him from bumping into me, which I felt was inevitable if I had not protected myself,” Harris said.
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If you care to read what the Ohio National Guard's side of the Evan Lambert arrest is, here it is. From Adjutant Maj. Gen. John Harris who writes: "He then became enraged. His eyes opened wide…I was convinced he was prepared to do harm to me."
Yet every video says otherwise. pic.twitter.com/EIC2SMAgq1
— Markie Martin (@MarkieMartin) February 9, 2023
East Palestine Police Department’s report on the incident shares similar details, saying that two Ohio State Highway Patrol officers and Harris went to stop Lambert’s live broadcast. Harris told police that Lambert was “coming at him, in an aggressive manner” and the general “feeling threatened” pushed him away.
The footage does not show the full moments before Harris shoved Lambert.
As of press time, the Ohio National Guard did not respond to requests for comment on the matter. A spokesman for the Ohio National Guard confirmed to Military.com that Harris is the soldier in the video, but did not comment further.
DeWine’s press conference was held to give an update on the situation at East Palestine, Ohio, where a train derailed on Feb. 3, causing a fire and releasing hazardous chemicals. On Wednesday, Feb. 8, Ohio authorities said that it was safe for residents to return.
At a Pentagon briefing on Friday, Feb. 10, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said that the Department of Defense does not condone Harris’ actions.
“That’s not acceptable behavior,” Ryder said. “The Secretary of Defense, the Department of Defense absolutely supports — strongly supports a free and independent press.”
Harris has served as adjutant general since 2019. He oversees a force of approximately 16,000 personnel.
The Ohio National Guard is currently working on cleaning up the site of the train derailment.
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An F-22 Raptor. (U.S. Air Force).One day after the U.S. Air Force shot down a “high-altitude object” over Alaska, an American F-22 took out a similar object in the skies above Canada.
“I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace.
@NORADCommand shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled, and a U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a tweet.
I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. @NORADCommand shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled, and a U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 11, 2023
NORAD is a joint American-Canadian organization, and as the object was flying over Canadian airspace, Trudeau had authority to give the order.
Trudeau followed up by saying he had spoken with President Joe Biden before giving the order, and that Canadian armed forces will recover and study the remains of the object.
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Trudeau’s announcement comes roughly an hour after the North American Aerospace Defense Command or NORAD announced it had spotted a “high-altitude airborne object.”
“Military aircraft are currently operating from Alaska and Canada in support of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) activities,” a NORAD spokesperson said in a statement to Task & Purpose. “NORAD confirms that we have positively identified a high-altitude airborne object over Northern Canada.”
NORAD first spotted the object Friday flying over Alaska, Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement today. A pair of F-22s from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson tracked it on Friday, joined by Canadian CF-18 and CP-140 aircraft after it crossed into Canadian airspace. The object was shot down using an AIM 9X missile, Ryder said.
“As Canadian authorities conduct recovery operations to help our countries learn more about the object, the Federal Bureau of Investigation will be working closely with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,” he added.
No other information on the object was released.
Today’s events mark the third air-to-air kill by an American F-22 in eight days. Yesterday, a fighter shot down an object in northern Alaska. United States Northern Command said in a release today that recovery operations are ongoing near Deadhorse, Alaska. Northern Command as well as the Alaska National Guard are working with local law enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigations on recovering pieces of the object that are on sea ice. Yesterday, Ryder said the object was “the size of a small car.” The Department of Defense has not shared any additional details.
This also comes a week after a F-22 shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina. The military is also continuing its efforts to retrieve the remains of the balloon from the sea.
UPDATE: 02/11/2023; this story was updated on Feb. 11 to include comments from Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder on the incident.
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A convoy of M915A5, assigned to the 250th Transportation Company. (Photo by Capt. Adrian Silva/U.S. Army).Two U.S. Army supply trucks crashed into each other on the German autobahn on Thursday, Feb. 9, injuring four soldiers, two seriously.
The accident happened just after 3 p.m. on Thursday near Kirchberg an der Jagst, according to local police from the city of Aalen, who initially reported it as a hit-and-run incident. The five-vehicle convoy was with the 21st Theater Sustainment Command. The trucks were transporting tons of missiles and other munitions to the U.S. Army base at Grafenwoehr. The crash happened as one M915A5 tractor-trailer tried to merge on the highway.
“The convoy was traveling on the motorway with a total of five vehicles when the driver of the third articulated lorry in the convoy misjudged the distance when changing lanes and crashed the driver’s cab into the left rear corner of the vehicle in front of the semi-articulated lorry in front,” police said in a statement.
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The crash tore off the driver’s cab on one of the tractor-trailers. The lead truck and the rear two managed to avoid collision. Four soldiers, two in each vehicle, were injured. The soldiers in the truck that tried to merge were seriously injured. Emergency responders got to the scene quickly, and a rescue helicopter airlifted one passenger who needed emergency medical attention, taking the soldier to University Hospital Wurzburg.
The crash set the merging truck on fire but the flames were quickly extinguished, according to Aalen police. The incident shut down the highway in both directions as crews cordoned off the area until the munitions could be inspected and recovered.
None of the explosives on the convoys had ignition components or detonators, police said. Army explosive ordnance disposal teams arrived on the scene and recovered the munitions, according to Maj. Vonnie L. Wright, spokesperson with 21st Theater Sustainment Command. They were “handled properly per safety regulations” and transported to Grafenwoehr on replacement vehicles.
No civilian vehicles were involved in the crash. Roads were cleared and reopened on Friday, according to local police.
As of Friday night, three of the injured soldiers were released from Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. The other soldier remains at University Hospital Wurzburg, Wright said.
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The Pentagon. (Associated Press photo).The U.S. military downed a “high-altitude object” over northeastern Alaska on Friday because it posed a threat to commercial aviation, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
“We’ll attempt recovery and we’ll see what we can learn more from it,” Kirby told reporters during a White House news conference.
When Kirby was asked who might have launched the object, he replied, “I have no idea.”
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The shootdown came less than a week after an Air Force F-22 Raptor shot down a Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon that had drifted from Montana, where it was first spotted the previous week, to the Carolina coast at an altitude of around 65,000 feet.
The object that the U.S. military downed on Friday was much smaller than the Chinese spy balloon and it did not appear to have the ability to maneuver itself, Kirby said.
“The way it was described to me: It was roughly the size of a small car,” Kirby said.
U.S. government officials first became aware of the object on Thursday evening, said Kirby, who declined to say if the object was a balloon.
President Joe Biden ordered the object shot down because it was flying at an altitude of roughly 40,000 feet, which could put it in the path of commercial aviation
The object appeared to breach U.S. airspace on Thursday evening for a “relatively short” period of time, the New York Times reported citing unnamed U.S. officials.
U.S. military aircraft were able to observe the object before it was downed and determined that it was not manned. Kirby said.
North American Aerospace Defense Command commander Gen. Glen D. VanHerck stated earlier this week that the spy balloon incident was the fifth such time the Chinese had breached U.S. airspace using such technology in recent years, and NORAD had previously failed to detect earlier incursions near Texas, Florida, Hawaii and Guam.
“As NORAD commander, it’s my responsibility to detect threats to North America,” VanHerck told reporters on Monday. “I will tell you that we did not detect those threats. And that’s a domain awareness gap that we have to figure out.”
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Jake Gyllenhall stars in Guy Ritchie's Afghanistan rescue drama "The Covenenant," set to be released in theaters on April 21. (The Covenant).There’s a new movie, Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant, coming out this spring about a former Army Special Forces soldier who travels back to Afghanistan to rescue a former interpreter who saved his life. In the trailer, we see Jake Gyllenhaal’s character with a beard, a baseball cap, Oakleys, and all the traditional operator accouterment. In a couple of shots, he’s got a patch on his uniform reading “JTAC.”
This might lead to some confusion, seeing as some might assume that Joint Tactical Air Control (JTAC) is an Air Force responsibility. Given how much people like to point out military uniform inaccuracies in movies, this has unsurprisingly created the occasional debate about whether or not Gyllenhaal’s Army character is a JTAC.
But before getting into all that, let’s start with the basics: Joint Tactical Air Controllers are the people certified to control and coordinate airstrikes from the ground. The certification is sometimes confused with an Air Force Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) or Combat Controller (CCT), which are both military occupational specialties in the Air Force. So who is a JTAC and who is a TACP or CCT? And what is the difference?
For Air Force TACPs and CCTs, it’s a career field, their one and only job. JTAC, however, is a certification, available to service members from all branches.
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The Special Operations Terminal Attack Control Course (SOTACC), run out of the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, “encompasses five weeks of intense academics, simulators, and live controls using real aircraft” according to Air Force spokesman 1st Lt. Victor Reyes.
The course is attended by “Air Force Combat Controllers, Army Rangers, Army Green Berets, Marine Special Operators, and NATO SOF partners,” and leaves graduates of the course “certified with an advanced capability to enhance battlefield operations,” said Reyes.
Air Force TACPs and CCTs all attend the Special Warfare Preparatory Course, Airborne School, and Survival, Evasion, Resistance & Escape (SERE) school. Meanwhile, CCTs — often expected to operate as lone attachments that integrate into a variety of different units and environments — also attend the Combat Dive Course, Military Free-Fall, and Air Traffic Control courses. Both career fields also attend an Air Force special tactics selection course and an apprenticeship.
All of this leaves them with the ability to integrate surface-to-surface fire, rotary and fixed-wing air support, naval gunfire, and electronic warfare assets.
“On the Air Force side, when it’s your whole career field as terminal attack, you focus very heavily on the planning process,” said Jarred Taylor, a former Air Force TACP who served for 15 years, including four as an instructor at the Air Force TACP schoolhouse. “On the JTAC or SOTACC side, as say an 18E [U.S. Army Special Operations Communications Sergeant Military Occupational Specialty] you’re more focused on the control aspect — ‘how can I call in an airstrike to save my team.’”
JTAC-certified personnel work at the lowest level — a Special Forces operational detachment, an Army Ranger platoon, or with Marine Corps Special Operations Command units.
“There’s never going to be enough TACPs to go around, so it’s necessary to have the SOTACC training,” said Taylor.
While they can also integrate down to a platoon or an operational detachment, TACPs “live” with a battalion, group, brigade, or division.
“Your job is to constantly be involved with those S3s [Operations Officers] and commanders, so you can forecast what is needed,” said Taylor. “It’s learning. MDMP [Military Decision Making Process], learning how allocation and apportionment work. The scope of knowledge is much vaster on the planning side.”
Essentially, the JTAC certification focuses more on the tactical aspect of airspace control and calling in fires, while dedicated Air Force TACPs and CCTs are also trained to plan and operate on a broader scale. Every TACP and CCT is a JTAC, but not every JTAC is a TACP or CCT. Enough acronyms for you?
Whether The Covenant is any good remains to be seen, but an Army Special Forces soldier who qualified as a Joint Terminal Attack Controller is legit.
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Where's the beef? (Task & Purpose photo illustration).Out of all of the A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft in the U.S. Air Force’s fleet, an A-10 Warthog with the serial number 81-994 may be among the most unique for one simple reason: it’s the only aircraft we know of to sport kill markings for taking out a cow downrange.
Assigned to the Red Devils of the 107th Fighter Squadron, 127th Wing of the Michigan Air National Guard at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, the A-10 in question has been spotted in official Air Force photos sporting a yellow kill marking for a cow alongside those for ordnance released.
The cow kill marking goes back at least to 2017 when the 107th A-10’s red-and-green commemorative WWII paint job was rolled out to honor the 100th anniversary of the Red Devils. In 2018, the cow-killing A-10 even made an appearance at a commemorative flight over the beaches of Normandy on the 74th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.
An A-10 with the 107th Fighter Squadron flies with World War II devil scheme in commemoration of the Selfridge Air National Guard Base centennial celebration on Oct. 11, 2017. The cow victory marking is clearly visible on the aircraft’s fuselage. (Air Force photo/Spc. John Brandenburg)Rumors have abounded about the cow kill marking since it was first spotted in Air Force photos. According to an account in The Aviation Geek Club, ground troops had moved in on an enemy village at an “undisclosed location” following an A-10 close air support sortie only to find a cow “blown to pieces by 30mm freedom hotdogs,” i.e. the A-10’s iconic 30mm GAU-8/A seven-barrel Gatling gun
So, what’s the story behind this unique kill marking? According to Penelope Carroll, spokeswoman for the 127th Wing, the A-10 “inadvertently” killed a cow during aerial operations during the 107th’s deployment to Iraq.
While minimal information regarding the particular mission was available, Carroll referred additional questions to U.S. Central Command, she was able to clarify that the kill occurred thanks to ordnance rather than the A-10’s tried-and-true BRRRT machine.
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Some 350 airmen and a dozen A-10s from Selfridge ANGB deployed overseas to Iraq and Syria in April 2015 as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State group’s caliphate there, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Speaking with regard to the deployment at the time, Michigan Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters lauded the effectiveness of the A-10s’ close air support capabilities. That said, blowing up cows was probably not what they had in mind.
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A U.S. Army Ranger Combat Medic conducts routine medical training during 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment's task force training August 2019. (U.S. Army).Combat medics could have a revolutionary new tool for saving lives if a recently-announced military research program is successful. Late last month, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced it had selected a team of experts to combine artificial blood, platelets and plasma into a single “whole blood equivalent” that service members and civilians will hopefully be able to use to keep patients alive in an isolated environment or when the genuine article is in short supply.
The four-year, $46.4 million research project is administered by DARPA, though the research itself will be conducted through a collaboration between more than a dozen biotech companies and universities. If it leads to a safe and effective product, it could be a major step forward for emergency medicine.
“About 20,000 Americans each year bleed to death before they can be brought to the hospital,” said Dr. Mark Gladwin, dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, in a press release about the research project. “Transfusion at the point of injury is required to stabilize them and limit other organ injury.”
Bleeding is the most common cause of potentially survivable death in trauma in both military and civilian settings, wrote the University of Maryland. Whole blood transfusions can save a patient’s life, but that blood has to come from donors, it requires cold storage, and it has a shelf life of around 40 days. If scientists develop an artificial blood product that lasts a long time and can be moved easily to the point of injury, it could be a game-changer.
“We have assembled an outstanding team to develop a bio-synthetic whole-blood product that can be freeze-dried for easy portability, storage and reconstitution,” said Dr. Allan Doctor, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine who is the principal investigator for the study. “It will be designed for easy use in the field by medics at the point of injury, and will perform like a traditional blood transfusion to, for example, stabilize a patient’s blood pressure or facilitate blood clotting.”
That kind of technology could be a godsend for military medics such as Air Force pararescuemen, who are trained to provide life-saving first aid to the injured, oftentimes while under fire. That is, if the concept of fake blood does not freak anyone out too much.
“First off, it sounds scary as shit!” retired Chief Master Sgt. Ivan Ruiz, a former Air Force pararescueman who received the Air Force Cross and served throughout the Global War on Terror, told Task & Purpose.
“But if it works and doesn’t cause cancer, it would depend on the size and weight of the package and the mission being supported,” Ruiz added. “If everything was ideal, absolutely I would carry it if it could save a life.”
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Blood transfusion has saved soldiers’ lives since at least World War I, but viable supplies of blood can be difficult to find on the battlefield itself. During a firefight in Afghanistan in 2019, after running through the supply of whole blood units they had brought with them, a pair of Army Ranger medics pulled blood from their fellow soldiers in order to treat injured Rangers. The procedure lasted about 10 minutes, much faster than the average 36 minutes it takes for a medevac to arrive, according to the Marine Corps.
U.S. Air Force Pararescuemen from the 38th Rescue Squadron treat patients during a Mass Casualty Full Mission Profile exercise at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, Jan. 19, 2023. (Airman 1st Class Courtney Sebastianelli/U.S. Air Force)It could take even longer for a medevac to arrive in a possible conflict with China, where experts fear U.S. troops will not enjoy the same air superiority they had during the Global War on Terror. Scientists hope the artificial blood would give troops in that scenario a greater chance at survival.
“It’s not designed to replace blood where blood is available, but to make blood therapy or transfusion therapy available where blood is not an option,” Doctor said in a University of Maryland video on Monday.
Donated human blood requires cold storage, but scientists hope to design artificial whole blood so that it can be stored at room temperature. That way, it will be more available for military or civilian medics in the field, where heat or air conditioning is not always an option.
As it turns out, artificial red blood cells, platelets and plasma have already been developed. Now it’s just a matter of combining those products “to create a safe and effective freeze-dried blood product,” according to the University of Maryland video.
“Medics can carry this in an ambulance … for months. And then the moment they need it, they reach for the bag and the expectation is that we would be twisting it to shake it up and release some water,” Doctor explained in the video. “It would mix and they would hang it right away and so they would be able to give a transfusion even inside a car before somebody was even extracted.”
U.S. Army Sgt. James Wright, a medic assigned to 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division prepares a blood bag during a blood transfusion training at Trzebien, Poland, April 14, 2022. (Spc. Hassani Ribera/U.S. Army National Guard)That kind of product could also come in handy during a natural disaster, which might knock out the power systems that keep blood banks refrigerated. Navy medics prepared for such an occasion last year during the exercise Bloodnado 2022. Though that exercise involved packing up the blood bank and moving it somewhere with power, a room temperature artificial blood product might make such movement unnecessary.
The artificial blood study will be conducted using machine learning software and advanced simulations in order to test the prototype in computer-based scenarios. The goal of the first phase of the study is to examine how the prototype can deliver oxygen, stop bleeding and replace lost volume of blood, which the University of Maryland described as the “key therapeutic functions of whole blood in resuscitation.”
The goal of the second phase of the study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the prototype “in increasingly complex and realistic trauma models,” the press release said.
The University of Maryland press release pointed out that Doctor co-founded KaloCyte, the company that produces ErythroMer, the artificial blood product that will be tested in the study. Doctor’s interest in the company “has been reviewed in accordance with the university’s conflicts of interest policy to ensure objectivity in the research,” the press release said.
“This project will utilize cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence to predict interactions among the blood components in various trauma model systems, which would not have been possible a decade ago,” said Gladwin.
Though the blood may be artificial, the benefits of a technology like this would be very real. Let’s just hope they don’t call it “True Blood.”
Special thanks to The Merge newsletter where we first heard of this story.
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Russian military cadets march on Dvortsovaya Square during a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade in Saint Petersburg on April 24, 2018. (Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images).Former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin is credited with saying that “quantity has a quality of its own.” The Russians appear to be putting that axiom to the test in Ukraine by throwing mercenaries for The Wagner Group into wave after wave of suicidal frontal assaults against Ukrainian defenses.
As a result, Russian casualties have been heavy in recent months. One picture posted on social media in January purportedly shows dozens of Russian bodies clustered close together, indicating they were mowed down by the Ukrainians.
In Bakhmut, Ukraine, the Russians continue to use Wagner mercenaries to make incremental gains despite heavy losses. Of the 40,000 Russian convicts who have joined Wagner, 80% have been killed or seriously wounded, András Rácz of the German Council on Foreign Relations told National Public Radio recently.
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While Wagner mercenaries continue to carry out these frontal assaults as cannon fodder, the private military company is using this tactic much less in recent months, said Karolina Hird, a Russia Analyst at the Institute for the Study of War think tank in Washington, D.C.
“The Wagner Group likely experienced significant losses in attritional offensive operations in eastern Ukraine over the past few months,” Hird told Task & Purpose. “The high number of casualties — convicts and otherwise — is likely constraining the Wagner Group’s ability to continue offensive operations that accumulate casualties at such a high rate.”
Nonetheless, Russia’s use of mercenaries as cannon fodder raises the question of how well the U.S. military would perform against an adversary that fought to win by attrition.
FILE – Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin attends the funeral of, a fighter of the Wagner group on Dec. 24, 2022. (AP)In the Korean and Vietnam Wars, U.S. troops had to defend against numerically superior enemy forces, which launched “human wave” attacks that attempted to overrun American defenses.
But it is unlikely that Russia, China, North Korea, or Iran would launch such attacks against U.S. forces in a future conflict, said Matthew Cancian, a former Marine Corps captain and artillery officer.
“I believe that ‘human wave attacks’ of hundreds of soldiers advancing without attention to cover have been mostly a myth since the early stages of World War I,” Cancian told Task & Purpose. “Even a squad of U.S. soldiers supported by air and artillery could defeat an attack like that. Furthermore, most countries do not field a fraction of the manpower that they did when these ‘human wave attacks’ were alleged to occur.”
It is also unlikely that China would launch the type of human wave attacks that it used during the Korean war because Chinese military doctrine has evolved since then, said Timothy Heath, a senior international defense researcher at the RAND Corporation.
Draft dodging has become a major problem for the People’s Liberation Army, which has also been unable to meet its recruiting quotas, Heath told Task & Purpose.
The mentality of young Chinese adults is also much different than it was in the 1950s, he said.
Members of the Communist Party of China (CPC) review the oath of joining the party in front of the party flag on April 13, 2021 in Luoyang, Henan Province of China. (Jia Fangwen/VCG via Getty Images)“China is recruiting heavily from educated, urban professionals,” Heath said. “These educated young people are not interested in throwing their lives away for futile attacks of any kind. If they join the military at all, it’s professional development and patriotic reasons, like Americans who join. There’s no widespread expectation that they are eager to go and die for their country.”
However, Retired Army Col. Keith Nightingale, who had to defend against human wave attacks when he led soldiers in Vietnam, said U.S. troops should not assume that such attacks are a thing of the past.
“To remove that as a likely option for the infantry to deal with, I think, would be a huge mistake, particularly when you look at how the Russians are operating today in Ukraine, where they — as a matter of course and basic tactics — just sent waves of people against a position to overcome it,” Nightingale told Task & Purpose on Thursday.
Artillery is the most important weapon needed to break up human wave attacks, said Nightingale, who is a member of the Ranger Hall of Fameand helped plan the U.S. military’s ill-fated 1980 mission that attempted to rescue Americans held hostage in Iran.
“You can put a large volume of fire on a fairly large area very quickly, and that’s key — particularly when you use a time fuze or VT [Proximity Fuze], where you can get an airburst, ” Nightingale said. “You add to that the capabilities of, say, mortars, drones, tactical air, all of the above, and that can make a difference. But I would say the key discriminator here is fixed artillery.”
At the battle of Suoi Tre in March 1967, U.S. troops lowered their howitzers to zero elevation, which meant the barrels were aimed directly at the attacking forces, and fired shells that sprayed the enemy attackers with steel darts known as flechettes, Nightingale said.
“The flechettes definitely made a huge difference,” Nightingale said.
Currently, the U.S. military is retiring the types of weapons systems needed to break up mass attacks, including tube artillery and A-10 close air support aircraft, said retired Marine Col. J.D. Williams, a defense policy researcher with the RAND Corporation. Doing so sacrifices the U.S. military’s ability to generate a high volume of fire in favor of longer range and more precise weaponry, he said.
“That isn’t wrong if your theory of victory is predicated on destroying a small number of critical targets, but if your theory of victory doesn’t work, you are potentially vulnerable to attrition styles of ground combat,” Williams said. “You also need large quantities of ammunition to sustain mass fires, which all militaries are realizing is an ongoing vulnerability in their logistics.”
Since World War I, militaries have attempted to find ways to avoid launching frontal assaults into prepared defenses by developing new capabilities, including precision-guided ordnance, unmanned systems, and cyber warfare, Williams said.
But when warring sides decide that taking or defending a piece of territory is worth the cost in lives, there is no way to avoid bloody combat, as seen in Stalingrad, Chechnya, and Fallujah, he said.
“So, while the U.S. or China would go into a conflict with plans to conduct operations primarily in the air and at sea (or in space and cyberspace) using long-range precision weapons in an effort to destroy critical components of the adversary’s capabilities, at some point, it will probably be necessary to engage in ground combat at some level of intensity,” Williams said.
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Members of the USS Barb's crew hold the submarine's battle flag aloft after returning from a final patrol in 1945. The train kill can be seen in the bottom-center of the flag. (U.S. Navy).In August 1945, eight members of the crew of the USS Barb posed for a photo at Pearl Harbor holding up the submarine’s battle flag. The different patches on the flag represented the boat’s myriad accomplishments over 12 patrols in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters. Seventeen ships sunk, a Presidential Unit Citation awarded following its 11th patrol, and the Medal of Honor was awarded to the ship’s captain, Cmdr. Eugene Fluckey. But, most unusual, the flag also featured a kill marking for a train. Yes, a train.
On the USS Barb’s final patrol of the war, the eight men in the photo had destroyed a Japanese locomotive, a most unusual kill for a Navy submarine.
A few weeks earlier, the Gato-class submarine was patrolling the Sea of Okhotsk, off the shore of what is now Sakhalin Island but was then part of Japan’s Karafuto Prefecture. Within a month, the war would be over, but the USS Barb had already racked up an impressive combat record. Commissioned in 1942, the USS Barb was initially one of the few U.S. Navy submarines sent to the Atlantic theater. Over the course of five patrols, it recorded just one possible sinking of a German freighter before being sent to the Pacific in the fall of 1943, where the Barb would make its name as one of the most lethal submarines in the fleet
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Fluckey, the submarine’s commander, had joined the ship for its seventh patrol, and took command of the boat on April 28, 1944, ahead of its eighth mission. As Fluckey wrote in his 1992 account of his wartime service, Thunder Below!, he guaranteed Vice Adm. Charles Lockwood, commander of all submarines in the Pacific, at least five kills before departing; a promise which he fulfilled. In the first four patrols with Fluckey in command, the USS Barb sank more than a dozen Japanese Navy ships, including an aircraft carrier, as well as numerous other small vessels. The Barb conducted shore bombardments and rescued British and Australian prisoners whose ship had been sunk by another American submarine. Fluckey himself was awarded the Medal of Honor for maneuvering through shallow water of a harbor along the Chinese coast and sinking three ships, along with damaging three others, as well as three Navy Crosses. In addition, the crew earned a Presidential Unit Citation for the success of the patrols.
The USS Barb underway. (U.S. Navy)In the Sea of Okhotsk, Fluckey and the crew observed the rail line. After several days, Fluckey and the chief of the boat, a 26-year-old sailor named Paul Golden “Swish” Saunders, devised a plan. Saunders was the most experienced submariner aboard — he had joined the Navy when he was 17 and had served on the USS Barb since it was commissioned, sailing from the coast of North Africa to the North Pacific, for all of the submarine’s 12 patrols.
The plan was relatively simple: Eight men would paddle ashore on two inflatable boats and plant an explosive charge along the rail line. Every member of the crew had volunteered, but given the risks of the mission, Fluckey selected them based on his own criteria — he wanted only unmarried men, and preferably those with some scouting experience.
Saunders, along with electrician’s mate Bill Hatfield, rigged a 55-pound bomb. It was made from a scuttling charge wired to three batteries and placed inside a pickle can. Hatfield also improvised a detonator that would be triggered by the weight of a train passing over it.
Shortly after midnight on July 23, 1945, the USS Barb surfaced 950 yards off the shore of Sakhalin, and the eight men, among them Saunders and Hatfield, set out. They had about three hours, as Fluckey told them that the submarine would have to submerge before dawn.
“Boys,” Fluckey told the men, according to the U.S. Naval Institute, “if you get stuck, head for Siberia 130 miles north. Follow the mountain ranges. Good luck.”
Leaving two men to guard the boats, the shore party made its way toward the railroad tracks. Reaching it, three men were posted as sentries, and three others got to work setting up the explosive. At one point, a train passed by, forcing them to take cover. Eventually, the team was able to set up the explosives, and the men began making their way back to the beach and then out to sea. When they were still only halfway to the USS Barb, the sound of an oncoming train could be heard. As they climbed back aboard the sub, a massive explosion could be seen.
“The boilers of the engine blew. Engine wreckage flying, flying, flying up some 200 feet, racing ahead of a mushroom of smoke, now white, now black. Sixteen cars piling up, into and over the wall of wreckage in front, rolling off the track in a writhing, twisting maelstrom of Gordian knots,” Fluckey wrote in Thunder Below!
Members of the USS Barb’s crew hold the submarine’s battle flag aloft after returning from a final patrol in 1945. (U.S. Navy)Though it may have been the work of the submarine’s crew, for the purpose of accolades and public recognition, the USS Barb was considered to have “sunk” a train.
It wasn’t the only first for the patrol. Before departing, Fluckey had requisitioned 72 Mk. 10 rockets along with a launcher.. In between becoming the only submarine to sink a train, the USS Barb also became the first submarine to launch ordnance of that kind.
The USS Barb returned from its final patrol to Midway Island on Aug. 2, 1945, one of the most decorated U.S. Navy submarines of the war, and also the only submarine to have ever sunk a train.
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A Special Forces Soldier conducts weapons training with partner forces on a range in Southwest Asia, Sept. 2, 2019. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Kyle Alvarez).The U.S. military’s Global War on Terrorism may be heating up again on distant battlefields, but a bipartisan group of American lawmakers at home is pushing to rein in the ever-expanding global campaign by repealing part of its legislative foundation.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Todd Young (R-IN), joined by Reps. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Chip Roy (R-TX), Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), and Tom Cole (R-OK), introduced new legislation to repeal the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMFs), formally ending the Gulf and Iraq Wars and “reassert Congress’ Constitutional role in deciding whether and when to send our servicemembers into harm’s way,” the lawmakers said in a statement on Thursday.
“Congress is responsible for both declaring wars and ending them because decisions as important as whether or not to send our troops into harm’s way warrant careful deliberation and consensus,” said Kaine in a statement. “The 1991 and 2002 AUMFs are no longer necessary, serve no operational purpose, and run the risk of potential misuse. Congress owes it to our servicemembers, veterans, and families to pass our bill repealing these outdated AUMFs and formally ending the Gulf and Iraq wars.”
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While the 2002 AUMF in particular allowed then-President George W. Bush to order the invasion of Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein, it is vaguely worded to give presidents the authority to “defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq.”
Because that threat was not limited solely to Saddam, the 2002 AUMF has since morphed into a blank check for counter-terror operations around the world. President Barack Obama initially invoked the 2002 AUMF to order airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria in 2014, a justification which, according to the State Department, President Donald Trump also seized upon to authorize U.S. troops in Somalia and Yemen to combat ISIS forces there in 2017, as well as the killing of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani in 2020.
Advocates for the repeal of the 2002 AUMF argue that Congress has abdicated its responsibility to formally declare war as detailed in the Constitution and should reassert that responsibility in order to better define the borders and boundaries of the legislatively amorphous Global War on Terrorism with more robust and specific war powers.
“Voting on decisions of war and peace is a fundamental and constitutional responsibility for Members of Congress,” said Rep. Spanberger in the statement. “We must be accountable to the American people and cannot abdicate this responsibility to open-ended AUMFs that give too much power to a President and don’t require Congress to take consequential votes.”
In a statement to the Washington Post, a National Security Council official said that President Joe Biden supports repealing the 2002 AUMF (as well as the 1991 AUMF that authorized the Gulf War), but implied that most military operations currently underway rely on the separate 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force passed after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks to authorized the invasion of Afghanistan.
“The United States has no ongoing military activities that rely solely or primarily on the 2002 AUMF as a domestic legal basis, and repeal of the 2002 AUMF would not impact current counterterrorism operations,” the NSC told the Washington Post. “There are no current military operations that rely on the 1991 AUMF.”
Legislation addressing the overreaches of the 2002 AUMF has been gaining traction in Congress in recent years. In 2021, a bipartisan House majority even voted 268-161 in support of repealing the measure, a move the Biden administration even endorsed due to the lack of impact on ongoing counterterror operations. However, the Senate’s own counter-AUMF measure died amid a last-minute push to pass that year’s National Defense Authorization Act, which ommitted the legislation entirely. The legislative situation essentially repeated itself the following year. As Just Security put it, the “zombie” AUMF staggers on, now approaching two decades old.
“Three presidents have come and gone since Congress last voted to authorize a US invasion of Iraq over twenty years ago; a fourth is now in office,” said Rep. Lee in a statement. “Yet the legacy of these horrific forever wars lives on in the form of the now-obsolete 2002 and 1991 AUMFs.”
The push to repeal the 2002 and 1991 AUMFs is really just a warm up for a repeal of the 2001 AUMF that’s allowed every president over the past two decades to wage war without congressional approval. Indeed, Kaine introduced bipartisan legislation in the Senate to update the 2001 AUMF in 2018, and Lee led the House Appropriations Committee over several years to approve a sunsetting of the 2001 AUMF in the NDAA, although the measures never ended up making it into the final legislation.
“Repeal of the 1991 and 2002 AUMFs for the Gulf and Iraq Wars is long overdue and I am proud this Congress is asserting Congress’ constitutionally granted powers,” said Rep. Cole. “Not only does this reflect Congress’ continuing oversight of our national security interests, it also executes this body’s fundamental responsibility to manage use of force authorities of past, current and future presidents.”
Repealing the 2002 AUMF may allow Congress to reassert itself in the war-declarations process, but based on the NSC’s own comments, the big fish for truly reining in Global War on Terror is the 2001 AUMF. Until that authorization is repealed, the legal basis for America’s “forever wars’ will remain intact.
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U.S. Marines with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit track a simulated adversary vessel using the Light Marine Air Defense Integrated System (L-MADIS) mounted on a Counter Unmanned Aerial Surveillance Utility Task Vehicle and a Light Armored Vehicle-Electronic Warfare (LAV-EW) during a defense of the amphibious task force (DATF) drill aboard the Wasp-Class Amphibious Assault Ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) Jan. 28, 2023. (U.S. Marine Corps/Cpl. Matthew Romonoyske-Bean).To combat the rising threat to surface warships posed by low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles, the Navy is taking some unconventional steps. One of those includes experimenting with strapping specially-designed Marine Corps vehicles to the decks of amphibious warships as an added layer of defense — vehicles that, based on newly-released photos, include a somewhat rare armored reconnaissance vehicle equipped with a new electronic warfare system.
A series of photos published in late January to the Defense Visual Information Distribution system, the U.S. military’s video and photo database, show a rare Light Armored Vehicle-Electronic Warfare variant strapped to the deck of the Navy amphibious assault ship USS Bataan during an integration exercise between the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit and Amphibious Squadron 8 in the littorals of eastern Virginia and North Carolina, 26th MEU spokeswoman Capt. Angelica White told Task & Purpose.
Marines with the 26th MEU employed the electronic warfare variant of the tried-and-true amphibious armored reconnaissance vehicle “to support the Commander with Electronic Warfare capabilities including Electronic Attack (EA), Electronic Protect (EP), and Electronic Support (ES) across a broad frequency range” during a defense of an amphibious task force (DATF) exercise, White said.
Marines and Sailors with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit prepare for a defense of the amphibious task force (DATF) drill aboard the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Bataan, Jan. 28, 2023. The DATF drill is conducted to provide full security to a ship during strait transit or when the ship is bound by land on both port and starboard sides. (Cpl. Nayelly Nieves-Nieves/U.S. Marine Corps)Not to be confused with the LAV-Mobile Electronic Warfare Support System (MEWSS) fielded by the Corps in the late 1980s, very little information is publicly availably regarding the vehicle’s configuration and fleet size, and White declined to share details regarding the vehicle on the Bataan’s deck, citing operational security.
Based on budget documents, the thimble-shaped EW array on the top of the LAV is likely a variant of the Communication Emitter Sensing and Attack System II (CESAS II), a system manufactured by defense contractor Arotech that, initially fielded to a Marine Air-Ground Task Force in 2016, received a $20 million procurement boost in the Navy’s fiscal year 2023 budget request for slapping the system onto the LAV-EW, among other units.
“Marines need to be able to rapidly and cooperatively disrupt, deny and degrade enemy communication systems by using nonlethal and lethal attacks on the ground,” said Heather Place, project officer for CESAS at Marine Corps Systems Command, during fielding in 2016. “CESAS II is designed to do just that by jamming commonly used communication frequencies.”
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In the case of the LAV-EW deployed to the deck of the Bataan, the CESAS II array gave Marines the ability to detect, disrupt, and deny potential threat communications, like those between, say, an incoming adversary drone loaded up with explosives and someone operating it from the shore.
CESAS II ”provides stationary and on-the-move capabilities, and is lightweight, modular, scalable, reliable, cost-effective, ruggedized and economically sustainable,” Place said in a separate statement. “The system is capable of conducting static, stationary, and vehicle mobile electronic warfare operations in support of the MAGTF and joint force commanders.”
Strapping EW-capable vehicles to the decks of warships for defensive exercises during strait crossings has become a growing trend for the Navy and Marine Corps in recent years. Indeed, Marines with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit used a Light Marine Air Defense Integrated System (L-MADIS) installed on an MRZR all-terrain vehicle on the deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer to knock an Iranian drone out of the sky in the Strait of Hormuz in July 2019.
The L-MADIS system was also pictured in DVIDS mounted on a Counter Unmanned Aerial Surveillance Utility Task Vehicle alongside the LAV-EW systems on the deck of the Bataan during the 26th MEU DATF exercise.
U.S. Marines with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), track a simulated adversary vessel using the Light Marine Air Defense Integrated System (L-MADIS), and a Counter Unmanned Aerial Surveillance Utility Task Vehicle, during a defense of the amphibious task force (DATF) drill aboard the Wasp-Class Amphibious Assault Ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) Jan. 28, 2023. (Cpl. Matthew Romonoyske-Bean/U.S. Marine Corps)The 22nd MEU had previously used the L-MADIS on the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge during a transit through the Suez Canal in January 2019 to provide additional security, while the 13th MEU also employed the system as recently as this past July aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island.
“This was the 26th MEU’s first time incorporating these niche assets into a DATF exercise during our first at-sea period with the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group to experiment with concepts in accordance with Force Design 2030 for our upcoming deployment to the Fifth and Sixth fleets areas of operations,” White told Task & Purpose.
Iran has ramped up aerial drone attacks on vessels near its territorial waters in recent years, according to the U.S. Navy, and crossings like the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab Strait, where the U.S. 5th Fleet has pledged to provide maritime security, can prove hazardous choke points for commercial and military ships alike.
As part of the Marine Corps Force Design 2030 force restructuring plan, the service plans on pursuing new electronic warfare capabilities for both mobile air defense and counter-precision guided missile systems, among other applications, according to the Congressional Research Service’s latest update on the initiative.
“The ability to manage your own electronic signature, locate a threat, detect and exploit their communications, jam their transmissions, interfere with their command and control — these have always been important in war, but today I would offer they can be decisive,” Marine Commandant Gen. David Berger said last May during a speech at the Modern Day Marine expo in Washington, D.C.
The Navy has been working on its own unique counter-drone systems for surface warships like the Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy (ODIN) and High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) weapon systems which are designed to blind incoming adversary drones and burn them out of the sky, respectively.
But given the proliferation of drone swarms among state and non-state actors alike and the threat they pose to the Navy’s surface fleet, the service may have to invest in aerial denial capabilities that are more aggressive and effective than the point defense of a laser beam — and until the Navy’s newly-formed division focused on high-powered microwaves can churn out a solution, the LAV-EW and L-MADIS will have to do.
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FILE - Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks with lawmakers. (Alex Brandon/Associated Press).With President Joe Biden set to release his fiscal 2024 budget in early March, Republicans in the House of Representatives may be headed for a civil war over an issue that has traditionally unified conservative lawmakers: defense spending.
As part of efforts to balance the federal budget, some Republican lawmakers would like to cap all discretionary spending – money that does not fund entitlement programs that Congress must approve every year – at fiscal 2022 levels, Fox News reported last month.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told Fox News in January that he is open to cutting defense spending to balance the budget, arguing in favor of “getting rid of all the woke policies in our military” to save money. Jordan’s spokesperson did not respond to several requests for comment from Task & Purpose.
Other Republican lawmakers, however, have voiced concerns about any plan to potential balance the budget that involves reducing funding for the U.S. military.
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“We have a duty to protect taxpayer dollars to reduce our debt and deficit – but this must not come at the expense of compromising our military strength and readiness,” Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) told Task & Purpose. “I will work with my colleagues to find savings at the Pentagon, but we absolutely cannot shy away from robust investments needed for our national security and defense capabilities.”
It is unclear what, exactly, Republican lawmakers plan to do to reduce the budget. In exchange for their support for his bid to become House Speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) reached an agreement with some Republican lawmakers in January to cap fiscal 2024 discretionary spending at fiscal 2022 levels, but that does not necessarily entail defense spending cuts, a person familiar with the Republican negotiations told Task & Purpose.
But it would ultimately mean cutting FY 2023 spending levels by over $130 billion down to $1.47 trillion next fiscal year.
And during negotiations, cuts to defense were NEVER DISCUSSED.
— Rep. Chip Roy Press Office (@RepChipRoy) January 9, 2023
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) tweeted last month that lawmakers never discussed cuts to defense spending during their negotiations with McCarthy.
“In fact, there was broad agreement spending cuts should focus on NON-DEFENSE discretionary spending,” Roy tweeted on Jan. 8.
McCarthy’s spokesperson did not respond to repeated requests for comment from Task & Purpose.
At issue is whether House Republicans will ultimately exclude defense spending from any effort to reduce discretionary spending to fiscal 2022 levels.
For this fiscal year, Congress has appropriated $858 billion for all national defense spending,including the Pentagon. That compares with the $796 billion that lawmakers appropriated for national defense in fiscal 2022.
National defense spending would have to grow to $875 billion in fiscal 2024 to keep pace with the forecasted 2% rate of inflation, said Travis Sharp, a fellow with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments think tank in Washington, D.C
That means rolling defense spending levels back to fiscal 2022 levels would result in a $79 billion cut for the Pentagon and other agencies involved with national defense.
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, leads his panel’s first meeting under the Republican majority as it organizes its operating rules, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. (J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press)If Congress reduced defense spending to fiscal 2022 levels and also capped all defense spending so that it only grew at the rate of inflation for the next 10 years – as lawmakers did in the last decade under the Budget Control Act of 2011 – then it would cut a total of $866 billion from national defense, Sharp said.
He also said that eliminating funding for programs that some Republican lawmakers have described as “woke” would only cut a fraction of defense spending. For this fiscal year, the Defense Department requested $86.5 million on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.Over 10 years, the U.S. military would save $865 million by not funding such efforts – less than 1% of the $866 billion in total cuts to defense spending, he said.
In order to cut that much money out of its budget, the Pentagon would have to cut the number of U.S. service members serving in the military branches as well as reduce spending on operations and maintenance and buying new weapons systems, Sharp said.
The last time the military was forced to make such cuts, disaster ensued. In 2013, Congress’ inability to reach an agreement on taxes and spending led to forced cuts in defense spending called sequestration, followed by budget caps for the next several years. As the military services separated trained maintainers and cut funding for training and spare parts, military aviation saw a spike in accidents, crashes, and deaths.
All of this means that any attempt by some House Republicans to reduce defense spending will likely become a contentious affair.
“I’m in favor of identifying wasteful programs within the DOD but we cannot propose broad spending cuts on the backs of our troops as the Chinese Communist Party conducts a massive military buildup,” Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) told Task & Purpose.
Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) echoed the sentiment that the world is too dangerous right now for Congress to cut funding for the U.S. military.
“I cannot support an artificial cut or cap to our defense spending,” Lamborn told Task & Purpose. “Instead, I am in favor of a responsible defense budget that strengthens our military while making responsible use of taxpayer dollars. As China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea become increasingly emboldened, now is not the moment to back down.”
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Aviation Survival Technician Third Class Branch Walton, center, along with the crew of an MH-60 Jayhawk after rescuing a man off the coast of Oregon. (U.S. Coast Guard).Last Friday, U.S. Coast Guard personnel conducted an audacious rescue, pulling a man from the big waves and choppy seas of the Oregon Coast. For the rescue swimmer, Aviation Survival Technician 3rd Class John “Branch” Walton, it was a fitting way to complete the Coast Guard’s Advanced Helicopter Rescue School, as he and his classmates were set to graduate just a few hours later.
The Advanced Helicopter Rescue School is a week-long course that “focuses on advanced rescue techniques including cliffside rescues, urban search and rescue, and surf rescues,” according to the Coast Guard.
The class is held during the late fall and winter months when the surf conditions off the coast of Oregon are at their roughest.
“AHRS is a week-long course for pilots, flight mechanics, and rescue swimmers. Currently, there are 10 total student weeks a year during the late fall and early spring months,” said Chief Aviation Survival Technician Brad Pigage, an instructor for the school. “Rescue swimmers are the only aircrew members who have a requirement to attend. They must attend within 3 years of their initial qualification and re-attend every six years after that. Pilots and flight mechanics are chosen by their commands to attend each year when class solicitations are open.”
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The rescue began on Feb. 3, when the Coast Guard received a distress signal from a boat about 6 miles west of the mouth of the Columbia River. An MH-60 Jayhawk on a routine training sortie was diverted to Coast Guard Air Station Astoria, where the Advanced Helicopter Rescue School is conducted, to pick up a rescue swimmer. Needing only one rescue swimmer for the mission, the students — who were in class that morning — played a quick game of “Rock, Paper, Scissors” to determine who would be sent out, according to Lt. Stephen Nolan, a spokesman for the 13th Coast Guard District.
“When we got that call there were seven other rescue swimmers that were more experienced than I am,” said Walton. “They trusted me and gave me the opportunity to go out there when any of them could have gone out there. They took that initiative to make sure the newer people got the experience.”
Arriving on the scene, the Jayhawk crew along with rescue boats from National Motor Lifeboat School and Coast Guard Station Cape Disappointment, found a man aboard a 35-foot yacht taking on water and foundering amid high wind speeds and 20-foot waves.
(1/4) #BreakingNews – Talk about arriving in the nick of time! While conducting a training mission at the mouth of the Columbia River, 2 Coast Guard air crews received a #MAYDAY broadcast from the master of the P/C Sandpiper. After notifying watchstanders at Sector Columbia River pic.twitter.com/CtYSgpdPUG
— USCGPacificNorthwest (@USCGPacificNW) February 3, 2023
Coast Guard personnel initially tried to pass a flotation device to the man, but the extreme conditions made rescue by boat impossible, at which point Walton was lowered into the water. As he swam towards the vessel, another giant wave hit, capsizing it and sending its occupant into the water.
(2/4)…who launched motor life boats from STA Cape Disappointment, the air crews arrived on scene to find the vessel floundering in the surf! The surf made rescue by boat dangerous, so the aircrew decided to lower the rescue swimmer and have the owner enter the water for rescue… pic.twitter.com/z92WvzpTG9
— USCGPacificNorthwest (@USCGPacificNW) February 3, 2023
However, Walton was able to retrieve the man, swimming with him until they were both hoisted back to the Jayhawk.
As for the would-be mariner, his day was only beginning. When taken to a hospital to treat his minor injuries, he was identified as 35-year-old Jericho Labonte, a British Columbia resident wanted there for criminal harassment, mischief, and failure to comply. Astoria, Oregon police had been looking for him since Feb. 1, when he posted a video of himself on social media leaving a dead fish in front of a house featured in the 1985 film “The Goonies” and dancing on the property. He was also suspected of stealing the yacht, which had been reported missing by its owner the day before the rescue.
As for Walton, now stationed at Coast Guard Air Station North Bend in Coos Bay, Oregon, it was his first rescue.
“It was extremely challenging — I actually didn’t know how to swim before I joined the Coast Guard,” Walton said. “I had a lot of people come along in my life and teach me how to swim. I am grateful for it because it helped me out for bootcamp.”
He graduated from the Advanced Helicopter Rescue School later that day, presumably after drying off.
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Members of the United States Agency for International Development’s Disaster Assistance Response Team arrive at Incirlik Air Base, Türkiye, Feb. 8, 2023. (Senior Airman Joshua T. Crossman/U.S. Air Force).With Turkey still reeling from Monday’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake that has killed more than 11,000 people, U.S. service members and aircraft have worked quickly to transport two Urban Search and Rescue teams and other emergency assistance to the area.
“U.S. European Command extends our sincerest condolences and we express our deep sadness at the tragic loss of life as a result of the earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria,” the command said in a statement on Wednesday. “Using a whole of government approach, we remain in close contact with our Turkish Ally to determine what assistance is needed to help those affected by the disaster.”
Two C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft arrived on Wednesday at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, carrying 161 people with the rescue teams, along with 12 working dogs, and roughly 170,000 pounds of humanitarian equipment, according to the 39th Air Base Wing at Incirlik.
The two Urban Search and Rescue teams consisted of 79 people from Fairfax County, Virginia, and 82 people from the Los Angeles County Fire Department, defense officials said. The teams are made up of structural engineers, doctors, logistics personnel, and technical search specialists.
WHEELS DOWN 🛬: Two flights carrying @usaid search and rescue experts from @vatf1 @ffxfirerescue & @LACOFD just touched down in #Türkiye. Team members will soon be working to search for survivors of these deadly earthquakes. Stay tuned here for more response updates. pic.twitter.com/qGGKMvB48A
— USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (@USAIDSavesLives) February 8, 2023
“We’re committed to assisting Türkiye’s affected communities in every way possible as they grieve and begin to recover from the devastation caused by the recent earthquakes,” Air Force Col. Calvin Powell, commander of the 39th Air Base Wing, said in a news release.
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“The U.S. Air Force brought [the] United States Agency for International Development’s Disaster Assistance Response Teams from the East and West coasts of the United States to Incirlik Air Base today to join the international effort to assist the people of Türkiye,” Powell continued. “The Airmen of the 39th Air Base Wing stay ready to respond in support of our allies along NATO’s southern flank.”
On Tuesday, the two C-17s took off from March Air Reserve Base, California, and Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, according to U.S. Transportation Command. One plane came from the Alaska Air National Guard. The other C-17 came from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey. Both planes were flown by active-duty pilots.
Airmen from the 436th Aerial Port Squadron at Dover loaded the rescue teams and cargo onto one of the C-17s. The emergency assistance includes rescue equipment such as concrete breakers and generators as well as medical supplies, tents, water, and water purification systems, according to the 436th Airlift Wing.
“In our profession, nothing is more noble than delivering humanitarian aid to those in need, and we are proud to support our ally Türkiye,” Air Force Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, head of U.S. Transportation Command, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Members of the 728th Air Mobility Squadron at Incirlik also received a Disaster Assistance Response Team that was deployed to Turkey by the United States Agency for International Development, a news release from the 39th Air Base Wing says.
The team will work with Turkish authorities as well as other U.S. government agencies and partners on the ground to assess the situation, identify priority humanitarian needs, and help with search and rescue needs, USAID Administrator Samantha Power said on Monday.
“As rescuers attempt to save those still trapped in the wreckage and families who’ve lost their homes seek refuge, the United States is committed to providing immediate, life-saving humanitarian assistance on both sides of the border to help communities recover from this disaster,” Powers said in a statement.
U.S. rotary-wing aircraft based at Incirlik also flew first responders to parts of Turkey that were most significantly affected by the earthquake on Tuesday, said Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman.
U.S. European Command is deploying a team to Incirlik on Thursday that will help the United States Agency for International Aid’s quick response team that is already on the ground, and the aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush is moving toward Turkey so that it can be ready if Turkey requests more assistance, Ryder told reporters during a Wednesday Pentagon news briefing.
“We’re trying to do everything we can to lean forward, to be responsive to their requests and help them as they try to save lives and recover,” Ryder said.
UPDATE: 02/08/2023; this story was updated on Feb. 8 to include comments from Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder.
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Marine Corps Capt. Sukhbir Singh Toor. (photo courtesy the Sikh Coalition).Two Sikh men can keep their beards when they enlist in the Marine Corps, according to a federal appeals court.
Jaskirat Singh and Milaap Singh Chahal are cleared to attend Marine Corps boot camp, per a Dec. 23 ruling from an appeals court in Washington, D.C. Three judges granted a preliminary injunction in the case.
Singh and Singh Chahal along with Aekash Singh, filed a lawsuit in April 2022, arguing they faced an “unconstitutional choice” to go against their faith to serve. They all passed the Armed Services Vocational Battery test in 2021 and requested waivers from the Marine Corps that would allow them to avoid having their hair and beards shaved. They also requested permission to wear turbans and bracelets under the Sikh faith. The Marine Corps allows Sikhs to wear beards on religious grounds when not in combat zones, however, there are restrictions in place for the 13-week boot camp. The Marines told the men they needed to shave their face and hair to attend boot camp, citing a “need for uniformity.”
“The Corps has agreed to accommodate Plaintiffs’ religious commitments (with some limitations not relevant here) after each of them finishes basic training,” Judge Patricia A. Millett wrote in the court’s decision. “But it will brook no exception for the Sikh faith during those initial thirteen weeks of boot camp.”
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The appellate judges sent Aekash Singh’s case back to federal court for reconsideration; he is seeking to enter Officer Candidate School.
The Marine Corps is one of the last branches to not allow religious exemptions for Sikhs in basic training. In November, three retired generals and a former Secretary of the Army filed an amicus brief in the case, urging the Marine Corps to allow these religious exemptions. They argued that other service branches showed there was no risk of performance issues when letting Sikh recruits keep their beards. “The lesson is clear: religious accommodations allow talented individuals to fill crucial military needs,” they wrote in the brief.
“With this injunction and remand of the District Court’s decision, our clients are finally out of the ‘legal limbo’ that has barred them from their careers of service for more than two years,” Giselle Klapper, a lawyer for the men and Senior Staff Attorney at the Sikh Coalition, said in a statement following the court’s ruling. “The simple truth is that articles of faith pose no barrier to effective job performance — not in the USMC, nor anywhere else across the public and private sectors.”
The three men’s wider lawsuit is still pending.
Marine Corps Capt. Sukhbir Singh Toor joined the three men in the lawsuit in April. An artillery officer, Toor argued that the rule against beards and other religious effects in combat zones was “a career differentiator for a Field Artillery Officer.” His case is still pending.
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The South Dakota National Guard has been working to deliver wood to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. (South Dakota National Guard).State governors around the United States have mobilized National Guard units over the holidays to help Americans who have been waylaid by massive winter storms. Thousands have been snowed in, roads have been blocked and many have been running low on supplies.
One of the most urgent efforts is in South Dakota. The storm hit residents hard, but some of the worst conditions are on the Rosebud and Pine Ridge reservations in the state. Pine Ridge have been cut off from the rest of the state by more than a week of heavy snowfall. The reservation saw 30 inches of snow, plus intense winds that have blocked roads, with snow drifts that stretch for dozens of feet (local reports as of Christmas Eve said that roads to Rosebud were less obstructed). Supplies and fuel have run low, and residents in Pine Ridge have been forced to burn clothes to keep warm.
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Anna Halverson, a district representative on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, told the BBC over the weekend that people have been trapped inside their homes and are running out of food and supplies, including baby formula for infants. Due to the vast, rural nature of the reservation, many of the Oglala Sioux tribe are in remote parts of the area, away from stores or relief sites.
“If anyone can come — we need anything and everything,” Halverson told the BBC.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem called up the National Guard to State Active Duty. Guardsmen with the 196th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade and 114th Fighter Wing are taking the lead on assisting the reservations. At least some of the initial deliveries of firewood made it to communities on the reservations, although roads continue to be cut off as snow and wind pile up soon after the paths are cleared. As of press time, the South Dakota National Guard did not respond to questions regarding road clearance and relief efforts to Pine Ridge.
Another urgent situation is along the border with Canada around Buffalo, New York. Blizzard conditions there not only blanketed the city in as much as 50 inches of snow, but forced border closures as well. At least 28 people are confirmed to have died as a result of the storm. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul mobilized roughly 540 National Guardsmen to aid in relief and rescue efforts. They have been working around Erie County to get people to safety and transporting people to medical facilities, including a pregnant woman who was taken to a hospital.
“We have a running joke internally about how many babies Lieutenant (Richard) Burns is going to deliver today,” said Maj. Luke Udell, according to a Defense Department news release.
Other states have activated the National Guard, including Minnesota and Indiana.
The latest on Task & Purpose All alone, together: The emotional essence of Christmas at war* * ‘We make it fun’ — Inside an Air Force Christmas at 30,000 feet over war-torn Iraq * Christmas in, Christmas out*: A holiday deployment story* * The complicated truth about the famous ‘Christmas Truce’ of World War I * What it’s like to spend Christmas in combat**, according to US military veterans
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The Illustrated London News's illustration of the Christmas Truce: "British and German Soldiers Arm-in-Arm Exchanging Headgear: A Christmas Truce between Opposing Trenches" The subcaption reads "Saxons and Anglo-Saxons fraternising on the field of battle at the season of peace and goodwill: Officers and men from the German and British trenches meet and greet one another—A German officer photographing a group of foes and friends." (The Illustrated London News/Wikimedia Commons).It’s a famous story. In the first winter of World War I, in new trenches on the Western Front, British and German soldiers were starting Christmas celebrations and singing carols. They start to compete with each other, which turns into a shared festive spirit. Soon they’re laying down arms, walking across no man’s land to trade alcohol, cigarettes and general Christmas pleasantries. Soon after, a soccer ball — or football, as the Europeans call it — shows up and rival armies are having a friendly match. The whole event is a moment of fraternity and understanding, away from the machinations of warring governments. It’s so understanding, that when it’s over, troops are moved away and punished for socializing with the enemy rather than fighting them.
Alongside the horrors of Verdun and the Somme, the ‘Christmas Truce; has become one of the most storied parts of World War I. It’s also far more complex than the narrative lets on.
There was a truce on Christmas that year — in fact there were several, across various sectors stretching down the length of the trench lines of the Western Front. However, the situations were not special outbursts of international comradery but rather matters of practicality. Christmas 1914 was still early in the war. The armies on both sides of the Western front were by and large not filled with fresh-faced draftees but professional soldiers who had been quickly mobilized. That was most true with the British forces, known as “Old Contemptibles.”
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Truces were not a shocking display of fraternity between soldiers, but practical matters, according to World War I historian Simon Jones. The quick descent into trench warfare also saw both sides unusually close to one another over a long period of time, making any middle-ground meeting much easier.
“You can absolutely see it in the context of siege warfare throughout the ages,” Jones said. “[In] protracted position warfare, you want to make yourself comfortable. Fraternization is an inevitable part of siege warfare, it applied to the French and Belgians as well.”
A snapshot taken by a British officer showing German and British troops fraternising on the Western Front during the Christmas Truce of 1914.A snapshot taken by a British officer showing German and British troops fraternising on the Western Front during the Christmas Truce of 1914. (Imperial War Museum)Small, informal truces were common after the war broke out, mostly for each side to collect and bury their dead. Heading into Christmas, fighting had been very heavy, particularly along part of the line near Ypres in Belgium. The aftermath of the First Battle of Ypres left many dead going into winter. A burial truce was put in place Dec. 19, which extended in parts before Christmas Eve, when wider truces were agreed on for the holiday.
When it became clear that the holiday would be free of violence, some soldiers in the trenches were bemused and happy. Soldiers wrote about the guns falling silent and encountering enemy troops, and after the war, those letters as well as veterans’ accounts were collected for posterity. The Imperial War Museum rounded up several of those first-hand records. One of those was from British Pvt. Marmaduke Walkinton, who described the moment:
We were in the front line; we were about 300 yards from the Germans. And we had, I think on Christmas Eve, we’d been singing carols and this that and the other, and the Germans had been doing the same. And we’d been shouting to each other, sometimes rude remarks more often just joking remarks. Anyway, eventually a German said, ‘Tomorrow you no shoot, we no shoot.’ And the morning came and we didn’t shoot and they didn’t shoot. So then we began to pop our heads over the side and jump down quickly in case they shot but they didn’t shoot. And then we saw a German standing up, waving his arms and we didn’t shoot and so on, and so it gradually grew.
Along with singing and exchanges, there were also some joint burial ceremonies, Jones said. Historian Terri Blom Crocker, author of the book The Christmas Truce, noted that several records of the truce had soldiers nervous and distrustful about meeting with their German enemies.
Other conditions played a part in the outbreak of Christmas truces. That year saw the worst winter of the war. Trenches had been quickly made across Europe, but these were more hasty affairs than the intricate and more heavily fortified trenches that would come as the war picked up from wider mobilization and stalemate. When Christmas arrived, it was cold and wet. A pause in the fighting gave soldiers time not only to move around and warm up, but to improve the conditions of the trenches.
British and German officers meeting in No-Man’s Land during the unofficial truce. (British troops from the Northumberland Hussars, 7th Division, Bridoux-Rouge Banc Sector) (Harold Robson/Imperial War Museum) As for the most famous part of the truce, there were not widespread games of football between British and German forces. There is some truth to the story, according to Crocker, but it’s less tied to Christmas. Soldiers at the time were avid footballers and there would be attempts at games in truces prior to the 1914 Christmas one. Crocker noted that in many cases, soldiers participating in the truces wanted to have matches, but the ground was too destroyed or no one had a football on them. Jones said that there is a documented football match on Christmas, in Flanders, but that it was something of an impromptu scrum rather than a coordinated regulation game.
There was not widespread punishment for fraternizing, unlike the usual version of the Christmas Truce story. Crocker wrote in The Christmas Truce that ceasefires were reported to commanders higher up in some cases. There were no grand relocations of units to prevent a halt in hostilities or mass court martials. British and German veterans later wrote about occasional punishment from specific officers, but nothing points to a policy from high command for not fighting on Christmas.
But the truces were temporary and only went so long. British soldier George Ashurt told the Imperial War Museum how it ended:
We got orders come down the trench, ‘Get back in your trenches every man,’ by word of mouth down each trench; ‘Everybody back in your trenches,’ shouting. The generals behind must’ve seen it and got a bit suspicious so what they did, they gave orders for a battery of guns behind us to fire, and a machine gun to open out and officers to fire their revolvers at the Jerries. ‘Course that started the war again. Ooh we were cursing them to hell, cursing the generals and that, you want to get up here in this stuff never mind your giving orders, in your big chateaux and driving about in your big cars. We hated the sight of the bloody generals.
The war grew worse the next year. Major operations and battles not only saw casualties spike, they also caused bitterness and resentment to rise. By the end of 1915, the Allies on the Western Front had suffered 1,932,051 casualties, according to the official French records. The Germans had lost 2,597,032 across all fronts, counting dead and wounded plus prisoners and missing soldiers, per German logs. When Christmas arrived, no one was particularly eager for fraternizing. German officers gave orders against such a truce, saying it would be seen as treason.
At the time, news of such truces ran against wartime propaganda. Jones said that the kind of All Quiet on The Western Front-style view of the war — that it was a senseless, tragic loss of life — hadn’t taken hold. That only came years after the fighting ended. Even in 1914, Jones said, these slightly older, more professional soldiers were full of patriotism and believed their own nation’s arguments for why the war had started.
“There’s a case where [a British] officer said ‘if we talked to the Germans and explained why the war is going on, they’d see reason,’” Jones said. “Both sides were fixed in on what they saw to be the causes of the war, they believed the other was to blame. Talking to each other didn’t change them.”
Nor was there a widespread movement or belief that if the soldiers could have kept a dialogue going that it would have ended the war, at least at the time. Reports and records from the 1914 Christmas Truce viewed it as a welcome reprieve for a holy day, or a peculiarity, not but a chance for a peace via pacifism. Jones noted there was a soldier-turned-parliamentarian who did claim that could have been the end of the war, but he said that only once in office in the 1930s.
Jones added that soldiers who participated in the truce didn’t suddenly become pacifists. In fact, as the war later escalated, so did bitterness between sides. In later cases near the war’s end when soldiers did start mutinying and stating opposition to combat, it was not from fraternization with the enemy, but from poor conditions on their own side. That ranged from rebellions in Germany and Russia to riots at British training camps over hard rules and lack of leave.
It was only after the war was over that the truce took on a wider role in the public’s view of the Great War. But at the time, in the cold and wet trenches of the Western Front in 1914, the halt in the violence was more about practicality than any grand ideal.
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First Lt. Andrew, a 380th Air Expeditionary Wing KC-10 Extender pilot, communicates with maintainers during a preflight inspection before flying a sortie in support of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia, Dec. 25, 2016 (Senior Airman Tyler Woodward/U.S. Air Force).Every year, thousands of service members around the world spend the holidays away from their families so they can keep watch on America’s national security. Some of those service members spend Christmas not only away from family, but also away from the Earth’s surface. A 2016 press release documented how one group of airmen assigned to the Middle East spent Christmas day aboard a KC-10 Extender flying 30,000 feet up in the air in order to refuel coalition aircraft in the fight against the Islamic State militant group.
Christmas Day 2016 started with fog on the flight line as the four airmen rode to their jet in a transit van. Holiday music played on a speaker while the aircrew and two crew chiefs conducted preflight inspections, and a lieutenant passed around care package cookies. The flight engineer, Staff Sgt. Aaron — the full names of the airmen were not included in the press release, likely because they were deployed at the time — said that a tight-knit aircrew can create its own sense of family during the holidays.
“It’s just the four of us; day in and day out, at all hours, they’re by your side,” he said. “We laugh together, cry together, get mad at each other and at the end of every day we come together to find a way to make the mission work.”
A 380th Air Expeditionary Wing KC-10 Extender aircrew laughs before a group photo after flying a sortie in support of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia, Dec. 25, 2016. (Senior Airman Tyler Woodward/U.S. Air Force)The mission that day was similar to the hundreds of others conducted by the 380th’s Air Expeditionary Wing, whose KC-10s flew more than 1,500 sorties from October to December that year, according to a photo caption accompanying the press release. The aircraft reached its position near Mosul, Iraq, where the refueling operator, Senior Airman Grant, readied the boom for business.
“Breaking through a sea of white clouds, two F-16 Fighting Falcons emerged loaded with precision guided munitions,” the press release said.
The KC-10 crew was not the only one working on Christmas. At least three other coalition aircraft stopped by to gas up, including a flight of two F-15E Strike Eagles. In total, the KC-10 passed 108,000 pounds of fuel during the sortie. The weight is close to that of a gray whale, one of the largest mammals on Earth, but it’s less than a third of the KC-10’s maximum fuel load of 356,000 pounds. Still, it meant a lot to the crew to help their fellow service members away from home.
An F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot dons a traditional “Santa” hat while receiving fuel from a KC-10 Extender over Iraq, Dec. 25, 2016. (Senior Airman Tyler Woodward/U.S. Air Force)“Flying on Christmas day was good for us because every aircraft we offload fuel to is in some form supporting the guys on the ground — who are also missing their families,” said Lt. Col. Danny, a KC-10 pilot. “The fight against terrorism is 24/7 and we have to maintain decisive airpower over the area of responsibility at all times, even on Christmas.”
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The gravity of the mission did not stop the crew from bringing a little holiday cheer above the clouds. Both the aircrew aboard the KC-10 and at least one F-16 pilot wore Santa hats, but the big perk of the Extender is its two metal ovens located behind the cockpit. Those two ovens help refuel the refuelers on any sortie, and Senior Airman Grant took full advantage of them on the Christmas Day flight, cranking up the ovens to 400 degrees and filling the aircraft with the smell of pizza and chocolate chip cookies.
First Lt. Andrew, a 380th Air Expeditionary Wing KC-10 Extender pilot, eats reheated pizza during a sortie in support of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve over Iraq, Dec. 25, 2016. Crew members used two small ovens to prepare their holiday meal. (Senior Airman Tyler Woodward/U.S. Air Force)“It’s funny, you know, we got pizza as opposed to being at home with friends and family at a big dinner. But, we make it fun,” he said. “It’s kind of cool to see everyone bring the holiday spirit up in the air. We see Santa hats up here and everybody is having fun all the while still executing and doing what we need to do.”
Though it might be surprising to hear of a white Christmas in the desert climate of Iraq, photos of the refueling flight show fluffy white clouds stretching beneath the aircraft that day.
Two F-15E Strike Eagles prepare to receive fuel from a KC-10 Extender over Iraq, Dec. 25, 2016. The F-15s were providing precision guided close air support during Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, a multinational effort to weaken and destroy the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. (Senior Airman Tyler Woodward/U.S. Air Force)“As the sun set on the world a warm glow softly covered the powdery clouds,” the press release said. “The white Christmas sky turned orange, then purple and then black. Panels of lights, knobs and gauges draped the cockpit like a finely lit tree.”
Like Santa Claus returning from a night of present deliveries, the KC-10 crew eventually landed safely, ending another successful sortie. For whoever is stationed abroad for the holidays this year, hopefully their mission will end as smoothly as the KC-10 crew’s did that Christmas day six years ago.
An aircrew eats a holiday meal while flying a sortie in support of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve over Iraq, Dec. 25, 2016. During the flight the crew snacked on oven-ready chicken nuggets, pizza and pita bread. (Senior Airman Tyler Woodward/U.S. Air Force)The latest on Task & Purpose Army investigating soldiers who posed in dog bondage masks * Air Force says KC-135 broadcast inappropriate call sign * Green Berets are testing a new highly mobile 120mm mortar system * How airmen stopped a mid-air assault on a C-17 cockpit during the Afghan airlift * B-2 Spirit makes emergency landing, catches fire*, following malfunction
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(Aaron Provost for Task & Purpose).Spending Christmas Day overseas, in a combat zone, a forward area, any deployment — that’s the easy part. You can be confident that your command will truck out the pecan pie and turkey and a Sergeant Major will serve it from a spoon, whether you’re at a main base or a little outpost, a big dining facility or a windy tent. Maybe the pecan pie will be freezer burned, but probably not because the logistics team does a good job for Christmas Day.
It’s an easy day, and even if you pulled the short straw for rooftop guard duty, or overnight watch in the operations center, there was a plate waiting for you — or at least a halfhearted apology if there wasn’t. In any case, you can share that memory with whoever else sucked it up, as you sacrificed Christmas with a buddy or two.
You can tell the story about how you all cut it up around the fire pit, smoking a few butts and laughing about how awful it is or was, being stuck in Poland, Syria, Iraq, South Korea, or the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, out there on the frontier. You can tell the story about the awkward Major who tried to get everybody to sing “Silent Night” and even if most of you rolled your eyes at one another, you understood the moment’s gravity. What a lousy fucking Christmas, you’ll mutter to someone, and they’ll smirk because they will understand.
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It’s easy to spend Christmas Day in a war zone. It’s easy for those overseas to call home or FaceTime, to share both the memory and the visual experience of Christmas Day with parents, wives, and kids. That artificial conversation’s not ideal, but it’s still comforting holding a camera to your face so they can see you and you can see them. It will be a touchstone of that Christmas, for the future, when Mom or Dad or Brother or Sister or Wife or Husband starts talking about how they were far away and remember when. If you lived it, it is already an easy fallback for conversation and nostalgia at Christmas, maybe this Christmas.
If you remember when you were overseas, before technology and before an easy phone call, then it was easy to not even worry. No ability to schedule a call, so no obligations or expectations; you could put your head down without guilt and have another slice of pecan pie. It was easy to hunker down with everyone else, rain or snow, all in it together.
In the future, that will make it easy to email a friend and ask them, “remember when the awkward Major tried to make us all sing Silent Night, and you actually sang along you fucking loser.” It will be easy to phone up another friend years later, maybe this year, and say, “those supply assholes couldn’t even give us fresh pecan pie – it was like eating an ice cube. They fucked us again.” And your friend will tell you, “Merry Christmas, like hell. The General, that guy got his pecan pie, I’ll tell you that much.” And you’ll laugh, and they’ll laugh, and you’ll both laugh.
It’s easy to have Christmas Day in a war zone, a forward area, take your pick of deployments or overseas assignments. I don’t care what complaint you dredge up years later, about the supply guys, or the chaplains, or your tired old Sergeant Major — on Christmas Day, you know they tried. They tried to get you to sing Silent Night; they tried to get you pecan pie; they tried to get one last run of mail so you could rifle through a box of Any Soldier giveaways for gum or maybe a new paperback; they tried to get you a few minutes of internet access so you could email your mother because in the back of your mind it occurred to them and you that January might be a bad month, bad luck, bad time, last time. So they try. They knew Christmas Day would be awful and hard for everyone, so they tried to make it easy.
The 1954 movie White Christmas opens in World War II-ravaged Europe, with a company of men celebrating Christmas Eve by putting on a song and dance revue for themselves. The lead performers are Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, playing an officer and an enlisted man. Their division’s beloved commanding general is being reassigned, and the soldiers send him off with a rousing sing-a-long chorus of, “we’ll follow the Old Man wherever he wants to go.”
The General scolds his men and says how they look unprofessional and worn out. He doesn’t mean any of the insults; it’s just how you make the goodbye easy for everyone.
A puffed-up martinet is taking command and is upset by the Christmas show in a warzone, telling the General that he’ll get the Division back up to fighting snuff right away. The General tells a jeep driver to take the replacement back to headquarters and “use the shortcut, Sergeant,” so this popinjay can officially assume command. It’s a trick, a long detour to buy time so the men can finish their Christmas show. The General’s adjutant watches them drive off, and says, “That sergeant will be a private by morning.”
“Yes,” the General replies. “Isn’t he lucky.”
One man’s rank sacrificed for the greater good, and along with it the responsibility leadership sometimes brings. Especially at Christmas, when the squad leader, or platoon sergeant, or company commander, had to decide that for a few of you, it was going to be a bad day.
Despite that or because of it, there’s often a special edge to the loyalty one feels toward whatever commander led a unit on Christmas Day. Maybe not your captain or squad leader — you saw them all the time, and any resentment was personal — but for the general or the admiral. If they slept on a better bed, or ate unfrozen pecan pie, you knew how much their Christmas decisions would make them miserable. They were up there alone, after all, no one to blame if things went south. At least you had each other.
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Brian Boase, an intelligence chief, Headquarters, Headquarters Company, 3rd Brigade Combat Team “Rakkasans,” 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), waves to Forward Operating Base Salerno, Afghanistan, before being dropped off by a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, Dec. 25, 2012. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Brian Smith-Dutton, Task Force 3/101 Public Affairs)Christmas movies and songs focus on that togetherness. When you’re serving overseas, the unspoken message is we’re all living this same moment, doing the best we can. Maybe it’s an assignment to a comfortable post, or maybe it’s a frightful place where stakes are high and the outcome uncertain. You’re overseas and the ones you care about are not.
The Christmas story is a yearly chance to build our own narrative, to make ourselves the main character of our own movie – creating that mental filmstrip and soundtrack so that the music swells in the right place and captures us center-screen like Bing Crosby in VistaVision. That locked-in memory will make up for all the dusty, boring years to come.
Christmas Day overseas, apart from the ones you wish were there, but together with the ones that you’ll remember.
Now think of the perspective of the opposite main characters in our most inspirational Christmas movies: George Bailey and Ebenezer Scrooge.
Their Christmas Day will come to easy and emotional conclusions — Scrooge goes to his nephew’s house for dinner, and George is saved by the Bedford Falls citizens.
Before all that, they faced Christmas Eve alone. They had no human companions on their journey through the years, only ghosts and angels. Christmas at wartime is not the pecan pie or the Silent Night. It is a day on the calendar like Scrooge’s cold bowl of gruel, like George Bailey’s world where no one knew his name.
Imagine a few days before Christmas Day itself. Imagine a place like Fort Bragg — or your post, your ship — places that should be full of life and deliberate activity. Imagine the main drag lined with all the barracks; on Fort Bragg, it was Gruber Road, bordered by miles of the 82nd Airborne’s three-story barracks, home to regiments of 5,000 soldiers plus or minus. Imagine Gruber Road deserted down all four lanes. Dark barracks, vacant parking lots, a windswept straightaway and North Carolina’s damp December chill. No twinkling Christmas lights, only an industrial yellow glare above entryways or shining from a few offices. A CQ stands in one entryway, backlit in the doorframe. For all evidence, the one human soul left behind in all that concrete.
The abandonment isn’t for the holidays, but because everyone has shipped out. Where? Does it matter? They’ve left and you will join them soon. Imagine your flight leaving early Christmas Day, so there will be no phone calls on the holiday, no pecan pie, just an anonymous transit to the desert of a memory. You leave before Christmas has begun and you’ll arrive after its end. A year without a Santa Claus.
In Meet Me in St. Louis, Judy Garland sings “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” to her sister Tootie. They’re leaving, moving to New York City and away from all their comforts. The movie came out in 1944, so no one would listen to the song’s lyrics and not connect the dots to the thousands of soldiers missing Christmas, in the war overseas.
“Someday soon, we all will be together, if the fates allow,” Judy sings. “Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow.”
Judy sings to her sister, but she sings to herself. The song is a monologue. Have yourself a merry little Christmas.
The days of tens of thousands of men and women deployed overseas are over, for now. This Christmas can be nostalgic, for those with memories to reminisce about the Christmas Day spent on the frontier.
Make the call to the buddy who sacrificed Christmas with you, complain about your commander who gave you rooftop guard duty when it wasn’t your turn, so married squad-mates could call their wives and children at a reasonable time. You, without even a girlfriend, just mom who sent too many cards.
You sat up there and grumbled through the midnight hour, and you could see the Christmas stars from the roof. You muddled through, somehow.
+++Nathan Webster is an Army veteran of Operation Desert Storm who has reported from Iraq several times as a freelance photojournalist
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(Aaron Provost for Task & Purpose).After twenty years of war, there are thousands upon thousands of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who have spent Christmas in a combat zone. Many have spent multiple Christmas Days overseas over numerous deployments; still, fewer have had the poor fortune of missing two Christmases back-to-back in the days of eighteen to fifteen-month deployments, unexpected extensions, and rapid turnarounds (let us not forget the record-setting 22-month deployment by the Minnesota National Guard’s 1st Brigade, 34th Infantry).
But fewer still, I would wager, can brag of having two Christmases serve as the bookends to a year-long deployment in Afghanistan. This, you see, is exactly what happened to me.
When I tell people this, the reactions are usually the same: “Oh man, that is so sad!“ ”That had to suck!” and “What’s an Afghanistan?” But this is usually met with a shrug, because the honest truth is that holidays in a combat zone barely register beyond a slightly better meal and a few more minutes on the MWR phones, desperately reaching out for a touch of home. Most soldiers are so busy, the significance of the day barely registers — or, at least, that’s how I remember it.
The start of that deployment is clear in my mind’s eye. Dec. 25, 2008. I woke up on the bottom rack of a squeaky bunk bed in the transient facility at Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan. While I’m sure the rest of Kyrgyzstan is beautiful, the drab, damp surroundings of Manas (more affectionately known as “Man Ass”) in December makes you feel as though you’d been dropped into a Soviet prison camp or a refugee center for the survivors of a zombie apocalypse. It was a far cry from thumping down the holly-decked stairs back home to see what Santa left under the tree. Not that I still believe(d) in Santa, but I was quite certain he’d never been to Manas.
We were on our third day there, having left Fort Drum on Dec. 22, and were relieved to get word that we’d be flying out for Bagram later in the day. After months of prep and training for our deployment, we were all eager to get on with it.
We spent Christmas Day in the normal fashion for soldiers in that middle space between home and away: watching old movies on laptops, sleeping away the jetlag, and, for the more ambitious, working out. At lunch, we headed down to the DFAC to feast. Knowing that Manas was an Air Force installation, we assumed the Christmas dinner would be top-notch, and the DFAC did not disappoint. There was turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, yams, rolls, and on and on. Most important, though, were the desserts: pumpkin pie, apple pie, and, of course, those beautiful slices of pecan pie, which were essentially just pre-thawed wedges of crack cocaine. We ate it all and we received no shortage of stink-eyes from the Air Force personnel on whose territory we were encroaching. We did not feel bad, though, because they had soft-serve ice cream machines, and you are not allowed to feel bad for deployed troops who have soft-serve ice cream machines.
Packed to the gills, we returned to our bunks and repacked our gear, anxious to get moving. We were told not to leave the immediate area, so most of us laid out on our bunks and tried to catch a nap. Hours crept by.
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This interlude was a weird mixture of anxious anticipation and food coma paralysis as we dwelled on the mission before us and toed the starting line to twelve months of uncertainty. For those of us on our first deployment, we weren’t longing for Christmases past; we were looking out into the unknown, speculating on what was to come, and mentally preparing ourselves for how best not to ass everything up (it is especially important for junior officers, such as I was, not to ass things up, because this is generally what they are known for). We were heading into a region of Afghanistan that had previously seen a minimal footprint by coalition forces. We were told to expect “the wild west.” No one slept.
Finally, we were informed it was “go time.” In Army-speak, this means departure will be sometime in the next several hours and no one truly knows what is happening. That, however, did not stop ten separate NCOs from lining everyone up thirty different times to be counted and recounted. By the time we actually crammed into the aircraft, daylight was fading, which, from where we stood, just meant the Kyrgyzstan-gray was getting grayer.
We packed onto the plane like a living game of Tetris and began our two-hour flight to Bagram Air Base. With a 1.5-hour time change, it seemed we’d landed only a few minutes after we’d left. As we unpacked ourselves from the plane to be counted once more (you know, in case someone fell out on the way), it occurred to some of the seasoned vets among us that the DFACs on Bagram would still be open and would still be serving Christmas dinner. From there it became an urgent rush to get through the never-ending lines of in-processing, so we could ditch our bags in our new transient digs and storm the nearest DFAC by force. Which we did. And it didn’t disappoint.
Flash forward exactly one year and “get me the hell out of here” is all I can think as we stand in line waiting to go through our customs check. We’d spent the last ten days in transient tents on the far side of Bagram as part of a necessary “decompression” time before we were allowed to board our Freedom Birds back home. I can understand and appreciate the need for decompression time for many soldiers, but for guys like me who spent most of our deployment getting yelled at over which font style we selected for the Operations Order PowerPoint slides, it seemed like overkill.
The last year had been long and short all at the same time, a blur of emotional ups and downs spread over 365 days that somehow all felt exactly the same. Our mission in Afghanistan’s Logar Province had been a success, if you could call any mission in Afghanistan a success. Given the metrics for which we were measured at the time, we had done what we came to do. We’d established an ordered presence in the region by constructingCombat Outposts around the districts, we’d built schools and a radio station and began several other infrastructure projects. We’d engaged the enemy and worked endlessly to clear roads of IEDs. We’d even assisted the Afghans in executing their second-ever presidential election (a lot of good that did). Overall, we’d made it much more difficult for the enemy to operate.
We’d also suffered our fair share of heartache and frustration. We lost several friends and battle buddies to IEDs and a vehicle rollover, men taken too young in the name of a mission that made less and less sense each day. For the first portion of deployment, we’d endured the rigors of a toxic leadership climate and its morale-crushing effects. For the second half of the deployment, we endured the loss of mission-critical assets, as they were diverted to search for an AWOL idiot soldier in a neighboring province (you can probably guess who that was). But day in and day out, we pulled on our boots and did our jobs.
Now we were on our way out. We’d left Logar behind and had spent our last ten days in a cycle of bootleg movies, half-hearted workouts, and Green Beans Coffee lines. At first, the naive among us held out hope that ol’ Uncle Sam might push extra hard to get us home by Christmas, but that hope had come and gone a few days prior. Now, on Christmas Day we were finally going home.
True to Army fashion, we didn’t find out we were leaving until the last minute, so with our Christmas dinners still digesting (my third of the deployment) we were hustled from our tents onto buses and driven to the civilized side of Bagram. There we began the lengthy process of disembarking, the only thing standing in our way being a few customs agents bent on making sure we didn’t bring home any $2 bootleg DVDs. Soon we were all checking our watches and it became apparent that, without it ever being vocalized, we had all collectively decided on the importance of being on the plane and in the sky before the clock hit midnight. We had to be out on Christmas Day.
A collective groan rose from the group as a customs agent pulled yet another piece of contraband from some dumb private’s gear, prompting yet another round of searches. More checking of watches. Someone called the customs agent a Grinch. Someone else made a reference to his mother’s loose morals. The customs agent flipped him the bird. There was holiday magic in the air.
It was 10:30 pm when a snake of duffle bag-laden soldiers trudged across the tarmac to a yawning C-17. It was 11:15 pm before the rear ramp closed and the plane began to taxi. It was 11:30 pm when the wheels went up in tandem with the cheer from the soldiers inside. We’d done it. We’d left Afghanistan on Christmas Day, with 30 minutes to spare. We were going home…
Just kidding. We were going back to Manas for two more days of decompression time. Good grief, the Army sucks.
In truth, for most U.S. service members, holidays in a combat zone aren’t a big deal and aren’t really dwelled upon. They are nothing more than an excuse for a meal that’s considered higher quality trash than the normal, everyday trash.
Civilians like to cultivate an image of soldiers sitting, huddled around a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, probably in a dirty foxhole, sadly humming Christmas carols and avoiding eye contact with one another, lest someone sees their tears of despair as they long for home. In actuality, that sad state rarely happens, except maybe in the Marines; in actuality, it never happens because deployed soldiers don’t have time to sit around and be morose. They’re putting in the work so they can get home. There are no holidays on deployment, not really, just as there are no weekends or “after hours.” Every day is Groundhog Day, as they say (except actual Groundhog Day, which is also not observed).
So this year, while you’re sitting around the Christmas tree with your family in the adorable matching pajamas that your spouse makes you wear (because Instagram), share a thought for the service members overseas. They too are wearing matching pajamas, but theirs are camouflage — and they’re out there hustling just for you.
+++Brett Allen is a former U.S. Army cavalry officer and the author of Kilroy Was Here.
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U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Josue Fragoso, the station commander of Recruiting Sub Station South Bay, Recruiting Station Orange County, 12th Marine Corps District, poses for a photo with a certificate of recognition from Torrance Mayor, George Chen, in Torrance, California on Dec. 22, 2022. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Immanuel Johnson).Count this as a new twist on how hard recruiting duty is these days.
A pair of Marine Corps recruiters, along with a prospective recruit they were talking to, helped foil a jewel heist in Torrance, California on Tuesday, the service said in a statement.
Staff Sgt. Josue Fragoso, who is in charge of Recruiting Sub Station South Bay, was in his office in the Del Amo Shopping Center at around 7:30 pm when he heard the sound of glass shattering.
“I had this feeling it might be Daniel’s Jewelers getting robbed because they have gotten robbed before,” said Fragoso in a press release. “I ran out of the office and went over there.”
Fragoso was followed by the man he had just been talking to about enlisting, Scott Elliott. When they approached the jewelry store, they saw four men, one of them carrying a hammer, smashing jewelry cases and attempting to rob the store.
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Fragoso and Elliott then leaped into action, tackling two of the suspects as they attempted to flee. Another recruiter, Sgt. Andre Henry, grabbed a third man, but he eventually managed to escape.
“Part of your training is to kind of leap without looking and when someone needs help or something wrong is going on, you have to do what you know is right,” Henry told Marine Corps Times.
The two suspects were detained by Fragoso, Henry, Elliott and other bystanders for a few minutes until police arrived.
Officers responded to masked suspects with hammers & gloves stealing from a jewelry store within the mall. The suspects fled but nearby military personnel & by-standers held 2 suspects until TPD arrived. Great work to all involved & shout-out to @USMC Recruitment #SouthBay! 🇺🇸👏 pic.twitter.com/RH8ZdjpODr
— Torrance Police (@TorrancePD) December 21, 2022
Fragoso, who was presented with a certificate of recognition by Torrance Major George Chen, told Marine Corps Times that “Marines are different … Marines are individuals that take action and do the right thing.”
Elliott, the potential Marine Corps recruit, is 33 and currently awaiting an age waiver to enlist. He’ll certainly have an interesting recruiting story to tell assuming the waiver is approved, though.
The latest on Task & Purpose Army investigating soldiers who posed in dog bondage masks * Air Force says KC-135 broadcast inappropriate call sign * Green Berets are testing a new highly mobile 120mm mortar system * How airmen stopped a mid-air assault on a C-17 cockpit during the Afghan airlift * B-2 Spirit makes emergency landing, catches fire*, following malfunction
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The Air Force pushed back on a claim from Stillwater Regional Airport that one of its C-17s damaged a runway because it was overweight. (Photos via Stillwater Regional Airport).A regional airport in Oklahoma claims that an Air Force C-17 transport jet damaged its runway due to its immense weight.
Airport runways vary in weight limits, and the Stillwater Regional Airport’s 310,000 pound maximum load for dual tandem-wheeled aircraft was about 45 tons below the weight of the 400,000 pound jet when it landed there without permission on Sunday, the city claimed in a press release on Wednesday.
“Airport staff have temporarily patched surface damage to the runway and taxiways but must have the sub-surface assessed for potential long-term damage,” the city wrote.
Stillwater claimed that the C-17 crew had not requested permission to land at the airfield when it touched down on Sunday carrying the U.S. Air Force Academy women’s basketball team for a Tuesday game against Oklahoma State University. Charter flights need to receive permission so that the airfield can prepare the appropriate safety and firefighting equipment, but in this case “prior approval was neither requested nor granted by airport administration,” the city said.
However, the 911th Airlift Wing, the unit to which the C-17 is assigned, pushed back on Stillwater’s claim, saying that the crew had coordinated with the airport beforehand and that the aircraft was within the runway’s weight limits for triple-tandem aircraft.
“Internal Air Force reports indicate that the aircraft was within weight limits of triple-tandem landing gear and that the flight was coordinated with airport officials five days prior to landing,” as part of a pre-coordinated training mission, the wing’s public affairs chief, 2nd. Lt. Marjorie Schurr, told Task & Purpose. “911th AW pilots are well trained in operating procedures for the C-17 Globemaster III.”
Schurr added that the airport reported damage to the runway and taxi surfaces after the plane took off, though the actual cause of the damage is still unknown.
A C-17 Globemaster III takes off during phase one tests at Fort Hunter Liggett, Calif, December, 2006. (Bobbi Zapka/U.S. Air Force)It may be surprising to hear that not all runways are strong enough to take on certain aircraft, but it’s true. Building runways is an expensive project, and building a strip that can carry a heavy jet like a C-17 or a Boeing 747 costs more than a smaller one, especially when you consider that it takes even more money to maintain those facilities over the years.
The weight of an aircraft also affects the design of its landing gear, as manufacturers seek to spread out the burden onto more wheels for the sake of both the aircraft and the surface it is landing on.
“Landing gear configuration and aircraft gross weight are an integral part of airfield pavement design and are often used to characterize pavement strength,” wrote the Federal Aviation Administration in a 2005 order on aircraft landing gear configuration naming conventions. “As aircraft became larger and heavier, they required additional wheels to prevent individual wheel loads from introducing excessively high stresses into the pavement structure.”
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Naming conventions for aircraft landing gear configuration may sound like a snooze-fest, but it is one of many details that Air Force transport jet pilots have to be mindful of when considering where to set down their mighty and expensive steeds. ’TRT’ is the shorthand for the twin-tandem, tricycle wheels used on the C-17, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
“When flying to a field, the crew is supposed to check the TRT weight limits for the runways, taxiway and ramp they plan to use,” an anonymous C-17 pilot told Task & Purpose. “It’s important to check everything because the runway may allow your planned weight, but a section of taxiway may not. Crews are expected to adjust accordingly.”
A C-17 crew could operate at a field above the weight limit if they get permission from the airfield manager, the pilot explained, but that is rare outside of emergencies since too-heavy jets will wear out the pavement faster.
“The reason for the different weigh limits around an airport is money and expected use,” the pilot said. “You pour concrete or asphalt different for your international ramp versus where the Cessnas park. There is no need for a small regional airport to rate their hard surfaces for a 747 if they just expect light commuter jet traffic.”
Checking the weight limit and acquiring prior permission to land are basic procedures in Air Force flying, and it would have been “a big screw-up” if the crew had not done their due diligence beforehand, the pilot explained. However, “I don’t believe the crew is at fault if public affairs is saying they are in the clear,” he added.
National Science Foundation personnel exit a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft, Oct. 1, 2012, at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Every year, Airmen from the 62nd and 446th Airlift Wings at Joint Base Lewis-McChord deploy to transport cargo and personnel in support of the NSF and Operation Deep Freeze. (Staff Sgt. Sean Tobin/U.S. Air Force)Air Force C-17 crews are trained to take weight limits seriously, but they can land in sketchy places if the mission requires it. In fact, airmen routinely touch down on ice runways in Antarctica, where the Air Force flies resupply missions for National Science Foundation researchers as part of Operation Deep Freeze. Simply finding the runway is a challenge at the bottom of the world.
“It’s white behind white behind white,” a C-17 pilot named Lt. Col. Jason Taylor said in a 2012 Air Force press release. “There is not nearly as much contrast between the runway and its surroundings as there is with a traditional runway.”
The runway itself is carved into seasonal sea ice, which makes it essentially a floating runway, the press release said.
“If you smack down hard on it like a paved runway, it can create waves in the ice and crack,” Taylor explained.
Despite its size, the C-17 can land on runways as short as 3,500 feet or on a dirt landing strip, though it kicks up quite a bit of earth in the process.
“It’s quite a spectacular site to see this huge cloud of dust chasing you when you’re taking off, and then the same thing happening when you’re landing — a dust cloud chasing you as you come to a stop,” Gus Christou, a mechanical subsystems engineer said in a 2006 Air Force press release.
Of course, those capabilities don’t change the fact that Stillwater Regional Airport has “significant” damage in its runway that someone is going to have to pay for. It is unclear at this point how badly the facility needs fixing.
“Because the airfield pavement consists of multiple levels, potential damage can be feet beneath the surface and not be evident at the surface for years,” the city said. “Tools like ground-penetrating radar may need to be deployed to gain a better understanding of what lies beneath the surface.”
The latest on Task & Purpose Army investigating soldiers who posed in dog bondage masks * Air Force says KC-135 broadcast inappropriate call sign * Green Berets are testing a new highly mobile 120mm mortar system * How airmen stopped a mid-air assault on a C-17 cockpit during the Afghan airlift * B-2 Spirit makes emergency landing, catches fire*, following malfunction
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A photo of the 2018 NORAD Tracks Santa Operation Center on Peterson Air Force Base, CO on December 24, 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Alexandra M. Longfellow).“He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. . . . There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.” — Francis Pharcellus Church, Sept. 21, 1897
America teetered on war when an unlisted line at the Continental Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs rang on a December day in 1955. A call to the top-secret number at an agency responsible for defending the United States against air attacks did not bode well. In fact, it very well could signal war with the Soviet Union.
Col. Harry Shoup, a seasoned Air Force officer and director of operations for CONAD—a precursor to NORAD—steeled himself before picking up the receiver and identifying himself.
We can, perhaps, imagine the colonel’s surprise when he heard a small voice on the line asking whether he was Santa Claus.
It didn’t take long for Shoup to realize there had been some sort of mix-up. Not wanting to disappoint the child, the father of four quickly slipped into the role of the big man himself. Afterward, the girl’s mother explained to Shoup that a Sears ad in the local newspaper invited children to call Santa on his private line. But a misprint instead sent callers to an organization that monitored the skies above the continental United States. Perhaps there are really no accidents, only fate misnamed.
While Shoup sorted it out with the phone company, he had his airmen take the calls. That Christmas Eve, CONAD informed the public that it was tracking Santa’s sleigh from the North Pole, according to the History Channel. Although the military had occasionally announced sightings of Santa’s sleigh, this was different. The Department of Defense had officially entered the business of tracking one of the most beloved and enduring symbols of Christmas.
Since 1958, that job has belonged to NORAD—the North American Aerospace Defense Command—a binational organization formed between the United States and Canada that tracks everything from airplanes and missiles to space shuttles and Santa’s sleigh. Technology has come a long way since that Cold War Christmas Eve more than 65 years ago, and so has the business of tracking Santa. NORAD spends all year getting ready for that singular mission, much like Father Christmas himself, and today children of all ages can find Santa’s location in real time (and in eight languages) at NORAD Tracks Santa beginning at six a.m. Eastern Standard Time on Christmas Eve. In addition to keeping tabs on Santa’s miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer, some 900 volunteers will answer an estimated 150,000 calls from around the world on Dec. 24 at the program’s headquarters at Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado.
The War Horse spoke to Air Force 1st Lt. Sean Carter, the program manager for NORAD Tracks Santa, and Canadian Maj. Gen. Patrick Carpentier, director of operations at NORAD Headquarters in Colorado Springs, where the magic of Christmas will unfold once again this Dec. 24. Some questions and answers have been edited for clarity.
How does NORAD’s mission on Christmas Eve compare to what NORAD does the rest of the year?Carpentier: It’s the same mission. As you know, Santa lives in the North Pole, and one of his main avenues of approaches is through the Arctic. It’s a perfect location for us to track when he first departs from the North Pole and heads for the International Date Line. That’s the first indication Santa is on his way.
I don’t think you can talk about NORAD and not talk about NORAD Tracks Santa. It’s always a part of the conversation. It’s also a way to let people know the importance and reality of our mission here at NORAD. There are people here on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year keeping North America safe.
What systems does NORAD use to track Santa?Carter: We use three big systems: the North Warning System, a chain of highly advanced radar stations along northern Canada; our satellites; and our jets—F-15s, F-16s, F-22s, and the Canadian CF-18. Santa flies faster than starlight, so we have to leverage everything we’ve got to keep track of him. The most important aspect when it comes to tracking Santa is Rudolph’s nose. It’s comparable to a missile launch, which is one of the key factors in our ability to track him around the globe.
How close do you get to Santa’s sleigh?Carpentier: Typically we will get close to visual range. Our fighter pilots can often wave to Santa. But we understand he is on his own mission, so we maintain a safe and professional distance from his sleigh to make sure we don’t impede his progress.
NORAD tracks objects on a daily basis. What compares to Santa’s sleigh?Carpentier: There’s nothing that compares to Santa’s sleigh, I have to be honest.
Carter: We do measure Santa’s sleigh in candy canes and lollipops. Sleigh length is 77 candy canes or 150 lollipops, width is 40 candy canes or 80 lollipops, and height is 55 candy canes or 110 lollipops. This does not account for reindeer.
How does Santa make it around the world in one night?Carter: The best we can deduce, and a lot of it is classified, but Santa most likely operates within his own space-time continuum.
What’s it like at NORAD on Christmas Eve?Carter: Our call center gets transformed into a festive, magical wonderland. There are decorations and all kinds of food, treats, snacks, drinks—contributors who, out of the goodness of their hearts, donate to our volunteers. Music is playing, there’s wild costumes and Santa hats. From what I understand, it goes incredibly fast. Volunteers work in two-hour shifts. They blink their eyes and their shifts are over. It’s faster than starlight.
Who volunteers at the call center?Carter: Over half of them are historic volunteers. They have done it or their family has done it. Many volunteers are service members who are curious, and it’s something they always wanted to do and, now that they’re at the command, they’re jumping on the opportunity. For others, what better way to get into the holiday spirit than to take calls from kids all around the world? Some are lending their language skills. Kids are calling from overseas, and they speak almost every language you can imagine.
What are some of the more interesting calls that have come in over the years?Carter: A lot of kids want to know, ‘Am I going to get what I asked for?’ We’re NORAD. We don’t actually work with Santa in that capacity. We’re not his elves. One little boy who, rather than asking where Santa was or what he could hope to find under his tree, wanted to know whether Santa would be able to find his mom that year, who was deployed overseas in the Middle East. It was his first year without his mom, and he wanted to make sure Santa would be able to get there.
One girl, rather than gifts, said all she wanted was for her brother, who was very sick, to feel better. One year, we had a caller who just wanted to confirm that Die Hard was a Christmas movie. NORAD confirmed it is a Christmas movie. That seals the deal. The story has been passed down enough that it’s the thing of lore at this point.
Carpentier: Last year, Army Gen. James Dickinson, commander of U.S. Space Command next door, was receiving calls. One was very special for him. He answered and thought he recognized the voice. It turned out it was his grandson. The chances of that happening are pretty incredible. Phone calls like that happen every year.
Why do you think a tradition that started with a wrong number nearly seven decades ago continues to endure?Carter: I think it’s that reaffirmation that there is still a bit of magic alive out there, and an organization as big as NORAD is able to confirm that for folks. It’s very life-affirming. We’re able to say, ‘Hey, we’ve got Santa in our sights, we’re tracking him, he’s alive and well, he’s visiting the homes of all the children who believe.’
Carpentier: Bringing joy and peace to the world is something that will always be required. And Santa is the main guy who makes that happen. We’re happy to support him on his yearly mission.
This article first appeared on The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit news organization educating the public on military service, war, and its impact.
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Spike Team Idaho, a Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observation Group (MACV-SOG) team. (Courtesy photo).Editor’s note: this article by Stavros Atlamazoglou first appeared on Sandboxx.
On Christmas Day, 1968, American families woke up to festooned houses and presents under the tree. But thousands of miles away in Southeast Asia, a small special operations team was fighting for its life.
Part of a covert special operations organization, the Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observation Group (MACV-SOG), the small team had gone into Laos on a classified mission. It ended up being a very special MACV-SOG Christmas.
U.S. troops weren’t supposed to be fighting outside South Vietnam, but the realities of the war and North Vietnam’s use of neighboring Cambodia and Laos as staging bases for attacks in the south meant that American commandos had to go there too.
Search and destroy deep in LaosSpike Team Idaho was comprised of six SOG commandos, three Americans and three indigenous mercenaries. Leading them as the One Zero (1-0), or team leader, was John Stryker “Tilt” Meyer. Shy two decades old at the time, Meyer became a legendary SOG operator, completing two tours of duty at the covert special operations organization.
ST Idaho before its first mission across the fence. John Stryker Meyer is in the middle, second row. The team would survive a very special MACV-SOG Christmas (Courtesy photo)ST Idaho was an experienced recon team that had run several cross-border operations. Only a month earlier, the team had survived a mission against all odds. ST Idaho had gone in Cambodia looking for three North Vietnamese divisions, a total of 30,000 men, that had gone missing. The SOG operators ended up finding the missing divisions but almost exchanged their discovery for their lives, barely making it out at the very last moment.
On Christmas 1968, ST Idaho was tasked with going into Laos with an important mission. The primary mission objective of ST Idaho was to locate and destroy a fuel pipeline inside Laos. The SOG commandos were tasked “at the minimum [to] blow up as much of the pipeline as possible,” Meyer told Sandboxx News, with a secondary objective to locate and destroy any pump stations that they could find.
The North Vietnamese used the Ho Chi Minh trail complex to transport arms, men, materiel, and fuel in South Vietnam to support the insurgency.
The air aspectAlthough SOG recon teams relied heavily on Air Force special operations helicopter squadrons for their insertions, as the war progressed, they depended increasingly more on an elite cadre of South Vietnamese pilots who risked everything to infiltrate and exfiltrate recon teams even from hot landing zones.
A South Vietnamese pilot on the cockpit of the H-34 Kingbee. Time and again, these courageous men would fly into the jaws of hell to extract their SOG comrades. These pilots participated in a very special MACV-SOG Christmas. (Courtesy photo)Flying the venerable H-34 Kingbee helicopter, these pilots would fly in almost any condition to save their beloved SOG commandos. That bond of trust and comradeship remains to this day, with veteran South Vietnamese pilots attending SOG reunions.
“Our beloved [South Vietnamese] Kingbee pilots were critical to our missions. During the end of ’68 and early ’69 they were our primary insertion/extraction support into Laos, North Vietnam for RT Idaho. Kingbee Pilot An described how he could fly at night, as he did for Lynne Black’s Oct. ’69 Brightlight, because he was familiar with the terrain after flying so many missions across the fence into Laos,” John Stryker Meyer told Sandboxx News.
Meyer has written extensively about his and others’ experiences in SOG. His books offer a rare first-person view inside America’s secret war in Indochina.
On the Christmas Day mission, ST Idaho would rely on the 219th South Vietnamese Air Force to insert in and extract them from Laos. Due to the existence of a potent anti-aircraft umbrella in the area—a SOG helicopter had gone down with all hands a few weeks prior—the Kingbees would fly nap-of-the-earth. On the one hand, this approach protected the chopper from ground fire, but on the other, it made it easier for the enemy to hear them.
The usual approach was to fly at a very high altitude and descent rapidly once over the landing zone. Moreover, the operational geography prevented fixed-wing aircraft from supporting the team.
A Christmas to never forgetST Idaho’s concerns about getting spotted by the enemy turned out to be true. As they approached the landing zone at a very low altitude, they noticed a few locals spotting them. Although these hill tribesmen weren’t North Vietnamese, they often cooperated with them out of necessity.
Despite getting spotted, ST Idaho went ahead with its mission.
The H-34 Kingbee put the team on a knoll inside a canyon surrounded by mountains. The SOG commandos immediately noticed that a thick, 10-feet tall blanket of elephant grass covered the area. The vegetation made their going very slow as they looked for a place to bunk down for the night.
As the team was patrolling very slowly to the high ground, the pointman suddenly fired. Everyone hit the deck as a hail of North Vietnamese fire, including rocket-propelled grenades and machine-gun fire, rained on ST Idaho.
A SOG recon team practicing insertion and extraction techniques. Meyer and his team survived a MACV-SOG Christmas out of Hollywood. (Courtesy photo)There was little merit in continuing with their mission now that the enemy had found them—most probably because of the locals who had spotted them—so Meyer declared a Prairie Fire, vectoring every available aircraft in the region to their position and called for an extraction.
The SOG commandos rushed towards the landing zone to await the incoming H-34 Kingbees. But it was a slow going because of the elephant grass. The special operators could hear noises all around them but the northeast. But Meyer, an experienced team leader, thought it was a ploy to ambush them. His gut feeling was soon proven true when an airborne forward observer spotted massed North Vietnamese troops in that direction.
Although they didn’t know it at the time, ST Idaho had just been saved by another SOG team a few miles away that had intercepted enemy radio transmissions. This was the first and only time a SOG team received tactical intelligence on the field.
ST Idaho continued its path to the landing zone, making sure to avoid the northeast, all the while lobbing grenades wherever they heard noise coming from.
Then, with the helicopters inbound and ss they were approaching the landing zone and safety, smoke began engulfing ST Idaho. The North Vietnamese were using the tactical environment to their advantage and were trying to burn the SOG commandos alive or force them to surrender.
In those final moments of their mission, the special operators used everything they had to stop the flames, even going as far as to detonate strips of C-4 explosives to knock the advancing flames back. North Vietnamese troops were just behind the flames, waiting to pounce at the disoriented ST Idaho.
John Stryker Meyer (second from left) surrounded by SOG comrades. Americans and indigenous personnel fought as one. These men would spend a very special MACV-SOG Christmas. (Courtesy photo)Then, like out of a Hollywood film, the H-34 Kingbees arrived. At first, they had trouble spotting the team and touching down because of the heavy smoke, but the South Vietnamese pilots once more pulled it off and came low enough for the team to climb on board.
Mere moments after they had cleared the landing zone, flames devoured the spot where ST Idaho had only recently been on.
Suffice to say, the SOG commandos were surprised that everyone on the team came out not just alive but without any serious wounds. After surviving such a close call, Meyer remembers that he was astonished that “we were still alive,” wondering to himself that night if he would survive to see his 23rd birthday, which was only a few weeks away.
For Meyer and his team, this was the second close call in a little over a month. But such was the life at MACV-SOG, where the casualty rate exceeded 100 percent.
Read more from Sandboxx News ST Idaho: The Special Forces team that vanished in the jungle * A MACV-SOG Thanksgiving: When 6 commandos took on 30,000 enemy troops * MACV-SOG: The covert special operations unit you’ve never heard of * Cowboy: A legendary commando in America’s secret war in Vietnam * Attack on FOB 4: The worst day in US Army Special Forces history*
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Al Qaeda has been very naughty this year. (Reddit).Nobody likes spending Christmas away from home. Whether you’re in firefights or burning shit in a pit, Christmas in a combat zone can often suck.
But, not always.
We asked Task & Purpose readers to share their stories of Christmas in combat with us, and not all of them are depressing. Indeed, there’s often a silver lining in even the toughest holiday conditions.
Take, say, tales of ad hoc decorations aboard a Navy warship, shared with us by long-time reader Brent Leatherman with an invocation of the pathetically adorable Christmas trees of ‘Charlie Brown’ fame.
“Every ship I was on had a few of these guys popping up, here and there,” Leatherman wrote. “My mom never understood why I really liked [Charlie Brown]-style trees, decorated with soda can pop tops and tiny Tabasco bottles. Sorry, ma, you had to be there.”
Not every makeshift Christmas tree is a weak facsimile of more robust displays of holiday cheer back home. Look no further than this metal-as-fuck Christmas tree from Joey Bennett, who spent Christmas in Ramadi, Iraq in 2005.
A makeshift Christmas tree at OP Hotel in Ramadi in December 2005. (Courtesy of Joey Bennett) (Courtesy of Joey Bennett)“Sandbags for the base and concertina wire for the frame, with linked 7.62×51 mm ammo draped over the concertina wire in a zigzag fashion adding to the tree’s volume and shape,” Bennett, a former Army sniper, told Task & Purpose. “M67 fragmentation grenades with the appropriate green and red tape (for safety, of course) adorned the tree like ornaments from Target, and 50 caliber armor piercing rounds were also hung with care but the piece de resistance was the 5-pointed star made of chem lights that really brought the entire creation into the holiday spirit.”
Of course, Christmas in combat isn’t always a struggle to celebrate the holidays in austere conditions.
“We had a nice easy Christmas morning patrol around the corner from higher up took a 3-hour security halt,” recalled Thomas Brenner. “Then came back around the other side of the compound and finished out the day playing Texas Holdem over a lite (sic) post rotation and steaks.”
Then again, sometimes the most dangerous thing downrange is Christmas dinner itself, which Army veteran Mike Barin, unfortunately, discovered during the holidays 15 years ago following a patrol in Baqubah, Iraq.
“We swung by the COP to grab some dinner plates, and wouldn’t you know it: chicken fucking cordon bleu again,” Barin recalled in an email to Task & Purpose. “The disgusting meat puck filled with viscous white fluid; lightly breaded.
Barin had just come off raiding a house with his platoon and hadn’t eaten all day, so he “begrudgingly” ate his Christmas Eve dinner and washed it down with a pomegranate Rip-It before heading back out on patrol, he said.
After finally getting the call to return to base, things went south.
“My head was throbbing, [my] skin was clammy, and I felt the uneven pressure of nausea washing over my body,” Barin recalled. “I slapped the guy in the air guard hatch and launched into it before he’s even out of it … and I projectile vomited all over the sniper glass.”
A shower and nap later and Barin was still alternating between vomiting and dry heaving. Finally, he “spewed a blood clot” in front of a Navy Corpsman and was sent to the clinic, where doctors decided to medevac him to Camp Anaconda at Balad Air Base.
“I come to find out, my body had a violent reaction to chicken cordon bleu, and caused me to rip the pyloric valve between my esophagus and stomach,” Barin recalled. “I spent Christmas Day in emergency surgery to stop my internal bleeding and then doped up on morphine for a bit.”
Barin came to on Christmas night, where he saw an unidentified general coming around handing out challenge coins and thanking the different people forced to spend the holidays in the medical ward.
“What’re you here for, son?” the general asked the bed next to Barin’s
“IED, sir,” the service members next to him responded.
“You’re recovering well?”
“Yes, sir.”
Then the general turned and looked at Barin: “And what about you son?”
I’m not sure what, maybe morphine, caused me to answer him the way I did: “Fucking chicken cordon bleu, sir. Blew a gasket.”
The general’s aide glared at Barin while the general went slack-jawed for a moment. Then both walked away into the Christmas night.
Santa Claus waves outside the window of a C-130 Hercules aircraft as he arrives at the Savannah Air National Guard Base, Savannah, Ga. on Dec. 8, 2022.(U.S. Air National Guard photo by Tech. Sgt. Caila Arahood)Despite the mundanity of military service, other Christmases for U.S. troops abroad are moments for, well, a taste of the finer things in life — and, sometimes, moments when leadership truly comes through for rank-and-file service members.
Take the experience of retired Air Force Lt. Col. George Crawford, who recounted to Task & Purpose his time spending Christmas overlooking Pristina, Kosovo with the U.S. National Intelligence Cell (USNIC) in 2000.
That Christmas couldn’t have come at a tenser time for the pre-9/11 U.S. military. Serbia had pulled out of the former Yugoslav republic after Operation Allied Force compelled Slobodan Milosevic to agree to the province’s political independence, and NATO’s Kosovo Force had taken control to provide a secure environment for the country to carry out its first free and fair popular vote in recent memory.
Crawford’s troops were “instrumental” in keeping a volatile border region from breaking out into a brushfire war following months of unrest earlier that year, he recalled in an email to Task & Purpose, his USNIC one of several NICs providing intelligence support to KFOR. The base was called Film City, a name selected due to rumors the site was a former pornographic movie studio before it became a sprawling NATO base.
As Christmas approached, the British forces who controlled the area promised a feast “fit for a king” in the dining hall, Crawford recalled. Compounding the anticipation of a raucous holiday meal was a wave of food poisoning that had swept through Crawford’s unit in the weeks leading up to the holiday. Finally, at 11 am on Christmas Day, his NCOIC burst into my office.
“Sir, do you know what they’re serving us for Christmas dinner? SPAM!” the NCOIC spat. “I mean, we didn’t expect much more than turkey loaf… but SPAM???”
The crisis was immediate to Crawford. In fairness to his British hosts, SPAM was something of a delicacy during World War II as the only meat dish many could obtain in the heavily-rationed British Isles. But on the other hand, Crawford had 30-odd young men and women under his command, many away from home for six months or more.
“They deserved a bit of civilization,” Crawford recalled.
George Crawford with the troops under his command, December 2000. (Courtesy photo)No time to call up the chain of command, themselves at home with their families in Stuttgart, Germany and Mons, Belgium: Crawford made a snap decision and called his NCOs together.
“I need two volunteers. One communications, and one security policeman.”
Two stepped forward.
“Here’s what we’re going to do. Pack up the vehicles with anyone who wants a real Christmas dinner. Check with everyone, even if they’re asleep. I will take the watch. The three of us (me and the volunteers) will man the NIC. The rest of you, everyone who wants to, you will drive to Camp Bondsteel.”
Fox context: When NATO moved into Kosovo, the United States had leveled a forested mountain outside Urosevac to create Camp Bondsteel, now the largest American installation in Kosovo with a massive exchange, three gargantuan chow halls, a Burger King, and even a Dairy Queen. To Crawford, Camp Bondsteel was “a logistic marvel, where the facilities were frequented by every NATO ally and Russian troops as well … Seeing it, I understood that America’s capability to move stuff anywhere, anytime is why we win wars.”
Crawford’s NCOs herded around 20 of his troops into vehicles, with his last order to the departing service members “to go straight there and come straight back,” he recalled. “And, I asked, bring something back for anyone who didn’t get to go, if it was possible.”
“For the next six hours, I sat in a quiet intelligence center, watching displays and monitoring message traffic, praying silently that I had done the right thing,” Crawford recalled. “Because if things went south, I would be the only one to blame. My ‘career dissipation indicator’ was flashing yellow.”
When my troops came back later that evening, the expressions on their faces said it all.
“The American chow hall had served real turkey. Real ham. Real roast beef. All the trimmings. Pumpkin, pecan, and apple pies. An ice cream bar, replete with over a dozen flavors. They had been fed and fed well. And it had been the right thing to do,” Crawford recalled.
“It was the best Christmas I have ever had, at home or away.”
And with that, we here at Task & Purpose wish you the most serene and trouble-free of holiday seasons — or not, if you’re into that kinda thing. But stay away from chicken cordon bleu or SPAM if you can.
The latest on Task & Purpose Army investigating soldiers who posed in dog bondage masks * Air Force says KC-135 broadcast inappropriate call sign * Green Berets are testing a new highly mobile 120mm mortar system * How airmen stopped a mid-air assault on a C-17 cockpit during the Afghan airlift * B-2 Spirit makes emergency landing, catches fire*, following malfunction
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Marine Raiders with Marine Special Operations Company Charlie, 1st Marine Raider Battalion, set up a cordon around the perimeter of a building while conducting a notional direct-action night raid, Oct. 17, 2015, in Florence, Ariz. (Marine Corps photo).The Department of Defense on Thursday identified a Marine Raider who died on Monday as the result of a non-combat-related incident in Iraq.
Staff Sgt. Samuel D. Lecce, 32, of Jefferson, Tenn., was assigned to the 3rd Marine Raider Battalion, Marine Forces Special Operations Command, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, the Pentagon said in a statement on Thursday.
The statement, which did not reveal the nature of the incident, said that Lecce was in Iraq in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, the ongoing U.S. military-led effort to defeat the Islamic State militant group, or ISIS, in the country and neighboring Syria. The incident is under investigation.
Recent headlines indicate that the fight against ISIS is not over yet. This past month, U.S. troops captured six suspected fighters from the group, including an alleged senior operative, amid an uptick in raids in Syria.
A recent report from the Lead Inspector General for Operation Inherent Resolve indicated that attacks claimed by ISIS this year “decreased dramatically in Iraq, while attacks in Syria increased significantly, marking a rebound from historically low levels the previous year.”
The U.S. military’s strategy in Syria appears to involve targeting ISIS senior leaders in raids in the hope that the group will eventually collapse, Bill Roggio, a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, told Task & Purpose on Tuesday.
That helps “keep them on their back foot … But it’s no substitute for systematically dismantling these groups,” he said.
As the Marine Corps’ special operations unit, Marine Raiders are well-positioned to carry out missions against ISIS, though whether Lecce and the 3rd Marine Raider Battalion were involved in such missions is unclear.
As of Monday, a total of 107 service members and two Defense Department civilians had died in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. Of the military deaths, 20 were caused by hostile action while 87 were caused by non-hostile action, while both civilian deaths were caused by non-hostile action.
The latest on Task & Purpose Army investigating soldiers who posed in dog bondage masks * Air Force says KC-135 broadcast inappropriate call sign * Green Berets are testing a new highly mobile 120mm mortar system * How airmen stopped a mid-air assault on a C-17 cockpit during the Afghan airlift * B-2 Spirit makes emergency landing, catches fire*, following malfunction
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This general view taken on November 4, 2022, shows a poster displaying a Russian soldier with a slogan reading 'Glory to the Heroes of Russia' decorating a street near the 'PMC Wagner Centre', associated with the founder of the Wagner private military group (PMC) Yevgeny Prigozhin, during the official opening of the office block on the National Unity Day, in Saint Petersburg.(Photo by Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images).The Russian private military company Wagner Group is now arming itself with weapons from North Korea as it augments Russian military forces in Ukraine, the White House said on Thursday
“Today we can confirm that North Korea has completed an initial arms delivery to Wagner, which paid for that equipment,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Thursday.
“We assess that the amount of material delivered to Wagner will not change battlefield dynamics in Ukraine, but we are certainly concerned that North Korea is planning to deliver more military equipment.”
Kirby added that North Korean officials “have said publicly that they would not support Russia’s war in Ukraine – and yet here they are delivering arms to Wagner, in direct violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.”
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The Wagner Group, founded in 2014 and run by Yevgeniy Prigozhin, is estimated to have around 50,000 people in Ukraine. Many of them, up to 40,000, are convicts who have been recruited from Russian prisons, according to Kirby.
“Wagner is playing a major role in Bakhmut, where its ill-equipped and ill-trained forces are suffering heavy casualties,” Kirby told reporters on Thursday. “Approximately 1,000 Wagner fighters have been killed in the fighting in recent weeks, and 90 percent of those fatalities were convicts.”
Prigozhin denied the accusation, saying in a statement that “the supply of weapons from North Korea is nothing but gossip and speculation.”
It’s not the first time the U.S. has accused Russia of arming itself with weapons sent from North Korea. In November, the White House stated that the North Korean government was covertly shipping artillery shells to Russia through other countries in Africa and the Middle East. This comes as the Pentagon also recently estimated that Russia is burning through so much of its own stockpiles of munitions – firing up to 20,000 artillery rounds a day – that it will soon have to start using “degraded” shells produced as long as 40 years ago.
The Wagner Group, while ostensibly neither a private military company – those are theoretically banned in Russia – nor a direct arm of the Russian military, has maintained a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin through its founder, Prigozhin. The group has operated extensively in Africa, Syria and in Ukraine, where it’s been repeatedly accused of human rights abuses.
On Wednesday, the White House announced a new series of sanctions on technology exports designed to specifically target Wagner Group and meant to curb their access to military equipment and technology.
“The Wagner Group is one of the most notorious mercenary organizations in the world and is actively committing atrocities and human rights abuses across Ukraine,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez on Wednesday. “Today we are sending a clear message to non-state actors seeking to pick up the baton of brutality from Putin’s faltering military that the Department of Commerce will not hesitate to act against them.”
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The Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov passes through the English channel on October 21, 2016 near Dover, England. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images).Everything old is new again — like a fire aboard Russia’s sole aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov.
Russian state news agency TASS reported that a fire had broken out on the Admiral Kuznetsov on Thursday, prompting an evacuation of 20 people from the ship, which is currently in a dry dock undergoing repairs in the Russian port of Murmansk.
The ship was reportedly beginning a month-long process of leaving its dry dock earlier this week, with Russian officials claiming that the aircraft carrier would return to service in 2023.
“There was no fire but a local ignition, which was put out at 11:30 a.m. by the workforce and firefighters present on the Shipyard’s premises,” Alexey Rakhmanov, the CEO of United Shipbuilding Corporation, told TASS. “The ship’s damage control system was promptly activated and there is no damage.”
This incident comes a little more than three years after the last fire aboard the beleaguered aircraft carrier. In December 2019, the Admiral Kuznetsov caught fire while undergoing maintenance work in Murmansk, with the blaze killing two people and leaving more than a dozen injured.
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The fires are far from the only unfortunate incidents to befall the ship, which has become infamous as one of the worst aircraft carriers ever built and has been undergoing an extensive overhaul since 2017. In 2018, a massive floating drydock holding the Admiral Kuznetsov lost power and sank, sending a 70-ton crane crashing into the carrier’s deck.
When the ship was actually underway — most recently operating in the Mediterranean and conducting airstrikes in Syria in 2016 — observers noted the vessel’s belching, black smoke and constant tugboat accompaniment in case this ship broke down. That’s in addition to the other fires, the oil spills and the toilets that don’t work.
When the ship was transiting the English Channel in January 2017, the U.K. Defense Minister Sir Michael Fallon referred to the Admiral Kuznetsov as the “ship of shame.”
First laid down in 1983, the aircraft carrier did not become fully operational until 1995. With a length of 930 feet and a crew of 1,600 sailors, it was designed to carry up to 41 aircraft.
As The National Interest wrote in 2018, though, “the collapse of the Soviet Union also meant the collapse of funding for the carrier project,” and in the ensuing decades, the Admiral Kuznetsov has struggled to ever effectively operate, spending most of its career either undergoing repairs, requiring a tugboat just to operate, or on fire.
That hasn’t stopped Russia from laboring over the ship, though. According to TASS, when the ship does eventually complete its extensive overall – which was initially supposed to be completed in 2021 – it will be able to serve another 10 to 15 years. Never say never when it comes to state-run media.
The latest on Task & Purpose Army investigating soldiers who posed in dog bondage masks * Air Force says KC-135 broadcast inappropriate call sign * Green Berets are testing a new highly mobile 120mm mortar system * How airmen stopped a mid-air assault on a C-17 cockpit during the Afghan airlift * B-2 Spirit makes emergency landing, catches fire*, following malfunction
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David Chetlain took this photo of the USS Nevada entering Kwajalein Atoll in the U.S. Marshall Islands in July 1990. (Courtesy photo).I spent 18 months in training before reporting to my first submarine. I learned a lot about damage control, sonar, electronics, and how to distinguish a sperm whale from a humpback whale. But nothing prepared me for the disconnection from Earth that distorted my perception of time while submerged.
I slipped the surly bonds one cold, clear early Sunday morning, disappearing down the missile compartment hatch for my first submarine patrol. “Say goodbye to the sun,” I heard someone say as we silently headed north through the Puget Sound. “You will see it again in 83 days.”
I registered the time—eight a.m. Four hours until my first watch. Or so I thought. Beneath the Earth’s surface, we were on Zulu time. It was eight a.m. … now it’s six p.m.? Just like that? Welcome to the Time Machine, young man, where time is just a number in your logbook.
I trudged upstairs to assume my first sonar watch, and by the time I was relieved five and a half hours later, I was starving. I could hardly wait to try the great submarine food I’d heard about. But this was “midrats” where they served leftovers or cold cuts or, in the absence of those, opened a can of ravioli. I choked something down, performed cleanup duties, and looked at the time. Past midnight now. Except my body said it was 2:30 in the afternoon. Now what?
As a new arrival to the submarine, I was a “non-useful body,” or NUB, a worthless oxygen thief until I qualified in submarines. I’d have to dedicate every waking moment to the pursuit of “earning my dolphins.” I grabbed some study materials, and pretty soon it was time for breakfast. I wasn’t not hungry—tired maybe—and considered going to bed. But I had training, followed by lunch, followed by another watch.
Is it noon? I wondered. How long have I been up? Thirty-six hours? Twenty? I can’t be sure. My body told me it was time for bed, but now I was in a blue room, sitting in the dark and listening to killer whales through headphones, desperately trying to stay awake. My head bobbed and my supervisor yelled at me; I snapped upright. But sleep overtook me again—until I felt a smack on the back of my head.
“Pay attention, shithead,” he said.
My adrenaline spiked; I stared harder at the screen, listening closer to the white noise. When sleep overwhelmed me for a third time, my supervisor tried a different tactic—he handed me a cup of coffee. “Drink up, NUB.”
Members of the sonar division, including David Chetlain, kneeling in pink Chuck Taylor All Star Converse shoes. (Courtesy photo)I lost count of how many cups I drank, but it got me through the watch. And I had discovered the sailor’s elixir of life. After watch came dinner—pork adobo on the mess decks. But all I wanted to do was sleep. I stumbled to bunk room four, rack four, and climbed into bed. Some time later, I woke up in the dark; it was eerily silent. I tried to sit upright and banged my head.
Ouch. Oh yeah. I’m sleeping in a coffin now. Can’t do that.
I looked at my watch: two a.m. I had slept for seven hours, and I was hungry. I rolled out of the bunk, put on my shower shoes, and started walking toward the head.
“Hey NUB. What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I heard.
“Just going to take a shower.”
“Wrong! We’re in ultra-quiet. Everyone not on watch belongs in bed.”
I scurried back to my bunkroom, climbed in my rack, and stared at the ceiling—10 inches above my eyeballs. Time is a rare luxury on a submarine, and now I had too much of it. Morning eventually came, with fresh milk and eggs, a luxury we couldn’t expect for much longer. “Enjoy it while it lasts,” I heard someone say.
Back at the sonar shack, I resumed watch, this time refreshed and ready. Time flew now as I busily monitored vessel traffic and the normal background patter of the submarine resumed. After watch, lunch, and post-watch cleanup, I would finally have the chance to shower for the first time since boarding the submarine.
Wrong again. I spent the next eight hours running unscheduled casualty drills: fire, flood, toxic gas, missile emergency, one after the other, with a break for dinner. When we wrapped up at 9 p.m., I had only three hours to go until my next watch. My head swam. If I couldn’t sleep, I could watch a movie at least, I thought as I walked into the crew lounge.
“No movies for NUBs. Get out.”
At midnight, I headed back to the sonar shack—my fourth watch. Coffee got me through, but maybe, just maybe, I was adjusting to the rhythm of submarine life! At the end of the watch, though, I’d lost track of time again. I stumbled down the mess decks—breakfast. So it’s morning. … But what day is it? I looked at the plan of the day. A Wednesday. I’d been up again for more than 24 hours, and all I wanted to do was go to bed.
David Chetlain receives his “dolphins” from Capt. Larry Kraemer on the USS Georgia about halfway through his first patrol. (Courtesy photo)It would have to wait for at least six more hours while we exercised our tactical systems. I choked down some eggs and headed back up to sonar control to take over my assigned role in the torpedo firing team. I’d just left, but now 12 people packed the room, squeezed in next to each other. I leaned against a bulkhead to try to stay upright and focus on my job. The exercise dragged on for another three hours after lunch until the captain was satisfied, and finally, I crawled into bed with less than two hours to go before my next watch. I made it through, having slept for just 90 minutes in more than 48 hours. When I finally got off watch at midnight, I jumped into the rack for a few hours of sleep.
“GONG, GONG, GONG, GONG. Man battlestations missile, spin up all missiles for WSRT!”
What the fuck? Are you kidding me? I thought as I got dressed and stumbled back up to sonar for a readiness test sent out from the squadron. For the next 12 hours, we went to battlestations missile multiple times until every rocket had simulated a launch and virtual Armageddon was complete.
Afterward, I returned to watch, delirious and staggering like a drunk. My blood coursed with coffee and I felt like death. I’d lost track of time again. Finally, I rested; the plan of the day told me it was Friday. I’d been on the submarine for six days yet it felt like a month. I took my first shower, and felt human again; there was time to catch up on my qualifications before the next watch. Maybe I’m getting the hang of this.
At lunch we ate hamburgers, but the bread we’d brought on board was gone. So was the milk. Instead, we had buns made by the night baker and “plastic cow”—dehydrated milk that none of us would touch. There was no lettuce; you didn’t want to touch those tomatoes. The french fries were questionable. But I was hungry and had no other options. There were no crazy maneuvers or death-defying drills, at least.
At mid-watch, the boat was quiet, the ocean silent. My mind told me it was the middle of the night. Then I was offered a look through the periscope—sun, water, ocean spray. Broad daylight. No land, no birds, no ships. Nothing. I stepped back, shaken. I finished my watch in a daze. I’d had one hour of sleep in the past 26; I’d entered an alternate dimension. I needed to go to bed. But it would have to wait. Again. Saturday was Field Day.
For a moment, I felt confused—how do you have field day on a submarine? Turns out it was a nice name for spending the next four hours cleaning an already pretty clean vessel. Afterward, I worked on my qualifications for another two hours and then slept. It didn’t last long: a messenger roused me awake to prepare for the last watch of the week. As if days or weeks have any meaning anymore.
Saturday night, someone congratulated me over pizza for making it through the first week, and it felt good, until he added: “Only 11 weeks left!”
Thanks for ruining the mood. … jerk.
But I would make it through my first deterrent patrol—and seven more plus many sea trials during five and a half years of submarine duty, leaving from ports all over the world. The details of that first departure remain the clearest of them all. That is when I learned to sleep whenever I could, to relish seven- and eight-hour stretches—the great equalizers, we called them.
Thirty years after my last patrol, I can still sleep on command, and I tend to wake up every two hours or so, as if I’m expecting to be dragged out of bed after all this time. I relish things I once took for granted. Apples, a ripe avocado, a good salad, the sun, and the moon.
I’m grateful for the cadence and clarity of life above water.
This article first appeared on The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit news organization educating the public on military service, war, and its impact.
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A scene from 'It's a Wonderful Life' (Paramount Pictures).Editor’s note: this article by Hope Seck first appeared on Sandboxx.
When Hallmark and Netflix back up their annual dump truck of aggressively themed Christmas romance flicks, military-themed goodies occasionally dot the pile. Operation Christmas Drop (Netflix, 2020) features a meet-cute involving a real-life humanitarian outreach op in the Pacific; in USS Christmas (Hallmark, 2020) sparks fly on a Navy tiger cruise out of Norfolk, Virginia.
These films are perfectly acceptable December fare, and, more importantly, a nod to the experiences of Americans in military communities. But if you’ve got to choose just one movie to watch this holiday season, save your time. The best of the breed is a movie families have been gathering around for decades, often oblivious to its deeper themes of war and sacrifice.
I’m talking about It’s a Wonderful Life.
Setting the foundations for a wonderful lifeA movie poster from “It’s a Wonderful Life.” (Paramount Pictures)I grew up watching this black-and-white Frank Capra classic. As a child, I felt unsettled by protagonist George Bailey’s emotional volatility; I rolled my eyes at the corny slapstick of Clarence the wingless angel; and I hated the lack of satisfying comeuppance for villain Henry Potter. However, the movie always won me back with its triumphant, emotional conclusion.
I didn’t know, until years later, that Capra and Jimmy Stewart, who played Bailey, were both freshly returned from service in World War II when they made the film. It’s a Wonderful Life was released in 1946, just a year after V-J Day, to an American public as much in recovery from the horrors of the war as the residents of the fictional town of Bedford Falls – where the movie takes place – were.
If you haven’t seen the movie, here’s your 76-year-old spoiler alert!
Bailey is a bright, ambitious kid growing up in Bedford Falls, somewhere in upstate New York. He’s desperate to get out of his small town and see the world, but his sense of duty and selfless nature keep thwarting his dreams. When his father dies unexpectedly on the night of his high school graduation, he puts off college to save the family Building and Loan business from the clutches of Potter (Lionel Barrymore). Saving the Building and Loan – and by extension, the town, from the predation of slumlord Potter – continues to cost Bailey: he gives up a planned trip to Europe and even his honeymoon to avert various crises. Meanwhile, his younger brother Harry seems to get everything that Bailey dreamed of: college, travel, career.
James Steward and Donna Reed in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” (Paramount Pictures)Bailey saved Harry from drowning in a frozen pond when the two were preteens, losing his hearing in one ear as a result. He remains steadfastly loyal to his younger brother. Even in moments of frustrated anger at his unrealized dreams, he never betrays any grudge against Harry.
The two boys were small during World War I, known then as the Great War, or the War to End All Wars. They grew to adulthood in peacetime, amid a new era of American optimism. How did the Great War affect the town? Did Bailey’s father serve? Is Potter in a wheelchair because of wounds sustained in combat? We’re never told. It’s apparent, though, that war isn’t on the mind of any of the bright-eyed graduates of Bedford Falls High class of 1928.
But war does come to town when George is in his 30s, and provides the major turn that sets up the film’s crisis and resolution. In a fast-paced montage, we observe how nearly every major character in the film becomes a contributor to the fight for victory in World War II.
War comes to Bedford FallsThe Honolulu Star-Bulletin’s front page on December 8, 1941, the day the U.S. declared war on Japan following Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor the day before. (Creative Commons)Mary Bailey, George’s compassionate, resilient wife – and the true hero of the movie – runs the town’s United Service Organizations and cares for deploying and returning troops, despite having four small children at home. George and Mary’s mothers both join the Red Cross as seamstresses. Old drug store owner Mr. Gower, George’s boss as a boy, hawks war bonds at local rallies, alongside George’s Uncle Billy.
Potter becomes head of the draft board. In a scene that must have turned the stomachs of early viewers, he processes a stack of files, droning “1A … 1A … 1A …” That 1A draft classification means the men those files represent will certainly be conscripted and likely sent to war; their fate is sealed. As always, Potter is heartless and loses no opportunity to take advantage of the poor, who, as was always true with the military draft, had the least recourse against being involuntarily sent off to fight for their country.
Seated on the left, Henry Potter played by Lionel Barrymore. (Paramount Pictures)Later in the movie, Bert, the friendly local police officer, is seen in military uniform, carrying a rifle with a fixed bayonet. A voiceover tells us he was wounded in North Africa and received the Silver Star. We don’t know exactly where Bert served, but the U.S. supported the war’s North Africa campaign in 1942 and 1943.
The movie’s Italian-born director Frank Capra, who had commissioned in the Army after college and earned his U.S. citizenship through service, was intimately familiar with the North Africa campaign. He had voluntarily left Hollywood to serve again in the U.S. Army Signal Corps when America entered World War II. He directed the acclaimed Why We Fight series of military propaganda films while in uniform and also directed Tunisian Victory, which focused on the planning and execution of Operation Torch, the successful Allied invasion of French North Africa, and the following liberation of Tunis from Axis powers.
Frank Capra receiving the Distinguished Service Medal from General George C. Marshall, 1945 (Wikimedia Commons)Ernie, the town cab driver, we learned, parachuted into France. Perhaps he was part of the U.S. Army airborne assault on Normandy in June 1944 known as Operation Overlord. We’re not told anything about his experience there, except that he returned – unlike the thousand troops killed and nearly 5,000 missing after the operation. (Side note: Ernie shows up incorrectly dressed in a service uniform with Air Force chevrons at the end of the film. Oops.)
Marty Hatch, Mary Bailey’s brother, was part of the Allied invasion of Germany. We’re told he “helped capture the Remagen Bridge.” The Ludendorff Bridge, crossing the Rhine at the town of Remagen, was taken by U.S. forces in an 18-day battle in March 1945. The bridge, which was taken intact, turned out to be a major asset for the Americans, who quickly expanded the position and held it against incessant German attempts to destroy it from the air and land.
Jimmy Stewart was a real-life hero flyboy: In 1943, at his request, he was deployed to England to pilot a B-24 Liberator. He’d earn the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters, and the French Croix de Guerre with palm. By the time he starred in It’s a Wonderful Life, he was a full-bird colonel with 20 combat missions under his belt. But in the movie, his character, George Bailey, is once again kept from his chance at seeing the world. Because of his deaf ear, he’s classified 4F: unfit for military service. Instead, he gets thankless homefront jobs: air raid warden, leader of paper drives and scrap drives. We learn later that he keeps his 4F card in his wallet at all times, even after the war has ended.
Maj. Jimmy Stewart confers with a B-24 crew member. (U.S. Air Force photo)By contrast, Harry Bailey gets all the hero accolades in It’s a Wonderful Life. We’re told he served as a Navy pilot and became a standout ace, shooting down 15 enemy planes, two of them as they were about to crash into a transport full of U.S. soldiers – a reference to the Japanese kamikaze jets that claimed the lives of more than 7,000 Allied naval personnel in suicide attacks.
Harry is awarded the Medal of Honor, and Bedford Falls is abuzz. On the final day depicted in the film, he’s headed home to receive a hero’s welcome. Splashed across the front of the local paper is a (cleverly doctored) photo of Harry getting honored by President Harry Truman, and the hapless Uncle Billy can’t help rubbing the news in Potter’s face. Tragically, though, he leaves an envelope with $8,000 in Building and Loan cash tucked inside the newspaper he hands to Potter – more than $122,000 in today’s dollars – and Potter sees an opportunity to destroy the business and Bailey in one fell swoop.
(Screengrab from “It’s a Wonderful Life” via Paramount Pictures)When the money’s discovered missing, Bailey rapidly spirals into crisis. He knows he faces prison and ruination; he looks at his $500 life insurance policy and considers suicide, believing he is, in Potter’s words, “worth more dead than alive.”
That’s when Clarence the comical angel shows up, and in a series of visits to the past and present reminiscent of A Christmas Carol, shows Bailey how much worse his little world would be if he’d never lived.
The war influenced Stewart and his performancesClarence (left) played by Henry Travers shows George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) how worse life would be without him. (Paramount Pictures)While Jimmy Stewart’s performance throughout the film has a raw, emotional edge he’s given two brief flashes of demonstrative anger that seem jarring and out of step with his gentle nature. He weeps bitterly and prays at Martini’s pub as he considers ending it all; he weeps again when begging God to give him a second chance and “let [him] live again.” And it’s at these two points when he’s at his most vulnerable in the film.
Stewart would acknowledge, decades later, that the tears were real.
“As I said those words, I felt the loneliness, the hopelessness of people who had nowhere to turn, and my eyes filled with tears. I broke down sobbing,” he told Guideposts in 1987.
Stewart was no longer just the Hollywood leading man, freshly burnished with an Academy Award, that he’d been when he left for war. He was visibly older than the years he’d aged, and, according to his biographer Robert Matzen, betrayed a number of the classic symptoms of what we now call post-traumatic stress. As Matzen told CNN in a definitive piece on how the war changed Stewart, he was prone to mood swings and bursts of temper not unlike Bailey’s, as well as shakes and nightmares.
Col. Jimmy Stewart receives the French Croix de Guerre. (U.S. Air Force photo)His acting changed, too: it was deeper, more emotional.
“It’s a Wonderful Life was a result of Jim’s war experiences because it unlocked this depth of soul in Jimmy … He had to learn to act again and that’s what you’re seeing on screen. It’s like lightning that just got captured in a bottle,” Matzen told CNN.
Capra and Stewart both entered new creative eras upon return from the war.
It’s a Wonderful Life was a box-office flop that only became beloved Americana years later, and Capra felt himself increasingly out of step with an audience that wanted to leave the darkness of World War II and the Great Depression behind. He formally retired in 1951 and began making documentaries.
Stewart, who transferred to the new U.S. Air Force Reserve in 1947 and would rise to the rank of brigadier general, pursued darker projects, including a number of thrillers directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
A scene from the end of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” (Paramount Pictures)The movie continues to resonate with new generations of viewers because it gazes upon a deeply familiar kind of despair borne of disappointment, frustrated hopes, and helplessness in the face of evil circumstances. In the CNN story, Metzen said that Stewart was plagued by thoughts of the troops under his command whom he hadn’t been able to save.
And yet, we’re reminded that love can overpower this despair.
As Clarence Oddbody tells Bailey in his farewell message, “No man is a failure who has friends.”
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U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Isaac John, 423d Security Forces Squadron flight member, holds his position during a field training exercise at Stanford Training Area, England, Aug. 17, 2022. (Staff Sgt. Eugene Oliver/U.S. Air Force).Airmen who need to grow out their facial hair in uniform can take heart that the top enlisted airman, Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force JoAnne Bass, wants to reduce the branch’s cultural bias against shaving waivers granted for medical or religious reasons.
“We are working to take away the stigma attached to airmen who have a medical need or a religious accommodation for facial hair,” Bass wrote in a comment on her Facebook page on Tuesday. The comment, which was also shared on the popular Facebook page Air Force amn/nco/snco, was made in response to a selfie she posted of herself alongside Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall and Airman 1st Class Kyle Voss-McReynolds, who was the leadership team’s driver during a recent event and who also wears a beard in uniform.
The Air Force currently prohibits service members from growing beards unless they are granted a religious or medical waiver, a policy that has come under scrutiny lately after military doctors studied its discriminatory effect on Black airmen.
“[T]he promotion system is not necessarily inherently racially biased, but instead biased against the presence of facial hair which will likely always affect the promotions of Blacks/African-Americans disproportionately because of the relatively higher need for shaving waivers in this population,” wrote the authors of a recent Air Force study.
332d Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron train on counter drone tactics against small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS) at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia, September 6, 2022. (Tech. Sgt. Jeffery Foster/U.S. Air Force)The study, which was published in July 2021, pointed out that many of the airmen who apply for medical shaving waivers are Black, because Black men are more likely to be affected by pseudofolliculitis barbae (PFB) — commonly referred to as razor bumps — than White men. PFB is a skin condition that makes shaving painful and can lead to permanent scarring if the skin is not allowed to heal, which makes it a common reason for receiving a shaving waiver.
Despite being in line with regulations, airmen with waivers reported feeling stigmatized for wearing facial hair. The 2021 study found that airmen with shaving waivers faced significantly longer wait times for promotions and were often barred from sought-after jobs such as Honor Guard, recruiting, military training instructors, or the Thunderbirds demonstration team.
The conventional view of facial hair is that it looks unprofessional in uniform.
“I was the typical senior leader chief that didn’t think airmen with a shaving waiver belonged in the front office,” one of the branch’s most beloved former senior leaders, retired Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Kaleth Wright, said in April on a panel discussion on male grooming standards in the Air Force. Wright said he was opposed to facial hair in the Air Force for 29 of his 32 years in service.
“I had opportunities to hire all kinds of folks and I was adamant about not hiring somebody with a shaving waiver, just because I fell into that category of ‘this is Air Force policy, it’s not professional,’” he said.
Airman 1st Class Braxton Comer, a student services technician with the Community College of the Air Force and practicing Norse Pagan, poses for a photo in the CCAF building on Maxwell-Gunter Annex, Alabama, July 27, 2021. Comer requested a religious accommodation waiver for the wear of a beard to express his religious beliefs and received approval in June 2021. (Airman 1st Class Jackson Manske/U.S. Air Force)Wright, who is Black, said he resolved his own shaving irritation by learning how to shave in a way that would not irritate his skin, so he assumed other airmen would be able to resolve their irritation the same way.
“I was willfully ignorant about the impact it was having on young Black men,” he said. “Some of it was because I just ignored it, some of it was because I wanted these young men to do what I did: just suck it up and figure it out and you’ll be fine.”
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It was only after becoming the top enlisted airman that Wright met fellow airmen for whom being clean-shaven was impossible without immense pain and skin damage. Those encounters, along with studies like the one published last year, convinced Wright to change his position. The problem is how to convince the rest of the Air Force to follow suit.
Changing policy, “actually is the easy part,” Wright said. “The real challenge is ‘how do you change the culture, not just in the Air Force but in the services period.’”
Chief Bass’ comment demonstrates her commitment to changing the culture, and there seems to be some progress already. In December, Military.com reported that the Air Force Honor Guard changed its policy in April to allow airmen with shaving waivers to apply and join the guard. Since then, 21 Honor Guard airmen now have a pass to grow neatly-trimmed beards, according to Military.com.
Still, it seems the Honor Guard has not completely embraced shaving waivers. Airmen in the guard with waivers can wear beards in Air Force ceremonies and duties, but not as part of a joint service honor guard with another branch, Military.com reported.
In August, images posted on Air Force amn/nco/snco teased a pilot program for “inclusive male grooming standards” which would allow service members to grow neatly-kept facial hair up to a quarter-inch in length, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine. That was followed up by more leaked slides in October which promised that an updated facial hair standard would be considered at a November meeting of the Air Force Uniform Board, Coffee or Die Magazine reported.
Any recommendations made by the board would then have to be approved by Air Force senior leadership, a service spokesperson told Coffee or Die at the time.
U.S. Air Force Airmen with the Moody Air Force Base Honor Guard present colors at the 81st deactivation ceremony at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, Dec. 5, 2022. (Airman 1st Class Whitney Gillespie/U.S. Air Force)When asked about specific efforts for removing the stigma regarding waivers, an Air Force spokesperson told Task & Purpose that the Air Force changed AFI 36-2903, its regulation governing dress and appearance standards., earlier this spring to allow airmen with a shaving profile “to trim and shape their facial hair,” and to allow airmen with profiles to apply for more positions in the service.
“The Air Force is committed to continuing to remove barriers that prevent airmen from applying for, and being accepted into, career broadening opportunities,” Bass said in a statement sent to Task & Purpose. “At the end of the day, while we are continually out in front with initiatives that provide more opportunities for our airmen to serve to their full potential, we are cognizant that we are part of a broader military force.”
The last sentence indicates that Air Force senior leadership wants to be in sync with other services on major changes in facial hair policy. Many airmen on social media called for abandoning the beard prohibition altogether. The services often claim that facial hair interferes with the seal of a gas mask, but an Air Force doctor has found no direct scientific evidence to support that claim.
“It’s an unsubstantiated claim,” dermatologist Lt. Col. Simon Ritchie told Task & Purpose in May. While supporters of current Air Force policy “may have anecdotal evidence of one to five people who they see fail the fit test,” he said, “that can’t be extrapolated to hundreds of thousands of airmen.”
The NATO allies who allow their service members to grow beards also do not have studies showing the impact of facial hair on gas masks, Ritchie said. One civilian study from 2018 showed that 98% of study participants with an eighth-inch of beard passed the fit test with respirators that are similar to the M-50 gas masks used in the military in terms of material and fit. Still, Ritchie called for a study to come up with a conclusive answer. The study would require only 100 to 150 service members, he said.
“We don’t have to hire RAND or Booz Allen Hamilton to do it, but the Air Force needs to want it to happen,” he said at the time.
The latest on Task & Purpose Army investigating soldiers who posed in dog bondage masks * Air Force says KC-135 broadcast inappropriate call sign * Green Berets are testing a new highly mobile 120mm mortar system * How airmen stopped a mid-air assault on a C-17 cockpit during the Afghan airlift * B-2 Spirit makes emergency landing, catches fire*, following malfunction
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Cmdr. Robert Ramirez III, the commander of Navy SEAL Team 1, was found dead at his home in San Diego on Monday. (U.S. Navy photo).The highly decorated commanding officer of the Navy’s SEAL Team 1, Cmdr. Robert Ramirez III, was found dead at his San Diego County home on Dec. 19.
In a statement on Wednesday, Naval Special Warfare Command officials said that foul play was not suspected in Ramirez’s death, and that an investigation is being conducted by the San Diego police department.
“Bobby was an outstanding leader, devoted husband and father, and a good friend to us all,” said Capt. David Abernathy, commanding officer of Naval Special Warfare Group 1, which SEAL Team 1 falls under. “This is a devastating loss to our community and all who knew him. We will remain in support of Bobby’s family, friends and teammates during this extremely difficult time.”
Ramirez, originally from Virginia, enlisted in the Navy in 1996 before commissioning in 2004. According to his releasable service record, as reported by Military Times, he deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan, and received five Bronze Star medals, including two with a combat “V” device. Ramirez also received three Combat Action Ribbons.
Ramirez’s passing comes just a little over a year after the death of another SEAL Team commanding officer, Cmdr. Brian Bourgeois, on Dec. 7, 2021. Bourgeois was the commander of SEAL Team 8, based at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek in Virginia. He died following an accident during a fast-rope training evolution in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
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Pfc. Cooper Hayes in an undated photo. (U.S. Army photo).Pfc. Cooper Hayes has had a busy year. In the past 11 months, he has graduated from the U.S. Army’s Ranger, Airborne, and Air Assault schools while assigned to C Company, 2-116th Combined Arms Battalion — the sole infantry company in the Idaho Army National Guard.
Hayes, currently enrolled as a student at Boise State University in Boise, Idaho, enlisted in the Guard in October 2021. He took a semester off from school to complete his One Station Unit Training (OSUT) as a light infantryman at Fort Benning, Georgia, graduating on June 17. While there, he was offered the chance to attend Ranger School after OSUT.
“I wanted to challenge myself and be the best Soldier I can be,” Hayes said in a recent press release. “So I decided to take another semester off and go to Ranger School. It sucked in the moment, but it’s the most rewarding thing I’ve done in my life.”
After completing six weeks of pre-Ranger training, he started what is widely considered one the toughest schools the Army offers. On average, less than 50% of candidates make it past the first phase of the school, which is headquartered at Fort Benning. From 2016 to 2018, the overall graduation rate was between 36.8% and 41.9%.
“The hardest part for me was coming straight out of basic training and then working with officers, with people that might have 10 years of experience,” Hayes told Task & Purpose. “But I was able to adapt pretty quickly.”
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Hayes managed to pass all of the school’s phases – Benning, Mountain, and Florida – without recycling any of them. Sixty-one days later, on October 14, he received his Ranger Tab. He then immediately went to Airborne School, graduating on November 4.
“While I was on my way out of Benning, I heard there was going to be a chance to go to Air Assault School there, so I went back home for a couple of weeks to get ready for that,” said Hayes.
He returned to Fort Benning and graduated from Air Assault school earlier this month, on December 9.
Passing just one of these schools — let alone all three in quick succession — is quite an accomplishment, especially for members of the National Guard, where resources and training time are more limited than their active duty counterparts.
“We have a handful of people we send to Ranger School every year,” said Maj. Robert Taylor, a spokesperson for the Idaho Army National Guard. “But it’s a rare opportunity, and the fact that he was able to complete all those schools in one year is very impressive.”
With two shiny new badges on his chest and a tab on his shoulder, Hayes wraps up an impressive year of training and arguably steals the crown from National Guard Special Forces soldiers as the king of guard bums.
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The Army test fires a Patriot missile in a recent test. (U.S. Army).While the United States has provided Ukraine with $20 billion in military assistance, it has held back from giving Ukraine some of its more advanced weaponry, such as Western tanks and planes.
But in recent months, Russia has used missiles and drones to attack Ukrainane’s critical infrastructure in the hopes of freezing Ukrainians into submission over the winter. Now the United States will provide Ukraine with Patriot missiles, the most sophisticated weapons system that the Ukrainians have received from the West so far.
The Ukrainians will be trained how to operate the Patriot missile battery in a third country, a senior administration official told reporters on Tuesday,
“This will take some time, but Ukrainian troops will take that training back to their country to operate this battery,”” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under rules established by the White House.
The official did not identify where Ukrainian troops would be trained on how to operate the Patriot missile batteries, nor did the official say how many Patriot missiles the U.S. is sending to Ukraine. However, the official made clear that no U.S. troops will operate the Patriot missile batteries inside Ukraine.
First deployed in the 1980s, Patriot missiles can target enemy aircraft, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles. One Patriot battery is made up of a truck-mounted launching system that can be fitted with up to eight launchers, each of which can hold up to four missiles. The system also includes a ground radar, control system, and a generator.
The Patriot missiles will be part of a new $2 billion military assistance package that Biden is expected to announce later on Wednesday, the senior administration official said. On top of that, the Biden administration expects Congress to approve another $40 billion in assistance for Ukraine, the official said.
Since President Joe Biden took office, the United States has provided Ukraine with $20 billion in military aid, including Stinger and Javelin missiles; High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS; and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, according to the Defense Department.
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Armed with Patriot missiles, the Ukrainians will be better able to defend their country against Russian aircraft as well as ballistic and cruise missiles, said retired Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, who served as head of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO Allied Command Operations from 2013 to 2016.
“We have said many times that we’re going to give them everything that they need, and this is certainly a requirement that they’ve needed since before the war started,” Breedlove told Task & Purpose. “If you remember: The war started off with barrages of over 100 missiles. Now, the targeting is beginning to be more specifically aimed against infrastructure and energy capabilities.”
Following Ukraine’s Oct. 8 attack on the Kerch Strait Bridge that connects occupied Crimea with Russia, the Russian military has retaliated by targeting Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, including thermal power plants and electrical substations.
Firefighters conduct extinguishing works after Russia’s unmanned aerial vehicle attacks in Kyiv, Ukraine on December 19, 2022. (Photo by UKRAINIAN STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)In addition to firing cruise and ballistic missiles into Ukraine, the Russians have also launched more than 500 Iranian-made Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 kamikaze drones at Ukrainian targets since September, according to the Institute for the Study of War think tank in Washington, D.C.
While the Ukrainians could use Patriot missiles to shoot down Iranian-made drones, the United States and its partners need to find more cost-effective air defense systems that could do that job, including radar-guided anti-aircraft guns, said Benjamin Jensen, an expert on future war, gaming, and strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Because Russia will continue to fire large salvos, it becomes a cost curve-driven competition,” Jensen told Task & Purpose. Using a $3-4 million dollar missile to shoot down a $20,000 drone can induce self-defeating behavior and alter the balance of inventories.”
Jensen added that even the IRIS-T air defense system that Germany has provided Ukraine is a less expensive option to counter Iranian-made drones because it fires missiles that cost $400,000 each.
Denys Gurak, the former deputy director general for Ukraine’s state-run defense conglomerate said it is good news that Ukraine is finally getting Patriot missiles, but he said the Ukrainians still need more weapons from the United States and its partners.
Gurak also questioned why it has taken the United States so long to give Ukraine Patriot missiles.
“Of course, Patriots are good; and of course, we need more than one battery,” Gurak told Task & Purpose. “It’s good that it finally happened. What is the reason why it didn’t happen before — why thousands and thousands of people have died because of Russian attacks?”
News that the U.S. military will give Ukraine Patriot missiles comes nearly a week after Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that such a move “could entail possible consequences,” although she did not specify exactly how the Kremlin might respond.
Task & Purpose emailed the Russian embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment on Wednesday, but no Russian government official has responded so far.
In response to Ukraine receiving Patriot missiles, the Russians are likely to increase threats about using nuclear weapons and ratchet up attacks on Ukrainian civilians, said Evelyn Farkas who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia from 2012 to 2015.
“In the window that they still have, they’ll continue to try to use their airpower to terrorize Ukrainians,” Farkas told Task & Purpose on Wednesday. “They really would love to get a refugee flow going in order cause the Europeans to perhaps question their commitment to Ukraine. So, the Russians are just going to demonstrate how ruthless and desperate they are, but there’s nothing they can do to counter the Patriots once they’re in place.”
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Barbed wire separates migrants and the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety officers on the banks of the Rio Grande on Tuesday in El Paso. (Ivan Pierre Aguirre/The Texas Tribune).Editor’s note: this article was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government, and statewide issues.
EL PASO, Tex. — National Guard members and state troopers formed a line on the banks of the Rio Grande on Tuesday and blocked dozens of migrants who had already crossed the river from surrendering to nearby Border Patrol agents.
About 75 men, women and children stood on a narrow strip of concrete between the river and the guard members, facing coils of razor wire, seven National Guard members holding rifles and two state troopers as a National Guard member holding a bullhorn told them in Spanish that they would not be able to enter the country here and directed them to a port of entry.
Border Patrol agents positioned behind the National Guard and state troopers watched the standoff. A Border Patrol spokesperson on site said Border Patrol agents would not process the migrants.
Under Title 42, the pandemic-era emergency health order that immigration officials have used to immediately expel migrants, ports of entry are closed to migrants seeking asylum.
Starting Monday night, National Guard and state troopers set up a line of about 1,000 yards of razor wire to block what has become a popular crossing point between Mexico and this border city, and positioned Humvees and Texas Department of Public Safety patrol vehicles on the banks of the river where more than 1,000 migrants crossed in a four-hour period earlier this month.
The state sent more than 400 Texas National Guard personnel to El Paso on Monday “as part of the Governor’s enhanced border security effort,” according to a statement, and Gov. Greg Abbott demanded Tuesday that the Biden administration “immediately deploy federal assets” to El Paso and other border cities ahead of the arctic weather.
The Texas Military Department, which oversees the state National Guard, and state Department of Public Safety didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from The Texas Tribune.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement on Tuesday that over the past week, agents have moved more than 3,400 migrants by expelling them to Mexico under Title 42 or flying them back to their home countries. Agents have also moved 6,000 migrants from the area to other sectors where immigration officials processed them, according to the statement.
“Average daily encounters have also dropped 40 percent — from roughly 2,500 a day to roughly 1,500 a day — over the last three days as we continue to work with partners in Mexico to discourage disorderly migration and disrupt criminal smuggling operations,” the statement said.
El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego told CNN on Tuesday that installing razor wire at the border isn’t the National Guard’s role. “I am very confident that it was not coordinated with Border Patrol,” he said. “I have always insisted that any assistance from the state has to be part of our overall strategy and in lockstep with our own enforcement strategy.”
Thousands of migrants either have recently crossed the Rio Grande into El Paso or are waiting to cross the border when the U.S. government lifts Title 42, an emergency health order the government has used since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to quickly expel migrants — including asylum-seekers — at the U.S.-Mexico border without allowing them to request asylum.
Texas was one of the 19 Republican-led states that asked a federal court to keep Title 42 in place beyond Wednesday. On Monday, they asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the policy’s scheduled lifting. Chief Justice John G. Roberts quickly granted the request and asked the Biden administration to respond by 4 p.m. Tuesday.
“The fight to keep Title 42 in place continues. I will continue to do everything I can in court to ensure our border is secure,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tweeted Monday after the court’s decision.
The administration on Tuesday asked the high court to let Title 42 be lifted soon.
“The government recognizes that the end of the Title 42 orders will likely lead to disruption and a temporary increase in unlawful border crossings. The government in no way seeks to minimize the seriousness of that problem,” a lawyer for the Department of Justice said in a court document filed with the Supreme Court. “But the solution to that immigration problem cannot be to extend indefinitely a public-health measure that all now acknowledge has outlived its public-health justification.”
Migrants still sleeping on El Paso’s streetsBefore National Guard and state troopers deployed to the river Monday night, hundreds of migrants had crossed and formed a line against the steel fence on the U.S. side, waiting for Border Patrol agents to apprehend and process them. Many have been released into the city after processing, which has filled El Paso’s shelters and forced the city to repurpose various facilities to use as shelters.
In some parts of downtown El Paso, hundreds of migrants are still sleeping on the streets and waiting to get enough money to fly or catch a bus out of town to reunite with their families across the U.S.
Border Patrol officials have also flown and bused migrants apprehended in El Paso to other Texas cities to process them.
El Paso city and county officials have been scrambling to find more space to shelter a steady stream of migrants in recent days — and they know they need to move fast as much of the state is expected to experience days of freezing temperatures later this week.
During a Monday press conference, Mayor Oscar Leeser said local officials are continuing their preparations despite the uncertainty about Title 42’s fate. Leeser declared a state of emergency on Saturday, and city and county officials have also been working with the American Red Cross to potentially shelter up to 10,000 people.
The city and county have also reactivated a program to bus migrants to cities with major airports like Dallas and Houston to help them more easily reach their next destinations.
“We’re continuing to proceed as if [Title 42] was being lifted,” Leeser said Monday. “With the weather continuing to drop and the number [of migrants] continuing to rise, we will continue to make sure we are proactive and have shelters and facilities for people to make sure we take them out of the elements and help them get to destinations of their choice.”
Prior to the Supreme Court’s intervention, the Department of Homeland Security released a plan last week to send more resources to the southwest border — and pledged to help nonprofits that are supporting migrants once border agents have released them. The department said it would also work with other countries to target smugglers and manage increased migration.
Abbott toured the border on Friday and touted the state’s efforts to secure it in recent years, including busing more than 14,500 migrants to Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia since April.
Seeking safetyOutside a church south of downtown, hundreds of migrants idled on Monday morning, sitting against a wall with a mural, some of them asking passersby to help pay for a bus or plane ticket out of the city. Among them was Monica, a 46-year-old Ecuadorian woman who spent four days in the city with her 18-year-old daughter and two nights sleeping on the downtown streets.
Monica, who didn’t want to use her last name, said she can’t afford plane tickets to New York — where her son-in-law lives — so they are stuck in El Paso. Her other two daughters and three grandchildren, who crossed the Rio Grande with them nearly a week ago, were sent to San Antonio by immigration agents and are in a shelter there.
Monica and her daughter found space in a shelter inside a Catholic church but may have to leave soon — shelter staff told them they can stay only three days at a time.
“We want to continue with our trip. It’s not pleasant for anyone to sleep outside in the cold or inside of a shelter floor,” Monica said. “We want to be under a roof where it’s warm and safe.”
On Monday morning — the day before National Guard troops began blocking migrants from crossing — the area where thousands of migrants had waded across the Rio Grande into El Paso earlier this month was mostly quiet, with a couple dozen people stepping on rocks to cross the river.
Once they arrived on the U.S. side, Border Patrol agents told them in Spanish to form a line against a chain-link fence. There were two heaters nearby to help them keep warm in the 42-degree weather.
Migrants who spoke to the Tribune shared similar stories of fleeing instability at home.
Saldaña, a 51-year-old Peruvian woman who wanted to be identified only by her last name, said she flew to Mexico City shortly after former President Pedro Castillo attempted to overthrow his country’s government to stay in power. She then flew to Ciudad Juárez, where she spent a day before crossing the river Monday morning.
A 22-year-old Colombian man who identified himself as Juan Jose said he left Colombia because of the violent conflicts involving a guerilla group, paramilitary groups and the federal government.
Migrants only be expelled under Title 42 only if Mexico or their home country agrees to receive them. Migrants who aren’t expelled under Title 42 must be formally deported and can request asylum during that process. Some migrants are released and instructed to report to a U.S. immigration court; others are held in detention centers if there is enough bed space.
Under Title 42, an untold number of migrants who are seeking asylum have been blocked at the border, said Nicolas Palazzo, a senior attorney with Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso. Other Trump-era migration policies like the Migrant Protection Protocols, a program the Biden administration ended this year that forced some people to wait in Mexico as their asylum cases made their way through American courts, have done the same.
“There have been many who have been waiting for a very long time, creating a bottleneck on the Mexican side of the border because of these policies,” Palazzo said. “My hope is that they will have an opportunity to seek asylum in an efficient and humane way. That depends very much on the preparations of the U.S. government.”
“A lot of work to do”Despite the pause to the end of Title 42, local governments and nonprofits have continued hustling to shelter migrants and help them with travel arrangements.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency sent $8 million to El Paso recently to help pay for lodging and food for migrants. But Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House, which has long served migrants in the area, said the federal government could do more by opening a facility to receive migrants at Fort Bliss. The military base was used to temporarily shelter and process thousands of Afghan refugees after the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan.
“We still have a lot of work to do,” Garcia said.
In Del Rio, the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition is also seeing a rise in the number of migrants coming through its respite center, director of operations Tiffany Burrow said. The increase has started to put a strain on its small group of volunteers and its ability to provide food and transportation connections for migrants.
Burrow said her organization assisted more than 23,300 migrants last year, and as of Friday it’s close to doubling that figure for 2022. She added that this work continues despite the Supreme Court’s decision
“We just really take it day by day,” she said. “If you would have told me last year that we were going to do double the work, I wouldn’t have believed it. I feel like I’m in the same place right now, and it’s really hard to envision what it’s going to look like until we’re actually in the thick of it.”
Farther south in the Rio Grande Valley, U.S. Rep.-elect Monica De La Cruz — the first Republican to represent a congressional district that covers McAllen in South Texas — said the ending of Title 42 could have a big impact on local communities.
“When Title 42 is lifted, it will put tremendous strain on our health care system. It will put tremendous strain on our law enforcement,” she said during a town hall hosted Tuesday by the U.S. Hispanic Business Council.
Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez told the Tribune last week that the county has been working with its Mexican counterparts to prepare for any increase in crossings and to ensure that cross-border trade isn’t disrupted.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision, Hidalgo County isn’t changing its plans to respond to a potential increase in migrant crossings. “We simply have more time to prepare,” the county’s public affairs director, Carlos Sanchez, told the Tribune on Monday.
At the town hall meeting, Cortez reiterated his longstanding message that the border’s immigration issues cannot be solved solely through law enforcement.
“America is going to continue to be a land where people want to come for opportunities, just like our early immigrants who came through Ellis Island,” Cortez told the Tribune. “So let’s have a system to accommodate that and do that in a better way than what we have — and whose job is that? That’s Congress.”
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/republish?article=/2022/12/20/texas-border-migrants-national-guard-troopers-blockade/.
The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
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A B-52 bomber takes off from Andersen Air Force Base in support of Linebacker II, the “Christmas bombings.” (U.S. Air Force photo).I woke up early on the morning of Dec. 6, 1972, to pack and say tearful goodbyes to my wife, Martie, and our one-year-old daughter, Amy. We’d decided ahead of time that my father-in-law “Pop” Lowry would drive me from Temple, Texas, to Love Field in Dallas, to begin my long journey to Okinawa, Japan.
Pop and I spoke very little as the cold, gray day blurred by the car windows. I was lost in thought, and my stomach turned. How had I ended up headed overseas for a year without my family, with the possibility of going to Vietnam?
I’d joined the Marine Corps Officer Program in October 1965 as a junior at Texas Tech University. Soon after, Robert McNamara said he expected our troops home by Christmas. Although President Lyndon Johnson had sent thousands of troops to Vietnam that spring, I naively believed the war would be over by the time I graduated in 1967.
It wasn’t, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I transferred into a Marine Corps law program that year. Surely the Vietnam War would be over by the time I graduated from law school in 1970. Yet two more years had passed since my graduation—seven since I’d joined the Marines—and I was headed to Okinawa in what had become America’s longest war.
When David Nelson joined the Marine Corps Officer program in 1965, he felt certain the Vietnam War would be over by the time he graduated from college in 1967. Seven years later, the war still had not ended. (Photo courtesy of David Nelson)After a smooth flight from Dallas to Los Angeles, I bought a ticket at the airport for a bus ride to Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino. From there, I planned to take a Military Airlift Command flight to Okinawa later that evening. Once I arrived at Norton, though, the flight scheduler told me the military intentionally overbooked MAC flights. There was no room for me, he said, and the next flight out left in two days.
I walked away, dejected. The clock on my 12-month tour wouldn’t start until I arrived in Okinawa, and two more days at Norton felt eternal. Then, around midnight, a seat on that night’s flight opened up. I was more than happy to squeeze into a middle seat at the rear of an old but sturdy 707. We took off around 2 a.m., and after a stopover in Honolulu, we headed almost due west to Okinawa—and encountered strong headwinds. The pilot announced we were low on fuel and would need to stop on Wake Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
It felt good to deplane and stretch my legs and even better to land at Kadena Air Base after 18 hours in the air. It was Dec. 7, 1972, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. Next stop: Camp Hansen, where an old friend from Camp Lejeune, Capt. Mike Smolenski, greeted me. In charge of the JAG office, Mike was scheduled to rotate back to the U.S. in a couple of months. While I was delighted to see him, I also felt a surge of jealousy that he would soon return to the “world.” Before he left, Mike sold me his small, blue Fiat for a bargain price of $225.
I didn’t know it at the time, but I had arrived in Japan just a couple of weeks before the start of Operation Linebacker II, the “Christmas bombings” ordered by President Nixon after a breakdown in peace talks between the U.S and North Vietnam. From Dec. 18 to Dec. 29—except for Christmas Day—the U.S. conducted the most intense bombing campaign of the Vietnam War.
David Nelson arrived in Okinawa, Japan, just in time for the Christmas bombings, the most intense bombing campaign of the Vietnam War. (Photo courtesy of David Nelson)The Japanese didn’t allow B-52 bombers and fighter jets to fly in and out of Okinawa. But the U.S. could fly its SR-71 Blackbird spy plane and refueling KC-135 tankers anywhere. When a deafening roar woke me early on the morning of Dec. 18, 1972, I knew something significant was happening. I raced outside and watched in awe as wave after wave of the KC-135s headed off the island. The planes flew so low over my BOQ I could see and smell the lingering jet fumes. The prevailing scuttlebutt at work that day, which proved accurate, was that the tankers were headed for a refueling mission over North Vietnam.
Later that evening, the refueling tankers arrived back on the island in distinct, almost choreographed waves. I silently wondered if the same number that left that morning had returned—and how many of the refueled B-52s and fighter jets hadn’t made it.
The same scenario of early flights to North Vietnam and late afternoon returns to Okinawa continued until Dec. 29, with a break on Christmas. That day, the Camp Hansen Officer’s Club served a special meal I described in a letter home to my wife: shrimp cocktail, turkey and dressing, corn, sweet potatoes, banana meringue pie, cranberry sauce, and mixed nuts, all for a dollar. “Everybody got stuffed,” I wrote.
Afterward, I wandered into a room of the club with an old-fashioned juke box. For a nickel, I played a Smokey Robinson song I’d always enjoyed, “The Tears Of A Clown.” Some of the words seemed especially appropriate that Christmas, when I was halfway around the world from loved ones:
But don’t let my glad expression
Give you the wrong impression
Really I’m sad, oh I’m sadder than sad
You’re gone and I’m hurting so bad
Like a clown I appear to be glad
One afternoon, I drove along the main highway near Kadena and almost lost control of my vehicle. The infamous SR-71 Blackbird—nicknamed Habu after a venomous snake indigenous to Okinawa—landed almost directly in front of me. The noise and closeness of the spy plane startled me, and I immediately wondered if it was returning from a surveillance mission over North Vietnam.
I pulled my car off the road to watch the final landing and noticed how quickly the plane was wheeled into a hangar, out of sight. The sleek design of the plane struck me—like a long, sharp pencil with two tail fins. No wonder it was never shot down by the enemy!
An SR-71 Blackbird, nicknamed “Habu” at Kadena after a venomous snake indigenious to Okinawa. David Nelson got a close-up view of the aircraft in Okinawa. (Photo courtesy of David Nelson)The bombings continued until Dec. 29, when the North Vietnamese agreed to resume negotiations. The Paris Peace Accords were signed a few weeks later. The Jan. 25, 1973, edition of the Pacific Stars and Stripes announced the war’s end for U.S. troops: “CEASE-FIRE! All GIs Out of Viet in 60 Days.”
Fifty years have passed since I arrived in Okinawa just in time for the Christmas bombings and the end of the Vietnam War for America. But the half-century-old memories remain forever etched in my mind.
This article first appeared on The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit news organization educating the public on military service, war, and its impact.
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(Task & Purpose photo illustration).Despite the well-publicized prevalence of mold, lead paint, and other unsafe health conditions among private military housing units in recent years, the Defense Department appears to be experiencing issues when it comes to actually monitoring how widespread those problems have become.
A recently published report from the DoD’s Inspector General’s office found that the Pentagon does not adequately track if the conditions of privatized housing adversely impact the health of U.S. service members and their families.
“Because DoD officials did not have readily available access to sufficient information to connect health and safety incidents to PMH [privatized military housing], they were unable to effectively monitor and ensure the health and safety of its service members and their families,” reads the report, which was made public in December.
The good news is that the vast majority of the units inspected as part of the IG audit of privatized military housing were in good condition. Out of 28,759 houses that had open work orders as of June 30, 2021, just 58 were determined to have a condition that was considered unsafe or unhealthy.
The IG office, however, found that the Army and Air Force have not sufficiently kept track of data on privatized military housing, leaving the Pentagon without a way to track the health and safety conditions of where many service members and their families live.
Despite a requirement from 2014 to fully track data on the health of service members living in privatized military housing, as of June 2021 the Army only had data for 41% and the Air Force just 25% of their respective populations. By October 2021, the Army had increased to 68% and the Air Force to 59%. The Navy and Marine Corps had fully populated the data from people residing in privatized military housing after that time.
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As of 2021, 99% of military housing — 211,826 individual units — had been privatized and are managed by 14 different companies. The privatization initiative began in 1996, with the passage of the Military Housing Privatization Initiative by Congress. Since then, essentially all military housing has fallen under the domain of private companies.
However, in 2018, a report by Reuters exposed the widespread presence of mold, lead-based paint, and other dangerous materials in these houses. Those articles prompted testimony before Congress by the president of Balfour Beatty, the largest manager of privatized military housing, during which then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said he was “deeply troubled” by the state of military housing conditions.
There’s no shortage of news stories — and personal anecdotes among rank-and-file service members — that demonstrate the issues some face with military housing. In August, one family told Task & Purpose about the mold, dead animals, and insects found at their home at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Balfour Beatty, which operates military housing at 21 Air Force, 18 Navy, and 16 Army bases across the country and “falsified its performance data and destroyed resident comment cards so it could pocket performance incentive fees from the Army, Air Force and Navy,” has walked away from repeated complaints of improperly maintained homes with nothing other than a fine.
The audit of military housing was authorized under the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act and looked at housing at Fort Belvoir and Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, as well as Eglin Air Force Base, Naval Air Station Pensacola, and Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Florida. The audit also reviewed work orders from other sites to complete a statistical analysis of the problem.
So why is the Pentagon falling short? One housing manager told the IG office that “there was no established timeline as the effort requires significant labor to create real property records for tens of thousands of privatized inventory.”
Because of the lack of information, the IG office could not accurately get a complete picture of how housing conditions had affected their residents.
As the IG’s office wrote, “the DoD lacked sufficient information to determine the association of adverse housing exposures with the occurrence of a medical event across the Military Services at the time of the audit.”
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US Special Forces provided armed training to 240 YPG/PKK members at the Al-Malikiyah district in the Al-Hasakah province, Syria on September 7, 2022. (Hedil Amir/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)(Hedil Amir/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).U.S. troops have captured six suspected fighters with the Islamic State group, including an alleged senior ISIS operative, amid an uptick in raids conducted in Syria this month.
U.S. Central Command announced on Tuesday that U.S. troops had launched three helicopter raids in eastern Syria over the past 48 hours. One of the prisoners was identified as “al-Zubaydi,” an alleged senior member of ISIS who is accused of being involved with the planning ISIS attacks in Syria, a CENTCOM news release says.
Preliminary indications are that no civilians were killed or wounded in the operations, according to the news release.
“These partnered operations reaffirm CENTCOM’s steadfast commitment to the region and the enduring defeat of ISIS,” Army Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, head of CENTCOM, said in the news release. “The capture of these ISIS operatives will disrupt the terrorist organization’s ability to further plot and carry out destabilizing attacks.”
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December has been a busy month for the roughly 900 U.S. troops deployed to Syria and their Kurdish partners. On Dec. 16, the command announced that U.S. troops and Syrian Democratic Forces had conducted six operations over the previous eight days, during which five suspected ISIS operatives were captured.
The five prisoners were accused of planning attacks at the Kurdish-run al-Hol detention refugee camp, where the families of suspected ISIS fighters are held. As of September, the camp’s population stood at an estimated 58,000, 70% of whom were children, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
And on Dec. 11, U.S. troops conducted a helicopter raid in eastern Syria during which two suspected ISIS officials were killed including one identified as “Anas,” who was accused of planning terrorist operations in the region.
A picture shows the Kurdish-run al-Hol camp, which holds relatives of suspected Islamic State group fighters, during a security operation by the Kurdish Asayish security forces and the special forces of the Syrian Democratic Forces, on August 26, 2022. Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP via Getty Images)So far in December, CENTCOM has issued three news releases about operations against ISIS in Syria. To put that into perspective, the command issued one press release in November about ISIS after to confirm the death of the organization’s leader Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, who was killed by the Free Syrian Army — a different group of fighters than the Syrian Democratic Forces that work with U.S. troops.
Prior to that, CENTCOM issued two statements in September about missions countering ISIS in Syria. The first concerned an SDF mission to attack suspected ISIS networks in the al-Hol camp between Aug. 25 and Sept. 18; and the second announced that U.S. troops and SDF fighters had successfully stopped several suspected ISIS fighters who were driving in the direction of the al-Hol camp.
When asked if U.S. troops and the SDF are carrying out more missions against ISIS in Syria this month, a CENTCOM spokesman did not answer directly.
“US CENTCOM and our partners conduct operations based off intelligence and operational information gathered,” Army Lt. Col. Dave Eastburn told Task & Purpose. “When that information dictates an action be taken, we take that action.”
The SDF captured the last ISIS enclave of Baghouz in March 2019, and yet the terrorist group has managed to sustain itself as an insurgency in both Iraq and Syria, according to a recent report from the Lead Inspector General for Operation Inherent Resolve, The U.S-led multinational military coalition to defeat the terror group.
The report found that ISIS had conducted 74 attacks in Syria and 73 attacks in Iraq between July and September.
“Overall, compared with the same period in 2021, the frequency and severity of ISIS-claimed attacks decreased dramatically in Iraq, while attacks in Syria increased significantly, marking a rebound from historically low levels the previous year,” the report says.
U.S. troops have remained in Syria for several years even though former President Donald Trump prematurely declared in 2018 that the fight against ISIS was over and tried to withdraw all American forces from the country, leading then-Defense Secretary James Mattis to resign.
Trump reversed himself but then ordered most U.S. troops to withdraw from Syria the following year when Turkey invaded the country to push Kurdish fighters away from its border. Trump later announced that he was keeping U.S. service members in Syria to secure oil fields, but joint missions against ISIS continued.
Earlier this month, the SDF paused joint patrols with U.S. troops amid renewed Turkish artillery and airstrikes following a Nov. 13 bomb attack in Istanbul, which the Turkish government blamed on Kurdish forces.
The U.S. military’s strategy in Syria appears to involve targeting ISIS senior leaders in raids in the hopes that the group will eventually collapse, said Bill Roggio, a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank in Washington, D.C.
Roggio said he has noticed an increase in such raids in Syria since June. However, he noted that removing ISIS leaders from the battlefield is not enough to defeat the organization.
While he made clear he was not advocating that the U.S. surge troops to Syria the same way it did to Iraq and later Afghanistan, Roggio said the only way to truly defeat terrorist groups such as ISIS is to deny them territory.
“They’re doing what they’ve done in other theaters – what they used to call ‘mowing the grass’ in Afghanistan,” Roggio told Task & Purpose. “It’s necessary: You want to keep them on their backfoot. You want to make them think about security vs. plotting attacks. But it’s no substitute for systematically dismantling these groups.”
The latest on Task & Purpose Army investigating soldiers who posed in dog bondage masks * Air Force says KC-135 broadcast inappropriate call sign * Green Berets are testing a new highly mobile 120mm mortar system * How airmen stopped a mid-air assault on a C-17 cockpit during the Afghan airlift * B-2 Spirit makes emergency landing, catches fire*, following malfunction
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Pfc. Kyle Garcia from Ridgefield, Wash., right, along with Spc. Steven Galvin from Holstein, Iowa, of 2nd Platoon Bravo Company 2-327 Infantry, returns fires after a sudden attack by Taliban on Combat Out Post Badel in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border on Friday, Dec. 24, 2010. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool).Christmas can be many things for many different people. For some, it’s a celebration, a chance to reflect on the past year and share holiday cheer and joy with family and friends and a moment to forge new memories to pass on for years to come in a global tradition-industrial complex that rivals anything Gen. Eisenhower ever warned about.
For many U.S. service members deployed to combat zones overseas, however, it is usually a bit less angelic than friends and family back home probably imagine: more often than not, Christmas is a great opportunity to raid the DFAC for semi-frozen pecan pie, shoot the shit with brothers-in-arms, and, if you’re lucky, not have to sprint to the IDF shelter when you manage to actually call home.
This holiday season at Task & Purpose, we want to hear from you, our readers, about what it’s really like to spend Christmas in a combat zone. From the boring and mundane to the extremely high-speed, we want to share your stories and paint a picture of what holiday cheer really means when all you have is your rifle and your friends together downrange.
Send your stories to jared@taskandpurpose.com with ‘Christmas in combat’ in the subject line, share them in the comments section below, or share them with us on Facebook and Twitter. We’ll republish the best ones closer to Christmas.
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Firefighters conduct extinguishing works after Russia's unmanned aerial vehicle attacks in Kyiv, Ukraine on December 19, 2022. (Photo by UKRAINIAN STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).Russia once again unleashed its Iranian-made drones against Kyiv on Monday as part of its strategy of crippling Ukraine’s power grid and other civilian infrastructure to leave the country cold and dark during the long winter months.
Ukrainian forces claim to have shot down 18 of the 23 drones launched against Kyiv in the pre-dawn hours of Monday morning, according to the Associated Press. Elsewhere in the country, at least three civilians were killed and wounded in separate drone attacks on Sunday and Monday.
Pictures published by media outlets showing Ukrainian firefighters dousing blazes caused by the drone attacks are reminiscent of images from London during The Blitz of World War II, when the German Luftwaffe tried to bomb Britain’s civilian population into submission.
Ukrainian firefighters attempt to douse fires after Russia’s unmanned aerial vehicle attacks in Kyiv, Ukraine on December 19, 2022. (UKRAINIAN STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)Russia has launched approximately 508 Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 kamikaze drones against Ukrainian targets since September, said Kateryna Stepanenko, a Russia analyst with the Institute for the Study of War think tank in Washington, D.C.
For most of December, Russian attacks have involved up to 15 drones, but Russia launched an estimated 35 drones as part of Monday’s attack, said Stepanenko, whose estimates are based on data shared by Ukrainian government officials.
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The Russians have used the Iranian-made drones as part of their attacks on infrastructure inside Ukraine, including thermal power plants, electrical substations, and the country’s water network.These attacks have also involved missile strikes.
On Dec. 16, Kyiv endured one of the largest air raids of the war thus far, the Associated Press reported. Such attacks have left 60% of Kyiv residents without power and 70% of the city’s residents without water.
Hlib Parfonov, a defense analyst who has been in Kyiv since the Russians invaded Ukraine in February, told Task & Purpose that he heard between four and five drones fly overhead on Monday morning, all of which were shot down.
People look at the residential building destroyed by a Russian drone strike, which local authorities consider to be Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) Shahed-136, in central Kyiv. (Oleksii Chumachenko/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)The most recent drone attacks on Kyiv took place very early in the morning when it is completely dark and more difficult for Ukrainian defenders to identify the incoming drones, said Parfonov, who works with the Jamestown Foundation think tank in Washington, D.C.
The Ukrainians are using ZPU-1 anti-aircraft guns, man-portable air defense systems, and surface-to-air missiles to shoot down the drones, but the missiles are much more expensive than the drones they destroy, Parfonov said.
It can take several days to restore power to neighborhoods following drone attacks, said Parfonov, who added that inclement weather can slow repairs to the power grid and water system. At this time of year, it can be foggy and rainy all day in Kyiv.
Russian attacks against Ukrainian thermal power plants have left Kyiv residents without any heat in cold temperatures, he said.
“There can also be problems with mobile and internet, obviously without electricity they don’t work,” Parfonov said. “And sometimes you can’t even call somebody to find out what happened in the city. In that situation, only radio can help to find something.”
A woman, which lived in destroyed residential building, looks on ruins after drone attack on October 17, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said that Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian civilians rise to the level of a “war crime.”
The Russian embassy in Washington, D.C., did not respond to a request from Task & Purpose to provide a comment for this story.
The U.S. military has made providing Ukraine with air defense systems a priority as Russian airstrikes have intensified, said Laura Cooper, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia.
“Notably, the United States has committed 8 NASAMS, and the first two that we’ve delivered so far have been very effective in intercepting Russian missiles,” Cooper said in a statement to Task & Purpose. “We’ve also committed missiles for HAWK systems, a medium-range capability, and Avenger short-range systems. We’ve provided over 1,600 Stinger missiles. To counter Russian UAS we’ve committed a suite of capabilities including VAMPIRE systems, radars, and heavy machine guns.”
In addition to providing the Ukrainians with these and other air defenses, the United States and its allies have also worked to keep Ukraine’s Soviet-era air defense systems in the fight, including the country’s S-300s, said Cooper, who noted that Slovakia gave Ukraine its S-300s in the spring.
The United States may soon also give the Ukrainians Patriot missile batteries, CNN recently reported.
Parfonov said Patriot PAC-3 missiles would help the Ukrainians counter Russian ballistic missiles, but Vulcan Air Defense Systems, which the U.S. military no longer uses, would be particularly effective against Iranian-made drones.
“It is a cheap and cheerful decision, and if it can be sent in enough quantities it can be a strong answer to drone strikes,” Parfonov said.
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Denis Maidanov is very passionate about ICBMs. (Image via YouTube).There’s a new Russian anthem for the war in Ukraine, and it is almost certainly not a banger.
The new song is called “Sarmatushka” — a tribute to the RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile — and it debuted on Dec. 17 as part of the country’s Strategic Missile Forces Day, a celebration of its nuclear arsenal.
Performed by Russian singer Denis Maidanov, an accompanying music video was released by ParkPatriot.media, a propaganda arm of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The lyrics are pretty explicit about where those Sarmat ICBMs will be pointed, too.
“From Mother Russia Sarmats are staring into the distance/at the United States,” goes the chorus, according to a translation from Euromaidan Press, a Ukrainian news outlet.
The video features Maidanov, accompanied by a military band, strumming a guitar in front of an array of other ICBMS. In between are shots of the Russian military testing the Sarmat, including the missile traveling on a mobile transport through the snow and being lowered into a silo.
Amid some overhead shots of the countryside, Maidanov sings of the Sarmat: “Its will is stronger than the Ural Mountains/It’ll scatter our enemies to dust in an instant/It’s ready to carry out the sentence/The US’s air defense is no hindrance to it/It’s not scared of sanctions/For the Sarmat there’s only pleasure/To disturb NATO’s dreams.”
This is clearly a slightly different tone here from what you might hear at the Eurovision song contest.
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Towards the end of the video, Maidanov – now in uniform himself – watches a clip of a speech from Russian President Vladimir Putin, given in March 2022, in which the Russian leader mused that, “We have a legitimate right to respond. Yes, it would be a global catastrophe for humanity. But why do we need such a world in which Russia does not exist?”
The video then concludes with footage of the Sarmat being launched from a missile silo.
So, the United States, NATO, any anyone else who may oppose Russia, you’ve been put on notice, rousing pop song style.
Maidanov has been a prolific Russian musician for years and hasn’t shied away from politics. Many of his songs feature themes glorifying the Russian military, such as “Victory is Ours,” about the invasion of Ukraine, or “Spetsnaz,” an upbeat ballad about Russia’s special operations soldiers. He also serves in the Russian legislature as a member of Putin’s United Russia Party.
As for the Sarmat, nicknamed the “Satan II” or “Son of Satan,” testing began in 2017 and the first successful silo launch was held back in April at the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northwest Russia.
The missile has a reported range of 18,000 kilometers and can carry a 10-ton payload consisting of at least 10 nuclear warheads. Russia has also claimed that the Sarmat will be able to carry the Avangard hypersonic missile.
In March 2018, Putin announced in a speech to the Russian parliament that the missile would render NATO’s strategic defenses “completely useless.”
Russian state media organization TASS has claimed that the Sarmat will enter service by the end of 2022, although given how everything else in the Russian military operates, it’s doubtful that will come to pass. It is, however, probably the only intercontinental ballistic missile with a song dedicated to it.
The U.S., of course, is no stranger to jingoistic pop songs of its own. Back in 1942, Frank Loesser’s “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition” was a chart-topper. Twenty years ago, there was Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American),” with its lyrics about putting a boot in your ass because it’s the American way.
For now, considering how well-received the Space Force’s song was, just be glad the Department of Defense isn’t responding to “Sarmatushka” and trying to top the Billboard 100 charts with songs about its latest projects.
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Paratroopers assigned to the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, U.S. Army Alaska, conduct a parachute jump on Malemute drop zone at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Dec. 11, 2019. (Justin Connaher/U.S. Air Force).It was a perfect night for jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. The moon was full and the sky was clear over Fort Bragg, North Carolina that evening in 1997 as Army Spc. Justin Connaher and the rest of his company with the 82nd Airborne Division lifted off aboard a C-141 Starlifter. Like any good paratrooper, Connaher had checked his parachute countless times that day and now looked forward to a 30-second ride back to Earth.
Instead, what Connaher got that night would not only break his body but also force him to find a new identity and sense of purpose.
The soldier’s incredible story of survival and strength was captured in a recent press release from Airman 1st Class Julia Lebens of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, where Connaher currently works as an award-winning photographer and mentor to young photojournalists.
Something supernatural appears to have been at work that day. Before the jump, Connaher and the rest of the company had taken turns shaking a broken Magic Eight Ball on the company executive officer’s desk. Each paratrooper asked the Eight Ball if they were going to “burn in” on the jump. The broken toy responded “yes” to every person, except Connaher. For some reason when he asked, the Eight Ball said “no,” the only time it had ever said so, according to the press release.
Paratroopers assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division prepare to exit an Air Force C-17 Globemaster aircraft to conduct a nighttime combat airborne operation onto Fort Bragg’s Sicily Drop Zone, Sept. 21, 2018. (Sgt. Cody Parsons/U.S. Army)Though the response unnerved Connaher, he prepared for the jump like everybody else and stepped out the aircraft door. But he soon realized he was falling faster than his fellow soldiers, which did not make sense at his light weight of 130 pounds.
“Looking up, he realized something was seriously wrong – his parachute had collapsed, looking like a half-rolled cigarette,” according to the press release.
As the ground rose to meet him, Connaher tried his reserve chute, but it did not release. It was a complete malfunction.
“I have this coming, maybe I haven’t lived my life right,’” the soldier thought at the time. “I’m 21, I’m about to die; I think I’ve been living my life wrong.”
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Remembering what his battalion commander said before each jump, Connaher locked his feet and knees together, bent his knees slightly, covered his face with his hands and arms and awaited impact. He heard a terrible crack and woke up in a hospital with a grocery list of terrible injuries. He was partially paralyzed, unable to see. Both his knees, his right pinky, right wrist, two ribs and several teeth were broken, his skull fractured in three places and every bone in his feet and ankles was shattered. Several of the vertebrae in his neck and back were fractured, his fourth and fifth lumbar vertebrae were fused, his colon and lower intestine were punctured, and he also had extensive damage to internal organs.
“The rest of his life would be spent recovering from this one day,” the press release said. “He’d have seizures, procedures, pain, Connaher had his final rites said to him twice while in the hospital because of residual effects from his accident.”
But those injuries did not spare him from the scorn of his salty Army doctor.
“I know who you are, you son of a bitch,” said the doctor, who knew Connaher from an earlier assignment at Fort Benning, Georgia. “You never came back for your appointment.”
Army Pfc. Evan Samuel, assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 377th Parachute Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, U.S. Army Alaska, makes his way to a rally point after conducting a parachute jump on Malemute drop zone at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Dec. 11, 2019. (Justin Connaher/U.S. Air Force)A lifelong dreamBlowing off that earlier appointment was just one step of a lifelong journey where Connaher put his dream of becoming a paratrooper over everything else, including his own safety.
When he was seven years old, Connaher jumped off the roof of his home in Wausau, Wisconsin with nothing but a blanket as a parachute. He nearly broke his arm, but the pain did not sway him off course. Connaher’s father was a Vietnam-era Air Force veteran, and his grandfather served in the Army in World War II. He pored over his grandfather’s books about World War II, where the paratroopers stood out for their “different, cooler clothes … and got to fly in airplanes,” and also jump out of them, the press release said.
Within a few days of graduating high school, Connaher was on his way to Fort Benning. Boot camp provided its well-honed rude awakening, which in the early 1990s involved drill sergeants grabbing, throwing, and even punching recruits when nobody was looking. In jump school, a drill instructor even broke Connaher’s nose because he did not understand a command.
While at Fort Benning, Connaher had his first encounter with the doctor after reporting mysterious pain. It was suspected that he had a rare disease, but Connaher could not accept that diagnosis because it could endanger his dream of becoming a paratrooper. Rather than show up for a test, he ignored the pain. Connaher found out years later that he had suffered from a rare form of muscular dystrophy known as Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a condition that makes muscles waste away, especially with the active life of a paratrooper.
The young soldier did not know that yet: instead, he was more concerned with joining an airborne unit. For a while, that seemed a distant goal, because he was first assigned to a heavy anti-armor infantry unit and then as a truck driver in “muggy, smelly Fort Stewart, Georgia,” the press release said.
Connaher was miserable there, but a noncommissioned officer gave him good advice: if the young soldier volunteered to serve in South Korea for a year, he would have a high chance of earning a slot at the storied 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. Connaher took his advice, and after a year in South Korea he finally joined the ranks of a unit he had idolized since childhood.
The soldier soon found out that the 82nd had higher standards than his previous units. Connaher “had to be fast and strong,” but he was ready for the challenge. The paratrooper rose to become a team leader, then a squad leader and soon was trusted with a staff sergeant position despite being two ranks below that as a specialist. He spent much of his free time reading regulations and field manuals, and several people told him he “had the makings of a sergeant major of the Army,” the press release said.
“I don’t know about that; there’s only one of those,” Connaher said in the press release. Still, the comments rang true with the fact that the life of an Army paratrooper was all the soldier ever wanted.
U.S. Army Paratroopers assigned to Crow Company, 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division execute a brigade-level live fire exercise at Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) Rotation 23-02 on Fort Polk, Louisiana, Nov. 14, 2022 (Sgt. Jacob Moir/U.S. Army)‘If I don’t do this one more time, I’ll kill myself‘Connaher’s dream life came to a terrible halt that night in 1997. Waking up the next day in Womack Army Hospital was the painful start of a new life for Connaher, one that could have ended shortly after it began if not for a risky stunt. Connaher had spent his entire life wanting to jump out of airplanes, so he could not let the last jump be a botched one. He needed one more jump to set things right.
Easier said than done: after nine months in and out of the hospital, Connaher was put on a medical profile that forbade him from running, jumping, marching, rucking or any other strenuous activity from his old life. But on some level, he was still the seven-year-old who jumped off his roof with a blanket, so one day he hid behind a tall soldier while trying to sneak on board a jump flight. It almost worked until a platoon sergeant spotted him and chased him with a flurry of expletives into the first sergeant’s office.
“What are you doing?” the first sergeant asked, not as a higher-ranked soldier but as a fellow man.
“I need to jump one more time,” said Connaher. “I’m getting out of the Army next week, and if I don’t do this one more time, I’ll kill myself. I have to do this or I’ll be afraid of this for the rest of my life until I kill myself.”
Leaning back in his chair, the first sergeant said “Okay. Grab your shit, you’re on the job. But if you die, your mom’s not getting your insurance money.”
It was not a pretty jump and Connaher nearly broke both his legs. But he only sprained an ankle and walked away, ready to put his parachuting days behind him. He was out of the Army a week later, but he did not know what to do next.
‘Here’s a way that I can be creative’Connaher now found himself dealing with health issues, suicidal thoughts, depression, and substance abuse as he tried to figure out who he was without the Army. At one point he even “bought the supplies” to kill himself, and may have done so if not for the intervention of people who cared for him, the press release said. With their support, he went to school and double majored in photography and photojournalism, though he had to work harder than the other students due to his head injury. That injury was a double-edged sword, because he ended up reconnecting with the woman who would become his wife “over migraines, of all things,” the press release said.
Though he could no longer “be all he could be,” as a paratrooper, Connaher decided he would become the best photographer he could be as a photojournalist for the Gannett media company, which owns publications such as USA Today. He worked there for nearly a decade until he heard of an even better opportunity: working at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, which needed a photographer who could work with an airborne unit.
“I can’t jump anymore, I can’t be an infantryman anymore,” Connaher said. “But here’s a way that I can be creative, and do these new things and use these newer skills that give my life purpose, joy, and meaning. I can marry that with this thing that I had originally wanted since I was a little kid and still be a part of that. That belonging, that purpose, that mission that I had always wanted for myself.”
Justin Connaher, a 673d Air Base Wing Public Affairs photographer, poses for a portrait at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Dec. 14, 2022. Connaher is a U.S. Army veteran who retired due to a paratrooping accident and now serves as a photographer at JBER. (Airman 1st Class Julia Lebens/U.S. Air Force)Like he had as a paratrooper, Connaher excelled at his new position. He was named Air Force Civilian Photographer of the Year three times and Pacific Air Forces Civilian Photographer of the year three times. In January 2016, an airman at JBER claimed that a photographer’s tools are more important than their skills; in response, Connaher claimed the title of Air Force Civilian Photographer of the Year that year with nothing but a “micro 4/3ds camera and a cheap little prime lens,” the press release said.
“It was hubris, it was arrogance on my part,” he said in the press release. “But come the next year, I won again with this little cheapy camera. Some people, they hit a midlife crisis and they cheat on their spouse, or they buy a motorcycle … I went a different way with it … I had to make a change inside of myself, instead of making these external changes.”
Winning the challenge had an unexpected effect on Connaher. He realized that he no longer wanted to be the best simply to be better than others. Instead, he wanted to help others. After that, he stopped participating in competitions.
“I’m good at what I do, but I’m not the best, I’m not the greatest thing since sliced bread,” said Connaher. “I can help other people, and in that way I help the Air Force. I help the airmen that I work with, and that gives me joy.”
‘Continue to fight’That mindset has made an impact on the young airmen who work with Connaher at JBER, where the paratrooper-turned-photographer brings not only the know-how from decades behind the camera, but also the wisdom to focus on the most important parts of the job.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned from him is that it doesn’t matter what product I bring back from an assignment, what matters is that you learned something from it,” Airman 1st Class Shelimar Rivera Rosado, a public affairs apprentice at JBER, said in the press release. “Sometimes shoots don’t go as planned, and we have to improvise, but the most important thing is how we handle the situation.”
“He strives to push us to grow and improve, and always provide valuable advice, critiques, and feedback,” said Senior Airman Patrick Sullivan, a public affairs journeyman. “He’s been an incredibly valuable mentor to me, both as a photographer and in the career as a whole, and the shop is lucky to have him on the team.”
Connaher still has to manage the pain from his accident all those years ago, but he also sips coffee from an airborne infantry coffee cup in between dealing jokes and advice with his fellow public affairs workers. Connaher made the most of the cards he was dealt, all the way from the hospital to Alaska.
“To anyone who’s dealing with a traumatic injury or a family member who’s dealing with traumatic health issues…continue to fight,” he said. “Continue to give every day the best that you can in that day because things will get better.”
If you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, the Lifeline network is available 24/7 across the United States. Reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling or texting 988 and you’ll be connected to trained counselors.
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Part of Operation Upshot-Knothole, was a 15-kiloton test fired from a 280-mm cannon on May 25, 1953 at the Nevada Proving Grounds. (Wikimedia Commons).Christopher Nolan is not in possession of a nuclear bomb. However, the filmmaker caught peoples’ attention this past week when he revealed that his upcoming film Oppenheimer, a biopic of the man known as “the father of the atomic bomb,” features a recreation of the U.S. Army’s Trinity test at Los Alamos, New Mexico on July 16, 1945 — a recreation that doesn’t use CGI.
The film (adapted from Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s biography American Prometheus) follows Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) leading up to the Trinity explosion and the aftermath of World War II. The trailer premiered online Sunday — the same weekend the Biden administration said the U.S. wrongly revoked his security clearance in 1954, following the scientist’s criticism of nuclear proliferation. A separate, different preview aired ahead of screenings of Avatar: The Way of Water this weekend, but has not yet gone online (with all recordings being quickly taken down). Both hint at and give glimpses of what has become the centerpiece of the film, but they don’t show the explosion outright.
“I think recreating the Trinity test [the first nuclear weapon detonation, in New Mexico] without the use of computer graphics, was a huge challenge to take on,” Nolan told Total Film ahead of the trailer’s release. “Andrew Jackson — my visual effects supervisor, I got him on board early on — was looking at how we could do a lot of the visual elements of the film practically, from representing quantum dynamics and quantum physics to the Trinity test itself, to recreating, with my team, Los Alamos up on a mesa in New Mexico in extraordinary weather, a lot of which was needed for the film, in terms of the very harsh conditions out there – there were huge practical challenges.”
What does that mean? Well, it is highly unlikely that Nolan and his visual effects team at DNEG got ahold of uranium or anything like that, despite the many, many jokes about his dedication to recreating the Trinity test. He also probably didn’t gain access to a massively powerful non-nuclear military bomb, like the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (also known as the “Mother of All Bombs”) that was used for the first time in April 2017 in Afghanistan.
For comparison, one of the biggest depictions in a nuclear explosion — the Trinity test specifically — was in the television show Twin Peaks: The Return in 2017. That sequence, showing the detonation before zooming into the mushroom cloud, was an 11-minute computer creation from effects company BUF.
Nolan’s movies have a heavy emphasis on practical effects. From flipping a semi-truck for real in The Dark Knight to spinning a hallway for real in Inception for the right effect, he favors tactile effects over anything computer-generated. For his previous film Tenet, he transformed an abandoned mining town near Joshua Tree into the ruins of a Soviet closed city for a massive army versus army showdown. DNEG is the same effects company behind those productions, so it’s likely Oppenheimer will have similarly impressive undertakings.
The largest practical explosion in cinema was created for the 2015 James Bond film Spectre. That utilized 72 pounds of explosives and thousands of gallons of fuel, setting a Guinness World Record (Michael Bay claims Pearl Harbor has a bigger explosion). That was equivalent to 68.47 tons of TNT. For comparison, the Mother of All Bombs, detonated in Afghanistan, is equal to 11 tons. The real Trinity test was the equivalent of 25 kilotons of TNT. The challenge in these cases, as with Spectre, is that there is usually only one chance to get the effect right.
It’s unlikely that Nolan and DNEG have crafted something on the scale of the actual Trinity explosion. Until they reveal their exact method, it remains a mystery. However given their track record, it is likely a part of New Mexico saw a very large explosion.
Oppenheimer will be released July 21, 2023.
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(Photo courtesy Hollywood Pictures/Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films/Buena Vista Pictures).Welcome toThat One Scene, a semi-regular series in which Task & Purpose staffers wax nostalgic about that one scene from a beloved movie.
“Three tours in Vietnam, Panama, Grenada, Desert Storm; three Purple Hearts, two Silver Stars and the Congressional Medal of … — Jesus. This man is a hero.”
That’s how White House Chief of Staff Hayden Sinclair sums up the career of Brig. Gen. Francis X. Hummel, United States Marine Corps. It’s early in the runtime of Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer’s 1996 action classic The Rock, just before Hummel fully lays out why he, a Force Recon commander described as a legend by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Al Kramer, has stolen rockets loaded with VX nerve gas, taken hostages, and occupied Alcatraz. Even then, Kramer defends him as a “man of honor.”
That’s when Hummel calls. And it’s a near perfect scene. He’s direct and to the point, but also friendly enough with Al Kramer at the start. But when the time comes for him to say why he’s taken hostages and is threatening the San Francisco Bay, Hummel talks about the cost of war.
“Remember Operation Desert Storm? Those surgical hits made by our smart bombs that were covered so well on CNN? It was my men on the ground that made those hits possible by lazing the targets. Twenty of those men were left to rot outside Baghdad after the conflict ended. No benefits were paid to their families. No medals conferred. These men died for their country and they weren’t even given a goddamn military burial. This situation is unacceptable.”
It’s as clear a motive as any. Earlier on, in the opening scene at his wife’s grave — where the late Mrs. Hummel is simply (and hilariously) eulogized as “his wife” in her epitaph — he says he tried everything he could short of this. Hummel has spent years fighting, and fighting for his men.
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His demands are simple but the entire exchange is brutal in calling out crimes and exploitation by those in power. The scene feels almost out of place in a Bruckheimer-produced blockbuster. A celebrated Marine goes rogue to get the government to use profits for illegal arm sales to pay for the benefits of black ops troops? The heroes of the film are a fed and a convicted British spy working for a corrupt FBI director? And it’s from Michael Bay, the same guy who gave the world flag waving, American might films like Transformers, Bad Boys II and Pearl Harbor?
The Rock came in an interesting time in Hollywood and the country’s view of the military. The Cold War was over, the reactionary Rambo-esque post-Vietnam view of the military had faded. Fights like Desert Storm and the Battle of Mogadishu painted a different view of combat in the modern era. Without a grand enemy and a surge of nationalism, media started to look inward, with films such as Courage Under Fire and Three Kings exploring civilian casualties, military excess and some of the shadier sides of war. Hummel represents a unique view of that — he’s by all accounts a paragon of a Marine but he’s so fed up with the exploitation of troops and the system that he’s willing to take drastic action by using the military’s own tools against it.
The Rocks is a far cry from the jingoistic, Pentagon-on-speed dial films Bay would end up making his staple in subsequent years. The villain has the most sympathetic motive; the heroes are working for evil officials and commanders linked to shady black ops, save for Nic Cage’s Stanley Goodspeed; the ultimate threat are a bunch of Marines who sell out their principles for a payday, menacingly played by Tony Todd and Gregory Sporleder. It’s a bold, radical movie to make — a scathing critique of the way nations can discard people who participate in some of their most important clandestine missions while also avoiding some of the hagiography of the military the way many post-9/11 films did — and Bay uses the thrills of a blockbuster to get the message across.
The demands scene in The Rock is perhaps the highlight of the film, where a normal negotiation instead lays out scathing political commentary, sets Hummel up as an incredibly no-nonsense villain and sets up the stakes in a great way. It’s not even three minutes long, but it makes the film work. Sure, Cage and Sean Connery fighting various character actors is enjoyable, but those scenes don’t work without Hummel laying out how prepared he is. Was his course of action criminal? Yes. But he was still bluffing and come the end he’s ready to take the fall while his men get away. He was a leader. It’s not a surprise that behind the scenes in outtakes, Harris was so in-character that he kept calling Michael Bay “sir.”
By casting Ed Harris in the role — a man who could out-glare Clint Eastwood and is the one person badass enough that he can believably chew out Pete “Maverick” Mitchell — The Rock imbues Hummel an instant gravitas and weariness. It’s telling that the movie opens with him and his struggles. Connery’s Mason might be James Bond with the serial numbers filed off, and Cage’s Goodspeed the classic 1990s action hero in over his head, but Hummel has the emotional arc of the film. If Hummel had not undertaken his extreme but noble operation, he likely would have been the kind of figure tapped to lead the Joint Special Operations Command and go after al-Qaeda post-September, 2001 attacks. As they say in the movie, he was a hero.
Even when things go awry and the plot seems doomed, Hummel still emerges as a noble figure. He tries to get his men away from any punishment and is prepared to shoulder the blame. He ends up at odds with two Marines — who rightly point out they’re mercenaries now — and dies trying to resolve the situation. Goodspeed and Mason might be the protagonists of The Rock, but Brig. Gen. Francis X. Hummel is undoubtedly the film’s hero. And he’s the reason the film is Bay’s best.
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The B-2 Spirit of South Carolina flies during a training mission over Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., Feb. 20, 2014. (Staff Sgt. Jonathan Snyder / U.S. Air Force).Less than a week after a B-2 Spirit caught fire following an emergency landing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Air Force Global Strike Command ordered a safety stand down of the B-2 bomber fleet.
The Aviationist first reported on the news. Air Force Global Strike Command confirmed that a notice to airmen (NOTAM) went out following the Dec. 10 incident to close the runway at the base.
On Dec. 10, a B-2 Spirit suffered an unspecified malfunction and was forced to make an emergency landing. When it did, one wing caught fire and the bomber veered to one side, a wing ending up in the dirt. No one was injured. But the NOTAM went out in the aftermath and has since been extended through the end of the year.
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As a result of the stand down, the 509th will not be doing the traditional flyover of the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl in Southern California in early January. In place of the B-2s will be B-1B Lancer bombers based out of Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, according to the Air Force.
“Our number one concern is the safety and security of our personnel and fleet. We deeply regret having to make this decision so close to the event, but we are committed to returning to Pasadena in 2024,” U.S. Air Force Col. Daniel Diehl, commander of the 509th Bomb Wing said in a statement. “Although we are not participating in this flyover, we remain steadfast in our commitment to answer our nation’s call.”
The Air Force has a total of 20 B-2 Spirits. The 509th Bomb Wing and the Air National Guard’s 131st Bomb Wing both operate the B-2 Spirit out of Whiteman Air Force Base.
The emergency landing at Whiteman AFB was one of several aircraft-related incidents with the U.S. military in the last week. On Dec. 15, an F-35B Joint Strike Fighter suffered a mishap, crashing nose first onto the runway at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth. On Friday, a helicopter made a hard landing in the U.S. Army training site in Grafenwoer in Germany, injuring four soldiers. The U.S. Army and Bavarian police are investigating the incident.
The latest on Task & Purpose Air National Guard colonel suspended following investigation * The Navy will now enlist recruits who score 10 on their ASVAB * The Army has selected the V-280 Valor to replace its Black Hawk fleet * Five soldiers with the 10th Mountain Division arrested for rape * Old Air Force A-10 Warthog learns new trick: Covering fire for B-1B bombers*
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The Royal Air Force's esports team celebrates after winning the tournament. (Photo via the Call of Duty Endowment).The Royal Air Force can claim bragging rights in video games for the next year. The RAF’s esports team came from behind to win the Call of Duty Endowment’s third annual tournament. The British servicemembers defeated seven other teams for the prize.
C.O.D.E. Bowl III, as the event was called, pit American and British military esports teams against each other in Raleigh, North Carolina. The tournament featured esports teams from the U.S. Army, Coast Guard, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Space Force along with the United Kingdom’s Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. As with past years, the tournament matched each team of active-duty servicemembers with two civilian captains.
Teams faced off in the recently released Call of Duty Warzone 2.0, with the Royal Air Force coming from a poor start to claim first place and the trophy. The championship was previously won by the U.S. Space Force, which sent its trophy into space to celebrate.
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The Call of Duty Endowment, a nonprofit created by Activision Blizzard’s CEO, helps place British and American veterans in jobs. So far it has placed more than 110,000 veterans into work.
The C.O.D.E. Bowl III event came less than a month after internal U.S. Army documents were released showing how the Army tried to partner with Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard for marketing and recruitment. Last year the Army backed out of a multi-million dollar advertising deal, including an expensive sponsorship agreement for a Call of Duty tournament, following lawsuits against Activision Blizzard over discrimination and sexual harassment at the company. According to an internal email from the Army’s Deputy Chief Marketing Officer, the decision was done in order to protect the Army’s “brand.”
On a wider level, militaries have been turning to esports as a tool for outreach and recruiting, due to the popularity of video games among younger people. For the American military, that goes beyond the sponsorship efforts and into streaming and esports from its own in-house teams. That’s been hit or miss in the past — there have been issues with racist usernames and blocking people who bring up war crimes — but branches such as the Navy are putting more resources into esports and making sure their teams can win tournaments like C.O.D.E. Bowl.
Although some officials have criticized gaming as part of a sedentary lifestyle that impacts Generation Z’s physical fitness levels, research has shown that gaming can improve cognitive control. The military esports teams have been active online and in tournaments. It held its own official esports tournament in May as part of FORCECON22, where the U.S. Air Force won out over the Army.
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There’s no evidence that aliens have landed, crashed or just visited Earth, according to the official Department of Defense looking into UFOs.
The Pentagon has been examining reported cases of unidentified aerial phenomena — a term used instead of UFOs — but there’s no sign so far that any are alien in nature, according to Ronald Moultrie, under secretary of defense for intelligence and security, who held a press briefing on the upcoming UAP report on Friday.
“I have not seen anything in those holdings to date that would suggest that there has been an alien visitation, an alien crash or anything like that,” Moultrie said on Friday.
Moultrie, along with the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) Director Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, told reporters that the office has received hundreds of new cases of apparent UAP sightings over the last several months. Both officials declined to say how many of those new cases have been investigated and how many are outstanding.
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“I would just say that we are structuring our analysis to be very thorough and rigorous. We will go through it all,” Kirkpatrick said, according to DW News. “As a physicist, I have to adhere to the scientific method, and I will follow that data and science wherever it goes.”
In many cases UAPs can be weather events, American military projects or foreign nations’ military technology. Moultrie said a major concern for the Pentagon is any UAP sighting near American military installations, particularly any underwater. He said that is a security concern for anyone at those sites, and the Pentagon is taking those reported cases seriously.
The upcoming report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is set to include further information on how many cases have been reported, and what intelligence groups were able to determine them to be, if at all. The report was supposed to come out in October but has been pushed back. It will be the first new report on UAPs since 2021, and the first one since the Department of Defense reorganized the office that oversees these matters.
The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) was created in July, spinning out of past Pentagon efforts to look into these phenomena, but with a slightly larger mission. That included investigating “anomalous, unidentified space, airborne, submerged and transmedium objects,” not just aerial ones. At the briefing on Friday, Moultrie said that there have not been “credible” reports of any transmedium phenomena.
That mission also received an update this past week. The National Defense Authorization Act approved by Congress has language specific to the AARO. The bill directs the AARO to look at government records of any UAP sighting as far back as 1945.
It’s unclear when the ODNI report on unidentified aerial phenomena will be released.
The latest on Task & Purpose Air National Guard colonel suspended following investigation * The Navy will now enlist recruits who score 10 on their ASVAB * The Army has selected the V-280 Valor to replace its Black Hawk fleet * Five soldiers with the 10th Mountain Division arrested for rape * Old Air Force A-10 Warthog learns new trick: Covering fire for B-1B bombers*
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A KC-135 with the call sign "Inmate 72" was identified as "Titties" by the flight tracking service FlightRadar24 on Dec. 16, 2022. (FlightRadar 24).The Air Force is looking into how a KC-135 aerial tanker flying over the Middle East on Friday was identified by a flight tracking service as having the call sign “Titties.”
Earlier on Friday, FlightRadar24 showed “Titties” flying missions over the Mediterranean Sea. Initial indications are that the aircraft belongs to the Pennsylvania Air National Guard’s 171st Air Refueling Wing, which is currently deployed to the U.S. Central Command’s theater of operations, though no Pennsylvania Air National Guardsmen were crew members on that particular KC-135, said Senior Master Sgt. Shawn Monk a spokesman with the 171st Air Refueling Wing.
However, Lt. Col. Michael Hertzog, a spokesman for U.S. Air Forces Central Command, told Task & Purpose that the “Titties” is not the plane’s real call sign.
“AFCENT is aware that a tanker operating in the CENTCOM AOR [Central Command Area of Operations] whose actual call-sign is ‘Inmate 72’ is currently being tracked on Flight Radar 24 as call-sign ‘Titties,’” Hertzog said in an email. “The cause is unknown at present but AFCENT and 379 AEW [379th Air Expeditionary Wing] are investigating.”
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After this story was first published, Flightradar24 spokesman Ian Petchenik told Task & Purpose that the call sign “Titties” was broadcast from the aircraft.
“We displayed it on the service as it came out of the aircraft,” Petchenik said on Friday. “The aircraft at the time was seen by 94 separate receivers in the area. This isn’t a question other than: That was plugged into the flight computer and that is what came out as the call sign.”
“The long and the short of it is that not only did they broadcast the ‘Titties’ call sign; they started with the ‘Boobie’ call sign and then quickly switched to the ‘Titties’ call sign, judging by the raw data that we pulled,” Petchenik added.
As of Friday afternoon, FlightRadar24 was no longer displaying any information about the KC-135.
TITTIES #USAF 🇺🇸 KC-135R air to air refuelling support tanker #CALLSIGNOFTHEDAY https://t.co/jprBcNQTvw#haveglass #avgeeks pic.twitter.com/ulrvg6ilSY
— #haveglass (@haveVglass) December 16, 2022
News of a U.S. military plane appearing to have an unconventional call sign comes little more than a month after Air Force officials denied that another KC-135 aerial tanker had flown in a penis-shaped pattern near a Russian base in Syria.
“The KC-135 Stratotanker (RAKE71) operating in the Eastern Mediterranean adjusted between multiple different flight tracks during the course of the mission,” Capt. Ryan Goss, a spokesman for U.S. Air Forces in Europe, said at the time. “While these adjustments and movements appear to create a vulgar outline, there was no intent by the pilots or the unit to do so. As we continue to look into this, USAFE-AFAFRICA, AMC [Air Mobility Command] and the USAF will continue to maintain the highest standards of professionalism and airmanship.”
Update: 12/16/2022; This article was updated after publication with a statement from FlightRadar24.
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The 'Sling' 120mm mortar system from Elbit.An Army Special Forces group is working on testing and fielding a brand new 120mm mortar system platform for U.S. special operations forces around the world, officials announced on Thursday.
The 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) has launched a new partnership with Elbit America, a subsidiary of Israel-based Elbit Systems, to “develop, test, and field” a new prototype mortar system platform known as “Sling” that comes mounted on the back of a vehicle, Sgt. 1st Class Zach VanDyke said in a statement.
Originally unveiled in January and designed to integrate with a standard Humvee, Elbit claims the system can deploy within 30-60 seconds and can fire off 16 mortar rounds per minute (with a sustained rate of 3-4 rounds per minute) at an effective firing range of up to 7 km, or 4.3 miles, with M933 High Explosive rounds.
Janes first reported during the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual exposition in Washington, D.C. in October that U.S. Special Operations Command had purchased and taken possession of a Sling system for testing back in May.
It’s unclear if the 3rd Special Forces Group is testing Elbit’s system to fulfill a particular weapons requirement. A spokesman for the group did not immediately respond to request for additional information from Task & Purpose.
The Army currently operates three variants of Elbit’s 120mm mortar weapons system: the M121 that’s mounted on the M1064 Mortar Carrier and the upcoming XM1287 Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle’s mortar carrier variant; the Recoiling Mortar System used with the Stryker’s mortar carrier variant; and the dismounted M120A1 Towed Mortar System.
The tube and baseplate for Elbit’s new system are identical to those currently used in the M120A1, but mounted on the rear compartment of a Humvee that can be automatically unfolded and tasked on target using a remote fire control system, Elbit officials told Janes in October.
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Slapping a quick-deploy mortar system to the back of a Humvee or similarly-sized vehicle would give Army Special Forces teams improved versatility and firepower over existing mounted mortar systems currently affixed to slow-moving armored vehicles.
Such versatility would greatly increase the effectiveness of so-called “shoot and scoot” tactics, where an attacking force fires off a mortar or other munition and then quickly flees the launch area before the target can identify the origin of the munition and return fire.
When it comes to mortars, Elbit appears to be a source the Defense Department trusts. The company recieved a $103 million contract back in 2016 to furnish the Army with 120mm mortar weapons systems for five years before locking down an additional five-year $49 million contract this past September.
The Army has been on the hunt for a new 120mm mortar system, dubbed the Extended Range Mortar system, since 2018 to hit targets up to 12 miles away and offer additional protection to mounter soldiers, as Military.com reported at the time.
According to VanDyke, Elbit “is said to be in the final stages of development and testing” for the Sling, although soldiers from the 3rd Special Forces Group have been testing the system for “approximately two years” already to ensure it “meets and surpasses the developer’s expectations for the revolutionary system.”
“The system will allow for more mobile and versatile capabilities on the battlefield for combatant commanders and other leaders to consider when planning both defensive and offensive operations,” VanDyke said.
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China's Bayi Aerobatic Team performs during the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force Aviation Open Day in Changchun in China's northeastern Jilin province (STR/AFP via Getty Images).Ask anyone in the U.S. military above the rank of colonel what keeps them awake at night and they will likely say “China,” the rising superpower across the Pacific. But what exactly are senior leaders afraid of, particularly in regards to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF)?
For years, U.S. Air Force leaders have sounded the alarm about China’s increasing power and America’s shrinking technological edge. But what are the specific forms of power and technology that have U.S. officials so worried? Considering the language barrier, cultural differences and the lack of transparent governance or a free press, it is difficult for average Americans to know what threats service members may face in a possible conflict in the western Pacific.
But not to worry, the Air Force prepared several easy-to-read briefings and videos to bring you up to speed. Though some of the videos date to late 2021 or early 2022, their general observations still hold up.
“[W]e must accelerate learning across the Air Force to stay ahead of the pace,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles ‘CQ’ Brown Jr. in a memo published on Thursday, alongside a series of “toolkits” put together by the Air Force’s China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI).
Complete with briefs on China’s air force, rocket force, cyber capabilities, naval aviation and space forces, the “toolkits” are meant to break down what air and space capabilities China could bring to bear in a conflict. There is also a separate list of videos, briefings and podcast episodes on subjects like China’s history with Taiwan and why that relationship is so important today. As G.I. Joe once said, “knowing is half the battle,” and Gen. Brown seeks to make that half as easy as possible.
“This toolkit is intended to assist you, our Air Force leaders, in educating the entire force on this challenge,” the general wrote.
Below is a reader’s digest version of a few of the materials about China and the PLAAF, with plenty of links to CASI so that you can learn more from the institute’s scholarship.
PLAAF goalsA key goal of the PLAAF and its parent organization, the People’s Liberation Army, seems to be deterring U.S. intervention. As Brendan Mulvaney, the director of CASI, put it in one video, the PLA wants to be a world-class military by 2049, but for now it is currently focused on being “good enough.”
“They don’t have to be as good as the world’s best stealth aircraft, they just have to have one that keeps the U.S. at bay or gives American planners pause,” Mulvaney explained. “They’re building air-to-air missiles that outfly those of the United States so they don’t need to go toe-to-toe with U.S. airpower. They adapted ballistic missiles to shoot at naval forces so the PLA Navy doesn’t need to engage directly in surface warfare.”
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Still, the Chinese Communist Party has global ambitions and is building the “tools and platforms” to achieve it, Mulvaney said. A good example of that is a series of lines of control — imaginary lines running north to south across the Pacific.
The first line of control is the coastline of mainland China, the director said in a video about the PLAAF. Within this line, the PLAAF aims to have “total air control and air situational awareness,” Mulvaney said, meaning it knows exactly what is flying over that strip of ocean and can destroy anything it does not like. The PLAAF plans to control that zone with a network of air defenses and air bases.
A fighter jet of the Bayi Aerobatics Team of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force arrives at Zhuhai International Airshow Center before Airshow China 2021 on September 22, 2021 in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province of China. (Chen Jimin/China News Service via Getty Images)The next line of control is an area that runs from China’s coast to an imaginary line that stretches from the southern tip of Japan, runs south close to Malaysia, then hooks west to encircle the South China Sea. This line is known as the first island chain, and the PLAAF hopes to exercise some control over the region based on the range of China’s ground-based air defenses, Mulvaney explained.
The PLAAF may have near-total control over some areas like the Bohai Sea, near northwest China, or around some parts of Taiwan, but not much outside the range of its ground-based air defenses, some of which can reach 250 kilometers. The PLAAF could project airpower in the form of fighter patrols beyond those ranges, but without a robust aerial refueling tanker fleet, that patrol system would not be sustainable, Mulvaney said.
The PLAAF has limited goals in the third line of control, which runs out to the second island chain: an imaginary line that includes Guam, which hosts a major U.S. military presence in the form of Andersen Air Base. In that zone, PLAAF wants to be able to carry out “limited strikes,” and “limited deterrence,” which likely implies being able to reach out with long-range bombers and hit targets like Andersen with a nuclear weapon.
A K-8 training plane of the Red Falcon Air Demonstration Team of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) taxis after performing during a rehearsal for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force Aviation Open Day and Changchun Air Show on August 23, 2022 in Changchun, Jilin Province of China. (Wang Heda/VCG via Getty Images)A “commander’s toolkit” on the PLAAF prepared by CASI puts things more bluntly, stating that “The PLAAF’s primary mission is a Taiwan invasion.” However, the PLAAF and its sister services are also expected to prevent the U.S. Air Force from approaching Chin–and, by extension, Taiwan–by striking U.S. air bases, the U.S. Air Force refueling tanker fleet, and its airborne warning and control systems (AWACs). The next section breaks down why it’s the not-so-sexy aircraft–the tankers, airborne early warning and control aircraft, and electronic warfare aircraft–which really allow an air force to project power far from home. That is why China is so keen on shooting down America’s and developing their own.
PLAAF toolsLike the U.S. Air Force, the PLAAF uses fighters, bombers, transports and other specialty aircraft to achieve its missions. The PLAAF also has a mix of old and new aircraft. The PLAAF has non-stealth fourth-generation fighters such as the J-11, which specializes in taking down other aircraft, and the J-10 and J-16, which are multirole fighters that can strike targets on the ground and dogfight in the air. The PLAAF flies at least 200 stealthy, fifth-generation J-20 fighter, according to Defense News, compared to the U.S. fifth-generation fleet of about 180 F-22 Raptors and about 450 F-35s.
Like in the U.S. Air Force, the PLAAF has been updating its older fighters with better sensors and weapons over the years, and some of the more effective weapons are the PL-10 and PL-15 air-to-air missiles, which outrange the American AIM-9X and AIM-120 AAMRAM missiles. There’s also the PL-17, an even-longer range radar-guided air-to-air missile that CASI says is “intended to shoot down tankers and AWACs to limit the USAF’s ability to project power.”
Chinese People Liberation Army Air Force J-20 stealth fighters in flight and on the flight line. (Screenshot via China Aerospace Studies Institute)Tankers are crucial to air operations in places like the vast Pacific Ocean, where places to land and refuel are few and far between. Fighter jets are relatively short-ranged without tankers, which are largely helpless against enemy fighters. The PLAAF has about 30 tankers as of early 2022, while the U.S. Air Force has about 396 aging KC-135 Stratotankers and hopes to buy 179 KC-46 Pegasus tankers within the next few years. But China’s tanker count is expected to grow in the future, CASI warned.
Keeping aircraft fueled is just one element of sustaining long-range air operations. Another important element is seeing what is around the corner. The U.S. military has a fleet of E-3 Sentry, E-2 Hawkeye, and, in the next few years, E-7 Wedgetail jets for detecting enemy aircraft and coordinating friendly forces. CASI explained that the PLAAF historically has used ground based radar “for both early warning and directing aircraft to targets,” but is now investing in airborne warning and control platforms such as the KJ-500.
The long-range capabilities of refueling, early warning and control could help coordinate long-range PLAAF strikes over places like Guam, particularly as China looks to upgrade its bomber fleet. The PLAAF operates H-6 bombers that can fire long-range cruise missiles and carry nuclear weapons. Though the H-6’s “limited range hampers its ability to carry out credible deterrence operations,” it could help PLAAF develop modern nuclear bomber techniques that could make PLAAF a genuine long-range nuclear threat in the future, CASI wrote.
Not all dangerous weapons explode, and the PLAAF fields GX-11 standoff jammer aircraft that can disrupt enemy communications and radar from a distance. The service is also procuring J-16D escort jammers: electronic attack jets similar to the Navy’s EA-18G Growler jets.
But an air force is more than just dropping bombs and firing missiles: it is also about helping the rest of the military get around. The U.S. Air Force has a fleet of C-17 and C-5 transport jets for heavy lifting and C-130s for smaller jobs, and the PLAAF is working on a similar capability by building up its fleet of Y-20s, which looks similar to the C-17.
Military transport aircraft Y-20 performs in the sky during a rehearsal for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force Aviation Open Day and Changchun Air Show on August 23, 2022 in Changchun, Jilin Province of China. (Yang Kunye/VCG via Getty Images)Right now the PLAAF can move just two light airborne brigades or one light mechanized airborne brigade “if it uses its entire inventory of transportation aircraft, leaving limited extra capacity for emergency transport of materiel or other tasks,” CASI wrote. By comparison, the U.S. Air Force moved 124,000 Afghan evacuees in just a few weeks during Operation Allies Refuge in 2021 and still had plenty of transport aircraft to spare. While that may sound like a stark difference, remember that for now the PLAAF is not aiming to be a world-beating colossus, but instead to be “good enough” to deter U.S. intervention in the western Pacific.
“Given this relative weakness, the PLAAF is seeking to expand this fleet to provide it with more options for rapid logistics support for aviation units or to provide other cargo transportation services without putting the lift it needs for a Taiwan invasion scenario at risk,” CASI wrote.
This brief guide leaves out a lot, like the PLAAF’s growing fleet of unmanned or autonomous aircraft; the airfields the PLA is building on artificial islands in the South China Sea; and a large number of other aircraft and capabilities that would make any American or allied airmen worried. But hopefully this will provide a first taste and an entry to other conversations about Chinese airpower.
While the PLAAF may not have the U.S. Air Force’s depth or breadth now, the Chinese Communist Party probably aims to grow towards it in the future. Until then, it still has plenty of punch.
“The PLAAF is now an extremely robust Air Force that can conduct sustained precision strike missions beyond the first island chain while also defending [Chinese] territorial airspace against even a robust adversary like the United States,” Mulvaney said.
However, becoming a global superpower requires making a few friends, and Mulvaney said this is an area where China falls short. Allies and partners “are our backbone across the Indo-Pacific,” he said. If the U.S. can sustain partnerships with countries like Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, it could help the U.S. Air Force multiply its strengths in comparison to the PLAAF.
“More importantly, they represent something the U.S. has many of, and China has none of,” Mulvaney said. “Allies.”
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An airman fills a syringe with the COVID-19 vaccine at the Pittsburgh International Airport Air Reserve Station, Pennsylvania, Feb. 4, 2021. (U.S. Air Force photo by Joshua J. Seybert).The anti-vaxxers have won the battle over the Defense Department’s requirement that all U.S. service members receive a vaccination for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
On Thursday, the Senate approved the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, which would repeal the Defense Department’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The legislation now heads to the White House, where President Joe Biden has not given any indications that he intends to veto the law to uphold the Pentagon’s mandatory vaccine policy.
Biden’s expected signature will mark the culmination of an open rebellion against the vaccine mandate both within and outside of the U.S. military. Fueled by social media, conservative talk shows, and state and federal lawmakers, the opposition movement to the mandatory COVID-19 has soundly defeated the U.S. military’s top leaders, who have insisted that the vaccines were necessary for readiness.
By overturning the Pentagon’s requirement that all troops be vaccinated for COVID-19, Congress has made it more difficult for the military to maintain good order and discipline within the ranks, said Kori Schake, a defense expert with the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington, D.C.
Schake, who co-authored a book with retired Marine Gen. James Mattis on the civil-military divide, questioned whether lawmakers will now allow service members to treat other vaccines or medical prerequisites required for deployments as optional.
“Americans have begun losing trust and confidence in our military precisely because politicians are dragging the military into partisan political arguments like this,” Schake told Task & Purpose recently. “I think our national security would be better served by letting DOD determine what’s medically necessary.”
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In retrospect, it is clear that the U.S. military underestimated the opposition it would face from the rank and file when the Pentagon announced in December 2020 that troops would soon have the option of getting COVID-19 vaccines, which were initially not mandatory because the vaccines had only been approved for emergency use at the time.
Many service members decided not to get vaccinated for a litany of reasons. Some troops did not trust the vaccines because they were developed so quickly. Officials at Fort Carson, Colorado, also found that soldiers also felt that the voluntary vaccine policy afforded them “the first time I get to tell the Army, NO!”
In August 2021, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced that service members were required to get vaccinated immediately after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.
However, the Pentagon’s vaccine mandate immediately faced opposition from Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and influential conservative commentators, such as Fox News personality Tucker Carlson.
Thousands of troops also requested religious and medical exemptions to the mandatory vaccine policy, but few such exemptions were granted. That prompted several lawsuits that led federal judges to prevent the Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force from separating service members who refused to get vaccinated on religious grounds.
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger recently said that disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines was hurting the military’s recruiting efforts.
“There was not accurate information out early on and it was very politicized and people make decisions and they still have those same beliefs,” Berger told Military.com at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California. “That’s hard to work your way past really hard to work.”
Earlier this month, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) refused to allow the NDAAt to move forward unless it repealed the Pentagon’s COVID-19 vaccine policy. McCarthy is expected to run for speaker of the House in January when Republicans assume control of the House of Representatives.
In the end, Democrats caved to Republican opposition. However, Austin and other top military leaders have continued to insist that the vaccine mandate is necessary.
“The secretary over the weekend was very clear in his comments that he supports continuing and maintaining the vaccine mandate,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said at a Dec. 7 news briefing. “He fully believes this administration believes that the vaccine has done incredible work in terms of saving lives of not just our service members, but people all across the country. And he believes that the health and readiness of our forces is a priority.”
Singh declined to comment on the specifics of the NDAA because it was pending legislation at the time.
NBC News first reported that the military branches could consider allowing troops who were separated for refusing a COVID-19 vaccine to rejoin if they have not received other than honorable discharges.
So far, the Army has separated at least 1,851 soldiers for refusing to get vaccinated; the Department of the Air Force has kicked out 834 service members; the Marine Corps has separated 3,717 Marines; and the Navy has separated 2,041 sailors, officials said.
“Ending the COVID vaccine requirement provides a concrete example of how politicizing the military harms military readiness,” said Risa Brooks, a political science professor at Marquette University in Wisconsin. “Those seeking it are using the military as a wedge issue for partisan gain—appealing to their base at the expense of ensuring all military personnel are prepared to deploy whenever and wherever needed.”
Service members knowingly give up some of their civil liberties when they join the military, including being able to decide which vaccinations they want to get, Brooks told Task & Purpose. Opponents to the vaccine mandate have signaled that troops can decide which rules they want to follow.
“Military leaders need to understand the political climate in which they are operating, but not shy away from doing what is right for the force, and ultimately for the country’s security,” Brooks said.
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Armed members of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) fire howitzer on Bakhmut border front in Donetsk, Ukraine on December 1, 2022. (Leon Klein/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).The Russian military has burned through its munitions stockpiles so quickly since it invaded Ukraine nearly 10 months ago that Russia’s armaments industry cannot keep pace with the need for more artillery shells and rockets.
Next year, Russian forces may have to start using “degraded” shells and rockets, some of which were made more than 40 years ago, a senior military official told reporters at a Dec. 12 briefing.
The Russian military is facing two problems simultaneously: They are firing artillery at extremely high rates and they are also having difficulties producing new munitions, Air Force Brig Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said on Thursday.
“It is important to point out that we do assess that Russia does have a deep inventory of degraded ammunition – artillery – from which they can draw,” Ryder said at a Pentagon news conference. “But, again, the challenge here is: By using older ammunition, you do run into the potential of effectiveness, dud rates, and confidence in whether or not it’s going to explode as expected.”
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Russia’s shortage in new and reliable munitions comes despite a massive military buildup under President Vladimir Putin, who has run the country in one way or another since 2000. During Putin’s reign, Russia’s defense spending has climbed from about $9.2 billion in 2000 to roughly $75 billion in 2022 – a 715% increase. Russia has also announced it expects to spend $84 billion on its military in 2023.
In this handout photo released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service released on Sunday, June 5, 2022. A Pion artillery system of the Russian military fires at a target in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)However, the Russian military has fired so many shells and rockets since it invaded Ukraine in late February that it would cost roughly $92.74 billion to replace the entire range of munitions that have been used, Hlib Parfonov, an analyst with the Jamestown Foundation think tank in Washington, D.C., wrote in a recent article.
The war in Ukraine has shown that modern warfare has an insatiable appetite for munitions. In June, the Russians were firing an estimated 60,000 shells and rockets per day, while Ukraine was firing between 5,000 and 6,000 artillery rounds per day because it needed to conserve shells.
The U.S. military has dug deep into its own stockpiles to send the Ukrainians more than 1 million rounds for 155mm howitzers, 180,000 shells for 105mm howitzers, 130,000 rounds for 120mm mortars, and more than 104 million rounds of small arms ammunition, according to the Defense Department.
Yet Russia continues to unleash a hellish number of shells and rockets on the Ukrainians. As of November, the Russian military was firing up to 20,000 rounds per day in Ukraine, according to the Associated Press.
Since its invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military has been firing its howitzers and multiple launch rocket systems at a rate of 10:1, and sometimes 30:1, said Denys Gurak, the former deputy director general for foreign economic activity with Ukroboronprom, Ukraine’s state-run defense conglomerate.
DONETSK OBLAST, UKRAINE – 2022/11/20: Soldiers from the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade of Ukraine unload munitions from a BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launcher near the frontlines in Donbas, Ukraine. (Laurel Chor/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)The Russian military could have depleted its stocks of quality munitions that were recently produced due to the rate of use and sanctions effect precluding procurement of some components, Gurak told Task & Purpose.
Russia’s defense industrial base may have also inflated the number of shells and rockets stockpiled and recently produced, because of the endemic corruption that existed since Soviet times.
“It might be a case where what’s on paper – it doesn’t exist in real life,” said Gurak, now a senior fellow with the Potomac Foundation, a think tank in Washington, D.C.
The Russian military neither planned nor prepared a high-intensity conflict in Ukraine that would last for months or even years, said retired Marine Col. J.D. Williams, a defense policy researcher with the RAND Corporation.
Russia’s strategy and military force planning before the invasion assumed that conflicts would be short and would not involve extensive ground operations, Williams told Task & Purpose, with Russia’s military planners also assuming that their stockpiles of ammunition and weapons were ample to meet any unexpected problems.
The Russian military also likely depleted its munitions stockpiles somewhat during operations over the past decade in Syria and eastern Ukraine, Williams said.
“But no military in the world today is probably prepared to conduct high-intensity ground combat with high rates of consumption of ammunition, particularly artillery ammunition, over a year-long time frame. Ukraine and its supporters are reportedly coming up against similar constraints with regard to ammunition,” Williams said.
While Russia’s armaments industry is struggling to catch up with the need for more artillery rounds, any country would find it challenging to ramp up munitions production in a short period of time, he said.
The munitions shortage may prove to be temporary as Russia ramps up production of advanced conventional shells and rockets in the coming year, Williams said.
“Production of ammunition is not a particularly sophisticated process and expansion of production would not be inhibited by most of the sanctions since the materials and machinery required for this type of production are readily available to the Russians,” Williams said.
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Ukrainian military assists operator in launching drone from hand on November 11, 2022 in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. (Photo by Elena Tita/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images).The Ukrainian military has stepped up its drone attacks on Russian forces in Crimea in recent months to the point where “everything else is under control” but the skies above the contested peninsula, the region’s Russia-backed governor said on Wednesday.
Speaking to Russian state-run news agency TASS, the long-running Russian-backed governor of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, stated that while the security situation in the peninsula is “stable and controlled,” the main threat to Russian forces comes from Ukrainian drones.
“Our main threat to Crimea is drones, everything else is under full control,” Aksyonov told TASS.
The UAVs “are small in size, have a powerful battery, and sometimes they go not one by one, but in a wave,” he added.
Drone attacks against Russian forces in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, have only increased in recent months. In August, Russian air defenses downed a group of drones over western Crimea; in late November, air defenses warded off a similar pair of drone attacks, one of which allegedly targeted a regional power station.
That Russian forces on the peninsula have been on edge regarding Ukrainian drone assaults in recent months is unsurprising: Aksyonov’s comments come less than two months after a formation of Ukrainian drones carried out a bold attack on Russian warships anchored at the Crimean port of Sevastopol in October.
Indeed, Aksyonov’s comments are notable because the Russia-backed governor “is implying that, apart from a few high profile cases, there have been other attacks, although he’s hinting that air defenses are capable of handling it,” said Sam Bendett, an expert on unmanned systems at the Center for Naval Analyses.
The pressure on the Russian forces in Crimea from the Ukrainian drone campaign “is working if [Aksyonov] has to say it publically on Russian state media,” Bendett told Task & Purpose on Thursday.
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The proliferation of small aerial drones among Ukrainian forces has only accelerated since the Russian invasion in February. The military’s drone fleet includes rotary-wing copters carrying munitions like the near-ubiquitous DJI Mavic series, the fixed-wing Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2, and the U.S.-made AeroVironment Switchblade series of loitering munitions, among others.
While Ukraine’s drone capabilities are now such that the military can easily reach Russian air bases deep inside hostile territory, as it has done multiple times in the last several months, it’s likely the drones that Aksyonov is worrying about are smaller UAVs capable of exposing vulnerabilities in Russian air defenses, said Bendett.
“They’re not very big, they attack in waves, and [Aksyonov] is probably hinting that because they’re small, they’re difficult to see and identify and therefore shoot down,” Bendett said. “He’s basically validating Ukrainian tactics by saying that drones are a threat to installations and infrastructure on the peninsula.”
While previous drone attacks on Russian targets on the peninsula have usually involved one or two drones, Aksyonov’s comment about more recent threats arriving in “waves’ is a new development, Bendett said.
“If solo flights have penetrated Russian air defenses, the waves probably scrambled air defenses altogether and they couldn’t shoot them all down,” Bendett said. “It’s unclear if these other attacks caused more damage, but it is a clear and present threat and one that the Russian military in Crimea is trying to address.”
Such innovation isn’t surprising. Since the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, the Ukrainian defense industrial base has seen a major surge forward in its development of indigenous unmanned aerial vehicles for everything from reconnaissance and surveillance to hauling loitering munitions, mostly thanks to the Ukrainian “Delta Center” command-and-control program established in 2016.
“In the last two years since this organization has been set up, they’ve rapidly advanced from using dirigibles or balloons to do reconnaissance to building their own UAV systems,” then-Lt. Col. Ty Shepard, a U.S. Army National Guardsman advising the Delta Center, told Smithsonian’s Air and Space Magazine in 2018. “And that’s from zero.”
While Aksyonov’s comments are an apparent validation of Ukraine’s burgeoning drone-industrial complex, that doesn’t mean the Russians aren’t letting their guard down when it comes to bolstering air defenses and electronic warfare capabilities, according to Bendett.
In the meantime, the Russian military has another drone threat to worry about: In a delightful troll, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated on Tuesday that the Ukrainian military will now field drones designed explicitly for Russian troops to surrender to — an increasingly common occurrence as Russia’s invasion drags on into winter.
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Soldiers recently tested out newly designed chemical, biological, radiation, and nuclear protection equipment Dec. 8, 2022, at Fort Hood, Texas. (Staff Sgt. Christopher Stewart/U.S. Army).Wearing the equipment that is supposed to protect you from chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear contamination sucks. It just does. Whether you know it as Joint Service Lightweight Integrated Suit Technology (JSLIST) or just as Mission Oriented Protective Posture (MOPP) gear, it’s hot, it’s bulky, and it’s a hassle to carry around when there is little chance that it’s going to be used. It’s also very likely that it won’t match the camouflage pattern of the rest of your uniform. Perhaps a new version of the garments will make all that a little less miserable.
Earlier this month, soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Hood, Texas, took part in some testing of the two-piece undergarment — or 2PUG — that is projected to replace the JSLIST within a few years.
The new gear is designed to be lighter than its predecessor and provide improved fitting and comfort, and better temperature regulation when worn.
“We’re doing simple simulations by having the [trooper] wear the garments and move around in them while we take measurements,” Dr. Todd Garlie, a research anthropologist from U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command said in an Army press release. “It’s critical that we get Soldiers’ feedback on how the garments fit. If you don’t have good fitting equipment, you can’t perform your mission.”
In other words, the training was focused on seeing just how effectively soldiers can move around while wearing the 2PUG, which is important.
A U.S. Army Trooper assigned to the 3rd Cavalry Regiment assumes a kneeling position with a dummy rifle while testing newly designed chemical, biological, radiation, and nuclear protection equipment on Dec. 8, 2022, at Fort Hood, Texas. (Staff Sgt. Christopher Stewart/U.S. Army)As retired Army Col. G.P. Kreuger wrote in the 2012 paper, Advances in Military Textiles and Personal Equipment, “Wearing CPC (chemical protective clothing) adversely affects the performance of tasks involving oral and visual communication, sensory (vision, hearing, kinesthetic, olfactory) and psychomotor activity, rifle marksmanship, aviator flying skills, and others.”
Rather than being an entirely separate set of gear, the 2PUG is designed to integrate into a soldier’s uniform.
“It feels like you’re wearing a thicker set of pajamas,” said Staff Sgt. Zachary Keel, a cavalry scout leader assigned to 4th Squadron, 3d Cavalry Regiment. “I think it’s a big improvement to the JSLIST.”
The Air Force has also been testing a similar set of CBRN equipment. In January 2022, airmen from the 317th Airlift Wing at Dyess Air Force Base in Texas conducted flight operations, testing the functionality and comfortability of the 2PUG.
Should the Army, or its sibling services, move forward with the 2PUG, it would replace the JSLIST, commonly referred to as MOPP gear, currently in use by most troops, which was first fielded in 1997.
No one, other than maybe a few contrarians out there, likes wearing MOPP gear. But if it can become even a little bit more comfortable, maybe even fit a little better and weigh a little less when it is being lugged around, well, that is a net positive. Giving it the appropriate camouflage pattern can probably wait until the next Army uniform change.
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A U.S. Army medical team contributed to an investigation into the cause of death of a Red Panda at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and the findings will ultimately help to protect the endangered species. (Mathias Appel).U.S. Army scientists investigated the death of a rare critter earlier this year: a red panda associated with the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI). The Army scientists were brought in because of their deep expertise in the field of pathogen discovery and microbiology, which the Smithsonian needed to identify what kind of biological agent killed the panda. That information helps protect the red panda worldwide.
“Red pandas are endangered and legally protected in India, Bhutan, China, Nepal and Myanmar,” Dr. Neel Aziz, a veterinary pathologist at the NZCBI, said in an Army press release on Tuesday. “Learning the specific genus and species of pathogens that affect red pandas will help conservation medicine at the wildlife-domestic animal interface and wildlife-human interface.”
It was not immediately clear which red panda had died. In October, CNN reported that Rusty, a red panda who enjoyed 15 minutes of fame in 2013 for escaping the National Zoo and wandering through Washington D.C., had died at the age of 10, though Rusty had been transferred to the Pueblo Zoo in Colorado before his death. Whoever the poor red panda was, the knowledge gained from his or her death “will ultimately help protect the endangered species,” according to the press release.
The Army team included four soldiers and two civilians who conducted transmission electron microscopy studies on tissues from the panda’s brain in order to identify the protozoa there. One of the soldiers, Maj. Mathanraj Packiam, has a doctoral degree in microbiology and immunology, so this was right in his wheelhouse.
“Pathogen discovery or detection of an unknown pathogenic agent in a sample is my passion,” he said in the press release.
Packiam knows his business: according to the press release, the soldier recently passed the American Board of Medical Microbiology exam, a six-and-a-half hour ordeal with 200 multiple choice questions that historically has a 20% success rate for non-fellowship candidates. Packiam’s colleagues in the Ukrainian military even took to calling him “The Professor,” during a 2021 training exercise in diagnostic testing and field identification of biological threat agents.
(From the left) Maj. Mathanraj Packiam, Raina Kumar, Maj. Jeffrey R. Kugelman, Dr. Janice Williams and Lt. Col. Curtis R. Cline stand together at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases on Fort Detrick, Maryland. The U.S. Army team contributed to an investigation into the cause of death of a Red Panda at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) and the findings will ultimately help to protect the endangered species. (Joseph Nieves/U.S. Army)Packiam’s expertise paid off while investigating the death of the red panda. At first, the scientists suspected the pathogenic agent was Toxoplasma gondii, a disease-causing parasite for which cats serve as the most likely source of infection in a zoo setting. But the team discovered that the agent that killed the panda was actually Sarcocystis neurona, for which opossum is the most likely source of infection. With that knowledge the zoo can better protect its red pandas, Packiam explained.
Identifying pathogens is not just helpful for endangered species, it also is a useful skill for defending against biological warfare. After all, it is difficult to fight a threat without knowing what it is and how to defeat it. In fact, identifying threats is the key mission of Packiam’s unit, the 1st Area Medical Laboratory.
“The mission of the AML is to identify and evaluate health hazards in an area of operation through unique laboratory analyses and rapid health hazard assessment of nuclear, biological, chemical, and occupational and environmental health threats,” Army scientists wrote in a 2016 paper about the 1st AML’s response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak.
The print on the 1st Area Medical Laboratory’s unit patch reads, “Mad Scientist,” and was on display during a change of command ceremony, which welcomed Col. Matthew Grieser as the new commander, July 23, 2021, at the Mallett Auditorium on Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. The 1st AML is the U.S. Army’s only active duty deployable laboratory for theater level validation of Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear agents. (Marshall R. Mason/U.S. Army)“Identification of unknown etiological agents in the sample plays an important role both as a clinical microbiologist working in hospital as well as a subject matter expert working towards theater-level validation for the 1st Area Medical Laboratory,” said Packiam, who also serves as officer-in-charge of bio-surveillance at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, the Army’s center for researching medical countermeasures against biological warfare.
Though national security news today often deals with high-tech weapons such as hypersonic missiles, loitering munitions and even laser rifles, the World Health Organization still considers biological agents to be a serious concern, with an increasing risk of terrorists using them in an attack. Those kinds of threats are what Packiam and other experts at 1st AML are meant to help stop, said Col. Matthew J. Grieser, the unit commander, in a September press release.
“We have a world class team here that is capable of working together with joint, interagency and allied forces to confront and defeat the most dangerous hazards in the most austere conditions,” Grieser said.
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The U.S. Army designated Mr. Sean Patrick Astin as a Civilian Aide Emeritus to the Secretary of the Army during a ceremony on Dec. 13, 2022, at the Pentagon. (U.S. Army Photo by Sgt. David Resnick).Sean Astin, who you may know from playing the hobbit Samwise Gamgee in a small trio of 2000s-era films known as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, was recently named as a Civilian Aide Emeritus to the Secretary of the Army, the service announced on Dec. 13.
Astin previously served as a Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army from 1995 to 2005, representing the state of California.
“For 27 years I’ve been proud to celebrate the men and women of the United States Army,” Astin said in an Army press release. “To receive the honor of becoming a Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army Emeritus fills me with a renewed sense of mission. In particular, in 2023 I hope to support the recruiting command with creativity and purpose as the nation looks to grow the next generation of leaders. People need to know they have what it takes to serve in the Army, and I want to help them understand what’s possible.”
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The role of civilian aides is generally to advise and support Army leadership and promote good relations between the Army and the communities they represent in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the five U.S. territories. That can include speaking at public events, helping with recruiting efforts, or working with the Soldier For Life Transition Program. Just about anyone can be nominated for the job as long as they have “an interest in the Army, a high degree of business and civic leadership, and an ability to influence the public.”
The program was started in 1922 by then Secretary of War John Weeks. Most of the time, these aides are retired officers or prominent businessmen. In Astin’s case, though, he is known for his work on the big screen.
While Astin first held the position from 1995 to 2005, ‘emeritus’ is essentially a lifetime designation. And while they don’t draw a salary, for protocol purposes civilian aides are given 3-star status, which is quite the promotion for Frodo Baggins’ assistant.
“I am pleased to bestow the honorary title of CASA emeritus to Sean Astin in recognition of his many selfless years of service to the Army,” Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said in a press release. “Sean previously served as a CASA for California from 1995-2005, and he continues to advocate for our Soldiers today. This honorary title recognizes his contributions and symbolizes our pledge to continue to work together to help tell our great Army story! We look forward to continue working with Sean.”
Astin has over 160 acting credits over a four-decade career as an actor, producer, and director, and in addition to his role in the Lord of the Rings trilogy is most well known for his appearances as Mikey in The Goonies, Rudy in Rudy, and, more recently, Netflix’s Stranger Things.
In 2017, he wrote on Facebook of his time as a civilian aide that he “attended services of many kinds and visited with wounded warriors at Walter Reed and other places.”
“On a lighter note, I have a collection of over 50 so-called “Challenge Coins” put in my hands by many officers, of many ranks, as well as civilian leaders and others from across the United States Armed Forces commands and posts,” he wrote. “I’ve visited with many soldiers and their families, in good times and in bad.”
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A U.S. Air Force security forces raven, assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, assists qualified evacuees boarding a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III in support of Operation Allies Refuge at Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA), Afghanistan, Aug. 22, 2021 (Senior Airman Brennen Lege/U.S. Air Force).Many airmen are familiar with the saying “regulations are written in blood,” which reminds them to follow safety regulations or suffer the consequences. But in extraordinary circumstances, sometimes the safety regs must be put aside in order to accomplish the mission. The crew of the Air Force C-17 transport jet callsign Reach 651 found themselves in such circumstances while in the air over Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar on Aug. 22, 2021.
“It is completely against protocol,” Senior Airman Kimberly Heiser told Task & Purpose about what she and her crew had to do that day. “That is not something we’ve ever done.”
It was in the middle of Operation Allies Refuge (OAR), the massive U.S. military effort to evacuate more than 124,000 people out of Kabul, Afghanistan during the last days of the United States’ longest war there. Heiser and the seven other airmen aboard Reach 651 received the Distinguished Flying Cross at Travis Air Force Base, California on Friday for their efforts during the operation.
Reach 651 was among more than a hundred other C-17 crews charged with moving the evacuees, often by squeezing 450 or more people on each flight.
Afghan evacuees board a U.S. military aircraft during Operation Allies Refuge, Aug. 19. 2021 (Staff Sgt. Brandon Cribelar/U.S. Air Force)The security situation was tenuous: intelligence analysts warned the aircrew that there could be an imminent attack on the airfield at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, possibly in the form of suicide bombers. In response, the airmen aboard Reach 651 followed procedure by searching every evacuee prior to boarding. Each airman had a role: Staff Sgt. E-Quantay Mason and Airman 1st Class Jeremy Eda were “ravens,” the term for security forces airmen (the Air Force equivalent of military police) who undergo special training to provide security on Air Force aircraft.
The ravens and other aircrew searched the evacuees, who were then guided to their places on the cargo bay deck by the loadmasters, Heiser and Senior Airman Matthew Williams. During OAR, airmen laid down a tarp on the cargo deck for evacuees to sit down on and hold onto cargo straps that Heiser and Williams had laid out in rows across the deck. There were more than 450 passengers onboard, including dozens of parent-less children.
For perspective, the C-17 cargo compartment has about 1,584 square feet of space, which meant each passenger had less than 3.5-square-feet of space: about 2-square-feet fewer than what passengers can expect in economy seating aboard many commercial airliners, according to the Michigan Journal of Economics. However, unlike commercial airliners, there were no seats for evacuees aboard the C-17, no individual air conditioning vents and only one small lavatory at the nose end of the compartment.
“Most jets only had one bathroom so some people used the cargo floor,” one C-17 pilot told Task & Purpose shortly after OAR. “I don’t blame them. Terrible set up.”
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The comparison to commercial airliners, which many Americans already find a stressful experience, is meant to highlight the challenges both evacuees and airmen faced during OAR. A massive cultural and linguistic gap between the airmen and their passengers made the situation even more difficult. While there was an interpreter aboard Reach 651, Heiser said she did not have the best grasp of English, and the passengers did not take her seriously because she was a woman.
“It was a struggle to have our interpreter respected or even heard,” she said. “As a female crew member, I also was not treated very well, and it’s again a cultural difference.”
A view inside an Air Force C-17 transporting Afghan evacuees during Operation Allies Refuge. (Staff Sgt. Brandon Cribelar/U.S. Air Force)The conditions and the cultural differences came to a boiling point when Reach 651 arrived in the airspace over Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar. There were so many aircraft landing at the air base that it caused a traffic jam in the sky, with planes like Reach 651 having to hold in the air “for as long as possible,” according to Capt. Audrey Imperial, the master of ceremonies at the award ceremony on Friday.
But there was a problem: Reach 651 was running out of gas. The aircrew flew the jet towards an aerial refueling tanker, but on the way, a passenger who Imperial described as “a 16-year-old mother,” began convulsing and soon fell unconscious. Heiser recalled being in the cockpit when she heard Williams notice a crowd of people gathering at the back of the cargo compartment.
“They seemed distressed,” Heiser said. “That’s when I ran downstairs and tried climbing my way past people.”
The airmen needed some space to try to stabilize the woman, so the aircraft commander, Maj. Drew Dela Cruz, gave them permission to carry her upstairs into the cockpit. This was a major breach in protocol, but there was no other choice, Heiser explained.
“It’s definitely frowned upon,” she said. “But given the condition of the woman, we had no other option, especially with the men getting agitated.”
It may have been more difficult for the passengers to understand what was happening due to the language and culture barrier.
“They just saw one of their own going up and convulsing and unconscious,” Heiser said. “I think that, the fear from everything and then the language barrier, just contributed to so much stress.”
A view inside an Air Force C-17 transporting Afghan evacuees during Operation Allies Refuge. (Staff Sgt. Brandon Cribelar/U.S. Air Force)One thing may have helped ease the tension: Heiser herself. Female U.S. service members played a key role throughout the war in Afghanistan because they were often the only ones who were allowed to speak with Afghan women under local cultural rules. Female Engagement Teams collected intelligence, coordinated medical care for women, and, when the shooting started, fought and died alongside their male peers patrolling with them. Heiser was the sole female member of the aircrew aboard Reach 651, and the situation could have been worse without her there.
“I’m grateful that a woman was on the crew,” she said. “I think it would have gone a lot differently if one of the men were forced to administer aid.”
Even so, two Afghan men “aggressively forced their way to the front of the cargo compartment and attempted to gain entry into the flight deck,” Imperial said. One of the loadmasters, Senior Airman Williams, pulled away one man while one of the ravens, Staff Sgt. Mason “physically restrained the other man at the bottom of the stairs.”
The fact that the airmen used nonlethal force in such dangerous circumstances was its own act of valor, Imperial said.
“The decision to not use lethal force to protect the cockpit demonstrated an extraordinary restraint by the aircrew, as they were briefed to use all means necessary to prevent Afghans from gaining entry to the flight deck,” she said. “This action protected the lives of the aircrew, the safety of the aircraft and the lives of all 450 passengers floor-loaded on the aircraft.”
Maj. Dela Cruz shared that opinion.
“I am extremely proud of my crew for their tireless efforts throughout the mission to ensure the flight deck was secure,” the C-17 pilot said in a press release. “The extremely good judgment they used and their calculated actions during chaos was crucial.”
U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III pilots, assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, flies a mission in support of the Afghanistan evacuation over the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, Aug. 24, 2021. (Master Sgt. Donald R. Allen/U.S. Air Force)Meanwhile, inside the cockpit one of the pilots, 1st Lt. Ryan Corvin, barricaded the door, and one of the aircrew stood ready with a service pistol in case of a breach, Imperial said. Heiser was focused on her unexpected role as caregiver for the young mother, who was still convulsing.
“I was trying to hold her down and I didn’t really have a thought in my mind about what was happening downstairs,” she said. “My goal was to make sure she was okay.”
Heiser did not know exactly what malady the woman was suffering from, though she and her crewmates believe it was heat stroke. Heiser removed some of the woman’s clothes to try to cool her down while the interpreter tried to ease the tension outside the cockpit. She assured the evacuees that the woman was receiving medical care and urged them to remain calm.
Given the tense security picture and the 16-year-old’s unstable condition, Dela Cruz declared a medical emergency and took the C-17 down for a landing. The problems did not end with the flight, however. Since the airfield was so crowded with planes, the crew received “multiple unsafe taxi instructions,” that could have put the aircraft in danger, Imperial said. One of the pilots, Maj. Alexander Arcidiacono, managed to coordinate a safe route that also led to medics boarding Reach 651 faster. They whisked away the mother, but the rest of the passengers and aircrew had to settle in for a long wait in the traffic jam in a desert air base in late August.
“The loadmasters provided bottles of water, but tensions began to rise as heat inside the aircraft rose towards 100 degrees Fahrenheit,” Imperial said. “The passengers began yelling, causing alarm among the security forces on the ground.”
Imperial said the crew of Reach 651 worked fast to coordinate with nearby security and logistics troops so they could offload the remaining passengers. In a situation rife with stress and uncertainty, where even the most fundamental rules had to be broken, the crew’s experience working together throughout OAR likely helped avert disaster.
“It was definitely hard, but we understood our personalities enough to keep each other calm, and that kept most passengers calm in return,” Heiser recalled. “I think, having one another there and these familiar faces …. you’re able to calm each other down. Definitely grateful for the crew I was granted.”
U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. E-Quantay Mason, left, Phoenix Raven with REACH 651, and Maj. Drew Dela Cruz, C-17 pilot and REACH 651 aircraft commander, share a moment before receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross from Maj. Gen. Corey Martin, 18th Air Force commander, at Travis Air Force Base, California, Dec. 9, 2022. (Nicholas Pilch/U.S. Air Force) Still, Heiser regrets never finding out what happened to the young mother she found herself caring for.
“I think that was the hardest part of all this, just helping all these people out, seeing them in distress for a few hours and then never seeing them again,” she said “I hope she’s okay. We never found out. It was just so chaotic.”
More than a year later, the events of August 22, 2021, are still sinking in.
“In the moment you don’t really think about it: You’re just doing your job, you’re just trying to help a woman in distress out, you’re just taking every task one by one,” Heiser said after the ceremony on Friday. ”Now listening to the citation, it’s surreal to think ‘oh wow that’s actually what we did in the moment.’”
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A US Marine drops a grenade down a stairwell to clear a lower floor of insurgents on November 25, 2004 in Fallujah, Iraq. (Scott Peterson/Getty Images).The Navy is honoring the Marines and other U.S. service members who fought in two of the most well-known battles of the Iraq war by naming a new America-class amphibious assault ship USS Fallujah, officials have announced.
Slated to be completed by 2029, USS Fallujah will commemorate both the first and second battles for the western Iraqi city in 2004: Operation Vigilant Resolve and Operation Phantom Fury.
The Fallujah will join other Navy warships named for famous battles in Marine Corps history, including USS Iwo Jima, Peleliu, and Hue City.
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Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said it was an honor to commemorate the Marines, sailors, soldiers, and coalition partners who gave their lives during both battles for Fallujah.
“This namesake deserves to be in the pantheon of iconic Marine Corps battles and the LHA’s [amphibious assault ship’s] unique capabilities will serve as a stark reminder to everyone around the world of the bravery, courage, and commitment to freedom displayed by those who fought in the battle,” Del Toro said on Tuesday.
Marines move back to the front line after 48 hours of rest at their base on November 20, 2004 in Fallujah, Iraq. (Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images)Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, who led the 1st Marine Division during the first battle for Fallujah and was involved in planning the second battle for the city, told Task & Purpose that USS Fallujah is a worthy name for a Navy warship that takes Marines to their next fight.
Fallujah was “an emblematic fight” during the Iraq war, Mattis said on Wednesday. However, he cautioned against trying to rate how Fallujah ranks with past Marine Corps battles because each one is unique.
“For the Marine who’s pinned down in a firefight, that’s his Iwo Jima,” Mattis said. “The fact is it was a very hard-fought fight, and as usual — at cost to young men — we prevailed.”
Naming an amphibious assault ship for the Fallujah battles serves as a tribute to the troops who fought there and the Gold Star families who lost loved ones, and it also sends a message to Marines and sailors who will board the ship in the future, Mattis said.
“It’s a reminder to them that they’re not going to face anything worse than what Marines have faced in their past,” Mattis said. “And they’ll be able to overcome it themselves, but it’s going to be rough.”
A U.S. Marine from the 3/5 Lima company points his rifle at a building as it burns in the restive city of Fallujah,14 November 2004, 50 kms west of Baghdad, Iraq. (Patrick Baz/AFP via Getty Images)Retired Navy Capt. Jerry Hendrix said he was happy that a warship will bear the name USS Fallujah. When he was the director of Naval History and Heritage Command several years ago, the Navy decided against naming a ship for the battle because the Iraq war was still ongoing.
“The fact that we’re doing it now is definitely well deserved in keeping with the traditions of the service that we would name ships after famous battles in which our Marines have participated,” Hendrix said on Wednesday. “So, I’m delighted.”
The first phase of the battle commenced after four Blackwater contractors were murdered in Fallujah on March 31, 2004. The I Marine Expeditionary Force was soon ordered to launch an offensive against insurgents in the city, but the operation was called off due to protests from Iraqi politicians. U.S. troops transferred security to an Iraqi unit, which fell apart and Fallujah came under the control of Al Qaeda.
Years later, Mattis said that the decision to halt the first attack on Fallujah was made for reasons “that had nothing to do with the tactical situation on the ground.”
“I was concerned to a degree if the Marines would lose confidence in their leadership because of it,” Mattis said in an October 2016 video. “They didn’t. I still recall a young SAW gunner being interviewed by a television crew, talking about how terrible he must feel that he was being ordered out of the city. He was a slow-talking Marine from down South. He just calmly looked into the camera and said: ‘Doesn’t matter. We’ll just hunt ‘em down somewhere else and kill ‘em.’”
The second phase of the battle for Fallujah lasted between Nov. 7 and Dec. 23, 2004, during which more than 100 coalition forces were killed and roughly 600 were wounded.
“Operation Phantom Fury is considered the bloodiest engagement of the Iraq War and the fiercest urban combat involving U.S. Marines since the Vietnam War’s Battle of Hue City,” a Navy news release says.
The second battle of Fallujah produced one of the most iconic images of the entire Iraq war when photographer Lucian Read, captured the moment when now-retired Marine Sgt. Maj. Bradley Kasal was coming out of a house while being supported by two other Marines. Kasal, who was severely wounded in the bitter fight, was later awarded the Navy Cross.
While Marines and other U.S. troops were able to take Fallujah, it was another three years before the tide of the Iraq war turned decisively against Al Qaeda. Army Capt. Travis Patriquin helped to develop a new strategy for how the U.S. military could deal with tribal leaders in Iraq’s western Anbar province that proved to be successful. Tragically, Patriquin was killed on Dec. 6, 2006, along with Marine Maj. Megan McClung when a roadside bomb destroyed their Humvee in Ramadi.
For many Americans, Fallujah will always be synonymous with the hard fighting that U.S. troops faced in Iraq. Both battles yielded numerous stories of heroism by American service members, such as Lance Cpl. Mike Hanks, who ran into a kill zone several times to rescue a wounded Marine and Iraq soldier. Hanks, who was killed on Nov. 17, 2004, was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for his bravery.
Just announced: the America-class amphibious assault ship, LHA-9, will be named USS Fallujah.
At Fallujah, #Marines and coalition forces defeated a determined enemy. The USS Fallujah will serve as a reminder to our Nation and its foes why the @USMC is the world’s finest.
— David H. Berger (@CMC_MarineCorps) December 13, 2022
Fifteen years after Operation Phantom Fury, Army Staff Sgt. David Bellavia became the first living Iraq war veteran to be awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery against insurgents in November 2004. He single-handedly killed five insurgents while clearing a house.
“A crazy day ended,” Bellavia told Task & Purpose in 2019, “And we went on to the next crazy fight, and there were plenty of those for the rest of the time we were in Fallujah.”
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The Army is investigating a number of social media posts that appear to show soldiers wearing dog-themed bondage masks in uniform. (Screenshot via Twitter).Multiple soldiers are under investigation for indiscreet activity while in uniform. Specifically, posting photos of themselves wearing dog-themed bondage masks while in uniform.
As reported by USA Today, the images — many of which first appeared on social media on Dec. 9 — depict “male soldiers in uniform, or parts of uniforms, wearing dog masks, leather and chains. Some of the photos depict poses of submission and sexual acts. Another photo shows a soldier in combat fatigues wearing the dog mask on an airfield.”
Maj. Jonathan Lewis, a spokesperson for U.S. Army Pacific — the soldiers are purportedly based in Hawaii — told Task & Purpose that the command “is aware of content found on social media reflecting soldiers’ activities while wearing uniforms. The incident is currently under investigation.”
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Though the Army would not confirm to Task & Purpose which photos they were investigating or how many soldiers were involved, a number of screenshots from social media accounts have made the rounds online and appear to show different soldiers in uniform wearing dog bondage masks. One, in particular, shows a colonel in his dress uniform in a pose staged similarly to a routine official photo — the kind used on official bio pages — albeit with a leather face mask. Others show Army officers in uniform posing both indoors and outdoors while wearing similar masks. It’s unclear exactly when or where the photos were taken, and it is also unclear if all of the soldiers are still in the Army — a photo of the colonel in his dress uniform and dog mask included a caption on social media saying that he was retiring.
Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesperson, deferred questions about the investigation to the Army on Tuesday.
The Army Office of the Chief of Public Affairs wrote to Task & Purpose that, “All U.S. Army soldiers are expected to uphold high standards of personal conduct and to avoid discrediting the service and the uniform, both in person and across social media.”
According to USA Today, internal military emails say that the photos in question may have been taken in the gym at a military base in Hawaii. Those emails reportedly describe the social media reaction to the photos as “hyper politicized.”
Should the investigation determine that the photos constitute inappropriate behavior, the soldiers in question could certainly be subject to military discipline. Article 133 of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice covers conduct unbecoming, and states that “Any commissioned officer, cadet, or midshipman who is convicted of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.”
Article 134 covers everything else, as it refers to “all disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces.”
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The Army has awarded General Dynamics Land Systems a $1.14 billion contract to produce 96 Mobile Protected Firepower vehicles. (U.S. Army).The Army’s Mobile Protected Firepower vehicles are in many ways smaller, lighter versions of the service’s M1 Abrams main battle tanks, and are designed to give light infantry and airborne units more muscle in combat.
“Light infantry, as you know, has only got so much firepower,” Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Task & Purpose. “So, you gotta give them something to be able to shoot, move, and communicate and protect themselves — protect our soldiers so they don’t get killed on a battlefield.”
Milley talked to Task & Purpose at Saturday’s Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia about how the Army needs to have a vehicle that is light enough to be flown into combat zones to support infantry units.
M1 Abrams main battle tanks, which weigh 70 tons, are so heavy that they are usually sent to Europe, South Korea, and elsewhere by ship, and that takes about two weeks, not including the time to get the tanks on and off ships, Milley said.
“One of the things we decided we needed to do was to upgrade our armor systems for light infantry and also for deployability, and that’s where Mobile Protected Firepower comes out,” Milley said. “It’s a light enough vehicle, rapidly deployable, it can project power with airborne or light infantry forces.”
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At 38 tons, MPF vehicles are designed to be light enough so that two can fit on an Air Force C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft.
Task & Purpose Deputy Editor James Clark spoke with Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about the Army’s Mobile Protected Firepower vehicles at the Dec. 10, 2022 Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia. (James Clark/Task & Purpose)That means two C-17 transport aircraft can transport a platoon of MPF vehicles to provide rapid support for Army units such as the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), 82nd Airborne Division, 10th Mountain Division, and 25th Infantry Division said Milley, who added that MPF vehicles feature a 105 mm main gun that has “enough punch” to destroy enemy armored vehicles.
It has been 25 years since the Army retired its last M551 Sheridan light tanks, which weighed only 17 tons, so they could be flown in an Air Force C-130 transport plane or airdropped to support airborne units. Initially, the Army tried to replace its Sheridan tanks with the Stryker Mobile Gun System, but the service abandoned that program in May 2021.
In June, the Army awarded General Dynamics a $1.14 billion contract to build and field the first 96 Mobile Protected Firepower vehicles. Army units are expected to receive the first vehicles in late fiscal 2025.
MPF vehicles share many commonalities with the larger M1 Abrams main battle tanks. Both are built by General Dynamics and are configured to have three crew members in the body and one in the turret.
The vehicles are so similar that Abrams tank crew members can be trained to learn how to operate an MPF vehicle very quickly, said Army Lt. Col. Peter George, product manager for Mobile Protected Firepower.
“One of the benefits of this platform is it’s incredibly common with the Abrams,” said George, who also spoke to Task & Purpose at Saturday’s Army-Navy Game. “You take a 19K tank crewman; you train them on an Abrams, you get them set on an Abrams, and then you do a short transition where they can pick this vehicle up, move into the formation, and then work that teaming with infantry soldiers. “
Right now, the Army’s plan is that soldiers who operate MPF vehicles will attend the U.S. Army Armor School at Fort Benning Georgia to train in the same Military Occupational Specialty as M1 Abrams crews, George told Task & Purpose in a follow-up email.
But MPF vehicles are not exactly miniature versions of M1 Abrams main battle tanks, George said via email. One key difference is that MPF vehicles are not designed to get into battles with main battle tanks, George said. The vehicles’ 105mm gun is meant to destroy enemy bunkers and other fortifications as well as other similarly armored vehicles.
“It has a different mission profile and won’t officially be called a tank in its vehicle nomenclature,” George said. “It is an asset to assist the infantry with increased direct firepower to complete their assigned mission.”
Task & Purpose Deputy Editor James Clark contributed reporting for this story.
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Members of the of the 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron assist patients on a C-17 Globemaster III medical transport flight out of Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, March 21, 2013. (Senior Airman Chris Willis/U.S. Air Force).Time seemed to stand still for a moment as Air Force Maj. Katelyn Dunahoe took in the dire situation.
The flight nurse had just landed at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan on the night of August 26, 2021, just a few hours after a suicide bomber at the airport’s Abbey Gate killed 13 U.S. service members and 160 civilians and injured many more. After landing on a darkened runway where the pilots used night vision goggles to find their way, Dunahoe’s C-17 transport jet, callsign Moose 98, became the first to respond to the attack. As injured Marines, soldiers, sailors and civilians came aboard, the major knew she and her fellow aerial medical evacuation airmen had their work cut out for them.
“I felt like time kind of froze for a minute,” Dunahoe told Task & Purpose. “Then you just go into gear. You train for this, you develop a plan and you have to execute.”
Dunahoe and the 18 other members of Moose 98 — whose ranks included pilots, loadmasters, flight nurses, aeromedical evacuation technicians and a critical care air transport team — received the Distinguished Flying Cross on Friday for their efforts to keep more than two dozen severely wounded U.S. service members and Afghan civilians alive on the flight from Kabul to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany in the wake of the bombing.
The 19 airmen received the medals at a ceremony at Travis Air Force Base, California, where eight other airmen also received the DFC for safely handling an attempted hijacking that took place during their evacuation flight, callsign Reach 651.
Both missions took place during Operation Allies Refuge (OAR), the massive effort to evacuate more than 124,000 people from Afghanistan during the last week of the U.S. war there.
U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Corey Martin, left, 18th Air Force commander, Col. Derek Salmi, right, 60th Air Mobility Wing commander, and recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross stand for a group photo after a ceremony at Travis Air Force Base, California, Dec. 9, 2022 (Chustine Minoda/U.S. Air Force)The airmen at Travis are the latest in a long line of Air Mobility Command members to receive the DFC, which is awarded “for heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight,” according to the Air Force. In October the command announced that it would award 96 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 12 Bronze Star Medals, and one Gallant Unit Citation to its airmen for their work during OAR. More than a year later, the memories of that intense mission are still fresh for many service members.
“When the letters ‘O’ ‘A’ ‘R’ are strung together, you probably can immediately smell again the results of too much humanity in too confined a space for too long of a time, or you can feel the sweat between your shoulder blades dripping down your back because of the excessive heat and the stress, “ said Maj. Gen. Corey Martin, commander of the 18th Air Force, of which the Travis-based 60th Air Mobility Wing is a component, at the ceremony.
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While most of the Air Force missions in and out of Kabul during OAR involved transporting hundreds of evacuees to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar or other locations around the Persian Gulf, Moose 98 stood out because it responded directly to a mass casualty event where the aerial medical crews and aircrew had to keep a large number of seriously-injured patients alive aboard not just an intercontinental flight, but also amid turbulence that Dunahoe described as much more intense compared to what most passengers experience aboard a civilian airliner.
The U.S. military has two decades of experience performing long-haul flights with patients severely wounded by improvised explosive devices and other weapons during the Global War on Terror. But mass casualty events with more than a dozen patients such as those injured by Abbey Gate do not occur as often. Indeed, this was Dunahoe’s first mass casualty event — and the challenges began to pile up before Moose 98 even took off from Al Udeid.
The aircrew sought to fill the C-17’s gas tanks up to its maximum fuel load ahead of the long mission. To gas up faster, Tech Sgt. Michael Raucci, the flying crew chief, hooked the jet to two fuel trucks at the same time, an uncommon procedure that helped save time “in a dynamic situation where seconds could make the difference between life or death,” Capt. Audrey Imperial, the master of ceremonies at Travis, said on Friday.
Thanks to the contributions of Raucci and other airmen, Moose 98 took off an hour and 32 minutes ahead of schedule. The scene they landed in felt like something out of a film, one airman said.
“I remember it felt like a movie. Like when you see those war movies with the litter patients coming on and the red lights. There were tracers, flares, fires and gunshots going off,” Senior Airman Alexis Sanchez, C-17 loadmaster with Moose 98, said in a press release. “I remember being like, ‘Is this real?’”
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — AUGUST 26, 2021: British soldiers secure the perimeter outside the Baron Hotel, near the Abbey Gate, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021. (MARCUS YAM / LOS ANGELES TIMES)The medical team worked quickly to triage patients, transport them onto the aircraft and transfer all the necessary care information. At one point, Tech Sgt. Matthew Keefer, an aeromedical evacuation technician “commandeered a vehicle” to get patients onto the C-17 more quickly, Imperial said. But it was still a chaotic situation, as walking wounded patients sometimes showed up to the jet without warning in tattered clothes and missing shoes.
Adding more complexity was the arrival of several unexpected pediatric patients, who Air Force medical teams do not typically encounter downrange, Dunahoe explained. To make matters worse, Moose 98 had only one critical care air transport team (CCATT) kit, each of which can support three severely-injured patients. The CCATTs aboard Moose 98 would have to make it work for at least twice that number.
“Our critical air transport team did really well and managed the supplies, and we were able to take a flight over 8 hours with what we had, which is really amazing,” Dunahoe said.
U.S. Air Force Airmen from the 379th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron provide medical care on a C-17 Globemaster III over the skies of U.S. Central Command, Aug. 26, 2021. (Air Force courtesy photo submitted by Capt. Katie Lunning)The patients were in dire straits; they included a female Marine who broke into convulsions and vomiting due to traumatic brain and chest injuries; a male Marine who could not survive a cabin altitude above 5,000 feet due to a critically-bleeding chest injury; a child with a skull fracture, a foreign national with “massive internal bleeding” and other serious cases, Imperial said. Dunahoe herself saved a walking wounded Marine from a fatal hemorrhage by “reinforcing a gunshot wound to the shoulder that was actively bleeding,” Imperial said.
The flight nurse was struck by the selflessness of the service members under her team’s care. She saw Marines, sailors and soldiers try to help each other out and offer litter space to others despite their own grave conditions.
“I would say, ‘hey I’m going to set out a litter for you to lay down in,’ and they would say ‘No, I want him to have it,’” Dunahoe recalled. “Little things like that made me stop and think ‘wow, we really do have the best military in the world.’”
Transferring all those severely injured patients took time and delayed Moose 98’s departure by two hours, which left the aircraft’s still-running engines short of the fuel it needed to fly all the way to Germany. The sun was rising as the C-17 finally took off and headed west, shortly before a barrage of rockets hit Hamid Karzai International Airport, Imperial said. It was a long flight, made longer by the requirement to stay below 5,000 feet cabin altitude. While cabin altitude does not necessarily equate to the aircraft’s actual altitude, keeping a lower cabin altitude often requires flying lower than usual. That means the aircrew had less flexibility to dodge thunderstorms or other turbulence.
On the way to Landstuhl, the Moose 98 medical team had to think fast to keep their patients alive. At one point, Master Sgt. Matthew Newman, a CCATT respiratory technician, saw the blood oxygen levels were too low for a Marine who had undergone open chest surgery.
“With Sergeant Newman’s quick thinking and resourcefulness, he expertly reconfigured chest tubes and added a second suction machine, preventing life-threatening complications,” Imperial said.
A critical care air transport team tends to a patient during a 20-hour direct flight from Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan to San Antonio, Texas, Aug. 18, 2019. (Airman 1st Class Ryan Mancuso / Air Force))Other medical team members transferred blood, resuscitated patients, kept ventilation machines running, recorded vitals, and generally worked nonstop the entire flight to keep their charges alive. It helped that the C-17 is the military’s flying hospital of choice. Also known as ‘the Moose,’ the C-17 has ample space, built-in attachments for central oxygen, and electrical systems allowing airmen to reconfigure the cargo bay to suit the needs of up to 74 patients with a wide range of conditions. The cargo bays also have bright lights, heat, air conditioning and, perhaps most important in a military operation, “the ability to serve warm coffee,” according to a 2019 press release.
But the Moose is still an aircraft, and aircraft run into turbulence, which makes delicate medical procedures much more difficult.
“It’s hard enough taking care of patients in the hospital,” Dunahoe said. “Now imagine when you take off on a commercial plane, but even more exacerbated, and having to manage equipment and patients and make sure their vitals are good.”
The trauma patients, already hurting, have to endure more hardship due to the shaking and vibrations, the flight nurse added. Some of the worst turbulence occurred during takeoff, landing, and a mid-air refueling the C-17 received over the Black Sea from a KC-135 tanker scrambled out of Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, about 15 hours after the mission had first started in Qatar. The turbulence got so bad that several members of the medical team had to tie themselves to the litters so they could keep caring for patients. Dunahoe said the eight or nine-hour flight was both the longest and shortest of her life.
“It felt long and fast at the same time,” she said. “We were busy the whole time so it kind of went fast, but I was worried the whole time, making sure everybody is breathing, making sure nobody is in pain, making sure everybody is getting what they need, solving problems on the go, making sure we have enough medicine to last the whole time, things like that.”
Members of the of the 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron assist patients on a C-17 Globemaster III medical transport flight out of Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, March 21, 2013. (Senior Airman Chris Willis/U.S. Air Force)But despite all the challenges facing them — the long flight, the limited supplies, the turbulence and the severity of the patients’ wounds — the crew and medical team on Moose 98 did their jobs: they successfully delivered all their patients to Landstuhl alive.
“This crew’s remarkable courage, extraordinary efforts and exceptionally meritorious achievement performed under combat conditions goes well beyond what is typically expected of them,” Imperial said.
Still, the aeromedical evacuation mission to Landstuhl was not the end for the crew of Moose 98. Less than a day after landing in Germany, Dunahoe and the other airmen got on another flight to help with the rest of OAR. Looking back more than a year later, the flight nurse said she still thinks about the Marines, sailors and soldiers under her care that day, and she hopes they are doing well. The intense experience is still sinking in for her.
“Sometimes I look back and I’m like ‘wow, I can’t believe that happened,’” she said. “I can’t believe I was a part of something so amazing and bigger than myself. It was just awesome to have been around such amazing crew members. Sometimes it seems surreal.”
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Russian 2S19 howitzers from the Western Military District's 138th Motorized Rifle Brigade fire during a training exercise at the Luga training area in Leningrad in this undated photo. (Russian Ministry of Defense).Russia is not even a year into its invasion of Ukraine and its military is already running low on ammunition, forcing commanders to dip into stockpiles of munitions produced more than four decades ago, a senior U.S. military official said on Monday.
Speaking during a background briefing on the Defense Department’s assessment of the ongoing war in Ukraine, the senior military official was asked to elaborate on comments from Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines earlier in December, who said that Russia was depleting its munitions stockpiles “quite quickly” and turning to allies in North Korea and Iran to replenish its arsenal.
“It’s really pretty extraordinary, and our own sense is that they are not capable of indigenously producing what they are expending at this stage,” Haines said during an event at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Dec. 4. “That’s why you see them going to other countries, effectively, to try to get ammunition.”
The senior military official echoed Haines’ comments, stating that Russia’s stockpile of “fully serviceable and rocket ammunition” is “rapidly dwindling” and that the military would only be able to sustain its current rate of fire until “early 2023”
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The resulting munitions drain “is probably forcing them to increasingly use ammunition in what we would consider degraded conditions,” the senior military official said, adding that the U.S. military has seen evidence that Russian forces are utilizing “older” ammo, “some of which was originally produced more than 40 years ago.”
This shortage “essentially puts Russian forces in a position to have to make a choice about what risks it’s willing to accept in terms of increased failure rates, unpredictable performance and whether or not these degraded munitions would require any type of refurbishment,” the senior military official said. “You load the ammunition and you cross your fingers and hope it’s going to fire, or when it lands that it’s going to explode.”
Despite leaning on Iran and North Korea for additional munitions support, the Russian military “will very likely struggle to replenish its reserve of fully serviceable artillery and rocket ammunition through foreign suppliers, increased domestic production and refurbishment,” the senior military official added.
While news of the Russian munition shortage may appear a telling detail in the context of an invasion marred by poor logistics and low morale, the rapid rate of ammo consumption is not unique to the Russian military in the conflict. According got U.S. officials, both Russia and Ukraine are burning through ammo “at a rate not seen since the Korean War” as NBC News reported in November.
Speaking anonymously to NBC News, a senior defense official stated that while the Russian military was firing off 20,000 artillery rounds each day, the Ukrainian military was also running through 4,000 to 7,000 rounds daily, so far that the official cautioned that Ukraine “still needs a significant amount of artillery going forward.”
While the Ukrainian military has managed to augment their tanks and howitzers with ammo left behind during a rapid retreat of Russian forces in the country’s Kharkiv region in September, how much ammo the U.S. and its allies can continue to supply remains an ongoing question given the tens of billions in military equipment and security assistance that the U.S. has already provided.
As of Dec. 9, the U.S. had provided more than 1 million 155mm artillery rounds, 180,000 105mm artillery rounds, 135,000 120mm mortar rounds, 1,500 TOW missiles, 8,500 Javelin missiles, 46,000 “other” anti-armor systems and munitions, and more than 100 million rounds of small arms ammunition to Ukrainian forces since the start of the Russian invasion of the country, among other weapons, according to the State Department.
The latest details on Russian and Ukrainian munition stores come months after a U.S. defense official told the Wall Street Journal that the Pentagon was running “uncomfortably low” on 155mm artillery rounds after the U.S. had supplied the Ukrainian military with 800,000 of them back in August, indicating that the DoD sees these weapons transfers as a potential drain on readiness ahead of, say, a possible war between the U.S. and China.
While chief Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters that he was “not aware of any specific shortages” in U.S. military weapons due to Ukraine-related aid packages, another spokesman noted that Congress had also appropriated $600 million to kick munitions production up a notch at the time.
As our colleagues at The War Zone noted, the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act passed by the House earlier this month calls for a far-reaching $2.7 billion procurement roadmap to help the Pentagon replenish its existing stocks of artillery, rockets, and anti-tank weapons to ensure that these critical munitions are available for “allies and partners” amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
“We recognize that the [DoD] would benefit from temporary acquisition flexibilities to increase the Department’s stocks of critical munitions, provide material and related services to allies and partners that have supported Ukraine, and provide material and services to Ukraine,” the House and Senate Armed Services Committees said in a joint statement on Dec. 6.
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Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman (SEAC) Ramon "CZ" Colon-Lopez reenlists during a ceremony held at the Pentagon Memorial, Washington D.C., Nov. 19, 2020. (Petty Officer 1st Class Carlos M. Vazquez II/U.S. Navy).The Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman (SEAC) Ramón “CZ” Colón-López, has a lot on his plate. He’s spent a long career as a pararescueman in the Air Force’s special operations community, and he currently serves as the most senior enlisted member in the armed forces advising Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley — essentially advising the senior military leader on all matters related to the enlisted ranks.
He also happened to have a few minutes to answer some questions that only a veteran would ask while attending the 2022 Army-Navy game in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
And the winner for best answer to what to do in a zombie apocalypse at the #ArmyNavy game goes to SEAC Ramón Colón-López pic.twitter.com/gpBVXA7o0k
— Task & Purpose (@TaskandPurpose) December 12, 2022
What’s your favorite war movie and why?“Platoon,” said SEAC Colón-López. “Realism.”
Can’t argue with that one. After all, the movie was famously filmed sequentially to mimic the effect of casualties on the titular platoon. The cast was put through a sort of boot camp complete with a Marine veteran and technical advisor screwing with them. And, yes, the actors were stoned when the characters were supposed to be.
What’s your go-to MRE?“The four fingers of death – hot dogs.”
This one is a throwback. Hot dogs, or in their more clinical military designation “beef frankfurters,” were among the first “Meals Ready to Eat,” where their edibility – or lack thereof – earned them the nickname. It’s not the vegetable omelet, but anything with “death” in the nickname would give the average eater pause. Far be it from anyone to question Colón-López’s tastebuds, though, so here’s what you’re missing out on.
Zombie apocalypse happens, what’s the first thing you do?“Louisville Slugger,” said the SEAC. “Soft heads.”
Showing his tactical acumen, Colón-López immediately went to the trusty baseball bat. And he’s not wrong to: after all, firearms have to be cleaned, andammunition has to be acquired and stored to make them work — all of which is a challenge in this theoretical zombie apocalypse.. A baseball bat, though, requires no upkeep – unless you want to imitate a certain The Walking Dead character and wrap some barbed wire around it – and can be carried anywhere. It doesn’t make that much noise, can smash just about anything, and, when worse comes to worse, you can still play some baseball with it.
What’s the most important thing to remember in a firefight?“Discipline,” said Colón-López.
He would know. Colón-López joined the Air Force in 1990, becoming an Air Force pararescueman in 1994. Soon after September 11, 2001, he deployed to Afghanistan, where he took part in numerous missions to kill or capture various high value targets, not to mention his numerous other deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2004, he was even part of the personal security detachment for then-Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai. During his career he has received the Bronze Star with Valor and the Air Force Combat Action medal.
What’s your proudest military moment?“Serving,” said the SEAC.
Colón-López has had a long career in the Air Force. This summer, he took the step to use his high ranking position and acknowledge the importance of mental health in the ranks.
“PTS awareness is not a monthly celebration, but a daily task to ensure we are taking care of one another,” Colón-López wrote in a social media post about post-traumatic stress. “20 years in combat, unfortunate events, and life in general can throw many challenges at us. Remember, we have each other to rely on. Talk about it, seek help, and know that this teammate is here for you to navigate this minefield called PTS.”
Rip Its … yes or no?With plenty of enthusiasm, Colón-López said “yes!”
Maybe all the younger service members are drinking Monster Energy or whatever the hell Bang is, but there will never be anything that will keep you awake and possibly destroy your stomach lining like Rip Its.
Task & Purpose Deputy Editor James Clark contributed reporting for this story.
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This article is sponsored by Navy Federal Credit Union.
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A AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon on the wing of a B-52H Stratofortress bomber in an undated Air Force photo. (U.S. Air Force/Ethan Wagner).Just seven months after conducting its first successful flight test, the Air Force has carried out its first end-to-end trial of its newest hypersonic weapon using a fully operational prototype missile, the service announced on Monday.
A B-52H Stratofortress assigned to the 412th Test Wing at Edwards Air Force Base in California successfully released the first “All-Up-Round” fully operational AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (or, more succinctly, ARRW) off the state’s southern coast on Dec. 9, the service said in a press release.
Technical details on the ARRW are obviously scant due to operational security, the hypersonic weapon is billed as “[an] air-launched hypersonic glide vehicle prototype capable of traveling at average speeds of between Mach 6.5 and Mach 8 at a range of approximately 1,000 miles,” according to the Congressional Research Service.
The ARRW “is designed to enable the U.S. to hold fixed, high-value, time-sensitive targets at risk in contested environments,” according to the service’s press release.
While previous tests of the ARRW — like the service’s much-publicized first successful launch in May following months of failed flight trials — were more focused on booster performance, the latest test saw the weapon reach hypersonic speeds “greater than five times the speed of sound” and follow a set flight path before detonating in a “terminal area,” according to the service.
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The trial still represents a major step forward for what may eventually become the first hypersonic weapon in the service’s arsenal.
The development of hypersonic weapons — which travel at speeds multiple times the speed of sound and are extremely difficult to intercept with conventional air defenses — has become a top priority for the Defense Department amid its reorientation towards preparing for a future war against near-peer adversaries like Russia and China.
“The ARRW team successfully designed and tested an air-launched hypersonic missile in five years,” Brig. Gen. Jason Bartolomei, Armament Directorate Program Executive Officer, said in a statement. “I am immensely proud of the tenacity and dedication this team has shown to provide a vital capability to our warfighter.”
When the ARRW might actually end up hanging from the wings of deployed B-52s, however, remains to be seen. While the Air Force originally requested $46.6 million to procure a single ARRW system as part of its fiscal year 2023 budget request, the House-approved National Defense Authorization Act that will likely end up as law zeroes out procurement for the weapon for the year.
The reason? As Breaking Defense reported, that money is going back into research and development for the ARRW, although Air Force officials insisted that the service is “not walking away” from the hypersonic weapon despite a lack of future planning to buy it.
The Air Force had previously requested $161 million in fiscal year 2022 to buy its first raft of 12 ARRW missiles, but the 2022 NDAA ended up funding procurement to the tune of $116.9 million over concerns the program had become “increasingly delayed and compressed” following earlier failed tests according to budget documents.
The ARRW isn’t the only hypersonic weapon in the mix for the Air Force at the moment. In September, the service awarded defense giant Raytheon a $985 million contract to “develop and demonstrate” prototypes of the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM), described as “an air-launched, scramjet-powered hypersonic weapon.”
The Air Force plans on delivering “a HACM capability with operational utility, whatever that means, by the fiscal year 2027, according to the service.
The Air Force had previously canceled its Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon program — envisioned as “ a long-range stand-off missile capable of being launched from an aircraft and traveling faster than speeds of Mach 5,” per Defense News — due to budget pressures that forced the service to choose between the HCSW and the ARRW.
The latest on Task & Purpose Air National Guard colonel suspended following investigation * The Navy will now enlist recruits who score 10 on their ASVAB * The Army has selected the V-280 Valor to replace its Black Hawk fleet * Five soldiers with the 10th Mountain Division arrested for rape * Old Air Force A-10 Warthog learns new trick: Covering fire for B-1B bombers*
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An A-10C Thunderbolt II assigned to the 75th Fighter Squadron performs a low-angle strafe during the Hawgsmoke competition at Barry M. Goldwater Range, Ariz., June 2, 2016. (Senior Airman Chris Drzazgowski/U.S. Air Force).For the first time in roughly a decade, Congress is allowing the Air Force to retire some of its A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft, which have saved the lives of countless troops on the ground but are just not designed to survive against modern Chinese and Russian air defenses.
The fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act would allow the Air Force to mothball 21 of its fleet of 281 venerable A-10 ‘Warthog’ aircraft, marking the first time in roughly a decade that lawmakers have not intervened to prevent the Air Force from retiring any A-10s.
Most recently the Air Force proposed getting rid of 42 A-10s as part of its fiscal 2022 budget, but Congress forbade the service from retiring any of its Warthogs. This drama has played out many times in recent years. Lawmakers stopped the Air Force’s attempts to divest its entire A-10 fleet during the 2015, 2016, and 2017 budget cycles, and Congress also blocked the Air Force’s effort to retire some of the aircraft in 2021 and 2022, Politico previously reported.
It has been more than 10 years since the size of the service’s A-10 fleet decreased, according to the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies think tank, which published a 2018 report that looked at inventories of each aircraft.
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While there was a brief drop in the number of A-10s between fiscals 2009 and 2010, the lasting decreases in the Air Force’s inventory of A-10s began two years later when the number of planes fell from 346 to 283 between fiscals 2012 and 2015, the report shows.
The A-10 has survived numerous attempts to mothball the aircraft over the years. In 1984, the year production of A-10s stopped, the Air Force had already started to consider whether to retire its fleet of Warthogs due to concerns that the planes could not survive against Soviet air defenses, a 2015 Congressional Research Service report found.
Retired Air Force Gen. Merrill McPeak later tried to provide the service’s entire A-10 fleet to the Army in exchange for Patriot missile batteries when he served as Air Force chief of staff between 1990 and 1994, but nothing came to fruition, McPeak told Task & Purpose on Monday.
During the Gulf War and subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the A-10 gained a reputation as a fearsome tank buster and a lifesaver for U.S. troops at risk of being overrun by enemy forces. Numerous videos are circulating online of A-10s making “danger close” gun runs to protect American troops in Afghanistan, and many service members have cheered the beloved sound of the A-10’s 30mm GAU-8/A Avenger gun firing: “BRRRT!”
A-10 advocates argue that more modern Air Force aircraft such as the F-35 cannot provide the same level of close air support to troops on the ground as the Warthog.
“As someone who has flown close air support in combat, I know that the A-10 is unmatched in carrying out its mission and provides an invaluable capability to protect American service members on the ground,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who represents the airmen and families assigned to A-10-heavy Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, told Task & Purpose in 2021.
“Removing A-10s from the fleet when there is not another aircraft capable of performing this mission takes a vital tool away from our military and is the wrong step for our national security.”
However, the U.S. military is currently preparing to fight China and Russia, which have much more advanced weaponry than the Taliban and Iraqi insurgents. It has also proved expensive for the Air Force to maintain the older A-10s: With its efforts to retire the A-10 fleet stymied by Congress, the Air Force has invested $880 million to keep the aircraft flying into the next decade.
The debate over whether to finally retire the A-10 has been particularly personal inside the Air Force. Maj. Gen. James Post III, then vice commander of Air Combat Command, was reprimanded in 2015 after telling airmen that efforts to block the service’s attempts to divest A-10s were tantamount to “treason.”
It is unclear whether Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has shown how vital a robust air defense is to protect against enemy airstrikes and missile attacks, may have shifted the position of some in Congress who were hesitant to allow the Air Force to retire A-10s.
The House has already passed the fiscal year 2023 NDAA which is expected to go to the Senate this week before eventually heading to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law.
Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, dean of The Mitchell Institute, praised lawmakers for allowing the Air Force to finally divest some A-10s, which will allow the service to train more maintainers for the F-35 and other newer aircraft.
“The fact of the matter is that the A-10 has been a magnificent airplane in the over 50 years that it’s been around,” Deptula told Task & Purpose on Monday. “But, when you look at the decline in the force structure of the Air Force and the demands of our National Security Strategy to increasing threats that are opposed against the United States, we need to move on beyond the old capabilities that have been useful in permissive airspace but will not be very useful in contested airspace.”
The latest on Task & Purpose Air National Guard colonel suspended following investigation * The Navy will now enlist recruits who score 10 on their ASVAB * The Army has selected the V-280 Valor to replace its Black Hawk fleet * Five soldiers with the 10th Mountain Division arrested for rape * Old Air Force A-10 Warthog learns new trick: Covering fire for B-1B bombers*
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Gen. James C. McConville, Chief of Staff of the United States Army, speaks with Soldiers during his visit with America's First Corps, on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., July 26, 2022. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Richard Carlisi).General James McConville is the Army Chief of Staff, the service’s highest-ranking officer. But, 40 years ago, he was just Lt. McConville, and then Capt. McConville, leading a platoon and then a company of soldiers and non-commissioned officers. And as he told Task & Purpose this weekend at the 2022 Army-Navy game in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, there’s one thing he learned back in his days as a young officer that has stuck with him over the decades.
“I think one of the things I learned over the years is the importance of deliberate practice and rehearsals,” said McConville. “The way you get good at things is multiple iterations.”
Just about every junior officer has heard it’s important to listen to the soldiers and non-commissioned officers in their unit. They’re the ones with the experience and knowledge. And, in between the inevitable land navigation mishap, at least a few of those junior officers who go on to become generals will learn a few things they’ll be able to apply down the road.
“You have to provide the passion to do that,” said McConville. “You’ve got to continue to do the skills and tasks correctly and the expert coaching comes in to make sure you’re doing it right. “
“Even if you’re the best in the business, you’re always training,” he added
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McConville took over as the Army’s chief of staff in 2019. Prior to that, he was both the deputy commanding general and commander of the 101st Airborne Division during deployments to Afghanistan, and a brigade commander in the 1st Cavalry Division during a deployment to Iraq. He is also a qualified aviator in the AH-64D Longbow Apache, OH-58 Kiowa Warrior, AH-6, AH-1 Cobra, and other aircraft, and earned two Distinguished Service Medals, three Legions of Merit, three Bronze Star Medals, two Defense Meritorious Service Medals, three Meritorious Service Medals, two Air Medals, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, among other awards, according to his official biography.
The importance of training isn’t the only thing he learned as a junior officer. As he told Task & Purpose in 2020, as a captain he witnessed a fellow soldier denied leave from a training exercise to fly home for the birth of his child.
“I was furious,” McConville said. “I wasn’t even in that brigade … And I made a pledge right then: I will never let that happen on my watch, in any unit that I’m ever in.”
Prioritizing a work-life balance stuck with him, to the extent that when he was nominated for his current role, he told then-Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan that the interview would have to be rescheduled from the date his son, also in the Army, returned from a deployment to Afghanistan.
“And of course, the staff are talking like, ‘Wait a minute, doesn’t the general know that the secretary of defense is very busy, you know this is a big deal.’ I said ‘Well, I know it’s a big deal … I’ll be glad to interview with him, I just can’t do it that day,’” McConville said. “‘Unless he wants to come to Fort Stewart.’”
So, always be sure to give the best advice to those junior officers, no matter how annoying they may seem at the time because one of them might just end up as the Army chief of staff one day.
Task & Purpose Deputy Editor James Clark contributed reporting for this story.
The latest on Task & Purpose Air National Guard colonel suspended following investigation * The Navy will now enlist recruits who score 10 on their ASVAB * The Army has selected the V-280 Valor to replace its Black Hawk fleet * Five soldiers with the 10th Mountain Division arrested for rape * Old Air Force A-10 Warthog learns new trick: Covering fire for B-1B bombers*
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The Cottonmouth, Textron's prototype for the Marine Corps' Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle.The Marine Corps has taken possession of what may end up becoming its next replacement for its family of amphibious reconnaissance vehicles that’s been in the service’s arsenal for four decades.
Defense contractor Textron Systems announced last week that the company had delivered its prototype “Cottonmouth” vehicle to the Marine Corps in Silver Springs, Nevada as part of the service’s Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV) program.
The ARV is intended as the successor to the Light Armored Vehicle (LAV)-25 that’s been a mainstay of the Marine Corps’ light armored recon battalions since 1983, a vehicle the Government Accountability Office recently designated as the most accident-prone in the service’s fleet.
The service announced in July 2021 that Textron and General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) would develop ARV prototypes for evaluation, with an eventual contract for equipping units with a targeted 533 vehicles worth an estimated $1.8 billion to $6.8 billion over five years, according to a recent Congressional Research Service.
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Billed as a “naval sensor node” for expeditionary operations by Textron, the Cottonmouth was designed explicitly to provide a multi-domain command and control suite to allow the ARV “to coordinate data and serve as the quarterback, or battlefield manager, for the modern battlefield,” according to the company.
While technical details on the Cottonmouth are scant, Textron’s spec sheet indicates the vehicle comes armed with “advanced full-spectrum reconnaissance and surveillance sensors” and a lighter footprint to allow four vehicles to fit on a U.S. Navy air-cushioned Ship-to-Shore Connector in line with previously-released Marine Corps requirements for the ARV.
“Our Cottonmouth vehicle is a completely clean-sheet design that provides transformative reconnaissance capabilities and meets Marine Corps requirements,” said Textron senior vice president David Phillips. “Because of its smaller size, the Marines can quickly deploy next generational combat power to the fight and lets commanders meet any mission anywhere.”
A slide from an Office of Naval Research presentation on the Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle. (U.S. Navy)As Task & Purpose previously reported, the service’s requirements for the ARV released last year detailed six unique variants to perform a variety of missions: Command, Control, Communications, & Computers-Unmanned Aerial System (C4-UAS), Organic Precision Fire-Mounted (OPF-M), Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems (CUAS), 30mm Autocannon and Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM), Logistics (LOG), and Recovery (R).
Some of the Marine Corps’ desired core operational capabilities for the ARV include, according to the CRS report: an automatic medium-caliber cannon weapon system, anti-armor capability, precision-guided munitions, unmanned systems swarm capabilities, electronic warfare capabilities, the aforementioned command-and-control suite, and ground and aerial drones deployed from the vehicle.
In other words, the Corps wants an amphibious scout vehicle bristling with anti-tank missiles, loitering munitions, and drone sensors that can play quarterback during the next big war in the Pacific.
A slide from an Office of Naval Research presentation on the Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle. (U.S. Navy)The Cottonmouth now enters a formal government evaluation phase that is expected to last through 2023, according to Textron, an evaluation that will likely see the company’s ARV prototype joined by GDLS’s own offering some time in December.
The evaluation of the two companies’ ARV prototypes comes amid a broad reorientation of the Marine Corps under the service’s “Force Design 2030” plan, which has seen the Corps become lighter and more nimble as it pivots from austere campaigns in the Middle East toward countering neer-pear adversaries in the Pacific, ditching its tank battalions, standing up new “littoral regiments,” and refocusing on reconnaissance to deal with new threats.
The ARV “is imperative to realizing Marine Corps requirements for Fleet Marine Force 2030,” the service recently wrote of the vehicle, per Breaking Defense. “As part of the portfolio of reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition systems, ARV will be a purpose-built combat vehicle system, highly mobile on land and water, that can sense, communicate, and fight as the manned hub of a robotic and autonomous systems-enhanced team.”
A Textron artist’s rendering of its Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle prototype in action. (Textron)Despite the service’s much-discussed pivot to the Pacific, the future of the ARV in the service’s fleet of combat vehicles is far from certain. According to the CRS, Marine Commandant Gen. David Berger has repeatedly stated that while all-domain recon capabilities will prove “critical” in a future conflict, he remains “unconvinced” that “additional wheeled, manned armored ground reconnaissance units are the best and only answer.”
“The 12 Light Armored Reconnaissance (LAR) companies identified in the objective force in the initial Force Design Report must be re-evaluated in light of the emerging concept of multi-domain mobile reconnaissance,” the service wrote in a 2021 force design update. “This may affect the overall requirement for armored land mobility in the form of the [ARV].”
Indeed, in a more recent May force design update to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Berger directed the Corps to “[r]eview and validate all assumptions regarding programmed or potential future capabilities, such as the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV)-30 and Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV),” a move that suggests the ARV may not end up proving the best recon solution for the service.
Berger’s comments came as BAE Systems, makers of the ACV-30, proposed that the service simply adopt the new ACV — itself a replacement for the Corps’ decades-old fleet of Amphibious Assault Vehicles — to fulfill the service’s reconnaissance needs rather than going with a “new-start” platform for the ARV.
According to the CRS report, the Corps “will also examine if a modified
[ACV], currently being fielded to Marine units, might be adapted for use as an ARV” as the service continues testing the Textron and GDLS prototypes through 2023.
It is unclear when the Marine Corps might announce a full contract for the ARV. The vehicle is planned to enter service sometime in the mid-2030s after it reaches full operational capability — roughly a half-century after the LAV was first fielded.
The latest on Task & Purpose Air National Guard colonel suspended following investigation * The Navy will now enlist recruits who score 10 on their ASVAB * The Army has selected the V-280 Valor to replace its Black Hawk fleet * Five soldiers with the 10th Mountain Division arrested for rape * Old Air Force A-10 Warthog learns new trick: Covering fire for B-1B bombers*
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Photo of human tissue samples in paraffin wax from 1917 to 1918 archived at the Joint Pathology Center in Silver Spring, MD on April 5, 2012. Photo by Linda Davidson/The Washington Post via Getty Images).Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on ProPublica
In early February 2016, the security gate at a U.S. military base near Washington, D.C., swung open to admit a Navy doctor accompanying a pair of surprising visitors: two artificial intelligence scientists from Google.
In a cavernous, temperature-controlled warehouse at the Joint Pathology Center, they stood amid stacks holding the crown jewels of the center’s collection: tens of millions of pathology slides containing slivers of skin, tumor biopsies and slices of organs from armed service members and veterans.
Standing with their Navy sponsor behind them, the Google scientists posed for a photograph, beaming.
Mostly unknown to the public, the trove and the staff who study it have long been regarded in pathology circles as vital national resources: Scientists used a dead soldier’s specimen that was archived here to perform the first genetic sequencing of the 1918 Flu.
Google had a confidential plan to turn the collection of slides into an immense archive that — with the help of the company’s burgeoning, and potentially profitable, AI business — could help create tools to aid the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other diseases. And it would seek first, exclusive dibs to do so.
“The chief concern,” Google’s liaison in the military warned the leaders of the repository, “is keeping this out of the press.”
More than six years later, Google is still laboring to turn this vast collection of human specimens into digital gold.
At least a dozen Defense Department staff members have raised ethical or legal concerns about Google’s quest for service members’ medical data and about the behavior of its military supporters, records reviewed by ProPublica show. Underlying their complaints are concerns about privacy, favoritism and the private use of a sensitive government resource in a time when AI in health care shows both great promise and risk. And some of them worried that Google was upending the center’s own pilot project to digitize its collection for future AI use.
Pathology experts familiar with the collection say the center’s leaders have good reason to be cautious about partnerships with AI companies. “Well designed, correctly validated and ethically implemented [health algorithms] could be game-changing things,” said Dr. Monica E de Baca, chair of the College of American Pathologists’ Council on Informatics and Pathology Innovation. “But until we figure out how to do that well, I’m worried that –knowingly or unknowingly –there will be an awful lot of snake oil sold.”
When it wasn’t chosen to take part in JPC’s pilot project, Google pulled levers in the upper reaches of the Pentagon and in Congress. This year, after lobbying by Google, staff on the House Armed Services Committee quietly inserted language into a report accompanying the Defense Authorization Act that raises doubts about the pathology center’s modernization efforts while providing a path for the tech giant to land future AI work with the center.
Pathology experts call the JPC collection a national treasure, unique in its age, size and breadth. The archive holds more than 31 million blocks of human tissue and 55 million slides. More recent specimens are linked with detailed patient information, including pathologist annotations and case histories. And the repository holds many examples of “edge cases” — diseases so vanishingly rare that many pathologists never see them.
Google sought to gather so many identifying details about the specimens and patients, the repository’s leaders feared it would compromise patients’ anonymity. Discussions became so contentious in 2017 that the leaders of the JPC broke them off.
In an interview with ProPublica, retired Col. Clayton Simon, the former director of the JPC, said Google wanted more than the pathology center felt it could provide. “Ultimately, even through negotiations, we were unable to find a pathway that we legally could do and ethically should do,” Simon said. “And the partnership dissolved.”
But Google didn’t give up. Last year, when questioned by DOD lawyers, the center’s current director, Col. Joel Moncur, warned that the actions of Google’s chief research partner in the military “could cause a breach of patient privacy that could lead to a scandal that adversely affects the military.”
Joel Moncur (Kate Copeland for ProPublica) Google has told the military that the JPC collection holds the “raw materials” for the most significant biotechnology breakthroughs of this decade — “on par with the Human Genome Project in its potential for strategic, clinical, and economic impact.”
All of that made the cache an alluring target for any company hoping to develop health care algorithms. Enormous quantities of medical data are needed to design algorithmic models that can identify patterns a pathologist might miss — and Google and other companies are in a race to gather them. Only a handful of tech companies have the scale to scan, store and analyze a collection of this magnitude on their own. Companies that have submitted plans to compete for aspects of the center’s modernization project include Amazon Web Services, Cerner Corp. and a host of small AI companies.
But no company has been as aggressive as Google, whose parent company, Alphabet, has previously drawn fire for its efforts to gather and crunch medical data. In the United Kingdom, regulators reprimanded a hospital in 2017 for providing data on more than 1.6 million patients, without their understanding, to Alphabet’s AI unit, DeepMind. In 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported that Google had a secret deal, dubbed “Project Nightingale,” with a Catholic health care system that gave it access to data on millions of patients in 21 states, also without the knowledge of patients or doctors. Google responded to the Journal story in a blog post that stated that patient data “cannot and will not be combined with any Google consumer data.”
In a statement, Ted Ladd, a Google spokesperson, attributed the ethics complaints associated with its efforts to work with the repository to an “inter-agency issue” and a “personnel dispute.”
“We had hoped to enable the JPC to digitize its data and, with its permission, develop computer models that would enable researchers and clinicians to improve diagnosis for cancers and other illnesses,” Ladd said, noting that all of Google’s health care partnerships involve “the strictest controls” over data. “Our customers own and manage their data, and we cannot — and do not — use it for any purpose other than explicitly agreed upon by the customer,” Ladd said.
In response to questions from ProPublica, the JPC said none of its de-identified data would be shared during its modernization process unless it met the ethical, regulatory, and legal approvals needed to ensure it was done in the right way.
“The highest priority of the JPC’s digital transformation is to ensure that any de-identified digital slides are used ethically and in a manner that protects patient privacy and military security,” the JPC said.
But some fear that even these safeguards might not be enough. Steven French, a DOD cloud computing engineer assigned to the project, said he was dismayed by the relentlessness of Google’s advocates in the department. Lost in all their discussions about the speed, scale and cost-saving benefits associated with working with Google seemed to be concerns for the interests of the service members whose tissue was the subject of all this maneuvering, French told ProPublica.
“It felt really bad to me,” French said. “Like a slow crush towards the inevitability of some big tech company monetizing it.”
The JPC certainly does need help from tech companies. Underfunded by Congress and long neglected by the Pentagon, it is vulnerable to offers from well-funded rescuers. In spite of its leaders’ pleas, funding for a full-scale modernization project has never materialized. The pathology center’s aging warehouses have been afflicted with water leaks and unwelcome intruders: a marauding family of raccoons.
The story of the pathology center’s long, contentious battle with Google has never been told before. ProPublica’s account is based on internal emails, presentations and memos, as well as interviews with current and former DOD officials, some of whom asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the matter or for fear of retribution.
Google’s private tourIn December 2015, Google began its courtship of the JPC with a bold, unsolicited proposal. The messenger was a junior naval officer, Lt. Cmdr. Niels Olson.
“I’m working with Google on a project to apply machine learning to medical imaging,” Olson wrote to the leaders of the repository. “And it seems like we are at the stage where we need to figure exactly what JPC has.”
Niels Olson (Kate Copeland for ProPublica)A United States Naval Academy physics major and Tulane medical school graduate, Olson worked as a clinical and anatomical pathology resident at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego.
With digitized specimen slides holding massive amounts of data, pathology seemed ripe for the coming AI revolution in medicine, he believed. Olson’s own urgency was heightened in 2014 when his father was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
That year, Olson teamed up with scientists at Google to train software to recognize suspected cancer cells. Google supplied expertise including AI scientists and high-speed, high-resolution scanners. The endeavor had cleared all privacy and review board hurdles. They were scanning Navy patients’ pathology slides at a furious clip, but they needed a larger data set to validate their findings.
Enter the JPC’s archive. Olson learned about the center in medical school. In his email to its leaders in December 2015, Olson attached Google’s eight-page proposal.
Google offered to start the operation by training algorithms with already digitized data in the repository. And it would do this early work “with no exchange of funds.” These types of partnerships free the private parties from having to undergo a competitive bidding process.
Google promised to do the work in a manner that balanced “privacy and ethical considerations.” The government, under the proposal, would own and control the slides and data.
Olson typed a warning: “This is under a non-disclosure agreement with Google, so I need to ask you, do please handle this information appropriately. The chief concern is keeping this out of the press.”
Senior military and civilian staff at the pathology center reacted with alarm. Dr. Francisco Rentas, the head of the archive’s tissue operations, pushed back against the notion of sharing the data with Google.
“As you know, with the largest pathology repository in the world a lot of entities will love to get their hands on it, including Google competitors. How do we overcome that?” Rentas asked in an email.
Other leaders had similar reactions. “My concerns are raised when I’m advised to not disclose what seems to be a contractual relationship to the press,” one of the top managers at the pathology center, Col. Edward Stevens, told Olson. Stevens told Olson that giving Google access to this information without a competitive bid could result in litigation from the company’s competitors. Stevens asked: “Does this need to go through an open-source bid?”
But even with these concerns, Simon, the pathology center’s director, was intrigued enough to continue discussions. He invited Olson and Google to inspect the facility.
Olson, center, and Google scientists Martin Stumpe and Lily Peng took a private tour of the JPC collection in 2016. (Obtained by ProPublica)The warehouse Olson and the Google scientists entered could have served as a set for the final scene of “Raiders of Lost Ark.”
Pathology slides were stacked in aisle canyons, some towering two stories. The slides were arranged in metal trays and cardboard boxes. To access tissue samples, the repository used a retrieval system similar to those found in dry cleaners. The pathology center had just a handful of working scanners. At the pace they were going, it would take centuries to digitize the entire collection.
One person familiar with the repository likened it to the Library of Alexandria, which held the largest archive of knowledge in the ancient world. Myth held that the library was destroyed in a cataclysmic fire lit by Roman invaders, but historians believe the real killer was gradual decay and neglect over centuries.
Army Col. Thomas Baker, Interim Director pulls human tissue samples at the Joint Pathology Center in Silver Spring, MD on April 5, 2012. (Photo by Linda Davidson/The Washington Post via Getty Images)The military’s tissue library had already played an important role in the advancement of medical knowledge. Its birth in 1862 as the Army Medical Museum was grisly. In a blandly written order in the midst of the Civil War, the Army surgeon general instructed surgeons “diligently to collect and preserve” all specimens of “morbid anatomy, surgical or medical, which may be regarded as valuable.”
Soon the museum’s curator was digging through battlefield trenches to find “many a putrid heap” of hands, feet and other body parts ravaged by disease and war. He and other doctors shipped the remains to Washington in whiskey-filled casks.
Over the next 160 years, the tissue collection outgrew several headquarters, including Washington’s Ford Theater and a nuclear-bomb-proof building near the White House. But the main mission — identifying, studying and reducing the calamitous impact of illnesses and injuries afflicting service members — has remained unchanged in times of war and peace. Each time a military or veterans’ hospital pathologist sent a tissue sample to the pathology center for a second opinion, it was filed away in the repository.
As the archive expanded, the repository’s prestige grew. Its scientists spurred advances in microscopy, cancer and tropical disease research. An institute pathologist named Walter Reed proved that mosquitoes transmit yellow fever, an important discovery in the history of medicine.
For much of its modern history, in addition to serving military and veterans hospitals, the center also provided civilian consultations. The work with elite teaching hospitals gave the center a luster that helped it attract and retain top pathologists.
Congress and DOD leaders questioned why the military should fund civilian work that could be done elsewhere. In 2005, under the congressionally mandated base closure act, the Pentagon ordered the organization running the repository to shut down. The organization reopened with a different overseer, tasked with a narrower, military-focused mission. Uncertainty about the organization’s future caused many top pathologists to leave.
In its first pitch to the repository’s leaders, Google pointedly mentioned a book-length Institute of Medicine report on the repository that stated that “wide access” to the archive’s materials would promote the “public good.” The biorepository wasn’t living up to its potential, Google said, noting that “no major efforts have been underway to fix the problem.”
Following the tour, a Google scientist prepared a list of clinical, demographic and patient information it sought from the repository. The list included “must haves” — case diagnoses; pathology and radiology images; information on gender and ethnicity; and birth and death dates — as well as “high-value” patient information, including comorbidities, subsequent hospitalizations and cause of death.
This troubled the JPC’s director. “We felt very, very concerned about giving too much data to them,” Simon told ProPublica, “because too much data could identify the patient.”
There were other aspects about Google’s offer that made it “very unfavorable to the federal government,” Simon later told his successor, according to an email reviewed by ProPublica.
In exchange for scanning and digitizing the slide collection at its own expense, Google sought “exclusive access” to the data for at least four years.
The other deal-breaker was Google’s requirement that it be able to charge the government to store and access the digitized information, a huge financial commitment. Simon did not have the authority to commit the government to future payments to a company without authorization from Congress.
Today, Ladd, the Google spokesperson, disputes the claim that its proposal would have been unfavorable to the government. “Our goal was to help the government digitize the data before it physically deteriorates.”
Ladd said Google sought exclusive access to the data during the early stages of the project, so that it could scan the de-identified samples and perform quality-control measures on the data prior to handing it back to the JPC.
Niels Olson, who spearheaded the project for the Navy in 2016, declined requests for interviews with ProPublica. But Jackson Stephens, a friend and lawyer who is representing Olson, said Olson had always followed the Institutional Review Board process and worked to anonymize patient medical data before it was used in research or shared with a third party.
“Niels takes his oath to the Constitution and his Hippocratic oath very seriously,” Stephens said. “He loves science, but his first duty of care is to his patients.”
Google’s relentlessness in 2017, too, spooked the repository’s leaders, according to an email reviewed by ProPublica. Google’s lawyer put “pressure” on the head of tissue operations to sign the agreement, which he declined to do. Leaders of the center became “uncomfortable” and discontinued discussions, according to the DOD email.
Though he banged on doors in the Pentagon and Congress, Simon was not able convince the Obama administration to include the JPC in then-Vice President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot. Simon left the JPC in 2018, his hopes for a modernization of the library dashed. But then a Pentagon advisory board got wind of the JPC collection, and everything changed.
‘The smartest people on Earth’In March of 2020, the Defense Innovation Board announced a series of recommendations to digitize the JPC collection. The board called for William Bushman, then the DOD’s undersecretary of personnel and readiness, to oversee a pilot project to scan a large initial batch of slides — at least 1 million in the first year — as a prelude to the massive undertaking of digitizing all 55 million slides.
“My worldview was that this should be one of the highest priorities of the Defense Department,” Bushman told ProPublica. “It has the potential to save more lives than anything else being done in the department.”
As the pathology center prepared to launch its pilot, the staff talked about a scandal that occurred just 40 miles north.
Henrietta Lacks was a Black woman who died of cancer in 1951 while being treated at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital. Without her or her family’s knowledge or consent, and without compensation, her cells were replicated and commercialized, leading to groundbreaking advances in medicine but also federal reforms on the use of patient cells for research.
A photo of Henrietta Lacks sits in the living room of her grandson, Ron Lacks. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via Getty Images)Like Lacks’ cancer cells, every specimen in the archive, the JPC team knew, represented its own story of human mortality and vulnerability. The tissue came from veterans and current service members willing to put their lives on the line for their country. Most of the samples came from patients whose doctors discovered ominous signs from biopsies and then sent the specimens to the center for second opinions. Few signed consent forms agreeing to have their samples used in medical research.
The pathology center hired two experts in AI ethics to develop ethical, legal and regulatory guidelines. Meanwhile, the pressure to cooperate with Google hadn’t gone away.
In the summer of 2020, as COVID-19 surged across the country, Olson was stationed at a naval lab in Guam, working on an AI project to detect the coronavirus. That project was managed by a military group based out of Silicon Valley known as the Defense Innovation Unit, a separate effort to speed the military’s development and adoption of cutting-edge technology. Though the group worked with many tech companies, it had gained a reputation for being cozy with Google. The DIU’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, sat just across the street from the Googleplex, the tech giant’s headquarters. Olson joined the group officially that August.
Olson’s COVID-19 work earned him Navy Times’ coveted Sailor of the Year award as well as the attention of a man who would become a powerful ally in the DOD, Thomas “Pat” Flanders.
Flanders was the chief information officer of the sprawling Defense Health Agency, which oversaw the military’s medical services, including hospitals and clinics. A garrulous Army veteran, Flanders questioned the wisdom of running the pilot project without first getting funding to scan all of the 55 million slides. He wanted the pathology staff to hear about the work Olson and Google had done scanning pathology slides in San Diego and see if a similar public-private partnership could be forged with the JPC.
Over the objections of Moncur, the JPC’s director, Flanders insisted on having Olson attend all the pathology center’s meetings to discuss the pilot, according to internal emails.
In August 2020, the JPC published a request for information from vendors interested in taking part in the pilot project. The terms of that request specified that no feedback would be given to companies about their submissions and that telephone inquiries would not be accepted or acknowledged. Such conversations could be seen as favoritism and could lead to a protest by competitors who did not get this privilege.
But Flanders insisted that meeting Google was appropriate, according to Moncur’s statements to DOD lawyers.
In a video conference call, Flanders told the Google representatives they were “the smartest people on earth” and said he couldn’t believe he was “getting to meet them for free,” according to written accounts of the meeting provided to DOD lawyers.
Flanders asked Google to explain its business model, saying he wanted to see how both the government and company might profit from the center’s data so that he could influence the requirements on the government side — a remark that left even the Google representatives “speechless,” according to a compilation of concerns raised by DOD staffers.
To Moncur and others in attendance, Flanders was actively negotiating with Google, according to Moncur’s statement to DOD lawyers.
To the astonishment of the center staff, Flanders asked for a second meeting between Google and the JPC team.
Concern about Flanders’ conduct echoed in other parts of the DOD. A lawyer for Defense Digital Service, a team of software engineers, data scientists and product managers assigned to assist on the project, wrote that Flanders ignored legal warnings. He described Flanders as a “cowboy” who in spite of warnings about his behavior was not likely “to fall out of love with Google.”
In an interview with ProPublica, Flanders disputed claims that he was biased toward Google. Flanders said his focus has always been on scanning and storing the slides as quickly and economically as possible. As for his lavish praise of Google, Flanders said he was merely trying to be “kind” to the company’s representatives.
“People took offense to that,” Flanders said. “It’s just really pettiness on the part of people who couldn’t get along, honestly.”
A spokesperson for the Defense Health Agency said it was “totally appropriate” for Flanders to ask Google about its business model. “This is part of market research,” the spokesperson wrote, adding that no negotiation occurred at the meeting and that all government stakeholders had been invited to attend.
Moncur referred calls to a JPC spokesperson. A spokesperson for the JPC said in a statement that “Moncur was concerned about meeting with vendors during the RFI period.”
‘An arm of Google’In late 2020, the modernization team received more troubling news. In a slide presentation for the JPC describing other AI work with Google and the military, Olson disclosed that the company had “made offers of employment, which I have declined.” But then he suggested the offer might be revived in the future, writing, “we mutually agreed to table the matter.” He said he had “no other conflicts of interest to declare.” Google told ProPublica it had never directly made Olson a job offer, though a temp agency it used did.
More facts surfaced. Olson also had a Google corporate email address. And he had access to Google corporate files, according to internal communications from concerned DOD staff members. Google said it is common for its research partners in the government to have these privileges.
“I am more worried than ever that DIU’s influence will destroy this acquisition,” a DOD lawyer wrote, referring to efforts to find vendors for the pilot project. He called DIU “essentially an arm of Google.”
At the time, a DIU lawyer defended Olson. The lawyer said Olson had “no further conflict of interest issues” and had done nothing improper because the job offer had been made three years earlier, in 2017. An ethics officer at the DOD Standards of Conduct Office agreed.
Today, a spokesperson in the Office of the Secretary of Defense told ProPublica the department was committed to modernizing the repository “while carefully observing all applicable legal and ethical rules.”
Olson’s friend and lawyer, Stephens, said Olson had been upfront, disclosing the job offer to the innovation unit’s lawyer as well as in the conflict-of-interest section of his slide presentation. He said Olson had declined the offer, which was withdrawn. “He’s not some kind of Google secret agent.”
Stephens said the JPC would have been much further down the road had it cooperated with Olson. Stephens said it became apparent to Olson that Moncur was “essentially ignoring” a “gold mine that could help a lot of people.”
“Niels is the tenacious doctor who is just trying to do the science and build a coalition of partners to get this thing done,” Stephens said. “I think he’s the hero of this story.”
Google turns to CongressIn 2021, the pathology center selected one of the most prestigious medical institutions in the world, Johns Hopkins — which plans to erect a building honoring Henrietta Lacks — to assist it in scanning slides. It picked two small technology companies to start building tools to let pathologists search the archive.
Google wanted to be selected, and in a confidential proposal, it offered to help the repository build up its own slide-scanning capabilities.
When Google was not selected for the pilot project, the company went above their heads. Google claimed in a letter to Pentagon leaders that the company had been unfairly excluded from “full and open competition.” In that August 2021 letter, Google argued that the nation’s security was at stake. It asked the DOD to “consider allowing Google Cloud” and other providers to compete to ensure the “nation’s ability to compete with China in biotechnology.”
Time was of the essence, Google warned. “The physical slides at the JPC are degrading rapidly each day. … Without further action, the slides will continue to degrade, and some may ultimately be damaged beyond repair.”
Google stepped up its advocacy campaign. The company deployed a lobbying firm, the Roosevelt Group — which boasts of its ability to “leverage” its connections to secure federal business opportunities to its clients — to spread the word the pilot project had been a failure. In little-noticed language in a report accompanying the 2023 Defense Authorization Act, the House Armed Services Committee expressed its concern about the speed of the scanning process and the choice of technology, which the committee claimed would not allow the “swift digitization of these deteriorating slides.”
The committee had its own ideas of how the pathology center’s work should be carried out, suggesting that the center work in tandem with the DIU, using an augmented reality microscope whose software was engineered by Google.
In a statement, the Roosevelt Group told ProPublica it was “proud” of its work for Google. The firm said it helped the company “educate professional staff of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees over concerns about the lack of an open procurement process for digitization of slides.” The group chided DOD officials for being “unwilling to provide answers to Congress around the lack of progress on the JPC digitization effort.”
The pathology center staff was dismayed by the committee’s recommendations that it work with Olson’s group.
In a video conference meeting late last summer, the leaders of the pathology center attempted to rebut the House committee. The JPC’s work was going as planned, they said, noting that a million slides had been scanned. And the pathology center was collaborating with the National Institutes of Health to develop AI tools to help predict prognoses for cancer treatments.
The House Armed Services Committee ordered the Pentagon to submit a report on the status of the modernization project early next year.
In a statement in response to ProPublica’s questions about the bill, Ladd, the Google spokesperson, acknowledged the company’s influence efforts on Capitol Hill. “We frequently provide information to congressional staff on issues of national importance,” Ladd said. The statement confirmed that the company suggested “language be inserted” into the 2023 Defense Authorization Act calling for a “comprehensive assessment” of the digitization effort.
“Despite efforts from Google and many at the Department of Defense, our work with JPC unfortunately never got off the ground, and the physical repository of pathology slides continues to deteriorate,” Ladd said. “We remain optimistic that if the repository could be properly digitized, it would save many American lives, including those of our service members.”
On this last point, even Google’s critics are in accord. A properly funded project would cost taxpayers a few hundred million dollars — a minuscule portion of the $858 billion defense budget and a small price if the lifesaving potential of the collection is realized.
Last year, as tensions grew with Google, the modernization team at the repository launched a publicity campaign to call attention to the project and the high ethical stakes.
An entire panel discussion was devoted to the JPC effort at the 2021 South by Southwest conference. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I want to make sure we do it right, we do it responsibly and we do it ethically,” said Steven French, the DOD cloud computing engineer assigned to assist the repository.
Then without mentioning Google’s name, he added a Shakespearean barb. “There’s plenty of vendors, plenty of companies, plenty of people,” French said, “who are more than willing to do this and extract a pound of flesh from us in the process.”
Doris Burke contributed research to this article.
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A Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet soars above the clouds while conducting flight operations near Atsugi, Japan, Jan. 29, 2020. (Navy photo / Lt. Alex Grammar).Two U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets based in Virginia were damaged in incidents last month that the Navy is categorizing as “Class A” mishaps.
The planes were damaged on consecutive days in November. Military Times first reported on the incidents, which both occurred in November. A spokesperson for Naval Air Force Atlantic confirmed the F-18 troubles to Task & Purpose and said they are being viewed as Class A mishaps but did not provide any more details on what caused them, or the aftermath.
A Class A mishap means that damage incurred is greater than $2.5 million or an aircraft was destroyed.
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The first incident, per Military Times, took place on Nov. 21 at Naval Air Station Oceana. A tire blew during takeoff, causing damage to the F/A-18F Super Hornet’s engine and fuselage. Despite the damage, the pilot was able to land the jet.
On Nov. 22, an engine on a F/A-18E caught fire mid-flight, but it was able to safely land at Naval Air Station Oceana.
No one was hurt in either instance. The fighter jets were assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 106 and Strike Fighter Squadron 131, respectively.
The two incidents are the latest aviation disasters to hit the Navy in 2022, many featuring F-18s. Lt. Richard Bullock died on June 3 after his F/A-18E crashed near Naval Air Station Lemoore, California. That month, the Navy ordered a temporary halt in aviation operations to review safety protocols.
“Whenever we have crashes that take place within a relatively short timeline, we take a hard look at those,” Cmdr. Zach Harrell, a spokesman for Naval Air Forces, said in a statement at the time of the June stand down. “If there are any connections that are made as a result of the investigations, then those things will be addressed.”
In July, a F/A-18E Super Hornet was blown off the deck of the USS Harry S. Truman and fell into the Mediterranean Sea. That was later recovered on Aug. 3.
Both F-18 incidents from November are under investigation, according to the U.S. Navy.
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Airmen with the 227th Air Support Operations Squadron, New Jersey Air National Guard, perform the night exercise portion of Fast-Rope Insertion Extraction System (FRIES) training from a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter with the 1-150th Assault Helicopter Battalion, New Jersey Army National Guard, at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., April 21, 2015. (Master Sgt. Mark C. Olsen/U.S. Air National Guard).American forces launched an overnight raid in eastern Syria today, killing two ISIS leaders in the region.
The raid, launched just before 3 a.m. local time on Sunday, had been planned heavily in advance, according to U.S. Central Command. Troops arrived and left via helicopter. One of the two targets killed was an ISIS official, identified only as “Anas,” who was involved in the group’s terror plots in the area.
It’s unclear what units were involved in the raid or how many troops participated, nor how many ISIS fighters were on the scene. CENTCOM said that it appears no civilians were harmed in the raid.
“ISIS continues to represent a threat to the security and stability of the region. This operation reaffirms CENTCOM’s steadfast commitment to ensuring the group’s enduring defeat,” Joe Buccino, a CENTCOM spokesperson, said in a statement. “The death of these ISIS officials will disrupt the terrorist organization’s ability to further plot and carry out destabilizing attacks in the Middle East.”
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It’s the latest raid this year to target an ISIS commander in Syria. Special operations forces have launched multiple attacks in Syria targeting high ranking members of the terrorist organization. In October, similar helicopter raids killed three ISIS commanders. At the end of November, both ISIS and CENTCOM confirmed that the leader of ISIS, Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, had been killed in fighting in October. CENTCOM said he died in a battle with Free Syrian Army forces in Dar’a. His predecessor as leader, the similarly named Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, died in February by detonating a suicide vest when attacked by American forces.
The attack in Syria comes less than two weeks after the U.S. briefly halted anti-ISIS patrols in northern Syria, following escalations between NATO ally Turkey and the Syrian Democratic Forces, which have been a U.S. partner in fighting the terrorist group. The U.S. has since resumed those patrols.
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A B-2 Spirit of South Carolina flies during a training mission over Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., Feb. 20, 2014. (Staff Sgt. Jonathan Snyder / U.S. Air Force).One of the 509th Bomb Wing’s B-2 Spirit stealth bombers was forced to make an emergency landing at Whiteman Air Force Base today. Photos from the scene show the bomber on the runway, one wing in the dirt following a wing catching fire.
Whiteman Air Force Base confirmed the incident and said that there were no personnel injuries tied to the landing or the fire. The cause of the emergency landing was an unspecified malfunction.
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“A U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit experienced an in-flight malfunction during routine operations today and was damaged on the runway at Whiteman Air Force Base after it successfully completed an emergency landing,” the 509th Bomb Wing said in a statement to Task & Purpose.
According to the wing, the B-2 caught fire after landing, which was extinguished by Whiteman AFB’s fire department. Whiteman AFB in Missouri is home to both the Air Force’s 509th Bomb Wing and the Air National Guard’s 131st Bomb Wing, which both operate the B-2 Spirit.
The malfunction and emergency landing happened only a month after an “elephant walk” at Whiteman AFB, where eight B-2 Spirits were lined up along the airstrip before taking off on Nov. 7. It was part of the “Spirit Vigilance 22” exercise the base put on. That, and today’s emergency landing, are notable as there are only 20 B2s in the Air Force’s fleet. Any issue with a single one of the stealth bombers has an outsized impact on the Air Force’s capabilities.
Today’s malfunction and emergency landing are under investigation. The exact nature of the damage to the B-2 Spirit has not been released.
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Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael A. Grinston reacts to a Navy first down during the 120th edition of America’s Game between the Army’s Black Knights and Navy’s Midshipmen at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Dec. 14, 2019. (U.S. Army Reserve/Master Sgt. Michel Sauret).Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael A. Grinston is a busy man. As the top enlisted leader in the U.S. Army, he’s been addressing quality of life issues for soldiers and concerns about morale. He’s been making the rounds through the Army, inspecting moldy barracks, and working to fight sexual harassment, assault and suicide in the ranks. He meets monthly with command sergeants major, and has been telling them and others to stand up for their fellow soldiers.
He’s set to leave the role next year, when Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Weimer, part of Army Special Operations Command, takes over as the 17th Sergeant Major of the Army. Grinston is also a big football fan — he’s a fan of Alabama — and has been a fixture at the annual Army-Navy football game.
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Task & Purpose caught up with Grinston ahead of this year’s Army-Navy game and put him through the ringer with a specific set of questions. The Sergeant Major of the Army was, as is his nature, succinct and direct.
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Task & Purpose: What’s your favorite war film and why?
SMA Michael Grinston: We Were Soldiers Once and Young. Great movie, great leaders.
What’s your go-to MRE recipe?
Spaghetti and meatballs.
Rip Its, yes or no?Ah…..gotta be really tired. Probably a maybe but trending no.
The zombie apocalypse kicks off. What’s the first thing you do?
Kiss my wife and hug my kids.
What’s the dumbest thing you ever did as a junior soldier?
Oooh, can’t tell.
Finish this sentence: “You shouldn’t join the military if…”
If you’re not ready for a challenge.
If you could go back and talk to yourself at the recruiter’s office, what would you say?
Don’t do that mystery event I just told you about but it was really stupid as a young soldier.
Proudest military moment?
Leading soldiers in combat.
What’s the most important thing to remember in a firefight?
Shoot back.
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The main gate at Patch Barracks in Stuttgart. (Alexander Migl, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons).German construction workers repairing infrastructure at the Patch Barracks in Stuttgart unexpectedly encountered a phosphorous bomb on Thursday, Dec. 8. While repairing a sewer under the American military base, their backhoe struck the World War II-era ordnance. The bomb did not go off, but the machinery damaged the casing, releasing some phosphorous gas into the air near the workers.
A German explosive ordnance team arrived on the base and removed the bomb within an hour of an incident, U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart said in a statement.
“Five construction workers were exposed to the gas and taken to a local hospital for observation,” the Army said on Facebook on Thursday.
The Patch Barracks are home to U.S. Army European Command and Special Operations Command, Europe. The workers were operating on Floridastrasse, near where the leaders of European Command live. However no one was forced to evacuate and the only people in need of care were the German workers.
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“There is no threat to Patch Barracks or the local community, but residents are asked to avoid the construction site out of an abundance of caution,” the Army added.
During World War II, the United States heavily bombed Germany, including Stuttgart, which saw dozens of air raids conducted by American and British forces. The Allies dropped a massive amount of bombs on Germany in the war, and it is estimated that approximately 15 percent of them failed to explode and remain buried around the country. Every year authorities find and remove hundreds of unexploded ordnance, which pose a threat to this day. They are usually disarmed or destroyed through a controlled demolition and areas are evacuated as a precaution.
A year ago a 550-pound bomb exploded at a construction site in Munich, injuring four people. Thursday’s incident was not the first time a World War II-era bomb endangered people in the city. In November 2017, people near the Army’s Panzer Kaserne base in Stuttgart were forced to evacuate after a 500-pound bomb was found nearby.
Unexploded ordnance from past wars continue to be found around the world. This summer, wildfires ravaging Slovenia ignited munitions leftover from World War I. The explosions did not hurt firefighters in the area. Meanwhile Japan is doing controlled demolitions to try and clear bombs left over from fighting in World War II.
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Nate Boyer has had a hell of a career — several in fact. He’s been a Green Beret, a professional football player, philanthropist and veterans advocate, actor and recently he’s added “director” to that list.
After working with refugees in Sudan, he joined the Army in 2005. He ended up part of Special Forces the next year and deployed with Operational Detachment Alpha 0324, 10th Special Forces Group to Iraq in April 2008. That deployment lasted until January 2009 and was followed by another tour, this time to Afghanistan from April to August 2013 with Special Operations Joint Task Force-Afghanistan. From April to August the following year he deployed with ODA 3116 3rd Special Forces Group. Boyer also took part in training missions around the globe, from Israel in 2009 to Bulgaria in 2011 and Greece in 2012.
After leaving active duty in 2009, Boyer joined the National Guard and enrolled at the University of Texas. There he joined the football team as a walk-on with no prior football experience. He ended up a long snapper and won the Armed Forces Merit Award. He ended up going pro, signing with the Seattle Seahawks in 2015 as a free agent.
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Since leaving the NFL, Boyer has been involved in philanthropy. His organization, Merging Vets & Players, pairs transitioning veterans with pro football players and athletes, many of them also transitioning to life outside of their careers in uniform.
And now, the 41-year-old is months away from his first directorial debut, MVP, which tells the story of a recently retired NFL player and that of a homeless veteran suffering from PTSD, played by Boyer, as the two try to find their way apart from a career, a community, and a way of life, that came to define them.
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Task & Purpose had a chance to talk with Boyer ahead of this year’s Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and took the opportunity to ask him about the essentials of military life.
Here are 10 questions only a veteran would ask Nate Boyer:
Task & Purpose: What’s your favorite war film and why?
Nate Boyer: Saving Private Ryan. Just the brotherhood, the camaraderie, the banter between the guys beyond all the war stuff I just felt like it’s so genuine.
What’s your go-to MRE recipe?
Go-to MRE is gonna be chicken with noodles especially because you’ve got the jalapeno cheese sauce, plus you’ve also got the peanut butter M&Ms — very crucial.
Rip Its, yes or no?Yes. Orange, sugar free. Let’s go!
The zombie apocalypse kicks off. What’s the first thing you do?
Well, I’m a Green Beret, so obviously hearts and minds, you know what I mean. I gotta get in with the people or the zombies or whatever and just really understand where they’re coming from and try to win that rapport.
What’s the dumbest thing you ever did as a junior soldier?
I do not want to dispel that information. That one stays with me to the grave, but it was dumb, but there’s a lot of dumb stuff. We’ve all done it, but I’ll leave it there.
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Finish this sentence: “You shouldn’t join the military if…”
You shouldn’t join the military if you think you’re gonna be in Delta Force.
If you could go back and talk to yourself at the recruiter’s office, what would you say?
I would say “do it.” I would say “it’s going to be nothing like you expect.” I would say “think about your future while you’re in the present,” but I would say “sign that thing. Don’t think twice.”
Proudest military moment?
Proudest military moment was probably earning the Green Beret. You know what, I’m gonna change that answer. My proudest military moment was carrying my best friend’s casket, Brad Keys. Being a part of that, being asked to be a pallbearer in that funeral. I mean, he was my hero. He was the ultimate leader. He was my mentor and my brother.
What’s one thing you learned in the Army that you carried with you in your football career?
Aim small, miss small. That’s the number one thing; attention to detail. That was the key. Block out the noise.
What’s the most important thing to remember in a firefight?
In a firefight always remember to keep your finger off the trigger unless you intend to destroy what’s on the other end of that rifle barrel.
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From left to right: WNBA star Brittney Griner, Marine veteran Paul Whelan, and Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. (Associated Press).The U.S. government’s recent success with negotiating the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner in exchange for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout has been somewhat tempered by the fact that Marine Corps veteran Paul Whelan remains in Russian captivity.
Whelan was working in Moscow as the corporate security director for an automotive parts supplier when Russian authorities arrested him in 2018 on espionage charges. Two years later, a Russian court sentenced Whelan to 16 years hard labor.
The U.S. government has long denied that Whelan was working as a spy in Russia.
When President Joe Biden spoke on Thursday at the White House about Griner’s release, he said that Whelan has been “unjustly detained in Russia for years,” adding that the Russians refused to include Whelan in the agreement that led to Griner’s release.
“This was not a choice of which American to bring home,” Biden said. “We brought home [Marine Corps veteran] Trevor Reed when we had a chance earlier this year. Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s.”
“And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up,” Biden continued. “We will never give up.”
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Yet Biden administration critics, such as Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) have accused the Biden administration of prioritizing Griner’s release over getting Whelan home because of the former’s celebrity.
“I don’t buy Biden saying they didn’t have a choice to bring U.S. Marine Whelan home,” Waltz tweeted on Friday. “When do we start dictating the terms to Putin, the Iranian Regime, terrorists, & our adversaries around the world?”
"While I welcome the release of Brittney Griner, I cannot help but think about Paul Whelan — as he has apparently been abandoned by the Biden administration." @RepMikeRogersAL 2/2
— Armed Services GOP (@HASCRepublicans) December 8, 2022
Whelan’s status as a Marine veteran has earned him widespread support among Republican lawmakers. He served in the Marine Corps Reserve from 1994 to 2008 as an administrative clerk and administrative chief, according to his service record, which was provided by the Corps. He made two deployments to Iraq,from February to August 2004 and then from February to December 2006.
But Whelan was ultimately demoted from staff sergeant to private and given a bad conduct discharge after being convicted at a Jan. 14, 2008, special court-martial of attempted larceny, dereliction of duty, making a false official statement, wrongfully using another person’s Social Security number, and writing bad checks, according to military records.
Specifically, Whelan was found guilty of trying to steal $10,000 while deployed to Iraq in 2006, bouncing about $6,000 in checks and using the other person’s Social Security number to log into a training system to grade his own examinations, the Washington Post reported.
The New York Times reported that the Russians were unwilling to include Whelan in the prisoner exchange for Griner because they view him as a spy, so they would only release him in return for a Russian spy in custody, such as Vadim Krasikov, who was sentenced to life in prison after a German court convicted him in 2021 of killing a Chechen separatist in Berlin.
Russian officials had long insisted that Krasikov be released as part of a deal for Griner and Whelan, but in November the Russian government offered to release Griner in exchange for Bout, according to the New York Times. The Russians refused to include Whelan in the agreement.
“This was not a choice for us on – of which American to bring home,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday. “That was not the choice. It was a choice between bringing home one American or bringing home none. And we brought one home today, and that is important to note.”
Whelan’s brother David told NBC News that the Biden administration made the right decision to go ahead with the prisoner swap for Griner, adding, “We do not begrudge Ms. Griner her freedom.”
However, Whelan told CNN that he has been “greatly disappointed” that the U.S. government has not done more to secure his release, especially considering this month marks the fourth anniversary of his arrest.
“I was arrested for a crime that never occurred,” he told CNN by phone. “I don’t understand why I’m still sitting here.”
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Army Special Operations Command Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Weimer, selected to be the next Sgt. Maj. of the Army. (U.S. Army photo).The Army has named its next top non-commissioned officer, a career Special Forces soldier with a Purple Heart and multiple valor awards.
The service has selected Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Weimer as the 17th Sgt. Maj. of the Army, succeeding Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Grinston next year.
Army spokesperson Sgt. 1st Class Anthony Hewitt confirmed Weimer’s nomination Friday.
Weimer currently serves as the senior non-commissioned officer with Army Special Operations Command. He assumed that role in August 2021.
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The future SMA has a long career in special operations. He enlisted in the Army in 1993, completing the Special Forces Assessment and Selection course in 1994 and ultimately earning the Green Beret in 1996, after which he became a Special Forces weapons sergeant.
Weimer next served multiple tours with the 7th Special Forces Group, as well as with Army Special Operations Command, across the U.S. Central and Southern Command areas of responsibility, according to his official biography.
During that time Weimer was awarded the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star with two “V” devices and five oak leaf clusters, the Purple Heart, the Joint Commendation Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal, the latter two both with “V” devices as well.
The details of Weimer’s valor awards were not immediately available.
Prior to assuming his role at Army Special Operations Command, Weimer served as the senior enlisted leader for U.S. Special Operations Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, and as the top NCO with the Special Operations Joint Task Force-Afghanistan from 2019 to 2020. He is also a graduate of Norwich University with a Bachelor of Science degree in strategic studies and defense analysis.
On Friday, the current SMA offered Weimer his congratulations, describing him as a “phenomenal leader and advocate for our soldiers and families.”
We absolutely have the greatest NCOs in the world. @USASOC_CSM is a phenomenal leader and advocate for our Soldiers and Families.
Lots going on between now and Aug, but the @USArmy will be in great hands when the time comes. https://t.co/RGHBUYODL7
— SMA Michael Grinston (@USArmySMA) December 9, 2022
The SMA is one of the Army’s most notable and visible positions, as both the senior enlisted advisor to the Army chief of staff and a public advocate for soldier welfare. Grinston, who assumed the role in 2019, was notable for his emphasis on a people-first culture in the Army and his “this is my squad” initiative.
During his time in the role, Grinston has led several policy changes, including an ongoing study of the Army’s height and weight standards, updated hair and grooming regulations, and an extended timeline for postpartum women to meet fitness standards.
Grinston has also been noted for his openness, both on social media and in interacting with other Army leaders.
“You hear it all the time: ‘Well, I don’t want to make sausage in front of the sergeant major of the Army.’ I want to make sausage. I want to hear ideas … because if the people with the money and authority that can help with policy don’t hear the ideas in the forum, then you may wait too long and it doesn’t get funded or it’s not a policy,” Grinston told Task & Purpose earlier this year.
Weimar is scheduled to succeed Grinston and assume the SMA position in August 2023.
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A view of an old car under the snow in Moschun Village, which has been destroyed as a result of intense bombardment by the Russian army trying to seize Hostomel Airport for days, now living conditions become more difficult with snowfall in Kyiv, Ukraine on November 19, 2022. (Photo by Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).Editor’s note: this article originally appeared on The Conversation.
With Russian troops digging trenches to prepare for an expected winter standoff, it would be easy to conclude that fighting will slow in Ukraine until after the ground thaws in the spring.
But evidence from the Ukrainian battlefields point to a different trajectory.
As a career U.S. special forces officer who conducted field research on the 2008 and 2014 wars in Georgia and Ukraine, it is my view that this war has demonstrated that only one side, the Ukrainians, can execute effective combat maneuvers. I believe that the Ukrainians will attempt to launch a large-scale counteroffensive in late winter when the ground is still frozen.
Winter’s impact on warHistorically, the pace of fighting does slow in the winter.
Weapons and other equipment can freeze up in extreme cold, and it’s much more difficult to shoot a weapon while wearing thick gloves.
Shorter days are a factor. Despite technological advances, most of the fighting during this war has occurred during the day.
But this winter may be different for the Ukrainian military.
First, Ukrainian winters are not nearly as cold and snowy as many believe.
Donetsk, for example, has an average temperature of nearly 25 degrees Fahrenheit (-4 degrees Celsius) in January and February.
Its snowiest month, January, averages only 4.9 inches of snow, or .12 meters. Both January and February average just as many rainy days as snowy days – roughly two days of each.
A brief history of Russian attackSince the invasion began in February 2022, Russia made most of its gains in the first month of the war when it seized Kherson, surrounded Mariupol, and was on the doorsteps of Kyiv and Kharkiv.
But Russia soon gave up on Kyiv and withdrew all its forces from the north.
Failing to achieve quick victory, Russia instead settled on making incremental gains in the east and south. Over the next five months, Russia captured Mariupol, but little else of tactical or strategic value.
During this time, Ukraine built up its combat power with new weaponry from the West and planned a large counteroffensive, which it initiated on Aug. 28, 2022.
In the first week of the counteroffensive, Ukraine liberated more territory than Russia had captured in the previous five months.
A Ukrainian serviceman loads a truck with American Javelin anti-tank missiles on Feb. 11, 2022. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images)The success of the counteroffensive showed that Ukraine’s military was superior to Russia’s in every category with the exception of size. It had better doctrine, leaders, strategy, culture and will – and it had just proved that it could effectively fight battles with a combination of artillery, tanks, soldiers and air attacks.
By Sept. 12, 2022, Ukraine had liberated much of Kharkiv Oblast as Russian troops routinely fled from their positions.
After liberating the entirety of Kharkiv Oblast in early October 2022, Ukraine turned its attention to Kherson in the south. This was a different fight, and in some ways Ukraine’s military followed Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu’s axiom of “winning without fighting.”
The Ukrainians were able to conquer much of the territory without using many troops on the ground.
Instead, Ukraine used long-range rockets supplied by the U.S. and NATO allies to bombard Russian bases and supply lines that were previously unreachable. These attacks left Russian forces west of the Dnipro River in an untenable position.
Realizing this, Russia shockingly announced on Nov. 9, 2022, that it was withdrawing from Kherson. Two days later, Russia had completed its withdrawal from the west bank of the river.
What to expect from RussiaOver the course of the war, Russia has demonstrated little ability to conduct effective combat operations. This is not something that Russia can change overnight or over the course of the winter.
Russia’s best forces have been decimated throughout the conflict, and it is now increasingly relying on untrained conscripts.
Likewise, Russia is exhausting much of its weaponry as international sanctions against them are limiting Russia’s wartime production. Aside from Iran, few nations are providing military aid to Russia.
Russia’s military is now less trained, has lower morale, and has significantly fewer weapons and less ammunition than it had at the beginning of the current war.
As a result, Russia lacks the ability to conduct large-scale attacks, and it is left with little option but to continue what it has been doing: conducting missile strikes against targets that are either defenseless or offer little strategic value.
Limiting Russia’s options further, these strikes have been less effective as the war has progressed.
Early in the war, most of Russia’s missiles made it through Ukraine’s limited air defenses. With the help of western air defense systems, Ukraine was shooting down 50% of Russian missiles in October and is now intercepting over 80% of them.
Winter should not affect these types of combat operations.
But snow will have an impact on Russia’s already stressed and underperforming logistical system, and the cold will further lower – if that is possible – the already low morale of Russia’s poorly outfitted and undertrained soldiers.
What to expect from UkraineAs the smaller military, Ukraine cannot afford to take heavy losses.
Thus far, it has used a strategy of defending territory when it could, retreating when it should to preserve combat power, and attacking when the opportunities have presented themselves.
Ukrainian soldiers sitting on an armored vehicle near the the Russian front line in Donetsk in May 2022. (Alex Chan Tsz Yuk/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)Ukraine effectively employed this strategy to defend Kyiv in the first month of the war and during the September 2022 counteroffensive to reclaim the Kharkiv and Kherson oblasts.
An important question must be asked. Why did it take six months for Ukraine to launch its counteroffensive?
One reason is that Ukraine had to wait several months for promised Western aid to arrive at its bases. In my view, a significant factor is the lengthy amount of time it takes to plan large counteroffensives and to position supplies, equipment and forces.
The fact that Ukraine conducted the counterattacks in succession suggests that Ukraine lacks the combat power to conduct two large-scale counterattacks at the same time.
Ukraine is going to need time to regroup, refit and plan for its next large-scale operation.
Thus, it seems reasonable that Ukraine will have to wait at least 30 to 45 days – maybe more – before it is ready to execute its next counteroffensive, which would be in the heart of winter.
While conducting an attack in winter may be difficult, off-road movement in the spring could become impossible, as the Russians discovered during their initial invasion in muddy and wet terrain.
It seems reasonable to conclude that Ukraine may wish to initiate its next counteroffensive while the ground is still frozen – and Russian troop morale is at its lowest point since the invasion.
Liam Collins is the founding director of the Modern War Institute at the United States Military Academy West Point.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Josh Rottkamp (left) and Brent Phillips (right) at the 2022 Vegas to Reno race. (Brent Phillips photo).Riding through the desert at high speeds on the motorbike for 24 hours a day. All the food and fuel, aside from what you pick up at various checkpoints, you carry with you. How you cover the distance is up to you, as it’s almost entirely off-road — just try not to get lost along the way.
That’s the gist of a rally race, and when it comes to motorized treks across unrelenting terrain, the Dakar Rally seems like an impossible task: crossing almost 5,000 kilometers through the Arabian Peninsula over the course of two weeks.
For Seth Barnes and a few other Marine Corps veteran riders, it’s a challenge they plan to face head-on.
“It’ll be a gnarly year ahead,” Barnes said of his plans for 2023.
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Barnes, 31, is a former Marine EOD tech, so he isn’t a stranger to gnarly situations. He deployed to Afghanistan and helped clear unexploded ordnance from the island of Peleliu in Palau, where the 1st Marine Division suffered almost 7,000 casualties seizing the island in 1944. He was always riding motorcycles, but never professionally, racing at the amateur level in his home state of Ohio
Along with a team of fellow Marines, Barnes plans on spending the next year riding dirt bikes in some of the toughest rally races in North America. It’s all in preparation to send at least two of his fellow Marines to compete in the most challenging race in the world, the Dakar Rally.
“Dakar is literally the pinnacle of racing, but we’re setting the warpath to get there,” said Brent Phillips, another one of the riders.
“During my time in the Marine Corps I tried to keep riding as much as I could, in Hawaii and Camp Pendleton,” said Barnes. “When I found out that Brent was a rider, I thought it would be cool to get some veterans and do this endurance race in 2022, but it turned into something bigger.”
The MarinesPhillips is a former Marine raider. In 2015, he founded SOFLETE, a fitness program that, according to its website, builds “durable tactical athletes” through a unique fitness and nutrition regimen.
Before founding SOFLETE, Phillips rode dirt bikes as a child but didn’t get into competitive racing until leaving the Marines. He had been competing in off-road races since 2018, and earlier this year had the chance to compete in the Vegas to Reno Race with another Marine veteran, Josh Rottkamp.
Brent Phillips during his time in the Marines. (Brent Phillips photo)Vegas to Reno is billed as the “longest off road race in the United States.” It’s around 550 miles of racing across some of Nevada’s harshest terrain, completed in one full day. It was Rottkamp’s first time racing something like Vegas to Reno, but that didn’t hold him back.
“Josh has a screw loose,” said Phillips in a video documenting their race. “So I’m kind of terrified that he’ll ride a little too hard. It’s also his first ever race, which is absurd.
Phillips and Rottkamp finished in 3rd place in the open amateur division, and from there the idea for a team of rally racing Marine veterans was born.
All of the Marines on the team — four riders and one mechanic — have experience riding bikes. They grew up riding them or working on them with family or friends, but none of them are professionals. And while the Dakar Rally can cover up to 3,000 miles of terrain – this year’s race crosses all of Saudi Arabia – this team has something on their side.
“None of the guys are actually professional racers and their greatest self-proclaimed strength is ‘an ability to suffer that was beat into us during our time in the Marines mopping floors,’” the team said in a press release.
“The joke with us is why sponsor people who aren’t pros?” added Phillips. “But giant desert races are just suffering, and suffering is a Marine’s life.”
Rider Josh Rottkamp during the 2022 Vegas to Reno race. (Brent Phillips photo)Rottkamp, 30, grew up in northeastern Pennsylvania, starting riding with his father and brother when he was around 8 years old. He enlisted after graduating high school and first served in a mortar platoon in the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, deploying to Afghanistan.
After his discharge, Rottkamp was involved in a bike accident that resulted in his right leg being amputated below the knee. “In typical Marine grunt fashion as soon as the doctors cleared me to walk I was back on the bike the next day,” he said. He now lives in Utah and works in a motorsports company.
The mechanic for the team is Ray Rodden, who is still finishing up his active duty service in the Marines. He enlisted in 2011 as a radar technician before reclassing to EOD, where he first met Barnes. (Another rider, Jake Blick, is also a former recon Marine.)
The missionThe Dakar Rally is the pinnacle of off road racing. Started in 1978 as a race from Paris, France to Dakar, Senegal, 184 racers competed in the initial event, and it’s only grown in size since then, including classes in vehicles, motorbikes and ATVs. In 2008, threats from the terrorist group al-Qaeda prompted moving the course to South America, and the location was again switched in 2020 to Saudi Arabia. But the premise is the same regardless of the venue: Thousands of miles over some of the ruggedest terrain on the planet.
Riding in these races is tough work. Something like the Sonora Rally, a race across Mexico’s Sonora Desert, is “just trying to follow a compass on a map, it’s old school and raw, just surviving in the desert,” said Barnes.
Before every race, every rider needs to be trained and every bike prepped.
“The bike is about 225 pounds just ripping through you, said Barnes, “So a lot of it is just training to be on the bike for a long time.”
Rider Seth Barnes on his bike. (Seth Barnes photo)Preparing starts with just getting used to being on a bike for the amount of time that the individual segments in these races last, training to ride and navigate over open terrain. Races like Dakar don’t happen over open roads; they’re run through whatever path is available. That means spending hours a day riding the bikes. Just getting used to spending hours at a time in such punishing conditions is essential preparation for for the race.
This team of Marines is spread out around the country, but the training is the same – riding bikes for hours at a time and practicing “sprinting” – riding at high speed – on their rides.
Phillips compared it to training for a long-distance bicycle race.
“It’s an ultra-endurance event,” he said. “And if you go off the track, the consequences are catastrophic.”
Maintenance is also important, because if your bike breaks down in the middle of the desert … well, your bike’s broken down in the middle of the desert. That means before every race every component of the bikes has to be perfect, with mechanics like Rodden able to fix the bikes at all of the pit stops.
Just as important, though, is the bond between the team. It’s a group of Marines, all of whom share a shared interest in racing, getting together and spending time with one another.
“It’s absolutely epic,” said Phillips. “Like a bond with someone because of a shared task at hand. For guys who still long for that kind of camaraderie, it’s a great place to get the same feeling.
The first race the team will compete in is the Parker 250, held in Arizona. From there, six more races, culminating in the Sonoran Rally – five days of riding through the desert of Mexico’s Sonora Desert.
The ultimate goal is to get at least two of these Marines qualified for Dakar.
“Dakar seems like a monumental undertaking,” said Phillips. “It’s the hardest off-road race in the world, period.”
But for these Marines, the monumental is completely attainable.
“The fact that we’re all veterans, that we’re all coming together, it’s a very cool thing for the whole community,” said Barnes.
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Chief Master Sgt. of the Space Force Roger Towberman answers questions from comedian Stephen Colbert on a December 6 episode of The Late Show. (Task & Purpose illustrations, Screenshots via YouTube/CBS).If human beings are having sex in space, it is beyond the knowledge of the Space Force’s top enlisted leader, Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Roger Towberman, who was asked about it by comedian Stephen Colbert during a visit to Thule Air Base, Greenland which was broadcast on Colbert’s The Late Show on Tuesday.
“I’m going to ask you a question that I’ve asked multiple people at NASA. They’ve asked me to stop asking it, but I won’t, because it’s important” Colbert asked Towberman while sitting in a desolate, rocky field 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle. “Now we’re both adults, and I need you to answer this question straight: are people doing it in space?”
Towberman shook his head: “I do not know.”
It makes sense that Towberman would not know the answer: after all, none of the 16,000 or so military and civilian members assigned to the Space Force have spacefaring billets, and NASA also insists that no humans have had sex in space.
Still, Colbert asked a few more questions about the topic.
“Find the zero-g spot?” the comedian asked Towberman, who at this point seemed to be biting his lip to keep from laughing. “No? This is when you’re beginning to regret the interview.”
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Sex was not the only topic Colbert went over with Towberman and other guardians at Thule. He also asked why space lasers always make ‘pew pew’ sounds, whether the radar installation at Thule can boil the contents of someone’s stomach, and whether the Space Force has any “space babies,” like the one seen at the end of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Towberman was a good sport about it: He is, after all, the same military leader who led an entire conference hall full of people through a rehearsal of the new Space Force song at the annual Air Space & Cyber Conference this September.
“When your brand is crazy, you can’t go out of bounds,” Towberman said in his keynote speech at the conference.
‘Crazy’ was a valuable mindset with Colbert, who also asked Towberman if one of the giant satellite communication dishes operated by the 23rd Space Operations Squadron at Thule was “how you track the mutants,” like the Cerebro device in Marvel’s X-Men comic book series.
“That’s exactly right,” Towberman joked.
Colbert’s is not the first comedy show to visit the Space Force. Earlier this year, The Daily Show correspondent Ronny Chieng traveled to the Pentagon to find out from then-chief of space operations Gen. John Raymond what the service actually does.
“Okay general, Space Force, we’re talking lasers, spaceships, rockets, fighting aliens,” Chieng asked.
“Absolutely not,” Raymond answered. “The mission of the Space Force is really to protect and defend the capabilities that we have in space and to deter conflict from beginning in space or extending into space.”
Frustrated, Chieng asked again what Space Force does, to which Raymond provided an example: Space Force operates and protects the Global Positioning System, the satellite network that has become a pillar for much of the modern global economy.
“Why don’t you open with that?” Chieng asked. “Call yourselves the GPS Force.”
Raymond responded by saying the Space Force does a lot more than GPS, and it’s true: the service protects the intelligence and communications satellites that enable a large part of modern military operations. It also oversees a satellite network that provides early missile warnings for anywhere on the planet. That network paid off in January 2020, when the 2nd Space Warning Squadron detected Iran firing more than a dozen ballistic missiles at U.S. service members in Iraq, giving them crucial moments to prepare for the strike.
But despite the Space Force’s constant vigilance, much of the American public still does not understand what Space Force does, or they confuse it with the Netflix comedy series, or, as one Spirit Airlines employee showed late last year, they don’t even believe it exists.
Part of the reason why the Space Force mission is difficult to understand is that the space domain may seem highly technical and abstract, even though many Americans rely on space technology every time they check their smartphones.
“If you’re a ground pounder in the Army, you have a computer, so even if you don’t code, you have experience with computer networks and how important that is,” Aaron Bateman, an assistant professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University who studies space policy, told Task & Purpose in June. “But because space capabilities are largely invisible, and the terminology of orbital mechanics is arcane, people have a hard time wrapping their minds around what space means for the warfighter.”
When comedians like Colbert and Chieng spend time with Space Force, it gives the three-year-old service much-needed exposure with the American public, and it can even succeed in relaying a general idea of the branch’s complex mission to everyday viewers.
“So even though I’m still not sure what it does, Space Force represents what the American government does best: find new ways to give billions of dollars to the military-industrial complex,” Chieng said. “But hey, if they’re going to offer free GPS, then I say live long and prosper, Space Force.”
Of course, with plenty of space aliens and mutant jokes mixed in for good measure.
“Who picks that up on the other end?” asked Colbert while pointing to a red phone used by guardians at Thule to communicate with the Missile Warning Center in the event that a nuclear attack knocks out other forms of communication.
“Missile Warning Center,” said the guardians in the room with him.
“Or the mutant spice lord that now rules the United States with his roaming gangs of half-nude warrior motorcycle gangs,” said Colbert.
“If he’s working at the Missile Warning Center, then yes,” a guardian said.
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Fighting World War II can pause for a few hours, I suppose. (MacArthur Memorial/Wikimedia Photo Commons images).The annual Army-Navy football game has been through some ups and downs. It’s one of the longest-held and storied college football rivalries around, even if the teams themselves aren’t among the best in the game.
At the height of World War II, though, both West Point and Annapolis were having some of their best years ever, and the notoriety around the game was such that legendary Gen. Douglas MacArthur claimed he “stopped the war” to celebrate an Army victory in the game.
In 1944, after five years of Navy victories, Army beat Navy 23-7. General MacArthur cabled his congratulations to the team: "THE GREATEST OF ALL ARMY TEAMS. WE HAVE STOPPED THE WAR TO CELEBRATE YOUR MAGNIFICENT SUCCESS." #ArmyNavy pic.twitter.com/w0E8p808dS
— MacArthur Memorial (@MacArthur1880) December 5, 2020
Heading into the 1944 matchup, Army and Navy were ranked as the top two college teams in the nation. The widespread induction of young men into the ranks of the U.S. military, necessitated by the global conflict, had been a boon to the service academy football programs, as plenty of the top football players in the nation were now suiting up for them. Two of the star players for Navy, for example, tackle Don Whitmire and running back Bob Jenkins, had both transferred from the University of Alabama to play at Annapolis. Some colleges, like Michigan State or Stanford, had suspended their football programs altogether. Others were now filling out their teams with younger players or those otherwise ineligible for the draft, and many players were diffused into “service teams,” essentially playing football for the Army or Navy while in training and competing against various colleges. In 1943, for instance, a team from the Navy’s Great Lakes Training Base ended Notre Dame’s undefeated season.
The Army and Navy teams were especially dominant, though, so the 1944 game was considered kind of a big deal. With Army ranked as the top team in the nation and the Naval Academy right behind it, this was a de-facto national championship game for college football. Grantland Rice, one of the country’s preeminent sports writers at the time, said it would be “one of the best and most important football games ever played.”
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These days, the Army Navy game isn’t one of the best and most important football games ever played; some would even go so far as to say that “nobody actually cares about the Army-Navy game.” But the 1944 matchup was different. It was initially scheduled to be played in Annapolis, where Thompson Stadium could accommodate just under 19,000 people, rather than the traditional location of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had ordered the location of the game to alternate between the two service academies for the duration of the war. Interest in the game was high enough, though, that on Nov. 17, 1944, the game was relocated to Baltimore, Maryland’s Municipal Stadium. Tickets sales would go towards war bonds, and sold out in 24 hours. It raised $58.6 million for the war.
The Naval Academy midshipmen sailed across Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore, while the Army cadets arrived on troopships escorted by Navy destroyers.
And on Dec. 2, 1944, in front of a crowd of 66,659, the game began. It started out as kind of a slog, with plenty of turnovers and New York Times sports writer Allison Danzig chronicling “the unusual ferocity of the give and take.” By the end of the first half, the score was just 7-0 in favor of Army. By the end of the third quarter it was 9-7, after a touchdown by Navy and a safety by Army, it was 9-7. The game broke open a bit after that with Army scoring two touchdowns in the fourth quarter and eventually winning the game 23-7, surely much to the delight of Army fans everywhere.
Among those fans, of course, was MacArthur. The general never played for the Army football team, he was just the manager before graduating from West Point in 1903, but needless to say, the man liked sports. As he wrote to then President Calvin Coolidge following the 1928 Olympics during his time as the U.S. Olympic Committee president, “Athletic America is a telling phrase. It is talismanic. It suggests health and happiness. It arouses national pride and kindles anew the national spirit. In its fruition it means a more sturdy, a more self-reliant, a more self-helping people. It means therefore, a firmer foundation for our free institutions and a steadier, more determined hold on the future….Nothing is more synonymous of our national success than is our national success in athletics.”
During World War II, MacArthur would reportedly send messages to the coach of the Army football team, Earl “Red” Blaik, discussing how the team was doing. Among them was a congratulations on winning the 1944 Army-Navy matchup, reading, “The greatest of all Army teams – Stop – [this was the days of the telegram] We have stopped the war to celebrate your magnificent success.”
Of course, the war didn’t actually stop. Hundreds of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines continued to face death in combat. Like the destroyer USS Cooper, which was sunk in the Philippines shortly after midnight on Dec. 3, 1944, with 191 lives lost. But the 1944 Army-Navy game would still be remembered as a brief moment of athletic celebration amid World War II, which wouldn’t end for another nine months, and go down as one of the best remembered college football games in history.
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Air Force Col. Thomas Jackson (U.S. Air Force).An Illinois Air National Guard colonel has been suspended from command after receiving the results of an Inspector General investigation, according to a statement from the Illinois National Guard. Col. Thomas P. Jackson had been in command of the 126th Air Refueling Wing (ARW) since March, 2020. He was suspended on Tuesday by Brig. Gen. Dan McDonough, the commander of the Illinois Air National Guard.
The 126th ARW’s vice commander, Col. Steve Olson, has been named the wing’s acting commander, though no further details could be released at this time, Lt. Col. Brad Leighton, public affairs director for the Illinois National Guard, said in a statement.
The statement’s use of the term “suspended” rather than “relieved” indicates that Jackson’s case has not yet been fully resolved. The Air Force defines suspension as a temporary measure in the context of command authority.
“Temporary suspension is appropriate when the superior competent authority is concerned about an officer’s ability to command but has not yet determined whether relief of command is warranted and/or whether relief of command should be with or without cause,” according to Air Force regulations.
Air Force Col. Thomas Jackson rendered his first salute to the 126th Air Refueling Wing upon assuming command of the wing at Scott AFB, Ill., Mar. 7, 2020. (Senior Master Sgt. Ken Stephens/U.S. Air National Guard)In the Air Force alone, relieved commanders this year have included a maintenance group colonel in Korea, a medical squadron lieutenant colonel, and a colonel in charge of a fighter wing. The military services are usually tight-lipped when it comes to disclosing why commanders are relieved. Often the services use the phrase “loss of trust and confidence” in a leader’s ability to command rather than providing the exact reasons why they were fired, though it remains to be seen whether the Illinois National Guard will use that phrase for Jackson, if he is to be relieved.
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A career KC-135 refueling tanker pilot, Jackson has been in the Air Force since 1994 and has been with the 126th ARW since 1995. Jackson steadily rose through the ranks over the years, including a two-year stint as the wing’s Inspector General. Along the way he picked up awards and decorations such as the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters and an Air Medal. As commander of the 126th ARW, Jackson was responsible for eight KC-135R aircraft, 900 employees and a $32 million annual budget, according to his command biography.
The 126th ARW appears to be a high-performing outfit. In 2021, the wing received the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award for the third time in a row and the 10th time total. The award is designated for units “that have distinguished themselves by exceptionally meritorious service or outstanding achievement that clearly sets the unit above and apart from similar units,” according to the Air Force.
U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Cierra “CC” Carlan, 906th Air Refueling Squadron, gets ready to refuel a B-52 Stratofortress November 17, 2021. (Master Sgt. Brian Ellison/U.S. Air National Guard)The 126th ARW received its most recent outstanding award for its performance from January 2019 through December 2020, when the wing “held the highest mission capable rate of any KC-135 unit in the command,” and “consistently demonstrated mission accomplishment, and operational readiness in support of multiple worldwide contingency operations despite the worldwide pandemic,” according to a press release at the time.
“The 126th Air Refueling Wing has led the way in sustained performance and operational capability,” Jackson wrote in an email to his command at the time. “Our culture of excellence, our commitment to performance, and your continuous support of worldwide missions have put the 126th ARW at the top.”
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Zaninullah “Zak" Zaki providing security in Sangin, Afghanistan. (Courtesy of Tom Schueman and Zaninullah “Zak" Zaki) .The inspiring story of a Marine infantry officer who arranged for a former Afghan interpreter and his family to be rescued from the hell outside of Kabul’s airport may ultimately have a tragic yet common ending.
Maj. Tom Schueman co-authored the book Always Faithful along with his former interpreter Zainullah “Zak” Zaki about how the two men formed a friendship in Afghanistan that culminated with Schueman working feverishly in August 2021 to make sure that Zak and his family would be among the 124,000 people rescued by the U.S. military after the Taliban captured Kabul.
Schueman credits Zak with saving his life several times when he deployed to Sangin, Afghanistan in 2010 with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, known as the Darkhorse Battalion, which suffered the most casualties of any Marine unit during the Afghanistan war. In one such incident, Zak ran through a minefield to find and tackle a Taliban commander who was preparing an ambush for Schueman’s Marines.
But on Monday, Schueman announced on social media that Zak’s Special Immigrant Visa application had been denied for the final time, and now Zak and his family face the prospect of being deported, although it’s unclear if they might be sent back to Afghanistan.
Cover of Always Faithful by Tom Schueman and Zainullah “Zak” Zaki.Zak works a construction job to feed his wife and five children, so he does not have the option of hiding if immigration officials try to deport him, Schueman told Task & Purpose.
The official reason why Zak’s application was turned down was that he allegedly had not worked for the U.S. government long enough to qualify for the visa program, according to his Nov. 30 letter of denial from the U.S. embassy in Kabul’s chief of mission, which Schueman posted on Instagram. The letter noted that Afghans must have worked for the U.S. government for at least one year to qualify for a visa.
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However, Schueman has also posted the human resources letters from his former employers required for his visa application, which show that Zak worked for the U.S. government for nearly two years.
“I can’t fathom how they’re saying insufficient time when those two documents are in existence and were submitted,” Schueman told Task & Purpose. “I don’t even know how to kind of describe it or approach it, because it’s just so clear that he has the required time.”
Zaninullah “Zak” Zaki and his family on an Air Force C-17 leaving Kabul in 2021. (Courtesy of Tom Schueman and Zaninullah “Zak” Zaki) Zak’s letter of denial did not include any information about how the State Department had determined that he had worked for the U.S. government for less than a year.
A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on why Zak’s application was denied even though he met the one-year requirement because visa records are confidential so U.S. officials are not allowed to discuss individual cases.
The spokesperson added that 297 Afghans were denied Special Immigrant Visas in the third quarter of fiscal 2022, but 137 of those applicants were later approved after they submitted more information.
But the letter Zak received made clear, “There is no further appeal of this decision,” adding that he can try submitting an entirely new visa application.
Zaninullah “Zak” Zaki and his family outside of Hamid Karzai International Airpoirt in August 2021. (Courtesy of Tom Schueman and Zaninullah “Zak” Zaki) For reasons that remain unclear, the letter marks the end of Schueman’s efforts over the past six years to help Zak attain a Special Immigrant Visa, which were intended for Afghans who helped the U.S. government — many of whom were left behind after the Taliban captured Kabul in August 2021.
Zak is now represented by an immigration attorney who is helping him to apply for asylum inside the United States, Schueman said.
“I think the SIV program is somewhat probably broken beyond repair,” said Schueman. “I don’t think they’re going to be able to, probably, fix it. And so, our only option that I can see at this point moving forward is claiming asylum, which is really unfortunate because there’s a program designed for people like Zak. We spent six years to get Zak what he was entitled to, based on that program.”
Meanwhile the Afghan Adjustment Act, a proposed law that would offer a pathway for Afghans evacuated to the United States to become permanent legal residents, has languished in Congress for months. There is no guarantee lawmakers will vote on the legislation this month given the mountain of other tasks that Congress needs to get done before the end of the year, such as passing the Fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act.
Zak’s situation is all too familiar for Afghans who have applied for Special Immigrant Visas, said Peter Lucier, a Marine veteran and the social media lead for #AfghanEvac, a non-profit group that helps Afghans legally immigrate to the United States and other countries.
Tom Schueman and Zaninullah “Zak” Zaki reunite in Minnesota in February 2022. (Courtesy of Tom Schueman and Zaninullah “Zak” Zaki) Many Afghans worked for more than one company on several contracts, but under the visa’s strict eligibility requirements, obtaining valid verification from all the employers can be difficult, or even impossible for applicants, leading to denials, Lucier told Task & Purpose.
“We’re stuck with a system where we consistently see very well qualified applicants being denied despite paperwork that should more than verify the veracity for their eligibility for the program,” Lucier said.
Separately, the process of applying for asylum is not suited to deal with the tens of thousands of Afghans who made it to the United States, Lucier said. Proving that someone faces persecution is difficult and requires a lot of paperwork — each application can end up being roughly 110 pages.
The U.S. government is encouraging Afghans who are now inside the continental United States to keep applying for Special Immigrant Visas to avoid adding to the backlog of the asylum process, Lucier said.
“The U.S. government is basically begging folks that if they are eligible, they should go through the SIV route,” said Lucier. “So, to see folks inside of the continental United States, who were evacuated as part of the military evacuation being denied SIVs despite really good paperwork for minor inconsistencies is incredibly frustrating and kind of flies in the face what we’ve seen DHS [Department of Homeland Security] and DoS [Department of State] have repeatedly asked Afghans to do. They’re saying one thing and then the reality that Afghans inside the United States are facing is something else entirely.”
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U.S. Army tankers assigned to the 6th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division (3-1 ABCT), operationally assigned to the 1st Infantry Division (1 ID), speed through fens in an M1A2 Abrams tank during a simulated battle drill at Hammer 22, an annual combined forces exercise conducted by and alongside Finland’s Army Headquarters, Armored Brigade, Pori Brigade, Karelia Brigade, Uti Jaeger Regiment and Logistics Department of the Defense Forces, in Niinisalo, Finland, Nov. 10, 2022. (U.S. Army portrait by Spc. Charles Leitner).Europe may be embroiled in its largest conflict since World War II, but you can breathe easy: A U.S. Army M1 Abrams tank crew is on call with their trusty armored chariot named ‘Daddy’s Belt.’
Our new favorite tank name was spotted in photos published to the Defense Visual Information Distribution System last month, which show Army tankers assigned to 6th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division (3-1 ABCT) conducting a simulated battle drill in Niinisalo, Finland in early November.
The 3-1 ABCT — which deployed to Europe from Fort Hood, Texas, in July — is currently assigned to the 1st Infantry Division to provide “combat-credible forces” to the U.S. military’s forward-deployed V Corps amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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The appearance of ‘Daddy’s Belt’ during a presumably-serious joint military exercise may appear concerning to the uninitiated, but it’s not surprising: As Task & Purpose has rigorously documented in the past, tankers have a propensity for selecting belligerent names for their tanks, from the vaguely offensive (“Dropped As A Baby”) to super real (“Crippling Depression”), and this tank name is no exception.
What is interesting, however, is the 3-1 ABCT’s participation in the Hammer 22 combined forces exercise alongside Finland’s military, which the Army billed as an “ongoing effort” to “train alongside one another and improve operational tactics, techniques and procedures, or TTPs, between the two forces.”
After years of relative neutrality in Europe, the Hammer exercise comes amid Finland’s move to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization alongside Sweden in direct response to Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Hammer 22 saw more than 4,000 Finnish soldiers and about 200 U.S. soldiers from the 3-1 ABCT training “shoulder to shoulder” operating not just Abrams tanks, but M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles as well, according to the Army.
“This is the main exercise to make sure our mechanized troops and our operational reserves are ready,” Col. Rainer Kuosmanen, commander of the Finnish Armored Brigade, said in a statement. “Hopefully, during this week and next week you will see that Finland is ready to defend itself.”
With the fear of Russian aggression at a historic high, many NATO members in Europe, present and future, are likely on edge at the moment. But rest assured: the crew of “Daddy’s Belt” is standing by to save the day.
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The U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen, advisors and a civilian mule farmer who infiltrated West Point and kidnapped their four mule mascots pose with their trophies at the Naval Academy in December 1991. (Screenshot via The LOG Magazine, U.S. Navy).Revenge. Espionage. Disguises. A car chase. A helicopter search. This is not a Cold War spy thriller or a Las Vegas casino heist: instead, it’s a chronicle of an intercollegiate prank between two service academies, both alike in dignity, executed with the highest levels of military professionalism.
On December 5, 1991, 17 Naval Academy midshipmen, two advisors and a Maryland mule farmer snuck onto the campus of their eternal rival, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, to kidnap West Point’s beloved mascots: four one-thousand-pound mules. What happened next was the culmination of nearly a year of meticulous planning that cemented those midshipmen in the annals of U.S. Naval Academy lore — and may have contributed to the Navy pummeling West Point in their annual Army-Navy football game the next day.
“Our jaws just hit the ground,” said Dan Goldenberg, a 1992 Naval Academy graduate who was at the pep rally when the raiding party made their triumphant return atop the captured mules.
‘Operation Missing Mascot,’ as the prank was called by midshipmen, had its roots in revenge. The previous year, West Point cadets stole the Naval Academy’s Bill the Goat XXVII. Though the goat was not the official Academy mascot at the time, he “was sick at the time and had to be put to sleep as a result of his captivity,” according to an article about the operation that appeared in the February 1992 edition of The LOG, a humorous magazine run by Naval Academy midshipmen (The article appeared to have been written by one of the pranksters, but no byline was listed).
The West Point cadets had cut several padlocks to kidnap Bill the Goat from the Naval Academy Dairy Farm, an actual farm the academy had started in 1911. The farm closed in the late 1990s because of high operating costs, but its location about 20 miles off campus made it an easy target for West Point cadets to sneak in and steal Bill away in a pickup truck.
The cadets had no way of knowing that they were to reap the whirlwind for what they had sown. In January 1991, the commander of the Brigade of Midshipmen and several classmates began planning their vengeance.
The U.S. Naval Academy mascots, Angora goats, wait on the sidelines during the Navy-Notre Dame football game held at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Nov. 12, 2022. (Chief Mass Communication Specialist Diana Quinlan/U.S. Navy)But stealing the West Point mules seemed to be a near-impossible feat.
“Stealing Bill the Goat is one thing. A small farm animal weighing 100 pounds is led out of a remote barn some 20 miles from USNA,” wrote The LOG chronicler. “An Army mule weighs over one thousand pounds and has to be specially transported … Of course, that is if one can even get on base and successfully infiltrate where the mules are kept.”
Unlike Bill the Goat, the four mules — Spartacus, Trooper, Ranger and Traveler — lived in a pen on a busy section of West Point’s campus.
“Thus, this was not going to be a little trip into the country, but an insertion deep into the heart of enemy territory,” the chronicler wrote. “After the initial intelligence was gathered, the feasibility of this mission was in serious question.”
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Then there was the matter of the mules themselves, which would need to be guided onto trailers and kept healthy across a long voyage. The midshipmen would need professional help, but luckily they found the perfect accomplice. Weir “Tennessee” Denton was a 67-year-old retired civilian mule farmer from Anne Arundel County, Maryland who had a personal grudge against West Point. Denton used to work at the Naval Academy Dairy Farm, and one night in the early 1940s while he was on watch, West Point cadets opened a gate to let the dairy cows roam the street. While Denton and a few Marines gathered the cows, the cadets kidnapped Bill the Goat.
“Tennessee never forgot that night and leapt at the opportunity to avenge Army,” the LOG chronicler wrote.
Tennessee Denton (left) was a civilian mule farmer who helped the midshipmen kidnap the West Point mules.
(Screenshot via The LOG Magazine/U.S. Navy)Goldenberg, the 1992 graduate who was at the pep rally, remembered how important it was to the raiders that the mules were well-cared for so that they would not suffer the same fate as Bill the Goat the previous year.
“The guys were determined to do it right and take good care of the animals,” he said. “If you talk to any of the guys who did this, they’ll all talk about being trained how to properly handle the mules.”
The team of midshipmen and advisors gathered intelligence over the summer and fall. Over Labor Day weekend, one team conducted a scouting expedition where they entered West Point disguised as tourists and fed the mules sugar cubes while taking photos and noting nearby obstacles. The midshipmen held planning meetings “at night in deserted rooms, and in secure buildings” to prevent breaches in security, the chronicler noted. Goldenberg said he was completely unaware of the plot despite being friends with several of the participants.
“I had no idea,” he said. “They did such a good job with security, it was a total shock.”
Eventually, the team set a date to launch the mission: November 29, 1991.
The midshipmen dressed as tourists in civilian clothes and kitted themselves up with communications gear before “casually” assembling at a football field about 100 yards from the veterinary clinic where the mules were kept. The plan was to sneak into the clinic at the mules’ feeding time at 3:30 p.m. Time passed: the “tourists” played touch football while their advisor rode a bicycle around the area. The team was ready to go, with a mule trailer and transport ready to spring into action, but after three hours the midshipmen realized the feeding time must have gone early and the mission had to be abandoned.
“A very disappointed group reassembled … and transported to USNA,” the chronicler wrote. “The plan was right, but intelligence had been incomplete and we would try again next year.”
West Point’s new Army Mule mascot, Paladin, officially reported for duty March 31 during a simulated Reception Day ceremony at the U.S. Military Academy, March 31, 2016. (John Pellino/U.S. Army)Turns out they did not have to wait so long. At a secret meeting on December 3, the senior advisor and two mission leaders decided to launch the mission that Thursday, December 5, though it would require a change of roster. Since it was a school day, only upperclassmen could go, and some of the original November 29 participants could not make the trip. The midshipmen improvised, and on December 4, the team mounted up for a trip to “a roach motel” five miles from West Point, with a brief stop at Denton’s farm to brush up on mule handling skills. They arrived at the motel at 5:30 that morning in cars disguised with West Point paraphernalia such as “I Love My Cadet” and “Go Army-Beat Navy” stickers.
“Adrenaline was beginning to run high as the team was less than three hours from H-hour,” the chronicler wrote.
At 7:00 a.m., the members of the two “assault teams,” Alpha and Bravo, dressed in utilities complete with Army enlisted insignia and military police gear that an advisor had bought from Fort Meade, Maryland earlier that year. The midshipmen checked their costumes for authenticity, loaded up with communications gear and cleared the motel rooms and parking lot to make sure no compromising evidence was left behind before the final briefing began at 7:30.
“Each person knew their part of this impossible dream,” the chronicler wrote. “Every team member had to perform in a professional manner they had never known before.”
‘Professional’ is an apt term: the team had multiple approach and escape routes memorized and a series of radio code names for each team and each of the five phases of the operation. This was no drunken college fraternity antic, it was a surgical operation burdened with the weight of institutional pride.
“There was no turning back and absolutely no failure,” the chronicler wrote. “The fate of history, the pride of USNA and its graduates, and very well the pride of the fleet was resting on this team’s shoulders. We would succeed.”
The caption for this image from The LOG Magazine reads: “Traveler gets a uniform lesson from (L to R): Brett Odom, J.R. Anderson, and David Rudko.” (Screenshot via The LOG Magazine/U.S. Navy) The team drove out for West Point at 9:00 a.m. It is difficult to guess what may have been going through each midshipman’s head on the drive to West Point, but the chronicler provided a meticulous list of the exact roles each student was expected to play in the upcoming heist.
Each assault team was led by an assault leader who, by hook or by crook, “could not fail to gain entrance to the compound,” the chronicler wrote. Behind the leaders were “methods of entry” specialists who carried bolt cutters and a maul to make that entrance a certainty. Behind the MOE specialist were the intelligence and electronics specialists, armed with electronics gear and cuffs, who would neutralize phones and alarms. Then there were the “man handlers,” who were armed with cuffs, gags and riggers tape and had been “specially picked for size and aggressive desire to place an enemy in submission.” Finally, there was “the door man,” the last one in who was responsible for keeping the curious away from the compound.
Accompanying the assault teams was the mule-handling team, a group of three men who had to leap the steel and concrete fence surrounding the pen.
“Their task: in less than three minutes they were to catch, put in a headlock and then bridle these animals,” the chronicler wrote. “And of course, all this was to be done in broad daylight – and in the words of the team leader, ‘Look natural and do not draw attention to yourself.’”
A chart shows the roles of the participants in Operation Missing Mascot. (Screenshot via The LOG Magazine/U.S. Navy)Easier said than done, especially for the transport team, who had to look natural while backing up a horse trailer and pickup truck to the compound. At 9:15 the convoy rolled onto campus through an unguarded back gate. They arrived at the veterinary clinic at 9:19, where the assault and mule teams exited the vehicles while trying to look like relaxed enlisted soldiers. Assault team Alpha headed for the clinic’s front door while Bravo went to the barn door and the mule team went for the mule pen at the back of the compound.
“No MPs in sight,” the chronicler recalled. “It was a quiet Thursday morning at the West Point Stables as the normal daily routine was about to be suddenly interrupted.”
An Army sergeant let the Alpha team leader in through the front door, where the leader became a “true hero” by convincing the sergeant that he was there with a few men to load mule feed for the Army game and that a second group would come in from the barn side. Bravo team arrived, but the presence of about 14 unscheduled visitors making small talk about feed delivery could not go unnoticed. A first sergeant realized what was happening and yelled “Call the MPs!” but it was already too late: the ‘man handlers’ restrained the prisoners while the electronics specialists disconnected phone lines and checked alarms; the MOE specialists cut locks and the door man slipped a “Sorry We’re Closed” sign over the door.
“Like clockwork, prisoners were interviewed for knowledge of alarms and MP patrols and, at the same time, the mules were being loaded into the barn from the outside pen,” the chronicler noted.
The caption for this image from The LOG Magazine reads: “Intel/Recon photo – Oct 91: Veterinary Clinic to left, facing northeast. Compound to left and rear of building, extraction parking lot to right.” (Screenshot via The LOG Magazine/U.S. Navy) One kidnapper later looked back on the mission with disbelief.
“Looking back, we went so far overboard, tying guys up,” Bill Wiseman, a senior who later served with the Navy SEALs, told the New York Times in 2018. Wiseman said they zip-tied Army employees to chairs and used duct tape to silence a few of the more resistant ones.
“You would never get away with that today,” he said. “I’m frankly amazed we didn’t get in a lot of trouble.”
By 9:28, the building was secure and the mules were waiting at the front barn door, content with a supply of sweet, molasses-based feed. All looked calm and undisturbed from the outside and the prisoners were under control. The transport arrived at 9:30 and the four mules were loaded in under a minute while people at a financial center across the street smoked and watched. By 9:32, the trailer pulled away and went out the gate. Meanwhile the assault teams kept an eye on the prisoners: turns out there were two Army officers, two enlisted soldiers and two civilians working in the downstairs portion of the building the entire time. At one point a midshipman disguised as an Army MP told the office workers that “the men upstairs were MS and were doing a security check because ‘You know, Navy is gonna try to take the mules.’ To which a confident reply from the office was “They’ll never do it,’” the chronicler wrote.
At another point, two cadets asked a midshipman disguised as an MP at the front door where the mules were going, to which the midshipman replied “’A rabies virus vial has been broken. The mules are being evacuated,’” the chronicler wrote. “Once again, who would question an MP?”
By 9:40 the assault teams were beginning to leave the compound, but the prisoners were becoming more difficult to control. Only two midshipmen and an advisor were left when, at 9:48, one of the six downstairs office workers came upstairs, found the prisoners and realized what was going on. The three infiltrators sprinted out to the advisor’s car while the enlisted soldier went to his own car to try to stop them.
“The last Navy car backed out of the parking lot to find himself blocked by the soldier,” the chronicler wrote. “He threw the gear in reverse and sped up the hill to another exit. The soldier leaped in his car and then began a high-speed chase for the gate.”
The soldier took a different route to try to block the fleeing Navy vehicle, but the advisor floored the gas pedal, held down the horn and swerved around the soldier’s car while the soldier himself dove out of the Navy car’s path. It was 9:53 when the last intruders left the gate. Time on base was 33 minutes, and the mules had been captured, but the soldiers at the gate had recorded the last car’s license plate number and federal and state authorities had been notified. On top of that, three West Point Huey Cobra helicopters had also been scrambled to search for the intruders.
But the midshipmen were prepared: instead of driving immediately south onto roads manned with federal and state police who were on the lookout, the mule trailer drove north to Albany, then west and south to Scranton, Pennsylvania before finally arriving in Anne Arundel County. The plan was to get the mules to the Naval Academy campus in time for the pep rally at 7:30 p.m., but the convoy arrived at the Academy gate at 7:15 only to find federal authorities waiting for them.
“We were removed from our vehicles and spread-eagled on the baseball backstop,” the chronicler wrote. “It seems we were guilty of grand theft mule.”
Cody Allee ridges Ranger at the U.S. Naval Academy (Screenshot via The LOG Magazine/U.S. Navy) Luckily, the academy’s command duty officer came to the rescue and convinced the authorities to take the midshipmen off the backstop and give them a police escort onto academy grounds, where they were greeted as heroes. Goldenberg recalled that the gate where the raiders arrived could easily be backed up with traffic, particularly when there was a horse trailer, a convoy and multiple federal vehicles blocking the way.
The duty officer told the federal authorities, “‘look, you guys are blocking traffic, let’s take this on to the academy grounds and we’ll figure it out there,'” the 1992 grad said. “So they did and as soon as they were on the academy grounds she said ‘get the hell out of here, you have no jurisdiction.’ And that’s how we kept the mules.”
The next day, the Naval Academy football team beat Army 24 to 3, which the Annapolis Capital Gazette said was Navy’s only win of the season. But that was not the end of the journey for the pranksters, who were in hot water for some time after the raid. Midshipman 1st Class Chris Middleton told the Capital Gazette that the mission was planned to not cause any lasting damage, and they paid back an Army sergeant who apparently jumped out a window at West Point to raise the alarm.
“We didn’t hurt anyone and we compensated for everything we did,” he said. “We took along new locks to replace what we cut and we paid that big sergeant for ripping his uniform.”
The Army never pressed charges, according to the Capital Gazette, and the commandant of midshipmen created a unique honor for the raiders: “The Order of the Mule,” which described the mission to be “in the highest traditions of the naval service.”
The mission continues to have ripple effects years after it took place. Goldenberg, who is now executive director of the Call of Duty Endowment, a nonprofit dedicated to helping veterans place high-quality jobs, said it was one of the inspirations for launching the Space Force’s trophy from last year’s military-wide Call of Duty tournament into space.
“The value of a big gesture for morale and fun … it was never lost on me,” he said. “There’s room for inter-service rivalry: it’s good for morale, competition and creativity. We’re extending that spirit to the video game generation.”
Some of the pranksters went on to lead distinguished Navy careers. Goldenberg’s friends on the assault teams included three Navy SEALs, a Marine and a fighter pilot. But no matter where they go, perhaps those former midshipmen think of Operation Missing Mascot as one of their greatest achievements.
“This account is sure to go down in history as one of the greatest adventures ever in the Army/Navy rivalry,” the chronicler wrote. “As intelligence and results are collected, this story is sure to grow, so watch for the book. BEAT ARMY AGAIN!!!”
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This Joint Threat Emitter is seen in Japan in 2021. (U.S. Air Force / Leon Redfern).This article originally appeared in Popular Science.
To confuse Russian aircraft, Ukraine reportedly has access to a training tool from the United States. Known as “Threat Emitters,” they are a way for pilots to learn the signatures of hostile aircraft and missiles, allowing them to safely practice identifying and reacting to combat situations in training. In simulated scenarios, pilots learn how their sensors would perceive real threats, and can safely plan and adapt to the various anti-aircraft weapons they might encounter. The net effect is that pilots learn to fight against a phantom representation of air defenses, in preparation for the real thing.
But when brought to actual war, the emitters in turn are a way to make an enemy’s sensors less reliable, confounding adversarial pilots about what is real and what is merely an electromagnetic mirage.
These “low-cost emitters were built for ranges inside the U.S. but now are in the hands of Ukrainians,” reported Aviation Week, citing Air Force Chief of Staff Charles Q. Brown Jr. “The emitters can replicate surface-to-air missiles and aircraft, and are a cheap, innovative way to further complicate the air picture for Russia.”
One such system is the Joint Threat Emitter. There are two major components to the system: a command unit that lets soldiers operate it, and trailer-mounted radar threat emitters. A command unit can control up to 12 different threat emitters, and each emitter can simulate up to six threats at once.
These emitters help pilots train on their sensors, practicing for war when far from conflict. In 2013, the Air Force and Navy set up Joint Threat Emitters at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam. Both the Navy and Air Force operate from the island, and as the American territory closest to North Korea and China, Guam is prominently featured in war plans around either country.
“When [pilots] go to a real-world situation, they won’t see anything that we haven’t thrown at them before,” Staff Sgt. Rick Woltkamp, a ground radar systems craftsman with the Idaho Air National Guard, said in 2013. “We simulate a ground attack, and the pilot will react and respond accordingly to the simulation.”
Development and use of the tech goes back two decades. In 2002, the Air Force selected Northrop Grumman to develop the Joint Threat Emitter over the next 10 years as a “high-fidelity, full-power threat simulator that is capable of generating radar signals associated with threat systems” that will “better enable aircrews to train in modern war environments.”
Some of the signals it can generate mimic surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery, both of which threaten planes but require different countermeasures. One example of a non-missile air defense system is the ZSU-23, built by the Soviet Union. The ZSU is an armored vehicle with anti-aircraft guns pointed on a turret that uses a radar dish to guide its targeting. As a Soviet-made system, ZSU-23 systems were handed down to successor states, and are reportedly in operation by both the militaries of Ukraine and Russia.
When used for training purposes, the Joint Threat Emitters let pilots perceive and adapt to the presence of enemies, beyond visual line of sight. At these distances, pilots rely largely on sensor readings to see and anticipate the danger they are flying into. One way for them to adapt might be to pick a new route, further from the anti-air radars. Another would be to divert the attack to knock out anti-air systems first.
In Ukraine, the likely use case for these emitters is to augment the country’s existing air defenses. Using the emitters to project air-defense signals across the battlefield—signals identical to known and real Ukrainian air defenses—could mask where the actual defenses are. Real defenses lurking in a sea of mirage defenses, simulated but not backed up by the actual weapons, is a vexing proposition for an attacker. Discovering what is real means probing the defenses with scouts (or hoping that satellite imagery provides a timely update). But because the emitters, like the weapons they emulate, can be driven around, even a view from space cannot accurately pin down a fixed location for long.
Russia’s air force has struggled to achieve air superiority over Ukraine since it invaded in February 2022. Existing air defenses, from vintage human-portable missiles to newer arrivals, put planes and helicopters at real risk for attack. Videos of Russian helicopters lobbing rockets, increasing range while greatly reducing accuracy, suggest that even in the war’s earliest months Russian pilots were afraid of existing Ukrainian anti-air defenses.
While the threat emitters alone do not offer any direct way to shoot down aircraft, having them in place makes Russia’s work of attacking from the sky that much harder. Even if a threat emitter is found and destroyed, it likely means that Russia spent ammunition hitting a decoy target, while missing a real and tangible threat.
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A group of B-1B Lancer and A-10C Thunderbolt II aircraft fly above the Philippine Sea, Nov. 9, 2022. (U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Coleen Berryhill).The saying ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’ apparently does not apply to the A-10 Warthog, because an A-10 squadron proved last month that the vaunted close air support platform can also be used to confuse enemy air defenses so friendly bombers can attack targets without as high a risk of being shot down.
The new tactic revolves around the ADM-160 Miniature Air-Launched Decoy (MALD), a 300-pound aircraft that can be launched mid-air and duplicate the signature and flight profile of other aircraft. Since they mimic actual aircraft on a radar screen, MALDs make it more difficult for enemy air defense operators to decide which blips on their radar are actual threats. This has the effect of “inducing confusion and noise into the enemy air defense picture and complicating their tactical decision-making,” Maj. Maurice “SPAWN” Grosso, an A-10 pilot, wrote in an essay for Task & Purpose in May.
“When planned and utilized properly, a few dozen decoys can wreak havoc on the defenses of a sophisticated potential enemy like Russia or China,” said Grosso, who pointed out that an A-10 can carry up to 16 MALDs below its wings.
A 23rd Wing A-10C Thunderbolt II sits loaded with several Miniature Air-Launched Decoy craft at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Nov. 4, 2022. The MALDs were designed to negate enemy air defense systems and enable previously vulnerable aircraft to operate in heavily contested operating environments. (Staff Sgt. Hannah Malone/U.S. Air Force)The chaos-causing potential of MALD appeared at the core of the 74th Fighter Squadron’s recent A-10 experiments, which saw pilots from the 74th FS fly from their home at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia to Guam, where they practiced flying an integrated strike mission with B-1B Lancer bombers.
Though a press release about the exercise did not provide many specifics about the nature of the simulated strike mission or how many aircraft were involved, it stated that “aircrews must exercise and simulate combat employment of MALD capabilities within strike packages” before those concepts can be used in combat. The fact that the Air Force actually brought pilots around the world and put jets in the air to practice the technique might indicate that the service is seriously considering flying MALD-equipped A-10s should an actual conflict arise.
At least one bomber pilot appreciated the extra help.
“Having a combat-proven platform like the A-10 provide support through their MALD decoys increases the probability that our aircraft and weapons successfully strike their targets,” Maj. Daniel Winningham, a B-1B instructor pilot with the 37th Bomb Squadron, said in the press release. “The training opportunities provided by sorties like this are invaluable.”
U.S. Air Force Capt. Coleen Berryhill, 74th Fighter Squadron A-10C Thunderbolt II pilot, flies near a formation of B1-B Lancer and A-10 aircraft above the Philippine Sea, Nov. 9, 2022. (Capt. Coleen Berryhill/U.S. Air Force)Subscribe to Task & Purpose Today. Get the latest military news, entertainment, and gear in your inbox daily.
Using the A-10 to help other aircraft survive is a change of pace for the 46-year-old aircraft, which was specifically designed for providing close air support for friendly ground troops. That design saved the lives of countless service members over the past twenty years during the Global War on Terror.
However, as the Air Force prepares to fight China in a possible future war, service leaders say the aging plane would not survive a battle with advanced enemy air defenses. The Warthog will still be around for some time though, as the Air Force plans to keep it flying into the 2030s.
In an era when most of the Air Force fleet is older than dirt and the threat of China is not going anywhere, the question then becomes: how does the service use the tools available as effectively as possible? The 74th Squadron’s answer: load ‘em up with decoys.
“The A-10 is famous for its 30-millimeter gatling gun and ability to carry large weapons loads,” squadron commander Lt. Col. Matt Shelly said in the press release. “But we must move beyond the weapons and mission sets that made the A-10 famous in the low-intensity conflicts of the Middle East and accelerate change in this way to be a force multiplier for combatant commanders.”
With its 11 weapons stations, the Warthog could carry a few MALDs and a few conventional weapons for a wide mix of missions, Shelly said. Sending A-10s in with MALDs also lightens the load for newer aircraft like the F-35, which can then pursue other objectives, the press release noted. The A-10 can also loiter over a battleground for a long time and operate from relatively austere locations with minimum support, making it a flexible tool for commanders.
“This mission was a fantastic way to demonstrate how the A-10 is capable of shifting from a close air support team mindset to a strike team,” said Capt. Coleen Berryhill, an A-10 pilot with the 74th. “We are building on our old principles to transform into the A-10 community the joint force needs.”
The 74th FS is not the only A-10 unit eyeing MALD as a way to keep the Warthog in the fight. The 127th Wing at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Michigan paved the way earlier this year when they found that MALD could actually be mounted under the aircraft’s wings, Grosso explained.
At the time, Grosso hoped that MALD could complete its A-10 integration over the next few months. If all goes well, a four-ship formation of A-10s could throw down an eye-watering number of decoys in advance of a friendly bombing run.
“Good luck to our adversaries trying to sort and pick through the 64 MALD delivered by a four-ship flight of A-10s,” Grosso wrote.
U.S. Air Force Capt. Coleen Berryhill, 74th Fighter Squadron A-10C Thunderbolt II pilot, flies flanked by A-10 aircraft above the Philippine Sea, Nov. 9, 2022. (Capt. Coleen Berryhill/U.S. Air Force)MALDs may be just the tip of the iceberg for using the A-10 in creative new ways. Grosso also proposed loading the Warthog with AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles: air-launched cruise missiles that can strike targets from hundreds of miles away.
The A-10 may be able to carry four or five JASSMs, Grosso said, though the aircraft would require software integration as well as ground fitting and separation testing to make it work.
“Imagine a rapidly-deployable force of non-nuclear fighters that can operate from the most austere locations with a minimal footprint while providing long range fires, decoys, electronic attack, and mission support,” Grosso wrote. “That vision is achievable at minimal cost by using assets and capabilities that the Air Force already has, but simply needs to integrate.”
Col. Russell Cook, the commander of the 23rd Wing, of which the 74th Fighter Squadron is a component, seemed to be on the same page.
“Like all aircraft in the United States inventory, the A-10 is getting older every day and will eventually be replaced by newer aircraft,” Cook said in the press release. “Until that day comes, it is our duty to ensure the defense of our nation and allies by training to be lethal anytime, anywhere, against any adversary.”
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A Soldier from 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team fires an AT4 at a notional target, Aug. 22, 2018 at a Fort Drum training area. (U.S. Army/Sgt. Michael A Parker).The Army wants to replace its various man-portable anti-tank and anti-structure rounds with a single multi-functional munition that packs enough punch to take out a bunker or light armored vehicle.
If adopted, the new munition would be the tactical equivalent of a shoulder-launched Swiss Army knife, capable of obliterating steel and concrete with more versatility and utility than offered by previous weapons.
The future weapon, known as the XM919 Individual Assault Munition (IAM), is required to “penetrate and deliver incapacitating effects” against buildings, field fortifications, bunker fighting positions, and lightly armored vehicles while allowing soldiers to fire from within enclosures, an Army JPEO Armaments & Ammunition spokesperson told Task & Purpose.
According to the Army’s fiscal year 2023 budget request, the XM919 will eventually replace the M72 LAW, M136 and M136A1 AT-4 anti-tank weapons, and M141 Bunker Defeat Munition rocket launcher in the service’s arsenal with a single, lightweight multi-role solution in order to cut down on the amount of gear soldiers have to haul downrange in the future.
“All of these systems have served the Army well for some time, but each are single role weapons,” the Army spokesperson said. “The threats have evolved, therefore the capabilities need to be combined to reduce soldier load and simplify training and logistics while addressing the threats.”
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“Current multiple [shoulder-launched munition] configurations complicate training, logistics, life cycle management, and sustainment costs,” she said. “A single SLM solution also eliminates the Commander’s dilemma of which SLM to carry into battle: anti-armor, antistructure, or both; thereby increasing soldier survivability and soldier lethality leading to higher rates of mission success.“
In other words, the Army wants a munition that can blow up whatever the hell a soldier is aiming at without having to swap out for specialized ammo in the middle of a firefight.
The service plans on awarding a contract for the XM919 sometime in fiscal year 2024, with fielding planned for “as early as” fiscal year 2026, the spokesperson said. According to Army budget documents, the service has spent more than $10 million on the new munition over the last two fiscal years.
“Extensive” market research conducted over the past several years “determined there exists mature, production-ready systems throughout the world” ready for the service to acquire and field “that would require minimal development but potentially requiring some U.S. Army specific testing,” the spokesperson said.
What those production-ready systems entail remains unclear. The Army JPEO spokesperson told Task & Purpose that the service had conducted a soldier touchpoint in October 2021 to evaluate three “candidate solutions” as part of the Defense Department’s market research into the XM919.
One of those solutions may very well be the Recoilless Grenade Weapon system unveiled by General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual exposition in Washington, D.C. this past October.
While the Army conducted an industry day in April 2021 to survey market solutions for the XM919, it’s worth noting that a second industry day this past August “communicated to industry adjustments to the user requirements based on the evolving threat picture,” according to the Army spokesperson. These adjustments were likely precipitated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing anti-armor warfare there.
“As the ongoing situation in eastern Europe has shown, there remains a strong need for an anti-armor, anti-structure SLM employable in both urban as well as complex open terrains,” the Army spokesperson said. “The XM919 IAM multi-target capability provides flexibility to engage a wider range of targets across the scope of operational environments our warfighters may encounter.”
Indeed, the budget documents for the IAM indicate that the Army sees the munition as part of its Soldier Lethality modernization priority, a function it easily fulfills by “reducing soldier load, while providing tactical innovation capable of extending overmatch against near-peer adversaries in a joint, multi-domain, high-intensity conflict,” according to the documents.
It’s unclear based on budget documents and the Army’s comments which production-ready systems available in the U.S. defense industrial base might end up serving the role of XM919 in the service’s future arsenal. But one thing is certain: the results of the upcoming competition will be explosive.
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Sailors train with the LA9-P Laser Hail and Warning System on the fantail of aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75). (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class J. R. Pacheco).A U.S. Navy warship recently used what can best be described as a laser rifle to ward off an Iranian patrol boat that harassed a group of Navy vessels as they transited the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. military announced.
The encounter, which took place on Monday evening, saw an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy patrol boat cross within 150 yards of the expeditionary sea base platform ship USS Lewis B. Puller and guided-missile destroyer USS The Sullivans and “attempted to blind the bridge by shining a spotlight,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement on Tuesday.
“This dangerous action in international waters is indicative of Iran’s destabilizing activity across the Middle East,” said CENTCOM spokesman Col. Joe Buccino in a statement.
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“Unsafe and unprofessional” behavior from IRGC patrol boats towards U.S. Navy vessels in the Strait of Hormuz is a relatively common occurrence, but the response from the U.S. warships was anything but. According to CENTCOM, the pair of vessels “safely deescalated the situation through the employment of audible warnings and non-lethal lasers.”
“Guided-missile destroyer USS The Sullivans (DDG 68) used a laser dazzler, a handheld non-lethal directed energy device, to cause temporary disorientation,” Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, told Task & Purpose.
Based on previous reporting from our colleagues at The War Zone, that laser dazzler was likely a B.E. Meyers Glare LA-9/P, a handheld laser system with a range of 4 km at night (and 1.5 in daylight) that, in photos published by the Defense Department about its use over the last decade, very much resembles a laser rifle.
U.S. Navy Master-at-Arms 1st Class Benjamin Newton, left, and Senior Chief Master-at-Arms Marc Lucas fire LA-9P laser dazzlers during an exercise aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) July 21, 2013, in the Arabian Sea. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jess Lewis)Also known a “non-lethal optical distracters” to the DoD, laser dazzlers are “devices that have reversible optical effects on human targets.” This means that they can “temporarily overwhelm” an adversary’s visual capabilities without outright blinding them, which, as The War Zone notes, is prohibited under international law. Indeed, the Glare LA-9/P, is designed to immediately shut down if an observer enters its designated hazard distance.
“The idea is they will temporarily blind and disorient an attacker, or even the electronic optics being used by a threat,” as my colleague Tyler Rogoway wrote. “What you can’t see you cannot attack, or at the very least the disorienting nature of the dazzler will buy precious seconds to better assess the situation and apply lethal force, if necessary.”
Laser dazzlers aren’t just for eyeblasting potential adversaries during a maritime incident, though. According to the Defense Department, they’re also used to provide “an unequivocal, non-verbal warning” — the naval equivalent of, say, the “green beam” that Air Force Special Operations Command AC-130 crews use to let adversaries know they have them in their sights.
As laser dazzlers have been in the Navy’s arsenal for more than a decade, this is unlikely the first time that a warship has deployed a non-lethal laser beam to deal with provocative actions from potential adversaries. But their most important application may be a future threat: when the incoming boat doesn’t have a driver at all.
“With suicide and unmanned vessel attacks being among the biggest potential threats to ships these days, laser dazzlers offer an essential layer of protection,” as Rogoway notes. “Even lower-end drones, whether airborne or waterborne, could be repelled via dazzlers by blinding their electro-optical systems.”
As the Navy invests heavily in outfitting surface warships with lethal lasers to “burn the boats”, it’s those non-lethal, handheld laser rifles that may end up serving as the first line of defense against waterborne and airborne threats, both new and old. And while a shot from the LA-9/P while you’re pursuing a Navy vessel won’t exactly reduce you to ashes, what comes next might be a little more lethal than desired.
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The Bell V-280 Valor during flight testing over Amarillo, Texas in 2018. (Photo courtesy of Bell).This is the future of Army aviation, pending years of development, possible corporate litigation, and billions of dollars: the Bell V-280 Valor.
The V-280 Valor performs a flight demonstration in Arlington, Texas, Oct. 28, 2020. (Luke J. Allen/U.S. Army)The V-280 Valor is the winner of the Army’s years-long Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) competition, meant to ultimately replace the service’s Black Hawk helicopter in transporting troops and supplies across the battlefield. The V-280 tiltrotor aircraft ultimately beat out Sikorsky-Boeing’s SB-1 Defiant compound coaxial helicopter when the award was announced on Monday.
The initial contract, for $232 million, is to continue development of the aircraft, but then expands to $1.2 billion and then perhaps as much as $7 billion to begin building the new fleet of Valor aircraft that will begin replacing the Black Hawk in the mid-2030s.
The Valor will ultimately replace roughly 2,000 Black Hawks — which first entered service in 1979.
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The Army remained fairly guarded on what ultimately prompted the decision to go with the Valor.
“Can we be more specific on the factors of how exactly we arrived at this point? No,” Maj. Gen. Robert Barrie, the Army’s program executive officer for aviation said Monday. “However, best value is meant in the truest sense that it was a comprehensive analysis of a variety of factors. No one really drove that decision. So, if you look broadly at a very high level, the factors are variables and performance, cost, and schedule, all were considered, and the combination of those are defined explicitly and evaluated … that is what I would describe as the best value … [and] what the Army would describe as its best value selection.”
The Army’s requirements for the FLRAA call for an aircraft with a top speed of 250 knots, or more than 285 miles per hour, along with an unrefueled combat radius of 200 to 300 nautical miles and a maximum range of 1,725 to 2,440 nautical miles.
The V-280 Valor first took to the sky in 2017, and logged over 200 hours of flight time before the prototype was grounded in 2021. Bell has claimed that the aircraft is capable of top speeds of up to 280 knots with a range of up to 800 nautical miles, double the top speed and operational range of the Black Hawk. The Valor can also reportedly carry 23% more troops and 25% more cargo than the Black Hawk.
The biggest difference between the Black Hawk and the Valor is, of course, the tiltrotors. While it looks similar to the V-22 Osprey, the Valor works somewhat differently. The engines remain in place in nacelles, streamlined containers, on the wing — it’s the rotors themselves that tilt up and down. They’re also what give the aircraft its high speed, which is more than 100 miles per hour faster than the Black Hawk’s top speed of 222 miles per hour.
“What Bell did with the V-280 Valor was to evolve the tiltrotor configuration into a fighting machine designed specifically for the Army air assault and utility missions in contested environments and to be maintainable in the field,” said Carl Coffman, vice president, Future Vertical Lift Strategy at Bell. “We proved that this is not going to be a risky configuration for the Army to adopt because there is no component on the V-280 that you can’t pull with organic ground-support equipment in an austere environment today.”
With a crew of four, along with up to 14 passengers, the Valor would replace the Black Hawk in its myriad of missions, from carrying supplies to air assault missions to medical evacuation. The more than three years of flight testing, which included Army test pilots, with the Valor prototype demonstrated its flight capabilities, survivability, and sling loading ability, according to Bell.
“Every time you hear the Chief or Maj. Gen. Rugen speak, it’s about speed, range, and reach,” Frank Lazzara, director of Advanced Vertical Lift Systems, Sales and Strategy, who flew CV-22 Ospreys for Air Force Special Operations Command, said earlier this year.
The Valor has a wider footprint than the Black Hawk, but is 20% shorter, which Bell said gives it greater flexibility in landing.
Lockheed-Martin, which owns Sikorsky, may protest the Army’s decision, which would require at least 100 days for the Government Accountability Office to review it.
If all goes according to plan, though, the first FLRAA prototypes for the Army will be delivered in 2025, with the tiltrotor aircraft expected to begin entering service in the mid-2030s.
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Photographs of the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade rescuing 10,000 Afghans and Americans in August 2021. (Photos courtesy of soldiers with the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade.).Tracer rounds zipped between the CH-47 Chinook helicopter’s spinning rotor blades as Ron piloted the aircraft over Kabul to reach the U.S. embassy on the first nightof the Afghanistan evacuation.
The sky was slightly hazy over the city, which the Taliban had just captured. For the five-person Chinook crew — a pilot, co-pilot, and three aircrew — most of the world outside was cast in shades of gray due to their night vision goggles. The incoming tracers, however, were notable exceptions: They became white streaks through the goggles before blossoming red and orange as they got closer.
Sitting in the cockpit of the CH-47, it was clear to Ron, a 10-year helicopter pilot with five deployments under his belt, that gunmen on the ground were trying to hit the four green Chinooks as soldiers with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Combat Aviation Brigade took part in the hurried evacuation of American personnel and U.S. allies from Afghanistan.
Even though his crew chief could see where the fire was coming from, the soldiers onboard did not engage the shooters. Eventually, the Taliban and the U.S. military would form a strained partnership that held until the evacuation was complete, but on that first night, the rules of engagement were unclear.
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Kabul had suddenly become enemy territory for the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade helicopter crews. A small infantry company from the Army’s 10th Mountain Division provided a shrinking security perimeter at the embassy’s landing zone as Army helicopters touched down to pick up the Americans, a mix of State and Defense Department personnel, and people with other government agenciesawaiting evacuation.
One immediate challenge for the Chinook crews was that many waiting for evacuation wanted to board the helicopters with luggage. Since bags could be replaced while people could not, the crew chiefs told the Americans they could take two small items onboard and anything they could use to fight, if needed. Everything else was discarded to make room for other evacuees while there was still time to fly.
The Chinooks spent between three and six minutes on the ground as they loaded passengers. During the last trip, no one was left at the embassy to provide security at the landing zone.
“Obviously not, because we made sure we got every last American out of there,” Ron said. “There was no security there. We picked up, made sure we had everyone, and those four Chinooks were the last U.S. helicopters to touch down in the embassy [landing zone].”
When the Taliban captured Kabul on Aug. 15, 2021, the U.S.-led effort to evacuate more than 124,000 Afghans and Americans was based at Hamid Karzai International Airport. However, helicopter crews with the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade rescued thousands of Americans and Afghans by flying dangerous missions in and around Kabul.
These helicopter crews braved gunfire and other dangers as they flew numerous missions outside the wire to ferry Afghan security forces and civilians to the airport. Yet, the soldiers who kept that lifeline going for days on end have received little public recognition. And while 55 soldiers with the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade have received Air Medals — including 12 with “V” devices for valor — none of the soldiers have received the Distinguished Flying Cross,unlike the airmen who flew refugees out of Kabul.
Task & Purpose spoke to several soldiers who served with the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade at the time about the operation to pluck Afghans from Taliban-controlled territory. All spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid potential reprisal and are being identified by pseudonyms.
“I would say it was the most dangerous flights that I’ve ever had, those two weeks there,” said George, a Chinook flight engineer. “I’ve got about 1,100 hours and those were the most intense. Even the guys that had been deployed six, seven, eight times, they said this is something that they had never experienced before. It was hectic.”
(Task & Purpose photo illustration by Aaron Provost.)George had been in Afghanistan since May to help with the U.S. military’s withdrawal, which U.S. government officials had repeatedly promised would be “orderly and safe.” But former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country on Aug. 15, 2021, and the mission changed overnight.George had just worked for two weeks straight so he was not scheduled to fly that day. He was catching a few moments of rest when he was awakened by U.S. troops sprinting through the barracks.
He walked outside, heard gunshots, and saw fire in the distance, so he grabbed his weapon and equipment and ran toward a hangar, where he was immediately assigned to a mission. That was the start of the largest non-combatant evacuation operation in the U.S. military’s history.
For George, that first night was the most perilous part of the operation.
“From the first takeoff to very later in the night, 12 hours later, we were getting shot at,” George said. “We were getting lasered [from small arms optics]. There were gunfights outside the gate from the Taliban and ISIS-K. We were making drop-offs. We were fitting all kinds of people in the aircraft.”
They had to move quickly, George said. “It was land, load ‘em, go; land, load ‘em, go.”
That’s how it went until the crew returned to relative safety offered by Hamid Karzai International Airport around 1 a.m. on Aug. 16. But as soon as the Chinook touched down, the security situation inside the wire imploded as thousands of Afghans stormed the airfield in a scene eerily reminiscent of a “zombie apocalypse,” George said.
George’s Chinook had just touched down, and as he stepped outside the aircraft, he saw a wall of people running toward the helicopter.
“I started realizing just how many people there were,” George said. “I started seeing things fly up in the air, and I was like, what are those? And then I realized that they were shooting ammunition and fireworks at the helicopters and all the C-17s on the ground.”
When the crowd got within 100 feet of the aircraft, George said they needed to take off, and the helicopter flew right over the crowd with rounds flying between the rotor blades, he said. They touched down elsewhere on the airfield, where it was dark. Crew members grabbed their weapons and prepared to defend themselves.
But in what can only be described as “perfect timing,” an Air Force C-17 loaded with 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers managed to land just as the crowd broke through a gate protecting the helicopter crew, so the soldiers immediately began restoring security, George said.
Had that C-17 arrived on the scene one or two minutes later, it likely would not have been able to touch down, he said. In the end, at least five people were killed when Afghans tried to rush the airfield, Reuters reported at the time. U.S. troops reportedly had to fire into the air to control the crowd, which was so large that it could be seen on commercially available satellite imagery.
(Task & Purpose photo illustration by Aaron Provost.)Over the next several days, American helicopter crews were able to ferry many Afghans to the airport, including women and children, George said.
“Knowing that they got on our aircraft, they got dropped off, put on a C-17, and flown away, that was the most rewarding part — that you’re able to change lives,” George said.
Saving alliesFollowing the Taliban’s capture of Kabul, the situation at Hamid Karzai International Airport was grim.
On Aug. 16, several Afghans fell to their death after trying to cling onto an Air Force C-17 as it took off. Shortly afterward, Mike, a Chinook pilot, received a request from a government agency to pick up Afghan troops outside of Kabul that would provide extra security at the airport.
While Mike did not name the government agency in question, the New York Times and The Intercept have reported that Afghans who worked for the CIA, known as Zero Units, were flown by helicopter to the airport.
Mike said the Chinook crew did not have time to think about the Afghans who died earlier that day. As the sun began to go down, they took off and headed north of Kabul.
“The first out-and-back went by relatively uneventfully, other than an extraordinary amount of small arms fire coming up from the entire city of Kabul,” Mike said. “They hadn’t started shooting at us yet. We picked up the security force, flew back to HKIA, and dropped them off on the South side of the airport. The second run was well into dark, and under the night vision goggles that we wore, we saw an incredible amount of tracer fire. Although we varied our route over the mountains, we received small arms and machine gun fire that traced over and underneath our aircraft. We ran with the lights off, fully blacked out, so we figured that they were shooting at the sound of our aircraft.”
The helicopter crew decided not to return fire because they could not positively identify the shooters, and even if they could, he said firing back would give away their position.
As Mike’s Chinook — one of three helicopters returning from the mission — flew in from the West to land at the northern part of Hamid Karzai International Airport, the crew caught a glimpse of a crowd surging from the south.
Then, as the lumbering transport descended below 200 feet, the ground below erupted in gunfire to the right of the landing zone. Chaos ensued. Those who stormed the airfield ran directly into the landing zone, as crew members aboard helicopters called out the distance and direction of those below.
When the Air Mission Commander broke over the radios and yelled, “go around, go around!” The engine of the Chinook roared as Mike “pulled as much power as possible,” he said.
“We had over 60 passengers, twice the aircraft’s capacity,” Mike said. “My co-pilot shadowed me on the controls the entire time, ready to take them over if one of the rounds incapacitated me.”
Mike’s helicopter and two other Chinooks flew to the north side of the airport, landed, and Afghan commandos set up security positions, he said.
Over the course of seven days, Mike’s crew helped rescue about 1,500 Afghan security personnel and roughly 5,000 refugee families, he said. In addition to taking small arms and machine gun fire, the helicopters narrowly escaped a mortar strike, which hit one pickup site within a minute of the Chinooks taking off.
“The entire Chinook Company, callsign ‘Flipper,’ participated in the evacuation of the refugees,” Mike said. “On one of those lifts the refugees reached up and touched the American Flag that was affixed to the inside of the cabin as they exited the aircraft, and I was overwhelmed with emotion.”
(Task & Purpose photo illustration by Aaron Provost.)No Distinguished Flying CrossesThe soldiers who spoke with Task & Purpose said the evacuation flights lasted for more than a week, but a spokesman for the 82nd Airborne Division said the Combat Aviation Brigade flew missions outside of Hamid Karzai International Airport from Aug. 15-17, 2021. The reason for the disparity remains unclear.
During those three days, the Combat Aviation Brigade ferried about 10,000 American citizens and at-risk Afghan civilians to the airport, said Lt. Col. Anthony Clas.
So far, 55 members of the Combat Aviation Brigade have received Air Medals for their bravery during the evacuation flights, including 12 Air Medals with “V” devices for Valor, he said.
“The crew members of the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade performed exceptionally during the HKIA evacuation mission while being exposed to hostility and personal risk,” Clas told Task & Purpose. “There were 12 Soldiers and Paratroopers who performed valorously during this operation who were recognized accordingly for their performance. We are grateful for their bravery and commitment to mission accomplishment.”
But several soldiers who served with the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade at the time told Task & Purpose that a number of helicopter crew members were initially nominated for Distinguished Flying Crosses — including several Apache helicopter pilots — and Bronze Stars, only to see those awards downgraded by the brigade’s leadership.
The 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade held award ceremonies in May and August to present soldiers who took part in the Afghanistan evacuation with Air Medals for their bravery, Clas said.
“These awards were deemed commensurate to the service and impact our soldiers made during the 82nd CAB’s deployment to Afghanistan and participation in the evacuation from Hamid Karzai International Airport during Operation Allies Refuge,” Clas said.
Clas also said that awards submitted for approval must meet the criteria outlined in Army Regulation 600-8-22 Military Awards to determine the appropriate level of recognition.
However, Task & Purpose obtained multiple screenshots of an email that appears to be sent from Col. Jennifer Mykins, commander of the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, to a subordinate commander, in which Mykins says soldiers who took part in the evacuation do not deserve higher level valor awards.
“Your aircrews did not earn a DFC [Distinguished Flying Cross]; an Air Medal for achievement might even be questionable based on the current write-up and AR [Army Regulation]. BSMs [Bronze Star Medals]for achievement need to show heroic or meritorious achievement involving conflict with an opposing force and you also need to relook the ‘V’ recommendation,” Mykins wrote in the email. “You might be able to recommend ‘C’ but only for some.”
When asked if Mykins had sent an email ruling out Distinguished Flying Crosses for soldiers in the Combat Aviation Brigade, Clas did not answer directly but did not deny the email had been sent.
“Awards for exceptional service during this mission were nominated and approved in accordance with Army Regulation 600-8-2,” Clas said. “The soldiers and paratrooper were recognized commensurate to their service and impact during the mission.”
In August, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced that he was tasking the military services to identify units and service members who should receive the Presidential Unit Citation or individual awards for their actions during the Afghanistan evacuation.
Air Force Brig Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, deferred questions to the military services about which troops and units might be recognized.
U.S. Army Human resources command has reviewed several hundred unit award citations so far per Austin’s directive, said Army spokesman Sgt. 1st Class Anthony Hewitt.
“Award packets have been processed through HRC for additional staffing and approval in accordance with established awards processing procedures,” Hewitt told Task & Purpose. “We are confident we will be able to meet the Secretary’s intent to recognize our personnel and formations that have been instrumental in the Afghanistan evacuation.”
‘No matter how bad things are, there is always something good in it’ The 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade provided the last lifeboats on a sinking ship for Americans and Afghans who could not make it to Hamid Karzai International Airport.
During those chaotic evacuations in August 2021, helicopter crews flew missions that rescued far more people than their helicopters were designed to carry, said Fred, a Chinook pilot.
“The Chinook has 30 seats; that’s how many people usually fill it,” Fred said. “Well, it started out they were giving us 35 [people], whatever, per aircraft, and one day we were like: Hey, if it fits, we can take it. They were like: Oh! I think by the last day, we were pulling 70-something people out per aircraft.”
At the start of the non-combatant evacuation operation, the brigade’s helicopter crews used humor to keep themselves motivated, Fred said. They joked that a movie would eventually be made about the mission called 14 Hours — an homage to 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, he said, adding that they had a chart in their tactical operations center showing which actors would play real-life characters in the film adaptation.
But as soon the evacuations got underway, the crews just wanted to help as many people as possible, said Fred. The door gunners, crew chiefs, and flight engineers — collectively known as “backenders” — were particularly moved by the plight of the women and children they were ferrying to safety, he said.
“It really affected a lot of our backenders because upfront we’re kind of insulated from what’s going on in the back,” Fred said. “We’re not in it. Our backenders were immersed in it.”
(Task & Purpose photo illustration by Aaron Provost.)“As soon as we got back from that first day,” Fred continued, “Our backenders got together and they’re like: Hey, we’re going to ransack everything that we can find that has candy, that has toys, anything that we can give to a child — basically, this is probably one of the worst days of their life at this point — something to brighten it a little bit more.”
From then on, he said that every time the helicopters went to rescue Afghans, helicopter crew members had a little bag with candy, snacks, and whatever else they could find for the families and children.
Ralph, a helicopter crew chief during the evacuations, would hand Girl Scout cookies, Skittles, and M&M candies to children and families when they got on and off the aircraft. He noted that Afghan children were probably scared of the uniformed and armed Americans, so he hoped the candy would ease their nerves.
Afghan women and children would usually get onto the helicopters first, but were reluctant to sit next to crew members, whose face masks and other gear made them look frightening, Ralph told Task & Purpose.
“Kids were hesitant to take things from us but rarely turned down food or candy,” Ralph told Task & Purpose. “Not a lot of smiles in the crowds, but I can’t blame them. I’m sure every single one of the evacuees was exhausted and just wanted to be on the airfield where they at least had some protection and promise of leaving the country.”
The helicopter crew members realized that the people they were rescuing had lost most of their possessions, and had little rest or food as they made their way across Afghanistan, he said. The ordeals these Afghans endured were written on the faces of the women and young children.
“What we saw on a daily basis is the definition of desperation in their eyes,” Ralph said. “They had no other choice than to leave. That manifested in either standing in crowds at Abbey Gate; to traveling across the country for a chance to catch a ride with us; to clinging to the outside of C17s with a destination unknown.”
Sometimes, a little touch of humanity made all the difference to the Afghans.
Fred remembers how one of the door gunners in his aircraft had the same stuffed toy as his nephew, who is just 3 or 4 years old. “It was one of those things: You have yours, I have mine, and it keeps us together,” he said.
On one of the evacuation flights, a man was holding a little boy who kept pointing at the stuffed animal, Fred said.
“My door gunner, he was playing with him back and forth, back and forth, and he goes to hand it to him, apparently the kid’s face just lit up. He did this huge hug on it. That is the kind of memory that I hope can stick with this kid as he goes through his life and kind of remembers no matter how bad things are, there is always something good in it.”
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A U.S. Army M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) launches ordnance during RED FLAG-Alaska 21-1 at Fort Greely, Alaska, Oct. 22, 2020. (Senior Airman Beaux Hebert/U.S. Air Force).The U.S. government has reportedly modified all the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, that it has provided to Ukraine so that they cannot fire long-range rockets that could conceivably strike targets inside of Russia, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The modification prevents the HIMARS from firing Army Tactical Missile System rockets, or ATACMS, which have a range of up to 186 miles, the Wall Street Journal first reported. So far, the U.S. government has not provided Ukraine with any ATACMS.
Just days before the Defense Department announced in June that it would send HIMARS to Ukraine, President Joe Biden told reporters on May 30, “We’re not going to send to Ukraine rocket systems that can strike into Russia.”
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Defense officials declined to say on Tuesday whether the HIMARS sent to Ukraine had been altered so that they could not fire ATACMS, or if such a modification is technically possible.
“Due to operational security considerations, we do not comment publicly on the configuration of systems provided to allies and partners,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told Task & Purpose. “The United States remains committed to providing Ukraine the capabilities it needs to counter Russian aggression.”
A HIMARS weapons platform fires from inside Ukraine. (Ukrainian Ministry of Defense/Twitter)The Wall Street Journal story comes amid news that Ukraine may have used drones to attack Russian military bases hundreds of miles inside Russian territory, suggesting the Ukrainians are exploring options for striking targets inside of Russia.
The U.S. military has sent Ukraine 20 HIMARS so far and defense industry behemoth Lockheed Martin is building the Ukrainians another 18 HIMARS over the next few years.
Since June, the Defense Department has provided Ukraine with Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System munitions, or GMLRS, for their HIMARS. With a range of up to 43 miles, these rockets have allowed Ukraine to strike targets behind the front lines but not inside Russia itself.
“The systems that we’re providing – HIMARS and the guided munitions that go along with them – will allow Ukraine to range any target they need for that fight inside Ukrainian territory,” Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said at a June 1 Pentagon news briefing.
It is unclear how the U.S. could have modified the HIMARS sent to Ukraine so that the system could launch GMLRS but not missiles with much longer ranges. A Ukrainian military official who spoke on condition of anonymity expressed skepticism that HIMARS could be rendered incapable of launching ATACMS, citing technical reasons.
However, it is possible that the U.S. military has taken steps to ensure that the GMLRS rockets provided to Ukraine cannot strike targets inside of Russia, said retired Marine Col. Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Both the GMLRS rockets and 155mm artillery shells that the U.S. military has sent to Ukraine have electronic devices used to download coordinates for where the munitions are intended to strike, Cancian told Task & Purpose.
“What I suspect they’ve done is on all of these devices, they’ve put in some restrictions,” Cancian said. “I’m sure what they’ve put in is a no-fire zone over all of Russia.”
That means the software would not accept any coordinates inside Russian territory for the artillery rockets and shells that the U.S. has given to the Ukrainians, he said.
Cancian said he was unsure why the U.S. military would program the HIMARS to not fire ATACMS because the Ukrainians don’t have any of those long-range rockets.
“It makes no difference because we’re not giving them ATACMS, so it’s a non-issue,” Cancian said.
A map made by national security analyst Phillip Karber showing how Ukraine could use ATACMS to strike targets inside its borders without threatening Russian territory. (Image courtesy of Phillip Karber)U.S. officials have made clear that any artillery shells and rockets provided to Ukraine can only be used for targets on Ukrainian territory. But Phillip Karber, a Marine veteran and national security analyst, argues that ATACMS would be a game changer for the Ukrainians that would allow them to push the Russians out of their country.
If the Ukrainians agreed that they would only use ATACMS to attack targets inside Ukraine that are west of the Dnieper River and south of the 20th parallel, they would be able to strike ships and airfields in occupied Crimea, said Karber, who has made 40 trips to Ukraine since 2014 and spent 187 days as an observer in the combat zone.
“The reason why Crimea is so important is the best way to get the Russians out is to make it militarily worthless, and it’s sort of a Pearl Harbor just waiting to be taken out,” Karber said. “So, if they take out the air bases and start knocking off any ships at the docks, it literally makes Sevastopol not worth having.”
Karber noted that the Ukrainians have already vowed not to use their HIMARS to hit targets inside Russia, and they’ve kept their word so far.
The fact that the U.S. refuses to provide the Ukrainians with ATACMS is “obscene,” he said.
“Russia has been attacking Ukraine with hundreds of long-range missiles for nine months and now systematically escalating to destroy the country’s civilian electrical grid,” Karber said, “But we can’t give Ukraine a missile with a third the range of the aggressor’s systems for fear of ‘escalation.’”
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An artist rendering of a DE M-SHORAD Stryker vehicle in action. (Raytheon).After years in development and months of delays, the Army will finally stand up a platoon of four Stryker fighting vehicles outfitted with prototype laser weapons next month.
The first prototype platoon, which will consist of Directed Energy Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense (DE M-SHORAD) Stryker vehicles outfitted with 50-kilowatt laser weapons dubbed the ‘Guardian,’ is “set to arrive” at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in January, a spokesman for the Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) told Task & Purpose.
The Army’s RCCTO has “initiated the prototype New Equipment Training (pNET) and New Equipment Fielding (pNEF) for the first DE M-SHORAD prototype platoon,” the spokesman said.
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The fielding of the 50-kW DE M-SHORAD system comes after then-RCCTO chief Lt. Gen. Neil Thurgood promised in August that the new laser-equipped Strykers would be delivered to an air defense battery at Fort Sill “within the next 45 days,” or by October 2022.
According to Defense News, RCCTO officials decided to keep the DE M-SHORAD laser system in the development phase for a few extra months to ensure the final product can be produced and fielded at scale.
“We want to make sure when we actually transition a program or a capability that we mature not just the prototype from an operational capability but have a good competitive space and good manufacturability processes in place as well to make that PEO successful,” new RCCTO chief Lt. Gen. Robert Rasch told Defense News in mid-October.
A DE M-SHORAD Stryker vehicle. (Raytheon)Despite this delay, the DE M-SHORAD laser system appears ready for prime time. An RCCTO spokesman told Task & Purpose that the weapon’s “critical subsystems and other components” had “successfully demonstrated a high degree of technical readiness against threat sets” during a March test at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
According to defense giant and DE M-SHORAD contractor Raytheon, the laser prototype “acquired, tracked, targeted, and defeated multiple mortars and successfully accomplished multiple tests simulating real-world scenarios” during that event.
“Additional prototyping effort, system-level testing, and soldier training opportunities will further inform reliability estimates of the laser technology,” the RCCTO spokesman said.
Finding new and innovative ways to counter incoming rockets, drones, and mortar fires from adversaries has become an increasingly pressing modernization priority for the Army, one that’s become even more acute with the rise of drone warfare in the Middle East and, even more recently, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Indeed, while soldiers with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment have been rocking 5 kW laser Strykers downrange in Europe for the last several years, the 50 kW iterations eventually headed to Fort Sill represent a major increase in power that might finally prove capable of effectively intercepting incoming drones and ordnance.
Regardless of power, the allure behind laser weapons is relatively simple: compared to conventional heavy weaponry, the laser represents a deeper magazine with less cost per shot and less weight for soldiers to haul into battle.
“Offering lethality against unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and rockets, artillery and mortars (RAM), laser weapons now increase Army air and missile defense capability while reducing total system lifecycle cost through reduced logistical demand,” as the Army previously said in a statement.
The Army is so bullish on laser-equipped infantry carriers that RCCTO is currently pursuing the development of a 20 kW laser weapon to accompany the Infantry Squad Vehicle assault buggy downrange, as Breaking Defense previously reported.
The so-called Army Multi-Purpose High Energy Laser (AMP-HEL), which will reportedly see delivery to the service sometime in fiscal year 2023, will only protect against certain types of drones, leaving soldiers vulnerable to rockets, artillery, and mortars, per Breaking Defense.
Still, the eventual arrival of America’s very first laser platoon will likely mark a historic moment for the proliferation of futuristic laser weapons across the Army in particular and the U.S. military as a whole. Now if only we could get those into the hands of infantry troops…
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Recruits perform a warm-up run during a physical training session inside Freedom Hall at Recruit Training Command in Aug. 2019. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Camilo Fernan).Joining the Navy just got a little bit easier.
Under new guidelines announced Monday, the Navy will now accept up to 7,500 new sailors who score between the 10th and 30th percentile of the Armed Forces Qualification Test, or AFQT.
These future sailors would be so-called “Category IV” recruits, and up to 20% of the upcoming year’s enlistees could fall into this category.
“As we continue to navigate a challenging recruiting environment, changing the AFQT requirement removes a potential barrier to enlistment, allowing us to widen the pool of potential recruits and creating opportunities for personnel who wish to serve,” Cmdr. David Benham, a spokesperson for Commander, Navy Recruiting Command, told Military.com on Monday.
The AFQT, which measures word knowledge, reading comprehension, arithmetic reasoning and mathematics knowledge, is just one part of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, or ASVAB. The AFQT is graded on a scale of all test takers — in other words, instead of a grade, an applicant is ranked in a percentile of how well they did relative to everyone else taking the test.
While the ASVAB helps determine what position an enlistee may hold, the AFQT simply determines whether someone is eligible for military service. The two tests combined determine what positions someone can enlist for.
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Speaking to Military.com, Benham reiterated that potential enlistees still have to meet ASVAB standards.
“Individual Navy rating requirements are based off these fixed line scores, not the overall AFQT score,” Benham said. “To qualify for enlistment, the individual must still meet the minimum line score requirement for a given Navy rating. These ASVAB line score requirements are unchanged by this policy, and they are not waiverable.”
Regulations from the Department of Defense stipulate that no more than 4% of enlistees into the various services can score in the “Category IV” range – what the Navy will now be selecting from based on this new guidance – on the AFQT.
“Anybody who comes in under this change in policy will have still met the requirements to serve,” Benham told Military.com.
The new policy took effect Monday and will be evaluated through next October.
“As we continue to navigate a challenging recruiting environment, changing the AFQT requirement removes a potential barrier to enlistment, allowing us to widen the pool of potential recruits and creating opportunities for personnel who wish to serve,” Benham told USNI News.
The new policy comes as all the services are struggling to find enough qualified recruits. The Army is struggling to find enlistees, missing its 2022 goal by 15,000 new soldiers, and has instituted a basic training for basic training – the Future Soldier Prep Course – to help recruits meet the minimum physical and aptitude requirements.
The Navy met its 2022 recruiting quotas, but by just 42 new sailors. In November, the service announced it was raising the maximum age for enlistment to 41.
The Army is going back to a golden oldie, reviving the “Be All You Can Be” slogan. Perhaps it’s time for the Navy to follow suit and bring back those “Accelerate Your Life” ads with the Godsmack song. Keith David’s voice can still get you to do anything.
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U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to Alpha Battery, 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, fire a M109A6 Paladin in support of the joint training exercise Eager Lion ’19 at Training Area 1, Jordan, Aug. 27, 2019. (Spc. Angel Ruszkiewicz/U.S. Army).The Army has a new contract out that could see a welcome helping hand for all 13B’s: a robotic arm to help load artillery rounds.
Developed by Sarcos Defense, the robotic arm was designed to do all the hard work of actually picking up and loading artillery shells into the U.S. Army’s fleet of self-propelled howitzers.
“The robotic system was designed to address fatigue and injuries among soldiers caused by the prolonged lifting and placing of 100-pound rounds of ammunition from a rack to the cannon loader,” according to a press release.
Future testing will reportedly ensure that this robotic arm meets all Army requirements, including “shock and vibration absorption and withstanding extreme temperatures, humidity, and sand and dust incursion.”
The Army has long been interested in increasing its rates of artillery fire, especially for next-genereration projects like its Extended Range Artillery Cannon Artillery system, or ERCA.
“This rate of fire aspect is more than just putting rounds in the back of the howitzers,” Brig. Gen. John Rafferty told Defense News in 2020. “It’s also about asking, ‘where do we spend all of our time?’ We spend a lot of our time handling unpacking, unloading, and downloading ammunition. If we can do that more efficiently we will become a more combat-effective unit.”
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But the robotic arm also comes with some perks in terms of soldier health and safety.
“During our last soldier touchpoint, a soldier dropped it on his foot and broke his foot,” said Long Range Precision Fires portfolio manager Walker Williams earlier this year. “So, we can assist the soldier in optimizing that fire mission process, while leaving the soldier to do what he does best.”
The Army is also testing out other robotic augments to soldiers’ back-breaking work like the Soldier Assistive Exosuit for Resupply, or SABER, a lower-body exoskeleton designed to reduce lower back pain.
“Over the course of the day, lifting 60-pound rounds you get worn out, especially after hours. It takes a toll on your body,” said Pfc. Dale Paulson, of the 101st Airborne Division, in a recent press release earlier this year. “Wearing the suit really helped a lot, especially with getting the rounds out of the back of the truck. It felt like it gave me an extra boost. I didn’t have to work as hard. I feel like it helped me move quicker.”
So, robot arms to load artillery shells? The backs of countless soldiers say invest in this technology now. All in a day’s work for an artillery soldier, human or robotic.
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The V-280 Valor. (Bell).The Army has officially selected the Bell’s V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft to replace the beloved UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter that has ferried soldiers into combat for the last half-century.
The V-280 Valor beat out the Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant compound coaxial helicopter to win the service’s years-long Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) competition, the service announced on Monday.
Breaking Defense first reported news of the Army’s FLRAA decision.
“The thoughtful and disciplined execution of the FLRAA program strategy will deliver the transformational capabilities we need to support the Joint force, strengthen deterrence and win in multi-domain operations,” Douglas Bush, the assistant secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, said in a news release.
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According to Bell, the Valor boasts a top speed of 280 knots (hence, somewhat cheekily, the “V-280” designation) and a range of up to 800 nautical miles, double the top speed and operational range of the tried-and-true Black Hawk.
As Task & Purpose previously reported, the Valor can purportedly haul up to 23% more troops and 25% more cargo than the Black Hawk as well.
This is a breaking story and will be updated with more information as it becomes available
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Concept art of 3D-printing infrastructure on the Moon. (ICON courtesy image).The same company that is 3D-printing Army barracks at Fort Bliss, Texas has now signed a $57.2 million contract with NASA to develop technologies for building landing pads, habitats, and roads on the Moon. If successful, those structures would be the first permanent buildings for human beings outside of Earth, and it may pave the way for building similar structures on Mars.
“The final deliverable of this contract will be humanity’s first construction on another world, and that is going to be a pretty special achievement,” said Jason Ballard, co-founder and CEO of ICON, the company that received the contract, in a press release.
The NASA contract is the latest good news for ICON, which received contracts to 3D-print barracks for the Army, the first 3D-printed homes sold in the U.S., and an entire housing development in Texas.
Soldiers walk up to new barracks made with 3D printing technology at the Camp Swift Training Center in Bastrop Texas in an ICON promotional video (Screenshot via YouTube/ICON)Despite the company’s success on Earth, building structures on Mars and the Moon will present new challenges, namely the lower gravity on those sites, the difficulty of launching building materials into space, the lack of breathable air and the risks posed by radiation and micrometeorites.
Instead of shipping bricks or concrete up from Earth, ICON plans to shape structures on the Moon out of lunar regolith, the fancy word for the rocks and dust already found on the lunar surface. The company plans on working with regolith samples brought back from Apollo missions “and various regolith simulants” to understand how those materials behave, according to the press release.
The company’s effort to develop off-world construction techniques is called Project Olympus, which ICON hopes will provide “a multi-purpose construction system” for both NASA and business on both the Moon and Mars.
Concept art of 3D-printed infrastructure on the Moon. (ICON courtesy image)“In order to explore other worlds, we need innovative new technologies adapted to those environments and our exploration needs,” said Niki Werkheiser, director of technology maturation in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, in a statement. “Pushing this development forward with our commercial partners will create the capabilities we need for future missions.”
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ICON is also working on Earth structures directly related to the Mars mission. The company 3D-printed a 1,700-square-foot simulated Martian habitat near Houston, Texas, called Mars Dune Alpha, where volunteers will conduct a simulated year-long Mars mission starting in the summer of 2023.
“The 3D printed habitat will include private crew quarters, a kitchen, and dedicated areas for medical, recreation, fitness, work, and crop growth activities, as well as a technical work area and two bathrooms,” NASA wrote about the simulated habitat.
A 3D printer uses heat and pressure to shape material such as plastic, metal or concrete, layer by layer, into a 3D object, kind of like how a soft-serve machine spits out ice cream, as CBS Sunday Morning described it. You may have seen a desktop-sized printer crank out toys or knick-knacks, and the process for 3D-printing a structure is similar but on a much larger scale.
Concept art of ICON’s Project Olympus 3D-printing infrastructure on the Moon. (ICON courtesy image)Instead of a small printer, ICON uses a 9,500-pound, 46.5-foot-wide machine called a Vulcan which follows a blueprint to build walls layer by layer. On Earth, the Vulcan spits out Lavacrete, a special kind of concrete used by ICON which the Department of Defense said can “withstand extreme weather and greatly reduce the impact of natural disasters.”
The Army opted to hire ICON to build a few barracks in Texas because it promised to be fast and cheap.
“Constructing facilities using this cutting-edge technology saves labor costs, reduces planning time, and increases the speed of construction of future facilities,” Army Lt. Gen. Doug Gabram, head of Army Installation Management Command, said in April. “We are looking at other ways to use this innovative technique for rapid construction of other types of facilities beyond barracks.”
Hopefully if the 3D-printing process works for astronauts, it will also work for soldiers, who often have to put up with miserable housing conditions. U.S. military housing around the world both on and off-base have a reputation for mold, rodents, and asbestos. One defense secretary said the conditions were “frankly unconscionable.” Fixing those problems would require better oversight of private military housing companies, but the Department of Defense has also pledged to “replace, repair and modernize facilities” and tear down obsolete ones.
ICON could soon have some competition for building military facilities here on Earth. Earlier this year the Department of Defense released Unified Facilities Criteria which, for the first time, included specifications for building 3D-printed concrete walls. A military press release said the criteria will encourage more companies to 3D-print buildings for service members.
“This project supports all three Army priorities,” Gabram said, “people, readiness, and modernization.”
Who knows, maybe someday Army soldiers traveling to the Moon may sleep in the same kind of 3D-printed barracks they know from Earth.
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General David Berger, Commandant of the US Marine Corps, testifies in response to Government Accountability Office findings about substandard military housing during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Dec. 3, 2019. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images).The Marine Corps commandant said Saturday that COVID-19 vaccination mandates are negatively impacting military recruiting.
Speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California on Saturday, Gen. David Berger said, in regards to the vaccine mandate, that “Where it is having an impact for sure is on recruiting, where in parts of the country there’s still myths and misbeliefs about the backstory behind it,” according to Military.com.
The Marine Corps currently mandates vaccination except in the case of religious exemptions, and while Berger stood by the Corps’ current vaccination policy, he did not deny that it has had a noticeable impact on recruiting, highlighting the South in particular.
“There was not accurate information out early on and it was very politicized and people make decisions and they still have those same beliefs. That’s hard to work your way past,” Berger said in response to a question at the forum. “You talk to me in the cafeteria, and one of my first questions is, ‘Do I have to get that vaccine?’ And you go, ‘Yeah, you do.’ Ok, I’ll talk to you later. It’s that fast.”
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The Marine Corps met its recruiting quotas for 2022, but recruiting in general remains a struggle and an ongoing concern for all the services. The Army missed its 2022 goals by 25% — approximately 15,000 soldiers. To help make up for the shortfall, the service has even introduced the Future Soldier Prep Course, a kind of basic training for basic training, designed to acclimate potential recruits who otherwise don’t meet the minimum physical or aptitude requirements for enlisting. The head of Air Force recruiting is even personally reviewing tattoos of potential enlistees to help expedite the recruiting process.
Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. David H. Berger receives the COVID-19 vaccine as part of Operation Warp Speed at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Maryland, Dec 22, 2020. (Lance Cpl. Tyler W. Abbott/U.S. Marine Corps)According to the latest Marine Corps data on COVID-19 vaccines, released on Dec. 1, 96% of active duty Marines are fully vaccinated and 99% are partially so. The numbers for the Reserve component are similar, with 96% both fully or partially vaccinated. There are currently 333 approved medical or administrative exemptions, while 23 religious exemptions have been granted. As of Dec. 1, 3,717 Marines have been separated from the service for vaccine refusals.
Berger’s comments come at a time when Congress is considering ending the current vaccine mandate. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R.- Calif.) has said that the upcoming National Defense Authorization Act — essentially the Department of Defense’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year — will not be passed unless a vaccine mandate for service members is lifted.
On Saturday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stood by the current mandate, telling reporters that “A million people died in the United States of America. We lost hundreds in DOD. So this mandate has kept people healthy.”
He added that, “I support continuation of vaccinating the troops.”
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The U.S. Army esports team at an inter-service championship in May 2022. (U.S. Army).The U.S. Army backed out of a major marketing deal last year with Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard after the company was hit with sexual assault and discrimination lawsuits, according to internal Army documents. The move came two weeks before an esports tournament the Army was set to sponsor, and was part of a planned multi-million dollar advertising effort in the video game world by the Army.
Vice’s Motherboard acquired internal documents showing the Army’s relationship with Activision Blizzard. The service had allocated millions of dollars to sponsor esports tournaments, video game influencers on Twitch and other brands, mainly through the Call of Duty video game series. That was through a $750,000 sponsorship deal with the Call of Duty League esports tournament. However, two weeks before a tournament the Army was set to sponsor, Ignatios Mavridis, the Army’s Deputy Chief Marketing officer, emailed others to cease the partnership, out of concern for for the Army’s “brand” as Activision Blizzard was hit with a series of lawsuits over sexual harassment and gender discrimination at the company.
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“At this time, we intend to ‘pause all activities’ immediately with Activision due to serious allegations of sexual harassment at their workplace, and also recommended tha the Marketing Engagement Brigade not send their eSports team to the tournament,” the August 2021 email said, per Motherboard. “I bring this to your attention because of the brand reputation issue.”
California regulators sued Activision Blizzard in July 2021 over ongoing discrimination against women at the company.
The issues at Activision Blizzard came as the Army itself was dealing with negative news about ongoing sexual assault and harassment issues within its ranks. In 2021, the Army saw a serious increase in reported sexual assaults, up 26 percent over the previous year. Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth has said that issues like sexual assault have hurt the Army’s public image and made it harder to bring in new recruits.
The internal documents Motherboard obtained also highlight how the Army intended to use video games to present a favorable image of itself to younger people from Generation Z, specifically with women and Black and Latino Americans.. The Army aimed to spend millions for campaigns with Twitch influencers to boost “Army values and opportunities” among gamers. Call of Duty was central to that push, given the series’ popularity. For instance, people who watched ads for the Army on a mobile game could get in-game currency as a perk. The plan wasn’t limited to just video games, but related media elements, like the live-action Halo television show and the WWE.
It’s not clear how much the Army spent on these various efforts in 2021 before halting coordination.
The Army, as with the rest of the military, has been struggling to reach Gen Z andboost recruitment. In October, the Army fell short of its recruiting goal of 60,000 new soldiers by several thousand.
Despite the Pentagon dismissing Gen Z as the “Nintendo generation,” the military has had a long relationship with the Call of Duty video game series. Most recently Space Force, the reigning champion of a military-only Call of Duty tournament, sent its trophy to space. On a wider level, the different branches of the armed forces have gone into esports to try and boost enlistment from younger Americans. Past efforts on Twitch have been marred by controversy as well, including banning people who brought up war crimes.
The latest on Task & Purpose Minnesota Vikings thanked porn star Johnny Sins for his service * The Air Force’s admin software is so bad that the top enlisted airman is trolling it * US Navy fined for acts of software piracy * All-mom flight of Air Force F-15 fighter pilots takes to the skies * Air Force stages show of force flyover after North Korea’s latest ICBM test*
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Fort Polk (U.S. Army).Local authorities and Army CID are investigating.
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Bags containing fuses and explosive chemicals sit aboard the expeditionary sea base USS Lewis B. Puller. (U.S. Navy).The ship was carrying more than 50 tonnes of munitions, fuses and propellant for rocket propelled grenades.
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Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord discussing the findings of the latest Department of Defense audit on Nov. 15. (Photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Brittany A. Chase/DoD).The audit found issues with almost two thirds of the Department of Defense's assets.
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A dry dock at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center. (U.S. Navy).An outside therapist said toxic leadership is to blame.
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The Air Force unveiled the B-21 Raider in a ceremony in Palmdale California on Dec. 2, 2022. The B-21 is the first new Air Force bomber in more than 30 years. (Screenshot via YouTube/Edwards Air Force Base).At last.
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The dream of the 90s is still alive in the Army. (U.S. Army photo).The '90s are back — in Army recruiting form.
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Pvt. 1st Class Brandon Norton, an M1 Abrams crewmember and an Albany, Oregon native with Company B, 1st Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, launches a Lethal Miniature Aerial Missile System (LMAMS) for aerial support during a Robotic Complex Breach Concept assessment and demonstration, at Grafenwoehr, Germany, April 6, 2018. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Gregory T. Summers).The age of the suicide drone is upon us.
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Army Specialist Paulo DaSilva, Jr. a 68W combat medic excelled in the Army’s recent Best Squad Competition to receive the honor of the Army’s Best Shooter for 2022. (U.S. Army).Don't mess with 'doc.'
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A Marine Corps F-35B fighter’s landing gear malfunctioned on the runway at Kadena Air Base, Japan, on Thursday, causing its nose to hit the pavement. (Screenshot via Facebook/Air Force amn/nco/snco).“There are no injuries as a result of the landing gear malfunction, and a detailed investigation will be conducted.”
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Two M240s are mounted inside an HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter Nov. 22, 2022, at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona. (Andre Trinidad/U.S. Air Force).That's a lot more firepower.
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Abdul Wasi Safi stands in the foreground of Afghan military vehicles surrounded by dirt-filled barriers and concrete bunkers. Wasi, who helped the Afghan military fight the Taliban, left the country fearing for his life. He was arrested earlier this year after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border trying to reach his brother who had immigrated to Houston and became a U.S. citizen. (Courtesy of Sami-ullah Safi via Texas Tribune).Abdul Wasi Safi was trying to reach his brother, who immigrated legally to Houston after helping the U.S. military. Legal experts say Wasi may have to serve a criminal sentence before he can pursue asylum.
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The Call of Duty Endowment launched into space the trophy that the Space Force received last year for winning an inter-service video game tournament. (Call of Duty Endowment courtesy photo).“What would be the hardest place to ‘come and get it’? Space.”
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Ukrainian trenches outside Bakhmut. (Ukraine's Ministry of Defence/Twitter).World War I tactics still work in 2022
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The USS Momsom and USS Harper's Ferry in San Diego Bay on Nov. 29, 2022. (Twitter/@SanDiegoWebCam).Yikes!
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The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln maneuvers through a turn while underway in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility conducting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in 2010. (U.S. Navy photo by Capt. Lee Apsley).The fire broke out on Nov. 29.
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(Task & Purpose/Aaron Provost).For a few brief years back in the 1970s, the 101st Airborne Division donned its own unique blue beret.
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A crew chief assigned to the 158th Fighter Wing, taxis an F-35A Lightning II fifth generation aircraft assigned to the wing at the Vermont Air National Guard Base, South Burlington, Vermont, May 2, 2022. (Tech. Sgt. Richard Mekkri/U.S. Air Force).“Ask any crew chief that worked on an F-15 or an F-16 or an A-10 … we don't get as dirty as we used to on the older aircraft.”
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An F-22 Raptor. (U.S. Air Force).Long live the king.
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The United States Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters. (Photo by Matt McClain/ The Washington Post via Getty Images).Marine veteran Conley Monk Jr. says the goal of the lawsuit is to open opportunities for other Black veterans to access VA benefits.
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A mural depicting mercenaries of Russia's Wagner Group that reads: "Wagner Group - Russian knights" on a wall in Belgrade, Serbia, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022. The Kremlin said Tuesday that there are no prospects for a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine and gave its blessing to efforts to swiftly bring regions already captured under Russia's complete control. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic).I smell a rat. A big, fat, commie rat.
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A promotional image for 'Starship Troopers: Extermination' (Offworld Industries).Would you like to know more?
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"Fan of the Game," indeed. (Task & Purpose photo illustration/Roger Wollenberg/DoD).Now that’s how you drink a beer.
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Soldiers from 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment participate in the opening ceremony of Yudh Abhyas 22, near the mountain of Nanda Devi. (U.S. Army).Troops from the 11th Airborne Division are teaming up with the Indian Army to practice mountainous warfare.
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U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Patrick R. Michaelis, Fort Jackson Commanding General, leads media representatives through a tour of the Army Future Soldier Preparatory Course Pilot Program on August 18, 2022, Fort Jackson, South Carolina. (Pfc. Ana-Grace Catoe/U.S. Army National Guard)."We have more Americans that want to do it than we can accommodate."
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U.S. Marine Corps M777 towed 155 mm howitzers are staged on the flight line prior to being loaded onto a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft at March Air Reserve Base, California, April 22, 2022. The howitzers are part of the United States’ efforts alongside allies and partners to identify and provide Ukraine with additional capabilities. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Austin Fraley).A third of its artillery force is out of action at any given time, officials say.
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Soldiers in the 4th Infantry Division climb through trenches as part of an obstacle course on Nov. 23, 2022. (Photo by SSG Ondirae H. Abdullah-Robinson/U.S. Army).Soldiers at Fort Carson recreated part of the Battle of Dak To from the Vietnam War, charging through obstacles and up a hill.
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The guided-missile destroyer USS Bainbridge is underway off the coast of Somalia, Sept. 25, 2007, while conducting anti-piracy operations. (U.S. Navy).A federal claims court ruled that the Navy illegally copied a software onto thousands of computers.
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A MACV-SOG team (Courtesy picture via Sandboxx).This is not your average Thanksgiving story.
The post A MACV-SOG Thanksgiving: When 6 commandos took on 30,000 enemy troops appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The SS Great Republic — later renamed the USS Pictor — alongside a photo of soldiers eating Thanksgiving turkey during World War II. (Task & Purpose photo composite/U.S. Navy/U.S. Army).That’s a lot of turkey.
The post How a single ship made Thanksgiving happen in Europe at the height of WWII appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Task & Purpose photo illustration (Left, Distinguished Flying Cross medals lie in rows prior to being awarded to Airmen at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, Nov. 21, 2022. Right, Tech Sgt. Ethan Schaffner, 437th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron MASOP, shakes hands with Gen. Mike Minihan, commander of Air Mobility Command, at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, Nov. 21, 2022. (Photo, left, by Capt. Shane Ellis/U.S. Air Force, right, by Tech. Sgt. Alex Fox Echols III/U.S. Air Force)).“It was a ‘this needs to happen, it needs to happen now’ kind of thing.”
The post A matter of life and death: How this crew chief kept the planes flying during the Kabul evacuation appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Keep chasing those recruiting quotas. (United States Marine Corps).100 years ago, recruiting duty still sucked.
The post These 100-year-old Marine Corps cartoons show that some things never change appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Richard Fierro, with his brother Ed, left, by his side, describes how he took the shooter down the night of the shooting at Club Q while outside of his home on November 21, 2022 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images).Richard Fierro was credited with saving “dozens of lives.”
The post How a combat vet former field artillery officer stopped the Colorado nightclub gunman appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Richard Browning's Gravity Industries jetpack suit during testing with the UK Royal Marines in 2021. (Gravity Industries).DARPA wants to make the DoD's decades-old jetpack dream a reality.
The post The Pentagon is moving ahead with new military jetpack prototypes appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Afghan Gen. Sami Sadat addresses soldiers in 'Retrograde.' (Tim Grucza/OTP).“This province fell, this province fell, this capital is surrounded. You just need to have a brain and two eyes and you could see that this was happening.”
The post How the documentary ‘Retrograde’ captured the last months of the war in Afghanistan appeared first on Task & Purpose.
F-15E Strike Eagle fighter pilots assigned to the 4th Fighter Wing pose with their children at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, Nov. 9, 2022. McElroy chose fellow 4th FW fighter pilot moms to accompany her on her final flight with the 333rd Fighter Squadron. (Senior Airman Kylie Barrow/U.S. Air Force).“When I joined the Air Force, I didn’t know any fighter pilot moms.”
The post All-mom flight of Air Force F-15 fighter pilots takes to the skies appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Task & Purpose photo illustration (Left, Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass speaks to airmen at the Bedrock innovation lab at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, Jan. 8, 2021 (Photo, left, by Senior Airman Christopher Quail/U.S. Air Force. Right, screenshot via Instagram).“We owe you a better system, and more transparency…and we will deliver.”
The post The Air Force’s admin software is so bad that the top enlisted airman is trolling it appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Ukrainian soldiers fire a mortar on the frontline in Donetsk oblast, 20 November 2022. (Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).Ukraine has proven to be better at mobilizing its population for war than Russia.
The post How Ukraine can win a war of attrition against Russia appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Salute this man. (Twitter).Somehow, the Vikings found not just one, but multiple ways to embarrass themselves last night.
The post Minnesota Vikings thanked porn star Johnny Sins for his service appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A 5,000-strong veteran resource group has kept U.S. Bank on the list since 2010.
The post Veterans want to tell you why U.S. Bank is a ‘Best for Vets’ employer 12 years in a row appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The Ohio-class guided-missile submarine USS Georgia (SSGN 729) exits the dry dock at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Ga., following an extended refit period.Attack subs currently spend months stuck in maintenance due to time spent acquiring parts.
The post The Navy hopes budget changes can fix delays in submarine repairs appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The 1st Marine Division training with the assault combat vehicles in Twentynine Palms, CA. (Photo by Sgt. Courtney G. White/U.S. Marine Corps).Marines are currently testing the new equipment in California, where multiple ACVs have flipped or rolled over this year.
The post The Marine Corps is buying 30 more amphibious combat vehicles despite recent mishaps appeared first on Task & Purpose.
American F-16s and B-1B Lancer bomber planes fly with South Korean F-35As on Nov. 19, 2022. (Photo by Senior Airman Megan Estrada/U.S. Air Force).American F-16s and South Korean F-35As escorted American bombers over the Korean Peninsula following an ICBM test by Pyongyang.
The post Air Force stages show of force flyover after North Korea’s latest ICBM test appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Military families participate in a pirate-themed camp organized by the Exceptional Family Member Program. (Photo by Sgt. Sarah Enos / 5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment).It's the first ever survey for those signed up in the Exceptional Family Member Program.
The post The Pentagon wants to hear from military families with special needs appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Secretary of the U.S. Army Honorable Christine Wormuth shares lunch with soldiers during her visit in Wiesbaden, Germany, Sept. 20, 2022. (Volker Ramspott/Released/U.S. Army).“They want community. They want purpose. They want what they’re doing to matter”
The post Army Secretary lays out plan to overcome the Army’s negative image and win over Generation Z appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Airmen assigned to the 41st Rescue Squadron and 38th Rescue Squadron conduct hoist training at Grand Bay Bombing and Gunnery Range, Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, March 17, 2022 (Staff Sgt. Devin Boyer/U.S. Air Force).“It just required some significant out-of-the-box thinking by some of our maintainers.”
The post How Air Force maintainers fixed a rescue helicopter that was literally at the end of its rope appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Navy Cmdr. Cassidi Reese. (U.S. Navy photo).She's the second commander relieved for alleged misconduct in as many weeks.
The post Navy test squadron commander relieved for DUI after just 8 months on the job appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Area 51 sign warning against trespassers. (Photo by Barry King/WireImage).The truth is out there.
The post Air Force and FBI raid homes of Area 51 website owner amid investigation appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A scene from 'Iron Man 3' (Marvel Studios).The Russian military-industrial complex wants to make your powered armor dreams a reality — again.
The post Russia is once again hyping a brand new ‘Iron Man’ suit of armor appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Josef Mencik wearing his armor and carrying a broadsword. (Wikimedia Creative Commons).Completely crazy or massively courageous?
The post Josef Mencik: The last knight who stood against the Nazis appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Taliban fighters celebrate the first anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi).Not great!
The post The Pentagon has no idea how much military equipment it actually left behind in Afghanistan appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A C-17 Globemaster III aircrew from the 317th Airlift Squadron, 315th Air Reserve Wing, conducts Semi-prepared runway operations training after takeoff from Joint Base Charleston S.C. March 27, 2019. (Tech. Sgt. Gregory Brook/U.S. Air Force).“It tops anything I’ve ever been through.”
The post Airmen who delivered Afghan baby mid-flight during Kabul evacuation to receive Distinguished Flying Cross appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Basic military trainees prepare to begin an obstacle during Basic Expeditionary Airman Skills Training Nov. 21, 2019 at Joint Base San Antonio-Medina Annex, Texas. (Tech. Sgt. Katherine Spessa/U.S. Air Force).Air Force recruits will spend just 36 hours in the field during basic military training.
The post Air Force to cut time spent in the field for airmen at basic training appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Taiwan's military fires an 8 inch Howitzer canon during a live fire exercise Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008, on the Taiwan island of Kinmen, formerly Quemoy, just 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) off of the coast of China. (AP Photo).China would be walking into a strategic debacle if it tried to invade Taiwan, Gen. Mark Milley said.
The post Milley warns China: An invasion of Taiwan would be as disastrous as Russia’s war against Ukraine appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Army Special Forces Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar, right, died in June 17 in Mali. Former Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Tony E. DeDolph, who plead guilty to manslaughter and faced a 10-year prison sentence, will see that sentence dropped ahead of a resentencing hearing. (Task & Purpose photo composite).An appeals court has ordered that Navy SEAL Tony DeDolph will get a new sentencing hearing.
The post Navy SEAL convicted for death of Green Beret Logan Melgar has 10-year sentence ‘set aside’ appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A silhouette of a Ukrainian sniper. (Task & Purpose photo illustration by Marty Skovlund Jr.).The shot would make it the second longest ever recorded on a battlefield.
The post Ukraine claims a sniper killed a Russian soldier from 1.68 miles away appeared first on Task & Purpose.
(U.S. Army).This video perfectly recreates the iconic 1980s Army recruiting campaign.
The post This Army aviation brigade brought back ‘Be All You Can Be’ with a retro tribute video appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Liftoff for the Artemis I on Nov. 16, 2022. (NASA).And soon, hopefully, another giant leap for mankind.
The post The Artemis I rocket launch is one small step towards sending astronauts back to the Moon appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A man walks in the lobby of the NATO headquarters, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022 in Brussels. Ambassadors from the 30 NATO nations gathered in Brussels Wednesday for emergency talks after Poland said that a Russian-made missile fell on its territory, killing two people, and U.S. President Joe Biden and his allies promised support for the investigation into the incident. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys).This is not the start of World War III.
The post Poland missile strike likely not fired from Russia, leaders say appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Capt. John William Kurtz, commanding officer of USS Somerset, gives opening remarks during a 9/11 remembrance ceremony. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Heath/U.S. Navy).Eight Marines and one sailor were killed in the deadliest training accident involving an amphibious assault vehicle in Marine Corps history.
The post Navy captain censured over fatal Marine AAV accident recommended to command aircraft carrier appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The United States Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon perform at Cary High School in Cary, North Carolina, August 1, 2022. (United States Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Cheng Chang).A first for one of the Marine Corps’ most famous units.
The post The Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon is getting its first female commander ever appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Staff Sergeant Joseph Flood, flight line expediter assigned to the 40th Flight Test Squadron detachment 1, reviews aircraft forms for an A-10 Thunderbolt II, May 24, 2022, Davis Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona. (Master Sgt. Tristan McIntire/U.S. Air Force)."The mission capable rate for some of these airplanes is like 60%, but 100% of the flying schedule is filled. How is that possible?"
The post Are US military aircraft really as broken as a government watchdog says they are? appeared first on Task & Purpose.
FILE - This photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Saturday, Feb. 19, 2022, shows a Russian Iskander-K missile launched during a military exercise at a training ground in Russia. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File).Two people were killed.
The post Russian-made missile strikes NATO member Poland appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Guided-missile destroyer USS The Sullivans (DDG 68) and patrol coastal ship USS Hurricane (PC 3) sail in the background as Sailors inventory a large quantity of urea fertilizer and ammonium perchlorate discovered on board a fishing vessel intercepted by U.S. naval forces while transiting international waters in the Gulf of Oman, Nov. 9. (U.S. Navy photo by Sonar Technician (Surface) 1st Class Kevin Frus).“Enough to fuel more than a dozen medium-range ballistic missiles depending on the size."
The post Navy seizes ‘massive amount of explosive material’ from boat en route from Iran to Yemen appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Taliban fighters celebrate the first anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi).Multiple U.S. agencies refused to cooperate with the government's top Afghanistan reconstruction watchdog.
The post The US has funneled more than $1 billion into Afghanistan since the fall of Kabul with zero accountability appeared first on Task & Purpose.
No way Pepsi would ever lie about this. (YouTube).The cola wars were real.
The post That time Pepsi promised to give away an actual fighter jet appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Master-at-Arms 2nd Class John Hernandez, assigned to Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 79, uses his smart phone to respond during a live-polling session at the second annual Career Development Symposium at Anchors Conference Center near Naval Base San Diego. (Chief Mass Communication Specialist Dustin Kelling/U.S. Navy).“You will not be able to win the wars of the future … if you can’t even figure out how to operate in the information space.”
The post The US military is still struggling to figure out social media appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Former Air Force Combat Controller Eric Hohman holds the CCT scarlet beret during the first annual Scarlet Beret Gala put on by The First There Foundation, a new nonprofit dedicated to helping CCTs and their families. San Antonio, Texas, Sept. 10, 2022. (Parish Photography/Courtesy Eric Hohman).‘I woke up one morning, started typing a mission statement, and First There was born. Really it was out of necessity because I didn’t want my friend to kill himself.’
The post These Air Force commandos saved troops under fire for years. Now they are fighting to save their buddies appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Americans are no longer socially able to comprehend the true realities of war, while still fundamentally realizing that a professional standing military is the bedrock of our nation’s international preeminence.
The post Thank You for Your Service appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Task & Purpose photo composite. Background: NASA's Space Launch System with Orion spacecraft aboard seen on its mobile launcher at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, Aug. 17, 2022 (Joel Kowsky/NASA). Foreground: Aspergillus niger prepared using the freeze drying method (Mogana Das Murtey and Patchamuthu Ramasamy, Wikipedia Commons).“Fungi have been forgotten for the past 20 or 30 years, but it's time to go back to them."
The post Why the Navy is shooting fungus into space appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Closer than you think to reality. (Task & Purpose/Time Magazine).A full kit for America’s atomic-era infantrymen of the future
The post Jet packs and helmet radios: what the Army’s 1959 ‘soldier of the future’ got right and wrong appeared first on Task & Purpose.
FILE: A Russian Air Force Mil Mi-8 helicopter flies during the annual Army Games defense technology international exhibition. (Leonid Faerberg/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images).If it flies, it dies.
The post Dramatic video shows why Russian helicopters are sitting ducks in Ukraine appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The Russian warship "Admiral Makarov" of the Russian Black Sea Fleet lies off the port city of Sevastopol. (Ulf Mauder/Picture Alliance via Getty Images).Ukraine’s attack using unmanned boats provides a preview of the future.
The post What the US Navy must learn from Ukraine’s bold drone attack on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet appeared first on Task & Purpose.
We've all been there. (Aaron Provost/Task & Purpose)."In the military there are all sorts of ways to say fuck it."
The post ‘Fuck it’ appeared first on Task & Purpose.
An F-15C Eagle with the California Air National Guard's 144th Fighter Wing takes flight after receiving a patriotic paint job in celebration of the jet hitting 10,000 hours of flight time, Oct. 22, 2022. (Master Sgt. Charles Vaughn & Staff Sgt. Mercedes Taylor/U.S. Air National Guard).Now that’s what I call an American Eagle!
The post We salute this F-15 fighter jet for rocking the most ‘Murica paint job ever appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Ranger School will make you a reptile guy. (Task & Purpose/U.S. Army).Rattlesnake meat is a delicacy, if you’re hungry enough.
The post This Army video shows how much Ranger School has changed in 70 years appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A Russian firing position sits adjacent to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near Chernobyl, Ukraine, Saturday, April 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)Russia is accusing Ukraine of planning to detonate a “dirty bomb.” Here's what that means and why it matters.
The post Here’s what a ‘dirty bomb’ is and how it fits into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) examinees from Yokota High School are ready to take the test at Yokota Air Base, Japan, Nov. 3, 2021. (Yasuo Osakabe/U.S. Air Force)."Two years of homeschooling for some just didn’t work.”
The post COVID-19 had an ‘appalling’ impact on American students’ test scores. That’s bad news for the military appeared first on Task & Purpose.
(Image courtesy Netflix).The new German-language adaptation will leave you depressed — and that's the point.
The post Netflix’s ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ is a fresh and worthy take on the classic novel appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The new Air Force Combat Diver badge. (U.S. Air Force).For the last 16 years, Air Force Combat Diving Course graduates received a Navy badge.
The post The Air Force is finally giving its divers an actual Air Force diving badge appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Firefighters work at the scene after a warplane crashed into a residential area in Irkutsk, Russia, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2022. (AP Photo).It's the 11th confirmed non-combat crash of a Russian military aircraft since the invasion of Ukraine began.
The post Russian warplane slams into a residential building in second crash in less than a week appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A soldier loads a 155mm artillery round onto a M777A2 Howitzer during a fire mission March 8, 2017 in the Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany. (Staff Sgt. Jennifer Bunn/U.S, Army).Many European nations are counting on American weapons to keep them ready in case of war.
The post The war in Ukraine is draining Western munition stockpiles appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A B-1B Lancer taxis at Andersen AFB, Guam, after arriving for a Bomber Task Force deployment, Sept. 10, 2020. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Nicolas Z. Erwin)“Not only does it provide our B-1 aircrew invaluable training opportunities with important Allies and partners, but it also signals our nation’s unwavering support to them.”
The post Air Force B-1B bombers just rolled up in Guam in a message to US adversaries appeared first on Task & Purpose.
U.S. Air Force Airmen assigned in an HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopter execute a combat search and rescue demonstration over Grand Bay Bombing and Gunnery Range at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, Sept. 9, 2022. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Deanna Muir)"Our team is ready to recover anybody, anytime, anywhere, against any adversary.”
The post The Air Force’s new combat rescue helicopter is officially ready to come save your ass appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Maj. Gen. Charles Costanza, the 3rd Infantry Division commanding general, pins U.S Army Veteran Staff Sgt. Harold Nelson, an infantryman and Dogface Soldier, the Silver Star Medal during an award ceremony at Fort Carson, Colorado, Oct. 4th, 2022. Nelson, now 107 years old, was drafted into the United States Army on July 14, 1941, from Fort Crook, Nebraska. He entered World War II with F Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, as part of Operation Torch in Morocco. Following intense fighting in Northern Africa, Nelson participated in Operation Husky in Sicily, and Operations Avalanche and Shingle in Italy. The 3rd ID also inducted Nelson into the Marne Hall of Fame class of 2022. (Pfc. Bernabe Lopez III, 50th Public Affairs Detachment/U.S. Army).That’s a long wait.
The post 107-year-old WWII veteran finally receives Silver Star 77 years after his discharge appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Coalition Forces zero Smart Shooter 2000 sighting devices during a familiarization range near At-Tanf Garrison, Syria, May 30, 2020. (U.S. Army/Staff Sgt. William Howard).One shot, one kill — every time.
The post The Army is officially adopting a ‘guaranteed hit’ smart scope appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A sign shows Fort Bragg information May 13, 2004 in Fayettville, North Carolina. (Logan Mock-Bunting/Getty Images). (Photo by Logan Mock-Bunting/Getty Images)Goodbye Fort Bragg, hello 'Fort Liberty.'
The post It’s official: The US military will rename bases that honor Confederates appeared first on Task & Purpose.
With two oceans protecting us from hostile actors, and a military able to project itself globally, why must we spend more on our defense than the next several nations combined?
The post Bloated Budgets and the ‘Less is More’ Mentality appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Airmen with the 227th Air Support Operations Squadron, New Jersey Air National Guard, perform the night exercise portion of Fast-Rope Insertion Extraction System (FRIES) training from a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter with the 1-150th Assault Helicopter Battalion, New Jersey Army National Guard, at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., April 21, 2015. (Master Sgt. Mark C. Olsen/U.S. Air National Guard).The operations both happened early Thursday morning.
The post Trio of ISIS leaders killed in dual US military operations in Syria appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor and F-35A Lightning II fly in formation with the XQ-58A Valkyrie low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle over the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground testing range, Ariz., during a series of tests Dec. 9, 2020. (U.S. Air Force).“This is a command and control station inside of a fighter. It's not just a cockpit.”
The post What it might be like for Air Force fighter pilots to command a team of drones in battle appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Marines display the newest prototype of proposed PT uniform. (U.S. Marine Corp).Who wears short shorts?
The post Marines to leadership: We want short shorts appeared first on Task & Purpose.
For decades, a 1950 Supreme Court ruling has effectively shielded the U.S. military form lawsuits over medical malpractice, training incidents, and sexual assault. (Staff Sgt. Teddy Wade/U.S. Army).For decades, the Feres Doctrine has shielded the military from lawsuits over training mishaps, medical malpractice, and sexual assault.
The post This Supreme Court ruling helps the military avoid accountability for harming troops. That could soon change appeared first on Task & Purpose.
During the Spanish American War, more than 20,000 soldiers contracted typhoid fever while in training camps, largely because they shat where they ate. (Aaron Provost/Task & Purpose).Hygiene, hygiene, and more hygiene.
The post That time 200,000 US troops spent an entire war on sick call appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A Bristol Beaufighter night fighter aircraft, much like the one used by the 415th Night Fighter Squadron. (Image via Wikimedia Photo Commons).I want to believe.
The post The World War II story of the first time US military pilots encountered UFOs appeared first on Task & Purpose.
The Air Force Special Operations Command Osprey stuck in Norway. (Norwegian Armed Forces).The effort must contend with the risk of bad weather and a nature reserve.
The post Inside Norway’s complex plan to save a stranded Air Force Osprey appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Netflix trailer for 'All Quiet on the Western Front.' (Screenshot via YouTube).Only the dead have seen the end of war.
The post Netflix is remaking the World War I classic ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Russian soldiers are seen on a tank in Volnovakha district in the pro-Russian separatists-controlled Donetsk, in Ukraine on March 26, 2022. (Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).The Kremlin is also looking at recruiting convicted criminals.
The post Russia is so desperate for fighters it’s trying to recruit at homeless shelters appeared first on Task & Purpose.
In a morbid twist of fate, the increased survivability of our wounded servicemembers has also pushed our post-service military expenditures to new dizzying heights.
The post The Human Cost of Our Endless Wars appeared first on Task & Purpose.
(Image via Twitter).Please don’t stop this paratrooper from being awesome.
The post Canadian paratrooper under investigation for living his best life during a jump appeared first on Task & Purpose.
President Joe Biden speaks outside Independence Hall, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum).Here we go again.
The post How to use military service as a political prop: Don’t appeared first on Task & Purpose.
‘Fat Leonard’ is on the run.
The post ‘Fat Leonard’ is on the lam: Notorious contractor behind $35 million Navy corruption scandal flees appeared first on Task & Purpose.
A bow hunting backpack for going there and back again.
The post The best bow hunting backpacks worth carrying appeared first on Task & Purpose.
Choose hiking boots that’ll allow you to focus on the trail and make you forget blisters ever existed.
The post The best hiking boots for women appeared first on Task & Purpose.
(U.S. Army Reserve photo by Sgt. Therese Prats)Don’t let a mishap affect your hand modeling side hustle.
The post The best tactical gloves worth wearing appeared first on Task & Purpose.