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The unclassified portion of the December 2009 US Department of Defense report, “Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq”, has been publically released. The data cutoff date for this report, unless otherwise stated, is 30 November 2009. [Keep this in mind, the data is over 2 months old.] This article addresses the Iraqi Security Forces portions of the report. The US Department of Defense [sic] previously reported on the number of Iraqi Security Forces personnel authorized and assigned by the Ministries of Defense and Interior and trained with the assistance of Coalition forces. With the expiration of the mandate of UNSCR...

WAYNESVILLE, Mo. (Jan. 28, 2010) — Following months of work by heavy equipment on the northwest corner of the Exit 156 overpass at Ichord Avenue, Waynesville city officials have announced that what’s now bare dirt and rock will soon become the site of the National Military Artifacts Museum. Partners in the Waynesville museum project include the owner of the Branson veterans museum; a companion $6 million hotel is under contract and will be added later, city officials said. The $9.5 million museum project in the West Gate Subdivision will feature 16 life-size sculptures by sculptor Fred Hoppe, memorial walls with...

Basic Combat Training is getting ready for some major changes to reflect the modern battlefield, said Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, deputy commanding general for Initial Military Training. Hertling, who is responsible for managing the training of Soldiers from the day they enter the Army until they report to their first duty assignments, made his remarks last week during a visit to Fort Jackson, the largest of the Army's five basic training centers. "We really took a look at the relevancy of what we're doing," Hertling said. "We're teaching Soldiers too much stuff." One of the changes Hertling wants to implement...

This Iraqi Security Force (ISF) update provides a summary of changes to the ISF during January 2010. The Iraqi Security Force Order of Battle is updated as of 31 January 2010. Highlights in this update include: - Peshmerga partnering, structure, and reorganization. - Iraqi Army Engineers, EOD, and artillery. - Iraqi Army M1A1-equipped battalion initial fielding. - Iraqi Officer Academy restructuring. - Initial EC 635 helicopter deliveries. - Department of Border Enforcement and Emergency Police expansion.

The planned joint US, Iraqi Army, and Peshmerga partnering in the disputed areas of northern Iraq is to continue after the Iraqi elections on 7 March 2010. This program started with a test case in northern Diyala. There the 34/16 Peshmerga Brigade was partnered with the 4/1 Iraqi Army Brigade in the spring of 2009. The 34/16 was the same Peshmerga brigade that was involved in the Khaniqin incident with elements of 5th Iraqi Army Division in the fall of 2008. The Iraqi Army brought in a brigade from the elite 1st Division to replace the elements of the 5th...

The world's first Swiss Army knife' has been revealed - made 1,800 years before its modern counterpart. An intricately designed Roman implement, which dates back to 200AD, it is made from silver but has an iron blade. It features a spoon, fork as well as a retractable spike, spatula and small tooth-pick. Experts believe the spike may have been used by the Romans to extract meat from snails.

The U.S. military missed multiple direct warnings that Major Nidal Malik Hasan was contemplating mass mayhem once he learned he was going to be deployed to Afghanistan but ignored them because of political correctness, an Australian scholar of Islam told Newsmax in Washington, D.C. recently. “At a certain point, someone explained to Major Hasan that he had a duty to fight Americans and that if he didn’t, he would go to Hell,” says Dr. Mark Durie, who has written several books on Islamic ideology. Hi latest is, “The Third Choice: Islam, Dhimmitude and Freedom.” Hasan made a presentation to Army...

ARLINGTON, Va. – As humanitarian relief continues in Haiti, the Army National Guard stands ready to provide personnel and equipment to support the mission, senior Army Guard officials said today. "We stand by ready, willing and able to assist as soon as they sort out what the requirements are and what they want the Army Guard to fill," said Army Col. David Aycock, deputy chief of staff of operations for the Army Guard. Currently, a Puerto Rico Army National Guard unit is the only Army Guard unit participating in relief operations in Haiti. "The Puerto Rico Army National Guard with...

RAMADI, Iraq, Jan. 25, 2010 – The 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force transferred authority of Iraq’s largest province to the Army’s 1st Armored Division in a Jan. 23 ceremony here that marked the end of the Marine Corps’ mission in Iraq. A color guard awaits the start of a Jan. 23, 2010, ceremony at Camp Ramadi, Iraq, in which the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force transferred responsibility for Iraq’s Anbar province to the Army’s 1st Armored Division. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Kayleigh J. Cannon  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Before the ceremony, 1st Armored Division’s area of operations, as U.S....

"Dear John" is everything you expect it to be - weepy, touching and downright sweet. The film tells the story of John Tyree, a Special Forces soldier, who meets his true love, Savannah Curtis, one summer in scenic Charleston, S.C. The pair fall for each other right away when Savannah (Amanda Seyfried) drops her purse in the ocean and the gallant John (Channing Tatum) dives in to retrieve it. The couple spend two idyllic weeks together before Savannah heads back to college and John is deployed overseas. Much of their romance is played out through the love letters the two...

Veteran war correspondents Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington want Sundance audiences to feel the sand in their eyes, hear the gunfire and listen to the soldiers' themselves describe their experiences in Afghanistan. The two spent most of 2007 embedded with the 2nd Platoon of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, living with and reporting on 30 young soldiers defending a remote outpost in the Korengal Valley.*** "I think we have succeeded in making you feel like you are on the battlefield for 90 minutes," says Junger.*** "This experience is a rich, intense one in a way that it wouldn't have been if...

Each week, a squad of Soldiers from the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) is set aside from the typical ceremonial tasking to take upon itself a most difficult honor. These Soldiers are on call, 24 hours a day, weekday or weekend, to receive the remains of America’s fallen heroes at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Del. Sometimes, if it’s been a good week, no call will come in, and the Soldiers will know that for one week, no Soldier was killed while serving overseas. But too often, several calls come in one week, and the Soldiers begin...

Suspect in GI killing claims al-Qaida ties Letter to judge seeks plea shift to guilty JOHN LYNCH ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE The Memphis man accused in a deadly attack at a Little Rock military recruiting office claims in a recent letter to the presiding judge in the case that he wants to plead guilty to capital murder and that he is a member of a Yemen-based affiliate of al-Qaida. Defense attorney Claiborne Ferguson called the letter by 24-year-old Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad “inappropriate,” saying the writing complicates Muhammad’s defense. “I feel like I’m the only one with Mr. Muhammad’s best interests at heart,”...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Below is a message Scott and Vicki Behenna sent to supporters of their son, Army Ranger 1st Lt. Michael Behenna following the Army Clemency and Parole Board decision yesterday to reduce his sentence from 20 to 15 years.

The ray gun is real ... or at least it will be soon. The U.S. Army is betting big on laser warfare -- designing, testing and perfecting ultra-precise weapons based on devastatingly powerful beams of light. And given recent developments, it's only a matter of time until the military has in its arsenal a weapon that until now has been the staple of science fiction -- the ray gun. Set your phasers to kill. Boeing, one of the Pentagon's top contractors, already has a laser weapon that will improve the military's ability to counter artillery, mortar, drone aircraft and even...

The “U.S. Army and The Conservation Fund to Sign National Memorandum of Understanding.” If you hurry, you can be there to witness the treaty signing by the “Honorable Jo-Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, and Mr. Larry Selzer, President and CEO of The Conservation Fund.” These two gentlemen will “announce a partnership between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and The Conservation Fund to promote the effective and balanced management of water resources, conservation of wildlife habitat and cultural resources, and sustainable development of communities.” I am informed—by confidential sources—that there will be photo “opportunities”, so...

The U.S. military's just-released report into the Fort Hood shootings spends 86 pages detailing various slipups by Army officers but not once mentions Major Nidal Hasan by name or even discusses whether the killings may have had anything to do with the suspect's view of his Muslim faith. And as Congress opens two days of hearings on Wednesday into the Pentagon probe of the Nov. 5 attack that left 13 dead, lawmakers want explanations for that omission. John Lehman, a member of the 9/11 commission and Navy Secretary during the Reagan Administration, says a reluctance to cause offense by citing...

HELSINKI, Finland, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is suspected to have pulled the trigger, but it was the pervasive indifference and endemic political correctness of the Army's bureaucracy that loaded the weapons. In full reactive mode, the Army leadership produced a report of the Nov. 5 attack at Fort Hood, Texas, and is identifying scapegoats for the failure of policies they themselves established and encouraged. By punishing a few colonels and majors, the Army's generals and senior executives can again feel good about themselves knowing that, after 13 dead and 30 wounded, in the end...

Only days after Secretary of Defense Robert Gates explained the systemic flaws that allowed the Nov. 5 shootings at Fort Hood to take place, I was shocked at what I saw during one television report this morning -- especially in light of what other television reports have described. A short while ago, Fox News Channel reporter Steve Harrigan was shown standing upon a hill in Haiti where U.S. Army soldiers, which he described as members of the 82nd Airborne, were overseeing distribution of relief supplies to Haitians desperate for food, water and, in many cases, medical attention. As the camera...

Fear of offending Muslims or being insensitive to religion was likely a key factor to why Army supervisors missed signs that the suspect in the deadly Fort Hood shooting rampage was a Muslim extremist, according to national security experts. Senior Pentagon officials last week sought to play down or sidestep questions about why Army supervisors and FBI counterterrorism officials missed warning signs or failed to take action against Army Maj. Nidal Hasan before the Nov. 5 attack, which killed 13 people — all but one them soldiers. Rep. Ike Skelton, Missouri Democrat and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee,...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Jan. 14, 2010) — A squad-sized unit of military police tasked with protecting VIPs will soon deploy to Iraq from Fort Leonard Wood, and post personnel will hold a farewell ceremony at 9 p.m. Saturday evening at Pippin Youth Center for the soldiers. The 13th Military Police Company is a relatively new unit at Fort Leonard Wood and is part of the new “go-to-war” units coming to Fort Leonard Wood’s 4th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade from other installations.

As many as eight Army officers could face discipline for failing to do anything when the alleged shooter in the Fort Hood rampage displayed erratic behavior early in his military career, two officials familiar with the case said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was expected to refer findings on the officers to the Army for further inquiry and possible punishment. The report on what went wrong in the case of Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is accused in the shootings that killed 13 people at the Texas Army base on Nov. 5, is expected to be released Friday. Several midlevel officers...

The largest english newspaper in China(China Daily) had reported this story. original topic:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2422240/posts?page=1

Spc. Alexis Hutchinson was gung-ho in 2007 when she enlisted in the Army straight out of high school in East Oakland. She'd done three years in the ROTC, and this was her ticket to rock-solid stability, she told relatives. Now a single mother in uniform, she wants nothing more than to be a civilian again, her mother says - but she may have to spend a couple of years in military prison before that can happen. The 21-year-old Army cook was charged this week with four court-martial counts for refusing to leave her infant son behind to go to Afghanistan...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Jan. 10, 2010) — On Christmas Day, a Nigerian with alleged ties to al Qa’ida attempted to detonate a bomb on board a Detroit-bound airliner. For many reasons, this attack disturbs me. Despite all that our law enforcement, intelligence, and policy communities have done to keep Americans safe, this incident demonstrates that weaknesses still exist in our global strategy to protect the American people against terrorism. I understand that there were failures across the government and the international community that quite frankly, eight years after the attacks on 9-11, should not have happened.

The recent Iraqi Army Day Parade highlighted artillery developments. The displayed field artillery indicates the initial divisional field artillery regiment has been formed. Comments by the Iraqi Minister of Defense indicate that 2010-2011 is to have a focus in artillery and air. This artillery upgrade was originally scheduled for 2008-2009 but, the decision to increase the number of divisions in the Iraqi Army combined with the budget crisis delayed development and fielding. The projected structure of Iraqi indirect fire units is based on the US Army structure modified with 120mm mortars used in brigade support:

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Jan. 12, 2009) — Department of Defense personnel announced Monday that Maj. Gen. David E. Quantock, who currently heads American prison facilities in Iraq, will succeed Maj. Gen. Gregg Martin as Fort Leonard Wood’s commanding general. Quantock, a career military policeman who previously served as the commandant of the Military Police School at Fort Leonard Wood, is known as the American commander brought in to repair the damage caused by the 2004 detainee abuse scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison in which several American soldiers abused Iraqi detainees and photographed them in various sexually humiliating positions....

A Marine in Iraq at a VCP wanting some action. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FaDhnkzqTU

The Behennas. In DC. We saw the following people. We went to many offices today and didn't see the "real representatives" but saw judicial review people and military liaisons and the representive's representatives. Mary Fallin - Steve King - Duncan Hunter - John Kline - Beanhead, I mean John Boehner - Susan Davis - Tom Cole - Darell Isa - Buck McKeon - Ike Skelton - Joe Wilson - Glenn Thompson - Mike Pence. For audio feeds of the after-action reports, see JPA Live, Halls of Valhalla and Do the Right Thing radio shows. We witnessed today the uppermost and...

Hi everyone, sorry for my poor Englishi frist. I'm a photographer from PRC,i bought a large format camera(Graflex Speed Graphic) from ebay a few days ago.The seller sent me the camere with some undeveloped Kodak B&W films which expired 50 years. With great curiosity i developed them today, and a miracle happens:the film is in good status, and i saw a us army called "Jordan" on the film.By the uniforms he wears,I guess this film was taken in vietnam war. And the other two films show a funeral without a person. I want to find out the army on the...

EDITOR'S NOTE: The case of 1st Lt. Michael Behenna, the Army Ranger officer who has been featured in 18 posts to date on this blog as a result of him being wrongly convicted of unpremeditated murder in the self-defense shooting death of a known Al-Qaeda terrorist, goes before the Army Clemency Board Thursday in Arlington, Va. In advance of that important event, this soldier's mother, Vicki Behenna, sent the message below and asks everyone who supports her son to read it and offer whatever support possible:

This Iraqi Security Force (ISF) update provides a summary of changes to the ISF during December 2009. The Iraqi Security Force Order of Battle is updated as of 31 December 2009. Highlights in this update include: Indications that the Peshmerga are being incorporated into the ISF; weapons orders; a realignment of the military academies; possible transfers of Iraqi Divisions; the first Iraqi Artillery Regiment forming; receipt of training aircraft; receipt of 2 patrol ships; training of Federal Police; the addition of two DBE Brigades; reorganization of the Emergency Police; and the first training academy for the FPS.

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Jan. 4, 2009) — The commanding general of Fort Leonard Wood announced Monday afternoon that he will be leaving the installation later this month for a new assignment in Kuwait. Maj. Gen. Gregg Martin, who has served at Fort Leonard Wood’s commander since October 2008, said that on Jan. 27 he will become the deputy commanding general of the Third Army, US Army Central Coalition Forces Land Component Command. Martin saw the beginning of the Iraq war and his new assignment is likely to correspond to the end of major American troop operations in Iraq. “The...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Dec. 31, 2009) — Congressman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) sent the following letter to President Barack Obama following a briefing yesterday about the attempted terrorist attack on a Detroit-bound aircraft on Dec. 25. The Congressman, who has worked to better coordinate anti-terrorism efforts since the 1990s, expresses concern about information sharing across intelligence agencies and emphasizes the need to remain on the offensive to destroy extremist groups' ability to recruit, train, and plan terrorist activities.

Every time I write about tank sales I get the comment that Iraq should buy armored personnel carriers instead. The commenter always says they are less threatening to the neighbors and more useful for internal security. 1. Appeasement is a western concept and has failed repeatedly. Weakness is an invite to invasion in the mid-east mentality. 2. Tanks are a measure of power in the mid-east. Power makes enemies lay low in the mid-east. 3. Iraq has been buying armored personnel carriers and other vehicles for internal security. They have plenty in their inventory or on order already.

While serving as a military linguist in Baghdad this year, 21-year-old Ikram Mansori bolted from her sleep one night in September. She knew her little brother was in trouble. Back in San Francisco, Hatim Mansori, 11, had just finished baseball practice and was riding a Muni bus home - the first time he'd ever ridden public transit alone. "The bus stopped at 19th and Mission, and this guy got up from the back of the bus, came up and stabbed me and flew out the door," Hatim said. "For no reason." Ikram Mansori was able to get a phone call...

Each year at Christmas, we remember our troops, far from home, standing be tween us and the latest Herods out to slaughter the innocents. As a former soldier, my thoughts are with the "ground pounders" out there, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan or Fort Hood, Texas. The challenges they face are immeasurably greater than those we faced in the black-boot, Cold War Army. But we all have our special memories. I recall Christmases in the 1st Battalion of the 46th Infantry, in Germany, three decades ago. Our Army was far poorer then, without the lavish support we provide today.

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Dec. 24, 2009) — Many family members have already gathered at Nutter Field House awaiting the Christmas Eve return of more that 150 soldiers from the 50th Multirole Bridge Company, which deployed to Iraq last December. The unit’s military mission was “full spectrum bridging operations in support of the 555th Engineer Brigade and Central Command Forces,” according to Fort Leonard Wood spokesmen. The company is part of the 5th Engineer Battalion, most of which returned from a 15-month Iraq deployment earlier this summer. Military personnel do not routinely announce the precise arrival time of returning units...

Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Robert L. Howard, the only American soldier ever nominated for the award three times for three separate actions, died today in Waco, Texas, at the age of 70.

Early last month, Army Maj. Gen. Tony Cucolo (left) issued General Order #1 as a means of informing those assigned to his Multi-National Division North (a.k.a., "Task Force Marne") that becoming pregnant -- or assisting in the effort -- is one of several types of conduct deemed "prejudicial to the maintenance of good order and discipline" among members of the 22,000-strong task force headquartered in Tikrit, Iraq. In fact, it ranks alongside alcohol, drugs, guns and similar vices on the general's list of prohibited activities.

An Army general in Iraq backed away from his threat today to court martial female soldiers who get pregnant. "I see absolutely no circumstance where I would punish a female soldier by court martial for a violation ... none," Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo III wrote to ABC News in an exclusive statement. " I fully intend to handle these cases through lesser disciplinary action." Cucolo triggered debate, some of it angry, when his Nov. 4 policy forbidding pregnancy among his soldiers became public recently. His policy statement said violation of the rule could be punishable by court martial, and that...

Readers may not have noticed that there was news this week from Fort Hood, the scene of an evil attack in which 13 Americans were killed and 30 wounded by a U.S. Army officer turned traitor less than two months ago. It would be easy not to notice, since there seems to have been no national press reaction so far, but local news outlets are reporting new regulations. According to a story by Amanda Kim Stairrett of the Killeen Daily Herald, the new policy tightens gun regulations in three main areas. Military personnel who live on the installation and own...

Ostensibly the story of the elegant Lipizzaner stallions in Vienna, this 1963 Disney film is blatantly pro-America with some authentic history thrown in. The director of Vienna’s legendary Spanish Riding School, Alois Podhajsky was desperate to protect his extraordinary horses from the vicious Nazi commanders. Hopes were dim until the arrival of horseman General George S. Patton who crafted a bold mission to rescue the splendid animals and keep the breed alive. In 1945, by sheer serendipity, the U.S. Third Army moved into Upper Austria at the time Colonel Podhajsky had hidden the horses on a private estate. Podhajsky showed...

Allen West to be a guest on Laura Ingraham Radio Show When: Thursday, Dec. 17th 2009 at 10:00am Allen's guest appearance will be aired on Thursday's edition of the Laura Ingraham Radio Show. Please forward this to your friends and colleagues Hope you are able to tune in!

North quotes one brave Marine: "That's what we do, we're Americans!" A must see video clip from Ollie North.

On a chilly Saturday morning this month, the future soldiers of the U.S. Army huffed and puffed through push-ups, sit-ups and stretches in Whittier Narrows Regional Park in South El Monte. There was the gangly white kid with the blond buzz cut and the buffed-out Latino dude, head draped in a black bandanna. And then there was Jennifer Ren, small, slight and bespectacled, an immigrant from China who gamely kept up with the guys and sees the Army as a ticket to U.S. citizenship and a job in accounting and finance. Down the training line was Christopher Ly, the son...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Dec. 14, 2009) — The post commander of Fort Leonard Wood helped wish the National Guard a happy 373rd birthday Friday during a cake-cutting ceremony at the Engineer Hall of Flags in the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence. Maj. Gen. Gregg Martin called the Guard a national treasure. “It’s the foundation of our nation’s defense,” Martin said. “The thing that really strikes me about the Guard is that it’s all about great people who are excellent citizens of our country. There’s the tradition of citizen-soldier embedded all the way from the top of the government down...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Dec. 10, 2009) — More than 300 pillows were donated by the residents and businesses in the Eagle 93.9 FM listening area and delivered by the Missouri National Guard on Wednesday to the Warrior Transition Unit on post. The Columbia radio station received the donations after their program, “The Drive,” hosted by Gary Nolan, spoke live with a Missouri National Guardsmen from Afghanistan on Veterans’ Day. On Nov. 11, Veterans’ Day, Nolan had Staff Sgt. Norman Robert Proctor of the 1140th Military Police Company as a call-in guest from Afghanistan on his program, which runs from...

I been catching Army-Navy and I have not noticed any TV shots of Zero. I guess he already used the Cadets for his photo opportunity during his Afghan speech so he has no need for them anymore. Also I suppose he does not want to go back into "enemy territory".

On December 12, 1985, 248 members of the 3/502 Infantry of the 101st Airborne Division perished on an Air Arrow crash near Gander, Newfoundland. They were on their way home to spend the holidays with their families and friends after completing a peacekeeping mission in the Sinai Desert.On the morning of 12 December 1985, at 0645 local time (0515 EST), Arrow Airlines flight 1285, a DC-8-63 charter carrying 248 passengers and a crew of eight, crashed just after takeoff from Gander International Airport, Gander, Newfoundland. All on board perished. The postcrash fire, fed by the contents of the stricken aircraft's...