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The U.S. Army is sending roughly 19,000 active-duty captains and majors to a screening board for early separation this spring, the Army Times reported. Up to 20 percent of those screened — approximately 3,800 officers — could be scheduled to leave the service by the Officer Separation Board and Enhanced Selective Early Retirement Board. Officers with fewer than 18 years of federal active service will have their screening process done by OSB, and those with more than 18 years of service will see the E-SERB, according to the Army Times. “The Army’s drawdown plan is a balanced approach while maintaining

U.S. Army Spc. Vergil Droumer from Chicago, Illinois, pulls security with the 101st Airborne Division in the Dewagal valley of Chawkay province Afghanistan. Sep 2010.U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Cameron Boyd.

This year we will have a wintry game as in this photo in 2003. Good luck to both teams for a hard-fought game that is free of injuries in the anticipated bad weather at game time. And, by the way, GO NAVY, BEAT ARMY!

He may be 85 years old, but when Army sniper veteran (Battle of the Bulge) Ted Gundy was given the chance to show off the skills he used in World War Two, he proved he still could....(video 5min.)

In 1945, thousands of soldiers returned to the United States from combat on the Pacific and European fronts of World War II with severe mental trauma. Unable to treat their terrible injuries and illnesses, US Veterans Affairs hospitals lobotomized some 2,000 of them. Wall Street Journal:The Lobotomy Files Part One is telling the story of these soldiers and the misjudged medical process they went through as part of a special project called The Lobotomy Files, the first of which focuses on Roman Tritz. Tritz, a 90-year-old veteran who flew a B-17 Flying Fortress across Nazi Germany, began to hear voices...

December 12 marks the 28th anniversary of the crash of Arrow Air Flight 1285, carrying 248 Soldiers of the 101st Airborne and 8 crew members, in Gander, Newfoundland. Returning from peacekeeping duties in the Sinai Desert, all were killed. Above, soldiers fasten flags to caskets in Gander. Dec 1985.

The U.S. Army general in charge of training recently wrote about the service's examination of gender neutral standards to open the infantry and other combat-arms jobs to female soldiers. The piece by Gen. Robert Cone, commander of Training and Doctrine Command, appears in the November issue of Army Magazine, the same month three female Marines made history by graduating from Marine infantry training. Last January, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered all services to open combat-arms roles to women that so far have been reserved for men.

I was recently invited to be a panelist at a veterans’ symposium on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I sought to decline, saying that I never had PTSD and had no qualifications to talk about it. I was told that I represented an earlier generation of combat veterans and that my views and experience would be interesting. So I accepted. Three other panelists had personal family experience with the traumatic aspects of the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I restricted myself to the Korean War. As background for my views, I explained the generational context of my experience as follows:...

(CLICK THE LINK FOR A PREVIEW OF THE BOOK) This book is a compilation of the personal remembrances of twenty-two former members of The Old Guard who participated in President Kennedy’s State Funeral in November 1963. The seven parts of this book are arranged in the chronological order in which the major ceremonial events took place: (1) Planning and Preparation, (2) Andrews AFB and Bethesda Naval Hospital, (3) Events at The White House, (4) The Capitol Building, (5) Saint Matthew’s Cathedral, (6) Arlington National Cemetery, and (7) The Gravesite and events after the burial. This compilation of twenty-two personal memoirs...

The U.S. Army is drawing some unfriendly fire about an email obtained by POLITICO recommending that photos of “average-looking women” should be used for stories about female soldiers. The email, written by Col. Lynette Arnhart, was meant to advise Army spokespeople about how they should educate the public about the Army’s integration of women into combat. “In general, ugly women are perceived as competent while pretty women are perceived as having used their looks to get ahead,” Arnhart wrote. “There is a general tendency to select nice looking women when we select a photo to go with an article (where...

The Army should use photos of “average-looking women” when it needs to illustrate stories about female soldiers, a specialist recommends — images of women who are too pretty undermine the communications strategy about introducing them into combat roles. That’s the gist of an internal Army e-mail an Army source shared with POLITICO. “In general, ugly women are perceived as competent while pretty women are perceived as having used their looks to get ahead,” wrote Col. Lynette Arnhart, who is leading a team of analysts studying how best to integrate women into combat roles that have previously been closed off to...

A U.S. Army Special Forces sergeant from Keller was killed Sunday in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, Defense Department officials reported Monday. Staff Sgt. Alex Anthony Viola, 29, was fatally wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated, according to a news release. “This was Viola’s first deployment during his military career,” according to a news release from the U.S. Army Special Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C. His unit was attacked “while on dismounted patrol.” Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/11/18/5348539/army-staff-sergeant-from-keller.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

In a unique battlefield commendation, a Marine Corps member of Delta Force has been awarded the nation’s second highest military honor for coming to the defense of Americans last year at a CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya. Delta Force, a counterterrorism unit in the secretive Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), has been thought of as a strictly Army outfit. But it does take on qualified “operators,” as they are called, from other services. The Washington Times has reported that two Delta Force members were among a seven-person rescue team sent from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli to Benghazi on the...

WASHINGTON – The extraordinarily large number of senior military officials being relieved of duty during the Obama administration – nine generals and flag officers this year alone and close to 200 senior officers over the last five years – is part of the creation of a “compliant officer class,” according to a U.S. Army intelligence official. Since WND’s ongoing coverage of what some top generals are openly calling a “purge” of senior military officers who run afoul of Obama or his agenda, some military personnel have been speaking out. According to a veteran Army intelligence official who spoke to WND...

Parents of US Staff Sgt. Michael H. Ollis, who died shielding Polish troops under attack from a suicide bomber in Afghanistan, have received the Afghan Star and Polish Army Gold Medal. The 24 year-old from Staten Island, who served in the 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light) stepped in front of a suicide bomber so as to shield Polish colleagues as the Ghazni base in eastern Afghanistan came under attack on 28 August this year. The Gold Polish Army Medal, which was received by the dead soldier's father and mother, Robert and Linda...

 H/T Tish "This is a picture I took this evening on a wall just down the hall from my office. It's new and put up today. While it may look innocent enough, those in the know realize the paranoia this poster represents. It's part of this year's campaign against insider threats which included a mandatory online program where you 'vet' other workers based on 'suspicious' evidence. In other words, the suspects were primarily conservative males who were outspoken against current US policies and adhering to constitutionality. Females were present but the focus was on white males. Let that sink in...

October was Iraq’s deadliest month since April, 2008. In those five and a half years, not only has there been no improvement in Iraq’s security situation, but things have gotten much worse. More than 1,000 people were killed in Iraq last month, the vast majority of them civilians. Another 1,600 were wounded, as car bombs, shootings, and other attacks continue to maim and murder. As post-“liberation” Iraq spirals steadily downward, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was in Washington last week to plead for more assistance from the United States to help restore order to a society demolished by the 2003 US...

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — The Army has relieved the commander of its largest base in Japan after an investigation into alleged misconduct, according to a U.S. Army Japan press statement sent late Friday. The investigation had been ongoing since June 7, when Col. Eric Tilley was suspended from his job as commander of U.S. Army Garrison Japan. Maj. Gen. James C. Boozer, Sr., commander of U.S. Army Japan and I Corps (Forward), officially relieved Tilley on Friday for “lack of confidence” based on the results of the inquiry, according to the press statement. The statement provided no other details....

It’s about dang time this happens. Heck, just last week evangelical Christians were once again lumped in with extremists at Fort Hood. And a few weeks ago it happened at Camp Shelby. You can’t tell me there isn’t some mastermind behind these briefings. After all, we know the Obama administration is replacing commanders in the military with ones who agree with them. Which means ‘radicals’. FOX NEWS – The Secretary of the Army has ordered military leaders to halt all briefings on extremist organizations that labeled Evangelical Christian groups as domestic hate groups. The shutdown comes just four days after...

During last night’s World Series opener Major League Baseball staged a salute to our military heroes, complete with three living Medal of Honor recipients, including the newest, Will Swenson. Likely similar tributes will take place two or three times during the remainder of the National Football League season too. Giant flags will wiggle across the fields. Color guards will parade. The broadcast team will cut away to Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan where troops in camo uniforms will wave at the cameras. There may or may not be a flyover by fighter-jets; those are mostly on hold because of...