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While combat drones are not allowed in the U.S. airspace without a special certificate from the FAA, the military is in a fix over the 7, 500 military drones deployed overseas, that need to be recalled home.... After returning home, the robotic aircraft would be stationed in military bases around the nation for use in emergencies... Last week, Congress approved legislation requiring the FAA to create a plan for wide-scale integration of drones in the national airspace by 2015.

WASHINGTON — It's an unwritten law of modern America that a political campaign speech should last no more than 30 minutes. The lecture candidate Barack Obama delivered on the evening of Jan. 24 in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol came in at just longer than one hour and six minutes. It was full of rhetoric we should expect to hear reiterated from now until Nov. 6. The president's supporters declared his economic message to be "populist." That's liberal-speak for class warfare. In the days since the State of the Union address, politicians and pundits of every stripe...

THE TRIAL OF SSGT. WUTERICH:Final Battle Of Haditha Set To Begin by Nathaniel R. Helms | Friday, January 6, 2012 | Day Two: Jury selection complete Camp Pendleton, Calif. – An eight-man panel of four officers and four senior non-commissioned officers will begin listening to testimony Monday morning when the lawyers fighting the final Battle of Haditha offer their opening statements at the General Court Martial of SSgt Frank D. Wuterich, the last Marine standing in the six-year-old fight. The government is apparently expecting a tough battle in the weeks ahead. “I can’t think of a single witness desiring of...

The Air Force dumped the incinerated partial remains of at least 274 American troops in a Virginia landfill, far more than the military had acknowledged, before halting the secretive practice three years ago, records show. The landfill dumping was concealed from families who had authorized the military to dispose of the remains in a dignified and respectful manner, Air Force officials said. There are no plans, they said, to alert those families now. The Air Force had maintained that it could not estimate how many troops might have had their remains sent to a landfill. The practice was revealed last...

Shortly after the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the DoD announced that certain benefit programs are open to servicemember designated beneficiaries, “regardless of sexual orientation.”

The Marines set up a booth at San Gabriel Valley Pride's Community Unity Day at Pasadena City College. They were the only military branch to attend. Marine Corps recruiters at the San Gabriel Valley Pride event at Pasadena City College on Saturday didn't care whether the young men who lined up to test their strength were gay or straight. The Marines just wanted to see some pull-ups done properly: Place hands about shoulder width apart, palms facing away; pull upward until chin is over the bar and then slowly return to the hanging position. Repeat until the feet feel like...

The Pentagon will permit military chaplains to perform same-sex marriage as long as such ceremonies are not prohibited in the states where they reside, it said Friday. Defense Department guidance issued to military chaplains said they may participate in ceremonies on or off military bases in states that recognize gay unions. Chaplains are not required to officiate at same-sex weddings if doing so is counter to their religious or personal beliefs, the guidance said. And regardless of the Pentagon guidance, military chaplains will still need to take cues from their religious order, said Gary Pollitt, spokesman for the Military Chaplains...

With homosexuals now able to serve openly in the military, the gay rights movement’s next battleground is to persuade the Obama administration to end the armed forces’ ban on “transgenders,” a group that includes transsexuals and cross-dressers.

Look, I understand the the Obama White House has decided to shift to the extreme Left on policy this month. They want to pander to their base, which has been demoralized in discovering that their agenda has as much chance of passing Congress as … well, as Obama’s tax-hikes bill. But at some point, the pander will devolve into self-parody — and Eric Holder’s promise to really, really close the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay qualifies as the tipping point: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that the Obama administration will do its utmost to close the U.S....

DUXBURY, Vt. (AP) - When Navy Lt. Gary Ross and his partner were searching for a place to get married, they settled on a site in Vermont, in part because the state is in the Eastern time zone. That way, the two men were able to recite their vows before family and friends at the first possible moment after the formal repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Just after midnight Tuesday, the partners of 11 years were married.

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the nearly 18-year-old policy that allowed gays to serve in the military as long as they kept their sexual orientation a secret, was officially repealed at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 20. The following official Defense Department memo acknowledges the historic repeal. "Effective today," it reads, "statements about sexual orientation or lawful acts of homosexual conduct will not be considered as a bar to military service."

<p>When Navy Lt. Gary Ross and his partner were searching for a place to get married, they settled on a site in Vermont, in part because the state is in the Eastern time zone.</p> <p>That way, the two men were able to recite their vows before family and friends at the first possible moment after the formal repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Just after midnight Tuesday, the partners of 11 years were married.</p>

Washington - The United States Marine Corps has banned audible farting in Afghanistan because it is culturally offensive to civilians working with the military and members of the Afghan National Army. The Military Times Marine Corps blog, Battle Rattle recently posted the news that "audible farting has been banned for some Marines downrange because it offends the Afghans." The ban has caused a stir among former and current members of the military who question the reasoning behind the decision which has ignited a firestorm of comments from readers and fellow bloggers of Battle Rattle. Military soldiers have already been required...

Leadership: Disrespecting grieving families, the president sneaks a photographer into the ceremony honoring the SEALs who died in Afghanistan. The presidential scrapbook and campaign are more important. We thought perhaps the White House had received a sufficient dose of condemnation as well as some sensitivity training over a planned Sony film hyping President Obama's "gutsy call" regarding the successful Navy SEAL mission that killed Osama bin Laden. The film was to be released three weeks before the 2012 vote. We were wrong. When 30 U.S. Special Operations forces, including Navy SEALs from SEAL Team 6, the unit that got the...

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to certify that gays can serve openly in the armed services

By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, July 6, 2:34 PM SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court has barred further enforcement of the U.S. military’s ban on openly gay service members. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Wednesday the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy must be immediately lifted now that the Obama administration says it’s unconstitutional to treat gay Americans differently under the law.

<p>SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A federal appeals court has barred further enforcement of the U.S. military's ban on openly gay service members.</p> <p>A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Wednesday the "don't ask, don't tell" policy must be immediately lifted now that the Obama administration says it's unconstitutional to treat gay Americans differently under the law.</p>

President Obama's "surge" of 30,000 troops to Afghanistan announced in late 2009 was meant to be temporary, and Wednesday night the president is expected to announce that they will return home by around the time voters head to the polls to determine whether he gets another term. In prime-time speech to the nation, Obama is expected to say about 5,000 troops will begin coming home this summer with an additional 5,000 troops by the end of this year, sources told CBS News. And about 20,000 more troops are expected to return to the United States by the end of 2012,...

(Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates bluntly told Marines on Sunday that they won't be able to opt out of their enlistment just because they disagree with a government decision to end a ban on gays serving openly in the military. Gates, who is on a tour of Afghanistan to bid farewell to the troops before stepping down at the end of the month, was quizzed by a Marine sergeant about the controversial policy during a question and answer session at a base in southwestern Helmand Province.

(CNSNews.com) – Anticipating the elimination of the military ban on homosexuality, the Office of the Chief of Navy Chaplains has decided that same-sex couples in the Navy will be able to get married in Navy chapels, and that Navy chaplains will be allowed to perform the ceremonies -- if homosexual marriage is legal in the state where the unions are to be performed.The advisory came in the form of an April 13 memo issued to all chaplains, in which the Chief of Navy Chaplains, Admiral Michael Tidd, said the Chaplain Corps was revising its Tier I training manuals, which had...

Today marks the launch of Michelle Obama and Jill Biden's "Joining Forces" initiative to "support and honor America's service members and their families." The two women, along with President Obama and Vice President Biden, will make remarks at the White House in conjunction with the kickoff. Shortly before the event began at noon, Servicemembers United, which represents gay and lesbian troops and veterans, complained that the White House had barred civilian representatives of gay and lesbian military families from the event. "It is rather unfortunate that both East Wing and West Wing staff have refused to allow a representative of...

Federal Agencies Prepare for Shutdowns, No Hints of a Deal Between Republicans and Democrats. Soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan will not receive paychecks next week if the government fails to come together on a resolution to keep the government funded and avert a shutdown, senior government officials said today. Military personnel will be paid eventually but not until Congress appropriates money to the Department of Defense. "Our military men and women put their lives on the line and sacrifice every day to ensure our security. They should not have to worry about getting paid on time," said Sen. Bob...

US naval aviation back on the rise © Northrop Grumman How Northrop Grumman sees the carrier deck of 2020 Retired Vice Adm Robert Dunn remembers being called to the Secretary of the Navy's office. It was 1989 and the US Navy was still at the peak of its Cold War, 600-ship glory. Defence spending, however, was already in decline and the navy's top civilian, Henry Garrett, had a tough decision to make. As deputy chief of naval operations for aviation, Dunn's portfolio included two projects for a carrier-based, long-range strike aircraft - a re-engined Grumman A-6E Intruder called the A-6F...

President Obama’s actions in Libya were already suspicious for a number of reasons. First, during Obama’s presidential campaign, he asserted that his priority was to get America out of the two wars it was already fighting. Second, Obama was a staunch critic of the Bush administration for unconstitutionally embarking on a war without congressional approval — an action of which President Obama is now guilty. Finally, as the economy is teetering on collapse, one would assume the last thing the President would want is to have to fund a third war. And yet here we are. However, once we delve...

As a show of strength, the latest from the US on the military mission in Libya falls a wee bit short of convincing. Yesterday, NATO finally accepted operational command of Odyssey Dawn, the air war against Moammar Gaddafi’s armed forces that have not yet stopped the dictator from pushing the rebels into panicked retreats. Today, the US went further and said it would stop flying sorties over Libya after today — unless NATO requested more: Libyan rebels called for a cease- fire as forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi drove them back for a third day after sandstorms and clouds hindered...

Liberals have found another reason to be angry with President Obama: the ouster of P.J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman who announced his resignation Sunday after criticizing the Pentagon for its treatment of the WikiLeaks case suspect Private Bradley Manning. Jane Hamsher, one of Obama’s consistent antagonists at the liberal blog FireDogLake, which probably most epitomizes former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs’s epithet “the professional left,” is leading the charge. She wrote Monday in support of a protest against Manning’s treatment and Crowley’s firing with a march from the State Department to the White House. “With his firing...

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley has resigned after publicly crossing swords with the Pentagon over the treatment of an Army soldier accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified military reports and sensitive diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks. The chain of events that led to Crowley’s exit was set in motion Thursday when Crowley appeared at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology seminar and called the Pentagon’s handling of Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is detained at the brig at Quantico, “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.” Crowley’s public criticism angered some at the Pentagon and others across the administration because it put him...

As if the military did not have enough to worry about with two wars, troops around the globe and members of Congress calling for the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya (a de facto act of war), the Military Leadership Diversity Commission (MLDC) Monday released a report informing those in uniform that there are too many white men in their uppermost ranks. Ordered by Congress in the 2009 National Defense Authorization Act, the report seeks to increase diversity. “The commission’s recommendations support two overriding and related objectives: (1) that the Armed Forces systematically develop a demographically diverse leadership …...

President Obama announced Monday that military trials will resume for detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, saying the tribunals are an "important tool in combating international terrorists."

American combat troops will get sensitivity training directly on the battlefield about the military’s new policy on gays instead of waiting until they return to home base in the United States, the senior enlisted man in Afghanistan said Thursday. The Pentagon is launching an extensive force-wide program to ease the process of integrating open homosexuals into the ranks, including into close-knit fighting units. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Marvin Hill, the top enlisted man in Afghanistan where 100,000 U.S. troops are deployed, said that the sessions on respecting gays’ rights will go right down to the forward operating bases, where troops...

1/6/2011 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Defense Department officials will reduce senior ranks and freeze civilian staffing levels, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Jan. 6. "The monetary savings from ... reductions in senior personnel will be relatively modest, and mostly consist of the extra staff and amenities that, by tradition, follow high rank," Secretary Gates said. The secretary and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke to reporters at the Pentagon on the results of defense efficiencies initiatives begun in May to trim support costs and ensure funding for military modernization. The primary purpose of...

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle took time from their Hawaii vacation to drop by a Marine Corps base on Saturday, where they greeted service men and women during Christmas dinner. One young fan in turn greeted the President by sticking his tongue out at the commander-in-chief while the two posed for his picture. Obama, who has otherwise kept a low profile during the 11-day family holiday, visited the same base last year and the year before on Christmas Day. The President and First Lady shook hands, posed for pictures, admired babies and chatted with Marines and their families...

Pray in Jesus Name Project 2 new bills to Homosexualize our military....Call Sens. Brown and Murkowski today Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) is expected today to file a Rule 14 motion waiving our troops right to have any committee review the new fast-tracked bill S.4022 that bypasses debate or hearings, and repeals the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law.  The new bill forces open homosexual aggression on our troops against the will of 91% of our troops, using the same language that failed a cloture vote last week by 40-57 (thank God) in the Pentagon budget, but now rears its head again...

Senate Republicans have been playing a neat trick to squeeze Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal off the Senate calendar. On the one hand, as the year comes to an end, they're eating up the last days of floor time and refusing to debate any issues until the tax cut fight is resolved and the federal government is funded into next year. On the other hand, they're laying out arbitrary -- and totally new -- benchmarks for how long it should take to debate the Defense Authorization bill (the vehicle for DADT repeal) to argue that there isn't enough time to...

Top leaders of the military have recommended that the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) ban on homosexuals serving in the military be abolished, claiming that it would not unduly impair military effectiveness. However, the Pentagon study of the matter leaves substantial doubt as to that conclusion’s veracity. My doubts are principally as to the impact on combat effectiveness. Unless armed combat has vanished as the principal role of the military and the concept of “boots on the ground” has become obsolete, that is important.

On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates released a long-awaited Pentagon working-group report on the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy enacted under President Bill Clinton. Most troops, the review found, would not object to a repeal. Some troops made strong arguments in favor of repeal. As one service member noted, "We need all available men and women who are willing to serve their country, no matter what their sexual orientation is." Another said, "We shouldn't turn people away because of things they do in their private life." One gay service member noted that a repeal would "take a...

OCEANSIDE, Calif. (AP) -- They are the few, the proud and perhaps the military's biggest opponents of lifting the ban on openly gay troops. Most of those serving in America's armed forces have no strong objections to repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" law, according to a Pentagon survey of 400,000 active duty and reservists that is scheduled for release Tuesday.

The death of a sailor from Florida marks a sad milestone for the President of the United States. Since Barack H. Obama became the Commander in Chief, 900 soldiers have lost their lives. The 900th to die was Edwin Gonzalez, 22, of North Miami Beach, Florida. The Department of Defense says Gonzales was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom as a Hospital Corpsman. He died Oct. 8 from wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Marine Division, Fleet Marine Forces, Atlantic, Camp Lejeune, N.C. You can see the list...

WASHINGTON — An Army inquiry into a Rolling Stone magazine article about Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal has found that it was not the general or senior officers on his staff who made the most egregious comments that led to his abrupt dismissal as the top Afghan commander in June, according to Army and Pentagon officials. But the review, commissioned after an embarrassing and disruptive episode, does not wholly resolve who was responsible for the inflammatory quotations, most of which were anonymous. The Army review has been turned over to a higher-level inquiry by the Pentagon’s inspector general, because the matter...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has no plans to stay on at the Pentagon through the end of President Obama’s first term in office. Gates, whose service now spans one Republican and one Democratic administration, told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday that he has already made up his mind about his departure date, but refused to disclose any more details. Gates told Foreign Policy magazine earlier this year that the logical point for his departure would be in 2011 to give the president enough time to pick the appropriate successor before the 2012 reelection season starts in earnest. “Having a...

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates frequently makes the point that Congress funds Defense Department personnel far more easily than it does State Department employees. "There are about 6,000 FSOs," or Foreign Service officers, he told an audience in San Francisco this month. He drew laughter when he added that former secretary of state "Condi Rice used to say, 'We have more people in military bands than they have in the Foreign Service.' She was not far wrong." Well, maybe Gates should take a closer look at those military bands during his campaign to trim defense spending. My interest was triggered...

Sec. Gates's exit sparks talk of Hillary Clinton taking over at the Pentagon. Speculation in the nation's capital on who will replace Robert Gates at the Pentagon has centered on an intriguing possibility: Hillary Clinton. Gates told Foreign Policy magazine that he wants to step down as secretary of Defense sometime in 2011. A Republican, Gates was the only member of President George W. Bush’s Cabinet to stay on under Obama. “It would be a mistake to wait until January 2012 [to leave],” Gates said. “This is not the kind of job you want to fill in the spring of...

Virginia officials reacted with bipartisan dismay on Monday to Defense Department budget shifts that will cost the state thousands of jobs in coming years and will dramatically impact the economies of the Norfolk area and Northern Virginia. Most of the immediate reaction revolved around Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates's proposal to close the U.S. Joint Forces Command. It is a major employer in Hampton Roads, including Norfolk and Virginia Beach, whose elimination could translate into the loss of 6,100 military, civilian and contractor jobs in the region. But a proposal to slash the Pentagon's budget for military contractors over the...

WASHINGTON -- Officials briefed on the decision say Defense Secretary Robert Gates plans to eliminate a major military command in Norfolk, Va., and try to cut the Pentagon's use of outside contractors by 10 percent next year. The plan was to be announced at a Pentagon press conference on Monday. It is part of a broader effort to trim $100 billion from the military's mammoth budget in the next five years, as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan begin to wind down and Congress turns its attention more to domestic priorities.

This story was originally about how people at the pentagon were banned from going to the wikileaks site

In the scandal involving the theft and release of classified military information that could cost the lives of U.S. military personnel, the British Telegraph newspaper is reporting that the American soldier at the center of the scandal was “openly homosexual” and apparently held a grudge against the U.S. because of the military’s anti-gay policy. In another bizarre twist, reliable reports suggest that Private First Class Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army Intelligence analyst accused of leaking the classified information to the WikiLeaks.org website, was not only a homosexual but was considering a sex change. Manning was arrested at the end of...

President Barack Obama is signing legislation to fund his troop surge in Afghanistan. Before Congress passed it on Tuesday, the bill was stripped of money for domestic stimulus programs. Obama was signing it in a low-ley Oval Office session Thursday.

The day after President Obama fired General McChrystal and demoted his boss, General Petraeus to replace him you’d have thought he had discovered the secret to life’s creation. Every leftist, drooling reporter used one word so pervasively that it may have to be retired from overuse. “Brilliant!” said our lackey Socialists in the press. The polls, in a freefall, paused and reversed for a day or two before continuing their nose-dive. Remember General “Betray us?” Ironically in 2007 and 2008 then Senator Obama and then Senator Clinton revolted against Petraeus like patriots at the original Tea Party. Hillary :“(The Surge)...

Celebrating LGBT pride month at the White House this evening, President Obama declared that the nation has never been closer to ending the “discriminatory policy” of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and promised to keep working until the bill is signed into law. “We have never been closer to ending this discriminatory policy. And I’m going to keep on fighting until that bill is on my desk and I can sign it,” Obama said in the East Room this evening. “That is a promise I made as a candidate. It is a promise that I reiterated as president. It’s one that...

Will Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan, still have his job this afternoon, after today's all-but-certain dressing-down from President Obama? "All options are on the table," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said yesterday. There's no denying that Obama would be justified in relieving McChrystal of command as a result of intemperate remarks he and his top aides made to a reporter from Rolling Stone magazine. But that would be a huge mistake. McChrystal, to put it bluntly, is a great general who is uniquely suited to the demands of an unconventional war that -- sadly but obviously...