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A panel commissioned by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is recommending nearly $1 trillion in cuts to the Pentagon’s budget over the next 10 years. The Sustainable Defense Task Force, a commission of scholars from a broad ideological spectrum appointed by Frank, the House Financial Services Committee chairman, laid out actions the government could take that could save as much as $960 billion between 2011 and 2020.

The guided-missile destroyer Truxtun was commissioned into the U.S. Navy under a beaming blue sky Saturday, welcomed in as the most advanced warship in the world today. But, for all her modern bells and whistles, some of the day's speakers just couldn't get away from talking about pirates. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead noted that when the ship's namesake Commodore Thomas Truxtun built his career in America's infancy, pirates were as much a problem on the high seas as they have been recently. "We continue to fight the scourge of piracy," Roughhead told several thousand sailors, guests and...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2009 – With traditional pomp and circumstance and its namesake on hand, the last Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, USS George H.W. Bush, was commissioned in Norfolk, Va., today. “So what do you give a guy who has been blessed and has just about everything he has ever needed?” President George W. Bush, son of former President George H.W. Bush, joked during the ceremony. “Well, an aircraft carrier.” The story of the USS George H.W. Bush, also known as CVN 77, begins well before its keel-laying in September 2003. It began in the early days of World War...

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (NNS) -- A commissioning ceremony was held May 20 for Naval Coastal Warfare Squadron (NCWRON) 4 at Hospital Point Park at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Va. The pennant of commissioning was broken by the squadron’s first commanding officer, Cmdr. James Campbell, who ordered his Sailors to man their fighting positions and “bring the squadron to life.” NCWRON 4 is the seventh NCWRON, the first active-duty unit on the east coast, and is comprised of a Mobile Inshore Undersea Warfare Unit, Inshore Boat Units (IBU) 41, 42, 43 and staff. “The overall mission of our combined units and staff...

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO (Jan. 6, 2006) -- Sixteen members of Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team 91109 deployed to New Orleans to assist in provide assistance and security in recovery missions from Sept. 6 to Sept. 21 While very few depot Marines see opportunities to deploy, Coast Guard security teams were called upon to assist in searches for survivors of the hurricane. This past year, the 175 mile-per-hour winds of Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. A storm surge broke through the levee system that protected the city from Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River, resulting in...

NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- The Navy commissioned its most advanced guided-missile destroyer to date, USS Nitze (DDG 94), in a ceremony at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., March 5. Cmdr. Michael Hegarty took command of Nitze in a ceremony that included remarks from former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, Undersecretary of the Navy Dionel Aviles, Rear Adm. Charles Hamilton II, program executive officer - ships, and Rear Adm. Michael Nowakowski, commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. U.S. Reps. Bobby Scott, 3rd District of Virginia, and Randy Forbes, 4th District, were among the honored guests. Lehman congratulated Nitze’s inaugural crew,...

It is with great pride that I, RightOnline, and The Lovely Wife (aka "RightOnlinesWife") announce the commissioning of our eldest son (oldest of our seven children), known to fellow FReepers as "Future Snake Eater", as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army. F.S.E. was commissioned on Friday afternoon, then received his B.A. degree the following day from NC State University. Combined with his recent marriage to his lovely new bride at the end of February, this has been quite the past few months for the RightOnline household and Future Snake Eater. He will soon leave for Infantry Officer Training...