Free Republic

The military’s standards for committed members and new recruits have dropped in 2022 as the services struggle to overcome challenges in filling the ranks. Army recruiting plummeted in 2022, while the remaining services just made their recruiting goals for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, according to Department of Defense (DOD) data shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. The military is scrambling to adjust policies in a way that attracts more recruits, prompting some lowering of physical fitness and academic standards that could negatively impact military readiness, a military expert told the DCNF. “The military and the administration are...

Two draftees opened fire at a Russian military training ground near the Ukraine border, killing 11 and wounding 15. The shootings happened during a live-fire training exercise. The trainees opened fire with small arms before they were fatally shot.The Russians say it was a terrorist attack. The two recruits were from one of the Commonwealth of the Independent States of former Soviet republics. Other than that, TASS has been close-mouthed about the suspects.No motive for the attack was immediately given, although some ethnic minorities have become extremely resentful of Moscow because they believe the draft is falling disproportionately on their...

Sen. John McCain has taken an obvious, strong, personal dislike of President Trump. The most recent sign of this personal spat came to light in the October 22 online editions of FNC, the NY Post, and many other periodicals, when Sen. McCain called Trump to task for using bone spurs to evade military service during the Vietnam War. Sen. John McCain took some veiled shots at President Trump over the weekend — slamming high income draft dodgers like himself for using their wealth to avoid serving in the Vietnam War. “One aspect of the conflict, by the way, that I...

Dec. 22 - The Selective Service System is making plans to test its draft machinery in case Congress and President Bush need it, even though the White House says it doesn't want to bring back the draft. The agency is planning a comprehensive test -- not run since 1998 -- of its military draft systems, a Selective Service official said. The test itself would not likely occur until 2009. Scott Campbell, the service's director for operations and chief information officer, cautioned that the "readiness exercise" does not mean the agency is gearing up to resume the draft. "We're kind of...

TOLEDO, Ohio -- An elite unit of American soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed villagers in 1967 during the Vietnam War, and an Army investigation was closed with no charges filed, the Toledo Blade reported Sunday. Soldiers of the Tiger Force unit of the Army's 101st Airborne Division dropped grenades into bunkers where villagers -- including women and children -- hid, and shot farmers without warning, the Ohio newspaper reported. Soldiers told the Blade that they severed ears from the dead and strung them on shoelaces to wear around their necks. The Army's 41/2-year investigation, never before made public, was initiated...

<p>AS the United States inches toward war, an ugly myth is getting another public airing: that minorities and the poor do most of the dying in combat.</p> <p>Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Harlem) made the claim again just last week, saying he opposed the anti-Iraq resolution because the military is largely made up of black, Hispanic and poor whites who join for economic reasons.</p>