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Oren Almog says he serves in the IDF “like everyone else.” There are a few differences: Terror cost him his eyesight – and five relatives. A suicide bombing attack at Haifa’s Maxim restaurant in 2003 killed 16 people in addition to Oren’s father, brother and other family members. He went blind while being treated for his wounds. He obviously is exempt from the draft but insisted on enlisting in the armed forced and being like most other Israelis – and now he is a soldier n the IDF. He is a volunteer soldier in an intelligence unit, the name of...

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - The family of a U.S. soldier held captive by the Taliban for over two years said on Wednesday they were optimistic about the possibility of talks between the Afghan insurgent group and countries including the United States. They expressed hope that Bowe Bergdahl would be freed "as soon as possible" in a statement issued a day after the Taliban said they had reached a preliminary agreement to set up a political office in the Gulf Arab country of Qatar. "We are optimistic about the possibility of diplomatic discussions between Taliban officials and government officials from other...

Fox News is the latest news organization to pick up on the revelation, first reported by AIM, that Ron Paul had praised WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning as a hero and patriot. Directly referring to WikiLeaks and Army soldier Bradley Manning being held in detention, Paul said, “Should he be locked up in prison or should we see him as a political hero? Maybe he is a true patriot—who reveals what’s going on in government.” The comment drew strong applause from Paul supporters. Video of the event, officially posted by Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty organization, also shows the Republican presidential...

LOS ANGELES -- A soldier on leave from Afghanistan was shot and seriously injured Friday night in San Bernardino, Calif., during a welcome home party in his honor, police said. Christopher Sullivan, 22, was on leave from the Army for the holidays and attending a party when his brother and another man began arguing over football a little before midnight, San Bernardino Police Lt. Gwendolyn Waters said. The gunman, a man in his 20s, punched Sullivan's brother, Waters said. Sullivan stepped in and the other man pulled a gun from his waistband and fired at least three shots. Two shots...

The year was 1919, one year after the end of World War I, and the people of Atlanta, Georgia were celebrating the Christmas Season.

A piece I quickly whipped up for my OMG! For America project. We're still finalizing the operational site, so we posted this on our Facebook page, and have been VERY pleasantly surprised to see how well received it has been. It is by far our most liked/shared post to date.

Sergeant Winkowski says they didn’t have an ammo carrier to lug the extra bullets and there was a lull when they had to reload. He says they’d seen ammo carriers in movies and decided to gather up some spare parts to build their own. They took an old rucksack frame and stripped it down, welded together a couple of ammo cans and added a speed loading shoot. “We took it out to the range and gave it some testing and it worked out pretty good for us,” Winkowski says, “And so we took it into combat, and we got into...

A grieving family fulfilled their soldier son's final wish of rescuing the dog he befriended in Afghanistan just months before he was killed. The parents of paratrooper Conrad Lewis wept with joy as they greeted their son's best friend Peg who bounded up to them after completing six months in quarantine. Before his death Conrad adopted the dog and nicknamed her Peg - short for Pegasus - in honour of the Para's winged horse emblem. ... He fed the dog his rations and she never left his side, even accompanying him during fierce fire fights against Taliban insurgents. Conrad wanted...

It was an overcast day in Newport, N.H., when a simple “20/20″ shoot turned into something that made me wonder about life after death. I was filming soldier Justin Rollin’s parents Skip and Rhonda playing with their dog Hero, whose rescue from the Iraq War zone where Justin died was nothing short of a miracle. Sometimes when Rhonda hugged Hero she would softly pet her face and coo, “Justin, are you in there?” It was Rhonda’s gentle way of remembering their son and his last living connection to Hero. At one point, Hero wandered off and took a stroll in...

It is the Soldier, not the minister Who has given us freedom of religion. It is the Soldier, not the reporter Who has given us freedom of the press. It is the Soldier, not the poet Who has given us freedom of speech. It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer Who has given us freedom to protest. It is the Soldier, not the lawyer Who has given us the right to a fair trial. It is the Soldier, not the politician Who has given us the right to vote. It is the Soldier who salutes the flag, Who serves...

"It is requested that everyone maintains a level of silence and respect",says the soldier as he stops in stance and demands silence from a disrespectful crowd w/ rifle out front. You could have heard a dime drop that day. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c59_1320722129

The soldier pulled his Cadillac to the grassy shoulder off Bobby Jones Expressway around 1 a.m. Sunday and aimed his M4 semiautomatic rifle at the cars speeding by. In the seat next to him, a woman scrambled out of the car in a panic and tried to call 911 on her cellphone. At some point in between, Richmond County sheriff’s Deputy James D. Paugh, 47, was riding his motorcycle on the highway towards the couple, heading home after his shift patrolling at the Georgia-Carolina State Fair. When he saw the Cadillac and decided to investigate instead of going home, off-duty...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Looking dazed, a thin and pale Gilad Schalit emerged from a pickup truck Tuesday under the escort of his Hamas captors and the Egyptian mediators who helped arrange the Israeli tank crewman's release after more than five years in captivity.Click here for article

Skylar Johnson had not seen her father since last Christmas when she stepped on stage for her school's spelling bee on Friday. So when the moderator asked the nine-year-old how to spell 'sergeant', she was overcome with emotion when he appeared from behind the curtain. Staff Sergeant Therron Johnson and his little girl embraced for the first time in almost a year at Boca Raton Elementary in Florida An Avionics Line Supervisor with Charlie Company of the 1,111th Florida National Guard, Sergeant Johnson has been serving in Iraq for the past ten months.

FEDERAL Labor MP Mike Kelly revealed yesterday how he had been forced to use a bayonet to "stick" enemy Somalis while serving with the Australian army. Defending himself against claims his 20-year career in the army was spent behind a desk, Mr Kelly said: "I actually had to use the bayonet. I did actually stick them - I don't know if it was life threatening - to ward them off." The parliamentary secretary for agriculture is in a war of words with his constituent, retired Air Vice-Marshal Peter Criss, and other veterans over military pensions, The Daily Telegraph reported. Prior...

Neither rain nor sleet nor Hurricane Irene will prevent soldiers from standing sentry at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery. Though most businesses, shops, and government offices will be closed, not even the hurricane expected to hit the Washington area this weekend—and its roughly 85-miles-per-hour winds—will keep the guards from their duty. “The tomb has been guarded continuously since 1948,” said Maj. John Miller, a spokesman for the Old Guard, the Army unit that patrols the place. “There’s been severe in the past. There will be severe weather in the future. We have contingency plans.” -snip- Tradition...

It's a surprise, at first, how comfortable Command Sgt. Maj. Jeffrey Mellinger and his boss, Gen. Ann Dunwoody, seem talking with each other in her office. But the respect between the soldiers is quickly obvious. And just as obvious is that the four-star leader of the Army Materiel Command is going to miss her top sergeant. Mellinger was drafted into the Army on April 18, 1972, and is believed to be the Army's last continuously serving enlisted draftee. After nearly 40 years in uniform, he is retiring this year. In a Change of Responsibility ceremony this morning at AMC's new...

Confederate soldier stands his groundBy: Danielle Battaglia Published: August 14, 2011 Despite the Reidsville Confederate Monument officially departing his post on Scales Street, another soldier is taking his place and standing up for what he believes is right. On Friday morning, Jamie Funkhouser, the confederate soldier who came to Reidsville in June to raise awareness for the city council meeting discussing the future of the monument, returned to bring awareness to the fact that the soldier will soon be moved. The Reidsville Monument stood at the intersection of Scales Street and West Morehead Street for 101 years until Mark Anthony...

A roadside bomb killed five American troops in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, the U.S. military said, less than a week after American forces suffered their worst single loss of the Afghan war when Taliban insurgents shot down a helicopter.

On August 10, 1905, Amos Rucker, an ex-Confederate soldier and proud member of the United Confederate Veterans, died in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Ministry of Defence is investigating claims that a soldier sliced fingers off dead Taliban fighters to keep as souvenirs.

Family seeks recognition for soldier slain in Ark.By: JEANNIE NUSS | Associated Press 07/26/11 4:36 PM Andy Long lies in a military cemetery in Arkansas, between a Persian Gulf veteran and a man who served in Korea. While the tombstones around him say where the soldiers served, the granite slab marking the 23-year-old's grave doesn't list a military campaign — at least, not one the Army recognizes. In the two years since Long was killed and another soldier was wounded outside a military recruiting station in Little Rock by a self-professed jihadist, their families have struggled to convince the military...

BAGHDAD -- A roadside bomb killed two U.S. soldiers Thursday outside the main American military base in Baghdad in what U.S. officials said appeared to be another attack by Shiite militias hoping to drive U.S. troops out of Iraq. The attack follows the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Iraq in two years. Fifteen U.S. soldiers died in June, nearly all in attacks by Shiite militias. ----- Thursday's bomb, which was detonated near a checkpoint outside Victory Base Camp, was a powerful armor-piercing explosive known as an EFP, according to two military officials with knowledge of the attack. EFPs typically...

This GI Joe wannabe got a hero's welcome just by dressing the part. A Long Island man was arrested for donning an Army uniform and brazenly posing as a soldier so he'd get bumped up to first class on a flight to JFK from the Dominican Republic, Port Authority cops have charged. Rock Diaz, 22, of Freeport, has a history of pretending to be a military man to get VIP treatment, cops said -- he once even smooth-talked his way into a jetliner's cockpit, where he was photographed sitting at the controls wearing a goofy grin. The mile-high huckster was...

First time I saw 10th Mountain Division, you guys were in southern Iraq. When I went back to visit Afghanistan, you guys were the first ones there. I had the great honor of seeing some of you because a comrade of yours, Jared Monti, was the first person who I was able to award the Medal of Honor to who actually came back and wasn’t receiving it posthumously." The problem is, Jared Monti was killed in action in Afghanistan, on June 21, 2006. He was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously, September 17, 2009. President Obama handed the framed medal...

The daughter of a prominent New York lawyer has told of her amazing transformation from sheltered, society girl to seasoned combat veteran. Former Manhattan jetsetter Jane Blair swapped her pampered life in New York to become one of the first women on the frontline in Iraq. In her new memoir Hesitation Kills, Mrs Blair, now a 38-year-old captain in the Marine Reserves, recalls the moment that changed her life. She said: 'I grew up in this environment where I never had to work for a living. My dad told me, "I will always take care of you".' She was in...

FORT HUACHUCA — A pair of Signal Corps soldiers were named the top soldier and noncommissioned officer for the Network Enterprise Technology Command/9th Signal Command (Army) Friday morning. And for one, Pfc. Jonathan Budnik — the command’s Solider of the Year — there were three surprises when his father, mother and grandmother showed up during the competition by coming to Arizona from Nevada. Named NCO of the Year was Sgt. Harold Stoker, who represented the 311 Signal Command (Theater) located at Fort Shafter, Hawaii. Maj. Gen. Jennifer Napper, who heads NETCOM/9th, her senior enlisted adviser Command Sgt. Maj. Gerald Williams...

In the single largest loss of life for the American military in Iraq in the past two years, five troops were killed in central Iraq, U.S. officials said.

Elvi Wood, centre, the widow of Sergeant Brett Wood, receives support at her late husband's funeral in Sydney yesterday, with Julia Gillard looking on. ON the day he was put to rest, Sergeant Brett Wood was revealed as one of the most extraordinary soldiers to have served under the Australian flag, a man who had fought so well in a string of battles just before his death that his bravery was recognised by the US commander of the NATO campaign in Afghanistan. ..... Sergeant Wood had served previously in Bougainville, East Timor and Iraq, and, finally, in Afghanistan. Ms Wood...

SALT LAKE CITY - As Hans Borbonus walked into the sculptor's studio, he got his first glimpse of his son's smile crafted in clay. "It does something to you," he said, visibly moved by the moment. When it is cast in bronze, the statue of the young American soldier killed in Baghdad will stand as a lasting memorial near his hometown of Boise.

A soldier praised for his courage in Afghanistan, which saw him awarded the Military Cross for bravery, is to present the FA Cup to the winning side. Cpl Mark Ward was chosen to present Saturday's prize to the winning captain because of his "inspirational leadership" as a section commander. A member of the Mercian Regiment, based in Catterick, North Yorks, he will be guest of honour at the Wembley final between Manchester City and Stoke City. He said he was "extremely proud". Among those who have previously presented the trophy are Prince William, the Queen, Winston Churchill and Sir Bobby...

'Wikileaks' soldier Bradley Manning moved to new prison The US soldier accused of leaking a trove of secret government documents later published by the Wikileaks website is to be moved to a military prison in Kansas, officials have said. Pte First Class Bradley Manning has been held pending court martial at a Marine Corps base in Virginia. His transfer comes amid international criticism of his treatment. His supporters say he has been confined to a cell for 23 hours a day and forced regularly to undress. Suspect's 'best interest' At a press conference at the Pentagon on Tuesday, defence department...

The town of Cass Lake embraced Elizabeth McKenzie last month when she arrived at the high school in her Army uniform for a welcome home ceremony. Though she isn't a tribal member, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Honor Guard gave her a blanket and an eagle feather to honor her as a woman warrior for her service in Afghanistan. There was a tribal drum ceremony and a reception line. Accepting the town's gratitude, McKenzie talked about the close calls she'd had and a war injury that brought her home. She led the march in the high school gym, carrying...

It took him 400 rounds, 17 grenades, and a machine gun tripod used as a weapon, but one British Gurkha soldier single-handedly beat back an attack by 30 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan last summer. And now he‘s getting one of his military’s highest honors: Sergeant Dipprasad Pun, a 31-year-old from Bima in western Nepa and part of the Gurkha regiment serving the British Military, is receiving the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for bravery. It’s well deserved. According to his superiors, Pun’s fearsom fighting is responsible for saving the lives of at least three other soldiers. Yesterday, he explained his unbelievable battle...

Judge says Muhammad fit for trial in soldier deathUpdated: 3/15 6:00 pm LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A Pulaski County circuit judge's declaration that Abdulhakim Muhammad is fit to stand trial has cleared the way for his trial to begin July 18 on charges stemming from the fatal shooting of a soldier at a Little Rock recruiting station, and the wounding of another man. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that Judge Herb Wright pronounced Muhammad fit for trial Tuesday after Muhammad defense attorney Claiborne Ferguson said he would not challenge a state examination that ruled the defendant fit. Muhammad, a Muslim...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Authorities say an Alaska-based soldier told police a fellow soldier asked for a bullet to put in a gun's empty chamber before he fatally shot himself during a drunken game of Russian roulette. Jacob Brouch is charged with second-degree murder in the death of his 26-year-old Army friend -- Michael McCloskey of Beverly, N.J. -- following the early Sunday shooting at Brouch's home in Eagle River, an Anchorage suburb.

A military policeman from Rosemount has died in an attack in Afghanistan. The Department of Defense says Spc. Andrew C. Wilfahrt died Sunday when insurgents attacked his unit in Kandahar province using a homemade bomb. The 31-year-old Wilfahrt was assigned to a military police battalion based in Hawaii. He enlisted in the Army in January 2009 and was deployed to Afghanistan last July. Principal John Wollersheim says Wilfahrt graduated from Rosemount High School in 1997.

WOODBURY, Tenn. - A military mom said she would do anything to answer her son's phone call from overseas, no matter what the cost. Some seven months ago, Lance Corporal Mark Rhyne left the little town of Woodbury, for the remote deserts of Afghanistan. "I told my son the day he deployed as he was about to get on that bus, 'I will stand in your steed while you are gone, I will stand,'" his mother Teresa Danford said. On Monday, while working inside the Crane Interiors factory, Teresa Danford said she kept her word. Mark called from Afghanistan, using...

Britain's military has apologized for using e-mails to tell dozens of long-serving soldiers that they were being laid-off. The army says an "administrative error" meant the soldiers were not told in person that their contracts would be ended. British media reported that the soldiers were 38 warrant officers with more than 20 years' service each. The Sun newspaper reported that the group put in a total of 836 years' service and includes a member of the Royal Tank Regiment who is currently serving in Afghanistan. (snip) According to reports, up to 100 trainee pilots will be dismissed by the Royal...

Whoa...holy cow! Every once in a while someone in the world comes along and reminds us what a true hero really looks like. A 35 year-old Gurkha soldier named Bishnu Shrestha was riding a train when he suddenly found himself in the middle of a massive robbery. 40 men armed with knives, swords and guns stormed the train and began robbing the passengers. Bishnu kept his peace while the gang snatched cell phones, jewelry and cash from other riders. But then, the thugs grabbed the 18 year-old girl sitting next to him and forcefully stripped her naked. Before the bandits...

An iPhone app that tracks down the Taliban has been developed by a US soldier who put $26,000 of his own money into the project. The idea for a smartphone application to assist soldiers in combat came to Captain Jonathan J. Springer in a dream last July. The 31-year-old, from Fort Wayne, Indiana, has worked with programmers ever since to make the idea a reality. Tactical Nav, which is expected to be available through Apple’s App Store next month, assists soldiers in mapping, plotting and photographing waypoints on a battleground and conveying coordinates to supporting units.

PFC Lawrence is accused of premeditated murder for the alleged shooting of Mullah Muhibullah on Oct. 17 while guarding him in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. Mullah Muhibullah was a senior Taliban commander and had been captured by U.S. forces the day before his death. Muhibullah's death was announced by an angry Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Oct. 19. Formal charges were filed against PFC Lawrence the same day, Oct. 19.

XEROX IS DOING SOMETHING COOL If you go to this web site, http://www.letssaythanks.com/ You can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq. You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to a member of the armed services. How AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send one!!! It is FREE and it only takes a second. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the soldiers received a bunch of these? Come on Freepers - Our soldiers...

A shocking new Taliban video shows an apparently bruised U.S. soldier who has been held prisoner in Afghanistan for 18 months under the threat of being beheaded. Spc. Bowe Bergdahl, 24, appears thin with a wound on his left cheek. He is seen standing next to Taliban commander Mullah Sangreen Zadran, who has previously claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and has threatened to execute him. (Snip) Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, was captured by the militant group on June 30, 2009 in Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan.

My sister-in-law's son (our nephew) is in the Army and we just found out he's coming home for Christmas. She usually does Santa-themed decorations for her porch but the picture below is this year's...

McALESTER, Okla. — Members of a Kansas church that protests at military funerals may have found themselves in the wrong town over the weekend. Shortly after finishing their protest at the funeral of Army Sgt. Jason James McCluskey of McAlester, a half-dozen protesters from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., headed to their minivan Saturday, only to discover that its front and rear passenger-side tires had been slashed. To make matters worse, as their minivan slowly hobbled away on two flat tires, with a McAlester police car following behind, the protesters were unable to find anyone in town who would...

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A soldier from the U.S.-trained Afghan army apparently turned his weapon on American troops in volatile southern Afghanistan, killing at least two U.S. soldiers, NATO officials said Saturday. The incident is the latest that calls into question the allegiances of at least some members of the Afghan security forces, which the Obama administration hopes will be the key to an eventual withdrawal of roughly 100,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan. A NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the matter is still under investigation, said the shootings took place late Thursday in southern Helmand province. The area...

A Family Research Council analysis of publicly available documents—the Pentagon’s own report on sexual assault in the military for Fiscal Year 2009, and published decisions from military courts of appeals over the last decade and a half—have shown that there is already a significant problem of homosexual misconduct in the military. This problem can only become worse if the current law is repealed and homosexuals are openly welcomed (and even granted special protections) within the military, as homosexual activists are demanding. Rates of Homosexual Assault in the Military Are Disproportionately High Homosexual activist groups themselves have admitted that less than...

WILLMAR, Minn. (AP) -- The body of a Minnesota soldier killed in Afghanistan is coming home. The body of Army Pfc. Ryane Clark is scheduled to arrive at 12:30 p.m. Thursday at Willmar Municipal Airport. The West Central Tribune reports a procession escorting Clark's body will leave the airport about 1 p.m. and travel through Willmar and Spicer on its way to his hometown of New London. Clark died last week after his unit was attacked by insurgents. The 22-year-old was based at Fort Bragg, N.C., and had been in Afghanistan since December. His funeral is at 2 p.m. Sunday...

In 2005 Petty Officer First Class David Goggins’ life took a tragic turn. Several of his fellow U.S. Navy SEAL(s) were killed in a helicopter crash during a mission in Afghanistan. To honor them, Goggins vowed to raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which gives college scholarships and grants to the children of fallen special operations soldiers. Goggins rationalized that to raise money, he would have to do something extreme, something phenomenal— something incredibly painful. He decided to race ultramarathons when he Googled the 10 most difficult feats in the world. First on the list was the Badwater...