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(Tribune News Service) — A massive brawl broke out on a parade ground at Fort Gordon in Augusta one afternoon last fall, when about 70 teenage recruits of the Georgia National Guard’s Youth Challenge Academy slugged it out. Some used homemade weapons, including metal shanks, crudely sharpened toothbrushes and tube socks filled with metal padlocks. Overwhelmed, the academy’s staff — most former military drill instructors — called for help, summoning the military police to break it up and ambulances to treat the injured. Two boys were taken to the hospital, one with a concussion, the other with bruised ribs. Others...

A former National Security Agency contractor jailed for leaking a document about Russian hacking in the 2016 election has spoken out about her experiences, insisting that she is "not a traitor." Reality Winner, now 30, was arrested in 2017 and admitted to taking classified intelligence documents that same year. She was accused of mailing top-secret NSA information to the media outlet The Intercept. The classified document detailed Russian government efforts to hack a Florida-based US voting software supplier. In 2018, Winner was sentenced to more than five years in prison. She was released in June 2021 for good behavior. Speaking...

KWTX) - Federal agents on Thursday raided three churches near military installations across the Southern U.S., including the Assembly of Prayer Christian Church in Killeen. “I can confirm the FBI was executing court authorized law enforcement activity today in the vicinity of the intersection of Massey St. and E. Rancier Ave., in Killeen, Texas. No additional information will be released at this time,” FBI Special Agent Carmen Portillo said in an emailed statement to KWTX.

Faulk says he and others in his section of the NSA facility at Fort Gordon routinely shared salacious or tantalizing phone calls that had been intercepted, alerting office mates to certain time codes of "cuts" that were available on each operator's computer. "Hey, check this out," Faulk says he would be told, "there's good phone sex or there's some pillow talk, pull up this call, it's really funny, go check it out. It would be some colonel making pillow talk and we would say, 'Wow, this was crazy'," Faulk told ABC News. Faulk said he joined in to listen, and...

The 25-year-old woman who stole “Top Secret” documents from the National Security Agency and leaked them to The Intercept appears to be a supporter of Bernie Sanders and other progressive icons, such as Bill Maher and Michael Moore. Reality Leigh Winner’s apparent social media footprint also shows that she is a supporter of other liberal causes, including the Women’s March and the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim civil rights group. She also recently referred to President Trump as a “piece of shit” because of his position on the Dakota Access Pipeline From Facebook You have got to be...

For nearly two decades, the U.S. Army has provided an honor guard for an Independence Day celebration at a Baptist church that predates the founding of the nation. But this year – that tradition has come to an end. Officials at Fort Gordon say they will not be able to send an honor guard to a July 5th service at Abilene Baptist Church because it violates a military policy banning any involvement in a religious service.  -snip So what changed? Fort Gordon’s Public Affairs Office pointed me to Army Regulation 360-1 – dated May 2011.  The lengthy regulation states Army participation must...

Authorities say a man was arrested after explosives were found in a vehicle on an Army base in Georgia and the FBI is investigating. A spokesman for Fort Gordon near Augusta said Wednesday military authorities are not treating the case as a terrorist threat.

The US government eavesdropped on Tony Blair while he was British prime minister, according to claims made by a former employee of the National Security Agency. ABC News on Monday reported that the NSA had eavesdropped on Mr Blair and Ghazi al-Yawer, the first Iraqi president following the 2003 invasion. The White House did not respond to inquiries. Making the allegations to ABC, David Faulk, a former NSA Arabic linguist who worked for the spy agency at Fort Gordon, Georgia, claimed to have had access to a top secret database called “Anchory” in 2006 that included personal details about Mr...

The U.S. Army said Friday it will immediately repair barracks at eight facilities in the wake of inspection at bases worldwide. The inspections were done the last week of April and covered nearly 150,000 barracks rooms. They found that 45 repairs needed priority attention, including new heating and cooling equipment, repainting, mold removal and other work. Army Secretary Pete Geren has said that $248 million in emergency funds has been appropriated to fix problems found during the inspections. The Army on Friday identified eight installations that will get priority attention: Fort Polk, La.; Fort Gordon, Ga.; Fort Bragg, N.C.; Fort...

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Sept. 2, 2005) – Thousands of National Guard and active-duty Soldiers from across the nation are deploying to the Gulf coast to help with Hurricane Katrina recovery operations. Troops from the 1st Cavalry Division and 4th Infantry Division based out of Fort Hood, Texas, are now part of Joint Task Force Katrina, headquartered at Camp Shelby, Miss. Helicopters and crews from Hood’s 1st Air Cavalry Brigade are the lead air element of the task force. More than 19,500 National Guard Soldiers were on duty to assist with the hurricane recovery in Louisiana and Mississippi as of...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Army News Service, August 4, 2005) – The first round of Military Idol competition began this week on U.S. Army installations around the world. The program, a takeoff of FOX Television’s “American Idol,” will determine which Soldier is the inaugural Military Idol after a final week of singing competition Oct. 17 through 23 at Fort Gordon, Ga. To reach the finals, Soldier-vocalists must first win a competition on one of 36 installations. Depending on the number of local competitors, that process could take from one to eight weeks. The Military Idol program is the brainchild of Coleen Amstein,...