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08 Nov 2011 23:17

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U.S.: Air Force officials disciplined over handling of dead soldiers’ remains

  • A missing ankle bone. Some missing tissue. A sawed-off arm. War is an ugly thing, and the death of a soldier is certainly one of the more difficult things to put into a pretty package. But three employees at the Dover, Delaware Air Force base found out that “close enough” isn’t good enough when it’s someone’s life in the package. They got reprimanded (but not fired) for the mishandling of the soldiers’ remains, leading to some shocking and gruesome details getting out to the press. As this is a sensitive issue, the Air Force is working to ensure this won’t happen again. “We and every employee of the Dover Port Mortuary understand the obligations of this work, the sanctity of this work, the necessity, the need for reverence, the need for dignity and respect for our fallen, just as if these were our sons and our daughters,” noted Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, the chief of staff for the Air Force. source

26 Sep 2011 21:19

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U.S.: U.S. Army cutting nearly 9 percent of its forces by 2016

  • 50k number of troops the U.S. Army plans to trim from its roster
  • 8.6% the share of the Army being cut over the next five years
  • 22k number of soldiers getting cut in the first round source
  • » Going on a diet: With over half a million soldiers, the U.S. Army isn’t lacking in warm bodies, but those numbers went way up in recent years, in part due to the troop surge in Afghanistan. With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan winding down, the Army is ready to move on. “We feel that with the demand going down in Iraq and Afghanistan, and given the time to conduct a reasonable drawdown, we can manage (the force reduction) just as we have managed drawdowns in the past,” noted Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick. Is this nearly enough?

27 May 2011 13:22

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U.S.: Army’s abandoned weapons programs pretty darn ¢O$tly

Since 1995, the U.S. Army has spent $32 billion on military programs (like the Comanche helicopter, shown) it later abandoned. Why? With defense, supply is expensive and demand is unknown. source

21 Dec 2010 11:21

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World: He said, The NYT said: Will Afghan War ground raids reach Pakistan?

  • yeah … The New York Times reported that the U.S. military was looking into expand their Afghan ground raids into tribal areas of Pakistan for purposes of expanding intelligence. The article notes that the U.S. has until now used drones in Pakistan out of fears of a backlash from the Pakistani government.
  • … but NATO denies this, with one commander saying this: “There is absolutely no truth to reporting in The New York Times that US forces are planning to conduct ground operations into Pakistan.” Who’s lying here? Did Jayson Blair write that Times article? Or does NATO not want that info public? source

30 Nov 2010 22:12

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U.S.: Most soldiers OK with gays openly serving, but many aren’t

  • 30% of military think gay soldiers will make it harder to work
  • 43% of Marines think that openly gay soldiers could be a distraction
  • 48% of Army combat units think it’ll have a negative effect on their job
  • 58% of Marine combat units feel the same way about the thang source