By Debbie Gregory. On December 23rd, the family of soldiers at Fort Hood lost a beloved supporter. For the last 12 years, Elizabeth Laird, lovingly known as the Fort Hood Hug Lady, physically embraced hundreds of thousands of Fort Hood soldiers. More often than not, her hug was the last one soldiers received before boarding […]
By Debbie Gregory. According to a RAND survey, many of the men in the U.S. military’s most dangerous jobs feel that women have no place on their special forces teams. In blunt answers to the voluntary survey, more than 7,600 special operations forces said, almost unanimously, that allowing women to serve in Navy SEAL, Army […]
By Debbie Gregory. Photos of Army Spc. Andrew Brown and his canine companion, Rocky, recovering side by side after they were injured in Afghanistan, have gone viral. The photos were posted by the 89th Military Police Brigade on Facebook. The picture of the military K-9, injured in a bomb explosion, shows Rocky wearing a Purple […]
By Debbie Gregory. Could cyberattacks against the Islamic State be the way to fight the extremists? The Pentagon is considering increasing efforts to disable the extremist group’s computers, servers and cellphones to disrupt potential terrorist attacks. Military hackers and coders at Cyber Command have developed malware that some officials say are capable of sabotaging the […]
By Debbie Gregory. According to the Pentagon, the Defense Department spent more than $5 billion on operations related to the Islamic State (IS or ISIS) in Iraq and Syria. This averages out to approximately $11 million a day from September 2014 though the end November, 2015. Even though the conflict in Afghanistan is winding down, over $35 […]
By Debbie Gregory. A two-star admiral who got drunk and wandered naked around a Florida hotel while attending a conference has been found guilty of disorderly conduct and conduct unbecoming an officer. Rear Adm. David F. Baucom, the director of strategy and policy at the U.S. Transportation Command, became so intoxicated at an upscale beachfront […]
By Debbie Gregory. The mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, proudly announced that his city has been selected as an official Fleet Week market. The Port of Los Angeles will host L.A. Fleet Week, in which active military ships will be on public display, culminating on 2016’s Labor Day holiday. “As a Navy reservist representing […]
By Debbie Gregory. When she was growing up in the Philippines, Air Force Reserve Senior Airman Anne Venice Jalos never envisioned that one day she would be serving in the U.S. military. She also never thought that the military service would lead to her becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen. But soon after graduating high school, […]
By Debbie Gregory. A new Defense Department study has found that stimulants used to keep service members alert during long stretches of combat may increase the chances of suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD.) A review of data from 25,971 service members found that those with prescriptions for drugs such as Adderall and Ritalin were […]
By Debbie Gregory. Lt. Gen. Timothy J. Kadavy, the Army National Guard director, has contemplated whether 39 days a year for training and drill is enough for the Guard Soldiers. His conclusion? More training is needed. To that end, the U.S. Army’s top officer is planning to more than double the number of required annual […]
