President Donald Trump signed an expansion of veterans education benefits Wednesday, boosting aid by $3 billion over the next 10 years and extending assistance to some veterans and dependents who didn’t qualify.
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The Warrior Caste
America increasingly relies on a small group of multigenerational military families to fight its wars. That’s a problem.
When the new White House chief of staff, then a Marine general, John Kelly received a knock on the door in November 2010, he became the highest-ranking military officer to lose a child in combat. In addition to his son Robert, killed by a landmine in Afghanistan in 2010, his other son is also an active-duty Marine. The Kellys’ legacy of service is not unusual among military families. This type of lineage has led to generations of flag officers, fathers and sons who reunite while deployed, and families who bear the loss of a war America has forgotten we are fighting.
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‘We are at war and people don’t even know’: Inside the divide between the military and the rest of America that’s wider than it’s ever been
A little more than a year after she married, Tiffany Smiley walked into a hospital room to tell her husband he was blind.
A car bomb in Mosul, Iraq, had sent shrapnel into Army Maj. Scott Smiley’s eyes as he was serving as an infantry platoon leader and ultimately led him to this bed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He had been deployed six months — six months that Tiffany endured catching glimpses of him in reports from an embedded Fox News journalist. She’d watch and wonder what reality she’d fallen into as explosions boomed in the background of the shots.
When she wasn’t watching the news, Tiffany was working as a nurse. But as she went about life in the US, it felt like no one else was paying attention.
“At the time, I was shocked,” she told Business Insider. “We are at war — and people don’t even know or care.”
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Vietnam Veteran Welcome Home Ceremony
All Vietnam Veterans are encouraged and welcomed to attend the Vietnam Veterans Welcome Home Ceremony. They can RSVP up to the day before the event.
Brochure CLICK HERE
On behalf of Maj. Gen. Joseph Martin, commanding general of the 1st Infantry
Division and Fort Riley, I’d like to inquire about the possibility of your
support to help promote the upcoming Vietnam Veterans Welcome Home Ceremony at Fort Riley, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017.
Division and Fort Riley, I’d like to inquire about the possibility of your
support to help promote the upcoming Vietnam Veterans Welcome Home Ceremony at Fort Riley, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017.
As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of our division, the service and sacrifice of those who fought in Vietnam continues to weigh heavily on our minds. We know these veterans did not receive the welcome home they deserved and many were never thanked for their service. We want to provide that opportunity to them with this event. I have attached a flyer that contains all the information, including an RSVP email address. As part of the ceremony, the Big Red One has plans to provide each veteran with a token of appreciation.
We understand many individuals may be unable to travel due to health reasons or distance, and in some cases, many of those veterans are no longer with us. In lieu of those individuals who cannot be here, this event is open to
family, friends and supporters as well.
Finally, if any Vietnam veterans have previously attended one of these
events, they are more than welcome to attend again – we encourage it. And it
doesn’t matter if their branch of service or if they served with the Big Red
One. All are welcome.
Military Cyber Operations to Be Revamped After Long Delay
After months of delay, the Trump administration is finalizing plans to revamp the nation’s military command for defensive and offensive cyber operations, in hopes of intensifying America’s ability to wage cyberwar against the Islamic State group and other foes, according to U.S. officials.
Under the plans, the U.S. Cyber Command would eventually be split off from the intelligence-focused National Security Agency.
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Let’s Turn America’s Military-Industrial Complex Into A Science-Industrial Complex
Many Americans subscribe to the annoying belief that our nation’s military-industrial complex is the surest way to remain the wealthiest and leading superpower in the world. After all, it’s worked for the last century, pro-military supporters love to point out.
However, America’s dependence on warmongering may soon become a liability that is impossible to maintain. Transhumanism, globalization, and outright replacement of human soldiers with robots are redefining the country’s military requirements, and they may eventually render defense budgets far smaller than those now. To compensate and keep America spending approximately 20 percent of the federal budget on defense (as we have for most of the last few years), we’ll either have to manufacture wars to use all our newly-made bombs, or find another way to keep the American economy afloat.
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Military modernization essential to national security
In America, we are the land of the free because of the brave. Yet for too long, inadequate defense spending has failed our military, impeding their ability to deter, defend and preserve our way of life.
After eight long years of shortsighted defense spending policies, I’m glad that President Trump and Congress are working to reinvigorate support of our men and women in uniform.
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‘We Own the Night’: The Rise And Fall Of The US Military’s Night-Vision Dominance
The sky was moonless on the night of May 1, 2011, as two MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters flew toward a walled compound in an upscale enclave of Abbottabad, Pakistan. A power outage further drenched the city in blackness.
To the 23 Navy SEALs fast-roping to the ground, the conditions could not have been better. Under the cover of darkness, they crept toward the home of the world’s most wanted man and stormed inside.
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Emergency funding for a veterans health care program
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., introduced legislation Tuesday to provide emergency funding for a veterans health care program that is expected to run out of money in early August.
Tester, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., the committee chairman, called the funding shortfall a crisis during a hearing on veterans health and Tester introduced the “Veterans Access to Care Act of 2017,” which would provide $4.3 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs to fund the Veterans Choice Program through Sept. 30, 2018, the end of the next fiscal year.
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Chinese naval exercises highlight military presence abroad
A number of naval exercises around the world are bringing attention to a more proactive Chinese foreign policy, specifically with regard to its expanding military presence.
While transiting through the Mediterranean Sea this week, a group of Chinese warships conducted live fire drills. The flotilla of vessels includes two missile frigates and a logistics ship, which are en route to a joint naval training exercise with the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea. Dubbed “Joint Sea 2017,” the event is designed to improve coordination between the two navies for “joint defense operations at sea.”
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