MetaFilter posts tagged with usa and military

"Never, ever let anybody use your gender as an excuse."

zarq — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:55:06 -0800

"Women get flustered under fire. They're too fragile, too emotional. They lack the ferocity required to take a life. They can't handle pain. They're a distraction, a threat to cohesion, a provocative tease to close-quartered men. These are the sort of myths you hear from people who oppose the U.S. military's evolving new rules about women in combat. But for women who have already been in combat, who have earned medals fighting alongside men, the war stories they tell don't sound a thing like myths" Multi-page link to the article. Additional Feature * Women of the 101st Airborne Division: "As part of Nathaniel Penn's "Natural Born Killers"—an oral history documenting the experiences of American female soldiers on the field that marks the official lifting of the U.S. military ban on women in combat roles—in the May issue of GQ, we spoke to a group of female servicewomen currently stationed in Fort Campbell, K.Y. as they prepare for deployment to Afghanistan this spring. These soldiers were assigned to the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division roughly a year ago as part the Women in The Service Review program. The program first introduced women to historically male-held roles in combat arms battalions—an experiment, in part, to make sure that they could handle it. Mission accomplished. Here, five of them talk to us about past deployments, navigating expectations, and their changing roles in the Army."
Video * "Natural Born Killers: Battle Tested" * "Natural Born Killers: Battle Ready, Women of the 101st Airborne"

"As the hymn says, you can lay your burden down."

zarq — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:36:49 -0800

The Things They Leave Behind. "When the Vietnam Veterans Memorial opened 30 years ago, something unexpected happened: People started leaving things at the wall. One veteran has spent decades cataloging the letters, mementos, and other artifacts of loss — all 400,000 of them." (Via.) Website: The National Park Service Museum Resource Center. CSPAN Video: "Bob Sonderman, director of the Museum Resource Center, gave a tour of the football field-sized warehouse which houses roughly 2.5 million archaeological objects from National Park locations in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia." (2/11)

The Minerva Controversy

infini — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 05:03:22 -0800

The Department of Defense recently announced the creation of the Minerva Research Initiative (PDF), also known as Project Minerva, providing as much as $75 million over five years to support social science research on areas of strategic importance to U.S. national security policy. The initiative indicates a renewal of interest in social science findings after a prolonged period of neglect, but it also prompts concerns about the appropriate relationship between university-based research programs and the state, especially when research might become a tool of not only governance but also military violence. The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) has invited prominent scholars to speak to the questions raised by Project Minerva and to address the controversy it has sparked in academic quarters.

Persistence prays

infini — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 02:41:42 -0800

Chagos Islanders Lose the European Court Battle but the Struggle Continues Former residents of the Chagos Islands have lost their latest legal bid for the right to return following a European ruling. What next for the islanders? James Wan recaps the decades long struggle and the implications of the latest ruling on the fate of the former residents of Diego Garcia. Previously in 2002, 2003 2006 and some archives.

“I used to take them at their word. I can’t do that anymore.”

zarq — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:05:05 -0800

824,273 disabled veterans are currently awaiting a response on claims from the US Department of Veterans Affairs. On average, it takes the government 257 days to respond, and there has been a 7.2% growth in claims over the last 1.3 years -- so the delays are growing. While they wait, veterans often cannot access health care from the agency or receive disability compensation. Plus, the backlog on claim appeals is at least 3.5 years. So how can veterans avoid the backlog? A special investigation by the Bay Area Citizen shows that processing speed is a matter of geographic location: veterans in sparsely populated areas have their claims filled faster than those living in urban centers. Interactive Map: Where is Worst Backlog? Related video and transcript.

"Captains Courageous"

the man of twists and turns — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 01:54:37 -0800

'While they never met, they had some things in common. Both were Army captains, engaged in important work for the nation, their costly educations paid for by U.S. taxpayers. Ian Morrison, 26, returned to Fort Hood, Texas, last December after nine months flying 70 combat missions over Iraq. Dr. Michael McCaddon, 37, was an ob-gyn resident at Hawaii’s Tripler Army Medical Center. The pilot and the doctor shared one other thing: they found themselves in a darkening, soul-sucking funnel that has trapped some 2,500 military personnel since 9/11. Like them, each died, at his own hand, on March 21, nearly 4,000 miles apart.' 'As of 3 June, 2012 active-duty suicides reached 154, compared with 130 in the same period last year, the Pentagon confirmed to the BBC.' 'Suicides Outpacing War Deaths for Troops.' Suicide in the US military has been growing for years - CBS(Youtube) did a report in 2007. There are two parts. Anthony Swofford(previously) characterizes them as an 'epidemic'.

One reason for veteran suicides (and crimes, which get far more attention) may be post-traumatic stress disorder, along with a related condition, traumatic brain injury. Ryan suffered a concussion in an explosion in Iraq, and Michael finally had traumatic brain injury diagnosed two months ago.

Death isn't the only thing that follows them: 'It would be so much easier, Maj. Ben Richards says, if he had just lost a leg in Iraq' 'Beyond the Battlefield: From a Decade of War, an Endless Struggle for the Severely Wounded.' 'Mad, Bad, Sad: What Really Happens to US Soldiers.' IED blasts are blamed for the increase in PTSD and TBI (traumatic brain injury), a contributing factor, while military culture can prevent people from seeking help. Is PTSD A Product of War, or Of Our Times? Attempts to identify people susceptible to PTSD are underway, while new treatments become available. The government needs to do a better job of assessing and reviewing PTSD treatment. This is made more difficult with the counter-intuitive warning signs of suicide. Previously on Metafilter: The Downward Spiral

Ensign Flipper? Dolphins in the U.S. Navy

blob — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 20:50:21 -0800

The U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program has been training the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and the California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) in mine and swimmer detection for many years. (The program was declassified in the 1990s.) Military dolphins were used in the first and second Gulf Wars, and there are rumors they are deployed in the Gulf today. These animals could be important if Iran blockades the Hormuz Strait as threatened.

“All the weaker people have left. Now I’m the weakest one left.”

zarq — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 15:59:17 -0800

US Army Pvt. Danny Chen, 1992–2011

"It begins with a knock at the door."

zarq — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 09:16:50 -0800

Final Salute. Between 2004 and 2005, "Rocky Mountain News reporter Jim Sheeler and photographer Todd Heisler spent a year with the Marines stationed at Aurora's Buckley Air Force Base who have found themselves called upon to notify families of the deaths of their sons in Iraq. In each case in this story, the families agreed to let Sheeler and Heisler chronicle their loss and grief. They wanted people to know their sons, the men and women who brought them home, and the bond of traditions more than 200 years old that unite them. Though readers are led through the story by the white-gloved hand of Maj. Steve Beck, he remains a reluctant hero. He is, he insists, only a small part of the massive mosaic that is the Marine Corps." The full story ran on Veteran's Day, 2005 and won two Pulitzer Prizes: one for Feature Photography, another for feature writing in 2006. A nice single-page version of one section: Katherine Cathey and 2nd Lt. James J. Cathey (via.) The Rocky Mountain News closed in 2009. The entire story, as it appeared in the paper's magazine section, can be downloaded here as a pdf. Slideshow: The night before the burial of her husband's body, Katherine Cathey refused to leave the casket, asking to sleep next to his body for the last time. The Marines made a bed for her, tucking in the sheets below the flag. Before she fell asleep, she opened her laptop computer and played songs that reminded her of "Cat," and one of the Marines asked if she wanted them to continue standing watch as she slept. "I think it would be kind of nice if you kept doing it," she said. "I think that's what he would have wanted."

Who Watches The Robots?

The Whelk — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 15:06:21 -0800

Wired Magazine: Mystery virus hits U.S drone fleet

Chrysler Blue from World War II

zarq — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:44:14 -0800

"Tanks Are Mighty Fine Things!" And Other Tales Of Truthiness... At the end of World War II, Chrysler sent small hardbound books to shareholders chronicling ways the company had contributed to the war effort. Two have now been placed online at the Chrysler Imperial Club's website: "Tanks are Mighty Fine Things" and "A War Job 'Thought Impossible' (The story of the Chrysler-Sperry Gyro-Compass)" (Via) Additional Chrysler publications from the same time period: * Radar: The Great Detective * Great Engines and Great Planes * Secret: Chrysler's Contribution to the Atomic Bomb * Engineering: Mobilized * Bullets by the Billion For more, Imperial has an extensive literature archive that includes a section for ads, brochures and Chrysler Imperial owners' manuals, broken down by year.

Send Congress To Boot Camp

reenum — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 09:44:08 -0800

Lt. Gen. Russell Honore has a solution to the increasing splintering and radicalization of Congress: send all the members of Congress to boot camp and keep them there until they recognize their duty to America.

"The Third Way of COIN: Defeating the Taliban in Sangin"

zarq — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 08:52:12 -0800

100 Firefights, Three Weeks: Inside Afghanistan's Most Insane Fight "In its first three weeks in Afghanistan’s Sangin district, the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines got into more than 100 firefights and sustained 62 casualties. The insurgents managed to negate the Marines’ night-vision gear, and rendered their traditional close-combat tactics useless. Things got so bad, the 3/5’s superior officers even suggested pulling their troops back. That didn’t happen. Instead, the 3/5 went after the militants, hard. When the 3/5 came home, they told counterinsurgency historian Mark Moyar all about their deeply unconventional approach to what was already an unconventional war."
This is an excerpt in Wired of Moyar’s 74-page after action report. (pdf) The Military Times' Battle Rattle blog has posted somewhat extensively on Sangin. The Guardian embedded a reporter with British paratroopers fighting in Sangin back in 2006. More.

DADT stands.

jaduncan — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 01:58:19 -0800

Cloture to force a vote on the fiscal 2011 defense authorization bill has not been achieved. DADT will stand. Chances are not better in a possibly more Republican Senate post-November, and the bill is unlikely to pass before then. Republican voters against cloture: Every single senator; Democratic voters against cloture: Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor.

Trying to "out-terrorize the terrorists"

jjoye — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:21:08 -0800

Soldiers involved in the "Collateral Murder" video have come forward to tell their story. Previously.

Inside Mind Control

gman — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:13:36 -0800

More than 30 years after it was written, the Pentagon has released a memorandum detailing its involvement in the CIA’s infamous Cold War mind-control experiments. The entire document, as linked to in the article, is available as a pdf.

"...to pursue the day when these weapons do not exist..."

zarq — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:18:26 -0800

"There is no conventional or chemical or biological threat out there that we cannot counter with our overwhelming conventional forces." ~ US President Barack Obama The US 2010 Nuclear Posture Review Report (NPR) has been announced. (pdf) For the first time, the United States is explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons except in "extreme circumstances", pledging not to develop new ones and limiting the use of those in storage -- even for self defense. Nuclear weapons will not be used against non-nuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, even in response to a hypothetical biological or chemical weapons attack, or a crippling cyberattack. The new focus will be deterrence. Full text of President Obama's statement. This news comes just a week after the announcement of a new post-cold war strategic arms agreement which will be signed on Thursday (April 8th) between US President Obama and Russian President Medvedev. "Both countries have agreed to reduce strategic nuclear weapons by almost one-third and halve the number of delivery vehicles, such as missiles and bombers." Spencer Ackerman: The Nuclear Posture Review as Assertive Multilateralism The NPR doesn't quite fulfill Obama's stated goal during his campaign of a nuke-free world. But it's a step in that direction. Background on the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review An issue brief via an "In Focus" page from the Nuclear Threat Initiative. AtlanticWire: Evaluating Obama's Revolutionary Nuke Plan The announcement is not sitting well with right-wing bloggers.

"Are we in the midst of a coup?"

homunculus — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:50:14 -0800

2009: A True Story. "My name is Sara Ford and I am 18 years old. I moved to California at the end of last year. Before the first attacks... before everything changed." [Via] On YouTube: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10, Episode 11, Episode 12, Episode 13. NSFW.

An Inconvenient Audit

Kadin2048 — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:49:58 -0800

The Pentagon's $1 Trillion Problem. Even as the Defense Department prepares to send Congress its $481.4B FY2008 budget request, it also prepares to admit -- for the 18th year in a row -- that its finances are in such poor shape that it is effectively impossible to audit or account for over a trillion dollars in past expenses. "For the first three quarters of 2007, $1.1 trillion in Army accounting entries hadn't been properly reviewed and substantiated, according to the Department of Defense's inspector general. In 2006, $258.2 billion of recorded withdrawals and payments from the Army's main account were unsupported. It's as if the Army had submitted multibillion-dollar expense reports without any receipts." Not that it's a new problem, however: "In 1990, Congress enacted legislation requiring all federal agencies to pass independent audits. Every year, the Defense inspector general dispatched dozens of auditors to the military's financial and accounting centers. Every year, they reported back that the job couldn't be done. Defense Department records were in such disarray and were so lacking in documentation that any attempt would be futile. In 2000, the inspector general told Congress that his auditors stopped counting after finding $2.3 trillion in unsupported entries made to force financial data to agree." Annual audits were suspended indefinitely in 2002. And in an interesting historical note: the 'Mechanization of Contract Administration Services' (MOCAS) system, which "pays invoices and vouchers for hardware supplies and services"*, was originally brought on-line in 1958, making it half a century old this year.

Video of USA193 satellite being shot down

6am — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:34:10 -0800

A video has been posted showing the shooting down of satellite USA193 high over the Pacific! Extra wicked photos. The pricey missile used. How to keep an eye out for flaming debris...

Rape within the US military.

Sticherbeast — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 04:31:01 -0800

The private war of women soldiers. "Last year, Col. Janis Karpinski caused a stir by publicly reporting that in 2003, three female soldiers had died of dehydration in Iraq, which can get up to 126 degrees in the summer, because they refused to drink liquids late in the day. They were afraid of being raped by male soldiers if they walked to the latrines after dark."

Who do the troops support?

lazaruslong — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 14:01:51 -0800

US Military Papers open fire on Rummy. Tomorrow, the Army Times -- and all other Military Times papers, including Navy and Air Force Times -- will run an editorial calling for Donald Rumsfeld to tender his resignation or be fired, due to his gross incompetence in handling the Iraq quagmire.

The album's title is taken from a line by the poet Apollinaire

amberglow — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 15:32:23 -0800

So Much Fire To Roast Human Flesh from Arthur Magazine--an 18-track, multi-artist compilation CD curated by Foster featuring exclusive contributions from some of the more outspoken members of the nation's burgeoning psychedelic folk scene, ... All profits will be distributed to specific counter-military recruitment and pacifist organizations and programs who effectively advise high school students and other Americans at risk of being taken advantage of ... (and you can listen here). Some might remember Arthur vs. Godsmack--their music is heavily featured in recruiting ads.

A film on homeless veterans

riley370 — Sun, 21 May 2006 10:29:08 -0800

When I Came Home: Iraq War veteran Herold Noel suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and lives out of his car in Brooklyn. Using Noel's story as a fulcrum, this doc examines the wider issue of homeless U.S. military veterans-from Vietnam to Iraq-who have to fight tooth-and-nail to receive the benefits promised to them by their government.

The Bush administration is busy preparing for a possible military conflict with China.

kliuless — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 22:01:51 -0800

The Bush administration is busy preparing for a possible military conflict with China. "The most important strategic decision the United States will make in the next decade is not about Iraq, Iran or North Korea. It is about China. What will America's basic attitude be toward the rise of China? And similarly, the most important strategic decision that Beijing will make in the next decade is: how should it relate to the United States? Depending on whether the answer to these questions is 'cooperation' or 'confrontation', one can imagine two very different 21st centuries." The Bush administration's containment strategy for China may herald the next cold war. [via]