March 9th, 2010
Stars and Stripes
As the Iranian president arrived Wednesday for
official meetings in Kabul, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates toured the Afghan
National Army advanced training center here.
...
March 9th, 2010
Stars and Stripes
The Taliban claimed responsibility Wednesday for a suicide bombing inside a U.S.-Afghan base in eastern Afghanistan that killed two NATO service members.
...
March 9th, 2010
Stars and Stripes
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says some of the U.S. forces involved in the Afghanistan surge could leave the country before President Barack Obama's announced July 2011 date to begin withdrawal.
...
March 9th, 2010
Stars and Stripes
Faced with a crushing influx of disability claims from Vietnam War veterans exposed to the toxic defoliant Agent Orange, the Department of Veterans Affairs said Tuesday it would automate part of the cumbersome system that has left many thousands of veterans waiting many months and sometimes years for
payments.
...
March 9th, 2010
Stars and Stripes
Faced with a crushing influx of disability claims from Vietnam War veterans exposed to the toxic defoliant Agent Orange, the Department of Veterans Affairs said Tuesday it would automate part of the cumbersome system that has left many thousands of veterans waiting many months and sometimes years for
payments.
...
March 9th, 2010
Stars and Stripes
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — At an encampment on the outskirts of Haiti's capital,
physicians from three international aid agencies provide identical services. On
a charter flight to Miami, comp...
...
March 9th, 2010
Stars and Stripes
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — At an encampment on the outskirts of Haiti's capital,
physicians from three international aid agencies provide identical services. On
a charter flight to Miami, comp...
...
March 9th, 2010
Stars and Stripes
WIESBADEN, Germany — An online survey that helps determine cost-of-living
allowance rates is available to troops in Italy until March 31.
The Living Pattern Survey takes about 30 minutes ...
...
March 9th, 2010
Stars and Stripes
A U.S.-based team will be in Germany next week to recruit soldiers for the
Army's Asymmetric Warfare Group, based at Fort Meade, Md.
The special-missions unit is looking for enlisted sol...
...
March 9th, 2010
Stars and Stripes
U.S. lawmakers expressed frustration Tuesday that NATO
countries were not offering more personnel to train the Afghan army. Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee grilled the alliance's top military leader, Adm. James Stavridis, during his visit to Capitol Hill.
...
March 9th, 2010
Stars and Stripes
Defense Secretary Robert Gates walked
the streets of Now Zad on Tuesday, surveying the city that was "the first test"
of the new counterinsurgency strategy and the model for the offensive in nearby
Marjah.
...
March 9th, 2010
Stars and Stripes
I have watched letters to the editor on "don't ask, don't tell" since they
started appearing and find many good points on both sides.
Some letters I find both amusing and scary...
...
March 9th, 2010
Stars and Stripes
I couldn't help but respond to "Gays
issue a matter of logic" (letter, March 8).
Seriously? Don't let ...
...
March 9th, 2010
Stars and Stripes
Your report on how Michael Jackson's music is effectively helping with crowd
control in Haiti reminds me once again that even though he isn't here with us
anymore, Jackson is still the best goo...
...
March 9th, 2010
Stars and Stripes
U.S. military and local Japanese officials are
looking to fine-tune their emergency response systems after reviewing lessons
learned from the Feb. 28 tsunami tidal swells that threatened coastal areas on
the mainland and Okinawa.
...
March 9th, 2010
Stars and Stripes
High school
Okinawa
Baseball
Saturday's summary
Kadena 7, Naha Sola 5
At Chibana Recreation Area
Naha Sola 020 110 1—5
Kadena 510 100 x—7
Batting—...
...
March 9th, 2010
Stars and Stripes
SEOUL — A career educator who has worked at schools for U.S. military
dependents in Bahrain, Germany, England and Japan will be the principal of Casey
Elementary School in South Korea when it o...
...
March 9th, 2010
The Associated Press
NOW ZAD, Afghanistan — Defense Secretary Robert Gates, aiming to show progress in the expanded war against insurgents in south Afghanistan, took a brief, heavily guarded walk Tuesday down a rutted street in this scruffy market town where the Taliban lobbed mortars at U.S. forces only weeks ago.
Now Zad was the scene of first significant military push after President Barack Obama’s announcement in early December that he would add 30,000 troops atop 17,000 reinforcements he had already sent into the flagging war.
With the additional firepower, Marines moved into Now Zad last December and quickly pushed out Taliban fighters»
March 9th, 2010
Staff writer
A helicopter attack that killed at least 15 civilians in Afghanistan’s Oruzgan province was called in by a Special Forces A-team that did not have “eyes on” their target and resulted in a 48-hour standdown for U.S. special operations forces, said an Army officer familiar with the incident.
In the wake of the incident, the commander of coalition and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, apologized to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and then to the Afghan people in a Feb. 23 television address. “I have instituted a thorough investigation to prevent this from happening again,” McChrystal said.
The Army»
March 9th, 2010
Staff writer
The hospital ship Comfort has been released from duty off the coast of Haiti and will begin its journey home to Baltimore this week, the Navy announced Tuesday.
The Comfort discharged its last patient Feb. 27, but at the height of the humanitarian relief effort the ship was taking aboard critically injured people as often as every six minutes. The ship’s master, Capt. Bob Holley, said helicopters brought Comfort its first patients before the hospital ship had even sighted land.
Statistics from different sources have varied, but an announcement Tuesday from 4th Fleet put the total number of people treated»
March 9th, 2010
Staff writer
Military family members who are ineligible for family and medical leave still could get time off for deployment-related issues under potentially controversial legislation pending before two congressional committees.
The Military Family Leave Act would provide up to two weeks of leave — unpaid if an employer chooses — to people not covered by the military leave provisions of the existing FMLA.
Under current law, employees can be excluded if they have not worked for a year or longer for their current employer, have not worked a minimum of 1,250 hours for their current employer in the last 12 months, or»
March 9th, 2010
Staff writer
Military family members who are ineligible for family and medical leave still could get time off for deployment-related issues under potentially controversial legislation pending before two congressional committees.
The Military Family Leave Act would provide up to two weeks of leave — unpaid if an employer chooses — to people not covered by the military leave provisions of the existing FMLA.
Under current law, employees can be excluded if they have not worked for a year or longer for their current employer, have not worked a minimum of 1,250 hours for their current employer in the last 12 months, or»
March 9th, 2010
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Navy says that three dogs died and dozens more were in poor health after being neglected by a private security contractor in Chicago that had been hired to train the dogs to detect explosives.
A team of military handlers discovered the dogs last October at a facility run by Securitas Security Services USA after the Navy terminated a $7.5 million contract.
Navy spokesman Capt. William Fenick said that of the 49 dogs discovered, two were dead and the rest were in poor health. Another dog died soon after being recovered.
Securitas Security Services did not immediately provide comment.
The»
March 9th, 2010
Staff writer
Despite plans to give the Veterans Affairs Department a 7 percent budget increase at a time when most federal spending is frozen, key congressional committees are pushing for even bigger veterans budgets.
They just can’t agree on how much more to give.
At the low end, Democrats on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee are recommending a $380 million increase in the $56.9 billion VA budget proposed by the Obama administration. At the high end, Republicans on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee are recommending a $2.6 billion increase. Democrats on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee fall in between, proposing a $571»
March 9th, 2010
Staff writer
Despite plans to give the Veterans Affairs Department a 7 percent budget increase at a time when most federal spending is frozen, key congressional committees are pushing for even bigger veterans budgets.
They just can’t agree on how much more to give.
At the low end, Democrats on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee are recommending a $380 million increase in the $56.9 billion VA budget proposed by the Obama administration. At the high end, Republicans on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee are recommending a $2.6 billion increase. Democrats on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee fall in between, proposing a $571»
