With Congress due to return facing just 10 legislative days before the start of the fiscal year, President Barack Obama has taken pre-emptive action to set the 2016 military raise at 1.3 percent.Pentagon leaders are warning about the potential for severe disruption in weapons programs, including the Army’s Joint Light Tactical Vehicle.The 1.3 percent military pay raise is less than the 2.3 percent increase service members would receive under the Federal Pay Comparability Act, but it is slightly greater than the 1 percent raise that was received in 2014 and 2015.In a message to Congress...
Continued freedom in America requires a continued commitment to maintaining strong, equipped, well-led and well-trained ground forces, the Army’s 39th chief of staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley, said."There are many who think wars only can be won from great distances – from space, the air, the sea. Unfortunately, those views are very, very wrong," Milley said.Milley spoke following his oath as the new Army chief, assuming responsibilities from Gen. Ray Odierno, who retired during the same ceremony Aug. 14 at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va."War is an act of politics, where one side tries to impose...
The Army hasn’t shifted from a long-held doctrine of avoiding fair fights, but keeping a combat edge requires faster innovation, according to Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, one of the Army’s top thinkers and innovators.The Army Capabilities Integration Center director and the Army Training and Doctrine Command’s deputy commanding general for futures, McMaster said, "We do not ever want any fair fights." To make certain that is possible, "We have to innovate faster than the cycle of technology." McMaster said Sept. 10 at a breakfast sponsored by the Association of the U.S. Army’s Institute of Land...
Policy Insider Offers View of War-Torn Iraq
Policy Insider Offers View of War-Torn Iraq
Policy Insider Offers View of War-Torn Iraq
Policy Insider Offers View of War-Torn Iraq
Policy Insider Offers View of War-Torn Iraq
Policy Insider Offers View of War-Torn Iraq
Our Army should have been slapped awake in the aftermath of June’s racist mass killing in South Carolina and the subsequent controversy over official display of the Confederate battle flag. We have been reminded by outsiders—as all of us in the Army should have remembered—that several Army posts are named after slave owners and traitors.Despite the Department of the Army’s disingenuous official response that the names were about “reconciliation,” they were in fact expedient yielding to the Southern congressional delegations that controlled appropriations for cheap land needed quickly for...
Military and Veteran Support Organizations (MSO, VSO) are helping the Army Reserve to enhance the readiness of its soldiers."Our MSOs and VSOs have a history of championing programs which directly support Army Reserve readiness," Lt. Col. Alex A. McCullough Jr., future operations officer, Private Public Partnership (P3) Office, Fort Belvoir, Va., said while recognizing the work done by organizations such as the Association of the United States Army.McCullough added, "At its core, P3 partnerships help the Army Reserve enhance readiness while adjusting to the fiscal resources available."Together...
Army fans were all aquiver when scores were finally announced at the archery competition during the 2015 Department of Defense Warrior Games at Quantico, Va.Current and veteran soldiers took home every gold medal in the competition.Military archers from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Special Operations Command and United Kingdom competed in both compound bow and recurve bow archery during the day-long event at the Lejeune Field Tent.By the end of competition, Team Army had earned four gold medals, one silver medal and one bronze medal – for a total of six.Perhaps the most spectacular...
Team Army’s sitting volleyball squad came together like a "family of one" to win the 2015 Department of Defense Warrior Games tournament.Army rallied from a one-set deficit in the gold-medal match to defeat Team Air Force, 16-25, 25-20, 15-6.The resilient group of soldiers went 7-1 in the four-day tourney against Air Force, Navy, British Armed Forces, Special Operations Command and the event’s host – Marines – the lone squad to defeat Team Army."We set out with a goal to work one game at a time, one point at a time, and that came through for us in the end," Team Army Coach Uros Davidovic said...
The Army ruled almost every category on its way to winning the Chairman’s Cup for the second straight year at the 2015 Department of Defense Warrior Games held at historic Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va."That very first event, cycling, is what really brought this team together," said Sgt. 1st Class Keoki Smythe, the noncommissioned officer in charge at the Alexandria-based Warrior Transition Command."Then our track athletes and swimmers gave us a huge lead and our archery team had a gold medal sweep," he said.Other events included wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball and shooting.Wheelcha...
By the end of fiscal 2018, the active Army expects to have drawn down in size from 490,000 to 450,000 soldiers, said Army officials during a Pentagon press conference in July.The service will also shrink the size of several brigade combat teams and will cut 17,000 civilian employees."These are incredibly difficult choices," said Brig. Gen. Randy George, director of force management for the Army.Adding, "The Army followed a long and deliberate process that included utilization of a [Government Accountability Office]-endorsed military value analysis process, and an inclusive total Army analysis...