GRAB A CUP & AND READ THE MORINING REPORT FOR 1.15.14 >>>

About 200 Fort Bragg soldiers are scheduled to leave for Afghanistan Sunday. The soldiers will be the first wave of troops to deploy from the 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment. An estimated 450 troops from the battalion will eventually deploy this month.

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday said President Barack Obama is ignoring servicemembers who are deployed to Afghanistan and not speaking enough about the war.

The United States pledged today to send an additional $380 million in aid this year to help victims of Syria's brutal civil war, but warned that international efforts to ease their suffering will fail if Syrian President Bashar Assad refuses to let humanitarian assistance get to people who need it.

NSA to senator: If we were collecting your phone records, we couldn't tell you.

The U.S. Marine Corps is conducting a formal investigation into an incident in which Marines are allegedly shown defiling the bodies of what appear to be dead Iraqi insurgents.

Amid intense pressure from President Obama and the White House, Senate Democrats appear to be backing away from an immediate vote on a new Iran sanctions bill.

Experts and lawmakers said the Pentagon was the lucky winner after the $1.012 trillion omnibus spending bill was released, citing an increase of $5 billion in wartime funding above what the Defense Department had initially requested.  

Two Marines from the Corps' elite special operations unit will be awarded the Navy Cross this week for heroism during an insider attack in Afghanistan in 2012.

The Army National Guard's top officer was honored Tuesday as he prepares to retire after more than 40 years of service.

FX has ordered a comedy pilot that will be created by and star Zach Galifianakis, with Louis C.K. co-writing. Nice!

Twenty hilarious and ridiculous knock-off toys: Funny Pony, Titanic Legend, Mr. T Mighty Car...

Ladies and gentlemen, the Cheap American Beer Bracket!

Here's a lesson: Never let the Internet name your baby.

Be careful how you dance battle

The U.S. Army 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) - also known as Night Stalkers -  is a special operations force specializing in helicopter aviation support for general purpose forces and special operations forces. Its missions have included attack, assault, and reconnaissance, and are usually conducted at night, at high speeds, low altitudes, and on short notice.

Besides all that bad ass operations, the 160th SOAR - with the 4th Battalion, 160th SOAR at Joint Base Lewis-McChord - soar around the streets in the Starwood Motors Nightstalker custom Jeep. OK, maybe not all the Night Stalkers drive one, but the pilots of the 160th SOAR inspired the design.

Read the full story here.

Lt. Shane Osborn was on The Michael Smerconish Program on Sirius' POTUS Politics. Osborn is running for US Senate in Nebraska. The 2001 story of his crash with a Chinese military jet, and subsequent 12-day detention by the Chinese, is incredible. Read his story in the April 2001 issue of The New York Times.

Osborn told Smerconish this morning that only two combat veterans currently serve in the Senate. Obviously, Orborn thinks there needs to be at least one more.

GRAB A CUP & READ THE MORNING REPORT FOR 1.14.14 >>>

Congressional appropriators on Monday evening unveiled a massive federal spending bill that includes a full 2014 Pentagon appropriations measure that would provide nearly $93 billion to buy new weapons.

The $571 billion Defense appropriations bill would reverse cuts to retirement pay for medically retired veterans and survivor benefits that passed in last month's budget deal.

The House Armed Services Committee on Monday released hundreds of pages of transcripts of previously classified testimony about the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

The Enlisted Voluntary Early Separation Program and Enlisted Involuntary Early Separation Program have some important changes that took effect Jan. 1.

A physician who was a former Army Special Forces combat medic designed a fellowship program, which he hopes will improve the survival chances of battlefield casualties.

Decisive action training environment preps Army lieutenants for future operations.

The US capital's politics are a mess, the Pentagon is muddled and observers might be excused for thinking that naval development is stalled, but think again.

Arrowhead Brigade sweeps over National Training Center.

A full-fledged OutKast reunion is on tap for this year, not just at Coachella.

The Newsroom was renewed for a final season.

What does this mean?: Jerry Seinfeld and Jason Alexander were spotted in front of Tom's Restaurant.

Today's list: A roundup of lesser-known vintage video games, like The Goonies II and The Blues Brothers.

No, here's today's list: 10 famous album covers recreated in Lego.

We apologize, here's really today's list: Seven strange but awesome gadgets from CES 2014.

GRAB A CUP & READ THE MORNING REPORT FOR 1.13.14 >>>

Iran has agreed to start eliminating its stockpile of higher levels of enriched uranium beginning Jan. 20 under an interim deal announced in November.

US Army wants to transform all nine of its Stryker brigades into the heavily armored "double V-hull" (DVH) configuration.

Two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip today, just hours ahead of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's funeral. The projectiles did not appear to have landed in Israel.

Department of Veterans Affairs says more female veterans will suffer from the kinds of injuries that go with being a ground-pounder.

Disabled military retirees will be protected from the reduced COLA.

The Appropriations committees are set to unveil this week how they will cut roughly $25 billion from the Pentagon's budget.

Weapon sales to Iraq have become entangled in sharply escalated political debate after al-Qaida affiliated forces regained partial control of the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.

The Arctic Passage opens challenges for the mil because it means it has a new ocean to patrol - for the first time since 1846.

The College of William & Mary and U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command reaffirmed their partnership to develop internships, research and training opportunities for both William & Mary students and TRADOC Soldiers in the field of national security.

Six15 Technologies is announcing the release of their direct view monitor for military applications called the Standard Mobile Monitor (SMM).

Watch Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's flawless, hilarious Golden Globes monologue.

Fifteen new comics. Fifteen talented creative teams. Fifteen new reasons to open a new line of credit for Image's 2014 barrage of awesome.

Mad Men returns to the tube April 13.

HBO says the upcoming fifth season of Boardwalk Empire will be the series' last.

Christine McVie retired from Fleetwood Mac more than 15 years ago, and now, she's coming back to the band.

Are you ready for some Thrones?

Military sitcoms shouldn't work. There's really nothing funny about war.  But the funniest thing is that they have worked, time and again. Since the mid-1950s, when television was just beginning its reign over America's living rooms, we've been treated to a combat comedy cavalcade filled with classic shows like F Troop, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., Hogan's Heroes, C.P.O. Sharkey and, of course, M*A*S*H.  All of these shows live on in our memories and in reruns, but when M*A*S*H ended in 1983, military sitcoms went with it.  Major Dad tried to revive the genre in 1989, but that proved to just be the death rattle, lasting only a handful of seasons.

FOX wants to bring the military sitcom back to the forefront with Enlisted.  It's a new century, a new America and a new generation of television viewers. Could Enlisted be the show that reintroduces the military sitcom to the public consciousness?

I really hope not.

Read more...

GRAB A CUP & READ THE MORNING REPORT FOR 1.10.14 >>>

The lead American negotiator in talks over a long-term security agreement with Afghanistan has privately warned the Obama administration that its efforts to persuade President Hamid Karzai to sign the document on the U.S. timetable are likely to fail.

There has been a sharp increase in the suicide rate among the youngest male veterans, and a smaller but still significant jump among women who served in the military.

The Senate Armed Services Committee approved and sent to the Senate floor four civilian nominations yesterday: Jessica Wright to be undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness; Jo Ann Rooney to be undersecretary of the Navy; Jamie Morin to be director of cost assessment and program evaluation; and Frank Klotz to be undersecretary of energy for nuclear security.

Read more...

Brig. Gen. William K. Gayler, deputy commanding general, 7th Infantry Division at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, is being assigned to director, Officer Personnel Management Directorate, U.S. Army Human Resources Command at Fort Knox, Ky.

Gayler was promoted to brigadier general Sept. 3, 2013 at JBLM.

Here's Gayler's background, according to a release by the 7th ID last September:

Gayler, a Distinguished Military Graduate of North Georgia College in Dahlonega, Ga., received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree and was commissioned as an Aviation Officer in 1988. He is a graduate of the Command and General Staff College and the National War College.

Gayler is a Master Army Aviator and Standardization Instructor Pilot in the AH-64D Longbow Apache and also rated in the OH-58 Kiowa.

GRAB A CUP & READ THE MORNING REPORT FOR 1.8.14 >>>

The U.S. Air Force says one of its Pave Hawk helicopters has crashed in eastern England, killing the four crew members.

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Abu Sufian bin Qumu is suspected to have played a role in the 2012 Benghazi attack. 

Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army general who led U.S. forces through some of the most deadly years of the Iraq war, says he opposes sending U.S. combat troops in response to the recent gains in that country by Islamic militants.

Read more...

As the eggnog begins to burn off, it's time to turn in applications for college scholarships. Army Emergency Relief has opened its scholarship application period for the 2014-15 school year. Applications from spouses and dependent children of soldiers will be accepted from now until May 1.

This year, scholarships will be awarded based solely on financial need, said Tammy LaCroix, manager for Army Emergency Relief, or AER's scholarship programs. In previous years, some scholarships were awarded based on scholastic achievement and leadership, LaCroix said. For instance, if students could demonstrate leadership - such as serving as class president, leading a Scout troop or serving in an ROTC leadership position - that in itself was worth a $500 scholarship. If their grade point average was above a 3.5 GPA, that could be worth another $500.??Those types of $500 scholarships have been eliminated however, so that larger awards to needy family members can be granted.

Read the rest of the report on the U.S. Army website.