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Tag: U.S. Military

Study: ‘Vast DEI bureaucracy’ negatively impacting U.S. armed forces
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Approved, National, The Daily Signal

Study: ‘Vast DEI bureaucracy’ negatively impacting U.S. armed forces

By Cameron Arcand | The Daily Signal Diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the U.S. military are ineffective, a new Arizona State University study suggests. The study done by the university’s Center for American Institutions argued that there is an emphasis on training new soldiers about social issues like “unconscious bias” and “intersectionality” in a way the center says runs contrary to typical American ideals. The study examined DEI plans in different sectors of the military, including DEI office staffing and education at academies like West Point. “The massive DEI bureaucracy, its training and its pseudo-scientific assessments are at best distractions that absorb valuable time and resources,” the executive summary states. “At worst they communic...
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Team USA: 10 Army soldiers will compete in the 2024 Olympics
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Approved, Military Times, National

Team USA: 10 Army soldiers will compete in the 2024 Olympics

By Zamone Perez | Military Times A total of 10 service members will compete on behalf of the United States at this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris — and they are all members of the U.S. Army. Seven active-duty soldiers will head to the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics later this month as part of Team USA, according to a defense official. Three athletes will also compete in the Paralympic Games later in August. The trials to join Team USA ended on June 30 with the Army dominating the roster for U.S. service members. The soldiers joining Team USA will compete in shooting, rugby, track and field, wrestling and swimming. Additionally, two other soldiers will be coaches for Team USA in the pentathlon and wrestling events. A handful of service members join Team USA every other...
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ESPN draws fire for selecting Prince Harry for Pat Tillman award: ‘There are recipients that are far more fitting’
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Air Force Times, Approved, National

ESPN draws fire for selecting Prince Harry for Pat Tillman award: ‘There are recipients that are far more fitting’

By Zamone Perez | Air Force Times ESPN is drawing criticism for selecting Prince Harry as the Pat Tillman Service Award recipient at this year’s ESPYs, including from the fallen soldier’s mother and a host of one of the sports network’s more popular shows. Every year the Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly awards show, or ESPYs, honors one individual with an award in memory of Pat Tillman, a former NFL safety who enlisted in the Army following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Tillman was killed on April 22, 2004, in a friendly fire incident while deployed to Afghanistan. He was 27 years old. The late soldier’s mother, Mary Tillman, told the Daily Mail she was not consulted by ESPN on the award decision. Tillman called ESPN’s selection of Prince Harry, who left r...
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Troops may face inflated drug costs under Tricare, lawmakers say
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Air Force Times, Approved, National

Troops may face inflated drug costs under Tricare, lawmakers say

By Karen Jowers | Air Force Times A bipartisan group of 24 congressional lawmakers is questioning whether the Pentagon’s pharmacy contract may be driving up drug costs and limiting access to medication for Tricare beneficiaries, while overcharging independent pharmacies and taxpayers. The lawmakers are concerned that the Defense Health Agency has decided to retain Express Scripts as the sole pharmacy benefit manager for Tricare, the military insurance system serving 9.6 million troops, retirees and their families. In a letter sent Wednesday to Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Lester Martinez-Lopez and DHA director Army Lt. Gen. Telita Crosland, the lawmakers questioned whether Express Scripts may be using anticompetitive tactics to overcharge Tricare. Express S...
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VA chief of staff stepping down from leadership post after 8 months on the job
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Air Force Times, Approved, National

VA chief of staff stepping down from leadership post after 8 months on the job

By Leo Shane III | Air Force Times Veterans Affairs Chief of Staff Kimberly Jackson on Friday announced she will step down from the leadership role next month, creating another vacancy at the top of the department. Jackson has served in the role for only eight months, but had previously served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for force readiness at the Pentagon since the start of President Joe Biden’s presidency. The chief of staff role at VA serves as the top advisor to the secretary and deputy secretary. In a statement, Jackson said she is stepping down to spend more time with her family. “It has been an honor and a privilege to serve alongside the dedicated women and men in the Department of Veterans Affairs in our mission of ensuring veterans and their families...
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Air Force’s top leaders urge unity, patience in face of changes
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Air Force Times, Approved, National

Air Force’s top leaders urge unity, patience in face of changes

By Rachel S. Cohen | The Air Force Times Four months after Air Force leaders rolled out a slew of initiatives aimed at readying troops to compete with China, they’re grappling with the most difficult part of change: turning ideas into reality. As the service hashes out the details of its future force, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvinand Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force David Flosi are urging airmen to stick together and trust the process. “I have been through many chief of staff transitions and watched how the Air Force is trying to find its way forward,” Allvin said in a joint interview with Flosi in early May. “Sometimes you don’t need a new thing; sometimes you just need to follow through on the old things.” READ THE FULL STORY AT THE AIR FORCE TIMES...
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Dwindling number of D-Day veterans mark anniversary with plea to recall WWII lessons
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Approved, denvergazette.com, National

Dwindling number of D-Day veterans mark anniversary with plea to recall WWII lessons

By JOHN LEICESTER, SYLVIE CORBET and DANICA KIRKA | The Denver Gazette As young soldiers, they waded ashore in Normandy through gunfire to battle the Nazis. On Thursday, a dwindling number of World War II veterans in a parade of wheelchairs joined a new generation of leaders to honor the dead, the living and the fight for democracy in moving commemorations on and around those same beaches where they landed exactly 80 years ago on D-Day. The war in Ukraine shadowed the ceremonies, a grim modern-day example of lives and cities that are again suffering through war in Europe. The break of dawn eight decades after Allied troops landed on five code-named beaches — Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword — started the day of remembrance by Allied nations now stand...
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D-Day anniversary shines spotlight on ‘Rosies’ who built WWII weapons
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Air Force Times, Approved, National

D-Day anniversary shines spotlight on ‘Rosies’ who built WWII weapons

By Sylvie Corbet and John Leicester, The Associated Press (via The Air Force Times) When the 5,000th B-17 bomber built after Pearl Harbor rolled out of its Boeing factory, teenage riveter Anna Mae Krier made sure it would carry a message from the women of World War II: She signed her name on it. Now 98, and in Normandy, France, for this week’s 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, Krier is still proudly promoting the vital roles played by women in the June 6, 1944, invasion and throughout the war — including by making weaponry that enabled men to fight. Krier was among millions of women who rolled up their sleeves in defense-industry factories, replacing men who volunteered and were called up for combat in the Pacific, Africa and Europe. The women had thei...
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Last WWII veterans converge on Omaha Beach for D-Day and fallen friends
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Air Force Times, Approved, National

Last WWII veterans converge on Omaha Beach for D-Day and fallen friends

By John Leicester, Sylvie Corbet, and Danica Kirka, The Associated Press | Air Force Times Under their feet, the sands of Omaha Beach, and in their rheumy eyes, tears that inevitably flowed from being on the revered shoreline in Normandy, France, where so many American young men were cut down 80 years ago on D-Day. Veterans of World War II, many of them centenarians and likely returning to France for one last time, pilgrimaged Tuesday to what was the bloodiest of five Allied landing beaches on June 6, 1944. They remembered fallen friends. They relived horrors they experienced in combat. They blessed their good fortune for surviving. And they mourned those who paid the ultimate price. They also bore a message for generations behind them, who owe them so much: Don’t forget what...
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Air Force dangles big bucks, expands eligibility for retention bonuses
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Air Force Times, Approved, National

Air Force dangles big bucks, expands eligibility for retention bonuses

By Courtney Mabeus-Brown | Air Force Times Thinking about reenlisting? Eligible airmen in critical jobs can now nab bonuses of up to $180,000, up from $100,000 in previous years, for agreeing to stay in the service. Seventy-three career fields are eligible for selective retention bonuses in fiscal year 2024, up from 51 the previous year, the Air Force said in a recent release. The new list adds airmen like air traffic controllers, cyber defense superintendents and aerospace physiologists, and is retroactively effective as of Oct. 1, 2023. How much money someone can receive depends on how long they opt to stay in uniform and their experience level. Airmen are capped at earning up to $360,000 in selective retention bonuses over the course of their career, and can elect to take the m...
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