Pentagon
WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid worry about renewed violence on Inauguration Day, the military's top leaders issued a written reminder to all service members Tuesday that the deadly insurrection at the Capitol last week was an anti-democratic, criminal act, and that... Read More
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden announced Kathleen Hicks and Colin Kahl as his nominees for deputy secretary of defense and under secretary of defense for policy on Wednesday. If confirmed to the positions, they are slated to join Secretary of... Read More
WASHINGTON — In the fourth session of their ongoing virtual national security briefing series entitled “National Security in the Shadow of COVID-19,” Reps. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., and John Katko, R-N.Y., hosted retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster to discuss how the... Read More
WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress sought assurances from investigators Wednesday that the kind of behavioral and criminal offenses that have plagued Fort Hood, Texas, in recent years can be brought to an end. By the end of the congressional hearing,... Read More
WASHINGTON — The House voted 335-78 on Tuesday to adopt a final version of the $731.6 billion defense authorization measure, setting up a possible end-of-year showdown as President Donald Trump has vowed to veto the legislation. House leaders have said they would cut the upcoming... Read More
WASHINGTON — A senior Defense Department official resigned on Tuesday, opening the way for a longtime ally of President Donald Trump to take on a key leadership role a day after Pentagon chief Mark Esper was fired. James Anderson, the acting deputy undersecretary of defense for policy,... Read More
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's decision to fire Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Monday raised concerns that he may be planning far-reaching military moves in his final weeks in office — and is putting in place new leadership more inclined to go along. Trump named Christopher... Read More
SAN ANTONIO – The military’s newest branch, the United States Space Force, swore in its first recruits Tuesday, Oct. 20. Seven recruits, five men and two women, will commence the force’s inaugural boot camp at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland for... Read More
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans commemorated 9/11 Friday as a new national crisis — the coronavirus pandemic — reconfigured and divided anniversary ceremonies and a presidential campaign carved a path through the observances. In New York, victims' relatives gathered Friday... Read More
WASHINGTON – Two members of Congress have penned letters requesting a probe into the Pentagon’s decision to grant a multibillion dollar moving contract to American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier Group Inc. The three-year, $7.2 billion contract would privately outsource the management... Read More
WASHINGTON — The Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday canceled at the last minute the nomination hearing for Anthony J. Tata, President Donald Trump’s controversial pick to be the Pentagon’s policy chief. Tata, a retired Army brigadier general and regular... Read More
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is winding down the U.S. military presence in Germany, and relocating some, but not all of those troops closer to the Russian border, Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced Wednesday. The decision marks a major force restructuring... Read More
WASHINGTON — House appropriators approved a $115.5 billion Military Construction-VA spending bill Thursday on a 30-20 vote, with Texas Republican Will Hurd joining Democrats to advance the legislation to the floor. The rest of the panel’s Republicans opposed Democrats’ decision to add $12.5 billion... Read More
WASHINGTON — Abandoning decades of resistance, the Pentagon signaled Monday that it is open to stripping the names of Confederate heroes off Fort Hood and nine other Army posts, including one named for the rebels’ top general, Robert E. Lee.... Read More
WASHINGTON — Glenn Fine, a top official in the Pentagon inspector general’s office, stepped down Tuesday in the latest installment of a recent drama over internal oversight in the Trump administration. Fine, who is one of five inspectors general to... Read More
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump moved swiftly this month to replace inspectors general across the government. Now Trump’s nominees for these watchdog jobs face questions about whether they will bark when needed, especially if Trump wants silence. Arguably the most... Read More
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has quietly asked Congress to reverse key parts of a recent law that tightened the rules governing retired Defense Department officials influencing their former government colleagues on behalf of defense contractors. Three years ago, Washington enacted... Read More
WASHINGTON — Top members of the House Armed Services Committee assailed Pentagon leaders Wednesday, warning that the administration’s reprogramming of $3.8 billion of Defense Department money for a border wall could damage its relationship with Congress. Echoing a letter they... Read More
WASHINGTON - A Pentagon proposal to cut funding for Stars and Stripes is causing an uproar among media organizations and reporters covering the Defense Department who contend the independent newspaper remains a vital source of information for military personnel stationed... Read More
WASHINGTON — At least 64 U.S. military personnel in Iraq suffered brain trauma in an Iranian missile attack launched in retaliation after President Donald Trump ordered the killing of an Iranian general. The 64 service members — 14 more than... Read More
WASHINGTON — The United States has made “no decision whatsoever” to pull troops out of Iraq, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday after a Defense Department memo to an Iraqi military official surfaced discussing moving U.S. forces. The comments came... Read More
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon made plans Monday to send an additional 2,500 U.S. Marines to the Middle East, the latest fallout from President Donald Trump’s order to kill a powerful Iranian general last week, but one that could increase the... Read More
WASHINGTON - A bipartisan quartet of House members is urging national security officials to start an investigation into whether foreign adversaries are engaging in an effort to incite anti-Semitism and civil unrest across the United States. Democratic Reps. Kathleen Rice,... Read More
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon should temporarily suspend training for foreign fighters after a Saudi air force officer shot and killed trainees last week at a U.S. base in Florida, two Republican lawmakers said. A top U.S. official said the attack... Read More
WASHINGTON - A high-ranking Defense Department official acknowledged during a Senate hearing Thursday that the U.S. government is considering sending more troops to the Middle East to counter an Iranian military buildup. “We’re concerned about the threat stream we’re seeing,”... Read More
NEW YORK — Defense Secretary Mark Esper asked and received the resignation of Navy Secretary Richard Spencer on Sunday over his handling of the case of a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes in Iraq, the Pentagon said in a... Read More
WASHINGTON — The number of known military installations with water sources contaminated by cancer-linked firefighting foam is likely to rise, Pentagon officials said Wednesday. In 2018, the Pentagon reported that 401 sites — including wells, on-base drinking sources and groundwater... Read More
WASHINGTON — More than $35 million of the roughly $400 million in aid to Ukraine that President Donald Trump delayed, sparking the impeachment inquiry, has not been released to the country, according to a Pentagon spending document obtained by the... Read More
WASHINGTON — The sudden departure of most U.S. troops from northeastern Syria in early October has strengthened the Islamic State terrorist group in that country, despite the U.S. military’s recent killing of the group’s leader, according to a new Pentagon... Read More
WASHINGTON - A group representing veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has thrown its support behind a pair of lawsuits aimed at halting President Donald Trump's use of military funding for his long-promised wall along the U.S. Mexico... Read More
