The U.S. Department of Defense is taking new measures to help U.S. service members deal with rising costs as inflation continues to put the pressure on Americans.
Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder laid out a series of changes from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to help families deal with the recent rise in costs, particularly in food, housing and childcare.
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Army leaders have seen a 13% drop in qualification test scores from the most recent high school graduating class compared to pre-pandemic performances, Defense News reported.
Disqualification rates for potential recruits also shot up from between 30% and 40% to about 70% because of obesity, drug use and failing to meet academic standards, Lt. Gen. Maria Gervais, second in command for Army training, said at a conference Thursday, according to Defense News. The Army is projected to fall short of its recruiting goal for the year ending Sept. 30 by 25%.
Gervais, deputy commanding general of Army Training and Doctrine Command, said the Army has been in a “nosedive” since July 2021, but that the service may be seeing a steady revival, according to Defense News.
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The Navy cannot force service members with religious objections to COVID-19 vaccines to take them so long as the exemption process remains “by all accounts … theater,” a federal judge ruled Monday.
“Our nation asks the men and women in our military to serve, suffer, and sacrifice. But we do not ask them to lay aside their citizenry and give up the very rights they have sworn to protect,” U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor wrote in approving a preliminary injunction against the mandate as applied to the 35 service members who sued.
“Every president since the signing of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act has praised the men and women of the military for their bravery and service in protecting the freedoms this country guarantees,” O’Connor said.
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Republican lawmakers in both houses of Congress are demanding that the United States Marine Corps release a Lieutenant Colonel who was jailed earlier this week for criticizing military leadership after the failed Afghanistan withdrawal, Breitbart reports.
A Marine spokesperson confirmed that Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller is currently in pre-trial confinement in the Regional Brig of Marine Corps Installations East, in Camp Lejeune, as he awaits an Article 32 hearing. Although he has not yet been formally charged, Scheller faces the possibility of being charged under a handful of articles, including “contempt toward officials” (Article 88), “willfully disobeying superior commissioned officer” (Article 90), “failure to obey lawful general orders” (Article 92), and “conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman” (Article 133).
Scheller first made his criticisms in a viral video he posted to Facebook on August 26th, the same day that a suicide attack at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in the capital city of Kabul claimed the lives of 13 American servicemembers, as well as hundreds of Afghan civilians. Scheller demanded accountability from military leadership for a withdrawal that has been universally viewed, both domestically and internationally, as a disaster.
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Taiwan claims dozens of Chinese warplanes penetrated its airspace Tuesday, the largest and most recent Chinese incursion as tensions between the two countries escalate.
Twenty-eight People’s Liberation Army aircraft, including fighter jets, bombers, and anti-submarine airplanes, entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) Tuesday, according to a report issued by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense. It marked the largest recorded daily incursion, exceeding a 25-aircraft incursion on April 12, Reuters reports.
Taiwan dispatched air patrol troops to intercept the Chinese planes and mobilized anti-aircraft missile systems in response, the ministry’s report said.
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On Memorial Day, we commemorate and honor our fellow Americans who gave their lives in service to our country.
Throughout America’s history, our military men and women have bravely defended our God-given freedoms against the evils of religious persecution, slavery, foreign enemies, and radical terrorism.
The first defenders of American freedom were the courageous Continental Army and its leader, General George Washington. As we noted in our documentary “The First American,” it was a monumental challenge for Washington to mobilize a poorly trained and under-equipped army to victory against the British.
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