May 24th, 2013 at 5:28 am » Comments (6)

Any guesses on why this case involving military sexual assault is not making national headlines?: A military judge Thursday sentenced a female Marine convicted of “attempted adultery” and lying to investigators to a letter of reprimand and the loss of $3,000 in pay. Lt. Col. Leon Francis could have sentenced her to a year in the brig and a bad-conduct discharge. Francis, after a three-day court-martial at Camp Pendleton in California, ruled that she was guilty of “attempted adultery” with another staff sergeant — “a man not her husband.” Under
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May 21st, 2013 at 8:16 pm » Comments (19)

Here is an article I saw on Facebook that I thought was quite good in regards to how many veterans including those who have been wounded are getting kicked out of the military and often without benefits to shrink the force: With no clear guidelines, Anderson said, he judges soldiers by their service. “My job is to look at the pattern,” he said. “We all make mistakes, and soldiers in that population are a high-risk population. We don’t crucify them all for one offense. Two offenses? It depends. There is
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May 21st, 2013 at 8:33 am » Comments (11)

Via a reader tip comes news of another front being opened in the military sexual abuse issue, this one being an attempt to have the VA give out disability claims for sexual abuse with no evidence: WASHINGTON – New government figures underscore the staggering long-term consequences of military sexual assaults: More than 85,000 veterans were treated last year for injuries or illness linked to the abuse, and 4,000 sought disability benefits. The Department of Veterans Affairs’ accounting, released in response to inquiries from The Associated Press, shows a heavy financial
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May 20th, 2013 at 5:27 am » Comments (36)

The topic of military sexual assaults has been a hot topic in the media lately driven by the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) report that was mandated by Congress. Some of the information from the report has been demagogued by special interests and their political allies to advance their agendas against the military.  I will let others speculate on what their political agendas are, but I can clearly show that they are inaccurately portraying the results from the report.  You can read the full report here.  What is
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May 17th, 2013 at 10:32 pm » Comments (10)

It appears to me that Jennifer Hlad reporting for the Stars and Stripes is in full blown sensationalism mode regarding military sexual assaults considering this article she just published: The 101st Airborne Division’s officer for a sexual assault response program has been removed from his job after he was accused by his ex-wife of violating a protective order, according to Army officials. Lt. Col. Darin Haas was arrested Wednesday and immediately suspended from his job at Fort Campbell in the Equal Opportunity and Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention program, Army
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May 16th, 2013 at 8:02 am » Comments (9)

Another front to take away military benefits has opened: The Pentagon could slash the defense budget by more than $900 billion over a decade without sacrificing significant combat capabilities, according to a Washington think tank. The Stimson Center, which labels itself as a nonpartisan nonprofit, assembled recommendations to slash spending on personnel compensation, the use of manpower and procurement practices. The center, however, did not endorse any of the recommendations in its report, which was released Monday. “Essentially, we’re hoping by drawing attention to these things to make it easier
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May 15th, 2013 at 8:48 am » Comments (16)

The media is pretty much jumping on every military sexual assault case the can find now. This reminds me a lot of the media in Korea and Japan when they go through their cycles of highlighting every GI crime case no matter how minor: (CNN) – The Army announced Tuesday that a sergeant first class assigned to an assault prevention program at Fort Hood, Texas, is under investigation for sexual assault. The soldier, who was not named in an Army statement, has been suspended from all duties. Specifically, the soldier
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May 11th, 2013 at 4:47 am » Comments (20)

The Washington Post has a pretty good article about the camouflage issue that is a continuing hot topic in the military: In 2002, the U.S. military had just two kinds of camouflage uniform. One was green, for the woods. The other was brown, for the desert. Then things got strange. Today, there is one camouflage pattern just for Marines in the desert. There is another just for Navy personnel in the desert. The Army has its own “universal” camouflage pattern, which is designed to work anywhere. It also has another
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May 10th, 2013 at 9:59 am » Comments (6)

This documentary is pretty much an “Inconvenient Truth” type of documentary filled with inaccuracies in order to push a political agenda just like Al Gore’s film was.  So I am not surprised that it is not being broadcast on AFN: The Pentagon says the American Forces Network won’t be showing an Oscar-nominated documentary about sexual assault in the military because the film fails to tell the whole story about efforts to fight a problem that is rapidly becoming a crisis for Defense Department. Some branches of the military have used
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May 9th, 2013 at 10:31 pm » Comments (38)

That is what this Marine Lieutenant believes: The service branches say that endurance and other standards won’t be lowered, and perhaps there will be special training programs to prepare women who wish to become infantry. Yet there may be a better way to bring them into combat units—one that could serve as a test and steppingstone toward tighter integration. In professional sports and in the Olympics, men and women perform separately. In boot camp and officer-candidate schools—the entry points for all service members—men and women also are separated, with placement
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