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8:32 AM, May 9, 2013 • By GEOFFREY NORMANThe Pentagon has been on a long and expensive quest to make its personnel invisible. Or something close to it. So new camouflage patterns have been researched. Several of them, in fact. At least one for every branch of the service, including the Air Force, most of whose people do not need to hide from anyone. Still, as David A. Fahrenthold writes in the Washington Post:
... the Air Force still spent $3.1 million to come up with its own ground combat uniform. It was a "tiger-stripe" pattern, a throwback to camouflage used in Vietnam.
But it was not well-suited to Afghanistan.
“They were not designed to hide anybody. They were designed to look cool,” said [Timothy] O’Neill, the West Point camouflage expert, giving his outside appraisal of the Air Force design. “It’s what we call ‘CDI Factor.’ Which is, ‘Chicks dig it.’ ”
Finally, in 2010, the Air Force ordered its personnel in Afghanistan to ditch the Airman Battle Uniform and wear Army camouflage instead. “The [Army pattern] provides the higher level of protection and functionality our airmen need,” an Air Force spokeswoman said this week.
There is much more to the camouflage wars that resulted in the spending of millions to design several different patterns, some of which don't work while others are held onto with propriety tenacity by the service that designed them because they don't want to share.
The story is about more than camouflage. It is a tale of how Washington shamelessly wastes taxpayer money. A new telling, then, of an old, old tale.
10:33 AM, Mar 5, 2013 • By DANIEL HALPERStephen D. Abney, the chief public affairs official for the Army’s Joint Munitions Command, recently sent a message to all 6,000 employees he speaks for: Don’t criticize President Barack Obama or any political party to members of the press. The message was received by civilian contractors as well.
Read more... 10:10 AM, Feb 20, 2013 • By JEFFREY H. ANDERSONFor three years, a private citizen named Steve LeBard has led the effort to build a privately funded memorial in Orcutt, California—a tranquil small town located on the Golden State’s gorgeous Central Coast—to honor military veterans. And for the better part of those three years, he has run into a toxic blend of political correctness, anti-Americanism, and bureaucratic senselessness. Today, the memorial, which was to be built with private funds on a small piece of public land, remains unbuilt.
Read more... 3:25 PM, Jan 24, 2013 • By JESSIE JANE DUFFOn Thursday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that the U.S. military would lift its long-standing ban on women in combat. The national media, as can be expected, is popping the champagne corks in celebration.
Read more... 9:02 AM, Dec 28, 2012 • By GEOFFREY NORMANThe death of Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf recalls a moment in history that now seems far more distant than the actual twenty-one years.
Read more... 11:35 PM, Nov 1, 2012 • By KATE HAVARDIt is no surprise Barack Obama’s campaign is running ads to highlight the support of former chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell. After all, for the most part, the military overwhelmingly supports Mitt Romney.
Read more... 8:56 AM, Oct 15, 2012 • By MICHAEL WARRENThe official Twitter account of the United States Army sent out a message to its more than 186,000 followers recognizing the 47th anniversary of the "first public burning of a draft card." Here's the tweet:
Read more... 3:38 PM, Oct 4, 2012 • By CHERYL MILLERLast year, when elite universities began announcing their intentions to bring back ROTC, Jonathan E. Hillman and I cautioned that if Ivy League ROTC was to succeed, it would require a real commitment from both the schools and the military.
Read more... 12:10 PM, Sep 15, 2012 • By MICHAEL WARRENArkansas Republican House candidate Tom Cotton has released a new ad, highlighting the political lessons Cotton learned serving in the U.S. Army.
"The Army taught me in an ambush, you fight through the fire. You don't hesitate, you don't retreat," Cottons says. "Our country needs strong leaders right now." Watch the ad below:
Read more... 4:46 PM, Jul 25, 2012 • By MICHAEL WARRENRepublican congressman Allen West, a freshman from Florida, has a new television ad featuring Robert Delgado, a retired Army sergeant. In the ad, Delgado claims West saved his life when the two men were serving in Iraq. Watch the ad below:
Read more... 9:15 AM, Mar 8, 2012 • By DAVID SCHENKERDuring the decades of international sanctions against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, successive U.S. administrations yearned for regime change.
Read more... 9:06 PM, Oct 1, 2011 • By JEFFREY H. ANDERSONIn Annapolis today, Air Force and Navy met on “the fields of friendly strife.” With 10:00 left in the game, Air Force led 28-10, having more or less dominated play for the first 50 minutes. With 2:09 left, the Falcons still led 28-17. Then Navy nailed a must-make 37-yard field goal, recovered the ensuing onside kick, scored a touchdown on 3rd-and-goal with 0:19 left, and made the subsequent 2-point conversion on an option pitch just inside the left pylon: 28-28, overtime.
Read more...
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