WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is allowing transgender people to enlist in the military beginning Jan. 1, despite President Donald Trump’s opposition. The new policy reflects growing legal pressure on the issue, and the difficult hurdles the federal government would have to cross to enforce Trump’s demand to ban transgender individuals from the military. Two […]
pentagon
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Susan Collins plans to challenge Trump's transgender troops ban in defense bill
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, walks toward the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, the day lawmakers returned to Washington. WASHINGTON — Two senators are preparing an amendment to challenge President Donald Trump’s announced ban on transgender troops serving in the military that they hope to attach to a sweeping defense bill the […]
advertisement
Posted inNation / World
Pentagon missile defense program scores a win
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon’s oft-criticized missile defense program has scored a triumph, destroying a mock warhead over the Pacific Ocean with an interceptor that is key to protecting U.S. territory from a North Korean attack. Vice Adm. Jim Syring, director of the Pentagon agency in charge of developing the missile defense system, called Tuesday’s […]
Posted inNation / World
Pentagon: U.S. dropped largest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan
This photo provided by Eglin Air Force Base shows the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb. The Pentagon says U.S. forces in Afghanistan dropped the military’s largest non-nuclear bomb on an Islamic State target in Afghanistan. A Pentagon spokesman said it was the first-ever combat use of the bomb, known as the GBU-43, which he […]
Posted inLetters, sj-web
The Pentagon bloat
I have been meaning to write this letter since December, when I read an article in the Washington Post that detailed some interesting figures about Pentagon spending. Now, I read that the White House is proposing major cuts to important domestic programs in order to fund a $54 billion increase to the already bloated Defense […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Pentagon presenting plan to 'rapidly defeat' Islamic State
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford greets Defense Secretary Jimn Mattis Jan. 21, 2107, at the Pentagon. A new military strategy to meet President Donald Trump’s demand “to obliterate” the Islamic State group is likely to deepen U.S. military involvement in Syria, possibly with more ground troops, even as the current U.S. approach in Iraq […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Military targets handling of misconduct cases
WASHINGTON — Military leaders are trying to fix the lengthy, inconsistent process for investigating senior officers accused of misconduct, The Associated Press has learned. They are seeking to change a hodgepodge system in which investigations can drag on for years while taxpayers pay six-figure salaries to officers relegated to mid-level administrative posts. Trust in the […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Pentagon buries evidence of $125 billion in bureaucratic waste
Pentagon leaders had requested the study to help make their enormous back-office bureaucracy more efficient and reinvest any savings in combat power. But after the project documented far more wasteful spending than expected, senior defense officials moved swiftly to kill it by discrediting and suppressing the results. The report, issued in January 2015, identified “a […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Two GOP senators mentioned as possible picks for defense secretary
WASHINGTON — The two people most frequently mentioned to head the Pentagon in Donald Trump’s administration are both senators — and some of their chamber’s most hawkish Republicans. They are Alabama’s Jeff Sessions — one of Trump’s closest allies and a top booster since the start of the businessman’s unconventional campaign — and Arkansas’s Tom […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Pentagon retreats, won’t seek repayment of enlistment bonuses
WASHINGTON — U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Wednesday ordered the Pentagon to suspend its effort to seek repayments of enlistment bonuses given to thousands of California National Guard members who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Carter’s decision comes in the wake of angry reaction from congressional Republicans and Democrats who demanded he relieve the […]