[HTML1] The Airborne’s longtime tradition, called Operation Toy Drop, distributes thousands of toys to children in the area around Fort Bragg, N.C., with a combination of Army and Army Reserve paratroopers, dozens of volunteers and allied military personnel, and more than a dozen Air Force aircraft. Because it includes jumpmasters from around the globe — the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Italy, Poland, Chile, Sweden, Latvia and Brazil this time — its billed the world’s largest combined airborne operation. So the paratroopers jump out of the planes holding toys, which they hand to eager local children, right? No, said Lt. Col. Annmarie…
Author Joe Gould
[HTML1] Next time you complain about a ruck march, consider Capt. Justin Fitch. The colon cancer-stricken soldier in Natick, Mass., ruck marches for fun, to heal, and to raise money to combat veteran suicide. “One thing that I have been able to rely on through rehabilitation, in exercise therapy, almost like a meditative state, is ruck marching,” Fitch said when recently spotlighted on Army.mil. Fitch tries to ruck to work at least twice a month. He recently rucked nine-and-a-half miles with 80 pounds on his back in just over three hours. On Oct. 18, Fitch finished his 23rd round of…
Reports that the Utah National Guard were in the market for two mechanical bulls in spite of the the partial government shut down have turned out to be, well, bull. A Utah National Guard and the alleged vendor say they cancelled a $47,174 sale. “The National Guard called me first thing in the morning,” Mechanical Bull Sales owner Gracienne Myers told The Salt Lake Tribune. She said the Guard told her that they were voiding the purchase offer but that they may buy a lone bull in the future. “They did the right thing,” she said. The Utah Guard has used…
BuzzFeed has posted a Q&A with a purported “active-duty Army captain and member of Anonymous”–who ironically, has asked to be anonymous for the piece. He describes “how the organization operates, his own involvement in the Arab Spring, how the crackdown on Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden has affected soldiers.” The interviewee promised more leaks from fellow Anonymous soldiers. “A lot [of Anonymous members] are mid- to high-rank NCOs. They are well-respected, have connections, and overly large security clearances. A lot of people who are part of the [Anonymous] culture are just dying at this point for something to come across their…
Blue-collar comedian Larry the Cable Guy’s meeting with the green-suiters at the Natick Soldier Systems Center will air Wednesday, July 17, at 9 p.m. EDT. The “Git-R-Done” comic brought the crew of his History Channel TV series “Only in America” to Natick, where they let him play with the R&D facility’s high-tech toys and apparently put him through the wringer. Larry had his clothing set ablaze and extinguished, he fired a laser, he sampled Natick-developed apple sauce. Finally, he strapped on the “Ironman” ammo carriage system and M240B machine gun, and ran on a treadmill in a 108-degree Doriot Climatic Chamber. “It’s…
[HTML1] On May 1, 2012, Sgt. 1st Class Justin Merhoff, was caught on video executing an “exploding” fist bump with President Obama. The president was visiting Afghanistan around the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death, Merhoff was on his second tour of Afghanistan, and the two shared a beautiful, spontaneous moment — one Merhoff wants to share with the world. “I’m just trying to get that video out there and know that other people would want to see that,” the 33-year-old native of Red Bluff, Calif., told me in a phone interview. He has been in the Army 16…
Brace yourself ladies, the progesterone-packed Pin-Ups for Vets calendar is set to become an equal opportunity exciter. Calendar organizer and model Gina Elisa has announced she is seeking five male veterans — one from each branch — to star in the 2014 edition. “I constantly get asked by female service members, ‘When are you putting out a male calendar,'” Elise told Army Times. “This will definitely cater to the ladies as well. I’m excited to go through the submissions.” Elise said the idea was inspired by a Life Magazine photo of actress Marlene Dietrich (left), surrounded by sailors. She said…
[gview file=”http://blogs.militarytimes.com/outside-the-wire/files/2013/06/Beetle-Baileypdf.pdf”] The comic “Beetle Bailey” just got serious. The fictional gold-bricking every-soldier – who has been in print since 1950 – was shown to suffer from one of the signature wounds of the current wars. The strip appeared in the Boston Globe on June 16, though it’s worth mentioning today since it’s PTSD Awareness Day. The strip is part of a PTSD awareness campaign for the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital’s Home Base Program, which brought in the comic’s creator, Mort Walker. “I feel so sorry for veterans that have that post traumatic stress,” Walker, an 89-year-old Army…
[HTML1] His name is Paul Ieti. [via U.S Army WTF!]
Earlier today, a disgruntled member of an Alabama Army National Guard unit forwarded the e-mail below from a first sergeant outlining the do’s and don’t of social media with the subject line, “Troops 1st Amendment Rights being denied.” The email cautions troops to steer clear of posts about “gun control, the Democrats, the President, Congress, or personal opinions about STATE or FEDERAL GOVERNMENT matters.” Racism and sexism somehow don’t get a mention, but the timing is curious. This e-mail from January surfaced as the Marine Corps decided to get all expeditionary on Marines’ “salty” Facebook posts. Female Marines were being…
