Author Meghann Myers
The Army’s biggest failure: Losing the war on suicides Facing an enemy it can’t seem to defeat, the Army continues to lose more soldiers to suicide than to combat in Afghanistan. So far this year, the Army has reported 212 suspected suicides — 132 active-duty soldiers and 80 National Guard or Army Reserve soldiers who were not on active duty when they died. During the same time period, January through August, the Army lost 171 soldiers in Afghanistan. In FY2011 there were more than 1,000 known suicide attempts. Army leaders don’t know why the service is seeing a spike in…
That’s right. GQ says that the center of American fashion lies in Natick, Mass. and its greatest atelier is the United States Army Soldier Systems Center, which has given us such timeless staples of utilitarian fashion as the t-shirt, the bomber jacket, the combat boot and the eternally stylish camouflage print. The center is also responsible for the manufacture of parachutes, body armor and the MRE — why that culinary innovation hasn’t found its way to Michelin-starred restaurants, we’ll never know. While the functionality of military apparel helped it translate to fashion week runways, the Army points out that style…
Dodging the Drawdown: Tips on how you can stay in The pending drawdown of 80,000 soldiers over the next five years will have far-reaching implications that will affect nearly every facet of Army life and service as you know it. Another 100,000 soldiers will be on the chopping block under sequestration, which would call for much deeper cuts in defense spending, unless Congress acts — an effort that has thus far proved futile. So who will stay in uniform and who will get the boot? The Army is working on the tools it will use to answer that question. …
Army redraws promotion path to sergeant major The Army has redrawn the noncommissioned officer career road map, giving enlisted soldiers standard and predictable promotion waypoints to the ranks of sergeant through sergeant major.Several policy changes to be fielded over the next two years include a new plan that envisions most soldiers being promoted to sergeant at about 4½ years of service, followed by advancements to the other grades every six years. The goal of the new timeline is to move career-minded soldiers through the lower ranks into the sergeant major ranks at 24 to 25 years of service, and to…
Inspired by the non-issue of Prince Harry’s naked Las Vegas escapades last month, members of the British Armed Forces have set up a Facebook group in support of his royal highness. Apache helicopter pilot Cpt. Henry Wales of the Army Air Corps’ Blues and Royals regiment, as he’s known in the British military, earned an Operational Service Medal for Afghanistan in 2008.
(NZDefenceForce) Cpl. Luke Tamatea, Lance Cpl. Jacinda Baker and Pvt. Richard Harris lost their lives earlier this month when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in northeast Afghanistan. When their bodies arrived home to Christchurch, 200 military personnel greeted them with a massive haka, an ancient war dance traditionally performed by New Zealand’s native Maori civilization. Each branch of New Zealand’s military has its own haka. Some units have their own individual haka as well — pictured above is the choreography unique to the 2/1 RNZIR Battalion of the Defence Force.
