A British sharpshooter in Afghanistan has redefined the term, “badass.” The sniper killed killed six insurgents with a single bullet after hitting the trigger switch of a suicide bomber whose device then exploded, The Telegraph reported. The 20-year-old marksman, a lance corporal in the Coldstream Guards who was not named, reportedly hit his target from 930 yards away, killing the suicide bomber and five others around him caught in the blast. “The guy was wearing a vest. He was identified by the sniper moving down a tree line and coming up over a ditch,” said Lt. Col. Richard Slack, commanding…
Browsing: Outside the wire
Continuing its push to see Frederick Mayer receive the Medal of Honor, the Office of Strategic Services Society on Sunday sent a letter to Army Secretary John McHugh urging him to reopen the case. The OSS Society, a nonprofit organization that celebrates the accomplishments of the OSS during World War II, last week released a statement saying it believes Mayer, the “real ‘Inglourious Basterd,’” deserves the nation’s highest award for valor. The society’s statement came as the White House tomorrow will present the Medal of Honor to 24 soldiers from World War II, Vietnam and Korea who didn’t receive the…
Want a sandwich? Soldiers better have a knife and fork handy — if they’re in the British army. Sandwiches and rolls are banned from an officers’ mess in England because the way soldiers eat them is “frankly barbaric,” says an army commander, Maj. Gen. James Cowan, quoted Wednesday in The Telegraph, which cites a report in the Sun. “Quite a few officers … seem to be under the impression that they can eat their food with their hands,” Cowan says in a three-page letter on standards at Bulford Camp in Wiltshire, home of 3 UK Division. He also targets the use of…
[HTML1] Retired Staff Sgt. Travis Mills is a quadruple amputee who was critically injured by an IED while out on patrol during his third tour in Afghanistan. On Friday, he jumped out of a freakin’ airplane at 13,000 freakin’ feet while attached to a member of the Golden Knights parachute team. The Army documented the entire event in the skies above Homestead Air Reserve Base, Fla., and Mills is just fun to watch. When the plane is climbing to 6,000 feet, the cameraman inquires how Mills is feeling. Mills, with a huge grin on his face, says he’s ready to…
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno on Conan last night.
The Army’s top officer, now a seasoned veteran of late-night TV talk shows, appeared on “Conan” last night and encouraged the nation’s employers to hire soldiers leaving the service. “I believe they have so much to contribute,” said Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno, in the guest chair next to host Conan O’Brien. There are “no better employees than those who served the country,” he said to applause from the audience. Odierno talked up the Army’s Soldier for Life program, which supports the transition of soldiers into civilian life, saying “there is still a lot of work to do” as soldiers and…
As seven soldiers head for the Winter Olympics, the call is out for one of them to be picked as flag bearer for the U.S. during the Parade of Nations in Sochi, Russia. NBC raised the question, and its list of top picks for flag bearer on the NBC Olympics website includes two from the Army contingent: Capt. Chris Fogt and veteran Steven Holcomb. The list includes several other Olympic competitors. A Facebook page for soldiers, U.S Army W.T.F! moments, is rallying soldiers to vote for Fogt, an Iraq veteran who’s on the bobsled team Night Train, along with Holcomb,…
State of the Union addresses are by many accounts a political kabuki play and have been for years. President Obama’s highly observed and analysed speech will feature planned applause lines and choreographed nods, all while he highlights his priorities and signature achievements. He will do the talking, and members of Congress will clap, stand, grimace — or use their choice of guests — to speak for them. And tonight, veterans and family members of fallen service members will be among these honored guests, symbolically emphasizing legislators’ key issues. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is bringing Staff Sgt. Sandra Lee, who endured a…
He’s a vet who gives a voice to other vets — and now he’s headed to the State of the Union address next week. Eric Marts, a blind Iraq war vet who hosts a radio talk show about veterans issues, is going as a guest of Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-North Dakota, next week. His program is called “Heroes of the Heartland.” Heitkamp met former Master Sgt. Marts last summer when she traveled the state to listen to the issues facing North Dakota veterans, she said in a press release. “Each year, I ask someone special, someone who represents the very best from…
[HTML1] Seventy years ago, Betty McAleenan sent her husband off to war with her high school class ring. When Staff Sgt. Robery Greebull died in the Pacific, it was lost with him. That is, until this week. McAleenan, 94, of Cheyenne, Wy., was reunited with the ring after it was found in New Guinea, amid the wreckage of the plane crash that killed her husband. Greebull and the ring had made it through 38 successful missions over the South Pacific, but both lost during the 39th. With the memento of their love in her hands, McAleenan said she finally has…
The headlines about Fallujah spell gloom and doom for the Iraqi city recently taken over by al-Qaeda affiliates, raising tough questions about Iraq’s overall stability, whether the same will happen in Afghanistan after the U.S. leaves and, well, what the heck was it all for? In a case of curious timing, the homepage of the Combat Studies Institute calls to mind a triumphant time in Fallujah: November 2004. CSI offers a four-hour virtual tour about the one-time, ahem, two-time insurgent stronghold that examines the U.S.-led coalition operation to take the city. (The tour is available by request because perhaps it…
