“We’re really close,” Rasch said. “I’m super proud of the team because this is an important capability,”

But he cautioned that more testing remains before any decision is made on the future of its ground-launched hypersonic missile.

“We’ve got to make sure this capability works. If the decision is made to implement this, it’s for real, serious reasons, strategic-level reasons and we need it to work every time,” Rasch said.

The first flight test of the industry-manufactured missile — which took place at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii in May — was highly anticipated as part of a joint development program between the U.S. Navy and Army following a series of failed or aborted tests of the Common Hypersonic Glide Body.

Hypersonic weapons are capable of flying faster than Mach 5 — or more than 3,836 miles per hour — and can maneuver between varying altitudes, making them difficult to detect. The C-HGB is made up of the weapon’s warhead, guidance system, cabling and thermal protection shield.

The U.S. is in a race to field the capability and develop systems to defend against hypersonic missiles. China and Russia are actively developing and testing hypersonic weapons.

Missile development programs typically take about 10 years, Rasch stressed, and while the plan to field hypersonic missiles to a first unit has been delayed by over a year, the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon program is only at the five-year mark.

The Army has worked with Leidos’ Dynetics for years to build the industrial base for the Common Hypersonic Glide Body that will be used by both the ground service and the Navy, as the domestic private sector has never built a hypersonic weapon.

The service also separately produced launchers, trucks, trailers and the battle operations center necessary to put together the first weapon battery. Lockheed Martin is the weapon system integrator for the Army’s hypersonic capability that will be launched from a mobile truck.

The Army completed its delivery of the first hypersonic weapon capability — minus the all-up rounds — to the I Corps’ 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade unit at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state two days ahead of its end-of-fiscal 2021 fielding deadline.

The original plan was to train on the equipment and receive those rounds in the fall of 2023, but based on a series of failed or aborted tests, that timeline has slid further down the road.

The Army and Navy last year had to abort flight tests in March, October and November due to challenges at the range related not to the round but the process of firing up the missile for launch.

While Rasch could not provide details on the timing of forthcoming decisions for the program, he said, “We’re leaning forward wherever we can to make sure that as soon as we’re done with our testing, this capability will be in the hands of the soldier.”

The memo calls for “single soldiers without dependents assigned to the Republic of Korea to serve the accompanied tour length” of 24 months versus the typical unaccompanied one-year tour length.

The extension applies to specific occupational specialties and concentration areas, including air traffic control operators (15Q), UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter repairers (15T), working military dog handlers (31K), criminal investigations special agents (31D), counterintelligence agents (35L), signal intelligence analysts (35N) and criminal investigation division special agents (311A).

Soldiers with the listed specialties who have no dependents, are not married to other service members and are on permanent-change-of-station orders to South Korea must serve the 24-month accompanied tour length.

The revision does not apply to soldiers assigned to the defense attaché system or security cooperation organizations or to assignments in Korea without an approved accompanied tour, according to the memo.

The extension also does not affect soldiers who were placed on orders or already in South Korea before Aug. 1, according to a service spokesman.

“This affects between 100 to 200 soldiers overall in those military occupational specialties,” said U.S. Army spokesman Christopher Surridge.

The 24-month requirement, according to the memo, aims to improve readiness in the listed specialties “that require soldiers to undergo extensive training and or certification requirements prior to being fully mission capable.”

“For these seven occupations, it takes an extended amount of time to get them trained and certified to be fully mission capable for the unit,” said Surridge.

The first U.S. troops, including soldiers and Marines, arrived in South Korea on July 1, 1950, in response to North Korea’s capture of Seoul during the Korean War.

The U.S. has maintained its military alliance with South Korea ever since, seeking to deter armed conflict in the region, according to the Department of Defense.

Approximately 28,500 U.S. troops are based in South Korea as of 2023, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The Maj. Gen. Edwin “Forrest” Harding Fellowship is part of The Harding Project, an initiative launched in 2023 by the Army’s top commander to enhance and encourage professional writing within the service and introduce new ideas and approaches to the modern battlespace.

Since the project’s inception, a dozen soldiers have been working to revive the Army’s branch journals and magazines, including the “Infantry,” “Armor,” “Air Defense,” and “Special Warfare” titles, which serve as the storehouse for current military debate and thought.

The fellowship will select six fellows annually to spend a year at the University of Kansas earning a graduate degree in journalism before being assigned as full-time editors of one of the Army’s branch journals for a two-year stint.

Army leaders want soldiers to write, debate issues facing the force

Those editors will then bring their expertise back to their units.

“Like the observer controllers who serve at our combat training centers, these leaders will return to operational units as experts in their branches with superior communications skills,” said Gen. Gary Brito, head of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command.

Over the past decade, some branch journals, once the go-to place for specialized military news and study, have become dormant or less frequently used. For example, the last time “Armor” magazine had an editor serving in uniform was 2006, according to officials.

The decline is partly due to a high rate of operational commitments but also a shift in how soldiers and leaders consume information, similar to trends in civilian media.

When the Harding Project launched last year, it adopted a simplified online approach. It uses its website to post easily searchable articles and blog-style posts. Users can also download a chat application to read and engage with others on their mobile device.

As part of an awareness campaign, the Army is releasing a special issue of “Military Review” in print and on a new online platform. The issue will included articles on writing techniques, running a unit writing program and how to offer respectful dissent in written forums.

The service plans to distribute 18,000 print copies of the journal to battalion-level and higher headquarters within the next month.

Maj. Emily Lopez, a civil affairs officer, was among the first crop of editors selected earlier this year. She has served as editor-in-chief of “Special Warfare” magazine since June aside Sgt. 1st Class Ben Latigue, a special forces medic.

“I think the beautiful thing about being a military editor in chief is we’re part of the connective tissue back to the force,” Lopez told Army Times.

Both she and Latigue came to the positions after operational rotations within special operations.

Editors’ duties goes beyond copyediting and spell-checking articles. One of The Harding Project’s priorities is fostering conversation and debate and garnering ideas from the force.

Lopez and Latigue have spent recent months at various primary military education events and forums, asking students about the hot topics in their fields.

Drawing on that audience feedback, they aim to bring more relevant content to readers and boost soldiers’ engagement with the journals and online writing forums.

How to apply

The Maj. Gen. Edwin “Forrest” Harding Fellowship will accept submissions through Sept. 10.

The fellowship is open to any active-duty captain, master sergeant or chief warrant officer 4 in the following branches — infantry, air defense, military intelligence, chemical corps, engineer, military police, transportation, quartermaster, ordnance, finance, civil affairs, psychological operations and special forces.

Applicants must also have graduated from the Captains Career Course, hold a bachelor’s degree with a 3.0 grade point average and not have a graduate degree that was paid for by the Army.

An Army board will review submissions in late September and announced the fellows in mid-October, Lt. Col. Zachary Evans, special assistant to the Army chief of staff, told Army Times.

Application packet information is available on the Army’s Human Resources Command website.

A helicopter crash at a military base in Alabama on Wednesday afternoon killed one person and injured another, military officials said.

An AH-64 Apache helicopter crashed during routine flight training on Fort Novosel Army base, about 94 miles south of Montgomery, according to a statement from the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence and Fort Novosel.

Army pushes more safety training as helicopter crashes spike

The crash killed the flight instructor, according to the statement. An Army student pilot was airlifted to a hospital for additional evaluation.

Dale County Coroner John Cawley identified the deceased instructor pilot as Daniel Munger, 46, a contractor and retired service member.

Military authorities did not immediately provide information about the circumstances of the crash. The statement said the accident is under investigation.

“Our primary concern is the welfare and health of the student pilot and care and concern for the family of the deceased,” Maj. Gen. Clair A. Gill, U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence and Fort Novosel commanding general, said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press.

In April the Army ordered a six-month aviation “safety stand up” requiring additional aviation training across the force. That move followed a dozen mishaps — resulting in 10 fatalities — in the first six months of the fiscal year, Army Times previously reported.

“We’ve seen a troubling trend with our accident rates,” Maj. Gen. Walter Rugen, director of Army aviation, said on a call with reporters in April. “Certainly, any loss of life is 100% unacceptable and obviously when we have [an] accident where we lose the aircraft or severely damage the aircraft, we consider that unacceptable, too.”

A Class A mishap, under Army definitions, is any which results in the loss of life or the loss of equipment totaling more than $2.5 million. The service records the rate of Class A mishaps per 100,000 flight hours.

The rate as of April was 3.22, more than double the highest rate of any fiscal year in more than a decade, according to readiness center data.

The AH-64 Apache is a two-person aircraft. Fort Novosel was previously known as Fort Rucker. It is the Army’s primary training facility for helicopter pilots.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

The 54-year-old prior-enlisted supply officer would later say he only expected family and friends to see the joke video he made on July 14, 2023.

He likely never intended for his command, the Navy Expeditionary Warfighting Development Center, to catch wind of it.

But they did, and in June, Dickerson was court-martialed for the video, charged with a violation of Article 133 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.

Dickerson’s charge sheet alleged that he “wrongfully and dishonorably” posted the video “showing himself acting in a contemptuous manner towards the Navy while in uniform.”

Watch the video below.

And while Dickerson was found not guilty at a judge-alone trial on June 13, the saga of the officer and his TikTok content has outside attorneys wondering why he was ever charged in the first place for such an infraction.

The case also offers a glimpse into the murky legality involved in court-martialing service members for social media posts, and how no single charge in the UCMJ governs such infractions, leaving commanders across the services to apply the law as they and their legal staffs see fit.

Questions also remain about command decisions before the trial began.

For reasons the Navy has not explained, the unit’s commander, Capt. Charles Eckhart, withdrew the charge in late 2023 and then re-referred it the same day, stripping Dickerson of his right to choose a trial by jury in the process.

Charging Dickerson for the video was “a misuse and abuse of criminal justice,” according to Rachel VanLandingham, a retired Air Force attorney, law professor and National Institute of Military Justice president.

“This is nothing that warrants a federal criminal conviction,” she told Navy Times after reviewing the case.

While Dickerson filming the video in his officer’s uniform was “stupid,” he could have been administratively disciplined or read the riot act by his command instead, VanLandingham said.

“I found it flabbergasting,” she said. “Shame on the lawyers that advised the commander to bring this charge.”

An argument could be made that the video constituted conduct unbecoming an officer, but such conduct doesn’t warrant a court-martial, according to Brian Ferguson, a civilian defense attorney who has represented service members in social media-related proceedings.

“Was that a good decision for him to do that? Probably not,” said Marshall Griffin, a retired Coast Guard attorney now in private practice. “Could it have been addressed with a counseling and telling him to take it down? Yes.”

“I think it’s heavy-handed, for sure,” he added.

Social media posts have landed troops in hot water in recent years, or brought attention to issues that service members felt were not being addressed by their commands.

But Patrick McLain, a retired Marine Corps judge now in private practice, said he had not seen a social media-related case focused “on the foolishness or vulgarity of the content of the social media” before.

Instead, such cases have generally focused on posts that contained racist, extremist or violent content, he said.

Dickerson’s case raises questions about the First Amendment rights of expression for service members as well.

It remains unclear how many troops have been taken to trial over social media posts in recent years.

The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps all said the services do not track social media-related courts-martial, and outside legal experts note that such crimes can be charged under a variety of UCMJ articles.

Given the general lack of public transparency in the military justice system, such cases become even harder to track from the outside, VanLandingham said.

The Navy declined to comment on Dickerson’s case.

Dickerson declined comment for this report.

His civilian defense attorney, Rob Canoy, said in a statement that “the right decision was ultimately reached in court on the merits.”

“Despite the Navy’s criminal prosecution for this conduct, we do not hold any ill will towards the command or the Navy for doing what they thought they needed to do to maintain good order and discipline,” he said.

Navy says ‘liking’ or sharing extremists’ posts on social media can get you in trouble

The case offers another example of how troops need to think about what they put online, Ferguson said.

“Posting on social media in uniform is like drinking heavily at the unit Christmas party,” he said. “It’s not going to end well.”

‘But it’s funny, right?!’

Court records indicate that Dickerson’s command became aware of the video within a few weeks of him posting it.

An email from one staff member on July 31, 2023, states that it was brought to the command’s attention by another supply corps officer.

“Definitely beneath a field grade military officer behavior, but not sure it’s more than that,” one staffer wrote to colleagues.

A screenshot included in court filings suggests that at least one of Dickerson’s subordinates saw the video, and commented “SIRRRRR” alongside two laughing emojis.

“But it’s funny, right?!” Dickerson replied.

Command members scrambled to preserve the video, with some unsure how TikTok worked or how they could save the video if Dickerson deleted it.

Under the subject line, “Inappropriate TikTok?” one Navy commander asked how to capture it “before we tell him to take it down.”

“Worst case maybe if someone in your office has ticktock (sic) we could use a second phone to record the first?” the officer wondered. “And screen shot the comments?”

Two days after the video, the unit’s commanding officer, Eckhart, issued a social media policy for his unit, reminding sailors of best social media practices and how they are always representing the Navy.

“The internet doesn’t forget and online habits leave digital footprints,” Eckhart wrote. “It is imperative that we set ourselves up for success through deliberate, valuable and healthy social media use.”

He also reminded his sailors that such behavior is subject to the UCMJ.

A few weeks after he posted the video, Dickerson emailed his superiors on Aug. 2, 2023, to explain himself and apologize, court records show.

“I would like to express how ashamed and embarrassed that I am (sic) that I created that video,” Dickerson wrote. “I failed to live up to the high standards and expectations of our officer corp (sic).”

Dickerson wrote that he had a physical therapy appointment that morning and had seen a parody of the “Let It Go” song before his appointment.

Navigating the Pentagon’s social media rules amid the Israel-Hamas war

After the appointment, he went home to shower and dress for work.

“At some point during this, I came up with the idea for the video based on my wife (sic) years of comments, ‘Why do you take leave, you end up working through it anyways,’” he wrote. “I made and posted the video for her and my friends, expecting them to see me being goofy and expecting that this vacation would be the same as any other working vacation.”

The video was meant to be self-deprecating and for an audience who would know him and recognize that he was just “acting silly,” Dickerson wrote.

“I understand that nothing on the internet is private, but I’ve felt that I could hide under the anonymity of large numbers,” he continued. “I never felt I was anyone’s choice for viewing a video I made.”

The TikTok received at least 81 likes, eight comments and was shared by four users and saved by 18 users, according to court records.

Dickerson noted the video wasn’t directed toward the military or any person or command.

He wrote how he was “blessed to get a second chance at service,” and how he regretted letting sailors down “with this stupid mistake.”

“I understand the tough position this places you, the XO and CO in,” Dickerson added. “I hope that you weigh this isolated misstep against whatever value that you place on my past service.”

An Aug. 22, 2023, memo included in court records summarized the executive officer’s inquiry into Dickerson’s video.

Dickerson enlisted in the Navy in 1988, the memo states, and had been an officer for more than 13 years, serving as the second-in-command of Navy Cargo Handling Battalion 1 from February 2022 to February 2023.

The Florida native’s enlisted service ended in 1996, and he came back into the fleet as an officer in 2009, according to service records.

His awards and decorations include surface warfare supply corps officer, SSBN deterrent patrol insignia and enlisted submarine warfare specialist.

“If I knew it would come to this, I would not have made the video,” Dickerson told his XO, according to the memo.

“I ordered a break for LCDR Dickerson to regain his composure,” the XO wrote in the memo.

A few months later, on Nov. 30, 2023, Eckhart referred the charge against Dickerson for violating Article 133 of the UCMJ.

That original referral to a special court-martial contained no special instructions, meaning Dickerson had the legal right to opt for a jury trial, his civilian attorney, Canoy, argued in a court filing earlier this year.

After that, the original charge “lingered without action” and was never submitted to the court or put on the trial docket, Canoy wrote.

Then, for reasons the Navy has not explained, the original charge was withdrawn and dismissed without prejudice on Dec. 27, 2023, nearly a month after it was originally filed, Canoy wrote.

Eckhart signed a memorandum noting the withdrawal, but it “contained no reason for the withdrawal,” the attorney wrote.

That same day, the same charge was filed against Dickerson again, but with one caveat: The trial would be a judge-only proceeding, and Dickerson would not be able to opt for a jury trial.

Canoy alleged in filings that the original charge was withdrawn, and the new charge filed the same day, solely to deny Dickerson a jury trial.

Eckhart declined to explain this series of events when queried by Navy Times.

“The convening authority, Capt. Eckhart, has declined to provide a comment,” Lt. Cmdr. Kara Handley, a spokesperson for Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, said in an email to Navy Times. “We don’t have anything additional to add at this time.”

The judge-alone special court-martial option for commanders is a relatively new legal option that went into effect in 2019.

Known among attorneys as a “short-martial,” it is a commander’s option for cases where the maximum punishment is limited to six months of confinement or pay forfeitures.

It also is rarely used. Four out of 165 tried court-martials in 2023 were conducted in that forum, according to Navy records.

Convening authorities have the right to withdraw a charge and then refer it again, and opting for such a judge-alone forum means the accused faces less severe punishment, according to the private attorney McLain.

“The accused is now deprived of the right to trial by members, but concurrently the punishment is much less,” McLain told Navy Times in an email.

Army investigating social media post showing Nazi symbol

Canoy argued in a motion to dismiss the case that the change reflected an “attempt to interfere in the accused’s ability to have a trial before (a jury).”

VanLandingham agreed, and said the withdrawal and re-referral of the charge was done “in a very abusive and manipulative manner.”

“They were afraid this wasn’t a strong enough charge,” she said. “And it wasn’t.”

Commanders risk undermining themselves when they take such cases to trial and an acquittal ensues, civilian attorney Ferguson said.

“For a commander to have a case like this go to trial and lose, he probably is thinking he should have gone nonjudicial punishment,” Ferguson said. “Clearly this has backfired.”

‘Profanity is as common in the average naval workspace as coffee’

Court records show Canoy filed several unsuccessful motions to dismiss the charge earlier in 2024 before Navy Judge Cmdr. Mishonda Mosley found Dickerson not guilty in June.

In one, Canoy argued that the conduct unbecoming an officer charge does not apply to Dickerson’s conduct in the video.

He argued that the command’s social media guidance released after Dickerson’s video “contains no prohibitions regarding the use of profanity or gestures which express profanity.”

While the command’s guidance noted that online conduct should be no different from offline conduct, Canoy wrote that “profanity is commonly used throughout every Navy workspace around the country.”

“Profanity is as common in the average naval workspace as coffee,” he wrote. “Similarly, profanity seems to accompany the execution of nearly every military mission ― even more so in combat and high stress environments.”

Marine who demanded ‘accountability’ on social media to be released from the brig

While vulgarity has been a “mainstay of military parlance since 1775,” the smartphone age means that such language is out in the online world for all to see, instead of confined to a military unit’s workspace, McLain said.

“Like pornography, the internet and smartphones have released stupid behavior out of a veritable Pandora’s box, never to be retrieved,” he said.

Canoy also argued in court that conduct unbecoming an officer offenses laid out under law include being drunk, “moral turpitude” crimes and false official statements, not the type of behavior in Dickerson’s TikTok.

“An officer posting a meme of himself lip synching a parody song is ― at worst ― a misplaced attempt at humor, nothing more,” he wrote. “It certainly does not state an offense as a federal crime.”

Canoy also contended that Dickerson’s conduct had no effect on his unit’s military mission, and that he’s not the only military member to post such content.

“The internet is literally filled with hundreds upon hundreds of videos of military members in uniform saying outlandish things,” he wrote. “These military members are either venting, depicting actual military events, or simply making videos in an effort for comedy.”

Free speech in the military is inherently a gray area, Ferguson told Navy Times.

“That’s why it’s essential in these cases to have a jury of unbiased officers, so that one person can’t set a standard after the fact,” he said.

‘All this stink, and an acquittal’

VanLandingham, the retired Air Force attorney, said Dickerson’s case should be a call to move more prosecutorial decisions out of the hands of military commanders, even as those commanders retain their disciplinary authority.

“Any time there’s a charge, you’re going to take away someone’s liberty and give them a federal conviction that would follow them the rest of their lives,” she said. “The commander could have avoided all this stink, and an acquittal.”

Some prosecutorial authority has been removed from commanders in recent years, and military entities outside the accused’s chain of command now decide whether serious cases like sexual assault should be prosecuted.

“Commanders still need disciplinary authority, but they have not shown they can handle criminal prosecutorial authority in a responsible manner,” VanLandingham said. “This case is Exhibit A.”

While some guidance exists, the military needs to do some “soul-searching” about how they handle social media in general, she said.

“This case was complete overkill,” VanLandingham said.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Michael Rounds, R-S.D., members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote to Austin and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who’s helping to run the review.

The Pentagon announced July 24 that it would create a special panel to determine whether to retain or rescind the medals. The panel is expected to submit a report to Austin by Oct. 15 with recommendations for each recipient. Austin will then take those recommendations to President Joe Biden.

According to the Defense Department, 20 Medals of Honor were awarded to U.S. troops for their actions at Wounded Knee in 1890, when soldiers killed and injured between 350 and 375 Lakota men, women and children.

Austin ordered the U.S. Army to hand over all historical documentation about the massacre, including personnel files for the awardees, by July 26. Warren and Rounds argue in their letter that the deadline was too early for Native American tribes, families of victims, historians and academic institutions to share information that should be considered.

In a letter, they asked that the panel accept information from the public on a rolling basis.

“Stakeholders ... possess a wealth of information that is critical for the panel’s consideration,” Warren and Rounds wrote. “Much of that information may take more than just a matter of days to gather. Additionally, many critical stakeholders may not have the resources to operate on an overly compressed timeline.”

The killings, referred to as the Wounded Knee Massacre, occurred Dec. 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. It was part of a larger effort by the U.S. government to repress Native American tribes of the Great Plains and eradicate a religious movement known as Ghost Dance.

Reports about the Ghost Dance movement prompted the U.S. Army to guard reservations. On Dec. 29, 1890, troops from the 7th Cavalry were confiscating weapons from Lakota people when a struggle with a reportedly deaf man sparked a chaotic one-sided firefight. When the smoke cleared, dozens of cavalry troopers were wounded or killed by friendly fire — likely from their artillery — and hundreds of Lakota were dead.

A Pentagon memorandum issued last month lists 20 troops who were awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor, for their actions that day. One citation says a recipient showed distinguished conduct “in a battle with hostile Indians.” Another says one man “voluntarily led a party into a ravine to dislodge Sioux Indians concealed therein.”

A few citations said troops had rescued their fellow soldiers, and some said only that the men exhibited “extraordinary gallantry.”

Congress officially apologized for the massacre around its 100th anniversary in 1990, but it did not rescind the medals then. In 2022, Congress encouraged the Pentagon to review the awards.

The panel reviewing the Medals of Honor will comprise five experts, including two from the Department of the Interior, the Pentagon memo states. When reviewing the awards, panelists will consider the context at the time and use the military’s 1890 standards for awarding the Medal of Honor, rather than today’s standards.

Panelists will determine whether any of the soldiers did anything disqualifying them from the award, which includes intentionally directing an attack against someone who surrendered in good faith, murdering or raping a prisoner or engaging in any other act “demonstrating immorality,” Austin’s memo reads.

In their letter, Warren and Rounds applauded the review and described it as “long overdue.” They asked Austin and Haaland for transparency throughout the process.

“We ... hope this collaborative process includes DOD and DOI providing easy, mutual access to the records each agency receives,” the senators wrote. “We are greatly interested in seeing a review process that is informed by stakeholders’ documentation and testimonies.”

The Pentagon noted in July that this isn’t the first time Medals of Honor have come under scrutiny. In 1916, Congress ordered the Army to review all Medals of Honor awarded since the Civil War. At that time, a panel of five retired generals decided to rescind 911 of the awards. Six of those medals were later reinstated.

This story was produced in partnership with Military Veterans in Journalism. Please send tips to MVJ-Tips@militarytimes.com.

Andrew Buchanan, 38, is accused of calling the threats in by cell phone before the Army-Navy game on Dec. 8 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts.

According to a criminal complaint, the FBI reported receiving a tip that Buchanan allegedly told a family member they would see him on the news and there would be a mass casualty event at Gillette Stadium.

The Army-Navy game was played without incident in front of more than 65,000 football fans and authorities were able to track the call.

Buchanan is also accused of making threats to shoot up the campus of Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island, a few days after the football game. A student admissions employee reported that call.

Prosecutors said Buchanan is facing one felony count of interstate threatening communications, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

Buchanan — a former resident of Burrillville, Rhode Island — was arrested on July 31 in Tucson, Arizona, where authorities said he was homeless.

Court documents show that after his arrest, Buchanan waived a subsequent hearing in federal court in Tucson and a judge ordered his return to Rhode Island to face charges in U.S. District Court in Providence.

Federal authorities said Tuesday that the extradition will be handled by the U.S. Marshals Service, but there’s no specific timetable.

Calls to the Marshals Service and to the public defender representing Buchanan seeking comment on the case weren’t immediately returned Tuesday.

“This wasn't a decision that I took lightly," Austin told reporters at an event with Australian officials in Annapolis, Maryland.

“But I have long believed that the families of the victims, our service members, and the American public deserve the opportunity to see military commissions, commission trials carried out" in the 9/11 case, he said.

At the U.S. military commission in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, meanwhile, lawyers and the judge in the case of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and two other defendants who had also taken plea deals were still coming to terms with Austin’s surprise order and its effect on efforts to resolve the more than 20-year-old case.

Mohammed and a total of four other defendants at Guantanamo are accused in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, using hijacked passenger jets, that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. A fourth defendant did not agree to the plea agreement, and a fifth defendant last year was ruled mentally unfit to continue facing trial.

Legal complications, including profound questions over how much the men’s torture while in CIA custody in the first years after their capture has tainted the evidence and the case itself, have helped drag out proceedings. The case remains in pretrial hearings after more than a decade.

After about two years of plea negotiations, the Pentagon-appointed retired general overseeing the military commission last week approved a plea bargain struck by prosecutors and defense attorneys that would have spared Mohammed and the two others the risk of the death penalty, in return for their guilty pleas.

Families of 9/11 victims offered differing opinions, with some welcoming the resolution and others saying they wanted to see capital trials. Senior Republicans in Congress publicly lambasted the Biden administration for the plea bargain.

An order from Austin made public late Friday, in which he said he was revoking approval of the plea bargain and personally assuming that decision-making authority in the 9/11 case, upended the deal.

“There's not a day that goes by when I don't think of 9/11 and the Americans that were murdered that day. Also those who died trying to save lives, and the troops and their families who gave so much for this country,” said Austin, who commanded troops in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, and was awarded a Silver Star for his service as a commander during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Some of the lawyers and civil-rights organizations involved in the Guantanamo Bay cases accuse Austin of bowing to political pressure in overturning the plea deal, and are challenging the legality of Austin's action.

Open hearings are scheduled to resume Wednesday for the first time since Austin’s order, and may reveal the defense’s response to the overriding of the plea bargain.

The Army uses its Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation & Missile Center to evaluate systems such as Raytheon’s Coyote and Blue Halo’s Next-Generation C-UAS Missile. But according to Lozano, “there are other companies out there working on [counter-UAS] interceptors that might actually also have some growth potential to intercept rockets, large caliber rockets, as well as potentially cruise missiles.”

A competition next year would be held “to see if there’s anything out there better that we should be pursuing,” he said. “[It’s] a way to confirm that our investment is yielding the outcome that we’re trying to achieve.”

The Army released an objective requirement in March 2023 through the Aviation & Missile Technology Consortium — managed by Advanced Technology International — to develop a Long-Range Kinetic Interceptor prototype, according to an AvMC spokesperson.

The service and the Joint Counter-small UAS Office are requiring the development and testing of the prototype NGCM, the spokesperson told Defense News.

The vendors selected for immediate funding came from a pool of 16. Eleven others were placed in a “basket” for potential future selection, the spokesperson said.

The Army is also planning on holding a competition for a new handheld device to take out drones, Lozano noted.

“Inherently, a handheld system has limited power,” he said, but Lozano noted the Army recently observed promising capabilities in the handheld realm during a fielding exercise with the 101st Airborne Division.

Prior to a Joint Readiness Training Center rotation the service provided the unit with handheld capabilities that could go up against small UAS, according to Lozano.

A competition for a mobile flat-panel array radar to detect drone threats is also in the works for FY25.

The Army already has such equipment incorporated in the Stryker combat vehicle’s mobile counter-UAS system, but officials are seeking to establish a reliable system for future operations, Lozano said.

The service put together a new space vision at the end of 2023, which strengthens the Army’s role in space and its use of space-based capabilities.

“The Army has a place in space and we need to continue leading the charge by giving ourselves every opportunity to become the experts we’ll turn to during the next conflict,” Gainey said. “[But] it’s also clear to me that our Army is missing a major piece of the puzzle when it comes to space operations.”

That is where establishing a space-focused MOS comes in.

The proposal to create the military occupation specialty was submitted to the Army G-1, the branch in charge of personnel, about six weeks ago, SMDC Command Sergeant Major John Foley told reporters at the symposium.

Once staffing is complete the decision will go to Army senior leaders, Foley said. If given a green light the new occupation could take roughly two more years to implement.

Soldiers assigned to the new job would be designated as “40 Delta MOS, to where they’re now space soldiers and they’re experts,” Foley said.

Space and Missile Defense Command is also busy implementing the Army’s new space vision. The service’s space-focused mission has had to adapt since the arrival of the U.S. Space Force in 2019.

Prior to the establishment of the military’s youngest branch, the Army’s space-related mission areas included satellite communications; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; and missile warning. All of those roles were transferred to the Space Force over the last several years.

The service’s new vision carves out new mission areas, such as integrating joint space capabilities and interdicting or disrupting adversaries’ use of space for hostile purposes.

The Army has stressed the need to create and exploit space domain effects — and invest in more space capabilities and formations — to enable successful operations.

Formations set to take responsibility for the interdiction mission include multidomain task forces and theater strike effects groups. The Army has already established three MDTFs — two in the Pacific theater and one in Europe. Two more will be activated in the coming years, with these task forces expected to use cyber and electronic warfare capabilities to block adversaries’ defenses.

Simultaneously, theater strike effects groups would “synchronize and deliver Army space interdiction fires in support of theater targeting objectives.”

New capabilities will include next-generation tactical terminals to fuse data from multi-orbit satellite communications services and space-enabled tactical ISR platforms, as well as high-altitude sensors like balloons and long-endurance, fixed-wing aircraft.

Already the Army has repositioned several thousand soldiers in support of multidomain operations, and the service has developed a space training strategy that will soon be released, Gainey said.

That strategy will be “key to all the formations in the Army being able to train at their unit, at the tactical level on simple space capabilities [like] GPS jamming, how to react in those environments,” Foley said. “That entire vision ... complements all that we are talking about, building, modernization — and then the ownership at tactical level for those commanders to say this is a priority. We need to be able to train these specific tasks so that when and if they are denied, disrupted, jammed, [then] they can react.”

Adding more offensive space control capabilities inside the theater strike effects group is also something the command is discussing. The TSEG is moving from concept to interim capability in the 2027 timeframe and will go to the Indo-Pacific theater to inform a future “objective force,” Gainey said.

“We’re already hearing from other [combatant commands] that they want that capability,” he noted.

Personnel from Space and Missile Defense Command and Army Futures Command are working together to develop a concept for what the objective force will look like, Gainey said, adding that an announcement on that may come “hopefully next year.”

Meanwhile, SMDC is working to get capability to the multidomain task forces. Such efforts may include prototyping and experimenting with high-altitude balloons and aircraft while examining such capabilities within the MDTFs.

”You’re going to see space capability proliferate” throughout those formations, Gainey added. “[They’re] going to experiment with it, train with it, and then provide us feedback into our Army capability manager and into our schoolhouse.”

The command is targeting October 2025 to release the new strategy, a joint effort by the Space and Missile Defense Center of Excellence and Army Futures Command, as well as other service players such as the Army Air and Missile Defense Commands and the Fires Center of Excellence, he said during a press briefing at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium.

The Army is taking “an integrated approach to the strategy,” Gainey noted, and it will be nested in the Army’s multidomain operations doctrine and warfighting concepts.

The service previously released a strategic air and missile defense vision in 2018, which was focused on the 2028 time period. That strategy centered on structure and force organization, “but also what we fight with and how we fight well,” Gainey said. “But it’s time to look even further into the future.”

The new strategy will take into account “what we’ve learned from previous years and current conflicts to design the type of force we’ll need” to ensure an AMD force is successful in 2040, Gainey said.

Looking at ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and in the Middle East, Gainey noted, “It’s real easy to see the challenges that are out there.”

“We have an idea, we know currently how the threat is evolving and where we believe the threat is [in] the future,” Gainey said. “So, this strategy is going to allow us the opportunity to lay a foundation ... with capability and development to be able to address that future threat.”

Already the command has determined there are some imperatives that will be included in the future strategy.

“We know we will operate under constant observation and in continuous contact — 360-degree coverage is a non-negotiable,” he said.

The strategy also will recognize that technology used for missile defense must have an open architecture and use “all benefits” of artificial intelligence, Gainey noted.

Capability should also be “fast and cost curve-informed and adaptable,” he said.

The F/A-18s and a E-2D Hawkeye surveillance aircraft took off from the carrier in the Gulf of Oman and arrived at the undisclosed base on Monday, said the official.

5 US troops, 2 contractors injured in rocket attack at Iraq base

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the increased military presence in the region as officials worry about escalating violence in the Middle East in the wake of the killings last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran, in suspected Israeli strikes. Both groups are backed by Iran.

The Navy jets’ land-based deployment is expected to be temporary, because a squadron of Air Force F-22 fighter jets is en route to the same base from their home station in Alaska. The roughly dozen F-22s are expected to arrive in the Middle East in the coming days, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements.

It’s not clear how long all of the aircraft will remain together at the base, and that may depend on what — if anything — happens in the next few days.

US to boost military presence in Middle East amid growing tensions

The troop movements come as U.S. officials released more details about the rocket attack that hit a military base in Iraq on Monday, injuring American personnel. Officials said five U.S. service members and two contractors were hurt when two rockets hit the base.

The officials said five of those injured were being treated at the al-Asad air base and two were evacuated, but all seven are in stable condition. They did not provide details on who was evacuated.

The rocket attack is the latest in what has been an uptick in strikes on U.S. forces by Iranian-backed militias. It comes as tensions across the Middle East are spiking but is not believed to be connected to the Hezbollah and Hamas killings.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.

In recent weeks, Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have resumed launching attacks on bases housing U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria after a lull of several months, following a strike on a base in Jordan in late January that killed three American soldiers and prompted a series of retaliatory U.S. strikes.

Between October and January, an umbrella group calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq had regularly claimed attacks that it said were in retaliation for Washington’s support of Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza and were aimed at pushing U.S. troops out of the region.

The first initiative will increase America’s access to bases on Australia’s western and northern coasts. The U.S. has been spending hundreds of millions of dollars on military construction there in recent years, in part because of the area’s proximity to the South China Sea, where Beijing has lately grown more aggressive.

Going forward, the U.S. will now be able to work at Royal Australian Air Force Base Learmonth, on Australia’s western shores, and will also expand its construction work on Scherger and Curtin, two other bases on different ends of the northern coast, according to the Pentagon.

“All of this will mean more a maritime patrol aircraft and reconnaissance aircraft operating from bases across northern Australia,” American Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said at a Tuesday press conference.

The two countries will also work to build, sustain and develop weapons more closely together. Most of these will be munitions: either the guided multiple launch rocket system, or GMLRS, or the precision strike missile, known as PrSM.

By December, the two countries will finish plans to assemble the first munition and produce and sustain the second together. To coordinate the work, the U.S. will open a new joint programs office in Huntsville, Alabama, next year.

Australia unveils record $37 billion defense budget

The two efforts were unveiled following an annual meeting of the countries’ top defense and diplomatic officials at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

All of this work is riding the coattails of AUKUS, an agreement inked three years ago between the U.S., U.K. and Australia to share nuclear-powered submarines and develop high-tech weapons. That pact has helped loosen each country’s regulations on sharing such technology, particularly tight American restrictions that have long frustrated U.S. allies.

American defense officials described the Australia meeting as the final leg in a race to make their work in Asia more enduring. Austin traveled last week to Japan and the Philippines, where he held similar meetings with his counterparts there. The Annapolis summit would be the end of what a senior U.S. defense official labeled, with a flourish, the “10 most consequential days for U.S. defense ties in the region since the start of the administration.”

“The Biden administration has done a lot to deepen and expand” its alliances, said Eric Sayers, who studies the region at the American Enterprise Institute. “The work now is less on building and more on implementing.”

Australia fast-tracks its hunt for replacement frigates

In the shadow of these meetings, of course, is how long either country has to implement the plans. America’s election in November could make Washington’s foreign policy more transactional if Donald Trump returns to the White House. And Australia’s own elections next September could end in a hung parliament, perhaps empowering parties that are more skeptical of the alliance with America, said Rory Medcalf, an Australian defense analyst.

That said, Washington and Canberra have long been close, despite political change. While Pentagon officials have a nickname for each of their partners in the region, it’s telling that Austin calls U.S.-Australia ties “the unbreakable alliance.”

And the motivating force behind their recent cooperation — a more aggressive and powerful China — isn’t likely to change anytime soon.

“I believe there’s a clear direction of travel for the Australian-American relationship,” said Charles Edel, the Australia chair at CSIS. “The question increasingly is the speed of delivery.”

The officials said five of those injured were being treated at the al-Asad airbase and two were evacuated, but all seven are in stable condition. They did not provide details on who was evacuated.

Several US troops injured in rocket attack in Iraq, officials say

The rocket attack is the latest in what has been an uptick in strikes on U.S. forces by Iranian-backed militias. It comes as tensions across the Middle East are spiking but is not believed to be connected to the killings last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran, in suspected Israeli strikes. Both groups are backed by Iran.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.

In recent weeks, Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have resumed launching attacks on bases housing U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria after a lull of several months, following a strike on a base in Jordan in late January that killed three American soldiers and prompted a series of retaliatory U.S. strikes.

Between October and January, an umbrella group calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq had regularly claimed attacks that it said were in retaliation for Washington’s support of Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza and were aimed at pushing U.S. troops out of the region.

Tim Walz, named Tuesday as the running mate of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, is the current governor of Minnesota, a former high school teacher, a six-term congressman and a long-tenured veteran of the Army National Guard.

Walz, 60, enlisted in the National Guard on April 8, 1981 at the age of 17. While serving, he held multiple positions within field artillery, including firing battery chief, operations sergeant and first sergeant, and he culminated his career serving as the command sergeant major for the battalion, said Lt. Col. Kristen Augé, the Minnesota National Guard’s state public affairs officer.

Walz retired in 2005 as a master sergeant because “he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy,” Augé said. Command sergeants major who don’t complete the Sergeants Major Course revert back to their prior rank, she explained.

In 2006, Walz became the highest ranking enlisted soldier to serve in Congress. He used the office to champion veterans issues, and a decade later rose to become the Democratic minority leader on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Chaired by former Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., the committee was praised widely during President Donald Trump’s administration as a rare example of bipartisanship.

Members of veterans organizations who worked with Walz during that time reacted positively Tuesday to Harris’ choice.

“Gov. Walz is a great choice,” John Rowan, the former president of Vietnam Veterans of America, wrote on Facebook. “He helped Vietnam veterans get the benefits they deserved to take care of their illnesses related to Agent Orange exposure during his tenure.”

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, or IAVA, released a statement Tuesday applauding Harris for choosing a veteran to add to the Democratic ticket.

The group earlier praised the nomination of Walz’ opponent, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, who served in the Marine Corps from 2003 to 2007 and deployed to Iraq as a combat correspondent.

When Trump chose Vance as his vice president candidate at the Republican National Convention in July, he became the first post-9/11 veteran to be nominated as part of a major-party ticket.

JD Vance represents veterans on ballot, but some ask, ‘At what cost?’

Both men represent the post-9/11 generation of veterans, as well as those who served in the enlisted ranks, said Allison Jaslow, CEO of the group.

Before Vance and Walz, the most recent veteran on a major-party ticket was John McCain in 2008. They are the first veterans of the enlisted ranks on a presidential ballot since Al Gore in 2000.

“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: The Post-9/11 generation of veterans is ascendant in America today,” Jaslow said. “We applaud Vice President Harris for heeding our call and choosing a post-9/11 veteran to join her in her candidacy to be commander-in-chief. And notably, someone who served in, and led troops, in the enlisted ranks.”

With the pick, Harris hopes to shore up her campaign’s standing across the upper Midwest, The Associated Press reported. As governor, Walz helped enact an ambitious Democratic agenda in Minnesota, including sweeping protections for abortion rights and generous aid to families.

Conservatives have criticized Walz over his handling of the arson and looting that followed the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis in 2020.

Walz deployed the National Guard three days after Floyd’s murder, and some Republicans argued that he was too slow to respond.

This story was produced in partnership with Military Veterans in Journalism. Please send tips to MVJ-Tips@militarytimes.com.

Mischa Mabeline Kaalohilani Johnson was last seen in her home on Schofield Barracks, O’ahu, Hawaii, on Wednesday, and the department is offering $10,000 for information about her disappearance.

“Any person having credible information regarding Mrs. Johnson’s disappearance and/or location is asked to contact Army CID’s Pacific Field Office at (808) 208-0059 or cid.army.mil/tips,” said a spokesperson for the Army Criminal Investigation Division.

Schofield Barracks is an Army base that houses the 25th Infantry Division.

The Army was notified on Thursday that she was reported missing, according to the reward poster. Johnson is 5 feet, 2 inches tall, roughly 170 pounds, six months pregnant, and Filipino. She has a large dragon tattoo on her back.

A Honolulu Police Department missing person release listed Johnson as 19 and described her as potentially being “emotionally distraught.”

“Johnson is known to frequent the Ewa Villages and Waikiki areas,” said the release. “Her family and friends are concerned for her safety and well-being.”

The police department instructed anyone with pertinent information to contact CrimeStoppers at 808-955-8300 or send anonymous web tips to www.honolulucrimestoppers.org or via the P3 Tips app.

When former President Donald Trump chose JD Vance as his running mate in July, the moment marked a milestone for veterans who joined the military following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks: One of their own would be listed on a major-party ticket for the very first time.

Some veterans believe Vance’s ascension is worth celebrating. If he makes it to the White House, post-9/11 veterans will be represented at the highest levels of government, and someone with first-hand experience in America’s Global War on Terror will have the ear of the commander-in-chief.

That possibility is “invaluable” to a generation of veterans who often felt disconnected from the elected officials whose decisions affected ground troops during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, said Allison Jaslow, an Iraq War veteran and the CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

Other prominent veterans who served in those wars are speaking out against Vance, as well as the notion that he represents them.

Those veterans — including retired Marine Corps officers Joe Plenzler and Scott Cooper, as well as Amy McGrath, a former Democratic political candidate from Kentucky and the first woman to fly a combat mission for the Marine Corps — accused Vance of political flip-flopping and criticized his isolationist stance toward foreign policy.

Vance’s promotion of unfounded claims about the 2020 presidential election doesn’t align with the oath of enlistment and the promise to defend democracy, McGrath argued.

A ‘good thing for our country’

JD Vance, a Republican senator from Ohio, enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2003 under the name James D. Hamel, the Marine Corps confirmed. He served a four-year enlistment as a combat correspondent and deployed to Iraq with the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing from August 2005 to February 2006.

Vance left the service in 2007 as a corporal. He later went on to attend Ohio State University and Yale Law School, change his surname to Vance in honor of his maternal grandparents, work as a venture capitalist, write the best-selling memoir Hillbilly Elegy and eventually become a leading voice in conservatism.

When he was nominated in July, some veterans celebrated Vance as the first veteran of any generation to be part of a major-party ticket since John McCain in 2008, as well as the first veteran of the military’s enlisted ranks to be on the ballot since Al Gore in 2000.

That representation of veterans on the ballot — and the perspective an enlisted Marine could bring to the White House — supersedes politics, Jaslow believes.

“The idea of war or what it takes to defend ourselves from terrorism is all too often an abstract concept that people want to intellectualize, when in reality, it’s something that impacts real human lives ... in ways that are lost on many of the American people in real time today,” Jaslow said. “Having a veteran serve in elected office would mean that the men and women whose lives are on the line to defend what we have here at home would be more top of mind than they otherwise would be.”

Likewise, Elliot Ackerman, a former Marine Corps special operations team leader who has authored bestselling memoirs about his service, views Vance’s political ascension as positive, despite Ackerman not agreeing with all of the VP nominee’s political beliefs.

“It should be applauded that we have a veteran running at that level, regardless of what you think about their positions,” Ackerman said. “I think it’s a good and healthy thing for our democracy that at senior decision-making levels you have individuals who served this country and whose experience is informed by that service.”

Vance is likely paving the way for other post-9/11 veterans to be nominated by a major party, Ackerman added.

“On the national stage, he’s the first at the top of the ticket, and I suspect he probably won’t be the last,” Ackerman said. “I think that’s a good thing for our country.”

Hugh Hewitt, a conservative political commentator, wrote in The Washington Post that Trump likely viewed Vance as key to reclaiming the support from veterans that the former president lost between his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. During the 2020 presidential race, polling showed that older veterans overwhelmingly backed Trump, while younger veterans and women veterans significantly preferred President Joe Biden.

Three weeks after Trump announced his VP choice during the Republican National Convention, it remained uncertain how the pick would affect polling.

In an Ipsos poll released July 30, 47% of Americans believe veterans make the best elected officials when compared to people with prior public service or those currently working in law enforcement, business, academia or news and entertainment. When it comes to confidence in elected officials, 76% believe that veterans elected to office would make good decisions.

The poll was based on a sample of 1,238 U.S. residents and conducted on behalf of With Honor Action, a veteran-led group that aims to increase the number of veterans in elected office and foster bipartisanship in Congress.

‘Doesn’t represent’ all veterans

While some veterans view Vance’s nomination as a symbolic win for U.S. veterans and service members, others see his rise as a threat to democracy and foreign policy. They also frown upon his alignment with Trump after Vance initially criticized the former president.

Upon Trump’s election in 2016, Vance called Trump “dangerous” and “unfit” for office and said he could be “America’s Hitler.” By 2021, Vance had reversed his opinion, citing Trump’s accomplishments as president.

“While we share being Marines and from the Great State of Ohio, I’m not voting for him,” said Plenzler, a former infantry officer and combat veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “His flip flop on the presidential candidate gives me whiplash, and I’m looking for someone with a steadier moral compass.”

Michael Smith, a former Navy officer and the executive director of Veterans for Responsible Leadership — a Super PAC comprised of “Never Trump” veterans — said that Vance’s military service was honorable, but his support of Trump’s antidemocratic views is not.

Similarly, Cooper, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who commanded an EA-6B Prowler squadron, criticized Vance for not speaking out against rioters who carried out the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Vance has said that unlike former Vice President Mike Pence, he would have used the VP’s role to contest the outcome of the 2020 election, which he said was “stolen” from Trump.

“We would hope that those who have served in the military would represent moral courage, a willingness to stand apart from the group, at personal risk, for what is right,” Cooper said. “He doesn’t represent what I feel deeply about.”

Naveed Shah, an Iraq War veteran and the political director of Common Defense, a progressive veterans organization, argued that people shouldn’t vote for candidates merely because of their status as veterans. Like Cooper, Shah doesn’t believe Vance represents the values held by some veterans of his generation.

McGrath, a veteran political candidate who lost her bid in 2020 to unseat Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., likewise said she would support a post-9/11 veteran making it onto a major-party ticket if the person stood for the values that American veterans fought for throughout history. Vance is not that person, McGrath argued.

“We have veterans who are Republicans, we have veterans who are Democrats, we have veterans who are conservative and we have veterans who are liberal. The red line is democracy itself,” McGrath said. “If you’re somebody who perpetuates a lie, particularly continuing to say that the last election was unfair, you’re basically doing the work of our adversaries. ... That’s so disturbing to me.”

In particular, McGrath and Plenzler criticized Vance’s “America First” approach to foreign policy. He would dismantle “a system of allies and partners” built by the Greatest Generation and abdicate the country’s responsibility to lead on the world stage, they argued.

Vance has accused America’s NATO allies of not paying for their fair share to support Kyiv, and earlier this year, he joined 14 other Republican senators to oppose an aid package to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

Vance has said his military service helped to shape his beliefs on foreign policy. When he enlisted in the Marine Corps after graduating high school, Vance believed in the mission of the Iraq War — a belief he now describes as a mistake. Vance reflected on that time of his life in a speech on the Senate floor in April while arguing against sending aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

“I believed the propaganda of the George W. Bush administration that we needed to invade Iraq, that it was a war for freedom and democracy,” Vance said. “I served my country honorably, and I saw when I went to Iraq that I had been lied to, that the promises of the foreign policy establishment of this country were a complete joke.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, who won the Democratic presidential nomination Monday, chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a longtime member of the Army National Guard, as her running mate, multiple news outlets reported Tuesday morning.

In addition to Walz, Harris’ pool of potential VP picks included Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, an Afghanistan War veteran, and Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a former astronaut and Navy aviator.

Walz enlisted in the National Guard in 1981 at the age of 17, and he ascended to the rank of command sergeant major, said Lt. Col. Kristen Augé, the Minnesota National Guard’s state public affairs officer. He retired in 2005 as a master sergeant because “he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy,” Augé said. He later became the highest ranking enlisted soldier to serve in Congress.

This story was produced in partnership with Military Veterans in Journalism. Please send tips to MVJ-Tips@militarytimes.com.

Command Sgt. Maj. Matthew Carlson was fired on July 16 “due to a loss of trust and confidence in his leadership,” Army spokesman Neil Ruggiero said in an email to Army Times.

Carlson was relieved after a “thorough” investigation that “pertained to alcohol-related incidents,” Ruggiero said.

He did not provide further details regarding potential charges or other repercussions for Carlson.

Carlson has been temporarily assigned duty at Headquarters, U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa.

Sgt. Maj. Frank Batts, the command sergeant major of the 54th Brigade Engineer Battalion, has been appointed the acting brigade command sergeant major.

Army fires commander of Europe and Africa support brigade

Carlson enlisted in 1999 and deployed to Colombia, Latvia, Lithuania, Iraq and Afghanistan during his career, Ruggiero confirmed. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his service.

Prior to taking his senior enlisted position in March 2023, the paratrooper served with the brigade’s 1st Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment and the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, according to a brigade Facebook post.

The brigade is a forward-deployed airborne unit based out of Vicenza, Italy, that falls under U.S. Army Europe and Africa. It has recently supported NATO forces. Members trained in Ukraine in late 2021 prior to the Russian invasion of the country.

Military.com first reported Carlson’s firing.

The enduring conflicts in Ukraine, the Levant and Red Sea underscore the tumultuous nature of the global security environment. The United States’ adversaries and challengers are growing increasingly aligned in their efforts to undermine the international order and disrupt global stability. A coercive and aggressive Chinese Communist Party is militarizing at a wartime pace. The U.S. and our European allies face depleted arsenals while tensions in the Middle East continue to boil, increasing concerns that these challenges will require the joint force to make trade-offs between competing defense priorities. Herein lies the central defense challenge of today: ensuring the joint force has the requisite capabilities and capacity — the depth of magazine — to support U.S. allies and partners and sustain a protracted campaign of its own.

Depth matters

The depth of our nation’s magazine extends beyond ammunition storage and weapons. It encompasses our munitions, fuel and food stockpiles, and prepositioned inventories. It also includes the resiliency of our supply chains and the strength and depth of our industrial capacity. Additionally, it requires a deep bench of reserve and rotational forces that can relieve, reinforce and enable rapid reconstitution. Most importantly, it must effectively meet the needs of a short- and long-term time horizon.

While the joint force is postured to meet defense requirements now, the uncertainty of the future operating environment and the unpredictability of our adversaries heighten the risks associated with a shallow magazine. For example, an insufficient supply of aircraft, ammunition or aviators could limit our strike warfare operational tempo in the Indo-Pacific.

In the case of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian leadership failed to plan for the resources required to sustain their formations beyond the opening stages while limited inventories likely constrained the scope of Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive. While Ukraine registered an operational demand for 250,000 artillery rounds per month in the lead-up, they were limited to approximately 90,000 artillery rounds per month at the height of the counteroffensive.

Ukraine has recognized it cannot solely rely on allies and partners and is working to expand the capacity of its industrial base. These efforts are proving fruitful, particularly in drone production. The number of domestic drone manufacturers has grown from seven to over 300 within the last eighteen months to keep pace with the Ukrainian armed forces’ consumption of over 10,000 unmanned platforms per month. However, production capacity takes time.

The clear lesson here is that limited capacity could force the U.S. to limit the scope of its military objectives or operational force employment if it is determined that a long-duration, high-tempo campaign is unsustainable. Most importantly, it could undermine the credibility of U.S. deterrence and embolden our adversaries.

The short, sharp illusion

Cathal J. Nolan systematically examines the Second Punic War, the Hundred Years’ War, the War of Spanish Succession, the Napoleonic Wars and the world wars in his 2017 book, “The Allure of Battle: A History of How Wars Have Been Won and Lost.” He underscores that great power warfare is a society-encompassing affair that uses the full extent of a nation’s industrial capacity and political will. Major wars are most often won by the state with greater long-term capability and capacity.

The myth of the short, sharp conflict does not reflect the historical record, nor does it serve as a prudent planning factor for future conflict. Regardless of theater, joint and coalition forces need a depth of magazine that can last years — not months. China is increasing its weapons inventory five to six times faster than the United States while building multilayered antiaccess, area-denial defenses. Any conflict with China would produce an insatiable appetite for resources.

Not easy work

During the recent NATO summit in Washington, D.C., NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg noted the alliance has failed to keep up with the demands of the ongoing war in Ukraine. Whether hampered by policy, politics or production capacity, NATO is not matching Russia’s renewed wartime production. Building and maintaining a depth of magazine requires proactive decision-making.

Closer coordination and teaming between government, defense and commercial industry will be required to meaningfully accelerate and scale critical capabilities in areas where industry is clearly in the lead. The U.S. should pursue procurement solutions and block buys of exquisite weapons, platforms and munitions while leveraging allies’ and partners’ ability to manufacture high quantities of defense commodities to focus on the capabilities that will be needed in a future high-end, high-intensity conflict. Ultimately, depth of magazine, along with a strategy to win beyond the opening stages of a conflict, should be carefully planned for and initiated well prior to the onset of conflict. That time is now.

Mars must be fed

History tells us that great power conflict comes with a high likelihood of protraction. If the U.S. is to maintain a credible deterrent and prevent the outbreak of a protracted war, the U.S. and its allies and partners must have deep enough magazines to sustain military operations in a long, high-intensity conflict. An insufficient inventory risks limiting the operational tempo and scope of military objectives or undermining our ability to sustain a protracted conflict. Ultimately, the depth of our magazine will determine the credibility of U.S. deterrence and our ability to protect national security.

Gen. Christopher Mahoney is the assistant commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Several U.S. personnel were injured in a suspected rocket attack at a military base in Iraq, U.S. defense officials said Monday, in what has been a recent uptick in strikes on American forces by Iranian-backed militias.

The attack comes as tensions across the Middle East are spiking following the killings last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran, in suspected Israeli strikes. Both groups are backed by Iran.

US to boost military presence in Middle East amid growing tensions

The U.S. defense officials said troops at al-Asad air base were still assessing the injuries and damage, and it appeared that as many as seven military troops and civilians were injured. Earlier Monday, Iraqi security officials confirmed the attack, but no group has claimed responsibility.

The American officials said the U.S. looked into reports of a possible second attack at the base but determined there had not been another one.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations. The White House said the president and vice president were briefed on the attack.

Iranian proxies attack US base in Iraq for the first time in months

In recent weeks, Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have resumed launching attacks on bases housing U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria after a lull of several months, following a strike on a base in Jordan in late January that killed three American soldiers and prompted a series of retaliatory U.S. strikes.

Between October and January, an umbrella group calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq had regularly claimed attacks that it said were in retaliation for Washington’s support of Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza and were aimed at pushing U.S. troops out of the region.

Associated Press writers Joshua Boak in Washington and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.

A New Mexico-based 27th Special Operations Wing crew manning the AC-130J bludgeoned the Austin-class amphibious transport dock Dubuque with cannon fire from the air as part of a live-fire sinking exercise last month.

The former amphibious assault ship Tarawa was also sent to the ocean floor as part of the exercise. Footage of the Tarawa’s final moments above the ocean’s surface has yet to be released.

This year’s Rim of the Pacific Exercise, or RIMPAC, involved 29 nations, 40 surface ships, three submarines, 14 national land forces, more than 150 aircraft and 25,000 personnel. It is the largest international maritime exercise and allows militaries the opportunity to test high-powered weapons in real-world scenarios.

Over the roughly minute-and-a-half video, which was recorded off the coast of the Hawaiian island of Kauai, the AC-130J ambushes the Dubuque with a barrage of cannon fire.

Impacts can be seen across the vessel’s surface, with billows of smoke signaling each heavy strike.

Though not included in the video, Dubuque was also hit by U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopters and elements from the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force.

The Dubuque, which now rests 15,000 feet below the waves, was commissioned in 1967 and went on to serve in Vietnam before being decommissioned in 2011.

Ships sunk during the RIMPAC exercise must be cleaned of any toxic substances, such as mercury or petroleum, in compliance with Environmental Protection Agency regulations. Vessels must also sink at least 6,000 feet underwater and 50 nautical miles from land.

In contemporary military operations, UAS are being tightly integrated into infantry tactics, used in new and creative ways for reconnaissance, leveraged for forward operating base defense, relied on to provide critical intelligence and deployed for data collection. Because UAS can autonomously operate in hazardous environments and undertake high-risk missions, they have revolutionized warfare by significantly enhancing operational safety and expanding tactical options for ground forces.

In response to China’s historical technological dominance in the UAS market and amid the technology’s rapid evolution, Congress has taken steps to foster technology development while addressing new potential dangers. Legislative measures have been introduced to support the development of domestic UAS capabilities.

H.R. 2864, the C-CCP Drone Act, would mandate the inclusion of equipment produced by Shenzhen Da-Jiang Innovations Sciences and Technologies Company Limited (DJI Technologies), the world’s largest drone manufacturer, on the Federal Communications Commission’s list of equipment that poses a risk to U.S. national security.

The threat of Chinese advancements

DJI and Autel, both Chinese companies, control more than 90% of the global drone market. In the mid to late 2000s, subsidized pricing allowed DJI to penetrate global markets rapidly, including within the U.S. and NATO countries, to the detriment of domestic manufacturers.

The ubiquity and cost advantages of Chinese drones have disrupted foreign markets while introducing security vulnerabilities in sensitive areas such as critical infrastructure, military bases and urban surveillance. Reports have surfaced of data from Chinese-made drones being transmitted back to servers in China, raising concerns about espionage and data security. China’s collaboration with Russia to enhance Russian FPV drone production capabilities could also pose a further challenge to the U.S. and NATO.

US countermeasures and investment

In this environment, ensuring the West’s UAS superiority on the battlefield will depend on the success of efforts to bolster domestic capabilities, increase investments in R&D and develop advanced technologies that can compete with and surpass those produced by China.

The Department of Defense has initiated multiple programs to bolster U.S.-based UAS manufacturers and support the development of a secure and reliable supply chain for critical components.

Meanwhile, private companies like Anduril, Shield AI and Edge Autonomy are leading the charge with new UAS solutions tailored for defense applications. These innovators are not only developing cutting-edge technology but also ensuring their products are free from foreign influence and data security dangers by manufacturing critical components such as cameras, gimbals, flight controllers, and radios onshore.

Private equity can further these efforts by strategically investing in innovative companies and technologies, driving the growth of domestic UAS innovation. Moreover, by supporting these companies’ efforts to develop onshore manufacturing processes and establish secure supply chains, private equity investment can help reduce dependence on foreign sources and enhance national security.

It is therefore paramount to invest in developing and deploying critical technologies and cyber tools to the warfighter that will be necessary to accelerate domestic UAS development and deployment.

Doctrine, training and safety standards

While much is happening on the production front, we also need to consider the impact of UAS on military operations, which will require significant adjustments. Military doctrine will need to continue to evolve to include new tactics, techniques and procedures for UAS-supported fire and maneuver. Following special operations’ lead in this domain, new protocols will have to be rapidly transitioned to the conventional forces.

Training programs must also change to focus on the operational skills required to manage UAS fleets, interpret real-time data and integrate UAS intelligence into broader operational contexts. This training should include ethical considerations related to privacy violations and rules of engagement in settings where civilian populations are often at risk.

Outlook

Innovations in artificial intelligence, machine learning and autonomous operations are certain to further enhance UAS capabilities, making them more efficient and versatile. AI is poised to play a significant role in the future of UAS by enabling drones to perform complex tasks with minimal human intervention and adapt to dynamic combat environments, improving their ability to detect and respond to threats. Autonomous operations will reduce the burden on human operators, allowing for more efficient and effective mission execution.

Soon, we can also expect to see UAS with extended operational ranges, improved stealth features and advanced payload capabilities. Integrating UAS with other emerging technologies such as augmented reality and cyber warfare tools will also create new tactical opportunities and challenges.

The integration of UAS with AI will also give ground troops enhanced situational awareness, as well as better coordination and decision-making in the field. Likewise, cyber warfare tools will enable UAS to disrupt enemy communications and infrastructure, providing a strategic advantage in modern conflicts.

As UAS technology continues to evolve and domestic drone production expands, it is crucial for military and industry leaders to closely monitor threats while fostering an entrepreneurial environment that prioritizes continuous innovation, rigorous training and doctrinal adaptation. Through collaboration, the potential of UAS can be fully realized, ensuring that military operations are as effective and efficient as possible while minimizing risks to combatants and civilians.

Florent Groberg is a vice president at AE Industrial within the firm’s Portfolio Strategy and Optimization Group. Groberg previously held key positions at Microsoft, Boeing and LinkedIn. Prior to that, Groberg was a captain in the U.S. Army, completing both U.S. Army Airborne and U.S. Army Ranger schools. Groberg received the Medal of Honor for his actions in combat operations in Afghanistan in 2012. He currently serves on the American Battle Monuments Commission, an appointment by the president of the United States.

The added training will begin in October and comes as the Army tries to reverse years of dismal recruiting when it failed to meet its enlistment goals. New units in Oklahoma and Missouri will train as many as 4,000 recruits every year.

Army leaders are optimistic they will hit their target of 55,000 recruits this year and say the influx of new soldiers forced them to increase the number of training sites.

“I am happy to say last year’s recruiting transformation efforts have us on track to make this year’s recruiting mission, with thousands awaiting basic training” in the next year, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said. Adding the two new locations, she said, is a way to get the soldiers trained and into units quickly, “with further expansion likely next spring if our recruiting numbers keep improving.”

The expanded training is part of a broader effort to restructure the Army so it is better able to fight against a sophisticated adversary such as Russia or China. The U.S. military spent much of the past two decades battling insurgent groups in Iraq and Afghanistan rather than fighting a broader war with another high-tech, more capable nation.

Brig. Gen. Jenn Walkawicz, head of operations for the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, said there will be two new training companies at Fort Sill in Oklahoma and two at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.

Driving the growth is the successful Future Soldier Prep Course, which was created at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, in August 2022 as a new way to bolster enlistments. That program gives lower-performing recruits up to 90 days of academic or fitness instruction to help them meet military standards and move on to basic training.

Created two years ago, the program has been cited as a key reason Army leaders expect that this fall they will reverse several years of recruiting shortfalls. In the budget year that ended Sept. 30, the Army brought in a bit more than 50,000 recruits, falling far short of the publicly stated “stretch goal” of 65,000.

The Army has 151 training companies overall that work with recruits at Fort Jackson and Fort Moore, Georgia, in addition to the 15 training companies assigned to the prep course. Army leaders have expanded the prep course, which is expected to bring in nearly 20,000 recruits this budget year and that total is expected to spike in 2025.

Due to the Army’s recruiting struggles, the number of recruits going through basic training dropped in recent years. As a result, the 15 training units, which total 27 soldiers each, including 16 drill sergeants, were available for the prep course. But as the prep course grows, those units are not available to do basic training.

“We don’t want to mess with that because right now that formula’s working and it’s provided a lot of value for the Army,” Walkawicz said. So, the Army is creating the four new companies and has developed plans for more if needed.

She added that Fort Sill and Fort Leonard Wood have the infrastructure, the barracks and the room to accommodate the new units and could take more if needed. The costs of the program are limited because the Army already had the equipment and rooms required, but there will be maintenance, food, staffing and other costs. Army officials did not provide a total price.

The move to add units is the latest change in what has been a tumultuous time for the Army. Coming out of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, when the service grew dramatically to fill the nation’s combat needs, the U.S. military began to see recruiting dip.

Unemployment has been low, corporate jobs pay well and offer good benefits, and, according to estimates, just 23% of people age 17 to 24 are physically, mentally and morally qualified to serve without receiving some type of waiver. Moral behavior issues include drug use, gang ties or a criminal record.

Those problems were only amplified as the coronavirus pandemic took hold, preventing recruiters from meting with students in person at schools, fairs and other public events.

In 2022, the Army fell 15,000 short of its enlistment goal of 60,000, and the other services had to dig deep into their pools of delayed entry candidates in order to meet their recruiting numbers. Then in 2023, the Army, Navy and Air Force all missed their recruitment targets. The Marine Corps and the tiny Space Force have consistently hit their goals.

Partly in response to the recruiting shortfalls, Army leaders slashed the size of the force by about 24,000, or almost 5%. They said many of the cuts were in already vacant jobs.

In a statement, the department said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also ordered additional ballistic missile defense-capable cruisers and destroyers to the European and Middle East regions and is taking steps to send more land-based ballistic missile defense weapons there.

The shifts come as U.S. leaders worry about escalating violence in the Middle East in response to recent attacks by Israel on Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, which triggered threats of retaliation.

Biden in a call Thursday afternoon with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed new U.S. military deployments to protect against possible attacks from ballistic missiles and drones, according to the White House. In April, U.S. forces intercepted dozens of missiles and drones fired by Iran against Israel and helped down nearly all of them.

The assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday and senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in Beirut on Tuesday risk escalating the fighting into an all-out regional war, with Iran also threatening to respond after the attack on its territory. Israel has vowed to kill Hamas leaders over the group’s Oct. 7 attack, which sparked the war.

Austin is ordering the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East to replace the Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, which is in the Gulf of Oman but scheduled to come home later this summer. That decision suggests the Pentagon has decided to keep a carrier consistently in the region as a deterrent against Iran at least until next year.

The Pentagon did not say where the fighter jet squadron was coming from or where it would be based in the Middle East. A number of allies in the region are often willing to base U.S. military forces but don’t want it made public.

The White House in a statement said Biden “reaffirmed his commitment to Israel’s security against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.”

Earlier Friday, Sabrina Singh, Pentagon spokeswoman, told reporters that moves were in the works. She said Austin “will be directing multiple” force movements to provide additional support to Israel and increase protection for U.S. troops in the region.

Military and defense officials have been considering a wide array of options, from additional ships and fighter aircraft squadrons to added air defense systems or unmanned assets. In many cases, the U.S. does not provide details because host nations are very sensitive about the presence of additional U.S. forces and don’t want those movements made public.

It’s unclear what new ships would move to the Middle East.

The U.S. has had a consistent warship presence there and in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, including two Navy destroyers, the Roosevelt and the Bulkeley, as well as the Wasp and the New York. The Wasp and the New York are part of the amphibious ready group and carry a Marine expeditionary unit that could be used if any evacuation of U.S. personnel is required.

In addition, a U.S. official said that two U.S Navy destroyers that are currently in the Middle East will be heading north up the Red Sea toward the Mediterranean Sea. At least one of those could linger in the Mediterranean if needed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements.

Gen. Daniel Hokanson, 61, previously served as the director of the Army National Guard and 11th vice chief of the National Guard Bureau before taking the post as bureau chief in 2020.

The Happy Camp, California, native commissioned as an Army second lieutenant after graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1986.

As an aviation officer, Hokanson served as a scout platoon leader and flight operations officer with 2nd Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 7th Infantry Division, during Operation Just Cause in Panama in 1990. Hokanson left the active Army for the Oregon Army National Guard in 1995.

Through various postings and promotions, Hokanson would later serve in both Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he commanded the 41st Infantry Brigade during their March 2008 to July 2010 deployment.

Hokanson spoke with Army Times about his four-year tenure as chief of the National Guard Bureau, which oversees the Army National Guard and Air National Guard. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Military Times: What was the position of the Guard when you took command?

Daniel Hokanson: If you go back to August of 2020 when I came into the job, it was the height of COVID-19, we didn’t have a vaccination yet. We had a lot of civil unrest across the country. It was a busy time for the Guard. That summer in one day we had 120,000 Guardsmen mobilized for COVID and civil disturbances. We also had several large deployments at that time as well. Then, of course, we had the vaccination late that year. And in early 2021 we had the events surrounding Jan. 6 when we mobilized 26,000 Guardsmen from every state and territory, and they were there for the president’s inauguration. When you roll that into, once again, some serious natural disaster years with wildfires, hurricanes, flooding and then we had the withdrawal from Afghanistan, it was kind of like one thing after another.

What did you draw from that, looking back?

I think the common theme, all of which still amazes me today, is that regardless of what was happening, the Guard met every single mission set they were given. It’s just a testament to the value of having the National Guard. So, when our local capabilities, either here or military capabilities, are exceeded, the Guard is always there to provide capability and capacity when and where our nation needs it.

How has the Guard modernized along with the active Army over these past four years?

Prior to becoming chief, I was the director of the Army National Guard and one of the things we were able to do then was reestablish the division force structure of the Guard. We had all these disparate units so what we did was reestablish the eight divisions in the Guard, and by doing that, the total Army went from 10 divisions, only on the active side, to 18 total divisions when including the Guard. We want to have enough capability to deter somebody from doing anything, so we don’t reach war. When I look at all our formations, I ensure they look like their active-duty counterparts so that when a combatant commander has them deployed to him or her, they can be used just like an active-duty unit. That’s meant upgrading communications equipment, improving maintenance schedules and training for Guardsmen. On the air side we have more than 1,000 aircraft in the Air National Guard. We fly everything except the B-1 bomber and the B-52. We’ve got F-35s. So, we’ve got a lot of experience and capability in our fighter squadrons.

The active Army has struggled with recruiting in recent years but excelled at retention. How’s the Guard doing on that front?

We’re doing extremely well. We’re meeting all our recruiting goals and we’re scheduled to meet our end-strength by the end of this fiscal year. Part of that is due to the proposition that we’re different and we’re looking for a different kind of person. Like the active component, we’re looking for people who want to serve their country, but also people who want to live where they want to live. I think it’s one of the reasons why our recruiting is going so well.

How have Guardsmen adapted to the ongoing pace of deployments that started after 9/11 and has continued?

Everybody in the Guard right now who has come in after 9/11 or reenlisted after 9/11 came in with the expectation that they are going to deploy overseas. On a day-to-day basis we’re probably at 23,000 deployed Guardsmen around the globe. And when I visit these units a lot of these soldiers say, “Hey, I can’t wait for another opportunity to deploy.” That’s part of our model, which is on a five-year cycle for unit deployments. When you go back to Jan. 28 when we had the drone strike on the Al-Tanf garrison in Syria, we had 41 Guardsmen wounded that day. That shows the kind of presence that we’ve got in the Middle East and all over the world. I visited that unit and they really understood the value of what they were doing.