It’s a holiday. This is all you get.
February 20th, 2012 | Outside the wire | Posted by Joe Gould
Fort Bragg’s “stereotypical” Black History Month menu: Does it make you angry or just hungry?
February 16th, 2012 | Outside the wire | Posted by Joe Gould
Gawker knocked Fort Bragg’s special Black History Month meal of fried chicken, pigs feet, ham hocks and collard greens, saying “all the stereotypical foods are represented.”
Many of the commenters on the original Gawker post did not seem outraged. Should they have been? Does offering soul food reinforce stereotypes or recognize a cultural contribution?
[Note: I hate to have to say this, but if the comments are offensive, they'll never be approved.]
“To my fellow Army wives”, let’s stop hatin’ each other [NSFW-language]
February 15th, 2012 | Outside the wire | Posted by Joe Gould
Sick of Army wives who lord their husband’s rank over the heads of subordinates’ wives? Well, so is YouTuber WallisWife.
In a profanity-laced rant posted last week, she calls on Army wives to bond together and exoriates the ones who subscribe to a pecking order based on their husband’s ranks or feel they can make judgements based on appearances.
“Get over the whole rank thing,” she says. “You have to look at the people you’re around as your sisters.”
Instead, she calls on Army wives to look at the common denominators — budgeting households and feeding children — and help one another instead of bashing one another.
Calling herself “proud to be a tattooed, fierce woman,” she says she loves her children, her husband and her wine. (She admits to some being on her second bottle of wine before recording.) The implication is if you’re not okay with that, it’s your problem.
She acknowledges that while Army wives often put their own careers on hold to support their husbands, they have evolved beyond the 50′s “perfect f—-ing Cleaver wife.” Further, Army wives should not impose these antiquated values on each other.
“I don’t care who you’re married to,” she says. “It doesn’t matter if you’re married to the batallion commander or the lowest private in the … Army. I’m going to help you out in any way I see possible.”
Make love *and* war: Army aviator met her Valentine in flight school, honeymooned in Afghanistan
February 14th, 2012 | Outside the wire | Posted by Joe Gould
From the Gainesville Times, comes the story of the Walkers, a Georgia couple who met in flight school, got married and deployed from Fort Wainwright, Alaska, under the Army Married Couples Program.
Serving in Afghanistan together was not without its hardships. Capt. Sara McCleary Walker and Capt. Phillip Walker endured the resentment of other soldiers unable to spent time with their own spouses, and they sometimes forgot to treat each other like partners and treated each other like soldiers instead.
“When that happened, we had to catch ourselves and apologize,” said Sara.
They also made time for each other.
“We had moments where we would go eat together. And when we had quiet time, we would go in a room and talk as husband and wife, not officer to officer,” she said.
Today, back in the states, they are preparing to celebrate Valentine’s Day by moving into their new home.
“Hopefully, I’ll be able to dig out our kitchenware and be able to cook a meal for the first time in a year,” she said. “That’s our big plan.”
[via HLNTV and Gainesville Times]
Pentagon: No imminent Syria attack
February 8th, 2012 | Outside the wire | Posted by militaryonline
The Pentagon is pushing back on a media report that it is looking into its options for a military strike in Syria if called upon by the president.
For months, Syria has been racked with violence as forces loyal to the government clash with anti-regime protesters.
President Obama has called upon Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, but he has also stressed the importance of resolving the issue through diplomacy instead of military intervention.
But on Tuesday, CNN reported that the U.S. military has begun a review of what capabilities it could bring to bear on Syria should the president order military action.
“One of the senior U.S. officials called the effort a ‘scoping exercise’ to see what capabilities are available given other U.S. military commitments in the region,” CNN reported.
However, a Pentagon spokesman sent an email to reporters Wednesday making clear that no U.S. military intervention in Syria is imminent.
“Our military plans for a variety of contingencies,” Marine Corps Maj. Chris Perrine said in an email. “That’s what we do. Our focus remains on diplomacy, which we believe is still possible.”
Taylor Swift music video features a PFC
February 3rd, 2012 | Army Outside the wire | Posted by Blair Tomlinson
Taylor Swift is notorious for writing “tell all” songs about the men she has dated. She follows a rule of thumb for all writers, write about what you know.
So naturally, when listening to the country sweetheart’s newest love song, “Ours”, I’m thinking who is this one about? Joe Jonas? Taylor Lautner? John Mayer? Cory Monteith? Jake Gyllenhaal?
Shockingly, at the end of the music video Swift runs into the arms of a soldier who seems to be coming home from deployment. Didn’t expect that one Taylor …
Are you a fan of TSwift? Do you think she portrays a soldier’s homecoming well? Watch and let me know.
New self-guiding bullet, in Taiwanese CGI cartoon treatment, targets a pirate
February 2nd, 2012 | Outside the wire | Posted by Joe Gould
The Taiwanese company Next Media Animation, which won fame for turning news into CGI cartoons, has taken on Sandia Laboratories‘ self-guided bullet. In the video above, a masked spec ops-looking dude uses one to fire past a hostage on a bouncy raft and potentially pop a pirate. We never see the bullet connect.
Pick up Monday’s print issue of Army Times for more about this laser-guided bullet.
Jon Stewart’s push-up loss is wounded warriors’ gain [NSFW language] [UPDATED]
January 26th, 2012 | Outside the wire | Posted by Joe Gould
Petraeus biographer and West Point grad Paula Broadwell challenged Jon Stewart and her husband, Scott, to a push-up competition.
The terms of the contest were the loser would pay the difference in the number of push-ups to the charity Team Red, White and Blue. It’s an organization that incorporates athletics with support for wounded veterans.
It would be hard to spoil it, since you can tell from Ms. Broadwell’s jacked arms (and her bio–she’s a triathlete) that this is not going to end well for the desk-bound Mr. Stewart. Just watch.
Ms. Broadwell tells Jeff Schogol, of sister publication Air Force Times, that Jon Stewart whipped out his checkbook on the spot and wrote a $20,000 check. Can’t break 40 push-ups, but what a mensch.
Power Point Ranger – 1/30/2012 issue
January 23rd, 2012 | Outside the wire | Posted by Joe Gould
PETA calls sheep beating video a ‘red flag,’ cites serial killers who hurt animals
January 23rd, 2012 | Outside the wire | Posted by Joe Gould
PETA Foundation writer Lindsay Pollard-Post compared the participants in the beating of a sheep, depicted in a video widely publicized last week, to Jeffrey Dahmer, “Boston Strangler” Albert DeSalvo and ”BTK Killer” Dennis Rader. All had a history of violence against animals, he said in an op-ed piece published by McClatchy Newspapers.
He said a history of cruelty to animals regularly shows up in the FBI records of serial rapists and murderers. And citing a Northeastern University and the Massachusetts SPCA study, he said that people who abuse animals are five times more likely to commit violent crimes against humans.
“Mental-health and law-enforcement professionals know that animal abusers’ disregard for life and indifference to suffering indicate a dangerous psychopathy that does not confine itself to animal victims,” said Pollard-Post. ”Violence is a fact of war, but the depravity shown by the sheep-beating soldier and the sick pleasure the onlookers seemed to derive from watching the beating are red flags.”
Last week, Army officials said investigators began probing the origins of the video in November and that commanders in Afghanistan have condemned it, according to a U.S. military spokesman. PETA publicized the video in the wake of another embarrassing video surfacing, in which Marines appeared to urinate on the corpses of Taliban fighters.