US Army

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Soldiers in the US Army Are Getting a New Service Pistol

Sig Sauer secures contract reportedly worth more than $580M

(Newser) - For the first time in more than 30 years, the US Army has a new service pistol, Forbes reports. After a five-year search, the Army has settled on the Sig Sauer P320 to replace the M9 Beretta, which has occupied the slot since 1985. The contract is reportedly worth more...

When Vet's Body Went Unclaimed, Strangers Stepped In

Lawrence Kays will get full military funeral on Friday

(Newser) - When US Army veteran Lawrence Kays died of heart disease at Christus St. Vincent Hospital in Sante Fe on Nov. 16 at age 78, there were no family members gathered around him. Nor have any turned up to claim his body in the months since. Indeed, Kays' body sat at...

Army's New Push: Ammo That Grows Plants

It wants biodegradable bullets for training grounds

(Newser) - At US military training facilities, spent shell casings are scattered across proving grounds, many buried several inches below ground. What if they were biodegradable and contained seeds that would sprout into beneficial plants over time? It may sound a bit utopian, but the US Department of Defense has just released...

Military May Soon Hold Its 1st Execution in 56 Years

Former soldier Ronald Gray raped and killed multiple women

(Newser) - The US military could soon execute someone for the first time since a soldier was hanged for raping and trying to kill an 11-year-old girl in 1961, CNN reports. Ronald Gray, a former Army soldier, has been on military death row at Fort Leavenworth since 1988. According to the Fayetteville ...

Oops: Army Accidentally Sends Anti-Trump Tweet

Link to story about Trump lies 'not an official position'

(Newser) - The US Army has apologized for a partisan post about a potential commander-in-chief that appeared on its Twitter feed. The post—a link to a TheNewCivilRightsMovement.com story headlined "Donald Trump Lied 87 Times Last Week—Or Once Every 3 Minutes, 15 Seconds"—was quickly taken down amid...

Millennials Are in the (Gentler) Army Now

As many as half of new recruits have never held a gun

(Newser) - As gun ownership drops among young Americans and the Army trains a generation more accustomed to blasting out emojis than taking aim at targets, drill sergeants are confronting a new challenge: More than half of raw recruits have never held, let alone fired, a weapon, reports the AP . An independent...

A 1941 Army Base Lynching Remains Unsolved
A 1941 Army Base Lynching
Remains Unsolved
longform

A 1941 Army Base Lynching Remains Unsolved

Pvt. Felix Hall was found hanging from a tree at Fort Benning

(Newser) - On the morning of Feb. 12, 1941, Army Pvt. Felix Hall went to his job at a sawmill near Fort Benning where he was stationed. After his shift ended, he told friends he was going to the Post Exchange, the only place on the segregated Georgia base where a black...

Each Thought the Other Died in War. 47 Years Later, a Miracle

Herman Johnson and Fred Rivera reunited, and much more

(Newser) - Fred Rivera believed his best friend, Herman Johnson, died in his arms after a rocket hit them during a Vietnam War firefight in 1969. "Surviving comrades of that horrid day presented me a bracelet fashioned from the leather laces of Herman’s boots," Rivera writes of what followed...

New Miss USA Is Army Officer

DC's Deshauna Barber will take a break from the Reserve

(Newser) - The newly crowned Miss USA is a 26-year-old Army officer from the District of Columbia who gave perhaps the strongest answer of the night when asked about women in combat. "As a woman in the United States Army, I think ... we are just as tough as men. As a...

US Senate Approves Openly Gay Army Secretary

Eric Fanning's case was held up for 8 months

(Newser) - The Senate confirmed the long-stalled nomination of Eric Fanning to be Army secretary, making him the first openly gay leader of a US military service, the AP reports. The unanimous voice vote approval on Tuesday came after Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., dropped his opposition to Fanning after a senior Pentagon...

Female WWII Pilots Regain Right to Be Buried at Arlington

'I think that the WASP deserve to have that honor'

(Newser) - Female WWII pilots are once again allowed to have their ashes buried with honors at Arlington National Cemetery thanks to legislation passed by Congress this week, the Los Angeles Times reports. More than 1,000 women flew noncombat and training missions as part of the Women Airforce Service Pilots program...

Army Count Reaches Low Not Seen Since Before WWII

But it's all part of the plan

(Newser) - In 1940, the head count for active-duty soldiers in the US Army was 269,023, a low that hasn't been reached since, the Army Times reports. But due to budget cutbacks, a drawdown plan announced last summer to whittle manpower by 40,000 troops has left the Army with...

Army Captain Sues Obama for Fighting ISIS

Nathan Michael Smith says he needs to honor his own oath

(Newser) - It's not that Army Capt. Nathan Michael Smith doesn't want to take out the Islamic State. It's just that he doesn't think President Obama has the authority to wage war against ISIS without Congress' OK. That's the crux of the 28-year-old intelligence officer's lawsuit...

Green Beret Won't Be Discharged for Attacking Alleged Child Rapist

The Afghan official allegedly kept a boy tied to his bed as a 'sex slave'

(Newser) - The Army has decided not to discharge a Special Forces soldier who beat up an Afghan police official he believed had been raping a young boy, CNN reports. Sgt. Charles Martland and Capt. Daniel Quinn claimed in 2011 that Afghan police commander Abdul Rahman had been raping the boy repeatedly...

Female Ranger Grad Makes History Again

Kristen Griest becomes first female infantry officer

(Newser) - She made history once. Now she's done it again. Kristen Griest, one of the first female soldiers to earn a Ranger tab , has become the US Army's first female infantry officer after the military overturned a ban on women in combat positions, reports the Army Times . "Like...

Humvees Fell From the Sky, Broke Into Smithereens

To the great delight of the guy filming the now-viral video

(Newser) - The US Army is investigating what went wrong during an April 11 training exercise, during which three Humvees fell from airplanes and smashed to the ground. No one was hurt in the April 11 incident, which happened at the Hohenfels training area in Germany, Army spokesman Maj. Juan Martinez tells...

Con Man Fooled Soldiers, Lived in Army Barracks for Months

He even assigned rooms and conducted inspections

(Newser) - The Fayetteville Observer has a crazy look at how a 20-year-old con man successfully lived in the barracks at Fort Bragg for months despite never having served in the military. His ruse was apparently so successful he even started assigning rooms to new soldiers and conducting room inspections. The information...

Army Announces First-Ever Female Combat Officers

They'll lead armor and infantry units

(Newser) - The Army announced Friday it has 22 women nearly ready to be commissioned as officers within its infantry and armor units—a historic first, USA Today reports. The Pentagon ordered all combat positions be opened to women three years ago, and that rule takes effect this year. The 22 women—...

4 Soldiers Hurt in Humvee Crash on NJ Turnpike

One had to be airlifted

(Newser) - Four Army Reserve soldiers are injured, two critically, after a Humvee accident on the New Jersey Turnpike, reports NBC New York . Police haven't determined what went wrong, though witnesses say a tire flew off the vehicle around 2:30pm Thursday, per the Courier News . They tried to lift the...

Pol: Army Tricked Taxpayers With 'Dead' $725M Program

Controversial program is actually still up and running and may even get more funding

(Newser) - Its name was the Human Terrain System, what USA Today labels a "controversial battlefield anthropology program" supposedly shut down by the US Army in 2014 after allegations of racism, sexual harassment, and funny business with time sheets, among other issues. Or so its demise was believed: The initiative—which...

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