Extracurricular activities have resumed at schools for military families after a pause tied to the federal government shutdown halted sports and other school-related pursuits for several days.

For students at places like Fort Campbell and Fort Knox high schools, it means touchdowns, soccer goals and volleyball digs are back, as their schools were untangled from shutdown politics.

“Allowing the sports to continue is just a small thing to some people, but to the students, coaches and parents, it’s huge,” Antonia Kruse, whose son, Levi, plays wide receiver and cornerback on the Fort Campbell High football team, said Tuesday. “They already have so many unknowns in their lives with being military dependents. They can have some sort of stability with their sports and activities.”

The schools have stayed open for normal instructional activities during the government shutdown. But the congressional stalemate left other school-related pursuits, even practices, in limbo. Fort Knox is in central Kentucky while Fort Campbell straddles the Kentucky-Tennessee border. The shutdown disrupted extracurriculars at other military post schools, including teams at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell welcomed the reprieve for military families.

“Our servicemembers and their children shouldn’t pay the price for Washington’s failure to fund the government,” McConnell said in a statement Tuesday evening. “I’m so grateful they’ll now be able to suit up and get back in the game.”

The Republican senator successfully intervened in the matter. He wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week, asking that athletics and extracurriculars at the schools be designated as activities allowed to proceed despite the shutdown. Within days, his request was granted.

The Department of Defense Education Activity, known as DoDEA, manages prekindergarten through 12th grade educational programs for the Department of Defense. DoDEA said in a statement that it received instructions from Hegseth that all student extracurriculars, including athletics and afterschool clubs, be considered “excepted activities during the current lapse in appropriations.”

At Fort Campbell High, that means the girls volleyball team’s banner season won’t be derailed. The team is on its way to the school’s first winning campaign in 15 years in the sport.

Without having practiced for a week, the team picked right back up by winning its first match Tuesday since resuming play, said parent Sarah Moore. The squad’s senior night game was called off last week due to the government shutdown.

“They have worked so hard to improve and be competitive this year, they couldn’t wait to get back on the court,” said Moore, whose daughter, Ava, plays on the team.

“We are thankful for the people who stood up for our kids and took action,” she added.

The disruption impacted much more than sports.

It applied to such activities as the Lejeune High School Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program, which has been recognized for its superior performance. The program’s cadets have participated in community service projects, leadership training exercises and competitive events, the school said.

Nearly five decades after Greg Cope White first stepped off a bus at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, Netflix is bringing his coming-of-age experience to screens worldwide.

His memoir, "The Pink Marine," is the inspiration behind a new television series premiering Thursday.

The series, “Boots,” stars Miles Heizer as Cameron Cope, a character inspired by White’s time as a gay teenager who found his footing inside one of the most unforgiving institutions in America. The project is backed by Sony Pictures Television, from creator and showrunner Andy Parker and co-showrunner Jennifer Cecil, and carries the late legendary screenwriter and combat veteran Norman Lear’s name as an executive producer.

For White, the journey to seeing his story on screen began long before Hollywood called. He hesitated for years to write his memoir because the media landscape prior to the turn of the new millennium offered few opportunities for LGBTQ stories.

“‘Will & Grace’ wasn’t on yet. Where was LGBTQ representation?” he recalled in an interview with Military Times.

What finally pushed him to finish and publish the book in 2015 were stories of bullied teenagers taking their own lives. White wanted something on the shelf that could signal to them, “You can hold on for another day.”

A true-to-life story with creative license

White enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1979 and served through 1985, an era when homosexuality was barred in the military. He learned to mask his reactions during screening questions and drill instructor tirades, knowing any visible flinch could end his career before it began.

He found refuge in friendship. White enlisted with his best friend, Dale, on the buddy system and slept across from him in the squad bay. Dale’s presence became a lifeline.

“That allyship is what I wish every little gay kid had,” White said.

His uniform and shaved head provided further relief. “Hopefully camouflaging my rainbow,” he explained, thankful for anything that allowed him to blend in while proving himself.

The Netflix adaptation of White’s book shifts the timeline into the 1990s and gives Heizer space to embody a character based on White, but not identical to him.

“The book is the book, and the show is the show. I want people to enjoy both,” White said.

He insisted on only a few pillars. The first was that the series include the friendship that helped him survive. Another was the Corps’ transformative role in his life, despite its policies at the time.

White, now a film and television writer and producer, even wrote one critical episode of “Boots” himself. A pivotal training moment that appears in both the memoir and the show was assigned to him for episode four.

He described watching it being filmed as overwhelming — a scene that left actors, directors and crew visibly moved. He would not spoil the details when discussing the episode with Military Times but called it “a pivotal moment in training that has carried me through life.”

Heizer’s portrayal impressed him, as well. White said the actor carried both fear and hunger in every scene, accurately portraying the tension of wanting to trust fellow recruits while knowing that disclosure of his sexual orientation could bring ruin.

“He is honoring me in every frame, but he is his own character,” said White.

Capturing the rhythm, fear, grit of recruit training

The path to take White’s story from book to screen began with producer Rachel Davidson, who first optioned “The Pink Marine” after working with White at Norman Lear’s company.

Davidson often overheard Lear refer to White as “Sergeant,” thinking it was just a playful nickname until Lear clarified White had actually earned the rank in the Corps. From there, Davidson pushed the story forward, and Lear soon became one of its biggest champions.

Lear, a legendary producer who had tackled taboo topics on television in the 1970s, recognized White’s story as part of the lineage he had long nurtured.

White wrote for Lear on other shows, and their friendship deepened. White still marvels that Lear was able to see cuts of the first three episodes before his death in December 2023.

“Everything that I do is to make him proud,” White said.

While making the series, authenticity mattered to White and the production.

Two Marine veterans, Megan Ferrell Burke and Nick Jones Jr., worked in the writers’ room. Military advisors fresh from active duty were embedded on set. The production rebuilt White’s squad bay to scale, down to working toilets.

Marines who have seen early cuts told White the depiction feels right. While minor creative liberties were necessary for story flow, he trusts that the show captures the rhythm, fear and grit of recruit training.

“You do not forget a thing about boot camp,” White said.

Vets find connection with White’s experience

Since the book’s release, White has heard from veterans who found resonance in his story. One military advisor even surprised him with an Amazon review of the memoir that “validated me beyond expectations,” White said.

He hopes the Netflix series brings that kind of connection to even more people, both inside and outside of the military.

“I believe that everyone willing to serve and qualified to serve in our all-volunteer military, in exchange for protecting our Constitution, should be celebrated and embraced,” White said.

For the civilian audience, he wants viewers to see the military as a microcosm of society, with familiar archetypes and relatable struggles, and he believes humor remains the most honest way to carry those truths.

If he could speak to his 18-year-old self stepping off the bus at Parris Island, White says he would first crack a joke: “Guess what, buddy. You are going to be stuck in boot camp for the next 47 years.” Then, he would reassure him to seek allies and trust that better days will come.

When the final cuts of “Boots” were locked, White felt relief, he said. The story no longer belonged to him alone.

On premiere night Thursday, he plans to sit at home with his partner of 17 years — the man who designed his book cover and website, and the one who encouraged him to write the memoir in the first place.

“He insisted, really,” White said with a laugh. “He told me, please stop telling me these stories, you need a new audience.”

White hopes viewers appreciate the hundreds of people who poured effort into adapting a single Marine’s story.

“Any light that shines on me has no value unless I can share it,” said White. “I want others lifted.”

A partisan battle is playing out in a Washington courtroom that could decide the fate of President Donald Trump’s federal law enforcement intervention in the nation’s capital.

Dozens of states have taken sides in a lawsuit challenging the open-ended National Guard deployment in Washington, with their support falling along party lines. It shows how the law enforcement operation in the nation’s capital remains a flashpoint in the Republican president’s broadening campaign to send the military to cities across the country and underscores the deepening divisions over the move.

The lawsuit, filed Sept. 4 by Washington Attorney General Brian Schwalb, challenges the Trump administration’s use of the National Guard in the heavily Democratic city as part of an emergency order issued by Trump to stem what the president called “out of control” crime. Although the order has lapsed, hundreds of troops are still in the city, which is seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the deployment.

With legal action launched against deployments to Portland, Oregon, and Chicago, the case will be closely watched, even though Washington’s status as a federal district makes it an outlier. Oral arguments are set to begin Oct. 24.

States’ support is split along party lines

Twenty-three states have aligned with the Trump administration’s stance that the president has the authority to bring in the National Guard, while 22 states back Washington’s position. The 23 states supporting the administration have Republican attorneys general while the other 22 have Democrats.

For the states joining in the lawsuit — especially those facing their own interventions — supporting Washington was a way to show solidarity against what they said was presidential overreach.

“It is un-American to use the military in any of our cities — absent truly extraordinary circumstances — and a threat against one city is a threat to us all,” said Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, a Democrat, who supports Washington.

The states supporting Washington said in their filing that the deployment of National Guard units without the city’s consent is unlawful, unconstitutional and undemocratic.

Trump suggests using US cities as ‘training grounds’ for military

It “sets a chilling precedent that threatens the constitutional rights of Americans everywhere,” they said. “By unlawfully deploying National Guard troops, and by threatening to deploy the Guard to every State at his whim, the President has attacked State sovereignty, harmed local jurisdictions, and made us less safe.”

Those siding with the administration say Trump is in the right with his National Guard deployment in the District of Columbia.

“The District belongs to ‘the People’ as a whole, and its safety is critical to our constitutional republic,” the 23 states said in a Sept. 16 filing, adding that they “have a profound interest in this case to ensure that President Trump can continue to protect our Nation’s capital.”

The reasoning, they say, is for safety not just for residents but for members of Congress and their staffers, as well as administration officials and foreign embassy workers. The filing notes all the groups have been crime victims in Washington in recent years. The states also argue that the Constitution and Congress give presidents enormous authority to protect the district.

“It is concerning to have states so divided and polarized,” said Emory University School of Law professor Mark Nevitt, who noted that it was just Republican-led states that have sent guard troops to Washington. The case filings are “a further representation of that divide.”

Hundreds of troops are still deployed in Washington

The Washington lawsuit emerged from the presidential order in August that led to roughly 2,000 troops from the District of Columbia National Guard and eight states patrolling public areas, including train stations, subway stations, the National Mall and other high pedestrian traffic areas. Some have been armed, unnerving residents, although no incidents have been reported.

Presidents have authority to call up the National Guard under a variety of circumstances, including to repel a rebellion or invasion, but the legal extent of that is debatable.

Troops in DC encounter few crises, but plenty of walking and yard work

In the Washington case, states will be looking at what the court says about the president’s authority to deploy the guard, the legality of deploying out-of-state guard units against the wishes of local officials and whether police powers are deemed to have been encroached upon by the federal intervention. Those arguments could be relevant for any future court cases against the deployments.

States on the winning side of the Washington case will likely feel vindicated and may seek to point to it as precedent. But the district’s unique status means the legal arguments may be different for states.

Washington, as a federal district, is distinct from the states

The president has authorities in Washington that he does not have elsewhere. In states, governors control their own National Guards. In Washington, a federal district, the president is already in charge of the National Guard and arguably can legally deploy troops without congressional approval. To deploy the National Guard to a state usually requires the approval of that state’s governor, along with legal reasoning for doing so.

Washington will also be looking to rulings in other cases that may be pertinent for its own. A judge ruled last month that the Trump administration broke the law by sending guard troops to Los Angeles in early June. The 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the U.S. military’s role in enforcing domestic laws, unless “expressly” authorized by the Constitution or Congress.

William Banks, professor emeritus of law at Syracuse University, said he believes the president is within his authority to call up the National Guard in Washington and then to federalize other guard units in the city even if Americans “don’t like the involvement of the military in civilian activities” because of statute. It is a federal district, not a state, he said.

Texas National Guard members arrive in Illinois

Experts differ over how they think the case will play out. The court’s rulings could range from saying the president is within his authority in calling up the D.C. National Guard as well as units from other states to calling the deployments an unlawful expansion of presidential authority.

Margaret Hu, a professor at the William and Mary School of Law, said that the court first has to decide if Trump used the law correctly, and, even then, it must decide whether this was an appropriate use of the National Guard.

“Part of what D.C. is arguing when they say this is an illegal deployment is that it violates the spirit of the law the Constitution requires” to give states and jurisdictions autonomy to police their citizens, Hu said. “There are complex questions the court has to answer.”

Marine veteran and star actor Adam Driver has officially been cast as Air Force combat controller and Medal of Honor recipient John Chapman in an upcoming feature film.

Chapman, who was killed in action in Afghanistan during March 2002’s harrowing Battle at Takur Ghar, was first recognized with the Air Force Cross prior to the award’s 2018 upgrade to the Medal of Honor.

In 2021 it was announced that actor Jake Gyllenhaal would play Chapman in the prospective film “Combat Control.” Subsequent script issues and studio changes, however, left the project in flux for years.

Now, the film is slated to be helmed by director Ron Howard, who will move ahead with the project under the title, “Alone at Dawn,” according to Deadline.

The film is based on the best-selling book of the same name by Dan Schilling and Lori Chapman Longfritz, Chapman’s sister.

A fight to the end

The upgrade of Chapman’s Air Force Cross to the Medal of Honor followed an exhaustive investigation into the heroic firefight that claimed his life.

In the early morning hours of March 4, 2002, Chapman was on board a U.S. Army MH-47E helicopter with a team of Navy SEALs when the crew, which was attempting to insert atop the peak of the 10,000-foot Tukar Ghar, came under heavy fire from al-Qaida fighters below.

Hit with rocket propelled grenade and small arms fire, the badly damaged helicopter attempted to lift off. As it lurched, one of the SEALs, Petty Officer First Class Neil Roberts, fell from the back of the helicopter onto the snow-covered ground below.

Roberts activated his infrared strobe as the stricken helicopter flew, eventually making an emergency landing miles away.

Once on the ground, another Chinook helicopter picked up Chapman and the SEAL team to return to the peak and attempt to rescue Roberts. This time, the team successfully disembarked.

Once on the ground, Chapman was “the first to charge up the mountain toward the enemy,” President Donald Trump said at the 2018 Medal of Honor presentation.

Under fire from three directions, Chapman advanced through the snow and killed two enemy combatants who had been firing from a fortified position.

An enemy machine gunner then unleashed a hailstorm on the team from just 40 feet away. Chapman launched into a sprint toward the fighter but was hit by multiple enemy rounds, knocking him unconscious.

What followed has been the source of great infighting and dispute.

The SEAL team, believing Chapman to be dead, evacuated down the mountain to a position of safety.

Among the SEALs was Medal of Honor recipient Master Chief Special Warfare Operator Britt Slabinski, who maneuvered the team away from the onslaught while “carrying a seriously wounded teammate through deep snow [and] calling in fire on the enemy,” according to his medal citation.

Footage retrieved from a Predator drone and later analyzed, however, showed that Chapman was not dead.

In fact, he became active again after regaining consciousness, mounting a one-man offensive against the enemy, despite his wounds, and continuing to “fight relentlessly” until all his ammunition was expended and he could fight no more, according to his medal citation.

MQ-1 Predator drone footage showed Chapman’s final moments, during which he killed at least one insurgent in hand-to-hand combat, as the enemy swarmed his position and began firing on another helicopter that was arriving with a quick-reaction force.

After being wounded 16 times, Chapman was killed by a close-proximity gunshot to the heart. He was 36.

For years, the exact circumstances surrounding Chapman’s death remained a mystery. A 2016 report from The New York Times revealed that former Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, after seeing the drone footage of the engagement, was the first to recommend that Chapman’s Air Force Cross be upgraded to the Medal of Honor.

After cross-referencing the video feed from the drone and testimony by troops on the ground and in the air — an AC-130 air crew was also overhead — a 17-person investigative team was able to pinpoint actions taken by Chapman on that frigid mountainside where he took his last breath.

“John survived that initial wounding that he got, and continued to fight on for an hour,” Chapman’s squadron commander Col. Ken Rodriguez said.

“And then at a crucial moment, right at the end of his life, he sacrificed his life for the incoming quick reaction force, when he could have hunkered down and said, ‘Finally, the guys are coming in to get me,’” Rodriguez continued. “But instead he said, ‘If I don’t do something, others are going to die.’ He’s clearly a Medal of Honor-worthy warrior.”

When former President Trump presented the Medal of Honor to Chapman’s widow, Valerie Nessel, the Windsor Locks, Connecticut, native became the first airman to receive the nation’s highest award for valor since the Vietnam War.

Now, the portrayal of Chapman’s heroics will fall to the 41-year-old Marine veteran. Anne Hathaway has also been confirmed as a cast member alongside Driver.

A theatrical release date has yet to be announced.

National Guard members from Texas were at an Army training center in Illinois on Tuesday, the most visible sign yet of the Trump administration’s plan to send troops to the Chicago area despite a lawsuit and vigorous opposition from Democratic elected leaders.

The Associated Press saw military personnel in uniforms with the Texas National Guard patch at the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Elwood, 55 miles (88 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. On Monday, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott posted a picture on social media showing National Guard members from his state boarding a plane, but he didn’t specify where they were going.

There was no immediate comment from the office of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. But the Democrat had predicted that Illinois National Guard troops would be activated, along with 400 from Texas.

Pritzker has accused Trump of using troops as “political props” and “pawns.” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson told reporters that the administration isn’t sharing much information with the city.

“That is what is so difficult about this moment: You have an administration that is refusing to cooperate with a local authority,” Johnson said Tuesday.

Texas National Guard deploying to Chicago on Monday

A federal judge gave the Trump administration two days to respond to a lawsuit filed Monday by Illinois and Chicago challenging the plan. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday. The lawsuit says, “these advances in President Trump’s long-declared ‘War’ on Chicago and Illinois are unlawful and dangerous.”

Trump’s bid to deploy the military on U.S. soil over local opposition has triggered a conflict with blue state governors. In Oregon, a judge over the weekend blocked the Guard’s deployment to Portland.

The Trump administration has portrayed the cities as war-ravaged and lawless amid its crackdown on illegal immigration. Officials in Illinois and Oregon, however, say military intervention isn’t needed and that federal involvement is inflaming the situation.

Trump has said he would be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act if necessary. It allows the president to dispatch active duty military in states that are unable to put down an insurrection or are defying federal law.

“If I had to enact it — I’d do that,” Trump said Monday. “If people were being killed, and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up.”

The sight of armed Border Patrol agents making arrests near famous landmarks has amplified concerns from Chicagoans already uneasy after an immigration crackdown that began last month. Agents have targeted immigrant-heavy and largely Latino areas.

The Chicago mayor signed an executive order Monday barring federal immigration agents and others from using city-owned property, such as parking lots, garages and vacant lots, as staging areas for enforcement operations.

Separately, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois is also suing the federal government, accusing it of unleashing a campaign of violence against peaceful protesters and journalists during weeks of demonstrations outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in suburban Broadview.

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in response to the lawsuit that the First Amendment doesn’t protect “rioting.”

In Oregon, the Portland ICE facility has been the site of nightly protests for months, peaking in June when local police declared a riot, with smaller clashes occurring since then. In recent weeks, the protests typically drew a couple dozen people — until the deployment was announced. Over the weekend, larger crowds gathered outside the facility, and federal agents fired tear gas.

Most violent crime around the U.S. has declined in recent years. In Portland, homicides from January through June decreased by 51% to 17 this year compared with the same period in 2024, data shows. In Chicago, homicides were down 31% to 278 through August, police data shows.

Since starting his second term, Trump has sent or talked about sending troops to 10 cities, including Baltimore; Memphis, Tennessee; the District of Columbia; New Orleans; and the California cities of Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

A federal judge in September said the administration “willfully” broke federal law by deploying guard troops to Los Angeles over protests about immigration raids.

Fernando reported from Chicago. Associated Press reporters Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, and Ed White in Detroit contributed to this story.

President Donald Trump’s latest bid to deploy the military on U.S. soil over local opposition is triggering a new conflict with blue state governors that is playing out in the courts as Trump envisages a country where armed soldiers patrol U.S. streets.

Trump has already pushed traditional boundaries by using the National Guard domestically, envisioning a muscular role for the U.S. military in targeting illegal immigration and crime in American cities.

His attempt to deploy California National Guard members to Oregon and Texas Guardsmen to Illinois is a sprawling use of presidential power. Next steps in lawsuits filed by Democrat-led states will likely address significant questions of constitutional law, federalism and the separation of powers — setting up a potential collision between the courts and Trump’s aggressive use of the National Guard.

At a gathering of military brass last week, Trump called for using U.S. cities as a training ground for troops and warned of an “invasion from within.” To his critics, however, Trump’s use of the National Guard amounts to a frightening use of force against Americans.

“What will happen when the president loses in court?” said Alex Reinert, a constitutional law expert at the Cardozo School of Law in New York City. “Will he use it as an excuse to act in an even more authoritarian way?”

An expanding role for the National Guard not seen before

Rifle-wielding troops on American streets are one of the starkest manifestations of Trump’s attempt to expand presidential power, with troops already deployed to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

Control over a state’s National Guard typically falls to the governor unless units are federalized — as they were in California over the governor’s objections. Otherwise, it’s up to the governor to decide to deploy Guard members or send them to other states to assist with natural disasters. In D.C., Trump commands the Guard himself.

Local authorities, Trump says, have failed to safeguard communities, giving several Democrat-led cities as examples. He’s called Portland “war ravaged” and a “war zone” that is “burning down” and like “living in hell.”

However, the nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the military’s role in enforcing domestic laws, reflecting America’s long-standing belief that law enforcement should remain in civilian hands.

Trump was asked Monday about another law, the Insurrection Act, and said he would be willing to invoke it if necessary. It allows the president to dispatch active duty military in states that are unable to put down an insurrection or are defying federal law.

“If I had to enact it — I’d do that,” Trump said. “If people were being killed, and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up.” He added: “We have to make sure our cities are safe.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier that Trump wants to make America’s cities safer.

“You guys are framing this like, ‘The president wants to take over the American cities with the military,’” Leavitt told reporters Monday. “The president wants to help these local leaders who have been completely ineffective in securing their own cities.”

U.S. officials say the decisions to send federalized troops from Texas and California to other states are being made at the highest levels of the Trump administration, bypassing formal Pentagon policy processes that would normally be part of troop deployments.

While this dynamic is not unheard of, one official said, it’s typically used in situations like natural disasters where troops need to move out quickly before formal orders and authorizations. The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal situation.

One result is that governors like California’s Gavin Newsom and Illinois’ JB Pritzker, both Democrats, have become the first to announce troop deployments. Pentagon public affairs officials have struggled to confirm or deny the actions and troop numbers, facing pressure to avoid giving even basic details of military operations and to defer questions to the White House.

The situation is far different from President John F. Kennedy’s move to federalize the Alabama National Guard in 1963 to integrate the University of Alabama in a standoff with Gov. George Wallace. That is because Trump is ostensibly seeking to use troops to protect federal property and personnel, not to enforce federal civil rights laws passed by Congress, according to William Banks, a Syracuse University law professor and an expert in constitutional law and national security.

The Guard members cannot enforce local laws, block traffic or do “any of the things that police do,” Banks said. “So it’s more symbolic than helpful.”

Legal challenges set up a clash over Trump’s deployments

Leaders in Illinois, Oregon and California have sued, while top White House figures blasted a Trump-appointed judge’s decision to block the deployment in Portland.

Stephen Miller, a top Trump adviser, suggested it’s the courts that have ignored constitutional limits.

“A district court judge has no conceivable authority, whatsoever, to restrict the President and Commander-in-Chief from dispatching members of the US military to defend federal lives and property,” Miller posted on X, likening the protests over Trump’s immigration policy to “domestic terrorism.”

Judges are not likely to be swayed by the bluster, legal experts say. Instead, they will look at whether Trump’s orders violate the Constitution and the federal laws governing how the Guard is used.

Trump’s opponents have relied on the court system to slow down his agenda, with the Republican-controlled Congress largely not checking his expansion of power.

With litigation piling up, Trump officials have shown disdain for judges and decisions they oppose but so far have avoided the direct kind of confrontation that legal experts say could do real harm.

Texas National Guard deploying to Chicago on Monday

“The potential that they would defy an order from a federal court is very worrisome,” Banks said. “That’s our backstop. That’s what we have in the United States to keep our democracy on the rails.”

Trump’s attempt to deploy California National Guard members to Oregon is a “clear violation of the law” and a flagrant attempt to circumvent the judge’s weekend ruling, according to Elizabeth Goitein, an expert on presidential powers.

Goitein, senior director of the Liberty and National Security Program at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, said Americans should be concerned that Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth see deployments in U.S. cities as practice for overseas conflicts.

“What the military is trained to do is to fight and destroy enemies of the United States. The president of the United States wants soldiers to practice this battle training in the streets of American cities,” she wrote on a social media.

Associated Press writers Chris Megerian, Seung Min Kim and Nathan Ellgren contributed to this report.

About 200 Texas National Guard troops are set to deploy to Chicago on Monday night unless a judge blocks the order, a Pentagon official told Military Times.

Illinois officials sued the Trump administration Monday for its attempt to deploy hundreds of National Guard troops to Chicago for federal protection missions.

According to Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, President Donald Trump has activated hundreds of Texas National Guard troops and federalized 300 Illinois National Guard troops for duty in Illinois despite the governor’s objections.

Speaking at a press conference Monday, Pritzker said the troops are not needed in Chicago and labeled the order “Trump’s invasion.” He said federal agents were shooting rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at protesters to “incite” residents and provide Trump the pretext to invoke the Insurrection Act.

“There is no invasion here. There is no insurrection here. … The folks in the neighborhoods do not want armed troops marching in their streets,” he said at the conference.

Multiple people have been arrested in recent days for ramming vehicles into DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents’ cars and blocking federal law enforcement officers.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called acts like these “domestic terrorism.”

“ICE officers should not have to live in fear of violence to do their jobs,” he told CNN in an interview Monday.

Chicago Police Department Superintendent Larry Snelling stressed Monday that law enforcement would continue to step in to protect federal officials when citizens break the law, such as when protesters box in ICE officers who are trying to do their jobs.

“If you box them in domestically with vehicles, it is reasonable for them to believe that they are being ambushed and that this could end in a deadly situation, and it’s reasonable for them to use force based on those conditions. Do not box in any law enforcement officer,” he said.

Snelling also responded to critics that said officers had either delayed or not deployed police to help federal officials in the city over the weekend, saying that 27 officers who were at the scene of a protest had been affected by chemical agents used by federal officers.

He said that city police frequently work with federal officers to stop human trafficking, drug smuggling and gun violence, but they are not allowed to help with immigration enforcement due to a local law known as the Trust Act.

“The Trust Act prohibits law enforcement in the state of Illinois from engaging in assisting federal agents when it comes to immigration enforcement. We abide by that law,” he said.

Protesters have pointed to violent behavior from ICE officials, who have conducted overnight raids in Chicago apartments. One ICE agent shot and killed a Mexican immigrant last month in the Chicago suburb of Franklin Park after he dropped his kids off at daycare.

ICE initially said one officer was “seriously injured” during the deadly incident, but the Chicago Sun Times has reported the agent said his injuries were “nothing major” in body camera footage from local police.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott wrote on X Sunday that he had “fully authorized the President to call up 400 members of the Texas National Guard to ensure safety for federal officials.”

The administration has teased deploying the National Guard to Chicago for several weeks to help with multiple missions. Last month, the president repeatedly said he would use the Guard to fight crime in the city.

“We’re going in. I didn’t say when. We’re going in,” Trump said at the White House on Sept. 2.

“Chicago is a hellhole right now,” he added.

Chicago ranks 13th in total crime rates for American cities with populations of at least 250,000, with Memphis, Cleveland and St. Louis plagued with the highest total crime rates, according to FBI crime data.

Even as Chicago’s crime rates are down across the board this year, dozens of people were shot and at least seven people were killed in the city in a surge of violence over the Labor Day weekend.

Portland orders paused

A federal judge late Sunday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying any National Guard units to Oregon, after the administration made multiple attempts to mobilize troops there.

The president had ordered California National Guard troops to Portland on Sunday after the same judge blocked him from using Oregon’s National Guard the day before.

U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, granted a temporary restraining order sought by California and Oregon.

“How could bringing in federalized National Guard from California not be in direct contravention to the temporary restraining order I issued yesterday?” she asked the federal government’s attorney.

Stephen Miller called the ruling “Legal insurrection” on X.

“The President is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, not an Oregon judge. Portland and Oregon law enforcement, at the direction of local leaders, have refused to aid ICE officers facing relentless terrorist assault and threats to life,” he wrote.

The administration’s stance conflicts with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s comments about federalizing the Guard during the Biden administration.

In February 2024, while governor of South Dakota, Noem posted on X that it would be a “direct attack on states’ rights” if the Biden administration federalized South Dakota’s National Guard to stop them from performing duties at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“If [Biden] is willing to do that, and to take away my authority as governor as commander in chief of those National Guard, boy, we do have a war on our hands,” Noem told Fox News that same month.

From the shores of Grenada to the deserts of Iraq, the Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV) shielded and carried Marines from ship to sea to shore for over 50 years.

Now, after a Sept. 26 ceremony, the famous “workhorse” has been officially decommissioned.

Col. Lynn Berendsen, commander of the Assault Amphibian School at Camp Pendleton, California, noted during the ceremony that the AAVs were intertwined with the legacy of the Marines that operated them.

“The AAV gave Marines both mobility and armored protection, allowed them to close with the enemy and seize objectives at speed,” Berendsen said. “In the desert, just as in the Pacific beaches decades earlier, [the AAV] showed it was more than a connector — it was a fighting vehicle at the heart of the Marine Air Ground Task Force.”

Assault Amphibious Vehicles are being replaced with a newer model — an eight-wheeled vehicle known as the Amphibious Combat Vehicle, or ACV, which has been in the field for the past several years.

The Sept. 26 commemoration, however, saw the official sunsetting of the historic vehicle.

“The AAV-P7 has been many things, a ship to shore connector, an armored fighting vehicle, a troop carrier, a logistics platform and even sometimes a live boat,” Berendsen said. “Most importantly, it was in a place where Marines made their mark in combat in service and in sacrifice.”

In 1972, the AAV became part of the Marine Corps lethal repertoire after United Defense (a former division of FMC Corporation, now part of BAE), was awarded a $78.5 million contract for it.

The AAV is a tale rooted in amphibious warfare and its inevitable evolution.

It replaced the storied Landing Vehicle, Tracked (LVT), which first saw combat in August 1942 in Guadalcanal. From Tarawa to Inchon and through the Vietnam War, the LVT delivered Marines to beachheads far and wide while under enemy fire.

Over its nearly five decades of service, the AAV underwent several iterations — improving its maneuverability, firepower and protections to meet the evolving needs of modern combat.

However, service officials decided in 2018 that it was time for the workhorse to be retired, replaced by a more modern vehicle that is more suited to expeditionary and large-scale combat operations.

Then in 2020, the AAV came under intense scrutiny after eight marines and a sailor were killed after their vehicle sank off the coast of California during an exercise. A command investigation into the incident revealed that the sinking was a result of poor training, a vehicle in “horrible condition” and lapsed safety procedures in a rush to deploy an operational AAV platoon.

A second Marine Corps investigation resulted in the firing of Maj. Gen. Robert Castellvi as Inspector General of the Marine Corps because of failures in his prior position as commander of the 1st Marine Division to ensure the Marines from 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, and 3rd Amphibious Assault Battalion were properly trained before attaching to the MEU.

The ACV has had setbacks of its own since its was first fielded in late 2020.

From September 2021 to January 2022, the Marine Corps paused waterborne operations with the amphibious combat vehicle because of a problem with the tow rope.

Then, in July 2022, a vehicle rollover prompted the Corps to suspend it again. The vehicles returned to the water in late September 2022, but a mishap a few weeks later led the service to cease most training with the vehicle in choppy waters.

Finally, in May 2024, the ACV made its official debut overseas in a live-fire exercise in Oyster Bay, Philippines.

While the ACV has four variants, the vast majority of its fleet will be of the personnel carrier versions — 400 of them, Task & Purpose reported.

As for the AAV, Berendsen said, “Its legacy is not only in its capabilities but also in the countless Marines who operated it and relied on it to accomplish their missions.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired the Navy chief of staff in a sudden shakeup following the confirmation of Hung Cao as the new Navy Under Secretary.

“Jon Harrison will no longer serve as the Chief of Staff of the Secretary of the Navy. We are grateful for his service to the Department,” a Pentagon spokesman told Military Times in a statement on Saturday.

At the time of publication, Harrison had not provided a comment about his ousting.

Harrison was a political appointee of President Donald Trump who had worked with Navy Secretary John Phelan on efforts to streamline the Navy’s policy and budgeting offices after coming into their posts with many of the Navy’s biggest programs years behind schedule.

Politico was first to report on the ouster.

An official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press, said Harrison had attempted to limit the role of the undersecretary, Navy veteran Cao, and had reassigned aides meant to help Cao in his new role.

Cao, a Republican and strong Trump supporter, ran and lost in Virginia to Democratic opponents in races for both the House and Senate.

Hegseth has fired several top aides this year, including senior advisor Dan Caldwell, deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll, the chief of staff to the deputy secretary of defense.

He has also removed the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti and several other uniformed leaders.

Harrison assumed the chief of staff role in January after having served in the first Trump administration as chairman of the United States Arctic Research Commission, a position he held until spring 2021.

In his address to Congress in March, Trump pledged to revive America’s struggling shipbuilding industry, announcing a new shipbuilding office in the White House to help the cause. That effort has since moved to the Office of Management and Budget following the ouster of shipbuilding advocate Mike Waltz from the National Security Council in the wake of the Signalgate scandal.

Waltz created a group chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal in March to discuss an impending U.S. military strike against Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was mistakenly added and Hegseth shared sensitive information about the attack in the chat that originated from a classified email.

The Pentagon Inspector General’s office is still investigating the Signal incident.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a new strike on an alleged drug-carrying vessel in the Caribbean on Friday, killing four people.

“Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route. These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!” Hegseth posted on X with a video showing a boat blown up in a strike.

#BREAKING The US carried out a fourth "lethal, kinetic strike" on a vessel that Secretary Hegseth says was affiliated with designated terror organizations in @Southcom AOR. Four people were killed. https://t.co/JXYxnuOi1a

— Carla Babb (@CarlaBabbVOA) October 3, 2025

The strike was carried out in international waters off the coast of Venezuela, according to Hegseth.

The Trump administration has justified its military actions in the Western Hemisphere as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States. Earlier this year, the president designated gangs, including Tren de Aragua, as foreign terrorist organizations to combat the flow of drugs, which Hegseth wrote Friday are “headed to America to poison our people.”

Human rights groups, as well as members of Congress on both sides of the political aisle, have questioned the legality of the strikes.

Friday’s strike marked at least the fourth on vessels in U.S. Southern Command since Sept. 2.

President Donald Trump in a social media post on Sept. 19 said a U.S. strike killed three in a vessel “affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization conducting narcotrafficking.” He did not specify where in U.S. Southern Command the deadly strike had occurred.

On Sept. 15, Trump announced the U.S. military had carried out a strike on a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, killing three on board. That followed a deadly military strike on a speedboat on Sept. 2 that killed 11.

Neither the military nor the White House has identified which U.S. military ships and assets have been used to carried out the strikes, a vast departure from the military’s previous transparency on strike operations, including transparency granted during the first Trump administration.

“We refer you to the White House,” a Navy spokesperson responded when asked whether any of their assets were used in the multiple Caribbean strikes.

“We are not authorized to respond to queries at this time due to the lapse in appropriations. … The COCOM [U.S. Southern Command] and OSW [Office of the Secretary of War] would be the only folks authorized to speak on this,” a Marine Corps spokesperson told Military Times. The Marine Corps also has forces in the Caribbean on Navy amphibious warfare ships.

The White House Press team, like the Marines Corps, pointed to the shutdown for its inability to respond to requests.

“Due to staff shortages resulting from the Democrat Shutdown, the typical 24/7 monitoring of this press inbox may experience delays. We ask for your patience as our staff work to field your requests in a timely manner. As you await a response, please remember this could have been avoided if the Democrats voted for the clean Continuing Resolution to keep the government open,” it responded to Military Times.

The defense secretary’s office has failed to provide information about which service branch carried out the strikes or what munitions were used in the attacks, even in questions asked before the shutdown.

The lack of details in this campaign mirrors how the Pentagon handled an extended bombing campaign against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in mid-March. Pentagon officials briefed reporters during the week that campaign began but would not comment on the number of strikes, targets or progress toward reopening shipping lanes in the weeks that followed, Defense News previously reported.

The refusal to provide basic details marked a break from the previous year of airstrikes against the Houthis, which U.S. Central Command would describe in public releases. The lack of details on recent strikes also marks a departure from the first Trump administration, during which officials provided details, including assets and locations, on U.S. strikes in Somalia, Iraq and Syria.

‘Non-international armed conflict’

Earlier this week, a Pentagon memo to Congressional national security committees said Trump had “determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict” with cartels that he has designated as terrorist organizations.

“The President directed the Department of War to conduct operations against them pursuant to the law of armed conflict. The United States has now reached a critical point where we must use force in self-defense and defense of others against the ongoing attacks by these designated terrorist organizations,” the memo added.

A congressional staffer told Military Times on Thursday the memo was “definitely alarming.”

The staffer declined to comment further because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

Todd Arrington, the director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, stepped down this week after a dispute with the Trump administration over gifting a sword in the museum’s collection to King Charles, according to multiple news reports.

Arrington, an Army veteran and career historian who previously held posts with the National Archives and Records Administration and National Park Service — most recently at the James A. Garfield National Historic Site in Ohio — was told Monday by an unnamed supervisor to “resign or be fired.” Arrington stepped down.

“I was obviously shocked and saddened and heartbroken,” Arrington said in an interview with the Kansas News Service. “I have almost 30 years of government service. I’ve never had a bad mark against me.”

Arrington began his tenure as director of the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas, in August 2024.

For the director, the trouble began with a request.

Ahead of President Donald Trump’s state visit to Britain in September, the administration reached out to the library requesting a sword or other artifact that would denote the two nations’ “special relationship” — a bond that was largely forged during the Second World War and saw Eisenhower at the helm as the supreme commander of the Allied forces.

The library, which has at least one sword of Eisenhower’s in its collection, was given to the general and future president in 1947 by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands.

Arrington declined to release the sword or any other original artifact on the grounds that the ephemera belongs to the U.S. government, and, by law, the library is obligated to preserved them for the American public.

Despite Arrington’s refusal to hand over the original sword, the historian worked with officials in the State Department to find a worthy replacement. Ultimately, King Charles was gifted a replica “Cadet Saber” from West Point.

Arrington confirmed to CBS News that at the time, he received no notable pushback after his refusal to provide a sword for the state visit.

He said he had been pressured to resign this week over the fact that he “could no longer be trusted with confidential information.”

According to The New York Times, “Three other people with knowledge of the situation described the conflict over the sword. Two said that Mr. Arrington had also angered officials at the National Archives and Records Administration, which oversees the presidential library system, by sharing information with his staff about changes to longstanding plans for a new education center,” which was then used as the purported reason for his ousting.

The request for a gift, according to the Times, came from a State Department liaison who used the email address “giftgirl2025” and initially told the museum that they were looking for “like a sword or something.”

“We felt very good about the way that everything worked out,” Arrington told the Kansas News Service. “It was a great feather in our cap to have helped figure out this gift for the president to present to the king.”

The White House does not have a say in the hiring and firing of library directors. Instead, the Archivist of the United States is responsible.

However, the scuffle over the sword came at the heels of Trump’s clash with the National Archives and its archivists and historians.

In February, Trump fought with the archives over his reluctance to return classified documents after he left office in 2021. The nation’s archivist at the time, Colleen Shogan, alerted the Justice Department about the potential mishandling of classified documents that Trump had taken to Mar-a-Lago, his private residence in Florida.

During a January 2025 interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Trump stated, “I think I can tell you that we will get somebody — yes. We will have a new archivist.”

Shogan was fired the following month.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is currently the acting archivist of the NARA, while James Byron holds the position of senior advisor and is charged with managing the archives on a day-to-day basis until a permanent archivist is appointed.

The National Archives replied to questions from Military Times with an automated message that due to the government shutdown, the request would go unanswered until normal operations resumed.

An inquiry to Tamara Martin, director of the Nixon Library and acting executive of the Office of Presidential Libraries, went unanswered.

The Pentagon issued several memos this week that impose strict fitness and grooming standards, lessen education requirements and upend the Defense Department’s processes for reporting discrimination and fraud, waste and abuse.

“It all starts with physical fitness and appearance,” Hegseth told hundreds of military leaders during a rare gathering of top brass at Marine Corps Base Quantico on Tuesday. “Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops.”

According to one memo with the subject line “Military Fitness Standards” released Tuesday, active-duty troops are now required to take two annual fitness tests, in addition to working out every duty day.

The first test requirement is the existing service fitness test. The second will be either a combat field test for combat arms personnel, or a combat readiness test or second service fitness test for non-combat arms forces.

Members of the Reserve or National Guard must compete one annual fitness test based on their combat or non-combat designation.

Per the memo, those troops in certain combat arms positions must pass with at least a 70% average on the service fitness test that is sex-neutral, age-normed and follows the male standard. A full list of those positions is included in the memo.

Height and waist circumference will continue to be used as a fitness standard. The memo states “high performers on fitness tests may be granted exemptions, but only within defined limits.”

The Army in September announced soldiers who score a 465 or better on the Army Fitness Test would no longer be subject to flagging actions for body fat percentage, no matter their height and weight measurements.

The new guidance is expected to be released within the next 60 days and take effect starting in January.

“High performance does not excuse non-compliance with body composition standards,” the memo reads.

Back to the 1990s

Hegseth is also ordering a 60-day review of the military’s education system curricula and training-school standards to identify any changes to the standards since 1990.

Leaders are then expected to make recommendations on whether standards should be restored to those of 1990, or kept the same. It remained unclear Friday why that particular year — before most of those serving in uniform were even born — was chosen.

“1990 seems to be as good as a place to start as any,” Hegseth said during his Tuesday speech to military brass.

Hegseth also ordered a reduction in mandatory training requirements that service members must complete each year. The Pentagon will relax the frequency for cybersecurity training, eliminate some training requirements through automation and remove Privacy Act training.

Hegseth wrote that the Pentagon will also relax the frequency of training on Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). In a memo, the secretary asked to consolidate training topics as appropriate and championed “test-out” options for refresher training.

“These critical efforts to eliminate, reduce, and consolidate focus topics advances my emphasis on warfighting,” Hegseth wrote.

Changes to Equal Opportunity, hazing

Complaints submitted under Military Equal Opportunity and civilian Equal Employment Opportunity, programs that aim to prevent discrimination, will be addressed within 30 days and dismissed if they “lack actionable, credible evidence,” according to new guidance.

The option to report anonymously to those offices is being replaced with a “confidential complaint reporting option.”

“Those who knowingly submit false complaints or repeatedly submits frivolous complaints are held accountable, pursuant to applicable laws and regulations,” the memo adds.

In another memo released Tuesday, Hegseth said the definition of “hazing, bullying and harassment is overly broad” in department policy.

The two-paragraph memo orders a 30-day review of the definitions of hazing, bullying and harassment because “undue administrative burdens” on commanders “distract” from their core mission of maintaining a ready and lethal force, according to Hegseth.

“This review aims to strike a balance,” he wrote.

Overhauling a military watchdog

Another memo issued Tuesday addresses reforms to the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, which investigates cases of fraud, waste and abuse inside the agency, as well as misconduct, command issues and violations of law.

The memo calls for the office to complete a “credibility assessment” of every complaint within seven days of receiving them.

“At that point, the complaint must either be closed or the investigation initiated,” Hegseth wrote.

Hegseth instructed “artificial intelligence with human oversight” to help speed up the process.

The investigating agency will need to provide a written update about each investigation every two weeks to the subject of the complaint, his or her commander and the complainant.

The IG must also establish and enforce procedures to “identify and manage complainants who submit multiple complaints without credible evidence, that are frivolous, or that knowingly include false information,” according to the memo.

Hegseth told military leaders Tuesday the IG process had been “weaponized, putting complainers, ideologues and poor performers in the driver’s seat.”

The IG’s office is currently investigating Hegseth for his use of Signal to share classified or sensitive information about an attack in Yemen earlier this year. Hegseth’s office has called it a “sham” review.

It was unclear Friday how this overhaul could affect the investigation.

Demands for clean-shaven troops

Hegseth followed up his comments Tuesday — when he called for “no beardos” in the armed forces —with a memo on strict grooming compliance.

“This is critical not only for defense against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats, but also for firefighting, disaster relief, and other hazardous mission sets where respiratory protection may be required, often on short notice,” he wrote in a memo titled “Grooming Standards for Facial Hair Implementation.”

Service members must be clean-shaven, with no facial hair other than mustaches that do not extend past the mouth corners. Sideburns must be above the ear opening.

Special operations forces may ask for modified standards as part of “validated mission-essential requirements.”

Exceptions to this rule include service members with medical waivers for conditions such as pseudofolliculitis barbae, a skin condition characterized by inflamed hair follicles that disproportionately affects Black men. Waivers are limited to 12 months and must include a treatment plan.

Religious accommodations will revert to pre-2010 standards, when facial hair waivers were generally not recognized.

“Approvals will be limited to non-deployable roles with low risk of chemical attack or firefighting requirement,” the memo said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has called on the Pentagon to affirm that the department would maintain the religious rights of all service members.

“The First Amendment guarantees military personnel the right to practice their faith — including the right of Muslim, Sikh and Jewish personnel to grow beards or cover their hair — as does established Pentagon policy,” CAIR said in a statement.

SAN DIEGO — The Trump administration is tapping National Guard and Army Reserve lawyers to be temporary immigration judges after firing dozens of existing judges, the latest step in a broader plan that experts warn could harm immigration courts and the military justice system.

Training for the first group of Army lawyers begins Monday and training for the second group is expected to start in the spring, several former and current military reserve lawyers said they were told. Roughly 100 Army Reserve lawyers are expected to participate, with 50 beginning a nearly six-month assignment immediately after their training, according to a Sept. 3 email sent to an Army Reserve attorney and reviewed by The Associated Press.

The administration wants to bring in as many as 600 military-trained attorneys to help make decisions about which immigrants can stay in the country. Advocates are alarmed by the move to use military lawyers to bolster staffing in the backlogged immigration courts as President Donald Trump’s administration ramps up immigration arrests.

Those courts have yearslong waits for hearings, and the number of pending cases has more than doubled in the past four years to 3.4 million.

Both the Army and National Guard said they hope to fill the assignments with volunteers.

“This assignment provides the opportunity to gain judicial experience in a high tempo, nationally significant setting,” an email sent to members of the Army’s Reserve Legal Command stated, adding that locations and other details will be released later.

A notification seeking volunteers sent Sept. 6 to active-duty and reserve National Guard members said “ideal candidates will possess experience in administrative law, immigration law, service as a military judge” or a related field. Applicants should have sound judgment, impartiality and a “suitable temperament for the role,” it said.

The Trump administration increasingly has turned to the military to support its crackdown on illegal immigration. That has included troops patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border, National Guard members being sent into U.S. cities to support immigration enforcement efforts, housing people awaiting deportation on military bases, and using military aircraft to carry out deportations.

Concerns over lack of training

Immigration judges each manage hundreds or thousands of cases, deciding who gets asylum and green cards to stay in the U.S. Their rulings shape both the lives of immigrant families and the success of Trump’s crackdown.

Some immigration and military law experts are concerned the reservists will be put in the job without enough training or experience after more than 100 immigration judges were fired or left.

With only about 600 immigration judges remaining, the Pentagon move would double their ranks. Trump’s sweeping new tax and spending law provided $170 billion for immigration enforcement, including the hiring of 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees, but it caps the number of permanent immigration judges at 800.

“They’re letting a lot of experienced judges go, terminating them with no notice, and yet they claim that there’s a shortage so they need to have these military JAG officers step in and take over,” said Margaret Stock, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and immigration lawyer.

Of particular concern, the administration is not requiring experience as an administrative law judge or in immigration law as in the past, she said. Stock has taught seminars on immigration law at West Point but said military lawyers learn only a minimal amount to be able to help fellow service members with things like visas for spouses or children.

“Immigration law is super technical and complicated,” she said. “It’s worse than tax law, and it’s constantly changing. And it has its own terminology, its own rules that don’t make any sense.”

Immigration judges come from a range of legal backgrounds, including the military, the Justice Department, immigration enforcement agencies, and private practice. The government previously required applicants to have seven years’ experience before undergoing a lengthy hiring process, then six weeks of training followed by a two-year probation period.

Until now, temporary judges needed 10 years of legal experience in immigration, and were often retired immigration judges, according to the government’s rule laying out the new plan.

The Defense Department did not return an email seeking comment. The Executive Office for Immigration Review, which runs the immigration courts, declined to comment. In the rule, the agency wrote that many successful immigration judges had little experience in immigration law before taking the job.

“Immigration law experience is not always a strong predictor of success,” the rule said.

In the military, an attorney is known as a judge advocate general, or JAG. They study at accredited law schools and pass the bar exam before going into a military law program for just over two months. They sometimes work as special assistants to U.S. attorneys and gather evidence to prosecute criminal cases, much like civilian prosecutors do, said Mark Nevitt, a former Navy JAG and associate professor at Emory University School of Law.

“They are some of the greatest lawyers you’ll meet in the national security world,” but this will require they “get up to speed pretty quickly on a complex body of law and then adjudicate matters and claims as a judge,” Nevitt said.

Matt Biggs, president of a federal employee union that represents immigration judges, said tapping lawyers with little or no immigration experience to hear these complex, high-stakes cases will likely do more harm than good.

“It will lead to more appeals of decisions. It will further increase the backlog. It’s going to be an inefficient and costly endeavor,” Biggs said. “It sets a dangerous precedent in this country when it comes to due process protections.”

Gregory Chen of the American Immigration Lawyers Association said the Justice Department is “watering down the qualifications of those it will empower to make life-or-death decisions.”

He also worries the administration will hold too much sway over the temporary hires. The permanent judges are government employees with civil service protections.

Democrats have questioned the plan’s legality

Some Democratic senators have warned the Pentagon plan may violate the Posse Comitatus Act, which bans service members from carrying out law enforcement duties, and fear taking away the JAGs could harm the military justice system. They sent a letter to the offices of the top military lawyers for the four services, asking where the roughly 600 lawyers will be coming from and what legal analysis the military has conducted.

A Pentagon memo describing the plan said the appointments should be for no longer than six months. The memo also said the Justice Department would be responsible for ensuring the military lawyers don’t violate the Posse Comitatus Act.

If the military lawyers serve entirely under civilian personnel then it could be legal, Nevitt said, but it’s unclear.

Some immigrant advocates believe the administration is presuming military lawyers are more likely to deny cases to meet Trump’s deportation goals.

But Greg Rinckey, a former Army lawyer who is now in private practice, said that assumption is wrong.

“They will not rubber stamp because most of us have served as defense counsel,” he said. “We’re not all government hacks.”

A number of his friends who are Army Reserve JAGs have signed up because they are interested in immigration law and want to serve a national need, he said.

“And also it’s a way to put something else on your resume — that you served as a judge.”

Taxin reported from Santa Ana, California. Konstantin Toropin in Washington also contributed.

When staff members arrived at their Armed Services YMCA food pantry distribution location near Fort Hood, Texas, at 5 a.m. Thursday, they found a line of military families stretched around the side of the building.

“That’s not happened ever. We had a 34% increase this week over past weeks,” said Dorene Ocamb, ASYMCA chief brand and development officer. The doors at the organization’s Harker Heights location opened at 6:30 a.m. to distribute free food, but there were so many people, some had to wait in line outside for safety reasons, she said.

“We expected an increase, but didn’t quite expect this,” Ocamb said.

The government shutdown started at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. Troops received their Oct. 1 pay, but “anxiety is high,” Ocamb said. “There’s a lot of anticipatory anxiety around potentially losing a paycheck.”

It’s unknown whether the shutdown will last long enough to affect service members’ Oct. 15 paycheck.

Ocamb said families are being proactive about their preparations in case there’s a prolonged shutdown.

“My message to any military family today is: Go out and seek out food pantry help. It may help alleviate a line item in their budget,” Ocamb said, allowing families to have more money to use toward other expenses like rent, mortgage payments or car payments.

Financial resources for troops if the government shutdown stops pay

The food distributions in Killeen are held at various locations on Thursdays and Saturdays, and normally, food supplies run out around 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. On Thursday, food had run out by 10 a.m. Access to the distribution is limited to active duty families until 10 a.m.; veteran families are allowed after that. Active duty in uniform are served first at 6:30 a.m.

Hundreds of military families visited the free food distribution event at ASYMCA’s Harker Heights location Thursday, according to the organization.

While the Armed Services YMCA generally focuses on junior enlisted families, it doesn’t limit food assistance by rank.

“Food is one of those basic needs. If you show up and need food, we’re going to serve you,” Ocamb said.

Families are allowed to take 25 pounds of food, excluding frozen food and produce. They can choose a bag of frozen protein and as much produce as they want. They’re also allowed to choose the food they want, in an effort to prevent waste. There are shelf-stable foods, as well as some dairy, alongside fresh and frozen meats.

Although ASYMCA doesn’t normally carry diapers at this pantry location, they brought in boxes to give away Thursday, and there were many mothers with young children and pregnant mothers there, according to Ocamb. As ASYMCA gathers more information and resources, Ocamb said, she expects they’ll distribute more diapers and wipes in the coming weeks.

While Killeen already has two food pantry distribution events each week, other locations are working to increase the frequency of their distributions. For example, San Diego’s ASYMCA is working to increase its events from twice a month to weekly. And some installations that offer walk-in food pantries, such as Norfolk, Virginia, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, are working to increase their food supplies to meet needs.

Armed Forces YMCA has 22 food distribution locations across the United States, including two in Killeen. If there isn’t an Armed Services YMCA branch nearby, Ocamb suggests checking out FoodFinder.us, a tool that helps search for food pantries by ZIP code nationwide.

ASYMCA is also allowing parents to defer paying for child care at their child development centers if the shutdown starts to affect military pay. The child development centers will collect payment when military pay is restored.

President Donald Trump has declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants and says the United States is now in a “non-international armed conflict,” according to a Trump administration memo obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, after recent U.S. strikes on boats in the Caribbean.

A person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly said the Congress was notified about the designation by Pentagon officials on Wednesday.

The move comes after the U.S. military last month carried out three deadly strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean. At least two of those operations were carried out on vessels that originated from Venezuela.

Pentagon officials could not provide a list of the designated terrorist organizations at the center of the conflict, a matter that was a major source of frustration for some of the lawmakers who were briefed, according to the person.

Democrats have been pressing Trump to go to Congress and seek war powers authority for such operations.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

What the administration laid out at the closed-door classified briefing was perceived by several senators as pursuing a new legal framework that raised questions particularly regarding the role of Congress in authorizing any such action, the person familiar with the matter said.

As the administration takes aim at vessels in the Caribbean, senators and lawmakers of both major political parties have raised stark objections. Some had previously called on Congress to exert its authority under the war powers act that would prohibit the administration’s strikes unless they were authorized by Congress.

The first military strike, carried out on Sept. 2, on what the Trump administration said was a drug-carrying speedboat, killed 11 people. Trump claimed the boat was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang, which was listed by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization earlier this year.

The Trump administration has justified the military action as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States.

But several senators, Democrats and some Republicans, as well as human rights groups questioned the legality of Trump’s action. They called it potential overreach of executive authority in part because the military was used for law enforcement purposes.

By claiming his campaign against drug cartels is an active armed conflict, Trump appears to be claiming extraordinary wartime powers to justify his action

The government shutdown has already affected some services on military installations, but the impact varies, according to Military Times’ review of several installation Facebook pages.

For example, family centers at some bases are open, like those at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington, but classes are canceled. At Fort Riley, Kansas, the Soldier and Family Assistance Center, as well as its general Army Community Services office and outreach/mobilization office, is closed.

Child care varies. At Fort Riley, five child development centers remain open, but the Whitside North CDC for hourly care is closed.

At Kadena Air Base, Japan, its child and youth programs are open. The installation’s government housing office reports there will be potential delays to customer service. At Whidbey Island, the government housing office will have “diminished” ability to provide oversight and advocacy for military personnel during inspections of privatized housing for move-out and move-in. The government housing office at Fort Riley is closed.

Defense officials issued guidance for operations during the lapse of appropriations, which expired at midnight Sept. 30, and it’s similar to previous guidance for operations during such a shutdown.

Meanwhile, House lawmakers are pushing for specific legislation to guarantee military pay during government shutdowns. While Oct. 1 paychecks are not affected, the Oct. 15 paychecks would be affected, unless House and Senate lawmakers can reach a new short-term funding agreement.

According to DOD guidance, officials expect to furlough about half of the 741,477 civilian employees, which also affects some operations on base.

Here’s some general information about operations during the shutdown.

Military personnel

Active-duty troops, including reserve component personnel on federal active duty, are required to continue reporting for duty, but their paychecks will stop as of Oct. 15 unless a new funding deal is reached. Military retirees and annuitants would continue to receive their pay, which is funded from a different source.

Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., has introduced legislation to ensure that troops, including the Coast Guard, would continue receiving pay and benefits in the event of a government shutdown. That authority would continue until regular appropriations are passed into law, or until Jan. 1, 2027. To date, 56 lawmakers have signed on to support the proposed Pay Our Troops Act of 2026. The bipartisan push also would guarantee pay and allowances for civilian personnel at the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security who directly support service members and contractors providing mission-essential support to troops.

Financial resources for troops if the government shutdown stops pay

The shutdown could also delay some specialty pays and stipends.

Certain DOD programs and activities may be excepted from being shut down, based on national security requirements to be determined. One example is activities in direct support of military operations and activities, including those forces assigned to combatant commands.

Among the highest priorities, according to DOD guidance, are operations to secure the U.S. southern border; Middle East operations; Golden Dome; depot maintenance; shipbuilding; and critical munitions.

The shutdown also limits permanent change of station moves for military personnel. Moves are primarily limited to troops moving to an excepted activity — activities granted an exemption from the shutdown.

Temporary duty travel and conference participation should be canceled, with some exceptions.

Civilian defense workers

Unlike troops, not all civilian defense staffers are required to keep working in the event of a shutdown. DOD civilian personnel who aren’t necessary to carry out or support excepted activities are furloughed; only the minimum number of civilian employees necessary to carry out those activities are excepted from furlough.

Some DOD civilians are required to work without pay; others continue to work and get paid because they aren’t paid by annual appropriations. Government employees are guaranteed back pay after the shutdown ends, but the situation still causes uncertainty and financial hardship in some cases.

This also affects thousands of military spouses who work as civilians for many government agencies.

Military medical

Inpatient care in DOD medical treatment facilities continues, as does critical medical and dental outpatient care in medical and dental facilities. Elective surgery and other elective procedures aren’t exempted, and could be postponed or cancelled.

Private sector health care under Tricare isn’t affected by a shutdown, and specialty medical care for wounded warriors would continue. However, office hours could be curtailed because of staffing issues.

Child care and MWR

Child care may be decided base by base, depending on installation staffing and demands. Families should contact their local installation child development center and check the installation’s social media pages for updates. Generally, family child care homes aren’t affected.

Morale, welfare and recreation activities that receive any taxpayer funding will operate during a shutdown if they are deemed necessary to support essential operations. That includes mess halls, physical training and “child care activities required for readiness.”

Nonessential activities could be shuttered.

Military exchanges

Activities and organizations funded entirely by nonappropriated funds, such as the military exchanges and many MWR activities, will generally remain open. The exchanges are largely funded by sales revenue, not taxpayer dollars. The Army and Air Force Exchange Service, for example, operates more than 5,000 facilities, including exchange stores, convenience stores, gas stations, food courts and malls in the U.S. and more than 30 countries.

Part of the military exchanges’ profits go to help fund some MWR activities.

DOD schools

Previously, schools around the world operated by the Department of Defense Education Activity continued educating children during a shutdown. However, sporting events and extracurricular activities, including sports practices, can only continue if they are fully funded by nonappropriated funds. At Kadena Air Base, for example, sports and extracurricular activities are canceled.

Commissaries

Military grocery stores should not be affected unless the shutdown lasts several months. Defense Working Capital Fund activities, which include the Defense Commissary Agency, are allowed to continue operating until cash reserves are exhausted. For commissaries, that would be about 60 days, unless cash reserves run out before then.

Defense officials have also provided exceptions for the 58 overseas commissaries, including Puerto Rico and Guam, to allow them to stay open, and sites “determined to be in remote U.S. locations where no other sources of food are reasonably available for military personnel.” According to the American Logistics Association, those identified as remote are Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center, Bridgeport, California; Coast Guard Base Kodiak, Alaska; Fort Greely, Alaska; and Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah. Those commissaries with exceptions must continue to operate even after working capital fund cash reserves are exhausted.

Here's how a government shutdown would affect VA services

Veterans Affairs operations

Unlike the Defense Department, most Veterans Affairs offices are funded a year in advance. Benefits processing, medical centers and other support services will continue operating amid a partial shutdown.

Hours and appointment availability could be changed because of the budget impasse, but VA hospitals will remain open and operational.

Some department information hotlines could be shuttered during a shutdown, and some VA central office staff would be furloughed until new funding is approved. But compared to other departments, the impact on overall VA operations would be minimal.

We’ve covered just a few of the general impacts here. Check with your installation officials about specific effects.

A scare about a supposed shooting that prompted a lockdown at New Jersey’s largest military base was a hoax caused by a civilian employee who wanted to “trauma bond” with her colleagues, according to federal prosecutors.

Malika Brittingham, a civilian who works for the Naval Air Warfare Center and was assigned to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, faces charges that she knowingly conveyed false information about an active shooter who didn’t exist, according to a criminal complaint filed by federal prosecutors.

Brittingham was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon, and a telephone number for her could not be located Wednesday. It wasn’t known Wednesday if she’s retained an attorney.

The lockdown order was issued shortly before 11 a.m. Tuesday at the sprawling base, which is among the nation’s largest military installations. According to a criminal complaint, Brittingham allegedly texted someone around 10:15 a.m., writing that a shooter was on the base, that she had heard five or six shots and that she was hiding in a closet with co-workers.

The person she texted then called the base’s operation center and 911, relaying what Brittingham told her, the complaint stated. That prompted the lockdown order, officials said. The lockdown lasted about an hour before base officials determined there was no shooter.

“This kind of senseless fear-mongering and disruption will not be tolerated in my state,” the acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Alina Habba, said on social media. “After everything this country has gone through, especially in light of current events, I will be sure to bring down the hammer of the law for anyone found guilty of creating unnecessary panic and undermining public trust.”

According to prosecutors, Brittingham told investigators she carried out the hoax because she had been “ostracized by her co-workers and hoped that their shared experience in response to an active shooter would allow them to ‘trauma bond,’” the complaint said.

The U.S. Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst spans 42,000 acres (17,000 hectares) and combines Air Force, Army and Navy functions with more than 42,000 service members, relatives and civilian employees.

The incident unfolded as U.S. military leaders gathered at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had summoned them from around the world to hear him declare an end to “woke” culture in the armed forces, among other Trump administration priorities.

TRENTON, N.J. — A federal government employee was taken into custody Tuesday following an “active shooter hoax” that plunged New Jersey’s largest military base into lockdown earlier in the day, according to the state’s acting U.S. attorney, Alina Habba.

In a social media post Tuesday night, Habba said the civilian employee — who has not been named — was in custody for “conveying false information regarding an active shooter at Joint Base McGuire.”

That sprawling base, among the nation’s largest military installations, was placed under lockdown Tuesday morning.

A statement on the base’s Facebook page urged all personnel to shelter in place. The statement did not describe the nature of the threat. The lockdown was lifted just before noon, a little under an hour after it was announced.

Habba’s statement did not elaborate on the employee’s alleged actions, but it described the person, in an all-caps statement, as a “suspects in...today’s active shooter hoax.”

An e-mailed inquiry to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey was not immediately returned.

“This kind of senseless fear-mongering and disruption will not be tolerated in my state,” Habba added. “After everything this country has gone through, especially in light of current events, I will be sure to bring down the hammer of the law for anyone found guilty of creating unnecessary panic and undermining public trust.”

The U.S. Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst is one of the nation’s largest military installations. It spans 42,000 acres (17,000 hectares) and combines Air Force, Army and Navy functions and counts over 42,000 service members, relatives and civilian employees.

The base is about 18 miles (29 kilometers) south of Trenton, the state capital, and about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Philadelphia.

The incident unfolded Tuesday as U.S. military leaders were gathered at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had summoned them from around the world to hear him declare an end to “woke” culture in the armed forces.

It comes after recent violence at military installations in recent years.

Last month, an Army sergeant was charged with shooting five fellow soldiers at a Georgia base. Other shootings have ranged from individual disputes between service members to assaults on bases to mass-casualty attacks, such as the 2009 shooting, by an Army psychiatrist, that killed 13 people at Texas’ Ford Hood.

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military has begun drawing down its mission in Iraq under an agreement inked with the Iraqi government last year, officials said Wednesday.

Washington and Baghdad agreed last year to wind down the military mission in Iraq of an American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group by September 2025, with U.S. forces departing some bases where they have stationed troops during a two-decade-long military presence in the country.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement Wednesday that the U.S. “will reduce its military mission in Iraq,” reflecting “our combined success in fighting ISIS.”

The move “marks an effort to transition to a lasting U.S.-Iraq security partnership in accordance with U.S. national interests, the Iraqi Constitution, and the U.S.-Iraq Strategic Framework Agreement,” he said.

The statement added that Washington will maintain close coordination with Baghdad and coalition partners to ensure a “responsible transition.”

It did not give details on the number of troops that have withdrawn to date or when the drawdown would be completed.

Military Times Special Report: The Iraq War, 20 years later

A senior Iraqi security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said the U.S. withdrawal began weeks ago from Baghdad and from Ain al-Asad base in western Iraq.

“Only a very small number of advisers remain within the Joint Operations Command,” the official said.

He added that some forces have redeployed to the city of Irbil in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, while others have left the country entirely, and that there is no accurate count of those who have withdrawn yet.

The official said the drawdown is proceeding according to agreed-upon schedules.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani told The Associated Press in an interview in July that the U.S. and Iraq will meet by the end of the year to “arrange the bilateral security relationship” between the two countries.

President Donald Trump told a gathering of military leaders Tuesday they should use American cities as “training grounds” to fight against what he called a “war from within.”

“We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military, National Guard, but military,” Trump told an audience filled with top generals and admirals in Quantico, Virginia.

He told the commanders that defending the homeland was the military’s “most important priority” and suggested the leaders in attendance could be tasked with assisting federal law enforcement interventions against an “invasion from within” Democratic-led cities, such as Chicago and New York City.

The White House has already directed the deployment of National Guard troops across Washington, D.C., after declaring a public safety emergency.

On Tuesday, he suggested that Afghanistan — where more than 2,400 American troops and hundreds of Afghan troops and civilians were killed in a brutal, two-decades-long war — was safer than the U.S. capital prior to the federal government’s intervention in August.

“Washington, D.C., was the most unsafe, most dangerous city in the United States of America, and to a large extent beyond, and beyond that. You go to Afghanistan, they didn’t have anything like that,” Trump told the military leaders.

The remarks came one day after the president and First Lady Melania Trump hosted a reception for 50 Gold Star families at the White House. The gathering included military families who lost loved ones in Afghanistan.

According to FBI data, Cleveland, St. Louis and Memphis, Tennessee, are plagued with the highest total crime rates — not Washington. Crime has been down across the board in D.C., with 20-year homicide trends at their lowest point since the 2020 pandemic, according to the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department.

The nation’s capital has sued the Trump administration for deploying the National Guard within the city’s boundaries, with the D.C. attorney general’s office alleging that the administration’s efforts are an “involuntary military occupation.”

National Guard troops are deploying this week to Portland, Oregon, and Memphis as part of the administration’s effort to quell crime and unrest in those cities.

Democratic leaders in Oregon have challenged the Oregon Guard’s deployment orders in court, filing a suit against Trump, Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday that accuses the administration of exceeding its executive powers and basing its actions on a “wildly hyperbolic pretext.”

“The President says Portland is a ‘War ravaged’ city ‘under siege’ from ‘domestic terrorists.’ Defendants have thus infringed on Oregon’s sovereign power to manage its own law enforcement activity and National Guard resource,” Oregon officials said in the lawsuit.

According to CNN, Portland Police Bureau logs show more than 100 calls made to the address of the city’s Immigrations and Customs Enforcement building this year for reasons including “disorder,” “unwanted person” and shots fired.

One riot was reported outside the ICE building, when the national “No Kings” rally in June turned violent in the area, prompting three arrests.

Some current and former defense officials have raised concerns to Military Times that the deployments appear authoritarian and threaten to drive a wedge between the military and American citizens.

“It will no longer be that our military is part of us. It’ll be, ‘It’s those guys in uniform, those armed thugs,’” Retired Maj. Gen. Randy Manner, who served as vice chief of the National Guard Bureau, told Military Times earlier this month.

Crime has continued to decline since more than 2,200 Guard members deployed to Washington. The Guard members have also focused on “beautification” efforts that have spruced up public park areas that officials say have been neglected amid National Park Service manpower shortages following cuts, buyouts and contract freezes initiated earlier this year by the Department of Government Efficiency.

Guard members have “cleared 1,133 bags of refuse, spread 1,045 cubic yards of mulch, removed five truckloads of plant waste, cleared 7.9 miles of roadway, painted 270 feet of fencing, 400 trees pruned, and packaged 6,030 pounds of food,” according to the latest data provided Monday by the joint task force in charge of the D.C. deployment.

An airman who was demoted and sentenced to hard labor after popping positive for cocaine has had his conviction overturned by an appellate judge who found government prosecutors failed to turn over evidence and did not adequately consider his defense that the flagged substance could have been tainted pre-workout power.

A Sept. 15 decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces — the military’s highest appeals court — found that Bryce Roan, a former senior airman, was disadvantaged by errors and omissions by the prosecution.

The decision, handed down by CAAF Judge John E. Sparks, returns the case to the Air Force and authorizes a rehearing. It was not clear Tuesday whether the service would choose that option. A request for comment to Lt. Col. Jenny Liabenow, the head of the prosecution’s legal team, did not receive a response.

Annie Morgan, an attorney who represented Roan for the Law Offices of David Sheldon, which has a special focus in military law, said the ruling will have reverberations far beyond a single airman’s career.

“I think it’s a pretty seismic case in terms of military justice,” Morgan told Military Times. “I think you’ll see this cited [in other appeals] starting today.”

It’s so significant, she said, because it’s a rare acknowledgement of what’s known in trials as a Brady violation — a failure by prosecutors to disclose material that might help the person they’re prosecuting prove their own innocence.

At issue is how Roan’s case was tried alongside that of another airman, and how doubt about the nature of the substance they ingested around the same time should have been considered equally in both cases.

Cocaine or pre-workout? Airman fights drug conviction

Roan had been stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, in the summer of 2021. He lived off base with two other airmen in his unit, the 19th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. After the July Fourth weekend, they were all subjected to a urinalysis as part of a unit-wide inspection.

Roan and his roommate, Staff Sgt. Nikkolas Wolf, both popped for a cocaine metabolite. Roan’s levels were higher: 574 nanograms per milliliter to Wolf’s 168. But both were above the 100 ng/ML cutoff for a positive test.

The two cases were considered “companion cases,” according to court documents, and were investigated at the same time. But when they went to trial, the outcomes were wildly different. Roan was convicted in December 2021, receiving three months of hard labor, a reprimand and a demotion to E-2. A month later, Wolf’s case was postponed. When he finally went to trial in May 2022, he was acquitted.

As appeal documents show, Wolf had told agents from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (SFOI) he thought another substance might be to blame for his positive drug test.

“I have no idea, why would I — I take pre-workout, I don’t know if that could make me pop,” Wolf said, according to documents. “My roommate brought [the pre-workout] back from Africa. I ran out of mine and took his.”

Wolf was acquitted — not because the powder proved his innocence — but because prosecutors failed to preserve evidence, including the pre-workout supplement in question, as well as records of a conversation with a third roommate who owned the supplement.

But even though Roan’s case was considered a companion to Wolf’s, this information was never brought into it.

“Under the most charitable interpretation, [the Air Force prosecutor] remained willfully ignorant as to SFOI’s investigation into the pre-workout powder,” Sparks wrote in the September CAAF decision. “If [the prosecutor] had exercised reasonable diligence in preparing the Government’s case, he would have been aware of the steps taken by SFOI, the destruction of evidence, and the investigators’ derogatory data. Thus, he was responsible for turning over to the defense responsive material and exculpatory information.”

For Morgan, this case brings together legal rights for troops facing prosecution in a way that’s never been done before.

“You’ve got to look at the withheld material holistically; you do not get to plead ignorance [as prosecutors]; innocent ingestion is a very viable defense, which you do not have to actually form corroboration for,” she said. “I think it’s a really great one-stop shop … there has never been a case that synthesized them so beautifully, in terms of what an actual defendant’s rights were.”

Morgan expects the decision to feature prominently in many cases and appeals in which a defendant is seeking to demonstrate doubt about their guilt. It underscores that the failure to gather and preserve evidence is not an excuse for investigators to overlook aspects of a case.

“Rules really matter,” Morgan said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re trying a capital murder case or trying a single spec marijuana case. Actually, the rules are the same. And I don’t think they’ve been treated as the same for a very long time.”

Roan, who spoke with Military Times in January, is now 25 and out of the service. At the time, he said he kept his uniforms hanging in his closet in the hope that the wrongs in his case would be righted.

But the decision in his favor doesn’t necessarily do that, at least for Roan, Morgan said.

“I don’t think he’s going to be tried again, but there’s that actual question of, could they recall him to active duty to try him?” Morgan said. “Or even just, what does that emotionally mean when they say you’re right, but no one says, ‘I’m sorry.’”

QUANTICO, Va. — The Army, Navy and Air Force, with encouragement from the Trump administration, all announced this summer that they had met their recruiting goals months ahead of schedule.

That is a major shift from the past several years when the military has failed to meet its recruiting goals because of complications from the COVID-19 pandemic, tight job markets and a growing generation of young Americans struggling to meet fitness and academic standards. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed the turnaround as an early victory, arguing that recruits had been put off by what he called a weakened military under Democratic President Joe Biden.

However, the uptick began well before President Donald Trump won office again in November, and a major driver has been programs the services started years ago to boost numbers.

While the Marine Corps didn’t wade into the fray earlier, it is now claiming success. And the general in charge of the effort says the politics of the moment have had no impact on Marine recruiting.

“The Marines are probably the most inelastic of the services,” Lt. Gen. William Bowers told The Associated Press this month. “We appeal to a certain type of young man or woman — that really doesn’t change with the economic winds."

“They want to be part of that mystique,” he added.

Marines say they just beat their recruiting goal

Data provided by the Corps shows that it has recruited 30,536 active duty and reserve enlisted Marines — just one person over its annual goal. It also recruited 1,792 active duty and reserve officers, beating its goal by two people.

Officials say the figures are not the result of a struggle to meet the numbers but a reflection of how careful the Corps has to be in not overrecruiting.

Bowers said that when he took the job as deputy commandant for manpower and reserve affairs, he moved the date for 500 recruits to head to boot camp until after September to avoid the Marines growing past their congressionally authorized size.

Formal recruiting figures for all the military services are typically announced after the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.

The Marines also beat enlisted recruiting goals by a single person last year. The service made its enlisted recruiting goal by 351 Marines in 2023, when the Army, Navy and Air Force all missed their targets by thousands of recruits. The Army alone came up about 10,000 short.

However, the Corps in 2022 also had to dip into its pools of delayed-entry applicants — the same pool Bowers is now bolstering — to make its goals.

The military’s struggle to make numbers

The Marines have not altered their entry requirements and are “unapologetic” about their standards.

“Everywhere I’ve been in the country, the American people know the Marine Corps has very high standards and that we stick to them,” Bowers said. He added, “If you try to appeal to everybody, you won’t get the people you maybe really want.”

But there is also an inherent contrast with the other military services.

Both the Army and Navy stood up programs at their boot camps that offer remedial academic or physical training to recruits who don’t meet standards at the time they ship out.

The Navy also has started a program that allows up to 20% of its recruits to score below 30 out of 99 on the military’s academic test as long as they met specific standards for their chosen job. It also raised the maximum enlistment age by two years, to 41.

Army and Navy officials said none of those programs is a lowering of standards.

The Corps doesn’t offer the lavish cash bonuses that some services do to attract recruits. The U.S. military overall spent more than $2 billion over the past three years to recruit service members, with the Corps accounting for just over 2.5%, or about $51 million, of that.

Gen. Eric Smith, the Marine commandant, famously told a conference in 2023 that “your bonus is you get to call yourself a Marine.”

Part of what enables Marines to maintain this bravado is that they are by far the smallest service, with roughly 170,000 people. That means the recruiting goals are also smaller.

In contrast, the Army is made up of more than 450,000 troops with a recruiting goal for 2025 of 61,000 recruits. The Navy is made up of more than 440,000 sailors, and its goal for 2025 was 40,000.

The Marines also have had a decades-long emphasis on recruiting, Bowers says. “Culturally, we are different because we were set on a different path years ago.”

That history makes the success of the Corps difficult to emulate or easily replicate. Bowers said Marine officials had conversations with the Army and played a role in the service working to set up a cadre of career recruiters, but he also concedes that “we got about a 45-year head start.”

Political spotlight

The Marine Corps has played an oversized role in Trump’s administrations.

During his first term, Trump picked two retired Marines for key positions: Gen. James Mattis as defense secretary and Gen. John Kelly as head of the Department of Homeland Security and later chief of staff. Both later left the administration and have been critical of Trump.

Since taking office this year, the Trump administration has turned to Marines again. It sent active duty Marines to Los Angeles to protect federal property and personnel during protests against immigration raids.

It further thrust the Marine Corps into the political spotlight, and the deployment was challenged in court.

Now, Marines are part of a U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean that is stoking fears of invasion in Venezuela and adding to speculation that Trump could try to topple its president, Nicolás Maduro.

Asked about the political attention, Bowers wasn’t concerned, arguing it is an opportunity for the Corps to show that it is able to succeed in a crisis and act as a positive force.

“Whenever Marines are committed to a crisis, we turn in a performance that’s successful,” he said. “We’re downright good for the youth of America.”

Bowers also wasn’t bothered by the prospect that what Americans think of Marines might be changing.

“I have not seen that,” he said. “What I have seen is that the American people know that our commandant has insisted on very high standards to become a Marine and that the Marine Corps will absolutely never compromise those standards.”

This article was updated Wednesday to include information from the Air Force Aid Society and Coast Guard Mutual Assistance.

If the government shutdown that was triggered late Tuesday starts affecting the paychecks of service members, federal civilian workers and contractors, there are resources to help those experiencing financial distress.

The Oct. 1 paychecks for service members aren’t impacted by the shutdown. The first pay period that could be affected is the Oct. 15 paycheck. While military members must continue to report for duty without pay, House lawmakers are pushing for legislation to guarantee troops are paid during government shutdowns.

DOD guidance indicates nearly half of their 741,477 civilian employees could be furloughed. A number of military spouses work as civilian employees for DOD.

Some banks and credit unions that focus on the military community, as well as military relief societies, are providing options to help those affected.

Many credit unions have already begun proactive outreach to members, said Haleigh Laverty, spokeswoman for the Defense Credit Union Council.

“A shutdown could directly and indirectly affect [credit union] operations, including member paychecks, loan repayments, mortgage and credit card payments,” she said.

Regardless of your financial institution, you should contact them if you experience financial problems because of the shutdown. Different institutions are offering options based on individual financial circumstances, too.

Examples of options that will be offered:

Navy Federal Credit Union: Eligible members with direct deposit of pay who are service members, federal government employees and federal government contractors paid directly by the federal government may be eligible for a loan with zero interest or fees. Loan amounts of up to $6,000 are calculated based on the most recent direct deposit. Once direct deposit of pay resumes, the amount credited to the account will be deducted automatically as repayment.

Information about registration and other details is available at Navy Federal Credit Union.

USAA: Members who are employed by a federal agency that’s been affected and have received an eligible direct deposit into a USAA checking or savings account within 30 days prior to the beginning of the shutdown will be able to apply for a zero-interest loan equal to the amount of one net paycheck, up to $6,000. Members may also be able to set up special payment arrangements for auto and property insurance premiums, life and health insurance premiums, credit cards, consumer loans, home equity lines of credit, and other credit.

PenFed Credit Union: Members may qualify for a zero-interest paycheck protection loan and other assistance.

Andrews Federal Credit Union: Offering financial assistance loan options, penalty-free share certificate withdrawals, skip-a-payment programs and other assistance with loan programs.

Examples of military relief society plans for assistance:

Army Emergency Relief may provide an interest-free loan equal to the amount of one net paycheck, up to a maximum amount of $6,000, for soldiers and families who experience financial hardship due to lack of pay. Soldiers must repay the full amount within 30 days, and will begin on Oct. 30, after they receive back pay following the government shutdown. AER now offers online applications for loans.

Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society: Offices will be open during normal hours to help families who are experiencing immediate needs related to the loss of income from a government shutdown.

Air Force Aid Society: AFAS is prepared to support airmen, Guardians and their families affected by the shutdown, officials say. Watch www.afas.org and their social media channels for updates if the shutdown is expected to last beyond Oct. 15.

Coast Guard Mutual Assistance: CGMA will offer interest-free loans to help with bills, such as rent payments, insurance and child care. Coast Guard military and civilian employees may be eligible to borrow up to the amount of their monthly Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) as needed.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lamented against “fat troops” and “woke” policies Tuesday, pledging to create higher physical fitness and grooming standards with gender neutral, age-normed criteria that match the current male fitness standards.

“It all starts with physical fitness and appearance,” Hegseth told hundreds of top military leaders during a speech at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia.

“If the Secretary of War can do regular, hard PT [physical training], so can every member of our joint force. Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops,” he added while addressing the room full of generals and admirals.

Hegseth said he was in the process of ordering 10 department directives, the first of which would ensure that all requirements for every combat Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) “returns to the highest male standard, only because this job is life or death.”

The Pentagon is also implementing a combat field test for combat arms units that Hegseth said “must be executable in any environment, at any time, and with combat equipment.”

The Pentagon will require all members of the joint force to meet the height and weight standards twice per year, take and pass a PT test twice per year and work out during every duty day.

Also on Tuesday, Hegseth ordered that every service and unit conduct an “immediate review of their standards.”

“Any place where tried-and-true physical standards were altered, especially since 2015 when combat armed standards were changed to ensure females could qualify, must be returned to their original standard,” he said. “Other standards have been manipulated to hit racial quotas as well, which is just as unacceptable.

“When it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral. If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is,” he added.

The military has repeatedly said it did not lower qualification requirements for women to serve in some of its toughest combat posts.

“As long as they qualify and meet the standards, women will now be able to contribute to our mission in ways they could not before,” former Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in 2015.

Marine Corps researchers compared all-male and gender-integrated combat units from 2014 to 2015. They found that all-male units were faster and stronger, but the gender-integrated groups had better problem-solving skills. Morale remained the same among the units.

Women are currently held to the same standard as men to become infantry, fighter pilots, Army Rangers and to hold other combat posts.

There are still no women in the Navy SEALs, although at least two women have successfully completed the SEAL Officer Assessment and Selection (SOAS) program but did not proceed to Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training.

Why getting more female troops into Special Operations will take time

The nonprofit Service Women’s Action Network pushed back Tuesday on policies “implying that the focus on diversity and inclusion distracts from the core mission of lethality.”

“Our diversity is not a vulnerability — it is our single greatest strategic advantage, a force multiplier that makes our military stronger, more resilient, and ultimately, more lethal in execution,” the group said in a statement.

The group reiterated the Marines Corps’ findings that diverse teams of men and women from every background are “proven to identify risks and develop more innovative, complete strategies than homogenous teams.” A force that better reflects the global population and diversity of the United States “builds deeper trust and achieves greater operational effectiveness overseas,” SWAN added.

Hegseth said his litmus test for the changes being implemented was whether he would want his eldest son to join the types of formations currently in the military.

“If in any way the answer to that is ‘No’ or even ‘Yes, but,’ then we’re doing something wrong,” he said.

Hegseth also pledged to improve grooming standards in ways critics argue could target the religious freedoms of U.S. service members.

“No more beards, long hair, superficial, individual expression. We’re going to cut our hair, shave our beards and adhere to standards,” Hegseth said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations called on the Pentagon on Tuesday to clarify Hegseth’s order and affirm that the department would maintain the religious rights of all service members.

“The First Amendment guarantees military personnel the right to practice their faith — including the right of Muslim, Sikh and Jewish personnel to grow beards or cover their hair — as does established Pentagon policy,” CAIR said in a statement.

Troops with medical shaving waivers to face separation, Hegseth says

Another directive Hegseth announced at Quantico on Tuesday is geared toward “overhauling” the Inspector General process, which the secretary said had been “weaponized, putting complainers, ideologues and poor performers in the driver’s seat.”

“No more frivolous complaints. No more anonymous complaints. No more repeat complaints. No more smearing reputations. No more endless waiting. No more legal limbo. No more side-tracking careers. No more walking on eggshells,” Hegseth said.

The IG is currently investigating Hegseth for his use of Signal to share classified or sensitive information about an attack in Yemen earlier this year. Hegseth’s office has called it a “sham” review.

It was unclear Tuesday how this overhaul would affect the investigation.

Watchdog to investigate Hegseth’s sharing of airstrike info on Signal

Hegseth called on military leaders who did not like the initiatives that he laid out on Tuesday to resign.

“If the words I’m speaking today are making your hearts sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” Hegseth said. “I know the overwhelming majority of you feel the opposite. These words make your hearts full.”

Meetings between top military brass and civilian leaders are not uncommon, but the haste with which Tuesday’s meeting was called was unusual.

Speaking to Military Times on condition of anonymity, one U.S. official said that some exercises and operations concerning hurricane disaster response on the East Coast were thrown into temporary confusion as leaders tried to determine which officers would need to stay back and remain in charge of operations, and which commanders were needed for the speech.

The Pentagon on Monday awarded Lockheed Martin a $12.5 billion contract for nearly 300 of the newest F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

The U.S. Navy said in a statement the contract modification will definitize 148 F-35s from the 18th lot of the jets and add scope for the production and delivery of another 148 fighters in lot 19.

Monday’s announcement builds on another lot 18 and 19 contract announcement from December 2024 worth $11.8 billion. It brings the total to about $24.3 billion.

Lockheed Martin will primarily build these jets at its Fort Worth, Texas, factory, and the company said it would start delivering them next year. The per-jet price increase will be less than the rate of inflation, Lockheed said.

“The F-35 Lot 18-19 contract represents continued confidence in the most affordable and capable fighter aircraft in production today,” Chauncey McIntosh, Lockheed’s vice president and general manager of the F-35 program, said in a statement. “We are proud to support our customers and further solidify the F-35’s role in enabling peace through strength.”

Twelve nations, including the United States, South Korea and Israel, now fly the more than 1,230 F-35s that are in service.

The Pentagon’s contract announcements Monday also included a $101 million cost-plus-fixed-fee deal to buy F-35 parts in advance that might face shortages or diminished manufacturing sources.

Another contract to Lockheed, worth $137 million, would pay for engineering changes to lot 17 of the F-35, as well as seek to reverse diminishing manufacturing sources.

The Pentagon also awarded Lockheed an $11.6 million contract to redesign a sensor circuit card assembly by July 2027.