Among the many late-night, gastrointestinal-wrecking delights within American fast-food culture, Taco Bell stands elite.

For decades, Americans have fearlessly and willingly forked over hard-earned cash despite knowing a minute on the lips, forever (or so it would seem)… on the lavatory.

Despite these Eric Cartman-esque Stage Four bouts of fecal displeasure, Taco Bell remains one of the top fast food chains in the nation thanks, in large part, to a Marine.

Glen Bell was born in Lynwood, California, on Sept. 3, 1923, to Glen and Ruth Johnson Bell. One of six children, the future American restaurateur set off on his own at the age of 16 and, according to his "Taco Titan“ biography, “[went] on the bum” and “r[ode] the rails in search of work.”

That work, or lack thereof, led him to joining the Marine Corps in 1943, rising to the rank of corporal and serving as a cook and food server.

Cpl. Bell seemingly learned about food efficiency while feeding hordes of hungry Marines while island hopping in the Pacific.

Serving from 1943 until his honorable discharge in 1946, Bell took the Corps’ lessons of streamlining and logistics to fuel a burgeoning empire.

After the war, according to The New York Times, Bell “bought a surplus Army truck and began hauling adobe bricks at 5 cents each. A miniature golf course that he leased failed to make a profit. Then, he opened a hamburger stand in a Hispanic neighborhood.”

While drive-in stands dotted San Bernardino at that time — the McDonald’s brothers were just getting their start down the road — Bell wanted to streamline Mexican food.

Ground beef, chopped lettuce, shredded cheese and chili sauce could, Bell believed, outpace hamburger sales among Americans, but the problem remained the vehicle of delivery.

Traditional Mexican restaurants served their tacos in a soft shell. According to Bell, “If you wanted a dozen, you were in for a wait.”

But Bell had a secret weapon: a man who made chicken coops for a living.

Hiring this individual to fashion a frying contraption made from chicken coop wire, Bell was able to quickly fry preformed shells made for easy assembly.

Selling for 19 cents, Bell’s hamburger shack-turned-taco-stand took off.

Recalling his first customer, Bell wrote in his memoir, “He was dressed in a suit and as he bit into the taco the juice ran down his sleeve and dripped on his tie. I thought, ‘Uh-oh, we’ve lost this one.’ But he came back, amazingly enough, and said, ‘That was good. Gimme another.’”

By 1954, Bell garnered enough success to open Taco Tia, which exclusively sold Mexican-style food.

Alongside partners, Bell opened four Mexican food-adjacent restaurants, but concluded the endeavor was not worth the pursuit and eventually sold out.

Then, with a $4,000 investment in hand, Bell struck gold.

In 1962 he opened his first Taco Bell in Downey, California, and over the next two years opened eight more — “each with a grand opening featuring live salsa music, searchlights and free sombreros,” according to The New York Times.

Bell sold the chain to PepsiCo in 1978, cementing his legacy as the late-night munchies king.

“I always smile,” Bell told Nation’s Restaurant News in 2008, “when I hear people say that they never had a taco until Taco Bell came to town.”

Now, thanks to Bell, one can consume a stack of Nacho Cheese Doritos® Locos Tacos Supreme® before washing it down with a perfectly crisp, turquoise Baja Blast with mere 111 grams of sugar per serving.

A true culinary experience, courtesy of a devil dog.

A Norwegian Army sniper team took home top honors at an annual event hosted by the U.S. Army Europe and Africa command.

A sergeant and lance corporal first class assigned to the Norwegian Army’s 1st Armored Battalion outshot 34 other teams from 21 other nations on their way to being named the winners of the command’s 2025 European Best Sniper Team Competition, according to a release.

Second and third place honors in the event, which was held Nov. 22 in Grafenwoehr, Germany, were awarded to Latvian and Greek sniper teams, respectively.

“It’s been fun meeting new challengers, going to new ranges, trying new things and being challenged in new ways we haven’t been before,” the Norwegian lance corporal 1st class said in the release. The team was not individually identified in the report.

The competition, organized annually by the 7th Army Training Command in either Grafenwoehr or Hohenfels, Germany, aims to enhance readiness through training scenarios, build military partnerships and better align with allies, according to the release.

To make this year’s training more realistic, the competition was held later in the year than usual to ensure competitors were met with Bavaria’s winter snow and below-freezing temperatures.

“The modern battlefield is evolving faster than at any point in history,” 7th ATC’s Command Sgt. Maj. Paul Fedorisin said in the release. “We must evolve our tactics, techniques, procedures and equipment — at speed — to remain survivable and lethal.”

In addition to enduring the climate, competitors took on tasks involving shooter and spotter communication, land navigation and target engagement at varying distances.

Each two-person team completed 16 sniper skill-level tasks across six days, earning scores throughout each event.

“It’s nice going to somewhere else to see that the things we train in at our home unit — see that it works other places and in other environments,” the Norwegian sergeant said.

The 22 participating countries included Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States.

“You are the best that each of your nations and organizations has to offer,” Fedorisin told the winning team at the award ceremony. “You represented them incredibly well.”

Research into traumatic brain injuries has neglected the effect of TBI on special operations forces, according to a new study by a U.S. think tank.

“There is limited research focused on TBI among SOF, although this population faces a higher risk of blast exposure and TBI,” according to a report published by the Rand Corporation earlier this month. Special operations personnel “experience higher rates of blast exposure and repetitive neurological stress in both combat and training compared with other service members,” the report’s authors wrote.

The report reviewed TBI studies from 2015 to 2025, with a focus on the SOF community. Out of 480 research papers on TBI that Rand reviewed, Army and Marine Corps personnel were the most frequently studied populations, according to the report, and “only seven papers focused solely on SOF, and 14 included SOF in mixed samples.”

In addition to special operations forces, there has been little research into identifying and treating TBI among airmen, sailors, National Guard troops and reservists, “even though these groups face high risks,” the report notes.

More than 500,000 personnel have been diagnosed with a service-related TBI since 2000, according to the Department of Defense. More than $2.1 billion in federal and private funds have been spent on TBI research since 2015, the report estimated.

Nonetheless, the report found numerous problems with existing research into TBI. For example, studies have tended to focus on diagnosing TBI rather than what specific conditions caused it, such as “correlations between injury and blast pounds per square inch, soldier positioning, or the source of the blast (e.g., breaching versus shoulder-mounted artillery),” the report states.

In addition to Rand, other research points to brain injuries in special operations forces, which are subject to both intense stress and frequent deployments.

For example, a 2024 University of South Florida study “found repeated exposure to low-level blasts is associated with signs of brain injury in special operations forces.”

TBI research also appears split short- and long-term TBI, according to Rand’s report.

“Studies that assessed the short- to medium-term period following TBI described general neurological symptoms, such as pain, inflammation, balance issues, and sensory changes, rather than any specific diagnoses,” the report noted. “Longer-term studies examined neurodegenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), whereas others explored early biomarkers without clear clinical outcomes.”

Researchers have tended to focus on blast-related injuries and mild TBI. Sub- concussive and penetrating TBI have received less attention, as have the “the links between injury characteristics (e.g., blast pressure, soldier positioning, blast source) and clinical outcomes.”

Regarding comorbidity between TBI and other conditions, previous research has examined links between TBI and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as sleep disorders and other neurological problems. However, little attention has been paid to TBI, substance abuse and audio and visual problems, according to the report.

Nor has there been much research into rehabilitation for long-term care for TBI victims. This leaves patients with “few long-term, evidence-based recovery pathways,” the report states.

Nonetheless, a decade of research into progress in dealing with military TBI has achieved results, even if benefits are uneven, the report concluded.

“Substantial investments have advanced imaging techniques and biomarker identification and have improved our understanding of comorbidities, such as PTSD, depression, and sleep disorders. These achievements underscore a growing scientific understanding of the mechanisms of injury and the complex ways in which TBI intersects with broader neurological and psychological health challenges.”

Still, there are gaps in understanding and treating TBIs, the report warns.

“Doing so is not simply a matter of scientific advancement,” the report said. Progress here will “advance prevention, sharpen diagnosis, improve treatment, and strengthen long-term recovery, ensuring that service members and veterans receive the care and support they deserve.”

The U.S. Marine Corps hit its fiscal 2026 retention goals just weeks after the target window opened, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith announced in a recent video.

While the Corps’ retention goals were quickly achieved in FY2024 and FY2025, this year’s numbers were met “earlier than ever before,” Smith said in the video, which was produced in October but released later due to the U.S. government shutdown.

Smith noted that, despite the success, a handful of military occupational specialties remain open for interested Marines.

Alongside Smith in the video, Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Carlos A. Ruiz encouraged “qualified Marines who still have the desire to serve … to pursue lateral move opportunities into our critical need MOSs.”

A MARADMIN released earlier this month rattled off a number of MOSs as options for such moves, with the message noting that “lat move” requests will be ”processed on a case-by-case basis and … subject to school seat availability."

That list included MOSs such as Counterintelligence/Human Intelligence Specialist (0211), Reconnaissance Marine (0321), Critical Skills Operator (MARSOC) (0372), Influence Operations Specialist (1751) and Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician (2336), among others.

“There are also outstanding opportunities in the reserve component through the Direct Affiliation Program and the active reserve,” Ruiz added in the video.

Smith and Ruiz capped the message by urging leaders to prepare Marines for reenlistment with an eye toward fiscal 2027.

Additional retention efforts targeting other Marine Corps components were unveiled last week, meanwhile, when officials announced that Selected Marine Corps Reserve personnel in ranks E-4 to E-6 were being made eligible for one-time pay bumps for remaining in specific job specialties.

As part of the Selected Marine Corps Reserve Retention and Affiliation Bonus Program, corporals, sergeants and staff sergeants with select MOSs are eligible for up to $20,000 lump-sum bonuses upon extending service in the SMCR for 36 months, according to a Nov. 19 memo.

Marines in those ranks are also eligible to serve terms of 12 and 24 months, with corresponding bonus payments of $5,000 and $10,000, respectively.

In addition to retention goals, data released by the Marine Corps in September showed that the service had exceeded its most recent active-duty and reserve enlisted recruiting goal by a single person, bringing in 30,536 Marines across those components.

Marine Corps officials at the time noted the close-call total was a credit to the service being more selective of who it recruits.

Editor’s note: This report has been updated to reflect that FBI Director Kash Patel has said the troops are alive and in critical condition. West Virginia’s governor initially said the troops had died, but later walked back the statement to say his office was “receiving conflicting reports” about their condition. This is a developing story.

This story was last updated at 6:31 p.m. EST.

Two West Virginia National Guard members who deployed to the nation’s capital were shot Wednesday just blocks from the White House in a brazen act of violence.

FBI Director Kash Patel and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said the Guard members were hospitalized in critical condition. Bowser said they were victims of a ”targeted shooting.”

The West Virginia governor initially said the troops had died, but later walked back the statement to say his office was “receiving conflicting reports” about their condition. The governor’s office did not immediately respond to questions about the attack and the condition of the troops.

A suspect who was in custody also was shot and had wounds that were not believed to be life-threatening, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The Trump administration quickly ordered 500 more National Guard members to Washington following the shooting. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said President Donald Trump asked him to send the extra soldiers.

There are currently 2,188 troops assigned to the joint task force operating in the city, according to the government’s latest update.

Law enforcement was reviewing surveillance video from the scene and believed the suspect approached the soldiers and pulled out a gun, said another law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

At least one of the soldiers exchanged gunfire with the shooter, the official said. Investigators were trying to determine the gunman’s motive, including whether the suspect was targeting the troops for any specific reason, the official said.

The shooting happened roughly two blocks northwest of the White House.

Social media video shared in the immediate aftermath showed first responders attempting CPR on one of the soldiers and treating the other on a glass-covered sidewalk. Other officers could be seen steps away restraining an individual on the ground.

Stacy Walters said she was in a car near the scene car when she heard two gunshots and saw people running. Almost instantly, law enforcement swarmed the area. “It’s such a beautiful day. Who would do this, and we’re getting ready for the holidays?”

Emergency medical responders transported all three people to a hospital, according to Vito Maggiolo, the public information officer for the DC Fire and Emergency Services.

The presence of the National Guard in the nation’s capital has been a flashpoint issue for months, fueling a court fight and a broader public policy debate about the Trump administration’s use of the military to combat what officials cast as an out-of-control crime problem.

More than 300 West Virginia National Guard members were deployed to Washington in August. Last week, about 160 of them volunteered to extend their deployment until the end of the year while the others returned to West Virginia just over a week ago.

Police tape cordoned off the scene where fire and police vehicle lights flashed and helicopter blades thudded overhead. Agents from the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on scene, as National Guard troops stood sentry nearby. At least one helicopter landed on the National Mall.

President Donald Trump, who was in Florida for Thanksgiving, warned in a statement on social media that the “animal” who shot the guardsmen “will pay a very steep price.”

“God bless our Great National Guard, and all of our Military and Law Enforcement. These are truly Great People,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I, as President of the United States, and everyone associated with the Office of the Presidency, am with you!”

In Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Vice President JD Vance urged “everybody who’s a person of faith” to pray for the two Guardsmen. He cautioned that much remained unknown, including the motive of the shooter.

“I think it’s a somber reminder that soldiers, whether they’re active duty, reserve or National Guard, our soldiers are the sword and the shield of the United States of America,” Vance said as he delivered a Thanksgiving message to troops.

A spokesperson for Mayor Muriel Bowser said local leaders were actively monitoring the situation. Bowser had spent the morning at a Thanksgiving event at the Convention Center and then held a news conference to explain why she was not seeking reelection.

Trump issued an emergency order in August that federalized the local police force and sent in National Guard troops from eight states and the District of Columbia. The order expired a month later, but the troops remained.

The soldiers have patrolled neighborhoods, train stations and other locations, participated in highway checkpoints and also have been assigned to trash pickup and to guard sports events.

Last week, a federal judge ordered an end to the deployment but also put her order on hold for 21 days to allow the Trump administration time to either remove the troops or appeal the decision.

Associated Press reporters Konstantin Toropin, Seung Min Kim, Safiyah Riddle, Matt Brown, Mike Balsamo, Eric Tucker and Jesse Bedayn contributed to this report.

The U.S. Navy has deployed a salvage vessel to comb the depths of the South China Sea for the remnants of a jet and helicopter that crashed last month.

A MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter and F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz went down less than an hour apart on Oct. 26. All personnel involved in the crash were recovered safely and in stable condition.

The USNS Salvor, “a Safeguard-class salvage ship operated by Military Sealift Command, arrived on location on Nov. 12 to conduct recovery efforts,” a statement from the U.S. Seventh Fleet read. “Recovery efforts are still ongoing.”

The cause or causes of the crashes are still under investigation.

Recent data shows significant spike in US military aircraft accidents

At 2:45 p.m. on the day of the crash, the MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter “went down in the waters of the South China Sea while conducting routine operations,” the U.S. Pacific Fleet said at the time.

The carrier’s strike group deployed assets that were able to rescue the three crew members from the helicopter, which was assigned to the “Battle Cats” of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 73.

At 3:15 p.m., an F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet from the Strike Fighter Squadron 22 “Fighting Redcocks” also crashed while conducting routine operations.

The two crew members on the jet were able to successfully eject from the cockpit and were rescued.

The U.S. Navy has lost several F/A-18s within the last year, an expensive deficit with each jet costing $60 million.

The USS Gettysburg accidentally shot down an F/A-18 in December 2024, an F/A-18 attempting to land on the USS Harry S. Truman in May fell overboard, another F/A-18 fighter jet slipped off the hangar deck of the Truman in April and an F/A-18E crashed during a training flight off the coast of Virginia in August.

The commanding officer of the Okinawa, Japan-based Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 36 was fired Wednesday, according to a Marine Corps notice.

Lt. Col. Calischaran G. James was relieved of his duties by Maj. Gen. Marcus B. Annibale, the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing commanding general, “due to a loss of trust and confidence in his ability to command,” the Marine Corps announced.

Military services often use “loss of trust and confidence” as a blanket term when dismissing senior leadership.

A request for additional information regarding the nature of the dismissal was not yet returned as of press time.

“Commanders are held to the highest standards of conduct and must consistently live above reproach,” 1st Marine Aircraft Wing spokesman Maj. Joseph Butterfield said in the announcement. “This decision reflects the Marine Corps’ dedication to upholding the trust and confidence that are essential for effective leadership.”

Originally from the Caribbean island nation of Dominica, James enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1998, according to his now-archived command bio. He was commissioned in 2006 after completing the Enlisted Commissioning Program.

In 2020, James was named the recipient of the Marine Corps Aviation Association’s Earle Hattaway Ground Officer of the Year Award. He assumed command of MALS-36 in May 2024.

Lt. Col. Ryan T. Iden has been appointed as interim commanding officer until a selected replacement arrives, the release stated.

Iden enlisted in the Marine Corps 1997 as an infantryman, rising to the rank of gunnery sergeant before earning his commission in 2008.

James’ dismissal, meanwhile, comes on the heels of recent firings that overhauled the entire leadership structure of a Marine Osprey squadron.

On Oct. 28, the commanding officer, executive officer and senior enlisted leader of the Hawaii-based Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 268 were fired “due to a loss of trust” in their ability to enforce safety and readiness standards, according to a statement announcing the trio’s dismissal.

ROME — The US Navy is cancelling its Constellation frigate program following months of cost overruns and delays but plans to keep two vessels that are already being built in Wisconsin.

“We’re reshaping how we build and field the Fleet, working with industry to deliver warfighting advantage, beginning with a strategic shift away from the Constellation-class frigate program,” Navy Secretary John C. Phelan said in a post on X.

Phelan said that four ships under contract but yet to be built by Fincantieri would now be cancelled.

“The navy and our industry partners have reached a comprehensive framework that terminates for the Navy’s convenience the last four ships of the class which have not begun construction,” he said.

“We greatly value the shipbuilders of Michigan and Wisconsin. While work continues on the first two ships those ships remain under review as we work through this strategic shift. Keeping this critical workforce employed and the yard viable for future navy shipbuilding is of foremost concern,” he added.

Italian shipyard Fincantieri won the contract to build the frigates in 2020 at its Marinette Marine yard in Wisconsin, with the US Navy eyeing an eventual order of 20 ships.

The baseline design was Fincantieri’s FREMM frigate, which is already in service with the French and Italian navies among others. The U.S. Navy originally reported “basic and functional designs” were 88% complete.

But a March report by the United States Government Accountability Office claimed the U.S. Navy proceeded to order numerous design changes, meaning that five years on, the program was only 70% complete and three years late.

“As a result of these changes, in part, the frigate now bears little resemblance to the parent design that the Navy touted as a built-in, risk reduction measure for the program in 2020,” the report stated.

“Now, in 2025, the ongoing redesign has driven weight growth at levels that exceed available tolerances. Already the Navy is considering a reduction in the frigate’s speed requirement as one potential way, among others, to resolve this weight growth,” the report added.

In his statement on Tuesday, Phelan said, “The facts are clear. It is time to deliver the ship our warfighters need at a pace that matches the threat environment, not the comfort level of the bureaucracy.”

In a statement, Fincantieri said it expected to receive new orders for “amphibious, icebreaking and other special mission” ships to compensate for lost business.

“On top of the aforementioned award of future orders, in order to cover the above, the agreement indemnifies Fincantieri Marine Group, on existing economic commitments and industrial impacts through measures provided by the U.S. Navy, as a result of the contractual decision made for its own convenience,” the firm said.

Fincantieri said it has invested more than $800 million in its four U.S. shipyards: Marinette, Green Bay, Sturgeon Bay, and Jacksonville, and now employs 3,750 staff in the United States.

George Moutafis, CEO of Fincantieri Marine Group, said, “Our investments in the U.S. shipyards are a testament to our long-term vision: to be a cornerstone of the U.S. maritime industrial base and a driving force to sustain the momentum of the national shipbuilding renaissance, the American shipbuilding renaissance.”

Sources in Italy told Defense News the work on the six frigates had been worth $5.5 billion. Continuing work on the first two, plus indemnities agreed with the U.S. government, would be worth $3 billion, while new orders planned would be worth $2 billion.

Phelan’s decision to truncate the Constellation program was praised by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).

“I commend (the Navy secretary) for canceling the troubled Constellation-class frigate program — a tough but vital call. Biden-era design changes derailed the contractor, but Fincantieri Marinette Marine will remain key to our shipbuilding future. This is a clear signal that Navy program management is being fixed and accountability restored. Stronger Navy ahead!”

In his statement, Phelan added, “The Navy needs ships and looks forward to building them in every shipyard that can. A key factor in this decision is the need to grow the fleet faster to meet tomorrow’s threats. This framework puts the Navy on a path to more rapidly construct new classes of ships and deliver the capability our warfighters need in greater numbers on a more urgent timeline.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication to specify the value of the initial Constellation contract: $5.5 billion.

In the wake of an extended and disruptive government shutdown that multiplied concerns about paycheck and job security, the Army’s head of intelligence is issuing a stark warning to soldiers: beware flattering offers on LinkedIn.

While Lt. Gen. Anthony Hale’s message to the force did not actually mention specific social media platforms by name, he warned specifically of malicious efforts to contact and exploit active-duty soldiers and Army veterans under the pretext of professional networking.

The 43-day government shutdown, which led to unpaid furlough status for about 750,000 government employees and drove paycheck uncertainty and work delays for uniformed service members, presents a particular opportunity for enemies to influence frustrated and disaffected Army personnel, Hale indicated.

Foreign intelligence entities are online, posing as consulting firms, corporate recruiters, think tanks, and other seemingly legitimate companies," Hale wrote in a message dated Nov. 13 and disseminated this week. “Especially in the context of the recent lapse in appropriations and government shutdown, our adversaries are looking online to identify individuals seeking new employment opportunities, expressing dissatisfaction or describing financial insecurity.”

These agents, he wrote, may offer jobs or “easy” money to soldiers and veterans in exchange for white papers or privileged info, “with the intent to collect sensitive information for the benefit of their country at the cost of our own.”

A spokesman for Army Counterintelligence Command, Adam Lowe, confirmed that the service was seeing “a massive uptick” in these kinds of exploitation attempts, noting that this was the second warning Hale had issued to the entire Army force, following an initial warning in May 2024.

“This latest one came at the very end of the shutdown when soldiers and Army civilians — many of whom have or had access to TS//SCI — were put in precarious financial situations,” Lowe said in an email. “It’s also at a time when online political discourse [has] gotten worse, and adversaries take note of people with access expressing discontentment and look to exploit that.”

While Lowe said that “active pursuit of the adversary” limited specifics he could share about what trends intel officials were observing, he noted that the Army had recorded 25 arrests and more than 650 national security investigations since Counterintelligence Command activated four years ago. Both numbers, he said, represented “significant increases.”

To date this year, Lowe said, seven arrests of soldiers charged with crimes including espionage and information sharing with foreign agents have been made public.

Hale’s new message highlighted the arrest and conviction of Korbein Schultz, a 25-year-old former Army intelligence analyst sentenced in April to seven years in prison for “conspiring to collect and transmit national defense information, unlawfully exporting controlled information to China, and accepting bribes in exchange of sensitive, non-public U.S. government information,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

According to DOJ releases, Schultz was contacted in 2022 by a likely agent of the Chinese government, nicknamed Conspirator A, “through a freelance web-based work platform shortly after the defendant received his Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) clearance.”

“Masquerading as a client from a geopolitical consulting firm, Conspirator A solicited the defendant to produce detailed analyses on U.S. military capabilities and planning, particularly in relation to Taiwan and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”

Ultimately, according to the DOJ, Schultz accessed and transmitted at least 92 government documents to Conspirator A, pocketing about $42,000 in return.

“Current and former federal employees must be aware of these approaches and understand the potential consequences of engaging,” Hale wrote. “If the offer seems flattering, urgent, exclusive, or too good to be true, it probably is.”

The message encouraged soldiers to report targeting attempts to their local counterintelligence office or to a dedicated hotline: 1-800-CALL-SPY (1-800-225-5779).

A U.S. Air Force service member was charged on Nov. 20 after reportedly hatching a plan to seize control of a Haitian island and enslave its population in a violent coup, according to a Justice Department release.

Tanner Christopher Thomas, 20, an airman stationed in Texas, and Gavin Rivers Weisenburg, 21, were named in a two-count indictment and charged with conspiracy to murder, maim or kidnap in a foreign country and production of child pornography. They were both residents of the Eastern District of Texas, where the indictment was filed.

“The object of the conspiracy was to unlawfully carry out a coup d’etat on the Island of Gonave in the Republic of Haiti,” the indictment states. “The co-conspirators conducted research, reconnaissance, recruiting, planning and sought training to effectuate their plan.”

Gonave, which has a population of 87,000 and sits a little over 30 miles northwest of Port-au-Prince, can only be accessed by a boat or small aircraft.

From August 2024 to July 2025, the men reportedly plotted to invade the sovereign island to carry out “rape fantasies,” per the indictment.

Court documents state that they intended to murder all the men on the island so they could use all the women and children as sex slaves.

This Marine ruled as the king of a Haitian island for three years

According to the indictment, Thomas and Weisenburg enrolled in schools to acquire skills relevant to the invasion plan, with Thomas joining the Air Force in January 2025 and Weisenburg enrolling in the North Texas Fire Academy in August 2024.

Weisenburg failed out of the fire academy and was dismissed in February 2025, the indictment says.

An Air Education and Training Command spokesperson confirmed to Military Times that Thomas was assigned to Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, as an airman basic.

In March 2025, Thomas changed his initial station assignment from Ramstein Air Base in Germany to Maryland’s Andrews Air Base to remain in the U.S. to better facilitate the plan, documents state.

The move, per the indictment, brought Thomas closer to Washington, D.C., where he hoped to recruit members of the area’s unhoused population to serve as an expeditionary mercenary force for the invasion.

“[Thomas] was recently tried and convicted in a court marital for three Article 134 Uniform Code of Military Justice violations, which include communicating indecent language and violations of federal law for offenses not capital,” the Air Force spokesperson said. “He was sentenced to a dishonorable discharge and three years confinement.”

Between August 2024 and May 2025, Thomas and Weisenburg attempted to recruit others online and in-person to join their armed coup attack, the indictment adds.

Thomas and Weisenburg planned to travel by sailboat from the U.S. to Gonave, per the indictment. It was unclear in the court documents how many other known and unknown co-conspirators there are in the case.

The FBI, U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations and Celina Police Department are investigating the case, which will be prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Locker.

If convicted, Weisenburg and Thomas can face up to life in federal prison for conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country. They could also face at least 15 to 30 years in federal prison if convicted on the federal production of child pornography charge.

Both men’s attorneys said they plan to enter not guilty pleas, according to an ABC News report.

When the Pentagon’s top civilian Pete Hegseth told an auditorium full of generals and admirals at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, in September that he felt proscriptions against bullying and hazing were “undercutting commanders and [noncommissioned officers],” the military was already seeing a rise in complaints about these practices.

That’s according to a Defense Department report published in June and obtained by Military Times. The congressionally mandated report, which tracks the reporting and adjudication of hazing and bullying within the armed forces but does not include reports from boot camp and entry-level training, shows that while overall numbers remain small, the Marine Corps continues to be the greatest source of complaints among the services. It also shows that data collection on accountability actions for those found to have perpetrated hazing behaviors is inconsistent. 

In fiscal 2024, the last year for which data is available, troops submitted 138 complaints of hazing, of which 31, or 22%, were substantiated. That’s up from 121 complaints and 29 substantiations the previous year. They also made 1,058 reports of bullying, of which 227, or 21%, were substantiated. That’s up from 932 bullying reports and 175 substantiations in fiscal 2023.

While hazing reports saw an upswing in 2024 after three years of steady decline, bullying complaints, both total and substantiated, have been steadily increasing since 2020.

Perhaps the most notable data point is the uneven spread of complaints across the services. In 2020, the first year for which reporting is available, the Marine Corps made up 82% of hazing reports. In 2024, its smallest percentage across the four-year spread, the Corps — the smallest DOD service, except for the Space Force — accounted for 47% of reports.

Bullying reports are more evenly spread across the services. In 2024, the Navy had the most bullying complaints with 381, or 36% of the total, followed by the Air Force at 271 and the Marine Corps at 223. Notably, the Army, the largest service by far, has consistently had among the fewest reports of both hazing and bullying.

What happens following reports of hazing and bullying is not as clear. In 2024, disposition of 44 out of 138 hazing complaints was listed as “unknown,” including 30 of the 66 complaints submitted within the Marine Corps. The same was true for 123 bullying complaints. No hazing or bullying complaints were withdrawn by the complainants themselves during the report time frame. And while some data was provided regarding disciplinary actions for substantiated incidents, it was incomplete. In the Marine Corps, for example, half of the perpetrators of substantiated hazing received nonjudicial punishment, and actions regarding the other half were listed as “other.”

As provided in the recent report, the military definitions of hazing and bullying are somewhat broad. Hazing, according to the report, can be conducted in person or electronically, via social media and other means. It can involve physical actions such as striking another person; pressing or piercing an object into someone else’s skin; “branding, handcuffing, duct taping, tattooing, shaving, greasing, or painting another person;” and subjecting a person to forcible consumption of food, water, alcohol, drugs or any other substance. It can also include oral or written scolding and humiliation; “playing abusive or malicious tricks;” or “encouraging another person to engage in illegal, harmful, demeaning, or dangerous acts.”

Bullying, as defined, is even broader, including “degrading or damaging another’s property or reputation” and “intimidating, teasing, or taunting another person” in addition to the activities listed under hazing. 

Yet, as U.S. Rep. Judy Chu emphasizes, the consequences of hazing and even bullying can be deadly. Chu, a Democrat representing California’s 28th Congressional District, authored the legislative language requiring the military’s annual reports to Congress on hazing. The issue became personal to her in April 2011, when her nephew, Marine Lance Cpl. Harry Lew, took his own life in Afghanistan after a night of “merciless” physical and hazing and scolding meant to punish him for falling asleep at his post, according to an investigation into the event.

Following Hegseth’s address to the generals and an accompanying memo calling for a review of current military definitions of hazing and bullying, Chu sent a letter of concern, signed by 27 other congressional Democrats, to his office.

The letter included five detailed questions regarding the intent and potential impact of narrowing the definition of hazing, setting a Nov. 7 deadline for response.

“We strongly urge DOD to retain the existing definitions and take steps to strengthen hazing prevention and reporting policies, rather than roll back these critical protections,” the authors wrote. “All service members and recruits must be treated with dignity and respect. Weakening these protections will only worsen the existing problem of military hazing and endanger more lives.”

In an interview with Military Times, Chu said Hegseth had not responded by the set deadline, though she’d followed up and still hoped for an answer.

Chu cited other high-profile examples of military hazing with deadly results in the last 15 years, including Raheel Siddiqui, a Muslim Marine recruit who jumped off a roof at boot camp in 2016 following treatment by a drill instructor involving being forced into an industrial clothes dryer, and Army Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar, who died in 2017 of asphyxiation after an apparent hazing incident gone wrong at the hands of Marine Raiders and Navy SEALs.

“This does not serve our military,” Chu said. “We want a strong military where people feel that they’re unified in their desire to protect this country, not where they are torturing one another to the point where certain people feel like they have to kill themselves.”

It’s not yet clear how Hegseth’s memo and exhortation will affect the military. 

“Of course, you can’t do, like, nasty bullying and hazing. We’re talking about words like bullying and hazing and toxic. They’ve been weaponized and bastardized inside our formations, undercutting commanders and NCOs,” Hegseth said during his Quantico speech. “No more. Setting, achieving and maintaining high standards is what you all do. And if that makes me toxic, then so be it.”

He specifically addressed entry-level training too, saying that drill instructors and drill sergeants would once again be able to “put their hands on recruits” and “swear.”

A Sept. 30 memo coinciding with Hegseth’s speech ordered a 30-day review of definitions, saying policy defining hazing, bullying and harassment was “overly broad, jeopardizing combat readiness, mission accomplishment, and trust in the organization.”

“When commanders face undue administrative burdens, it distracts from their core mission,” the memo signed by Hegseth stated. “This review aims to strike a balance, ensuring leaders have the tools necessary to foster a warrior ethos rooted in mutual respect and accountability, while also maintaining a lethal and ready Force.”

The memo was signed just before the 43-day government shutdown, which paused or delayed operations across the federal enterprise.

A Pentagon official told Military Times this week there was nothing yet to announce about the review’s progress or findings.

A United States airman at Joint Base San Antonio joined rare company recently when he was adorned with the khaki cover and fouled anchors awarded to the Navy’s newest chief petty officers.

Air Force Master Sgt. Atif Siddiqui officially entered the chief’s mess upon completion of a six-week program that puts CPO hopefuls through all manner of mental and physical trials.

Siddiqui, a member of the 326th Training Squadron, 37th Training Wing, was nominated to participate in the course by a fellow airman who had similarly earned the unique achievement, according to a service release.

Nomination by a fellow chief petty officer is one of numerous approvals needed prior to beginning the program, according to the Navy.

Due to the significant time investment, noncommissioned officers like Siddiqui must also get permission from their parent chain of command prior to embarking in the course, according to service guidelines. A sign-off by the corresponding fleet or force master chief must also be attained.

For Siddiqui, who helps mold the Air Force’s military training instructors, the Navy’s demanding rite of passage proved to be one anchored by unity and lessons “that learning and accountability never stop,” he said in the release.

“The camaraderie was rooted in accountability and trust,” Siddiqui said. “[The chiefs] leaned on each other, held each other accountable and built each other up. That example showed me how senior NCOs should always strive to support one another.”

Late nights and daily rigors also yielded no dearth of humbling moments, he added.

“It reminded me to practice the same resilience I teach my trainees and to focus on listening to the message, not just the tone,” he said.

While the tradition of the Navy’s chief’s mess goes back centuries, induction into the coveted Goat Locker from other services is a more modern concept.

Former Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Rick West noted that a surge of cross-service participation in chief season occurred during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Requests from other service [staff NCOs] began to increase dramatically during the Gulf War when Navy individual augmentees began serving with Army [and] Marine Corps units in Iraq and Afghanistan,” West previously commented in a USNI blog. “Soldiers and Marines suddenly had a front-row seat to observe firsthand the effectiveness of the Navy’s CPO mess. Many wanted to better understand the CPO brand of leadership by participating in initiation.”

As personnel from other services did then, Siddiqui came away from the opportunity noting that “leadership isn’t tied to one uniform.”

“We are one team, one fight,” he said.

“I plan to remain part of the chief’s mess for the rest of my career, if they’ll allow me,” he added. “It’s a sacred process that I’ll carry with me, and I hope to give back as much as I received.”

About 2,100 military household goods shipments were delayed during the government shutdown, even though they had been funded to move in late September with fiscal 2025 dollars, according to officials with the Permanent Change of Station Joint Task Force.

That represents about 20% of the approximately 11,000 permanent change of station shipments during that time. The 2,100 shipments do not match the number of service members affected, because there is often more than one shipment associated with each service member’s move.

Meanwhile, the task force, established in May by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has already taken steps to improve the process of moving service members’ household goods, some of which helped address problems during the shutdown.

The task force operations center and call center set up this summer have been “knee deep” in addressing problems during the shutdown, Army Maj. Gen. Lance G. Curtis, the task force commander, told Military Times.

“We were proactive in reaching out to service members that we thought were going to be affected by the shutdown,” he said.

“I think that helped us. Ideally, we would have liked the percentage to be at 0%, but I think it was a good news story that we were able to get ahead of it.”

While officials have not yet conducted a complete analysis of the problem during the shutdown, they say it was largely tied to the furlough of civilian workers in the shipping offices at the start of October, said Marine Corps Lt. Col. John Naughton, now the task force’s liaison officer in the office of the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment.

Task force officials were able to work with the service branches to bring those civilian workers back into work, he said, “and that helped alleviate some of the issues that we were seeing early on in the shutdown.”

Curtis said the task force’s call and operations centers worked with service members to get their moves back on track. They worked with defense and service officials, he said, noting that they also had to follow the rules set by each of the service branches to meet their needs.

“I personally wrote several notes to get involved when we became aware, and got the call center involved in that as well. Some of it I think had to do with getting the right information,” he said.

“That’s one of the powers of the call center, is that we are able to connect people who may be feeling like they’re not getting accurate information, with the authoritative source for that information. … Some were communications problems, and some were problems where we had to get involved with the services to solve it,” Curtis said.

He urges service members and family members who have a problem with their move, including with claims or other issues, to contact the call center at 833-645-6683 (833-MIL-MOVE) or [email protected].

“I’m trying to be the one belly button for people who are frustrated, to help them out,” Curtis said.

Mold, broken furniture — just a start to this family's PCS nightmare

In September, as the peak moving season had wound down, the call center hours were adjusted to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CDT. The call center will start operating 24/7 again on May 7, 2026, in anticipation of the full peak moving season.

Hegseth directed the establishment of the PCS task force to improve how the Defense Department moves service members’ household goods when they are reassigned to a new duty station. Problems were snowballing with the new Global Household Goods Contract, and in June, DOD canceled the contract, worth potentially $18 billion over nine years, citing problems with the performance of HomeSafe Alliance, the contractor.

The task force has also helped resolve service members’ claims related to moves under the HomeSafe contract.

DOD terminates troubled HomeSafe contract for military moves

Improvements in moves

In the six months the task force has been in operation, it has held forums with military families and the moving industry, worked with the services and involved economists to look at the moving industry writ large.

They’ve taken a number of steps to improve the movement of household goods for service members.

For example, Curtis has moved up the time frame for service members to be able to book their shipments before peak season starts — by around April 1, instead of mid-May. One industry source said the mid-May time frame did not give troops and industry enough time to prepare for the peak moving season, creating angst for troops who may have had orders for months and couldn’t book their shipments.

“There’s nothing but goodness for service members in moving that time frame earlier into the spring,” said Dan Bradley, vice president of government and military relations for the International Association of Movers.

The task force has also decided to continue the operations center and the call center, which has been a big hit with service members and families, Curtis said. They will continue their forums with families to hear their concerns. One result of these forums is that officials are addressing improvements in the claims process, Curtis said.

Service members and families have complained about the claims process for years, saying it was too difficult to get resolution when their household goods were damaged or lost.

That call center was specifically directed by Hegseth, Curtis said, and the task force took the concept a step further, putting service members in the call center to take the calls. In a recent spouse and family forum on a virtual call attended by 88 spouses and family members, “they told us that their ability to pick up the phone and call a service member was very refreshing. They told us they wanted us to continue the service member-run call center because they appreciated that,” he said.

Since the call center began in August, it has had 4,700 contacts, and the number continues to grow. Of those 4,700 contacts, 3,300 have been the call center reaching out to service members and spouses to warn them of a potential problem.

The service members and spouses are not expecting that phone call or email.

“A lot of times they’re surprised in a good way, and we’re removing obstacles for the service members,” Curtis said. “The key there, is for the first time we can actually fix the problems, because of the relationship we have with the shipping offices, which I refer to as the units of action,” he said.

With the ability to look at a “common operating picture” of data that includes the shipping offices, they know the rate, tempo and volume of shipments occurring where each of those shipping offices are. This allows them to get ahead of potential problems, he said.

Members of industry have been receptive to Hegseth’s decision to continue the moves under the current system for at least three years, Curtis said.

“I’m able to go to industry and say, ‘We need you as partners for the next three years, and because of that, I want you to build capacity’” of trucks, packers and loaders needed to move household goods, he said.

Bradley said movers are pleased that the way forward focuses on a modernized version of the current program, saying that the last six years brought instability and unpredictability to moving companies, as the U.S. Transportation Command moved toward a contract with a single company to manage all the moves.

Curtis attributes much of what the task force has been able to do to the authorities given them, which were not available to TRANSCOM and other entities previously in charge of managing the movement of troops’ household goods.

Hegseth has given the task force the authority to continue its work until at least next August.

The U.S. Naval Academy relieved the commandant of midshipmen on Monday, five months after he assumed the position, the service academy announced.

Capt. Gilbert Clark Jr. was relieved from his role by academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michael Borgschulte “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to effectively lead the Brigade of Midshipmen,” the school said in a brief release.

“The naval service maintains the highest standards for leaders and holds them accountable when those standards are not met,” the service academy said.

The release did not provide further details of Clark’s dismissal. The Navy often uses the “loss of confidence” phrase when dismissing senior leadership.

Clark’s dismissal is the latest of several shakeups in the service academy’s leadership this year.

In July, Vice. Adm. Yvette M. Davids — the first woman to serve as the superintendent of the school — was nominated to become deputy chief of naval operations for operations, plans, strategy and warfighting development, Navy Times previously reported.

Davis was replaced by Borgschulte, the first Marine Corps officer to serve as the service academy’s superintendent.

In his role as commandant, Clark oversaw the day-to-day conduct, military training and professional development of the service academy’s students.

Capt. Austin Jackson, deputy commandant of midshipmen, has assumed duties as the interim commandant, the service academy said.

The nation’s top military officer is visiting American troops Monday in Puerto Rico and on a Navy warship in the region, where the U.S. has amassed an unusually large fleet of warships and has been attacking alleged drug-smuggling boats.

Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and President Donald Trump’s primary military adviser, will be joined by David L. Isom, the senior enlisted adviser to Caine. Caine’s office said in a statement that the men will “engage with service members and thank them for their outstanding support to regional missions.”

This will be Caine’s second visit to the region since the U.S. military started building up its presence, which now includes the nation’s most advanced aircraft carrier. Caine and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth came to Puerto Rico in September after ships carrying hundreds of U.S. Marines arrived for what officials said was a training exercise.

Hegseth said then that the deployed Marines were “on the front lines of defending the American homeland.”

A list of US military strikes against alleged drug-carrying vessels

Caine’s visit this week comes as Trump evaluates whether to take military action against Venezuela, which he has not ruled out as part of his administration’s escalating campaign to combat drug trafficking into the U.S. The buildup of American warships and the strikes, which have killed more than 80 people on 21 alleged drug boats, are seen by many as a pressure tactic on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to resign.

The Trump administration also is ramping up pressure by designating the Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Suns, as a foreign terrorist organization, although the entity that the U.S. government alleges is led by Maduro is not a cartel per se.

Until this year, the label of foreign terrorist organization had been reserved for groups like the Islamic State or al-Qaida that use violence for political ends. The Trump administration applied it in February to eight Latin American criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking, migrant smuggling and other activities.

The administration blames such designated groups for operating the boats it is striking but rarely identifies the organizations and has not provided any evidence.

Hegseth said last week that the designation of Cartel de los Soles will provide a “whole bunch of new options to the United States” for dealing with Maduro. In an interview with conservative news outlet OAN, Hegseth did not provide details on what those options are and declined to say whether the U.S. military planned to strike land targets inside Venezuela.

“So nothing is off the table, but nothing’s automatically on the table,” he said.

Editor’s note: This report has been updated.

The Pentagon announced Monday it is investigating Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona over possible breaches of military law after the former Navy pilot joined a handful of other lawmakers in a video that called for troops to defy “illegal orders.”

The Pentagon’s statement, posted on social media, cited a federal law that allows retired service members to be recalled to active duty on orders of the defense secretary for possible court martial or other measures.

It is extraordinary for the Pentagon, which until President Donald Trump’s second term had usually gone out of its way to act and appear apolitical, to directly threaten a sitting member of Congress with investigation. It comes after Trump ramped up the rhetoric by accusing the lawmakers of sedition “punishable by DEATH” in a social media post days after the video was released last week.

Lawmakers urge troops to refuse illegal orders in video

In its statement Monday, the Pentagon suggested that Kelly’s statements in the video interfered with the “loyalty, morale, or good order and discipline of the armed forces” by citing the federal law that prohibits such actions.

“A thorough review of these allegations has been initiated to determine further actions, which may include recall to active duty for court-martial proceedings or administrative measures,” the statement said.

Kelly said he upheld his oath to the Constitution and dismissed the Pentagon investigation as the work of “bullies.”

“If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work,” Kelly said in a statement.

What the lawmakers said in the video

Kelly was one of six Democratic lawmakers who have served in the military or intelligence community to speak “directly to members of the military.” The other lawmakers are Sen. Elissa Slotkin and Reps. Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan, who are seen as possible future aspirants for higher office and elevated their political profiles with the video’s wide exposure.

Kelly, who was a fighter pilot before becoming an astronaut and then retiring at the rank of captain, told troops that “you can refuse illegal orders,” while other lawmakers in the video said they needed troops to “stand up for our laws … our Constitution.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Kelly was facing investigation because he is the only one of the lawmakers who formally retired from the military and is still under the Pentagon’s jurisdiction.

“Kelly’s conduct brings discredit upon the armed forces and will be addressed appropriately,” Hegseth said on his personal X account. Of the wider group, he added that “their foolish screed sows doubt and confusion — which only puts our warriors in danger.”

Kelly and the other lawmakers didn’t mention specific circumstances in the video, but its release comes as the Trump administration has ordered the military to blow up small boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean accused of ferrying drugs and continues its attempts at deploying National Guard troops into U.S. cities despite some legal setbacks.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said last week that “our military follows orders, and our civilians give legal orders.”

Other Senate Democrats came to Kelly’s defense, with Democratic leader Chuck Schumer accusing Trump of using the Pentagon “as his personal attack dog” and saying “this is what dictators do.”

His fellow Democratic Arizona senator, Ruben Gallego, said “Mark told the truth — in America, we swear an oath to the Constitution, not wannabe kings.”

What legal scholars say

In the past decade, there has been “a quiet but significant uptick in courts-martial of retired service members, even for post-retirement offenses,” Stephen Vladeck, a Georgetown University law professor, said in an email. He said there has been debate in the courts about their constitutionality but the practice is currently allowed.

But Kelly’s status as a U.S. senator could complicate the Pentagon’s investigation because the Constitution explicitly shields members of Congress from White House overreach, said Anthony Michael Kreis, a constitutional law professor at Georgia State University.

“Having a United States senator subject to discipline at the behest of the secretary of defense and the president — that violates a core principle of legislative independence,” Kreis said in a phone interview.

Kreis said such protections were a reaction to the British monarchy, which had arbitrarily punished members of Parliament.

”Any way you cut it, the Constitution is fundamentally structurally designed to prevent this kind of abuse from happening,” Kreis said.

Troops can reject unlawful orders

Troops, especially uniformed commanders, do have specific obligations to reject orders that are unlawful, if they make that determination.

While commanders have military lawyers on their staffs to consult with in making such a determination, rank-and-file troops who are tasked with carrying out those orders are rarely in a similar position and often have to rely on their superiors.

Broad legal precedence also holds that just following orders — colloquially known as the “Nuremberg defense,” as it was used unsuccessfully by senior Nazi officials to justify their actions under Adolf Hitler — doesn’t absolve troops.

Yet, there has been little reaction online from troops to the lawmakers’ video.

A former service member who helps run an online military forum and spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation said the lawmakers’ message is unlikely even to reach troops because the video was posted only on X and was far too long to be reposted on platforms like TikTok where troops actually consume information.

Associated Press writer Matt Brown contributed to this report.

Since Japanese aircraft sank the USS Arizona during the Dec. 7, 1941, surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the battleship has remained in place under water, the watery gravesite to more than 900 sailors entombed within.

The U.S. Navy, as with other sunken ships in the harbor, considers those entombed beneath the ship’s hull to be in their final resting place.

The battleship suffered more loss of life than any American ship during the attack, its 1,177 dead comprising nearly half the 2,403 killed at Pearl Harbor.

Of the ship’s dead, 277 of its sailors and Marines are buried in Honolulu’s National Memorial of the Pacific. The identity of 86 of those men remain unknown to this day.

Navy logbook that recounted Pearl Harbor recovered after 84 years

However, this past week the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced that it “will seek exhumation of dozens of unknowns from the Pearl Harbor attack once an advocacy group is confirmed to have reached the required mark in its genealogy work,” Stars & Stripes first reported.

The issue was first raised in February 2021 when Kelly McKeague, the director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, was asked during a Facebook Live meeting when the agency would disinter them.

McKeague stated at the time that it didn’t make “pragmatic sense” to identify them.

Rear Adm. Darius Banaji, the agency’s deputy director, also reported that the Navy has no plans to disinter the remains and try to identify them because there is insufficient documentation.

Unlike the USS Oklahoma, where 388 previously unidentified sailors and Marines were disinterred from that same cemetery and identified in 2015, Banaji told The Associated Press in 2021 that the military has files on just half of those missing from the Arizona.

That number was once again halved when it came to medical records. The Navy has the dental records for only 130 men who were aboard the Arizona. Some documents are believed to have been destroyed with the battleship. Others may have been lost in a 1973 fire at a military personnel records office, according to the AP.

The Pentagon drafted a new policy in 2015 that allows for the disinterment of groups of unknown servicemen if it expects to identify at least 60% of the group. For the USS Oklahoma, the military has more than 80% of DNA samples from family members to help with the identification process. In recent years, the military possessed just 1% for the missing Arizona crew members.

To reach the required 60% threshold for the Arizona, that would mean 643 families.

On Tuesday, McKeague stated that the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory had DNA from 613 families and was in the process of receiving additional test kits to reach the mandatory threshold.

This milestone was reached last week, in large part, by the advocacy group Operation 85.

Kevin Kline, a Virginia-based real estate agent and grandnephew of the still-missing Petty Officer 2nd Class Robert Kline, started Operation 85 in 2023 after a DPAA family update left him furious.

In the meeting, the agency announced it would not be identifying the unknowns anytime soon.

A Navy report to Congress in March 2022 identified just 25 USS Arizona families on file and the report estimated it would take government 10 years to track descendants for DNA acquisition — to the tune of approximately $2.7 million.

Kline took action.

Pausing his career and putting about $75,000 of his own money into Operation 85, “Kline brought in research analysts and a forensic genealogist. They tracked down the appropriate family member DNA donors and worked with the Navy and Marine Corps casualty offices to send DNA kits to the families through the mail,” according to Stars & Stripes.

Now, according to a Nov. 1 Operation 85 newsletter update, 653 DNA kits have been obtained — exceeding the government’s threshold.

“What DPAA is preparing to do now is exactly the mission we built the foundation for,” Kline told the outlet. “When the system said ‘no,’ families stepped forward and made ‘yes’ possible.”

A new lab is hoping to use generative AI to enhance defense wargaming.

The goal of the new GenWar lab, scheduled to open in 2026 at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, is to improve tabletop exercises by harnessing the speed and user-friendliness of large language models, or LLMs, which include popular chatbots such as ChatGPT.

By accessing AI during an exercise, human players can quickly experiment with different strategies. At the same time, human participants will be assisted by AI agents playing the role of staff advisers or even enemy leaders.

But the GenWar lab will offer even more intriguing possibilities. One is to allow human players to interact directly with sophisticated computer models operating behind the scenes of tabletop exercises. Another is the possibility of wargames played solely by AI actors on both sides.

“We’ve heard a demand signal from our sponsors of the need to do wargaming faster,” Kevin Mather, who heads the GenWar Lab, told Defense News. “The ability to get more in depth, the ability sometimes to be able to include modeling and simulation and do what-if analysis.”

Since the Prussian Army began using “kriegsspiel” to train staff officers in the 19th Century, tabletop exercises have essentially pitted Blue against Red teams, with an umpire to judge.

The problem is that these wargames are labor-intensive to design and adjudicate, and too cumbersome to allow replay and incorporating lessons learned.

But AI could yield multiple iterations of a game, or allow a scenario to be redone. For example, players might choose a strategy, only to have a subject matter expert rule that the idea wasn’t realistic.

“Let’s rewind the gameplay and go back one turn,” said GenWar Lab program manager Kelly Diaz, who discussed a hypothetical scenario with Defense News. “We’re going to retry that move. And because it’s all digital, we’ll have a log. Afterward for the post-game analytics, we can kind of trace through how the decisions were being made.”

To facilitate this, GenWar Lab uses an array of tools. GenWar TTX creates the digital environment and AI agents for the exercise. GenWar Sim — built on the government-owned Advanced Framework for Simulation, Integration and Modeling, or AFSIM — allows players to interact with physics-based models used for adjudication.

Thus, GenWar Sim functions as a translator that lets humans communicate in plain speech with the mathematical models operating behind the scenes.

“As a human, you give your commands: ‘I’d like to attack here, I’d like to defend there,’” explained Mather. “We’ve built code in the modeling and sim engine to read from that database layer and automatically execute those commands.”

Conversely, the LLMs can communicate with humans in ordinary speech.

Still, the thought of AI players may give some humans pause. As anyone who has played commercial strategy games can attest, computer players are not the sharpest of opponents.

“We won’t remotely claim that they’re making optimal decisions,” Mather said.

However, the hope is that their decisions are realistic enough to facilitate gameplay and allow the players to explore multiple strategies during an exercise.

Mather and Kelly emphasize that AI will not replace traditional wargaming techniques.

“It’s not nearly as in depth, for example, as a traditional ops analysis or modeling and sim study,” Mather said. But AI can offer “those 70% to 80% solutions that are not the answer, but really accelerate the human learning,” he added.

As AI is woven into societal fabric, general consensus is that it will inevitably become part of wargaming. The question is whether AI will dominate in the space.

Benjamin Jensen, a researcher at the Center for International and Strategic, believes AI can enhance wargames — if properly documented and evaluated.

The risk is that “we find strategic analysis reduced to, ‘Here is what an LLM said,’” he told Defense News.

How well LLMs relate to national security policy is also unclear.

“The larger challenge is that most foundation models commonly used haven’t been sufficiently benchmarked against strategy and statecraft,” Jensen said. “So, using AI to support game design, development and execution is a great idea. The question is how far that use goes and how well it is documented to avoid common pitfalls.”

The U.S. is drafting a proposal that includes weighing possible military engagement in Nigeria, a senior State Department official said this week.

The discussion comes weeks after President Donald Trump threatened military action in Africa’s most populous country over the alleged persecution of Christians by Islamic insurgent groups.

The Trump administration may also choose to escalate its pressure campaign by less dramatic means, including through imposing sanctions, Jonathan Pratt, a senior bureau official for African Affairs at the State Department, testified to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The White House casts its overall objective as safeguarding religious liberties.

“The Trump administration is developing a plan to incentivize and compel the Nigerian government to better protect Christian communities and improve religious freedom,” Pratt said Thursday. “This plan will consider U.S. State and Treasury engagement on sanctions, as well as possible Department of War engagement on counterterrorism and other efforts to protect religious communities.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine held high-level talks with a Nigerian delegation — led by its national security adviser Mallam Nuhu Ribadu — late Thursday evening at the Pentagon.

Hegseth emphasized the need for Nigeria to “demonstrate commitment” and “take both urgent and enduring” action to quell the violence against Christians, according to a Department of Defense readout.

The White House asserts the president has “made his position clear” on the complex situation in the West African country, which has long suffered violence at the hands of terrorist groups and violent extremists.

“I think Nigerians have an opportunity to deepen and strengthen their relationship with the United States if they will prioritize the protection of these communities,” Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV) said at a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa hearing this week. “Of course, non-Christians are being killed too. [We’re] not saying that’s not happening, but there is a systematic, targeted campaign that’s happening here.”

Trump, in a Truth Social post earlier this month, said if Nigeria does not halt the alleged persecution of Christians, he may send troops “guns-a-blazing” to “completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”

“I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action,” the president wrote at the time. “If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!”

Nigeria has denied the accusations of persecution, and called the Trump administration’s characterization of events a “gross misrepresentation of reality.”

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu insists there is religious tolerance, while acknowledging security challenges in the country affect citizens “across faiths and regions.”

Tinubu said he is committed to working with the U.S. and international community to protect communities of all faiths in Nigeria.

Among the most strategically vital objectives for the United States forces in the Pacific during World War II were three islands in the Marianas: Saipan, Guam and Tinian.

Close enough to the Japanese Home Islands to be reached by the new Boeing B-29 heavy bombers, they were desperately defended, including history’s largest aircraft carrier duel in the Philippine Sea on June 19-20, the largest suicidal “banzai charge” of the war and the horrific mass suicide by Japanese military and civilians at Marpi Point.

Smaller and less dramatic than the other two battles of the Marianas Campaign, Tinian nevertheless produced its share of horror and heroism, as well as fielding the most important aerial sorties of the conflict. Also standing out during the battle was Pvt. Joseph Ozbourn’s sacrifice to save four fellow Marines.

Enlisting in the Marine Corps Reserve on Oct. 30, 1943, Ozbourn served as a Browning automatic rifleman in the 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, and got his first taste of combat during the Battle of Roi-Namur in the Marshall Islands in early 1944.

On July 24, 1944 the 4th Marine Division advanced on Tinian. Awaiting them were Japan’s 50th Infantry Regiment under Col. Kiyochi Ogata and the 56th Naval Guard Force under Capt. Goichi Oie. Because the island was ringed in by low coral cliffs, Ogata focused most of his defense at the southwest, through which ships could best enter the atoll.

The Marines, however, modified LVTs with ramps that allowed their men to penetrate the atoll on the northwest. Moreover, the 2nd Marine Division under Maj. Gen. Thomas E. Watson launched a feint that also threw the Japanese defense off kilter while the 4th Division made the main assault.

Although worsening weather held things up, by July 30 the 4th Division reported securing Tinian’s town.

Among those fighting their way in was Pvt. Ozbourn, flanked by two fellow Marines on either side, clearing out dugouts, pillboxes and any remaining pockets of resistance.

As Ozbourn was about to throw a hand grenade into a dugout, however, a blast suddenly emanated from it, knocking all five Marines down.

As he and his partners, all wounded and stunned, tried to recover, Ozbourn realized that he was still holding his grenade and that it could very ironically achieve what his enemy failed to do.

As his citation noted: “Unable to throw it into the dugout and with no place to hurl it without endangering the other men, Pvt. Ozbourn unhesitatingly grasped it close to his body and fell on it, sacrificing his own life to absorb the full impact of the explosion but saving his comrades.”

The next day, the Marines declared Tinian secured. It had cost them a total of 353 dead, 1,515 wounded and 181 missing. The Japanese lost 5,745 servicemen killed and 404 taken prisoner, while the island’s civilian population suffered 2,610 dead.

Captain Oie reportedly died fighting, while Col. Ogata, upon seeing the last of his defense crumble, retired to a cave and committed seppuku (ritual suicide).

Once the Marines secured Tinian, the Navy Construction Battalions got to work, paving six 8,500-foot-long runways and facilities for B-29s of the Twentieth Air Force.

The closest of the three Marianas bases to reach the Home Islands, Tinian ultimately made its presence known by launching, among others, the devastating incendiary bombing of Tokyo on March 10, 1945, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6 and the atomic follow-up on Nagasaki on Aug. 9.

For his sacrificial contribution to Allied victory, Ozbourn was awarded the Medal of Honor. Initially buried on Tinian, his remains were transferred to the National Cemetery of the Pacific on Honolulu, Hawaii. On March 5, 1946, his widow was present at the Boston Naval Yard for the commissioning of the Gearing class destroyer Ozbourn (DD-846), which would serve in Korea and Vietnam.

On Oct. 5, 1945, President Harry S. Truman placed the Medal of Honor around Jacklyn Harrell Lucas’ neck. According to Lucas, Truman told the Marine, “I’d rather have [your] medal than be president of the United States.”

“Sir, I’ll swap you,” quipped Lucas.

But the ceremony to honor the Marine with the nation’s highest medal for valor was unique in more ways than one. At the age of just 14, the teen had forged his mother’s signature to join the Marine Corps. By the age of 17, Lucas had stowed away aboard the USS Deuel, bound for Iwo Jima.

It was there that he would become the youngest Medal of Honor recipient since the Civil War.

Born on Feb. 14, 1928, the North Carolina native recalled that after his father died when he was 11 years old, Lucas became “kind of a tough kid after that to handle.” Sent to military school, Lucas was there when he got word about the attack on Pearl Harbor.

“That very day a cold chill ran down my spine,” said Lucas. “I just became obsessed that I had to do something.”

Lying about his age, the 8th grade graduate enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve and was sent to Parris Island for training. Assigned to posts in Florida and North Carolina, Lucas qualified as a heavy machine gunner and by late 1943 joined the Fifth Amphibious Corps at Pearl Harbor.

By early 1944, however, his true age was discovered. Rather than getting kicked out of the Corps, Lucas was kept in rear area duties for nearly a year.

This wasn’t good enough for the young Marine who was itching to be in combat.

In early January, determined to join the war effort, Lucas had stowed away on the attack transport Deuel headed for Iwo Jima.

“I didn’t even know where the ships were headed,” recalled Lucas. “I had never heard of Iwo Jima in my lifetime. I knew I was on the way to war — and that’s what I wanted. That was my obsession.”

After hiding aboard the ship for a month, Lucas turned himself in. Lucas was declared a deserter and reduced to the rank of private, but despite this, he was still allowed to join the Fifth Marine Division en route to the Japanese-held island.

Although only a little over 4 miles long, Iwo Jima was key to Gen. Curtis Lemay’s bomber offensive on Japan’s home islands and on Feb. 19, 1945, 30,000 Marines and soldiers were met by 21,000 Japanese soldiers and a dizzying network of caves, tunnels and concrete pillboxes that a determined enemy used to deadly effect.

Among those men was Lucas, who had turned 17 just five days prior.

On the second day of battle, Lucas, a rifleman with the 1st Battalion, 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division, was attached to a four-man fireteam. As they crept “through a treacherous, twisting ravine which ran in close proximity to a fluid and uncertain front line,” the Marines took cover, jumping into a trench to avoid incoming direct fire.

“The group leader that I was with, he jumps over in the other trench and immediately jumps back because he had jumped on the back of [an enemy soldier],” said Lucas.

“Well, all hell broke loose then.”

Facing a fusillade, Lucas’ rifle unluckily jammed. This, however, allowed him to notice two grenades that had be lobbed over by the Japanese.

“How long had they been down there? Two seconds? I didn’t know,” recalled Lucas. “If my rifle had not jammed it would have probably wounded all of us … and then [the enemy soldiers] we were supposed to be killing in front of us would have finished us off.”

According to Lucas’ citation, “Lucas unhesitatingly hurled himself over his comrades upon one grenade and pulled the other under him, absorbing the whole blasting forces of the explosions in his own body in order to shield his companions from the concussion and murderous flying fragments.”

Thrown in the air, Lucas’ body was riddled with over 250 pieces of blazing hot, razor-sharp shrapnel. Lucas remained conscious throughout the whole ordeal, but was unable to make a sound to indicate to his unit that he was still alive.

Believed to be dead by his comrades, the three other Marines left the trench to continue their assault on the enemy.

Fortuitously for Lucas, another Marine passed by the grievously wounded teen and quickly called for a corpsman.

As Navy personnel rendered aid to Lucas, a lurking Japanese soldier attempted to hurl a grenade at the pair. Looking up, the corpsman managed to quickly shoot and kill the enemy soldier, allowing stretcher bearers to haul Lucas to the beachhead for evacuation to a hospital ship.

“There,” according to the National World War II Museum, “he underwent the first of a series of 26 operations to remove some of the shrapnel from his torso, arm and face.”

Prolonged physical therapy allowed Lucas to eventually regain the use of his arm but he was discharged from the Marine Corps that September due to his combat injuries.

“Of course I had to go home and see my galfriend and get some lip sugar, but Mr. Truman called me and interrupted my plans there,” joked the Marine.

Lucas was presented with the Medal of Honor by Truman on Oct. 5, 1945 — the mark of desertion removed from his service record.

In the postwar years Lucas became a businessman before joining the Army in 1961 to train as a paratrooper. During one of his training jumps, both of his parachutes malfunctioned, failing to open. Yet once again he survived, crediting his stocky build and a last-minute roll for saving his life.

Lucas once again escaped death in a 1977 murder-for-hire plot by his then-second wife, an account he details in his memoir “Indestructible.”

Lucas died of leukemia on June 5, 2008, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He was 80 years old.

BANGKOK — The United States and the Philippines have announced the creation of a joint task force aimed at further deterring what U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called Beijing’s “coercion” in the South China Sea.

It is the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, where not only the Philippines but also Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam have overlapping claims with China in the sea, a major international shipping route.

Analysts tell Military Times the task force could help deter Beijing’s efforts to enforce its sweeping claims to the sea by allowing U.S. and Philippine forces to react much more quickly to Chinese ships in contested waters around the Philippines, where the two countries have often clashed.

Hegseth and his counterpart, Philippine Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr., unveiled Task Force-Philippines on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations defense ministers’ summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Oct. 31.

“We don’t seek confrontation, but of course we’re ready to protect our interests, individually and mutually. And that’s why we’re publicly announcing the Task Force-Philippines here with you today,” Hegseth told a press conference.

He called it “another step in our cooperation, increasing interoperability, exercising and preparedness for contingencies, so that we can decisively respond to crises or aggression and reestablish deterrence in the South China Sea.”

The U.S. Pacific Fleet later added in a statement that the task force, which covers the full sprawl of the Philippines archipelago, will have about 60 dedicated staff and be led by either a one-star general or flag officer. The fleet said it would not involve new combat forces, offensive operations or permanent military basing.

Philippines tests new battle plan for fending off invaders alone

Rommel Jude Ong, a professor at Ateneo de Manila University, told Military Times that the task force is the culmination of growing cooperation between the U.S. and Philippines, which have been defense treaty allies since 1951.

He cited the annual Balikatan military exercise, the more limited joint task forces in past years, and a pact the two countries signed in 2024 to share classified military information.

“Those are developments that need to happen before you can actually have an operational task force,” he said. “Because they were resolved, a task force is now a viable mechanism.”

Now that it is viable, the two forces should be able to share sensitive intelligence “almost in real time,” said Jude Ong, a retired rear admiral who served over three decades in the Philippine navy.

Until now, operational information typically had to travel back and forth between Manila and Hawaii, where INDOPACOM is headquartered.

“That is a cumbersome way of doing business and is dependent on a secure communication setup that has very stringent protocols to use,” Jude Ong said.

“Having the [Task Force] Philippines based in Manila allows for a faster and convenient way of collaborating on combined operations … between the two allied militaries,” he added.

To truly deter China, he said, the United States and other Philippine allies would have to commit far more ships to patrolling the contested waters and maybe even basing them in the Philippines. In its statement, the U.S. Pacific Fleet ruled out basing its ships in the Philippines, but Jude Ong said he believed the task force may yet encourage the development of more related U.S. logistics in the country.

By helping U.S. forces react to events in the South China Sea in real time, though, the task force could still add some deterrence as it is, said Euan Graham, a senior fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a think tank established by the Australian government.

“Part of the problem is that the Chinese have learned that the Americans come for exercises like Balikatan and then they sail off, and they [the Chinese] can very quickly come in and out from their new bases in Mischief Reef and elsewhere, and that obviously undercuts the American deterrence proposition,” he said.

Mischief Reef is an artificial South China Sea island that Beijing has turned into a military base.

The task force, Graham added, makes the U.S. “more agile and more responsive so that things don’t just have to get put all the way up the decision chain into INDOPACOM headquarters or Washington.”

He said the creation of a standing task force also helps reassure Manila and Washington of each other’s long-term military commitments should moods change in either capital.

Philippine relations with the United States have warmed under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who succeeded the more China-friendly administration of Rodrigo Duterte in 2022. Duterte’s daughter, Sara, however, who shares her father’s China leanings, is the current frontrunner for president in elections due by 2028.

“So, this [task force] may be part of the trend to institutionalize this alliance and other security partnerships as far as possible while the political window is open under Marcos. Because if the Dutertes get back in, that’s clearly not going to be good for the U.S.,” said Graham.

In the meantime, tensions continue to run high between Beijing and Manila, with several encounters around contested shoals in recent months.

Graham said the task force could, in time, help stabilize the situation by allowing U.S. forces to respond more effectively to the pressure being applied by China.

Starting off, though, he said it may face “teething issues” as both sides work out where to draw ships for the joint operations from, and that China may try testing the task force to see whether and how much those operations actually improve the Philippines’ defenses.

China may also react by scaling up its own patrols or blocking Philippines supply ships to some shoals more aggressively, said Abdul Rahman Yaacob, a security analyst and academic adviser at the Australian National University.

He said that would raise the odds of an accident, which could in turn stoke tensions further.

“Most likely it may lead to increased tensions, because once you have a task force, you have more military activities. … And how will the Chinese respond? Will [more] Chinese war ships actually patrol and try to monitor Philippines-U.S. activities?” he asked.

“More military activities mean more potential for accidents to happen.”

However Beijing reacts, Rahman Yaacob said the task force will force China to reevaluate its approach.

“This task force will … cement further the American military presence in this part of the world, and … this will force Beijing, or China, to actually recalculate its strategic policy vis-à-vis the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia,” he said.

The U.S. Coast Guard has released a new, firmer policy addressing the display of hate symbols like swastikas and nooses just hours after it was publicly revealed that it made plans to describe them as “potentially divisive” — a term that prompted outcry from lawmakers and advocates.

“Divisive or hate symbols and flags are prohibited,” the latest Coast Guard policy, released late Thursday, declared before adding that this category included “a noose, a swastika, and any symbols or flags co-opted or adopted by hate-based groups.”

“This is not an updated policy but a new policy to combat any misinformation and double down that the U.S. Coast Guard forbids these symbols,” an accompanying Coast Guard press release said.

The late-night change came on the same day that media outlets, led by The Washington Post, discovered that the Coast Guard had written a policy earlier this month that called those same symbols “potentially divisive.” The term was a shift from a years-long policy, first rolled out in 2019, that said symbols like swastikas and nooses were “widely identified with oppression or hatred” and called their display “a potential hate incident.”

The latest policy that was rolled out Thursday night also unequivocally banned the display of any divisive or hate symbols from all Coast Guard locations. The earlier version stopped short of banning the symbols, instead saying that commanders could take steps to remove them from public view and that the rule did not apply to private spaces outside of public view, such as family housing.

Both policies maintained a long-standing prohibition on publicly displaying the Confederate flag outside of a handful of situations, such as educational or historical settings.

The latest Coast Guard policy appears to take effect immediately.

After the initial policy change became public, Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada said the change “rolls back important protections against bigotry and could allow for horrifically hateful symbols like swastikas and nooses to be inexplicably permitted to be displayed.”

“At a time when antisemitism is rising in the United States and around the world, relaxing policies aimed at fighting hate crimes not only sends the wrong message to the men and women of our Coast Guard, but it puts their safety at risk,” she added.

Admiral Kevin Lunday, acting commandant of the Coast Guard, said the policy did not roll back any prohibitions, calling it “categorically false” to claim otherwise in a statement released earlier Thursday.

“These symbols have been and remain prohibited in the Coast Guard per policy,” Lunday said in a statement, adding that “any display, use or promotion of such symbols, as always, will be thoroughly investigated and severely punished.”

Lunday’s predecessor, Admiral Linda Fagan, was fired on President Donald Trump’s first day in office. Trump officials later said she fired in part for putting an “excessive focus” on diversity and inclusion efforts that diverted “resources and attention from operational imperatives.”

The older policy that was rolled out earlier in November also explicitly said that “the terminology ‘hate incident’ is no longer present in policy” and conduct that would have previously been handled as a potential hate incident will now be treated as “a report of harassment in cases with an identified aggrieved individual.”

Commanders, in consultation with lawyers, may order or direct the removal of “potentially divisive” symbols or flags if they are found to be affecting the unit’s morale or discipline, according to the policy.

The newest policy is silent on whether Coast Guard personnel will be able to claim they were victims of hate incidents.

The Coast Guard is under the Department of Homeland Security, but it is still considered a part of America’s armed forces and the new policy was updated in part to be consistent with similar Pentagon directives, according to a Coast Guard message announcing the changes.

It also has historically modeled many of its human resources policies on other military services.

The policy change comes less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a review of all the hazing, bullying and harassment definitions across the military, arguing that the policies were “overly broad” and they were “jeopardizing combat readiness, mission accomplishment, and trust in the organization.”

The Pentagon could not offer any details about what the review was specifically looking at, if it could lead to similar changes as seen in the Coast Guard policy or when the review would be complete.

Menachem Rosensaft, a law professor at Cornell University and a Jewish community leader, said in a statement that “the swastika is the ultimate symbol of virulent hate and bigotry, and even a consideration by the Coast Guard to no longer classify it as such would be equivalent to dismissing the Ku Klux Klan’s burning crosses and hoods as merely ‘potentially divisive.’”

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called the move “disgusting, and it’s more encouragement from the Republicans of extremism.”

Privatized military housing providers are no longer standing in the way of service members and their families who want to make their homes merry and bright before Thanksgiving.

Hunt Military Communities, the nation’s largest privatized military housing provider, has amended its policy to allow residents to display outdoor holiday decorations beginning Nov. 1 and continuing through Jan. 10, the company said in a letter to residents Monday.

Previously, residents were unable to display Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving, according to Task & Purpose reporting.

Air Force base housing landlord shuns pre-Thanksgiving Christmas decor

The letter first publicly circulated on the unofficial Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page. Military Times confirmed the letter’s authenticity.

“As we enter the holiday season, Hunt Military Communities welcomes the opportunity for residents to share in the spirit of Christmas and other recognized holidays,” the letter says.

The new guidelines are meant to support a “tidy, well-maintained community” while accommodating traditions, according to the letter.

“Hunt Military Communities reviews feedback from residents, both directly and in our annual focus groups, about holiday decorations and feels the updated policy reflects our commitment to doing what is best for our residents,” Carolyn Baker, Hunt Military Communities spokesperson, told Military Times in a statement.

Baker said the holiday decorating season arrives earlier every year across the U.S., so Hunt Military Communities updated its policy to account for these “changing times.”

“Holiday decor, regardless of the holiday, fosters a sense of community and lifts the spirits of our military families,” Baker said. “We recognize the pride our residents take in their decorations and the effort involved, so we want to maximize the time they can enjoy them.”

Check out these commissary deals on turkey and trimmings

The announcement comes after a different privatized military housing provider, Balfour Beatty Communities, was criticized earlier this month for reportedly restricting residents at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida from displaying outdoor holiday decorations before Thanksgiving.

A Nov. 7 message to Tyndall base residents stated that holiday decorations should not be displayed any sooner than 30 days before the respective holiday, The Associated Press reported.

Base residents could only put up decorations and lights the week after Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day, according to the community handbook.

“If you currently have Yuletide decor present on the outside of your home, please remove it and reinstall it in accordance with your community guidelines,” stated the message, which also circulated on the amn/nco/snco Facebook page.

A Tyndall spokesman said Balfour Beatty Communities had set the policy, according to The Associated Press.

Just three days after that message to residents, Tyndall posted on its privatized housing management office’s Facebook page on Nov. 10 saying that after feedback and concerns, officials recognized the previous guidelines may have felt too strict or unspirited.

“We value the joy and creativity our residents bring to the community — especially during the holidays — and we fully support your right to celebrate in ways that feel meaningful to you,” the post reads.

Democratic representatives released a video on social media on Tuesday pleading with service members and intelligence officers to reject illegal orders amid ongoing U.S. military strikes against alleged-drug carrying vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean.

These representatives — who all served in the military or intelligence community — said that the Trump administration was pitting the military and intelligence community against American citizens.

“You must refuse illegal orders,” representatives said in the video. “No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.”

Lawmakers cited the requirement to protect and defend the constitution, which they said was facing threats not just from abroad, but at home too.

President Donald Trump lambasted the video on Truth Social.

“It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL,” the post read. “Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL.”

The president then posted to his account, or ReTruthed, 16 posts from other accounts that took issue with the video.

Some posts called for lawmakers in the video to be indicted while others seemed to suggest that the lawmakers were asking service members to commit treason or committing treason themselves.

“HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD,” read one post.

Trump echoed the violent rhetoric.

“SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH,” Trump said in another Truth Social post.

Individuals within the Trump administration also criticized the video made by Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa., Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H., Representative Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., and Congressman Jason Crow, D-Colo.

“Democrat lawmakers are now openly calling for insurrection,” said Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security advisor, on X.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth followed suit.

“Stage 4 TDS,” Hegseth wrote in an X post.

TDS likely refers to the political phrase “Trump derangement syndrome,” used to describe negative reactions to President Donald Trump.

Since Sept. 2, when the U.S. military began conducting lethal military strikes against alleged drug-carrying vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, questions have arisen regarding the potential illegality of the strikes.

A list of US military strikes against alleged drug-carrying vessels

As of Nov. 17, the Trump administration has disclosed 21 strikes, killing at least 82 people.

The Pentagon has said the strikes are in support of continued counternarcotics efforts.

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., labeled the strikes “illegal killings.”

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., asked for “the evidence linking them to being part of a gang” and for the names of those killed.

While Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., sent a Sept. 10 letter to President Trump over concerns that the strikes were conducted without a “legitimate legal justification.”

Concerns allegedly stem from inside the Pentagon as well.

On Oct. 16, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the retirement of Adm. Alvin Holsey, who supervises the U.S. military’s lethal strikes as commander of U.S. Southern Command.

Holsey will remain in that post until the end of the year.

Though an explanation for the news was not provided, The New York Times reported that Holsey had raised concerns over the U.S. military’s mission in Central and South America and the strikes against alleged drug-carrying vessels.

An NBC News report published Nov. 20 said that the senior military lawyer for U.S. Southern Command expressed his opinion that the lethal strikes were unlawful in August, a month before they began.

His opinion was overruled, however, by officials at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

In their video, Democratic lawmakers appear to be pulling at this thread.

Service members are required to abide by lawful orders and disobey unlawful orders, according to Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the U.S. Manual for Courts-Martial.

Troops that follow an illegal order can be court-martialed and prosecuted.

But according to Sam Howard, a retired Navy captain and former surface warfare officer who commanded three vessels, many service members aren’t privy to the legality of their actions.

“No one at the tactical level is, quite frankly, informed well enough to be able to make that final determination,” Howard told Military Times. “Surely, there are matters of conscience and things like that that go with that. But I think that’s a different story, right?”

Howard said that if a commanding officer of a ship was told to launch a Tomahawk missile, they would be far removed from the legal opinion that goes with that decision.

The directive for the U.S. military strikes has been passed down from Trump, according to many of Hegseth’s X posts.

“At the direction of President Trump,” is a common refrain that has accompanied Hegseth’s posts announcing the strikes.

House Democrats introduced a measure Tuesday that would prevent President Trump from continuing the U.S. military offensive in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, The New York Times reported.

Lawmakers specifically planned on invoking the War Power Act, which requires Congressional approval before waging an armed conflict.

Specifically, the measure would necessitate the removal of “United States Armed Forces from hostilities with any presidentially designated terrorist organization in the Western Hemisphere,” unless there is Congressional approval or a formal declaration of war, The Times reported.

President Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. The administration, arguing that the U.S. is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, has described the strikes as necessary to prevent illicit drugs from entering the United States.

Senate Democrats previously tried twice, in vain, to prevent the Trump administration from using military force against alleged drug-carrying vessels without the approval of Congress.