A Marine general fired the commander, executive officer and senior enlisted leader for an Osprey squadron in Hawaii last week “due to a loss of trust” in their ability to uphold safety and readiness standards, according to a statement provided Monday to Marine Corps Times.

Maj. Gen. Marcus Annibale relieved commander Lt. Col. Shaina Hennessey, Sgt. Maj. Jamie Lampley and the executive officer, who was not named in the statement.

The three led Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 268, based out of Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, until being fired Oct. 28.

“We hold ourselves to the highest standards of performance, addressing challenges head-on to uphold operational excellence,” read the statement provided by Maj. Joseph Butterfield, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing spokesman. “We are committed to implementing best practices and policies that ensure a strong coupling of well-prepared pilots and crews with safe, mission-ready aircraft.”

No further details were provided for the action.

Lt. Col. John Campbell now commands the squadron with Sgt. Maj. Joshua Henderson serving as the unit’s senior enlisted leader.

Hennessey took command of the squadron in December, according to an archived official biography. She was commissioned as a Marine officer in 2007 and became a naval aviator in 2011.

Her decorations include the Air Medal Strike/Flight numeral 1, Meritorious Service Medal with a gold star in lieu of second award, and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with a gold star in lieu of second award.

Lampley had served as the command’s senior enlisted leader since February 2024, according to an archived official biography. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2000.

His personal decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with one gold star in lieu of second award, and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with three gold stars in lieu of a fourth award.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday heard arguments in a case against a military contractor whose employee killed five people and injured 17 at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, in 2016.

The majority of justices seemed skeptical that the case, brought against Fluor Corp., was an exception to previous lawsuits filed against defense contractors, which typically have immunity in litigation generated by their involvement in wartime service.

In the case Hencely v. Fluor, former Army Spec. Winston Hencely argued that Fluor should be liable under state law for failing to supervise an employee who carried out a suicide bomb attack that killed three soldiers and two Fluor staff members.

In the bombing investigation, the Army found that Fluor violated its contractual duties by providing the perpetrator, Ahmad Nayeb, with tools used to carry out the attack and failing to monitor Nayeb’s movements during escort duties.

Frank Chang, Hencely’s attorney, argued that because of Fluor’s shortcomings, the company violated its federal contract, opening it up for potential litigation. During oral arguments, Chang said Congress and previous court decisions, particularly in Boyle v. United Technologies Corp., the law makes it “very clear” that protections are provided only to companies that follow their contract specifications.

“Our Constitution presumes that state tort claims are available and leaves it to Congress to alter that default rule. Congress has done so in some circumstances when it comes to federal contractors, but it has not barred claims by American soldiers injured by contractor negligence,” Chang said.

Several justices noted, however, that the U.S. military — which by law has immunity from injury claims from U.S. service members — and not Fluor was responsible for the safety of the base and its inhabitants, including security screenings of personnel and equipment.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted that the Army failed some of its own responsibilities.

“It was the military [that] was supposed to prevent [Nayeb] from bringing this stuff onto the base. And then the military runs a 5K, right? And anyone who’s run a 5K, there are lots of people stacked together at the starting line,” Kavanaugh said.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said she was struggling to understand the argument that there should be “carve-outs” to allow for liability against general contractors.

“I’m just trying to understand how we fit the concept into the understanding that in the [Federal Tort Claims Act], Congress decided that even with respect to combatant activities for which the government itself could not be held liable, there would still be general contractor liability,” Jackson said.

Chang said that the laws of immunity did not apply because “Fluor violated what the military wanted it to do.”

Defense contractors previously have been sued for negligence in their support of the U.S. government in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere — notably over the management of burn pits used to dispose of waste on military bases, chemical exposure during cleanup operations and faulty construction that contributed to electrocutions and other deaths.

In these cases, service members or families have either lost their arguments or been awarded large compensatory sums, only to see cases overturned by higher courts. The courts have ruled either that they don’t have jurisdiction in the cases or that contractors have the same immunity from lawsuits as the federal government, since they are supporting combat operations.

During oral arguments, Fluor attorneys said the Constitution preempts Hencely’s suit under state law because only the federal government has the power to go to war. The company’s attorney argued that the states — in the case, South Carolina, where Fluor is based, had no authority the bombing occurred in a combat theater.

“If the decisions of a contractor are going to be subject to state tort suits … the contractor is going to have to act very differently when an accident happens. The immediate thing the military needs when there’s an accident like this is for soldiers and contractors to work together to make sure there’s not a similar attack later that day, the next day, and so you need cooperation,” Fluor attorney Mark Mosier said. “If the contractor knows we could be blamed for this, they’re going to want to do their own investigation. They’re going to want to collect their own evidence.”

Three retired senior officers, including two lieutenant generals, filed a brief to the Supreme Court arguing that military contractors should be protected from litigation since they play an integral role in sustaining military operations. To subject contractors to possible state-law tort claims could result to “legal uncertainty and finger-pointing” in combat theatres, they argued.

Chang said the military would benefit from ruling in his client’s favor since it would “incentivize” the contractor to adhere to its specifications in a war zone.

“If the court is already thinking about creating some sort of a federal common law rule in this area, we think it should be the one that furthers the government’s interest by avoiding contractor negligence,” Chang said.

He confronted a suicide bomber just before an attack. Now he’s suing the insurgent’s boss.

On Nov. 12, 2016, Ahmad Nayeb, an Afghan national, detonated the bomb in a crowd of more than 200 as people lined up to take part in a 5K celebration of Veterans Day.

According to an investigation conducted by U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, Nayeb constructed the bomb in his on-base workspace using materials and tools from his job, which involved vehicle maintenance and oil disposal.

Nayeb failed to board an escort bus for Afghan nationals to leave the base the morning of Nov. 12, but no one reported him missing. He walked across the base toward the race staging area, where Hencely and others spotted him acting strangely. As they grabbed Nayeb’s shoulder, he detonated the bomb.

Killed in the attack were U.S. soldiers Pfc. Tyler Iubelt, 20; Staff Sgt. John Perry, 30; and Sgt. 1st Class Allan Brown, 46, as well as Fluor contractors Peter Provost, 62, and retired Army Col. Jarrold Reeves, 57.

Their families and at least eight injured service members have filed a lawsuit against Fluor, but that case is on hold pending the Supreme Court’s decision, expected by early next year.

Families of students attending Department of Defense Education Activity schools can apply for free or reduced price school meals during the shutdown, which has affected the income of many military and DOD civilian families. The eligibility is based on income and family size, as required by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Eligibility continues as long as the household income qualifies under the USDA thresholds, until the end of the school year, said Julie Mitchell, spokesman for AAFES. Overseas, AAFES provides DOD school meal support, serving 20,000 school meals daily at 73 DOD schools in seven countries.

“If income returns to previous levels after the shutdown, families are expected to update their application or status, but there is no automatic expiration of benefits when the shutdown ends,” she said.

Parents can visit the linqconnect.com/public/meal-application/newsubmit and search for “AAFES DoDEA” to submit an application online.

Information was not immediately available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the status of funding for school meals programs in the United States, where many military children attend school. However, the School Nutrition Association cited an Oct. 24 memo from the USDA stating that $23 billion in tariff funds was transferred to USDA’s Child Nutrition Program accounts to carry out National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program and Child and Adult Care Feeding Program during the shutdown.

That association is in close touch with the USDA and state agencies to monitor potential shutdown impacts.

The School Nutrition Association is also encouraging its members to promote the free and reduced-price meal applications in their communities, to help federal workers and contractors affected by the furlough or recent federal reduction in force.

Two months after an IT hiccup at the Department of Veterans Affairs left a significant portion of GI Bill recipients without their anticipated payments for school and housing, some advocates have a message for the VA: Turn the GI Bill hotline back on.

Those missing payments in the wake of the rollout of a new processing system are spouses or children of veterans who have died, are missing, or have a permanent and total service-connected disability — grouped together under the VA’s Chapter 35. Up to 75,000 of these claims may be unpaid, according to Ashlynne Haycock-Lohmann, director of Government and Legislative Affairs for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors.

And while VA officials lay the blame for the protracted payments delay largely with congressional Democrats, whom the administration holds responsible for the government shutdown that began Oct. 1, multiple groups are expressing frustration with the department’s own actions and failure to find a solution.

“VA deployed a new benefit delivery system in August and anticipated having the ability to pay staff overtime and deploy automation solutions as needed to ensure a smooth transition and process fall enrollments on a timely basis,” Peter Kasperowicz, a VA spokesman, told Military Times in an emailed statement. “When the Democrats’ shutdown hit, VA was deprived of these resources.”

He added that federal law required the GI Bill hotline, which is typically used to identify and address payment issues, to be turned off during the shutdown. VA anticipates the pay issue won’t be fully resolved until late November or early December, Kasperowicz said.

That’s not satisfactory to Haycock-Lohmann.

“The shutdown is not the cause of this, and it needs to be very clear that the reason that this happened is because VA’s infrastructure failed, and they chose not to tell us until after the shutdown started,” she said. “VA could have told us in August.”

She added that affected veterans never got clear communication about what was happening due to a communications plan that was upended after VA staff got furloughed in October.

An Oct. 9 letter to VA Secretary Doug Collins from Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn, and Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., the ranking members of the Senate and House Veterans Affairs Committees, expressed “serious concern” at the missed payments and gave the VA an Oct. 13 deadline to provide an explanation, outline the scope of the problem and explain its communications plan.

“These payments are essential, mandatory funds that veterans and their families rely on for food, rent or mortgage payments, immediate needs, and financial stability,” the lawmakers wrote.

A staff member with Blumenthal’s office said VA had not yet sent a response to the letter. They added that VA had told congressional staff in August about a glitch that would affect 900 Chapter 35 students, saying the students had been contacted and the issue remediated. But no further information had been forthcoming even as the issue appears to be much larger, and they believed VA has not done any outreach about the matter.

Will Hubbard, the vice president for Veterans and Military Policy at the organization Veterans Education Success and an architect of the current “Forever GI Bill,” has been tracking the nonpayment issue closely since he was alerted to the problem by congressional staff.

“There’s been no mass communications plan; there’s no press release; there’s no public anything,” Hubbard said. “And that’s really been a fundamental issue.”

For Hubbard, the problem also fit a pattern of major VA platform or tech rollouts affecting GI Bill beneficiaries that took place right before the start of the fall semester, when enrollments were surging and tuition payments were coming due.

Hubbard wants assurances from VA that the rollout timing issue will be addressed for the future. He’s also concerned that the VA’s projected timeline for fixing the current problem is optimistic, and expressed concern about the “destabilizing” impacts of missing payments that roll into next semester.

“What I’m most worried about are the housing payment elements of this issue,” he said. “Because, you know, a school might be flexible, and I applaud that, but I suspect that landlords, their patience is going to run thin eventually. It’s bad, obviously, to get dropped from school, but it’s life changing if you’re put out on the street.”

TAPS, meanwhile, is calling for the restoration of the GI Bill hotline and a surge in claims processors to accelerate resolution.

“What they should be doing is bringing back the call center, finding a way to fund the call center. Bring those employees back,” Haycock-Lohmann said. “In future shutdown plans, make it very clear that the GI Bill hotline needs to be considered an essential program, and they need to bring back every processor right now.”

TAPS staff said they had seen success in “back channel” communication with congressional officials and VA Education Services over specific hardship cases to restore payments. Haycock-Lohmann said all affected students should know that schools are legally prohibited from dropping them over missed GI Bill payments. And, she said, survivors facing issues can reach TAPS for help with their case at [email protected].

The United States Army Air Forces fielded two major air arms for the Allied invasion of France in 1944. The more famous of the two was the Eighth Air Force, the strategic arm whose four-engine bombers devastated Nazi Germany’s industrial capacity by day, while Britain’s Royal Air Force pounded it by night. The other American contribution was the Ninth Air Force, the tactical arm whose twin-engine aircraft supported the ground troops.

Among the the Ninth’s many outstanding pilots was the only Martin B-26 Marauder crewman to be awarded a Medal of Honor.

When the United States entered World War II, Iowan Darrell Robins Lindsey enlisted as an Army Air Corps cadet in Des Moines on Jan. 16, 1942. His training included introduction to the B-26 at the 314 Bombardment Group’s base at MacDill Field, Florida, followed by bombardier training at Kirtland Field, New Mexico.

He got his second lieutenant’s commission on Aug. 27 and soon after he got his operational assignment to the 585th Squadron, 384th Bombardment Group (Medium) at Kellogg Field, Michigan, where he rose to first lieutenant in 1943 and to captain that December.

On March 10, 1944, the 394th Group arrived at Boreham, England, and attached to the Ninth Air Force. Capt. Lindsey was a flight leader as his squadron bombed military installations, trains, airfields and any other targets in German-occupied France. As of June 6, that included supporting the Americans’ advance from Normandy and to the port of Cherbourg.

Aerial opposition was relatively scarce because aircraft of VIII and IX Fighter Command and the RAF had largely swept it from the sky — and what remained was occupied defending Germany from long-range bombers and their fighter escorts, or the growing quantity and quality of Soviet aircraft approaching from the east.

One threat, however, seemed constant: a variety of German anti-aircraft guns, ranging from 20mm to 105mm, installed at every target.

Opposing the Ninth Air Force’s bombers, which normally attacked from 10,000 to 12,000 feet altitude, AA guns seemed to take their toll upon every sortie.

On July 24, the 394th moved to Holmsley South, so it could be closer to the advancing Americans. By Aug. 9, Lindsey had logged 46 missions encompassing 143 combat hours and 1,497 overall.

At that time the Germans were striving to retake the strategically important towns of Mortain and Avranches, where the 30th Infantry Division, nicknamed “Old Hickory,” held that hard-won ground against the XLVII Panzer Korps.

In that context, Lindsey, flying his B-26 Marauder, led 30 planes to bomb the railroad bridge at L’Isle-Adam, a junction between the Seine and Oise rivers, 15.5 miles (25 kilometers) northwest of Paris, over which the Germans were bringing up troops, supplies and equipment for their counterattack.

L’Isle Adam being one of the precious few railroad junctions still at their disposal, the Germans’ main defenses were their notorious 88mm anti-aircraft guns, equally deadly against aircraft and tanks.

As Lindsey’s strike force neared the bridge he was greeted by heavy flak, but by skillful evasive action he was able to elude much of it before entering his bombing run — at which point his plane was peppered with holes. Suddenly, his right engine burst into flame, producing a concussion that threw his plane out of the lead position. Undeterred, Lindsey maneuvered his stricken machine back into position without disrupting the formation.

At this point, Lindsey was aware that his gas tanks might explode any moment but was determined to complete the mission before all else. With fire streaming from his engine and the right wing half enveloped in flames, he led the formation to drop their 2,000-pound loads on the bridge.

Once that was accomplished, he ordered his crew to take to their parachutes, while he kept the descending B-26 on a steady glide. The last crewman out, the bombardier, offered to lower the landing gear so Lindsey could escape out the nose, but he refused until the bombardier had bailed out. Then, just as he tried to follow, the right tank exploded, the plane went into a steep dive and upon striking the ground, exploded.

The bomb run on L’Isle-Adam capped a series of bomb raids since Aug. 7 that demolished four bridges, destroyed an ammunition dump and contributed to the failure of the German counterattack, which led to the partial trapping of the German army and most of its armor at Falaise, leading in turn to the liberation of Paris by the end of August. For that three-day success, the 394th Bomb Group received a Distinguished Unit Citation.

On May 30, 1945, Lindsey’s widow received a posthumous Medal of Honor from Major Gen. Robert B. Williams, commander of the Second Air Force, at the First Presbyterian Church at Fort Dodge.

The contents of his citation was noteworthy for its relative informality: “All who are alive today from this plane owe their lives to the fact that Captain Lindsey remained cool and showed supreme courage in this emergency.”

Out of a hailstorm of machine gun fire and heavy shelling, Pvt. Burton Holmes returned, badly wounded, to the 371st Infantry Regiment’s command post. His unit had been set up, lured out onto Hill 188 by the false promise of surrender, leaving them vulnerable to the surprise attack from the Germans.

But Holmes returned only because his automatic rifle was out of commission. He refused to be taken to the hospital for treatment. Instead, he got a reserve automatic rifle and rejoined the fight, firing upon the enemy until he died.

His try-or-die attitude was shared by all of Company C. His fellow soldier, Cpl. Freddie Stowers, continued to crawl ahead after being mortally wounded. He, too, died under fire, while encouraging the unit to advance.

For their actions in the Battle of Hill 188, on Sept. 28, 1918, both Holmes and Stowers were recommended for the Medal of Honor.

Only Stowers, however, would receive the receive the nation’s highest military honor — 73 years after the soldier’s death.

Born on Jan. 12, 1896, in Sandy Springs, South Carolina, Stowers, the grandson of a slave, was working as a farm hand when America declared war on Germany and he was drafted into the Army at Williamston, S.C. on Oct. 4, 1917.

After training at Camp Jackson, in April 1918 he was assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 371st Infantry Regiment, 93rd Division, American Expeditionary Forces and shipped off to France.

Organized at Camp Jackson, the 371st Infantry was one of four segregated Black regiments slated for France, of which one, the 369th, was relatively experienced. The 371st, in contrast, was made up of draftees, mostly from South Carolina, but reinforced with soldiers from Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Although combined on paper as the 93rd Division (Provisional), the 371st was confined by the AEF for auxiliary and labor roles behind the lines. That state of affairs changed, however, when the French army, in dire need of reinforcements at a critical turning point of the war, requested — and received — Black units.

Among those French units in need was the 157th Division (“Red Hand”) under Gen. Mariano Goybet, which had been decimated at Chemin-des-Dames in May. On July 4 the division was reconstituted with the French 333rd Infantry Regiment and the 371st and 372nd regiments, then redeployed to the front.

By mid-September the 157th had acquired the experience necessary to hold its sector at Avocourt and Verrières, northwest of Verdun. In C Company of the 371st, Stowers had risen to corporal, in charge of half a squad.

On Sept. 26, the AEF and French launched their Meuse-Argonne campaign. On the 28th, C Company of the 371st advanced on its objective, Côte 188, a 188-meter high hill overlooking a farm near Ardeuil-et-Montfauxelles. As the Black troops made their way forward and up, a line of Germans emerged from their positions, at least one holding a white flag.

When the 371st men closed to 100 meters, however, the “surrendering” Germans suddenly dropped into the trenches and others rose to man machine guns, rifles and mortars in interlocking fields of fire. In a matter of minutes, half of the approaching 371st were cut down and the rest driven to ground.

In C Company, Cpl. Stowers took in the situation around him and discovered that his company commander and sergeant were dead and all other senior personnel were casualties —leaving him the highest grade still standing.

His response was to crawl his way upward, gathering up men left standing.

Managing to reach the first German trench line, Stowers and his men destroyed the key machine gun position and killed the defenders. Stowers then regrouped the men on hand and continued his crawl up the hill. As they approached the second trench lines, however, he was struck by a machine gun round. Even then, he continued to urge his troops forward until he finally fell dead.

By then, his leadership by example had left its mark on C Company as it overran the second line and drove the Germans from Côte 188.

Although he would go no further, Stowers inspired the 371st Infantry to further successes at Bussy Ferme, Ardeuills, Monfauxelles and Trières Ferme, albeit at a cost of 133 killed in action.

The French posthumously awarded him the Croix de Guerre and besides the Purple Heart, his commander recommended him for a Medal of Honor, but the AEF claimed it lost the paperwork somewhere along the way.

In 1990, however, the Army conducted a reappraisal of minorities whose deeds may have been underrated during World War I. As a result, on April 24, 1991, two of Stowers’ sisters, Georgina Palmer and Mary Jane Bowens, were invited to the White House to receive Stower’s overdue Medal of Honor.

Today, Stowers remains not far from where he fell, in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial at Romagne-sous-Montfaucon.

The Marine Corps is dialing back its vision for shallow-water littoral regiments, but greenlighting a new unit with special high-speed boats as it continues to develop a Pacific-focused future force.

That’s according to an update to the Corps’ Force Design 2030, published earlier in October. The 24-page document — the first Force Design update in two years — cites a “continuous Campaign of Learning” that’s helping the service make fielding decisions faster and alter course as needed.

“We are modernizing at a time when the character of war is shifting rapidly,” Commandant Gen. Eric Smith wrote in a preface to the document. “Adversaries are fielding advanced weapons and employing new methods designed to erode our warfighting advantages. Drones, long-range precision fires, cyber effects and electronic warfare are now daily features of conflict. The lessons drawn from contemporary battlefields underscore what Marines have long understood: combat is unforgiving, and victory belongs to the side that adapts faster, fights harder and endures longer.”

While the update hails the Corps’ establishment of two Marine Littoral Regiments in the Pacific-based III Marine Expeditionary Force, with the second, 12th MLR, set to achieve readiness for war next year, it also backtracks on plans to convert 4th Marine Regiment, based in Japan, to a third MLR based in Guam.

The regiment “will be retained in III MEF as a reinforced Marine Infantry Regiment, preserving its core mission while preparing to respond to potential crisis and conflict,” the document states. “We determined through the Campaign of Learning that two MLRs and one reinforced Marine Infantry Regiment in III MEF is the optimal force composition to meet III MEF’s missions and objectives.”

A Marine Corps spokesman, Lt. Col. Eric Flanagan, told Marine Corps Times that this shift was driven by threat assessments.

“This decision to retain 4th Marine Regiment is informed by recent wargames and analysis which address the growing threat posed by competitors in the Indo-Pacific and, together with other forces in the region, postures the Marine Corps to decisively respond to regional threats, provide integrated deterrence alongside allies and partners, and address emergent crises,” he said.

“Our current priorities are focused on ensuring that our existing infantry regiments and purpose-built MLRs are equipped and trained to meet the demands of the evolving security environment,” Flanagan added.

The two MLRs nonetheless remain central to the Corps’ fielding plan for NMESIS, the service’s ground-based anti-ship missile system, and MADIS, its vehicle-based counter-drone system. Official fielding of the first 10 Light Marine Air Defense Integrated Systems, mounted on the service’s ultra-light Polaris MRZR ATVs, is set to begin next year.

“We are developing a new Maritime Reconnaissance Company unit as part of the broader evolution of our light armored reconnaissance battalions into mobile reconnaissance battalions,” the force design update states. “The MRC will operate a new tactical boat, the MMRC, which can partner with unmanned surface vessels to maneuver sensors and personnel in support of Marine forces operating in the littorals.”

As recently as this spring, Marine Corps leaders were still deciding about a concept that would create one of these MRCs for each of the Corps’ three infantry divisions. Marine Corps Times reported at the time that they could each maintain as many as 18 multi-mission reconnaissance watercraft “and an undisclosed number of unmanned vessels” and could conduct missions not only in the shallows, but also in the open ocean.

Officials could not immediately provide additional information about how and when the MRCs would be fielded, but ongoing experimentation has provided a look at the tactical boats they’ll be operating.

The Australian-made MMRCs have been sent to units like 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion and 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Company for evaluation. The craft have a range of 250 nautical miles and have been hailed for their value as insert/extract and maneuver vehicles as well as reconnaissance platforms.

Also transitioning from the lab to the fleet is a narco sub-style autonomous semi-submersible — the autonomous low-profile vessel — that the 12th MLR has been testing out for logistics and supply missions.

In a round-table with reporters earlier this year, 12th MLR Commanding Officer Lt. Col. Peter Eltringham called the subs “a fantastic piece of gear.”

He said he wanted to make small dispersed teams within the regiment “hard to find” and hailed the value of the logistics subs to supply these units undetected.

The Force Design update said the ALPVs were “transitioning to a program of record,” but did not say when that transition would take place or which units would get the new narco-subs.

Many of the most successful fighter pilots gained fame not only for their aerial tactics, but for their ability to pass their knowledge on to others. Ironically, some of those who handed down their tactical dictum to their men died because on one hubris-guided moment they disobeyed their own advice.

Among these victims of their own negligence were World War I ace of aces Manfred von Richthofen and second-ranking American World War II ace Thomas B. McGuire Jr.

Yet another cautionary tale was left by Neel Kearby.

While a second lieutenant in the Army Reserves in 1938, Kearby shot up the ranks after World War II broke out: captain on Feb. 1, 1942, major on March 1 and lieutenant colonel on Nov. 28.

In October 1942, Kearby was put in charge of a new unit, the 348th Fighter Group. It was the first outfit shipped to V Fighter Command in New Guinea equipped with the Republic P-47D Thunderbolt, a huge, sturdy single-engine fighter armed with eight wing-mounted .50-caliber machine guns.

American fighter jockeys in the South Pacific generally preferred the Lockheed P-38G Lightning, which had proven a highly successful ace-maker, while dismissing the P-47 “Jug” as too heavy and not maneuverable enough to dogfight nimble lightweights such as the Japanese navy’s Zero and the army’s Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa.

Once in command, however, Kearby became a hardcore “believer” in the P-47 and devoted himself to developing a doctrine for making the most of the Thunderbolt’s diving speed, while canceling out the Japanese advantages.

When the 348th moved to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, on July 14, 1943, its pilots had trained well under Kearby’s tutelage and its first combat flight on Aug. 16 yielded its first victim: a Ki-43 of the 59th Koku Sentai (air regiment) downed by 2nd Lt. Wilburn C. Henderson.

In spite of being 32 years of age — practically ancient by USAAF standards — Kearby was a believer in leading by example and on Sept. 4 he scored his first victories, a Mitsubishi G4M bomber and one of its Zero escorts.

Ten days later he outran and downed a Mitsubishi Ki-46, a twin-engine reconnaissance built for speed. On Sept. 23 he was promoted to colonel. Then, on Oct. 11, he shot down six Japanese aircraft in a matter of 15 minutes, a feat that led to his being awarded the Medal of Honor from Gen. Douglas MacArthur on Jan. 23, 1944.

Over the next few months Kearby and the 348th established themselves as forces to be reckoned with over New Guinea. On Jan. 9, 1944, he downed two fighters, bringing his score up to 21. At that point he was dividing his attention between flying alongside the 348th and, after Nov. 12, 1943, flying a desk in V Fighter Command while Lt. Col. Robert Richard Rowland assumed command of the 348th.

Kearby’s superior in Fifth Air Force, Maj. Gen. George C. Kenney, encouraged this arrangement to stir up a rivalry between aces, as he was already doing with P-38 champions Richard I. Bong and Tommy McGuire. Besides bringing out the deadly best in these outstanding pilots — and pitting the P-38s against Kearby’s P-47 — the publicity it generated kept the Fifth Air Force in the public eye and attracted re-equipment stateside.

On Feb. 8, 1944, Kenney put Kearby in command of the 308th Bombardment Group (Heavy), and it was during this command that Kearby forgot his own dictum.

On March 5, 1944, Kearby was leading Captains Samuel Blair and William D. Dunham at 22,000 feet altitude over the enemy airfields at Wewak when, at 1720 hours, they spotted three Kawasaki Ki-48 bombers heading toward Dagua for a landing.

The Japanese at Dagua spotted their comrades’ plight, however, and the 77th Sentai scrambled five Ki-43s up after the intruders.

Diving on their prey, each American ace was credited with one, but Kearby was not sure of his and circled around to make another pass. His 22nd victim splashed in the sea, but in making that second pass at relatively low altitude and reduced airspeed, he handed the advantage to the Hayabusas. The 77th Sentai’s log credited a P-47 each to Warrant Officer Koichi Mitoma and Sgt. Hiroshi Aoyagi, while suffering one plane badly damaged.

In July 1947 Australian War Graves personnel found Kearby in the wreckage of his plane, “Fiery Ginger IV,” just 1,800 feet from Dagua. The only intact remnant, the white vertical stabilizer bearing the serial 42-22668, was returned to the U.S. and in 2001 it was put on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force beside a rebuilt plane in his markings.

Kearby’s remains were laid to rest at Sparkman Hillcrest Memorial Park.

Besides the Medal of Honor, Kearby was awarded two Silver Stars, four Distinguished Flying Crosses, five Air Medals and one Purple Heart. In 1959 a building on Sheppard Air Force Base is named in his honor and in 2010 the Texas Historical Commission and the City of Arlington unveiled a plaque and a statue of him in the Arlington Public Library.

The U.N. human rights chief said Friday that U.S. military strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean allegedly carrying illegal drugs from South America are “unacceptable” and must stop.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called for an investigation into the strikes, in what appeared to mark the first such condemnation of its kind from a United Nations organization.

Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for Türk’s office, relayed his message on Friday at a regular U.N. briefing: “These attacks and their mounting human cost are unacceptable. The U.S. must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats.”

She said Türk believed “airstrikes by the United States of America on boats in the Caribbean and in the Pacific violate international human rights law.”

President Donald Trump has justified the attacks on the boats as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States, but the campaign against drug cartels has been divisive among countries in the region.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday announced the latest U.S. military strike in the campaign, against a boat he said was carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean. All four people aboard were killed. It was the 14th strike since the campaign began in early September, while the death toll has grown to at least 61.

Shamdasani noted the U.S. explanations of the efforts as an anti-drug and counter-terrorism campaign, but said countries have long agreed that the fight against illicit drug trafficking is a law-enforcement matter governed by “careful limits” placed on the use of lethal force.

Intentional use of lethal force is allowed only as a last resort against someone representing “an imminent threat to life,” she said. “Otherwise, it would amount to a violation of the right of life and constitute extrajudicial killings.”

The strikes are taking place “outside the context” of armed conflict or active hostilities, Shamdasani said.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the military to provide dozens of lawyers to the Justice Department for temporary assignments in Memphis and near the U.S.-Mexico border that could run through next fall, according to a memo released this week and reviewed by The Associated Press.

“I am directing you to collectively identify 48 attorneys and 4 paralegals from within your Military Department who may be suitable for detail” to the Justice Department to act as special assistant U.S. attorneys, Hegseth wrote in a memo dated Monday that was sent to all four services and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The memo appears to be the latest effort to send military and civilian attorneys working for the Pentagon to the Justice Department, this time to staff offices based along the U.S. southern border or where federal immigration enforcement operations are taking place.

Last month, the Pentagon also approved sending up to 600 military lawyers to the Justice Department to serve as temporary immigration judges in a separate effort. The Trump administration increasingly has tapped the military to bolster its immigration crackdown, from deploying to the southern border and a series of American cities.

This week’s memo says the Justice Department asked for 20 lawyers to help support its offices in Memphis, where the National Guard has been deployed by President Donald Trump; 12 for West Texas — specifically for the cities of El Paso, Del Rio, and Midland — and three lawyers and two paralegals for Las Cruces, New Mexico.

The memo does not specify what kind of litigation the volunteers would be asked to do, but it says that, ideally, attorneys would have “significant experience” in immigration and administrative law in addition to general prosecution and litigation experience.

The Pentagon said in a statement that it was “proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our law enforcement partners, bringing the skill and dedication of America’s service members to deliver justice, restore order, and protect the American people.”

The Justice Department also confirmed the memo’s authenticity but did not provide additional details on the reason for its request or what the attorneys would be doing.

As with the prior request for hundreds of military attorneys to work as immigration judges, it is not immediately clear what impact removing a growing number of lawyers would have on the armed forces’ justice system. The attorneys, called judge advocates, have a range of duties much like civilian lawyers, from carrying out prosecutions, acting as defense attorneys or offering legal advice to service members.

The new request follows a Sept. 26 ask from the Justice Department for 35 attorneys and two paralegals from the military, according to the memo. It wasn’t immediately clear if that number was in addition to the 48 attorneys requested this week.

The AP also reviewed an email that was sent to military attorneys on Sept. 12 that said the Pentagon was looking for volunteers to become special assistant U.S. attorneys in West Texas and New Mexico without mentioning a total figure.

It is not clear how successful the Pentagon has been at getting lawyers to volunteer, but at least some of the services have been making the case to their attorneys through messages like the one sent by the Army’s top lawyer.

“These roles offer unparalleled opportunity to refine your advocacy, courtroom procedure, and functional knowledge of the federal legal system for future use in our military justice system or civil litigation,” Major Gen. Bobby Christine said in an email reviewed by the AP.

Christine said the work would be “in support of national priorities.”

However, Hegseth’s memo says that services only had until Thursday to identify the attorneys and alluded to troops being subject to involuntary mobilization orders.

The Army and Navy did not respond to questions about how many attorneys from their respective services are being sent to the Justice Department. The Air Force directed questions to the Pentagon.

Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here. The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.

In March 1915, a young British man named Raymond Lodge was deployed to Ypres, France, to fight on the front lines of the first world war. By September, he was dead, aged just 26.

A few weeks later, however, Raymond got in touch with his family. “TELL FATHER I HAVE MET SOME FRIENDS OF HIS”, came the message hastily scrawled in all caps by the spiritualist medium Mrs. Osborne Leonard.

Raymond’s father was Sir Oliver Lodge, a prominent physicist whose work helped to develop radio communications. Sir Oliver was also a member of the Society for Psychical Research, an organisation which, among other things, investigated ghosts. The “friends” Raymond had apparently met beyond the grave included F.W.H. Myers, a founding member of the society, who had died in 1901.

Sir Oliver, previously fairly sceptical, was soon drawn into lengthy séances with Mrs. Leonard, poring over messages allegedly from Raymond about death and the afterlife. He compiled them into a book entitled “Raymond, or Life and Death,” which was published in 1916. It proved so popular that it ran to many editions, with soldiers on the front being sent copies by their loved ones.

Spiritualism began in the late 1840s as a pseudo-Christian practice that believed communication with the dead was entirely possible. While it dwindled in popularity at the turn of the century, it was reinvigorated to new levels in the aftermath of the first world war. The popularity of Lodge’s book, moreover, led to dozens of copycat publications, where other soldiers “wrote” of their experiences of the utopian spiritualist afterlife to their families.

“Claude’s Book” (1919) is one such example, “transcribed” from séances with young Claude by his mother, L. Kelway-Bamber. Kelway-Bamber, having been so heartened by Sir Oliver’s sittings, had hired Mrs. Leonard herself to get in touch with her son. Spiritualist mediums were in high demand once more.

Beyond the cynicism

It’s easy to dismiss these séances, even to scoff at them as nothing more than charlatans exploiting public grief, especially from the point of view of modern scepticism. When I was researching my new book, “Ghosted: A History of Ghost Hunting and Why We Keep Looking,” this was my initial reaction to reading about these bizarre encounters with the spirits of the dead.

But as a sociological phenomenon, borne of mass grief, I think it’s more complicated than that. We may laugh at fraudulent mediums quivering melodramatically as they channel the so-called spirits of the dead, but to discuss spiritualism’s cultural significance requires a more nuanced and sensitive approach.

By the end of the first world war, nearly 9 million soldiers had been killed. General mortality rates were already high prior to the war, and people were no strangers to sudden, unexpected bereavement. But never before had death affected so many people at once, and taken so many young men in the prime of their life.

If we look at spiritualism in the aftermath of the first world war, not to identify fraud and shun its believers as being gullible, we can build up an incredibly detailed picture of why so many clung to séance tables in the hope of contacting their loved ones again.

Everyone’s loss of their son, brother or husband was uniquely painful, and yet these deaths lost their significance when half the families on the street had also lost their young men. Yet, suddenly, everyone knew Raymond Lodge’s name. He stood out among the legions of dead Tommies, because of the séances Sir Oliver held with Mrs. Leonard.

This, I think, is why so many grieving families took up spiritualism and wrote their own books — not to piggyback on Raymond’s popularity, but to make their sons, brothers and husbands seem special, too. Moreover, many didn’t know exactly what had happened to soldiers; being able to “speak” to them from beyond the grave made it seem like they were happy and at peace, enjoying themselves in the afterlife, and not in pieces in a muddy ditch thousands of miles from home.

Mary Lodge, Raymond’s mother, sums up the problem with a brief sentence her husband includes in the book: “We can face Christmas now.” We can accuse Mrs. Leonard of exploiting grief, but we can’t deny that it eased the suffering of many, regardless of the ethical and moral dilemmas posed by spiritualism.

The history of ghost-hunting and séances is rife with fraud, and scepticism is often required to read around anecdotes to uncover what was really happening, but it’s also a vital resource to help us understand grief and fear of death at certain points in human history. By examining the motivation behind ghost-hunting from a more sympathetic perspective, we can learn a great deal about what it means to be alive.

Alice Vernon is a lecturer in Creative Writing and 19th-Century Literature at Aberystwyth University.

Editor’s note: This report has been updated to include details of Rear Adm. Kurt. Rothenhaus’ new position.

The U.S. Navy has replaced the admiral in charge of the Office of Naval Research with a civilian who has reportedly worked as a Department of Government Efficiency staffer, according to the service.

Rear Adm. Kurt. Rothenhaus, who has served as chief of naval research since June 2023, has been reassigned and replaced by Rachel Riley, who most recently acted as a senior adviser for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a Navy public affairs official confirmed in an emailed statement Thursday.

Riley worked at HHS as part of DOGE, the The New York Times previously reported, a job her LinkedIn profile shows her holding since January 2025.

“We thank RADM Rothenhaus for his service as he is enroute to his next assignment,” the Navy official said. “We do not have additional information to share at this time.”

It’s unclear when Rothenhaus was reassigned or when Riley took over the position. Rothenhaus will assume command of Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, the Navy official said Friday.

Prior to his role as chief of naval research, Rothenhaus served as program executive officer for Command Control Computers Communications and Intelligence, according to his Navy biography.

https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2025/06/25/lawmakers-press-va-for-details-on-doge-access-to-vets-records/

Riley previously worked as a partner at the consulting firm McKinsey before her time at HHS, according to the Navy public affairs official.

The public affairs official said Riley “brings deep acquisition, technology, and organizational expertise to the job,” and that the Navy was “pleased to welcome her to the team.”

HHS confirmed Riley’s migration to her new role at the Office of Naval Research, which oversees research for the Navy and Marine Corps with a budget of over $2 billion.

“We appreciate the work Rachel Riley did for HHS to improve and right size the agency across its structure, programs, and grants,” said HHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Rich Danker in an emailed statement.

Riley reportedly led a September charge to fire almost 8,000 HHS employees, according to Politico, which uncovered the massive number after reviewing an HHS document.

The department reportedly laid off 1,760 employees earlier this month, only to later rescind several hundred of those firings after a coding error. As of Saturday, HHS is in the process of firing 954 department employees.

The Pentagon has clarified that troops will not be barred from wearing their uniforms at Veterans Day events during the government shutdown, despite an email screenshot circulating online that says otherwise.

Reports about uniforms not being allowed at Veterans Day events started spreading online Wednesday when the unofficial Facebook page Air Force amn/nco/snco posted an email from the public affairs department of the Air Force’s 70^th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing at Fort Meade, Maryland, that said service members should not take part in Veterans Day events while in uniform if the shutdown were to continue.

“It has been advised that if the government shutdown remains in effect, military members should not participate in outreach activities around Veterans Day, while in uniform (this includes local community outreach),” the Tuesday email to personnel of the 70^th ISR Wing began. “This approach is intended to ensure the public understands the reality and impacts of the shutdown.”

That email went on to say service members could still attend Veterans Days events in a personal capacity or be honored at gatherings, such as a sports events, as long as there was no “active outreach component” like throwing out a first pitch, giving remarks or appearing on the field. In those cases, the email said, service members must be out of uniform.

Some commenters on the amn/nco/snco post expressed confusion and frustration as to why the Pentagon would issue such restrictions.

“If you have earned the right to wear the uniform, and are doing so in a respectful way, then do whatever the hell you want,” one commenter said.

When contacted by Military Times on Wednesday, spokespeople with both U.S. Air Force public affairs and the Pentagon’s public affairs office initially confirmed the Defense Department had issued the guidance restricting service members’ outreach activities and uniform wear at the beginning of the shutdown. The DOD was re-emphasizing those rules as Veterans Day approached, they said.

But later, the Pentagon changed course. A Pentagon official said the department is not restricting service members from attending local Veterans Day events in uniform. The official said such events are seen as helping with recruiting efforts, and that recruiting is one of the activities that can continue during a shutdown.

In addition to appearances at sporting events, outreach events could include service members visiting schools in uniform around Veterans Day and talking with kids about military service, the official said — or marching in a parade — as long as the department isn’t spending travel money to transport them to the events.

“The public affairs guidance on Department of War community outreach activities during a lapse of appropriations remains the same,” the official said in a statement Thursday, using the administration’s preferred name for the department. “Service members are to wear their uniforms in accordance with their service regulation.”

Veterans Day is observed in the U.S. each year on Nov. 11, the anniversary of the armistice that went into effect on that date in 1918 to end World War I. It was first established as a national holiday in 1938, when it was called Armistice Day and honored WWI veterans, and was renamed Veterans Day in 1954 to honor all U.S. war veterans.

Since then, communities nationwide have observed Veterans Day with celebrations of all sizes that salute both veterans of past wars and current service members.

New York City’s annual Veterans Day Parade is the largest in the country, and one of its grand marshals this year will be former Army Staff Sgt. Clint Romesha, who received the Medal of Honor for his heroism during the 2009 Battle of Kamdesh in Afghanistan.

In past years, current service members and their units have been among the thousands marching in New York’s parade. Organizers said on the New York parade’s website that they expect more than 20,000 marchers this year.

Before the Second World War, there was little need nor interest in evacuating wounded military personnel to rear areas via aircraft. As the war turned global, however, the pressing need for the creation of medical air evacuation squadrons within the U.S. Army Air Forces became clear.

According to the Air Force, a rushed training program for flight surgeons, enlisted medical technicians and flight nurses cropped up at Bowman Field, near Louisville, Kentucky.

The all-volunteer force had to train for crash procedures, survival training and the effects of high altitude on patients with various wounds. Since the aircraft also transported military supplies, the obvious markings of the Red Cross were not permitted, making the medical personnel particularly vulnerable to enemy attack.

Among such volunteers was 1st Lt. Mary Louise Hawkins, who spent 13 months flying the wounded out of the Pacific Theater, becoming one of the few women to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross during WWII.

On Sept. 24, 1944, while en route to Guadalcanal from the fighting in Palau, the C-47 transporting Hawkins and 24 wounded Marines began to run low on fuel.

Forced to crash on Bellona Island, which had not yet been cleared of enemy forces, the resulting landing left all relatively unscathed — all except one.

During the landing, one of the C-47’s propellers ripped through the plane’s fuselage and severed the trachea of an already wounded Marine.

As the Marine asphyxiated in his own blood, the rattled Hawkins moved quickly. Searching desperately for a means of suction and with only precious seconds to spare, the nurse ripped open part of her “Mae West” life preserver and pulled out the inflation tube from the vest.

Inserting the tube in the Marine’s neck, Hawkins manually sucked the blood out the patient’s neck, spitting mouthfuls on the floor of the C-47. The jerry-rigged suction tube worked, allowing for the Marine to breathe while the group waited over 19 hours for rescue.

For her actions, Hawkins was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

“First Lieutenant Hawkins displayed unusual courage in rendering prompt and efficient first-aid treatment to an injured passenger immediately after the accident,” her citation reads. “First Lieutenant Hawkins’ immediate performance of technically difficult acts despite the stress incident to the crash landing of the airplane is an example of steadfast courage which reflects great credit on herself and the Army Nurse Corps.”

Thanks to Hawkins, all 24 men survived the harrowing ordeal.

As the population of U.S. veterans becomes more diverse and vets’ needs, from employment to medical treatment, continue to evolve, the demographic remains among the most difficult to survey.

A subset of the general population, veterans are most easily reached en masse through Department of Veterans Affairs rolls. But that leaves approximately half of all veterans out, according to the Pentagon-linked Rand Corporation think tank.

Alongside research organization NORC at the University of Chicago, Rand on Tuesday rolled out the Veterans Insight Panel, a survey cohort intended to allow for high-fidelity and rapid survey research on a veteran population representative of all ages, geographic areas and demographics.

The initial population, built by collecting data from Rand’s American Life survey panel and NORC’s AmeriSpeak cohort, has about 3,000 members, Robert Bozick, a RAND senior demographer and director of RAND Survey Panels, told Military Times. He expects that to grow as the organizations continue to recruit.

“It is a moving target,” he said. “We wanted to make sure that we could at least field a survey and get about 1,000 responses before we launched, because that’s typically the size of surveys that our researchers and external researchers need.”

The effort to launch a new survey panel followed “an increasing need for more sophisticated, more nuanced data on veterans than what is typically being collected,” Bozick said.

National organizations collecting data on Americans, from the U.S. Census to the Centers for Disease Control, typically include a question asking survey respondents to identify their status, he said, but data collected on veterans using these methods is incidental and limited in depth.

“You can compare veterans who have asthma to the general population, but you can’t dig down deeper and beyond that, because the purpose is not to survey veterans; it’s to survey the general population,” Bozick said. “So, for example, the next logical question [would be], ‘Were you in combat? Were you in a combat zone where there may have been a burn pit?’ Things like that. You can’t get those from national data sources.”

An upcoming project for 2026 that’s sponsored by the Pittsburgh-based Heinz Endowments, for example, will focus on veteran underemployment and employment trajectories, Bozick said.

While veteran employment data is included in monthly U.S. Department of Labor reports, veteran underemployment — meaning employment that doesn’t fully utilize and recognize a veteran’s skills and experience — has been much harder to quantify.

In the last two years, the National Veterans’ Training Institute has reported that one-third of veteran job seekers are underemployed; the Journal of Veterans Studies has found 10% of post-9/11 veterans report underemployment; and the Raymond A. Mason School of Business has cited veteran underemployment as high as 60%.

“This is something our researchers are struggling with. When they try to go collect data, they get small samples,” Bozick said. “You either get a pool with a lot of Vietnam vets, not a lot of younger veterans or vice versa. All of those samples have challenges, given the diversity of the military experience.”

Notably, the Veterans Insight Panel is not exclusively for academic research. Groups and organizations will be able to pay to survey the cohort on topics of interest at a rate on the order of $2,000 per question, Bozick said.

The intent, he said, is to make the panel available to entities seeking to advance the wellbeing of veterans.

“We’re really trying to keep it in that sort of community framework, as opposed to an academic data set where PhD scientists are analyzing data and publishing in journals,” he said. “Not that we frown upon that, but that’s secondary to what we’re trying to do here.”

Also planned for early 2026, he said, is an omnibus survey containing questions from a variety of sources on issues relevant to the veteran community.

President Donald Trump’s decision to shift the nation’s most advanced aircraft carrier to South America in his campaign against drug cartels is pulling the ship out of the Mediterranean Sea at a time when a tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has been threatened by new strikes in Gaza.

The U.S. is set to be in the fairly unusual position of having only a single aircraft carrier deployed and none in the waters off both Europe and the Middle East. The change is especially stark after the U.S. joined Israeli strikes on Iran in June and has engaged in some of the most intense combat operations since World War II against Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.

Aircraft carriers, with their thousands of sailors and dozens of warplanes, have long been recognized as one of the ultimate signifiers of U.S. military might and the nation’s foreign policy priorities. There have been five carrier deployments to the Middle East since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, including two carriers in the region at multiple points this year and last.

The new orders for the USS Gerald R. Ford illustrate the Trump administration’s increasing focus on the Western Hemisphere and mark a major escalation of firepower as the U.S. military ramps up fatal strikes on alleged drug boats. With a buildup of warships, aircraft and troops already in the region, Trump himself has signaled what could be next.

Speaking from another aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington, in its home port of Japan, Trump noted the U.S. attacks at sea and reiterated that “now we’ll stop the drugs coming in by land.”

Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a retired Marine colonel, questioned how long the Ford would be able to remain in South America, when only three of the 11 U.S. aircraft carriers are typically out to sea.

“It’s such a powerful and scarce resource, there will be a lot of pressure to do something or send it elsewhere,” Cancian said. “You can imagine the peace negotiations breaking down in the eastern Mediterranean or something happening with Iran.”

The USS Nimitz also is deployed but is heading home from the South China Sea to the West Coast before being decommissioned. It recently lost two aircraft — a fighter jet and a helicopter — in separate crashes that are under investigation. A third carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, is not deployed but is conducting exercises off the coast of San Diego.

The shift is happening just as violence has flared up again in Gaza despite a ceasefire that Trump helped broker after two years of war. The Israeli army launched a barrage of attacks Tuesday as tensions with Hamas grew two weeks into the fragile ceasefire.

Carrier’s move adds pressure on Venezuela

Meanwhile, the U.S. military’s growing presence near Venezuela and its 13 fatal strikes on alleged drug boats have stoked fears that Trump could try to topple authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro, who faces charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S.

In response to questions about the speculation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted Saturday that the U.S. is taking part in a counterdrug operation. And he again accused Maduro’s government of participating in the shipment of narcotics.

“This is a very serious problem for the hemisphere, and a very destabilizing one,” Rubio said. “And that has to be addressed.”

Maduro said in a recent national broadcast that the Trump administration is manufacturing a war against him.

“They are fabricating an extravagant narrative, a vulgar, criminal and totally fake one,” Maduro added. “Venezuela is a country that does not produce cocaine leaves.”

Experts say the U.S. forces in the region aren’t large enough for an invasion. But they could help push out Maduro — and possibly plunge the nation into chaos.

“There’s a really high potential for violence and instability,” according to Geoff Ramsey, an expert on U.S. policy toward Venezuela who is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. If Maduro loses power, he said Venezuela could “devolve into a Libya-style meltdown that could last years.”

Land strikes are ‘a real possibility’

The Ford strike group, which includes five destroyers, will add to an unusually large U.S. military buildup in the waters off Venezuela. The Navy already has eight warships in the region — three destroyers, three amphibious assault ships, a cruiser and a smaller littoral combat ship that’s designed for coastal waters. It was not clear if all five of the destroyers in the Ford strike group would make the journey.

A U.S. Navy submarine also is operating in the broader area of South America and is capable of launching cruise missiles. The U.S. military also sent a squadron of F-35B Lightning II fighter jets to an airstrip in Puerto Rico and recently flew a pair of supersonic, heavy bombers up to the coast of Venezuela.

The administration says the military has killed at least 57 people in the strikes against vessels accused of transporting drugs. Trump has declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants because of narcotics flowing into the country and said the U.S. is in an “armed conflict” with them, relying on the same legal authority used by the Bush administration after 9/11.

Lawmakers from both political parties have expressed concerns about Trump’s lack of congressional approval and unwillingness to provide details about the attacks. Others, such as Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, believe the president has all the authority he needs.

The South Carolina Republican said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that land strikes in Venezuela are “a real possibility.”

“We’re not going to sit on the sidelines and watch boats full of drugs come to our country,” Graham said. “We’re going to blow them up and kill the people that want to poison America, and we’re now going to expand operations, I think, to the land.”

The White House pressed U.S. Navy officials to launch 2,000-pound live bombs instead of dummy explosives during an elaborate military demonstration for the service’s 250th anniversary celebration that President Donald Trump attended, two people familiar with planning for the event told The Associated Press.

One person familiar with the planning said White House officials insisted to Navy planners that Trump “needed to see explosions” instead of just a “big splash” during the Oct. 5 demonstration.

Original planning for what the Navy dubbed the Titans of the Sea Presidential Review called for military personnel to use dummies and not live bombs, a third person familiar with the Navy’s planning said.

That person, who like the others was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity, would not comment on why the Navy decided to switch to live bombs.

The White House said no switch was made. Deputy press secretary Anna Kelly in a statement said: “Organizers always planned to use live munitions, as is typical in training exercises.”

The episode is the latest example of the Trump administration turning the military toward the president’s wishes in ways large and small — from summoning generals from around the world to Washington for a day of speeches to his lethal strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.

The Navy and other military branches typically use dummy, or inert, bombs for training and demonstrations. Dummies are cheaper than live bombs because they do not contain expensive explosives, fuses and other components. They’re also safer.

However, military officials often argue that the use of live ammunition for events like the 250th birthday celebration also fulfills a training purpose and that the ordnance would have been expended anyway at a later date. The Navy declined to comment.

The switch required Navy officials to change up detailed plans for the Norfolk military demonstration to ensure safety protocols were met, according to the three people familiar with the planning.

The White House pushed forward with the event despite a U.S. government shutdown, which has led nonessential federal workers to be sent home without pay and reduced operation of many non-critical government services.

A celebration for the Marines also used live artillery

Confirmation that the Navy decided to use live bombs instead of dummies at the Naval Base Norfolk event comes as the administration faces scrutiny over an Oct. 18 live fire demonstration at Camp Pendleton, in which a misfire of a live artillery round led to shrapnel spraying onto Interstate 5 in Southern California.

No one was injured when shrapnel struck two California Highway Patrol vehicles. That Camp Pendleton event marking the Marines 250th anniversary was attended by Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Last week, 27 members of the California congressional delegation and the state’s two senators sent a letter to Hegseth asking whose decision it was to shoot live artillery over the busy freeway and how authorities planned for the safety risks.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who says he’ll weigh a 2028 White House run after the midterm elections next year, criticized the decision and closed a section of the roadway connecting San Diego to Los Angeles for hours during the Oct. 18 Marine showcase. The White House criticized him for closing the highway and said the Marines said there were no safety concerns.

Trump is a fan of military pomp

Trump hasn’t been shy about his fondness for pomp and pageantry that celebrates military might.

In his second term, he has pushed the U.S. services to hold big parades and demonstrations, an idea inspired by a Bastille Day parade he attended in France early in his first term. He was a guest of honor at the 2017 event, which commemorated the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War I.

The Army included tanks in a June parade in the nation’s capital, requested by Trump, to mark its 250 years despite concerns from city officials that the heavy vehicles would damage the city’s streets. And he appeared to relish the massive military welcome he received last month during his second state visit to the United Kingdom.

At the Navy celebration this month in Norfolk, the president and first lady Melania Trump watched the military demonstration from the deck of an aircraft carrier before Trump delivered a speech in which he criticized his political opponents and attacked Democratic lawmakers.

At sea, the Navy had seven Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers fire a variety of their guns, including a large 5-inch gun. Four destroyers also launched the Navy’s Standard Missile 2 (SM-2). Each missile costs approximately $2 million.

Meanwhile, aircraft from USS Truman’s air wing fired missiles and general-purpose bombs and performed a strafing run with their gatling guns. The Navy’s MH-60S Seahawk helicopters also fired hydra rockets and guns.

Trump then spoke on a pier between two towering Navy vessels, an aircraft carrier and an amphibious assault ship. The carrier displayed a Navy fighter jet that had the words “President Donald J. Trump ‘45-47’” printed on the fuselage, right under the cockpit window.

A Navy spokesperson told the AP shortly after the event that sailors put the president’s name on the aircraft for the visit and this was “customary for visits of this type.”

In addition to the live bomb demonstration, Navy destroyers launched missiles and fired shells into the Atlantic Ocean, and Navy SEALs descended from helicopters and fighter jets catapulted off vessels.

The shift to live bombs also required further spreading out of the guided missile destroyers in the waters off Norfolk for the military demonstration.

Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday he believes U.S. military members will be paid at the end of the week, though he did not specify how the Trump administration will reconfigure funding as pain from the second-longest shutdown spreads nationwide.

The funding fight in Washington gained new urgency this week as millions of Americans face the prospect of losing food assistance, more federal workers miss their first full paycheck and recurring delays at airports snarl travel plans.

“We do think that we can continue paying the troops, at least for now,” Vance told reporters after lunch with Senate Republicans at the Capitol. “We’ve got food stamp benefits that are set to run out in a week. We’re trying to keep as much open as possible. We just need the Democrats to actually help us out.”

Shutdown causes turmoil for some military families’ food assistance

The vice president reaffirmed Republicans’ strategy of trying to pick off a handful of Senate Democrats to vote for stopgap funding to reopen the government. But nearly a month into the shutdown, it hasn’t worked. Just before Vance’s visit, a Senate vote on legislation to reopen the government failed for the 13th time.

Federal employee union calls for end to shutdown

The strain is building on Democratic lawmakers to end the impasse. That was magnified by the nation’s largest federal employee union, which on Monday called on Congress to immediately pass a funding bill and ensure workers receive full pay. Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the two political parties have made their point.

“It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship,” said Kelley, whose union carries considerable political weight with Democratic lawmakers.

Still, Democratic senators, including those representing states with many federal workers, did not appear ready to back down. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine said he was insisting on commitments from the White House to prevent the administration from mass firing more workers. Democrats also want Congress to extend subsidies for health plans under the Affordable Care Act.

“We’ve got to get a deal with Donald Trump,” Kaine said.

But shutdowns grow more painful the longer they go. Soon, with closures lasting a fourth full week as of Tuesday, millions of Americans are likely to experience the difficulties firsthand.

“This week, more than any other week, the consequences become impossible to ignore,” said Rep. Lisa McClain, chair of the House Republican Conference.

How will Trump administration reconfigure funds?

The nation’s 1.3 million active duty service members were at risk of missing a paycheck on Friday. Earlier this month, the Trump administration ensured they were paid by shifting $8 billion from military research and development funds to make payroll. Vance did not say Tuesday how the Department of Defense will cover troop pay this time.

Larger still, the Trump administration says funding will run out Friday for the food assistance program that is relied upon by 42 million Americans to supplement their grocery bills. The administration has rejected the use of more than $5 billion in contingency funds to keep benefits flowing into November. And it says states won’t be reimbursed if they temporarily cover the cost of benefits next month.

Vance said that reconfiguring funds for those programs was like “trying to fit a square peg into a round hole with the budget.”

The Agriculture Department says the contingency fund is intended to help respond to emergencies such as natural disasters. Democrats say the decision concerning the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, goes against the department’s previous guidance concerning its operations during a shutdown.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the administration made an intentional choice not to the fund SNAP in November, calling it an “act of cruelty.”

Another program endangered by the shutdown is Head Start, with more than 130 preschool programs not getting federal grants on Saturday if the shutdown continues, according to the National Head Start Association. All told, more than 65,000 seats at Head Start programs across the country could be affected.

Will lawmakers find a solution?

At the Capitol, congressional leaders mostly highlighted the challenges many Americans are facing as a result of the shutdown. But there was no movement toward negotiations as they attempted to lay blame on the other side of the political aisle.

“Now government workers and every other American affected by this shutdown have become nothing more than pawns in the Democrats’ political games,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

The House passed a short-term continuing resolution on Sept. 19 to keep federal agencies funded. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has kept the House out of legislative session ever since, saying the solution is for Democrats to simply accept that bill.

But the Senate has consistently fallen short of the 60 votes needed to advance that spending measure. Democrats insist that any bill to fund the government also address health care costs, namely the soaring health insurance premiums that millions of Americans will face next year under plans offered through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

Window-shopping for health plans delayed

When asked about his strategy for ending the shutdown, Schumer said that millions of Americans will begin seeing on Saturday how much their health insurance is going up next year.

“People in more than 30 states are going to be aghast, aghast when they see their bills,” Schumer said. “And they are going to cry out, and I believe there will be increased pressure on Republicans to negotiate.”

The window for enrolling in ACA health plans begins Saturday. In past years, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has allowed Americans to preview their health coverage options about a week before open enrollment. But, as of Tuesday, Healthcare.gov appeared to show 2025 health insurance plans and estimated prices, instead of next year’s options.

Republicans insist they will not entertain negotiations on health care until the government reopens.

“I’m particularly worried about premiums going up for working families,” said Sen. David McCormick, R-Pa. “So we’re going to have that conversation, but we’re not going to have it until the government opens.”

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Lisa Mascaro in Washington and Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.

Tricare health beneficiaries who fill prescriptions outside a military health facility will pay more for medications next year, but they will also have expanded access to new treatments for conditions like lung cancer and chronic back pain, under an announcement made by the federal government Tuesday.

According to a notice in the Federal Register, most Tricare prescription copayments for medications purchased at retail pharmacies and through the Tricare mail-order pharmacy will increase beginning Jan. 1.

In 2026, the rates for 30-day retail prescriptions will remain at $16 for generic drugs, but they will increase to $48 for brand-name medications. Ninety-day mail-order prescriptions will cost $14 for generic drugs and $44 for branded prescriptions. Non-formulary drugs will be $85 for the 30-day retail or 90-day mail-order prescriptions.

Prescriptions filled at military hospitals or clinics will continue to be available at no cost to patients, and active-duty personnel still won’t pay cost-shares or copays at retail pharmacies for covered medications.

The new rates reflect a 12% to 15.8% rise over the current copays, which were set at the start of 2024. The increase is part of a plan initiated in 2018 by Congress and the Defense Department to increase the share patients pay for their medical services through the military health program.

In addition to the increase in retail pharmacy costs, Tricare will introduce new coverage for some procedures, according to the announcement. Those include: radiofrequency ablation for uterine fibroids; cryosurgery for lung cancer or other cancers that have metastasized to the lungs; coronary calcium tests for patients suspected of having heart disease; and basivertebral nerve ablation for patients with chronic back pain.

Tricare also plans to cover the cost of electric devices, known as transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, or TENS units, to address post-operative pain. Tricare will allow patients who meet the criteria for a likelihood of developing certain types of cancer to have prophylactic surgeries, including mastectomies and hysterectomies.

The military health program also will no longer require some dependents who have lost their hearing to use hearing aids for at least three to six months before being eligible for cochlear implants, according to the announcement.

Tricare will continue to cover monoclonal antibody drugs for early treatment of Alzheimer’s disease — a benefit it began last year. Patients must receive pre-authorization to receive the medication and must undergo testing to determine they have the condition.

Also beginning next year, active-duty family members and retirees and their eligible family members who live in Tampa, Florida, or Atlanta will be able to enroll in a new Tricare Prime option managed by CareSource Military and Veterans.

New Tricare Prime option coming to beneficiaries in 2 metro areas

The pilot, which will run through 2029, provides a new managed care program for military families beyond military treatment facilities or Tricare managed by Humana Government Business, the contractor for the East Region.

Beneficiaries interested in enrolling in the new program will be able to do so during Tricare Open Season, set for Nov. 10 through Dec. 9. During that time frame, patients also may switch between Tricare Prime and Tricare Select or enroll in the Federal Dental and Vision Insurance program. Open season for FEDVIP closes Dec. 8.

“Tricare Prime Atlanta and Tricare Prime Tampa represent an innovative approach to advance access to care, enhance the patient experience, and strive for better health outcomes,” Dr. David Krulak, director of the Tricare Health Plan at the Defense Health Agency, said in a statement when the pilot was announced May 7. “The data we get from this demonstration will inform future Tricare innovations nationwide.”

On May 8, 1945, “der dicke Hermann,” or “Fat Herman” to the German public, stepped out of his vehicle.

With the writing on the wall, Hermann Göring, the leader of the Luftwaffe, had surrendered to the Americans.

“Twelve years,” he purportedly muttered. “I’ve had a good run for my money.”

Now, based on Jack El-Hai’s book “The Nazi and the Psychiatrist,” director James Vanderbilt is bringing Göring’s 18-month incarceration and trial to the big screen in “Nuremberg.”

Starring Rami Malek as Lt. Col. Douglas Kelley, the U.S. Army psychiatrist assigned to interview the Nazi leader, the film follows Malek’s character as he interrogates Göring, played by Russell Crowe.

Held alongside 51 senior Nazi leaders, Göring was confined in Prisoner of War Camp No. 32, known to its inmates as the “Ashcan.” Kelley was the first Allied psychiatrist to evaluate him and other Nazi leaders such as Rudolf Hess, Julius Streicher and Karl Dönitz. His work, however, has been largely overshadowed by that of Gustave Gilbert, the psychologist brought in to reevaluate his findings.

According to historian James Holland, “Göring’s dandy image made him a persistent figure of ridicule. Germans mocked him and the foreign press painted him as an overweight buffoon. But Göring was a colossus in every way: a wily Machiavellian with an outsize IQ, skilled at combining charm, guile and ruthlessness to get what he wanted — skills he employed to the end.”

“I responded to the script straight away, but in a funny way I was also emotionally exhausted by it,” Crowe told the news site Deadline. “How would you even attempt to play that guy? When that kind of question comes up, that’s usually what I’m attracted to.”

During his incarceration Göring lost weight, detoxed from his steady war diet of morphine, and, writes Holland, “demonstrated acute intelligence, guile, wit and even charm.”

While imprisoned, the Nazi managed to befriend his guard, Lt. Jack G. Wheelis, and physician Ludwig Pflücker. During the trial, he ran rings around his prosecutor, even managing to draw laughter from onlookers.

It is, though, the psychological duel between Kelley and Göring that appears to be at the heart of “Nuremberg” — until a vial of cyanide spared Göring the noose.

“He couldn’t help but empathize with [Göring],” Malek told Deadline. “For Kelley to be so convinced that he was there to ‘dissect evil,’ as he explains in his book, and then to discover there’s nothing uniquely evil about Göring; in fact, there’s humanity in there. He realized that anyone at any moment in any political landscape could be capable of an atrocity like that. How jarring, and how absolutely terrifying that must have been.”

Joining Malek and Crowe is Michael Shannon, playing chief U.S. prosecutor, Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson; Leo Woodall as Sgt. Howie Triest; Colin Hanks as American psychologist Gustave Gilbert; and John Slattery as Burton C. Andrus, U.S. Army officer and commandant of the Nuremberg Prison.

“Nuremberg” is in theaters Nov. 7.

Not long after airplanes were first used in war, armies realized that close air support required specialists on the ground to coordinate with the pilots. Hence the advent of forward air controllers, and later the U.S. military’s Joint Terminal Attack Controllers, or JTACs.

But if you need JTACs to call in air strikes, and space-based weapons are becoming a reality, then don’t you also need specialists to call in space strikes? That’s why there should be Space Joint Terminal Attack Controllers, or SJTACs, argue two experts.

For example, “the space JTAC would connect tactical, on-the-ground SOF [special operations forces] units with space assets for targeting adversary military airbases, critical infrastructure, and more complex targets, such as Russian floating nuclear power plants,” wrote retired U.S. Army colonel Kevin Stringer and Marius Kristiansen, a Norwegian Army officer, in a July essay for the Irregular Warfare Initiative website.

Unlike space personnel already assigned theater special operations commands, SJTACs would embed with special operations tactical units, the essay suggests. They would “enable the assessment of vulnerabilities, ensuring precision in any potential attack, as well as monitoring target activities, tracking movements, and providing real-time situational awareness for preemptive strikes or future sabotage missions,” Stringer and Kristiansen wrote.

SJTACs are needed to coordinate the advent of space-based weapons that paint a future where orbital bombardment of ground targets is the norm, the pair argues.

“As space capabilities develop from science fiction to reality, the SJTAC could access future space weaponry ranging from lasers, electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons, to the currently theoretical ‘Rods from God’ kinetic bombardment concept,” Stringer and Kristiansen wrote.

Just as JTACs are needed to target airstrikes and avoid hitting friendly forces, SJTACs would perform the same role for space.

“For normal airstrikes, an infantry scout or aviation aeroscout can call them in during an emergency,” Stringer told Defense News. “But the margin of error grows with a generalist doing infrequent specialist activities. A JTAC is a professional who focuses on this task. The SJTAC would be similar.”

There has long been an intimate link between space and special operations forces. The “Cyber-Space-SOF” triad is seen as a strategic capability, while U.S. Space Force is now standing up its own special operations component as part of U.S. Special Operations Command (SJTACs would belong to that Space Force component).

“Combined with space and cyber capabilities, SOF can access satellite communications, space-based reconnaissance, and cyber tools to disrupt enemy activities while maintaining a low signature,” the essay explained.

One question is redundancy. Rather than having separate SJTACs, would it be simpler to offer additional training in space capabilities to existing JTACs? Such training could be added to the Army-run Special Operations Terminal Attack Control Course, or SOTACC, which certifies JTACs. Or, the space role could be handed to Air Force combat controllers.

Stringer and Kristiansen disagree. In their view, SJTAC critics “overlook the fact that with space defined as a separate warfighting domain from the air, and with the creation of U.S. Space Force as a separate service, organizational logic and the development of deep space expertise necessitate a division of labor that would place the SJTAC function firmly within the Space Force sphere of responsibility.”

Separate STACs “would also avoid the inefficiency of having SOF from each service — Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines — develop their own SJTAC capabilities," the essay argues.

SJTACs would also be useful for coordinating U.S. space capabilities with NATO and other allies, Stringer and Kristiansen wrote.

“Given that not all NATO countries have space assets, and the planning assumption is that NATO SOF formations will operate in a combined fashion, a space JTAC becomes a critical linkage for allied interoperability,” the essay suggested.

Ultimately, if the special operations community wants to play a role in space-based capabilities, it will need to have its own space specialists, Stringer argues.

“Without this function, SOF will not be able to access the developing space capabilities nor be involved in their development and experimentation,” Stringer told Defense News.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the U.S. military carried out three strikes Monday in the waters of the Eastern Pacific against boats suspected of carrying drugs, killing 14 and leaving one survivor.

The announcement, made on social media Tuesday, marks a continued escalation in the pace of the strikes, which began in early September spaced weeks apart. This was the first time multiple strikes were announced in a single day.

Hegseth said Mexican search and rescue authorities “assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue” of the sole survivor but didn’t say if that person would stay in their custody or be handed over to the U.S.

In a strike earlier in October which had two survivors, the U.S. military rescued the pair and later repatriated them to Colombia and Ecuador.

Hegseth posted footage of the strikes to social media in which two boats can be seen moving at speed through the water. One is visibly laden with a large amount of parcels or bundles. Both then suddenly explode and are seen aflame.

The third strike appears to have been conducted on a pair of boats that were stationary in the water alongside each other. They appear to be largely empty with at least two people seen moving before an explosion engulfs both boats.

Hegseth said “the four vessels were known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics.”

The death toll from the 13 disclosed strikes since early September is now at least 57 people.

In his announcement of the latest strikes, Hegseth also continued to draw parallels between the military’s actions against drug trafficking and the war on terrorism following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

He claimed that cartels “have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same.”

President Donald Trump has also justified the strikes by asserting that the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and proclaiming the criminal organizations to be unlawful combatants, relying on the same legal authority used by President George W. Bush’s administration for the war on terrorism.

However, the Trump administration has shown no evidence to support its claims about the boats, their connection to drug cartels, or the even the identity of the people killed in these strikes.

The U.S. Navy relocated hundreds of nonessential personnel from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to safety over the weekend as Hurricane Melissa approaches landfall in the Caribbean, according to Naval Air Station Pensacola.

Some 864 family members, civilian employees, contractors and pets were evacuated to Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, on Saturday and Sunday in preparation for what weather forecasters are labeling a Category 5 hurricane, the highest category on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, with winds greater than 157 miles per hour.

“The safety and well-being of our Navy family is always a primary concern,” said Capt. Chandra Newman, NAS Pensacola commanding officer. “The Sailors and civilian employees here are dedicated and adaptable, making sure they accomplish our Navy mission — and right now that’s taking care of our Navy family from Guantanamo Bay.”

The storm is expected to hit Jamaica first and then Cuba, potentially impacting Naval Station Guantanamo Bay.

USS Iwo Jima leaves Norfolk again after returning to avoid storm

The evacuation of nonessential personnel will allow the naval installation, which hosts approximately 5,500 personnel and families, to focus on expediting recovery operations after the hurricane passes, NAS Pensacola said in a release Sunday.

NAS Pensacola has established an Emergency Family Assistance Center to plan housing and dining accommodations. The centers typically provide counseling and lodging assistance to military personnel and their families during large-scale emergencies.

The Florida installation is offering housing to nonessential personnel through the Navy Lodge and other facilities.

Hurricane Melissa is on track to make landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday and potentially cause widespread devastation through flooding and landslides.

The storm, which carries with it the potential to be the strongest hurricane to ever touch down on the island, has already claimed the lives of six in the northern Caribbean, The Associated Press reported.

The U.S. Marines conducted a landmark training exercise which saw them fire the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System for the first time while near the base of Mount Fuji, Japan.

Marines of the 3rd Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division unleashed HIMARS missiles during live-fire training at Camp Fuji on Oct. 27.

Although the location has been used as a training ground for a wide variety of U.S. military exercises, this live-fire drill is the first instance in which Marines have practiced firing long-range missiles from the area.

“Training at CATC Fuji is critical for the Marine Corps‘ only forward-deployed artillery unit to rehearse and project long-range precision fires,” Maj. Gen. Kyle Ellison, commanding general, 3rd Marine Division, said in a release. “This training is foundational to enhancing 3/12’s agility and flexibility, ensuring they can safely and rapidly generate combat power in support of the Joint force.”

The HIMARS system is a mobile artillery platform that is highly versatile in terms of maneuverability and especially in its capability of delivering effective long-range strikes with an array of different munitions.

Some of the precision-guided missiles it can strike with include the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, which is equipped with a 200-pound warhead; the Army Tactical Missile System, which can strike deep behind enemy lines; and the entire range of rockets belonging to the Multiple Launch Rocket System family.

It can also be used to fire the Precision Strike Missile, which can destroy targets from over 248 miles away. The PRSM was recently tested at New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range at the end of September, and demonstrated power and precision at striking long-range objectives.

The live-fire exercise near Mount Fuji comes amid unprecedented tensions in the Indo-Pacific region. In May, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth released a joint statement with the Defense Ministers of Japan, Australian and the Philippines, condemning “China’s destabilizing actions in the East China Sea (ECS) and the South China Sea (SCS) and any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion.”

Repeated intrusions by Chinese aircraft into Japanese airspace and clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the South China Sea in recent months are among many factors that have raised Japan’s national security concerns, according to the 2025 Defense of Japan report published by the Japan Ministry of Defense.

Facing its “most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II,” according to the report, Japan is seeking to deepen ties with the United States, improve interoperability with international forces and revamp its defense capabilities.

The report notes that Japan plans to strengthen its entire defense architecture and to increase cooperation with the United States in air and missile defense capabilities.

“Japan will further deepen discussions with the U.S. on each country’s respective roles, missions, and capabilities to further reinforce Japan-U.S. joint deterrence capabilities,” the report stated.

In the spring of 1972, the communist People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) launched an offensive into South Vietnam that dropped all pretense regarding Hanoi’s involvement in the conflict, including the use of conventional weapons and tactics.

The largest, longest and most savage struggle in the campaign was the Second Battle of Quang Tri, which began on June 28, 1972. The United States played a reduced, peripheral role in the battle, but the advisors and air support it provided played a vital role in opposing the invasion.

Although the PAVN did not commit aircraft to its attack, it supplemented its anti-aircraft artillery with a formidable innovation: the SA-7 (dubbed the codename Grail by NATO), a shoulder-fired guided missile. Among the Grail’s earliest victims was a U.S. Air Force ground support aircraft, a North American Rockwell OA-10A Bronco — a small, nimble airplane designed to pick out targets in a guerrilla war — piloted by Steven Bennett.

The Louisiana native was on his second tour of duty with the 20th Tactical Air Support Squadron at Danang in 1972 when the North Vietnamese thrust into Quang Tri on June 28.

Just one day later Bennett was flying a Bronco with U.S. Marine Capt. Michael Brown in the observer’s seat, providing reconnaissance, artillery adjustment and liaison for South Vietnamese Marines and a contingent of U.S. Marine advisors.

While they were directing gunfire for two U.S. Navy destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, the duo received information that a large PAVN force was concentrating for a mass attack on a ”friendly unit.” Bennett relayed the request for tactical air support, but was informed that there was none available and moreover, artillery support was being denied because of the close proximity of the PAVN to the Marines.

For the time being, Bennett and Brown were the air support.

Besides four 7.62 mm machine guns in the fuselage, the Bronco could carry up to 3,600 pounds of bombs and rockets, and, as Bennett’s citation stated, “Capt. Bennett was determined to aid the endangered unit, and elected to strafe the hostile positions.”

In the course of four strafing runs, the men inflicted so much damage that the North Vietnamese began to retreat. It was in the course of making a fifth attack, however, that Bennett’s plane was hit by an SA-7 missile, which severely damaged the left engine and left main landing gear.

As the fire spread from the left engine, Bennett realized that it would be impossible for him to reach a South Vietnamese-held airfield. He therefore told his observer to prepare to eject, but while Bennett’s parachute was still intact, Brown replied that his had been shredded by the force of the exploding SA-7.

Putting his observer’s life before his own, Bennett made for the Tonkin Gulf. Despite the Bronco’s notoriety for the slim chance it afforded the pilot ditching, Bennett decided it was his observer’s only chance.

“There were five or 10 minutes before we would hit the water, and [Bennett] knew full well his chances were virtually nil,” Brown told The Daily Advertiser newspaper in 2010. “He could have gotten out himself, but he chose not to do that.”

Reaching the coast eight miles south of Quang Tri, Bennett ditched. Sure enough, however, the impact caused the plane to cartwheel, severely damaging the front cockpit and trapping the pilot therein, but Brown was able to swim clear. Bennett’s body was recovered the next day and eventually brought to its final resting place in Lafayette Memorial Park in Louisiana.

When the 81-day Second Battle of Quang Tri ended on Sept. 16, 1972, the PAVN’s offensive had been halted and the South Vietnamese forces had regained all their lost land.

On Aug. 8, 1974, Bennett’s widow and daughter went to the Blair House in Washington, D.C. to receive his posthumous Medal of Honor from President Gerald R. Ford.