Hegseth to slash red tape, empower program heads in acquisition revamp
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday laid out a wide-ranging suite of changes to the military’s troubled and sluggish acquisition process, intended to speed up the pace at which the Pentagon buys new weapons and other systems. “We will rebuild the defense industrial base into a new arsenal of freedom,” Hegseth said in a speech at the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington. Speaking ...[Read More]
Government shutdown prompts cancellation of some Veterans Day events
Normally on Veterans Day, volunteers gather at the Riverside National Cemetery in California to place flags alongside more than 300,000 gravesites. But not this year. The longest federal government shutdown on record is curtailing and outright canceling parades, ceremonies and other events across the U.S. that are normally held to mark Veterans Day. It’s another fallout of the shutdown that has di...[Read More]
Navy offers voluntary extensions to sailors separating during shutdown
The U.S. Navy is granting service members the opportunity to extend their enlistment amid a government shutdown and lapse in appropriations, according to a Nov. 6 memo from the Navy Pay and Personnel Support Center. Sailors with a soft expiration of active obligated service — a date for separation that was extended past their original one — on Dec. 5 or earlier are allowed to execute a voluntary e...[Read More]
Troops’ dental readiness showing some improvement, some decay
Although U.S. troops’ dental readiness has improved some over the last decade, there’s also been a decline in the percentage of troops with the best dental health, according to new Defense Department statistics. From 2014 to 2024, the percentage of troops with the worst levels of dental health decreased from 8.3% to 6.3%, while the percentage of troops with the best dental health dropped from 48.9...[Read More]
Senate votes down measure to limit Trump’s ability to strike Venezuela
Senate Republicans voted to reject legislation Thursday that would have put a check on President Donald Trump’s ability to launch an attack against Venezuela, as Democrats pressed Congress to take a stronger role in Trump’s high-stakes campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Lawmakers, including top Republicans, have demanded that the Trump administration provide them with more infor...[Read More]
Man who drove car at Coast Guard personnel charged with assault
A man who drove a U-Haul truck toward U.S. Coast Guard personnel in San Francisco last month was charged Oct. 30 with assault on federal officers, according to the Justice Department. Justice said that on Oct. 23, Brendan Munro Thompson, 26, accelerated toward Coast Guard personnel standing watch on a bridge connecting Coast Guard Island, which houses Coast Guard Base Alameda, with Oakland, Califo...[Read More]
A list of US military strikes against alleged drug-carrying vessels
Editor’s note: This list was updated on Nov. 6, 2025, at 1:07 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Since early September, the U.S. military has conducted strikes against alleged drug-carrying vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean in support of what the Pentagon has called continued counternarcotics efforts. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office designa...[Read More]
The U.S. Marine Who Forced Nazi Officers to Toast FDR at Gunpoint — and Became the Most Decorated OSS Operative
Most Marines had never seen combat when Peter Ortiz joined the Corps in June 1942. However, he had already survived five years in the French Foreign Legion and fought in Africa, faced the Nazis in France, spent 15 months as a prisoner of war, and escaped occupied Europe to get back into the fight.
USS Gerald R. Ford heads to Caribbean to support anti-narcotics effort
The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier and warship, along with the USS Bainbridge, a guided missile destroyer, officially departed the Mediterranean for the Caribbean Tuesday morning, according to a U.S. defense official, as both vessels made their way to South America. The carrier completed its transit of the Strait of Gibraltar Tuesday, a move that was made in support of th...[Read More]
U.S. Deploys F-35 Fighters to Cold War-Era Puerto Rico Base as Venezuela Tensions Escalate
The U.S. military has reactivated a Cold War-era naval base in Puerto Rico and deployed thousands of troops to the Caribbean as tensions with Venezuela escalate, marking the largest American military buildup in the region in decades.
Dick Cheney, former vice president and defense secretary, dies at 84
Dick Cheney, the hard-charging conservative who became one of the most powerful and polarizing vice presidents in U.S. history and a leading advocate for the invasion of Iraq, has died at 84. Cheney died Monday due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease, his family said Tuesday in a statement. The quietly forceful Cheney served father and son presidents, leading the armed f...[Read More]
Supreme Court weighs if contractor can be sued for wartime negligence
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 thei...[Read More]