NCC Harsh

Born in Newgulf, near Corpus Christi, Texas, on Nov. 6, 1924, Michael Castaneda Pena chose his calling as a man of action early in life. He didn’t complete the sixth grade, but in 1940, after lying about his age, he persuaded his mother to sign a release allowing him to enlist at the young age of 16. Mike, as his comrades-in-arms universally called him, spent World War II fighting in the Pacific a...[Read More]

DUBAI/WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he had agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran, less than two hours before his deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face widespread attacks on its civilian infrastructure. Iranian state TV flashed an announcement claiming that Trump had accepted Iran’s terms for ending the war, describing it as a “humiliating ret...[Read More]

B-2 stealth bombers from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, flew a 36-hour nonstop mission over the weekend to drop bunker-buster bombs on an underground compound where commanders from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had gathered, a U.S. official told Military Times. Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, gave the order after intelligence indicated a nexus of senior IRGC lead...[Read More]

The U.S. Navy is requesting $3 billion to replenish its stockpile of Tomahawk missiles that have been depleted over the course of the Iran war, according to the Defense Department’s fiscal 2027 budget request. As part of the $1.5 trillion budget request released Friday, the Navy has asked for a 1,200% increase in the number of the long-range land attack missile. In fiscal 2026, Congress granted th...[Read More]

A new rotation of U.S. Marines in the Philippines suggest the force may be maintaining a more continuous presence in the country. A command element from I Marine Expeditionary Force replaced the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit on March 31, the Marine Corps said in a statement, continuing the Marine Rotational Force-Southeast Asia, or MRF-SEA, mission in the Philippines. This rotation “places greate...[Read More]

Next stop — Earth. Following a historic lunar flyby at a record-setting distance, the Artemis II crew is now on its return journey, with splashdown expected Friday in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 50-60 miles off the coast of San Diego. Awaiting their arrival will be USS John P. Murtha (LPD-26), positioned to recover the astronauts and capsule.

The White House is requesting a pay raise for lower-ranked enlisted service members in its fiscal 2027 budget. In the proposed budget for the Department of Defense, released this week, all troops ranked E-5 and below would receive a pay raise of 7%. The budget also allots 6% pay bumps for military personnel ranked E-6 and O-3, as well as 5% raises for those O-4 and above. “The Administration recog...[Read More]

U.S. strikes on Iran’s Kharg Island do not represent a change in American strategy, Vice President JD Vance said on Tuesday, as a U.S. official separately told Reuters the additional strikes on military targets did not impact oil infrastructure. The official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, described at least some of the strikes as targeting sites that had been previously struck be...[Read More]

WASHINGTON,D.C.  – U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) successfully launched three advanced experimental payloads aboard the Department of War (DoW) Space Test Program’s (STP) Satellite-7 mission at approximately 4:33 a.m. PDT on April 7 from Vandenberg U.S. Space Force (USSF) Base, Calif.