In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in southern Afghanistan, he could hear Afghan police officers sexually abusing boys they had brought to the base.
“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,†the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.â€
The policy of instructing soldiers to ignore child sexual abuse by their Afghan allies is coming under new scrutiny, particularly as it emerges that service members like Captain Quinn have faced discipline, even career ruin, for disobeying it.
He thought he was getting used to suicides in his old infantry unit, but the latest one had hit him like a brick: Joshua Markel, a mentor from his fire team, who had seemed unshakable. In Afghanistan, Corporal Markel volunteered for extra patrols and joked during firefights. Back home Mr. Markel appeared solid: a job with a sheriff’s office, a new truck, a wife and time to hunt deer with his father. But that week, while watching football on TV with friends, he had wordlessly gone into his room, picked up a pistol and killed himself. He was 25.
The Army awarded Oshkosh Defense a contract with a potential value of $6.75 billion for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) today, covering 17,000 vehicles for the Army and for the Marine Corps.
During three years of low-rate initial production, Oshkosh Defense will build approximately 17,000 JLTVs for the Army and Marine Corps before moving into five years of full-rate production, according to a March Congressional Research Service report on the program.
In three years, the Army hopes to start fielding the Family of Weapon Sights-Individual, a new lightweight thermal weapon sight that is designed to communicate wirelessly with the service’s latest Enhanced Night Vision Goggle (ENVG).
Linking these two technologies creates a new capability called Rapid Target Acquisition, according to Lt. Col. Timothy Fuller, product manager for Soldier Maneuver Sensors at Fort Belvoir, Va.
It’s no secret that dogs pant to expel heat. So telling you panting is a sign of distress would be absurd. Dogs pant often, without being in distress. So how do you know when it’s an emergency?
Dogs that are being affected by heat will extend their tongues as far out of their mouths as possible, expanding the surface area in order to maximize efficiency of heat expulsion. Oftentimes, dogs that are starting to become affected by heat will outstretch their tongues, with the tip of the tongue expanding at the edges, making the end of the tongue appear wider than the base. As body temperature increases, the edges at the tip of the tongue will curl upwards and many dogs will lift their lips to expose their gums to further facilitate the cooling process. The tongue will begin to turn a deep red or even purple color as the dog succumbs to high temperature.
CPT Sarah Cudd from Public Health Command, Fort Knox refuses to give up. Guts, determination and motivation from the crowd get her across the finish line.
Eugene Stoner was, by all objective, accounts a visionary. As a speculative venture while working for the Fairchild Engine and Aircraft Corporation in California in the mid-1950s, he designed the earliest iteration of what would eventually become the M16.
Applying aluminum casting technology and advanced polymer science perfected for the aircraft industry in World War II, Stoner designed an elegant, lightweight rifle that rethought what it meant to be a military weapon. Where everybody else in the world used Parkerized steel and walnut, Stoner used aluminum and plastic.
The nation’s oldest woman veteran, Lucy Coffey, died Thursday in San Antonio. She was 108.
A small-town girl from a farm in Martinsville, Indiana, Coffey had a sense of adventure. She left the farm for Chicago, then moved to Dallas, where she was working at an A&P supermarket on Dec. 7, 1941 — the day Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.
“The government is seeking to procure M4A1-Plus (abbreviated as M4A1+) components as non-development items … for improvements to the M4A1 Carbine,” according to the March 13 document posted on FedBizOpps.gov. “It is anticipated that the M4A1+ components will be evaluated as a system. The system must then install on/interface with stock M4A1 Carbines.”
Las Vegas, NV, March 2, 2015 Accu-Grip www.accu-grip.net announces a remarkable low-cost patented and patent pending improvement to the AR-15 platform that will actually make shooting more comfortable and inherently much more accurate. www.accu-grip.net
Well first, who doesn’t make something for the AR platform anymore? True, but much of the gear is just flat-out show biz, not something that’s actually useful. This is!
Accu-Grip
invented and is now producing a unique adjustable grip for the trigger finger hand (strong hand) that makes for much more effective trigger reach and trigger control and results in greatly improved shooter accuracy. Image shows block, grip parts and wrench.
The key to accurate and quick shooting is trigger control. Trigger control can be greatly improved by correct contact between the trigger finger and trigger. The basic trigger length of an AR is just 2.25 inches which is why most shooters position their hand awkwardly or have their trigger finger dangling out the other side of the trigger guard. NO MORE!
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The Accu-Grip allows the shooter to lengthen and incrementally adjust the critical grip-to-trigger contact–up to 3.25 inches if desired (above image shows 5/8 inch). While that may not sound like much, any experienced shooter will tell you it is huge and can greatly improve critically important trigger control resulting in more accurate shooting.
Installation takes about five minutes. Accu-Grip fits all MILSPEC and factory lowers and comes with the necessary hardware and Allen wrench for installation. After installation, adjusting the grip to fit the individual shooter takes a few seconds. Movement of the grip is accomplished in 1/10-inch incremental positive hold adjustments and, of course, the grip may be adjusted as many times as the shooter wishes.
MATERIAL: The patented, all American-made Accu-Grip is molded with DuPont Zytel resin and long strand glass fibers, making it incredibly tough–tougher than the original grips.
COLORS: Accu-Grips are available in black, dark earth, OD green and desert sand. Other custom colors can be created in quantity on request.
PRICE: $39.95 MSRP.
BOTTOM LINE: People will spend a bunch of money getting triggers reworked, attaching cheese graters and doing other nifty stuff to the AR, but AR grip-to-trigger length improvement may be more important to better trigger control function and resulting shooter accuracy than anything else done on these rifles for under $500.00. Please see below Additional Background information.
Additional background information: When installed there is a gap behind the fully enclosed receiver and front edge of the grip where the thumb wraps. This gap increases as the grip length is increased. While different looking from the norm (What’s new with any of the stuff we attach to ARs?) it means nothing in operation or keeping the gun “dust free.”
We are all shooters at our PR firm with some having held NRA National Records. While it is our job to inform you of neat new products we can tell you that this single improvement to our ARs was astonishing. Our staff’s ability to place accurate hits at any speed was dramatically improved by everyone by an easy 25 percent and the trigger feel was 100 percent better. The Improved trigger pull position made 7-pound triggers feel like 3-pounds due to the resulting much improved trigger finger leverage and location.
To better understand this unique grip and why it can really help with accurate shooting, think of length of pull. As you know, length of pull with a rifle or shotgun is critical for accurate and comfortable shooting. Length of pull as applied normally is the distance between the rear of the butt or recoil pad of the rifle or shotgun to the center point of the trigger. This distance allows the shouldered firearm to “best fit” from the shooter’s shoulder to the trigger–length of pull is quite simply an overall trigger reach adjustment. Factory long arms have a generalized distance designed to fit the average person (like factory ARs). Many custom gun makers will measure and build a precise pull length to fit the individual shooter, and many competition long arms and some sniper rifles have fully adjustable pull lengths.
Now apply that concept to the vertical grip of the AR (obviously different from a normal sporting rifle). The conventional AR grip forces the shooter to have their trigger finger a certain distance from the grip–like it or not. The AR vertical hand grip does NOT allow shooters to move their trigger finger hand back or around (like the stock of a conventional hunting-style rifle might, for example). With the AR, you are stuck! On top of that, the 54-year-old AR trigger-to-grip distance is short so that smaller people can use the firearm (designed for military use, it has to fit everyone). Now comes the Accu-Grip solution!
The Accu-Grip allows this grip-to-trigger-surface distance to be opened up so that Joe and Jane Average-or-larger shooter can function the trigger much more efficiently. Improved reach, feel and trigger manipulation control means more accurate and even quicker shooting. We could call this the trigger length of trigger pull (TLTP), a huge improvement at low cost. A serious win win.
The Telemark Battalion is an elite mechanised infantry unit of the Norwegian Army which has been involved in the fight against the Taliban as part of the NATO-led security mission since 2003.Â
Around 50 soldiers from Telemark will be heading to the city of Irbil in northern Iraq to train Kurdish forces to help them in their fight against Islamic State, the Norwegian ministry of defence has confirmed. It is thought the mission will begin in early April.
I am honored to become your Secretary of Defense. I am proud to lead men and women who devote their lives to the highest calling – the defense of our nation. And I am grateful to follow in the footsteps of Secretary Hagel, one of our nation’s most honorable and conscientious public servants.
We live in challenging times – times that demand leadership and focus. And starting today, I will be calling on each and every one of you to help carry out three top priorities.
Our first priority is helping the President make the best possible national security decisions for protecting our country – and then implementing those decisions with our department’s long-admired excellence.
We confront a turbulent and dangerous world: continuing turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, and the malignant and savage terrorism emanating from it; an ongoing conflict in Afghanistan; a reversion to archaic security thinking in parts of Europe; tensions in the Asia-Pacific; the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; and intensifying threats in cyberspace.
In addressing these challenges, I have pledged to provide the President my most candid strategic advice. I will count on your experience and expertise as I formulate that advice. I will also ensure the President receives candid professional military advice.
But as we tackle the many threats to our national security, we must never lose sight of our nation’s enduring strengths – or of the opportunities to make a brighter future and better world for our children. The United States remains the strongest and most resilient nation on earth. Because of you, we have the finest fighting force the world has ever known. We have friends and allies in every corner of the world, while our adversaries have few. We have long possessed the world’s most dynamic and innovative economy. And our values, principles, and leadership continue to inspire hope and progress around the world.
Safeguarding America’s security and global leadership will depend on another of my main priorities: ensuring the strength and health of you who make up the greatest fighting force the world has ever known – our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, civilians, and contractors all around the world.
I will do that by focusing on the well-being, safety, and dignity of each of you and your families. I will ensure your training and equipment are as superb as you are. And I pledge to make decisions about sending you into harm’s way with the greatest reflection and utmost care – because this is my highest responsibility as Secretary of Defense.
Honoring all these commitments also requires us to focus on building the force of the future, which is my third priority.
We must steer through the turmoil of sequestration, which imposes wasteful uncertainty and risk to our nation’s defense. We must balance all parts of our defense budget so that we continue to attract the best people – people like you; so that there are enough of you to defend our interests around the world; and so that you are always well-equipped and well-trained to execute your critical mission.
To win support from our fellow citizens for the resources we need, we must show that we can make better use of every taxpayer dollar. That means a leaner organization, less overhead, and reforming our business and acquisition practices.
It also means embracing the future – and embracing change.
We must be open to change in order to operate effectively in an increasingly dynamic world; to keep pace with advances in technology; and to attract new generations of talented and dedicated Americans to our calling.
I first arrived at the Pentagon more than three decades ago, and have had the privilege of serving 11 Secretaries of Defense in Democratic and Republican administrations. I took the oath of office this morning because I love our country and am devoted to you who defend it. And I am committed to our fundamental mission: the defense of our nation.
I look forward to leading and serving alongside you at this extraordinary moment in our nation’s history.
May God bless you and your families, and may God bless America.
