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Army Kicking out Decorated Green Beret For Shoving Afghan Cop Who Raped Boy, Beat Mother

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q2The U.S. Army is kicking out a decorated Green Beret after an 11-year Special Forces career, after he got in trouble for shoving an Afghan police commander accused of raping a boy and beating up his mother when she reported the incident.

The case of Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland now has the attention of Congress, with Rep. Duncan Hunter writing to Defense Secretary Ash Carter challenging the decision . . .

Martland is described by many of his teammates as the finest soldier they have ever served alongside.

But his Army career changed course during his second deployment to Afghanistan in 2011. After learning an Afghan boy was raped and his mother beaten, Martland and his team leader confronted a local police commander they had trained, armed and paid with U.S. taxpayer dollars. When the man laughed off the incident, they physically confronted him.

They were punished by the Army at the time — but why exactly Martland is now being discharged is a matter of dispute. Army sources cited his accolades, including being named runner-up for 2014 Special Warfare Training Group Instructor of the Year from a pool of 400 senior leaders in Special Forces, in questioning the decision. (Read more from “Army Kicking out Decorated Green Beret Who Stood up for Afghan Rape Victim” HERE)

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“Bomb” Dropped By Army Chopper Recovered In Miami-Dade [+video]

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Photo Credit: US Army Miami-Dade Police said an ammunition box that had fallen out of a helicopter was found Friday.

“It was just loud. I guess it was because it was right overhead,” Megan Fallman said of the U.S. Army helicopters over her home along the Miami-Dade/Broward line Wednesday night. “They came right overhead.”

The Blackhawk helicopters were participating in war games, what the Army called routine, low altitude training. But the routine was broken when one of the choppers dropped a bomb-like ammunitions container overboard in Northwest Miami-Dade.

The silver ammo tin and its contents were recovered Thursday. Miami-Dade police would only say the container and ammunition were retrieved safely somewhere in Northwest Miami-Dade, and that it did not strike anyone’s home . . .

“I think they need to be more careful,” said Bruce Levine of Pembroke Pines where much of the airborne exercise was conducted. “People’s lives are at stake when you make these mistakes and it’s very dangerous.” (Read more about the army chopper dropping the ammunition box HERE)

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Petition Forces White House Response for Imprisoned Lieutenant

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Photo Credit: Army Times Supporters of a former first lieutenant convicted of murder in the 2012 deaths of two Afghan men now await a response from the White House after a petition calling for his pardon gained 100,000 signatures.

Clint Lorance’s supporters launched the White House petition Jan. 2, after the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division upheld the guilty verdict in the case.

The petition needed 100,000 signatures by Feb. 1 to get a response from the White House. The petition reached that threshold Monday night; it had 101,273 signatures late Monday.

In the petition, supporters call for a presidential pardon for Lorance, saying the former lieutenant was punished for trying to protect his soldiers.

“The president has the chance to tell the military and our enemies that when we send our young sons and daughters into harm’s way, we do not turn against them,” the petition states. (Read more about the imprisoned lieutenant HERE)

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WATCH: Obama Joke to Troops at Military Post Falls Flat

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Speaking at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, President Barack Obama made a joke comparing the military to Santa Claus which fell awkwardly flat.

“Every year, you never stop serving. You never stop giving,” Obama told the soldiers. “You guys are like Santa in fatigues.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Top General says Half of Iraqi Army Incapable of Working with US Against ISIS

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Photo Credit: TownHallThe U.S. military’s top officer said Wednesday that almost half of Iraq’s army is incapable of working against the Islamic State militant group, while the other half needs to be rebuilt with the help of U.S. advisers and military equipment.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey made the remarks to reporters while traveling to Paris to meet with his French counterpart to discuss the situation in Iraq and Syria. The general said that U.S. assessors who had spent the summer observing Iraq’s security forces concluded that 26 of the army’s 50 brigades would be capable of confronting the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. Dempsey described those brigades as well-led, capable, and endowed with a nationalist instinct, as opposed to a sectarian instinct.

However, Dempsey said that the other 24 brigades were too heavily populated with Shiites to be part of a credible force against the Sunni ISIS.

Sectarianism has been a major problem for the Iraqi security forces for years and is in part a reflection of resentments that built up during the decades of rule under Saddam Hussein, who repressed the majority Shiite population, and the unleashing of reprisals against Sunnis after U.S. forces toppled him in April 2003. Sunni resistance led to the relatively brief rise of an extremist group called Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. That group withered but re-emerged as the Islamic State organization, which capitalized on Sunni disenchantment with the Shiite government in Baghdad.

Read more from this story HERE.

Army Develops ‘Combat Gum’ to Fight Soldiers’ Cavities In Field

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Photo Credit: Rodrigo Abd

Photo Credit: Rodrigo Abd

Deployed? Don’t worry about the missed dentist appointment. The Army has discovered – and over the course of seven years, fine-tuned — a gum that helps the soldier in the field fight plaque, cut cavities and clean teeth.

The military said the fact that taxpayers fund more than $100 billion a year for dental services for troops and families helped spur the cost-cutting creation, the Army Times reported. But first and foremost, the peppermint-flavored gum, called Combat Gum, is aimed at keeping troops healthy and their mouths happy in combat and field-training situations.

“Oral health is essential to warriors on the battlefield and could potentially save the military countless hours and dollars in dental health,” said Col. Robert Hale, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon and commander of the Army Institute of Surgical Research, in the Army Times report.

Read more from this story HERE.

Army May Have Overpaid $3.3M for Communications Devices for Afghan Military, DOD IG Reports

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus

In a Dec. 5 audit report on the U.S. Army Contracting Command (ACC), the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General said it found that the ACC “potentially overpaid up to $3.3 million for communications equipment purchased for the Afghan National Security Forces.”

The object of the IG’s investigation “determined whether the U.S. Army Contracting Command (ACC) obtained fair and reasonable prices for communications equipment procured from Datron World Communications, Inc. (Datron),” the audit report summary states. “Specifically, we reviewed 37 contract actions, valued at approximately $328 million for 127 items, on contract W15P7T-09-D-D212 and identified 75 items with associated commercial sales, valued at approximately $219 million.”

The audit report — which is not available unless a Freedom of Information Act request is successful — states that the IG found that “contracting officers did not obtain fair and reasonable prices for communications equipment procured from Datron to support the Afghan National Security Forces.

Read more from this story HERE.

U.S. General Leads Fresh Assault on Obama Policies

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Photo Credit: WND A prominent Army general, bolstered by other military and defense leaders, contends President Obama’s preferred counterinsurgency policy is proving to be “devastating” for America and rewarding to its enemies.

Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely, now retired, was deputy commanding general in the Army’s Pacific Command, is founder of Stand Up America and has been a military analyst for Fox News.

Vallely says Obama has so degraded and demoralized the military in multiple ways – including a major purge of senior officers, with almost 200 relieved of duty over Obama’s five years as commander-in-chief and nine generals this year alone – that those remaining cannot speak out for fear of being forced out of the military.

Essentially, Obama’s counterinsurgency, or COIN, doctrine is a form of warfare that makes soldiers trained to fight tank battles shift to a combat style that emphasizes politics, cultural awareness and protecting the local population from insurgent attacks, Vallely said.

The result looks like failure, he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Army Veteran Banned from Daughter’s School after Posting Picture of Weapons Permit

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Photo Credit: WRDW.COMAn Army veteran living in Georgia says she wants an apology from her daughter’s former school after being banned from the building for posting a photo of her concealed weapons permit to her Facebook page, WRDW.com reports.

Tanya Mount says she was approached by a police officer from the Richmond County Board of Education at McBean Elementary School and was warned that she was about to get a criminal trespass warning.

The officer told her that the principal at the school was “scared” of her and did not want her on the school property, she told the station.

“He asks: ‘Were you in the Army?,”‘ she said. “I said, yes. He’s like, ‘Do you have a concealed weapons permit?’ I said yes,” she told the station.

A phone call from FoxNews.com to Richmond County Board of Education was not immediately returned. WJBF.com asked Janina Dallas, the school’s principal, if the “no trespass order” was issued over the post, and Dallas responded: “Yes, it was.”

Read more from this story HERE.

A Tradition of Sacrifice, From Yorktown to Ramadi

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Photo Credit: Getty Images In 2006, my SEAL Task Unit deployed to Ramadi, Iraq. Among the rubble-pile buildings, bomb craters and burned-out hulks of vehicles, we experienced firsthand the harsh realities of war. We fought alongside the U.S. Army’s Ready First Brigade of the First Armored Division to take Ramadi back from a brutal and determined insurgency.

Combat is hard. It is alarmingly violent, ear-shattering, dirty, exhausting and ugly. It is marked by chaos and confusion and self-doubt. But combat also highlights the determination and sacrifice—and courage—of those who persevere. Through such times, an unbreakable bond is formed with brothers-in-arms.

Those bonds were tested greatly as our task unit suffered the first SEAL casualties of the Iraq War: Marc Lee and Mike Monsoor. Later, Ryan Job died of wounds received in combat. These men were three of the most talented and capable SEALs I have known. They were also loyal friends. Their loss is deeply personal to their families and to their SEAL teammates. As Marc’s and Ryan’s platoon commander, I bear the crushing burden of responsibility. I will forever wish that I could somehow take their place.

As a result, Memorial Day is deeply personal—to me, as it is to any veteran, to any military family. It is a time of mixed emotion: solemn reflection and mourning, honor and admiration for those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country.

Let’s remember on Memorial Day—and every other day, for that matter—that America did not become a nation without a fight.

Read more from this story HERE.