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White House, Pentagon Won’t Say Why Admiral Who Allowed Drag Shows On Navy Ship Was Nominated For Promotion

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President Trump recently recommended Rear Admiral Michael “Buzz” Donnelly, who is known for allowing drag shows on his ship when he was a captain, for promotion to command of the Navy’s 7th fleet.

“Adm[iral] Donnelly wasn’t in drag himself, but any military leader will tell you he is responsible for everything that happens under his command,” tweeted William Thibeau, director of the American Military Project at the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life.

During his campaign, Trump promised to remove woke elements from the U.S. military and return the armed forces to their former glory. He even punctuated this campaign message with a video that spliced clips of Full Metal Jacket (the military under Trump) with clips of Admiral Rachel Levine and Navy drag queen “Harpy Daniels” (the military under Biden).

“Harpy Daniels,” whose real name is Joshua Kelly, is an active-duty sailor and drag performer who claims to be nonbinary. He was made the Navy’s digital ambassador in 2022. In 2017 and 2018, Kelly performed drag onboard the USS Ronald Reagan in Morale, Welfare, and Recreation Department events. Donnelly captained the ship at the time.

Now Donnelly is up for promotion, nominated by President Trump. (Read more from “White House, Pentagon Won’t Say Why Admiral Who Allowed Drag Shows On Navy Ship Was Nominated For Promotion” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Pentagon Created Pride Coloring Book for Children

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The Department of Defense (DOD) created a Pride-themed coloring book for military kids amid a cross-military service push to celebrate Pride month.

DOD announced the theme for Pride month in 2023 was “Equality Without Exception — Pride In All Who Serve,” and planned to host activities through various sub-agencies, including parades and family story hours, to observe Pride month. The activity booklet is geared toward younger audiences, according to DOD’s Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI), which is noted on the final page as having published the book, and was promoted to children by other DOD entities, the Daily Caller News Foundation found.

The coloring book, dated in June, appears to be among various training and awareness materials the Pentagon created to aid Pride observances, which are featured on the dedicated DEOMI webpage.

“The Activity Book is designed to share with your younger event attendees but can be enjoyed by all ages. It showcases coloring pages and encourages learning through games and activities,” DEOMI wrote. It did not provide a link to the book, so it couldn’t be determined with 100% certainty that DEOMI was referring to the coloring book.

However, the Ramstein and Vogelweh libraries serving a large American military community in Germany, encouraged kids to “Download and complete the DoD Children’s Pride Activity Booklet,” linking to the coloring book with the DEOMI press logo, and instructions to visit the website for more information. (Read more from “Pentagon Created Pride Coloring Book for Children” HERE)

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DOD Will Prioritize Its Healthcare Workers With First COVID Doses

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Within 48 hours of emergency authorization, the Department of Defense aims to have shots in the arms of some 44,000 mostly healthcare military personnel across 16 global locations, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

Among the first to receive shots will not be those safeguarding U.S. national security.

“They most definitely come in,” Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Thomas McCaffery told the Washington Examiner, before clarifying that only about five senior officials would be part of the first tranche.

“The 44,000 that we expect to get initially, that we will be testing through those 16 sites, those won’t even cover the very first section of Phase 1A, which is going to be healthcare workers,” he said.

McCaffery said acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, Deputy Secretary David Norquist, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, Vice Chairman John Hyten, and Senior Enlisted Adviser to the Joint Chiefs CZ Colon would likely be the only five people to be offered the first vaccine as soon as emergency authorization is granted. (Read more from “DOD Will Prioritize Its Healthcare Workers With First COVID Doses” HERE)

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DOD Test of Viral Spread on Commercial Planes Reveals Good News, General Says

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The head of U.S. Transportation Command offered a sneak preview Wednesday of the results of a Defense Department test of particulate spread on commercial aircraft — and they are surprising.

Speaking at the National Defense Transportation Association’s annual fall meeting, Gen. Stephen Lyons cited an aerosol test held Aug. 24-31 aboard two large passenger aircraft: the Boeing 767-300 and 777-200. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as DARPA, teamed up with biodefense company Zeteo Tech Inc. to evaluate in-flight spread of airborne particles. Industry partners included Boeing and United Airlines.

“[The test] was an initiative initiated by TRANSCOM and supported by the Air Force and the test community to determine whether it’s safe to fly on commercial airliners,” Lyons said Wednesday. “And I have to tell you, their results, as were the results when we looked at this from the COVID patient movement challenge, are very, very encouraging.”

There are some qualifiers, Lyons noted. The conditions that yielded positive results, he said, involved aircraft with HEPA filtration and “a very, very high air exchange rate of every two to five minutes or two to three minutes.” (Read more from “DOD Test of Viral Spread on Commercial Planes Reveals Good News, General Says” HERE)

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DoD Renames “Unlawful Combatants” in Detainee Manual To…

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Photo Credit: Joe Raedl - Getty Images

Photo Credit: Joe Raedl – Getty Images

In fact, captured terrorists went out of style a long time ago, so that’s not the actual change. Until recently — like, say, two weeks ago — the Department of Defense used the term unlawful combatant as the label for terrorists captured by American military and intelligence forces as a way to distinguish them from uniformed soldiers of a recognized state authority in a straight-up fight. Their new manual dispenses with that term, the Federation of American Scientists noticed today (via Steven Aftergood and Olivier Knox):

When it comes to Department of Defense doctrine on military treatment of detained persons, “unlawful enemy combatants” are a thing of the past. That term has been retired and replaced by “unprivileged enemy belligerents” in a new revision of Joint Publication 3-13 on Detainee Operations, dated November 13, 2014.

The manual even has this helpful chart for readers:

dod-belligerent

The only actual mention of the previous term comes in the Summary of Changes on page iii, which notes that the revision “[r]evises terminology, taxonomy, and definitions for unlawful enemy combatant, unprivileged belligerent, detainee, and detainee operations.” There is no particular explanation for why unlawful combatant no longer suffices, or why “unprivileged” makes for a clearer understanding between the categories of legitimate POW and everyone else.

Read more from this story HERE.

DoD Budget Seeks Cuts in BAH, Commissary, Tricare Benefits

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Photo Credit: Military TimesThe Pentagon on Monday proposed the deepest and most far-reaching cuts to military compensation in the 40-year history of the all-volunteer force, explaining that such cuts are necessary in order to pay for more modern gear and high-tech weaponry.

Some highlights of the Defense Department’s budget proposal for fiscal 2015 include the first-ever rollback in Basic Allowance for Housing; a military pay raise that would match last year’s 1 percent hike, the lowest in the volunteer era; massive cuts to commissary subsidies; and potentially increased health care fees for both active-duty families and retirees.

Together, the proposals signal an end to a decade-plus wartime era of rising pay and benefits for troops. Even after the proposed cuts, military compensation would remain comparatively more generous than it was in the 1980s and ’90s. But the Pentagon has never before sought to pare back existing benefits in the all-volunteer era.

Moreover, personnel costs would be slashed further by significant reductions to the size of the force, including the smallest Army since the before the Second World War.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the changes are part of an overarching decision to protect big-ticket programs and research projects by saving money on people.

Read more this story HERE.

DOD’s $5 Billion Push to Stop the Next Edward Snowden

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Photo Credit: Reuters/The Fiscal TimesIn the wake of the Edward Snowden NSA leaks, the Defense Department is scrambling to secure data on the growing number of mobile devices and computers with access to sensitive materials.

DOD’s latest action to safeguard data is limiting the use of IPhone and Android phones, forcing an unspecified number of Army personnel to using a Blackberry—a cellular phone that was once considered state of the art until the iPhone came along. iPhones and Android phones don’t use the Good Mobile Messaging System used by DOD to send secure data. Until the Pentagon upgrades to Fixmo, a new $16 million system compatible with the more advanced phones, some soldiers are going to have to carry the unpopular Blackberry.

An email announcing the change and obtained by NextGov.com said, [Army personnel] “have been told that between now and whenever this ‘fixmo’ is online, their Droids and iThings are simply to become useless. Expectation is that Droid and iThing users will be deviceless until March 2014 at earliest, and they can either do without or go back to a BB 9930,” an older Blackberry.

According to tech experts, the switch from more advanced phones to older model Blackberries is one small part of DOD’s seemingly never ending task to secure data. DOD faces tremendous challenges on this front.

John Slye, an advisory research analyst at Deltek, called what’s unfolding at the Pentagon the “perfect storm.” First, DOD allowed soldiers to use late model smart phones, forcing the department to keep up security on mobile devices like iPads and Androids. Technology on these newer devices evolves quickly, forcing DOD to continuously update security software to keep up.

Read more from this story HERE.

DoD Reviewing Its ‘Equal Opportunity’ Training–After Anti-Christian Materials Exposed

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

In response to a letter from a coalition of religious liberty advocates concerned about anti-Christian bias in Defense Department “equal opportunity” training materials, the Department of Defense says it is reviewing those materials and will decide this month whether to continue using “private organizations” as resources in developing them.

The coalition specifically cited the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a group the military should stop relying upon as a source for equal opportunity training.

DOD spokesman Lt. Commander Nathan Christensen told CNSNews.com on Dec. 19 that if DOD decides to continue using private groups as resources, it will also decide whether a disclaimer should be included when those organizations are cited in DOD training materials.

Christensen did not say whether DOD would agree to meet with members of the coalition concerned about religious freedom in the military to discuss their concerns.

The Restore Military Religious Freedom Coalition, a group of 23 non-profit organizations, sent their letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Dec. 6.

Read more from this story HERE.

Snowden Believed to Have ‘Doomsday Cache’ – DOD Official: ‘He Stole Everything — Literally Everything’

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden stole vastly more information than previously speculated, and is holding it at ransom for his own protection.

“What’s floating is so dangerous, we’d be behind for twenty years in terms of access (if it were to be leaked),” a ranking Department of Defense official told the Daily Caller.

“He stole everything — literally everything,” the official said.

Last month British and U.S. intelligence officials speculated Snowden had in his possession a “doomsday cache” of intelligence information, including the names of undercover intelligence personnel stationed around the world.

“Sources briefed on the matter” told Reuters that such a cache could be used as an insurance policy in the event Snowden was captured, and that, “the worst was yet to come.”

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.