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Obama Admin. Slashing Combat Brigades at 10 US Bases

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Photo Credit: The U.S. Army

Photo Credit: The U.S. Army

In a massive restructuring, the U.S. Army is slashing the number of active duty combat brigades from 45 to 33, and shifting thousands of soldiers out of bases around the country as it moves forward with a longtime plan to cut the size of the service by 80,000.

Officials say the sweeping changes would eliminate brigades at 10 Army bases in the U.S. by 2017, including in Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, Colorado, North Carolina, New York, Kansas and Washington. The Army will also cut thousands of other jobs across the service, including soldiers in units that support the brigades, and two brigades in Germany have already been scheduled for elimination.

Officials provided details on the plans on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. An announcement is expected Tuesday afternoon. The Army is being reduced in size from a high of about 570,000 during the peak of the Iraq war to 490,000 as part of efforts to cut the budget and reflect the country’s military needs as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan end. Additional reductions could be required if Congress allows automatic budget cuts to continue into next year.

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Army Reprimands Soldier Under Fire for Religious Beliefs

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Photo Credit: Ryk Neethling

Photo Credit: Ryk Neethling

A member of the U.S. Army Band who said he was reprimanded for having anti-Obama bumper stickers on his personal car, serving Chick-fil-A sandwiches at a party and reading books written by conservative authors like Sean Hannity was found guilty of three Article 15 charges.

Master Sgt. Nathan Sommers, a decorated soloist with the Army Band, was found guilty Thursday of failing to go to an appointed place of duty, disobedience of an order and making a false official statement, his attorney said.

The charges were handed down June 9, one day after Sommers told Fox News that he was facing discrimination and persecution because of his conservative political and religious beliefs.

Retired Navy Commander John Bennett Wells told Fox News the charges were stemmed from giving a superior officer the wrong date for a doctor’s appointment. He’s also accused of failing to carry out an order. In order to comply with that order, Sommers would have had to disclose private information about his autistic son’s medical records.

“The timing does seem strange,” Wells told Fox News. “It’s suspicious. It looks like a graduated attempt to build a case against him on some really ridiculous charges.

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Rep. Huelskamp: Obama Admin. “Creating Tyrannical Culture of Political Correctness in the Military”

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A Midwestern lawmaker is calling on his colleagues in Congress to offer cover to an Army soldier under fire for his conservative political views and religious faith, and accusing the Obama administration of “creating a tyrannical culture of political correctness in the military.”

Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., is introducing an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would prevent the Army from conducting a court martial of Master Sgt. Nathan Sommers until the military first files a report for Congress to review.

“The Secretary of the Army shall provide to Congress a report on activities with respect to Master Sergeant Nathan Sommers at least 90 days prior to taking any further disciplinary or administrative action against that individual,” states Huelskamp’s amendment.

The amendment would also allow service members to sue in the event their First Amendment rights are violated. Huelskamp said the legislation will “unblock the courthouse door so that service members whose First Amendment rights have been violated by the federal government can seek redress like any other American.”

“Sgt. Sommers is the poster child for an increasingly pervasive pattern of persecution,” Huelskamp told Fox News.

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Army Punishes Soldier Who Served Chick-fil-A

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Photo Credit: Generic Brand Productions

An Army master sergeant was punished after he hosted a promotion party and served Chick-fil-A sandwiches in honor of the Defense of Marriage Act.

The unidentified soldier was investigated, reprimanded, threatened with judicial action and given a bad efficiency report, according to the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty.

“They say he is no longer a team player and was not performing up to standards,” Chaplain Alliance Executive Director Ron Crews told Fox News. “This is just one little example of a case of a soldier just wanting to express his views and now he’s been jumped on by the military.”

The soldier’s story was included in a letter to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights documenting concerns about attacks on religious liberty within the Armed Services.

The Pentagon did not return calls seeking comment. Read more from this story HERE.

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Congressman: Troops Being Punished For Expressing Religious Faith

The House Armed Services Committee is considering a religious liberty amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act Wednesday over fears the military is punishing soldiers for expressing their religious faith.

“The men and women who put their lives on the line to defend our freedoms should not have their own religious freedom jeopardized during their military service,” said Rep. John Fleming (R-LA), who authored the amendment.

Fleming said steps taken in last year’s NDAA only focused on protecting beliefs of service members – and not the exercise or expression of those beliefs.

“My amendment is necessary to ensure that men and women of faith will not be discriminated against in the Armed Forces, and will be free to exercise their religious beliefs,” he said. “Military service members, particularly chaplains, feel like their ability to execute their duties are being greatly limited by some of the policies and actions in the Pentagon.”

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to questions about the congressman’s amendment. Read more from this story HERE.

America's Aging Armed Forces: Another Upgrade Planned for Vietnam-Era Helicopter

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The U.S. Army will hold a flight demonstration on Tuesday of a newly upgraded version of the Vietnam-era OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter, an Army-led initiative that officials say will save $600 million in coming years.

The Army managed the project, which first began in December 2010 and was aimed at improving the capabilities of the existing helicopters by giving them a new common sensor, upgrading their cockpit displays, and cutting their weight by about 160 pounds (73 kg).

By tapping its own expertise and working closely with the helicopter’s original manufacturer, Bell Helicopter, a unit of Textron Inc, and Honeywell International, which makes the helicopter’s avionics, Army officials said they were able to build two prototype aircraft and start flying them just two years after the program began.

“We’ve taken the best of everything and tried to package it into an aircraft as quickly as possible and get it out there … to the force at considerable savings to the U.S. government and the U.S. taxpayer,” Army Colonel Robert Grigsby, project manager for armed scout helicopters, told reporters.

As the “lead system integrator” for the initiative, the Army also retained the technical rights to the new F-model, unlike earlier programs in which the integration work was outsourced to private firms which kept those rights, Grigsby said.

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Video: Man Attacks Uniformed Military Officer in Walmart, Charged with Hate Crime

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Photo Credit: Handout

Video surveillance footage from an Albany Wal-Mart store shows a uniformed U.S. Army officer being attacked by a man who police say verbally harassed the soldier for his military service.

Albany police released the footage after charging 47-year-old Yiqiang Wu of Schenectady with assault as a hate crime for Thursday’s fight at a checkout line.

Capt. Andrew McClure of the New York Army National Guard told police that a man behind him in line began to yell derogatory comments about the United States and his service to the nation. Police say Wu then struck the officer several times in the face. The officer was treated at the scene.

Watch video here:

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US Army Veteran Allegedly Joined Al Qaeda, Charged With Using “Weapon of Mass Destruction” (+video)

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Photo Credit: Facebook

U.S. Army veteran Eric Harroun of Phoenix has been charged with conspiring with an al Qaeda group to wage war against the Syrian regime. Harroun, 30, was charged Thursday in federal court in northern Virginia with plotting to use a rocket-propelled grenade – considered a weapon of mass destruction – outside the U.S., an offense which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, according to the Justice Department.

MailOnline has previously reported that Harroun has been engaged in military action in Syria, fighting alongside rebel forces against the Syrian government.

The FBI began investigating Harroun after videos and photos were posted online of him fighting in Syria, posing with weapons and boasting of killing members of the Syrian regime. In one post, he claims credit for downing a Syrian helicopter.

Prosecutors say Harroun has also been fighting with the al-Nusrah Front, which is commonly known as al Qaeda in Iraq. According to the State Department, al-Nusrah has claimed responsibility for roughly 600 terrorist attacks in Syria.

Harroun returned to the U.S. on Wednesday after several interviews with FBI investigators in Turkey, where they grilled him about his dealings with al-Nusrah, according to a nine-page criminal complaint.

Watch video here:

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Army Suspending Tuition Assistance Program

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Photo Credit: Robert Burns

The Army is suspending the Tuition Assistance program for active duty and reserve soldiers beginning Friday, according to an email obtained by the Washington Times.

The move will suspend financial assistance for soldiers who take classes in their off-duty time after work and on the weekends. “This suspension is necessary given the significant budget execution challenges caused by the combined effects of a possible year-long continuing resolution and sequestration,” said an official Army statement Friday.

Classes that are already approved will be funded, but not new requests for assistance, according to the memo.

The Army is facing a more than $18 billion shortfall over the next seven months of the fiscal year, due to a continuing resolution funding the Army at 2012 levels, and by large automatic defense cuts known as sequestration that went into effect March 1st.

Since then, lawmakers have begun looking at legislation that would pass a 2013 defense appropriations bill instead of extending the continuing resolution that expires March 27. Meanwhile, the president and other lawmakers are attempting to find a long-term solution to the cuts of $500 billion to the defense department over the next 10 years.

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Coldcock Cop: I thought I Was Swiping A Corona (+shocking video)

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Photo Credit: philly.comEven former Philadelphia Police Lt. Jonathan Josey called the video “disturbing.” The video of him swinging at and decking a woman at a Fairhill street party after last year’s Puerto Rican Day parade was enough to end his decorated 19-year police career and get him charged with simple assault.

But after a three-hour nonjury trial Tuesday, in which Josey testified that he accidentally hit Aida Guzman while trying to knock a beer bottle from her hand, a troubled-looking Municipal Court Judge Patrick F. Dugan seemed uncertain.

Saying he “needed more time to digest this,” Dugan said he would announce his verdict from the bench on Feb. 26.

Dugan, 52, a judge since 2007 and a decorated Army captain who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, acknowledged the groans his delay triggered.

The courtroom was packed way beyond its 109-person capacity. Most appeared to be police officers or officials of the city’s police union, and many wore the distinctive black leather uniform of the Highway Patrol, to which Josey was assigned.

As clear-cut as the seconds-long video appears, both Josey and Guzman may have muddled its impact in their testimony.

See video of incident:

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Ten Year Old Boy With Terminal Cancer Sworn In to Army

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A ten-year-old boy with terminal cancer received the surprise of his young life this week when his dreams of becoming a U.S. soldier came true.

Khalil Quarles, from Baltimore, had longed to enlist in the army for years before an aggressive form of soft tissue cancer attacked his leg and spread to his lungs in 2011.

And so as a special surprise, troops from the 200th Military Command out of Fort Meade paid him a visit on Wednesday to make the boy an honorary serviceman in the United States Army.

Khalil wore a look of awe and shock as he pledged his allegiance. Earlier in the day, while Skyping with a soldier stationed in Kuwait, he had thought things couldn’t get better.

But as he hobbled outside on his crutches and saw the crowd assembled on his front lawn, the dreams of this little boy with an incurable disease in that moment came true.

The boy’s mother, Cypress Mason told WBal TV of his long battle against the cancer and the multiple rounds of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation he had endured. ‘We decided to just stop the treatment so that Khalil could have the best quality of life that’s possible, being a 10-year-old child, to get to enjoy his life,’ she said.

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