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Army Desertion Rate High and Getting Higher

Multiple lengthy deployments lead to 80% jump over 2003

(Newser) - The Army desertion rate for 2007 is up 43% over last year and a whopping 80% since the 2003 Iraq invasion, figures out today show. The rate is the highest since 1980, the AP reports. Moreover, it's increasing: Nearly two-thirds of this year's desertions were in the second half of...

Got a Record? No Problem
Got a Record?
No Problem
Nov 6, 2007 8:19 PM CST

Got a Record? No Problem

US military wants to ease entry, but some officers worry about 'problem children'

(Newser) - Seeking to swell enlisted ranks, the Pentagon may let more minor criminals enlist in the military, the AP reports. "I do believe it needs to be done," an Army official said of the proposed plan. "There are really anomalies out there"—like recruits who have youthful...

Bush Nominates Doc to Head Veteran Affairs

James B. Peake would be first physician and general to hold post

(Newser) - President Bush today nominated James B. Peake, a doctor and retired Army lieutenant general, to head the Veteran Affairs department, the LA Times reports. With his medical and military backgrounds, Peake is the perfect choice to overhaul the nation’s system for treating wounded soldiers, Bush says. A major report...

Anti-War T-Shirt Draws Flak
Anti-War T-Shirt Draws Flak
Sep 24, 2007 9:33 AM CDT

Anti-War T-Shirt Draws Flak

They want him to stop using fallen soldiers' names on shirts

(Newser) - An Arizona entrepreneur who prints the name of troops killed in Iraq on anti-war T-shirts is getting heat from soldiers' families who say he's disrespecting the dead. Dan Frazier's shirts have slogans such as "Bush Lied" and "They Died" superimposed over the names.  Five states have passed...

Burns' War Epic Starts Tomorrow
Burns' War Epic Starts Tomorrow
Sep 22, 2007 4:00 PM CDT

Burns' War Epic Starts Tomorrow

His latest PBS doc pays tribute to 'generic' US soldiers, including his own father

(Newser) - After 7 years and $13 million, Ken Burns' historical documentary The War will start airing tomorrow on PBS. The film centers on people rather than politics or weaponry, the Seattle Times reports: Celebrities and guns can "distract you from an experience of war, of what it was like to...

2 Soldiers Who Questioned War in Times Killed

GIs were skeptical of progress, but vowed to keep fighting

(Newser) - Two of the seven soldiers who wrote last month's influential New York Times op-ed criticizing the Iraq war died Monday when their truck veered off an elevated highway and flipped over. Seven GIs and two detainees were killed when the 5-ton cargo truck crashed. The military made no mention of...

Navy Squelches YouTube Vid
Navy Squelches YouTube Vid
Aug 19, 2007 11:49 AM CDT

Navy Squelches YouTube Vid

Airman's musical movie showed glimpses of aircraft carrier's security measures

(Newser) - The Navy removed an airman's video from YouTube because it showed a "lack of propriety" in the use of safety equipment  aboard the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, the AP reports. The video, set to Shania Twain's "That Don't Impress Me Much," showed a sailor dancing in a...

Biden's Boy Will Head to Iraq
Biden's Boy Will Head to Iraq
Aug 17, 2007 9:05 AM CDT

Biden's Boy Will Head to Iraq

Candidate and war critic's son will deploy next year with his National Guard unit

(Newser) - Joe Biden's son will deploy to Iraq with his National Guard brigade in 2008. Capt. Beau Biden, who is the attorney general of Delaware, will not get any special treatment because of his senator (and presidential hopeful) dad, said a spokesman for the Guard. "He's a deployable asset just...

Army Suicides Climb; Rate Highest in 26 Years

99 active-duty soldiers took their own lives in 2006

(Newser) - American soldiers are killing themselves at the highest rate since the Persian Gulf War, the AP reports. Statistics out today show 99 active-duty soldiers committed suicide in 2006, both the highest single number and the highest rate per deployed since 1991. The problem was worst in Iraq, the most common...

US Troops High on Afghan Heroin
US Troops
High on
Afghan Heroin
Aug 7, 2007 11:15 AM CDT

US Troops High on Afghan Heroin

Boredom, frustration drive soldiers to cheap, ubiquitous drug

(Newser) - Bored US soldiers have easy access to heroin in poppy-rich Afghanistan, and few fear punishment if they're caught using it, Salon reports. Filmmaker Shaun McCanna says he was able to score heroin easily on over a dozen occasions during his two trips to the war-torn country.

Soldier Draws 110 Years for Rape, Murder

Coconspirators handed tough sentences for young girl's death

(Newser) - A military court handed Jesse Spielman a dishonorable discharge and a 110-year prison sentence for raping and murdering an Iraqi girl last year. Spielman and four comrades planned the 2006 assault on a family near Baghdad over a drunken game of cards; they then gang-raped and murdered the girl, her...

Long Combat Tours Take Mental Toll
Long Combat Tours Take Mental Toll
Aug 3, 2007 5:48 AM CDT

Long Combat Tours Take Mental Toll

Brit Study: Alcoholism, post traumatic stress soar after 13 months

(Newser) - Soldiers who serve extended tours in combat zones have much higher rates of alcoholism, post traumatic stress syndrome and problems at home, a large British study has found. Of those in war zones for more than 13 months over three years, one in four had "severe" alcohol problems, compared...

Injured Veterans Sue US
Injured Veterans Sue US
Jul 24, 2007 4:53 AM CDT

Injured Veterans Sue US

Class action suit targets VA for 'shameful failures' in treatment

(Newser) - Two veterans groups representing troops who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan are suing the US government for "shameful failures" in medical treatment, Reuters reports. The Department of Veterans Affairs is swamped with a backlog of 600,000 health claims and is "abandoning" soldiers returning home, the class-action...

Head of Veterans Affairs Quits
Head of Veterans Affairs Quits
Jul 17, 2007 3:47 PM CDT

Head of Veterans Affairs Quits

Secretary's short tenure long on scandals and other woes

(Newser) - The secretary of Veterans Affairs, the head of the second-biggest federal department, is stepping down and will be replaced by October 1, reports the Washington Post. For 2½ turbulent years, Jim Nicholson, a decorated Vietnam vet and former RNC chair, presided over a department beset by criticism and overwhelmed by...

Soldier Sues Over Fifth Deployment
Soldier Sues Over Fifth Deployment
Jul 9, 2007 8:22 AM CDT

Soldier Sues Over Fifth Deployment

Reservist takes Army to court over tour he says could cost him home, job

(Newser) - A 26-year-old sergeant is suing the army to prevent his fifth deployment to Iraq, claiming that the Army follows inconsistent policies in mobilizing reserves. The military wants reservist Erik Botta return to Iraq next week, the Miami Herald reports, but Botta is suing to stop the order he says will...

Hamas Releases Audio of Israeli Soldier

A year after capture, Cpl. Gilad Shalit says his health is failing

(Newser) - In the first proof that he is alive a year after capture, Hamas militants today released an audio recording of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier seized in a cross-border raid near the Gaza strip. In the message posted on the group's web site, Shalit said a year in prison is...

14 Troops Killed in 2 Days
14 Troops Killed in 2 Days
Jun 21, 2007 12:49 PM CDT

14 Troops Killed in 2 Days

5 soldiers dead after roadside bomb explosion; death toll hits 3,545

(Newser) - Fourteen American troops have been killed in Iraq over the past 2 days, bringing the US death toll to 3,545, with 68 fatalities in June. In the deadliest recent attack, five troops died today after a roadside bomb detonated under their vehicle in northeastern Iraq. Commanders attribute the worsening...

Army Hospital MIA on Stress Disorders

Walter Reed lacks resources to cope with growing problem

(Newser) - Though 20 to 40 soldiers are sent home from Iraq each month with severe mental problems, the Army's largest hospital has no post-traumatic stress disorder center, reports the Washington Post. There is also a severe shortage of doctors qualified to treat these patients. Not long ago, the head of psychiatry...

G.I.'s Disillusioned About the War
G.I.'s Disillusioned About the War
May 28, 2007 8:45 AM CDT

G.I.'s Disillusioned About the War

Soldiers from 82nd Airborne say they favor withdrawal

(Newser) - More than a dozen soldiers from the elite 82d Airborne division tell the New York Times that they now see the war in Iraq as futile. “In 2003, 2004, 100 percent of the soldiers wanted to be here, to fight this war,” says one platoon sergeant who advocates...

3 Soldiers Missing, 5 Dead
3 Soldiers Missing, 5 Dead
May 12, 2007 7:00 AM CDT

3 Soldiers Missing, 5 Dead

U.S. and Iraqi troops scour area for missing soldiers

(Newser) - A pre-dawn attack on a patrol of seven U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi translator has left five dead and three missing, CNN reports. U.S. and Iraqi troops have joined together to search the violent and explosive region just south of Baghdad for the missing soldiers.

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