Asia Bliss stroked a last-inning, bases-loaded triple Friday night to propel the Heidelberg Lady Lions to a rivalry-ending, come-from-behind 11-10 victory and a sweep of an East Region softball doubleheader against the Mannheim Lady Bison.

The father of a U.S. soldier, captured in Afghanistan two years ago, on Friday posted an online appeal asking the government of Pakistan and its armed forces to help free his son, Pvt. Bowe Bergdahl.

CONTRIBUTED BY ANNA BOOM Okinawa City Marathon was on February 20th; were you there? If you weren’t running or cheering, you most likely enjoyed the traffic control outside and inside the gates of Kadena Air base and Camp Mctureous and...

Australian Military Cracks Down on Social Media
While the U.S. military has embraced social media, albeit hesitantly, it's fair to say that social media -- an undisciplined, egalitarian free-for-all -- is a bit unnerving to the military mindset, with its respect for order, authority, and accountability. As a result some other professional militaries are thinking twice about whether to let service members use social media...
(Media Post)

Defence to review 'risk' of social media
Defence Minister Stephen Smith has warned the use of social media by Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel could put the military's reputation at risk...
(The Sydney Morning Herald)

Does Posting Things to Twitter Make You a Journalist?
There’s been a lot of discussion about what the U.S. military strike on Osama bin Laden’s compound says about the state of the media today, and the latest debate is whether Sohaib Athar — the Pakistani resident who live-tweeted the raid — is a journalist or not...
(GigaOM)

iPhone app may have assisted in the tracking, discovery of Osama Bin Laden
For the past 10 years, the hunt for Osama Bin Laden was on.  By land, by air, by sea -- and by app.  At least that is a possibility one tech blog tnooz.com is reporting about Tactical NAV, a military-grade navigation app created by U.S. Army Capt. Jonathan Springer...
(New York Daily News)

Tunisians clash with police over Facebook ‘coup warning’
As the Arab spring heats up in Syria, Libya, and Yemen, the flames of revolution still seem to be burning strong in the country where it all started...
(Global Post)

Beware of the Bin Laden cyber-scams
There are no free airplane tickets to celebrate Osama Bin Laden’s death.  There are no official photos or video, either.  And sorry, that sandwich chain supposedly giving away subs gratis because of the demise of the terrorist leader? Not happening...
(ajc)

Mrs. Mullen spotlights family issues in new blog
Building resilience and providing long-term support are keys to strengthening military families and better equipping them to weather the frequent, multiple deployments so prevalent in this decade of war, the wife of the nation's top military officer said...
(Capital Flyer)

First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, paid an emotional tribute to military spouses and their children at the White House, May 6, 2011.

Because of the damage to power plants as a result of the March 11 earthquake and tsunamis, Japan could see a 10 to 30 percent energy deficit starting in June. On post, that means less A/C and a big push to reduce electricity usage.

The Army Criminal Investigation Command announced this week that it hasn't been able to determine what has caused the deaths of 10 infants at Fort Bragg, N.C. since 2007. The investigators found no evidence that the deaths were related to any exposure to environmental contamination or to any type of criminal activity.

If you have listened to this week’s You Served Radio show or have read some of the blog posts on bouhammer.com or soldiersperspective.us you are probably aware that we are huge fans of the film and the message it gives … Continue reading →

The week that was, and the links that were.

The lesson Americans should take from recent military operations is that we cannot predict where or how U.S. forces will be engaged, and having flexible capabilities is the best defense for the nation, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told airmen in North Carolina.

The skill and courage of countless American military and intelligence professionals is why Osama bin Laden can never threaten America again, President Barack Obama told a cheering group of 101st Airborne soldiers at Fort Campbell, Ky.

As the summer brings warmer temperatures, Airmen should remain vigilant in taking safety precautions in all activities, and particularly on motorcycles, officials said here May 6.

In a 2011 Year of Motorcycle Safety dual-signature memorandum to Airmen, the assistant secretary for installations, environment and logistics and the Air Force vice chief of staff recently stressed the special cautions riders must take on motorcycles, with specific attention to speed, reckless driving and alcohol use.
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Quiet giant. Humble. Tremendously respected. Genuine.

These were the repeated words that friends and family members here used to describe the instructor pilot who was among the nine Americans killed during the April 27 Kabul International Airport shooting.

Lt. Col. Frank Bryant Jr. made the ultimate sacrifice for his country and the Air Force. He was assigned to the 56th Operations Group and had been deployed to the 438th Air Expeditionary Advisor Group in Afghanistan since June 2010.
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Children are the same all over the world. They laugh, smile, sing funny songs, love their parents and just want to be happy. But they also cry and you can see sadness in their beautiful eyes when they suffer.

We saw sadness in the eyes of the children when the members of the U.S. Air Forces Central band Wild Blue Country arrived at Children's Cancer Center in Bishkek. The little patients were shy and quiet while entering a small activity room where we set up for our performance. They simply did not know what to expect. Is it time for another, painful chemotherapy session? Are we foreign doctors who would give them some new medication? But suddenly they noticed all the various musical instruments!
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With 50 years of service each, two Air Force public servants were among 39 men and women recognized in the Pentagon courtyard May 5 with the Spirit of Service award honoring those whose government careers have spanned 48 to 68 years.

As part of Public Service Recognition Week, May 1 through 7, Sara Brown and Joe Lineburger, of the Air Force Materiel Command and Air Force Review Board Agency, respectively, received a commemorative pin, a plaque and kudos from keynote speaker Michael Rhodes, the director of administration and management in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and William Lynn III, the deputy secretary of defense.
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The last of three speakers, you could hear it in her voice, the cracking, the pausing and the deep breaths. From the base theater seats you could see the hard swallows choking back the tears. She'd told the stories before: stories of her parents, both Holocaust survivors, and being raised by them; stories of the trip she, her three daughters and her mother took to Poland, traveling with 100 Jewish chanters on a Holocaust memorial visit.

Yet, here stood Dr. Lori Ripps telling the stories again, choking back the sobs and echoing the words of the other speakers that day, "never again!"
more...

After performing 81 sorties and dropping 243,000 gallons of fire retardant over the wildfires that have been burning in South and West Texas, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve personnel and their Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System-equipped aircraft headed home May 6.

Officials from the National Interagency Fire Center released the units May 5, concluding the Air Force Reserve and Guard support of Texas firefighting efforts that have been ongoing since specially-equipped C-130 Hercules began dropping retardant April 17.
more...

Airmen build and load free-fall, general-purpose bombs onto an A-10 Thunderbolt II here May 3.

View the slideshow.

more...

Carl Prine: SEAL the deal and get the photos:I very much doubt I'll ever see much from the trove of CIA and SEAL images and videos of the raid. Maybe four decades from now parts of their contents will be released by the National Archives, and historians and PhD candidates will revise some of the reporting whizzing at us today. But I'm at least going to try to force the issue now, especially bin Laden's death photos. There's a 2003...

Most dangerous week ever? In one sense, it’s the least dangerous week ever, or at least since this blog came into existence: Osama bin Laden is dead. Even al-Qaida admits it. Not just dead, but killed by men in American uniforms. I got to write that headline on Sunday night and it just doesn’t stop [...]

by Joaquin Sapien

The Army Criminal Investigation Command announced this week that it hasn't been able to determine what has caused the deaths of 10 infants at Fort Bragg, N.C. since 2007. According to medical examiners the deaths were due to "undetermined" causes. The investigators found no evidence that the deaths were related to any exposure to environmental contamination or to any type of criminal activity.

The announcement doesn't include details about the methods used to reach that conclusion.

CID began its investigation after three infants died in the same home between 2007 and 2009. After an eighth child died on base in 2009, CID began to suspect that sulfur gasses from the drywall used in the homes could have something to do with the deaths.

Early tests commissioned by CID showed that the drywall was indeed problematic, but later tests done using a different method showed the drywall was fine. CID also tested the homes for pesticides, but announced in March that the levels weren't high enough to cause health problems.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission, the lead agency in the federal government's two-year investigation of tainted drywall, has also examined the infant deaths and ruled out environmental causes. Testing done by the CPSC on Ft. Bragg came under fire from drywall experts, who said that more advanced testing methods should have been used.

At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in March, Army Secretary John McHugh said he had assigned a team from the Army's Public Health Command to pursue its own study of the infant deaths. That study is still underway, according to a spokesperson for Ft. Bragg.

Two more deaths have occurred since the investigation began, bringing the current tally to 12. The most recent deaths are still being investigated.

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GrammaTech, Inc., a leading manufacturer of source-code analysis tools, today announced that it has developed a sophisticated new program-analysis engine that identifies data race conditions and other serious concurrency defects. The engine is being incorporated into the company’s popular CodeSonar static-analysis tool.

Development teams are embracing multi-core processors such as the new quad-core Intel® Core™ i7 processor because they are the most promising avenue to better computing performance. This is because traditional performance-improvement approaches, such as increasing clock speed, decreasing memory access times, and clever scheduling of instructions are no longer yielding major improvements. Unfortunately, multi-core systems are much less forgiving of programming errors and can be extremely difficult to debug with currently available tools, especially when bugs are intermittent and difficult to reproduce.

The severity of the problem caught the attention of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which awarded a $749k contract to GrammaTech to develop an innovative approach to eliminating serious defects that commonly plague multi-core applications. The resulting analysis pinpoints such problems without testing, slashing development cost, and reducing the risk of defects slipping into production. The analysis can also be applied to multi-threaded applications running on a single processor.

Paul Anderson, GrammaTech’s vice president of Engineering, commented, “The analysis has already proven itself in pilot deployments. For example, it identified serious defects in a mission-critical avionics application being developed by an aerospace company. This is very significant because avionics applications are developed with much more care and testing than most other applications. Yet GrammaTech’s deep concurrency analysis uncovered significant problems in the application.”

Anderson continued, “The analysis catches the type of concurrency problems that are the most difficult for developers. It creates an abstract model, of what locks are held by what threads, and considers possible interleavings. By automating this process, it finds situations in which code is susceptible to problematic interleavings, which developers can miss through manual analysis.”

The technology is compatible with a wide range of compilers, including ARM RealView, CodeWarrior, GCC, G++, Green Hills, HI-TECH, IAR, Intel C/C++, Microsoft Visual Studio, Renesas, Sun C/C++, Texas Instruments, CodeComposer, Wind River, and many others. For some run-time environments, it may be necessary to model synchronization primitives, but the system has been designed to make this easy.

About CodeSonar

CodeSonar is a sophisticated static-analysis tool that performs a whole-program, interprocedural analysis on code and identifies complex programming bugs that can result in system crashes, memory corruption and other serious problems. Like a compiler, CodeSonar does a build of code using the existing build environment. But, instead of creating object code, CodeSonar creates an abstract model of the program, capturing its syntax, call graphs, and control-flow graphs. Then a synthesis phase, analogous to linking, generates a program model, which is executed symbolically by CodeSonar’s analysis engine. Automated reasoning about feasible paths and data is used to identify tricky bugs that result from complex interactions among procedures.

CodeSonar is backed by years of research and is the most powerful source code analysis tool available for embedded development. It is distinguished by its ability to find more serious defects than any other tool on the market. For this reason, it has been adopted by leading organizations developing medical devices, spacecraft, industrial and automotive control systems, electronics and similar applications. CodeSonar runs on Windows, Linux, Solaris, and Mac OSX operating systems and supports most compilers.

About GrammaTech

GrammaTech's static-analysis tools are used worldwide by startups, Fortune 500 companies, educational institutions and government agencies. The staff includes twelve researchers with PhDs in programming languages and program analysis. More information about GrammaTech can be found at www.grammatech.com.

LynuxWorks™, Inc., a world leader in the secure virtualization market, and Themis Computer a leading supplier of high performance board and system-level products for military applications, today announced that they have ported the latest version of the LynxSecure separation kernel and hypervisor to the CoolShell and Rugged Enterprise Servers (RES) server platforms. The LynuxWorks highly secure virtualization solution and Themis high performance multi-core rugged blade servers provide one of the most advanced multilevel secure platforms for use in military and aerospace systems available today.

The first showing of LynxSecure 5.0 running on a Themis CoolShell platform will be at the Embedded Systems Conference in Silicon Valley from May 2-4 and in the LynuxWorks’ Booth (#771) at the DoDIIS conference (Department of Defense Intelligence Information Systems) in Detroit from May 1-5, where both LynuxWorks and Themis technical staff will be available to demonstrate the combined product.

“LynxSecure 5.0 raises the bar for secure virtualization systems running on Intel® processors, by combining ultra security with unparalleled features and functionality, without compromising the performance and determinism required for military embedded systems,” said Gurjot Singh, CEO and president at LynuxWorks. “Running LynxSecure on the Themis high-performance rugged hardware provides the best platform for developing next-generation secure military systems, and LynuxWorks is looking forward to a long and successful relationship with Themis.”

LynxSecure makes it possible to securely run multiple guest operating systems and their applications on a single platform. It does this by isolating applications into separate partitions to prevent unintended or dangerous software interactions. Any communication between the secure partitions is controlled by security policies defined by the system administrator and enforced by LynxSecure.

LynxSecure 5.0 offers a host of new features that boost the performance of guest operating systems and applications that run on top of it, offering close to native performance even when running fully virtualized or unmodified guest operating systems. LynxSecure 5.0 also supports symmetric multi-processing guest operating systems in both para-virtualized and fully virtualized forms, enabling flexible use of modern multi-core processors to gain the best performance for secure systems and applications.

"Security is a key requirement for many of our military customers,” said William Kehret, CEO and president at Themis. “However, compromising the performance to which they are accustomed, is not an option," explained Kehret. "We believe that the combination of our high performance CoolShell and RES servers, with LynxSecure 5.0, provides the highest levels of security and application performance, available in the industry, today.”

The principle barrier to higher compute density in modular electronic packaging is the cooling of high dissipation devices, most notably, the new breed of multi-core microprocessors. Designed for thermal and kinetic management, and featuring the latest four and six-core Xeon® processors from Intel®, the Themis family of XR3 RES platforms provide high reliability and performance, to assure application availability in the most demanding environments. These rack mountable servers are available in 1U, 2U and 3U configurations.

The CoolShell rugged server technology combines a high-performance, single-board computer and graphics processor in a blade server configuration, for rugged systems applications in demanding environments. CoolShell blade servers use commercial CPU boards in rugged packages that provide electronics cooling and thermal management. The CoolShell CS-3U and CS-5U systems are modularly maintainable, commercial blade server systems that combine an extended complement of processing, memory and I/O, into a 3U or 5U rack mountable CoolShell subrack, and provide thermal footprint headroom to accommodate aggressive scaling of commercial microprocessor core density, speed, and power.

About Themis Computer

Themis Computer is a leading developer and supplier of high performance board and system level-products for mission-critical telecommunications, military/aerospace and industrial embedded applications. Themis provides open standards-based embedded computing platforms that support the Solaris, Linux, and Windows operating systems. Themis' products incorporate features designed to ensure high reliability and availability while reducing the risks of failure caused by extreme environments. An ISO 9001 certified company, Themis Computer practices Total Quality Management (TQM) in all areas of its business, from engineering and manufacturing to customer service. Themis Computer is headquartered in Fremont, CA, and offers worldwide service and support. For more information please visit www.themis.com/ or email: info@themis.com.

About LynuxWorks

LynuxWorks, a world leader in the embedded software market, is committed to providing open and reliable real-time operating systems (RTOS) and software tools to embedded developers. The company's LynxOS family of operating systems offers open standards with the highest level of safety and security features, enabling many mission-critical systems in defense, avionics and other industries. The latest product in the portfolio, the award winning LynxSecure, offers a secure separation kernel and embedded hypervisor that forms a platform for the development of high-assurance systems. Since it was established in 1988, LynuxWorks has created technology that has been successfully deployed in thousands of designs and millions of products made by leading communications, avionics, aerospace/defense and consumer electronics companies. LynuxWorks' headquarters are located in San Jose, CA. For more information, visit www.lynuxworks.com.

According to the Gartner report released on April 21, 2011: One recurring trend among these comparatively new technology providers is their focus on addressing the increasingly difficult security demands of increasingly heterogeneous — and frequently virtualized — computing environments, and doing so very rapidly and with minimal disruption of business operations.

“Recognition by Gartner on the Cool Vendor list is a significant achievement. ValidEdge offers a unique malware solution for enterprises that are under persistent attack from sophisticated hackers. Any organization with high-value assets, including government agencies, financial institutions or other mature security incident response teams now have the ability to detect, analyze and repair compromised systems within minutes” said Gurjot Singh, CEO at ValidEdge.

About the ValidEdge Anti-Malware and Malware Analysis Systems

The ValidEdge systems continuously monitor critical networks for any suspect code intrusion. Once suspicious code is detected, the system performs an instant malware analysis and issues alerts for IT personnel to fix security vulnerabilities and repair infected systems. The ValidEdge Network Malware Security system is the most advanced entrant in a new and emerging market of anti-malware systems that are designed from the ground up to deal with new and single target malware-based attacks which go undetected by firewalls or endpoint security products.

About Gartner's Cool Vendors Selection Process

Gartner's listing does not constitute an exhaustive list of vendors in any given technology area, but rather is designed to highlight interesting, new and innovative vendors, products and services. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness of a particular purpose.

Gartner defines a cool vendor as a company that offers technologies or solutions that are: Innovative, enable users to do things they couldn't do before; Impactful, have, or will have, business impact (not just technology for the sake of technology); Intriguing, have caught Gartner's interest or curiosity in approximately the past six months.

Availability

The ValidEdge Malware Intelligence System product is shipping today.

When every second counts, organizations under targeted attack use ValidEdge systems to eradicate malware-based threats. ValidEdge offers the world’s leading anti-malware solution for faster identification and better mitigation against new malware in real time. Designed for enterprises and government agencies, ValidEdge purpose-built anti-malware systems allow you to detect, analyze and heal compromised systems attacked by the most sophisticated and insidious types of malware. Led by a team experienced in building highly secure systems for mission-critical applications, and knowledgeable in dismantling sophisticated malware, ValidEdge is ushering in the next generation of malware awareness. ValidEdge is a wholly owned subsidiary of LynuxWorks, Inc., a leader in safe and secure software solutions. For more information visit www.validedge.com.

PDU Ideal for Military Environments

Santa Ana, Calif., – May 4, 2011 – Marway Power Solutions (www.marway.com), a leading designer and manufacturer of end-to-end power distribution solutions for mission-critical military/defense applications, today announced that its model MPD 100R-003 Power Distribution Unit (PDU) is now a standard commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) product offering. Previously available only as a modified custom solution, this rack-mount, single-phase PDU addresses a wide variety of power management and quality requirements for critical military computer systems, radar, avionics and telecommunications applications. The MPD model offers unsurpassed quality, protection and power distribution at an affordable cost.

The MPD 100R-003 model supports up to 24 amps continuously at 120VAC and is ideal for communications and computer equipment that requires a single-phase, EIA-310 compliant PDU in a compact design. The slim 1U (1.75 inch high) unit conveniently mounts in the front or rear of a 19-inch rack enclosure and sports a robust zinc plated steel chassis. The unit includes two 5-15R, 120 volt NEMA receptacles conveniently located on the front of the unit and six receptacles in the back. In addition, the PDU offers these important features:

• Overcurrent Protection – Equipment faults can cause excessive power to be pulled from facility power lines and damage equipment and power cabling. The precision hydraulic magnetic circuit breaker on the front panel of the PDU protects downstream equipment by opening the power line if too much current is being consumed.

• EMI Protection – The PDU’s power line filter protects against common-mode and differential-mode noise and harmonics in facility power lines that can cause degradation or malfunction of electronic or electrical equipment.

• Surge Protection – The PDU’s metal oxide varistors (MOVs) protect against damaging spikes and surges. Facility power lines can transmit a sudden increase in voltage. The MOV clamps the line voltage so it cannot exceed a specified value, thus protecting any connected equipment.

• Remote Switching – Remote switching allows the power receptacles to be enabled or disabled via an external control signal. This feature is useful for implementing external interlock circuits, or simply providing the convenience of remote control. The remote interface is controlled through one or more 3-pin remote connectors on the PDU.

• Delayed Enable - The delay connector provides a delayed enable signal. This signal can be used to control other PDUs in a daisy-chain configuration. A cable is used to connect the delay output of one PDU to the remote connector of a second PDU. In this configuration, the first PDU is switched on, and then the second PDU is switched on after the time delay. This allows two or more PDUs to switch on in a timed sequence.

The MPD 100R-003 is also compatible with Marway’s Universal Control Panel (UCP) series which can be used to provide a central control point for distributed PDUs.

Available now, the MPD 100R-003 model meets Mil-Spec, UL and CSA specifications and is covered by a two-year warranty. For additional specifications on the MPD100R-003 unit, visit www.marway.com/pdu/specs/MPD-100R-003. To learn more about Marway’s high-reliability COTS power solutions visit www.marway.com or call 800-462-7929.

About Marway Power Solutions:

Headquartered in Santa Ana, Calif., Marway specializes in engineering and manufacturing optimized solutions for defense and commercial clients who have unique power distribution requirements. Over the past 30 years, Marway has leveraged its innovative experience and expertise to efficiently and economically create purpose-built solutions at a commercial off the shelf (COTS) value.

Marway’s core products include power distribution units (PDUs) and universal control panels (UCPs) in standard, standard modified, and custom configurations. Marway has a special expertise in combining multiple application requirements into packages of reduced size and weight for today’s high-density needs.

Does the big, nuclear-powered aircraft carrier have a future in the 21st century? It depends on who you ask.

Air Force Senior Airman Jon-Nicos Walker, a military pay technician serving in Iraq, has welcomed his unusual role of getting to travel around the country.

In this Family Matters Blog, we encourage everyone to join President Barack Obama in reaching out to service members' spouses, especially on Military Spouse Appreciation Day.

Four Guard and Reserve C-130 Hercules aircraft are heading home after flying 81 sorties to help fight Texas fires.

Got a nice note from a lady named Beth:

I wanted to reach out to make you aware of the upcoming 2011 Warrior Games. It’s a five-day competition between approx. 220 wounded, ill and injured servicemen and women All athletes are broken into their teams based on their service branch of duty (Army, Marine [...]

Being the son of one, and [been serially] married to three, and actually (koff) *been* one for six years... American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, May 6, 2011 - President Barack Obama has declared today Military Spouse Appreciation Day. In his proclamation issued yesterday, the president said: "Military spouses serve as steady and supportive partners to the heroes in uniform who protect and defend our great Nation every day. Across America and around the world, military spouses serve our country in their own special way, helping families and friends through the stress of a deployment, caring for our wounded warriors, and supporting each other when a loved one has made the ultimate sacrifice. "Our service members and their families seldom ask for support or recognition. They carry out their duties to family and country with the quiet courage and strength that has always exemplified the American spirit. On Military Spouse Appreciation Day, we have an opportunity to not only honor the husbands and wives of our service members, but also thank them by actively expressing our gratitude in both word and deed. "When a member of our Armed Forces is deployed, an entire family is called to serve. The readiness of our troops depends on the readiness of our military families, as millions of parents, children, and loved ones sacrifice as well. This means supporting our military spouses is also a national security imperative. Earlier this year, my Administration released the report on military families, 'Strengthening our Military Families: Meeting America's Commitment,' which marshaled resources from across our Government to identify new opportunities to support these patriots. "First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden are working tirelessly to enlist all sectors of American life to address the unique challenges of military families. Their national initiative, "Joining Forces," mobilizes Americans to give our service members and their families the opportunities and support they have earned. Americans can find service projects, send messages of thanks to military families, and learn more about this initiative by visiting: http://www.whitehouse.gov/joiningforces. "On Military Spouse Appreciation Day, let us join together to show our service members we are taking care of their families back home as they serve our nation across the globe. As neighbors, teachers, parents, and fellow citizens, we can reach out to military husbands and wives in our communities. We can show our appreciation in countless ways, from offering to help with household maintenance and childcare to encouraging the community involvement and career development of military spouses. "It is through our actions that we show our commitment to our service members and their spouses. By embracing military families, we demonstrate our partnership in the defense of our freedom and the security of the United States. "Now, therefore, I, Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States do hereby proclaim May 6, 2011, as Military Spouse Appreciation Day. I call upon the people of the United States to honor military spouses with appropriate ceremonies and activities. "In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand eleven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fifth."  

As we discussed in Mission Kill or Mission Capture the administration just can’t get the narrative straight.  The situation isn’t improving with time.  One U.S. official said “Our Special Forces weren’t raiding a girl scout troop looking for overdue library books. They were on a kill mission for Osama bin Laden.”  Very well.  I’m okay with [...]

Family and friends eagerly waited outside a small YMCA in Waycross, Ga. People of all ages lined the road waving American flags.

As eager friends and family stood alongside the road, flashing red and blue lights approached on the horizon. The police cars were following a single man on a bicycle.

Jason Rogers completed his cross-country trip in his hometown of Waycross. He started his journey in San Diego April 10, riding about 120 miles a day on his bicycle.

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An aeromedical evacuation capacity unrivaled anywhere in the world is saving the lives of wounded warriors in Afghanistan, said the officer here who oversees the effort at the combat theater's busiest aeromedical evacuation point.

Equipment and procedures are being improved continually to move wounded warriors to progressively more sophisticated levels of care in Afghanistan and ultimately, in the United States, said Lt. Col. Kathleen Flarity, the commander of the 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Flight operations here.
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What started less than two years ago as an innovative way to stay in shape, has evolved into a physical fitness tool for Airmen at the headquarters of the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency here.

The agency's physical training boot camp recently capped its three-phased Fit to Fight initiative with a marked improvement in the PT test scores of participants. 

In the nine-month period just prior to the PT boot camp, the agency improved its pass rate by 14 percent, from 78.2 to 92.3, according to officials.
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With two months left as theSecretary of Defense, Robert Gates visited with active duty and Reserve Airmen here May 6.

The visit marked the first time Secretary Gates visited here since he took office in December 2006.

He presented the Bronze Star to Senior Master Sgt. Arnel Abad, a 4th Fighter Wing civil engineer, for his actions in Afghanistan.

Immediately following the presentation, he met with Airmen who had just recently deployed and those preparing to deploy.
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A group of mostly captains sat in on a recent briefing here to find out more about the 2011 Force Management Program.

In February, Air Force leaders announced another round of involuntary force-management programs to reduce personnel, and this time it affects mostly officers.

For some of the officers, it was not the first time they sat in such a briefing. Some of the captains have faced this proposal before.

Though the numbers are in their favor -- 300 out of 9,500 officers, or 2 percent, will be let go -- some said it's still nerve racking.
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Above - the original speech made by King George VI at the outbreak of war with Germany (later called World War Two). If you've seen the movie you'll recognize the image displayed; immediately after giving the speech (over the radio) from another room apparently set up as a studio nearby, he went to his desk and posed for this photo, which appears to be of him actually giving the speech. That's about five seconds of movie time, if you...

U.S. forces picked up more than a hundred thumb drives, hard drives, computers, and discs from Osama bin Laden’s compound. Now that the gear is in the hands of American intelligence, what are they looking for? Some of the more pressing questions that are likely being asked right now: Who was he talking to? Whether or [...]

Only hours after the world learned that U.S. operatives killed Osama bin Laden, something happened at this outpost in eastern Afghanistan for the first time in almost a year: a rocket strike.

At least two records were broken Friday and there was the possibility that more would fall once results from the Okinawa Activities Council Track Meet held at Koza Stadium were reviewed.

by Marian Wang

More details, debates, and even doubts have continued to emerge about the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden this week.

We've been tracking the coverage with our reading guide. We're also got a weekend wrap-up for the major threads of this evolving story.

For the doubters (aka the Deathers)

In an online message that surfaced today, Al Qaeda  confirmed that its founder was killed and warned that his death would not be in vain: “We will remain, God willing, a curse chasing the Americans and their agents, following them outside and inside their countries.” U.S. analysts have yet to verify the authenticity of the message. 

The White House has announced it won’t be releasing photos of bin Laden’s body, citing the images’ potential to incite violence or to be used as propaganda. At least one watchdog group has put in filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the federal government and has said it’s prepared to sue for the photos.

Reuters, meanwhile, has bought several grisly photos of three of the other men who died in the raid at the compound. Beware: they’re bloody.

For those tracking the United States’ changing story of the raid—and questioning its legality

The White House didn’t offer any more updates on its narrative of the raid, though a piece in today’s Washington Post hashes out some details on how bin Laden was shot:

U.S. officials provided new details on bin Laden’s final moments, saying the al-Qaeda leader was first spotted by U.S. forces in the doorway of his room on the compound’s third floor. Bin Laden then turned and retreated into the room before being shot twice — in the head and in the chest. U.S. commandos later found an AK-47 and a pistol in the room.

“He was retreating,” a move that was regarded as resistance, a U.S. official briefed on the operation said. “You don’t know why he’s retreating, what he’s doing when he goes back in there. Is he getting a weapon? Does he have a [suicide] vest?”

The details are important for those still scrutinizing the mission’s legality. U.S. officials have maintained that the raid was legal, arguing that lethal force was authorized regardless of whether bin Laden was armed. 

The Post story also highlighted the role of the CIA, which had for months been monitoring the Abbottabad compound from a safe house in the city:

The effort was so extensive and costly that the CIA went to Congress in December to secure authority to reallocate tens of millions of dollars within assorted agency budgets to fund it, U.S. officials said.

Most of that surveillance capability remained in place until the execution of the raid by U.S. Navy SEALs shortly after 1 a.m. in Pakistan. The agency’s safe house did not play a role in the raid and has since been shut down, in part because of concerns about the safety of CIA assets in the aftermath, but also because the agency’s work was considered finished.

The CIA is still going through the material taken from the compound. Early reports indicate that Al Qaeda was considering plans to attack the U.S. by tampering with trains.

For those still wondering about Pakistan

As we noted yesterday, tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan have grown since news of the raid first broke on Sunday night, with the initial congratulations giving way to sharp criticisms from both Pakistan's foreign ministry and army. Here’s what we wrote yesterday:

Comments from Pakistani agencies and officials have ranged from congratulations on a "great victory" to denunciation of a "cold-blooded" killing by the United States.

… The Pakistani Foreign Ministry criticized the U.S. operation as an “unauthorized unilateral action” and warned the U.S. and other countries against taking it as precedent.

Pakistan’s top army official also responded yesterday, calling the raid a violation of the sovereignty of Pakistan and warning that in the future such actions would “warrant a review on the level of military/intelligence cooperation with the United States.”

Pakistan has continually denied knowledge of bin Laden’s whereabouts but maintained that it helped provide intelligence that led to bin Laden.

In an interview with NPR, former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf acknowledged that bin Laden’s presence could only lead to one of two conclusions—Pakistan’s intelligence agencies either were complicit or incompetent. “I strongly believe in the later,” Mushrraf said. “I cannot imagine there was complicity.”

For the torture debaters

For those who believe that torture is simply wrong, there’s no debate here.

But for others, there’s a lot to still puzzle over. Many proponents of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” are still trying to make a case for why these techniques—banned by the Obama administration but approved under Bush—were useful and shouldn’t be ruled out in the future.

Several U.S. military interrogators released a statement on Wednesday pushing back against claims that torture was necessary to obtain the intelligence leading to bin laden. From the Christian Science Monitor:

“We are concerned about the suggestion by some that the use of waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques led US forces to Osama bin Laden’s compound,” reads the statement, signed by four former military and FBI interrogators.

That hasn’t stopped torture defenders from continuing to make the argument. In an opinion column published today, former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey argued that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed “broke like a dam under the pressure of harsh interrogation techniques.” Others have pointed out that KSM in fact misled interrogators when asked about bin Laden’s courier, according to official accounts of the intelligence trail.

By: Troy Steward
This entry was originally posted on bouhammer.com There is a company called 5.11. They are known for their tactical clothing and gear. I wonder if they will capitalize on the date of 5.1.11? See 5.1.11 is the date that Usama (or Osama) Bin Laden was sent to hell by the trigger pull of a Navy Seal. Anyway, 5.11 tactical is not the point of this post, killing of that piece of crap is. I was very thrilled the other night when I saw the news. I remember sitting there...read more

Yes, my dad served in the military 20 years ago and a friend of mine was able to go to school on his father’s GI Bill. Would I be able to as well if he agreed to it? Thanks! – Stephen Most likely not Stephan. Your friend’s dad has a different GI Bill. The only GI Bill having a transfer of benefits to dependents option is . . .

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