WASHINGTON - The U.S. and international commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, who took command a month ago, has issued his first guidance document for the nearly 150,000 troops under his command. He is emphasizing the need to provide security and good governance for the Afghan people.
In a three-and-a-half-page document, General Petraeus’ first two guidance […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama has accepted the resignation of General Stanley McChrystal as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.
President Obama said Wednesday he is replacing McChrystal with General David Petraeus.
McChrystal resigned from the post following comments he and his staff made mocking senior members of the Obama administration in a magazine article.
Earlier Wednesday, […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Navy formally announced on Thursday that it will for the first time recruit women into its submarine force.
It has been 20 years since the Navy first allowed women to serve on its surface warfare ships.  But submarines remained off-limits for several reasons.
The main reason had to do with cramped quarters on […]

WASHINGTON - A top U.S. military official says U.S. forces in Afghanistan are undergoing a major restructuring that will bring virtually all American troops under NATO command.
Vice Admiral Greg Smith, the top U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, says U.S. troops serving in eastern Afghanistan as part of the Operation Enduring Freedom command will soon be […]

WASHINGTON - About 2,200 U.S. Marines arrived in Haiti on Monday, joining thousands more American forces  who are on the ground or just off shore to assist with the country’s growing relief needs following last week’s massive earthquake. 
The troop deployments come as concerns over security grow and reports of looting and scuffles on the streets […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the military’s focus now is the rapid deployment of 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan and the initial elements of the surge will begin arriving next week. 
Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, Admiral Mullen says orders have been issued to combat […]

WASHINGTON - Answering President Barack Obama’s call for 30,000 additional troops to serve in Afghanistan, National Guard soldiers across the United States are preparing for future deployments.  In the Midwestern state of Illinois, National Guard soldiers just completed a deployment to Afghanistan.
The cost of the war in Afghanistan is visible in Sergeant First Class Christine […]

PENTAGON - The U.S. Army reported Tuesday that the number of suicides among soldiers this year has already equaled the number for all of last year, and so will rise for the fifth consecutive year, in spite of a major effort to combat the trend. The Army’s number two officer says he is significantly short […]

WASHINGTON - A U.S. military survey says morale among American troops in Afghanistan has dropped sharply because of increased fighting and multiple deployments.
The army survey says the number of soldiers who reported their unit’s morale as being high or very high dropped by nearly half (to 5.7 percent) in 2009, compared to 10.2 percent in […]

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has told U.S. troops he will not send them into conflict without adequate support. The president spoke to a military audience in the state of Alaska Thursday while heading to Asia.
He made a commitment to the nation’s service members, in a refueling stop at Elmendorf Air Force Base on his […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. army’s chief of staff says he believes more troops are needed in Afghanistan.
General George Casey said in a U.S. television interview - NBC’s Meet the Press - Sunday additional forces are needed to cut the Taliban’s successes and train Afghan security forces.
He did not say how many more troops should be […]

NEW YORK - The U.S. Navy has commissioned into its fleet a new assault ship built with tons of steel from the World Trade Center, which was struck down in the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks.  The USS New York was named after the state to honor the nearly 3,000 victims who died in those […]

PENTAGON - The U.S. military has begun deploying a new generation of relatively light-weight all-terrain armored vehicles to Afghanistan, which have enough armor to protect troops from deadly roadside bombs but are not too heavy for the country’s relatively undeveloped road network.

This report is about the latest effort to reduce the record and rising […]

SEOUL - The new commander of U.S. forces in Asia and the Pacific and Indian Oceans says North Korea must be watched very closely and that China’s growing military capabilities are also causing concern in the region. Admiral Robert Willard spoke to reporters in Seoul Wednesday, for the first time since he took command. 
Admiral Willard […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the United States and its allies must work with whatever Afghan government emerges from last month’s disputed election, offering a somewhat different view than the White House Chief of Staff expressed on Sunday.
Secretary Gates told reporters on the plane that U.S. and NATO decisions about strategy and […]

HONOLULU - Command of U.S. forces in Asia and the Pacific and Indian Oceans passed to a new commander on Monday at a ceremony in Honolulu, Hawaii.  Navy Admiral Robert Willard said the U.S. commitment to the region will continue. 
In a ceremony steeped in tradition, Admiral Timothy Keating transferred command of all U.S. forces in […]

PENTAGON - The U.S. Defense Department says that it’s cancelling the deployment of a 3,500-member Army brigade to Iraq in January, amid “improving security.” Some violence continues, however, such as the explosion Saturday on a key highway bridge linking Iraq to Jordan and Syria.  
The U.S. Army brigade, based at Fort Drum, New York, had […]

WASHINGTON - When four American soldiers were killed on Tuesday in southern Afghanistan, 2009 became the deadliest year for foreign forces in the country since the current conflict began nearly eight years ago. The spike in violence and attacks by Taliban insurgents have triggered a debate in the United States about the need to send […]

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon says at least 4,337 members of the U.S. military have died in the war in Iraq during the past six years.
U.S. officials say their tally is correct as of 14 hours, Universal Time Friday and includes all deaths since March 2003. Over that same period, more than 31,000 service members were […]

PENTAGON - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates made an unannounced trip to Belgium Sunday for a secret meeting with his top commanders on the situation in Afghanistan.

Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell would not provide many details of the highly unusual gathering, except to say Gates wanted to hear an interim report from the top U.S. […]

WASHINGTON - The remains of a U.S. fighter pilot shot down during the first Gulf War have been found in Iraq, putting to rest the nearly two-decade-old question of whether he was dead or alive.
The U.S. military says it has positively identified the remains of Navy Captain Michael Scott Speicher, whose jet was shot down […]

PENTAGON - The U.S. Senate voted Tuesday to end funding for the most sophisticated U.S. fighter jet, supporting President Barack Obama on one of the most controversial issues to come before the Congress since he took office six months ago.  

President Obama had threatened to veto his own defense budget if the Congress added $1.75 […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Army is stepping up efforts to recruit more skilled soldiers by offering immigrants a fast track to U.S. citizenship if they enlist.

The move comes as the Pentagon prepares to send several thousand more troops to Afghanistan and with the war in Iraq in its sixth year.

The U.S. Army chief of staff, […]

PENTAGON - The second-ranking U.S. military commander in Iraq says he expects to keep about 130,000 American troops in the country through the end of this year, when Iraq has a series of elections planned, and then to make a fairly rapid withdrawal of most of the troops by President Barack Obama’s deadline at the […]