DOD now has to count the service of National Guard troops who were called to duty at Ground Zero during the immediate aftermath of 9/11. New York lawmakers Sen. Hillary Clinton (D), Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D), and Rep. Peter King (R) spearheaded a successful effort to add legislation to the final 2006 defense authorization bill to extend federal retirement credit to Guardsmen called to service at the epicenter of the terror attacks. Pentagon officials had opposed the idea because some of the Guardsmen guarding Ground Zero were not federalized.
United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket is slated to fly its second national security mission in February—nearly six months after its first operational launch and almost a year after it was certified to fly military payloads for the Space Force.
