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.
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.