Radar Sweep
Snapshot: DOD and COVID-19
Here's a look at how the Defense Department is being impacted by and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pentagon Staffer on Esper's Travel Team in Pacific Tests Positive for Coronavirus
A member of Defense Secretary Mark Esper's team traveling in the Indo-Pacific region who helped handle his trip arrangements has tested positive for Covid-19, three US officials told CNN on Aug. 28. A defense official told CNN "no one with the Secretary has tested positive, and neither the Secretary nor the traveling party have been exposed."
Pentagon Poised to Award Medal of Honor to Alwyn Cashe, Who Died after Saving Fellow Soldiers in Iraq
Cashe would be the first African American recipient of the award for valor in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Space Force Boldly Goes to Silicon Valley to Get a Star Trek-Flavored Software Boost
With the help of Silicon Valley, the nation’s youngest military branch is already proving that it can do business quicker than its more established sister services.
US Space Force Schedules Pitch Day for Spring 2021
While the current plan is to host the event in person in Los Angeles, California, SMC noted that it may move to a virtual environment due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Troops on Guam are Weathering their Second COVID-19 Lockdown
Of nearly 1,300 positive tests on Guam since mid-March, 192 of them have been service members, primarily airmen and sailors, Lt. Cmdr. Rick Moore, spokesmen for Joint Region Marianas, told Military Times on Aug. 29.
The Rise Of Mullah Yaqoob, The Taliban's New Military Chief
The military appointment in May of Mullah Yaqoob, who is thought by some outsiders to support the peace process, followed the signing of a landmark deal between Taliban and the United States in February aimed at withdrawing foreign troops and ending the 18-year insurgency. But the selection of such an inexperienced commander has also hinted at possible divisions within the Taliban, which has undergone bitter leadership transitions and growing internal dissent in recent years.
Family Finds WWII POW Diary in Personal Effects of Late Air Force Officer
On his first birthday spent as a POW in Nazi-occupied Romania, Army Air Corps Capt. Clay Ferguson penned a few thoughts on growing older. “Today I am 24 years old,” he wrote in a prison diary dated Dec. 27, 1943. “I never thought I would live to be so old. It’s hard to believe that I am approaching middle age. I suppose a man’s life goes pretty fast from now on.” There are reasons Ferguson may have felt like an old man. Less than four months earlier, the B-24 bomber on which he served as navigator, The Boomerang, was shot down during a daring raid on the Ploesti oil fields in Romania. All 11 crew members survived and were taken prisoner, but Ferguson suffered severe injuries.