Editor’s note: This article first appeared on The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit news organization educating the public on military service. Subscribe to their newsletter.The soldier wakes at 6 a.m. after getting only three or four hours of sleep.He showers, shaves and puts on his uniform by 7 a.m., even as his head pounds from a traumatic brain injury. Sometimes, while walking to a mandatory daily roll call, the piece of shrapnel still lodged in his back catches on his shirt.He’s not in the barracks. He is recovering at the Soldier Recovery Unit at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.“It’s…

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The Marine Corps started fielding a new laser aiming system for squad weapons earlier this summer, introducing the technology to students at the School of Infantry at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.In an August statement, Harry Mandeles, the service’s project officer for the Optics Team at Program Manager Ground Weapons Systems, called the Squad Aiming Laser, or SAL, a “generational leap” from the previous system, which had been in service for nearly three decades.“Infantry Marines will notice significantly less eye strain and a much clearer target picture through their Night Vision Goggles (NVGs) compared to the legacy PEQ-16,” he said.While both…

Sign up for the Deer Camp Newsletter Get everything from whitetail news and opinion pieces, to advanced hunting tactics and cutting-edge gear reviews. Dan Infalt tells it like it is. He doesn’t sugarcoat things. He shares the ups and the downs. It’s that authenticity that has earned Infalt an almost cult-like following among public-land hunters in the Midwest. Through his book, Extreme Whitetail Tactics: The Big Buck Serial Killers Best Hunting Stories, and his website, thehuntingbeast.com, Infalt has documented a long history of success at tagging mature bucks on heavily pressured public lands in southeastern Wisconsin. Infalt targets swamps and…

LoRa mesh devices are one of the simplest ways to communicate off-grid, whether you’re using Meshtastic, MeshCore, or another network type.I’ve been using Meshtastic devices for over a year now, testing a variety of them for distance, battery life, ease of use, and more.My main recommendation is the Moko Smart WisMesh Tag, which turns your existing smartphone into an off-grid mesh communication device.If you need a standalone device, the LilyGo T-Deck Plus in a specific build is tough to beat with its bevy of included features. I also suggest an excellent treetop solar repeater that extends mesh communication over massive…

Watch full video on YouTube

Watch full video on YouTube

Watch full video on YouTube

Watch full video on YouTube

Watch full video on YouTube

The Army is investing billions of dollars to bring nuclear power to military bases, selecting five companies to build nuclear microreactors at installations across the U.S., the service announced Wednesday in collaboration with the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit. Antares Nuclear will develop a microreactor — or microreactors — at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; BWXT Advanced Technologies at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; General Atomics Electronagnetic Systems at Fort Hood, Texas; Radiant Industries at Fort Benning, Georgia; and Westinghouse Government Services at Fort Drum, New York. The service said it expects to field more than 20 microreactors across Department of Defense installations.The agreements,…

The Navy’s top admiral says the service is changing how it does pre-deployment stocking and resupply and looking at different places to make port calls, including on the African continent, after the carrier Lincoln’s punishing 270-day deployment.Speaking to reporters in Norfolk, Virginia, on Wednesday, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle acknowledged that the carrier faced problems with resupply during its 250 days without a port visit, though he didn’t fully confirm individual accounts and photographs showing mostly-empty trays of food in the mess decks.“This is typically not about whether or not there’s protein and whether or not there’s the…

Sign up for the Outdoor Life Newsletter Get the hottest outdoor news from Outdoor Life. NOBODY COULD have predicted the outcome of that bighorn hunt, and though I saw it with my own eyes, it’s still hard to believe. It was amazing, sometimes shattering, and I have the memories and the scars to prove it. I’d been in touch with Phimister Proctor, the famous sculptor, by letter during the early summer months of 1912 and discussed the possibility of a sheep hunt with him. He planned to come West on a trip primarily to get art material on the Plains…

Two House lawmakers are calling on the Department of Veterans Affairs to restore dedicated LGBTQ+ Veteran Care Coordinator positions and specialized support networks after the agency changed the structure of the program earlier this summer.Reps. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., and Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., said in a letter Wednesday to VA Secretary Doug Collins that recent department directives eliminated dedicated LGBTQ+ Veteran Care Coordinator positions, dismantled specialized support networks and restricted tailored healthcare resources for LGBTQ+ veterans. The lawmakers asked VA to bring back dedicated coordinator positions across its health care systems, rescind restrictions on LGBTQ+ support groups and staff training and…

Sign up for the Outdoor Life Newsletter Get the hottest outdoor news from Outdoor Life. Last week, the Trump administration announced its intention to scrap the landmark roadless rule. Rescinding the so-called roadless rule could result in road construction, reconstruction, and timber harvest across more than 44 million acres of U.S. Forest Service lands. One of the key talking points around the rollback: this administration says building more roads on Forest Service lands will reduce wildfires. That’s why on this episode of the Outdoor Life Podcast I interviewed Chris Wood, president and CEO of Trout Unlimited and one of the…

American flags at home and abroad will be lowered to half-staff for a week in honor of Dolly Parton, the legendary country singer who died Tuesday at 80 years old.President Donald Trump ordered the lowering of the flags on the day of her passing as a “mark of respect” for her memory, directing all flags to be flown at half-staff at the White House, public buildings and grounds, military posts and naval stations and naval vessels throughout the U.S. and its territories and possessions until sunset on Sept. 1.Alongside those locations, Trump decreed that American flags would be flown at…

The Army is looking for a weapon that is similar to the existing Hellfire and Joint Air-to-Ground Missile, according to the Army’s Sources Sought notice. The deadline is Sept. 15.The missile should be “capable of integrating with joint manned and unmanned air, ground and waterborne platforms using a M299 launcher or equivalent,” the Army said.The specifications for the missile mirror that of the Hellfire, with a minimum range of 1,640 feet (500 meters) and a maximum range of 2,6246 feet (8,000 meters) or greater. Potential targets include “heavy/light armor track vehicles, command and control nodes, air defense artillery radars, Counter-Unmanned…

Sign up for the Quick Strike Newsletter The hottest fishing news, tips, and tactics Max Mourmouras is a 27-year-old merchant marine who lives in Biddeford, Maine, and works crewing oil tankers on the West Coast. But when he’s home in Maine he spends his time on the water fishing – usually alone.  He targets bluefin tuna offshore in the Atlantic near Saco Bay aboard his 32-foot boat “Retreviah.” Mourmouras has caught a couple big bluefins this year, including a 600-pounder. So, he knows how to solo catch giant fish. But he’s never landed a fish quite like the one he…

Russia is a Shadow of Itself and When China Dumps it, GAME OVER! Personal Note to you: *** I personally FEAR the desperation felt by Xi and Putin – both Russia is losing and China is slowing down hard and these two dictator nutjobs might get desperate and lose their minds. *** Russia’s Economic Collapse Is Sparking the Next Global Commodity Supercycle – Putin is now, in my view, DONE. Listen closely, because while mainstream talking heads focus on static territorial lines, the real war is already over. Russia has lost on the battlefield because its underlying economic engine has…

While the U.S. Marine Corps’ new Pacific-based littoral regiments have received outsized attention as they add new weapons specialized for long-range fires and drone warfare to formations, the ground forces continue to remain at the heart of the fight, according to a new strategy document published Wednesday. And they are transforming to prepare for the next war.Ground Combat Element 2040, which outlines the service’s warfare vision and planning for the next decade and a half, doubles down on the Corps’ self-identity as a force specializing in island and coastal regions, such as the Pacific, even as a new conflict in…