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On June 12, 1944, Joseph “Jerry” Brenner was training at Camp Forest in Tennessee, preparing to deploy to Europe with the U.S. Army’s 740th Field Artillery Battery and the rest of the Third Army as part of the “Great Crusade” to end the tyranny of Nazi Germany. Like most GIs, he was lonely and missed his family: wife Norma and baby Laurie back in Brooklyn, New York.The corporal’s day brightened considerably at mail call when he received several letters from home. One dated June 10 was from Norma. Along with details about his 3-month-old daughter, the letter included a tender…

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The Army held an activation ceremony for its Futures and Concepts Command on Thursday at Fort Eustis, Virginia, marking the headquarters’ transition to full command status.The move represents the organization’s shift from a center to a command under the Army’s Transformation and Training Command, reaffirming its authority in force design and development as the Army accelerates modernization efforts. The official activation order, read during the ceremony, said the unit was formally activated in October 2025. The Futures and Concepts Command, or FCC, is charged with determining what the Army will look like years from now by developing how its units…

SAN DIEGO — Service chiefs from the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard speaking at the WEST Conference in San Diego on Wednesday defended the necessity for continued investment in their respective services while laying out the goals they will set to achieve with present and future infusions of cash.In the wake of the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill, which allotted roughly $150 billion for defense, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric M. Smith said the financial windfall allowed the service the ability to afford the absolute necessities it needed to operate.It was expensive, yes, but essential, he said.“Everything costs…

Top enlisted leaders from each service told lawmakers Wednesday that they support women serving in any role in the military, including combat arms, if they meet the established standards. Enlisted leaders from the five services, as well as the senior enlisted adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added that they have yet to see any indication that women serving in combat units have caused standards to lower.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s recent call for a review of the effectiveness of women in combat roles prompted Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, to question the service leaders during a Senate…

The U.S. Air Force said Thursday that government-owned autonomous software programs have been successfully integrated into both of its prototype collaborative combat aircraft, in a major milestone.In a statement, the service said this shows a central pillar of its CCA strategy — that they can be easily modified and upgraded using a modular open systems architecture — can work, and improve how the defense industrial base operates.CCAs are drone wingmen that are intended to fly sem-autonomously alongside aircraft such as the F-35A and next-generation F-47 fighter. The Air Force hopes to field at least 1,000 CCAs in varying configurations, and…

Top senior enlisted leaders for the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Space Force told lawmakers Wednesday that access to health care is the most substantive complaint they’re hearing lately from their troops.During a hearing on quality-of-life issues before the Senate Armed Services Committee’s personnel subcommittee, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David Wolfe cited a lack of available appointments for health care, and problems with Tricare’s reimbursement rates for health care providers in communities.“What we’ve all seen over the length of our careers is a gradual erosion in the availability of that health care for our service…

SAN DIEGO — The fiscal 2027 defense budget could double the number of ships the Navy is set to procure under the fiscal 2026 defense budget, Navy Secretary John Phelan said during a keynote address at the WEST Conference in San Diego, California, on Thursday.While the 2026 budget allotted $27.2 billion dollars for the Navy to build 17 ships, Phelan said President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal 2027 defense budget of $1.5 trillion could bump that number up to at least 34, with a large contingent of auxiliary and support ships.“It is an area that we are in grave need of…

Sign up for the Outdoor Life Newsletter Get the hottest outdoor news—plus a free month of onX Hunt Elite. The U.S. Forest Service proposed a new rule over the weekend that could chip away at the role the public plays in guiding how our national forests are managed. Under the current process, most major projects or decisions made by the USFS (as well as other federal agencies) are opened to public comment, usually for a period of 30 to 45 days. This allows individuals and larger organizations to submit formal comments in support or opposition of any given proposal. It…

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych, a likely medal contender at the Milan Cortina Games, was barred from racing Thursday after refusing a last-minute plea from the International Olympic Committee to not use a helmet that honors more than 20 athletes and coaches killed since Russia invaded his country four years ago.The decision came roughly 45 minutes before the start of the competition and ended a three-day saga where Heraskevych knew he was risking being pulled from the Games by wearing the helmet, one that the IOC says breaks rules against making statements on the field of…

This article was originally published by G. Calder at The Exposé. On Tuesday, February 10th, the European Parliament moved the digital euro one step closer to reality, backing amendments that support a push by the European Central Bank (ECB) for a central bank digital currency intended to work both online and offline. This does not mean the new currency is in place yet, but it’s another unmistakable signal that the project is gaining momentum after years of discussion. The digital euro remains framed by EU institutions as a strategic and sovereignty project, designed to reduce reliance on non-European payments infrastructure and to…

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a U.S. Marine and his wife will keep an Afghan orphan they brought home in defiance of a U.S. government decision to reunite her with her Afghan family. The decision likely ends a bitter, yearslong legal battle over the girl’s fate.In 2020, a judge in Fluvanna County, Virginia, granted Joshua and Stephanie Mast an adoption of the child, who was then 7,000 miles away in Afghanistan living with a family the Afghan government decided were her relatives.Four justices on the Virginia Supreme Court on Thursday signed onto an opinion reversing two lower courts’…