Archived Military Matters
The About.com U.S. Military Newsletter
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MILITARY MATTERS
Newsletter #53
4/10/00
Howdy all, and welcome to the 53rd edition of Military Matters, the newsletter for About.com's U.S. Military Information Page. If you need information about anything concerning the Military, please try http://usmilitary.about.com. If you know anyone who is interested in military matters, please feel free to email them a copy of this newsletter.
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BACK-ISSUES: Back-issues of Military Matters are now available to read online at:
http://usmilitary.about.com/library/newsletters/blnewsletters.htm
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IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Surviving Boot Camp (Part I) - Part I of a multi-part serious about military basic training.
http://usmilitary.about.com/library/weekly/aa041000a.htm
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Previous Poll: Should General Kennedy have made her Sexual Harrassment Complaint Official? Close vote. 54 Percent of you said, "No - It's only washing dirty laundery in public"; 46 Percent said "Yes - She tried to handle it unofficially and got no results."
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1892.1
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This Issue's Poll: Should Single Parents be allowed to Serve in the Military? (A) Yes if they have adequate child care arrangements; (B) Only if they become single parents while serving (current military policy); (C) No - Single Parents are a liability to the military; (D) Single Parents should be assigned to non-deployable support jobs only; (E) Only in the Guard & Reserve
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1959.1
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NEWS AND COMMENTARY:
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"Rules of Engagement" Movie #1 at Box Office: HARD-HEADED Marines Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson knocked tough-talking Julia Roberts out of the top spot at the box office this weekend, as "Rules of Engagement" dethroned "Erin Brockovich." The military-court drama finally took "Brockovich" out of the No 1 spot it had held for the past three weeks. The new top flick took in $15.3 million in its opening weekend, while "Brockovich" made $10.1 million to earn the second slot.
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1947.1
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Nuclear Cleanup's Fallout: TONAWANDA, N.Y. -- A bleak industrial site cluttered with rusting trash bins and danger signs sits next door to the elementary school here, a radioactive relic of the race to build the atomic bomb. The site concealed a secret uranium plant during World War II, processing ore from Colorado and Congo for the historic Manhattan Project. Now it conceals a contaminated mess, a wartime legacy of low-level nuclear waste. The Army Corps of Engineers, the nation's largest and most energetic public works agency, is supposed to fix that mess. But, are they?
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1954.1
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Military Mom's - Serve Country & Family: JACKSONVILLE, N.C. | When Gunnery Sgt. Elizabeth McCray found out she was pregnant at age 22, she had two choices: She could get out of the Marine Corps to raise her daughter, or she could stay in and financially support her while bearing the burdens of military service. She opted to stay in, and when the baby's father, also a Marine, returned from a tour of duty overseas, the two were married, but were together a short time before McCray was sent to Okinawa, Japan. ``My parents kept Tercerria for a year. I knew duty called,'' McCray says. ``I never said, `I can't do this operation because I don't have anyone to keep my kids.'''
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1945.1
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19 Killed in Marine Crash: MARANA, Ariz. -- A Marine Corps aircraft crashed during a training exercise at an airport west of Tucson, killing all 19 Marines aboard, authorities said. The MV-22 tiltrotor Osprey went down Saturday night with four crew members and 15 passengers aboard, said Gunnery Sgt. Nathan Portman of the Marine Corps Air Station at Yuma, where the flight originated, about 240 miles away.
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1922.1
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CIA Punishes 7 over Embassy Bombing: The CIA has fired one intelligence officer and reprimanded six managers, including a senior official, for errors that led to the U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during NATO's air war against Yugoslavia last year, officials said yesterday.
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1923.1
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Home Schooling Popular among Military Families: The military base near the Potomac River in Southeast Washington is teeming with home-schooled children, so there are plenty of playmates when recess rolls around. Home schooling has become a way of life at Bolling, where more than 100 children--about 10 percent of the base's school age population--are taught at home. The nationwide growth in home schooling has found a ready and willing population among military families, especially in the Washington area. Concerns about the quality of local schools coupled with transient military life have fueled a steady rise in the practice in the area.
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1920.1
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Name, Rank, and Email Address?: Last year, Army and Marine Corps lawyers began discussing the special danger for servicemen because of the ubiquitous use of an individual's Social Security number (SSN) as the service number. During the Vietnam war, the military began using SSNs as a means of identification rather than special service numbers. Captured American military personnel are required to disclose their SSNs under the Code of Conduct and the Geneva Convention. But now, according to the Marine Corps judge advocate general's office, "With the advent of the information age, the disclosure of a service member's SSN to a captor presents a new and unforeseen set of security concerns." Using the Internet, enemies might be able to access a prisoner's financial, family and insurance records. "This information can be used by our enemies to attempt to break a serviceableness resistance to enemy interrogations," the Marine lawyers wrote in a memo in February.
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1953.1
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Sex Wars hit the Subs: Under the new age ethos, female recruits have grown to 20% from 12% a decade ago; and having successfully installed women in warships, fighter jets and "boot camp" training bases, a Pentagon committee on women is pressing for their right to serve in submarines. The committee is demanding that the navy refurbish the submarine fleet, building female-friendly craft with separate bunks and bathrooms guaranteeing privacy to women. The admirals are not amused. Even at a time when questioning the policy of sexual integration is considered a "career killer", they have dug in their heels.
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1921.1
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China Rejects U.S. Bombing Conclusions: BEIJING - China rejected today U.S. conclusions that human error caused the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade and expressed strong dissatisfaction with the CIA's disciplinary actions against seven employees.
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1952.1
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6 in NATO Upset about EU Corps: WARSAW -- The six European NATO members who do not belong to the European Union are worried that plans for a new EU military force could weaken the collective defense provided by the Atlantic alliance.
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1957.1
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The Vietnam "Tour": CU CHI, Vietnam -- With a 125-mile maze of underground bunkers and supply tunnels that snaked up to a U.S. military base, the jungle here hosted some of the most intense fighting between American soldiers and Viet Cong guerrillas during the Vietnam War. The war is long over--a quarter-century into the past--but automatic weapons fire still crackles through the trees and the tunnels are once again buzzing with activity: Cu Chi, one of Vietnam's most famous battlegrounds, has been turned into an amusement park.
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1956.1
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Kuwait Families still Await Word on POWs: KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait, April 10, 2000 -- As you walk into the Kuwait POW Committee Office here, you are surrounded by memories. Memories stolen by Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War and not returned since. During the occupation of Kuwait, Iraqi soldiers took thousands of prisoners. Following the coalition victory, the International Committee of the Red Cross repatriated 6,272 while another 500 "repatriated themselves." But 605 people never returned. Of these, 570 were Kuwaitis and 35 were Indian, Bahrani, Omani, Lebanese, Syrian, Egyptian and Saudi residents of Kuwait. One display at the office contains individual pictures of these men and women. The pictures are behind a locked door and surmounted by razor wire.
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1950.1
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The War without End - Two Koreas Hold Summit: SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea and North Korea said today that their leaders will hold a summit in June, marking the biggest diplomatic breakthrough in half a century of conflict. The meeting between South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and his northern counterpart, Kim Jong Il, would be the first between leaders of the two states since the Korean peninsula was divided into the communist North and the U.S.-backed South in 1945.
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1941.1
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Is the World a Safer Place than it was 8 Years Ago?: Call me crazy, but I think it actually would serve the national interest if George W. Bush spent more time talking about foreign policy in this campaign. Not to slight the importance of his statements on the environment and the census. But perhaps Bush and his advisers can find time to pose a simple, Reaganesque question: Is the world a safer place than it was eight years ago? A hundred bucks says even James Carville can't answer that question in the affirmative--at least not with a straight face. A brief tour d'horizon shows why.
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1955.1
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Explosion may have Ripped Through Osprey: The U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey that crashed Saturday night in Arizona may have been rocked by a fiery explosion seconds before it dived to the ground and burst into flames, sources close to the investigation said Sunday.
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1946.1
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Critics Denounce Military's Use of Chaff: RENO, Nev. - Environmental and military watchdog groups denounced a study from the Naval Research Laboratory that found no health risks in the continued use of military chaff. "The report highlights the Department of Defense's lackadaisical attitude towards human health risks by giving a green light to continued use of chaff while noting that several health questions remain unanswered," Grace Potorti, director of the Reno-based Rural Alliance for Military Accountability, said Tuesday.
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1901.1
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Fine Imposed for Marine Death March: CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - A Marine captain convicted of charges stemming from the heat-related death of a reservist received a reprimand yesterday and was ordered to forfeit $3,600 in future pay. A military judge, Lt. Col. Ralph Kohlmann, found Capt. Victor Arana guilty of dereliction of duty and failure to obey an order. He could have sentenced Arana to as much as nine months in prison and dismissed him from the Marines.
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1949.1
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General Faces Misconduct Charge of her Own: WASHINGTON--Turmoil in the Army's upper ranks, fueled by sexual harassment accusations from its highest-ranking woman, intensified Saturday as the Pentagon confirmed that Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy herself is now accused of misconduct. A senior defense official said Saturday the Defense Department's Office of Inspector General was notified Friday by a retired Army officer that "he was aware of personal misconduct on the part of General Kennedy."
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1932.1
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Army Doctor's Court Martial Begins: When Army physician Michael G. Hamner goes before a military court at Fort Meade today, the event will be a milestone in a couple's two-year quest to determine how routine surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center ended in the death of their 16-year-old daughter.
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1916.1
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Article 32 Hearing Set for Kosovo Soldier: PRISTINA, Yugoslavia--An American soldier charged with raping and murdering an 11-year-old ethnic Albanian girl will face a second hearing next week in Germany, the U.S. military said Thursday. The hearing, similar to a grand jury session under U.S. criminal law, will determine whether there is enough evidence to court-martial Staff Sgt. Frank J. Ronghi. It will take place Wednesday at an Army base in Vilseck, Germany, according to a prepared statement from the U.S. military based at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo.
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1906.1
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Vietnam Era Deserter Arrested: As recently as World War II, the U.S. military shot deserters. But Richard Shields' punishment probably will be little more than some time in jail, a trip to Oklahoma and paperwork. In 1972, Shields left an Alaska military base and never came back. The Army caught up with him 28 years later near Metaline, Wash. Shields was crossing the border March 22 at the wheel of a lumber truck, got pulled over for a routine check by U.S. Customs agents and ended up going to the Pend Oreille County Jail.
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1846.1
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Saudi Pull-Out Report is Denied: RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- The chief Defense Department spokesman said last night that no reduction of American airmen in Saudi Arabia is planned and that the Saudi defense minister wants to keep U.S. forces at their current level. Ken Bacon, who is accompanying Defense Secretary William Cohen on a tour of the Middle East, issued the statement after a U.S. military official in Saudi Arabia, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said that the Americans planned to move some of their 4,000 airmen out of the kingdom.
http://forums.about.com/ab-usmilitary/messages/?msg=1940.1
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You can read more military news on the About.com U.S. Military Site at:
http://usmilitary.about.com/library/news/newsindex.htm
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Around and About:
Army Exceptional Member Family Program - Do you have a family member with special needs? You might be eligible for special assignment consideration.
http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/blarmyefmp.htm
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Overseas Tour Extension Incentive Program - Soldiers in certain MOS's can receive a monthly bonus or other incentives for extending their overseas tours.
http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/blarmyosextend.htm
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Origins of the 21 Gun Salute - The practice of firing gun salutes has existed for centuries.
http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/blgunsalute.htm
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Russian Armor - Why mighty Russian tanks are constantly put to shame by a handful of lightly armed Chechen rebels.
http://militaryhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa012300a.htm
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Planning on a visit to "The Islands?" Check out About.com's Military Guide to Hawaii
http://honolulu.about.com/library/blmilitary.htm
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CHAT: Dennis Fauchier (DennisHOST) will be hosting General Military Chats every Saturday from 6:00 PM (EST) to 7:00 PM (EST) and every Wednesday from 12:00 PM (EST) to 1:00 PM (EST). Edward Hanrahan (AssassinHOST) will host every Saturday night from 9:00 PM (EST) to 1:00 AM (EST).
http://usmilitary.about.com/mpchat.htm
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MILITARY HUMOR: It seems that a young man volunteered for Navy service during World War II. He had such a high aptitude for aviation that he was sent right to Pensacola skipping boot camp.
The very first day at Pensacola he solos and is the best flier on the base. All they could do was give him his gold wings and assign him immediately to an aircraft carrier in the Pacific.
On his first day aboard he took off and single-handedly shot down 6 Japanese Zeroes. Then climbing up to 20,000 ft. he found 9 more Japanese planes and shot them all down, too. Noting that his fuel was getting low, he descended, circled the carrier and came in for a perfect landing on the deck.
He threw back the canopy, climbed out and jogged over to the captain. Saluting smartly he said, "Well sir, how did I do on my very first day?"
The captain turned around, bowed, and replied, "You make one velly impoltant mistake!"
For more military humor, check out the Military Humor Netlink on the About.com U.S. Military Site at
http://usmilitary.about.com/msubmenujokes.htm
A HREF="http://usmilitary.about.com/msubmenujokes.htm">(AOL Link)</A>
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With those words of wisdom, I once again leave you.,
Rod Powers
About.com's U.S. Military Information Site
