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Military Tag

The New York Times reported that the Navy has opened an investigation to determine if two members of the Navy SEAL Team 6 strangled a Green Beret in Mali last June:
Staff Sgt. Logan J. Melgar, a 34-year-old veteran of two deployments to Afghanistan, was found dead on June 4 in the embassy housing he shared in the Malian capital, Bamako, with several other Special Operations forces assigned to the West African nation to help with training and counterterrorism missions.

When he left office, Obama, having made the world much less stable and far less safe during his tenure, was well on his way to his goal of depleting our military to pre-World War II levels. President Trump campaigned on rebuilding our military and refocusing its mission on military matters rather than on political correctness and voracious down-sizing.  He also campaigned on destroying ISIS and radical Islamic terrorism. In aid of these twin campaign promises and goals, Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) permitting the United States Air Force to recall up to one thousand retired pilots.  The cap lift applies to all branches of the military. The left's response was an epic meltdown.

Sources have told The Associated Press that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the man rescued from former President Barack Obama in exchange for Taliban members at Gitmo, is expected to plead guilty to charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy to avoid a trial. Obama showed off Bergdahl and made a big deal of his exchange deal with the Taliban, but it didn't take long for news to surface that Bergdahl actually deserted his post in Afghanistan and put other soldiers in danger.

The United States Africa Command confirmed that three Army Special Forces soldiers were killed in Niger on Wednesday night after they were ambushed. Two other U.S. soldiers were wounded while Nigerian forces lost five soldiers. The command released this statement:
Update #2: On Oct. 4, three (3) U.S. service members and one partner nation member were killed while the U.S. was providing advice and assistance to Nigerien security force counter-terror operations, approximately 200 km north of Niamey, in southwest Niger. Additionally, two U.S. service members were injured and evacuated in stable condition to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

Regular readers of Morning Insurrection will recall that I recently attended my son's high school open house. I am blessed to be able to send my son to a really superb institution: Junipero Serra High School, Home of the Conquistadors. Not only is the facility wonderfully counter-cultural, but the teachers I met during open house were outstanding.

President Donald Trump has issued guidance to the Pentagon on transgender policies. Trump has asked the military to stop admitting transgender individuals, but gives the secretaries of defense and homeland security some leeway. From Fox News:
The directive reinstates the ban on military service for transgender individuals. It also halts military expenses on sexual reassignment surgery, except for those who have already begun medical procedures, and implements criteria for whether transgender individuals already in the military should be allowed to continue to serve.

On Monday, the USS John S. McCain collided with an oil tanker near Singapore. Ten soldiers remain missing, but reports have emerged that some remains have been found. But this is the second deadly collision our Navy has had in the Pacific in the last three months. The Navy has started an investigation into what caused the collision, which will include the possibility of cyber hacking.

In 1969, 23-year-old James McCloughan served as a private first class combat medic in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. But at Tam Ky, the enemy constantly fired upon his unit for 48 hours. McCloughan did not stop fighting. He risked his life and managed to save 10 fellow soldiers on nine occasions during those two days. For that heroic behavior, President Donald Trump awarded McCloughan with the Medal of Honor.

President Donald Trump announced on Twitter that the military "will not accept or allow" transgender people: "After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you"

A territorial dispute along the China-India border is threatening to turn into a military conflict between the two nuclear-armed nations. The area under dispute is located near the ‘Bhutan tri-junction’, where the borders of China, India, and the tiny Buddhist Kingdom of Bhutan meet. The Chinese envoy to New Delhi described the latest standoff as "the most serious confrontation between the two nations in more than 30 years," Chinese daily South China Morning reported China and India fought a war in 1962 over similar border disputes, which ended in a devastating defeat for India. Almost 55 years later, and two Asian giants continue facing off each other along a three thousand kilometre-long contested mountainous border.

A U. S. Navy fighter jet shot down a Syrian Su-22 fighter-bomber following an attack on U. S.-led coalition forces in Syria. This story is just breaking, so we will have more as it becomes known. Fox News reports:
U.S. Navy fighter jet shot down a Syrian government warplane after it attacked Washington-backed fighters near ISIS' de facto capital of Raqqa, the U.S.-led coalition said Sunday. In a statement, the coalition said its aircraft "conducted a show of force" to turn back an attack by Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's forces on the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the town of Ja'Din, south of Tabqah.

The Navy destroyer the USS Fitzgerald collided with a much larger container ship off the coast of Japan.  Seven U. S. sailors are missing, and three sailors were medically evacuated due to injuries sustained in the collision. Reuters reports:
Search and rescue efforts went on after dark for seven U.S. sailors missing after the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Fitzgerald collided with a Philippine-flagged container ship more than three times its size off eastern Japan early on Saturday.

Democrats have been running around for months crafting an anti-Trump narrative about the threat Russia presents to our democracy. Now, there is real reason to be concerned about Russia's actions. Russia has built an expansive new military base in the Arctic. The Business Insider reports:
Russia unveils its newest Arctic base Russia has unveiled a new military base as part of its buildup in the Arctic region, and has provided a tour — albeit a virtual one on your computer. According to a report from FoxNews.com, the base is located on Franz Josef Land — an archipelago north of Novaya Zemlya that the Soviet Union seized from Norway in 1926 — and is known as the “Arctic Trefoil” due to its tricorne shape.

In what is being described as the largest single defense deal in Israel’s history, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has secured a defense contract worth almost $2 billion from India. Under the contract, IAI will equip the Indian Armed Forces with long and medium-range missile defense systems that have been developed through a joint Israeli-Indian partnership. IAI has been supportive of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to strengthen the Indian manufacturing base, also known as ‘Make in India’ initiative. "The current contracts represent an enormous expression of confidence by the Government of India in IAI's capabilities and advanced technologies which are being developed with our local partners as part of the Indian Government's 'Make in India' policy." IAI's CEO Yossi Weiss said.