Here is a fascinating interview that aired on public radio in San Diego, CA. It discusses the effects of repeated deployments on service members and their families. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH (Host): I’m Maureen Cavanaugh. You’re listening to These Days on KPBS. Being sent overseas to a war zone as part of America’s volunteer military is a […]

Every weekday morning on CNN (including on Sirius XM radio) Robin Meade does a fabulous salute to a member of the military, which is also featured on CNN.com. Send in your loved one today by going to http://salute.blogs.cnn.com/. Look for the “Send your own salute” subhead on the right-hand column for further directions! Every weekday […]

By Helene Cooper / New York Times American military commanders with the NATO mission in Afghanistan told President Obama’s chief envoy to the region this weekend that they did not have enough troops to do their job, pushed past their limit by Taliban rebels who operate across borders. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal in a village […]

By Craig Cole & Lynn Salsi In a May 2008 “Washington Post” article, “Official Urged Fewer Diagnoses of PTSD,” staff writer, Christopher Lee reports on the Veteran’s Administrations attempts to give less Post Traumatic Stress Disorder diagnoses to veterans in order to save money. (C. Lee, Washington Post) Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, is is […]

From FOX News In an effort to address the mental health problems of some combat troops, the U.S. Army wants all of its 1.1 million soldiers to start taking emotional resiliency classes. The new $117 million dollar program is based on the research of Dr. Martin Seligman, chairman of the University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology […]

By Rod Nordland / New York Times “Yes, we are in charge now,” said an Iraqi Army soldier, Sgt. Salman Fallah Jassim, as he led a mixed Iraqi and American patrol through the saw grass of a dried up irrigation canal, sweeping the ground in front of him with the long wand of a metal detector. […]

 By Noah Shactman / Wired The U.S. military is strongly considering a near-total ban on Twitter, Facebook, and all other social networking sites throughout the Department of Defense, multiple sources within the armed forces tell Danger Room. It’s the latest twist in the Defense Department’s tangled relationship with so-called “Web 2.0″ sites. But while earlier […]

Here’s an article from ABC News about what a soldier needs in the field. It’s written by someone stationed with troops in Afghanistan. I agree with most of it – mail is super-important while you’re overseas. Chow was a little more difficult for me since I’m a vegetarian, but Katie and her mom sent me […]

By Walter Pincus / The Washington Post Outside the military, not much attention is paid to the personal problems of families caught up in the endless rotational deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan that mark serving in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Last Friday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates dealt with a handful of […]

By Greg Jaffe & Karen DeYoung / Washington Post Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the newly arrived top commander in Afghanistan, has concluded that the Afghan security forces will have to be far larger than currently planned if President Obama’s strategy for winning the war is to succeed, according to senior military officials. Such an expansion […]