When we honor and remember those who gave their lives on Memorial Day, we should also remember the parents, spouses, siblings, and children left behind – their pain and their sacrifice. They gave all.

On the road south from Los Angeles, two-thirds of the way to San Diego, one will drive past Camp Pendleton. Each time I pass it, I can’t help but think of my dad and brother who both went through boot camp and training at Pendleton. In my father’s case, as a combat Marine, he later witnessed many of his mates die in combat. My brother, serving as a corpsman, held the hand of many a Marine as they took their last breath. My family members returned. Too many did not.

Before one passes Pendleton, you’ll see a road at the north end of the base called “Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone Memorial Highway.” It’s named after a WWII Marine who earned the Medal of Honor for bravery on Guadalcanal. After Guadalcanal, the Marines pulled him out of combat to raise money for the war effort. Basilone could not shake a deep feeling of guilt that his mates were still fighting a war while he was not. He begged to be returned to active duty. The Marine Corps acquiesced. On 19, February 1945, Basilone was killed on Iwo Jima. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for heroism, being the only enlisted man to earn both the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross.

Last year, I repeated a story that my father wrote in his war memoir about how death affected him. Here it is:

“Over the side, down the Life Net and into the landing craft. Once full, our boat headed to the rally point. Signal given, then to Engibi. The landing craft hit the sand at the south end of the island. The ramp went down and we ran for whatever cover we could find. Rounds were zipping past us. I hit the sand, looked for where the fire was coming from and got up and moved for cover. I was running for a better spot when a Marine in my company, who was in my landing craft took a round in the chest. Thump. The bullet seemed to hit him dead center. He went down like a sack of potatoes. I stopped and yelled for a Corpsman. Eventually a corpsman took over, and I headed for a hole or something to get behind. I rolled into a shell hole.

“The grim reaper was about to say hello again. Although it seemed like an eternity, we had been on the beach for just moments. Guys were hopping shell hole to shell hole. Our company captain, Captain Blood (yes, his real name) was next to me, when we were raked by machine gun fire. Captain Blood took a direct hit, and was killed instantly.

“Later, when the battle was over and the graves detail was preparing Captain Blood’s body to be taken back to the ship or buried I asked the Marine removing his personal effects if I could look at his wallet. Captain Blood took his last breath right next to me, and I wanted to know more about him. In his wallet was a photograph. Staring back at me was his beautiful wife and two children. I was crushed. What was running through my mind was – A wife would never see her husband again. Children would never again feel their father’s touch. That photograph was burned into my memory. It remains there still.”

Each man or woman lost in combat had a family. Each Soldier, Sailor, Marine, or Airman had a loved one who never saw them return. Over a million Americans have given the last full measure and each one had a story.

Russia threatened “military and political consequences” against Finland and Sweden on Friday if they attempted to join NATO.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova warned against other countries attempting to join NATO after Russia started a war with Ukraine Thursday.

“Finland and Sweden should not base their security on damaging the security of other countries and their accession to NATO can have detrimental consequences and face some military and political consequences,” Zakharova said in a viral clip of a press conference.

The ministry later posted the same threat on its Twitter. Finland and Sweden have given significant military and humanitarian support to Ukraine since Russia invaded. //

Two Russian planes that violated Swedish airspace earlier this month were equipped with nuclear weapons, it has emerged.

The flyover near the island of Gotland on March 2 was a deliberate act designed to intimidate Sweden, according to Swedish news channel TV4 Nyheterna.

A total of four planes had taken off from the Russian air base of Kaliningrad.

They consisted of two Sukhoi 24 attack planes, which were escorted by two Sukhoi 27 fighter jets.

It was the two attack planes which were, according to TV4 Nyheter sources, equipped with nuclear weapons.

The violation of Swedish territory lasted for about a minute.

The country’s air force deployed two JAS 39 Gripen which took pictures of the intruders.

It was then, say Swedish media, that it was confirmed the Russian planes were equipped with nuclear warheads.

‘This is a signal to Sweden that we have nuclear weapons and we could also consider using them,’ military strategic expert Stefan Ring told TV4 Nyheter.

‘We assess it as a conscious action. Which is very serious especially as [Russia] is a warring country,’ added Air Force Chief Carl-Johan Edström.

‘I can not rule out incorrect navigation, but everything indicates that it was a deliberate act. That they violated Sweden’s borders.’ //

There are three things of note here. First and foremost, the decision to fly nuclear-armed aircraft into another nation’s airspace cannot be a mistake, and it is probably an event unique in the military history of the world. Second, the fact that the Swedish Chief of the Air Force did not bat down the story confirms its truthfulness. Third, there is only one reason I can think of that would inspire the Swedes to make this information public. //

Both Finland and Sweden have a lot of reasons for joining NATO. A few weeks ago, I posted on the subject in Putin’s Threats to Sweden and Finland Are Much More Real Than They Are Being Given Credit For. That fear has spiked in the wake of Putin’s war in Ukraine.

In that post, I point out that Finland and Sweden, which are not part of any military alliance, have borders with Russia, and they are in an area where Russia is trying to establish dominance. This childish stunt looks like it may do what the USSR could never do, convince Sweden and Finland to join NATO.

I think it’s vital for the US and NATO to make the message very clear that the liberal democracies of the West do not wish the Russian Federation or the Russian culture to perish. It’s important to get the message to ordinary Russians that the West knows that even if Mr. Putin’s reign ends, Russia will go on.

We want Russia to get back on the path to flourishing as a member of the international community. We need to make it clear that the West does not believe in the isolated spheres of influence that Mr. Putin wants to carve the world into, not because we are the agents of an evil hegemony, but because we do not want Russia to become a hermit kingdom with its people returning to the levels of poverty that happened when the Soviet Union catastrophically collapsed.

I think it’s also important to get the message to Russians that, given the damage Mr. Putin has inflicted on his own nation militarily and economically, realistically, his country will only get back to where it should be if Mr. Putin passes the baton to someone new.

What Vladimir Putin has proven to the world is that he is an irresponsible caretaker of a nuclear arsenal.

He abused his possession of nuclear weapons threatening NATO and the United States, who are also nuclear powers, to bluff the West into meekly standing by while he invaded Ukraine. This is not the mark of a thoughtful leader. //

We should be making it clear that we want the sanctions to end and the world to mend this terrible rift. But we should also make it clear that the longer Mr. Putin continues his course of destruction, the more difficult it will be for the world to undo the adaptations it is now making to bypass his country. //

But Mr. Putin’s problems won’t end when he tells his troops to cease fire in Ukraine. He will then have to negotiate with what he calls the “Empire of Lies” to lift sanctions.

And I think the price the West should demand is that he needs to dismantle his tactical nuclear arsenal. The west should demand three things.

First, Russia must pledge to abandon the ridiculous doctrine of “escalate to de-escalate” that contemplates the first use of a tactical nuclear weapon as an instrument of terror. //

Second, Russia should unilaterally adopt a parity of warheads policy for its tactical nuclear arsenal in order to get sanctions lifted. They should reduce the number of tactical nuclear weapons in the European theater to levels that are at parity with the tactical warheads the US and NATO have in the same region. //

Third, Russia should agree to let the West develop and deploy a shield system that can both intercept and attack ballistic, cruise, hypersonic missile threats as well as aircraft and artillery delivered tactical nuclear weapons.

The US and NATO should proceed to work on this system while economic sanctions are in place. Russia has already proven it abuses the nuclear card. As Mr. Putin put it, “That line has been crossed.” //

We should also announce that the US and NATO intend to share this defense shield technology with countries around the world. Our objective is to make it too risky for any aggressor to believe that their attack could succeed unchallenged.

One last note: The US has neglected its tactical nuclear arsenal for too long. To put it bluntly, the hole we created in our arsenal created a window of power projection vulnerability someone like Mr. Putin would be tempted to exploit.

The Ukraine crisis has brought unconscionable suffering to the Ukrainian people, and it revealed some of the harm authoritarian regimes can cause. If there is one positive outcome of this crisis, Taiwan and Japan have begun to take China’s military threat seriously. The steps they are taking to strengthen their defense may keep the peace in the region by deterring China from launching military strikes against Taiwan.

Regime change, wrapped in all of its fantastical failure, is making a comeback in Washington, and no one seems to notice or even care. //

Sadly, history tells us how the war in Ukraine will end if we are lucky. Ukraine will be destroyed. Russia will take parts of its territory. Kyiv will join the European Union and NATO but not officially, integrating itself economically and getting billions in weapons to deter another Russian invasion. Russia will be massively weakened and completely dependent on China for its economic survival, selling anything it can to Beijing, including its best weapons, to survive.

What if we aren’t lucky, and the war drags on for months? Putin will keep upping the pressure, and we will do the same. With every bomb Russia drops on Ukraine, the moral outrage will keep rising and Western nations will give Ukraine more and more arms and sanction Russia in every way possible to the point that Russia will come close to collapse.

At some point, when Putin sees the Ukraine crisis as not a giant mistake but instead a fight for his own survival, true hell will break loose.

Fortunately, the United States also maintains a nuclear triad that can strike all of Russia, providing a strong deterrent to a Russian attack.

The difference is that while Russia has modernized its nuclear forces about 90% of the way through, the U.S. still relies on platforms built during the Cold War. For instance, the U.S. is still squeezing life out of the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile that was designed in 1960.

Programs to replace these outdated capabilities with modern systems are just getting underway, and each year must overcome opposition from far-left members of Congress. //

Bottom line: As much as U.S. policymakers might like to wish away nuclear weapons from existence, unfortunately, the enemy gets a vote. Putin’s recent inflammatory rhetoric, nuclear saber-rattling, and military actions in Ukraine are proof of the need for a strong, modern U.S. nuclear force.

How SAGE jumpstarted today’s technology and built IBM into a powerhouse. //

IBM had recently entered the computing realm in the early 1950s, and it was already dominant in punch-card tabulating. With its emphasis on research and development and customer support, IBM was chosen by the Air Force in 1953 to design and construct the AN/FSQ-7 systems. While the project contributed about 10 percent to IBM’s bottom line for several years, the real benefit to IBM was access to the advanced designs at MIT and to revolutionary technologies such as core memory. As the SAGE project wound down, IBM engineers used their accumulated skills and applied them to the newer commercial offerings for years afterward.

While flying on airlines today has its own unique set of hassles, actually booking a flight is (relatively) painless. This wasn’t so in the 1950s, when schedulers went through racks of index cards, each with a particular flight’s info, all stored in what resembled a library card catalog. Only a few schedulers could fit around the card catalogs, and making a flight reservation could take an hour or two. Through a chance encounter, an IBM executive met the president of American Airlines, and they discussed how the airline needs paralleled the capabilities of SAGE. Recognizing the competitive advantages of a computerized reservation system, American contracted with IBM to develop SABRE. SABRE quickly became a huge success and through multiple corporate reorganizations now operates now as Travelocity and Expedia.

United States Army » Rank Structure & Insignia

Army Information Army Ranks • Army Pay • Enlisted Ranks • Enlisted Pay • Officer Ranks • Officer Pay • MOS Job • Army Medal List
List of Military Ranks United States Army Ranks (Ordered By Seniority)

By practically any measure, the world today is more peaceful and less war-torn on a global scale, relative to the past.

For instance, declarations of war between nations and soldier casualties have both dropped drastically since the 20th century. Yet, military spending has not followed this trend.
The Top 10 Military Spenders

According to SIPRI, global military spend reached almost $2 trillion in 2020. The top 10 countries represent roughly 75% of this figure, and have increased their spending by $51 billion since the year prior. //

The U.S. isn’t labeled as a global superpower for nothing. The country is by far the largest military spender, and its $778 billion budget trumps the remainder of the list’s collective $703.6 billion. On its own, the U.S. represents just under 40% of global military spending. //

Military expenditures as a percentage of GDP can be used to compare military spending relative to the size of a country’s economy.

When looking at things this way, many of the top spenders above do not appear. This may be an indication of their economic prowess or a demonstration that the money might be used for other vital areas such as education, healthcare, or infrastructure.

#1 🇴🇲 Oman Middle East 11.0%
#2 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia Middle East 8.4%
#3 🇩🇿 Algeria North Africa 6.7%
#4 🇰🇼 Kuwait Middle East 6.5%
#5 🇮🇱 Israel Middle East 5.6%
#6 🇷🇺 Russia Europe/Asia 4.3%
#7 🇲🇦 Morocco North Africa 4.3%
#8 🇮🇶 Iraq Middle East 4.1%
#9 🇺🇦 Ukraine Europe 4.1%
#10 🇵🇰 Pakistan South Asia 4.0%

Beijing's intentions are increasingly concerning to the U.S. as tensions rise over the South China Sea, Taiwan and military supremacy in the region.

The images captured by Colorado-based satellite imagery company Maxar Technologies show the outlines of a U.S. aircraft carrier and at least one destroyer sitting on a railway track. //

The images captured by Colorado-based satellite imagery company Maxar Technologies dated Sunday show the outlines of a U.S. aircraft carrier and at least one destroyer sitting on a railway track.

Maxar identified the location as Ruoqiang, a Taklamakan Desert county in the northwestern Xinjiang region.

The independent U.S. Naval Institute said on its website that the mock-ups of U.S. ships were part of a new target range developed by the People's Liberation Army.

Australia’s plan to build the submarines with U.S. and British help faces big hurdles. Supporters say they can be overcome. Critics say they may be too much.

Total Active Aircraft Carriers Worldwide: 45
Currently In Service In The U.S.: 11
Top Speed: >30 knots (35+ mph)
Powered By: Nuclear energy
Refueling Requirements: Once every 20 years
Lifespan: 50 years

Oldest In Service: USS Nimitz
Built: 1968
Commissioned By The U.S. Navy: 1975
Planned Decommission: 2025
Crew Size Of Nimitz-Class Carriers: 6,012
Capacity: ~80 fighter jets

How Aircraft Are Launched: Catapults
Throttle Power Required Prior To Catapult Release: Full
Brakes Held: No
Cue That Pilot Is Ready To Launch: Salute to catapult operator
Aircraft Acceleration At Launch: Zero to 150 knots in 2 seconds
Time Until Next Aircraft Can Launch: 20 seconds

Distance Between Flight Deck And Water Surface: ~280 feet
How Landing Aircraft Avoid Ending Up In Water: Tailhook snags arresting wire stretched across deck

One veteran who served in the first Gulf War and in Afghanistan, and who participated in that 2008 rescue with Mohammed spoke exclusively to RedState about the withdrawal, about that “rescue” in February 2008, and about Mohammed, who we now know as Aman Khalili. Though his experiences were more than a decade ago, he was still emotional as he shared them with me. It’s important to hear these stories of individuals translators, knowing that there are thousands of men like him who believed in what America stood for and were willing, just like the men and women of our Armed Forces, to die for it.

The veteran still has family members on active duty, so we are honoring his request that his name not be used in this piece:

“In leaving both Americans and Afghans who helped us, like Mohammed, behind, Biden and the guys in charge went against over 200 years of military mindset and honor. We don’t leave anyone behind. If you look throughout Marine Corps and Army history you’ll find where four or five soldiers or Marines died to save one. We promised the interpreters we would protect them. We have to keep those promises, because if they don’t have confidence that they won’t be left behind, how do you get a guy to stay in a war zone?

“And, we knew that the Afghan Army wouldn’t stand once we left. If it takes 40 years to get from a lieutenant to a general, why could we think we could build their army in 20 years? And knowing that it wouldn’t stand, how could we leave without a plan to get everyone out?

“In Afghanistan, every interpreter was afraid for their life. Even back in 2008, they were whacking interpreters. So for him to be an interpreter, it’s like you’re putting yourself out there on Main Street for everybody to see you. Interpreters very seldom left that gate without their faces being covered. Even in 2007-2008, we knew that the guys in the Afghan Army and the Afghan police might turn on you. You only wanted to take an interpreter you could trust when you went outside the wire.

“Mohammed was a trusted interpreter. As a young guy he’d been a fighter against the Russians, so he had a vested interest in Afghanistan’s future. We knew all of the interpreters and their reputations, and one reason we took Mohammed with us that night was the fact that we knew he wouldn’t turn on us.

“For example, interpreters weren’t allowed to carry a weapon. But, a couple of times it was really ugly and I took my pistol off and gave it to him. One of those times we were working with the 7th Group to get an HVT, high-value target. We were the outer cordon for the mission. For special operations units, their biggest fear is being surrounded once they’re on a target, so our goal was to set up a blocking force, to go down the road and make sure nobody comes up. They told us, ‘No matter what, don’t stop.’ Well, the truck behind us ran off the road but we never stopped. We had to get that roadblock up down there. We threw up the roadblock, but now the trucks we’re supposed to have with us weren’t with us anymore. This is one of the first times that we were truly operating in the real world at night. I took out my pistol and gave it to him. I told him, ‘You get stupid and I’ll shoot you.’ Of course, he didn’t [get stupid].

“On the night of the rescue, the 82nd Airborne controlled the AO or the area of operations. The unit I was with was the QRF, or quick reaction force, for the Bagram zone. The QRF got a call that a helicopter with a VIP has had to make an emergency landing in the mountains in an area that’s known as Afghanistan’s equivalent to the Ho Chi Minh trail, a big area where weapons, ammunition, and the Taliban flowed through. We knew the Taliban would find out they were there in no time, so the race was on to see who would get to them first. //

“So, we loaded up into our pre-staged vehicles and grabbed a few interpreters, including Mohammed, and then two or three up-armored Toyotas joined us. I didn’t know who they were, but I knew that those Toyotas would bring the VIPs down.

“I’ve seen some questioning why Special Forces or Delta or SEALs and those guys weren’t called in for such high-level VIPs. Well, that’s because it wasn’t in their area of operation. It was the 82nd Airborne’s AO, and they already had a QRF in place.

“It was snowing when we left Bagram, and we were probably looking at a 20, 25-mile trip one way. We were probably at 7000 feet and going up to about 10 or 11,000 feet. As we went up into the mountains, the snow started getting deeper, to the point where the snow was knee and thigh deep. Bill McClain, the squad leader, was in the lead vehicle and was the true hero of that part of the mission. It started snowing so hard that it got to the point where you couldn’t see the road anymore. Stopping wasn’t an option, but on this road driving off the road was driving off of a cliff. At the edge of the road, it went straight down. McClain is a guy who could find his way blind; somehow he just knew where he was going. So he started to walk the trucks up, walking alongside us so we wouldn’t drive off the road. //

“We got up the hill and after securing the area and making sure the VIPs were going to be safe, we got them loaded up in the up-armored Toyotas to get to them to the base. A piece of the platoon escorted the up-armored Toyotas and the VIPs off the hill, and the rest of the platoon stayed up with the helicopters for three days until the weather cleared and the pilots could get the helicopter. //

To show you how little Kerry knew about how things work, when we’d laid out the chains to put on the tires to make the trip down the hill, he kicked them out of the way as he walked by. So we had to lay them back out again. //

“The military doesn’t care that the military left. What the military cares about is leaving people behind. It’s not in the military’s nature. The Woke generals have violated an oath that’s been in place for nearly 200 years. That’s why many veterans are coming apart, because how do you square this with our military tradition? You can’t. In my opinion, Biden made a deal with the Taliban to get out. But why?

“For those involved in the withdrawal, it had to have been heart-wrenching to know that you’re leaving your people behind because it goes against everything we’ve been taught.”

The US Navy sold two old aircraft carriers for a cent each to a ship-breaking firm.
The USS Kitty Hawk and USS John F. Kennedy had been decommissioned for years.
They are due to be broken up by a firm in Texas, which can make money from the scrap metal.

After decades of trying, the B-52 will finally get new engines, with Rolls Royce being tapped for the contract that could be worth up to $2.6B. //

The F130 beat out General Electric's CF34-10 and Pratt and Whitney's PW800 to secure this deal. Pratt and Whitney was effectively the incumbent in this competition, though the TF33 engine that powers the B-52H now has been out of production since 1985. The company has continued to provide support for TF33s found on B-52Hs and other Air Force aircraft since then, but at an ever-growing cost. As of 2016, the Air Force was spending approximately $2 million per engine to overhaul TF33s every 6,000 flight hours. //

The TF33, which has powered the B-52H since the very first of these bombers entered service in the 1960s, is also just a dated, inefficient, low-bypass design. “Once installed, the F130 will provide vastly greater fuel efficiency while increasing range and reducing tanker aircraft requirements,” Rolls-Royce's website notes. This was another major factor for the Air Force in deciding whether or not to proceed with the re-engining effort. //

The TF33, which has powered the B-52H since the very first of these bombers entered service in the 1960s, is also just a dated, inefficient, low-bypass design. “Once installed, the F130 will provide vastly greater fuel efficiency while increasing range and reducing tanker aircraft requirements,” Rolls-Royce's website notes. This was another major factor for the Air Force in deciding whether or not to proceed with the re-engining effort.

When it comes to cost, the F130 also has the benefit of being an established in-production design. F130 is the military designation for Rolls-Royce's popular BR700, thousands of examples of which power a variety of different business jets, as well as the Boeing 717 airliner. U.S. military C-37A and B aircraft — designations applied to Gulfstream V and 550s, respectively — as well as the Air Force's Bombardier BD-700-based E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) aircraft, already use versions of this engine, further simplifying maintenance and logistics chains.

Forcing our daughters to sign up for mandatory conscription in an environment where they may now be sent directly to the frontlines is an appalling breach of the oath by these Republicans.

• The $1 trillion F-35 program has resulted in versions of the jet unable to fly supersonic for more than a brief period.
• The stresses of flying at supersonic speed threaten to erode a F-35's stealth coating and damage key antennas embedded in the tail of the aircraft.
• Instead of fixing the issue, the Pentagon has decided it is simply not important and restricted how long certain versions of the F-35 can fly at supersonic speeds.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that the formation of the AUKUS alliance among Australia, the UK, and the US only advanced the “death” of the otherwise “dying” 2016 submarine deal between Paris and Canberra.

But in the process, it has exposed once again the historical love-hate relationship between France and the US on the one hand and revealed the deep chasm or rivalry that exists among the arms manufacturers of the Western countries on the other.

Here’s the thing with denials. It’s typically useful when giving one to actually deny the activity you are being accused of. Instead of Milley doing that in this statement, we see a flurry of qualifiers and weasel language //

What don’t we see? Any reassurance that he did follow the proper chain of command by notifying the president of his actions. Milley also does not claim that he didn’t tell the Chinese what Woodward says he told the Chinese. In other words, this denial isn’t a denial at all. Rather, it’s confirmation that he did do what he was accused of.

So where does that leave us? It leaves us with ridiculous arguments over whether Milley was justified or not in doing what he did. I maintain that there can be no justification for quite literally pledging to commit treason, no matter how much you hate or distrust the president. If Milley was concerned about an unlawful order, he was within his rights to refuse it, resign, and go public. That he didn’t do that only undercuts his claims of justification. //

It’s clear that Milley was a delusional man run amok. He had convinced himself he was standing against a coming revolution when all he was really doing was violating the constitutional order to feed his own ego. Further, it’s fairly obvious that his talks with Nancy Pelosi were to ingratiate himself so he could keep his job in the next administration. There’s a reason Milley is pushing critical race theory in the military. He’s a political actor concerned with staying in power, not with actually helping keep the military in a condition where it can perform its legal role.